Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
By REX BEACH
Author of "THE AUCTION BLOCK" "THE SPOILERS" "THE IRON TRAIL" Etc.
Illustrated
In all probability your first view of the valley of the Yumuri will befrom the Hermitage of Montserrate, for it is there that the cocherosdrive you. Up the winding road they take you, with the bay at your backand the gorge at your right, to the crest of a narrow ridge where thechapel stands. Once there, you overlook the fairest sight in allChristendom—"the loveliest valley in the world," as Humboldt calledit—for the Yumuri nestles right at your feet, a vale of pure delight,a glimpse of Paradise that bewilders the eye and fills the soul withecstasy.
It is larger than it seems at first sight; through it meanders theriver, coiling and uncoiling, hidden here and there by jungle growths,and seeking final outlet through a cleft in the wall not unlike a crackin the side of a painted bowl. The place seems to have been fashionedas a dwelling for dryads and hamadryads, for nixies and pixies, and allthe fabled spirits of forest and stream. Fairy hands tinted its steepslopes and carpeted its level floor with the richest of green brocades.Nowhere is there a clash of color; nowhere does a naked hillside ormonstrous jut of rock obtrude to mar its placid beauty; nowhere can yousee a crude, disfiguring mark of man's handiwork—there are onlyfields, and bowers, with an occasional thatched roof faded gray by thesun.
Royal palms, most perfect of trees, are scattered everywhere. Theystand alone or in stately groves, their lush fronds drooping likegigantic ostrich plumes, their slim trunks as smooth and regular andwhite as if turned in a giant lathe and then rubbed with pipe-clay. Inall Cuba, island of bewitching vistas, there is no other Yumuri, and inall the wide world, perhaps, there is no valley of moods and aspects sovarying. You shoul