---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Penrose, Charles W.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 22
number: 9
published: 1919-07
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Penrose, Charles W., "The Fruits of Good and Evil," *Improvement Era* 22, no. 9 (July 1919): 816.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2209unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2209unse
start_page: 816
end_page: 816
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1919-07)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2209unse
  publication_year: 1919
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1919, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Fruits of Good and Evil

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818                     IMPROVEMENT ERA
a lifetime. As he shed his Spanish cloak and stepped out on to
the floor in his costume of a Mexican dandy, velvet-trimmed
with silver bullion, Dolores found it hard to believe that this
slim, handsome figure was the far famed "Wildcat," Lopez,
                          —
the terror of the border, hero of cattle forays and shooting
scrapes.   A revolutionary; Colonel, on the Mexican side of the
line; common bandit, they called him on the American frontier.
Although it had not been proved, people connected him with
the holdup of the Sunset Limited, when he courteously returned
their jewelry to all the lady passengers; al^o with the robbery of
the stage coach, when he became so enraged at the) lack of booty
that he stripped the passengers of all their clothing and left
them to proceed on in. their embarrassed way to the Barranca
Inn. Skeptics, however, could not see how he could be so full
of gallantry in one case and so lacking in it in the other. On
the night that he met Dolores, Lopez rushed her for waltzes,
and when she danced with others, watched her moodily from
the doorway. When he left, there had been a pressure of the
hand and a hurried word in her ear.    That was all.
     Big Blair let it be understood that the "Wildcat" was not
welcome at his ranch, but that did not prevent Lopez from
smuggling Spanish dagger flowers, New York chocolates, pearl
earrings, and Spanish lace shawls to the daughter of the house.
He even arranged to send a white horse, but Dolores refused it
in a panic as a too conspicuous gift.
     Now a note had come by messenger begging Dolores to
meet him down by the willows. He had something of the utmost importance to say to her. He would have come honorably to the hacienda, had her father permitted it. As it was he
was leaving for Mexico to take command of his regiment. Perhaps he would never return. He must see her before he left.
For two days Dolores had feared and trembled. A dozen times
she decided not to go. Again a wave of tenderness swept over
her. Perhaps her lover went to his death, for there was a new
revolution in Mexico. What did he want to tell her? So torn
with curiosity, she dressed and crept out.
     As she skirted the irrigation ditch for the protection of
the bushes, she looked back at the ranch house, a pale gray
pile in the darkness. What if she never saw it again! What if
Lopez caught her up on his black horse, El Diablo, and carried
her off like a Russian Cossack claims his bride? In the distance a coyote howled. She pulled her scarf around her closer.
As she neared the clump of willows that surrounded the pool
her heart beat fast. But no Mexican lurked within the shadows.
She was more startled than if he had come upon her unawares.
Alarmed, she darted in aud out among the shrubbery. She
strained her ears for the clamp of his horse. There was no