Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Rose of Durango is a work of fiction.

Though some actual towns, cities, and locations may be mentioned, they are used in a fictitious manner and the events and occurrences were invented in the mind and imagination of the author. Similarities of characters or names used within to any

person past, present, or future are coincidental.

Chapter One

Rose of Durango began as an idea or, I might say, she took form in my mind as a kind of picture. I first knew of her one day in late summer when my girl-friend, Magdalena, said her family was worried about a cousin who had gone north to work on a ranch. The woman had been gone for a couple of months, and no one had heard from her.

Magdalena referred to the cousin as Rosa de Durango.

"Durango, Colorado?" I asked, keeping the conversation in Spanish as usual.

"Yes."

"Then I haven't met her."

"No. She is from the other side of the family."

"And Rosa Linda and your grandmother and the rest, how are they?"