"Viva La Republica!"

A black-haired, quick-witted telephone girl in the Pyreneean city of Jaca bided her time last week, then quickly plugged in to the central office at Huesca, 35 mi. away.

"The artillery and infantry garrison has rebelled," she whispered excitedly. "Agitators are running through the streets shouting 'Viva la Republica!' Hundreds of citizens have fled to the mountains. The rebels have killed two civil guards and one carabinier in street fights. They have mounted cannon inside the old Roman walls. Tomorrow they march against Huesca. They say that Major Franco is leading the rebels, but nobody has seen him. They. ..."

Wires were cut. No one ever heard from that telephone operator again, but the Spanish Government had been warned.

Early next morning the rebel garrison marched dumbly through the gates of Jaca, straight down the main road to Huesca. At the head of the column, their arms trussed behind them, were two hostages, General Las Heras, Military Governor of Huesca, and his aide.

At the little village of Ayerbe, about half way between the two towns, the advancing rebels ran smack into a Federal force. A battery of artillery held the road, their six guns leveled. Rebel scouts ran forward, shouting Viva la Republica, believing these troops were friendly too. An officer's arm dropped. A roaring point-blank artillery broadside tore great holes in the screaming, terrified column. Wrote an eyewitness reporter:

"The Government was able to capture some of them without opposition. The rest, however, put up a terrific battle. For an hour machine guns rattled, rifles spat and finally steel met steel in hand to hand fighting."

Soon ensued a complete rout of the rebels. Over 100 men were killed and wounded. Government troops re-entered Jaca without opposition late that night.

The latest attempt at revolution in Spain stopped as quickly as it had started, but bloodshed did not stop so soon. Next day two of the surviving rebel officers of the Jaca garrison were tried and shot by a firing squad. Four others were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Suddenly down upon the Four Winds Airfield at Madrid two days later swooped none other than Major Ramon Franco, Spain's transatlantic flyer who was imprisoned by the Berenguer Government for republican agitation but escaped month ago to France. There had been nothing to connect him with the Jaca uprising, but now he made an impassioned harangue to his fellow air officers. They armed a crowd of civilians. They flew over Madrid dropping exciting pamphlets.

This situation also the Government's troops soon had in hand. Martial law was proclaimed throughout the land. Major Franco had to jump into his plane again, fly away. Came a report he had crashed to his death 300 kilometres east of Madrid.

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