Show D ta 1 1 T ULD SYNOPSIS seeking fold cold in the lesert eron solitary Boll tary prose a partnership with an unknown rian non whom be h later lea learna r no la Is donai warren father ot of a gi farl r w whom horn comeron cameron wronged but latr later married back in illinois came camerons rons explanations appease war warren r en an and d the two proceed to tether alter after many hardships they are re reduced to the limit of 0 ghys phys physical cat endurance in a dying condition they indek eek refuse in ft a cave once occupied by bv a I torte people ot of the southwest 11 III 11 continued 2 cameron stole oft off among tho the rocks now long he ab absented himself himsel f or what he did he lind had no iden idea when men he be returned warren was sitting before th tho 0 campfire and once more lie he appeared pe anred composed lie ile spoke and his voice had bad a deeper note but otherwise ho be seemed ns as usual they packed thi the e burros and faced the north together cameron experienced a singular exaltation al ile II 11 had lightened tits ills comrades burden wonderfully it if came to him that lie he tied had also lightened his own front from that hour it waa not dot torment to think of 0 nell IV there come came a morning whon when th the e sun un 13 shone lone angry and red through g a dull smoky haze were in for sandstorms sand storms 1 sald said cameron they had find scarcely covered a mile when A desert wide moaning yellow wall of 0 lying flying sand swooped down upon them seeking shelter in the lee 0 of f a rock they covered their heads and nil patiently halted the long Ion hours dragged and tile the storm increased in fury cameron and warren wet with water from their canteens a and nil bound them round their faces aces and a nil then covered their heads the steady hollow bellow of flying dying sand went on it flew so sil thickly that enough sifted lifted down under tinder the shelving weight tho the blankets anti ana almost bury the men they were frequently compelled to shake off the sand to keep from being borne to the ground am aal it was necessary to keep digging out the packs they lost the count of time they darid dared not sleep for that would have meant being burdea alive tie the I 1 storm atom finally blew itself out it left the prospectors heavy and stupid for want of sleep their burros had wandered awny away or lina had been burled in tile the sand par far as eye could reach the desert had changed it was now a rippling sea of sand dunes away to the north rose the peak that was their only guiding mark they headed toward it carrying a shovel and part of their packs at noon the peak vanished in ohp shimmering glare of the desert the prospectors pushed on guided by tile the sun elan in every wash th they ey tried tor for w water ter with the forked poach branch in its his hands warren alwo always succeeded in locating water they dug but bu it lay too deep at length spent and tore more they tell fell and slept through that night and part of the next nest day then they succeeded in getting water and quenched their thirst and filled the canteens and cooked a meal the burning day found thern them in an interminably wide plain where there was no shelter from the florce sun mountain peaks loomed on nil all sides tome some near others outliers distant and one a blue spur splitting the glaring sky far to tho the north cameron thought lie he recognized as a landmark tile the ascent toward it was heartbreaking not in steepness but anlis league and monotonous rise cameron knew there was only one hope tri to make the water hold out and stop to rest warren began to weaken often lie had to halt bait cameron measured hit water inter in his canteen by its freights by heat consumed its as much ns no lie he drank during ono one of the rests when he lind had wetted ills his parched mouth and throat he found opportunity to pour a little water from lilt hl canteen into warrens at first cameron lind had curbed its his restless rest lesa activity to accommodate the pace of ills his elder comrade hut but now nov he felt that lie he was losing something of his instinctive abild passionate zeal to get out odthe desert the thought of water came to occupy ills his mind ile he began to imagine that th athis ats last little tore store of water did not appreciably diminish lie ile knew lie was wag not quite right in tits ills mind regarding water nevertheless lie felt this to be more of fact llian fenex div and lie began to lo ponder when next they rested lie he pretended to ibe be in a kind of stupor but he cov ertly watched warren the man appeared fir far goald gone cef yet he find biad cunning ili lie cautiously took up camerons camerona can aen and poured stet tile rito it front from his pvn own this troubled cameron lift ito reflected and concluded that lie he had been unwise not to expect this very thing then w ns his comrade dropped into weary rest lie he lifted both cant canteens eins it there were a ny wa watce ter in warrens tt it was only anly very little both men had been enduring the terrible dwelt deit thirst jl concealing it baci giving his w ater to the hie oller end and the sacrifice hail bail been useless f it of ministering to the arcla parched throats of one on or cr both the water had eva evaporated ported when cam froh madi sure of this he be took one or harj drink the th ut lut and poured the by ZANE GREY 4 author of k the riders of the wildfire etc copyright by harper brochert Brol hert little water left into warrens canteen lie ile threw his jonii away soon afterward warren discovered the I 1 log oss wheres your canteen ho he asked tho the hent heat was getting my illy water so I 1 drunk drank what was left P aly paly son I 1 said warren the day opened for them in a red and creen hell bell of rock and cactus like a lame flame the sun scorched and peeled their faces warren went blind irom from the lie glare elare and cameron had find to lead him at last warren plunged down don exhausted in the shade or of a ledge cameron rested and waited hopeless with not weary eyes razing gazing town down from their heir height where li he esat fint storment Sto ilo ement on the part of warren attracted ills his attention evidently the old od prospector hait recovered its ills sight and some of ills strength for lie he tied had arisen and now began to walk malk along the hie arroyo arrojo bed with hla forked peach branch held before him lie ile had clung citing to that precious bit of 0 wood warren however wc er stepped in adeep n deep pit and cutting lila ills canteen in half began to use one side ilde of it as a scoop lie ile scooped out a wide li ollow ellow se wide that cameron was certain lio lie had gone crazy cameron Came roii gently urged film bilm to stop and thin then forcibly tried to ninke make him film but these efforts were futile warren worked with slow ceaseless methodical movement lio ile tolled for what accrued hours cameron seeing the darkening dampening sand realized a wonderful possibility of water and he plunged into the pit with the other halt of the canteen then both men tolled and round the wide hole down deeper dee per arid ami deeper the sand grew crew moist metal then wet at the bottom of the deep pit the sand coarsened gave gae place to gravel finally water welled in a stronger volume than cameron Caro eron eier remembered finding on tile the lesert desert the finding of water revived d camerons flar flagging gIng honeg but they were short lived warren had bed spent himself utterly tin done dont linger finger he whispered my pon son go go I 1 then he fell cameron drugged dragged mm him out ot of the sand pit to a sheltered shei teNd place funder the ledge while sitting beside the falling failing man mail cameron ills cohered painted images on the wall often in ae 11 e desert h he had found these evidences of it a prehistoric people then from long habit he picked up a piece of rock and elii aimed it its weight mado him closely scrutinize it the color wits was a black ile he scraped through the mack rust to find a piece of gold around him lay scattered heaps of black pebbles and bits of black weathered rock and 7 it 1 warren jwarren I 1 looka see III feel at go gold iti 11 pieces of 0 broken ledge slid mid they sal showed owed gold current rent looka see itt reel it t gold I 1 but warren was as too blind to it see sec go gol lie he whispered cameron gazed down the gri rod clies af ot that forlorn valley talley and something within him that was neither it r intelligence nor emotion something inscrutably strange impelled him to promise then cameron built baill up stone kanii innus ments 0 to o mark his hl strike that lone done lie tarried beside the unconscious warren moments passed grow grew into hours cameron still had strength left to make an effort to get out of tile the desert nut but that samo same in something mitch had ordered his strange st iange promise to warren held field him beside his fallen con comrade As the long hours wore on he felt creep him the comfort in ing sense that he need not forever right ight sleep absolute silence claimed tile adert it was mute then that hat inscrutable something breathed bregi thed to him telling min him when lie was alone lie need not have looked atthe at the dark still face beside him adother face haunted blunted camerom Cm ern womans comans face it was vas there ln inthe the white moonlit shadows it drifted in the abo darkness beyond it softened changed to that of a young girl eld sweet with the same dark haunting eyes or of tier her mother cameron played prayed to that nameless thing within him th the spirit of something deep and mystical ns its life ile he prayed for mercy to a worn wom anfor on for happiness to lier her child both mother and daughter were close to him then time and distance were iera annihilated ile he had falth lio ho siw saw into tile tho future the fateful threads of the past enst so inextricably woven with lil ills error wound out their tragic tingle length h cre in this forlorn desert cameron then took a little tin till box front from tits his pocket and an opening it removed i a folded certificate ile ho had kept A lik pen and now ho he wrote something upon the paper anti in lieu of ink tilt lie wrote with blood tile moon afforded him enough light to see hw nil ami having replaced the paper lie he laid the little box upon A shelf of rock it would remain there unaffected by dust moisture heat bitile how ions ion had those painted images been there clear and sharp on tile lie dry stone walls years would puss pass cameron seemed to see them too and likewise destiny leading a child down into this forlorn waste where she would flud dud love and fortune and the grave or of lier her father cameron covered the dark still face of his 1113 coin comrade rade from the light of the waning waiting moon that action was t the lie severing of his hold on realities they fell away from him in final separation vaguely vaguel I 1 dreamily he seemed to behold his it soul night merged into gray day abid night came again weird and dark then up out of the vast void of the desert from tile the silence and lt ablene s trooped ills his phantoms of 0 pence peace majestically MAjest leally they formed around him and mustering in ceremonious state and moved to lay upon him their passionless serenity CHAPTER I 1 old friends richard gale reflected that lilt his so Jour tho the west had lieen been ii what hatlas lils disgusted father had predicted idling here and dreaming there with no objective point or purpose it gifts reflection such as this only more ibous and perhaps somewhat desperate that had bad brought gale down to the border for some time the newspapers had been printing news new a of the mexican revolution guerrilla warfare united states cavalry pall trolling oiling the international line american cowboys fighting with the rebels and wild ft lid stories of hold bold raiders and bandits Ite regarding gardIng these rumors gale was skeptical but ab n opportunity and adventure too had apparently apparent li then given him a wide berth in montana wyoming colorado lit ho had struck southwest for the arizona border where he hoped to td sec ave some stirring life it was after dark one evening in early october when richard arrived in calta Cai ilta there was wa a jostling jabbering sombrero cd crowd of mexicans around the railroad pt atlon ile he felt ns as if lie he were in fit a foreign country after A while he saw several nen of 0 hla his nationality one of whom lie enraged to carry its hla luggage lug inge to a hotel of the many people encountered by gale roost most were ivere mexicans ills guide explained that the smaller halt half of casita lay in arbona Ari the other half in and of several thousand inhabitants tile the majority belonged on oil the sou southern side of the street which was the boundary line lie he also said that had find entered the tomi that lily causing a cooil deal of ex G oile ale was as almost almod at the end of ills his finan financial Lial resources fact occasioned si boned him to turn tuni irony from a pro pre chotei and ami eat ills his guide for a lodging house when this his ifil ani fluid A eight of tile thea loungers loung cis in the offee and mae it desire fur for fam corn to rort t persuaded ga gale le to change ids I 1 I 1 I 1 raveling clothes for rough hugh guib garb nut boots malt welt im I 1 m ulmot t broke ll 11 ho he coill quizzed thoughtfully tile hie governor ined I 1 make adny money iles hea right so far anti and lie sold said id bo be coming home beaten there lies wrong ive got bot a lit ilch that something it 11 luppen happen lo 10 me 1 1 tills greater town III vent out into tile the wide white v amhed high celled corrI corridor dur and from fro n 1 hat into an Ill immense monse room which but for pool tables bar and benches bench ps would have been like a courtyard barelegged bare dare legged sandal fooled mexicans in white rubbed rib ld shoulders lers mth mexicans mantled in black alid red there were black coarse visage Amer amerland lans some nome gain bling round the little tible others drinking were tere klingl khinki clad cavalrymen strutting in ann out at oil ODO end of the rno ii apart from the general melee was a group u vi six men mounil a helu inabit beur of iwvin w tm wore were sn s n to the map r two standing elirio alip ae last two dren lri a second glance gale dalo alte tt J sharp featured broll bronzed z id faces anil piercing eyes alio tall slender loosely jointed Join teil bodies th et quiet eny easy reck lessl afir that seemed to be a i part of tile vien men these things would plainly have stamped cowboys without t ae bucl buckled sombrero ros the colored licarte the high topped high flailed heeled boots boota IN allyer toweled 1 spurs 4 1 1 lid 1 d fatla iff 1 t 1 8 fi fled e ld b isi bunger lit in a restaurant ra n t i J 0 1 n 4 as lie s stepped back into tho a roan man tr eAring ft a military tari cripe jostled jost lel him apologies front from both were ivero instant gale was wao moving moong on when the ei other otla r stopped short OB as if startled and leaning tor for war ward ex claWd f t dick gale it if this great I 1 don dont t you know illel lue ive heard your volet somewhere tome where replied gale maybe ill recognize you if you came out from under that bonnet for answer the man suddenly only manifesting thought ot of himself hurriedly drew onto into the restaurant where lie thrust back ills his tint hat to disclose a handsome sunburned face george thorkil thorne Tl orne rao bo help ano 1 Ss asli you yell tell inter erupted the other as he met gales outstretched hand there was a close hard straining grip 1 I 1 must not be recognized here there are reasons ill explain in a minute say but its line to see yon youit I 1 five years dick live years since I 1 saw you run down versify field andi spread eagle cagle the bhole 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