The morning call., 1893-05-28

"a from ali omen furnace, and in the air
was a Stiffness that could be felt
almost heard. II was a ball of molten
brass hanging in dome If snperheated cop
per-for the blue had gone out OF heaven, leav-
Ing only a glare that WAS binding and a
-~scnse in The air of suffocaiiun, deSolation,
death.
Far eff toward the south there mounted 10
the sky shadows that marched and counter
marched and drifted back and forth across the
horizon like The ghosts of the heat of other
days, vague menaceS OF heat and death 10 come
The sandstOlms OF the desert, moving in silence
and making even the cactus and the skeleton
limbs of the yncca shrink and draw back as
fem terror known and yet utterly, terribly
namelesS
SIM the silence and still The heat quiverng
back from the burning sand and giving to the
cactus aud Tie yucca noiseless ghost OF mo-
lion more awful than would have been any
sign ct animation IN The waste.
Presently, Ia that desolatIon, there was a
sound, crunch, crunching Ui human feet upon
sand, slow and seady-a SOUND of human
life, and yet of human LIE alone, far
from another human life. that by IT'S very dis
lance and its very loneliness It seemed parted
forever from all its klnd. 1t was as though The
man who walked there was a man sci apart 10
dwell alone upon planet dead and fo saken.
his race vanished i'll Clash of contending
worlds.
Possibly the man felt Isls-but who knows?
a prospector lives his life alone and II NAV be
that IN The heat and the solitude and the silence
he found that sOlace it is given to few men to
love, but 10 that few TO love utterly. Possibly
lie had no soul, being a clod like the clods of
sun-baked sand under his feet. and driven thus
into tie Wi deiness after lhe golden lure that
will draw men TO doom through all the ages.
lie tIHdged on over lie sand SIurdily enough,
his face 10 the westward aud the bfazen sun
beating down upOn his back. but climbing upon
him higher and higher and Shortening his
shadow. On his shoulder Tested pick and
from Its handle depended a bundle doue up in
red cotton handkerchief of the large sort USE
by old Mexican women and Indians as head
coverings. To his belt swuGg Il tin cup
small coffee-pot, six-shOoter and long Keen
serViceable knife dazzling In the sunshine. His
blanketS-well, man needs no blankets 10 the
summer In that region.
He had left Carisa station on the line Of fne
Southern Pacihc, between India and Mammoth
Tauk, just at daylight, bound for the noun
tains far of toward the southeast. shadow
seen against the sky. Ii was near noon now
Surely lie must be coming near TO the water OF
which the Indians had told him. And vet there
was no sign. He tIudged Oh and on and on,
He had heard of men falling and becoming
crazed and dying of thirst in these deserts
They mad told him these Things, those men Al
The station, and he had | ughed at Them lie
laughed al them new. softly. as Cne who en-
joys his laugh What would you man
dDes not prospect and down the coast
through the SierTas and he Rockies In winter
and summer to gain girl's muscles and girls
heart and 10 stand back when there is a little
Bit of desert 10 be crossed 10 reach good pros
pecting ground. AT most il was but lhe Jour
ney of day and half He could 20 without
water for day and a half, il need be, and no
huIt Men had done that before and had lived.
And Then there was the water the Indian had
told him lie would reach at noon. He had left
the station early. long before sun MP, and had
Travelled fast Surely he could not be far f. ON
that spring nova little rickling spring, they
lad said, coming out of The sand. He would
know it by the green sedges growing for a little
distance about it. He had not eenromzed the
water lie had brought from the station. Why
should he when more was 10 come al noon :?
Hark, was that the ripple he heard of Iun-
ming water? Strange The Indians had said
nothing OF stream here! And yet II was about
him, around him, in the air, ii seemed, that soft,
rhythmic murmur. like lie riI that goes dancing
down over white pebbles TO the river.
The sun at his back climbed higher, and
It was striking the base of his brain and
his shadow was under bis feet. Still the soft
whispering OF The wafer was in the air, in
front. behind, upon this side or upon thai
everywhere. If lie could only locate the
sireami All Right ahead lie saw it nova
lake stretching away TO the horizon, with
feathery palms lining its banks, and nodding
to their shadows In The water. and lie had
heard The silveIy Deat OF the tiny waves upon
It's shore
de rushed forward madly, eager to lave his
head. to plunge INTO the cool depths-and then
drew back with oath. Was The SUM- then
going 10 bis head? lie had heard of such
things. This was he mirage-the lure to death
on tie desert. he Tuil hmself together
I'm I.Eyu apic
stretching away it seemed inteimiDably ana
The heat, aud the cactus, aud the yuccas.
Then he laughed aloud. and stopped that
too, as one alarmed at strange sound. In
that moment OF temporary madness he had
strayed from the path. Ii might be but few
feet-it might be yards. He set his teeth TO-
gefher hard. He had lost tile trail Verv
well. He would find It again. Men, lie had
heard, wander 10 the right by instinct when
lost. He had but to bear back toward the left
and he would come presently into the right way
again.
Any yet it was strange. Thrre was always in
his ears that hy thmic sound as of running water
The sun at his back climbed higher, ane now II
beat down directly upon him from the zenith
III there was shadow II was swallowed in the
sands heat He felt himself growing weaker
The sun had got into his brain, it seemed and
was burning with more intense heat even than
The sand that blsteied his feet through the
toieS oi DIS iulck DIoGaDS. lie bore TO he left
always to The eii, staggering on and on. The
sound OF The water seemed 10 come from the
left. TOO. and 10 grow nearer and nearer
Once he stopped suddenly. Ii was odd He
had dropped his pick, and yet he had not known
IL. lie turned rresoiu'e y-nevfr mipd-lrt il
60. When tie had found the water he wound 20
back and recover II. Alter all II was safe
enough, and his bundle, TOO. lying ihpre in the
desert. Even the picture OF his mother in The
bundle could not turn him from tile water now
Why, not even Indian would be fool
enough 10 venture into such region upon
such day.
Where was he? Where was the sun? In
his face? Yes, That was right for 1t must be
alter noon now. He would 20 en- bearing al
ways 10 the lett. For see. one has SO little TO
follow in trail across he desert.
Still on and on. aud The sun beat down hotter
and hotter fiom the dome of heated copper
stretching above him, aud the air quiyered aud
every breath that lie drew bnrned his lungs
Ike fire. He staggered, almost falling Then.
low ana soil. came the mnfmur of water again.
and with a sound that might have been a
shrek OF Joy had 1t not died into an inarticulate
moan in his pai ched throat lie saw, thought
he saw. something creeping sluggisbly across
The desert as water creeIs through sand.
He reeled forward, but the spring receded
from him. II was so close. lie could have
almost reached it-ani then he fell upon the
sand, painting, and IL burned his face The