The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-05-31

and there were roses in the desert east
Just as there are roses in the east Of the
orchard land The sun looked on them
with friendly rotundity for an hour,
and then he frowned. and the frown
was Of white heat And sleepily they
plodded on, searching for brush big
enough to cast two square feet Of shade.
They had no means Of telling time
other than by the sun, but the girl knew
the secrets Of the sun and knew it was
10 o'clock when the pale, calm face Of
Hong Foy looked into hers with dumb
piteousness. and he sank in a swoon.
Hurriedly the girl uncovered his head
and saw for the first time the great,
jagged, ragged hole made by that bent
spike thrown by her father. The iron
had dug deep, but the Chinaman had
plastered the wound with the clean
waste taken from the Toulouse and had
wrapped his cue around it. Maggie re-
garded the hurt with little bit Of wo-
manly horror, and then she thought of
how her lover had walked all that night
through the sands with his head wreck
ed by her fathers effort and had not in
timated that he was injured at all
HE is worth it, " said Maggie. And
tenderly she dressed the wound, wash
ing it with the precious water Hong Foy
had carried in the great bottle HE is
worth it. -
If you would have to guess at the
smallest part of that awful journey go
out on the Southern Pacific to the place
where the temperature is normally at
40 in June at ii o'clock in the day
time, where the air is so hot that it
curls itself up, where the alkali is baked
into powder finer than the finest powder
known to medicine, and without the
slightest breath Of air to agitate it sits
and scatters about over the face Of the
earth, being drawn up by the sun just
as you have heard Of water being drawn
up 1t will be an unpleasant ride to
you, for you will leave your coat at
Ogden and your raiment along the right
of way with great persistence, until in
the middle of the desert you will be a
disgrace and will belong in the same
epoch as Adam and Eve, but you will
not think of Adam and Eve, for they
lived where water was and grass and
trees and blossoms and it would make
you insane to think of those as you look
ed out on the writhing blue lines of
mountains millions of miles away
Mountains which you see here this mo-
ment and which are gone when you look
again. And beating, beating, beating
with might that makes your head
thump is the great world consuming
sun.
Yes, if you would like to guess about
Maggie and Hong Foy-the crippled
Hong Foy-and their 10 days parching,
furnishing, agonizing journey until they
walked out of death and into a green
line of paradise which ran along a clear
river, you must go there and do it for
yourself. And at the end Of the jour
ney, if you ever get to the end Of it.
perhaps you will fall fainting and
deathlike at the margin Of the stream
as Hong Foy did, or perhaps you will
drop on your knees and pray as did
Maggie.
The only thing in the cabin" said
Graves, (which plainly was not made
out Of the things hereabout is great
bottle, which is apparently for water.
wonder where it came from?"
II DON'T said the driver of the
water wagon. What 1 want to know
is about that there humpy lookin camel
beast that the boy met us on. Tell me
where that thing came from and I'll go
home satisfied. {"
They don't know themselves" said
Ford. They only know he came in
here one day, and the woman says he
was sent by God to help the Chinee
hanl ,v,x ,rka k,,k
naman insists that he was created out
Of the alkali or something, from what
gather in talking to him, as special
gift OF his joss. The boy says nothing.
l consider that beast the greatest object
lesson in the Cancellation Of religious
disputes that ever struck, for while
holding these different views they don't
quarrel about him. The real explana-
ton is probably that he is the offspring
Of some Of those camels the United
States government bought over from
Africa several years ago for use in the
Arizona army posts. but which turned
out a failure and were let loose to roam
where they would"
II suppose, said Graves, that you
will say In your report that the red
Acduou, udh CnLueSe kin lS inc natural
child Of the desert?"
Eyes. If this land of heat and hard
ship is ever to be peopled, think that
will be the breed for itl''
"Did it ever strike you, y" said Graves
to Ford. after they had got back to civ
nization, chow that Chinese friend Of
yours and his wife and child out there
In that desert are so fond Of one anoth-
er?'
Graves" said Ford, 1.-THE word