Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1896-07-25

close 10 each other and the sky arched
over as though II were the roof OF the
plain in such wise that Maggie thought
they might as well have been impri..
oned In the shell of a huge egg-onIy II
would have to be the biggest egg and
biggest shell ever created, and there
would only be room for one such like in
world. The sun was beautiful in the
carly morning, and there were roses In
the desert east just as there are roses In
the east of the orcherd land. The sun
looked on them with friendly rotundity
for an hour, and then he fro~ ned, and
the frown was of white heat Sleepilv
they plodded on searching for brush
big enough to cast two 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 1t was 10
O'Clock when the pale, calm face of
Hong Foy looked into hers with a dumb
piteousness, and he sank in a swoon.
liurridly the girl uncovered his head
and saw for the first time the great Jag
ged, 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
| wrecked by her fathers effort and had
not intimated that he was injured at all.
"He is worth it," said Maggie. And
tenderly she dressed the wound, wash.
ing 1t with the precious water Hong
Foy had carried in the great bottle. ale
is worth It,"
IT 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'cleck in the day time
where the air is SO hot that II curls itself
up, where the alkali is baked into pow
der finer than the finest powder known
to medicine, and without the slightest
breath of air to agitate 1t sifts and scat.
tiers about over the face of the earth, be.
ing drawn up by the sun just as you have
heard of water being drawn up. It will
be an unpleasant ride to you, for Won
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 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
ard grass and trees and blossoms, and II
would make you insane TO think of those
as you looked out on the writhing blue
mountains millions of miles away.
Mountains which you see here this mo-
ment and 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-and their "a
days Parching, furnishing, agonizing
journey until they walked out of death
and into green line of paradise which
ran along clear river, you must go
there and do 1t for yourself. And al the
end of the journey, If you ever get to
the end of 1t, perhaps you will fall faint |
ing and deathlike at the margin of the
stream as Hong Foy did, or perhaps you
will fall 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 a great
bottle, which is apparently for water. I |
wonder where 1t came from?"
II don't" said the driver of the water
wagon. "What I want to know is about
hat there humpy lookin' camel beast
hat the boy met on us. Tell me where |
hat thing came from and I'll go home |
"They dom. l.ilow themselves" said
fordr.-"Fhey only know he came in
1ere one day, and the woman says he
was sent by God to help the Chinese
1aul wood in winter time, but the Chi
1aman insists that he was created out of
likali or something, from what gather
in talking to him, as special gift of his
oss. The boy says nothing I consider
hat beast the greatest object lesson In
he conciliation OF religious disputes
hat | ever struck, for while holding
hose different views they don't quarrel
lbout him. The real explanation is
probably that he is the offspring of some
IF those camels the Unitod State gov
eminent brought over from Africa sew
eral years ago for use in the Arizona
.rmy posts, but which turned out
allure and were let loose to roam where
hey would"
81 suppose" said Graves, "that you
will say in your report that the red.
headed, half Chinese kind Is the natu-
al child of the deserts"
ayes. If this land of heat and hard
hip it ever to be Peopled, think that
will be the breed for itt'
"Did 1t ever strike YOU" said Graves
o Ford, after they had got back to civil
sation, show that Chinese friend of