The morning times., 1897-01-25
Tle Tragedy Of Coyote Hole

At daybreak Indian Tom emerged from
his wiclliup ana stood at the doorway, open,
as is the custom, toward the east, whence
the desert tribes expect Il Messiah. He
surveyed the forbidding landscape with an
air OF proprietorshIp. Tall, gaunt, with an
eye like coyotes and skin clinginS close
to his bony frame, tanned TO yellow parch-
ment by hundreds OF electric storms, Indian
Tom was yeritable wizard OF the wilds.
Half a dozen snarling ours scattered at sight
OF him, yelping, and the three squaws who
formed his household FASTENED about their
morning tasks. Evidently there was eX-
cellent discipline at his rancheria.
Not far to the westward rose the long,
undulating outlines of the Funeral Noun
tains bordering Death Valley. On every
other han istretchedthe monotonous wastes
OF the Mojave Desert, now long way of
barren plain, now a range OF hills risGS
abovei.. a few yards from Tom habita-
ton was pool of black water, which oozed
slowly from the ground on Il little Slope.
When il reached a certain level it over
flowed and trickled in a narrow rivulet
along the sands into a piece OF ground in
closed by wires. Here it kept alive d
scanty growth uf native grasses. In the
back gr0un OF Indian Tom simmediate land
scape We're dozens OF hurros, which consti-
tutel his worldly wealth, and made him Il
lord among his fellows. When hurro be-
came famisheI 10 the point OF starvation on
the sparse sagc-brush, it was admitted to
the little enclosure and permitted to feed
until it could stand strong upon its legs.
ln.iian Tom often sold burros la proSpectors,
but the number did not diminish, and the
source OF constant supply was a mystery
which no man had fathomed.
Above the low mountains in the distant
east the sun rose like a ball of fire. There
were no soft untS of blue and purple along
the SUBMITS 10 herald the approach of
dawn and Indicate a little moisture in the
air But instead came a sudden flare Of
light that burned at once in the sky and
along the mountain sides and on the wide
reaches OF the plains. The air was shot
through and through with penetrating,
stineiug rays Here and there appeared
puffs OF wind, whirIng sand aluft with an
ominuus. swinging, funnel-ilke motion.
And in the far north these gradually ill.,
creased until cloud u dust hung like
curtain against the sky, higher above the
earth than the tops OF the highest noun
tains Indian Tom surveyed the scene,
shifted the hot blasts which saluted his
withered nostrilS, and muttered, in the
composite lingo which ne had picked up
from pruspectOrs OF different nationali-
ties: Ugh! MuCho calOr Heap dam hot
wing" Then, as one OF his sQuaws placed
before tim a chunk Of dingy-lCoking bread,
a black bottle. and sayOry combination
of lack-rabbit and bacon, he squatted be-
side them upon the ground and attacked
with great gusto a breakfast which, for
a desert Indian, was an epicure's dream.
Three hours later the shifting gusts Of
wind bad unitelin Const ant furnace blast
And point fifteen miles from Indian
Toms, across the range, and upon the edge
Of the baSin-like depression knowna as Death
Valley. two men were suffering constant
tormentS from the almost insupportable
heat These were Anderson and Grimes,
prospectors. At the first Indication of an
electric storm they had prepared an in
sufficient shelter by making low tent of
some canvas, unde which they had crawled
for protection. They had also tried to
shield their two burros by mufflng their
heads in gunny-sacks, TO screen them from
the driving sands, which rode on the
sweeping blasts of the norther. This sand
penetrated everywhere and cut the skin, if
exposed, like needles. It's drift was not
sufficient to bury any living, moving
thing alive, but man or beast might become
exhausted by the heat, and so incapable
Of motion, and then snfocated Grimes
and Anderson bad placed the various articles
Of their mining outfit as low rampant on
the side next the wind, and the sand had
drfited over them. When Grimes lifted an
ak, to placeit among their other possessions,
a spark of electricity passed to his arm,
with a report like the crack Of q pistol,
and the arm was still benumbed by the
shock The high electrical tension IN the
atmosphere was, in itself, q tremendous
strain upon the nerves. Moreover, it burned
all the vitality out OF the air and added
to its heat. To expose hand from the
partial shelter OF the canvas meant a
blister on the skin; and the two men lay
upon the ground, struggling for breath,
moistening their lips, every few moments,
from the contents of their canteens, and
swearing a constant succession OF miners
oaths at the luck which had brought
them to the confines of Death Valley on
this direful day.
Il wonder if the critters is alive?" said
Anderson, in a lull of the tempest which
permitted the raising of his voice above the
whstling of the wind. "If they be- he
added, &" 'twould be mercy TO wet their
noses with a little water
Grimes struggled TO his feet, throwing off
the weight of the canvas, which had been
pressed down upon them by the drifting
sand. Five minutes later the burros had
been reSurrected, the gunny sacks had been
removed from their heads and their mouths
had been thoroughly sponged. When these
things had been done, and everything had
been adjusted for probable recurrence of
the tempest, the men found that they had
just one canteen of water left, one which
had been filled at Coyote Hole as they had
come past a few hours before 1t had been
kept until the last as being the freshest
They each took a pull at this.
Its pretty bitter and brackish, ain I it?'
Grimes remarked "Some way, I never
liked that water. 1t tastes to me like
arsenic and asphalt. But-by -, it's
goodi Give me some more. It's good. it S
good, it's Goodi Ha! this is life. No man
knows what JOY he can get out of little
thing until he's been almost dead with
hunger or with thirst. Don't you think so,
pard?''
Don't be an idiotic fool,'' Anderson re-
Piled. "The winds a-comin' up again.
Better curl down here behind the outfit, and
see that you make that water go jest as
fur as it viii. If we can stand it till night
and the moon comes up and the wind goes
AMUSEMENTS.