Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-09-08

days Journey out to tho northwest, over
tho arid wilderness of the great and ter
rible Thirstland, there was q half dried
river whose bed was strewn with dia-
monds as thickly as some streams were
with pebbles.
Then straightway arose the question
as to how much confidence he might
have in his guide. Was it worth while
on such evidence to plunge into that
awful wilderness whose only known
history was one of hunger and thirst
and sufferings unspeakable which had
been endured by tho few who had come
back out of the many who had cssaycd
to cross it in the hope of finding better
lands beyond?
If the question had faced him at any
other time, he would probably have
dismissed it with scant consideration.
But Just now he was in the same frame
of mind as that in which man who is
| having q fight to finish with bad luck
planks tho rcmainings of his dwindling
pile on the turn up of n single card or
the chance of single number. If Shir-
| tvs story of the river of diamonds was
only half, a quarter or even hun
drcdth part true, and he could get there
and come back, he would return not on
| ~ rich man, but man of many mil
lions.
Ho Thought about it nearly all night.
Then he went to bed and slept on it.
When he woke soon after aybrcak, he
heard himself half unconsciously NUT
tcring:
"Millions! Millons"
He accepted the omen and decided to
GO That day he bought his outfit-a
very light wagon, something after the
American spider build, four draft mules
and horse for himself, tent and che
rest of q prospector's usual kit--and ut
dawn the next morning he started. He
had told no one not even his sweet
heart, the real object of his journey.
He saw no use in raising in her breast
dazzling hopes which might after all
end in the whitening of few bones in
some unknown spot far away out yondcr
over the wilderness, and to have con-
fldcd i'll any one else would have been
madness.
Plenty of diggcrs went prospecting in
stantly growing pressure of the new
companies that were being formed to
buy up and unto the richest claims, SO
all he said was that be was going to do
as these did and without further OK
PLANTATION turned his back OH the camp
and his face toward the long, straight
line which marked the seeming meet
ing place of tho endless weld and the
endless sky.
Forty days later half dozen heavy
winged aas vogcls were wheeling slowly
to and fro in the dead, broathless air,
looking down i'll hidcous anticipation al
two slowly moving figures which were
dragging themselves, seemingly with
the last efforts of their lives, over the
frightful wilderness of sand and stone
and dwarfed thorny shrubs which
stretched away i'll "a CHASTITY monotony
of unbroken level till tho weariod eye
= could see no farther. One was the figure
of man, the other that of mule. Two
biggish bundles were slung across thu
mules saddle. They were neither yer,
big nor very heavy, yet every now ant
then the mule stumbled fccbly undcl
them. The man had tied his left hant
to the saddle, and in his right he had {
whip stock, which he was using half IA
walking stick and half as crutch.
| His eyes wcro half closed, and hi
head hung down till his chin touched
D his breast and rolled slowly from sid
TO side with tho motion of his body
I His mouth was half Open and the til
of his tongue protruded little between
. his dry, black, cracked lips 1t was Il
dry and black as they were, and if yol
0 could have put your car close to his fac
0 you would have heard his teeth grating
upon it.
t Every now and then ono or two o
the vulturcs would swoop down u littl
lower to investigate, as though wonder
i ing when it would be safe 20 begin tn
t promised banquet. 1t would probabl.
t have begun before this but for one fact
Il which the vulturcs didn't see, or, i
= they did, didn't understand. The mule
D tongue was hanging ont of ono side O
its mouth, dry and black, like tn
o mans, but its head was stretched Gu
II straight; its eyes, though half glazed
o were wide open, and its nostrils wer
Q distondod and quivering.
II 1t smollcd water, and it was going tc
y ward it. It might be near or far, but a
IS long as it could put one hoof before tn
N other it would stagger on in that direc
II ton, swerving neither to right nor lief
Y till it reached the water, or droppe
II dead in its tracks.
o Tom Burrows knew this and that wa
l. why he had tied himself to the saddle
The mulo was tho better animal now
|, and its instinct must take the place {
o tho human reason that had failed.
Il tho mule reached the water, he woul
T. reach 1t; If not-wG.i, Ii would DO
% no injury if he had to cut its throat
n gain strength, enough to struggle on
10 little farther.
N This was so far tho end Of his expcd
II tion and the outcome Of his hope
ar Poor little Shirty's body had more tina
0t a week ago been assimilated into IL
system of n starving lion, his horse la
N died Of the "big head" sickness befol
n that, one of his mulos had strayed AZ
f. by this timo no doubt its bones we
t, picked clean. Two others had taken IL
N sickness and had died the same nigh
IN The wagon stood abandoned five or S
~ days journey back, and here he wa
st with the strongest and wiriest of h
m animals worn to a skeleton, like hin
ga self, and half mad with thirst, with
~, scent of water, it was true, but with