The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-08-16

MS own language ABOUT some place
where there were as many of the "sheen-
ey klippies" which people found in the
mines as there We're stars in the sky.
Moreover, those same stars would show
him, Shirty, how to guide the good
white baas to the place where they
We're.
Tom did not get at the meaning of
this all at once, but when he did and he
had satisfied himself, first, that Shirty
was not drunk, and secondly, that he
was very much in earnest he took him
back into the hut and put Sim through
a stiff and lengthy cross Examination,
the result of which was that Shirty,
after coming to the end of his vocabu-
larry, went down on his hands and knees
on the mud floor and With an old knife
and certain bits of stick drew lines and
made dots and stuck the bits of stick
upright at equal distances from each
other until there were 80 of them in a
line reaching half way across the floor
Tom got the key to the hieroglyphics
by recognizing that the dots were in
tended to show the positions of the big
ger and brighter stars which Shirty had
pointed out to him during his prelimi-
nary discourse outside, and ultimately,
after considerable study and much talk
in mixed languages, he arrived at the
definite conclusion that somewhere, 30
days journey out to the northwest, over
the arid wilderness of the great and ter
rifle Thirstland, there was half dried
,.11r XVI, c4,, ~
monds as thiclkly as some streams We're
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 sutferings unspeakable which had
been endured by the few who had come
back out of the many who had essayed
to cross it in the hope of finding better
lands beyond?
Ii 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 i'll which man who is
having fight to finish with bad luck
planls the remaininss of his dwindling
pile on the turn up of a single card or
the chance of a single number. If Shir-
tvs story of the river of diamonds was
only half, a quarter or even a hun
dredth part true, and he could get there
and come back, he would return not on
~ a rich man, but man of many mil
lions.
He thought about it nearly all night.
Then he Went to bed and slept ON it.
When he woke soon after daybreak, he
heard himself half unconsciously NUT.
tering:
Millions! Millionsn'
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, a tent and the
| rest of a prospector' usual kit-and at
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 iii raising in her breast
dazzling hopes which might after all
end III the whitening OF few bones in
j. some unknown spot far away out yondor
over TIE wilderness, and to have CON
fided in any one else would have been
, madness.
| Plenty of diggers went prospecting il.
those days, squeezed out by the coz
stantly growing pressure Of the new
companies that We're beng formed to
| buy up and unite the richest claims, so
all he said was that he was going to do
as these did and without further OK
PLANTATION turned his back on the camp
and his face toward the long, straight
line which marked the seeming meet
ing place of the endless weld and the
endless sky.
Forty days later half a ozen heavy
winged aas vosels We're wheeling slowly
to and fro i'll the de..d, breathless air,
looking dow. ia hideous anticipation at
/ two slowly moving figures which were
dragging themselves, seemingly with
the last efforts of their lives over the
| frlghtful Wilderness of sand and stone
and dwarfed thorny shrubs which
| stretched away in q CHASTITY monotony
of unbroken level till the wearied eve
could see no farther Ono was the figure
OF a man, the other that of mule. Two
biggish bundles We're slung across the
mules saddle. They were neither very
big nor very heavy, yet every now and
then the mule stumbled feebly unle,
them. The man had tied his left hand
to the saddle and in his right he had !,
whip stock, which he was using half as
a walking stick and half as a crutch.
His eyes We're half closed, and his
head hung down till his chin touched
his breast and rolled slowly from side
10 side With the motion OF lis body.
His mouth was half open, and the tip
OF his tongue protruded little between
his dry, Lack, cracked lips 1t was as
dry and black as they We're, and If you
could have put your ear close to his face
you would have heard his teeth grating
upon it.
| Every now and then one or two of
the yultures would swoop down IL little