The Portland daily press., 1900-03-29

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way, II he would let his dIsembodied
spirit pass on unincumberfd By Q sun
parched frame. The knife he carried In
his boot was a miserable hack OF q thing,
ct only for shaving tobacco or ehupking
bacon. He felt a momentary regret as
he ran his 6ngers along its Jagged edges
that a man with his record should be
Obliged to make his end With 90 mean
weapon. The big Swede In q moment Of
madness had raised bis pistol as IL It had
been a jug, saying, "Waal, boys. here's
to q wetter ccuntryP' But he had not
shot. The cold iron seemed to cool the
rashness Of bis brain, and the mirage Of
hope lured them on a day further.
After the second day the Missourian's
talk began to grow less, bis raving sub
sided into a weak, incoherent babbling.
At last 1t ceased altogether. and he lay
staring wide eyed into the relentless sky.
As they had done everything else they
did this silently, stoically. A shallow
bed was scooped out and the canvas TAX
en- of the wagon for a winding sheet.
When the broken circle closed In around
the open grave, the boss cleared his
throat and said: Boys, before we go any
further, some one must make a prayer.
Sabefs
They sabed; but, although every mans
soul might be consumed with a voiceless
cry to some power above himself for the
repose Of the departed soul and release
from a like fate, they were all dumb
when confronted with the thought of
taking the name Of God reverently. In
stinctively they turned to East Side"
Its your lead, East Side,'" they said.
And East Side" cropping blindly back
ward toward the memories of his youth.
tried to recall something Of religious i'm
port. Slowly through his desiccated
brain percolated n line from church
hymn, From Greenland's Icy Noun
tains," but, although the thought was
pleasant In this burning desert, the words
were not to the point Besides, that was
all he knew OF IT, He shook his head sor-
rowfully. "In the beginning"-he thought
he had struck the right lead therein
the beginning God created'- But again
he was stuck and could 60 no further.
Lead up, East Side" they urged.
Then the light broke. The backward
cropping had brought him down to the
days OF his childhood, to the words his
grandfather had been wont to say as
with bowed heads the family to the third
and fourth generation was gathered
around his table on Thanksgiving day.
So under the burning sun, whose only
shadow was cast by the hoeks of carrion
birds that circled above the remnant of
the outfit, they stood over the grave Of
their dead companion, waiting for like
fate or death by their own hands, to be
torn by coyotes perhaps before the breath
was out Of their bodies, the six gaunt
men with bowed, uncovered heads, while
East Side" pronounced in solemn tones:
20 Lord, for what we are about to re-
ceive make US devoutly thankful. Amen"
A prayer was a prayer to East Side"
Anything that began with Lord" In rev.
erent terms and ended with amen" was
a prayer. His grandfather had been
godly man, and he had said 1t, therefore
II was appropriate on this occasion. The
effect was the same upon the others, for
the words smacked OF the phraseology of
the wandering exhorters they had heard.
After the passing of the Missourian
there was even less to do. The men
were more taciturn with each other, but
there was noticeably less profanity
among them, possibly because they har-
bored their strength more tealousiy and
the exertion was unnecessary or because
their mouths were too dry to articulate
many words. It was now six weeks since
they had set out across the sink" ex-
pecting to get the cattle of their hands
and have little "time" In the city be-
fore starting back to the camp, but the
wild eyed, sorry looking things seemed
unpromising enough now even for a glue
factory.
As East Side" lay on the ground look
ing Up through the holes In his hat-they
stood upright and walked no more than
was absolutely necessary, for that re-
Quired an expenditure of strength-lazily
watching the hocks of birds that swooped
and poised In the air above him, he dis
covered, or thought he did, that they cast
q shadow against the sky--a tiny gray
shadow that he watched for the utter
lack of anything else to watch. When
the birds few lower, the shadow seemed
to grow larger, but when finally they
few away there was still the shadow,
larger and darker. With q wild whoop
he sprang 10 his feet, forgetting the value
of harboriDg bis strength as he grasped
the import of that shadow. 1t was
cloudl Every man sprapg up at that
tiny speck and went to work with white
face and unsteady hands. The speck
grew larger, and the men worked harder.
Every hole or trough that led to the
basin was cleared for action so that not
one precious drop might be lost. Their
words were few but kindly as they
scraped away, with one eye on the
ground and the other on the cloud slow
ly but Enthusiastically growing larger and
coming their way.
During the night those sun scorched
dreamers dreamed of moist winds and
rainclouds foregathering over the moon,
then Of rain drops pattering gently until
they made a soaking downpour. But they
had often dreamed that-dreamed 1t
when their parehed tongues hung out OF
their mouths and cracked for dryness.
BY this time they had grown wary.
Even In their sleep they were on their
guard and not to be beguiled into be-
lieving.
When at last In the early morning the
rain did come. with the first pattering
drops every man forgot everything In
the world but the all consuming passion
to slake his burning thirst. Until their
hats had caught enough to drain, they
A. Il III =.