Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-03-28

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with babbling brooks. He thought Of
"Jackstones" and tried to catch sewers
OF the pebbles on the back Of his sore
withered hand. Then in the glazing
sun he fell straight backward and hurt
his head. 1t seemed to him that he
rose Immediately, but really he was
supine for half an hour. He sat up
finally and as he came back to a sit
ting postre, still muttering incessant-
~. a wild cry rang across the desert
1t was in~articulate, but there was de-
spair in it. 1t sounded startling close
and it had the singular effect to sober
Mr.. Hope as it were. The shock OF it
made him sane. He staggered to his
feet and looked about him klinkingly.
Not fifty yards away stood a woman,
or a girl child, he could not tell which.
The figure stretched its hands toward
him and he went to it d~oubtingly. 1t
was in slightly better case than he,
for 1t could still talk. It said:
"For Gods sake water"
Hope mumbled something. intended
for There is not water in this coun-
try" He stared at the figure: the
figure stared at him from under loose
hair. In these circumstances sex
ceases. He put his arm about the fg-
ure's waist and supported it. He was
a brave man, was Hope. and he told
himself in that instant that here was
a life miserably dependent upon his
own and that he would work harder
to save it than he had yet worked. The
thought seemed to give him strength
and he stood erect for the first time
in many hours. His implacable science
told him that there was no drinkable
water in Death Valley, but he remem-
bered that when he was an idle and
purposeless boy he used to read Bead
les Dime Novels. and in one OF these
novels was a heroic Indian slayer who
had got water in the Valley by dig
ging for 1t with his ~tomahawk. He
almost smiled at the recollection and
he wished that he might have the
snug. well-fed. unthirsty author of that
romance for forty-etght hours in the
Valley itself, instead of In his New
York room. with hot and cold water
pipes within ten feet Of him. Never
theless, he kept his arm about the fig
ure and gently urged 1t onward.
They came to a cleft, or lengthy de-
preston, in the Internal soil. Possibly
thirty millions of years ago it had been
a creek. Its bed was still defined. and
it was OF sand. Hope cast about him
until he found a silver OF red rock.
sharp pointed, a foot wide and three
feet long-just a scale of the stone, in
fact-and with this he set TO digging
slowly. The sand was loose. and by
heroic effort at the end OF an hour or
two he had gone down four feet in "A
narrow hole. The woman sat near
him. She had not uttered a word since
her first pitiful plea. and she did n o
watch him while he dug. Six inches
further and the sand became moist.
Another foot, and water could be
squeezed from 1t. Another foot and
a small pool of 1t, six inches across
and a half inch deep, was visible. 1t
was hot but sweetish, evidently n seep
from some of the saline or alkaline
lakes, and the mineral had been fl
tered from it in its passage. Set II
down to the everlasting credit OF Fran
els Hope that he climbed from tho
hole, went to the woman, brought
her to its edge, took half a pint In his
hat and poured It down her throat,
while his own lips were bleeding. l
say that Sir Philip Sydney. riding from
battle with a broken thigh and giving
his last drop to a wounded soldier.
did not do a finer deed. Five small
swallows OF the water restored the sell
entihc mind TO its normal precision
and he saw that neither his companion
O himself got too much OF 1t. They
rested by the little pool until the sun
set, then took a final draught and set
out. Reason had come back to her
eyes, and she placed her hand In his
as he stepped out bravely, his eye on a
fixed point dimly seen In the dusk.
At ten that night they came to a
trail, broad and beaten, and lay down
beside 1t to sleep. the woman resting
her head upon his shoulder like a tired
child. At midnight a sixteen-muls
team came by. 1t dragged a huge wagon
loaded with crude borax, and the driver
alternately swore and sang. He gave
them food and drink, asked few ques-
tons and. ~supposing them TO be man
and wife, offered them a bed In his
huge. enormous vehicle. Sex had re-
asserted itself. Hope laughed and the
woman blushed. So she curled herself
in the rear end of 1t, and Hope went
TO the forward end, twenty feet away,
and between them was a mountainous
barrier Of borax.
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