The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1906-05-17
but the man himself was mlsslrg.

but the man himself was missing.
"He heard the call of the desert, and
he has gone to his DEATH" whispered
his comrades.
''The man is a deserter and 1 will
have him back here within two days
or resign my commission" exclaimed
the man Of iron.
Squads We're sent out, and the search
continued for three days without sue
cess. Then the commandant deter
mined to put the post to shame and kill
sentiment and superstition at blow.
He mounted his horse and rode away
over the desert. He would find the de-
serter and bring him in. He believed
the man had taken food and drink
with him and pushed for the mining
towns on the other edge of the sea of
sand. He should be overhauled and an
example made of him. They watched
the colonel take straight course over
the sands, which We're just beginning
to heat up under the morning sun of
summers day. He was strongly mount
ed and carried water and provisions.
and at his watch chain was a compass.
The colonel had figured that the de-
serter could not have made over forty
or fifty miles That would not be half
way across the desert. Despite the
heat the horse had covered that dis
lance before the sun went down. The
colonel had seen skeletons as he rode
the skeletons Of men and of animals
to the right and left and ahead Of him.
He had derided Them He had noted
that two great vultures lowered over
him as he rode, looking down on him
always, but uttering no croak or cry.
He had smiled at them. A thousand
| times he had cast his eyes around him
and taken In the dreariness, but he had
laughed it to scorn. And now night
had come, and he was as much alone
as If there had been no other human
being on the face Of the world. He
ate and drank and sought sleep. 1t
would not come. He counted the stars
above him; he counted the numerals;
he cursed himself as being more fool
ish than woman.
OF sudden the officer found himself
sitting up and staring out into the
night and listening so intently that he
detected the movements of a lizard
yards away. The situation was get
| ting on his nerves, and he struck
himself in anger as he realized it. Do
what he could, he could not sleep. AS
he looked out across the sands he
thought every cactus moving figure
every figure an enemy. His horse
trembled and perspired and snorted
and finally broke away. He listened
to the thud of its hoofs until they
quite died away, and then he sat with
his face in his hands. He had sneered
at and derided the desert, but the
desert had conquered the man Of iron.
Who can tell of the next day, with its
blazing sun roasting and scorching?
The frightened horse had galloped
! miles away. The mans footsteps sank
deep into the shifting sands at every
move, and the serpents and lizards
and cactus were ever before him.
Above him the vultures were always
lowering and waiting, and IL he shook
his fist at them and dared them to
come down and give him battle it was
no new thing to them. They had seen
other men do the same.
There was another day and another
night-perhaps two of them. OF what
good is compass to man who bab-
bles as he looks ut its face? OF what
good strong pair Of legs when he Is
half hundred miles from succor? It
was simply another victim for the nav
of the desert, and II men ever ride
past the bones of the missing officer
they cannot tell them from the bones
Of the scores and scores who preceded
and have followed him.
NJ. QUAD. q