Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-13
DAILY SHORT STORY
A DESERT DRAMA.



except the serpent and the lizard.
Only the vulture spread his wings to
fly over it.
In the rank and file of the army this
lonely frontier post was called the
Death post. Not that there was more
sickness there than elsewhere, but that
an average of four men per year went
out from it and were heard of no more.
They were always private soldiers, and
they We're always men who had acted
queerly for days before. They had
been found brooding or weeping. They
had ceased to laugh or smile There
was fear in their eyes. One by one
at Intervals they had quietly gone
forth at night, and when tLeir alb
sence had been reported tire surgeon
had gently said to the commandant:
1T is not desertion. The men have
been azyed and terrorized by the pres
ence of the desert. 1t has drawn them
to itself. Out there on its bosom there
will be another skeleton"
The commandant may have agreed,
but he could not so state in his official
reports. 1t must be missing" or de
Sertion." In time his superiorS de-
manded explanations and limited ut
laXity of discipline. They even sent
him to Il new field and sent an iron
man To replace him, colonel, who
laughed at the desert and felt no awe
when he looked up at the rugged cliffs
which the brawling river had cut its
way through when the world was
younger by million years. His pan
inl.
ness and for sentiment was drill and
plenty of it. He would give the men
no time to think When they told him
that Private Parker was acting queer
ly he had the man before him AMI
cursed and threatened and ridieuled.
Two nights later. when the midnight
relief came around to Parkers post 1t
found his musket lying on the ground,
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 n deSerter, and l will
have him back here within two days
or resign my commission exclaimed
the man of iron.
Squads were,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 ut 4 blow
He mounted his horse and rode away
over the desert. lie 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 ana 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 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
Il 81 80
above him; he counted the numerals;
he cursed himself as being more fool
ish than woman.
OF a sudden the officer found himself
sitting up and staring out into the
night and listening so intently that he
detected the movements of lizard
yards away. The situation was get
ting on his nerves, and he struck
himself in anger as he realized it. DO
what lie could, he could not sleep. AS
he looked out across the sands he
thought every cactus a moving figure
every figure an enemy. His horse
trembled and perspired and snorted
and finally broke away. He listened
to the thud of IT'S 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 it's
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 if he shook
his fist at them and dared them TO
come down and give him battle it was
no neyw thing to them. They had seen
other men do the same.
There was another day and another
pight-perhaps two of them. OF what
good is compass to a man who bab
bles as he looks at its face? OF what