The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-09-22

. tluCtly- AGAIN lueTe Was SHeuCe iO&
a long time Now and then Baraka
+ loosened her only garment about her
as she sat, so that it might dry more
quickly; and she quietly wrung out
her thick black hair and shook it over
her shoulders to dry it, too, and
stuck her two silver pins into the
sand beside her
Still the traveller sat with bent head,
/ gazing at the edge of the pool His
hands were quite dry now, and ne
slowly rubbed the clinging moisture
from his revolver. Some men would
have been thinking, in such a plight.
that If starving were too hard to bear,
a bullet would shorten their sufferings
in the end; but this man was very full
Of life, and the love of life, and while
he lived he would hope
He still watched the same dark
streak where the sand was wet; he
had not realized that he had been so
far from it till then, but by loohdns at
it long time in the starlight his sight
had probably grown tired so that he
no longer saw it distinctly He raised
himself a little on his hands and
pushed himself down till it was quite
clearly visible again. and he looked at
the rock opposite and up to the stars
again, to rest his eyes. He was not
more than yard from the water now.
The place was very quiet From far
above a slight draught of air descended,
warm from the rocks that had been
heated all Gay in the sun. But there
was no sound except when Baraka
moved little.
Presently she did not move any
more, and when the traveller looked he
saw that she was cuTled up on the
sand, as eastern women lie when they
sleep, and her head rested on her
hand; for her garment was dry now,
and she was drowsy after the walk
and the effort she had made. Be
sides, since there was no escape from
death. and as the man did not love
her. she might as well sleep if she
could.
He had been certain OF the distance
between his feet and the waters edge
as he sat; it had been a yard at the
most But now it was more: he was
sure that it was a yard and 4 half at
the least He rubbed his eyes and
looked hard at the dark belt of wet
sand, and it was twice as wide as it
had been. The water was still run
ming out somewhere, but it was no
longer running in. and in an hour or
two the pool would be dry. The trav-
eler was something Of an engineer,
and understood sooner than an or
binary man could have done. that his
enemies had Intentionally stopped up
the narrow entrance through which
he had to come. both to make his es-
cape impossible, and to hasten his end
by depriving him of water. The fallen
boulder alone could not have kept out
the overflow of the spring effectually.
They must have shoveled down mass
es of earth, with the plants that grew
in it abundantly and filled it with
twining threadlike roots, and they
must have skillfuily forced quantities
of the stuff into the openings all round
the big stone. making a regular dam
against the spring, which would soon
run down IN the opposite direction.
They knew, of course, that Baraka
had led him to the place and had gone
in with him for she had left all her
outer garments outside. and they
meant that she should die also. with
her secret. In a week, or 4 fortnight,
or a month, they would come and dig
away the dam and pry the boulder
aside. and would get in and find the
white bones Of the two on the sand,
after the vultures had picked them
clean: and they would take the trav-
eler's good revolver, and his money.
He thought of all these things as he
sat there in the dim light, and watched
the slow receding of the water-line,
and listened to the girls soft and reg
ular breathing. There was no death
in her dream, as she slept away the
last hours of the night, though there
might not be many more nights for
her. He heard her breath, but he did
not heed her, for the water was sink
ing before him, sinking away into the
sand. now that it was no longer fed
from the opening.
He sat motionless, and his thoughts
ran madly from hope to despair and
back again to hope The water was
going down, beyond question; if it
was merely draining itself through the
sand to some subterranean channel.
he was lost, but if it was flowing
away through any passage like the
one by which he had entered, there
was still a chance of escape-a very
small chance When death is at the
gate the tiniest loOphole looks wide
enough to crawl through
The surface of the pool subsidized,
but there was no loophole; and as the
traveller watched, hope sank in his
heart, like the water in the hollow of
the sand; but BaraRa slept on peace
fully, curled up on her side like lit
tie wild animal. When the pool was
almost dry the traveller crept down
to the edge and drank his fill. that he