The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-12-14

..---xe such a journey as this proved TO
be. He knew there was little to fear
from human enemies, for they were
riding far enough east of the Santa Fe
trail to be cut of the path of raiding
parties, while this desert country was
Stunned by Indian hunters 1t con-
sisted of sand hill after sand hill, a
drear WaterleSs waste, where nothing
grew, and mid the dread sameness of
which traveller could only find pass
age by the guidance of stars at night
or the blazing sun by day. To the
eye mile after mile appeared exactly
alike, with nothing whatever to dis
tinguish either distance or direction
the same drifting ridges of sand
stretching forth in every direction, no
summit higher than another, no sem
blance of green shrubbery, or silver
sheen of running water anywhere to
break the dull monotony-a vast
sandy plain, devoid of life, extending
to the horizon, over hung by a barren
sky.
They had covered ten miles Of it by
daybreak, their ponies travelling heavi-
ly, fetlock deep, but could advance no
further. With the first tint of rose in
the east the brooding storm burst
upon them in wild desert fury, the
fierce wind buffeting them back, lash
ing their faces with sharp grit until
they were unable to bear the pain.
The flying sand smote them in clouds,
driven with the speed of bullets. In
vain they lay fat, urging their ponies
forward; the beasts, maddened and
blinded by the merciless flashing of the
sand, refused to face the storm. Keith,
rolled YEARLY from the saddle, bur
rowed under the partial shelter Of .
sand dune, and called upon Neb to
follow him. With their hands and feet
they made slight wind-break, drag
ging the struggling ponies into it,
protection, and burrowed themselves
there, the clouds of sand skurrying
over them SO thick as to obscure the
sky, and rapidly burying them alto
gether as though in a grave. Within
an hour they were compelled to dig
themselves out, yet 1t proved partial
escape from the pitiless flashing. The
wind howled like Embossed demons,
and the air grew cold, adding to the
sting of the grit, when some sudden
eddy hurled 1t into their hiding place.
To endeavor further travel would
mean certain death, for no one could
have guided a course for hundred
feet through the tempest, which seem
ed to suck the very breath away. To
the fugitives came this comfort-if
they could not advance, then no one
else could follow, and the storm was
completely plotting out their trail.
1t was three o'clock before it died
sufficiently down for them to venture
out. Even then the air remained full
of sand, while constantly shifting
ridges made travel difficult Only
grim necessity-the suffering of the
ponies for water, and their own need
for soon reaching the habitation of
- and acquiring food-drove them
~ The early venture. They must at
tain the valley of the Salt Fork that
night, or else perish in the desert
there remained no other choice. Ty-
ing neckerchiefs over their horses
eyes, and lying fiss themselves, they
succeeded in pressing slowly forward,
winding In and out among the shift
ing dunes, with only the wind to guide
them. 1t was an awful trail, the hoofs
sinking deep In drifting sand, the
struggling ponies becoming SO ex-
hausted that their riders finally dis
mounted, and staggered forward on
foot, leading them stumbling blindly
after. Once the negro's horse
dropped, and had to be dashed to its
feet again; once Keith's pony STUN
bled and fell on him, hurting him face
down into the sand, and he would
have died there, lacking sufficient
strength to lift the dead weight, but
for Neb's assistance. AS it was he
went staggering blindly forward,
bruised, and faint from hunger and
fatigue. Neither man spoke; they had
no breath nor energy left to waste;
every ounce of strength needed to be
conserved IOT the UaIIlo against ud-
ture. They were fighting for life;
fighting grimly, almost hopelessly, and
alone.
About them night finally closed in,
black and starless. yet forum ately
with a gradual dying away of the
storm. For an hour past they had
been struggling on, doubling their d.
rection, wondering DULY If they were
not lost and merely drifting about in
a circle. They had debated this
fiercely once, the ponies standing de-
jectedly, tails to the storm, Neb argu-
ing that the wind still blew from the
south, and Keith contending it had
shifted into the westward. The white
man won his way, and they staggered
on uncertain, the negro grasping the
first pony's tail to keep from being
separated from his companion. Some
instinct of the plains must have guild
ed them, for at last they dragged
themselves out from the desert, the
crunching sand under foot changing
into rock, and then to short brittle
grass, at which the ponies nibbled eag-
Ierly. The slope led gradually down.
ward, the animals scenting water, and