The copper era and Morenci leader., 1912-02-16
-(Copyright, A. C. McCurg 6 Co.,. 1s1o)

 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 flat, urging their ponies forward; the beasts, maddened and blinded by the merciless flashing of the sand, refused to face the storm. Keith, all sense of direction long since lost, rolled wearily 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 a slight wind-break. drag ging the struggling ponies into it's 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 unIoosed 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 a 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.
 It 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 man and acquiring food-drove them to 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 fiat themselves, they , succeeded in pressing slowly forward. winding in and out among the shift ing dunes, with only the wind to guide them. It 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 negros horse dropped, and had to be lashed to its 1 feet again; once Keith's pony stum bIed and fell on him, hurling 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 1t was ht went staggering blindly forward bruised, and faint from hunger ant fatigue. Neither man spoke; they hae no breath nor energy left to waste every ounce of strength needed to o' conserved for the battle against na ture. They were fighting for life fighting grimly, almost hopelessly, an' alone.
 About them night finally closed tl black and starless, yet fortunatel' with a gradual dying away of th storm. For an hour past they ha
 been struggling on, doubtipg their a
 rection. wondering duly if they wer
 not lost and merely drifting about
 a circle. They had debated thl
 fiercely once, the ponies standing d'
 iectedly. tails to the storm, Nee arsa
 inx that the wind still blew from th
 south, and Keith centending 1t hs
 shifted into the westward. The whit man won his way, and they stagsere on uncertain, the negro graspihg th first pony's tail to keep from beln separated from his companion. Som instinct of the plains must have gull ed them, for at last they dragge
 themselves out from the desert, tf crunching sand under foot changir into rock, and then to short britt grass, at which the ponies nibbled ca ! erly. The slorr !ed gradually dow | ward. tte aui~7o's ~cocttrE water, ar g l -+,,,- -~.-, ..aviy