Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1912-05-21

chamber. I called him: ERIK! Erik
I shouted as loudly as could across
the desert, but there was no answer
to my voice. All around us lay the
silence and the bare immensely Of
that stony desert. What was to be
como of us in the midst OF that awful
solitude?
We were beginning literally to die
of heat, hunger and thirst OF
thirst especially. At last, saw NJ
De Chagny raise himself on his elbow
and point to a spot on the horizon
He had discovered an oasis!
Yes, far in the distance was an
oasis an oasis with limpid
water, which reflected the iron trees!
Tush, 1t was the scene OF the
mirage. I recognized 1t at
once the worst OF the three!
No one had been able to fight
against 1t no one. !
did my utmost to keep my head and
not to hope for water, because knew
that, If man hoped for water, the
water that reflected the iron tree,
and if, after hoping for water, he
struck against the mirror, then there
was only one thing for him to do: to
hang himself on the iron tree!
So | cried to NJ. de Chagny:
IT'S the mirage! It's the
mirage! Don't believe in the
water! It's another trick OF
the mirrors!
Then he fatty told me to shut up.
with my tricks of the mirrors, my
springs, my revolving doors and my
palaces of illusions! ne angrily de.
clared that | must be either blind or
mad to imagine that all that water
flowing over there, among those
splendid, numberless trees, was not
real water! And the desert
was real! And SO was the
forest! And it was no use
trying to take him in he was
an old, experienced traveller Z.
he had been all over the place!
And he dragged himself along, say
Ing: water! Water!"
And his mouth was open, as though
he were drinking.
And my mouth was open, too, as
though l were drinking.
For we not only saw the water, but
we heard It! We heard 1t
flow, We heard it ripple! DO
you understand that word ''ripple?"
1t is sound which you hear
with your tongue! You put
your tongue out Of your mouth to
listen to it better!
Lastly-and this was the most pitt
less torture of alive heard the rain
and it was not raining! This was an
Internal invention. Oh,
knew we'll enough how Erik obtained
it! He filled with little stones very
long and narrow box, broken up in
side with wooden and metal projec-
lions. The stones. In falling, struck
against these projections and re-
bounded from one to another: and
the result was a series Of pattering
sounds that exactly initiated a rain
storm.
All, you should have seen us putting
out our tongues and dragging our.
selves toward the ripping river bank!
Our eyes and ears were full OF water,
but our tongues were hard and dry
as horn!
When We reached the mirror, NJ. de
Chagny licked Il and also
licked the glass.
1t was burning hot!
Then we rolled on the floor with
hoarse cry of despair. Nj. de Chagny
put the one pistol that was still load
ed to his temple; and I stared at the
Punjab lasso at the foot OF the iron
tree. I knew why the iron tree had
returned. in this third change OF
scene! The iron tree was
for me!
But, as l stared at the .Punjab lasso,
I saw thing that made me start so
violently that NJ. de Chagny delayed
his attempt at suicide. l took his
arm. And then caught the pistol
from him and then dragged
myself on my knees toward what l
had seen.
had discovered, near the PunJab
lasso, in groove in the floor. a black
headed nail of which l knew the use.
At last had discovered the spring!
felt the nail. | lifted q
radiant face to NJ. de Chagny. i
The black-headed nail yielded to my
pressure.
And then.