The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-03-04

IL dppIodcHeu the nOur or noon be.
fore he gained the point where the
two trails joined and struck out across
the desert. And here he discovered
what he thought in%disputable indica.
ton that the fright Of Judith's horse
had persisted.
Abandoning Immediately all notion
Of returning through the hills by the
ridge-trail, he turned and swung away
at the best pace he could spur from
his broncho, delivering himself into
the pitiless embrace of that implaca-
BILE wilderness of sun and sand.
At long intervals he would check
the broncho and, Keeling in his saddle.
endeavor to sweep the desert with his
binoculars.
And toward the middle of the after
noon he fancied hat something re-
warded one such effort; something
for an instant swan athwart the field
of the glasses: something that seemed
to move like a weary horse with a
human figure bound to its back.
But now the phenomena were dis.
cernible which, had he been more des-
ert wise, would have made him pause
and think before he ventured farther
from those hills, already beyond
reach as they were.
His first appreciated warning came
whel the surface of the desert seemed
to lift and shake like the TOP. of a
canvas ten in a gale. At the same
time a mighty gust of wind swept
athwart the waste, hot as a furnace
blast. In a trice dust enveloped man
and horse, a sitting cloud of super,
heated particles that stung the flesh
like a myriad needles. And then dark.
ness fell, the twilight of hades, a cop
per-colored pail. Nothing remained
visible beyond arms length.
Blinded, half suffocated. u~nspeak.
ably dismayed and bewildered, the
broncho swung round, back TO the
blast, and refused to bulge another
incn.
Himself more than h~alf-dazed. but
still bounded by his nightmare vision
of Judith, Alan d~ismountcd to escape
being torn bodily from the saddle by
that heliish sand-b.ast, and Selling
the bride sought to draw the horse
on with him.
He wasted his strength in that en-
deavor; the animal baked, planted
its hoofs deep in the sand, stiffened
its legs and resisted with the stub
bornness of a rock; then, Of a sudden.
jerked his head smartly, snapped the
bride from his grasp and flung away,
scudding before the storm.
Pursuit was out Of the question;
indeed, the bride was barely torn
from his hand before Alan lost sight
Of the broncho.
For a moment he stood rooted in
CONSERVATION as in a bog-with an
arm upthrown across his face.
Then the thought of Judith re-
CURED, ...
Head Bonded and shoulders rounded,
he began to forge a way into the t&ath
Of the sandstone.
IioN lOIS iC IOAShb bll5 IlttlllS ilD
strength against the elements, cannot
be reckoned.
In the end he stumbled blindly down
a Slight decline and was abruptly
conscious that he had in some way
found shelter from the full force of the
wind.
He staggered on another yard CT
two, breathing more freely, and blum
dered into a roush-ribbed wall Of rock
some sporadic outcrop, he under
stood, whose bulk stood between him
and the storm.
He thought to rest for a time, until
the storm had spent its greatest
strength; but as he laid his shoulder
gratefully against the rock and
scrubbed the dust from his smarting
eyes he saw what he at first conceived
to be a hallucination: Judith Urine
standing within a yard &c him, alive,
strong, free.
He stared increduiously, saw her
recognize him, open her mouth to
utter a wondering cry that was inaudi-
BILE, and come quickly nearer.
Alan! You came Tor me! You fol-
lowed me. through all this
He threw off her hand with a bitter
laugh-that was like the croaking of a
raven as it issued from his bone dry
throat-and in momentary possession
Of hysteric madness, reeled away from
the m and the shelter of the rock
and delivered himself anew to the
mercy Of the dust-storm.