The Hayti herald. (Hayti, Mo.) 1908-1922, 1920-05-20

their inspired trail across the sand
crusts and along the rim of gray pits
had been dotted with fallen men and
Camcls. The traders had warned
them, and cursed their purpose, but
they had pressed on, away from the
trodden routes to north and south,
straight into the west. always west
ward and to the north, until party
of dusty horscmen had ridden them
down. robbed them, and turned them
back. Farley was useless. Andrews
father spoke a language they under
stood; yet they gave but one reply.
Broken with defeat, the white man
and his son and two drivers returned
to the village of Shan-sung. Their
camcl's eyes were black and loose
with coming death.
Andrew March, when he was thirty.
left his father in peking, and started
westward with summer caravan
His wife went with him--a high-born
Irish girl who refused to stay back.
Something in the great Gobi had mag
netizcd her, as well. Her lovers quest
was her own. She loved the twisty
old villages of the interior, loved the
fog over the millet fields, the peasants
who went about half dead with age
and disease. and she was ready to sing
when the sun came through upon the
dripping tiles of farmers cottage.
But she could not stop in the pleasant
lanes that wandered up from the
;,, In
believed, she was yearning for the
secret of the desert, though she could
give no reason. "In the world, we are
exiled." she had said and possibly
she thought their exile would end If
they could find the heart of Mongolia.
Through that memorable summer
she had ridden beside her husband.
Andrew March planned southern
approach from the Chen-tan break In
the Wall, where the forests are thick.
In autumn the camels grew fat, and
the winter months found them plOd-
ding through the rain and snow of
the sheltered ridges. Spring came,
and the wanderers turned northward,
following the clearings through the
woods. Eithna's heart beat high.
But as they jOurneyed the trees fail
ed in the rocky EARTH and an unreal
summer stiifened the spine Of every
camel. The sand blazed on all sides,
| sparkling upon worn rocks. Andrew
had striven to smooth all things for
his Eithna. She laughed at his wor-
ries. She was drawing closer to the
heart Of beauty and romance.
They halted in a bleak settlement
where a stream had once passed. Now
but n muddy spring remained. Mid
summer beat into their bodies.
| Eithna's child was hOrn--the only
new, clean thing within a thousand
miles.
Perhaps the immensity Of sky, the
! staring emptiness Of the horizon, af-
fected the rosy newcomer. There
was no wall of sorrow from her tiny
lips, only a deep-drawn murmur. In
their hut the Tartar woman, gaunt and
hairy, was an unsupported miracle of
tenderness and sagacity.
In the following spring, when the
glare of the daytime was accompanied
by swelling heat, Andrew with his
wife and child set forth again. There
was no trail. The camelS We're un.
easy. Andrew was worn. He longed
to go on, as Eithna did; Yet the i'm
pulse to turn back was strong within
him. But she had told him lightly
and perhaps truly, that China to the
south and east would be quite MS in
convenient and much less sanitary
than the pnthless land before them
The child gravely regarded sand
rocks and the clear sky, and learned
to laugh happily whenever Andrew
came to take her A doll was made
of silks and jackal bone. A shinni
lizard was also added to the Marcl
family for her entertainment.
The beasts grew thin and dry. TIL
wind, monster serpent of the air
swept before them and over them
reddened the camels' eyes and darken
ed their milk. In Eithna's cheeks tn
= color deepened. and she refused t
: turn back. Andrew lost count of tn
days. Two of the pack-animals wer
killed for food ana drink, and a thir
went down for the lack of the same
The baby girl prospered, and Eithn
r whispered her songs under the stal
: light of groteSque world.
. The riders came. From out tn
e west, little to the north they appear
ed, "A dozen or more--huge men noun
!, ed on short-legged horses, shaggy an
D half wild. They were silver-eye
= Hamitic men, their movements as II
u comprehensive as their words. The
d circled about the young father, and 6
4 they drew in closer, he was ready
: fire on them and fight it out. But h
legs became suddenly weak, and Il
r sky reeled earthward-and when !
d awakened 1t was deep night IT
@ desert was silent and horrible. ii
/, body ached, felt thick and clums
# Then he found the tiny feathered dan
d still cinging 10 his shoulder whe