The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1920-04-15

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
troddcn routes to north and south.
straight into the west, always west
ward and to the north, until a party
of dusty horsemen had ridden them
down, robbed them. and turned them
back. Farley vas useless. Andrews
father spoke a language they under
stood; yet they gave but n reply.
Broken with defeat, the white man
and his o and two drivers returned
to the village of S%han-sung. Their
camel's eyes were black and loose
with coming death.
Andrew March, when he was thirty,
left his father in Picking. and started
westward with a summer caravan.
His wife went with him-a high-born
Irish girl who refused to stay back.
Something in the great Cobb had mag
netiZed her, as we'll. Her lovers quest
was her own. She loved the twisty
old villages of the interior, loved the
fog over the millct fields. the peasants
who went about half dead with age
and disease. and she was ready to sing
when the sur came through upon the
dripping tiles Of a farmers cottage.
But she could not stop in the pleasant
lanes that wandered up from the
marshes. Like Andrew, in whom she
believed, she was yearning for the
secret of the desert, though she could
give 40 reason. "In the world. we are
eNiled,' she had said, and possibly
she thought their exile would end if
they could lind the heart of Mongolia.
Through that memorable summer
she had ridden beside her husband.
Andrew March planned a 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. Eilhna's heart beat high.
But as they journeyed, the trees fail
ed in the rocky earth. ami an unreal
summer stinene1 the spine of every
camel. Tho sand hlaZed on all sides,
sparkling upon worn rocks. Andrew
had strivan 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 a muddy spring remained. Mid
summer beat into their bodies.
Eithna's child vas born-the only
new, clean thing within a thousand
miles.
Perhaps the immensely of sky, the
staring emptiness of the horizon. af-
fected the rosy newcomer. There
was no vail of sorrow from her tiny
lips. only a deep-drawn murmur. In
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 camcls were I'M
easy. Andrew was Orn He longed
to 90 on, as Eithna did; yet the i'm
pulse to turn back vas strong within
him. But she had told him lightly,
and perhaps truly, that China to the
south and east would be quite as in
convenient and much less sanitary
than the pathlcss 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 a jackal bone. A shining
lizard was also added to the March
family for her entertainment.
The beasts grew thin and dry. The
wind, a monster serpent of the air,
swept before them and owe them,
ed their milk. In Eithna's cheeks the
color %deepened, and she refused to
turn back. Andrew lost count Of the
days. Two of the pack-animals were
killed for food and drink, and a third
went down for the lack Of the same.
The baby girl prospered, and Eithna
whispered her songs under the star
light of a grotesque world.
The riders anne From ont the
west, a little to the north they appear.
ed, a dozen or more-huge men mount
ed IN short-legged horses, shaggy and
half wild. They were silver-eyed
Hamitic men, their movements as in
comprehensive as their words. They
circled about the young father, and as
they drew in closer, he was ready tt
fire on them and fight it out. But his
legs became suddenly weak, and thu
sky reeled northumberland when he
awakened it a deep night. The
desert vas silent and horrible. Iii!
, body ached. felt thick and clumsy
Then he found the tiny %feathered dart
] still clinging to his shoulder wher,
! they had blown 1t. the poisoned bari