The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-08-26

dA0 Ills Bull anu LHO OLlfSES EClu1AC0
to the village Of Shan-sung. Their
cameFs 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 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 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 no reason. I'm 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 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 cIearings through the
woods. Eithna's heart beat high.
But as they journeyed, the trees fail
ed in the rocky earth, and an unreal
summer stiffened the spine of every
camel. The sand blazed on all sides,
sparkling upon worn rocks. Andrew
had strfven to smooth all things for
his Eithna. She laughed at his wOr-
rfes. 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 was 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 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 were un-z
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 as in
convenient and much less sanitary
| than the painless 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 over them,
Redeemed the camels' eyes and darken-
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-animaIs were
killed for food and drink, and third
went down TO- the lack of the same.
The baby girl prospered, and Eithna
whispered her songs under the star
! light of a grOtesque world.
The riders came. From out the
west, a little to the north they appear
ed, a dozen or more-huge men mount
ed on short-legged horses, shaggy and
half wild They were silver-eyed
Hamitic. men, their movements as in
comprehensive as their words. They
| circ1ed about the young father, and as
they drew in closer, he was ready to
fire on them and fight it out. But his
legs became suddenly weak, and the
sky reeled northumberland when he
awakened it was deep night The
desert was silent and horrible. His
body ached. felt thick and clumsy.
Then he found the tiny feathered dart.
still clinging to his shoulder where
] C1oy naQ DiOWn II, the poisoned barb
under the skin. Andrew had been IN
conscious for hours. Eithna and the
child were gone.
Mad1y he kicked the camels and
raced. In the pale far light of the
heavens he thought he could follow
the tracks of the horses. He was able
TO do so without difficulty, but found
to his terror that each rider had taken
different direction, radiating out
from the point of attack. He did not
know which to follow. He was alone.
Sanity left him. The cameIs whimper-
ed and started back the way they had
come
Andrew reused from his delirium in
the hut where his baby Helen had
been born, and the familiar bearded
female was watching him Fever had
held him in this hut for many days
. From caravansaries to the south he
gathered up camels and men and
horses and provisions and started
northward again in search of his own.
Most of the men refused to ride with
] /