Elbert County tribune and Elbert County banner., 1920-12-10

summer had withered the beasts; how
their inspired trail across the sand
crusts and along the rim of gray pits
had been dotted with fallen men and
camels. 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 horsemen 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
camels eyes were black and loose
with coming death.
Andrew March, when he was thirty,
left his father In Peking, 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 niillet 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. "In the world, we are
exiled," she had said, and possibly
she thought their exile would end II
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
NoouS. btdl Hlbh.
But as they journeyed, the trees fall
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 striven to smooth all things for
his Eithna. She laughed at his wor-
ries. She was drawing closer to the
hanrf n hnonfU and
They halted In bleak settlement
where n stream had once passed. Now
but muddy spring remained. Mid
summer beat into their bodies.
Eithna's child was born-the only
new, clean thing within 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 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
| ny bMCilliS nEat, hhhlcW win
wife and child set forth again. There
was no trail. The camels were 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 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 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,
reddened 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-animals were
| killed for food and drink, and third
went down for the lack of the same.
The baby girl prospered. and Eithna
whispered her songs under the star
light of grotesque world.
The riders came. From out the
west, 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 sllver-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 to
fire on them and fight It out. But his
legs became suddenly weak, and the
sky reeled earthward-and when he
awakened 1t was deep night. The