Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1922-11-16


travel found the prospectors deep in
the wilderness. Then there came a
breaking Of reserve, noticeable in the
elder man, almost imperceptibly grad
ual in Cameron. And so, as Cameron
began to respond to the influence of
q desert less lonely than habitual, he
began to take keener note Of his COM
rade, and found him different from
| any other he had ever encountered in
the wilderness. This man never
grumbled at the heat, the glare, the
| driving sand, the sour water, the
scant fare. He was tireless, patient,
broodlng.
Cameron's awakened interest brought
home to him the realization that for
years he had Stunned companionship.
In those years only three men had
wandered into the desert with him,
and these had left their bones to
bleach in the shifting sands. Cameron
had not cared to know their secrets.
But the more he studied this latest
comrade the more he began to suspect
that he might have missed something
in the others. In his own driving pas
sion to take his secret into the limit
| less abode of silence and desolation,
where he could be alone with it, he
had forgotten that life dealt shocks to
other men. Somehow this silent COM
rade reminded him.
| One afternoon late, after they had
toiled up white, winding wash of
sand and gravel, they came upon a
| dry waterhole. Cameron dug deep
into the sand, but without avail. He
was turning to retrace weary steps
back to the last water when his COM
rade asked him to wait. Cameron
watched him search in his palkSand
bring forth what appeared to be a
small, forked branch of peach tree.
He grasped the prongs of / e fork
and held them before him with the
end standing straight out, and then
he began to walk along the stream
bed. Cameron, at first amused, then
amazed, then plying, and at last Gu
rious, kept pace with the prospector.
He saw a strong tension of his COM
rade's wrists, as If he was Lolding
hard against a considerable force. The
end Of the peach branch began to
culver and turn, kept turning, and at
length pointed to the ground
"Dig here" said the prospector.
"What" CALCULATED Cameron. Had
the man lost his mind?
Then Cameron stood by while his
comrade dug in the sana Three feet
he dug-four-five, and the sand
grew dark, then moist At six feet
water began to seep through.
"Get the little basket in my pack"
he said
Cameron complied, and saw his
cOmrade drop the basket into the deep
hole, where it kept the sides from
cavlng in and allowed the water to
seep through. While Cameron watched,
the basket filed. OF all tie strange
incidents of his desert career this was
the strangest Curiously he picked up
the peach branch and held 1t as he
had seen 1t held. The thing, how
ever was dead in his hands.
81 see you haven't got it," remarked
| his comrade. "Few men have. Back
in Illinois an old German used to do
that to locate wells. He showed me
I had the same power. I can't ex-
plain. The old German I spoke of
made money travelling round with his
peach fork"
"What a gift for a man in the des-
ert %
Cameron's comrade smiled-the Sec
| ond time In all those days.
They entered q region where min
eral abounded, and their march be-
came slower. Generally they took the
| course of wash, one on each side
| and let the burros travel leisurely
along npping at the bleached blades
| of scant grass, or at sage or cactus,
| while they searched in the canons and
under the lodges for signs of gold.
Each succeeding day and night
Cameron felt himself more and more
drawn to this strange man. He found
| mat after hours of burning toll he had
insensibly grown nearer to his com
rade. He reflected thar after a few
weeks in the desert he had always
| become a different man. In civiliza-
ton, in the rough mining camps, he
had been a prey to unrest and gloom
But once down on the great billowing
sweep Of this lonely world, he could
look into his unquiet soul without bit
terness. SO now he did not marvel at
a slow stir stealing warmer along his
veins, and at the premOnition that per-
haps he and this man, alone on the
desert driven there by life's mysteri-
Gus and remorSeless motive, were to
see each other through Gods eyes
One night they were encamped at
the head Of canon. The day had
been exceedingly hot, and long after
shutdown the radiations of heat from
the rocks persisted. Cameron watched
his comrade, and yielded to interest
he had not heretofore voiced.
"Pardner, what drives you into the
desert? Do you come to forget?"