The Nevada County picayune., 1922-11-02


 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, breeding
 Cameron's awakened interest brought home to him the realization that for years he had summed 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 desolaton, 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 was turning to retrace weary steps back to the last water when his con- rade asked him to walt. Cameron watched him search in his pack and bring forth what appeared to be small, forked branch of a peach tree. He grasped the prongs of the fork and held them before him with the end standing straight out, and then he began to walk along the stream bed. Cameron, st first amused. then rious, kept pace with the prospector. He saw strong tension of his con- rade's wrists. as If he was holding hard against q considerable force. The end of the peach branch began to quiyer and turn, kept turning. and at length pointed to the ground.
 "Dig here" said the prospecter.
 What" calculated Cameron. Had the man lost his mind?
 Then Cameron stood by while his eomrade dug in the sann. Three feet he dug-feHr-five and the sand grew dark, then moist. At six feet water began 10 seep through.
 "Get the little basket in my pack" he said.
 Cameron complied. and saw his eomrade drop the basket into the deep hole. where 1t kept the sides from caying in and allowed the water to seep through. While Cameron watched. the basket filed of all tae strange incidents of his desert career this was the strangest Curiously he picked mp the peach branch and held 1t as he had seen It held. The thing, how ever. was dead in his hands.
 .I 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 had the same power. can't ex- plain The old German I spoke of made money travelling round with his peach fork"
 What a gift for man in the des- ert '"
 Cameron's comrade smlied-the sec ond time In all those days.
 They entered region where min eral abounded, and their march be came slower. Generally they took the course of a wash. one on each side, and let the burros travel lelsurely along nipping at the bleached blades of seant grass, or at sage or cactus, while they searched in the canons and under the ledges for signs of gold
 Each succeeding day and night Cameron felt himself more and more drawn to this strange man. He found that after hours of burning toll he had insensibly grown nearer 10 his com rade He reflected thar after few weeks in the desert he had always become a different man. In civillzx- tion. In the rough mining camps. he had been prey to unrest and gloom. But once down on the great billowlng sweep of this lonely world, he could look into his unquiet soul without bit terness. So now he did not marvel at slow stir stealing warmer along his veins, and at the prerronltion that per haps he and this man, alone on the desert. driven there by lfes mysterl- ous and remorSeless motive, were to see each other through Gods eyes.
 One night they were encamped at the head of a canon. The day had been exceedingly hot, and long after sundown the radiations of heat from the rocks persisted. Cameron watched his comrade. and yielded 10 interest ba bod mot baratoPora yaipad