The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-09-20

| looking at the pedograph where the little ratchet-wheel had pricked it's last hole in the chart. The winding turn had brought me near to the Gan ados, for dinaly rem embered seeing clump of cottonwoods over by the granite cliffs. There was mistake about it. Id finished my course, standing there in the empty desert with nothing about me but shifting sand.
 And nothing there. Nothing there. This was the end of my keyed-up, glorious hopes-a fool-dream, wind | ing up in one grand smash. It seemed to me like the devils joke. It must have gone clean mad l for a minute. I shouted out peal of | crazy laughter, and then I threw my l self down, digging my arms in the 1 sand, yelling and cursing with rage This spell of mine must have lasted | a good while. didn't come to to my | senses till I heard the sand crunching | about me. the stamping of ponies, and the voices of men. Even then I felt too dazed to look around. so before I ! knew it somebody fell on top of me, | c1apped a bandage before my eyes | tying the ends at the back of my head My hands were fastened behind me, l and then two men dragged me to my feet.
 I tried to call out, but my throat by this time was too dry to make l sound.
 What dye want now, cap?" de- | manded a voice.
 The third man of the party must
 have made a sign. because the pedo-
 graph was torn from my shoulder It l was handed over to him, because I heard him come closer to me and ex- l anime the instrument. l tried to moisten my lips, but my | tongue was like leather. I was dying for water.
 The man they called "ca,p' fingered
 the photograph for a few minutes. Then he began to laugh. It was a hateful laugh, and it must have re- flected some ugly thought in his mind l The three voices muttered together. Then somebody asked: Don't you want the box?'
 | "No, only the chart" was the reply I felt the straps of the photograph | being thrown over my shoulder again. l The three men trampled about ana | talked in undertones. And of a suo- 1 den one of them raised a shout, and | the sound electrified me. because I recognized his voice: ''Now, cap, yo' | promised they'h be no shootin"' | Reedy Gibbs!
 You fool" said the other angrily, l Hell give us away
 T won't stand fo' no killin", pro- | tested Gibbs. "Jest leave i'm blind fold an give tn boy a chanst.'' And | I heard the jack miner come up to me
 and loosen one of the knots that 1 fastened my hands.
 l And all this time was standing | there in state of dull suspense. | ''All right. have it your way.'' ob- l served the man addressed as cap. I | heard them mounting their ponies | all but one. And suddenly he came quickly toward me through the sand.
 This man stopped quite close to me.
 '<Ill let him stay blindfolded." he | said in a mocking voice. But I'll | blindfold him for life"
 1 He made a movement, and one or | the mounted men gave a cry of alarm | Then a dreadful crash rang through smy head. I glared into a gulf of | flaming fire, and it was as if red-hot iron plates had been smashed against l my face. reeled back with a scream | of horror and struggled to free my
 hands.
 | got them free at last and tried to
 grab the bandage from my burning l head. wanted to see. But there
 was no bandage there. He had shot | off the bandage in shooting out my | eyes. I was blind-blind--blind! I can still hear my wild cry of des- pair ringing cross that desert flat. Ahead of me the ponies were tramp | ing away through the sand in the di-
 dection of the Ganados. And I ran 1 after the men. Gripping, stumbling,
 and crying. Kill me-kill me!''
 For I would rather have been dead. l CHAPTER VII | The Story That Struck Home. When you wake out of a nightmare your heart bounds with the joy of re- 1 lief But when I woke my horror hung on me. I'd become a member l # the dark world.
 was lying on my back, and some
 body was bending over me, passing l see?" he asked.
 made no reply.
 l The man went away and came | back presently and placed something | wet and cooling on my face, which was still burning and racked with | pain. It was leaves dipped Tn water, and he tied a cloth over them.
 Then remembered. It must be
 Hosey, who was to meet me at Lizard Lake; and I must have lain uncon-
 scious through the night till he found
 me in the desert. But I didn't care. I wanted him to go away I didn't want to leave the flats alive. That was the state of my mind.
 But thaI half-breed semed bent on l caring for me. He got me mounted on a pony, and guided me on the jour
 ney back. Every now and then he'd
 halt, undo the cloth, and wet the lay CT of leaves. Then it was riding on
 again, clinging, sightless, to the pony II back. I felt as if that long and pain
 full trip must have covered a thous- and miles. But if it hadn't been for
 Hosey I'd never got back to the world
 of real things.
 The morning after woke up in the
 half-breed's shack, back of the clear
 ing in the Black Rock range. For
 two or three days lay there. suffer
 in, and just carless about anything
 on earth. I didn't want to talk to or
 meet a soul.
 Finally the pain seemed to have