Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-02-01
By ZANE GREY
Author of
The Riders Of the Purple Sage,
Wildfire, Etc.
by & Brother
Copyright by Harper & Brothers.

Cameron rested and waited, hope
less, with cot, weary eyes gazing
down from their height where he sat.
Movement on the part Of Warren at
tracted his attention Evidently the
old prospector had recovered his sight
ard some of his strength For he had
ayisen, and now began to walk along
the arroyo bed with his forked peach
branch held before him. He had chung
to that precious bit of. wood Warren
however, stepped in deep pit, and,
cutting his cantec7 in half, began to
use one side of it as a scoop. He
scooped out a wide hollow, so wide
that Cameron was certain he had gone
crazy. Cameron gently urged him to
stop, and then forcibly tried 10 make
him. But these efforts were futile.
Warren worked with slow, ceaseless,
methodical movement He toiled for
what seemed hours. Cameron, seeing
the darkening, dampening sand, real
lied wonderful possibility Of water,
and he plunged into the pit with the
other half of the canteen. Then both
men toiIed, round and round the wide
hole, down deeper and deeper. The
sand grew moist, then wet. At the
bottom of the deep pit the sand coars-
ened, gave place to gravel. Finally
water welled in, a stronger volume
than Cameron ever remembered find
ing on the desert.
The finding Of water revived Cam
eron's tagging hopes. But they were
short-lived Warren had spent him
self utterly.
'Tm done. Don't linger," he whis-
pered. "AIy son, go-goW
Then he fell Cameron dragged him
out of the sand pit to a sheltered
place under the ledge. While sitting
beside the failing man Cameron dis
covered painted images on the wall.
Often in the desert he had found these
evidences of prehistoric people.
Then, from long habit, he picked up
piece of rock and examined it. Its
weight made him closely scrutinize it.
The color was a peculiar black. He
scraped through the black rust, to
find a piece of gold. Around him lay
scattered heaps of black pebbles and
bits Of black, weathered rock and
pieces of broken ledge, and they
showed gold.
Warren! Look! See it! Feel it!
Goldr"
But Warren was too blind to see.
"Go-go!'' he whispered.
Cameron gazed down the gray
reaches Of that forlorn valley, and
something within him that was nei-
Their intelligence nor emotion some
thing inscrutably strange -impelled
him to promise.
Then Cameron built up stone manu-
ments to mark his gold strike. That
done, he tarried beside the uncon-
scious Warren. Moments passed
grew into hours Cameron still had
strength left to make an effort to get
out of the desert. But that same in
scrutable something which had or
dered his strange, involuntary promise
to Warren held him beside his fallen
comrade. AS the long hours wore on
he felt creep over him the comfort
ing sense that he need not forever
fight sleep. Absolut- silence claimed
the desert. 1t was mute. Then that
inscrutable something breathed to
him, telling him when he was alone.
He need not have looked at the dark.
still face beside him.
Another face haunted Cameron's-a
woman's face. 1t was there in the
white moonlit shadows; it drifted In
the darkness beyond; it softened,
changed to that of young girl, sweet,
her mother. Cameron prayed to that
nameless thing within him, the spirit
of something deep ana mystical as
life. He prayed f mercy to wom-