The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-08-21

I powered car that he had bought in Ell
PasO. 1t was below the wiHdow in the
old courtyard with the crumbling
adobe wall.
| Hello" he had said, looking up.
"You just missed seeing the popula-
tion of this town. The entire ten were
here. They don't know we're going to
| strike into the desert instead of going
eastward"
He had held up his fingers to count
on them ''We're all provisioned now
from the general store-gasoline
cans, water in demijohns, matches,
canned beans and other things, bot
tie of olives, guaranteed very old, and
one paper napkin. l say-why do you
ever do your hair up at all? It's rather
wonderful. falling all around Like
that"
| II didn't take 1t down."
| "No, did. / ran it through my fin
gers like miser with his gold-and
his untarnished copper threads. If
miser has them too. Why not braid
1t? We're going where there are no
fashions,N Brena."
Today"
| Tonight. There1l be a white moon
as big as a plate for hours. Wen make
a hundred miles at least through the
depression that runs along the bed Of
some prehistoric torrent to the north
| west. Thanks to old Father Carlos,
the hard-headed Jesuit, it's on the
map. Easy to follow"
| When the purple crepe Of evening
had been spread over the baking sands
and the stars had been set out in their
infinite careless pattern in the high
desert sky, the car, with opened muf-
fler, turned her nose out of the trail
that followed the line of the railroad
and began to kick the sand behind as
| if she were hound. 1t was as IL she
were leaving forever the sight and
memory of mankind.
This country is without mercy to
! living things. After thirty miles of
| hard pulling through the bare loose
surfaced plain, tossed gently about as
| if they were riding in motorbOat
over the long rollers of the sea, they
saw before them on the crest of a sand
wave running pack of coyotes, who
came up suddenly, black against the
moonlight like dog fish lifted into sight
on a wave. But after that all vegeta-
| ton and even the cacti which stood
like trained seals, their fiappers held
out as if ready to begin a dance. be-
came sparse, and the emptiness was
that of the frontier of death itself.
Peter turned to look at Brena. Her
face, illumined by the moon, was lifted
little; with the hair blown back by
the hot wind, her eyes glistened like
those of one who rides toward battle
in calm spirit She felt, perhaps, his
gaze, and, turning, smiled She won
dered why he had been unwilling to
tell her why they went, what he
sought, the facts he had found
"Will you tell -afterward?" she
asked
"Yes-if I VIM" he answered 81
will tell you then. Before that I've no
particular right to do it--not till I'm
sure. The thing is too tremendous!"
When the moon had reached the
bottom of the bowl of the sky, De-
Wolfe looked again at his speedom-
eter.
did you notice that our search.
light no longer picks up little insects
and turns them into flashes of silver?"
| he asked.
Yes
| He stopped the car to fill the radia
] tor.
1--WE are coming into the most arid
land in the world, where no rain falls
and there is no dew. 1t is the country
of eternal stiffness. There is no life
not even the insects exist here. There
is no motion. There is no sound.
Listen -"
| Brena looked about at the great fiat
disk of the desert as she stood with
her hand on Peters shoulder; it was
| like a world of hardened concrete,
without fleXibility. without a motion
She listened and heard only her heart
and the throb of silence that comes
only in places of utter stiffness.
I'm glad I'm with you. Peter" she
said. There is threat here, isn't
there?"
He nodded. We've been seventy
| five miles. To man on foot without
water that would be death--a horrible
| death with the sand dragging at the
feet-just like the flies one sees trying
to pull their legs along fly paper, with
the heat burning all moisture out of
the body, with the silence and the
stiffness inviting him to madness, and
his aching limbs gradually turning his
footpath around and around in smaller
| circles to a center of DEATH"
Peter had driven his car over the
great fiat disk. SCARED with irregu-
larity, but nevertheless like talking
machine record with its tiny impress
sions The hours had called for en-
durance of smarting eyes that had
stared so long for gullies or chasms,
| and of aching arm muscles that had
held the twists and tugs of the front
wheels. He allowed the car to come
to a stop and shut off the engine.
Both of US need rest and water"
he said to Brena. And you need
breakfast"
(To BE CoNTINUED)
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