Evening star., 1928-08-05

us. the floor of the world was like
mercury shaken slightly. pulsing, SHIN
mering A coyote howled-far off--a
thin heart-wavcring quaver
That night ghosts Of adventures
stalked in my sleep.
Morning! On to Barstow and
Needlesl An endless blaze of sand and
copper sky. All the long way We
whiried past the wrecks of auto cars
ieralects of the desert, some of them
int heapS of blaokened iron and steel
Here and there lay the bleaching, yell
| low bones of animals that had per-
| ished. The Journey was one long glar-
/ ing texture--an fntoleranle spangleo
| fare Long, throat-parching hours at
| the wheel alternated with nights OF in
candescent glory; dawns Of cool purple
| delight. followed by the ruthless surge
of the molten sun-dis& above the
| jagged horizon.
And always the mystery! The TN
known! The great Silence! The i'm
minence of Deathl Fer Death Is the
Caliban of these regions, though he
takes on the alluri,1g, precious aspects
of Ariel--thc fer vista. with Its glitter
and simmer and waves of heat; the
LIQUID miraecS, the tooth-like, rocky
buttes. hold forth terrible fascination
a SeductivenesS. lyric fierceness. This
was the country we were to face.
South Of Needles the read swings into
Arizona across the Colorado River, 60
miles would see us In Alamo. hundred
in Wenden.
At times our path was but sn croded,
slanting shelf. clinging TO the side of
the cliff, where skid Of the wheels
would have plunged us hundreds OF
feet Once We drove down a storm
eaten track to the bed of a canyon, full
into sandy wash, and stuck deep!
The car would not bulge.
We dug trenches and tried fiinging
down stones, then gunny sacks, even
coat, Sacks and coat were torn to
shreds. One of us handled the wheel;
the other put his shoulder to the ma
chine. Nothing happened. The heat
was overpowering After each effort
we sat down to mop our faces and
gather energy for another try. Our
racing engine burned up gasoline faster
than Michael O'Shauglnessy could
drink whisky. The sand ate through
our new tires as though they were of
tiSsue-paper. We worked feverishlp.
But the wheels wouldn't budge-not an
inch.
Our expedition promised to be a
fizxle. The cache of gold in Sonora
became remote. probably unattainable
Failure fiouted us. The heat stripped
our nerves raw. My brother and I be-
gan ouarreling viciously. For two
hours we worked ike demons. and then
"a tiny change of angle, few inches
gained Renewed hopel We per-
severed. Wheels spinning, inch by
inch we crawled out of the wash and
landed with rattle Of tenders on
rocker ground,
We now followed the trackless river
bottom. keeping on the rocks and
avoiding the sand Our water gave clS.
Our gasoline was perilously low, one
down at the wheels. We couldn't hold
continually drawn to our thirst, we
drove on and on, alternating frequently
at the wheel
A BOUT o'clock We spied group of
low mine buildings on fat shoul-
der Of hin. and, far beyond, a sweeping
desert mesa fading into dim blue noun
tains. We whirled down in cloud of
acrid dust before the yellow, screened
In meSsaouse
Water! We drank the well dry, dip
per after dipper of cool water The
cook invited us in. He heaped our
crockery plates with cold meats and
enormous slices of greenfield cake--a
most venomouS green. He dragged
about the kitchen in his drawers and
undershirt a mammoth weiter of slug
giSh fieSf--a gross. puffed body fat
arms batting at the flies, thick as raj
sins in custard He kept saying over
and over to himself, Hot as birthstone
and chilli, hot as birthstone and chilli"