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DESER DDrtt nriiic I A face haunted Cameron?a woman s face. It was there In the white heart of the dying cnmpflre; it hung In the shadows that hovered over the flickering light; It drifted in the "darkness beyond. * This hour, when the day had closed and the lonely desert night set in with its dead silence, was one lh which Cameron's mind was thronged with memories of a time long past?of a home back In Peoria, ot a woman h? had wronged and lost, and loved toe late. He was a prospector for gold a hunter of solitude, a lover of tb< dread, rock-ribbed infinitude, because he wanted to be alone to remember. Then a sharp clink of metal or Stone and soft pads of hoofs in sane prompted Cameron to reach fqj hit - a -M iU- 1fct-l.A* gun, ana 10 move out vi ine uim uj the waning campfire> ? Figures darker than the pobnr ap proached and took shape, and in th? light turned out to be those of a white man and a heavily packed tftlrra"Hello there," the man jcaJJBd, at he came to a halt and gaj^d^about him. "I saw your fire. May, I'make camp here?" " i jMJB Cameron came forth out of the shadow and greeted his visitor,-whom he took for a prospector like^ hyyself Cameron resented" the breakla^ lite lonely carapfire vigil, but he fl?peeted the law of the desert. , \ The stranger thanked hlm,"atid then slipped the pack from Ills' biirro. Then he rolled out his pack jpflj&egaii preparations for a meal. Ithe camp fire Durst into a Dngnt Diaze, anu uy its light Cameron saw a ttian tyliose gray hair somehow did not'sbem to make him old, and whope, stocked , shoulders did not detract frolu an Impression of rugged strength.^ 1 Another of those strange desert prospectors in whom there was some relentless driving power besides the lust for gold! Cameron felt that between this man and himself there was a subtje affinity, vague and-iupjlgficed, perhaps born of the divination ^that here was a desert wanderer'like'himself, perhaps born of a deeper, an unintelligible relation having its roots back in the past. A long-forgotten sensation stirred in Cameron's breast, one so long forgotten that he could not recognize it. But Jt was akin tc pain. . f II When he awakened he found, to his onxr.vieo +1iut life onmnonlnn' >io<l rlo. parted. A trail In the sand led .tjff.ta the north. There was no water In that direction. Cameron shrugged his shoulders; it was not his affair; he had lUs own problems. And; straightway he forgot his strange visitor. Cameron began his day, grateful fox the solitude that was now unbroken, for the canon-furrowed, cactus-spired scene that now showed no sign of life. While it was yet light, and he was digging In a moist white-bordered wash for water, he was brought sharply up by hearing the crack of hard hoofs on stone. There down the canon came a man on a burro. Cameron recognized them. "Hello, friend," culled the man, halt lng. "Our trails crossed again?that's good." ' "Hello," replied Cameron slowly. "Any mineral sign today?" t 9 "No." They made camp together, ate their frugal meal, smoked a pipe, and rolled in their blankets without exchanging many words. In the morning the same ? reticence, the same aloofness characterized the manner of both. But Cameron's companion, when he had packed his burro and was ready to start, faced bout and said: "We might sru.fc together, if it's all right with you.' "I never take a partner" replied Cameron. t "You're alone; I'm alone," said the other mildly. "It's a big place. , If we flud gold there'll be enough for two." > "I don't go down into the desert for gold alone," rejoined Cameron. His companion's deep-set, luminous eyes emitted a singular tkutl). , jlt moved Cameron to say that in the years of his wandering he had met no man who could endure equally with him the blasting heat, the blinding 1 dust storms, the wilderness of sand and rock and lava and cactus, the terrible silence and desolation -of- the desert. "I may strike through the Sonora desert. I may head for.Pimicate or north for the Colorado bpsln. You are an old man." "I don't know the country, but to mo one place is the same as another,'* replied his companion. Then with gentle slaps he drove his burtfo in hehind Cameron. "Yes, I'm old." Km. > lonely, too. It's come to me just lately,-.-But, friend, I '.an st|II travel, and for a few days my company won't hurt you." * \ yxv-fv -V < "Have it your way," said Cameron. They began a slow march down into the desert. At sunset they camped under the lee of a low mesa^ Cam- , T GOLD INE GREY Riders of the Purple Sage. j \*?ldfire, Etc. ,, ?1 ^sW Illustrations by ? Irwin Myers > BROTHERS. I AM<\n "'AO AfnH f?lo AAmi<n j7a t\n/i fh a j C1U11 ? llld V.UIIJ I UUV liUU UIU i Indian habit of sileuce. Another day's| travel found the prospectors deep in the wilderness. Then there came a breaking of reserve, noticeable in tbe ! elder man, almost Imperceptibly gradual in Cameron. And so, as Cameron | began to respond to the influence of ! a desert less lonely than habitual, he 1 began to te'*e keener note of his comrade, and found him different from any other lie had ever encountered in ! the wilderness. This man never j grumbled at the heat, the glare, the drhing sand, the sour water, the scant fare. He was tireless, patient, brooding. Cameron's awakened Interest brought home to him the realization that for | years he had Shunned companionship. 1 Irf those'years only three -men had wandered into the desert with him, and these had left thpir bones to bjeach in the shifting sands. Caaneron j had mot cared to know their secrets. I But the more he studied this latest comrade the more he began to suspect that he might have missed something j in the others. In his own driving passion to take his secret into the limitless abode of silence and desolation, where he could be alone with it. he i had forgotten that life dealt shocks to J other men. Somehow this silent comrade reminded him. Ons nftornrwin Into nftor thov tin/1 tolled up a white, winding wash of and and gravel, they came upon a dry waterhole. Cameron dug deep Into the sand, but without avail He was turning to retrace weary steps back to the last water when his comrade asked him to wait. Cameron watched him search In his pack and bring forth what appeared to be a 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, at first amused, then i amazed, then pitying, and at last cui rions, kept pace with the prospector. He saw a strong tension of his comrade's wrists, as if he wns holding hard against a considerable force. The | end of the peach braiich began to quiver and turn, Kept turning, anu hi . length pointed to the ground. "Dig here," said the prospector. "What!" ejaculated Cameron. Had j the man lost his mind? ! Then Cameron stood by while his ' comrade dug In the sanrt.' Three feet | he dug?four?five, and the sand grew dark, then moist. At six feet water began to seep through. >._v"Gpt. the little basket in my pack," he said. ^ Cameron complied, and saw his comrade drop the basket Into the deep hole, where it kept the sides from caving In and allowed the wa,ter to seep through. While Cameron watched, the basket filled. Of all t..e strange Incidents of his desert career this was the strangest. Curiously he picked up the peach branch and held it as he ! had seen it held. The thing, how ever, was. (lead In Ids hands. "I see you haven't got It," remarked his comrade. "Few men have. Back In Illinois an old German used to do that lo locate wells. He showed me I had the same power. I cqn't explain. The old German I spoke of made money traveling round with his peach fork." "What a gift for a man in the desert !" Cameron's comrade smiled?the second time in all those days. They entered a region where mineral abounded, and their march became slower. Generally they took the i course of a wash, one on each side, and let the burros travel leisurely 1 along nipping at the bleached blades 1 of scant grass, or at sage or cactus, while they searchcUl^the canons and under the ledges for ^rns of gold. Each succeeding day and night Cameron felt himself more and more 1 drawn to this strange man. He found fh?t nffur hntirc nf h?irr>ln<? triil hp hurt Insensibly grown nearer to his com- r rade. He reflected that after a few weefcs In the desert he had always become a different man. In civilization, in the rough mining camps, he had been a prey to unrest and gloom. But once down on the great billowing sweep of this lonely world, he could look into his unquiet soul without bitterness. So now he did not marvel at a slow stir stealing warmer along his veins, and at the premonition that perhaps he and this man. alone on the desert, driven there by life's mysterious and remorseless motive, were to see each other through God's eyes. One night fliey 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 to interest he had .^ot^lieretofote vojce'd. "Pardnor, what drives you into the desert? Do yod come to forget?" * | "Yes." "Ah!" softly exclaimed Cameron. Always he seemed to have known that. | H<> s"bl no_ more, but grew, acutely 1 conscious of ffie pang fn life own j breast, of the fire In life heart, the strife and torment of his passiondriven soul. He had home Into the desert to remember a woman. She appeared to him then as 9he had looked when first she entered life life ?a golden-haired girl, blue-eyed, white-skinned, red-lipped, tall and slender and beautiful. He had never1 forgotten, and an old, sickening remorse knocked at his heart. He rose and climbed out of the canon and to the top of the mesa, where he pacpd to and fro and looked down Into the weird and mystic shadows. like the darkness of his passion, find farther on down the moon track and the glittering stretches that vanished In the cold bine horizon. In rhnt endless, silent liall of desert there was a spirit; and Cameron felt hovering near him what he imagined to be phantoms of peace.. He returned to camp and sought h!s comrade. % "I reckon we're two of a kind," he said. "It was a woman who drove me . into the desert. But I come to re-1 member. The desert's the only place I can do that." "Was she your* wife?" asked the elder man. "No." A long silence ensued. The campfire wore down to a ruddy ashen heap. "I had a daughter," said Cameron's comrade. "She lost her mother at birth. And I?I didn't know how to bring up a girl. She was pretty and gay. It was the?the old story." His words were peculiarly significant to Camercn. They distressed hiin. He had been wrapped up in his remorse. If ever in the past he had thought of anyone connected with the girl he had wronged, he had long forgotten. But the consequences of such wrong were far-reaching. They struck at the roots of a home. "Well, tell rae more?" asked Cameron earnestly. "It was the old, old story. My girl was pretty and free. The young bucks ran after her. I guess she did not run away from them. And I was away a good deal?working In another town. She was in love wl^h a wild fellow. I knew nothing of It till too late. He was engaged to marry her. But he didn't come back. And when the disgrace became plain to all, my girl left home. She wen. west. After a while I heard from her. She was wellworking?living for her baby. A long time passed. I had no ties. I drifted ; west. Her lover had also gone west. In those days everybody went west. I trailed him, Intending to kill him. But I lost his trail. Neither could I find any tynce of her. She moved on, driven, no doubt, by the hound of her past. Since that I have taken to the wilds, minting gold on tne aesen. "Yes, It's the old, old story, only Sadder, I think," said Cameron; and his voice wus strained and unnatural. "Pardner, what Illinois town was It you hailed from?" "Peoria." "And your?your name?" went on Cameron, huskily. "Warren?Jonas Warren." That Dame might as well have been a bullet. Cameron stood erect, motionless. as men sometimes stand momentarily when shot straight through the heart. In an Instant, when | thoughts rcsurged like blinding flashes i of lightning through his mind, he was a swaying, quivering, terror-stricken man. He mumbled something hoarse- ; ly and backed into the shadow. But he need not have feared discovery, I however surely his agitation might have betrayed him. Warren sat brooding nvnr thn enmnfirp nhllvlmis nf llis O " v* -J- . comrade,- absorbed in thp post. Cameron swiftly walked away in 1 the gloom, with the blood thrumming ' thick in his ears, whispering over and j over: "Merciful G?d! Nell was his daughter!" Ill As thought and feeling multiplied, Cameron was overwhelmed. Beyond j belief, indeed, was it that out of the i millions of men in the world two who | had never seen each other could have j been driven into the desert by memory of the same woman. It brought the j past so close. It showed Cameron I how inevitably all Ids spiritual life was governed by what had happened ! long ngo. Thnt which made life slg- ! nificant to him was a wandering in silent pluces where no eye could see him with his secret. Some fateful chance had thrown him with the fn- j ther of the girl he had wrecked. It J was Incomprehensible; It was terrible, i It was the one thing of all possible ! happenings in the world of chance that both father and lover would have found unendurable. ' Something within him cried offt to him to reveal his Identity. Warren | would kill him; but It was not fear of rinmAWAK /? % ?1?A f.W.L ucuui iiiai |JUL ^uujui vn un uic ?av?. He ha?l faced death too often to be afraid. It was the thought of adding torture to this long-suffering man. All at once Cameron swore that he would not augment Warren's trouble, or let him .stain his hands with blood. He would tell the truth of Nell's sad story and tils own, and make what amends he could: ' , Then Cameron's thought shifted from father to daughter. She was somewhere beyond the dim horizon line. In those past lonely hours by the enmpfire his fancy had tortured him with pictures of Nell. But his remorseful and cruel fancy had lied 1 to him. Nell had struggled upward ' out of menacing depths. She had re constructed a broken life. And now f she was fighting for the name and < happiness of her child. Little Nell! ': Cameron experienced a shuddering i ripple in all his being?the physical rack of an emotion born' of <a new and t strange consciousness. He felt that ] it had been given him to help Warren with his burden. I He returned to camp trying to evolve a plan. All night he lay I < awake thinking.. |t In tlie morning, when Warren brought the burros to camp and began preparations for the usual packing, Cameron broke silence. "Pardner, your story Inst night made me think. I want to tell you something about myself. In my younger flays?It seems long now, yet It's not so many years?I was wild. I wronged the sweetest and loveliest girl I ever knew. I went nwav not dreaming that j any disgrace might come to her. Along about that time I fell Into terrible moods?I changed?I learned I really loved her. Thon cnhie a letter I should have gotten months before. It told of her trouble?importuned me Jto hurry to save her. Half frantic with shame and fear, I got a marriage certificate and rushed ,back to her town. She was gone?had been gone for weeks, and her disgrace was known. Friends warned' me to keep ont of roach of lier father. I trailed her? found her. I married her. But too late! . . . She would- not live with me. She left me?I followed her west, hut never found her." Warren leaned forward a little and looked into Cameron's eyes, as If searching there for the repentance that might make him less deserving of a man's scorn. * Cameron met the gaze unflinchingly, and again began to speak: "Tou know, of course, how men out here sometimes lose old names, old Identities. It won't surprise you much to learn my name isn't really Cameron, ns I once told you." Warren stiffened upright. It seemed that there might have been a blank, a suspension! between his grave Interest and some strange mood to come. Cameron felt his heart bulge and contract In his breast; all his body grew cold: and It took tremendous effort for hlui to make his Hps form words. "Warren, I'm the man you're hunting. I'm Burton. I Was Nell's lover 1" The old man rose and towered over Cameron, and then plunged down upon him, and clutched lil9 throat with terrible, stifling hands. The harsh contact, the pain awakened Cameron to his peril before ft was too late. Desperate fljihtlng saved him from being hurled to the ground and stamped and crushed. Warren seemed a maddened giant. There wag a reeling, swaying, wrestling struggle before the elder man began to weaken. Then Cameron, bnffeted, 1 bloody, half-stunned, panted for speech. "Warren?hold on! Give me?a minute. I married Nell. Didn't you know that? . . . I saved the child!" Cameron felt the shock that vibrated through Warren. Hty repeated the words again and agaip. As if compelled by some resisttesa power, Warren released Cameron,Iland, staggering back, stood with uplifted, shaking hands. In his face -jvgs- a horrible darkness; n-, "Warren! Wait?listed!" panted Cameron. "I've got. that marriuge "Warren ? Hold On! Give We ? Minute?I Married Nell?Didn't You Know That?" / ? certificate?I've had it by me all these years. I kept It?to prove to myself I did right." The pld man uttered a broken cry. Cameron stole off among the rocks. How long he absented himself or what he did he had no idea. When he returned Warren was sitting before the campflre, and once more be ap* I pea red composed. He spoke, and his ' voice had a deeper note; but other- 1 wise be seemed as usual. They packed the burros and faced the north together. Cameron experienced a singular exaltation. He had lightened his comrade's burden. Wonderfully it cutne to him that he hacl also lightened his j own. From that hour It was not torment to think of Nell. (To Be Continued). NEED MORE SERGEANTS. War Secretary Declares Non-Coms Not Given Consideration. Amendment of the national defen." i tin* nnml.nr .>t* Si'l'. ! " "" 'v" I jeants in the army has been asked b> ! Secretary Weeks, it was announced fiently, in order that about 1,600 non ommissioncd officers assigned as inilructors to the national guard, organized reserves and training coips ! jnits will not have to be cut in rank j mil pa.? due to progressive reductions 11 the :pmy. "In reducing the enlisted strength of .' :he army first to 175,000 men. then to 150,000, and again to rjo.ooo." the itatement said, "consideration wasn't I jiven to the non-commissioned officers ind the important work which he is ?xpected to do in the scheme of naionul defense. With an enlisted - . . . ... strength authorized at only 125,000, the original percentages fixed in law for the various grades of non-commissioned officers are found totally inadequate. Hundreds of such non-commissioned officers are scheduled for duty with organizations of the national guard, the organized reserves and at reserve officer training corps units. Pay Not Sufficient. "Under the original terms of the national defense act these men would have been available and could have gone to their duty with sufficient rank and pay to enable them to live in Civilian communities in a way creditable. to- themselves and the work- in which engaged; but now these men find themselves forced into a lower < l t. , . THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA -? County of York. Court of Common Pleas. Noah Banks and Thomas Burt, Plaintiffs, Against Burt Newton, Sylvia Newton, Adeline Newton and Alfred Newton, Defendants.?Summons for Relief?(Complaint Not Served.) To the Defendants, Burt Newton, Sylvia Newton, Adaline Newton and Alfred Newton, VOU are hereby Summoned and required to answer the complaint in this action, which is filed in the Office of the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for the said County, and to serve a copy, of your answer to the said complaint on the subscriber at his office in the Moore Building, Main Street, York, South Carolina, within tweqty nays after the service thereof, exclusive of the day of such service; and if you fail to answer the complaint within the time aforesaid, the plaintiff in this action will apply to the Cpurt for the relief demanded in the complaint. Dated, York, 3. C., Oct, 12. A. D.. 1922. J. S. BRICK. Plaintiffs' Attorney. NOTICE. To the Absent Defendants, Burt Newton, Sylvia Newton, Adp'lne Newton and Alfred Newton. Please take notice that the Summons in this action of which the foregoing1 is a copy, topretl jr with the Complaint herein wore filed in Office of Clerk of Court of Common Pleas for County and State aforesaid at York Court House, in York. South Carolina, 12th day of October, 1922, J. S. BRICE, Plaintiffs' Attorney. NOTICE, To Burt Newton, Sylvia Newton and Adaline Newton, minor Defendants above the ape of fourteen years: Please take notice that unless you .' hall in the meantime procure an appointment of Guardian Ad. Litem to represent you in this cause the plaintifirs will on the 20th day after seivice of this notice upon you. exclusive of rhe dny of such service, at ten o'clock in the forenoon of said day, apply to T. E. McMackin, Clerk Of Court of Common Picas, at his office In York Court House, York. 9. C.. for an order appointing some suitable person Guardian Ad. Litem for you, the said minor defendants. and instructing said Guardian When appointed to appear and defend th? action in their behalf. Dated. York. S. C.. Oct. 12. A. D.. 1922. J. S BRICE, Plaintiffs' Attorney. 82 f 3t DO YOU FIGURE On PaintingRemodeling, or? Building ? IF SO \ We are confident it will pay YOU to figure with US. W. L. WALLACE CONTRACTOR AND BUILDING 8UPPLIES Office In Sharer Building, Opposite Sherer & Quinn's Store. PROFESSIONAL CARDS Dr. C. L. WOOTEN -DENTISTOFFICE OVER THE POSTOFFICE Telephones Office, 128; Residence, 93 CLOVER, - - S. C. 71 -1 t. f. 6m J. S. BRICE Attorney At Law Prompt Attention to nil L?eifa. tnslr.es:? of Whnt"Y?>r Mature Office on Mair, Street in the Moore Building, First Floor, formerly occupied by S. E. Spencer. J. A. Marion W. G. Finley MARION AND FINLEY STTOBNFYS AT LAW Office opposite the Courthouse. Pl-one 126. YORK.S. C. YORK FURNITURE CO. Undertakers ? 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