Page:Weird Tales Volume 5 Number 4 (1925-04).djvu/114

I HAD been told by a more experienced officer than myself that only a fool would attempt the passage of Neiba Desert after 10 o'clock in the morning. No white man, afoot, could bear up under the terrible heat, and there are few Dominican mules that can carry with ease a bulk as great as mine. Neiba Desert, in the heart of the tropics, is a hundred feet below the level of the sea.

But what youngster ever listened to the advice of his elders? I never had, and because I did not in this instance, I qualified for the first rank among fools.

We, a tenderfoot pharmacist's mate and myself, left Barahona at 5 o'clock in the morning, intent on reaching Las Salinas in time to make the crossing in the cool of the morning. We rode a pair of Dominican mules that were too small for us. But, even so, we should have made it, had we not tarried overlong in Cabral to listen to the raucous cries of the natives in the marketplace—until it was 8 o'clock by the sun.

We pulled out finally, after breakfasting on Dominican coffee, which is nectar fit for the gods after one has acquired the taste for it. We reached the branching of the road at about 9, and it was 10 o'clock exactly when we gave the mules their last chance at water just Neibaward from Las Salinas. We filled our canteens there, after which we gave our mounts a breathing space ere we struck out through the thorn-tree studded waste of sand.

I shall never forget that momentous first glance toward Neiba. Just behind us to the south were the broad reaches of the Bahoruco mountains, while away ahead we could see the blue outline of the distant Cordilleras. We could not see the town of Neiba because of the fringe of palm-trees which hide her from view, even as they disclose her whereabouts. Even at that distance, which must, have been very great, we could see that the palm-trees bowed and beckoned to us, as if they urged us ahead with promises of hospitality upon arrival.

We started blithely on our way. My companion was a pharmacist's mate in Uncle Sam's navy, and we talked of some of his queer experiences in hospital wards during the war, I remember. This was during the first hour, only, of the crossing. There was a dim trail through the sand, and

the dust came up in clouds, filling our