On the fourth day, after a long, fatiguing session with the vitals of a Ford that refused to be cranked, Casey was busy gathering brush, for his supper fire when Fate came walking up' the trail.-Fate appears in many forms.-In this instance it assumed the shape of a packed burro that poked its nose around a group of Joshuas, stopped abruptly and backed precipitately into another burro which swung out of the trail and went careening awkwardly down the slope.-The stampeding burro had not seen the Ford at all, but accepted the testimony of its leader that something was radically wrong with the trail ahead. His pack bumped against the yuccas as he went; after him lurched a large man, heavy to the point of fatness, yelling hoarse threats and incoherent objurgations.
Casey threw down his armful of dead brush and went after the lead burro which was blazing itself a trail in an entirely different direction.-The lead burro had four large canteens strapped outside its pack, and Casey was growing so short of water that he had begun to debate seriously the question of draining the radiator on the morrow.
I don't suppose many of you would believe the innate cussedness of a burro when it wants to be that way.-Casey hazed this one to the hills and back down the trail for half a mile before he rushed it into a clump of greasewood and sneaked up on it when it thought itself hidden from all mortal eyes.-After that he dug heels into the sand and hung on.-Memory resurrected for his need certain choice phrases coined in times of stress for the ears of burros alone.-Luxury and civilization and fifty-five thousand dollars and a wife were as if they had never been.-He was Casey Ryan, the prospector, fighting a stubborn donkey all over a desert slope. He led it conquered back to the Ford, tied it to a wheel and lifted off the four canteens, gratified with their weight and hoping there were more on the other burro.-He had quite forgotten that he had meant to lick the first man he saw, and grinned when the fat man came toiling back with the other animal.
By the time their coffee was boiled and their bacon fried, each one knew the other's past history and tentative plans for the future, censored and glossed somewhat by the teller but received without question or criticism.
The fat man's name was Barney Oakes, and he had heard of Casey Ryan and was glad to meet him.-Though Casey had never heard of Barney Oakes, he discovered that they both knew Bill Masters, the garage man at Lund; and further gossip revealed the amazing fact that Barney Oakes had once been the husband of the woman whom Casey had very nearly married, the widow who cooked for the Lucky Lode.
"Boy, you're sure lucky she turned loose on yuh before yuh went an' married her!"-Barney congratulated Casey, slapping his great thigh and laughing loudly.-"She shore is handy with her tongue--that old girl.-Ever hear a sawmill workin' overtime?
That's her--rippin' through knots an' never blowin' the whistle fer quittin' time. I never knowed a man could have as many faults as what she used t' name over fer me."-He drained his cup and sighed with great content.-"At that, I stayed with her seven months and fourteen days," he boasted.-"I admit, two of them months I was laid up with a busted ankle an' shoulder blade.
Tunnel caved in on me."
They talked late that night and were comrades, brothers, partners share and share alike before they slept.-Next morning Casey tried again to start the Ford; couldn't; and yielded to Barney's argument that burros were better than a car for prospectin' in that rough country.-They overhauled Casey's outfit, took all the grub and as much else as the burros could carry and debated seriously what point in the Panamints they should aim for.
"Where's that there Joshuay tree pointin' to?" Casey asked finally. "She's the biggest and oldest in the bunch, and ever since I've been here she's looked like she's got somethin' on 'er mind. Whadda yuh think, Barney?"
Barney walked around the yucca, stood behind the extended arm, squinted at the sharp-peaked butte with the black capping, toward which the gaunt tree seemed to point.-He spat out a stale quid of tobacco and took a fresh one, squinted again toward the butte and looked at Casey.
"She's country I never prospected in, back in there.-I've follered poorer advice than a Joshuay.-Le's try it a whirl."
Thus it came to pass that Casey Ryan forsook his Ford for a strange partner with two burros and a clouded past, and fared forth across the barren foothills with no better guidance than the rigid, outstretched limb of a great, gaunt Joshua tree.
