Free Max Brand by The Garden of Eden

easy,
but to persuade him through an interpreter made the affair impossible.
Struggling for a loophole of escape, he absentmindedly unsnapped from
his watch chain the little ivory talisman, the ape head, and commenced
to finger it. It had been his constant companion for years and in a
measure he connected his luck with it.
    "My friend," said Connor to Ephraim, "you see my position? But if I
can't do better is there any objection to my using this fire of yours
for cooking? The fire, at least, is outside the valley."
    Even this question Ephraim apparently did not feel qualified to answer.
He turned first to the gigantic mute and conversed with him at some
length; his own fluent signals were answered by single movements on the
part of Joseph, and Connor recognized the signs of dissent.
    "I have told him everything," said Ephraim, turning again to Connor and
shaking his head in sympathy. "And how Abra came to you, but though the
horse trusted you, Joseph does not wish you to stay. I am sorry."
    Connor looked through the gate into the darkness of the Garden of Eden;
at the entrance to his promised land he was to be turned back. In his
despair he opened his palm and looked down absently at the little
grinning ape head of ivory. Even while he was deep in thought he felt
the silence which settled over the three men, and when he looked up he
saw the glittering eyes of Joseph fixed upon the trinket. That instant
new hope came to Connor; he closed his hand over the ape head, and
turning to Ephraim he said:
    "Very well. If there's nothing else for me to do, I'll take the chance
of getting through the mountains with my lame nags."
    As he spoke he threw the reins over the neck of the chestnut; but before
he could put his foot in the stirrup Joseph was beside him and touched
his shoulder.
    "Wait!" said he, and the gambler paused with astonishment. The mask of
the mute which he had hitherto kept on his face now fell from it.
    "Let me see," the giant was saying, and held out his hand for the ivory
image.
    The pulse of Connor doubled its beat—but with his fingers still closed
he said:
    "The ivory head is an old companion of mine and has brought me a great
deal of luck."
    The torchlight changed in the eyes of Joseph as the sun glints and
glimmers on watered silk.
    "I would not hurt it," he said, and made a gingerly motion to show how
light and deft his fingers could be.
    "Very well," said Connor, "but I rarely let it out of my hand."
    He stepped closer to the firelight and exposed the little carving again.
It was a curious bit of work, with every detail nicely executed;
pinpoint emeralds were inset for eyes, the lips grinned back from tiny
fangs of gold, and the swelling neck suggested the powerful ape body of
the model. In the firelight the teeth and eyes flashed.
    Joseph grinned in sympathy. Ephraim and Jacob also had drawn close, and
the white man saw in the three faces one expression: they had become
children before a master, and when Connor placed the trinket in the
great paw of Joseph the other two flashed at him glances of envy. As for
the big man, he was transformed.
    "Speak truth," he said suddenly. "Why do you wish to enter the Garden?"
    "I've already told you, I think," said Connor. "It's to rest up until
the horse and mule are well again."
    The glance of the huge man, which had hitherto wandered from the trinket
to Connor's face, now steadied brightly upon the latter.
    "There must be another reason."
    Connor felt himself pressed to the wall.
    "Look at the thing you have in your hand, Joseph. You are asking
yourself: 'What is it? Who made it? See how the firelight glitters on
it—perhaps there is life in it!'"
    "Ah!" sighed the three in one breath.
    "Perhaps there is power in it. I have used it well and it has brought me
a great deal of good luck. But you would like to know all those things,
Joseph. Now look at the gate to the Garden!"
    He waved to the lofty and dark cleft before them.
    "It is like a face to me. People live behind