A Face haunted Cameron — a woman's face. It was there in the white heart of the dying campfire; 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 in which Cameron's mind was thronged with memories of a time long past — of a home back in Peoria, of a woman he had wronged and lost, and loved too late. He was a prospector for gold, a hunter of solitude, a lover of the drear, rock-ribbed infinitude, because he wanted to be alone to remember. A sound disturbed Cameron's reflections. He bent his head listening. A soft wind fanned the paling embers, blew sparks and white ashes and thin smoke away into the enshrouding circle of blackness. His burro did not appear to be moving about. The quiet split to the cry of a coyote. It rose strange, wild, mournful — not the howl of a prowling upland beast baying the campfire or barking at a lonely prospector, but the wail of a wolf, full-voiced, crying out the meaning of the desert and the night. Hunger throbbed in it — hunger for a mate, for offspring, for life. When it ceased, the terrible desert silence smote Cameron, and the cry echoed in his soul. He and that wandering wolf were brothers. Then a sharp clink of metal on stone and soft pads of hoofs in sand prompted Cameron to reach for his gun, and to move out of the light of the waning campfire. He was somewhere along the wild border line between Sonora and Arizona; and the prospector who dared the heat and barrenness of that region risked other dangers sometimes as menacing. Figures darker than the gloom approached and took shape, and in the light turned out to be those of a white man and a heavily packed burro. “Hello there,” the man called, as he came to a halt and gazed about him. “I saw your fire. May I make camp here?” Cameron came forth out of the shadow and greeted his visitor, whom he took for a prospector like himself. Cameron resented the breaking of his lonely campfire vigil, but he respected the law of the desert. The stranger thanked him, and then slipped the pack from his burro. Then he rolled out his pack and began preparations for a meal. His movements were slow and methodical. Cameron watched him, still with resentment, yet with a curious and growing interest. The campfire burst into a bright blaze, and by its light Cameron saw a man whose gray hair somehow did not seem to make him old, and whose stooped shoulders did not detract from an impression of rugged strength. “Find any mineral?” asked Cameron, presently. His visitor looked up quickly, as if startled by the sound of a human voice. He replied, and then the two men talked a little. But the stranger evidently preferred silence. Cameron understood that. He laughed grimly and bent a keener gaze upon the furrowed, shadowy face. 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 subtle affinity, vague and undefined, 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 it was akin to pain...FROM THEBOOKS

Expanded and updated edition of a classic best-seller. Desert gold locations in Nevada, New Mexico and Utah have been added. Locations in California and Arizona have been updated. New maps make locating areas easy. Chapter on nugget shooting details recent changes.

Richard Gale is a young man who wants to prove his father wrong. He decides to seek new chances in the border town Casita. However he suddenly finds himself in trouble by stepping in to help an old friend, George Thorne, who is striving to rescue his fiancée Mercedes from the local Mexican bandit Rojas. Will Gale manage to escape from the danger he finds himself in? Will he meet the real love during this rescue mission? Zane Grey’s "Desert Gold" is a Western novel from 1913 which successfully combines adventures and romance, dangers and courage. Pearl Zane Grey was an American author born in 1872. He is best known with his adventure novels which idealize the American frontier and which largely created a new genre called western. The novel "Riders of the Purple Sage", published in 1912, earned Grey wide popularity. The book turned to the author’s all-time-best seller and also one of the most successful Western novels. Zane Grey wrote more than 80 books which later inspired many Western writers who followed in Zane Grey’s footsteps.

Issued in conjunction with the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time, held January 26, 2019-July 21, 2019, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Rather than lose the favors of the beautiful Mercedes to the gringo Texas Ranger, the bandit Rojas vows to kill her. With the help of the Ranger's friend, Mercedes escapes into the desert -- but Rojas and his band of cutthroats are close behind.

As outlaw Jake Leach lies dying in a deserted cave, he writes a desperate letter to his brother, Tom, a US Marshal. Jake has double-crossed his boss, the violent and vindictive Quirt Evans, stealing eighty thousand dollars worth of government-owned gold coins from his own outlaw gang in hopes of redemption. By the time Tom Leach receives Jakes letter, Jake is dead; however, the outlaw left clues that will lead Tom to the stashed gold coins. Jakes final request is for Tom to return the coins to their rightful owner. Maybe then his soul can rest in peace. Tom has his hands full, though, keeping the peace as greedy marauders threaten new settlers in untamed land. In order to discover Jakes lost gold, Tom must fight his way through outlaws on the wild frontier. As Jakes clues become more convoluted and Quirts gang moves closer, Tom is forced to forget his lawman ways and act the outlaw himself. Otherwise, hell end up dead like Jake, and his brothers last indiscretion will linger in eternity.

Western stories. In a rowdy Mexican town, Dick Gale helps an old friend save a beautiful Spanish girl from the ruthless bandit who had killed her father and sworn to take her honor. This western classic captures the grandeur of the true Old West as only Zane Grey can.