“The whole place looked like she was belched up out of the bottom of hell.”

The cracked earth of Death Valley was the stage upon which a life-and-death wager was made, according to an article in the October 2, 1909 New York Times. The story:

“Greenwater, Cal.–David Eldridge, son of B. Eldridge, President of the National Sewing Machine and Bicycle Company of Illinois, is believed to have perished in Death Valley. A ‘desert rat,’ known as Malapais Mike says that Mr. Eldridge and he were lost in the Valley two weeks ago. Mike reached Greenwater Monday in a delirious condition. To-day, when able to talk, he said he and Mr. Eldridge tossed a coin to see which should take the burro and one of the five quarts of water. Mike won the burro and escaped.

The men went forty miles across Death Valley a month ago to investigate a proposed power site for a Boston company. On the return trip one of the burros gave out. The possession of the remaining beast was the issue upon which the two men staked their lives when they realized that both could not escape.

Mike is still barely able to talk, and told his story between long lapses into silence.

‘We was lost down there,’ he said, ‘and the whole place looked like she was belched up out of the bottom of hell. At night time there was always a blanket of mist and steam, but in the day time it was all sun and sand, and we were so thirsty we could hardly talk. Poor Dave just squeaked all the time, and at last he could only whisper. Finally his burro gave out.

‘I don’t know how many days we tried to find our way out, and I saw we were both going to die if something did not happen. One night I lay on my face in the sand, and I felt Dave’s boot touching mine. He whispered: ‘It’s time to get up and try to find the trail before it’s too hot.’ I had got so I did not care what happened, and I says, ‘I’ve got enough.’ So then Dave says, ‘We’ll toss to see which one gets the burro.’

‘I got up on all fours and watched him throw up a dollar and says, ‘I’ll take heads.’ Dave struck a match and she was heads. ‘I’ll give you four quarts of water,’ I says, ‘and I’ll take one and that’ll make it about even.’

‘We split up the water and I crawled on the burro just about sun up and started off. The second day the burro gave out and I had to make it alone. I don’t think Dave got the worst of it, because he got four quarts of water and I only got one, and I had to walk most of the way.'”