Desert Gold

"Desert Gold" by Zane Grey is a story in the early 1900s where people are trying to survive that looks at love, regret, and making it in tough desert conditions, and it shows how the characters are all connected because of what happened before. Key people in the story are Cameron, a gold seeker who can't forget a past romance, and Warren, an older gold seeker with a link to Cameron because of something sad that relates to a woman called Nell. When the story starts, gold seeker Cameron is all alone in the desert until he meets Warren, another gold seeker, and they become friends. While they are in the hard desert, we learn that Cameron feels bad about a woman he hurt and Warren is sad about his daughter. As they become closer through what they've both been through, their lives end up deeply connected in an unexpected way, and they realize that they're looking for more than just gold; they're hoping to feel better about their bad choices and understand things in the lonely desert.