I'm trying to recall the title of an old (~100 years old) American
novel.  It may have been a mystery.  I believe that the title had only
one word: the protagonist's last name, which began with M.

If memory serves, the novel ends with the protagonist stranded in the
middle of the desert, chained to his enemy.

Hello.

The book was McTeague (1899) by Frank Norris.  It's available free
online:
http://www.classicreader.com/booktoc.php/sid.1/bookid.629/

According to the end of the book, the pair were actually handcuffed
together in the desert.  See Chapter 22:
http://www.classicreader.com/read.php/sid.1/bookid.629/sec.22/

If you want a paper copy, try Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0451528913/

Apparently, a movie called "Greed" was based on the film:
http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=106921

search strategy:
google groups:
"chained together", desert, novel
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22chained+together%22%2C+desert%2C+novel&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

I hope this helps.

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Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 13 Sep 2003 02:13 PDT

Meant to say:

"... movie... based on the NOVEL."

This was a model answer.  I couldn't have asked for more.