That done, hehurried back to his camp to make a
fire and cook them.
And with ithad passed the flashing of his
intelligence. By hisagonies he measured the inhospitableness and inevitableness of
thewasteland. Well, to go on, that dim, purple, high range beyond theSuperstition
lies across the line of Mexico. Then he started out to look for some deadironwood or
mesquite to burn. To what extremity a man could be reduced! To find water and grass
was like making a thrilling discovery.
How strangely they shadedthe high lights! He was
old,his dark bronze face like a hard wrinkled mask. Not until he felt a drag in his
steps did he think of his weakenedcondition. Hisaggressiveness diminished daily and
lasted only a short while. Indians were slovenly and dirty, and Adam changed this
inOellas case.
Hisaggressiveness diminished daily and lasted only
a short while.
Still, he headed off the snake and turned it
back.
His weariness increased asthe hours prolonged
themselves. The others petered out in the stones and sage.
Or perhaps it was a whistle of the wind in
acrevice, or of an eagle in flight.
Some blackened utensilslay on the ground near the
charred remains of his canvas. Not far indeed was he thenfrom the actual seizing of
that deadly serpent in his bare hands.
Not far indeed was he thenfrom the actual seizing
of that deadly serpent in his bare hands. His skin turned brown and shrivelled up
like dried parchment wrinklingaround bones. He dropped fromexhaustion and weakness,
and lay where he had fallen till the nextmorning. Then he wentback to work on the
other contrivances he had planned. Still, he might be far from the camp or
villagethat had looked so close from the slope above. Then the girl laid him back,
spread the blanket high, and left him. Now straight across from us a few miles lies
a line of sanddunes.
The actioninfuriated him and the odour maddened
him.
And he closed his eyesagain, feeling some blessed
safeguard in the fact of his loneliness. He knew Dismukes, and told Adam that the
prospector andhe had found gold up this canyon. A hubbub of lowvoices sounded
outside the shack. That shiny blackmountain standin by itself is Pilot
Knob.
Then the girl laid him back, spread the blanket
high, and left him.
The heat ofit, however, and the soft, wet
sensation, grew pleasant.
Upon seeing Adam staringat her with wide-open eyes
she uttered a cry and ran out. That done, hehurried back to his camp to make a fire
and cook them. The afternoonwaned, the sun sank, the heat declined, and Jinny began
to show signs ofweariness.
How desperately hard it was to eat sparingly of
thedelicious honey! Quickly they learned the peril of the white man; andthe day came
when few birds visited the oasis.