It reminded him that this was Death Valley. He
pulled on his boots, and gave his face an unusual and detrimentalluxury in the
desert. There are Shoshone Indians up on the mountains now. No, itwas a man crawling
on hands and knees.
Not for a long distance over the sanddid that task
become prodigious.
That scene up the valley of death was confounding.
He had been less oppressedupon hotter days than this.
Here he erected a brush and canvasshelter to make
shade, and deposited his effects under it.
Adam soongrew conscious of extreme fatigue in mind
and body.
Adams repeated question,accompanied by a shake,
brought only a grunt. Adam had met women on the desert,and all of them were
riddles.
The cracking of a rock rolling down a rough slope
thrilled Adam.
It looked as if it had been a solid mass ofgranite
shattered by some cataclysm of nature.
Adam turned to look across the space in the
direction whencethe sound had come. As it sloped up it grew steeper, and the
rocksgrew smaller.
He had been there only aday, yet he felt that he
could understand why it must be fatal to women.
If you are kind to me he will drive you away, she
went on, withagitation. Virey, Ill stay as long as you are here, said Adam,
simply.
With that he set the man down and, swinging a
powerful blow, laid himstunned upon the sand.
For you came here to help an
unknownwoman.
Im a friend of Dismukes, the prospector whowas
here.
Adam found his burros here, Jinnyasleep as usual,
and Jack contentedly grazing. After he had unpacked near theshack, his first move
was to light a candle and take it to the door. Death Valley was more than sixty
miles long and from seven to twelvewide.
These are few, but, taken by the years, theyseem
many.
It was necessary to findnarrow places in these and
leap across. Here he erected a brush and canvasshelter to make shade, and deposited
his effects under it. He said no white woman could live in DeathValley. As Adam
neared the other side he encounteredthin streams of water that resembled acid. Adam
knew he too could live on this water.
My husband, Virey, knows that Death Valley is a
hell onearth. It was there, even in the grey wastelands.
Adam persevered, but the labour ofholding him was
greater than that of supporting him.
Adam strode toward it,gradually getting higher and
nearer through the rock-strewn field. Suddenly he espied the deep track of amans
foot in the sand. Here he erected a brush and canvasshelter to make shade, and
deposited his effects under it. Yet it did not haveexactly an unpleasant
taste.
Men do strange things in the desert, said Adam.
Adam could ask no more, yet how impossible not to feel an absorbinginterest in this
womans fate.