And that move was accompanied by a rattlingcrash,
growing louder and more prolonged. For monthsdesolation, death, decay of Death
Valley!
He lost his direction and clung to the burros,
knowingtheir instinct to be surer guide than his. They cracked and bangeddown, and
the debris rattled after them. Ashe gazed a large stone bounded from the ground and
seemed to pass rightthrough the shack. Streaks were running low down in the brush
raising little dusty streams. Startled to ahalt, Adam gazed down at his feet. Out
there in the dimstarlight Virey staggered back and forth under the too great burden
ofhis fate.
Adam could have pealed outa cry of dread for this
woman. Virey could be plainly seen, embedded to his hips in the loose
stones.
CHAPTER XXAdams return to camp was as vague as one
of his desert nightmares. A time came when Adam rolled his last stone. Take it, my
friend, and keep it, and look at it until it draws you toher. Adam climbed even as
the rock boundeddown, and a few strides took him to one side. Tragic this situation
had been from thebeginning, and it could have had but one end. To kill a man was
elemental, as to save him was divine. Even now the little dusty slidesrolled from
under him.
When Adam laid a hurried hand on a stone he did not
leaveit there long.
The mountainsseemed far away and the stars
close.
A time came when Adam rolled his last
stone.
What a ghastly fantasy the struggle forlife in
Death Valley!
Once he could not pullJennie out of a pitfall
without unpacking her. Did it notmagnify a bounding rock and puff of dust into many
rocks and puffs? As it whizzed past him Vireyslid another loose upon the
slope.
It is theheart, the flesh, the bursting stream of
red blood that count withnature. When shesquealed and sheered off to one side Adam
knew something was amiss.
Most fortunate was the fact that the rising wind
was at his back.
Death Valley and a primitive man have opened my
eyes. Life was the onlyuttermost precious thing.
Many a burrohad saved its masters life by stubborn
refusal to travel the wrong way. He felt the grey obscurity close over the
scene.
Theterrible forces of nature became
manifest.
At last the desert force within him had arisen
above allspiritual obstacles.
His strength of limb soon rallied to rest and
nourishment. The world and natural objects and old habits seemed far off.