Arizona -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Religious fiction; Teachers -- Fiction
It was already high day, and the sun was intolerably hot. Her heavy
burden was not only cumbersome, but very warm, and she felt her strength
going from her as she went; but her nerve was up and her courage was
strong. Moreover, she prayed as she walked, and she felt now the
presence of her Guide and was not afraid. As she walked she faced a
number of possibilities in the immediate future which were startling,
and to say the least, undesirable. There were wild animals in this land,
not so much in the daylight, but what of the night? She had heard that a
woman was always safe in that wild Western land; but what of the
prowling Indians? What of a possible exception to the Western rule of
chivalry toward a decent woman? One small piece of corn bread and less
than a pint of water were small provision on which to withstand a siege.
How far was it to anywhere?
It was then she remembered for the first time that one word--"Walpi!"
uttered by the Indian as he came to a halt the night before and pointed
far to the mesa--"Walpi." She lifted her eyes now and scanned the dark
mesa. It loomed like a great battlement of rock against the sky. Could
it be possible there were people dwelling there? She had heard, of
course, about the curious Hopi villages, each village a gigantic house
of many rooms, called pueblos, built upon the lofty crags, sometimes
five or six hundred feet above the desert.
Could it be that that great castle-looking outline against the sky
before her, standing out on the end of the mesa like a promontory above
the sea, was Walpi? And if it was, how was she to get up there? The rock
rose sheer and steep from the desert floor. The narrow neck of land
behind it looked like a slender thread. Her heart sank at thought of
trying to storm and enter, single-handed, such an impregnable fortress.
And yet, if her friends were there, perhaps they would see her when she
drew near and come to show her the way. Strange that they should have
gone on and left her with those treacherous Indians! Strange that they
should have trusted them so, in the first place! Her own instincts had
been against trusting the man from the beginning. It must be confessed
that during her reflections at this point her opinion of the wisdom and
judgment of the Brownleighs was lowered several notches. Then she began
to berate herself for having so easily been satisfied about her escort.
She should have read the letter more carefully. She should have asked
the Indians more questions. She should, perhaps, have asked Jasper
Kemp's advice, or got him to talk to the Indian. She wished with all her
heart for Bud, now. If Bud were along he would be saying some comical
boy-thing, and be finding a way out of the difficulty. Dear, faithful
Bud!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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