She grew calmer, now; he was at least alive, and she had done her best!
But there was more to do. Morongo Valley lay ahead, not so far, and
she knew the road. With much effort, she lifted the unconscious body
into the front seat, where it reposed limply, and then climbed over it.
She had forgotten to crank the car, and had to go back again, out into
the sunlight.
No word, no cry from her clenched lips. She cranked, climbed again
into the car, and closed the door that would hold Murray in place.
Then she drove, with an occasional frantic glance at the lurching,
senseless man beside her.
She drove as fast as she dared set the car through the loose sands.
When she had driven that road first, it was trackless. Now there lay
faint markings to guide her--the tracks of her own and of Murray's car,
the shuffled traces of hooves and feet.
No wind ever lifted in this basin, no flurry of sand ever drove across
the burning surface, down below the level of the surrounding desert.
Until the rains or a storm came, the tracks would be there undisturbed,
as the dust-marks within a pyramid of ancient Rameses.
Soon, so soon that she scarce realized it, the blue and brown mountains
that had been trembling over the horizon were drawn into sharper and
richer colorings, and the long walls of the valley were opening out
ahead. The Dead Mountains, those--bare of men or beasts or devils!
Morongo Valley at last--the sharp turn, with the Box Cañon opening out
ahead, rich and sweetly splendid in its touch of vivid greens!
It was only two hundred yards in length, after that turn; yet to the
tortured girl, those two hundred yards seemed endless. She did not
pause at the shack, but drove on, toward the right-hand wall. Still
within her mind dwelt the last words uttered by Murray--"no cold water!"
The trickle of the creek was icy cold; out of the ground and in again.
But she knew where there was a seepage of warmer water--water unfit for
drinking. She had found it while she was here with Tom Lee; it was a
little up the hillside, above and facing that natural amphitheatre
which Tom Lee had staked out as a building site. About it there was
shade, for the water had provoked green growths on the hillside--a
clump of green there against the brown.
She knew that this was the spot, and she headed for it. Recklessly,
she drove the car at the steep hill, rocking and lurching across
gullies and rocks, until the engine died down; then in low again,
climbing a mad course, until at last a boulder blocked the wheel and
the engine died on the crash.
There was but a little way to go. She got Murray out of the car,
somehow, and dragged him, spurred by fear that she had been too late in
getting here. Yet he still lived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account