Arizona -- Fiction; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Fiction; Western stories
He had pulled off his tweed coat some time before. Now he hung his
vest on the pepper tree and went about his laundry work. He draped
blankets and garments over the greasewood, then moved by a sudden
impulse, undressed himself and lay down under the tiny falls. The
water, warmed by its languid trip through the pool above, was
refreshing only in its cleansing quality. But Enoch, lying at length
in the sand, the water trickling ceaselessly over him, felt his taut
muscles relax and a great desire to sleep came upon him. But he was
still too close to the railroad and possible discovery to allow himself
this luxury. By the time he had finished his bath the overalls were
dry and the blue flannel shirt enough so for him to risk donning it.
He rolled up his tweed suit and tied it to the saddle, fastened the
blankets on in an awkward bunch, the cooking utensils dangling
anywhere, the canteen suspended from the pommel. Then he smiled at his
reflection in the morning pool.
The overalls, a faded brown, were patched and, of course, wrinkled and
drawn. The blue shirt was too small across the chest and Enoch found
it impossible to button the collar. The soft hat was in keeping with
costume, but the Oxford ties caused him to shake his head.
"A dead give-away! I'll have to negotiate for something else when I
find the Navajos. All right, Pablo," to the horse, "we're off," and
the pony started northward at a gentle canter.
The desert was new to Enoch. Neither his Grand Canyon experience nor
his hunting trips in Canada and Maine had prepared him for the
hardships and privations of desert travel. Sitting at ease on the
Indian pony, his hat well over his eyes, his pots and pans clanging
gently behind him, he was entirely oblivious to the menace that lay
behind the intriguing beauty of the burning horizon. He was giving
small heed, too, to the details of the landscape about him. He was
conscious of the heat and of color, color that glowed and quivered and
was ever changing, and he told himself that when he was rested he would
find the beauty in the desert that Diana's pictures had said was there.
But for now, he was conscious only of pain and shame, the old, old
shame that the Canyon had tried to teach him to forget. He was
determined that he would stay in the desert until this shame was gone
forever.
It was a fall and not a summer sun, so the pony was able to keep a
steady pace until noon. Gradually the blur of green that Enoch had
observed to the north had outlined itself more and more vividly, and at
noon he rode into the shade of a little grove of stunted pinon and
juniper. He could find no water but there was a coarse dried grass
growing among the trees that the horse cropped eagerly. Enoch removed
the saddle and pack from Pablo, and spread his half dried blankets on
the ground. Then he threw himself down to rest before preparing his
midday meal. In a moment slumber overwhelmed him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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