The Heart of the Desert (Kut-Le of the Desert)Morrow, Honoré
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The Heart of the Desert (Kut-Le of the Desert)
Morrow, Honoré
Indians of North America -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Love stories; Western stories
Rhoda followed John closely up into the mass of fallen rock.
DeWitt smiled. It appealed to the tenderest part of his nature that
the girl who had led him through the terrible experiences of the desert
should show fear now that a haven was reached.
"Come on, little girl," he said.
Painfully, for they both were weak and dizzy, they clambered to a gaunt
opening in the gray wall. Rhoda clutched John's arm with a little
scream as a bat whirred close by them. Within the opening DeWitt
scratched one of his carefully hoarded matches. The tiny flare
revealed a small adobe-walled room, quite bare save for broken bits of
pottery on the floor. John lighted a handful of greasewood and by its
brilliant light they examined the floor and walls.
"What a clean, dry little room!" exclaimed Rhoda. "Oh, I am so tired
and sleepy!"
"Let's look a little farther before we stop. What's on the other side
of this broken wall?"
They picked their way across the litter of pottery and peered into
another room, the duplicate of the first.
"How will these do for our respective sleeping-rooms?" asked DeWitt.
Rhoda stared at John with horror in her eyes.
"I'd as soon sleep in a tomb! Let's make a fire outside and sleep
under the stars. I'd rather have sleep than food just now."
"It will have to be just a tiny smudge, up behind this debris, where
Kut-le can't spot it," answered DeWitt. "I won't mind having a red eye
of fire for company. It will help to keep me awake."
"But you must sleep," protested Rhoda.
"But I mustn't," answered John grimly. "I've played the baby act on
this picnic as much as I propose to. It is my trick at the wheel."
Too weary to protest further, Rhoda threw herself down with her feet
toward the fire and pillowed her head on her arm. DeWitt filled his
pipe and sat puffing it, with his arms folded across his knees. Rhoda
watched him for a moment or two. She found herself admiring the full
forehead, the lines of refinement about the lips that the beard could
not fully conceal.
"He's not as handsome as Kut-le," she thought wearily, "but
he's--he's--" but before her thought was completed she was asleep.
Rhoda woke at dawn and lay waiting for the stir of the squaws about the
morning meal. Then with a start she rose and looked soberly about her.
Suddenly she smiled.
"Tenderfoot!" she murmured.
DeWitt lay fast asleep by the ashes of the fire.
"If Kut-le," she thought. Then she stopped abruptly and stamped her
foot. "You are not even to think of Kut-le any more!" And with her
cleft chin very firm she descended the trail to the spring. When she
returned, DeWitt was rising stiffly to his feet.
"Hello!" he cried. "I was good this time. I never closed my eyes till
dawn. I'm so hungry I could eat greasewood. How do you feel?"
"Weak with hunger but otherwise very well. Go wash your face, Johnny."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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