Miss Gray began to sing; it seemed to Walter who was sitting on the
Navajo blanket near her that he had never heard a voice of just that
particular quality. It fitted into the surroundings wonderfully. The
dusky faces with the inevitable head-cloth of red or white were intent
on hers, and when the song ceased and Walter looked up and around he saw
the members of the other camp had come over and were standing or sitting
about. Among the faces that were most noticeable to Walter was Van
Shaw's. He was standing almost directly opposite Miss Gray staring at
her with a strange look as if he were in doubt of the reality of Miss
Gray's presence in this group. It seemed to Walter that he was about to
ask a question, but Masters, who at campfire was always intent on
bringing his Gospel message to the miscellaneous audience he might not
see again in many months, began to speak softly and affectionately.
The visitors from the outside world, including the party from
Pittsburgh, could not understand one word. It was not that that moved
them. But Masters was gifted with a splendid voice in full control.
After he had been speaking ten minutes the figures about the little fire
crept closer up and narrowed the circle. Masters's face was eloquent.
Tears rolled down his cheeks. His gestures were wide and conveyed tender
invitation. He spoke only a few moments more and ended abruptly. Old
Peshlekietsetti gently dropped a root of dowegie bush on the almost
extinct fire. The coals burst into a new flame and the light flared up
again, showing to Felix, Helen's wondering face framed in the opening
fold of the wagon cover, while Mrs. Douglas close by her was listening
with sympathetic attention deepened into reverent surprise when Elijah
Clifford with his hands over his knees, his head bowed, prayed the
evening prayer in a spirit that seemed to proclaim another man from the
one they had known during the day. And then another hymn in which all
were asked by Miss Gray to join. It all smote Felix with a feeling of
wonder, it was so new and unusual to his experience. But to Masters and
Miss Gray and Clifford it was the regular daily habit of their lives, as
common and necessary to them as it was for the tourist crowd looking on
to close the day's life with a heavy dinner of seven courses and bridge
whist into the next morning. The last glimpse Walter had of Van Shaw as
he moved off towards his own wagons was the look he cast at Miss Gray
again and then transferred to the canvas that covered the chuck wagon
where Helen and her mother sat talking over the strange events of the
day and its strange ending.
The next day was a severe experience for old desert travellers. The wind
blew almost a gale. The sand drifted like snow and the mid day meal was
taken standing, everyone eating as best he could, standing up, and
making no attempt at the setting of a table or the formality of a
regular meal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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