Brothers -- Fiction; Deserts -- Fiction; Southwest, New -- Fiction; Western stories
“I’ll lie down and die,” he muttered. But he could not so much as lie
down. He seemed possessed by a devil who would not admit the idea of
surrender or death. And this spirit likewise seemed to take him by the
hair of his head and lift him up to scatter the tears from his eyes.
“Why can’t I cuss the luck like a man--then look round to see what’s
got to be done?”
Jinny had made good her escape. When Adam gave up all hope of finding
the burro the hour was near sunset and it was high time that he should
decide what to do.
“Go on--to the Indian camp,” he declared, tersely.
He decided to start at once and walk in the cool of night, keeping
close to the mountain wall so as not to lose his way. His spirits
rallied. Going back to the camp scene, he carefully gathered up all
the unburnt matches and placed them with others he carried in his
pocket. He found his bag of salt only partly consumed, and he made
haste to secure it. His canteen lay beside the spring.
The ruddy sunset and the stealing down of twilight and the encroaching
blackness of night had no charms for Adam now. His weariness increased
as the hours prolonged themselves. Short, frequent rests were more
advisable than long ones. The canopy of stars seemed in procession
westward; and many a bright one he watched sink behind the black slope
of mountain toward which he was bound. There were times when his eyes
closed involuntarily and all his body succumbed to sleep as he toiled
on. These drowsy spells always came to a painful end, for he would walk
into a thorny mesquite. Adam saw a weird, misshapen moon rise late
over a dark range to blanch the desert with wan light. He walked all
night, and when dawn showed him landmarks now grown familiar he had a
moment of exhilaration. The long, low-reaching ridge of mountain loomed
right before him. When he rounded the sharp, blunt corner his eyes were
greeted by sight of a deep-mouthed canyon yawning out of the range, and
full of palms and other green trees. He saw a white stream bed and the
shine of water, and what he took to be the roofs of palm-thatched huts.
“I’ve got there. This is the Indian canyon--where Dismukes told me
to stay,” said Adam, with pride in his achievement. A first sight
of what he took to be habitations cheered him. Again that gloomy
companion of his mind was put to rout. It looked worth striving and
suffering for--this haven. The barrenness of the desert all around made
this green canyon mouth an oasis. It appeared well hidden, too. Few
travelers passing along the valley would have suspected its presence.
The long, low ridge had to be rounded before the canyon could be
detected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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