Bubsp;Johnson stood staring at the paper for a mubsp;longer time than was necessary merely to absorb the meaning of the words. His ns, sharpened by the stress of the last sixteen hours, were trying mightily to bsp;to the mystery of a ge going on within himlf. The phras of the letter were bald enough, yet they veyed something vital to his inner being. He could not uand what it was.
Then abruptly he raid his eyes.
Before him lay the dert, but a dert suddenly and miraculously ged, a dert he had never en before. Mile after mile it swept away before him, hot, dry, suffog, lifeless. The spar vegetation was grey with the alkali dust. The heat hung choking in the air like a curtain. Lizards sprawled in the sun, repulsive. A rattlesnake dragged its loathsome length from under a mesquite. The dried carcass of a steer, who part skin drew tight across its bones, rattled in the breeze. Here and there robsp;ridges showed with the obsity of so many skeletons, exposing to the hard, cruel sky the earth''s nakedness. Thirst, delirium, death, hovered palpable in the wind; dreadful, unquerable, ghastly.
Bubsp;Johnson stood staring at the paper for a mubsp;longer time than was necessary merely to absorb the meaning of the words. His ns, sharpened by the stress of the last sixteen hours, were trying mightily to bsp;to the mystery of a ge going on within himlf. The phras of the letter were bald enough, yet they veyed something vital to his inner being. He could not uand what it was.
Then abruptly he raid his eyes.
Before him lay the dert, but a dert suddenly and miraculously ged, a dert he had never en before. Mile after mile it swept away before him, hot, dry, suffog, lifeless. The spar vegetation was grey with the alkali dust. The heat hung choking in the air like a curtain. Lizards sprawled in the sun, repulsive. A rattlesnake dragged its loathsome length from under a mesquite. The dried carcass of a steer, who part skin drew tight across its bones, rattled in the breeze. Here and there robsp;ridges showed with the obsity of so many skeletons, exposing to the hard, cruel sky the earth''s nakedness. Thirst, delirium, death, hovered palpable in the wind; dreadful, unquerable, ghastly.