It was bridged finally by a cedar trunk, which
Hampton wrenched from out its rocky foothold, and the two crept
cautiously forward, to emerge where the sunlight rested golden at the
summit. They sank face downward in the short grass, barely conscious
that they had finally won their desperate passage.
Slowly Hampton succeeded in uplifting his tired body and his reeling
head, until he could sit partially upright and gaze unsteadily about.
The girl yet remained motionless at his feet, her thick hair, a mass of
red gold in the sunshine, completely concealing her face, her slender
figure quivering to sobs of utter exhaustion. Before them stretched
the barren plain, brown, desolate, drear, offering in all its wide
expanse no hopeful promise of rescue, no slightest suggestion even of
water, excepting a fringe of irregular trees, barely discernible
against the horizon. That lorn, deserted waste, shimmering beneath the
sun-rays, the heat waves already becoming manifest above the
rock-strewn surface, presented a most depressing spectacle. With hand
partially shading his aching eyes from the blinding glare, the man
studied its every exposed feature, his face hardening again into lines
of stern determination.
Pages:
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57