doning all hope, flung down reins and whip, and
leaped off the reach of the rigging. Prompt with
the loosened lines the team came to a full stop;
and Felipe, snatching up a blanket, covered his
head and shoulders with it and squatted in the
scant protection of a forward wheel.

The storm whipped and howled past. Felipe
listened, noting each change in its velocity as told
by the sound of raging gusts outside, himself raging.
Once he lifted a corner of the blanket and
peered out -- only to suffer the sting of a thousand
needles. Again, he hunched his shoulders guardedly
and endeavored to roll a cigarette; but the
tempestuous blasts discouraged this also, and with
a curse he dashed the tobacco from him. After
that he remained still, listening, until he heard an
agreeable change outside. The screeching sank to
a crooning; the crooning dropped to a low, musical
sigh. Flinging off the blanket, he rose and swept
the desert with eyes sand-filled and blinking.

The last of the yellow winds was eddying slowly
past. All about him the air, thinning rapidly, pulsated
in the sun's rays, which, beaming mildly
down upon the desert, were spreading everywhere
in glorious sheen. To the east, the mountains, stepping
forth in the clearing atmosphere, lay revealed
in a warmth of soft purple; while the slopes to the
west, over which the storm had broken, shone in
a wealth of dazzling yellow-white light -- sunbeams
scintillating off myriads of tiny sand-cubes. The
desert was itself again -- bright, resplendent-gripped
in the clutch of solitude.

[[3]]

p002 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p003w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p004

v?