Chapter XXVI
A Dust-Storm
It had been a beautiful day of sunshine when Lee left Live-Oaks to rideto the Ninety-Four Ranch. Not a breath of wind stirred. The desert sleptin a warm, golden bath. It was peaceful as old age.
But as the sun slipped past the meridian, gusts swept across the sandsand whipped into the air inverted cones that whirled like vast tops in awild race to nowhere. The air waves became more frequent and morefurious. When Lee passed the buckboard driver, the whole desert seemedalive with stinging sand.
He called something to her that was lost in the wind. The girl waved athim a gauntleted hand. She had been out in dust-storms before and was notin the least alarmed. Across the lower part of her face she had tied asilk handkerchief to protect her mouth and nostrils from the sand.
The mail carrier had scarcely disappeared before the fury of the windincreased. It lashed the ground with heavy whips, raging and screaming inshrill, whistling frenzy, until the desert rose in terror and began toshift.
Lee bent her head to escape the sand that filled her eyes and nostrilsand beat upon her cheeks so unmercifully. She thought perhaps the tempestwould abate soon and she slipped from the saddle to crouch close to thebody of the horse for protection. Instead of decreasing, the gale rose toa hurricane. It was as if the whole sand plain was in continuous,whirling motion.
The horse grew frightened and restless. It was a young three-year-old JimClanton had broken for her. Somehow--Lee did not know quite the wayit happened--the bridle rein slipped from her fingers and the colt wasgone.
She ran after the pony--called to it frantically--fought in pursuitagainst the shrieking blasts. The animal disappeared, swallowed in thewhirl-wind that encompassed her and it. Lee sank down, sheltering herface with her arms against the pelting sand sleet.
But years in the outdoor West had given Lee the primal virtue, courage.She scorned a quitter, one who lay down or cried out under punishment.Now she got to her feet and faced the storm. The closeness of herhorizon--her outstretched arms could almost touch the limit ofit--confused the mind of the girl. She no longer knew east from west,north from south. With a sudden sinking of the heart she realized thatshe was lost in this gray desert blizzard.
Blindly she chose a direction and plunged forward. At times the wind hither like a moving wall and flung her to the ground. She would lie therepanting for a few moments, struggle to her knees, and creep on till in alull she could again find her feet.
How much of this buffeting, she wondered, could one endure and live? Theair was so filled with dust that it was almost impossible to get abreath. Her muscles ached with the flogging they were receiving. She wasso exhausted, her forces so spent, that the hinges of her knees buckledunder her.
One of her feet struck against a rise in the ground and she stumbled. Shelay there motionless for what seemed a long time before it penetrated herconsciousness that one of her palms pained from a jagged cut the fall hadcaused. Her body lay on sharp-pointed rocks. As far as they could reach,the groping fingers of the girl found nothing but hard, rough stone.Then, in a flash, the truth came to her. She had reached the Mal-Pais.
She crept across the lava in an effort to escape the strangling wind. Itsrage followed her, drove the girl deeper into the bad lands. A renewal ofhope urged her on. In its rough terrain she might find shelter from thetornado. In short stages, with rests between, she pushed into thevitreous lake, dragged herself up from the terrace, fought forwarddoggedly for what seemed to her an age.
A crevice barred the way. The fissure was too wide to step across and wasperhaps ten feet deep. Lee slid into it, slipped, and fell the last stepor two of the descent. She lay where she had fallen, too worn out tomove.
It must have been almost at once that she fell asleep.
The stars were out when she awakened, her muscles stiff and aching fromthe pressure of her weight upon the rock. The girl lay for a minutewondering where she was. Above was a narrow bar of starlit sky. The wallsof her pit of refuge were within touch of her finger tips. Then memory ofthe storm and her escape from it flashed back to her.
She climbed easily the rough side of the cavern and looked around. Thewind had died so that not even a murmur of it remained. As far as the eyecould see the lava flow extended without a break. But she knew the cavernin which she had slept lay at a right angle to the line of her advance.All site had to do was to face forward and keep going till she reachedthe plain. The reasoning was sound, but it was based on a wrong premise.Lee had clambered out of the fissure on the opposite side from that bywhich she had entered. Every step she took now carried her farther intothe bad lands.
Morning broke to find her completely at sea. Even the boasted weather ofthe Southwest played false. A drizzle of rain was in the air. Not untillate in the afternoon did the sun show at all and by that time thewanderer was so deep in the Mal-Pais that when night closed down againshe was still its prisoner.
She was hungry and fagged. The soles of her boots were worn out and herfeet were badly blistered. Again she took refuge in a deep crevice forthe night.
The loneliness appalled her. No living creature was to be seen. In allthis awful desolation she was alone. Her friends at Live-Oaks would thinkshe was at the Ninety-Four Ranch. Even if they searched for her she wouldnever be found. After horrible suffering she would die of hunger andthirst. She broke down at last and wept herself to sleep.