aken off, and the weighty
trap round his feet crept upward. When the light, fine touch ceased he
removed the covering from his face to see himself standing nearly to his
knees in sand, and Silvermane's back and the saddle burdened with it.
The storm was moving eastward, a dull red now with the sun faintly
showing through it like a ball of fire.

"Well, Wolf, old boy, how many storms like that will we have to
weather?" asked Hare, in a cheery tone which he had to force. He knew
these sand-storms were but vagaries of the desert-wind. Before the hour
closed he had to seek the cover of a stone and wait for another to pass.
Then he was caught in the open, with not a shelter in sight. He was
compelled to turn his back to a third storm, the worst of all, and
to bear as best he could the heavy impact of the first blow, and the
succeeding rush and flow of sand. After that his head drooped and he
wearily trudged beside Silvermane, dreading the interminable distance he
must cover before once more gaining hard ground. But he discovered that
it was useless to try to judge distance on the desert. What had appeared
miles at his last look turned out to be only rods.

It was good to get into the saddle again and face clear air. Far away
the black spur again loomed up, now surrounded by groups of mesas with
sage-slopes tinged with green. That surely meant the end of this long
trail; the faint spots of green lent suggestion of a desert waterhole;
there Mescal must be, hidden in some shady canyon. Hare built his hopes
anew.

So he pressed on down a plain of bare rock dotted by huge bowlders; and
out upon a level floor of scant sage and greasewood where a few living
creatures, a desert-hawk sailing low, lizards darting into holes, and a
swiftly running ground-bird, emphasized the lack of life in the waste.
He entered a zone of clay-dunes of violet and heliotrope hues; and then
a belt of lava and cactus. Reddish points studded the desert, and here
and there were meagre patches of white grass. Far away myriads of cactus
plants showed like a troop of distorted horsemen. As he went on the
grass failed, and streams of jagged lava flowed downward. Beds of
cinders told of the fury of a volcanic fire. Soon Hare had to dismount
to make moccasins for Wolf's hind feet; and to lead Silvermane carefully
over the cracked lava. For a while there were strips of ground bare of
lava and harboring only an occasional bunch of cactus, but soon every
foot fre