e
giant dune to the north a single horseman. A moment he seemed to pause
on the crest, then began the long descent, slowly, with almost
imperceptible movement. He was not more than under way when another dot
appeared against the skyline, a second horseman, close behind the first,
who, like the first, after seeming to pause a moment on the crest,
dipped into the long slope with almost imperceptible movement. A third
dot appeared, two dots close beside each other, and these, like the
others, dipping into the descent with almost imperceptible movement, for
all the world like flies reluctantly entering a giant saucer. And then
appeared another, the fifth, and then no more. The last also seemed to
pause a brief moment on the crest, and also dipped with almost
imperceptible movement into the long descent.

They struck the floor of the furnace. Details began to emerge. One was a
fat man, another was a gaunt man, a third was a little man--all smooth
of face. Then there was a man with a scrubby beard. And there was
another smooth-faced man, riding a little apart from the others, a
little more alert, perhaps, his garments not their garments, his horse a
little rounder of outline, a little more graceful of movement. They
might have been in conversation, these riders out of the solitude. But
all were heavily armed. And all rode slowly, leisurely, taking their own
good time, as if this in itself was duty, with orders uncertain, or with
no orders at all. They rode on across the desert within the desert,
presenting three-quarter profile, then, with an hour passing, full
profile, then, with another hour passing, quarter profile, and now, with
yet another hour passing, five agreeable backs--broad, most of them, all
topped with sombreros, and all motionless save for the movement of their
mounts. On and on they rode into the south, underneath a blistering sun
at full zenith. They became mere dots again upon the pulsating horizon,
mere specks, and disappeared in the shimmering haze.

Solitude, the voice of solitude, the death-stillness, throbbing silence,
reigned once more. Not an animal, not an insect, not a tree, struck the
eye. The arid and level floor was again clean of movement. The sun
glared, revealing here and there out of the drifts a bleached skeleton,
in this speechless thing mutely proclaiming its own sway. Beneath the
sun the horizon, an immense girdle, swept round in unbroken line,
pulsating. The turquoise sky hung low, spot