was blown to the big rock pinnacle on which the roof had been
divided. An eddy twisted her rudely around to the shelter, and she
flung herself down upon the earth.

CHAPTER XXV

A TIMELY DELIVERANCE

How long she lay there Beth could never have known. It seemed a time
interminable, with the horror of the storm in all the universe. It was
certainly more than an hour before the end began to come. Then clouds
and the blizzard of sand and dust, together with all the mighty
roaring, appeared to be hurled across the firmament by the final gust
of fury and swept from the visible world into outer space.

Only a brisk half-gale remained in the wake of the huger disturbance.
The sky and atmosphere cleared together. The sun shone forth as
before--but low to the mountain horizon. When even the clean wind too
had gone, trailing behind its lawless brother, the desert calm became
as absolute as Beth had beheld it in the morning.

She crept from her shelter and looked about the plain. Her eyes were
red and smarting. She was dusted through and through. In all the
broad, gray expanse there was not a sign of anything alive. Her mare
had vanished. Beth was lost in the desert, and night was fast
descending.

Deliverance from the storm, or perhaps the storm's very rage, had
brought her a species of calm. The fear she had was a dull, persistent
dread--an all-pervading horror of her situation, too large to be acute.
Nevertheless, she determined to seek for the road with all possible
haste and make her way on foot, as far as possible, towards the
Starlight highway and its possible traffic.

She was stiff from her ride and her cramped position on the earth. She
started off somewhat helplessly, where she felt the road must be.

She found no road. Her direction may have been wrong. Possibly the
storm of wind had swept away the wagon tracks, for they had all been
faint. It had been but half a road at best for several miles. Her
heart sank utterly. She became confused as to which way she had
traveled. Towards a pass in the hills whence she felt she must have
come she hastened with a new accession of alarm.

She was presently convinced that she had chosen entirely wrong. A
realizing sense that she was hopelessly mixed assailed her crushingly.
To turn in any direction might be a grave mistake. But to stand here
and wait--do nothing--with the sun going down--this was
preposterous--suicidal! She must go on--somewh