The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-04-13
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He shall call upon me, and will answer
him. / will be with him IN trouble. will de-
liver him and honor him. will not leave thee
nor forsake thee.
IL was surely enough. A prayer, o
doubling heart. and courage, even nowi
The courage was urgently needed and
sorely tried not less by physical than by
mental ills. Every inch of my body was a
burning ache. My wound panied me more
and more. Ny head throbbed like steam
boiler, and lips and tongue were as if fayed
and laid on smodering ashes. Not SO
much as the remnant Of a spittle was left
to moisten them. i opened my mouth, and
rush of blistering air went down my
throat scorching my lungs TO their roots.
/ closed it, and the dry flesh cracked so that
the blood spurted out. Let the man who
would feed fat his revenge have his enemy
sent out and baked alive under an Ara
ban sun in the full blaze The inquisition
never invented torture half so cruel as
that slow process of broiling by the inn
mitigable heavens.
My poor horse was likewise in a far gone
condition. The foam was crusted hard
about his mouth and fanks, his nostrils
were wide, dry and fiery, his head hung and
his black swollen tongue protruded. Yet
he remained as steady AZ a rock, sheltering
me in his shadow. At intervals he turned
and looked at me, and once he whinnied
softly as If out of pure pity and comrade-
ship
BY and by there came a change The
flaming sky was overcast, the shimmering
sand tui ed gray, and after awhile dark
clouds began togather in the south. Then
tepid, relaxing wind blew from the same
quarter, bringing an electric sultriness in
place of the white heat. After a little the
wind ceased and dead calm fell.
The atmosphere seemed TO have suddenly
grown solid and To be weighing upon the
world like a canopy OF molten lead. Breath
ing had been a difficulty before--it was a
positive pain now. Ny horse grew restive,
snorting, paving the ground and smiling at
the far darkness, now fast spreading and
deepening.
All at once out of the deathly stiffness
came little blast of wind that tossed the
sand spitefuly in my face and passed on
with weird, uncanny wall. Another and
another followed with low, hopeless moan
as of incurablc sorrow, then silence again
so deep that to my beating senses it was
audible. IL was as If great, invisible
host were treading the loose earth and fill
ing the air, an endless procession passing
on into the inane. And let me tell you
that the awesome sound of unshod silence
Is a thing TO make the hair rise ON the head
and the flesh creep on the bones. spoke
TO my horse for the sake Of company, and
my words were ghostly gibber. was star
tied at the sound of my own voice.
The darkness was soon an inky blackness.
The sullen heavens were descending, and
impenetrable clouds were marshaling in
forbidding ramparts along the skyline OF
the south. Then a lambcnt fire began &c
flicker about the outer edges of the dense
masses, and presently there was borne to
my ears the long roll of incipent thunder
A few minutes later big drops OF rain be-
gan to patter on the sand, sending up vol
umes of dusty steam.
/ got 10 my feet with Joy unspeakable.
Praise be TO heaven, my cry for help had
been heard and answered. l was saved,
saved from the vultures and the hoaping
sands. Man is an Insignificant atom in the
scale OF the universe, yet easily believes
himself the object Of a special providence.
Here were the streams Of water in the des-
ert sent for me aud for me alone. wept
with awe aud gratitude.
The rain came thicker and faster, first a
shower ana then deluge. 1le sun was
eclipsed, and the dome overhead seemed to
be cracking and rending as at the blast of
the last trump. And indeed TO me IL was
little less than a resurrection. Here was
water, and water was life. The thunder
roared ever nearer and louder till worlds OF
wrecked matter seemed TO be crashing over
my head My ears were stunned by the
exploding bolts, and on my face felt the
hot smack Of the forked lightning that
made the wilderness as a sea Of fire. But
through IL rll the benelcent rain came
down In shcets. drenching me not merely
to the skin but to the very marrow. With
upturned face and open mouth slaked my
baking throat, and as / drank, with ten
times the greediness Of the fevered drunk
ard. could see my horse with his nozzle
turned 10 the pouring skies, a. II he, zoo,
were having a sayfpg dEait