The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-04-20

ing's white angle, biting at one an
other and barring long, discolored teeth.
They were laden with water-bottles of
goatskin and tins of food incomparably
prepared in France, under which bur-
dens they knelt grousing between the
depleted we'll and the tiled veranda.
Sybil had dressed for her wedding
in a stout serge skirt of blue, with a
thick flannl blouse to protect her Shout
ders from the blistering sun. Her col
lars and cuffs were the last word of
fashions glittering babble, but Calvin,
MD, ignored them, and spread shawl
of white linoleum over her shoulders,
packing the nape of her neck with wet
sponges from his unsought surgery.
Thar" (ready!D he said, as she
mounted the kneeling camel and Bal
TUX, naked now except for a loin-cloth
of American" (unbleached muslin
from Fall River) kicked her animal
upright, and screamed curses on him
in his own name and the Prophets,
dropping on his knees to pray Gods
favor for their journey with an adapta-
bility usually and only ascribed to Am
erican women in diplomatic life. Gal
vim then leapt to the summit of his
kneeling brute. who rose, flirting q
f1ail-like caudal appendage and adding
his noises to the stress of departure.
At first their camels rocked nauseat-
ingly, but they presently settled into
the defined rhythm OF ships of the des-
ert, and Sybil smiled whenever her
mind was released from the adverse
sensations of nausea, glare, and chafed
knees-not to dwell too long on hands
stiffened with tense hold on the one
great pommel about which the chuck
ling water bottles were packed as Sc
curely as she herself. Baltuk had filled
her hats crown with bit of ice pur-
chased from the cook of the BGrdtCG for
the price OF some surcharged post
stamps, but this sped down her neck
into the regretted past in a few de-
licious, freezing rills. She loved them
in their fleeting, icy passage into the
remembered luxuries of Western liv-
ing, but she laughed as she called her
self an immigrant and declared herself
able to endure the country of her
choice. Sometimes Calvin gave her
sop of lint, wet with diluted myrrh,
which she held in her mouth lovingly
while he cautioned her not TO swallow
it, and when at last she cast the thing
to the deserts floor. the once saturated
wad grown dry as powder in her burn
ing mouth-she felt an thrush of new
life and marvelled at the power of re-
freshment in so neglected a simple.
But after an hours rocking on the
billy back OF the great brute who sped
onward without an apparent thought
for the burning strand beneath him, or
the unmitigated, sun-flled sky above
him and the desert-she found succor
from above as il the shielding wing
of a guardian angel had come between
her ard the excessive light. Shadows
of the camels, the only shadows in the
glowing expanse of all that treeless
space, shone on the deserts dusky face
in lively mauve or a curious unbelieve-
able magenta; and the network OF
nameless growth. half vine. half fun
gus, which breaks from the baked and
sandy surface of this wilderness.
showed itself in sudden detail as the
sun lost its overwhelming quality and
became weakened by nights advance.
mere light rather than a malign ele-
ment which conquers mans sense OF
sight. Far in the glowing west the
clearness of atmosphere and the bril-
lance Of omnipotent sun still domin-
ated, but in the east-grown suave
and tender with the first hues of night
faIl-a fluff of cloud like the flowing
scarf of a yelled woman beckoned one
to the relief of darkness And every
swell upon the breast of the wild up
land their camels turned suddenly TO
traverse. stretched fits purple shadows
toward the east-as a beggars cup is
held for greed of gold from travellers
purse, or gush of water from a travel
ers bottle. Nothing human assaiied
their senses: the world was a picture
in wild color from the hand of God,
painted in creations dawn-before man