Page:Son of the wind.djvu/195

RV 179 It was not a difficult way, although no trail was visible, but Carron could see from the action of the pony that the animal had never taken this route before. The cautious planting of his feet, the doubtful side to side motion of his head, as if he denied the possibility of getting anywhere, a general air of unwillingness, of having to be pushed along, spoke unfamiliarity with the place. As they went on, the outcropping of rock became more frequent. Great faces of it rose to the surface of the thin soil, and down them the horses footed it daintily or cautiously slid. The sides of the long, extended height dropped away more sharply. On either hand they looked down upon thick tree-tops. His companion murmured that they were running into a sack.

Carron tried to peer over the low pines which were thickening in front, to see into what sort of country the nose of the watershed ran; but the descent was too steep for this to be visible, though by the drop of the land from the buttes opposite he gathered that a hollow, narrow depression lay between. Purple shadows still lay like water at the foot of the hills, but their tops shone yellow, and the new day, beating full upon the Sphinx's face, gave it a bland, almost blank, appearance. The shape of the head and the winged helmet were there, but the