登陆注册
15457100000106

第106章 CHAPTER XXII. RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE(3)

They rested. Then, mounting, they rode side by side up the white trail. The sun rose higher behind them. Far to the left a low fine of green marked the site of Cottonwoods. Venters looked once and looked no more. Bess gazed only straight ahead. They put the blacks to the long, swinging rider's canter, and at times pulled them to a trot, and occasionally to a walk. The hours passed, the miles slipped behind, and the wall of rock loomed in the fore.

The Notch opened wide. It was a rugged, stony pass, but with level and open trail, and Venters and Bess ran the blacks through it. An old trail led off to the right, taking the line of the wall, and his Venters knew to be the trail mentioned by Lassiter.

The little hamlet, Glaze, a white and green patch in the vast waste of purple, lay miles down a slope much like the Cottonwoods slope, only this descended to the west. And miles farther west a faint green spot marked the location of Stone Bridge. All the rest of that world was seemingly smooth, undulating sage, with no ragged lines of canyons to accentuate its wildness.

"Bess, we're safe--we're free!" said Venters. "We're alone on the sage. We're half way to Sterling."

"Ah! I wonder how it is with Lassiter and Miss Withersteen."

"Never fear, Bess. He'll outwit Tull. He'll get away and hide her safely. He might climb into Surprise Valley, but I don't think he'll go so far."

"Bern, will we ever find any place like our beautiful valley?"

"No. But, dear, listen. Well go back some day, after years--ten years. Then we'll be forgotten. And our valley will be just as we left it."

"What if Balancing Rock falls and closes the outlet to the Pass?"

"I've thought of that. I'll pack in ropes and ropes. And if the outlet's closed we'll climb up the cliffs and over them to the valley and go down on rope ladders. It could be done. I know just where to make the climb, and I'll never forget."

"Oh yes, let us go back!"

"It's something sweet to look forward to. Bess, it's like all the future looks to me."

"Call me--Elizabeth," she said, shyly.

"Elizabeth Erne! It's a beautiful name. But I'll never forget Bess. Do you know--have you thought that very soon--by this time to-morrow--you will be Elizabeth Venters?"

So they rode on down the old trail. And the sun sloped to the west, and a golden sheen lay on the sage. The hours sped now; the afternoon waned. Often they rested the horses. The glisten of a pool of water in a hollow caught Venters's eye, and here he unsaddled the blacks and let them roll and drink and browse. When he and Bess rode up out of the hollow the sun was low, a crimson ball, and the valley seemed veiled in purple fire and smoke. It was that short time when the sun appeared to rest before setting, and silence, like a cloak of invisible life, lay heavy on all that shimmering world of sage.

They watched the sun begin to bury its red curve under the dark horizon.

"We'll ride on till late," he said. "Then you can sleep a little, while I watch and graze the horses. And we'll ride into Sterling early to-morrow. We'll be married!...We'll be in time to catch the stage. We'll tie Black Star and Night behind--and then--for a country not wild and terrible like this!"

"Oh, Bern!...But look! The sun is setting on the sage--the last time for us till we dare come again to the Utah border. Ten years! Oh, Bern, look, so you will never forget!"

Slumbering, fading purple fire burned over the undulating sage ridges. Long streaks and bars and shafts and spears fringed the far western slope. Drifting, golden veils mingled with low, purple shadows. Colors and shades changed in slow, wondrous transformation.

Suddenly Venters was startled by a low, rumbling roar--so low that it was like the roar in a sea-shell.

"Bess, did you hear anything?" he whispered.

"No."

"Listen!...Maybe I only imagined--Ah!"

Out of the east or north from remote distance, breathed an infinitely low, continuously long sound--deep, weird, detonating, thundering, deadening--dying.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 你是我的心语

    你是我的心语

    一个专情的富家大少,一个备受瞩目的花心校草。是你,你选谁?
  • 九转幻梦

    九转幻梦

    世界上最痛苦的事,莫过于,珍惜无比的东西,消散如烟,这是我的认为。你告诉我,梦里有什么?你回答我,现在有什么?时间飘散如烟,我沉重的步伐迈出,为什么世界如此不公,我如此的努力只想与你携手,到头来却什么都没有。我的眼睛,如星辰大海,深邃无比,又有几人能看懂?爱上你,是我最大的过错,可是我心甘情愿!神阻我,我嗜神,人阻我,我屠人,天压我,我焚天,何欺我,我破何!这是一种与生俱来的霸气!叫做傲骨,而后形成了淡然,木孙夕,关烁,陈悯,手举长剑,脚踏金靴,最终会发生什么呢?
  • 风流悟

    风流悟

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 陌过初夏

    陌过初夏

    “如果我的世界不曾出现过你,也许我会一直这样下去,但是一切出现,都不及一个你”白雨泽“喜欢我的人十个有九个是痛苦的”“为什么?”“因为我只爱一个”
  • 朱世忠怀念集

    朱世忠怀念集

    《朱世忠怀念集》收进散文、诗歌和评论等体裁文章约百篇,杨文琴、闵生裕等负责征集文稿、下载博文,并核对了文章的作者和写作、发表时间,编辑对文稿重新分辑整理编目。文集现分三辑,其中《青山湿》收进的是2010年8月之后亲人朋友不同时期创作的怀念散文,《梨花雨》大部分是发表于报刊、网络的散文诗、小品文和诗歌,《长相忆》则收进了各个时期对世忠散文、杂文的评论文字及序言、书评、创作论等
  • 重生之废材修仙

    重生之废材修仙

    重生前,凤思玉是个废材,还被人弄死。重生后,凤思玉还是个废材,不过她想修炼个仙圣啥的将就复个仇。修仙路上,他与她一起。他说,他想和她一起傲世群雄。她笑,这个腹黑,高冷还妖孽的人真是烦呢。
  • 网文至圣

    网文至圣

    这是一个文能提笔生萝莉的世界。这是一个靠口活就能横扫千军的世界。卢瑟,一个死胖子,安详的死了,留下一堆破事给了占据他身体的穿越者。机智的穿越者选择学习上古先贤户华腾——抄抄抄!!“莫欺少年穷”说完卢瑟装B一笑。=======下周开始,每日二更保底,偶有爆发。
  • TFBOYS之久居我心

    TFBOYS之久居我心

    当三个千金小姐,因为一次偶然,遇见当红组合TFBOYS,他们会擦出怎样的火花呢?他们是否可以克服困难终成眷属呢?善良是否可以打败邪恶呢?敬请期待!
  • 致青春:晨曦依旧

    致青春:晨曦依旧

    这本书是我为了以后回忆我的小学六年级的,这本书中的许多人物的原型就是我的同学,人物的外貌描写就是根据现实同学的外貌再稍作修饰写的,这本书的选文都是我从日记本中摘抄的,希望大家会喜欢。【注意!部分虚构!!!!】【前几章虚构】
  • 寻道八部

    寻道八部

    大四偶然之间读了老子的八十一章两千字的《道德经》,突发灵感,一部关于阐述《道德经》的仙侠作品诞生了,此书主要讲述一位昆仑门派的弟子出山抓妖时,无意间遇到了一个叫紫月的小妖,在将小妖收入锁妖瓶后,押回昆仑的路上,和小妖多次交流,发现此妖心地善良,毫无害人之心,于是对自己十多年的修炼产生的怀疑,难道妖都是坏的吗?人都是好的吗?到底什么是道?怎么才算得道?带着诸多的疑问,他开始了寻道之路.....其实究竟何为道?《道德经》第一章就做出了解释,“道可道,非常道,名可名,非常名。”道要是能说出来就不是道了,道可悟,不可言,每个人的道都不一样,或许你看了本书,也能寻到自己的道。