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"My debts are getting so large now," in to take a sort of pride in them Gustav, as Dick's ho?"

And at Gustav's nod Roger made his adieux and went home to bed

Monday daith the usual promise of merciless heat It seemed as if the torrid days of late suh there was an occasional dust stor wind These gusts were too transitory to carry a sand stor, tall spirals of sand, like water spouts, whirled across the desert One struck Dick's corral, during his absence, ripped off the roof of the tool house and overturned the watering trough Several days later, one brought up against the condenser and after knocking off the thatch, collapsed, deluging the apparatus with sand There was so suddenly across the desert, now viciously ripping up a cholla or a Joshua tree, now collapsing ridiculously against a rock

It was now too, that thunderstores, though rain seemed forever denied to the desert valleys But on the Sunday noon before Rabbit Tail's gang was to arrive, the i their monotonous lunch of corned beef and canned brown bread when a curious roar broke the desert silence As the twocrash and a huge deluge of water smashed down on the cook tent The sun-baked canvas was like a sieve and in a moer, grinning fatuously at the delicious sensation of wet clothing and skin

"Gott, vat a country!" cried Gustav

Roger's grin disappeared "The living tent, by Jove!" Heedless of the blinding torrent, he dashed to the tent where all the s and notes He stopped in the doorway appalled Everything in the tent was dripping Drawings, instru were flooded The patient work ofthis infernal desert!" roared Roger "This is the last straw!"

He stood glowering at the wreckage, water pouring over his head and shoulders, when, as suddenly as it had begun, the rain ceased Roger looked out the door Every grain of sand, every cactus spine bore a tiny rainbow The whole desert floor was a mosaic of opals The sky was of a blue too deep, too brilliant for the eye to endure As Roger stood with ape he was thrilled by a sensation he had not before experienced The desert, ordinarily entirely odorless, gave forth a scent Just for a ent perfume for which he could find no adjectives swept softly to his nostrils and was gone Roger stood ainto the tent, he began to repair the dae done