The change was like a leap into fairy land; as though they had emerged from the mouth of hell into the beauty of paradise.

They were in a green, watered valley, a clear stream wandering here and there through its centre, shadowed by groves of trees.

All about, as far as eye could reach, stood great precipices, their bold, rugged fronts rising hundreds of feet, unbroken, and unscalable; the sun directly above bathed these with showers of gold, and cast a blanket of colour across the sheltered valley.
This valley itself was nearly square, possibly extending not over a mile in either direction, merely a great hole rimmed by desert, a strange, hidden oasis, rendered fertile and green by some outburst of fresh water from the rocks.

Emerging upon it in midst of the barren desolation through which they had been toiling for hours, blinded by alkali dust, jolted down that dangerous decline, it seemed like some beautiful dream, a fantasy of imagination.
Miss Donovan doubted the evidence of her own eyes, half convinced that she slept.

It was Moore's voice which aroused her.
"Mendez must have got back, Joe," he said eagerly.