It began to snow, the thick fall of flakes blotting out the horizon, leaving him to stumble blindly through the murk.

Then darkness came, wrapping him in a cloak of silence in the midst of that unspeakable desert.

His limbs stiffened, his brain reeled from intense fatigue.

He dragged himself back into the saddle, pressing the pony into a slow trot.

Suddenly out of the wall of gloom sprang the yellow lights of Camp Supply.