8/10 Still he could not think it was that. It seemed to be rising higher against the blue sky--now resembling dust, now like the smoke of a widely-spread conflagration, and now like a reddish cloud. It was in the west, and already the setting sun was obscured by it. It had passed over the sun's disc like a screen, and his light no longer fell upon the plain. It was not like an ordinary cloud,--it was not like a cloud of dust,--it was not like smoke. |