[Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace]@TWC D-Link bookBen-Hur: A Tale of the Christ CHAPTER I 9/11
So, too, the condition of the atmosphere changed. The sun, high risen, had drunk his fill of dew and mist, and warmed the breeze that kissed the wanderer under the awning; far and near he was tinting the earth with faint milk-whiteness, and shimmering all the sky. Two hours more passed without rest or deviation from the course. Vegetation entirely ceased.
The sand, so crusted on the surface that it broke into rattling flakes at every step, held undisputed sway.
The Jebel was out of view, and there was no landmark visible. The shadow that before followed had now shifted to the north, and was keeping even race with the objects which cast it; and as there was no sign of halting, the conduct of the traveller became each moment more strange. No one, be it remembered, seeks the desert for a pleasure-ground. Life and business traverse it by paths along which the bones of things dead are strewn as so many blazons.
Such are the roads from well to well, from pasture to pasture.
The heart of the most veteran sheik beats quicker when he finds himself alone in the pathless tracts. So the man with whom we are dealing could not have been in search of pleasure; neither was his manner that of a fugitive; not once did he look behind him.
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