The Blood-Red Road to Petra

Начало книги

Hideous treachery fed embers of hate that smoldered still within ancient, evil ruins — treachery that threatened to blast Bill Barnes from the sky!

By

A HALF DOZEN little puffs of dust, that were running ostriches, fled before the slow-moving caravan. Heat rose from the hot desert sands like blasts from a fiery furnace. The only sounds were the rustle of the camels' feet and the dull, dead shifting of the sand as it crept slowly westward before the hot, dry wind.

As the sun plunged toward the sea of sand the breathless wind became a half gale. It whipped sand eddies into the cracked lips and chapped faces of the two men who led that long, thin line of pack camels. The Bedouins astride the baggage and riding camels drew their head cloths tighter across their noses, pulled the brow folds forward like visors, leaving only a slit from which their granular, burning eyes peered.

Their cartridge belts held their brightly colored cloaks tight at the waist to keep out the swirling sands. They wore their long rifles slung across their shoulders, and from their belts protruded the hilts of their ever-present daggers.

Читать дальше →