It seemed strange that such barrenness
could exhibit this radiance of color, but nothing could have been more
beautiful than the deep red of the higher bluffs and ridges, seamed with
purple shadows, standing sharply out against the pale-blue whiteness of
the horizon.
By nine o'clock the sun stood high in the sky. The heat was intense; the
atmosphere was thick and heavy with it. McTeague gasped for breath and
wiped the beads of perspiration from his forehead, his cheeks, and his
neck. Every inch and pore of his skin was tingling and pricking under
the merciless lash of the sun's rays.
"If it gets much hotter," he muttered, with a long breath, "if it gets
much hotter, I--I don' know--" He wagged his head and wiped the sweat
from his eyelids, where it was running like tears.
The sun rose higher; hour by hour, as the dentist tramped steadily on,
the heat increased. The baked dry sand crackled into innumerable tiny
flakes under his feet. The twigs of the sage-brush snapped like brittle
pipestems as he pushed through them. It grew hotter. At eleven the earth
was like the surface of a furnace; the air, as McTeague breathed it in,
was hot to his lips and the roof of his mouth.
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