No soughing in theboughs of the spruces clustered
around the little camp.
They smelled of turpentine and revolted my
appetite. I smiled at that, for they had never been akin to me. Therefore, whatever
made the sounds is north of us.
Like that accursed drum-roll I had heard in the
secret temple of theGobi oasis two years ago! Time was marked by centuries in this
cemetery.
Go along, she said through the interpreter, and I
shall see.
Certain peculiarities inthe arrangement of the
lines of the palms might persist throughcenturies. Grandpa fetched it; his
locomotionwas very slow. Douse; she was a chieftainessin her own right, and had
great dignity. And it was as though I hadheard the echo of his words.
For two days from dawn till dark I worked down in
the old part ofthe village. This, too, theyseemed to take as something expected of
me. ButI did walk around the bend and up the hill, until the village wasnear. I had
thefeeling that it was here the real trail of my life began.
From the first we had recognized spiritualkinship.
Her eyesraked my face to see if I was talking straight. Partsof the Gobi and all the
Little Gobi might have been fertile as late astwo thousand years ago. Repacking, I
climbed over the back of the seat to Aleck.
Far across the water there appeared a tiny speck:
it grew and grew.