He had found them miles off, miles and miles--with a weak
wave of his hand toward the south--near an alkaline spring where he
supposed they had been drinking. The other couldn't move, this one he
had dragged along with him. The men turned their attention to the
horse, which, with swollen body and drooping head, looked as if it
might soon follow its mate. They touched it, and spoke together, brows
knit over the trouble, not paying any attention to David, who, back in
the flesh, was sufficiently accounted for.
Susan was horrified by his appearance. She had never seen him look so
much a haggard stranger to himself. He was prostrate with fatigue, and
throughout the day he had nursed a sense of bitter injury. Now back
among them, seeing the outspread signs of their rest, and with the good
smell of their food in his nostrils, this rose to the pitch of
hysterical rage, ready to vent itself at the first excuse. The sight
of the girl, fresh-skinned from a wash in the river, instead of
soothing, further inflamed him. Her glowing well-being seemed bought
at his expense. Her words of concern spoke to his sick ear with a note
of smug, unfeeling complacence.
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