The Arizona Desert 



hunter, I was now fascinated. And now I was with 

 him in the desert and seeing him as he was, a simple, 

 quiet man, who fitted the mountains and the silences, 

 and the long reaches of distance. 



&quot; It does seem hard to believe all this about 

 Jones,&quot; remarked Judd, one of Emmett s men. 

 &quot; How could a man have the strength and the nerve? 

 And isn t it cruel to keep wild animals in captivity? 

 Isn t it against God s word? &quot; 



Quick as speech could flow, Jones quoted : &quot; And 

 God said, Let us make man in our image, and give 

 him dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of 

 the air, over all the cattle, and over every creeping 

 thing that creepeth upon the earth ! &quot; 



&quot;Dominion over all the beasts of the field!&quot; 

 repeated Jones, his big voice rolling out. He 

 clenched his huge fists, and spread wide his long 

 arms. &quot;Dominion! That was God s word !&quot; The 

 power and intensity of him could be felt. Then he 

 relaxed, dropped his arms, and once more grew calm. 

 But he had shown a glimpse of the great, strange 

 and absorbing passion of his life. Once he had 

 told me how, when a mere child, he had hazarded 

 limb and neck to capture a fox squirrel, how he had 

 held on to the vicious little animal, though it bit his 

 hand through; how he had never learned to play 

 the games of boyhood; that when the youths of the 



7 



