TO AGUA CALIENTE 253 



a narrow belt of horizon, and met the indigo of the 

 upper sky, where the stars still shone, with scarcely 

 a tinge of change. Then over the crimson came a 

 glow of gold. The stars grew pale and suddenly were 

 quenched, while the gold gathered into one spot of 

 quivering glory intolerably bright. A moment of 

 crisis, and — up strode The Sun and began flinging 

 abroad his terrible largesse. Well, Tyrant, I am but 

 a puny son of one of thy puny planets, but — hark: 

 I defy thee! 



The day was helped along by occasional visits to 

 the largest of the springs, where a bathing-hole has 

 been formed, I do not know whether by Nature or 

 man. A tall rock made a slip of shade where we hud- 

 dled between times. The horses strayed from Ber- 

 muda grass to screw-beans and back, or lay wonder- 

 ing what would be the penalty to-morrow for this 

 unwonted ease to-day. At evening, after watching 

 all day the dull changes on the colorless hills, I was 

 once again startled by the magic of sunset. Leagues 

 of gray slope and plain, that had seemed thrice dead, 

 drained of color, were changed in a breath to hues 

 the most enchanting and spiritual. With no divinity 

 at work, could mere physics, laws of refraction and 

 so forth, achieve this heavenly splendor by blind, 

 automatic result? 



