When they were closer and he saw that one was a woman, he was more puzzled than ever.

Morgan hesitated, thinking that if this was a trick, it was a good one.

There was no one but me.

The pony herd was the one flaw in our defense ; ;

Next to him was a young boy I was sure had sat near me at one of the trading sessions.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and went down on one knee, taking her weight so that some of the wind was driven out of him.

There was only one place where Jake Carwood's description had gone badly awry: the peace and quiet.

The town was about what Wilson expected: one main street with its rows of false-fronted buildings, a water tower, a few warehouses, a single hotel ; ;

only the counter at one end was lighted by a long fluorescent tube suspended directly above it.

In the mornings, I was informed, fluorescent tubes, similar to the one above the counter, illuminated the entire hall.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

The one thing they had in common was their hatred.

When they reached their neighbor's house, Pamela said a few polite words to Grace and kissed Melissa lightly on the forehead, the impulse prompted by a stray thought -- of the type to which she was frequently subject these days -- that they might never see one another again.

There was only one place where the mountain might receive her -- that unnamed, unnameable pool harbored in its secret bosom.

But she was caught in it, and she faced the terrible possibility that, if it were a dream, it was one from which she might never awaken.

That was another one of those traps.

At one and the same time, she was within it but still searching for the drawbridge that would give her entry.

All the doors were open at this hour except one, and it was toward this that Stevens made his way with Russ close at his shoulder.

An Ah coudn ansuh him an so Ah said ' Aw right, Ah gay-ess, an his fathuh didn uttuh one wohd an aftuh Huhmun was gone, the majuh laughed an tole me thet he an the bawh had been hevin an occasional drink t'gethuh f'ovuh a yeah, onleh an occasional one, but just the same it was behahn mah back, an Ah doan think thet's nahce at all, d'you ''??

Gavin's stallion was in the barn and he tightened the cinches over the saddle blanket, working by touch in the darkness, comforting the animal with easy words.

Cabot turned back to the men and he was drunk with the thing they would do, wild to break from the cloying warmth of the saloon into the cold of the ebbing night.

Gavin's face was bloodless with excitement.

Still, I was disgusted with myself for agreeing with Montero's methods.

His mouth was open, his neck corded with the strain of his screams.

Out in front of our walls the grass was covered with dead and dying men, war shields, lances, blankets and wounded and dead horses.

The morning air was filled with the sweetish odor of new-spilled blood, the acrid stench of frightened horses, and the bitterness of burned powder.

Above me a dark rider was whipping his pony with a quirt in an attempt to hurdle the bales.

He was shaking with anger, his breath coming in long, painful gasps.

It was, I felt, possible that they were men who, having received no tickets for that day, had remained in the hall, to sleep perhaps, in the corners farthest removed from the counter with its overhead light.

He was a man in his late forties, with graying hair, of medium height ; ;

It was partially cemented by ages and pressure, yet it crumpled before the onslaught of the powerful streams, the force of a thousand fire hoses, and with the gold it held washed down through the long sluices.

The man was tall, thin, with a narrow face and a too-large nose.

The ground was covered with soft pine needles and the slope was gentle.

Was it not possible, after all, that the forest was in league with her and her child that its sympathy lay with the Culvers that she had erred in failing to understand this??

She regarded them as signs that she was nearing the glen she sought, and she was glad to at last be doing something positive in her unenunciated, undefined struggle with the mountain and its darkling inhabitants.

Having persisted too long in deliberate ignorance and denial of the forces that threatened her, Pamela was relieved now to admit their potency and to be taking definite steps toward grappling with them.

Unconcerned, indifferent, unmotivated, the forest was simply there -- fighting man's depredations with more abundant growth and man's follies with its own musical evening laughter.

He was handsome, with his coal-black hair and eyes, his fine-chiseled features.

It was in 1814 that Abraham Wharf and his sister sat by a meager fire in their house on Dogtown Common, a desolate place even then.

The legend connected with its foundation is given by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo: a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island.

Shortly afterwards, in a chapter of the order held in 1293, the original monastery of Majella being judged to be too desolate and exposed to too rigorous a climate, it was decided that the monastery which had been founded in Sulmtona should be the headquarters of the order and the residence of the General-Superior, as it has continued to be to the present day.

The withdrawal of the Spanish from valleys of Chile was violent: Almagro authorized his soldiers to ransack the natives ' properties, leaving their soil desolate ; there was not one Spaniard that did not enslave a native for his service.

Upon presenting the painting to the convention, he said " Citizens, the people were again calling for their friend ; their desolate voice was heard: David, take up your brushes .., avenge Marat ...

It was initially conceived of in order to help minister to remote Amazon rainforest communities, but will also be marketed for visual pipeline inspection and other similar activities in desolate areas or difficult terrain.

According to the general interpretation John was also that " other disciple " who with Peter followed Christ after the arrest into the palace of the high-priest ( John 18: 15 ). Saint John alone remained near his beloved Master at the foot of the Cross on Calvary with the Mother of Jesus and the pious women, and took the desolate Mother into his care as the last legacy of Christ ( John 19: 25-27 ).

After developing within the space of little over a century from an intersection of rural thoroughfares into the most bustling traffic intersection in Europe, it was totally laid waste during World War II and then left desolate during the Cold War era when the Berlin Wall bisected its former location.

Orbison would later describe the major components of life in Wink as " Football, oil fields, oil, grease and sand ", and in later years expressed relief that he was able to leave the desolate town.

The song " Blue Valentines " was also unique for Waits in that it featured a desolate arrangement of solo electric guitar played by Ray Crawford, accompanied by Waits ' vocal.

The only care that occupied him until his last moment was the desolate condition of the Church.

By the 19th century, the site of the ancient city was wholly desolate, with the exception of a solitary guardhouse, and the ground for the most part thickly overgrown with shrubs and low brushwood ; but the remains of the walls could be distinctly traced throughout a great part of their circuit.

For much of their rule, the city was desolate in the Mamluk period between the 13th and 16th centuries.

Mordor was desolate and guarded by fortresses.

Westerns often portray how desolate and hard life was for frontier families.

Total Film magazine gave the film a five-star review, stating: " Peter Bogdanovich's desolate Texan drama is still as stunning now as it was in 1971.

The Monk was last seen marooned on a desolate, icy planet.

Under the Roman empire it was quite obscured by the restored cities of Corinth and Patrae ; in Pausanias ' age ( 150 AD ) it was almost desolate.

It then leads out of the valley and up on the moors to Ponden Hall ( reputedly Thrushcross Grange in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights ) and Top Withens, a desolate ruin which was reputedly the setting for the farmstead Wuthering Heights.

" Most of his work focuses on the Australian bush, such as the desolate " Past Carin '", and is considered by some to be among the first accurate descriptions of Australian life as it was at the time.

He wrote of William the Conqueror in Historia Anglorum: He was of just stature, ordinary corpulence, fierce countenance ; his forehead was bare of hair ; of such great strength of arm that it was often a matter of surprise, that no one was able to draw his bow, which himself could bend when his horse was in full gallop ; he was majestic whether sitting or standing, although the protuberance of his belly deformed his royal person ; of excellent health so that he was never confined with any dangerous disorder, except at the last ; so given to the pleasures of the chase, that as I have before said, ejecting the inhabitants, he let a space of many miles grow desolate that, when at liberty from other avocations, he might there pursue his pleasures.