be

He hadn't shown up too well in their eyes, letting himself be browbeaten by a woman.

I'll be down at the creek finishing the dishes, if you want me ''.

The coyote was calling again, and he hoped that this time there would be no other sounds to interrupt it.

There would still be plenty of moments of regret and sadness and guilty relief.

) hung on a hook on the wall, and underneath it I could see his tie, knotted, ready to be slipped over his head, a black badge of frayed respectability that ought never to have left his neck.

Noticing my disappointment he attempted to salvage what scraps and shreds of authority he felt might still be clinging to his person.

They, and the two large fans which I could dimly see as daylight filtered through their vents, down at the far end of the hall, could be turned on by a master switch situated inside the office.

Having nothing else to do except wait for my forms to be processed, I gave myself over to speculations concerning the hall itself.

This light did not penetrate very far back into the hall, and my eyes were hindered rather than aided by the dim daylight entering through the fan vents when I tried to pick out whatever might be lying, or squatting, on the floor below.

I wished to prepare myself but did not even know what sort of clothes I ought to be wearing.

Its front was windowless, but irregularities in the masonry might be an indication that windows, now blinded, had once looked out upon the street.

The staircase itself seemed still to be echoing the heavy footfalls of many men.

He had been worried that with Miller and Rankin added to the escape party they would be short.

`` Bury those uniforms so they won't be found ''.

They'll be there waiting for you.

Their roar, like the swelling volume of a hundred tornadoes could be heard for miles.

She had offered to walk, but Pamela knew she would not feel comfortable about her child until she had personally confided her to the care of the little pink woman who chose to be called `` Auntie ''.

She must be cautious so as not to alert the scheming forest.

If she, Pamela, were being held responsible for his crimes, then hers must be the final act of expiation.

Atonement, if atonement were possible, could only be made at that sacred, sacrificial basin.

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.

she must be poised and proud and unafraid in order to prove to the mountain that she was in earnest.

Indian ghosts would not impinge upon his nights, nor would his days be haunted by the dimly-outlined, ill-conceived figure of her benighted ancestor.

Bushes and vines abetted the rocks in forming thorny detours for the struggling stranger, and without the direct light of the sun to act as compass, Pamela could no longer be positive of her direction.