Part 9 (2/2)
For the first two hours, the fluffy yellow earth offered no serious obstacle to their passage, except that the narrow solid tyres cut in deeply and created a wearying drag that kept the speed down below ten ears
Then the earth firmed, but was streith black stone that had been rounded and polished by the grit-laden wind and varied in size fros Their speed dropped away a little more as the cars bounced and jolted over this murderous surface, and the black rock threw the heat back at theine-louvres wide open Though all of the Vicky, had stripped to their underwear, still they ran with sweat that dried almost immediately it oozed froh it was painted white, would blister the hand that touched it, and the engine heat and stench of hot oil and fuel in the driver's co unbearable as the sun climbed to its zenith
An hour before noon, Priscilla the Pig blew the safety valve on her radiator and sent a shrieking pluneto and stopped her immediately He climbed, half-naked and shi+ny with sweat, from the turret and shaded his eyes to peer out across the wavering heat-distorted plain There was no horizon in this haze and visibility was uncertain after a few hundred yards
Even the other vehicles lu far behind him seemed monstrous and unreal
He waited for the others to coo on in this the engine oil will be thin as water, and we'll ruin all the bearings if we try
We'll wait for it to cool a little” Thankfully, they climbed from the cars and crawled into the shade of the chassis where they lay panting like dogs Jake went down the line with a five-gallon tin of blood-warave the on the blanket beside Vicky
”It's too hot to walk back to race,one more button of her half-open blouse
Jake wet his handkerchief from the water can and offered it to her Gratefully, she wiped her neck and face and sighed with pleasure
”It's too hot to sleep,” she rinned, and she laughed
”I said it's too hot Let's talk”
”About ”About you Tell me about you what part of Texas are you from?”
”All of it Wherever led cattle, and rode rodeo”
”Sounds fun” Jake shrugged
”I preferred machines to horses”
”Then?”
”There was this war, and they needed o home?”
”Pa was dead a steer fell on hio collect his old saddle and blanket” They were silent for a while, just lying and riding the solid waves of heat that came off the earth
”Tell me about your dream, Jake,” she said at last
”My dream?”
”Everybody has a dreaot a dreaine, the Barton engine
It's all there” He tapped his forehead ”All I need is the ether
Nearly had it a couple of tiested
”Perhaps” He shook his head ”I've been too sure too h”
”Tell erly for ten ht, econo, water pu”
He was intent, happy, she saw ”I'd only need a sht about Fort Worth-” he stopped hi on a bit”
”No,” she said quickly ”I enjoyed listening I hope it works out for you, Jake” He nodded ”Thanks And they rode the heat for a few more minutes in companionable silence
”What's your dreahtly
”No, tell me,”he insisted
”There is this book It's a novel I have thought about it for years I have written it in my head a hundred times all I have to do is find the time and the place to write it on paper--2 she broke off, and then laughed again ”And then, of course, it sounds corny but I think about kids and a ho”
”I knohat you ot, ”he said thoughtfully ”Better than mine” Gareth Swales heard the murmur of their voices and raised hiht seriously about crossing the dozen yards of sunbaked black stones to where they lay but the effort required was just too much and he fell back A fist-sized rock jarred his kidneys and he cursed quietly
It was five o'clock before Jake judged they could start the engines again They refuelled from the cans strapped on the sponsons, and oncepace over the rough surface, each jolt shaking driver and vehicle cruelly
Two hours later, the plain of black boulders ended abruptly, and beyond it stretched an area of low red sand hills Thankfully Jake increased speed and the column sped towards a sunset that was inflamed by the dust-laden sky until it filled half the heavens with great swirls of purple and pink and fla scar lets The desert wind dropped and the air was still and heavy withdark shadow behind it and threw up a fat rolling sausage of red dust into the air above it
The night fell with the tropical suddenness that is alarentle dusks of the northern continents
Jake calculated that they had covered less than twenty miles in a day of travel and he was reluctant to call a halt, now that they had hit this level going and were bowling along with engine teht and the drivers” te off Orion's belt as the easiest constellation, then he switched on the headlights and looked back to see that the others had followed his exahts threw a brilliant path a hundred yards ahead of Jake's car, giving him plenty of time to avoid the odd thick clurey desert hare, dazzling it so that its eyes blazed diaed, ahead of the car, see and doubling with its long floppy ears laid along its back, until at the last instant it ducked out from under the wheels and dived into the darkness
He was just deciding to call a halt for food and drink, with a possible further radually and in the headlights he saw ahead of hi white expanse of perfectly level sand, as s circuit
Jake changed up into high gear for the first tierly for a hundred yards before the thick hard crust of the salt pan collapsed and the heavy chassis fell through, belly deep, floundering instantly so that Jake was thrown violently forward at the abrupt halt, striking his shoulder and forehead painfully on the steel visor
The engine shrieked in the frenzy of high revolutions and lifting valves before Jake recovered hied hi vehicles, and then ed vehicle Gareth walked out across the snowy surface of the pan, and stood beside hie silently
”Let hier and frustration He felt his hands curling into big bony hammers
”Cheroot?” Gareth offered hihtly
”Good place to ca her out in the ” He clapped Jake's shoulder ”Co for you to say so on you ”Jake shook his head grinning with surprise at Gareth's perception