In the Dwellings of the Wilderness - I904 - In the Dwellings of the Wilderness - CHAPTER I Wn tbe Dark Sackwarb anb IElb ern o l afme Merritt lay flat on his back, his hands behind his head, staring out over the desert into the painted sunset sky. Off to the right were the excavations, gap ing like raw wounds in the monotone In the Dark Backward P P P P of brown desert sand huge mounds of out-flung earth, monstrous and grotesque, deep pits and chasms with sloping ridges and embankments in the great mound called by the Arabs the Mound of the Lost City, which overtopped and dominated all the rest, wide trenches, long and deep, cutting far into the hidden heart of it, by which men had ascended from and descended to what lay below. To the left were the small army of labourers, camped behind one of the smaller untapped mounds, intent upon their meagre supper of parched corn, The bluish smoke of a fire rose from behind a jutting breastwork of earth where Ibraheem, the overseer, was making the thick, fragrant coffee of his land. Already the loneliness of coming night was upon the earth al-2 In the Dark Backward ready the sun had dipped below the deserts rim, and the fierce colour of the sky was fading. Away to the east, behind the camps, far to the edge of the world, the shadow of darkness was racing with swift, silent strides. Deane sat down beside Merritts prostrate figure, He was tall, and deepchested, and thin-flanked, with a certain gravity about him which made him appear older than his years. His eyes were brown and quiet, his hair a brownish red, remarkably stiff and wiry about his mouth were faint lines of humour. Merritt, short and thin and tough as whit-leather, grey of hair and keen of face, moved a hand from beneath his head, tilted back the hat that hid his face, and looked up at Deane, 3 In the Dark Backward - pp Wheres Holloway he inquired. He took his camera early this afternoon and said he was going to get some views of what weve uncovered of the North Temple, Deane replied. Seems to me we ought to find more tablets in there somewhere - well-preserved ones. This place is modern compared with some of the sites of other cities weve come across. He eyed the excavations with interest, eager to probe the depths of their ancient mystery. Also he wished that Holloway would return. Holloway was young and ardently imaginative, and one could talk to him about the spell of fascination which this mighty grave held for one, the thoughts of greatness risen and passed away and lost which it conjured up. One 4 In the Dark Backward could not easily talk to Merritt thus, be cause Merritt was an old hand at the business, eminently practical and hard as rocks, and matter-of-fact to his fingerends, apt to confuse sentiment with sentimentality and consequently despise it. The sun sank below the horizon and swiftly the world grew dark. From the mens camp came a mournful chant, subdued, and heard as from far away, and the measured thump of a drum. At intervals a donkey raised his voice, after the manner of a sawshrieking its way through wood. With the darkness came the stars, leaping into the black arch of heaven, great and of a number beyond all counting the night-wind turned the heat of the day to sudden coolness, sweeping 5 In the Dark Backward softly among the ruins. The mounds of earth, softened in outline by the darkness, loomed vast and shadowlike, melting into the sombre mystery of the night...