r
he had no doubt but that he should find one of that profession there.

He took little heed to the monotonous view around him, until suddenly he
saw in the distance what appeared to be a low-hanging cloud; then he
said to himself that if a shower should spring up the sun's face would
be covered, and the heat, which was now very great, must be lessened.

As this cloud advanced, descending to the sands while it rose toward
the heavens, it grew more black; and on either side were long columns
of seeming vapor rising, and as rapidly disappearing.

Then across the darkness on that portion of the horizon something
bright moved swiftly, as if a flash of lightning had passed over the
face of the cloud; and in an instant the sun and the sky were shut out
from view.

Now the clouds took on the appearance of a dense black fog, coming up
from the southward over the desert, until Dick was seemingly looking
at a gigantic wall, over the face of which shone now and then bright
flashes of light.

There was a shrieking and moaning in the air, so it seemed to the
startled boy; and he failed to understand the meaning of this strange
scene, until, the impenetrable wall having come so near, he could see
that what appeared like flashes of light were gigantic columns of sand
springing high in the air with fantastic shapes, and glinted by the
sun from above the apparent vapor, until they were swallowed up in the
enormous bank of cloud behind them.

Then it was Dick knew the meaning of this terrible danger which
threatened him.

It was a storm of sand. "Dancing giants" some have termed it, and
others speak of it as the "hot blizzard."

As if in an instant the dancing, swirling columns and the rushing
cloud of sand, which swayed to and fro in fantastic movements,
surrounded him.

He was in the centre of a cyclone freighted with particles of sand.

The wind roared until one might have believed he heard the crash of
thunder.

Dick halted, terrified, bewildered; and as he came to a standstill, it
seemed to him that the clouds on every hand lowered until he could see
the blue sky above. Then with a shriek from the wind the very sand
beneath his feet rose and fell like billows of the sea.

The tempest was upon him.

He shielded his eyes with his arm; but the stinging, heated particles
sought out every inch of his body, and his clothing afforded but
little protection.

The sand penetrated his ears and nostrils, and burned his lips u