Not a twig rattled, not an insect hummed, not a bird or beast invaded that huge solitude with call or cry.

Everything as far as the eye could reach, to north, to south, to east, and west, lay inert, absolutely quiet and moveless under the remorseless scourge of the noon sun.

The very shadows shrank away, hiding under sage-bushes, retreating to the farthest nooks and crevices in the canyons of the hills.

All the world was one gigantic blinding glare, silent, motionless.

"If it gets much hotter," murmured the dentist again, moving his head from side to side, "if it gets much hotter, I don' know what I'll do." Steadily the heat increased.