They would probably be distracted at his nonarrival, but--this was business, too.

And she would drive out to get him.

There would be the long ride back.

Far away across the undulating prairie fields the horizon was broken by a low, dark barricade, the massed derricks of the town-site pool.

So thickly were they grouped that they resembled a dense forest of high, black pines, and not until Gray drew closer could he note that this strange forest was leafless.
By now the roads were quagmires, and the unceasing current of traffic had thickened and slowed down until Gray's car rocked and plunged through a hub-deep channel of slime.