José — page 158: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JOSE. 151 and with increased speed was borne onward by her pony. She had possibly gone two miles between mounds and barren sand-stone formations, rising ever higher on both sides of her, when the “sink” which she had hitherto pursued, ended abruptly at the foot of a perpendicular cliff, forcing the harassing convic- tion upon her that-she had been traversing the bottom of aravine for more than a half hour past, whose right course it was impossible to determine. Her next thought was the river, the only land- mark that could serve to guide her to her destina- tion. She dismounted, and leading her horse by the bridle after her, she began descending the most favorable side of the cliff. A wonderful mixture of hills, valleys and gulches, here and there sparsely covered with grass and dwarfed trees, varying with broad strips of blinding white sand and grotesque weather-beaten rock formations, lay exposed to view, far as the eye could reach; while of the river not a trace could be detected. A painful sensation of utter helplessness began to pervade the girl’s heart as she swept a glance roundabout. To return the way she had come was little better than to plunge aimlessly into the labyrinth around her, since she had no thought at what point she first entered the ravine, no knowledge whither it would lead her. It seemed to her, moreover, that every step back was a step toward surrendering afresh to the situation,she had just escaped. Breathless silence reigned all around. Not the cry of a bird could be heard, not a leaf stirred. ‘The sky was a dark, impenetrable mass of fog, in which even the last faint glow of the sun had vanished. The air was oppressively warm, and even the pony Eomichooks (E(e)