“It’s a shame,” Bob shouted back. “But they can probably stand it better than we can.”
Slowly they found themselves enveloped in a heavy opaque atmosphere, so dense as to seem almost as a wall. The thought of being completely covered up was constantly in their minds, bringing about almost a feeling of despair.
The burning wind was constantly lashing them in the face, until it seemed that they could stand it no longer. Indeed, if their heavy goggles had not been of unbreakable glass, the furious particles of sand would have smashed them in the explorers’ eyes. Even as it was, some of the sand found its way in.
“This is terrible!” moaned Joe. “Awful—simply——”
He stopped suddenly, as his mouth became filled with sand. Another gust of wind had come, bringing with it an enormous quantity of the burning sand.
The explorers’ eyes were smarting, their lips were cracked and bleeding. They felt that they would smother. Nothing could have been worse, it seemed.
They could hear the dromedaries snorting with fear and irritation. What if the brutes could not stand?
Conversation was now impossible, for they dared not open their mouths for fear of swallowing some of the stinging sand. Even when they breathed, the fine particles filtered through the net that hung over their faces.
The sky above was of a bright red color, and a weird light trickled through the fog of yellow. It was the most unusual happening that the Americans had ever witnessed.