Rose of the Desert by Roumelia Lane Read Free Book Online

the wellhead raged day and night and it was possible to read a book at midnight from its glare. Clay and the men stayed with it, battling against tremendous odds, and when Julie thought of those jagged columns of flame searing the land and the sky, she found herself secretly praying for Clay's safety.
    She scraped whatever information she could from the odd man who drove in for equipment, and on the third day was relieved to hear that the fire was under control. With the aid of explosives and gallons of water used to spray the men and the asbestos canopy as they moved in to survey the damage, Clay was now in a position to clamp on a huge valve, which would eventually bottle up the gas. Breathing a sigh of relief, Julie was able to give her full attention once again to her office duties.
    Dr. Rahmid packed his things and came to bid her a formal goodbye, his eyes filled with a mixture of resignation and relief—perhaps, Julie thought, because someone else had made the decision for him. He hung around his bungalow waiting for whatever transport would prove available, and it came rather unexpectedly from outside quarters.
    Murray Purnell, locust control officer, was a thin six- footer with light sandy hair and a pair of intense blue eyes. He dropped in at the camp and dug in as though it was his second home, and took Julie in his stride as though she were just one of a female community, instead of the only woman in a world of men. He enquired after Clay and Steve and men she had never heard of, and wandered around the office munching a duck sandwich and rattling on as though he had known her for years.
    They ate together in the evening at Clay's bungalow, with the doctor a rather morose third party, and afterwards Murray expounded his theories on insects generally, and locusts in particular. As Julie was to learn, the gleam in the blue eyes burned all the more intensely at the mere mention of the name locust.
    "Do you know," he said, pointing a finger at her, "that locusts represent a very grave threat to the country? One thousand million insects, that's how many there are in one swarm of locusts. Each eats its own weight from any green thing they can get their jaws around. Just imagine, its own weight, in one day! Once they completely devoured every living green thing in an oasis about eighty miles south of here. Now the trees bear no fruit, and the date harvest is too meagre to bother with."
    "Can't you do anything about it?" Julie asked, her eyes suitably wide and concerned.
    Murray relaxed and grinned, running a hand through his hair.
    "Oh, we'll lick 'em. We're working with an insecticide at the moment, but what a sight when they all settle on the bushes—they're like green clouds! "
    Julie was afraid he was going to go all intense again, but he stopped to think and then said suddenly,
    "Tell you what, why don't you come out with me to Jalda tomorrow? There's a swarm of locusts settled about eight miles from the oasis. You'd have a grandstand view."
    Julie smiled a polite refusal.
    "Why not?" Murray persisted. "I shall be driving the doctor to Jalda. He'll he able to pick up a connection there back to Tripoli. My men won't be out for at least another day. I'll have ample time to drive you back."
    Julie..studied. She was well in front with her work in the office, and it would be nice to get away from the camp for a few hours. Why shouldn't she take time off to see something of the desert?
    "All right," she responded brightly, "I'll come."
    "Fine. Be ready about six in the morning. We want to get going before the sun gets too much."
     
    They set off when the sky was black and the stars shone with no inkling that a new day was about to be thrust upon them. It was bitterly cold, and Julie stepped into Murray's Land Rover swathed in woollies and her hooded anorak. She couldn't help thinking how ridiculous it seemed to have to wrap up like this when in a few hours she would be only too glad to strip down to the sleeveless linen