She took another deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, something had changed. The sky in the west had been filled with fluffy white clouds; they were still fluffy, but now they were crimson. "It's not my imagination, is it?" she asked. "Isn't the sun setting?"

"Yeah, but it takes a while," David said. *We'll have plenty of time. Believe me, I wouldn't climb around up there in the dark."

^Well, that's good to know," Jenny said. She wished the sun would just drop quickly out of sight instead of putting on such a long show.

They were on a straight dirt road that led to the bottom of the bluff now, and Jenny could see that it had turned a fiery red like the clouds.

"It's a beautiful sight, isn't it?" David said, pulling the car to a stop. "I've probably seen it like this thousands of times, but I don't think I'll ever get tired of it."

Jenny couldn't argue with that. The bluff really was beautiful. Bathed in crimson light, it soared toward the sky like some monument to a primitive

god, and she suddenly thought of those flat-topped pyramids of ancient South American cultures. Then she tried to remember if those were the ones used for human sacrifices. Then she realized she'd better stop thinking like that or she'd turn into a mass of quivering nerves and buckling knees and she'd fall for sure.

"Ready?" David said.

Jenny straightened her shoulders and breathed deeply. "Ready."

The first thing she noticed was that the rocks were warm, which shouldn't have surprised her, since the sun was shining directly on them and had been all day. But she'd expected them to be cold, and somehow their heat made them less frightening. Of course, any snakes that happened to live around there might still be out, warming themselves, she remembered. And if they weren't out, then they were in the shadowed nooks and crannies, which she eyed very carefully.

The second thing she noticed was that David wasn't always below her. In fact, most of the time he was above her, stopping now and then to reach out a hand and pull her up to some minute space which he claimed was level. His hands were strong, and in spite of being scared, Jenny enjoyed the contact.

"I think I see something," David said suddenly as they perched next to each other on a small jutting platform of sandstone.

"How?" Jenny asked. And that's when she noticed the third thing: The light had changed again. The rocks were still warm, but she couldn't feel the sun's heat on her back anymore; the shadows had lengthened and a wind had come up. "I see something, too," she said. "It's getting dark."

*T)on't worry, it won't last long."

"It won't? I always thought it lasted about twelve hours," Jenny said.

"This isn't night yet," David told her. "It's dark because of the clouds."

Sure enough, when Jenny looked behind her, she saw a mass of dark clouds rolling over the western side of the bluff. Those are not the same cottony clouds that were here half an hour ago," she remarked. *Those clouds are definitely wicked-looking."