The Light of the Western Stars

Name: The Light of the Western Stars
Author: Zane Grey

by Zane Grey

Pages: about 448
Category: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Reading time: 8.2 h at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 4.6 h at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

When Madeline Hammond stepped from the train at El Cajon, New Mexico, it was nearly midnight, and her first impression was of a huge dark space of cool, windy emptiness, strange and silent, stretching away under great blinking white stars.
“Miss, there’s no one to meet you,” said the conductor, rather anxiously.
“I wired my brother,” she replied. “The train being so late—perhaps he grew tired of waiting. He will be here presently. But, if he should not come—surely I can find a hotel?”
“There’s lodgings to be had. Get the station agent to show you. If you’ll excuse me—this is no place for a lady like you to be alone at night. It’s a rough little town—mostly Mexicans, miners, cowboys. And they carouse a lot. Besides, the revolution across the border has stirred up some excitement along the line. Miss, I guess it’s safe enough, if you—”
As the train started to glide away Miss Hammond walked towards the dimly lighted station. As she was about to enter she encountered a Mexican with sombrero hiding his features and a blanket mantling his shoulders.
“No sabe, Senora,” he replied from under the muffling blanket, and he shuffled away into the shadow.
She entered the empty waiting-room. An oil-lamp gave out a thick yellow light. The ticket window was open, and through it she saw there was neither agent nor operator in the little compartment. A telegraph instrument clicked faintly.
Madeline Hammond stood tapping a shapely foot on the floor, and with some amusement contrasted her reception in El Cajon with what it was when she left a train at the Grand Central. The only time she could remember ever having been alone like this was once when she had missed her maid and her train at a place outside of Versailles—an adventure that had been a novel and delightful break in the prescribed routine of her much-chaperoned life. She crossed the waiting-room to a window and, holding aside her veil, looked out.

A short sample. Read the whole book

The Light of the Western Stars

From the opening

More to read