Project Gutenberg 2014-01-17 Public domain in the USA. 231 Ritchie, Robert Welles 1879 1942 Dust of the Desert Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Dust of the Desert" by Robert Welles Ritchie is a novel written in the early 20th century. The story unfolds in the harsh, untamed landscape of the desert, focusing on themes of adventure, romance, and the clash of cultures. The narrative introduces several characters, including the spirited Benicia O'Donoju, the impulsive Red One (El Rojo), and the determined engineer Grant Hickman, whose lives intertwine amidst the backdrop of the great American Southwest. The opening of the novel sets the tone with a historical prologue about the "Road of the Dead Men," hinting at themes of exploration and peril. It describes the return of the O'Donoju family to the Mission of the Four Evangelists for a ceremony, introducing Benicia, the daughter who longs for her home in the desert. As the family's strong-willed lineage is established, El Rojo’s unexpected arrival disrupts the peace, hinting at a troubled family history intertwined with tragedy and romance. Grant Hickman, on his journey to Arizona, accidentally intervenes in a dispute involving Benicia, setting off a chain of events that will connect all characters in an intricate story of love, betrayal, and survival against the backdrop of the unforgiving desert landscape. (This is an automatically generated summary.) file:///public/vhost/g/gutenberg/html/files/44691/44691-h/images/cover.jpg Reading ease score: 77.9 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. en Western stories Southwest, New -- Fiction PS Text Browsing: Culture/Civilization/Society Browsing: Literature Browsing: Fiction Category: Romance Category: Adventure Category: Novels Category: American Literature 407973 2025-06-18T07:44:28.243556 text/html 394985 2024-10-24T00:50:42 text/html 314022 2025-06-18T07:44:34.541557 application/epub+zip 316958 2025-06-18T07:44:29.356491 application/epub+zip 241910 2025-06-18T07:44:28.811446 application/epub+zip 447633 2025-06-18T07:44:39.220524 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 402326 2025-06-18T07:44:33.935614 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 327884 2022-09-20T12:01:34.473882 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 368831 2025-06-18T07:44:27.471464 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 349024 2024-10-24T00:50:42 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16467 2025-06-18T07:44:39.379610 application/rdf+xml 17891 2025-06-18T07:44:28.911435 image/jpeg 2724 2025-06-18T07:44:28.860515 image/jpeg 292725 2025-06-18T07:44:28.285490 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog