Page 222

By Jack Joseph Smith

their walking would take them down from the expan- sive vantage-point. Actually the shotgun man had made a fairly wide circle-sweep when he had first stepped out of the car, but Prankster had seen it as merely an attempt at being a sentinel... But now it was to late; and Prankster decidely kept his emotions to the barren, close to the earth, twisted nature of things, which heaved out of the separ- ation between ocean and desert along the mountains North of Los Angeles. First they passed a shack. Then another. More like lean too's these. Raw wood worn, then colored with time by tiny bits of red windclay. Then they approa- ched a small village of shacks, that were standing on stilts. He supposed the stilts were for keeping out snakes, and other wild life that moved close to the ground. So this was not a medow at all, but a walked down sod street. Across from the row of shacks, about fifty yards due west was a grove of low twisting trees. (Madrone) and Prankster thought the trunks and branches of the trees twisted like snakes. Knarled and wild they were, and somehow being of a STRANGE principle to the SECRET people here,

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The canyon settlement appears first as rough shelter and then as a secret social order, making Prankster realize too late that he has entered someone else's terrain.

The page turns geography into social pressure. The descent away from the vantage point, the shacks on stilts, and the twisted Madrone trees all make the place feel both improvised and governed by rules Prankster does not know. The handwritten STRANGE and SECRET intensify that sense of a local order hidden inside the landscape.

Claude

Prankster realizes 'it was to late' and steadies himself on 'the barren, close to the earth, twisted nature of things' between 'ocean and desert along the mountains North of Los Angeles.' The settlement resolves in stages - first 'a shack,' then 'lean too's' of 'Raw wood worn... colored with time by tiny bits of red windclay,' then 'a small village of shacks... standing on stilts,' which he guesses are 'for keeping out snakes,' so the place 'was not a medow at all, but a walked down sod street.' The grove of 'Madrone' across the way has trunks that 'twisted like snakes. Knarled and wild,' and the handwritten intensifiers make them 'of a STRANGE principle to the SECRET people here' - improvised poverty revealed as a hidden local order governed by rules Prankster does not know.