第三章
老頭兒歎了一口氣，又咳嗽起來。白天酷熱、夜晚又寒冷的沙漠氣候，毀了他的支氣管和肺，他患了嚴重的哮喘病，腰腿也日益不中用了。
“爸爸，你那隻沙孤要是能變人就好了。”沙柳幾分飽鬱地望著迷蒙的沙佗深處，“傳說狐狸不是能變美女的嗎？爸，狐狸有沒有變小夥子的？”
老沙頭無言地看了一眼女兒。他臉上的幾層幹硬的皺褶似乎加深了。他突然感到女兒大了，這裏拴不住她年輕的心了，他想找機會要roan animal under a bush, a young, limping sandfox that must have been hurt by a big animal andcome to the deserted dunes to nurse its wound.When the fox yelped at him, he had instinctivelyraised his gun, when his heart had leapt at a newdiscovery. That little fox had a rat in its mouth,and there were rat legs and tails scattered outsideits den. As the fact came home to him, he hadslowly put down his gun and retreated. The ar-rival of this stranger who could tackle the ratsand protect the desert plants better than he couldhad pleased him. His respect for an animal hehad not liked up till then had risen mightily whena technician at the center had told him that asand fox ate three thousand rats a year. He hadbuilt a den in a bush for the fox, which hadmade its home there. After its wound hadhealed, it had sometimes gone away for a fewmonths but always returned to the place, a re-treat perhaps from two-legged and four-leggedhunters. It liked the dunes as well as the old mandid, and between them had grown a mutual un-derstanding that neither would hurt the other butlive peacefully together deep in the desert andkeep each other company.求大胡子主任把她調到場部去。他一直害怕這一天的到來，心頭一陣淒然。本來他心裏清楚，能陪伴他終生的隻有沙漠這頭妖魔，還有這隻老沙狐。自從命運把他拋到這裏，他就發現自己跟這頭妖魔有著打不散的緣分。他一直有某種預感， 自己終生坎坷，父母慘死，家破人亡……都跟這頭妖魔有關，都是它在暗中作崇。自己關裏關外闖蕩半生，最終又落到這裏，也是這頭妖魔招來的。他倒沒有畏懼感，有的隻是一股冰冷的仇恨。他又抬頭瞧著那輪異樣的太陽。圍在太陽下層的那團白色煙塵，正在變得濃稠，似乎在緩慢而沉重地移動。老沙頭捶捶腰，嘴裏又嘀咕起來：“你這頭妖魔嗬，誰把你從瓶子裏放出來的？哦哦，你又要發作了……”
“喂 ！老沙頭！”
突然，從東邊不遠的他們家門口傳來呼喊。那裏出現了兩個騎馬的人，其中一個摘下帽子向他們揮動著。
“啊？來人了？爸，咱們家來客人了！”女兒驚喜地叫起來。
“啊？來了，誰呢？”老沙頭揉著眼睛費力
Now both were old. Pregnant again, thesand fox was giving birth in some secret retreat.He mustn't search for her, as a female animalwas so very protective of her young. All he coulddo was catch rats and leave them on her track.