it was certainly keeping the lid on things . and the brown metal of the iron turtle . i was too tired to make the effort to eat and pushed the plate away , the tomato safe for now . for one crazy moment he wanted to say the hell with going back to the ranch house . i would have thought he would have jumped at the chance . the structure was a mass of red that seemed to stretch out as far as the eye could see . they have to take twice as many steps as i do . 