At the end of this road the concrete stopped abruptly and we slid down a dirt slope to a dirt terrace, then down another slope, and a barricade of what looked like four-by-fours painted white loomed across the dirt road.

The chunky man had stopped a few hundred yards away, and his figure was plain against a dirt slope.

Someone stepped out from behind a tree, up at the edge of the culvert, and walked slowly down the dirt slope toward him.

He half-slid and half-ran down the dirt slope, skidding to a halt when he reached the red, baked earth at the bottom.

And leaning against the dirt slope of the hill was a woman with a mercy gun.

The little guy's filthy brown hair whipped back and forth as he ran through briars, splashed through creeks, and vaulted over rocks in his panicked flight, and his bare feet were quick and sure, even up dirt slopes.

Only when "City" is finished - Heizer predicts it could take another decade to complete the 15 miles of concrete curbs that delineate the mounds and shore up the dirt slopes - will the public be invited.

Jimmy and Stanton had regained the top of the dirt slope and on a three count began to haul Silva upward.

So will their bats, their gloves, the dimensions of the infield, the distance to the fences and, especially, the height of the pitcher's mound, the usually unnoticed dirt slope that here appears to be a pedestal.

They climbed the dirt slope again, heading back outside.