Part 7 (1/2)
”Go on, Mars Toood tale, and powerful interestin'”
”That's all,” Tom says
”ALL?” says Jim, astonished ”What 'come o' de camel?”
”I don't know”
”Mars Tom, don't de tale say?”
”No”
Jim puzzled a minute, then he says:
”Well! Ef dat ain't de beatenes' tale ever I struck Jist gits to de place whah de intrust is gittin' red-hot, en down she breaks Why, Mars Tom, dey ain't no SENSE in a tale dat acts like dat Hain't you got no IDEA whether de ot de camel back er not?”
”No, I haven't”
I see myself there warn't no sense in the tale, to chop square off that way before it co to say so, because I could see To up pretty fast over the way it flatted out and the way Jim had popped on to the weak place in it, and I don't think it's fair for everybody to pile on to a feller when he's down But Tom he whirls on me and says:
”What do YOU think of the tale?”
Of course, then, I had to come out and make a clean breast and say it did see as the tale stopped square in the ot to no place, it really warn't worth the trouble of telling
To mad, as I reckoned he'd be, to hear me scoff at his tale that way, he seemed to be only sad; and he says:
”Some people can see, and some can't--just as that one by, YOU duffers wouldn't 'a' noticed the track”
I don't knohat he meant by that, and he didn't say; it was just one of his irrulevances, I reckon--he was full of them, sometimes, when he was in a close place and couldn't see no other way out--but I didn't h, he couldn't git away froraveled him like the nation, too, I reckon, much as he tried not to let on
CHAPTER VIII THE DISAPPEARING LAKE
WE had an early breakfast in thedown on the desert, and the weather was ever so bah up You have to come doer and lower after sundown in the desert, because it cools off so fast; and so, by the ti only a little ways above the sand
We atching the shadder of the balloon slide along the ground, and now and then gazing off across the desert to see if anything was stirring, and then down on the shadder again, when all of a sudden al scattered about, perfectly quiet, like they was asleep
We shut off the power, and backed up and stood over theive us the cold shi+vers And it made us hush down, too, and talk low, like people at a funeral We dropped down slow and stopped, andthem There was men, and women, and children They was dried by the sun and dark and shriveled and leathery, like the pictures of mummies you see in books
And yet they looked just as human, you wouldn't 'a' believed it; just like they was asleep
Some of the people and animals was partly covered with sand, but most of theravel and hard
Most of the clothes had rotted away; and when you took hold of a rag, it tore with a touch, like spiderweb To there for years
Souns by the, silver-mounted pistols stuck in them All the camels had their loads on yet, but the packs had busted or rotted and spilt the freight out on the ground We didn't reckon the swords was any good to the dead people any more, so we took one apiece, and some pistols We took a small box, too, because it was so handsome and inlaid so fine; and then anted to bury the people; but there warn't no way to do it that we could think of, and nothing to do it with but sand, and that would bloay again, of course
Then we h and sailed away, and pretty soon that black spot on the sand was out of sight, and ouldn't ever see theain in this world We wondered, and reasoned, and tried to guess how they come to be there, and how it all happened to theot lost, and wandered around and about till their food and water give out and they starved to death; but Tom said no wild aniuess wouldn't do So at last we give it up, and judged ouldn't think about it no more, because it made us low-spirited
Then we opened the box, and it had gems and jewels in it, quite a pile, and soes old money that arn't acquainted with We wondered if we better go and try to find theht it over and said no, it was a country that was full of robbers, and they would co the temptation in their way So ent on; but I wished we had took all they had, so there wouldn't 'a' been no temptation at all left