Part 2 (1/2)

Jess came to Peggy's side, and upon her, too, descended the feeling of awe that the ”Great Alkali” casts over all who encounter it for the first time.

”Peggy,” she said at length, ”I'm--I'm the least bit frightened.”

Her chum felt a slight s.h.i.+ver run through the girl as she pressed against her.

”Frightened, girlie? Frightened of what?”

”I don't just know. That's what makes it feel so bad. I guess it's the silence, the sense of all that loneliness out beyond there that upsets me. It feels almost as if there were some living presence off over the alkali that meant us harm.”

”I think I know what the matter is,” said Peggy gently, ”you're tired and overwrought. Come, let us get to bed, for Mr. Bell has ordered in early start in the morning.”

Just how long afterward it was the awakened Peggy had no means of telling, but as she lay sleepless she felt a longing to look out over the light-shrouded desert once more. Arising she tiptoed to the window, and drawing the shade without making more than the merest rustle of noise she looked out. As she did so Peggy almost uttered a startled exclamation, which, however, she instantly checked.

Three men had just emerged upon the balcony from an adjoining window. They brought chairs with them and sat there smoking. Peggy could catch the rank, strong odor of the tobacco.

”It's better out here and we can talk more quietly,” said one of them, as they sat down. ”You say that Bell and his outfit start to-morrow?”

”That's what I overheard him say when I was listening to 'em talking arter supper,” struck in another voice, ”so I guess it's the early trail for us, too.”

”Reckon so,” came in a third speaker; ”Jim Bell is going to travel fast. He's got the best horses and mules in this part of the country, and he won't spare 'em.”

”You mean the alkali won't, I guess,” put in the first speaker with an unpleasant laugh; ”but he won't go far with ther stock. At the last waterhole he'll leave 'em and go on by aeroplane.”

”You're crazy!”

”Never more sensible in my life. I--”

”Hus.h.!.+ Don't make such a racket. Fer all we know some of them may be awake and hear us. Now the old Steer Wells trail--”

But here the speaker sank his voice so low that it was impossible to hear his further words. But Peggy, as she crept back to bed with her heart throbbing a little bit fast, felt vaguely that the conversation boded some ill to the mining man and his party of gold seekers.

”I'm sure I recognized one of those voices,” she said to herself; ”it was that of the tall, dark young man with the immense spurs and that picturesque red sash, who was eyeing us so at supper. Jess and I thought he looked like a romantic brigand. What if he should turn out in real earnest to be a desperate character?”

Determining to speak to Jim Bell in the morning about the conversation she had overheard, Peggy dropped off into a deep slumber at last, but her dreams were disturbing ones. Now she was traversing the Big Alkali, with its pungent dust in her nostrils and her feet crunching its crusty surface. She was lost, and would have cried out had she been able to open her lips. Then she was dying of thirst. Her lips were parched and cracked and the sun beat pitilessly down. So the hours pa.s.sed till the stars began to pale and a new day was at hand. Before sunrise the party had been called, and, filled with excitement, made the wooden walls of the National Rouse resound with the hum of preparation.

Now, though Peggy at midnight had fully determined to tell Mr. Bell all she had overheard, Peggy, in the bright, crisp early dawn, felt that to do so would be absurd. After all, the men might merely have been chatting about the party, whose expedition was surely an adventurous and interesting one. It might make Mr. Bell think her a victim of girlish fancies if she went to him with the story, so Peggy decided to remain silent. Afterward she was sorry for this.

As arrangements had been made with the ubiquitous Cash for burros and ponies before the party left for the West, there was little or no delay in getting started. The girls uttered delighted exclamations as their little animals were led up to the hotel steps by a long-legged Mexican who was to accompany the party to Steer Wells, where the ponies were to be abandoned and a permanent camp formed. From that point the dash into the alkali would be made by aeroplane.

For Peggy there was a lively little ”calico” animal which both girls p.r.o.nounced ”a darling.” But Jess was no less pleased with her little animal, a bright bay with a white star on its forehead. For the boys similar animals had been provided, while Miss Prescott's mount was a rather raw-boned gray of sedate appearance. In her youth Miss Prescott had done a good deal of horseback riding, and the manner in which she sat her mount showed that she had not forgotten her horsemans.h.i.+p. Mr. Bell and his brother bestrode rather heavier animals than the rest of the party, while Juan, the guide, contented himself with a remarkably small burro. When in the saddle his lanky legs stuck out on either side of his long-eared steed and appeared to be sort of auxiliary propellers for the creature.

Six pack burros had been obtained, and on two of these the camp equipment and utensils were carried. The remainder of the little animals carried the wooden cases in which the three monoplanes were packed, and the boxes containing mining instruments and tools. One of these was painted red, and in it was carried a supply of ”giant”

powder--a kind of dynamite used in mining operations.

”I shall keep my eye on that particular burro,” remarked Jimsy, ”and if he ever runs away I shall gallop off in the opposite direction.”

But Mr. Bell explained that the explosive stuff was packed in such a manner that even the most violent shock would not set it off.