CHAPTER X.
LOST IN THE SAND STORM.
They passed a fairly comfortable night, in camp there by the spring.Nothing occurred to cause an alarm, though Donald and Adrian would notallow the camp to go unguarded, and took turns playing sentry.
Billie, too, was quite anxious to try his hand at the job; and they hadto let him have a turn; but not feeling any confidence that the fat boywould stay awake Donald made sure to keep one eye open. And sure enough,later on he found Billie calmly sleeping, with his gun across his knees.
At first Donald was half tempted to give the other a scare by firing hisown gun close to the slumbering sentry's ear; but on second thought hedecided not to do this. Billie meant well, and was so good-natured;besides, it was hard for any one to get provoked at the fat chum, nomatter what happened; because he was always trying to do his level best.Then again, the report would give Adrian a shock, which must seem crueland unnecessary.
Morning found them much refreshed, and ready to take up the new dutiesof the day. Although Billie had now been quite some time in this countryof the Southwest, he had as yet never had but one experience in crossinga desert, and nothing had happened at that time to strike him as odd.
Donald warned him that perhaps he was going to experience something nowhe would not be apt to soon forget.
"For they told me," he went on to add, "at the mine, that this samestrip of burning sand lying short of the Zuni village is a particularlywicked place to be caught out on, should one of those sand storms comealong."
"Sand storms, did you say, Donald? Now what under the sun can you meanby that? Does it rain sand out here?" Billie wanted to know immediately.
"You'll think it does before long, if we're so unlucky as to run acrosssuch a thing," Donald told him.
"You see," Adrian explained, "the sand is so fine that when the windincreases to a gale, instead of rain, the air is filled with clouds ofsand that choke you, and cause those hills and windrows to come and go,changing after each storm. Over in Africa the Arabs fear them worse thananything else going. They have animals in the camels that are fittedbest of all to live through such a storm; and so they just give up, andhide their heads until it's all over; then dig a way out, and continuetheir journey."
"Whew! that sounds interesting like," commented Billie; "and do youthink we'll strike it as bad as that?"
"Nobody can say," continued Donald; "but let's hope by all means that weget across without any experience of the kind. Perhaps you think itsounds interesting, but take my word for it, Billie, if it comes, you'llsure believe you're having the worst time of your whole life."
After that Billie did not seem quite so anxious to know what a sandstorm was like. He realized that when his chums took a thing soseriously there must be something about it that was menacing.
Donald was right when he said that they had camped not a great ways fromwhere the mountains came to an end, and the glistening desert laybeyond; for two hours after leaving the spring they found themselves onthe border of the wide sandy stretch.
Billie looked out over that sizzling desert, and began to realize themeaning of what Donald and Adrian had said when they told him about itsterrors. But there was no other trail by means of which they could reachthe Zuni village; and unless they wished to give that project up forgood and all, they must proceed, come what would.
As Billie was the one who wanted to look upon the strange sightsconnected with the quaint homes of the cliff dwellers, he held hispeace; though truth to tell the prospect of a ride of hours across thatdesert did not appeal very much to him now, after he had heard suchdismal stories about what it could do when it took a notion.
The sunshine was very vivid, and half blinded them when they tried tolook far away to where Donald said the other elevation undoubtedly lay,amidst which the Zuni village was to be found. From another quarter itcould be reached without any necessity for crossing the desert, but notfrom the south.
"Kind of like buying a pig in the poke, ain't it, this thing of startingout there without seeing where you're heading for?" remarked Billie, alittle uneasily; for now that he was gazing on the sandy waste, itstremendous possibilities began to really awe him; and then the way thesun was shining on the billows of sand made him feel as though they mustcome near being roasted before they had gone a great ways.
"Oh! we know that we've got to keep heading straight into the northwest;and what's the use of having compasses with us if we can't keep ourcourse?" said Donald, who did not appear to be worried at the prospect.
So they started off.
It soon began to feel uncomfortable for the fat boy; and he was heard tomumble more or less to himself; but Billie was a "stayer," as Adriancalled it; and once he embarked on an undertaking he would not easilygive up. So he mopped his reeking forehead, and kept everlastingly atit, even urging his pony to renewed exertions; though the wise animalseemed to know there was no use trying to make haste while ploddingthrough these sand hills.
"Well, I never knew before I came out here, that a desert was likethis," Billie had blurted out once, when Adrian came alongside, and hejust felt that he had to say something.
"Few people do know anything about it until they see with their owneyes," returned the other boy; "for of course you believed that it mustbe perfectly flat, and as level as a billiard table, didn't you?"
"That's right," returned the frank Billie; "and here it's all sandhills, many of 'em equal to little mountains, and all frilled andscolloped like. That's where the wind makes its fancy work, I take it.Many a time I've seen dry snow cut like that; and sand acts just thesame way, don't it?"
"Exactly," answered Adrian; "and as we've been moving along for nearlytwo hours now, look back and see where the mountains we left lie."
No sooner had Billie turned his head than he gave a cry of wonder.
"Why, they've gone!" he exclaimed; "blotted right out of sight, too.Never saw anything like it before, believe me. It must be the glare ofthe sun on all this white sand that does it. Only for the dark glasseswe're wearing, that same would be making us nearly blind, I take it."
"Sure thing," Adrian told him, and then almost immediately he went on tosay in a different tone of voice, that had a vein of new anxiety in it,Billie thought: "I wonder why Donald is rubbering so much for toward thesouthwest. Perhaps he feels the hot breeze that's beginning to blow fromthere. I hope it doesn't mean we're going to have a sand storm."
Billie pricked up his ears, so to speak; that is, he showed considerableinterest, and himself turned to watch Donald.
"He does look like he had got on the track of something out of the usualrun, for a fact," he muttered, uneasily.
Then he sneezed several times in quick succession, at which Adrianlooked as if even this simple event had its significance.
"Beginning to be dust in the air, and I always sneeze when it tickles mynose," Billie started to say, as if in apology for his explosion.
"Yes, the breeze is picking up, and already the air is starting to getfull of the fine sand," Adrian told him.
"Does that mean we're bound to run up against a real sand storm?" Billiewanted to know at once, scenting trouble.
"Donald's coming this way, and we'll soon hear what he thinks," was allAdrian would say.
"Looks to me as if we're going to get caught out here in a lovely mess,"Donald told them, as he came up.
"Sand storm, is it?" demanded Billie, trying not to show anyapprehension, for he never wanted others to know when his heart wasbeating faster than its wont.
"Yes, and coming down on us like two-forty," the other declared. "Watchthe nags, and you'll see that they know what they're in for. Here's_Wireless_ been looking over that way every little while for ten minutespast. The wind's rising, and all around us the sand is stirring, so thatthe air's getting thicker all the while. Before half an hour we'll havethe worst of it around us. It's about noon now, and let's hope that weget to the hills before night sets in."
"What's the programme?" aske
d Billie, undaunted Billie, carelesslyenough.
"Keep as close together as we can travel, and go straight ahead,"answered Donald; "there'll be all sorts of queer noises around us, sopay no attention to them. Be sure and keep your mouth shut all the time;and have water along with you, every fellow, so that in case one of usdid stray away, he wouldn't die of thirst before he could be found. Now,let's push on again."
His words were more than verified, for presently the wind grew to theproportions of a gale, and the way that fine sand whirled through theair was something that Billie had never expected to experience in allhis life.
It was a terrible task to press on, but luckily the prevailing wind wasfrom the southwest now, and so they had the worst of the sand storm totheir backs. Only for that they could not have ventured to attempt anyprogress whatever; but must have camped where they were, to wait for thewhirlwind of sand to cease.
Billie, with his head bowed, and drawing his breath with greatdifficulty, kept steadily moving on. He managed to keep in close touchwith his chums for some time, and then, falling into some sort of adreamy state, possibly brought about by his sufferings, and the effectof the blinding sand with which the air was charged, he forgot to keepconstantly on the alert. The consequence was that suddenly Billiearoused to the startling fact that neither to the right nor to the left,nor yet ahead of him could he discover the faintest sign of the others.All about was the whirling, blinding sand; while strange noises made hishead ring, and he fancied that he could see tempting pools of cool waterclose at hand, which his common sense told him were only the effect ofimagination.
And then and there Billie had a cold sensation in the region of hisheart that contrasted strangely with his torrid surroundings, for heknew that he was lost!