CHAPTER IV
_THE DESERT_
It was not the strange country that interested The Merriweather Girlsat the moment of their arrival, but an old friend.
A tall boy was shaking hands vigorously with Judge Breckenridge. AndEnid stepping from the train at that instant, stood and stared inastonishment hardly believing that she was seeing aright.
"Tommy Sharpe!" she cried, running to him with both hands outstretched."Why, you've grown! You're almost as tall as I am. And what a grandcowboy's outfit!"
Tommy did not speak. He shook Enid's hand but words would not come.The boy's face was burned to a rich shade of brown, his eyes werebright and the huskiness was gone from his voice. Health had come tohim in this dry climate. Tommy looked as if he belonged there. He wastall, thin and muscular, a desert dweller, not at all like the sicklyboy that Enid had known and cared for on Campers' Trail.
In a moment the boy was surrounded by the girls and everybody wastalking at once. It took some time for Tommy's embarrassment to wearoff.
Even Mrs. Patten was inclined to be shy with these friends of herdaughter but Mrs. Breckenridge in her tactful way soon put her at ease.Kit's mother was a born nurse and one glance at the sick woman made herrealize that she was needed. She helped to get the invalid into thecar with the least possible jar; she arranged pillows and a footstoolin order to ease the bumps on the rough road.
"See, she's deserted me already," laughed Kit as she watched hermother. "I knew I wouldn't count when she saw Mrs. Breckenridge."
Suddenly there was a sort of war whoop and Billy Patten, who had hiddenbehind the station, dashed out at Kit, much to the amusement of TommySharpe.
"Why you little imp! You haven't changed a single bit, Billy Patten!You're just as bad as ever," declared his sister. "You're a pest!"
"I am not! You're another!" said the boy, and to Kit it seemed as ifshe had never been away from home, for the brother and sister hadstarted again just where they left off, half teasing, half in earnestas their quarreling always was.
Billy Patten was not bashful. "Bold," would have described hisattitude more than anything else.
"See this stick!" He addressed Bet suddenly at the same time frowningdefiantly as he caught Kit's eye.
"Of course I see the stick. What about it?" laughed Bet Baxter.
"It's a humming stick that grows out here in Arizona. Isn't itwonderful! You just tap it gently like that and you can hear it hum."
Kit made a gesture to interfere but the Judge smiled tolerantly andsignalled the girl to keep quiet.
Bet took the stick, which seemed like a hollow tube, and tapped itgently on the ground. A strange, buzzing started, continued for a fewmoments, then quieted. And Bet raised the stick once more.
Billy put forth his hand to capture the rod, but before he couldinterfere, Bet had brought it down with a thud on the ground. A waspflew from the hole with an angry buzz and lighted fair and square onBilly's nose, burying its stinger deep into the flesh.
The boy gave a howl, then choked back the tears. He was too much of asport to make a fuss, especially as the joke was on him. The hollowstem was the insect's nest.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Billy! Please forgive me," pleaded Bet contritely. "Ididn't know there was a wasp inside that stick. I really thought itwas a strange Arizona plant."
Kit was chuckling. Never before had retribution come so quickly to heryoung brother who delighted in playing tricks on a newcomer to thedesert.
But she only smiled at the boy. She wanted to say, "It serves youright," but she had only been back for ten minutes and decided that itwas too soon to plague the child. But Billy saw her gleam of triumphand decided he would get even with Kit at some later date.
"Let's get started, girls! Everybody pile in!" commanded the Judge."You girls go in that car with Matt Larkin. I want Tommy Sharpe withme."
There wasn't a prouder boy in the whole world at that moment thanTommy. Judge Breckenridge wanted him, and maybe someday he would behis right-hand man, as the Judge playfully called him. To himselfTommy promised that it would not be his own fault if he did not measureup to the Judge's estimate of what a right hand man should be. Bet wasamused to notice the slight swagger that Tommy assumed as he took hisplace beside his friend in the car. She exchanged a smile ofunderstanding with Enid.
A shower of sand hit the chassis of the car as the driver started alongthe road. The girls gave a cry of alarm as they saw a jack rabbit thathad been startled, bound ahead of them for a few yards, then with awild jump it landed in the shelter of the sage brush.
"Doesn't everything smell good?" Shirley sniffed the air in longindrawn breaths.
"Didn't I tell you it was wonderful!" said Kit. "I used to get solonesome just for a whiff of the desert. And you girls could neverunderstand it."
"Of course we didn't understand. How could we? We'd never been here!"Bet Baxter's face was glowing with happiness.
It was only ten o'clock but already the sun was blazing hot. There wasa fury about the heat that the girls had never before experienced.They were glad to be under the shelter of the automobile top.
"Oh, Matt," called Kit, when they had driven a few miles, "let's stopand get the girls some of those cactus fruits. They've never tastedthem, think of that!"
"You don't say so!" The driver smiled back at the eager young facesand brought his car to a stop. The girls jumped out glad to get nearerto the strange plants of the desert.
Suddenly a rasping whirr seemed to come from the ground at their feet.It was a sound to hold the nerves taut, to send the cold shivers up anddown the spine.
"A rattler!" exclaimed Kit delightedly. "Now I do feel as if I werereally home again. Where is it? I want a good look at my old friend,"she added as another insistent whirr was heard.
Matt Larkin had taken his automatic from his belt and pointed it, andin that instant the girls saw a black and yellow skinned snake coiled,its head poised with darting tongue, ready to strike.
There was a menace in that coil.
But the next minute the head had been neatly severed by a shot and thelong body writhed and squirmed on the ground.
"Oh!" cried Bet. "Look at the pretty pattern on its skin."
"Pretty!" snapped the man beside her. "When you live in Arizona younever see any beauty in a rattler. He's just plain pizen to everybody.There ought to be a reward offered fer every snake killed. Then maybethey could be exterminated."
The girls were glad to get back into the automobile again, out of theglaring sun. Each held a luscious cactus fruit gingerly in herfingers, trying to open it without getting the tiny pronged spikes intheir fingers. The driver climbed into his place and set the car goingonce more, headed toward the hills that seemed to beckon them.
They had outdistanced the other car, for Judge Breckenridge was drivingslowly for the sake of the invalid.
When they saw the foothills ahead of them, Kit began to get excited."I've been up that road," she exclaimed. "Once Dad and I went up toJasper Crowe's claims to sell him a horse."
But Shirley was staring ahead. Suddenly she cried: "There's a lake!Isn't it refreshing after so many miles of desert? I had no idea youhad such large bodies of water in this country."
The driver turned and glanced at Kit, then spoke to Shirley: "How faraway do you reckon that lake is, Miss?"
"A mile!" replied Bet decidedly.
"No, it's more than that," corrected Shirley. "I remember of readingsomewhere that distances in the desert are very deceiving. It'sprobably a lot farther off than it seems. I'll say five miles."
"Let's hurry and get there so we can eat our lunch at the water'sedge," suggested Joy.
"That's an idea!" replied Matt with a sly glance at Kit. "We'll tryand get there by lunch time."
"And look at the lovely trees!" cried Joy. "It's like an oasis in thedesert, isn't it?"
But half an hour later they were no nearer the lake than when they hadfirst seen it. A ha
ziness now hung over the water, partly hiding it,and the trees seemed to be floating in mid air.
"That lake might be called 'Lake Illusion,'" laughed Bet. "Itcertainly is unreal enough! Don't let us wait until we get there toeat lunch. I'm starved. After we've eaten we'll appreciate the viewmore, anyway."
Even as they watched the mistiness increased and then suddenly seemedto dissolve, leaving the desert stretched out before them, hard, sullenand cruel.
The lake was gone. The waving trees were gone.
Then the girls realized what they had just witnessed. The mirage ofthe desert! That enticing promise of water that had been the undoingof many a pioneer of the early days!
A thoughtful expression came into the faces of the girls, and theirenthusiasm vanished for a few minutes. Stories of by gone days cameinto their minds, stories of weary travellers who had been beckoned bythe mirage and taken miles out of their way by this false promise,perhaps to die of thirst.
"How hard life used to be for the pioneers," said Bet wistfully. "Andso easy for us!"
"But why did the pioneers go out on the desert?" asked Joy lightly."They didn't have to do it, did they?"
"Of course not, Joy," answered Bet. "But they wanted adventure andthey were seeing another sort of mirage. It was the hope of gold and afortune in the hills."
Bet gazed out over the vast stretch of mesa as if she were livingthrough those early days herself, instead of being carried along by ahigh-powered car that ate up the miles easily and swiftly.
A low whistle from Matt brought the girls out of their day dreams tofollow his glance ahead.
Far along the sandy road was a man trudging along with a bundle overhis shoulder.
"That ain't no desert man," said Matt quietly.
"How can you tell from here?" asked Bet.
"You can always tell a desert man by his walk. That fellow looks as ifhe were used to walking on city streets," Matt returned.
"And he hasn't even a burro," exclaimed Kit contemptuously. "Let'sgive him a lift and see what he's doing here so far from civilization."
The man ahead had turned at the sound of the automobile, deposited hisbundle on the ground and stood waiting expectantly.
The girls smiled as they greeted him. His clothes, a neat businesssuit and light colored shirt, were soiled, his face was streaked withdust but in his eyes there was that indefinable gleam that marks thesoul of an adventurer. He was offered a lift.
"I'm very dusty," said the traveller.
"We don't mind at all," answered the girls. They liked the little manwith his far-away look as if he belonged to another world and wereseeing sights that no one around him was seeing.
"Isn't he a dear!" whispered Bet. "I like him!"
Little did the girls dream that most of their summer adventures wouldcenter around this shabby figure; adventures that would thrill them andat times almost overcome them.
If they had guessed it, they could not have been more cordial in theirgreeting and more eager to help him. Although none of them realizedit, a problem to solve was already presenting itself.