The Peril Finders Part 38

"Well, I'm inclined to think that we're got well into Arizona, my lad, where the great unexplored salt deserts are."

"Very well, then, we've explored that part and come across the deserts, and got into the good land now."

"Oh, have we?" said Griggs derisively. "Why, we've only just tasted a bit of one. Do you know how big these wilds are?"

"A few miles across, I suppose--fifty or so, at the outside."

"That's mild for a guess," said Griggs. "Why, I believe, there's room enough out in these wilds for us to lose ourselves and wander about for years."

"Very well, then, let's wander," cried Chris. "That's nothing to do with what we want to do here, and that's to bathe and get rid of all this sand and dust."

"Well, then, if you'll take my advice you'll keep on the shallows close to the edge, in case--Yah! Look at that!"

The boys were already looking, their attention having been caught by the rising of a little wave caused by some fish or reptile rus.h.i.+ng through the water for a few yards before curving over, making a great splash as it disappeared.

"A big fish seizing a small one," cried Chris. "Well, that won't hurt us," and hurrying along the edge of the pool they were not long before plunging in for a good swim, to come out ready to dry themselves in the sun, and, after dressing, enjoying the sensation of being freed from the dust and salt which had clung to their skins.

"I say, bother the old gold!" said Ned again, as they stood gazing at the mountains half bidden by the delicate clouds of mist curling about their sides and clinging to the great peak which had formed their guide.

"Isn't it lovely! Why can't we live here?"

"Because we've got something else to do," said Chris grimly. "Besides, how could we live?"

"Live? Why, the same as we did at the plantation. I believe that everything would grow here and that we could raise abundance of fruit."

"And who should we sell it to?"

"Bother! Never mind about selling it," cried Ned contemptuously. "Eat it ourselves."

"Live on oranges, eh? What stuff you talk! Ask your father what he thinks."

"But there'd be plenty of other things here to eat. We could grow corn, and graze cattle, and keep poultry. I dare say we shall come across buffaloes and deer. Then there are abundance of birds, and I dare say these fish in the pools would be good, without reckoning on the salmon."

"What salmon?" said Chris grimly.

"The salmon in the rivers that come down from the mountains over there."

"Of course!" cried Chris mockingly. "Here, let's go salmon-fis.h.i.+ng this morning. We've got hooks and lines packed up somewhere, and I don't suppose it will take us long to find a salmon-river."

Ned stared wide-eyed at his comrade, who burst out laughing.

"Oh I say, Ned, what a baby you are! I shall tell them over our breakfast everything you--Oh! I say! Smell that?"

"Yes," cried Ned eagerly. "Coffee."

"No, no; that other smell. I know! old Griggs is frying something for breakfast. Come on."

The scene around was glorious; there was the blue sunlit sky, in the distance the purple mist and the glistening silver of pool after pool, while all else was golden green--tree, bush, and waving reed, rush and gra.s.s. To a couple of boys whose eyes had been smarting for days in the dusty glare, the country around seemed perfect in its beauty. But though they had been revelling therein, and enjoyed it to the full, now that they were refreshed by their bath all seemed as nothing compared with the film of grey smoke that arose from close by the heap of packs beyond which the ponies and mules were grazing, half-hidden by the lush rich gra.s.s which brushed their flanks.

But it was not only the sight of that slow-rising smoke, there was the odour which floated to their nostrils, and set them off running in a way which seemed to suggest that their swim had washed away all the stiffness and languor of the day before.

"Breakfast," shouted Griggs as they drew near, and his cry brought up Wilton, Bourne, and the doctor, each with his double rifle and shot-gun across his shoulder.

The change was so great after the sufferings and excitement of the past hours, that every one was enthusiastic, and the conversation became general about the future; but very soon all but one became listeners, the one being the doctor, who laid down the law as to future proceedings, giving it as his opinion that the success of the expedition, or more especially the continuance thereof, must depend upon their keeping in touch with water.

"Yes, that's right," said Griggs, as if speaking to himself.

"You see," said the speaker, "our stores must rapidly grow less, and we have to face the fact that we shall have to throw ourselves upon the resources of the country; hence to go on journeying through the deserts means failure, perhaps worse, for we may find some day that we have gone so far that we cannot retrace our steps. You follow me, Griggs?"

"Quite, sir," was the reply. "You are saying what I think, only much better. I don't want to push forward my opinions, but I know a little about these matters, having journeyed farther north years ago, and having had a good deal to do with the horrible alkali plains, as they called them."

"Exactly, and we shall always be glad of your advice and counsel," said the doctor. "Now, it seems to me that wherever we can we must keep to the mountains. It will be more arduous for our beasts, but near the high lands we may generally find water. Where there is water there are gra.s.s and trees, and where there are these we may find food in the shape of birds and other animals, as well as provision for our ponies and mules."

"Plenty of fish in that big pool," said Chris.

"Oh!" cried Ned in protest. "We only saw one."

"But he was after another," said Chris sharply, "and that big one is sure to have plenty of young ones."

"His relatives, eh?" said Bourne, smiling.

"Of course," added Wilton, with a laugh, "and that will include the old folks as well as the young."

"Yes," said the doctor, "and you boys must try your hands at catching them whenever there is a chance. In fact, we must all bear in mind that it is urgent that we should be on the lookout for food--not in a destructive way, but so as to have the next day's supplies in hand. But now about to-day. We have excellent quarters here, the beasts are revelling in good pasture, and though I am anxious to go on I think we had better stay where we are, say for a couple of days more, not to do nothing, but to let this be the camp from which we make an expedition or two towards that peak and part of the way up its slopes, so as to determine in which direction we shall go next."

There was a murmur of a.s.sent here, and Wilton took up the debate.

"I believe," he said, "that we shall find the source of a river up there, and that then it would be wise to follow it down."

"That would take us towards the sea," said Ned's father decisively.

"Not for certain, sir," cried Griggs.

"Well, then, towards where the river joined another which ran into the sea."

"Not for certain, sir," repeated Griggs.

"Very well, then, where it runs into some good-sized lake."

"Not for certain, sir," paid Griggs, so decisively that Chris laughed, "But a river must fall into something," said Ned's father sharply, Griggs' interruptions having made him feel nettled.

"Yes, sir, of course; but in a desert country such as it is about here they fall into difficulties."

"I know," cried Chris; "Griggs means that they tumble down into those great canons like that one on the Colorado, isn't it, where the banks are a mile deep?"

"No, I don't, squire," said Griggs firmly, "though I shouldn't be a bit surprised if we came across one of those gashes in the desert. I meant that some of the little rivers that come down from the mountains run bright and clear for a time in amongst the rocks till they get to the more level ground, and then they spread-out and grow wide and shallow so that you find they're only up to your knees. A mile or two lower down they're not up to your ankles, while a bit lower there's no river at all."

"What, gone down a sink-hole?" cried Chris.

"No, squire; spread-out and soaked away into the sand, which begins by looking dark-coloured and has patches of gra.s.s growing in it for a bit, and then you get farther and the sun has drunk up all the sand had not swallowed."