VOICES IN THE NIGHT
After supper--a queer meal to their Eastern tastes--the young folks
were glad enough to retire to their rooms.
"Oh, what a funny place!" cried Jess, as she and Peggy, carrying a
glass lamp which reeked of kerosene, entered their chamber. The
walls were of rough boards with no attempt at ornamentation, a
gorgeous checked crazy-quilt covered the bed--for though the days
are hot on the desert, the nights are quite sharp. The floor, like
the walls, was bare, and when the girls peered at themselves in the
tiny mirror they gave little squeals of amused disgust. The heat of
the sun, too, had drawn out the resinous qualities of the raw wood,
and the room was impregnated with an aroma not unlike that of a pine
forest under a hot sun.
"I expect we'll see some much funnier places before we get back
East," said Peggy decidedly, and beginning to unpack her
silver-fitted dressing-bag, which was the one luxury she had allowed
herself.
"I expect so, too; and I think it's jolly to rough it," chimed in
her chum; "but it's hard to get used to it all at once. Stepping
right off a Pullman into this is rather a sharp contrast, you must
admit."
"It is," agreed Peggy, heartily. She stepped to the window and
gazed out on an uncovered porch outside. It was, in fact, the roof
of the one below. On it flourished quite a little grove of scraggly
plants of various kinds, which were carefully tended by Cash's wife.
They were, perhaps, the only green things in Blue Creek.
But Peggy had little eye for all this. Her lips parted in a quick
gasp of admiration as she gazed upon the night spell of the desert.
The dark sky was sprinkled with countless stars, large and luminous
and beaming with a softer, stronger light than in the North. A
brooding silence hung over the town--the silence of the desert. The
hush was broken only by the droning notes of a song, accompanied on
a guitar, which came from off in the distance on the outskirts of
the little settlement. The music emphasized rather than broke the
silence.
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 shiver 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--"
"Hush! 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 passed 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
pronounced "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 horsemanship. 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.
"Still, we won't experiment," declared Roy.
Ten minutes after the cavalcade had drawn up in front of the hotel,
attracting the attention of the entire population of Blue Creek, the
party was ready to set out on the first stage of their adventurous,
journey. The girls looked very natty in corduroy skirts, neat
riding boots, with plain linen waists and jaunty sombreros. The
boys, like Mr. Bell and his brother, were in khaki, and each carried
a fine rifle, the gift of Mr. Bell. Miss Prescott had at first
wished to resuscitate her old riding habit, but instead, before she
left the East, the girls had persuaded her to have an up-to-date one
made of cool, greenish khaki.
"You look like a modern Diana," said Mr. Bell, with a gallant bow,
which brought the color Miss Prescott's blooming cheeks.
"Really, Mr. Bell, that is too bad of you, when you know I am trying
to grow old gracefully," retorted Miss Prescott.
"And now," said Mr. Bell, running a watchful eye over the entire
outfit, "we are all ready to start."
A cheer, which the girls took up, came ringing from the boys'
throats.
"Hooray!" they shouted.
"Good luck!" cried Cash Dallam from his porch, and several in the
crowd caught up the cry..
Juan uttered a series of extraordinary whoops, and working his legs
like the long limbs of a seventeen-year locust, he dashed to the
head of the procession. The next minute they were off, the pack
burros trotting behind in a sedate line.
But just as they started an odd thing happened. Peggy experienced
that peculiar feeling which sensitive persons feel when they are
being watched. Glancing quickly round she encountered the
penetrating glance of the tall, dark young man who had formed one of
the group on the porch the previous evening. He turned his eyes
away instantly as he perceived that his interested gaze had been
intercepted. As he did so, Peggy, despite the heat, felt a little
shiver run through her.
But the emotion passed in a moment under the excitement of the dash
forward. Before long, the rough habitations of Blue Creek lay far
behind them, and in front there lay, glittering under the blinding
sun, the far-reaching expanse of the desert. Off to the southwest
hovered what seemed to be a blue cloud on the horizon. But they
knew that in that direction lay the Black Rock hills, a desolate
chain of low, barren mountains.
As if by instinct they all drew rein as the solitudes closed in
about them. Rising in his stirrups Mr. Bell pointed into the
distance. "Yonder lies the end of the rainbow!" he exclaimed with a
touch of rude poetry.
"And back there are the wings to fetch forth the pot of gold,"
laughed Jess, indicating the packing cases on the burros' backs.
"Yes, the golden wings," struck in Peggy, but there was a wistful
note underlying her light tone. The spell of the desert, the
unreclaimed and desolate, was upon her.