THE DIVINING RODS
"What wonderful clouds. They remind one of the fantastic palaces of
the Arabian Nights!" exclaimed Miss Prescott.
It was at the close of the noonday halt that she spoke, reclining
with the rest of the party under a canvas shelter, beneath which
lunch had been eaten.
Off to the southwest the clouds she referred to had been, in fact,
gathering for some time. Domed, terraced and pinnacled, they rose
in gloomy grandeur on the far horizon. But Miss Prescott had not
been the first to notice them. For some reason Mr. Bell, after
gazing at the vaporous masses for a few minutes, looked rather
troubled. He summoned Juan, who was feeding his beloved burro, and
waved his hand toward the clouds, the same time speaking rapidly in
Spanish.
"What is it? Is there a storm coming?" asked Jess, noting Mr.
Bell's somewhat troubled look.
"I do not know, and Juan says he is not certain yet either," was the
response. "Let us hope not, however."
"I don't see why it should trouble us," said Peggy. "We have good
tents and shelter, and as far as a good wetting is concerned I
should think it would do this dried up place a lot of good."
"That is not what was worrying me," confessed Mr. Bell with a smile;
"if it was to be an ordinary Eastern storm I should not mind any
more than you. But the desert has many moods--as many as--you will
pardon me--a young lady. Even the storms of the Big Alkali are not
like others. They are dry storms."
"This would be no place for an umbrella dealer then," remarked Jimsy
airily.
"No, I am speaking seriously," went on Mr. Bell; "frequently such
storms do great damage through lightning, although, during their
progress, not a drop of rain falls. The electrical display,
however, is sometimes terrific. That is what I mean when I say 'a
dry storm."'
"I can't bear lightning," cried Jess; "I always go in the cellar at
home when it comes."
"Never mind, Jess, Roy and I will dig you one if the storm hits us,"
put in her brother gallantly.
"And one for me, too, please!" cried Miss Prescott; "I'm dreadfully
afraid of lightning."
"Well, let us hope that we shall none of us have any cause for
alarm," put in Peter Bell, the former hermit. "When I lived my
solitary life I often used to wander out in the height of a storm.
It was beautiful to watch the lightning ripping and tearing across
the sky. The lightning and the thunder did not scare me a bit.
But--."
"You'd soon have changed your mind if by lightning you'd been hit,"
struck in Jimsy before the old man could complete his verse. A good
natured laugh, in which Peter Bell joined as heartily as the others,
followed this bit of improvisation.
"Well, let us be pressing on," said Mr. Bell presently; "we are not
carrying any too heavy a water supply, and I am anxious to replenish
it by nightfall. By the way, that means a new experience for you
youngsters. You will get your first taste of alkali water."
"But how are you going to get water in this desert?" exclaimed Roy
wonderingly.
"You will see before many hours," was the reply with which they had
to be content.
All that afternoon they pressed on without anything of interest
occurring. The distant clouds grew more imposing and blacker in
hue, but they seemed to draw no closer. The heat, however, was
oppressive, and the glare of the desert hurt Peggy's eyes.
"If they didn't look so hideous, I wish I'd brought along those old
smoked glasses I wore on the beach at Atlantic City," she thought
more than once.
Sundown found the party skirting along the foot of rough, broken
hills clothed with a scanty vegetation. Juan nodded approvingly and
at once suggested making the camp there.
"We'll see if there is any water first," said Mr. Bell.
"It looks as if you need not take the trouble," declared Roy, "it's
as dry as a week-old crust."
"Not quite so fast, young man," laughed Mr. Bell, "appearances are
often deceitful, especially on the desert."
He dismounted, and reaching into one of the packs drew forth a
slender forked stick. Then, while they all gazed in a puzzled
silence at his actions, he passed it hither and thither over the dry
floor of the desert.
"Oh, I know what it is now!" cried Peggy suddenly. "It's a divining
rod!"
"A divining rod?" echoed Roy. "What's that?"
"Oh, look!" cried Jess, before Peggy could answer; "it's moving!"
The slender switch held by Mr. Bell was certainly behaving in a very
odd manner. It could be seen to bend and sway and hop and skip
about as if it had been suddenly endued with life. Mr. Bell, who
was by now at some distance from the party, looked up with a
satisfied expression.
"Get a shovel and dig here!" he ordered Juan. But the Mexican had
fallen into a deep slumber from which it took not a little effort to
awaken him. When he was finally roused and made to understand what
was required of him, he set to work with a will, however, and made
the dirt fly.
The boys pitched in, too, and before long quite a deep hole had been
excavated. The girls, peeping cautiously over its edge, gave a
delighted cry. Actual water was beginning to drain into it from the
side. True, it was not of the color or temperature they had been
used to associating with the fluid, but still the sight of it was
welcome enough to the travel-stained wayfarers.
"You can come out now, boys, and leave the hole to fill up, which it
will soon do," declared Mr. Bell.
The interval of waiting for the water to flow in a goodly quantity
was spent in adjusting the girls' tent, and in setting the camp to
rights generally. A sort of blue-colored bunch grass grew in
considerable quantities about the water hole, and this the burros
seemed to find quite palatable. The ponies and horses, however,
would not touch it, and had to be regaled on the pressed hay and
grain which were carried for the purpose.
In the midst of all this there came a sudden sharp cry from the
water hole, followed by a loud splash.
"It's old Mr. Bell! He's fallen into the water hole!" shrilled
Peggy.
"Head over heels, too. Hurry and we'll get him out," cried the
boys.
Roy seized up a lariat, and followed by the others started for the
hole. It was as they had guessed. Venturing too close to the brink
of the excavation, old Mr. Bell had slipped, and the former hermit
was floundering about like a grampus in the water when his rescuers
appeared. Luckily, it was not deep, and they soon had him out of it
and on his feet. The old man, with great good nature, declared that
he had rather enjoyed his involuntary bath than otherwise. He was
so mud-stained and drenched, however, that it was necessary for him
to make an immediate change of clothes. When he emerged from his
tent with dry apparel, the aged recluse felt moved to compose a
verse, which he did as follows:
"Within the mud hole's watery depths,
A grave I almost met,
But luckily I was pulled out Alive, but very wet."
"Well, Peter," laughed his brother, "you certainly are a poetic
philosopher. But now, if you are quite finished with the water
hole, we will draw some for our own use, and then Juan can let the
stock have a drink."
As the first bucket for camp use was drawn, Peggy hastened up with a
cup and extended it.
"Oh, do let me have a drink," she exclaimed; "I'm dying with thirst
and can't wait for tea."
"Same here," cried Jess, eagerly.
Mr. Bell smiled and eyed them quizzically.
"I wouldn't advise you young ladies to try it till it has been
boiled," he said, "but of course if you insist--"
"We do," cried both girls.
"Fill the cups, Juan," ordered Mr. Bell.
The guide did so, and Peggy and Jess eagerly raised the receptacles.
But hardly had they taken a swallow before they hurriedly ceased
drinking.
"Oh, what awful stuff!" sputtered Peggy, while Jess simply gasped.
"Bah! It tastes like aged eggs added Roy, who had also taken a
swallow. "Is it poisonous?"
"Not a bit of it," laughed Mr. Bell; "it is simply alkali water, and
when you have drunk as much of it as I have you'll be used to it and
not mind it. But I must admit that on first introduction it is
rather trying. It is better when it is boiled, though. It seems to
lose that acrid flavor."
And so it proved; and Miss Prescott declared that she had never
enjoyed a cup of tea so much as the one she drank that evening at
supper on the desert. As dusk fell, Juan produced a battered guitar
from a case which was strapped to the back of his saddle, and
seating himself cross-legged in the midst of a semi-circle of
enthusiastic listeners he banged out a lot of Spanish airs.
Then Jimsy danced a jig with incomparable agility and Roy did some
tricks with cards and handkerchiefs that were declared superior to
anything heretofore seen. But the little entertainment was to come
to an abrupt conclusion. So engrossed had they been in its progress
that they had not noticed that the sky had clouded over, and that it
had suddenly grown insufferably oppressive.
All at once a red glare enveloped the camp. It lasted only for the
fraction of a second, but in its brief existence it displayed some
very white and alarmed faces.
The electric storm that Mr. Bell had dreaded was upon them.