OUT OF THE DESERT MAZE
Twilight was descending on the camp in the arroyo when Jimsy, who
had been stationed with a rifle on a butte overlooking the desert
maze, gave a sudden shout. The next instant his rifle was at his
shoulder and he began shooting into the air as fast as he could. As
the rapid staccato volley of sound rattled forth all became
excitement in the arroyo.
The volley had been the signal agreed upon in case the young sentry
caught sight of the missing ones. It came after a wearing night and
a still more harrowing day. Following the non-arrival of Peggy and
Roy in camp from their hunting excursion a search had at once been
commenced, of course without result.
An ascent had even been made in one of the monoplanes, but even a
bird's-eye view of the surrounding country failed to discover their
whereabouts. Then came the sandstorm, and hope that the missing
ones could have weathered it was almost given up. Nevertheless,
James Bell, in whom hope died hard, had set Jimsy as sentinel on the
lofty butte in the wild hope that after all the castaways might turn
up.
And now, as the agreed signal rang out, there was a great outpouring
from the camp. Aunt Sally, pale and red-eyed from weeping, Mr.
Bell, with deep lines of anxiety scoring his face, Jess, troubled
and anxious looking, and old Peter Bell, the former hermit, bearing
an expression of mild bewilderment. Last of all came Alverado, the
Mexican flotsam of the desert. His inscrutable countenance bore no
sign of the suffering he had gone through at the thought that harm
had come to his worshipped senorita, but in his heart the Mexican
had suffered as much as the rest. He had arrived in camp with the
stock the evening before, and had, with difficulty, been restrained
from setting forth at once on a search.
"Look!" cried Jimsy pointing as the others rushed up.
They followed the direction of his finger and saw slowly crawling
toward the arroyo a red wagon, dust-covered and travel-stained.
In front of it were two young figures on horseback, waving
frantically. As the volley rattled out they urged their little
horses forward on a dash for the arroyo.
"Thank God!" breathed Mr. Bell huskily.
Aunt Sally fell into Jess's young arms and wept lustily while old
Bell broke into a rhapsody:
"Out from the desert safe and sound;
Hooray! our boy and girl are found!"
But nobody paid any attention to his verses, either to laugh or
admire just then. After the cruel anxiety of the past hours the
relief was too great for any of them to trust themselves to speak.
But as Peggy and Roy--for of course our readers have guessed it was
they--drew closer and their dust-covered features could be plainly
seen, a great shout went up from the butte. And in it mingled the
voice of Alverado, the unemotional.
The girl and boy were fairly lifted from their ponies and carried in
triumph into the camp.
"Dig down into the stores," ordered Mr. Bell, "Get out all the
delicacies we have been savin' for a big occasion."
"We'll never have a bigger one than this," declared Jimsy; "tell us
all about it, Roy."
"Oh, Peggy, you darling, is it really you?" cried Jess for the
'steenth time, with brimming eyes.
As for old Mr. Bell, as Jimsy observed afterwards, "he just wrapped
poetical circles round himself. You couldn't see him for rhythm."
"Hullo, folks!"
The voice came suddenly from the shadows. It was Wandering William.
In the general excitement everybody had forgotten him, and he, had
driven up in his red wagon unheralded. But the warmth of his reception
made up for any temporary slight. In fact, after supper, when Roy
related their strange adventures, and told how, if it had not been for
Wandering William, they might never have reached the camp, Wandering
William's greeting reached an ovation.
But while all this was going on one figure had remained crouched in
the circle of firelight--or, rather, just beyond it--whose dark eyes
had not for an instant left the face of Wandering William. The
interested observer was Alverado.
The Mexican puckered his brow as be gazed as if trying to recall
something. But the effort seemed to be in vain, for at length he
arose and, unnoticed, strode moodily off toward the ponies, which
had been tethered high on the hillside and out of sight of the camp.
He was gone but a few minutes before he came bounding back into the
camp.
"The ponies! The ponies are gone!" he shouted at the top of his
lungs.
In an instant everybody but Aunt Sally and old Mr. Bell was upon his
or her feet.
"Gone!" The exclamation came like a dismayed groan.
"Yes, gone! Every one of them! The lariats have been cut. Ah, the
ladrone, the cursed thieves! The--"
"Some of Red Bill's work, for a million!"
The exclamation fell sharp and clear from Professor Wandering
William's lips. The tones were so unlike his usual ones that
everybody looked up at him. But only for an instant; the next
moment the professor had--dropped back into his pompous, drawling
way of speaking:
"It's a good thing we have a large supply of my wonder working
remedies with us," he said; "they induce philosophy, smooth the
thorny ways of life and make the old young and the young younger."
Mr. Bell looked at him sternly for an instant, and then apparently
decided that the man was a harmless fool, for with a quick
exclamation he strode off toward his tent, which lay at some
distance from the camp. The others excitedly discussed the alarming
turn events had taken, while Aunt Sally showed strong symptoms of
hysterics. But Alverado, whose face had taken on a startled
expression at Wandering William's quick exclamation, darted to the
long-haired herb doctor's side.
"I know you now, senor, you are--"
Wandering William caught the man's gesticulating hand with a grasp
of iron.
"Not so loud, Alverado," he whispered tensely, "the time isn't ripe
for that yet."
"But, senor, you will capture them, and--"
The Mexican's manner had grown deferential, but Wandering William
checked him with a glance from those keen eyes of his.
"Don't mention a word of this, Alverado. I rely on you."
"You can, senor. But hark! what is the matter with the Senor Bell?"
Evidently something serious was the matter with the mining man. He
came bounding out of the dark shadows of the upper end of the canyon
as the Mexican spoke. His face was black as thunder.
"More villainy!" he exclaimed as questions came pouring in upon him.
"Something else missing?"
It was Wandering William. His voice was as emotionless as if he had
been a phonograph.
"Yes, I should say there was. The plans of the mine and its
location as prepared for filing have been taken from my tent!"
"Stolen--oh!"
Peggy's voice quivered.
"Stolen," repeated Mr. Bell, "and undoubtedly by the same band of
scoundrels that cut the ponies loose, knowing that we could not
pursue them."
"But we can overtake them in an aeroplane."
It was Peggy who spoke. Her bosom heaved and her cheeks burned red
with excitement.
"True, my brave girl," rejoined Mr. Bell, "but of what use would
that be? They have the papers and will file them. Without the
papers you could do nothing, and I have no memoranda to draw up
fresh ones."
"But in my pocket--I'm cutting no capers--I have a set of duplicate
papers!"
Old Peter Bell, triumphant and poetical, stepped forward, at the
same time drawing from his inner-coat pocket a bundle. It was the
duplicate set which Mr. Bell had given Peggy to deliver to the
former hermit, and which, up to that moment, had been forgotten in
the excitement.
"Thank heaven!" exclaimed Mr. Bell, snatching at them; "Peter,
you're a brick. Hooray, now we have a chance to beat the scoundrels
at their own game."
"You mean if we can file those papers first they stand good in law?"
asked Roy.
"That's just what I do mean, and I think that with the aeroplane we
can do it."
"You can depend on it, Mr. Bell, that if there is a chance those
papers get into Blue Creek first," cried Peggy ablaze with
excitement.
"But we can't start to-night."
Roy's voice held a note of despair.
"That's all right, my boy. You need a good rest anyway. Red Bill--if
it is his gang that has taken them--cannot get to Blue Creek for two
days anyway. If you start at dawn to-morrow you can outwit them."
And so it was arranged. Roy and Peggy turned in early, while Jimsy
worked all night getting the big monoplane in readiness. By
earliest dawn all was ready and a hasty breakfast eaten. Then the
monoplane was stocked with food and water and everything was ready
for the dash across the desert.
Peggy and Roy had slipped into their linen coats and donned their
hideous masks with the blue sun goggles, when a figure slipped up on
the other side of the chassis and clambered unobserved into the
box-like structure. It was not till half an hour later, when they
were dashing through midair, that the figure revealed itself. Then
the form of Wandering William crawled from under a bit of canvas
used as an engine cover, and in answer to the amazed exclamations of
the young aviators said:
"You'll have to forgive me. It'll be a good ad for my business to
be able to say that Professor Wandering William has wandered along
the aerial Pike."