"_Hmm-ph._ Didn't know they landed any such critters out thisaway."
"They didn't," Ali informed him. "Lieutenant Beale brought twenty-five
camels with him when he surveyed the wagon road from Fort Defiance."
"_Wagh!_" Hud Perkins ejaculated. "Then 'tis so!"
"What's so?"
"I heard tell of such when I was leavin' Santa Fe to come here," his
host informed him. "Some fool, 'twas said, was goin' from Fort Defiance
to Californy, usin' camels to lay out a road. Not many believed it. Of
them as did, nobody thought the camels would get a pistol shot from Fort
Defiance."
"It's true," Ali said. "I was with the expedition."
"Well tie that one!" Hud Perkins marveled. "So camels did come to
Californy! What happened to 'em?"
Ali had no immediate answer, for after reaching California, nothing
worthwhile had happened. The camels had been shown in various places,
including Los Angeles, and had attracted the usual onlookers and sparked
the usual stampedes. A few months after arriving, Lieutenant Beale took
fourteen of the animals and started back along the surveyed road.
The rest of the herd, with Ali as keeper, had been sent to and was still
at Fort Tejon, where Army brass amused itself by putting camels through
the usual meaningless paces. Seeing no opportunity for a change, and
with all he could stomach of Fort Tejon, Ali had taken Ben Akbar and
departed.