"Oh, come on! Come on!"
Still clinging to the angry coyote, the lads took up their weary tramp.
The baking alkali burned their feet almost to the blistering point; the burning, withering heat made their heads whirl; the desert began to perform strange antics, while the halo that they had seen a few days before again appeared before them, first whirling like a giant pin wheel, then oscillating in a way that made them giddy.
"Chunky, I can"t stand this any longer," cried Tad, suddenly sinking to the ground. "I"m ashamed of myself to give way like this."
Stacy moved around to the sunny side of his companion, placing his own body where it would shade Tad"s head from the sun. The fat boy took off his sombrero, unheeding the burning rays that were beating down on his own head, and began to fan Tad with the hat.
"I don"t believe I can go any further, Chunky. You are still in fairly good shape and you"ll be able to make the camp if you go on. Leave me and make a try for it."
"You--you want me to go on without you? Want me to leave you here to--Say, Tad, do you think I"m that kind of a coyote? I"d thrash you for that if you weren"t already properly done up. You"ll feel better when night comes and your head gets cooled off. In the morning we"ll make another attempt to get out of the Desert Maze. You lie still, now."
Thus admonished, Tad closed his eyes. At last the sun went down, and with its pa.s.sing, came a breath of refreshing air. They inhaled long and deeply of it. After a little, Stacy got up.
"Where you going?" demanded Tad, opening his bloodshot eyes.
"Going to tie up my dog, then go to bed."
Five minutes later both were sleeping the sleep that comes from utter exhaustion of mind and body.
Stacy awakened first, his eyes opening on the burning blue above him.
After a few moments he rolled over on his stomach to gaze at the coyote. Instantly something else attracted his attention. What he saw was a crossed stick on a standard. The whole resembled a cross, standing barely six inches above the ground.
The lad eyed the strange object inquiringly, then wriggled over toward it.
"Maybe there"s water here. I"ll see," he muttered. Stacy began digging industriously with knife and hands.
After a time the knife struck some hard substance. This, upon further digging, proved to be a bottle. The boy pulled his find out quickly.
"There"s a piece of paper in it," he exclaimed in surprise. "Guess somebody must have thrown it off a sinking desert schooner."
Stacy drew the paper from the bottle.
""To the lost on the Desert Maze,"" he read "That"s me and the coyote.
"Water ten paces to the east. Gra.s.s Peak fifteen miles to the east.
Belted Range about eighteen miles west. Cross piece on stick, points due east and west. A Traveler.""
With a sharp glance at his sleeping companion, Stacy tramped off ten paces. There being no sign of water, the lad began stamping about with his heels. Suddenly the alkali crust gave way beneath him. One leg went through. He felt it plunge into water.
"Y-e-o-w!" howled Stacy.
Tad Butler scrambled to his feet, rubbing his eyes.
"Water! Water! Water! I fell in!" shrieked the fat boy, dancing about joyously. "I"ve found a key to the Desert Maze, and I"ve unlocked one blind desert alley with my foot."
The lads drank and drank of the villainous, brown fluid. Then, after having laved their faces and filled the canteens, they set out on their journey. Gra.s.s Peak was the hill from which the Professor"s pajamas had been unfurled to the idle desert breeze.
Twilight was descending when two gaunt-eyed, hollow-cheeked lads, each with an arm thrown about the other"s waist for support, were described, staggering across the Desert Maze. Behind then, at the end of a lariat, slouched a disconsolate, cowardly coyote.
A great shout went up from the camp of the Pony Riders.
They dashed out to meet their exhausted companions. Hoisting the two boys to their shoulders, they carried them triumphantly to camp.
Tom Parry, the guide, had been thrown by his pony stepping through a crust on the alkali, and had lain all night on the desert. Next day he had staggered back to camp, where he found his pony, and after a few hours" rest had taken up his fruitless search again.
Stacy"s pony in the meantime had come in. The boys never knew how the animals got away, though from the fact that Tad"s rifle was missing, it was believed that the hermit had ridden the pony off, turning it adrift later.
But the brave lads had found their way through the Desert Maze to camp, having pa.s.sed through hardships and perils that would have daunted stronger and more experienced desert travelers.
Next morning the Pony Rider Boys struck their tents and broke camp. A few days later they crossed the line into California, where, after loading their stock and equipment into a large stock car, they started for the East.
Yet, though their summer vacation was rapidly drawing to a close, the Pony Rider Boys had not seen the end of their thrilling adventures.
Another exciting trip lay before them; one which was destined to linger in memory for many years to come. The story of this, the end of the Silver Trail, will be related in a following volume ent.i.tled, "THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN NEW MEXICO."
THE END