CHAPTER XVII
THE NIGHT CAMP
"Well, what do you know about that?" exclaimed Nort, as he turned tolook at his brother, when the vision of the city on the river bank haddisappeared.
"Were we dreaming, or did we really see something?" asked Dick, passinghis hand over his eyes in dazed fashion.
"We saw something all right," asserted Nort, "and I'm wondering if Isaw the same thing you did--a city--the steamer and----"
"I saw it, too," declared Dick, interrupting his brother's recital."But where did it go? A fog must have rolled up between us and it.But now we know which way to ride. I don't know what town that was,but they can tell us how to get back to Diamond X ranch."
"It's queer," murmured Nort, as Dick urged his horse in the directionof the vision they had just beheld.
"What's queer?" asked Dick.
"Seeing that town," his brother went on. "Bud never said anythingabout the ranch being so near a place where they had a river steamer.There isn't a boat of that size on the river around here."
"No," assented Dick. "This must be farther down. Anyhow, let's hitthe trail for there. We aren't lost any more, I reckon."
"Doesn't seem," murmured Nort. But, even as the two brothers urgedtheir tired, broncos forward, another strange thing happened. In thevery same place where they had seen the vision of the town and thesteamer, only to witness it vanish, there appeared in sharp detail alarge ranch, with its corrals, its bunk house and main buildings.
"There! Look!" cried Dick. "There's Diamond X!"
Nort shaded his eyes with his hands, and peered long and earnestly.
"Diamond X!" he murmured. "That isn't our ranch! Our bunk house isn'tso near the corral, and, besides----"
Then, even as he spoke, this vision vanished as had the other, beingwiped out of sight; fading slowly as if some unseen operator in a moviebooth had cut off his light.
The brothers turned and stared at one another. Suddenly the truthdawned upon them.
"A _mirage_!" exclaimed Nort.
"That's what!" assented Dick. "Two mirages! We saw one after theother, a city and a ranch in the same place!"
And that is what the visions had been--mirages, those strange phenomenaof the west--of desert places--natural occurrences in localities wherethe air is abnormally clear, and where conditions combine to transposedistant scenes.
Of course the explanation is simple enough. Of the mirage thedictionary says it is "an optical illusion arising from an unequalrefraction in the lower strata of the atmosphere, causing images ofremote objects to be seen double, distorted or inverted as if reflectedin a mirror, or to appear as if suspended in the air."
The word comes from a Latin one, meaning "to look at," and that isabout all you can do to a mirage--look at it. It is as unsubstantialas the air in which it is formed.
There are many varieties of mirages seen in the West, and if the boyshad seen a double one, or had the vision of the city and ranch beeninverted, they might have sooner guessed the secret of it. But theparticular mirages they had viewed had, through some trick of airrefraction, been imposed on their eyesight rightside up, andwonderfully clear.
I do not suppose all the stories that have been written of mirages aretrue, but it is certain that many strange tricks have been played onthe eyesight of observers by these phenomena, and more than oneluckless prospector, or cattleman, has followed these visions, only tobe tantalized in the end by finding, just as Nort and Dick did, thatthey merely vanished, dissolving into nothing.
Telling of their experiences afterward, Nort and Dick declared thatwhen they had visualized the steamer moving up to her dock, they hadactually seen figures disembarking.
"That _couldn't_ be!" declared Bud. "Your eyes must have been blinkingand you _thought_ you saw figures. I've been fooled by mirages myself,but though you might make out something as large as a steamer moving, Inever yet saw one of these visions clear enough so that you could makeout people moving about. You can see a town, or a ranch, sometimesright side up, and sometimes upside down, but you can't make outpeople. I won't say that it is impossible, but I've never seen it, norheard of anyone who has," the boy rancher concluded.
"Well, it was wonderful enough as it was," declared Nort, and eventhose who have seen many mirages will agree with this, I think.
"Well, that sure was queer!" exclaimed Nort, rubbing his eyes again."And to think we might have ridden off, and tried to get to that ranch,or city."
"I thought sure it was Diamond X," declared Dick.
"Well, I knew it wasn't, as soon as I saw how the buildings werelocated. But I thought it was some ranch. Bud told me about thesemirages, though I never thought they were as plain as that."
"They sure do fool you!" laughed Dick. "And now, before we get ledastray by any more, let's get settled for the night. It looks as ifwe'd have to stay here."
"Yes, it does," agreed Nort. He looked in the direction where thestrange images had appeared in the air, seemingly suspended between theheaven and the earth. There were no more of the visions, the decliningsun doubtless being in such a position as no longer to produce thenecessary refraction, or bending of the light rays.
"Here's water," spoke Nort, pointing to a spring bubbling out of theside of the hill. "We'll make a fire, and cook what we have."
"But not all of it," stipulated Dick. "We've got to save some forto-morrow. No telling how long we may be out on our own."
"That's right," agreed Nort. "Though when our bacon and flour give outwe can get one of those fellows--maybe," and he pointed to a big jackrabbit, almost as large as a dog, loping away.
"Yes, Bud says they're good eating," assented Dick. "The only thingis, can we knock one over with our guns?"
"I'm not much of a shot, yet, but then a fellow ought to hit one ofthose jacks--when he isn't running," qualified Nort, for the speed ofthese rabbits of the plains is almost beyond belief. Indeed they putthe speediest horse on his mettle, and a greyhound, or a similar breedof dog, is the only canine that can compete with them.
"Yes, no use shooting when they start racing," agreed Dick.
The lads slipped from their ponies, taking off the saddles which,later, they would use as pillows. And immediately the cow horses wererelieved of their back burdens, they started to roll. This is theideal recreation for the steeds of ranch or plain, for they get littleof the rubbing down or care bestowed on other horses. Their daily rollin the grass and dust keeps their coat in good condition.
The ponies were pegged out by means of the lariats, which allowed themto graze or roll as they pleased. They were tied near a water hole,formed below the spring, so the animals had the three most desirablerequisites--food, water and a place to disport themselves.
Nort and Dick proceeded to make their camp. It was a simple operation.All they had to do was to gather some greasewood for the fire, andstart to cook. Later they would roll in their tarpaulins, with theirheads on the saddles, and get what rest they could.
Fortunately the two boys had with them some cooking utensils, and alsosome bacon and flour with a supply of coffee. The flour was of the"prepared" variety. Mixing it with water gave them batter forflapjacks, which were baked in the same skillet in which the bacon hadfirst been fried. Water for the coffee was at hand, and they had sugarfor that beverage, though no milk, which might seem strange so near aranch on which were many cattle. But ranches are for the raising ofbeef, and are not dairies, so milkless coffee was no hardship to theboys, though at Diamond X milk was plentiful enough.
The smell of the burning greasewood, the aroma of the bacon and coffee,not to mention that of the flapjacks, added zest to the appetites ofthe boys, if zest were needed, and soon they were eagerly eating.
Then, as night settled down they gathered a quantity of wood for thefire, looked to the fastenings of their ponies and stretched out underthe light of the bright stars. They were--except for theirponies--alone amid the foothills, how far from Diamond X ranch t
heycould only guess.