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Page 44
The Overland Riders swung themselves to their saddles and moved to
the positions assigned to them, then started away, walking their
ponies. Their line looked like a troop of cavalry going into
action, except that the horses moved listlessly.
Emma found the first alkali tank, and getting off, broke the crust
and thrust her head in the opening.
"What do you find?" called Hippy.
"Ugh! It smells like a rummage sale," answered Miss Dean.
"Dry!" announced Hippy. "Move along."
All along the line the girls were trying to make merry, trying to
forget the terrible heat, a deadly burning heat, but their efforts
in this direction were not very successful.
Heat waves shimmered over the white sands of the desert with not a
breath of air stirring to relieve the deadly monotony. It did not
seem possible to Elfreda Briggs that human beings long could
endure such heat, and she wondered at the cheerfulness of her
companions.
Hi Lang rode around behind the line of riders to see what it was
that Emma Dean had discovered, but he paused at the dry water hole
for but a moment, then hurried back to his position. Now and then
one of the riders would dismount and examine a patch of ground,
only to meet with disappointment.
They had come up to a vast cup-like depression in the desert,
white with the alkali crust that covered its bottom, when Hi fired
a signal shot to indicate that they were to halt for a rest.
"What is that big hole?" called Lieutenant Wingate.
"A prehistoric lake, in whose alkaline dust no plant, not even
sage-brush, can grow, and upon which a puddle of rainwater becomes
an almost deadly poison. This is one of the most thoroughly hated
spots on the desert, hated and shunned by most of those who travel
this way."
"Is there not water under the crust at the bottom?" asked Miss
Dean.
"Not a drop. There probably has not been in centuries. No water is
known to have been found within a few miles of this spot either,
but, as I have said, one never knows, and the traveler must take
nothing for granted."
"Fine place for a summer outing," observed Hippy.
"Probably there is on all the globe no other spot more forbidding,
more desolate, more deadly," added the guide. "We must be going.
Move on!"
All that afternoon the Overland Riders plodded wearily along, now
and then hopes suddenly raised being dashed to earth by dry water
holes. At the next halt, Hi passed along the line, giving each
rider a sip of water from the slender supply in his canteen, Grace
smilingly declining to drink.
"Have you any left in your canteen?" he asked.
"A few drops, but I am saving them until I am thirsty. I have been
sucking the cork for the last hour." Grace then asked about the
dry lake, and the guide repeated what he had said to Emma and
Hippy.
"How are the girls standing the strain?" she questioned.
"Very well indeed. I hope they hold out as well until we find
water."
"Now that there is no one but ourselves present, please tell me
what the prospects are?" requested Grace.
"I can't, Mrs. Gray, for the very good reason that I don't know.
Of course water we must have or we shall perish, and so will the
ponies. As a last resort we can head for the nearest mountain
range, but it would take us nearly two days to make it with ponies
and riders in good working condition."
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