"Sure thing," Adrian told him, and then almost immediately he went on to say in a different tone of voice, that had a vein of new anxiety in it, Billie thought: "I wonder why Donald is rubbering so much for toward the southwest. Perhaps he feels the hot breeze that's beginning to blow from there. I hope it doesn't mean we're going to have a sand storm."

Billie p.r.i.c.ked up his ears, so to speak; that is, he showed considerable interest, and himself turned to watch Donald.

"He does look like he had got on the track of something out of the usual run, for a fact," he muttered, uneasily.

Then he sneezed several times in quick succession, at which Adrian looked as if even this simple event had its significance.

"Beginning to be dust in the air, and I always sneeze when it tickles my nose," Billie started to say, as if in apology for his explosion.

"Yes, the breeze is picking up, and already the air is starting to get full of the fine sand," Adrian told him.

"Does that mean we're bound to run up against a real sand storm?" Billie wanted to know at once, scenting trouble.

"Donald's coming this way, and we'll soon hear what he thinks," was all Adrian would say.

"Looks to me as if we're going to get caught out here in a lovely mess,"

Donald told them, as he came up.

"Sand storm, is it?" demanded Billie, trying not to show any apprehension, for he never wanted others to know when his heart was beating faster than its wont.

"Yes, and coming down on us like two-forty," the other declared. "Watch the nags, and you'll see that they know what they're in for. Here's _Wireless_ been looking over that way every little while for ten minutes past. The wind's rising, and all around us the sand is stirring, so that the air's getting thicker all the while. Before half an hour we'll have the worst of it around us. It's about noon now, and let's hope that we get to the hills before night sets in."

"What's the programme?" asked Billie, undaunted Billie, carelessly enough.

"Keep as close together as we can travel, and go straight ahead,"

answered Donald; "there'll be all sorts of queer noises around us, so pay no attention to them. Be sure and keep your mouth shut all the time; and have water along with you, every fellow, so that in case one of us did stray away, he wouldn't die of thirst before he could be found. Now, let's push on again."

His words were more than verified, for presently the wind grew to the proportions of a gale, and the way that fine sand whirled through the air was something that Billie had never expected to experience in all his life.

It was a terrible task to press on, but luckily the prevailing wind was from the southwest now, and so they had the worst of the sand storm to their backs. Only for that they could not have ventured to attempt any progress whatever; but must have camped where they were, to wait for the whirlwind of sand to cease.

Billie, with his head bowed, and drawing his breath with great difficulty, kept steadily moving on. He managed to keep in close touch with his chums for some time, and then, falling into some sort of a dreamy state, possibly brought about by his sufferings, and the effect of the blinding sand with which the air was charged, he forgot to keep constantly on the alert. The consequence was that suddenly Billie aroused to the startling fact that neither to the right nor to the left, nor yet ahead of him could he discover the faintest sign of the others.

All about was the whirling, blinding sand; while strange noises made his head ring, and he fancied that he could see tempting pools of cool water close at hand, which his common sense told him were only the effect of imagination.

And then and there Billie had a cold sensation in the region of his heart that contrasted strangely with his torrid surroundings, for he knew that he was lost!

CHAPTER XI.

AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE.

At first poor Billie was almost wild with the fear that swept over him, when he realized his true condition, and that he was lost in that sand storm in the heart of an Arizona desert.

He started to shout, but made a sorry mess of it. The fine sand almost choked him as soon as he opened his mouth; and the fierce wind that was sending it scurrying all around in little whirlwinds carried his feeble cry away, so that he knew it could not be heard twenty feet distant.

He sat there on the back of Jupiter, and waited, still hugging the hope to his heart that his chums would immediately miss him, and come hastily back on their course to find him. And if that happened, Billie knew that his chances would be considerably improved did he stay where he was, rather than start roaming this way and that.

But the minutes lengthened into nearly half an hour, and there was not the slightest sign of any one being near him. The storm still kept up, and Donald had said that the probability was it would continue until sundown, when the wind might lull, so as to allow the choked atmosphere a chance to rid itself of the floating gritty sand.

By degrees Billie began to get his nerve back. He was far from being a coward; only he lacked experience; and was moreover hardly fitted either physically or through education for b.u.t.ting up against these rude experiences.

"I've just got to do something, and I can't stay here, that's plain," he told himself; "which means I've got to go on. But I want to be mighty careful about how I travel. I've heard tell how people are apt to go round and round in a circle till they're played out, and exhausted. None of that for me; and why should there be when I'm carrying that precious little compa.s.s."

Thereupon Billie fumbled around in the various pockets of his khaki hunting coat, meaning to find the said compa.s.s, and get his bearings. He had quite a fright at first, for he failed to find it where he expected; and was running through all his other pockets wildly, when he happened to remember placing it in his hat at the time he last looked at the instrument, which was when one of his chums mentioned the fact that they would have to depend on the magnetic needle should they be overwhelmed in just such a storm.

It was a great relief to the fat boy to discover the little bra.s.s bound compa.s.s safely lodged in his hat when he hastily looked. Owing to the air being filled with the flying sand it was only after considerable difficulty that he could see just which way the indicator pointed. So he started off, urging the unwilling Jupiter to put his best foot forward, though the animal gave evidences of being more inclined to stand still, with his tail toward the storm.

Billie would never be likely to forget that terrible experience. Why, the worst he had pictured came far short of the reality.

He suffered keenly constantly, and many times thought he could not bear it any longer; but it is wonderful how much any one can do when they are compelled to by a merciless fate; and so as the time dragged on poor Billie kept moving along, always keeping toward the north, as best he could decide.

When he came to examine his little watch, and saw how late it was getting, he was ready to throw up his hands, and quit. It looked as though he was just bound to spend a lonely night out there on the wild desert, no matter how he fixed it; and that being the case, why not give in now, and have it done with?

Besides, he was utterly worn out with trying to urge the unwilling Jupiter on; as well as from his own physical sufferings. Half blinded, and hardly able to get his breath on account of the fine dust that settled in both nostrils and throat, Billie was an object of pity to himself about that time.

When he made up his mind that he must grin and bear it, even if compelled to camp there all by himself on that dreary waste, Billie started to dismount. Why, at first he could hardly move, he was so stiff with sitting there in the saddle so long, and in a cramped position; but exerting himself again, he managed to half tumble to the ground.

Jupiter did not offer to run away. Indeed, the horse seemed to cower close to his young master, as though trusting to his sagacity in this emergency. Billie noticed this, and somehow it struck him as curious; it also did more than a little to bolster up his courage. For if the broncho felt such confidence in him, surely he must exert himself to prove that he was worthy of such sublime faith.

After all it was little he could do save cower there, patiently waiting for sundown to come; for he remembered that one of his chums had said the sand storm was very apt to peter out at about that time.

How glad he was that he had water with him,-not enough to share with Jupiter, to tell the truth, for he could not tell how long he might remain lost, and was apt to need every drop himself, to keep life in his body.

The animal whinnied whenever he opened his canteen to wet his parched throat, and somehow the sound made sympathetic Billie feel badly. After that he made it a point to step aside when he meant to quench his own thirst, just to avoid having Jupiter reproach him for being stingy. But it was not to be thought of for a minute, because the horse would exhaust the flask, and then not be a quarter satisfied, leaving him in a desperate state indeed.

Fortunately he had a little food with him, and this he proceeded to munch as he sat there behind the shelter of the horse.

He asked himself if the storm showed any signs of diminishing its fury; and after taking several estimates joyfully admitted that at least the wind was not so fierce as formerly.

This in itself was a glorious sign, for without the wind the sand could not fill the air; and by degrees it must settle down once more, so that one might breathe without feeling choked.

If that would only come about Billie felt that he could easily stand anything and everything else that was liable to happen. But should he have to endure that agony another few hours he believed he would go out of his mind.

Yes, there could not be any mistake about it, the storm was surely subsiding, and if conditions kept on improving as they seemed to be doing now, by the time night set in fully it was going to be a thing of the past.

Billie even began to tell himself that he had no reason to complain, because it might have been a great deal worse. Except for the fact that he was compelled to keep a lone camp, away out there on that desert, and was tired almost to death, he could not say that his condition was in any way dreadful. Yes, he even believed he had plenty of water to quench his thirst; though it was evident that he would have to cut his allowance down to half rations, for his repeated sips had already caused the big canteen to feel considerably lighter.

Looking up toward the heavens when he found that night had really set in, he was surprised to find that he could not see a single star; and the moon was also absent. This must mean that there were clouds sailing over him, something quite out of the common where a desert is concerned; since rain seldom if ever is known to fall there; for if it did the desert would not long remain such, but blossom like the rose with fertility.

"Going to be a black night, in the bargain," he grumbled; "seems like a fellow just has to rub up against all sorts of things when once they get started. But so far I hadn't ought to complain. I only hope the other boys fare as well. Wonder how about them now; and if they got off the desert? Chances are they hunted around for Broncho Billie more'n half the afternoon. P'raps they're keeping everlastingly at it even now. Huh!

reckon Billie ain't a baby, and can look out for himself some, if I do say it myself, as hadn't ought to. Huh! I'm alearning right fast, seems to me."

The fact that he had come out so well thus far seemed to inspire a new confidence in the stout boy. He even patted himself proudly on his chest, and congratulated himself on having snapped off several pictures of the gathering cloud of sand as it bore down upon them. If these turned out half-way decent, he would have something worth while to exhibit to his schoolboy friends away off in the East, when he went home again after his vacation was over.

The wind having died down fully now, the sand settled, and Billy believed that if it were daytime he might see where the hilly country lay in the midst of which was the Zuni village. But of course, in the darkness of a moonless night he could not make any sort of a discovery, and must apparently be satisfied to remain there in his makeshift camp until another day dawned, and brought new hope in its train.