After supper the boys rolled themselves up in their blankets and slept comfortably until morning, Doctor Dan going on guard.
He informed the boys that he was accustomed to going three or four days at a stretch without sleep and that they would not be called upon to mount guard at night until they reached the lake and probably not then unless they found some special cause for alarm.
The second day’s journey resembled the first too closely to need description. When they went into camp that night they could see beyond them a stretch of country which appeared to be one mass of great sand hills which rose in every direction.
Doctor Dan informed them that this was the beginning of the Bad Lands.
“Those sand hills run away over into South Dakota for more than a hundred miles,” he declared. “It’s a terrible country. Not a drop of water anywhere. There is nothing like it in the whole world.”
Dick and Charley were all anxiety to see it and within a very short time after they started out next morning their wish was gratified, for they found themselves in the midst of the sand hills steadily advancing toward an isolated peak, which Doctor Dan informed them was their destination.
It was a fearful country surely. As far as the eye could reach the sand hills rose all around them, with not a tree nor a blade of grass visible anywhere.
Later in the day they began to ascend and at last came out upon a broad table land, a mere desert of yellow sand, broken by great rifts called barrancas in every direction. It required an artist to work around these breaks, but Doctor Dan seemed to be perfectly acquainted with the trail, although he declared that he had never visited this part of the Bad Lands, excepting on his previous trip.
The mountain was now steadily drawing nearer, and by four o’clock they reached its base without having seen the slightest sign of life of any kind since they entered the Bad Lands.
“Now, then, where does the lake lie?” asked Dick, looking up at the towering cliffs of reddish, disintegrated stone which rose above them.