“Frank, there’s sure something moving over beyond where Jose and Becky are plodding along. I can see several dots, and they have life to them, too! It looks for all the world to me as if a pack of wolves might be lying in wait for the ponies—half starved wolves maybe, crazy for a chance to pull them down, and make a meal.” “Wolves,” repeated the other, thoughtfully; “it would be hard for me to believe such animals would ever be found in the middle of this sandy desert, where they’d never find a bite of food in a year, and not a drop of water. You must be mistaken, Andy; look again, won’t you, please?”
Nevertheless the suggestion appeared to influence Frank so that he again sent the aeroplane ahead at full speed; and Andy had a little difficulty in keeping his glasses steady when leveling them, such was the constant vibration of the uprights, under the full force of the powerful little Kinkaid engine.
But it was so much in sympathy with his own desire to get ahead that Andy was willing to put up with almost any trouble. He knew instinctively from the feel of the biplane that they were now speeding.
A minute later, and he gave another exclamation.
“Frank, I saw something flash just then; and as sure as you live I believe it must have been the sunlight glistening on steel, just like it might be a gun barrel or a knife!”
“Do you mean that you saw it ahead of Jose, and among the crawling objects you thought were wolves?” demanded the other. “Yes, yes, there it is again, Frank!”
“Well, that settles one thing then—they’re hardly wolves, Andy; for I never yet heard of such animals carrying either guns or knives, did you?”
“They’re spreading out, Frank, just like they were lying in wait for Jose. And while it looks queer from up here why doesn’t he discover them, I suppose that’s because they’re hiding behind some sand hills,” Andy went on to say.
“But you don’t think any longer that they can be wolves, do you, Andy?”
“Not much,” the other replied. “We’re getting closer all the time, and now I can see that they must be walking on two legs; though for that matter they seem to be sprawled out pretty much all of the time, like great toads, hopping this way and that. And Jose, he don’t know what’s waiting for him, not one little bit.”