The foliage had already turned brown under the summer sun, but there was fresh grass within the shadow of the trees, upon which the horses grazed eagerly when they were turned loose. The four meanwhile rejoiced, and looked around, seeking a place for a camp.
"How long is this belt, Bill?" asked Phil of Breakstone.
"I don't know, but maybe it's a thousand miles. There's two of them, you know. That's the reason they call them the Cross Timbers. After you pass through this belt you cross about fifteen miles of perfectly bare plain, and then you come to the second belt, which is timbered exactly like this. One belt is about eight miles wide, the other about twelve miles wide, and, keeping an average distance of about fifteen miles apart, they run all the way from the far western edge of these plains in a southeasterly direction clean down to the Brazos and Trinity River bottoms, where they come together and merge in the heavy timber. It's a most wonderful thing, Sir Philip of Buena Vista and Sir John of Montevideo, and it's worthy of any man's attention."
"It has mine, that's sure," said Phil, as he walked about through the forest. "It's an extraordinary freak of nature, but the roots of the two belts of timber must be fed by subterranean water, though it's strange that they should run parallel so many hundreds of miles, always separated by that strip of dry country fifteen miles wide, as you say, Bill."
"I can't account for it, Phil," replied Breakstone, "and I don't try. The people who don't believe in queer things are those who stay at home and sit by the fire. I've roamed all my life, and I've had experience enough to believe that anything is possible."
"Look!" exclaimed Phil in delight. "Here's our camp, just made for us!"
He pointed to a tiny spring oozing from beneath the roots of a large oak, flowing perhaps thirty yards and then losing itself beneath the roots of another large oak. It looked clear and fresh, and Phil, kneeling down and drinking, found it cold and delightful. Bill Breakstone did the same, with results equally happy.
"Yes, this was made for us," he said, confirming Phil's words. "There are not many such springs that I ever heard of in the Cross Timbers, and our luck holds good."
They called the others, who drank, and after them the horses. It was an ideal place for a camp, and they felt so secure that they lighted a fire and cooked food, venison, and steaks of antelope and deer that they had shot by the way.
"It might be a good idea," said Breakstone, "to rest here in the shade a part of to-morrow. All of us have been riding pretty hard, and you know, Hans, old man, that if you go too fast you are not strong enough to do what you must do when you get there."