The comparison was true. Far off near an adobe dwelling one could see an oriental female form with a water-jar upon her head; glimpse the bit of brilliant color produced by the red shawl; see the sandy stretches of sandy mesa, dotted with flaring blossoms; the water-hole to which the flock was now trending; the lavender-tinted hills encircling this great plain; the purpled mountains rising in protection of its foot-hills; and then, away off on the distant sky-line, the snow-capped peaks gleaming in rainbow tints as the light reflected and shimmered on their dazzling, snowy heads.
“Oh, I feel like crying!” half-sobbed Amy Ward, the effects of the scene exalting her soul.
The other girls were silent for a time. The drivers, to whom this country was an everyday matter, never looked up but drove on as if they were sticks of wood.
At a sudden turn in the trail the tourists saw just ahead that they would have to go up a forbidding mountain. Mr. Gilroy turned to Mr. Vernon, who was with him in the second wagon, and frowned.
“No wonder Balmore advised us to rest our horses and keep them fresh for the Desert and Petrified Forests,” exclaimed he, glancing up at the towering heights before them.
Then suddenly, the great sides of the mountain seemed to open and they were entering a vast cut. Directly through this cleft one could see a marvelous valley; a valley which was encircled by protecting hills and distant peaks, just as the mesa and the pictured scene Julie had pointed out before the great mountain had so unexpectedly shut off their view. Now, presto! the mountain was gone!
Mr. Vernon stared at Mr. Gilroy in blank amazement, and Mr. Gilroy seemed dazed. The girls rubbed their eyes. From the first wagon, where Mr. Burt and the Captain supervised the scouts, a chorus rose. A chorus of “oh” and “ah,” then the familiar sound of Julie’s excited treble.
“Gilly! Gilly! the guide says that that was a mirage. Didn’t you think we were climbing a great mountain?”
“Well, sir! that’s what it was,” sighed Mr. Gilroy, as the tension snapped and they all grinned foolishly.
“By the Great-horned Spoon!” ejaculated Mr. Vernon, his jaw dropping as he realized that the mountain with its ghostlike cleft that ushered them through its blank walls was nothing.