Out into the country the voyagers went. Fertile farms and gardens were upon all sides for a number of miles.
It was easy to follow good roads for some distance.
Then the confines of civilization were reached and the unexplored wilds opened up before them.
For two days the Steam Man kept a course to the north-west.
Mexican towns were passed and ranches without number. Rancheros and peons, hunters and cowboys, greasers and half-breeds, all viewed the Steam Man with great wonderment, and some of the ignorant natives with superstition.
But the voyagers were not molested until one evening, after crossing an arid plain, the startling discovery was made that the Steam Man’s boilers were empty.
It was necessary to bank the fires at once and look for a fresh supply.
This it was not easy to find in that locality.
There was not a stream or lake visible anywhere. All was a dry, arid plain.
But two miles distant in the verge of a clump of timber the low roof of an adobe ranch was seen.