"Ah, wonderful!" exclaimed the delighted soldier. "It is a little garden planted by Nature in the solitary wastes."
"How picturesque! I should like to land there," returned the other.
"Let us ask the captain at least to change his course slightly, so that we may pass over it and photograph it as a souvenir of our pleasant journey," said the officer.
At that moment the captain, passing down the gangway, overheard the remark, and being eager to oblige his distinguished passengers, he telephoned his orders to the navigating officer, who slightly altered the ship's course, so as to pass almost directly over the oasis.
It was while they were engaged in delightful contemplation of this emerald isle embedded in the gold of the desert, that another object attracted the attention of the judge. Chancing to glance upwards, he caught sight of a silvery speck six thousand feet above them, and a little way on their beam.
"See, a tiny cloudlet in the sky; the first I have ever seen in crossing these deserts."
"A cloud, where?" asked his companion.
"There, right up in the blue vault of heaven," said the judge, pointing out the speck which now seemed to have grown larger.
"Why, it is a bird; some great vulture of the desert. It seems to be diving right down upon us! These vultures, I hear, have often attacked the airships in the desert. It evidently takes us for some new kind of prey."
"A bird!" cried the captain, who had now joined the speakers. "Let me see it?"