The Pony Rider Boys in the Alkali OR Finding a Key to the Desert Maze

CHAPTER.

I. THE DESERT'S MYSTIC SPELL
II. THE FIRST NIGHT IN CAMP
III. TWISTED BY A TWISTER
IV. THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
V. STALKING BIG GAME BY MOONLIGHT
VI. BAGGED BY LUCKY SHOTS
VII. CHUNKY COMES TO GRIEF
VIII. NEARLY DROWNED IN AN ALKALI SINK
IX. THE BOYS DISCOVER A RIVER
X. A COWBOY TAKES A HEADER
XI. A PIECE OF HUMAN SANDPAPER
XII. RUNNING DOWN THE TRAIL
XIII. COYOTES JOIN IN THE CHORUS
XIV. FUN IN THE FOOTHILLS
XV. BUD PROMISES SOME EXCITEMENT
XVI. THE BATTLE OF THE STALLIONS
XVII. ON A WILD-HORSE HUNT
XVIII. ROPED BY ROUGH RIDERS
XIX. WINNING THEIR REWARD
XX. VISITED BY A HALO
XXI. OFF ON A DRY TRAIL
XXII. IN THE HERMIT'S CAVE
XXIII. LOST IN THE DESERT MAZE
XXIV. CONCLUSION




The Pony Rider Boys in the Alkali



CHAPTER I

THE DESERT'S MYSTIC SPELL

"If this is the desert, then I think I prefer mountains," decided Stacy
Brown.

"It is not the desert. We have not reached it yet. This is the
Diamond Range," replied Tom Parry, who was to guide the Pony Rider Boys
across the great Nevada Desert. "We shall soon be there, however."

"You'll know the place when you see it, Chunky," said Ned Rector.

"And feel it, too, I guess," added Tad Butler under his breath.

"We have the desert on each side of us now," continued the guide.
"Were you to fire a rifle to the right or left, your bullet would fall
on the baking alkali of the desert."

"Then, if we're so near, why not get out in the open, instead of
floundering through these hills?" questioned Stacy.

"I'm thinking you'll wish you were back in the hills before many days,"
laughed the guide.

"Mr. Parry has his own reasons for following this trail, Master Stacy,"
interposed Professor Zepplin. "We are entirely in his hands and it is
not for us to question the wisdom of his decision."

The guide nodded.

Parry was a splendid type of the plainsman of the great West. Tall,
straight, clear-eyed, his bronzed cheeks fairly glistening in the
sunlight, he would have attracted attention anywhere. At present, he
sat on his pony motionless, the broad sombrero tilted upward above his
forehead as he peered into the amber haze that hung over the western
horizon.

"Yes, we shall reach the desert soon enough. We are heading for the
Newark Valley now, and should be there in time to make camp this
afternoon, providing the weather is satisfactory," announced Parry,
more to himself than to the others.

"Weather--weather?" stammered Professor Zepplin. "What's the matter
with the weather?"

"One hundred in the shade. Isn't that matter enough?" grunted Stacy.

"How do you know, Chunky? You haven't seen any shade to-day," demanded
Ned Rector. "There isn't a patch of shade as large as a man's hand in
this whole country, so far as I have been able to observe."

"And still less in the country we are about to enter," added the guide.

Tad Butler, however, had been observing the guide keenly. Though the
lad had asked no questions, he had caught a note of anxiety in the
tone, as well as in the apprehensive glances that Parry kept
continually casting to the westward. The guide, catching Tad's
inquiring look, smiled and nodded.

"You should always keep your eyes on the weather in this country,
especially when on the alkali," he told the boy after the party had
started on again.

"Why more there than elsewhere, Mr. Parry?"

"Because storms here are frequently attended with no little peril.
You'll see some of them, no doubt, before we reach the end of our
journey, and you will wish you hadn't."

"But there's no sign of storm now," protested Tad.

"Perhaps not to you, young man. Do you see that haze settling down
like a fog on the western horizon?"

"Yes, I've been looking at it--a golden fog."

The guide smiled grimly.

"I wouldn't call it exactly golden. I should call it fiery," said the
guide.

"Has it any particular meaning?"

"May mean most anything. Means storm of some kind--perhaps rain, and
maybe wind. If it passes, we'll drop out of here and make camp on the
desert to-night."

"That will be fine," said Tad. "We are all crazy for the desert.
Since we started out on our trips, last spring, we have experienced
almost everything that could happen to us on mountain and plain----"

"But not including the desert?"

"No."

"You'll find it different; very different."