ew that their lives, or deaths probably, hung on the verdict of the
next few seconds, but Pete's slow drawl was more pronounced and
unperturbed than ever. He put the glasses to his eyes as unconcernedly
as if he were searching for a bunch of estrays. Presently he lowered
them.

"Is--is it----?" began Jack, while the others all bent forward in their
saddles, hanging on the rejoinder.

"It is," declared Pete, and he might have said more, but the rest of
his words were drowned in a ringing cheer.

CHAPTER III.

A NIGHT ALARM.

"How far distant do you imagine it is?" inquired the professor, as they
rode forward with their drooping spirits considerably revived.

"Not more than fifteen miles--if it is that, 'cording ter my
calcerlations," decided Pete.

"Then we should arrive there by ten o'clock to-night."

"About that time--yep. That is, if none of ther stock give out
beforehand."

"Why do they call it the Haunted Mesa?" inquired Jack.

"Some fool old Injun notion 'bout ghosts er spirits hauntin' it,"
rejoined Pete.

"Just as well for us they have that idea," said Walt. "They'll give it
a wide berth."

It flashed across Jack's mind at that moment to tell about the vague,
gigantic shapes he had seen flit by in the gloom of the sand-storm.
But, viewed in the present light, it seemed so absurd that the boy
hesitated to do so.

"Maybe I was mistaken after all," he thought to himself. "There was so
much sand blowing at the time that I might very well have had a blurred
vision."

The next minute he was doubly glad that he had refrained from telling
of his weird experience, for the professor, in a scornful voice, spoke
up.

"Such foolish superstitions did exist in the ancient days, when every
bush held a spirit and every rock was supposed to be endowed with
sentient life. Happily, nowadays, none but the very ignorant credit
such things. By educated people they are laughed at."

Pete, who was jogging steadily on ahead of the rest of them, made no
rejoinder. Ralph, however, spoke up.

"What would you do, if you were to see a spirit, professor?" he
inquired, with an expression of great innocence in his round, plump
face.

"I'd take after it with a good thick stick," was the ready reply.
"That is, always supposing that one _could_ see such a thing."

Darkness fell rapidly. Night, in fact, rushed down on them as soon
almost as the sun sank behind the western rim of the desert. To the
south so