een
inverted, they might have sooner guessed the secret of it. But the
particular mirages they had viewed had, through some trick of air
refraction, been imposed on their eyesight rightside up, and
wonderfully clear.

I do not suppose all the stories that have been written of mirages are
true, but it is certain that many strange tricks have been played on
the eyesight of observers by these phenomena, and more than one
luckless prospector, or cattleman, has followed these visions, only to
be tantalized in the end by finding, just as Nort and Dick did, that
they merely vanished, dissolving into nothing.

Telling of their experiences afterward, Nort and Dick declared that
when they had visualized the steamer moving up to her dock, they had
actually seen figures disembarking.

"That _couldn't_ be!" declared Bud. "Your eyes must have been blinking
and you _thought_ you saw figures. I've been fooled by mirages myself,
but though you might make out something as large as a steamer moving, I
never yet saw one of these visions clear enough so that you could make
out people moving about. You can see a town, or a ranch, sometimes
right side up, and sometimes upside down, but you can't make out
people. I won't say that it is impossible, but I've never seen it, nor
heard of anyone who has," the boy rancher concluded.

"Well, it was wonderful enough as it was," declared Nort, and even
those who have seen many mirages will agree with this, I think.

"Well, that sure was queer!" exclaimed Nort, rubbing his eyes again.
"And to think we might have ridden off, and tried to get to that ranch,
or city."

"I thought sure it was Diamond X," declared Dick.

"Well, I knew it wasn't, as soon as I saw how the buildings were
located. But I thought it was some ranch. Bud told me about these
mirages, though I never thought they were as plain as that."

"They sure do fool you!" laughed Dick. "And now, before we get led
astray by any more, let's get settled for the night. It looks as if
we'd have to stay here."

"Yes, it does," agreed Nort. He looked in the direction where the
strange images had appeared in the air, seemingly suspended between the
heaven and the earth. There were no more of the visions, the declining
sun doubtless being in such a position as no longer to produce the
necessary refraction, or bending of the light rays.

"Here's water," spoke Nort, pointing to a spring bubbling out of the
side of the hill. "We'll