"
"I am sorry to disappoint you, boys, but I cannot take the dog. She
will be left with Captain Bayard."
This decision made the boys somewhat miserable for a time. They
commiserated the dog over her misfortune, and then turned their
attention to preparations for the journey.
"Have you ever been to La Paz?" asked Frank.
"I have never been beyond Date Creek in that direction," I replied.
"Is the Xuacaxella really a desert?"
"Only in the rainless season. Grasses, cacti, and shrubbery not
needing much moisture grow there. One of the geological surveys calls
it Cactus Plain. It is one hundred miles long. There is water in a
fissure of a mountain-spur on one side called the Cisternas Negras,
or Black Tanks, but for the rest of the distance there was formerly no
water except in depressions after a rainfall, a supply that quickly
evaporated under a hot sun and in a dry atmosphere. A man named Tyson
has lately sunk a well thirty miles this side of La Paz."
"It was at Black Tanks the expressman saw Texas Dick and Juan Brincos
with our ponies," said Henry.
Pages:
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174