As Billie was the one who wanted to look upon the strange sights connected with the quaint homes of the cliff dwellers, he held his peace; though truth to tell the prospect of a ride of hours across that desert did not appeal very much to him now, after he had heard such dismal stories about what it could do when it took a notion. The sunshine was very vivid, and half blinded them when they tried to look far away to where Donald said the other elevation undoubtedly lay, amidst which the Zuni village was to be found. From another quarter it could be reached without any necessity for crossing the desert, but not from the south. “Kind of like buying a pig in the poke, ain’t it, this thing of starting out there without seeing where you’re heading for?” remarked Billie, a little uneasily; for now that he was gazing on the sandy waste, its tremendous possibilities began to really awe him; and then the way the sun was shining on the billows of sand made him feel as though they must come near being roasted before they had gone a great ways. “Oh! we know that we’ve got to keep heading straight into the northwest; and what’s the use of having compasses with us if we can’t keep our course?” said Donald, who did not appear to be worried at the prospect. So they started off. It soon began to feel uncomfortable for the fat boy; and he was heard to mumble more or less to himself; but Billie was a “stayer,” as Adrian called it; and once he embarked on an undertaking he would not easily give up. So he mopped his reeking forehead, and kept everlastingly at it, even urging his pony to renewed exertions; though the wise animal seemed to know there was no use trying to make haste while plodding through these sand hills. “Well, I never knew before I came out here, that a desert was like this,” Billie had blurted out once, when Adrian came alongside, and he just felt that he had to say something. “Few people do know anything about it until they see with their own eyes,” returned the other boy; “for of course you believed that it must be perfectly flat, and as level as a billiard table, didn’t you?” “That’s right,” returned the frank Billie; “and here it’s all sand hills, many of ’em equal to little mountains, and all frilled and scolloped like. That’s where the wind makes its fancy work, I take it. Many a time I’ve seen dry snow cut like that; and sand acts just the same way, don’t it?” “Exactly,” answered Adrian; “and as we’ve been moving along for nearly two hours now, look back and see where the mountains we left lie.” No sooner had Billie turned his head than he gave a cry of wonder. “Why, they’ve gone!” he exclaimed; “blotted right out of sight, too. Never saw anything like it before, believe me. It must be the glare of the sun on all this white sand that does it. Only for the dark glasses we’re wearing, that same would be making us nearly blind, I take it.”