They sat there and saw the animals suddenly grow clearly defined
and very close, and discovered at last that they were sheep, and that a man
was walking beside the flock; and even while they watched it and wondered if
the sheep were really as close as they seemed, the vision slowly faded into
blank, wavery distance and the mesa lay empty and quivering under the sun.
"Fine chance we've got of locating anything," Andy grumbled, "if it's going to
be miragy all day. We could run our fool heads off trying to get up to a bunch
that would puff out into nothing. Makes a fellow think of the stories they
tell about old prospectors going crazy trying to find mirage water-holes. I'm
glad we didn't get hung up at a dry camp, Luck. Yuh realize what that would be
like?"
"Oh, I may have some faint idea," Luck drawled whimsically. "Look over there,
Andy over toward Albuquerque. Is that a mirage again, or do you see something
moving?"
Andy, having the glasses, swung them slowly to the southeast. After a minute
or two he shook his head and gave the glasses to Luck. "There was one square
look I got, and I'd been willing to swear it was our saddle-bunch," he said.
"And then they got to wobbling and I couldn't make out what they are.
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