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Show THE WIND WAGON. 35 "Following it up with, 'Go it, boys, we admire your pluck. Going to Pike's Peak? There's gold there; perhaps you will get some. Ta-ta. See you later. Au revoir.' "And the strange white-winged thing whirled away so rapidly that it seemed to vanish in mid-air. "Their hilarity oppressed me, and had a general depressing effect upon our whole party. "'Think they are making themselves very facetious over nothing at all,' said Tom. " ' I can't see the fun,' said Bob Hudgins. "' Perhaps it is the effect of the light air,' suggested Bill Wilson. "Our spirits went down more and more. Conversation stumbled and blundered, and at last came to a dead stop, except now and then a rugged word thrown out at the toiling ox. We were all put out; that was plain to be seen. The dust was deeper, the oxen slower and the sun hotter than it had ever been before, and the melancholy desert seemed to have no end. All the world was running away from us. Would there be any gold left at Pike's Peak when we should get there? Or would the fellows in the sail wagon get it all? Envy was gnawing at our heartstrings. But we went on in our slow way, reproaching our unlucky stars in severe language. " The next morning we were in a more tranquil state of mind, and had not gone far before we came to a sudden and unexpected halt. Our way was blockaded-in short, our high-flyers were wrecked. It was such a wholly unlooked- for disaster that I was completely nonplussed. That .they might come to grief, I had never taken into account at all. It seems their wagon was no good except on level ground and smooth roads. They had underta- |