"Good Lord!" I said, "who ever would have thought of this?"

And I stared in amazement; then I turned to Tonnison. He was looking,
with a blank expression upon his face, at the place where the river
disappeared.

In a moment he spoke.

"Let us go on a bit; it may reappear again--anyhow, it is worth
investigating."

I agreed, and we went forward once more, though rather aimlessly; for we
were not at all certain in which direction to prosecute our search. For
perhaps a mile we moved onward; then Tonnison, who had been gazing about
curiously, stopped and shaded his eyes.

"See!" he said, after a moment, "isn't that mist or something, over
there to the right--away in a line with that great piece of rock?" And
he indicated with his hand.

I stared, and, after a minute, seemed to see something, but could not be
certain, and said so.

"Anyway," my friend replied, "we'll just go across and have a glance."
And he started off in the direction he had suggested, I following.
Presently, we came among bushes, and, after a time, out upon the top of
a high, boulder-strewn bank, from which we looked down into a wilderness
of bushes and trees.

"Seems as though we had come upon an oasis in this desert of stone,"