r guns!" exclaimed Nort suddenly. "We forgot all about
them. Bud told us they were mainly used for signaling out here, and we
might let him and the rest know where we are by firing a few shots."

"Sure! Go to it!" agreed Dick. "But don't fire too many cartridges,"
he added.

"Why not?"

"Well, there's no telling when we may want the shells, and we haven't
any too many."

"That's so," agreed Nort. "Well, we'll each fire two, at intervals."

This they did, but such echoes were aroused amid the hills by the
reverberations of the reports that the lads doubted whether Bud and the
other cowboys could accurately determine whence the sound of the firing
came.

"We've done our best," said Nort, after the fourth shot had gone
echoing among the hills. "Now let's ride on a little, and if we don't
get out, or find those cattle, we'll pick a good place to camp for the
night."

This struck Dick as being the best thing to do and they urged their
tired ponies forward. Dick was casting his looks about, seeking for a
suitable place to make the night camp, when he was attracted by a shout
from Nort, who was off to one side.

"Did you find 'em?" cried Dick, eagerly. "The cattle or our cowboys?"

"No, but look!" yelled Nort. "We're coming to a city!"

He pointed toward the east and there, on the far side of a green
valley, amid green hills, was the vision of a small city, on the banks
of a good-sized river. As the boys watched they saw a steamer come up
to a dock and stop, though the scene was too far away to give them more
details.

"Now we're all right!" yelled Dick.

But, even as he spoke the vision faded from the eyes of the startled
boys. It melted from sight as do some moving pictures, when the "fade
out" is used. It was as though a veil of mist came between the vision
and the boys, or as if some giant hand had wiped it from a great slate
with a damp sponge.

CHAPTER XVII

THE NIGHT CAMP

"Well, what do you know about that?" exclaimed Nort, as he turned to
look at his brother, when the vision of the city on the river bank had
disappeared.

"Were we dreaming, or did we really see something?" asked Dick, passing
his hand over his eyes in dazed fashion.

"We saw something all right," asserted Nort, "and I'm wondering if I
saw the same thing you did--a city--the steamer and----"

"I saw it, too," declared Dick, interrupting his brother's recital.
"But where did it go? A fog must have rolled up be