I don’t suppose you realize, many of you, just what that would mean to a man in the desert country.  It is rather hard to define, but the significance would be felt, even by Casey in his present plight.  You see, small cars, of the make too famous to be hurt or helped by having its name mentioned in a simple yarn like this, have long been recognized as the proper car for rough trails and no trails.  Those who travel the desert most have come to the point of counting “Lizzie” almost as necessary as beans.  Wherefore a larger car is nearly always brought in by strangers to the country, who swear solemnly, never to repeat the imprudence.  A large car, driven by strangers in the land, means hunters, prospectors from the outside brought in by some special tale of hidden wealth,—­or just plain simpletons who only want to see what lies over the mountain.  There aren’t many of the last-named variety up in the Nevada wastes.  Even your nature-loving rovers oddly keep pretty much to the beaten trails of other nature lovers, where gas stations and new tires may be found at regular intervals.  The Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, the National Old Trails they explore,—­but not the high, wind-swept mesas of Nevada’s barren land.

A fear that was not altogether strange to him crept over Casey.  It would be just his grinning enemy Ill-luck on his trail again, if that light should prove to be made by men hunting for Injun Jim and his mine.  Casey used to feel a sickness in his middle when that thought nagged him, and he felt a growing anger now when he looked at the twinkling glow.  He walked a little faster.  Now that the fear had come to him, Casey wanted to come up with the men, talk with them, learn their business if they were truthful, or sense their lying if they tried to hide their purpose from him.  He must know.  If they were seeking Injun Jim, then he must find some way to head them off, circumvent their plans with strategy of his own.  He had dreamed too long and too ardently to submit now to interlopers.

So he walked, limping and cursing a little now and then because of his aches.  Up a steep slope made heavy with loose sand that dragged at his feet; over the crest and down the other side among rocks and gravel that made harder walking than the sand.  Up another steep slope:  it was heartbreaking, unending as the toils of a nightmare, but Casey kept on.  He was not worried over his own plight; not yet.  He believed that William and his burros were somewhere ahead of him, since they could not cling to a bush as he had done and so resist the impetus of that terrific wind.  There was a car standing on the ridge toward which he was laboriously making his way.  It did not occur to Casey that morning might show him a rather desperate plight.

Yet the morning did just that.  Hours before dawn the light had disappeared abruptly, but Casey had no uneasiness over that.  It was foolish for them to run down their battery burning lights when they were standing still, he thought.  They had not moved off, and he had well in mind the contour of the ridge where they were standing.  He would have bet good money that he could walk straight to the car even though darkness hid it from him until he came within hailing distance.