146 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



Here yet another track went off, turning easterly to 

 a mine, or erstwhile mine, called the Desert Queen, 

 and leaving me to a sort of phantom trail which still 

 ran northerly mile on mile through the spectral 

 forest. 



Presently this trail also forked, sending off a 

 branch to the east, and I came to a standstill in 

 doubt. I had made careful inquiries at Indio and 

 Coachella, and of Emmons, as to forks, crossroads, 

 and landmarks, and had been duly warned as to the 

 roads I had already passed; but this new turn-off 

 had not been spoken of by any one. However, I knew 

 that my direction for Twenty-nine Palms was north- 

 erly, and the trail in that direction seemed a trifle 

 the better marked, so I resolved on that and started. 



In a cactus bush I chanced to notice a scrap of 

 board, loosely stuck as if it had been tossed there. 

 Going over to investigate, there seemed to be faint 

 scratches on it, apparently made with a nail. I 

 turned it this way and that, but for some time could 

 not make even a guess at what was written. At last, 

 by patching possibilities together, the scratches took 

 on vague coherence, a questionable "2," a hazard- 

 ous "9," and a conceivable "P." The fragment as 

 found pointed toward the easterly trail, but from 

 the casual way it hung there it might have been 

 twisted hither and thither by the wind, so it seemed 

 a matter of chance which direction it was meant to 

 indicate. It was one of those puzzles that may bring 

 one into serious trouble in this country where dis- 

 tances are so great, water and food so far between, 

 and travel so scanty that it was probably a month, 



