184 East and West 
Then the most tantalising thing of all was the 
mirage. I used to see it constantly before us, the 
most exquisite landscapes, lakes and green islands and 
scenes of beauty perfectly heavenly in the distance, 
flying before us. I could not believe them false at 
first. One reads of the mirage, but it is quite another 
thing to see those heavenly scenes and be tantalised 
by such delusions. They made the heat hotter and 
the desert drier and the sand more choking. 
At length, one day, my husband told me our 
journey was drawing to a close and that next morn- 
ing would bring us tocamp. That night I could not 
sleep from excitement and picturing to myself what 
my future home would be. 
That home for the next year proved to be—~ 
‘‘A two roomed adobe hut with mud floor, 
open to the thatch of brush and without an 
article of furniture. This was our refuge.” 
Furniture was evidently acquired, for— 
“Packing cases made everything—seats, 
bookcase, sofa, wardrobe,’ and again: 
“Chintz and muslin” from the sutler’s 
store “did wonders.”’ 
Of the Indians she says again: 
Now and then I did ride out with my husband, 
but it was risky, even with a large escort and hardly 
any pleasure. Oh, those dreadful Indians. They 
were always lying in wait and our party might be cut 
off and have to fight and their arrows are poisoned, so 
