The Land of Paladar

            The sun blistered down and heat waves made the distant

mountains shimmer. He needed to find water soon. It had been some time since he had drained his canteen of the last few tepid drops.

            He wiped his brow, as he stood looking at a group of rocks

some distance off to his left, that seemed to have suddenly appeared, but then he realized that he had been seeing them for some time, but his mind had not been registering them.

            Perhaps that is where the old waterhole is that Belden had told him of. I sure hope so, he thought, as he stooped down and picked up his pack with his bits of what not, and started on towards the rocks.

            The sun beat down merciless. A buzzard was busy describing lazy circles in the brazen sky, perhaps the same one he had seen earlier, and Jonal staggered endlessly on.

            Finally he reached the rocks, and stepping among them, he

could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw the beckoning pool of

water. He feared that he would find only a dry hole . He knelt down and scooped dribbling handfuls of water to his parched lips and throat. At last, his thirst appeased, he bent to fill his canteen, when his eye caught a movement, and he looked up, but could see nothing.

            I guess I've been in the sun too long, he thought, I'm beginning to see things. He bent down again, and again he saw or sensed a flicker of motion just at the edge of his vision.

            It was there, he said to himself. Just to the left of that large

boulder at the far side of the pool. There had been something, or was he seeing ghosts, as he recalled that the Indians believed the pool was haunted.

            As he finished filling his canteen, he continued to watch the spot. Nothing. Had he just imagined it?

            He picked up his gear and decided to investigate the matter, just to satisfy himself that there was nothing there. Warily he approached the spot. Nothing appeared to be unusual, that is, not except for the vaguest scent of trees that reached his nostrils. As he drew closer to the boulder, the scent of trees seemed to grow stronger. This is crazy, he thought, there are no trees here in the middle of desert, so why was he smelling trees?

            When he reached the boulder, he could see nothing unusual, just the scent of trees th