The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1905-03-04
! A Desert Mystery
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Colonel Whitehead is a story tell
er from way back and has q reputa-
ton as raconteur that spreads over
dozen western states and terri
tories and from the waters Of the
Atlantic to those of the Pacific. He
has had innumerable thrilling adyen-
lures both in war and in peace, and
when IN the proper humor he will
spin yarns Of the most absorbing
interest by the hour.
One story that he related as we
were Jogging along behind the mules
on recent trip to the undoubted
gateway OF sheol-i. e., the sulphur
banks of Kern county-is SO uncan
ny and strange that / will venture to
repeat it.
"Some three years ago." said the
colonel, Il was engaged in making
a survey from Rogers, on the Mo-
jave desert, to Antioch. We made
rapid progress toward Fort Teton
pass, and it became necessary to
check up the line, measuring dis
tances from government corners,
that the road might be accurately
located upon the filing map. This
work was assigned to an odd genius
whom Twill call Buck, a man past
sixty-fve, tough as a knot and as
wicked as pirate. Frequently he
would set his rickety old transit
with the lens wrong end to, and aft
er trying to locate the flag for fif-
teen or twenty minutes he would
discover his error, and then such
swearing as he INDUCED in is rarely
heard outside the forecastle of
man-of-war. | sometimes think the
strange manifestation which I am
about to relate to you might have
been due to Bucks profanity. Ger
tainly if man can ever have power
to summon spirits, evil or good, from
the neither world, Buck ought to
have had that power in no small
| measure.
81 began the inspection of the
survey preparatory to the right of
way work, starting at Rogers, des-
olate station on the A. and P. road,
on the borders of an immense dry
lake. We made our first camp some
fifteen miles west of that point. The
regular survey camp was at this
time near Germans Station, under
the shadows of Mount Frazier. Our
camp was rude settlers cabin, and
near it was shack barn with a lit
| tie hay stored in it. A well of fair
| ly good water close by made COM
Portable camp a possibility. It was
late in October, and the water had
risen near the surface in the bed of
the dry lake. We had eaten our
supper the first night out and were
having a quiet smoke, looking out
over the desolate expanse of desert
toward Lancaster, a station on the
Southern Pacific road, some twenty
five or thirty miles to the southwest.
Buck had been entertaining us with
yarns about ghosts that he insisted
haunted an old mining camp near
Owens lake and was inclined to feel
hurt because | laughed at his tales.
"When darkness came on and only
the outlines of the gaunt mountains
across the desert were discernible in
the starlight Buck of sudden said,
Colonel, I never thought an engine
headlight could be seen so plainly at
! Lancaster
"eNor did T. was my reply as I
saw close to the ground at distance
difficult to estimate round, strange
colored light or ball of fire, very
like locomotive headlight. A mo-
ment's watching, however, soon con-
WINGED me that the light was er-
ratio in its movements and was
nothing more or less than grand
display of the ignis fatuus, or will
o'-the-wisp, something had seen
many times at the ends of the spars
or mastheads of ship at sea, but
never on land or in such magnitude.
! I said to Buck: IT'S no headlight.
It's one of your ghosts come to con-
vince me of the truth of your sto-
RES He turned white as sheet
and grasped me by the arm, saying,
TITS coming dead for us, sure as we
live
"And so it was. Dancing up and
down, it came nearer and nearer. l
must confess it made even me
trifle nervous, while, as for Buck, ne
evidently took my joke about the
ghost in dead earnest and was COM %,
pletely panic stricken. For Gods .
sake he cried, 1et us get out OF
this 7 and was on the point of jump
ing up and running off into the des.
ert when all of a sudden the light
disappeared and was seen no more