CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
A NIGHT IN THE DESERT.
Conversing in this way, the young hunters rode on, keeping as far fromthe edges of the mounds as possible, lest the hoofs of their horsesmight sink in the excavated ground. They had ridden full five miles,and still the marmot village stretched before them! still the dogs onall sides uttered their "Choo-choo"--still the owls flapped silently up,and the rattle-snakes crawled across their track.
It was near sun-down when they emerged from among the hillocks, andcommenced stepping out on the hard, barren plain. Their conversationnow assumed a gloomier turn, for their thoughts were gloomy. They haddrunk all their water. The heat and dust had made them extremelythirsty; and the water, warmed as it was in their gourd canteens,scarcely gave them any relief. They began to experience the cravings ofthirst. The butte still appeared at a great distance--at least tenmiles off. What, if on reaching it, they should find no water? Thisthought, combined with the torture they were already enduring, wasenough to fill them with apprehension and fear.
Basil now felt how inconsiderately they had acted, in not listening tothe more prudent suggestions of Lucien; but it was too late forregrets--as is often the case with those who act rashly.
They saw that they must reach the butte as speedily as possible, for thenight was coming on. If it should prove a dark night, they would beunable to guide themselves by the eminence, and losing their coursemight wander all night. Oppressed with this fear, they pushed forwardas fast as possible; but their animals, wearied with the long journeyand suffering from thirst, could only travel at a lagging pace.
They had ridden about three miles from the dog-town, when, to theirconsternation, a new object presented itself. The prairie yawned beforethem, exhibiting one of those vast fissures often met with on the hightable-lands of America. It was a _barranca_, of nearly a thousand feetin depth, sheer down into the earth, although its two edges at the topwere scarcely that distance apart from each other! It lay directlyacross the track of the travellers; and they could trace its course formiles to the right and left, here running for long reaches in a straightline, and there curving or zig-zagging through the prairie. When theyarrived upon its brink, they saw at a glance that they could not crossit. It was precipitous on both sides, with dark jutting rocks, which insome places overhung its bed. There was no water in it to gladden theireyes; but, even had there been such, they could not have reached it.Its bottom was dry, and covered with loose boulders of rock that hadfallen from above.
This was an interruption which our travellers little expected; and theyturned to each other with looks of dismay. For some minutes theydeliberated, uncertain how to act. Would they ride along its edge, andendeavour to find a crossing-place? Or would it be better to retracetheir steps, and attempt to reach the stream which they had left in themorning? The latter was a fearful alternative, as they knew they couldnot pass the marmot hillocks in the darkness without losing time andencountering danger. It is discouraging at all times to _go back_,particularly as they had ridden so far--they believed that water wouldbe found near the butte. They resolved, at length, to search for acrossing.
With this intention they made a fresh start, and kept along the edge ofthe barranca. They chose the path that appeared to lead upward--as byso doing they believed they would the sooner reach a point where thechasm was shallower. They rode on for miles; but still the fissure,with its steep cliffs, yawned below them, and no crossing could befound. The sun went down, and the night came on as dark as pitch. Theyhalted. They dared ride no farther. They dared not even go back--lestthey might chance upon some outlying angle of the crooked chasm, andride headlong into it! They dismounted from their horses, and sunk downupon the prairie with feelings almost of despair.
It would be impossible to picture their sufferings throughout that longnight. They did not sleep even for a moment. The agonising pangs ofthirst as well as the uncertainty of what was before them on the morrowkept them awake. They did not even picket their horses--for there wasno grass near the spot where they were--but sat up all night holdingtheir bridles. Their poor horses, like themselves, suffered both fromthirst and hunger; and the mule Jeanette occasionally uttered a wildhinnying that was painful to hear.
As soon as day broke they remounted, and continued on along the edge ofthe barranca. They saw that it still turned in various directions; and,to add to their terror, they now discovered that they could not evenretrace the path upon which they had come, without going all the wayback on their own tracks. The sun was obscured by clouds, and they knewnot in what direction lay the stream they had left--even had theypossessed strength enough to have reached it.
They were advancing and discussing whether they should make the attempt,when they came upon a deep buffalo-road that crossed their path. It wasbeaten with tracks apparently fresh. They hailed the sight with joyfulexclamations--as they believed that it would lead them to a crossing.They hesitated not, but riding boldly into it, followed it downward. Asthey had anticipated, it wound down to the bottom of the barranca, andpassed up to the prairie on the opposite side, where they soon arrivedin safety.
This, however, was no termination to their sufferings, which had nowgrown more acute than ever. The atmosphere felt like an oven; and thelight dust, kicked up by their horses' hoofs, enveloped them in achoking cloud, so that at times they could not see the butte for whichthey were making. It was of no use halting again. To halt was certaindeath--and they struggled on with fast-waning strength, scarcely able toretain their seats or speak to one another. Thirst had almost deprivedthem of the power of speech!
It was near sunset, when the travellers, faint, choking, panting forbreath, bent down in their saddles, their horses dragging along underthem like loaded bees, approached the foot of the eminence. Their eyeswere thrown forward in eager glances--glances in which hope and despairwere strangely blended.
The grey, rocky bluff, that fronted them, looked parched and forbidding.It seemed to frown inhospitably upon them as they drew near.
"O brothers! should there be no water!"
This exclamation was hardly uttered, when the mule Jeanette, hithertolagging behind, sprang forward in a gallop, hinnying loudly as she ran.Jeanette, as we have said, was an old prairie traveller, and could scentwater as far as a wolf could have done her own carcass. The otheranimals, seeing her act in this manner, rushed after; and the nextmoment the little cavalcade passed round a point of rocks, where a greensward gladdened the eyes of all. They saw grass and willows, amongwhose leaves gurgled the crystal waters of a prairie spring; and in afew seconds' time, both horses and riders were quenching their thirst inits cool current.