THE PANGS OF STARVATION.
"I really and truly believe that's it, coming along at last; and say, I
give you my solemn affidavy right now, that I never saw daybreak as
thankfully as this same morning!"
That was what Billie was telling himself, as he strained his eyes, and
perhaps his imagination at the same time, in staring into the magic
east, where all his hopes lay. As the reader has found out before now,
this same Billie was something of a talker, and could ask more questions
in ten minutes than most fellows would think up in an hour. And when he
had no one else to impose on as an audience, he did not hesitate to talk
to himself, yes, and often carry on a regular conversation in that way.
But at least his hopes with regard to the breaking of day were not
doomed to be disappointed this time; for that was really the first faint
streak beginning to light up the horizon, where it lay low and flat
against the east.
He watched it slowly broaden, and kept telling himself that he was a
mighty fortunate boy to be able to see the morning, after all his
troubles.
At the same time Billie felt a dash of real pride, to think that he had
managed to hold his own, even when pitted against the perils of the
desert.
"Oh! yes, I'm getting to be a veteran, that's what," he remarked,
complacently, when he found that he could begin to see a little over the
sandy range, where the small dunes showed the fury of the previous day's
dry storm; "and mebbe I won't have a stunning story to spin for the
benefit of my two chums, when we get together again. Say, by the way, I
wonder where they are right now; and if Broncho Billie after all will
have to do the rescue act for the rest of the bunch?"
That was certainly putting on airs for you; it would be the climax of
all his experiences if some time or other he, the late greenhorn, could
run across an opportunity to stretch out his hand and render assistance
to those seasoned prairie range boys.
All at once Billie remembered something.
"Wow! I have got a fine lookout before me, now, haven't I; without a
broncho to help me along my weary way? Hang that measly Jupiter, why
couldn't he have stuck by me? He ought to have known Little Billie
better than that. I was able to keep them fierce wolves from devouring
him, sure I was; didn't I prove it by knocking over a whole lot of the
critters. And that reminds me I ought to step out to see what became of
my game."
This he at once started to do; and it gave him a creepy sensation when
he made the discovery that all there was left of the slain animals were
some scattered and clean-picked bones, together with fragments of gray
hide. The balance had completely vanished before the assaults of the
rest of the wolfish pack.
"Whew! that's what I call going some!" exclaimed the astonished boy, as
he surveyed the battlefield ruefully; "and I reckon I ought to feel
thankful they didn't get a chance to try their sharp teeth on me. I owe
a heap to this faithful gun of mine; and after this nothing will ever
tempt me to sell the same, or give it away. It ought to be handed down
to my grandchildren, and kept with a red ribbon tied on the same,
hanging from the wall; like that old Revolutionary musket is in our
house, which was once owned by my ancestor, who fought under General
Marion, the Swamp Fox. Oh! but I'm hungry, though; and that reminds me
my troubles ain't over yet by a jugfull. I could eat a petrified loaf of
bread, or even a--a--well, a muskrat; and I used to think they were the
limit when I saw that trapper in the marsh cook one, and call it
musquash, fine and dandy."
The prospect for breakfast certainly looked pretty slender to poor
Billie.
He stared hard all around him, as the light grew stronger, and a rosy
flush told where the coming sun would presently break above the horizon,
to start another hot day. Not a thing in sight was there, that gave
promise of succor. As on the previous day, one could not see any great
distance accurately, on account of a peculiar haze; and this prevented
him from making out the hilly ranges that he felt sure must lie to the
north, and not such a tremendous distance away either.
So Billie heaved a big sigh, as he reduced his girth by drawing in his
belt.
"If this keeps on I'll soon be as thin as a living skeleton," he told
himself, as he counted the remaining holes in the leather, and figured
on how he would look when he had by degrees reached the end of the
string.
Gathering up his blanket, and making as small a bundle of it as
possible, he shouldered this, and then set his face toward the Promised
Land, which, in his case, lay directly to the north.
His little compass again came in handy, and showed him his course. Every
few minutes the anxious boy would consult it feverishly, for he was
dreadfully afraid that he might wander away from his prearranged route,
and get to making that fatal circle he had heard lost people usually
traveled.
When not staring at the face of the small, brassbound compass Billie was
casting his eyes ahead, and trying with might and main to make out
something hopeful there, the dim outlines of rocky elevations perhaps,
anything to break the horrible monotony of that dreary sandy waste of
which he was already so heartily sick that he hoped he might never set
eyes on another desert in all his life.
And of course the more he considered his deplorable condition, the worse
his sensation of hunger became. It seemed to Billie that he could not
have eaten much of anything for a whole week, and he feared he would
soon become so weak from starvation that it must be impossible for him
to put one foot in front of another.
And yet this was the same boy who had devoured almost as much of that
cooked venison at noon on the second day previous, as his two chums
combined; followed that up with a hearty supper; then a breakfast and a
lunch on the day they pushed out on the desert, and finally finished
what food he had with him on the preceding evening.
Still, he was frightfully hungry, just as boys who never have missed a
regular meal in all their lives, do get, when up against it for a
change.
Billie plodded on.
The sun was now an hour high, and getting very hot, he thought, as he
stopped to drop his burden and rest; while he took his red bandana
handkerchief and mopped his streaming brow with it.
"I wonder how long I can hold out this way?" he asked himself, with a
most forlorn air, and a dismal shake of the head. "If I only had some
dried beef, or venison like the Injuns call pemmican, to gnaw on, it
wouldn't be so bad; because then I'd keep my strength; but seems like
there's a gnawing inside me like my appetite was beginning to start on
my vitals. I wonder if all starving people feel that way first. Oh! how
ashamed I ought to be about the many times I've thrown away good crusts
of bread, and such things. I'll never be guilty of such a sinful waste
again, so help me. I've reformed, I have, and I'm going to lead a
different life after this, licking my platter clean every time. If I
only had some of the stuff I've wasted right now," and he fairly groaned
as the delightful array came before his mental vision to tantalize him.
All at once Billie seemed to feel an electric flush. He rubbed his eyes,
and looked again, as though fearing that he was dreaming.
Why, that peculiar haze, which is so often met with in dry seasons of
the late summer, and hides the features of the landscape even within a
mile of the observer, had apparently mysteriously lifted, so that he
could see hills ahead; yes, and at no great distance either, the green
trees looking like heavenly dashes of color after his eyes had been so
long accustomed to only that deadly white of the desert.
"It is, I really and truly believe it must be my goal!" he exclaimed,
almost in passionate delight. "Oh! there may be a chance for me yet;
unless this is just one of them mirages they say dying men always see on
the desert, before the end comes. But I must press on. One more notch
I'll take my belt up, and after that you watch me toddle for that
Paradise ahead. Oh! don't it look inviting, though? Will poor old
Broncho Billie ever live to reach it?"
He did press resolutely on, although the heat began to tell upon the fat
boy very seriously. It seemed to Billie that he was baking, yet he was
that stubborn he refused to drop his blanket, or gun, or the first thing
he was carrying like a pack horse.
"What's that I see over there?" he suddenly asked himself, shading his
eyes from the glare of the sand by holding one trembling hand above
them. "Moving figures, eh? Now, I wonder if they're Injuns, and p'raps
them same hostile young Apache bucks we had trouble with before. Well,
here's my faithful Marlin ready for business as always. It kept me from
being made a supper for them wolves, and I reckon now it ought to do the
same--but hello! seems to me I ought to recognize the way them fellers
ride! Glory hallelujah! if it ain't my bully chums, for sure; and say,
if that ain't Jupiter trailing along after 'em, I'll eat my hat! Oh! joy
unbounded; for now I don't have to starve to death."
That was his first thought, and seemed to afford him the most
consolation; for in the mind of Billie there could not be a more
terrible fate meted out to any mortal here below than having to go
without his regular meals; which proved that the fat boy was not made
out of the same stuff as the suffragettes over the sea.
Swiftly the two others bore down upon him, swinging their hats above
their heads, just as cowboys always will when excited, and giving vent
to the wildest cheers. Billie grinned with happiness as they came closer
and closer. He even began to champ his teeth, as though desiring to make
sure that his jaws were still capable of doing their customary duty,
before starting in to make up for lost time.
"Hurray for Billie!" cried Adrian, as he drew in his reeking pony close
by. "He's all wool and a yard wide, sure he is; and his pards are proud
of him," Donald shouted. "Here, give us your hand, Billie; this is the
biggest round-up ever. We were afraid you'd come into a peck of trouble;
but we ought to have known you better than that. Ain't he just the
jim-dandy fellow, Adrian? Full-fledged by now, and taking nobody's dust.
Yes, I say with you, hurray for Broncho Billie!"
But the wanderer, though undoubtedly gratified by this expression of
confidence shown by his chums only stretched out his hands and
exclaimed:
"Food! gimme something to eat, fellows, because I'm starving!"