WATER! WATER!
By the time the band of Nez Perces was well on its way, the Big Tongue
had persuaded himself that the movement was in large part a following of
his own advice. He felt very free to say as much in the presence of
several squaws. He even ruffled up and looked large when Na-tee-kah
laughed and turned away her head. She was too young to say anything in
reply to a grown-up brave, but just behind her was the fat squaw, and
her tongue was habitually more at liberty.
"Kill cow same way," said she. "Two Arrows kill him first; then Big
Tongue. Great brave!"
Big Tongue turned upon her almost fiercely, exclaiming.
"Squaw no talk!"
"Big Tongue keep still. Squaw-boy beat him. Big Tongue shoot arrows into
dead cow. Ha-ha-pah-no not afraid of squaw-brave."
Ha-ha-pah-no had a tongue and a reputation for it, and the Big Tongue
did not threaten her any more. Too many squaws and girls joined in the
laugh against him. Perhaps the fact that Ha-ha-pah-no had a husband
over six feet high had something to do with it, and that Na-tee-kah was
the only daughter of Long Bear. It was not safe to quarrel overmuch with
either of them. They were almost as safe as a large dog is if he is
known to be quick-tempered. Nobody kicks him.
There was an attempt made at pretty fast travelling, for all the wise
warriors knew that the tramp across the mountains must be a hard one,
however good the trail might be, and there were a good many very sober
faces among them. They had lost their horses and their dogs, and now
they were leaving behind them a great many other things, and they felt
as if hard times had come. Starvation is a very severe school-master.
So, for that matter, is thirst, even if provisions are plentiful, and
Sile Parks learned a great lesson of endurance that day. His father had
not uttered a word of complaint. Yellow Pine had not murmured, and when
Sile said to him,
"All the men seem to stand it the very best kind," he had all but
contemptuously replied,
"Them? Why, every soul on 'em's an old mountain man. Not a greenhorn or
a tenderfoot among 'em. You won't catch one on 'em a whimperin', not if
they die for it."
So there were other men besides red Indians who were able to suffer and
be silent, and Sile tried hard to be that kind of man; but long before
sunset he felt as if he were choking.
The mountains to the westward loomed up larger and less cloudily as the
worn-out teams were urged forward. The trail pointed steadily towards
them, and Yellow Pine unhesitatingly asserted that they were on the
right track.
"No mistake about it, jedge. It ain't no common cross-prairie trail.
It's one of their old migration tracks. They've been a treadin' of it
sence the year one."
The "year one" was a good while ago, but a good deal of hard tramping,
by many bisons, year after year, had been required to make that ancient
cattle-path. No grass had grown upon it for nobody could guess how many
generations, and it was likely to be in the way of ploughing whenever
that plain should be turned into farming-land.
The greatest care was taken of the animals, those in the traces being
taken out and changed frequently, and at last all the riders dismounted
and led their horses. Yellow Pine every now and then went around and
examined to see how things were looking, and Sile went with him.
"They'll stan' it, every critter of 'em," he said, repeatedly. "They're
all good stock; good condition. I picked 'em out."
"Your mare is the ugliest in the lot," said Sile, recklessly.
"Best though. Out-walk, out-run, and out-starve any critter in the
outfit, 'cepting me."
"Can you out-travel a horse?"
"Course I can--most horses. I don't know 'bout the old mare. She can
out-travel anything. She's good tempered, too; knows just when it's the
right time to kick and break things. Oh but can't she tear, though!"
He looked at her affectionately, as if her very temper were one of her
virtues, and she glanced back at him, showing the whites of her eyes in
a way that indicated anything but a placid mind.
"She's always riley when she doesn't get plenty to drink," said Pine,
"but she hasn't kicked once in all this. Knows it isn't any fault of
mine. We'll git there, old lady. Don't you go off the handle."
Another hour and the mountains were very tall, and looked cool, and
seemed to promise all sorts of things.
"The mines we are after are in among 'em," said Judge Parks to his son.
"Our trip across the plains has been a quick one; all the quicker for
this push."
"Hope there'll be a good spring of water right in the edge of them,"
said Sile, but his voice was huskier than ever and he was struggling
against a feeling of faintness.
"Poor fellow!" said the judge to himself. "I mustn't say too much to
him. It's an awful time for me."
So it was, for every now and then the thought would come to him,
"What if, after all, we should not find water when we get there?"
The sun sank lower and lower, and now at last Yellow Pine stood still
and leaned against his mare, pointing forward.
"Jedge! Jedge--there they are!"
"What is it, Pine?"
The judge could hardly speak, and Sile had such a ringing in his ears
that he could hardly hear, but Yellow Pine gasped out,
"Them there mesquite scrubs. I was just a beginning to say to myself,
what if I'd mistook the lay of the land, and there they are. I went
through 'em last spring was a year ago. It's all right!"
The men tried hard to cheer, but it was of no manner of use. All they
could do was to plod on and drag their horses after them. The teams in
the wagons halted again and again, panting and laboring, and every
slight roll of the plain was a tremendous obstacle, but all was
overcome, inch by inch.
Yellow Pine had evidently felt his responsibility as guide more deeply
than he had been willing to confess. He led on now with his mouth open
and panting, for he had given his own last ration of water to Sile Parks
and was thirstier than the rest of them. So, for that matter, had Sile's
father, but some men suffer more from thirst than others and the judge
had held out remarkably. Just inside the range of mesquites Yellow Pine
stopped short.
"Bufler been killed here inside of two days," he exclaimed. "Must be
Indians nigh, somewhere. Keep an eye out, boys."
It was no time for any caution that included delay, and he walked on
like a man who knew exactly where he was, and all followed him, the men
cutting away the bushes here and there to let the wagons pass more
easily. On, on, until at last Yellow Pine reached the spring.
"Here it is," he said faintly, and then he lay down by it and began to
drink slowly, using his hand for a cup.
"Boys," said Judge Parks, "be careful how you drink too much at first.
Take it easy. Sponge the mouths of the horses and then let them have a
little at a time. Sile, my poor boy, come with me."
Sile was making a tremendous effort. He had been doing it all day. He
almost wanted to cry when he saw that spring of water. Then he wanted to
laugh, but his mouth was too dry for that. All he could do was to smile
in a sickly sort of way and take the cup his father held out to him.
There was only a little water in the bottom of it.
"Oh father, give me some more."
"Not yet, Sile. Sit right down and wait till you get the effect of that.
Hold it in your mouth before you swallow it. I don't mean to let you
kill yourself."
"Aha! But isn't it good? There isn't anything else quite so good as
water."
"That's a fact, Sile, but it's like a great many other good things, you
don't know the value of it until you've had to go without it."
A full hour was spent in getting men and animals ready to drink without
injury, and Yellow Pine at last declared, triumphantly,
"Jedge, we've won the riffle; we won't lose a hoof. All the men are
doing first-rate too. This 'ere's my old campin'-ground, but there's
been an Indian camp here since sun-up."
"How do you know that, Pine?"
"Found live fire. There hasn't been any dew on it to put it out. What's
more, they've gone on into the mountains. Hunting-party. We're all
right, jedge."
The mining expedition now kindled fires of its own, and something was
done in the way of getting supper. There was no grass, but the horses
and mules could attend fairly well to the contents of their nose-bags,
and the men paid them all manner of attention. Only a greenhorn is
careless of the comfort and welfare of his horse.
Sile drank well at last, under his father's direction, and then he felt
like eating something. After that it seemed to him as if the whole world
had only been made as a good place to sleep in. He did not care whether
the tents were pitched or not. All he wanted was a piece of ground large
enough to lie on, and a blanket, and he was ready to sleep as soundly
and silently as if he had been one of the mountains which raised their
shadowy heads into the light of the rising moon. He had been without
water for the first time in his life. He had stood it through
heroically, he had found a spring, and now he needed a long sleep.