"No."
"Too deep down perhaps, sir."
"Well, I can soon see if I go cautiously, and you let the rope pass
slowly through your hands. But try first if the bell-mule will take a
step or two in advance."
"Not he, sir. I can see; he's got his legs all spread-out like a
milking-stool."
The doctor was off his horse, and the next minute he was advancing
slowly, with the lanthorn held near the ground.
"There's nothing here that need have stopped him, but--Oh, what a
blessing!"
"What is, sir?"
"Here's short grass, and the mules cropping it."
"Then there's no canon, sir," said Griggs sharply. "The poor brutes are
all dead beat; they've come to something that they can nibble, and
they've struck work. The ponies are at it too. It's as good as saying
that they won't stir another peg till daylight, if they will then."
"Why, two of the mules have regularly squatted down, with their loads
touching the ground," said the doctor, holding up the lanthorn.
"Yes, it's all right, sir," cried Griggs. "There's no canon, but level
ground all about, I'll be bound. They've called a halt without being
told, so we must do the same."
"But here, with those horrible snakes about?" cried Bourne.
"None here, sir," said Griggs. "If there were one it would have been
smelt out by this time, and the poor beasts wouldn't have been so quiet.
Oh, we're right for a time, sir; and, I say, hadn't we better follow
the beasts' example and find a bit of something to eat?"
"And drink?" said Wilton.
"Nay, eating will make our mouths turn a bit moist; we've no business to
touch any more of that water till we know where the next is to come
from. Let's chance it, sir, and relieve the poor brutes of their
packs."
"Very well," said the doctor, "but I don't like halting without knowing
our ground. You know my rules that I laid down."
"No rule without an exception," said Wilton drowsily. "This is one. I
don't want anything to eat, but if I die for it I must sleep."
"Well, I'll do the best I can to keep watch with the lanthorn," said the
doctor; "but some one must relieve me soon."
"Put the light out, sir," said Griggs. "There's morning coming yonder.
It's of no use, sir. We must chance everything and sleep. I can't keep
awake any more."
"Let's have the packs off, then. By the way, where are the boys?"
"Here are their ponies," replied Bourne, peering about in the darkness.
"Tut, tut, tut! Here they are upon the ground, fast asleep too. Here,
Ned--Chris! Wake up, my lads; you can't lie there."
Ned's father was never more away from the truth in an assertion. In
fact, he was quite wrong, for the two boys were proving that they could
lie there, and were sleeping heavily, careless of snakes, and ponies' or
mules' hoofs, careless of everything but obeying the stern dictates of a
monitor who bade them sleep and make up for lost time.
Hunger and thirst did not exist to them then, nor did they to any other
member of the expedition, for when day came brightly, not very long
after, it was to look down upon the strange group of horses, mules,
packs, and men, lying anyhow upon a wide down-like place covered with
thin, short, crisp grass, which the animals were browsing upon
contentedly enough.
Fortunately for the party there was no sign of danger far or near--
nothing but rolling down for a few miles, and beyond that mountains
towering up towards the clouds, looking clear and distinct in the pearly
grey of morning, and apparently close at hand, though some sixty or
seventy miles away.