"And you made it all out clear straight and took your bearings, doctor?"
said Griggs the next morning, as the last pulls were given to the
mule-ropes--the last diamond-hitches made fast.
"Yes, and it will be as easy as steering a boat. I could see the blue
mountains from up yonder distinctly, but I'm afraid they're more than a
hundred miles away."
"Oh, I don't know, sir; distances are deceiving, and it all depends upon
the weather. Why, I've seen a mountain look fifty miles nearer just
before rain. Now then, is there anything else we ought to do?"
"I did everything yesterday that I thought right."
"Water-barrels well full?"
"Yes, and every bottle and tin as well."
"Good," said Griggs; "then the sooner we're off the better."
Wilton sighed as they mounted, and gave a last glance at the beauties of
the gully in which they had encamped, and again soon after as the little
train wound on, with Skeeter's bell chiming to the motion of his head,
for at a turn before descending to the lower ground he had a glimpse of
the far-spreading desert they were about to attack. It was beautiful in
its way, but the grey monotony soon palled upon him who looked, and the
eyes eagerly turned again to the refreshing green.
In a couple of hours the last shrub had been left behind, and every one
drew his breath hard and set his teeth, in the determination not to be
baffled by the lesser troubles likely to hinder their way; but all the
same, sighs once more rose for the beauty of the scenes and the
refreshing breath of the mountains, which was already rapidly giving
place to the hot reek of the sand and salt.
For a time the boys were startled into wonderment at the change which
came over the scene as the sun rose higher, for as the hazy mist that
overspread the plain began to rise, there before them lay spread-out a
wonderful expanse of water, one huge lake extending right to the
horizon, dotted here and there with islands of beautiful form.
"Why, I didn't know--" began Chris.
"Nor I," cried Ned. "We shan't want for water."
They pressed on to join the doctor and Griggs, who were once more
leading, and before either of the boys could open his lips to question,
the former exclaimed--
"There, boys, you never saw the mirage so beautiful as that."
"Mirage! Then it isn't water?"
"Water? No; only a peculiar effect seen in the atmosphere over a heated
plain. We shall see no water till we near the mountains on the other
side. But there, talk as little as you can, and avoid this heated dust
which rises from the mules' hoofs."
"It's wonderful!" cried Ned thoughtfully. "I felt sure that we were
near a beautiful lake."
"Such as deceives travellers sometimes."
"Ah, it's bad," said Griggs, "when you're crossing a plain, choking with
thirst, and the water-bottles are empty. A sight like that has driven
men mad before now with disappointment."
The boys recalled these words over and over again during their journey,
for from the very first they realised what a tramp through such a desert
meant--the sun came down with scorching power, and it was reflected up
from the white sand and salt. At mid-day when they halted where there
was no shadow but that cast by their four-footed companions, there was
not a breath of air, and the poor brutes stood with hanging heads and
drooping ears, panting and even sighing, while when the evening drew
near the wind swept boisterously over the plain, but brought no
refreshment, for not only was it hot, but it wafted up the fine,
irritating dust and produced additional sensations of thirst.
The march was kept on long after sundown, when another halt was made for
refreshment; but there seemed to be none, for the amount of water used
was small in the extreme, and after about an hour's wait, during which
the baggage animals had been relieved of their burdens, the doctor rose.
"Now then," he said sternly, "load up. We must keep on all through the
night, and refresh again at daybreak."
"Refresh!" said Wilton dismally.
"Well, rest the mules," replied the doctor. "Then go on again for three
or four hours and try and sleep through the hottest part of the day."
"What about keeping our course correctly through the night?" said
Bourne.
"There are the stars," replied the doctor, pointing up to the clear sky.
"I know exactly what to do. We must keep on now we have started, and
bear it like men."
No one spoke, but "buckled to," as Griggs called it, and to relieve the
horses the party tramped by their side for the greater part of the
night, during the early hours of which Chris grew more and more sleepy;
but as they approached "night's dull noon," he grew more wakeful and
relieved the tedium by talking to first one and then the other
cheerfully enough, and never at a loss for something to say.
"It might be worse, Ned," he said once during the night.
"Couldn't be," was the surly reply.
"Oh, couldn't it! It might come on to rain tremendously. Well, what
are you laughing at?" he continued, for Griggs burst out into a hoarse
guffaw.
"You," replied the American. "Don't I wish it would rain! Why, it
would cool everything. No, I don't know that, for the earth's so hot
that all day to-morrow we should be in the midst of steam. It would
refresh the horses and mules, though. Nice place this, isn't it?"
"Horrible! What's the use of having all this desert?"
"Don't know," said Griggs bluntly. "You tell me what's the use of
having all that sea, and then perhaps I'll tell you."
They relapsed into silence then, and the monotonous tramp went on.
There was no kicking or squealing among the mules. Skeeter tramped on
with his bell going _clang_--_clang_--_clang_--_clang_, in accompaniment
to his steps, and the other mules followed as if walking like so many
shadows in their sleep, while the ponies seemed to follow their masters
like dogs, ready to accept every pat on the neck or word of
encouragement, and after raising their muzzles to the offered hand and
looking through the darkness appealingly, as if asking how long it would
be before they came to water.
Morning at last. A halt, packs lowered to the ground, each animal's
mouth washed out with about a pint of the precious fluid--water, and
then their ration given in the form of very stiff gruel.
All this carefully done before the breakfast was attacked.
"I don't call it a breakfast," grumbled Ned.
"No, I wouldn't," said Chris. "Cheer up; we haven't so far to go now as
we had yesterday morning."
"Well, I know that," snarled Ned, who seemed all on edge. Chris called
it gritty, and said it was the sand--to himself.
"He gets it on his temper," thought the boy. "How queer it is that
being hot and tired and thirsty makes any one so cross."
"Forward!" said the doctor at last, when the packs had been readjusted;
and the dreary tramp began again, with the sun getting hotter and hotter
every hour.
"Oh dear!" groaned Ned, as they tramped side by side, each with his hand
resting upon his pony's neck and holding on by the mane. "That
miserable tinful of water! Why, it was only half-a-pint, and it will be
hours before we're allowed any more. Why not let us have a pint all at
once?"
"Against the rules," said Chris. "You should have made believe, as I
did."
"Believe what?"
"No, I didn't believe it," said Chris; "I only played at it. I drank my
half-pint very slowly, and pretended it was a pint. You do the same the
next time."
"Not going to be such a fool," said Ned gruffly. "It's all too real to
play. Bother! Hang it! Yah! I wish there wasn't a scrap of gold in
the world."
"But there is, all the same. Come, cheer up, lad."
"Cheer down, you mean. It's getting worse and worse, and I don't
believe we shall ever get across this horrible plain. What is there to
be cheerful about?"
"Well, here's one thing--we've got away from the Indians. There isn't a
sign of them behind."
"Of course there isn't," grumbled Ned. "Indians are not such idiots as
to come across a place like this."
"Griggs says they do sometimes."
"I don't believe it; they must always go round. Oh, I do wish we hadn't
come."
Somehow or other, the more low-spirited and doleful Ned became, the more
hopeful and cheery Chris seemed. Perhaps it was what he called
make-believe, and put on by a great effort, but he was the brightest of
the party and brought a smile to the lip of every one in turn with his
light, trivial remarks, all of which, however, had a suggestion that, in
spite of their terrible sufferings, he was looking at the best side of
things.
"I say, father," he cried, as mid-day was approaching, "this is a better
desert than the other one we crossed."
"I don't see much difference, my boy. Why do you think so?"
"It's so nice and smooth. You don't have to keep stumbling over
stones."
"But that's a fault, boy," said his father. "Some of those great stones
cast a little shade. Here we have none. Halt!" he cried loudly. "Four
hours' rest and sleep."
The mules were unloaded, the ponies' saddles removed, and the tent-sheet
was spread over the horizontal raised pole for shade, such as it was;
and then no one thought of how, but lay down to sleep, lying motionless
till the doctor summoned them again for the resumption of the march,
when all began to compare notes.
"Sleep? No, I never had a wink," said Ned. "Who could sleep, with the
sun seeming to burn a hole in that canvas?"
"I didn't go to sleep either," said Chris; "but one feels a bit rested
with lying down."
"No, one don't," said Ned; and the weary tramp went on, with nothing
visible in front of the overstrained eyes but the glare, and a thick
misty look as if the atmosphere was full of hot, dusty sand.
The pace at which they went on appeared to be slower, but it was the
party's want of perception which diminished and magnified at the same
time, principally the latter, in making the journey appear longer than
it really was, while that hot afternoon went on in a nightmare-like
waking dream which made Ned complain at last that he was going off his
head.
"I'm not," said Chris, laughing. "I feel as if I'm always going off my
legs."
"What nonsense!" grumbled Ned.
"It isn't; I feel so. It's just as if my body goes on while my feet
keep sinking in the sand and won't keep up."
"I wish you wouldn't talk," said Ned.
"Why? Do you want to think?"
"No, of course I don't. I only want to keep on in this half-asleep way;
it makes it a little better then."
Another halt at sundown, a fairly good meal, and a refreshing sleep,
before the doctor roused all once more towards midnight for the tramp
that was to last till about ten o'clock the next day. All was done this
time in silence, save that Bourne tried to say hopefully--
"I should think we shall see the mountains quite clearly when day
dawns."
But no one answered, for nobody believed they would. A feeling of
despondency was making itself too plainly felt, and when broad daylight
did at last come all that could be seen was sand and soda everywhere,
not so much as a shrub or scrap of grass, only scattered stones here and
there, and the party shrank from looking in each other's wild and
bloodshot eyes.
"Forward," said the doctor, at last. "We'll keep on till about two
hours before noon, and then have a good meal and rest till the sun's
low. We must be getting well on to our journey's end."
About this time the doctor edged up close to Griggs and entered into
conversation with him in a low tone, "What do you think of it?" he said.
"Don't think at all, sir," was the reply.
"But we shall do it?"
"Must, sir."
"That's right," said the doctor, with a sigh of relief. "We must not
think, but we must do it. We've got over the worst of it now, I feel
sure."
The doctor was wrong, for there was an unexpected trouble ahead.
Towards the promised time for the halt there was what all took for a
more hopeful sign: the plain was growing more stony and undulatory,
while sage-brush peeped out in clumps here and there, to be gladly
welcomed by the animals, which lost not an opportunity of cropping the
bitter shoots.
The sun was getting hotter and hotter, and the doctor drew out his
watch, to close it again with a snap which sounded curiously loud in the
painful silence.
"Only another hour," he said, in a husky voice, "and then rest and
breakfast."
He had hardly uttered the words when one of the mules, which had broken
a little way from the line with outstretched muzzle, to nibble a few
grey twigs, gave a leap which nearly dislodged its pack, and uttering a
dismal squeal which was answered by two or three of its fellows, who
turned their weary, straining eyes towards their companion, which now
stood snorting and stamping angrily.
"What's the matter with the poor brute?" cried the doctor, who hurried
towards the animal, closely followed by Griggs.
"Take care, sir--that," said the latter, in a whisper.
"That? What do you mean?"
"Bitten," said Griggs laconically, as he raised the double rifle that he
had unslung, took a rapid aim, and fired the barrel loaded with small
shot at what seemed to be an undulating line of grey sand.
The report sounded dull and dead, while as the smoke rose the undulating
line of sand became a writhing tangle of something tying itself up into
knots, untying itself, lashing the sand and dust up into a little cloud,
and then as the dust rose the loathsome-looking length of a big snake
became gradually clear to see, with the tail in the air announcing its
owner's nature by keeping up a peculiar skirring sound something like
the running down of a distant piece of clockwork.
"That's done for him," said Griggs, quietly reloading his piece.
"Almost as big a one as they make 'em."
The little party closed round the dying reptile, and then followed the
doctor to where he stepped up to the mule, which kept on stamping and
making efforts to curve round and bite at its near hind-leg, but could
not reach it on account of the pack it bore.
Griggs slung his double rifle and seized the end of the pack-rope,
casting loose the load and letting it slide to the ground, while the
doctor cautiously approached to examine the place at which the mule now
tore fiercely with its teeth.
"Better not, sir," said Griggs warningly.
"But I want to try and help the poor brute," said the doctor.
"Yes, sir; that's nice and humane," said Griggs; "but mules are not
horses nor dogs. The poor brute is mad with agony, and you'll be kicked
or bitten, to a dead certainty."
"I feel as if I must risk it," said the doctor. "I might inject
ammonia, and save its life."
He approached closer, holding out one hand and speaking soothingly to
the poor beast; but it turned upon him viciously and snapped at the
extended hand like a dog, fortunately biting short, for the snap was
sharper than the snatch back made by the doctor's hand.
"I told you so," said Griggs reproachfully. "Yes, we're going to be a
mule short this morning."
For the effort seemed to be too much for the animal, which staggered,
spread-out its legs far apart, uttered a wild squealing bray, fell over
on one side, and lay kicking and plunging as if going at full gallop as
it lay.
"You're right, Griggs," said the doctor. "But what strength there must
be in that horrible poison! I should not have believed it would be so
rapid and have such an effect upon an animal like that."
"It got a full dose of it close up where the skin's thinnest, I suppose;
and it was a big rattler, and no mistake."
Just then the mule made an effort to rise to its feet, but sank back to
its former position, and its kicking and plunging grew weaker and
weaker, till it lay panting, with outstretched neck and heaving flanks,
evidently dying fast.
"I might try and do something now," said the doctor thoughtfully, "if
the poor beast were held."
"Too late," said Griggs quietly. "I don't understand much about snake
poison, but I should say that's running all through the poor thing now."
But Chris's father would not give up. Hide-ropes were cast loose, while
he hurried to the load which contained the little case of medicines and
surgical appliances which was kept ready for emergencies, and then armed
with bottle and syringe he superintended while nooses were placed round
the poor animal's neck and four fetlocks, each being tightened and the
rope held by some one. Chris and Ned were ordered to the fore-legs,
Griggs took the neck rope, and Wilton and Bourne the hind-legs.
At a word from the doctor the ropes were drawn taut and the poor beast
stretched out helplessly upon its back, while the doctor seated himself
astride, sought for the tiny punctures made by the rattlesnake's
poison-fangs, and found them where the skin was thinnest and most devoid
of hair, the successful discovery being due to a tiny drop of yellowish
gummy matter which had oozed out.
A caustic was applied to this as soon as the tiny wound had been freely
lanced and set bleeding, and then with the proper instrument a strong
application of ammonia was forced into one of the mule's larger veins,
and all with the slightest of resistance being offered. Lastly,
encouraged by the animal's quiescence, a strong stimulative ball was
thrust beyond the tongue and seen to pass down the throat.
"I can do no more," said the doctor, "but I should not have been
satisfied if I had not tried. Be careful now how you loosen the ropes."
There was no difficulty, for the patient lay as still as if it had been
utterly stupefied by the poison, and seemed to all appearance stretched
out dead.
Chris looked at Griggs, who loosened his noose last, and the man shook
his head.
"Could it breathe while that rope was round its neck?" said the boy.
"Breathe? Yes, of course, my lad. The lariat did not press upon the
wind-pipe. There's no strangling in the poor brute's case. It's
poison's the matter there. I say, it has wakened us all up."
It was curious to note the effect to which Griggs had drawn attention.
Before the mule was stricken every one in the party had been giddy and
ready to faint with heat and exhaustion, oppressed by a sense of despair
and the dread that the end of the present journey would never be seen;
but as soon as a demand was made upon their energies, all the other
troubles seemed to be forgotten on the instant, and they worked together
heartily and with wonderful spirit, till they all stood watching the
motionless mule.
Bourne was the first to draw attention to the state of affairs, as he
began wiping away the perspiration that streamed down his face.
"I don't think you've done the poor brute much good, Lee," he said.
"I'm afraid not. I ought to have begun sooner."
"But you've done us a lot," continued Bourne. "Half-an-hour ago I
didn't seem to have an ounce of energy left in me. I felt as if there
was nothing to do but lie down and die."
"And I felt the same," chimed in Wilton.
"But as soon as the demand was made upon me I forgot everything in the
excitement, and I feel now ready to go on for hours."
"Yes," said Wilton; "I feel as if Lee had been injecting new life
through my veins. We've got all the benefit, while the poor mule is
worse."
"Not much, sir," cried Griggs. "Look at that!"
There was no need for the order, every eye being directed at the injured
animal, which after lying quiescent upon its side with outstretched neck
and no signs of life save the slow, regular heaving of its flank,
suddenly uttered a hoarse shout, gathered itself together, and rose
quickly to its feet, to stand breathing heavily and coughing.
"Why, I do believe he's mastering the poison, doctor, and coming round."
There was no reply, every one being intent upon the mule's movements.
The hard breathing gradually ceased, and the poor brute shook itself,
stamped with its injured hind-leg heavily, shook itself again, uttered
an angry squeal, and curving itself round reached at the wound to bite
the skin, acting, as Chris afterwards said, just as if it had been
bitten by a fly. The next moment it straightened itself again,
stretched out its neck, and whinnied in a way which brought answers from
some of its companions, and then dropped upon its knees and rolled over,
struggling a little before lying still, its last breath coming in a
weary sigh.