always open, plenty of light came in
through it. The house was not built of adobe, as are most Mexican huts,
but of stones, with the interstices plastered with mud.

'Never in my life did I feel that the game was up as I did when I sat
down there and looked round. The men were seated on the ground in the
next room, in full view of us, and every now and then one walked in to
look at us. Helpless as we were, they had an uneasy doubt of what we
might do. Rube still lay at full length on the ground. For a quarter of
an hour I did not speak, as I thought it best to let him cool and quiet
down a bit; and I thought and thought, but I couldn't, for the life of
me, think out any plan of getting clear away. At last I thought I would
stir Rube up. "How do you feel, Rube?" "Well, I feel just about tired
out," Rube said; "just as if I had walked a hundred miles right on end.
I've been a fool again, Seth, sure enough; but I've given some of them
goss, that's a comfort. I'll just take a sleep for a few hours, and then
we'll see about this business. Hollo, there!" he shouted in Spanish;
"water." For a while no one attended to him; but he continued to shout,
and I joined him, so that the men in the next room were obliged to leave
off their talk to do as we wanted them. One of them got up and took a
large copper pan, filled it with water from a skin, and placed it down
between us; and then giving me a hearty kick--even then he did not dare
kick Rube--went back to his pillow. It took some trouble and much
rolling over before we could get so as to get our mouths over the pan to
drink. When we had satisfied our thirst we rolled over again, made
ourselves as comfortable as we could under the circumstances,--which
warn't saying much,--and in a short time were both asleep, for we had
only been four hours in bed for two nights. I was pretty well accustomed
to sleep on the ground, and I slept without waking for nearly seven
hours; for when I did so, I saw at once it was nearly sunset. I can't
say it was an agreeable waking, that; for I felt as if my shoulders were
out of joint, and that I had two bands of red-hot iron round my wrists.
My first move was to roll over and have another drink. Then I sat up
and looked round. Rube was sitting up, looking at me. "So you are awake,
Seth?" "Yes," said I. "Are you all right now, Rube?" "As right as can
be," Rube said in his ordinary cheerful tone; "except that I feel as if
a fellow was sawing away at my a