; he was betting heavily and he knew not against what odds that
at the end of twenty miles he would find water.

Hour after hour he trudged on. His feet burned; they ached; his boots
made blisters and the blisters broke. Always he was thirsty with a
thirst which his whole supply of water could not have slacked and which
grew steadily more acute. Now and then he paused briefly and drank
sparingly. His bundle of food, small as it was, grew heavy; his feet
were heavy; only his canteen seemed to him lighter and lighter. A hot
wind rose, blowing direct into his face, flinging at him fine particles
of burning sand that sifted through his clothing and got into his
boots, torturing further his tortured feet; the wind seared his
eyeballs and threatened to blind him. He lifted his head, selected a
distant landmark, sought to shelter his eyes with the broad brim of his
hat and went on.

Noon found him plunging down the steep bank of a dry gulch, a hideous
gash in the breast of the hideous land. He found a spot where there
was a little shade under a clump of bushes growing upon the bank's
edge. He ate a little of his dried beef; he treated himself to half a
dozen big, slow swallows of water; then he lay and rested for half an
hour. Again he rose; he moistened his mouth and lips, shut his teeth
hard together as he took the first step upon swollen feet; again he
wandered monotonously through a monotonous land. There was no wind now
save, infrequently, frolicsome little whirlwinds which danced about him
and were gone. When he found that their play angered him, that they
seemed to mock at his weariness and dying energies, he frowned. This
was no time and here was no place for nerves.

In the late afternoon, after having laboured all day through a hell of
tedium and distress, he came to the water-hole. He marked it from afar
by its dusty willows; he wondered if this time he would find water. It
struck him that he must. He began to walk faster; he curbed a heady
desire to break into a run. As it was, he came slowly, steadily to the
spot. And there was no water. He would not believe it. He walked
along the line of willows, looking carefully everywhere. And not until
he had looked everywhere did he give up. Oddly, his compelling want at
the moment was less for a drink than for a smoke. He began rolling a
cigarette. Half-way through the brief task he desisted, returning the
thimbleful of tobacco to its sack. For th