and, utterly exhausted, he was glad to lower
his burden softly down upon a bed of loose shingle and dry sand.

"There's nothing for it but to wait for day," he said half-aloud, and
then--after, as best he could in the darkness, placing the wounded boy
in a comfortable position and again covering him with his outer
garments--he began to feel his way cautiously onward till he found that
every time and in whatever direction he thrust down the butt of his
rifle it plashed into rushing water which came down so heavily that it
splashed up again into his face, and in spite of the darkness he could
feel that he was standing somewhere at the foot of a fall where a heavy
volume of water was being dashed down from a considerable height.

Pen's first proceeding now was to go down upon his knees as close to the
torrent as he could get, and there refill his water-bottle, before
(after securing it) he leaned forward and lowered his face until his
lips touched the flowing water, and he drank till his terrible thirst
was assuaged.

This great desire satisfied, he rose again, to stand listening to the
heavy rush and roar of the falls, which were evidently close at hand,
and whose proximity produced a strange feeling of awe, suggestive, as it
were, of a terrible danger which paralysed him for the time being and
held him motionless lest at his next step he should be swept away.

The feeling passed off directly as the thought came that his comrade was
insensible and dependent upon him for help; and it struck him now that
he might not be able in that thick darkness to find the spot where he
had left him.

This idea came upon him with such force as he made a step first in one
direction and then in another that he began to lose nerve.

"Oh, it won't do to play the coward now," he muttered. "I must find
him--I must! I must try till I do."

But there is something terribly confusing in thick darkness. It is as
if a natural instinct is awakened that compels the one who is lost to go
wrong; and before Pen Gray had correctly retraced his steps from where
he had lain down to drink he had probably passed close to his insensible
companion at least a score of times, while the sense of confusion, the
nearness of danger and a terrible death, grew and grew till in utter
despair and exhaustion he staggered a few steps and sank down almost
breathless.

"It is no good," he groaned to himself. "I can do no more. I must wait
till daylight."

As