withdrawn again from its muzzle; and this done, the mules had their
turn, two of them proving outrageous after getting their taste of water,
Skeeter, as Griggs called him, seizing the edge of the bucket with his
teeth and holding on till a sharp crack on the flank made him let go.

"Poor brutes!" said Ned's father. "It seems very hard upon them. Such
a tiny drop each."

"Yes," replied the doctor, "but a score of these tiny drops make a hole
in the contents of the keg. There, I don't think we have been
unmerciful to our beasts. They have had the first turn. It is ours
now."

The animals were driven back, and after the first keg had been as
carefully closed up as if its contents were fine gold-dust, the second
was opened, and a tin mug filled by the doctor, Wilton holding the
little cask.

"Now, Ned, you're the youngest," cried the doctor.

"Oh, you have some first, sir," said the boy.

"Tip it up," cried the doctor fiercely. "My good lad, you don't know
what agony it is to practise self-denial and etiquette at a time like
this."

The doctor spoke so fiercely that his words, combined with the intense
thirst from which he suffered, made the boy raise the cup to his lips,
to feel a thrill of delight as the lukewarm water trickled down his
parched throat.

The next moment, thanks to his father's teaching, he literally dragged
the cup from his lips and thrust it in the face of Chris, who was
looking at him by the lanthorn light, feeling in agony, and as if his
eyes were starting out of his head.

"No, no!" he panted.

"Drink!" yelled Ned savagely.

"Yes, drink, boy!" cried the doctor. "Quick!"

The doubling of the emphatic command made Chris obey, and he too sighed
bitterly as he drained the last drop from the half-filled mug and passed
it back.

"Quick, no more ceremony," cried the doctor, "or I shall be ready to
forget myself, for I'm half mad with thirst. Fill up, Wilton. Now,
Bourne, drink."

"No, no; you first."

"Drink!" roared the doctor, in a tone which startled his son, and
without another word Ned's father half emptied the mug and handed it to
Wilton, who hurriedly drained it, and began to fill it once more.

"My turn to order now," he cried, holding it to the doctor. "We've all
had a taste now, Lee; you drink all that."

Griggs did not move a muscle, but stood firm, holding the lanthorn now;
but he gave a side glance at the glistening cup as the doctor drank,
suffering agony the