ay 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 s