with pleasure; for since leaving Agua
Fria little water had been drunk, it being either muddy, stagnant, or
alkaline. The water at Navajo Springs was said to be pure.

Ten o'clock next morning found us at the springs. They were fifteen in
number, clustered in an area of less than an acre. Each was of the
dimensions of a barrel set upon end in the ground, with a mere thread
of water flowing from it--a thread which the fierce sun evaporated
before it had flowed a rod from its source. It soon became plain to
every one that we could not long remain there.

The Indians had said there had been a heavy rainfall at the west. Five
and one-twentieth miles over a rough, red, and verdureless country
brought us to the Rio Puerco of the West. There was not a drop of
water in it.

The commanding officer ordered me to take ten cavalrymen, with
shovels, and go on to Carizo Creek, and, if I found no running water,
to sink holes in a line across its bed. The boy corporals were allowed
to go with me.

The distance to Carizo was seven miles, over a high, intervening
ridge, and the creek, when we reached it, was in no respect different
from the one we had just left. We opened a line of holes six feet
deep, but found very little water.

Sending Corporal Henry back with a message to Captain Bayard, we
pushed on to Lithodendron Creek, a distance of thirteen miles, and
found about an acre of water, four inches deep, in the bed of the
stream, under the shadow of a sandstone cliff. It was miserable
stuff--thick, murky, and warm--but it was better than nothing; I sent
a soldier back to the command, and sat down with Frank under the
cliff to wait.

The march had lengthened into thirty-two miles, over an exceedingly
rough country, and it had been continuous, with no noonday rest, and
under a broiling sun.

Frank and I sat a little apart from the soldiers, watching for the
arrival of the approaching wagons.

Time dragged slowly on until after nine o'clock, when a faint
"hee-haw" in the far distance gave us the first hint that the train
was over the divide and that the unfailing scent of the mules had
recognized the vicinity of water.

An hour more passed before Sergeant Cunningham and half a dozen
privates of the infantry company marched down to the roily pool and
stooped for a drink. The rest of the men were straggling the length of
the train, which arrived in sections, heralded by the vigorous and
continued braying of the mules.

No