pe and courage.

It was decided that they should take short shifts of watching during
the night, two in each watch. It fell to Walter to share the watch
with the young outlaw, for which he was not at all displeased, for he
was greatly interested in the strange character, and their turns at the
watch passed quickly in pleasant conversation.

The outlaw spoke freely of the incident that had brought him to the
convict gang, claiming firmly that the deed which had made him a felon
had been done in self-defense, but, owing to lack of witnesses and to a
well-known enmity between him and the dead man, the jury had brought in
a verdict of murder in the second degree.

Walter, under the spell of the man's attractive, strong personality,
could not but believe his assertion.

At the end of their watch, Walter awoke Chris and the captain and
stretched out for a nap, but the outlaw never closed his eyes during
the long uneventful night. When not watching, he was hovering over
Charley's bedside administering medicine or working over the bitten
leg. Yet daylight found him as cool and fresh as ever, apparently
unaffected by his long vigil.

To the hunters' great delight, day found Charley visibly improved. He
had fallen into a deep sleep, his body was wet with profuse
perspiration, and the swelling of the limb had greatly decreased.

They showered thanks upon the outlaw until he was visibly embarrassed
and begged them to say no more.

The morning passed as had the night, without any hostile demonstration
by the convicts. Smoke curling up from the fort and from a building on
the other side of them told the besieged that the enemy had taken up
their positions during the night as Ritter had prophesied. Evidently
they were willing to wait for their triumph rather than risk any lives
by trying to take their victims by assault.

When Chris started to make a stew for dinner, Ritter stopped him. "We
can't spare any more water for cooking," he declared. "I have used a
good deal on the patient, and the gourds are already almost empty. Our
only hope of life is in husbanding our water and it would be wise to
put ourselves on an allowance now. I figure that there is enough in
that big copper to allow each of us a pint and a half per day for ten
days."

The others saw the wisdom of his proposal and immediately agreed to it,
and they made their dinner of roasted yams, smoked venison broiled
before the fire, and a few swallows of