le but hostile
sound made ready to protect her charge, keeping her face to the passing
enemy. Farther along gaunt cows stood or lay under the perpetual yuccas,
an animal to every plant. They stared at Genesmere passing on; some rose
to look after him; some lifted their heads from the ground, and seeing,
laid them down again. He came upon a calf watching its mother, who had
fallen in such a position that the calf could not suck. The cow's
foreleg was caught over her own head, and so she held herself from
rising. The sand was rolled and grooved into a wheel by her circlings;
her body heaved and fell with breathing, and the sand was wet where her
pivot nostrils had ground it. While Genesmere untangled her and gave her
tongue the last of his canteen the calf walked round and round. He
placed the cow upon her feet, and as soon as he moved away to his horse
the calf came to its mother, who began to lick it. He presently marked
ahead the position of the coming 'dobe-hole by the ravens assembled in
the air, continually rising and lighting. The white horse and mules
quickened their step, and the trail became obliterated by hundreds of
hoof-marks leading to the water. As a spider looks in the centre of an
empty web, so did the round wallow sit in the middle of the plain, with
threaded feet conducting from everywhere to it. Mules and white horse
scraped through the scratching mesquite, and the ravens flapped up. To
Genesmere their croaking seemed suddenly to fill all space with loud
total clamor, for no water was left, only mud. He eased the animals of
their loads and saddles, and they rolled in the stiff mud, squeezing
from it a faint ooze, and getting a sort of refreshment. Genesmere
chewed the mud, and felt sorry for the beasts. He turned both canteens
upside down and licked the bungs. A cow had had his last drink. Well,
that would keep her alive several hours more. Hardly worth while; but
spilled milk decidedly. Milk! That was an idea. He caught animal after
animal, and got a few sickly drops. There was no gain in camping at this
spot, no water for coffee; so Genesmere moved several hundred yards away
to be rid of the ravens and their all-day-long meal and the smell. He
lay thinking what to do. Go back? At the rate he could push the animals
now that last hole might be used up by the cattle before he got
there--and then it was two stages more to the Santa Cruz well. And the
man would be gaining just so many more days unhindered a