LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 107 



minute search failed to discover the slightest traces of 

 water, and the vegetation merely consisted of dwarf 

 pi rion and cedar. With their sufferings increased by 

 the exertion they had used in reaching the mountain, 

 they once more sought the trail, but every step told on 

 their exhausted frames. The sun was very powerful, 

 the sand over which they floundered was deep and 

 heavy, and, to complete their sufferings, a high wind 

 blew it in their faces, filling their mouths and noses 

 with its searching particles. 



Still they struggled onwards manfully, and not a 

 murmur was heard until their hunger had entered the 

 second stage upon the road to starvation. They had 

 now been three days without food or water ; under 

 which privation nature can hardly sustain herself for a 

 much longer period. On the fourth morning, the men 

 looked wolfish, their captives following behind in sullen 

 and perfect indifference, occasionally stooping down to 

 catch a beetle if one presented itself, and greedily 

 devouring it. A man named Forey, a Canadian half- 

 breed, was the first to complain. " If this lasted 

 another sundown," he said, " some of them would ' be 

 rubbed out;' that meat had to be 'raised* anyhow; 

 and for his part, he knew where to look for a feed, if 

 no game was seen before they put out of camp on the 

 morrow ; and meat was meat, anyhow they fixed it." 



No answer was made to this, though his companions 

 well understood him : their natures as yet revolted 

 against the 'last expedient. As for the three squaws, 

 all of them young girls, they followed behind their 



