THE CRAVINGS OF HUNGER. 255 



you are ready to leave it, and the less there is 

 of it the lighter it is to carry. So argued the 

 philosophers in the burnt pine forest, though 

 five minutes before I heard one of them say he 

 would give a sovereign for a loaf of white 

 bread. 



All the afternoon we walked our level 

 best, sometimes one, sometimes another of the 

 least laden amono^st us leadinof and makins: 

 the running. Neither Frank nor I ever cared 

 for walking for walking's sake, but hunger 

 was makmg us wonderfully anxious to see 

 Ushkul. 



When we first left Lapur, now two days 

 ago, the men had told us that with hard work 

 we might reach Ushkul by nightfall— at the 

 worst we should be there by early morning 

 of the second day. Now the light of the 

 second day was rapidly failing, we had been 

 going so steadily and so fast all day that the 

 men had long since begun to complain, and 



