Part 17 (2/2)

We talked noour wounds Gad, how that cold water took them! I was forced to setout, and once or twice Harry gave an involuntary grunt of pain that would not be suppressed

When we had finished aded far to the right to take a last deep drink; then sought our clothing and prepared to start on our all but hopeless search We had become fairly well limbered up by that tione perhaps a hundred yards, bearing off to the right, when Harry gave a sudden cry: ”My knife is gone!” and stopped short I clapped my hand to my own belt instinctively, and found it eun! For a ot yours?” he demanded

When I told hione, also We debated the matter, and decided that to attempt a search would be a useless waste of time; it was next to certain that the weapons had been lost in the water e had first plunged in And so, doubly handicapped by this new loss, we again set out

There was but one encourageer in total darkness Gradually our eyes were becoh we could by no means see clearly, nor even could properly be said to see at all, still we began to distinguish the outlines of walls several feet away; and, better than that, each of us could plainly mark the form and face of the other

Once we stood close, less than a foot apart, for a test; and when Harry cried eagerly, ”Thank Heaven, I can see your nose!” our strained feelings were relieved by a prolonged burst of genuine laughter

There was little enough of it in the tis now became a matter not of minutes or hours, but of days

The assault of time is the one that unnerves apain and weariness and hunger; it saps the courage and destroys the heart and fires the brain

We dragged ourselves somehow ever onward We found water; the round streams; but no food More than once ere te torrents, but what reason we had left told us that our little re our heads above the surface And yet the thought eet--to allow ourselves to be peacefully swept into oblivion

We lost all idea of time and direction, and finally hope itself deserted us What force it was that propelled us forward must have been buried deep within the seat of ani becas of a lost soul

Forward--forward--forward! It was a mania

Then Harry was stricken with fever and becafor action and endowed me with new life As luck would have it, a streaed hi on the hard rock, and bathed hi of delirious drivel poured forth from his hot, dry lips

That lasted many hours, until finally he fell into a deep, calm sleep

But his body ithout fuel, and I was convinced he would never awaken; yet I feared to touch hi by his side with his hand gripped in er and weariness turningfurnace of pain

Suddenly I felt a movement of his hand; and then came his voice, weak but perfectly distinct:

”Well, Paul, this is the end”

”Not yet, Harry boy; not yet”

I tried to put cheer and courage into my own voice, but with poor success

”I--think--so I say, Paul--I've just seen Desiree”

”All right, Hal”

”Oh, you don't need to talk like that; I'uess iton the mountain--in Colorado--when you came on us suddenly at sunrise? Well, I saw her there--only you ith her instead of ic was beyond me, but I pressed his hand to let hiht as well leave ood sport We ht, didn't we? If only Desiree--but there! To Hades omen, I say!”

”Not that--don't be a poor loser, Hal And you're not gone yet When a ht in him to beat out an attack of fever he's very much alive”