“If you had been a little longer finding me,” said Tom, “I should soon have been out of this sad world.”  They fired a signal gun, looked down at the bones of the rabbit, drank more water, and gradually felt new life coming to them.  The mountains seemed more fertile, and there was brush and grass near by, timber farther up, and still higher a cap of snow extending far along the range, both north and south.  Towards night on this eventful day the scattered travelers began to come slowly into camp attracted by the guns and the smoke of the fire made by those who first found the water.  Some were nearly as far gone as Tom Shannon was, and great caution had to used in giving them water on their empty stomach.  One man named Robinson became so weak before he got near camp that his companions placed him on the back of one of the animals and a man walked on either side to catch him if he fell off.  When they got within a mile of the water he insisted that he was strong enough to take care of himself and not be watched every minute, and they relaxed their vigilance.  He soon fell off, and when they went to him he refused to be put back on the animal again or to walk any farther.  “Just spread my blankets down,” said he, “and I will lie down and rest a little and after a while I will come along into camp.”  So they left him and pushed on to water, and when they were a little refreshed went back to him with water, and to help him to come in, but when they came to him they found him dead.  He did not seem to have moved after he had lain down.  He did not seem so bad off as Shannon was when he lay down, and probably a few swallows of water at that time would have saved his life.  It seemed sad indeed, after so much suffering and striving to get along, that he should die within a mile of water that would have saved his life.  If he had possessed a little more strength so that the spark of life could have remained a little longer, the cooling moisture from the canteen would have revived it, and a little rest would have placed him on his feet again.  They had no tools to dig a grave, not even a knife for they had left every weight in camp, so they covered him closely in his blankets and sadly returned to their friends.  They had all along hoped that the Frenchman who had wandered away would come in, but he never came.  There were several water holes scattered around at this point which seemed to be a sort of sunken place in the hills, and quite large brush could be obtained for fire, and grass for the oxen.  Those who had been good hunters and had thrown away their rifles as useless burdens, now began to look at hills before them and think that game might be found in them, as well as water.  There were only one or two guns in the whole party, They thought that this must surely be the edge of the great desert they had crossed, and only the snow range before them could be the obstacle that separated them from Los Angeles.