else to carry water in, as Gibson had taken all the smaller water-bags, and the large ones would require several gallons of water to soak the canvas before they began to tighten enough to hold water.  The keg when empty, with its rings and straps, weighed fifteen pounds, and now it had twenty pounds of water in it.  I could not carry it without a blanket for a pad for my shoulder, so that with my revolver and cartridge-pouch, knife, and one or two other small things on my belt, I staggered under a weight of about fifty pounds when I put the keg on my back.  I only had fourteen matches.

After I had thoroughly digested all points of my situation, I concluded that if I did not help myself Providence wouldn’t help me.  I started, bent double by the keg, and could only travel so slowly that I thought it scarcely worth while to travel at all.  I became so thirsty at each step I took, that I longed to drink up every drop of water I had in the keg, but it was the elixir of death I was burdened with, and to drink it was to die, so I restrained myself.  By next morning I had only got about three miles away from the Kegs, and to do that I travelled mostly in the moonlight.  The next few days I can only pass over as they seemed to pass with me, for I was quite unconscious half the time, and I only got over about five miles a day.

To people who cannot comprehend such a region it may seem absurd that a man could not travel faster than that.  All I can say is, there may be men who could do so, but most men in the position I was in would simply have died of hunger and thirst, for by the third or fourth day—­I couldn’t tell which—­my horse meat was all gone.  I had to remain in what scanty shade I could find during the day, and I could only travel by night.

When I lay down in the shade in the morning I lost all consciousness, and when I recovered my senses I could not tell whether one day or two or three had passed.  At one place I am sure I must have remained over forty-eight hours.  At a certain place on the road—­that is to say, on the horse tracks—­at about fifteen miles from the Kegs—­at twenty-five miles the Rawlinson could again be sighted—­I saw that the tracks of the two loose horses we had turned back from there had left the main line of tracks, which ran east and west, and had turned about east-south-east, and the tracks of the Fair Maid of Perth, I was grieved to see, had gone on them also.  I felt sure Gibson would soon find his error, and return to the main line.  I was unable to investigate this any farther in my present position.  I followed them about a mile, and then returned to the proper line, anxiously looking at every step to see if Gibson’s horse tracks returned into them.