vive. The ground we passed
over was as smooth as if the receding tide had just left it. Not the
sign of a footstep of man or beast was to be seen, though here and there
a slight rise showed that some harder substance had offered an
impediment to the drifting sand. After toiling onwards for half an hour
at a very slow pace, we came upon a horse's head just rising from the
sand. He had died probably in attempting to extricate himself. Several
heaps showed that others--human beings, too probably--also lay beneath.

They, at all events, were beyond all help. The horse I recognised, from
the head-trappings, as belonging to the officer commanding the party.
We were passing on, when we observed, a little on the right, a man
extended on his back. A movement of his arm showed me that he was not
dead, and that probably he was endeavouring to call our attention to
himself.

"Though he is one of those who showed no pity to the poor Indians, we
must try what we can do for him," said my father; and we turned our
horses towards him.

As he saw us approach, he mustered all his strength and tried to rise.

"Water, water!" he muttered. "In mercy give me a drop of water!"

It was the cruel officer himself. Still he was a fellow-creature. We
had a small portion of water in the flask. We might want it ourselves,
but still we could not leave him thus to die. So I dismounted, and
approached him with the flask, while my father held my horse, who showed
signs of an eagerness to rush on to the oasis we had discovered. The
officer, when he saw the flask, would have seized it, and drained off
the whole of its contents; but I held it back, and pouring out a few
drops in the cover, let them trickle down his throat. I thought of what
Ithulpo had said of water being of more value often than gold. Truly
those drops were more precious to the dying man; they had the effect of
instantly reviving him. Brightness came back to his glazed eyes, his
voice returned, and he was able to sit up, and even to make an attempt
to rise on his feet; but to do so was more than his strength would
allow.

"Give me more water or I shall die," he said as he saw me replacing the
flask in my pocket. "My rascally troopers have deserted me, to try and
save their own worthless lives, and I have only you foreigners to depend
on."

"I cannot give you more water," I answered. "I have but a few drops
left to moisten my father's and my own lips."

"O leave