eat, but there was nothing but
lizards and horned toads. Later we'd have been glad of them, but by
that time we'd got out of their district. Night came. Just at sundown
we took another wallow in the surf, and chewed some more fishhook
cactus. When the moon came up we went on.

I'm not going to tell you how dead beat we got. We were pretty tough
and strong, for all of us had been used to hard living, but after the
third day without anything to eat and no water to drink, it came to be
pretty hard going. It got to the point where we had to have some
REASON for getting out besides just keeping alive. A man would
sometimes rather die than keep alive, anyway, if it came only to that.
But I know I made up my mind I was going to get out so I could smash up
that Anderson, and I reckon Denton had the same idea. Schwartz didn't
say anything, but he pumped on ahead of us, his back bent over, and his
clothes sagging and bulging with the gold he carried.

We used to travel all night, because it was cool, and rest an hour or
two at noon. That is all the rest we did get. I don't know how fast
we went; I'd got beyond that. We must have crawled along mighty slow,
though, after our first strength gave out. The way I used to do was to
collect myself with an effort, look around for my bearings, pick out a
landmark a little distance off, and forget everything but it. Then I'd
plod along, knowing nothing but the sand and shale and slope under my
feet, until I'd reached that landmark. Then I'd clear my mind and pick
out another.

But I couldn't shut out the figure of Schwartz that way. He used to
walk along just ahead of my shoulder. His face was all twisted up, but
I remember thinking at the time it looked more as if he was worried in
his mind than like bodily suffering. The weight of the gold in his
clothes bent his shoulders over.

As we went on the country gradually got to be more mountainous, and, as
we were steadily growing weaker, it did seem things were piling up on
us. The eighth day we ran out of the fishhook cactus, and, being on a
high promontory, were out of touch with the sea. For the first time my
tongue began to swell a little. The cactus had kept me from that
before. Denton must have been in the same fix, for he looked at me and
raised one eyebrow kind of humorous.

Schwartz was having a good deal of difficulty to navigate. I will say
for him that he had done well, but now I could see that his stren