driven together again. One was caught and killed, and
slices of the meat were stuck up on ramrods, and were soon
frizzling before the fire.

"Well, Mr. Blount, how many sheep do you think there are here?"

"I have just been looking them over," the settler replied, "and I
should say there must be nearly twelve hundred; so that, allowing
for two hundred driven off in the other direction, and a hundred
dropped by the way, the whole flock are accounted for. I am indeed
obliged to you, and to my friends here. I never expected to see a
tail of them again, when I found they were off."

"I am very glad you have recovered so many of them," Reuben said,
"and still more, that we have given the blacks such a lesson. We
will, as soon as we have finished, be on the march. Jim will go on
ahead at once, as we agreed; and he tells me will get to the stream
where the horses are before night, and will start out with them at
once, so that we may be able to meet them tomorrow, early. I fancy
our water bottles are all getting very low, but we can hold on for
today."

As soon as he had finished eating, Jim started off at a run, which
Reuben knew he would keep up for hours. The body of young Phillips
was buried; and then, collecting the flock and driving it before
them, the rest started upon their return. The sheep could not
travel fast, for many of them were footsore with their hurried
journey; but they had found plenty of nourishment in the grass at
the bottoms, and in the foliage of the bushes and, being so
supplied, had suffered little from thirst.

Jim, before starting, had pointed out the exact line they were to
follow, and this they kept by compass. With only one or two short
halts, they kept on until nightfall and, leaving the sheep in a
grassy bottom, lit their fire on the crest above it, in order that
its flame might serve as a guide to Jim, should he get back with
the horses before daylight.

There was but little talking, before each stretched himself at
length before the fire. They had been twenty-four hours without
sleep, and all were now suffering severely from thirst. The last
drops in the water bottles had been emptied, early in the day; and
they were parched not only by the heat of the sun, but by the
stifling dust raised by the flock as they travelled.

There had been but little supper eaten. Indeed, most of them
contented themselves with chewing pieces of raw meat, to satisfy
their thirst rather than their hunger.