ving, but without avail. They soon found the opposite
bank too exposed and dangerous for attack from that direction. Burning
brush dropped from above failed to lodge before the recess, as they had
hoped it might. The position seemed impregnable, so they surrounded
the spot, resolved to starve the white men out.

Loving and Jim had leisure to discuss their situation. Loving was
losing strength from his wound. They had no food but a little raw
bacon. Without relief they must inevitably be starved out. It was
therefore agreed that Jim should try to reach Goodnight and bring aid.
It was a forlorn hope, but the only one. The herds must be at least
sixty miles back down the trail. Jim was reluctant to leave, but
Loving urged it as the only chance.

As soon as it was dark, Jim removed all but his under-clothing, hung
his boots round his neck, slid softly into the river, and floated and
swam down stream for more than a quarter of a mile. Then he crept out
on the bank. On the way he had lost his boots, which more than doubled
the difficulty and hardship of his journey. Still he struck bravely
out for the trail, through cactus and over stones. He travelled all
night, rested a few hours in the morning, resumed his tramp in the
afternoon, and continued it well-nigh through the second night.

Near morning, famished and weak, with feet raw and bleeding, totally
unable to go farther, Jim lay down in a rocky recess two or three
hundred yards from the trail, and went to sleep.

It chanced that the two outfits lay camped scarcely a mile farther down
the trail. At dawn they were again _en route_, and both passed Jim
without rousing or discovering him. Then a strange thing happened.
Three or four horses had strayed away from the "horse wrangler" during
the night, and Jim's brother Bill was left behind to hunt them.
Circling for their trail, he found and followed it, followed it until
it brought him almost upon the figure of a prostrate man, nearly naked,
bleeding, and apparently dead. Dismounting and turning the body over,
Bill was startled to find it to be his brother Jim. With great
difficulty Jim was roused; he was then helped to mount Bill's horse,
and hurried on to overtake the outfit. Coffee and a little food
revived him so that he could tell his story.

Neither danger nor property was considered where help was needed, in
those days. Goodnight instantly ordered six men to shift saddles to
their strongest horse