nt poets. One could picture Pluto in his
chariot, with Proserpine beside him, thundering downwards behind his
black horses, on the way to those sombre and magnificent regions which
are hollowed out beneath the surface of the planet.

Freeman, however, presently saw a sight which, if less spectacularly
impressive, was far more agreeable to his eyes. On a shelf or cup of
the declivity was a little clump of vegetation, and in the midst of it
welled up a thin stream of water. The mustang scrambled eagerly towards
it, and, before Freeman had had time to throw himself out of the saddle,
he had plunged his muzzle into the rivulet. He sucked it down with such
satisfaction that it was evident the water was not salt. Freeman laid
himself prone upon the brink, and followed his steed's example. The
draught was cool and pure.

"I didn't know how much I wanted it!" said he to himself. "It must come
from a good way down. If I could only bring the parent stream to the
surface, my mission would be on a fair road to success."

An examination of the spring revealed the fact that it could not have
been long in existence. Indeed, there were no traces whatever of long
continuance. The aperture in the rock through which it trickled bore the
appearance of having been recently opened; fragments were lying near it
that seemed to have been just broken off. The bed of the little stream
was entirely free from moss or weeds; and after proceeding a short
distance it dwindled and disappeared, either sucked up in vapor by the
torrid air, or absorbed into the dusty soil. Manifestly, it was a recent
creation.

"And, to be sure, why not?" ejaculated Freeman. "There was an earthquake
last night, which swallowed up the spring in the Trednokes' garden:
probably that same earthquake brought this stream to light. It vanished
there, to reappear here. Well, the loss is not important to them, but
the gain is very important to me. It is as if Miriam had come with a
cup of water to refresh her lover in the desert. God bless her! She has
refreshed me indeed, soul and body!"

He removed the saddle from the mustang, and turned him loose to make the
best of such scanty herbage as he could find. Then he unpacked his
own provisions, and made a comfortable meal; after which he rolled
a cigarette and reclined on the spot most available, to rest and
recuperate. The valley, or gorge, lay before him in the afternoon light.
It was a strange and savage spectacle. Had it be