h a dry rasp of his tongue upon his caked lips. She heard a slight
splashing sound and the next moment the grateful feel of water was upon
her burning eyelids, as the Texan sponged at them with a saturated bit of
cloth.

"The water-hole!" she managed to gasp.

"There's water here," answered the cowboy, evasively, "hold still, an' in
a minute you can open your eyes." Very gently he continued to sponge at
her lids. Her eyes opened and she started back with a sharp cry. The
three men before her were unrecognizable in the thick masks of dirt that
encased their faces--masks that showed only thin red slits for eyes, and
thick, blood-caked excrescences where lips should have been.

"Water!" Endicott cried, and Alice was sure she heard the dry click of
his tongue against the roof of his mouth. The girl saw that they were in
a cavern formed by a mud crack whose walls had toppled together. Almost
at her feet was a small pool, its surface covered with a film of dust.
Endicott stepped toward it, but the Texan barred the way.

"Don't drink that! It might be a poison spring--most of 'em are down
here. It's the meanest death there is, the bellyache an' cramps that
comes from drinkin' poison water. Watch the horses. If they will drink
it, we can. He led his horse to the pool into which the animal thrust
his nose half way to the eyes. Only a moment he held it there, then with
a thrash of disappointment that sent the water splashing over the
dust-coated rocks, he raised his head and stood with the water dripping
in streams from his muzzle. He pawed at the ground, shook his head
wrathfully, and turned in disgust from the water-hole.

"Poison," announced the Texan. "We can rinse out our mouths with it an'
clean out our eyes an' wash our faces, an' do the same for the horses,
but we can't swallow not even a drop of it, or us an' the angels will be
swappin' experiences about this time tomorrow." He turned to Alice:
"Ladies first. Just take your handkerchief an' wet it an' swab out your
mouth an' when you're through there's a good drink of real water waitin'
for you in the flask."

When she had done, the three men followed her example, and the Texan
tendered the bottle:

"Take all you need, there's plenty," he said. But she would take only a
swallow which she held in her mouth and allowed to trickle down her
throat. Endicott did the same and Bat, whereupon the cowboy replaced the
cork to the bottle and was about to re