CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE, BUT--

"Hallo! What's that?" said Chris softly, as he lay on his left side
gazing at an elevation about a couple of feet from his nose; and it was
some time before he could make out that it was a sack, stuffed so full
that it threatened to burst the coarse stitches down one side.

His head felt confused and thick. His thinking apparatus would not work
properly, but seemed to be struggling to carry on the narrative of some
weary dream in which there had been snakes, heat, thirst, and riding,
till his bones seemed to ache and he felt sore all over.

It was very puzzling, and though he tried to make out where he was, he
could see nothing but that big sack.

After lying still for some minutes, his reasoning powers began to act,
and overcoming the disinclination to move, consequent upon his being so
horribly stiff, he gave himself a wrench and turned right over on his
other side.

This brought a little illumination, bodily and mental too, for the sun
was beating down upon his face making him raise his hand stiffly to
shade his eyes; and there before him lay Ned, flat upon his back, with
his mouth wide open.

The mist floating in his brain now began to disperse, and rising upon
one elbow he could see first one and then another of the party, lying
fast asleep in different attitudes with the packs belonging to the
expedition dotted-about anyhow, just as they had been released from the
mules' backs.

Then there were the bearers of the said packs about a couple of hundred
yards away, every one with its muzzle near the ground, browsing busily
at some kind of low, scrubby, greyish growth that looked like very dwarf
juniper, while in quite another direction, there they were--all six--
forming a group to themselves--the mustangs, their saddles still on and
the reins upon the ground, cropping away at the thin wiry grass that
clothed the sandy earth.

"Of course; I recollect now," thought Chris. "I went to sleep on my
pony, and must have fallen off without waking. Am I hurt?"

He screwed himself about and raised arms and legs, wincing a little the
while.

"Yes, I am hurt," he muttered. "I can hardly move, but I don't think
anything's broken: it's just as if the mules had been kicking me and the
ponies walking about on my chest."

His eyes wandered round again, and he sat up now with a start, the
aforesaid eyes dilating and the lids getting so wide that he showed a
go