od deal of white, while it seemed as if all the blood in his body had
rushed to his heart, so horrible were his thoughts. But he could see no
sign of rattlesnakes, and the heavy throbbing in his breast calmed down,
to give place to a sensation of pleasure, as he breathed in the fresh
elastic air and let his eyes rest upon a great blue mountain which
towered up above a clump of a dozen or so on one side and as many more
spreading away in a row, their tops looking like the teeth of a gigantic
saw. In fact, it was one of the ranges to which the old Spanish
settlers gave the name of Sierras.

"It is not what I dreamed about," said Chris to himself. "Let me see--
yes, that was of looking down into a glorious green valley with a
sparkling river running through and beautiful park-like prairies on each
side for the mules and ponies to graze in while we hunted and shot the
buffaloes. Of course; I remember it all quite clearly, and about our
going to bathe and drink, and--oh, how thirsty I am!"

"Why, there must be water here, or the animals wouldn't be so contented.
Get enough juice out of what they're eating, I suppose," he added,
after a few minutes' more thought. "Well, this is a hundred times
better than the salt desert, and there must be water in the valleys over
yonder. How blue it all looks! That doesn't seem as if there were
trees, because they'd look green. But there must be valleys because
there are mountains, and--Here, I say, Ned, don't snore like that," he
said aloud. "Wake up, lazy! It's ever so late."

His words having no effect, he reached out one foot and gave the boy
such a vigorous push that Ned sat up, staring.

"Who--Here, you, Chris, why did you kick me like that?" he cried.

"I didn't kick, only pushed. To wake you up. You can't sleep all day.
Oh, I say, what a face you've got!"

Ned, who had roused up at once, clapped his hands to the part of his
person alluded to, and retaliated.

"So have you got a face," he cried. "Why, it looks as if it had got a
crust of salt and sand all over it."

"So it has, I suppose," said Chris, rather gruffly, as he began to pat
his cheeks softly, rub his eyes, and then deal very tenderly with his
cracked lips. "Oh dear, shouldn't I like a swim, even if it was only in
a water-hole that was half mud!"

"But I say, Chris, look here. What about the rattlesnakes? Have we
left them all behind?"

"I hope so. There seems to be no sign of any here."

"And