get
safe back I want you to think still in this way after I've gone."

"After you've gone!" cried Chris passionately. "Oh, if we'd only plenty
of time and weren't so faint, I should like to have the worst row with
you that we ever tried to fight out. You're not going to lie down and
die. It would be absurd after we've got the water, and--"

Ned started and bent forward, holding on to the pommel of his saddle
with both hands to steady himself, for as he rode almost backwards Chris
suddenly clutched at nothing and nearly fell from his seat.

"There, there!" panted Ned. "Oh, don't fall, Chris! One of us is
enough. You mustn't fall and lie there, because I want you to do
something for me."

"Yes," said Chris softly, and with a wild-eyed stare at his companion.

"I want you to tell father that I held out to the last, and tried hard
to do my duty as he told me to always."

"Yes--yes," sighed Chris hoarsely. "I'll--I'll tell him, if I get back
to camp. But oh, Ned, it is so hard now, when we've got the water. All
the strength has gone from me. I say, tell me, if we both fall out of
our saddles and lie there, do you think that the ponies will go on to
the camp?"

"No; I'm sure they won't. They'll stop beside us, looking down in our
faces with their big, patient eyes. They won't stir for ever so long."

"Oh!" groaned Chris faintly. "And we shall have got the water for
nothing."

"No," said Ned. "The ponies will stop, but the mule won't; he'll keep
right on along the back trail, and they'll get the water after all."

"Ah!" sighed Chris, with a bright light coming into his eyes. "Then it
won't have been for nothing."

"What are you doing?" said Ned, more strongly, as he saw his comrade
begin to unfasten the knotted silk kerchief about his neck.

"Going to tie this to the chain. Father will know it's mine, and that
it means good-bye, and--"

The effort was too much. The giddiness from which he was suffering
mastered him, and he fell over sidewise on to the fast-heating sand, but
with his left foot fast in the stirrup-iron, while the pony kept on a
few feet before stopping short and turning to gaze down in his rider's
face.

"Chris! Chris!" cried Ned, checking his pony as he closed up, while the
mule went tramping on with its heavy load as if nothing whatever was the
matter.

To the last speaker's wonder and horror, as the excitement of his
comrade's mishap drove his own sufferings into the back