ll. How can it be to-morrow when it's to-day?"

There was a grunt very much like a snore.

"Well, of all the old dormice!" muttered Ned. "Chris, you must get up."

"Shan't!"

"But you've been asleep twenty-four hours."

"Look here, stupid," grumbled Chris, without stirring, "if you want to
tell a big fib you should always make it as big as you can, or else
people won't believe you. Say twenty-four days."

"Why, you unbelieving old humbug! It's the truth. You ate till I was
ashamed of you, and then you lay down to sleep about this time
yesterday, and here you are now as sleepy as ever. If you don't get up
I'll go and tell the doctor you must be ill."

Chris started up into a sitting posture and uttered a cry.

"Oh! I say!--Ugh! I am stiff. I can't hardly move.--What's the matter
with me?"

"Slept till you've turned stiff as a log," cried Ned. "Twenty-four
hours right off."

"I say, that isn't true, is it?"

"Why, of course it is. Don't you remember lying down?"

"Of course I do. But what time is it?"

"Oh, I don't know about the time, but it's getting on for mid-day."

"Ned! I say, why didn't you wake me up before?"

"To be kicked at and threatened and called names?"

"Oh dear, how stiff I am! But really, Ned--no gammon--have I slept like
that?"

"Of course you have. Don't you remember?"

"Yes, I think so. Yes, of course. But what about the Indians?"

"Oh, they're hanging about. Some are at the mouth of the gulch, and
some are on the cliffs at the top of the valley, but they don't come
near."

"Haven't got the horses and mules, have they?"

"No. We've kept too sharp a lookout for them."

"Oh!" cried Chris wildly, and his face contracted with pain.

"Well, I suppose it hurts," said Ned, with a trace of sympathy in his
voice, "but I wouldn't holloa like that. Get up and move about, the
stiffness will soon go off."

"I wasn't shouting because of my hurts," said Chris bitterly. "I was
thinking of my poor mustang."

"Yes," said Ned, after a pause; "that was a horribly bad job; but I've
been thinking about it all, old chap, and I've settled what we'll do.
I'm going to play fair--same as you would if it had been my nag. We'll
share one between us. I'll have him one day, and you shall have him the
next."

"That wouldn't be fair," said Chris, who was rubbing himself and
kneading his joints where they ached.

"Yes, it would. You wait and hear. Then we'll have that mule th