coming on the desert.

Hour after hour they plodded along, not daring to camp until they had
water. There was no moon, and as the desert road was little more than
a trail Heine Schultz let his team tag Keddie's and walked ahead with a
lantern to guide the lead skinner. Thirsty and hungry and weary, they
reached the tank about nine o'clock. Then came a hearty curse from the
man with the lantern, followed by:

"Lord, be merciful unto me, a skinner! The tank's empty, Jo!"

The party descended hurriedly and crowded about him. It was a steel
tank, and a careful search failed to show that any of its plates had
sprung a leak. Then the light was held under the spigot, and, though
the hot desert sun had evaporated every drop of water, there was a hole
worn in the sand where it had fallen in a stream. The spigot was open.

"How 'bout it now, Jo?" Heine queried. "Is this what you call
legitimate business--huh? I guess now you'll let me hold 'em back when
I can."

Without replying Jo stooped and made an examination.

"Some one has turned the water out," she said, rising wearily. "Will
we be obliged to hire a watchman to camp by our water tank? This is
serious, boys. The unwritten law of the desert would condemn whoever
did this to a lariat and a yucca palm. Still, we don't know who did
it. It's too dark to find tracks or to learn anything about it. It's
seventeen miles to the Washburn-Stokes outfit--the nearest water ahead.
Or it's eight miles back to the lake in the mountains. What's best to
do?"

They turned the problem over and over, and finally decided unanimously
that to send the tank with six horses back to the lake, to be refilled,
was the wiser plan. Hiram volunteered for the trip, and Schultz
volunteered to go with him. At once the two set off behind six of
Hiram's lamenting animals for the long night trip, eating a hasty lunch
as they traveled.

Dawn was breaking when they returned with a full tank, and were greeted
by the braying of the mules and the expectant nickering of the horses,
who smelled the water from afar.

Jo ordered a rest until ten o'clock, to counteract the suffering that
the thirsty animals had undergone and to rest Hiram's six after the
performance of their double task.

These setbacks made them late in their arrival at the scene of coming
toil, but gradually the distant buttes grew plainer as they moved on
steadily toward them over the crunching sands, so hot and barren.