laden with fresh beef, soft bread,
butter, eggs, milk, boiled cabbage, and tea, all of them luxuries that
they had not tasted for months. And they had plates, cups and saucers,
spoons, knives, and forks. Glen wondered if he should know how to use
them; but he did not wonder if he were hungry. Nor did he wait for an
invitation to join that supper-party.

He was dirty and ragged and unkempt as he entered the room in which his
comrades were assembled; but what did they care? He was the one who had
found help and sent it to them in the time of their sore need. Some of
them owed their lives to him, perhaps all of them did. Every man in the
room stood up, as the chief took him by the hand and led him to the head
of the table, saying,

"Here he is, gentlemen. Here is the lad who saved the second division.
Some of us might have got through without his help; others certainly
would not. Right here I wish to thank him, and to thank God for the
strength, pluck, and powers of endurance with which this boy, to whom we
owe so much, is endowed."

And Glen! How did he take all this praise? Why, he was so hungry, and
his eyes were fixed so eagerly on the table full of good things spread
before him that he hardly knew what the general was talking about. If
they would only let him sit down and eat, and drink some of that
delicious-looking water! He came very near interrupting the proceedings
by doing so. At length, to his great relief, they all sat down, and in a
moment Glen was eating and drinking in a manner only possible to a
hearty boy who has gone without water and almost without food for two
days.

A little later, seated before a glorious camp-fire of oak logs outside
the ranch, Glen learned how the two ranchmen, after getting him to the
house, had loaded a wagon with barrels of water and gone out on the
desert. They first found General Elting, nearly exhausted, but still
walking, within a couple of miles of the valley, and afterwards
discovered the rest of the party dragging themselves falteringly along
beside one of the ambulances, which, with the notes and maps of the
expedition, was the only thing they had attempted to bring in.

And Nettle! Oh, yes; the brave little mare was also found, revived, and
brought in to the ranch. She needed a long rest; and both for her sake
and as a token of his gratitude, Glen presented her to one of the
ranchmen. The settlers went out that same night after the other
ambulance and the wagon,