you shall live on the fat of the
land."

Dick took up his father's rifle,--his own he had left in the wagon when
he went after the horse,--and, leading the animal by the bridle, marched
on, glancing back every few seconds to learn how the rider was faring.

Although he struggled to repress any evidence of pain, Mr. Stevens
could not prevent the agony from being apparent on his face; and Dick,
who had neither eaten nor slept during the past twenty-four hours, did
all a boy could have done to cheer the sufferer, without thought of
his own necessities.

"We'll soon be in camp, daddy, when you're to have everything you
need," he said from time to time; and then, fancying this was not
sufficient encouragement, he finally added, "you know I'm going over
to Antelope Spring to get some doctor's stuff as soon as I've found
game enough to keep the camp supplied while I'm away."

"Antelope Spring!" Mr. Stevens cried, aroused from his suffering for an
instant by the bold assertion. "You shall never do it, Dick, not if I
had twenty wounds! It's as much as a man's life is worth to cross the
desert on foot, and these horses of ours are worse than none at all."

"By the time we've been in camp a couple of weeks where the feed is
good, they'll pick up in great shape, and be fit to haul the old wagon
home. Won't it be prime to see the town once more? And there'll be no
more hunting 'round for a place where we can get a livin' easy, eh,
daddy?"

"No, Dickey; once we're there we'll stay, and I'm going to turn over a
new leaf if my life is spared. I'll do more work and less loafing. But
you're not to cross the desert alone, my boy."

"It may be travellers will come our way, an' I can go with them," Dick
replied, taking good care not to make any promises; for he understood
from what his mother had said that it would be absolutely necessary
that aid should be had from the nearest settlement.

Fortunately, as it then seemed to the boy, the pain which his father
was enduring prevented him from dwelling upon the subject; and as Dick
trudged on, trying to force the horse into a more rapid gait, he
turned over in his mind all he had heard regarding such a journey.

There were many times when it seemed certain Mr. Stevens must succumb
to the suffering caused by the wound; but he contrived to "keep a
good grip" on himself, as Dick had suggested, and after what seemed
the longest and most painful journey the boy had ever experienced, the
t