ig that you can't well handle it. It seems to me that ten
minutes after I've had a drink, I'm thirsty agin, which reminds me;
I'd like to invite you, Wade."

"Invite all you want to, 'cause it won't do any more hurt than good;
don't let me keep you," added Ruggles, observing the longing eyes his
friend cast in the direction of the Heavenly Bower. Bidwell moved off
with pretended reluctance, out of consideration for the feelings of
his friend, but once inside, he gave another demonstration of the
truth of his remarks concerning thirst.

As for Ruggles, only he who has been similarly placed can appreciate
his trial. No man is so deserving of sympathy as he who is making a
resolute effort to conquer the debasing appetite that has brought him
to the gutter.

On that fourth night the thirst of the fellow was a raging fever. He
drank copious draughts of spring water, but all the help it gave was
to fill him up. The insatiate craving remained and could not be
soothed. It seemed as if every nerve was crying out for the stimulant
which it was denied.

"The only time I ever went through anything like this," he said to
himself, "was twenty years ago, when a party of us were lost in the
Death Valley. Three of 'em died of thirst, and I come so nigh it that
it makes me shudder to think of it even at this late day."

A wonderful experience came to Wade Ruggles. To his unbounded
amazement, he noticed a sensible diminution, on the fifth day, of his
thirst. It startled him at first and caused something in the nature of
alarm. He feared some radical change had taken place in his system
which threatened a dangerous issue. When this misgiving passed, it was
succeeded by something of the nature of regret. One consoling
reflection from the moment his torture began, was the reward which Al
Bidwell had named, that is,--the glorious enjoyment of fully quenching
his terrific craving, but, if that craving diminished, the future
bliss must shrink in a corresponding ratio, and _that_ was a calamity
to make a man like him shudder.

On the evening of the fifth day, he ventured for the first time during
his penal term, to enter the Heavenly Bower. He wished to test his
self-control. When he sat quietly and saw his friends imbibing, and
was yet able to restrain himself from a headlong rush to join them, he
knew that beyond all question, his fearful appetite had lost a part of
its control over him. Still he believed it was only a temporary
disarr