At last I lit the pipe, and no human being can feel meaner and baser than I did then.

I was ashamed of being in my own pitiful company.

Still dreading discovery, I felt that perhaps the further side of the barn would be somewhat safer, and so I turned the corner.

As I turned the one corner, smoking, Ollendorff turned the other with his bottle to his lips, and between us sat unconscious Ballou deep in a game of "solitaire" with the old greasy cards! Absurdity could go no farther.

We shook hands and agreed to say no more about "reform" and "examples to the rising generation." The station we were at was at the verge of the Twenty-six-Mile Desert.
If we had approached it half an hour earlier the night before, we must have heard men shouting there and firing pistols; for they were expecting some sheep drovers and their flocks and knew that they would infallibly get lost and wander out of reach of help unless guided by sounds.
While we remained at the station, three of the drovers arrived, nearly exhausted with their wanderings, but two others of their party were never heard of afterward.
We reached Carson in due time, and took a rest.