I waded waist deep into that mud, and literally dragged him out, almost a mile below his starting point.
As we were struggling in this muddy swamp, Field said he wondered why some of this superfluous water was not distributed over those dry deserts from which we had so recently come.

I told him, politely, that I thought that a man of his age, ability, opportunities, and nationality, (you know he was quite proud of being an Englishman) ought to know why the moisture was not so distributed, and that I was too illiterate to enlighten him on that point, but that, when opportunity offered, he might consult some one who knew more of natural science than I did.

I informed him that I had an idea that if any considerable portion of the water of that river had been distributed over that desert that we would not have had the experience of the last fifteen days, whereupon he very plainly intimated that I did not have much sense, or, in other words, he called me a d--d fool.
After reaching solid ground and resting for a little while, we returned to the place from which he had started out on his perilous voyage, and where I had hastily left my horse.

We found the horse and mule quietly grazing with their packs on their backs.

The faithful old mule had the appearance of having been wet, but was now almost dry, yet not so dry, internally, as he had been several days before.
What shall we do now?
We are perhaps two hundred or more miles from any white settlement.