Constant walking kept their blood warm, and their clothes were drying upon them.

But they were growing very tired and they felt that they must rest and sleep even at the risk of recapture.
"There's a lot of grass growing on the dry ground lying between the marshes," said Ned, "and I suppose that the Mexicans cut it for the Vera Cruz market.

Maybe we can find something like a haystack or a windrow.
Dry grass makes a good bed." They hunted over an hour and persistence was rewarded by a small heap of dry grass in a little opening surrounded by thorn bushes.

They spread one covering of it on the ground, covered themselves to the mouth with another layer, and then went sound asleep, the old, unloaded musket lying by Obed White's side.
The two slept the sleep of deep exhaustion, the complete relaxation of both body and mind.

Boy and man they had passed through ordeals that few can endure, but, healthy and strong, they suffered merely from weariness and not from shattered nerves.