Somehow they had drifted off the trail marked on the map drawn by George Williams.
Williams had warned them to carry as much water as possible in barrels, as a precaution against suffering if they failed to strike water each night.

He had told them that water was scarce, but that his cowboy scouts and the deep-worn buffalo trails had been able to bring him through with water at every camp save two or three.

The Staked Plains, he said, would be the hardest drive.

And this was the Staked Plains--and it was hard driving! Buddy did not know all that until afterwards, when he heard father talk of the drive north.

But he would have remembered that day and the night that followed, even though he had never heard a word about it.
The bawling of the herd became a doleful chant of misery.