CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
A NIGHT IN THE DESERT.
Conversing in this way, the young hunters rode on, keeping as far from the edges of the mounds as possible, lest the hoofs of their horses might sink in the excavated ground.

They had ridden full five miles, and still the marmot village stretched before them! still the dogs on all sides uttered their "Choo-choo"-- still the owls flapped silently up, and the rattle-snakes crawled across their track.
It was near sun-down when they emerged from among the hillocks, and commenced stepping out on the hard, barren plain.

Their conversation now assumed a gloomier turn, for their thoughts were gloomy.

They had drunk all their water.

The heat and dust had made them extremely thirsty; and the water, warmed as it was in their gourd canteens, scarcely gave them any relief.