Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/172

158 down and got up again ten times before I reached you."

"Yes, Miss. I guess so. I was nigh tuckered out. No doubt as to thet part of it. Darned lucky you had them chocolates with ye. Best kind of fuel. I reckon we must be close to the end of the cactus now. It's thinnin' a bit. Seemed ter me I trailed through twenty mile of it, but I guess I was a bit delirious at times. You git thet way 'thout water."

The girl gave him a sympathetic glance.

"I've never been as far to the east as this before," she said, glancing at the dial in front of her. "We've come a little more than four miles and I was about two miles from the camp when I met you."

"Stayin' thar fer yore health, Miss?" asked Harvey, politely.

"Only another week," said the girl. "I took it in time, you see, soon as I found out my lung was affected. I'm cured. All I need now is a little fat on my bones and I can go back to the Pictures."

"Pictures, Miss?"

"Movies. I'm no Pickford, just a stunt-extra, but I made a good living at it and it was lots of fun."

"Yes, Miss, it must have bin," said Harvey, dazedly, wondering what a "stunt-extra" was. The cactus was thinning fast now and he leaned to one side, avoiding the windshield, scratched by sand and half opaque, gazing anxiously ahead with his ancient but far-sighted eyes.

"Could ye git a mite more speed out of her, Miss?" he asked.