Page:Knaves of Diamonds.pdf/136

 a cup of his hands and put them against his mouth, and in that instant he passed from the torments of Hell to the joys of Paradise. His lips and tongue seemed to melt as the water touched them, and his thickening blood pulsed with new life already.

He was brought out of his ecstasy by the mule thrusting its nose down into the hole. He tried to drag it back; he might as well have tried to drag a tree up by its roots. For a few mad moments man and beast fought for the water. He kicked her, and even struck her with the knife, but she was too busy even to notice it. Then the delirium left him again. There was a light short spade and a little prospector's pick tied between the two bundles on the mule's back. He cut them adrift and went to another patch and began to dig, leaving his beast to enjoy what she had earned so well.

He soon got to the water this time. There