Page:Lost with Lieutenant Pike (1919).djvu/237

 chewed at the hairy, slimy stuff. But they couldn't swallow it.

"Oh, my!" Terry sighed. "'Tain't soup nor meat, nor what I'd call soldiers' fare at all. We had hard times before, up the Mississippi with the left'-*nant; but we didn't set teeth to this. What'd I ever enlist for?"

"The more I don't know," answered Freegift. "But stow one good meal in us an' we'd enlist over again, to foller the cap'n on another trip."

Terry tried to grin.

"I guess you're right. But, oh my! Down the Red River, heading for white man's country, is it? Then where are we? Nowhere at all, and like to stay."

Through the gnarled cedars beside the mighty canyon the shadows deepened. The mountain ridges and peaks, near and far, surrounding the lone flat, swiftly lost their daytime tints as the rising tide of night flowed higher and higher. And soon it was dark again.

Now they must wait for another morning as well as for the lieutenant.

They had already sickened of the deer-hide, and could not touch it again. So the morning was breakfastless. The sun had been up only a few minutes,