Page:Taylor - In the Dwellings of the Wilderness.djvu/149

 beast, and drained it and laughed hoarsely.

"Give me more!" he panted, and struggled to rise.

"There, old boy! keep cool!" Merritt soothed, and held him down. "Take it easy; you'll have enough."

He gave Deane the cup again, and splashed water on the grimed parched skin that drank as a plant drinks rain.

"I had bad times out there," Deane said suddenly. He spoke thickly, out of a stiff throat, with a curious eagerness, yet a certain hesitancy, in short, detached sentences. "My men deserted when I insisted on searching farther. They took all the food. And the water. You see"—the words came painfully—"I