He did not like it, for it made him conscious again of
his master's suspicions. So he turned a sour gaze
upon his unrestricted companions until, forced to
it by inner yearnings amounting to acuteness now,
he himself lowered his head and fell to grazing.

But he found it all too insufficient. His stomach
urgently demanded grain and alfalfa. And he
yearned for a little bran-mash. But there were
none of these. He saw not even a tiny morsel
of flower to appease his inner grumblings, and
finally, lifting his head in a kind of disgust, he
ceased to graze altogether. As he did so, the man
made ready to resume the journey, replacing
bridles and saddles and saddle-bags. Pat found
himself hopeful again, believing that with the end
of this prolonged service, which in view of the
distance already traversed must be soon, he would
have those things for which his body and soul
cried out. And thus he set forth, occupying his
former place in the order of advance, moving, as
before, at a fox-trot and amid silence from the
men. He was still hopeful of better things to
come. But it was all a drear experience.

The grind began to tell upon him. As he trotted
along, thirst-stricken, miserably nourished, weary
from loss of sleep and this ceaseless toil, he sought
frankly for cause to rebel, as he had done in the
first hour of this strange call to new duty. And he
found it. He found it not only in the man's
weight, and the infrequent contact of spurs, and
th-a tight grip on the reins, all as on that first
occasion, but he found it as well in other things -- in

[[166]]

p165 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p166w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p167

v?