peared from view. Then he turned his eyes
elsewhere.

The men also turned away, but continued their
excited talk. But even they after a time relapsed
into silence. What it was all about Pat did not
know. He knew it was something very serious,
and suddenly fear came to him. He saw some of
the men lie down as if to sleep, and he feared that
they intended to remain here for ever, in this
place absolutely destitute of herbage. But after
a time, made sluggish by the attitude of the men,
he himself attempted to drowse. But the heat
pulsating up off the rocks discouraged him, and
he soon abandoned the attempt, standing
motionless in the hot sun.

A change came over him. He took to brooding
over his many discomforts -- hunger pangs, loss of
sleep, bothersome flies, the pain of his swollen
ankles. As the day advanced his ankles swelled
more, and grew worse, the flies became more
troublesome, and his inner gnawings more
pronounced. So the time went on and he brooded
through the still watches of the afternoon, through
the soft stirrings of evening, on into night again.
With the coming of night light breezes rose from
the spaces below to spur his fevered body into
something of its wonted vigor. And the night
brought also preparations among the men to journey
on. This he welcomed, even more than the
cooling zephyrs.

There was some delay. His master entered
upon a dispute with the horseless man. The

[[245]]

p244 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p245w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p246

v?