few days more, I must proceed upon my
journey. I saddled my horse, and took what I
supposed to be a last look at the spot where I
had passed three days, which Sedjid, Emperor of
Ethiopia, might have envied; but hardly had I
ridden two hundred yards when my unlucky
horse, startled by a rattlesnake in a bush,
suddenly shied, and, bounding to one side, lighted
on a spot undermined in every direction by
ground rats. Next moment we were rolling in
the sand together. The horse was on his legs
again in a few seconds, and then, unlike the faithful
steeds of which one has read in romances,
gave a snort of astonishment and a glance of defiance
at his master, who lay crushed and helpless
on the ground, and then started off at a smart
canter. I lay for a few minutes half stunned,
and afraid to ascertain whether any bones were
broken, but it soon appeared that I was only
frightfully bruised, and that the best thing to
be done was to return as fast as possible to the
water and the friendly shade of trees. Being
unable to walk, I was obliged to crawl, after the
manner of the wounded Zouaves in the French
battle-pieces, so that it took me nearly an hour
to reach the well. Most fortunately—for I owe
my life to the accident—the havresack containing
provisions had come loose from the saddle when
the horse rolled over; but the wretched animal,
in taking himself off, had carried away my rug
and blankets. This loss was a serious one,
for the nights were beginning to be chilly,
although still the days were warm. However, it
was again a happy event for me that the accident
had happened so near the well. Had it
occurred a mile away, I might have died of
thirst.

I spent the forenoon in reflecting on all the
possibilities of the situation. I was at a great distance
from the rarely traversed road across the
flats, in a spot by which probably no white man
would ever pass, and where there was but small
chance of seeing even an Indian. The horse, I
knew very well, would go to a pasture-ground
twenty-five miles distant, with which he formerly
had been familiar; but he might not be seen for
weeks by the men who lived there, and, even if he
were seen, there was not the slightest chance of
their making any search for me. I had provisions
for three or four days; the question was, whether
or no I should by that time be able to walk. The
day wore on while I was revolving those unpleasant
questions, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that I managed to move myself a little
as the sun changed its place in the heavens, so
as to continue to lie in the shade.

My death-like quiescence seemed to reassure
the numerous visitors who cheered my solitude.
A flock of quail drank without fear at the well
within a couple of yards of my feet; it would
have been easy to shoot one, for although my
stock of ammunition had gone with my horse I
still had the six shots of my revolver. But, it
seemed to me treacherous to do so. The birds
apparently enjoyed their sense of my harmlessness.
They were my chief amusement. The
efforts made by a coyoté to surprise the stragglers,
and their organised system of sentries
and alarm calls, interested me so much that I
sometimes almost forgot my distressful situation.

It soon appeared that the coyotés began to
take a deep interest in my condition. Two or
three surveyed me from under cover of the
bushes on the other side of the basin, with an air
of the most cheerful expectation in their fox-like
faces. There was not the slightest danger
of an attack from them. The mere voice of a
human being is enough to scare a troop of these
poor jackals, but their persistent attentions were
by no means consolatory.

These coyotés were not the sole enemies against
which my pleasant friends, the quail, had to be
on their guard. A large rattlesnake, probably
the snake that had alarmed my horse and caused
his fall, stealthily glided forward from the bushes,
but to my great satisfaction could not succeed in
catching the little feathered sentinel off guard.
With a shrill cry of alarm and a loud whirring
of wings, the whole covey took up a safe position
in a tree. The snake sulkily coiled himself, until,
becoming conscious of my presence, he lifted his
head and surveyed me with much curiosity. The
presence of the creature struck me with horror,
although I had experience enough of snakes to
know that there was no danger to be apprehended.
I threw at him a piece of dry wood, with all the
force of my uninjured arm; upon the receipt of
which insult he slowly uncoiled, softly hissing
the while, and moved off: not without a certain
dignity.

At last, after a very long day, the sun disappeared
behind the sand-hills, and it soon became
bitterly cold. Of course I was unable
to collect firewood, and was forced to shiver
through the night as well as I could in my
boundless bed-chamber, with feelings of bitter
wrath against the treachery of the ungrateful
horse by whom my blankets had been carried
off. Several times I fell asleep, though never
losing the consciousness of pain and cold;
several times I awoke with a start, to find a
coyoté stealing off from a close inspection of
my face. The provision-bag, which I was now
unable to hang on a tree as I had done during
the three days when this oasis was my paradise,
attracted the ground rats, who constantly dis-
turbed me with their eagerness for biscuit. This
night of dreariness was enlivened only by the
notes of a screech-owl in a neighbouring tree,
and the occasional yelping howl of the sleepless
coyoté.

The morning did not bring much comfort.
Stiff and sore, I felt more hopelessly unable to
move than before. Reflecting upon every chance
of deliverance, I saw more and more clearly that
assistance was not to be hoped for. There
were a thousand chances against my horse ever
being seen by a white man. It was far more
probable that he would fall into the hands of
the Yuma Indians, who would quietly kill and
eat him.

During the second day of misery my coyoté
attendants were as attentive as a set of sordid