He felt that their troubles were near an end, and that before the sun went down his father's innocence would be established, and the little band of Gold Cave Campers would be happily together once more.
He walked with such a long, quick stride that Ike and Wah Shin could only keep up with him by breaking into a dog-trot, that made them puff with the exertion.
"See h'ar, Mistah Sam!" called out Ike, after they had been traveling for two hours and the heat waves began to distort the landscape again. "Does yeh expeck a feller foh to run like a race-horse, w'en he ain't got nothin' in his inside but a bit ob dem dar roots? Foh de Lor', if you keeps up dis yar like all day, you'll fine yerself alone, foh dis chile's so holler he's nigh done gin out," and Sam came to a halt and wiped his perspiring face with his ragged coat-sleeve.
"Me hungly allee same like Ike, but me no say any-tlings," said Wah Shin as he stood panting like a hunted hare.
"I know, boys, that I've been hurrying more than I should in justice to you, but the thought that every step is taking me nearer to my father makes me forget how weary you must be," said Sam, his own brown face showing how the terrible pace told on him.
"Mistah Sam, dar's a sight more reason w'y you should be tireder an' hungrier dan we," said Ike, the better part of his nature asserting itself, as it always did in an emergency. "But we'll git dar long afore dark widout so much hurryin', an' yer fadder'll be a heap sight more pleased if we all shows up fresh an' smilin', eben if we is so holler."
Sam slackened his pace, but he was making fully four miles an hour when under way again.
The water in their canteens became very warm in the blistering heat of that dry atmosphere, but they had to drink, and as a consequence their supply was exhausted by the middle of the afternoon.
They had no food with them, and all were very hungry, but the prospect ahead made them forget their sufferings; for soldiers do not feel the pain of wounds received in the excitement of battle.
Sam reasoned that two hours more would see them at Hurley's Gulch, and had so told his companions, when Ike called out: