They reached the bottom at last safely, but heated and weary with the long and arduous descent.
Once on tolerably level ground in the bottom of the defile, however, their progress was easy, and, with the anticipation of long hearty drinks at the clear spring, and a good meal from the store on the pack-horses’ backs, they strode on bravely in spite of the heat. The track up to the cliff-dwellings was passed; but now that they were weary, the way seemed to be twice as far as when they were going in the morning, and the defile looked so different upon the return journey that at last Lawrence asked with a wistful look whether they had missed the spring.
Yussuf smiled and replied that it was below, and not far distant now, and a few minutes later they turned an angle in the defile, and came in full view of the patch of verdure that marked its presence in the sterile stony gorge.
“Hah!” ejaculated Mr Burne, “it makes one know the value of water, travelling in a land like this. Only fancy how clear and cold and refreshing it will be.”
He nodded and smiled, for it was his custom after having been in any way unamiable to try and make up for it by pleasant remarks and jocularity.
“Yes,” said Mr Preston; “it does indeed. This mountain air, too, gives one an appetite—eh, Lawrence?”
“Is that curious feeling one has appetite?” said the lad. “I fancied that I was not well.”
“But you feel as if you could eat?”
“Oh, yes; a great deal,” cried the boy, “and I shall be glad to begin.”
“Then it is hunger,” said the professor laughing. “Eh, what?”