"Yes," added Ned rising to his feet, "we are. They are satisfied, I suppose, to let us starve."
The prospect was a trying one. If the range behind them was the one they hoped it was, there was only one more valley between its summit and the outer ridge of the Tunit Chas. If they could reach this ridge they believed they might see Mount Wilson's peak. But even that meant another thirty miles to the scene of the attack on Buck's camp on the banks of the Chusco. And from that place it was eighty-five miles to a railroad and help!
The boys sat in the edge of the pines as the new moon disappeared, leaving them in utter darkness, and tried desperately to encourage each other. Both had the grit to set themselves stoutly to the apparently hopeless task. Without food or firearms and possibly without water, they knew they would find the task gigantic. But nothing was to be gained by waiting for starvation and death in the wilderness, and their decision was to do what they could, to try the almost impossible, and if they failed to fail with their faces toward the east.
"Why not start now?" urged Alan. "Let's use what strength we have."
But Ned showed him the folly of this.
"A night's rest will enable us to make better time to-morrow. And besides, we can't make headway when we can't follow the compass."
Retiring a little further into the woods the boys composed themselves again and before long were once more fast asleep.