“Now,” he said, “there’s a thing that must be done.”
They set about it, and in another hour had laid to rest the man who had brought them there. Then Devine put down his shovel and turned to Weston.
“This thing has had its effect on me, and I guess you feel it too. He was your partner quite a while,” he said. “We want to get a move on and work this depression out of us. Well, you can make camp—a little farther back—while I crawl along between the willows and the range. I want to see what’s back of them. There’s an idea in my mind.”
Weston, who did not ask him what it was, fell in with the suggestion, and, when his comrade floundered away through the willows, proceeded to pitch the camp and build a fire ready for lighting among a few straggling firs a little back from the water. Then he went to sleep, and when the horse awakened him as it strove to pull out its picket to get another drink, he was a little astonished to see that the sun now hung low down above one range, and that Devine had not come back. He lay still, however, in the blissful content that only the worn-out know when, for a few hours, they can cease from toil. Presently he heard the willows rustle, and, though it cost him an effort, he stood up when Devine strode into camp. The latter glanced toward the hole they had dug to reach the water.
“You’ve let the horse break the sides down and stand in it,” he said. “We’ll clean it down to the gravel and pitch the soil out.”
“Is it worth while?” Weston asked.
“Yes,” said Devine, dryly, “as we’ll probably be here a day or two, I guess it is. I’ll tell you about it when we get supper.”
Weston might have noticed that there was something curious in his manner, but he was very weary, and his mind was a little hazy then. He took the shovel, and toiled for some few minutes before a strip of stone he was endeavoring to wrench out broke beneath the blade. He flung the fragments out of the hole, and one of them caught Devine’s eye.
“Pitch me up that big round stone,” he said sharply.
Weston did as he was bidden, and his comrade, falling upon his knee, smashed the fragments into little lumps, and then, clutching some of them tight in one hand, stood up with a hoarse, exultant laugh.