It seemed to Dick as if more than ten minutes elapsed before his father spoke, and then it was to ask for water.
He might as well have begged for gold, so far as Dick's ability to gratify the desire was concerned.
"To get any, daddy, I may have to go way back to the wagon, for I haven't come upon a single watercourse since leaving camp this morning."
"Your mother and Margie?"
"I left them at the camp. How did you get here?"
"It was just before nightfall. I had been stalking an antelope; was crawling on the ground dragging my rifle, when the hammer must have caught amid the sage-brush; the weapon was discharged, and the bone of my leg appears to be shattered."
"Poor, poor daddy!" and Dick kissed him on the forehead.
"We must be four miles from the camp," Mr. Stevens said, speaking with difficulty because of his parched and swollen tongue.
"I should say so; but I went toward the west, and after travelling until noon struck across this way, so have no idea of the distance."
"I shall die for lack of water, Dick, even though the wound does not kill me."