The sun rose higher and poured down into the narrow valley with its
fringe of deceptive green; but though the trees became bigger and
bushier in their tops the water did not come to the surface. It was
underneath the sand, flowing along the bed-rock, and all that was needed
was a solid reef of country-rock to bring it up to the surface. It would
flow over the dyke in a beautiful water-fall, leaping and gurgling and
going to waste; and after he had drunk he would lie down and wallow and
give his whole body a drink. He would soak there for hours, sucking it
up with his parched lips that were cracked now and bleeding from the
drought; and then--he woke up suddenly, to find himself digging in the
sand. He was going mad then, so soon after he was lost, and with water
just up the stream. The creek was dry, where he had found himself
digging, but up above it would be full of water. He hurried on again
and, around the next turn, sure enough, he found a basin of water.
It was hollowed from the rock, a round pool, undimpled, and upon its
surface a pair of wasps floated about with airy grace. Their legs were
outstretched and on the bottom of the hole he could see the round
shadows of their tracks. It was a new kind of water, with a skin that
would bend down and hold up the body of a wasp, and yet it seemed to
be wet. He thrust in a finger and the wasps flew away--and then he
dropped down and drank deep. When he woke from his madness the pool
was half empty and the water was running down his face. He was wet all
over and his lips were bleeding afresh, as if his very blood had been
dry; but his body was weak and sick, and as he rose to his feet he
tottered and fell down in the sand. When he roused up again the pool
was filled with water and the wasps were back, floating on its
surface.
When he looked around he was in a little cove, shut in by towering
walls; and, close against the cliff where the rock had been hollowed
out, he saw an abandoned camp. There were ashes between the stones, and
tin cans set on boxes, and a walled-in storage place behind, and as he
looked again he saw a man's tracks, leading down a narrow path to the
water. They turned off up the creek--high-heeled boots soled with
rawhide and bound about with thongs--and Wiley rushed recklessly at the
camp. When he had eaten last he could hardly remember, (it was a day or
two back at the best), and as he peered into cans and found them empty
he gave vent to a savage curse. He was weak, he was starving, and he had
thrown away his food--and this man had hidden what he had. He kicked
over the boxes and plunged into the store-room, throwing beans and flour
sacks right and left, and then in the corner behind a huge pile of pinon
nuts he found a single can of tomatoes.
Whoever had treasured it had kept it too long, for Wiley's knife was
already out and as he cut out the top he tipped it slowly up and drained
it to the bottom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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