With a crucial effort Sidney relinquished the thought of prompt relief and turned back and spoke to Raymond in a voice that was thick and unmanageable, but received no reply. Then he stooped and took hold of him, but was obliged to shake him several times before he roused. Raymond finally looked around and sat up, but did not seem to comprehend what was wanted. Sidney tried to explain that there was water in sight, but his voice was little more than a croak. At last he succeeded in getting Raymond on his feet and started with him down the mountain. Each boy wore his knapsack still slung over his shoulder, but their blankets and cloaks they did not think about, and left lying on the ground. It was a difficult task that Sidney had before him. His own wits were so befuddled by raging thirst that he could not think clearly, and it was only by a supreme effort of the will that he could fix his mind on a subject and keep it there. Two days and nights only without water, but when his mind tried to go back to that last drink in the jail, it seemed as though half a lifetime must have passed since. Raymond was able to help himself very little; he could only stumble forward when he was guided and supported by his brother. In that way they proceeded slowly down the mountain slope. Sidney had almost uncontrollable impulses to desert his brother and rush headlong down the hill to the water which he knew was at its foot, but he had a dim, undefined fear that if he did that he would not get back to Raymond until it was too late. So he stuck by his brother and they went down together. Two miles is not far, and it was probably not more than that from the place where the boys slept, or rather where they passed the night, on the mountain, down to the bottom of the gorge. Moreover, the goal was in plain view, and every step was down hill. But to Sidney, who was nearly at the point of collapse, and who was burdened with his almost insensible brother, the distance over the rocky, broken ground seemed interminable. The boys stumbled along, Sidney dragging his brother and sometimes falling and picking himself up with difficulty. Raymond, too, frequently fell over rocks and into holes, and was pulled up by his companion. Each time that happened it became increasingly difficult to put the boy on his feet again. Hours, it seemed to Sidney, passed in the endless struggle. Finally, however, they reached a point where the descent became abruptly much steeper, the last nearly a perpendicular drop to the bottom of the gorge. That was the hardest stretch of all. Down that declivity Sidney went first, supporting his brother’s weight on his shoulders. It was but little better than carrying an inert body, and the boy trembled with the strain. But it came to an end, and with his nearly inanimate burden he dropped on the sand at the bottom of the cliff.