Two hours were passed without any change in his situation; during which he had caused the chapparal to ring with a loud hallooing.
He only desisted from this, under the conviction: that there was no one at all likely to hear him.
The shouting caused thirst; or at all events hastened the advent of this appetite—surely coming on as the concomitant of the injuries he had received.
The sensation was soon experienced to such an extent that everything else—even the pain of his wounds—became of trifling consideration.
“It will kill me, if I stay here?” reflected the sufferer. “I must make an effort to reach water.
If I remember aright there’s a stream somewhere in this chapparal, and not such a great way off.
I must get to it, if I have to crawl upon my hands and knees.
Knees! and only one in a condition to support me!
There’s no help for it but try.
The longer I stay here, the worse it will be.
The sun grows hotter.
It already burns into my brain.
I may lose my senses, and then—the wolves—the vultures—”
The horrid apprehension caused silence and shuddering.
After a time he continued:
“If I but knew the right way to go.
I remember the stream well enough.
It runs towards the chalk prairie. It should be south-east, from here.
I shall try that way.
By good luck the sun guides me.
If I find water all may yet be well.
God give me strength to reach it!”
With this prayer upon his lips, he commenced making his way through the thicket—creeping over the stony ground, and dragging after him his disabled leg, like some huge Saurian whose vertebrae have been disjointed by a blow!
Lizard-like, he continued his crawl.
The effort was painful in the extreme; but the apprehension from which he suffered was still more painful, and urged him to continue it.
He well knew there was a chance of his falling a victim to thirst—almost a certainty, if he did not succeed in finding water.
Stimulated by this knowledge he crept on.
At short intervals he was compelled to pause, and recruit his strength by a little rest.
A man does not travel far, on his hands and knees, without feeling fatigued. Much more, when one of the four members cannot be employed in the effort.
His progress was slow and irksome.
Besides, it was being made under the most discouraging circumstances. He might not be going in the right direction?
Nothing but the dread of death could have induced him to keep on.
He had made about a quarter of a mile from the point of starting, when it occurred to him that a better plan of locomotion might be adopted—one that would, at all events, vary the monotony of his march.
“Perhaps,” said he, “I might manage to hobble a bit, if I only had a crutch?
Ho! my knife is still here.
Thank fortune for that! And there’s a sapling of the right size—a bit of blackjack. It will do.”
Drawing the knife—a “bowie”—from his belt, he cut down the dwarf-oak; and soon reduced it to a rude kind of crutch; a fork in the tree serving for the head.
Then rising erect, and fitting the fork into his armpit, he proceeded with his exploration.
He knew the necessity of keeping to one course; and, as he had chosen the south-east, he continued in this direction.
It was not so easy.
The sun was his only compass; but this had now reached the meridian, and, in the latitude of Southern Texas, at that season of the year, the midday sun is almost in the zenith.
Moreover, he had the chapparal to contend with, requiring constant detours to take advantage of its openings.
He had a sort of guide in the sloping of the ground: for he knew that downward he was more likely to find the stream.
After proceeding about a mile—not in one continued march, but by short stages, with intervals of rest between—he came upon a track made by the wild animals that frequent the chapparal.
It was slight, but running in a direct line—a proof that it led to some point of peculiar consideration—in all likelihood a watering-place—stream, pond, or spring.
Any of these three would serve his purpose; and, without longer looking to the sun, or the slope of the ground, he advanced along the trail—now hobbling upon his crutch, and at times, when tired of this mode, dropping down upon his hands and crawling as before.
The cheerful anticipations he had indulged in, on discovering the trail, soon, came to a termination. It became blind. In other words it ran out—ending in a glade surrounded by impervious masses of underwood.
He saw, to his dismay, that it led from the glade, instead of towards it. He had been following it the wrong way!
Unpleasant as was the alternative, there was no other than to return upon his track.
To stay in the glade would have been to die there.