asleep about 3 P.M. At 6 went to flat 1/4 mi. N. of camp to tie
Pete, leading Monte by bell strap almost stepped on rattler 3 ft.
long. 10 rattles & a button. Killed him. To date, 1 Prairie
rattler, 3 Diamond back & 8 sidewinders, 12 in all. Bud feels
better.

May 18.

At 4 A. M. Bud woke up by stock passing camp. Spoke to me who
half awake hollered, "sic Daddy!" Daddy sicced 'em & they went up
bank of wash to right. Bud swore it was Monte & Pete. I went to
flat & found M. & P. safe. Water in sink all gone. Bud got
stomach trouble. I threw up my breakfast. Very hot weather.
Lanced Monte's back & dressed it with creoline. Turned them loose
& away they put again.

Soon after this they arrived at the place where Thompson had
located his claim. It was desert, of course, sloping away on one
side to a dreary waste of sand and weeds with now and then a
giant cactus standing gloomily alone with malformed lingers
stretched stiffly to the staring blue sky. Behind where they
pitched their final camp--Camp 48, Cash Markham recorded it in
his diary--the hills rose. But they were as stark and barren
almost as the desert below. Black rock humps here and there, with
ledges of mineral bearing rock. Bushes and weeds and dry washes
for the rest, with enough struggling grass to feed the horses and
burros if they rustled hard enough for it.

They settled down quietly to a life of grinding monotony that
would have driven some men crazy. But Bud, because it was a man's