Van spurred his chestnut to a gallop, and the horses bearing the women
responded with no further need of urging.




CHAPTER VIII

A NIGHT'S EXPENSES

From Karrish to Goldite by the road was twenty-seven miles. There were
fifteen mile of bottles by the way--all of them empty. A blind man
with a nose for glass could have smelled out the trail unerringly
across that desert stretch. Karrish was the nearest town for a very
great distance around.

Over the road innumerable caravans were passing. Everything was
rushing to Goldite. There were horsemen, hurried persons on foot, men
in carriages and autos, twenty-horse freight teams, and men on tiny
burros. Nearly all were shedding bottles as they went. A waterless
land is not necessarily devoid of all manner of moisture.

A dozen of the slowly laboring freight outfits were passed by Van and
his two companions. What engines of toil they represented! The ten
pairs of sweating, straining animals seemed almost like some giant
caterpillar, harnessed to a burden on wheels. They always dragged
three wagons, two of which were huge gray hulks, incredibly heavy with
giant-powder, canned goods, bottled goods, picks, shovels, bedding,
hay, great mining machinery, and house-hold articles. These wagons
were hitched entrain. The third wagon, termed a "trailer," was small