The effect was magical, for in less than a minute the Professor sat up,
grasped at the flask with both hands, and strove to tear it away.

"You cruel brute! You cruel selfish brute!" he moaned as I wrenched it
from him.

"Look here, Higgs," I answered thickly; "Orme and I want water badly
enough, and we have had none. But you might take it all if it would save
you, only it wouldn't. We are lost in the desert, and must be sparing.
If you drank everything now, in a few hours you would be thirsty again
and die."

He thought awhile, then looked up and said:

"Beg pardon--I understand. I'm the selfish brute. But there's a good lot
of water there; let's each have a drink; we can't move unless we do."

So we drank, measuring out the water in a little india-rubber cup which
we had with us. It held about as much as a port wine glass, and each of
us drank, or rather slowly sipped, three cupfuls; we who felt as though
we could have swallowed a gallon apiece, and asked for more. Small as
was the allowance, it worked wonders in us; we were men again.

We stood up and looked about us, but the great storm had changed
everything. Where there had been sand-hills a hundred feet high,
now were plains and valleys; where there had been valleys appeared
sand-hills. Only the high ridge upon which we had lain was as before,
because it stood above the others and had a core of rock. We tried to
discover the direction of the oasis by the position of the sun, only to
be baffled, since our two watches had run down, and we did not know the