As no one else had any ideas on the subject, the doctor's position was
not enviable. We changed our course, and travelled many weary miles
through the chaparral, which was high enough to stop our vision, and
stiff enough to bar our way, keeping us to narrow roads. At last the
bisecting cattle trails began to converge, and we knew that they led to
water--which they did; for shortly we saw a little broken adobe, a
tumbled brush corral, the plastered gate of an _acequia,_ and the blue
water of the tank.

To give everything its due proportion at this point, we gathered to
congratulate the doctor as we passed the flask. The camp was pitched
within the corral, and while the cook got supper we stood in the
after-glow on the bank of the tank and saw the ducks come home, heard
the mud-hens squddle, while high in the air flew the long line of
sand-hill cranes with a hoarse clangor. It was quite dark when we sat on
the "grub" chests and ate by the firelight, while out in the desert the
coyotes shrilled to the monotonous accompaniment of the mules crunching
their feed and stamping wearily. To-morrow it was proposed to hunt ducks
in their morning flight, which means getting up before daylight, so bed
found us early. It seemed but a minute after I had sought my blankets
when I was being abused by the Captain, being pushed with his
foot--fairly rolled over by him--he even standing on my body as he
shouted, "Get up, if you are going hunting. It will be light
directly--get up!" And this, constantly recurring, is one reason why I
do not care for duck-shooting.

But, in order to hunt, I had to get up, and file off in the line of
ghosts, stumbling, catching, on the chaparral, and splashing in the mud.
I led a setter-dog, and was presently directed to sit down in some damp
grass, because'it was a good place--certainly not to sit down in, but