Twice Billie had discovered a pair of glowing eyes shining in the darkness like twin stars; and thinking that he might as well do what execution was possible, while the chance remained, he had on both occasions carefully aimed his gun, and then fired. And as he gleefully told himself on each occasion, from the clamor that ensued he felt pretty positive that he had hit something. The other wolves did the rest; because that was what they were on the spot for, to secure a meal.

But now it was almost time when he felt he must detect those welcome signs in the east that would tell of coming day.

Billie rejoiced to know that he had really come through that terrible night in such decent condition. He was not a particle sleepy now, for all that had worn off, and he felt that he could hold his own. All the same, he continued to look anxiously toward that promising quarter of the horizon where he must soon discover the first gray streaks of morning.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE PANGS OF STARVATION.

"I really and truly believe that's it, coming along at last; and say, I give you my solemn affidavy right now, that I never saw daybreak as thankfully as this same morning!"

That was what Billie was telling himself, as he strained his eyes, and perhaps his imagination at the same time, in staring into the magic east, where all his hopes lay. As the reader has found out before now, this same Billie was something of a talker, and could ask more questions in ten minutes than most fellows would think up in an hour. And when he had no one else to impose on as an audience, he did not hesitate to talk to himself, yes, and often carry on a regular conversation in that way.

But at least his hopes with regard to the breaking of day were not doomed to be disappointed this time; for that was really the first faint streak beginning to light up the horizon, where it lay low and flat against the east.

He watched it slowly broaden, and kept telling himself that he was a mighty fortunate boy to be able to see the morning, after all his troubles.

At the same time Billie felt a dash of real pride, to think that he had managed to hold his own, even when pitted against the perils of the desert.

"Oh! yes, I'm getting to be a veteran, that's what," he remarked, complacently, when he found that he could begin to see a little over the sandy range, where the small dunes showed the fury of the previous day's dry storm; "and mebbe I won't have a stunning story to spin for the benefit of my two chums, when we get together again. Say, by the way, I wonder where they are right now; and if Broncho Billie after all will have to do the rescue act for the rest of the bunch?"

That was certainly putting on airs for you; it would be the climax of all his experiences if some time or other he, the late greenhorn, could run across an opportunity to stretch out his hand and render a.s.sistance to those seasoned prairie range boys.

All at once Billie remembered something.

"Wow! I have got a fine lookout before me, now, haven't I; without a broncho to help me along my weary way? Hang that measly Jupiter, why couldn't he have stuck by me? He ought to have known Little Billie better than that. I was able to keep them fierce wolves from devouring him, sure I was; didn't I prove it by knocking over a whole lot of the critters. And that reminds me I ought to step out to see what became of my game."

This he at once started to do; and it gave him a creepy sensation when he made the discovery that all there was left of the slain animals were some scattered and clean-picked bones, together with fragments of gray hide. The balance had completely vanished before the a.s.saults of the rest of the wolfish pack.

"Whew! that's what I call going some!" exclaimed the astonished boy, as he surveyed the battlefield ruefully; "and I reckon I ought to feel thankful they didn't get a chance to try their sharp teeth on me. I owe a heap to this faithful gun of mine; and after this nothing will ever tempt me to sell the same, or give it away. It ought to be handed down to my grandchildren, and kept with a red ribbon tied on the same, hanging from the wall; like that old Revolutionary musket is in our house, which was once owned by my ancestor, who fought under General Marion, the Swamp Fox. Oh! but I'm hungry, though; and that reminds me my troubles ain't over yet by a jugfull. I could eat a petrified loaf of bread, or even a-a-well, a muskrat; and I used to think they were the limit when I saw that trapper in the marsh cook one, and call it musquash, fine and dandy."

The prospect for breakfast certainly looked pretty slender to poor Billie.

He stared hard all around him, as the light grew stronger, and a rosy flush told where the coming sun would presently break above the horizon, to start another hot day. Not a thing in sight was there, that gave promise of succor. As on the previous day, one could not see any great distance accurately, on account of a peculiar haze; and this prevented him from making out the hilly ranges that he felt sure must lie to the north, and not such a tremendous distance away either.

So Billie heaved a big sigh, as he reduced his girth by drawing in his belt.

"If this keeps on I'll soon be as thin as a living skeleton," he told himself, as he counted the remaining holes in the leather, and figured on how he would look when he had by degrees reached the end of the string.

Gathering up his blanket, and making as small a bundle of it as possible, he shouldered this, and then set his face toward the Promised Land, which, in his case, lay directly to the north.

His little compa.s.s again came in handy, and showed him his course. Every few minutes the anxious boy would consult it feverishly, for he was dreadfully afraid that he might wander away from his prearranged route, and get to making that fatal circle he had heard lost people usually traveled.

When not staring at the face of the small, bra.s.sbound compa.s.s Billie was casting his eyes ahead, and trying with might and main to make out something hopeful there, the dim outlines of rocky elevations perhaps, anything to break the horrible monotony of that dreary sandy waste of which he was already so heartily sick that he hoped he might never set eyes on another desert in all his life.

And of course the more he considered his deplorable condition, the worse his sensation of hunger became. It seemed to Billie that he could not have eaten much of anything for a whole week, and he feared he would soon become so weak from starvation that it must be impossible for him to put one foot in front of another.

And yet this was the same boy who had devoured almost as much of that cooked venison at noon on the second day previous, as his two chums combined; followed that up with a hearty supper; then a breakfast and a lunch on the day they pushed out on the desert, and finally finished what food he had with him on the preceding evening.

Still, he was frightfully hungry, just as boys who never have missed a regular meal in all their lives, do get, when up against it for a change.

Billie plodded on.

The sun was now an hour high, and getting very hot, he thought, as he stopped to drop his burden and rest; while he took his red bandana handkerchief and mopped his streaming brow with it.

"I wonder how long I can hold out this way?" he asked himself, with a most forlorn air, and a dismal shake of the head. "If I only had some dried beef, or venison like the Injuns call pemmican, to gnaw on, it wouldn't be so bad; because then I'd keep my strength; but seems like there's a gnawing inside me like my appet.i.te was beginning to start on my vitals. I wonder if all starving people feel that way first. Oh! how ashamed I ought to be about the many times I've thrown away good crusts of bread, and such things. I'll never be guilty of such a sinful waste again, so help me. I've reformed, I have, and I'm going to lead a different life after this, licking my platter clean every time. If I only had some of the stuff I've wasted right now," and he fairly groaned as the delightful array came before his mental vision to tantalize him.

All at once Billie seemed to feel an electric flush. He rubbed his eyes, and looked again, as though fearing that he was dreaming.

Why, that peculiar haze, which is so often met with in dry seasons of the late summer, and hides the features of the landscape even within a mile of the observer, had apparently mysteriously lifted, so that he could see hills ahead; yes, and at no great distance either, the green trees looking like heavenly dashes of color after his eyes had been so long accustomed to only that deadly white of the desert.

"It is, I really and truly believe it must be my goal!" he exclaimed, almost in pa.s.sionate delight. "Oh! there may be a chance for me yet; unless this is just one of them mirages they say dying men always see on the desert, before the end comes. But I must press on. One more notch I'll take my belt up, and after that you watch me toddle for that Paradise ahead. Oh! don't it look inviting, though? Will poor old Broncho Billie ever live to reach it?"

He did press resolutely on, although the heat began to tell upon the fat boy very seriously. It seemed to Billie that he was baking, yet he was that stubborn he refused to drop his blanket, or gun, or the first thing he was carrying like a pack horse.

"What's that I see over there?" he suddenly asked himself, shading his eyes from the glare of the sand by holding one trembling hand above them. "Moving figures, eh? Now, I wonder if they're Injuns, and p'raps them same hostile young Apache bucks we had trouble with before. Well, here's my faithful Marlin ready for business as always. It kept me from being made a supper for them wolves, and I reckon now it ought to do the same-but h.e.l.lo! seems to me I ought to recognize the way them fellers ride! Glory hallelujah! if it ain't my bully chums, for sure; and say, if that ain't Jupiter trailing along after 'em, I'll eat my hat! Oh! joy unbounded; for now I don't have to starve to death."

That was his first thought, and seemed to afford him the most consolation; for in the mind of Billie there could not be a more terrible fate meted out to any mortal here below than having to go without his regular meals; which proved that the fat boy was not made out of the same stuff as the suffragettes over the sea.

Swiftly the two others bore down upon him, swinging their hats above their heads, just as cowboys always will when excited, and giving vent to the wildest cheers. Billie grinned with happiness as they came closer and closer. He even began to champ his teeth, as though desiring to make sure that his jaws were still capable of doing their customary duty, before starting in to make up for lost time.

"Hurray for Billie!" cried Adrian, as he drew in his reeking pony close by. "He's all wool and a yard wide, sure he is; and his pards are proud of him," Donald shouted. "Here, give us your hand, Billie; this is the biggest round-up ever. We were afraid you'd come into a peck of trouble; but we ought to have known you better than that. Ain't he just the jim-dandy fellow, Adrian? Full-fledged by now, and taking n.o.body's dust.

Yes, I say with you, hurray for Broncho Billie!"

But the wanderer, though undoubtedly gratified by this expression of confidence shown by his chums only stretched out his hands and exclaimed:

"Food! gimme something to eat, fellows, because I'm starving!"

CHAPTER XIV.

THE ZUNI SNAKE CATCHER.

Whatever the other boys may have thought about it, knowing that Billie could not have gone a great while without food, they understood his weakness too well to make any remark.

Fortunately they had something along with them; for as cowboys Donald and Adrian had long ago learned to always look ahead, since no one could tell when he would need food when abroad on the range. And so they quickly thrust into Billie's eager hands quite a quant.i.ty of stuff.

He ate like a hungry wolf, while his chums sat there in their saddles, and waited patiently for him to take the first savage edge off his appet.i.te. Billie was mumbling to himself meanwhile, just as a starving boy might when food has come into his possession. In imagination he had been pretty far gone; but it was all right now; and soon Billie was feeling himself again.

"Thought I could make way with a cartload of grub," he said, "judging from the way my empty stomach kept griping me; but seems like I'm stalled already. P'raps it wasn't _quite_ so bad as I believed; but excuse me from ever going through such a terrible experience again. Just thinking you're starving to death is mighty near as bad as the real thing!"

"You're right, Billie; and more than one man has just died from the effects of imagination, believe me," said Adrian.