Then a little more, and then some more,
and life seemed coming back again into a troublesome world, bringing
pain with it, and the consciousness of a suffering body. After a time he
felt better and was helped to his feet, and together they went to the
water hole where they made a fire and cooked the rabbit which was the
first savory meat they had tasted for a long time. Tom felt better and
told his companion how he felt after tasting the warm rabbit's blood,
and how he had nearly gone off into the sleep of death.
"If you had been a little longer finding me," said Tom, "I should soon
have been out of this sad world." They fired a signal gun, looked down
at the bones of the rabbit, drank more water, and gradually felt new
life coming to them. The mountains seemed more fertile, and there was
brush and grass near by, timber farther up, and still higher a cap of
snow extending far along the range, both north and south. Towards night
on this eventful day the scattered travelers began to come slowly into
camp attracted by the guns and the smoke of the fire made by those who
first found the water. Some were nearly as far gone as Tom Shannon was,
and great caution had to used in giving them water on their empty
stomach. One man named Robinson became so weak before he got near camp
that his companions placed him on the back of one of the animals and a
man walked on either side to catch him if he fell off. When they got
within a mile of the water he insisted that he was strong enough to take
care of himself and not be watched every minute, and they relaxed their
vigilance.
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