"Well," he remarked, "first thing we got to do now is to find water." This was a long and difficult task.

They descended into one little canyon after another, followed the course of numberless arroyos, and even dug where there seemed indications of moisture, all to no purpose.
But at length McTeague's mule put his nose in the air and blew once or twice through his nostrils.
"Smells it, the son of a gun!" exclaimed Cribbens.

The dentist let the animal have his head, and in a few minutes he had brought them to the bed of a tiny canyon where a thin stream of brackish water filtered over a ledge of rocks.
"We'll camp here," observed Cribbens, "but we can't turn the horses loose.

We'll have to picket 'em with the lariats.

I saw some loco-weed back here a piece, and if they get to eating that, they'll sure go plum crazy.