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Ryder exchanged a glance with the Watermen brothers as if to say everyone should know the term “It’s the first stomach in an animal like a cow or antelope where they produce their cud The fluid in it is mostly water and plant juice”
“I could go for sole drop of claret-red blood clung to the corner of his cracked lip He licked it away before it could fall to the earth
“But the San’s greatest ability is to find water buried under the sand in dried-out riverbeds that haven’t flowed in a generation”
“Can you find water like them?” Jon Varley asked
“I’ve been looking in every streambed we’ve crossed for the past five days,” H A said
The men were startled None of them had realized they’d crossed any dried-out rivers To them the desert had been featureless and empty That H A had known about the wadis increased their confidence that he would see thehtmare
Ryder continued, “There was a pro one day before yesterday but I couldn’t be certain and we can’t afford the ti I estimate we’re two, maybe three days froets moisture off the ocean, plus the occasional storm I’ll find us water, lads Of that you can be sure”
It was the uns and it had the desired effect The Watered to square his shoulders, and even young S
A cold an to climb behind them as the last rays of the sun sank into the distant Atlantic, and soon the sky was carpeted with more stars than a man could count in a hundred lifetimes The desert was as silent as a church save for the hiss of sand shifting under boots and hooves and the occasional creak of leather saddlery Their pace was steady and measured H A ell aware of their weakened condition, but never forgot the hordes that were surely on their trail
He called the first halt at htly While they still slogged through ankle-deep sand there were patches of loose gravel inholes in a few of the washes, places where eland and antelope had dug into the hard pan searching for underground water He saw no sign of huo He didn’t mention his discovery to thethe well
He allowed the men a double share of water, sure now that he could replenish the canteens and water the horses before sunup And if he didn’t, there was no use in rationing, for the desert would claiave half his ration to his horse although the others eagerly drank theirs doith little regard to the pack animals
A rare cloud blotted the ain, and when it passed, the shifting illu on the desert floor to catch Ryder’s eye According to his co a due-westerly direction, and none of the men commented when he suddenly turned north He paced ahead of the others, aware of the flaky soil crunching under his boots, and when he reached the spot he dropped to his knees
It was merely a dimple in the otherwise flat valley, no aze around the spot, sshell, and one that was al crack that ran like a fault line along its smooth surface The shell was the size of his fist and had a neat hole drilled through the top Its stopper was a tuft of dried grass um It was one of the San’s s they had no way to transport water That one broke when they were refilling could have very well doomed the party of Bushmen who last used the well
H A al down on him fro nothing but crowns of reeds around their heads and rawhide belts festooned with pouches for their ostrich eggs and quivers for the same
“What have you found, H A?” Jon Varley asked, kneeling in the dirt next to the guide His once shining dark hair fell lank around his shoulders, but he had soleam in his eyes They were the eyes of a desperate sche to risk death to see them fulfilled