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Show MINING IN SAN JUAN. 203 pants were the next thing tackled. We cut them into strips, and ate with as much avidity as the Neapolitan would his long, luscious macaroni. "Having now exhausted our mess-box, we went in search of ants, and peeled the bark of the trees and the old logs until they looked as if they had been struck by lightning. Ant lunch is pretty good when you can get enough of them. That sort of wrestling for life continued until there ceased to be any fun in it. "A pedestrian tour over rocks and snow is not near so entrancing as watching the scenery from a car window. "We subsisted for]three days upon our vitals, rather expensive victuals, too-and there was an ominous wild-ness in the hungry eyes of the men that made me suspect they would soon be forced to cannibalism. As X was the smallest man in the party I stood a fair chance of making the next meal. "As night^drew on this conviction preyed upon my mind, until every time I lost consciousness I had visions of drawn daggers and glaring, fiendish eyes, that startled me broad awake. "After the camp-fire had died away, I gathered up my blankets and stealthily crept to another spot, but not to sleep, and as I lay there, I saw the two men approach the place I had deserted, feel around on their hands and knees, and foiled in their murderous designs, slink back to their blankets. " The sun had scarcely awoke the sleeping world when I crawled out of my retreat and confronted the men with what I had seen, and announced my intention to leave them. One of them expressed a desire to accompany me, |
