about noon
They strengthened their hearts , whistled to their horses and rode ahead . As on the day before the interminable pursuit went on hour after hour . It was another hot day , and their water bottles were almost emptied . The horses had had nothing to drink since the day before and the two fugitives began to feel for them , but about noon they came to a little pool , lying in a dip or hollow between the swells . It was perhaps fifty feet either way , less than a foot deep and the water was yellowish in color , but it contained no alkali nor any other bitter infusion . Moreover , grass grew around its edges and some wild ducks swam on its surface . It would have been a good place for a camp and they would have stayed there gladly had it not been for that threat which always hung on the southern horizon .