Shortly After One O'clock A Sight, That Brought More Joy To
Us Than To Any Robinson Crusoe, Met Our Eyes - A Track, A Fresh Footprint
Of A Gin.
Whether to follow it forward or back?
That was the question. On
this might hang more than the lives of the horses. In nine cases out of
ten it is safer to follow them forward - this was the tenth! "Which way?"
said Godfrey, who was steering. "Back," said I, for what reason I cannot
say. So back we followed the lady to see where she had camped, twisting
and turning, now losing her tracks, and, casting, finding them again,
until we were ready to stamp with impatience and shout D - n the woman!
why couldn't she walk straight? Two hours brought us our reward, when an
opening in the scrub disclosed a deep-banked creek, fringed with
white-stemmed gums, and, beyond, a fire and natives camped. They all ran,
nor did we care, for water must be there. Glorious sight! a small and
green-scummed puddle, nestling beneath the bank, enclosed by a bar of
rock and the bed of shingle. Before many minutes we had the shovels at
work, and, clearing away the shingle and sand, found a plentiful supply.
All HAD ended well, and just in time to save the horses. Considering the
want of feed, and the hardships they had already suffered, they had done
a remarkable stage. A stage of eleven days (from the evening of May 31st
to the evening of June 11th) - a distance of 160 miles on the map, and a
good many more allowing for deviations, during which they had but little
water.
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