thick one could hardly see a yard ahead. Here I sent Jimmy
Andrews up a tree; having been a sailor boy, he is well skilled in
that kind of performance, but I am not. I told him to discover the
whereabouts of the main creek, and say how far off it appeared. That
brilliant genius informed me that it lay across the course we were
steering, north, and it was only a mile away; so we went on to it, as
we supposed, but having gone more than two miles and not reaching it,
I asked Jimmy whether he had not made some mistake. I said, "We have
already come two miles, and you said it was scarcely one." He then
kindly informed me that I was going all wrong, and ought not to go
that way at all; but upon my questioning him as to which way I should
go he replied, "Oh, I don't know NOW." My only plan was to turn east,
when we soon struck the creek. Then Jimmy declared if we had KEPT
NORTH LONG ENOUGH, we would have come to it AGIN.

Though Jimmy was certainly a bit of a fool, he was not perhaps quite a
fool of the greatest size. Little fools and young fools somehow seem
to pass muster in this peculiar world, but to be old and a fool is a
mistake which is difficult, if not impossible, to remedy. It was too
late to go any farther; we couldn't get any water, but we had to camp.
I intended to return in the morning to where we first struck this
creek, and where we saw water in the native well. I called this the
Krichauff. The mercury went down to 28 degrees by daylight the next
morning, but neither ice nor frost appeared. This morning Mr.
Tietkens, when out after the horses, found a rather deep native well
some distance up the creek, and we shifted the camp to it. On the way
there I was behind the party, and before I overtook them I heard the
report of firearms. On reaching the horses, Jimmy Andrews had his
revolver in his hand, Mr. Tietkens and Gibson being away. On inquiring
of Jimmy the cause of the reports and the reason of his having his
revolver in his hand, he replied that he thought Mr. Tietkens was
shooting the blacks, and he had determined to slaughter his share if
they attacked him. Mr. Tietkens had fired at some wallabies, which,
however, did not appear at dinner. On arrival at the new well, we had
a vast amount of work to perform, and only three or four horses got
water by night.

I told Mr. Tietkens not to work himself to death, as I would retreat
in the morning to where there was water, but he persisted in working
away by hi