nd holding on by the sides of the stirrup-irons
with his toes, for he could not be induced to place his foot flat on the
bar, which he declared to be plenty "prickenum," and always placing his
first and second toes on either side of the outer edge of the upright
part of the stirrup.

The pleasure had gone out of the trip now. It had been full of hard
work before, but it was labour mingled with excitement; now it was full
of anxiety as the little party noted Shanter's weakness, and felt how
entirely they depended upon him to follow the track they had made, one
often so slight that they could not trace a sign on the short grass or
hard ground. And as Norman said, if the black broke down again they
might never be able to find their way home.

But the black kept his seat on one or other of the horses very well for
two days, and then they had to halt for a whole day, when it seemed as
if they were going to have a repetition of the former anxiety. The
morning after, though, he expressed a desire to go on, and as the boys
packed up the half-dried canvas and blankets which had formed their
cover during a night of heavy rain, they looked anxiously at each other,
the same thought being in each breast, though neither of them could find
it in his heart to speak.

That thought was--suppose all our horses' footprints are washed away?

And now began a wonderful display of the black's power of vision. As a
rule he sat perfectly upright on horseback, took the lead, and rode on
over tracts of land, where to the boys not a vestige of their trail was
visible; though, when now and then they saw the black guide lean
forward, grasp the horse's neck with his arms, and place his head as low
down as was possible, they felt that he too was evidently rather at
fault.

But no: by his wonderful perception he kept on picking up some tiny
trace of a footprint, losing the trail altogether at times, finding it
again when all seemed at an end and they had heard him muttering to
himself. And so the journey went slowly on, till about noon on the
fifth day, as Shanter was intently scanning the ground, he suddenly
said:

"Baal can't go. Mine no see no more. Stop eat damper."

The horses were turned loose to graze, a fire lit, and as usual the
water boiled for tea, just a sufficiency having been brought from the
last spring in the tub slung to the packhorse's side. But there was
very little appetite for the cold kangaroo tail and cakebread, as