urred
to me.

"That would be a sorry end to our voyage," I thought, and I lay gazing
out across the open space, wondering in a dreamy misty way whether my
poor father had been attacked and captured as I had been, and whether I
should be kept a prisoner, and have to live for the rest of my life
among savages.

My head was not so painful then, and I began to feel that if it would
only leave off aching and my poor mother would not be so troubled at
this second loss, such a life would be better than being killed,
especially as there would always be the chance of escape.

I think I must have sunk into a sort of doze or half stupor just then,
for the scene at which I lay gazing grew dim, and it seemed to me that
it must all have been a dream about my meeting with that black boy; and
once more I suppose I slept.

How long I slept I cannot tell, but I can recall being in a confused
dream about home, and going with Jimmy to a neighbour's sheep-run, where
there was a dog, and Jimmy coaxed him away with a big piece of meat,
which he did not give to the dog, but stuck on the end of his spear and
carried it over his shoulder, with the animal whining and snuffling
about, but which was to be reserved until several wallabies had been
hunted out, for that was the aim of the afternoon.

It seemed very tiresome that that dog should be snuffling about me, and
scratching and pawing at me, and I was about to tell Jimmy to give the
poor brute the meat and let him go, when his cold nose touched my face,
and I started awake, trembling in every limb.

The darkness was intense, and for some minutes, try how I would, I could
not think.

All sorts of wild fancies rushed through my brain, and I grew more and
more confused; but I could not think--think reasonably, and make out
where I was and what it all meant.

The past seemed to be gone, and I only knew that I was there, lying with
my arms and legs dead and my head throbbing. There seemed to be nothing
else.

Yes there was--my dream.

It all came with a flash just where it left off, and Jimmy had coaxed
the dog away, and it was here annoying me. But why was it dark?

There was dead silence then, following upon the light pattering sound of
some animal's feet, and with my brain rapidly growing clearer I began to
arrange my thoughts I had even got so far as to recollect dropping off
asleep, and I was concluding that I had slept right on into the darkness
of night, when there was the p