galled to
think that a convict brain should contain a mystery which he might not
share.

On the next day, by Rufus Dawes's direction, Frere cut down some rushes
that grew about a mile from the camping ground, and brought them in on
his back. This took him nearly half a day to accomplish. Short rations
were beginning to tell upon his physical powers. The convict, on the
other hand, trained by a woeful experience in the Boats to endurance of
hardship, was slowly recovering his original strength.

"What are they for?" asked Frere, as he flung the bundles down. His
master condescended to reply. "To make a float."

"Well?"

The other shrugged his broad shoulders. "You are very dull, Mr. Frere.
I am going to swim over to the Pilot Station, and catch some of those
goats. I can get across on the stuffed skin, but I must float them back
on the reeds."

"How the doose do you mean to catch 'em?" asked Frere, wiping the sweat
from his brow.

The convict motioned to him to approach. He did so, and saw that his
companion was cleaning the intestines of the goat. The outer membrane
having been peeled off, Rufus Dawes was turning the gut inside out.
This he did by turning up a short piece of it, as though it were a
coat-sleeve, and dipping the turned-up cuff into a pool of water. The
weight of the water pressing between the cuff and the rest of the gut,
bore down a further portion; and so, by repeated dippings, the whole
length was turned inside out. The inner membrane having been scraped
away, there remained a fine transparent tube, which was tightly twisted,
and set to dry in the sun.

"There is the catgut for the noose," said Dawes. "I learnt that trick at
the settlement. Now come here."

Frere, following, saw that a fire had been made between two stones, and
that the kettle was partly sunk in the ground near it. On approaching
the kettle, he found it full of smooth pebbles.

"Take out those stones," said Dawes.

Frere obeyed, and saw at the bottom of the kettle a quantity of
sparkling white powder, and the sides of the vessel crusted with the
same material.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Salt."

"How did you get it?"

"I filled the kettle with sea-water, and then, heating those pebbles
red-hot in the fire, dropped them into it. We could have caught the
steam in a cloth and wrung out fresh water had we wished to do so. But,
thank God, we have plenty."

Frere started. "Did you learn that at the settlement, too?" he