stay, eh?" The request was made in a voice of entreaty, as
if the faithful native was asking a very great favour.

Mick at once complied with hearty good will. "Of course you stay,
Yarloo. You stay all right. You look after white boy real good."
Yarloo's face lit up with satisfaction and his expression assured the
drover that the white boys would be perfectly safe in his hands.

Soon after coming to this decision, Mick Darby set out on Ajax for
Sidcotinga Station. He knew that he would strike no water before
reaching the homestead well, and that it was not at all certain whether
the already thirsty horse could travel those eighty desert miles
without a drink. He did not tell the boys of his fear, but started
away with a cheery good-bye, carrying only a quart-pot of water for
himself as well as a little damper and dried meat.

Fortune favoured the brave man. On the very first night, after he had
travelled his tired horse on past sunset as long as he dared, he found
a big patch of parakelia. This extraordinary plant sends up thick
moisture-filled leaves in the middle of the most arid desert. The
juice, which can be easily squeezed from parakelia leaves, tastes
bitter and is not at all pleasant, but it has saved the life of many a
bold adventurer in Central Australia. Stock can live on it for weeks
at a time without a drink of water, and once Ajax got a mouthful of
these cool succulent leaves, he did not move more than a few yards all
night, but satisfied his thirst and hunger and then lay down.

Mick Darby watched all night. He was taking no more chances. No doubt
he fell asleep from time to time, but at the slightest movement
anywhere near, he was instantly and fully awake. Next day he rode a
thoroughly rested horse and reached Sidcotinga Station the same night,
after having covered sixty-three miles. Such a distance would not be
at all unusual in good country, but in the desert, with the sun blazing
down out of a cloudless sky on mile after mile of soft sand, it was a
ride which none but the best of horses and the hardiest of men could
have accomplished.

The drover had advised the boys to stay just where they were till he
returned, and not exhaust themselves by walking. Yarloo therefore
built them a rough sun-shelter of mulga boughs and they rested under
this all day, doing nothing which would create thirst. In spite of
every care, however, their mouths were clammy and their throats calling
out fo