marauding band went after their fellows and joined them on the way to
the Musgrave Ranges. All except one, and we will hear more of him
later.

CHAPTER X

A Sandstorm

By Yarloo's faithfulness and forethought the little party had escaped
death at the hands of wild savages, but a more deadly peril was waiting
for them. It is one thing to fight with a human enemy, but quite
another to fight with one which is not human. The lads were soon to
see that the most terrible disasters of the desert are caused, not by
wild and fiendishly cruel natives who follow silently day after day and
then wreak their hatred on the traveller in the most unexpected way,
but by grim Nature herself. Nature was their greatest, their most
merciless, their most unconquerable enemy. They were soon to have an
illustration of her power.

On the night when their camp was raided, the three men walked till the
moon set and then lay down to sleep. They did not light a fire for
fear of showing the blacks where they were, but just scooped hollows in
the warm sand and stretched themselves out with a camp-sheet as their
only bed-clothes, for they had left everything else behind them. The
white boys were soon asleep, but Yarloo kept himself awake all night to
watch. It was one of the hardest things the boy had ever done, for he
was very tired and the heavy warm night made him drowsy. His simple
mind fixed itself on one thing with all the determination of his
nature; he had one purpose and one purpose only in life just then, and
that was to preserve Boss Stobart's son from death, and he kept himself
awake by sheer will-power. But when the morning star rose above the
eastern horizon, red and throbbing, the tired-out black-fellow knew
that his weary watch was over. He flopped down on the sand and was
instantly asleep.

The close night was followed by a sultry dawn. Instead of the
sparklingly clear pale sky in the east which usually heralds the rising
of the sun, a dull haze made everything appear heavy and listless. The
air was warm and still, but not light and dry as it generally is in the
desert, and it was so heavy that every breath was an effort, and the
slightest movement caused perspiration to break out all over the body.

The boys woke up with a most uncomfortable feeling of oppression. They
were hot and thirsty, yet they dared not touch the canteen of water.
Although the sun had not risen, the heat seemed to be greater than they