the one described occur in Central Australia just
before the breaking up of long droughts. Sometimes they are mere
harmless willy-willies, which have not enough power to blow a man off
his horse, but now and again a bigger one comes along, which travels at
thirty or forty miles an hour at the centre and sweeps everything
before it. These tornadoes may not be more than a quarter of a mile
across, and look from the distance like huge brown waterspouts coiling
up into the air till they are lost in the clear blue of the sky.
Sometimes the whirling column of sand leaves the ground for a time and
goes on spinning away high over the heads of everything, but it usually
comes down again and goes on tearing across the country. The Central
Australian tornado must not be confused with the tropical typhoon or
cyclone, which is sometimes three or four hundred miles across.

Peter was right about the tornado turning off before it reached Hergott
Springs. It came across the country from the Musgrave Ranges in the
north-west till it reached the Dingo Creek. Here it turned and
followed the dry depression, wrecked the Dingo Creek railway bridge,
leaving it a mass of twisted iron and hanging sleepers, and then tore
on down the line, doing a great deal of damage and making straight for
the helpless township.

There is a very deep and wide cutting about a mile north of Hergott
Springs, and the fury of the wind that night completely filled it up
with sand from bank to bank. This undoubtedly saved the town, for,
after this exhibition of its power, the tornado turned slightly to the
east, and missed the houses entirely. The fringe of it, however,
touched the end of the station yard, where the great water-tank stood.
The wind caught this tremendous weight, lifted it from the platform,
and threw it fifty yards, while the steel pillars of the stand were
twisted together as if they had been cotton. A tool-shed which used to
stand near the tank was moved bodily, and no trace of it was ever
found. No doubt it was buried deep in one of the many sandhills which
these terrific winds leave behind them.

CHAPTER II

Camels

It was not till next morning that the boys saw that the tornado had
completely upset their plans. During the few terrible minutes of the
storm, and for an hour afterwards, till sleep finally claimed them
again, excitement drove all thoughts of the future clean away. But
when they awoke late next morning, and look