last. Vaughan had managed to drag one boot off by this time,
and was feverishly busy with the other; the rest of his body was naked.
Sax called out again, but the effort at sitting up had so much
exhausted the little strength which remained, that his voice was so
weak he hardly heard it himself. Stobart didn't understand the serious
state his friend was in, but he knew that something must be done at
once, and as there was nobody to do it but himself, he prepared for a
supreme effort.

After several unsuccessful attempts, he managed to stand up, and when
the dizziness in his head had died down a little, he tottered over
towards Vaughan. He touched him on the arm. Vaughan took no notice,
but wrenched at the second boot, pulling it off at last, and scrambling
to his feet like a drunken man. He seemed to have far more strength
than Sax had, but when he started to stagger out from under the
bough-shelter, his friend suddenly remembered a yarn which Mick had
told them one night, about a perishing man who pulled off all his
clothes and walked away into the scrub to die a most terrible death.
Sax was afraid that his companion was going to do the same thing, and
that he wouldn't have the strength to prevent him.

Sax had to put his feet down very carefully or he would have fallen
through sheer weakness, but he caught hold of Vaughan and clung to him.
This forced the delirious lad to look at his companion, but there was
no spark of intelligence in his eyes; he did not recognize who it was;
he only felt something holding him back from what he had determined to
do. With extraordinary strength, considering his condition, he shook
himself free, and started to walk away. Sax fell, but as he did so he
stretched out his hands. They touched the other's bare legs. Sax
clutched the legs and hung on with all his power, and Vaughan tripped
and came down with a crash.

The sun sank below the horizon and left two perishing white boys
panting in the sand in the fading light.

Sax remembered nothing more for several hours. When he came to himself
again he was alone. His fall had rendered him unconscious for a
moment, and this state had been immediately followed by a deep sleep.
The night was cool, and though his thirst was still raging, it did not
seem so bad as it had done under the blazing sun; his sleep also had
refreshed him. On Central Australian nights it is never too dark to
see the objects around, for the light of the sta