towards the white boys because a
certain white man had treated him well in the past, but these simple
signs of Mick's approval made him the happiest black-fellow in all
Central Australia.

CHAPTER XIII

Sidcotinga Station

The morning after Mick Darby had returned to them with water and food,
both Sax and Vaughan felt so much better that they wanted to set out
for Sidcotinga Station right away. But the drover would not hear of
such a thing. He knew, better than the boys did, that it would be some
time before even their strong young bodies recovered from the "perish",
and they all stayed where they were for three full days, and made
themselves comfortable by building a more substantial shelter from sun
and wind. They could have stayed longer if they had wanted to do so,
for Dan Collins, the Sidcotinga manager, had told Mick of a well not
more than six miles away to the north, and the black boys drove the
horses there every day and also renewed the supply of water in the
canteens. It was evidently from this well that the fierce Musgrave
niggers who had attacked them had obtained water.

On the fourth morning the horses were brought in early, and the party
set out west after breakfast, on its interrupted journey, travelling by
easy stages, and taking three days over a distance which Mick had
accomplished in one.

The cook was the only white man on the station when they reached
Sidcotinga, and he made them welcome with the genuine rough hospitality
for which the back country is famous. The resources of a desert
cattle-station are very limited, but everything which was possible was
done for the two white boys, and they spent a very restful and
enjoyable week and a half, loafing round the homestead. It was not
much of a place to look at, but Sax and his friend thought it was
wonderful. They had travelled across the desert for a month in order
to reach that little collection of buildings, and during that time they
had not seen a fence or a roof of any kind, and the only sign of
civilization had been an artesian bore two days out from Oodnadatta.
Though the iron sheds and strong bough-shelters which comprised the
homestead were very rough, there was a workmanlike air about the place
which seemed to say that white men had taken possession of the
wilderness and meant to stay there.

There was an iron hut divided into two rooms where the manager and the
white stockman lived. Such a building as this is known