as a still
day, and Sax had climbed up the mill tower, and was sitting on the
platform near the big wind-wheel, looking over the barren landscape,
when he saw what looked like a brown stain on the southern sky near the
horizon. He remembered having seen something similar to that at
Oodnadatta, and he knew at once that it was caused by a big moving mob
of stock. Vaughan was near the troughs, vainly trying to entice a
galah (a cockatoo with rose-coloured breast and grey wings and back) to
eat bread out of his hand, when Sax startled both him and the bird by
shouting: "They're coming, Boof! They're coming!"

Vaughan looked up and saw that his venturesome friend had climbed even
higher than the platform, and was standing right on top of the main
casting, and was waving his arms towards the south.

"They're coming, Boof!" he shouted again. "It's cattle." To Vaughan's
relief--for Sax had got used to doing things on the mill which Vaughan
was too scared even to attempt--his friend began climbing down, but he
went so fast that his neck and limbs were in danger every moment. When
he reached the ground, he ran off to Government House to find Mick, who
was lying on his back reading a three-months old copy of _Pals_.

The boys expected their drover friend to be as excited as they were,
but he had seen cattle yarded so many hundreds of times that he took
things very coolly. He first made sure that the troughs were full of
water, and that the valves were working properly, and then fixed the
stock-yard gates ready for receiving the cattle.

The cloud of dust came nearer, and the lowing of cattle and the
cracking of whips could soon be heard, and the voices of men rose above
the din. From out of the dust a few leading cattle appeared, then
others and others still, till the astonished white boys saw a bigger
mob of cattle than they had ever seen before. Sax was on the platform
of the mill again, and Vaughan was about half-way up, so they both got
a good view of what was going on below them.

The thirsty animals smelt the water and tried to rush, but well-mounted
black boys wheeled here, there, and everywhere, checking the restless
cattle, and allowing them to come on slowly without any chance of a
break. The big voice of a white man on a black horse in the rear was
heard from time to time giving orders which were at once obeyed.
Presently the four long lines of troughing were hidden from sight by
drinking cattle, and the