lled out a piece of wood with a string attached to it. The object
was about five inches long, thin and flat, and tapered to a point at
each end, something like a thick cigar except that it was not round.
Both sides were marked with straight lines cut across the breadth of
the wood and with circles inside one another, all filled in with a
mixture of grease and red ochre. At one end was a hole through which
passed a string made of native women's hair. The thing was a
luringa--a bull-roarer--a sacred charm, the most precious object which
Eagle could possibly give to his white friend. With this luringa the
white boy could travel unharmed amongst the most savage tribes of the
desert, and could even enter the wildest of the Musgrave fastnesses and
return, a thing which no white man had ever yet done.

Eagle looked long at the piece of wood and muttered certain words over
it, and then unfastened the hair string and put it round the neck of
the sleeping boy. He had no fear of any evil power which Sax might
possess, and when the lad stirred uneasily, the black-fellow went on
with his work till he had tied the string quite securely.

A flap of Sax's camp-sheet was spread out on the sand, and when Eagle
had finished with the luringa, he spread out his mutilated hand on the
piece of white canvas and made an imprint. His hand was all covered
with blood and ashes, and the mark of the two fingers and the
projecting thumb was left very plainly on the camp-sheet.

When Eagle was quite satisfied that Sax would know who had hung that
strange symbol round his neck, he crawled on up the hill, disappeared
on the other side, and fled for his life.

CHAPTER XXI

Horseshoe Bend

In order fully to understand the position in which Sax and his friend
were soon to be placed, it is necessary to go back several weeks and
find out what had happened to the famous Boss Stobart.

Joe Archer, the storekeeper at Oodnadatta who had been so kind to the
boys, had told them that the drover had not been heard of since he had
called in at Horseshoe Bend. It is possible to connect up with the
Overland Telegraph Line at Horseshoe Bend, and Stobart had taken
advantage of this opportunity of getting into touch with Oodnadatta.

Boss Stobart, with a thousand Queensland cattle, reached the Finke
about midday. The Finke is a wide river of soft white sand, bordered
on each side by gnarled and ancient gum trees. Not once in the memory
of white man