"I say, boss," whispered George to me, "you knows the trail, doesn't ye?"
"Fairly well, George," I replied; "you see the Southern Cross all the way."
"Then can you give us a notion how far out our first camp is?"
"You don't camp at all. You travel night and day—that is, unless the propellor shaft or something else breaks."
"Lor!" was all George's comment, but his face spoke volumes.
| A Famous Mine in the Gulf Country. |
We stayed with our old comrades until the last moment arrived; and then, in company with Gilgai Charlie and the giant Little Bob, who had joined us on the wharf, went and dined. These two worthies were, as they said, already "full up with the city," and when the western express left that night it had on board four men and four cycles booked through for Cunnamulla en route to the opal fields. Twenty-eight hours afterwards we landed at the western terminus, and taking advantage of the full moon and the hard camel-pads leading farther west, we made sixty miles before morning.