"All ready, boys?" he cried.
"All ready!" came the unanimous reply.
Then, just as he was about to signal "Right away," the crowd parted, and Macguire struggled to the front.
"Hold on a minute, boys!" he shouted. "I want a word with Mackay."
As for Mackay, he viewed the interrupter with considerable disfavour.
"If you had any differences to settle, you might have come along last night," he said. "What's the trouble wi' you?"
"Why, man, I just want to say that I bear no ill feeling, an' that I hope you'll be successful, that's all. What course are ye making?"
Mackay gazed at the questioner in puzzled wonderment. "I'm glad to have your good wishes, Macguire," he said slowly. "Our course is east by north to a place that's a bit harder to find than Golden Flat. Let her go, boys!"
The long whips cracked, Misery's bell began to chime; the crowd stepped back to give the ponderous team free passage, uniting as they did so in a stentorian Coo-ee, that strange call of the bush which combines in its notes the acme of feeling and good fellowship. Bob and Jack coo-eed lustily in return, Mackay waved a cheery goodbye, Emu Bill and Never Never Dave chaffed their sorrowing acquaintances with tender affection as they passed along the line, and the Shadow, pulling at Fireworks' nose-rope with one hand contrived to unearth his mouth-organ with the other. Strongly he blew, and stepped forth jauntily to the stirring time of "The Girl I left Behind Me," but his charge steadfastly refused to accelerate his gait in such undignified fashion, and the Shadow had perforce to seek around in his répertoire for a more suitable march, which he soon found in "There is a Happy Land," and he kept up his melancholy dirge until he heard Never Never's voice raised in dire threat against his person. Then there was silence, broken only by the tinkling bell of the leading camel, and the vague echoes of Golden Flat's farewells.
Thus they headed out towards the desert, into the land of the Never Never.