"We're a' running short of stores anyhow," said Mackay. "We'd better send some one into the township with the camels, and you could get the chemicals required at the same time."
He straightway went and broached the matter to Nuggety Dick and his satellites, and it was promptly arranged that old Dead Broke Dan should be despatched with the team at once. It was by this time near the hour of sundown, and the various camel bells of the party could be heard faintly tinkling in the eastward distance.
"I'll round them up in a jiff," volunteered the Shadow, starting off at a jog trot.
"I'm coming too, Shad!" shouted Jack, and together they entered the scrub, and were soon lost to sight. They had not gone far, however, before the Shadow stopped and listened with something like dismay showing in his face. The bells seemed to be receding into the distance rather than coming nearer.
"I've never heard o' them brutes travelling so fast," he said discontentedly, and they increased their pace to a determined run, which they kept up for fully ten minutes. The bells sounded distinctly nearer now, but that the camels were on the march was plainly evident to the Shadow, whose ear was acutely trained to judging distances by sound.
"I reckon I know what's wrong, Jack," said he. "Some wretched niggers have got them in tow. It's very lucky we came out to-night."
"Is it?" asked Jack, doubtfully.
The Shadow laughed joyously. "We'll have a grand circus on our own to-night, if there ain't too many of them."
"But," said Jack, "we haven't even a rifle with us, and they'll have their spears and boomerangs, won't they?"