"We can't get back the way we came to the lake, for the last water we camped at must be bone dry by this time."
"How about going round by Hentig's grave if we are beaten back utterly?"
"Yes, as a last resource, we might try that. Lee-lee could not help us, for I don't think he ever stirred far from that lagoon where you found him."
"Let us trust to our lucky star and get on anyhow," returned Morton as he swung himself into his saddle, and they were soon filing slowly through the scrub.
The scrub consisted of mulga and a dense undergrowth of lance wood, so that the progress made was very slow. Moreover, it was a difficult thing to keep a straight course amongst so many obstacles. With the exception that the scrub was sometimes denser than usual they experienced no change, until about two o'clock, when they emerged into a small open space, and Charlie exclaimed that they had come to a graveyard.
The clearing they had entered was a white clay flat, sparsely grown over with spinifex, and covered with ant-hills about three feet in height, bearing a startling resemblance to the headstones of graves.
The party halted, partly to discuss their movements, and partly to have something to eat. Morton, who finished first, mounted his horse and rode in a southerly direction, telling the others he would be back directly.
"The scrub is thinner to the south-east," he said when he came back, "and beyond I can see another flat like this. I vote we shift our course for a few miles. This change of country may mean that the creek is somewhere about here."
Brown agreed to this, and Morton went ahead.
Passing through a belt of scrub they came to another flat like the one they had left, but somewhat larger. From this they passed through thinner belts of scrub until the flat became continuous, still, however, covered with the ant-hills.