"Oh, any niggers will do that on a sudden start. However, it's safest to act as though they were our enemies."
"Decidedly."
"To-morrow we'll go right and left along the edge of the rock for a few miles on each side of the track, and see if there's any other track they use. If there's only the one, why, we know where to expect them from."
To this Morton agreed, but suggested that two should follow the track across the rock.
"No, old man, you're too eager," said Brown. "We're too small a party to afford to split up. When we go across that rock we must all go, and take pot luck."
"You're right," agreed Morton. "To-morrow you and I will go along the edge of the rock. Charlie, you and Billy will stop and mind camp and examine all the trees about for marks, in fact have a good fossick round."
"When we cross the rock we shall have to go on foot, we can't take the horses across," said Brown.
"Certainly not, and I doubt if we can cross on foot in the daytime. We should be baked to death with the rock underneath and the sun overhead. We should get no shade to rest under the whole way across."
"The horses will be safe enough here while we are away. If the niggers use only the one track, why, we are bound to meet them."
Another quiet night was passed, although a watch was kept. In the cool morning Brown and Morton started across the plain, leaving Charlie to scour about the camp. Billy, arrayed in a light and airy costume consisting of a saddle-strap and a tomahawk, had evidently laid himself out for a day's pleasurable sport.