At a fair-sized lagoon, thick with water-lilies, they turned out for their meal.
"Funny," remarked Brown, "how these inland rivers disappear. This water-course looks big enough now, but I bet it runs out to nothing before night."
"Yes; the wet seasons, I suppose, are very rare, and when one comes the flood-water is absorbed by soakage and evaporation before it can cut a continuous channel. You know that no rivers enter the sea to the south of us."
"I know; it's all a wall of cliffs around the head of the Great Bight. Was there not some yarn once about fresh water being obtained there some distance at sea?"
"I've heard something about it; it was put down to the discharge of a subterranean river, but I don't think the fact was ever proved."
"Well, if we find a river of that sort we'll make a canoe and send Charlie and Billy down it to explore. What do you say, Charlie?"
"There might be some Jinkarras living down there," replied Charlie.
"Ever see any Jinkarras, Billy?" asked Morton.
"No. Plenty bin hear 'em," replied Billy.
"I wonder how this yarn of an underground race, the Jinkarras, originated."