"They use much the same word for rocks, stones, and mountains."
"Yes; and I think it is rocks that they mean."
"What has your boy, Billy Button, to say about it?"
"Billy comes from a tribe nearly a hundred miles from here. He has heard the yarn, but has never seen any blacks who have been there."
"Let's see. It is supposed to lie rather north of west from here. How far have you been in that direction, Morton?"
"Some fifty miles. It's all scrub and sand. The niggers, however, get across in some seasons of the year, and I think this is the time; there have been plenty of thunder-storms that way lately."
"Well, I'll make one; a little scorching more or less does not matter much up here. You ought to have kept some of the camels back the last time the team was up here."
"Didn't think of it. But I fancy horses will be handier, we have a thunder-storm nearly every day."
"And shall have until we start," replied Brown, "then you see they will knock off at once. How many of us will there be?"
"The pair of us, and—what do you say, Charlie? Are you anxious to distinguish yourself?"