"How have you got on with these fellows with regard to an exodus. This old fellow knows all about the lake, but I don't think he has been there."
"Oh, Billy has turned out a splendid orator. He has been gesticulating to them, and fired their imaginations with his descriptions of thousands of wild ducks and millions of fish," said Charlie.
"Now, who is to go back and introduce them to their future companions?"
"I'm all right now," returned Charlie; "Billy and I will shepherd them across."
"It's a good road all the way, I think you will manage it," replied Morton. "How about Lee-lee?"
"We must take him with us when we go out reef-hunting. He might run away if left by himself here," said Brown.
"He is a pretty cute fellow and will help us, if we make him understand what we are looking for. Our camp and horses will be safe enough all day; for, one way and another, the district is getting pretty well depopulated."
The arrangements were so decided on, and the next morning, under convoy of Charlie and Billy, the survivors of the mountain tribe departed for the promised land flowing with birds and fish. After their custom the gins were loaded up with what little camp furniture they possessed, while the lordly male strode along with nothing but a boomerang and a small throwing-stick, without which no self-respecting blackfellow would be seen.
Charlie, however, equalized matters by putting what he could on one of the pack-horses, and giving the gins a chance.
Morton, Brown, and Lee-lee set out in the opposite direction. The first day they exhaustively searched for some distance on either side of the track taken by Brown and the old man, but reached half-way to the spring without finding out anything, and returned to the salt lake. Next day Brown proposed that they should go straight to the spring and work back. This they did, taking a pack-horse with rations, and leaving a note for Charlie in a conspicuous place, lest they should be detained and he should come back before they did.