But the dawn was growing up behind them like a magical golden mango plant, and the light gave him courage.
"We'll do it," he cried cheerfully. "And as for the bloomin' tree, I'm beginning to see it myself. Let's take a spell, Smith. I'm that tired I can 'ardly stir."
As Smith was fearfully tired, too, he did not require much asking, and they sat down. And continually there was the sound of distant thunder. Once it was not distant, but quite near, and the very desert trembled.
"Can it be an earthquake?" asked Smith. But he could not remember any happening in Australia, and he dismissed the notion. He lay back on the sand, and half went to sleep.
Presently the Baker caught him by the shoulder.
"Wake up, Smith," he cried, in a curious voice so unlike his own that Smith fairly jumped. "Come, get out of this."
And he saw the Baker ghastly pale.
"What's up?" he cried.
But Mandeville was stumbling blindly up the dune towards Kitty, who continually rose and fell again on a steep slope.
"Come, or you're a dead man!" shrieked the Baker, and Smith ran.