After the heat and "drouth" we could have loitered in that pleasant
shade; but we were due at the Red Lilies "second night out"; and it being
one of the unwritten laws of a "nigger-hunt" to keep appointments--"the
other chaps worrying a bit if you don't turn up"--soon after four o'clock
we were out in the blazing heat again, following the river now along its
higher flood-bank through grassy plains and open forest land.
By five o'clock Dan was prophesying that "it 'ud take us all we knew to
do the trick in daylight," but at six o'clock, when we were still eight
miles from the Red Lilies, the Maluka settled the question by calling for
a camp there and then. "The missus had had enough," the Maluka decided,
and Dan became anxious. "It's that drouth that's done it," he lamented;
and although agreeing with the Maluka that Jack would survive a few
hours' anxiety, regretted we had "no way of letting him know." (We were
not aware of the efficiency of smoke signalling).
We turned back a short distance for better watering for horses, settling
down for the night at the second "duck-under"--McMinn's bar--within sound
of the rushing of many waters; for here the river comes back to the
surface with a mighty roar and swirling currents.
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