ommy.

* * * * *

Dodd stopped to look at a shrub that was growing near the edge of the
pool. "I don't think, I know, Tommy," he answered. "This is wattle."

"Yes?"

"We're somewhere in the interior regions of the Australian
continent--and that's not going to help us much."

"Over there--over there," panted Haidia. "Hold me, Jimmydodd. I can't
see. Ah, this terrible light!"

She screwed her eyelids tightly together to shut out the pale light of
dawn. The men had already discovered that the third membrane had been
burned away.

"We must get her out of here," whispered Dodd to Tommy. "Somewhere where
it's dark, before the sun rises. Let's go back to the entrance of the
crater."

But Haidia, her arm extended, persisted, "Over there! Over there!"

Suddenly a spear came whirling out of a growth of wattle beside the
pool. It whizzed past Tommy's face and dropped into the sand behind.
Between the trunks of the wattles they could see the forms of a party of
blackfellows, watching them intently.

Tommy held up his arms and moved forward with a show of confidence that
he was far from feeling. After what he had escaped in the underworld he
was in no mood to be massacred now.

* * * * *

But the blacks were evidently not hostile. It was probable that the
spear had not been aimed to kill. At the sight of the two white men, and
the white woman, they came forward doubtfully, then more fearlessly,
shouting in their language. In another minute Tommy and Dodd were the
center of a group of wondering savages.

Especially Haidia. Three or four gins, or black women, had crept out of
the scrub, and were already examining her with guttural cries, and
fingering the hair garment that she wore.

"Water!" said Tommy, pointing to his throat, and then to the pool, with
a frown of disgust.

The blackfellows grinned, and led the three a short distance to a place
where a large hollow had been scooped in the sandy floor of the desert.
It was full of water, perfectly sweet to the taste. The three drank
gratefully.

Suddenly the edge of the sun appeared above the horizon, gilding the
sand with gold. The sunlight fell upon the three, and Haidia uttered a
terrible cry of distress. She dropped upon the sand, her hands pressed
to her eyes convulsively. Tommy and Dodd dragged her into the thickest
part of the scrub, where she lay moaning.

They contrived bandages from the remn