he end of the waggon at the black darkness of the
night.

It seemed hotter than ever, and he turned and turned again and again,
with a strange, fidgety sensation that made him feel irritable to a
degree, completely driving sleep away.

"What's the matter with me?" he said to himself. "Supper, I suppose.
That's what the doctor would say. But one must eat; and I felt so
horribly hungry."

He turned over again and lay watching a gloriously bright planet--Venus
or Jupiter, he did not know which; but it was gradually sinking in the
west, and even that made him more wakeful.

"Wish I could get some water," he muttered; "but I should only be
disturbing poor Dean if I moved. There," he half ejaculated, "my brain
must have gone to sleep, though my body wouldn't. How absurd, when I
knew all the time that Dean had the watch! Hope he won't go to sleep
and let the blacks come and surprise us because he doesn't give the
alarm. How badly things do happen! He could go to sleep, of course,
and I can't. Why shouldn't we change places? Oh dear, how hot it is!
I should like to go down to the riverside and have a swim. Ugh!" he
ejaculated. "And some croc hunting for food would get hold of me by the
leg and pull me down. Horrid idea! The blacks," he went on, as he
dismissed the thought of the reptile--"oh, the blacks are peaceable
enough now. They only wanted showing that we wouldn't stand any of
their nonsense. They are just like children."

The boy turned upon his rough couch so as to avoid the bright beams of
the setting planet, and five minutes later he turned back again, feeling
that he must watch it as it went down, and he felt more wakeful than
ever.

"It's of no use," he said to himself, at last, "I--can't--go--to sleep,
and it's only waste of time."

Creeping cautiously out, he let himself drop to the earth, and then
after standing listening for a few minutes to the breathing of the
cattle and watching the dancing flames of the fire that was regularly
kept up, he cautiously approached the ponies, speaking softly to them so
that they might not be scared by the approach of a dark figure to the
spot where they were tethered.

First one and then another whinnied softly and stretched out its muzzle
to receive his caress.

"I do like horses," he said to himself. "When once they know you they
are as friendly as dogs. But you ought to have heard me, Master Dean.
I think if I had had the watch I should have known