to the guns; well, you know,
it was that or the stuff. We couldn't carry any more."

"I know. And I'm not sure it's much good carrying that any longer.
I reckon I'll dump mine somewhere to-day, before it dumps me.
Sixty-six pounds don't seem to ride very easy on an empty belly.
Sixty-six pounds--sixty-six solid pounds o' best pin-fire--and us
dyin' for want of a crust. Come on, then! One more try!"

"You've got your revolver still, haven't you?" asked Jeff, as he
fitted the straps of a big, heavy swag (which had served him for a
pillow) about his shoulders, while his companion did the same with
his swag.

"Yes," said the other man. "And I tell you what, Jeff; you shall
take it to-day. I've got a jolly good stick here, and I've no use
for the revolver, anyhow; couldn't hit a house at a dozen yards,
even if I was likely to see one. Yes, you take the shooting-iron,
my dear fellow; you might manage to pot something. I hope you
will."

They gravely tossed a twig to decide the question of who should
head south and who east; and then as gravely shook hands and
parted, Jeff heading south and the other man due east.

"Well, if we've got a chance at all, I guess this ought to double
it, anyway," said Jeff.

"Why, yes; and one of us'll strike pay dirt to-day all right,
you'll find. So good-bye till then, Jeff," said the other man.

"So long, mate; so long!"

Away in the scrub to the northward of the two men a dozen pair of
eyes more hungry than their own were watching them; or, to be
exact, eleven pairs were watching them. Finn lay stretched still at
full length, beside a bush, at Warrigal's feet, while Warrigal
peered eagerly through the scrub. Black-tip, followed by three
strong young dogs and a bitch, loped off at once, without comment
or communication with the rest of the pack, in the direction of the
trail of the south-bound Jeff. Warrigal's eyes, as it happened,
were fixed upon the shoulders of the other man, and it was his
trail that she made for now, after rousing Finn with a touch of her
muzzle. And so the wild-folk divided, even as the men-folk had
done, five going south after Jeff, and five others, besides Finn
and Warrigal, going east after the other man. But it was broad
daylight, and none of them made any attempt to draw near the makers
of the trails they followed. They merely followed, muzzles carried
low, and nostrils and eager eyes questing as they went for any sign
of life in the scrub--anything, from