mosphere. He might
easily have been choked if Yarloo had not found him.

The native was desert born and bred, and knew how to act in every
contingency that could possibly occur in the bush. He had seen Sax
blown down with the first effort of the storm, and though he himself
could neither see nor hear, because of the sand and wind, he had
gradually forced his way towards his master's son, with a sure instinct
which did not stop to wonder what he was doing or why he was doing it.
He had found him at last, and had held his unconscious body tight,
shielding it with his coat and with his own body till the gale should
pass over.

A few minutes afterwards, while Vaughan was fighting his way out of the
broken-down sun-shelter, and Yarloo was bending over the still body of
the other white boy, Sax opened his eyes.

"The canteen," he mumbled. "The canteen."

His friends thought that he wanted a drink, and Vaughan looked round
for the canteen. It was nowhere to be seen. Sax was not really hurt,
and his anxiety restored him to full consciousness in a minute or two.
He sat up and watched Vaughan hunting round for their most precious
possession, the canteen. At last he staggered to his feet, tottered
about for a step or two because his head was so dizzy, and then began
to help in the search. He did not dare to tell the others what he
feared, but when he finally stumbled against it, half buried in the
sand about twenty yards away from camp, he found that the worst had
happened.

The canteen was empty.

Sax had not screwed down the metal cap when the water-carrier had been
caught by the wind and hurled along the ground. For several minutes
its own smoothness had kept it moving, and had prevented it from
lodging against anything and being buried, but each roll and jolt had
spilt some of the water, till finally every drop had been wasted on the
parched sand. Then, when all the harm which was possible had been
done, the useless thing had jammed up against a dead mulga root and had
been slowly covered with sand.

When the truth fully dawned upon them, the two boys sat down on the
ground and stared hopelessly in front of them. Although they had been
in the North only for a brief period, they knew that they were face to
face with one of the most terrible things which could have happened to
them in the desert. A man can go without food for several days, but
water is an absolute daily necessity. The sandstorm had left the