o Vaughan had not lasted for more than three-quarters of a mile,
and he had then fallen at the foot of a dead mulga. Sax had come up on
him there, a pitiful object whom the desert was claiming as its own,
his naked body showing up plainly in the dark. He had forced the tea,
all of it, upon the unconscious lad, with no perceptible result, for
most of it had been spilt because Vaughan's tongue was too swollen to
allow any but a few drops to go down his throat.

It was absolutely certain that, before another sunset, two corpses
would have been lying in the desert scrub if the wild black had not
found the boys when he did. Sax was still conscious, but was too far
gone to take any interest even in such an unusual sight as the sudden
appearance of a strange naked black-fellow. Death was claiming him,
anyhow; it did not matter much to him whether it came by a spear-thrust
or by the more lingering method of thirst.

The savage stooped down and looked intently into the face of first one
boy and then the other. He happened to look at Vaughan first and
grunted his disapproval, but a close scrutiny of Sax's features seemed
to yield him great satisfaction, for he drew himself up straight, and,
with a broad grin of delight, pronounced a word which caught the boy's
dulling ear:

"Bor--s Stoo--bar," he said, in long-drawn tones. "Bor--s Stoo--bar."

A familiar sound will penetrate to an intelligence which has become too
dull to perceive through sight or touch, and Sax heard this word and
looked up, thinking that his imagination must be playing him a trick.
The man was encouraged to try again, this time adding to the name of
the drover the single word "Musgrave ". It was a word he had evidently
used before, for it was pronounced quite clearly.

"Bor--s Stoo--bar.... Mus--grave."

The strange coupling of his father's name with that of the mysterious
range of mountains roused sufficient interest in Sax to make him wish
to reply. He tried to speak, but couldn't. His tongue was too swollen
and his throat too dry. The native watched him, and the boy felt that
the man was friendly, for he continued to stretch out his black arm
towards the distant ranges. Finding that he could not make any sound,
Sax waited till the man again said the words, "Bor--s Stoo--bar," and
then he pointed to himself several times and nodded, and then waved his
hand to the Musgraves. The native grinned his understanding and again
looked very closely