Page:Australian Emigrant 1854.djvu/140

120

We need scarcely say, that after the adventure we have narrated, sleep forsook the little party with whom we have more particularly to deal. The sudden appearance and disappearance of Jarrol seemed almost like a dream, and the explorers would willingly have resigned the object which had brought them into the part of the country where they found themselves, had their more experienced companion held out the least hope of a successful pursuit; but the rain which had threatened on the previous evening now poured down in torrents, so as effectually to obliterate every track which the disturbers of their last night's slumbers were likely to leave behind them, they therefore determined, as soon as the weather cleared, on prosecuting the search for a station amongst the hills.

"Now, my boys!" said Dodge, "we must collect some tea-water while the rain lasts, and I'll show you how to set to work." Taking out a moderately clean towel and a tin pot from his budget, he walked amongst the wet grass trailing the towel after him, and when it was sufficiently saturated for his purpose he wrung it carefully into the pot; after many repetitions of the same process he returned to the fire with about a pint of very doubtful looking water. "You see," he said, "I would willingly share it with you; but may be, as you are young bush men, you would find it more agreeable to use your own towels."

Neither Hugh nor Slinger were yet sufficiently thirsty to have recourse to the plan they had seen practised, but they collected some water by catching it as it trickled from the pieces of bark which served them as a shelter from the weather. Dodge suggested that as they would find the water they had