[Frontispiece: THE OUTPOST OF DEATH _Page 253_]
[Transcriber's Note: "Jim Bushman" is a pseudonym of Conrad H. Sayce.]
Ann's Great Adventure. E. E. Cowper. The Golden Magnet. G. Manville Fenn. Every Inch a Briton. Meredith Fletcher. 'Twixt Earth and Sky. C. R. Kenyon. In the Musgrave Ranges. Jim Bushman. No Ordinary Girl. Bessie Marchant. Norah to the Rescue. Bessie Marchant. What Happened to Kitty. Theodora Wilson Wilson.
I. A TORNADO II. CAMELS III. A MESSAGE FROM THE UNKNOWN IV. WILD CATTLE V. RIDING TESTS VI. SMOKE SIGNALS VII. STEALTHY FOES VIII. FIRST SIGHT OF THE MUSGRAVES IX. DISASTER X. A SANDSTORM XI. THIRST XII. THE RESCUE XIII. SIDCOTINGA STATION XIV. A MAD BULL XV. A NIGHT ALARM XVI. MUSTERING XVII. THE BRANDED WARRAGUL XVIII. REVENGE XIX. CHIVALRY IN THE DESERT XX. THE BULL-ROARER XXI. HORSESHOE BEND XXII. FACING DEATH XXIII. A FRIEND AND A FOE XXIV. A PRISONER XXV. THE OUTPOST OF DEATH XXVI. ARRKROO, THE HATER XXVII. THE DANCE OF DEATH XXVIII. CONCLUSION
Towards the end of a long hot day, a shabby mixed train stopped at one of the most wonderful townships in the world, Hergott Springs, the first of the great cattle-trucking depots of Central Australia. It was dark, but a hurricane lantern, swung under a veranda, showed that the men who were waiting for the train were not ordinary men. They were men of the desert. Most of them were tall, thin, weather-beaten Australians, in shirt sleeves and strong trousers worn smooth inside the leg with much riding. A few Afghans were there too, big, dignified, and silent, with white turbans above their black faces; while a little distance away was a crowd of aboriginal men and women, yabbering excitedly and laughing together because the fortnightly train had at last come in. The same crowd would watch it start out in the morning on the last stage of its long journey to Oodnadatta, the railway terminus and the metropolis of Central Australia.
There were very few passengers on the train, and all of them seemed known to everybody and were greeted with hearty handshakes and loud rough words of welcome back to the North. Two passengers, however, did not get out of the carriage for a time, being unwilling to face that crowd of absolute strangers. They were Saxon Stobart and Rodger Vaughan, boys of about fifteen, who were on their way to Oodnadatta. It was their first sight of the back country.