Evening star., 1928-12-09
BY w. CHARNLEY.

LII of US were tolerably well ac-
n customed to Australian aborig-
IN ines and we treated them rath-
u er lightly, our only real danger
being when one or other of us
was obliged to journey to the water
hole for supplies On the first few oc-
casions I went alone, but as the black
fellows" begsn to get familiar and M
pudent-and therefore dangerous-Rod
decided that Madison should always
accompany me on future trips and keep
guard while I went down the 20-foot
hole to fill the water tanks
It was on one of these trips that
Maddison's peculiar actions led me to
suspect that he was becoming somewhat
deranged in mind. Usually he took
post with fiier at the top of the well,
so that I could see him, or his shadow,
whenever I chanced to look up, while
occasionally We would engage in con-
versation.
One day, however, having missed his
presence for some time. I became Curl
ously alarmed, and after calling him
several times without receiving a reply.
I hurriedly climbed UP to see where he
had got to. / discovered Madison
seated some 20 yards away, deeply en-
crossed in tying length of bootlace
around the trigger of his rife!
Running across, I snatched the rifle
away from him; nor would let him
handle it any more during our stay at
the well. He explained later that ne
was "only trying an experiment" but
as pulling the trigger by means OF one s
hoOtIace Was-and is-a common meth
cd of suicide IN the bush, was not
inclined to give him any more chances.
On returning to camp I mentioned
the matter to Rod, and discovered that
he had also observed something odd
about our companion. Such suicidal IN
clinationS, he added, were common in
men who had been affected by the sun
or suffered severely from thirst.
This sounded alarming, but we were
reluctant to leave the mine while our
food supplies lasted, and decided we
would keep a careful eye on our mate
and see that he did not stray out of our
sight. ... I
Keeping Madison in camp was SIM
pie enough; he was willing to do any
sort of work and, indeed, acted in the
sanest possible way so long as either
of us made some show of authority.
Still, we knew in our hearts that he was
getting worse day by day.
The constant watchfulneSs that this
knowledge entailed told on our nerves;
but the real trouble began when it be-
came necessary to revisit our well for
further supplies. Whoever went must
now go alone, since it was inadvisable
to allow Madison out of sight for more
than a minute, while to take him along
as guard probably meant repetition Of
the experiment" 1t was therefore de-
cided that while Rod kept him at the
campsI was to 60 alone for water.
There did not seem to be much dam
ger, for our black visitors had suddenly
disappeared; we had not sighted any of
them for over a week. We were soon
to learn, however, that we had under
estimated the intelligence and treacher-
Gus cunning OF the aborigines.
x x x X
T WAS down the well, sunk to my
= knees in mud, slowly and laboriously
dipping up the last visible gallon of
water with tin pannikin, when sud-
denly shadow seemed to fall across
the shaft Of sunlight which came down
to me. glanced up instantly, but
could see nothing alarming, and re-
turned to my baling. Next instant a
head came hurting down.
received a glancing blow on the
shoulder which made me shake with
pain and deprived me of the use of my
left arm for several minutes Quite in
voluntarily yelled out at the unexpect-
ed blow, and taking this as an encour-
aging sign, those above responded by
sending down a whole shower of stones,
both large and small.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, our