Year: 1871


thought it something cold seemed to
clutch my heart and squeeze it all to-
gether. tried to put it away by say
ing to myself, This IL go off soon-of
course it will : but at that minute it
flashed across me, as if some one had
written it in letters Of fire all over the
place.. And supposing it doesn't go off
WHAT THEN?'


'fItwas then began to feel fright
ened for the first time. [ turned sick
all at once as if were going to die, and
likely.anough I may have tainted. for
the next thing | remember there was a
great ailence all over the camp and by
that Iiknew that the men were having
their dinner, and that it must be late in
the afternoon. AS night came on be-
gan TO feel very bad every way. So
long rs the sun was shining, and the
sound of the picking and shoveling
went In, tie light aud the noise and the
feeling of having lots of people close to
me kept me up bit y; but when the
sounds died away little by little, and the
darkness came all round as if it were
locking me in, felt cast down and
helpless as child lost in a great town.
However, my hunger made me savage
like, AID that held me up; for so long
as there's strength enough for anger in
a man he's got chance; it's when he
can't feel savage that his hearts broken.
Only kept always wishing that some
thing would break the silence; and at
last something did, with vengeance,
for lot of the horrible dingoes COM
menced howling. And SO they kept on
and worked me up till / felt as if I'd
give any thing to have just one blow at
them, no matter what came after; for
what with the hunger, and the lying
still SO o9ong, and the bowling of these
brutes, I'D got so mad that I'd have
liked to kill something, no matter what
it was. And so the night wore away-a
dreary night for meP'


While he was speaking the moon had
become gradually obscured, and we
were wrapped in shadowy dimness
that harmonlzed well with the
gloomy recital, to which the deepening
somberness of his tone lent additional
horror.


"Thei sun rose at last, but it brought
no bright morning hope with 1t: only
the same weary helplessness, which
seemed as if it had lasted for days and
days-for had lost all count OF time.
When the noise of the digging began
again | almost wished it would leave off,
much as had wished for it before; for
it sent kind of horror through me to
think of the hundreds of men SO near,
any one.of whom would have run like
lightning to help me if he'd only known
of the scFape was in, while lay, dumb
and dying, close by. Ay, dying it was
no use shamming hopeful any longer,
for now | began to feel a gnawing and
tugging in my inside, as if the teeth OF
a wolf were tearing it; and [ knew
what that meant, for I'd felt it before,
only not so bad. | wouldn't have
minded so much if | could only have
screamed or flung myself about, or
anything to show what felt; but to lie
there stock-still and speechless-it was
horrible"


A shudder, which l could see in the
light, shook his strong frame
as he proceeded.


GAS the sun grew hotter the flies be-
gan to swarm and as | watched them
it struck me all of sudden what way
should be in, supposing they attacked
me; for, as 1 was then, they might have
sucked every drop of blood before [
could have raised finger. | knew
of what Australian bush-fiies
could do, for I'd once stumbled on the
body of shepherd who had been tied
to tree by the bush-rangers and left.
However, luckily for me, there was
else in the tent that tempted
them more, and that was the food I'd
left lying on the log. In second they
were down on it; all the meat turned
black at once, as if with a shower OF
SCOT, and their buzzing was like the
wind blowing through row OF wires.
You'd laugh at me, stranger, II L were
to tell you how savage that sight made
me; for of course, you'll say | ought
to have been mighty glad to get Oft so
cheap. But, oh !! to see those accursed
verm.n gorging themselves before my
eyes, while |, a man, lay starving! tell
you, all that | felt before was nothing
to it!


"Toward afternoon there came kind
of whispering and humming in my
eaas, getting louder bit by bit. 1t wasn't
the flies, for they were all gone; it was
what comes to one on the second or
third day of starving to death, and L
knew it, Some of my mates that were
starved up country used to keep putting
their hands to their ears for while be-
fore they died, saying they heard some
thing whispering to them. Lit got
stronger and stronger, till the sound
seemed to shape itself into aa old song
that man [ was with in Brazil kept
grooming over just before he dled. The
song was all about party going across
the desert to look for some men that
were lost; but theverse that rang in my
head then was this:


And never man and never beast,


They met on their desolate way


But the bleaching bones IN the hungry SAND


Said all that tongue could say.


And 50 itkept going over and over, till
at last went fairly of-half slept and
half tainted.


at was late when | awoke, and |
can't tell you how felt at selng the sun
setting again. As the light faded [ felt
as if my life was going out along with
it and when it dipped below the hori-
zon / was ready to start up and stretch
out my arms to hold it back, if I'd had
the strength. And such night as that
second night was-good Heaven
There's verse somewhere in the Bible
that speaks of a horror of great dark
ness !; / learned it at school, but never
knew what it really meant till then.
This time there was no bowling of din
goes, no noise of any sort; all was deadly
still, as if the world itself, with all that
lived and breathed in it, were dead, and
alone kept iving-living on. | sup
pose / must have been getting light
LAaloI .r;+L h.nnor and weakness for