The shepherd came to the door of his hut on hearing a noise.
"You had best lie down and go to sleep for the next hour," the leader of the convicts said sharply.

"We don't want to do an old pal any harm, and when you wake up in the morning and find the flock some twenty short, of course you won't have any idea what has come of them." The man nodded and went back into the hut and shut the door, and the convicts started for the interior, driving twenty sheep before them.
During the first day's journey they went fast, keeping the sheep at a trot before them, and continuing their journey through the heat of the day.
"I tell you what, Captain," one of the men said when they halted at sunset, "if we don't get to a water hole we shall have to give up this idea of going and camping in the bush.

My mouth has been like an oven all day, and it is no use getting away from jail to die of thirst out here." There had been similar remarks during the day, and the two leaders agreed together that it would be madness to push further, and that, whatever the risk, they would have to return to the settlements unless they could strike water.

As they were sitting moodily round the fire they were startled by a dozen natives coming forward into the circle of light.

These held out their hands to say that their intentions were peaceful.
"Don't touch your muskets!" Captain Wild exclaimed sharply, as some of the men were on the point of jumping to their feet.