“Green Swamp. Left to ride the fences yesterday morning. Old Lacy says it’s too boggy for the plane to get off the ground out there.”

“Jimmy Partner and I were working in our East Paddock which is as you know north of Karwir’s Green Swamp Paddock. We were getting small mobs of sheep away from the Channels on account of the rain making bogs of them. We were often in sight of the boundary fence but we never saw Anderson. Let me know when you get news from Karwir, will you? I mayn’t be here, but mother will.”

Shortly after four o’clock Old Lacy again rang Sergeant Blake. He reported:

“The lad has sent Bill the Better home to say they haven’t come across Jeff Anderson. They back-tracked The Black Emperor along the road for about a mile to where the hoof marks were wiped out by the rain. There are no signs that Anderson reached the hut and camped there overnight. They’ve found no track or sign of horse or man. D’you think you could send out or come out with your tracker? Road ought to be drying by now. My girl took me out to the boundary gate in the car this afternoon.”

Blake reported the disappearance of Abie, and its probable cause.

“I’ll get in touch with Gordon and ask him to ride after the tribe and bring over a couple of trackers. They ought to be on the job first thing in the morning-if Anderson hasn’t been found before nightfall.”

For several seconds Old Lacy was silent and Blake was beginning to think the squatter had hung up his instrument when the booming voice spoke.

“Funny that those blacks went on walkabout this morning and that your tracker left to go with ’em. Did you know anything about old Sarah dying?”

“No. Gordon said he and Jimmy Partner came across a sign message at Black Gate yesterday, and that when they got home Jimmy Partner told the tribe of it, saying that Sarah was pegging out. Gordon also said that he and Jimmy Partner were working sheep off the Channels in his East Paddock, and were often close to the boundary fence but didn’t see Anderson. I’ll ring him up about going after a couple of trackers. Let me know how your men get on, will you?”