His friend dismounted and had a drink with him out of his flask.

They kicked at the door unavailingly; then his mate went on into the indefinite, leaving him face to face with general desolation.
The Margaret store was the only feature in the landscape--a small building with a heap of empty bottles in the immediate foreground, and all round it the grim bush, a vista of weird twisted trees and dull grey earth with scanty grass.

At the back were a well, a windlass, and a trough for water, round which about a hundred goats were encamped.

Hugh sat and smoked, and looked at the prospect.

By-and-by out of the bush came two men, a Chinaman and a white man.