It was not until April, 1897, that Mr. Wells found the bodies of his cousin, Charles Wells, and George Jones.  From their diaries (so much of them at least as was published) the dreadful tale of suffering can be traced.  It appears that on leaving the main party they travelled westward as directed, and started to turn North-East to cut the tracks of the others.  Before many miles on the fresh course, however, they for some reason changed their minds and retraced their steps to Separation Well.  From this point they started to follow the main party, but before long they seem to have become sick and exhausted, and the camels to show signs of collapse.  Later we read that, exhausted from heat, hardship, and thirst, they lay down, each in the scanty shade of a gum tree; that the camels wandered away too far for them to follow; efforts to recover the stragglers only ended in their falling faint to the ground, and so, deserted by their means of transport, without water, without hope, these two poor fellows laid down to die, and added their names to the long roll of brave but unfortunate men whose lives have been claimed by the wild bush of Australia.

What a death!  Alone in that vast sea of sand—­hundreds of miles from family or friends—­alone absolutely! not a sign of life around them—­no bird or beast to tell them that life existed for any—­no sound to break the stillness of that ghastly wilderness—­no green grass or trees to relieve the monotony of the sand—­nothing but the eternal spinifex and a few shrunken stems of trees that have been—­no shade from the burning sun—­above them the clear sky only clouded by death! slow, cruel death, and yet in their stout hearts love and courage!  Poor fellows! they died like men, with a message written by dying fingers for those they left to mourn them—­a message full of affection, expressing no fear of death, but perfect faith in God.  So might all mothers be content to see their sons die—­when their time comes.

They had died, it appears, too soon for any aid to have reached them.  Even had Mr. Wells been able to turn back on his tracks at once on arrival at the Fitzroy, it is doubtful if he could have been in time to give any help to his suffering comrades.

The bodies were taken to Adelaide, where the whole country joined in doing honour to the dead.

CHAPTER XVI

KIMBERLEY

Since we were not to retackle the sand forthwith, we laid ourselves out to rest and do nothing to the very best of our ability.  This resolve was made easy of execution, for no sooner had the Warden, Mr. Cummins, heard of our arrival, than he invited us to his house, where we remained during our stay in Hall’s Creek, and met with so much kindness and hospitality that we felt more than ever pleased that we had arrived at this out-of-the-way spot by a rather novel route.

Since Kimberley (excepting the South African district) must be an unknown name to the majority of English readers, and since it is one of the most valuable portions of West Australia, it deserves more than passing mention.