They had ridden a thousand miles and not seen the Kenniffs. At Injune Nixon put the Skillington boy in charge of King Edward and left them at a guesthouse. He wrote a promissory note to pay their bill of fare and said that if he was not back in a fortnight they were free to go.

He rode west into grey box woodland. Then further onto yellow grass plains. In the late afternoons the sun lit the eucalypts and the smell of the trees in the light in the cooling air was of burning oil. He rode on and the earth was iron red. Then the colour of blood. He rode till the stars seemed they were inches above his head and he might reach and touch them.

He camped on the road, drifting between towns on the plains. When he came to a town he went to the hotel and took a room.