Lasseter, Taylor armed with his new shotgun and Mickey head off for a hill about three miles distant to take a fresh set of sextant readings, prompting Blakeley to snidely question the purpose of yesterdays trek. Blakeley and Sutherland carry out some desultory prospecting and continually discuss Lasseter and the many slips he has made about his 1897 story. Sutherland recalls a recent faux pas when Lasseter arrived in Cloncurry by train about ten years before the railway got to that outback town.

So the doubts and contradictions pile up but Blakeley can't pin Lasseter down on paper, with a certain sense of relief he and Sutherland decide to return to Illbilla and push on south, Blakeley is reasonably sure that the 'breakaway' country will stop any trespass on the Aboriginal Reserve, then we'll see what Lasseter does.

That afternoon the Expedition returns to the swampy waterholes from the 23^rd and the Thornycroft unloaded again so Taylor can repair many broken springs.

Poor old Jim Scullin leaves for the Imperial Conference in London today, can't help thinking this is not a good time for the Prime Minister to be leaving the country.