Buttons and mates busy making up camel loads of drums.

Blakeley and mates almost arrive at Illbilla, The Thornycroft runs out of oil a couple of hundred yards short of the camp. From the distance Lasseter and Blakeley initially think the crowd about the camp the Michael Terry expedition.The place is crowded again with the presence of Rip Van and his family, Buttons and his team and the C.A.G.E. men, all noted by Johns.

Blakeley and Lasseter spend the evening trying to persuade Buttons to act as guide to Lasseter to the south west, Buttons is not interested but he is concerned to learn that Johns is somewhere in the vicinity