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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dingo Boys, by G. Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Dingo Boys
+       The Squatters of Wallaby Range
+
+Author: G. Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: W. S. Stacey
+
+Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23374]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DINGO BOYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Dingo Boys; or, The Squatters of Wallaby Range, by George Manville
+Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+A family from England arrive in Australia, where they acquire the carts
+and other material needed to set forth and find suitable land to squat
+on.  The family consists of several adults, two young daughters of
+around twenty, and three boys of around sixteen, cousins.  There is also
+an old English gardener who has agreed to come out with them.
+
+On the way up-country they acquire somehow an aboriginal hanger-on, who,
+however, proves a tower of strength in all sorts of vicissitudes in
+which they find themselves.  Because he's black they call him Ashantee
+at first, shorten this to Shanter, and then refer to Tam o' Shanter on
+certain occasions.
+
+The adults keep saying they distrust Shanter, but time after time he
+proves them wrong, and gets them out of situations which appear
+hopeless, in the typical George Manville Fenn style.
+
+An interesting read, but you will have to get used to the speech forms
+used by Shanter, which are in a sort of pidgin cum aboriginal form.
+Nothing too difficult, though, as plenty of guidance is provided in the
+text.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+THE DINGO BOYS; OR, THE SQUATTERS OF WALLABY RANGE, BY GEORGE MANVILLE
+FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+"HAVE I DONE RIGHT?"
+
+"Better stay here, squire.  Aren't the land good enough for you?"
+
+"Oh yes; the land's good enough, sir."
+
+"Stop and take up a run close by.  If you go yonder, the piggers'll eat
+you without salt."
+
+Here followed a roar of laughter from the party of idlers who were busy
+doing nothing with all their might, as they lounged about the wharves
+and warehouses of Port Haven.
+
+Emigrants' guide-books said that Port Haven was a busy rising town well
+inside the Barrier Reef on the east coast of Northern Australia, and
+offered abundant opportunities for intending settlers.
+
+On this particular sunny morning Port Haven was certainly not "busy,"
+and if "rising," it had not risen enough for much of it to be visible.
+There were a few wooden buildings of a very rough description; there was
+a warehouse or two; and an erection sporting a flagstaff and a ragged
+Union Jack, whose front edge looked as if the rats had been trying which
+tasted best, the red, white, or blue; and upon a rough board nailed over
+the door was painted in white letters, about as badly as possible,
+"Jennings' Hotel;" but the painter had given so much space to
+"Jennings'," that "Hotel" was rather squeezed, like the accommodation
+inside; and consequently from a distance, that is to say, from the deck
+of the ship _Ann Eliza_ of London, Norman Bedford could only make out
+"Jennings' Hot," and he drew his brother and cousin's attention to the
+fact--the `el' being almost invisible.
+
+"Well, who cares?" cried his brother Raphael.
+
+"So's everybody else," said their cousin, Artemus Lake.  "I'm melting,
+and feel as if I was standing in a puddle.  But I say, Man, what a place
+to call a port!"
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Norman.  "Of course we're not going to
+stop here.  Are we going to anchor close up to that pier thing?"
+
+"Pier, Master Norman?" said a hard-faced man in a glazed straw hat,
+"that's the wharf."
+
+"Gammon! why, it's only a few piles and planks.--I say, Rifle, look
+there.  That's a native;" and the boy pointed to a very glossy black,
+who had been squatting on his heels at the edge of the primitive wharf,
+but who now rose up, planted the sole of his right foot against the calf
+of his left leg, and kept himself perpendicular by means of what looked
+like a very thin clothes-prop.
+
+"If that's a native," said Raphael, "he has come out of his shell, eh,
+Tim?"
+
+"Yes," said Artemus, solemnly.  "Australian chief magnificently attired
+in a small piece of dirty cotton."
+
+Captain Bedford, retired officer of the Royal Engineers, a bluff,
+slightly grey man of fifty, who was answerable as father and godfather
+for the rather formidable names of the three bright, sun-burned, manly
+lads of fifteen to seventeen--names which the boys had shortened into
+"Man", "Tim," and "Rifle"--overheard the conversation and laughed.
+
+"Yes, that's a native, boys," he said; "and it is a primitive place, and
+no mistake, but you're right: we shall only stop here long enough to
+load up, and then off we go inland, pioneers of the new land."
+
+Man tossed up his straw hat, and cried "hooray!" his brother joined in,
+and the sailors forward, who were waiting to warp the great vessel
+alongside the rough wharf, joined in the cheer, supposing the shout to
+be given because, after months of bad weather, they were all safe in a
+sunny port.
+
+At the cheer three ladies came out of the companionway, followed by a
+short, grey, fierce-looking man, who walked eagerly to the group of
+boys.
+
+"Here, what's the matter?" he cried.  "Anything wrong?"
+
+"No, uncle," said Norman.  "I only said `Hooray!' because we have got
+here safe."
+
+"Did mamma and the girls come out because we cheered?" said Rifle.
+"Hallo, here's Aunt Georgie too!"
+
+He ran to the cabin entrance, from which now appeared an elderly lady of
+fifty-five or sixty, busily tying a white handkerchief over her cap, and
+this done as the boy reached her, she took out her spectacle-case.
+
+"What's the matter, Rifle?" she said excitedly.  "Is the ship going
+down?"
+
+"No, aunt, going up the river.  We're all safe in port."
+
+"Thank goodness," said the lady, fervently.  "Oh, what a voyage!"
+
+She joined the ladies who had previously come on deck--a tall,
+grave-looking, refined woman of forty, and two handsome girls of about
+twenty, both very plainly dressed, but whose costume showed the many
+little touches of refinement peculiar to a lady.
+
+"Well, Marian, I hope Edward is happy now."
+
+The lady smiled and laid her hand upon Aunt Georgina's arm.
+
+"Of course he is, dear, and so are we all.  Safe in port after all those
+long weeks."
+
+"I don't see much safety," said Aunt Georgie, as she carefully arranged
+her spectacles, and looked about her.  "Bless my heart! what a
+ramshackle place.  Surely this isn't Port Haven."
+
+"Yes; this is Port Haven, good folks," said Captain Bedford, joining
+them and smiling at the wondering looks of all.
+
+"Then the man who wrote that book, Edward, ought to be hanged."
+
+"What's the matter, aunt?" said Norman, who hurried up with his cousin.
+
+"Matter, my dear?  Why, that man writing his rubbish and deluding your
+poor father into bringing us to this horrible, forsaken-looking place!"
+
+"Forsaken?" cried Captain Bedford, "not at all.  We've just come to it.
+Why, what more do you want?  Bright sunshine, a glittering river, waving
+trees, a glorious atmosphere, and dear old Dame Nature smiling a
+welcome.--What do you say, Jack?"
+
+The sharp, irritable-looking man had joined them, and his face looked
+perplexed, the more so as he noted that the girls were watching him, and
+evidently hanging upon his answer.
+
+"Eh?" he cried; "yes; a welcome, of course.  She's glad to see our
+bonnie lassies fresh from Old England.  Here, Ned, give me a cigar."
+
+"Thank you, Jack, old fellow," whispered the captain, as he took out his
+case.  "For Heaven's sake help me to keep up the poor women's spirits.
+I'm afraid it will be very rough for them at first."
+
+"Rough?  Scarifying," said Uncle John Munday, puffing away at his cigar.
+"No business to have come."
+
+"Jack!  And you promised to help me and make the best of things."
+
+"Going to," said Uncle Jack; "but I didn't say I wouldn't pitch into you
+for dragging us all away from--"
+
+"Bloomsbury Square, my dears," said Aunt Georgie just then.  "Yes, if I
+had known, you would not have made me move from Bloomsbury Square."
+
+"Where you said you should die of asthma, you ungrateful old woman.
+This climate is glorious."
+
+"Humph!" said Aunt Georgie.
+
+"Well, girls," cried the captain, passing his arms round his daughter
+and niece's waists, "what do you think of it?"
+
+"Well, papa, I hardly know," said Ida.
+
+"This can't be all of it, uncle?" said the other girl.
+
+"Every bit of it, my pet, at present; but it will grow like a mushroom.
+Why, there's an hotel already.  We had better get ashore, Jack, and
+secure rooms."
+
+"No," said Uncle Jack, decisively, as he watched a party of
+rough-looking idlers loafing out of the place, "we'll arrange with the
+captain to let us stay on board till we go up-country.  Rather a shabby
+lot here, Ned."
+
+"Um! yes," said Captain Bedford, smiling at the appearance of some of
+the men as they gathered on the wharf.
+
+"Better stay here, I say; the women will be more comfortable.  As we are
+going up the country, the sooner we load up and get off the better.
+German and I and the boys will camp ashore so as to look after the
+tackle."
+
+"Yes, and I'll come too."
+
+"No," said Uncle Jack; "your place is with your wife and the girls."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said the captain, as he stood watching the
+sailors busily lowering a boat to help to moor the great, tall-masted
+ship now sitting like a duck on the smooth waters of the river, after
+months of a stormy voyage from England, when for days the passengers
+could hardly leave the deck.  And as he watched the men, and his eyes
+wandered inland toward where he could see faint blue mountains beyond
+dark green forests, he asked himself whether he had done right in
+realising the wreck of his property left after he had been nearly ruined
+by the proceedings of a bankrupt company, and making up his mind at
+fifty to start afresh in the Antipodes, bringing his wife, daughter, and
+niece out to what must prove to be a very rough life.
+
+"Have I done right?" he said softly; "have I done right?"
+
+"Yes," said a voice close to him; and his brother's hand was laid upon
+his arm.  "Yes, Ned, and we are going to make the best of it."
+
+"You think so, Jack?" said the captain, eagerly.
+
+"Yes.  I was dead against it at first."
+
+"You were."
+
+"Horribly.  It meant giving up my club--our clubs, and at our time of
+life working like niggers, plunging into all kinds of discomforts and
+worries; but, please God, Ned, it's right.  It will be a healthy,
+natural life for us all, and the making of those three boys in this new
+land."
+
+Captain Bedford grasped his brother's hand; but he could not speak.  The
+comfort given by those words, though, was delightful and his face lit up
+directly with a happy smile, as he saw the excitement of the three boys,
+all eager to begin the new life.
+
+He looked a little more serious though, as his eyes lit on the party of
+ladies fresh from a life of ease; but his countenance brightened again
+as he thought of how they would lighten the loads of those ill able to
+bear them.  "And it will be a happy, natural life for us all.  Free from
+care, and with only the troubles of labour in making the new home."
+
+But Captain Bedford was letting his imagination run.  More troubles were
+ahead than his mind conceived, and directly after he began making plans
+for their start.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+"WE'RE OFF NOW."
+
+Busy days succeeded during which every one worked hard, except the
+people of Port Haven.  The captain of the ship hurried on his people as
+much as was possible, but the sailors obtained little assistance from
+the shore.  They landed, however, the consignments of goods intended for
+the speculative merchant, who had started in business in what he called
+sundries; two great chests for the young doctor, who had begun life
+where he had no patients, and passed his time in fishing; and sundry
+huge packages intended for a gentleman who had taken up land just
+outside the town, as it was called, where he meant to start
+sugar-planting.
+
+But the chief task of the crew was the getting up from the hold and
+landing of Captain Bedford's goods; and these were so varied and
+extensive that the inhabitants came down to the wharf every day to look
+on as if it were an exhibition.
+
+Certainly they had some excuse, for the captain had gone to work in
+rather a wholesale way, and the ship promised to be certainly a little
+lighter when she started on her way to her destination, a port a hundred
+miles farther along the coast.
+
+For, setting aside chests and packing-cases sufficient to make quite a
+stack which was nightly covered with a great wagon cloth, there were a
+wagon and two carts of a light peculiar make, bought from a famous
+English manufacturer.  Then there were tubs of various sizes, all
+heavily laden, bundles of tent and wagon cloths, bales of sacking and
+coarse canvas, and crates of agricultural machinery and tools, on all of
+which, where they could see them, the little crowd made comments, and at
+last began to make offers for different things, evidently imbued with
+the idea that they were brought out on speculation.
+
+The refusals, oft repeated, to part with anything, excited at last no
+little resentment, one particularly shabby, dirty-looking man, who had
+been pointed out as a squatter--though that term ought certainly to have
+been applied to the black, who was the most regular and patient of the
+watchers--going so far as to say angrily that if stores were brought
+there they ought to be for sale.
+
+These heavy goods were the last to be landed, for after making a bargain
+with the gentleman whose name appeared in such large letters on the
+front of his great wooden shanty, four horses, as many bullocks, all of
+colonial breed, bought at Sydney where the vessel touched, half a dozen
+pigs, as many sheep, and a couple of cows brought from England, were
+landed and driven into an ill-fenced enclosure which Mr Jennings called
+his "medder," and regularly fed there, for the landlord's meadow was
+marked by an almost entire absence of grass.
+
+Day by day, these various necessaries for a gentleman farmer's home
+up-country were landed and stacked on the wharf, the boys, Uncle John,
+and Samuel German--"Sourkrout," Norman had christened him--under the
+advice of the captain seeing to everything, and toiling away in the hot
+sunshine from morning to night.
+
+At last all the captain's belongings were landed, and the next
+proceeding was to obtain half a dozen more bullocks for draught
+purposes, and two or three more horses.
+
+These were found at last by means of the young doctor, who seemed ready
+to be very civil and attentive, but met with little encouragement.
+After the landlord had declared that neither horse nor ox could be
+obtained there, the doctor took Captain Bedford about a couple of miles
+up the river, and introduced him to the young sugar-planter, who eagerly
+supplied what was required, not for the sake of profit, but, as he said,
+to do a stranger a kindly turn.
+
+"Going up the country, then, are you?" he said.  "Hadn't you better take
+up land where you can get help if you want it?"
+
+"No," said the captain, shortly.  "I have made my plans."
+
+"Well, perhaps you are right, sir," said the sugar-planter, who was, in
+spite of his rough colonial aspect and his wild-looking home, thoroughly
+gentlemanly.  "You will have the pick of the land, and can select as
+good a piece as you like.  I shall look you up some day."
+
+"Thank you," said the captain, coldly; "but I daresay I shall be many
+miles up the river."
+
+"Oh, we think nothing of fifty or a hundred miles out here, sir," said
+the young squatter, merrily.  "Your boys will not either, when you've
+been up yonder a month.  Come and see me, lads, when you like.  One's
+glad of a bit of company sometimes."
+
+They parted and walked back, driving their new acquisitions, and were
+getting on very badly, from the disposition on the part of the bullocks
+to return to their old home, when the black already described suddenly
+made his appearance from where he had been squatting amongst some
+low-growing bushes; and as soon as he stepped out into the track with
+his long stick, which was supposed to be a spear, bullocks and horses
+moved on at once in the right direction, and perhaps a little too fast.
+
+"The cattle don't like the blacks as a rule.  They are afraid of the
+spears," said the doctor.
+
+"Why?" asked Norman.
+
+"The blacks spear them--hurl spears at the poor brutes."
+
+"Black fellow," said the shiny, unclothed native sharply, "spear um
+bullockum."
+
+"Why, he can speak English," said Rifle, sharply.
+
+"Oh yes, he has hung about here for a long time now, and picked it up
+wonderfully.--You can talk English, can't you, Ashantee?"
+
+The black showed his teeth to the gums.
+
+"What's his name?" asked Artemus, otherwise Tim.
+
+"Oh, that's only the name I gave him, because he is so black--Ashantee."
+
+"Eh, you want Shanter?" cried the black sharply.
+
+"No; but mind and drive those bullocks and horses down to Jennings', and
+the gentleman will give you sixpence."
+
+"You give Shanter tickpence?" he cried eagerly, as he lowered his rough
+shock-head and peered in the captain's face.
+
+"Yes, if you drive them carefully."
+
+"Hoo!" shouted the black, leaping from the ground, and then bursting out
+with a strange noise something between a rapid repetition of the word
+wallah and the gobbling of a turkey-cock; and then seeing that the boys
+laughed he repeated the performance, waved his clumsy spear over his
+head, and made a dash at the bullocks, prodding them in the ribs,
+administering a poke or two to the horses, and sending them off at a
+gallop toward the port.
+
+"No, no, no, stop him!" cried the captain; and the three boys rushed off
+after the black, who stopped for them to overtake him.
+
+"What a matter--what a matter?" he said coolly, as they caught and
+secured him.
+
+"Mind he don't come off black, Tim," cried Norman.
+
+"Black?  All black," cried the Australian.  "White, all white.  Not
+white many."
+
+"That's not the way to drive cattle," cried the young doctor, as he came
+up with the captain.
+
+"Not give tickpence drive bullockum?"
+
+"Yes, if you are careful.  Go slowly."
+
+"Go slowly."
+
+"No.  Bullockum 'top eat grass.  Never get along."
+
+"You'll make them too hot," said Rifle.
+
+"No, no," shouted the black; "no can get too hot.  No clothes."
+
+"Send the fellow about his business," said the captain; "we'll drive the
+cattle ourselves.  Good lesson for you, boys.--Here you are, Shanter."
+
+He took out a bright little silver coin, and held it out to the black,
+who made a snatch at it, but suddenly altered his mind.
+
+"No, not done drive bullockum.  Wait bit."
+
+He started off after the cattle again, but evidently grasped what was
+meant, and moved steadily along with the three boys beside him, and he
+kept on turning his shiny, bearded, good-humoured face from one to the
+other, and displaying a perfect set of the whitest of teeth.
+
+"Seems ruin, doesn't it?" said Tim, after they had gone steadily on for
+some time in silence--a silence only broken by a bellow from one of the
+bullocks.
+
+"Hear um 'peak?" cried the black.
+
+"What, the bullock?" said Rifle.
+
+The black nodded.
+
+"Say don't want to go along.  Shanter make um go."
+
+"No, no, don't hunt them."
+
+"No," cried the black, volubly; "hunt wallaby--hunt ole man kangaroo."
+
+He grinned, and holding his hands before him, began to leap along the
+track in a wonderfully clever imitation of that singular animal last
+named, with the result that the horses snorted, and the bullocks set up
+their tails, and increased their pace.
+
+"Be quiet!" cried Norman, whose eyes ran tears with laughter.  "Yes, you
+are right, Tim.  He is a rum one."
+
+"I meant it seems rum to be walking along here with a real black fellow,
+and only the other day at Harrow."
+
+"Black fellow?" cried their companion.  "Hi! black fellow."
+
+He threw himself into an attitude that would have delighted a sculptor,
+holding back his head, raising his spear till it was horizontal, and
+then pretending to throw it; after which he handed it quickly to Norman,
+and snatched a short knobbed stick from where it was stuck through the
+back of the piece of kangaroo skin he wore.
+
+With this in his hand he rushed forward, and went through the pantomime
+of a fierce fight with an enemy, whom he seemed to chase and then caught
+and killed by repeated blows with the nulla-nulla he held in his hand,
+finishing off by taking a run and hurling it at another retreating
+enemy, the club flying through the air with such accuracy that he hit
+one of the horses by the tail, sending it off at a gallop.
+
+"Norman!  Rifle!" cried the captain from far behind; "don't let that
+fellow frighten those horses."
+
+"I--I--can't help it, father," cried the boy, who was roaring with
+laughter.
+
+"Tink Shanter funny?" cried the black; and he gave vent to the
+wallah-wallah noise again.
+
+"Yes, you're a rum beggar," said Rifle, who looked upon him as if he
+were a big black child.
+
+"Yes; Shanter rum beggar," said the black, with a satisfied smile, as if
+pleased with the new title; but he turned round fiercely directly after,
+having in his way grasped the meaning of the words but incorrectly.
+
+"No, no," he said eagerly; "Shanter no rum beggar.  No drunkum rum.
+Bah! ugh!  Bad, bad, bad!"
+
+He went through an excited pantomime expressive of horror and disgust,
+and shook his head furiously.  "Shanter no rum beggar."
+
+"I meant funny," said Rifle.
+
+"Eh?  Funny?  Yes, lot o' fun."
+
+"You make me laugh," continued Rifle.
+
+"Eh? make um laugh?  No make black fellow laugh.  Break um head dreffle,
+dreffle.  No like black fellow."
+
+In due time they were close up to the hotel, where, the boys having
+taken down the rails, the new purchases made no scruple about allowing
+themselves to be driven in to join the rest of the live-stock, after
+which Shanter went up to the captain.
+
+"Get tickpence," he cried, holding out his hand.
+
+The coin was given, and thrust into the black's cheek.
+
+"Just like a monkey at the zoological," said Norman, as he watched the
+black, who now went to the wharf, squatted down, and stared at the
+stern, sour-looking man--the captain's old servant--who was keeping
+guard over the stack of chests, crates, and bales.
+
+The next thing was the arranging for the loan of a wagon from the
+landlord, upon the understanding that it was to be sent back as soon as
+possible.  After which the loading up commenced, the new arrivals
+performing all themselves, the inhabitants of the busy place watching,
+not the least interested spectator being the black, who seemed to be
+wondering why white men took so much trouble and made themselves so hot.
+
+One wagon was already packed by dusk, and in the course of the next day
+the other and the carts were piled high, the captain, from his old
+sapper-and-miner experience, being full of clever expedients for moving
+and raising weights with rollers, levers, block and fall, very much to
+the gratification of the dirty-looking man, who smoked and gave it as
+his opinion that the squire was downright clever.
+
+"Your father was quite right, boys," said Uncle Jack, as the sheets were
+tightened over the last wagon.  "We could not stop anywhere near such
+neighbours as these."
+
+Then came the time when all was declared ready.  Seats had been
+contrived behind the wagons; saddles, ordinary and side, unpacked for
+the horses; the tent placed in the care which bore the provisions,
+everything, in short, thought of by the captain, who had had some little
+experience of expeditions in India when with an army; and at last one
+morning the horses were put to cart and wagon, one of which was drawn by
+three yoke of oxen; every one had his or her duty to perform in
+connection with the long caravan, and after farewells had been said to
+their late companions on board ship and to the young doctor and the
+sugar-planter, all stood waiting for the captain to give the word to
+start.
+
+Just then the doctor came up with his friend of the plantation.
+
+"You will not think me impertinent, Captain Bedford, if I say that
+Henley here advises that you should keep near to the river valley, just
+away from the wood, so as to get good level land for your wagons."
+
+"Certainly not; I am obliged," said the captain quietly.
+
+"He thinks, too, that you will find the best land in the river bottom."
+
+"Of course, of course," said the captain.  "Good-day, gentlemen; I am
+much obliged."
+
+"If you want any little service performed, pray send," said the doctor;
+"we will execute any commission with pleasure."
+
+"I will ask you if I do," said the captain; and the two young men raised
+their hats and drew back.
+
+"Father doesn't like men to be so civil," said Man.
+
+"No; he doesn't like strangers," whispered back Rifle.
+
+"Of course he doesn't," said Tim, in the same low voice.  "It wasn't
+genuine friendliness."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Man.
+
+"Why, they wouldn't have been so full of wanting to do things for us if
+it had not been for the girls.  They couldn't keep their eyes off them."
+
+"Like their impudence," said Rifle, indignantly.
+
+"Of course.  Never thought of that," cried Man.
+
+Just then the captain, a double-barrelled rifle in his hand, and well
+mounted, was giving a final look round, when the dirty-looking fellow
+lounged up with about a dozen more, and addressed him as duly set down
+at the beginning of the first chapter.
+
+But the laughter was drowned by the sound of wheels and the trampling of
+hoofs; the wagons and carts moved off, each with a boy for driver, and
+Uncle Munday came last, mounted like his brother, to act the part of
+herdsman, an easy enough task, for the cattle and spare horses followed
+the wagons quietly enough after the fashion of gregarious beasts.
+
+The little caravan had gone on like this for about a mile along a track
+which was growing fainter every hundred yards, when Man Bedford gave his
+whip a crack, and turned to look back toward the sea.
+
+"We're off now, and no mistake," he said to himself.  "What fun to see
+Uncle John driving cattle like that! why, we ought to have had Master
+Ashantee--Tam o' Shanter--to do that job.  I wonder whether we shall see
+any fellows up the country as black as he."
+
+His brother and cousin were musing in a similar way, and all ended by
+thinking that they were off on an adventure that ought to prove
+exciting, since it was right away west into an almost unknown land.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+"ARE YOU AFRAID?"
+
+After the first few miles the tracks formed by cattle belonging to the
+settlers at Port Haven disappeared, and the boys, though still full of
+excited anticipations, gazed with something like awe at the
+far-spreading park-like land which grew more beautiful at every step.
+To their left lay the winding trough-like hollow along which the river
+ran toward the sea; away to their right the land rose and rose till it
+formed hills, and beyond them mountains, while higher mountains rose far
+away in front toward which they made their way.
+
+For the first hour or two the task of driving was irksome, but once well
+started the little caravan went on easily enough, for it soon became
+evident that if one of the laden carts was driven steadily on in front,
+the horses and bullocks would follow so exactly that they would almost
+tread in their leader's feet-marks, and keep the wheels of cart and wain
+pretty well in the ruts made by those before.  As to the cattle Uncle
+Munday drove, they all followed as a matter of course, till a pleasant
+glade was reached close by the river, where it was decided to stop for
+the mid-day halt.  Here carts and wagons were drawn up in a row, the
+cattle taken out, and after making their way to a convenient drinking
+place, they settled down to graze on the rich grass with perfect
+content.
+
+Meanwhile, to Norman's great disgust, he and Artemus were planted at a
+distance in front and rear to act as sentries.
+
+"But there isn't anything to keep watch over," said the elder boy in
+remonstrance.
+
+"How do you know, sir?" cried the captain, sharply.  "Recollect this--
+both of you--safety depends upon our keeping a good look-out.  I do not
+think the blacks will molest us, but I have been a soldier, Man, and a
+soldier always behaves in peace as he would in war."
+
+"More blacks in London," said Tim, as they moved off to take up their
+positions on a couple of eminences, each about a quarter of a mile away.
+
+"Yes," replied Man, who was somewhat mollified on finding that he was to
+keep guard with a loaded gun over his shoulder.  "I say, though, doesn't
+it seem queer that nobody lives out here, and that father can come and
+pick out quite a big estate, and then apply to the government and have
+it almost for nothing?"
+
+"It does," said Tim; "but I should have liked to stop in camp to have
+dinner."
+
+"Oh, they'll send us something, and--look, look--what are those?"
+
+A flock of great white cockatoos flew nearly over their heads, shrieking
+at them hoarsely, and went on toward the trees beyond the camp.
+
+"I say, doesn't it seem rum?  They're cockatoos."
+
+"Wild, and never saw a cage in their lives."
+
+"And we never fired and brought them down, and all the time with guns on
+our shoulders.  Look!"
+
+"Father's waving to us to separate.  I daresay they'll send us something
+to eat."
+
+The boys separated and went off to their posts, while smoke began to
+rise in the little camp, the tin kettle was filled and suspended over
+the wood fire, and Aunt Georgie brought out of their baggage the
+canister of tea and bag of sugar set apart for the journey.
+
+Bread they had brought with them, and a fair amount of butter, but a
+cask of flour was so packed that it could be got at when wanted for
+forming into damper, in the making of which the girls had taken lessons
+of a settler's wife at the port.
+
+In making his preparations Captain Bedford had, as hinted, been governed
+a good deal by old campaigning experience, and this he brought to bear
+on the journey.
+
+"Many things may seem absurd," he said, "and out of place to you women,
+such for instance as my planting sentries."
+
+"Well, yes," said Aunt Georgie, "it's like playing at soldiers.  Let the
+boys come and have some lunch."
+
+"No," said the captain; "it is not playing: we are invaders of a hostile
+country, and must be on our guard."
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Aunt Georgic, looking nervously round; "you don't
+mean that we shall meet with enemies?"
+
+"I hope not," said the captain; "but we must be prepared in case we do."
+
+"Yes; nothing like being prepared," said Uncle Munday.  "Here, give me
+something to eat, and I'll go on minding my beasts."
+
+"They will not stray," said the captain, "so you may rest in peace."
+
+It was, all declared, a delightful _alfresco_ meal under the shade of
+the great tree they had selected, and ten times preferable to one on
+board the ship, whose cabin had of late been unbearably hot and pervaded
+by an unpleasant odour of molten pitch.
+
+To the girls it was like the beginning of a delightful picnic, for they
+had ridden so far on a couple of well-broken horses, their path had been
+soft grass, and on every side nature looked beautiful in the extreme.
+
+Their faces shone with the pleasure they felt so far, but Mrs Bedford's
+countenance looked sad, for she fully grasped now the step that had been
+taken in cutting themselves adrift from the settlers at the port.  She
+had heard the bantering words of the man when they started, and they
+sent a chill through her as she pictured endless dangers, though at the
+same time she mentally agreed with her husband that solitude would be
+far preferable to living among such neighbours as the people at the
+port.
+
+She tried to be cheerful under the circumstances, arguing that there
+were three able and brave men to defend her and her niece and daughter,
+while the boys were rapidly growing up; but, all the same, her face
+would show that she felt the risks of the bold step her husband was
+taking, and his precautions added to her feeling of in security and
+alarm.
+
+In a very short time Rifle had finished his meal, and looked at their
+man German, who was seated a little way apart munching away at bread and
+cheese like a two-legged ruminant.  He caught the boy's eye, grunted,
+and rose at once.
+
+"Shall we relieve guard, father?" said Rifle.
+
+"No, but you may carry a jug of tea to the outposts," was the reply; and
+after this had been well-sweetened by Aunt Georgie, the boy went off to
+his cousin Tim, not because he was the elder, but on account of his
+being a visitor in their family, though one of very old standing.
+
+"Well," he cried, as he approached Tim, who was gazing intently at a
+patch of low scrubby trees a short distance off; "seen the enemy?"
+
+"Yes," said the boy, in a low earnest whisper.  "I was just going to
+give warning when I saw you comma."
+
+Rifle nearly dropped the jug, and his heart beat heavily.
+
+"I say, you don't mean it?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes, I do.  First of all I heard something rustle close by me, and I
+saw the grass move, and there was a snake."
+
+"How big?" cried Rifle, excitedly; "twenty feet?"
+
+"No.  Not eight, but it looked thick, and I watched it, meaning to shoot
+if it showed fight, but it went away as hard as ever it could go."
+
+"A snake--eight feet long!" cried Rifle, breathlessly.  "I say, we are
+abroad now, Tim.  Why didn't you shoot it?"
+
+"Didn't try to do me any harm," replied Tim, "and there was something
+else to look at."
+
+"Eh?  What?"
+
+"Don't look at the wood, Rifle, or they may rush out and throw spears at
+us."
+
+"Who?--savages?" whispered Rifle.
+
+"Yes; there are some of them hiding in that patch of trees."
+
+"Nonsense! there isn't room."
+
+"But I saw something black quite plainly.  Shall I fire?"
+
+"No," said Rifle, stoutly.  "It would look so stupid if it was a false
+alarm.  I was scared at first, but I believe now that it's all fancy."
+
+"It isn't," said Tim in a tone full of conviction; "and it would be ever
+so much more stupid to be posted here as sentry and to let the enemy
+come on us without giving the alarm."
+
+"Rubbish!  There is no enemy," cried Rifle.
+
+"Then why did my uncle post sentries?"
+
+"Because he's a soldier," cried the other.  "Here, have some tea.  It
+isn't too hot now, and old Man's signalling for his dose."
+
+"I can't drink tea now," said Tim, huskily.  "I'm sure there's somebody
+there."
+
+"Then let's go and see."
+
+Tim was silent.
+
+"What, are you afraid?" said his cousin.
+
+"No.  Are you?"
+
+"Don't ask impertinent questions," replied Rifle shortly.  "Will you
+come?"
+
+For answer Tim cocked his piece, and the two boys advanced over the
+thick grass toward the patch of dense scrub, their hearts beating
+heavily as they drew nearer, and each feeling that, if he had been
+alone, he would have turned and run back as hard as ever he could.
+
+But neither could show himself a coward in the other's eyes, and they
+walked on step by step, more and more slowly, in the full expectation of
+seeing a dozen or so of hostile blacks spring to their feet from their
+hiding-place, and charge out spear in hand.
+
+The distance was short, but it seemed to them very long, and with eyes
+roving from bush to bush, they went on till they were close to the first
+patch of trees, the rest looking more scattered as they drew nearer,
+when all at once there was a hideous cry, which paralysed them for the
+moment, and Tim stood with his gun half raised to his shoulder,
+searching among the trees for the savage who had uttered the yell.
+
+Another followed, with this time a beating of wings, and an ugly-looking
+black cockatoo flew off, while Rifle burst into a roar of laughter.
+
+"Why didn't you shoot the savage?" he cried.  "Here, let's go right
+through the bushes and back.  Perhaps we shall see some more."
+
+Tim drew a deep breath full of relief, and walked forward without a
+word, passing through the patch and back to where the tea-jug had been
+left.
+
+Here he drank heartily, and wiped his brow, while Rifle filled the mug a
+second time.
+
+"You may laugh," he said, "but it was a horrible sensation to feel that
+there were enemies."
+
+"Poll parrots," interrupted Rifle.
+
+"Enemies watching you," said Tim with a sigh.  "I say, Rifle, don't you
+feel nervous coming right out here where there isn't a soul?"
+
+"I don't know--perhaps.  It does seem lonely.  But not half so lonely as
+standing on deck looking over the bulwarks on a dark night far out at
+sea."
+
+"Yes; that did seem terrible," said Tim.
+
+"But we got used to it, and we _must_ get used to this.  More tea?"
+
+"No, thank you."
+
+"Then I'm off."
+
+With the jug partly emptied, Rifle was able to run to the open part,
+where Man greeted him with:
+
+"I say, what a while you've been.  See some game over yonder?"
+
+"No; but Tim thought there were savages in that bit of wood."
+
+"What! and you two went to see?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You were stupid.  Why, they might have speared you."
+
+"Yes; but being a sentry, Tim thought we ought to search the trees and
+see, and being so brave we went to search the place."
+
+He was pouring out some tea in the mug as he said the above, and his
+brother looked at him curiously.
+
+"You're both so what?" cried Man, with a mocking laugh.  "Why, I'll be
+bound to say--" _glug_, _glug_, _glug_, _glug_--"Oh, I was so thirsty.
+That was good," he sighed holding out the mug for more.
+
+"What are you bound to say?" said Rifle, refilling the mug.
+
+"That you both of you never felt so frightened before in your life.
+Come now, didn't you?"
+
+"Well, I did feel a bit uneasy," said Rifle, importantly; but he avoided
+his brother's eye.
+
+"Uneasy, eh?" said Man; "well, I call it frightened."
+
+"You would have been if it had been you."
+
+"Of course I should," replied Man.  "I should have run for camp like a
+shot."
+
+Rifle looked at him curiously.
+
+"No; you wouldn't," he said.
+
+"Oh, shouldn't I.  Catch me stopping to let the blacks make a target of
+me.  I should have run as hard as I could."
+
+"That's what I thought," said Rifle, after a pause; "but I couldn't
+turn.  I was too much frightened."
+
+"What, did your knees feel all shivery-wiggle?"
+
+"No; it wasn't that.  I was afraid of Tim thinking I was a coward, and
+so I went on with him, and found it was only a black cockatoo that had
+frightened him, but I was glad when it was all over.  You'd have done
+the same, Man."
+
+"Would I?" said the lad, dubiously.  "I don't know.  Aren't you going to
+have a drop yourself?"
+
+Rifle poured the remains of the tea into the mug, and gave it a twist
+round.
+
+"I say," he said, to change the conversation, which was not pleasant to
+him, "as soon as we get settled down at the farm, I shall vote for our
+having milk with our tea."
+
+"Cream," cried Man.  "I'm tired of ship tea and nothing in it but sugar.
+Hist! look there."
+
+His brother swung round and followed the direction of Man's pointing
+finger, to where in the distance they could see some animals feeding
+among the grass.
+
+"Rabbits!" cried the boy eagerly.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Man; "they're too big.  Who ever saw rabbits that
+size?"
+
+"Well, hares then," said Rifle, excitedly.  "I say, why not shoot one?"
+
+Norman made no answer, but stood watching the animals as, with long ears
+erect, they loped about among the long grass, taking a bite here and a
+bite there.
+
+Just then a shrill whistle came from the camp, and at the sound the
+animals sat up, and then in a party of about a dozen, went bounding over
+the tall grass and bushes at a rapid rate, which kept the boys watching
+them, till they caught sight of Tim making for the party beneath the
+tree, packing up, and preparing to continue the journey.
+
+"Now, boys, saddle up," cried the captain.  "See the kangaroos?"
+
+"Of course, cried Norman; we ought to have known, but the grass hid
+their legs.  I thought their ears were not long enough for rabbits."
+
+"Rabbits six feet high!" said the captain, smiling.
+
+"Six what, father?" cried Norman.
+
+"Feet high," said the captain; "some of the males are, when they sit up
+on their hind-legs, and people say that they are sometimes dangerous
+when hunted.  I daresay we shall know more about them by-and-by.--What
+made you go forward, Tim, when Rifle came to you--to look at the
+kangaroos?"
+
+"No, uncle; I thought I saw blacks amongst the bushes."
+
+"Well, next time, don't advance, but retire.  They are clever with their
+spears, and I don't want you to be hit."
+
+He turned quickly, for he heard a sharp drawing of the breath behind
+him, and there was Mrs Bedford, with a look of agony on her face, for
+she had heard every word.
+
+"But the blacks will not meddle with us if we do not meddle with them,"
+he continued quickly; though he was conscious that his words had not
+convinced his wife.
+
+He went close up to her.
+
+"Come," he whispered, "is this being brave and setting the boys a good
+example?"
+
+"I am trying, dear," she whispered back, "so hard you cannot tell."
+
+"Yes, I can," he replied tenderly; "I know all you suffer, but try and
+be stout-hearted.  Some one must act as a pioneer in a new country.  I
+am trying to be one, and I want your help.  Don't discourage me by being
+faint-hearted about trifles, and fancying dangers that may never come."
+
+Mrs Bedford pressed her husband's hand, and half an hour later, and all
+in the same order, the little caravan was once more in motion, slowly
+but very surely, the country growing still more beautiful, and all
+feeling, when they halted in a beautiful glade that evening, and in the
+midst of quite a little scene of excitement the new tent was put up for
+the first time, that they had entered into possession of a new Eden,
+where all was to be happiness and peace.
+
+A fire was soon lit, and mutton steaks being frizzled, water was
+fetched; the cattle driven to the river, and then to pasture, after the
+wagons and carts had been disposed in a square about the tent.  Then a
+delicious meal was eaten, watch set, and the tired travellers watched
+the creeping on of the dark shadows, till all the woodland about them
+was intensely black, and the sky seemed to be one blaze of stars
+glittering like diamonds, or the sea-path leading up to the moon.
+
+It had been decided that all would go to rest in good time, so that they
+might breakfast at dawn, and get well on in the morning before the sun
+grew hot; but the night was so balmy, and everything so peaceful and
+new, that the time went on, and no one stirred.
+
+The fire had been made up so that it might smoulder all through the
+night, and the great kettle had been filled and placed over it ready for
+the morning; and then they all sat upon box, basket, and rug spread upon
+the grass, talking in a low voice, listening to the _crop_, _crop_ of
+the cattle, and watching the stars or the trees lit up now and then by
+the flickering flames of the wood fire; till all at once, unasked, as if
+moved by the rippling stream hard by, Ida began to sing in a low voice
+the beautiful old melody of "Flow on, thou Shining River," and Hester
+took up the second part of the duet till about half through, the music
+sounding wonderfully sweet and solemn out in those primeval groves, when
+suddenly Hester ceased singing, and sat with lips apart gazing straight
+before her.
+
+"Hetty," cried Ida, ceasing, "what is it?"  Then, as if she had caught
+sight of that which had checked her Cousin's singing, she uttered a wild
+and piercing shriek, and the men and boys sprang to their feet, the
+captain making a dash for the nearest gun.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+"WHITE MARY 'GIN TO SING."
+
+"What is it--what did you see?" was whispered by more than one in the
+midst of the intense excitement; and just then German, who had been
+collecting dry fuel ready to use for the smouldering embers in the
+morning, did what might have proved fatal to the emigrants.
+
+He threw half an armful of dry brushwood on the fire, with the result
+that there was a loud crackling sound, and a burst of brilliant flame
+which lit up a large circle round, throwing up the figures of the little
+party clearly against the darkness, ready for the spears of the blacks
+who might be about to attack them.
+
+"Ah!" shouted Uncle Jack, and seizing a blanket which had been spread
+over the grass, where the girls had been seated, he threw it right over
+the fire, and in an instant all was darkness.
+
+But the light had spread out long enough for the object which had
+startled Hetty to be plainly seen.  For there, twenty yards away in
+front of a great gum-tree, stood a tall black figure with its gleaming
+eyes fixed upon the group, and beneath those flaming eyes a set of white
+teeth glistened, as if savagely, in the glow made by the blaze.
+
+"Why, it's Ashantee," cried Norman, excitedly; and he made a rush at the
+spot where he had seen the strange-looking figure, and came upon it
+where it stood motionless with one foot against the opposite leg, and
+the tall stick or spear planted firmly upon the ground.
+
+_Click_, _click_! came from the captain's gun, as he ran forward
+shouting, "Quick, all of you, into the tent!"
+
+"What are you doing here?" cried Norman, as he grasped the black's arm.
+
+"Tickpence.  Got tickpence," was the reply.
+
+Norman burst into a roar of laughter, and dragged the black forward.
+
+"Hi! father.  I've taken a prisoner," he cried.--"But I say, uncle, that
+blanket's burning.  What a smell!"
+
+"No, no, don't take it off," said the captain; "let it burn now."
+
+Uncle Munday stirred the burning blanket about with a stick, and it
+blazed up furiously, the whole glade being lit up again, and the
+trembling women tried hard to suppress the hysterical sobs which
+struggled for utterance in cries.
+
+"Why, you ugly scoundrel!" cried the captain fiercely, as hanging back
+in a half-bashful manner the black allowed himself to be dragged right
+up to the light, "what do you mean?  How dare you come here?"
+
+"Tick pence," said the black.  "You gib tickpence."
+
+"Gib tickpence, you sable-looking unclothed rascal!" cried the captain,
+whose stern face relaxed.  "Thank your stars that I didn't give you a
+charge of heavy shot."
+
+"Tickpence.  Look!"
+
+"Why, it's like a conjuring trick," cried Norman, as the native joined
+them.  "Look at him."
+
+To produce a little silver coin out of one's pockets is an easy feat;
+but Ashantee brought out his sixpence apparently from nowhere, held it
+out between his black finger and thumb in the light for a minute, so
+that all could see, and then in an instant it had disappeared again, and
+he clapped his foot with quite a smack up against his leg again, and
+showed his teeth as he went on.
+
+"White Mary 'gin to sing.  Wee-eak!" he cried, with a perfect imitation
+of the cry the poor girl had uttered.  "Pipum crow 'gin to sing morrow
+mornum."
+
+He let his spear fall into the hollow of his arm, and placing both hands
+to his mouth, produced a peculiarly deep, sweet-toned whistle, which
+sounded as if somebody were incorrectly running up the notes of a chord.
+
+"Why, I heard some one whistling like that this morning early," cried
+Tim.
+
+"Pipum crow," said the black again, and he repeated the notes, but
+changed directly with another imitation, that of a peculiarly harsh
+braying laugh, which sounded weird and strange in the still night air.
+
+"Most accomplished being!" said Uncle Munday, sarcastically.
+
+"Laughum Jackamarass," said the black; and he uttered the absurd cry
+again.
+
+"Why, I heard that this morning!" cried Rifle.  "It was you that made
+the row?"
+
+"Laughum Jackamarass," said the black importantly.  "Sung in um bush.
+You gib Shanter tickpence.  You gib damper?"
+
+"What does he mean?" said Uncle Jack.  "Hang him, he gave us a damper."
+
+"Hey?  Damper?" cried the black, and he smacked his lips and began to
+rub the lower part of his chest in a satisfied way.
+
+"He wants a piece of bread," said the captain.--"Here, aunt, cut him a
+lump and let's get rid of him.  There is no cause for alarm.  I suppose
+he followed us to beg, but I don't want any of his tribe."
+
+"Oh, my dear Edward, no," cried Aunt Georgie.  "I don't want to see any
+more of the dreadful black creatures.--Here, chimney-sweep, come here."
+
+As she spoke, she opened the lid of a basket, and drew from its sheath a
+broad-bladed kitchen knife hung to a thin leather belt, which bore a
+clasped bag on the other side.
+
+"Hi crikey!" shouted the black in alarm, his _repertoire_ of English
+words being apparently stored with choice selections taught him by the
+settlers.  "Big white Mary going killancookaneatum."
+
+"What does the creature mean?" said Aunt Georgie, who had not caught the
+black's last compound word.
+
+"No, no," said Norman, laughing.  "She's going to cut you some damper,
+Shanter."
+
+"Ho! mind a knife--mind a knife," said the black; and he approached
+warily.
+
+"He thought you were going to kill and cook him, aunt," said the boy,
+who was in high glee at the lady's disgust.
+
+"I thought as much," cried Aunt Georgie; "then the wretch is a cannibal,
+or he would never have had such nasty ideas.--Ob, Edward, what were you
+thinking about to bring us into such a country!"
+
+"Bio white Mary gib damper?" asked the black insinuatingly.
+
+"Not a bit," said Aunt Georgie, making a menacing chop with the knife,
+which made the black leap back into a picturesque attitude, with his
+rough spear poised as if he were about to hurl it.
+
+"Quick, Edward!--John!" cried Aunt Georgie, sheltering her face with her
+arms.  "Shoot the wretch; he's going to spear me."
+
+"Nonsense!  Cut him some bread and let him go.  You threatened him first
+with the knife."
+
+The whole party were roaring with laughter now at the puzzled faces of
+Aunt Georgina and the black, who now lowered his spear.
+
+"Big white Mary want to kill Shanter?" he said to Rifle.
+
+"No; what nonsense!" cried Aunt Georgie indignantly; "but I will not cut
+him a bit if he dares to call me big white Mary.  Such impudence!"
+
+"My dear aunt!" said the captain, wiping his eyes, "you are too absurd."
+
+"And you laughing too?" she cried indignantly.  "I came out into this
+heathen land out of pure affection for you all, thinking I might be
+useful, and help to protect the girls, and you let that wretch insult
+and threaten me.  Big white Mary, indeed!  I believe you'd be happy if
+you saw him thrust that horrid, great skewer through me, and I lay
+weltering in my gore."
+
+"Stuff, auntie!" cried Uncle Jack.
+
+"Why, he threatened me."
+
+"Big white Mary got a lot o' hot damper.  Gib Shanter bit."
+
+"There he goes again!" cried the old lady.
+
+"He doesn't mean any harm.  The blacks call all the women who come white
+Marys."
+
+"And their wives too?"
+
+"Oh no; they call them their gins.  Come, cut him a big piece of bread,
+and I'll start him off.  I want for us to get to rest."
+
+"Am I to cut it in slices and butter it?"
+
+"No, no.  Cut him one great lump."
+
+Aunt Georgie sighed, opened a white napkin, took out a large loaf, and
+cut off about a third, which she impaled on the point of the knife, and
+held out at arm's length, while another roar of laughter rose at the
+scene which ensued.
+
+For the black looked at the bread, then at Aunt Georgie, then at the
+bread again suspiciously.  There was the gleaming point of that knife
+hidden within the soft crumb; and as his mental capacity was nearly as
+dark as his skin, and his faith in the whites, unfortunately--from the
+class he had encountered and from whom he had received more than one
+piece of cruel ill-usage--far from perfect, he saw in imagination that
+sharp point suddenly thrust right through and into his black flesh as
+soon as he tried to take the piece of loaf.
+
+The boys literally shrieked as the black stretched out a hand, made a
+feint to take it, and snatched it back again.
+
+"Take it, you stupid!" cried Aunt Georgie, with a menacing gesture.
+
+"Hetty--Ida--look!" whispered Tim, as the black advanced a hand again,
+but more cautiously.
+
+"Mind!" shouted Rifle; and the black bounded back, turned to look at the
+boy, and then showed his white teeth.
+
+"Are you going to take this bread?" cried Aunt Georgie, authoritatively.
+
+"No tick a knifum in Shanter?" said the black in reply.
+
+"Nonsense!  No."
+
+"Shanter all soff in frontum."
+
+"Take the bread."
+
+Every one was laughing and watching the little scone with intense
+enjoyment as, full of doubt and suspicion, the black advanced his hand
+again very cautiously, and nearly touched the bread, when Aunt Georgie
+uttered a contemptuous "pish!" whose effect was to make the man bound
+back a couple of yards, to the lady's great disgust.
+
+"I've a great mind to throw it at his stupid, cowardly head," she cried
+angrily.
+
+"Don't do that," said the captain, wiping his eyes.  "Poor fellow! he
+has been tricked before.  A burned child fears the fire.--Hi!  Ashantee,
+take the bread," said the captain, and he wiped his eyes again.
+
+"Make um all cry," said the black, apostrophising Aunt Georgie; then,
+turning to the captain, "Big white Mary won't tick knifum in poor
+Shanter?"
+
+"No, no, she will not.--Here, auntie, give him the bread with your
+hand."
+
+"I won't," said Aunt Georgie, emphatically.  "I will not encourage his
+nasty, suspicious thoughts.  He must be taught better.  As if I, an
+English lady, would do such a thing as behave like a murderous bravo of
+Venice.--Come here, sir, directly, and take that bread off the point of
+the knife," and she accompanied her words with an unmistakable piece of
+pantomime, holding the bread out, and pointing with one finger.
+
+"Don't, pray, don't stop the fun, uncle," whispered Tim.
+
+"No; let 'em alone," growled Uncle Jack, whose face was puckered up into
+a broad laugh.
+
+"Do you hear me, sir?"
+
+"No tick a knifum in?"
+
+"No; of course not.  No--No."
+
+"All right," said the black; and he stretched out his hand again, and
+with his eyes fixed upon Aunt Georgie, he slowly approached till he
+nearly touched the bread.
+
+"That's right; take it," said the old lady, giving it a sharp push
+forward at the same moment, and the black leaped back once more with a
+look of disgust upon his face which gave way to another grin.
+
+"What shame!" he cried in a tone of remonstrance.  "'Tick knife in, make
+um bleed.  Damper no good no more."
+
+"Well, of all the horrible creatures!" cried Aunt Georgie, who stood
+there full in the firelight in happy unconsciousness of the fact that
+the scene was double, for the shadows of the two performers were thrown
+grotesquely but distinctly upon the wall of verdure by their side.
+
+Just then a happy thought struck the black, who advanced again nearly
+within reach of the bread, planted his spear behind him as a support,
+holding it with both hands, and then, grinning mightily at his own
+cunning in keeping his body leaning back out of reach, he lifted one
+leg, and with his long elastic foot working, stretched it out and tried
+to take the piece of bread with his toes.
+
+A perfect shriek of laughter arose from the boys at this, and the black
+turned sharply to give them a self-satisfied nod, as if to say, "She
+can't get at me now," while the mirth increased as Aunt Georgie snatched
+the bread back.
+
+"That you don't, sir," she cried.  "Such impudence!  You take that bread
+properly, or not a bit do you have."
+
+As she spoke she shook the knife at him, and the black again leaped
+back, looked serious, and then scratched his head as if for a fresh
+thought.
+
+The idea came as Aunt Georgie stretched out the bread again.
+
+"Now, sir," she cried, "come and take it this instant."
+
+The black hesitated, then, slowly lowering the spear, he brought the
+point down to the bread and made a sudden poke at it; but the
+fire-hardened point glanced off the crust, and two more attempts failed.
+
+"No," said Aunt Georgie; "you don't have it like that, sir.  I could
+turn the crumb round and let you get it, but you shall take it properly
+in your hand.  Now then, take it correctly."
+
+She made another menacing gesture, which caused the black to shrink; but
+he was evidently hungry, and returned to get the bread; so this time he
+advanced with lowered spear, and as he drew near he laid the weapon on
+the bread, and slowly advanced nearer and nearer, the spear passing over
+the bread till, as the black's left hand touched the loaf, the point of
+the spear was within an inch of Aunt Georgie's breast.  But the old lady
+did not shrink.  She stood her ground bravely, her eyes fixed on the
+black's and her lips going all the time.
+
+"Oh, you suspicious wretch!" she cried.  "How dare you doubt me!  Yes;
+you had better!  Why, if you so much as scratched me with the point of
+your nasty stick, they would shoot you dead.  There, take it."
+
+The captain felt startled, for just then she made a sharp gesture when
+the black was in the act of snatching the bread.  But the alarm was
+needless; the savage's idea was to protect himself, not to resist her,
+and as the quick movement she made caused the bread to drop from the
+point of the knife, he bobbed down, secured it almost as it touched the
+ground, caught it up, and darted back.
+
+"Shanter got a damper," he cried; and tearing off a piece, he thrust it
+into his mouth.  "Hah, nice, good.  Soff damper.  No tick knifum in
+Shanter dis once."
+
+"There," said the captain, advancing, "you have your damper, and there's
+another sixpence for you.  Now go."
+
+The black ceased eating, and looked at the little piece of silver.
+
+"What for tickpence?" he said.
+
+"For you--for your gin."
+
+"Hey, Shanter no got gin.  Gin not have tickpence."  He shook his head,
+and went on eating.
+
+"Very well then; good-night.  Now go."
+
+"Go 'long?"
+
+"Yes.  Be off!"
+
+The black nodded and laughed.
+
+"Got tickpence--got damper.  No couldn't tick a knifum in Shanter.  Go
+'long--be off!"
+
+He turned sharply, made a terrible grimace at Aunt Georgie, shook his
+spear, struck an attitude, as if about to throw his spear at her, raised
+it again, and then threw the bread high up, caught it as it came down on
+the point, shouldered his weapon, and marched away into the darkness,
+which seemed to swallow him up directly.
+
+"There, good people," said the captain merrily, "now time for bed."
+
+Ten minutes later the embers had been raked together, watch set, and for
+the most part the little party dropped asleep at once, to be awakened by
+the chiming notes of birds, the peculiar whistle of the piping crows,
+and the shrieks of a flock of gloriously painted parrots that were busy
+over the fruit in a neighbouring tree.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+"HOW MANY DID YOU SEE?"
+
+It was only dawn, but German had seen that the great kettle was boiling
+where it hung over the wood fire, and that the cattle were all safe, and
+enjoying their morning repast of rich, green, dewy grass.  The boys were
+up and off at once, full of the life and vigour given by a night's rest
+in the pure fresh air, and away down to the river side to have a bath
+before breakfast.
+
+Then, just as flecks of orange were beginning to appear, Aunt Georgie
+came out of the tent tying on an apron before picking up a basket, and
+in a businesslike way going to the fire, where she opened the canister,
+poured some tea into a bit of muslin, and tied it up loosely, as if she
+were about to make a tea-pudding.
+
+"Too much water, Samuel," she said; "pour half away."
+
+Sam German lifted down the boiling kettle, and poured half away.
+
+"Set it down, Samuel."
+
+"Yes, mum," said the man obediently; and as it was placed by the fire,
+Aunt Georgie plunged her tea-bag in, and held it beneath the boiling
+water with a piece of stick.
+
+Just then the captain and Uncle Jack appeared from where they had been
+inspecting the horses.
+
+"Morning, auntie," said the former, going up and kissing the
+sturdy-looking old lady.
+
+"Good-morning, my dear," she replied; "you needn't ask me.  I slept
+deliciously, and only dreamed once about that dreadful black man.--
+Good-morning, John, my dear," she continued, kissing Uncle Jack.  "Why,
+you have not shaved, my dear."
+
+"No," he said gruffly, "I'm going to let my beard grow."
+
+"John!" exclaimed Aunt Georgie.
+
+"Time those girls were up," said the captain.
+
+"They'll be here directly, Edward," said the old lady; "they are only
+packing up the blankets."
+
+"Oh!" said the captain; "that's right.  Why, where are the boys gone?"
+
+"Down to the river for a bathe, sir," said German.
+
+"What!  Which way?" roared the captain.
+
+"Straight down yonder, sir, by the low trees."
+
+"Quick, Jack, your gun!" cried the captain, running to the wagon,
+getting his, and then turning to run in the direction pointed out; his
+brother, who was accustomed to the captain's quick military ways, and
+knowing that he would not give an order like that if there were not dire
+need, following him directly, armed with a double gun, and getting close
+up before he asked what was the matter.
+
+"Matter?" panted the captain.  "Cock your piece--both barrels--and be
+ready to fire when I do.  The boys are gone down to the river."
+
+"What, are there really savages there?"
+
+"Yes," said the captain, hoarsely; "savages indeed.  Heaven grant we may
+be there in time.  They have gone to bathe, and the river swarms for a
+long way up with reptiles."
+
+Uncle Jack drew a deep breath as, with his gun at the trail, he trotted
+on beside his brother, both increasing their pace as they heard the
+sound of a splash and shouting.
+
+"Faster!" roared the captain, and they ran on till they got out from
+among the trees on to a clearing, beautifully green now, but showing
+plain by several signs that it was sometimes covered by the glittering
+river which ran deep down now below its banks.
+
+There before them were Rifle and Tim, just in the act of taking off
+their last garments, and the former was first and about to take a run
+and a header off the bank into the deep waters below, when, quick as
+thought, the captain raised his gun, and without putting it to his
+shoulder, held it pistol way, and fired in the air.
+
+"Now you can shoot!" cried the captain; and again, without stopping to
+ask questions, Uncle Jack obeyed, the two shots sounding almost
+deafening in the mist that hung over the ravine.
+
+As the captain had anticipated, the sound of the shots stopped Rifle at
+the very edge of the river, and made him make for his clothes, and what
+was of even greater importance, as he reached the bank where the river
+curved round in quite a deep eddy beneath them, there was Norman twenty
+yards away swimming rapidly toward a shallow place where he could land.
+
+Words would not have produced such an effect.
+
+"Now," said the captain, panting for breath from exertion and
+excitement, "watch the water.  Keep your gun to your shoulder, and fire
+the moment there is even a ripple anywhere near the boy."
+
+Uncle Jack obeyed, while as Norman looked up, he saw himself apparently
+covered by the two guns, and at once dived like a dabchick.
+
+"Madness! madness!" groaned the captain; "has he gone down to meet his
+fate.  What are you loaded with?"
+
+"Ball," said Uncle Jack, laconically.
+
+"Better lie down and rest your piece on the edge of the bank.  You must
+not miss."
+
+As they both knelt and rested the guns, Norman's head appeared.
+
+"I say, don't," he shouted.  "I see you.  Don't do that."
+
+"Ashore, quick!" roared the captain, so fiercely that the boy swam
+harder.
+
+"No," roared the captain again; "slowly and steadily."
+
+"Yes, father, but don't, don't shoot at me.  I'm only bathing."
+
+"Don't talk; swim!" cried the captain in a voice of thunder; and the boy
+swam on, but he did not make rapid way, for the tide, which reached up
+to where they were, was running fast, and as he swam obliquely across
+it, he was carried rapidly down.
+
+"What have I done--what does it mean?" he thought, as he swam on,
+growing so much excited now by the novelty of his position that his
+limbs grew heavy, and it was not without effort that he neared the bank,
+still covered by the two guns; and at last touched bottom, waded a few
+paces, and climbed out to where he was able to mount the slope and stand
+in safety upon the grass.
+
+"Ned, old fellow, what is it?" whispered Uncle Jack, catching his
+brother's arm, for he saw his face turn of a ghastly hue.
+
+"Hush! don't take any notice.  I shall be better directly.  Load that
+empty barrel."
+
+Uncle John Munday Bedford obeyed in silence, but kept an eye upon his
+brother as he poured in powder, rammed down a wad, and then sent a
+charge of big shot rattling into the gun before thrusting in another wad
+and ramming it home.
+
+As he did all this, and then prised open the pan of the lock to see that
+it was well filled with the fine powder--for there were no breechloaders
+in those days, and the captain had decided to take their old flint-lock
+fowling-pieces for fear that they might be stranded some day up-country
+for want of percussion caps--the deadly sickness passed off, and Captain
+Bedford sighed deeply, and began to reload in turn.
+
+Meanwhile, Norman, after glancing at his father, naturally enough ran to
+where he had left his clothes, hurried into shirt and trousers, and as
+soon as he was, like his companions, half-dressed, came toward the two
+men, Rifle and Tim following him, after the trio had had a whispered
+consultation.
+
+"I'm very sorry, father," faltered Norman, as he saw the stern, frowning
+face before him, while Uncle Jack looked almost equally solemn.
+
+Then, as the captain remained silent, the lad continued: "I know you
+said that we were to journey up the country quite in military fashion,
+and obey orders in everything; but I did not think it would be doing
+anything wrong for us all to go and have a morning swim."
+
+"Was it your doing?" said the captain, coldly.
+
+"Yes, father.  I know it was wrong now, but I said there would be time
+for us all to bathe, as the river was so near.  I didn't think that--"
+
+"No," said the captain, sternly, "you did not think--you did not stop to
+think, Norman.  That is one of the differences between a boy and a man.
+Remember it, my lad.  A boy does not stop to think: as a rule a man
+does.  Now, tell me this, do I ever refuse to grant you boys any
+reasonable enjoyment?"
+
+"No, father."
+
+"And I told you before we started that you must be very careful to act
+according to my rules and regulations, for an infringement might bring
+peril to us all."
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"And yet you took upon yourself to go down there to bathe in that swift,
+strange river, and took your brother and cousin."
+
+"Yes, father.  I see it was wrong now, but it seemed a very innocent
+thing to do."
+
+"Innocent?  You could not have been guilty of a more wild and mad act.
+Why would not the captain allow bathing when we were in the tropics?"
+
+"Because of the sharks; but there would not be sharks up here in this
+river."
+
+"Are there no other dangerous creatures infesting water, sir?"
+
+A horrified look came into Norman's eyes, and the colour faded out of
+his cheeks.
+
+"What!" he said at last, in a husky voice, "are there crocodiles in the
+river?"
+
+"I had it on good authority that the place swarmed with them, sir; and
+you may thank God in your heart that my enterprise has not been darkened
+at the start by a tragedy."
+
+"Oh, father!" cried the boy, catching at the captain's hand.
+
+"There, it has passed, Man," said the captain, pressing the boy's hand
+and laying the other on his shoulder; "but spare me such another shock.
+Think of what I must have felt when German told me you boys had come
+down to bathe.  I ought to have warned you last night; but I cannot
+think of everything, try as I may.  There, it is our secret, boys.  Your
+mother is anxious enough, so not a word about this.  Quick, get on your
+clothes, and come on to breakfast.--Jack, old fellow," he continued, as
+he walked slowly back, "it made me feel faint as a woman.  But mind
+about the firing.  We did not hit anything.  They will very likely ask."
+
+As it happened, no questions were asked about the firing, and after a
+hearty breakfast, which, in the bright morning, was declared to be
+exactly like a picnic, they started once more on what was a glorious
+excursion, without a difficulty in their way.  There was no road, not so
+much as a faint track, but they travelled on through scenery like an
+English park, and the leader had only to turn aside a little from time
+to time to avoid some huge tree, no other obstacles presenting
+themselves in their way.
+
+German, the captain's old servant, a peculiarly crabbed man in his way,
+drove the cart containing the tent, provisions, and other immediate
+necessaries; Uncle Munday came last on horseback with his gun instead of
+a riding-whip, driving the cattle and spare horses, which followed the
+lead willingly enough, only stopping now and then to crop the rich
+grass.
+
+The progress was naturally very slow, but none the less pleasant, and so
+long as the leader went right, and Uncle Munday took care that no
+stragglers were left behind, there was very little need for the other
+drivers to trouble about their charges; while the girls, both with their
+faces radiant with enjoyment, cantered about quite at home on their
+side-saddles, now with the captain, who played the part of scout in
+advance and escort guard, now behind with Uncle Jack, whose severe face
+relaxed whenever they came to keep him company.
+
+Hence it was that, the incident of the morning almost forgotten, Norman
+left the horses by whose side he trudged, to go forward to Rifle, who
+was also playing carter.
+
+"How are you getting on?" he said.
+
+"Slowly.  I want to get there.  Let's go and talk to Tim."
+
+Norman was ready enough, and they went on to where their cousin was
+seated on the shaft of one of the carts whistling, and practising
+fly-fishing with his whip.
+
+"Caught any?" said Rifle.
+
+"Eh?  Oh, I see," said the boy, laughing.  "No; but I say there are some
+flies out here, and can't they frighten the horses!"
+
+"Wouldn't you like to go right forward?" said Norman, "and see what the
+country's like?"
+
+"No: you can see from here without any trouble."
+
+"Can you?" said Rifle; and catching his cousin by the shoulder, he gave
+him a sharp pull, and made him leap to the ground.
+
+"What did you do that for?" said Tim resentfully.
+
+"To make you walk.  Think the horse hasn't got enough to drag without
+you?  Let's go and talk to Sourkrout."
+
+"If old Sam hears you call him that, he'll complain to father," said
+Norman quietly.
+
+"Not he.  Wouldn't be such an old sneak.  Come on."
+
+The three boys went forward to where Sam German sat up high in front of
+the cart looking straight before him, and though he seemed to know that
+the lads were there by him, he did not turn his eyes to right or left.
+
+"What can you see, Sam?" cried Rifle eagerly.
+
+"Nought," was the gruff reply.
+
+"Well, what are you looking at?"
+
+"Yon tree right away there."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"That's where the master said I was to make for, and if I don't keep my
+eye on it, how am I to get there."
+
+He nodded his head toward a tree which stood up alone miles and miles
+away, but perfectly distinct in the clear air, and for a few minutes
+nothing more was said, for there were flies, birds, and flowers on every
+hand to take the attention of the boys.
+
+"How do you like Australia, Sam?" said Norman, at last.
+
+"Not at all," grumbled the man.
+
+"Well, you are hard to please.  Why, the place is lovely."
+
+"Tchah!  I don't see nothing lovely about it.  I want to know why the
+master couldn't take a farm in England instead of coming here.  What are
+we going to do for neighbours when we get there?"
+
+"Be our own neighbours, Sam," said Rifle.
+
+"Tchah!  You can't."
+
+"But see how beautiful the place is," said Tim, enthusiastically.
+
+"What's the good of flowers, sir?  I want taters."
+
+"Well, we are going to grow some soon, and everything else too."
+
+"Oh! are we?" growled Sam.  "Get on, will yer?"--this to the horse.
+"Strikes me as the captain's going to find out something out here."
+
+"Of course he is--find a beautiful estate, and make a grand farm and
+garden."
+
+"Oh! is he?" growled Sam.  "Strikes me no he won't.  Grow taters, will
+he?  How does he know as they'll grow?"
+
+"Because it's such beautiful soil, you can grow Indian corn, sugar,
+tobacco, grapes, anything."
+
+"Injun corn, eh?  English corn's good enough for me.  Why, I grew some
+Injun corn once in the hothouse at home, and pretty stuff it was."
+
+"Why, it was very handsome, Sam," said Rifle.
+
+"Hansum?  Tchah.  What's the good o' being hansum if you ain't useful?"
+
+"Well, _you're_ not handsome, Sam," said Norman, laughing.
+
+"Who said I was, sir?  Don't want to be.  That's good enough for women
+folk.  But I am useful.  Come now."
+
+"So you are, Sam," said Tim; "the jolliest, usefullest fellow that ever
+was."
+
+"Useful, Master 'Temus, but I don't know about jolly.  Who's going to be
+jolly, transported for life out here like a convick?  And as for that
+Injun corn, it was a great flop-leaved, striped thing as grew a ear with
+the stuff in it hard as pebbles on the sea-saw--seashore, I mean."
+
+"Sam's got his tongue in a knot," said Norman.  "What are you eating,
+Sam?"
+
+"Ain't eating--chewing."
+
+"What are you chewing, then.  India-rubber?"
+
+"Tchah!  Think I want to make a schoolboy's pop-patch?  Inger-rubber?
+No; bacco."
+
+"Ugh! nasty," said Rifle.  "Well, father says he shall grow tobacco."
+
+"'Tain't to be done, Master Raffle," said Sam, cracking his whip; nor
+grapes nayther.  Yer can't grow proper grapes without a glass-house.
+
+"Not in a hot country like this?"
+
+"No, sir.  They'll all come little teeny rubbidging things big as black
+currants, and no better."
+
+"Ah, you'll see," cried Norman.
+
+"Oh yes, I shall see, sir.  I ain't been a gardener for five-and-twenty
+years without knowing which is the blade of a spade and which is the
+handle."
+
+"Of course you haven't," said Tim.
+
+"Thankye, Master 'Temus.  You always was a gentleman as understood me,
+and when we gets there--if ever we does get there, which I don't
+believe, for I don't think as there is any there, and master as good as
+owned to it hisself, no later nor yes'day, when he laughed at me, and
+said as he didn't know yet where he was a-going--I says, if ever we does
+get there, and you wants to make yourself a garden, why, I'll help yer."
+
+"Thankye, Sam, you shall."
+
+"Which I will, sir, and the other young gents, too, if they wants 'em
+and don't scorn 'em, as they used to do."
+
+"Why, when did we scorn gardens?" said the other two boys in a breath.
+
+"Allus, sir; allus, if you had to work in 'em.  But ye never scorned my
+best apples and pears, Master Norman; and as for Master Raffle, the way
+he helped hisself to my strorbys, blackbuds, and throstles was nothing
+to 'em."
+
+"And will again, Sam, if you grow some," cried Rifle.
+
+"Don't I tell yer it ain't to be done, sir," said Sam, giving his whip a
+vicious whish through the air, and making the horse toss its head,
+"Master grow taters?  Tchah! not he.  You see if they don't all run away
+to tops and tater apples, and you can't eat they."
+
+"Don't be so prejudiced."
+
+"Me, sir--prejudiced?" cried the gardener indignantly.  "Come, I do like
+that.  Can't yer see for yourselves, you young gents, as things won't
+grow here proper?"
+
+"No!" chorused the boys.
+
+"Look at the flowers everywhere.  Why, they're lovely," cried Norman.
+
+"The flowers?" said Sam, contemptuously.  "Weeds I call them.  I ain't
+seen a proper rose nor a love-lies-bleeding, nor a dahlia."
+
+"No, but there are plenty of other beautiful flowers growing wild."
+
+"Well, who wants wild-flowers, sir?  Besides, I want to see a good
+wholesome cabbage or dish o' peas."
+
+"Well, you must plant them first."
+
+"Plaint 'em?  It won't be no good, sir."
+
+"Well, look at the trees," said Rifle.
+
+"The trees?  Ha! ha! ha!" cried Sam, with something he meant for a
+scornful laugh.  "I have been looking at 'em.  I don't call them trees."
+
+"What do you call them, then?" said Norman.
+
+"I d'know.  I suppose they thinks they're trees, if so be as they can
+think, but look at 'em.  Who ever saw a tree grow with its leaves like
+that.  Leaves ought to be flat, and hanging down.  Them's all set
+edgewise like butcher's broom, and pretty stuff that is."
+
+"But they don't all grow that way."
+
+"Oh yes, they do, sir.  Trees can't grow proper in such syle as this
+here.  Look here, Master 'Temus, you always did care for your garden so
+long as I did all the weeding for you.  You can speak fair.  Now tell me
+this, What colour ought green trees to be?"
+
+"Why, green, of course."
+
+"Werry well, then; just look at them leaves.  Ye can't call them green;
+they're pink and laylock, and dirty, soap-suddy green."
+
+"Well, there then, look how beautifully the grass grows."
+
+"Grass?  Ye-e-es; it's growing pretty thick.  Got used to it, I
+suppose."
+
+"So will our fruits and vegetables, Sam."
+
+"Nay, Master Norman, never.  The syle won't suit, sir, nor the country,
+nor the time, nor nothing."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Nay, sir, 'tain't nonsense.  The whole place here's topsy-turvy like.
+Why, it's Christmas in about a fortnit's time, and are you going to tell
+me this is Christmas weather?  Why, it's hot as Horgus."
+
+"Well, that's because we're so far south."
+
+"That we ain't, sir.  We're just as far north as we are south, and you
+can't get over that."
+
+"But it's because we've crossed the line," cried Rifle.  "Don't you
+remember I told you ever so long ago that we were just crossing the
+line?"
+
+"Oh yes, I remember; but I knew you was gammoning me.  I never see no
+line?"
+
+"Of course not.  It's invisible."
+
+"What?  Then you couldn't cross it.  If a thing's inwisible, it's
+because it ain't there, and you can't cross a thing as ain't there."
+
+"Oh, you stubborn old mule!" cried Norman.
+
+"If you forgets yourself like that, Master Norman, and treats me
+disrespeckful, calling me a mule, I shall tell the captain."
+
+"No, don't; I'm not disrespectful, Sam," cried Norman, anxiously.  "Look
+here, about the line: don't you know that there's a north pole and a
+south pole?"
+
+"Yes, I've heard so, sir; and as Sir John Franklin went away from our
+parts to find it, but he didn't find it, because of course it wasn't
+there, and he lost hisself instead."
+
+"But, look here; right round the middle of the earth there's a line."
+
+"Don't believe it, sir.  No line couldn't ever be made big enough to go
+round the world; and if it could, there ain't nowheres to fasten it to."
+
+"But I mean an imaginary line that divides the world into two equal
+parts."
+
+Sam German chuckled.
+
+"'Maginary line, sir.  Of course it is."
+
+"And this line--Oh, I can't explain it, Rifle, can you?"
+
+"Course he can't, sir, nor you nayther.  'Tain't to be done.  I knowed
+it were a 'maginary line when you said we war crossing it.  But just you
+look here, sir: 'bout our garden and farm, over which I hope the master
+weant be disappointed, but I _know_ he will, for I asks you young gents
+this--serusly, mind, as gents as has had your good eddication and growed
+up scollards--How can a man make a garden in a country where everything
+is upside down?"
+
+"But it isn't upside down, Sam; it's only different," said Norman.
+
+"That's what I say, sir.  Here we are in the middle o' December, when,
+if the weather's open, you may put in your first crop o' broad Windsor
+beans, and you've got your ground all ridged to sweeten in the frost.
+And now, look at this.  Why, it's reg'lar harvest time and nothing else.
+I don't wonder at the natives being black."
+
+"Look, look!" cried Tim suddenly, as he pointed away to where, on an
+open plain on the right, some birds were running rapidly.
+
+"I see them! what are they?" cried Rifle, excitedly.
+
+"Somebody's chickens," said Sam, contemptuously.
+
+The boys looked at him and laughed.
+
+"Sam German has got to grow used to the place," said Norman.  And then,
+as his father cantered up, he pointed off.  "Do you see those, father?"
+
+"What, those birds?" said the captain, eagerly.  "Comebacks, sir.
+Guinea fowls.  A bit wild," said Sam, quietly.
+
+"Guinea fowls?" replied the captain, sheltering his eyes.  "No; birds
+twenty times as large, you might say.  Why, boys, those must be emus."
+
+"Emus?" said Rifle.  "Oh yes, I remember.  Ostrichy-looking things.  Are
+those what they are?"
+
+"I do not think there's a doubt about it," replied the captain, after
+another look at the rapidly-retiring birds, which, after a long stare at
+the little train of carts and wains, literally made their legs twinkle
+like the spokes of a carriage wheel as they skimmed over the ground and
+out of sight.
+
+"Yes," said the captain again, as the last one disappeared.  "Emus, the
+Australian ostriches.  You boys ought to make notes of all the wild
+creatures you see."
+
+"We shan't forget them, uncle," said Tim.  "Let's see; there was the
+black, the snake--"
+
+"Snake?  Have you seen one?"
+
+"Oh yes," replied Tim.
+
+"Thirty feet long, wasn't it?" said Norman, giving his brother a look.
+
+"Thirty?  More likely three, uncle.  I think it was nearer six though."
+
+"Did you kill it?"
+
+"No; it wouldn't stop, but crawled into the bush, and I don't think I
+should have tried."
+
+"Well, be on your guard all of you.  I suppose they are pretty
+plentiful, and some are very dangerous, but I believe they will all get
+out of our way if they can.  What birds are those?"
+
+A couple of dusky-green birds, with their feathers barred across like
+those of a hawk or cuckoo, with lines of a darker green, started up from
+some grass and flew off, their long, pointed tails and rounded heads and
+beaks showing plainly what they were.
+
+"Ground parrots," said the captain.  "It's curious, in a country to
+which one kind of bird is peculiar, what a variety one sees."
+
+"Is one kind of bird peculiar to this country, then?" asked Norman.
+
+"Well, it is not fair to say peculiar, but one kind is abundant--the
+parrot--and there are several kinds here."
+
+"Are cockatoos?" said Rifle, eagerly.
+
+"A cockatoo, you might say, is a parrot.  The only difference seems to
+be that it has a crest.--But how much farther do you make it to the
+tree, German?"
+
+"Miles," said that worthy, rather gruffly.  "Keeps getting farther off
+'stead o' nigher, sir."
+
+"The air is so wonderfully clear that distance is deceiving.  Never
+mind, keep on slowly, so as not to distress the cattle and the horses
+with their heavier loads."
+
+"Needn't ha' said that, sir; this horse'll go slow enough," grumbled
+German.  "I get thinking sometimes as he ain't moving at all."
+
+The captain laughed, and as he rode a few yards in advance to carefully
+scan the country in front, a great deal of whispering and gesticulation
+went on between the gardener and Norman, while the other boys looked on
+full of mischievous glee, and egged the lad on.
+
+"No, no, Master Norman; don't, sir.  It'd make him cross."
+
+"Yes, and he'd discharge you if I told him how you threw cold water on
+his plans."
+
+"I ain't a bit afraid o' that, sir," said German, with a grin.  "He
+can't send me back.  But I don't want to rile him.  I say, don't tell
+him, sir."
+
+"But you laughed at everything he meant to do."
+
+"That I didn't, sir.  Precious little laughing I've done lately."
+
+"Well, then, say you're sorry, and that you think father's plans are
+splendid."
+
+"What, tell a couple o' big thumpers like that?" whispered German, with
+virtuous indignation; "no, that I won't.  I wonder at you, Master
+Norman; that I do."
+
+"Oh, very well, then," cried the boy.  "Here goes.  I say, father--" He
+ran forward, and as he joined the captain, taking hold of the mane of
+his horse, and walking on beside him, Sam's face was so full of pitiable
+consternation that the other two boys laughed.
+
+Sam turned upon them fiercely.
+
+"Ah, it's all very well for you two to grin," he growled.  "Think o'
+what it's going to be for me."
+
+"Serve you right for saying what you did," cried Rifle, by way of
+consolation.
+
+"Oh, Master Raffle, don't you turn again me, too.--He's too hard, ain't
+he, Master 'Temus?"
+
+"Not a bit," cried the latter.  "You grumble at everything.  You're a
+regular old Sourkrout, always grumbling."
+
+"Well! of all!" gasped the gardener, taking off his hat and wiping his
+brow.
+
+"Look here," cried Rifle; "father will be back here directly, so you had
+better go down on your knees and say you're very sorry."
+
+"That I won't," said German, sturdily.
+
+"And say you believe that the place is beautiful, and that you'll make a
+better garden than we had in the country, and grow everything."
+
+"No; you won't ketch me saying such a word as that, sir, for I don't
+believe the place is any good at all.  I say, see them chaps yonder?"
+
+The boys looked in the direction pointed out by Sam with his whip, and
+Rifle exclaimed, "Blacks!"
+
+"Yes; I saw one too."
+
+"I seed three or four dodging in and out among the trees," said Sam.
+
+Rifle ran on to join his father.
+
+"Stop a moment, Master Raffle," cried Sam, imploringly.  "Oh, he's gone!
+Go on too, Master 'Temus, and say that I didn't mean it.  The captain
+would be so put out if I found fault, after promising to stand by him
+through thick and thin."
+
+"Then will the land grow potatoes?" said Tim mischievously.
+
+"If I don't make it grow some as is twice as big as those at home, I'm a
+Dutchman.  Oh dear!  Here he comes."
+
+For the captain had turned his horse's head and returned.
+
+"Did you both see blacks?" he said anxiously.
+
+"Yes, both of us, uncle, going from tree to tree along there toward the
+river."
+
+"How many did you see, Tim?"
+
+"I think it was two, uncle; but I'm not sure, for they darted from bush
+to bush, and were in sight and out again directly."
+
+"And you, German?"
+
+"Oh, I saw 'em first, sir, just as Master 'Temus says, running and
+dodging from bush to tree, so as to keep out of sight."
+
+"But how many did you see?"
+
+Can't say for certain, sir; but I don't think there was more'n six.
+
+The captain hesitated for a few moments, then, as if decided what to do,
+he spoke.
+
+"Keep on, and make for the tree.  Have you the gun handy?"
+
+"Yes, sir, close to my elber."
+
+"Loaded."
+
+"That she is, sir.  Double dose o' big shot."
+
+"That's right.  But I don't think there is any danger.  The blacks will
+not meddle with us if we leave them alone.  Look here, boys, we shall go
+armed for the sake of precaution, but I fervently hope that we shall not
+be called upon to fire upon the poor wretches.  I daresay we shall
+encounter some of them, and if we do, you must keep them at a distance.
+Let them know that we are their masters, with firmness, but no cruelty."
+
+"Look, there they go again!" cried Norman, pointing to a patch of
+woodland, a quarter of a mile forward, to their left.
+
+"Yes, I saw one dart in amongst the scrub," said the captain.  "There,
+keep on as if nothing had happened.  It is not worth while to startle
+your mother and the girls.  Now, each of you to his duty, and let the
+people see that we mean business, and not to take any notice of or to
+molest them."
+
+Each boy returned to his driving duties, and, on the plea of Mrs
+Bedford looking dull, the captain made the two girls ride close to the
+wagon, where she sat with Aunt Georgie, after which he went back to
+where Uncle Jack was steadily driving his flocks and herds, and warned
+him of what he had seen.
+
+"Humph not pleasant," said the captain's brother.  "Think they're
+dangerous?"
+
+"I think that the farther we get away from civilisation the less likely
+they are to interfere with us, so long as we do not molest them."
+
+"Not going to turn back, then?"
+
+"What, because we have seen a few blacks?  Hardly likely, is it?"
+
+"No," said the other; and, keeping a sharp look-out, they went on at
+their slow crawl for nearly three hours before the landmark was reached,
+all pretty well exhausted, for the heat had been growing intense.  But
+the great tree was one of many standing out of quite a shady grove, and
+this was cautiously approached by the captain, who scouted forward in
+front to find it apparently quite free from any appearance of ever
+having been occupied, and here in a very short time the little caravan
+was arranged so that they had some protection in case of an attack; a
+fire was lit by German, while the boys turned the horses loose to graze;
+and water being near in a creek, the customary kettle was soon on to
+boil, and Aunt Georgie was unpacking the store of food, when German
+shouted, "Hi! quick! look out!" and there was a glimpse of a black
+figure passing rapidly among the trees.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+"COO-EE!  COO-EE!"
+
+A run was made for the wagons, in whose shelter the ladies were placed,
+while with quite military precision, the result of the captain's
+teaching, men and boys stood to their arms, so that an inimical tribe
+would have had to face six double guns, whose discharge had been so
+arranged, that two would always be loading, two firing, and the other
+two ready to pour in their shots in case of a rush.
+
+It was just at the edge of the grove at one end, where a glimpse of the
+black figure had been seen, and every eye was strained on the watch for
+the next appearance of danger.
+
+"I'm glad we were warned in time," said the captain in a low voice.
+Then, after a painful pause, "Mind this; not a shot must be wasted.  If
+we are to fire on the poor wretches, I should prefer for them to be at a
+distance, so that the charges of buck-shot may scatter and wound as many
+as possible, so as to give them a lesson.  A close shot means death.  No
+one fires till I give the word."
+
+The moments grew into minutes, and as Norman looked back over his
+shoulder, he could see the anxious faces of the four ladies peering out
+at him from their shelter, but not a word was spoken.
+
+"Think they will get round to the back to try and drive off the
+bullocks?"
+
+"I was thinking of going to see, and--Look out!"
+
+For all at once there was a loud rustling of the bushes in front of
+them, as if something was making a rush, and the next moment a black
+figure bounded into the open space where the fire was burning.
+
+"Why, it's old Shanter," cried Rifle, bursting into a hearty laugh, in
+which the black joined, showing his white teeth with childish delight as
+he came close up, holding out something hung on the end of his spear,
+and carrying what appeared to be a bag made of bark in his left hand, in
+company with his boomerang, his war-club being stuck in the skin
+loin-cloth which was the only garment he wore.
+
+"White Mary--big white Mary," he cried, while every eye scanned the
+trees behind him, but only for a moment or two, as all felt now that it
+was another false alarm.
+
+"What do you want?" said the captain rather angrily, for he was vexed at
+the black's arrival.
+
+"Shanter want big white Mary," cried the black; and he shook the objects
+on his spear, which proved to be a couple of opossum-like animals
+evidently freshly killed, and then held out his bark basket or bag.
+
+"What for?" cried Norman.
+
+"Good eat.  Good, nice;" and then as, seeing there was no danger, the
+ladies came forward, the black went to Aunt Georgie, and held the bag to
+her.  "Good, cook, fire," he said.  "Big white Mary.  Little white
+Marys--" Then he stopped short looking at Mrs Bedford, as if puzzled
+what to call her.  But a gleam of intelligence shot across his face, and
+he cried, "Other white Mary."
+
+"He's brought these for us to eat," said Rifle.
+
+"Good eat," said the black.  "Big white Mary gib soff damper."
+
+He nodded and smiled triumphantly from one to the other.
+
+"Put away the guns," said the captain angrily.  "Here, I cannot have
+this black crow haunting our camp.  He'll be bringing his tribe to
+pester us.  What would you do, Jack?"
+
+"Don't know yet," said Uncle Jack.  "What has he brought in his bag?"
+
+"Some kind of fruit," said Rifle, who had joined his aunt in the
+inspection of the contents of the bag, as she thrust in her hand, and
+snatched it away again with a cry of disgust.
+
+"Good eat; good eat.  Roastum fire," said the black indignantly, and
+pouncing upon a couple of large, fat, white objects which the lady had
+dropped, he ran with them to the fire, and placed them close to the
+embers, afterwards going through a pantomime of watching them, but with
+gesticulations indicative of delight.
+
+"Why, they're big fat grubs," cried Norman.
+
+"Of course," said the captain.  "I have heard that they eat them.  And
+these other things?"
+
+He turned over the two dead animals.
+
+"Good eat," cried the black; and he rubbed the front of his person, and
+grinned as broadly as nature would allow him to spread his extensive
+mouth.  Then, turning to Aunt Georgie, "Big white Mary gib soff damper?"
+
+The lady snorted loudly, and looked as if she would never give him
+another piece; but she drew her knife, and cut off a goodly-sized piece
+of a loaf, and held it out once more on the point of the knife.
+
+Shanter took the bread without hesitation.
+
+"No tick a knife in um," he cried laughing.  "Shanter no 'fraid."
+
+Then taking his bread, he went off to a short distance, and sat down to
+eat it, while a meal was prepared for the travellers, who then settled
+down to rest till the heat of the day was past.
+
+But after a few minutes the boys were on their feet again, and ready to
+explore about the outskirts of the patch of woodland chosen for their
+resting-place; and on reaching the fire they found that the black had
+come close up, and seeing his grubs neglected, was busy roasting and
+eating them.
+
+He looked up, laughing good-humouredly, drew out three or four of the
+freshly-roasted delicacies from the embers with a bit of pointed stick,
+and held them up to the boys.
+
+"Good," he said.
+
+"Well, you eat 'em," replied Norman.
+
+The black needed no further invitation, but devoured the nicely-browned
+objects with great gusto, and smacked his lips.
+
+"I say," cried Tim; "they don't smell bad."
+
+"Ugh!" ejaculated Rifle.
+
+"Seems so nasty," said Norman, as he watched the black attentively,
+while the fellow carefully arranged some more of the delicacies among
+the embers.  "They're great fine caterpillars, that's what they are."
+
+"But they smell so good," said Tim.  "I've often eaten caterpillars in
+cauliflower."
+
+"So have I," said Norman; "but then we didn't know it."
+
+"And caterpillars lived on cauliflower, so that they couldn't be nasty."
+
+"I don't see that these things could be any worse to eat than shrimps.
+Old Shanter here seems to like them."
+
+"Old Shanter--O' Shanter--old Tam o' Shanter," said Rifle, thoughtfully.
+
+"You'd better help him to eat them," said Norman, tauntingly.
+
+"I'll eat one if you will," cried Tim.  "They smell delicious."
+
+"Very well.  I will, if Rifle does too," said Norman.
+
+"Then you won't," said that young gentleman.  "Ugh! the nasty-looking
+things."
+
+"So are oysters and mussels and cockles nasty-looking things," cried
+Tim, who kept on watching the black eagerly.  "I never saw anything so
+nasty-looking as an old eel.  Ugh!  I'd as soon eat a snake."
+
+"Snakum good eat," said Shanter, nodding.
+
+"You eat one, then," cried Norman.  "I'll shoot the first I see."
+
+"Look here," cried Tim; "are either of you two going to taste one of
+these things?"
+
+"No," cried both the others; "nor you.  You daren't eat one."
+
+"Oh, daren't I?  You'll see," replied Tim.  "Here, Shanter, give me that
+brown one."
+
+"Good!" cried the black, raking out one looking of a delicate
+golden-brown, but it was too hot to hold for a time; and Tim held it on
+a pointed stick, looking at the morsel with his brow all puckered up.
+
+"Go on, Tim; take it like a pill," cried Norman.
+
+"He won't eat it: he's afraid," said Rifle.
+
+"It's too hot yet," replied Tim.
+
+"Yes, and always will be.  Look out, Rifle; he'll pitch it over his
+shoulder, and pretend he swallowed it."
+
+"No, I shan't," said Tim, sniffing at his delicacy, while the black
+watched him too, and kept on saying it was good.
+
+"There, pitch it away," said Norman, "and come on and have a walk.  I'd
+as soon eat a worm."
+
+By this time Tim had sniffed again and again, after which he very
+cautiously bit a tiny piece off one end, hesitated, with his face
+looking very peculiar before beginning to chew it, but bravely going on;
+and directly after his face lit up just as his cousins were about to
+explode with mirth, and he popped the rest of the larva into his mouth,
+and held out his hand to the black for another.
+
+"Oh! look at the nasty savage," cried Rifle.  "You'll be ill and sick
+after it."
+
+"Shall I?" cried Tim, as with his black face expanding with delight
+Shanter helped him to some more, and then held out one to Norman to
+taste.
+
+"I say," cried the latter, watching his cousin curiously, as he was
+munching away fast; "they aren't good, are they?"
+
+"No," said Rifle; "he's pretending, so as to cheat us into tasting the
+disgusting things."
+
+"But, Tim, are they good?"
+
+"Horrid!" cried the boy, beginning on another.  "Don't you touch 'em.--
+Here, Shanter, more."
+
+The black turned over those he had roasting, and went on picking out the
+brownest, as he squatted on his heels before the fire, and holding them
+out to Tim.
+
+"Well, of all the nasty creatures I ever did see," said Norman, "you are
+the worst, Tim."
+
+He looked at the grub he held with ineffable disgust, and then sniffed
+at it.
+
+"You'll have to go to the stream with a tooth-brush, and clean your
+teeth and mouth with sand."
+
+He sniffed again, and looked at Tim, who just then popped a golden-brown
+fellow into his mouth.
+
+"Ugh!" ejaculated Rifle, but he took the one the black held out to him
+on the stick point, smelt it cautiously, looking at Norman the while.
+
+Then both smelt together, looking in each others eyes, Tim feasting away
+steadily all the time.
+
+"I say," said Norman; "they don't smell so very bad."
+
+"No; not so very," replied Rifle.
+
+"I say: I will if you will."
+
+"What, taste this?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Get out.  Think I'm going to turn savage because I've come to
+Australia?  Don't catch me feeding like a bird.  You'll want to eat
+snails next."
+
+"Well," said Norman, "Frenchmen eat snails."
+
+"So they do frogs.  Let 'em."
+
+"But this thing smells so nice.  I say, Rifle, bite it and try."
+
+"Bite it yourself."
+
+Norman did, in a slow, hesitating way, looked as if he were going to
+eject the morsel as the corners of his lips turned down, but bit a piece
+more instead, then popped the remaining half in his mouth, and smiled.
+
+"Horrid, ain't they?" cried Tim, while, grinning with genuine pleasure,
+the black held out another to Norman, who took it directly, held it in
+first one hand, and then the other, blew upon it to cool it, and then
+began to eat.
+
+"Oh, they are horrid," he cried.  "Give us another, blacky."
+
+"Look here," cried Rifle, watching him curiously, to see if there was
+any deceit.  "I'm not going to be beaten by you two.  I say--no games--
+are they really nice?"
+
+"Find out," cried Norman, stretching out his hand to take another from
+the pointed stick held out to him.  But Rifle was too quick; he snatched
+it himself, and put it in his mouth directly.
+
+"Oh, murder! isn't it hot," he cried, drawing in his breath rapidly,
+then beginning to eat cautiously, with his features expanding.  "Here,
+give us another, Tam o' Shanter," and he snatched the next.
+
+"Oh, come, I say, play fair," cried Norman, making sure of the next.
+"Ain't they good?"
+
+"'Licious," said Rifle.--"Come on, cookie.  More for me."
+
+"All agone," cried the black, springing up, slapping his legs, and
+indulging in a kind of triumphal dance round the fire to express his
+delight at having converted the three white boys, ending by making a
+tremendous bound in the air, and coming down on all fours.  "Eat um all
+up.  You go 'long--come along.  Shanter find a more."
+
+"No, not now, old chap," said Norman.  "Wait a bit."
+
+"Had 'nuff?  Good, good!" cried the black, holding his head on one side
+and peering at all in turn.  "Good--corbon budgery!"  (Very good!)
+
+"Yes, splendid.  We'll have a feast next time."
+
+The black nodded, and picked up the two little animals which he had
+tossed aside, and rehung them upon his spear.
+
+He was evidently going to roast them, but Norman stopped him, and
+pointed out into the open.
+
+"Come along with us."
+
+The black understood.
+
+"Yes; Shanter, come along.  Chop sugar-bag."
+
+"But, look here," continued Norman, pointing in different directions.
+"Black fellow?"
+
+"Black fellow?" cried Shanter, seizing his nulla-nulla--the short club
+he carried with a round hard knob at the end.  "Black fellow?"
+
+He dropped the dead game off his spear, dodged sharply about among the
+trees, and ended by hurling his weapon at a tree twenty yards away, in
+whose soft bark it stuck quivering, while the black rushed up, seized
+it, dragged it out, and then treating the trunk as an enemy, he attacked
+it, going through the pantomime of knocking it down, beating it on the
+head, jumping on the imaginary body, and then dragging it in triumph by
+the heels to where the boys stood laughing.  Here he made believe to
+drop the legs of his dead enemy, and gave him a contemptuous kick.  "No
+budgery.  Shanter mumkull (kill) that black fellow."
+
+"You seem to have found a very cheerful companion, boys," said a voice
+behind them, and Uncle Jack came up with a grim smile on his
+countenance.  "Is that the way that fellow means to kill us?"
+
+"No; that, was to show how he would kill all the black fellows who came
+near us."
+
+"Mumkull black fellow," cried Shanter, shaking his club threateningly.
+"No come along."
+
+Seeing the group, the captain, who had been taking a look round, and
+been speaking to German, who was seated on the top of one of the loaded
+wagons keeping watch, came up to them.
+
+"That black fellow still here?" he said sternly.
+
+"Black fellow come along," cried Shanter.  "Where?"
+
+He rushed about among the bushes, dodged in and out through the trees,
+and went through a pantomime again of hunting for enemies, but soon came
+back.
+
+"No black fellow.  All agone.  Shanter kill mumkull."
+
+"Very well," said the captain; "now then, you go."
+
+He pointed away back in the direction they had come, and, looking
+disappointed, the black went off toward where the river lay, and soon
+disappeared among the trees.
+
+"It will not do to encourage any of those fellows about our camp," said
+the captain decisively; and they returned to where the ladies were
+seated in the shade, all looking rested and cheerful, and as if they
+would soon be used to their new life.
+
+A couple of hours later they were on their way again, with the captain
+and Uncle Jack in front scouting; and as they went on, the latter kept
+pointing out suitable-looking pieces of land which might be taken up for
+their settlement, but the captain always shook his head.
+
+"No, Jack," he said; "they will not do."
+
+"But the land is rich in the extreme."
+
+"Yes; but all one dead level.  Floods come sometimes, terrible floods
+which rise in a few hours, and we must have high ground on which to
+build our station, and to which our flocks and herds can flee."
+
+"Right; I had not thought of that," said Uncle Jack, and they journeyed
+on till night, making a grove of magnificent trees their resting-place,
+and then on again for two more days, their progress being of course slow
+in this roadless land.  Everything about them was lovely, and the
+journey was glorious, becoming more and more like a pleasure excursion
+every day as they grew more used to the life.  The girls were in robust
+health, the boys full of excitement, and not a single black was met.
+
+It was toward the close of the third day since Shanter had been
+dismissed, and they were still journeying on over the plain toward a
+range of mountains far away in the west, for there the captain was under
+the impression that he would find the tract of land he sought.
+
+As before, they had marked down a clump of trees for their
+resting-place, and this they reached, just as the golden sun was sinking
+in a bank of glorious clouds.  Here all was peaceful; water was at hand,
+and the bread brought from the settlement being exhausted, the flour-tub
+was brought out of the wagon, and Aunt Georgie proceeded to make the
+cake to bake for their meal--the damper of the colonists--a good fire
+being soon started by the boys, while the men quickly rigged up the
+tent.
+
+This done, Sam German came up to the boys and took off his hat and
+scratched his head, looking from one to the other.
+
+"What's the matter, Sam?" said Norman.
+
+"In trouble, sir."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"That there little ord'nary heifer as master brought out."
+
+"What the red and white Alderney?" said Rifle.
+
+"No, sir; that there one like a tame rat."
+
+"What the mouse colour?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Has she been eating some poisonous weed?"
+
+"I dunno, sir."
+
+"Well; is she ill?" said Rifle.
+
+"Dunno that nayther, sir.  She's gone."
+
+"Gone?" cried Tim.  "Ida's favourite?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Gone she is.  I can't mind o' seeing her for a long time."
+
+"Then you've lost her?" cried Norman angrily.  "Now, don't you be too
+hard on a man, Master Norman, because I ain't the only one as druv the
+cattle.  Mr Munday Bedford's had a good many turns, and so has master,
+and you young gents druv 'em twiced--"
+
+"Hi!  German," shouted the captain just then.  "I can't see the
+mouse-coloured heifer;" and he came toward them with Ida, who had been
+looking for her pet.  "Where is she?"
+
+"That's what I was talking to the young gents about, sir.  I can't find
+her nowhere."
+
+"Not find her?" cried the captain angrily.  "I wouldn't lose that animal
+for fifty pounds.  She is so choice bred.  Well, saddle a couple of
+horses.  You and one of the boys must go back in search of her.  She
+must have hung back somewhere to-day."
+
+"Can't call to mind seeing her to-day," said the gardener.
+
+"Not seen her to-day?"
+
+"No, papa," said Ida.  "I looked for her this morning, but I did not see
+her, nor yet yesterday, nor the day before.  I thought you had tied her
+up somewhere."
+
+"Never mind, father; we'll soon find her," said Rifle.  "She will not
+have strayed far from the track, will she, Sam?"
+
+"I can't say, sir, now, as I've seen her for three days."
+
+"Then you have neglected your duty, sir.  You ought to have known every
+one of those beasts by heart, and missed one directly.  It is
+disgraceful."
+
+"Yes, sir, I'm afraid it is, but I never missed her, and I feel about
+sure now that I haven't seen the poor beast since three days ago, when
+you came to me and said you wanted to drive for a couple of hours, and
+sent me to mind the leading cart.  Next day Mr Munday Bedford, sir, was
+driving all day at the rear.  I was very careful.  Shall I start back at
+once?"
+
+The captain was silent for a few minutes.  Then turning to Ida: "Do you
+think it is three days since you have seen the heifer?"
+
+"Yes, papa; I am almost sure it is," she replied.  "But have you been to
+try and find her?"
+
+"Yes, every morning; but I never for a moment imagined that she was gone
+right away."
+
+"I won't come back without her, sir," said German eagerly.
+
+"It is of no use," he replied sternly.  "We cannot wait here, perhaps
+six days, for you to go back and return.  No: we may find her later on
+when we are going back to the port.  We can't go now."
+
+"Oh!" said Ida, piteously.
+
+"I am very sorry, my dear, but it would be madness to stop.  We must go
+on."
+
+"But couldn't you get some one else to look for her?"
+
+"Whom shall I send?" asked the captain drily; and for the first time Ida
+realised how far they were from all society, and that by the same time
+next night they would be farther away still.
+
+"I forgot," she said.  "You know best."
+
+"Let us go, father," said Norman.  "We boys will find her."
+
+The captain waved his hand and turned away, evidently very much put out
+at the loss, for the mouse-coloured heifer was destined to be the chief
+ornament of the dairy out at the new farm.
+
+"I can't help it, Miss Ida," said German, deprecatingly.  "I took all
+the care of the poor beasts I could.  I get all the blame, because I
+found out she was gone, but I've been right in front driving the leading
+carts nearly all the time; haven't I, Master 'Temus?"
+
+"Yes, Sam; but are you quite sure she has gone?"
+
+"Now, boys!" shouted the captain; "tea!"
+
+They were soon after seated near the fire, partaking of the evening
+meal.  The last rays of the setting sun were dying out, and the sky was
+fast changing its orange and ruddy gold for a dark violet and warm grey.
+Very few words were spoken for some time, and the silence was almost
+painful, broken as it was only by the sharp crack of some burning stick.
+Every one glanced at the captain, who sat looking very stern, and Mrs
+Bedford made a sign to the boys not to say anything, lest he should be
+more annoyed.
+
+But Aunt Georgie was accustomed to speak whenever she pleased.  To her
+the captain and Uncle Jack were only "the boys," and Norman, Raphael,
+and Artemus "the children."  So, after seeing that everybody was well
+supplied with bread, damper, and cold boiled pork, she suddenly set down
+the tin mug to which she was trying to accustom herself, after being
+used to take her tea out of Worcester china, and exclaimed:
+
+"I'm downright vexed about that little cow, Edward.  I seemed to know by
+instinct that she would give very little milk, but that it would be rich
+as cream, while the butter would be yellow as gold."
+
+"And now she's gone, and there's an end of her," said the captain
+shortly.
+
+"Such a pity!  With her large soft eyes and short curly horns.  Dear me,
+I am vexed."
+
+"So am I," said the captain; "and now say no more about her.  It's a
+misfortune, but we cannot stop to trouble ourselves about misfortunes."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Aunt Georgie; and she went on sipping her tea for a
+time.
+
+"This is a very beautiful place, Edward," she said suddenly.  "I was
+saying so to Marian here.  Why don't you build a house and stop without
+going farther?"
+
+"For several reasons, aunt dear.  But don't be uneasy.  I shall select
+quite as beautiful a place somewhere farther on, one that you and the
+girls will like better than this."
+
+"I don't know so much about that," said the old lady.  "I'm rather hard
+to please.--Oh!"
+
+"What's the matter?" cried those nearest, for the old lady's ejaculation
+was startling.
+
+"I've got it!" she cried.  "Oh the artfulness of the thing, Edward, that
+man."
+
+"What man?"
+
+"That black fellow.  Depend upon it, he came here on purpose to steal
+our poor little cow, and he has driven it away somewhere to sell."
+
+The captain started and looked excited.
+
+"Oh no, aunt," cried Norman; "I don't think he was a bad sort of chap."
+
+"See how honest he was about the `tickpence,'" said Rifle.
+
+"I don't think he was the sort of fellow to steal," whispered Tim to
+Hester.
+
+"I believe that you have hit the right nail on the head, aunt," said the
+captain; and the boys looked across at one another, thought of the grub
+feast, and felt hurt that the black, whose many childish ways had won a
+kind of liking for him, should be suspected of theft.
+
+"Well," said the captain; "it will act as a warning.  Bought wit is
+better than taught wit.  No more black fellows anywhere near our camp.
+It is my own fault.  I was warned about them.  They have none of the
+instincts of a civilised man, and will kill or steal, or be guilty of
+any crime.  So understand here, boys, don't make friends with any more."
+
+"Coo-ee!"
+
+The cry was far away, but it came clearly enough through the night air.
+Then again, "Coo-ee!"
+
+"The blacks," cried the captain.  "Quick!  They see the fire, and think
+it's the camp of friends.  Away from it every one.  Guns."
+
+There was a quick movement.  The ladies were got under shelter, and the
+men and boys took refuge in the shadow cast by the bushes, all feeling
+that a white in the full light of the fire would be an easy mark for a
+spear.
+
+The captain gave his orders briefly that there was to be no firing
+unless the blacks attacked them, and then they waited, Rifle suffering
+all the time as he crouched down in the scrub from an intense desire to
+answer each "coo-ee" as it came nearer and nearer, and now evidently
+from the track they had made in their journey that day.
+
+"It is not a large party," whispered the captain to Artemus, who was
+close to him.
+
+"Only one, I think, uncle, for it's the same man who keeps coo-eeing."
+
+"Impossible to say yet," was whispered back by his uncle.  "Feel
+frightened?"
+
+"Well, I hardly know," said the boy.  "I don't feel at all comfortable,
+and keep on wishing they'd gone."
+
+"Naturally, my boy.  I shall fire a shot or two over their heads when
+they come close in.  That will scare them, I expect."
+
+"Coo-ee!" came from the darkness before them, but they could see nothing
+now, for all near the ground and among the trees was almost black,
+though overhead the stars were coming out fast, and eight or ten feet
+above the bushes it was comparatively light.
+
+"Coo-ee!" came again from apparently a couple of hundred yards away, but
+not another sound.
+
+"Creeping up very cautiously.  Suspicious because of the fire, and
+receiving no answer," whispered the captain.  "They thought it was the
+camp-fire of their tribe, but now feel sure it is a white man's fire."
+
+"Queer work this," whispered Uncle Jack to Norman, who was with him on
+the other side of the track, the fire lying between them and the
+captain.
+
+"Yes, isn't it, uncle?" was whispered back.
+
+"I'm beginning to ask myself why I'm here when I ought to be in London
+at my club."
+
+"I'm glad you are here, uncle," whispered Norman.
+
+"Can you see any of them, Tim?  Your eyes are younger than mine."
+
+"No, uncle," came after a pause.
+
+"They must be crawling up, so as to hurl their spears from close by."
+
+"Coo-ee!" came again from very near now.  "Not suspicious, then?" said
+the captain, wonderingly.
+
+"I can see one now, uncle," whispered Tim.  "He's high up."
+
+"In a tree?"
+
+"No: moving; coming nearer; he's on horseback."
+
+"Nonsense!  Black fellows don't ride horses out in the scrub."
+
+"But he is mounted, uncle.  I can see plainly now."
+
+"You are right," said the captain, after a short pause.
+
+"Coo-ee!"
+
+This was only from a few yards away, and directly after a familiar voice
+shouted:
+
+"Why baal not call along coo-ee?  Hi, white fellow!  Hi, boy!  Hi, big
+white Mary!"
+
+"Why, it's Shanter," cried Norman, excitedly.  "Hi coo-ee!"
+
+"Coo-ee! coo-ee!" came back, and directly after a black face was seen
+above the bushes full in the glare of the fire, and then the body came
+into view, as the black's steed paced very slowly and leisurely forward,
+and suddenly threw up its head and gave vent to a prolonged "moo," which
+was answered by first one and then another of the cows and bullocks
+chewing their cud close to the camp.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Rifle and Tim together.  "Here's a game.  Look! he is
+riding on the little Alderney."
+
+"Hey!" cried the black, drumming the heifer's ribs with his bare legs,
+and giving her a crack near the tail with his spear to force her right
+up into the light, where he sat grinning in triumph with his spear now
+planted on the ground.
+
+"Yes, that's the ord'nary heifer, sure enough," grumbled German.
+
+"Shanter fine along this bull-cow fellow all 'lone.  Yabber moo-moo
+hard!"
+
+He gave so excellent an imitation of the cow's lowing that it was
+answered again by the others.
+
+"What, you found that heifer?" cried the captain.
+
+"Shanter fine bull-cow fellow all 'lone."
+
+"Where? when?"
+
+The black pointed with his stick.
+
+"Bulla (two) day.  Come along bull fellow slow, Big white Mary gib
+Shanter soff damper; no eat long time.  Fine sugar-bag--kill poss?  No;
+Shanter come along bull-cow fellow."
+
+"I can't make out his jargon," said the captain, tetchily.
+
+"He says, father, he found the cow two days ago, and couldn't stop to
+eat because he wanted to bring it along.  He's hungry and wants damper."
+
+"Soff damper," said the black, correctively.
+
+"Soft bread because he's hungry.  Isn't that what you mean?" cried
+Norman.
+
+"Soff damper.  Big white Mary gib damper.  Marmi gib Shanter tickpence
+bring bull-cow fellow all along."
+
+"That I will," cried the captain.  "Tut, tut!  How I am obliged to eat
+my words.  You're a good fellow, Shanter," he cried, clapping the black
+on the shoulder.  "Go and have some damper.--Give him some meat too."
+
+However badly Shanter expressed himself, he pretty well comprehended all
+that was said; and at the captain's words he began to rub his front,
+leaped off the heifer, and followed the boys to the fire, round which
+the party gathered as soon as they found there was no danger, and where
+Aunt Georgie, in her satisfaction, cut the fellow so big a portion of
+bread and bacon, that his eyes glistened and his teeth gleamed, as he
+ran away with it amongst the bushes to lie down and eat.
+
+Half an hour later they found him fast asleep, and the first thing the
+boys saw the next morning, after a delightful night's rest, was the
+shining black face of Shanter where he was squatting down on his heels,
+watching them and waiting for them to wake.
+
+Norman lay for some minutes, still half asleep, gazing at the black
+face, which seemed to be somehow connected with his dreams and with the
+soft sweet piping of the magpie crows, which were apparently practising
+their scales prior to joining in the morning outburst of song, while the
+great kingfishers--the laughing jackasses of the colonists--sat here and
+there uttering their discordant sounds, like coarse, harsh laughter, at
+the efforts of the crows.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+"I AM SATISFIED."
+
+Norman sprang up rested and refreshed, and then glanced round uneasily,
+expecting to see his father come and order the black to be off.
+
+But the captain was busy examining the cattle, the horses and their
+harness, and the loading of the wagons; helping German to tighten a rope
+here, and rearrange packages where they had broken loose, and seeing
+generally to the many little matters that have so much to do with the
+success of an overland journey with a caravan.
+
+Then breakfast was announced just after the boys had returned from the
+river, where they had had to content themselves with a wash, while
+Shanter looked on, and then followed them back, apparently supremely
+proud and happy to be in their company.
+
+Breakfast over, and the provisions repacked, Shanter not having been
+forgotten by big white Mary, as he insisted upon calling Aunt Georgie,
+the horses and drawing bullocks were put to, a last glance cast round to
+see that nothing had been left, and then, prior to giving the word to
+advance, the captain mounted with his little field-glass to the top of
+the highest load, where he carefully scanned the country, and made
+remarks to his brother as to the direction to take that day.
+
+"Yes," he said at last; "the river evidently makes a vast bend here, and
+curves round to the north.  We will go straight across from here to that
+hill--mountain I ought to call it.--Do you see, German?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I see," said the gardener, shading his eyes.
+
+"There can be no mistake as to your course; the plain is perfectly level
+and treeless, and we ought easily to get there for our mid-day halt.
+How far do you think it is--eight miles?"
+
+"Twenty," said Uncle Jack, sturdily.
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Yes, twenty.  The air is so clear that places look closer than they
+are."
+
+"Well, we will not argue," said the captain, lowering himself down.
+"There's your mark, German; make straight for that."
+
+"No," shouted a voice; and all turned with a look of wonder to Shanter,
+who had evidently been listening intently, and who was now in a great
+state of excitement, gesticulating and flourishing his nulla-nulla
+wildly.
+
+"What do you say?" cried the captain, frowning.
+
+"No go 'long," cried Shanter, pointing across the plain.  "No--no.
+Horse fellow--bull-cow fellow, all go puff-puff."
+
+And he went down on all fours, with his eyes wide and staring, mouth
+open, and tongue lolling out, breathing hoarsely and heavily, snuffling
+about the while at the ground.  Then he threw up his head, and whinnied
+like a horse in trouble, snuffled about again, and lowed like an ox, and
+finally seemed to grow weaker and weaker till he fell over on his side,
+struggled up again, fell on his side, stretched out his head and legs,
+and finally gave a wonderful imitation of a horse or ox dying.
+
+"All go bong (dead)," he cried.  "No go along.  No water drink.  Big
+fellow horse, can't pull along."
+
+He pointed again and again, out over the plain, and shook his head
+violently.
+
+"White fellow come 'long," he continued, as he leaped up, shouldered his
+spear, and started, pointing before him to the tree-spread track nearer
+the river.  "Bull-cow fellow eat."
+
+He made believe to snatch a mouthful of grass, and went on munching it
+as he walked slowly on as if pulling a load.
+
+"Much water, drinkum, drunkum," he continued, pointing in the direction
+of the river.
+
+"He seems to be right, Ned," said Uncle Jack, as the boys looked on
+eagerly.
+
+"Yes; I suppose he is.  Perhaps it is sandy and waterless all across
+there."
+
+"And if we keep by the river, we shall get grass, shelter, and water."
+
+"Yes; but I do not like to have my plans overset by a savage."
+
+"Not when the savage knows better?" said Uncle Jack, drily.
+
+"How do I know that he does?" said the captain.  "How can I tell that he
+is not going to lead us into some ambush, where his tribe will murder us
+and seize upon our goods and stores?"
+
+"Humph I hope not," said Uncle Jack.  "I'll shoot him dead if he does,
+but I think I'd trust him."
+
+"I want to get rid of the fellow," said the captain; "and he is always
+coming back."
+
+"He'll soon be tired," said his brother.  "These people seem to be very
+childlike and simple.  It is a novelty for him to be with us.  One of
+these days he will be missing.  I shouldn't worry about him."
+
+"Gee-hup, horse fellow!" shouted the black, just then.  "All along.
+Shanter know.  Baal that way."
+
+He pointed over the plain and shook his head.  Then shouldering his
+spear, he stepped off nearly due west, and the caravan started.
+
+Day succeeded day, and the two halts were regularly made in pleasant
+places, but the captain was never satisfied.  They were good, but he
+always found some drawback.  The progress was very slow, for it was hot,
+but the land was dry, and the difficulties they had with the wagons were
+very few, and their few miles were got over steadily day after day, with
+no adventure to signify; and to make up for the slow progress, their
+cattle were fresh and in good condition at each morning's start, while
+the whole process seemed like a pleasant excursion of the most enjoyable
+kind.
+
+At last one day, the hottest on their journey, the draught cattle had a
+laborious pull, for the ground had been rising slightly during the past
+forty-eight hours, and next morning had suddenly grown steep.  The river
+was still close at hand, though it was now more broken and torrent-like,
+but beautifully wooded in places, and the soil for miles on either side
+looked wonderfully rich.  To their right were plains; but in front, and
+to their left, hills and mountains hemmed them in; and when utterly
+exhausted, the cattle slowly drew their loads into the shade cast by
+some magnificent trees, just behind which a cascade of sparkling water
+dashed down from the mountains beyond, while the river-glade was
+glorious with ferns and verdant growth of kinds that they had not seen
+in the earlier part of their journey, every one seemed to be imbued with
+the same idea, and no one was the least surprised when the captain
+looked round with his face lit up with satisfaction.
+
+"There," he cried, "was it not worth the long journey to find a place
+like this.  No flood can touch us here.  The land is rich; the place
+beautiful.  Wife, girls, boys, what do you say to this for Home, sweet
+home?"
+
+The answer was a hearty cheer from the boys; and, as if he comprehended
+everything, Shanter burst into a wild triumphal dance round the spear he
+had stuck into the ground.
+
+"Hurray!" he shouted.  "Make gunyah.  All corbon budgery.  Plenty
+budgery.  Bull-cow eat.  Plenty sheep eat.  Hurray!"
+
+There was not a dissentient voice.  Uncle Jack smiled, Sam German began
+to look round for a slope for a kitchen garden, while the captain, Mrs
+Bedford, and the girls began to talk about a site for a house; and,
+tying a handkerchief over her grey hair and pinning up her dress, Aunt
+Georgie beckoned severely to Shanter, who came to her like a shaggy
+black dog.
+
+"Get some wood, sir, and make a fire."
+
+"Makum fire, makum damper, pot a kettle tea?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; dampers and roast mutton to-day," she said.
+
+"Make big fire, roast mutton," shouted Shanter, excitedly, and rushing
+to the side of one of the wagons, he threw down spear, boomerang, and
+waddy, snatched an axe from where it was stuck in the side, and five
+minutes later he was chopping wood with all his might.
+
+That afternoon and evening were indeed restful, though little rest was
+taken, for all were in a state of intense excitement, and examining in
+every direction the site of their new home.  It was fancy, of course,
+but to the boys it seemed that the cattle had all taken to the place,
+and settled down to a hearty feed of the rich grass.
+
+But there was work to be done that evening, though not much.  The tent
+had to be set up, and as the boys drove in the pegs, it was with a
+heartier will, for they knew that they would not be withdrawn for some
+time to come.
+
+The position for the house was soon decided, for nature herself had
+planned it; a charming spot, sheltered to the north by a range from the
+scorching north wind; and in addition there was a grove of magnificent
+gum-trees, just far enough apart to have allowed them to grow to their
+greatest perfection, while dotted here and there were other trees with
+prickly leaves and pyramidal growth, their lower boughs touching the
+ground, every one a perfect specimen that it would have been a sin to
+cut down.
+
+From this chosen spot the land sloped gradually down to the sparkling
+river, with its beautiful falls and pools, while away on the other side,
+beyond the bed of the stream, stretched out a grand expanse of land all
+on a gentle slope.  On the hillier side an equally beautiful expanse,
+extending for miles, sloped upward toward the mountains, offering
+pasture that would have satisfied the most exacting.
+
+"We are the first settlers here," cried the captain, "and as I have a
+right, Jack, to-morrow we will ride in different directions, and blaze
+trees for our boundaries.  Then there will only be the plan and
+description to send to the crown offices in the city, and we take up a
+grand estate that will in due time be our own."
+
+"Our own!" cried Norman, excitedly.  "But you will have a bit of the
+river too?"
+
+"I shall take up land on both sides--a large estate.  There is plenty
+for all Englishmen, but those who are enterprising enough to do as we
+have done, of course, get the first choice."
+
+"I'm very glad you are satisfied, my dear," said Mrs Bedford,
+affectionately, as they all lingered in the glorious sunset light over
+their evening meal, the whole place seeming a perfect paradise.
+
+"I am satisfied," said the captain, "for here there is ample reward for
+those who like to work, and we can see our boys have a grand future
+before them in the new land."
+
+"I'm glad too," said Aunt Georgie, in her matter-of-fact way.  "You may
+quite rely upon us all setting to work to make the best of things, when
+you men and boys have built us a house to keep off the rain--for I
+suppose it does rain here sometimes, though we have not seen any."
+
+"Rain, aunt?  Tremendously."
+
+"Well then, of course you will begin a house soon?"
+
+"To-morrow," said the captain.  "Plenty of work for us, boys."
+
+"Of course," said Aunt Georgie.  "Well then, we shall soon begin to make
+things comfortable, and we shall all be very happy and content."
+
+"Thank you," said the captain.  "I hope every one will take the
+advantages for what they are worth, and will excuse the inconveniences."
+
+"I know that Marian will," said Aunt Georgie; "and as for the girls, we
+shall be too busy to think of little things.  I should have liked for it
+not to have been quite so lonely."
+
+"We are too many to feel lonely," cried the captain, cheerily.
+
+"But I meant about neighbours.  How far do you think we are from the
+nearest neighbours, Edward?"
+
+"Don't ask me," he said, merrily.  "So far that we cannot quarrel with
+them.--There, girls, you will have to help and make the house snug as
+fast as we get it up.  To-morrow we will mark it out, and then set up a
+shed to act as an additional shelter for our stores, which must be
+unpacked from the wagons.  Every one must take his or her department,
+and as we have that black with us, and he evidently does not mean to go,
+he will have to work too.  By the way, I have not seen him for the last
+hour or two."
+
+"He had such a dinner," said Tim.  "Aunt feeds him so."
+
+"That, I'm sure, I do not, my dear," said Aunt Georgie, shortly.
+
+"Well, aunt, he always goes and lies down to sleep after you've given
+him anything," said Rifle.
+
+"And that's what he has gone to do now," added Norman.  "He'll come out
+of the woods somewhere soon.  But I say, father, shan't we have time to
+fish and shoot?"
+
+"Plenty, and ride too, boys.  But there, we've done a good day's work,
+and now I suppose we shall have to do a little sentry business.  The
+blacks are evidently very, very scarce in the country, not a sign of one
+in all these many days' journey.  But it would be wise to keep to a
+little vigilance, though I doubt whether they will trouble us much
+here.--Jack," he continued, rising, "we'll take the guns and have a walk
+round, to look at the cattle before going to roost for the night, while
+the girls get the place clear.--Coming, any of you boys?"
+
+They all three sprang up eagerly.
+
+"That's right.  Come along.  Hallo!" he added, "here comes Tam o'
+Shanter."
+
+For at that moment the black darted out from among the trees, and ran
+across the intervening space to where they were, carrying his
+nulla-nulla and boomerang in one hand, his spear at the trail in the
+other.
+
+He had evidently been running fast, and was out of breath as he came up
+to cry in a low, hoarse voice:
+
+"Now then all along--come quick, black fellow metancoly, come along
+mumkull white."
+
+"What!" cried the captain, "a number of black fellows coming to kill
+us?"
+
+"Hum.  You shoot fast, mumkull black fellow, all go bong."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+"LET ME GO: I CAN RUN FAST."
+
+The minute before, all peace, rest, and the promise of plenty; now, an
+alarm so full of horror that every one there felt chilled.
+
+A rush was made to the wagons for the guns and ammunition, the ladies
+were hurried into the little square formed by the vehicles, as the
+safest place, and the advantage of having an experienced soldier for
+their leader was shown at once, though all the time the captain was
+bitterly reproaching himself for not having spent more time in providing
+for their defence, instead of giving up valuable hours to rest and
+planning what they should do.
+
+"I ought to have known better, Norman," he said angrily, as the boy
+walked by his side to obey his orders, and convey them to one or the
+other.  "Take a lesson from it, my boy, and if ever you march in an
+enemy's country, wherever you halt, do as the old Romans did; entrench
+yourself at once."
+
+"But we have entrenched ourselves, father," said the boy, pointing to
+the boxes, barrels, and cases which had hastily been dragged out of the
+carts and placed outside to form a protection before the openings
+beneath the wagons, and also to fire over in case of an attack.
+
+"Pooh! not half enough.  There, we can do no more.  Now about that
+black.--Here, Jack, what do you say?  Is that fellow in collusion with
+the people coming on?"
+
+"No," said Uncle Jack, decisively.  "If he had been, he is cunning
+enough to have lulled us into security.  He need not have uttered a
+warning, and the blacks could have surprised us after dark."
+
+"Yes, there is something in that," said the captain.  "And look what he
+did, father, directly he had warned us."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Set to work with his boomerang covering the fire over with earth to
+smother out the smoke."
+
+"But it might all be cunning to put us off our guard with him, and it
+would be a hideous danger to have a traitor in our little stronghold."
+
+"For him," said Uncle Jack, grimly.
+
+"Yes," said his brother.  "But there, I'll trust him.  I should not
+display all this horrible suspicion if it were not for the women.  They
+make quite a coward of me.  Now, can we do any more?"
+
+"No," said Uncle Jack; "there is no time.  We can keep a good many at
+bay."
+
+"If you fire steadily," said the captain.  "No shot must be fired
+without good reason.  In war, many go to one enemy the less.  In this
+case every shot must tell."
+
+"Rather horrible," said Uncle Jack, quietly; "eh, Norman, lad?  But
+there, they can avoid it.  They have only to leave us alone, and we
+should never hurt a soul."
+
+By this the little party were crouching about their wagon and box fort
+with their guns ready, and plenty of ammunition at hand; the fire only
+sent up one tiny curl of smoke, and this was stopped instantly, for
+Shanter crawled from where he had been lying flat close to Tim and
+Rifle, and scraping up some more earth with his boomerang, he piled it
+over the spot where the smoke issued, and returned by rolling himself
+over and over till he was back beside a large box.  Their position was
+in some respects good, being on an elevation, but in other respects bad,
+as the captain pointed out to Norman.
+
+"We are not far enough away from the trees in front there.  The
+scoundrels can creep up through the bushes, and use them for a shelter
+from which to throw spears.  Listen.  The first who sees a black figure
+give warning by a low hiss."
+
+Fortunately the cattle had all strayed off grazing in the other
+direction, and were invisible from where the little party lay waiting
+the expected onslaught; and just as Uncle Munday had made allusion to
+the fact that if the enemy were seen in that direction, the cattle would
+give warning, the captain said in a low voice, "I wish they'd come."
+
+Norman stared.
+
+"Before it is dark, my boy.  In less than an hour we shall not be able
+to see them, and our position will be ten times as bad.  There, I have
+done all I can for our protection.  I must go and reconnoitre now."
+
+His words were loud enough to be heard from behind, and Mrs Bedford's
+voice rose in supplication.
+
+"No, no, dear.  Pray don't run any risks."
+
+"Hush!" said the captain, sternly, "we must know whether the enemy is
+near."
+
+The danger, as far as they could make out from Shanter's broken English,
+lay across the little river; but instead of being in the visible sloping
+plain, it was away beyond the trees to their right, and hidden by the
+broken mountainous range, and after glancing at the priming of his
+double gun, the captain turned to his right.
+
+"Here, Shanter!" he said in a low whisper.  "Come with me.  Come along--
+show black fellow."
+
+There was no response for a moment or two, and then Rifle spoke.
+
+"He isn't here, father."
+
+"Not there?"
+
+"No; he was lying down here just now, but while I was watching the trees
+over there, he must have crept away."
+
+"Crept away?  But I want him to go with me to scout.  Who saw him go?"
+
+There was no reply, and feeling staggered by the ease with which these
+people could elude observation, and applying it to the enemies' advance,
+the captain looked sharply round for danger, half expecting at any
+moment to see a dim-looking black form emerge from behind a bush, or
+others rapidly darting from tree to tree, so as to get within throwing
+distance with their spears.
+
+"Well," he said, "I must go alone.  Keep a sharp look-out, boys."
+
+"What are you going to do, father?" said Norman.
+
+"Scout," said the captain, laconically.
+
+"No; let me go: I can run fast.  I'll be very careful and shelter myself
+behind trees.  You can't leave here."
+
+"He's quite right Ned," said Uncle Jack.
+
+"I can run faster than Norman, uncle," cried Tim eagerly.  "Let me go."
+
+"No, me, father," cried Rifle, excitedly.
+
+"Silence in the ranks!" cried the captain sternly.  Then, after a moment
+or two's pause, he said firmly, "Private Norman will go as far as the
+ridge yonder, scouting.  He will go cautiously, and keep out of sight of
+the enemy, and as soon as he has made out whether they are advancing and
+the direction they will take, he will return."
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"Silence!--Now go.--Stop!"
+
+The captain caught the boy by the arm, as he was creeping near the box,
+and as all followed the direction in which the captain was gazing, they
+saw a black figure darting from tree to tree some eighty or ninety yards
+away and with his back to them.
+
+"That's Shanter," whispered Norman.
+
+"Yes: follow him, and try and keep him in sight.  If he joins the enemy
+come back at once.  There, you need not creep over the space between us
+and the trees; there can be no enemy there.  Quick!  How soon the
+darkness is coming on!"
+
+Norman stepped on to the great chest, leaped down, and ran off, as a low
+piteous sigh--almost a sob--was heard from behind; but though it had an
+echo in the captain's breast, he crouched there firm as a rock, and
+steeling himself against tender emotions, for the sake of all whom he
+had brought into peril and whom it was his duty to protect.
+
+There before him was his eldest son, carrying his gun at the trail, and
+running swiftly in the direction of the black, who from running boldly
+from tree to tree was now seen to be growing very cautious, and suddenly
+to drop down and disappear.
+
+The captain drew a long deep breath.
+
+"We may trust him," he said softly; "he is evidently our friend.  Now
+for Norman's news."
+
+Yet, though he was at rest on this point, he was uneasy about an attack
+on their right flank or rear, but that could not come from the rear, he
+knew, without some panic on the part of the cattle; while he was hopeful
+about the right flank, for the ground was precipitous in the extreme,
+and from what they had seen so far, it was hardly possible for any one
+to approach.
+
+But though Shanter had dropped quite out of sight of those behind the
+little barricade, he was still visible to Norman, who ran on and was
+getting near to where the black was creeping from bush to bush on all
+fours, looking in the dim evening light like a black dog carrying his
+master's stick, for Norman in one glimpse saw that he was drawing his
+spear as he crawled, his boomerang was stuck behind him in his
+waistband, and his nulla-nulla was across his mouth tightly held by his
+teeth.
+
+When about some twenty yards away, and approaching in perfect silence as
+he thought, the black looked sharply round, rose to his knees, and
+signed to the boy to go down on all fours.
+
+Norman obeyed, and Shanter waited till he had crawled up.  Then making a
+gesture that could only mean, "Be silent and cautious," he crawled on,
+with the boy following him, till, after what seemed quite a long painful
+piece of toil, they reached the foot of a steep rocky slope whose
+tree-fringed summit was some fifty feet above their heads.
+
+Shanter pointed to the top, and began to climb, mounting easily for some
+distance, and then stopping by a small tree, whose gnarled roots were
+fixed in the crevices of the rock.  Here he held on, and reached down
+with his spear, by whose help Norman soon climbed to his side, where he
+paused to sling his gun by its strap, so as to leave his bands at
+liberty.
+
+The rest of the ascent was made with more ease; and when Shanter reached
+the top, he raised his eyes above the level with the greatest caution,
+and then seemed to Norman to crawl over like some huge black slug and
+disappear.
+
+The boy prepared to follow, when Shanter's head reappeared over the
+sharp ridge and his arm was stretched down with the spear, so that the
+final climb was fairly easy, though it would have been almost impossible
+without.
+
+As soon as Norman was lying on the top, he found that the other side was
+a gentle descent away to what appeared to be a wide valley between
+mountains, but everything was so rapidly growing dim that the distant
+objects were nearly obscured by the transparent gloom.  But nearer at
+hand there was something visible which made the boy's heart begin to
+beat heavily.  For as Shanter drew him on all fours cautiously among the
+bushes to where there was an opening, there, far down the slope, but so
+near that had they spoken their words would have been heard, was a great
+body rising, which directly after resolved itself into smoke; and before
+many minutes had been spent in watching, there was a bright flash of
+flame which had the effect of making all around suddenly seem dark,
+while between them and the bright blaze a number of black figures could
+be seen moving to and fro, and evidently heaping brushwood upon the fire
+they had just lit.
+
+Norman Bedford, as he lay there among the bushes, felt, at the sight of
+the blacks, as if boyhood had suddenly dropped away with all its joyous
+sport and fun, to leave him a thoughtful man in a terrible emergency;
+that he was bound to act, and that perhaps the lives of all who were
+dear to him depended upon his action and control of the thoughtless
+savage at his side.
+
+"Poor father!" he said to himself, as his courage failed and a cold
+perspiration broke out all over him; "you have done wrong.  You ought
+not to have brought out mamma and the girls till we had come and proved
+the place.  It is too horrible."
+
+That was only a momentary weakness, though, and he nerved himself now to
+act, trying to come to the conclusion which it would be best to do--stop
+and watch, sending Shanter back with a message, or leave the black to
+watch while he ran with the news.
+
+The position was horrible.  Setting aside his own danger up there on the
+ridge, where the slightest movement might be heard by the sharp-eared
+blacks, there they were, evidently encamping for the night with only
+this ridge dividing them from the spot selected for the new home.
+
+What should he do?
+
+Before he could decide, as he lay there watching, with dilated eyes, the
+black figures passing and repassing the increasing blaze, Shanter placed
+his lips close to his ear.
+
+"You pidney?"  (understand), he whispered.  "They all black fellow."
+
+"Yes.  Go and tell them at the camp," Norman whispered back.
+
+In an instant the black's hand was over his lips, and his head was
+pressed down amongst the grass, while he felt the black's chest across
+his shoulders.  He was so taken by surprise that he lay perfectly still,
+feeling that after all his father was right, and Shanter was
+treacherous; but his thoughts took another direction as quickly as the
+first had come, for Shanter's lips were again at his ear.
+
+"Black fellow come along fetch wood."
+
+In effect quite unnoticed, three or four of the men had been approaching
+where they lay, and now seemed to start up suddenly from some bushes
+twenty feet below them.
+
+Retreat was impossible.  The precipice was close behind, and to get away
+by there meant slow careful lowering of themselves down, and this was
+impossible without making some noise, which must be heard, so that all
+that could be done was to lie close and wait with weapons ready, in case
+they were discovered--a fate which was apparently certain.
+
+Norman laid his hand upon the lock of his gun, ready to raise it and
+fire if they were found, and a slight rustle told him that Shanter had
+taken a fresh grip of his club.
+
+That was all, and they lay waiting, listening to the rustling noise made
+by the black fellows as they pushed their way through the scrub, still
+coming nearer and nearer.
+
+They were agonising moments, and again Norman felt that his father's
+doubts might be correct, for the enemy approaching were evidently not
+gathering wood, but coming up there for some special purpose.  Was it,
+after all, to surprise the camp, and was Shanter holding him down to be
+made a prisoner or for death?
+
+He was ready to heave himself up and make a brave struggle for life as
+he shouted out a warning to those in camp, and as the rustling noise
+grew nearer his heart seemed to beat more heavily.  But his common sense
+told him directly that he must be wrong, and that, too, just as he could
+hear the mental agony no longer, for when the rustling was quite near,
+the men began jabbering quite loudly to each other, and directly after
+one tripped in the darkness and fell forward on the bushes, the others
+laughing loudly at his mishap.
+
+That settled one thing: they could not evidently be going to surprise
+the camp, or they would have been cautious, and a warm sensation of joy
+even in the midst of his peril ran through the boy's breast.
+
+But why were they there, then?
+
+He soon had evidence as to the meaning of their coming, but not until he
+had suffered fresh agonies.  For as he lay thinking that the noise and
+laughter must have been heard by those in camp, the blacks came nearer
+and nearer in the darkness, and their next steps seemed as if they must
+be over or upon them.  "And then there will be a horrible struggle,"
+thought the boy, one in which he would have to play his part.
+
+He drew in his breath, and the hand which grasped the gun-lock felt so
+wet that he trembled for fear it should moisten the powder in the pan,
+while the next instant he felt a great piece of prickly bush pressed
+down over his head, as if trampled and thrust sidewise by some one
+pushing his way by.  There was loud rustling close by his feet, and then
+the blacks went a couple more steps or so, there was a sharp
+ejaculation, and they stopped short.
+
+Had Norman been alone he would have sprung up; but Shanter pressed him
+down, and in another instant he felt that the exclamations had not been
+at the discovery of hiding enemies, but because one of them had nearly
+gone down the precipice.
+
+Then followed more talking and laughing, all in an unknown tongue to
+Norman; till after a few minutes the blacks continued along the ridge
+for some little distance, stopped again, and ended by going leisurely
+back toward the fire, with the bushes rustling as they went.
+
+Norman drew a deep breath of relief, and a low whisper came at his ear:
+"Mine think good job all black dark.  Myall black fellow no see.  Nearly
+plenty numkull."
+
+"Are they gone?" whispered back Norman, as he felt the heavy weight of
+the black's chest removed from his back.
+
+"All agone down fire.  Come for more fire all about."
+
+Which means they were reconnoitring, thought Norman.  Then, as he raised
+himself a little and looked down at the brightly-blazing fire, about
+which several men were sitting, he saw other figures go up, and there
+was a loud burst of chattering and laughing.
+
+"Hear um all yabber yabber," whispered Shanter.  "All myall black
+fellow.  Come 'long, tell Marmi, (the captain)."
+
+"Yes; come quickly," said Norman.
+
+"Ah!" whispered Shanter, clapping his hand over the boy's mouth.  "Myall
+black fellow big ear."
+
+He pointed downward, and Norman shivered again, for, softly as his words
+had been uttered, he saw that they had been heard, for the group about
+the fire had sprung up and their faces seemed to be turned in their
+direction.
+
+Shanter placed both hands to his mouth and uttered a soft, long-drawn,
+plaintive, whistling sound, then paused for a few moments, and whistled
+again more softly; and then once again the plaintive piping rose on the
+air as if it were the call of a night bird now very distant.
+
+The ruse had its effect, for the blacks settled down again about the
+fire, and were soon all talking away loudly, and evidently cooking and
+eating some kind of food.
+
+"No talk big," whispered Shanter; and creeping close back to the edge of
+the precipice, he lowered his spear and felt about for a ledge which
+promised foothold.  As soon as he had satisfied himself about this, he
+turned to Norman.
+
+"Now, down along," he whispered; "more, come soon."
+
+The boy slung his gun again, and taking hold of the spear, lowered
+himself over the edge of the rugged scarp, and easily reached the ledge,
+the black, whom nature seemed to have furnished with a second pair of
+hands instead of feet, joining him directly, and then began searching
+about once more for a good place to descend.
+
+He was longer this time, and as Norman clung to the tough stem of some
+gnarled bush, he looked out anxiously in the direction of their camp;
+but all now below was of intense blackness, not even a star appearing
+above to afford light.
+
+"Mine can't find," whispered the black; and then, "Yohi (yes); now down
+along."
+
+Norman obeyed, and once more clung to the steep face by the help of a
+bush; and this process was repeated several times till the black uttered
+a low laugh.
+
+"Myall black fellow no see, no hear.  Mine glad.  Come tell Marmi."
+
+The captain was nearer than they thought, for they had not gone many
+steps before they were challenged, and the voice was his.
+
+"Back safe, father," panted Norman, who was terribly excited.
+
+"Why have you been so long?" said the captain shortly.  "The anxiety has
+been terrible."
+
+"Hush! don't talk loud.  There is a party of black fellows on the other
+side of that ridge;" and he rapidly told the narrative of their escape.
+
+"So near the camp, and quite ignorant of our being here.--Will they come
+this way in the morning, Shanter?"
+
+"Mine don't know.  All go along somewhere--fine sugar-bag--fine grub--
+fine possum.  Wait see."
+
+"Yes; we must wait and see," said the captain, thoughtfully.  Then to
+the black, "They will not come to-night?"
+
+"Baal come now.  Eat, sleep, all full," replied Shanter.  "Big white
+Mary gib Shanter damper?"
+
+"Hungry again?" said the captain angrily.  "But make haste back.  They
+are in sad alarm at the camp."
+
+"Shall we be able to stay here, father?" said Norman, on their way back
+through the darkness.
+
+"Stay, boy?  Yes.  Only let them give us a few days or weeks' respite,
+and I do not care.  But look here, boy, we have gone too far to retreat.
+We must hold the place now.  It is too good to give up meekly at a
+scare from a gang of savages.  Come, Norman, you must be a man."
+
+"I was not thinking of myself, father, but about mamma and the girls."
+
+The captain drew a sharp, hissing breath.
+
+"And I was too," he said in a low voice.  "But come, let's set them at
+rest for the night."
+
+Five minutes later Norman felt two soft hands seize his, and hold him in
+the darkness, as a passionate voice whispered in his ear: "Oh, Norman,
+my boy--my boy!"
+
+Then there was a long silent watch to keep, and there was only one who
+slept in camp that night--to wit, Shanter.  And Rifle said merrily, that
+the black slept loud enough for ten.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+"ALONG O' THAT THERE NIGGER?"
+
+But Shanter, though he slept so soundly, was ready to start up if any
+one even whispered, and also ready to lie down and sleep again the
+moment he found that all was well; and at the first grey dawning of day,
+when the great trees began to appear in weird fashion from out of the
+darkness, and the tops of the mountains to show jagged against the sky,
+he sprang up from where he had slept close to the warm ashes, yawned,
+gave himself a rub as if he were cold, and then shook out his arms and
+legs, and picked up his weapons.
+
+"Mine go along, see myall black fellow.  Little Marmi come."
+
+This was to Norman, who turned to the captain.
+
+"Yes; go, and be very careful.  Recollect it will be broad daylight
+directly."
+
+Norman gave a sharp nod, and caught his brother and cousin's eyes fixed
+upon him enviously.
+
+The captain noticed it.
+
+"Wait," he said; "your turns will come, boys.--Now, Norman, scout
+carefully, and put us out of our misery at once.  If the blacks are
+coming this way, hold up your gun as high as you can reach.  If they are
+going in another direction, hold it with both hands horizontally above
+your head."
+
+Norman nodded and ran after Shanter, who was already on his way, and
+together they reached the precipice, and climbed the face to creep down
+at once among the bushes, from which place of vantage they could see
+right into the blacks' camp, where a party of nineteen were squatted
+round the fire eating some kind of root which they were roasting on the
+embers.
+
+This went on for some time, while, knowing the anxiety at their own
+camp, Norman crouched there watching them, till Shanter whispered
+softly, "All go along.  Mine glad."
+
+He was right, for suddenly one man sprang up and took his spear, the
+others followed his example; and they stood talking together just as the
+rising sun peered over the horizon and turned their glistening black
+bodies into dark bronze.
+
+Then followed a good deal of talking and pointing, as if some were for
+climbing over the ridge, and at first the others seemed disposed to
+follow them; but another disposition came over the party, and,
+shouldering their spears, they went off toward the mountains, one
+portion of which formed a saddle, from which at either end two lines of
+eminences of nearly equal height went right away as if there was a deep
+valley between.
+
+"Baal black fellow now.  Come all along, Shanter want big damper."
+
+They waited a few minutes longer, till the party had disappeared in what
+looked to be the bed of a dry stream, leading up into the mountains; and
+then, with a feeling of elation in his breast, Norman hurried to a
+prominent part of the edge of the steep escarpment, and stood holding
+his gun up on high with both hands, horizontally, as agreed upon, till,
+with a fierce look, Shanter ran to him and dragged it down, giving a
+sharp look toward the place where the blacks had disappeared.
+
+"Little Marmi want myall black fellow come along?"
+
+"Baal black fellow now," said Norman; and Shanter's fierce countenance
+became mirthful.
+
+"Baal black fellow now!" he cried, with a hoarse chuckle.  "Baal black
+fellow now.  You pidney?"
+
+"Yes, I pidney--I understand," cried Norman, laughing.
+
+"Come all along.  Shanter want big damper.  Break-fuss," he added with a
+grin.
+
+They soon lowered themselves down the wall of rock, and ran to the camp,
+where the captain had just arranged that soon after breakfast Rifle and
+Tim were to take it in turns to mount to the highest point of the ridge
+to keep watch, while the rest worked at preparations for their defence
+and that of the cattle.
+
+In the relief they all felt for their escape, a hearty meal was made,
+the watcher was sent out to perch himself where he could look out
+unseen, and the day's work began.
+
+The cattle were first counted, and found to be none the worse for their
+journey, and grazing contentedly on the rich feed.  Just below them was
+an ample supply of water, and altogether, as they showed no disposition
+to stray, they could be left.
+
+Weapons were then placed ready for use at a moment's notice, and all
+hands set to work to unpack the wagons, the cases being ranged outside,
+barrels rolled to the corners and built up, and all being arranged under
+the shadow of a great tree, whose boughs would do something toward
+keeping off rain.  This by degrees began to assume the character of a
+little wooden fort, and lastly, over the tops of the wagons, a ridge
+pole was fixed formed of a small tree which fell to Uncle Jack's axe,
+and across this three wagon cloths were stretched, forming a fairly
+waterproof roof to protect goods that would spoil, and also promising to
+be strong enough to check a spear which might reach it through the
+branches of the trees.
+
+As evening came on, this stronghold was a long way from being finished,
+but it promised some security if it were found necessary to take to it
+for shelter, and it was decided that the women should occupy it, and for
+the present give up the tent to the men.
+
+Every one was highly satisfied with the day's work, and, as Rifle said,
+they could all now devote themselves so much more easily to other
+things--this when he had been relieved in his guard by Tim, who had
+stalked off to his post looking, with his shouldered piece, as important
+as a grenadier, and no doubt feeling his responsibility far more.
+
+But matters had not gone on without a hitch, or to be correct, several
+hitches, consequent upon the behaviour of Shanter, who in every way
+showed that it was his intention to stay.
+
+The beginning of it was a complaint made by German, who went up to Tim
+and touched his hat.
+
+"Beg pardon, Master 'Temus, sir, but along o' that there nigger."
+
+"What about him?"
+
+"I asked him as civilly as a man could speak, to come and help me unload
+the big wagon, and he shouldered his clothes-prop thing and marched off.
+Aren't he expected to do something for his wittles?"
+
+"Of course, Sam.  Here, I'll go and set him to work."
+
+Tim walked away to where the black was busy carrying wood to replenish
+the fire.
+
+"Here, Shanter," he said; "come and help me to carry some boxes."
+
+"Baal help boxes.  Plenty mine come along wood."
+
+"There's enough wood now."
+
+"What metancoly wood," (much, a large number).  "Baal come along boxes."
+
+"But you must come," cried Tim.
+
+Shanter seemed to think that he must not, and he took no more notice,
+but marched away, fetched another big armful of wood, and then took the
+big kettle to fill at the spring.
+
+"I say, uncle," cried Tim, "here's insubordination in the camp."
+
+"What's the matter?" said Uncle Jack, who was chaining up the wheels of
+one of the wagons to insure its not being dragged away.
+
+"The black will not work."
+
+"Send him to me."
+
+Tim ran back to Shanter.
+
+"Here," he cried; "Uncle Jack wants you."
+
+"Baal come along Uncle Jack," said the black sharply.  "Uncle Jack come
+along Shanter."
+
+"But I say: that won't do," cried Tim.  "You must mind what's said to
+you."
+
+"Shanter going get grub.  You come along mine."
+
+"No; I'm going to work, and you have to help."
+
+Shanter got up and walked straight away in the other direction, and Tim
+went and told his uncle.
+
+"Lazy scoundrel!" cried Uncle Jack.  "Well, if he doesn't work he can't
+be fed."
+
+"Shall I go and tell the captain?"
+
+"No; he has plenty of worries on his mind.  Let's do without the sable
+rascal.  We never counted upon having his help."
+
+So the work went on without the black, and the captain did not miss him;
+while the ladies, finding a plentiful supply of wood and water, were
+loud in Shanter's praises.
+
+Just before dark he walked back into camp with a bark bag hanging from
+his spear, and a pleasant grin upon his face.
+
+"Baal black fellow," he cried.
+
+"There now," said Aunt Georgie, who was busy preparing the evening meal,
+helped by Mrs Bedford; "there it is again.  I was doubtful before."
+
+"Baal black fellow," said Shanter once more.
+
+"Yes, there.  You see how it is, Marian; these people must be
+descendants of the old Philistines, all degenerate and turned black."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Uncle Jack, and he looked very sternly at the black.
+
+"But it is not nonsense, John," said the old lady.  "Surely you don't
+mean to say that I do not know what I'm talking about.  That dreadful
+man is a descendant of the old Philistines.  You heard him say as
+plainly as could be something about Baal."
+
+Norman burst into a roar of laughter.
+
+"Norman, my dear, how can you be such a rude child?" cried the old lady
+reprovingly.
+
+"Why, aunt, baal means none, or not any."
+
+"Nonsense, my dear!"
+
+"But it does, aunt.  Baal black fellow means that there are none about."
+
+"Baal black fellow," cried Shanter, nodding.  "Mine not see plenty--all
+gone."
+
+"There, aunt."
+
+"Oh dear me! what a dreadful jargon.  Come here, sir, and I'll give you
+some damper."
+
+Aunt Georgie seated herself, took one of the great cakes she had made,
+and broke it in half, holding it out to the black.
+
+"He doesn't deserve it," said Uncle Jack, sternly.
+
+"Big white Mary gib damper," cried the black excitedly, taking the cake
+and sticking it in his waistband, while he slipped his spear out of the
+handles of his bag.  "Shanter find white grub.  Plenty all 'long big
+white Mary."
+
+As he spoke, he emptied the contents of his bag suddenly in the old
+lady's lap, laughed at the shriek she gave, and walked off to devour his
+cake, while Norman and Rifle collected the curious white larvae in a tin
+to set them aside for a private feast of their own, no one caring to
+venture upon a couple that were roasted over the embers.
+
+Just then the captain was summoned to the evening meal, and after a
+glance round, he called to Shanter:
+
+"Here, boy," he said, as the black came up grinning, and with his mouth
+full; "go up and look black fellow.--That's the best way I can think of
+telling him to relieve Tim," he said.
+
+The black nodded, shouldered his spear, and marched off.
+
+"He obeys you," said Uncle Jack, who had looked on curiously.
+
+"Of course.  So he does you."
+
+Uncle Jack shook his head.
+
+"No," he said.  Then the incidents of the day were related, and the
+captain looked thoughtful.
+
+In due time Tim came down from his perch, and took his place where the
+evening meal was discussed in peace, but not without an occasional
+glance round, and a feeling of dread that at any moment there might be
+an alarm; for they felt that after all they were interlopers in an
+enemy's country, and on their voyage out they had heard more than one
+account of troubles with the blacks, stories of bloodshed and massacre,
+which they had then been ready to laugh at as travellers' tales, but
+which now impressed them very differently, and filled them with an
+undefined sensation of terror, such as made all start at every shadow or
+sound.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+"THAT BLACK IS OF NO USE."
+
+Strict watch was kept, but the night passed peacefully away, and the
+morning dawned so brightly, everything around was so beautiful, with the
+birds singing, the sky all orange, gold, and vivid blue, that in the
+glorious invigorating air it was simply impossible to be in low spirits.
+The boys had no sooner started to climb the hills and scout for danger,
+than they met Shanter, who came toward them laughing.
+
+"Black fellow all gone.  No see bull-cow and big horse fellow.  All gone
+away.  Budgery job.  Shanter mumkull all lot."
+
+He gave then a short war-dance, and a display of his skill with his
+spear, sending it flying with tremendous force and never missing the
+tree at which he aimed, into whose soft bark it stuck quivering, while
+he ran up, dragged it out, and belaboured the trunk with his club.
+
+It was an expressive piece of pantomime to show how he would kill all
+the black fellows he met; and when he had ended, he stood grinning at
+the boys, waiting for their praise.
+
+"Oh, it's all very fine, old chap," said Norman, speaking for the
+others; "but how do we know that you would not run away, or be mumkulled
+yourself by the black fellows?"
+
+Shanter nodded his head, and smiled more widely.
+
+"Mumkull all a black fellow--all run away.  Budgery nulla-nulla.  Plenty
+mine."
+
+He whirled his club round and hurled it at the nearest tree, which it
+struck full in the centre of the trunk.  Then as he picked it up--
+
+"Shall we trust to what he said?  If he is right, we needn't go
+scouting," said Norman.
+
+"Let's go back and tell uncle," suggested Tim.  "There's no need to go
+on the look-out," cried Rifle.
+
+"Those people are Tam o' Shanter's enemies, and he would not go on like
+this if they had not gone.--I say, I want to see you use this," he
+continued, as he touched one of the flat pieces of wood, the black
+having two now stuck in his waistband.
+
+"Boomerang," cried the black, taking out the heavy pieces of wood, one
+of which was very much curved, rounded over one side, flat on the other,
+both having sharpened edges, such as would make them useful in times of
+emergency as wooden swords.  "Boomerang," he said again.
+
+"Oh yes; I know what you call them," said Rifle; "but I want to see them
+thrown."
+
+As he spoke he took hold of the straighter weapon and made believe to
+hurl it.
+
+"No budgery," cried the man, taking the weapon.
+
+"Mumkull black fellow."  Then, taking the other very much curved piece
+of wood, he gave it a flourish.  "Mumkull boomer."
+
+"Who's boomer?" said Norman.  "Black fellow?"
+
+Shanter gesticulated and flourished his curved weapon, shook his head,
+stamped, and cried, "No black fellow.  Boomer-boomer."
+
+"Well, who's boomer?" cried Rifle.  "A black fellow?"
+
+"No, no.  Mumkull plenty boomer."
+
+He dropped spear, nulla, and boomerangs, stooped a little, drooped his
+hands before him, and bent his head down, pretending to nibble at the
+grass, after which he made a little bound, then another; then a few
+jumps, raised himself up and looked round over his shoulder, as if in
+search of danger, and then went off in a series of wonderful leaps,
+returning directly grinning.
+
+"Boomer," he cried; "boomer."
+
+"He means kangaroo," cried Tim, excitedly.
+
+"Of course he does," said Rifle.  "Boomer-kangaroo."
+
+"Kangaroo boomer," replied the black eagerly.  "Boomer."  Then taking
+the straighter weapon, he hurled it forcibly, and sent it skimming over
+the ground with such unerring aim that it struck a tree fifty yards away
+and fell.  "Mumkull black fellow," he cried laughing.
+
+Then picking up the second weapon, he threw it so that it flew skimming
+along through the air close to the ground for a considerable distance,
+curved upward, returned over the same ground, but high up, and fell not
+far from the thrower's feet.
+
+"Budgery," cried Shanter, regaining his weapon, and laughing with
+childish delight.
+
+"Here, let's have a try," said Norman, seizing the boomerang--literally
+boomer or kangaroo stick--and imitating the black's actions, he threw
+it, but with such lamentable want of success, that his brother and
+cousin roared with laughter, and the black grinned his delight.
+
+"Here, I'll show you," cried Rifle; but he turned round hurriedly, for
+there was a loud hail from a distance, and in obedience to a signal they
+all hurried to where the captain stood with Uncle Jack, both coming now
+toward them, and as they drew nearer the boys could read the look of
+anger in the captain's face.
+
+"We were just coming back, father," cried Norman.
+
+"Coming back, sir?  How am I ever to trust you lads again.  I sent you
+on a mission of what might mean life or death, and I find you playing
+like schoolboys with that savage."
+
+"We were coming back, father," said Rifle, apologetically.  "We met
+Shanter here, and he said that the black fellows were all gone."
+
+"And we thought he would be able to tell better than we could," said
+Norman, humbly.
+
+"Humph! there was some excuse," said the captain, sternly; "but I expect
+my orders to be carried out.--Here, boy."
+
+Shanter advanced rather shrinkingly.
+
+"Black fellows.  Where are they?"
+
+"Baal black fellow," said Shanter, hastily.  "All gone.  Plenty no."
+
+"Come back into camp then, lads," said the captain, "and help.  There is
+plenty to do."
+
+The captain was right: there was plenty to do.  The question was what to
+begin upon first.
+
+They all set to work to contrive a better shelter; and released now from
+dread of an immediate visit from the blacks, their little fortress was
+strengthened, and the first steps taken toward making the first room of
+their house; the captain as architect having planned it so that other
+rooms could be added one by one.  But on the very first day the captain
+had an experience which nearly resulted in a serious quarrel and the
+black being driven from the camp.
+
+For Shanter would not carry boxes or cut wood, or help in any way with
+the building, all of which seemed to him perfectly unnecessary; but just
+as the captain was getting in a towering passion, the black uttered a
+shout and pointed to the cattle which had been grazing and sheltering
+themselves beneath some trees, but now were rushing out as if seized by
+a panic.  Heads were down, tails up, and they were evidently off for the
+bush, where the trouble of getting them back might be extreme.  But
+Shanter was equal to the occasion.  He saw at a glance the direction the
+cattle were taking; and as the sounds of their fierce lowing and the
+thunder of their hoofs reached his ears he darted off to run up a long
+slope opposite to the precipice Norman had climbed; and before the
+captain and the boys had reached their horses to saddle them and gallop
+after the herd, Shanter had descended the other side and gone.
+
+"That black is of no use," said the captain, angrily.  "He might have
+helped us to find the beasts; now I'm afraid they are gone for ever."
+
+"No, no.  It may be a long chase," said Uncle Munday, "but we must
+overtake them, and bring them back."
+
+It took some time to catch and bridle and saddle all the horses, and
+with the exception of Sam German all were about to gallop off along the
+trail left by the cattle, when the captain drew rein.
+
+"No," he said; "we must not leave the camp unprotected.  We might have
+unwelcome visitors, Jack.  You and I must stay.  Off with you, boys.  I
+daresay you will find the black hunting the brutes after all."
+
+The boys waited for no further orders, but stuck their heels into their
+horses' sides, and the animals, full of spirit from idleness, went off
+at a headlong gallop.  There was in fact quite a race over the open
+ground, where the beaten track could now be seen deeply marked.
+
+But the run was short.  Two miles away they caught sight of the drove,
+and drew rein so as not to scare them, for they were coming steadily
+along, and there close behind was Shanter, spear in hand, running to and
+fro, prodding, striking, and keeping the drove together; while the boys,
+now dividing, rode round to join him behind, bringing the frightened
+cattle back into camp panting, hot, and excited, but the panic was at an
+end.
+
+"That will do," said the captain, pleasantly.  "I give in about Tam o'
+Shanter;" and from that hour the black was installed as guardian of the
+"bull-cows and horse fellows," to his very great delight.
+
+In his broken English way he explained the cause of the panic.
+
+"Plenty 'possum fellow up a tree," he said.  "One make jump down on
+bull-cow fellow back.  You pidney?  Kimmeroi (one) run, metancoly run.
+Bull-cow stupid fellow.  Plenty frighten.  No frighten Shanter."
+
+That little incident had shown the black's real value, and he was
+henceforth looked upon as a valuable addition to the station, being sent
+out at times scouting to see if there was any danger in the
+neighbourhood.  His principal duties, though, were that of herdsman and
+groom, for he soon developed a passionate attachment to the horses, and
+his greatest satisfaction was displayed when he was allowed to go and
+fetch them in from grazing for his young masters.
+
+He had a great friend, too, in Aunt Georgie--"big white Mary," as he
+would persist in calling her--and oddly enough, it seemed to give him
+profound satisfaction to squat down outside after he had fetched wood or
+water, and be scolded for being long, or for the quality of the wood, or
+want of coolness in the water.
+
+Meanwhile, the building had gone on merrily, for there was an intense
+desire to provide a better shelter for the ladies before the glorious
+weather changed and they had to do battle with the heavy rains.  Sam
+German gave up his first ideas of fencing in a garden, and worked most
+energetically with his axe.  Then one or other of the boys helped with
+the cross-cut saw, and posts were formed and shingles split--wooden
+slates Rifle called them--for the roofing.
+
+A rough sawpit was made, too, under Uncle Munday's superintendence, the
+tools and implements thoughtfully brought proving invaluable, so that in
+due time uprights were placed, a framework contrived, and, sooner even
+than they had themselves anticipated, a well-formed little house was
+built, was completed with windows and strong shutters, and, at the
+sides, tiny loopholes for purposes of defence.
+
+This one strong room covered in, and the boarded sides nailed on, the
+building of a kitchen at the side became a comparatively easy task, and
+was gone on with more slowly, for another job had to be commenced.
+
+"I consider it wonderful, boys, that they have escaped," said the
+captain; "but we have been tempting fate.  We must fence in a good space
+for the cattle, a sort of home close, where we know that they will be
+safe, before the enemy comes and drives them off some night while we are
+asleep."
+
+This enclosure was then made, the posts and rails on one side coming
+close up to the space intended for a garden; and a further intention was
+to board it closely for a defence on that side when time allowed.
+
+Every day saw something done, and in their busy life and immunity from
+danger all thought of peril began to die out.  They even began to
+imagine that the weather was always going to be fine, so glorious it
+remained all through their building work.  But they were soon undeceived
+as to that, a wet season coming on, and the boys getting some few
+examples of rain which made Sam German declare that it came down in
+bucketfuls; while Rifle was ready to assert, one afternoon when he was
+caught, that he almost swam home through it, after a visit to the lower
+part of the captain's land, to see that the sheep were all driven on to
+high ground, up to which they had laboured with their fleeces holding
+water in a perfect load.
+
+And hence it was that, to the astonishment of all, they found that a
+whole year had passed away, and the captain said, with a perplexed look,
+that they seemed hardly to have done anything.
+
+But all the same, there was the Dingo Station, as he had dubbed it, on
+account of the wild dogs which prowled about, with a substantial little
+farmhouse, some small out-buildings, paddocks enclosed with rails, and
+their farming stock looking healthy and strong.  Sam German, too, had
+contrived to get something going in the way of a garden, and plans
+innumerable were being made for the future in the way of beautifying the
+place, though nature had done much for them before they came.
+
+As for the elders, they did not look a day older, and all were in robust
+health.  The change was in the boys:
+
+Norman and Rifle had grown brown and sturdy to a wonderful degree, while
+Tim had shot up to such an extent that his cousins laughingly declared
+that he ought to wear a leaden hat to keep him down.
+
+"It almost seems," said Uncle Jack one day, "that keeping a tame black
+is sufficient to drive all the others away."
+
+"Don't seem to me that Shanter is very tame, uncle," cried Norman,
+merrily; "why, he is always wanting to go off into the scrub, and coaxes
+us to go with him."
+
+"I say, father," cried Rifle, "when are we to go off on an expedition
+and have some hunting and fishing?  I thought when we came out here that
+we were going to have adventures every day, and we haven't seen a black
+since that first night."
+
+"Ah, you'll have adventures enough some day, boys.  Have patience."
+
+"But we want to go farther away, uncle," said Tim.  "Are we always to be
+looking after the cattle and building?"
+
+"I hope not," said the captain, merrily.  "There, we shall not be so
+busy now, and we shall feel more free about several things."
+
+Just then Shanter was seen crossing the front, munching away at a great
+piece of damper made from the new flour Sam German had brought up from
+Port Haven, it having been necessary for an expedition with a wagon and
+horses to be made at intervals of two or three months to replenish
+stores.  They had had visitors, too, upon three occasions: the young
+doctor, Mr Freeston, and the sugar-planter, Mr Henley, having found
+their way to the station; the latter, as he said, being rather disposed
+to take up land in that direction, as it seemed far better than where he
+was, while the doctor casually let drop a few words to the boys at their
+last visit, that he thought it would be a good part of the country for
+him to settle in too.
+
+"But there won't be any patients for you," said Norman.
+
+"No," cried Rifle.  "We never have anything the matter with us."
+
+"Oh, but there will soon be settlers all about," said the doctor.  "This
+part of the country is sure to be thickly settled one of these days, and
+it will be so advantageous to be the old-established medical man."
+
+"I say," said Tim, as he and his cousins rode back after seeing the
+doctor and Mr Henley some distance on the way, "Doctor Freeston had
+better begin to doctor himself."
+
+"Why?" said Rifle.
+
+"Because it seems to me that he must be going mad."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+"I SAID IT WAS A SNAKE."
+
+"Norman, Rifle, Tim!  Help!  Help!"
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Tim.  "Here, boys, quick!  There's something
+wrong at the house."
+
+The three boys, who had heard the faint cries from a distance, set off
+at a run.
+
+"It must be aunt.  The girls and mamma are down by the waterfall," cried
+Rifle.
+
+"Yes; it's aunt sure enough," said Norman, as they saw the old lady
+hurrying toward them.
+
+"It must be the blacks come at last," cried Tim; "and oh, boys, we have
+not got our guns!"
+
+"Who's going about always tied to a gun?" cried Norman, angrily.--"Here,
+aunt, what's the matter?"
+
+"Oh, my boy, my boy!" cried the old lady, throwing her arms about the
+lad's neck, as he reached her first, and with so much energy that she
+would have upset him, and they would have fallen together had not his
+brother and cousin been close behind ready to give him their support.
+
+"But don't cling to me, auntie," cried Norman, excitedly.  "If you can't
+stand, lie down.  Where are they?"
+
+"In--in the kitchen, my dear," she panted; and then burst into a
+hysterical fit of sobbing, which came to an end as the boys hurriedly
+seated her beneath a tree.
+
+"How many are there, aunt?" whispered Rifle, excitedly.
+
+"Only one, my boys."
+
+"One?" cried Norman.  "I say, boys, we aren't afraid of one, are we?"
+
+"No," cried the others.
+
+"But I wish old Tam o' Shanter was here with his nulla-nulla."
+
+"Never mind," said Norman, flushing up as he felt that, as eldest, he
+must take the lead.  "There is no chance to get the guns.  We'll run
+round by the wood-house; there are two choppers and an axe there.  He
+won't show fight if he sees we're armed."
+
+"I don't know," said Rifle, grimly.  "He must be a fierce one, or he
+wouldn't have ventured alone."
+
+"Perhaps there are a dozen of 'em behind, hiding," said Tim.  "Shall we
+cooey?"
+
+"No," said Norman, stoutly.  "Not till we've seen.  He may be only
+begging after all.  Come on."
+
+"Stop!  Stop!  Don't leave me here," cried Aunt Georgie excitedly, as
+the boys began to move off.
+
+"But we can't take you, aunt," said Rifle, soothingly, "with a lot of
+blacks about."
+
+"Blacks?  Where?" cried Aunt Georgie rising.
+
+"Where you said: in the kitchen."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense, boy!  I never said anything of the kind.  I said it
+was a snake."
+
+"Snake!" cried the boys in chorus.
+
+"You didn't say anything of the kind, aunt," cried Norman, indignantly.
+
+"Don't contradict, sir.  I declare I never said a word about blacks.  I
+went into the kitchen and heard a rustling sound between me and the
+door, and I thought it was one of the fowls come in to beg for a bit of
+bread, when I looked round, and there on the floor was a monstrous great
+serpent, twining and twisting about, and if I hadn't dashed out of the
+place it would have seized me."
+
+"A big one, aunt?"
+
+"A monster, my dear.  But what are you going to do?"
+
+Norman laughed, and looked at the others.
+
+"Oh, I think we shall manage to turn him out, aunt," he said.
+
+"But be careful, my dears, and don't run into danger."
+
+"Oh no; we'll get the guns and talk to him through the window."
+
+"I am glad it wasn't mamma," said Rifle.
+
+"Or the girls," cried his cousin.
+
+"Then I'm of no consequence at all," said the old lady, wiping her
+forehead and looking hurt.  "Ah, well, I suppose I'm old and not of much
+importance now.  There, go and kill the dreadful thing before it bites
+anybody."
+
+They were not above eighty or ninety yards from the house, and they
+hurried on, closely followed by Aunt Georgie, meaning to go in by the
+principal door, when all at once a black figure, having a very magpieish
+look from the fact of his being clothed in an exceedingly short pair of
+white drawers, came from behind the house, and seeing them, came
+forward.
+
+"Hi!  Shanter!" shouted Norman, "look out.  Big snake."
+
+The black's hand went behind him instantly, and reappeared armed with
+his nulla-nulla as he looked sharply round for the reptile.
+
+"No, no; in the house," cried Norman, leading the way toward the open
+door so as to get the guns.
+
+Shanter bounded before him, flourishing his club, all excitement on the
+instant.
+
+"No, no; let me come first," said the boy, in a low husky voice.  "I
+want to get the guns.  The snake's in the kitchen."
+
+The black stopped short, and stood with his club hanging down, staring
+at the boy.  Then a grin overspread his face as Norman reappeared with
+two loaded guns, one of which he handed to Tim, Rifle having meanwhile
+armed himself with an axe, from where it hung just inside the door.
+
+"Now then, come on round to the back.  It's a big one."
+
+But Shanter laughed and shook his head.
+
+"Ah, plenty game," he said.  "Baal play game."
+
+"No.  There is one, really," cried Norman, examining the pan of his gun.
+"It attacked aunt."
+
+Shanter shook his head.
+
+"Baal.  Can't pidney.  What say?"
+
+"Big snake no budgery, bite aunt," said Norman.
+
+"Snake bite big white Mary.  Baal bite: all mumkull."
+
+"Oh, I do wish the man would speak English," cried Aunt Georgie.
+"There, you boys, stand back.--Shanter, go and kill the snake."
+
+Shanter shook his head and tucked his nulla-nulla in his waistband
+again, laughing silently all the time.
+
+"But there is a terribly great one, Shanter, and I order you to go and
+kill it."
+
+"Baal mumkull snake."
+
+"Yes; you can kill it, sir.  Go and kill it directly.  Throw that thing
+at it, and knock it down."
+
+Shanter shook his head again.
+
+"Here, I'll soon shoot it, aunt," said Norman; but Aunt Georgie held his
+arm tightly.
+
+"No, sir, I shall not let you go.--Rifle, Tim, I forbid you to stir.--
+Shanter, do as I tell you," she continued, with a stamp of her foot.
+"Go and kill that horrible snake directly, or not one bit of damper do
+you ever get again from me."
+
+"Big white Mary gib Shanter plenty damper."
+
+"Yes; and will again.  You are a big, strong man, and know how to kill
+snakes.  Go and kill that one directly."
+
+Shanter shook his head.
+
+"Why, you are not afraid, sir?"
+
+"No.  Baal 'fraid snake," said Shanter in a puzzled way, as he looked
+searchingly from one to the other.
+
+"Then go and do as I say."
+
+"He's afraid of it," said Norman.  "I don't like them, aunt, but I'll go
+and shoot it."
+
+"Mine baal 'fraid," cried the black, angrily.  "Mumkull plenty snake.
+Metancoly."
+
+"Then why don't you go and kill that one?" said Norman as his aunt still
+restrained him.
+
+"Baal snake bunyip," cried Shanter, angrily, naming the imaginary demon
+of the blacks' dread.
+
+"Who said it was a bunyip?" cried Rifle.  "It's a big snake that tried
+to bite aunt."
+
+Shanter laughed and shook his head again.
+
+"Baal mumkull snake bulla (two) time.  Mumkull bunyip plenty.  Come
+again."
+
+"What muddle are you talking?" cried Norman, angrily; "the brute will
+get away.  Look here, Shan, are you afraid?"
+
+"Mine baal 'fraid."
+
+"Then go and kill it."
+
+"Baal mumkull over 'gain.  Shanter mumkull.  Make fire, put him in
+kidgen."
+
+"What!" cried Aunt Georgie.  "You put the snake in the kitchen?"
+
+The black nodded.
+
+"Mine put snake in kidgen for big white Mary."
+
+"To bite me?"
+
+"Baal--baal--baal bite big white Mary.  Big white Mary, Marmi (captain),
+plenty bite snake.  Good to eat."
+
+"Here, I see," cried Norman, bursting out laughing, the black joining
+in.  "He brought the snake for you to cook, auntie."
+
+"What!" cried Aunt Georgie, who turned red with anger as the boy shook
+himself loose and ran round to the kitchen door, closely followed by
+Shanter and the others.
+
+As Norman ran into the kitchen, he stopped short and pointed the gun,
+for right in the middle of the floor, writhing about in a way that might
+easily have been mistaken for menace, was a large carpet-snake.
+
+Just as the boy realised that its head had been injured, Shanter made a
+rush past him, seized the snake by the tail, and ran out again dragging
+it after him with one hand, then snatching out his club, he dropped the
+tail, and quick as thought gave the writhing creature a couple of heavy
+blows on the head.
+
+"Baal mumkull nuff," he said, as the writhing nearly ceased.  Then,
+taking hold of the tail again, he began to drag the reptile back toward
+the kitchen door, but Norman stopped him.
+
+"No; don't do that."
+
+"Plenty budgery.  Big white Mary."
+
+"He says it's beautiful, aunt, and he brought it as a present for you.
+Shall he put it in the kitchen?"
+
+"What?" cried Aunt Georgie; "make the horrid fellow take it, and bury it
+somewhere.  I was never so frightened in my life."
+
+All this was explained to Shanter, who turned sulky, and looked
+offended, marching off with his prize into the scrub, his whereabouts
+being soon after detected by a curling film of grey smoke.
+
+"Here, come on, boys," cried Tim.  "Shanter's having a feed of roast
+snake."
+
+"Let's go and see," cried Norman, and they ran to the spot where the
+fire was burning, to find that Tim was quite correct.  Shanter had made
+a good fire, had skinned his snake, and was roasting it in the embers,
+from which it sent forth a hissing sound not unlike its natural
+utterance, but now in company with a pleasantly savoury odour.
+
+His back was toward them, and as they approached he looked round sourly,
+but his black face relaxed, and he grinned good-humouredly again, as he
+pointed to the cooking going on.
+
+"Plenty budgery," he cried.  "Come eat lot 'long Shanter."
+
+But the boys said "No."  The grubs were tempting, but the carpet-snake
+was not; so Shanter had it all to himself, eating till Rifle laughed,
+and said that he must be like india-rubber, else he could never have
+held so much.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+A REAL EXPEDITION.
+
+The Dingo Station never looked more beautiful than it did one glorious
+January morning as the boys were making their preparations for an
+expedition into the scrub.  The place had been chosen for its
+attractiveness in the first instance, and two years hard work had made
+it a home over which Uncle Munday used to smile as he gazed on his
+handiwork in the shape of flowering creepers--Bougainvillea and
+Rinkasporum--running up the front, and hiding the rough wood, or over
+the fences; the garden now beginning to be wonderfully attractive, and
+adding to the general home-like aspect of the place; while the captain
+rubbed his hands as he gazed at his rapidly-growing prosperity, and
+asked wife and daughters whether they had not done well in coming out to
+so glorious a land.
+
+They all readily agreed, for they had grown used to their active, busy
+life, and were quite content, the enjoyment of vigorous health in a fine
+climate compensating for the many little pleasures of civilised life
+which they had missed at first.  The timidity from which they had
+suffered had long since passed away; and though in quiet conversations,
+during the six early months of their sojourn, mother and daughter and
+niece had often talked of how much pleasanter it would have been if the
+captain had made up his mind to sell his property and go close up to
+some settlement, such thoughts were rare now; and, as Aunt Georgie used
+to say:
+
+"Of course, my dears, I did at one time think it very mad to come right
+out here, but I said to myself, Edward is acting for the best, and it is
+our duty to help him, and I'm very glad we came; for at home I used
+often to say to myself, `I'm getting quite an old woman now, and at the
+most I can't live above another ten years.'  While now I don't feel a
+bit old, and I shall be very much disappointed if I don't live another
+twenty or five-and-twenty years.  For you see, my dears, there is so
+much to do."
+
+And now, on this particular morning, the boys were busy loading up a
+sturdy, useful horse with provisions for an excursion into the scrub.
+Sam German had left his gardening to help to get their horses ready; and
+full of importance, in a pair of clean white drawers, Shanter was
+marching up and down looking at the preparations being made, in a way
+that suggested his being lord of the whole place.
+
+All ready at last, and mounted.  Mrs Bedford, Aunt Georgie, and the
+girls had come out to see them off, and the captain and Uncle Jack were
+standing by the fence to which the packhorse was hitched.
+
+"Got everything, boys?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes, father; I think so."
+
+"Flint and steel and tinder?"
+
+"Oh yes."
+
+"Stop!" cried the captain.  "I'm sure you've forgotten something."
+
+"No, father," said Rifle.  "I went over the things too, and so did Tim.
+Powder, shot, bullets, knives, damper iron, hatchets, tent-cloth."
+
+"I know," cried Aunt Georgie.  "I thought they would.  No extra
+blankets."
+
+"Yes, we have, aunt," cried Tim, laughing.
+
+"Then you have no sticking-plaster."
+
+"That we have, aunt, and bits of linen rag, and needles and thread.  You
+gave them to me," said Rifle.  "I think we have everything we ought to
+carry."
+
+"No," said the captain; "there is something else."
+
+"They've forgotten the tea," cried Hetty, merrily.
+
+"No.  Got more than we want," cried Rifle.
+
+"Sugar, then," said Ida.  "No; I mean salt."
+
+"Wrong again, girls," cried Norman.  "We've got plenty of everything,
+and only want to start off--How long can you do without us, father?"
+
+"Oh," said the captain, good-humouredly, "you are an idle lot.  I don't
+want you.  Say six months."
+
+"Edward, my dear!" exclaimed Mrs Bedford, in alarm.
+
+"Well then, say a fortnight.  Fourteen days, boys, and if you are not
+back then, we shall be uneasy, and come in search of you."
+
+"Come now, father," cried Rifle, laughing.  "I say, I do wish you
+would."
+
+"Nothing I should enjoy better, my boy," said the captain.  "This place
+makes me feel full of desire adventure."
+
+"Then come," cried Norman.  "It would be grand.  You come too, Uncle
+Jack;" but that gentleman shook his head as did his brother.
+
+"And pray who is to protect your mother and sisters and aunt, eh?" said
+the captain.  "No; go and have your jaunt, and as soon as you cross the
+range mark down any good site for stations."
+
+"Oh, Edward dear," cried Mrs Bedford, "you will not go farther into the
+wilderness?"
+
+"No," he said, smiling; "but it would be pleasant to be able to tell
+some other adventurer where to go."
+
+"I know what they've forgotten," said Ida, mischievously, and on
+purpose--"soap."
+
+"Wrong again, Miss Clever," cried Norman.  "We've got everything but
+sailing orders.  Good-bye all."
+
+"You will take care, my dears," cried Mrs Bedford, who looked pale and
+anxious.
+
+"Every care possible, mother dear," cried the lad, affectionately; "and
+if Tim and Rifle don't behave themselves, I'll give 'em ramrod and kicks
+till they do.--Now, father, Tam o' Shanter's looking back again.  Shall
+we start?"
+
+"You've forgotten something important."
+
+"No, father, we haven't, indeed."
+
+"You talked about sailing orders, and you are going to start off into
+the wilds where there isn't a track.  Pray, where is your compass?"
+
+"There he is, father," cried Rifle, merrily; "yonder in white drawers."
+
+"A very valuable one, but you can't go without one that you can put in
+your pocket.  What did we say last night about being lost in the bush?"
+
+"Forgot!" cried Norman, after searching his pockets.  "Have you got it,
+Tim?"
+
+Tim put his hand in his pocket, and shook his head.
+
+"Have you, Rifle?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Of course he has not," said the captain; "and it is the most important
+thing of your outfit.
+
+"Here it is," he continued, producing a little mariner's compass; "and
+now be careful.  You ought to have had three.  Good-bye, boys.  Back
+within the fortnight, mind."
+
+Promises, more farewells, cheers, and twenty minutes later the boys
+turned their horses' heads on the top of Wallaby Range, as they had
+named the hills behind the house, at the last point where they could get
+a view of home, pausing to wave their three hats; and then, as they rode
+off for the wilds, Shanter, who was driving the packhorse, uttered a
+wild yell, as he leaped from the ground, and set all the horses capering
+and plunging.
+
+"What did you do that for?" said Norman, as soon as he could speak for
+laughing, the effects on all three having been comical in the extreme.
+
+"Corbon budgery.  All good.  Get away and no work."
+
+"Work?" cried Rifle.  "Why, you never did any work in your life."
+
+"Baal work.  Mine go mumkull boomer plenty hunt, find sugar-bag.  Yah!"
+
+He uttered another wild shout, which resulted in his having to trot off
+after the packhorse, which took to its heels, rattling the camping
+equipage terribly, while the boys restrained their rather wild but
+well-bred steeds.
+
+"Old Tam's so excited that he don't know what to do," cried Tim.
+
+"Yes.  Isn't he just like a big boy getting his first holidays."
+
+"Wonder how old he is," said Rifle.
+
+"I don't know.  Anyway between twenty and a hundred.  He'll always be
+just like a child as long as he lives," said Norman.  "He always puts me
+in mind of what Tim was six or seven years ago when he first came to
+us."
+
+"Well, I wasn't black anyhow," said Tim.
+
+"No, but you had just such a temper; got in a passion, turned sulky,
+went and hid yourself, and forgot all about it in half an hour."
+
+"I might be worse," said Tim, drily.  "Heads!" he shouted by way of
+warning as he led the way under a group of umbrageous trees, beyond
+which they could see Shanter still trotting after the packhorse, which
+did not appear disposed to stop.
+
+"Well, I'm as glad we've got off as Shanter is," said Rifle as they
+ambled along over the rich grass.  "I thought we never were going to
+have a real expedition."
+
+"Why, we've had lots," said Tim.
+
+"Oh, they were nothing.  I mean a regular real one all by ourselves.
+How far do you mean to go to-night?"
+
+"As far as we can before sunset," said Norman; "only we must be guided
+by circumstances."
+
+"Which means wood, water, and shelter," said Tim, sententiously.  "I
+say, suppose after all we were to meet a tribe of black fellows.  What
+should we do?"
+
+"Let 'em alone," said Rifle, "and then they'd leave us alone."
+
+"Yes; but suppose they showed fight and began to throw spears at us."
+
+"Gallop away," suggested Tim.
+
+"Better make them gallop away," said Norman.  "Keep just out of reach of
+their spears and pepper them with small shot."
+
+After a time they overtook the black, and had to dismount to rearrange
+the baggage on the packhorse, which was sadly disarranged; but this did
+not seem to trouble Shanter, who stood by solemnly, leaning upon his
+spear, and making an occasional remark about, "Dat fellow corbon
+budgery," or, "Dis fellow baal budgery,"--the "fellows" being tin pots
+or a sheet of iron for cooking damper.
+
+"Fellow indeed!" cried Rifle, indignantly; "you're a pretty fellow."
+
+"Yohi," replied the black, smiling.  "Shanter pretty fellow.  Corbon
+budgery."
+
+But if the black would not work during their excursion after the fashion
+of ordinary folk, he would slave in the tasks that pleased him; and
+during the next few days their table--by which be it understood the
+green grass or some flat rock--was amply provided with delicacies in the
+shape of 'possum and grub, besides various little bulbs and roots, or
+wild fruits, whose habitat Shanter knew as if by instinct.  His
+boomerang brought down little kangaroo-like animals--wallabies such as
+were plentiful on the range--and his nulla-nulla was the death of three
+carpet-snakes, which were roasted in a special fire made by the black,
+for he was not allowed to bring them where the bread was baked and the
+tea made.
+
+So day after day they journeyed on over the far-spreading park-like
+land, now coming upon a creek well supplied with water, now toiling over
+some rocky elevation where the stones were sun-baked and the vegetation
+parched, while at night they spread the piece of canvas they carried for
+a tent, hobbled the horses, and lay down to sleep or watch the stars
+with the constellations all upside down.
+
+They had so far no adventures worth calling so, but it was a glorious
+time.  There was the delicious sense of utter freedom from restraint.
+The country was before them--theirs as much as any one's--with the
+bright sunshine of the day, and gorgeous colours of night and morning.
+
+When they camped they could stay as long as they liked; when they
+journeyed they could halt in the hot part of the day in the shade of
+some large tree, and go on again in the cool delightful evening; and
+there was a something about it all that is indescribable, beyond saying
+that it was coloured by the brightly vivid sight of boyhood, when
+everything is at its best.
+
+The stores lasted out well in spite of the frightful inroads made by the
+hungry party: for Shanter contributed liberally to the larder, and every
+day Norman said it was a shame, and the others agreed as they thought of
+cages, or perches and chains; but all the same they plucked and roasted
+the lovely great cockatoos they shot, and declared them to be delicious.
+
+Shanter knocked down a brush pheasant or two, whose fate was the fire;
+and one day he came with something in his left hand just as breakfast
+was ended, and with a very serious aspect told them to look on, while he
+very cleverly held a tiny bee, smeared its back with a soft gum which
+exuded from the tree under whose shade they sat, and then touched the
+gum with a bit of fluffy white cottony down.
+
+"Dat fellow going show sugar-bag plenty mine corbon budgery."
+
+"Get out with your corbon budgery," cried Norman.  "What's he going to
+do?"
+
+They soon knew, for, going out again into the open, Shanter let the bee
+fly and darted off after it, keeping the patch of white in view, till it
+disappeared among some trees.
+
+"Dat bee fellow gunyah," cried Shanter, as the boys ran up, and they
+followed the direction of the black's pointing finger, to see high up in
+a huge branch a number of bees flying in and out, and in a very short
+time Shanter had seized the little hatchet Rifle carried in his belt,
+and began to cut big notches in the bark of the tree, making steps for
+his toes, and by their means mounting higher and higher, till he was on
+a level with the hole where the bees came in and out.
+
+"Mind they don't sting you, Shanter," cried Tim.
+
+"What six-ting?" cried Shanter.
+
+"Prick and poison you."
+
+"Bee fellow ticklum," he cried laughing, as he began chopping away at
+the bark about the hollow which held the nest, and brought out so great
+a cloud of insects that he descended rapidly.
+
+"Shanter let 'em know," he cried; and running back to the camp he left
+the boys watching the bees, till he returned with a cooliman--a bark
+bowl formed by peeling the excrescence of a tree--and some sticks well
+lighted at the end.
+
+By means of these the black soon had a fire of dead grass tufts smoking
+tremendously, arranging it so that the clouds curled up and played round
+the bees' nest.
+
+"Bee fellow baal like smoke," he cried.  "Make bee go bong."
+
+Then seizing the hatchet and cooliman he rapidly ascended the tree, and
+began to cut out great pieces of dripping honeycomb, while the boys
+laughed upon seeing that the hobbled horses, objecting to be left alone
+in the great wild, had trotted close up and looked as if they had come
+on purpose to see the honey taken.
+
+It was not a particularly clean process, but the result was plentiful,
+and after piling his bark bowl high, Shanter came down laughing.
+
+"Plenty mine tickee, tickee," he said; but it did not seem to occur to
+him that it would be advantageous to have a wash.  He was quite content
+to follow back to the camp-fire and then sit down to eat honey and comb
+till Tim stared.
+
+"I say, Shanter," he cried, "we didn't bring any physic."
+
+"Physic?  What physic?  Budgery?"
+
+"Oh, very budgery indeed," said Rifle, laughing.  "You shall have some
+when we get back."
+
+Shanter nodded, finished his honey, and went to sleep till he was roused
+up, and the party started off once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+"DON'T SAY HE'S DEAD."
+
+It was comparatively an aimless expedition the boys were making.
+Certainly they were to note down any good sites for stations; but
+otherwise they roamed about almost wherever Shanter led them.  Now it
+would be down some lovely creek, overhung by wide-spreading ferns, in
+search of fish; now to hunt out and slay dangerous serpents, or capture
+the carpet-snake, which the black looked upon as a delicacy.  Twice over
+they came across the lyre-tailed pheasant; but the birds escaped
+uninjured, so that they did not secure the wonderful tail-feathers for a
+trophy.
+
+The last time Tim had quite an easy shot with both barrels, and there
+was a roar of laughter when the bird flew away amongst the dense scrub.
+
+"Well, you are a shot!" cried Norman.
+
+"Shanter plenty mumkull that fellow with boomerang," said the black,
+scornfully.
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Tim, reloading coolly.  "The feathers
+would only have been a bother to carry home."
+
+"Sour grapes," said Rifle, laughing.
+
+"Oh, all right," replied Tim; "perhaps you'll miss next.  Why--"
+
+Tim stopped short, with the little shovel of his shot-belt in his hand,
+as he felt the long leathern eel-shaped case carefully.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Norman.
+
+"You feel here," cried his cousin.
+
+"Well," said Norman, running his hand along the belt, "what of it?"
+
+"Full, isn't it?" said Tim.
+
+"Yes.  Quite full."
+
+"You're sure it's quite full?"
+
+"Oh yes."
+
+"Then I didn't put any shot in my gun, that's all.  I loaded after I
+came out this morning."
+
+"Well, you are a pretty fellow," cried Rifle.  "I shouldn't like to have
+to depend on you if we were attacked by black fellows."
+
+"Black fellow," cried Shanter, sharply.  "Baal black fellow.  Plenty
+wallaby.  Come along."
+
+That day, though, they did not encounter any of that small animal of the
+kangaroo family, which were plentiful about the hills at home, but went
+journeying on along through the bush, with the grass-trees rising here
+and there with their mop-like heads and blossom-like spike.  Even birds
+were scarce, and toward evening, as they were growing hungry and tired,
+and were seeking a satisfactory spot for camping, Tim let fall a remark
+which cast a damper on the whole party.
+
+"I say, boys," he exclaimed, "whereabouts are we?"
+
+Norman looked at him, and a shade of uneasiness crossed his face, as he
+turned in his saddle.
+
+"What made you say that?" he cried.
+
+"I was only thinking that this place is very beautiful, but it seems to
+me all alike; and as if you might go on wandering for years and never
+get to the end."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Rifle.
+
+"But how are we going to find our way back?"
+
+"Go by the sun," said Norman.  "It would be easy enough.  Besides we've
+got the compass, and we could find our way by that."
+
+"Oh, could we?" said Tim; "well, I'm glad, because it seemed to me as if
+we've wandered about so that we might get lost."
+
+"What, with Shanter here?" cried Rifle.  "Nonsense!  He couldn't lose
+himself."
+
+"Want mine?" said the black, running back from where he was trudging
+beside the packhorse.
+
+"How are we to find our way back?" said Tim.  The black stared without
+comprehending.  "Here, let me," said Rifle.  "Hi, Shanter!  Mine find
+big white Mary over there?" and he pointed.
+
+"Baal fine big white Mary," cried the black, shaking his shock-head
+hard.  "Big white Mary--Marmi dere."
+
+He pointed in a contrary direction.
+
+"How do you know?" said Rifle.
+
+The black gave him a cunning look, stooped, and began to follow the
+footprints of the horses backward.  Then turning, he laughed.
+
+"Of course," said Norman.  "How stupid of me!  Follow the back track."
+
+"But suppose it comes on to rain heavily, and washes the footmarks out.
+How then?"
+
+"Don't you croak," cried Norman, who was himself again.  "Who says it's
+going to rain?"
+
+"Nobody," said Tim; "but it might."
+
+"Pigs might fly," cried Rifle.
+
+Just then Shanter gave a triumphant cry.  He had come to a large
+water-hole, by which they camped for the night, and had the pleasure of
+seeing their tired horses drink heartily, and then go off to crop the
+abundant grass.
+
+"Now, boys," said Norman that night, "I've something to tell you.
+To-morrow we go forward half a day's journey, and then halt for two
+hours, and come back here to camp."
+
+"Why?" cried Rifle.
+
+"Because we have only just time to get back as father said."
+
+"Why, we've only--"
+
+"Been out eight days, boys," interrupted Norman; "and there's only just
+time to get back by going steadily."
+
+"But we can't get back in time," argued Rifle.  "We shall only have five
+days and a half."
+
+"Yes we shall, if we don't make any stoppages."
+
+"Oh, let's go on a bit farther; we haven't had hardly any fun yet,"
+cried Rifle.
+
+But Norman took the part of leader, and was inexorable.
+
+"Besides," he said, "the stores will only just last out."
+
+To make up for it, they started very early the next morning, so as to
+get as far away as possible before returning.  Then came the mid-day
+halt, and the journey back to the water-hole, over what seemed to be now
+the most uninteresting piece of country they had yet traversed, and
+Shanter appeared to think so too.
+
+"Baal black fellow; baal wallaby; baal snakum.  Mine want big damper."
+
+"And mine must plenty wait till we get back to camp," said Norman,
+nodding at him, when the black nodded back and hastened the pace of the
+packhorse, whose load was next to nothing now, the stores having been
+left at the side of the water-hole.
+
+It was getting toward sundown when the ridge of rocks, at the foot of
+which the deep pure water lay, came in sight; and Shanter, who was in
+advance, checked the horse he drove and waited for the boys to come up.
+
+"Horse fellow stop along of you," he said; "mine go an' stir up damper
+fire."
+
+"All right," replied Norman, taking the horse's rein, but letting it go
+directly, knowing that the patient would follow the others, while with a
+leap and a bound Shanter trotted off, just as if he had not been walking
+all the day.
+
+"I am sorry it's all over," said Rifle, who was riding with his rein on
+his horse's neck and hands in his pockets.  "We don't seem to have had
+half a holiday."
+
+"It isn't all over," said Tim; "we've got full five days yet, and we may
+have all sorts of adventures.  I wish, though, there were some other
+wild beasts here beside kangaroos and dingoes.  I don't think Australia
+is much of a place after all."
+
+"Hub!" cried Norman.  "Look, old Tam has caught sight of game."
+
+"Hurrah!  Let's gallop," cried Rifle.
+
+"No, no.  Keep back.  He's stalking something that he sees yonder.
+There: he has gone out of sight.  I daresay it's only one of those
+horrible snakes.  What taste it is, eating snake!"
+
+"No more than eating eels," said Rifle, drily.  "They're only
+water-snakes.  I say, though, come on."
+
+"And don't talk about eating, please," cried Tim, plaintively; "it does
+make me feel so hungry."
+
+"As if you could eat carpet-snake, eh?"
+
+"Ugh!"
+
+"Or kangaroo?" cried Rifle, excitedly, as they reached the top of one of
+the billowy waves of land which swept across the great plain.  "Look,
+Shanter sees kangaroo.  There they go.  No, they're stopping.  Hurrah!
+kangaroo tail for supper.  Get ready for a shot."
+
+As he spoke he unslung his gun, and they cantered forward, closely
+followed by the packhorse, knowing that the curious creatures would see
+them, however carefully they approached, and go off in a series of
+wonderful leaps over bush and stone.
+
+As they cantered on, they caught sight of Shanter going through some
+peculiar manoeuvre which they could not quite make out.  But as they
+came nearer they saw him hurl either his boomerang or nulla-nulla, and a
+small kangaroo fell over, kicking, on its side.
+
+"Shan't starve to-night, boys," cried Tim, who was in advance; and in
+another minute, with the herd of kangaroos going at full speed over the
+bushes, they were close up, but drew rein in astonishment at that which
+followed.
+
+For as the boys sat there almost petrified, but with their horses
+snorting and fidgeting to gallop off to avoid what they looked upon as
+an enemy, and to follow the flying herd, they saw Shanter in the act of
+hurling his spear at a gigantic kangaroo--one of the "old men" of which
+they had heard stories--and this great animal was evidently making for
+the black, partly enraged by a blow it had received, partly, perhaps, to
+cover the flight of the herd.
+
+The spear was thrown, but it was just as the old man was making a bound,
+and though it struck, its power of penetration was not sufficient, in an
+oblique blow, to make it pierce the tough skin, and to the boys' horror
+they saw the blunt wooden weapon fall to the earth.  The next instant
+the kangaroo was upon Shanter, grasping him with its forepaws and
+hugging him tightly against its chest, in spite of the black's desperate
+struggles and efforts to trip his assailant up.  There he looked almost
+like a child in the grasp of a strong man, and to make matters worse,
+the black had no weapon left, not even a knife, and he could not reach
+the ground with his feet.
+
+Poor Shanter had heard the horses coming up, and now in his desperate
+struggle to free himself, he caught sight of Raphael.
+
+"Boomer--mumkull!" he yelled in a half-suffocated voice.  "Mumkull--
+shoot, shoot."
+
+The gun was cocked and in the boy's hands, but to fire was impossible,
+for fear of hitting the black; while, when Norman rode close up, threw
+himself off his horse, and advanced to get a close shot, the kangaroo
+made vicious kicks at him, which fortunately missed, or, struck as he
+would have been by the animal's terrible hind-claw, Norman Bedford's
+career would, in all probability, have been at an end.
+
+Then, in spite of Shanter's struggles and yells to the boys to shoot--to
+"mumkull" his enemy--the kangaroo began to leap as easily as if it were
+not burdened with the weight of a man; and quickly clearing the distance
+between them and the water-hole, plunged right in, and with the water
+flying up at every spring, shuffled at last into deep water.
+
+Here, knowing the fate reserved for him, Shanter made another desperate
+struggle to escape; but he was wrestling with a creature nearly as heavy
+as a cow, and so formed by nature that it sat up looking a very pyramid
+of strength, being supported on the long bones of the feet, and kept in
+position by its huge tail; while the black, held as he was in that
+deadly hug, and unable to get his feet down, was completely helpless.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation, Norman waded in after them to try to get
+an opportunity to fire; but the kangaroo struck out at him again with
+all the power of its huge leg, and though it was too far off for the
+blow to take effect, it drove up such a cataract of water as deluged the
+lad from head to foot, and sent him staggering back.
+
+The next moment the object of the kangaroo was plain to the boys, for,
+as if endowed with human instinct, it now bent down to press poor
+Shanter beneath the water, and hold him there till he was drowned.
+
+Rifle saw it, and pressing the sides of his horse, and battling with it
+to overcome its dread of the uncanny-looking marsupial, he forced it
+right in to the pool, and urged it forward with voice and hand, so as to
+get a shot to tell upon Shanter's adversary.
+
+It was hard work, but it had this effect, that it took off the
+kangaroo's attention, so that there was a momentary respite for Shanter,
+the great brute rising up and raising the black's head above the water,
+so that he could breathe again, while, repeating its previous manoeuvre,
+the kangaroo kicked out at Rifle, its claw just touching the saddle.
+
+That was enough, the horse reared up, fought for a few moments, pawing
+the air, and went over backwards.  Then there was a wild splashing, and
+Rifle reached the shore without his gun, drenched, but otherwise unhurt,
+and the horse followed.
+
+The black's fate would have been sealed, for, free of its assailants,
+the kangaroo plunged the poor helpless struggling fellow down beneath
+the surface, attentively watching the approach the while of a third
+enemy, and ready to launch out one of those terrible kicks as soon as
+the boy was sufficiently near.
+
+"Oh, Tim, Tim, fire--fire!" cried Norman, as he saw his cousin wade in
+nearer and nearer: "Quick! quick! before Shanter's drowned."
+
+Tim had already paused four yards away, and up to his armpits in water
+as he took careful aim, his hands trembling one moment, but firm the
+next, as the kangaroo, bending downward with the side of its head to him
+and nearly on a level with the water, which rose in violent ebullitions
+consequent upon Shanter's struggles, seemed to have a peculiar
+triumphant leer in its eyes, as if it were saying: "Wait a bit; it is
+your turn next."
+
+It was all the work of a minute or so, but to the two boys on shore it
+seemed a horrible time of long suspense, before there was a double
+report, the triggers being pulled almost simultaneously.  A tremendous
+spring right out of the water, and then a splash, which sent it flying
+in all directions, before it was being churned up by the struggling
+monster, now in its death throes; then, gun in one hand, Shanter's wrist
+in the other, Tim waded ashore, dragging the black along the surface,
+set free as he had been when those two charges of small shot struck the
+side of the kangaroo's head like a couple of balls and crushed it in.
+
+Drenched as they were, the three boys got Shanter on to the grass, where
+he lay perfectly motionless, and a cold chill shot through all, as they
+felt that their efforts had been in vain, and that a famous slayer of
+kangaroos had met his end from one of the race.  The sun was just on the
+horizon now, and the water looked red as blood, and not wholly from the
+sunset rays.
+
+"Shanter, Shanter, old fellow, can't you speak?" cried Norman, as he
+knelt beside the black.
+
+Just then there was a tremendous struggle in the water, which ceased as
+suddenly as it had begun.
+
+"Man, don't say he's dead!" whispered Tim, in awe-stricken tones.
+
+Norman made no reply, and Rifle bent softly over the inanimate black
+figure before him, and laid a hand upon the sufferer's breast.
+
+"You were too late, Tim; too late," sighed Rifle.  "I'd heard those
+things would drown people, but I didn't believe it till now.  Oh, poor
+old Shanter!  You were very black, but you were a good fellow to us
+all."
+
+"And we ought to have saved you," groaned Norman.
+
+"I wish we had never come," sighed Tim, as he bent lower.  "Can't we do
+anything?  Give him some water?"
+
+"Water!" cried Norman, with a mocking laugh.  "He's had enough of that."
+
+"Brandy?" said Rifle.  "There is some in a flask.  Father said, take it
+in case any one is ill."
+
+"Get it," said Norman, laconically, and his brother ran to where, not
+fifty yards away, the saddle-bags were lying just as they had been left
+early that morning.
+
+The brandy was right at the bottom, but it was found at last, and Rifle
+hurried with it to the black's side.
+
+Norman took the flask, unscrewed the top, drew off the cup from the
+bottom, and held it on one side to pour out a small quantity, but as he
+held it more and more over not a drop came.  The top was ill-fitting,
+and all had slowly leaked away.
+
+The lad threw the flask aside, and knowing nothing in those days of the
+valuable hints for preserving life in cases of apparent drowning, they
+knelt there, with one supporting the poor fellow's head, the others
+holding his hands, thinking bitterly of the sad end to their trip;
+while, in spite of his efforts to keep it down, the selfish thought
+would come into Norman's breast--How shall we be able to find our way
+back without poor Shanter?
+
+The sun had sunk; the water looked dark and black now.  Night was coming
+on, and a faint curl of smoke showed where the fire left in the morning
+still burned feebly.  But no one stirred, and with hearts sinking lower
+and lower in the solemn silence, the boys knelt there, thinking over the
+frank, boyish ways of the big sturdy savage who lay there before them.
+
+Once or twice a piping whistle was heard from some rail, or the call of
+a waterfowl, which made the horses raise their heads, look round, and
+then, uttering a low sigh, go on cropping the grass again, after looking
+plaintively at their masters, as if protesting against being turned out
+to graze with their reins about their legs and their bits in their
+mouths.
+
+Then, all at once, just as the stars were beginning to show faintly in
+the pearly-grey sky, the three boys started back in horror, for there
+was a curious sound, something between a yawn and a sigh, and Shanter
+suddenly started up and looked round.  Then he rose to his feet, as if
+puzzled and unable to make out where he was.
+
+Then his memory came back, and he ran to the edge of the water-hole,
+peered through the darkness with his hand over his eyes, and without
+hesitation waded in, seized the kangaroo, as it floated, by one of its
+hind-legs, and dragged it ashore.
+
+"Marmi Rifle; chopper--chopper," he cried.
+
+One was handed to him in silence, for a curious feeling of awe troubled
+the boys, and they could hardly believe in the truth of what they were
+seeing in the semi-darkness.  But the blows they heard were real enough,
+and so was the wet figure of Shanter, as he approached them, bearing the
+great tail of his enemy.
+
+"Big boomer go bong," said Shanter in a husky voice.
+
+"Want mumkull mine.  Shanter mumkull big boomer.  Now fire big roast and
+damper."
+
+With a sigh of relief the boys made for the fire, threw on a few twigs
+to catch first, and as there were a good heap of embers, larger pieces
+of wood soon followed.  Then after removing the horses' saddles and
+bridles, and hobbling them to keep them from straying, the boys gladly
+took off some of their soaking garments and huddled round the fire,
+where the black was busily roasting the tail of the smaller kangaroo,
+which he had fetched, while the boys were occupied with their horses.
+
+"Mine wear baal clothes," he said pityingly, as he, with his skin dry
+directly, looked at their efforts to dry themselves.  Then the big tin
+billy was boiled and tea made, its hot aromatic draughts being very
+comforting after the soaking, and by that time the tail was ready,
+enough cold damper being found for that evening's meal.
+
+But though all was satisfactory so far, Shanter did not join in.  He
+would eat no damper, drink no tea, and he turned from the roast tail
+with disgust, squatting down over the fire with his arms round his
+knees, and soon after going off to a spot among the bushes, where he
+curled up under a blanket and was seen no more that night.
+
+"Poor old Shanter doesn't seem well," said Norman.
+
+"No wonder," replied Tim.
+
+"And he thinks he killed the old man.  Why didn't you speak, Tim?"
+
+"Wasn't worth it," was the reply.  "I didn't want to kill the great
+thing."
+
+An hour later the boys were under their canvas shelter, forgetting all
+the excitement of the evening, and dreaming--of being home in Norman's
+case, while Rifle dreamed that a huge black came hopping like a kangaroo
+and carried off Aunt Georgie.
+
+As for Tim, he dreamed of the encounter again, but with this
+difference--the boomer had still hold of Shanter, and when he took up
+the gun to fire it would not go off.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+"CAN'T FIND WAY BACK."
+
+It was long before sunrise when the boys rose to see after Shanter,
+expecting to find him still lying down, but he was up and over by the
+water-hole examining the huge kangaroo.
+
+"Mine mumkull kangaroo," he said, as the boys came up, and then, "Baal."
+
+"Didn't you kill it, Shanter?" said Norman, smiling.  "Baal.  Who kill
+boomer?  Big hole all along."  He pointed to the terrible wound in the
+animal's head caused by the shots Tim had fired.  And as the black spoke
+he examined the knob at the end of his nulla-nulla, comparing it with
+the wound, and shook his head.
+
+"Baal make plenty sore place like dat.  Go all along other side make
+hole.  Baal."
+
+He stood shaking his head in a profound state of puzzledom as to how the
+wound came, while the boys enjoyed his confusion.  Then all at once his
+face lit up.
+
+"Bunyip mumkull boomer.  All go bong."
+
+"You should say all go bong Tam.  Why, can't you see?  Tim shot him
+while he was holding your head under water."
+
+"Eh?  Marmi Tim shoot?  What a pity!"
+
+"Pity?" cried Rifle, staring at the black's solemn face.  "Pity that Tim
+saved your life."
+
+"Mine want mumkull big boomer."
+
+"Never mind: he's dead," cried Norman.  "Now come along and let's boil
+the billy, and make some damper and tea."
+
+"Mine don't want big damper," said Shanter, rubbing himself gently about
+the chest and ribs.
+
+"What?  Not want something to eat?"
+
+"Baal, can't eat," replied the black.  "Mine got sore all along.  Dat
+boomer fellow squeezum."
+
+Norman laid his hand gently on the black's side, wondering whether the
+poor fellow had a broken rib, when, with the most solemn of faces,
+Shanter uttered a loud squeak.
+
+Norman snatched back his hand, but placed it directly after on the other
+side, when Shanter squeaked again more loudly; and at every touch, back
+or front, there was a loud cry, the black looking from one to the other
+in the most lugubrious way.
+
+"Why, Shanter, you seem to be bad all over," said Rifle.
+
+"Yohi.  Mine bad all along, plenty mine bad.  Tam go bong."
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Norman.  "Come and have a good breakfast.  Plenty
+damper, plenty tea, and you'll be better."
+
+"Baal damper--baal big tea," said the black, rubbing himself.  "Boomer
+mumkull Tam o' Shanter.  Mine go bong."
+
+He laid himself gently down on the grass, rolled a little and groaned,
+and then stretched himself out, and shut his eyes.
+
+"Oh, it's only his games," said Rifle.--"Here, Shanter, old chap, jump
+up and say thanky, thanky to Marmi Tim for saving your life."
+
+"Marmi Tim baal save Tam o' Shanter.  All go along bong."
+
+"I'm afraid he is bad," said Norman, going down on one knee to pass his
+hand over the poor fellow's ribs, with the result that he uttered a
+prolonged moan; "but I don't think there are any bones broken.  Let's
+get some breakfast ready.  He'll be better after some hot tea."
+
+They threw a pile of wood on the embers, in which a damper was soon
+baking; and as soon as the billy boiled, a handful of tea was thrown in
+and the tin lifted from the fire to stand and draw.  But though they
+took Tam a well-sweetened pannikin of the refreshing drink he would not
+swallow it, neither would he partake of the pleasant smelling,
+freshly-baked cake.
+
+"I say, I'm afraid the poor chap is bad," whispered Tim.
+
+"Not he," said Rifle.  "His ribs are sore with the hugging the boomer
+gave him, but he's only shamming.  I'll rouse him up."
+
+He made a sign to Norman, who looked very anxious, and when the lads
+were a few yards away, Rifle made them a sign to watch their patient,
+who lay quite still with his eyes shut, and then suddenly shouted:
+
+"Quick, boys, guns--guns!  Black fellows coming."
+
+Shanter started up into a sitting position and tried to drag out his
+nulla-nulla, but his eyes closed again, and he fell back heavily.
+
+Norman tried to catch him, but he was too late, and a glance showed that
+there was no deceit in the matter, for the drops of agony were standing
+on the black's face, and it was quite evident that he had fainted away.
+
+He soon came to, however, and lay gazing wonderingly about him.
+
+"Black fellow?" he whispered anxiously, as if the effort caused him a
+great deal of pain.
+
+"All gone along," cried Rifle, eagerly; and the black closed his eyes
+again, while the boys consulted as to what they had better do.
+
+"That's soon settled," said Norman.  "We can't fetch help to him, and he
+can't move, so we must stop here till he gets better.  Let's cut some
+sticks and drive them in the ground, tie them together at the tops, and
+spread a couple of blankets over them."
+
+This was done so as to shelter their invalid from the sun, and then they
+saw to their own tent and prepared for a longer stay.  After this Tim
+and Rifle went off to try to shoot something, and Norman stopped to
+watch the black.
+
+It was a weary hot day, and the boys were so long that Norman began to
+grow anxious and full of imaginations.  Suppose the lads got bushed!  He
+would have to strike their trail and try to find them.  Suppose poor
+Shanter were to die before they came back!  How horrible to be alone
+with the dead out there in that solitary place.
+
+The sun rose to its full height, and then began to descend, but the
+black neither moved nor spoke, and the only companionship Norman had was
+that of the two horses--his own and the one which carried the pack.
+These cropped the grass round about the camp, their hobble chains
+rattling a little, and the peculiar snort a horse gives in blowing
+insects out of the grass he eats were the principal sounds the boy
+heard.  It was some comfort to walk to where they grazed and pat and
+talk to them.
+
+But he was soon back by Shanter's blanket-gunyah watching the shiny
+black face, which looked very hard and stern now.  He had tried him
+again and again with tea, water, and bread, but there was no response;
+and at last he had settled down to letting him rest, hoping that his
+patient was asleep, and feeling that he could do nothing but leave him
+to nature.
+
+But it was a sad vigil, and not made more pleasant by the sight of the
+great kangaroo lying just at the edge of the water-hole, and toward
+which a perfect stream of insects were already hurrying over the dry
+ground, while flies buzzed incessantly about it in the air.  Then, too,
+again and again some great bird came circling round, but only to be kept
+at a distance by the sight of the watcher by the tents.
+
+"Will they never come back!" cried Norman at last, quite aloud, and he
+started in alarm, for there was a loud discordant laugh close at hand.
+
+He picked up a stone and threw it angrily into the ragged tree from
+whence the sound had come, and one of the great grotesque-looking
+kingfishers of the country flew off.
+
+At last, after scanning the distant horizon for hours, seeing nothing
+but a few kangaroos which looked like black fellows in the distance, and
+a couple of emus stalking slowly across the plain, Norman could bear it
+no longer.
+
+"Shanter," he said; "must go and find Marmi Rifle and Marmi Tim.  Do you
+hear?  I'll come back as soon as I can."
+
+But there was not so much as a twitch at the corners of the black's
+lips, and the boy hesitated about leaving him.  At last though he rose,
+caught and saddled his horse, gave one final look round, but could see
+nothing; and he was about to mount when a sudden thought occurred to
+him, and taking a couple of halters he knotted them together, hitched
+one over the kangaroo's neck, and attached the other end to the saddle.
+
+The horse jibbed and shied a little, but at last he made a plunge, and
+the dead animal was dragged into a hollow a couple of hundred yards
+away, so that there should be no fear of its contaminating the
+water-hole.  Then the halters were cast off, thrown over the tent, and
+after a glance at Shanter, Norman mounted to take up the trail made by
+Rifle and Tim, but only leaped down again, and turned his horse out to
+graze; for there away in the distance were the two boys cantering gently
+toward the camp, and half an hour later they rode up, well supplied with
+clucks which they had shot right away upon a creek.
+
+That night passed with one of them watching, and the next two days
+glided by in the same dreary way, Shanter lying as if unconscious, and
+nothing passed his lips.
+
+"Father can't be angry with us for not keeping to our time," said Rifle,
+sadly.  "Poor old Shanter, I wish I could do him some good."
+
+That night passed and still there was no change, and about mid-day the
+boys were dolefully examining their stock of provisions, which was
+getting very low; and it had been decided that they should watch that
+night and shoot anything which came to the water-hole to drink, though
+the animals likely so to do were neither many nor tempting for food to a
+European.
+
+There was no choosing as to whom the duty should fall upon; for all
+decided to watch, and after seeing that Shanter lay unchanged, night had
+about waned, and they were gazing at the stars in silence, for fear of
+startling anything on its way to the pool, when just as they were
+feeling that the case was hopeless, and that they might as well give up,
+Norman suddenly touched Tim, who pressed his hand, for he too had heard
+the sound of some animal drinking.
+
+They strained their eyes in the direction, but could see nothing, only
+the bushes which dotted the edge of the water-hole on its low side, the
+far end being composed of a wall of rocks going sheer down into the deep
+water.
+
+What could it be?  They had had no experience in such matters, and in
+the darkness there all was so strange and weird that sounds seemed to be
+different to what they would have been in the broad day.
+
+But they wanted food, and there was some animal drinking, and though
+they supposed the country to be utterly devoid of deer, it still was
+possible that such creatures might exist, and it would be a new
+discovery if they shot an antelope or stag.
+
+But the moments glided by, and the sound ceased without either of them
+being able to locate the position of the drinker.  Their cocked guns
+were ready, and if they could have made out the slightest movement they
+would have fired; but there was the water gleaming with the reflection
+of a star here and there; there was the black mass where the rocks rose
+up, and that was all.  They could not distinctly make out so much as a
+bush, and quite in despair at last, Norman was about to whisper a
+proposal that one of them should fire in the direction they fancied to
+be the most likely, while the others took their chance of a snap shot,
+when there was a noise straight before them, just at the edge of the
+water.  Norman levelled his piece, took careful aim, and was about to
+draw trigger, when he distinctly caught sight of a moving figure a
+little beyond where he had heard the noise, and a voice grumbled out:
+"What gone along big boomer?"
+
+"Shanter!" shouted Norman, excitedly.  "Oh, I nearly fired."
+
+"Marmi," said the black as the boys ran up trembling with the thought of
+the mistake they had nearly made, "Baal find big boomer."
+
+"No, no, it's gone; but what are you doing here?"
+
+"Mine have big drink.  Go back sleep now."
+
+"But are you better?" said Rifle.
+
+"Mine all sore along.  Boomer fellow squeezum."
+
+He spoke rather faintly, and walked slowly as they went back to the
+blanket-gunyah, where the black lay down directly, uttering a deep
+groan, as he moved himself painfully.
+
+"There was plenty of water here, Shanter," said Norman.
+
+"Piggi (the sun) gone sleep.  Mine can't see."
+
+They spoke to him again, but there was no reply, his breathing told,
+however, that he had dropped off, and Norman elected to keep watch till
+morning, and the others went to the tent.
+
+It was just after daybreak when Norman heard a rustling, and looking
+round there was Tam creeping out from his shelter.
+
+"Make big fire--make damper," he said quietly, and to the lad's delight
+the black went slowly about the task of blowing the embers, and getting
+a few leaves and twigs to burn before heaping up the abundant supply of
+wood close at hand.
+
+Breakfast was soon ready, the boys being in the highest of glee, and
+Shanter sat and ate and smiled broadly at the friendly demonstrations
+which kept greeting him.
+
+"Mine been along big sleep, get well," he said in reply to the
+congratulations showered upon him, and then proved quite willing to sit
+still while the packhorse was loaded--lightly now--and the others
+caught, saddled, and bridled, and a glance round given before they made
+a start to follow the trail back home.
+
+Then followed a little discussion as to the order of starting, but
+Shanter settled it by tucking his nulla-nulla and boomerang into his
+waistband, shouldering his spear, and starting off at the head of the
+packhorse which followed him like a dog.
+
+"All right," said Norman.
+
+"Yes.  What a rum fellow he is!" whispered Rifle.  "But I wouldn't go
+very far to-day."
+
+The boys mounted, and gave a cheer as they said farewell to the
+water-hole.
+
+"It almost seems as if all this had been a dream," said Tim, as they
+rode on behind the black.  "You wouldn't think he had been so bad."
+
+"Yes, you would," cried Norman, urging his horse forward, as he saw
+Shanter make a snatch at the packhorse's load, and then reel.
+
+But Norman saved him, and the poor fellow looked at him piteously.  "Big
+boomer squeeze mine," he whispered hoarsely.  "Legs baal walk along."
+
+That was very evident, for he was streaming with perspiration, and
+gladly drank some water from their tubs.
+
+Then the difficulty was solved by Norman making Shanter mount the horse
+he had himself ridden, and the journey was continued with the black
+striding the saddle and holding on by the sides of the stirrup-irons
+with his toes, for he could not be induced to place his foot flat on the
+bar, which he declared to be plenty "prickenum," and always placing his
+first and second toes on either side of the outer edge of the upright
+part of the stirrup.
+
+The pleasure had gone out of the trip now.  It had been full of hard
+work before, but it was labour mingled with excitement; now it was full
+of anxiety as the little party noted Shanter's weakness, and felt how
+entirely they depended upon him to follow the track they had made, one
+often so slight that they could not trace a sign on the short grass or
+hard ground.  And as Norman said, if the black broke down again they
+might never be able to find their way home.
+
+But the black kept his seat on one or other of the horses very well for
+two days, and then they had to halt for a whole day, when it seemed as
+if they were going to have a repetition of the former anxiety.  The
+morning after, though, he expressed a desire to go on, and as the boys
+packed up the half-dried canvas and blankets which had formed their
+cover during a night of heavy rain, they looked anxiously at each other,
+the same thought being in each breast, though neither of them could find
+it in his heart to speak.
+
+That thought was--suppose all our horses' footprints are washed away?
+
+And now began a wonderful display of the black's power of vision.  As a
+rule he sat perfectly upright on horseback, took the lead, and rode on
+over tracts of land, where to the boys not a vestige of their trail was
+visible; though, when now and then they saw the black guide lean
+forward, grasp the horse's neck with his arms, and place his head as low
+down as was possible, they felt that he too was evidently rather at
+fault.
+
+But no: by his wonderful perception he kept on picking up some tiny
+trace of a footprint, losing the trail altogether at times, finding it
+again when all seemed at an end and they had heard him muttering to
+himself.  And so the journey went slowly on, till about noon on the
+fifth day, as Shanter was intently scanning the ground, he suddenly
+said:
+
+"Baal can't go.  Mine no see no more.  Stop eat damper."
+
+The horses were turned loose to graze, a fire lit, and as usual the
+water boiled for tea, just a sufficiency having been brought from the
+last spring in the tub slung to the packhorse's side.  But there was
+very little appetite for the cold kangaroo tail and cakebread, as they
+saw that the black did not eat, but began to beat the ground in all
+directions like a spaniel, till too weak to do more, when he came and
+threw himself down on the grass, and said: "Mine can't find way back no
+more."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+"WE SHALL RUN AGAINST THEM."
+
+What did it mean?
+
+Lost in the great uninhabited plains, where by aid of their compass they
+might go on day after day travelling in the direction they believed to
+be homeward, but it would only be as the result of a guess.  Certainly,
+they knew that the sea lay somewhere due east, but even if they could
+reach the sea, where would they be--north or south of a settlement?
+
+Norman felt that their case was hopeless; and in obedience to the mute
+prayer he read in brother and cousin's eyes, he went and sat by the
+black.
+
+"Can't mine find the track, Shanter?"
+
+"Baal find um," he replied coolly.  "Plenty all gone way."
+
+"But come and try again."
+
+The black shook his head.
+
+"Baal go no more," he said; "mine sore.  Plenty hurt all over.  Go
+sleep, piggi jump up."
+
+The black turned away, and Norman returned disconsolately to the others.
+
+"What does he say?" whispered Tim, as if afraid that his voice would be
+heard out there in the great wild.
+
+"Says we are to go to sleep till the sun rises to-morrow."
+
+There was a dead silence.
+
+"Shall we go and try ourselves?" said Rifle, at last.
+
+"If he can't find it, we can't," said Norman, despondently.
+
+"Never mind, boys," cried Tim.  "Never say die.  When the provision's
+done, we'll eat one of the horses, if we can't shoot anything.  Surely
+we shall come across settlers some time during the next ten years; and
+if we don't, I say that if black fellows can live, we who know so much
+better can, till we reach a settlement once more."
+
+"But we don't know so much better," said Norman, sadly.  "Shanter can
+beat us hollow at tracking.  I wouldn't care, boys, only I seem to have
+poor mother's face always before me; and it will kill her if we don't
+get back."
+
+Another deep silence followed, for neither could trust himself to speak,
+till all at once from where he lay, sounding incongruous at so solemn a
+time, there came from the black a succession of heavy snores; and so
+near is laughter to tears, mirth to sadness, that the boys burst into a
+hearty fit of laughter, and Rifle exclaimed: "There, what's the good of
+our being in the dumps.  It can't be so very bad when old Tam o' Shanter
+can go to sleep like that."
+
+"No," said Tim, taking his pitch from his cousin.
+
+"Let's have a good long rest, and then see what to-morrow brings; eh!
+Man?"
+
+Norman smiled and nodded, joining in the preparations for their evening
+meal, and that night they all lay down as if to sleep, nothing being
+heard but Shanter's deep breathing in the great solitude beneath the
+glittering stars, till a deep sigh escaped from Norman's breast; and
+rising from his blanket couch, he stole softly out to go and kneel down
+beneath the great, violet, gold-spangled arch of heaven to pray for
+help, and that there might not come that terrible sorrow in his home--
+the tale to be told to future generations of how three happy, contented
+lads went forth into the great wilderness and left their bones there
+beneath some tree, or by some water-hole, bleaching in the sun.
+
+He was picturing it all in that solemn silence; the very scene rose
+before him, but it was swept away directly, and he was gazing in the
+agony-drawn face of his mother, when he heard a faint sob, and turned as
+Rifle dropped upon his knees by his side, laid his clasped hands upon
+his brother's shoulder, and bent down his head.
+
+But poor orphan Tim, who looked upon his cousins more as brothers than
+aught else, had been as wakeful as they.  It had been a mutual
+deception; each had pretended that he was asleep, so as not to let the
+others know how he suffered, and many seconds had not elapsed before he
+too was kneeling by Norman's side.
+
+And there they knelt for a long space, before Norman began repeating
+aloud the old, old prayer, followed by the others, till he came to the
+words, "And deliver us from--"
+
+There he broke down, and the prayer was finished in a husky voice by Tim
+alone.
+
+A few minutes after they were lying once more in the shelter of the
+sheet of canvas, and the next thing that happened was their starting up
+into wakefulness with the sky one glow of gold and orange, and the black
+face of Tam o' Shanter peering in at them with a grin upon his
+countenance, as he cried:
+
+"Now, Marmi boys, piggi go jump up.  Mine baal sore now.  Go along fine
+way back."
+
+For a marvellous change seemed to have come over the black.  He had been
+sleeping heavily for sixteen hours, and the breakfast he ate was
+something like that to which they had been accustomed, in spite of the
+fact that the flour was getting excessively low.
+
+But it was as if a black cloud had rolled away from them during the
+night, and the bright sun of hope was shining warmly into their hearts.
+
+All at once, to their great astonishment, Tam leaped up, flourished his
+nulla-nulla, and shouted:
+
+"Mine want big boomer here.  Makum sore along plenty like Tam o'
+Shanter."
+
+"But he has gone bong," cried Rifle.
+
+"Yohi.  Gone bong.  Marmi Tim mumkull big boomer.  Now, come along, mine
+fine back big white Mary."
+
+"Yes: let's start," cried Norman; but with a pang at his heart as he
+wondered whether they would ever reach home again, home which seemed now
+the most lovely place on earth.
+
+Tam refused to mount when they started.
+
+"Mine want see close along," he said; and after a few casts here and
+there, to the astonishment of all, they saw him suddenly point down, and
+they all ran to his side.
+
+"Why, there's nothing there," cried Tim.
+
+"Yohi.  Horse fellow tick um toe along."
+
+"Yes; there is a faint mark of a hoof," said Norman in delight; and with
+rising spirits they went on again, to sight the Wallaby Range and strike
+Dingo Station just at dusk on the following night, after missing the
+track again and again on the previous day; while on this, the last of
+their return journey, Shanter marked down hills and mountains which were
+familiar, so that they made extra speed, and it was necessary, for they
+reached home nearly starved.
+
+It is needless to tell of the joy at the wanderers' return, save that
+Mrs Bedford's face showed the agony she must have suffered, while Aunt
+Georgie had a severe scolding in store.
+
+But all that was soon over.  Shanter had gone off to a favourite nook of
+his to digest damper, and the boys had about wearied themselves out
+telling of their adventures, and of how wonderfully Shanter had
+recovered during the last few days.
+
+"Yes, it is wonderful," said the captain.  "I suppose the way in which
+they get over dangerous wounds is more wonderful still.  Poor fellow! he
+must have had a horrible squeeze, and the drowning, no doubt, acted like
+a shock.  I wish, though, you had thought to bring home the old man's
+skin."
+
+"Yes, we ought to have done that," said Norman, "for Tim's sake."
+
+"But we had enough to do to bring home Shanter."
+
+"Ay, that they had," cried Uncle Jack.  "I don't know what Sam German
+would have done without him."
+
+"Why, he always grumbles at him for a lazy nigger," said the captain.
+
+"Yes, but he likes him all the same."
+
+"So we all do," chorused the boys.
+
+"He can't help being black," said Tim.
+
+"No," said the captain; "but you have said nothing about the camps of
+black fellows you struck."
+
+"Because we did not find any, father," cried Rifle.
+
+"Humph!" said the captain.  "Strange!  There must be very few in these
+parts, but I always feel that we shall run against them some day."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+"WE'LL FIND 'EM."
+
+The troubles of the expedition had died out to such an extent that there
+was some talk of another, the captain saying that for exploring reasons
+he should head this himself.
+
+Just then Uncle Jack kicked his foot under the table, and the captain
+looked up to see such a look of agony in his wife's face that the
+subject dropped.
+
+All was going on admirably, oxen and sheep were increasing, the garden
+was flourishing, and Dingo Station was daily growing more and more the
+home of peace and plenty.
+
+"Ah, Jack," said the captain to his brother, as they sat one evening
+smoking tobacco of their own growing, "if it were not for the thoughts
+of the black fellows, what a paradise this would be!"
+
+"Perhaps the blacks say something of the kind respecting the whites."
+
+"Why, we don't interfere with them."
+
+"No; but I'm afraid others do."
+
+But just at this time Aunt Georgie was a good deal exercised in her
+mind, and she confided her trouble and suspicions to the two girls, but
+bade them say not a word to Mrs Bedford.
+
+"It would only worry her, and she has plenty of troubles over those
+wild, harum-scarum, neck-breaking, horse-riding boys."
+
+But the next morning at breakfast she let the cat out of the bag.
+
+"Flour?  Stolen?" cried Mrs Bedford, excitedly.
+
+"Oh, auntie!" cried the girls, reproachfully.
+
+"Well, I didn't mean to say anything, but I'm quite sure that a quantity
+has been taken out of the tub three times lately," said Aunt Georgie,
+emphatically.
+
+"Nonsense, aunt!" protested Hetty; "it's your fancy, or else Ida must
+have taken some without speaking."
+
+"No," said Ida, quietly, "I have not touched it.  If I had wanted some
+for cooking, I should have asked aunt for it."
+
+"Of course you would, my dear, and I should not have spilled and wasted
+some on the floor."
+
+"Had we not better tell Edward?" said Mrs Bedford.  "No; don't worry
+him," said Aunt Georgie; "he has quite enough on his mind."
+
+"The boys must have been at it for something," said Ida, quietly.
+
+"Boys have been at what?" said Norman, who was with the others in the
+veranda as these words were said.
+
+"Been taking the flour," said Hetty.
+
+"What should we take the flour for?" cried Rifle, indignantly.
+
+"No, my dears, I do not suspect you, and I am sorry to make the charge,
+for I have always thought Shanter lazy, but honest."
+
+"Why, you don't mean to say you believe poor old Shanter would steal
+flour, do you, aunt?" said Rifle, indignantly.
+
+"I regret it very much, my dear, but the flour has been stolen, some
+spilled on the floor, and there were the prints of wide-toed feet in the
+patch."
+
+"Here, hi!  Shanter, Tam o'!" cried Rifle.  "Coo-ee!"
+
+The black came running up with glistening face.
+
+"Plenty mine come fast," he said.
+
+"Here," cried Norman; "what for you come along steal flour?"
+
+"Mine baal teal flour," cried the black, indignantly.
+
+"Aunt says you have, two or three times."
+
+"Baal teal flour," cried the black again.
+
+"There, aunt," said Norman; "I told you he wouldn't."
+
+"But I'm sure he did, my dear, for there were the marks of his black
+feet."
+
+"Baal teal flour," cried Shanter again; and drawing himself up he was
+turning away, but Norman caught his arm.
+
+"Look here, Shanter," he said.  "You brother.  Baal go in storehouse."
+
+"Yohi," said the black, nodding.  "Big white Mary pialla.  Shanter carry
+tub."
+
+"Then you have been in the storehouse sometimes."
+
+"Yohi.  Baal teal flour."
+
+He wrenched himself free and walked away.
+
+"I don't believe he took it, aunt," said Norman.
+
+"Nor I," said the others eagerly.
+
+"Well, I wish I was sure, my dears, as you are, for I don't like to
+suspect the poor fellow."
+
+"But if he had taken it, aunt," cried Rifle, "he is such a big stupid
+boy of a fellow he couldn't have kept it secret.  He'd have made a lot
+of damper at a fire in the scrub, and asked us to come and help to eat
+the nasty stuff all full of ashes."
+
+"Well," said Aunt Georgie, drawing her lips tight, "we shall see.
+Nobody else could have stolen it but the black or German."
+
+"What, old Sourkrout?" cried Tim, laughing.  "Oh, aunt!"
+
+"And it's oh, Artemus!" said the old lady.  "For I do wish you boys
+would not be so fond of nicknames."
+
+"All right, aunt."
+
+The incident passed off and so did Shanter, for he disappeared
+altogether for a couple of days, and was a good deal missed.
+
+"Never mind," said Norman, "he'll come back loaded with grubs, or bring
+honey or 'possums."
+
+"I believe he is too much offended to come back," said Tim.  "No fellow,
+whatever his colour may be, likes to be called a thief."
+
+"No," said Rifle; "and I believe aunt used her flour in her sleep."
+
+"Here, boys," cried the captain just then; "take the horses and go round
+and fetch up that lot of bullocks from the plain.  I fancy they have
+gone right away some distance, or the dingoes have scared them; it will
+be a good ride for you."
+
+"And no Shanter here," said Norman, as they went off to catch and saddle
+their horses.
+
+"I wonder father hasn't made a bother about it.  He doesn't seem to have
+missed him."
+
+"Too busy over getting down that big gum over yonder," observed Rifle.
+"My word, what a time it seems to take!"
+
+"Nice bit of amusement for Uncle Jack and old Sam.  He is getting too
+fat."
+
+The others laughed, and then after they had caught, saddled, and bridled
+their horses, they walked them up to where the captain was examining the
+edge of a felling-axe, Uncle Jack and German being similarly armed.
+
+"Off you go, boys," said the captain.
+
+"And let's see whether you'll be back before we get down the great
+gum-tree," said their uncle, smiling.
+
+"We shall be back," said Rifle.  "You will not get down the big gum for
+a week."
+
+German chuckled, and the boys sprang into their saddles.
+
+"You'll have a long ride, boys," said the captain.  "I was up on the big
+rock yesterday," he continued, nodding toward the top of the precipice
+whence Norman had seen the black fellows, "and I could not see them with
+the glass."
+
+"We'll find 'em, father," said Norman, confidently.
+
+"Off then," said the captain; and away they went, riding now with
+wonderful ease and skill; while, bent on getting down the great gum-tree
+by the creek because it impeded part of the view from the house, and in
+addition its trunk being wanted for boards and its branches for fuel,
+the captain led his little force of axemen to the assault.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+"BUNYIP!  BUNYIP!"
+
+That same afternoon, soon after dinner, the captain and his
+fellow-wielders of the axe again went down to carry on their
+wood-cutting.  The boys were not back, nor expected, and in the course
+of the afternoon the girls proposed that Mrs Bedford and Aunt George
+should go with them for a walk, and to take some refreshment to the
+wood-cutters.
+
+They refused, of course, and then gave way, and soon after the little
+party left the house, and strolled slowly away toward the creek, all
+enjoying the delightfully fresh breeze which came across the plains and
+sent the blood dancing in the young girls' veins.
+
+Hardly had they walked a couple of hundred yards away, when one of the
+cows in the fenced-in paddock raised her head from grazing, and uttered
+a deep-toned bellow.  She ceased munching the rich grass, and whisked
+her tail about, as if trying to tie it in knots, for she saw a black
+approaching the paddock, and that black was one she did not know.
+
+The black came cautiously on, crawling from tree to bush, and from bush
+to tree, and always getting nearer to the house.  Finally, he reached
+the fence, and along by this he crept like a great black slug, till he
+was at the end, and within a dozen yards of the store.
+
+Fifty yards away a couple of dozen of his fellows, all spear and club
+armed, lay hidden among the shrubs and trees which the captain and Uncle
+Jack were unwilling to cut down, and these men watched intently every
+movement of their companion, and in perfect silence, till they saw him
+raise himself very slightly, and then almost run on all fours across the
+space which divided him from the storehouse, the movement being upon his
+hands and toes.
+
+Then a low murmur of satisfaction ran through them, and they turned to
+look in the other direction, where the ladies were all making their way,
+basket-laden, toward where the captain and Uncle Jack were continuing
+their attack upon the great tree.
+
+No fear of interruption in that direction; no fear of any one coming in
+the other, for the boys had been seen to ride right off over the hills,
+as if on a long expedition.
+
+The black fellow disappeared from his companions' sight; and as soon as
+he was well inside, he rose up, detached a bark bag from his
+'possum-skin waistband, and grinned with satisfaction as he ran his eyes
+round among the casks, packages, and tins upon the rough shelves.
+
+Then he stopped short, and stared at the cask before him, for there was
+something suspicious about it.  That was not the cask from which he had
+filled his meal-bag last time, and carried off such a glorious haul.  It
+looked wider and bigger, and he hesitated, and passing his right hand
+behind him, carefully drew out his club, ready for that tub if it should
+be dangerous.
+
+But the tub stood there perfectly innocent-looking, and the head had
+evidently lately been moved by floury fingers, which had left their
+marks.  In addition, there was a dusting of flour on the top, and a tiny
+sprinkle of the same on the rough boards in front.
+
+All this reassured him, and tucking his nulla-nulla back in his band, he
+gave the bag a shake, took a cautious look round, and then advanced to
+the tub, and with one quick movement, thrust the head off, so that it
+fell behind upon the floor.
+
+Then, bag in one hand, his other resting on the edge of the barrel, he
+stood perfectly still, as if turned to stone.  His eyes were starting,
+his mouth open, and his lips drawn back in a ghastly grin, as he stood
+gazing at a hideous-looking face rising slowly out of the flour, red, as
+if covered with blood, and dashed with patches of white meal.  Nearer
+and nearer this object approached him, till, with a yell of horror, he
+dragged himself away, and dashed out of the storehouse, shouting
+"Bunyip! bunyip!" as he ran to where his companions were waiting for his
+spoil.
+
+Then a low whispering followed, and the result was that six of the party
+crawled in the same manner as that in which the first black had
+approached.
+
+An observer would have said that they were evidently doubtful of the
+truth of their companion's statement, and had agreed to go together and
+test it.
+
+Their advance was exactly in every respect like that of the first man;
+and they reached the shelter of the fence, and paused till the last man
+was close up, when all went through the same manoeuvre together, running
+on their hands and feet, with their bodies close to the ground.
+
+At the door they paused again listening, and no doubt the slightest
+sound would have started them off in full retreat.  But all was
+perfectly still, and taking courage, they gathered themselves up, and
+club in hand leaped into the storehouse, to stand gazing wildly round.
+
+Nothing was there to startle them--no sign of danger.  The bag their
+companion had dropped lay upon the floor, but the flour-barrel was
+covered; and after a couple of them had exchanged a whisper, all stood
+with their nulla-nullas ready to strike, but no one attempted to move
+the cask head.
+
+At last two who appeared to be the leaders extended a hand each, gazed
+in each other's eyes, and at a signal gave the lid a thrust, and it fell
+off behind with a loud clatter, which made all bound out of the
+storehouse.  But the last man looked back as his comrades were taking to
+flight, and uttered a few words loudly.
+
+They were sufficient to arrest the flight and all stood in a stooping
+position, gazing wildly at the tub, which stood looking harmless enough,
+and after a little jabbering, they advanced once more, as if they all
+formed units of a large machine, so exactly were their steps taken
+together, till they reached and once more entered the open door of the
+store.
+
+Then, as if strung up, ready to meet anything, they bounded into the
+place, when, as if worked by a spring, the horrible figure in the tub
+started upright like a monstrous jack-in-the-box.
+
+The black fellows literally tumbled over one another in their hurry to
+escape from the terrible-looking object which, in their eyes--imbued as
+they were with superstitious notions--was a fearful demon of the most
+unsparing nature, and a minute later, they were back in the clump of
+trees and bushes, spreading news which made the whole mob of blacks take
+flight.
+
+"Baal come teal flour.  Mine make black fellow frightenum," said the
+jack-in-the-box, leaping lightly out, and then rolling the empty cask
+aside, he replaced it by the flour-tub.
+
+Then, going round to the back, application was made to a bucket of
+water, from which a cooliman or native bark bowl was filled, and in a
+few moments Shanter's good-humoured, clean, black countenance was drying
+in the sun.  For his scheme to defeat the flour-thieves had been very
+successful, and that evening he related it proudly to the boys.
+
+"You did that?" said Norman.
+
+"Yohi.  All yan.  Baal black fellow now."
+
+"What?" cried the captain, when Norman called him aside, and told him.
+"I don't like that, my boy."
+
+"But they must be a poor, cowardly lot, father," said Norman, "or they
+would not be so easily frightened by a bogey."
+
+"A lesson to us," said the captain, thoughtfully.  "There must be a camp
+of the black fellows somewhere near, and while they are about, we had
+better keep about the place."
+
+"But they will not come again after such a fright, will they?" said
+Norman.
+
+"I don't know, my boy.  It is impossible to say.  Perhaps, as soon as
+the scare is over, they may be taking each other to task for being such
+cowards.  We are all alone here, and far from help, so it is as well to
+be upon our guard.  Don't let them know indoors."
+
+The order came too late, for, as soon as they entered the house, Mrs
+Bedford began anxiously: "Edward, is it a fact that there have been
+myall blacks trying to rob the place?"
+
+"Pooh!  What have you heard?"
+
+"Rifle has been telling us of the black's trick to frighten them."
+
+"Oh yes, a few wandering rascals tried to steal the flour."
+
+"And I'm very, very glad to find that I misjudged that poor fellow,
+Shanter," said Aunt Georgie.  "I certainly thought it was he."
+
+"Yes; and to clear himself of the suspicion," said Uncle Jack, cheerily,
+"he hid and frightened them away.  Come, people, don't look so
+anxious.--Why, Hetty--Ida--surely you are not going to be scared at a
+little adventure like this."
+
+"Of course they are not," said the captain, quickly.  "There is nothing
+to be alarmed about."
+
+"Father says there's nothing to be alarmed about," whispered Rifle that
+night, when the boys retired to the part of the house they called the
+barracks.
+
+"Yes, I heard him," said Norman, softly.  "Talk low, Tim's asleep."
+
+"No, I'm not," said that individual.  "I'm awake as you are.  You're
+going to talk about uncles' whispering together, and then going and
+loading the guns and pistols."
+
+Norman was silent for a few moments.
+
+"Yes," he said at last.  "It means that they are very uneasy about the
+black fellows."
+
+"And a fight," said Rifle.
+
+"I hope not, boys.  One doesn't want to kill."
+
+"But one doesn't want the myall blacks to kill us," said Rifle.  "Well,
+they will not come to-night, will they?"
+
+"If they do," replied Norman, "father will soon wake us up, if it's only
+to load the guns for them.  They're sure to sit up and watch in turns
+with Sourkrout.  Shall we dress again, and go and offer to help?"
+
+"No," said Tim.  "Uncle would not like us to interfere without being
+asked, but I shall lie and listen all night.  I couldn't go to sleep
+fancying that black fellows were crawling up to attack us."
+
+"No," said Rifle, softly; "one feels all of a fidget, and ready to fancy
+all sorts of things."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Norman.  "It's because it's so hot to-night.  That's
+all."
+
+"Man don't mean it," said Tim, quietly.  "He's as fidgety as we are."
+
+"Yes, of course I am, but it's only the heat."
+
+"Call it what you like," said Rifle; "but you don't feel as if you could
+sleep to-night."
+
+"Well, I don't feel sleepy yet," said Norman, carelessly.
+
+But a long day on horseback and the quiet of their quarters, joined to
+the knowledge that their elders would be on guard, sufficed to nullify
+all their declarations, and half an hour had not elapsed before the
+regular, steady breathing of three healthy lads told that they were
+passing the night in the most satisfactory way.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+"THAT ISN'T THUNDER."
+
+"Hi!  Rouse up!  Black fellows!" shouted Rifle, and his brother and
+cousin started up in bed, ready for the moment to believe him, for there
+was a black face peering in at their window.
+
+"Get out!" cried Tim, hurling a boot at his cousin, who dodged it, while
+as soon as Norman had grasped the fact that the face belonged to Shanter
+he made a rush at his brother, who laughingly avoided it, and then
+hurrying on their clothes, they went out to find the captain and Uncle
+Jack, each with a double gun in the hollow of his arm.
+
+"Seen anything, father?" cried Norman.
+
+"No, my boy, all peaceable, and Shanter says there are no black fellows
+near."
+
+"Baal black fellow," said that gentleman.  "See plenty mine bunyip, baal
+come again."
+
+Here he burst into a roar of laughter, and began imitating the action of
+a myall black creeping up to the storehouse, going close up to the
+flour-tub, and looking in before uttering a wild yell, darting back,
+tumbling, getting up, falling again, rolling over and over, and then
+jumping up to run away as hard as he could.
+
+He came back panting and grinning in a minute or two, looking from one
+to the other as if for applause.
+
+"I hope he is right," said Uncle Jack; "but we shall have to be more
+careful."
+
+"Yes," said the captain; "we have been too confident, boys, and I must
+now declare the station in a state of siege."
+
+"Won't it be time enough when the black fellows come, father?"
+
+"Will it be time enough to lock the stable door when the steed is
+stolen, sir?" replied the captain, sternly.
+
+Rifle rubbed his right ear, as if his father's words had buzzed in it,
+and said no more.
+
+"Talk about steeds," said the captain; "let's go and have a look at the
+horses.  There'll be plenty of time before breakfast."
+
+For the captain had of late given a good deal of attention to one of his
+young horses which promised to prove of great value.  The boys were
+already well mounted and provided most satisfactorily.  There were the
+quiet mares, too, which the two girls rode, and Uncle Jack had a good
+sturdy mount; but this graceful colt had thoroughly taken the captain's
+attention, and he was looking forward to the day when some wealthy
+settler would come up the country, see it, and purchase it, or make some
+valuable exchange in the shape of articles as useful to them as money.
+
+They reached the paddock, which was always increasing in size, when they
+could find time to enclose more land with posts and rails, and the
+horses came trotting up for the titbits they were accustomed to receive
+from their owner's hand; and as the pet of the little drove thrust its
+head over the rail, it was patted and caressed, a halter attached and
+passed round its lower jaw, Shanter watching eagerly the while.
+
+"Now, Norman, up with you.  I want to get him used to being backed."
+
+Norman hesitated for a moment naturally enough, for it was mounting a
+bare-backed unbroken colt; but the next minute he had accepted a leg up,
+and was in his place, with the result that the beautiful creature reared
+right up, pawing the air, and threatened to fall over backwards.
+
+"Grip him well, boy," shouted the captain.
+
+The command was needless, for Norman was already gripping the horse's
+soft sides with all his might; and he kept his seat as it now came down
+on all fours, and darted off at a rate which startled all the rest of
+the occupants of the paddock into a gallop.  They followed their
+companion round till Norman seemed able to control his mount, and
+brought it back to where the rest had been watching him with some
+anxiety.
+
+"Well done, my boy!" said the captain, as he caressed the colt.  "Down
+with you.  Now, Raphael, you give him a turn."
+
+Rifle sprang into the place lately occupied by his brother, had a gallop
+round the great enclosure; and Tim followed and cantered up.
+
+"That will do for this morning," said the captain.  "I like his action
+more and more, Jack.  He'll want very little breaking in."
+
+"Yes," said Uncle Jack; "a martingale will soon check that habit of
+throwing up his head."
+
+"Hullo!" cried the captain; "what's that?"
+
+"Oh nothing, father," cried Rifle, laughing.  "Only Shanter.  He wants
+to have a ride round on the colt."
+
+"What and scare the poor animal with his black face?  Besides, he can't
+ride."
+
+"Yohi!" shouted the black, excitedly.  "Plenty mine ride.  Plenty mine
+ride bull-cow horse fellow.  Plenty mine ride."
+
+He strode toward the colt to mount but the captain laid his hand upon
+his shoulder.
+
+Shanter started round angrily.
+
+"Mine go ride plenty mine," he cried.
+
+"No.  Don't touch the horse," said the captain, sternly.
+
+White man and black stood gazing in each other's eyes for some moments,
+and then Shanter took his spear from where it leaned against the rails,
+and marched off toward the nearest patch of scrub, displaying such airs
+of offended dignity that the boys all laughed, with the result that
+Shanter turned upon them furiously--like a ridiculed child--threw
+himself into an attitude, and threatened to throw his spear.  But, as
+the boys laughed all the more heartily, he turned and went off.
+
+"You have offended his majesty, father," cried Norman.
+
+"Oh, he'll forget it all in a few hours," said Rifle and they went back
+in to breakfast.
+
+Soon after the captain had a ride round, ostensibly to see the more
+distant cattle; but, as he owned to Rifle, who accompanied him, really
+to see if there were any traces of blacks; but there were none.
+
+"I'll send Shanter out scouting," said the captain, as they rode back;
+but there was no Shanter to send.  He had evidently not forgotten, and
+not come back.
+
+The next morning a visit was again paid to where the horses were
+enclosed every night, the captain meaning to have the colt ridden daily
+now, so as to break it in by degrees, when, to his annoyance, he found
+it looking rough and out of order, but that evening it seemed to be much
+better, and was grazing heartily as usual.
+
+The next morning it was the same, and so on for several more mornings.
+
+"I don't understand it," said the captain.
+
+"Looks as if it had been galloped, father," said Norman.
+
+"Yes; but the others are all right, and it would not go off and gallop
+alone.  Flies have worried the poor beast, I suppose."
+
+Meanwhile there had been no sign of Shanter.  He had gone off in dudgeon
+and stayed away, his absence being severely felt in the house, for his
+task of fetching wood and water had to be placed in Sam German's hands;
+and as this was not what he called his regular work, he did it in a
+grumbling, unpleasant manner, which very much raised Aunt Georgie's ire.
+
+"Shanter will come back soon, aunt," Tim kept on saying.
+
+"But he does not come back, boy," cried Aunt Georgie; "and you boys will
+have to do his work, for I am not going to have that grumbling gardener
+to bring my wood and water.  I must say, though, that it does make a
+good deal of difference in the consumption of bread."
+
+And still Shanter did not come back, neither was anything seen of him by
+the boys in their long stock-herding rides; while to make things more
+annoying the colt grew worse, and the captain complained bitterly.
+
+"But I don't think father ought to grumble," said Rifle, one night when
+they were going to bed.  "Everything else has got on so well.  Why, we
+shall soon be having a big farm."
+
+"Yes," said Norman; "but the colt was a pet, and he had given so much
+attention to it."
+
+They went to bed and all was quiet, but somehow Rifle could not sleep.
+It was a sultry, thunderous night, and at last he rose, opened the
+window, and stood to gaze out at the flashing lightning as it played
+about a ridge of clouds in the east.
+
+"Can't you sleep?" said Norman, in a whisper.
+
+"No; come here.  It's so jolly and cool."
+
+There was a faint rustling sound in the darkness, and the next minute
+Norman was by his brother's side, enjoying the soft, comparatively cool,
+night air.
+
+"Lovely," he said; and then they both stood gazing at the lightning,
+which made the clouds look like a chain of mountains, about whose
+summits the electricity played.
+
+All at once there was a dull, low, muttering sound, apparently at a
+distance.
+
+"Thunder," said Norman.  "We're going to have a storm."
+
+"Good job," replied Rifle, in the same low tone as that adopted by his
+brother.  "Things were getting precious dry."
+
+There was a long pause, and the lightning grew nearer and the flashes
+more vivid.  Then, all of a sudden as the same peculiar sound was heard,
+Rifle whispered:
+
+"I say, Man; that isn't thunder."
+
+"No," was the reply.  "I was just thinking so.  Sounds to me like a
+horse galloping."
+
+"Of course it does.  I say, it isn't the colt, is it?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Our colt gone mad, and galloping about all night so as to make himself
+look bad to-morrow morning."
+
+"Rubbish!"
+
+"But it does come from the paddock."
+
+"Yes; it does come from the paddock," said Norman, after a pause.
+
+"And no mistake about it.  Only one horse too."
+
+"It's very strange," said Norman; "let's go and see."
+
+"What, in the middle of the night, like this?  Father would hear us and
+take us for black fellows."
+
+"We could drop quietly out of the window.  Why, Rifle, you're right;
+there is a horse galloping in the paddock.  Let's dress and go."
+
+"Shall we call father and tell him first?"
+
+"No; because we might be wrong.  Let's go and see first.  A 'possum must
+have got on the horse's back and be scaring him into this gallop.  Look
+sharp."
+
+The boys soon had on their flannel shirts and trousers, generally their
+every-day costume, and after satisfying themselves that Tim was fast
+asleep, they squeezed themselves out of the window and dropped one after
+the other, and then hurried along in the thick darkness, across the
+garden, past the storehouse, and then along under the shelter of the
+fences till, perfectly satisfied now, they neared the corner of the
+paddock, just as a horse galloped by at full speed.
+
+"No wonder he looks so bad of a morning," whispered Norman.  "Here, go
+on a little farther and then we can look through and see."
+
+They went down now on hands and knees, and crept along till they could
+look through into the great paddock, just as a flash of lightning
+revealed to them a group of horses in the centre of the field all pretty
+close together, and quietly cropping the grass.
+
+"Strange, isn't it?" whispered Norman.  "Listen! here he comes round
+again."
+
+For the beat of hoofs approached from their left, and the next minute a
+horse thundered by at full speed.
+
+"Why, it was!" whispered Rifle, "I saw one of those 'possums perched on
+its back."
+
+"No," said Norman, excitedly.  "I saw something distinctly; but it was
+too big to be a 'possum.  I think it was one of those big things that
+Shanter killed.  Father said it was the koala or native bear."
+
+"Let's wait till it comes round again."
+
+The time seemed long, but the horse came thundering past once more,
+evidently steadily coursing all round the paddock close to the rails,
+while its fellows clustered in the middle out of the way.
+
+"It is one of those things," said Norman, triumphantly.
+
+"It wasn't," said Rifle.  "I saw it quite plain, and it was one of those
+kangaroos as big as a man.  I say, whoever would have thought of their
+doing that?"
+
+"What shall we do?  Hadn't we better go and rouse up father?"
+
+"No," said Rifle; "let's stop and see the end of it; and to-morrow night
+we can all come and catch or shoot the beast.  If we went now and
+fetched him, it might be gone before we got back, and he would think we
+had been dreaming."
+
+"Here it comes again; hish!" whispered Norman; and once more there was
+the rapid beat of the horse's feet on the dry ground, and it tore by
+just as there was a brighter flash of lightning; then the flying object
+had darted by, and Norman uttered a loud ejaculation.
+
+"Did you see?" whispered Rifle.
+
+"Yes; it was a myall black.  I saw him quite plainly."
+
+"Not quite plainly," said Rifle.  "But I saw him.  It was a black on the
+poor horse, but it was old Shanter."
+
+"What?"
+
+"It was!  I saw his face as plain as possible.  Don't you see?  He
+wanted to mount the horse and father wouldn't let him, so he determined
+to have a ride, and he must have come and had one every night, and then
+gone off again into the scrub."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Don't say `but.'  You know how fond he has been of horses, always
+wanting to ride when he went out with us."
+
+"Yes, I know; but still I can't think he would like to do that."
+
+"But he _is_ doing it.  Here he comes again."
+
+This time, as the horse galloped by, they both had a perfectly plain
+view of the black's excited face and position as, evidently in a high
+state of glee, he tore by on the well-bred horse.
+
+"Now," said Rifle; "was I right?"
+
+"Oh yes," said Norman, with a sigh.  "You were quite right.  But be
+ready to shout and stop him as he comes round again."
+
+They waited for the sound of the warning thunder of hoofs, but though
+they heard them grow more faint, and then sound softer as they paced
+along on the far side of the paddock, the sound did not increase, and
+while they were listening there came a distinct snort, followed by a
+loud neighing nearer to them; another snort, and then a flash of vivid
+lightning illumining the paddock long enough for them to see the drove
+of horses in the middle all gazing in one direction toward another horse
+walking in their direction.  Then there was black darkness, another
+snort, an answering neigh, and silence, broken by the faintly-heard
+sound of grass being torn off from its roots.
+
+"He's gone," said Norman, in a whisper.  "Let's run and wake father."
+
+"What's the good now?  Let's go back to bed, and tell him in the
+morning.  No: I don't like to.  Why, he'd be ready to half kill poor old
+Shanter."
+
+Norman was silent, and they tramped back to the house when, just as
+Norman was reaching up to get hold of the window-sill, a hand was
+stretched out.
+
+"Hallo! you two.  Where have you been?"
+
+"Never mind," said Norman.  "Wait till we get in again."
+
+They both climbed in silently, and Tim began again.
+
+"I say, it was shabby to go without me;" and when they explained why
+they had hurried off, he was no better satisfied.  "I wouldn't have
+served you so," he grumbled.  "But I say, won't uncle be in a way?"
+
+"Yes, if Norman tells him," said Rifle.  "Don't you think we had better
+hold our tongues?"
+
+A long discussion followed, with the result that Rifle found himself in
+the minority, and went to sleep feeling rather unhappy about the black.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+"GOOD TASTE FOR A SAVAGE."
+
+Rifle felt obliged in the morning to join cousin and brother in the
+announcement to the captain, who looked as if he could hardly believe it
+at first, but ended by walking straight to the paddock, to find the colt
+looking more distressed than ever; and on a closer inspection there
+plainly enough, though it had remained unnoticed before, on account of
+the dry time, were the marks of the nightly gallops on the hard
+sun-baked soil.
+
+"That explains it all, eh, Jack?" he said to his brother.
+
+"Yes; the black scoundrel!  I had noticed for some time past how fond he
+was of horses."
+
+"Yes," said Norman; "nothing pleased him better than petting them and
+giving them bits of his damper."
+
+"Very good taste for a savage to appreciate how noble a beast is the
+horse, but I'm not going to introduce the said noble animal for the
+delectation of black savages."
+
+"But you will not be very hard upon him, father?"
+
+"No," said the captain, tightening his lips, "not very."
+
+"What shall you do?" said Uncle Jack.
+
+"Lay wait for his black lordship to-night, and give him a sound
+horse-whipping."
+
+Rifle's face twitched a little, and the three boys exchanged glances.
+
+"Better be careful, Ned," said Uncle Jack.  "These fellows can be very
+revengeful."
+
+"I am not afraid.  He must have a severe lesson, and as I am his
+master--Marmi, as he calls me--I shall give it at once."
+
+"But you will not sit up for him alone?" said Uncle Jack.
+
+"Oh no.  I shall want you all to help me; and so as to make sure of him,
+there is to be no riding out to-day.  He is, of course, hiding in the
+scrub somewhere, and I don't want him disturbed."
+
+Rifle looked very hard at Norman, who turned to his father.
+
+"Well, Norman?"
+
+"We all like Shanter, father," he said.  "He is not much better than a
+child in some things."
+
+"Exactly; I know that."
+
+"We want you to let him off, father--forgive him."
+
+The captain looked more stern, and tightened his lips.
+
+"I appreciate your generosity, my boys, but it must not be looked over.
+I must punish him.  Words will be of no use.  I am afraid it must be
+blows.  But look here; I will be as mild as I can.  Will that satisfy
+you?"
+
+"I suppose it must, father," said Rifle, dolefully.
+
+"Yes, my boy, it must; and now look here: not a word to them indoors.
+It would only startle mamma and the girls.  Your uncle and I will be
+going to keep watch to-night, and you can slip out of your window as you
+did last night."
+
+Hence it was that about ten o'clock that night the little party were all
+crouching by the palings watching, as well as the darkness would allow,
+and listening for the faintest sound, not a word being uttered for fear
+the black's abnormally sharp ears should detect their presence, and make
+him keep away.
+
+Time glided by, till an hour must have passed, and then they heard a
+sharp neigh, followed by the trampling of feet, as if the horses had
+been startled.  Then came the low murmur of a voice, followed by a few
+light pats as of some one caressing a horse; and, a minute later, in
+spite of the darkness, Norman made out that his father had passed
+through the rails into the paddock.
+
+Then, just as he was in agony for fear the captain should be ridden
+over, or some other accident should befall him, he heard the approaching
+pace of a horse, but only at a walk.
+
+Like the others, he was crouching down, and it seemed to him that his
+father was doing the same, when, all at once, the faintly-seen figures
+of man and horse towered up close by them, and what followed was the
+work of moments.
+
+There was the loud _whisk_ of a hunting-whip, the darting forward of a
+figure, followed by the plunge of a horse, as it galloped away, drowning
+the noise of a heavy thud, though the struggle which followed was quite
+plain.
+
+"Hold still, you dog!" roared the captain.  "I have you tight.--Here,
+Jack, come and help to hold him."
+
+"Baal baal mumkull mine," cried the black, piteously.  "Give in then,
+you scoundrel.  Take hold of his hair, Jack.  I have him by his
+loin-cloth."
+
+It was no question of giving in, for the black made no further struggle,
+but stood up writhing and twisting up his right shoulder, and rubbing it
+with the back of his left hand passed behind him.
+
+"Don't hit him again, father," cried Norman, quickly.
+
+"Silence, sir!--Now you--you black fellow!"
+
+"Baal black fellow," shouted Shanter, indignantly; "baal black fellow."
+
+"How dare you come stealing here in the dark and meddling with my
+horses?" roared the captain.
+
+"Baal steal a horse fellow, Marmi," cried the black, indignantly.
+"Horse fellow all along all lot."
+
+"Sneaking there in the darkness, to ride my poor horses to death."
+
+"Marmi no let Shanter ride when piggi jump up."
+
+"Not let you ride in the day, sir?  Of course not.  Do you suppose I
+keep horses for you?"
+
+"Baal plenty mine know."
+
+"You don't understand?"
+
+"Mine want ride horse fellow like white fellow."
+
+"Then you are not going to learn to ride on mine.  Now then, I've done
+with you, sir.  Be off and don't show your face here again.  Go!"
+
+"Mine want damper, Marmi.  Gib big soff damper."
+
+"I'll give you the whip, sir, if you don't go."
+
+Shanter flinched, and gave himself another rub, looking about in the
+darkness from one to the other.
+
+"Let me fetch him a bit of damper, father," whispered Rifle.
+
+"No," said the captain, sternly.  "The scoundrel has nearly ruined a
+fine young horse, and he must be taught a lesson.--Now, sir, be off!"
+
+"Baal gib mine big damper?" cried the black.
+
+"No; only the whip," said the captain, giving the thong a sharp crack,
+and then another and another in all directions near the black's naked
+shoulders, with the result that at every crack Shanter winced and leaped
+about.
+
+"Marmi Man gib mine damper."
+
+"I can't," said Norman.
+
+"Marmi Rifle, Marmi Tim, gib mine damper."
+
+"No--no--no," shouted the captain.  "Now go and never come here again."
+
+The black gave another writhe, as if smarting from the pain of the blow
+he had received, and ended by snatching boomerang and club from his
+waistband, uttering a fiercely defiant yell as he clattered them
+together, leaped the fence and darted off straight across the paddock,
+shouting as he rushed on toward the horses, and sending them in panic to
+the end of the enclosure.
+
+"The scoundrel!" shouted the captain; "those horse will cripple
+themselves on the posts and rails.  No; they're coming back again," he
+cried, as he heard the little herd come galloping round.  "Steady
+there--woho--boys!  Steady, woho there--woho!" he continued; and the
+horses gradually ceased their headlong flight, and turned and trotted
+gently toward the familiar voice.
+
+The captain was joined by the boys, who all went toward the horses,
+patting and caressing them for a few minutes before leaving the paddock
+and going back toward the house.
+
+"Now," said the captain; "who is to say that this black fellow will not
+come to-morrow night, or perhaps to-night, take out a rail or two, and
+drive off all our horses?"
+
+"I can," said Norman.
+
+"So can we," cried Rifle.  "I don't believe old Shanter ever could
+steal."
+
+"Well done, boys, for your belief in savage nature," cried Uncle
+Jack.--"No, Ned, you are wrong.  I believe that the poor fellow is
+honest as the day."
+
+"Thank you, uncle," whispered Tim.
+
+"Well," said the captain, "we shall see.  But I think I have let the
+poor fellow off very easily.  I came out to-night meaning to give him a
+tremendous horse-whipping, but out of weakness and consideration for you
+boys' feelings, I've let him off with one cut."
+
+"Enough too," said Uncle Jack, "for it was big enough for a dozen."
+
+"Well, it was a tidy one," said the captain, laughing.  "There, come
+back to the house.  But no more black pets, boys.  If you want to make
+companions, try the horses."
+
+"And perhaps they'd run away with one."
+
+"Or throw us."
+
+"Or kick us."
+
+So cried the boys one after another, and the captain uttered a grunt.
+
+"Look here," he said; "I'm not going to sit up and watch to-night, but
+if those horses are driven off by that black scoundrel, I'll hunt him
+down with a gun."
+
+"Not you, Ned," said Uncle Jack, with a chuckle.
+
+"Don't you believe him, boys."
+
+"We don't, uncle," they chorused.
+
+"Ah, well," said the captain, laughing; "we shall see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+"WE SHALL HAVE TO TRUST HIM."
+
+"Whatever is the matter with that cow?" cried Aunt Georgie, as they sat
+at their evening meal the next day.  "Why is she lowing like that?  It's
+my poor Jersey, and--goodness gracious, what is the matter with her
+tail?"
+
+"Tail!" shouted the captain, springing up as the cow came clumsily
+cantering up, followed by all the rest of the cattle, who added their
+lowing to the Jersey's mournful bellow.  "Tail!  Here, quick, Jack--
+boys, the guns; the poor creature has been speared."
+
+It was plain enough.  Speared, and badly, for the weapon stood firmly
+just in front of the poor animal's tail, in spite of the frantic gallop
+in which she had sought for relief.
+
+"I can't leave the poor beast like this, Jack," cried the captain.
+"Cover me if you see any one stealing up.  No; there is no need.  I can
+see it all plainly enough."
+
+The cow did not run away from him as he went close up, and with a sharp
+tug dragged out the clumsy weapon, tearing his handkerchief afterward to
+plug the horrible wound.
+
+"Will she get better, father?" asked Norman.
+
+"I hope so, boy.  I don't think the point can have reached any vital
+part.  But you see, don't you?"
+
+"Only the wound, father.  What do you mean?"
+
+"I'm afraid this is your friend Shanter's bit of revenge for my blow."
+
+"Oh no, father," cried Rifle, indignantly.  "Poor old Tam o' Shanter
+would not be such a brute."
+
+The captain smiled, and shrugged his shoulders.  "Here, let's get all
+the beasts into the enclosure," he said.  "We do not want any more to be
+speared;" and sending two of the boys forward to open the rails, the cow
+was gently driven in, the rest of the stock following patiently enough
+to the very last.
+
+"Well," said Uncle Jack, emphatically, "I don't think I'm a vicious man,
+but I honestly wish that the vile wretch who threw that spear had been
+well gored by the animal in return."
+
+"So do I, uncle," cried Rifle, warmly, "for I'm sure it wasn't
+Shanter.--What do you think, Tim?"
+
+"I don't know," replied the boy.  "I hope it wasn't; but as Uncle Edward
+says, it does look very black."
+
+"Bah!  You're black," cried Rifle, fiercely.--"You don't think it was
+Shanter, do you, Man?"
+
+"I don't want to think it was," replied his brother, thoughtfully, "but
+it does look very bad."
+
+This was while the captain had walked up to the house to order the
+ladies to stay within doors, promising in return that he would be very
+careful, and not run into any danger.
+
+"Looks very bad!" cried Rifle, contemptuously.  "I only wish I knew
+where old Shanter was.  I'd go and fetch him to make him tell you that
+you ought all to be ashamed of yourselves."
+
+"You need not trouble," said Uncle Jack, quietly, "for here he comes;"
+and as the captain's brother spoke he cocked his double gun.
+
+"And here comes father," cried Norman, excitedly.  "Don't fire, uncle,
+pray."
+
+"Not if I can help it, boy, but look at the fellow; he has been painting
+himself, and means war."
+
+In effect Shanter's black body was streaked with white, as if to imitate
+a skeleton, and as he came running toward them from the scrub below the
+precipice, he looked as if his spear was held threateningly in one hand,
+his club in the other.
+
+As the black came running from one direction, the captain ran toward
+them from the other, shouting to Uncle Jack and the boys to fall back,
+while just then Sam German came out of the garden armed with a
+pitchfork, the first thing likely to act as a weapon.
+
+But Shanter was the swiftest of foot, and he was within twenty yards,
+when Uncle Jack presented his piece and shouted: "Stop!  Throw down that
+spear."
+
+Shanter hesitated for a moment, and then dug the point of his spear into
+the ground, and ran up shouting: "Hi, Marmi, black fellow come along!
+Kimmeroi--bulla, bulla--metancoly."  (One, four, ever so many.)
+
+The captain gazed at him suspiciously.
+
+"Where?" he said.
+
+"Black fellow all along," cried Shanter, who seemed to have quite
+forgotten the past night's quarrel and the blow, and he pointed in
+several directions across the precipitous ridge.
+
+"You saw them?"
+
+"Yohi.  Run tell Marmi.  Black fellow come all along, spear bull-cow."
+
+Norman saw his father's brow contract, for the last words sounded very
+suspicious, and the lad asked himself whether this was a piece of
+cunning on the part of the black.
+
+But just then Shanter caught sight of the spear lying upon the ground,
+where it had been thrown by the captain after he had drawn it from the
+cow's back.
+
+The black made a dash and pounced upon it, his movement to secure the
+weapon putting both the captain and his brother on their guard, as they
+watched the fellow's movements.
+
+As soon as he had the weapon in his hand, he examined the point, still
+wet with blood, looked sharply from one to the other, and then excitedly
+pointed to the spear end.
+
+"How this fellow come along?" he cried.
+
+"Some one threw it, and speared the little cow," cried Rifle.
+
+"Where little bull-cow fellow--go bong?"
+
+"No; in the paddock.  Did you throw that spear, Shanter?"
+
+"Mine throw?  Baal!" cried the black.  "Plenty mine spear," and he
+pointed to where his own spear stuck in the ground.
+
+"I can't trust him, Rifle, my boy," said the captain, firmly.  "I'm
+afraid it is his work, and this is a cunning way of throwing us off the
+scent."
+
+The black listened eagerly, and partly comprehended.
+
+"Marmi no pidney.  Think mine spear bull-cow.  Baal, baal throw."
+
+He shook his head violently, and then running back and recovering the
+other spear--his own--he stood attentively watching the scrub, his eyes
+wandering along the ridge and from place to place as if in search of
+enemies.
+
+"What do you say, Ned?" whispered Uncle Jack; "are you going to trust
+him?"
+
+"No, I cannot yet," said the captain.  "We must be thoroughly on our
+guard."
+
+"The poor fellow has proved himself a faithful servant, though."
+
+"What?  That colt?"
+
+"A boy's freak.  He did not behave dishonestly."
+
+"Well, I do not trust him yet Jack; but I may be wrong.  Let's
+reconnoitre."
+
+"Where all white Mary?" said Shanter, turning back suddenly.
+
+"In the house," said Norman.  "Why?"
+
+"Black fellow metancoly all plenty.  Come mumkull."
+
+At that moment Mrs Bedford appeared at the door, and stepped out, but
+stopped as Shanter uttered a fierce yell and gesticulated, imitating the
+throwing of a spear and battering of some one's head.
+
+"Baal white Mary come along," he cried, running to the captain.  "Marmi
+say go along."
+
+"Run and tell your mother and the rest to keep in the house," said the
+captain sharply to Rifle, and the black nodded in satisfaction; but he
+grew furious again, and seized the captain's arm as he made a movement
+toward the patch of scrub and trees which had concealed the blacks, when
+the raid was made upon the flour.
+
+"Baal go along," he cried.  "Hah!"
+
+He threw himself into an attitude as if about to hurl a spear, for just
+then, a couple of hundred yards away, a black figure was seen to dart
+from behind a solitary patch of bushes to run to the bigger one in
+front.  As he reached the broader shelter another followed him, and
+another, and another, Shanter counting them as they ran.
+
+"Kimmeroi--bulla-bulla, kimmeroi-bulla, bulla--bulla, bulla, kimmeroi."
+
+"Five," said Norman, excitedly.
+
+"Yohi," cried the black, nodding.  "Marmi baal go along?"
+
+"No," said the captain, quietly.  "We had better retire to the house.  I
+think we can give them a warm reception there."
+
+"Shoot!  Bang, bang!" cried Shanter, grinning.  "Ow--ow--ow!"
+
+He held his bands to his head after dropping his weapons as he yelled,
+ran round in a circle, staggered, fell, kicked a little, and lay quite
+still for a few moments as if dead.  Then leaping up, he secured his
+weapons, shook them threateningly at the little grove, and urged all to
+go up to the house.
+
+"We shall have to trust him," said the captain.  "Come along, Jack.--
+Now, boys, I'm afraid this is war in earnest, and the siege has begun."
+
+"Plenty black fellow," shouted Shanter, excitedly, as he pointed in a
+fresh direction, where three or four heads were seen for a minute before
+they disappeared among the trees.
+
+"And no time to be lost," cried the captain.--"German, while we can, go
+up and begin filling what tubs you can with water in case the enemy
+tries to cut off our supply.  We will cover you."
+
+"Right, sir," said the gardener, and he ran up to the house with his
+fork over his shoulder, while the others followed more leisurely,
+keeping a sharp look-out.
+
+"Come along," cried Shanter, as they reached the house.  "Shut fass.
+Black fellow baal come along.  Big white Mary gib mine damper now."
+
+Five minutes later he was eating some bread with a contented smile on
+his countenance, while Tim and Norman kept watch, and the others busied
+themselves closing the shutters and carrying in blocks and slabs of
+wood, reserved for such an emergency, and now used as barricades for
+windows and loop-holed doors.
+
+All worked vigorously, provisions were rolled in from the storehouse,
+though that was so near that its door could be commanded if a fresh
+supply was required.  Fence gates were closed and fastened, the
+water-supply augmented, and at last the captain turned to the pale-faced
+women who had been helping with all their strength, and said:
+
+"There, we need not fear blacks a hundred strong.  All we have to do now
+is to come in, shut and bar the door, roll two or three of the casks
+against it, and laugh at them."
+
+"But I don't feel happy about my kitchen," said Aunt Georgie.
+
+"No: that is our weakest place," said the captain; "but I'll soon set
+that right.--See anything of them, boys?" he cried to the sentries.
+
+"No, not a sign."
+
+"Metancoly black fellow all along a trees," said Shanter, jumping up,
+for he had finished his damper.
+
+"Can you see them?" cried the captain.
+
+"Baal see black fellow.  Plenty hide."
+
+He illustrated his meaning by darting behind a barrel and peering at the
+captain, so that only one eye was visible.
+
+"Yes, I see," cried the captain.  "Get up.--Now, good folks, some
+dinner.  I'm hungry.  Cheer up.  We can beat them off if they attack,
+which I hope they will not."
+
+"So do I," said Norman in a whisper to Rifle; "but if they do come, we
+must fight."
+
+"Yes," said Rifle; "but they will not come fair.  I'm afraid they'll try
+to take us by surprise."
+
+"Let 'em," said Tim, scornfully.  "If they do, we must try and surprise
+them."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+"THINK YOU CAN HIT A BLACK?"
+
+A long anxious afternoon of watching, but the blacks made no sign, and
+upon Shanter being referred to, he replied coolly: "Plenty come along
+when piggi jump down, all no see."
+
+Tim shuddered at the black's coolness.
+
+"Make shoot bang.  Black fellow run along holler--ow!"
+
+"He doesn't seem to mind a bit," whispered Tim.
+
+"Don't know the danger, I suppose," said Norman.  "I say, boys, how long
+could we hold out?"
+
+"Always," said Rifle.  "Or till we had eaten all the cattle."
+
+"If the blacks don't spear them and drive them away."
+
+As the afternoon wore on the conversation grew less frequent, and all
+waited, wondering whether the blacks would attack them or try to drive
+off the cattle.  Guns were laid ready; ammunition was to hand, and the
+captain seemed to have quite thrown aside his suspicions of the black,
+who, on his side, had apparently forgotten the cut across his shoulder,
+though a great weal was plainly to be seen.
+
+In spite of bad appetites there had been two meals prepared.
+
+"Men can't fight on nothing, wife," the captain said; and then seeing
+the frightened looks of Mrs Bedford and the girls, he added with a
+merry laugh: "If they have to fight.  Bah! if the black scoundrels come
+on, it only means a few charges of swan-shot to scatter them, and give
+them a lesson they will never forget."
+
+Soon after this the captain and Uncle Jack went outside with the glass
+to sweep the edge of the scrub and the ridge, as well as every patch of
+trees, leaving the boys alone in the back part of the house to keep
+watch there.
+
+"I say," said Rifle, in a low tone, "it's all very well for father to
+talk like that to them, but he doesn't think a charge of swan-shot will
+scatter the blacks, or else he wouldn't have the bullets ready."
+
+"No," replied Norman, quietly.  "He looks very serious about it all."
+
+"Enough to make him," said Tim; "after getting all this place so
+beautiful, to have a pack of savages coming and interfering.--I say,
+Shanter, think the savages are gone?"
+
+"Mine no pidney," said Shanter, starting up from where he had been
+squatting in one corner.
+
+"Are the black fellows gone?"
+
+"Baal black fellow gone along.  Wait till piggi jump down and can't
+see."
+
+"Think so?  Come along all dark?" said Rifle.  "Yohi.  Come along, get
+flour, numkull chicken fellow.  Make big fight."
+
+Norman frowned.
+
+"Mine glad Marmi Rifle.  Mine like plenty stop along here."
+
+"Well, I don't," grumbled Rifle.  "I don't like it at all.  I say, Man,
+don't you wish we were all safe somewhere else?"
+
+"Yes.  No," said Norman, shortly; "we mustn't be cowards now."
+
+"'Tisn't cowardly not to want to fight like this," grumbled Rifle.  "If
+I shoot, perhaps I shall kill a black fellow.  I don't want to kill a
+black fellow."
+
+Shanter nodded admiringly, for he did not quite grasp the speech.
+
+"Kill a black fellow," he said.  "Mumkull.  Go bong."
+
+"Oh, bother; I wish he wouldn't muddle what a fellow means.  I say, Tim,
+feel frightened?"
+
+"Horribly," replied Tim.  "I say, I hope they will not come."
+
+"Perhaps they will not," said Norman.  "If they do, it may only mean to
+drive away some of the cattle."
+
+"Well, father don't want his cattle driven away, does he?"
+
+"Don't talk so," said Norman, who was standing with his face to a small
+square window, which he reached by standing on a case.  "I say, come
+here, Tim."
+
+The boy went and stood by him.
+
+"Look straight along the garden fence, and see if that isn't something
+moving; there, by those bushes."
+
+Tim looked intently for a few moments, and shook his head.
+
+"No," he said; "it's getting too dim.  What's that?"
+
+"Only father and uncle," said Rifle, for just then their elders entered
+the house, and closed and fastened the door before coming into the back
+room.
+
+"It's getting so dark, boys, that we'll trust to the place now to
+protect us.  Close that window all but the narrow slit.  Are the other
+windows fast?"
+
+"Yes, father," said Norman; "all but the loopholes in our bedroom and
+the kitchen.  Think they'll come?"
+
+"Can't say, boy; but we think it is not wise to risk a spear from some
+fellow who has crawled up."
+
+"Black fellow crawl up," said Shanter, as Norman secured the window.
+
+"They had better stay away," said the captain, gravely.  "Poor wretches,
+it is very horrible to have to fire at their unprotected bodies.  If
+they would only keep away."
+
+The captain cast an eye over the defences, and at the boys' weapons
+before going to the girls' bedroom, which stood a little higher than the
+other rooms of the house, and being considered the safest spot in the
+stronghold, the ladies were all gathered there.
+
+Here the boys could hear him talking cheerily as the place grew darker
+and darker, for the fire in the kitchen had been extinguished, and
+lights were of course forbidden.  From the front room by the door came
+the low murmur of voices, where Uncle Munday and Sam German sat
+together, the latter now armed with a gun, though his pitchfork was
+placed beside him, as if even now he might require it for his defence.
+
+At last, wearied out with sitting in one position, Rifle rose and went
+to the door, where his uncle and Sam German were keeping watch.
+
+"Think you can hit a black, Sam?" whispered Rifle, after a few words
+with his uncle.
+
+"Dunno, Master Rifle; but I have hit sparrers afore now, and brought
+down a rabbit."
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Rifle.  Then after a pause.  "I say, Sam, which did you
+put in first, the powder or shot?"
+
+"There, it's of no good your trying to be funny, my lad," whispered back
+the gardener, "because it won't do.  You feel as unked as I do, I'm
+sewer.  What I says is, I wish it was to-morrow mornin'."
+
+"Or else that they would come, German, and let us get it over," said a
+voice out of the darkness, which made them start.  "The suspense is
+painful, but keep a good heart.--Raphael, boy, you ought to be at your
+post.  Mind and report every sound you hear."
+
+"Yes, father," said the boy, who crept back to the room he had left, but
+not without going to the bedroom door, and whispering sharply, "It's all
+right, mother.  We'll take care of you."
+
+He did not wait for a reply, but crept into the backroom, where all was
+silent, and he went from thence into the long lean-to kitchen, with its
+big stone fireplace and chimney.
+
+"Pist! you there, boys?"
+
+"Yes; mind how you come.  Your gun's standing up in the corner by the
+fireplace.  We're going to sit here, and take it in turns for one to
+watch at the window slit."
+
+Then after making out by touch where the others were placed, and nearly
+falling over Shanter, who was squatting, enjoying the warmth which came
+from the hearthstone to his bare feet, the boy seated himself on a rough
+bench by his gun, and all was silent as well as dark.  From time to time
+the captain came round--in each case just after they had changed watches
+at the window loophole--but neither Norman, his cousin, nor brother had
+anything to report, and he went away again, after telling them the last
+time that all was well, and that he thought their sister and cousin had
+gone off to sleep.
+
+Then there was the same oppressive darkness and silence once more, a
+heavy breathing by the still warm fireplace, suggesting that Shanter,
+well refreshed with damper, had gone to sleep, and the boys
+instinctively shrank from disturbing him for fear he should start into
+wakefulness, and lay about him with his nulla-nulla.
+
+It must have been nearly twelve o'clock, when Norman was wishing that
+the Dutch clock in the corner had not been stopped on account of its
+striking, for the silence was growing more and more painful, and he was
+wondering how it would be possible to keep up for hours longer.  He felt
+no desire for sleep; on the contrary, his nerves were strained to their
+greatest tension, and he could hear sounds outside as if they had been
+magnified--the chirp of some grasshopper-like insect, or the impatient
+stamp of a horse in the enclosure, being quite startling.
+
+But there was nothing to report.  He could easily find an explanation
+for every sound, even to the creaking noise which he felt sure was
+caused by one of the cows rubbing itself against the rough fence.
+
+Rifle was watching now at the narrow slit, but there was nothing to see,
+"except darkness," he whispered to his brother, "and you can't see
+that."
+
+And then, as he sat there for another half-hour, Norman began once more
+to envy the black, who seemed to be sleeping easily and well, in spite
+of the danger which might be lurking so near.
+
+But he was misjudging the black: Shanter was never more wide awake in
+his life, and the proof soon came.  All at once there was a faint
+rustling from near the fireplace apparently, and Rifle turned sharply,
+but did not speak, thinking that Norman and his cousin had changed
+places.
+
+Norman heard the sound too, and gave the credit to Tim, who in turn made
+sure that his cousin had lain down to sleep.  So no one spoke, and the
+rustling was heard again, followed now sharply by a quick movement, a
+horrible yell, a rushing sound, and then the sickening thud of a heavy
+blow.  Before the boys could quite grasp what it meant, there was a
+sharp rattling, as if a big stick was being rapidly moved in the
+chimney, then another yell, a fresh rattling as of another great stick
+against the stone sides of the chimney, with a heavy thumping overhead.
+
+Norman grasped the position now in those quick moments, and, gun in
+hand, dashed to the chimney, cannoning against Rifle and then against
+some one else, for he had tripped over a soft body.  Before he could
+recover himself there was a deafening roar, and the sour odour of powder
+began to steal to his nostrils as he listened to a rustling sound as of
+something rolling over the split wood slabs which roofed the place,
+followed by a heavy fall close under the window.
+
+"What is it, boys?" cried the captain at the door, for all had passed so
+rapidly that the episode was over before he reached the kitchen.
+
+"Black fellow come along," said Shanter, quietly.  "Mine mumkull."
+
+"Through the window?" cried the captain, reproachfully, advancing into
+the kitchen.  "Oh, boys!  Ah!"--he stumbled and nearly fell--"wounded?
+Who is this?"
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Norman--Rifle--Tim?" cried the captain in horrified tones.
+
+"Yes, father!  Yes, uncle!" cried the boys excitedly.
+
+"Then it's the black!  But I don't understand.  How was it?"
+
+"Mine hear black fellow come down along," said Shanter, quickly.  "Mine
+make black fellow go up along.  You pidney?"
+
+"What, down the chimney?"
+
+"Yohi.  Make plenty fire, baal come along down."
+
+"Wait a minute," said the captain quickly, and they heard him go into
+the other room.  Then there was the sharp striking of flint and steel, a
+shower of sparks, and the face of the captain was faintly visible as he
+blew one spark in the tinder till it glowed, and a blue fluttering light
+on the end of a brimstone match now shone out.  Then the splint burst
+into flame as voices were heard inquiring what it all meant.
+
+"Back into your room!" thundered the captain.
+
+As he spoke, _thud_, _thud_, _thud_, came three heavy knocks at the door
+in front, which were answered by Uncle Jack's gun rapidly thrust through
+the slit left for defence, out of which a long tongue of flame rushed as
+there was a sharp report, and then silence.
+
+"Blows of clubs?" cried the captain, sheltering the light with his hand,
+as he looked toward his brother.
+
+"Spears," said Uncle Jack, laconically; and the next moment the sound of
+his powder-flask was heard upon the muzzle of the gun, followed by the
+ramming down of a wad.
+
+But the boys' eyes were not directed toward their uncle, whose figure
+could be plainly seen as he loaded again, for they were fixed upon the
+body of a black lying face downward on the kitchen floor, with Shanter,
+hideously painted, squatting beside it, showing his white teeth, and
+evidently supremely proud of his deed of arms.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+"THEY'RE ON THE ROOF."
+
+Coming quickly into the kitchen with the candle, the captain held it
+down over the prostrate black, turned him partly over, and let him fall
+back as he rapidly blew it out.
+
+"Dead," he said, hoarsely.
+
+"Yohi.  Gone bong," said Shanter, quietly.  "Come along mumkull Marmi
+and plenty white Marys.  When piggi jump up, baal find dat black
+fellow."
+
+There was a few moments' silence, and then the captain said sharply:
+"Norman--Tim, lift out the bar.  Rifle, be ready with your piece, and
+fire at once if an attack is made.  Don't lift out the shutter, Norman,
+till I say `Now!'"
+
+Norman made no reply, for much of his training had been tinged with
+military discipline.  He lifted out the bar, and set it down, then he
+and Tim took hold of the shutter, while Rifle stood ready with his
+fowling-piece, listening intently, though, to his father, who was
+whispering to Shanter.
+
+"Now!" said the captain, sharply.  The shutter was lifted out, the boys
+felt the captain and Shanter push by them; there was a strange rustling
+sound, a yell from many voices close at hand, and the shutter was thrust
+back in its place, but would not go home.
+
+_Bang_, _bang_!  Two sharp reports from Rifle's piece, which was then
+dragged back and the shutter glided into the opening, but was driven
+right in the boys' faces by what seemed to be half a dozen heavy blows.
+Then it was pushed in its place again, and the bar dropped across.
+
+"Were those club blows, father?" panted Norman.
+
+"No, boy, spears thrown at the window.  Well done, lads; you were very
+prompt.  It was risky to open the shutter, but we could not keep that
+poor wretch here.  Hark!"
+
+A low muttering and groaning, then a yell or two, came from outside,
+chilling the boys' blood; and Rifle stood there, his face and hands wet
+with cold perspiration, listening in horror.
+
+"Gun fellow plenty hurt," said Shanter, with a satisfied laugh.
+
+"Yes," said the captain, with a sigh; "some of those swan-shot of yours,
+boy, have told.  But load, load!  And Heaven grant that this may be a
+lesson to them, and you will not need to fire again."
+
+"Ned!" cried Uncle Jack, in a low voice.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"They're stealing round here.  I can just make them out.  Shall I fire?"
+
+"Not unless they are coming on."
+
+In an instant Uncle Jack's gun spoke out, and there was a fierce burst
+of yelling, followed by the familiar sound of spears striking the door
+or walls of the house.
+
+"Mine plenty spear when piggi jump up," said Shanter, quietly.
+
+"Yes," said the captain, after listening for a few moments.--"Going
+away, Jack?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes; I fired while they were far off, so as to hit as many as possible.
+Only duck-shot."
+
+"Look here, Shanter," said the captain.  "Black fellow go now?"
+
+"Baal go.  Come along mumkull everybody."
+
+"Cheerful, boys," said the captain; "but we shall stop that.  Now then,
+the first thing is to close that chimney.  How's it to be done?"
+
+"I think, sir," began Sam German slowly, but he was interrupted by Uncle
+Jack:
+
+"Some one coming up; better look out.  Hah!"  Uncle Jack shrank away
+from the loophole in the doorway just in time, for a spear was thrust
+through, grazing his cheek.  Then it was withdrawn for a second thrust,
+but it did not pass through.
+
+Sam German's gun-barrel did, and he fired as he held it pistol-wise.
+
+There was a horrible yell following the report; then a fearful shriek or
+two, and a fresh shower of spears struck the house, while a burst of low
+sobbing came from the girls' room.
+
+"Marian!  Aunt Georgie!" cried the captain, sternly.  "Silence there,
+for all our sakes.  Is that how English ladies should encourage those
+who are fighting for their lives?"
+
+The sobbing ceased on the instant, and a silence fell outside.
+
+"Gone," whispered Norman, after a time.
+
+"Baal gone," said Shanter, coolly.  "Black fellow plenty come along
+soon."
+
+The black's words went home and sank deeply, a chill of horror running
+through the boys as they felt how, after this reception, their enemies
+would be implacable, and that if they gained the upper hand it meant
+death for them all.  It was in ignorance, though, for had the reception
+been of the kindest, the probability was that they would have run the
+same chance of massacre.
+
+But the feeling of depression passed off quickly enough now, and the
+excitement of the last hour produced a feeling of elation.  It had been
+horrible, that encounter with the descending enemy, and then the firing
+and the shrieks and yells as they had shot at these men; and then
+unconsciously, while he and his brothers were silently and thoughtfully
+dwelling on the same theme, Norman said aloud: "No, they are not men,
+but wolves, and must be treated the same."
+
+Then he started, for a hand from out of the darkness gripped his
+shoulder, and his uncle's voice said: "Yes, boy, you are quite right;
+savage howling wolves, who would have no mercy upon us, I am afraid."
+
+"You here, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, lad; your father has just relieved me, and I'm coming to sit down
+and eat some bread, and have a pannikin of water.  Where's Shanter?"
+
+"Mine all along here 'top chimney," said the black.
+
+"Yes, and that's one thing I am going to do," said Uncle Jack.  "Your
+father, boys, and Shanter have talked it over.  There is a square case
+here in the corner that we think will about fill the chimney a little
+way up."
+
+"Yes; here it is," cried Rifle.
+
+"Let's try."
+
+Then, in the darkness, the chest was dragged to the front of the fire,
+lifted, found to go right up and block the chimney, so that when it was
+wedged up in its place by placing a barrel upright beneath, that way of
+entrance was effectually blocked, and Uncle Jack uttered a sigh of
+relief.
+
+"Now for my bread and water," he said.--"Have some damper, Shanter?"
+
+"Hey?  Damper?" cried the black, eagerly.  "Gib damper.  Hah!  Soff
+damper."
+
+This last was on receiving a great piece of Aunt Georgie's freshly-made
+bread, which kept him busily occupied for some little time.
+
+All were on the _qui vive_, feeling cheered and hopeful, now that their
+armour had had its first proving, the weak spot found and remedied; for,
+though others were contemplated for the future, the great kitchen
+chimney, built exactly on the principle of that in an old English
+farmhouse, was the only one in the slowly growing home.
+
+An hour passed, and another, with several false alarms--now the crack of
+some dry board in the side of the house, now a noise made by some one
+moving in the room, or the creaking of one of the fences outside--
+everything sounding strange and loud in the stillness of the night; and
+as the time wore on, and no fresh attack came, the boys' hopes rose
+higher, and they turned to the black as the best authority on the
+manners and customs of the natives.
+
+"They must be gone now, Shanter," Rifle said at last, after two or three
+dampings from that black sage.  "It's over two hours since we have heard
+them: all gone along, eh?"
+
+Shanter grunted.
+
+"I shall ask father to let me go out and reconnoitre."
+
+"Mine no pidney," said the black.
+
+"Get out of one of the windows and go and look round."
+
+"What for go along?  Plenty damper--plenty water."
+
+"To see if the black fellows have gone."
+
+"Baal go see.  Marmi come back tickum full spear and go bong."
+
+"Nonsense! the black fellows are gone."
+
+"Black fellow all along.  Come plenty soon."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Mine know," said the black, quietly; and they waited again for quite an
+hour, fancying every rustle they heard was the creeping up of a stealthy
+enemy.
+
+Then, all at once, there was a light, narrow, upright mark, as it
+seemed, on the kitchen wall.  This grew plainer, and soon they were
+looking on each other's dimly-seen faces; and about ten minutes later
+Norman went to the chimney corner, took hold of the shovel there, and
+scraped together a quantity of the fine, grey wood ashes which lay on
+the great hearthstone about the cask which supported the chest in the
+chimney, to sprinkle them about in the middle of the kitchen.
+
+The boys looked on, and Tim shuddered, but directly after uttered a sigh
+of relief, just as a hideous, chuckling laugh came apparently from the
+ridge of the house.
+
+"Quick!" cried Norman, dropping the fire-shovel with a clatter, and
+seizing his gun; "they're on the roof."
+
+"Baal shoot," cried Shanter, showing his teeth.  "Dat laughum jackass,"
+and he imitated the great, grotesque kingfisher's call so faithfully
+that the bird answered.  "Say piggi jump up:" his interpretation of the
+curious bird's cry; and very soon after piggi, otherwise the sun, showed
+his rim over the trees at the edge of the eastern plain.  For it was
+morning, and Rifle shuddered as he went to the window slit to gaze out
+on the horrors of the night's work.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+"HE HAS GONE."
+
+But though a curious, morbid fascination attracted the boy to the
+loophole, there were no horrors to see.  Silently, and unknown to the
+defenders of the happy little English home, the blacks had carried away
+their dead and wounded, and all outside looked so beautiful and
+peaceful, that the events of the past night seemed like a dream.
+
+On all sides of the low, wooden house, eager eyes were scanning the
+wooded patches, trees, and ridges, but there was no sign of an enemy.
+The only significant thing visible was that the rails of the great
+paddock had been taken down in one place, and the horses and cattle were
+out and about grazing.
+
+"I can see no sign of them," said the captain, suddenly closing his
+glass; the others, after making their own inspection from the several
+loopholes left for defence, now waiting to hear the captain's
+announcement after using his telescope.  "No, I can see no sign of
+them.--Here, Tam."
+
+The black came to his side, gave himself a writhe, and said with a grin,
+"Baal mine ride horse fellow lass night, Marmi."
+
+"No, no," said the captain, smiling; "but look here; black fellow gone
+along."
+
+"All hide um myall scrub," said Shanter, quietly.
+
+"No, no, gone--gone," said the captain.  "Plenty run away."
+
+"Baal plenty run away," cried the black, who understood the mutilated
+English of the settlers, made for native comprehension, more easily than
+ordinary talk.  "No, baal plenty run away.  Hide."
+
+"How do you know.  You pidney?"
+
+The black nodded, and a cunning smile overspread his face as he led the
+captain to the loopholes at the front, side, and back of the house,
+pointed out at the cattle, and then said with the quiet decision of one
+who has grasped a fact: "Horse fellow--bull-cow--say baal go near scrub,
+black fellow throw spear."
+
+The captain uttered an ejaculation, and the boys laughed.
+
+"Well done, Shanter!" cried Rifle.  "Look, father, they are all keeping
+together out in the middle."
+
+"Oh yes there's no doubt about it," said the captain.  "I shall end by
+having quite a respect for Tam."
+
+"Baal whip Shanter?" said the black sharply.
+
+"No; never again."
+
+"Marmi gib Shanter plenty horse fellow ride?"
+
+"Yes, you shall ride and herd the cattle."
+
+"Big white Mary gib plenty soff damper?"
+
+"Yes, plenty."
+
+"How coo-ee!  Big white Mary gib Shanter plenty soff damper now?" cried
+the black.
+
+"Yes, come along, aunt; and Marian, you and the girls come and give us
+some breakfast; there is no danger at present."
+
+"Shanter make plenty big fire," cried the black.  "Pull down big box
+fellow--big tub.  Black fellow no come long time."
+
+The boys sprang to his help, the tub and chest were removed, and a fire
+lit, its ashes soon removing the traces which had been hidden by the
+cask.
+
+The ladies looked very pale, but their neat aspect in the dim kitchen,
+along with the sparkling fire, gave everything a cheerful look in spite
+of the gloom.
+
+Shanter marched to the front door.
+
+"Open," he said shortly.  "Mine go eat damper.  Plenty see black fellow
+come and shut um."
+
+"Yes, we could keep watch, and close it again quickly," said the
+captain.  So bars and barricades were drawn aside, and the door thrown
+open to admit the fresh, delicious, morning breeze, which blew full in
+their faces, while the light darted into the interior of the shuttered
+rooms.
+
+"Hurrah!" cried the boys in chorus; and they all came out into the
+front.
+
+"What's the matter, Shanter?" cried Rifle, as the black suddenly threw
+back his head, dilated his nostrils, and began to sniff.
+
+"Mine smell," he cried.
+
+"What can you smell?"
+
+The black was silent for a few moments, standing with his eyes closely
+shut, and giving three or four long sniffs, twitching his face so
+comically, that the boys laughed.
+
+"Muttons," said the black, decisively.  "Mumkull sheep fellow.  Big fire
+where?  Hah!"
+
+He had been staring about him now as he spoke, and suddenly fixed his
+eyes on the low bushes down by the waterfall, and pointed to a faint
+blue curl of smoke just rising above the trees, and which might have
+been taken for mist.
+
+"I can smell it now," cried Tim.  "It's like burning wool."
+
+"Mumkull sheep fellow.  Roace plenty mutton."
+
+"Oh yes, one of our sheep," cried Norman, fiercely.
+
+"Kimmeroi--bulla--metancoly--plenty mutton."
+
+"Yes," said Rifle, "and they'll camp down there and eat all father's
+sheep.  Oh, if we could only drive them right away."
+
+"Shanter catch sheep fellow, eat mutton?"
+
+"No, not yet," said the captain, quietly; and very soon after, with
+Shanter and Sam German watching, the defenders of the little fort obeyed
+a call, and went in to enjoy a wonderfully good breakfast considering
+the position in which they were placed.
+
+Then began a day of careful watching, during which, at Aunt Georgie's
+desire, Shanter sought for eggs, drove up the two cows to the door to be
+milked, and assisted in bringing in more wood and water, displaying a
+wonderful eagerness in performing any duties connected with the
+preparation of food.
+
+Many of the little things done looked risky, but the enemy made no sign,
+and the sun began to set with the house much strengthened as a fort, and
+better provisioned for a siege.
+
+Rifle was sure, two or three times over, that the blacks must be gone,
+and said so, but Shanter shook his head.
+
+"Black fellow plenty eat.  Go sleep," he said, on one occasion.  On
+another, he cried cheerfully, "Black fellow baal go along.  Mumkull all
+a body."  While lastly, he said coolly, "Black fellow ogle eye all a
+time."
+
+Then night--with the place closely barricaded, and the arrangement made
+that half of their little party should sleep while the other half
+watched, but the former had their weapons by their sides ready to spring
+up at the first alarm, the captain having arranged where each sleeper's
+place was to be.
+
+There was some opposition on the part of the ladies, but they yielded
+upon the captain telling them that the siege might last for days; and
+that not only would they be safer, but it would give their defenders
+confidence to know they were out of danger.
+
+And then once more the anxious watch began, Shanter creeping now softly
+from loophole guard to loophole guard, for there was no need for him to
+watch by the chimney, which was stopped again.
+
+But their precautions were necessary, for the first alarm they had came
+from the chimney, to which, spear in hand, the black ran and chuckled as
+he heard the chest creak, and a crashing sound upon the cask which
+supported it notify that one of the black fellows was trying to force
+his way down.
+
+After that five different attacks were made, the blacks trying to force
+in door and window, till a shot was fired through the loophole.  This
+was in each case followed by a desperate effort to spear the defenders
+through the hole; and being prepared now, Shanter waited for and seized
+the weapon, holding it while a charge of shot was poured through the
+slit.
+
+Then would come yells and a savage throwing of spears, which suggested a
+harvest to the black, which however, as in the last case, was not
+fulfilled, every one being afterwards collected and carried away.
+
+The result of all this was that very little sleep was enjoyed by
+anybody, and the morning broke to give the defenders an interval of rest
+and peace, for the blacks did not show themselves by day.
+
+Somewhat rested, the little party prepared for the third night, hoping
+that the enemy would now be disgusted at his want of success and retire,
+and now darkness had come and hopes had grown stronger and stronger,
+before there was a sudden rush and several men gained the roof and began
+tearing off the shingles, till a shot or two fired straight upward sent
+the cowardly savages helter-skelter down once more.
+
+They came no more that night, and a peaceful day followed, with the
+cattle indicating that the black fellows were still hiding about in the
+scrub; while a fire showed that they were providing themselves with food
+at the captain's expense.
+
+The ladies looked more calm and hopeful, for they were beginning to
+believe in the strength of their little fortress and the bravery of
+their defenders; but there was an anxious look in the captain's eyes,
+and the boys talked over the position together.
+
+"I expected that they would have given up before now," Norman said.
+
+"So did I," cried Rifle.  "A lot of them must have been wounded and some
+killed, though we don't see them."
+
+"Shanter says _metancoly_," cried Tim.  "I suppose that's what makes
+them so fierce.  Do you think they will stay till they've killed us
+all?"
+
+"Hope not," replied Rifle; "I'm getting tired of it.  I wish father
+hadn't come out so far away from all neighbours.  We might have had some
+help if he hadn't."
+
+"Hush! the girls," whispered Norman, as, pale and anxious looking, the
+sister and cousin went to the front door where the captain was watching,
+Shanter being on duty at the back.
+
+It was soon agreed that it was of no use to wish, and the long irksome
+day came to an end, with the door once more barricaded, and keen eyes
+watching for the next approach of the enemy.
+
+But the blacks were too cunning to advance while there was the slightest
+chance of their being observed; and when they did come it was with a
+sudden rush from somewhere close at hand, when retaliatory shots again
+and again forced them to retreat.  It was just such a night as the
+others which they had passed, and the coming of day was once more gladly
+hailed with its peace and opportunities for rest and sleep.
+
+That afternoon the captain looked more haggard and wistful than ever.
+As far as he could make out, a couple of his choicest oxen were missing,
+and it soon became a conviction that they had been speared by the black
+fellows for their feast about the fire they had established in a grove a
+mile away.
+
+So far there was no fear of the garrison, as Rifle called them, being
+starved out; but at any time a nearer approach of the enemy would put a
+stop to the successful little forays made by Shanter in search of eggs
+and chickens; and the task of milking the cows, which marched up slowly
+morning and evening, might easily have been made too difficult or
+terminated by the throwing of spears.
+
+"Don't let's halloa before we are hurt," Tim had said to this; and all
+went on as before, the next day and the next.
+
+Again the sun rose after a more anxious night, for the attacks had been
+exceedingly pertinacious and harassing, while the mischief done amongst
+the attacking party must have been terrible.
+
+"They're getting more savage," Norman said gloomily in the course of the
+day, after returning from the room where Mrs Bedford was lying down;
+"and it's wearing mamma out."
+
+"Yes," said Tim; "and the girls can't keep their tears back.  I say,
+couldn't we all make an attack upon them in their camp?"
+
+"And be speared," cried Rifle.  "No; there are too many of 'em.  They'd
+drive us back and get into the house, and then--Ugh!"
+
+The shudder he gave was echoed by his companions.
+
+"I was thinking whether it would be possible on horseback," said Norman.
+
+"No, my boy," said the captain, who had overheard their remarks; "it
+would be too risky, I dare not.  What is the matter with the black?"
+
+"I have not seen anything," replied Norman.
+
+"Nor you, boys?"
+
+Rifle and Tim were silent.
+
+"Speak!" said the captain, sternly.
+
+"I thought as Rifle does, uncle, that Shanter seems to be getting tired
+of fighting.  He always wants to be asleep in the day now, and is sulky
+and cross if he is woke up."
+
+"You have noted that, Rifle?"
+
+"Yes, father."
+
+"I had similar thoughts.  The man wants to get into the fresh air, and
+be free once more."
+
+The object of their conversation was sitting listlessly upon his heels
+gazing at the smoke of the fire rising in the scrub, but did not appear
+to notice that he was being made the object of the conversation, and
+soon after they saw his head droop down as if he had gone fast asleep.
+
+The captain made a movement as if to go and rouse him up, but refrained,
+and taking the glass, he focussed it, and proceeded to count the horses
+and cattle still scattered about grazing.  For though they seemed to be
+scared away by the yelling and firing at night, they came slowly back
+toward the house in the course of the day, so that by night they were
+for the most part in their old quarters, the horses even going back into
+their paddock.
+
+The day wore on, with turns being taken in the watching, the two girls
+and Aunt Georgie insisting upon aiding, their sight being sharp enough
+they declared, so that the defenders of the little fort were able to get
+more sleep, and prepare for the night attacks which were sure to come.
+
+The sun was nearly ready to dip when the sleepers rose and prepared for
+the evening meal.  The cows had been milked and gone quietly away; and,
+trying hard to look cheerful, Mrs Bedford summoned all but German and
+Rifle to the table, where there was no sign of diminution of the supply
+as yet.
+
+This was the one pleasant hour of the day, for experience had taught
+them that the blacks would run no risk of coming within range of the
+deadly guns till after dark, and the heat was giving place to the
+coolness of eve, while soon after the door would have to be closed.
+
+As they gathered round, after the captain had said a few words to the
+sentries, Aunt Georgie, who had filled a tin with milk, cut a large
+piece of damper baked that day on the wood ashes, and went to the door.
+
+"Here, Shanter," she said.
+
+Then they heard her call again, but there was no reply.  "Where's
+Shanter, Rifle?" she cried.
+
+"I don't know, aunt.  I've not seen him since I had my sleep.  He was
+squatting just here before I went to lie down."
+
+German had not seen him since.  Nobody had seen him since.  The last
+every one had seen of him was when he was seated on his heels with his
+spear across his knees.
+
+"Asleep somewhere," said Uncle Jack.  "Go on with your suppers, good
+folks.  I'll soon find him."
+
+"Don't go away from round the house, Jack," cried the captain,
+anxiously.
+
+"No.  Trust me," was the reply; and the meal went on till Uncle Jack
+came back to say that Shanter was nowhere in sight.
+
+The announcement sent a chill through all, and the question was
+discussed in whispers whether he had crept away to reconnoitre, and been
+surprised by the enemy and speared.
+
+There was no more appetite that evening, and the remains of the meal
+were cleared away, with the captain and Uncle Jack standing outside
+reconnoitring in turns with the glass, sweeping the edge of grove and
+scrub, and seeing no danger, only that the cattle were quietly grazing a
+little, and then, after a few mouthfuls, edging farther away.
+
+"Seen anything of him, father?" said Rifle, eagerly.
+
+"No," was the sharp reply.
+
+Norman came out with Tim, each a gun in hand, to ask the same question,
+and look wonderingly at the captain when his reply was abrupt and stern.
+
+The sun sank; evening was coming on, with its dark shadows, and those
+which were human of a far darker dye; and after a final look round at
+the shutters, indented and pitted with spear holes, the captain said
+sternly, "In every one: it is time this door was closed."
+
+"But Shanter, father; he is not here," cried Rifle, while his brother
+and cousin looked at the captain excitedly.
+
+"And will not be," said the latter, in a deep stern voice.  "Now,
+German, ready with the bars?  It's getting dark enough for them to make
+a rush."
+
+"Father, you don't think he is killed?" whispered Norman, in an
+awe-stricken voice.
+
+"No; but I am sure that he has forsaken us."
+
+"What?" cried Rifle.  "Oh no!"
+
+"Yes, boy; his manner the last two days had taught me what to expect.
+He has done wonders, but the apparent hopelessness of the struggle was
+too much for a savage, and he has gone."
+
+"Not to the enemy, father, I'm sure," cried Norman.
+
+"Well then, to provide for his own safety."
+
+"I fancied I saw a black making signs to him yesterday, sir," said
+German.
+
+"Then why did you not speak?" cried the captain, angrily.
+
+"Wasn't sure, sir," replied German, sulkily.
+
+"Ugh! you stupid old Sourkrout!" muttered Tim.
+
+The door was closed with a sharp bang, bars and barriers put up, chests
+pushed against it, and with sinking hearts the boys prepared for the
+night's hard toil, feeling that one of the bravest among them had gone.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+"HOW MANY DID YOU BRING DOWN?"
+
+"I won't believe it," whispered Rifle, angrily.  "Father always doubted
+him.  Poor old Shanter has been speared."
+
+There was a sob in his throat as he uttered those last words, and then a
+terrible silence fell upon them.
+
+"Have you boys placed the cask and chest in the fireplace?" said the
+captain out of the darkness.
+
+There was a rush to the chimney, and the dangerous spot was blocked up,
+each working hard to make up for what seemed to be a dangerous neglect
+on his part.
+
+"But suppose poor old Shanter comes back," whispered Tim, "and tries to
+get in that way when he finds the door fastened."
+
+"He wouldn't come near in the dark," said Norman with a sigh; and then
+to himself, "even if he was alive."
+
+Once more silence where the three boys were guarding the back of the
+premises, and then there was a faint rustling noise, followed by the
+sharp _click_, _click_ of guns being cocked.
+
+"Who's that?" whispered Rifle.
+
+"Only I, my boys," said Mrs Bedford in a low voice, and she kissed each
+in turn, and clung to the sturdy lads for a few moments.  "Your father
+wishes me to go now and leave you.  God bless and protect you!"
+
+She stole away again, and the two girls came in turn to say good-night,
+and then go away again to watch or sleep as they could.
+
+"I don't care," muttered Tim, rebelliously.  "I say Shanter wouldn't go
+and sneak away like that."
+
+"And so do I, my dear," said Aunt Georgie.  "He was only a savage, but
+he had grown as faithful as a dog, and so we told your father, but he's
+as stubborn as--"
+
+"Aunt," cried the captain, "what are you doing here?"
+
+"To your room, please.  You are hindering the boys from keeping proper
+watch."
+
+"Good-night; God bless you, my dears!" whispered Aunt Georgie, in a
+husky whisper.  "It's very dreadful, but I'm sure he is killed."
+
+"Look out!" whispered Norman, a short time after.  "It isn't quite so
+dark, and I can see some one moving.  Shall I fire?"
+
+"No.  It may be Shanter."
+
+It was not.  A few minutes later Norman had a narrow escape from death,
+for a spear was thrust through the loophole, and a shot being fired in
+reply, half a dozen spears came rattling at the thick shutter; and this
+time the boys distinctly heard the black fellows come softly up and drag
+their weapons out of the wood, just as they were alarmed by a fresh
+attempt to enter by the chimney, and some one on the roof was trying to
+tear up the shingles.
+
+"Fire, boys, fire!" cried the captain; while shots rang out from the
+front.  The boys fired, Tim directing his two charges through the
+ceiling, where he imagined enemies to be lying, the others firing
+through the loophole.
+
+There was the customary rush overhead, the sound of falls, fierce
+yelling, as a pair of spears struck the house, and Norman uttered a
+sharp cry.
+
+"Any one hurt?" cried the captain, excitedly.  "Marian, aunt, go and
+see.  I can't leave here."
+
+"No: not hurt," shouted Norman.  "Spear came through the loophole,
+passed through my shirt and under my arm."
+
+"Thrust or thrown?" cried Uncle Jack.
+
+"Thrown," was the reply, as the hissing of wads driving out confined
+air, and the thudding of ramrods were heard.
+
+"They know Shanter isn't here," whispered Rifle, as he finished his
+loading.  "They've killed him, and that's what makes them so fierce."
+
+He seemed to be right, for the defenders passed a cruel night; but
+morning dawned, and the enemy had not gained a single advantage more
+than before.
+
+That morning was devoted to nailing planks all over the roof, for
+fortunately they were plentiful.  Others were nailed across the doors,
+back and front, just leaving room for people to creep in and out; and
+this being done, the captain took the glass once more to scour their
+surroundings; while Sam German and the boys fetched water and wood,
+fulfilling Shanter's duties, till an ejaculation from the captain made
+them look up.
+
+"The wretches!  They have speared or driven off all the horses, boys; we
+must get a sheep killed for provender, or we may not have another
+chance.  There, work and get done.  You must all have some rest before
+night."
+
+Norman was just going into the house as the captain spoke these words,
+and the boy turned away from the door to get round to the side, where he
+could be alone.  He had been about to join his mother and the girls, but
+his father's words brought a despairing feeling upon him, and he dared
+not meet them for fear they should read his thoughts.
+
+"What's the matter, Man?" said a voice behind him.  "Ill?"
+
+It was Rifle who spoke, and Norman turned so ghastly a face to him that
+the boy was shocked.
+
+"Here, let me fetch father," he said.
+
+"No, no; stop!  I shall be better directly."
+
+"But what was it?"
+
+"The horses--the horses!"
+
+"Oh, don't make a fuss about them.  We've got to think of ourselves.  We
+can get some more horses, I daresay."
+
+"Yes, but not when we want them," said Norman, angrily.  "Can't you see:
+they were our last chance."
+
+Rifle stared.
+
+"What--you mean?" he faltered.
+
+"Of course.  Father would have stayed here to the last to try to protect
+the home he has made, but when things came to the worst, we should have
+had to mount some morning and gallop off."
+
+In spite of the peril they were in, Rifle laughed.
+
+"Get out!" he cried.  "You would never have got Aunt Georgie upon a
+horse."
+
+"Can't you be serious for a minute," cried Norman, angrily.  "Don't you
+see that our last chance has gone?"
+
+"No," said Rifle, sturdily.  "Not a bit of it.  We've only been firing
+duck and  swan shot so far.  Now, I'm going to ask father if we hadn't
+better fire ball.  Come on.  Don't grump over a few horses.  We don't
+want to ride away and be hunted for days by black fellows."
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"To get in that sheep while we can.  Perhaps to-morrow they'll be driven
+farther away."
+
+Norman nodded, and looked hard at his brother, for he could not help
+admiring his sturdy courage.
+
+"We're going now, father," cried Rifle.
+
+"Well, take care.  Creep along by the fence, keeping it between you and
+the scrub there.  Get round the sheep, and drive all before you till
+they are close in here.  Then pounce upon two and hold on.  We'll come
+and help you."
+
+The task looked risky, for the sheep were a couple of hundred yards
+away, and it was felt that the blacks were in the scrub.  But they had
+not shown themselves, and might be a sleep, or so far away that the bold
+dash made by the boys would be unseen.  But all the same the captain and
+Uncle Jack covered their advance, ready with loaded guns to protect the
+boys should the blacks make any sign.
+
+The arrangement seemed to be unnecessary, for the two lads, carrying
+their pieces at the trail, reached the fence, under whose cover they
+went out quite a hundred yards.  Then halting and carefully scanning the
+nearest patch of scrub, they rose and walked fast, partly away from the
+sheep, so as to be well beyond them before they turned to their left,
+got behind, and drove them gently toward the house.
+
+All this had to be done slowly and deliberately so as not to startle the
+flock, but, as Rifle said, it was ticklish work.
+
+"Yes.  I expect to see black heads starting up every moment," whispered
+Norman.  "Now then, we're far enough.  Quickly and steadily.  Come
+along."
+
+The boys bore round to their left so as to be between the sheep and the
+open country, and the outsiders of the flock began to move before them
+without taking alarm, stopping to munch a bit of grass now and then, and
+causing others to move in turn; till, as the boys walked on, they at
+last had their backs to the scrub and the sheep going steadily toward
+the house.
+
+"Wasn't so difficult after all," said Rifle, quietly.  "Couldn't we pen
+three or four?  Why is father signalling?"
+
+"Hi! look out!" shouted Norman, for he had seen his father waving one
+hand excitedly; and casting an eye back there were twenty or thirty
+spear-armed savages just darting out of the scrub, and running swiftly
+in pursuit.
+
+The sight of the enemy made the boys start forward at once; the sheep
+began to trot, then increased their pace as the boys ran faster, and,
+dividing into two little flocks, tore past north and south of the house
+and enclosures, in front of which stood the captain and Uncle Jack, with
+Sam German running out to their support.
+
+"Quick, boys!" shouted the captain.  "Run on and get under cover."
+
+At that moment Rifle saw Tim at the door of the house waving his hands,
+and to the boys' horror there was the reason: another crowd of black
+figures were racing up from the trees and bushes down by the river.
+
+But they, like the other party, had a good distance to come, and the
+issue was never for a moment doubtful.
+
+One incident, though, made the captain shout angrily.
+
+Just in those exciting moments Mrs Bedford ran out of the house, and
+would have gone on in her dread and horror toward where her husband and
+sons seemed to her to be in deadly peril; but Tim flung his arms about
+her, and held her in spite of her struggles.
+
+It was a matter of very few moments.
+
+As the one part of the sheep ran by the front, and seeing the blacks
+advancing, galloped off to avoid them, Norman and Rifle reached the
+fences, turned, and stood ready to cover the captain and Uncle Jack,
+shouting the while to Tim to get Mrs Bedford in.
+
+At the cry from Norman, Sam German too had turned, run back past the
+house door, and stood facing the blacks advancing from the other
+direction.
+
+"In with you all: run!" roared the captain, as he and his brother now
+fell back rapidly, guarding the front as Mrs Bedford was dragged in
+through the narrow opening; the boys followed, and, thanks to their
+military training, each as he got through the partly nailed up doorway,
+took a place at the side with gun levelled to protect the next comer.
+
+It was close work.
+
+Uncle Jack was the next in; then Sam German; and four guns were
+protruding over his head as the captain dashed up with the rapid beat of
+the blacks' feet very close on either side.
+
+"Back!" he panted as he forced himself through, and shut to the door,
+which resounded with the impact of spears as the bars were thrust into
+their places.  Then a tall black with wide eyes and gleaming teeth moved
+up to thrust his spear through the loophole, but a flash came from the
+narrow opening, and he dropped, rose, turned to flee, and dropped again.
+
+Another ran up, and the captain's second barrel flashed out its
+contents, with the result that the black turned, ran back a dozen yards
+or so, and fell upon his face.
+
+"Load that," said the captain hoarsely, passing back his gun, and
+seizing that nearest to him--the one Sam German held.  For he kept to
+his place at the loophole in the thick door, and thrusting out the
+barrel, drew trigger twice at a party of six who dashed now to the door.
+
+_Click_.
+
+A pause.
+
+_Click_.
+
+In each case a tiny shower of sparks followed the fall of the hammer,
+and the captain uttered an angry roar like that of some stricken beast.
+
+"Back!" he cried; and all fell away from the door, to right and left.
+
+It was time, for three spears were thrust through the narrow slit as the
+gun was withdrawn, and kept on darting about as far in every direction
+as their holders could reach.
+
+"German!" cried the captain, tossing the gun to the man, "and after all
+I have said!"
+
+Norman stepped forward to fire, but his father checked him.
+
+"Give me your piece," he said; and taking it and cocking both locks, he
+dropped a bullet in each of the barrels, felt with the ramrod that they
+were well home, and then going down on one knee, took careful aim
+through the darkened loophole and fired.
+
+There was a roar and a crash; the spears were withdrawn, and the captain
+rose and stepped forward, firing the second barrel from the loophole
+itself.
+
+"Another," he said quietly; and taking Tim's gun as the sound of loading
+went on, he suddenly cried, "Who's at the back?"
+
+For there was a curious noise in the direction of the kitchen, followed
+by a shot, a yell, the sound of some one struggling, and they dashed
+into the place to see, as well as the darkness and smoke would allow,
+the embers from the hearth scattered and burning all about the kitchen,
+and a black figure writhing on the floor.
+
+As he entered, Uncle Jack was in the act of passing his gun up the wide
+chimney--once more temporarily opened; there was a report, a yell, and
+another figure fell right on the burning fragments left on the hearth,
+rolled over, and lay motionless.
+
+"Nearly surprised me," said Uncle Jack, coolly loading just as Rifle
+fired twice from the loophole of the back door, when there was a rush
+overhead and then silence.
+
+"They've drawn back about thirty yards," said Rifle, loading as his
+father trampled out the burning embers, which were filling the place
+with a stifling smoke.
+
+"Better pour water on the fire and put it quite out," said the captain
+to his brother.
+
+"No: water may be scarce soon," was the reply.  "We'll tread it out."
+
+"Coming on again!" shouted Rifle; and as there was the customary sound
+of spears sticking into the woodwork, the boy fired twice, his charges
+of big shot scattering and wounding far more than he ever knew.
+
+Just then four shots were fired quickly from the front, there was a
+savage yelling, and as the captain ran forward, Sam German could be
+dimly-seen beginning to recharge his piece.
+
+"She were loaded this time, master," he said fiercely, "and some on 'em
+knowed it.--How many did you bring down, Master 'Temus?"
+
+"Don't know," said the boy huskily, as he hurriedly reloaded.
+
+"Yer needn't be ashamed to say, my lad," cried the old gardener.  "We're
+fighting for ladies, and agen savage wretches as won't let honest folk
+alone.  There, I'm ready for another now."
+
+"Don't fire till they attack," said the captain.  "Do you hear, Norman:
+no waste."
+
+"I hear, father," said the boy quietly, as he stood with his piece
+resting in the opening, and his bronzed face on the watch.
+
+"Hurray!" came from the back, and at the same moment Norman shouted:
+"They're retiring, father;" and then a low sobbing came from the inner
+room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+TWENTY-FOUR HOURS' PEACE.
+
+Victory was won for the time being; and as the two groups drew back
+toward the shelter of the scrub, they could be seen carrying the wounded
+and those who had fallen.  Ten minutes later they were close up to the
+trees, when a thought struck the captain.
+
+"Quick, Norman, unbar that door.  Marian, every one there, keep close.
+No one is to come out."  He then called to German, who followed him into
+the kitchen, and together they bore out the bodies of the two blacks who
+had obtained an entrance, one of them still showing signs of life.
+
+They carried one at a time some distance out into the open, having the
+satisfaction of seeing that the enemy had halted and were watching them,
+while by the time the second body was lowered on to the grass, the
+blacks were returning at a swift run.
+
+But long before they were near the besieged were back in shelter, and
+the enemy, as they came up, contented themselves by yelling and making
+threatening gestures with their spears before retiring, once more
+bearing off their two companions.
+
+"And now for preparations for the night attack," said the captain,
+quietly.  "Why, boys, it was like regular warfare.  Your advance
+compelled the enemy to develop his strength and forced on a general
+engagement.--Come girls, all of you, and have a little fresh air before
+dark."
+
+And as the door was opened and the fresh evening breeze floated in to
+waft away the horrible dank odour of burnt gunpowder, it seemed hardly
+possible to believe that so deadly an encounter could have occurred
+lately, and no one on their side been even scratched.
+
+"But I should have liked to save some of that mutton," said Rifle,
+thoughtfully.  "It is quite time we had a change."
+
+The hour came for barricading the door only too soon, and once more the
+watch commenced, half of the tiny garrison lying down, while Aunt
+Georgie and one of the girls pressed for leave to share the watch,
+urging that they were not weary, and would perhaps be able to detect by
+eye or ear the approach of danger.
+
+The captain, who was nearly exhausted by his efforts, reluctantly
+consented, and lay down for a few minutes, giving orders that he should
+be called at the slightest alarm, and a few minutes after--as he
+believed--he sprang up looking puzzled and confused.
+
+For the door was wide open, the morning sun shining in, and there was
+the sharp crackling of a fire, and the smell of baking bread.
+
+"What is the meaning of this?" he said.
+
+"Only that you've slept all night, father, and never moved," cried
+Rifle, merrily.
+
+"But I gave orders to be called at the slightest alarm."
+
+"And there never was the slightest alarm," cried the boy,
+joyfully.--"Hi!  Man--Tim--father's awake."
+
+Norman and his cousin came to the door gun in hand.
+
+"See anything?" cried Rifle.
+
+"No.--Morning, father.--I believe they've gone."
+
+"Impossible!  But you have not heard them all night?"
+
+"Not once."
+
+"But you should not have let me sleep."
+
+"I ordered them to," said Mrs Bedford, quietly.  "Who needed rest
+more?"
+
+At that moment Uncle Jack and Sam came round from the back, where they
+had been reconnoitring.
+
+"Ah, Ned," said the former, "heard the news?  Too good, I'm afraid, to
+be true."
+
+"Yes, yes; don't let's put any faith in it," said the captain, and he
+went out, glass in hand, to scan every patch of scrub.
+
+"Not a sign of them; no fire.  But--" He looked round again before
+finishing his sentence:
+
+"No sheep--no cattle."
+
+"Not a hoof left," said Uncle Munday, grimly.  "But that is the most
+hopeful sign."
+
+"What do you mean?" said his brother.
+
+"They seem to have driven everything away, and gone off with them into
+the bush."
+
+The captain did not speak, nor relax the watchfulness kept up, but as
+the day wore on various little things were done to increase the strength
+of the place, and one of these was to saw off a portion of a spiked
+harrow which Sam German had made, and force this up into the chimney
+some six feet above the fire, and secure it there with big nails driven
+between the stones of the chimney, thus guarding against danger in that
+direction.
+
+Cows, sheep, pigs, all were gone; but the fowls and ducks were about the
+place and not likely to be driven away, so that there was no fear of a
+failure in the supply of food; in fact, they felt that they could hold
+out in that way for months.  For if a fowl could not be caught from its
+night perch, it could be shot by day and caught up.  The danger was the
+want of water.
+
+So far there was plenty in the tubs, but they dare not use it for
+washing purposes.  It was too valuable, and the captain's brow grew dark
+as he thought of how they were to fetch more from the river or falls.
+
+"We shall have to go away from here, boys," Tim said, towards evening.
+"This place will never seem safe again."
+
+"Father won't go," said Rifle.  "He never gives up.  I wouldn't, after
+getting such an estate as this.  Why, it would be worth thousands upon
+thousands in England."
+
+"And it's worth nothing here if the blacks spear us."
+
+"They'd better!" cried Rifle, defiantly.  "They've had enough of us.
+You see, they will not trouble us again."
+
+"There!" he cried, the next morning, triumphantly, Lor they had passed a
+perfectly peaceful night; "the beggars are all gone."
+
+The captain, who was using his glass, heard the boys' words and looked
+round.
+
+"Don't be too sure, my lad," he said, sadly.  "But thank Heaven for this
+respite."
+
+"Oh, we'll beat them off again, father, if they do come," said the boy,
+boastfully; and then he coloured beneath his father's steadfast gaze.
+
+"Don't act in that spirit for all our sakes, my lad," said the captain.
+"All of you mind this: the watchfulness must not be relaxed even, for a
+moment.  Ah!  I'd give something if that fellow Shanter had been
+staunch.  He could have relieved our anxiety in a very short time."
+
+"Let me go and see if I can discover any signs of them, father," said
+Norman.
+
+"What would you say if I tell you I am going?" replied the captain,
+quietly.
+
+"No, no," cried the boys in chorus.  "You might be speared."
+
+"Exactly," said the captain.  "No, boys, we are no match for the blacks
+in trying to track them down."
+
+"They are adepts at hiding, and we might pass through a patch of scrub
+without seeing a soul, when perhaps a dozen might be in hiding."
+
+"I wish poor old Shanter was here," sighed Rifle.
+
+"Yes: he would be invaluable," said Uncle Jack.  That night passed in
+peace, and the next, giving them all such a feeling of security that
+even the captain began to think that the lesson read to the enemy had
+been sufficient to make them drive off their plunder and go; while, when
+the next day came, plans were made for a feint to prove whether the
+blacks were still anywhere near; and if it was without result, an
+attempt was to be made to refill the tubs.  The next day some of the
+vigilance was to be relaxed, and avoiding his wife's eyes as he spoke,
+the captain said, aloud:
+
+"And then we must see if it is not possible to renew our stock, for none
+of the poor creatures are likely to stray back home.  Not even a
+horse.--Boys," he said, suddenly, "I'm afraid your friend has to answer
+for this attack.  The love of the horses was too strong for him."
+
+Another twenty-four hours of peace followed, but at the last minute the
+captain had shrunk from sending down to the nearest point of the river
+for water, which could only be dragged up by hand after the water-tub
+had been filled.
+
+Then night came on once more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+"IT WAS POOR OLD SHANTER."
+
+As was their custom now, the boys were outside passing the telescope
+from one to the other for a final look round, while the ladies clustered
+by the open door, loth to leave it for the closeness of their room, when
+the captain came round from the back and gave orders for closing.
+
+"I think we will try to run down a tub to the water in the morning,
+boys," he said.  "There surely cannot be any danger now.  I have been on
+the roof trying to make out a fire anywhere in the bush, and there is
+not a sign."
+
+He went in after the ladies, and, as Tim put it, the drawbridge was
+pulled up and the portcullis lowered; but just as the door was half-way
+to, Norman caught hold.
+
+"Look!" he whispered hoarsely; "what's that?"
+
+The others craned their necks over the stout plank which crossed the
+door, and gazed at something dark away in the lower pasture toward the
+river.
+
+Then they drew back, Norman closed the door, and began securing it,
+while Tim ran to the inner room.
+
+"Come and help to fasten this, uncle," he said quietly.
+
+"Eh?  Yes, my boy," said the captain, following him, and Tim seized his
+arm.
+
+"Quick!" he whispered, "they're coming on again in front."
+
+The captain seized gun and ammunition; Uncle Jack and Sam German were
+roused from sleep, which was to last till they came on duty to watch; a
+few imperative words were uttered to the ladies; and once more everyone
+was at his post, waiting with beating heart for the attack.  But it did
+not come.
+
+An hour had passed, then another, and when the captain whisperingly
+asked whether the boys were sure, and whether they might not have been
+deceived, and taken the black shadows of evening or a depression of the
+ground for an enemy, they began to think that they must have been
+mistaken.  So the captain went to the back to speak to Uncle Jack and
+Sam German, who were there that night, the latter solacing himself with
+a pipe of tobacco, which he was smoking while his companion watched.
+
+"A false alarm, I think, Jack," said the captain.  "So much the better."
+
+"But I don't mind.  It shows how thoroughly the boys are on the Alert,"
+he was going to whisper, but he did not speak, for at that moment there
+was a faint rustling overhead; the brothers pressed each other's hands,
+and Sam German laid his pipe softly in the chimney, took up his gun, and
+listened.
+
+The next minute the soft rustle continued, and a noise as of someone in
+pain was heard, while the listeners in the darkness knew perfectly that
+a black had lowered himself and stood barefooted upon the sharp spikes.
+
+Another attempt was made and another.  The blacks, being emboldened by
+the perfect silence within, tried a fresh plan, which consisted in
+lowering down a heavy piece of wood, and began to batter the new
+protection.  But a couple of shots fired up the chimney had the
+customary result, and there was silence once more.
+
+This was the most painful part of the attack, for every nerve was on the
+strain to make out where the next attempt at entrance would be made, and
+after the respite of the past peaceful days this fresh alarm seemed more
+depressing than even the first coming of the enemy.  For the defenders
+could only feel how hopeless their case was, and as the captain thought
+of his wife's look that evening, he was fain to confess that he would
+have to give up and settle where the help of neighbours was at his
+command.
+
+All at once there were a couple of shots from the front, followed by a
+tremendous yelling, and then silence again for a full hour, when it was
+plain that the enemy were preparing for a rush at the back, where at
+least a dozen shots were fired before they drew back.
+
+Their tactics had been the same as of old, the blacks savagely rushing
+up to the doors and making furious thrusts with their spears, which were
+met now by large pieces of wood used as shutters and held across the
+loopholes, and as soon as they could be drawn aside, by the delivery of
+a charge or two of swan-shot.
+
+This went on at intervals, hour after hour, till a feeling of despair
+began to take possession of the defenders.  Hot, weak, parched with
+thirst, and worn by the terrible anxiety that came upon them like a
+black cloud, their efforts were growing more feeble, when, in spite of a
+stern prohibition on the part of the captain, the girls brought them
+bread and water just as one of the most desperate attacks had lulled.
+One minute there had been the sound of spears striking window and door,
+while a breaking and rending went on as the blacks tried to tear away
+the wooden sides of the house, and climbed upon the roof; the defenders
+not daring to fire for fear of making holes through which spears might
+be thrust, and the next all was silent, and the tears started to the
+boys' eyes as the voice of mother or sister was heard pressing them to
+eat or drink.
+
+It was the same in every case: they could not eat, but drank with
+avidity, the cool water seeming to act as a stimulant, and thrill them
+with new life.
+
+"Back, quick, girls!" said the captain, suddenly; "they're coming on
+again;" and then he uttered a groan, for he had seen something which
+destroyed his last hope, and filled him the next moment with a maddening
+desire to destroy.
+
+If he could only hurl one of the little powder kegs he had brought so
+carefully right out into the wilderness--hurl it with a fuse amongst the
+yelling savages who sought their lives; and then he uttered a low laugh.
+
+"No need," he said to himself softly.  "No need.  We shall die avenged."
+
+"What's that, father--lightning?" said Norman, sharply; but there was no
+reply.
+
+It was Rifle who spoke next, but only to utter the ejaculation: "Oh!"
+
+But what a world of meaning there was in the word, as with a hiss of
+rage the boy thrust his piece from the loophole and sent two heavy
+charges of shot right into the midst of a crowd of blacks who were
+coming up to the house carrying fire-sticks and brushwood, with which
+they ran round and piled it up against the angle formed by the kitchen
+where it projected at the back.  There was a tremendous yelling as the
+boy fired, and two men fell, while others ran about shrieking; but the
+mischief was done, and in a few minutes there was a burst of flame, and
+a peculiar pungent odour of burning wood began to find its way in and
+threaten suffocation.
+
+"What's to be done, father?" whispered Norman, as light began to show
+through the thin cracks or chinks of the wooden wall.
+
+"I'd say go out and die fighting like men, boys," said the captain, with
+a groan; "but there are women.  Come, we must not give up," he added,
+and going to the loophole nearest to him he set the example of firing
+with unerring aim, whenever he had the chance, at an enemy.
+
+Uncle Jack followed suit, and in obedience to orders, the boys went on
+steadily reloading.
+
+But the side of the house was growing hot; the kitchen had caught, the
+crackling of the dry wood began to increase to a roar, and that side of
+the house was rapidly growing light as day, when Uncle Jack said in a
+whisper, which the boys heard: "Ned, lad, it's very hard for us, but
+we've had our day.  Can nothing be done?"
+
+A tremendous triumphant yelling drowned any attempt at speaking on the
+captain's part, but as it lulled for a few moments, he said, "Nothing.
+We have done all we could."
+
+"Rifle, Tim," whispered Norman, in horror, "couldn't we get out by the
+front and take them down to the scrub?  The wretches are all on this
+side."
+
+"Impossible, boys," said the captain, sternly.  "Can't you hear? they
+are piling wood by the other door."
+
+Rifle uttered a sobbing groan, and just then there was a flash of light
+in the front, and a furious burst of shouts as a tongue of flame shot up
+past the loophole, accompanied by a crackling roar.
+
+"Your hands, boys," said a deep low voice, that was wonderfully soft and
+musical just then; "destroy no more life.  God bless you all, and
+forgive me!"
+
+At that moment there was a burst of sobs; then it seemed as if all
+emotion was at end, and the little group gathered together, feeling that
+all was over, for already the smoke was forcing its way in by crack and
+chink, a feeling of difficulty of breathing was rapidly coming on, and
+the yelling of the blacks was growing strange and unreal, when Rifle
+sprang up from his knees.
+
+"Yes, yes," he shouted; and again with all his might, "yes!"
+
+For there was a wild shout close at hand.
+
+"Marmi!  Marmi!"
+
+The yelling ceased, and all now started to their feet, for there was the
+beating of hoofs, and in rapid succession shot after shot, with good old
+English shouts of rage, as a party of mounted men galloped by, tearing
+on in full pursuit of the fleeing enemy.
+
+"Quick!" roared the captain.  "Guns, boys, quick!"
+
+As he spoke he dashed to the front, tore down bar and board, and banged
+the door back.
+
+A burst of flame rushed in, but the brushwood touching the woodwork was
+being torn away, and through the flames they saw a fierce black face and
+two bare arms tossing the burning wood aside.
+
+"Marmi!  Marmi!  Rifle--'Temus!  Coo-ee, coo-ee!"
+
+"Coo-ee!" yelled Rifle; and he tried to cry again, but the word stuck in
+his throat as he forced his way out over the burning twigs, his father
+next.
+
+"Sam!  Jack!" yelled the captain, "your fork--anything.  Boys--water."
+
+He rushed round to the back, closely followed by the black figure, on
+which the firelight glistened, and began tearing away the burning
+brushwood.  This was being tossed aside by Sam the next moment, and then
+buckets of water were brought, and none too soon, for the angle of the
+house was now blazing furiously.
+
+But the water made little impression, and the captain shouted:
+
+"Quicker, boys!  More, more!"
+
+"There ain't no more," growled Sam, sourly.
+
+"What!"
+
+"Stand back, all of you," cried the captain in a stern voice.  "Jack!
+the women! get them to a distance.  The place must go, and you know--"
+
+"Look out!" shouted Norman, and he ran forward and threw something at
+the bottom of the blazing wall.
+
+There was one sharp flash, a puff of hot flame, a great cloud of smoke,
+and then darkness, with the side of house and kitchen covered with dull
+sparks.
+
+"Hurrah!" rose from the boys; and the captain drew a deep breath, full
+of thankfulness.
+
+"All the powder from the big flask, father," cried Norman.  "There must
+have been a pound."
+
+At that moment there were shouts, as a dozen mounted men cantered up,
+cheering with all their might, and the task of extinguishing the still
+burning wood was soon at an end.
+
+Amidst the congratulations that followed little was said about the
+blacks.
+
+"Come back?" cried a familiar voice, fiercely.  "I only wish they would,
+eh, Henley?"
+
+"My dear Freeston," was the reply, "I never felt such a strong desire to
+commit murder before."
+
+"God bless you all, gentlemen," cried the captain in a broken voice.
+"You have saved our lives."
+
+There was a low murmur here from the rescuers.
+
+"But how--how was it?" asked the captain; "how did you know?"
+
+"Don't you see, father?" cried Rifle, indignantly; "it was poor old
+Shanter."
+
+"What?  You went for help, Tam?"
+
+"Yohi," said the black simply.  "Baal budgery stop along.  All go bong."
+
+"My good brave fellow," cried the captain, seizing the black's hand in a
+true English grip.
+
+"Wow! wow! yow!" yelled Shanter, struggling to get free, and then
+blowing his fingers.  "Marmi hurt mine.  Burn hands, burn all down
+front, put out fire."
+
+"Tam, I shall never forgive myself," cried the captain.
+
+"Forgib mine," cried the black eagerly; "forgib plenty soff damper--
+forgib mine horse fellow to ride?"
+
+"Yes, yes, anything," cried the captain, "and never doubt you again."
+
+"Yohi," cried Shanter.  "Where big white Mary?  Mine want damper."
+
+He hurried off to where the ladies were seated, trying to recover their
+calmness after the terrible shock to which they had been exposed, while
+the captain turned to the leaders of the rescue party.
+
+"And the black came to you for help?"
+
+"Yes," said Dr Freeston.  "He came galloping up with a drove of horses,
+I don't know how many days ago, for it has been like an excited dream
+ever since.  I ran to Henley, and we got ten stout fellows together, and
+rode on as fast as we could, but I'm afraid that we have punished your
+horses terribly as well as our own."
+
+"Oh, never mind the horses," cried Henley, "they'll come round.  But we
+came in time, and that's enough for us."
+
+The captain could not speak for a few moments.  Then he was himself
+again, and after all were satisfied that there was not the slightest
+danger of the fire breaking out again, proper precautions were taken to
+secure the horses, watch was set, and the rescue party had quite a
+little banquet in the kitchen, one which Rifle declared to be a supper
+at breakfast time, for morning was upon them before some of the most
+weary had lain down to sleep, and slept in peace.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+"CAN'T YOU SEE?"
+
+For the blacks made no further sign, and when, headed by the captain,
+the little party boldly took up the trail that morning, it was to find
+that the enemy had fled in haste, and not until it was felt to be
+utterly useless to follow farther was the pursuit given up.  But that
+attempt to hunt them down was not without result.  Shanter was with the
+party, riding in high delight with the three boys, and every now and
+then, in his eager scouting on his "horse fellow"--as he called the
+rough colt he rode--he was able to show how terribly the myall blacks
+had been punished, and not to dwell upon horrors brought by the wretched
+savages upon themselves, the punishment they had received was terrible.
+
+To Shanter was due the discovery of the cattle, somewhat diminished in
+numbers, but safe, where they had been driven into the bush; and so
+excited was the black all through that he almost forgot the terrible
+burns he had received on hands, arms, and chest.
+
+The only sign of discontent he displayed was when it was decided to turn
+back, the captain having halted at the end of the second day, the
+provisions growing scarce.  It was after due consultation and the
+decision that the blacks were certainly not likely to rally for some
+time to come, and the captain had said that he did not want to slaughter
+the poor wretches, only keep them away.
+
+Then the horses' heads were turned, and Shanter rode up to the boys in a
+great state of excitement.
+
+"Baal go back," he cried; "plenty come along.  Mumkull black fellow."
+
+"No, no," said Norman.  "Black fellow gone along.  Come back and take
+care of white Marys."
+
+"Yohi," said Shanter, thoughtfully, and he looked at his burned arms.
+"Big white Mary gib mine soff rag an' goosum greasum make well.  Soff
+damper.  Come along."
+
+It was not without some feeling of dread that the party returned toward
+the station, lest another party of blacks should have visited the place
+in their absence; and when they reached the open place in the scrub
+where they had left the cattle grazing, the captain reluctantly said
+that another expedition must be made to bring them in.  But unasked,
+Shanter in his quality of mounted herdsman, announced that he was going
+to `'top along' and bring the cattle home, so he was left, and the party
+rode on, the boys leaving Shanter unwillingly.
+
+"Black fellows come again," said Rifle at parting.
+
+Shanter grinned.
+
+"No come no more.  Plenty too much frighten."
+
+All was well when the party rode over Wallaby Range and up to Dingo
+Station, and saving the blackened boards and shingles, and the marks of
+spears, it was surprising how very little the worse the place looked.
+For Uncle Jack, Sam German, Mr Henley, and the doctor--both the latter
+having elected to remain behind--had worked hard to restore damaged
+portions; and once more the place looked wonderfully beautiful and
+peaceful in the evening light.
+
+Three days later, after being most hospitably entertained, ten of the
+rescue party took their leave to go back to Port Haven; the other two
+had hinted that they should like to stay a few days longer, to have a
+thorough rest; and the captain had warmly begged that they would, while
+Aunt Georgie laughed to herself and said in her grim way, "I smell a
+rat."
+
+For the two who stayed were Mr Henley the sugar-planter, and Dr
+Freeston.
+
+The captain was in the highest of spirits soon after, for Shanter,
+looking exceedingly important on his rough colt with his spear across
+his knees, rode slowly up, driving the whole of the sheep, pigs, and
+cattle, which made for their old quarters as quietly as if they had
+never been away, even another speared cow being among them, very little
+the worse for her wound in spite of the flies.
+
+"Hah!" cried the captain, rubbing his hands as the party all sat at the
+evening meal; "and now, please Heaven, we can begin again and forget the
+past."
+
+A dead silence fell, and as the captain looked round he saw that the
+eyes of wife, daughter, and niece were fixed upon him sadly, and that
+Aunt Georgie's countenance was very grim.
+
+"Shall I speak, Henley?" said the doctor.
+
+"If you please," said that gentleman, with a glance at Ida.
+
+"Then I will.--Captain Bedford," said the doctor, "you will forgive me,
+sir, I know; but I must beg of you for the sake of the ladies to give up
+this out-of-the-way place, and come close, up to the settlement.  We
+feel that we cannot leave you out here unprotected.  Think of what would
+have happened if we had not arrived in the nick of time."
+
+There was a terrible silence, and Sam German, who was having his meal in
+the kitchen with Shanter, came to the door, every word having been
+audible.
+
+At last the captain spoke in a low hoarse voice.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I have thought of it all, till drawn both ways as
+I am, my brain seems almost on fire.  I love my people as an Englishman
+should, and all my work has been for their sake.  I would do anything to
+save them pain, but I ask you how can I give up this lovely home I have
+won from the wilderness--a place where Heaven smiles on a man's labour,
+and I can see, with plenty of hard work, a happy contented life and
+prosperity for us all.  I will not appeal to my dear wife and the girls,
+because I know they will say, `Do what you think best,' but I do appeal
+to you, aunt.  It is not fair to expose you to such risks.  Shall I give
+up?  Shall I, after putting my hand to the plough, want faith and go
+back?"
+
+"I _do_ wish you wouldn't ask me such things, Ned, my boy," cried Aunt
+Georgie, taking out her handkerchief to wipe her glasses.  "Give up, now
+we are all so settled and comfortable and happy, all for the sake of a
+pack of savages?  I'll learn how to shoot first.  I say, no! boy, no!"
+
+"Brother Jack," continued the captain, "I have dragged you from your
+club fireside, from your London friends, and made you little better than
+a labourer here, tell me what shall I do?"
+
+"Your duty, Ned," said Uncle Jack, warmly.  "The nip has been terrible,
+but I was never better nor happier in my life.--Don't look at me
+reproachfully, Marian, dear; don't turn away, girls.--Ned, lad, when I
+took the other handle of the plough, I said I wouldn't look back, and I
+will not.  If you ask me, I say fight it out as an Englishman should,
+and as Englishmen have for hundreds of years."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the three boys together.  "Three cheers for Uncle
+Jack!"
+
+"Then I need not ask you, boys?"
+
+"No, father," said Norman.  "You've taught us how to fight, and we shall
+be better able to meet the niggers if they come again."
+
+"Hear, hear!" cried Rifle and Tim, emphatically; and they went behind
+Mrs Bedford's chair, as if to show how they would defend her.
+
+"One more," said the captain.  "Sam German, you have shared our
+sufferings; and it is due to you, our faithful servant of many years,
+that I should not leave you out.  What do you say?"
+
+"What do I say, sir?" cried the gardener, fiercely; as he strode forward
+and brought his fist down heavily on the table.  "I say, go and leave
+that there garden, with all them young trees and plants just a-beginning
+to laugh at us and say what they're a-going to do?  No, sir; no: not for
+all the black fellows in the world."
+
+Sam scowled round at everybody, and went back to the kitchen door.
+
+"That settles it, gentlemen," said the captain, quietly.  "After a life
+of disappointment and loss, I seem to have come into the promised land.
+I am here, and with God's help, and the help of my brother, my servant,
+and my three brave boys, I'll stay."
+
+"And Shanter, father," shouted Rifle.
+
+"Yes, and the trusty black whom I so unjustly doubted."
+
+"Marmi want Shanter?" said the black, thrusting in his head.
+
+"Yes: that settles it, captain," said the doctor.  "I don't wonder at
+it.  I wouldn't give up in your place.--Will you speak now, Henley?"
+
+"No, no, go on.  I can't talk," said the young planter, colouring.
+
+"Very well then, I will.--Then the fact is, Captain Bedford, my friend
+Henley here is not satisfied with his land at Port Haven.  He can sell
+it advantageously to a new settler, and he has seen that tract next to
+yours, one which, I agree with him, looks as if it was made for sugar.
+Miss Henley, his sister, is on her way out to keep house for him, so he
+will get one up as quickly as possible."
+
+"Yes," said Henley, "that's right.  Now tell 'em about yourself."
+
+"Of course," said the doctor, quietly.  "My sister is coming out with
+Miss Henley, and I have elected to take up the tract yonder across the
+river, adjoining yours."
+
+"You?" said the captain.  "Where will you get your patients?"
+
+"Oh, I am sure to have some.  Here's one already," he said, laughingly.
+"I mean to dress that poor fellow's burns."
+
+"Baal--no--baal," shouted Shanter, fiercely.  "Big white Mary--soff rag,
+plenty goosum greasum."
+
+"Be quiet, Shanter," said Aunt Georgie, grimly.
+
+"But," cried the captain.  "Oh, it is absurd.  You are throwing away
+your chances."
+
+"Not at all, sir.  I don't see why a doctor should not have a farm."
+
+"But really--" began the captain.
+
+"One moment, sir," cried the doctor, interrupting; "will you come and
+settle near your fellow-creatures?"
+
+"You have heard my arguments, gentlemen.  It is my duty to stay."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor; "and in reply, Henley here and I say that it is
+our duty as Englishmen to come and help to protect you and yours."
+
+Uncle Jack and the captain rose together, and took the young men's
+hands, and then the party left the table to stroll out into the garden,
+upon as lovely an evening as ever shone upon this beautiful earth.
+
+Every one looked happy, even Shanter, who was fast asleep; and as
+Norman, who was alone with his brother and cousin, looked round at the
+scene of peace and beauty, he could not help thinking that his father
+had done well.  But his thoughts were rudely interrupted by Rifle, who
+threw himself on the grass, kicked up his heels, burst into a smothered
+fit of laughter, and then sat up to wipe his eyes.
+
+"Oh, what a game!" he cried.
+
+"What's a game?" said Tim.  "What's the matter, Man?  Is there some
+black on my nose?"
+
+"No!" cried Rifle.  "Why, you blind old mole, can't you see?"
+
+"See what?"
+
+"Why Mr Henley and the doctor want to come and live out here.  Look."
+
+"Well, what at?  They're talking to Ida and Hetty.  That's all."
+
+"That's all!" cried Rifle, scornfully.  "But it isn't all.  They want to
+marry 'em, and then we shall all live happily afterwards.  That's it.
+Isn't it, Man?"
+
+Norman nodded.
+
+"Yes, I think he's right, Tim.  I am glad, for I think they are two good
+fellows as any I ever met."
+
+Rifle was right.  For in the future all came about as he had said,
+saving that all was not happiness.
+
+Still Dingo Station became one of the most prosperous in our great
+north-east colony, and as fresh tracts of the rich land were taken up,
+the troubles with the blacks grew fewer and died away.
+
+One word in conclusion.  Sam German declared pettishly one day that
+there never was such a hopeless savage as Shanter.
+
+"You couldn't teach him nought, and a lazier beggar never lived."
+
+It was unjust: Shanter could learn in his way, and he worked hard for
+Marmi (the captain), harder still for "Big white Mary," to whom he was a
+most faithful servant, but only in work that took his fancy.
+
+"Oh," said Norman, one day, "I am glad father wouldn't give up."
+
+"Give up?" cried Rifle, scornfully.  "Why, he would have been mad!"
+
+And Tim cried, "Why, we shouldn't have been called `The Dingo Boys' if
+he had."
+
+"Who calls us `Dingo Boys?'" cried Rifle, sharply.
+
+"The people at Port Haven and all about when they speak of Wallaby
+Range," replied Tim.
+
+"Like their impudence," said Rifle importantly.
+
+"Don't be so cocky, Rifle," said Norman quietly.  "Let them if they
+like.  What's in a name?"
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dingo Boys, by G. Manville Fenn
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