In Quest of Gold; Or, Under the Whanga Falls
by Alfred St. Johnston · English · Gutenberg #42829 · 458,108 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: In Quest of Gold; Or, Under the Whanga Falls
Author: Alfred St. Johnston
Illustrator: Gordon Browne
Release date: May 28, 2013 [eBook #42829]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42829
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN QUEST OF GOLD; OR, UNDER THE WHANGA FALLS ***
[Illustration: "THE BEAUTIFUL CREATURE ROSE TO THE LEAP."
(_p. 264._) _Frontispiece._]
IN QUEST OF GOLD;
OR,
_Under the Whanga Falls_.
BY
ALFRED ST. JOHNSTON,
_Author of "Camping among Cannibals," "Charlie Asgarde," &c._
WITH EIGHT ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY GORDON BROWNE.
_SEVENTH THOUSAND._
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
_LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE_.
1892.
[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and inconsistencies in
the text have been retained as printed.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
THE BIRTH OF AN ADVENTURE 1
CHAPTER II.
GAINING INFORMATION 11
CHAPTER III.
PREPARATIONS FOR A START 21
CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRST STAGES 31
CHAPTER V.
A TRAITOR IN THE CAMP 39
CHAPTER VI.
THE FIGHT WITH THE MYALLS 51
CHAPTER VII.
LIFE OR DEATH? 64
CHAPTER VIII.
A TERRIBLE ENEMY 70
CHAPTER IX.
AFTER THE FIRE 80
CHAPTER X.
AMONG THE MOUNTAINS 89
CHAPTER XI.
VERY NEAR TO DEATH 95
CHAPTER XII.
THE WHANGA 103
CHAPTER XIII.
WAYS AND MEANS 113
CHAPTER XIV.
BUILDING THE DAM 128
CHAPTER XV.
UNWELCOME VISITORS 142
CHAPTER XVI.
GOLD! 148
CHAPTER XVII.
LEAVING THE VALLEY 157
CHAPTER XVIII.
"THERE'S MANY A SLIP" 166
CHAPTER XIX.
HOW THE BOYS RETURNED HOME 175
CHAPTER XX.
A CONFERENCE OF BUSHRANGERS 187
CHAPTER XXI.
YESSLETT PREPARES TO ACT 196
CHAPTER XXII.
WHAT BECAME OF ALEC 210
CHAPTER XXIII.
CROSBY ACCOUNTS FOR HIMSELF 218
CHAPTER XXIV.
COMO'S ERRAND 230
CHAPTER XXV.
YESSLETT'S ADVENTURE 238
CHAPTER XXVI.
ESCAPE FROM NORTON'S GAP 247
CHAPTER XXVII.
A WILD NIGHT-RIDE 260
CHAPTER XXVIII.
IS IT TOO LATE? 269
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
"THE BEAUTIFUL CREATURE ROSE TO THE LEAP" _Frontispiece_
"'GOLD, GOLD! CHEER UP, ALEC; OF COURSE WE'LL HAVE IT'"
_To face page_ 5
"HE SEIZED THE NATIVE ROUND HIS SLIM, NAKED BODY"
_To face page_ 79
"HE WAS SO OVERCOME ... THAT HE SAT STRAIGHT DOWN INTO THE STREAM"
_To face page_ 130
"AN ARMED HORSEMAN ... SHOUTED, 'BAIL UP!'"
_To face page_ 170
"ALEC KICKED HIS FEET FREE FROM HIS STIRRUPS, AND ... LEAPED ON TO
THE OTHER HORSE"
_To face page_ 182
"TO SCREEN HIM FROM STARLIGHT'S FIRE HE HAD INTERPOSED HIS OWN BODY"
_To face page_ 256
"'YOUR PRICE IS THERE!'"
_To face page_ 279
IN QUEST OF GOLD;
OR, UNDER THE WHANGA FALLS.
CHAPTER I.
THE BIRTH OF AN ADVENTURE.
"Alec, Alec," a strong, clear, boy's voice rang out from the gully,
"are you up there? Whatever are you doing at this time of night?" And
the next moment George Law, a tall, strongly made lad of fifteen or so,
left the sandy bed of the dried-up river, and sprang up the great
rocks, as lightly and actively as a cat, to where his elder brother was
sitting alone.
"Hallo, Geordie, lad! is that you? I might have known it; no one else
can climb the rocks as you do."
"I thought I should find you at 'The Castle.' What have you come for?
There's something the matter, I'm sure there is. What is it, old boy?"
He sat down as he spoke and passed his hand into his brother's arm.
"Tea is quite ready, and the Johnny-cakes piping hot. Mother and
Margaret couldn't think where you were, but I guessed you had ramped
off to 'The Castle' for a quiet think. Come, tell us all about it."
For a moment Alec Law did not answer, but sat, as he had been sitting
before his brother came, with his chin on his hand and his elbow on his
knee, looking with steady gaze over the tops of the wild, great trees
that grew below them in a tangled mass of luxuriant greenery, towards
that far-away strip of silver on which the moonlight fell, which he
knew to be the sea. He was two or three years older than George, and
was more developed and of a stouter build, but one could see at a
glance that they were brothers: they had the same dark eyes and level
brows, and the same dark wavy hair. They were dressed alike, which made
the likeness stronger. Just as nine-tenths of Australian bushmen do,
they wore white--or what once were white--moleskin breeches, laced
boots, gaiters, and red flannel shirts open at the throat, and with the
sleeves rolled up to the elbow.
Alec turned when he found his arm taken, and, as he saw his brother,
the stern look vanished from his determined face, and his eyes met
Geordie's inquiring gaze with a softer light there than had shone in
them before.
"Yes, you are right; something is the matter. I came here to try and
think of a way out of it all. I didn't want to trouble you with it, so
I came out alone."
"And did you think that I should not miss you? No, that plan will never
pay. Don't let us begin to have secrets from one another, Alec; all the
more reason I should know it, if it is trouble."
"I should have told you at once if I had thought you could help, but
you can't."
"Mine may not be up to much, but two heads are better than one."
"Well this is all about it. You know that during the two years after
father's death we had that long dry season; there was no rain, and
every water-hole in the creek dried up; the sheep and cattle died by
hundreds at a time. That was the beginning of it."
"The beginning of what?"
"Of our getting into debt. Things seemed to go from bad to worse from
that time, and mother had to borrow a lot of money from old Mr. Crosby,
of Brisbane. He was a friend of father's, and said that he would
advance money on the run, but that mother must mortgage it to him. He
said it was merely a form, and that mother might trust so old a friend
not to take advantage of it, if at any time a difficulty arose about
paying the interest on the money we had borrowed. So she signed all the
papers."
"Well! has there been any difficulty?"
"Yes, from the very first. He cheated poor mother, who didn't know
anything of business, most shamefully, and gets interest twice as high
as he fairly ought. It has crippled us for years. We could not fence
the farther stations, we haven't been able to buy new stock, and many a
time mother would have been unable to produce the yearly interest-money
if old Macleod had not been here to help her with one of his clever
plans."
"What a shame! What an old thief that Mr. Crosby is. And to think of
mother having all this trouble, and never saying a word to anybody."
"She didn't want to trouble us. I'm not sure that Margaret has not
known since she came back from Brisbane. But things have come to a
climax now. The price of wool has gone down lower than ever, and our
last shearing hardly realised enough to cover the working expenses of
the run. Mother wrote to tell Mr. Crosby how it was, and that she hoped
to be able to pay him next year; but this has just given him the very
opportunity he wanted, and he is down on to us at once."
"What can he do?"
"Why, sell Wandaroo straight off. Don't you see, he lent us money on
the security of the run, and if we can't pay the interest he can sell
everything right over our heads?"
"Sell Wandaroo!" said George, in a voice of the utmost astonishment and
grief. "But it is ours. We were born here. I could live nowhere else.
Oh, I love it so, Alec."
"So do I, so do we all," said the elder brother, in a pained but steady
voice; "but he has the law on his side, and he can rob us of
everything--for it is robbery."
"Has he said that he will not wait?"
"Yes. Macleod rode to Bateman yesterday, to get some more of that new
sheep dip, and he brought a letter up from the steamer. Mr. Crosby says
that he is very sorry that he can't wait, and that he must have the
money at once; and, if we can't pay it to his agent in Parra-parra
before a month, he shall put his men in possession, and we must turn
out."
"How much do we owe him?"
"Oh, more than we can possibly get. The interest is £600. He has lent
us £4,000, at 15 per cent., the miserly old Jew. Think of that, and he
called himself our friend. Oh, Geordie, lad, I cannot bear to think of
leaving Wandaroo. I love every mile of it;" and the poor fellow buried
his face in his hands. "I think it would almost kill mother to have to
go away."
[Illustration: "'GOLD, GOLD! CHEER UP, ALEC; OF COURSE WE'LL HAVE IT.'"
(_p. 5._)]
"When did she tell you all this?"
"About two hours ago, when you were in the wool shed. I came out here;
I could not bear to see her grief, as I could not help her; and I have
been thinking, thinking till my brain burns."
"Ah, poor mother! I saw there was something wrong, though she tried to
hide it, and to smile when I came in to tea. And Margaret never said my
hair was rough, or anything. Have you thought of any plan, Alec?"
"No, I can think of nothing. If we sold every sheep on the run we could
not raise the money. If I could be up and doing anything I should not
care, but to sit here absolutely helpless will kill me. Nothing short
of a gold mine can save us."
He spoke with the bitterness of despair in his voice, for life seemed
very hopeless to him just then. He sat moodily gazing at the great,
distant, purple hills, over which the golden round of the full moon was
rising in the rich silence of the Australian night. But his words had a
different effect upon George, who still sat with his sun-browned hand
on his brother's arm.
The younger boy sprang up with a shout.
"Gold, gold! Cheer up, Alec; of course we'll have it. Do you mean to
say that you have forgotten the story father used to tell us of how,
when he and mother first came to Wandaroo, they found Black Harry with
a nugget of pure gold slung round his neck on a bit of green cow-hide?"
"Yes, I remember that."
"And don't you recollect that father used to say that there was a huge
fortune lying where that came from for the man that could find the
place? He used to say that he should not try to find it himself, for he
believed he could do better by honestly working on the run than by
rushing off on a wild-goose chase after gold he might never find."
"But that was years ago, and Black Harry is dead long since."
"I know, I know," said George, eagerly; "but that old _gin_" (woman),
"Ippai, was his wife, and she will be sure to know all about it. There
are several boys of the tribe still on the run, and we can get them to
go with us. They never forget a path, and can lead us back to the
north-west, where they came from."
He had sprung up in his excitement, and talked rapidly and earnestly to
Alec, who had turned round in astonishment at Geordie's glad voice. At
first the more sober elder brother shook his head at George's wild
proposition, but slowly the doubt seemed to fade from his face, and he
seemed to catch some of the enthusiasm of the younger fellow. George
Law was often the quicker of the brothers, but once let Alec make up
his mind to anything, and nothing could turn him aside from carrying it
out.
"Why not? Why not, Alec?" George pleaded. "What is the use of sitting
here and doing nothing? If we fail, as you seem to think we shall, we
shall be no worse off than we were before, and if we succeed, why----"
Here language failed him, he could only point across the gully in the
direction of the home where he knew their mother was grieving.
Then Alec sprang up; he had caught fire at last. Geordie was right--no
good could come of inaction. His face was all aglow with excitement
now, and his strong right hand was clenched.
"I believe you, Geordie. It is our only chance. It seems to me very
improbable that we shall find the gold, but we can do our best and try.
Anything is better than staying here and doing nothing. Come, let us go
in now or we shall have mother getting anxious about us. After tea I
will go down to the native camp and see old Ippai, and find out all I
can about that nugget. There is no time to be lost."
"When can we start, Alec?"
"To-morrow."
"Hurrah; but that is rather soon, isn't it?"
"What is the use of delay. If we are going we may as well go at once.
Shearing is over and there is nothing to be done on the run that
Macleod cannot see to. There's only the shepherding, and that can be
done without us, particularly now that Yesslett is living with us; he
can do ration-carrier's work. Don't tell mother what we are after; it
would only frighten her and buoy her up with what may be a false hope.
I will tell her that we are going away for some time."
George nodded, and without another word they turned and descended the
steep dark rocks into the blackness of the gully. It was a dangerous
place, for the side of the ravine on which the fantastic pile of rocks,
which they called "The Castle," was placed, was of a great height, and
the rocks themselves were bare and steep. But the two boys descended
with sure and fearless tread; "The Castle" had been their favourite
playing place when they were children, and custom had quite driven fear
away.
Alec led the way with a firm, manly step, and George followed close
upon him. Geordie saw that Alec was thinking and did not wish to be
disturbed, so he followed him without a sound. There was a perfect
confidence between these two, which was marred by no little jealousies
or selfishnesses. Brought up alone on the station with no other
companion, for their sister was older than either of them, and had been
away in Brisbane to be educated, they had become all in all to one
another, and loved each other as very few brothers do. From this great
affection a perfect understanding had grown up between them, and each
one read the other as a well-loved book.
They had never been away from each other for more than a day, and they
were never so happy as when together. Their father had been unable to
afford to send them to school, as he had his daughter, for the early
settlers in Queensland had not had very prosperous times, so they had
learned from him the little that they knew. They were not very clever,
these two lads; many an English boy of twelve knows more Latin and
history and mathematics than they did, but they were fine, strong,
healthy fellows, with pure and honest hearts; and they had learned from
their father, both by example and precept, the maxims of an English
gentleman. They both could ride as soon as they could walk, and had
gained that perfect mastery and management of a horse that only
constant riding from childhood can give. Then they were both excellent
bushmen, and could do everything on the station as well as any of the
hands, which perhaps, after all, was of more importance to two
Australian boys than any command of Latin prose or knowledge of Greeks
roots could be.
Climbing up the other branch of the creek, and passing through the
thick strip of uncleared bush, where in the darkness the laughing
jackasses were uttering their strange weird cry, they entered the
paddock and approached the house.
Wandaroo had been purchased by Mr. Law shortly after the separation of
Queensland from the colony of New South Wales, and whilst the former
country was in a wild and almost unknown state. He had selected
Wandaroo on account of the creek which ran through it, as he thought it
would always furnish water for his flocks. The timber house that he had
originally built was still standing, but had been greatly added to as
his family increased, and he became able to afford to extend the old
homestead. A large and wide verandah ran along two sides of the house,
shading the living rooms (for coolness is the one thing most desired in
tropical Queensland), and the posts and roof of it were covered with a
mass of gorgeous creepers. The roof of the house and verandah was
formed of large sheets of bark carefully stripped from the trees and
flattened for the purpose. These are pegged down on to the rafters and
make an admirable heat- and water-proof covering.
The buildings about a head station are numerous, and from a distance
Wandaroo looked more like a little village than merely the homestead
and out-buildings of a single squatter. On one side was the store, a
most important part of every head station, where all imaginable
articles in the way of food and clothing were kept. Beyond it was the
bachelors' hut, where the men attached to the station lived, and
farther away were the stables and cart-shed, and the dry store where
flour, salt, &c., were kept. On the other side was the strongly-built
stockyard into which the herds of horses and cattle were driven at
mustering time, and close by was the great wool shed where the sheep
were clipped at shearing time and the fleeces stored.
To-night, by the light of the full moon, and of those great and
glorious southern stars which blaze so royally in the Australian sky,
the whole of the commonplace station buildings looked very beautiful.
All little uglinesses were hidden, and the tender light, which fell so
softly upon roof and wall and fencing, invested everything with a
shadowy charm. The great gum trees by the house gleamed blue in the
moonlight, and under their boughs the ruddy lights from the house shone
out in brilliant contrast.
"Look at it, Alec," said George, breaking silence at last, as they
crossed the paddock and approached the house. "Do you think that we can
lose Wandaroo, which our father made, and where we were born?"
"No, we will not. _We will find that gold, or die in the attempt._
Nothing shall turn me back!"
So saying they entered the house.
CHAPTER II.
GAINING INFORMATION.
Only staying to wash their hands and to put themselves in some slight
degree of order, they entered the large and comfortable room where tea
was waiting for them; it was the largest in the house, and served for
dining and general living room. Mrs. Law and Margaret had finished
their meal before the boys came in, for they could not keep the
manager, old Macleod, waiting. They were standing near the bright
petroleum lamp talking earnestly. Mrs. Law, whose busy hands were never
idle, was knitting a grey worsted stocking for one of the boys. The one
woman servant, Mrs. Beffling by name, whom Mrs. Law kept to help her in
the house was busy at one of the large cupboards at the end of the
room, so that at first Alec could say nothing of what he intended
doing, but directly that tea was over--it did not take them long that
night, for both boys were too excited to eat--and the woman had left
the room, he rose from the table.
"Mother," he began, with that simple directness of speech that was so
characteristic of him, "I have been up at the rocks over the gully, and
have been thinking what we must do. George came and found me out." Here
he half turned and nodded towards his brother, who had moved to the
wide open window, and was looking out into the night. "And I have told
him all about it. We have laid our heads together, and have determined
to go out prospecting to-morrow. You know that when father first bought
Wandaroo he reserved the right of extending the run, at the same price
per mile, towards the north-west. He never prospected the country in
that direction, and since his death we have never done it. If we find
good grass land there, and well-watered country, we might, if the worst
comes to the worst, be able to take up a run there, and in a few years'
time be doing all right again."
All this that Alec said was quite true. He had long wanted to prospect
the country that lay beyond the borders of their own great run, but
although it was the truth it was not the whole of the truth. He said
nothing of their wild dream of finding gold in those far-distant
north-west ranges. As he had said to George, he knew that the thought
of it would alarm their mother, for the native tribes were warlike,
cruel, and unfriendly, and besides this he did not wish to give her any
hope that might fail her at last. Alec spoke in the low tones his voice
always sank to when he was excited, and when he ended his square jaw
was set in a firm, resolute manner that in itself showed the determined
and unconquerable spirit of the young man.
Mrs. Law knew her sons well enough to be sure that when Alec spoke and
looked as he then did he would brook no opposition, and she was a wise
enough woman to have learned that she might lead her high-spirited sons
when she would fail did she try to drive them. In Australia, too, a man
seems to develop earlier than in Europe; and although Alec was only
nineteen, he was always consulted on the management of the run, and his
opinion as an experienced bushman and stock rider attentively listened
to.
"Have you carefully thought of it, Alec?" said Mrs. Law, laying aside
her knitting for a moment, and looking at her son, for the suddenness
of his resolve had somewhat astonished her, as she had never heard
anything of this plan before. "How will the station go on?"
"Yes, mother, I have thought of it all, I think. We are full-handed
just now, for Macleod engaged that extra shepherd that we wanted for
the South Creek station when he was down in Bateman. He will be a good
useful fellow, I think. And Yesslett can act as ration-carrier; he
knows the run well enough by this time."
"How long shall you be away?" asked Mrs. Law.
"Can't say. We shall take flour enough, and tea, and so on, for a month
or so, but we may be longer, so you mustn't be frightened, mother. We
must face the worst, and be prepared for a move if that old brute of a
Crosby turns us out."
"Who shall you take with you?" asked Mrs. Law, managing to repress the
tears that lay so near her poor sorrowful eyes.
"George, and one or two of the black boys."
"Oh, shall you take Geordie?"
"Yes, mother," Margaret interposed; "let George go." She knew well
enough that the brothers would stand by each other to the death, and
that George, young though he was, would be Alec's best protection.
"Do you think that I would let Alec go without me?" said a clear voice
from the window.
And Alec said, "I would sooner take Geordie than any man on the
station. He rides and climbs better than any one of them, and nothing
tires him. And now, mother, good-night. Don't sit up for me; you have
had an anxious, sad day. I am going down to the _gunyahs_" (huts) "to
get a couple of boys to go with us, and to glean as much information as
I can about the country. I shall be back in an hour or two. Good-night,
youngster; good-night, Margaret."
Kissing his mother, he took up his hat from a side table, and without
another word left the room.
As he passed the bachelors' hut on his way to the paddock, he noticed
that one of the hands, a man named Keggs, whom they had only engaged a
short time before, was leaning against the door-post smoking a short
black pipe. He was not a prepossessing person, for his face, which was
of an unwholesome pink, was deeply marked with small-pox, and his
pale-coloured shifty eyes were inflamed-looking and unshaded by any
eye-lashes. Alec had not liked the appearance of the man, but, thinking
it a shame to be prejudiced by mere looks, he had engaged him, and, not
knowing his capabilities, had employed him about the head station. He
had several times noticed him prying into things with which he had no
concern, but thinking the man was inquisitive he had said nothing. Alec
observed that Keggs glanced keenly at him as he passed the hut, and
turning round some little time afterwards he could see, by the light of
the moon, that the man had followed him for a short distance to watch
where he was going. When Keggs saw that he was observed, he turned and
shrank back to the shadow of the hut.
Stepping out with the free, springy stride that speaks of perfect
health and muscular strength, Alec reached, in about half an hour, the
squalid _gunyahs_ that formed the camp of a few native families that
were allowed to remain on the run. One or two naked, bushy-haired
fellows were crouching over the hot embers of a wood fire, on which
they were cooking great lumps of kangaroo or wallaby flesh. They sprang
up in alarm and seized their heavy _nullah-nullahs_ (clubs), which lay
by their sides, when they heard Alec's quick footstep, which they did
from a great distance, and in an instant were prepared for defence. But
they knew Alec's voice directly he called out, and putting down their
weapons they advanced to meet him. They aroused the old _gin_, Ippai,
from her sleep, when Alec told them who it was he wished to see, and a
moment afterwards she joined them at the fire, still wrapped in the
opossum rug she had been lying in.
Sitting down on a log by the side of the fire, Alec was for the next
hour deep in talk with the natives. They readily answered his
questions, but it was difficult for him to arrive at the facts of the
case, as the Australian aborigines have an entire disregard for the
truth, and say anything that first enters their poor childish brains,
and anything that they think will please their questioner. It was only
by going over the same ground time after time, and with different
members of the party, that Alec succeeded in sifting out the truth from
what they told him.
At last, when the Southern Cross was high in the sky, he thought that
he could learn nothing more from them, and rose to go. He arranged that
two young men, Prince Tom and Murri, fine specimens of the aboriginal
black native, should accompany him. He knew them both as excellent
guides and hunters, and, knowing their love of sport and wandering, he
felt sure that they would keep their promise of being up at the head
station before sunrise.
The night was very dark when he left the camp, for the moon had set,
but he knew every inch of that part of the run, and could have found
his way about with his eyes shut. The hard, dry earth was covered in
all directions with sheep tracks, which looked like paths, and which
would have puzzled any stranger; but Alec bore straight along over the
little dry watercourse that intersected his route in one place, and
through the strips of scrub that lay between him and the house. He was
thinking too deeply to notice the plaintive cry, like the wail of a
child, of the little native bear in the great trees of the gully, or
the howls of the dingoes that every now and then disturbed so weirdly
the silence of the night. He saw the dim outlines of the horses move
away into the darkness as he came across the paddock, and he could hear
the quick sound of their cropping, but everything else was still.
As Alec lightly vaulted over the gate between the paddock and the yard,
he violently struck against a man who was standing in the shadow of the
cart-shed, and who had evidently stationed himself there to watch
Alec's movements.
"What are you doing here?" said Alec, angrily, for his temper was not
absolutely angelic, and it annoyed him beyond measure to be watched in
this manner.
"I ain't a doin' nothink," answered Keggs, for it was he.
"And that is what you are generally doing all day long, Keggs," said
Alec, sharply; "so that you can always find time to spy after me and
pry into our affairs. What I do, or what any one at the house does, is
no business of yours, and I'll not stand your interference. I tell you
plainly if I catch you at it again you go."
"I seed yer goin' towards the native camp, and I on'y wanted to know if
you'd heerd anythink o' them missin' sheep."
"Yes, I have been to the camp, but what I did there is no business of
yours," said Alec, haughtily, as he turned on his heel and walked to
the house.
"Oh!" muttered the man to himself as Alec disappeared, "ain't it no
bisnis of mine? Well, I've foun' out what I wanted to know. You hev'
been to the camp, and I'll soon get out o' them niggers what you went
for, my fine master," and knocking the ashes out of his dirty pipe he
entered the hut.
The house was quite dark and quiet when Alec reached it, for a
Queensland household, that is up before sunrise and works heartily all
day, is generally ready to go to bed by nine or ten o'clock. Alec
walked along the verandah till he reached the room that he and George
occupied in common, and entering at the wide open window he found the
match-box and struck a light.
The room was the boys' own den, and presented a very boy-like
appearance. The walls were of the hardwood slabs of which the house was
built, and on them were nailed several pictures from the illustrated
papers that had struck the lads' fancy. Besides the two small
bedsteads, a couple of rough chairs, and a sort of compound washing and
dressing-table, there was no furniture, but on a rough shelf that ran
along one wall, and about the room in different places, was strewn a
variety of articles that spoke of the habits of the occupants. On the
two chests which held the boys' very limited wardrobe lay an old saddle
in need of repairs, and a heap of odd straps and old bridles; in one
corner of the room lay a pile of rusty bits, old stirrup irons, and
horse-shoes; and from a nail on the door hung a great unfinished stock
whip which George was plaiting.
Geordie was fast asleep when Alec came in, but he was a light sleeper,
and sat up broad awake, but blinking in the candle light, before his
brother had said a word.
"Well, Alec, what news?"
"Hush, don't speak so loud! Margaret's window is open as well as ours,
and she may overhear us," said Alec, seating himself on the edge of
Geordie's bed, and speaking in a voice that was low but with an excited
tremor in it that betrayed the emotion that he felt. "The best of news.
I believe we shall find the gold, though the labour will be enormous
and the danger great."
"But neither of us minds that. Forewarned is forearmed, and we will be
prepared. Did old Ippai remember the nugget?"
"She is not likely to readily forget it, considering that Black Harry
nearly beat her head in when he lost it in a deep water-hole on the
creek where he was spearing fish. She and Moolong, that white-haired
old native down at the camp, both say that it came from the head of a
great valley which they call Whanga. They say it lies in the midst of
the mountains that are beyond the ranges we can see from the Yarrun
station. You know that Stevens, that shepherd we once had, said that he
had seen great blue-peaked mountains from the ranges when he went into
them searching for that missing flock we never found. Don't you
remember?"
"Yes; and we thought he had never been to the ranges at all, and was
only 'blowing.'"
"It seems he wasn't, for all of them down at the _gunyahs_" (huts)
"tell me the same story. It is rather difficult to make out their
meaning, as you know, but, as far as I can understand, they say that
Black Harry found the nugget in a sort of deep hole in the basin of a
waterfall at the end of this Whanga valley."
"Did they tell you if Black Harry said there were any more?" asked
George, in an eager whisper.
"I asked them that, and old Moolong said Harry told them that there was
no more, but that he believed it was a lie, and that he only had said
so that he might be the only one with such an ornament. If he had found
more he would have had to distribute them among the tribe, as you know,
and he did not want any one else to have such a necklace."
"There _is_ more. I feel sure that there is more. Why should there be
only one piece?" said George, seizing hold of Alec's arm with his
burning hand. "Can we find the place though? Oh! Alec, it is too
terrible to think that the gold which can save Wandaroo is lying there
and we unable to find it."
"But we can!" said Alec, in a thrilling whisper. "Murri, one of the two
black boys I have engaged to go with us, went there once with a party
of their tribe when he was quite a little chap. You know they never
forget the road to a place they have once been to. He can take us to it
straight enough if he will."
"Did that party find gold there?"
"No; a huge waterfall was pouring over the rocks, and the hole in which
Black Harry had found the nugget was a foaming pool. They did not look
anywhere else. They did not know the value that white men set upon
gold; the nugget--'the heavy stone,' as they call it--was only a
curious ornament to them, so they did not wait till the wet season was
over, when probably the stream would be dried up."
"There hasn't been rain for months," said George meditatively, as
though to himself.
"Not down here, but there may have been thunderstorms among the
mountains. Don't let us set our hearts too much upon finding it."
"But I have."
"And so have I," confessed Alec, with a little dry, nervous laugh.
Poor lads! the gold fever was on them.
"Hasn't Murri or any of them ever been since?" asked Geordie,
anxiously.
"No; they say that the _myalls_" (the wild and savage aborigines)
"are very numerous and fierce about there, and that they are their
deadly enemies."
"We must go well armed," said George, in a matter-of-fact voice, and as
calmly as though he were a man of forty. "And now, Alec, old boy, put
the dip out and tumble in. It is late, and we have an awful lot to do
to-morrow before we start."
In a few minutes silence fell upon the room, and after tossing about
restlessly for a short time the sound of regular and deep breathing
from the boys' beds told that they were lost in the strange, dim land
of dreams.
CHAPTER III.
PREPARATIONS FOR A START.
Every one was astir betimes next morning, for an unusual sense of
excitement pervaded the whole household. Even Yesslett, who was
generally late for everything, was up in good time, and, with his usual
good-nature, lent every one a helping hand. His assistance was,
however, often rendered useless from his ignorance of colonial life,
for he had only been in Australia a month or two.
Yesslett Dudley was Mrs. Law's nephew, who, after the death of his
father and the break-up of his old home in England, had been sent out
by his guardians to Australia, as his health was not good, and his
prospects little better. He was a curly-headed young rascal, with a
smile that was like sunshine in a house, and a voice that rang with
merriment and good humour. He was far wiser in book-learning than his
boy cousins, but could not compare with them in anything else. It is
true he could sit a horse and handle a gun, both after his own fashion,
but his ludicrous riding and his dangerous shooting would have been
subjects for constant ridicule to less kind fellows than his cousins.
They could not help despising him a little as a "jackaroo" and a "new
chum" just at first, but his pleasant hearty way of laughing at himself
and his many mishaps soon won their hearts, and instead of making fun
of him they began to teach him how to do things in a "true colonial
fashion," as they said, and that was their highest standard.
Under their able tuition he soon improved in the manly arts; and as his
health became better in the pure air of those lofty downs and with the
simple life of the station, he not only began to grow stouter and
stronger, but also became more courageous and manly. Not that Yesslett
had ever been a coward, but his weak health had made him more timid and
nervous than strong and hale boys generally are. He possessed an
inexhaustible fund of good humour, and a capacity for fun and mischief
which, fortunately, few boys are blessed with.
Alec's first thought as he left the house was to see whether the two
native boys he had engaged the night before had kept their promise of
coming to the station. There they were, sure enough, sitting by the
strong rails of the stock-yard grinning and laughing and chattering
away, and delighted at the prospect of the coming hunt, as they thought
the expedition to be. These two men were strong, active fellows, and
more to be trusted, perhaps, than the average native; they were
employed on the station at times during mustering and shearing, or when
the run was short-handed. They could both ride like monkeys, and could
speak a few words of queer pigeon English. Alec was glad to see them
there, for without the help of Murri he knew they could never find the
Whanga gully. He walked up to them and said--
"You go drive _yarroman_" (horses) "in um stock-yard."
"_Yohi_" (yes), "all um _yarroman_ in um paddock?" asked Prince Tom.
"Yes, all the lot," answered Alec; and the two black fellows ran off to
get to the other side of the horses and head them to the yard. Just as
thoughtless as children they rushed away without thinking of opening
the stock-yard rails; but Alec had expected as much, and walking round
the yard he removed the two heavy slip-panels himself, and stepped on
one side out of sight of the horses. In a few moments he heard the
heavy thud of hoofs on the dry turf as the little mob was driven from
the paddock and came galloping towards him. One or two of the horses
neighed loudly, resenting the ignominy of being driven by natives, but
after some reluctance they turned to the yard and rushed through the
opening in a little stampede.
How noble the handsome creatures looked! Ten or a dozen of them, and
not a single "screw" amongst them; for it was Alec's pride, as it had
been his father's before him, to have the best horses in the colony.
They stood, quivering with the excitement of the little run, with the
morning sun shining on their burnished coats, as spirited and in as
good condition as horses well could be, though their only feed was the
short sweet grass of the paddock. They all pricked their ears and
looked up as Alec came round the cart-shed. They nearly all knew him,
for he had broken in all the young horses himself for the last five
years. As he came up to the fence, Amber, his favourite horse, which he
allowed no one but himself to mount, pushed his way through the others,
and with a low whinny of pleasure at the sight of his master, put his
head over the top rail for Alec to rub his smooth soft muzzle.
He was a noble beast of a rich golden chestnut colour, and without a
white hair or a blemish on him. His goodly shoulders and grand
hind-quarters showed the strength of the horse, and his flat hocks and
springy though strong-thewed pasterns spoke of his swiftness as plainly
as his broad chest did of his powers of endurance. His head, which was
perhaps a trifle small, was exquisitely shaped, broad in the forehead,
and clean cut. The nostrils were wide, the eyes dark and tender, and
the ears sensitive and small. It could be seen by the whole shape of
the head, and by the slight arch in the curve of his tail, that Arab
blood flowed in his veins. No wonder that Alec loved him, for Amber was
as noble and intelligent a creature as ever man bestrode.
Whilst Alec and the native boys were seeing to the horses, George was
carrying out his arrangements in the store. He finished weighing out
the week's rations for the shepherds on the distant parts of the run,
and put them ready for Yesslett, who was to act as ration-carrier in
his absence, to take to them that afternoon. He then called Dudley into
the store and showed him where everything was kept, and told him to
enter every article he sold to any of the men, or their wives, in the
store book to each man's account, and showed him the board on which the
price of everything was written.
"For you will have to be store-keeper as well as ration-carrier whilst
I am away, besides being protector-in-chief to mother and Margaret. I
wish you were coming, too, Yess, but I don't think you could stand
camping out just yet," said George.
"No," replied Yesslett; "perhaps I could not, and besides that," he
added, with an assumption of a manly manner that delighted and amused
George, though he was little more than a year older than his
cousin--"besides that, I shall have to look after the women."
"Yes, of course," said George, with a little smile.
"I say, Geordie," said Yesslett, in his natural, boyish, inquisitive
way a few moments afterwards, during which time George had been getting
ready the stores to take with them on their expedition, "whatever do
you want all those canvas bags for?"
"Oh, they'll come in useful," said George, who did not mean to tell his
chatterbox of a cousin that he hoped they would be useful for bringing
home the gold they were going to seek. He half blushed at thus counting
his chickens before they were hatched, but with a little laugh he went
on choosing the strongest sewn ones from a little heap of 14-lb. shot
bags that lay in a corner of the store near the door.
Yesslett understood that he would get no further answer from George, so
he remained behind the tall salt-meat cask, silently folding up the
great flour bag they had just emptied.
The same idea seemed to strike some one else, for a moment afterwards
Keggs, who had already made one or two excuses for coming into the
store that morning, appeared again at the door, and looking in, with
what he considered an engaging smile, he entered, and said--
"You seem mighty busy this morning!"
"Yes," said George, shortly, for he did not like the man, and Alec had
told him how he had been watching him the night before.
"And wot might y'all be ser busy for?"
"Because we've got something to do, and can't afford to waste time as
you do," said George, looking up at him.
"P'raps you wouldn't mind sayin' wot all them little bags is for?"
"To put things in--like this," said a deep voice from above him; and
before the astonished man could look up, Yesslett, holding the mouth of
the sack wide open, had leaped down on him from the top of the
salt-meat tub, and enveloped him completely in the rough dusty bag.
They could hear him choking and coughing and cursing as he struggled to
get out. Before he had succeeded in extricating himself, Yesslett, with
a most provoking and impish laugh, had vanished into the house. Keggs'
inflamed eyelids looked redder and more painful than ever from his
white powdered face when at last he had wriggled out of the sack, for
George would not help him; and as he sneaked off he swore that he would
"serve the young beggar out."
Breakfast at Wandaroo was taken, as is general on Queensland runs, at
about half-past seven or eight, when every one had gained an appetite
by the couple of hours' work he had done since sunrise. It was not a
particularly cheerful meal that morning, for Mrs. Law felt losing her
sons for so long a time, and the lads were too excited and busy to talk
very much. Fortunately Yesslett was in capital spirits, as indeed he
generally was, and Macleod, the general manager, was too old and too
hard-headed a man of the world to let so small a circumstance disturb
him. Although fond of the lads, he had known too many partings in his
lifetime to allow this one, which after all was not for so very long a
time, interfere with his breakfast.
"I hope you will be at the head station as much as possible whilst we
are away," said Alec, addressing Macleod. "The South Creek station
doesn't want so much looking after now, and I shall feel more
comfortable if I know you are here."
"Oh, aye, Alec, I s'all be heere," said the old Scotsman. "Yasslutt and
I can ferry weel look after the leddies."
"Don't trouble yourselves about us," said Margaret; "we shall get on
all right, there is nothing to be afraid of, for Starlight and his band
are nowhere in the neighbourhood, and they are the only people we have
to fear."
"How do you know that they are not about here?"
"Macleod brought the news up from Bateman that they have been seen
lately about Bowen, and that they 'stuck up' a bank manager in one of
the new townships near there in his own house, took his keys, emptied
his safe, and rode off scot free, though it was broad daylight and the
town was full of men."
"By Jove! Margaret, I almost believe you admire those sneaking
bushrangers," said George.
"Oh, no, I don't," replied she, blushing a little at the accusation;
"but I do think them bold and daring, and I can't help rather liking
their dash and pluck."
"Weel, Miss Mairgaret, theer's not much chaance o' their comin' to
Wandaroo," said old Macleod, in his caustic Scottish way, "so I greatly
fear you wull not haive the pleasure o' witnessin' 'the pluck and
daring' of ten weel armed and mounted men slinking on to a defenceless
station and robbing a pack o' women and lads o' their little a'.
Theer's nothing at Wandaroo to tempt bushrangers heether."
"Except the horses," muttered Alec.
"And we shall have the best of them with us," said George, turning to
his brother, for he had heard him, as he always did anything that Alec
said.
"Well, it's about time we started," said Alec, when breakfast was over;
"it will be getting fearfully hot directly, and we may as well spare
the horses as much as possible at first."
"Have you taken enough stores for a month for all of you?" asked Mrs.
Law, anxiously. "Those black boys eat such an enormous quantity."
"All right, mother, I've seen to that," said Geordie. "We shall take
two pack-horses, and I've looked out everything and loaded them well.
As to Murri and Prince Tom, they will have to pretty well feed
themselves--there is plenty of kangaroo and wallaby and bandicoot for
them to catch and eat; we shall take Como, too, and he'll help us get
food enough, don't fear."
"I hope you are going well armed," said Margaret the practical. "Take
plenty of powder and shot."
"Thank you, madame, we will, and ball, too. Being so young and
inexperienced in bush life," said Alec, with a laugh at his sister's
advice, "we should probably have forgotten all about these trifles."
"What do you want ball for, Alec?"
"Possibly for natives, my gentle sister," whispered Alec to her, "if
they are unkind enough and unwise enough to interfere with us. But we
shall take care of ourselves, never fear. Don't let mother know that we
think we may meet any _myalls_, she does so worry herself."
Shortly after this, having strapped up in their blankets the very few
clothes they were taking with them, they said good-bye to their mother
as cheerfully as possible, and went out to the yard. The horses, which
had been saddled, although fresh and excited, stood quite quietly, as
they had been trained to do when fastened to a post or rail, and the
two spare horses were loaded with the provisions, the one or two tin
pans and "billies," as the round pots for boiling water are called, and
the two boys' "swags." Prince Tom and Murri were already mounted, their
bare legs looking very ridiculous coming from under the old torn shirt
that each of them wore. They were both armed to the teeth with native
weapons, for in their belts of kangaroo sinew were thrust their
_nullah-nullahs_, and _waddies_ (clubs), their short throwing sticks,
and their most valued weapon, the _boomerang_. Each man had his native
stone hatchet fixed in his belt and lying along his spine, and they
carried, too, a few short spears strapped on to their saddles, and over
which their left legs passed. Kissing Margaret, who had come on to the
verandah to see them start, and shaking hands with Yesslett and
Macleod, the boys unfastened their horses and sprang into the saddle
with the perfect ease of accomplished horsemen.
It was a beautiful sight to see those boys ride; never did their
graceful, well-knit figures show to such advantage as on horseback.
Accustomed to riding from their earliest childhood, they sat a horse as
though it were--as it surely must be--the most natural place for a man
to be. Once in the saddle they seemed to be actually part of the animal
they rode, their swelling thighs and muscular calves clasping the horse
firmly and composedly, but the whole body above the hips swaying and
giving easily to every motion of the horse. They looked two as handsome
lads as could well be seen as they rode out of the yard that morning.
Their dark eyes were flashing and their healthy brown faces were all
aglow with excitement, and they laughed aloud, as their horses pranced
proudly beneath them, from sheer joy in the beauty of the sunshine and
the brightness of the day.
They turned, as they came to the gate of the paddock, and taking off
their soft, grey, broad-brimmed felt hats they waved a farewell to the
group on the verandah. The sun gleamed on the short curls of their
hair, and shone on the bright barrels of their guns and on the steel of
their bridles and stirrups as they shouted a cheery "good-bye."
Everything was bright and promised well. So they left on their wild
search for gold.
"Ah, good-bye, good-bye, my fine fellers," maliciously muttered Keggs,
who had been watching them with his blinking treacherous eyes from the
door of the bachelors' hut, where he was hidden in the shadow. "Better
men nor you are a-walkin' now who may be in your saddles afore long."
CHAPTER IV.
THE FIRST STAGES.
Unconscious of the evil glances and still more evil wishes of the man
hidden in the bachelors' hut, the boys rode on. They were happy, for
hope was strong in their hearts; the day was clear and invigorating,
for the sun had not gained much power as yet, though he shone royally
from a sky of cloudless blue; they were strong and well; the horses
they rode were fresh and powerful; and the feeling that at last they
were started on just such an adventure as all their lives they had both
wished for, gave a zest to life that they had never before experienced.
Could any one wish for more than this?
It was a day to put the most miserable of men in high spirits, and it
can hardly be said that Alec and George were of that nature. Up on
those wide, open downs the air is clear and strong; a pleasant breeze
from the eastern sea blew on their faces and cooled their sun-tanned
necks, from which the loose unbuttoned collars of their flannel shirts
fell back. The keen, sweet smell of the wild marjoram rose from the
ground as their horse's hoofs crushed it as they rode along, and the
"chirr" of the crickets and the locusts in the ti-scrub made a
cheerful, though unobserved, music in their accustomed ears.
For many miles they would be riding over their own land, for the run
was one of those huge tracts of country that were taken up by the
pioneer squatters in the early years of the settlement of that part of
the colony, and of course the boys knew their way about it better than
the natives did, so they led the way, and the black boys followed,
leading the spare horses.
Como, the great tawny kangaroo hound, bounded along by the side of
George's horse, the pace being an easy one to his enormous stride,
every now and then turning aside to examine with inquisitive nose the
traces of kangaroo that had passed thereby. He was a splendid hound,
standing, when he put his great paws on George's shoulders, some inches
taller than his master himself.
For some few miles the country was open and park-like, dotted here and
there with clumps of great gum trees, between whose ragged trunks they
could easily ride, as no brushwood grows in their shade, and every now
and then it was varied with strips and patches of scrub and wild
impenetrable bush. Much of the land had been cleared by firing, and the
gaunt skeletons of the burnt trees stood up here and there, stretching
their bare arms towards heaven, as though protesting against their
fate. They had been following, until now, the slight track that had
gradually been formed by the horses passing between the head station
and the hut on the Yarrun station, where two of the Wandaroo shepherds
lived. But where the track turned aside and crossed the deep gully, on
the other side of which, at some little distance, the Yarrun hut stood,
Alec called a halt.
"Over yonder," said he, pointing to a low line of dim blue hills that
lay along the horizon to the north-east, "lie the ranges from which we
may perhaps see the first spurs of those great mountains we are looking
for. It was from those hills that Stevens said he had seen mountain
peaks in the far-distant north. He might have been lying, probably was,
for he was an awful liar, but Murri and the other boys also say that
the mountains are there. It is no use our making a rush at the hills,
and perhaps going over the highest part of all. We may as well strike a
valley, if there be one, and save both time and our horses; so we will
stop a minute to let the boys catch us up, and ask them."
"Now, then, let's ask Murri or Prince Tom," said George, as the other
horses came up.
Alec turned in his saddle, and, resting one hand affectionately on
Amber's glossy back, he asked Murri his opinion as to which was the
best road across the ranges.
"High up _boudgeree cawbawn_" (much best) "for um black fellow, 'cause
black fellow walk and kangaroo there; low down _boudgeree_" (good) "for
white fellows, 'cause um _yarroman_" (because of the horses).
"You know um road low down, Murri?"
"_Yohi._ Mine been along o' that place plenty time, _bail gammon bong_.
Mine go first; white fellow follow 'long o' me." (Yes, I have been to
that place many times. No gammon. I will go first, you follow after
me.)
From this point the country was new to the two lads, and they had to
get Murri to point out to them the direction in which they should go.
With that incomprehensible instinct which the Australian savage
possesses in such perfection, Murri knew the best road to be taken, and
pointed to a slight rise in the ground a few miles ahead, and said--
"Along o' that place first."
By the time that they reached the little hill towards which Murri had
directed them the day had grown terribly hot, for the power of the sun
at mid-day in Queensland is very trying. Wandaroo was well within the
Tropics, being in about the same latitude as Bowen, but a little to the
north of it. The black boys, of course, did not feel the heat, and Alec
and George, being naturalised to it, were not affected much; but the
horses suffered a great deal, both from the sun and the countless
flies.
Prince Tom knew of a spring in a little shady ravine on the far side of
the hill, and when they had "rose the ridge" they saw the welcome signs
of water below them. Thither they led the horses, and after they had
filled their "billies" for the tea, which is the bushman's constant
beverage, they allowed the thirsty brutes to drink a little. As they
had made a very good stage since morning, having crossed the vaguely
defined limits of their own run, and entered upon the vast crown lands
which, at present, were only inhabited by the _myalls_, they determined
to halt for a spell.
The riding horses were unsaddled, and the two spare horses unloaded,
and then, having their fore feet "hobbled," they were turned loose to
graze and pick up their living as best they might. A horse hobble is a
short length of chain (the wilder the horse, the fewer the links),
which is fastened by two straps to the fore legs of a horse, so that,
although he is free to wander about and graze, he is quite unable to
escape very far. Some very clever and agile horses can manage to
shuffle off to a great distance, and they have been known to leap the
tall fences of a paddock with their hocks thus coupled together.
Although an Australian horse can find sustenance where an English one
would starve, Alec's chief anxiety was the keep of his little troop. It
was totally impossible to carry fodder for so many horses, and he
feared that in the great dreary stretch of spinifex-covered desert that
the black boys said he would have to cross his horses would starve.
However, though he was not without foresight, he was not of that
desponding nature which lets the possibility of future ills blight the
pleasant present; so he opened one of the parcels of tea, and
cheerfully threw in a pinch or two, "and one for the pot," and, backing
away from the hot little fire, he flung himself down in the shade of a
few grey-leaved acacia shrubs, and waited till the tea "corroborreed,"
as he called boiling.
Whilst the boys waited for the tea to boil, Prince Tom and Murri
wandered away to pick up any little bush delicacy in the way of food
that they might discover. The one idea of an Australian black is "food"
and "the getting of food," and the amount they will consume at one
sitting, of flesh or anything else eatable, is incredible. They will
eat till they can literally take no more, and then will lie on their
backs till the effect of the gorge has passed off, when they will rise
and, if they can get it, begin over again, smiling.
In a short time they heard a great creaking and cracking, and, looking
down the little hillside, saw Murri swaying and wriggling a smallish
green tree, and exerting himself mightily over it. Presently the brown
rotten roots gave way, and the little tree fell with a crash. In the
decaying wood was a mass of fat, white, struggling grubs. They saw
Murri pick out a number, and scoop them up in his hollowed hands; then
he came rushing up to the place where George was sitting in the little
gully.
"Missa Law, mine find _bardee_. You _patter_" (eat) "all ob um. _Bardee
boudgeree cawbawn._" (Grubs are very good.)
As Murri could not pronounce George's name, he always called him "Missa
Law." Alec, on the contrary, he always addressed by his Christian name,
as he had no difficulty in saying it.
George took two or three of the grubs, and placed them in the hot ashes
of the fire, for they are really most excellent when roasted in this
way. The blacks always prefer to eat theirs uncooked. It was a very
extraordinary thing that Murri should have given him any, for as a rule
the natives are not generous, and they rarely give anything away. But
Murri was an exceptionally fine specimen of the Australian savage,
possessing many of those higher qualities as to which many travellers
accuse them of being absolutely deficient.
It is often said that the aborigines are entirely treacherous and
wanting in a sense of gratitude, and this, it must be admitted, is true
as a general rule. But to this rule, as to all, there are some
exceptions, and Murri was a case in point. Some months before this
George had had occasion to go to the native camp to hire a boy or two
to help in driving in a little mob of cattle from one of the outer
stations. He had seen Murri, wrapped in his possum rug, lying by the
side of a huge fire, and groaning and writhing with pain. One of the
old _gins_, who was crouching by the side of him, said that he was
bewitched, and that he would die very soon, and evidently believed the
truth of what she said so firmly that she thought it useless to do
anything to help the invalid, and in consequence only sat groaning and
howling over him. George had always rather liked this man Murri, who
was more intelligent than any of the other men at the camp, so he
looked at him, and thought that there was nothing more the matter with
him than a good strong dose of medicine would cure; he therefore rode
back to the station, and procured a powerful but simple remedy, which
he administered straightway to him.
That night George returned to the camp to see how the invalid was
progressing, and found the dying man restored to perfect health, and
walking about and chattering as usual. Since that time Murri had been
his sworn ally and bondsman, and seemed to have conceived a strong
attachment to the young white man.
Towards evening, when the power of the declining sun had grown less,
Alec said that they had better push on; so the horses were caught and
re-saddled, and the little cavalcade rode on till after sunset. They
camped that night at the edge of a great dark forest, where the giant
trees were all tangled together by a wild luxuriance of tropical
creepers and vines. Its deep shades, that had never been desecrated by
the foot of man, looked dark and awful, and the leaves of the trees,
languid after the heat of the burning day, were motionless and silent
in the stilly air. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and the
atmosphere seemed still quivering with the heat radiated from the
baking earth. But the coolness of the night was at hand, and the heavy
dews, that would refresh all living things, were yet to fall.
The little party had made good progress since the morning, for they had
ridden fast and well, the open nature of the country, for that first
day's journey, at least, having offered no bar to their progress. The
range of hills, which was the first point to be reached in their
journey, seemed in the clear, warm light before sunset to loom quite
close upon them, and they felt confident of getting well in amongst
them before very late next day.
That night they slept the sleep of the weary, with their heads upon
their saddles and covered with their blankets.
Their loaded guns they laid beside them, and carefully covered them
with their blankets, that the heavy dew might not spoil their
cartridges. Many a time has a man sprung up from sleep when attacked by
_myalls_, and found to his consternation that he could not fire his
gun, and all because he had not taken the simple precaution of keeping
his loaded weapon covered from the damp.
It was not the first night by many a one that the two lads had camped
out, but still they had not lost all sense of novelty in doing so, and
the excitement of their position and the unaccustomed hardness of their
beds awoke them once or twice. But neither of them was foolish enough
to waste valuable time in lying awake, and after a little surprised
thought at the horsey smell of their leather pillows and an upward
glance at the deep clear blue of the vast starry heaven stretched above
them, they would pull their rough blanket closer about them--for even
tropical nights are cold when the dews are falling--and with a little
shake or two to settle themselves in their places they would roll off
to sleep again.
CHAPTER V.
A TRAITOR IN THE CAMP.
The journey next day was hotter and more oppressive than the first, for
their way led them, in several places, through thick and tangled
forest, where the luxuriant undergrowth was so matted and wild that
they could not force their way without the greatest labour and loss of
time. Here again Murri's knowledge of the country was of the greatest
service, for he knew that there was a river thereabouts, which flowed
from the ranges, along the dry bed of which they could travel. It was a
poor road when he found it, for the sand was very deep in some places
and it was so rocky in others, that their horses had no small
difficulty in picking a road. It was, however, much easier to travel
thus than to be obliged to chop and hew their way through the
vine-bound thickets of the bush.
Although they had passed all their lives in Queensland, the boys had
never seen such majestic forest as clothed, for the most part, the tops
of the banks of this creek, for all the bush within many miles of any
European settlements or stations is so frequently the scene of fires,
both accidental and intentional, that either it is totally destroyed or
its wild beauty is greatly spoiled. Here, it seemed, no devastating
flames had ever impaired the grandeur of the primeval forest. The giant
trees, of vast age and enormous girth, were bound together by loops and
ropes of creepers; every branch and stem was covered with quantities of
strange parasitical growths and ferns, and the dead and dying branches
of the trees were clothed and draped with hanging masses of grey moss.
Every now and then a rotten branch would fall with a crash, startling,
with wild echoes, the silence of the bush.
In every cranny of the rocky sides of the ravine some green thing grew,
a cluster of drooping ferns or tall rich grasses, and here and there a
tapering palm raised its rose of leaves upon the slender column of its
graceful stem. About the trees in the golden heat, or in the cool
recesses of their shadowy branches, flew flocks of parroquets of every
gorgeous hue; bright green and crimson, amethyst and amber, they
flashed as they darted hither and thither, with the sunshine gleaming
on every burnished feather, till they glowed like living jewels. The
cooing of the many sorts of pigeons hidden in the woods, the clear
resonant note of the bell bird, and every now and again the grand, pure
song of the golden-throated organ magpie made sweet music for them as
they rode along.
But, although the beauty around them was so great, the heat was
terribly trying in the deep bed of that dry river, and not a drop of
water was to be found in the rock pools along the course of the stream.
"I don't know how you feel, Alec," George said, after they had been
riding several hours in this blazing heat, "but I am completely
parched. My clothes would be wet through with sweat if the sun didn't
dry 'em just as quick. I don't believe there's a blessed drop of
moisture left in my whole body."
"Beastly, isn't it? I say, Geordie, what fools we were not to have
brought some water with us from last night's camp."
"So we should, only that ass of a Prince Tom said we were sure to get
plenty in the water holes in the river. River! I call it a jolly old
sand pit."
"Well, Murri says we are sure to get some at the place he recommends us
to stop at. There is a native well there."
"I hope there is."
Shortly after this Murri overtook them, and said that at the next bend
in the river was the place they ought to stay at, as, at this dry
season, there was no water beyond that for many miles. So at the place
indicated--it was at the junction to the main creek of what, in flood
times, would be a freshet, but what was then a dry and rocky little
watercourse--they dismounted and unsaddled their horses. They at once
followed Murri to the place where he remembered the native well was
situated, and found, to their intense disappointment, that it was
absolutely dry. There were many traces of blacks on the sand around the
well, and traces which both Murri and Prince Tom said were quite recent
ones, and if there had been any water there at all, which was doubtful,
they had consumed it every drop.
The disappointment was all the keener as they had looked forward with
such certainty to finding water there. Still they were in no great
straits for it at present, although very thirsty and parched.
"What shall we do? Push on to the next camp?" said George.
"Oh, no, we must put up with it; we can manage to do without drink for
a long time yet, and the horses must rest. We must not knock them up
whatever else we do."
"All right, I can manage if you can, old fellow. I was thinking of Como
more than myself," said the boy, looking down at his dog, who was
thrusting his dry, hot nose into his master's hand as though to tell
him how much he suffered. "Never mind, Como, old boy, you shall have as
much to drink as you like tonight."
So without any useless grumblings they threw themselves down in the
shade and kept themselves as quiet and still as the plague of flies
would let them. Just then Alec noticed that Prince Tom had not unloaded
the pack-horse which had been given into his charge, though he had
hobbled her and turned her loose. This was a most absurd and annoying
thing to do, as not only was the mare greatly impeded in her feeding,
but the pack upon her back was every moment threatened with destruction
amongst the rocks and boughs that overhung the sides of the gully.
Alec, whose temper was always rather a quick and hasty one, had been a
good deal ruffled that day by one or two little signs of Prince Tom's
desire to shirk his share of the work, and the heat, and the flies, and
the want of water, too, had worried him considerably, so that it is not
to be wondered at that he was angry. He jumped up hastily when he saw
how Prince Tom had neglected Polly, and caught the skulking fellow--who
was leaning against a tree close to him eating a lump of damper--a
sounding box on the ears. He was very angry, and the black could see
it.
"What for you leave um load on um _yarroman_?" said Alec, advancing
towards him as though he would repeat the blow.
Prince Tom danced and leaped backwards with surprising agility to get
out of his way.
"Black fellow werry tired," he answered, sulkily. "Bail water bong,
bail work" (no water, no work). "White fellow eat an' drinkee all um
day. White fellow strong. You go take pack off _yarroman_."
Alec could hardly help laughing at the impudence of the fellow making
such an absurd statement, but he sternly bade him go and unload the
horse, and Prince Tom shuffled off and did it. Already several times
since they had left Wandaroo Alec had thought that Tom had shown signs
of insubordination and disobedience, whilst Murri, on the contrary,
cheerfully obeyed their bidding, and did everything that he could to
assist them. The fact that Prince Tom was so much less to be trusted
than Murri may be accounted for by the fact that Tom was a partly
civilised black, having lived about Wandaroo and other stations for
some years, whilst Murri had not very long been drafted into the native
camp on the station from the wild _myall_ part of his tribe, which
hunted in the immediate neighbourhood of Wandaroo.
All that afternoon, whilst they rested thirstily by the dried-up native
well, Tom relieved his anger by singing _corroborree_ songs to himself
in a low voice, but with flashing eyes and an excited manner. An
Australian savage comforts himself with these wild chants at all times
of trouble or anger, and as they are short, and are repeated over and
over again, perhaps hundreds of times, and as the tune is but a few
harsh notes strung together, the effect upon a listener, who is not
also a native Australian, becomes exasperating in the extreme.
This is what Prince Tom sang for hours and hours that day:--
"_Marra boor-ba, boor-ba nunga,
Marra gul-ga, gul-ga nunga,
Marra boor-ba, boor-ba nunga,
Marra gul-ga, gul-ga nunga._"
He sang another one just at first, when he felt very angry with Alec,
and doubtless it was a great consolation to him, for all the
opprobrious terms in it were meant as descriptive of the elder Law:--
"The wooden-headed,
Bandy-legged,
Thin-thighed fellow.
The long-armed
Long-shinned,
Thin-thighed fellow."
And then every now and then, with a sort of scornful laugh, he would
add--
"_Mat-ta, mat-ta, yungore bya,
Mat-ta, mat-ta, yungore bya._"
"Oh, what legs, oh, what legs, the kangaroo-like fellow,
Oh, what legs, oh, what legs, the kangaroo-like fellow."
This singing did not trouble the boys much; they made Tom move off to a
distance, and then the sound of his chanting only made them feel drowsy
in the hot afternoon air, and in the shade of the thick bushes they
slept till it was time to push on to their camping-place for the night.
They noticed many signs of natives being in the neighbourhood, their
steps in the sand and the remains of their fires, but Murri said that
the party had gone off towards the west, probably in search of water,
as the water holes in that creek were all dried up.
By sunset they were well amongst the hills of the ranges they had been
aiming for. They had left the bed of the river soon after they had
started again in the afternoon. The country had grown much wilder,
there was less bush about it, and the hills themselves were only
covered with coarse native grasses, and ti-scrub and _mulga_. They
camped that night in a rocky ravine, on either side of which the steep
hills rose to a little height, leaving only a broad strip of sky above
them. Here they were able to drink--themselves and their thirsting
animals for they found a native well which, when they had scraped out
the accumulations of sand that had drifted into it, gave them a little
supply of water.
That night the boys lay down with their loaded rifles by the side of
them. They knew that strange blacks were in the neighbourhood, and
although they had not caught sight of them, the keen-eyed savages, as
Murri warned them, might have espied them and might make a raid upon
their little force for the sake of the horses and the provisions they
carried.
Alec thought it wisest that they should keep a watch through the night,
and this was done. George took the first, Murri the second, Tom the
third, and Alec himself was to watch from about half-past two till
dawn.
All went well during the first part of the night. Geordie called Murri
at the appointed time, and reported everything quiet, and so it
continued through Murri's watch. He roused Prince Tom, who rose with an
alacrity that surprised him, and lying down he was soon sound asleep.
No sooner had Prince Tom's quick ears told him that Murri slept than he
rose from the side of the tree where he was crouching, and slowly, and
noiselessly as a shadow, moved to where Alec and George were lying side
by side. He made not the least sound as he stepped; each naked foot
fell upon the dry soft sand as quietly as a falling leaf upon the
grass. He stood behind them, stiff and motionless as a statue, and
listened to their breathing to judge whether they slept soundly. He
held his cruel _waddy_ (club) in his hand. Would he murder them? Was he
about to revenge himself on Alec thus?
It was well for them that the thought of it never entered his childish,
savage brain. He would have killed them ruthlessly had the idea but
presented itself to him; but that was not his intention. George rolls
over and indistinctly mutters something; the savage grasps his
murderous weapon that is half raised for the blow. Lie still, Geordie,
_lie still_. But the boy does not wake, he only moves his head upon his
saddle-flap and sinks again to deeper slumber.
Having assured himself that all are soundly sleeping, Prince Tom glides
silently away; he goes to the little heap that the loads of the two
pack-horses make, and with quick hands begins to turn the different
sacks and parcels over. Many a backward glance he flings over his
shoulder to where the sleeping boys lie. But they do not move. He
hastily takes the bags that hold the flour and sugar and rice, and
swiftly carries them a little way down the ravine, towards the place
where he can hear the cropping of the horses. Once more he comes back
and takes another load, of which his saddle and bridle form part,
depositing it with the first.
Wake, Alec! Wake, George! Treachery and robbery are going on. Wake up,
wake up! But they lie still as death, unconscious of all that goes on
so near them.
No sooner has Prince Tom taken as much as he thinks one horse can
carry, and rather more, than he steals away to where the horses are
feeding. He can only see them very indistinctly, for a pale, blue mist
hangs above the damp, sour ground--it is an impassable swamp in the wet
season--where they are feeding, but his quick ears guide him, and he
hurries rapidly towards them. He thinks he will take Amber, for he
knows how Alec values him, and it will be sweet to be revenged. He
creeps up quite close to the animal, and is stretching out his hand to
seize his forelock, when the horse perceives him and turns sharply
round. Amber always hates the black boys, and never has let one touch
him, and he thinks it cannot, under the circumstances, be wrong to
bestow a gentle kick upon this one. Like a wise animal he acts upon
what he thinks right, and lifting up his heels as quick as thought, he
catches Tom such a kick upon the shin of one of his legs as would have
disabled any one less hardy than a savage. As it is he suffers
intensely, but silently, and hobbles off towards the horse he has been
riding, which he catches without much difficulty. Saddling the
creature, and securing his booty of food, over which he gloats with the
gaze of a miser, he quickly mounts and rides slowly away. He walks his
horse at first that the sound of hurried footsteps may not arouse the
sleeping men, and enters the thin, blue sea of mist slowly, like a
dusky vision, but he quickens his pace as he leaves the camp behind,
and soon vanishes in the pale clouds of vapour that lie along the
bottom of the valley.
The night wears away apace, and at last, when Alec awakes, the dawn is
close upon them. He feels chilly and shudders, and looking up he sees
that the night has almost gone. He soon remembers that he ought to have
been called for his watch, but as he sees George by his side he thinks
that nothing more is amiss than that Tom has fallen asleep at his post
and has not called him, as he should have done, three hours or so ago.
He jumps up and looks round, and directly that his glance falls upon
the little tumbled heap of provisions he knows what has happened.
"Geordie, Geordie, wake up!" he cries.
"Well, what is it? Good morning," says George, as cheerfully as
anything, and waking up at once, as wide awake as possible, like a
bird.
"Oh, only that all our provisions are gone in the night, and that dirty
black thief, Tom, with them."
"Nonsense!"
But so it is. It is only too plain, for when they all three--for Murri
has joined them, looking the picture of fright, and thinking that he
will be punished for Prince Tom's fault--come to examine the remaining
part of the two spare horses' loads they find very little remaining. It
is principally flour that Tom has taken, the very thing of all others
that they chiefly require; he has left them one bag of it, one parcel
of rice, all the tea and some sugar, and some tins of American salmon.
All the things that they might manage to do without he has generously
left behind, and those to which they trusted for their stay in the
mountains he has taken!
Murri was most anxious that they should follow Tom; he said that it
would be quite easy for him to track him, and that they would in all
probability catch him in the course of the day.
"Mine can _mil-mil_" (I can see) "where him go. You soon cotch along o'
black fellow. Um _yarroman_ go slow, plenty much heavy on um back.
Missa Law chewt him with umriple" (rifle); "Prince Tom fall dead bong;"
and here Murri slapped his naked thigh and laughed with delight at the
thought.
"We can't do that," said George, "it would only be wasting time, for he
has a four hours' start of us, and would take good care we didn't come
up with him."
"We must go back, of course," said Alec, with a hard tone in his voice
which told how much it cost him to say the words.
"Go back! not we indeed," said George, laying his arm about his
brother's shoulders, and looking at him with such a cheering smile on
his winsome face as would have inspirited the most desponding.
"It is not for myself, lad, but for you. I would go on if I hadn't a
crumb of bread or an ounce of flour," said he, with his old
determination; "but I promised mother that I would look after you, and
I will."
"Look after me, of course you will, and I after you, you jolly old
goose; but go back, _I shan't_. You may if you like. I shall go on
with Murri. I am not afraid."
"Do you mean it?" said Alec, eagerly, and with a glad light once more
shining in his eye. "Yes, you do, I see. You are a good plucked one,
Geordie. We _will_ go on!"
"You white fellow _patter_" (eat) "kangaroo and potchum and wallaby?"
here suddenly asked Murri, who had been listening intently and trying
to understand what they were saying.
"_Yohi_, Murri, possum and wallaby, eat um all," said George, laughing,
"or any other blessed thing you can catch us, old man," he added.
"No go back then," said Murri, grinning and nodding his head like a
mandarin; "plenty much kangaroo all along o' that place. Mine can catch
um. Prince Tom him _debbil-debbil_; him go find _myall_ in bush, him no
go back Wandaroo."
This was a danger that the boys had not thought of, for if Tom managed
to join any of the wild tribes thereabouts, as seemed the most probable
thing for him to do, they would very quickly consume all the provisions
he had stolen, and would want to possess themselves of all that the
boys still had with them. Alec saw this at once, and determined to
hasten on and endeavour by forced marches to put such a distance
between them as would prevent any possibility of their being overtaken.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FIGHT WITH THE MYALLS.
The little party made a very sparing breakfast that morning, as Alec
said they would have to place themselves on half rations of flour, and
trust to their guns and Murri's hunting for the rest of their food.
George shot a white cockatoo, of which they made a hasty broil, and
Murri caught a little mottled snake amongst the stones, which he
quickly cooked and ate.
They were ready to break camp almost before the light mist had been
melted by the first rays of the sun. The morning was bright, and the
dew-drops that covered the short spare grass or hung on the leaves of
the stunted bushes that grew amongst the rocks gleamed like diamonds as
they trembled in the crisp morning air. The horses were fresh, for they
had found good feed on the little dried-up marsh, and the whole day was
cheery with the morning songs of the birds and the sounds of life that
proceeded from all living things that rejoiced in the early glory of
the day.
Although the boys had suffered such a loss in the night they were not
desponding; it had made their undertaking more difficult, but it had
not rendered it impossible, and their spirits only rose the higher at
the thought of greater obstacles to be overcome. They still had forty
pounds of flour and about ten of rice, and George, who was head of the
commissariat department said that, with very careful management, and by
eating plenty of kangaroo or other flesh, it ought to last them five or
six weeks, and they did not expect to be away more than a month in all.
Busy with these calculations and full of talk as to what had become of
Prince Tom and the horse he had stolen, and as to whether the box on
the ears Alec had given him the day before had been the cause of his
deserting them in this shameful manner, they rode along for some few
hours. The valley amongst the hills, along which they had been riding
since they had entered the ranges the evening before, was not only very
winding but very varying in shape as well. The place where they had
camped the night before, and from which Prince Tom had deserted them,
was a mere rocky defile, with the hills close on either hand. The
valley had widened out shortly after leaving this place, and they had
been able to travel a little quicker; but now that they began to
approach the other end of the pass it gradually narrowed again till the
rocks on either side almost met overhead, making the defile shadowy and
dark.
Murri had told them that when they emerged from the rocks they would be
able to see the great mountains beyond, and the boys were eagerly
looking forward to seeing the land of promise which they hoped would
prove such an El Dorado for them. They were talking of the gold they
would find, and were laughing excitedly at the thought of so soon
seeing the mountains, forgetful of all the difficulties that still lay
between them and the far-off peaks, for the glamour of gold was upon
them, and their imaginations were dazzled with the dreams which they
themselves had conjured up. They had touched their horses with the
spur, and the animals were just breaking into a canter, for the sandy
ground was clear just there, when Murri, who was close behind them,
leading the pack-horses, called out to them in a voice which, although
low, was so eager and earnest that the boys almost unconsciously obeyed
it.
"Stop, stop!"
They pulled their horses up dead and turned round, Alec's hand
instinctively falling on the lock of his rifle, which he carried slung
at his back, for he was instantly aware, from the tone of Murri's
voice, that some near danger threatened them.
"What is it?" he asked, in the same low tone.
"You no _mil-mil_" (see)? "Black fellow go along o' this place, two,
four minutes ago. Um come down along o' that gully. Lookee, there um
footmark," said he, pointing to a number of traces on the shingly sand
that the boys had not noticed. "And there," he added, suddenly, his
voice growing hoarse with the intensity of his excitement, "there
footmark o' _yarroman_. That Dandy, mine _pitnee_" (I know). "Prince
Tom, him with _myalls_."
This sudden announcement of their danger made the boys' hearts beat
high, and for a moment sent the strong blood surging in their ears.
They well knew what it meant. As they had thought possible, Tom had
succeeded in joining one of the numerous tribes of savages wandering
about the neighbourhood, and, telling them of the prey, had led them to
this narrow gorge, which he knew the lads must pass through. But there
was not an ounce of coward in either of the boys, and in a moment both
of them were ready for any emergency.
Alec's voice was steady, though his face was pale, when, through his
closed teeth, he said, without turning to his brother, but keeping a
steady glance ahead--
"Geordie, is your rifle loaded as well as your revolver?"
"Yes, both barrels."
"Fix your reins round the D-iron on the pommel, so as to have both
hands free. Will Firebrace be guided by the knees?"
"Yes, as well as Amber. Let us try to get to that great rock in the
middle of the gully. If we can get that behind us we shall, at least,
have no one at our backs."
"Come along, then. Come on, Murri. Keep well behind me, Geordie."
But George Law was not of the sort to seek to protect himself behind
any one, and he took no notice of this direction, but quickened his
pace a little and rode up alongside of his brother, without a word, to
face the danger, whatever it might be, equally with him. Alec knew what
he meant by doing so, and gave one of those little nods of the head
that meant so very much between the brothers.
The next few moments, when they knew that dozens of pairs of keen and
hostile eyes were even then gazing at them from the rocks and crannies
and bushes that hid their coming foe, were perhaps the most trying that
the boys ever experienced. Every second they expected a shower of
spears to dart upon them from their enemies' hiding-places, and yet
they had to pass along the hundred yards or so that lay between them
and the rock they wished to reach quite slowly and calmly that they
might fire upon any native that aimed a spear at them.
They had almost reached the rock where they meant to make their stand,
when the first spear, whistling as it flew, thrown with enormous speed
from a throwing stick, darted between George and his horse's head. It
buried itself deep in the shingle. Geordie turned like a shot, but
before he had time to lift his hand the black warrior had dropped
behind the rock, where he was completely hidden. This was the signal
for attack, and many spears were darted at them from either side as
they rode on. One struck Jezebel, one of the led horses, and made her
rear and kick out viciously, but as yet the boys and Murri were unhurt.
Como had one or two narrow escapes; in fact he was grazed by one spear.
The boys' blood began to boil, for they could get no shot at all at any
of their assailants, and they themselves were quite open to attack.
Directly that they reached the rock George sprang from the saddle and
sang out in a voice, made clear and loud by excitement--what need was
there for whispering now?--
"Get down, Alec; they are aiming at Como and the horses, the brutes; we
must send 'em round to the other side of the rock with Murri. Keep them
safe, or we are done for."
No sooner said than done. In an instant Alec was by his side, and,
making Murri understand what he was to do, they gave him hold of their
bridles. He led the horses to the other side of the little fortress,
and the boys stood there alone. Alec, with a true soldier's eye, had
seen the advantage of this position, which not only screened them from
attack in the rear, but offered a good protection at the sides as well.
The _myalls_, who, in that part of Queensland, are a big, bold, and
finely-made race of men, seeing that they could not get at the boys
unless they left the shelter of the rocks and bushes where they were
hidden, now came out into the open and collected themselves for the
attack. There must have been twenty or thirty of them, all armed to the
teeth with spears and _nullah-nullahs_ and _waddies_, and there, on the
extreme left of the group, was Prince Tom, grinning like a demon, and
still mounted on Dandy. Besides the men there was a little crowd of
_gins_, who collected stones for their husbands, picked up their spears
when they were thrown, and goaded the warriors on when the fighting
began with their shrieks and wild yells.
"There's that thief of a Tom, look!" said George to his brother; "I'd
dearly love to have a shot at him, but I might miss at this distance,
and that would never do."
"Don't waste a single shot, Geordie; and look here, we mustn't fire
together, or they will be in on us and stick us in no time. I'll shoot
first, both my rifle and my revolver, and while I am reloading you keep
up a steady fire. It's our only chance. Do you understand?"
Alec's heart was thumping in his throat so that he could hardly speak;
he knew how much depended on their keeping cool and never losing their
heads. Geordie's steady answer relieved him somewhat, and surprised him
too, for the boy's face to his very lips was white.
"Aye, aye, Alec, I understand. God protect us now, for they are on us."
The words had hardly left his lips before the blacks had made a run and
discharged a little cloud of spears at them. The boys dropped on their
knees, and the weapons striking the rock above them fell harmlessly
behind them. Then Alec fired. His hand was as steady as the rock itself
now that the supreme moment had come, and he aimed quite quietly. With
the two quick reports of his rifle two savages fell dead, and then
instantly dropping his rifle he picked up his revolver, and fired six
shots again in rapid succession.
Hearing, for the first time, the awful report of the white man's
mysterious weapon, and seeing two of their number fall dead from no
apparent cause, stayed for a moment the black men's attack; but seeing
no evil results ensue from the other shots--for Alec was not accustomed
to pistol shooting and got a wrong elevation--they plucked up courage
again and renewed the attack. They had fallen back a little when Alec
first fired, but hearing that the mysterious noise had ceased they
again rushed forward.
The little ravine that a moment before had appeared so quiet and
deserted had suddenly been changed to a scene of the wildest fury. The
savages were leaping and bounding about, uttering the most unearthly of
cries as they brandished their _waddies_ and their spears; the women,
whose thin bodies seemed here, there, and everywhere at once, added
their yells and shrieks to the awful clamour.
Before Alec had had time to reload, a second volley of spears was
discharged at them, and George, as coolly as though aiming at pigeons,
fired in return. He hit one man, killing him, and wounded another, who
fell to the earth shrieking in his agony. By the time he had emptied
the six barrels of his revolver three more men, who had come up to
close quarters, had received disabling wounds, and the greater part of
the _myalls_, thinking that they had had enough of it, rushed off with
the women up the cliffs. But a few bolder spirits still remained to
dispute the field.
Four great naked fellows, strong and muscular, and made hideous by the
paint with which they had daubed themselves, rushed in upon the lads,
_waddies_ in hand, and rending the air with their shrieks. The boys
gave one quick glance at each other as though to say farewell, and
seizing the barrels of their rifles in both hands they waited for the
assault. But before the _myalls_ reached them unexpected help came to
their aid. Just as the foremost of the men was within a few feet of the
rock, a figure dashed round from the other side of it like a flash of
light and dealt the gigantic savage so fierce and heavy a blow on the
side of the head with a stone that he held in his hand that it
stretched him silent and senseless on the sand.
It was Murri who had thus rushed to their rescue.
They now were but three to three, as Murri instantly attacked another
of the _myalls_ with the _waddy_ which he had snatched from the hand of
his fallen foe. George made a step forward, and quickly swinging his
rifle round he brought it heavily down upon the neck of another of the
men. But the blow was not a disabling one; he had aimed it at his head,
but the wary savage had bent on one side. Before George had time to
recover himself and lift his weapon for a second blow his opponent
sprang in, and striking him a sickening blow on the top of the head he
felled him to the ground. He would have had his head beaten in by the
savage had not Como leaped over his master's prostrate body and,
showing all his strong white teeth, flown at the enemy. This created a
momentary diversion.
Alec saw George fall, and felt sure, from the nature of the blow he had
seen him receive, that he was dead. He dealt a wild blow at the man
with whom he was engaged and disabled him, and then, with such a yell
of fury as a lioness gives when she protects her young, he turned upon
his brother's foe. He sprang across Geordie's body as it lay face
downwards in the sand, and seizing in one powerful hand the descending
arm of the savage, who had kicked Como to one side and was aiming a
second cruel blow at the boy as he lay, he began a hand-to-hand
struggle with him.
Alec dealt him a crashing blow between the eyes with his disengaged
fist as he leaped upon him, and then clasping him in both his arms he
tried to bring him to the ground. The _myall_ was a grand specimen
of the tall Queensland savage, strong and fully developed, and at an
ordinary time Alec would have been as a child in his hands, but the
sight of this murderous black slaying his brother Geordie, his only
brother, had stirred up such a mad tempest of passion in Alec's breast
that he was, for the time, as strong as any three. Every muscle in his
strong young body was strained, every sinew and fibre stiffened for the
effort, and as he felt the wild mad struggles of the savage to free
himself from his grip his grasp seemed to grow stronger, and his clutch
upon his hot and swelling throat to grow fiercer every second.
Gradually, as the seconds passed, the struggles of the black grew less
and less, but Alec never loosed his hold, so maddened was he with rage
and despair, till, with starting eyes, the head of the savage rolled
over on his shoulder, and when at last Alec's convulsive grip was
relaxed, and he turned with a sob of anguish to where his brother lay,
the black man fell down--dead.
In the meantime Murri was not idle; he was engaged, upon pretty equal
terms, with the one remaining savage. They had neither done any damage
to the other, when suddenly the stalwart black, seeing the fate of his
companion at Alec's hands, sprang away from Murri, and made secure his
position by an ignominious flight. Murri started in pursuit, but he
soon saw the hopelessness or folly of it, and stopped. As he did so he
saw Prince Tom some little way down the gully, still mounted on Dandy,
who, wild with fear at the firing and at the proximity of the shrieking
savages, was rushing about the little glen, refusing to mount the steep
sides, as Tom was trying to force him to do.
Seeing the state of fear the horse was in, Murri called him loudly by
his name several times, thinking that he might try to rejoin them. At
the first sound of his name the intelligent creature pricked up his
ears and, rearing suddenly, turned in the direction of his friends. As
he did so, Prince Tom, dislodged by the sudden bound of the horse, lost
his seat and fell heavily to the ground. He could not succeed in
disentangling himself, as the horse tore along at full speed; one foot
was held fast in the stirrup, and as the maddened horse rushed wildly
over the rocky ground to rejoin the others the unfortunate man's head
and body were beaten almost to pieces on the jagged stones. When Dandy
at last stopped, all trembling and foaming, by Murri's side, Prince Tom
was nothing but a bruised and battered corpse.
When Alec's anger and revenge were satisfied, and he felt that the
murderer of his brother was dead beneath his hands, he passionately
threw himself down by the side of his brother, and, with the
unaccustomed tears pouring down his cheeks, he raised his poor pale
face from the sand. He could have lifted up his voice and howled like
any savage, for he loved this bright young brother of his more than all
else in the world beside.
Geordie's face was white as marble, and his eyes were closed as though
in sleep, his bright dark waves of hair were covered with the sand in
which he had fallen, and a great wide wound, from which the blood had
flowed that stained one side of his head and neck, extended across the
crown.
Alec, stooping over Geordie, whom he had partly raised and laid against
his heaving chest, was calling him by all the old familiar names of
their childhood, and was speaking to him as though he thought the boy
would hear his voice. He was quite oblivious to all that was going on
around him. He had fought a good fight, and it had gone against him,
inasmuch as he had lost the brother whom he loved beyond himself. What
did anything else matter to him then: the old home station; their wild
dream of gold; the struggle he had just gone through? All seemed
dreamlike and unreal, and the only fact that was patent to his mind was
that Geordie, his dear brother, his better self, was lying dead in his
arms. The noon-day heat of the tropical sun poured on him unobserved,
his own wounds and bruises were unfelt, and his whole soul seemed to
sob itself out in the one great cry he uttered--
"Oh, that it had been me instead!"
There might have been something in his agonised accents that made
itself heard in Geordie's closed and senseless ears, and that called
back the life that was fluttering within him to depart, for at Alec's
cry a feeble tiny sigh just parted the dying boy's pale lips, and his
eyelids quivered as though they would unclose.
Alec gave one wild shriek of rapture.
"_Thank Heaven_, he is not dead! Murri, Murri," he cried, in his
new-born joy, "bring water. _Burrima, burrima_" (quickly, quickly).
Murri, who had been so intent on his own part of the fight as not to
notice what had happened to the boys, turned round and loosed Dandy's
bridle as he heard Alec's cry. He now saw that "Missa Law," his friend
and favourite, was dead or badly wounded, and rushed to his side to
help. He saw at once what was necessary, and ran to the other side of
the rock, where he had tied the bridles of the five horses to the stem
of a sturdy little tree that grew in a cleft of the rock.
The water, from one of the battered tins in which they carried it, was
quite tepid from the heat of the sun, but it served to revive George a
little, and the deathly pallor passed from his face. In a few moments,
as the effects of the stunning blow he had received began to pass away,
he opened his eyes and looked about him in a dazed, astonished way. At
last he looked up and saw Alec's face anxiously bending over him, then
he seemed to remember where he was.
"What is the matter?" he said, faintly. "Are we all here, and have they
gone away? Tell me, are you hurt, Arrick?"
It was an old pet name of his for his brother, formed when he was a
little lad and could not yet speak plainly. In his terrible weakness he
seemed to drop, unconsciously, into the old familiar habit.
Alec's voice was husky when he answered, though he did his best to
speak quite calmly.
"No, I'm all right, Geordie, lad; but you are hurt and mustn't talk."
"My head, is it?" he said, vaguely; and then, as Alec and Murri lifted
him from the ground to carry him to the shade of a clump of trees that
stood a little to one side at the entrance to the glen, his eyes closed
with faintness, and he seemed to slip off again to insensibility.
CHAPTER VII.
LIFE OR DEATH?
All that long sultry day Alec fluctuated between hope and despair. At
one moment he thought George better, and the next that he was worse.
Murri, who in his wild, untaught way was as tender and gentle as
possible, found some leaves of a herb which he said would heal the
wound. He moistened them with water and pounded them between two stones
and applied them to George's head. They seemed cool and refreshing.
Alec and Murri had formed a rough sort of couch of tall grasses and
leaves, over which they spread one of their blue blankets, and on this
they had laid George down. Over him Alec, who was as natty and
deft-handed as a sailor, rigged up another blanket as a sort of awning
to protect him from the sun. Sitting by the side of him all that
anxious day, with a heart full of fears for his brother and eyes that
were constantly on the alert for the return of the enemy, Alec swept
away, with a green branch, the noxious black flies that constantly
tried to settle on George's semi-conscious body.
Murri assured him that, after such a terrible loss as they had
sustained that morning, the _myalls_ would not think of returning to
the attack, but Alec could not rest certain of it. He heard at a
distance their wild lament over their dead, the shrieks of the _gins_,
and the weird moans and cries of the men, but it seemed to him that
they were gradually growing fainter and further away.
Murri, like the faithful henchman that he was, undertook all the
management of affairs, whilst Alec devoted his time to his brother. He
it was who hobbled and unloaded all the horses, and saw that they did
not wander far afield, though they were not anxious to go far, even in
search of food, in the great heat of the afternoon. He it was who found
water, and filled the "billies," and led the horses to drink. He it was
who killed the little bandicoot, of which Alec made a sort of barbarous
but nutritious soup for George; he it was in short who did everything
that day, and proved himself to be a true help to them. All day long
Como, who knew that something was amiss, kept wandering aimlessly
about, occasionally going as far as the native well that Murri had
found, to drink a little, but always coming back to lick the inert hand
of his master, which lay weakly and limply by the side of him.
Towards evening, when at sunset a breeze sprang up, and the air grew
cooler, George revived a great deal. He was able to eat some of the
food that Alec had prepared for him, and soon managed to sit up a
little, with Alec as a support to his back, and talk.
"I feel quite well now, Alec, and I mean to talk, so don't try to stop
me. Tell me, first of all, if you were hurt in the fight."
"Nothing to speak of; I got one or two nasty thumps from a _waddy_, and
one rather awkward chop on the shoulder from my man's _nullah-nullah_,
but beyond feeling a little stiff I'm all right, I think."
"Think! Do you mean to say you haven't looked at your shoulder yet?"
"Not yet, I haven't had time; I've been too busy with you. Now don't
you excite yourself, or you will be ill again."
"Excite myself! I should think I will. If you don't instantly take your
shirt off and let me see if you are badly hurt, I'll get up, and jump
about and shout. What a selfish beast I have been to lie here
comfortably insensible whilst you were in such pain. Now then, off with
that shirt."
Alec did as he was bidden, for although George's voice was weak, there
was the old resolute tone about it, and Alec knew that he would do what
he threatened. He was glad, now that he came to think of himself, to
get the shirt off, for his shoulder felt very stiff and sore. Murri had
to help him, for he could not lift his left arm above his head. The
_myall's nullah-nullah_ had made a terrible bruise, which had already
turned black and blue, and in one place, where the flesh had been cut,
the shirt adhered to the wound. But it was nothing of any great
importance, and the hardy fellow scarcely felt anything of it beyond
the stiffness, and a certain amount of pain. Cold water and a little
bandage soon put it all right.
The next day George said that he felt well, and was quite fit to go on,
but Alec utterly refused to do so. He said that a day's rest would do
none of them any harm, and that he thought they might stay there with
comparative safety, as the natives, after securing their dead, seemed
to have gone away. There was plenty of feed for the horses too, which
they might not get again in such abundance on the dry and parched-up
plains between that place and the mountains. George consented to his
brother's plan, though he chafed a little at the delay, for he felt
really well enough to go on. It was wonderful to see the difference
that a night's rest and coolness had made in him. Except that he was a
trifle pale, and that his head was bound up, he looked the same strong
cheery fellow as ever. He had a most wonderful vitality, and his health
being perfect and his constitution sound and strong, he was able to
throw off an illness that would have prostrated another man.
He was up before daylight, and, regardless of Alec's injunctions to
"sit still" and "be quiet," he would insist on doing his share of the
work.
"Fiddlesticks, Alec," was his polite remark to his brother when he
asked him not to get up. "I'm all right and jolly as possible, and if
you think I'm going to let you and Murri do all the work you are
mistaken."
"You want your breakfast," said Alec, with a laugh. "You are hungry,
and think us slow. Don't do the virtuous and pretend it is anything
else--I know better. Well, here you are then, youngster; take this wood
and make the fire up. I'll go and fill the 'billy.'"
After their breakfast, at which George certainly did not behave much
like an invalid, they saw that all the horses were close to, and then
they walked off with Murri to the entrance of the glen, near to which
they were encamped. Across an enormous plain of sand and spinifex and
tangled _mulga_ scrub, that was marked here and there with long dark
lines of bush where the creaks and watercourses ran, lay the great blue
mountains, towering high into the lambent sky, amongst which was hidden
the golden treasure that they sought. It was a glorious sight, for not
a cloud obscured the sky, and in that marvellous atmosphere every ridge
and azure peak stood out as clearly and sharply defined as though no
sixty miles of air lay between the mountain range and the place where
the boys stood.
Whilst the lads were looking at this noble view, which lay spread
before them like a grand panorama, Murri, who did not care to waste his
time in any such unpractical proceedings, was carefully examining the
great trees, under whose shade they stood, to see if he could find
traces of opossum in them. Signs that any one but a native would
completely ignore were all that he had to guide him, and his quickness
of vision in detecting these traces was wonderful. Murri would saunter
to a tree that he thought looked promising, and if an opossum had
climbed it he would instantly detect the little scratches the animal
had made in ascending. He quickly found a massive tree which bore on
its bark the toe-holes of an opossum; he then sought for one of these
that had a little earth still sticking to it. When he had found it he
softly blew on the earth to see if it held together. It did not; it was
dry, and crumbled away at once, telling him by its so doing that the
marks were not very recent ones. If the opossum had climbed the tree
that morning the earth would have been damp, and would have held
together when he blew on it.
"Bail potchum" (no 'possum) "on um tree. Must go catch kangaroo, you
_mil-mil_" (see); "clever fellow, Murri."
The native was away for about two hours, and when he returned he
brought the body of a good large kangaroo with him, which he had
stalked and killed.
This addition to their stores was very useful, and indeed, necessary,
for although they had managed to get Dandy back again, all the
provisions that Prince Tom had stolen from them and packed on him had
utterly and hopelessly vanished. Murri himself cooked the animal, as is
the right and prerogative always of the man who slays the game, and ate
an enormous quantity of it also; but eat as he could there was enough
for all of them that night, and for their first meal next day. They
kept a keen watch that night again, but they neither heard nor saw
anything of the _myalls_.
CHAPTER VIII.
A TERRIBLE ENEMY.
The boys were up next morning, whilst still the stars shone undimmed in
the sky, and succeeded in catching their horses without very much
trouble. The fire had smouldered all night through, so that they had a
cheerful blaze very quickly, and boiled their tea in a few minutes.
They were anxious to make as early a start as possible, as they had
lost time the day before, and as soon as they could tear Murri away
from the still plenteous remains of their yesterday's roast they sprang
into the saddle. But the native was wiser than they, for, when they
were mounted, and Como was leaping round them and barking in a manner
that was highly indecorous in a dog of his years and sober aspect, he
stopped them, and said in his funny English--
"White fellow bail _pitnee_" (never thinks). "Mine must fill um bockles
plenty much water. Bail water bong along o' this stage. Hot, hot this
day. All um creek gone away."
Saying this he filled all the canvas water bottles at the spring, and
then took a long drink himself, as though laying in a good store of the
precious commodity.
Murri was right; the day was an intensely hot one, and every moment of
all that long forenoon the scorching sun gained greater power. The
country through which they were riding was quite shadeless for the
great rolling plains were only covered with a dense tall growth of
perfectly dry and withered grass and scrub. The twigs of the _mulga_
and the stunted iron-bark bushes were so dry and brittle that they
rattled like bones when shaken by the horses as they passed through
them, and broke off short if they were touched. The earth was either
dried to a powder or baked so firm and hard that the horses' hoofs rang
on it as though on a pavement. The very trees that grew on the banks of
the gullies were shrivelled and brown. The one or two creeks that they
had to cross--taking the horses up and down the steep crumbling banks
with the greatest difficulty--were mere tracks of white and dazzling
sand, with here and there, in the shadow of the bank, a tiny pool, that
was fast drying up, remaining to prove that it ever had been a rapid
watercourse. This sand, as, indeed, did the whole earth, reflected the
burning rays of the sun till to move out of the shade was almost
intolerable.
It was evident, from the parched and dried-up appearance of all
vegetation, and from the lowness of the water in the little pools of
the creek, that there had been no rain for very many months. There had
been no heavy rainfall at Wandaroo for a very long period, and it
seemed that this part of the country had suffered a much longer
drought. Flocks of birds were flying about the little stagnant pools in
the creeks, dashing themselves head first into the water in their
eagerness to quench their thirst. Crowds of animals, kangaroos and
wallabies principally, were congregated at the muddy margins to drink
at the fast-failing supply. No rain had fallen thereabouts for a year
or more.
To make matters worse, infinitely worse, a stifling hot wind rose with
the sun, blowing from the west, all across the gigantic sand plains of
the interior where the air was dried and heated as though in some vast
furnace. Every breath that they drew was painful, and the heated blasts
of air dried up the moisture of their body and shrivelled their skin in
a manner that must be experienced to be believed. The animals, as is
always the case, seemed to feel the heat even more than the men; to
such an extent did the horses suffer that it seemed barbarous to ride
them, and had Murri not continually urged the lads to try to get to
Nooergup, where he said was an unfailing spring, they would have halted
for the sake of their cattle. They did make one good halt at mid-day to
rest the horses, which were far too jaded to eat, although they had
been so spirited in the early morning before the hot wind had sprung
up.
It was towards the middle of the afternoon, some little time after they
had renewed their march, that the sky began to grow lurid at the
horizon and the day to grow faintly dimmer. The sun still poured down
its scorching rays upon them; the wind seemed to grow hotter and hotter
till men and animals fairly gasped for breath, and the air, tremulous
with the heat of the burning earth, was quivering to a height of twenty
feet above their heads. Every moment the sky grew duller, and in the
west a copper-coloured cloud rose slowly in the sky; gradually the
light of day grew red, and thin films of cloud rapidly sweeping across
the face of the sun changed his brightness to a dull blood hue.
All the members of the little party well knew what this meant. Some
tribe of _myalls_ had carelessly left their camp fire not quite
extinguished, and the hot wind that was blowing had re-animated the
dying embers in the early morning and set fire to the bush. Every blade
of grass, every bit of scrub, and every leaf, were as dry as tinder,
and leaped into flame the instant that the rapidly-spreading fire came
to it. In a short time the whole district was blazing, and fanned by
the strong hot wind, the fire spread in all directions with
inconceivable rapidity.
Directly that Murri, who was the first to detect the ruddy tint in the
western sky, had called Alec's attention to the fact of the bush fire,
they came to a halt to consult as to what had better be done.
"With this strong wind the fire will travel much quicker than we can,"
said Alec, with a tone of anxiety in his voice that was very natural in
their present danger; "or we could turn and ride back to our last camp,
for there is water there, and no fire could reach us on that open sandy
space."
"The horses couldn't travel that far under eight hours; they are almost
done up as it is," said George. "Heavens, how hot it is! It is like
breathing in an oven."
"No, I don't think they could; it has been a trying day for them, and
they are pretty well pumped. We _are_ unlucky beggars; everything seems
against us; you nearly killed by the _myalls_, Prince Tom robbing us of
our stores, and now all of us to be burnt up alive. There isn't a creek
or a pool that we can get into, and the fire is quickly marching up to
us. There! Didn't you smell the burning fern just then?"
"Yes; by Jove! it is coming near; but don't be so despondent, Alec. It
isn't on us yet. Don't you think that by pushing on to the north or
south, as fast as ever we can make the horses go, we might reach the
end of the line of fire and head round it? Let us ask Murri."
But the native, who had been scanning, with the keenest anxiety in
every line of his face, the advancing line of smoke, said that the fire
was already too extended for them to think of doing that, and that in
his opinion the only plan that offered them any chance of safety was to
push ahead with the greatest speed and try to reach the rocks at
Nooergup before the flames could meet them. He spoke with most unusual
excitement, his quick, restless eyes expressing better than his words
his sense of their imminent danger.
"_Burrima, burrima_" (quickly, quickly), said he with rapid utterance.
"Nebbe mind um _yarroman_. Ride, ride, ride. Kill um _yarroman_, then
you not dead. Plenty much slow go, all fellow dead along o' this
place."
Seeing from his manner that he thought their peril great, and knowing
full well the horrors of a great bush fire, the boys put their horses
to their best speed and galloped on. It almost seemed like courting
death to ride straight in the teeth of the advancing fire, but they
knew that they might rely upon Murri's word, so they acted as he
advised. The horses themselves soon became aware of their danger, for
when they had crossed the next low ridge, after an hour's rapid riding
along a fairly level stretch of scrub-covered country, the line of
leaping flame could be seen, stretching as far as the eye could see to
the north and south. The quivering limbs of the beasts, their dilated
nostrils and wildly starting eyes, showed how greatly they feared the
dreaded element.
Now it was that they began to pass numbers of animals all hurrying and
rushing along in abject terror in the opposite direction to the
horsemen. Kangaroos and wallabies progressing by great leaps; emus
flapping their inefficient wings to help them in their flight; bush
rats and smaller creatures scuttling along by the side of wriggling
snakes and currish dingoes. Overhead were flocks of parrots, pigeons,
cockatoos, and other bush birds, all flying away from the great cloud
of rolling smoke and flame that seemed to stride with enormous steps
after the flying creatures. For the time all enmities between them
seemed forgotten; kangaroos and dingoes, snakes and rats and opossums,
rushed along side by side in the friendliness of a great common danger.
Every moment as the three hurried on the heat became greater; the speed
of the horses now grew less just when there was the greatest need for
their swiftness. They could only be kept at the gallop by incessant
application of the spur, and the boys hated to punish in this way the
faithful creatures that had borne them so nobly, but they knew that the
horses' lives as well as their own depended upon their being able to
keep up their present pace for a mile or two more.
They could now plainly hear the wild roar and crackling of the awful
fire as it consumed everything before it in its devastating march, and
the burning air that came in puffs and beat upon them, scorched and
withered them. Their very eyeballs seemed to dry within their sockets,
and the smarting lids, when they closed them, hardly kept out the awful
glare. The natural light of day was gone, for the whole sky was covered
with one vast cloud of lurid smoke, and everything looked red and
burning from the ruddy light of the sweeping flame.
Still Nooergup, their haven of refuge, lay a mile ahead of them. Murri
pointed it out to them, and seemingly close behind it rose the moving
wall of flame. Could they but reach those barren rocks before the line
of fire encircled it and sped again on its way they were safe; but with
failing worn-out horses, and exhausted as the riders were with the heat
and want of air, it seemed impossible.
The lips of all three were cracked and bleeding from the heat of this
awful _sirocco_, and their tongues were dry and rattling in their
parched mouths. They had drunk and lost by the rapid evaporation from
their canvas water bottles every drop of water that they had brought
from their last camp, and their unmoistened lips could hardly
articulate. When they did speak their voices were so harsh and hoarse
and changed as scarcely to be intelligible. Their speed was greatly
lessened from each of them having to lead one of the spare horses, for,
although these three horses were much less exhausted than those which
were ridden, they were in a much greater state of alarm, and much more
restive.
Alec's noble and high-spirited horse, Amber, was much less jaded than
the horses that George and Murri rode, though it was more terrified and
alarmed than any of the others at the roaring and flaring of the now
nearing fire. Seeing that his own horse was rapidly failing, and that
Amber still had reserve stores of strength, George goaded on his
over-strained steed and caught up Alec, who was some few paces ahead.
His face, although scorched by the heat, looked very wan and drawn, and
no one could have recognised his clear, sweet voice in the sobbing,
croaking tones in which he spoke. At first he could hardly utter a
sound, but he forced his voice, and made himself heard above the
roaring of the advancing flames.
"Arrick, old boy, push on. There is something in Amber yet, though
Firebrace is about done up. You can get through and on to the rocks.
Make Como come with you."
"Geordie!" cried Alec, in a tone of reproach, and looking round at him
with his stiff and bloodshot eyes. "Leave you? We _both_ get through or
we _die together_ on this side."
He said no more, but checked his horse, and brought him down to
Firebrace's pace, and Geordie knew that further remonstrance was in
vain. Would he not have acted just the same himself had he been the
better mounted?
They were now within a hundred yards of Nooergup, which was just a
little mass of barren tumbled rocks, on a slight elevation, rising,
like an island, from the sea of stunted trees, scrub, and tall grasses,
that surrounded it on all sides. The rushing line of fire had already
reached it, and the huge flames, ten feet in height in their lowest
part, were already licking the rocks at the sides with flickering
blazing tongues, as though they would consume even the rocks that
impeded their progress. But the fire had not passed all along it yet,
and just where the rocks stood there was a break in the livid, roaring
line.
Towards this the riders were madly goading on their panting horses. One
minute longer, and it will be too late! The very air seems fire; they
can only get their breath with the utmost difficulty. Murri has wrapped
his poor naked body in the blue blanket that was fastened to his
saddle, to protect himself from the flying sparks and the deadly heat.
There is a roaring in their ears as of a mighty sea, and a flame and
glare before their eyes as though heaven and earth are fire. It almost
seems that the flames are bending forward, and hurrying and rushing to
envelop them.
There is still a narrow opening in the vivid line of fire. Only a few
seconds more, and they will be safe. Fifty yards! forty yards!! thirty
yards to go!!! And then----! George's horse staggers, and with a sob
like a human being in distress its legs almost give way.
"Heaven help us now!" cried Alec, in despair.
But even then he does not give up. He looses the horse he has been
leading, and leaning across, half out of his saddle, he gives poor
trembling Firebrace a blow across the quarters with his whip. George,
weakened by his wound, is almost insensible, but he sticks in his
saddle; and his horse, making one last awful effort, bears him between
the narrow gates of flame, and, placing his master in safety, falls
dead of a broken heart.
The shock of the fall revives George, and, disentangling himself from
the stirrups, he springs to his feet.
He is alone!
The line of fire has passed on, the narrow opening is closed, and he is
behind the wall of flame, which is rushing on to consume in its fiery
embrace the brother who had saved him a moment before.
[Illustration: "HE SEIZED THE NATIVE ROUND HIS SLIM, NAKED BODY."
(_p. 79._)]
When Alec stooped to strike Firebrace, to urge him on to one final
effort, Amber, terrified beyond all control at the nearness of the
flames, swerved to one side, and by the time Alec had again turned his
head towards the rocks the disconnected line of fire had rejoined
itself, and presented an unbroken front to him. At this moment, when
every hope seemed extinguished, his mad courage came to his aid, and
suggested one last chance. A chance in a thousand, but still a chance.
He saw that Murri had been as unsuccessful as himself, and that he was
still in front of the leaping line of fire; he shouted to him to
dismount, and, for all his huskiness, his voice rang out like a
clarion, and the man heard him, and blindly obeyed, like a child, in
his fear and confusion, doing exactly as he was bidden.
"And now stand still," roared Alec.
Backing his horse for some little distance to gain the necessary speed,
Alec, goading Amber with voice and spur alike, rushed like lightning
towards the soaring flames. Straining every muscle, he seized the
native round his slim, naked body, and by an almost superhuman effort
he lifted him from the ground. At the same moment he again dashed his
spurs into Amber's throbbing sides, and, giving the noble creature his
head, he boldly rode at the wall of fire.
Like a greyhound the superb horse cleared the glowing heart of the
fire, and darting with inconceivable speed through the flickering
flame, which for one second surged and beat about him, he landed with
his double burden in safety on the glowing ashes of the ground the fire
had just passed over. A few strides more, and they were side by side
with George.
CHAPTER IX.
AFTER THE FIRE.
At first they were all too exhausted to speak. Alec loosed his grip of
Murri, and slipping from his horse, which was trembling in every limb
from the terrible strain it had gone through, staggered to where his
brother was standing. Geordie was half dazed with the agony he had
undergone, for when he found himself alone and shut off from the others
by the white, hot wave of fire that surged between them, he gave up all
hopes, even the faintest, of ever seeing his brother again. He had
stood quite still for a moment or two by the side of his dead horse,
gazing vacantly at the fire as it swept majestically forward, and the
revulsion of feeling was almost too great for him to bear when he saw
the leaping horse and its burden flying through the sheet of flame. For
an instant horse and rider, looming gigantic through the haze of smoke,
seemed to hang above him, and then the noble charger struck the
smouldering earth, and he knew that both horse and rider were saved.
Both Alec and Murri were almost unrecognisable, so blackened and
charred were they with the fiery ordeal they had undergone: their hair
was singed, and Murri was painfully scorched in one or two places. The
native was the first to recover his composure; his nature was much less
sensitive and highly-strung than that of the English lads. He had been
terribly frightened, but that was over now, and, feeling the pangs of
thirst very keenly, the new sensation quickly removed remembrance of
the old. It was no use being overcome with an emotion that was past,
and it was of great use to supply a want that was actual and very
present; so in this very practical state of mind he walked off with a
tin from Amber's saddle to the place where he knew was the unfailing
little spring he had spoken of in the morning.
The water was low in the little rock basin, but it promised them, at
any rate, a sufficiency. Murri hastily drank a tinful, and then carried
some to where Alec and George were sitting, exhausted and panting for
breath. Never had either of them drank with such rapture; the physical
bliss of that draught of pure cool water was the keenest they had ever
felt. It put new life into them, and, although the air was still like
the breath of a furnace, they sprang to their feet refreshed. Alec's
first thought, after he found that Geordie was unhurt, was for Amber;
he led him to the little pool, and before he quenched his own thirst,
which as yet was not half satisfied, he gave drink to the noble animal
that had saved him.
Murri, who had quite regained his usual practical calm in the few
moments since they had been safely landed on the rocks, was standing by
them as Alec watered his horse. His head was moving from side to side,
and his quick eye glanced rapidly over everything.
"Plenty hunglee by-'m-by. Mine go catch um wallaby; him can't run 'way
'cause along o' fire," he said, and, pointing to a scorched-up looking
creature at some little distance from them, he started in pursuit,
armed with the waddy from his sinew belt.
"What a fellow he is--he thinks of nothing but eating," said George,
with a half laugh, for now that the awful tension of his nerves was
relaxed he could not help seeing the comic side of things,
notwithstanding their precarious position. "The instant that he escapes
death by burning he thinks he can make the very fire that nearly killed
him useful in catching his prey."
"Well, it is a good thing for us that he is so business-like, for
everything we brought with us is on the other side of the fire."
"Oh, and Como, too, and the horses!" said George, with a shudder. "In
my relief at having you safe I had forgotten everything else; and look,
Alec, poor Firebrace dropped dead the minute he had crossed the line of
fire."
"It has been a narrow escape for all. I never expected that any of us
could be saved. When I saw the fire had cut me off from the rocks I
thought I was done for, and then I determined to make a rush for it,
and with the blood beating in my ears like the ringing of a bell I
turned Amber towards the fire."
"Look!" suddenly and excitedly called out George, who was leaning
against the horse, which did not move a yard from them; "I believe the
flames are sinking just over yonder. We might get through and try to
save Como and the horses."
Alec, following the direction of his eager, outstretched hand, saw that
in one part of the line, where there was a sandy little patch nearly
bare of vegetation, the flames had almost become extinguished.
"Yes, yes," he cried; "come along. Quickly, quickly; we may save them
yet."
The two lads, made strong by the thought that they might save the lives
of the poor creatures, rushed across the hot and still smoking earth
towards the little barren place. There was hardly any fire there, and,
darting across it, they stood once more in front of the blazing line.
Three of the horses--for Dandy had disappeared, never to be seen
again--maddened with terror, yet trembling with fatigue and exhaustion,
were rushing backwards and forwards in front of the advancing flames,
as though fascinated and enthralled by the very thing they dreaded. The
two boys, shouting at the same time, that they might be heard above the
roar of the fire, called aloud to them; and the poor distraught
creatures, hearing the voices of their lords and masters, who were as
gods to them, turned at once, and, throwing their heads in the air,
came rushing to them with loud neighs, just as one sees a dog which has
been lost in the streets come tearing to his master when he sees him
again in the crowd. They followed the boys closely, glad to touch them
with their hot, soft muzzles to make sure that they had found them,
with a mute appeal for water in their sunken eyes that was
inexpressibly touching.
George let Alec lead them to the rocks and to the spring, and turned
back once more to look for Como, which he had not seen with the horses.
He could see nothing of his dear old friend at first, but after a short
time he thought he could distinguish some strange object lying quite
still and motionless just in front of the quickly-marching blaze at
some little distance from him. Towards this he quickly ran, and found
that it was Como lying singed and senseless, only a yard or two from
the flames. Drawing a deep breath, and holding his hat before his face,
he darted in and, scorched and blinded by the heat, dragged the heavy
body out of reach of the fire. He thought that there was still a look
of life about it, so passing both arms round the great chest of the
animal, which hung limply in his grasp, he started off at a run towards
the almost surrounded sand patch with the weighty burden in his arms.
Well for him that he was fleet of foot as well as strong of limb, for
he only just reached the little barren spot before the broad arms of
the fire met again in a silent embrace that would have cut him off for
ever. The great flames soared up higher and stronger with a sweeping
flare, as they came together again, but boy and dog had passed between
them.
"Geordie, Geordie!" said Alec, "what a frightful risk to run; you had
no right to do it."
"But I couldn't leave Como to burn."
"I fear he is dead after all."
But he was not; there was life in the old dog yet, and after they had
poured water over him and down his throat he showed signs of life, and
feebly licked the face of his master, who was stooping over him.
"Well," said Geordie at supper time, when coolness had come with the
night, and they were eating the wallaby that Murri had succeeded in
killing. "Well, we ought to be a united party after this. Everybody
seems to have been saving and helping everybody else."
"It has been a day of terrible dangers," answered Alec, "but--let me
whisper it, Geordie--I have _enjoyed_ it. It is an awful thing to say,
perhaps, but anything so grand as that one leap into the great sheet of
flame I never felt. It was worth years of ordinary living."
That night it was long before the lads could get to rest; they had been
excited too intensely by the adventurous day they had passed through
for sleep to visit them quickly. Murri, who seemed to have no more
nerve than a jelly-fish, after a few philosophical remarks upon the
advisability of going to sleep at once, had wrapped himself in his
blanket and fallen asleep at the same moment. The night had grown
cooler, for the hot wind ceased to blow at about sunset, and the heavy
pall of smoke having rolled away, the quiet stars shone down upon them
from a sky that was clear and deep once more. The fire, which seemed to
have received a check at one of the great deep gullies they had crossed
in the morning, looked as though it were dying down, although now and
again the eastern sky throbbed with a ruddy glow as some little patch
of scrub or bush caught fire and flared up brightly in the blue still
night.
How solemn was the great silence of that wide expanse which, for a
time, was deprived of all life! Every breathing thing had fled before
the fire, and a silence as of death reigned over all the land. The
lads, for all their bold spirit and boyish lack of sentiment, felt the
impressiveness of it at last, and, ceasing their chattering, sank into
a stillness which soon flowed into sleep.
Night crept on; the moon sank behind the grave white peaks of the
mountains that from their heights watched for the dawn of the day; the
steady-pacing hours swept over the burnt black earth; and then in the
fulness of its time the east glowed again, but with a rose that was not
the rose of ruin and fire but the warmth and glory of a new day's
birth.
All three of them slept soundly through the night, and their slumbers
might have encroached on the morning had not a heavy shower of rain
fallen just before sunrise and awakened them. It almost seemed that the
fire which had devastated the land had brought the remedial rain in its
train, for, whereas there had previously been a drought of a year or
more in all that district, rain now fell in heavy refreshing showers
directly after the conflagration occurred.
The fact of this rain falling then was of the greatest importance to
the little band of adventurers, for not only was there an immediate
alteration for the better in the temperature, but these heavy showers
would replenish the springs and refill the dried-up creeks, and make
the young grass grow that was so imperative a necessity for their
horses.
There were some few bushes and little clumps of withered grass left
unconsumed among the rocks of Nooergup, and, as these offered a scanty
keep for the horses for one day, the boys agreed that they would not
leave their present camp till the next morning. The reason for this
decision was the worn-out condition of the horses, all of which stood
sadly in need of a day's rest, and the fact that until the burnt grass
sprouted again they would be unable to get feed for them. They knew
that after these showers, which fell both in the morning and the
evening of the day after the fire, the young grass would grow
incredibly quickly, and that the feeding of their horses would no
longer be a cause of anxiety to them.
"Don't you wish that those pretty little black moustaches of yours,
Alec, would grow again after their singeing as quickly as the grass?"
said George, mockingly, to his brother, and looking at him with a
laughing face.
"Don't you wish you had some to be singed, young Impudence?" said Alec,
throwing a little piece of damper at him which the resuscitated Como
instantly caught and swallowed, thinking it was meant for him.
Murri, by whose valuable opinion they were always greatly guided,
thought the little rest was advisable, so they did not leave Nooergup
until the second day after the fire.
It was a damp and misty morning when they started. George had taken his
saddle from poor Firebrace and transferred it to Vaulty, a strong
serviceable roan, which he rode henceforth. The sun soon dispelled the
light silvery cloud which hung above the steaming earth. When this soft
veil had been withdrawn they could see, across the charred and
blackened plain, the blue mountains of their hopes rising high into the
dazzling sky, apparently close to them. But in reality, as Murri
assured them, they lay three days' journey away.
All that day they journeyed across the burnt monotonous plain, but
towards evening they reached the further edge of it, where the fire had
originated, and once more were in a region of thick scrub and dense
bush, which already looked fresher and almost green again after the
copious rains, so quickly does Nature restore herself. Here again,
after a day of silence and stillness on the wasted plains, they heard
the voices of birds and saw living creatures moving. Two large emus
that they came upon, near a little park-like patch of tall _casuarina_
trees, almost led them to a small, recently-filled pool of water, for
the birds, only fearing their enemy man, and thinking that these
strange unknown creatures that were approaching them were quadrupeds
only, had no fear of them, and walked to their pool without any sign of
alarm. The boys stopped Murri from throwing his _boomerang_ at them,
for they could not find it in their hearts to reward such confidence as
the emus showed in them by letting them be killed. Quite inexplicable
behaviour Murri thought it. But then he wanted his supper, and was
totally without sentiment. Happy savage!
CHAPTER X.
AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.
For two days longer they travelled on before they got amongst the low
bush-covered hills that formed the spurs of the great mountain range.
The time had not appeared long or dull to them, for they had been too
fully occupied in surmounting the difficulties of the journey for the
hours to hang heavily on their hands. Sometimes a series of intricate
and winding creeks and gullies would intercept their path, and in
leading their horses up and down the steep sides, and in making a
crossing for them over otherwise impassable places, hours would be
spent. At other times a long line of _mulga_ scrub would stop them,
through which, with the greatest damage to their skin and clothes, they
had to force a way. In passing these difficult pieces of scrub they
always made Murri come last in the line, that he might have the benefit
of the opening made by the other riders, and so save his naked body
from many scratches and painful little wounds.
It certainly was not easy travelling, but they all were accustomed to
the bush, and none of them were afraid of a little hard work, though
they may have _liked_ it no better than other people. One or other
of the lads would perhaps indulge in a boyish growl at the heat, or the
thorns, or the weight of the rocks they had sometimes to move aside for
their horses to pass along these narrow gullies, but the other would
cheer him on by reminding him of the object for which he was working,
and the grumble would end in a laugh.
They rested one night at the edge of the great dim forest that clothed
the lower hills, and next morning began the labour of climbing among
these giant mountains. The work would be continuous until they reached
the Whanga valley, which Murri said was in the very heart of the range,
over the first great spur that lay, a gigantic barrier, before them.
In the early light of the coming day, when the shades of night still
seemed struggling with the dream of dawn that crept so palely along the
valleys and among the rocks, the mountains looked doubly grand and
majestic. So black, so unconquerable and vast they loomed against the
scarcely lighter sky, that to Geordie's impressionable nature they
almost seemed an effectual bar to their progress. Although it was still
too dark to see to catch their horses, the boys and Murri were astir,
for they had a long climb and a hard day's work before them.
"If I did not well know, Alec, that you and I will let _nothing_ stop
us, I should almost have said that those dim awful mountains might have
been too much for us."
The boy spoke in a hushed, low voice, for in that great stillness
before daybreak, when as yet all birds and living things are mute, and
when the very air, before the breath of morning stirs it, appears to
sleep, it seems a sacrilege to break the solemn silence that, like a
mantle, lies about the earth.
"Nothing that man can conquer shall stop us, mountain or river," said
Alec, resolutely; who sometimes, as now, failed to read his brother's
finer meaning.
"Oh, no, I know that. I don't think you quite understand. Of course we
shall get over. I'd dig the mountains down with my own hands before I
let them beat me. It isn't that; it was only a feeling. And now it is
gone," said he, suddenly, as a warm flush of rosy light flooded the
eastern sky, and was reflected on the white crags of the higher
summits. A flute-voiced organ magpie burst into glorious song the
moment that the daylight came, and its cheerful music banished the last
trace of mystery and awe from George's mind.
A few minutes before they started, just at sunrise, Murri said that
they had better take some food with them besides their own dried
provisions, as they might be unable to catch anything on the higher
parts of the mountains they would have to cross.
"Bail kangaroo, bail wallaby, up along o' there," said Murri, pointing
to the mountains. "Mine go catch um bird, bail chewt um, Missa Law;
_boomerang_ plenty much kill."
Leaving their horses hobbled for a moment or two, the boys followed
Murri to the edge of the little pool to which the emus had led them the
night before.
The little pond, which the rain had filled with clear brown water, was
in the centre of an open space, which, after heavy rains, would be a
good-sized pool. It was, except for the little sunken place in the
middle, quite dry. Round the edges of this brown space of dry mud trees
grew thickly. Murri was only armed with his curiously curved black wood
_boomerang_. All three of them hid themselves among the bushes and
waited patiently a few minutes for a flock of birds to visit the pool
for their morning drink and bath.
They had not to wait very long, for presently a great flock of loudly
chattering and squealing white cockatoos came flying in a fluttering
crowd to the pool.
Many perched on the little trees that grew around the open space. When
a great number of birds had arrived there Murri darted, with a loud
cry, from his hiding-place. The startled birds rising in a flock flew
wildly over the pool. Gaining an impetus by the run, and raising his
arm high above his head, Murri threw his _boomerang_ with all his
force. It travelled some distance almost on a level with the ground,
and then, with extraordinary swiftness, it darted upwards amongst the
flock of birds. As the _boomerang_ does not fly in a straight line, but
whirls about in the most eccentric and sudden manner, the cockatoos
could not escape it, and before it fell, not very far from Murri's
feet, three birds had been brought fluttering to the ground.
By the time that Murri had picked up his spoils and the party was
mounted it was broad day, and they could see in all their grandeur and
beauty the mountains they had to cross. The lower spurs were of the
colour of dull gold, from the withered grass that covered them, whilst
others that were dark with the everlasting bush looked blue in contrast
with them. The more distant mountains, which lay fold upon fold behind
one another, were of a pure deep azure, whilst the nearer summits,
which were bathed in the morning sunshine, and which seemed to pierce
the very sky, were of bare rock as white as driven snow.
The colours of the near landscape were bright and varied, the tints of
some of the wild grasses were reddish and rich warm browns, and the
pure green of the graceful mimosas glowed in the early sunlight against
a background of dark mysterious bush. The air, after the rain, was
fresh and exhilarating, and with happy hearts, forgetful of dangers
past, and bravely facing difficulties to come, and singing from pure
good spirits as they rode, the boys passed through the cool, grey
morning shadows, as gay at heart and happy minded as young
knights-errant in the youth time of the world.
Although they would not have to ascend to the greatest heights of the
mountains to reach the pass by which Murri was to lead them to the
Whanga valley, they had still a most difficult climb to accomplish.
Their horses vastly increased the difficulty of their labours, though
it must be owned that at times they scrambled like dogs up places that
no horse but a colonial bred one would think of attempting. Had the
boys been without them they could have reached the pass in half the
time, and with less than half the labour that it took them with the
horses. Of course they did not ride them--that would have been
impossible--and to choose a suitable route for horses over a mountain
that is covered with rocks and crags and full of ravines and great
gullies is a work of not only great anxiety but of great labour.
"I wonder how Yesslett would have liked this," sang out George to his
brother, who was in front, at one place, about half-way up to the pass,
where they had to clear a road for the horses.
"Much better than you think, Master George. Just because we have seen
him a bit nervous at times we are apt to underrate him. I have studied
him, and there is much more in him than you give him credit for.
There's real pluck in him at bottom, I know. It has never had a chance
of coming out yet, but it will be there when the time for it comes."
"Oh, I wasn't doubting dear old Yess's courage. He is three times the
man he was when he came. I was only thinking that bringing horses up
such a place as this would rather surprise that young Englisher."
"And you, you stuck-up young monkey, are taking all the glory of it to
yourself instead of praising the strength and spring of our Australian
horses."
"If you are going to argue with me over every word I say," said George,
with a laugh, "I shall go on ahead and ride with Murri; he, at least,
won't be able to differ from me. That is the advantage of talking with
him: one has it all one's own way, and he doesn't understand half one
says."
"And that, I can well understand, leads to unanimity of opinion."
As they climbed higher and higher towards the pass which lay between
two gigantic glittering peaks that towered above them, like vast
sentinels to guard the entrance to the unknown land beyond them, the
scenery became still wilder. The rich vegetation of the lower slopes
ceased, and a wilderness of crags and rocks took its place. Still there
was room for the horses to pass between them, and in places the very
roughness of the ground was the means of their getting along at all;
had it been smooth the horses could not have kept their feet.
CHAPTER XI.
VERY NEAR TO DEATH.
Although they had started at sunrise the little party had not nearly
reached the pass by the hour that it was time for their mid-day halt.
Having to find a practicable route for the horses, and having to remove
so many objects that were obstacles in their way, had taken so much
longer a time than they had expected. The boys removed the saddles and
loads from the horses to ease them a little, and turned them loose to
find what food they could amongst the scanty growth on the rocks. There
was unfortunately no water for them, for the only little watercourse
near them was absolutely dry. The boys and Murri had each his own water
bottle with him, but Murri, with all the incurable thoughtlessness of
an Australian savage, had drunk all of his store in the early part of
the day. The boys were accustomed to this absolute want of foresight in
Murri, so they were not surprised, but it annoyed Alec every time he
displayed it.
He had a much hastier temper than George, and although, as a rule, it
was well under control in the big affairs of life, he sometimes lost it
over small matters--just as most of us do.
"Confound the fellow!" said he, in an annoyed voice. "He has drunk all
his water and wants some of ours. What an idiot the man is to be sure.
He must suffer for his own folly and go without any."
"Remember he is nothing but a child in mind," said George. "They always
are. He either hopes that water will turn up somewhere or other, or,
what is more likely, doesn't think at all. He just felt thirsty, and
having the water at his saddle drank it up without another thought."
"I suppose that is it. But he ought not to hope to find water in such
unlikely places."
"I don't know that he does. But I think you are as foolish as he is if
you expect to find wisdom of that sort in such unlikely places as
Murri's brain. You never will remember mother's one solitary piece of
philosophy, 'Learn to _expect_ disappointment.' And now that I have
given my elder brother a lecture, which is very charming of me, I'll
give Murri some of my water. Come along, old stoopid," he sang out
pleasantly to the black.
"You won't do anything of the sort, my young Solomon," said Alec, whose
face was bright again. "_I_ shall. I lost my temper like a jackass, and
I'll make up for it. You are quite right, most learned brother, so
preach away as much as you like."
"I don't like preaching at all, any more than I like listening to
sermons, and if you dare say that I preach to you, Arrick, or ever have
preached, I'll come and gag you with this piece of soft damper," said
George, taking up a stiff piece of the flour and water he was mixing.
Before they resumed their march, Murri pointed out to them the route
they would have to follow. He remembered every yard of the road; he was
wise enough in that way, although it was years since he had been there.
The only way that they could go was along a narrow sort of shelf that
formed a natural little path that led from the ravine they were then
in, along the wall-like face of cliff, to the top of the next great
ridge above them.
After a halt of a couple of hours Alec said that if they did not get on
at once he feared they would not reach the pass before sunset. It was
only with great difficulty that they managed to get the horses on to
the narrow shelf that was their only path out of the ravine. Murri,
leading his horse, went first in the line, then came George with
Vaulty, and last came Alec, driving Amber before him, and leading the
one pack-horse, to which the loss of the two horses had reduced them.
The ascent was very rough and steep, and quickly raised them to a great
height above the valley they had rested in. Fortunately, no green thing
grew on that rocky ledge to hide the inequalities of their path; it was
too stony and too exposed to the terrible heat of the tropical sun for
any vegetation to live upon it. Every now and then Murri had to roll
some great rock, that blocked the path, into the gulf beneath them,
which, striking the crags as it wildly plunged through air, would dash
itself in pieces upon the rocks below, the noise of its descent echoing
from side to side of the ravine in dull reverberations.
As they mounted higher and higher the path became narrower, and the
precipice upon their right hand side became so sheer, that looking over
the edge of the rock they stood upon they could see straight down into
the valley a thousand feet below them. It was a fortunate thing that
the boys' heads were perfectly steady; had they been nervous or giddy
they must have fallen from their awful height from simple fright at the
depth of air below them. Alec began to blame himself for not having
examined the path before he ventured upon leading the horses on to it,
for it had now become so narrow that the animals could not have turned
round had the path suddenly ended or had they come upon any insuperable
object across it. However, it was as well to go on boldly now that they
had entered upon it and there was no help for it. He said to himself
that he was every bit as thoughtless as their hare-brained guide.
They must have been climbing up this perilous track for nearly an hour,
for they had been very cautious and slow in their movements for fear of
an accident, when the horse that Murri was leading displaced a smallish
stone which, instead of falling over the edge of the precipice and
dashing itself a moment or so afterwards--with a noise made soft by the
distance--on the rocks so far beneath, rolled down the path with
momentarily increasing speed. George saw it coming, and, calling to
Alec to look out, sprang into the air to prevent it striking his feet.
The stone passed by him without striking him, but as he retouched the
ground the piece of rock on which his feet descended, loosened from the
ledge by the sudden spring he had made, became detached from its
position, and, quivering for a second, fell silently in a little cloud
of dust and crumbling fragments over the edge of the awful chasm. A
moment afterwards a dull crash rose from the valley, where it had
shattered itself upon the rocks. But Alec did not hear the noise of it,
for before the great stone had reached the pointed rocks his ears had
been rent and every drop of blood in his body curdled by the piercing,
agonising shriek that Geordie uttered as he felt himself falling from
the path.
For one half second after he had leaped George had felt the trembling
of the rock beneath him, and then, before he knew what was happening,
he felt himself falling with the stone. Then it was that that loud
despairing shriek burst from his agonised lips. He uttered no word nor
name; that wild, hopeless cry was but the expression of the deadly fear
and terror that he felt.
The horror of Alec's situation was doubled by the fact that from his
position on the path he could not see what had happened. The path was
narrow, and between him and his brother were two horses, Amber, which
he was driving before him, and Vaulty, which George had been leading.
At the sound of that shrill shriek an icy sweat burst out upon him, and
he felt fear creeping in among the roots of his hair and roughening his
skin. For one instant he stood still as death, frozen by terror to
inaction, for he knew that it was George who cried. Then with rapid
throbs his bursting heart began to beat, and through his pallid lips a
cry broke forth--
"_Geordie, Geordie! What is it?_"
No answer came to his loud call, and loosing the bridle of the horse he
was leading he flung himself down on the path. He could see nothing of
his brother, but he saw that the two horses before him were standing
perfectly still. Creeping on hands and knees, for there was not room
for him to pass between the horse and the wall of rock that rose on his
left hand side, he crawled between Amber's legs. Then, with a heart
that stood still for fear, he saw that Geordie had disappeared. Vaulty,
who was a few yards in front of him, was standing with all four legs
stretched out as though resisting some great strain, and his head was
pulled down to the very edge of the path. Not waiting to think what
these things might mean, Alec crept under the sweating belly of the
horse, which stood as still and stiff as though carved in stone.
Before he had passed between the fore legs of the sturdy roan he took
one fearsome glance over the edge of the precipice.
Horror! What did he see?
There, a few feet below him, swinging at the end of the strained bridle
reins of his horse, was Geordie, hanging and swaying horribly, with
nothing between him and the awful rocks below but two thousand feet of
air. As Alec looked over the edge of the precipice he saw the deathly
face of his brother beneath him with strained, wide open eyes with a
ghastly look of terror in them, gazing straight up at him. George's jaw
was firmly clenched, and between the white, set teeth, which the
retracted lips displayed, he hissed in a thrilling, awful whisper--
"Make haste! make haste! _the bridle is slipping!_"
With an indrawn shuddering breath of terror Alec pushed himself between
the legs of the horse, and leaning over the edge of the precipice he
grasped in his strong brown hand the two straps of the bridle that were
nearest to him. Just as he was about to gather into his grasp the two
other straps on the further side of the bit the leather on that side
gave way, and with a sickening jerk Geordie dropped two feet further
down, two feet nearer death.
Neither of the boys uttered a cry as this frightful accident happened.
The struggle with death was too fierce for them to make a sound.
Horribly the boy swayed about at the end of the two straining straps
that alone suspended him above the vast abyss; the knuckles of his
hands were white with the fearful energy of his grasp; his head hung
back, and his dark curly hair fell away from his forehead, for his hat
had slipped off, and even then was floating with great birdlike swoops
to the valley below. His face was white as death, and his wild eyes
stared up at Alec's face with an expression of agonised entreaty in
them.
Gradually Alec hauled in inch after inch of the bridle. From his
awkward position on the path, lying on his chest and leaning over the
edge, he was not able to exert all his strength, so that it was very
slowly that he was able to raise Geordie up. The sweat stood in great
beads on his brow, not merely from the labour, which was great, but
from his terrible anxiety lest these straps should break as the other
pair had done under a lesser strain. But the leather held firm, and he
blessed in his heart the man who had done that honest tanning.
Alec saw, with renewed terror, when Geordie's tightly clasped hands
were almost within reach of his own, that a look of faintness began to
steal over his face, and that the eyes, which had been so widely open
in his agony, were gradually closing. If but for one instant
insensibility overtook him he must loose his grasp of the reins and
fall. The thought of this was too awful for contemplation, and was
trebly terrible now that he was so nearly within his brother's reach.
"Hold on, Geordie. Hold on a minute longer, and I can reach you. Hold
on, hold on, _don't give way_!" shouted Alec, his voice almost rising
to a shriek as he saw the death-like look of faintness creeping faster
and faster over Geordie's face.
Alec redoubled his already incredible exertions, straining every nerve
till the tendons in his bare brown neck stood out like bars and the
great swelling muscles on his arms and back seemed to turn to iron in
their strength. Then, making one grand final effort, he held George's
weight up by one arm alone, and stretching out the other seized his
brother's wrist in a grasp of iron, just as poor Geordie's overtaxed
strength gave way and his head rolled heavily to one side in total
unconsciousness.
It was at this moment that Murri reached Alec's side; he had been some
way ahead of the two boys, so that, although he stopped the moment he
heard George's shriek, he had not been able to reach them before. It
was fortunate that he came up when he did, for with George's dead
weight hanging on to his outstretched arm Alec was quite unable to haul
his brother back to the path; but with the assistance of the black boy
he succeeded in raising the inanimate body of the senseless lad from
his awful position, and in laying him in safety again on the rocky
path.
It was only with difficulty that they revived the fainting boy; the
mental shock and the bodily strain he had undergone in falling and
holding himself up by his hands for so long were more than he could
recover from at once. But in an hour's time the plucky fellow was
sufficiently well to go on, though he shook as with a palsy.
"Don't speak of it; I can't bear to speak of it or think of it yet.
Wait till we are away from this awful place," he had said, as soon as
he could speak; so that no word was spoken until they had reached the
top of the pass and left that frightful pathway, and had descended some
little way down the gentle, wooded slopes of the other side, where, by
the side of a little marshy pool, they camped for the night.
CHAPTER XII.
THE WHANGA.
After the terrible time he had passed through on the side of the
precipice, when he and death had looked so sternly in each other's
face, George's sleep was disturbed that night. Awful dreams, in which
he was again swaying, at the end of the bridle strap, above the ravine,
haunted his slumbers and drove away his rest. Once he had awakened
himself with a shriek, and had sprung up with the sweat of terror
bursting out upon him, as in his dream the straps had broken, and he
had fallen through the depths of space. The cry also awakened Alec and
Murri, who were sleeping by his side near the little fire they had
made, for the air was very cold at night upon the mountains at the
height at which they were.
Murri, who lived in life-long dread of ghosts, _debil-debils_, and evil
spirits, was trembling with superstitious fear. He thought the cry had
proceeded from the awful blackness round them--for the sky was overcast
and the night was very dark--and cowering down he flung fresh wood on
to the fire and made a cheerful blaze. Even Alec and George were glad
of its bright companionship, for though they feared no invisible
visitant it was eerie and wild on that lone mountain side, with the
starless night sky above them, and a black stillness all around.
They sat talking for some little time before they lay down to sleep
again, glad to hear each other's voices, and to feel the fellowship of
living waking men in that dark, awe-inspiring silence. George
encouraged Murri, and told him that there was nothing to fear, that
there was nothing there, just beyond the fire light, as the
superstitious black believed. Murri had crept quite near to him, and,
casting many a terrified glance around him, had told him in a low
whisper, and in tones of fear, that he knew there was nothing there;
and then, with that simple poetry of thought that all savages seem in
some degree to possess, he added that what had alarmed him was that the
darkness itself had stirred, and was moving towards him.
"That is a grand idea and a terrible one, isn't it?" said George,
turning to his brother. "To make a sort of personality of the very
darkness. I believe superstition is catching, for I can myself almost
believe that I see the blackness moving."
"Geordie, you are ill," said the matter-of-fact Alec. "I am sure you
are, or you wouldn't talk such nonsense. Blackness moving! indeed, it
is just a _draught_ of it you want."
"Come a bit nearer the fire," said the boy, with a little uneasy laugh
at himself. "I can't see you, and it is rather gruesome and grim to
feel alone."
"I wish you could go to sleep, I am sure you are overdone," said Alec,
quietly and kindly, looking earnestly in his brother's too bright eyes.
"We will make a halt here to-morrow, and give you a thorough rest."
"Oh, no, not that; Alec, I can't bear to wait. We seem to have lost so
much time already. Let us get on."
"What is the hurry?"
"It is just the gold and nothing else. Ever since we started it has
been dazzling me and dancing before me. I can see nothing else, and
think of nothing else."
"And I have been the same," said his brother, with little merriment.
"When I have been silent and you have thought me tired, my mind has
been busy making pictures of the gold and what it will procure us."
"It is terrible, isn't it? We were quite happy before."
"Yes, and shall be again when we have got this business off our minds.
I don't want heaps of money; all I wish for is to find enough to clear
off the debt from Wandaroo, and start again a free man, owing no one
anything."
"What a nuisance money is after all. Look at Murri there, sound asleep
again already, without a penny to bless himself with, and yet perfectly
happy and free from care."
"Yes, a noble sight! A thoughtless savage, without a care for
to-morrow, and snoring like a hog."
"And I vote we follow his example as quickly as possible. So
good-night, old miser."
"Good-night, young avarice."
Pulling their blankets up to their ears, and settling their heads more
comfortably on their saddles, they fell asleep again, and this time
they slumbered on till dawn without disturbance.
The descent on the other side of the pass, although difficult enough,
presented none of the dangers that the ascent had done the day before,
and the little party accomplished it quite early in the day. They now
found themselves in a strange land of mountains and valleys, little
narrow gullies of rock without a tree or shrub about them, and hills
covered so thickly with luxuriant bush and tropical vegetation as to be
quite impassable for the horses. Everything was so different from the
country round Wandaroo, that they might have been dropped down in
another world.
It was evident that the terrible drought which the whole country had
suffered from on the other side the mountains had not prevailed here,
for trees and bushes, grasses, ferns, and flowers, were green and
flourishing, and were running wild with that wanton luxuriance that a
tropical sun engenders in a land where rain is frequent. Down some of
the valleys little streams were flowing, a rare sight for Australia,
and in one or two places the boys saw, for the first time in their
lives, silvery cascades of water dashing and tumbling from the heights
above to the clear basins below, into which their waters poured.
It was by the side of one of these streams that they had made their
mid-day halt, and had cooked in his skin the young bandicoot that Alec
had shot in the morning. The boys were now so excited at the thought
that at last they were approaching the scene of their labours that they
did not make so long a halt as usual. This did not so much matter, as
the feed for the horses by the side of the stream was plentiful and
good. At last, in the early afternoon, they made their way through a
chaotic mass of rocks at the foot of a great grey mountain, and
rounding his grand shoulder, that for some time had shut out their view
of what was in front, Murri sang out--
"Missa Law, you _mil-mil_" (see) "mountain like um tooth. That fellow,
Tooingoora, Whanga along o' that fellow other side. Mine bail _pitnee
yarroman_ go there this day. One more sleep. _Yarroman_ go along o'
that fellow plenty much picannini _ingin_." (I don't think the horses
can get there to-day. One more night. Horses get there soon after baby
sun, or sunrise).
"Oh, let us push on, Alec," said George, impetuously. "It can't be very
far, and we can perhaps get there to-night."
"It won't be any use if we do, for it will be nearly dark, and we could
not do anything. But let us try; I am every bit as anxious as you are
to reach the valley. Geordie, do you know I believe I should die of
sheer disappointment if we find nothing."
But Murri was, as usual in these matters, quite right. They could not
manage to get to the valley before sunset, though they did their best
to do so. They had to camp that night with still a few miles between
them and the fateful valley.
Long before sunrise next day the boys were astir. They could not rest
after the first call of the laughing jackass in a neighbouring tree had
told them that dawn was at hand. They were too excited at the thought
that at last the day had dawned which might see them rich, rich beyond
their wildest dreams, with gold enough to pay off the odious debt on
Wandaroo, and more, much more, besides. It almost seemed to them, with
the Whanga gully so near, that they held the gold already.
"Oh, never mind breakfast, Alec, do let us get on. A hunch of damper
will do for me. I am not hungry."
"Neither am I, or I don't feel it if I really am, but I am going to
make a good breakfast, and so are you, young sir, so don't make a fuss.
We have a day's work before us, and it may be a hard one."
It did not take them very long to get the tea and food ready, for they
had made their fire over night, against a log of wood, and it had
smouldered till morning. It is always advisable to do so when camping
out, as it then is not necessary to feed the fire through the night.
After an hour's ride through country that was similar to that which
they had passed over the day before, they had rounded the mountain,
which Murri had said was Tooingoora, and at last they reached the
opening in the hills which the black boy said was Whanga. The boys'
hearts beat high as they looked up the valley which had been so
constantly in their thoughts, and with flushed, eager faces they turned
their horses' heads towards the entrance to it.
"Geordie, I declare that now I am here, I am almost afraid to go in. I
know it is idiotic, but I am so nervous that I can hardly stay in the
saddle."
"Get off and sit on the ground then," said George, with a little laugh,
for now that the time was at hand, when they must learn the best or the
worst, he was much the calmer of the two.
"I suppose we shall put the worth of our venture to the test within the
next hour. What shall we do if we find nothing after all?"
"Go home again, I suppose," said George, with more calmness than he
really felt. "We shall not be a bit worse off than we were before, at
any rate."
"No, but we shall have suffered a great deal all in vain, and my
disappointment will be none the less keen because we are none the worse
off than before."
"You, at any rate, will be worse off than before, old boy, for your
hair is half burnt off, and nearly all that fascinating moustache
singed away," said George, lightly. Nearly everything had a comic side
to it for him, and seeing Alec so gloomy and desponding he tried to
cheer him up.
"How can you talk in that careless way of what is so important to us
all?"
"To hide what I really feel," said Geordie, quickly, and looking round
with a face that was serious for a moment; and then he added, as though
to alter the impression his almost involuntary confession had made, "It
is no use being down in the mouth _before_ we find we have come in
vain, so let us be cheerful till then."
"Oh, I could be cheerful enough if I knew for a certainty that we had
come on a fool's errand. It is only this anxiety and uncertainty that I
cannot bear."
The Whanga valley, the entrance to which the party had now reached, was
a narrow opening, between two great spurs of Tooingoora, which ran back
for a mile or two till it ended in a precipitous mass of rocks at the
very foot of the great mountain itself. The opening to this valley,
which at its beginning was a mere rocky defile, was between two bold
crags, the bases of which were clothed in dense green bush, but the
summits of which were bare rocks of dazzling white quartz, that
reflected the sunlight brilliantly. There was a stream flowing noisily
down the centre of the valley, tumbling over the stones and boulders
that blocked its course in many tiny cascades. The scenery was very
impressive and grand, looking up the narrow defile, for the hills on
either side of it rose in huge broken cliffs, throwing the greater part
of the valley into deep shadow; but, where in one place it widened out,
and a clump of tall _quandang_ trees grew beside the stream, the sun
flooded it with brilliant light that fell upon the gleaming, flashing
water, making it shine like burnished silver, and mellowing the warm
tones of the rocks. Beyond all this, filling up the whole end of the
valley, rose the great mass of the mountain high into the clear blue
sky, its great white crags of quartz shining like fields of snow or ice
upon its hoary summit.
The gorge--it can hardly be called a valley--was very far from level;
it rose steeply from the entrance all the way to the end of it, so that
riding along it was not at all easy. Murri pointed out in several
places signs of the recent presence of _myalls_, but as there were
no camp fires to be seen in the gully, and as he thought the traces
were several days old, he said that he believed "black fellow go away
two, four days."
The boys grew very silent as they approached the head of the valley,
where they knew the hole was that the nugget had been taken from. Even
George, for all his light-hearted gaiety, was quiet, and rode along
with his eyes steadily fixed upon the end of the valley and his jaw
squarely set, in a way that made him resemble Alec more closely than
ever. Over country of the wild, rocky sort, of which the valley
consisted, it is always the best plan to leave your horse to choose his
own way, and both Murri and the boys followed this method.
The black boy, who was ignorant of the object of the long journey they
had taken, and did not trouble his head to think why they should have
travelled so far to see the Whanga, was the merriest of the party. He
had no terrible anxiety about finding the gold to trouble him, and as
he had plenty to eat and plenty of "toombacco" he was as happy as the
day was long. He was singing a long, monotonous _corroborree_, with an
appreciation of his own efforts that was very delightful to witness,
occasionally interrupting it to shout at the horse he was leading, or
to call out something to the boys, who were ahead.
For some little time they had heard a dull, roaring noise in front of
them, and as the boys approached the head of the valley, the air was
shaken by the heavy sound of a fall of water, but they could see no
cascade that could account for it. When the party was within a very
short distance of the great cliff in which the gully ended, Alec pulled
up his horse, turned round and said to Murri, who was slapping his
naked thigh in time to the song he was singing--
"Murri, whereabouts um hole where Black Harry find um 'heavy stone'?"
which was the name the blacks had given to the nugget that Harry had
worn.
"Yo go on along um picannini creek, other side along o' that fellow,"
answered he, making a sweep with his arm and indicating a great
buttress of rock which projected into the gully, and round which the
stream, "um picannini creek," was flowing. "Mine believe plenty much
water fill um hole like along o' that time picannini Murri come along
o' Whanga," added he, carelessly.
Alec's heart sank as he understood what Murri meant. He remembered that
he had told him, at the camp at Wandaroo, that when he was there
before, with his tribe as a little lad, the pool was full of water.
Alec had hoped that it would be all dried up after the long drought
they had suffered, and, notwithstanding the stream which flowed down
the valley, he had trusted to the last that the water might not be
flowing through that one particular pool.
"Geordie," said Alec, catching his brother up, "we must be prepared for
the worst. Murri says that he believes the hole is filled with water,
just as it was when he was a picannini and came here."
As he spoke they all rounded the great abutting rock, and saw before
them a grand cascade of shining water falling in one huge column from
the cliff, and plunging, amidst sheets of silvery spray, into the deep
rock basin at its foot.
Murri ceased his _corroborree_ for a moment, and pointing to the
foaming pool said in the most unconcerned manner--
"That's um hole yo come see. Yo like um?"
CHAPTER XIII.
WAYS AND MEANS.
It would be difficult to imagine anything more painful than the boys'
feelings at that moment; the disappointment was almost more than they
could bear. It is true they had built their hopes upon very slight
foundations, but their disappointment was none the less keen on that
account. They had thought about the gold so much, hoped for it so
ardently, and undergone such dangers to reach the spot where they
expected to discover it, that to find all their sanguine anticipations
blighted was very bitter to them. The dream of gold had been so bright
a one, and the chances of their dream coming true had seemed so
probable, that they almost felt they had a right to its
fulfilment--older people often feel the same about the achievement of
their desires, and with as little reason.
"Well," said Alec, after a moment or two of silent contemplation of the
pool and cascade which had frustrated all their plans, "well, we have
been living in a fool's paradise, and this is what comes of it."
"Beastly, isn't it?" said George. "But look here Alec, old man, perhaps
after all there is no gold at the bottom of that pool, so don't let us
fret about it."
"I'm not going to fret about it," said Alec, as he got off his horse,
"but I am convinced that the gold _is_ there. Nuggets are never found
alone. That pool is a natural 'pocket,' as diggers call that sort of
place."
"And we may not put our hands in it! Never mind, we have only lost what
we never had."
"You jolly Irishman! Well, we may as well turn back. It is no use
staying here."
"I beg to differ," said Geordie, who had thrown one leg over his
horse's head, and was sitting sideways on his saddle in an idle sort of
manner, and he slipped to the ground as he spoke. "At any rate let us
stay here to-day, and give the horses a rest before we turn homewards."
His busy brain had already begun to think out several schemes for
getting at the bottom of the pool, but he would not mention them to
Alec for fear of again raising hopes that might prove false. His active
mind was generally the one to devise methods and plans, which he would
often have been quite unable to execute without Alec's steady-going
co-operation. But these two fellows always worked so well together, and
were so completely one at heart, that neither thought for one moment of
taking special credit to himself for any one part that he might have
originated or executed.
Taking the horses some little way down the stream, where there seemed
to be more and better food for them than close to the waterfall, the
boys and Murri unloaded them, and hobbling them, as usual, turned them
loose. Alec suggested that if they were going to stay one night in the
gully--"And the rest," thought George--they had better pitch their camp
somewhere thereabouts, as they would be near the fall and yet out of
reach of its deafening noise. So they arranged their goods and chattels
close to one side of the gully where the steep cliff cast a grateful
shade.
When this little business was satisfactorily settled--it took but a
very few minutes to arrange matters--Murri, who as usual was dreaming
of something to eat, and thought this an opportunity not to be
neglected, asked if he might go down the valley and try to catch
something. It did not matter what, for all is fish that comes to an
Australian aboriginal's net. The boys did not want him for anything, so
he started off with his _boomerang_ and spears and throwing stick
towards the clump of tall _quandang_ trees they had passed when coming
up the valley.
Directly that George saw Alec engaged upon making some alteration in
the stuffing of one of the pack saddles, which had begun to chafe the
back of the horse that carried it, he started off by himself to make a
more careful survey of the pool and the waterfall. He wished to go
alone, so he walked off without saying anything to his brother. Alec,
although he had said that he should be quite cheerful if he knew the
worst, seemed very much depressed at the failure of all his hopes, and
sat rather gloomily over his work. He was paying close attention to
what he was doing, for he hated careless work of any kind, and did not
see Geordie leave the camp.
The place certainly did not present a very hopeful appearance when
George came to examine it. The waterfall poured in one straight column
from the top of the perpendicular cliff, and dashed itself into the
pool beneath, which again overflowed to the stream below in a little
cascade, from the narrow lip of rock which formed the front edge of the
basin. George thought that the scene was a very beautiful and grand one
now that he could look at it with calmer eyes. The ravine, at the far
end of which the cascade fell, was very narrow, so that the lofty
cliffs on either side shut out the direct sunshine, except at mid-day,
when the sun was just overhead. The whole place was dim and full of
shadow, and the sound of the falling water and the coolness of the air,
moistened by the drifting showers of misty spray, made it a pleasant
retreat from the glare and tropical heat of the ardent day beyond its
limits. The rocks for the most part were bare of vegetation, but in one
or two places near the fall itself masses of tall grasses and ferns
grew with luxuriant greenness, and along the top of the cliff from
which the cascade fell a line of bushes grew, and creeping plants,
which hung far down the rock, swayed by the current of air made by the
great mass of falling water.
The water looked cool and inviting, and George thought he would have a
dip into it before he began his exploration. He thought that by so
doing he might discover how deep the pool was. The basin into which the
waterfall plunged was some five or six feet above the level of the
stream, into which the water flowed by a second and much smaller
cascade. Undressing--a work that did not take him very long--on the
bank of the stream, George scrambled up by the side of the little
waterfall, and stood on the narrow wall of rock that confined the
waters of the basin, his well-made muscular body and legs looking
strangely fair when compared with his red and sun-browned face and neck
and arms. He stood for one moment with one foot in the water--how hot
the sun was on his naked body--and then plunged into the pool.
He found that he could just touch bottom near the place where the water
flowed out, but that nearer the middle of the pool it was beyond his
depth. He did not go under the fall, though he went close to it, for
the volume of water was so great and fell in so heavy a stream.
Standing, a few minutes afterwards, in the sunshine to dry himself
before he dressed again, he made a rough mental calculation, and found
that the parts of the pool he had been able to bottom were about on a
level with the stream. With a pleased little nod he sprang lightly down
the rocks, which were hot to his naked feet, and scrambled into his
clothes.
As soon as he was dressed he walked to the face of the great cliff over
which the water plunged, and began to examine it to find a place where
he might climb up. The rock near the fall was quite too steep for any
one to ascend, but a little way from it, where the ravine curved,
George found a place up which he thought he could manage to scramble.
As he was strong and a quite fearless rock climber, he was often able
to conquer difficulties that most people would have found insuperable.
Jamming tightly on to his head the cap he had extemporised the night
after he lost his felt hat at the precipice, two days before, George
began to climb. It was a work for arms as well as legs, for the cliff
was so steep in places that he had actually to haul himself up by his
hands; but Geordie was at home in this sort of climbing, and nimbly
scaled up places that from below looked absolutely perpendicular.
It took even Geordie some time to get to the top, for the cliff was
higher than it appeared to be from the ravine, but at last he was able
to grasp the stout stem of a ti-bush that grew on the edge of the crag,
and holding this and throwing his chest on to the flat ground at the
top he was able to haul himself up. He sprang to his feet at once, for
he was in such perfect condition that even the violent exertion he had
just made had not put him out of breath. He found himself on a little
piece of comparatively level ground which rose, at first gradually, and
then by a steeper incline, till it joined the great bulk of Tooingoora,
which towered, majestic and grim, before him. The ground, just where he
was, was covered with a thick and tangled growth of scrub, through
which he could hear the sound of the swiftly running stream, which
poured itself with a roar over the edge of the height.
George made his way between the bushes with some little difficulty, for
they were so matted together with a strong wiry sort of creeper, and in
a moment or two he reached the edge of the stream. He found that it was
flowing very rapidly, as though preparing for the leap it was about to
make, along a rocky watercourse, which at present was a great deal too
wide for its requirements, but the whole of which in flood times it
would probably occupy.
George examined the bed of the stream very carefully, walking up it
some little way and then back again to the place where the water
plunged over the edge of the rock in one great smooth sweep. He seemed
to observe one part more than any; it was where a dried-up arm of the
watercourse branched out from the side of the running stream; it would
evidently be converted into a stream itself if only a very little more
water came down from the mountain, for its sandy bed was only just
above the level of the one that was then flowing. After examining the
nature of the ground just there, George gave a little satisfied laugh,
and said, in a deeply mysterious manner--
"Yes, I believe this will do."
By the way he poked about among the loose rocks and stones, and
scratched in the sand with a short stick he had cut in the scrub, it
looked as though he were doing a little prospecting for gold on his own
account. But the thought that there was gold above the fall as well as
below it had not entered his head. Had he been a practical gold digger
he would have recognised at once, from the nature of the stones about
him, that he was amongst the gold-bearing rocks, or rather that the
stones were fragments, brought down from the mountain, of auriferous
quartz.
Having satisfied himself of the practicability of his plan by this
personal survey, he leaped across the stream, and keeping along the
edge of the cliff he soon stood above the place in the main ravine
where they had camped. He saw his brother below him putting the
finishing stitches to his work, and taking up a little pebble he threw
it so that it almost dropped on the hat of the unconscious Alec.
Geordie greeted him with a stave of a song as Alec leaped to his feet
and looked around, and danced a little _corroborree_, all of his own
invention, so near to the edge of the cliff that Alec was almost
frightened out of his senses.
"Come down, you young ape!" he yelled.
"Ape yourself," replied Geordie; but he instantly swung himself over
the edge and began descending at a break-neck pace, and in a moment he
stood by the side of his brother.
"You'll break your neck as sure as fate if you fling yourself about
like that. I never saw such a fellow as you are; you are just like a
cat on your feet. Where have you been?"
"In the waterfall, up the waterfall, and over the waterfall, and I have
come to the conclusion that the waterfall is but a poor creature, and
that we can manage it after all."
"Manage it! What do you mean?"
"I mean what I say, and I think you will agree with me when you hear my
plan, and have examined the stream before it falls from the cliff."
"Plan! what plan?"
"Let me get something to eat first, and then I'll tell you all about
it. I had no breakfast this morning, and I want to 'patter um bittee
damper,' as Murri would say. Come and sit down on this rock, it is a
particularly soft and comfortable one, and well in the shade. Well,
sir, this is my idea," said he, throwing off his cap and giving his
still damp hair a little impetuous shake that was very characteristic
of him. "We must get to the bottom of that pool. It is too idiotic to
have come all this way on purpose, and then to go back without doing
it."
"And how are you going to do it--dive?"
"Be quiet, don't interrupt," said George, putting down by the side of
him the food which in his earnestness he had forgotten to touch. "I
will tell you what I believe we can do. It will take some time, and a
lot of hard work, but of course that doesn't matter."
"No, of course not."
"We must divert the stream from its present channel and send it pouring
over the cliff in another place. I have been up on to the top and have
found a branch of the watercourse which we can use if we can manage to
dam up the present channel."
Alec had sat listening, perfectly silent up till now, but at this point
his admiration broke out.
"What a splendid idea! When did you think of it?" And then, as the
thought struck him that diverting the stream would not solve their
difficulty, he suddenly added, "But that won't empty the pool for us,
that will be as full as ever."
"You jolly old muff, do you think I had not thought of that?"
"Well, and how do you propose to empty it?"
"Drink it all, I suppose," said Geordie, with a bright laugh at the
sudden change from hope to doubt that took place in Alec's face. But,
seeing how anxious he looked, he laid one hand on his brother's knee to
give emphasis to what he said. The novelty and boldness of his own idea
had greatly excited him, though he tried to carry it off lightly; and
when he spoke his voice was lowered, as though there were any one
within some hundreds of miles who could overhear him.
"No," he said, "the pool is no great difficulty after all if we can
only carry out my scheme. The bottom of it is on a level with the
stream, except just in the middle, where it is deeper, and the wall of
rock over which the second little waterfall flows is but a thin one. If
we can break through that all the water in the pool, or nearly all of
it, will rush out into the stream."
"It will be slow work, but we ought to be able to do it."
"We will do it, and not so particularly slowly after all, for I mean to
drill a hole into the rock and blast it up with gunpowder. Margaret
little thought when she told us, before we left, to be sure to take
plenty of powder, to what a purpose we should put it."
"But how much have we?"
"Plenty. We have used very little since we started."
"Geordie," said Alec, as he rose from the stone, "in my opinion you are
a regular genius. Yes, you are; don't deny it."
"Oh, very well," laughed George, "I will be one if you like. It is easy
enough to be a genius if that is all that is wanted. I've only just
thought of a sort of plan, and, mind you, I shall leave all the details
to you, for you always do things so much better than I do."
"Not I; but I am ready to begin at once."
"It is too hot yet, there is not a bit of shade up there on the top of
the cliff. We had better wait till a little later in the afternoon."
"Let's go and examine the pool at any rate. It is not too hot for that,
and I want to have a look at that wall of rock. So come on."
When they had returned to the camp after their visit to the waterfall,
they found that Murri had got back. All that he brought was one
kangaroo rat and a parrot. A very poor result for so long a morning's
hunting.
"This all you get along um gully?" asked George, pointing to the black
fellow's very scanty spoils.
Murri shook his head, and said, "Mine kill pigeums, two pigeums, along
o' _quandangs_. Murri plenty much hunglee. Mine go make fire, cook um
pigeums, and mine _patter_" (eat) "um bofe."
This speech was so characteristic of the Australian black that neither
of the boys was at all surprised at it. Although Murri was in many ways
an exceptional specimen of the aboriginal race, it was not to be
supposed that he should be free from all their faults and failings.
Generosity can hardly be expected to be found among the virtues of a
man who, like his ancestors for countless generations, has always
thought of himself first, and of supplying his own requirements to the
full before he gives away of his superfluity. Murri had killed the
birds by his own skill and with his own strength, and who had so good a
right as he to cook and eat them? That was what he himself would have
said had he been asked, and he felt no shame in owning to George that
he had cooked and eaten them himself. It was as useless to talk to him
of generosity or self-sacrifice as it would be to try to make a man
blind from his birth understand the meaning of colours.
Later in the afternoon, about two hours before sunset, the boys again
walked towards the waterfall. Alec, who was not nearly so good a
climber as George, utterly refused to climb up the cliff at the place
Geordie had first ascended it. He said that he had some respect for his
bones if Geordie had not, and climb up that cliff, which was no better
than a stone wall, he would not. It was with some little difficulty
that they found any less steep place, but they did at last discover
one, some little way to the right hand side of the fall.
As soon as Alec had been shown the channel that George thought best for
their purpose, he began to work. He was never one to spare himself when
there was a difficult task on hand, and he flung himself into this new
labour with all his usual ardour. George found his energy contagious,
and they worked to such purpose that when they left off, some little
time before sunset, they had collected a great pile of rocks at the
edge of the stream with which they intended to begin their dam next
day.
As it was evident, from the amount of work they had before them, that
their stay in the valley would be of some duration, the boys determined
to make more extensive preparations for camping than they usually did.
It was almost too late that night to do anything, but they devoted the
next day to building themselves a sort of little hut, which would not
only shelter them from the heat by day and from the heavy dews of
night, but would serve as some sort of protection if they were again
attacked by _myalls_.
The one great danger in travelling in the wild parts of Queensland is
the probability of being attacked by the fierce black natives, and
every traveller in that little known country should be constantly on
his guard. It is only natural that the native black races should
retaliate upon the white intruders, at whose hands they have suffered
so much; and as they have not the courage, or indeed the weapons, to
enable them to attack a well-peopled station, they wait until they have
a chance of murdering a solitary shepherd, or surrounding and
surprising a small party when travelling away from civilised parts.
It was the thought of their exposed situation in case of an attack that
guided Alec in his choice of a position for their camp. After examining
the gully on both sides, he found a place that he thought admirably
suited to his purpose. On the opposite side of the stream from that on
which they had first encamped, there was a little opening in the side
of the ravine. It was only a sort of wide crack in the rock, down which
perhaps in times of heavy rain a little waterfall might flow. The width
of it across the opening was about ten feet, and it was about the same,
or a little more, in depth, at which distance the two walls of rock met
at an angle.
Alec, who was a practical fellow, saw that this would give him two
sides to his house, and, that if he built a wall of some sort across
the front of it, he would have the shell of a comfortable, although
triangular, shelter. Without waste of further time he and George set to
work to collect a number of the large stones that were scattered
thickly along all the edge of the stream and in it. With these they
slowly (for the work was none of the easiest beneath a blazing tropical
sun) built a wall about four feet high across the front of the little
opening. They knew, from the previous day's experience, that they could
not expect much of that sort of work from Murri, so they set him to
chop down a good big pile of brushwood from the scrub that grew a
little way down the gully. To this kind of labour Murri was much more
accustomed, as the natives build their _gunyahs_ of boughs of trees and
brushwood. He could use a hatchet quite as expertly as the boys, and in
a short time had cut quite as much as they would want for their
purpose.
It took them the best part of the day to get their house finished, for
the stones of their wall would often slip when the boughs were being
forced in between them, and the covering in of the roof took some
little time, as they had great difficulty in fixing the thick ends of
the branches they used for that purpose in the rocky sides of their
house. But by working well they managed to get it done, and had
installed themselves and all their possessions, saddles, guns,
provisions, and stores of every sort--not a great quantity,
by-the-by--in their new camp before the sun had set. It certainly was
more comfortable than sleeping without any shelter, for the nights felt
cold after the great heat of the days, and the dews that fell were
quite heavy enough to wet their blankets and clothes right through.
The floor of the "humpie," as the boys called it, using the word that
in Australia means hut or house or hovel, indiscriminately, was quite
dry, and the roof looked thick enough to keep out all wet, so that they
were in no small degree satisfied
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