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:—

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:—

And then every now and then, with a sort of scornful laugh, he would add—

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.