At the end of six days, though a long way from being a horseman, Nic had
reached a pitch when he could mount without fear, and enjoy thoroughly a
trot, canter, or gallop; and his father used laughingly to say that now
he would not be ashamed to show him to his mother and sisters.
"It's a long, slow, monotonous journey, Nic," said the doctor, at the
end of that sixth day; "but I don't think we've been idle."
"Idle? oh no, father," said Nic; "and I've enjoyed it thoroughly."
"In spite of the rough way of living?"
"I haven't thought of that," replied Nic. "It has all been so fresh and
interesting, and there has been so much to see."
"Well, you have been well introduced to the country, my boy, and you
have mastered riding--a strong part of a settler's education, for you
will have to help me hunt up the sheep and cattle, and save me many a
long round. Feel ready to see your mother and sisters?"
"Ready? I'm longing to see them, father. Are we getting near?"
"Yes; all being well, we shall sleep under our own roof to-morrow night,
and have the waggon-load of stores and treasures under cover."
That last night in the waggon was the most uncomfortable Nic had passed.
It was hot; there was a chest beneath him which had suddenly developed
a hard edge and an awkward corner; the dogs, too, were uneasy, and
barked a good deal at the moon. Then some kind of animal in the plural
number seemed to be holding a meeting up among the branches of the huge
tree under which they encamped, for there were endless squealings and
skirmishes about, which woke the boy again and again, to lie and listen,
and think about his new home in the great Australian wilderness, of his
mother and sisters, whether they were much changed, and ending, just
before dozing off again, by wondering what they would think of him.
It was, then, with a feeling of no little satisfaction that he woke
again to hear the magpie piping, and hurriedly scrambled out, fully
convinced that he was up first that morning, but found, as usual, that
the fire was already burning brightly, and that some one had been on the
watch, not one of which had he been allowed to keep.
This time it was the man Leather whom Nic joined, towel in hand, on his
way for his regular morning swim.
"Morning! You're first, then?"
The man gave him a nod, and by the light of the fire his face looked
surly.
"Has my father been out yet?"
"Sleep in the front of the waggon."
Nic felt disposed to go on, but he was in such high spirits that he was
obliged to say a few words more.
"We shall be at the Bluff to-night."
"Oh?" said the man indifferently.
"Well, ain't you glad to get home?"
"No: I'm only a servant."
"But it's your home for the present."
The man threw a few more sticks on the fire, and said nothing.
"I say, Leather, what sort of a place is it?"
"Station's like other stations."
"Yes, but is it pretty--beautiful?"
"No."
"What? My father said it was a grand place with a glorious view."
"It's built of wood and thatched with bark, and you can see a long way."
"But the mountains?"
"There are mountains; so there are for miles."
"But the river?"
"There is a creek, but this time of the year it is mostly water-holes."
"But it's a beautiful place to live in?"
"Is it?" said the man coldly.
"Oh, I say, you want your breakfast!" said Nic laughingly.
"No; I am not hungry."
"Then what's the matter with you, Leather?"
"Nothing."
"Ah, well, I must go and have my dip."
The man gave him a sour look, and Nic ran on, passing the horses grazing
together, which were ready to look up and whinny a welcome.
"There," cried, the boy, as he gave each a friendly patting and stroked
their cold wet noses; "you're ever so much better companions than old
Leather. Now then, finish your breakfast: to-night you will sleep in
your warm stable."
The announcement made, of course, no impression upon the horses, which
lowered their heads again directly, and went on cropping the succulent
coarse grass, while Nic went on to the side of the pool, and began to
undress, when his attention was taken by a sudden splash; and as he
stood wondering he could dimly see something swimming about toward the
other side.
"Must be a big water rat," muttered Nic, commencing to undress; and,
confident that there was nothing likely to injure him, he plunged in,
had his swim, crept out, rubbed, and was going on with his dressing
again behind a clump of wattle scrub, when the splash excited his
curiosity again, and turning his head cautiously, he peered down at the
pool over which the pale grey light was now growing brighter.
For the first few moments he could see nothing; then a sinuous line of
disturbed water showed him where something was swimming.
"'Tis a rat," he said to himself, "and those are ducks just on beyond
it. No, it isn't a rat: it's one of those things with the duck's bill
that father was talking about. I'll dress quickly and fetch the gun. I
might get two or three ducks for supper."
The next moment he thought he would run as hard as he could to the
waggon, and avoid being speared, but he did not stir, only stood in a
stooping position staring wildly at' a black figure stealing along among
the trees on the other side of the pool; and hardly had he realised this
fact before another black appeared walking in the track of the first,
and then' another and another.
Nic felt paralysed. They might be dangerous, for they were all carrying
spears, and were stealing up to the water in the most cautious way.
The next minute he could see at least a dozen, and lowering his head
cautiously he dropped upon his knees well out of sight, and finished
dressing before softly turning his head again to watch.
The blacks were gone; and, though relieved, the boy was puzzled, for he
could not make out how they could have left, as there was the open
country just beyond the water-hole, and hardly a bush that could form a
hiding-place.
He could not have been deceived. Those must have been blacks, a strong
party of them; and it was evident that they had not been seen up at the
camp by Leather, or he would have warned him of their presence.
"Would he?" thought Nic. "He's a disagreeable, surly fellow, and I
don't wonder, at Brookes bullying him so much. What shall I do?
Perhaps after all they're gone. Oh!"
That last was a low, deep expiration of the breath, for Nic was having
his first lesson in the clever cunning of the blackfellows. They were
not gone, but clustered together just on the other side of the
water-hole, some sixty yards away, right in sight as he peered between
the thick branches of the wattle.
Nic felt fascinated for the moment, and was ready to ask himself whether
it was real or a trick of his imagination. For there across the water
lay about and stuck up in all kinds of gnarled and grotesque shapes what
seemed to be a large clump of burned-down and blackened tree stumps;
broken branches sent off awkward snag-like pieces, others presented
bosses and excrescences; and but for the fact that he had seen the party
of blacks creeping up, Nic never could have imagined that they were
really there, thrown into these strange imitations of what was likely to
be found upon the bank of a water-hole.
But there they were, either acting their part to deceive the wild fowl
into coming near enough to be speared or knocked down, or trying to hide
themselves from the encamping party.
Yes, dim as the light was, there could be no deception, for Nic at last
made out the glint of an eye. It certainly was not a piece of gum
gleaming in the dewy morning, but the eye of one of the blacks. Then it
was gone.
What should he do? They were so clever that Nic knew it would be the
hardest of hard work for a white to beat them with their own weapons;
but the boy knew that he must act, and at once.
Dropping silently down, he lay on his breast thinking for a few moments,
making his plans.
It was quite three hundred yards to the tree where the fire had been
made--a long way for him to go if he were seen, for the naked blacks
would be swifter of foot than he. His only course was to crawl from
bush to bush; and feeling that for the present he was out of sight,
sheltered by the patch of wattle, he began to crawl slowly and as
silently as he could toward the waggon.
Nic had never before realised how difficult it was to proceed over wet
herbage after the fashion of a caterpillar. But this was the only way
for him to get along, and he did his best, moving slowly forward where a
savage would have gone on at a little run.
As he crept along it was with a strange quivering of the muscles of his
back and loins, a curious kind of shrinking, in expectation moment by
moment of the blacks having crept round the end of the water-pool
through the dry bed of the river up the side to send a spear flying into
him.
But it did not come; and at last, perspiring profusely, he passed a
detached bush, curved round so as to place it between him and the
blacks, and then paused to glance back.
He could not see them; but, to his horror, he found that the bush was
not in a line between him and the water-hole, and he had to creep back.
Worse still, he realised now how the ground sloped upward, so that at
any moment he might be in full view, and he paused, hesitating about
going any farther, when only a few yards beyond he saw that there was a
hollow into which he could roll, and in it creep along to the first big
trees.
Nic felt that he was risking being seen by his impetuosity, but
excitement urged him on, and the next moment he was in the little
depression, most probably a dry rivulet bed, which ran down toward the
water-hole. But whatever it was it gave him shelter till he could reach
the big trees, in and out of whose trunks he threaded his way, well out
of sight now, and ran panting up to the fire as his father was angrily
saying to Leather:
"Surely you must have seen the black last night."
"Not him, sir," said Brookes; "he won't see nothing that he don't want.
I left 'em together, and he ought to know where he is."
"Well, he has gone," said the doctor sternly; "and hullo, Nic, have you
seen a snake?"
"Quick! father, the guns!" panted the boy. "Blacks! the blacks!"
"You mean our blackfellow?"
"No, father, twenty of them, just on the other side of the water-hole,
hiding."
"All of you," said the doctor, in a low, firm voice, "into the waggon."
Then the boy heard him mutter, as he held him tightly by the arm: "Good
heavens! can they have been to the Bluff?"