The position was startling in the extreme, and all the tales he had
heard on shipboard and at home, as well as in the letters he had
received from his sisters, respecting the blacks, flashed into his mind.
He knew how dangerous they were, and the enmity some of them bore
toward the white invaders of their shores; and though he could see
nothing but the man's face, he felt certain that, hidden by the grass,
the black would have his spear with its hardened point--a weapon these
men could throw as unerringly as the peculiar boomerang which would be
stuck in his waistband to balance the deadly nulla-nulla--the
melon-shaped club carved from a hard-wood root, whose stem formed the
handle.
And as these thoughts ran through Nic's mind he kept his eyes fixed upon
the bright dark eyes of the black, every nerve upon the strain, every
muscle strung, and ready for action. For in those painful moments Nic
had determined to "die game," as he called it in schoolboy parlance,
living as he did in days when a brutal sport was popular. At the first
movement made by the black Nic meant to spring upon his gun, and have
one shot for his life; but he remained motionless, trying to stare the
man down, and in the faint hope that Leather might come back, and the
black shrink from attacking one who faced him.
"Wild beasts shrink away, so why should not wild men?" thought Nic.
And so they lay there each upon his chest, watching one another, Nic
having a fine opportunity for studying the native's rugged features and
shaggy hair and beard. Every now and then there was a rapid winking of
the eyes; but their fierce stare seemed to be uninterrupted, and caused
a peculiar kind of aching and twitching at the back of Nic's eyeballs,
as moment by moment he expected the man would attack.
At last the strain began to be greater than the boy could bear. He had
developed an intense friendship all at once for Leather, and looked
vainly again for his presence there; he would have shouted for him, but
he felt that in the immense space around his feeble cry would not be
heard, and that out there in that savage land he was, early as it
seemed, to have his first lesson in the settler's duty--namely, to fend
for himself.
For Nic could bear the horrible state of suspense no longer. He felt
that he must fight for his life, and that after all the odds were fair.
His enemy was a full-grown, sturdy savage, doubtless well armed, while
he was only a boy, but he had the help of one of civilised man's most
deadly weapons to balance matters.
Then he felt that there was no balance in the matters for the black had
his weapons ready, while he had left his gun out of his reach.
"Only let me escape this time," thought Nic, in a despairing way, "and
I'll never do such a foolish thing again."
The sun beat down upon him, the air around quivered in the heat, and the
locusts kept up a loud chirruping, jarring note which grew maddening.
Then from far away there came faintly the melancholy _baa_ of a sheep
calling plaintively to its missing companions, and directly
after what Nic took to be the call of some wild bird in the
distance--_coo-way_--_coo-way_--and this was answered faintly from
farther off.
The next moment Nic had grasped the fact that it was no bird-call; for
the black's face was puckered up, his eyes nearly closed as his mouth
opened, and he repeated the cry in a wild, shrill, ringing tone twice
more, and then his mouth shut with an audible snap, and he remained
perfectly still again, watching the boy.
But Nic could bear no more. This brought matters to a crisis. It was
the savage's _cooey_, and it meant that others were coming to join this
man. So the boy felt that he must either attack or retreat.
To retreat meant to invite attack, and in his desperation Nic determined
that the braver plan and the one more likely to prove successful was to
take the initiative, and to do this he began slowly and cautiously to
stretch out one hand towards his gun.
In an instant the black's eyes twinkled, and there was a movement in the
grass as of some animal gliding through it.
"Getting his spear," thought Nic, with his heart beating frantically, as
he drew himself sidewise toward the piece.
As he expected, the black moved too, but only as shown by the motion of
the herbage. In fact, there were moments before the boy began to exert
himself when it seemed to him that there was that fierce black head
before him and nothing more, and that the whole scene was nightmare-like
and unreal.
But with the action all became terribly substantial. He was reaching
for his deadly weapon, so was the black, or to get himself into a better
position for assault. And as Nic with throbbing breast drew slowly
nearer, never once taking his eyes from those of his foe, the knitted
brows and shining black face seemed to approach.
But he knew it was only an optical illusion caused by the intense strain
upon his eyes; and feeling that quick action was necessary, he made a
sudden spring to his right and grasped the gun, with which he leaped to
his feet, just as the black also bounded up with a long, quivering spear
in his hand, while there, plainly seen in the narrow band about his
waist, were the boomerang and club.
Click went Nic's gun trigger, as a thrill of confidence ran through him,
and, holding the piece at the ready, he presented it at the black's
breast.
At this the man made a bound backward, and throwing himself into an
attitude, he levelled his spear, as if about to hurl it and pierce Nic
through.
"I wish I knew nigger," thought Nic, getting more confident; "I'd tell
him if he'd go away I would not fire."
But no word was spoken on either side, white and black standing
motionless in their attitudes of menace, eye fixed on eye, as if each
were ready to shoot or hurl spear at the slightest movement made by the
other.
The situation at last became so irksome that Nic could bear it no
longer, and in a hoarse voice he cried:
"Now then, be off, and I won't shoot."
To his surprise the black shouldered his spear, and then obeyed a sign
Nic made with the barrel of his gun, turning round and beginning to
march away, slowly followed by the boy, who felt that if driven to
extremities he could easily hit the broad, shiny back before him, with
the muscles playing elastically at every step the man took.
"He understood the sign I made," thought Nic, who determined to keep
near the black for fear of treachery, as the man strode on in and out
among the trees, while a fresh idea now struck Nic. Suppose the man was
going on to join his companions who had cooeyed to him. It was like
walking into additional danger. Still the boy did not flinch, for fear
of receiving a spear in the back if he turned away.
But he was master for the moment; and growing more and more confident,
he strode on behind the black, heedless of the direction in which they
went, and leaving the end of the case to fate. All he hoped was that,
sooner or later, the savage would suddenly make a dash for his liberty,
when the boy fully determined to scare him by firing over his head, to
make him run the harder.
Nic had some idea that they were bearing toward his home, but he could
see nothing but park-like trees and low wattle bushes; and after this
strange procession had continued for some time he began to grow uneasy,
and to think of taking out his pocket compass to try and make out his
bearings, before stopping short in the first open place to let the black
go on out of sight, covered meanwhile by the gun, when, just as the
sufficiently open place was reached, there came a hoarse cooey from
somewhere close at hand.
Nic stopped short, feeling that he had walked right into the lion's
mouth; and standing ready, with his eyes wandering round, waiting for
the enemy, he listened to the black's reply.
The next minute the black faced round, and the rustling of bushes was
followed by the appearance of a second figure thirty yards away.
Nic threw up his gun, not to his shoulder, but over it; for the figure
was that of the stock man, Brookes, who shouted:
"Oh, there you are, young gentleman. Your mar's getting in a orful way.
She sent Bungarolo to look after you, and then, as he didn't come back,
she sent me."
"Oh!" groaned Nic, in a tone of disgust; for all his bravery, as he
thought it, had been thrown away, and a peculiar sensation of
self-humiliation and shame came ever him.
"Yes, here I am, Brookes," he said. "Then this is a tame black?"
"Tame un?" said the man, with a chuckle. "Oh no, he's wild enough; I
never see one on 'em yet as you could tame. No tame man would go about
without trousers when he's had two pair give him to my sartain
knowledge. He's one as hangs about sometimes."
"But I mean he is not one of the more dangerous blacks?"
"Oh no, I think not, sir--so long as you treat him well, and he gets
treated right enough with soft tack and mutton. He comes to see our
other two as you know."
"But does his tribe live about here?"
"I dunno, sir. Nobody does know. These chaps is like the cockatoos:
they swarm about the place one day, and next day there isn't one, and
you might go for a hundred miles and never see one of their blessed
heads. He's wild enough. Hangs about the place, and does a bit of work
if he likes it. If he don't, he goes. These blacks is, to my mind, the
only real gents as there is. Look at him now. He don't want no clothes
nor no house, only a hut, as he makes out of a few bits o' bark and
calls a gunyah, perhaps only a mia-mia."
"What's a mia-mia?" said Nic.
"Sort of a hurdle thing as he puts up for shelter, and to keep the wind
from blowing his fire away. Then as to clothes--look at him now."
Nic turned to look, but the black had disappeared, and ten minutes later
he passed out of the thick growth to come in sight of the house, outside
which Mrs Braydon was standing, watching anxiously for the return of
her son.
"I wish he had been a real savage though, after all," thought Nic. "It
would have been far better fun."
Perhaps!