Mustering on Kaburie was almost over, much to the satisfaction of every
one taking part in it, for the weather had been unpleasantly hot even
for North Queensland, and heavy tropical thunderstorms had added to
the difficulty of the work by the creeks coming down in flood. All
the cattle running in the mountain gullies and on the spurs, had been
brought in, the calves and “clean-skins” branded, and now there remained
only those which roamed about the coast lands.
Early one morning Gerrard, Fraser, and Kate, with three stockmen,
were camped near the mouth of a wide, but shallow creek, whose yellow,
muddied waters were rushing swiftly to the sea. The party had arrived
there the previous evening, and now, breakfast over, were ready to start
to muster the cattle in the vicinity. Heavy rain had fallen during the
night, but Kate's little tent, with its covering fly had kept her dry,
and the rest of the party had slept under a rough, but efficient shelter
of broad strips of ti-tree bark spread upon a quickly-extemporised frame
of thin saplings.
Just as they started the sky cleared and the blue dome above was
unflecked by a single cloud as they rode in single file along a cattle
track leading to the beach, which they reached in half an hour.
“What a glorious sight!” said Gerrard, as he drew rein and pointed to
the blue Pacific, shimmering and sparkling under the rays of the morning
sun. “Look, there is a brig-rigged steamer quite close in--evidently she
must be calling in at Port Denison, or would not be so near the land.”
“Yes,” said Kate, “that is one of the new China mail boats, the
_Ching-tu_. How beautiful she is--for a steamer, with those sloping
masts, with the yards across, and the curved shapely bow like a sailing
ship. Oh! I do so wish I were on board. I love ships and the If I were a
man I should be a sailor.”
“Would you?” said Gerrard, as he looked at the animated, beautiful face.
“I, too, am fond of the sea, though it robbed me of father, mother, and
a brother-in-law, my twin sister's husband. She died of a broken heart
soon after.”
Kate's eyes filled with tears. “Oh, how dreadful!” and then as they rode
on Gerrard told her the story of the _Cassowary_.
“What a sweet child your little niece Mary must be,” she said, when he
had finished, “and I am sure, too, that your _protégé_, Jim Coll, must
be a perfect little man. I wish I could see him.”
“I can safely promise you that, now that I have bought Kaburie, and
I feel pretty sure that you will gain his affections very quickly;
especially if you will let him ride that bucking filly. I daresay that I
shall be back here within twelve months, and bring Master Jim with me.”
“This is where we separate, boss,” said a stockman named Trouton, “if
you, Mr and Miss Fraser and me take the right bank of this creek, my two
mates will work down on the other bank, and we'll get the cattle on both
sides at the same time, and drive 'em all on to Wattle Camp, which is
between this creek and the next to the south of us.” Then turning to the
other stockmen, he warned them to be careful of alligators.
“You chaps must keep your eyes skinned if you have to swim any bits of
backwater, now the creeks are up. Don't cross anywheres unless you have
some cattle to send in fust, and keep clost up to their tails if yous
can't get in among 'em. 'Gaters like man and horse meat next best to
calf.”
The two men nodded, and riding down the bank, crossed the creek and
quickly disappeared in the scrub on the other side; then Gerrard's
party turned towards the coast, Trouton leading the way with the
packhorses along a well-defined cattle-track. A quarter of an hour later
they came across a small mob of cows and calves, which as the stockwhips
cracked, trotted off in front, to be joined by several more, and in a
short time the mob had increased to five hundred head, and Trouton and
Gerrard decided to drive them across the creek to join those which were
being rounded up by the two stockmen on the left hand bank. In reply
to a question by Gerrard, Trouton said that the crossing was a good
one even when the creek was as high as it was then, on account of its
width--about two hundred yards from bank to bank.
“It is a hard, sandy bottom, boss, and we shall only have about forty
yards of swimming to do. If we rush 'em they'll get over in no time.”
“Very well. But we will cut out all the cows with calves too young to
swim.”
This did not take long, and some thirty or forty cows with calves were
separated from the mob, and driven some distance back into the scrub by
Fraser. Then with the usual yelling and cracking of whips the main mob
was rushed down the bank into the water, a wide-horned, stately bullock,
plunging into the yellow stream, and taking the lead Close behind the
cattle followed the three men and Kate, the latter and Gerrard keeping
on the “lee” side of the mob so as to prevent them spreading out and
getting too far down-stream, where there was danger from a number of
snags of ti-trees, which showed above water in the middle of the creek.
The cattle, however, kept well together, and when the deep part was
reached, swam safely across, despite the rather strong current.
“They went over splendidly, didn't they?” cried Fraser to Gerrard, as
he gave his horse a loose rein and leant forward to let the animal swim
easily. “We are lucky to get them over so easily, and----”
His words were interrupted by a cry of terror from Kate, as the colt she
was riding gave an agonised snort of terror, and began pawing the water
with its fore-feet.
“Help me, father! Mr Gerrard! Oh, it is an alligator!” and as she spoke
she was nearly unseated. “It has Cato by the off hind leg.”
Gerrard, only ten yards away from her, turned his horse's head, and
shouted to her to throw herself off, and then, with a deadly terror in
his heart, saw her shaken off; and disappear in the surging stream,
but in a few seconds she rose to the surface, panting and choking, but
swimming bravely, though she was unable to see. Gerrard, now beside her,
leant over, placed his left arm round her waist, and held her tight.
“Don't be afraid,” he said, “I have you safe; take a good grip of my
horse's mane and hold on; he will take you across in a few minutes,” and
as the girl obeyed, he slipped out of the saddle, so as to swim beside
her. Then his bronzed face went white with horror as the black snout
of an alligator thrust itself out of the water between the girl and
himself, and the saurian tried to seize her by the shoulder. In an
instant Gerrard had clutched the reptile by the throat with his right
hand.
“Go on, go on; for God's sake, do not mind me!” he cried to Kate; “I
have the brute by its throat,” and then, as he and the hideous creature
were struggling fiercely, Fraser came to his assistance, and emptied
the five chambers of his heavy Colt's pistol into its body, and Gerrard,
whose face was cut open by a stroke of one of the reptile's fore-paws,
remembered nothing more till he found himself lying upon the bank with
Fraser and the stockmen attending to him.
“Is Miss Fraser safe?” was his first question.
“Yes, thanks to God and to your bravery,” answered Fraser with deep
emotion; “but don't speak any more just now, there's a good fellow. The
brute has ripped the left side of your face open from the top of your
head to the chin, and we are trying to put in some stitches.”
“All right,” was the cheerful, but faint response; “but tell me--is my
eye gone?”
“No, boss,” said Trouton quickly, “your eye is all right, but the
eyebrow is mauled pretty badly, and was hanging over it, but we've got
it back again now, and tied it up in place. Here, boss, take a sup o'
this,” and he placed a brandy flask to Gerrard's lips. The liquor stung
his lacerated lips like fire, but it revived him.
“Where is Miss Fraser?” he then asked.
“Here, beside you, dear Mr Gerrard,” said the girl brokenly, as she
pressed his hand, and turned her face away in blinding tears.
“Narrow squeak for both of us, wasn't it?”
“Yes, but please do not try to talk, dear Mr Gerrard.”
“Oh, I'm all right, and must gabble a bit, now I know that I haven't
lost an eye. You see, Fraser, the beast, although he was only a little
fellow----”
“Eight feet he were, boss,” interrupted Trouton, “but a young 'un, as
you say.”
“Well, just after I collared him, he swung his head about and hit me
such a tremendous smack on the side of my brain-box that it stunned me.
But I didn't let go, did I?”
“No,” replied Fraser, “you held on like grim death. I settled the brute
by putting five bullets into it.”
“There was two 'o 'em, boss,” said Trouton, “the one as collared Miss
Kate's horse, and the one as you tackled.”
“Did Cato get away?” Gerrard asked quickly.
“Yes, yes, he got away,” said Kate hurriedly, trying to speak calmly,
though the poor colt, which had managed to struggle to the bank with a
lacerated and broken leg, was then lying dead with a bullet through its
head. Trouton had put it out of its misery.
There was no more mustering that day, for Gerrard's condition was so
serious, though he tried to make light of it, that Fraser, leaving
the cattle to the care of the two stockmen, first sent off Trouton to
Boorala for a doctor, and then he, taking one of the pack-horses, made
Gerrard mount his own.
“We'll be at Kaburie as soon as the little German doctor is there,” he
said, as he, Gerrard, and Kate started.
And when they reached Kaburie they found Doctor Krause, a quiet,
spectacled little man, awaiting them with Knowles the overseer.
“Will he lose his eye, Krause?” asked Fraser, after the doctor had
attended to Gerrard, and he with Kate met him in the dining-room.
“No, but his face is very much cut about, and the poor fellow may be
disfigured for life.”
Kate turned away with a bursting heart, and went to her room.