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.