قراءة كتاب The Dingo Boys: The Squatters of Wallaby Range
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beneath the tree, packing up, and preparing to continue the journey.
“Now, boys, saddle up,” cried the captain. “See the kangaroos?”
“Of course, cried Norman; we ought to have known, but the grass hid their legs. I thought their ears were not long enough for rabbits.”
“Rabbits six feet high!” said the captain, smiling.
“Six what, father?” cried Norman.
“Feet high,” said the captain; “some of the males are, when they sit up on their hind-legs, and people say that they are sometimes dangerous when hunted. I daresay we shall know more about them by-and-by.—What made you go forward, Tim, when Rifle came to you—to look at the kangaroos?”
“No, uncle; I thought I saw blacks amongst the bushes.”
“Well, next time, don’t advance, but retire. They are clever with their spears, and I don’t want you to be hit.”
He turned quickly, for he heard a sharp drawing of the breath behind him, and there was Mrs Bedford, with a look of agony on her face, for she had heard every word.
“But the blacks will not meddle with us if we do not meddle with them,” he continued quickly; though he was conscious that his words had not convinced his wife.
He went close up to her.
“Come,” he whispered, “is this being brave and setting the boys a good example?”
“I am trying, dear,” she whispered back, “so hard you cannot tell.”
“Yes, I can,” he replied tenderly; “I know all you suffer, but try and be stout-hearted. Some one must act as a pioneer in a new country. I am trying to be one, and I want your help. Don’t discourage me by being faint-hearted about trifles, and fancying dangers that may never come.”
Mrs Bedford pressed her husband’s hand, and half an hour later, and all in the same order, the little caravan was once more in motion, slowly but very surely, the country growing still more beautiful, and all feeling, when they halted in a beautiful glade that evening, and in the midst of quite a little scene of excitement the new tent was put up for the first time, that they had entered into possession of a new Eden, where all was to be happiness and peace.
A fire was soon lit, and mutton steaks being frizzled, water was fetched; the cattle driven to the river, and then to pasture, after the wagons and carts had been disposed in a square about the tent. Then a delicious meal was eaten, watch set, and the tired travellers watched the creeping on of the dark shadows, till all the woodland about them was intensely black, and the sky seemed to be one blaze of stars glittering like diamonds, or the sea-path leading up to the moon.
It had been decided that all would go to rest in good time, so that they might breakfast at dawn, and get well on in the morning before the sun grew hot; but the night was so balmy, and everything so peaceful and new, that the time went on, and no one stirred.
The fire had been made up so that it might smoulder all through the night, and the great kettle had been filled and placed over it ready for the morning; and then they all sat upon box, basket, and rug spread upon the grass, talking in a low voice, listening to the crop, crop of the cattle, and watching the stars or the trees lit up now and then by the flickering flames of the wood fire; till all at once, unasked, as if moved by the rippling stream hard by, Ida began to sing in a low voice the beautiful old melody of “Flow on, thou Shining River,” and Hester took up the second part of the duet till about half through, the music sounding wonderfully sweet and solemn out in those primeval groves, when suddenly Hester ceased singing, and sat with lips apart gazing straight before her.
“Hetty,” cried Ida, ceasing, “what is it?” Then, as if she had caught sight of that which had checked her Cousin’s singing, she uttered a wild and piercing shriek, and the men and boys sprang to their feet, the captain making a dash for the nearest gun.
Chapter Four.
“White Mary ’gin to Sing.”
“What is it—what did you see?” was whispered by more than one in the midst of the intense excitement; and just then German, who had been collecting dry fuel ready to use for the smouldering embers in the morning, did what might have proved fatal to the emigrants.
He threw half an armful of dry brushwood on the fire, with the result that there was a loud crackling sound, and a burst of brilliant flame which lit up a large circle round, throwing up the figures of the little party clearly against the darkness, ready for the spears of the blacks who might be about to attack them.
“Ah!” shouted Uncle Jack, and seizing a blanket which had been spread over the grass, where the girls had been seated, he threw it right over the fire, and in an instant all was darkness.
But the light had spread out long enough for the object which had startled Hetty to be plainly seen. For there, twenty yards away in front of a great gum-tree, stood a tall black figure with its gleaming eyes fixed upon the group, and beneath those flaming eyes a set of white teeth glistened, as if savagely, in the glow made by the blaze.
“Why, it’s Ashantee,” cried Norman, excitedly; and he made a rush at the spot where he had seen the strange-looking figure, and came upon it where it stood motionless with one foot against the opposite leg, and the tall stick or spear planted firmly upon the ground.
Click, click! came from the captain’s gun, as he ran forward shouting, “Quick, all of you, into the tent!”
“What are you doing here?” cried Norman, as he grasped the black’s arm.
“Tickpence. Got tickpence,” was the reply.
Norman burst into a roar of laughter, and dragged the black forward.
“Hi! father. I’ve taken a prisoner,” he cried.—“But I say, uncle, that blanket’s burning. What a smell!”
“No, no, don’t take it off,” said the captain; “let it burn now.”
Uncle Munday stirred the burning blanket about with a stick, and it blazed up furiously, the whole glade being lit up again, and the trembling women tried hard to suppress the hysterical sobs which struggled for utterance in cries.
“Why, you ugly scoundrel!” cried the captain fiercely, as hanging back in a half-bashful manner the black allowed himself to be dragged right up to the light, “what do you mean? How dare you come here?”
“Tick pence,” said the black. “You gib tickpence.”
“Gib tickpence, you sable-looking unclothed rascal!” cried the captain, whose stern face relaxed. “Thank your stars that I didn’t give you a charge of heavy shot.”
“Tickpence. Look!”
“Why, it’s like a conjuring trick,” cried Norman, as the native joined them. “Look at him.”
To produce a little silver coin out of one’s pockets is an easy feat; but Ashantee brought out his sixpence apparently from nowhere, held it out between his black finger and thumb in the light for a minute, so that all could see, and then in an instant it had disappeared again, and he clapped his foot with quite a smack up against his leg again, and showed his teeth as he went on.
“White Mary ’gin to sing. Wee-eak!” he cried, with a perfect imitation of the cry the poor girl had uttered. “Pipum crow ’gin to sing morrow mornum.”
He let his spear fall into the hollow of his arm, and placing both hands to his mouth, produced a peculiarly deep, sweet-toned whistle, which sounded as if somebody were incorrectly running up the notes of a chord.
“Why, I heard some one whistling like that this morning early,” cried Tim.
“Pipum crow,” said the black again, and he repeated the notes, but changed directly with another imitation, that of a peculiarly harsh braying laugh, which sounded weird and strange in the still night air.
“Most accomplished being!” said
