'Well, Dick,' said Stevenson, after a thoughtful pause, 'you had better go back to your flock. Show us the place you saw the cattle come out of.'
The man pointed out a spot on the line of timber, about two miles off, and left us, while we rode off to the place indicated. For some time the superintendent remained in deep thought; then, addressing the young man, he said,—
'You heard what the shepherd said about sending me a message by a traveller?'
'Yes.'
'Well, three weeks or a month ago, when I was over on the Wakool, Mr. James asked me if I had engaged the two men he had sent me, as I had told him one day when he was passing our way that I was short-handed, and asked him to direct any men who might be looking for work over to me. Neither of those men ever came. One started two days before the other, and there is no station between James's place and our own. Still, I did not think it strange, as these men might have been mere skulkers, walking from out-station to out-station, and only pretending to look for a job. There are hundreds of such fellows tramping about the colony. But now—I don't half like the look of it!'
'Why, what do you fear?' I asked.
'I think it very strange that, of three men known to have started with the intention of coming to Swan Hill (the name of the locality), not one should have arrived. And this man mentioned by my hut-keeper could only have stayed either at the public-house two miles beyond us, or else gone fifteen miles down the river one way, or the same distance up the stream to the Lake station, and that after dark too, for he would only reach the ferry late in the afternoon. Now this is so utterly improbable, that if I find, on inquiry, that he did not call at the Ferry Inn that night'—
'Why, what do you suspect?' I asked, observing that he looked very grave.
'That he has been killed by the blacks?' asked Harris eagerly.
'I fear so; and in that case he is not the only victim. You see,' said Stevenson to me, 'owing to the crossing-place of the river being near us, all passing travellers from the Edward, the Wakool, and other places higher up, must come through our run; and only think, in the twenty or thirty miles of wild country, what facilities are offered in the innumerable swamps, reed-beds, and scrub-patches, for the cutting-off of solitary travellers passing on foot through such a wilderness, where the only inhabitants are the shepherd with his flock, and the hut-keeper in the lonely out-stations eight or ten miles from each other!'
'What will you do?' I asked.
'I will write to Mr. Brown, who is a magistrate on the Edward, and mention my suspicions, and tell him to send one of his constables to make secret inquiries at the different out-stations near that locality as to the travellers who have passed that way during the last two months. But, in the meantime, do not mention the matter to any one. I do not think any of our home-station blacks are concerned in it; still, if they know that anything of the kind has happened, and suspect that we are aware of it, they will pass the word on to the murderers (that is, supposing any murders have taken place). Do you know, Harris, where the main body of our blacks are?'
'Old Steve told me to-day they were still on the Ballima, but were going to shift their camp to Wingong; that is about six miles from the home station.'
Just then we reached the timber indicated by the shepherd, and soon found the tracks made by the cattle in rushing out on the plain; and after following them up for a short distance we came upon the remains of a dead cow. A number of the dingoes, or wild dogs before mentioned, hundreds of which then infested the station, were busy at the carcases; and, as Harris and the superintendent were each provided with one of the formidable stock-whips used in driving cattle, instant chase was given, the two dogs selecting one each, and Stevenson following a third, which, after a smart gallop, he succeeded in heading and turning on to the plain. I had no wish to join in this chase, but my horse would not stay behind the others. The dingo held his own for a mile, but he had too much of the cow inside him for a longer run, and the superintendent soon overtook him, and brought his whip down in a style that poor dingo could not have relished. The unfortunate animal tried to escape the infliction by crouching to the earth and letting the horse shoot past him, and then doubling away at an angle to right or left. But the stock horses we were mounted on could double almost as quickly as he, and after a severe run of about twenty minutes he gave in. In his doublings he had again approached the timber, and he now lay down at the foot of a tree in a small detached clump, and awaited his fate.
I said I had no desire to join in the hunt. The fact was, I was awkwardly burdened. It happened that young Harris had, for the purpose of gaining practical experience, formerly resided at one of the out-stations we had visited. He had returned to the head station to live, but had all his clothes still at the hut. Being desirous of removing them, he had emptied his box on to the horses' backs. Stevenson had a great heap in front of him, which he threw to me when he started. I had a quantity also, and as Harris could not use his whip while carrying his lot, he hastily transferred that as well to me. I was thus barricaded to the chin with flannels and cotton shirts, trousers, coats, etc., for it was an outfit he had brought from England, provided by an anxious mother. I could scarcely see before me, and when he started off after the superintendent I actually had to grope for the reins. I had hardly thrown my arms over the 'swag' (to use a colonial phrase), when off started my excited horse after the others. As I galloped about, the articles worked loose one after another, and I must have cut a ridiculous figure, as I helplessly scudded hither and thither, dropping a shirt here, and a pair of trousers there. I faithfully tried to fulfil the duty assigned me, and held on to the bundles as long as I could, but at last a shirt, which worked loose and streamed out like a banner, got over my head and blinded me, and I was obliged to let them go, in order to see where I was rushing to.
We all dismounted and surrounded the dingo. It was a touching sight (to me, at least, who was not a squatter) to see with what stoical resignation it met its doom. After it once lay down it never moved, except to turn its head to watch the preparations being made to finish him. It was not long left in agony. But I could not have credited that the eye of an animal like that could have been capable of so much expression! There seemed to me a mingled resignation and despair in its glance as it calmly looked at its executioner until the film of death gathered over its eyes.
'Why, doctor! you look quite sentimental over it! There's one rascal the less. No more mutton for you, at any rate,' said Stevenson, as he turned away.
After this small tragedy, we returned to the dead cow, picking up Harris's traps by the way. We found upon examination that its leg had been broken by a ball, and that it had been afterwards despatched by spears; although, as Stevenson would not allow the blacks on his station to possess firearms, his men being strictly forbidden to supply them, it was a mystery where the gun came from which inflicted the wound.
'Not that we ourselves apprehend any danger now-a-days from them possessing them,' said Stevenson to me, in explanation. 'But, as you are aware, they are always engaged amongst themselves in a murderous kind of warfare,—sneaking by night on each other, and killing by stealth,—and as I found that the possession of the guns we gave them encouraged that sort of thing, I took them away again.'
'Perhaps Bobby Peel has been robbing some hut again, and stolen a gun,' said Harris; 'it's a wonder to me they can't catch that fellow.'
'He is an ungrateful rascal,' said Stevenson, as he remounted his horse, 'to kill my cow with it, if he has. I have got into very bad odour with my neighbours for standing between such a pestilent knave and summary vengeance. The fellow dare not show his face anywhere within thirty miles round; he would be shot down like a dingo if he did. And this is the return he makes for it! I only hope, however, he is not concerned in any foul play with those missing men. I strongly suspect him. Robbing a hut now and then for a supply of flour, or killing a sheep, I could wink at, though, forsooth, he might leave my cattle alone, and only rob those who have injured him. But bloodshed is a very different matter, and so he will find.'
We visited another out-station, and then turned our horses' heads towards home. It was sunset, and as we had been, with short intervals of rest at the different huts, in the saddle since dawn of the preceding day, I was not at all sorry that the end of our ride approached. But we were not to reach the head station without having another chase.
The dogs had rejoined us a short time after we left the slaughtered beast, and as we were crossing a small plain, and were within half a mile of the timber, all at once they picked up some scent and set off at a smart pace.
'What on earth have they got hold of now?' said Stevenson. 'There are no kangaroo likely to be here, so near home.'
We followed hard after, however, and managed to keep them in sight, until presently they broke into full speed and disappeared in the timber. They had sighted the game they were after, whatever it was. We rode in the direction they had taken, but, not seeing them, we pulled up to listen if they gave tongue. They did not, but somebody else did, without mistake; for we all at once heard most vociferous cries of distress from a human voice. We galloped up as fast as possible, and arrived just in time to save from destruction 'old man Toby,' one of our head-station blacks, who was walking quietly along when, he happened to hear the rush of the dogs behind him. He had instantly made for a tree, but was too late; for Rush, a dog lately brought from Melbourne, who was young, and unused as yet to blacks, sprang up as if he would tear him down. Old Toby, however, managed to keep on his feet, and resisted most gallantly. He had his yam-stick in his hand (a pointed stick used for digging up a small edible root which grows on the plains), and with this he met the rushes of the dogs, jobbing them with the sharpened end, and tearing them as badly as they had torn him. It was wonderful, during the half-minute or so that we were galloping up, to witness the coolness and dexterity, and, above all, the agility the old fellow displayed in avoiding the bounds the dogs made at him; while leaping to one side to avoid the onset of one, he would meet the other with a dexterous prod of his insignificant-looking weapon, which would send it sprawling with a wound in its side.
The stock-whips soon brought the animals to their senses; and we found, upon examining them all, that the dogs were the worst off for the encounter; for one had an eye wounded, and the other had a very ugly tear in his flank, which required to be sewn up.