Old standing about here; hadn't we better make haste on?" "Decidedly,
Penny," said the doctor. "Forward!" "Yes, let's get forward," I said,
and the doctor suddenly clapped his hand over my mouth and whispered:
"Hush! Look there!" "I can't see anything," I said, after a long gaze
in the direction by which we had come. "Can you
see just dimly, close to where that big star makes the blur
in the water, a light-coloured stone?"
"Yes." "Watch it for a minute." I fixed my eyes upon the dimly-seen
rock, just where quite a blaze of stars flecked the black water with
their reflections, but for a time I saw nothing. I only made my eyes
ache, and a strong desire came upon me
to blink them very rapidly. Then all at once the stone seemed darker
for a moment, and then darker again, as if
a cloud had come between the glinting stars and the earth. It was so
plain that a couple of the savages had glided by that stone that we
felt
it would be best to remain where we were for the present, awaiting the
attack that we knew must follow. "We are prepared now," whispered the
doctor, "and if
we must fight it would be better to fight now than have to turn
suddenly and meet an
attack on our rear." The result was
that we remained watching through the next painful hour, guns and bows
ready for the first oncoming of the
savages; but with terrible distinctness there was the washing sound of
the river hissing past the rocks, and the rising and falling musical
roar of the distant
cascade--nothing more! Then another
hour of silence in that awful chasm passed away, with the expectation
of being attacked every moment keeping our nerves upon the stretch.
How different it all seemed, what a change from the peaceful life at
home! There I had led a happy boyish life, with the black for my
companion; sometimes he would disappear to live amongst his tribe for
a few weeks, but
he always returned, and just after breakfast there would be his merry
black face
eagerly watching
for my coming to go with him to "kedge fis" in some
fresh creek or water-hole that he had discovered; to hunt out
wallabies or some
other of the hopping kangaroo family peculiar to the land. Jimmy
had always some fresh expedition on the way, upon which we
started with