Читать книгу The Black Troopers, and other stories - Anonymous - Страница 6

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One evening, about ten days after our ride, I was sitting in the hut with young Harris. I had been engaged in cleaning my own gun, as well as a rifle belonging to the superintendent, who had ridden over on the previous day to the Edward River, and was expected home that night. While the barrels were drying before the fire—which occupied the centre of a hearth extending nearly the whole breadth of the hut—I put on my hat and walked down to the miamis of the blacks, two or three families of whom the superintendent allowed to camp in his paddock; the main body he kept at a distance. Old Toby's wounds were fast healing, a circumstance he seemed rather to regret, as he had been pensioned by three substantial meals daily from the kitchen, and was getting quite sleek and fat. I went from fire to fire, chatting with the occupants, Jimmy and Billy who, with their lubras, occupied two of them.

Polly and Kitty were two fine young women. One had a picanniny about twelve months old; the other a little boy of four or five years. The latter was coiled up fast asleep; but the other was kicking and sprawling in his mother's arms, while Jimmy, its father, on the other side of the fire, sat gravely cutting away at a boomerang he was fashioning, now and then stopping to notice the child, which was crowing at him, or to say, in an insinuating tone to me, 'Doc, doc! you carry 'moke um bacca?' Billy sat at the second fire close by, busy in preparing a new pipe he had got, and making it fit for black fellows' use. This process consisted in rubbing it thickly with fat, and tying a greasy rag round it, and burning it in the ashes. At the third fire were my old patient Toby, and two lads of eighteen or nineteen respectively, named Pothook and 'little Toby,' to distinguish him from 'old man Toby,' who was either his father or grandfather, I could not make out which.

The miami where these last were was at some little distance from the other two, and I thought I saw a fourth figure; but when I came up I found only the old man and the lads. I asked where the other man was, but they denied that any other man had been there. I could see, however, they were lying, and believed that, from the glimpse I had got, it was Bobby Peel, although he was without his European clothing, and had on a 'possum-skin cloak. I had distinctly seen his face by the light of the fire, as I quietly approached from the huts across the grass of the paddock; and, although I had not met him since the day of our first interview, his features were too strongly impressed upon my memory for me to forget them. I found shortly afterwards that he had excellent reasons for keeping out of the way.

After staying some time, and having my pockets emptied of the tobacco which was in them, I left and strolled on to the river. As I drew near its margin I heard a slight splash, as of a turtle startled by my step, and throwing itself into the water; but all was quiet when I reached it; no cry of duck or other waterfowl broke the stillness of the night; and the stream itself, fifty or sixty feet in depth, flowed on silently. The banks were very steep, and the surface of the water was some four yards beneath the level where I stood. There were no trees growing anywhere near; but the dead trunks of several left by former floods projected above the water, or rested against the banks, where, in the dim light, they resembled so many huge antediluvian reptiles. The opposite side of the river, which was 100 yards wide, was an island formed by an ana[1] branch, which left the main stream four miles above the paddock, and joined it again just below it. As I stood looking down on the dark waters, and up and down the reach, and observed that the blacks' fires were less than fifty yards off, I could not help thinking how easily their enemies, if still in the neighbourhood, could, under cover of the river banks, steal unawares upon them. I little thought that in the deep shade beneath the very spot I was then standing on, in the water at my feet, and with their heads concealed behind one of the tree trunks on the margin, already lay hidden the murderous band who, twice baffled, had stolen back for their revenge.

[1] Ana branch is a channel which, leaving the main stream above, again joins it below. These ana branches are very characteristic of Australian rivers, often forming networks of creeks, which supply vast tracks of country, back from the main stream, which would otherwise be destitute of water.

As I walked past them on my way back to the hut, the blacks began one of their monotonous chants, to which the two women beat time with sticks, which they struck together, their eyes sparkling and white teeth glistening in the firelight, as they shouted a merry 'Good-night, doc, doc,' to me.

At the door of our hut I found the superintendent, who had just dismounted. Harris had gone to bed. 'I have some news for you,' Stevenson said to me when we had entered.

He hung his saddle up on a peg projecting from the partition which divided it into two parts, one being used as a storeroom, the other as a bed and sitting, as well as a dining-room. The beds being boards or sheets of bark, with sheepskins laid on them, on which were stretched mattresses stuffed with the 'wongul,' or down of the reeds which abounded everywhere near the river banks. There were four of these beds in the room, two on each side; they were placed on posts driven in the ground, and in the day-time were used as seats. The only other articles of furniture were a movable table standing against the partition, an easy chair made out of a flour-cask, and some shelves fixed on the walls. The centre of the room was therefore clear. After ascertaining that no blacks were lounging about the hut, Stevenson continued,—

'You know I wrote to Brown, the magistrate over on the Edward, and sent the note by Scott's overseer, who happened to pass here the day after our ride round the run. That was eight or ten days ago, and up to the day before yesterday I had got no answer; so I rode over to find out the reason. And would you believe it?—for nearly a week the fellow had actually taken no steps whatever in the matter.'

'How was that? Had he got your note?'

'Oh yes, he got it; and a pretty fellow he is to have J.P. written after his name. Can you credit it?—on the very morning after he got my letter, he had discovered that the horse-stealers had swept his paddock! Above all, had taken his two hunters! For you must know he keeps hounds to hunt the dingo, as the fox is hunted in England. Actually had the impudence to tell me he was surprised and shocked to hear that I was laying poison for those animals!—hoped I would give up such a design! They ought to be hunted, he said, fairly; not poisoned like rats, or other vermin. This to me! who had lost from first to last, during the few months I have been here, nearly a thousand sheep by these creatures. His is a cattle-station principally, and his sheep country is all open plain, so that he is not troubled by these pests. He can bear other people's misfortunes in that line very easily. I told him a piece of my mind'—

These same dingoes were the plague of poor Stevenson's life, and when once started on the subject he forgot everything else; so I ventured to interrupt and bring him back to the point.

'But how was it nothing was done about these suspected murders?' I inquired.

'How? Why, because the fellow sent all three of the constables attached to the lock-up there off in different directions to look for his horses! The lives of poor fellows travelling in the bush are nothing compared to his hunters! I told him I should report his conduct to the authorities in Melbourne, and so I will too!'

'But has nothing been yet done?' I asked.

'One of the constables came back three days ago, and he has been making inquiries at the most likely out-stations. He returned before I left; and from his report my suspicions are confirmed. Eleven travellers called in the course of the last three weeks at the places he visited, on their way to this crossing-place, from the Edward. Now only five or six have arrived here from that part. I inquired before I started at our own men's huts, and all agree in that.'

'Then you may depend that rascal Peel is concerned in the matter,' said Harris, sitting up in bed.

'I forgot to tell you,' said Stevenson, 'that I came upon that fellow yesterday as I was drawing a carcase across the run, and leaving the poisoned baits in its track. It was in a scrub which my horse could hardly get through; and I had no idea that any human being was near me at the time. He might have speared me easily enough too, for I was unarmed and dismounted, and he touched me on the shoulder as I was stooping to place the bait to the ground. The fellow has some gratitude, I suppose; for, much as he hates white men, he knows he owes his life to me.'

'Twenty times over!' said Harris; 'for he would have been finished long ago but for you.'

'You told us, doctor,' continued the superintendent, 'that you extracted some slugs from his arm and shoulder the day you first saw him. How long, do you think, had those wounds been there?'

'About ten days or so, I should think.'

'What were the slugs like? a bullet cut up?'

'Yes.'

'Then the rascal is decidedly guilty! I will tell you how I found it out,' said Stevenson. 'Ever since you told me of the circumstance I have wondered how he got those wounds; and on my rides about this and neighbouring runs I have inquired, but could not hear that he had been shot at lately. In fact, ever since he was detected in those hut robberies, he has kept quiet, and out of white men's sight.

'Yesterday, on my way to the Edward, I called at the inn on the Wakool. In the bar I noticed a beautiful specimen of the "loouee," as the blacks call a rare bird which inhabits the mallee; and I asked the innkeeper who had stuffed it and set it up for him. He replied that a man who had been up on the Darling, making a collection of birds, had stopped there, and sold him this specimen. "But," added the man, "didn't he call at your place?"

'"No," I said; "did he tell you he was coming over?"

'"He told me that he intended staying a week at Swan Hill before going to town by the mail-cart. He sold me his horse, as he said he was going to walk across, and shoot birds along the swamps and reed-beds. Perhaps he altered his mind, and went somewhere else."

'Upon hearing this I told the innkeeper in confidence my own suspicions; and, as the distance was not great, we both rode over to the out-stations the man must pass on his way. At one of these the hut-keeper told us that such a man had slept at his place one night, and had left to shoot in the neighbourhood promising to come back to sleep there again; but he never came; and in the course of our conversation it came out that, before starting in the morning, the man, having used all his large shot, had cut up some bullets he had into slugs of different sizes, to load one barrel, in case he fell in with turkey or wallaby. So that he has been waylaid and murdered is, I fear, only too certain; and Peel must have been wounded by him. It was with the unfortunate man's gun, too, that that cow was shot which we found killed on the day of our ride round the out-stations. But,' continued Stevenson, 'is that woman going to give me anything to eat or not? I have had nothing since breakfast this morning, and am starving;' and he went out to the door to call out to the kitchen to hasten operations.

The night was calm, but dense clouds threatening rain obscured the moon. The fires of the blacks gleamed brightly from the low ground near the river, which was open and quite free from trees or bushes; and a cheerful blaze also shone from the window and from between the slabs of the kitchen, a separate hut, where the hut-keeper's wife was giving the finishing touch to the steak she was cooking for the superintendent's supper. All was peaceful and quiet; the hissing of the frying-pan and the distant chant of the blacks being the only sounds audible; except at intervals when the mopoke uttered its cuckoo-like cry from the timber ranges across the river. In a few moments the woman brought in the dishes, and Stevenson, having satisfied the first cravings of his hunger, was about to renew the conversation which the meal had stopped, when all at once the monotonous song of the blacks was interrupted by several musket shots fired in rapid succession. Shrieks and yells succeeded; and we instantly guessed what had happened. Our blacks had been attacked by their enemies!

Our first impulse was to rush off to their assistance; but the guns were in pieces, and a brace of pistols kept in the hut were unloaded. Stevenson hastily proceeded to charge the latter, while young Harris and I endeavoured as speedily as possible to put the other weapons in order. Through the open door the fires were visible; and now and then dark objects would flit rapidly past them and disappear. Mingled with the screams of the women was the clatter of blows, and old Toby's voice, replying defiantly to the yells of his enemies, could be plainly distinguished. Presently, one after the other in quick succession, three dark figures dashed with the frantic speed of fear into the hut, and, rushing up to the fireplace, crouched in the ashes on each side. Two of these were Pothook and little Toby; the third was no other than 'Sir Robert,' or, as he was more commonly called by the men, Bobby Peel, himself, whose suspected doings we had that evening been discussing—now, like his companions, in a state of mortal terror.

As generally happens in such emergencies, the proverb, 'More haste, less speed,' proved applicable to the present case. Never was I so long in putting a gun together; Stevenson could not find the bullet-pouch; while Harris, who knew the hut-keeper had a loaded double-barrelled piece in the kitchen, kept calling out to him to run down the slope and fire a shot over the heads of the attacking party; but no answer was given. The man was a new arrival in the colony, had always been terribly afraid of the blacks, and on the first alarm had barricaded himself in the kitchen, whence all his wife's taunts could not induce him to stir, or hand out the gun to Harris, who had at last to run for it. As the young man peeped through the crevices of the slabs he saw, by the glare of his eye, that the fellow was well-nigh delirious with terror. By the time the superintendent and I had armed ourselves, full five minutes had elapsed; and the cries had ceased some time. Upon procuring a light and searching the paddock, four mutilated bodies were found—Jimmy and Billy having been shot as they sat by their fires, and their bodies dragged away and hastily opened, and the kidney fat, the great trophy of these barbarous exploits, removed. The two lubras had fled, but in their terror they ran from our huts instead of towards them. Polly was overtaken soon, and killed by a blow on the head; the infant she carried could not be found; doubtless they had taken away the body. Kitty's screams were long heard, as she fled hither and thither in the paddock with her fell pursuers after her. Had she run for the huts, or had the cowardly hut-keeper run down and fired a shot, she might have escaped. Her little boy we found crouching in a small patch of reeds by the river, trembling like a leaf; and we plainly heard the triumphant laugh of the wretches, as they watched our search from the island to which they had swum.

'I know who those fellows are,' said Stevenson. 'They are Gunbower blacks—I was there some months ago, when that scoundrel Peel and a party of curs sneaked on them, and played just such another trick as this. They have paid us off for that exploit, at any rate! But where is old Toby? Can it be possible that he has escaped?'

After some further search we found the old man's body at some distance from the fires, his head, arms, and body covered with wounds. By the traces, as seen next day, we found he had made a most desperate resistance. His hand still grasped the yam-stick with which he had done battle with the dogs; probably it was the first thing he had caught up. His prolonged resistance had saved him from the mutilation which had befallen the others, as our approach had disturbed the murderers and forced them to recross the stream. For fear they should return and complete their work, the bodies were drawn up to the huts by Stevenson and myself, while Harris started for the ferry, where some more of our blacks were camped, to warn them of what had occurred. Except the hut-keeper, who was still quaking in the kitchen, there happened to be no other men on the head station that night, the two bullock-drivers and carpenter being absent, one splitting and drawing timber in the bush, the other bringing a load of salt from the lake.

'Did you say you saw Bobby Peel when at the camp with the others?' inquired Stevenson of me.

'Yes,' I replied; 'but he saw me coming and slipped away. Will you detain him in custody?'

He replied that he was uncertain what to do; but presently a circumstance decided him.

In searching the paddock and the banks of the river with the lantern, we found a double-barrelled gun, powder-flask, etc., hidden in some reeds. It was a very superior article, not at all likely to be honestly in possession of a black, and no doubt existed in our minds but that this was the piece belonging to the unfortunate bird-collector, and that it had been hidden there by Peel before he came to the camp fires; but the attack had been so sudden that he had no choice but to run for the huts. It was resolved, therefore, that he should be secured and handed over to the authorities.

'Although our head-station blacks,' said the superintendent, 'probably had nothing to do with the actual murders, I am sure they were aware of what had happened. I have noticed a great change in them for the last week. The two boys, Pothook and little Toby, were always hanging about the huts before, but of late I observed they kept away from us. They know of the murders, and are frightened. Now you must back me up, doctor,' he said to me; 'I am going to try and obtain a confession from them. In their present state they will tell all.'

We made our arrangements accordingly, and returned.