All night, Reuben and his companions marched steadily2 forward; and were glad to throw themselves down on the ground, at the first appearance of daybreak. Four sentries3 were placed, with strict orders to keep a bright lookout4 through the bushes, but on no account to raise their heads above their level; and, arrangements having been made for their relief, every two hours, the rest of the party were soon sound asleep.
Except to relieve the sentries, there was no stir among them until late in the afternoon. Then there was a general movement, and soon all were sitting up, and appeasing5 their appetite upon the cold meat and dampers they had brought with them.
"There is no harm in a pipe, I suppose, captain?" Dick Caister said laughingly.
"No, I think we can risk that," Reuben replied. "The eyes of the savages6 may be wonderfully keen, but they would be a great deal sharper than I can give them credit for, were they to notice the smoke of a dozen pipes, curling up among the bushes."
"I suppose, Mr. Blount," Reuben said as, after the meal was finished, the party lighted their pipes and drew closely round the fire, "you have heard of a good many bad businesses, with the blacks and bush rangers9, in your time?"
"I have, indeed," Mr. Blount replied. "In the early days, the settlers had a hard time of it with the blacks; who were, of course, stronger than they are now and, after they had got over their first fear of firearms, more fearless of the whites. The bush rangers too were, when first they began to send convicts here, more numerous than at present. I do not know that they were as desperate as they are now—not so ready to take life, without provocation10. You see, there was a very much larger run of country open to them; and many convicts who escaped, and took to the bush, were content to have gained their freedom. Some of them took black gins, and never troubled the colonists12 again; beyond, perhaps, coming down to a station and carrying off a sheep or two, or a bullock, when they got sick of kangaroo meat and wanted a change.
"You see, the first settlers were generally poor and hard-working men. Young men with a little capital had not as yet been attracted here, so there was but little inducement for the escaped convicts to meddle13 with them. There were, of course, some notorious scoundrels, who seemed to murder for the pure love of the thing. The worst of them, I think, was a fellow who went by the name of Cockeye. What his real name was, I never heard.
"That man was a perfect devil; and was, for a long time, the terror of the settlers. He never worked with other white men, but lived among the blacks. Of course, in those days the police system was in its infancy14, and we had to rely upon ourselves. I had a narrow escape, once, of losing my life, from him and his blacks.
"When I was about seventeen, I lived with my father and mother in a station about fifty miles from Sydney, or as it was called then Port Jackson. It was at that time quite an outlying station. We had two convicts allotted15 to us, both of them honest fellows enough, who had been transported for poaching or something of that kind—anyhow, they were not old hands, and gave no trouble. My father was a kind master, and we always felt that, in case of need, we could rely upon them just as upon ourselves. In those days it was next to impossible to get hired hands for, as there was plenty of land for anyone to squat16 upon, comparatively close to the port, the men who came out generally set up for themselves, at once.
"One day I had been out on horseback, to look for a couple of bullocks which had strayed away; and was on my way back when, ahead of me, I heard the cooey of the blacks. I didn't think much of it, because they were common enough at that time, and a party had made a sort of encampment at a stream, about a mile from the house; but when, a minute later, I heard a gun fired, I guessed that there was mischief17.
"The sound seemed to come from away towards the right, where I knew that one of our men was out, herding18 the bullocks; so I clapped spurs to my horse, and rode in that direction. When I got near, I saw the cattle running wildly about, and a mob of black fellows among them. I could see no signs of our man, and guessed that he must have gone down; and that I had best ride and warn them, at the house.
"The blacks saw me, and started at a run in my direction, but I soon left them behind. I was within a quarter of a mile of the house, when a native yell burst out ahead of me, followed by two shots. I rode on and, when I got near the house, saw a lot of black fellows round it.
"Then came a flash from one of the upper windows, and I saw one of them roll over. That was a satisfaction, for I knew they hadn't caught my father asleep. I knew the doors and shutters19 were strong, and that he could make a good fight of it. Still, there was only him and my mother at home, for both the men had gone out before I left in the morning; and one man hasn't much chance of holding a house, attacked on all sides. So I made up my mind to try to dash through them, when the shutter20 opened a little, and my father shouted out:
"'Ride for help, Bill. I will keep them off, till you get back.'
"So I turned; but when I had gone a few yards I looked over my shoulder, and I saw a man dash out from behind the house on horseback, and start at a gallop21 after me. It was a bay with a white leg, and I knew that Cockeye used to ride such a horse, and that there wasn't a better in the colony. Almost at the same moment I heard a shot again, but I didn't look round.
"I can tell you I felt pretty badly frightened, for there was no mercy to be expected from that scoundrel, and I knew that he was a good deal better mounted than I was. The next station was about four miles off, and I had about two hundred yards start, but before I had gone half a mile, he was within fifty yards of me. I could hear him, cursing and swearing and shouting to me to stop, but I had made up my mind I would not do that.
"I had got a brace22 of pistols with me, but I wasn't much of a shot. I had, soon after I started, pulled them out of the holsters and shoved them into my belt in front of me; so that, as he came up, he shouldn't see my hand go down for them. My hope was that he would ride straight up to the side of me, not knowing that I was armed; and that would give me a chance of suddenly letting fly at him.
"You would think the chance was a poor one; and that he would, to a certainty, shoot me down before he got up. I did not much think he would do that, for I guessed that the scoundrel would do with me as he had in some other cases; namely, take me and carry me back to the house, and there either threaten to shoot me, or hang me up over a fire, or some such devilry, to make those inside give in. I was determined23 this shouldn't be, and that if I could not shoot him I would be shot myself; for otherwise he would have got my father and mother, and it would have been three lives instead of one.
"Presently—crack!—came the sound of a pistol, and I heard the bullet whiz close by. I expect that it was only to frighten me into stopping; but in a second or two he fired again, and the shot just grazed my shoulder, so he was in earnest that time.
"I bent24 low on my saddle, got a pistol out of my belt, and prepared. There was another shot, the horse gave a spring and I knew he was hit, but for a time he went faster than ever; still, the last shot wasn't from more than twenty yards behind; and I expected, every minute, to see his horse's head coming up beside me. Then I heard a curse and a sudden fall and, looking round, saw his horse was down.
"Cockeye was on his feet in a moment, and drew another pistol from his holster; so I concluded to keep on as hard as I could go, without waiting to make inquiries25. I guessed pretty well what had happened. The shot I had heard my father fire, as he started after me, had hit the horse; and the poor brute26 had kept on until he dropped. I understood the fellow's firing, now. He felt his horse was failing under him, and his only chance was to stop me.
"I kept on till I got safe to the station. The three men there started in different directions, to fetch assistance, and by the evening we had a score of men assembled there, and started back to our station. We heard a cooey when we were within a mile of the place, and guessed it was a fellow on the watch. By the time we got there they had all cleared off, but it was a close thing.
"My mother was a courageous27 woman, and had defended the back of the house, and my father the front. The blacks had made several attempts to burn the place down; but the roof, like the walls, was made of solid timber; which is the only safe way to build a house, when you are exposed to attacks of the blacks.
"As long as daylight lasted the old people had done very well, and had kept the blacks at a distance; and we saw, by the marks of blood in the morning, that they must have killed or wounded eight or ten of them; but if we hadn't come up before the blacks had darkness to cover them, it would have gone hard with them. Of course we knew that, and calculated so as to get there before nightfall."
"Well, curiously28 enough, that was the last time he ever troubled the settlements. We never knew exactly what became of him, but it was said that the blacks killed and eat him. I know that was very often the end of those fellows. As long as all went on well, the blacks were friendly enough with them, and were glad to follow their lead; but after a repulse29 like that they got at our station, or perhaps as a result of some quarrel about the division of the plunder30, or their gins, or something of that sort, they would fall suddenly on their white friends, and make cooked meat of them."
"I suppose the blacks seldom spare any whites who fall into their hands?" Reuben asked.
"Scarcely ever," Mr. Blount replied. "That was why they were more dreaded31 than the bush rangers. The latter would kill, if they were in the humour for it; but if there was no serious resistance, and none of their number got hurt, more often than not they contented32 themselves by leaving everyone tied, hand and foot, till somebody came to unloose them.
"I remember one horrible case, in which they so tied up three white men at a lonely station, and nobody happened to go near it for three weeks afterwards. It struck someone that none of them had been seen, for some time; and a couple of men rode over and, to their horror, found the three men dead of hunger and thirst.
"Now the black fellows don't do that sort of thing. When they do attack a station and take it, they kill every soul; man, woman, and child."
"I suppose, in that affair you were telling us of," Reuben asked, "both of your ticket-of-leave men were killed?"
"Yes. One seemed to have been surprised and speared at once. The other had made a stout33 fight of it, for the bodies of three natives were found near him."
"I remember one case," one of the others said, "in which the blacks did spare one of the party, in a station which they attacked. It was a little girl of about three years old. Why they did so I don't know; perhaps the chief took a fancy to her. Maybe he had lost a child of the same age, and thought his gin would take to the little one. Anyhow, he carried her off.
"The father happened to be away at the time. He had gone down to Sydney with a waggon34, for stores; and when he got back he found the house burned, and the bodies of his wife, two boys, and two men, but there was no trace of that of the child.
"He was nearly out of his mind, poor fellow. The neighbours all thought that the body must have been burned with the house; but he would have it that there would have been some sign of her. No one else thought so; and besides, it wasn't the custom of the blacks to carry off anyone. The father got a party to try and follow the blacks, but of course it was no use. They had pretty near two days' start.
"The father never took to his farm again, but hung about the out stations, doing a job here and there for his grub. Sometimes he would be away for a bit, and when he came back, though he never talked about it, everyone knew he had been out hunting the blacks.
"I do not know how many of them he killed, but I know he never spared one, when he got him outside the settlement. After a time the blacks never troubled that part. So many of them had been killed that they got a superstitious35 fear of the man, and believed he was possessed36 of an evil spirit; and I don't believe twenty of them, together, would have dared to attack him.
"At last, from some of the half-tamed blacks in the settlement, he got to hear some sort of rumour37 that there was a white girl, living with one of the tribes far out in their country, and he set out. He was away four months, and he never said what he had been doing all the time. In fact, he started almost directly for the port, and went home by the next ship.
"However, he brought his child back with him. It was four years since she had been carried off, and she was a regular little savage7, when she arrived in the settlement with him. Of course she could not speak a word of English, and was as fierce as a little wildcat. I expect she got all right, after a bit.
"I didn't see the man, but I heard he was worn to a shadow, when he got back. He must have had an awful time of it, in the bush. What with hunger and thirst, and dodging38 the blacks, I don't know how he lived through it; but he looked contented and happy, in spite of his starvation, and they say it was wonderful to see how patient he was with the child.
"They got up a subscription39, at Sydney, to send them both home. I heard that the captain of the ship he went in said, when he came back the next voyage, that the child had taken to him, and had got civilized40 and like other children before they got to England."
"Of course, such fellows as Cockeye and Fothergill are the exceptions, and not the rule," Mr. Blount said. "Were there many of such scoundrels about, we should have to abandon our settlements and make war upon them; for there would be no living in the colony till they were exterminated41. Most of these fellows are the colonial version of the highwaymen, at home. It is just 'Stand and deliver.' They content themselves with taking what they can find in a traveller's pockets, or can obtain by a flying visit to his station."
"Yes, I had several of those in my last district," Reuben said. "They were just mounted robbers, and gave us a good deal of trouble in hunting them down. But none of them had shed blood during their career, and they did not even draw a pistol when we captured them. That style of bush ranger is a nuisance, but no more. Men seldom carry much money about with them here, and no great harm was done."
"You see," Dick Caister said, "these fellows have a remarkable42 objection to putting their necks in the way of a noose43; so that although they may lug44 out a pistol and shout 'Bail45 up!' they will very seldom draw a trigger, if you show fight. So long as they do not take life they know that, if they are caught, all they have to expect is to be kept at hard work during the rest of their sentence, and perhaps for a bit longer. They don't mind the risk of that. They have had their outing, sometimes a long one; but if they once take life, they know its hanging when they are caught; and are therefore careful not to press too hard upon their triggers.
"But once they have killed a man, they don't generally care how many more lives they take. They are desperate, then, and seem to exult46 in devilry of all kinds. As to being stuck up by an ordinary bush ranger, one would think no more of it than of having one's pockets picked, in England.
"It's lucky for us, on the whole, that the black fellows have such a hatred47 of the white men. Were it not for that, a good many of these fellows would go all lengths, relying on taking to the bush when they had made the colony too hot to hold them. But there are only a few of them that have ever got on well with the blacks, and many a man who has gone out into the bush has found his end there. You see, there's no explaining to a dozen natives, who jump up and begin to throw spears and boomerangs at you, that you are a bad white fellow, and not a colonist11 on the search for fresh runs.
"No, the bush rangers on the whole are not such a bad lot of fellows. I suppose there is not one of us, here, who hasn't had men ride up and ask for food; who were, he knew pretty well, bush rangers. Of course they got their food, as anyone else would who rode up to a station and asked for it.
"Once, only, I was told to hand over any money I had in the house. As, fortunately, I had only a few pounds I gave it up without making a fight for it. It's no use risking one's life, unless for something worth fighting for. I suppose most of us here have had similar experiences."
"Many of them are poor-spirited wretches50. Two of them bailed51 up a waggoner of mine, coming out with a load from the port. He pretended to give in and, as they were opening some of the boxes, he knocked one over with the butt52 end of his whip. The other fired a hasty shot, and then jumped on to his horse and galloped53 off again; and my man brought in the fellow he had stunned54."
"Did you hand him over to the police?" Reuben asked.
"Not I," the settler laughed. "I thought he had got what he deserved, so I bandaged up his head and let him go. Those poor beggars of convicts have a dreadful hard time of it, and I don't think there are many settlers who would hand over any man who had escaped, and taken to the bush, even if he had occasionally bailed up a waggoner or so. We know what a flogging the poor wretch49 would get and, as long as it's only an occasional robbery, to keep themselves from starving, we don't feel any great animosity against them. It's different, altogether, when they take to murder. Then, of course, they must be hunted down like wild beasts.
"And now I vote that we have a nap. My pipe's out, and I suppose we shall be on the tramp again, as soon as it is dark."
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1
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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2
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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3
sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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4
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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5
appeasing
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的现在分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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6
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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7
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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8
ranger
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| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
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rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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10
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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11
colonist
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| n.殖民者，移民 | |
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12
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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13
meddle
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| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
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14
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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15
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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17
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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18
herding
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| 中畜群 | |
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19
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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20
shutter
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| n.百叶窗；(照相机)快门；关闭装置 | |
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21
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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22
brace
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| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
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23
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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24
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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25
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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26
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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27
courageous
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| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
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28
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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29
repulse
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| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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30
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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31
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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32
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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34
waggon
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| n.运货马车，运货车；敞篷车箱 | |
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35
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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36
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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37
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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38
dodging
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| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
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39
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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40
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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41
exterminated
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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43
noose
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| n.绳套，绞索（刑）；v.用套索捉；使落入圈套；处以绞刑 | |
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44
lug
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| n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动 | |
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45
bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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46
exult
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| v.狂喜，欢腾；欢欣鼓舞 | |
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47
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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48
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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49
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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50
wretches
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| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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51
bailed
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| 保释，帮助脱离困境( bail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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53
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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54
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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