Bob was silent; somehow his companion's words affected him deeply. There was a note of foreboding in them, as if the speaker saw into the future clearly, and was saddened by what he saw. Together they joined the camp-fire circle, where the rest of their acquaintances were gathered; then Mackay appeared to remember something, and hastened back to the vat, and when Jack and the Shadow went in search of him, they found him quietly refixing the canvas wall around the whole structure.
That night Bob and Mackay slept deeply; the strain of the evening and of the preceding days had told upon them. Jack, on the other hand, tossed about restlessly; his active brain refused to be still, and the events of the last crowded epoch in his life flitted before his unseeing gaze. He awoke from a troubled sleep shortly after midnight, and a vague uneasiness seemed to take possession of him. The moon had just risen, and her pale eerie light penetrated into the tent and illumined it with a ghostly radiance; it shone on the faces of the two recumbent figures near, and Jack for the moment became interested in watching the different expressions of the sleepers. Bob slept deep and peacefully, a restful smile on his clear-cut features, but Mackay's rugged visage looked grim and careworn, and ever and anon a faint groan broke from his lips, while his breath came in quick, laboured gasps. Jack was amazed. To him the brawny bushman was still somewhat of an enigma, and each new phase of his startled, even while it interested him. "He'll be back in the Never Never again," thought he, pityingly. Then all at once his heart gave a violent bound. A shadow had suddenly fallen aslant the tent; some moving body had intervened to shut out the rising rays of the moon. He glanced around with an almost imperceptible movement through his half-closed eyelids, and there at the door stood a bulky figure gazing in on them intently. For fully a minute he stood thus, then he turned silently, and the moon shone on his face, revealing the hateful features of Macguire; it shone also on something which glittered brightly in his upraised hand: it was a revolver.
Almost at the same instant Jack became conscious of another intruder being near; his sensitive ear caught the sound of light shuffling footsteps in the sand, and a dark form loomed up briefly by the side of the tent; the image reflected plainly through the thin calico wall, then quickly disappeared. Immediately afterwards there came a sharp rasping tear from the near vicinity, followed by a muttered curse. A cold sweat broke out on the boy's forehead; some one had cut the canvas screen enclosing the vat and batteries! At the disturbing sound the watcher at the door started slightly, then his demoniacal face peered again into the tent, and the shining barrel of his weapon was levelled straight at Mackay's heaving chest; but apparently satisfied that the man whom he so much dreaded was still asleep, he hastened to join his marauding companion.
Jack's action was prompt and impulsive; he leaped up, seized his Winchester repeater, which was lying on the ground at his side, and without a moment's hesitation rushed after Macguire. As in a dream he saw two dark figures lifting something out from the torn curtain surrounding the secret process; at his approach they dropped their encumbrance, there came a loud report, and Jack felt a ball graze his temple; then his own rifle spoke, and a yell of pain answered its heavy discharge. A perfect fusillade of revolver-shots now echoed through the night, and Jack felt the leaden messengers whistle about his ears. With a just rage in his heart he dashed right at the ruffianly pair; almost before he knew, he was on top of them, and his clubbed rifle whirled through the air, descending with a crash on Macguire's head. So severe was the stroke that the stock of his weapon shivered into fragments; but Macguire's skull was like iron; though the blow felled him like a stricken ox, he struggled to his feet at once and staggered off into the night, just as Mackay and Bob appeared on the scene. It had all happened in a few moments, and when his comrades arrived, the boy was standing with the shattered rifle still in his hands, gazing with dazed eyes all around.
"JACK FELT A BALL GRAZE HIS TEMPLE; THEN HIS
OWN RIFLE SPOKE"
"Well done, Jack!" said Mackay, heartily, guessing at once what had happened.
"But—but where's the other one?" faltered Jack. "There were two of them a minute ago. Look for the battery, Bob; look——"
"It's gone," said Bob, quietly.