"The blacks should ken we are about by this time," he observed lightly; "but there are six good rifles in this camp, an' we might as well encourage them to come out now as at any other time. There's going to be a good moon up to-night."
"You might give us a tootle on the flute," said Never Never Dave; "I hasn't heard ye play since we left Golden Flat."
"Let us have 'The Muskittie's Lament,'" urged the Shadow; "I is just dyin' to stretch my voice a bit."
"No, Shadow; though you are a budding Sims Reeves, I can't sympathize wi' you enough just now to listen to you singing. I must even deny you the pleasure o' hearing me warble the old familiar tune to-night, for I'm no' in the mood for waxing extravagantly joyous. But seein' we've reached the deceivin' mountain at last, and without mishap, I'll gie ye a blaw on the flute, if only to make this night something different from other nights."
Jack fetched the flute with alacrity, and then seated himself beside Bob, and soon the little group were listening in hushed silence to the pensive strains of one of Balfe's melodies. When it was finished, the man of many moods paused for a moment, and his eyes roamed instinctively back towards the desert, and though the smoky cloud still intervened, Bob guessed at once that he was again filled with swelling memories of the past.
"Let us have something lively, Mac," said Emu Bill, "something that will make us forget them pestiferous niggers for a bit."
"I can't do it, Bill," came the husky response; "not here, not to-night." Then he lifted the flute once more. "I'll play you one o' Bentley's favourite hymns," he said gravely. "Well do I mind we used a' to sing it whiles when we were on the march."
Softly into the night rose the notes; they lingered by each deep crevasse on the mountain side, and echoed back from the rocky steeps. Unspeakably entrancing was the effect. The musician himself seemed lost in the wonderful sounds he created, and his hearers, after listening in mute attention for some time, by a common impulse joined in with the words, familiar to them all—
"Lead, kindly Light,...