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.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONFESSION.
He had been absent from the huts for nearly half an hour, but we found the three blacks still in a state of the most abject fear. They started with dread even at our approach; and, what surprised me much, Peel seemed even more panic-stricken than his younger companions. His eyes rolled, his teeth chattered, and every now and then he would shiver convulsively. When I had first seen him he was dressed in jacket and trousers, but now he was in his aboriginal costume, an opossum-skin cloak wrapped round his otherwise perfectly naked form. He was squatting on his heels by the fire, but with his face towards the door. The superintendent was a tall, powerful man, and a formidable antagonist to face. He stood in the centre of the hut (which, as I have explained, happened to be clear, the table having been placed against the partition), and looked sternly down on the three crouching, shivering figures beneath him. He had purposely left the gun we had found in the kitchen, telling the hut-keeper and his wife not to come near, whatever they might hear. In his hand he held a pistol, while I stood with another in my belt, and my gun in my hand, ready for action. We had provided ourselves also with a stout piece of cord, which I had ready to give to him when he should ask for it.
For nearly a minute Stevenson thus stood and looked at them in silence. I observed that, after the first glance at him, the two boys stared round the hut and hung their heads without looking at him again. Not so Peel. As his eyes met the superintendent's I noticed that they became fixed. The pupils, before dilated, suddenly contracted; the lids, previously wide open, half closed, and a spasm seemed to pass over him. His head sank lower in the folds of his rug, but never for an instant did he remove his glance from Stevenson's face. He saw something there which made him suspect that his villainy was known, and that he had run into a trap; and the second danger counteracted the panic caused by the first.
'Bobby Peel,' said Stevenson, 'where gun belongin' to white fellow you kill?'
At this question the two youngest absolutely grovelled in the ashes, and seemed to give themselves up for lost. Peel did not answer, but drew his cloak over his head, and gathered himself together beneath it, as if he had resigned himself to his fate.
'Give me the rope, doctor,' said the superintendent, turning his face towards me.