In a short time all were ready, our horses driven up to the stockyard and saddled. The troopers, under the guidance of Harris, mounted and started, while Walters and we then entered the hut once more, to look at the two blacks, to whom I had given a dose of something to make them sleep.

'I want to make sure of these fellows,' said the former. 'It would never do if, the moment our backs are turned, one of them jumped up and made off. He could easily reach the camp before daybreak, and all our trouble would be thrown away. Try them again, doctor, please.'

I did so. Little Toby could be roused only with difficulty. Pothook, however, was not so drowsy; and upon shaking him he opened his eyes and fixed them for a moment on Walters and a trooper, who, in their shining accoutrements, stood before him. His head almost instantly fell back, and apparently he was sound asleep again in a moment. Something, however, in the glance aroused my suspicions, and I quietly asked the lieutenant if the blacks here knew him.

'Oh yes! they all know me very well.'

'Then Pothook recognised you! I believe he is wide awake at this moment, and will continue so, as the shock of the discovery that you are here will rouse him thoroughly. He must be guarded. Shall we tie them together?'

'No need of that, if your hut-keeper will only mount guard over them for one hour. It is half-past four now, and day dawns at six. Call him in.'

Laidlaw came in, and, having received his orders not to lose sight of them for an instant until daylight, we mounted our horses and pushed on to overtake the troop.

'I am vexed that you should be dragged out on such a miserable expedition as this,' said Stevenson to me as we rode together; 'but you know my motives. I feel very sad when I think of the fate about to befall these unhappy wretches. I can venture to say this much to you. Were I to speak thus to nine out of ten squatters, they would stare at me in astonishment. It is enough for them that these blacks have killed white men. They must, therefore, be shot down if they run, or be hanged if they are taken alive. But I cannot help feeling that all those so-called murders were perpetrated by these ignorant savages in retaliation for innumerable atrocities practised by the overlanders and their men, who, until a year or two back, when this station was first formed, used to travel from the Sydney side with their sheep and cattle to take up this country. Had we white men only done our duty by these poor creatures, and used our superior power a little more mercifully when we seized and occupied their country, such atrocities as those we are now going to punish would never have occurred. It is enough to make one's blood run cold to hear some of my neighbours speak of these blacks. "How many did you shoot when you came over?" one will ask another. "Only eleven," he will reply. "How many did you?" "Fourteen altogether." And in town I have more than once met—gentlemen, I suppose I must call them—who openly asserted that they made it a point to shoot all they came across.'

'I have heard men say the same,' I replied, 'more than once, when in Melbourne. It is perfectly horrible.'

Walters riding up at this moment put a stop to the conversation, and presently we overtook the troop.