The Black Troopers, and other stories

by Anonymous

The creek down the bed of which the fugitive had fled was not an ana branch of the Murray, but one of the ordinary watercourses called by that name in Australia, which is, however, only properly applicable to an inlet of the sea. A raging torrent in winter, it was in summer a succession of 'water-holes' or pools, with spaces of dry ground between them. Some of these water-holes were from fifty to a hundred yards in length,—a few much larger, but in general they resembled small ponds,—the breadth being some forty or fifty feet. In depth many greatly exceeded this. The banks were fringed with the 'yarra' trees, which almost invariably, even when they are passing through plains otherwise treeless, margin the smaller watercourses of Australia, and which in this particular creek grew more closely than usual together at that level of the bank reached by the floods in winter-time. Unlike the generality of Australian timber, which shoots up to a considerable height before giving off any branches, these yarra trees in form more often resemble those of English growth (such as the oak); the trunk, gnarled and stunted, dividing at a few feet into large branches, the inner ones growing with an inclination downwards towards the water, into which at flood-time their ends often dip. From the blacks' camp to the out-station hut, a mile off, the course of the creek somewhat resembled the letter S.

We soon overtook the trackers, who had not much difficulty in following, as the fugitive had not had time to resort to any elaborate artifices. At one spot he had taken to the water, and some time passed before the place where he left it could be ascertained. The margin of that particular water-hole was rocky in some places. A slight drizzling rain had continued to fall, but beneath the trees the ground as yet was comparatively dry. The drippings from the fugitive's clothes would quickly betray his passage, but none such could be seen. It was concluded that he lay hidden in a patch of reeds which grew in a shallow part of the water at one end, and search was being made there by two of the blacks as we rode up. The third, however, more cunning than the rest, instead of joining them, ascended on to the plain, and commenced making casts round about in the neighbourhood. At first he also was unsuccessful, but in working his way round the water-hole he caught sight of a tuft of pretty thick bushes some thirty feet or so out. Instantly he ran up to them, as if pretty certain of there finding what he was looking for, and, stooping, he drew out a couple of dead, flattened, bushy boughs. Beneath these were the footmarks of the hunted man.

The bush in Australia is everywhere littered with dead trees and branches, the beds of the creeks in particular, where they are torn from the banks and deposited in heaps by floods. The leaves of one small bushy species adhere most tenaciously for months after death, and are not easily broken. Picking up two of these as he fled, and keeping them dry as he entered the water and swam, Peel had placed them on the dry, rocky part of the bank. Hastily pressing and squeezing as much moisture as possible out of his clothes, he had lifted himself out upon them, and allowed them to receive the droppings from his person. Shifting one before the other, and always keeping upon them, he had ascended the bank, and in this manner reached the tuft of bushes without leaving any moisture or footprint to betray him. We found that the bend of the creek at this spot would hide him from view.

After leaving the tuft of bushes, he had run for some distance at full speed, and again descended into the bed. Upon coming to that part where it approached the mallee sufficiently close to enable the fugitive, had he left the creek, to reach the scrub before the horseman on watch could overtake him, the trackers found that the traces still continued to keep within the banks. By this they were sure that he had not had time to try it, and that Walters had been too quick for him. His resorting to these artifices was another proof, and the trackers now proceeded cautiously, for fear he should double on them and take the back track.

We at length came to a water-hole of great size, being nearly three hundred yards in length, and in parts very broad. Along the side of this the tracks led for a good distance, and then suddenly disappeared. The mallee came closer here than in any other part; and the trooper on sentry there was riding up and down in its front. He examined the ground where he was; and the blacks with us, thinking that by chance he might have dodged in unobserved by the sentry, examined the plain in their own vicinity; but no marks could be seen. The fugitive had evidently taken to the water. But had he left it, and how? was the question; for, search as they would, not a mark to indicate the whereabouts of his exit could be seen. The long, dry summer had sunk the water so much, that on both sides a broad margin of damp clay bank extended, which would have quickly betrayed his passage; and the blacks had soon ascertained that Peel had not repeated his former ruse. They decided, therefore, that he was still in the water, concealed; and that, moreover, there was another black concealed there with him.

The farther end of the larger lagoon was connected by a narrow, shallow strait, a few feet wide, with a smaller one; and on walking round this, one of the troopers had come upon some other tracks, which also led to the margin of the pool, and there disappeared. An examination of these soon led to the decision that they had very recently been made, that they were the footmarks of a black, and that it was not Peel. And upon examining the narrow strait of shallow water, they furthermore asserted that the individual, whoever he was, had passed through it hurriedly on his way to the larger lagoon.

When Walters conveyed this information to the superintendent and myself, who were present, I was much surprised. I could not imagine how it could be possible for the men to be concealed in such a place.

'How can they tell that anybody has passed through this water?' I said to their commander. 'It is only two or three feet deep, but the bottom is invisible, owing to the dark colour of the clay, and the shade cast by the trees.'

'They examined the edge of it,' he replied, 'and found that a ripple or wave had recently washed over the pebbles, grass, and clay of the bank for several inches. If he had walked gently through, the mark left would have been much slighter than if he had passed through in a hurry. This fellow rushed through in a hurry, evidently. Probably just then he caught sight of the troopers coming over the plain to station themselves by the scrub here, close by, and made for the larger water directly.'

'Perhaps,' I suggested, 'the tracks are Peel's, made by walking backwards out of the water, to deceive you.'