'Got it—track belongin' to Bobby,' said the trooper, pointing to the ground, and trotting farther out on the plain towards the hut.
CHAPTER VII.
THE END OF THE CHASE.
'Now what dodge has the fellow been up to?' said Walters. 'If he is skulking in this myrtle patch, hoping to double back to the creek, he is mistaken. Unless he has passed my men on the plain, which isn't likely, we'll soon have him.'
I observed Stevenson looking round for Pothook, but that youth had prudently slipped off. We afterwards questioned him as to what took place when he and Peel met each other. It seems that, cut off from his only chance, the scrub on one side of the creek, and informed, by the way, that the bed of it lower down was guarded, the black had for a few moments given up all hope of escape. He looked in despair between the trunks of the yarra trees towards the out-station hut, which lay a quarter of a mile off, hidden in a belt of myrtle and quandong bushes, some three or four hundred yards long, and extending across the bend so as to shut out the view of the great plain beyond. That plain, he knew, was carefully guarded, and, moreover, it led to the home station. But as he looked he saw an object which excited a gleam of hope, and inspired him with a desperate resolve. The sunken tree was some distance back from where he stood, and to avoid showing his return traces he jumped into the water and swam to it, emerging in the manner described, while the boy took to the creek, intending to remain concealed under the surface until the danger which he fancied menaced himself passed by. In going towards the hut, Peel ran no danger of being seen by the black stationed by the mallee, for on such a level plain the yarra trees which fringed the water-hole completely screened from those at a distance on one side whatever passed on the other side of the creek.
The open space between the part of the banks where we now stood and the belt of small timber above mentioned, was less than a quarter of a mile, and while the blacks who had been swimming in the water-hole were dressing themselves, Walters galloped across it, and through the bushes and on to the large plain beyond, to see whereabouts his sentries were. He could see two, who were riding up and down just within sight of each other, while between and beyond them, far out, was the shepherd with his flock. There was not a bush to conceal the view, and far away, by the edge of the distant timber, the blacks and their guard were still in sight, on their way to the home station. The timber opened opposite to him, and through this opening he could see miles away on to another plain beyond. The road from the punt to the upper part of the river passed that way, and came up to near where he stood, crossing the creek near the out-station hut, and going through a narrow portion of the mallee, which had been cleared for the purpose. On this road, at a considerable distance off, was a solitary horseman, apparently riding to the home station.
Meanwhile the blacks had again taken up the trail, which led straight to the brush in which the hut was concealed. Just before we reached the edge of this, Walters joined us again.
'I can't make the fellow out,' he said; 'he can't have crossed the plain; and if he is skulking here, we shall soon have him.'
The sentry across at the mallee had been called over, and, with another man, now watched in the open, to give notice if Peel doubled out and made back tracks for the creek again; and we proceeded to enter the bushes of quandong and myrtle. All at once there was a commotion amongst the trackers, who sprang to their horses, shouting something to Walters, who thereupon raged and stormed; and no wonder. The distant horseman he had a few minutes before seen was the very man he was after.
'Has either of your men here got a horse?' he asked the superintendent hastily.