Seeing that he could be of no further use, and feeling that as yet he had had no direct hand in exterminating the enemies of his beloved white chief, our Waigonda, disdaining firearms and contenting himself with a steel tomahawk, was off before Mat could stop him, shouting back, in answer to the latter’s question as to where he was going,—
“To get the other two and their thunder-sticks.”
As Mat afterwards found out, when the duel between him and the bushranger commenced, these two other ruffians had jumped up and taken deliberate aim at him, with the result of two flashes in the pan. They had then looked for their powder-flask, and not finding it, the truth had dawned upon them; so seizing their guns they had bolted for their lives, leaving Magan to shift for himself.
Our forester had taken care to place Annie in a position from where she could not possibly see the dying bushranger.
“Thank God, you are now safe, Miss Bell,” he said, as he approached her. “I will leave you for a few minutes whilst I look for the horse, but you’re quite safe. I will hardly be out of your sight.”
Saying which he was turning away, in reality to look after Magan, and also to see that there were no signs of further miscreants, when Annie called him back.
“Oh! don’t be long; I want to get out of this horrid place! But, ah! forgive me for only thinking of myself instead of my preserver—for such you are, Mr. Stanley.”
“Call me simply ‘Mat,’ as the others do,” he replied. “And rest yourself; I know you must be terribly stiff with all you’ve gone through; plenty of time to tell me all about it afterwards. I must see first that we have no enemies left.”
With that he took a turn round the camp, and then walked up to Magan, who, he found had regained his senses, but was slowly bleeding to death. Mat saw that the case of the man was hopeless, but at the same time felt that he was utterly powerless to help him; however, he procured him water, placed his bottle close to him, and asked him if he could do anything at all for him.
“No, curse you,” hissed the man between his teeth, “haven’t you done enough? Why didn’t I kill you and the others when I was with Carew, and you came to the camp? I got some of your nuggets, and meant to wipe out the lot of you, only there were too many niggers about; if ever I stirred even to the mouth of the tent, there was one watching me. They’ve been my curse all along.”