Thus for an instant stood the two gladiators, with quivering limbs, their muscles standing out like cords ready to burst, when Mat got a full grip, this time round the loins of the Tingura, and with one tremendous heave, aided by his knee, threw him completely over his shoulder, and left him, stunned and bleeding, a good three yards behind him.
Mat throws the Tingura.
The chief cause of Mat being at length able to give his man this deadly fall was the fact that when they rolled together on the ground he was enabled to secure a handful of grit, and thus secure a firm grip of the black’s skin. He had never before attempted to hold a black fellow, and he now realized that when he tried to, there was a natural sort of grease in the native skin which prevented him. He had thus, during the struggle, been watching for an opportunity to grab some sand; an effort which we have seen he succeeded in.
Our forester was now pretty well exhausted, and had it not been that the Waigonda formed round him, and covered his retreat towards the “thunder-stick,” he must have been either struck down or made prisoner.
Tim, meantime, with Dromoora and the rest of the tribe, had been bravely fighting against overwhelming odds. They were being driven slowly but surely back to the point at which they had previously determined to make their final stand, but it looked as though they could not be forced to reach it, so stubborn was their defence. Thinking by means of a bold dash to finish the battle, the Tingura made a rush, and Tim found himself separated from his tribe.
One assailant, who rushed at him with a “waddy,” he knocked down with his right fist, receiving the intended blow from the club on his shield. Whilst still staggering from the shock of this, another native hit him a crushing blow on the ribs, which knocked Tim down. The black was in the act of raising his club again to give him a finishing blow on the head when a yellow form seemed to spring out of the long grass, hurl itself on to the native’s back, and by sheer weight bear him to the earth, and there fix its teeth firmly in his throat. Mat, having been a witness of this act, rushed to the spot, and shouting, “Cheer up, Tim, I’ll put this brute out of his misery,” finished the Tingura by a blow on the head, which, seeing that Jumper had torn the savage’s throat open, was the most humane act to perform.
But though fortune had so far befriended the brothers, yet she had not altogether acted in like manner with Dromoora and the rest of his tribe.
The Tinguras were so enraged at the unexpected opposition, that with a savage yell the only surviving chief gathered his men round him, and determined to annihilate the Waigondas by their still overpowering numbers.
They had succeeded in driving Dromoora and all his fighting-men into the timber, where “throwing weapons” were of no avail, so that each side relied on their clubs only.