“And if you had, you wouldn’t tell us, eh?”
“I’m not going to answer questions,” said Nic. “But mind this: if you find him, I won’t have him shot down.”
“Then he mustn’t shoot at us, sir,” said the man, smiling, “so you’d better send him word if you know where he is. Forward!” he cried, and the party trotted toward the Wattles, but turned off a little over half-way there, and to Nic’s horror he felt that they had hit upon the place where he and the convict parted that night just as the storm came on. And here, after a few words from the head of the little force, two of the blacks came forward and began to quarter the ground like dogs, their bodies and heads bent forward, and their eyes searching the grass with the keenest eagerness.
But it was a long time before either of them showed that he had found signs.
Then one stopped short, dropped upon his knees, uttered a cry, and his fellows ran softly up behind him, keeping close to each other, and being careful not to go near the track or whatever it was that he had found.
Then began a low excited jabbering, during which the mounted men sat fast, one of them holding the leash which restrained the dogs.
At last the quick discussion ended, and the first black rose from his knees and made a sign to the police leader to come forward, Nic without hesitation following and peering over the blacks, who gave way a little, while the first pointed down to something which Nic expected to find was a footstep, but which proved to be a big common knife, rusted by exposure to rain and air.
This was picked up now and handed to the leader, while Nic’s eyes dilated a little, for he felt sure that he had seen the knife before; and in the convict’s hands, when he was eating his cold meat and damper beneath a tree.
“Yes,” he said to himself with a little shiver, “that is his knife. He must have dropped it here. It had a buckhorn handle, and on the other side three crosses had been filed pretty deeply.” He remembered that fact well.
Just then the police leader turned round sharply, saw his interested look, and said, in a decisive, imperative tone of voice: