“Out with it then, and we’ll take him by surprise—surround him after dusk. Then it will mean a flogging or two, and another year in the gang, and perhaps a fresh chance. Better than being buried, sir, in the bush.”
Nic remained silent, but with his brow contracted.
“Very well, sir, but you see. Why, I can trace that track as I ride. We could find him now without the blacks.”
Still Nic held his peace, and rode on beside the man, as mile after mile was traced, leading, to the boy’s surprise, toward the Bluff, but curving off a mile from home, as if to go round it to reach the other side.
And so it proved, the blacks trotting on till they did pass the house half a mile away; and Nic jumped to the conclusion that the poor fellow had made for the fern gully, up which, somewhere probably on the riverside, was his lair.
They went right on, without once being at fault, the footprints, with the left sole badly cracked across, showing clearly at times in the soft soil, till the place where the black-fish were caught was passed, and the valley slope mounted for the open ground, where the sheep was kicked into the rift that ran down toward the water.
From here the footsteps went right across toward the station, and the leading black ran them easily and triumphantly right up to the men’s bothy, at whose door Brookes stood hollow-cheeked and anxious.
“Got him?” he cried hoarsely, when, to his surprise, the blacks dashed at him and had him down, while the leader secured and held up one of his boots with the sole toward the head of the police.
“Mine find,” he cried, pointing to a crack across the sole; and Nic forced the nag away, and trotted off to the stable to hide his laughter, and then stood patting his horse, feeling quite heartsick from the tension now relieved.
For he had made sure that so as to be in a place not likely to be searched Leather had come by night to the station, and that he would be found hidden in one of the piles of wool, whereas it was evident that Brookes had been over to the Wattles, and had come that way back, searching along the fern gully, to make sure of Leather not being in hiding there.