He rode over with Dr Tom Sheridan on a long-promised visit to Adye Dauntsey.
Jim Dennis was a regular stay-at-home, and never cared to be long away from Wanabeen.
The police magistrate, however, knew how to entertain such visitors, and he possessed a fund of anecdote, and had gone through a wide and varied experience, which enabled him to relate many stories of interest connected with the district.
Abe Dalton was not slow to learn that Jim Dennis was absent from Wanabeen, and he thought it would be a good time to attempt to get possession of Sal during his absence.
He laid his plans accordingly, and four of his men were allotted to undertake the task.
There were, however, in the blacks' camp at Barker's Creek, women who had come to loathe and hate Dalton and all his belongings, and who sometimes managed to escape the vigilance of his men and get away unseen, when they would visit Sal at Wanabeen, or search out their own tribe. They were bound to return to the Creek, or it would have gone ill with those remaining behind.
Dalton's men took but little heed of the blacks, talking freely in front of them, and it came to their knowledge that Sal was in some danger, so they determined to warn her. The nature of the danger they failed to understand, but that it existed they were certain.
At night one of the gins slipped away unobserved and walked to Wanabeen, where she arrived at daybreak. These blacks knew the country well, and had they been treated in a decent manner would not have been slow to appreciate kindness.
Sal was always willing to give them a helping hand, and tried to persuade them not to go back to Barker's Creek when they came to Wanabeen, but without avail. They regarded her with a sort of awe, knowing her to be partially one of themselves and yet far superior. They could not understand how a woman who had once been in their tribe became as she was.
When Sal went outside she saw the black gin waiting on the steps of the verandah. She welcomed her and gave her food, and then questioned her.