“If it wasn’t for this,” he said, “I’d make a break for those fellows on the other side of the meadow and we’d settle this thing here and now. But I’ve got to take care of Dobbin first.
“We must go back to the hiding-place under the falls; then we’ll see what the rest of us can do.”
CHAPTER VII.
HOLDING THE FORT.
Dobbin was carried by the two white men in the party up the mountain slope to the base of the falls. Trim and the blacks marched in the rear in order to resist any attack that might be made upon them by the Narugas.
“It seems to me,” thought Trim, “that Mulvey and his men won’t stop now until they have made an effort at least to slaughter us or drive us out of the country.
“Miller is undoubtedly with them, and has told them what he knows or thinks he knows of me. They will understand, therefore, that I’m not regularly connected with the British police, and that in fighting me they are not necessarily fighting against the English Government.
“For that reason they won’t have so much hesitation about shooting us down.
“When the chief of the Kimberley police was here leading an expedition against them, the Narugas, under their white leader, took great pains not to kill their enemies.
“That was because they did not want to excite the English authorities into sending a powerful army into this country; so at that time they pursued a policy of retreat and hiding.