‘If each individual man were not merely one of the units composing a vast system of usurpation, called from time immemorial by the specious name of Progress, one could afford to sympathise with the savage for smiting his oppressor. But the world will surely be very old when that most ancient of laws “the strongest shall possess,” ceases to have force. We preach the law of Right, but the older natural doctrine of Might has always prevailed and will find adherents to the end, so long as one man or one animal, brute or human, is born stronger than his fellow.
‘Thus, through the livelong sweet spring day, the sleuth-hounds swerved and faltered not. As the day wore on, the writing on Nature’s book, the ink whereof was the lifeblood of him that fled, became easier to read. The sable coil seemed to work more unerringly than ever. It glided like a huge serpent among the trees, the head shooting forward to be swiftly and smoothly followed by the sinuous body.
‘“What do you think of the tracking?” asked Bothwell with pardonable pride, his eyes resting upon Mayboy, who was at that moment beating the covert of a close scrub, lifting his head from time to time like “questing hound.”
‘“It is superb,” I answered; “but, on my soul, Bothwell, I hope the old fellow will escape. According to his light, he but hit out like a man, and we are now treating him like a beast of prey. They must kill some one very near and dear to me, before I undertake a job of this kind again.”
‘“We must either shoot them,” said Bothwell, “or give up the land. Clear off the old and teach the young, is my motto at present.”
‘“Yes,” said I sadly, “another illustration of the ‘fitness of things.’ It would seem as if the present were perpetually to be damned for the benefit of the future. I should be sorry to have to explain to Hutkeeper’s tribe, after we have killed him, the meaning of the words, ‘If thine enemy smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the left also.’”
‘All the troopers were now seen to be clustered together. They were off their horses, smoking—a sure sign that they felt secure of their prey. When Bothwell and I joined them, Mayboy came forward dangling a small dilly-bag, dropped by one of the gins.
‘“Marmy! mine think it weja now; you make alight that one mountain, nerangi good way like it, ugh” (the guttural accompanied by the usual black’s point, the protrusion of the under lip)—“that one Boolooloo water sit down. Blackfellow big one tired weja long a Boolooloo. To-night yan longa camp; boomalli (shoot, slay) Hutkeeper.”
‘Boolooloo was a turreted hill, rising abruptly from the crown of the range, and towering far above it.
‘At its foot was a native well—a natural tank—scooped out of solid rock, gourd-shaped, with a small man-hole at the top. Its depth was, perhaps, twelve feet, with a diameter of double the extent. Its shaded position, under a ledge of overhanging rock, enabled it to contain water through any ordinary summer.