Ralph offered to descend.
He got down without difficulty and soon cried out that he had found the rifle at the bottom. “Stay, I have found something else,” he added as he handed up the rifle. “While I was groping about, my hand came in contact with two hairy creatures. Here they are!” and stooping down again he hauled out two young wombats. We speedily knocked them on the head, agreeing that they would make a very good roast for supper.
We should have been puzzled to know how the big wombat got out of the hole, had not Ralph told us that he had found a passage sloping upwards to a smaller entrance some distance off.
As the two small wombats might not prove sufficient for all hands I shot a big fellow which measured nearly three feet in length, and was covered with a thick hairy coat.
Ralph undertook to carry it on his shoulders, while Oliver and I supported Hector.
We now lost no time in making our way back to the camp. Our progress was of necessity slow, but we reached it at last, having been guided during the latter part of the distance by the bright flames of Toby’s fire.
We immediately set to work to cook the wombat. Toby however had satisfied his hunger on the flesh of the emu, though he managed after a little rest to devour no small portion of the meat we had brought.
We then lay down to sleep, pretty well tired by the fatigue we had gone through. To our dismay Hector was utterly unable to walk the next morning, but fortunately our friends discovered us on their way to the rendezvous, and he mounting one of the horses we set off for home. We carried with us the emu, which it was calculated would yield between six and seven quarts of fine oil. It is for the sake of this valuable product that the bird is generally hunted.
Hector very good-naturedly bore the bantering of the rest of the party on the subject of his adventure among the wombats.
We had ridden some distance across the open country, when we observed ahead what looked like a dense black mist in the far distance above the scrub.