“Won’t you come in and rest?”
“No, no; I’m not to be caught so,” answered the man, looking about suspiciously. “But quick, girl, with the food.”
Sally went in and took him out some damper and a slice of mutton, while Nancy was getting some tea. He ate the food like a starving man and then tossed off a large basin of tea. When Sarah saw him first from the window she thought she knew him. His way of speaking made her sure.
“Now girls, just bring me out your father’s powder-flask and shot belt, and any canister of powder there is in the hut. My flask is empty, and I must have it filled.”
On hearing these words, Sarah emptied the flask into a jar, which she hid away, and with it the canister of powder, and then sent out Nancy with the empty flask. The man swore fiercely when he found that there was no powder in the flask.
“At all events, get me some more food. I don’t know when I may be able to find another meal, and if there had been time you should have given me a hot one.”
“That is Tony Peach,” said Sarah, as her daughter came in to get more food. “He has taken to the bush, and that is what his life has brought him to.”
The girls took out as much food as Peach could eat, but he wanted more, and told them that he must have enough to fill both his saddle-bags. They brought him out all the food they had cooked in the hut. As he was stowing away the food in his bags, he happened to look up, and saw two or three horsemen coming towards the hut. Letting the remainder of the damper and cheese and meat drop, he gathered up his reins and galloped off as hard as he could go. The horsemen were Joseph and Tom and Sam. They rode direct to the hut. When they heard who the stranger was, Tom and Sam were for giving chase.
“No,” said Joseph, “we have no authority to take him up. Leave him in God’s hands. He is welcome to the food the girls gave him.”
It might have been better if Peach had been seized at that time, for, soon after this, several robberies were committed in different parts of the colony, and always by two men supposed to be Peach and his mate. Travellers from the gold diggings were attacked; huts were entered, and even farm-houses, and arms and ammunition and food and any valuables the thieves could lay hands on were carried off.