“Edgar, did you see any one?” he asked, in a low voice.
“Yes, a hideous black face; it popped down immediately behind the bushes.”
“We had better not go on, then; for though many of the blacks are friendly hereabouts, yet others who come from a distance are very treacherous.”
Not stopping to hear more, Edgar scampered away to tell the ladies, who, as soon as they heard the alarming intelligence, began to beat a retreat. They were quickly overtaken by Rob, who had not only seen a black man, but a bundle of spears, and was fully satisfied of the danger of remaining longer in the scrub.
Mary was the first to recover herself. “After all, the boys may have mistaken the stump of a tree for a native; or if they did see a black, he may have come with no bad intentions,” she observed; “we need not give up our walk in consequence.”
However, her cousins looked so frightened that she led them directly out of the scrub towards the kitchen, garden, intending to go round under a trellis work, which had a thick hedge on the outside, and at that hour of the day afforded a pleasant shady walk. They were passing along that part which was nearest the open ground when they heard the tramp of a horse’s hoofs galloping at fall speed, and directly afterwards Paul shouting out to Harry—
“Where’s our father?”
“He has gone off with Uncle Frank to Gibson’s station,” answered Harry. “But what’s in the wind?”
“The blacks have shown their ugly faces again, not far off. I caught sight of a mob of them just before I passed Jenkins’s hut, and when stopping to leave a message I could nowhere find him. The blacks have evidently been there, and, I am afraid, have killed him. I did not stop to search longer, but came on to tell father, that he might send over to Ogilvie to set the police after them.”
“I’ll ride Bolter, and get Reginald to come with me,” answered Harry.