"If the d——d humbug has not run off with my horse!" muttered my friend, indignant at his loss.
"I don't believe it," I replied; "he has probably retired to the shade of those palm trees, seeing that no chance presented itself for getting the animal to us."
"I hope so," Mr. Brown said, "but fear the fellow is a horse thief, and having accomplished his object, will never return to this locality."
I didn't think so, but there was no use attempting to convince Mr. Brown of his error, and while we were discussing the matter, we had the supreme dissatisfaction of seeing ten well-armed men debouch from the group of palm trees, and, with heads bent to the ground, follow the tracks of our horses towards the bridge.
"We are in a pretty condition for a siege," muttered my friend as he thought of the bushrangers attempting to starve us into a surrender, knowing very well that they would never attack us in our almost invulnerable position.
"Be quiet, and let us watch their motions," I replied.
We were not so far from the main land but we could hear every word if spoken in an ordinary tone, for, as I said before, the night was unusually calm and quiet.
"D——n it, don't I know a horse's track from a bullock's?" we heard one of the bushrangers say, as though he was remonstrating with his companions. "I tell you here's the prints of three horses' feet, and I'll leave it to any native in Australia. I've taken lessons from 'em in my lifetime, I have."
If the fellow's story was correct, he could not have learned from a more patient race, for the Australians can track a man through a wilderness, and can see signs of footprints that a European would never discover. If a blade of grass is turned, the native stops and examines it, and can tell within a few hours the length of time that has expired since it was trodden on. If half a dozen grains of sand are displaced from the burning prairies, the native sets himself at work, and can tell what kind of an animal has passed that way, and whether fat or lean, alarmed or unconcerned. They can find their way through a wilderness, and resist hunger and thirst with marvellous fortitude; and while others sink under the influence of burning heat, the native Australian, with head bare, seems to court the rays of the sun, and moves along with a steady step, and without a word of complaint.
I no longer wondered at the assurance of the bushranger when he proclaimed himself a disciple of Australian barbarians.