`I don't mind a shot or two,' says Daly, `but I'm dashed if I can stand by and see men killed in cold blood.You coves have your own reasons, I suppose, but I shall hook it over to the Fish River.You know where to find me.'
And he walked away to where the horses were and rode off.
We got fresh horses and rode over quick to Rocky Flat.
We took Warrigal with us, and followed our old track across Nulla Mountain till we got within a couple of miles of the place.Warrigal picked up the old mare's tracks, so we knew father had made over that way, and there was no call for us to lose time running his trail any longer.
Better go straight on to the house and find out what had happened there.
We sent Warrigal on ahead, and waited with our horses in our hands till he come back to us.
In about an hour he comes tearing back, with his eyes staring out of his head.
`I bin see old missis,' he says.`She yabber that one make-believe constable bin there.Gammon-like it surveyor, and bimeby old man Ben gon' alonga hut, and that one pleeceman fire at him and all about, and him break back alonga gully.'
`Any of 'em come back?' says Jim.
`Bale! me see um tent-dog tied up.Cake alonga fireplace, all burn to pieces.
No come home last night.I b'lieve shot 'em old man longa gully.'
`Come along, boys,' says Starlight, jumping into his saddle.
`The old man might have been hit.We must run the tracks and see what's come of the governor.Four to one's big odds.'
We skirted the hut and kept out wide till Warrigal cut the tracks, which he did easy enough.We couldn't see a blessed thing.
Warrigal rode along with his head down, reading every tuft of grass, every little stone turned up, every foot of sand, like a book.
`Your old fader run likit Black Gully.Two fellow track here --bullet longa this one tree.' Here he pointed to a scratch on the side of a box tree, in which the rough bark had been shivered.
`Bimeby two fellow more come; 'nother one bullet; 'nother one here, too.
This one blood drop longa white leaf.'
Here he picked up a dried gum leaf, which had on the upper side a dark red spot, slightly irregular.
We had it all now.We came to a place where two horses had been tied to a tree.They had been stamping and pawing, as if they had been there a goodish while and had time to get pretty sick of it.
`That near side one Moran's horse, pigeon-toes; me know 'em,' says Warrigal.
`Off side one Daly's roan horse, new shoes on.You see 'um hair, rub himself longa tree.'
`What the blazes were they doing hereabouts?' says Starlight.
`This begins to look complicated.Whatever the row was, Daly and he were in it.There's no one rich enough to rob hereabouts, is there? I don't like the look of it.Ride on, boys.'
We said nothing to each other, but rode along as fast as Warrigal could follow the line.The sky, which was bright enough when we started, clouded over, and in less than ten minutes the wind rose and rain began to pour down in buckets, with no end of thunder and lightning.
Then it got that cold we could hardly sit on our horses for trembling.
The sky grew blacker and blacker.The wind began to whistle and cry till I could almost swear I heard some one singing out for help.
Nulla Mountain was as black as your hat, and a kind of curious feeling crept over me, I hardly knew why, as if something was going to happen, I didn't know what.
I fully expected to find father dead; and, though he wasn't altogether a good father to us, we both felt bad at the notion of his lyin' there cold and stiff.I began to think of him as he used to be when we were boys, and when he wasn't so out and out hard -- and had a kind word for poor mother and a kiss for little Aileen.
But if he were shot or taken, why hadn't these other men come back?
We had just ridden by their tents, and they looked as if they'd just been left for a bit by men who were coming back at night.
The dog was howling and looked hungry.Their blankets were all thrown about.
Anyhow, there was a kettle on the fire, which was gone out;and more than that, there was the damper that Warrigal had seen lying in the ashes all burnt to a cinder.
Everything looked as if they'd gone off in a hurry, and never come back at night or since.One of their horses was tied with a tether rope close to the tent poles, and he'd been walking round and trampling down the grass, as if he'd been there all night.We couldn't make it out.
We rode on, hardly looking at one another, but following Warrigal, who rattled on now, hardly looking at the ground at all, like a dog with a burning scent.All of a sudden he pulls up, and points to a dip into a cross gully, like an old river, which we all knew.
`You see um crow? I b'leeve longa Black Gully.'
Sure enough, just above the drop down, where we used to gallop our ponies in old times and laugh to see 'em throw up their tails, there were half-a-dozen crows and a couple of eagle-hawks high up in the sky, wheeling and circling over the same place.
`By George! they've got the old man,' says Jim.`Come on, Dick.
I never thought poor old dad would be run down like this.'
`Or he's got them!' says Starlight, curling his lip in a way he had.
`I don't believe your old governor's dead till I see him.The devil himself couldn't grab him on his own ground.'