lyre-birds, couldsing infinitely better if they tried.
On and on and on went the cavalcade, till sylvan beauty itself began topall at last, and no one was a bit sorry when all at once the forestended, and they were out on a plain, out in the scrub, with, awaybeyond, gently-rising hills, on which trees were scattered.
The bleating of sheep now made them forget all about the gloom of theforest. They passed one or two rude huts, and then saw a bigger smokein the distance, which Bill told Archie was Findlayson's.
Findlayson came out to meet them. A Scot every inch of him, you couldtell that at a glance. A Scot from the soles of his rough shoes to therim of his hat; brown as to beard and hands, and with a good-naturedface the colour of a badly-burned brick.
He bade them welcome in a right hearty way, and helped "the lassie" todismount.
He had met "the lassie" before.
"But," he said, "I wadna hae kent ye; you were but a bit gilpie then.Losh! but ye have grown. Your father's weel, I suppose? Ah, it'll be awhile afore anybody makes such a sudden haul at the diggin' o' gowd ashe did! But come in. It's goin' to be anither warm day, I fear.
"Breakfast is a' ready. You'll have a thistle fu' o' whiskey first, youmen folks. Rin butt the hoose, my dear, and see my sister. Tell her toboil the eggs, and lift the bacon and the roast ducks."
He brought out the bottle as he spoke. Both Harry and Archie tasted toplease him. But Craig went boldly into battle.
"I'm done with it, Findlayson," he said. "It has been my ruin. I'mdone. I'm a weak fool."
"But a wee drap wadna hurt you, man. Just to put the dust out o' yourwizzen."
Craig smiled.
"It is the wee draps," he replied, "that do the mischief."
"Well, I winna try to force you. Here comes the gude wife wi' theteapot."
"Bill," he continued, "as soon as you've satisfied the cravins o'Nature, mount the grey colt, and ride down the Creek, and tell them thenew chums and I will be wi' them in half an hour."
And in little over that specified time they had all joined the hunt.
Black folks and "orra men," as Findlayson called them, were alreadydetouring around a wide track of country to beat up the kangaroos.
There were nearly a score of mounted men, but only one lady besidesEtheldene, a squatter's bold sister.
The dogs were a sight to look at. They would have puzzled someEnglishmen what to make of them. Partly greyhounds, but larger,sturdier, and stronger, as if they had received at one time a cross ofmastiff. They looked eminently fit, however, and were with difficultykept back. Every now and then a distant shout was heard, and at suchtimes the hounds seemed burning to be off.
But soon the kangaroos themselves began to appear thick and fast. Theycame from one part or another in little groups, meeting and hoppingabout in wonder and fright. They seemed only looking for a means ofescape; and at times, as a few rushing from one direction met others,they appeared to consult. Many stood high up, as if on tiptoe, gazingeagerly around, with a curious mixture of bewilderment and frightdisplayed on their simple but gentle faces.
They got small time to think now, however, for men and dogs were onthem, and the flight and the murder commenced with a vengeance. Therewere black fellows there, who appeared to spring suddenly from theearth, spear-armed, to deal terrible destruction right and left amongthe innocent animals. And black women too, who seemed to revel in thebloody sight. If the whites were excited and thirsty for carnage, thoseaborigines were doubly so.
Meanwhile the men had dismounted, Archie and Harry among the rest, andwere firing away as quickly as possible. There is one thing to be saidin favour of the gunners; they took good aim, and there was littleafter-motion in the body of the kangaroo in which a bullet had found abillet.
After all Archie was neither content with the sport, nor had it come upas yet to his _beau ideal_ of adventure from all he had heard and readof it. The scene was altogether noisy, wild, and confusing. The blacksgloated in the bloodshed, and Archie did not love them any the more forit. It was the first time he had seen those fellows using their spears,and he could guess from the way they handled or hurled them that theywould be pretty dangerous enemies to meet face to face in the plain orscrub.
"Harry," he said after a time, "I'm getting tired of all this; let us goto our horses."
"I'm tired too. Hallo! where is the chick-a-biddy?"
"You mean Miss Winslow, Harry."
"Ay, Johnnie."
"I have not seen her for some time."
They soon found her though, near a bit of scrub, where their own horseswere tied.
She was sitting on her saddle, looking as steady and demure as anequestrian statue. The sunshine was so finding that they did not atfirst notice her in the shade there until they were close upon her.
"What, Etheldene!" cried Archie; "we hardly expected you here."
"Where, then?"
"Following the hounds."
"What! into that mob? No, that is not what I came for."
At that moment Craig rode up.
"So glad," he said, "to find you all here. Mount, gentlemen. Are youready, Baby?"
"Ready, yes, an hour ago, Craig."
They met horsemen and hounds not far away, and taking a bold detour overa rough and broken country, at the edge of a wood, the hounds found a"forester," or old man kangaroo. The beast had a good start if he hadtaken the best advantage of it; but he failed to do so. He hadhesitated several times; but the run was a fine one. A wilder, rougher,more dangerous ride Archie had never taken.
The beast was at bay before very long, and his resistance to the deathwas extraordinary.
They had many more rides before the day was over; and when theyre-assembled in farmer Findlayson's hospitable parlour, Archie was fainfor once to own himself not only tired, but "dead beat."
The dinner was what Harry called a splendid spread. Old Findlayson hadbeen a gardener in his younger days in England, and his wife was a cook;and one of the results of this amalgamation was, dinners or breakfastseither, that had already made the Scotchman famous.
Here was soup that an epicure would not have despised, fish to tempt adying man, besides game of different kinds, pies, and last, if notleast, steak of kangaroo.
The soup itself was made from the tail of the kangaroo, and I knownothing more wholesome and nourishing, though some may think it a littlestrong.
While the white folks were having dinner indoors, the black fellows weredoing ample justice to theirs _al fresco_, only they had their own_cuisine_ and _menu_, of which the least said the better.
"You're sure, Mr Craig, you winna tak' a wee drappie?"
If the honest squatter put this question once in the course of theevening, he put it twenty times.
"No, really," said Craig at last; "I will not tak' a wee drappie. I'vesworn off; I have, really. Besides, your wife has made me somedelightful tea."
"Weel, man, tak' a wee drappie in your last cup. It'll cheer ye up."
"Take down your fiddle, Findlayson, and play a rattling strathspey orreel, that'll cheer me up more wholesomely than any amount of `weedrappies.'"
"Come out o' doors then."
It was cool now out there in Findlayson's garden--it was a real gardentoo. His garden and his fiddle were Findlayson's two fads; and that hewas master of both, their present surroundings of fern and flower, anddelicious scent of wattle-blossom, and the charming strains that floatedfrom the corner where the squatter stood were proof enough. The fiddlein his hands talked and sang, now bold or merrily, now in sad andwailing notes that brought tears to even Archie's eyes. Then, at asuggestion of Craig's, Etheldene's sweet young voice was raised in song,and this was only the beginning of the concert. Conversation filled upthe gaps, so that the evening passed away all too soon.
Just as Findlayson had concluded that plaintive and feeling air "AuldRobin Gray," a little black girl came stealthily, silently up toEtheldene, and placed a little creature like a rabbit in her
lap,uttering a few words of Bush-English, which seemed to Archie's earutterly devoid of sense. Then the black girl ran; she went away to herown camp to tell her people that the white folks were holding acorroboree.
The gift was a motherless kangaroo, that at once commenced to makeitself at home by hiding its innocent head under Etheldene's arm.
The party soon after broke up for the night, and next day but one, earlyin the morning, the return journey was commenced, and finished thatnight; but the sun had gone down, and the moon was shining high and fullover the forest, before they once more reached the clearing.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
A NEW ARRIVAL.
Winslow made months of a
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