Since the men couldn't see what she was doing in the dark, Alexandra left a trail that a search party could follow. She knew that the gardener at Camden Park would send her rescuers to the track where they would find her reticule that had been left on the ground. With her hands tied behind her back, she tugged at the edge of a torn place on the waist of her dress. Every two or three miles, she ripped off a small piece of the bright muslin and dropped it on the track.
Almost two hours after sunset, they were near the road between Parramatta and Bathurst. Hinton turned into the trees where he dismounted and dragged Alexandra down from her saddle. He tied her to a tree while the other men tethered her horse and the pack horses. Then the bushrangers rode out of the trees and up the road toward Parramatta. Alexandra tugged at the ropes to free herself, then gave up, realizing it was futile.
Alone in the darkness, with the night sounds of the forest around her, she thought about her family's consternation. By now, her mother and grandmother would be frantic with anxiety, while her father and brother would be riding through the night to Camden Park. There they would learn enough to confirm their fears, but nothing could be done until the next day.
Writhing inwardly with remorse, Alexandra knew that her life had been shattered. Even if the ropes holding her had been less expertly tied so she could escape and make her way back to her family that night, nothing would ever be the same. Tongues would wag about what had happened to her while she had been a captive, casting a shadow of disgrace over her.
For that reason, if she was rescued or managed to escape during the coming days, she knew her father would probably send her back to England. That had been what she had wanted most of all, but not at the cost of having her life in a shambles. The injustice of the situation filled her with helpless rage, and most galling of all, she remained very aware that she could have avoided the disaster if she had used better judgment.
The moon climbed higher as the hours passed, its thin light shining through the foliage. Several yards away, she saw a bark hut-with a ring of stones in front of it for a fire. The high mound of ashes in the ring indicated that someone had camped there numerous times. But the hut seemed old, making it unlikely that a rescuer would suddenly appear.
The breeze in the river valley became damp and cold, adding to her discomfort. Then, late in the night, Alexandra heard hoofbeats coming down the road from the direction of Parramatta. The pounding of the hoofs were those of more than three horses, and hope swelled within her as she listened, wondering if the bushrangers were being pursued. But as they drew closer, she heard the three men laughing and whooping.
Barely visible in the dim light, the bushrangers rode into the trees with three additional horses, the stolen animals heavily burdened with plunder. The men were flush with triumph as well as drunk, smelling strongly of rum as they dismounted from their panting horses. Roaring with cruel laughter, they discussed the terror they had created at the farms.
''The best one was that second farm," Crowley gloated, "where we tied the men in the front room so they'd have to watch while we got their doxies. The more the doxies squalled, the madder the men got."
"That's right," Snively agreed exultantly. "I thought that old geezer with the gimpy leg was going to have a seizure. He got so angry that his eyes were about to pop right out of his head. But the women at the last farm were the most comely of all."
"We also got more booty at that last farm," Hinton added. "Come on, let's get part of it onto those other two horses. Soldiers will be on our trail by daybreak, and we need to get to the hideout."
The bushrangers unloaded part of the stolen goods and transferred it to the tethered pack horses. When they were almost done, Alexandra began feeling uneasy. Hinton was completely ignoring her, and she wondered if he intended to kill her. Regardless of what had happened and its consequences, nothing could quench her driving will to live.
Then he came up to her, the stench of rum mixed with the foul, sweaty reek of his body. He untied her and shoved her toward her horse. After she climbed into the saddle, he tied her hands behind her back again, then took the halter rope on the horse to lead it as he mounted his horse.
The other two men led the pack horses and followed as Hinton rode out of the trees. Alexandra tore another small piece from the waist of her dress. When the horses turned onto the Parramatta road, she dropped the fabric. Several minutes later, the horses' hoofs thumped hollowly against the wooden bridge over the Nepean River.
After crossing the bridge, she dropped another piece of cloth, then stopped tearing at the material. She knew that if one of the men noticed the hole in her dress and guessed what she had been doing, she would suffer a very painful death. She also had to concentrate on keeping her balance on the saddle, as Hinton increased the pace to a fast canter.
An hour later, in the foothills, Hinton's gelding was the only horse that could maintain the canter. As he turned back occasionally to slash Alexandra's horse with a rope, he cursed and shouted at the men to whip their horses and keep up. The horses panted and labored as they trotted, but when the road reached the mountains, the animals slowed to a walk regardless of how cruelly they were beaten.
While ascending and descending the steep slopes, Alexandra had even more difficulty balancing herself with her hands tied behind her back. Hinton shouted at the men, telling them it was still several more miles before they would turn off the road to their hideout. Alexandra prepared to tear another piece from her dress to drop at the turnoff, knowing it would be the most important one of all.
Then the first light of dawn touched the mountain peaks to the east. As the light spread across the sky, Alexandra's heart sank. It would be suicidal to drop the cloth with Snively and Crowley riding behind her. Dawn brightened into full daylight as the horses moved down the road in the western slopes of the mountains.
The men's coarse, drunken exuberance had changed into hangovers. All three of them were haggard and miserable as well as apprehensive traveling in daylight. They lashed the horses, but the animals were almost completely exhausted. They trotted heavily for a few paces when they were whipped savagely, then slowed to a walk once again.
The road was deserted, and there were no houses in the rugged, thickly-forested mountains, dashing Alexandra's hopes that she and the bushrangers would be noticed. At a valley choked with brush and trees, Hinton turned off the road. After picking a path through the dense growth for some two hundred yards, he stopped and dismounted.
Snively and Crowley tethered their horses while Hinton tied the reins on the gelding and Alexandra's horse to a tree. "I hope you try to get away," he muttered grimly, glaring at her. "That'll be reason enough for me to flay you with a whip, the same way that your kind has done to us. So if you think you can get away, then you go ahead and try."
He turned away, and he and the other men returned to the road. They slowly worked their way back to the horses, straightening up trampled brush and smoothing out all signs of hoofprints. When they reached the horses, they were more relaxed, confident that they were now safe from retribution for their foray east of the mountains. Hinton took a jug of rum from a bag on one of the pack horses and drank from it, then passed it to the men. After they drank and replaced the jug in the bag, they mounted up again.
The horses moved slowly up the valley through the tangle of brush and trees, and Alexandra leaned low over the saddle to avoid the branches. Through the tops of the trees, she glimpsed a sheer stone cliff that rose above the forested slopes at the head of the canyon. Near the upper end, a brook trickled between boulders that had tumbled down from the cliff, and the valley walls closed together into a steep, wooded incline.
Hinton dismounted and pulled Alexandra off her horse, untying her hands. After growling another vicious warning of what he would do if she tried to escape, he shoved her toward the slope. As she began climbing it, holding onto branches to pull herself up, she found a wide path of skidding hoofmarks.
The men and horses labored u
p the rise behind her as Alexandra followed the path. After climbing a hundred yards, she reached a plateau at the foot of the cliff. The path led through dense trees and brush at the edge of the level expanse, ending at a grassy field about an acre in size behind the screen of foliage. It was the bushrangers' hideout, with a spring at one side of the field and a large cave in the base of the cliff.
Alexandra's remorse was more bitter than ever when she saw the hideout. Even from a short distance down the valley, the plateau and cave were completely concealed by trees and brush. The place was very secure and would be extremely difficult to find by those searching for her.
She took the saddle off her horse and hobbled it to graze, then sat down in front of the cave. After tending the horses, the men looked through the plunder from the farms. Along with rum and a large supply of foodstuffs, it included clothing, tools, housewares, and weapons. Hinton also had some money and bits of cheap jewelry.
Counting the few guineas and looking at the jewelry, he was disgruntled, having expected more money and valuables. "If we'd had time to stick some feet into fireplaces," he mused grimly, "we'd have got more that they had hidden away where we couldn't find it."
"That's more than we had before," Crowley pointed out. "We can also sell the guns and other things which will bring good money."
Hinton nodded, shrugging off his disappointment. "Aye, we'll get some money from that. In any event, I've been thinking about a plan that will fetch us plenty of money, enough to last for a long time."
Crowley asked what the plan involved, but Hinton refused to discuss it until he had given it more thought. The two men then began talking about going within the next few days to villages on the Hunter River where they could sell the plunder to shopkeepers who asked no questions.
Hinton turned to Snively who was starting to build a fire in front of the cave. "Fool!" he barked. "Soldiers will be looking for us, and they might see the smoke from a fire during the daytime."
"I'm hungry," Snively complained. "Do we have to wait until tonight before we have anything to eat?"
"No!" Hinton snarled impatiently. "We got plenty of cheese and ship biscuit from one of the farms. Find it, and we'll have some."
Snively rummaged in the foodstuffs, taking out a large cheese and a cask of ship biscuit. He cut a slice from the cheese and grabbed a handful of the biscuit, as the other two men did the same. When Snively started to sit down and eat, Hinton told him to climb up to the lookout on the cliff and watch the road for any sign of activity.
Pocketing his food, Snively went to a crude ladder at one side of the cave and climbed to a rock shelf some thirty feet up the cliff. Having no appetite, but with a gnawing emptiness in the pit of her stomach, Alexandra took a share of the cheese and biscuit, then sat down at one side of the cave to eat.
Finished eating, Alexandra returned to the plunder and took a blanket from it, then lay down where she had been sitting. Hinton glanced at her, then turned back and talked with Crowley.
Although she was almost exhausted, Alexandra's anxiety kept her awake. Shortly after, Hinton and Crowley unrolled blankets, then began snoring moments later. Hinton had failed to tie her, Alexandra reflected, and if he made a practice of forgetting to, sooner or later she would have a chance to escape. Thinking about that, she fell asleep.
Chapter Nine
The late-afternoon shadows were stretching across the grassy field in front of the cave when Alexandra was awakened by Snively shouting to Hinton. In the instant between sleep and being fully awake, with memories of this horrible experience rushing in on her, she felt as though she was having a terrible nightmare and would wake up in her bed at home. Then her heart sank as she woke completely, the nightmare all too real.
"Hinton!" Snively shouted again in fright. "The road is full of soldiers! There are scores of them up and down the road!"
Throwing their blankets aside, Hinton and Crowley leaped up and ran out of the cave to the ladder. As they climbed it, Alexandra sat up and listened to the men. Hinton snarled at Snively, accusing him of sleeping instead of keeping watch. Contritely admitting to having fallen asleep, Snively quickly added that it had been for only a short time.
He broke off, howling with pain as Hinton reached the top of the ladder and cuffed him. Then Crowley exclaimed in fear, telling Hinton to look at the road. "Snively is right," he said, "there are scores of them. They're looking at the sides of the road for hoofprints. They've figured out that we left the road somewhere, and they're looking for a trail."
Hinton agreed apprehensively. Alexandra was more regretful than ever that she had been unable to drop another piece of cloth at the turnoff. The bushrangers were puzzled as well as worried, discussing the forays they had made east of the mountains before without creating such a strong reaction, but Alexandra knew the reason. Her family had demanded action from the governor and had received it.
Hinton and Crowley discussed the possibility that the soldiers would find the hideout. Because of the thick foliage in the valley, they were unable to see how far off the sides of the road the soldiers were searching for tracks. Crowley reminded Hinton that if the soldiers spread out over two hundred yards from the road, they would find a trail of hoofprints leading straight to the hideout.
"They haven't found the trail yet," Hinton pointed out. "If they had, they'd be following it and there wouldn't be any of them on the road. And if they found it at this very minute, there's not enough daylight left for them to follow the trail to the hideout."
"Not tonight," Crowley replied, "but they can tomorrow."
"Aye, that's possible," Hinton agreed. "We can't stay here."
The conversation continued as the three men came down the ladder. Crowley wanted to leave immediately, but Hinton overruled him, saying that it was sunset and they would be unable to get far before dark.
As they came into the cave, Crowley suddenly stopped and jabbed a finger at Alexandra. "She's the reason so many soldiers are searching!" he snarled. "Her family is rich, and the governor has turned out the whole Sydney garrison because they've figured out that we have her!"
A stab of raw fear raced through Alexandra as the three men glared at her. But Hinton was jealous of his authority, making him quick to disagree with Crowley. "No, the governor is just trying to get rid of all bushrangers," he speculated. "It's happened before."
"That's not it this time," Crowley insisted. "She's the reason."
"How do you know?" Hinton demanded. "You're not on the governor's bloody privy council. In any event, what's done is done."
"That's easy to say," Crowley grumbled. "When we go, we should leave her here with her throat slit, and leave our trouble behind."
Hinton frowned, shaking his head. "Whether she's alive or dead will make no difference as far as trouble is concerned. We'll take her with us." He grinned lewdly. "By keeping her, we'll have a cook as well as entertainment to liven up the nights."
"Entertainment?" Crowley echoed angrily. "Entertainment for bloody who? For you, that's who! When do I get my share?"
"When I bloody say, that's when!" Hinton retorted. "Any time you get tired of how I run things, you can bloody leave, Crowley!"
Crowley fell silent, turning away. With dusk settling, Hinton gruffly ordered Alexandra to build a fire and cook, and she wondered how to begin. While she could capably manage a household, her experience in cooking was limited to having occasionally prepared desserts for the family and light refreshments when she had hosted friends.
When he had started to make a fire earlier in the day, Snively had left a flint, steel, and tinder beside the stones. Using logic, Alexandra managed to kindle a fire, then looked through the foodstuffs. At a social gathering, a friend had told her about damper and how it was made. She took out the ingredients for it, then cut slices from a side of salt pork to fry, and put peas, rice, and tea in pans to boil on the fire.
To her, the results of her first attempt to cook a meal seemed indifferent at best. But the men were appar
ently satisfied, wolfing down the food without comment. After eating, Snively unrolled his blanket near the fire and Hinton and Crowley talked beside the fire. Alexandra returned to her blanket at the side of the cave.
Listening to the men, Alexandra wondered with shrinking dread if Hinton would rape her again before going to sleep. Then she breathed a sigh of relief as he and Crowley finished their conversation and lay down on their blankets. As an afterthought, Hinton got back up and came to Alexandra with a rope to tie her hands and feet, then he returned to his blanket and was snoring moments later. Alexandra gradually went to sleep.
The men built up the fire in the darkness before dawn, awakening her, and Hinton untied her. After making breakfast, Alexandra saddled her horse. The men gulped the leftovers and tea, saddling horses and loading pack horses, and Alexandra ate a piece of damper as she put the dishes in a bag to go on a pack horse. As dawn broke, they filed away from the cave.
When they reached the valley, Hinton turned up the mountain to the west. It was much steeper than the slope below the hideout, with no path through the foliage. Hinton pushed through the thick growth, leading the gelding. Alexandra dodged flailing limbs. as she followed him with her horse. Behind her, Snively and Crowley cursed as they struggled up the mountain.
Passing through a defile in the crest of the mountain, they crossed it and went down the other side. At the foot of the mountain was another narrow valley, a creek flowing through it. Hinton pushed Alexandra onto her horse, then he and the other men mounted. He led the way up the center of the stream, leaving no trail for the soldiers to follow.
Several miles up the creek, they came to a waterfall that blocked the way. They dismounted again, and Hinton led the way up the mountain on the west side of the stream. After another long, difficult climb, they reached the top. The foothills were ahead, and Bathurst was a cluster of buildings at a distance to the southwest. Farms and sheep stations were scattered over the foothills and the plain west of the village.
Outback Station Page 16
