f the foot containing the bite, and, holding the handle of the
tomahawk steady as a rock, with firm determination gave the words--

"Now, Jim, strike!"

It needed three blows from the back of the axe to complete the
operation, for the poor lad grew frightened at the sight of the blood;
but the undaunted woman encouraged him, nerved him to a fresh trial,
and guided the tomahawk as coolly as if she were cutting up a piece of
beef, until the shocking task was completed. With Jim's assistance,
she then bound up the foot to arrest the bleeding, and, accompanied by
him, rode ten miles into the township, and, need I say, in due course
recovered.

In these instances the reader will see that the measures taken were
both prompt, and such as would require more nerve than is possessed by
the ordinary run of mortals. In the above cases, also, the bitten part
was capable of being removed; but for a bite on the wrist, had such an
extreme measure as immediate dismemberment been performed, the cure
would have been as fatal as the disease.

Poor Dunmore was terribly cut up at the premature death of his
follower; Lizzie, having smothered her head with fluffy feathers from
some cockatoos that had been roasted for supper, employed herself in
chanting a most weird kind of dirge over the body, to which she beat a
species of accompaniment on the bottom of a pint pot; while Ferdinand,
by Dunmore's directions, had set to work to strip a sheet of bark off a
tea-tree, to act as a rude coffin. A great difficulty now presented
itself, for we had no tools whatever, and how could we dig a grave? In
such hard ground, knives would make no impression, and the body must be
buried deeply, or it would be rooted up by the dingoes, whose howl we
could plainly hear around us, as they bayed at the moon. We spread
ourselves out in different directions, in the hope of finding some rift
or recess that would answer the purpose, but in the imperfect light, we
failed to discover anything, so were compelled to wait for dawn. I do
not think any of us slept much. One of our little party suddenly
snatched away in so unforeseen a manner, gave us all food for
reflection--for which of us knew that the same fate would not befall
him to-morrow? When I dropped off into a slumber, it was so light and
broken, that I seemed to be conscious of Lizzie, continuing her
melancholy drone, and battering monotonously on the tin pannikin, nor
was I surprised when in the mornin