be
sixty of them. My man said there were a good many more than the
trackers put it down at."

"So much the better. I only hope they will show fight."

After five minutes halt, the ride was continued for the next three
hours. Then three dead sheep were passed. This time the flesh had
not been devoured, but the poor beasts had, in every case, been
speared.

"Savage brutes!" Reuben exclaimed. "They might at least have given
the sheep a chance of life, when they could go no further, instead
of wantonly slaughtering them."

"That's their way, always," Mr. Blount said. "They kill from pure
mischief and love of slaughter, even when they don't want the meat.
But I don't suppose it makes much difference. I expect the sheep
have dropped as much from thirst as from fatigue, and they would
probably have never been got up again, after they once fell. I
fancy we shall come upon a stream, before long. I have never been
out as far as this before, but I know that there is a branch of the
Nammo crosses the bush here, somewhere."

Another five miles, and they came upon the river. The wet season
was only just over, and the river was full from bank to bank. It
was some thirty yards wide, and from two to three feet deep. A
score of sheep lay dead in the water. They had apparently rushed
headlong in, to quench their thirst; and had either drunk till they
fell, or had been trampled under water, by their companions
pressing upon them from behind.

For the next ten miles the track was plain enough, then they came
to a series of downs, covered with a short grass. At the foot of
these another long halt had been made by the blacks.

"We must have come twenty-five miles," Reuben said.

"Quite that, captain. The flock must have been dead beat, by the
time they got here. I should think they must have stopped here,
last night. We will soon see--there is one of their fireplaces."

The settler dismounted, and put his hand into the ashes.

"Yes," he said, "they are warm still. They must have camped here
last night. They started when the moon rose, no doubt. Thus they
have eight or nine hours' start of us, only; and as they can't
travel fast, after such a journey as they had yesterday, we ought
to be able to catch them long before night."

"They will go better today than they did yesterday," Mr. Blount
said. "They were over-driven to start with, and that was what
knocked them up; but the blacks will begin to feel themselves safe
today, and