y us. One of them, however, had a talk with Bracewell just
before we started.

"What was the black fellow saying?" I asked as we rode along.

"He told me that a mob of bad black fellows, as he called them, are in
the neighbourhood, and that we must take care not to fall in with them,
as they will not scruple to spear our horses at night, or, should we be
off our guard, murder us."

"What had we better do then?" I enquired.

"Be on our guard and not let them surprise us," he answered, laughing.
"I have no fear of the blacks, provided they know that we are prepared
to give them a warm reception. We will, however, keep a look-out for
the fellows, and as soon as we get back to the regular track, I'll leave
a note fixed to a tree for Hector, telling him what we have heard, and
advising him and the dominie to keep a watch at night on their horses,
as I don't think it's worth while waiting for them.

"Still, notwithstanding what our black friend said, the chances are that
we shall not fall in with the mob of bad natives," he added; and as he
knew the country much better than Guy or I did, we were perfectly ready
to be guided by his opinion.

We soon again got into the main track.

On reaching it, Bracewell taking out his pocketbook, wrote a few lines,
warning Hector that a mob of blacks were said to be in the
neighbourhood, and telling him where we proposed camping.

Cutting some thorns, he pinned it to a tree in a conspicuous place.

"Hector will not fail to observe it," he said, as he did so.

"But if the blacks see it they'll tear it down surely," I remarked.

"They'll not do that," he answered, "they'll fancy it is some charm, and
will not venture to touch it."

This done, we pushed forward, rather faster than we had hitherto been
going, in order to arrive at a spot at which Bracewell advised that we
should camp early in the evening.

Although there were several stations scattered over the country in
various directions, the traffic between them was so limited, that no
inns or even liquor stores had been established; and travellers had
consequently to camp out in the bush night after night when proceeding
towards the interior.

We found doing this was no hardship, and infinitely preferred sleeping
by our camp-fire with the canopy of heaven above us, to taking up our
quarters in a shepherd's hut or grog shop.

We were approaching the end of our day's journey, when I caught sight of
a black figure flitti