had taken fright, and run away. Joseph said
that he was sure he was faithful; so it proved. He came back in half an
hour, saying that the blacks were coming on, and would soon be at the
station. Joseph and Tom looked out eagerly in all directions for their
friends. Even old Mat had not come in. Should they put Sarah and Sally
on horseback, and make their escape?

"The property here was put under my charge, and I cannot leave it," said
Rudge. "As long as I have life I must fight to defend it."

"But your wife and Sally," said Tom. "His wife will stay by her
husband, as I hope yours will, Tom Wells, when you get one," said Sarah.
"Then I will stop," said Tom, looking at Sally. "And I would stay with
father and mother, even if I had the chance of going," said Sally.

There were three rifles in the hut; Sarah knew how to load them. She
was to do so as fast as she could, and Troloo was to hand them to Joseph
and Tom. They were to fire as quick as possible, so that the blacks
might think that there were many more people in the hut than there were,
and so be frightened and go away. All was ready; still no friends had
come, but as they looked out, a number of black figures were seen
stealing out from among the trees. They collected in a large body, and
then came towards the hut flourishing their spears. They stopped when
they saw no one, and looked cautiously about. Joseph was very anxious
not to fire, or to hurt any one.

"To my mind its the white men has often set the bad example to the poor
black fellows, from what I have heard, and I don't want to do the same
sort of thing," he observed.

It was clear that the natives couldn't make out how things stood. They
stopped, and talked, and looked about. Then some drew near and ran off
again, just as boys run into the water on the sea shore, and out again,
fearing some danger.

"We will pray to be delivered from these poor black fellows," said
Joseph; "It's what God tells us to do when we are in danger."

He did as he proposed, and the rest joined him in the prayer.

Troloo could not make out exactly what his white friends were about. He
expected to see them begin to fire away and kill his black relations.
Still he seemed to think that they deserved to be punished. At last the
blacks, seeing no one, came on all together.

"Now let us shout at the top of our voices, and fire over their heads,"
whispered Joseph; "may be they'll take fright and run off."