lipped out in
the darkness and made the fastest journey of his life. He arrived at
Mick's camp in the early morning of the next day, just as the working
horses were being driven in. He told his tale. Mick and the boys
listened attentively. The drover had trusted Yarloo from the very
first day he had engaged him, and he had never had cause to regret it.
So, after making sure of all the necessary facts of the case, he
responded to the boy's appeal for help immediately and fully.

He cut two thick slabs of damper, put a chunk of meat between them, and
handed it to Yarloo. "Here, get that inside you, me son," he said
heartily. "Eat all you want. There's lots more where that came from."
The whites had already had their breakfast, and Mick at once set about
packing the gear, muttering: "If I don't let daylight through half a
dozen of those devils, I'll call meself a Chow, I will, straight. Now,
you boys, look alive," he shouted to the blacks who were crowding round
Yarloo. "You can yabber all you want when we've rounded up that tribe
of black cleanskins."

The native stockmen laughed. Everybody was eager for the task. The
boys were all from a sand-hill tribe who bitterly hated the wild
warraguls from the mountains, and they were overjoyed at the thought of
fighting on the same side as white men. Sax and Vaughan were more
serious but none the less eager, especially Sax, who would have
willingly gone out alone against the whole tribe, if only it would have
been a help to his father.

They did not take the whole plant with them. Each man of the advance
party had two good saddle-horses; there was one all ready saddled and
bridled for Boss Stobart; and a swift pack-horse, lightly loaded,
carried all the tucker and water they would need. There were Mick and
the two white boys, Yarloo, Poona, Calcoo, and Jack Johnson, all
mounted on the best horses in the plant. They had only two firearms
for all the party: Mick's rifle which he carried, and his revolver,
which he gave to Vaughan. Their chief weapon was "bluff", for a party
of seven could do nothing against nearly a hundred armed natives,
except surprise them long enough to let their prisoner escape.

They rode hard till about two o'clock, stopped and took a hunk of
damper and meat each and a drink of water, and then put their saddles
on fresh horses and pushed on. The sun was still an hour high when
they came to a thick clump of timber at the entrance to a gull