But whatever it was it gave him shelter till he could reach the big trees, in and out of whose trunks he threaded his way, well out of sight now, and ran panting up to the fire as his father was angrily saying to Leather: "Surely you must have seen the black last night." "Not him, sir," said Brookes; "he won't see nothing that he don't want.
I left 'em together, and he ought to know where he is." "Well, he has gone," said the doctor sternly; "and hullo, Nic, have you seen a snake ?" "Quick! father, the guns!" panted the boy.

"Blacks! the blacks!" "You mean our blackfellow ?" "No, father, twenty of them, just on the other side of the water-hole, hiding." "All of you," said the doctor, in a low, firm voice, "into the waggon." Then the boy heard him mutter, as he held him tightly by the arm: "Good heavens! can they have been to the Bluff ?".