"I'm very glad you are satisfied, my dear," said Mrs Bedford, affectionately, as they all lingered in the glorious sunset light over their evening meal, the whole place seeming a perfect paradise.

"I am satisfied," said the captain, "for here there is ample reward for those who like to work, and we can see our boys have a grand future before them in the new land."

"I'm glad too," said Aunt Georgie, in her matter-of-fact way. "You may quite rely upon us all setting to work to make the best of things, when you men and boys have built us a house to keep off the rain--for I suppose it does rain here sometimes, though we have not seen any."

"Rain, aunt? Tremendously."

"Well then, of course you will begin a house soon?"

"To-morrow," said the captain. "Plenty of work for us, boys."

"Of course," said Aunt Georgie. "Well then, we shall soon begin to make things comfortable, and we shall all be very happy and content."

"Thank you," said the captain. "I hope every one will take the advantages for what they are worth, and will excuse the inconveniences."

"I know that Marian will," said Aunt Georgie; "and as for the girls, we shall be too busy to think of little things. I should have liked for it not to have been quite so lonely."

"We are too many to feel lonely," cried the captain, cheerily.

"But I meant about neighbours. How far do you think we are from the nearest neighbours, Edward?"

"Don't ask me," he said, merrily. "So far that we cannot quarrel with them.--There, girls, you will have to help and make the house snug as fast as we get it up. To-morrow we will mark it out, and then set up a shed to act as an additional shelter for our stores, which must be unpacked from the wagons. Every one must take his or her department, and as we have that black with us, and he evidently does not mean to go, he will have to work too. By the way, I have not seen him for the last hour or two."

"He had such a dinner," said Tim. "Aunt feeds him so."

"That, I'm sure, I do not, my dear," said Aunt Georgie, shortly.

"Well, aunt, he always goes and lies down to sleep after you've given him anything," said Rifle.

"And that's what he has gone to do now," added Norman. "He'll come out of the woods somewhere soon. But I say, father, shan't we have time to fish and shoot?"

"Plenty, and ride too, boys. But there, we've done a good day's work, and now I suppose we shall have to do a little sentry business. The blacks are evidently very, very scarce in the country, not a sign of one in all these many days' journey. But it would be wise to keep to a little vigilance, though I doubt whether they will trouble us much here.--Jack," he continued, rising, "we'll take the guns and have a walk round, to look at the cattle before going to roost for the night, while the girls get the place clear.--Coming, any of you boys?"

They all three sprang up eagerly.

"That's right. Come along. Hallo!" he added, "here comes Tam o'

Shanter."

For at that moment the black darted out from among the trees, and ran across the intervening s.p.a.ce to where they were, carrying his nulla-nulla and boomerang in one hand, his spear at the trail in the other.

He had evidently been running fast, and was out of breath as he came up to cry in a low, hoa.r.s.e voice:

"Now then all along--come quick, black fellow metancoly, come along mumkull white."

"What!" cried the captain, "a number of black fellows coming to kill us?"

"Hum. You shoot fast, mumkull black fellow, all go bong."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

"LET ME GO: I CAN RUN FAST."

The minute before, all peace, rest, and the promise of plenty; now, an alarm so full of horror that every one there felt chilled.

A rush was made to the wagons for the guns and ammunition, the ladies were hurried into the little square formed by the vehicles, as the safest place, and the advantage of having an experienced soldier for their leader was shown at once, though all the time the captain was bitterly reproaching himself for not having spent more time in providing for their defence, instead of giving up valuable hours to rest and planning what they should do.

"I ought to have known better, Norman," he said angrily, as the boy walked by his side to obey his orders, and convey them to one or the other. "Take a lesson from it, my boy, and if ever you march in an enemy's country, wherever you halt, do as the old Romans did; entrench yourself at once."

"But we have entrenched ourselves, father," said the boy, pointing to the boxes, barrels, and cases which had hastily been dragged out of the carts and placed outside to form a protection before the openings beneath the wagons, and also to fire over in case of an attack.

"Pooh! not half enough. There, we can do no more. Now about that black.--Here, Jack, what do you say? Is that fellow in collusion with the people coming on?"

"No," said Uncle Jack, decisively. "If he had been, he is cunning enough to have lulled us into security. He need not have uttered a warning, and the blacks could have surprised us after dark."

"Yes, there is something in that," said the captain. "And look what he did, father, directly he had warned us."

"What?"

"Set to work with his boomerang covering the fire over with earth to smother out the smoke."

"But it might all be cunning to put us off our guard with him, and it would be a hideous danger to have a traitor in our little stronghold."

"For him," said Uncle Jack, grimly.

"Yes," said his brother. "But there, I'll trust him. I should not display all this horrible suspicion if it were not for the women. They make quite a coward of me. Now, can we do any more?"

"No," said Uncle Jack; "there is no time. We can keep a good many at bay."

"If you fire steadily," said the captain. "No shot must be fired without good reason. In war, many go to one enemy the less. In this case every shot must tell."

"Rather horrible," said Uncle Jack, quietly; "eh, Norman, lad? But there, they can avoid it. They have only to leave us alone, and we should never hurt a soul."

By this the little party were crouching about their wagon and box fort with their guns ready, and plenty of ammunition at hand; the fire only sent up one tiny curl of smoke, and this was stopped instantly, for Shanter crawled from where he had been lying flat close to Tim and Rifle, and sc.r.a.ping up some more earth with his boomerang, he piled it over the spot where the smoke issued, and returned by rolling himself over and over till he was back beside a large box. Their position was in some respects good, being on an elevation, but in other respects bad, as the captain pointed out to Norman.

"We are not far enough away from the trees in front there. The scoundrels can creep up through the bushes, and use them for a shelter from which to throw spears. Listen. The first who sees a black figure give warning by a low hiss."

Fortunately the cattle had all strayed off grazing in the other direction, and were invisible from where the little party lay waiting the expected onslaught; and just as Uncle Munday had made allusion to the fact that if the enemy were seen in that direction, the cattle would give warning, the captain said in a low voice, "I wish they'd come."

Norman stared.

"Before it is dark, my boy. In less than an hour we shall not be able to see them, and our position will be ten times as bad. There, I have done all I can for our protection. I must go and reconnoitre now."

His words were loud enough to be heard from behind, and Mrs Bedford's voice rose in supplication.

"No, no, dear. Pray don't run any risks."

"Hush!" said the captain, sternly, "we must know whether the enemy is near."