“But suppose we kept him at bay, and tried the effect of rifle shot?” I asked, holding up a short, heavy, instrument, carrying about twenty-five to a pound.

“The rifle looks like a true one, and I know that you boys can shoot, but suppose that you didn’t get the chance?”

“Then we must trust to luck,” answered Fred, coolly.

“I’m no great hand at bush-fighting,” replied Smith; “but we have joined our fortunes for a trip to the mines, and I’m not the man to desert you at the time of need.”

“Then you’ll go?” we asked.

“Yes; if I get killed it matters not much.”

In half an hour we were ready; each man carried a small knapsack, containing a few cakes of bread and the remains of the kangaroo, while Smith provided himself with a small bottle, the contents of which he kept a profound secret.

Not knowing whether we should ever be fortunate enough to return and claim the few articles of property that belonged to us, Fred and myself paused for a moment to bid them farewell.

Standing in the doorway of the stockman’s hut, we saw the form of his injured daughter watching us on our tramp.  She remained motionless’ until we turned to continue our march, and then she waved a blood-red handkerchief as though bidding us remember her injuries and avenge them.

Right before us, at a distance of five miles, was a dark line of trees, extending for many leagues along the horizon.  In the depths of that forest few white men had ever penetrated.  Once, a dozen of the police of Melbourne attempted to break up a gang of bushrangers who sheltered themselves upon the edge of this wild region.  On the alarm being given, the villains discharged a volley at the officers and then fled.  Five of the police were killed or wounded, but the remainder, nothing daunted, started in pursuit.  They got separated amidst the thickets, and but one man returned alive to Melbourne.  The remainder either got lost and starved to death, or else were killed by the bushrangers.  After that, government was content to offer large rewards for the apprehension of the escaped convicts, but the police did not care to venture a second time into their dread abode.

I have mentioned these circumstances to show that the undertaking upon which we had embarked was one of no ordinary kind; that there was much peril and little honor to be gained in an encounter with half a dozen desperate men, who knew that their lives depended upon the stout resistance which they should offer, and of course would fight to the death.

If we did look sharply to the loading of our rifles, and felt the long bowie knives that we carried at our waist to find whether the blades worked easily in their sheaths, it was because we expected to use them, and knew that our only hope to return alive was by a prompt employment of the deadly weapons when an encounter took place.

It was near nine o’clock when we halted upon the outskirts of the dark forest.  Hardly a ray of the hot sun penetrated the woods; all was gloomy and silent.  Occasionally a parrot upon the borders of the forest uttered a shrill scream, and then spreading its gaudy wings sought shelter upon the bough of a tall tree, from whence it could watch our movements without danger.