There were still a few native blacks about the run, but by this time they were harmless enough:  never killed shepherds, or took mutton without leave.  They were somewhat addicted to petty larceny, but felony had been frightened out of their souls long ago.  They knew all the station hands, and the station hands knew them.  They soon spotted a new chum, and found out the soft side of him; and were generally able to coax or frighten him to give them tobacco, some piece of clothing, or white money.

When the new shepherd had been following his flock for a few days, Mr. Robinson, while looking out from the verandah of his house over the plains, observed a strange object approaching at some distance.  He said to himself, “That is not a horseman, nor an emu, nor a native companion, nor a swagman, nor a kangaroo.”  He could not make it out; so he fetched his binocular, and then perceived that it was a human being, stark naked.  His first impression was that some unfortunate traveller had lost his way in the wide wilderness, or a station hand had gone mad with drink, or that a sundowner had become insane with hunger, thirst, and despair.

He took a blanket and went to meet the man, in order that he might cover him decently before he arrived too near the house.  It was Hyde, the new shepherd, who said he had been stripped by the blacks.

From information afterwards elicited by Robinson it appeared that the blacks had approached Hyde in silence while his back was turned to them.  The sight of them gave a sudden shock to his system.  He was totally unprepared for such an emergency.  If he had had time to recall to memory some historical examples, he might have summoned up his sinking courage, and have done a deed worthy of record.  There was David, the youthful shepherd of Israel, who slew a lion and a bear, and killed Goliath, the gigantic champion of the Philistines.  There were the Shepherd Kings, who ruled the land of Egypt. there was one-eyed Polyphemus, moving among his flocks on the mountain tops of Sicily; a monster, dreadful, vast, and hideous; able to roast and eat these three blackfellows at one meal.  And nearer our own time was the youth whose immortal speech begins, “My name is Norval; on the Grampian Hills my father fed his flocks.”  Our shepherd had a stick in his hand and a collie dog at his command.  Now was the time for him to display “London Assurance” to some purpose; and now was the time for the example of the ever-victorious Duke to work a miracle of valour.  But the crisis had come on too quickly, and there was no time to pump up bravery from the deep well of history.  The unearthly ugliness of the savages, their thick lips, prominent cheek bones, scowling and overhanging brows, broad snub noses, matted black hair, and above all the keen, steady, and ferocious scrutiny of their deep-set eyes, extinguished the last spark of courage in the heart of Hyde.  He did not look fierce and defiant any more.  He felt inclined to be very civil, so he smiled a sickly smile and tried to say something, but his chin wobbled, and his tongue would not move.