wling his hatred at Sheldon, and transferring half the scowl to
Joan and Kwaque. "Me finish along you, you catch 'm big fella trouble,
my word. Father belong me big fella chief along Port Adams."

"That will do," Sheldon warned him. "You shut mouth belong you."

"Me no fright," the son of a chief retorted, by his insolence increasing
his stature in the eyes of his fellows.

"Lock him up for to-night," Sheldon said to Kwaque. "Sun he come up put
'm that fella and five fella belong him along grass-cutting. Savvee?"

Kwaque grinned.

"Me savvee," he said. "Cut 'm grass, _ngari-ngari_ {4} stop 'm along
grass. My word!"

"There will be trouble with Gogoomy yet," Sheldon said to Joan, as the
boss-boys marshalled their gangs and led them away to their work. "Keep
an eye on him. Be careful when you are riding alone on the plantation.
The loss of those Winchesters and all that ammunition has hit him harder
than your cuffing did. He is dead-ripe for mischief."

CHAPTER XXII--GOGOOMY FINISHES ALONG KWAQUE ALTOGETHER

"I wonder what has become of Tudor. It's two months since he disappeared
into the bush, and not a word of him after he left Binu."

Joan Lackland was sitting astride her horse by the bank of the Balesuna
where the sweet corn had been planted, and Sheldon, who had come across
from the house on foot, was leaning against her horse's shoulder.

"Yes, it is along time for no news to have trickled down," he answered,
watching her keenly from under his hat-brim and wondering as to the
measure of her anxiety for the adventurous gold-hunter; "but Tudor will
come out all right. He did a thing at the start that I wouldn't have
given him or any other man credit for--persuaded Binu Charley to go along
with him. I'll wager no other Binu nigger has ever gone so far into the
bush unless to be _kai-kai'd_. As for Tudor--"

"Look! look!" Joan cried in a low voice, pointing across the narrow
stream to a slack eddy where a huge crocodile drifted like a log awash.
"My! I wish I had my rifle."

The crocodile, leaving scarcely a ripple behind, sank down and
disappeared.

"A Binu man was in early this morning--for medicine," Sheldon remarked.
"It may have been that very brute that was responsible. A dozen of the
Binu women were out, and the foremost one stepped right on a big
crocodile. It was by the edge of the water, and he tumbled her over and
got her by the leg. All the other women got hold of her