p look well, sir."

"Yes," replied Nic, without glancing at the white-fleeced creatures
feeding about, for he was thinking of the scene of the day before and
felt afraid that Leather would allude to it.

But he did not, for he seemed disposed to talk quietly and respectfully
of the different things about them as they went on through the openly
wooded region for about a mile.

"Like honey, sir?" he said.

"Oh yes. Do people keep bees out here?"

"Well, sir," said Leather, smiling pleasantly, "Dame Nature does. There
are plenty of wild bees. There's a nest up just above that fork."

He pointed to a spot about forty feet from the ground, where what
appeared to be some flies were darting about a hole.

"Those are not bees," said Nic, gazing up at the place where the bark
appeared to be split and a portion of the tree decayed.

"Yes, sir--Australian wild bees. They make plenty of delicious honey."

"Where you can't get at it!"

"Oh yes; a man who can climb would get it. The bark of these trees is
soft and easily cut through."

"But the bees would sting him to death while he was doing it."

"If they could, sir; but these bees out here are harmless. I've seen
the naked blacks climb up, with a piece of smouldering, smoking wood to
drive the insects away, and then rob a nest. They would not have much
protection from the insects if they were attacked."

"Well, no, not much," said Nic, laughing. "But the nests must be hard
to find. You won't know that place again."

"Oh yes, sir," said Leather quietly, as he stood glancing up in the
tree. "You see I brought you straight here. Besides, after seeing one
of the blacks track the bees home it is very easy, for the country is so
open. It is not like being in the dense scrub."

"How do they track them?" asked Nic.

"Catch a bee when it is busy in a flower, touch its back with a tiny
speck of gum from one of the trees, and touch the gum with a tuft of
that white silky wool--"; and he picked a scrap from the seed-vessel of
one of the trees.

"And what good does that do?" asked Nic.

"Good, sir? The white cotton is easily seen when the bee flies
homeward, the black chasing it till perhaps he loses it. But he has got
nearer to the nest, and he will do this again with other bees, till he
comes at last to the place where the nest is."

"And did you find that nest so?"

"Yes," said Leather quietly. "I lost sight of the first bee about forty
yards away; th