id not say
anything for a minute or two, but went over to the fire. He did not
always go after the horses in the morning, for he was very useful at
mending harness and doing odd jobs with the gear; therefore no one was
surprised to see him back before the others. Presently Mick brought
the two girths over to be warmed, so that the grease would sink right
into the leather. He looked across the fire at Yarloo and saw an
expression on the boy's face such as he had never seen there before.
The native looked terribly scared. Mick had no idea what had upset the
boy, and thought the fright was probably due to one of the many
superstitions which are always liable to crop up. But he liked Yarloo,
and asked him kindly: "What name, Yarloo? You see um Kadaitcha
(avenging spirit), eh?"

The boy shook his head and fingered the bridle nervously.

"Which way Ranui, Ted, Teedee?" asked Mick again, noticing that the
other boys had not come up and that it was getting near sunrise.

"Gone," said Yarloo.

It was not what was said so much as the tone of the boy's voice which
made Mick look with sudden earnestness into Yarloo's face, and ask
quickly: "Gone! What name you yabber gone? (What makes you say
they've gone?)"

"Me think those three fella no come back," explained the boy. "Me
track um up long way. They walk, walk. Oh my word, plenty walk." He
pointed towards the distant mountains, and continued: "Me think they
walk longa Musgraves."

Yarloo pronounced the word "Musgraves" in a tone of fear. It was a
word to strike terror to the heart; a word which at once called to mind
everything which was bad and treacherous and cruel about natives; a
word which told of the last great stronghold of the blacks which white
men had tried and tried again to take from them but without success.
Sax and Vaughan looked at one another when the dreaded word "Musgraves"
caught their ear. Yarloo saw their glance, and repeated, in a hopeless
voice: "Me think they walk longa Musgraves."

"What time they go?" asked Mick, thinking that Yarloo must have made a
mistake. "What time they start walk?"

The boy pointed to the western horizon and then shut his eyes, meaning
that the others had started out directly it was dark after sunset last
night. "Me see um track other black fella," he said. "Ranui, Ted,
Teedee, they join those other black fella. Go 'way Go right 'way. Me
think they no come back."

Suddenly the meaning of it all flashed