een him take the axe, and had waited till the very last
moment with pistol-barrel pointing through a fold in the camp-sheet.
Then he had fired at the hand which was grasping the axe.

At the sound of the shot the two white boys had been startled awake,
but they had been so heavily asleep before, that it took them a moment
or two to realize what was happening. By that time it was all over,
and when they arrived on the scene, Mick was giving the last hitch to
the bull-hide rope. In answer to their eager questions, the stockman
told the lads of his adventure. It seemed terrible to them that Mick
had been so near death, and they wondered at his letting the native get
so near. But the white man treated the matter lightly, and all three
of them stood round the bound native and watched him slowly recover
consciousness.

The five black-boys were standing in a group on the other side of the
smouldering fire, not knowing whether the white man's anger would vent
itself on them, but they were reassured when he called out to them,
pointing to the bound man: "This one, Eagle. Him try to kill white
man. No good at all. Silly fella quite. You all good fella. You go
back longa swag. You lie down. You all good fella."

Eagle's eyelids fluttered and then opened, and he looked up into the
face of Sax. The light of the moon was strong enough to show the boy
what intense appeal there was in the captive's eyes. The man evidently
thought that he was going to be killed. He looked beseechingly at Sax
and then rolled his eyes to the north, towards the Musgraves, and
muttered the syllables: "Stoo-bar."

The sound drew Mick's attention to him. "So yer've recovered, have
yer?" he asked, stooping down to pick up a quart-pot of water. "P'raps
that'll help yer." He dashed the cold water into the man's face. It
certainly brought him round to complete consciousness, and the dark
eyes no longer looked appealingly at Sax, but gazed with hatred at his
tormentor.

"Yer don't like having a decent brand on yer hide, don't yer?" sneered
Mick. "Like me to take it off, would yer? Well, I'll have a try."

The white boys had no idea what the drover intended to do, and stood
back when he asked them to do so, He rolled the helpless man over till
his flank was uppermost and showed the recent brand-mark T.D.3. The
brand was outlined with thick burns which stood up from the black
flesh. Mick went over to his swag for his whip. It was long an