Page:The romance of Runnibede (IA romanceofrunnibe00rudd).pdf/118

"Great Scott!" Tom gasped, "where did you come from?" But all I was concerned about just then was getting safely out of that creek into company again.

Following the creek to where dingo scrub hung over the rock walls, we saw before us a half circle of smouldering fires/

"Here it is," Eustace said, breaking the heavy silence. And here and there, with the glooming scrub sheltering a camp of miserable gunyahs made of sheets of stringy bark, leaning slantwise against each other, took shape in the moonlight/

"Careful awhile," the Governor counselled beneath his breath. And again we halted. "It won't do to alarm them. We don't know how they might regard our coming at this hour of night."

Though friendly relationships had been established with these wild people, and in a sense the Governor had become the guardian of their happiness, the referee and arbiter of their disputes, in truth a wonderful being in their eyes, yet they had moods and fancies of their own, and liable to misunderstandings. Mother, too, on her side had been moving peacefully amongst them in their sicknesses, providing them with clothing and food till her visits to the camp became a feature in their wild lives, and she had become known as "White Mary." Still, a surprise visit to the camp by night, when the fires were dying low, and all asleep in the gunyas, was an innovation not unattended with risks. So instinet told the Governor that wisdom lay in prudence.

For me, at least, those moments held a thousand