Cover

Dedication

This book is for my mother and father, Joan and Robert Swiggs

The Colony of Victoria, Australia, 1853

The Colony of Victoria, Australia, 1853

The two boys came up along the spine of the spur where the last of the cleared land gave way to verdant bush. The older one carried the musket slung over his left shoulder and plodded along behind his brother who was armed with a long spear that he used to probe at the ground as they walked. On a patch of dirt among the dried grass he found what they were looking for.

‘Here, Toby! He came this way.’

Toby O’Rourke squatted in the shadowed undergrowth and traced his fingers around the paw print. The marks left by the dog’s claws were plain to see and Toby lifted his face in the direction the animal had gone, towards the rocky ridges below the first sweeping rise of the escarpment. He had been afraid of that, even though he suspected it all along.

‘What do you reckon, Pad? Is this the bugger?’

‘Could be,’ Paddy murmured, glancing down for a moment. ‘It’s big enough to be him. Got a lair up among those rocks, I reckon.’ He shifted the spear to his other hand as he spoke and looked to where the backbone of the ranges stood against a perfect sky.

Toby nodded and looked at the print again. Here in the shadows the dirt still held moisture from the night dew, but the edges of the print had dried enough to crack and crumble. He pressed his thumb into the soil and studied the outline it left, comparing it with the one left by the dingo.

‘About three hours ago. We haven’t come across any feathers since the chook pen. He’s headed home for sure.’ He stood and followed his brother’s gaze, the Lovell musket heavy in his hand. ‘Once he gets onto rocky ground it won’t be easy to track him.’

‘Ma will throw a blue fit if he gets any more of her chooks,’ Paddy said. ‘This is the fifth time this month he’s raided the pen.’

‘He’s got a taste for chicken all right,’ Toby agreed. He shouldered the musket and pointed uphill. ‘Lead the way, Pad.’

Paddy moved off into the bush, his long spear held at the ready. Toby followed his brother’s back and neither spoke for almost an hour, not until they had climbed to within fifty paces of the ridge line. Here, the bushland thinned out and a group of tumbledown boulders, as large as cottages, sat in the warm sun. Paddy stopped in the shade of one of the boulders and took the canteen from around his neck. He drank thirstily and then handed it to his brother.