But for some strange reason the milling mob now hesitated to make the dash to safety, only a few here and there bounding forward to make a break for it. It seemed that the now thoroughly alarmed animals were about to race away in all directions, when from right behind them rose a hundred unearthly yells as women and children, clattering their throwing sticks, together rushed straight upon them from behind.

With one forward bound the entire mob was into the mouth of the Trap and heading straight down it. Spears and boomerangs came whizzing amongst them from both sides as many crashed head over heels over the falling bodies of the crippled ones, while fierce yells from close behind and now from both sides kept them in frantic terror leaping straight down towards the end of the Trap. But from here there suddenly sprang out a line of yelling figures as boomerangs and spears and throwing sticks whizzed straight at them. Numbers fell, while others, frantic with terror, bounded blindly on to thump violently against legs or chest of the spear-throwers or crash against the scrub wall to reel back and be killed by club. The main mob, swarming upon one another in panic, disentangled themselves to flounder back against one another and the writhing cripples, then bound back up along the Trap, again kept clear of the scrub sides by the yelling huntsmen. As this terrified mob surged back up along the Trap they were met by the tight-packed, yelling women and children, striking madly with digging and throwing sticks, often striking one another in the confusion as frantic wallabies bowled over children and even brought women—’’Oough!”—to the ground with a terrified bound against their stomachs

On this particular night was the greatest slaughter of wallabies ever known in the Trap. It had been arranged by Red Kangaroo. From boyhood no one had been so keen, so cunning in suggesting timing and vantage places for the hunters, no one so crafty and patient at suggesting yet more sure ways of droving the greatest number of victims to and within the Trap. And for the night he had been given full charge.

Those particular full-moon nights were eagerly looked forward to by the whole tribe. There was only one hunt every three months, which gave those scrub wallabies a chance to build up their numbers again. For, although game was generally plentiful, centuries of experience had taught the tribe not to waste it nor to harry it from its haunts too much.

Neither was one single wallaby wasted in the subsequent feast, even though this “Night of Red Kangaroo”, as old Mullionkale sang in the resulting corroboree, had seen the greatest slaughter of wallabies ever known in the Wallaby Trap.

XXV

THE SPEECH OF THE RED CHIEF

The chief, Tulumi, closely advised by the warrior Burradella, continued to work wisely for the good of the tribe. Planning carefully while acting cautiously, in two years he had helped strengthen the tribe a little by preventing wasteful killings, insisting upon greater caution among the wandering family groups and the tribe in general, by keeping as much a check as possible upon feuds and raids, and when such could not be prevented insisting upon more careful organization and care in planning the get-away.