“By then,” resumed the Red Chief earnestly, “the guards’ fires down at the mouth of the Trap will nearly have died down—before the grey of dawn they will have burned down to warm coals and ashes. The dark shapes of the sleepy guards will one by one coil round them in sleep.” He grinned at Burradella. “Some of the enemy scouts will have hastened away to tell their fighting chief the great news that they have found the camp. Other scouts will remain. The enemy chief will come creeping up here with all his men. His remaining scouts will be certain by then. At the first grey of dawn they will come creeping into the Trap!”

Burradella was gazing at the Red Chief with eyes big with admiration. He struck his chest twice with a loud “Wah! Wah!”

“We will slaughter the ‘wallabies’!” laughed the Red Chief.

XXXII

THE TRAP IS BAITED

“And now, Burradella,” said the Red Chief earnestly, “choose the guards carefully—those men who can best act their part. Then set them to work preparing the Trap. Each man must wrap his possum rug round a bundle of grass and sticks so that it will look like a warrior wrapped in his rug asleep by the dying fire. He will hide his dummy in the grass this afternoon, to arrange it in the darkness by the coals of his fire just before dawn. And by his rug, the dummy that seems to be him, he will leave a spear sticking upright in the ground as usual. He will be there, too, after the fires die down but lying flat among the grass—and very wide awake. Immediately the women and children have slipped back into the scrub the guards will crawl away to the sides of the Trap. Seventeen men to you, sixteen men to me—with every boy who can throw a weapon of some sort—the mothers will just have to put up with it! We shall have near double the number of warriors if only Boobuk will come in time—he must arrive in time! I shall take one side of the Trap, you the other, Boobuk and some of his men the end. You and your men will stand back two feet within the scrub, I shall line the opposite side.