When Burradella shouted he was in position the Red Chief roared so that his voice could be heard far through the scrub, “Now remember your shield when at close quarters!”

He then roared the order to attack and rushed straight at the enemy while Burradella’s men came surging through the scrub straight behind the Cassilis men. They cut the thirty-eight in half and cunningly concentrated on the one half. There was no chance of using spears amongst this tangled undergrowth; the only weapons that could he used were nulla and tomahawk and shield, to fiendish yells and ripping of vines by stumbling men. But this body of the enemy, cut off from their mates, refused fight when two of their men fell. They leapt away into the scrub. The Red Chief turned against the other party, now close against him, but these, too, turned and fled when they heard their mates vanishing into the undergrowth.

“Stand together!” yelled the Red Chief as his men started to scatter in pursuit.

They stood there panting, listening to the noise of enemy scrambling away in all directions.

“We’ve beaten them!” laughed the Red Chief. “But we still must stick together. Remember, there were only thirty-five of us, and they still must have that number left!”

As a matter of fact, they had just thirty-six. Sixty men had entered the Wallaby Trap. Of these, only fifteen now survived, scattered in the scrub. Of the twenty-one who had been sent round Black Hill to cut off escape of the women, all were still alive. And they clung together, forced their way out of the scrub, and raced across the open ground and down into the bush, racing for Mullibah Lagoon camp to collect their spare weapons and prized possum rugs and belongings before making haste back into their own country. As they came racing into camp warriors leapt up out of the ground and hurled spears and boomerangs amongst them, to howls of the Gunn-e-darr war-cry. Three of their young warriors went crashing to earth, the remainder fled without throwing a spear. Any survivors who got back to their own country would never afterwards believe that the Gunn-e-darr lands were not alive with warriors.

These Gunn-e-darr warriors were Boobuk’s men, only just arrived in camp at last, amazed and in great apprehension to find the camp deserted but sheltering the belongings of their dreaded Cassilis foes. The warrior Boobuk’s ugly, “man-killing” face was comical in its wrath and bewilderment.

XXXIV

FRIENDS, MY TRIBAL LANDS, FAREWELL

Shortly afterwards the Red Chief and his men came running down into Mullibah camp. The Red Chief stood looking down at the three dead Cassilis warriors. The apprehensive Boobuk then growled out his story. Glad indeed then was the Red Chief that Boobuk had not come blundering into camp sooner than he did. Had he come earlier he and his men would not only have been hopelessly ambushed but would have spoiled the trap as well. And now the Gunn-e-darr party was reinforced by twenty-nine more warriors, while the enemy had lost half their number and were in full flight.