And Red Kangaroo did know, for the other man was old Tulduna, to whom the elders had promised Weetah.

“Only two winters to come and go and she will he his,” said Giluram morosely.

“In time you will be able to buy her from him,” replied Red Kangaroo.

“Yes,” answered Giluram savagely, “in a long time—and then hunt for the old dingo all the rest of my life.”

“All the rest of his life,” corrected Red Kangaroo.

They strode on in silence, until Giluram said miserably, “I thought—we all thought you were going to do something for us, Red Kangaroo. But the chief and his council remain still unfair with the laws.”

“None of you would stand beside me,” answered Red Kangaroo shortly. “Good job, too, else I should have been food for the fishes before now.”

Giluram glanced at him in surprise, but his grim face invited no question.

Suddenly wild, defiant yells ringing through the bush were answered away to the right and left. Red Kangaroo swiftly gathered his handful together, certain this was to be his one big, and last fight. The timber was ringing to the howls of many men.

A sheet of flame, then billowing smoke ahead, and in moments fire came crackling towards them, swiftly fanned into fury by a strong wind. Their enemies had set the bush afire. A mob of kangaroos bounded past in terrified leaps, birds sped agitatedly before the smoke and cinders.

Red Kangaroo’s men turned and raced back a mile to plunge into a creek. The fire roared over them. But no enemies followed. They had retired under cover of the fire, believing the whole strength of the Gunn-e-darr tribe were coming against them. If they had only know how few that number really was! Tracks on the blackened earth proved them to be a combined party of Narrabri, Baan Baa, and Boggabri men.

For the next few weeks Red Kangaroo’s young warriors patrolled their northern boundary with ceaseless vigilance, as away to the south the boundary was being patrolled against the Quirindi men. As to what safeguards Jerrabri was taking against the Goonoo Goonoo and Bundarra, the patrols did not know.

To such straits now was the Gunn-e-darr tribe reduced, with enemies apparently about to fall upon them from all sides. Had those enemies known the real strength of the Gunn-e-darr men at that time this story would never have been written. For the tribe would have been hunted and wiped out, or its remnants scattered and absorbed until perhaps not even the name in legend remained—a fate that has befallen many and many a tribe and nation since the Dawn of Man began.

Red Kangaroo’s border look-out was a bold hilltop from which he could signal back to the main tribal look-outs. As the days passed without bad news from their rear or sign of danger from the north his scouts began to relax, and Red Kangaroo on his hilltop, watching more or less casually now for smoke signals, began thinking again.