And vengeance would come dogging his footsteps soon enough.

XVIII

THE MASTER

Tightly he wrapped up the remainder of the cooked food, fastened it neatly with a thong, and placed it beside Nareen’s dilly-bag loaded with its duck-eggs. Beside that again he placed her fellow-captive’s dilly-bag the net and fish, and his mid-sun supply of cooked meat. Then, laying one of his boomerangs on the dilly-bag, he sat down and proceeded to eat, steadily and enjoyably, now and then grinning at the girls sprawled at his feet. They glared up from spiteful eyes. Bits of dried grass were dribbling from the corner of Nareen’s mouth, wedged in there as she had rolled over and over from out of the cave. She could not spit the rubbish out because of the gag. He reached over with his big toe and brushed the ends of the grass, chuckling as she tried to bite through the gag to fasten on his toe at this added irritation. He finished his meal, licked his lips, then took a long drink from his skin water-bag. He offered it to the distended lips of each girl in turn. They glared like tiger-cats.

“Very well.” He grinned. “You will not drink with me. But you will at sundown. I can promise you a thirst by then!” He reached down and, with each hand seizing a mop of hair, jerked the girls to a sitting position.

“Now!” he growled. “You are to be my wives. As you see by my cicatrizes I am a warrior of the Gunn-e-darr, and a good warrior, too! I do more than skite and guzzle and snore! Learn that I am a good warrior, as you are going to be two good wives! You will run in front of me all the way to our main camp of Gunn-e-darr. Now, Nareen, what is your friend’s name?”

Nareen scowled viciously. Meat-ants were beginning to bite her; the nipping little pests had been attracted by scent of the cooked meat.

“Very well!” grunted Red Kangaroo, and reached a hand to his hair.

When he brought out the cord, though it was neatly wound into a tiny roll, their eyes widened in instant apprehension. So this savage thief really meant to steal them from the very heart of their country and from their people if he could! Their own camp was so very near, but to their ears came no friendly sound, only the whisperings of this gloomy scrub. They watched his grim preparations, his every expression—how their pounding hearts would have welcomed the chiding voices of those “old waterhens” now!

And now his big hands were placing the loop of the cord round Nareen’s slim young neck. He sat before her, stretched one arm over her shoulder, the handle of the cord in his clenched fist. As he stretched his arm out the cord instantly fastened round her neck, biting in. Her eyes began to bulge; she tried to bunch the muscles of her neck and hold neck and head down to ease the strangling, but the grim face before her did not change as steadily he held the cord. Her breasts were heaving; she leant back, but his big hand grasped her hair and held her immovably upright before him. Saliva was gurgling round the gag stuck between her jaws as at last her tortured eyes admitted surrender.