And here Red Kangaroo insisted upon fastening the gags back into his captives’ sullen mouths. Well he knew that, ungagged and with their ankles freed, the girls, if he had the bad luck to run upon some hunting party in this open bushland, would scream the alarm and leap aside and run for it. In such case he would have no time to do anything but fight for his life.

“The faster you travel,” he promised grimly, “the sooner then I shall be able to take the gags out for good. Now—trot!”

For a moment they hesitated. He stepped up behind Nareen and lightly jabbed her in the buttock with the cruel point of his war spear. She hissed back at him like a snake. He drew back his arm for a thrust, but with a sob she turned and started to jog-trot. He glared at Naroo, the spear at the ready. She spat at him as she leapt forward and ran behind Nareen. With tears of rage welling from her eyes she ground her teeth into the gag, wishing it were his throat.

Through open, clear forest country they covered a surprising distance with that steady, almost tireless jog-trot of the wild aboriginal. Once Red Kangaroo’s ears tingled to a distant cooee. The running girls were listening also, but their spirits dropped as presently answering calls came from yet farther away. That hunting party were moving away from them. Red Kangaroo breathed in heartfelt relief.

Near sundown they were among the foothills, making for a steep little hill, the summit of which stood as a black sentinel of almost perpendicular rock. There was a cave away up there from which, several days before, Red Kangaroo had spied out over a wide area of open bushland. He undid Nareen’s arms and helped her up the steep rock-face and into the cave. Then he tied her wrists and ankles again and returned for Naroo. With freed limbs she climbed up like a monkey of her own accord, though attempting to dislodge a stone to fall on his head. He grinned as he dodged and jabbed upward with his spear point. She gave a choking gurgle as she sprang upward, in a blazing fury at his hearty laughter.

When he had them hidden within the cave he gazed out over the country from the entrance. It looked lovely, bathed in late afternoon sunlight. He had completed his job as the hunter; he had snared his prey, but would he be the hunted one now? Carefully he gazed near and far and all around. No sign of pursuit as yet—just a distant hunting call away at the left near where rising smokes showed life in a camp he had spied upon some days before.

He returned into the cave and, taking the gag from Nareen’s mouth, said, “I am going to eat and drink. Will you eat and drink if I free your arms? You can light a fire in there and cook the duck-eggs. You will need them soon, for we are going to travel swiftly all through the night. Where we shall rest and eat again I cannot say. If your friends come too swiftly on our tracks I promise you that we shall neither rest nor eat again until we have crossed over into my own tribal lands—and that is far from here. Now, will you eat?”