Within two hours of daylight he guided them up to a black mass outlined by starlight into castellated rock. He led them to a sapling, put warning fingers to his lips, slipped a long thong over the thongs at their wrists, and lashed them face to face to the sapling. Then he picked up his weapons and vanished among the boulders. Silently he climbed up to the very mouth of a cave and listened. There came no sound of a breath drawn in sleep. With spear in right hand and tomahawk in left he crept noiseless and invisible as a black snake into the pitch-dark cave. Cautiously he probed with the long spear to right and left and ahead, then crawled on again to probe. But there was neither man nor animal in the cave.

In relief he climbed down for the girls and brought them up to the cave. They sat down in the cold blackness with choked sighs of relief. He went out, swiftly pulled a big armful of grass from the long, coarse tufts growing thickly amongst the rocks and spread this out on the cave floor. He undid his possum rug and brought out a long cord. With this he tied Naroo’s right foot and Nareen’s left together, then whispered to them to lie down on the grass and spread his possum rug over them. They were asleep within a few minutes.

He awoke to the call of the birds. Startled, he was at the cave mouth on the instant. Sunlight of a rosy dawn was flooding the mountain tops, though the plain country below was still veiled in shadows and mists. Hurriedly filling his water-bag from a near by spring, he congratulated himself that he had spied out this route in daylight and brilliant moonlight, seeking his surest way of escape as well as seeking his prey. So far his foresight was aiding his good fortune wonderfully. Snatching up kindling wood, he hurried back into the cave and woke the sleeping girls—a difficult task, for they simply did not seem able to open their heavy-lidded eyes.

“Nareen! Naroo!” He shook them urgently. “Awake! Cook and eat and drink! We have a long, long way to go!”

As he undid each gag, slowly they worked their numbed jaws in relief. As he freed their hands he said, “Cook all the duck-eggs, no one can see a little fire away back in this cave. We’ll eat the last of the cooked meat, too. Hat well, for again we must travel far and fast!”

Vigorously with his firesticks he started a fire, throwing on broken pieces of bark. Soon, the bark would be warm ashes in which the eggs would quickly cook. Shivering, the girls spread their arms round the little blaze. He went to the cave mouth to watch the sun eating up the mists as if to show him the fair bushlands spreading far away, seemingly going on, and on for ever.

No sign of enemies. Then, even as he looked he saw the smoke of cooking fires arising near a dense line of creek trees some five miles away. And he knew that such an early breakfast meant that the folk there had seen last night’s fire signals and were but awaiting full daylight to seek sign of the runaways.