The grass stalks were stretching up straighter and straighter to the warmth of the life-giving sun; the birds, their first early-morning hunger satisfied, were chattering, gossiping, scolding, and whistling to one another from gully and tree. An eagle floated apparently motionless high above a crag of the Warrumbungles.

From a height they paused a moment to glance behind. Far away back over the hilltops a thin column of black smoke was rising towards the clear blue sky.

“They have worked their way through the scrub and have tracked us now to the edge of the foothills,” said Red Kangaroo grimly, “but we have got a long start. See that we keep it.”

The girls turned and ran on as an answering smoke signal rose from the lower bushland far to their left, noted by Red Kangaroo’s watchful eyes.

“Signalling those down in that direction,” he thought. “They’ll get busy, but they’ll think we must have come down to cross the low country under cover of night; they’ll be certain we shan’t have kept to these foothills, which must slow us down so much.”

As they ran on another smoke signal rose ten miles ahead of them in answer to the second, but again down in the lowlands. On and on they jogged. Red Kangaroo noticed the sweat beginning to form in beads, then dribble down the lithe bodies of the two clean-skinned girls running before him. Anxiously he hoped he had fitted the gags comfortably and to allow easy breathing.

At high noon the bush breathed silent and still, heat shimmering from rocky hill-slopes. They came running down a grassy spur into a valley from which a dark belt of pines stretched upward into the mountains. When deep within those pines Red Kangaroo grunted, and the girls dropped down, gently panting. He undid the gags and their hands and gave them the water-bag. They drank long and deeply, sighing quietly as the water slowly satisfied their tired, thirsty bodies. Within moments he had a fire alight, slashed off three hunks of meat, and threw them on the fire. It was restfully quiet and cool here, deep within the shadowy recesses of this sweetly smelling pine forest. And the cool friendly feeling of Mother Earth to tiring bodies—the girls felt they could close their eyes and lie there ... and lie there ...

They awoke to his big, urgent hand as he gave each a hunk of appetizingly smelling meat. They wolfed it, feeling strength warmly gathering within them. A big meal, all too quickly it was eaten. He reached for the gags again. Nareen’s limpid eyes became large and dreamy.

“Won’t you leave the gags off now?” she pleaded. “We have come a long, long way from our camp. And our friends are too far away to hear even if we did scream—which we won’t, and with the gags off we could breathe deeper and last longer.”

“Not until we come into the lands of my own tribe,” he answered firmly.