<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <br/><span class="cheaderfont">THROUGH THE RANGES.</span></SPAN></h2>
<p>Edgar Foster learned that Walter Hepburn had
gone to Redbank a term or two after his father left
the school. Hepburn was therefore well acquainted
with the prowess of Edgar’s father in the cricket-field.
It seemed very strange that they should all
meet at Alice Springs, and it was a date to be noted
as a red-letter day when the discovery was made.
Had Walter Hepburn been free to leave his post,
he would, after finding out they were Redbank boys,
have joined them in their travels farther north.
School ties bind men fast together, especially when
such a good feeling existed as always did amongst
Redbank lads.</p>
<p>The time came for parting, and when Yacka was
sufficiently recovered they left the station amidst<span class="pagenum">[140]</span>
general regret, and a universally expressed wish to
see them safe back again.</p>
<p>Yacka was quite himself as soon as all traces of
civilization were left behind. Once in the ranges he
revelled in the mountain air, and appeared familiar
with every pathway. In one place they had a
difficult task to perform. Yacka led them up to a
gigantic cleft in the rocks, which towered high above
them on either side. Between these high, rocky
walls flowed a river, and up it Yacka said they must
swim.</p>
<p>‘It will save a big climb over the rocks,’ he said,
‘and I can take your clothes on my head.’</p>
<p>There was nothing for it but to strip, and Edgar
and Will were not averse to a good swim.</p>
<p>Yacka tied their clothes in a bundle, and placing
the guns on the top, put them all on his head, far
out of the reach of the water. He had tied the
bundle under his chin with a strap, and it was
marvellous to watch how he swam up the river with
such a load on his head.</p>
<p>Edgar and Will plunged in after him, and found
the water very cold; but the exertion of swimming
kept the circulation of their blood up.</p>
<p>‘By Jove! it was a cold bath,’ said Will, as he
stood drying himself in the sun. ‘It must be the
rocks make it like iced-water.’</p>
<p>‘Very refreshing on a hot day,’ said Edgar. ‘They
would give a trifle to have such a cool bathing-place
at Yanda.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[141]</span></p>
<p>As they proceeded they came across a number of
watercourses and hills and valleys. They climbed
to the top of high rocks, and descended again into
level lands. At sundown they were tired out, and
could hardly eat the supper Yacka prepared for
them. No sooner had they finished their meal than
they were sound asleep. But Yacka did not sleep;
he stood looking down at them with his big eyes, and
seemed to be in deep thought. The moonlight
showed his black form standing over the two sleepers,
and his attitude was one of dejection.</p>
<p>‘How white they are,’ he muttered, ‘and Yacka
so black! but they are not as white as Enooma,
and Yacka is her son.’</p>
<p>He sat down, and commenced to reason in his
own way as to why he should be black, and the two
sleepers white. He could find no satisfactory solution
to the problem. Yacka knew naught of the
white man’s God, but he had a wonderful amount
of superstition in his nature, and a firm belief that
the White Spirit watched over him. Yacka had no
fear of death; he would have laughed at such a
thought, and yet he did not understand what death
really meant. Had the blackfellow been able to
express what he really thought about death, it would
have been to the effect that it was merely the White
Spirit’s way of rewarding him for his work here by
carrying him off to a country where he would be
happy for ever. Yacka slept but little that night,
but he was awake early, and ready to start again.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[142]</span></p>
<p>The ranges were passed, and they were now in
more open country. On the lowlands were numerous
bushes, mulga on the hills, and gum and tea tree in
the creeks. Plains of salt-bush could be seen, but
on to the west they descried grass-land.</p>
<p>For several days they tramped on, living on the
simplest fare, and yet feeling strong and well, and fit
for almost any exertion.</p>
<p>‘Where are all the blacks we heard so much about?’
said Edgar. ‘We have met none yet.’</p>
<p>‘We shall be in the Enooma country by sunset
to-morrow,’ said Yacka; ‘then you will see men of
my tribe.’</p>
<p>Yacka spoke truly. The next night they came
across a blacks’ camp. To Edgar’s surprise there
were between two and three hundred of them. As
they approached Yacka made a peculiar sound like
the shrill cry of a parrot, only with quite a different
note, which roused the blacks, and several rushed
forward to meet them.</p>
<p>When they saw Yacka the effect was astonishing.
At first they looked at him in amazement, then an
old man cried aloud, ‘Yacka! Yacka! Enooma!
Enooma!’ and the whole of the blacks, surrounding
him, knelt before him.</p>
<p>There was a proud look on Yacka’s face as he
motioned them to rise. Then he spoke rapidly in
the native tongue, and pointed to Edgar and
Will.</p>
<p>The blacks gave vent to warlike cries, and, shaking<span class="pagenum">[143]</span>
their wooden spears high in the air, drove them into
the ground with terrific force.</p>
<p>‘That means they will kill any man who does you
harm,’ said Yacka. ‘You are safe here, and the whole
tribe will protect you.’</p>
<p>They moved towards the camp, and at their
approach the blacks stood up and awaited their
coming with eager and excited looks.</p>
<p>Yacka was known to them, and was evidently an
important man with the tribe. Edgar fancied they
regarded him with something akin to fear, and said to
Will:</p>
<p>‘We were right to trust Yacka, for these blacks
stand in awe of him, and we shall be safe with
them.’</p>
<p>‘They are a savage-looking lot,’ said Will, ‘and I
should not care to have come amongst them alone.
If these are the men who molest the settlers, I am not
surprised at the white men hating them.’</p>
<p>The blacks were tall, powerful men, of a far different
stamp to those in the west of New South Wales.
Yacka was small beside some of them, and many
were six feet high and over. They were all armed
with native weapons, and were well prepared for any
encounter. As they were in such strong force, Edgar
came to the conclusion they must be on the war-path,
and questioned Yacka.</p>
<p>‘They are always armed,’ said Yacka. ‘The Curracoo
tribe are their deadly enemies, and when they
meet they fight.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[144]</span></p>
<p>‘I never heard of that tribe,’ said Edgar.</p>
<p>‘The Enooma and the Curracoo are not known
except in this part of Australia,’ said Yacka. ‘They
are tribes of the MacDonnell and Musgrave blacks.
They fight savagely. The Curracoo wish to seize the
white spirit of the Enooma, and think to capture her;
but they know nothing of our country, nor of the caves
we are going to.’</p>
<p>The blacks regarded Edgar and Will with much
curiosity, and from the manner in which many of
them pointed at their own bodies and then at Edgar’s,
he thought they could not have seen many white men.
It was a strange sensation for the two friends to lie
awake in the midst of a camp of over two hundred
savage blacks, and wonder what was about to
happen.</p>
<p>Early in the morning they were aroused by loud
warlike cries, and Yacka hurried up to them and
said:</p>
<p>‘Follow me; the Curracoo are at hand, and there
will be a fight.’</p>
<p>‘And if the Enooma are beaten, what will become
of us?’ said Will.</p>
<p>‘The Enooma will win,’ said Yacka. ‘If beaten,
Yacka can save you.’</p>
<p>He led them to a small hill not far distant from the
camp, and bade them remain until his return.</p>
<p>‘You can see the fight,’ he said, ‘and there is no
danger.’</p>
<p>‘This is a lively situation,’ said Edgar. ‘With all<span class="pagenum">[145]</span>
due respect to Yacka, if his tribe is defeated, the Curracoo
will make short work of us.’</p>
<p>‘There they are!’ said Will, pointing excitedly to a
dark mass moving across the open country.</p>
<p>‘It seems to me there are some hundreds of them,’
said Edgar; ‘far more than the Enooma. This is a
poor look-out, Will. We must be prepared to fight
for our lives.’</p>
<p>As they stood on the rising ground they had a
splendid view of the plain below, and were soon
absorbed in the scene before them. The two bodies
of blacks were approaching nearer and nearer, and
neither tribe shirked an encounter. They could see
Yacka standing some distance apart, and evidently
directing the movements of the Enooma.</p>
<p>‘Yacka has learned something in the big cities,’
said Edgar; ‘look where he has sent about fifty men
round that clump of trees, where they are hidden from
the enemy. They intend to make an attack on the
rear that will prove successful.’</p>
<p>Suddenly, and without a moment’s warning, the
whole scene changed. On the plain, that a moment
before had contained two bodies of blacks advancing
towards each other, there was now a confused mass of
figures, uttering terrible cries and fighting like furies.
The sound of blows could be heard above the din, and
the grass was dotted with the forms of fallen blacks.
They were at too close quarters for spears, and were
using heavy nulla-nullas, and warding off the blows
with wooden shields.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[146]</span></p>
<p>They saw Yacka quietly surveying the scene, and
wondered why he did not join in.</p>
<p>‘He is waiting for a favourable opportunity,’ said
Edgar. ‘Those men behind the trees have not moved
yet.’</p>
<p>The cries of the fighting blacks became more and
more wild and furious. They looked like fiends
dancing about in a frenzy, and dealing blows on
every hand. One huge fellow, a chief of the
Enooma, did terrible execution with an enormous
weapon which he whirled about like a battle-axe, and
Edgar and Will watched him with a fascination
that deadened all sense of their own danger if the
tribe suffered defeat.</p>
<p>‘Look at him!’ said Edgar. ‘He’s mowing them
down like grass. No one can stand in his way. His
wrist play is splendid—it reminds me of club exercise
at school.’</p>
<p>‘It’s a trifle more exciting than that,’ said Will.
‘What strength the fellow has! He could fell an ox
with one of those terrible blows. Nothing can stop
him.’</p>
<p>As though to give the lie to his words, a black,
nearly as big as the Enooma chief, barred his way,
and a desperate combat took place. Both men had
wooden shields with which they dexterously warded
off the blows. They were evenly matched, although
the Enooma black was a shade taller than his opponent.
Both were mad with rage and thirst for blood,
and it was a duel to the death.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum">[147]</span></p>
<p>‘He’s down!’ shouted Edgar, as the Enooma chief
slipped; but it was only a feint, as the black,
dodging a blow aimed at his head by his opponent,
suddenly raised himself. The Curracoo overbalanced
himself with the force of the blow, and fell forward.
As he stumbled along, the Enooma, raising his huge
club on high, brought it down with tremendous force
on the back of the Curracoo’s head. Where they
stood they could hear the blow, and Edgar shuddered
as he saw the black’s head split open, and he fell dead
on the ground.</p>
<p>Seeing their champion killed, the Curracoo wavered;
and, seizing this favourable opportunity, Yacka, uttering
a loud war-yell, sprang forward and called upon
the men in ambush to follow him. In a few minutes
the Enooma blacks were furiously attacking the Curracoos
in the rear. Unaccustomed to these tactics,
the Curracoos were terrified, and at once tried to run
away from the danger. This, however, was impossible;
they were hemmed in on all sides, and by
merciless foes who knew not the meaning of the
word ‘quarter.’ It was a fearful sight to see these
blacks felled to the ground by the heavy blows rained
upon them on all sides. The Enooma were bent
upon slaughter, and killed their enemies without
mercy. The plain had every appearance of a battle-field,
and in some places half a dozen blacks were
piled in a heap, dead.</p>
<p>At a signal from Yacka the Enooma ceased fighting,
and, surrounding the blacks still left alive, held them<span class="pagenum">[148]</span>
prisoners. These men were disarmed and marched
off towards the camp. A few of the Curracoos could
be seen flying from the scene of the battle which had
proved so fatal to them, but comparatively few of
them escaped.</p>
<p>Yacka came to Edgar and Will, and they saw he
was almost covered with blood, and his club was dripping
dark-red drops. The black’s eyes shone with
the light of battle and thirst for blood. All the
savage nature of this strange being was roused, and
the cruelty in him was uppermost. He shook the
blood-stained club over his head, and said:</p>
<p>‘Victory to the Enooma. There has been a
terrible slaughter. Come and see. Yacka will show
you how the Enooma strike their enemies.’</p>
<p>Edgar and Will descended from the hill where they
had witnessed the fight, and followed Yacka on to the
field of battle.</p>
<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />