Settling Day, Nat Gould [phonics reading books .txt] 📗

is any danger of our being seen. I hope you are comfortable, Sal,' he added with a grin.

She made no reply. She was busy thinking how she would act, for she knew they were going in the direction of Cudgegong.

It was a long, tedious ride, and the men were in a bad humour. They thought Abe Dalton a fool for being mixed up in a job like this.

'Did you shoot that black gin?' one of them asked.

'Yes; she will tell no tales,' he answered.

'There'll be a lot of trouble over it, and with Seth Sharp's bungling piece of work the Creek will be too hot to hold us.'

'If you are afraid to stay there you know what to do,' growled Dalton.

'Clear out, I suppose. You are mighty fond of telling some of us that. Mind we don't clear you out.'

'Yes, I'll mind that, and I'll not forget what you have said. That's your gratitude after I have kept you all these years,' said Dalton.

'Kept me!' echoed the man. 'Come, I like that. It's me that's helped to keep you, and more fool I have been to do it.'

Sal was in hopes they would quarrel and give her a chance to escape, but, although Dalton and some of his men were always falling out, their mutual interests were too inseparable for any really serious quarrel to arise.

Rodney Shaw was awaiting their arrival at Cudgegong, for Dalton had sent him word the previous day that he might expect them. He was in an excited state, and had been screwing up his courage with his favourite liquor. He knew he was doing a rash and cowardly act, one that would not only get him into trouble possibly, but would cause everyone to regard him as a scoundrel.

He was, however, a man who cared little for such things, and, if the worst came to the worst, he could clear out from Cudgegong. He had come to hate the place, and there were other matters connected with it, memories that haunted him and caused him to have many sleepless nights. He thought in time Sal would settle down with him, as she had done with Jim Dennis, and that she would be company for him. Until such time arrived he meant to keep her safe and do as he liked with her.

He little knew the task he had set himself or the woman he had to deal with. There was much of the cunning of the black in Sal, and she was not a woman to submit tamely to indignities. When Abe Dalton and his party arrived at Cudgegong Rodney Shaw at once had Sal taken to the room prepared for her.

'You will soon be happy and contented here,' he said to her; 'and you will not find me a bad master. You would not come to me of your own free will, so I thought I would send for you.'

Sal gave him a fierce look from her big dark eyes, and said, as she faced him,—

'You are a coward, not a man. Jim Dennis will throttle the life out of you when he finds out what you have done.'

'He will not find out, because he will never suspect you are here,' he replied.

She made him no answer. She felt Jim Dennis would know what had befallen her.

He left her and went to settle with Dalton.

'You will find yourself in a nice mess over this,' said Dalton.

'I'll take the risk. I have the woman, that is what I wanted. Here is your money.'

'It was a stiff job,' said Abe Dalton, 'and we have run a big risk. Can't you make it a trifle more?'

Rodney Shaw swore at him, and said a bargain was a bargain, but he eventually gave him twenty pounds over the sum agreed upon.

When they were gone he went again to Sal. He meant to try and coax her into a good humour. He succeeded ill, and, losing his temper, said,—

'Remember I am your master now, and you will have to obey me. Think it over during the night, and make up your mind to be contented.'

With that he left her, and she looked round for some means of escape. The one window was heavily barred, and the door was fastened on the outside.

Rodney Shaw had taken every precaution, so he thought, to secure her; but he did not anticipate she would try to attempt what seemed impossible, and escape. He did not know Sal. She meant to try every means in her power to get out of that room.

The house was, as usual, built on thick wooden piles and was some height from the ground. As Sal walked round and round she heard a board creak, almost in the same spot, each time she passed over it. She knelt on the floor and felt closely round the skirting. To her joy she discovered the white ants had been busily at work on one of the piles and that they had penetrated the skirting board of the room. She tapped it, and the sound told her it was hollow inside, crumbling away. So great was her joy that she had much difficulty in restraining herself from testing her plan at once.

She knew, however, it would be safer to wait until it was dark and all was still. The time passed slowly, but at last she determined to risk it.

She pressed her hand heavily on the board, and, as she expected, it gave way and crumbled to pieces. It was an easy matter for such a powerful woman to rip the rotten portion away, but a more difficult task awaited her when she attempted to pull up the flooring boards, and she had to be very careful not to make much noise. Her hands were cut and bleeding, but she heeded it not. She pulled and tugged with all her strength, and at last one board gave way, but the space made was not wide enough for her to squeeze through. The second board did not take so long to raise, and this gave her a sufficient opening.

She slipped through and found herself underneath the house, free, if she could only manage to get away unobserved or without rousing any of the dogs.

She crawled along the ground, hardly daring to breathe, until she reached the fence, which she quickly climbed.

Once outside she commenced to run for her life, and as she was fleet of foot she soon put some distance between herself and Cudgegong. She knew in which direction Wanabeen lay, and could tell by the star-lit heavens that she was on the right track.

All night long she struggled on, until at last she could go no further, and, falling from sheer exhaustion, she was soon in a deep sleep.

CHAPTER XXII

DETERMINED MEN

As Willie Dennis and his friends drew nearer to the house they saw their first conjecture was wrong and that something serious had taken place during their absence.

As they reined in their horses Constable Doonan said,—

'Let me go in first,' and, drawing his revolver, he walked cautiously into the house.

There he saw the black gin huddled up in the corner, a pool of blood round her and a bullet wound in her head.

'Sal!' he shouted. 'Sal, where are you?'

There was no answer, everything was ominously quiet.

Willie Dennis and Silas Dixon followed the constable, and were horrified at what they saw.

'There has been a desperate scene here,' said Doonan, 'and Sal is gone. They may have taken her away. We must send a messenger at once for your father, my lad.'

'I'll go,' said Willie. 'I am a light weight and can ride fast. You and Silas must search for Sal.'

'That will be the best plan,' said Doonan.

'I'll start now,' said Willie. 'We can clear up here when we return.'

'We must leave everything as it is until I have made my report to Sergeant Machinson,' said the constable. 'He will have to make a move against Dalton's gang this time.'

Willie was soon on his way to Barragong, his blood boiling with rage at the outrage that had been committed at Wanabeen, and he wondered what had become of Sal.

In the meantime, Constable Doonan and Silas Dixon were scouring the country in search of the missing woman.

At the hut where Dalton and his men had been in hiding Doonan examined the place and found the members of the gang had been concealed there.

'They must have seen you and Willie ride away,' he said; 'and in that case they would have a long start of us.'

They camped out that night near a creek, and ate the food they had brought away with them from Wanabeen. They were used to roughing it and to lie on the bare ground with the saddle for a pillow.

They were astir early in the morning, and rode round in a wide circle, looking for tracks or any signs of Sal. At last Constable Doonan thought he saw an object lying on the ground which resembled a human being. It was too far distant for him to discover clearly, but he knew it was not an animal. He rode towards it, and, with a shout of joy, roused Sal, who was still asleep where she had fallen, and at the same time it recalled Silas Dixon.

When Sal saw who it was she could hardly believe in her good fortune. At first she thought it was Rodney Shaw who had overtaken her.

Doonan was off his horse and at her side very quickly, and knelt down to support her, for she was still very weak. He moistened her lips from his flask, and, when she had recovered somewhat, questioned her.

Sal gave him a brief account of all that had taken place, and when Doonan heard who was the instigator of the outrage he could hardly credit it.

'Rodney Shaw!' he exclaimed. 'A man in his position! He must be mad. Rich man as he is, he shall suffer for it, Sal. He need not think he can do as he pleases, even in this lonely place. I pity him when he gets into Jim Dennis's clutches; he'll about settle him.'

He put Sal on his horse and walked by her side. They had several miles to go before reaching Wanabeen.

'Who was it shot the black gin?' asked Doonan.

'Abe Dalton. The other men were outside, he was alone in the house. I heard her cry out when he lashed her with his whip, then followed the shot, and she cried no more. Dalton killed her,' said Sal.

'He shall swing for it,' said the constable, savagely.

They proceeded for some distance in silence, and then Doonan said, in a tone of admiration,—

'You were clever to escape from Cudgegong, Sal.'

'I meant to get away somehow. Had I not escaped I would have killed myself rather than be in Shaw's power. He is a wicked man.'

'There are not many worse,' said Doonan. 'I never had much opinion of him, but I did not think he was such an out-and-out "rotter."'

Next morning the party arrived from Barragong, accompanied by Adye Dauntsey, Sergeant Machinson and half a dozen mounted police.

When Jim Dennis heard how Abe Dalton had acted, and that Sal had been taken to Cudgegong, his whole body trembled with rage and excitement.

Had he not been persuaded to act otherwise, he would at once have ridden to Cudgegong and, taking the law into his hands, have called Rodney Shaw to account.

Both Dr Tom and the police magistrate, however, restrained him.

'Leave it to me,' said Adye Dauntsey. 'I'll see they all meet with their deserts.'

'If Sergeant Machinson had done his duty this would not have happened, and poor Ned Glenn would have been alive.'

Dr Tom's dog Baalim caught sight of the dead woman and howled piteously, and the sound was so weird it started