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Our "cooeys" were answered by voices not far distant; and following the sound, we soon came within view of a column of smoke curling lightly above the trees; and on arriving at the spot whence it arose, we found our man, assisted by the natives, busily engaged in erecting a kind of hut, or rather skreen of boughs, for our night quarters.
There, by their cooeys and their looks, they seemed to be very anxious about somebody in the bush beyond the Bogan. I expected to see their chief; at all events from these silent woods something was to emerge in which my guides were evidently much interested, as they kept me waiting nearly an hour for The unseen genius of the wood.
The savages must have heard us, as well as the cooeys in the distance; for after vainly hurling another shower of spears, they turned and scampered off as fast as their legs could carry them, their flight hastened by the peppering we gave their backs with small shot.
There was not much rain during the day, but about sunset a heavy cloud accompanied by thunder and a squall broke over us. Soon after the wind lulled, the sky became clear, and in the morning we found ice on the water; the atmosphere having resumed its usual serenity. August 22. Early this morning the cooeys of three natives were heard.
As soon as the girls had performed the necessary duties of the morning, they all set out in the direction taken by their brothers, carrying with them a supply of food, as the party, which had started early in the morning, had gone away without breakfast. It was noon before the girls heard the cooeys uttered by the searching-party, which proved that the children had not yet been discovered.
One of them who sat behind and who appeared to be the older of the two had a bone-handled table-knife stuck in the band over his forehead; one had also an iron tomahawk. The rest of the tribe were concealed about, as we heard their cooeys, but no others ventured to appear.
He had no alternative, then, but to drag on his weary limbs, and lead his worn-out horse, to either some hospitable shelter, or a more auspicious locality to camp in. Before resuming his journey, he gave two or three vociferous "cooeys," but without hearing any answering sound, save the echo of his own voice.
At last, pausing on the top of a hill, we could hear voices on the opposite side of the glen. Shouts and 'cooeys' soon brought us to the party which were awaiting us.
It was swelled by the roars, and cooeys, and curses of every man above ground and below, in the shafts and drives on the flats, and in the tunnels of the White Hills, from Golden Gully and Sheep's Head, to Job's Gully and Eaglehawk, until the warning that "Joey's out" had reached to the utmost bounds of the goldfield.
After we had proceeded some miles the cooeys of the natives were heard around us, and we once more expected an attack. We were then in a close scrub and the cattle were advancing slowly, for the ground had been softened by the rain. We halted the carts in a small open space and prepared for defence.
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