A Kangaroo Hunt and its
Sequel

IT was a glorious morning, and the tops of the tall gum-trees in the paddock were already glittering in the golden rays of the rising sun. Hundreds of white cockatoos screamed a welcome to us, as, laden with saddle and bridle, we wended our way to the stockyard, the laughing jackass adding his discordant notes to the general hubbub. We found the superintendent and stockman already at their posts, and in less than ten minutes we were all in the saddle and clear of the rails which surrounded the head station.

      The line of country through which our road lay was as tame and uninteresting as usual — endless stretches of burnt-up pasturage, dotted with scraggy blue gum and iron-bark trees, which scarce threw a shadow on the burning ground, so scant and poor was their foliage; at one moment skirting a dense scrub, impassable save to kangaroo and wallaby, and the next, perhaps, wending our way by the side of some deep, gloomy water-hole, fit habitation for those bogies so dreaded by the Australian aborigines.

      As we rode along Benjamin beguiled the time by giving me what he, no doubt, considered to be necessary instructions for the guidance of a "new chum" — how I was to ride, how to bridle, saddle, hobble, feed, water, and physic my horse, and myself too, I verily, believe.

      One piece of advice which he gave me was this: "If ever you should happen to lose your way," said he, "halt at once; it will be easier for us to find you than for you to find us." Unfortunately, I paid but little attention to his well-meant advice, for I likewise was particularly self-sufficient, and how I had reason to repent my perversity the sequel will best show.

      After about three hours' gentle riding we arrived at the out-station in the vicinity of which Benjamin had decided to hunt for kangaroo. It was not much of an establishment — little better than a hovel — but clean, the shepherd and his wife being both Germans. The horses were hobbled and turned out to graze. Frau Brandt set to work to get breakfast ready. Benjamin, like worthy John Gilpin, having an eye to business as well as pleasure, started off with his superintendent to count the sheep, whilst I, spreading my blanket on the floor of the hut, quietly composed myself to sleep.

      On Benjamin's return we breakfasted, and then yarned until three in the afternoon, when our leader gave the signal for starting, telling the old lady to be ready to receive us and have supper ready by sundown.

      The afternoon had turned out cloudy, which was all in our favour, as the kangaroo would the sooner leave the dense scrub where they had taken shelter from the noonday heat and again commence feeding in the open. We had five dogs — three belonging to the station, and my couple — all well bred and up to their work, combining the fleetness of the greyhound with the tenacity and endurance of the sleuth-hound.

      We had ridden a couple of miles or more and were skirting a dense scrub, to the right of which lay a long stretch of open country, when we suddenly heard the heavy thud, thud of kangaroo tails, and in another minute we came in view of the whole mob making tracks at full speed across the plain.

      The dogs caught sight of the game, and were off at once, and Benjamin, with a loud coo-ey, ripping the spurs into his chestnut, galloped away in full pursuit — a lead which we were none of us long in following. And now for the first time I could feel the mare under me, and I was not disappointed in her, her long, easy stride being perfection itself. The kangaroo had a good start, and for the first half-mile the dogs did not appear to gain much on the mob. Benjamin and myself rode together for some time, the ugly chestnut going in a style which I had little expected from her appearance. But the pace was killing, and the plain over which the "old man" was leading us more than a mile across.

      Another half-mile, and a great change had taken place in our relative positions. Benjamin's weight beginning to tell on the mare, she gradually dropped astern, and the superintendent on his grey, coming up with a rush, was soon in his place, evidently bent on being first in at the death if a light weight and good riding could accomplish it. The dogs, all well together, were now close on to the mob, which consisted of the old man and three others. Another minute and the unfortunate lady who brought up the rear would in all probability have been turned over, when the whole lot suddenly broke, one going away to the right and two to the left, the old man alone keeping steadily along with all the dogs after him.

      Although I pitied the poor old fellow, I could not help laughing at the extraordinary figure he cut, as with tremendous bounds and an occasional sly peep over his shoulder to see how things were progressing behind he made one last desperate effort to gain a clump of trees which were now but a short quarter of a mile in front of him, calculating, no doubt, that they would prove a haven of safety. Less and less grew the distance between the dogs and himself, but he did succeed in gaming the timber, and I then thought it time to call upon the mare — a call to which she responded in gallant style, shooting away from the grey like a rocket.

      In an instant I was close alongside the dogs, and not more than a dozen yards from the old gentleman himself, of whose tail I had already begun to concoct imaginary soup, when thud, thud, thud, away burst another mob of kangaroo right in front of us, and after these my dogs and one of Benjamin's immediately broke off, leaving the other two to settle with the old man at their leisure. I could not, of course, let my dogs hunt by themselves, so, blessing my bad luck, I pulled the mare's head round and kept away after the interlopers.

      I soon found that I was in a very different sort of country from that which I had just left. The timber lay rather too close to be pleasant, and it required some steering to keep clear of trunk and branch. Fallen trees there were in abundance, some of them ugly enough for a new chum to ride over, but evidently old friends of the mare's, for she took them in her stride without effort.

      Seeing that she was well up to her work, I determined to let her have her head, and soon found it was a move in the right direction, for we shortly, afterwards came up with the dogs, which I had lost sight of for some minutes.

      The country became more and more broken as we advanced, and a couple of dried-up watercourses, which the mare took upon her own responsibility, I should most positively have declined crossing had my blood been cooler. The pace was nothing like so severe as at starting, the dogs beginning at length to feel the broken ground and the effects of a double run. However, they kept along gamely, I shouting and yelling at them until the mare put a stop to my music by getting her foot in a hole and coming down with a force that sent me flying out of the saddle. Luckily she was uninjured, and I only a little shaken, but it was a couple of minutes before I could "pick myself up" and manage to get into the saddle again.

      The delay had thrown me a long distance in the rear, so I gave her ladyship a smart touch with the spurs, just to waken her up a little. But never in my life had I greater reason to regret such a proceeding, for she no sooner felt the rowels than with a snort of rage she gave one spring which nearly sent me flying, and with the bit between her teeth, started full tear after the dogs, I endeavouring in vain to hold her.

      To the day of my death shall I ever forget that ride? The mare was perfectly frantic, and all I could do was to stick to the pigskin and wish fervently that she might break down or come to grief somehow or another, for I had lost all fear of Benjamin's displeasure, and heartily wished the brute elsewhere. My wishes, as usual, did not "come off." The mare had the endurance of an Arab, the wind of a deerhound, and the temper of a fiend. Her pace seemed to increase rather than slacken, and from sheer devilment she picked out the very ugliest places over a country by no means easy to ride over at the best of times. Now she would be topping a fallen gum-tree, now clearing by a few inches some yawning hole or gully, the very look of which was enough to take one's breath and make one close one's eyes involuntarily.

      How long this pleasant state of things continued I am perfectly unable to say. To me it appeared hours, days, weeks, months, years — a whole lifetime — condensed in a few minutes. But as the longest night must have a morning, so at length the mare bethought herself that she had had nearly enough, and again settled down into a quiet canter.

      It was some minutes before I could regain sufficient composure to look about me, and when I did so I was as ignorant of my whereabouts as new chums generally are. It was an open piece of ground not far from a water-hole, and I at once saw that the mare must have covered a considerable distance during her run, for we were again close to the dogs, which, now thoroughly, beaten, were only just able to crawl along after a booming old man kangaroo, who, in not much better plight, was heading direct for the water-hole.

      This was indeed a most unexpected piece of luck, and for a moment my spirits were raised higher than ever, only to fall the next hopelessly below zero. As the kangaroo reached the pool he stopped, and turning his back to the water, resolutely faced his pursuers. My best dog, Tige, was the first up, and finding that he could not get at the old man's tail, he at once sprang at his throat. But he paid dearly for his temerity, for before I could dismount he lay bleeding on the ground, his body ripped open by the sharp claw of his desperate enemy. The whole thing took place in less time than I have taken to describe it. Throwing myself from the mare, I, with one blow of my loaded riding-whip, stretched the old rascal on the turf, and my vengeance being satisfied, I next proceeded to examine poor old Tige. He was in a sad state, being ripped from the throat downwards; but the cut was not so deep as I had at first feared, and the vitals were uninjured. I am sure I felt almost as bad as he did, poor fellow! when, looking piteously into my face, he seemed to beg of me to do something for his relief, although what that something was to be I knew not. However, I did what I could, and after making the sufferer a bough-hut close to the water, I again turned my eyes in the direction of the spot where the dogs were licking the blood from the body of the dead kangaroo. He was a splendid fellow, and had a tail of tremendous calibre. To cut off this appendage was my next move; having possessed myself of which trophy, I put some slices of the flesh before Tige, and remounting the mare, endeavoured to make back-tracks.

      I soon found out, however, that in Australia backtracks were not so easily made as I had imagined. I rode and rode and rode, and the more I advanced the more perplexed and uncertain I became as to the direction of the hut. The evening wore rapidly away, and when the sun went down I was no nearer to my destination than when I started.

      There was no alternative but to camp; so, having hobbled the mare and given the dogs some kangaroo meat, I placed my saddle against a tree and endeavoured to compose myself to sleep. Sleep, indeed! I might as well have tried to sleep on the rack. I was in the vicinity of a water-hole, and entire brigades of mosquitoes kept charging at me with a vindictiveness truly diabolical.

      I had not the means of lighting a fire, and the handkerchiefs with which I might in measure have screened myself from their attacks were encasing the carcass of poor Tige. In sheer despair I took off my coat and wrapped it round my head, and after enduring half an hour's semi-suffocation, I was obliged to throw it off again and keep my enemies at bay by waving the branch of a tree, punkah fashion, in front of me.

      For a couple of hours or more I kept on at this lively work, anathematizing the colony and everything belonging to it in the most bitter spirit, until through sheer exhaustion I dropped my fan and fell asleep.

      My slumbers were not peaceful by any means, and every few minutes I would awake with a start. At one moment I would dream that some huge snake was dragging his slimy length across my body, and the perspiration would start from every pore, and my heart cease to beat, for I had in those days a mortal dread of all such reptiles, and my head was filled with the most horrible snake stories. Recovered in some degree from my fright, I would dream the next moment that the mare bad strayed and that I was alone in the bush without the means of extricating myself.

      And so the night wore away, and the grey light of morning found me hungry, unrefreshed, dispirited, in total ignorance of my locality, and of the course I ought to steer to regain the station.

      After bathing my temples in the tepid waters of the pool, I had a search for the mare; but no mare was to be found. So, calling the dogs, I started off in the direction in which I had last seen her the previous night. And in that blessed direction I wandered and wandered and wandered, until the great red sun was high in the heavens and the heat became so intense that I was fain to lay me down at intervals and gasp for breath on the burning ground.

      But why recapitulate the events of that miserable day — how I endeavoured to retrace my steps to the spot where I had left my saddle, and signally failed, only getting more hopelessly lost than ever in the attempt; how, in my great thigh boots, I toiled along hour after hour over the arid, burnt-up plain, until the very dogs could go no farther, and yet I dragged my weary, blistered feet along, goaded onwards by the energy of despair; how at length, utterly exhausted, I sank at the foot of a gum-tree and gave myself up for lost, the laughing jackass shrieking my requiem amongst the branches overhead; how, as the sun went down, I fell into a feverish sleep?

      From this I was aroused by the bleating of sheep. Help was come! How I succeeded in finding the shepherd in whose hut I passed the night; and how I was conducted the next morning with sadly draggled plumes to the station — is not the whole story too painful to be told at length?