“Black debbils been heah, cappen, done spoil all de dinner, and run away wid de knives and forks,” Sambo said.

Captain Leebrace soon resolved on a course of reprisals.  He went up the ladder to the forks of the gum tree with his telescope, and soon obtained a view of the retreating thieves, appearing occasionally and disappearing among the long grass and timber; and after observing the course they were taking he came down the ladder.  He selected two of his most trustworthy men, and armed them and himself with double-barrelled guns, one barrel being smooth bore and the other rifled, weapons suitable for game both large and small.  During the pursuit the captain every now and then, from behind a tree, searched for the enemy with his telescope, until at last he could see that they had halted, and had joined a number of their tribe.  He judged that the blacks, if they suspected that the white men would follow them, would direct their looks principally towards the tents, so he made a wide circuit to the left.  Then he and his men crept slowly along the ground until they arrived within short range of the natives.

Three of the blacks were wearing the stolen shirts, a fourth had put on the lilac dress, and they were strutting around to display their brave apparel just like white folks.  The savage man retains all finery for his own personal adornment, and never wastes any of it on his despicable wife, but still Captain Leebrace had some doubt in the matter.  He whispered to his men, “I don’t like to shoot at a gown; there may be a lubra in it, but I’ll take the middle fellow in the shirt, and you take the other two, one to the right, the other to the left; when I say one, two, three, fire.”

The order was obeyed and when the smoke cleared away the print dress was gone, but all the rest of the plunder was recovered on the spot.  The shirts were stripped off the bodies of the blacks; and after they had been rinsed in a water-hole, they were found to have been not much damaged, each shirt having only a small bullet hole in it.  It was in this way that the lilac dress escaped, and was found in the canoe at the Old Port; the blackfellow who wore it had taken it off and put it under his knees in the bottom of his canoe, and when the white men’s boat came after him, he was in so great a hurry to hide himself in the scrub that he left the dress behind.

Next day there was a sudden alarm in the camp at the Old Port.  Clancy and Dick the Devil came running toward the beach, full of fear and excitement, screaming, “The blacks, the blacks, they are coming, hundreds of them, and they are all naked, and daubed over white, and they have long spears.”

The men who had guns—­Campbell, Shay, and Davy—­fetched them out of their huts and stood ready to receive the enemy; even McClure, although very weak, left his bed and came outside to assist in the fight.  The fringe of the scrub was dotted with the piebald bodies of the blacks, dancing about, brandishing their spears, and shouting defiance at the white men.  They were not in hundreds, as the boys imagined, their number apparently not exceeding forty; but it was evident that they were threatening death and destruction to the invaders of their territory.  None, however, but the very bravest ventured far into the cleared space, and they showed no disposition to make a rush or anything like a concerted attack.