"I 'eerd it too, and thought it must be a big howl a-howling. You have got howls out here, haven't you, mate?" "Oh, yes; plenty. But that's what I said." The big driver having noted that the men had brought up a plentiful supply of wood sufficient to keep up the beast-scaring beacon, subsided heavily in the full light of the fire and began to fill his pipe. "Now you two," he said to the Hottentot and the foreloper, "just take a quiet walk round the bullocks, and then you can come back and smoke your pipe of peace." The Hottentot's voice sounded very unpleasant and very clicky as he replied sharply, and though it was almost unintelligible Mark made out from it and the driver's answers that Dunn Brown was already performing that duty. "Oh," said Buck, "then you needn't go. That will be all right. Well, Illaka, aren't you coming to sit down?" For the boys suddenly noticed the black shadowy figure of the guide glide into the firelight, his appearance being emphasised by a flash where the flame played upon the polished leaf-shaped blade of his spear. The man nodded, shook his head, and disappeared again. "What sort of fish do you think there are out in the river here?" asked Bob Bacon. "I don't know their names," said Buck Denham quietly, as he went on filling his pipe very slowly; and the two boys sat down one on either side, pricking up their ears at the words "river" and "fish." The big driver leaned forward, drew out an incandescent piece of wood and quite ceremoniously held it to the bowl of his pipe. "I don't think you will find any trout," he said, "like you have at home, but there's plenty of fish there, I should say, just as there is lower down near Illakaree, and up here I should reckon there's plenty to fish for." "Ah!" cried Mark eagerly, as he glanced round at the picturesque group seated in the full blaze of the fire, while the reflections played upon the dark edge of the forest, piercing the great overhanging branches from among which a few startled birds dashed out, winged their way round the circle of light and disappeared again. "Look, Dean; isn't it beautiful now!" "Thought you wanted to go to sleep," said his cousin. "Not I! I leave that to you." "Yes," continued the big driver, repeating his words, "and I should say there's plenty up here to fish for." "I say, Buck, are there so many blacks about here, then?" "Sometimes, sir." "And do they go fishing?" "No, sir; they may do, but I don't know as I ever saw a black go fishing. You've been to 'Stralia, Dan; do the black fellows out there fish much?" "Much?" said Dan, showing his white teeth. "Yes, and hunt and knock the big kangaroos over with their nulla-nullas and boomerangs. Wittles are precious scarce there, and they have had a hard time of it to get enough grub, and I suppose that's why they pick holes in the softy wood trees to get the big fat grubs out of them." "Ugh! Horrid!" said Dean.