"Missa hurt," he said, coming back and helping her to her feet. "Not cry." "I won't," she said, choking back her sobs. "Please let me rest awhile." "Must go fast to get to water-hole for dinner," said Kadok. "Missa rest a little and then try go again." She lay down on the grass and shut her eyes. Some parrots chattered and screamed in the trees above her, but the sun was hot and most of the forest birds were still, except for little twitterings among the branches. Kadok sat silent beside her. Much was passing in the black boy's mind. He knew too well the need for haste. The trip was dangerous for him as well as for his little white friend; he understood the danger and she did not. She felt only the danger of the forest, reptiles, hunger, cold and thirst. But Kadok had to fear both Blacks and Whites. Should the two fugitives run into unfriendly Blacks they would be captured, and if the little girl was not killed by them she would be taken far inland, where as yet white people did not rule, and all hope of restoring her to her people would be at an end. On the other hand, were they to fall in with any of the mounted police or squatters, Kadok knew that his story would never be believed, and that he would be punished for stealing a white child. All this he knew, that Jean could not understand, but he felt that he must make her see the need for hurrying if possible. "Kadok," she spoke first. "How many miles is it to my mother?" "It is many hours," answered Kadok. "We must go fast." "I will go now," she said, getting up. "I can walk." "Why you hurry?" asked Kadok, surprised. "I want my mother," she answered. "She will be afraid for me. My father has gone away to find gold and she will be frightened for me." She spoke like a little old woman and the black boy's eyes shone. He saw that he had the way to manage her without frightening her with the dangers he dreaded. "We must go fast so little Missa's mother not get sick without her," he said, and the two started on again. By noon, slow as the little steps were, they had covered considerable ground, and they sat down near a tiny water-hole to eat and rest. "Missa wash feet and rest while I make eat," said Kadok, and Jean bathed her bruised feet, wrapping them in wet leaves, which Kadok told her would take out the pain. "Little Missa sit very still while I find eat," he said. "I not go away." She was terribly frightened when he disappeared between the trees, but in a few minutes she heard the sound of chopping near by, and in a few moments more, Kadok returned carrying a dead bandicoot. "Me chop him out of hole in foot of tree," he said, grinning broadly. "Him make fine eat." He quickly made a fire, and cutting up the meat in pieces, put some of them on sharpened twigs, and held them over the fire to roast. "Eat plenty much," he said to Jean as he handed her several pieces. "We not know when we find another."