Читать книгу The Black Troopers, and other stories онлайн

26 страница из 47

'Upon hearing this I told the innkeeper in confidence my own suspicions; and, as the distance was not great, we both rode over to the out-stations the man must pass on his way. At one of these the hut-keeper told us that such a man had slept at his place one night, and had left to shoot in the neighbourhood promising to come back to sleep there again; but he never came; and in the course of our conversation it came out that, before starting in the morning, the man, having used all his large shot, had cut up some bullets he had into slugs of different sizes, to load one barrel, in case he fell in with turkey or wallaby. So that he has been waylaid and murdered is, I fear, only too certain; and Peel must have been wounded by him. It was with the unfortunate man's gun, too, that that cow was shot which we found killed on the day of our ride round the out-stations. But,' continued Stevenson, 'is that woman going to give me anything to eat or not? I have had nothing since breakfast this morning, and am starving;' and he went out to the door to call out to the kitchen to hasten operations.