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The night was calm, but dense clouds threatening rain obscured the moon. The fires of the blacks gleamed brightly from the low ground near the river, which was open and quite free from trees or bushes; and a cheerful blaze also shone from the window and from between the slabs of the kitchen, a separate hut, where the hut-keeper's wife was giving the finishing touch to the steak she was cooking for the superintendent's supper. All was peaceful and quiet; the hissing of the frying-pan and the distant chant of the blacks being the only sounds audible; except at intervals when the mopoke uttered its cuckoo-like cry from the timber ranges across the river. In a few moments the woman brought in the dishes, and Stevenson, having satisfied the first cravings of his hunger, was about to renew the conversation which the meal had stopped, when all at once the monotonous song of the blacks was interrupted by several musket shots fired in rapid succession. Shrieks and yells succeeded; and we instantly guessed what had happened. Our blacks had been attacked by their enemies!