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'Did you say you saw Bobby Peel when at the camp with the others?' inquired Stevenson of me.

'Yes,' I replied; 'but he saw me coming and slipped away. Will you detain him in custody?'

He replied that he was uncertain what to do; but presently a circumstance decided him.

In searching the paddock and the banks of the river with the lantern, we found a double-barrelled gun, powder-flask, etc., hidden in some reeds. It was a very superior article, not at all likely to be honestly in possession of a black, and no doubt existed in our minds but that this was the piece belonging to the unfortunate bird-collector, and that it had been hidden there by Peel before he came to the camp fires; but the attack had been so sudden that he had no choice but to run for the huts. It was resolved, therefore, that he should be secured and handed over to the authorities.

'Although our head-station blacks,' said the superintendent, 'probably had nothing to do with the actual murders, I am sure they were aware of what had happened. I have noticed a great change in them for the last week. The two boys, Pothook and little Toby, were always hanging about the huts before, but of late I observed they kept away from us. They know of the murders, and are frightened. Now you must back me up, doctor,' he said to me; 'I am going to try and obtain a confession from them. In their present state they will tell all.'