Would it be a moral
victory, won by a simple advance on the rock, or would it be necessary to
strike? He had hesitated, as yet, to shoot straight; and he trusted still
to avoid that extreme measure.
Three strides in the open, and three spears had him square and fair, a
rent archery target. The first struck his watch, denting it, the second
caught the fleshy part of his arm, the third tore into his thigh. The
Aborigines were skilled spear-men, and proving it by Sir George's
impalement, they shouted triumph. The shook of the weapons drove him to
his knees, but what stung him was the crow of the blacks.
'That,' he said, 'produced in me a heated anger, and I was in the fight
as I had not been till then. Stung by their mockery, I pulled myself
together and was on my feet again in a trice. A spear was still sticking
in my thigh, and blood flowed freely from the wound. I dragged out the
spear, covered the wound with my haversack, so that neither enemy nor
friend might be aware of it, and once more advanced.'
The chief grew alarmed at this steady investment of himself, and showed
it by brandishing a club, as if to convey, 'Just you come nearer and this
will drum on your head.'
Sir George's faculties were so keenly edged that he noted, in this
bravado, a common link of mankind, high and low, civilised and barbarian.
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