r/ie fVreck. 405 



neck-cloth bound it on the crown and tied it under the chin, for it 

 really appeared to me as if the top of his head would come off. 

 He uttered not a sound, not even a groan 5 and were it not that his 

 eyes and lips seemed to move a little, and the blood came from his 

 mouth at regular intervals of respiration, I should have fancied him 

 dead. I could do nothing alone, so galloped back to the hut, to 

 send one of the party for the nearest doctor, and then returned to 

 the tent to keep solitary watch over the dying man. 



It was one of those lovely evenings so peculiar to the Australian 

 spring : the sun was sinking fast, and his evening rays, as they shot 

 into that solitary tent, fell full upon eyes which never would behold 

 their light again. The air was laden with the perfume of the gum 

 blossoms ; flocks of little green paroquets were gaily chirping in 

 every tree -, the rosellas dashed by me in all their wild freedom, 

 and the forest re-echoed to their glad screams of joy. All seemed 

 happy on that sad evening, save man. 



I found poor Jack stupified, still sitting on the bench where I 

 had left him. We questioned him as to the cause of the accident : 

 it was this. He and George had agreed to race home from the 

 beach ; they had almost reached the tent, when George's horse, 

 swerving, carried him under a honeysuckle, a branch of which 

 struck him on the forehead and dashed him from his horse. He 

 never spoke again. His comrade picked him up and laid him 

 insensible on the bed. This was the whole of the sad story. 



As I neared the tent on my return, the long dismal howl of the 

 old bulldog struck mournfully on my ear. I loosed him from his 

 chain — he crept into the tent and laid himself down by the side of 

 the dying man's bed (they had always been friends), and he never 

 ceased his watch till the corpse was carried out. Poor George was 

 just as I had left him 3 he neither moved nor uttered a groan. His 

 eyes were still wide open, and, though apparently fixed upon 

 vacancy, seemed to follow me about the tent wherever I moAed. 

 This might have been fancy, but certainly he did not appear to be 

 sensible. I dared not move him, for I thought perhaps that might 



