Our first impulse was to rush off to their assistance; but the guns were in pieces, and a brace of pistols kept in the hut were unloaded. Stevenson hastily proceeded to charge the latter, while young Harris and I endeavoured as speedily as possible to put the other weapons in order. Through the open door the fires were visible; and now and then dark objects would flit rapidly past them and disappear. Mingled with the screams of the women was the clatter of blows, and old Toby's voice, replying defiantly to the yells of his enemies, could be plainly distinguished. Presently, one after the other in quick succession, three dark figures dashed with the frantic speed of fear into the hut, and, rushing up to the fireplace, crouched in the ashes on each side. Two of these were Pothook and little Toby; the third was no other than 'Sir Robert,' or, as he was more commonly called by the men, Bobby Peel, himself, whose suspected doings we had that evening been discussing--now, like his companions, in a state of mortal terror.
As generally happens in such emergencies, the proverb, 'More haste, less speed,' proved applicable to the present case. Never was I so long in putting a gun together; Stevenson could not find the bullet-pouch; while Harris, who knew the hut-keeper had a loaded double-barrelled piece in the kitchen, kept calling out to him to run down the slope and fire a shot over the heads of the attacking party; but no answer was given. The man was a new arrival in the colony, had always been terribly afraid of the blacks, and on the first alarm had barricaded himself in the kitchen, whence all his wife's taunts could not induce him to stir, or hand out the gun to Harris, who had at last to run for it. As the young man peeped through the crevices of the slabs he saw, by the glare of his eye, that the fellow was well-nigh delirious with terror. By the time the superintendent and I had armed ourselves, full five minutes had elapsed; and the cries had ceased some time. Upon procuring a light and searching the paddock, four mutilated bodies were found--Jimmy and Billy having been shot as they sat by their fires, and their bodies dragged away and hastily opened, and the kidney fat, the great trophy of these barbarous exploits, removed. The two lubras had fled, but in their terror they ran from our huts instead of towards them. Polly was overtaken soon, and killed by a blow on the head; the infant she carried could not be found; doubtless they had taken away the body. Kitty's screams were long heard, as she fled hither and thither in the paddock with her fell pursuers after her. Had she run for the huts, or had the cowardly hut-keeper run down and fired a shot, she might have escaped. Her little boy we found crouching in a small patch of reeds by the river, trembling like a leaf; and we plainly heard the triumphant laugh of the wretches, as they watched our search from the island to which they had swum.