Hardy had ridden over to
Canterbury to arrange with his friends about hiring shearers from
Rosario for the united flocks. The boys and Terence were in the
fields plowing, at a distance of half a mile from the house, when
they were startled by the sound of a gun. Looking round, they saw
both the girls standing upon the tower: Maud had just fired the
gun, and Ethel was pulling up the flag.
"Be jabers! and the Indians have come at last!" Terence exclaimed,
and they all three started at a run. Maud turned round and waved
her hand to them, and then she and Ethel continued looking over the
plain. At this moment they were joined on the tower by Mrs. Hardy
and Sarah.
"It is all right," Charley, who was of an unexcitable temperament,
said. "The Indians must be a long way off, or the girls would be
waving to us to make haste. Take it easy; we shall want to keep our
hands steady."
So they broke from the headlong speed at which they had started
into a steady trot, which in five minutes brought them up to the
house.
"What is it?" they exclaimed as they gained the top of the tower.
"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" Ethel said. "They have got all the animals."
"And I fear they have killed Gomez and Pedro," Mrs. Hardy added.
It was too evidently true.
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