"I'll go up to Boolabong myself," said Harry.

"My word! They'll just about knock your head off," suggested Jacko.

Karl Bender also thought that the making of such a visit would be a
source of danger. But Heathcote explained that any personal attack
was not to be apprehended from these men. "That's not their game," he
said, arguing that men who premeditated a secret outrage would not
probably be tempted into personal violence. The horror of the
position lay in this--that though a fire should rise up almost under
the feet of men who were known to be hostile to him, and whose
characters were acknowledged to be bad, still would there be no
evidence against them. It was known to all men that, at periods of
heat such as that which was now raging, fires were common. Every day
the pastures were in flames, here, there, and every where. It was
said, indeed, that there existed no evidence of fires in the bush
till men had come with their flocks. But then there had been no
smoking, no boiling of pots, no camping out, till men had come, and
no matches. Every one around might be sure that some particular fire
had been the work of an incendiary, might be able to name the culprit
who had done the deed; and yet no jury could convict the miscreant.
Watchfulness was the best security, watchfulness day and night till
rain should come; and Heathcote calculated that it would be better
for him that his enemies should know that he was watchful. He would
go up among them and show them that he was not ashamed to speak to
them of his anxiety. They could hear nothing by his coming which they
did not already know. They were well aware that he was on the watch,
and it might be well that they should know also how close his watch
was kept. He took the German and Jacko with him, but left them with
their horses about a mile on the Boolabong side of his own fence,