In no other district would such hiding-place be possible," and here the Luya Sentinel waxed enthusiastic over the mountain fastnesses, which were the barren pride of this unprofitable corner of Leichardt's Land. It would appear that the Luya had the monopoly of not only all that was picturesque in scenery, but all that was romantic in legend and superstition.
Captain Macpherson swore by all his gods that the taunts of the Luya Sentinel should be no longer deserved: and during the next three weeks the indignation of the local press became ridicule at the aimless wanderings of the chief of the police and his troopers among the gorges and ravines and scrubs of the Upper Luya, where upon one occasion they got hopelessly bushed, returning to Tunimba in a sorry condition, having staked a valuable horse in a fall over a concealed precipice, and broken the arm of one of the troopers. The Blacks' superstition also stood in the way of a thorough scouring of the heads of the river, for even the half-civilized trackers objected to venture into that mysterious region, haunted by Debil-debil and the spirit of the mighty Chief Baròlin. Besides, the bunya scrub and spinifex thickets were impenetrable alike to man and beast, and must be equally so to the bushrangers, Captain Macpherson argued. On this Baròlin expedition, Captain Macpherson made Bardlin Gorge the centre of operations, and the half-castes and Sam Shehan acted as pioneers. Dominic Trant also was zealous in the service, while the stockman's prodigies of bushmanship and indefatigable pushing through country that might have appalled the bravest rider, lulled all Lord Horace's vague suspicions. Not a trace or sign of Moonlight could be discovered; not a clue to prove that he had made for this direction after the robbery. The search round Baròlin was given up, and then a new theory, founded on private information supplied to Blake, as Colonial Secretary, by an anonymous correspondent, was started to the effect that Moonlight was in league with a Chinese gardener not far from the Bean-tree Crossing, and that the pine-apple field was the hiding-place
