https://barefootfairy42.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/david-malouf-and-the-wild-landscape-of-the-mind/
Perhaps Fergus is watching all from a bush somewhere close. Perhaps Fergus didn’t want to be found. Although we do have an account of his death in the book… but I could imagine him, or some other bushrangers looking on the whole setting, seeing if an ambush were possible for the freeing of a comrade.