Part 27 (2/2)

I daren't swim across, for I would have been in full view fro in two feet of water, and the saed mud, was the nearest cover; and in the ainst society, and watching Jim herself as she tripped blithely past the end of the stack, and looked into my recess

It seemed incredible; and yet, in spite of the cold and misery and difficulty of the situation, I could n't wake up to find

I alwaysthe best where women are concerned, and I had been prepossessed in Jim's favour; yet it now see, she would have brought that pair of white ---- off the line, with, perhaps, a supplearment or so, andfurther occasion against me She looked under the culvert, across the paddock, and toward the lagoon, as Abraham had done, then walked round the stack, and finally returned ho to look over the picket fence, and scanning right and left as she entered the whipstick scrub

Enough, and to spare, thought I These barbarians have given n of their Order; now let n Not without practical protest shall I die a nude fugitive on their premises; and not if I can help it shall the post-mortem people find the word ---- written on arden and whipstick scrub effectually concealed oon, and s I had occupied on the preceding night

There I selected a piece of thick bark, about the size of your open hand, and solid fire for half its length I swaoon with this in my teeth, and in a few minutes more had buried it in the broken, half-decayed straw at the base of the stack Then I returned along the drain, but instead of crossing the lagoon, sneaked through the thick fringe of whipstick scrub to the lower end of the garden, and there waited for soood while The old straw-stack wasn't in sight froet another piece of bark, when I heard a youngster's voice squeak out,

”Oo, Mam! th' ole straw-stack's a-fier!”

Then followed sundry little yelps of surprise fro the round the left-hand side of the garden, and into the back yard Before the ene that braved a thousand years, and applied it to its proper use I also made free with another banner, which I tucked into the former I was like the man rapped his colours round his breast, on a blood-red field of Spain

Glancing into the cos along the wall, with several coats and hats hanging thereon I appropriated only an old wide-awake, shaped like a lamp-shade, even to the aperture at the top; and from three pairs of boots under the sofa, I chose the shabbiest Astonished, like Clive, at ed all the most likely places in search of a pipe and tobacco, but without avail I even extended my researches into the pantry, and thence into the sacred precincts of the front parlour

But the tobacco-faed equally everywhere The place was a residence, but by no stretch of hyperbole could you call it a home

The sideof the parlour looked toward the conflagration; and there I counted four woirl, and a little boy Three of the wo, whilst the fourth, andto the others over her shoulder as she turned her steps toward the house

Then I bethoughtthe provant, and re-entered the kitchen Early though it was, the breakfast-things had been cleared away; so I took the lid off the boiler under the safe, in search of the cake which ought to be kept there

But the house was afflicted with cake-fa constitutionally anything but an epicure, I just helped myself to the major part of a dipper of enerous section of excellent potted head fro these out ofthat it was better to be at the latter end of a feast than the beginning of a quarrel; and pervaded by a spirit of thankfulness which can be conceived only by those who have undergone similar tribulation, and experienced siht for the bore of thethe unmistakable earmark of a lie, and evidently not a translation froe--to the effect that once a British subject, in a foreign land, was taken out to be shot, just for being too good Pinioned and blindfold, he stood with folded arhty unconcern doelve rifle-barrels, all in radial align beads on the dauntless captive, and twelve foreign fingers were pressing with increasing force on the triggers, when a majestic form appeared on the scene, and, with thea quilt across a wide bed, the British Consul draped the prisoner from head to foot in the Union Jack! That's all The purpose of the lie is to convey the i of Britain; but give me the forky pennon before referred to, and keep your Union Jack

Cardinal Wolsey, youhis trust in princes, found hirity to heaven were all he dared now call his own The effect was a peace above all earthly dignities So withwith the sunny self-reliance of the man that struck Buckley

And before you join the hue-and-cry against the ”barbarous incendiary”

of the ---- Express, just put yourself in my place, and you won't fail to realise what a profitable transaction it was to get a puris naturalibus lunatic clothed and in his right mind by the sacrifice of a hteen pence, but I would gladly have purchased its destruction with as many pounds--to be paid, say in nineto me; but then, neither did the splitters' bark So there you are

Crossing the dry place in the lagoon, I dived into the whipstick scrub and turned northward, intending to get across the river as soon as possible, and follow up the New South Wales side totaken degrees in philosophy which place irls--I should have been without a ripple on my mirrored surface, but I was n't Serenely sufficient as I felt, and fit for anything, sooblet There was a vacant chair so so--but how could that be, when, in the et?

Thus h half ive the rest to ---- Ah! where was Pup? I knew he had followed me on my first journey up the drain, but I had n't seen him since, and had been too busy to notice his absence He would probably be at the fared, and look after him

It was about ait, I saw, crossing the flat in the direction of the Victorian river road, a swagnised in the distance as my friend Andy

In casual surprise--for, as you may reht or tenin the opposite direction--I went on without exchange of greeting

Shortly afterwards, I ca to a young felloith an axe on his shoulder I respectfully swerved aside, not wishi+ng, in this particular case, to coes a man by the clothes he wears

Presently I becale of a horse-bell, and the smoke of a ca-cart, near which an elderlyhis after-breakfast smoke Now, if I had only known this a couple of hours earlier!

After the usual civilities, I reinforced my provant by a pannikin of tea, soe of a damper which rivalled the nethermyself that I had attained Carlyle's definition of a man: ”An omnivorous biped that wears ----” Meanwhile, in response to ed for, I explained that I was travelling; my horses were on the other side of the river; I had coht, and wanted to get back

He couldand duck-shooting for a living; but there was so many informers about these times that a man had to keep his weather-eye open if he wanted to use a net or a punt-gun People needn't be so particular, for there was ole Q---- had been warning and threatening hi Q----s out this u shed, and the ole (s on the river Ole Q---- was a JP His place was just across the flat, with a garden reaching down to the lagoon

Q---- hi

After breakfast, the old fellow furnished -tackle, and paddled e, for want of so else to say, Ithe flat, apparently froman had been on his way to a ne-mill, the day before, but had met one of the owners, who told him the mill would n't start till after harvest, and promised him work on the farm in the meantime So Andy, on his return journey, had seen the outlaw's fire in the dusk; and, after some one-sided conversation across the river, the latter had ferried hiht I y the so-called sundowner often hunts for work, particularly if he happens to be the victim of any physical infirmity