Part 11 (1/2)

'No! that's to come,' answered Jim, very dismally for him 'I don't see what else is to co this way? Yes, and a h only the stars were out; but the weather was that clear that you could see ever so well and hear ever so far also Ji; his eyes were like a hawk's; he could see in about any light, and read tracks like a printed book

I could hear nothing at first; then I heard a slight noise a good way off, and a stick breaking every now and then

'Talk of the devil!' growled Jial, infernal scoundrel that he is Of course he's got aus to put our heads in a noose for theain'

'How do you know?'

'I know it's that a horse he used to ride,' says Jis All a for a ular pace, different from a horse's walk'

'How does he knoe're here, I wonder?' says Jiraphs piped us, I suppose,' I answered 'I begin to wish they forgot us altogether'

'No such luck,' says Jial will be up to I don't expect he'll ride straight up to the door'

He was right The horse hoofs stopped just inside a thick bit of scrub, just outside the open ground on which the hut stood After a few seconds we heard the cry of the ht, and now, for some reason or other, it affected Jim and me in much the same manner I remembered the last time I had heard the bird at home, just before we started over for Terrible Hollow, and it seemed unlucky Perhaps ere both a little nervous; we hadn't drunk anything but tea for weeks We drank it awfully black and strong, and a great lot of it

Anyhow, as we heard the quick light tread of the horse pacing in his two-feet-on-one-side way over the sandy, thin-grassed soil, everynearer and nearer, and this queer dis its hoarse deep notes out of the dark tree that swished and sighed-like in front of the sandhill, a queer feeling ca unlucky was on the boards for us We felt quite relieved when the horse's footsteps stopped After atowards the hut

Chapter 11

Warrigal left his horse at the edge of the tiht want him in a hurry, I suppose He was pretty 'fly', and never threay a chance as long as he was sober He could drink a bit, like the rest of us, now and then--not often--but when he did it ht the devil out that lives lon in most people's hearts He was a worse one than usual, Jim said He saw him once in one of his break-outs, and heard hi he'd done Jim never liked him afterwards For the s he cared about were Starlight and the three-cornered weed he rode, that had been a 'brumbee', and wouldn't let any one touch him, much less ride hier came near him! He could kick the eye out of a ot the chance

As for Warrigal, Starlight used to knock hi if he didn't please him, but he never offered to turn upon hiular put out once when Starlight hurt his knuckles against his hard skull

Us he didn't like, as I said before--why, I don't know--nor we his People hardly know the rights of the down upon a man or woman when you first see 'eood reason for it We couldn't say what grounds we had for hating the sight of Warrigal neither, for he was as good a tracker as ever followed ns of the bush like a printed book

He could ride any horse in the world, and find his way, day or night, to any place he'd ever once been to in his life

So across country at night only for hih scrub or forest, up hill or down dale, with that brute of a horse of his--he called hi away, till our horses, except Rainbow, used to shake the lives out of us jogging I believe he did it on purpose

He was a fine shot, and could catch fish and game in all sorts of ways that cah, and could fight a pretty sharp battle with his fists if he wasn't overweighted There hiteif they went to bully him He tried it on with Jim once, but he knocked the seven senses out of him inside of three rounds, and that satisfied hi hi's trick yet Anyway, so far he was all right, and as long as Starlight and us were ether, he couldn't hurt one without the other He caht by bits of ed its place We pretended to be asleep near the fire

He peeped in through a chink He could see us by the firelight, and didn't suppose atching hi out Jim suddenly, 'what's up now? Some devil's work, I suppose, or you wouldn't be in it Why don't you knock at a gentle?'

'Wasn't sure it was you,' he answered, showing his teeth; 'it don't do to get sold Might been troopers, for all I know'

'Pity asn't,' said Jiot ”fitted” to rights I wish I'd gone into the police soah-and-tumble now and then'

'If I'd been a police tracker I'd have had as good a chance of nailing you, Jial 'Perhaps I will some day Mr