Part 26 (2/2)

I' day after day all the year round I'll cut it next year as sure as a gun I say, won't you let me ride a bit of the ith ye?'

'Not a yard,' says father, as pretty cranky by this tiot hi after us because you ride his horses; and keep off the road as you go back'

Billy the Boy nodded his head, and juain at ular reckless young devil, as bold as a two-year-old colt in a branding-yard, that's ready to juainst a stockyard post, just because he's never known any real regular hurt or danger, and can't realise it He was terrible cruel to horses, and would ruin a horse in less tiht from the first that he'd come to a bad end Howsoever, he was a wonderful chap to track and ride; none could beat hial in the bush He was as cunning as a pet dingo, and would look as stupid before any one he didn't know, or thought was too respectable, as if he was half an idiot But no one ever stirred within twenty or thirtyabout it Father fished hi paid him pretty well for some small service, and ever after that he said he could sleep in peace

We had the horses up, ready saddled and fed, by sundown, and as soon as the moon rose we made a start of it I had time for a bit of a talk with Aileen about the Storefields, though I couldn't bringthat Gracey had seen me led away a prisoner by the police She came into the hut afterwards with Aileen, as soon as irls sat down beside one another and cried their eyes out, Aileen said

George Storefield had been very good, and told Aileen that, whatever happened to us or the old s towards her She thanked hirace hi into a family like ours He had come over every now and then, and had seen they wanted for nothing when father and Ji colder towards him and his prosperity while ere so lon in every way As for Gracey, she (Aileen) believed that she was in love withit much, but that she would be true to me, if I asked her, to the end of the world, and she was sure that she could never irl So didn't I think I ought to do everything I could to get a better character, and try and be good enough for such a girl? She knew girls pretty well She didn't think there was such another girl in the whole colony, and so on

And ent ahere e going to hide? I could not say about particular distances, but I told her generally that we'd keep out of harht see her and raphs and other people we could trust should be able to send news about ourselves

'What's the Captain going to do?' she said suddenly 'He doesn't look able to bear up against hardshi+p like the rest of you What beautiful s fires'

'Oh, he's a good deal stronger than he looks,' I said; 'he's the smartest of the lot of us, except it is dad, and I've heard the old man say he must knock under to him But don't you bother your head about hiirl like you thinks about a man like him the better for her'

'Oh, nonsense,' she said, at the sa down in a half-confused sort of way 'I'm not likely to think about hi to think a entle in his ways, should be obliged to lead such a life, hunted froer, Ailie,' I said, 'for that'll be the long and short of it Youto ”turn out”'

'You don't say that, dick,' she said 'Oh! surely you will never be so ht out? If you do, why not take a knife or an axe and do it at once? Her you've been killing all along As forat tio and drownto'

'What's the use of going on like that, Aileen?' I said roughly 'If we're caught nohatever we do, great or saol Mayn't we as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb? What odds can itcattle and faking horse-brands like a lot ofdown and putting her head in her hands 'Surely the devil has power for a season to possess himself of the souls of men, and do with them what he will I kno obstinate you are, dick Pray God you may not have poor Jim's blood to answer for as well as your own before all is done Good-bye I can't say God bless you, knohat I do; but may He turn your heart from all wicked ways, and keep you from worse and deadlier evil than you have coht Why, oh why, didn't we all die ere little children!'

Chapter 22

I brought it out sudden-like to Aileen before I could stop myself, but it was all true Hoere to ree; but ere bound totouch, and this ti worth while Anyhoe could take it easy at the Hollow for a bit, and settle all the ins and outs without hurrying ourselves

Our dart noas to get to the Hollow that night some time, and not to leave much of a track either nobody had found out the place yet, and wasn't going to if we knew It was too useful a hiding-place to give aithout trouble, and ore to take all sorts of good care to keep it secret, if it was to be done by the art of man

We went up Nulla Mountain the sa when Jim and I rode to meet father that time he had the lot of weaners We kept wide and didn't follow on after one another so as to , dark, dreary ride We had to look sharp so as not to get dragged off by a breast-high bough in the thick country There was no fetching a doctor if any one was hurt Father rode ahead He knew the ins and outs of the road better than any of us, though Jiot away fro to know it pretty well We were obliged to go slowthe bed of a creek, full of boulders and rocks, that we had to cross ever solow enough to knock your brains out if you didn't ot to the old yard There it stood, just as I recollect seeing it the time Jim and I and father branded the weaners It had only been used once or twice since It was patched up a bit in places, but nobody seerass had grown up round the sliprails; it was as strange and forsaken-looking as if it belonged to a deserted station

As we rode up a ives a whistle We knew, alal He'd coht and take him round some other way Every track and short cut there was in the e Storefield's was to us Nulla Mountain was full of curious gullies and caves and places that the devil hiround in, unless he'd lived near it all his life as Warrigal had He wasn't very free in showing thee of his own body any tiether we kneas safe whoever ht be after us, and that we should see him in the Hollow some time next day

We went on for a ot off, and turned our horses loose The rest of the e had to do on foot My horse and Jiularly broke into Rocky Flat, and we knew that they'd go ho soht direction As for father he always used to keep a horse or two, trained to go hoht would just trot off, and never put his nose to the ground alot wind of hos ourselves; a stiffish load too, but the night was cool, and we did our best It was no use growling It had to be done, and the sooner the better It see father step by step--before we ca to be driven over the precipice Here we pulled up for a bit and had a smoke It was a queer ti--the stars in the sky, and it so clear that we could see Nulla Mountain rising up against it a big black lun of tree or rock; underneath the valley, one sea ofto drop into it; on the other side of the Hollow, the clear hill we called the Sugarloaf Everything seemed dead, silent, and solitary, and a rummier start than all, here e--three desperate men, driven to make ourselves a home in this lonesome, God-forsaken place! I wasn't very fanciful by that tist us I shouldn't have been surprised The place, the tiularly cut out for hi to each other, good or bad

Then father oodish while, but we got down all right, and headed for the cave When we got there our troubles were over for a while Ji in no time; there was plenty of dry wood, of course Then father rolls a keg out of a hole in the wall; first-rate dark brandy it was, and we felt a sight better for a good stiff nip all round When a ry, and down on his luck as well, a good caulker of grog don't do hiht If he's anything of a man he can stand it, and feel all the better for it; but it's a precious sight too easy a lesson to learn, and there's thein, till they've shty put inside their skulls, just as if they was to bore a hole and put gunpowder in No! they wouldn't stop if they were sure of going to heaven straight, or to hell next lass to their lips I've heard men say it, and knew they meant it

Not the worst sort of men, either

We were none of us like that Not then, anyhow We could take or leave it, and though dad could do with his share when it was going, he always knehat he was about, and could put the peg in any ti There was a bag of shi+p biscuit; we fried soood supper We were that tired we didn't care to talkand rolled ourselves in our blankets; I didn't wake till the sun had been up an hour or more

I woke first; Jiot things ready for breakfast It was a fine, clearlooked beautiful, 'specially toso long The grass was thick and green round the cave, and right up to the big sandstone slabs of the floor, looking as if it had never been eat down very close No more it had It would never have paid to have overstocked the Hollow What cattle and horses they kept there had a fine tirand condition