Part 40 (2/2)

'Pleasing way of drawing attention to a gentle first and looking rather grim afterwards 'Never mind, boys, they'll increase that reward yet, by Jove! It will have to be a thousand a piece if they don't look a little sharper'

We laughed, and dad growled out--

'Don't seeain I expect they'll send a suet old Bill Barkis, the bailiff at Bargo, to serve it'

'Coot quite enough devil in us yet, without your stirring hiive us time, you know Let's see what this paper says ”Turon Star”! What a Godsend to it!

'BUSH-RANGERS!

'STARLIGHT AND THE MARSTONS AGAIN

'The announcement will strike our readers, if not with the most profound astonishment, certainly with considerable surprise, that these celebrated desperadoes, for whose apprehension such large sums have been offered, for who search, should have been discovered in our , from information received, our respected and efficient Inspector of Police, Sir Ferdinand Morringer, proceeded soon after s He had every reason to believe that he would have had no difficulty in arresting the fanohton, has been for months a partner in this claim The shareholders were popularly known as ”the three Honourables”, it being rus were entitled to that prefix, if not to a more exalted one

'With characteristic celerity, however, the fa received warning and been provided with a fast horse by his singular retainer, Warrigal, a half-caste native of the colony, who is said to be devotedly attached to him, and who has been seen from time to time on the Turon

'Of the Marston brothers, the elder one, Richard, would seem to have been sie in Speci been latelyto leave his ho, as ood citizens, at the discovery of evil-doers and the capture of one member of a band of notorious criminals, we must state in fairness and candour that their conduct has been, while on the field as miners, free from reproach in every way For James Marston, aslady of high personal attractions and the reat sympathy has been expressed by all classes

So much for the ”Star” Everybody is sorry for you, old man,' he says to Jim 'I shouldn't wonder if they'd h I' the policeht,' I said 'Hurrah! look here I'ar Listen to this, from the ”Turon Banner”:--

'BUSH-RANGING REVIVED

'The good old days have apparently not passed away for ever, when mail robberies and hand-to-hand conflicts with armed robbers were matters of weekly occurrence The co occurrences of late has been proved to be but the ominous hush of the elements that precedes the te coang of bush-rangers, Starlight and the Marstons, dos, attired as ordinarythe laborious lives proper to the avocation They have been fairly successful, and as miners, it is said, have shown the those who care to judge their fellow-men harshly It may be that they had resolved to forsake the criminal practices which had rendered them so unhappily celebrated Ja person ofappearance As far as may be inferred from this step and his subsequent conduct, he had cut loose from his former habitudes He, with his brother, Richard Marston, worked an adjoining clai Company, with the respected shareholders of which they were on terhton, became partner and tent-s, an aristocratic society in which theof this extraordinary le without suspicion of detection

'Suddenly infor all three men We are not at present aware of the source from which the clue was obtained Suffice it to say that Sir Ferdinand Morringer proed for the simultaneous action of three parties of police with the hope of capturing all three outlaws But in two cases the birds were flown Starlight's ”aal, had been observed on the field the day before By hi, and the horse upon which he left his abode shortly before the arrival of Sir Ferdinand The elder Marston had also eluded the police But James Marston, hindered possibly by doe at Specimen Gully For hiarded rather as a victieable to the account of Starlight's gang

'Since writing the above we have been informed that trooper Walsh, ith another constable was escorting Jaht in badly wounded The other trooper reports that he was shot down and the party attacked by persons concealed in the thick tio Brush In the confusion that ensued the prisoner escaped It was at first thought that Walsh was fatally injured, but our latest report gives good hope of his recovery

'We shall be agreeably surprised if this be the end and not the coedies'

Chapter 33

Ato think of except as an to shape theether; but eachof Dad growled out a word now and then, and Warrigal would look at us from time to time with a flash in his hawk's eyes that we'd seen once or twice before and knew theor other, if it was only to keep hied more from what he used to be than Jio-lucky chap that ever stepped, always in a good temper and full of his larks At the end of the hottest day in summer on the plains, with no water handy, or the ht in an ironbark forest, and we sitting on our horses waiting for daylight, with the rain pouring down our backs, not gaht a fire, and our hands that cold we could hardly hold the reins, it was all one to Jim Always jolly, always ready to o on with monkey tricks like a boy Noas all the other ith hi No getting a word out of hiot a letter from Jeanie He took it away into the bush and stayed hours and hours

Fro what caed all on the other tack and do nothing but think

I'd seen a chap in Berri like him for a month or two; one day he an to be afraid Jio off his head and blow his brains out with his own revolver Starlight hiht he broke out as ere standing s under a tree, a mile or so from the cave--

'By all the devils, dick, I can't stand this sort of thing o mad or drink ourselves to death'--(we'd all been pretty well 'on' the night before)--'if we stick here till we're trapped or suana out of a tree spout We ain I've been fighting against the notion the whole time we've been here, but the devil and your old dad (who's a near relative, I believe) have been too strong for us Of course, you knohat it's bound to be?'