Part 42 (1/2)

'Honour aht cheerily

'He's the right sort, isn't he? We shall want good goers to-night Are we all here now? We'd better get to business'

Yes, they were all there, a lot of well-built, upstanding chaps, young and strong, and fit to do anything that a man could do in the way of work or play It was a shame to see them there (and us too, for the et away now There will be fools and rogues to the end of the world, I expect Even Moran looked a bit brighter than he did last tier smartens up As for Burke, Daly, and Hulbert, they were like a lot of schoolboys, so full of their fun and larks

Starlight just spoke a word to them all; he didn't talk much, but looked hard and stern about the face, as a captain ought to do He rode up to the gap and sahere the trees had been cut down to block up the road

It would be hard work getting the coach through there now--for a bit to come

After that our horses and the two packers were left behind with Warrigal and father, close enough for hearing, but well out of the way for seeing; it was behind a thick belt of timber They tied up so them all so as to be ready at a moment's notice Our h side of the road so as they could see well, and had all the shadow on their side Wall and Hulbert and their lot had theirfellows belonging to their crowd ood bit when a cove co to see how he shaped, and whether he looked likely to lay on the police, when I saas Billy the Boy

'Now I call this so up short: 'army in readiness, the ene to turn out, ain't it, dick? Do you chaps feel shaky at all? Ain't yer gallied the least little bit? They're a-coht said 'Just re at a pound-yard, h 'I started on ahead the moment I saw 'em leave the camp They're safe to be here in ten minutes now You can see 'em when they come into the flat I'll clear out to the back for a bit I want 'em to think I coalloped away till the trees hid him, and in a quarter of an hourthat carried the escort gold turn round on the forest road and show out into the flat

It gavejust at first We hadn't been used to firing on the Queen's servants, not in cold blood, anyhow, but it was them or us for it now There was no ti at a steady trot up the hill We knew the Turon sergeant of police that drove, a tallblack beard down to his chest He had been in an English dragoon regiment, and could handle the ribbons above a bit He had a trooper alongside him on the box with his rifle between his knees TwoThey had put their rifles down and were talking and laughing, not expecting anything sudden Two more of the mounted ood way off All of a sudden theacross the road They pulled up short, and one of the could be done to move them The other man held his horse The coach drove up close, so that they were bunched up pretty well together

'Who the devil has been doing that?' sung out the sergeant 'Just as if the road isn't bad enough without these infernal lazy scoundrels of bullock-drivers cutting down trees to o round It's a beastly track here at the best of times'

'I believe them trees have been fallen on purpose,' says the trooper that was down 'There's been men, and horses too, about here to-day, by the tracks They're up to no good!'

'Fire!'

The order was given in Starlight's clear, bold voice Just like a horn it sounded You ht have heard it twice as far off A dozen shots followed the next second,asthe rocks

I never saw a bigger surprise in ular battle We had plenty of time to take aim, and just at first it looked as if the whole blessed lot of the police was killed and wounded

The sergeant threw up his ar, just under the horses' feet One of the troopers on ahead dropped, he that was holding the horses, and both horses started off at full gallop The twowere both hit--one badly So when the two troopers ca the traces of the teao

We opened fire at them directly they showed themselves; of course they couldn't do ood cover They kept it up for a bit till one of their horses was hit, and then made tracks for Turon to report that the escort had been stuck up by twenty or thirty owra Rocks--the others had co with Master Billy the Boy firing his revolver and shouting enough for half-a-dozen; so we looked a big crowd--that all the men were shot dead, wounded, or taken prisoners, and that a strong force had better be despatched at once to recapture the gold

A good deal of this was true, though not all The only h the heart, and never stirred again Of the five other htly

We attended to them as well as we could, and tied the others so that they would not be able to give any bother for an hour or two at any rate

Then the trouble began about dividing the gold We opened the sort of locker there was in the centre of the coach and took out the square boxes of gold They held canvas bags, all labelled and weighed to the grain, of about 1000 oz each There were fourteen boxes in all Not a bad haul

Some of the others couldn't read or write, and they wouldn't trust us, so they brought their friend with theh We were a bit stunned to see hi the sort of position he did at the Turon But there he was, and he did his ell enough

He brought a pair of scales with hist us just the same as Mr Scott, the banker, used to do for us at the Turon e brought in our ht had an extra share on account of being captain, and the rest had so the before he had our lot safely packed and on his two pack-horses Warrigal and he cleared out at a trot, and went out of sight in a jiffy It was every man for hi; it ful heavy We told them that their pack-horses would never carry it if there was anything of a close run for it

'Suppose you think you've got the only good horse in the country, dick Marston,' says Daly 'We'll find a horse to run anything you've got, barrin' Rainbow I've got a little roan horse here as shall run ever a horse ye own, for three mile, for a hundred notes, with twelve stone up

What do you think of that, now?'

'Don't take your shi+rt off, Patsey,' I said 'I know the roan's as good as ever was foaled' (so he was; the police got him after Patsey was done for, and kept hie), 'but he's in no condition