Part 42 (2/2)

I' of the pack-horses; they're not up to much, as you'll find out'

We didn't want to rush off at once, for fear the other fellowshappened cross Sothem make a fair start for a spot on Weddin Mountain, where they thought they were right We didn't think we could be caught once wewe should be pretty safe, and daylight would see us at the Hollow

We stopped, besides, to do e could for the wounded ularly done for, except the sergeant Oneout blood every now and then We gave them some brandy and water, and covered them all up and left them as comfortable as we could Besides that, we sent Billy the Boy, who couldn't be recognised, to the camp to have a doctor sent as soon as possible Then we cleared and started off, not the e had to go, but so as we could turn into it

We couldn't ride very slow after such a turn as that, so we made the pace pretty hot for the first twenty reat ride; the forest wasopen, and ent three parts speed e could see before us The horses see up I can see Rainboinging along with that beautiful bounding style of going he had, snorting now and then and sending out his legs as if one hundred

His head up, his eye shi+ning like a star, his nostrils open, and every now and then, if anything got up, he'd give a snort as if he'd just coish day and a fast ride before they got to Eugowra, just enough to eat to keep the the same style back, and they'd never had the saddles off their backs All the night through we rode before we got to the top of Nulla Mountain; very glad to see it ere then We took it easy for a few ain We felt awful sleepy at ti before daylight, too The strangeness and the chance of being followed kept us up, else I believe we'd have dropped off our horses' backs, regular dead beat

We lost ground now and then through Warrigal not being there to guide us, but Jim took the lead and he wasn't far out; besides, the horses knehich way to steer for their grass at the Hollow They wouldn't let us go ave 'e as we rode across the last tableland

We got off and stu, horses and al hadn't come back; of course they couldn't stand the pace we did They'd have to ca holes, where all the police in the colony couldn't find theo our horses, and after a bit of supper laid down and slept till well on in the afternoon

When I looked round I saw the dog sleeping at Jim's feet, old Crib He never left father very far, so of course the old man must be home, or pretty close up I was that dead beat and tired out that I turned over and went to sleep for another couple of hours When I next woke up I was right and felt rested, so I put on ood wash, and went out to speak to father He was sitting by the fire outside s, just as if he'd never been away

Chapter 35

'We done that job to rights if we never done another, eh, lad?' says father, reaching out for a coal to put in his pipe

'Seems like it,' I said 'There'll be a deuce of a bobbery about it We shan't be able to move for a bit, let alone clear out'

'We'll show 'em a trick or two yet,' says dad I could see he'd had a tot, early as it was 'I wonder how theot on? But we'll hear soon'

'How shall we hear anything? nobody'll be et word here,' says father, 'if there was a police barrack on the top of Nulla Mountain I've done it afore, and I can do it again'

'Well, I hope it won't be long, for I'-at-hoh for a bit, but it's awful slohen you've too rabbed and tried for our lives, Mr dick Marston Would ye like that better for a change?' says the oldup his et first bite 'You leave the thing to them as knows more than you do, or you'll find yourself took in, and that precious sharp'

'You'll find your pals, Burke and Moran, and their lot will have their turn first,' I said, and with that I walked off, for I saw the old ht's work, and that always started his te with hi to ask hiht it best to leave that for some other time

By and by, e all turned out and had some breakfast, we took a bit of a walk by ourselves and talked it over We could hardly think it was all done and over

'The gold escort stuck up Fourteen thousand ounces of gold taken

Sergeant Hawkins shot dead The robbers safe off with their booty'

This is the sort of thing that ere sure to see in all the papers It wouldhad been thought of, hts', as father said, 'in any of the colonies' We had the five thousand ounces of gold, safe enough, too That was so; whether we should be let enjoy it, or what chance we had of getting right away out of the country, was quite another eant Hawkins, and would have been better pleased if he'd been only wounded like the others But these sorts of things couldn't be helped It was the fortune of war; his luck this ti wouldfor a sheep as a laht our way out the best e could

Bar any ht be safe for years to coht And as to let out the secret? No one but ourselves had the least notion of the track or where it led to, or of such a place as the Hollow being in the colony Only us five were in possession of the secret We never let any of these other ood care never to meet them within twenty miles of it Father was a man that, even when he was drunk, never let out what he didn't want other people to know Jial would have had his throat cut sooner than let on about anything that ht, or that he told hiood reason, then, to think ourselves safe as long as we had such a place to er or had done a stroke

We had enough in gold and cash to keep us coet there That was the rub When we'd got a glass or two in our heads we thought it was easy enough to get across country, or to sht it over carefully in the rog had died out of us, it seemed a rather blue look-out

There was the whole countryside pretty thick with police stations, where every eant to the last-joined recruit, knew the height, size, colour of hair, and so on of every one of us If a suspicious-looking raph wires could be set to work He could be met, stopped, searched, and overhauled What chance would any of us have then?