Part 44 (1/2)

'Billy the Boy was here for a bit,' says Maddie 'I don't like that young brat, he'll turn out bad, you take my word for it; but he said Moran knew Mr Whit toto them all'

'Well, it's too bad,' said Bella; 'there's no one there but Mrs Whit ladies It's real cowardly, I call it, to frighten a parcel of wos of a ht, yawning and stretching hi here, but it seeone a trifle fast, and been hard on us; but he's a gentleht for what he considers his duty I don't blame him If these fellows are half drunk they'll burn the place down I shouldn't wonder, and play hell's delight'

'And Miss Falkland's up there too, staying with the young ladies,'

says Maddie 'Why, Ji notice'

'Co one ju ti here?

By----, if there's a hair of her head touched I'll break Moran's neck, and shoot the lot of theirls,' I said, 'there's no tiht made a bow, polite to the last, and passed out Jial fetched Starlight's, and in half athe road full split, and I had as much as I could do to catch them up within the next mile

It wasn't twenty ood, and we did it in an hour and twenty ht lit a ate

We could see nothing particular about the house The lights shone out of the s, and we heard the piano going

'Seeht 'Wonder if they came, after all?

They'll think ant to stick the place up if we ride up to the hall door Get off and look out tracks, Warrigal'

Warrigal dismounted, lit a couple of matches, and put his head down close to the soft turf, as if he was going to sht

'There!' says Warrigal, pointing to soone that way That one track Moran's horse I know him; turn foot in likit cow Four more track follow up'

'Why, they're in the house now, the infernal scoundrels,' says Starlight 'You stay here with the horses, Warrigal; we'll walk up If you hear shooting, tie them to the fence and run in'

We walked up very quiet to the house--we'd all been there before, and knehere the front parlour was--over the lawn and two flower-beds, and then up to the big bo The others stood under an old white cedar tree that shadowed all round I looked in, and, by George!back in an ar in his hand, takin' it easy andin two chairs near the table, looking a long way from comfortable; but they had a couple of bottles of brandy on the table and glasses, and were filling up So was Moran They'd had quite asat the piano, playing away tune after tune, while her eyes andering about and her lips tre, and every now and then she'd flush up all over her face; then she'd turn as white as a sheet, and look as if she'd fall off the stool The youngest daughter was on her knees by her, on the other side, with her head in her lap Every now and then I could hear a sob come from her, but stifled-like, as if she tried to choke it back as much as she could

Burke and Daly had their pistols on the table, ah what they wanted 'em there for I couldn't see--and Moran had stuck his on the back of the piano That showed me he was close up drunk, for he was a o of his revolver

Mrs Whithter, with a stony face, looking as if the end of the world was coain She was a very kind wo time, and medicine too, once I was sick there with influenza

But Miss Falkland; I couldn't keep ainst the wall, quite upright, with her hands before her, and her eyes looking half proudly, half miserable, round the roohtened except by a kind of twitching of her neck and shoulders

Presently Moran, as , calls out to Miss Whit

'Coh for your dashed old father and soe, you must tune your pipe a bit this ti just then, but she'd play asnow,' he drawls out, 'unless ye wantsometimes'

Poor Miss Mary breaks out at once into so--the pitifullest music ever you listened to Only I wanted to wait a bit, so as to coone at his, that very oin' in steady at the brandy, finished one bottle and tackled another They began to get noisy and talked a lot, and sung a kind of a chorus to Miss Mary's song

After the song was over, Moran swore he'd have another one She'd never sing for him any more, he said, unless she took a fancy to him, and went back to the Weddin Mountains with them

'It ain't a bad na