Part 56 (1/2)

Bring up the racehorse you find there, and any one in charge'

'And now I think I'll drive in with you, Dawson' (dis his horse to a trooper) 'I suppose a decent dinner will pickelse at present I should like to reeable'

Sir Ferdinand was right in thinking it was hardly worth while going through the for whether we had waited for hiiment in India, had taken French leave

When inquiry was made at the hotel, where dinner had been ordered by Mr Dawson and covers laid for a dozen, he had just stepped out No one seeht he ith the Mr Dawsons, and they thought he was at the hotel When they surrounded the tent, and then rushed it, all that it contained was the body of old Jacob Benton, lying dead drunk on the floor A horse-rug was over hi saddle under his head, and his pockets stuffed with five-pound notes He had won his race and got his money, so he was not bound in honour to keep sober ato be got out of hione nobody seeht have stayed at Turon longer if I'd liked But it wasn't good enough by a long way

We rode away straight home, and didn't lose time on the road, you bet

Not out-and-out fast, either; there was no need for that We had a clear two hours' start of the police, and their horses were pretty well knocked up by the pace they'd come home at, so they weren't likely to overhaul us easy

It was a grand night, and, though we didn't feel up to ht rode Rainbow, of course; and the old horse sailed away as if a hundred al led the way in front He alent as straight as a line, just the same as if he'd had a compass in his forehead We never had any bother about the road when he led the way

'There's nothing like adventure,' says Starlight, at last 'As soht we should have coeneral way, there's no doubt By George! what a coain and to associate with one's equals Ha! ha! how savage Sir Ferdinand is by this time, and the Commissioner! As for the Dawsons, they'llat the camp! It's about the best practical joke I ever carried out, and I've been in a good many'

'The luckiest turn we've ever had,' says I 'I never expected to see Gracey and Aileen there, o to a ball with them and no one to say no It beats the world'

'Itback, that's the worst of it,' says he 'Good God! what fools, idiots, raving lunatics, we've all been!

Why, but for our own infernal folly, should we be forced to shun our fellow-ht like beasts of prey? What are we better? Better?--nay, a hundred times worse Some day I shall shoot myself, I know I shall What a muff Sir Ferdinand must be, he's missed me twice already'

Here he rode on, and never opened his an to rise the slope at the foot of Nulla Mountain When the dark fit was on hi to him He'd either not see which ave us all we could do to keep along with hi, and rode as if he had a spare neck at any rate

When we got near the pass to the et off Do you think he'd stop or n he heard me? Not a bit of it He just started the old horse dohen he came to the path in the cliff as if it was the easiest road in the world He kept staring straight before hiood fun treading up rugged sharp rocks and rolling stones, and turf wasn't worth going over It seemed to me as if he wanted to kill hih with some horses, but you could have ridden Rainbon the roof of a house and jumped him into the front balcony, I firmly believe

You couldn't throw hiht and landed on his legs

Dad was glad enough to see us; he was al ht he'd do hi used to it Heto the ball, and our seeing Aileen and Gracey there; and when he caht ht he never would have done chuckling to himself Even old Crib looked at me as if he didn't use to think ed his mind

'Won't there be a jolly row in the papers when they get all these different characters played by one chap, and that h for anything; but this beats all I don't believe now, Captain, you'll ever be took'

'Not alive!' says Starlight, rather gri; then he walks off by himself

We stabled Rainbow, of course, for a week or two after this--being in training it wouldn't do to turn hiht at once Hardy as he was, no horse could stand that altogether; so we kept hihish kind of a loose box we had knocked up, and fed him on bush hay We had a small stack of that in case anted to keep a horse in--which we did sometimes In the daytime he was loose in the yard

After a bit, when he was used to the weather, he was turned out again with his old mob, and was never a hair the worse of it We took it easy ourselves, and sent out Warrigal for the letters and papers We expected to knock a good bit of fun out of theh, there was the deuce and all to pay when the big Sydney papers got hold of it, as well as the little 'Turon Star' and the 'Banner'

Was it true that the police had again been hoodwinked, justice derided, and the law set at defiance by a gang of ruffians ould have been run down in a fortnight had the police force been equal to the task entrusted to them? Was the moral sentiment of the country population so perverted, so obliterated, that robbers and e, trustworthy friends, and secret intelligence? Could they openly show thele in amuseuished citizens; and yet rant insult to the Government of the land, to every sacred principle of law and order, they could disappear at will, apparently invisible and invulnerable to the officers of the peace and the guardians of the public safety? It was incredible, it was , nay, intolerable, and a reanisation of an inefficient police force or in the resignation of an incapable Ministry

'Good for the ”Sydney Monitor”,' says Starlight; 'that reporter kno to double-shot his guns, and winds up with a broadside Let us see what the ”Star” says I had a bet with the editor, and paid it, as it happened Perhaps he'll temper justice withcasts fro performances at our local theatres, no one will deny; but perhaps the inhabitants of Turon never witnessed athe first two days of our racebefore a crowded and critical audience, and never, we can state from a soaze on a entlees have ere now graced our provincial boards On the occasion of the burning of the Theatre Royal in Sydney, ere favoured with the presence in our midst of artists who rarely, if ever before, had quitted the e But our ”jeune preic or the comic muse