ly fresh horse that remained,
Jimmy Nowlett began to regard him with some interest. Peter transferred
the saddle from Dave's horse to the other, and then went into a small
room off the kitchen, which served him as a bedroom; from it he soon
returned with a formidable-looking revolver, the chambers of which he
examined in the moonlight in full view of all the company. They thought
for a moment the man had gone mad. Old Middleton leaped quickly behind
Nowlett, and Black Mary, who had come out to the cask at the corner for
a dipper of water, dropped the dipper and was inside like a shot. One of
the black boys came softly up at that moment; as soon as his sharp eye
"spotted" the weapon, he disappeared as though the earth had swallowed
him.

"What the mischief are yer goin' ter do, Peter?" asked Jimmy.

"Goin' to fetch him," said Peter, and, after carefully emptying his pipe
and replacing it in a leather pouch at his belt, he mounted and rode off
at an easy canter.

Jimmy watched the horse until it disappeared at the edge of the flat,
and then after coiling up the long lash of his bullock-whip in the dust
until it looked like a sleeping snake, he prodded the small end of the
long pine handle into the middle of the coil, as though driving home a
point, and said in a tone of intense conviction:

"He'll fetch him."

III.

Doc. Wild

Peter gradually increased his horse's speed along the rough bush track
until he was riding at a good pace. It was ten miles to the main road,
and five from there to the shanty kept by Black.

For some time before Peter started the atmosphere had been very close
and oppressive. The great black edge of a storm-cloud had risen in the
east, and everything indicated the approach of a thunderstorm. It was
not long coming. Before Peter had completed six miles of his journey,
the clouds rolled over, obscuring the moon, and an Australian
thunderstorm came on with its mighty downpour, its blinding lightning,
and its earth-shaking thunder. Peter rode steadily on, only pausing now
and then until a flash revealed the track in front of him.

Black's shanty--or, rather, as the sign had it, "Post Office and General
Store"--was, as we have said, five miles along the main road from the
point where Middleton's track joined it. The building was of the usual
style of bush architecture. About two hundred yards nearer the creek,
which crossed the road further on, stood a large bark and slab stable,