. I was obliged to close with him, and
his weight was against me. My only chance was to grip his wrist, or I
should have a bullet in me. Luckily he was giddy, and one eye had begun
to swell; so that I had his arm at the very moment he pulled the
trigger, and the ball went somewhere into space. The tussle was a short
one, for there came a quick patter of feet along the path, and two
officers of the Sydney police came up.

"Hullo, Buffalo Jim!" cried one of them, "up to your tricks again. Look
here, my fine fellow, if you once get into quad, you're not likely to
come out for a while, for there's a pretty bit of evidence likely to be
turned up when once we start. Just take yourself home, and we'll come
along to see what's in that bundle. Now, then, up you come;" and in a
second they had lifted the bundle on to the fellow's shoulder, and
marched him on before them. "We saw it all before we came up, Mr.
Grantley," said one of the men as he passed, "but I s'pose you won't
charge him."

"No," said I. "He richly deserves all I gave him; but I don't want to be
dangling for a week about the Sydney court-house."

As they went away, the fellow gave me an evil look. Jacky had vanished.
Now, I had seen this big brute again while we were at Parramatta, and I
was helping Mary out of the boat at the landing-stage. He had seen me,
too, and turned away with a scowl and a muttered oath; but happening to
glance round afterwards, I noticed that he was watching us from behind
the corner of a fence. I forgot all about him for the rest of the day;
but now, at night, his ugly face and bloated form intruded upon my
dreams. I couldn't account for it; perhaps it was prevision.

I had forgotten it all again by the time we were ready for our journey
to Bathurst. Mr. Deane was to drive with Mary in a light trap and I was
to ride, for I had a good steady horse at stable in Sydney growing fat
and restive for want of exercise. So we set out and went as far as the
inn at Gum Ferry on the Nepean before we made any change in our
arrangements. On the second day's journey we were likely to have a long
ride, and Mary was anxious for a canter over Gum Plain, and beyond the
first span of the mountain, where the way is over sand, shaded on both
sides by the dark thicket of the gum tree and the forest scrub. She had
brought her habit with her, and as she had been taught to be a
first-rate horsewoman up at her father's cattle station, I resigned the
saddle, and