well this
day but for the deed you done, which broke his poor old heart; the
Lord have mercy on him. And who is to blame but your own self for
being in this place at all? You not only done the man to death, but
you must go about the bush bragging of it to strangers, and twisting
the halter for your own neck like a born idiot; and that's what you
are, in spite of your roguery and cunning."

And so on for two hours of hell until the jury came back. They
acquitted Julia and found her husband guilty. She left the court
without once looking back, and he faced the jury alone.

Judge Pohlman had never before sent a man to the gallows. He made
the usual little moral speech, and bewailed his own misfortune in
having to perform so disagreeable a duty. Then he put on the black
cap and passed sentence. At the concluding words, "May the Lord have
mercy on your soul," the condemned man responded with a fervent
"Amen," adding, "And that's the last of poor Nosey." He seemed
greatly relieved when the ceremony was over, but it was not quite the
last, there was another to follow.

For ten days he remained in his cell, and no one visited him except
the priest. His examination of conscience was not difficult, for he
had often rehearsed it, and much of it had been done for him in
public.

He made his last journey between two priests, joining fervently in
their prayers for the dying. His step was firm, and he showed
neither fear nor bravado. The hangman quickly drew down the cap, but
he seemed more flurried than his victim. The sheriff, without
speaking, motioned him to place the knot in the correct position
under the ear. Then the bolt was drawn and the story of "The Two
Shepherds" was finished.

The man whom Philip met at Bendigo had farms in the country thinly
timbered. North, south, east, and west the land was held under
squatting licenses; with the exception of the home paddocks it was
unfenced, and the stock was looked after by boundary riders and
shepherds. To the south, between Nyalong and the sea--a distance
of fifty or sixty miles--the country was not occupied by either the
white or the black men. It consisted of ranges of hills heavily
timbered, furrowed by deep valleys, through which flowed innumerable
streams, winding their way to the river of the plains. Sometimes the
solitary bushman or prospector, looking across a deep valley, saw,
nestled amongst the opposite hills, a beautiful meadow of grass. But