e my innocence, and my employer was
not a man to show pity, so I escaped from Melbourne and took refuge in
the bush. There I fell in with Captain Stockton, who offered me a place
in his band. I accepted, and here I am."

"But for the act of your fellow clerk you would have been an honest
business man today, then?"

"Very likely."

"What a pity!" said Harry regretfully, for he was much attracted by the
open face and pleasant manners of the young man.

"So I thought at first, but I became used to it. After a while I grew to
like the free life of the bush."

"I don't call it free. You can't go back to Melbourne for fear of
arrest."

"Oh, yes, I have been there several times," said the young man
carelessly.

"How did you manage it?" asked Harry, puzzled.

"I disguised myself. Sometimes the captain sends me on special
business."

"Like Fletcher?" asked Harry quickly.

"No; I shouldn't like that work. It suits him, however."

"I never should have taken you for a bushranger. You look too honest."

The other laughed.

"I think I was meant to be an honest man," he said. "That is, I am
better suited to it. But fate ordained otherwise."

"Fate?"

"Yes; I believe that everything that happens to us is fated, and could
not have been otherwise."

"You think, then, that you were fated to be a bushranger?"

"I am sure of it."

"That, then, accounts for it not troubling you."

"You are right. We can't kick against fate, you know."

"I shouldn't like to believe as you do," said Harry earnestly.

"You'll come to believe it sooner or later," said the outlaw, with an
air of conviction.

"Then what is the use of trying to lead a good and honorable life?"

"That's just what I say. There isn't any use."

Harry had never before met anyone holding such views of fate. He was
interested, but repelled. He felt that he could not and would not accept
any such idea, and he said so.

"You'll change your mind after you become one of us," said his
companion.

"After what?" ejaculated Harry.

"After you become one of us."

"But that will never be. How can you think such a thing!"

"Because I know it is to be. Why do you think the captain brought you
here? He had your money, and couldn't get any more out of you."

"Do you really mean what you say?" asked Harry, his heart filled with a
sickening apprehension that this might be true.

"Of course I do. The captain likes young people. You two boys are smart
and bright,