covered with shooting and fishing gear, sporting prints,
and some of a better description; and there was a book-case, with
thoroughly used volumes, and coats and hats hung up, and shelves loaded
with all sorts of articles, and chests below, and casks, one with flour
ready open; the corners also were crowded. There was a bed-chamber
boarded off for the owner, a refinement not very often indulged in, and
a bunk at one end of the general room, for the hut-keeper. The cheery
voice of the proprietor addressing his dogs announced his return. He
warmly greeted his neighbour (their abodes were only forty miles apart);
and tea, damper, cold beef, and pork were speedily on the table.

The two settlers were merry and contented, in spite of misfortunes.
Johnstone had also been compelled to boil down.

"Now is the time for a fellow with five or six hundred pounds to lay the
foundation of a fortune," he observed; "both cattle and sheep can be
bought at a mere nominal price. I must sell or boil down still more of
mine; but I see my way clearly out of my difficulties, and keep up my
spirits."

The hint was not lost upon James. He had been unwilling to take any of
his employers' cattle, lest it might throw him open to suspicion; but he
now resolved to offer to purchase some, and, at all events, to take all
that Mr Johnstone might wish to sell. Local subjects were of course
discussed.

"By-the-by," observed Mr Johnstone, "we were surprised some days ago at
seeing a white man lurking about here, dressed in skins and rags. The
people thought he must be mad; for whenever they approached him, he ran
off howling into the bush. I ordered some food to be placed for him at
a spot where we could watch him. He saw us, and would not approach; but
after watching for some time we went away, and he then must have darted
out from his concealment and carried off the food, for when we returned
it was gone. From that day he disappeared, and whether he has been
drowned in some river or water-hole, or has been starved in the bush, I
cannot say."

James Gilpin started at an early hour the next morning, intending to
make a long day's journey, and to camp out, as he must in that case do.
His horse, a peculiarly fine and strong one, bore him well through the
early part of the day. In the afternoon he entered a forest, extending
on either side to a considerable distance. The track through it was
less defined than usual, still, by constant refere