into the ripples of Harry's cradle.

'Poor,' he commented, with the confidence of an expert.

'Not up to much, Dick,' said Harry. 'I've just been prospectin' a bit
round here.'

'Frank was tryin' that bank. 'Tain't no good. Say, I can lay you onter
somethin' better not far from here.'

'Yes--where is it?'

'Tellin's. What'll you give us?

'Depends. What's it worth?'

'Got half a pennyweight prospect there onst. Look here, you lend me yer
dog t'-night, an' I'll show where.'

'What do you want with Cop?'

'You won't split? Well, some coves down to Cow Flat come up an' stole my
goat, Butts, an' a lot of others, an' me an' some other fellers is goin'
after 'em t'-night, late. A good sheep-dog what's a quiet worker 'd be
spiffin. Cop's all right. He'd work fer me.'

Harry had not forgotten the time when a lordly billy was the pride and
joy of his own heart, and his sympathies were with Dick; so Cop
accompanied the band of youthful raiders that assembled with much mystery
in the vicinity of the schoolhouse late that night. The desperadoes had
stolen from their beds while their parents slept, and were ripe for
adventure. Dick, who had Cop in charge, put himself at the head of the
rising with his customary assurance, and gave his orders in a low, stern
voice. According to his authorities, a low, stern voice was proper to the
command of all such midnight enterprises.

But before starting for Cow Flat it was necessary to forage for
ammunition. Two or three of the boys were provided with bags. It was
proposed to fill these with such vegetables as would serve to allure the
coy but gluttonous goat, and a silent, systematic descent was made upon
several kitchen gardens of Waddy.

Go fer carrots an' cabbages, specially carrots,' whispered the
commandant, whose experience of goats was large and varied, and taught
him that the average nanny or billy would desert home and kindred and go
through fire and water in pursuit of a succulent young carrot not larger
than a clothes-peg.

When the boys turned their backs on Waddy the expedition carried with it
vegetables enough to bribe all the goats in the province. The garden of
Michael Devoy was a waste place, desolation brooded over the carrot beds
of the Canns and the Sloans, and Mrs. Ben Steven's cabbage-patch lay in
ruins.

For this night only Dick had assumed the role of Moonlighter Ryan, a
notorious Queensland cattle duffer, recently hanged for his part in a
disputatio