did. We'll find out how
later on. Meanwhile, one is settled--and Leary swears he's the man that
tied him up before--while of the other two, one we know had a bad
tumble, because we found where he took the ground, and found his horse
lamed and with the gold still on its back. I'll bet that the chap
carries marks enough about him to give his game away, even if he can
travel all right."

"What about the other?" some one asked.

"He flung the gold away so as to get a lead on Murray and his mate--at
least, so Murray said when he came in with the stuff," Peters answered.

Privately he had whispered to Tony an ugly suspicion he had--a suspicion
which did not tend for peace of mind, for it was that Murray had in some
way been in league with the men who had robbed and fired the store. That
was a further irritant, for Tony remembered only too clearly the state
of Murray's horse when he and Peters rode up to Marmot's, as well as the
uneasiness in Murray's manner when they asked him who he had told of
their return. Coming on the top of the other circumstances, it reduced
Tony to a condition of suspecting every one and everything; so he took
the first opportunity to ride away to the Flat--to test the greatest of
the mysteries first.

Riding slowly, he reached the Flat about noon, his mind brooding over
the perplexities which had crowded upon him since his return to
Birralong, and his spirits depressed by the mingled doubts that had come
to him since he had had time to realize something of the meaning of the
story he had heard.

At first he had tried to dismiss it from his mind altogether, telling
himself that it was only the ravings of a man delirious at the point of
death. But the knowledge that the man had displayed as to incidents and
interests in his life, and, above all, the significant hints Nuggan had
uttered, all helped to keep his attention on it.

As he approached the boundary fence of the selection where it first
touched the road, he caught sight of Taylor, and coo-eed to him. The
elder man came towards him as soon as he saw who it was, and Tony
dismounted and stood by the fence till he came up.

"Why, Tony, lad, back again? And what luck this time? Did you
strike----"

"I want to ask you something," Tony said seriously; and Taylor stopped
and looked at him.

"Why, what's wrong with you, Tony?" he asked. "You look as though--well,
I don't quite know how. You haven't had fever, or a touch of the sun, or
a----"