d. She's a desperate brute,--I'm
afraid of her myself."

"I think I know the length of her ladyship's foot," said Halbert,
laughing good-naturedly.

As they were speaking, they were passing through a narrow way in a
wattle scrub. Suddenly a blundering kangaroo, with Rover in full chase,
dashed right under the mare's nose and set her plunging furiously. She
tried to wheel round, but, finding herself checked, reared up three or
four times, and at last seemed to stand on her hind legs, almost
overbalancing herself.

Halbert sat like a statue till he saw there was a real chance of her
falling back on him; then he slipped his right foot quickly out of the
stirrup, and stood with his left toe in the iron, balancing himself
till she was quieter; then he once more threw his leg across the
saddle, and regained his seat, laughing.

Jim clapped his hands; "By Jove, Sam, we must get some of these army
men to teach us to ride, after all!"

"We must do so," said Sam. "If that had been you or I, Jim, with our
rough clumsy hands, we should have had the mare back atop of us."

"Indeed," said Alice, "you are a splendid rider, Mr. Halbert: but don't
suppose, from Mr. Buckley's account of himself, that he can't ride
well; I assure you we are all very proud of him. He can sit some
bucking horses which very few men will attempt to mount."

"And that same bucking, Miss Brentwood," said Halbert, "is just what
puzzles me utterly. I got on a bucking horse in Sydney the other day,
and had an ignominious tumble in the sale-yard, to everybody's great
amusement."

"We must give one another lessons, then, Mr. Halbert," said Sam;--"but
I can see already, that you have a much finer hand than I."

Soon after they got home, where the rest of the party were watching for
them, wondering at their late absence. Halbert was introduced to the
Major by the Doctor, who said, "I deliver over to you a guest, a young
conqueror from the Himalayas, and son of an old brother-warrior. If he
now breaks his neck horse-riding, his death will not be at my door; I
can now eat my dinner in peace."

After dinner the three young ones, Sam, Alice, and Jim, gathered round
the fire, leaving Halbert with the Major and the Captain talking
military, and the Doctor looking over an abstruse mathematical
calculation, with which Captain Brentwood was not altogether satisfied.
Alice and Sam sat in chairs side by side, like Christians, but Jim lay
on the floor, between the tw