save
her now.

Alas! good willing brute, he cannot understand; only he knows that his
kind master is on his back, and so he will run till he drop. Good
Widderin! think of the time when thy sire rushed triumphant through the
shouting thousands at Epsom, and all England heard that Arcturus had
won the Derby. Think of the time when thy grandam, carrying Sheik
Abdullah, bore down in a whirlwind of sand on the toiling affrighted
caravan. Ah! thou knowest not of these things, but yet thy speed flags
not. We are not far off now, good horse, we shall know all soon.

Now he was in the forest again, and now, as he rode quickly down the
steep sandy road among the braken, he heard the hoarse rush of the
river in his ears, and knew the end was well-nigh come.

No drink now, good Widderin! a bucket of Champagne in an hour's time,
if thou wilt only stay not now to bend thy neck down to the clear
gleaming water; flounder through the ford, and just twenty yards up the
bank by the cherry-tree, we shall catch sight of the house, and know
our fate.

Now the house was in sight, and now he cried aloud some wild
inarticulate sound of thankfulness and joy. All was as peaceful as
ever, and Alice, unconscious, stood white-robed in the verandah,
feeding her birds.

As he rode up he shouted out to her and beckoned. She came running
through the house, and met him breathless at the doorway.

"The bushrangers! Alice, my love," he said. "We must fly this instant,
they are close to us now."

She had been prepared for this. She knew her duty well, for her father
had often told her what to do. No tears! no hysterics! She took Sam's
hand without a word, and placing her fairy foot upon his boot, vaulted
up into the saddle before him, crying,--"Eleanor, Eleanor!"

Eleanor, the cook, came running out. "Fly!" said Alice. "Get away into
the bush. The gang are coming; close by." She, an old Vandemonian,
needed no second warning, and as the two young people rode away, they
saw her clearing the paddock rapidly, and making for a dense clump of
wattles, which grew just beyond the fence.

"Whither now, Sam?" said Alice, the moment they were started.

"I should feel safer across the river," he replied; "that little wooded
knoll would be a fine hiding-place, and they will come down this side
of the river from Mayford's."

"From Mayford's! why, have they been there?"

"They have, indeed. Alas! poor Cecil."

"What has happened to him? nothing serious."