I should have been far
too late to be of any service."

"And I," said the Doctor, "also. Sam won the race, and has got the
prize. Now, let us look forward, and not backward."

They communicated to Desborough all particulars, and told him of the
way they had seen the bushrangers go. Every one was struck with the
change in him. No merry stories now. The laughing Irishman was gone,
and a stern gloomy man, more like an Englishman, stood in his place. I
heard after, that he deeply blamed himself for what had occurred
(though no one else thought of doing so), and thought he had not taken
full precautions. On the present occasion, he said,--

"Well, gentlemen, night is closing in. Major Buckley, I think you will
agree with me that we should act more effectually if we waited till
daylight, and refresh both horses and men. More particularly as the
enemy in their drunken madness have hampered themselves in the
mountains. Major, Doctor Mulhaus, and Mr. Halbert, you are military
men--what do you say?"

They agreed that there was no doubt. It would be much the best plan.

"I would sooner he'd have gone to-night and got it over," said Charles
Hawker, taking Sam's arm. "Oh! Sam, Sam! Think of poor Cecil! Think of
poor Ellen, when she hears what has happened. She must know by now!"

"Poor Charley," said Sam, "I am so sorry for you. Lie down, and get to
sleep; the sun is going down."

He lay down as he was bid, somewhere out of the way. He was crushed and
stunned. He hardly seemed to know at present what he was doing. After a
time, Sam went in and found him sleeping uneasily.

But Alice was in sad tribulation at the mischief done. All her pretty
little womanly ornaments overturned and broken, her piano battered to
pieces, and, worst of all, her poor kangaroo shot dead, lying in the
verandah. "Oh!" said she to Major Buckley, "you must think me very
wicked to think of such things at a time like this, but I cannot help
it. There is something so shocking to me in such a sudden
BOULEVERSEMENT of old order. Yet, if it shocks me to see my piano
broken, how terrible must a visitation like the Mayfords' be. These are
not the times for moralizing, however. I must see about entertaining
the garrison."

Eleanor, the cook, had come back from her lair, quite unconcerned. She
informed the company, in a nonchalant sort of way, that this was the
third adventure of the kind she had been engaged in, and, although they
seemed to make a great fus