run out, and then the fence was
put up again. That's how they gathered them."

"The fence wuz dug up! Ah, look at that now. Terrible, ain't it. An'
who done it, do ye think? Some of them carriers, I expect, puttin' their
horses in unbeknownst to you. I'll bet 'twas them done it. Or, perhaps,"
he added, with an evident desire to assist in solving the difficulty,
"perhaps the wind blew it down."

"What!" said Hugh scornfully. "Wind blow down a fence! What next!"

"Well it does blow terrible hard sometimes in these parts," said
Red Mick, shaking his head dolefully; "look at me crop of onions I
planted--the wind blew 'em out of the ground, and hung 'em on the fence.
But wait now, till we have a look at these sheep."

"No, we won't wait," said Hugh angrily. "We will be off home now, and
send a man for them. And I advise you to be very careful, Mick Donohoe,
for I have my own idea who dug up that fence."

"Well, you don't suppose that I done it, do you?" said Red Mick.
"I've been in the house this three days. Besides, I wouldn't steal my
brother-in-law's sheep, anyhow. Won't ye come up, and have a dhrink of
tea now, you and the lady? It's terrible hot."

"No, thank you," said Hugh stiffly. "Come along, Miss Grant." And they
marched off towards the horses.

"It beats all who could have took them posts down, doesn't it?" said
Mick. "I'd offer a reward, if I was you. Them fellows about here would
steal the eyes out of your head. Good day to ye, Mr. Hugh."

And the cockatoo added, "Good-bye, Cockie," in a sepulchral voice, as
they trudged off, smitten hip and thigh.

Hugh was suffering intensely at his defeat, and when Mary Grant said,
"I suppose you will have him put in gaol at once?" he muttered that he
would have to think it over. "It wouldn't do to prosecute him and fail,
and we have no proof that he dug up the fence."

"But why did he say that the sheep belonged to his brother-in-law?"

Hugh started. "Did he say that? Well, he--he must have wanted to make
out that he did not know whose sheep they were" but he thought to
himself, "Is Red Mick going to bring up that old scandal?"

Mick, as he watched them go, winked twice to himself, and then stooped
and patted the head of the collie pup. The other dogs, in answer to
a silent wave of his hand, had slunk off quietly. The riders had
disappeared. It had been a narrow escape, and Red Mick knew it; and even
as things had turned out, there was still ample chance of a co