Durham," Wallace retorted
grimly. "We're quite satisfied the money will be recovered if
head-quarters leave you alone."

"I hope so--I can't say more," Durham said.

"But I can," Wallace continued. "It's in confidence, of course, but the
directors have decided that in the event of your recovering this money
they will present you with five thousand. I don't suppose that will make
you work any harder, but it may interest you to know it."

Durham rode at a slower pace when he had parted with Wallace than when
he came out of the township. The news that a fifth of the missing money
would be his when he recovered it gave him a far greater incentive than
Wallace anticipated. With five thousand pounds behind him he knew his
prospects of winning the woman who had fascinated him would be much
greater than if he had only his official salary as a financial backing
to his suit. Further, if he succeeded in recovering the gold he would
also recover the stolen documents. He had little doubt but what he would
be able to woo her successfully, were he able to return to her the
papers which had been stolen and go to her with his freshly won laurels
of victory.

A mile down the road he turned his horse into the bush and rode straight
for the range which rose between the township and Waroona Downs.
Skirting the flanking spurs, he followed on until he caught sight of the
tracks left by the horsemen who had ridden after the fugitives the night
before. In their haste and lack of system, he saw how they had crossed
and recrossed the marks left by the riders they were chasing. He walked
his horse to and fro until he came upon the tracks of the two horses
showing clear beyond the jumbled confusion of hoof-prints the amateur
trackers had made.

The two had ridden direct to the range. As he followed the track,
bending down in his saddle to note the marks, he laughed aloud. The men
were the veriest fools at bush-craft. There were instances by the dozen
which revealed to him the fact that neither had had any experience in
tracking, and so had failed to avail themselves of the chances the
ground they had ridden over offered to render their track difficult to
follow. Where the ground was soft, they had not swerved to avoid it, but
had left the prints of their horses' hoofs showing so clearly that to
the skilled bushman it was as an open book he could read as he rode.
Where low-growing shrubs stood in their way they had crashed through,
sometimes s