old man,
especially those who were here in the early days."

"What's Freeman's yarn?" Allnut asked.

By the time Gale had repeated the story his audience had grown, and the
waning interest in the subject was revived as the theory was passed from
one to the other until it spread through all the groups and was debated
and discussed from every possible and impossible standpoint. When the
hour arrived for closing the bars the men clustered in the road, still
wrestling with the problem.

The night wore on and the young moon was sinking to the west before they
began to knock the ashes out of their pipes, preparatory to adjourning
the open-air parliament until the following day. One man was still
pouring out his views and opinions and the others crowded round him,
their own energies spent, but listening listlessly before they
separated.

Suddenly the sound of a horse galloping wildly startled them. With one
accord they turned towards the direction whence the sound came.

In the faint half-light, right in the middle of the road, racing with
maddened speed, charging straight upon them, they saw a white horse with
a bearded rider.

To the right and left they scattered to get clear of the flying hoofs as
through the midst of them, with a mocking shout and a wave of his hand,
there flashed past the man with the yellow beard.

A howl of execration and wrath broke from their lips. Those who had gone
to their homes rushed out. Brennan, with Durham at his heels, dashed
from the station.

"The Rider! The Rider!" came in a chorus of hoarse shouts. "After him,
lads, after him."

There was a scatter and scamper as men fled for their horses.
Barebacked, many with the bridle scarcely secure, all without weapons,
the men of Waroona raced pell-mell down the road.

Behind them, armed and orderly, Durham and his constable spurred their
horses in pursuit.

"The fools! They'll help him to escape," Durham cried as they came in
sight of the confused rabble racing along the road.

Ahead of the charging mob the road for a hundred yards showed clear as
it topped a slight ascent. A belt of scrub a quarter of a mile through
intervened between the mob and the open stretch of road. But from where
Durham and Brennan were the view was uninterrupted.

The white horse and its rider were half-way to the top.

Acting with one impulse, both raised their carbines and fired from the
saddle. The noise of the reports echoed through the still air and