elf
off as a prospector or something of the sort, but the mere sight of his
all-too-evident anxiety to get away wakened the suspicions of the
sergeant. The Grampians and the country surrounding them had hitherto
been singularly free from crime, and no malefactors from other parts of
the State were known to be at large in that neighbourhood. Obviously
this man, who displayed such a disinclination to meet the police, must
be a criminal, and just as obviously must he be one of the men wanted
for the gold escort robbery. The sergeant decided in one lightning flash
on a plan that he hoped would startle the man into betraying himself.
The moment Bradby turned to retreat and found himself hemmed in, the
other walked over to him, scrutinised him carefully, and in the same
instant placed his hand on his shoulder and said, "I arrest you in the
Queen's name for the robbery of the Gold Escort on the night of 1st
December."

Bradby's jaw dropped and he stared open-mouthed at the other. He could
not understand the process of almost instantaneous reasoning by which
the officer had arrived at this conclusion, and the swift scrutiny the
man had given him convinced him that in some strange and unaccountable
way a description of him had been obtained and circulated. The man had
recognised him, of that he felt sure.

All round him were staring policemen, watching him intently with eyes
that were no less full of astonishment than his own. They could not
fathom the reasons that actuated their chief, but they realised, all of
them, that the man before them must be in some guilty way connected with
the robbery. His very manner told them that.

The chief uttered the usual warning: "It is my duty to warn you that
anything you say will be used in evidence----" He got so far when Bradby
awoke from his stupor. He gave no warning of his intention, but his
doubled fist shot out, caught the other on the point of the jaw and
dropped him in a heap on the ground. Then with the swiftness of thought
he leaped to one side, pulling his revolver loose at the same instant.
He had just the smallest fraction of a second's start of the police, and
in the flurry of the moment he actually burst through the cordon that
had formed around him. The next instant the carbines of the police
commenced to bark. Bradby stumbled, recovered himself, and fired over
his shoulder. Several of the troopers were already on horseback, and it
was only a matter of riding him down. H