you not come
up, such might have been my fate; and, believe me, I am deeply grateful
to you for rescuing me from it."

We had been aware of the possibility that we might meet with natives,
but had not thought of the likelihood of encountering bushrangers,
indeed we fancied that the country was no longer infested by such
characters.

We, of course, having assured the stranger that we were very glad to
have been of use to him, invited him to accompany us until he could
obtain another horse, and offered to let him ride one of ours by turns.

"I should like however to try and catch the fellows who robbed you;"
exclaimed Guy. "Is there any chance of overtaking them? Surely they
will encamp not far from this, and if we follow their tracks we might
come upon them as suddenly as they surprised you."

"Very little chance of that," observed the stranger. "They are
desperate fellows, and, knowing that every man's hand is against them,
keep a strict watch. They are aware that it is possible that I might be
released, and will probably ere this have got a good many miles away, I
am, however, grateful to you for your offer, though I am sorry to delay
you. I confess that, without a gun or flint and steel, I should be very
sorry to perform the rest of the journey on foot by myself. I am going
to the north-west, and I judge, from the direction you were riding, that
our roads lie the same way."

Guy told him that we were bound for Mr Strong's station, which we
understood was nearly a hundred miles off; and at the rate we could
travel with our baggage-horse, we did not expect to reach it for three
or four days.

Observing how ill the stranger looked I suggested that we should at once
look out a good spot for camping.

"I can help you, as I know the country," said the stranger. "A short
distance further on there is a water-hole in what during the rainy
season is sometimes a torrent; we can there obtain all the requisites
for a camp."

I now insisted that he should mount my horse, and we set out.

Pushing forward, we soon reached the spot he spoke of. Our new
companion, after examining the ground, told us that the bushrangers had
been there, and after watering their horses had ridden on, as he
supposed they would, and that we need have no apprehensions of an attack
from them.

We soon hobbled the horses in the usual fashion, fastening their legs
together with leathern straps in such a way as to make it impossible for
th