a few days'
residence on Boobyalla Mr. Ryder was at no little expense and trouble to
win the good graces of Yarra, the half-caste. Yarra was a remarkably
clever tracker, and uncommonly cute for his years; but within a fortnight
the new comer had secured so powerful an influence over him that the boy
had confided to one of the gins:

'That plurry pfeller good man him. Mine die alonga that pfeller!' meaning
that he would cheer fully have given his life for Ryder, which was a
great deal, coming from the child of an undemonstrative race.

Yarra had been ordered by Mrs. Macdougal to consider himself Mr. Ryder's
servant during the latter's stay at Boobyalla, and as there was always a
danger of a man of the Honourable Walter's inexperience being bushed if
he rode alone, Yarra followed him on many of his long rides into the
ranges, and helped him to explore the gorges and secret recesses of the
heavily-timbered hills; but as a rule Mrs. Macdougal accompanied the
Englishman, and then Yarra's services were not required. On occasions
Miss Lucy Woodrow made a third, riding a hardy little chestnut mare her
mistress had placed at her disposal.

These parties were usually very merry, for Lucy had been transformed into
quite a daring Bush-rider, and Mrs. Macdougal, accustomed to the use of
many horses since her babyhood, could sit anything in reason with the
ease with which she reclined in her invalid chair when her languishing
mood was upon her; while Ryder, to repeat Monkey Mack's compliment, rode
'like a cattle thief.'

Ryder's horsemanship and his interest in horses formed something like a
bond of sympathy between him and his host, too. Macdougal never walked a
hundred yards from his own door; he rode every where, and rode hard
always. Mike Burton's description of him was quite accurate in this
respect. He no sooner got across a good horse, or behind one, than he
seemed to become possessed with a sort of frenzy of speed, and rode and
drove like a madman. He had killed many horses, and once a fine animal
died under him, leaving him about fifty miles from home, with one pint in
his water-bag and he was nearly dead himself when at length he succeeded
in dragging his misshapen limbs to one of the huts on the run. When Ryder
first saw Mack on a galloping horse he was reminded of a goat-riding
monkey he had seen at a fair in his youth, and had a convulsive
disposition to laughter; but he learned to respect the horseman who
pushed a s