all that?'

Yarra nodded brightly. 'My word, mine know him all right,' he said.

'Yarra always good friend by me?'

'My word!'

The climb over the spur that divided the outlaw's first retreat from the
gorge proved a terrible task for the wounded man. For some distance the
boy followed him, obliterating his tracks; but before the journey was
half completed Ryder required all the assistance the half-caste could
give him, and he reached the small cave in the side of the gorge, about a
mile and a half from its entrance, in an exhausted and feverish
condition. There Yarra gave him drink, and, having made him a comfortable
bed, left him with a revolver by his side, and returned for Wallaroo and
Ryder's belongings. The boy followed the instructions he had received
faithfully, and was with the outlaw again before sundown, watching over
him with an interest he had never before felt in any human creature.
Ryder knew now that his life depended upon the boy's fidelity, and that
there was only one other person in the world upon whom he could rely in
his extremity--Jim Done.

We left Done in a poor condition to help any man--lying in Kyley's tent,
enfeebled by sickness, clinging to Aurora's fingers as some sort of
anchorage in a fragile world. When he awoke again Aurora was still by his
side. He grew quite accustomed to waking and finding her there, and in
his waking moments for two or three days he clasped her fingers with an
almost infantile helplessness. The first stages of recovery were slow,
and in them his chief delight was to lie watching his nurse, scarcely
conscious of anything beyond. He found her very worn, and she looked old.
Few of the qualities that had impelled him to call her Joy remained in
this anxious face. She attended to him assiduously; but she was only a
nurse, nothing of a lover, and presently he found himself wondering at
her lack of emotion, fretting for the absent caress with an invalid's
petulance. As his strength returned, Aurora permitted Mary Kyley to
assume the larger share of the nursing, and Jim was told what news there
was, excepting the truth about poor Mike. It was Ryder who had informed
Aurora that Done and his friends were in the stockade, where he had seen
them during the Saturday afternoon. Mary read a letter from the Peetrees
inviting Jim to join them at Blanket Flat--where they had taken his and
Mike's belongings--when he was strong enough to get about. According to
Mrs. Ryley's versio