dge of the basin, when a figure appeared on the brink of the waterfall
above him. The figure looked hardly human, bent down, watching Ryder's
movements in the attitude of a curious ape.

Macdougal sprang down the rocks with an agility in keeping with his
apelike appearance, and interposed between the creeping man and the
water.

Ryder turned aside, and again Macdougal interposed. Three times this
happened, and the squatter had a grin on his small terrier's face; he was
deriving malicious amusement from the bewilderment of the fever-stricken
wretch at his feet. In his left hand he held a revolver.

Ryder raised a hand, and, clutching Monkey Mack, made an effort to regain
his feet. The other helped him, and clinging to his enemy for support,
the outlaw looked at Macdougal. The latter thrust his face forward, and
again there was a red gleam under the shadows of his heavy brows.

'Ye know me, man,' he said.

Ryder was staring with eyes in which there was a dawning of
consciousness, and, steadying him with one hand, the squatter dipped some
water in his hat, and dashed it in the other's face.

'Ye know me!' he said with fierce eagerness. 'Ye know me! Man, ye must
know me--Macdougal! Look at me. Ay, ye know me well!'

There was recognition in Ryder's eyes; they were intent upon those of his
foe, and, clutching him by the shoulder, Macdougal continued:

'Well ye know me, and well ye know what I mean to do by ye. I'm about to
kill ye, Mr. Walter Ryder, an' no harm will come to me for the killin'.
Man, man, but it's a sweet thing to kill your enemy, an' to be paid well
for the doin' of it! Ah, I'm right sure ye know me now. I would na' have ye
die by another hand, for 'tis me ye wronged most. I know my wrongs, ye
foul villain, an' it's in my mind to carry your carrion head to Melbourne
for the money they've set upon it. Ye mind me! ye mind me! Good! good!'

Macdougal's face was literally convulsed with the fury of his hate; he
spat at Ryder as he spoke, and then, with the swiftness and the strength
that had marked them in health, the outlaw's fingers fastened upon his
hairy throat. The long, thin hands clamped themselves upon his neck, and
for a moment Monkey Mack was helpless in the agonies of suffocation. Then
his left hand pointed the revolver at Ryder's ear; there was a sharp
report, and the outlaw fell limply, and rolled back upon the flat
water-worn rock, his shattered head to the stone, his arms out thrown,
his l