o had
behaved ill at that next station, was sent across to the first. So the
masters avoided the administration of punishment to their own men, but
punished those of their neighbours. It was the rough-and-ready custom
in the early days of the colony, and common enough for small offences.
Where a convict servant's offence became a crime, he was returned to the
prisons--marked.

To Nic, then, it was horrible that the man for whom he had gradually
grown to feel a warm sense of friendship should suffer this horrible
indignity. It would be, he felt, an outrage; for he was as fully
convinced as if he had been present that Leather had been maddened by
Brookes's ill usage until he struck him down.

The boy felt old as he galloped on in the direction of the Wattles
Station. He had never been there, but he knew it lay some ten or a
dozen miles away to the north, and he hoped to find it by riding on and
on till he came upon flocks of sheep, and then going up some one or
other of the eminences, and looking about till he caught sight of white
buildings, which would be the place. This would come the easier from
the fact that stations were built close to water, but high enough up to
be beyond the reach of floods.

When he had gone three or four miles he began to repent not bringing
Nibbler, who would, in all probability, have been there in his time, and
consequently might take it for granted, when going in that direction,
that his young master was aiming at this place. But in his excitement
he had thought of nothing but getting over there; and faint, hungry and
hot, he began now to find that he had done a foolish thing.

A chill ran through him at the idea of missing the place, and he was
about to change his direction and ride up a hill to his left; when it
suddenly struck him that after once starting he had done nothing in the
way of guiding his horse, which kept right on in one direction, merely
deviating to avoid great trees or patches of scrub.

Then he uttered a joyful cry, for gazing down he could see hoof marks
faintly on the thick grass, and it dawned upon him that these were quite
fresh, and the horse was following them as steadily as if going along a
main road.

Elated by this he slackened the rein just sufficiently to feel the
horse's mouth, and left it to itself. And then it galloped in its easy,
swinging pace, with its rider leaning forward, heart-sick where the
footprints were invisible, and exultant as he