mob right through to Adelaide. Store cattle were dear then,
and we could get them off easy there and come back by sea. No one was to
know we were not regular overlanders; and when we'd got the notes in our
pockets it would be a hard matter to trace the cattle or prove that we
were the men that sold 'em.

'How many head do you expect to get?' says Jim.

'A thousand or twelve hundred; half of 'em fat, and two-thirds of them
young cattle.'

'By George! that's something like a haul; but you can't muster such a
lot as that without a yard.'

'I know that,' says father. 'We're putting up a yard on a little plain
about a mile from here. When they find it, it'll be an old nest, and the
birds flown.'

'Well, if that ain't the cheekiest thing I ever heard tell of,' says I
laughingly. 'To put up a yard at the back of a man's run, and muster
his cattle for him! I never heard the like before, nor any one else. But
suppose the cove or his men come across it?'

''Tain't no ways likely,' says father. 'They're the sleepiest lot of
chaps in this frontage I ever saw. It's hardly worth while "touching"
them. There's no fun in it. It's like shooting pheasants when they
ain't preserved. There's no risk, and when there's no risk there's no
pleasure. Anyway that's my notion.'

'Talking about risks, why didn't you work that Marquis of Lorne racket
better? We saw in the papers that the troopers hunted you so close you
had to kill him in the ranges.'

Father looked over at us and then began to laugh--not long, and he broke
off short. Laughing wasn't much in his line.

'Killed him, did we? And a horse worth nigh on to two thousand pounds.
You ought to have known your old father better than that. We did kill
A chestnut horse, one we picked out a purpose; white legs, white knee,
short under lip, everything quite regular. We even fed him for a week on
prairie grass, just like the Marquis had been eating. Bless you, we knew
how to work all that. We deceived Windhall his own self, and he thinks
he's pretty smart. No! the Marquis is all safe--you know where.'

I opened my eyes and stared at father.

'You've some call to crow if you can work things like that. How you ever
got him away beats me; but not more than how you managed to keep him hid
with a ring of troopers all round you from every side of the district.'

'We had friends,' father said. 'Me and Warrigal done all the travelling
by night. No one but him could have gone afoot, I believ