him, and the girls, Bella and Maddie, worked well, or else he'd
have been walking about the country with a swag on his back. They kept
him and the house too, like many another man, and he took all the credit
of it, and ordered them about as if he'd been the best and straightest
man in the land. If he made a few pounds now and then he'd drop it on a
horse-race before he'd had it a week. They were glad enough to see us,
anyhow, and made us comfortable, after a fashion. Jim had brought fresh
clothes, and both of us had stopped on the road and rigged ourselves
out, so that we didn't look so queer as men just out of the jug mostly
do, with their close-shaved faces, cropped heads, and prison clothes.
Starlight had brought a false moustache with him, which he stuck on, so
that he looked as much like a swell as ever. Warrigal had handed him a
small parcel, which he brought with him, just as we started; and, with
a ring on his finger, some notes and gold in his pocket, he ate his
breakfast, and chatted away with the girls as if he'd only ridden out
for a day to have a look at the country.

Our horses were put in the stable and well looked to, you may be
sure. The man that straps a cross cove's horse don't go short of his
half-crown--two or three of them, maybe. We made a first-rate breakfast
of it; what with the cold and the wet and not being used to riding
lately, we were pretty hungry, and tired too. We intended to camp there
that day, and be off again as soon as it was dark.

Of course we ran a bit of a risk, but not as bad as we should by riding
in broad daylight. The hills on the south were wild and rangy enough,
but there were all sorts of people about on their business in the
daytime; and of course any of them would know with one look that three
men, all on well-bred horses, riding right across country and not
stopping to speak or make free with any one, were likely to be 'on the
cross'--all the more if the police were making particular inquiries
about them. We were all armed, too, now. Jim had seen to that. If we
were caught, we intended to have a flutter for it. We were not going
back to Berrima if we knew it.

So we turned in, and slept as if we were never going to wake again. We'd
had a glass of grog or two, nothing to hurt, though; and the food and
one thing and another made us sleep like tops. Jim was to keep a good
look-out, and we didn't take off our clothes. Our horses were kept
saddled, too, with the bridles