in one spot--the
bank of a small creek, the side of a steep range--within a fortnight,
with ten thousand more sure to follow within a month.

That might happen at any time on one of the spurs of Nulla Mountain;
and the finding out of the track down to the Hollow by some one of the
dozens of rambling, shooting, fishing diggers would be as certain to
happen as the sun to rise.

Well, the country had changed, and we were bound to change with it.
We couldn't stop boxed up in the Hollow day after day, and month after
month, shooting and horse-breaking, doing nothing and earning nothing.

If we went outside there were ten times more men looking out for us than
ever, ten times more chance of our being tracked or run down than ever.
That we knew from the newspapers. How did we see them? Oh, the old way.
We sent out our scout, Warrigal, and he got our letters and papers too,
from a 'sure hand', as Starlight said the old people in the English wars
used to say.

The papers were something to see. First he brought us in a handbill that
was posted in Bargo, like this:--

FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD.

The above reward will be paid to any one giving information as to the
whereabouts of Richard Marston, James Marston, and a man whose name
is unknown, but who can be identified chiefly by the appellation of
Starlight.

'Pleasing way of drawing attention to a gentleman's private residence,'
says Starlight, smiling first and looking rather grim afterwards. 'Never
mind, boys, they'll increase that reward yet, by Jove! It will have to
be a thousand a piece if they don't look a little sharper.'

We laughed, and dad growled out--

'Don't seem to have the pluck, any on ye, to tackle a big touch again. I
expect they'll send a summons for us next, and get old Bill Barkis, the
bailiff at Bargo, to serve it.'

'Come, come, governor,' says Starlight, 'none of that. We've got quite
enough devil in us yet, without your stirring him up. You must give us
time, you know. Let's see what this paper says. "Turon Star"! What a
godsend to it!

'BUSH-RANGERS!

'STARLIGHT AND THE MARSTONS AGAIN.

'The announcement will strike our readers, if not with the most
profound astonishment, certainly with considerable surprise, that these
celebrated desperadoes, for whose apprehension such large sums have
been offered, for whom the police in all the colonies have made su