ulbert, they were like
a lot of schoolboys, so full of their fun and larks.

Starlight just spoke a word to them all; he didn't talk much, but looked
hard and stern about the face, as a captain ought to do. He rode up to
the gap and saw where the trees had been cut down to block up the road.
It would be hard work getting the coach through there now--for a bit to
come.

After that our horses and the two packers were left behind with Warrigal
and father, close enough for hearing, but well out of the way for
seeing; it was behind a thick belt of timber. They tied up some to
trees and short-hobbled others, keeping them all so as to be ready at a
moment's notice. Our men hid themselves behind rocks and stumps on the
high side of the road so as they could see well, and had all the shadow
on their side. Wall and Hulbert and their lot had their mob of horses,
packers, and all planted away, and two young fellows belonging to their
crowd minding them.

We'd been ready a good bit when a cove comes tearing up full bat. We
were watching to see how he shaped, and whether he looked likely to lay
on the police, when I saw it was Billy the Boy.

'Now I call this something like,' says he, pulling up short: 'army in
readiness, the enemy not far off. My word, it is a fine thing to turn
out, ain't it, Dick? Do you chaps feel shaky at all? Ain't yer gallied
the least little bit? They're a-comin'!'

'How long will they be?' Starlight said. 'Just remember that you're not
skylarking at a pound-yard, my boy.'

'All right, Captain,' he answered, quiet enough. 'I started on ahead the
moment I saw 'em leave the camp. They're safe to be here in ten minutes
now. You can see 'em when they come into the flat. I'll clear out to the
back for a bit. I want 'em to think I come up permiskus-like when it's
over.' So the young rascal galloped away till the trees hid him, and in
a quarter of an hour more we saw the leaders of the four-horse drag that
carried the escort gold turn round on the forest road and show out into
the flat.

It gave me a queer feeling just at first. We hadn't been used to firing
on the Queen's servants, not in cold blood, anyhow, but it was them or
us for it now. There was no time to think about it. They came along at
a steady trot up the hill. We knew the Turon sergeant of police that
drove, a tall man with a big black beard down to his chest. He had been
in an English dragoon regiment, and could handle the ribbons above a
bit