oran?'

'Dashed if I know,' growls he. 'All I know is, you're deuced well out of
it; your luck mayn't be so good another time.'

'Nor yours either, my friend,' says Mr. Knightley, drawing up his
bridle-rein. 'I had only a snap-shot at you when that bullet went
through your poncho, or you'd be lying alongside of Daly. However, I
needn't waste my breath talking to that brute,' he says to Starlight. 'I
know well all I owe to you and Dick Marston here. Some day I may repay
it.'

'You mean what I owe you,' says Starlight, turning it off with a laugh.
'Never fear, you'll find that paid to your credit in the bank. We
have agents in all sorts of places. Good-bye, and a safe ride home. My
respectful compliments to Mrs. Knightley. Perhaps you'd better follow
the doctor now.' The old gentleman had got tired waiting, and ridden on
slow and easy.

Two or three weeks after, Starlight and I were taking a ride towards the
Bogan Road, not that we was on for anything particular, but just having
a turn round for want of something else to do, when we saw a big mob of
cattle coming along, with three or four stock-riders behind 'em. Then
we met a loaded dray and team in front, that had rations and swags and
a tent. The driver asked us if we knew a good place to camp. He was a
talking sort of chap, and we yarned away with him for a bit. He told
us how the boss was behind in a dogcart and tandem, with two led horses
besides. The cattle were going to take up a new run he'd bought on the
Lower Bogan, an out-and-out wild place; but he'd got the country cheap,
and thought it would pay in the end. He was going ahead after a stage or
two, but just now he was camping with them.

'My word, he's well in, is the cove,' says the horse-driver; 'he's got
half-a-dozen stations besides this one. He'll be one of the richest men
in Australia yet.'

After we saw the cattle (about a thousand head) we thought it would be a
middling day's work to 'stick up' the cove and put him through. Going to
form a new station, he'd very like have cash about, as he'd have to pay
for a lot of things on the nail just at first. If he was such a swell
too, he'd have a gold watch and perhaps a few more trifles. Anyhow, he
was good for the day's expenses, and we thought we'd try it on.

So we passed the cattle and rode quietly along the road till we saw his
dogcart coming; then we stopped inside a yarran scrub, just as he came
by--a square-built man he seemed to be, muffled