'or I don't say as I wouldn't. Don't mind my growling. But I'm
bound to be a bit lonely like when you are all drawed off the camp. No!
take your own way and I'll take mine.'

'Next Monday ought to see us off,' says Starlight. 'We have got the gold
and cash part all right. I've had that money paid to Knightley's credit
in the Australian Bank I promised him, and got a receipt for it.'

'That's just like yer,' says father, 'and a rank soft thing for a man
as has seen the world to drop into. Losin' yer share of the five hundred
quid, and then dropping a couple of hundred notes at one gamble, besides
buying a horse yer could have took for nothing. He'll never bring twenty
pound again, neither.'

'Always pay my play debts,' says Starlight. 'Always did, and always
will. As for the horse--a bargain, a bargain.'

'And a dashed bad bargain too. Why didn't ye turn parson instead of
taking to the bush?' says father, with a grin. 'Dashed if I ain't
seen some parsons that could give you odds and walk round ye at
horse-dealin'.'

'You take your own way, Ben, and I'll take mine,' says Starlight rather
fierce, and then father left off and went to do something or other,
while us two took our horses and rode out. We hadn't a long time to be
in the old Hollow now. It had been a good friend to us in time of need,
and we was sorry in a kind of way to leave it. We were going to play for
a big stake, and if we lost we shouldn't have another throw in.

Our horses were in great buckle now; they hadn't been doing much lately.
I had the one I'd brought with me, and a thoroughbred brown horse that
had been broken in the first season we came there.

Starlight was to ride Rainbow, of course, and he had great picking
before he made up his mind what to choose for second horse. At last he
pitched upon a thoroughbred bay mare named Locket that had been stolen
from a mining township the other side of the country. She was the
fastest mare they'd ever bred--sound, and a weight-carrier too.

'I think I'll take Locket after all,' says he, after thinking about it
best part of an hour. 'She's very fast and a stayer. Good-tempered too,
and the old horse has taken up with her. It will be company for him.'

'Take your own way,' I said, 'but I wouldn't chance her. She's known
to a lot of jockey-boys and hangers-on. They could swear to that white
patch on her neck among a thousand.'

'If you come to that, Rainbow is not an every-day horse, and I can't
lea