to guess."

"Then an agent's station is better than an owner's," laughed Fred.

"It would not be if all men were honest," replied the convict, with a
gloomy brow; and from that time until the coffee was boiled, he did not
speak another word, but appeared to be meditating profoundly upon some
difficult problem.

The cattle had quenched their thirst, and were lying beneath the shadows
of tall trees, lazily cropping the rank grasses within their reach. Fred
and myself had bathed and felt refreshed, and as soon as dinner was
over, we announced to the convict our readiness to accompany him upon
his visit to the stockman's house, where he had spent so many days of
solitude.

"Take your rifles," Smith said, when he saw that we were about to depart
without them.

We looked at him inquiringly.

"We are now in regions where escaped convicts range freely; and ten
miles from here, by following the windings of this stream, is a forest
of gigantic trees and dark recesses, where the police of Melbourne dare
not venture. In that dreary retreat bushrangers find homes--stealing
forth as they do during the night, to feast upon slaughtered sheep, and
rob travellers; they lead an anxious life, as they never know who is
about to betray them, and give them up to the merciless rigor of the
authorities of the city, or else shoot them down as thoughtlessly as you
would a kangaroo, in case one should cross your path."

"I would like to know if we are to carry our rifles for the purpose, of
guarding against bushrangers or to kill kangaroos?" I asked.

"Perhaps for both intentions," replied Smith, glancing up and down the
stream, as though he was not certain that one animal or the other might
not be in sight. "We might meet a bushranger, and if we were without
arms he could do his will, and we should be powerless. As for kangaroos,
I've killed many on the very spot where we now stand; so let me warn you
to keep your eyes open, for they are like lightning in their movements,
and it requires a quick eye and steady hand to cover them with a rifle
when once they commence their leaps."

"A dollar to a shilling that I hit one the first fire, if not more than
thirty rods distant," cried Fred, glancing along his rifle as though one
was already in sight.

"I accept the wager," replied the convict, with a laugh at some thought
that appeared to strike him at the moment; but without enlightening us
he strode along the bank of the stream, leading th