distance you said you were going, I did not think you could be back
for days.

"Presently I felt him stop and turn his horse; and then, when he
spoke, I knew that he had not killed both the constables, and that
one of them had followed him. When you answered, I thought it was
your voice, though it seemed impossible; but I could not be sure,
because I could not hear plainly through the shawl. Then the
pistols were fired, and I suddenly felt myself falling; and I did
not know anything more, till I saw you leaning over me.

"But where are all the others, and how is it you are here alone? Of
course, you must have turned back before you got to where the bush
rangers were."

"No, I am glad to say we succeeded with that part of the work, Miss
Ellison, and have wiped out the bush rangers altogether. We have
got one of them a prisoner, but all the rest of the gang are
killed.

"The distance is not quite so far as we thought it was. It was a
thirty miles' march, and two sixties. We attacked them at daybreak,
on the third day after leaving."

"But it is only the fourth day today, is it not? At least, it seems
so to me."

"It is the fourth day, Miss Ellison. When we found that the leader
of the gang was not with them, and I learned from the man we had
taken prisoner that he had started to ride back here, twenty-four
hours before, I was naturally very anxious about you; knowing, as I
did, what desperate actions the man was capable of. So we started
at once and, after a sharp fight with the blacks, got down in the
evening to the water hole, sixty miles on our way back, where we
had camped the second night out.

"Of course the horse I had ridden could travel no further, but I
pushed on with my black boy, on two of the horses which we had
taken from the bush rangers, and which had been led so far. We made
another forty miles by midnight, and then halted till daybreak, to
give the horses rest; but they were so done up, this morning, that
we could not get them much beyond a foot pace. When we came to the
first settlement we exchanged them for fresh ones, and galloped on;
and, thank God, we are just in time."

The tears were standing in the girl's eyes, and she laid her hand
on his, and said quietly:

"Thank you. Then you have ridden a hundred and fifty miles since
yesterday morning, besides having two fights; and all because you
were uneasy about me?"

"I had, as you see, good reason to be uneasy, Miss Ellison."

At this