I
could see through a small opening in the shutters.

"`What do you want here, friend?' I asked.

"`Open the door,' was the only reply.

"`Tell me what you want,' I said again.

"`Open the door,' was all that was returned in answer; and then came a
thundering blow, which fairly crushed in one of the panels.

"`Shall I fire?' asked Mr Jackson, in a hoarse whisper.

"`No, no! Not yet, not yet,' I cried.

"Then came a united rush of three of the men, and the door came crashing
into the outer room. The foremost villain then sprang at me, and we
wrestled together, after I had knocked up his revolver. In a few
minutes I had hurled him back from me, and he fell to the ground and was
seized by one of my men. Gasping for breath, I paused and looked about
me. A pistol was presented at me by another bushranger, but before it
could be fired Horace's poor father had thrown himself in front of me;
he received the bullet in his own breast, and fell to the ground
grievously wounded. But now help was at hand; alas that it did not come
sooner! A strong body of mounted police came up, and having secured all
the robbers, carried them off in triumph.

"But what was to be done with my dear wounded friend, who had saved my
life by perilling his own? I knew enough of surgical matters to
ascertain by inspection that the injury, though severe, was not likely
to be mortal. So, having bandaged up the wound with the best appliances
I had at hand, I drove my friend as rapidly as he could bear it to my
town house, where he was at once placed under the care of the best
medical skill in the city. And for some time I had every hope that he
would recover, and earnestly did I pray that it might be so, if it were
the Lord's will. But it was not so to be. A constitution once strong,
but impaired in early youth, and much tried when he was at the diggings,
had not sufficient vigour remaining to enable my poor friend to regain
health and strength. But he did not pass away rapidly, nor did he lose
any of his power of mind in his last days. And then it was, on his
dying-bed, that he opened his whole heart to me, and told me what I am
about to tell you, and, as nearly as I can remember, in these words:--

"`My name is really Horace Walters, and I am the owner of an estate
called Riverton Park in my dear native country. But I ruined myself by
my mad love for gambling, and when my poor wife died, and left me with
Horace a baby, and my esta