ich
is all through killing that damned shark," Palmer Billy cried, capering
up to him. "But--what price?" he exclaimed, as he stopped and stared at
the horse. "Where did you raise this?"

"Down by the creek. Gleeson's was there as well," Tony answered.

"It's your own horse?" Peters said. "The one that was stolen?"

"That's so," Tony replied. "But there were only the two, and I left
Gleeson's where it was."

"It's right into our hands," Peters went on. "We were just yarning
about it as soon as we saw there was gold in the creek."

"Tucker, lad, tucker," Palmer Billy interrupted. "We're going to work
along the creek while the stores last, but there's only enough for a few
days, and we were wondering. Now it's all straight. You can ride off for
enough to keep us going for a month if needs be."

While the stores lasted they worked in the creek; when the stock became
so low as to threaten a famine, Tony, with the gold already won in his
possession, started off, riding bare-backed for the spot where the
saddles had been "planted," and carefully avoiding the men along the
other creek. Finding the saddles where they had been left, he took his
own and rode away towards Birralong, anticipating the entertainment he
would have at the expense of the wise men who had prophesied so freely
about the results of following up a wild-cat scheme.

The sun was nearing the horizon when he came out on the Birralong road,
after a short cut across country, a little above the township. He made
direct for Marmot's store, on the verandah of which he saw that several
men were gathered. As he rode up, they looked round at him with apparent
indifference, not even replying to the wave of the hand he gave when
they turned their heads towards him. It did not occur to him that, as he
was coming from the direction of Taylor's Flat, each of the men believed
that he had returned to the selection after discovering that the
gold-field yarn was all a wild-cat scheme, as they had prophesied, and
had been lying low at the selection ever since, keeping out of the way
until something else should have transpired so as to prevent them
dwelling on the folly he had shown. The coolness the men displayed
nettled him, and he rode up to the store in a free, careless fashion,
while Marmot and his companions sat still looking at him, resenting the
fact that he should not have come in at once and given them the
opportunity of reminding him, constantly and plainly, tha