ssed my stars for the matted undergrowth and the wild
profusion of wattle. The one deadened the sound of my movements and the
other gave me all the cover I needed. The game was now fairly in my
hands, and if I lost it would be through no one's fault but my own. It
was quite evident on the face of it that the attacking force had no idea
that a third party was maneuvering outside the range of fire, and I
counted on that fact to assist me in my work. The one drawback at
present was that I had no notion which was friend and which was foe. The
shots seemed to come from all round the compass, and any one of them
might be Moira's. It was quite on the cards that she was moving round in
a circle, in the full knowledge that every time she fired she shot at an
enemy, and again it was just as likely that she knew nothing at all
about Cumshaw's death. Clearly it was a situation that called for an
immense amount of care on my part.

I had no time to waste puzzling the matter out; whatever I did had to be
done as quickly as possible, for I had no guarantee that the one-sided
warfare might not terminate fatally at any moment. One of the attackers
was just as likely to hit Moira as she was to hit him. I had slipped up
the catch of my revolver long before this, and was carrying it in such a
fashion that it could be fired instantly. I felt ready for any
emergency, and the contingency that presently arose found me well
prepared. There was a stealthy rush through the undergrowth, and a man
backed hastily in my direction. I couldn't see him, but I knew that it
was a man by the sound of the footsteps. There is always a perceptible
difference between the footsteps of a man and a woman, but it requires a
trained ear to pick it out. I slipped down into cover as he rushed back,
and, judging more by sound than sight, I fired as he passed me. He came
down heavily amidst a crash of breaking branches and the smashing of
twigs. "I seem to be the only sure-footed man about to-night," I thought
as the fellow thudded to the ground. At that precise moment, as if to
give the lie direct to me, a deafening report sounded right in my ear, a
pain as of a red-hot needle stabbed through my right shoulder, and I
pitched forward on my face. Even as my nose ploughed through the soft
soil it occurred to me to wonder if I had received a shot intended for
the other man, or if he was not as dead as I had fancied and signalised
his escape by shooting me in his turn. I wa