s. "Still, you might be decently civil to the
man that gets you out of a mess."

Nevertheless, the handcuffs were immediately removed; and that instant,
with the curtest thanks, Sub-Inspector Kilbride sprang forward with such
vigorous intent that the other detained him forcibly by one of his stiff
and aching arms.

"What are you after now, Kilbride?"

"My prisoner!"

"Your what?"

"_My_ prisoner," I said.

"I like that--and you his!"

Kilbride burst into a voluble defence of his position.

"What right have you on this side of the Murray, you Sydney-sider? None
at all, except as a passenger. You can't lay finger on man, woman, or
child in this Colony, and, by God, you sha'n't! Nor yet upon the three
hundred there's on his head; and the sons of convicts down in Sydney can
put _that_ in their pipe and smoke it!"

For all his cool and ready insolence, the misshapen Superintendent from
the other side stood dazed and bewildered by this volcanic outpouring.
Then his dark face flushed darker, and with a snarl he clinched his
fists. The Victorian, however, had turned on his heel, and now his
liberated hands flew skyward, as though the bushranger's revolver
covered him yet again.

But there was no such weapon discernible through the shade; no New South
Welshman's horse; and neither sight, sound, wraith, nor echo of
Stingaree, the outlawed bushranger, the terror and the despair of the
Sister Colonies!

"I thought it might be done when I saw how you fixed him," said Kilbride
cheerfully. "Those beggars can ride lying down or standing up!"

"I believe you saw him clear!"

"I'll settle that with you when I've caught him."

"You catch him, you gum-sucker, when you as good as let him go!"

And a volley of further and far more trenchant abuse was discharged by
Superintendent Cairns, of the New South Wales Police. But Kilbride was
already in the saddle; a covert outward kick with his spurred heel, and
the third horse went cantering riderless into the trees.

"He won't go far," sang the Sub-Inspector, "and he'll take you safe
back to barracks if you give him his head. It's easy to get bushed in
this country--for new chums from penal settlements!"

As the Victorian galloped into the darkness, and the New South Welshman
dashed wildly after the third horse, the laughing jackass in the
invisible middle-distance gave his last grotesque guffaw at departed
day. And the laughing jackass is a Victorian bird.

The Honor