ted at a tangent; through ridges and billows of salt-bush
and cotton-bush they sailed with the swift confidence of a well-handled
clipper before the wind. Stingaree was the leader four miles out of
five, but in the fifth his mate Howie would gallop ahead, and anon they
would come on him dismounted at a wire fence, with the wires strapped
down and his horse tethered to one of the posts till he had led Barmaid
over.

It was thus they careered across the vast chessboard of the fenced
back-blocks at dead of night. Stingaree and Fergus sat saddle and
bareback without a break until near dawn their pioneer spurred forward
yet again and was swallowed in a steely haze. It was cold as a sharp
spring night in England. But for a mile or more Fergus had clung on with
but one arm round the bushranger's waist; now the right arm came
stealing back; felt something cold for the fraction of a second, and
plucked prodigiously, and in another fraction an icy ring mouthed
Stingaree's neck.

"Pull up," said Fergus, hoarsely, "or your brains go flying."

"Little traitor!" whispered the other, with an imprecation that froze
the blood.

"I am no traitor. I swore I wouldn't abuse the revolver you gave me, and
it's been in my pocket all the night."

"The other's unloaded."

"You wouldn't sit so quiet if it were. Now, round we go, and back on our
tracks full split. It's getting light, and we shall see them plain. If
you vary a yard either way, or if your mate catches us, out go your
brains."

The bushranger obeyed without a word. Fergus was almost unnerved by the
incredible ease of his conquest over so redoubtable a ruffian. His
stolid Scottish blood stood by him; but still he made grim apology as
they rode.

"I had to do it. It was through me you got to know. I had to live that
down; this was the only way."

"You have spirit. If you would still be my mate----"

"Your mate! I mean this to be the making of me as an honest man. Here's
the fence. I give you two minutes to strap it down and get us over."

Stingaree slid tamely to the ground.

"Don't you dare to get through those wires! Strap it from this side with
your belt, and strap it quick!"

And the bushranger obeyed with the same sensible docility, but with his
back turned, so that Fergus could not see has face; and it was light
enough to see faces now; yet Barmaid refused the visible wires, as she
had not refused them all that night of indigo starlight.

"Coax her, man!" cried