he chastened tone, the anxious countenance, the sudden recourse to the
servile monosyllable, were none of them lost on Stingaree; but he
himself had once set such a tale abroad, and it might be that the
present bearer still believed it. The eye-glass looked him through and
through. Vanheimert bore the inspection like a man, and was soon
satisfied that his recognition of the outlaw was as yet quite
unsuspected. He congratulated himself on his presence of mind, and had
sufficient courage to relish the excitement of a situation of which he
also perceived the peril.

"I suppose you have no recollection of how you got here?" at length said
Stingaree.

"Not me. I only remember the dust-storm." And Vanheimert shuddered where
he lay in the sun. "But I'm very grateful to you, sir, for saving my
life."

"You are, are you?"

"Haven't I cause to be, sir?"

"Well, I dare say we did bring you round between us, but it was pure
luck that we ever came across you. And now I should lie quiet if I were
you. In a few minutes there'll be a pannikin of tea for you, and after
that you'll feel a different man."

Vanheimert lay quiet enough; there was much to occupy his mind.
Instinctively he had assumed a part, and he was only less quick to
embrace the necessity of a strictly consistent performance. He watched
Stingaree in close conversation with Howie, who was boiling the billy on
a spirit-lamp between the two tents, but he watched them with an
admirable simulation of idle unconcern. They were talking about him, of
course; more than once they glanced in his direction; and each time
Vanheimert congratulated himself the more heartily on the ready pretence
to which he was committed. Let them but dream that he knew them, and
Vanheimert gave himself as short a shrift as he would have granted in
their place. But they did not dream it, they were off their guard, and
rather at his mercy than he at theirs. He might prove the immediate
instrument of their capture--why not? The thought put Vanheimert in a
glow; on the blanket where they had laid him, he dwelt on it without a
qualm; and the same wide mouth watered for the tea which these villains
were making, and for their blood.

It was Howie who came over with the steaming pannikin, and watched
Vanheimert as he sipped and smacked his lips, while Stingaree at his
distance watched them both. The pannikin was accompanied by a tin-plate
full of cold mutton and a wedge of baking-powder bread, which