one,' I said, 'if that's blood on the saddle!'

"Well, Bunny, I may be a blackguard myself, but I don't think I ever
looked at a fellow as that chap looked at me. But I stared him out,
and forced him to admit that it was blood on the twisted saddle, and
after that he became quite tame. He told me exactly what had happened.
A mate of his had been dragged under a branch, and had his nose
smashed, but that was all; had sat tight after it till he dropped from
loss of blood; another mate was with him back in the bush.

"As I've said already, Bunny, I wasn't the old stager that I am now--in
any respect--and we parted good enough friends. He asked me which way
I was going, and, when I told him, he said I should save seven miles,
and get a good hour earlier to Yea, by striking off the track and
making for a peak that we could see through the trees, and following a
creek that I should see from the peak. Don't smile, Bunny! I began by
saying I was a child in those days. Of course, the short cut was the
long way round; and it was nearly dark when that unlucky mare and I saw
the single street of Yea.

"I was looking for the bank when a fellow in a white suit ran down from
the veranda.

"'Mr. Raffles?' said he.

"'Mr. Raffles,' said I, laughing as I shook his hand.

"'You're late.'

"'I was misdirected.'

"'That all? I'm relieved,' he said. 'Do you know what they are
saying? There are some brand-new bushrangers on the road between
Whittlesea and this--a second Kelly gang! They'd have caught a Tartar
in you, eh?'

"'They would in you,' I retorted, and my tu quoque shut him up and
seemed to puzzle him. Yet there was much more sense in it than in his
compliment to me, which was absolutely pointless.

"'I'm afraid you'll find things pretty rough,' he resumed, when he had
unstrapped my valise, and handed my reins to his man. 'It's lucky
you're a bachelor like myself.'

"I could not quite see the point of this remark either, since, had I
been married, I should hardly have sprung my wife upon him in this
free-and-easy fashion. I muttered the conventional sort of thing, and
then he said I should find it all right when I settled, as though I had
come to graze upon him for weeks! 'Well,' thought I, 'these Colonials
do take the cake for hospitality!' And, still marvelling, I let him
lead me into the private part of the bank.

"'Dinner will be ready in a quarter of an hour,' said he as we entered.
'I thought you mi