ht, and though it's a different sort of a
place from Sydney, it's a jolly enough town for a couple of young chaps
with money in their pockets. Most towns are, for the matter of that. We
took it easy, and didn't go on the spree or do anything foolish. No, we
weren't altogether so green as that. We looked out for a quiet place to
lodge, near the sea--St. Kilda they call it, in front of the beach--and
we went about and saw all the sights, and for a time managed to keep
down the thought that perhaps sooner or later we'd be caught, and have
to stand our trial for this last affair of ours, and maybe one or two
others. It wasn't a nice thing to think of; and now and then it used
to make both of us take an extra drop of grog by way of driving the
thoughts of it out of our heads. That's the worst of not being straight
and square. A man's almost driven to drink when he can't keep from
thinking of all sorts of miserable things day and night. We used to go
to the horse-yards now and then, and the cattle-yards too. It was like
old times to see the fat cattle and sheep penned up at Flemington, and
the butchers riding out on their spicy nags or driving trotters. But
their cattle-yards was twice as good as ours, and me and Jim used often
to wonder why the Sydney people hadn't managed to have something like
them all these years, instead of the miserable cockatoo things at
Homebush that we'd often heard the drovers and squatters grumble about.

However, one day, as we was sitting on the rails, talking away quite
comfortable, we heard one butcher say to another, 'My word, this is a
smart bit of cattle-duffing--a thousand head too!' 'What's that?' says
the other man. 'Why, haven't you heard of it?' says the first one, and
he pulls a paper out of his pocket, with this in big letters: 'Great
Cattle Robbery.--A thousand head of Mr. Hood's cattle were driven off
and sold in Adelaide. Warrants are out for the suspected parties, who
are supposed to have left the colony.' Here was a bit of news! We felt
as if we could hardly help falling off the rails; but we didn't show
it, of course, and sat there for half-an-hour, talking to the buyers and
sellers and cracking jokes like the others. But we got away home as soon
as we could, and then we began to settle what we should do.

Warrants were out, of course, for Starlight, and us too. He was known,
and so were we. Our descriptions were sure to be ready to send out all
over the country. Warrigal they m