things against them as bad
as us, and had kept steady, and worked through in course of time. Why
shouldn't we as well as others? We wanted to see what the papers said of
us, so we rode over to a little post town we knew of and got a copy of
the 'Evening Times'. There it all was in full:--

CATTLE-LIFTING EXTRAORDINARY.

We have heard from time to time of cattle being stolen in lots of
reasonable size, say from ten to one hundred, or even as high as two
hundred head at the outside. But we never expected to have to record the
erecting of a substantial stockyard and the carrying off and disposing
of a whole herd, estimated at a thousand or eleven hundred head, chiefly
the property of one proprietor. Yet this has been done in New South
Wales, and done, we regret to say, cleverly and successfully. It has
just transpired, beyond all possibility of mistake, that Mr. Hood's
Outer Back Momberah run has suffered to that extent in the past winter.
The stolen herd was driven to Adelaide, and there sold openly. The
money was received by the robbers, who were permitted to decamp at their
leisure.

When we mention the name of the notorious 'Starlight', no one will be
surprised that the deed was planned, carried out, and executed with
consummate address and completeness. It seems matter of regret that we
cannot persuade this illustrious depredator to take the command of our
police force, that body of life-assurers and property-protectors which
has proved so singularly ineffective as a preventive service in the
present case. On the well-known proverbial principle we might hope for
the best results under Mr. Starlight's intelligent supervision. We must
not withhold our approval as to one item of success which the force has
scored. Starlight himself and a half-caste henchman have been cleverly
captured by Detective Stillbrook, just as the former, who has been
ruffling it among the 'aristocratic' settlers of Christchurch, was about
to sail for Honolulu. The names of his other accomplices, six in number,
it is said, have not as yet transpired.

This last part gave us confidence, but all the same we kept everything
ready for a bolt in case of need. We got up our horses every evening and
kept them in the yard all night. The feed was good by the creek now--a
little dried up but plenty of bite, and better for horses that had been
ridden far and fast than if it was green. We had enough of last year's
hay to give