ot safe to the Murdering Hut, and a precious hard ride it was, and
tried our horses well, for, mind you, they'd been under saddle best part
of twenty-four hours when we got back, and had done a good deal over a
hundred miles. We made a short halt while the tea was boiling, then we
all separated for fear a black tracker might have been loosed on our
trail, and knowing well what bloodhounds they are sometimes.

Warrigal and Starlight went off together as usual; they were pretty safe
to be out of harm's way. Father made off on a line of his own. We took
the two horses we'd ridden out of the Hollow, and made for that place
the shortest way we knew. We could afford to hit out--horse-flesh was
cheap to us--but not to go slow. Time was more than money to us now--it
was blood, or next thing to it.

'I'll go anywhere you like,' says Jim, stretching himself. 'It makes no
odds to me now where we go. What do you think of it, dad?'

'I think you've no call to leave here for another month anyhow; but as I
suppose some folks 'll play the fool some road or other you may as well
go there as anywhere else. If you must go you'd better take some of
these young horses with you and sell them while prices keep up.'

'Capital idea,' says Starlight; 'I was wondering how we'd get those
colts off. You've the best head amongst us, governor. We'll start out
to-day and muster the horses, and we can take Warrigal with us as far as
Jonathan Barnes's place.'

We didn't lose time once we'd made up our minds to anything. So that
night all the horses were in and drafted ready--twenty-five upstanding
colts, well bred, and in good condition. We expected they'd fetch a lot
of money. They were all quiet, too, and well broken in by Warrigal, who
used to get so much a head extra for this sort of work, and liked it. He
could do more with a horse than any man I ever saw. They never seemed to
play up with him as young horses do with other people. Jim and I
could ride 'em easy enough when they was tackled, but for handling and
catching and getting round them we couldn't hold a candle to Warrigal.

The next thing was to settle how to work it when we got to the diggings.
We knew the auctioneers there and everywhere else would sell a lot of
likely stock and ask no questions; but there had been such a lot of
horse-stealing since the diggings broke out that a law had been passed
on purpose to check it. In this way: If any auctioneer sold a stolen
horse and the owne