. He had a trooper alongside him on the box with his rifle between
his knees. Two more were in the body of the drag. They had put their
rifles down and were talking and laughing, not expecting anything
sudden. Two more of the mounted men rode in front, but not far. The
couple behind were a good way off. All of a sudden the men in front came
on the trees lying across the road. They pulled up short, and one of
them jumped down and looked to see if anything could be done to move
them. The other man held his horse. The coach drove up close, so that
they were bunched up pretty well together.

'Who the devil has been doing that?' sung out the sergeant. 'Just as
if the road isn't bad enough without these infernal lazy scoundrels of
bullock-drivers cutting down trees to make us go round. It's a beastly
track here at the best of times.'

'I believe them trees have been fallen on purpose,' says the trooper
that was down. 'There's been men, and horses too, about here to-day, by
the tracks. They're up to no good!'

'Fire!'

The order was given in Starlight's clear, bold voice. Just like a horn
it sounded. You might have heard it twice as far off. A dozen shots
followed the next second, making as much row as fifty because of the way
the sound echoed among the rocks.

I never saw a bigger surprise in my life, and wasn't likely to do, as
this was my first regular battle. We had plenty of time to take aim, and
just at first it looked as if the whole blessed lot of the police was
killed and wounded.

The sergeant threw up his arms and fell off the box like a log, just
under the horses' feet. One of the troopers on ahead dropped, he that
was holding the horses, and both horses started off at full gallop. The
two men in the body of the drag were both hit--one badly. So when the
two troopers came up full gallop from the back they found us cutting
the traces of the team, that was all plunging like mad, and letting the
horses go.

We opened fire at them directly they showed themselves; of course they
couldn't do much in the face of a dozen men, all well armed and behind
good cover. They kept it up for a bit till one of their horses was hit,
and then made tracks for Turon to report that the escort had been stuck
up by twenty or thirty men at Eugowra Rocks--the others had come up with
the pack-horses by this time, along with Master Billy the Boy firing
his revolver and shouting enough for half-a-dozen; so we looked a big
crowd--that a