Year: 1869

Z
lsoutb, and within fifteen miles Of
Lionels.


He had no women about the place,
and could easily have ridden to town
and let Jordan the convict make terms
for him but he would not. He deter
mined to stick to his post as a magis-
trate, and do bis duty firmly
He role ALWAYS armed with his car
bine. on his well-trained young horse
and when armed aud mounted thus he
was very formidable adversary for
any two or three men. Jordan always
rode with him now, also armed.
A week. aud nothing more was
heard. Inspector Hornby arrived one
night at his cousins station. He was
shaved perfectly smooth, and showed
every line i'm his powerful, coarse, and
violent face most unpleasantly. Not
an agreeable looking man at all. They
had not met since his captivity, and he
thanked Lionel in q manly, strsigh for
ward way for his exertions toward his
release; of other obligations to him he
knew nothing. He went away smooth
shorn in the morning, in spite of LionePs
remonstrauces on his danger, entirely
alone, and rode off into the bush toward
the mountain.


At midday there came a young
mounted policeman, stranger to that
part of the country, asking to he guild
ed in a certain direction. The way
lay through some very abrupt, remote,
and densely timbered gullies, on the
old hunting grounds, which had struck
Lionel as very likely place for the
haunt of the bushrsngers. He com
municated this to the trooper ard
having dined him, set out with him on
horseback, accompanied by Jordan.
Lionel had of course his curbine-
Jordan pistols.


Coming to the most suspicious gully
and feeling themselves tolerably strong
they determined to give it some sort of
cursory examination. The trooper was
to go on Que side and they two on the
other. There was no sign of the enemy
whatever. The trooper rode around
the upper end of the gully with bis
sword dangling and his carbine on his
knee, and very soon was pushing on
through the dense scrub, on the oppo-
site ridge, about three hundred yards
from them:


They had gone about quarter of
mile in this order, when from among
some dense acacia bushes there came
little flame of fire and a puff of smoke.
By the time the report reached them,
even at that short distance, the poor
trooper was lying motionless on the
ground. and his horse had started
madly off homewsrd with an empty
saddle.


They were well concealed, and Lionel
felt Jordan's hand on his arm.


'Be perfectly STILL he whispered, and
watch.


There appeared from behind the
bushes the murderer of the trooper. A
very tall man with great bluck beard,
dressed in a red shirt, a cabbage tree
hat like sailors straw hat), breeched
and booted, most beautifully mounted
and carrying pistol ready for use in
his hands.


That is Marks whispered Jordan
in an excited manner. Cant you cut
him overP


Not from here said Lionel in
whisper. 1T is three hundred Syards
of, and my carbine is not rihed.'


watch him for a moment said the
convict, and then follow me-


The bushranger came out in the sun
light, and pulled up his horse to look
for one instant at tue body of the muir
dered trooper; then he turned his
horse to the right, down the glen, and
rode on at foot space through the ar
omatic shrubbery, which brushed as
high as his knees, looking around him
detiantly, yet cautiously.


The other two turned their horses
heads the same way as his, and kept
PARALLEL to him on the opposite ridge,
but behind it, out of sight, and trotting
At particular point, among some thick
green scrub, Jordan laid his hand on
Lionel's arm and turned his horses
head Lionel saw that this was the place
to wait for their man, now coming
down the gully on the opposite ridge.
The gully narrowed here, and it was
evident from the rocks that the bush
ranger must come into the bottom or
even cross toward them; and on the
opposite side was one Of those bald,
healthy, fowery spaces which 1 have
noticed before. Up all around the
forest rose sombre and silent


They waited but a few moments
when he emerged from the denser for
est, riding at foot pace and loading
pistol. Lionel was determined to ar
rest this man in one wsv or another.
Five minutes before, Just after he had
seen him murder the trooper, he would
have shot him down like dog. But his
temper had little cooled, even in that
short time, and he was no assassin. He
got his csrbine ready, his reins over his
left arm and waited.


The bushraUger came slowly on a.
mong the flowers, which reached to his
knees, gaudy with his new shirt under
the blazing sun in the open. His horse
turned down a cattle track under the
rocks toward them.


He is near enough now,' said the
convict in fierce whisper. Fire.,


4 cannot fire without challenging
said Lionel, quietly.


'Foolp hissed out the convict; but
Lionel did not mind. He rode quietly
into the open, and, with his reins over
his left arm, and his earbine at the
present, said, in voice which rung
through the peaceful summer forest:


Stand in the kings nameP


Tho answer was only an ill-aimed
pistol shot. The bushranger hurriedly
spurred his horse onwards; but Lionel
had covered him with his inexorable,
unerriDg carbine, and he fired, and raj
sed ghost which was never to be laid
again.


The bushranger pitched heavily fore
ward on his horses neck, and then fell
off on the left side, the side nearest to
Lionel, the right leg hanging on the
saddle for one moment, until the last
spasm had kicked the foot clear of the
right Stirrup; then the man tOppled
Lo.lIo,,o. 60 al L. ,,a-e,ot1,- -tsV