At Large

d hawker of the bush. Now, the hawker out there is a very extensive development of his prototype here at home; he is Westbourne Grove on wheels, with the prices of Piccadilly, W. But these pa

to them in sticky tires. Little pools had formed all over the plain; and westward, on the off-side of the wagon, these pools caught the glow of the setting sun, and filled with

prerogative, and lolling back wreathed in smoke. His thick bare arms were idly folded. He was a stout, brown, be

g the pace only where the track was good. He looked twenty years Flint's junior, and was, in fact, just o

quite ten weeks. Flint had tried everything, and failed; Edmonstone had everything before him, and did not mean to fail. Flint was experienced, Edmonstone sanguine; things surprised Edmonstone, nothing surprised Flint. Edmonstone had dreams of the future, and golden dreams; Flint troubled

longer; there was a noticeable change in them whenever young Edmonstone bent forward to gaze at the sun away

s quick, anxious way; "dark just as we reach the scrub; we shall have no

Edmonstone's left, in the mild falsetto that contrasted so queerly with the bodil

pare the horseflesh and the whipcord-both

to get to the Murrumbidgee to-night. No? Well, at all events, you

township at an unearthly hour, when all the time we might camp in comfort a

hem from the time we've been on the roads-and we'd have been back a week ago at least. I shall have no peace of mind until I step out of the bank, and tha

f riches, you see-and young blood! When you've been out h

ave. But if I can't peg out my claim and pick up nuggets, I'm going to do the next best thing. It may be hawking and it may not. I mean to see. But we must give the thing a chance, and not run unnec

to it. I only don't see the point

all is concealed about my pe

es am I to tell you so?" And there was a squeak of impatience in the a

e some distance

marked at length, "a store

of t

was robbed of e

kno

ot him dead

'll swing

ean heels, and nobody knows

to find them waiting for

ly deny that we ar

ut his pipe wit

not a bushranger at all; he and his mates are mere robbers and murderers. Ned Kelly didn't go shooting miserable storekeepers; and he was the last of the bushrangers, and is likely to remain the last. Besides, these chaps will streak up-country, not down; but, if it's any comfort to you, see here," and Flint pocketed his pipe, made a long

singly, and restored the pistol to its ho

time, but was more in earnest

t it-hawking with an empty wagon? How could I push, push, push-as I've got to-after losing all to start with? A hundred pounds! It isn't much, but it

ural to him to think out the business and its possibilities in this way, and it was no les

ink so much about

tone in a low, excited tone. "Home and

ed the face of his friend; then lay back agai

had been exiled for years, and it'

t already seeme

n years; wait until you have tried digging, selecting, farming, droving; wait until you have worn a trooper's uniform and a counter jumper's apron, and ridden the boundaries a

happy that his mind would fly from the one to the other without touching the present. And so he thought now, gazing westward, of home, and of something sweeter than home itself; and he blended that which had gone before with that which was yet to come; and so wonderful was the harmony between these two that to-day was entirely forgotten. Then the sun swung half-way below the dark line

cal footfall of the horses, the hoarse notes of crows wheeling through the twil

the antipodes by a mi

asleep,

N

y one ahead of us this

; w

," said Flint, pointing to a fresh

ifficult in the dusk to distinguish the trail

see any one, as close to the scrub as we are now. Whoever it is, he must have stru

hall see him in a minute. Don't yo

was looming through the dusk-very broad and round, with only the crown of a wideawake showing above the sh

e used my last, and I'm j

Dick, pulling up. "Tak

returned until a loaded pipe was satisfactorily alight; and as the tobacco glowed in the bowl the man's face glowed in comp

when the fellow had thanked him with

ed good-

t again; but I shall know it if ever I do. I

tered the forest of low-size

fter half-an-hour, "there's some one gallop

lint, waking

e scrub-can't you hear the

ar no

en ag

stened i

r an instant-but no,

s no sound then, and h

ou will push on, why, let's do it;

es they trotted on gamely; then, without warning, they le

ight, sat two shadowy forms on horseback,

ied one of the