Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/144

 had flown than of the ruffian left behind to her cost. Was the one so very honest after all? She felt more hurt by his harmless dissimulation at the last than she had ever been by the gross fraud of which she had suspected him up to the end. Nor could she see any reason for it; forgetting how determined she had been not to hear from him a single word of self-defence; forgetting, also, how plainly she had shown him that determination. Even his ready flight for the police struck her in an unheroic light; and that view of him was the hardest of all to bear.

The bushranger had struck matches and put a saddle over his arm. He now took down a side-saddle (Irralie's own) and put it on top of the other, with a bridle to spare. This put an end to Irralie's thoughts.

"Who's that for?" she gasped.

"For you, of course."

"For me!"

"Well, obviously I can't leave you here to raise an earlier alarm than there will be