Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/151

 must now think of some other plan; and as she thought, they were walking off the track among the salt-bush in search of horses; and as they walked half-a-dozen came suddenly like phantoms across their path.

Stingaree caught one adroitly, and Irralie was no less quick to secure another by the mane. She was as anxious as he to be in the saddle; and the saddling fell to her, while Stingaree stood at the horses' heads. So Irralie left the girths of the man's saddle judiciously loose; but when he had helped her to mount he would not let her handle her own reins; and before mounting himself he tightened his girths without a word. So they rode on together in silence at a steady canter, and the girl's hands were empty of rein or switch. Her mount was a quiet, inoffensive buggy-horse; and his, one of her small brother's ponies. Short of the farther gate, he pulled them both up suddenly.

"Do you know," said he, "that your father is a very innocent man?" "Indeed!" said Irralie, who had thought