Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/165

 been placed beside her pannikin without a word. In the ensuing silence the raised voices of the men outside carried to the ears of those within.

"Then that's settled. We shan't fall out about it. Thy horny hand once more!" "I don't want no barney, you know," said the voice of Howie the humble.

"Nor I; but, by heaven, I mean her to pay for it! Now you go inside, and I'll fetch along the piebald moke myself."

Irralie sprang to her feet and looked at Fullarton in sudden terror; and Fullarton laid his hand firmly on her shoulder, while Dawson, now sitting on his heels in front of the fire, had one eye for them and one for the doorway of cold pink sky. As Howie filled it with his powerful frame, the deaf man seized a log and hurled it at his body, then leapt upon him like a cat, dug his fingers inside the tight white collar, and cracked the great skull like an egg against the door-jamb. The thing was done in an