Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/33

 And without finishing his sentence, he fumbled nervously in the pockets of his disreputable coat.

"Hadn't you an overcoat?" asked Irralie, calmly.

"Yes, yes! I had!"

"Then they may be in that."

"They were—now I think of it. But I have lost the overcoat. I—I must have left it behind me when my horse knocked up!"

"Then think no more about it," said Villiers, instantly. "It'll be as safe in one of these paddocks as on your own back; it's only a question of knowing where to look for it, and that we can do at our leisure to-morrow morning."

So there the subject dropped; but it was something more than fortunate that not one of the younger men was present; for—in fact—the three of them were engaged already, in the tutor's school-room, upon a systematic mutilation of the new owner's character and pretensions.

"So now, George," said Jevons, "the