Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/59

 again significantly at the girl. Irralie could have struck him for the delay.

"What's the matter with you? Why don't you speak?" she gasped. "Something has happened—and there you stand!"

"Oh, it's nothing near home, Miss Villiers; only I was just thinking, seeing the name of poor Giles there, that there may be one or two more to join him before long!"

"What do you mean?"

"Bushrangers!" replied the other. "Our friend Stingaree at it again!"

"Here?" she steeled herself to say.

"Well, no; not on the run; but somewhere or other in these back-blocks, there is little doubt. You see, Jevons has just come back with the mail—and those portmanteaus"

"Has he brought the portmanteaus?"

She steadied herself by one of the wooden palings round the grave.

"Oh, yes, he's brought them all right; it was about that I came to you; but this bit of news is the thing that's made us all