Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/60

 sit up! Not that he's likely to come here, Miss Villiers," continued the overseer reassuringly, to unheeding ears. "Stingaree never stuck up a station in his life. Gold-escorts are his lay; he goes where money is; still, yesterday morning it seems he stuck up a bush pub by way of a change. I suppose there was money there. I know the shanty—it's over in the Balranald district—that is straight across country from here, say seventy miles by the crow. And that's far enough—across country. It would be a different thing if it were north or south of us, anywhere up or down this stock-route. Still—it's near enough to be exciting!"

Of all this Irralie had heard two sentences exactly. So not a soul save herself had suspected him here! And now—it seemed incredible—the portmanteaus had actually come, and even she could suspect nothing more. So ran her thoughts, and the overseer's voice was as the babble of a creek.