Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/92

 windows. Men were tumbling pell-mell through them, shouting like lunatics, and armed with native weapons snatched from the walls.

"Stingaree!" they roared. "There he is! Run, Miss Villiers; that's Stingaree!"

Irralie never forgot the wild voices or the wilder scene. As one man they had dashed at her companion. He turned and ran for the tethered horse. The reins were whipped from the fence before he could mount; but he was first through the wires, when, instead of running on, he wheeled round to reason or remonstrate with his pursuers. Irralie saw his gestures without hearing a word; but when they cut him short with a roar and a dash, and struck at his head with their spears and boomerangs, she saw the hand become a fist, and the fist planted in the middle of the first shirt-front to breast the wires. Next moment they were scaled by all, and the many fell headlong upon the one.