I suppose they thought I had got no end of a
start; then they had made up their minds that I belonged to the
gang, which was not so many miles away; and one of them had got
as much as he could carry from that gang as it was. But I wasn't
to know all that, and I'm bound to say that there was plenty of
excitement left for me. Lord, how I made that poor brute travel
when I got among the trees! Though we must have made it over
fifty miles from Melbourne, we had done it at a snail's pace; and
those stolen oats had brisked the old girl up to such a pitch
that she fairly bolted when she felt her nose turned south. By
Jove, it was no joke, in and out among those trees, and under
branches with your face in the mane! I told you about the forest
of dead gums? It looked perfectly ghostly in the moonlight. And
I found it as still as I had left it--so still that I pulled up
there, my first halt, and lay with my ear to the ground for two
or three minutes. But I heard nothing--not a thing but the
mare's bellow and my own heart. I'm sorry, Bunny; but if ever
you write my memoirs, you won't have any difficulty in working up
that chase. Play those dead gum-trees for all they're worth, and
let the bullets fly like hail. I'll turn round in my saddle to
see Ewbank coming up hell-to-leather in his white suit, and I'll
duly paint it red.
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