. . .I might have failed to recognise him. He looked at me and then at my brother, whose attention was occupied by the older bushranger and did not notice him as I was doing.

“Oh, oh, oh!” exclaimed the man, after the warning Guy had given him; and, without saying another word, he and his companions turned their horses’ heads and rode away in the direction from whence they had come. Probably they had been attracted by the smoke of our fire, and expected to find some travellers unprepared for them; so we should have been had we not fallen in with Bracewell, and should certainly have lost our baggage and horses, and perhaps our lives.

“We have had a narrow escape, for there is no doubt about those fellows being bushrangers,” I observed to Guy.

“Not the slightest,” replied my brother. “I felt that there was only one way to deal with them. Had we shown the slightest hesitation or nervousness, they would have attempted to fr. . . Read More