A very nice girl indeed, I should say.

Have you heard the news from the north ?" "No!" "Bushrangers! Nine or ten devils, loose on the upper Macquarrie, caught the publican at Marryong alone in the bush; he had been an overlooker, or some such thing, in old times, so they stripped him, tied him up, gave him four dozen, and left him to the tender mercies of the blowflies, in consequence of which he was found dead next day, with the cords at his wrists cutting down to the bone with the struggles he made in his agony." "Whew!" said Sam.

"We are going to have some of the old-fashioned work over again.

Let us hope Desborough will get hold of them before they come this way." "Some of our fellow-countrymen," said Halbert, "are, it seems to me, more detestably ferocious than savages, when they once get loose." "Much of a muchness--no better, and perhaps no worse," said Sam.

"All men who act entirely without any law in their actions arrive at much the same degree, whether white or black." "And will this Captain Desborough, whom you speak of, have much chance of catching these fellows ?" asked Halbert.
"They will most likely disperse on his approach if he takes any force against them," said Sam.