Stingaree
self and your own mighty cheek to thank for taking me out of my shell and putting me on your tracks in earnest. But it was high time they knew the cut of my jib up here; the fools won't forget me again in a hurry. And you, you devil, you sha'n't forget me till your dying day!"
On Stingaree's off-side Sergeant Cameron was also hanging an insulted head. But the bushranger laughed softly in his chest.
"Someone has got to do your dirty work," said he. "I did it that time, and the Bishop has done it now; but you shouldn't blame me for helping your fellows to bring a murderer to justice."
"You guyed me," said Cairns through his teeth. "I heard all about it. You guyed me, blight your soul!"
Stingaree felt that he was missing a strong face finely convulsed with passion—as indeed he was. But he had already committed the indiscretion of a repartee, which was scarcely consistent with an attitude of extreme despair. A downcast silence seemed the samest policy after all.
"It used to be forty miles to the Corner," he murmured, after a time. "We can't have come more than ten."
"Not so much," snapped the Superintendent.
"Going to stop for feed at Mazeppa Station?"
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