The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 55: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE TRACK OF MIDNIGHT. 247 seem to hear him as she still clung to him murmuring, ‘‘ At last, at last I know !”’ “Mary, let go! Quick! They’re here !’’ he cried, as he strove to break from her grasp. As he spoke he heard the gallop of horses outside the door, and throwing his rifle forward, he waited, with his finger on the trigger. The horses, wildly ridden, were pulled up in their stride opposite the door- way, and Wilton saw Giles, white and excited, leap from the back of one. “What's all this?’’ he cried as he dashed into the house and stood look- ing at Wilton, to whom Mary was still clinging. ‘‘ Have you gone mad?”’ ‘Come inside before he sees you or you’re a dead man !’’ Wilton replied as, reaching forward, he caught Giles by the arm and pulled him into the house. ‘Who sees me! What do you mean?’’ he exclaimed. “ Midnight. Look at the bullet mark on the door, and there’s another on the veranda.”’ ‘“ Nonsense, man, you’re mad! Midnight would never dare to attack my house.’’ | “ But he has, or one of his gang. ‘The man, whoever he is, fired at me from those bushes, and I believe he’s there still.’’ “Then Dll go and arrest him,’’ Giles cried as he turned to go out again. ‘No, father, don’t be so rash !’’ Mary exclaimed as she let go of Wilton and caught hold of Giles. ‘‘ They’ll shoot you if they see you !”’ He shook ler roughly off. ‘‘It’s time for action,’’ he said as he sprang into the saddle. Wilton followed, and jumping on to the other horse, they rode to the clump of bushes. Wilton momentarily expected to see a puff of smoke and feel the twinge of a bullet, or see his companion fall; but nothing of the sort occurred. ‘They reached the bushes, and Wilton, pointing to where his bullet had cut the stem, said, ‘‘ That’s where he was when I fired.’’ They dismounted and searched among the patch of undergrowth, but the only evidence they could find was the impression made where a man had lain at full length immediately behind the bush whose stem had been cut by the bullet from Wilton’s rifle. ‘“Vou’re right ; some one’s been there, and a near shave he had if he was there when you fired !’’ Giles exclaimed. ‘‘ Now it is time to rouse the country !’’ Wilton cried. “T doubt if it’s any good now. He'll be fifty miles away before we get out, for he’ll think this is getting too hot for him to stay. We should have started yesterday to catch him, only we didn’t know he was coming.”’ ‘Tet us track him now,’’ Wilton said. ‘‘ We ought to be able to see his footprints on the soft ground, and he must have left a clear track through the bushes.”’ “ Wait till I get my rifle. I don’t fancy going after Midnight with empty hands,’’ Giles auswered. He rode away to the house and presently came back with his rifle, Wilton in the mean time searching for some token to point the direction of the bush- ranger’s flight. But he was not keen enough to discover the signs which, to CONNICGLOOOKS. 3