So I made up my mind to try to dash through them, when the shutter opened a little, and my father shouted out: "'Ride for help, Bill.

I will keep them off, till you get back.' "So I turned; but when I had gone a few yards I looked over my shoulder, and I saw a man dash out from behind the house on horseback, and start at a gallop after me.

It was a bay with a white leg, and I knew that Cockeye used to ride such a horse, and that there wasn't a better in the colony.

Almost at the same moment I heard a shot again, but I didn't look round.
"I can tell you I felt pretty badly frightened, for there was no mercy to be expected from that scoundrel, and I knew that he was a good deal better mounted than I was.

The next station was about four miles off, and I had about two hundred yards start, but before I had gone half a mile, he was within fifty yards of me.