“Then an agent’s station is better than an owner’s,” laughed Fred.

“It would not be if all men were honest,” replied the convict, with a gloomy brow; and from that time until the coffee was boiled, he did not speak another word, but appeared to be meditating profoundly upon some difficult problem.

The cattle had quenched their thirst, and were lying beneath the shadows of tall trees, lazily cropping the rank grasses within their reach.  Fred and myself had bathed and felt refreshed, and as soon as dinner was over, we announced to the convict our readiness to accompany him upon his visit to the stockman’s house, where he had spent so many days of solitude.

“Take your rifles,” Smith said, when he saw that we were about to depart without them.

We looked at him inquiringly.

“We are now in regions where escaped convicts range freely; and ten miles from here, by following the windings of this stream, is a forest of gigantic trees and dark recesses, where the police of Melbourne dare not venture.  In that dreary retreat bushrangers find homes—­stealing forth as they do during the night, to feast upon slaughtered sheep, and rob travellers; they lead an anxious life, as they never know who is about to betray them, and give them up to the merciless rigor of the authorities of the city, or else shoot them down as thoughtlessly as you would a kangaroo, in case one should cross your path.”

“I would like to know if we are to carry our rifles for the purpose, of guarding against bushrangers or to kill kangaroos?” I asked.

“Perhaps for both intentions,” replied Smith, glancing up and down the stream, as though he was not certain that one animal or the other might not be in sight.  “We might meet a bushranger, and if we were without arms he could do his will, and we should be powerless.  As for kangaroos, I’ve killed many on the very spot where we now stand; so let me warn you to keep your eyes open, for they are like lightning in their movements, and it requires a quick eye and steady hand to cover them with a rifle when once they commence their leaps.”

“A dollar to a shilling that I hit one the first fire, if not more than thirty rods distant,” cried Fred, glancing along his rifle as though one was already in sight.

“I accept the wager,” replied the convict, with a laugh at some thought that appeared to strike him at the moment; but without enlightening us he strode along the bank of the stream, leading the way towards the bend of the brook, which was a few rods distant, and concealed a portion of the prairie from view.

As we turned the elbow, or bend of the stream, a small hut met our view, situated near the banks of the brook; while, covering the vast plain were herds of sheep and lambs, so numerous that they seemed like grains of sand upon the shore, and I should as soon have thought of counting the latter, as the former.

The animals raised their heads and looked at us with alarm as we came in sight, and then, appearing to think that we were there for no good purpose, they started off into a run, tumbling over each other in their flight, until they had placed a proper distance between us, when they once more crowded into one dense mass, and then again scrutinized us suspiciously.