‘Don’t cry,’ Dick said consolingly; ’it’ll all come out happy—­it always does you know.’  This was the philosophy of the Waddy Library, and Dick had the most perfect faith in its teachings.

’Thank you, dear.  I am going to ask you to do something more for me.  I am afraid this is not right either.  I know it is not right, but we cannot always do what is right—­our hearts won’t let us sometimes.  Will you help me?’

‘Yes,’ he said valiantly, and would have liked nothing better at that moment than to have been called upon to face a fire-breathing dragon on her behalf.

‘I want you to go to Yarraman and buy these things for me.’

She gave him money and a list of articles with the help of which she hoped to effect a disguise for her father that would enable him to leave the district.  It was a very prosaic service, Dick thought, but he undertook it cheerfully.

’I want you to tell no one what you are going for.  Catch the three-o’clock coach near the Bo Peep, and answer no questions.’

‘I know a better way’n that,’ said the boy, after a thoughtful pause.  ’Mother wants some things from Yarraman.  I’ll get her to let me go fer ‘em this afternoon.’

‘Yes, yes; that is clever.  But you won’t tell.’

‘Not a blessed soul.’

’And when you get back it will be late—­bring the things to me as secretly as you can.  The troopers would be suspicious if they saw you—­be careful of them.’

Dick had no doubt of his ability to deceive the whole police force of the province, and undertook the mission without a misgiving, his only regret being that it was making no great demands upon his courage and ingenuity.

‘Dickie,’ said Chris, kissing him again at parting, ’I hope some day, when you are older, it will be a great happiness to you to think you helped a poor heartbroken girl in a time of terrible trouble.’

The boy would have liked to have framed a fine speech in answer to that, but he could only say softly and earnestly: 

‘I’m fearful glad now, s’elp me!’

Mrs. Haddon was easily deceived, and Dick caught the three-o’clock coach.  The Waddy coach took two hours to do the journey to Yarraman and did not start back till after eight, but this was not the first time the boy had made the journey alone, and his mother had no misgivings.

Downy returned to the Drovers’ Arms late in the evening, having discovered that his supposed clue led only to a half-demented sundowner living in a hollow log near Cow Flat, and having nothing whatever in common with the missing man.  The search of the troopers had been fruitless, too, and at this crisis the opinion of McKnight as a pioneer of Waddy was solicited.  McKnight’s belief was that Shine was hiding away somewhere in the old workings of one of the deep mines—­the Silver Stream perhaps—­and he recalled the case of a criminal who got into the old stopes of a mine at Bendigo, and subsisted there for two weeks on the cribs of the miners, stolen while the latter were at work.  The detective considered this a very probable supposition, and an invasion of the Silver Stream workings was planned for next morning.