We saw no reason why we shouldn’t take it easy. Starlight was none too strong, though he wouldn’t own it; he wouldn’t have fainted as he did if he had. He wanted good keep and rest for a month, and so did I. Now that it was all over I felt different from what I used to do, only half the man I once was. If we stayed in the Hollow for a month the police might think we’d gone straight out of the country and slack off a bit. Anyhow, as long as they didn’t hit the trail off to the entrance, we couldn’t be in a safer place, and though there didn’t seem much to do we thought we’d manage to hang it out somehow. One day we were riding all together in the afternoon, when we happened to come near the gully where Jim and I had gone up and seen the Hermit’s Hut, as we had christened it. Often we had talked about it since; wondered about the man who had lived in it, and what his life had been.

This time we’d had all the horses in and were doing a bit of colt-breaking. Warrigal and Jim were both on young horses that had only been ridden once before, and we had come out to give them a hand.

“Do you know anything about that hut in the gully?” I asked Starlight.

“Oh yes, all there is to know about it; and that’s not much. Warrigal told me that, while the first gang that discovered this desirable country residence were in possession, a stranger aecidentally found out the way in. At first they were for putting him to death, but on his explaining that he only wanted a solitary home, and should neither trouble nor betray them, they agreed to let him stay. He was ‘a big one gentleman,’ Warrigal said; but lie built the hut himself, with occasional help from the men. He was liberal with his gold, of which he had a small store, while it lasted. He lived here many years, and was buried under a big peach tree that he had planted himself.”

“A queer start, to come and live and die here; and about the strangest place to pick for a home I ever saw.”

“There’s a good many strange people in the colony, Dick, my boy,” says Starlight,“and the longer you live the more you’ll find of them. Some day, when we’ve got quiet horses, we’ll come up and have a regular overhauling of the spot. It’s years since I’ve been there.”

“Suppose he turned out some big swell from the old country? Dad says there used to be a few in the old days, in the colony. He might have left papers and things behind him that might turn to good account.”