You couldn’t tell from his face or voice how he felt about it; but I believe now—more than that, he let on once to me—that he was awfully cut up about my changing, and thought we were just in for a spell of straightforward work, and would stash the other thing for good and all.

We put the fire together. It burnt up bright for a bit. I pulled out a shilling.

“If it’s head we go, Jim; if it’s woman, we stay here.”

I sent up the coin; we both bent over near the fire to look at it.

The head was uppermost.

“Hoo—hoo—hoo—hoo,” came the night-bird’s harsh croak.

There was a heavyish stake on that throw, if we’d only known. Only ruin—only death. Four men’s lives lost, and three women made miserable for life.

Jim and I looked at one another. He smiled and opened the door. “It’s all the fault of that cursed owl, I believe,” he said; “I’ll have his life if he waits till it’s daylight. We must be off early and get up our horses. I know what a long day for Warrigal and that ambling three-cornered devil of his means—seventy or eighty miles, if it’s a yard.”

We slept sound enough till daybreak, and could sleep then, whatever was on the card. As for Jim, he slept like a baby always once he turned in. When I woke I got up at once. It was half dark; there was a little light in the east. But Warrigal had been out before me, and was leading his horse up to the hut with the hobbles in his hand.

Our horses were not far off; one of them had a bell on. Jim had his old brown, and I had a chestnut that I thought nearly as good. We weren’t likely to have anything to ride that wasn’t middlin’ fast and plucky. Them that overhauled us would have to ride for it. We saddled up and took our blankets and what few things we couldn’t do without. The rest stopped in the hut for anyone that came after us. We left our wages, too, and never asked for ‘em from that day to this. A trifle like that didn’t matter after what we were going in for. More’s the pity.

As we moved off my horse propped once or twice, and Warrigal looked at us in a queer side sort of way and showed his teeth a bit—smile nor laugh it wasn’t, only a way he had when he thought he knew more than we did.

“My word! your horse’s been where the feed’s good. We’re goin’ a good way to-day. I wonder if they’ll be as flash as they are now.”