The Odds | Page 2

that day, things which a
mere ignorant male would never have dreamt of. There was bread to be
baked, an evening meal to be prepared, countless household duties
waiting to be done, and work enough in Jack's wardrobe alone to keep
an ordinary woman busy for a week. Poor Jack! He was not a great
hand at needlework. She had been shocked at the state in which she had
found him. But she had not shirked her responsibilities. And more than
ever was she glad now that she had come to him. For he needed her in a
moral sense as well. She was too much of a "new chum" to help him in
any very active sense outside the homestead at present. But he needed a
good deal of moral backing just at that moment. She had come to him
straight from England, and full of enthusiasm. He had hewn his own
way and begun to enjoy prosperity. But she had arrived to find that
prosperity temporarily checked. A gang of cattle-thieves were making
serious depredations among his stock.
The police were hot on the trail, and it was believed that the gang had
been split up, but so far no notable captures had been made. Buckskin
Bill, the leader, was still at large, and while this remained the case there
could be no security for any one. Every farmer in the district was keen
on the chase, expecting to fall a victim.
And--there was no doubt about it--Buckskin Bill was in a very tight
corner. Inspector Hill had the matter in hand, and he was not a man to
be lightly baffled. Jack regarded him with wholehearted admiration.

But somehow Dot, the new arrival, felt curiously prejudiced against
him. She wanted Buckskin Bill to be caught, but she could not help
hoping that this astute Inspector of Police would not be his captor. She
was sure from Jack's description that she would not like the man, and as
she went about her work she earnestly hoped that he would not come
her way, at least in her brother's absence.
She was busy indoors during the whole of the morning. As midday
approached the heat became intense. Jack usually returned for a meal at
noon, but she was not expecting him that day. He had joined the chase,
and had taken with him every available man. She might have felt lonely
if she had not been so engrossed. As it was, she hummed cheerily to
herself as she went to and fro. There were so many things to think
about, and it was such an interesting world in which she found herself.
In the early afternoon she went out to feed a few motherless lambs that
her brother had placed in her charge. She stood in the shelter of a great
barn with the little things clustering around her, while Robin, the old
black hound, lay watching and snapping at the flies. Miles and miles of
pasture stretched around her, broken here and there by thick scrub and
occasional groups of blue gum trees.
The hot glare of the afternoon sun made the eyes ache, and she was
glad when her task was over. When she stood up at length she was
feeling a little giddy, and she leaned for a moment against the barn wall
to steady herself. A rank growth of grass grew all about her feet, and as
she stood there gazing rather dizzily downwards she saw a ripple pass
along it close to the building.
Any but a "new chum" would have known the meaning of that small
disturbance, for there was no breath of air to cause it. Any but a "new
chum," being quite defenceless, would have beaten instant and swift
retreat.
But Dot Burton in her inexperience had no thought of evil. She was
only curious. She forgot her weariness, and bent down to watch the
moving grass.

At the same moment Robin suddenly raised his head and looked keenly
in the direction of the farm, with a growl. The girl barely heard him, so
interested was she. She even stooped and parted the tall grass with her
hands when unexpectedly it ceased to move.
The next instant she started back with a wild cry of horror. For it was as
if the grass itself had suddenly come to malignant life under her hands.
A shape--long, thin, vividly green--rose up before her, and swayed with
an angry hiss.
Her cry seemed to galvanize Robin into action, for he sprang up
fiercely barking, but his attention was not directed towards her. He
leapt instead towards the house, yelling resentment as he went. And in
a flash the green evil struck at the bare brown arm!
Dot shrieked again, shrieked like a demented creature, and in