第72章

He's the greatest darling I ever saw.Wouldn't he look stunning with a side-saddle? I've a great mind to "duff" him myself one of these days.'

`You shall have a ride on Rainbow next time we come,' says Starlight.

`I've sworn never to give him away or sell him, that is as long as I'm alive;but I'll tell you what I'll do -- I'll leave him to you in my will.'

`How do you mean?' says she, quite excited like.

`Why, if I drop one of these fine days -- and it's on the cards any time --you shall have Rainbow; but, mind now, you're to promise me'

-- here he looked very grave -- `that you'll neither sell him, nor lend him, nor give him away as long as you live.'

`Oh! you don't mean it,' says the girl, jumping up and clapping her hands;`I'd sooner have him than anything I ever saw in the world.

Oh! I'll take such care of him.I'll feed him and rub him over myself;only I forgot, I'm not to have him before you're dead.

It's rather rough on you, isn't it?'

`Not a bit,' says Starlight; `we must all go when our time comes.

If anything happens to me soon he'll be young enough to carry you for years yet.And you'll win all the ladies' hackney prizes at the shows.'

`Oh! I couldn't take him.'

`But you must now.I've promised him to you, and though I am a -- well --an indifferent character, I never go back on my word.'

`Haven't you anything to give me, Captain?' says Bella;`you're in such a generous mind.'

`I must bring you something,' says he, `next time we call.What shall it be?

Now's the time to ask.I'm like the fellow in the "Arabian Nights", the slave of the ring -- your ring.' Here he took the girl's hand, and pretending to look at a ring she wore took it up and kissed it.

It wasn't a very ugly one neither.`What will you have, Bella?'

`I'd like a watch and chain,' she said, pretending to look a little offended.

`I suppose I may as well ask for a good thing at once.'

Starlight pulled out a pocket-book, and, quite solemn and regular, made a note of it.

`It's yours,' he said, `within a month.If I cannot conveniently call and present it in person, I'll send it by a sure hand, as they used to say;and now, Jim, boot and saddle.'

The horses were out by this time; the groom was walking Rainbow up and down;he'd put a regular French-polish on his coat, and the old horse was arching his neck and chawing his bit as if he thought he was going to start for the Bargo Town Plate.Jonathan himself was holding our two horses, but looking at him.

`My word!' he said, `that's a real picture of a horse;he's too good for a -- well -- these roads; he ought to be in Sydney carrying some swell about and never knowing what a day's hardship feels like.

Isn't he a regular out-and-outer to look at? And they tell me his looks is about the worst of him.Well -- here's luck!' Starlight had called for drinks all round before we started.`Here's luck to roads and coaches, and them as lives by 'em.They'll miss the old coaching system some day --mark my word.I don't hold with these railways they're talkin' about -- all steam and hurry-scurry; it starves the country.'

`Quite right, Jonathan,' says Starlight, throwing his leg over Rainbow, and chucking the old groom a sovereign.`The times have never been half as good as in the old coaching days, before we ever smelt a funnel in New South Wales.But there's a coach or two left yet, isn't there?

and sometimes they're worth attending to.'

He bowed and smiled to the girls, and Rainbow sailed off with his beautiful easy, springy stride.He always put me in mind of the deer I once saw at Mulgoa, near Penrith; I'd never seen any before.

My word! how one of them sailed over a farmer's wheat paddock fence.

He'd been in there all night, and when he saw us coming he just up and made for the fence, and flew it like a bird.

I never saw any horse have the same action, only Rainbow.

You couldn't tire him, and he was just the same the end of the day as the beginning.If he hadn't fallen into Starlight's hands as a colt he'd have been a second-class racehorse, and wore out his life among touts and ringmen.He was better where he was.Off we went;what a ride we had that night! Just as well we'd fed and rested before we started, else we should never have held out.

All that night long we had to go, and keep going.A deal of the road was rough -- near the Shoalhaven country, across awful deep gullies with a regular climb-up the other side, like the side of a house.

Through dismal ironbark forests that looked as black by night as if all the tree-trunks were cast-iron and the leaves gun-metal.

The night wasn't as dark as it might have been, but now and again there was a storm, and the whole sky turned as black as a wolf's throat, as father used to say.We got a few knocks and scrapes against the trees, but, partly through the horses being pretty clever in their kind of way, and having sharpish eyesight of our own, we pulled through.