The Moth and the Star
pick her up on my voyage home. It will be no joke without her until then. I give her up for your sake!"
Stingaree hung his head. He was a changed man.
"And I," he said grimly—not pathetically—"and I am a convict who escaped by violence this afternoon."
Hilda smiled.
"I met Mr. Brady the other day," she said, "and I heard of him to-night. He is not going to die!"
He stared at her unscrupulous radiance.
"Do you wonder at me?" she said. "Did you never hear that musical people had no morals?"
And her smile bewitched him more and more.
"It explains us both!" declared Miss Bouverie. "But do you know what I have kept all these years?" she went on. "Do you know what has been my mascot, what I have had about me whenever I have sung in public, since and including that time at Yallarook? Can't you guess?"
He could not. She turned her back, he heard some gussets give, and the next moment she was holding a strange trophy in both hands.
It was a tiny silken bandolier, containing six revolver cartridges, with bullet and cap intact.
"Can't you guess now?" she gloried.
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