Sal was right, it would be as cowardly with him as with her.'

He opened the door and called Benjamin Nix.

'He is insensible,' said Jim. 'His wound has opened again and he is bleeding to death.'

'Then nothing can save him?' said Nix. 'I have sent for Dr Sheridan.'

'He is at Wanabeen by now,' said Jim.

'Who is ill there?'

'My wife, or the woman who was my wife.'

Benjamin Nix knew something of that story.

'Has she returned?' he added.

'Yes, to die in the home of the husband and child she had deserted for that man,' said Jim, as he pointed to Rodney Shaw.

Benjamin Nix started back and said,--

'Can it be possible he is such a villain?'

Rodney Shaw opened his eyes and looked at them vacantly. A violent fit of coughing seized him and the blood poured from his mouth. He commenced to struggle, for the terrible flow choked him. They went to his a.s.sistance and raised him, but it was too late, his head fell back and he was dead. A higher power than Jim Dennis's had summoned him to answer for his sins.

'Jim, I'm glad of it; I mean that I'm glad it happened this way, not your way,' said Nix.

'It is better so,' said Jim. 'He will have a heavy settling day when he is called before his last Judge.'

'Sometimes I have thought he was not Rodney Shaw,' said Ben Nix,'but someone very like him.'

'Who knows?' said Jim. 'That's strange. I have thought the same thing.'

Jim Dennis rode back to Wanabeen.

During his absence Dr Tom had arrived and done all that lay in his power to ease the dying woman and render her last moments free from pain.

The messenger sent to Barragong had missed Willie Dennis, who was on the way home.

When Jim Dennis arrived at Wanabeen and entered his house he saw his son standing by the bedside holding his mother's hand. To violently pull him away was his first impulse, but Dr Tom stopped him by saying in a low voice,--

'She is going fast, Jim. Be very quiet.'

Peacefully and quietly the woman who had wronged and been wronged pa.s.sed away, with Willie's hand in her own.

'Who was she, father?' asked Willie.

Those words spoke volumes to Jim Dennis.

He bent over and kissed the dead woman's forehead.

'An unfortunate woman I once knew well, Willie,' he said, and thought to himself, 'She died without letting him know; it was brave of her. May she be forgiven as freely as I forgive her.'

'Rodney Shaw is dead,' said Jim to the doctor.

Dr Tom looked at Jim and then at the dead woman. He fancied he had solved the problem of Jim Dennis's life, and he was not wrong.

CHAPTER XXVII

NEPTUNE'S SON

The trial of the Barker's Creek gang excited much interest, and it took place at Bathurst.

It is needless to go through the evidence given at the trial, as it merely recapitulated the events with which we are already familiar.

All the prisoners were sentenced to death, and there was a general feeling of satisfaction with the verdict.

Constable Doonan was soon afterwards promoted and raised to the rank of sergeant, and had charge of the district formerly under control of the unfortunate Machinson. All who took part in the fight and the extermination of the gang were eulogised for their bravery.

One lady was so enamoured of Dr Tom that she wrote and offered him her hand and fortune, which he respectfully declined.

Jim Dennis prospered during the next few years, and his son Willie was a great help to him.

A claimant to Cudgegong Station appeared in the person of a cousin of Rodney Shaw, and he made good his claim.

The new owner of Cudgegong, Chris Shaw, was a very different man to his cousin, and he soon became a firm friend of Jim Dennis's. He was not, however, enamoured of station life, as he had lived in Sydney, and one day he made a proposition to Jim that he should take over the management of Cudgegong.

'I mean to live in Sydney, Dennis,' he said. 'This life does not suit me, and I want to get back to my racing and town amus.e.m.e.nts. Will you take it in hand?'

'What about Ben Nix?' said Jim. 'I should not care to oust him out of his billet.'

'Ben is growing old,' said Chris Shaw, 'and he is quite willing to remain and leave the responsibility to you. He says you always got on well with him.'

'Very well,' said Jim; 'I will accept, and the terms you offer are quite good enough; in fact, generous.'

'And if at any time you can afford to buy Cudgegong you shall have it at a reasonable figure,' said Chris Shaw.

Jim's eyes glistened. He would have dearly loved to make Wanabeen and Cudgegong one property for Willie's sake, but it seemed beyond his most sanguine dreams.

He thanked Chris Shaw for his offer, but said there was very little chance of his being able to buy such a large station.

Chris Shaw went to Sydney, and Jim Dennis and Willie had their hands full with Wanabeen and Cudgegong.

Everything prospered, and they had no severe droughts. Jim Dennis put by all the money he earned as manager, and also made a big profit out of Wanabeen. He commenced to have hopes of realising his ambition after all.