"I wish you would do it altogether. It will be easier for her if you tell her, than if I do."
"Eustace is arrested?" Harding exclaimed in an excited whisper.
"Eustace is dead," Durham replied in the same tone.
Harding started as though he had been struck.
"How? When?" he exclaimed.
"Brennan and I found him, as we were returning from Waroona Downs this evening. He was lying on his face in the creek where it crosses the road in the range. He was drenched with water from head to foot, but the water at the ford is barely six inches deep. There were no footprints on the track either side of the ford to show how he had entered the water. He was shot in the back, the bullet having passed through his right lung, coming out at his chest. His wrists were bruised and chafed as though he had been tightly bound and had struggled to escape. The only thing found on him was this."
He produced a handkerchief with two round holes burned in the centre.
"It was such a handkerchief one of the men who stuck up Taloona was wearing," he added.
"Where is he now?" Harding asked.
"We brought him in and took him over to the police-station. It is for Mrs. Eustace, of course, to say what is to be done about the funeral. Will you break the news to her by yourself, or shall I do it?"