Middleton flicked aside the screen and emptied his pistol at the spot where his quarry had stood... but the bushranger had moved.

Gardiner fired two quick shots at the target framed in the doorway. One smashed Middleton’s mouth and jaw. The other struck him in the left hand and burrowed through his wrist. The policeman reeled out the front door just as Hosie arrived.  

“Go around to the back door,” gurgled Middleton through a mouthful of broken teeth. He tried to reload with his shattered hand, then threw the pistol away in disgust. Clutching the hammer-handled whip in his good hand, he stood guard outside the door.

Meanwhile Gardiner, believing himself surrounded, peered out through a chink in the wall. Spying Middleton he took careful aim, and pulled the trigger.  

CLICK.  

A misfire - only two bullets left. The next shot struck the Sergeant in the hip. He swayed, but remained stubbornly upright.

Hosie, finding no back door, sprinted around to the front and collided with Gardiner in the doorway. Both emptied their guns into each other and collapsed in a heap on the dirt floor. The children screamed.

The heavy lead ball ploughed a furrow in Darkie’s forehead and left him stunned. Driven by a strong instinct for survival, he picked himself up, wiped the blood from his eyes and staggered out the door.

Middleton was waiting. He clubbed the revolver out of Gardiner’s hand with enough force to bend the barrel. Then he clouted him on the back of the head and fell on top of him, belting him with the club. Gardiner fought back with his fists.

Meanwhile, Hosie slowly regained consciousness. Gardiner’s bullet had penetrated above his right temple, tunnelled between skull and scalp and lodged in a lump over his ear. He stared blankly at the two antagonists.

Gradually his eyes focused and comprehension dawned. He struggled to his feet, lurched across, and laid into Gardiner from behind.

Both policemen hammered the outlaw with boot, club, fist and gun butt until Fogg waded in and grabbed the Sergeant by the arm to beg for his life.

Hosie clapped the “darbies” (hand cuffs) on and the prisoner was secured.

Neither policeman had noticed the old man slip away during the brawl. He had gone to try and find Johnny Piesley – to even out the odds.

The Foggs assisted the bloody trio back to the house, to dry their steaming bodies by the fire and bathe the mud from their wounds.

Middleton asked Fogg to ride to Bigga to arrange a police escort, the old rogue looked him straight in the eye and claimed that he didn’t know the way.  

“Then lend me a horse for the prisoner to ride,” demanded the Sergeant. Fogg calmly replied that he didn’t have one.

The wounded Sergeant ordered Hosie to guard the bushranger while he rode into town for help. After he left, Hosie collapsed on the sofa facing the prisoner, who was propped in a corner near the fire, apparently unconscious.

Gradually the breathing returned to normal. Hosie asked for a drink, and laid his pistol on his lap to grasp it with both hands. As he raised the pannikin to his lips, Gardiner lunged for his throat. They tumbled to the floor – spilling both pannikin and pistol. The bushranger was hampered by the handcuffs. Hosie got hold of the chain, tore the hands from his throat and gulped air. As he clung to the chain, Gardiner flung him around in a wild dance, sending the children and chairs flying.

Out the door they spun. Hosie tried to loop the chain over a fencepost, but Gardiner broke the Constable’s grip by dragging his knuckles along the top of the picket fence.

Then he set off across the paddock headed for the Lachlan River. Hosie grabbed his pistol and set off in pursuit. The befuddled outlaw had forgotten where his horse was – and the river was in flood.