SVLVE5tE-R-
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 WHAT LAY BENEATH
 
 WHAT LAY 
 BENEATH 
 
 A Story of the Queensland Bush 
 
 "COO-EE" 
 
 (WILLIAM SYLVESTER WALKER) 
 
 Author of "The Silver Queen," "When the fMopofc Calls," "From 
 
 the Land of the Wombat," "Native Worn," "Virgin old," 
 
 "In the 'Blood" "Zealandia's Guerdon" etc. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN OUSELEY, L TD - 
 
 15 & 1 6 Farringdon Street, E.G. 
 
 [All Rights Reserved] 
 1909
 
 PR 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I The Loot of the Land 9 
 
 II A Bushlaud Queen ...... 20 
 
 III Two in a Coach 33 
 
 IV Ruin 49 
 
 V Franks 58 
 
 VI At Austen's Hut, and Afterwards ... 68 
 
 VII The Black Snake 78 
 
 VIII The Plotting of Levi and Another ... 93 
 
 IX The Black Kangaroo Mine .... 105 
 
 X The Menace of the South . . . .119 
 
 XI Love in a Motor Car .128 
 
 XII A Waste Place 136 
 
 XIII Lured by the Bell-Birds ... .151 
 
 XIV The Promised Land 163 
 
 XV The Ways of a Maid 172 
 
 XVI The Twittering of the Cockatoo Parrakeet . 183 
 
 XVII Pride's Fall . . .... 195 
 
 XVIII At Large 204 
 
 XIX "The Priest" 213 
 
 XX A Travelling Show . . . . . .220 
 
 XXI Hue and Cry 226 
 
 XXII United 233 
 
 XXIII A Terror of the Bush . . . 242 
 
 XXIV The Court of Half Evidence . . . .253 
 XXV Conroy's Haven 263 
 
 XXVI Levi Again 272 
 
 XXVII The Mysterious Lights 277 
 
 XXVIII Innocent and Guilty 284 
 
 XXIX The Grave's Gatherings 291 
 
 XXX McLeod's Deductions . 295 
 
 1564202
 
 "THE SILVER QUEEN' 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE TIMES says: "This is a story by a popular 
 Australian writer of adventure in the bush, mine- 
 prospecting, aboriginal customs, and the dealing of 
 black with white. It is a curious, out-of-the-way kind of 
 tale, spread over a good many years, and of interest." 
 
 THE SCOTSMAN says : ' ' From a memory richly 
 stored with reminiscences of Australia, Mr. Walker 
 has garnered many of the incidents in this tale of the 
 Northern Territory. He gives faithful pictures of the 
 existence of the old-time settlers and the natives, and 
 the descriptions of the country have in them a certain 
 poetic charm." 
 
 THE AGE (Melbourne) says: "The book leaves no 
 room for doubt as to the fertility of the author's brain 
 in ideas, for it is full of romantic incidents. The story 
 is entertaining. " 
 
 THE YORKSHIRE POST says: "A bright and stir- 
 ring study of adventure in the bush and coast life in 
 the northern territory of Australia as a reminiscence of 
 his early pioneering days. Incidentally he assures his 
 readers that Australia is still calling for men of pluck 
 and industry who are willing to work. ... It will 
 please the readers of romantic fiction." 
 
 The NORTH DEVON CHRONICLE, in a half-column 
 review, says: "Mr. Walker has evidently a deep 
 acquaintance with the tribal customs of his native 
 country, and this knowledge he supplements with a 
 fertile imagination, the result being a procession of 
 weird and mysterious objects and incidents, blood- 
 curdling to their witnesses, but subsequently explained 
 upon perfectly natural grounds. . . . The work is 
 true to Nature, and gives no idea of straining after 
 effect." 
 
 The GLASGOW NEWS says: "It is full of wild 
 adventures in the Australian bush, secret caves, savage 
 blacks, an unknown country surrounded by a waterless 
 desert and impenetrable forest, and, in short, every- 
 thing that goes to make the average boy happy in his 
 fiction." 
 
 THE NORTHERN WHIG (Daily) says: "Holds the 
 reader's interest through many curious scenes and side 
 issues . . . the book is capitally written. . . . 
 The author takes his readers into an entirely new 
 world both above ground and below. The book is 
 full of thrilling adventures, and gives ample evidence
 
 of the author's accurate knowledge of the country he 
 writes about." 
 
 The NOTTINGHAM DAILY GUARDIAN Literary Sup- 
 plement says: "The plot is elaborately constructed 
 . . . and there is a lot of good material in the story." 
 
 THE MANCHESTER CITY NEWS says: "The human 
 trend of the subject is concerned with the love of Tom 
 Inglis, a young stock raiser, and his wife Millie. She 
 and her young son are led away by the schemes and 
 intrigues of one Richard Cosgrave. The author always 
 remembers that his chief aim must be to maintain 
 interest, and this aim he is successful in achieving." 
 
 The OXFORD CHRONICLE says: "Oxford (Univer- 
 sity) men will be interested to hear that the well- 
 known Australian writer, ' Coo-EE ' (Mr. William 
 Sylvester Walker, scholar of Worcester College), has 
 written a new book, ' The Silver Queen.' ' Coo-EE ' 
 is the Kipling of Australia and New Zealand, and his 
 latest work is considered the most attractive he has 
 yet penned." 
 
 THE MANCHESTER (DAILY) COURIER says: "The 
 author, under the nom-de- plume of ' COO-EE,' has 
 proved himself to be one of the ablest of Australian 
 story-tellers. He is thoroughly acquainted with Aus- 
 tralian life. He carries on his reader with attractive 
 interest." 
 
 The ABERDEEN DAILY JOURNAL (Half-column re- 
 view, Aug. 12) says: "Is weirdly and irresistibly 
 fascinating. " 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN HERALD says: "The strange 
 adventures of the Man in Dungaree, the account of the 
 Kiraltai, and the weird happenings in the Cave of the 
 Red Hand, are worthy of the author of ' King 
 Solomon's Mines," and any young and adventurous 
 spirit who still dreams of finding Australia a veritable 
 Tom Tiddler's ground, should read this book and 
 ponder well ere deciding to venture on a life full of 
 hazard. Mr. Walker is keen on his subject, and hands 
 his enthusiasm over to his readers, for the interest 
 never flags, but is well-sustained to the very last page." 
 
 THE ABERDEEN FREE PRESS says: "The author 
 has lived his life in Australia, and loved it with all his 
 heart. Much that he writes about is strange and even 
 uncanny to us who do not know the country . . . 
 the situations are dramatic and often startling. A 
 good deal of information about Australia can be 
 gathered throughout the book. Its tone also is a high 
 one." 
 
 THE GLASGOW HERALD says: " The book abounds 
 in adventures ... a series of wonderful events." 
 
 And fifty more good Press Notices.
 
 To LUCY, LADY DARLEY, 
 
 with the Author's sincere affection 
 and respect.
 
 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE LOOT OF THE LAND 
 
 A FLASK of gunpowder flared scarlet in the sun- 
 shine, a vivid spot of colour all by itself, amid the 
 grey-blue gravel and dry sand patches of an 
 Australian creek bed. 
 
 A geologist's hammer, a double-barrelled gjm, 
 a miner's pick and shovel, were other accessories 
 of scenic effect, but lay nearer to the foreground at 
 the feet of the actors. A large "billy" standing 
 near a camp fire was flanked by three tin plates 
 and pannikins. Saddles, pack-saddles, bridles, 
 and blankets were all strewn about in 'picturesque 
 confusion, and an Australian crow (Corvus vasta- 
 trix) croaked slowly and banefully from the 
 topmost branch of a tall dead gum tree on an 
 adjacent bank. All things spoke of loneliness, 
 haste, departure; a waiting and a flitting. 
 
 The spot on the world's surface was a wilderness 
 interior in Queensland, and the dry bed of the 
 watercourse, where the inanimate objects were 
 disposed so carelessly, showed a length of one 
 hundred and fifty yards between deep blue water- 
 holes surrounded by long whispering bulrush beds. 
 
 Two men in a corner of the creek bed were 
 peering critically and carefully at something which 
 was just being panned off by the smaller of them
 
 io WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 in a gold-prospecting dish. In the distance, a 
 third human being wandered restlessly and system- 
 atically in search of botanical specimens. 
 
 The man holding the pan, in the nearer fore- 
 ground, swirling the water round for the grains 
 and pennyweights of prospect, was Arthur Franks; 
 his companion, a strong, handsome, bearded man 
 of great stature, Rudolph Delamayne; whilst 
 Austen Conroy was the name of the dreamer and 
 botanist in the background. 
 
 Suddenly the man with the gold-dish whispered 
 to Delamayne, although Conroy was far out of 
 hearing. 
 
 "Better say nothing about this. You know what 
 Conroy is, what he can't help being. He'd blab 
 the secret to the whole country, and that would 
 never do. We don't want to be driven out of these 
 grand new areas of discovery, and if we let him 
 know all about it, we shall have but another of 
 his pet reformation schemes exerted over a big 
 mining camp, with an exhortation to the 
 populace to study botany, whilst he treats them all 
 to champagne, high living, and the odds on the 
 racecourse. 
 
 "Old man, the indications are most uncommon. 
 Rich oxidised blister copper together with a won- 
 derful mass of gold copper from a deep level. See 
 how the gold here, a specimen which, by the way, I 
 procured elsewhere, is powdered through the 
 quartz until it is almost solid. It will yield on an 
 average 300 ozs. per ton. The matrix of this other 
 particular nugget I now hold between my finger 
 and thumb, which contains our fortunes, should 
 bear East by some few degrees North. My theory 
 is that this bit of the main reef has been hove
 
 THE LOOT OF THE LAND 11 
 
 up somehow from a lower level from where a 
 section of the ore is cut above us by water 
 erosion in the creek. Yes, we shall peg out 
 millionaires, but we must be as secret as the grave. 
 The copper alone reveals 98 per cent, crude to the 
 ton, with n ozs. of pure gold." 
 
 "Should a man bo-ast?" the crow overhead 
 seemed to croak. 
 
 Arthur Franks was a mining expert, well-read, 
 well-experienced, a born bushman, a friend and 
 intimate associate of both Delamayne and Conroy. 
 But the latter had always refused to be stirred by 
 any particular thrill of emotion except that 
 occasioned by his one own beloved and absorbing 
 hobby, botany, his whole nature seeming to be 
 tinctured strongly with its latent anodynes, as if he 
 were a chemist, dispensing his drugs for the benefit 
 of all mankind. 
 
 "But where is the rest of the great body of the 
 ore?" Frank^ asked confidentially of Rudolph 
 Delamayne. "Is it up or down the creek? Well, 
 I have proved it to be both, divergent here from 
 elsewhere. Only two days ago I was after wallaby 
 and pigeons, amongst those intervening hills 
 verging on the big river. Well, I shot at a black 
 tree-kangaroo, and could just see him give a great 
 spring forward as I fired, and then disappear bodily 
 over a deep cliff, to the bottom of a gully. Getting 
 down for his carcass, which I saw lying below, I 
 found an opening in the cliff at the ground level. 
 Here a portion of the lode of this oxidized gold- 
 copper ore itself is exposed, and easy to work 
 without anyone being the wiser. But I kept it all 
 quiet until I carried out my theory under crucible 
 tests, and preserved the skin of the tree-climbing
 
 12 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 marsupial as a memento of my discovery, and a 
 name to the climax of our fortunes. 
 
 "Now this is my plan. We'll use this godsend 
 of our travel unknown to anyone. I found an 
 excellent location beyond the rolling hills for you 
 and I to knock up a bush hotel at, not very far 
 from this creek's junction with the river. There 
 we will establish a secret and timely look-out 
 station, parcelling out the division of our new 
 rights or spoils, or whatever else you choose to 
 call them, amongst ourselves. Conroy wouldn't 
 join us if we told him, he's too cantankerous, too 
 alert to give it away, doesn't know enough for my 
 purposes, and I'm not going to have this great 
 gift of Nature ruined by a chance outsider like him. 
 If, at any time, population comes this way, we can 
 secure ourselves by getting mining rights. It's a 
 very big thing indeed, but not unprecedented. 
 When we get down to Brisbane again, we will 
 only take up a large stretch of this country, as a 
 blind to the general public, on pastoral leases only, 
 which will hold the run of the gold reef it is iri- 
 descent sandstone and leached quartz on top, sure 
 signs of the double value, for there is this copper- 
 gold ore amongst it and even almost crude blister 
 copper, carrying one to twelve ounces of gold per 
 ton to its own 98 per cent, of raw metal. It's a 
 billionaire's nest, that's what it is. Under my 
 plan we will work our present knowledge out, so 
 as to prepare for a bright and prosperous ending 
 for our united selves, without anyone but you and 
 me being the wiser in the interim. Do you see my 
 drift?" 
 
 His companion nodded shrewdly, exultantly, 
 and Franks put some small specimens of the rich
 
 THE LOOT OF THE LAND 13 
 
 oxidized ore he had collected away in a small 
 leather pouch, after first carefully wrapping them 
 up in old rags. Then he went over to the fire, and, 
 lighting his pipe with a small, glowing, aromatic 
 wood ember the best pipe-light in all the world 
 came back to throw himself down on the grassv 
 slope of the creek bank nearest to his companion, 
 in deep and earnest thought. 
 
 Delamayne stretched himself out and followed 
 suit with a wax match. He was a man luxuriously 
 inclined, indolent, fond of riches, but a strong man 
 for all that. Blowing a cloud into the pure air, he 
 watched somewhat intently certain spirals of 
 tobacco smoke as they circled over his head. 
 
 "The letter D," he said, suddenly, with an 
 expression now void of any Satisfaction and with 
 lowering brow. "Does that mean Discovery, 
 Disaster, or Death, Arthur? Tell, oh prophet; I 
 don't like the omen at all. Hear that damned 
 
 crow 
 
 "Dilatory dividends, possibly, in relation to 
 Conroy, ourselves, and the world at large. But 
 get out of that !" Franks shouted the last words, 
 and threw a water-worn pebble, with a remarkable 
 sudden access of energy and good aim, at the 
 croaking bird overhead, and went on : "We haven't 
 the cash to make a public display of it yet, and 
 unless we negotiate our chances entirely my way 
 the only proper and safe one at present we shall 
 be fooled out of our venture. Let Conroy, with his 
 money, take up this country where we are now, 
 and stock it with cattle, as he intends to do. 
 That's the first part of my scheme. It's as easy as 
 falling off a log to us, and we can take Conroy into 
 partnership later, when he is about bankrupt, not
 
 i 4 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 before. Let him build his houses and herbariums 
 here by the big water-hole, whilst we locate indis- 
 criminately by the lower end of the creek some 
 distance back from the main river, to watch, ward, 
 and work. I have my own knowledge of the 
 direction the reef will run in, as well as what it is 
 likely to be worth to us." 
 
 "Where will it run to, sonny?" asked Dela- 
 mayne, more cheerful now. 
 
 "Why, to where we will locate, of course, in our 
 bush hotel, and back here again to where we will 
 build Conroy's houses. We will erect both family 
 settlements right over the level of the lode for our 
 own security, so that we can import our whole tribe 
 of McGregors and McLeods as shareholders and 
 working partners. They are staunch and true 
 retainers, as you know, wonderfully clannish and 
 ready to do any mortal thing for either of us. 
 What should we have done on any of our former 
 mining ventures, aye, or elsewhere, without 
 McLeod's planning work ? He will, of course, 
 now manage for Conroy. But who would have 
 ever thought, when we planned this expedition, 
 that we were again going to stumble on the old 
 Rhadamanthus which let us in for such a loss 
 before, that we were reduced to hotel keeping in 
 Brisbane, in an endeavour to keep our heads above 
 water!" 
 
 The three Overlanders, who had been travelling 
 for a fortnight beyond the last verges of civiliza- 
 tion, were a private party, ostensibly looking for 
 pastoral country. Franks and Delamayne had 
 been mining mates for some years in the past, and 
 after many ups and downs had saved just enough 
 to enable them to take over the good-will of an
 
 THE LOOT OF THE LAND 15 
 
 hotel in Brisbane, nothing more. To the billiard 
 room there one day had strayed in a late arrival 
 from the Old Country^ Austen Conroy by name. 
 His unsophisticated manners, backed by apparently 
 unlimited resources, won the hearts and ideas of 
 the partners, and they, as old bushmen and traders, 
 had jumped at the idea of forming a station for 
 him in new country, as well as from the grand 
 notion of a real bush holiday for themselves. So 
 they had left Mrs. Delamayne to manage the 
 business in their absence, and send her ten-year- 
 old daughter to school. And they had thus come, 
 where we meet them, across their great discovery. 
 
 They had both benefited greatly in health by the 
 trip, and, it being a good season, had kept the 
 expedition going with native game easily enough, 
 but, losing Austen Conroy on one occasion when 
 he had ridden off on his own account and got over 
 a range into the very place they were now on, they 
 had rested for a few days in its neighbourhood, 
 thoroughly exploring the vicinity and being 
 charmed with its conformation and characteristics, 
 for the breeding and fattening of stock, but at its 
 realistic conclusion still opined that Conrov was 
 entitled to the most of the fruits of their discovery 
 when the time came to hand it over to him. 
 
 Conroy was a married man as well as Dela- 
 mayne, and had left his wife under Mrs. 
 Delamayne's care, so that all three explorers had 
 really little to worry about at first starting, until 
 the potentiality of Franks' disclosure upset all 
 'calculations and proved a drift of excitement 
 beyond everything else to himself and Delamayne. 
 Conroy had money, as aforesaid, but, the flora of 
 all countries having far more attraction for him
 
 16 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 than gold-bearing stone of any description, had lost 
 himself more than once on the road in his one and 
 only quest, because he was no bushman and quite 
 incapable of looking after himself if he wandered 
 out of the sight of their camp fires. However, 
 this very fact of his wayward character had founded 
 their fortunes, and they rejoiced in the aphorism 
 without blaming him more than in pointed sarcasm. 
 
 "He'll spend all his coin in conservatories and 
 plants to stock them with, I verily believe," 
 observed Delamayne, carelessly enough no\v, in 
 absolute merriment with his present surmises and 
 position so differently exciting from his late lazy 
 town life. "We can run both establishments, 
 Arthur, now I think of it, up here and down in 
 Brisbane, and we'll build Conroy's station for him, 
 as you say, on that fine elevated plateau above our 
 heads at the top end of the biggest water-hole, in 
 order that you may have your eyes about when it 
 is building. The water-hole here is very deep ; I 
 couldn't bottom it when bathing." 
 
 "And never trouble about mining leases until 
 we are cocksure of the whole thing as the men in 
 possession," rejoined Franks, easily, with his mind 
 still on his one subject. "To have the ownership 
 of the land is nine points of the law, after all, and 
 we'll fence it in until it becomes a private estate, 
 
 fetting Conroy to secure whole blocks of it if we 
 nd it worth while. We can then work the oracle 
 at our leisure and in our own due time. Yes, we'll 
 run the double hotel concern as well as the under- 
 ground one. We've got inception there. Town 
 may be a convenient get-away sometimes to sell the 
 gold on the quiet, and I vote we start back to- 
 night."
 
 THE LOOT OF THE LAND 17 
 
 "Here's Conroy. Mum's the word, old man." 
 
 "Right you are," answered Delamayne, enthusi- 
 astically. 
 
 "See here, my friends," Conroy exclaimed, 
 hurrying forward with a handsome pink flower of 
 about the same hue as his face, "I've found a new 
 Callistemon. I was really not aware they grew so 
 far away from the coast. This species is larger 
 and more deeply coloured than any other I have 
 seen hitherto." 
 
 His companions smiled, literally behind their 
 hands, noticing all things, especially their uninten- 
 tional victim's innocence. They got up and 
 replenished the fire, filled the billy with water, and 
 made arrangements for a meal. 
 
 Conroy began to sort his botanical treasures, 
 and when the repast was ready, joined them. 
 
 "Johnnies on the coals, wood-duck stew, pufta- 
 loona pudding," Franks, the chef, exclaimed with 
 pride. "Pile in, Conroy. You look as if the 
 exercise and open air served well with you, and 
 you've actually annexed some rose-pink with your 
 sun tan. Better that colouring than that attained 
 with devil's pool, curacoa and brandy, attending 
 the races, taking odds on the winner of the 
 Brisbane Cup, or otherwise sporting your spon- 
 dulicks in double backing all the pools we played. 
 What do you think, my son ?" 
 
 "The calyx tube is actually three lines long," 
 observed Conroy rapturously, as he took the edibles 
 handed to him. 
 
 "And our journey some three hundred, old man, 
 so we've got to hurry up," rejoined Franks, with 
 acerbity. "Hard lines for you. We're going to- 
 
 B
 
 i8 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 night, and are going to build an hotel in your 
 neighbourhood, so as to keep you company." 
 
 "That will be just about the right thing to do, 
 I should imagine. It will be so like old times down 
 in Brisbane again, won't it? and we shall all be 
 together as before," observed the botanist, as he 
 pegged heartily into the edibles. "Yes, the coun- 
 try interests me vastly. It does, indeed. I've got 
 a Harpullia, a new Euphorbia, a Callicoma, and a 
 Crowea." 
 
 "Ah, glad to hear it. There was a crow here 
 cawing most dismally, and annoying us, until I 
 persuaded him to leave. We have been planning 
 a sort of mutual provident society whilst you were 
 away, old man, though there's lots of time to tell 
 you all about that. But primarily we are going to 
 build your station houses on the left bank of this 
 fine creek, so you will be able to plant and preserve 
 just what herbs and flowers you like. It's a limited 
 liability affair as far as we've gone at present, so 
 you needn't concern yourself at all about it until 
 we tell you, but you will have to pay the piper for 
 the greater part of its commencement, as usual, for 
 we are far too stoney broke for that lay. In return 
 we'll look after your stock, brand and breed up for 
 you, don't you see, and you can mind the matters 
 that most concern and interest you." 
 
 "All right," said Conroy, happily. "You're 
 dear, good fellows, and it will suit me and mine 
 down to the ground, I am sure of that." 
 
 "Or under it," darkly muttered Franks. 
 "Come and get the horses, Delamayne," he cried, 
 changing the subject abruptly. "Conroy, don't 
 you budge an inch from that fire until we come 
 back, or you'll get lost again, and we mightn't find
 
 THE LOOT OF THE LAND 19 
 
 you next time. We must be off, as I want to get 
 scrip for taking up this new country before we are 
 dispossessed by any others. 
 
 "Your pressed specimens will go in old Bally 's 
 pack this time, for safety; so you needn't worry 
 about 'em," he added to the botanist, pausing with 
 a bridle over his arm. Then he joined Delamayne, 
 to bring up the horses. 
 
 Five days later the dry bed of the watercourse 
 was deep under the strong, whirling eddies of a 
 flood ; the stream ran level from bank summit to 
 bank summit. All was primeval wilderness again, 
 but now and then through the daylight hours, or 
 even during the moonlit nights, an old man 
 kangaroo of the common red species, accompanied 
 by his family, would hop up to the brinks of the 
 flooded creek on either side and, raising himself 
 to his full height, keep his nostrils a-twitch and 
 ears a-cock, as he stared at the running water. 
 Then he would drop quietly to all fours and feed 
 about with his does and progeny until they all 
 hopped off slowly to the ranges again.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 A BUSHLAND QUEEN 
 
 TEN years have passed, ten full years of secret toil 
 and anxiety, and James Forsyth Conroy, the only 
 son of the dreamer and botanist, who had been left 
 in England to be educated, was seated at a Sunday 
 morning service in a certain college chapel at 
 Oxford, gazing intently at a kangaroo carved on 
 the back of the pew seat immediately in front of 
 him. 
 
 His hand touched it in farewell, for he was going 
 to where it originated. 
 
 The lectern in the nave below him, just beyond 
 the pulpit, bore another symbol of immediate 
 transition for him as far as its wings suggested, 
 for the Bible Clerk of the day was reading the 
 second lesson from the Holy Book, supported 
 above the outstretched pinions of a brazen eagle. 
 
 The young man had received the news of his 
 father's sudden death in Australia by letter. 
 All his debts had been paid lately by some mysteri- 
 ous hand, and the passage money sent him was 
 ample for all emergencies. 
 
 "See McLeod at Brangal Downs, Queensland," 
 was the only locality in the scant words of the 
 cablegram he had also received, and he had to 
 suffice with that. 
 
 He knew Brangal Downs was his father's
 
 A BUSHLAND QUEEN 21 
 
 station, but, having corresponded little with either 
 of his parents for some time past, was absolutely 
 ignorant of transpiring events; all he now knew 
 was that his immediate presence was required at 
 the Antipodes, and he held himself prepared to 
 follow his instructions as far as they went. 
 
 He had now, in deference to this peremptory 
 summons, done with the University altogether, 
 and he was the more ready to go because he 
 assumed that his inheritance, a goodly one indeed, 
 as he had been taught to imagine it, lay on the 
 under side of the world. So his mind flew off 
 after it not unwillingly. 
 
 With the few passing hours that brought the sun 
 back to the chorusing birds in the bush around 
 the "Travellers' Rest," in far-away Queensland, 
 a very beautiful girl in deep mourning stood at a 
 glass door which opened from a large, well- 
 furnished room on to a broad, flat, shady verandah 
 festooned with passion flowers and fruit. 
 
 The "Rest," as the bush hotel was familiarly 
 called, a well-built structure of wood, was shingled, 
 chimneyed, painted, portalled, and partitioned 
 most amply, thus bearing all signs of long and 
 continuous prosperity. A fine garden, both for 
 flowers, vegetables, and fruit of various kinds 
 enclosed it beyond a strong, white, painted fence, 
 where might have been seen pineapples and 
 loquats. The hotel was a between-stage for the 
 mail coaches, an up-to-date halting place now, but 
 many travellers passing up and down the main 
 river road that ran beyond the enclosures did not 
 diverge as a rule to trespass on their inner lintels, 
 nor troubled either to explore towards Brangal 
 Downs the great cattle station which lay away up
 
 22 WHAT LAY BKNEATH 
 
 the creek on the other side of the intervening hills 
 because they had no interest in it. They, the 
 main body of travellers, some exceptions being 
 allowed for casual acquaintances, naturally kept 
 on past the "Rest" on the main road, for the 
 reason that a large township lay some miles 
 further on, and the hostelry was a good bit out of 
 their track. So that Brangal Downs enjoyed all 
 its own primeval loveliness and solitude as in the 
 past without interruption, even from the mail 
 coaches or stray horsemen. 
 
 When Franks and Delamayne had first built the 
 "Rest," there w r ere no people in the district, and 
 they had a motive in not selecting the river 
 frontage. They had been the pioneers of this part 
 of the inner road, and kept up their name and fame. 
 The hostelry had been a success somehow, not 
 always shown by the bar trade, until Delamayne 
 and his wife died, and were followed by the Con- 
 roys, of Brangal Downs. 
 
 Now only Franks, considerably out of his usual 
 habit, was dispensing drinks surreptitiously at the 
 front bar of the "Rest" to a quick moving and 
 motley panorama of chance travellers on horseback, 
 who had made a sudden and unlooked-for 
 intrusion. He seemed to be in a state of semi- 
 inebriety, and took little personal notice of anyone 
 there except two men, at whom he cast furtive and 
 rather alarmed glances every now and then. 
 
 When the passing contingent had gone, and he 
 was just about to congratulate himself upon their 
 departure, he heard a buggy drive up to the other 
 side of the house, where the girl was, and shortly 
 afterwards a deep masculine voice mingling with 
 hers resounded from the best parlour.
 
 A BUSHLAND QUEEN 23 
 
 He slipped through the bar to listen, taking 
 possession of the keyhole of a door in the hall 
 passage, and reaching it just in time to hear this 
 statement : 
 
 "Now dot transagtion is gomblede, Miss 
 Delamayne," the deep, rich tones were saying, 
 "Prangal Towns is yours. Levinstein Brothers 
 will be quite satisfied mit your endorsements. I 
 haf brought der bapers." 
 
 Levi Levinstein, the very good-looking junior 
 partner of the firm at the township where the main 
 river road led to, now produced two documents 
 from the breast pocket of his frock-coat, placed a 
 chair by a table for his fair client, dipped a pen 
 in ink for her, and bent over, gallantly adjusting 
 the sheets, al' deference and very much intended 
 chivalry, to the great amusement of the concealed 
 spy, who evidently rated him not as his somewhat 
 conceited bearings advertised. 
 
 When Bronzewing had placed her signature at 
 the spot indicated on both documents, Levinstein 
 handed her one and took possession of the dupli- 
 cate. With old-fashioned courtesy, mixed with a 
 good deal of "side," he then nodded his adieux, 
 kissed her outstretched hand, put on his tall silk 
 hat, and went briskly into the verandah where his 
 harnessed horse stood quietly by, jumped up into 
 the driving seat, and, unfastening his reins from 
 the splashboard, drove away towards the township. 
 
 And the watcher on the other side of the passage 
 door chuckled audibly. 
 
 Miss Delamayne sat quite still with her 
 voluminous legal document smoothed out upon the 
 table in front of her, and was apparently lost in 
 deep thought.
 
 24 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "So that's all right, Poppet," exclaimed the spy, 
 entering suddenly and without knocking. He 
 seemed strangely sober. "And about in the nick 
 of time, too," he continued. " 'Kangaroo' Austen 
 was one of the crowd who rushed me unawares just 
 now. He asked after you; there was another big 
 man with him whom I don't know and don't like, 
 so I told them I had come up to take you back to 
 Brisbane heaven forgive me for the lie. I think 
 Austen must have spotted my pale face and hands. 
 None of the others knew me, and I shammed to 
 be half-seas-over to put them all off the scent. It 
 was deuced awkward, Austen's turning up, but I 
 suppose all we can do now is to wait for the so- 
 called heir," he added, after a pause. 
 
 "What is he like, Arthur?" she asked, without 
 looking up from her transfer sheet. "Have you 
 ever heard any news of him?" 
 
 "By now, eh? Now that he has grown up?" 
 Franks ruffled up his hair, as if striving to get rid 
 of the momentary confusion and annoyance caused 
 by thoughts of "Kangaroo" Austen's supposed 
 suspicions, and Miss Delamayne's pre-occupied 
 question at one and the same time. 
 
 "Lord, I don't know, Poppet," he added, 
 gathering his scattered ideas. "How should I? 
 Nobody knows. He was only a comparative 
 piccaninny when he was left in England. I know 
 his father entertained big ideas about him, the only 
 big ideas he ever seemed to have. He was mighty 
 pessimistic about everything else, unless it was 
 some new-fangled discovery of his own connected 
 with plants, and we never could tell him all. But 
 his son is sure to take to you at first sight, darling,
 
 A BUSHLAND QUEEN 25 
 
 and that might be a good thing for us if he is 
 worth his salt." 
 
 "I don't think so," she mused, wearily; "I 
 haven't got over these sudden deaths yet, that of 
 his dear mother in particular. And I can't think 
 about anything else until they are effaced from my 
 memory. But I'd sooner meet him as mistress of 
 Brangal Downs when he does come out, than as 
 the licensee and proprietress of this bush hotel ; 
 you can see that, can't you? I can just remember 
 hearing about him when I was a child down in 
 Brisbane, when you and father were arranging for 
 us up here, and I expect he is very proud and 
 wilful, just as his father was. His mother told me 
 we were born on the same day of the month with 
 two or three years or so difference in age. Except 
 yourself, Arthur," she went on, "I have no one 
 now to confide in, respect, or love. You have been 
 my second father always, doubly so since my 
 parents passed away. When young Conroy's 
 mother was taken after poor Mr. Conroy's death, 
 she gave her son to me with her last breath. I 
 was to look after him and love him, for her 
 sake." 
 
 Frank started and made an obvious grimace. 
 
 "The whole district collectively are your devoted 
 slaves, my dear," he rejoined, vehemently. "Men, 
 women, and children are better and sweeter for 
 your passing presence amongst them, but did not 
 Mrs. Conroy ever think you might have another 
 choice, no matter how lucky her son would be with 
 you as his mentor and caretaker?" 
 
 ' I don't know," she replied, rather blankly. 
 "But the occasion was so solemn; it seemed to 
 bind me wholly."
 
 26 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Bronzewing Delamayne was well worth the 
 admiring looks bestowed upon her by her 
 guardian, Arthur Franks. Her hair, blue-black 
 and sheeny as the plumage on a wild crow, was 
 caught up and coiled neatly at the top of her 
 classic head. Diana might have been her model 
 for poise of dainty unapproachableness, and her 
 brave, dark brown eyes brought suggestions at 
 times of great depths in her nature when the 
 now troubled waters of her soul should be 
 fathomed by the plummet of daring success or even 
 adversity. 
 
 She was to be revered, that was plain to be 
 diagnosed, but the something that dwelt in 
 those depths of her inner soul expressed what 
 would be the power of her love for a brave and 
 worthy admirer. It had been there when she 
 spoke of those who were lost to her, those to whom 
 her affection had gone. 
 
 She smiled, and the dazzle of the pearly teeth in 
 her radiant mouth enchained Arthur Franks in yet 
 more rapt adoration of her perfect whole. He had 
 a sacred trust in her from her father, and early 
 association with herself. But even so, her last 
 communication had somewhat staggered him, for 
 there were times when he thought he might have 
 attained her own ideal. 
 
 All expressions on Bronzewing's face were 
 inimitable, briefly and changeably apparent like 
 the unparalleled bronze-gold sheen on the 
 wing spots of the woodland dove she was called 
 after. 
 
 'Ere one could fully grasp their wonderful 
 tenderness or changeful subtilty of tone they had 
 gone with a flash of mind or purpose to reappear
 
 A BUSHLAND QUEEN 27 
 
 still more alluringly. Withal she was slightly 
 formed, of a medium height, agile, graceful; a 
 consummate horsewoman; a driver of no mean 
 merit ; and possessing, personally, a wonderful 
 business capacity such as befitted a great heiress. 
 
 "He may be altogether too high and mighty for 
 me," she sighed, plaintively and comprehensibly, 
 os if in answer to an expression in Franks' face. 
 "He may have turned out somewhat difficult, for 
 all we know. A prig, conceited, or common-place. 
 I like men brave, honest, true men. I wish I 
 could get a glimpse of him, Arthur, if only from 
 a photograph, so that I might form some sort of 
 an opinion about him. It must indeed strike you 
 as very strange that I should have been given to 
 him so unconditionally by the joint wish of his 
 mother, backed by her obtained consent of my 
 own parents. Suppose I don't like him when I 
 see him, and he 
 
 "Falls or has fallen from his high estate, like 
 Lucifer never to hope again ?" Franks suggested. 
 "Well, what then? It lies with yourself on your 
 first judgment." 
 
 "Arthur, you should know," she went on, with 
 a shudder at the last remark, "you, of all others, 
 my guardian, lately my good genius, the pain it 
 gives me to be bound as a gift, without even the 
 exercise of my own free will, to a man I have 
 never seen. I would sooner marry young 
 Levinstein, if I had to marry. I am sure he would 
 make a most devoted husband, and I should have 
 no difficulty whatever in steering him. Of that I 
 am quite certain. But I own Brangal, and young 
 Conroy thinks it is his." 
 
 Her eyes flashed almost maliciously, with
 
 28 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 another quick change of her subtle expressions. 
 
 "Why not use your power to sanctify the soul 
 of your special legacy?" Franks hazarded after a 
 moment's thought. "Even if he did turn out 
 somewhat of a difficult duffer on first sight or trial, 
 you know where to find out the good in a man, 
 Bronzewing. Why not say : 'If he is mine, I 
 shall make him worthy of me.' You made me, my 
 dear; absolutely re-created the true Franks." 
 
 He paused again as he thought of the beautiful, 
 quick, sarcastic, ardent soul before him as it looked 
 from her black-lashed eves. 
 
 "You could, I believe, do anything with anyone 
 of us, you siren," he said, at length, regarding her 
 steadily. "I'm just as deeply impressed with you 
 really, Bronzewing, as any one of them. But 
 there is so much of the dove in your nature, my 
 dear child, that the Old Serpent can get no show 
 in your presence. Sometimes I'm half afraid of 
 you myself. I'd be just as happy as I saw you 
 happy, after all, my dear. 
 
 "But mark me, if he is a prig, or in any way 
 superior in his ideas to our common lot, that 
 needn't trouble us, we can waive all ceremony and 
 cut him dead, surviving our demerits without 
 complaint. Brangal's ours, my Poppet. It is 
 your gift to him, if it is anything at all. He hasn't 
 a leg to stand on, on his own authority, bar his 
 scholarship, if indeed he has that." 
 
 "Brangal was his father's home, and is not ours, 
 to my way of thinking, Arthur. It belongs to the 
 son with all the risk and fancy of it. That is just 
 my dilemma. It binds me to him in a less inde- 
 pendent sort of way somehow, more like a 
 guardian, than according to two families' wishes,
 
 A BUSHLAND QUEEN 29 
 
 for of course it is his really. I only saved it for 
 him." 
 
 "Do you think Levi Levinstein suspects any- 
 thing?" asked Arthur Franks, starting from his 
 chair, his face a shade paler at a sudden thought. 
 "If he did entertain any suspicions from the fact 
 of your buying it back, he would certainly spring 
 the whole country on us. The run absolutelv 
 belonged to Levinstein Brothers before you bought 
 it wholesale, at least, by the bond of the mortgage 
 Conroy involved it in." 
 
 "No, I am convinced that Levi knows nothing 
 of our plans," she answered, calmly. "As for 
 Aaron, he would be above it. But Brangal belongs 
 to young Conroy, or shall belong to him." 
 
 "And you would really give it back to him, 
 knowing what we know?" Franks exclaimed, fairly 
 startled into amazement. 
 
 "Right is might, Arthur, in this case," she said. 
 
 "So, then, if he is a conceited puppy, you will 
 make him more insufferable still by your action 
 and ruin all my plans. And they were large for 
 you, my dear for you only." 
 
 She gave no sign, for she had a strong will. 
 
 Here Franks felt was a decided veto to his care- 
 fully-thought-and-worked-out schemes of the last 
 ten years, at a time, too, when they were nearly 
 all completed in every detail but one. 
 
 After considerable deliberation, he aid, staring 
 at her : 
 
 "Well, you know best, Bronzewing. Maybe 
 you are right as you invariably are, but I must 
 say good-bye. I have to be off to my usual 
 employment, yet I am more than afraid that my 
 brief appearance here this afternoon will bear some
 
 30 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 evil fruit from 'Kangaroo' Austen, whom I did not 
 wish to see me. When McLeod takes entire 
 charge of Brangal Downs again, under our own 
 orders, I must get to work in real earnest. I'm 
 ready to open up there now, and must be off to 
 Brisbane in a few days for our rights. Remember 
 the safeguard, whatever you do, should you have 
 any reason to employ it. 'Ware hawks, my dear. 
 The one I have cause to fear most is even 
 now on the wing, and he flies fast and strikes 
 surely." 
 
 She acquiesced mechanically, her mind else- 
 where; then, giving him both her hands: 
 
 "Arthur," she said, "I shall see James Conrov 
 unknown to him first, of that I am determined. 
 Then I shall be able to judge better what I shall 
 do in this case, how I shall advise and act for 
 him." 
 
 "As you will, Poppet," he rejoined, bringing 
 both her palms together affectionately in his own 
 strong ones. "It is not for me to gainsay you. 
 It never was, and I could not do it because I know 
 you are right." His eyes and manner brimming 
 over with love for her, he then left her presence. 
 
 He went along the verandah to an end room, 
 unlocked it cautiously and silently with a key from 
 his pocket, peering about and listening as he did 
 so. Then he entered, fastened the door on the 
 inside again, and, lifting up a carpet, disappeared 
 down a trap-door in the floor, carefully closing this 
 aperture behind him. Down below on the cellar 
 level he lit a small lamp, and, passing through a 
 thick clamped door underground which opened 
 with a simple push, disappeared into a long 
 tunnel.
 
 A BUSHLAND QUEEN 31 
 
 Bronzewing now went out into the cool of the 
 verandah again, and sitting down on a canvas 
 chair, with her hands clasped at the back of her 
 head and one knee crossed over the other, fell into 
 a deep reverie, the soft pink of peach bloom from 
 a blossoming young tree near by, against a 
 blue and brilliant sky, forming the nucleus of 
 her passing thoughts, and carrying them far 
 back. 
 
 It was a dormant recollection of a similar con- 
 trast in her childhood that pulsed her heart, and 
 took her to Brisbane, as she remembered it in her 
 younger days. 
 
 But now it was mingled with the knowledge of 
 something interfering with her life. A surmise 
 growing stronger that here she was already 
 standing at the parting of the ways where woman- 
 hood and a more than possible marriage 
 convention interfered with girlhood, and where 
 the more serious ties of an inheritance might 
 embarrass and embroil her, if it were not possible 
 for them to become sweeter and more hallowed. 
 
 She was a rich woman now, having come into 
 a large sum of money from her father, and under 
 his patrimony and her present position compelled 
 to live as she was doing. A business woman not 
 easily beguiled, yet constrained by what she 
 thought to be her dutv. And there shot into her 
 mind, almost a wish for positive penury so as to 
 end it all, as she drummed an impatient tattoo 
 with one balancing foot upon the verandah 
 boards. 
 
 Her accustomed world was at her feet where she 
 was now. It knew her and understood her. Here 
 she held absolute sway. She was worshipped,
 
 32 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 idolized, a very Queen of the Bush in her present 
 position, but as this one last idea came into her 
 mind she willed it so. To think and to plan was 
 very often to do with Bronzewing Delamayne.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Two IN A COACH 
 
 "TAKE care of your clown steb-dancing mit dot 
 stock-whip, Levi," suddenly shouted a big, well- 
 dressed, grey-bearded man, on the outskirts of a 
 small interested crowd near the front verandah of 
 the principal hotel at Barilla. "Don't you see you 
 might very nearly have cut der schendleman's eye 
 oudt?" 
 
 The handsome, dark-bearded and moustachioed 
 man thus wrathfully addressed seemed to crinkle 
 up into his bedizened self. He rolled down the 
 white shirt sleeves of his semi-attire, after handing 
 back a stock-whip to the no longer grinning 
 stockman who had lent it to him, and lost a gold 
 sleeve-link from a cuff as he did so. But, without 
 stopping to look for it, and muttering maledictions 
 inaudible, he hurried across the road, vanishing 
 headlong into a large general goods store, which 
 proclaimed to the general public in enormous 
 golden letters its association and promise with the 
 title of Levinstein Brothers, General Agents and 
 Storekeepers. 
 
 The man struck with the unaccustomed lash, a 
 young fellow attired in deep mourning, uttered a 
 wrathful exclamation, and for a moment seemed 
 inclined to pursue the bedizened delinquent, but, 
 curbing his apparent intention with an effort, 
 
 c
 
 merely smiled grimly as he applied his pocket- 
 handkerchief to an injured optic, which showed a 
 nastily bruised surface and a trickle of blood from 
 under the broken skin. 
 
 He muttered that "it was nothing" to the burly 
 sympathiser, who rushed up to him when his 
 impromptu assailant had left the scene. 
 
 "Ah, it was nodings, you say. Nodings. But 
 that vool brodder of mine is alvays up to some- 
 dings, mit his mongey dricks, und zo I tell you. 
 But kom mit me, mein son. Ve must have a drink 
 togedder to vash avay any intention of injury on 
 our bart. Der schwizzle is goot in der house of 
 call here, and my shout must be mein brodder's 
 apology. He was too nerfous to do it himselfs." 
 
 "Aye," quoth a weather-beaten Scotsman 
 standing near by, who had been deeply interested 
 in the by-play of the incident; "but it's my shout; 
 a plain whisky, Aaron, because, if I don't make 
 any mistake, this young fellow and myself will 
 presently be fellow passengers by the same coach, 
 and I shall have to leave you. More than that, it 
 may be my good-bye to you for all time, as far as 
 I can see in the matter." 
 
 "Nod going to leave us for good and all, eh, 
 McLeod? I should be very dashed sorry if dot to 
 me you told." 
 
 The Scotsman nodded, smilingly indicating the 
 mature probability of this happening. Aaron 
 puckered his forehead into deep wrinkles, spread 
 deprecating palms out sideways, as if to express 
 surprise and mournful resignation against a com- 
 pelling power he was utterly unable to cope with,' 
 and, shrugging his shoulders almost up to his ears 
 as if to express the withering helplessness of the
 
 TWO IN A COACH 35 
 
 present situation still more, the senior partner of 
 Levinstein Brothers led the way to the hotel bar 
 and addressed the barman. 
 
 "A macknum of Louis Roederer here at vonce 
 mit ice," he ordered, grandly, completely oblivious 
 of the hint conveyed at the beginning of the 
 Scotsman's appeal. 
 
 "I am on my own manure heap here, McLeod," 
 he said, with suave decision. "Your prandy, vine, 
 or viskey I vill taste when to Prangal Towns I 
 komm. Till then I am der brincipal in the matter 
 of the choice of drinkables. 
 
 "Mein Gott, I am sorry," he added to the young 
 stranger, when the glasses were filled and the ice 
 clinked pleasantly against them. "I oudt of your 
 eye the stock whip lash will drink, my yonk 
 friend, mit my best vishes for your future welfare." 
 
 An incongruous wink passed between Levinstein 
 and McLeod, of which the stranger with the injured 
 eye was entirely unconscious. And as they 
 chatted away, the three of them, waxing presently 
 loquacious over the exhilaration of the rest of the 
 bottle and three cigars, their conversation held 
 prophetic bias concerning the popular reform of 
 Aaron Levinstein's younger brother Levi, as well 
 as of the general run of young men of the present 
 day, generally too assertive in their own admira- 
 tion. 
 
 Levinstein senior presently remarked, as he 
 patted the stranger's shoulder in a paternal fashion, 
 
 "Brovidence did not make our own particular 
 race to grack stock-whips, my yonk friend, but to 
 lend and make money." He rose from his seat as 
 if about to depart. 
 
 'By emptying Christian pockets," McLeod
 
 36 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 whispered, derisively, in the young man's ears. 
 "He's not a bad sort, isn't old Levinstein, but he's 
 a terror for the dibs for all he's so generous. His 
 brother's a bit of a mountebank, as far as I have 
 seen, and I have never been able to quite make 
 him out. They are both shrewd men of business, 
 however, and practically own about half the district, 
 if all the truth was told." 
 
 The Scotsman uttered these last remarks in a 
 louder tone, for Aaron Levinstein had strolled off 
 to talk to someone else, after taking his full share 
 of the bottle. 
 
 "Whatever made a Jew want to crack a stock- 
 whip for at all ?" the young man asked, still defiant 
 and exasperated by the pain of his inflamed eye, 
 which, now badly discoloured, and bloodshot 
 enough through the white of it, seemed to give 
 certain promise of being worse before it was 
 better. 
 
 "Ma certie, I hardly know," McLeod replied, 
 considering, "but they get about everywhere, 
 Berliners mostly, and swallow up everything. 
 Always first at mart or money-making, even 
 money-lending. Levinstein would let you have 
 fifty or a hundred pounds on note of hand alone, 
 if he knew you, and could also supply you with a 
 station or two all ready made, when your inclina- 
 tions ran that way. Aye, to the last hoof and 
 flour-bag. Indeed, he might finance you and let 
 you work it out that way, if he was sure you were 
 a good doer. They have heaps of money and 
 inaugurated this township themselves. But ye'll 
 be coming on with me by the coach, for I'm 
 McLeod of Brangal, that sent ye the wire, and I 
 was once your father's manager. You'll be giving
 
 TWO IN A COACH 37 
 
 me the sack the noo, I don't doubt, o'er the lave 
 of it all." 
 
 At this juncture, the coach being driven up to 
 the door with a flourish, a rattle, and a dead stop, 
 the two men went out and got into it, starting from 
 their places immediately afterwards as a young 
 lady entered, so as to give her a choice of her face 
 to the horses. 
 
 "All aboard," hoarsely shouted the driver in 
 front. Then he drove his prancing steeds away 
 amidst much cheering of interested sports, acknow- 
 ledging the universal salute by a backward jerk of 
 his elbows, and a pretence of reeling on the driving 
 seat as if overcome by many and prolonged 
 potations. 
 
 Stretching plains now appeared before the 
 travellers, presently diversified with clumps of 
 trees, plains that will grow the very best oats in the 
 world when preference comes to pass. The river 
 timber lay on their right, and there was a late 
 evening glimmer of the day's heat lying across the 
 vast distances. 
 
 As the spirited team of five horses stole away 
 from the town with a workman-like jingling clank 
 of bars, and a steady thud and rhythm of hoofs, 
 the three insides began to take quiet scrutiny of 
 each other. 
 
 The injured stranger took stock of the girl. She, 
 in her turn, bestowed the same wary surplus atten- 
 tion on the Scotsman, who happened to be 
 considering the vegetation of the river frontage 
 out of the coach window on his side in a bashful 
 manner. 
 
 When he got his chance, however, he too gave 
 one quick, comprehensive, searching glance at the
 
 38 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 pair facing him, for he sat in a corner seat with 
 his back to the horses, whilst the others were side 
 by side. Then he looked out of the window again. 
 The girl saw that the young man next her was very 
 good-looking. It also seemed to her that he was 
 over-tired, and that his eye was very swollen and 
 painful. And in the conflicting emotions which 
 surged to her heart of hearts, she pitied and 
 sympathised with him exceedingly. 
 
 But the jingle and swing of the coach seemed to 
 have kept the metre of his last words in the hotel 
 ringing in his brain, for as he continued to press 
 his handkerchief upon the sore place, he presently 
 reiterated it to himself aloud, as if for her benefit, 
 with additional emphasis and anger. 
 
 "What does a confounded German-Jew store- 
 keeper want to learn to crack a stock-whip for at 
 all, I should like to know !" 
 
 Even the rattle and clank of the conveyance they 
 were travelling in did not drown the words to his 
 neighbour. She, fancying his remark was an 
 expression dictated by real suffering, felt her heart 
 warm suddenly more than ever towards him, with 
 pity and condolence for his injury, and she 
 expressed her sympathy gently. 
 
 The listening Scotsman, apparently prompted 
 by the manner of her utterance, winked any amount 
 of sly intelligence to a giant sandal-wood bush at 
 the edge of the coach road, and then frowned as if 
 considering his own position in regard to the pair. 
 
 The first word coming thus feelingly from an 
 intelligent and extremely prepossessing young 
 lady, breaking an awkward pause of hitherto un- 
 bearable silence, awoke the young man to a glow 
 of pleasure, and he responded warmly, assuring
 
 39 
 
 her that his eye was painful, but would soon get 
 all right. Then his intricate problem broke ground 
 again, with the smart and throb of his injury. 
 
 "What does a pawnbroking Jew want to learn 
 stock-whip handling for?" he asked her impera- 
 tively. 
 
 She flushed defiantly. 
 
 "Mr. Levinstein is not a pawnbroker," she 
 declared, with marked emphasis . "He is a big 
 merchant, a well-known man, and well-to-do also. 
 But he has no idea of stock-whip cracking. I give 
 you that point." 
 
 "The point was in my eye," he observed, 
 humbly. "I can feel the force of that part of the 
 argument even yet." 
 
 She laughed musically. 
 
 "Ah, well, he won't do it again. I'm so sorry." 
 
 "Of course, he did not mean to hit me. I quite 
 saw that," he said. "But your sympathy just now 
 was so sweet that I felt impelled to make some sort 
 of a fuss about it to get a little more, don't you 
 see. I hardly knew what else to do, in fact. But, 
 of course, it was entirely out of mv calculations 
 that he was any sort of a friend of yours, or I 
 shouldn't have been so rude. I apologise most 
 abjectly, and now declare that I bear no malice 
 against my aggressor, as you have spoken for him, 
 although he might have paid me the compliment 
 of expressing his contrition, instead of leaving his 
 elder brother to do so. But why did he run 
 away?" 
 
 "Because his brother rounds him up most 
 severely for any lack of dignity on his part, and 
 capering about with a stock-whip is hardly 
 decorous for a man in his position, is it? especi-
 
 40 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 ally if he can't do it properly ! But Levi is always 
 apt to get out of bounds, he has such irrepressible 
 spirits, though I can guarantee that he was hardly 
 hilarious afterwards, for I was in the store when 
 he came over and nearly cried ; so you ought to be 
 satisfied." 
 
 "Yes," broke in the Scotsman, turning from the 
 door aperture for the first time and addressing the 
 girl as if he knew her intimately, "Levi wants 
 'cutting out' like some others of his sex occasion- 
 ally, being too impulsive by long odds if he gets 
 the chance. But how are we all at the 'Rest' ?" 
 
 "Jolly enough, even without you," the girl 
 replied briskly. "It is a long time since you came 
 to see us. What's up with you lately?" 
 
 "Been down in Melbourne, my dear, as usual, 
 attending to business. And I leave you half-way 
 this evening. Got a buggy coming, so I take the 
 short cut," he added, as if aggrieved. 
 
 She glanced at the young man, whose uninjured 
 optic was devouring her face with admiration, and 
 signalled to the Scotsman quietly with a movement 
 of one of her pretty gloved fingers, as it lay beside 
 her on the seat next him. 
 
 He was a canny man with quick sight and under- 
 standing. But he was hardly proof against the girl 
 himself, and felt a certain combined sort of 
 jealousy hidden from her and others that any 
 stranger should be inclined to make too free with 
 her. 
 
 Any dissent from what he understood by her 
 signal was, however, he well knew, out of place 
 from him, and would not be tolerated for a 
 moment. 
 
 He evidently understood her power, sang froid,
 
 TWO IN A COACH 41 
 
 and determination, although in his eyes also she 
 was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. 
 
 A bush girl in the lonely places is very often, 
 even if not exactly beautiful, potent to capture 
 entirely and severally all the hearts of her more 
 numerous male subjects, making them ready to die 
 for her if she but lifts her finger. Bronzewing 
 Delamayne was a queen of beauty without compare 
 to all who knew her, and possessed the quality of 
 attraction which had struck the stranger so forcibly 
 and fully, now that he had forced himself out of the 
 sulks to look at her. 
 
 As for herself and her ideality, her large, 
 sympathetic heart embraced all men in her district 
 figuratively as the mother of a large and enter- 
 prising family of sons would have done, in all 
 innocence accepting them with a sort of clannish 
 pride, as being inmates of her bush kingdom, yet 
 not without a biting lash of sarcasm to fall should 
 anyone of them pass beyond the strict line or limit 
 of discretion, and at these unseasonable times her 
 withering scorn was keener than that of the stock- 
 whip lash which had previously affected the young 
 man by her side. 
 
 All unaware of this phase of her character, and 
 surrendering to her magic attractions and winning 
 ways in an entirely new and self-appropriating 
 manner, the young man next her was rash enough 
 to slide into the gravest error of his life. 
 
 Thanks to her breezy style and manner, and 
 his own assurance, he took her at a far 
 lower level than that on which she classed her- 
 self. Her eyes, grave as a mother's, yet 
 marvellously responsive to roguery and fun, or 
 to any lighter touch of the conversation which
 
 42 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 ensued, answered raillery with raillery, jest with 
 jest, in quite a free-and-easy way. And so, as 
 the coach rattled and clanked on in steady pro- 
 gression, the young man flattered himself that he 
 stood very high in her good books, and was 
 inclined to be far too venturesome, to which an 
 added and unexpected incident of travel gave 
 greater colour. 
 
 Almost dead-beat with long travel from the 
 South, he at last felt quite unable to keep his eyes 
 open, and after several involuntary dozes towards 
 dark, his form, rocking with fatigue and the sway- 
 ing of the coach, fell over awkwardly on to his 
 companion, in a helpless fashion. 
 
 He found his tired frame instantly supported by 
 two tender arms pulsing with sympathy, and his 
 head drawn to a resting place on her shoulder. 
 
 Too tired and sleepy to quite understand, too 
 comfortable to attempt to regain his equilibrium, 
 he dropped from half-waking elysium into com- 
 plete unconsciousness as darkness came on. 
 
 "He's got no mother or father, and wants 
 advice," the girl fiercely whispered to McLeod, as 
 he left the coach further on for a buggy drawn up 
 by the side of the road, after making a low-toned 
 remark. "Don't say another word, he is not going 
 on with you to-night, I'll take care of him myself." 
 
 And it was therefore scarcely a surprise to the 
 young man, when she gently roused him at the 
 end of the stage, to hear her whisper in his ear : 
 
 " 'Travellers' Rest,' and my home. Come 
 inside with me. I'm your hostess. You stop 
 here for the night with me, you understand, even 
 if you are bound to go to Brangal Downs to- 
 morrow."
 
 TWO IN A COACH 43 
 
 "Oh, you dear girl," he whispered back, un- 
 abashed, when she had ushered him into her 
 parlour, after the departure of the coach, but with 
 far too much assurance in his tone, and making 
 as if to embrace her. 
 
 "Steady!" she retorted, in a freezing voice, her 
 eyes gleaming angrily and disappointedly. "I 
 couldn't help pitying you, you know, you were 
 such a new-chum. And you would have tumbled 
 over the other way and perhaps have hurt your 
 eye seriously, if I hadn't taken charge of your poor 
 tired body. But I have been a good Samaritan 
 to a venomous snake, it strikes me, one that would 
 bite and poison the life of its only benefactress." 
 
 It did him good, this living, fiery, cutting speech 
 of hers, as nothing else would, punctuated as it 
 was by her indignant and lightning-bearing eyes 
 of severity. The weapons of the softer sex are like 
 her wit pungent and sharp for her protection at 
 times, and she knew intuitively that he had not 
 read her aright by his assured manner, and so she 
 was justly and indignantly wrathful. She had 
 given him clean love, and he had violated its trust 
 in a common sort of way. And now he was left 
 alone where she had placed him, standing on the 
 brink of an abyss of self-abasement, as poignant 
 as the blankest heartache he had ever known ; for 
 he had seen to the depths of her purity as in a 
 lightning flash from that moving, outspoken, 
 living glance of hers. It was one of utter indig- 
 nation, and he was absolutely enthralled by her 
 outraged virtue as it spoke from her beautiful eyes, 
 her mobile mouth of disdain and sorrow, her dis- 
 appointed expression. 
 
 For the last hour or more he had felt the tender
 
 44 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 touch of her compassionate hands and arms, the 
 life and warmth of her body, for which he might 
 have thanked her in a far more gentlemanly way, 
 and tried to understand why it was done. Now she 
 withdrew herself with a jerk of contempt that 
 seemed to freeze his presumption and ignorance. 
 And his heart and senses smarted a great deal more 
 than his eye did. 
 
 She waited upon him during his brief sojourn 
 for that night, as if she had known him and 
 expected him all her life as a dear friend, never 
 seeming to think of herself, and making him feel 
 that she didn't. He couldn't make her out at all, 
 or her manner either, however hard he might try. 
 She bustled about for him, served him all the 
 refreshment and supper he needed, suggested 
 things for his comfort he would never have thought 
 of if left to himself, such as hot fomentations for 
 his eye and slippers for his feet, which she brought 
 him herself in person. In short, she waited hand 
 and foot upon him, with all the ready tact and 
 grace of womanhood, and still somehow impressed 
 him more and more with the smart of her opinion. 
 
 He did not know that she ruled her whole house 
 and the district about her with her willing sceptre 
 of kindly love, but he w r as absolutely conscious 
 from her manner and something that lurked 
 through it all that he had deeply and irrevocably 
 insulted her. 
 
 Conroy the younger, for it was the same young 
 man we have seen sitting in the college chapel, 
 stroking the curved anomaly of the tail of the 
 carved kangaroo, woke early next morning bitterly 
 ashamed of himself, for he had by this time seen 
 his uncalled-for mistake to its full depths of
 
 TWO IN A COACH 45 
 
 depravity as far as she was concerned, and also 
 was conscious that a void had been made in his 
 own heart past all filling. This pearl of price was 
 not his for any irrelevant seeking. Who could 
 she be ? 
 
 "Well, I had no idea that she was that sort of 
 girl," he reflected. "Mistress of a bush hotel, 
 too ; I thought she was easy-going and a bit of a 
 flirt," but the unwarranted insult he had given her 
 pure mind stabbed him deeper and deeper, the 
 more he thought of it, for she had jumped clean 
 into his being now, as if in spite of himself. 
 
 He rose early and, in a shame-faced mood, went 
 out into the, garden, but the sign-post over the 
 road, beyond revealing to him the pretty name of 
 Bronzewing Delamayne, did nothing more to solve 
 the mystery surrounding its fascinating owner. 
 
 Presently she joined him, dressed in white, fresh 
 and blooming as a rose, and seeming to know all 
 about him, which added greatly to his discomfiture. 
 
 "Isn't this a nice place?" she asked him. "It 
 is my very own, my father's old free selection. We 
 were well-known neighbours and old friends of 
 your father, and I loved your mother so well." 
 
 He had taken her for a common adventuress; 
 oh ! the folly of it. What a blow this little speech 
 was to him; what a friend he might have made of 
 her. 
 
 "Look at the wonderful colours of the galahs 
 and budgerigars, feeding and climbing about the 
 creamy gum blossoms on those trees in the pad- 
 dock," she said, delightedly drawing his attention 
 to them. "There's no place like this place to 
 me." 
 
 He was deeply abashed now, flushing desper-
 
 46 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 ately, but they walked about together, he feeling 
 as if he could have cut his throat willingly, for she 
 was every inch a lady in talk and tone. 
 
 Presently she ran into the hotel, and from the 
 bar brought him a "doctor" of her own composi- 
 tion, frothing and delicate, perfumed with nutmeg, 
 yellow with egg, refreshing with spirit. He 
 thought it the most delicious draught he had ever 
 tasted in all his life as he quaffed it off. 
 
 "After breakfast," she said, as she took the glass 
 back on the silver salver, "you will ride to Brangal 
 Downs, as you wish, I suppose, to see what 
 arrangements your father has made for you. There 
 is one of McLeod's horses here, which you can 
 have ; or I could lend you one of mine. I am only 
 the hostess of a common bush hotel, and yet I am 
 fond of riding sometimes," she added, in depre- 
 cation, as if foiled of a cherished project she had 
 formed! of going in his company. "Now, come in 
 to breakfast." 
 
 After that meal, when he had stammered out a 
 request for his reckoning, she only put a button- 
 hole nosegay into his coat and gave him her hand 
 to kiss, at his request for pardon, as if she had been 
 an Empress. But it had been her custom with a 
 favoured guest, and one which no man sought as 
 a right. 
 
 One of those sweet hands which had been his 
 support for an hour or so in a never-to-be- 
 relinquished transport on the previous dav was his 
 for that occasion, but could never be his again, 
 according to his opinion. 
 
 "How many hearts have you broken, Miss 
 Delamayne?" he asked her diffidently, at last, after 
 he had mounted his horse at the Brangal slip rails,
 
 TWO IN A COACH 47 
 
 for they had walked together there on foot, and, 
 though he had taken the slip rails down in his 
 abstraction, he omitted to replace them. 
 
 "Every one of them," replied she, with a merry 
 laugh. "At least, they all say so. But you must 
 keep yours intact, you know. By the way, how 
 did you like the looks of Jessie McGregor ? She's 
 one of my handmaidens, a most prepossessing 
 damsel, don't you think? You saw her in the 
 verandah 'ere we left. If you lose your head so 
 suddenly and unexpectedly with any girl you 
 come across in a day's journey, wouldn't she do, 
 as it is plain enough that you are rather an im- 
 pressionable cavalier ? Oh, never mind the slip 
 panels," she exclaimed impatiently, for he was 
 about to dismount again; "I'll put them up for 
 you. Now on you go, young man of the frolic- 
 some manners. You can't miss the track if you 
 have any eyes at all." She bit her lip for a second, 
 stamped her foot imperiously, and coloured furi- 
 ously as if in militant ire. "One moment can 
 you crack a stock-whip ? You ride, allow me to 
 tell you, not at all like a man, but as a sack 
 of flour," and her rippling laughter irritated him 
 from desperation to rage. She stung him like a 
 hornet in his self-estimation. 
 
 "What a girl !" he muttered to himself angrily, 
 as he rode away along the forest track. "Is that 
 their style out here, I wonder?" 
 
 But he knew well enough that she had detected 
 the moral blemish in his own nature^ and had 
 punished him for it. He could have mrown his 
 hat down upon the ground, got off his horse, and 
 jumped upon it for very savageness at the thrust- 
 ing agony caused by her last words.
 
 48 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "She's as chaste as Diana, and yet melting with 
 sympathy," he thought, as he rode onwards. 
 "And I have let her see my own caddishness, 
 worse luck. But who is she, and how came she 
 to know my father and mother?" 
 
 It was only a short ride to Brangal Downs 
 station, his father's home, but he had plenty of 
 time to moralise upon his misbehaviour during its 
 continuance.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 RUIN 
 
 CERTAINLY James Conroy could see no traces 
 indicating any sort of poverty when his father's 
 station came in sight after he turned the corner of 
 the highland and forest that, throughout his 
 journey, had preceded him on his left hand. 
 
 An elegant mansion of great size and comfort 
 confronted him from enclosed grounds, planted 
 everywhere with imported trees and shrubs. All 
 this was flanked in the Background by a small city 
 of other buildings and conservatories, the upkeep 
 of which alone presaged the spending of a small 
 fortune. 
 
 A wave of exultation came over him at the 
 thought that he, the Oxford man, the athlete, had 
 now come into his Southern possessions, and he 
 mentally decided he would show these simple 
 Antipodeans how to live, and pay Miss Dela- 
 mayne out for her scorn of him. A drag, four 
 horses, perhaps a pack of hounds, and hunters 
 better than those of Symonds', might teach them 
 all something of his importance, and further his 
 suit with the haughty beauty. 
 
 But his father, John Conroy the dreamer, had 
 
 always thought more of his exotics, or native 
 
 botanical specimens, than of the most stringent 
 
 way of working and financing a large cattle 
 
 v D
 
 50 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 station, and his son had something- to learn about 
 this idiosyncrasy of his that he did not know at 
 present. 
 
 As he passed through the gates of the tall iron 
 fence surrounding the property, he rode forward 
 past a lodge, down a gravelled road flanked by 
 beautiful shrubs to the verandah, where he was 
 amazed to see McLeod, his fellow passenger in 
 the coach of the previous day, calmly smoking his 
 pipe in one of the many comfortable lean-back 
 chairs. 
 
 "I knew Miss Delamayne would put you up," 
 McLeod declared, briskly, and without any em- 
 barrassment, as Conroy pulled up and dismounted. 
 "She told me so, or I was going to have brought 
 you here last night in my buggy, by a short cut 
 of my own from the main road. You'll have seen 
 my wheel tracks coming in on the bridle path 
 as you came from the ' Rest,' no doubt?" 
 
 Conroy shook his head. 
 
 "Ma certie, maybe ye'll be no worse for a little 
 Colonial experience to make you keep your eves 
 open if you did not observe the buggv tracks. Ye 
 did not gather altogether, perhaps, that I was the 
 McLeod who was managing Brangal, the same 
 that sent ye the cablegram, so I'll excuse ye. But, 
 laddie, we'll not be pairfect strangers any longer. 
 Come awa ben. What did the lassie do to you?" 
 Did she steal your heart? She's the best match 
 in the district, man, that girl is. Aye, she has a 
 wonderful soul and mind. Did ye no succumb 
 entirely to the spell of her? 
 
 "Ye're a lucky youngster, that you are. But I 
 suppose it's not me that should be telling you that. 
 With her and Brangal together, you should do so
 
 RUIN 51 
 
 well that I suppose the pair of you, when you 
 have got your heads clear, will be giving me the 
 sack, as I hinted before?" And he winked 
 artfully and sagely. 
 
 "What do you mean, Mr. McLeod? I do not 
 gather your drift at all. What or who is Miss 
 Bronzewing Delamayne, and what on earth has 
 she to do with you, me, or Brangal Downs? I 
 understood you were only the overseer here. You 
 seem to be pretty free and easy in vour manner 
 of welcoming the owner, I must say." 
 
 "Come awa ben, and I'll tell you all about it, 
 my lad," McLeod rejoined, looking doubtfully at 
 him. "Here, Larry," he shouted to a black boy 
 lounging near by, "take Mr. Conroy's horse and 
 put him over in the stable. 
 
 "Miss Delamayne is the uncrowned Queen of 
 this district," he began parenthetically, as the two 
 sat down in a most luxuriously furnished room. 
 "She is the only daughter of a great friend of 
 your departed father, and he is also dead. 
 Between you and me, laddie, your father had no 
 knowledge whatever of managing stock, unless he 
 imagined it was the flower called by that name. 
 He spent all his money in building this great 
 place and the village forbye it, setting the whole 
 policies out with foreign herbariums and trum- 
 peries, instead of living in a less pretentious 
 manner, working for all he was worth himself 
 instead of emptying his pockets. Man, there's 
 trees here worth, a single one of them, more than 
 a fat bullock. There's orchids in the conserva- 
 tories equal to a consignment of 'store' cattle, and 
 there's been enough free-and-easy waste of money, 
 manners, and ideas, let alone my own, as his old
 
 52 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 manager, for a city council of Socialistic ideas. 
 And why should a man deserve a station, after all 
 that extravagance, whether he is owner or no 
 owner ! But what did the lassie tell you ? That is 
 what I am anxious to hear." 
 
 "She asked me if I could crack a stock-whip," 
 the young man answered, colouring. "I think 
 that was her most pertinent question. She didn't 
 give me any other information worth troubling 
 about, with the exception that she knew my 
 people." 
 
 "Surely not?" his interrogator asked, amazed 
 and troubled. "You must have had vour board- 
 ing pikes out too early to lay siege to her, if that 
 was the case. 
 
 "Man, it strikes me that you have been boiling 
 some gey queer fish in your billy-kettle if ye went 
 on that procedure. You'll have been led on by 
 her manner to you in the coach, no doubt. But 
 she's not one of that sort, anyway. Now, before 
 I say more about her, let me tell you that Levin- 
 stein Brothers had a heavy lien on Brangal 
 through your father's extravagance. He slung 
 his money away like water, as I've told you. And 
 he owed them hard cash besides, so that's how it 
 came to pass. Miss Delamayne has bought them 
 out entirely, so Brangal is hers, not vours. I'm 
 her manager now, though I acted for Levinsteins 
 as a sort of proxy after your father's death, just 
 to keep it in the family, so to speak. Did you not 
 know of all these happenings, and the result of 
 them?" 
 
 "Not a word; I knew absolutely nothing of them 
 or the Delamaynes either. Father seldom wrote, 
 and then mentioned only his botanical discoveries,
 
 RUIN 53 
 
 never his difficulties. His letters were just scien- 
 tific lectures, and he was always asking me to go 
 to Kew and see the plants he described." 
 
 "Never mind that. It was just his way all the 
 time. But nothing that could have been done 
 for him would have saved his station when he 
 threw away his capital as he did. But let me tell 
 you this in secret, if you will take it from me as 
 a friend who wishes you well for your father's 
 sake : you should be in great favour with Miss 
 Bronzewing Delamayne. She's a rich woman 
 and took to you on sight, as I personally observed. 
 But you'll have to earn her and win her now, if 
 you want her, for she's not lightly won, and ye've 
 strayed somehow. Now I know all the district 
 talk, all the district manners, and I'll bet ye a pint 
 of Dalwood red or white wine, to be drunk down 
 at the 'Rest,' that she never opened her arms to 
 another lad in her life until you came in her way, 
 so that's saying much for you. As for Levi 
 Levinstein, with all his money and good looks, 
 the callant would dare to do no more than kiss 
 her hand, if he did that, and they say he's out 
 and out the best lady's man anywhere about here. 
 But she's a business woman, and might have 
 placed you and Brangal and herself in the scale, 
 and on second thoughts found herself weighing 
 heavier than you and her inclination, if she said 
 what she did to you. There's no telling what's 
 in a lassie's mind, ye ken. And what on earth 
 did ye find to quarrel about?" 
 
 Conroy coloured deeply again. So he was 
 assessed like common china at a furniture sale 
 valuation. She had the money, and wanted him 
 at her feet. That must be the fact, he argued,
 
 54 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 and became greatly enraged. She must think 
 him nothing better than a fortune-hunter after all. 
 
 "Ah, don't flatter yourself," said the other, 
 mistaking his symptoms. "And don't storm or 
 rage, boy, for she'll win ye, in spite of yourself, 
 whatever way ye take it. She holds the cards, 
 and as she is the finest lassie in the whole country, 
 what will ye do to keep her? Brangal was 
 assessed to Levinsteins for ; 12,000 hard cash. 
 The herbariums round the house will have cost 
 that, together with the waterworks that have been 
 put up, so there's some valuation in it for the lady 
 in the w r ay of expenditure. I don't know what 
 Miss Delamayne gave for it, when all was said 
 and done, but it will be a pretty penny-piece, at 
 Levinsteins' total, I can tell you, for it's a good 
 station for the headquarters of a single lady." 
 
 Conroy was dumbfounded entirely. He could 
 see no way out of it all now, in spite of McLeod 7 s 
 hints, and these he did not feel in the least inclined 
 to take, or to feel more confidence in the matter 
 of his misunderstanding with Miss Delamayne. 
 He knew his manner to her had been repellent, 
 and ungentlemanly, and he was well aware that 
 reason had been quite enough to account for her 
 behaviour. He was penniless, as it had turned 
 out, and could only sell himself now, if he was 
 mean enough to do so, after the stinging rebuff 
 he had received. He was sure that, in spite of all 
 excuses he could frame for himself as they ran 
 through his worried mind, she was undoubtedly 
 disappointed in himself. She was not now the 
 perfect stranger to him he had thought her at first, 
 and his whole soul revolted at his trying position. 
 And there the cause of it was before his thoughts
 
 RUIN 55 
 
 plainly and painfully, although tempered in such 
 a marvellous way by her own sweet attentions to 
 him while he was in her own house, and she, as 
 she said, was his hostess. 
 
 What a contrast her kindly manner as such 
 put before him confronted with the merciless 
 lash of her tongue and manner, when once outside 
 and clear of her premises. That was his dismissal 
 for good and all, and he couldn't get out of it. 
 No regret lurked in her last words : they were 
 final, fatal. 
 
 Recovering himself after an effort he said : 
 
 "That reminds me, Mr. McLeod; your brief 
 directions advised me to comp straight to you. 
 You have stated my standing here with a 
 vengeance totally unlooked-for, and coming upon 
 me like an avalanche, as all this has done, I find 
 myself somewhat like my poor father, unprepared, 
 not even having enough money to pay my way 
 back to Brisbane and out into the world." 
 
 "I'll lend you twenty pounds, if that will soften 
 your pride of heart," McLeod said instantly. 
 "Oh, laddie, take the best girl in the world and 
 live happy and prosperous hereabouts. You've 
 a chance man never had before, of that I assure 
 you." 
 
 The young man looked pale and unhappy after 
 his first burst of emotion and surprise, as he stood 
 there in his deep mourning. He did not show to 
 any extra advantage, either, with his inflamed eye 
 as he paced the room in a maze of sorrow and 
 desperation. 
 
 Presently McLeod forced some refreshment 
 upon him, and after looking round the premises, 
 and being astonished at the luxury of them, when
 
 56 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 night came on he finally retired to rest in a 
 beautiful bedroom of what had been his father's 
 house, but a very miserable night it was that he 
 spent, haunted by morbid dreams. 
 
 He accepted of necessity, and with warm thanks, 
 McLeod's offer of the money next day, giving him 
 an I.O.U. for it, and rode back to the "Travellers' 
 Rest" to catch the down-country coach, fully 
 determined to quarrel with Bronzewing Delamayne 
 when he met her. 
 
 But she was not there. She had gone away the 
 day before, Jessie McGregor informed him, in her 
 buggy, to see some friends who lived a good 
 distance off; but the girl did not tell him where. 
 
 Levinstein Brothers approached him first when 
 he reached Barilla, and, much to his surprise, the 
 elder one told him at once that he was several 
 sorts of a fool for leaving Brangal at all, whilst 
 Levi apologised frankly for the accident. They 
 made light of the whole suggestion of any sort 
 of misunderstanding between Miss Delamayne 
 and himself, and seemed as sorry as McLeod had 
 been that he was leaving the district. Aaron 
 Levinstein finally hinted plausibly that Miss 
 Delamayne was too much of a lady to do any- 
 thing without due cause, and declared that his 
 father had been a great friend of his, and that if 
 he or any gentleman wanted money at any time, 
 he was always prepared to let him have it, of 
 course on strictly legal terms; which opinion 
 struck home to Conroy's vitals, regarding 
 McLeod's generosity, as he knew not when he 
 could pay him back. 
 
 Bad luck had accompanied his father's venture 
 as far as he had been able to judge, Levinstein
 
 RUIN 57 
 
 went on soothingly, but Brangal Downs was a 
 good run, and should recoup any losses if care- 
 fully managed. And, as there was some time to 
 wait for the coach, they asked him over to their 
 place to supper, as a matter of propitiation, where 
 all this was forcibly re-stated, so that Conroy went 
 away to Brisbane more mystified and worried than 
 ever as to his proper bearings, but still with a 
 feeling in his heart although that was sore 
 enough on many points of rage towards Miss 
 Delamayne that would not brook any entreaties, 
 sarcasms, or proprieties. It was, perhaps, 
 fortunate they did not meet on the road. Nor did 
 he see anything of her in Brisbane when he got 
 there.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 FRANKS 
 
 THREE days afterwards the same two men Franks 
 had noticed so particularly called again in the bar 
 of the "Travellers' Rest" in Bronzewing's 
 absence, and were served by Jessie McGregor, 
 who passed the word to Franks of their visit by 
 an emissary. They were now crossing the river 
 two miles away from the hostelry, engrossed in 
 conversation, and Franks saw them for the second 
 time intermittently from the fork of a tree on a 
 considerable elevation, which formed a spying- 
 place near the summit of one of the cliff-sides 
 which shut in the abrupt chasm in the hills behind 
 the bush hotel inside the Brangal boundary fence. 
 It w r as a bare, dead tree, which stood alone in 
 the midst of the thick scrub surrounding it, and 
 his position allowed him to see through the level 
 of the surrounding timber without being seen. 
 Franks studied the men minutely with a binocular 
 glass. How he got to his present position, after 
 his descent into the cellars of the "Rest," through 
 a trap-door under the carpet on the flooring of his 
 own bedroom, was not apparent at the time, but 
 presently the men he was watching so earnestly 
 having vanished over the river into the bush, he 
 climbed down, and, striking into a wallaby track 
 from the base of the tree he had been perched in,
 
 FRANKS 59 
 
 turned away from the deep rift in the hill, and, 
 pursuing his course towards a creek running 
 below through a plain, by-and-bye emerged on the 
 open country surrounding Brangal station, where, 
 further on, going into the stables, he came out 
 with a horse, which he tied to the Brangal house 
 verandah, bringing out a pair of saddle-bags 
 presently with something in them which he placed 
 over the saddle. Then, mounting and riding- 
 towards the ford where the men had crossed, he 
 finally took up a position near the road leading 
 back to the "Travellers' Rest," and fastened his 
 horse to a sapling. 
 
 He knew these two men were steering a course 
 which led to "Kangaroo" Austen's hut, situated 
 on the other side of some ranges on the opposite 
 bank of the river, and, without crossing the ford 
 himself, he waited, watching and listening, after 
 he had made about him sundry arrangements. 
 
 He was now close to a huge, thickly-foliaged river 
 gum tree, a little off the track, and fifty yards 
 away his well-shaped horse, peculiarly spotted 
 like a prairie mustang, was tethered by a plaited 
 green halter. 
 
 Franks himself now began to indulge in a some- 
 what extraordinary amusement, for, encircling the 
 trunk of the gum tree he was walking around, 
 were six small bottles of champagne arranged at 
 regular distances apart. 
 
 Having collected several pebbles from the 
 crossing place down at the river, he poised himself 
 on one leg like a stork, when opposite a bottle, 
 and threw missiles at it until it was broken. 
 Having by this means extirpated the whole half- 
 dozen, roused by an exclamation, he turned round
 
 60 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 and beheld Doughboy, an aboriginal he knew 
 quite well, watching him with much apparent 
 interest and no little apprehension, as the last 
 bottle exploded. 
 
 Doughboy was following the tracks of the two 
 horsemen, that being entirely evident and expected 
 by Franks, but the only expression on the latter's 
 face was one of fatuous dementia, which impressed 
 Doughboy very much more than usual as he 
 continued to gaze at him. 
 
 At length, with a hesitating motion, the black 
 fellow pointed to his mouth as if deploring the loss 
 of so much good liquor, but the continuance of 
 Franks' idiotic stare, and imbecile smile, caused 
 the aboriginal to hasten over the ford as quickly 
 as possible to get away from him. 
 
 When he had vanished, the mad expression 
 faded from Franks' face altogether, and, remount- 
 ing his steed, he sat erect and alert in his saddle 
 with his empty saddle-bags under him, until 
 presently his horse gave a low whinny. 
 
 "Quick as ever, Native Cat, my beauty," he 
 muttered approvingly, as he patted his mount's 
 neck, whilst the animal pawed the ground with 
 his fore hoof, in restraint, eager to be off. 
 
 "Here she is at last." 
 
 And Miss Delamayne, driving alone, came 
 rapidly forward along the river road through the 
 colonnades of numerous tree trunks. 
 
 When she saw him she pulled up, smiling rather 
 sarcastically. 
 
 He noticed the look in her eyes when they fell 
 upon the bottles, for she knew where they came 
 from. 
 
 "I'm having the last of my tithes, Bronze-
 
 FRANKS 61 
 
 wing," he said, dismounting and leading his 
 horse alongside her "Abbott," for she came from 
 down the river, not following the tracks of the 
 horsemen, who had crossed the stream at an angle 
 from the main road. 
 
 "But for a purpose, of course. And I pay for 
 them, you must understand, even though I do not 
 taste their contents. It is for this set purpose I 
 have spoken about, darling, that I am thus 
 masquerading, for both our sakes, and that of 
 others, in my old character. Doughboy, who is 
 going after his master, is all but convinced that I 
 am really a raving lunatic, and will tell Austen 
 so, which is just what I want." 
 
 "Ah, well, Arthur, the make-believe is better for 
 you, surely, than the real otherwise the old 
 recklessness." 
 
 "Just so, I admit that. But I have done that 
 lot at a sitting in the old days when times waxed 
 warm with us, and they never harmed me much. 
 And so did your poor father." 
 
 She nodded gravely in sorrowful acquiescence. 
 
 "But since you pulled me metaphorically out of 
 that road to the gutter, as you consider it, look 
 here, dear." And he patted with one hand the 
 strong, muscular development of the other arm. 
 "See what hard work has done for me, concurrent 
 with the aid given by your lectures on perfect 
 sanity." 
 
 She Taughed, edged close, and touching ihis 
 shoulder with her whip hand, said mournfully : 
 
 "The heir's gone altogether, Arthur" her face 
 overclouding like a summer sun. "He was rather 
 reprehensible, too, in his behaviour, but perhaps 
 it was my fault. He travelled with McLeod and
 
 62 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 myself in the coach from Barilla during your 
 absence at Brangal, and as he was mine, you see, 
 bought and sold to me, so to speak, I felt some- 
 how much inclined to take care of him, to reason 
 with him, to show him his faults, if he had any 
 as soon as I saw him. But he was so dreadfully 
 tired with his long journey from the .South that 
 at last he fell against me in the coach, and I let 
 him go to sleep on my shoulder; and, as he had 
 got his eye hurt, and seemed so lonely, I couldn't 
 help it. But when I got him to the 'Rest' he 
 wanted to make love to me in a rather offensive 
 manner, not knowing in the least who I was or 
 what right I had to him. So I had to round him 
 up pretty decisively. And now he has gone 
 ramping off in a high temper to Brisbane after 
 seeing McLeod, thinking I'm a bold adventuress. 
 McLeod told him all about Brangal. He would 
 have been rolling in wealth now if he had onlv 
 behaved properly, and allowed me to break the 
 news to him bit by bit in my own fashion and 
 tell him I considered Brangal his. And I love 
 him, Arthur, oh ! tens time more for his very 
 faults and failures." 
 
 He started. 
 
 "Ah, well, Brangal is not his until you really 
 give it to him, is it? But I'll fetch him back to 
 you, if you only say the word, Poppet. Your poor 
 father is dead and gone now, and secrets can be 
 told to those most interested. It w r ould be better 
 for us all if he came back." 
 
 "I shall go to Brangal now, Arthur, at once," 
 she said, considering. "Will you come with 
 me?" 
 
 "Certainly, my dear, if it will be any use; but
 
 FRANKS 63 
 
 you high-spirited young people are enough to 
 break any man's heart, who knows anything about 
 the circumstances of your projected betrothal, your 
 love for him, or those circumstances which should 
 augur well for your joint welfare." 
 
 She pulled her horses round as Franks again 
 mounted Native Cat, and he resumed : 
 
 "But I shall have to start off by our old bush 
 track for Brisbane to-night. Austen noticed my 
 hands at once, you remember, and though it is 
 rather too late to try and lock the stable door now, 
 I've been doing the very best I could in annexing 
 sun-tan to put both mv hands and my face in a 
 less subterranean condition. 
 
 "Mv only hope now is that Doughboy will tell 
 Austen that I have been secretly up here on the 
 spree, because he has seen me in the fatuous stage, 
 much the same as in the old days, and that 
 assumption on his part may put Austen off the 
 scent entirely. But you know how suspiciously 
 active he is generally. There was some mullock 
 on my hands, I avow, when he took me unawares, 
 and, with such a peculiarly cunning character as 
 he possesses, that fact will not escape critical com- 
 ment on his part. To be working like a bealbah* 
 underground for so long a time cannot fail to make 
 oneself distinctly remarkable if seen suddenly and 
 unexpectedly, in the open daylight, and my onlv 
 hope is that Austen will think I have been 
 drinking quietly in the house, and had fallen down 
 somewhere." 
 
 "Suppose he does know anything, or should 
 guess, Arthur, what would happen then?" 
 
 "Underground silver rabbit.
 
 64 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Her near-side horse swerved suddenly, to be 
 restrained only by her skilful hands, as a kangaroo 
 rat shot across the road like a streak of red light. 
 
 "He would blackmail us for a dead certainty," 
 Franks answered, gazing after the marsupial as if 
 he too wished to travel as fast. "That is why I 
 must be off to Brisbane to make our rights more 
 secure. If Austen were to hint at a suspicion we 
 should have the whole country raised on us, and 
 lose enormously. Now that I have succeeded in 
 getting all things in thorough working order, that 
 would be most disappointing. Had I not better 
 make a clean breast of it all to young Conrov 
 himself, if I can catch him up?" he added, 
 anxiously. 
 
 "No, not on any account. He would think I 
 was throwing myself at his head, and the very 
 idea of that 4 after his stupid behaviour to me, is 
 absolutely repellent. He must go his own way 
 until he learns better wisdom. McLeod met me 
 as I was coming back just now by the paddock 
 fence at the short cut, and he told me what he 
 said. He thinks I hate him, and that I have 
 bought up Brangal entirely to dispossess him, not 
 knowing the object I had. Oh, Arthur, what can 
 I do ? He will go to the dogs as surely as his 
 father and mine did." 
 
 "Not if I can prevent it, my dear." 
 
 "Arthur, what can we do?" she asked despair- 
 ingly. "He is mine, and I am his. Brangal 
 binds us; I love him, in spite of myself, and he 
 doesn't know it. How could I tell him all at 
 once, after his behaviour? In leaving him to find 
 out his position, he has thrown us all over in 
 disgust."
 
 FRANKS 65 
 
 "He doesn't know that I am in existence," 
 Franks said; "I can either work openly, if you 
 allow me, or keep out of sight and employ an 
 agent to see what he does, if it is material to you." 
 
 "Oh, Arthur," she cried, catching at his words, 
 "it would be such a comfort to me if I thought you 
 could." 
 
 "I have never placed myself before as ambassa- 
 dor of your interests in such a case, Bronzewing-; 
 but I I am beginning to like him for your sake, 
 my darling. Your quarrel is not utterly irrevoc- 
 able, is it?" 
 
 "We have both placed ourselves in false 
 positions, Arthur, both my pride and his will be 
 sure to war to the knife before either of us give 
 in. I cannot retract, no more will he, I am 
 convinced ; and, strange to say, I should not like 
 him at all if he had not got just that pride. But 
 here we are at the slip-rails. Jump down and 
 lower them." 
 
 She drove on to Brangal Downs, Franks 
 caracoling along beside her on the turf beside the 
 track. 
 
 McLeod had just arrived on horseback from 
 somewhere else, and started in surprise at the 
 double advent. 
 
 The housekeeper, Mrs. McGregor, ran out and 
 appropriated Bronzewing at once, whilst Franks 
 and the overseer took their horses and hers to the 
 stables. Then, returning to a cosy sitting-room 
 off the verandah, they found the women-folk 
 getting tea for them, and presently they all sat 
 down and chatted confidentially. Then, their 
 repast over, they adjourned to the drawing-room 
 where, displacing some furniture, the carpet was
 
 66 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 rolled back, disclosing a trap-door in the flooring, 
 with a flight of steps reaching downwards. Thev 
 all descended, and were away underground about 
 twenty minutes before they returned, when the 
 carpet and furniture were replaced. 
 
 "Did you ever see such a magnificently bonnv 
 show?" asked McLeod, exultinglv, but under his 
 breath. "If those Levinsteins had onlv known of 
 this, Miss Bronzewing, they would have fore- 
 closed on the mortgage lang syne, like the teeth 
 of a wild-dog trap." 
 
 "Of course," she replied; "it's grand enough, 
 but all the same it must remain as it is. I should 
 stack some more wine cases, Arthur, to hide the 
 tunnel altogether if I were you." 
 
 "Just what I intended to do," Franks replied. 
 "Poor old Austen Conroy left a good stock of 
 creature comforts, didn't he? Pity vou can't sell 
 'em. There was a day when I should have liked 
 better to sample their contents than I do now." 
 
 After some further confidential chat. Miss 
 Delamayne drove off to the "Rest," determining 
 to join Franks in Brisbane later, if he had good 
 news; and the latter left Brangal after dark, taking 
 the same overland, out-of-the-way track, with a 
 packhorse, on which he, Delamayne, and Conroy 
 had first travelled to the country. 
 
 Meantime James Conroy, the younger, reaching 
 Brisbane, put up at the most modest apartments 
 he could find for a night, and left for Sydney next 
 morning by the inter-colonial boat, determining to 
 shake the dust of Queensland off his feet for ever. 
 
 At Sydney he looked round for a couple of 
 days, then, taking a ferry boat, crossed the 
 harbour to Balmain, and, feeling thirsty, walked
 
 FRANKS 67 
 
 into the bar of a certain hotel there and asked for 
 a glass of beer, which was supplied him at once 
 by a stout showy lady of unquestionable good 
 looks, who informed him in the course of chance 
 conversation that their billiard-marker had left his 
 situation. 
 
 The game happening to be a rather strong point 
 of his University education, he applied there and 
 then for the place himself and got it. 
 
 He had a good bedroom off the billiard-room, 
 a pound at week, his keep, what he could pick up at 
 the tables and in tips, and so, like many another 
 unfortunate, found his first level in the Colonies; 
 with the result that Franks, arriving later at 
 Brisbane, was off the track entirely as to his where- 
 abouts, because his name did not appear in the 
 papers amongst the steerage passengers of the 
 inter-colonial boat. Nevertheless, he guessed at 
 this contingency in some sort, and forthwith 
 despatched a messenger of his own, a vouth about 
 Conroy's own age, named Roddy McGregor, with 
 instructions to cast about in Svdney until he found 
 him, and not to let him go when that feat was 
 accomplished.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 AT AUSTEX'S HUT, AND AFTERWARDS 
 
 " KAXGAROO," alias Charles Austen, and his 
 cousin, Austen Bygrave, the two men Franks had 
 been watching so earnestly from his look-out tree, 
 the men he had sought by devious ways to circum- 
 vent, having reached the location they were bound 
 for amongst the ranges, turned their horses out in 
 hobbles, opened the door of a good-sized hut near 
 the banks of a mountain stream, and entered. 
 
 Austen lit the fire, put a billv and another 
 utensil on the bush stove with a piece of salt beef 
 in it, that wanted warming up, went to a cupboard, 
 produced a bottle of whisky and two pannikins, 
 lighted his pipe, and sat down by Bygrave with 
 an expression of intense irritation, saying testily : 
 
 "I think I can see a way, if you don't, old man, 
 to lift that everlasting embargo upon mv own 
 person, in not having the means or the right to pav 
 my own passage to the old country, and therebv 
 in my own way have some say in the retrieval of 
 the family estates." 
 
 "Indeed, how?" Bygrave answered, disdain- 
 fully. "It will take you and them a generation to 
 recover your extravagance. You can't expect me 
 to help you." 
 
 "Ah, perhaps not. It is your own design that 
 keeps me from it," Austen replied. "Perhaps I
 
 AT AUSTEN'S HUT 69 
 
 can do it yet by simply riding backwards and 
 forwards on the same road we have just traversed. 
 You can put that in your pipe and smoke it, as 
 you are so supercilious, so doubting. But take 
 it from me that I'll block you and the other 
 trustees yet, see if I don't." 
 
 Bygrave nodded a calm and judicial dissent. 
 He was a rich squatter and next heir to the estates 
 "Kangaroo" Austen had mentioned. In spite of 
 his relationship, however, he had never liked his 
 cousin, considering him low class, which indeed 
 he was. 
 
 "Thinks of playing up to the level of the heiress, 
 eh?" he thought. "She wouldn't have a man 
 like him, by all accounts." 
 
 By special request, Bygrave had ridden up from 
 Brisbane to see his cousin, who, although a gentle- 
 man born, had come down in the world. He had 
 squandered all the money he had inherited with 
 the rich Austen estates in England, and, like 
 many another ne'er-do-well, emigrated to Aus- 
 tralia to exist how he could on a small allowance, 
 leaving his patrimony to parsimony and regenera- 
 tion until such time appointed for the purpose 
 under trustees, of whom Bygrave was one. 
 
 Bygrave had never seen his cousin before, and 
 was not at all impressed on this first occasion by 
 his trying to borrow money of him, a peremptory 
 refusal of which had brought the problematical 
 remark from Austen. 
 
 Charles Austen was a man, albeit unprepossess- 
 ing in habits, who lived by his wits, in a 
 generally understood broken-down sort of fashion, 
 but as he possessed a redeeming turn for natural 
 history, had supported himself for some time past
 
 7 o WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 in the district by his knowledge of it. He had 
 tried various other shifts, from gold-digging to 
 cattle-driving, but dissipation had been his curse 
 there too, as elsewhere. So now he cured pelts, 
 chiefly marsupial, and supplied individuals or 
 museums with gorgeous bird-skins or ophidians, 
 alive or dead. The kangaroo skins he sold to 
 Levinstein Brothers, and withal he was a daring, 
 resolute man, a great schemer and a hard drinker. 
 
 Bygrave did not show outwardly that he was in 
 the least impressed by his cousin's remark, but, 
 although he did not know it, Austen could have 
 bitten his tongue out for having spoken as he had 
 done just now. Fearing few things, he was afraid 
 of his cousin, the great Austen Bygrave, whose 
 rather uncanny reputation had preceded him in 
 just that same w r ay to others, and concerning 
 whom a thought had just struck him that Bygrave 
 might apply the remark to himself. 
 
 But as the venom in the thoughtless speech, 
 whatever it was, or however each man took it to 
 be applicable, seemed harmless in his cousin's 
 quarter, Austen now became quite affable, and, 
 thinking Bygrave had passed it over, placed some- 
 thing to eat on the table, and performed the part of 
 host to his guest in a friendly and willing way, as 
 well as his means permitted, pressing him to stay 
 the night and make one of it, which they did. It 
 seemed as if he had read intelligently by Bygrave's 
 manner that the choice of friends he seemed to 
 have at the "Rest" did not affect him in the least, 
 and the men were mutually civil enough until 
 Bygrave rode away next morning back to the 
 township to await the coach, but the breach that 
 had been made between him and his relative by
 
 AT AUSTEN'S HUT 71 
 
 cross purposes and instinct did not heal up in any 
 sort of reality, in spite of the apparent cordiality 
 of their parting. 
 
 Bygrave was native-born and the keenest of all 
 keen bushmen. A perfect rider, he had a great 
 reputation otherwise for daring and strength. He 
 was a tall man of great thews and sinews, and 
 most men were afraid of him in some remarkable 
 manner, as he was said to be a thought-reader and 
 necromancer ; and rumour also affirmed that he 
 had run amuck since the death of his wife and 
 only son, who had been killed by a pair of his own 
 horses the lady was driving when he was absent. 
 
 In reality, being very shrewd, he was more than 
 impressed by the pointed and evidently intended 
 remark Austen had blurted out. He had noticed 
 his start of surprise when something about Franks' 
 person had caught his eye in the bar of the bush 
 hotel on the first occasion, and how he had pre- 
 tended unconcern. 
 
 That there was something in the allusion after- 
 wards more than appeared upon the surface he was 
 absolutely certain, and his own applicability of the 
 meaning made him determined to see Miss 
 Delamayne, whom as yet he himself had no 
 knowledge of, except from bush tradition. 
 
 He had no intention, if he could help it, of 
 aiding his cousin to go and pander with agents 
 or money-lenders again in the old country, as he 
 considered he would do if he had the sum he asked 
 for to get there, and was very angry at having 
 made such a long journey for such a fruitless 
 purpose, and all against his own interests. 
 
 He had heard something of the Delamaynes and 
 the Conroys, and knew the latter had been distant
 
 72 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 relatives. The fact that there was both a real and 
 a planned relationship between the Conroys and 
 the Delamayne family he would have found out 
 had he known all the gossip of the place. He also 
 would have known that three scions of the same 
 house had managed to drift unceremoniously and 
 unknowingly together when he, the principal and 
 most concerned shareholder amongst the familv 
 fortunes of them all, had come along. It was 
 politic of him, even without this exact information, 
 to wash his hands of Austen, to quarrel with him, 
 a scapegrace and a man who had lost caste, and 
 would still impoverish the others if he got a 
 chance, through his irreclaimable propensities. 
 He had listened to effusions of the extreme beauty 
 of Bronzewing Delamayne, of which Austen had 
 been slightly prolific when in his cups and, getting 
 to the ford, instead of going on to the township 
 as he had led his cousin to believe he was goine 
 to do, he turned to the left and cantered on to the 
 "Rest," to see what he could see of the famous 
 beauty. 
 
 Once there, he hung his horse up to the outer 
 verandah, walked into the bar, and, as luck would 
 have it, was served by Miss Delamayne herself, 
 in a most becoming morning dress. 
 
 If ever a man was taken suddenly aback, 
 Bygrave was at this juncture. With all his assur- 
 ance, man of the world as he was, at the sight of 
 her he let his glass fall, nervously mumbling out 
 something uncouth and apologetic, and, though 
 he could hardly take his eyes off her face whilst 
 he stayed and drank, said little and rode away, 
 still a perfect stranger. 
 
 She wondered who the tall, grave, handsome
 
 AT AUSTEN'S HUT 73 
 
 man was, who now, as he cantered along, con- 
 sidered himself a perfect bounder in not making 
 himself better known, or in finding out something 
 about his cousin, Austen, by judicious question- 
 ing. 
 
 He did not know that his cousin was a parvenu 
 there, but was aware that Miss Delamayne was 
 reputed to be an heiress, that it was said her father 
 had left her very well off indeed ; but he had not 
 been in the least prepared for her extreme beauty, 
 which had caught him off his guard as a revelation 
 of something opportune and divine related to 
 himself. 
 
 Ever since his wife's death, indeed before it, 
 Bygrave had been a peculiar man. He was far 
 more dangerous in a scheming position than his 
 cousin, both in will, perception, and soul, and the 
 vision he had seen in the bar burnt into his brain 
 and remained there. A woman might like him, 
 might be made to like him, but he had an uncanny 
 reputation amongst most men of his acquaintance. 
 Oh, he had only to call the cards, he thought. He 
 was rich, and money would mate with money. 
 
 Since he had seen the result of the terrible 
 accident to his wife and child, having ridden day 
 and night to do so, something had really gone 
 wrong with his brain. 
 
 Gold is not without its alloy often enough, and 
 if this lurking change had come upon him, few 
 had noticed it beyond thinking that his occasional 
 eccentric goings-on were to be attributed to the 
 loss of his wife. He was known to have been 
 passionately attached to the lady he had married, 
 a public singer of great beauty, and they both had 
 idolized their child.
 
 74 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Bygrave was very musical himself. He had a 
 knowledge and culture of the Thespian art and 
 song beyond most performers, and could play 
 almost any instrument with ease, perhaps his most 
 remarkable performance being on a common con- 
 certina. And the man who could bring a collection 
 of full notes out of a straight-necked tin teapot or 
 a tune from finger-bowls, as he could, might be 
 calculated to know something more extensive of 
 notes than mere strumming or vamping. As to 
 birds or animals, he could whistle or imitate any 
 cry or sound belonging to them. 
 
 Gentlemanly as a host, kindly and courteous to 
 strangers or passing guests as he had been in the 
 luxurious establishment of his principal station, 
 something had snapped in his mental calibre since 
 these deaths, and the ring of the true metal once 
 in his thoughts was now neither quite sincere nor 
 sacred. He knew it personally, and feared the 
 consequences to himself as no one else did. 
 
 He rode away blinded to any former purpose 
 now, determined as to a future with some black 
 shadow trying to peer brusquely from the inner 
 depths of his mind and hiding furtively away 
 because it did not quite care to be open about it 
 just at present. It could lurk and wait. And it 
 did. Bygrave became averse to any idea of his 
 cousin's scheming, or even trying to ingratiate 
 himself by any means with Miss Delamayne now 7 , 
 after he had seen her, and he would prevent it by 
 stealth or savage force, if necessary. An excuse 
 came for him in the township to carry out his new- 
 formed plan, for there he met a man, a mere casual 
 acquaintance, who struck a familiar note of detail 
 in talking to him by reminding him that he had
 
 AT AUSTEN'S HUT 75 
 
 suffered a shock from a horse accident which had 
 affected him, not inwardly, as the accident to his 
 family had affected Bygrave, but outwardly. And 
 he determined to stop a day or so now at Barilla, 
 in pursuit of his plans, combined with a certain 
 sort of sympathy with this man, which made a 
 companion of him for more light, instead of going 
 right on to Brisbane as he had meant to do when 
 he left his cousin's bush domicile. 
 
 The particular person he met on his arrival at 
 the township was named Thompson, a horse- 
 dealer by profession, and as Bygrave's reputation 
 concerning horses preceded him, the horse-dealer 
 intimated at once that he had a five-year-old entire 
 that might suit a past master in horseflesh such as 
 he was, but no one else. He would sell or give 
 it to him pending certain conditions. 
 
 "I don't mean to say that he would get you off, 
 Mr. Bygrave," he hinted, sardonicallY, "if you 
 could mount him. But that is what no man has 
 done yet, according to my truthful knowledge. As 
 for myself, I don't mean to try. But well, you 
 know the reason." 
 
 And. he removed his hat to show his head, 
 where it was noticeable that one-half of the hair 
 from about the parting was snow-white, whilst the 
 other was jet black. 
 
 Also the whiskers on either cheek corresponded 
 exactly with the hue of the one above it. He had 
 been nearly killed by being thrown on his head 
 from a restive steed that bolted and fell with him. 
 
 "Should you think that a mental injury can be 
 as bad, or even worse, Thompson, than a physical 
 one?" Bygrave asked tentatively, though in a 
 jocular fashion, albeit with rather a spiteful
 
 76 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 and revengeful grin, for he had detected the 
 antagonism of rivalry concerning horseflesh in 
 Thompson's former speech and resented it. "Of 
 course you had no brains to injure, or you would 
 never have got on that horse that chucked you on 
 your head and turned your hair piebald. So you 
 want me to break my neck over your paragon, do 
 you ? Very kind of you, I must say. But 
 suppose you had a wife and child killed by horses 
 that never killed you or me, even when they did 
 try, you'd think it preciously hard that they should 
 succeed with those so dear to you. If I had been 
 there it would never have happened. And do you 
 know I feel that fact almost more at times than 
 the actual deaths, although mere sorrow is not in 
 it with me for acute suffering at the remembrance 
 of them. 
 
 "I shot the horses that did it on sight myself, 
 as I'd have done to any man who hurt or offended 
 me or mine now or at any time, and I'll bet you 
 ten pounds I'll ride your horse without a saddle or 
 bridle and make you give him to me. What's his 
 pedigree?" 
 
 "He's a splendid animal, Mr. Bygrave," 
 Thompson answered, uneasily, "and has plenty 
 of breeding, although his sire is only guessed at. 
 Old Saturn, I should say. He used to travel in 
 this district once. Saturn was jet black like this 
 horse is, and he must have come from a pedigree 
 mare that got away to some out-of-the-way place 
 and foaled, for he has been run in out of a wild 
 mob, although no brumby himself, but clean 
 thoroughbred. Will you come to the yards to- 
 morrow and try him ? I have a mob of twenty or 
 thirty more to sell.
 
 "AT AUSTEN'S HUT 77 
 
 "There may be ructions, as they are a wild 
 crowd picked up anywhere I could meet with them 
 on the road. I tell you what, sir," he added, 
 plucking up again, "I have my opinions on the 
 subject of this horse I am talking of, and there- 
 well, bother your ten pounds. If you can ride my 
 Crusader, or rather man-eater, bare-backed, I'll 
 give you the animal and twenty pounds to boot. 
 There now ! Levinstein senior is going to be 
 auctioneer of my little lot to-morrow. Half of 
 them are brumbies, the rest nondescripts." 
 
 "Done with you !" exclaimed Bygrave, fixing 
 him with his eyes. "But you'll come and dine 
 with me to-night, for I've been lonely lately, want 
 company, and you are just the, sort of man I like 
 to meet. Let us have a night of it afterwards. 
 The last I had turned out auspiciously, and one 
 before that. That's why I want another. After 
 the third time, I shall probably accomplish my 
 desires," he added to himself.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 
 
 NOWHERE in the wide world is to be found such a 
 pleasant combination of sight, scent, and sound as 
 there is on a bright, fresh morning in an Aus- 
 tralian bush township, if you are out for an early 
 stroll. The living record of it comes back with 
 just the same keen attributes to the memory of the 
 senses as it did of yore to those who have 
 experienced it. Nowhere else will the ministry of 
 the pungent camp-fire smoke, or a vagrant whiff 
 of incense bearing river pinewood from fresh-lit 
 chimneys claim the appreciation more. Nowhere 
 else are there such aromatic records of perfume 
 and joyousness. The scent of the virgin ground- 
 grasses, the sweet odours from the leaves and 
 bark of the varied forest trees, the cheerful 
 tinkling of horse-bell chimes from the out station 
 waggon camps, the clank of the copper bullock 
 "frogs," the blended jubilant chorus of the 
 feathered tribes, the clear, bright air, the bounding 
 pulses of the vigorous life and health of these first 
 early exhilarations of primitive settlement, make 
 many calls in their whole presence to the Empv- 
 rean of the Australian-born. 
 
 Thus in Austen Bygrave's mind, as he had 
 learnt these attributes young, when he emerged 
 from the bar of the hotel for a walk after an im-
 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 79 
 
 promptu cocktail there, all these old associations 
 assailed his consciousness to the full as he pro- 
 ceeded on his way. From a stretching clump of 
 red gums the notes of carolling sent forth by a 
 crowd of varied and variegated bush minstrels 
 spoke to his heart in a way that vividly recalled 
 all his early bush lore, and he paused struck with 
 a sudden thought which made him plan deeply. 
 Recollections of camp and sojourn came thick and 
 fast upon him, and when Thompson joined him 
 later at breakfast in the hotel coffee-room he was 
 in excellent spirits. 
 
 They had made a night of it, as previously 
 arranged, in the old bush fashion, and Bygrave 
 had played every instrument in the house, even 
 the poker and tongs, giving forth a turn therefrom 
 of notes, not available othenvise than by his own 
 peculiar manipulation and dexterity. 
 
 The windows were wide open, and the fresh, 
 keen air floated in sweetly and unchecked as the 
 two men sat down to enjoy their repast. 
 
 "That horse will savage you, Bygrave, and so 
 I give you full and fair warning," said Thompson, 
 suddenly, and rather venomously, for he had his 
 likes and dislikes by this time. 
 
 "Oh, no, he won't," answered the former, in 
 perfect cheerfulness. "You say he may have 
 learned some uncivilized tricks with the brumbies, 
 but those of the same sort in my vocabulary of 
 intention w r ill tame him completely before I even 
 attempt to mount him. Few people know how to 
 deal with a man savaging horse as I do, and I 
 particularly want him tame and reliable, as I am 
 thinking of going from here to a lonely out-station 
 of mine, some land I lately purchased out this
 
 8o WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 way, but have never seen. I made up my mind 
 to do so last night, and I shall want another horse 
 for extra change and pack, besides your untamed 
 and savage Bucephalus. I understand he is to be 
 mine if I back him unaided, so that I shall get him 
 cheap, and even have enough to array him in 
 proper pride and panoply without losing any- 
 thing." 
 
 Thompson nodded, still sarcastic and un- 
 believing. 
 
 Bygrave did not say that he wished to make a 
 more favourable impression upon Miss Delamayne 
 on his way past the "Rest" than he had on the 
 previous day, but he rather thought he would. 
 
 "I shall be curious to see your attempt this 
 morning, Mr. Bygrave, I assure you," Thomp- 
 son, the horse-dealer, remarked, as he sliced the 
 top off an egg and looked extra wise. 
 
 "You will excuse me, I know, but seeing is 
 believing, and, although I have heard of your 
 wonderful methods amongst horses, I have never 
 witnessed you try them, or exactly heard anyone 
 say more than you like to be left alone when per- 
 forming them. So pardon my incredulity with 
 regard to my man-eater, as he is a special case. 
 You will want help, and I should know a violent 
 horse when I see one. With help, my offer no 
 longer stands." 
 
 "It won't be wanted, for in my opinion," 
 Bygrave answered, quietlv, "there is much to be 
 done by surprise. The whip, now, is a wonderful 
 factor with horses, but perhaps sound has as much 
 to do with an animal for lasting effect as anything 
 else, if you know how to use it. Sound acceler- 
 ates the beat of a horse's heart by many pulsations
 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 81 
 
 according to the tone of your voice or the sort of 
 realization it happens to inflict. Say you play 
 upon their feelings by their ears and senses, as 
 you would do upon those of a human being if you 
 wanted to get him into your power." 
 
 Thompson looked rather more than nervous as 
 he caught the expression in Bygrave's face, which 
 now and then had been as aggressive as his own 
 manner, but the song of a magpie from the clump 
 of bastard ironbarks outside resounding clear and 
 metallic through the open windows seemed to ease 
 his mind with the cheer of the perfect morning, 
 and presently Levinstein senior strolled in, smok- 
 ing a large cigar, and humming a tuneful lay like 
 the magpie itself. 
 
 "Have a soda and hop bitters, Aaron," said 
 Thompson, regaining his self-possession entirely. 
 
 "Ach, no, I haf men pestering me all the morn- 
 ing about your horses, Mr. Thompson. Half the 
 crowd say they are no goot, all save one very fine 
 animal that has been put in the crush, and jammed 
 up against the closed gate with planks behind 
 him. What did you do that for? Das is not the 
 vay to so treat such a beautiful creature." 
 
 "He's not safe, that's why I did it," Thompson 
 replied, "and I'll bet you a bottle of champagne 
 you don't ride him, Levinstein, for all your talk." 
 
 "I shall nod mage der attempt, my friend. Vat 
 vould you do if, after vat you haf dold me, der 
 auctioneer had no prains to be bidded for in your 
 favour, my boy ? Eh, how vould you like that ? 
 But haf you heard the news? 
 
 "Austen Conroy's Prangal station has been 
 bought outright from us by Miss Delamayne, and 
 the heir who has komm oudt of England, and 
 
 F
 
 82 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 found 'imself bankrupt, has quarrelled mit her and 
 gone avay, no one knows where to. We all 
 thought those two would have made a great match 
 of it. It would haf peen for the district a great 
 and lasting goot." 
 
 "Conroy? Was it Austen Conroy, the botan- 
 ist's son?" asked Bygrave, carelessly, as he leaned 
 forward over the table for a match. 
 
 "Yes, his father got involved in our books," 
 Levinstein answered. "And we had a mortgage 
 on the run, but Miss Delamayne, after settling 
 that, gave us a fair brice for der station houses and 
 run combined. But id would seem that if there 
 vas any arrangement between the families at any 
 dimes, it vas all upset by this new catastrophe." 
 
 "So Miss Delamayne bought it, did she?" 
 Bygrave remarked, in parenthesis. "They say 
 she is an heiress, don't they? I only saw her 
 yesterday after parting with my cousin, and, by the 
 way, what sort of a trade do you do with Charles 
 Austen, Mr. Levinstein?" 
 
 "Nod as well as we could vish, vor 'is own 
 beguliar benefit, I am sorry to say. Brincipally 
 I think in the bottle line. He is nod gareful mit 
 his constitutions as he ought to be. Bud, schen- 
 dlemen, id is time to go up to the sale yards. I 
 will bed you a new hat I ride your horse mid 
 somevun else, Thompson, if you mage id vorth 
 my viles." 
 
 "Wait a bit until you see him, Levinstein. I'm 
 a bit piebald now myself by just such another 
 attempt. Follow your own advice and take care 
 of your brains, and those of other people, my boy. 
 You will need them all for both matrimony and 
 merchandise, from what I have just heard. But
 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 83 
 
 can you tell me how a man can ride a horse by 
 sound, or even power of mind or body?" 
 
 "Ask me if a man gan see the thunder or 
 prevent an earthquake," Levinstein laughed 
 impatiently. "I'm nod taging any, this dime, 
 Thompson mein son. I'll bet you see the horse 
 hears it. How's that for high ? You have not 
 seen Mr. Bygrave ride, eh? That's a treat to 
 come, vrom all I am told. You did nod introduce 
 me very personally. I vas vondering what fine 
 fellow he might be all the time. I should sav that 
 man was six feet four, and what power of eye and 
 brain. I am an admirer of fine physique. Bod I 
 should also remark to mineselfs that his intellect 
 was very high-strung at times from the look of his 
 eyes." 
 
 Exactly what I have felt about him lately, 
 thought Thompson, with a shudder, and won- 
 dered greatly as they moved away towards the 
 yards. 
 
 Bygrave, who had loitered behind, now joined 
 them, carrying a large horse-team driving 
 whip. 
 
 Up at the sale yards, on the outskirts of the 
 township, the usual crowd lingered, and Levinstein 
 got on the rails, as they mostly all did on his 
 arrival, to inspect a ragged-looking lot of horses, 
 scrubbers mostly, which were soon roped, dragged 
 up, mounted by roughriders, and sold after brief 
 trials to various persons, with much wrangling 
 and chaff, for sums, averaging from two to five or 
 six pounds. 
 
 For some reason or other a rather fine-looking, 
 strong bay mare formed the last single lot in the 
 yards, and there were winks thereon at the im-,
 
 84 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 pressive fact amongst certain knowing Colonial 
 lads until the wiriest and strongest-looking of that 
 virile crowd, having offered 2 for the mare, pro- 
 ceeded to catch, bridle, and saddle her, which she 
 allowed him to do with but slight resistance, except 
 a look in a nasty eye and thrown back ears. The 
 roughrider got on her very quietly, expecting a 
 bucking match at the very least, but she stood 
 stock still and refused to budge an inch, to most 
 people's amazement. 
 
 "You might have offered another note for her, 
 Jack," shouted one of his pals derisivelv, "she's 
 quiet enough. She's as strong and well set as a 
 punching-bag if she ain't quite as quick in her 
 returns. Ram the spurs in, old man. By Golly ! 
 she is hot coffee, after all!" 
 
 For the roughrider, doing exactly as he was 
 told to do both in the offer and in the use of the 
 metal, there was a bay-coloured flash out of the 
 yard, mingled with a loud squeal of rage, a 
 scramble over the displaced slip-rails, a narrow 
 escape from sudden death by several loiterers in 
 that vicinity, a streak of heavy dust and thunder- 
 ing hoofs off the road for two hundred yards with 
 the bolting mare in full career, a dull sudden thud, 
 and a collapsed form at the base of a large gum 
 tree, with a trunk forked like the letter V., which 
 was directly in the way, and a profound and 
 startled silence of all the crowd, amidst which the 
 cries of crows and eagle hawks pulsed shrilly as 
 they whirled out of and over the trees and circled 
 above. 
 
 "By God, Jack's killed," shouted the Colonial 
 lad who had just before spoken, and everyone 
 rushed away to find the mare quite dead, with her
 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 5 
 
 neck broken, on the near side of the tree base, and 
 Jack returning from the other end of nowhere to 
 where he had been shot through the fork in the big 
 tree, to gaze wonderingly upon his dead mount and 
 lost bargain. However, he hadn't paid the money, 
 so he got off at Thompson's expense. 
 
 "How does it feel like to be catapulted like that, 
 Jack?" asked his mate wonderingly. "I'd have 
 taken my sivvy she was quiet as a lamb when she 
 didn't buck right off, and by the holy smoke I 
 didn't think she had that much go in her. Must 
 'a' bottled it up all right. Come along and see 
 the new man ride the man-eater, as soon as we've 
 got the saddle and bridle off this dead 'un. 
 Bygrave looks a good 'un, no bluff. I expect he's 
 a 'whistler,' as I see him bring a team whip along 
 with him." 
 
 Saturn's son was trembling and wincing in the 
 yard branching crush, a magnificent coal-black 
 stallion of great strength, size, power and beauty, 
 and Bygrave, alone and unaided, the whip lean- 
 ing against the crush rails, was carefully undoing 
 the fastenings of the gate. All the time he was 
 at work thus, the wild steed imagined he heard a 
 little "shepherd's companion" on the twitter 
 along the rails close to his head. 
 
 And as there had been in reality one or two of 
 these little black and white wagtail birds doing 
 just the same thing all the morning until the 
 people arrived, the great horse felt a revival of 
 the old feeling of companionship he had felt with 
 his guests in their sympathy for him, and glanced 
 about for them, savage yet alarmed that here was 
 the man who was to plague the life out of him
 
 86 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 plainly visible, whilst he could not see his com- 
 forters. 
 
 But the twitter of the friendly little creatures 
 riveted his attention entirely at times, and though 
 he could not see the bird or birds, he was doing 
 his utmost to do so, whilst he didn't mind his 
 enemy so much. The notes were so close to his 
 head, so constantly shifting from one rail to the 
 other, that he couldn't help wondering at them 
 and giving them his whole attention. 
 
 There was a dead silence all round the big 
 yards, the spectators sitting quietly and expect- 
 antly on the rails some distance off. It was 
 broken only by Levinstein singing out suddenly : 
 
 "That horse is vorth a hundred pounds to the 
 first bidder, schendlemen. I vill tage that offer 
 to stard mit." 
 
 But silence still prevailed. The issue with the 
 known and declared character of the big stallion 
 against that of the horse tamer was too interesting 
 by far to weigh against any money offer until it 
 was proved, and spectators backed the steed 
 against the man out of mere contrariness. Bygrave 
 opened the securely-fastened gate at the end of 
 the crush very quietly, and resumed his whip with 
 equal care, as he stood away from it, but between 
 the horse's ears was still the twitter and consola- 
 tion of the little black and white companions of 
 his prisoned vigil. They were the birds who had 
 been the sole companions of his solitary con- 
 finement here and out in the wildest bush, and 
 well he knew it. 
 
 There was something masterful yet fearsome in 
 Bygrave's eyes by this time, composedly as he 
 stood back to let the horse out through the crush
 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 87 
 
 gate into the big yard, and the savage animal 
 seemed to understand and fight against it with all 
 his great might, as he shuddered and winced 
 through the opening and away from his tamer, 
 with every muscle, sinew, and nerve strung to the 
 uttermost in bitterness, every sense alive for 
 freedom too, but rage and treason in his heart, 
 fighting against something unknown something 
 he could not conquer all the time. 
 
 Opposite Bygrave he quivered again and made 
 a violent dash past him. Then, feeling himself 
 free, the great horse gave one or two wild and 
 desperate bounds in the air out in the yard, 
 kicking out also on landing and then careering 
 round the stockyard at full speed, hoping to find 
 an outlet somewhere that would free him 
 altogether, but shying constantly away from the 
 people massed on the rails, though once or twice 
 he went at them open-mouthed, in the height of 
 his wild career. 
 
 "He'll eat him up when he gets to work with 
 him," Jack's mate said. "This is no fake of an 
 entertainment. By Golly, there's goin' to be 
 some fun of the right sort, 'toot de sweetie,' as the 
 Frenchman says." 
 
 Of a sudden the horse came straight and 
 savage-mouthed at Bygrave, full of his old tricks 
 and angered by the crowd, a splash of foam on 
 his great black chest. But the steed tamer, who 
 was now out in the middle of the yard, carelessly 
 threw the thong of the whip on the dust under 
 the stallion's nose, when he got within reach, and 
 the little "shepherd's companions" were again 
 between his ears in sound and sympathy. 
 
 Bygrave wriggled the thong a little without
 
 88 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 altering its position, hardly moving his wrist, and 
 the crickle of an angry and venomous snake ran 
 up from it and caught the horse's ears plainly 
 from the moving lash in the dust under his 
 snorting nostrils. 
 
 With dilated, startled eyes, the big horse fairly 
 shrank back almost on his haunches. Then he 
 bounded aside and tore round the yard again, 
 trembling all over as he pulled up in a corner 
 right beneath Jack and his mate. 
 
 "Roughed 'im a bit, or he would have killed 
 him that time," Jack's mate said wonderingly. 
 "Whatever did he do to him? I've 'card of it 
 afore, but never seen it. Some chaps say he's the 
 very devil himself with horses, aye, and men too. 
 He don't whistle none, leastways I don't hear 
 him, do you? And 'e don't like anyone near 
 'im, they say, when 'e's a-'orse-tamin'. But 'e's 
 a cure with 'em some'ow, that's a moral. Look 
 at the man-eater tremblin'." 
 
 "It's an Ingin trick, I believe. No one don't 
 know 'ow he does it. I believe it's what you call 
 Hyperotomy or somethin'," Jack answered, 
 stolidly, feeling his own neck carefully to see if 
 it was still a certainty. 
 
 "Gammon ! look at the 'orse. 'E's a-foam, 
 'e's tremblin' like mad; but see, he's off again to 
 try to savage 'im yet after 'e's found out what it 
 is. What's the matter now?" 
 
 By a turn of the wrist Bygrave had again 
 dropped the whip, but with the handle towards 
 the horse ; and now he had the silk cracker of the 
 long lash between his thumb and forefinger, and, 
 as if unable to help himself, the fascinated animal
 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 89 
 
 came tremblingly nearer and nearer, ever ready 
 to break away, still furious for an open chance. 
 
 Bygrave dropped his handkerchief carelessly 
 and waited. The sound as of wind being blown 
 into the neck of a bottle came to the furious wild 
 horse with an eerie, low noise, and he approached 
 ever nearer and nearer in expectant listening 
 wonder, his ears cocked, his head on one side, 
 trembling with excitement, his veins showing full 
 under his sleek skin. 
 
 His extraordinary master stood quite still. 
 
 The horse came closer and closer yet, sheer 
 curiosity getting over his apprehension. Bygrave 
 jerked the whip into his hand, kicked his handker- 
 chief suddenly away, and squealed aloud a 
 'possum's nocturnal ditty into the horse's ears, 
 as he cracked the long sinuous lash about his 
 head. 
 
 Away went the animal, mad with terror again. 
 He had never met such a devil of a man in all his 
 life. It must be a man, after all, but why was he 
 dressed all in black, and why had he such curious, 
 winsome, attractive eyes ? 
 
 He must look at them once more. He couldn't 
 help it. The animal was now all foam-flecked, 
 and splashed with it looked splendid, magnificent, 
 with his widely-distended, scarlet nostrils; but he 
 was savage again, and turned suddenly, making 
 back full speed. 
 
 Bygrave stooped for his whip, which he had 
 thrown down carelessly. The animal was upon 
 him in a moment, as he had his back turned and 
 his eyes off him. 
 
 "Look out, sir! By God, the devil's got him 
 at last," shouted Jack's mate, vociferously, jump-
 
 90 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 ing off the rails and running round to the spot 
 outside the yard where the attempt had been made. 
 
 The savaging horse, however, had stopped the 
 instant he was going to seize the man, because 
 right in his ears rang the minstrelsy of the little 
 birds that had sung to him all the morning. 
 
 But at the same time as he paused, with his 
 doubting head in the air, the man recovered 
 himself, and upon the foaming savage jaws that 
 had been mad to bite came the sickening and 
 heavy thud of the whip butt, twice repeated. He 
 turned round and flung his heels up, coming in 
 backwards, but By grave was on the alert with 
 his splendid manhood, and the snake crickle under 
 the hind hoofs and the belly of the horse, together 
 with the quickly-given lash, drove him off once 
 more in terror. 
 
 "Rope him and throw him and raryfy him? 
 Not I," Bygrave said, coolly, in answer to shouted 
 questions from Jack and his mate opposite him 
 on the rails. "I've got him now, and he is much 
 too good for roping. I'm all right, and always 
 was. It was only a dodge I worked. Please keep 
 quiet and get back to your places. It's no good 
 for others to be near me ; it takes his attention 
 away." 
 
 He had stolen up beside the snake-terrified 
 horse, now too startled to move, and with a quick 
 grip of the mane was on its back before the 
 animal knew it. But the low snake crickle was 
 there too, between the horse's ears and down his 
 neck and all about his loins, and the animal stood 
 still, fearing to move an inch, as an absent- 
 minded whip-thong trail along the sensitive, 
 sweating skin aided the delusion.
 
 THE BLACK SNAKE 91 
 
 "Chuck me a bridle, Jack," shouted Bygrave 
 to the two stockmen, who were now some distance 
 away. "He's all right now." And presently he 
 had the horse saddled and bridled, and all that 
 afternoon rode him round the township. 
 
 "You've made that horse worth a hundred 
 pounds, Mr. Bygrave. If ever you want to sell 
 him again, I'll give you your own price for him," 
 said Thompson, eventually, 'ere he departed. 
 
 "Good-bye, Thompson, my man," said By- 
 grave, sardonically, to the horse-dealer, as he 
 prepared to ride away later minus his horse and 
 twenty pounds. "I won't sell him; and no one 
 will ever ride Mr. Black Snake, unless I tell him 
 to let them, so he won't be worth any money at 
 all to anyone else but me. Look out, Thompson," 
 he added, "mind what you're at, or you'll get 
 chucked again," for Thompson had nearly come 
 out of his saddle as a violent squeal, shy and buck 
 of his horse took him unawares. 
 
 "I never knew such a thing done before, never 
 heard of it. By Golly, it's awful," thought 
 Thompson, almost in abject terror, as he hung 
 on for his life to his snorting and frightened 
 horse and got it right again. "Horses are always 
 touchy near houses, confound 'em. I wonder 
 how on earth he managed to tame that devil up 
 at the yards ! There's a queer look about his 
 eyes sometimes, in spite of all his jollity, that 
 gets on a fellow's nerves altogether, and might 
 somehow account for it; but I'm glad I'm well 
 quit of him, I am, indeed. First time I've ever 
 been had by a swell and an outsider. But if he 
 isn't the devil himself, he's mighty like him, 
 and that's the plain truth," he concluded, as he
 
 9 2 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 mopped a wet brow and rode away. "What the 
 devil did he do to my horse ? He's as quiet as a 
 sheep generally."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE PLOTTING OF LEVI AND ANOTHER 
 
 LEVI Levinstein, the junior partner in the great 
 bush firm of Levinstein Brothers, could hardly be 
 termed at all times a bad fellow, even if he was in 
 danger of being called to account in point of 
 argument otherwise, because of his somewhat 
 more than conceited opinion of himself in matters 
 which did not concern him. 
 
 Unlike his elder brother, the working and 
 planning genius of the establishment, he had 
 hardly experienced that contact with the Colonial 
 world which made Aaron's opinion on things in 
 general so deferred to and valuable. 
 
 Levi had a grand air which his brother did not 
 possess. The yjounger brother could sing and 
 play like a magpie, without its wisdom, however, 
 for, as will already have been seen, if ever like his 
 prototype he attempted to mix with purely bush 
 matters, he generally managed to ^et himself 
 into some sort of a muddle rather awkward to get 
 out of again, if only instanced by the stock-whip 
 affair with young Jim Conroy. 
 
 As a sequel to that incident alone he had 
 differed with Miss Delamayne very seriously after 
 he had rushed over to the store, highly excited 
 and slightly flustered. He had been unfortunate 
 enough to run up against her quick temper in a
 
 94 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 very trivial matter of business almost immediately. 
 
 She had not seen that he had flicked Conroy in 
 the eye out of mere clumsiness in his untutored 
 efforts to wield the long lash on its short handle, 
 but she had let him know, as a matter of business, 
 that he could not impose upon her in the small 
 matter of the price of a frying pan, and then she 
 let him have it all round, after due confession of 
 the mishap outside. She told him frankly he was 
 more cut-out for a highly-cultivated impresario 
 than a business man, which was rash of her, and 
 advised him to go upon the stage and make his 
 pounds, shillings, and pence there, by the exhibi- 
 tion of his stately person and manners to the 
 audience, adding that she would not thank him 
 for a stall ticket when he did so ; and this wanton 
 shaft had gone home to the feather in Levi's self- 
 estimation. He felt like burning Conrov alive 
 after his own personal setting down, though the 
 retort from one so respected and esteemed had 
 reduced him to the verge of impotence and tears, 
 as she had hinted in the coach afterwards. But, 
 partly through his brother's observations about 
 the sale of horses, the accident, Bvgrave's wonder- 
 ful riding, and the questions he had asked about 
 "Kangaroo" Austen, some old latent feeling: of 
 memorv as to the exact reason whv Miss Dela- 
 mayne had purchased Brangal so hurriedlv began 
 to revive and take form in a slightly vengeful 
 fashion. 
 
 The barb about business ability still rankled in 
 his breast like the wound of a poisonous thorn, 
 onlv wanting a little touching of the surface skin 
 to bring it to mind again. And now that there 
 seemed a mere possibility of any other claimant
 
 THE PLOTTING OF LEVI 95 
 
 than himself in the field for his fair customer, 
 various little particular comments as to the why and 
 wherefore of her slighting attitude to himself 
 came cropping up in endless profusion in his 
 brain. 
 
 "It may be you," he said, suddenly referring to 
 her in his own thoughts as the barb asserted itself, 
 "who wish to be Diva, but the tune I shall play 
 to you at concert pitch by-and-bye shall be of my 
 own conducting, and you may not like it." 
 
 Although he had somewhat unconcernedly pro- 
 fessed it to himself, he was not heart-whole with 
 regard to Bronzewing Delamayne. He had had his 
 own ideas, but now jealousy predominated. He had 
 been too sure of his own good looks and position. 
 That was pretty evident on the face of this, his 
 sudden determination. Like most men, he had 
 been indeed inclined to worship the very ground 
 she trod on, but he knew very well now that she 
 didn't care the snap of a finger for him, and that 
 knowledge rankled in its turn and smarted sorely 
 also as a great disappointment. The questions 
 the great rich squatter had asked his brother 
 Aaron about Austen, which he had related to him, 
 interested him a good deal because Austen had 
 sometimes ferretted out news for himself on the 
 quiet. Why should he not emplov him again for 
 this very same purpose ? He might be most use- 
 ful as a spy upon Miss Delamayne. 
 
 Just then Austen's black boy, Doughboy, 
 happened to saunter into the big store, bringing 
 some kangaroo pelts for sale, and Levi saw him 
 through his office window. 
 
 As Doughboy was an aboriginal, well conver- 
 sant with white men's ways, and dressed in
 
 g6 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 civilized clothing, Levi laid down his pen and 
 went out of his office into the main store to accost 
 him and throw out feelers for the better attainment 
 of his purpose. 
 
 "Blendy kangaroo on Prangal Downs now?" 
 he asked, apparently in all simplicity. 
 
 Doughboy grinned all over at the German 
 accent. 
 
 "A decent lot," he answered, "but Brangal 
 don't belong to you any more, Levinstein, and 
 McLeod would loose his kangaroo dogs upon me 
 if I went fooling round there without proper 
 authority. You've got to give notice to the 
 squatter, you know, that is ask for the leave for 
 to shoot anything, and it's hardly good enough 
 for me now at Brangal." 
 
 This was news to Levi. 
 
 "Why?" he asked, apparently not at all sur- 
 prised. 
 
 "Oh, I don't know why, but it's pretty well 
 stand off just now all about the place, from what 
 I hear. Franks' lot and all that. It don't do to 
 trifle with them chaps, if they were to get their 
 backs set up against you. Pretty well hard lines 
 for me, eh, when my grandfather owned all that 
 country before the white fellers took it up. You 
 don't look at it in my light, Levinstein. That's 
 the worst of you white men when what you call 
 black fellers are to the fore. 
 
 "All that country belonged to my grandfather 
 once, and I've got to take the risk of being warned 
 off it, so it's awkward, if you want me to go there 
 to get skins for you, and I don't Jike it myself. I 
 don't want a police job for it, and so I tell you. 
 But I remember what my father spoke about when
 
 THE PLOTTING OF LEVI 97 
 
 I was a HT piccaninny, and that was the bloomin' 
 fact that my grandfather owned all Brangal. He 
 was a king then. So now I'm down in the world, 
 I that ought to own it, and your lot are up. It 
 makes a feller feel savage sometimes." 
 
 "Come into my room, Doughboy, and bring 
 your skins with you. I did want to have a word 
 with you, and I'll give you a tot of rum, even if 
 der whites have done you out of your goundry," 
 Levi whispered, confidentially. 
 
 "All right, Levinstein, you're not quite so bad 
 as some of them," said Doughboy, bringing the 
 skins along and wondering what was up. 
 
 Levi opened a bottle of Red Heart rum and 
 gave Doughboy the equivalent of a strong eve- 
 opener out of it. Then he remarked casually, still 
 harping on the same string, but from a more veiled 
 source : 
 
 "These skins you haf prought in to-day are 
 hardlv up to der mark, Doughboy." 
 
 "Thev're as good as you'll get them, Levinstein. 
 T want the full price for every one, and not a pennv 
 less, Austen told me. Why, there's not a mark 
 on anv of them. I always shoot them through 
 the head myself, and so does Austen when he's 
 sober enough." And Doughboy patted the 
 breach of his Winchester with the manly pride of 
 good marksmanship. 
 
 "I think der Prangal Towns gankaroos vould 
 fetch a petter brice than these outside ones, Tow- 
 bov," Levi, still persistent, answered, as he 
 critically turned over and examined the parcel, 
 employing a gold-mounted eveglass to do so, and 
 being apparently vastly fastidious with the cured 
 pelts, "By der vay, how is your embloyer?" 
 
 G
 
 98 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "Austen? Oh, he's drinking again. Got a 
 shake or two last week, and lets me do all the dirty 
 work, as usual." And Doughboy's eyes glittered 
 with malevolent fire. 
 
 "Zo, dat is a bity. Here, I'll ride you a ledder 
 for him. Wait a minute, Towboy. But vou 
 can go and get der usual gash for dese skins from 
 the clerk at the desk over there in der store, while 
 I'm riding it." 
 
 And Levi Levinstein sat down in his office and 
 indited a few lines to "Kangaroo" Austen, 
 Doughboy's employer. 
 
 There was a great spice of shrewdness in 
 "Kangaroo" Austen's character, exhibiting that 
 primitive trait by an especial knack of worming 
 out district talk, or any occurrence likelv to be 
 serviceable to himself for we will say an 
 equivalent in value. Levinstein was aware of 
 that, and knew also that he was not to be fooled. 
 But for his solitary drinking bouts, which made 
 him a social pariah, he might have made many 
 good friends in the community. As it was, he 
 made enemies. 
 
 When Doughboy arrived at Austen's hut again 
 and delivered Levi Levinstein's letter "Kangaroo" 
 Austen paused 'ere he read it to drink off a stiff 
 tot of rum from the first of three bottles the black 
 fellow had brought him from the township. 
 
 Then he read it through carefully, but without 
 comment. He offered Doughboy none of the 
 refreshment he had brought, and sent him off 
 down to his camp along the creek which ran close 
 bv the hut, whereat the sinister fire in the black 
 fellow's eves increased. 
 
 When he had gone, Austen lit his pipe, drank
 
 THE PLOTTING OF LEVI 99 
 
 off another tot of rum, read the letter again, and 
 deliberated, whilst a kookaburra outside on the 
 top of his dwelling laughed in a wildly demoniac 
 fashion. 
 
 At first there did not seem to be anything very 
 particular to Austen in the wording of the letter 
 he was thinking over, and he knew Levinstein well 
 enough to understand that he would not give him- 
 self away. But after a little, it became very plain 
 that the context in the caligraphy he was seeking 
 for had caught his sense of detection and fixed it 
 there, for he suddenly started and began to get 
 excited. 
 
 On the face of it, the letter was simple enough 
 in all conscience. It ran : 
 
 MY DKAR AUSTEN, 
 
 I saw some very fine kangaroos last time I 
 drove over Brangal Downs. Their skins ought to sell at a 
 better price than we are giving you for the others this side 
 of the rolling hills. 
 
 If you should, by any chance, take it into your head to go 
 to Brangal Downs and investigate, you might get me some for 
 mvself personally. 
 
 I want a parcel of those Brangal skins most particularly, 
 because I think they might, with your instincts added to mine, 
 turn out to be, after careful comparison, showing more of the 
 golden tint you and I admire so much. I have a relation at 
 home in Brunswick who would like a carriage rug made of 
 them. You might make a very fine rug of Brangal skins for 
 me. 
 
 There was neither signature, date, nor address 
 to this communication; but for all that Austen 
 now placed it very carefully in a leather case con- 
 taining other documents, and locked them 
 promptly away in a box. He had many dealing-s 
 with both Levinsteins, and understood both men 
 thoroughly at their different valuations.
 
 ioo WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "H'm," he muttered, as he came back and sat 
 himself down by his rum bottle; "Levi's playing 
 a concealed hand this time, as usual. Now I 
 wonder why that is? Golden tint, a speciality, 
 and Brangal four times repeated. It might pav 
 me to find out." 
 
 He poured himself out another full tot of rum. 
 The fiery liquid sent a strong shudder through his 
 frame, and presently he glowed with geniality. If 
 he had sought further enlightenment in the drink, 
 he certainly seemed to have found it. 
 
 "By Gad," he exclaimed, excitedly; "Eureka! 
 Franks hasn't been seen up at the 'Rest,' or eyen 
 talked about for over six months. Where has he 
 been supposed to have been before? I saw him 
 myself quite lately, looking as if he had lost a 
 shilling and found a tizzy. 
 
 "He don't drink now; they say Miss Delamayne 
 has reformed him. What was he doing drunk in 
 the bar, then? I wish I hadn't said what I did 
 to my cousin. He might go and cut me out with 
 the heiress. He's audacious enough to do so, and 
 with his wealth it would be easy. If I had those 
 estates in England under my own control again, 
 I might have some chance to marry some girl with 
 money. They will be clear in a year or so, but 
 I could live on them now with money, if what I 
 think is real enough to compel one of my own 
 choice out here to marry me. Miss Delamayne is 
 a rare beauty, like a masterpiece on old china 
 a la Watteau but I'm afraid I haven't much of 
 a chance there without the sequel of her consent. 
 Still- 
 All of a sudden he got up and did a step-dance.
 
 THE PLOTTING OF LEVI 101 
 
 Then he brought down a concertina from a shelf 
 and began to sing and play : 
 
 "Way down upon de Swanee Riber, 
 Happy was I." 
 
 "A damned drifter as I always was," he 
 murmured, touched by the tune, "even when I 
 had it all my own way." 
 
 Unbidden tears moistened his eyes, and he 
 hastened to drown his sorrow with another strong 
 draught of the maddening and maudlin liquor. 
 He took up his concertina again, and played the 
 "Dead March" in "Saul" with thrilling pathos, 
 talking to himself all the time. 
 
 "She wouldn't have me Franks is in the way. 
 By Gad, 1 remember. Now if I had money, 
 money, money but what was it? I forget again. 
 Well, it's worth trying to recollect. On my word 
 of honour it is. I might dictate terms if 1 got a 
 hold on her. She might like the position her 
 money would give her in connection with those 
 estates in England, and as she has plenty of 
 assurance and style, would help my position in 
 Society vastly. Why, she might be a Duchess, 
 with her good looks, let alone her money." 
 
 The concertina ran off into "Sally in our 
 Alley," most opportunely as a black girl peered 
 through the door. 
 
 "Halloa! here's Kitty! Come up to hear the 
 music, my girl, eh? Here's a tot of rum, Kitty. 
 It will make you see two ways at once, and that's 
 just what I like to do myself. Here you are ! 
 Some rum, my girl ! Been after 'possums, have 
 you? Well, how many did you get? A dozen? 
 In the box trees near the river, I suppose? Is
 
 102 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 that rum good, my girl ? Is it good ? Have 
 another, Kitty ! Help yourself ! Look here, 
 Kitty, you tell Rosie I'd like to speak to her, will 
 you ? Some day when Doughboy is away, you 
 know you won't, eh ? You're jealous. Well, 
 you can just take yourself off, then. Hie I 
 shan't play any more. Hie! I'm going over to 
 the 'Rest,' and perhaps I shan't come back again. 
 I may go on to England, probably shall, as you 
 seem so jealous about Rosie. I only wanted to 
 bring her a ribbon, after all, from Barilla next 
 time I go in. You go and tell Doughboy I want 
 him to go with me towards the 'Rest,' and that I 
 shall be ready in half-an-hour." 
 
 When the girl departed Austen began to dress. 
 Long bachelorising had made him very neat and 
 methodical when he was sober, and to-day even, 
 though he was half-seas-over, those habits seemed 
 to stick to him, for he finished his toilet with 
 extraordinary care. Then he unlocked the box he 
 had put Levi Levinstein's letter into, rot out the 
 leathern case, and pocketed the letter. 
 
 Kitty told Doughboy that Austen was going 
 away to England for certain. He was fast asleep 
 in his gunyah when she roused him, and he 
 furbished himself up too and waited to carry 
 Austen's Winchester rifle for him, as it was 
 always something for him to go down to the 
 "Rest." 
 
 Presently his master appeared, and they set 
 off together along the mountain track, Doughboy 
 a little distance behind. 
 
 Austen carried a small sack as well as his rifle, 
 and his brain had been running on one point all 
 the time Franks ! But he had forgotten a former
 
 THE PLOTTING OF LEVl ioj 
 
 light for the moment again concerning that 
 personage. 
 
 "He can't have been ill, or I should have heard 
 about it. He had been working hard somewhere 
 before I saw him," he thought, trying to attain 
 it again. "That was one thing, although I should 
 have said he was too much of a swell for 
 any sort of bullocking. No, I can't quite get the 
 hang of it yet. What brought him into the bar? 
 I know he didn't like to see me there. Thinks I 
 am after Miss Bronzewing. Well, so I am, and 
 don't care who knows it, if she will have me. 
 Why was Franks' face so pale, I wonder? I 
 don't think he had been on the spree, for I asked 
 him if he would have a drink, and he refused. By 
 Gad, I know now ! He's been below ground 
 somewhere. Mullock, too, on his hands, that 
 looked like pay dirt. That's hit the bull's-eye at 
 last. His hands. Same as I had it before, but 
 the grog took my memory away for a moment, 
 only to strengthen it again. That's the good of 
 good liquor. Been prospecting somewhere, 
 Franks has. I'll go and watch him. Golden 
 tint, eh ? I know of it, or rather did know of it, 
 as a probability. Then it's turned out to be pay- 
 able at Brangal, and Levi has either suspicioned 
 it, or got some clue he wants verified. I know 
 my errand now full well. Watch Franks. Watch 
 Brangal. Why couldn't he have said it straight 
 out? I'll have Mr. Levi in my toils soon. He'll 
 have to shell out for this, anyway. 
 
 "Now, if I go fossicking about those Brangal 
 ranges, I run some risk of being overhauled by 
 the McGregors, or even McLeod or Franks him- 
 self, and I must mind that.
 
 io4 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "Well, I can swear I have an old permit of Levi 
 Levinstein's to hunt there, if I'm caught" he 
 thought of his letter as he went on "that I'm 
 after snakes or something, so I shall not want my 
 Winchester after all. I'll send Doughboy back 
 with it when I get a chance, and if I'm to risk it, 
 if I am to get into a row about trespassing, I'll get 
 Levi into it, too. By Gad!" 
 
 His sudden loud exclamation at this juncture 
 startled Doughboy, who was just then level with 
 him, but a little off in the bush on his right hand. 
 
 "What's up?" asked the black fellow, quickly. 
 
 "Took a little too much of that rum you 
 brought, old man. Couldn't see quite straight; I 
 hit my toe against a boulder, and it made me sing 
 out."' 
 
 He pretended to inspect the tip of his boot and 
 started limping, as if the contact with the supposed 
 rock had lamed him.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE BLACK KANGAROO MINE 
 
 DOUGHBOY frowned. It was a palpable falsehood 
 to his quick and all-searching eyes. 
 
 "How's Rosie?" asked Austen, thickly and 
 incautiously, noticing his expression and foolishly 
 seeking to propitiate him. "How's the picca- 
 ninny?" 
 
 Doughboy was looking for a snake under a flat 
 stone and lifted it cautiously, but his eyes glared, 
 snapping fire, ere he turned them on his master 
 again. 
 
 "One here, Mr. Austen," he cried, glancing 
 up. "Look out, it's a death adder." 
 
 Austen came over, turned the stone over care- 
 fully, caught the snake deftly by the neck, and put 
 it in his sack. 
 
 "I'm going to look for some more of these chaps, 
 Doughboy," he said, when he had tied the canvas 
 mouth carefully. "On the other side of the 
 'Rest,' in the middle of the hills on Brangal 
 Downs. You run back and fill that flask of mine, 
 the big one, with the rest of the first bottle of rum. 
 Don't you touch it yourself, mind, but if there 
 isn't enough left in the bottle, open another and 
 fill the big flask right up. You can leave my 
 Winchester in the hut. I shan't v/ant it, as I am 
 not going towards the 'Rest' now, but I should
 
 106 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 like a dram with me in case we have to camp out. 
 You can bring it on. I shall hit the middle of the 
 Brangal fence, after I've crossed the river, and 
 you can come on my tracks and take your own 
 time. Bring some tucker with you, too. You 
 needn't hurry yourself; I want to think a bit." 
 
 "All right, Air. Austen," his retainer replied, 
 as he took the rifle. Then he walked leisurely 
 back. 
 
 "By Gad," resumed Austen, as he went on his 
 way alone, "if my suspicions are only correct, I 
 shall blackmail Miss Delamayne for all I am worth. 
 But how to frighten her into it ? She is as plucky 
 as they make them. 
 
 "Ah, there is a fine brown snake out on the loose 
 like me. Hold on a bit, Mr. Bronze Rippler, I 
 want you." And using a forked stick to hold the 
 venomous head down, with his boot he squeezed 
 it severely, half paralyzing it, and then catching 
 the tortured creature in the usual way by the neck 
 close to the head, slipped it into the bag, where it 
 instantly bit the death adder. 
 
 "There's Hades inside, and no mistake ! If a man 
 was to put his hand in there now, eh?" observed 
 Austen, with emphasis, watching the alarmed and 
 furious contortions of the reptiles at the bag sides 
 and bottom, with a tight grip of the mouth of it 
 till he tied it again. "Just let a man, or a woman 
 either, for the matter of that, put a hand in there 
 for one second of time, and they would hand in 
 their checks for certain a few hours afterwards, il 
 they didn't know how to treat a bite. 
 
 "Maybe a deadly snake or two, in a highly-ex- 
 cited state, might scare my peerless Bronzewing, 
 if I get a quiet chance for a treaty by proxy with
 
 THE BLACK KANGAROO MINE 107 
 
 her. They may be useful if I have the luck to 
 come across her out in the bush." 
 
 By-and-bye he caught a black snake under a 
 flat stone in the hills behind the "Travellers' 
 Rest," and added it to his other captives. 
 
 He secured this one two hours later near a 
 marked tree, a barkless, dead high tree on the 
 Brangal run at the top of the big hill. Then he 
 peered about in thick scrub where he could hardly 
 see a yard ahead, and, suddenly rinding himself on 
 the edge of a steep precipice, which bounded one, 
 side of a narrow deep rift or gully, threw his bag 
 of snakes on to a huge plateau oif yellow mullock 
 he saw below him, and, looking for a way to get 
 down, found it in a corner of the rift itself. This 
 he utilized, lowering himself feet first, and dis- 
 covering that the big heap of earth had come from 
 a tunnelled hole at the bottom of the precipice. He 
 entered this aperture, carrying his bag with him, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 Bronzewing Delamayne was sitting in her pri- 
 vate parlour reading, happening to be alone in the 
 house just then. A small Webley revolver lay on 
 her desk within reach of her hand. On a sudden 
 she heard a quick step on the verandah, and looked 
 up wonderingly, half-expecting to see Franks, as 
 Austen entered by her open glass door. 
 
 "Miss Delamayne," he said, brokenly, "I'm 
 half dead. Please get me a glass of rum or brandy 
 at once. Anything. I've something serious to 
 tell you, or I shouldn't be here in this sort of 
 fashion." 
 
 His clothes were disarranged, damp and yellow 
 with wet mullock, and he seemed much agitated. 
 
 Without stopping to think what she was doing,
 
 io8 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Bronzewing ran out of the room to the bar and 
 obtaining a bottle of rum, poured out half a tum- 
 bler full. 
 
 Whilst she was away, Austen stepped softly over 
 to her revolver, shot the cartridges out of it, and 
 put them in his pocket. 
 
 Then he came back, and leaned against the wall 
 in his former position, as if completely exhausted, 
 and when she returned, panted out in broken 
 sentences : 
 
 "I'm the bearer of very bad tidings, I'm afraid. 
 There has been a dreadful accident to Mr. Levi 
 Levinstein in the hills between here and Brangal 
 Downs. 
 
 "He was out snake-collecting with me, and fell 
 over the cliffs to the bottom of that gully behind 
 here in the hills, where the big heap of earth has 
 been taken out of a tunnel. 
 
 "I found that tunnel there, close to where he 
 fell, after I left him to get help, and came along 
 with matches, hardly knowing what I was doing 
 at the time. It runs right under this house, and I 
 half thought it would lead here when I started, so 
 I came into the cellars and then into a room 
 leading on to the verandah, locked on the inside, 
 but with the key in it. Are you bringing a water 
 supply to the 'Rest' from Brangal Creek, or some- 
 thing of that sort? for I got pretty wet in the 
 tunnel, as you can see; but my anxiety made light 
 of it. The key was in the inside lock of the 
 verandah room, and I opened it. 
 
 "Will you come back with me and see what you 
 can do ? The way I came is the straightest cut to 
 where Mr. Levinstein is lying, so that must be
 
 THE BLACK KANGAROO MINE 109 
 
 my excuse for the liberty I have taken. I'm afraid 
 he's dead." 
 
 Bronzewing turned pale as she pocketed her 
 revolver, rilled a flask with liquor out of the bottle 
 she had brought on a tray with the tumbler, and 
 lit a small lamp. 
 
 "Give me the light, Miss Bronzewing, and do 
 you go first," Austen said, deferentially, a little 
 more composed in manner by her willing assist- 
 ance and want of suspicion. "I'll hold it so that 
 you can see your way." 
 
 He uttered this when they had passed from the 
 cellar to the underground passage beyond it. 
 
 Half-way through, where his bag of snakes lay, 
 the mouth of the sack tightly tied up with a bit of 
 strong string, his eye rested upon them still 
 moving uneasily. For a second he thought of the 
 fiendish plan he had made if he had chanced to 
 meet Miss Delamayne alone in the bush, but his 
 discovery of the mining tunnel had altered his 
 planned procedure. 
 
 So at this point he let the lamp fall, smashed 
 and extinguished it with a kick from his boot, 
 sprang forward, and caught her in his arms in the 
 pitch darkness. 
 
 "Now, my dear," he said, "there is no time for 
 shilly-shallying. This is a rich gold mine, and 
 I have jumped it; that's what's the matter, as of 
 course a woman can't be in such a venture, and 
 the shepherders are not in sight. You can't get 
 away from the fact of my having done so. Give 
 me my fair share in the endeavour, in which I 
 also include yourself, as, although you have been 
 playing 'possum all this time, you and your 
 shareholders must know all about the fraudulence
 
 i io WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 of not declaring it before, thus breaking the law. 
 If you don't do as I wish, I'll raise the whole 
 country and bring ruin to you, and those in con- 
 nection with you. I want half of all that's going, 
 combined with you, and you only; I shall be a 
 rich man then, and you will be a real ladv if you 
 marry me, for I have great estates in England. 
 Give me a kiss, my beauty, and say it's a 
 bargain." 
 
 With a shriek and violent wrench of horror, 
 Bronzewing freed herself and ran for her life. 
 She could hear Austen, cursing, swearing, and 
 stumbling behind her in the darkness; but during 
 the struggle, as their positions had been twice re- 
 versed, she was making for the mouth of the tunnel, 
 not back to the house. She knew the way better 
 than Austen did, and with hands feeling for the 
 side of the shaft, went faster a good deal than her 
 pursuer. 
 
 When she reached the entrance she ran out on 
 the great heap of mullock at the mouth of the 
 tunnel and faced round, standing on the middle 
 of the extreme end of it where it sloped away from 
 her on three sides. Her attitude was firm and 
 composed, and when Austen came out he found 
 her revolver pointed straight at his head. 
 
 "No, you don't, Austen," she said. "It is as 
 much as your life is worth; that's all I'll tell you 
 now. But beg my pardon, and sw r ear on your 
 honour as a gentleman you will never breathe a 
 word to anyone else of this, and I will give you a 
 thousand pounds." 
 
 Austen hesitated for a moment or two, but her 
 beauty maddened him.
 
 THE BLACK KANGAROO MINE IIT 
 
 "Ah, you won't frighten me, my sweet Bronze- 
 wing," he cried, exultingly. "I've got you in my 
 power, and the prize that stands behind those 
 barrels is well worth all. You will probably miss 
 me altogether, and I am going to taste the sweets 
 of mv discovery because we are alone here. You 
 are part of mv bargain, and I want vou more than 
 the gold a deal more. There is not a living soul 
 of vour gang about to protect you now." 
 
 Saying this, he gathered himself for a spring. 
 
 Bronzewing pulled the trigger of her revolver 
 as he dashed forward, and Austen fell stone dead 
 with a bullet through his forehead, over his left 
 eye. 
 
 With a gesture of sudden amazement she let the 
 weapon drop at her feet. Then she ran hastilv 
 down the earth embankment, and reaching a corner 
 of the gullev where there was a cleft upwards, 
 climbed up it to the top. She went to the dead 
 marked tree, hastilv opened a small door cut in 
 it, and pressed a button on a dial inside. There 
 was a dull, smothered reverberation, a heavv 
 earth-shock, and the tell-tale gullv-chasm was 
 obliterated with a sudden falling inwards of 
 rocks, trees, shrubs, earth, and debris. Everv 
 vestige of the tunnel, the mullock heap, the dead 
 man, was p-one, smothered UD, utterlv obliterated. 
 
 Nerved to desneration bv all she had crone 
 through. Miss Delamavne forced her wav through 
 the scrub and walked on to the "Rest" as calmlv 
 as if nothing particular had occurred. 
 
 She had shot Austen in defence of her honour, 
 ^hr told herself, and his bodv was buried bevond 
 ken. But the terror and suddenness of the whole 
 proceeding lav upon her memorv like a pall.
 
 ii2 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 When she came to reflect she found that she had 
 now put an impossibility upon the opening up of 
 the gold-mine, which would prove very hard to 
 lift to the light of day at that particular spot or 
 at any other, because of the dead body. There 
 would certainly be minute enquirv about Austen, 
 and the carefully guarded secret of past vears, if 
 discovered now, would be vastly to her detriment, 
 and that of her enforced partnership with Franks 
 through her father. The contorted face of the 
 dead man haunted her with the recurrence of woe 
 unutterable, and those dead hands that had 
 twitched for her own undoing guarded both 
 secrets with the iron grip of the dead. 
 
 Come what might, she could not disclose it at 
 this juncture. To clear herself to Franks she 
 would tell the whole tale of horror and ask him for 
 his advice. But that was all ; nothing else could 
 be done now. No one could be told beyond 
 Franks. 
 
 Jessie McGregor met her at the hall door. 
 
 "Why, Miss Bronzewing," she exclaimed, 
 "whatever is the matter? I've just come back 
 from Brangal with Bella McLeod, and we felt such 
 a concussion. It shook the house. Have you 
 exploded the Safeguard?" 
 
 "Yes, Jessie, I have reason to think there are 
 spies about. You must be extra vigilant here, 
 and send for some of the men to sleep in the house 
 constantly in Mr. Franks' room, as I am going 
 down to Brisbane at once to see him. The coach 
 will be along in two hours. Pack me up the 
 necessary clothes in my small trunk. Did you get 
 me those things from Brangal I told you of?" 
 
 "Yes, Miss Bronzewing."
 
 THE BLACK KANGAROO MINE 113 
 
 "Very good. Put them in my trunk, too, and 
 now get me some tea. I will let you know by post 
 what I am going to do next. Tell McLeod to 
 have all traces of the marked tree removed, and see 
 that all is right in future above ground." 
 
 "Yes, Miss Bronzewing." 
 
 Above ground ! What lay beneath ? 
 
 When Miss Delamayne departed, and was on 
 the road near the crossing place, she recognised 
 in a horseman passing the tall, grave, much 
 embarrassed stranger, who had called at the 
 "Rest" some days before. He was riding a mag- 
 nificent coal-black horse in bran new panoply, and 
 leading a wicked-looking chestnut with saddle- 
 bags on it. Doffing his hat as the coach passed, 
 he looked at Bronzewing meaningly, rode on to the 
 "Rest," stayed for a drink, and disappeared 
 again, going no one knew where. But the eye of 
 a soaring eagle-hawk aloft on the look-out for 
 prey, could have traced his path a bit beyond the 
 "Rest." 
 
 He rode on, a victim to many emotions, for he 
 had got to know something before he met Miss 
 Delamayne which affected him greatly, and he now 
 seemed alive with keen purpose. In the township 
 he had left he had bought his chestnut pack-horse, 
 in addition to his clean gift of the man-eater, from 
 no other than Jack, the rough-rider, the hero of 
 the mare that had broken her neck against the 
 forked tree. He had bought the chestnut horse 
 cheap, as a troublesome customer, in the young 
 stockman's estimation, but had added a generous 
 sum to his demand, and got credit from the 
 fraternity by doing so. 
 
 And Bygrave liked it well because of its also 
 
 H
 
 ii4 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 untameable qualities, preferring horses that other 
 people did not care to ride. With him they 
 became perfectly tractable, even obeying orders as 
 to paces, or standing still by word of mouth. 
 
 The new chestnut was clean thoroughbred, with 
 a nasty eye but wonderful limbs and quarters, 
 sound as a bell, but very fiery, vicious, and im- 
 petuous. 
 
 It was nearly as big as the great coal-black 
 horse he was bestriding, and he was using it just 
 now as a change and pack-horse for his long 
 journey. With the neat saddle-bags across the 
 extra Colonial saddle on it, it strained ahead to 
 the fullest stretch of its bridle, as the rider of 
 Black Snake shook them both into a furious 
 gallop along the road, on some bare-foot tracks. 
 
 Half-a-mile further he came upon Doughboy 
 and Rosie, indignant-looking and sulky, encum- 
 bered by an infant. They were sitting by a small 
 fire under some trees near the road. 
 
 Doughboy did not seem at all well pleased to see 
 Bygrave, who knew who he was well enough, 
 having seen him with Austen. 
 
 "Where's your master?" Bygrave asked him, 
 as he pulled his horses up, jumped off, and led 
 them towards the fire. 
 
 " Gone to England," Doughboy said. " At 
 least he said he was going there before he left 
 me, so I'm off back to my old hunting grounds 
 where I was before I came here. It's a good bit 
 off, but I'll get there in about three weeks, and I'm 
 going to shoot kangaroos on my own hook now, 
 since he has cleared out and left me with nothing 
 to do." 
 
 Bygrave seemed inclined to be communicative to
 
 THE BLACK KANGAROO MINE 115 
 
 the small party, taking in all the details of appar- 
 ently hasty travel he saw in the two grown-up abori- 
 ginals. He asked Doughboy for a light for his 
 pipe, after he had filled it with tobacco, which he 
 cut from a plug of Barrett's twist, and then accepted 
 the glowing stick taken out of the fire with a caustic 
 smile of deep satisfaction, and puffed it lovingly 
 as he made a few remarks to Rosie about her 
 infant, eyeing her male partner narrowly out of 
 the corners of the curiously attractive eves that 
 quelled wild horses and men. Suddenly he said : 
 
 "Doughboy, there's a nest of young parrots in 
 that branch limb of the tree above your head." 
 
 Doughboy grinned derisively. He was per- 
 fectly well aware of the fact from his hearing only. 
 
 "They're galahs," he said. 
 
 "Don't contradict," Bygrave returned, sternly. 
 "If I said they were parrots, they are parrots, even 
 if they do happen to belong to the cockatoo family. 
 Get up the tree, and fetch me one to look at. Do 
 you think I'm a new-chum?" 
 
 Rosie looked on in sheer astonishment and alarm 
 as Doughboy, terrified by the look in Bygrave's 
 eyes, laying his Winchester on the ground, began 
 to climb with a very sour face. He got to the 
 lower fork of the box tree, ran along the limb until 
 near to the place where the galahs' nest was, in a 
 hole at the side, and stooping down lay flat along, 
 embracing the bough and placing his ear close to 
 the orifice, where the young birds were making a 
 great noise. 
 
 Then he gave a violent, convulsive start, 
 screamed aloud, and fell clean off the limb to the 
 ground, where he collapsed and lay still though 
 apparently not much hurt. It was a drop of about
 
 n6 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 twelve feet, but he had much of the cat about him 
 and had lit on his feet. Bygrave examined him 
 carefully and critically, getting Rosie to hold his 
 horses, which were at first as frightened at the acci- 
 dent as she was. He saw nothing was wrong, 
 talked to him for a bit in a very commanding tone, 
 and turning in his tracks rode back the way he had 
 come, evading the "Rest" bv keeping the main 
 road, but riding on to Brisbane, and missing the 
 township also by going straight through the bush 
 on a line of his own. 
 
 The black man and woman with some hastily 
 muttered words, after his departure, in great fright 
 and tribulation, made preparations for an instant 
 departure, packing their small belongings with 
 nervous tremors, and presently followed an exactly 
 opposite course to Byprave's, Doughboy leading 
 the way to the country he was bound for. 
 
 When Miss Delamayne reached Brisbane she 
 had a long, secret conference with Franks at the 
 Clarendon Hotel, which she arrived at comoosedlv 
 enough, but broke down utterly when relating the 
 anguish and suspense of the terrible scene she h^d 
 gone through. 
 
 Franks' brow knitted grimly under the cloak of 
 her falling tears, when her head was on his shoulder 
 and she was sobbing out her anxieties and beliefs, 
 but, comfort her as he might, her mind was made 
 up to leave the country. 
 
 The face of the dead man haunted her beyond 
 expression, she said. It would always be there, 
 and she was certain she would go mad if she 
 stopped at the "Rest" any longer. All her 
 patient, loving schemes of waiting for the heir had 
 come to naught. She had been flouted, insulted,
 
 THE BLACK KANGAROO MINE 117 
 
 scorned, even by him, and he had gone away con- 
 sidering her a mere common adventuress, instead 
 of one who had borne all things entirely for his 
 sake. 
 
 Franks knew her thoroughly. In her childhood 
 she had always been his pet. He had been bound 
 to Delamayne and her mother by the strongest ties 
 of friendship. The secret of the mine had always 
 been a compact between them to confront Austen 
 Conroy with, when his own infallibility was dis- 
 proved by his bankruptcy, and the strength of the 
 asset they had discovered. These things together 
 should be a cause to cement the families by part- 
 nership and marriage. But the sudden deaths of 
 Delamayne and Conroy himself had blocked the 
 revelation, and the partners had been very careless 
 meanwhile. 
 
 The final formal opening of the mine had always 
 been a cherished scheme of Franks', and, though 
 he would not tell Conroy until he was quite sure of 
 the Brangal end of the reef, by opening up all 
 along the line from the " Rest," he had proved it 
 when the time came. He was not altogether sorry 
 now that the tell-tale rift in the hills behind the 
 hostelry near the river had been obliterated by the 
 explosion, because it was always a dangerous spot. 
 Nothing better could have happened, as he could 
 now work from both ends. Nature in time would 
 conceal all traces of the explosion, even closer than 
 the mortgage on Brangal had closed it hitherto, 
 although, as for Austen, he would have killed him 
 himself without a word if he had seen him attempt 
 to lay a finger on his ward, and considered he got 
 his deserts and no less. But he said nothing 
 definite, was not disposed to act, because their heir
 
 ti8 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 was at large ; and he let her have her cry out until 
 she became a little more composed. 
 
 She made up her mind to go to England, ex- 
 pressed her willingness to give up her claims to 
 any part of the Brangal estate, and decreed her 
 intention of becoming a hospital nurse for the pur- 
 poses of concealment. After a day or two, Franks 
 humoured her, saying : 
 
 "I will come to Sydney with you to see you off, 
 poppet. The inter-colonial steamer sails on Thurs- 
 day, I know. In the meantime there are your own 
 rooms here, darling. If you wish to keep it all 
 dark, do so, and I will stay and be watch-dog for 
 all future emergencies." 
 
 And thus it came to pass that Franks, with the 
 Safeguard in trust, kept an eye upon all premises 
 connected with the mine until such time as Fate 
 should determine the issue otherwise. 
 
 And as the months progressed, herbage, bushes, 
 growing plants, grass and trees concealed altogether 
 the surface over the tons of rubble blown into the 
 narrow rift of the tell-tale gully. And below it all 
 a dead man guarded the gold and held on to it in 
 grisly silence without the appearance of anyone 
 troubling further in the matter.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE MENACE OF THE SOUTH 
 
 To Bronzewing Delamayne, on her way to Eng- 
 land by the mail steamer from Sydney, life seemed 
 to have become monotonous and unsatisfying, per- 
 plexing and unbearable. The sway she had always 
 held over her little principality far away in the 
 quiet bush was gone altogether, and, thouph 
 yearning intensely for company, for sympathy, she 
 did not seem to be able to attain it amongst a 
 crowd of strangers, so that it was not at all sur- 
 prising that she welcomed the addresses of a certain 
 gentleman who apparently knew something about 
 her the moment he saw her, and who, when he intro- 
 duced himself to her, she also recognised. 
 
 It was By grave. 
 
 He seemed to lay himself out most especially to 
 try and amuse her, to dissipate some of the melan- 
 choly under which she seemed to labour. 
 
 Individualized by her now at her leisure, he was 
 a big, jovial sort of man who seemed to have lost 
 his former gravity, to possess no more than a 
 harmless eccentricity of manner easily excusable 
 and rather amusing. 
 
 She soon found out that he was a rich Queens- 
 land squatter, a widower, reputed to be a wonderful 
 rider, possessing a marvellous way with horses. 
 Indeed, his chief complaint to Bronzewing was
 
 120 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 that his weight disqualified him from riding for 
 that great blue ribbon of his bushman's idea, the 
 Grand National Steeplechase in England, but he 
 also told her he meant to enter a purchase or two. 
 She considered him rather unrefined in his manner, 
 but her feelings of loneliness prevailed upon her to 
 allow him to monopolize her to more than a certain 
 extent, and he was attention itself. 
 
 As for himself, Miss Delamayne attracted beyond 
 all others from the very first, and he never seemed 
 although he was in great request amongst the 
 other passengers thoroughly happy unless he was 
 in her society. It was as if she had infected him 
 with a sort of recurring sense of his own import- 
 ance, and her somewhat marked leaning to him as 
 a compatriot appeared to give him absolutely fresh 
 vigour and life. 
 
 She grew quite accustomed to him in time, and 
 pitied him very much indeed when he told her how 
 he had lost his wife and child in a bad buggy 
 accident, narrowly escaping death himself from 
 the shock of it, and but only comparatively lately 
 experiencing perfect convalescence. The injury to 
 himself, he told her quite frankly, had been mental 
 in its after results. 
 
 She understood he had a large tract of country 
 in an interior district, out beyond where she lived 
 herself, which he meant to utilise for breeding 
 horses. He was going to take out some on his 
 return trip, and had sold one of his stations down- 
 country before he left. And, pitying his misfor- 
 tunes, she had pitied him, excusing many of his 
 foibles and idiosyncrasies where they had been 
 slightly distasteful to her.
 
 THE MENACE OF THE SOUTH 121 
 
 His coming into her life so suddenly had cer- 
 tainly the effect of taking her out of her own ever- 
 recurring reflections upon the past, the menace of 
 the gold-copper mine and its secrets ; but the first 
 time he had told her his name was Austen Bygrave, 
 she felt a shudder of aversion she could in no other 
 but that way of its sounding account for or explain. 
 And half-way through the voyage he proposed to 
 her, giving her a year to make up her mind as he 
 told her he had some most important business in 
 England to settle primarily. 
 
 It had all been so unexpected, so provokingly 
 premature. He was enormously rich, would do 
 anything for her, and really seemed to be the way 
 out of all her difficulties by affording the strong 
 protection her lonelv heart needed, and if it was 
 all true what he had told her, was a man who wooed 
 her definitely, and wanted her but for herself alone. 
 She found him a perfectly wonderful musician. 
 He could perform on almost any instrument, and 
 sang with wonderful pathos and expression. 
 
 Miss Delamayne was taken a great deal of notice 
 of under his self-assumed part of proprietorship, 
 and as she had kept herself somewhat aloof before, 
 soon began to be a very general favourite amongst 
 the passengers. 
 
 She had never seen into the life of such a little 
 commonwealth at sea before as she now experi- 
 enced; it amused and attracted her, and the ocean 
 itself in its ceaseless movement and endless varia- 
 tion held great charms for her. She began to be 
 carried away by her own impulses again, recovering 
 much of her old manner, but ever and anon in the 
 solitude of her own cabin her terrible secret came 
 out and stood between her and all the world, mar-
 
 122 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 riage, property, and all she could think of or 
 desire otherwise. 
 
 At times, too, she felt as if she must go back and 
 face it all out, taking all risks, all suspicions, all 
 blame, but that feeling subsided after the effect of 
 her new relations, only to come on again with 
 redoubled vigour in her private meditations. She 
 wrote a long letter to Franks, posting it at Suez by 
 the outward-going steamer, imploring him to be 
 most careful and watchful, to strengthen all defences 
 at the "Rest" and Brangal, to wait until something 
 definite occurred about the heir; and, before the 
 end of the voyage, refused Bygrave altogether. 
 He had told her he was the next legatee to the 
 Austen estates, and that alone was enough for her, 
 though she did not dare to tell him why. 
 
 Whereupon he seemed to become surly, sus- 
 picious, and disagreeable, drank considerably 
 more than was good for him, and once sang a song 
 of questionable taste before a large and mixed 
 audience of second and first-class passengers, 
 causing people to talk all over the ship, and 
 strengthening Bronzewing in her determination to 
 have nothing more to do with him. 
 
 But during the final parting of friends who had 
 in any sort of way been drawn together during the 
 voyage, there is always a time for reconciliation if 
 a quarrel has taken place, and he found an oppor- 
 tunity then to whisper that he would never give her 
 up, that he had a mighty and assured claim to her, 
 and if she was trusting to any other strength than 
 his own she was leaning on a broken reed, which 
 he would totally destroy. He hinted that he might 
 have something to say to her some day that might 
 perhaps change her determination. She, however,
 
 THE MENACE OF THE SOUTH 123 
 
 went through her year's nursing probation with 
 credit, and as she took up her duties at the hos- 
 pital, afterwards as a permanency, without once 
 seeing or hearing from him, she began to feel sate, 
 to breathe freely again. 
 
 The budget of letters received from Franks as 
 time went on puzzled her more and more, as their 
 bulk was added to and furtively destroyed. For a 
 few months they hinted nothing but sympathy, and 
 a pecuniary draft or two was sent for her benefit. 
 Conroy had got lost in the bush, parted from young 
 McGregor, who had first found him, but had turned 
 up safely and was working at a farm for his living. 
 Her experience with Bygrave had disgusted and 
 frightened her, and her heart rejoiced because Con- 
 roy seemed to be going the right way, in spite of 
 their quarrel. Then Levi Levinstein had been to 
 see Franks once or twice ; he thought he had some- 
 thing on his mind, but could not tell what it was, 
 and at this piece of information she became anxious 
 again, because she knew Franks would be uneasy. 
 
 He had not sold the "Clarendon." It was a 
 good get-away always and he had disposed of 
 several parcels of gold without anyone knowing 
 where they came from. There were rumours in 
 the district about the "Rest." The police had 
 made enquiries about Austen 's^ disappearance, but 
 the "Safeguard" bluffed them all. 
 
 Now Bronzewing, of course, had previously 
 thought she knew more and consequently guessed 
 more than all outsiders, who had not acted in her 
 own particular and terrifying drama, and this was 
 where Levi's restlessness came in as far as she was 
 concerned. Although her sudden confusion and 
 alarm had prompted her to fire the Safeguard with-
 
 124 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 out thinking of Austen's dead body, a dimly- 
 recurring suspicion had grown upon her that the 
 very thing she had tried to avoid by so doing, 
 namely, the prevention of the knowledge of the 
 mine leaking out, had become futile by some other 
 intervention of knowledge not her own or Austen's. 
 Who could it be who had this secret in his pos- 
 session ? Why had Levinstein something on his 
 mind ? Was it he himself who knew something 
 about it, had been a witness to her act ? But there 
 was something else that haunted her at times more 
 than the dead man's body did. Her revolver had 
 clicked when she pulled the trigger. There had 
 been no recoil of the weapon. Austen had fallen 
 dead at her feet, however, with a bullet through 
 his head just over the eye; that was certain. Who 
 had shot him if she had not? She distinctly 
 remembered a report which she could not somehow 
 locate to her own pistol, neither at the time nor 
 afterwards. Now and then she thought she had 
 not killed Austen, though she knew she fully meant 
 to. These reflections came with gradually increas- 
 ing strength time after time since she left Australia. 
 And if Franks was secretly disposing of the gold, 
 would not he be found out too? She had hated 
 the whole disclosure when Franks told her after her 
 father's death. 
 
 Did Levi know the secret of the mine ? Was he 
 in collusion with Austen, even on the face of the 
 apparently trumped-up story the latter had told 
 her? Had he lurked about and seen the death of 
 the latter? The whole occurrence at that time had 
 been so sudden and horrible, first Austen's terrify- 
 ing appearance from Franks' working-room, 
 secondly his proposal and mad attempt to force her
 
 THE MENACE OF THE SOUTH 125 
 
 into compliance with his wishes. Who was the 
 third party? who could it be? Was there one? 
 Impossible, she had seen Levi under usual circum- 
 stances at Barilla as she passed through after 
 Austen's death. They themselves, Franks and 
 she, had been working the mine along the reef 
 illegally for two years past ; there was no doubt 
 about that. They had known it all along : it had 
 been always partially working. The person who 
 shot Austen, if there was one, must understand 
 about all that now, if he escaped the explosion. 
 What would the district say if all these carefully- 
 concealed facts were found out at any time ? What 
 would the Government do in the case? What 
 could they, the instigators of it all, do if it was 
 found out? 
 
 Franks had only hinted these things to Bronze- 
 wing in lines she read between in a sort of patch- 
 work of her own making as time went on. She 
 had not told him of her suspicion about her pistol 
 as yet. Should she, or shouldn't she? she asked 
 herself, and finally determined to let chance and 
 time decide, as she had done from the very first, 
 alwavs believing in the upholding of the right 
 somehow. 
 
 Although these scrappy items of intelligence, 
 bearing oft-times upon her soul's division, came to 
 her mail bv mail, and renewed her own chance 
 acauaintance with the past in multiform vexations 
 and uneasinesses, the views they gave her of a 
 united future were not at all convincing, and with 
 this new brake to the peace of her affairs, and the 
 almost conviction that she had not fired the shot 
 which killed Austen, she felt an increasing desire 
 to cut short her work in England, to go back and
 
 126 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 consult Franks as to what they should do on dis- 
 covery of any reality of it. According to his latest 
 intelligence, the mine could even now be worked 
 from end to end between Brangal and the "Rest" 
 without anyone being the wiser, and that the 
 Brangal end was awfully rich. She knew that the 
 deep gully in the middle had been used for taking 
 out some of the excavated earth, and that was 
 Franks' work with his coadjutors. It was the 
 beginning of the tunnel in the rift to both ends of 
 the reef, and it was the best thing in the world 
 that the Safeguard had been exploded before its 
 time, all but for this dread sequence of being pre- 
 sumably known by someone else, according to her 
 theory. 
 
 However, she kept a bold face on the matter, 
 under all circumstances, to her every-dav world, 
 and as no more very alarming reports came, settled 
 down again, throwing herself with all her heart and 
 soul into her work, as a relaxation from the strain 
 she had been subjected to. She thought of nothing 
 else for some time, and being assured bv Franks 
 that all about the "Rest" had at last settled down 
 into its usual primeval state of quietness, pro- 
 gressed very favourably with her self-imposed 
 work, reaping golden opinions from patients, 
 nurses, doctors, and the management generally. 
 
 But, in spite of this alleviation of mind, still 
 came the awkward question of "Who fired the 
 shot?" to cause occasional surmises. 
 
 Then she received an altogether unexpected and 
 surprising letter from Austen Bygrave which upset 
 her more than ever. It ran :
 
 THE MENACE OF THE SOUTH 127 
 
 DEAR Miss DELAMAYNE, 
 
 The reason I am writing to you is 
 
 because of the total disappearance of a relative of mine out in 
 Australia. 
 
 You knew "Kangaroo" Austen, of course, who was in your 
 district of late years. He is the man I allude to. I wouldn't 
 have troubled you in the matter, as he was a sordidly disre- 
 putable sort of fellow, and I did not much care about him. but 
 as you are aware I have long since known that if his death 
 can be proved I, as next of kin, inherit the Austen estates in 
 England. They are very large and beautiful ; I could improve 
 them greatly, and go in for a large racing stud. 
 
 For reasons that I cannot divine, you have refused my most 
 humble adoration. That is, of course, not my fault. Putting 
 it aside for the present, I am anxious to meet you to ask for 
 certain information about my cousin, which only yourself could 
 perhaps supply. 
 
 Owing to enquiries set on foot by the trustees of these pro- 
 perties, at first inaugurated by the non-receipt of a remittance 
 forwarded to my cousin, the knowledge of his continued absence 
 from your vicinity has come to hand. As he has turned up 
 nowhere else, as far as they can find out, there is some doubt 
 of his existence. It is a strange coincidence, eurely, that I, 
 your humble and devoted slave, should have to make this appeal 
 to you, in spite of what has passed between us. 
 
 Any information given by yourself would be, just now, 
 extremely valuable to me, as I ought to be able to trace my 
 cousin from it. 
 
 If anything could soften you at any time, by any possible 
 manner of means, there is one person in the world who would 
 be transported to the seventh heaven of delight if you recon- 
 sidered your decision. And that person happens to be 
 
 Your most devoted admirer and slave, 
 
 AUSTEN BYQRAVE. 
 
 Bronzewing did not answer the epistle, although 
 all her former state of wild turmoil of mind 
 returned. But, trusting to time and the Safeguard, 
 she still kept silence until a week later a card was 
 handed to her by one of the nurses, and, going 
 down to the visitors' room, found her old suitor 
 awaiting her.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 LOVE IN A MOTOR CAR 
 
 IT was with a feeling of intense relief that Bronze- 
 wing Delamayne found Bygrave did not attempt to 
 broach the subject he had written to her about, 
 either in its abstract or concrete form. On the 
 contrary, he seemed to be so charmed and carried 
 away by the very sight of her, more peerless and 
 unapproachable than ever to him, that, postponing 
 all business topics, he asked her to come out for a 
 motor drive*, as he had something to tell her that 
 would probably affect both their lives in a very 
 marked degree. She didn't feel particularly in- 
 clined to go with him, but his manner was so 
 earnest, so irreproachable, that at last she gave her 
 consent, rather against her own judgment. 
 
 He said he was stopping at the Cecil, and, as 
 she pleaded work just then, appointed their outing 
 for a day later, and took his departure. Next 
 morning he called for her early, driving alone. 
 They ran out of London into the country, to 
 Bronzewing's great delight and pleasure, although 
 she had a feeling that she had been foolish to accede 
 to his invitation, but he had pleaded so earnestly, 
 made such a point of the value of his information, 
 that she on tenterhooks about the death of Austen, 
 and her ow r n blocking of the fact had at last con- 
 sented.
 
 LOVE IN A MOTOR CAR 129 
 
 The motor, a large, very powerful double vehicle, 
 Cape-cart tilted, and dust-glassed, was his own, 
 and he dilated much in praise of it, saying that a 
 motor drive seemed to him the best way of divulging 
 his important information to her, as no one could 
 either hear or interfere with them en route. She 
 pressed him to tell her right away, but he fenced 
 with her questions, turned the subject, spoke of 
 times when he was more to her than he appeared to 
 be just now, and finally broke off conversation 
 altogether, refusing to turn homewards when she 
 asked him. 
 
 "What if I ran away with you altogether, 
 Bronzewing?" he asked, suddenly, as they were 
 flying through the Chiltern Hundreds. "There is 
 no one to say me nay, and if you jumped out now 
 you would break your neck for a dead certainty, 
 and kill me, as I should have to try to save 
 you." 
 
 She looked at him with amazement as the motor 
 sped on, being more certain than ever that there 
 was something mentally wrong with him. Up to 
 now his manners had been unassailable, even if 
 morose for some miles. 
 
 "There's a letter in my pocket," he resumed, 
 master of a set purpose. "It was a private letter 
 written by my hapless cousin to his trustees not 
 long before his disappearance. In it he mentions 
 your name as a possible get-out of the monetary 
 difficulties connected with his English estates, and 
 a probable return there, as a consequence of his 
 marriage with you. What are you masquerading 
 here as a nurse for, then ? What have you to do 
 with the disappearance of my cousin, after his 
 written declaration ? What has he to do with you, 
 
 I
 
 130 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 I should like to know? You belong to me, by 
 right incontestable, and that you will understand 
 very soon." 
 
 Bronzewing was thoroughly alarmed now, as well 
 she might be. There was a set expression on the 
 grim face beside her which she had never seen 
 before, and she wondered what he would do next. 
 They were going through West Wycombe at a 
 dangerous pace, but the watchful eyes alongside 
 her steered the swift machine dexterously enough, 
 although on the outskirts there was imminent dan- 
 ger for a second or two for a nurse and perambula- 
 tor crossing the road. 
 
 "My Queen," Bygrave resumed later, in an 
 earnest voice, as if suddenly making up his mind 
 to a definite point, "don't be afraid, but tell me all 
 connected with Austen. It cannot harm anybody 
 beyond our two selves, and I'm bound to be as 
 silent as the grave about it, since his estates will 
 probably be mine. Will you have me for your 
 slave ? I wait for your answer. I ask you to share 
 the estates with me, and let the past lie buried. I 
 have plenty of money without your troubling for 
 anything." 
 
 "What did your cousin say?" Bronzewing asked 
 as steadily as she could. 
 
 Her colour had heightened, but she did not 
 outwardly flinch as she looked fairly and squarely 
 at her persecutor. 
 
 " He merely alluded to you personally as an 
 heiress, who, on marriage with him, would enrich 
 the estates and prevent the sequestration to which 
 they were subjected during his exile in the Colonies, 
 but since I first saw you I resolved to have you all 
 to myself, and I hope it will be proved that he is
 
 LOVE IN A MOTOR CAR 131 
 
 dead, and cannot claim you in any way." 
 
 "Did he say anything else?" she asked, ignoring 
 this declaration. 
 
 "Merely that he was going to see you soon. The 
 letter was stamped and posted in the usual manner." 
 
 "Did he not hint how or why he considered 
 me rich ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "On your sacred word of honour, Mr. Bygrave ?" 
 
 "On my sacred word of honour, Bronzewing." 
 
 "Then I refuse to tell you anything about your 
 cousin, save that he was a bad, unscrupulous, dan- 
 gerous man. I did .not know very much about 
 him," she went on, "but to me he was always 
 unpleasant, and any reference to him is still dis- 
 tasteful." 
 
 "Very well," Bygrave returned, "I'm glad to 
 hear it. Now I'm going to run down to Oxford, 
 and give you some dinner at the Mitre. I'm an 
 old 'Varsity man myself, and it will be queer for 
 me to see the new generation of the same type as 
 I used to be. I wonder if any of the boys of this 
 day have driven a machine like this inside their 
 various quads, as they used to ride their hunters 
 there at odd times in the old days !" 
 
 "I wish you would turn," she said. "I don't 
 want dinner anywhere, and I should be getting 
 back now. I've asked you often enough. Do 
 listen to reason ; I shall appeal for help wherever 
 you go if you don't." 
 
 He smiled disdainfully. 
 
 "No, Bronzewing, I do not intend that you shall 
 ever return to your nursing business. Think what 
 it would be to be a great heiress in this country, 
 the mistress of two beautiful country residences, a
 
 132 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 town house, acres galore, good rents to draw, the 
 value of the land itself, the ever-increasing pleasure 
 of spending our money in mutual consultation over 
 various improvements. Think of the advantages 
 Society would give you. You would be received 
 with open arms evervwhere, and the rest and ease 
 of a patriarchal country life would suit us both now 
 after all the worries and anxieties of our past." 
 
 What a drift of sanity lurked in his obvious 
 mental eccentricity, thought Bronzewing, and how 
 he could sue with his eyes, but to her he was now 
 simply odious. 
 
 "Besides, why not let old matters form new 
 manners, to abide with my determination and know- 
 ledge," he went on, generously. "You never 
 guessed that I was journeying with you on board 
 the liner we crossed the seas on with one purpose 
 in my heart to win you all for my own. For I 
 had seen you once, and your beautiful face 
 remained to haunt me. It was enough for me to 
 see it never to get rid of it from my memory, trv 
 as I would, and it must be mine, with all yourself, 
 to gaze upon and live for for ever. The second 
 time I saw you I loved you still more, but you did 
 not see me then." 
 
 "Was that when you rode past the coach ?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "When was it, then?" 
 
 "You had just shot a man," he remarked, very 
 coolly and decidedly. "He lay dead at your feet. 
 Why did you do that ? What was your reason for 
 it? Why did you run away afterwards to become 
 a nurse in England, of all places?"
 
 LOVE IN A MOTOR CAR 133 
 
 "I am not sure about shooting him," she said, 
 "but I meant to kill him, and he deserved it." 
 
 "I'm with you there," he said. "He did, but I 
 see you have all your wits about you, as usual, so 
 it is no use my trying any paltry subterfuges of not 
 knowing when he was shot and where. But seri- 
 ously, my dearest girl, I have a much fuller claim 
 over you than that of my unfortunate cousin whom 
 you supposed you shot. In the first place, I know 
 that you cannot repel me when I tell you I knew 
 about my cousin's death all the time, as you now 
 see. That fact alone, and your position in connec- 
 tion with it, equalizes my claim with yours com- 
 pletely. I can give you the fullest reason of his 
 death if you wish it?" 
 
 "I don't see why you should. If you can prove 
 I did it, and mean to say so at any time, I am 
 willing to face the consequences in a Court of Law, 
 
 "You own the land from the ' Rest ' to Brangal ? 
 Is that your reason for not wishing the fact to be 
 known ?" 
 
 "No, I only own the smaller surface enclosing 
 the ' Rest.' The land, all of it, really belongs to 
 the heir." 
 
 "Then who is he?" 
 
 "James Conroy, Austen Conroy's son." 
 
 "Ah, the next heir to the Austen estates, as it so 
 happens, if I die without issue and fail to attach 
 you personally. But I've made all arrangements 
 to compel you to be mine, Bronzewing, and if you 
 are afraid that any penalty will attach to you, I am 
 your guarantee that it shall not. My darling, I 
 have a far more extensive claim to you than my 
 cousin or anyone else ever had, for I killed him
 
 134 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 myself to save your honour ! But how pale you 
 look. What is the matter, dear? Oh, what 
 is it? He deserved it, as you said yourself, so 
 where is the crime in it, and who can blame either 
 of us?" 
 
 She fainted dead away, but the Fates were at 
 hand to save her. 
 
 In trying to assist her, he shifted his steering 
 wheel to a dangerous angle. There was a half- 
 turn up the bank, a whirl and twirl into the road 
 again, a bad skid, and a complete upset of the car. 
 
 Owing to the pace they had been going, all this 
 happened in a few seconds, after which there was a 
 wrecked machine and two motionless forms 
 Bronzewing on the grass, and Bygrave on the road. 
 Bronzewing had been flung out limp and helpless 
 at the first sudden swerve on to the bank. She was 
 safe and uninjured, though still unconscious. 
 
 Her tormentor lay still and bleeding from an 
 injury to his head, and it seemed as if he was dead. 
 
 By-and-bye, Bronzewing came to herself, and, 
 rising, went over to Bygrave. She had miracu- 
 lously escaped injury, so she told herself, and was 
 not sorry to see her incubus in the condition he was. 
 With the assistance of some country people, who 
 came running up, she gave him the necessary first 
 aid, with all the due assurance of her office, des- 
 patching one of them for a conveyance. Then, 
 having given instructions about the broken motor, 
 now removed from the road, she had her senseless 
 patient carried off and placed in a train from the 
 nearest station to London, attending to him there 
 in her own ward at the hospital. 
 
 She gathered from the doctors that there would 
 necessarily be delay about his recovery, that there
 
 LOVE IN A MOTOR CAR 135 
 
 was a great element of danger in the injury he had 
 suffered, and, nursing him until they assured her 
 that his case had become almost hopeless, without 
 his once knowing her, she pleaded indisposition 
 and left for Australia.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 A WASTE PLACE 
 
 As for Jim Conroy, it came to him ere this, the 
 same as to his father, to get an inspiration of how 
 to try his fortune elsewhere than in a billiard-room, 
 through the machinations and endeavours of a stal- 
 wart young bushman, the emissary of Arthur 
 Franks, who, staying at the hotel, kept setting forth 
 the beauties of a free, open-air life, and at last 
 persuaded him to give up his self-chosen profes- 
 sion and follow whither he dictated. Together 
 they went back to Brisbane, where Roddy 
 McGregor disclosed the whole advantage of his 
 proposition in a clear and convincing manner, 
 without divulging who he was, or why he had laid 
 himself out so especially to please his new acquain- 
 tance, who, however, had taken to him at first sight. 
 
 "I've got a light waggon, a couple of good, 
 staunch roadsters, together with a complete outfit 
 for kangarooing," he said. "We are sure to make 
 good money at it, and it's a fine, free life for such 
 as you and I. I want a mate of just your 
 description, and if in this glorious country we can't 
 make some profit out of our expedition, why, I 
 shall be a duffer if I can't show you how to, that's 
 all. 
 
 "First of all, you see, we can carry provisions, 
 a tent, and many other things wherever we can get
 
 A WASTE PLACE 137 
 
 with a buggy, and that's a good many places more 
 than you would think, with such a handy pair as 
 mine. I've been wandering all my life, my son, 
 and I'll soon put you up to all the wrinkles of 
 travel and sojourn, easy's falling off a log, guaran- 
 teeing you'll kill as many 'roos as I do in a day's 
 work when you have learnt to handle your Win- 
 chester, and there's money and health in the 
 business besides. I'd die in a week if I had to mope 
 about in town, same as you have. Kangarooing's 
 a trade, a profession, just as much as your billiard- 
 room work was, but it is not half so dyspeptic, 
 which is another comfort that's worth studying if 
 you want to grow wealthy and wise. Besides the 
 pelts, which we can sell for ourselves at a good 
 profit for all outlay, there are the scalps which the 
 marsupial boards will buy from us as guarantees 
 of their destruction. So a kangaroo counts twice 
 in a manner of speaking, if you know how to work 
 it, you see. And we might come across gold, or 
 its equivalent; what do you say to that?" 
 
 Naturally, Conroy warmed to the subject when 
 put in this light. The country life had induce- 
 ments, great inducements. 
 
 He also realized, as he was now forced to work 
 in order to make money for himself, it would be 
 advisable to learn all manners and modes of the 
 bush working man's life. So he promptly accepted 
 Roddy's offer and willing tuition, especially when, 
 after enquiry, he was assured that he would have 
 to earn his own share by real hard graft after 
 initiation. "That's what mates were built for," 
 added Roddy. 
 
 So the two set off on their new quest from Bris- 
 bane in high spirits soon afterwards, driving
 
 i 3 8 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 leisurely along the up-country road towards the 
 Warrego, camping at night where bush hospitality 
 did not intervene, and finding Nature as lavish and 
 perhaps a little more varied occasionally than civili- 
 zation. They had a double-barrelled shot-gun for 
 turkeys and ducks, and Roddy pointed out all bush 
 wonders to his new mate, instructing him how to 
 do things until the willingness on both sides began 
 to make them friends in downright earnest, instead 
 of mere chance acquaintances, and the appellations 
 Roddy and Jim became permanently fixed, as 
 mates' names should be. 
 
 "I'll alter the sights on that new Winchester of 
 yours, Jim, and lighten the trigger-pull," Roddy 
 observed one day as they jogged along, the trained 
 horses dividing the outer road rut for easier wheel 
 work, "as soon as we get into the real kangaroo 
 country." 
 
 They reached the Warrego at last, struck over 
 towards the back-country of the Paroo, and finally 
 came to that river itself. 
 
 "This is the red, short-haired kangaroo country, 
 the sort so good for boot and stock-whip making," 
 Conroy's mate declared. "See if we don't get a 
 big cargo of pelts in some of these big forest mulga 
 scrubs out-back, besides smaller fry. As for 
 tucker*, I doubt if a London restaurant wouldn't 
 jump at the teal, the wood-duck, the whistling 
 duck, and the black duck that our old two-spout 
 scatter-gun would fetch 'em in a day's march on 
 the Paroo frontage or on any of the back lagoons. 
 See 'em now rising off that water-hole, and listen 
 to the whistling duck out of those reeds ! 
 
 Food.
 
 A WASTE PLACE 139 
 
 "Ever eat a paddy melon ? You hold on till I 
 cook you one. They're like a sucking pig made 
 of chicken if you understand the culinary art, same 
 as a bandicoot almost. Scald 'em just like a little 
 pig is scalded, and stuff and eat 'em roasted. And 
 there's a lily root about here in deep water I'll get 
 you that'll make you want no more potatoes till 
 you see 'em again down-country. And there's 
 silver bream, perch and catfish, and plenty of fresh 
 water mussels to be fished out." 
 
 "You seem to know your way about, Roddy." 
 
 "Fairly well; I was up here some time after the 
 exploring party, and I've got the bush knowledge 
 and the hang of it all. You can't go very much 
 wrong for birds and animals in Australia, wherever 
 you travel, though the trees change more than a 
 bit in a single day's journey. Ever seen mulga 
 before? We're in it now, miles upon miles of it, 
 up and down the river, as well as out-back. If 
 you get a splinter of that stuff in you, you'll get 
 the Barcoo rot, as it poisons and festers the flesh 
 from only a scratch, but horses will eat the leaves 
 with the greatest relish, and they fatten cattle and 
 sheep. See that park-like ridge mulga away on 
 our left. That's the stuff for stock. It's the old 
 broken dead forest, that's good for nothing but fires 
 and staking horses. 
 
 "Now I'm going to follow this Paroo down a bit, 
 and then strike out back from where we find our- 
 selves, up a creek, or straight across country, and 
 chance it until I get a suitable spot for our base 
 camp somewhere near a place I've got my eye on. 
 That's our real beginning, you see. You've 
 learned to drive, Jim, since we started. You can 
 find the horses without losing yourself every time,
 
 140 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 if they don't stray very far from camp. You know 
 how to mix a damper or Johnny cakes on a bit 
 of inside fresh river box or gum bark, and you can 
 cook a good deal better that you did when you 
 started. That's something, ain't it, old man? So 
 you're beginning to be a real good mate, you see. 
 Now I'm going to teach you to shoot." 
 
 "I feel better in real health and spirits than ever 
 I did in all my life, Roddy, and like this picnic no 
 end. I had no idea Australia was such a grand 
 country, such a changeable and wonderful land, 
 when you are clear away from town." 
 
 "Ah, you're only learning yet, man. How would 
 it be if you had to build a town yourself some day 
 out where we're going to, eh?" 
 
 "Ah, there's not much prospect of that, Roddy." 
 
 "Why not? Suppose you found a payable gold 
 or gem field?" 
 
 This set Conroy thinking. 
 
 "I understand a man does chance upon gold 
 sometimes," he said. "It seems like a fairy tale, 
 but I should not know where to look for it if I 
 wanted to." 
 
 "It is chance mostly, Jim, but a chance that is 
 always happening. I know places I've driven 
 over, walked over, and sat upon, that turned out 
 gem or gold-bearing ground afterwards, though I 
 did not notice it at the time by not giving my mind 
 or eyes to my surroundings, any more than in 
 looking for grass and water. It's my saying that 
 if you happen to locate anywhere in Australia, no 
 matter where it is, stick to it, and you'll find some- 
 thing payable about it, but I never practised my 
 motto. If I had done so, I should have come out 
 on top long ere this. Mind you, it's easier to say
 
 A WASTE PLACE 141 
 
 than do, for this country breeds a love of wander- 
 ing from the very change and charm of it all. But 
 you should hear all bushmen talk of the riches they 
 have missed. Why, as an instance, the man who 
 lived on Mount Morgan sold his rights for a mere 
 song. He didn't know the place was all gold, that 
 full of it that he could have founded a race of 
 multi-millionaires, if he had kept it for his family 
 and himself. 
 
 "What a lot of bullion and sovereigns must have 
 been minted off that spot since then for the good of 
 the British Empire, and Australia too, for we coin 
 our own bullion nowadays. Wouldn't it make a 
 book of wonder and delight if you got the history 
 of any other El Dorado out here, and the tales and 
 adventures of the people the gold passed through 
 the hands of, from discovery to realization, the 
 sort of men they were, their successes and dis- 
 appointments, and all they did. Talk about 
 London, eh ? We touch the real thing that makes 
 London out here, if we have a mind to, and we 
 have the romance of the finding all that goes to 
 make a man besides." 
 
 "I'm longing to get at the kangaroos, Roddy; 
 there's more fun in going after them for me than 
 in gold-digging at present, and perhaps it'll lead 
 to what you say, some day, when I get a sufficient 
 knowledge of bush ways. I don't feel as if I had 
 seen half enough of them yet." 
 
 "Hurrv nothing, then, mate; take it all as it 
 comes. But look out for sharp surprises, as thev 
 may drive you another way sometimes. I've heard 
 of something up here besides kangaroos that may 
 be valuable, or I shouldn't be talking as I do. 
 Live and let live, I say, and be thankful if you are
 
 i 4 2 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 only alive to work and plan. Keep your eyes open 
 and use them both above and below the ground; 
 but be dark about your findings to others. Them's 
 my sentiments, Jim." 
 
 They left the bank of the river shortly after- 
 wards, Roddy striking off from it at right angles 
 through an open box flat. Then, after travelling 
 a considerable distance through rough black- 
 stemmed gidya on a creek over park-like ground, 
 they came to a range of hills which, for a time, 
 seemed a perfect martyrdom to get across. But 
 presently they found a thickly-timbered grassed 
 gorge through which Roddy piloted his brown 
 horses skilfully, although at no small risk and 
 danger to all their belongings, on account of un- 
 even ground, dense scrub, and steep ascents. 
 
 Patience, however, and a judicious use of the 
 bushman's stand-byes the American axe and the 
 small tomahawk, for tree and scrub intervenings 
 and his third and fourth best bowers, the long- 
 handled shovel and pick for inequalities of ground, 
 got them through and up to the top, whence, still 
 driving in the gorge, they suddenly opened new 
 country, to Roddy's great satisfaction. Here at 
 the end of the mountain glade, which elevated to 
 a plateau level, grassv at the summit, fringed with 
 cliffs and divided with huge rocks, enabled them 
 to look down upon a large plain, the tussockv 
 grass on which, shining yellow in the sunlight, 
 made them think of a lake of molten gold, set in 
 a crucible of purple flat-topped hill?;, bevond which 
 stretched an ocean of trees to all horizons ; such a 
 scene as Conroy had never, in the wildest dreams 
 of his imagination, imagined before, the whole in 
 no way losing the weird beauty of its settings and
 
 A WASTE PLACE 143 
 
 surroundings by the brightness of the sun in the 
 un flecked sky overhead. 
 
 The extreme end of the gorge where Roddy 
 pulled up his hardy, travel-stained horses at last, 
 with an emphatic rein, was flanked by two brown 
 monoliths of peculiar shape which stood up like 
 leaning pillars, and beyond and below them a long 
 tussocked slope led downwards towards the plain. 
 
 "Our journey's over," said Roddy. 
 
 Then, turning his team, he drove fifty yards 
 back to a spot where he had seen pigeons fly out 
 from a cavity in the rocks on his left hand. And 
 sure enough, there was a fine native well* with six 
 months' water in it, drv fallen and abundant wood 
 lav about, and at the end of the gorge a look-out 
 over a countrv stretching to nearlv a whole circle. 
 
 "I see water glinting on the far end of the big 
 plain below, on a bee-line above those three conical 
 sugar-loaf hills," Roddv went on, when they had 
 gone a second time on foot to the stone monoliths. 
 "It's a big look-out. See, the plain is covered 
 with 'roos." 
 
 "I suppose you will form the base camp here, 
 Roddy?" 
 
 "Just our sort, mate ! A good spot to see every- 
 thing from. Now we'll let the horses spell for a 
 fortnight, and do our own work on our legs for a 
 bit. And what do you say to a feed, or are you 
 off your tucker with the view?" 
 
 The two young men were tanned by the sun 
 heat of long travel to the colour, if not the consist- 
 ency, of a pair of well-worn leather boots, and their 
 hunger in this instance was nearly good enough to 
 
 'Natural storage of water from an overhead drip.
 
 144 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 eat their likenesses if nothing better offered. So 
 the young pioneer's question seemed superfluous. 
 
 Roddy McGregor soon had the camp in wonder- 
 ful order. He had an expeditious, practical way 
 of setting about everything that only comes from 
 long experience, and the habit was beginning to 
 have a similar effect upon Conroy, who was unable 
 to refrain from imitating him. Nothing seemed 
 to come amiss to Roddy anywhere. He buckled 
 to on the slightest occasion, and would have done 
 everything everywhere that was to be done without 
 troubling anybody else. And as such a character 
 was infectious in the highest degree, Conroy 
 despite his natural indolence, had been inspired 
 and smartened up by it very much. The pair of 
 young athletes, after starting their fire, now pre- 
 pared to pitch their tent, digging a drain round it 
 for rain water, getting pegs made with a tomahawk. 
 Then they cut down and placed a framework, over 
 which they fixed their tent; then the fly or outside 
 lighter covering was tied down to an outer frame- 
 work ; and in a day or so they made a cooking 
 place of stones with a bough shelter over it for 
 coolness. 
 
 This dwelling of these far-off wanderers in this 
 primeval Eden was pitched in a snug turning of 
 the level ravine, out of sight of anyone below. 
 Rocks towered on each side, but on the wide flat 
 space beneath them, the same yellow grass that 
 dotted the plain below waved and sang its 
 whispering songs to anv passing breeze ; and the 
 park-like trees of ridge mulga cast pleasant patches 
 of shadow upon the plateau, whilst here and there 
 grew small succulent native wild melons. 
 
 It was an ideal spot, this base camp of theirs,
 
 A WASTE PLACE 145 
 
 and long did Conroy, after their first meal, leaning 
 against one of the brown stone pillars flanking the 
 gorge, gaze about him. He was fascinated by the 
 wonderful colour in the landscape, the breadth, 
 wildness, the intense loneliness of it all. 
 
 "It makes a fellow feel a man to see such a 
 country," he thought. " 'Puts a spread on him,' 
 as Roddy would say." 
 
 Blue-misted, olive-green, purple, and gold, the 
 landscape spread itself before his sight. It was a 
 new world with no white inhabitants upon it save 
 themselves ; not a sign of mankind anywhere. And 
 the wild grandeur of it was indescribable and 
 enchanting, never to fade away again from his 
 vision as a dream of amethyst, sapphire, emerald, 
 purple and gold. 
 
 "This district should be taken up again," Roddv 
 declared, as he joined him later. "It's one of our 
 waste places, a blacks' country. I believe there is 
 a bush hotel and a post-office some eighty miles 
 from here, where the road turns off for the Bulloo, 
 that may be just kept alive by passing stock and 
 travellers, but at present the kangaroo and the wild 
 man rule the roost. Here we are on the verges of 
 the Never-Never, touched before, and deserted. 
 But what may be beyond it, or even here as it is 
 now, who can tell ? 
 
 "See how Australia develops bit by bit in these 
 far-out wild places. First comes the explorer. 
 After him goes the pioneer squatter on his report 
 or discovery alone, and is lucky or not as he locates 
 with cattle or sheep. When he has fought out the 
 seasons of his lease, successful or broken enough 
 to leave it for good and all, some later wandering 
 prospector or kangarooer comes along and makes 
 
 K
 
 146 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 a mineral discovery where the squatter has sold out 
 or given up. And in the latter case, squatting 
 being played out, the pioneer of the land deposed, 
 the mineral find develops and most probably a 
 township springs into existence, which will develop 
 into a city in its time, and the surrounding country 
 becomes inhabited and civilized still more by the 
 advent of the iron horse as the years roll on, and 
 goes on from prosperity to prosperity, until farms 
 spring up everywhere, many of them with a 
 mineral section on them if the farmers have been 
 on the diggings before and have a digger's eyes." 
 
 All this sort of talk from Roddv surprised and 
 interested Conroy immensely. He thought it 
 strange that he, being only about a year or so older 
 than himself, could have so much general know- 
 ledge. 
 
 But bush-bred Roddy had commenced to learn 
 his native lore on his father's first little farm 
 selection near Brisbane in the old days, and what 
 had been his alphabet there had increased to a 
 volume of erudition and working power for himself 
 in a new and quickly-developing land which his 
 heart turned to naturally more and more as he went 
 out to explore farther. He was up to every trick 
 and turn in the manner of the wild life laid before 
 him, and knew mining well. He would go 
 droving, fencing, splitting, shearing, when he 
 wanted a change; but there are few, except their 
 intimates and co-workers, who really know what a 
 grand, sensible, intellectual, hardy race these young 
 fellows are part of through constant employment 
 in the open air. 
 
 Brimming with energy and grit, they will work 
 with full vigour, using muscles and body all day
 
 A WASTE PLACE 147 
 
 long until their brief hours of rest come to them, 
 when, after sundown, the brain, calling for its 
 due increment in turn, is then filled with such a 
 wide pabulum provided by such sterling papers as 
 the "Australasian," "The Queenslander," "The 
 Town and Country Journal," and perchance the 
 young bushman, a man amongst men in the strong, 
 vigorous life he is living, commences to dabble in 
 thought-out politics with the light of his country 
 philosophically upon him, a frame of mind which 
 produces patriots, athletes, and well-to-do native- 
 born Colonists. 
 
 Next morning Roddy McGregor was up and 
 about betimes. He lit the fire, brought wood and 
 water, replenished the water vessels, set the 
 breakfast utensils ready, and was now engaged 
 fixing a white ivory bush fore-sight to Conroy's 
 Winchester. Then he fitted a curved, darkened 
 tin shade over the back-sight to localize the fore 
 without eye dazzle. 
 
 Conroy emerged from the tent, yawning, when 
 Roddy broke in smiling, satisfied with his efforts : 
 
 "Now you'll do for a first trial, Jim. There's 
 your rifle; I've fixed it all right for you, so as to 
 take this sunlight." 
 
 Conroy took it with hearty thanks, examined the 
 native inventive touch, went back to the tent for 
 soap and a towel, and, coming out again without 
 his firearm, caught up a spare bucket. 
 
 "When we have done breakfast, we'll tidy up, 
 and then go down and see which way Yeo and 
 Bushman are heading," Roddv observed on his 
 return. "They were a bit restless with sand-flies 
 last night by the sound of the bell. If they are all 
 right now, we'll have a crack at the 'roos,
 
 148 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "I wonder what stuff is glinting there on the 
 sides of those sugar-loaf hills out in the plain ? 
 Looks like big diamonds in the sun, don't it? I 
 have only heard of this place on the quiet, never 
 seen it before. To-night when we come back we'll 
 fill some empty shells, if we dispose of the ten 
 loaded cartridges I've parcelled out for our joint 
 back-swag to-day. You don't want to waste a 
 shot up here, and when you've had enough practice 
 you won't attempt to. 
 
 "Don't you wish you were in Sydney at billiard 
 work ? Fancy ironing your tables, and watching 
 other people play all day and half the night!" 
 
 Conroy paused as he inhaled the sweet early air. 
 
 "Not I. We're monarchs of all we survey, eh, 
 Roddy? My word, what a kingdom it is, toe. 
 How vast !" 
 
 "That depends; you're looking at it from above 
 in too high a light altogether. We haven't sur- 
 veyed more than the outlook yet, old man ; and a 
 lot of the whole of it is buried to sight and 
 knowledge in that great sea of mulga forest, in a 
 little bit of which you might lose yourself for ever 
 and ever, and where even sudden death might be 
 lurking for you in some unexpected form or other 
 before you could get even a little bit more forward 
 to the horizon. Let's see how you shoot and 
 explore first as to a permanency of qualification, 
 unless you want a cook's billet !" 
 
 Breakfast over, the friends shouldered their 
 Winchesters and strode off to explore their new 
 realm, having put everything about the camp in 
 such thorough order as Roddy enjoined. Their 
 way down from the elevated gorge of their base 
 camp lay on the gentle slope which led to the plain.
 
 A WASTE PLACE 149 
 
 They went on until the sugar-loaf hills were 
 reached. 
 
 "What a clinking farm this spot would make !" 
 Roddy exclaimed, "and what a site to build a 
 house by these two hills. See, here's a blind 
 creek, and it is running from those upper waters 
 we saw yesterday. .The stuff that glittered so 
 from the top of this nearest hill is native talc. Look 
 at it, like semi-transparent slabs of thick frosted 
 window glass a quarter-of-an-inch thick." 
 
 Roddy then mounted the nearest of the conical 
 hills, where, on a grassed plateau of ascension, lay 
 a great mass of brown, chocolate-coloured rock. He 
 had a small shingling tomahawk with a hammer 
 side to it in his leather belt strap, and with this 
 latter auxiliary to geology began cracking bits off 
 the rock outcrop, which here and there held the 
 blue of weather-worn opal deposit. 
 
 "Great Scott!" he called out; "Conroy, come 
 here ! Look, it's alive !" 
 
 And in the cleft of the exposed surface of a 
 knocked off stone breakage, was a four-legged, 
 cream-white creature, shaped like a lizard, tail 
 moving and body breathing. But it died before 
 their eyes, wriggling out from its own impres- 
 sioned moulding in the stone, and expiring in the 
 grass at their feet. 
 
 "He must have been melted and poured in ! I 
 wonder what he lived on," Roddy said, putting 
 his small hammer tomahawk back into his belt, 
 and picking up his rifle, "and why I was sent to 
 chip him into open air, and death, is more than 
 I can imagine. There are things in Nature past 
 our ken, whatever we may believe. However did 
 he get there, and how did he live ? He is an opal
 
 I5o WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 lizard, and his duty was to remain there until he 
 was opalized. But seeing is believing, isn't it! 
 Sh ! look at that kangaroo, she's a big doe with a 
 joey hopping by her." 
 
 And Roddy slid to the ground like a tailor, and, 
 sitting, fired sideways, resting his elbows on his 
 knees. 
 
 The big doe toppled over and lay quite still, shot 
 through the head, about 300 yards off beyond the 
 base of the next sugar-loaf hill. 
 
 "We'll take the joey up to camp when we come 
 back, and make a pet of him," said Roddy, who, 
 running, followed by Conroy, had caught the 
 young marsupial. "We'll tie him up here now, 
 and skin the other. Out with your knife, Jim."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 LURED BY THE BELL-BIRDS 
 
 NEXT morning the pupil, happening to awake 
 before sunrise, thinking to surprise and captivate 
 Roddy with his new-born bush attainments, left 
 his companion sleeping soundly in the tent, his 
 hands crossed behind his head, his body at full 
 stretch, and a peaceful and benign smile on his face. 
 
 Jim Conroy stepped lightly and briskly down 
 the hillside full of his own importance. It was 
 "nerangi" daylight, the "little dawn" of the wild 
 blacks, the steel-grey glimmer before the sunrise, 
 just light sufficient to see by and cold enough with 
 a frost-snap in the air to make him wish to progress 
 briskly, the very hour when if awake you feel your 
 life about to burst into increasing vitality if you 
 are young and able. The rough boulders on the 
 slope were but half-formed in dim, vapoury 
 silhouettes as he passed them, and the earth as yet 
 was asleep in a bath of faint, floating, low- 
 clinging ground mist. 
 
 He got to the conical hills of yesterday and, 
 arriving further on near a clump of mulga, one 
 little cock of the dawn trilled his first sleepy 
 canopied voice of tribute to the slowly-brightening 
 sky overhead. 
 
 Conroy peered about looking for it, failing 
 exactly to place the little dreamer; but ten minutes
 
 152 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 afterwards, when well out in the plain, he heard 
 the horses' bell distinctly in some distant timber. 
 Never calculating consequences, he ran hard for 
 the sound, pushing on straight to where it came 
 from ; and the fact that he ought to have followed 
 the tracks from where he had seen the waggon 
 horses the night before never entered his head, 
 when, hearing the bell again still clearer but more 
 to the right, he stood listening intently in surprised 
 doubt. The sound came clearer in its metallic call 
 soon afterwards, but farther in, and pushing 
 hurriedly forward, still thinking how he would 
 surprise Roddy with his extra smartness, he 
 stopped again to listen. It was old Bushman him- 
 self ; he had the bell on. It rang twice again quite 
 clearly; the old horse had wakened up to some 
 purpose, and was moving fast away over the new 
 grass in the forest, but the sun was now up and 
 all the bush birds were singing a joint heraldic 
 refrain to it, making the occasional bell very hard 
 to distinguish. 
 
 He was still pressing on, in a gorge between 
 hills, when he heard it again in a marked ringing 
 measure at the other end. Then the ground began 
 to rise, and still the tinkle seemed to indicate the 
 horses. Something had startled them, surely ? he 
 thought. But, though hastening, he didn't seem 
 to catch up with them as fast as he could wish. 
 Had anybody got hold of them ? It seemed as if 
 they were being ridden off. 
 
 There, again ! Perhaps they were bushrangers 
 who were doing this ! One of the dangers lurk- 
 ing in immediate places before one came to the 
 horizon of Roddy's prophecy. He must hurry 
 anyhow, so he paced on through the thick timber
 
 LURED BY THE BELL-BIRDS 153 
 
 to gain on them, every now and then hearing the 
 fleeting tinkle, sometimes, his senses told him, in 
 other directions than the one he was pursuing. 
 This confused him altogether, and at last he pulled 
 up, not over confident as to his own whereabouts. 
 Every tree around him looked the same as the 
 others. There was no real open ground, only 
 between-patches of it, whilst timber, rise, and ridge 
 blocked his sight whichever way he turned. He was 
 hot and tired, with a sinking sensation somewhere 
 about the pit of his stomach that made him wish 
 for a steaming pannikin of tea back at the camp 
 fire, and one of Roddy's Johnny cakes, with some- 
 thing still more substantial in addition to allay his 
 fast-increasing hunger. He wandered on and on, 
 getting more and more perplexed, with the bells 
 all around him, but fainter and fewer and getting 
 farther away as the sun rose higher, until at last 
 he came to a white-soiled, glazy-looking clay-pan 
 surrounded with slight, thin-stalked, rustling reeds 
 in a forest opening, and paused for a drink of its 
 shallow, milky-looking water. Then he took 
 another direction, which he thought would be his 
 route back to Roddy, disgusted with himself, his 
 morning's work, and everything else, still occasion- 
 ally edging away to where a deeper tinkle of the 
 eerie bells made him certain that the horses were 
 near him somewhere. 
 
 The sun was well up now, and still the intermin- 
 able mulga forest stretched out before him and 
 around him with no sign of the plain he wished so 
 much to find. Ah, he was quite sure now that he 
 had gone wrong, because he saw a bell-bird, a 
 black honey eater which flicked its tail and wings, 
 in a tree close by him, and, though the near note
 
 154 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 it gave was not quite the same as the ring of a 
 horse-bell, he thought distance would give it 
 exactly the same mellowed, metallic note he had 
 hastened after all the morning. 
 
 He sat down, lit his pipe, and deliberated which 
 direction to take so as to get back to the base camp. 
 When he had finished, he kept on as far as he 
 could judge at an angle from the course he had 
 been following. He believed this would lead him 
 out on to the plain again, but had he known more 
 of the ways of the bush he might have been equally 
 certain that tree stem after tree stem would deflect 
 his straight line little by little, so that a deviation 
 here and there, however small, not knowing how 
 to rectify his line by the sun, and keep it straight, 
 would in time lead him to describe a circle. 
 
 At last he came on his tracks again in some soft, 
 red ground, and for a moment wondered what man 
 could be possibly wandering about in his vicinity. 
 He thought they were made by the man or men 
 who had moved the horses away. After inspection 
 and measurement with his boot-sole, he found to 
 his horror the truth of the whole circle theory, but 
 never thought of following his tracks continuously 
 backwards, and so left them. Presently he came, 
 by some lucky chance, to the foot of a cliff, and 
 managed to scale it in order to obtain a clear look 
 round. He found the summit open and grassed, 
 studded here and there with clumps of mulga, 
 affording grateful shelter to mobs of kangaroos. 
 However, the only variety of landscape afforded by 
 the higher altitude was a view of more forest and 
 bigger hills still, and in their direction he set off, 
 feeling sure they were those where Roddy had 
 fixed their base camp.
 
 LURED BY THE BELL-BIRDS 155 
 
 But the same sea of trees seemed to pervade the 
 rest of his view right away to all distances, and 
 there were no indications whatever of the plain he 
 was re-seeking. He grew sick and faint with 
 hunger and alarm, and by night, still hopelessly 
 plodding onwards, was lost irretrievably to all 
 purposes of return, although he had reached the 
 base of the mountains he had steered for, and 
 from which he hoped next morning to see the 
 country he had wandered from, and which, had he 
 known, was even now not so very far distant. 
 Where he was, he found on the lower ground plenty 
 of water by silver box trees in a narrow, open creek 
 flat, and drinking his fill, lit a camp fire, and put 
 up a rude sort of broken bough shelter, after 
 inspecting a comfortable-looking cave not far off 
 his selection ; but the fear of lingering snakes kept 
 him out of that in preference for the open bare 
 ground. 
 
 He then discovered a species of wild pig-weed 
 which he par-broiled on the embers of his fire, for 
 want of a better way of cooking or anything else 
 to eat, and went to sleep at last worn out and 
 empty, although, if he had possessed sufficient 
 bush experience, he might have known that a good 
 supper was awaiting him in small thick cray-fish 
 in the below-surface banks of the water-hole close 
 by, which would have eclipsed his portulac supper 
 altogether in similar broiling. 
 
 Within ten yards of him, too, 'ere the moon 
 rose, were opossums in holes of the silver box trees 
 which he could have pulled out by their tails and 
 cooked; his knife would have procured yellow 
 grubs from the stems of other trees around him, 
 which even a white man would esteem a delicacy
 
 i 5 6 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 if very hungry, cooked in the same way. There is 
 never any need either to starve or go thirsty in the 
 Australian bush, except for those who do not know 
 its secrets; but one must travel with the blacks or 
 old hands to learn this lore in all its wonderful 
 variation. 
 
 So Conroy hungered painfully till next morning, 
 when, chewing some more mouthfuls of half- 
 cooked portulac, he ascended the range, and not 
 knowing where he was, went over it and dropped 
 on to the back country of a big river where, near 
 a creek, to his great surprise and delight, he dis- 
 covered a shepherd's hut with a large sheep-yard 
 close to it. He found it inhabited by one Kanaka, 
 who, by signs and broken English, made him 
 aware that he was hut-keeper to an absent 
 companion, one of the same race as himself, who 
 was away with the flock. This dark-skinned 
 Samaritan gave the lost man hope of a good 
 satisfying breakfast, having first amazed him by 
 the dexterity with which he knocked over, with a 
 sort of knob-kerry throwing stick, four out of a 
 large flight of emerald-green budgerigars which 
 happened to be passing through the air when he 
 was conversing with him outside his hut. Then 
 he regaled Conroy plentifully with tea, corned 
 mutton, and damper. 
 
 He informed him that the road near by led to 
 a large station to which the sheep belonged, and 
 when the tired wanderer was sufficiently recovered 
 to travel onwards next day, he set out in the 
 direction indicated. 
 
 Towards evening he found himself at a big 
 station, and, thinking Roddy would disparage his 
 bushmanship in thus effectually and entirely
 
 LURED BY THE BELL-BIRDS 157 
 
 changing his locality without knowing it, or being 
 able to help it, began to nourish an idea which 
 had vaguely cropped up in his own mind from time 
 to time, and that was to take this chance of work- 
 ing for himself and by himself at bush work for 
 the future. It was rather a sudden determination, 
 and only came upon him after finding his life 
 saved ; but he did not like Roddy to laugh at him, 
 and his pride rebelled at further tuition by a 
 keener and more skilful hand than himself. So he 
 determined to undertake the role of an ordinary 
 traveller, to pretend he was one, and this offset 
 came from the fact that he was not able to find his 
 way back to his former mate, even had he wished 
 to do so. 
 
 On enquiry at the station for work, he found out 
 that the big river he had crossed to get there was 
 the Warrego, and a very different sort of country 
 spread around him from what he had left behind 
 on the creek over the other side of the big 
 range. It was much more open, with large, 
 stretching, well-grassed plains, the river was far 
 wider, and there were some magnificent, long, 
 blue, deep expanses of water along its channels, 
 with terraced, sandy banks down to them fringed 
 with" pretty, green, feathery shrubs of laree 
 dimensions above the variegated pebbles of the 
 beached watersides. 
 
 The manager informed him that he had no work 
 to give him at present, but told him he could go to 
 the men's hut and stay for the night if it suited 
 him. Whereupon Conroy, luckily having three or 
 four pound notes in his pocket, surreptitiously 
 bought a pair of blankets, a billy, and a tin 
 pannikin, which caused the storekeeper some
 
 158 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 astonishment. Having, at that worthy's sug- 
 gestion, had the pannikin filled with the ordinary 
 "pint o' dust" (or flour) allowed to travellers, he 
 bought tea and sugar for his future requirements, 
 and, with a 61b. hunch of salt beef, which he got 
 free of charge, strolled over to the men's hut as if 
 native and to the manner born, and found another 
 travelling swagman, much older than himself, 
 boiling a similar piece of beef to his in a large zinc 
 bucket. 
 
 "Give me your lot, mate," said this individual, 
 "and I'll put it in, too. It'll make 'em both taste 
 the better when they're done. Where the deuce 
 did you come from? You're not a day out from 
 the old country by the looks of your swag." 
 
 Conroy modestly averred that the statement was 
 partially true, but did not enlighten him further. 
 
 "Ah, I see how it is. You're like the rest of 
 them. Got rid of your money in town, and had to 
 take to the roads without so much of the pleasant 
 jingle of it in your pocket as formerly, eh? Got 
 a lift so far, I expect. And now you're stony- 
 broke, you are just beginning to commence at the 
 bottom of the ladder, and that's why vou bought 
 your swag. Well, it's lucky you fell in with me 
 as a guide, young man, because I'm not a pro- 
 fessional loafer just tramping for tucker. I'm a 
 grafter,* by trade a carpenter, with a job on contract 
 waiting for me at Cunnamulla ; and if you like to 
 stick to me I might put you up to some wrinkles 
 that would be beneficial to you for future work." 
 
 Jim Conroy looked hard at his companion. The 
 man was about forty-five, hard, healthy-looking, 
 
 *Hard worker.
 
 LURED BY THE BELL-BIRDS 159 
 
 and active, and the two had their supper together 
 quite comfortably. The beef this practised hand 
 had cooked tasted uncommonly well, especially as 
 he had some warrigal cabbagef with it ; his Johnny 
 cakes,* made out of the joint provision of flour, 
 were perfect, and the milkless, brown sugared tea 
 and pipes in fellowship afterwards comforted the 
 Colonial experience man wonderfully. 
 
 He felt quite a sensation of new articled pride as 
 he rolled his big double blue blanket round him that 
 night, for his room mate had told him not to cut it, 
 and, although it had cost him the greater part of 
 his money, with a pleasant conviction that he must 
 be more than a full fifty miles away from Roddy, 
 and about to attempt to carve out his own way in 
 an untrammelled land that called for hard work 
 with thew and sinew, brain and energy, he began 
 to think better of himself when he woke next 
 morning. The many rebuffs that had fallen to 
 his lot, since he had been more or less dependent 
 upon the advice or help of any others than himself, 
 made him all the more determined to follow his 
 new line of thinking and meet and learn the bush 
 world alone. But most of all he found he dared 
 not face Roddy and own up to his unskilfulness in 
 the bush. 
 
 On the road after their joint breakfast, his 
 friend of the night before, judiciously avoiding 
 any questions, and thus promoting harmony, pro- 
 ceeded as they walked along in company to give 
 him several practical hints as to that particular 
 style of progression. First the importance of 
 taking care of his feet and boots on the long 
 
 tWild thistle, a good substitute as named. JUnleavened sconce.
 
 160 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 journeys that might come to him ; how to behave 
 at stations; also at townships, where he was 
 advised to take care of his money, not to spend it 
 except on necessaries, such as a pair of good 
 fishing lines, salt, and other requirements; and not 
 to get drunk on any consideration whatever. 
 
 Thus the talk wandered off to fencing, splitting, 
 shingling, the way to roll up a swag and carry it ; 
 the methods and modes of the road. Above all, 
 to have a well-coloured, smoke-blackened billy, so 
 as not to look like a new-chum.* How to catch 
 fish in the various rivers and generally get along 
 in the bush, without money and purchased food. 
 
 This conversation naturally enough enlightened 
 both of them in no Small degree regarding their 
 several capacities, and Bob, the only name his 
 travelling companion would give, told him, with 
 a half-concealed smile of pity, that if Cunnamulla 
 held no work for him, he could branch off from it to 
 Bourke, where he would be pretty sure of employ- 
 ment as a deck hand on one or other of the river 
 steamboats. 
 
 Conroy, coming under the already hinted title 
 of the unskilled at Cunnamulla, decided to tramp 
 onwards, and, leaving his kindly mentor at the 
 latter township, journeyed from that place in 
 company with some horse teams going in to 
 Bourke loaded with wool, through the soda-spring 
 and extinct lake country. 
 
 At Bourke, his physique being good, he was 
 fortunate enough to get a billet as a general rouse- 
 about deck-hand on board a large stern-wheel 
 paddle-boat, and, as the floods were out, his 
 
 *Just out from Great Britain.
 
 LURED BY THE BELL-BIRDS 161 
 
 passage down stream as far as Echuca was 
 wonderfully venturesome, varied and exciting. 
 . The enormous quantities of wild fowl on the 
 bosom of the Darling and Murray rivers, in the 
 daylight, the screaming of hundreds of sulphur- 
 crested, white cockatoos in the trees overhead, 
 surprised and impressed him. The vagaries of 
 the big diamond and carpet snakes, in the hollow 
 logs the wood gang cut at night into sections for 
 fuel for the engines, by the light of bonfires, made 
 him handle his axe as a destroyer always; and the 
 dangers from all sorts of ants and huge hornets 
 when disseminating lurking places in timber, even 
 to the dislodgment of centipedes and scorpions, 
 awoke a very wary disposition, vastly beneficial 
 to him, as they taught him to keep his eyes open 
 continually. 
 
 And rude health and daily-increasing muscular 
 strength coming with it all, he was overjoyed to 
 find how pleasant it was at last to take a place, 
 however humble, as a unit of a hardy working race 
 amongst others instead of lolling about and looking 
 on at what others were doing. 
 
 Many practical ideas he got from his cheery, 
 vigorous companions and mess-mates, and 'ere his 
 voyage of a thousand miles on the brimming- 
 rivers was over, he added a large and varied stock 
 of real bush wisdom to his alreadv varied Colonial 
 experience. He had earned regular weekly wages, 
 acquired, together with two serviceable suits of 
 dungaree, an appetite that could not be bougHt for 
 monev or gained in a billiard room, or even with 
 Roddv. More than that, the marvellous vigour 
 of the Australian eucalvptian-fed air of the river 
 places put a high-working gauge to his bodily 
 
 '
 
 162 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 abilities more palpable than the exhaust pipe of 
 duller, damper climes could have ever done, and 
 became absolute with every working day of his 
 progress in willing and active exertion. 
 
 At Echuca he left the steamer, gladdened with 
 new friendships, independent with the money he 
 had earned. He bade farewell to his mess-mates 
 with regret, and got employment with a farmer 
 about seven miles away from the town, learning to 
 fence, to plough, to reap, to drive bullocks, even 
 to crack a stock-whip passably, and, as fate would 
 have it, fell under a spell of womanly influence 
 that came very near to turning him out the genuine 
 bush article, and retaining him as such 'ere his 
 apprenticeship was ended.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 THE PROMISED LAND 
 
 WHEN Roddy McGregor found that Jim Conroy 
 did not return, he tucked his Winchester under his 
 arm and set out to discover the cause. 
 
 A glance of his experienced eyes showed him at 
 once that his mate had never been near the horse 
 tracks at all ; so he followed their hoof-prints him- 
 self until he came up with them. Then he took 
 their hobbles off, and rode back to camp for a 
 saddle and bridle. 
 
 After this he tracked Conroy's boot impressions 
 on one of the horses until he reached his overnight 
 camp. He was much impressed by the remains 
 of the portulac supper, which showed his lost mate 
 to have been hard beset in the midst of plenty, but 
 more than all else was Roddy enamoured with the 
 spot where Conroy had slept, and its surroundings 
 attracted him more than ever as his quick eyes 
 searched them, curiously wide open for more infor- 
 mation. 
 
 From the deep, rocky water-hole surrounded with 
 trees, where Conroy had rested hungrily, not far 
 away in his survey of the vicinity, Roddy dis- 
 covered a cave hollow in a huge outlying, upstand- 
 ing rock which had lately been used by a civilised 
 black fellow, his lubra, and a child. 
 
 Bootmarks, clothes' marks on the sand, impres-
 
 164 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 sions of bare feet, the touch of fingers, arm and 
 knee joints, a tracing or two, a piece of soap, a 
 shred of towel, a particle of a woman's dress, a 
 broken boot-tag, the butt of a Winchester im- 
 pressed on the sand, a bit of looking-glass, spelt 
 this knowledge out for him instantly. 
 
 He was glad, however, that it was a black fellow 
 and not a white man that was thus sojourning near 
 him. He did not want to be interfered with at all 
 in a certain project he had set his heart upon from 
 his first examination of that cave in the big rock, 
 and yet was sure that his horse hoof-prints would 
 gratuitously give this stranger his own tale on the 
 face of it, and that he would either be followed or 
 overlooked, which he didn't care for either. 
 
 This cave of habitation, with the ashes of fires 
 at its entrance, was in a rocky glen of chocolate- 
 coloured fragments of cliff si3e, which ran creek- 
 wise through a gully between hills about two hun- 
 dred yards from Conroy's camp, and Roddy came 
 on the cliffs by a mere accident after a tour to see 
 if, by any chance, his lost mate had doubled on 
 his own tracks after leaving, finding that he had 
 been there, even inside it, but the tracks were newer 
 than those of the black fellow and his companions, 
 who had probably shifted the day before. 
 
 The creek bed in the glen fed the water-hole 
 where Conroy had camped, and Roddy thought the 
 whole place would be lovely to live at. He noted 
 this at a glance, and, stepping backward to scan 
 the cliff surfaces, where the sun lighted them, saw 
 something half-way up that made him suddenly 
 throw his rifle forward in a sighting position and 
 take aim at a coloured transparency which was 
 apparently perched on a ledge above his head. It
 
 THE PROMISED LAND 165 
 
 curved slightly outwards from the rock, medallion- 
 wise, but as the rays of the sun illumined it, seemed 
 to Roddy's questing eyes to blaze and coruscate 
 with varied soft internal fires. At this extraor- 
 dinary effect he lowered his Winchester, and, shad- 
 ing his eyes with his hand, gazed long and steadily. 
 
 "Dash me," he muttered, audibly, "if I didn't 
 think it was a couple of Torres Straits pigeons 
 nestling into the stone, until I saw the bigger glow 
 when the sun struck it. It's a big block of opal 
 but if Conroy noticed it, it's his find, not mine. 
 Now I'll see how he got on, and if he managed to 
 cross the big range. If he did, he would get into 
 more civilised country, and be safe." 
 
 He followed his lost friend's footsteps from the 
 water-hole he had camped at, over the mountains 
 and down to the watershed of the creek on the other 
 side, where he saw at a distance the Kanakas' hut. 
 
 On reaching it, the sight of the clothes, trousers, 
 boots, and throwing sticks in their sleeping apart- 
 ment made him think of the occupants of the opal 
 cliff cave. Could it have been these men who had 
 been there? No, they had no rifle. 
 
 Roddy's diplomacy was equal to the occasion. 
 He waited until the Kanakas returned with their 
 sheep, noting that neither came from his way, and, 
 knowing their nationality, was aware that there 
 would be no woman with them. 
 
 He became an every-day traveller at once, as far 
 as outward mendacity went, and as he had, for 
 caution's sake, ridden in on the road from afar off 
 before he approached the hut, knew he was safe 
 from pursuit because of the large flock of sheep 
 coming in and out again with the men behind them,
 
 166 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 and a great spread on, which would obliterate his 
 horse's hoof-prints. 
 
 Conroy had been there, that was all right; he 
 knew from their unasked description of him. He 
 was now on the beaten track and was safe, but 
 Roddy could not leave his late most important dis- 
 covery to follow him up. When he departed, he 
 rode clean out of sight on the road itself which ran 
 past the sheep-yard, just as if he was going on to 
 the big station, but then followed his own detour 
 back over the ranges, and, reaching Conroy's 
 camp again long after dark, had hardly lit a fire 
 in the cave when Doughboy, Rosie, and her child 
 walked straight up to it. 
 
 Now Roddy McGregor, being in the habit of 
 making Brisbane his head holiday quarters, knew 
 little or nothing certain about late goings on at the 
 "Rest," where Doughboy had come from, nor did 
 he know the aboriginal. 
 
 So he proceeded to temporise with this rather 
 awkward host, as he considered him, in order to 
 find out what he was, what brought him there, and 
 all about him. 
 
 "I'm kangarooing," laughed Doughboy, gleam- 
 ing all over his face. " It's this way. I had a 
 cousin in the black troopers up hereabouts. He 
 sent me word that there were plenty good skins 
 up this way. So I came up. I've been here be- 
 fore, and it's my towri, where I was born and 
 belong to, you know. But I don't associate with 
 the other niggers now. They're too wild, and I've 
 been in white service too long." 
 
 "What part did you come from?" asked Roddy. 
 
 "You know Miss Delamayne?" the aboriginal 
 ventured.
 
 THE PROMISED LAND 167 
 
 Roddy gave no affirmation. 
 
 "Well," said the black fellow," she keeps the 
 ' Travellers' Rest ' down my way of late. I've 
 been in there now and then to get a nobbier, and 
 found that she's a good sort; often give me one 
 without my paying for it. I've been down her way 
 to see her and get her young parrakeets at times, 
 too. I was working for a man called Austen on 
 one of my spells down there, but he didn't treat 
 me well, so I got sick of him and came away after 
 he went to England." 
 
 "Aren't you afraid that the blacks up here will 
 kill you?" 
 
 Doughboy tapped his Winchester. 
 
 "Not while I've got this. I'm a pretty dead 
 shot. And now I'm come to tell you that I know 
 all about you. Same as you do about me, I ex- 
 pect, for I can see you're no new-chum. You've 
 sprung my plant and I've sprung yours, that's all. 
 Your mate came here the other day, and you've 
 been running his tracks. I saw you both in the 
 bush. I suppose he's all right and that's why you 
 came back. I've seen him once down in my part 
 of the country when I've been knocking about with 
 Austen. Did you two have a row?" 
 
 "No, he got lost looking after my horses." 
 
 "Yes, I found that out. So you're going straight, 
 and don't tell any lies to that mate of yours, nor 
 to me. He ain't much of a bushman. He wasn't 
 on his horse tracks the whole time. It wouldn't 
 pay me to go fooling after him all the day, or I 
 could have found him and brought him back. 
 What's your idea up here?" 
 
 "Much the same as yours," Roddy answered, 
 negligently. "I'm kangarooing, too."
 
 i68 WHAT LAV BENEATH 
 
 "Want a mate now you've lost yours?" 
 
 "Don't mind if I do," Roddy said. "But what 
 made you select this cave to live in ?" 
 
 " It's waterproof, and look here not a nigger in 
 the district will come near it, so it's safe. It's 
 taboo, you see. The black troopers were dispers- 
 ing a Waddygalo tribe. One of that lot got away 
 wounded, without their knowing. He crawled a 
 long distance through the bush to die in this cave. 
 That was just what I wanted. It saved all trouble 
 with the others. I found his skeleton here when 
 I came up, cleared the bones away, and buried 
 them. There was a bullet-hole smack through his 
 thigh-bone. Since that time I've put a mark or 
 two on trees telling the news to the Waddygalos 
 in the talking stick language, but I expect they 
 knew all about it. It tells 'em again, anyway. 
 I'm armed, and they take me for a runaway black 
 trooper. Devil a fear is there of one of them 
 coming within a coo-ee of this place." 
 
 "What's the stuff in the rocks about here?" 
 asked Roddy, determined to test him; "and your 
 name?" 
 
 "That blue-red looking stuff? I don't know. I 
 never troubled my head about it. There's a lot of 
 it about here. Doughboy's what they call me. 
 My grandfather used to own the whole country 
 down where I lived before I came here. Now I'd 
 be hauled up before a beak if they caught me" 
 shooting a kangaroo on some parts of it. You 
 whites are queer beggars." 
 
 "Suppose you join me kangarooing, eh?" 
 Roddy suggested, looking at him carefully. 
 
 "I'd like to. You don't get drunk; you don't 
 curse and swear; you don't tell lies; and you
 
 THE PROMISED LAND 169 
 
 don't" he looked most significantly towards 
 Rosie. 
 
 " I hope she is a good cook, " said Roddy, laugh- 
 ing outright. "No, Doughboy, I'm not that sort. 
 I'll put her on wages. You and I will be all right." 
 
 And Doughboy, looking him in the face, swore 
 eternal friendship to him then and there. He 
 said: 
 
 "I told you I got tired being with Austen. He 
 was a downright low bad man. I padded the hoof 
 all the way up here to get Rosie out of his way. 
 But to you I think I'll be worth rny tucker, as 
 there's a lot of wild cattle about these ranges, with 
 nobody's brand on. We'll get some of them and 
 salt 'em down as \ve want 'em." 
 
 But here he looked alarmed, and turned his head 
 away. 
 
 "I'm haunted by a devil," he said, behind his 
 hand. 
 
 "What sort of a devil?" asked Roddy. 
 
 "A white man who tells the birds to talk to you 
 and knows what you do. But I don't think he'll 
 find me here, if he does come up, and I want to 
 stay with you. I like your sort, and mean to stick 
 to you." 
 
 Roddy made up his mind to trust him, although 
 he was sure he must be romancing. This nigger 
 was worth his weight in gold. 
 
 "Doughboy," he said, "you're a good fellow. 
 Now, you swear to me that you never tell anybody 
 what I'm going to tell you, and I'll put you on to 
 a bit of luck such as you never had before. Your 
 free selection and its neighbourhood is worth thou- 
 sands of pounds to me and my mate, if ever he 
 comes back, and if you have any other white man
 
 170 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 who bullies you, you must keep away from him. 
 I'm going to make it all it's worth to you to do 
 that. I'll give you a pound a week, besides what 
 I give Rosie to cook for us, so keep your eyes open 
 that your white man doesn't come here when you're 
 kangarooing, or any outsiders either, for I want to 
 keep this place secret and undisturbed, the same 
 as you do. That stuff in the rock is opal, the best 
 sort too, and worth a lot to white men. It has only 
 to be broken out and there's tons upon tons of rock 
 somewhere in the range where the opal won't be at 
 all weather-worn from long exposure, but clean and 
 valuable. My name is Roddy McGregor, and 
 I do know Miss Delamayne, as well as she knows 
 me, only I couldn't tell you until I found out 
 whether you were trustworthy. I'm working for 
 her or Mr. Franks all my time, sometimes when 
 they are in Brisbane." 
 
 "Franks is mad," said Doughboy, reverently, 
 pointing to the sky overhead. 
 
 "So I've heard, but I don't suppose it will hurt 
 him much," remarked Roddy, thinking it was as 
 well to impress his new mate by his fearlessness 
 of the malady. 
 
 "This cave I live in," resumed Doughboy, 
 slightly reassured, "being a real Waddygalo run- 
 to-ground once, until the old dead black cleared 
 them out, is a stand-off. It is not likely that any- 
 one will find us out here, no one but the one devil 
 of a man I told you about. I'm afraid of him, but 
 I'll try to keep away from him, Mr. Roddy, even 
 if he does come up." 
 
 "I think it's give and take, Doughboy," the 
 latter said, thoughtfully, hardly catching his drift 
 in his own excitement. u It's a bargain, old man."
 
 THE PROMISED LAND 171 
 
 "What a slice of luck for me and Conroy, my 
 old mate, when he drops across me again," he 
 thought, ecstatically, "though I don't suppose he 
 noticed the opals, after all. Mr. Franks will have 
 to excuse me losing him, but I can't throw up my 
 hand now for anyone; it wouldn't do. I'll send 
 Doughboy down to Eulo some day, when I'm sure 
 of my bearings, with a letter posted to Bourke to 
 catch Conroy. He's sure to make for the big 
 centre, and I know he'd be too proud to come back 
 here unless I asked him, if he could find his 
 way, which I doubt, even if you put him on the 
 main road."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE ,WAYS OF A MAID 
 
 CONROY'S second essay of sheer hard graft was not 
 of his own choosing any more than the first was, 
 coming as it did solely from the fact of his losing 
 himself; but as soon as ever he undertook this 
 new billet, Heartsease Bethune, the prepossessing, 
 energetic daughter of the farmer he was working 
 for, seeing that he was a gentleman, began to run 
 him on the up grade after her own style. She was 
 a fine, athletic girl, managing to get a considerable 
 amount of volunteer work of all sorts out of him, 
 and information also, as confidences with her were 
 soon very soothing to Jim Conroy, from a liking 
 to her personality and character. She was so 
 enthusiastic, withal so good-looking, that the at- 
 traction came after his first introduction, although 
 he did not go just then beyond his present state of 
 generality in his own affairs. Miss Bethune was 
 most winning also in her manner and dispositions, 
 and the two liked one another mutually as time 
 went on, until they became bosom friends, as a 
 matter of course. 
 
 One day, after slightly over a year's novitiate for 
 Jim Conroy, they were amongst the cream vessels 
 in her own particular presidency, and as he was 
 helping her to pour the milk into the big, broad 
 pans, she suddenly said, in regard to a letter Jim
 
 THE WAYS OF A MAID 173 
 
 had received, thrown aside for months, and re-dis- 
 covered that morning : 
 
 "If I was a man I should do just as I liked." 
 
 " Suppose you had to do the exact opposite, as I 
 have?" he hazarded, looking at her critically. 
 " Men may be willing enough to do just as they 
 themselves or a woman wish, but have they the 
 power to do so in all cases?" 
 
 "You are hardly polite, are you?" she broke in, 
 with a painful flush that became her immensely. 
 "At least I beg your pardon don't you care to 
 help me? I thought you liked it." This was 
 because James Conroy seemed more hurt than she 
 had yet seen him. 
 
 Evidently her first remark was not in a line with 
 his subject, past and somewhere else. She was a 
 young lady of quick discernment, who had taken 
 a real fancy to this well-set-up, active young 
 fellow, on account of his progressing so greatly 
 on her own initiative, and that of her father's, but 
 she was now slightly embarrassed. 
 
 "Tell me," she commanded, after a little, with an 
 intuition from his own words that there was an- 
 other girl in the case who had piqued and humili- 
 ated him. " It might ease your heart a bit. Make 
 a sort of sister of me, if you like, Jim. I might 
 be able to help you." But a sigh and a blank was 
 in her behaviour, in spite of her self-command. 
 
 So he told her all his thoughts in a guarded sort 
 of way, avoiding the main theory ; he wanted 
 money, he affirmed, and hinted that his time was 
 up on her father's farm. 
 
 "I've had a letter from my friend since I came 
 here," he added, "and it's important." 
 
 "A girl?" she ejaculated, not to be put down,
 
 i 7 4 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "No, a man," he replied. "But there was a 
 girl." 
 
 This acknowledgment she had dragged out of 
 him so opportunely was the last wrench to her own 
 heart, as she bustled about listening to his hopes, 
 his fears, his innuendoes of disappointment, his 
 utter incompetence to do anything until he had 
 proved he could keep himself, and that in a high 
 ratio. 
 
 To him, as he looked at her face with a feeling 
 of vagueness, but not insensibility, for she had 
 shaken his heart citadel in spite of himself, came 
 a notion that she might have been the rery Phyllis 
 to his Corydon, in her spotted print dress and sun- 
 bonnet, if there was nothing else in the way, or if 
 he had only suggested it ; but the old love held him. 
 
 Presently she said : 
 
 "Jim?" 
 
 "Yes, miss." 
 
 " I know what sort of a girl she is, and why we 
 get on so well together. She is something like me, 
 your eyes tell me that sometimes; go in and win, 
 and I'll help you if you have made a mess of it with 
 her. I shall only have to console myself with an 
 inferior article some day, I suppose. Don't mind 
 me, for my mind is made up ; but if you happen to 
 know of any more of your own particular brand 
 down your way, you had better send them up here 
 for my due selection. There, I don't mean that 
 exactly, but I liked you, Jim. Now there the 
 dairy's done, and my best thanks to you. Go and 
 saddle ' Send-I-may-Live ' for me, ' Gladiator ' 
 for yourself, and bring them round while I put on 
 my habit. I want to ride down to the township 
 with you, just to get you something for a keepsake
 
 THE WAYS OF A MAID 175 
 
 before you go that will put you in mind of a 
 certain fact, that once in your life you made an- 
 other girl feel happy and independent for the 
 short space of a year." 
 
 There were tears in her eyes, a sob in her throat, 
 and she meant it thoroughly and unrestrainedly. 
 It was an outburst he had never seen from her 
 before, but half-expected sometimes, but in his 
 position had never dared to hint at the attraction 
 he had certainly felt for her. She had her moods, 
 and they enthralled him. They were so energetic 
 and interestingly variable. 
 
 He was strangely moved also, for he had no idea 
 of the strength of her attachment, beyond that she 
 had compelled him to like her, and for a second or 
 two he was on the point of avowing that he would 
 stay with her for ever, if she would have him. 
 
 She noticed his altered looks, his mute gesture 
 of appeal and sorrow, and for a moment softened, 
 then grew rigid and became herself again. 
 
 What visions she had ever indulged in are not 
 for us to pry into, but this was a different recep- 
 tion from the one he had got from Bronzewing, Jim 
 reflected, though the summer storm was over for 
 Heartsease now, and a few minutes afterwards, 
 seated in her saddle, she was the firm friend, the 
 willing, active, pleasant comrade she had always 
 been to him, a consummate and daring horse- 
 woman, a hearty ally smiling and confident as ever. 
 But of the golden heart of her who shall sav? 
 
 "Why, you are a born hero, Jim," she declared, 
 enthusiastically, as they cantered along, for he had 
 also made a hurried change into his new uniform 
 of the local mounted infantry, his khaki and slouch- 
 hat showing gorgeously with a scarlet pompom in
 
 176 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 the latter; but she alluded to his persistent idea of 
 becoming worthy in someone else's sight, although 
 she did not hint again at the cost to herself. " A 
 born hero to face the odds you have had to. I 
 suppose that is what you were moping about for 
 the last two days before you gave me notice? 
 Wondering how you were going to carry on the 
 campaign without my aid, or not liking to tell 
 me, eh ? Well, you have made a little money, and 
 are going to make some more, no doubt. I had 
 to fish for a reason, you see, for I was curious and 
 part interested, and you can hardly realise how 
 happy it has made me to have a quiet, willing, 
 attentive mate for so long, one who has daily be- 
 come more skilful under our tuition. I thought 
 you were going to be a permanency as a working 
 hand, Jim, and a home dweller with us, even if 
 you didn't throw in your lot with us altogether, 
 and I am so sorry you have decreed otherwise, for 
 you are an artist spoiled, with all your heroism, but 
 you don't really know it. That is what worries me 
 most of anything now." 
 
 She motioned towards him dramatically with her 
 riding-whip, and then broke into a ringing laupti 
 at the expression on his face. 
 
 "I could have made you such a 
 
 "What?" he asked, breathlessly. He was 
 always breathless in her society, for she was full 
 of surprises and pent-up energy. 
 
 " Cheesemaker," she replied, drily. " Come 
 along," she added, " there's the fence. Never 
 mind the slip-rails this time, and always remember 
 I taught you to ride." 
 
 " Give me no better mate, and I'd do," mur-
 
 THE WAYS OF A MAID 177 
 
 mured Conroy, as they took the post-and-rail fence 
 side by side. 
 
 "Good-bye, Heartsease," was hard to say, aye 
 the hardest word he had ever had to speak. For 
 the life of him he couldn't decide all at once. The 
 memory of Bronzewing came back to him sweet 
 and pure, all her motherly tenderness in it, even 
 under his wanton insult, and her retort to him. 
 
 Yet there was another touchstone on the shield 
 of Fate in his life's record, quite sufficiently active 
 and near to dull Bronzewing's memory. She had 
 proffered disdain, this one sympathy; one was to 
 him the proficient of a system of pride and 
 independence, the other of work and willingness, 
 modesty and action. Which should he prefer, 
 which accept or strive for? 
 
 Bronzewing's extreme beauty as his first love 
 made her peerless. There were such tender tones 
 about her which had shown in her right of posses- 
 sion of him, in her care of him at the " Rest," 
 which wounded his self-love ; but she had struck 
 him hard and rightly in his own esteem in more 
 ways than one, and her taunt about the stock-whip 
 cut him more painfully than Levi Levinstein had, 
 and on this last subject he was determined to make 
 her recant her words, for he was as proud as 
 Lucifer if not as strong. 
 
 On the other hand, this active, sympathetic girl, 
 riding alongside him on her fiery chestnut mare, 
 which was curvetting and prancing after the excite- 
 ment of the jump, pulling double to the gauntletted 
 hands that spoke to her mouth and senses as no 
 timid mistress could speak, with the poise, and 
 grip, and movement of her body adjusted com- 
 pletely to the mare's every impulse, swayed him 
 
 M
 
 1 78 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 now as Bronzewing had never swayed him, and he 
 felt she was indeed a steady rock for a young man 
 to lean on. She had the head, the heart, the in- 
 telligence, the will but neither spoke. A girl and 
 money were between them. Further on she, chim- 
 ing in apparently with his last thought, asked : 
 
 "When you got lost from your mate mate at 
 what?" 
 
 He was silent. 
 
 She puckered up her lips and laid a finger upon 
 them. 
 
 "Tell me," she said, with a knowing expres- 
 sion ; " I'm fly, but safe even to a gold enterprise. 
 Pardon the slang, but we are still in the bush, and 
 I can't help being part of it a little when I'm with 
 a man. I never go back on a mate, male or female, 
 but you must tell me all if I am to admire you and 
 to think of your future. Father might even finance 
 you if the venture is good. He and I and mother 
 have been on the goldfields ere this. How did it 
 come to pass?" 
 
 " Kangarooing," said Conroy. Her remark hit 
 him hard for the very generosity of it. " It was 
 pleasant work, if not very practical on my part. 
 We were to make money at it, though, and it has 
 turned to opals, my mate says." 
 
 "What made you chuck all thoughts of them 
 and come on here?" 
 
 "I didn't know about the opals, though it 
 appears I was the cause of his finding them. I 
 got lost, and should never have got back to him 
 in the first place ; but I was more or less dependent 
 on him, and once away I saw things in a different 
 light." 
 
 "Why?"
 
 THE WAYS OF A MAID 179 
 
 "Worry." 
 
 "About your girl?" 
 
 " No, about my belongings. She inherited them. 
 I wanted to be on my own, so as to make her think 
 better of me." 
 
 Heartsease sighed, openly and unequivocally, 
 and looked him straight in the eyes. 
 
 "She must be very beautiful to tie you to an 
 assessment like that. Is she, and is it your pride 
 that parts you?" 
 
 He gave a short, quick nod to both assumptions. 
 
 "Well, we got as far as kangaroos turning into 
 opals. Was your mate your sort?" 
 
 " A much better sort of fellow than I am or ever 
 was. He's a native-born prodigy, the best I ever 
 came across. I roughed it a bit with him, and so 
 I ought to know." 
 
 "And you're not! Only half-and-half? Well, 
 I saw that already," she added, gravely, "and 
 formed my own opinions. There's a good deal in 
 manner, experience, and disposition, Jim; but 
 you've got a lot of good in you. How did you 
 meet your girl ?" 
 
 He told her. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 "Oh, you man," she said. "I'm glad you let 
 this out, for now I can see through things as usual. 
 It would have all come right if you hadrt't been so 
 abominably rude to her. She had a claim to you 
 you don't know of, somehow, or somewhere, pro- 
 bably through your own people, or she would 
 never have acted as she did." 
 
 Jim acquainted her with all he could remember 
 about his own affairs before he left England, but
 
 i8o WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 there seemed no solution to Bronzewing's behav- 
 iour in that relation. 
 
 "Yes, yes," Heartsease exclaimed, "if it wasn't 
 for that blessed dairy and the paddock fences, and 
 the new wheat, and and fifty things and father, 
 of course, I forgot him I'd I'd 
 
 "What?" Jim asked, sympathetically. 
 
 "Ride with you this moment to your girl settle 
 matters for you, start you off to glory square 
 everything for you with her by telling her that the 
 lambent fire of ardour's claim is not yet quenched, 
 that you still worship her for her riches. I would 
 read her soul in five minutes, and if she was a good 
 girl I'd have my arms round her neck in ten, for her 
 sake and mine also. I'd risk my life for anyone I 
 cared for." 
 
 "If she wasn't, and I wasn't?" asked Jim, in the 
 breathless expectancy that always seemed to per- 
 vade him when talking to her, moved with the fire 
 of her temperament. 
 
 " I'd marry you myself, of course, you goose, just 
 to save you from yourself. See, there's the smoke 
 of the township chimneys. Let's hurry!" 
 
 In a few minutes thev went clattering through the 
 streets, and she entered a jeweller's shop. She soon 
 came out and Conroy helped her into her saddle 
 again, and thev rode back homewards. 
 
 That night Bethune, the farmer, just in from a 
 ride also, annexed as usual the weekly " Austra- 
 lasian," and sat smoking and reading the day's 
 news in the chimney corner. 
 
 At length his daughter said : 
 
 "Father, I want vou to lend Jim old 'Nero,' to 
 get down country with." 
 
 "What's up? Your time, eh? Nonsense!
 
 you're not going to leave us. You are the best jack- 
 eroo I ever struck but there, I seldom ask reasons, 
 at least against private opinions. Yes, Heartsease, 
 I will. Anything serious?" 
 
 "No, Daddy, only important." 
 
 "All right. Those socialists are kicking up the 
 devil's delight again, I see, just because they think 
 it would be handier for them to draw the rich man's 
 portion and spend what they could get of it them- 
 selves, to save the trouble of working for it. Why, 
 they are more extravagant in their ideas than those 
 who know the value of money by that very same 
 work, and I hope Australia will kick them all out, 
 lock, stock, and barrel, and all so-called Liberal 
 ideas with 'em. That lot have all dwindled into a 
 set of arrant Revolutionary, anti-everything-but- 
 themselves humbugs. They look very small petti- 
 foggers by Royalty, mere Empire-breakers, their 
 way very diligently prepared in ploughed sand." 
 And Bethune became immersed in politics again. 
 He was a shrewd sensible man and a strenuous 
 worker for his own hand, and the position he had 
 attained to of a landowner. 
 
 "You will start to-morrow?" Heartsease, en- 
 quired of Jim, although in the form and manner of 
 a command. 
 
 "At daybreak," he rejoined. "Shall I see you 
 then?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 And the morning arriving, when he took her 
 hand by the slip-rails and said "Good-bye, 
 Heartsease," he thought of another parting, which 
 had been entirely different. But he must have 
 money before he could decide for himself with 
 honour.
 
 i8 2 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 She turned his palm over, examining the working 
 signs on his ringers, and remarked : 
 
 " It's the first time I have held it, Jim, but it's 
 something to part straight and honourably, after 
 all, isn't it? As we were, you know. Here's my 
 keepsake. I've made somewhat of a bushman of 
 you, couldn't with everybody. If ever you want 
 advice, write, or come to us." 
 
 She felt in her pocket, bringing out a little ena- 
 melled painting enclosed in a locket for his watch- 
 chain. The representation was a small field viola. 
 
 " May we both have it, Jim, in our time my 
 namesake. I have your secrets. You have mine. 
 We've both done right. Good-bye, old chum." 
 
 She broke down sobbing ere she reached the 
 house, but Jim never saw her trouble, for he was in 
 the thick timber speeding onward, and out of 
 hearing also.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE TWITTERING OF THE PARRAKEET 
 
 HE sent Bethune's horse back after reaching his 
 first stage, and then took any work that came his 
 way, for he would not go back to Roddy yet, until 
 he had still more improved himself. He wanted 
 change still, for his mind was very much upset. At 
 last he got on to the river boats again, and from 
 Euston worked his way to Fort Bourke and beyond 
 the New South Wales border and back into Queens- 
 land, where he got into the mounted police, serving 
 there some time until he finally succeeded, by a 
 strange chance, in becoming a mounted constable 
 under a sergeant in Barilla, the very township 
 where Miss Delamayne's interests had been so 
 prominent when he first came out from England. 
 His one thought now was that by general smart- 
 ness and ability he might force her to confess that 
 her last words to him were unqualified. If she 
 snubbed him again he told himself, he would go 
 back to Heartsease Bethune and ask plainly for 
 her, and then he might see if Roddy's news had 
 turned out trumps, with her as his partner. 
 
 But he found great changes by this time in the 
 district, which two years ago lay around the "Tra- 
 vellers' Rest." Of that secluded and pleasant 
 bush hostelry there was not a trace left, for bit by 
 bit it had been removed, the very timber of which
 
 1 84 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 it had been composed being carted over to Brangal. 
 That was Franks' trump card. The entrances to 
 the underground passages had been filled up, the 
 very place the " Rest" had stood on was now well 
 within a section of new boundary fencing that in- 
 cluded all Delamayne^s former property, and 
 amalgamated it with Brangal Downs. 
 
 The proprietress, Miss Delamayne, owning all 
 the land around, was in residence at Brangal 
 Downs. Neither she nor Conroy had spoken to 
 each other, although they had met more than once, 
 but shortly after Conroy's arrival, a man rode in 
 unknown to Brangal station, and was shown into 
 the drawing-room. 
 
 Consternation in the most terrible form took pos- 
 session of Bronzewing when the stranger turned 
 out to be Austen Bygrave, the more especially as 
 he informed her that he had come to press his suit 
 more emphatically than ever. It was a matter of 
 wonder to her that he had recovered at all, but there 
 he was, apparently as fit as ever, and that he was 
 sure of binding her to his wishes his manner fore- 
 told. 
 
 There was a beautiful little cockatoo parrakeet in 
 a cage in her boudoir, which opened on to the 
 verandah, and Bygrave, without affecting any sur- 
 prise at her terror, after taking particular notice of 
 the bird and asking if it could talk, opened the 
 conversation as if it were only yesterday, and there 
 had been no tragic occurrence or dramatic sequel up 
 to that date between them. 
 
 "Bronzewing, my dear," he said, boldly, "I told 
 you you should not get away from me, and I never 
 go back on my word. You are now as much bound 
 to me as I am to you, and you know it. Breathe a
 
 TWITTERING OF THE PARRAKEET 185 
 
 word of my secret, which is yours as well, and I 
 will force you to own up to the fact that you know 
 where my dead cousin lies, have known it all along, 
 as I have. Be true to me, and I will live my life 
 over again in all its freshness and fullness with 
 you as my guiding star, give you all that there is 
 in this world to give in conjunction with my affec- 
 tion, honour, and respect. Bronzewing, without 
 you I shall go mad am mad." 
 
 "Mr. Bygrave," she said, in deep tribulation and 
 dejection, "what you propose is absolutely impos- 
 sible. I never thought you would follow me again, 
 or I should not have come here. I am bound in a 
 way I cannot explain, otherwise than by that you 
 told me of. I hold a family trust, an heirloom, an 
 entail, combined with a deep and most deadly 
 secret. I cannot divulge it for your sake, I cannot 
 dare or even wish, after this lapse of time, to share 
 the knowledge that you hold. I cannot say what 
 my present position means to me, and I could not, 
 in any case, accept your proposal, which, while it 
 clears me personally, if 1 made use of the story you 
 have given me, would make the whole subject so 
 distressingly painful and ruinous to you and others, 
 that it could not be brought forth to the public with- 
 out involving us all, yourself especially, in ruin, 
 sudden and complete. To you I am bound by a 
 silence I cannot find it in my heart to break, for 
 your own sake, for mine, certainly for many others; 
 but all relations between us must cease now and for 
 ever." 
 
 Bygrave turned pale as death. Then, rising, he 
 took his hat and gloves, saying : 
 
 "Then there is no other course open for me to 
 pursue but that of deep and deadly revenge. I I
 
 186 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 hardly know who or what I am, Bronzewing, since 
 that last accident, in which you participated. I 
 have not been myself at times, I have lived but for 
 you, for you alone, and you refuse to be mine still. 
 That hope taken away, I become absolutely 
 frightened for my own personal sanity, and feel as 
 if I shall become like the very devil himself." 
 
 " It would be worse than sacrilege for me to marry 
 you after what has occurred, Mr. Bygrave," she 
 said, more than ever alarmed, turning away from 
 him to bend over her pretty little caged bird in its 
 gilded prison. "If there was no other man in the 
 whole world but you now, we could never be united 
 as things are. The very stones would cry out upon 
 us for our mutual deception, our mutual crime, our 
 bloodstained hands. Though you have held my 
 life and honour in your keeping, as you say you 
 did, and did not fail me at my terrible crisis, I could 
 not marry you. Our knowledge is worse than a 
 parting in our two lives, it is an irrevocable horror, 
 a secret we must both hold until we are dead, 
 because of the part you have played in it. But to 
 share it together in concealment would be a living 
 curse for us." 
 
 "It's a lie, a lie," he cried, in a low, strained 
 voice. " A lie ; I lied foully, too, thinking to bind 
 you to me more effectually. It's all a lie, the whole 
 of it you say truly. But that is not your romance, 
 your part in it. I go now, according to my own 
 purposes, for I know your real feeling connected 
 with it all, and can tell it to the world at large at my 
 leisure. I wait for nothing else but revenge upon 
 you and yours now, for it is yourself and young 
 Conroy you are thinking of, and not me, and it
 
 TWITTERING OF THE PARRAKEET 187 
 
 shall be war till the very death for you and him, 
 or myself, if you cannot give me life." 
 
 His face was convulsed with fury and the cock- 
 atoo parrakeet, just then rippling out its usual 
 warbling, satisfied notes at the sunshine pervading 
 the room, voiced distinctly these alarming words in 
 its subcurrent of song : 
 
 " The gold mine you are standing over ! That is 
 your real secret, your real love, your fatal care. 
 Take care of it as you will, your riches shall be 
 turned to dross; your gold to devilry !" 
 
 Bronzewing started in nervous amazement, 
 greatly frightened, but Bygrave was gone. That 
 night, scared out of her senses, she left for Bris- 
 bane, driving away with all her household to an 
 out-station, fleeing from the wrath to come, for she 
 thought it was God's voice that had spoken to her 
 from the bird. She went on to Brisbane by the 
 mountain track, the secret road that kept her clear 
 of the township, and Franks came up to Brangal 
 afterwards on guard at her desire ; whilst Bygrave, 
 maddened by disappointment and chagrin, rode 
 straight to the hotel in Barilla, and appeared the 
 very next morning at Levinstein Brothers' store in 
 company with a very smart, good-looking, well- 
 set-up young mounted constable no other than 
 Jim Conroy himself. 
 
 The sergeant in charge at Barilla, on Bygrave's 
 application the day before, had at his request, it 
 being Court day, ordered Conroy to go with him 
 and take notes of some information he was about to 
 gather in relation to one "Kangaroo" Austen, 
 aforetime a settler in the district. 
 
 Levi Levinstein was in, and received them most 
 effusively but with great inward trepidation. He
 
 1 88 WHAT LAV BENEATH 
 
 had known of course of Conroy's previous arrival, 
 and, connecting it somehow with the old stock-whip 
 incident, coupled it in his own mind as being a very 
 natural impulse of the young trooper's to impress 
 upon the township of his Colonial christening, the 
 fact that he was no longer a new-chum but a smart 
 officer, and perhaps to work some sort of revenge 
 upon his ancient enemy. Here was an official en- 
 quiry on the top of all this about a man he had a 
 good deal more than something to do with afore- 
 time, so that it might be a deadly form of revenge, 
 and nothing else. And when Bygrave produced a 
 letter written by " Kangaroo" Austen, and asked 
 questions, not as to whereabouts, but concerning 
 the state of independence given to the writer of that 
 letter by the selling of kangaroo skins, Levi began 
 to be alarmed in real earnest for his own sake, for 
 he remembered the famous epistle he had written 
 to the lost man, who had never been heard of after- 
 wards, a writing conveying veiled hints about 
 Brangal kangaroos. Suppose that letter had turned 
 up also ? It would implicate him most seriously, 
 and thus was he compelled to silence from fear of 
 results, and said nothing whatever about Austen 
 beyond stating the direction in which he used to 
 live, and that it was thought he had gone to 
 England. 
 
 Whereupon, mounting their horses, Bygrave tak- 
 ing both his, which were hung up to Levinstein's 
 verandah posts, the new detectives proceeded forth- 
 with towards Austen's hut in the ranges. 
 
 On the road Bygrave, merely seeing an unem- 
 barrassed young constable before him, and not 
 knowing his name beyond the appellative the
 
 TWITTERING OF THE PARRAKEET 189 
 
 sergeant gave him of "Jim," asked him some ques- 
 tions for his own purposes. 
 
 "They say Miss Delamayne is a very rich woman 
 who possesses a great deal of land hereabouts. How 
 did it come to her, or how has she made the 
 money?" 
 
 " I am not in the possession of any particular facts 
 relating to her family history or private business," 
 replied Conroy, stiffly. "She never honoured me 
 with them at any time, but I know that she bought 
 Brangal Downs, my father's station, after his 
 death." 
 
 "Could you tell me why?" Bygrave asked, 
 quickly, becoming keenly interested. 
 
 " Partly, I believe, because it was invalidated on 
 mortgage to Levinstein Brothers. She has since 
 bred up the stock upon it, and I believe she got it 
 fairly cheap as it stands. It is a valuable piece of 
 country now, I hear, and wish it still belonged to 
 me. I shouldn't be here with you in my present 
 guise if it did, as, owing to the loss of it, I have had 
 to fight for my own existence, since I came out here 
 expecting to possess it." 
 
 "How is that? How came you to lose it?" 
 
 " It was my father's, as I said, but when I arrived 
 it was in Miss Delamayne's possession, and I found 
 I had no claim." 
 
 " Did it never strike you that Miss Delamayne 
 might have bought it for a certain purpose?" 
 
 "No, I can't say it did. She was pretty abrupt 
 with Levinstein Brothers about the transference, 
 much as if she had a perfect right to it, so they say, 
 but she never told me anything about it, merely 
 referring me to her manager. I found myself 
 ruined through it."
 
 I 9 o WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "H'm, then I suppose you bear a grudge in some 
 manner against the fair owner of what should be 
 your property?" 
 
 " I still hope it may be mine some day. I could 
 never bear any real grudge against Miss Dela- 
 mayne. In fact, I And he blushed. 
 
 Bygrave glared at him. He more than under- 
 stood. Should this stripling stand in his way of 
 either love or revenge? Not if he knew it, espec- 
 ially as he was Austen Conroy's son, a relation, 
 and the right heir to the Austen estates if all was 
 known. 
 
 The conversation stopped. It was patent to 
 Bygrave himself that his last accident had caused 
 a further lesion of his brain, making him subject to 
 violent fits of passion if anything crossed him, and 
 he felt now like a dangerous madman who would 
 have liked to kill Conroy outright to get him out 
 of the way, and for the time meant to do it. He 
 was all the more dangerous because he could mask 
 his feelings until the outburst came, and this new 
 phase of mind, the culmination of his late disap- 
 pointment and further knowledge, he felt was one 
 he could not resist. 
 
 He was impelled to sing aloud through a sort of 
 malignant joy at the fury in him, and having 
 reached a lonely part of the bush, he carolled out : 
 
 "Moet and Chandon's the wine I drink; 
 Oh, heigho! Oh, heigho ! 
 Over the land to the Ocean's brink; 
 Oh, heigho! Heigho !" 
 
 Conroy, still unconscious of Bygrave's dangerous 
 nature, laughed aloud as the rich voice trolled and 
 finished the stave.
 
 TWITTERING OF THE PARRAKEET 191 
 
 "I wish we had some here," he said. "When- 
 ever champagne is mentioned I remember the 
 Barilla township we left this morning, for the 
 reason that I once got a share in a magnum of 
 Louis Roederer from old Aaron Levinstein himself 
 through a sort of accidental assault of his brother's 
 upon me. It was a hot day, I had been excited, 
 so I enjoyed it considerably as a peace-offering." 
 
 "Did you ever come across my cousin ?" Bygrave 
 asked, abruptly, ignoring the young trooper's 
 remark. He was nearly at white heat now in his 
 seething crucible of internal passion, but his con- 
 trol over himself was strong. "They used to call 
 him 'Kangaroo' Austen about here." 
 
 "No, I never saw him." 
 
 Conroy was dubious about a turn off from the 
 track for a moment or so, and pulled up to examine 
 the ground. 
 
 "Follow me, I know the country," said his com- 
 panion, impatiently, and took the lead. 
 
 Shortly afterwards they came to the old hut. It 
 still stood and would stand for years yet, being 
 strongly built, but the police, after Austen's con- 
 tinued absence, had taken possession of all the 
 contents, and it was empty. 
 
 " Queer sort of a place for an exiled man to live 
 in," Bygrave remarked absently, when they were 
 both inside. "I wonder he didn't prefer the town. 
 I was here two years ago, just before he disap- 
 peared. See if you can open that window and let 
 us have a little more air, for goodness' sake. The 
 place smells of bush rats. Formerly it smelt of 
 rum." 
 
 It was a wild and lonely scene around this primi- 
 tive dwelling, hemmed in as it was by rocky cliffs
 
 i 9 2 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 and sloping hill-sides, and they were, by Conroy's 
 computation, some seven miles from the river and 
 the town. 
 
 As he complied with his principal's request, the 
 maniac, for he was little less now, sprang upon him 
 and, overpowering him with the strength of two 
 men, took his revolver and cartridge belts. Then, 
 with the weapon at his head, he compelled him to 
 mount his own big black horse, whilst he took the 
 trooper's carbine in the bucket, and vaulted on to 
 Tiger, turning in his saddle to shoot Conroy's 
 horse dead, as he came whinnying up to him, won- 
 dering what was up with his master. 
 
 Conroy dug his spurs in to Black Snake's sides 
 and tried to bolt as soon as he was in the saddle, 
 but a peculiar whistle from Bygrave stopped the 
 animal, which pulled up so suddenly as almost to 
 send its rider over its head. 
 
 "Ah, I've mesmerised that horse," his captor 
 said, grimly. " He won't take you out of the sound 
 of my voice. Now walk him along in front of me, 
 and, mind you, beware of any more tricks. I've 
 rather more influence over a quadruped than Rarey 
 had. And over a man, too, if he gets in my way." 
 
 Black Snake neighed, and Conroy turned pale 
 with conflicting emotions of terror and mystifi- 
 cation, and as a bullet whizzed close by his ear, he 
 complied in silence. 
 
 "So you're taken up with Miss Delamayne, eh, 
 youngster ? Speak up, will you ! She's my pro- 
 perty." And another bullet sang by him. "Well, 
 turn round and come back with me. I'm going to 
 exhibit you to her at the 'Rest.' But first Pll fasten 
 you to the saddle so that you won't get away. 
 Halt !"
 
 Conroy was forced to obey. Bygrave, with the 
 pistol at his head, pulled up alongside him, made 
 him dismount and unbuckle his stirrup leathers. 
 He was then ordered to ungirth his horse, take off 
 the stirrup irons, pass the two leathers along the 
 stuffing of the saddle under the cantle and pommel, 
 bringing both ends together at the buckles. Then 
 he had to regirth again and mount. After that he 
 was forced to wait with both hands raised over his 
 head whilst Bygrave secured his legs with a turn 
 and re-buckle of the stirrup leathers, and finally 
 Conroy was obliged to submit to have his hands 
 tied before him with a piece of strong whipcord in 
 the stirrup irons, as if they were handcuffed. 
 
 "Trussed policeman," Bygrave said, contempt- 
 uously, after the operation, "but you can hold on 
 to the pommel for a start if the horse plays up. 
 Now swear you will never inform whatever I may 
 do or have done, or I will shoot you dead as you sit. 
 I'm going to look for her I lost, through you, con- 
 found you eternally." 
 
 Jim Conroy swore, as compelled to do, but in- 
 wardly resolved to be even with his captor some 
 day, although something seemed troubling him 
 beyond comprehension as he stared at his powerful 
 new mount's head and at the man he belonged to. 
 Then Bygrave unbuckled his prisoner's rein on the 
 off side, holding one end, and rode on with him, 
 singing: 
 
 "Moet and Chandon's the wine I drink; 
 Oh, heigho! Oh, heigho! 
 Over the land to the ocean brink ; 
 Oh, heigho! Heigho!" 
 
 "Perhaps I'll get Miss Delamayne to stand you 
 
 N
 
 194 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 a glass of that vintage at the 'Rest' or Brangal 
 even, although Louis Roederer seems to be your 
 favourite. You may think yourself lucky you 
 ain't a corpse beside your own horse, young man." 
 The fit of madness had passed apparently, and 
 Bygrave was almost himself again in sheer jocu- 
 larity. He was going to show Conroy to Bronze- 
 wing just to prove who was the better man, for he 
 had found out that she had some affection for him, 
 after all, and that the secret referred to him, and 
 Conroy was as pale as if he had been the corpse 
 referred to.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 PRIDE'S FALL 
 
 BRONZEWING, after her departure, had been worked 
 up into a terribly impressionable state of mind. 
 She had been overstrung in nerve and body beyond 
 her wont both before and since the accident in the 
 motor car. There was little doubt that she had 
 entertained great reverses on ideas of riches in any 
 way, or business matters, connected with money, 
 and Bygrave coming thus upon her in the 
 sudden and unexpected fashion he had, and declar- 
 ing his set purpose again, had terrified her now 
 almost out of her wits. Looking upon him as one 
 who could hardly be expected to recover or pursue 
 her, she had been reading in her New Testament 
 for some extra comfort, and the seventh to tenth 
 verses of St. Paul's fourteenth epistle of the first 
 to the Corinthians had impressed her greatly. 
 "There are, it may be, so many voices in the 
 world, and none of them is without signification." 
 So now, when her own little pet parrakeet had 
 accused her of her main motives, where was she 
 standing? Was it on the brink of perdition, as 
 far as money or possessions were concerned ? The 
 soft, sybillant trill of the little song carrying such 
 plain words to her had frightened her almost
 
 ig6 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 beyond control or collection of thought, because 
 the significant speech was in it, and the tenth verse 
 came in added trepidation as she thought of it in 
 dire concern, as she felt it in perfect enlightenment. 
 Surely it was God speaking to her, warning her of 
 the snare of unlawful possession, putting it into 
 her heart to fly from this demon in human form, 
 who persecuted her so terribly, and wanted it all 
 and her as well. It must have been God speaking. 
 
 A dumb ass had voiced a rebuke to the prophet 
 Balaam. Samuel answered the voice speaking to 
 him, and a little bird had, in the tenor of its song, 
 twittered her great secret and showed her the false- 
 ness of it. What could it all mean ? Had Bygrave 
 heard it, and gathered its piquant meaning also, 
 or had the little parrakeet spoken to her alone as a 
 warning? She believed the latter. 
 
 Between her old instinctive repulsion to Bygrave 
 and her fright at what she thought a warning voice 
 from her own little favourite, she hardly knew what 
 to do with herself, she was so unsettled and 
 alarmed, and shortly after Franks had left Brisbane 
 to perform his part of watch-dog again up at Bran- 
 gal Downs, she became so upset that, after having 
 written to him imploring him to be careful of him- 
 self, she left Brisbane for Sydney by an inter- 
 Colonial boat, and disappeared altogether from her 
 friends without more ado. 
 
 It would be better for her, she thought, if she 
 changed her name entirely, and so she managed to 
 remove all traces of her former identity, and, after 
 many vicissitudes, found herself once more a nurse 
 in the hospital at Cunnamulla, on the Warrego 
 River, Queensland, without even Franks knowing 
 of her whereabouts. With her spectacles, her quiet,
 
 PRIDE'S FALL 197 
 
 trained demeanour, her cap concealing her hair, 
 few would have recognised her in her new capacity 
 of Nurse Jones. She had thus, in playing her last 
 card, as Franks had done at the "Rest," removed 
 the clanger signal from Brangal Downs, altogether 
 she thought, for without her, there would be no 
 attraction for the demon in human form, who could 
 not be otherwise exorcised from her being. 
 
 But Bygrave's mind was now in danger of be- 
 coming almost a perfect blank as to the past, 
 present, or future, since his assault and capture of 
 Jinn Conroy. With the next paroxysm of mad 
 rage that rushed upon him, with Conroy strapped 
 on his horse by his side, the few lights that were 
 left him went out for the time, one vital spark of 
 reason alone remaining, namely, that he was 
 Bygrave, the rich squatter, who had a house and 
 home in the wilderness, accessible from where he 
 was. 
 
 So he made Conroy follow him on the steed that 
 would obey no one but his master, that master 
 getting more irresponsible every minute. And the 
 animal kept just in front of him, no matter how fast 
 or how slow the pace was determined upon. But 
 when they came at last to wfiere the "Rest" had 
 stood, and Bygrave only saw a broad, flat, empty 
 space trodden down by many feet, and covered over 
 with wheel tracks, he lost the little light he had, 
 and paused again confounded. 
 
 The last vestiges of reason faded in some queer 
 manner from his eyes as he searched the ground for 
 fancied traces of his inamorata's footsteps. But 
 she had eluded him there as elsewhere. Where 
 had she gone to? He couldn't remember. 
 
 His horse passed over the precincts she had
 
 ig8 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 occupied, the imagined places she had sojourned 
 in, then darkness came over his soul as he turned 
 to Conroy, mad with rage for him alone, and un- 
 bound and loosened all his fastenings, forgetting 
 all about Brangal and the meeting there, perhaps 
 unluckily for Conroy. 
 
 When he had finished, he displayed his pri- 
 soner's loaded carbine and revolver ruthlessly, 
 saying, as he finally unbuckled the reins and 
 fastened them round Conroy's waist : 
 
 " Now come on, I want to see how you can ride." 
 
 And setting his spurs to his own horse, Tiger, 
 Black Snake bounded alongside him at once. At 
 a violent pace they crossed the river and sped away 
 over a line of country Bygrave seemed to choose 
 by instinct as he progressed. After some time he 
 pulled up, Conroy's horse following his every 
 movement. 
 
 "I'm going to my own horse station," he said, 
 rather blankly. " Let me see, you were in the 
 Mounted Police once, weren't you? I fancy I've 
 seen you in it before somewhere, only I can't get 
 my mind to think of where. You're good com- 
 pany, anyhow, I should feel lonely without you. 
 Now the motto of your force, when it existed with 
 you as a member of it, if ever it did exist or you 
 yourself ever existed, was: 'Second to None.' But 
 you will have to ride with me as second, my friend, 
 and I'm rather more than nobody at all, my good 
 fellow. Second to none, indeed. Second to none? 
 What a senseless motto. Second to Me if I want 
 to go first, but only that way. You can't ride any- 
 where unless I wish it. If you try to do so against 
 my orders, I'll drill daylight through you, my dear 
 young man. I'll show you what I mean for the
 
 PRIDE'S FALL . 199 
 
 first time without the drilling. That will keep for 
 when I might want to have a little revolver practice 
 with you, for diversion, so off you go, Mr. 'Second 
 to None.' ' 
 
 And whistling, Conroy's horse darted to the 
 front and kept going there at such a speed that its 
 rider dared not throw himself off. BygraVe 
 followed him closely, rocking in his saddle with 
 laughter, and they rode on furiously until a signal 
 brought the big black horse to his side again. 
 
 Bygrave had neither lost his bushmanship nor 
 his consummate horsemanship, but he was now 
 errantly mad. His one remaining idea just then 
 was that he had got Conroy and was bound to keep 
 him at all hazards, anyway for the present. 
 
 They rode W.N.W. for a week, by some latent 
 bushman's ideas left to him, but neither by day nor 
 by night did Conroy escape that vigilant gleam in 
 the basilisk eyes of his powerful and dangerous 
 companion ; they were never off him. At length 
 they crossed a range by a pass, and ran a river 
 down, which Conroy thought he recognised as the 
 way he had come with Roddy. They had little to 
 eat on the journey, but what Bygrave supplied, and 
 he always fastened Conroy securely to a tree before 
 he essayed any foraging or cooking. 
 
 It was, therefore, to the latter's no small relief 
 that, crossing the river after following it down 
 some miles, they came suddenly upon a deserted 
 squatter's paradise, in a very unusual, but once 
 seen, never-to-be-forgotten state. 
 
 A drought of a year-and-a-half had passed over 
 it in Bygrave's absence, with little effect. It was 
 the place held in reserve by him, after the sale of 
 his other stations. The houses still stood, but they
 
 Soo WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 were almost hidden away with abnormal and ob- 
 trusive native drapery from a rainfall of unusual 
 heaviness six months ago. The water-holes were 
 full to the very brim from later flooding, and 
 abounded in ducks and fish, but the houses them- 
 selves were now over-run with weeds and creepers 
 growing in and out of the windows, and no one 
 seemed to have been near them for ages. 
 
 Bygrave was humming a tune as they reached 
 the deserted station, and though Conroy did not 
 suspect it, the danger signal was up for him 
 through one of the madman's varied moods again. 
 Dismounting, his captor tied him by his hands 
 round a verandah post. Then he went inside the 
 doorway in full song : 
 
 " Down in the valley where daisies grow ; 
 Oh, heigho ! Oh, heigho ! 
 For a tryst with the Devil who saps below, 
 Oh, heigho ! Heigho !" 
 
 There was a mummified, hide-bound, dead horse 
 in what had been the best room of the dwelling- 
 house, and it was leaning against the wall by the 
 fireplace. In another corner what had once been 
 a human form had decomposed and was attenuated 
 to rotting rags. The dead horse seemed to excite 
 Bygrave, and he rushed about shouting his dead 
 wife's name all over the place: "Marcia, Marcia, 
 where have you got to? And where is the boy?" 
 
 Now the mummified horse stood in a green pile 
 of natural growth, seven or eight inches high, and 
 the bundle of rags and bones below was hardly 
 visible until the weeds were pushed aside to show 
 the skeleton shape. And Bygrave came back and 
 peeped in with another verse of bis old ditty.
 
 PRIDE'S FALL 201 
 
 His grand voice rose almost to sublimity. Then 
 he came grinning back to Conroy. He motioned 
 him with a mincing leer to look at the dried-up 
 deaths in the house, for he had discovered the man 
 by displacing the rank growths. Then, holding his 
 captive by the arm in a grip there was no resisting, 
 he took him in. When Conroy had well observed 
 the twin horrors of dead man and dead horse, 
 Bygrave burst into peal upon peal of maniacal 
 laughter. 
 
 His unwilling victim felt as a kangaroo rat must 
 feel when fascinated by the terrible gaze of a big 
 lace lizard. It had been a most trying and terrible 
 ordeal for him all through, as there had been no 
 method in it beyond the unfailing course they had 
 steered. Now he saw he was with an undoubted 
 maniac, and knew he must at all costs keep cool 
 and humour him. 
 
 "I want a cook," Bygrave said, suddenly turn- 
 ing businesslike. "Cedric, the Saxon, you shall 
 be thrall to me, and my name's Bygrave, Bygrave, 
 Bygrave; ain't it romantic enough even for a Nor- 
 man conqueror, you beggar, although it's only 
 Bygrave? Come along." 
 
 So back to the horses they went, Bygrave keep- 
 ing his hold upon him, after having threatened to 
 tie him beside the dead man, because he tried to 
 wrench himself free and make a bolt for it. He 
 was then re-fastened to the post, and sitting down 
 in this position, had to make the best of it through 
 a long, terrible night. 
 
 Next morning Bygrave's plans altered again with 
 persistent whimsicality. After breakfasting on 
 some fresh fish he had hooked at the water-holes, 
 h(! look Conroy to help him catch the horses, com-
 
 202 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 pelling him to walk just in front of his ready 
 carbine. When they approached the animals they 
 found a man in clerical garments on the same 
 errand ; his horses had joined theirs during the 
 night, he having camped lower down the river. 
 
 He was as tall and big as Bygrave, and Conroy 
 made an instant appeal to him for help; but By- 
 grave, brandishing his weapons, threatened to do 
 for them both, and the stranger seemed so horrified 
 by his actions and insane looks that he suddenly 
 turned deadly pale and, putting his hand to his 
 heart, fell back on the sward, lifeless. 
 
 To Conroy's inexpressible disgust, Bygrave 
 commenced singing : 
 
 " Cassock and Scripture and prayer-book go; 
 
 Oh, heigho ! Oh, heigho ! 
 Down to the demons who wait below; 
 Oh, heigho! Heigho!" 
 
 Then to his amazement, he calmly stripped the 
 dead body of all its habiliments, returning with 
 them to the house, where he found an old spade, 
 and brought Conroy again to assist to bury the 
 naked corpse. In fact, he made him do the whole 
 work, marching about with the carbine as if on 
 duty. 
 
 When it was done, he found the dead man's 
 camp of the night before and at once appropriated 
 his saddles and saddle-bags, tea and sugar, flour 
 and salt meat, so that they were enabled to regale 
 themselves heartily. Then, carrying all the 
 reverend gentleman's belongings with them, they 
 arrived at Bygrave's horse station, where, having 
 again fastened Conroy to a verandah-post, the mad- 
 man dressed himself in the priest's clothes and
 
 PRIDE'S FALL 203 
 
 preached to his victim a long sermon of curious 
 wandering phrases mixed with blasphemy, 'ere he 
 released him from the drone of his insane voice. 
 
 The days of this awful constraint and doubt had 
 almost driven Conroy mad himself. The uncer- 
 tainty of the character he had to deal with alarmed 
 him beyond expression, for, although the dis- 
 traught man seemed to have forgotten his threat to 
 make a target of him, Conroy never knew when it 
 might recur to him to do so, and consequently it 
 was a relief when two days later he was taken under 
 the madman's guard to find the horses, saddle up 
 and depart. He hoped now he might find some 
 other chance of escape. But this was not to be, for, 
 in spite of the clerical garments, the old ideas 
 remained, and Conroy was again placed on the 
 demented man's own horse, which at a signal 
 remained close alongside his master. 
 
 They crossed the river, and then, to Conroy's 
 curiosity, Bygrave threw him a box of matches, 
 after making him dismount, and rode off, taking 
 both horses with him. When he was out of sight, 
 Conroy went into the river bed and got some 
 mussels, which he cooked on a small fire, and set- 
 ting forth afterwards, made the best of his way 
 towards where his lately-acquired instincts and 
 observations told him Roddy might still be.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 Ax LARGE 
 
 HE had profited in a measure new to him by his 
 past wild and fearsome experiences in the bush 
 with Bygrave, especially in regard to regaling 
 himself with Nature's stores of sustenance. In 
 this far-away district and on the journey there, he 
 had found that his captor was indeed capable of 
 varying their food with all the knowledge of a 
 black fellow. So that he did not despise mussels 
 as an adjunct to his bill of fare, being very hungry 
 from short rations. 
 
 But the reaction of mind brought on by his 
 freedom turned to a positive agony when he now 
 considered the eternal disgrace and loss of prestige 
 he had suffered at his captor's brutal hands. He 
 accepted the last act of apparent charity from the 
 savage and incomprehensible victor with a painful, 
 inwardly-felt sense of great inferiority to him, even 
 in his madness, and as he walked steadily onwards, 
 away from the river on a line of his own after his 
 brief repast, he reviewed certain phases of 
 Bygrave's dementia to find a possible solution for 
 it all. 
 
 Had he taken him a prisoner simply to show his 
 wonderful prowess in the bush, or was he jealous 
 about Miss Delamayne, as he had hinted more than 
 once ? And, if so, what right had he to be jealous
 
 AT LARGE 205 
 
 at all ? The man was pleasant and gentlemanly 
 enough to him when he first started. What had 
 he to do with Bronzewing ? It laid upon him like 
 a pall. Was he engaged to her? It was after his 
 own remark about her, or anything that suggested 
 her in any way, that he seemed to go mad. Surely 
 it was this that had caused the first sudden attack 
 in the hut, when he had been taken off his guard. 
 But why should he be so furious with him ? 
 
 Last night he was quite aware that Bygrave had 
 a fit of some sort. He had seen him rolling about 
 on the ground as if in pain. To-day for some time 
 before he left him he had not uttered a single word, 
 and, beyond the fact that he had flung him the 
 box of matches, there had been no iota of evidence 
 against the fact that he had deserted him in the 
 hope that he might perish in the bush. But his 
 residence with Bethune and his daughter had 
 taught him many valuable ideas, and if he was not 
 quite an adept in bush work altogether, he had at 
 least developed a sense of locality, and was a good 
 deal more than half-certain that the country he had 
 been in before he crossed the river verged upon 
 Roddy's territory. Even if Roddy were not there, 
 he might find the old base camp at last, and follow 
 the road back to civilization himself. 
 
 He reflected upon the strange and varied nature 
 of the trials he had undergone since he landed, 
 practically a new-chum in his experience of the 
 country. What a cocksure reliance he had placed 
 upon himself at first. Aye, and before he left 
 England. Now, just as he had obtained the very 
 position he had so long worked for, he had 
 apparently lost all hopes of retaining it through 
 his own insufficiency. At last, after having
 
 206 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 walked a long way, he cast himself down under 
 the shade of a mulga tree in some thick scrub and 
 fell fast asleep, thoroughly worn out. 
 
 After noon he rose and pursued his way, feeling 
 slightly more refreshed in body, but not in mind. 
 The very fact that he was released from the irksome 
 restraint and paralyzing influence following all his 
 relations with his strange and incomprehensible 
 captor was almost enough to bring Conroy back to 
 his abnormal state again, the agony and misery of 
 mind he owed to his defeat. It was galling in 
 more ways than one, to say the least of it, that he, 
 a mounted trooper, should have been bested by a 
 madman. Had he not possessed a faint hope that 
 Roddy might still be in his vicinity, he would 
 hardly have known what to do in his present pre- 
 dicament, horseless as he was, and alone. But on 
 coming down the river with Bygrave, 'ere they 
 reached what he had called the horse station, 
 Conroy had noticed a brown-red pinnacle rock bv 
 which Roddy had driven the waggon when he left 
 the down-river road of that locality to form his 
 base camp. It was so- singular in shaoe and colour 
 that he remembered it at once. He had gone 
 through a good deal since that first excursion for 
 kangaroo pelts. These thoughts passing through 
 his mind, he left the scrub where it opened out, 
 observing now a plain that he knew he had seen 
 before with the conical hills in it; then he heard 
 the crack of a rifle, and there he saw Roddy and 
 a black fellow, still after kangaroos, before his 
 gladdened eyes. 
 
 They ran forward to meet him when he got clear 
 of the last timber, and, for the first and only time 
 in his life, Conroy fainted dead away. When he
 
 AT LARGE 207 
 
 came to himself his friend had, with praiseworthy 
 forethought, made a fire to boil a quart pot of tea, 
 and with bread and meat now. pressed Conroy to 
 partake of his hospitality. The half-famished 
 young man did so, and immediately felt better. 
 When he had completely recovered his senses, 
 Roddy asked : 
 
 "What on earth has happened, Conroy? You 
 look half-starved. More like a skeleton than your 
 own true self. How in the name of fortune did 
 you get back to this part of the world again ? I 
 heard you were in the police force down at Barilla, 
 and was proud of the way you had got on since 
 you got lost from here. But why did you run 
 away from me altogether?" 
 
 Conroy informed him that he had been prosecut- 
 ing an enquiry at Barilla with a stranger, relating 
 to a lost man, and that his principal, the said 
 stranger, had suddenly gone mad in the bush, 
 captured him, and led him off to visit a station of 
 his, situated about fifteen miles from where thev 
 were now, and that very day had left him stranded 
 since early morning, taking his horses away with 
 him.. 
 
 "Why, that's the old deserted station on the 
 other side of the river; I know it well. What sort 
 of a man was he?" 
 
 Doughboy started as Conroy described him. 
 
 "Which way did he go?" Roddy continued. 
 
 "Down the river, apparently. The man's as 
 mad as a hatter. What shall we do? I can't 
 follow him without a horse." 
 
 "Stay and rest, old chum, for a couple of days. 
 YOU look indeed as if you had been man-handled.
 
 208 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 You are not fit to travel yet even, and indeed you 
 are in no state to go by yourself." 
 
 "I was maniac-handled with a vengeance," 
 Conroy allowed. "I've been tied up all the time, 
 and thought he would murder me every moment. 
 By the way, there's a dead clergyman out at the 
 old horse station. Bygrave frightened him to 
 death. Probably he had heart disease, and the 
 man's madness and dancing about with mv carbine 
 and revolver killed him through shock." 
 
 "By thunder!" Roddy exclaimed, "Bygrave 
 may turn up here ! And we shall have to be verv 
 careful. I've heard of him as a devil with both 
 men and horses, and if he has run amuck as a 
 bushranger, we shall have to look out. But it 
 seems to me that you have come back in the nick 
 of time, and I have much to tell you. I have been 
 shepherding your claim ever since you left, 
 because, as I told you in my letter, I have made a 
 great discovery in your favour; and as we are 
 mates, of course you get your half share whether 
 you are a mounted trooper or not. 
 
 "But as you can't chuck the force just now, even 
 with these events happening, without reporting 
 your mishap, we shall have to take up the running 
 ourselves to get you out of it, for I could not let 
 you go alone after a madman. Doughboy is a 
 crack shot if the lunatic should show fight, and you 
 and I are good enough to tackle him double and 
 bare-handed. But what a scare you must have 
 had ! Now come along to our opal ground. 
 Doughboy seems to have gone on ahead." 
 
 When they arrived at dusk, Roddy reflected : 
 "He's been in some queer mess, Jim has, and 
 hasn't owned up all yet. I hope we shall get the
 
 AT LARGE 209 
 
 fellow that took him prisoner all right. It'll mean 
 promotion for him if we do, and then we can come 
 back after he has chucked his billet and work this 
 place quietly. But where, in the name of the 
 deuce, have Doughboy, Rosie, and the kid got 
 to?" 
 
 Now Bygrave having disappeared in the abrupt 
 manner he had done, with the horses, merely took 
 a round through the bush and returned to his 
 station. There he re-dressed himself in his own 
 clothes and, packing the priest's garments in a 
 valise, rode off once more on his own horse, with 
 Tiger as pack, and there was grim determination 
 written on every line of his countenance. 
 
 At the crossing-place he broke out with : 
 
 " Silver and gold are a man's delight; 
 
 Oh, heigho ! Oh, heigho ! 
 Raven your clusters of hair to-night; 
 Oh, heigho! Heigho!" 
 
 He then rode seventy-five miles down the river 
 at a stretch, coming on the store he was making 
 for at about ten next morning and, hitching his 
 horses to a rail outside, entered it. Herein being 
 supplied with a surreptitious bottle of spirits as a 
 presumed purchaser, he took up a concertina, and 
 with it so enthralled the storekeeper and his assist- 
 ant that they called for more music, and were 
 suddenly confronted with a revolver, with mad, 
 blazing eyes behind it. 
 
 Then they were made to mount the counter and 
 stand there with their hands high above their 
 heads, whilst their former cheerful entertainer 
 ransacked the entire premises, some of the items 
 taken being blankets, a saucepan, a frying pan, 
 
 o
 
 210 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 another good revolver, a supply of cartridges, and 
 a double-barrelled gun, together with the necessary 
 powder and shot. Then he rode off with his loot, 
 playing music-hall varieties on the concertina until 
 he was out of sight and hearing. 
 
 There were no police in the district, and the 
 storekeeper and his man had to wait until the next 
 casual traveller arrived to ventilate their grievances, 
 and the varied phraseology they used in the interim 
 was wildly lurid. 
 
 The manner in which Bygrave got back to his 
 station was erratic. Once out of sight, he placed 
 the concertina carefully away in one of the packs, 
 and cut up a stolen blanket and a ball of string to 
 muffle the shod hoof-prints of his two horses, 
 travelling behind the river ridges and far out of 
 sight of the road. 
 
 When he got back to his station, he proceeded 
 to make it habitable, cooked himself some food, 
 and later on took up his concertina and began to 
 play. 
 
 Suddenly Doughboy, Rosie, and the child 
 appeared beside him, and it was evidently a 
 confidential visit on Doughboy's part. 
 
 Dropping his concertina on the ground, Bygrave 
 looked vacantly at the intruders on his solitude for 
 a moment or so ; and then the anathema of song 
 swelled forth, and an instant afterwards Doughboy 
 was a prisoner even in the midst of it. 
 
 " Woman, and witness, and wine, by Gad ! 
 
 Oh, heigho ! Oh, heigho ! 
 They were the cause of it, and as bad ; 
 Oh, heigho! Heigho!" 
 
 "What are you doing here?" fie shouted in a
 
 AT LARGE 211 
 
 terrible voice, with his revolver at the black 
 fellow's head, as he pinned him on the floor, heed- 
 less of his consort's shrieks and the crying of the 
 frightened child ; heedless also of the Winchester 
 which had dropped on the ground in the scuffle, 
 and with which Rosie withdrew noiselessly as she 
 and her child vanished out of the door. 
 
 "I'll kill you ! Didn't I tell you to stay here 
 and wait for me ! You are the only one who 
 knows, and I gave you a sum of money and your 
 life to stay here, and only here." 
 
 "I'm with a white man about fifteen miles 
 away," panted Doughboy, when he could get 
 breath. "It was too lonely and dangerous for me 
 at these houses, and you never came." 
 
 He was terribly frightened at the great strength 
 and determination of the man who had thus over- 
 powered him. And he had seen something in his 
 eyes that terrified him still more when he made 
 signs to his wife and child to run away. 
 
 "I'm kangarooing, but I've done what you told 
 me, and come back to you," muttered Doughboy, 
 abjectly. 
 
 "You incarnate devil," muttered Bygrave to 
 himself, "if it hadn't been for your kangarooing 
 in the past, and that blessed Winchester of yours, 
 I shouldn't have been compelled to own I shot my 
 own cousin, and gone mad over the thought of all 
 the police business it would entail, and what it has 
 cost me." 
 
 Doughboy looked more fear-stricken than ever. 
 He simply gasped with terror, but no words came. 
 
 Bygrave went on : 
 
 "They will say I did it. To inherit his estates, 
 of course. Anyway, I'll have a big splash in the
 
 212 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 bushranging world before I make you pay the 
 piper, Mr. Doughboy Blackboy, as the matter 
 stands. You are now going to be trussed up !" 
 
 He shackled his feet together with a horse hobble 
 and fastened him with Conroy's handcuffs to the 
 same verandah-post his former victim had 
 occupied, then resumed his playing. 
 
 Doughboy quaked with fear and frenzy, for if 
 Franks was mad, in his opinion this man was ten 
 thousand times worse. Presently Bygrave gave 
 him something to eat and brought him a blanket 
 which he wrapped round him. And from tfie bush 
 came the call of a mopoke which told him that 
 Rosie and his child were on their way back to 
 Conroy's camp. 
 
 Doughboy did not sleep that night, and, though 
 he tried hard to free himself, was unable to do so.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 "THE PRIEST" 
 
 WHATEVER hold Bygrave possessed over the 
 unfortunate Doughboy, there was no doubt of the 
 latter's added terror when, daylight coming, his 
 savage master appeared from the inside of the 
 dwelling, where the black fellow had heard him 
 bustling about betimes, attired in the clerical gar- 
 ments he had despoiled the corpse of. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Phillips, as he now introduced 
 himself, was clean-shaven, with the razor found in 
 the deceased gentleman's valise, and all smiles and 
 geniality as he unbound Doughboy, threw a 
 parcel of clothes down on the floor that he had pre- 
 viously purloined from the store, for the black fellow 
 to put on. 
 
 But, behind all the guilelessness, in which he ad- 
 dressed his new captive bidding him put on the 
 things and be quick about it lurked a steel shot 
 malice in the eyes that, when backed by a ready 
 hand armed with a revolver, terrified tfie black 
 fellow more than anything else, for he had not seen 
 this phase of Bygrave before. Having given the 
 aboriginal his breakfast, and expressed his satis- 
 faction with his general appearance, Bygrave 
 whose mind and manner seemed to have merged 
 into strict keeping with the clerical attire escorted 
 Doughboy to help to get his cavalcade ready. 
 When Tiger and Black Snake were brought up and
 
 214 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 saddled, the packs were arranged on the big black 
 horse and Doughboy was commanded to mount it, 
 the new priest encumbering himself with Conroy's 
 carbine and accoutrements. 
 
 Then, as they rode away, a signal from the 
 reverend gentleman made Doughboy's horse stop 
 close by the grave where, apparently, he had him- 
 self been buried recently, for his make-up was 
 perfect, and Doughboy could not understand it. 
 
 With a gesture of his hand he motioned his black 
 companion to silence. It came, too, on the order, 
 still and profound, save for the champing of a bit 
 from a restless steed and motions of increasing and 
 awful terror on the blackfellow's part. 
 
 His captor pointed to the fresh-turned soil below 
 which the corpse lay. The black fellow glared 
 wildly where the finger pointed. 
 
 "Yes," said the assumed priest, slowly, in a 
 voice that was not his own, "the other one you knew 
 of lies there dead and buried. He went into it, I 
 came out. Listen." 
 
 "Yes, yes," shrieked Doughboy, in mortal 
 terror; "yes, yes. His spirit has passed to yours, 
 and yours to his. Let us get away from this. 
 There is death this side of hell with such a man 
 as you, and I don't know what to do with your 
 Bygrave rights, and yet you are the parson. If 
 there is a God, why have you changed like this?" 
 
 Mad with fright, he tried tfc bolt, but a low 
 whistle from the counterfeit priest, and a bullet by 
 his ear, made him aware of the impossibility of 
 that, and convinced him perfectly that he with 
 whom he had to deal was to be feared beyond all 
 others, and he remained seated on the arrested 
 steed, trembling and bluely livid as only a black
 
 "THE PRIEST' 215 
 
 fellow can look under the impulse of uncontrollable 
 fear of madness or sudden death. 
 
 "I must convert you, Doughboy. Remember in 
 future that I am your soul-saver, and in case of 
 surprises you may keep a couple of my visiting 
 cards and say to anyone who accosts you that 
 you ride in priestly company, if not in priestly 
 service." 
 
 This was all said slowly, in the voice that Dough- 
 boy could not understand, and had not heard before, 
 and it frightened him more horribly than ever. 
 His new master extracted a card case and gave from 
 the clerical pockets the indelible proofs of his new 
 identity. 
 
 And away they went, straight through the bush, 
 Bygrave with one revolver concealed beneath his 
 clerical coat, for at the first lonely water-hole he got 
 rid of Conroy's cartridges and carbine by throwing 
 them into it, but his saddle holster held the other 
 purloined instrument of death in its concealment. 
 
 "And now take me to your white man's camp," 
 ordered the Reverend Mr. Phillips. "I should like 
 to surprise your master, as I don't intend in future 
 for you to have more than one." 
 
 There was no doubt that the priest was far more 
 terrible and daring than Mr. Bygrave had ever 
 been, and of this Doughboy soon had full convic- 
 tions. In his turn the black fellow, paralysed as 
 Bygrave's horse had been at his whistle, would 
 have as soon thought of shooting himself dead as 
 of disobeying one of the quick, stern orders of his 
 new chief. 
 
 When near the cave the priest said : 
 
 " Dismount, Doughboy," and slipped off his 
 horse also. "Remain here. You'll drop dead if
 
 216 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 you attempt to move or give the alarm. Neither 
 horse will stir if you attempt to use them to get away 
 with. Do you hear?" 
 
 The black fellow cowered and waited to listen, 
 throwing himself on the ground in a perfect par- 
 oxysm of fear and dismay afterwards, and looking 
 at the black horse suddenly as if he had seen a 
 demon. 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Phillips presented himself 
 most courteously at the cave opening where Conroy 
 and Roddy McGregor were getting supper ready. 
 
 "Pardon me, gentlemen," he said, with delibera- 
 tion, "I have lost my way, and was so glad to see 
 your shelter. I intended to make my humble way 
 to Eulo to hold a service, but, leaving the beaten 
 track to investigate a peculiar bird in a tree, I wan- 
 dered on in pursuit and, though I said a prayer for 
 guidance, lost my way, and the only answer I seem 
 to find to my supplication since I breathed it, is 
 that I have found you." 
 
 Just then Rosie came up with Roddy's horses, 
 ably seconded by her little son. And, as the black 
 girl's eyes were the sharper, she screamed with 
 terror the moment she saw the Reverend Mr. 
 Phillips. 
 
 There were two quick revolver shots, which the 
 Reverend Mr. Phillips loudly protested were com- 
 plete accidents, caused entirely through his own 
 nervousness at the girl's shrieks. Conroy, des- 
 perately wounded in the right wrist, lay writhing in 
 pain ; but brave, willing, faithful Roddy lay flat on 
 his face with a stream of blood crimsoning the 
 ground underneath from his neck. 
 
 "Come here, you black howler," ordered the 
 reverend gentleman to Rosie. "Bring the horses
 
 "THE PRIEST' 217 
 
 up closer. One gentleman is dead; there is no 
 doubt about that. Shall I say God rest his soul ? 
 I am afraid I must. These accidents with firearms 
 are so very distressing, but it was all through your 
 screaming so abominably." 
 
 "You devil!" exclaimed Conroy, panting with 
 rage and pain. "You've shot my mate. I never 
 saw such infernal carelessness in my life, and what 
 does a man like you want with a revolver ?" 
 
 "Keep a civil tongue in your head, young man. 
 Wounds mortify in lonely places, I have been told. 
 I've seen a sheep bitten by a wild dog become a 
 mass of corruption in a week. You're only a 
 crawler yourself, or will be in a week hence because 
 of the blow-flies. Now then, you black girl, jump 
 into that waggon till I put the horses in, and get 
 out of this gentleman's company." 
 
 This he accomplished shortly with his eyes on 
 Conroy, who presently fainted dead away from pain 
 and loss of blood. Then, forcing Rosie and her 
 child into Roddy's waggon, and taking all the pro- 
 vender he found about the place, also the Win- 
 chester rifles that belonged to Roddy and Jim 
 Conroy, he drove away. 
 
 Rosie, sobbing convulsively and doubled up in 
 the waggon with her boy whimpering beside her, 
 was a picture of abject misery. 
 
 "Stop crying, girl," the man in priest's gar- 
 ments said. "I'm taking you to your man, and we 
 are going to my place. Listen. See that kooka- 
 burra in the tree there, he has killed a snake and 
 there it is hanging over the branch by him. He's 
 singing a curious song, isn't he?" 
 
 He pulled up. The girl became pulseless with 
 fright and was quite as amenable as Doughboy
 
 218 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 when he took her to him. What was there about 
 this man who made people obey him as his horses 
 did ? And why was the fascination never able to 
 compel Bronzewing Delamayne to obey him ? Why 
 had some people such a peculiar aversion to him, 
 whilst other impelled by the same feeling had to 
 obey and yield themselves blindly to his dominating 
 influence ? 
 
 The first night Doughboy, Rosie, and the frigh- 
 tened child passed with the priest, far from where 
 he had left Conroy and Roddy, not one of those 
 three personages ever forgot. He preached ser- 
 mons to them, sitting close to Doughboy, with one 
 hand clasping a revolver instead of a Bible. 
 
 When they set out again, camping here and there 
 at night, after a two days' journey they came on a 
 main road which their persecutor seemed to know 
 perfectly well. 
 
 He drove the buggy back into the bush to an 
 inaccessible place, smashed up the gun and, reserv- 
 ing two revolvers, shot the horses, putting an end 
 to these faithful servitors with, be it said, some last 
 trace of lingering regret, finally made a bonfire of 
 the waggon, and managed to set fire to the bush 
 all round them, ere he himself made off on foot and 
 left the blacks to their own devices. 
 
 They back-tracked to Roddy's cave camp as hard 
 as ever they could go, highly rejoicing at having 
 got rid of such a dangerous companion as the 
 priest. He disappeared in bush distances until he 
 came to a station where he was hospitably received, 
 held services, and stuck it up afterwards. Then he 
 disappeared. When Doughboy and his family 
 arrived at the old rendezvous, both Conroy and 
 Roddy were gone.
 
 "THE PRIEST' 219 
 
 The fact was that Roddy, having been pithed in 
 the neck b.y a bullet, had lost consciousness at first, 
 and, finding out later what was going on, played 
 'possum, only arousing himself when the rattle of 
 the waggon wheels had died out. 
 
 Then he sat up and looked at Conroy, who was 
 insensible. Knowing something of first aid, he 
 tore up a clean linen shirt and bandaged his wound, 
 compressing the arteries to stop the flow of blood. 
 
 Then he lit a fire, made some tea, and, after 
 some trouble, brought his mate round. 
 
 "Was that your man?" he asked Conroy the 
 next day, as they together negotiated the way to 
 the Kanakas' hut, for he felt he must get his mate 
 into hospital. 
 
 "No," said Conroy, who was feverish and off his 
 head, "he was the devil." 
 
 Roddy was glad to reach the hut over the range 
 with his failing companion. The Kanakas were 
 gone, but there was a boundary rider camped there 
 with a horse who, hearing they had been fired on 
 by a man in priest's clothes, and seeing Conroy's 
 condition, rode into the station on the river and 
 brought out a pair of horses in a light waggon, in 
 which Roddy placed his mate, now highly deliri- 
 ous ; and together the three of them drove post-haste 
 to the hospital at Cunnamulla, where the case was 
 received by Nurse Jones in person.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 A TRAVELLING SHOW 
 
 "Ix is extraordinary how happy I feel," thought a 
 tall, clean-shaven man, as he stroked his chin whilst 
 examining a paragraph in the local newspaper in a 
 private sitting-room of the best hotel in Fort Bourke 
 on the Darling River. 
 
 "As a stage-manager," he continued, as he sat 
 in the same reverie, "up to all chances, before pull- 
 ing off my carefully-prepared schemes, it is as well 
 to have a look at one's auditorium from an outside 
 and unknown position, before proceeding to any- 
 thing extra ; but in the meantime my present 
 Nirvana is positively refreshing. Courted, feted, 
 wherever I go, a born caterer to the great many- 
 sided public, induced by the simple purchase of a 
 baboon and his keeper, together with a few horses, 
 no one suspects, no one doubts me. Now for my 
 posters !" 
 
 He took a printed impression from a large heap 
 on the table : 
 
 PROFESSOR YERKES 
 
 Will to-night demonstrate the power of the human 
 will in the management of a savage animal. 
 
 Having brought with great care a savage 
 South African baboon of great size through 
 Australia to your beautiful town, an animal so
 
 A TRAVELLING SHOW 221 
 
 fierce that he has required the constant efforts 
 of three trained keepers to prevent him injuring 
 himself or others, a sight of wonder is reserved 
 for your audience of to-night as a special 
 favour. 
 
 An attendant entered, one of the Professor's own 
 men. 
 
 "Take these notices, Stanley, and stick them up 
 all over the town," his master ordered, genially. 
 "Our hippodrome is arranged where I told you?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "Well, you can bring my buggy round. I'm 
 going to drive out for a breath of fresh air, and I'll 
 give you a look in as I pass. We will open the 
 show at half-past eight, as usual." 
 
 "Seen the paper, sir?" the man asked. "There's 
 a big account here," he added, producing a copy 
 of the local news sheet from his pocket. 
 
 ""Ah, yes, I squared the Editor last night, Stan- 
 ley," laughed the Professor. "By-the-way, your 
 week's wages are due. Here you are, my good 
 fellow," producing a handful of loose sovereigns 
 and silver from his pocket. "Put your shoulder to 
 the wheel, Stanley, you've got to take the ticket 
 money to-night, and the public gathering will be 
 large. Here is some additional elbow grease to 
 enable you to assimilate the sliding of the human 
 frame on its own axle. Bonus of two pounds extra, 
 Stanley." 
 
 "Thank you, sir," the man replied, greatly 
 pleased. "Sorghum has got his dander up pro- 
 perly. Little Ives has been stirring him up now 
 and then, and he won't get any food until after you
 
 222 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 come on the stage to put him through his perform- 
 ance." 
 
 He chuckled to himself as he went out, looking 
 upon his master as the ordinary itinerant showman ; 
 but he was to learn a new lesson, because the Pro- 
 fessor had lately detected him in purloining some 
 of the funds. 
 
 There was a grim smile upon the Professor's face 
 as he became immersed in the columns of the daily 
 paper, but a quick change of manner that trans- 
 formed all his bearing when his eye glanced at a 
 casual advertisement : 
 
 "Next of kin wanted. James Forsyth Conroy, only eon of the 
 late Aueten Conroy, of Brangal Downs, required to communicate 
 with Messrs. Redding and Barnet, Solicitors, Brisbane." 
 
 There was fury in the Professor's eyes ill to see, 
 and his fists clenched convulsively. 
 
 "The living, the living, shall praise thee, O 
 Lord," he muttered. "Skeletons cannot. I must 
 see about proper sepulture for certain grisly forms 
 I know of as I get on further forward on my jour- 
 ney to Barilla. With a reincarnation of my own 
 proper self at that enterprising place, I mav do 
 wonders vet when all obscuring mists have settled 
 in their proper places." 
 
 There was a large attendance that night at 
 Yerkes' show. A regular gala performance was 
 given with the performing animals and trick 
 ponies and mules; but it was noticed when Sor- 
 ghum, a great baboon, was brought in to the arena 
 of the circus, at his first roar of rage Stanlev, the 
 defaulting- cashier, who was close bv him, turned 
 livid and fell fainting- on the stage. 
 
 "Mv faithful attendant has been overcome bv
 
 A TRAVELLING SHOW 223 
 
 the toils of the day," the Professor said, sadly, 
 turning to the audience as the man was carried from 
 the arena by other attendants. "You have no idea, 
 ladies and gentlemen, of the mental and physical 
 worries attendant upon such a life as ours," he 
 added, pathetically. "Minor incident after minor 
 incident clogging the springs of our daily work 
 may not be apparent to you upon the surface of our 
 performance, but to such a careful man as my 
 valued servant Stanley, the anxiety felt for the con- 
 dition of the animals, the proper going of the whole 
 concern, has become a matter of fact to you now, 
 I regret to say, and apparently he has been attacked 
 by some sort of a fit. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen, I must crave your 
 pardon for such a deflection from our usual course. 
 Keep your seats, all of you, if you please. My 
 attendant is under good care and will recover. 
 Now, if you will permit me, I will show my power 
 over the animal facing us, a ferociously wild crea- 
 ture, I assure you, who seems to be possessed with 
 an evil spirit." 
 
 The huge baboon grimaced and jabbered, shook 
 the bars of his cage with mighty strength, his dog- 
 like jaws bared to the inner glow of his fierce eyes 
 as if he would have rejoiced to make mincemeat of 
 Yerkes and tear up the audience limb from limb. 
 
 The Professor strode to the bars, causing an 
 outburst of appalling fury from the raving, mad- 
 dened creature, its hoarse cries resounding through 
 the large tent to the background, and answered by 
 piteous shrieks from Stanley himself. 
 
 The next moment it retreated to the furthest 
 corner of the cage in the wildest terror. If seemed 
 to try to get right through the cage, to climb, to do
 
 224 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 anything to get away out of it, until at last it sank 
 down in a distant corner, a grovelling mass of 
 impotent abasement. 
 
 "Observe the power of the human eye and will, 
 ladies and gentlemen. The performance is over," 
 declared Professor Yerkes, as he turned urbanely 
 to the audience. " I fear my faithful Stanley is 
 worse, I must go to him." 
 
 "See here, Jack," whispered a young stockman 
 in the back seats, as he caught a comrade by the 
 coat sleeve, "if my own eyes are in my head, I 
 believe that's the Priest right enough, him that 
 stuck up the station and disappeared. Now what 
 did we come up here for but to earn that Govern- 
 ment reward? If you are still with me, let's go 
 and offer ourselves to work in his company as a 
 blind, so as we can pull off his capture. Your 
 horses are up to some tricks, and so are mine if 
 we put 'em through their facings, and he might 
 give us a chance so as we could make certain. Come 
 outside, and I'll talk to you, so that we can run 
 him down on the quiet if we can prove he is our 
 man." 
 
 They followed the departing crowd out of the big 
 marquee, and, getting away by the gum trees on 
 the river bank, the young stockman continued : 
 
 "You've heard about the Barilla talk: first of all 
 how that chap, ' Kangaroo ' Austen, disappeared. 
 Some says he cut his lucky for England, but he 
 was seen in Bygrave's company first. Then 
 Bygrave disappears. Then Miss Delamayne hooks 
 it. Then her young man can't be found. No one 
 knows what's come to Roddy McGregor or any of 
 'em now, even Doughboy and his lubra and kid 
 are out of sight. You've been a Brangal stockman,
 
 A TRAVELLING SHOW 225 
 
 Jack, in the last year of old Conroy's time. Now 
 you and me's hit it, or at least I did since you went 
 away, and I sent for you, me kiddin' on in this 
 town until you come up, and as there's a thousand 
 pounds to share, what are you going to do about 
 it? Didn't I tell you I thought I spotted him at 
 Wentworth?" 
 
 "It'll be pretty cool cheek, Billy, to go and tell 
 a man like that, if he is this man, which we can't 
 swear to yet, that he's a robber under arms, won't 
 it? I shouldn't care to have a say in it myself. 
 But we'll try. It may suit him, Billy, too, now 
 that chap of his is ill. It's said the Priest has 
 killed Bygrave as well as the others." 
 
 "Well, I can't be quite sure, but the police and 
 the Government reward about the disappearance 
 and the capture of the Priest shook my intellect a 
 bit. Suppose we go and interdooce ourselves as 
 noo hands, and say we've two trick horses. Then 
 we'll be able to tack on and tell if 'e is what we 
 take 'im to be." 
 
 But 'ere the stock-riders got to the circus horses' 
 tents, the Reverend Mr. Phillips had really passed 
 out into the bush, with the aid of Professor 
 Yerkes' buggy horses, fine, thoroughbred animals, 
 and perfect hacks. The next night the township 
 was made more lively by certain events in which 
 the nonplussed showmen, unable to account for 
 the absence of their master, took share in, com- 
 placentlv and convivially.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 HUE AND CRY 
 
 THE Sergeant in charge at Barilla had been very 
 much upset meanwhile by the total and unlooked- 
 for disapearance of his promising young constable, 
 and failing to make head or tail of the whole 
 matter, except in the matter of the dead horse at 
 Austen's hut, reported to headquarters, stirring up 
 unconsidered quantities of very hot water through- 
 out the force, and in other places throughout 
 Queensland by doing so. No reliable clue had 
 come to any of the police anywhere, mounted or 
 otherwise, and all ranks were keenly chagrined. 
 The disappearing people had apparently worked 
 the oracle of invisibility in thorough bushman 
 style, and the force, not understanding it, were 
 unable to do anything particular in the matter 
 without further information and search. 
 
 At last, prompted by a large Government 
 reward, a secret and unknown volunteer turned uo 
 at headquarters, and his offer was accepted with 
 alacritv. It came from an aboriginal source, but 
 that didn't matter to the police authorities, or the 
 force either, for the man was one of themselves 
 although of another colour, a noted criminal- 
 hunter from the Queensland section of black 
 trackers. 
 
 Just then the knowledge of the Eulo business,
 
 HUE AND CRY 227 
 
 coming hard on the attempted murder of young 
 Conroy and McGregor, set the whole country 
 talking and exaggerating about a cause of new 
 terror in the Priest as a mounted bushranger, and 
 here and there bands of excited, hard-riding, up- 
 country bushmen in various border towns were 
 apt to gallop off in armed parties to see if they 
 could circumvent this ubiquitous free lance, 
 wherever suspicion lurked. 
 
 Comparable only to a Murray River hornets' 
 nest, provoked by the advent of an energetic 
 stranger with an axe about to fell their fastness, 
 was the buzzing state of many an up-country 
 district, since the Sergeant's information about his 
 lost constable and his dead horse. 
 
 In one of the Queensland divisions, the nearest 
 to the start of the new bush terror's last operations, 
 there happened to be a mighty man of thew and 
 sinew named Peter, an aboriginal, famed for 
 desperate and daring deeds. He it was who now 
 accepted the mission of capture on his own initia- 
 tive. 
 
 He crept away unknown and unrecorded, a half- 
 naked savage armed with tomahawk, nullahs, 
 boomerangs, wooden shield, and spears, ostensiblv 
 in pursuit of animals, birds, or wild honev. He 
 was a Sergeant in his squadron, a more than noted 
 tracker, and had been engaged in this sort of 
 secret service before with marked success. 
 
 Rut it so hanpened the Reverend Mr. Phillips 
 had departed from this earth altogether in two 
 separate fashions, first as Professor Yerkes from 
 his menagerie tents, and secondly metamorpho- 
 sing into the real and authentic Mr. Bvgrave, the 
 rich squatter, who had come out to Australia again
 
 228 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 to breed horses, after a sojourn in England. Some- 
 how the connection had not been made with any 
 certainty as regards three being one when the 
 Priest turned up, and escaped Conroy's knowledge 
 through his wandering wits. 
 
 Consequently, when the disguised black tracker, 
 Peter, after considerable wandering on various hot 
 scents, came on Mr. Bygrave alone a mile or so 
 beyond the river crossing at the township where 
 Professor Yerkes had caused such a divided sensa- 
 tion, the sleuth-hound was at once affable with 
 him, little suspecting that the well-dressed horsey 
 gentleman had concealed his priest's outfit under 
 the great roots of a tree near the river but a short 
 time before. 
 
 Knowing who he was, Peter lurked about with 
 him cordially in different thick scrubs durinp the 
 day, without shifting their positions very much 
 pending the development of any plan in the 
 maniac's cunning brain, and the great aboriginal 
 tracker became more and more puzzled and 
 hesitating. 
 
 Bygrave, as a rich, somewhat eccentric squatter, 
 liked though feared by everyone who knew him 
 as well as Peter did, probably had had one of his 
 usual fits of erratic wandering, and certainly was 
 not the man disguised as a priest who had robbed 
 the store at Eulo and attacked Conroy and 
 McGregor, the news of which had, after some time, 
 caused the Government reward to be offered. 
 
 Bygrave's errant brain, backed by all his former 
 prestige of manner, impelled him in some fashion 
 to think that Peter was travelling with him as his 
 black boy, whilst he amused himself. Therefore, 
 at sundown, he gave him orders to remain where
 
 HUE AND CRY 229 
 
 he was for the present, whilst he went into the 
 township, leaving him in charge of Mr. Yerkes' 
 waggon horses, of the sudden absence of whom 
 Peter as yet was ignorant, having come in another 
 direction from the north of Queensland. 
 
 Yerkes' men, however, nonplussed a't the un- 
 accountable disappearance of their master, were 
 delighted by the advent of a stranger on foot, a 
 highly-melodious stranger, who gave impromptu 
 performances with the landlord's concertina in the 
 hotel where they were all foregathered, and as the 
 evening went on at the township, after they had 
 made merry together, young Fortescue, a neigh- 
 bouring squatter, was so much impressed by the 
 sound of bells, bells, bells, rising and falling in 
 beautiful catches and clashings j of melodious 
 symphonies, that as he and his hackney mounted 
 the river bank at the crossing place, he , almost 
 thought for a moment or two that he was back in 
 his native minster town in the old country, until 
 he recognised that the musical chords were 
 produced by a master hand on a musical instru- 
 ment at the very hotel he always stopped at. 
 
 Entering this hostelry later, therefore, after 
 seeing his horse in the attentive hands of a groom, 
 young Fortescue, with his usual well-recognised 
 liberality, ordered drinks for all hands, and 
 presently, rather against the popular vote, carried 
 off the interesting performer, a man of his own 
 class, about whom he had heard vague stories, 
 into a private room where they prepared for a 
 mutual orgie of sound and taste. The room 
 bordered on a balcony upstairs, and the pair of 
 them passed prolific hours qualified by deep 
 potations.
 
 230 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 They soon became such firm friends that young 
 Fortescue felt quite sorry when the interesting 
 stranger left, encountering as he did so the sharp 
 eyes of Jack and Billy, just returned to the town 
 side of the crossing place, unsuccessful in their 
 pursuit after the supposed Priest, and with 
 knocked-up horses. 
 
 "That's Mr. Bygrave right enough. He ; s 
 turned up again all right, as I thought he would; 
 I'll swear it's him, so he ain't dead, as they said 
 he was, after all. There he goes, whistling for his 
 horse. I expect he's got it planted somewhere 
 t'other side of the river. Now what the deuce 
 made us take Yerkes for the Priest?" 
 
 "I don't know," Billy averred, doubtingly. 
 "More the manner of the show, and the look of 
 'im to Bygrave than anything else, I think. Mr. 
 Bygrave bought our chestnut 'orse and give a 
 longer price for 'im than we asked, like a gentle- 
 man as 'e is. If it was only Yerkes, now, as was 
 the Priest in counterfeit, it wouldn't 'ave hurted 
 to run 'im in as a lark on suspicion ; but I like that 
 Bygrave, 'e's a born 'ero, though they do say 'e's 
 a bit bicentric. And I think if 'e was really to go 
 bushrangin', I'd 'ave 'arf a mind to be alongside 
 'im, and it's after all your talk, Jack, that's turned 
 my opinion in any way. But it's dashed rum 'e's 
 turned up just now, ain't it?" 
 
 So they cleared off to their lodging-house to hear 
 the news of the prepossessing musician, and as 
 it fitted in with their previous knowledge of 
 the man entirely, they were bitter against 
 Yerkes, but praised the musical performer in 
 loud words. 
 
 "What's it matter if 'e is a bit bicentric?" Billy
 
 HUE AND CRY 231 
 
 said. " 'E's a gentleman, and 'e can do as 'e 
 likes, and don't 'e play and sing fine!" 
 
 By-and-bye young Fortescue left to ride 
 drowsily home, being awakened on the other side 
 of the river by a clergyman on a blue roan horse 
 who asked him the way to his station. 
 
 This question, given as it was with the voice of 
 divinity, woke up the somnolent young squatter 
 and turned his heart to religious matters, and, his 
 brother being away, he took upon himself the part 
 of host, and asked the reverend gentleman to ride 
 on with him and hold a service. 
 
 So they departed together. But young Fortescue 
 was very much annoyed and affronted later on 
 when, it being about tour o'clock in the morning, 
 at his own house his reverend guest produced 
 sternly and in silence a cocked and loaded revolver, 
 and demanded all his money or his life. 
 
 Happening to have about go in the petty cash- 
 box over at the store, in notes and loose gold, he 
 was obliged to part with it, being then taken over 
 to the stables where, all hands being "off" after Mr. 
 Yerkes, and the station female servants fast asleep 
 in their beds, young Fortescue was compelled to 
 deliver up "Sir Roger," a noted steeplechaser 
 thoroughbred. The good-bye he uttered to his 
 despoiler as he rode away on the race horse, 
 leading his own, was smothered with concealed 
 anathemas, but as the dawn broke red and rosy 
 there crept into his astonished mind a gradually 
 maturing design to leave the occurrence to be 
 found out or spoken of by anybody else than 
 himself. 
 
 To say that Bygrave, as "The Priest" again, 
 appalled the savage black tracker by real madness
 
 232 WHAT LAV BENEATH 
 
 would b, superfluous, but he did so most success- 
 fully. It was neither with disdain, bravado, 
 bravery, nor any other of his noted qualities that 
 Peter received this new and strange master, but 
 with the unqualified alarm and sense of inferiority 
 an Australian savage feels in the presence of 
 something he cannot hope to either explain or 
 understand. He realised, however, that he had 
 bound himself indefinitely to a dangerous, fire- 
 armed madman, who would brook no interference 
 and stick at nothing. 
 
 Together they travelled day and night across 
 country by secret, stealthy routes, until they came 
 to Bygrave's deserted station, where the forlorn 
 and terrified Doughboy, together with Rosie and 
 her child, awaited them. 
 
 Next day they rode and walked to Conroy's 
 camp, and Bygrave, this time in another mood on 
 finding no traces of either him or Roddy 
 McGregor, rode back to his own station and began 
 to make preparations as if for a siege. 
 
 Whatever Doughboy told the disguised black 
 trooper in his chance moments never transpired, 
 but it is certain that, after a brief interval of such 
 communication, Peter was even more obsequious 
 to his self-imposed master than Doughboy himself. 
 
 Rosie cooked for them as usual, and they all 
 waited trembling for the next obscurity in detail 
 until the mad brain directing them appointed it. 
 
 Finally, obeying these irrelevant impulses, they 
 all started off for Brisbane, avoiding all roads, and 
 as Rosie and her boy got a lift on a horse some- 
 times, they progressed in a leisurely, pic-nic sort 
 of way until they approached the outermost limits 
 of civilization.
 
 HUE AND CRY 233 
 
 Then Bygrave suddenly shot the horses and left 
 them as he had done before, without either of the 
 blacks, professional or savage, daring to follow 
 him. 
 
 Peter stole back shamefacedly to headquarters a 
 discredited man, and Rosie and Doughboy, with 
 their progeny, made tracks between Conroy's cave 
 and the deserted station, apparently unable to 
 leave the vicinity.
 
 WHEN Conroy was brought to the hospital at 
 Cunnamulla, he was in such a very precarious state 
 of mind and body that inflammation set in on his 
 wounded arm, and, atter a brief consultation, the 
 leading doctor saw it was necessary to amputate 
 the limb below the shoulder. Roddy, of course, 
 knew Nurse Jones, in spite of her disguises, but a 
 peremptory ringer on her lip forbade all inter- 
 course or formal recognition. 
 
 Being himself little the worse for his adventure, 
 a dressing or two did for Roddy, and learning 
 later than the operation on his companion had been 
 successfully performed, though the patient would 
 take some time to recover, he proceeded to stroll 
 about the township and try to gather up matters 
 as far as he was able. 
 
 From his limited intelligence of former happen- 
 ings, all he could do had been to send word to the 
 Sergeant in charge at Barilla that he had found 
 Conroy and unearthed an armed bushranger in 
 the garb of a priest, whom nobody knew. Then 
 he had proceeded to describe the details of the 
 dastardly shooting and its result. 
 
 Just as Conroy began to recover a little later, 
 therefore, was the time when the papers began to 
 teem with accounts of a bushranging priest who
 
 UNITED 235 
 
 had held services here and there in other parts of 
 the country and levanted with some stolen horses 
 and money, and the police turned out in force, 
 without, however, coming on any further traces of 
 the delinquent. 
 
 Bronzewing, as Nurse Jones, had, without Con- 
 roy in the least knowing her, volunteered to nurse 
 the new patient, and at first it had proved a matter 
 of utmost embarrassment for her. 
 
 But the doctor of the hospital, selecting her for 
 her peculiar fitness, had insisted that she should 
 attend night duty in this case when the patient, 
 being more restless, required the greatest attention. 
 
 It had been a trying task for her, because 
 Conroy in his delirium had mentioned both her 
 name and that of another girl, Heartsease Bethune, 
 with affection, which knowledge came upon her 
 with a peculiar poignancy mixed with regret. Her 
 patient had lain insensible and delirious for a long 
 time after the operation, and great care had to be 
 taken of him lest he should shift the bandages and 
 bring on any further hemorrhage. When he 
 came to himself he betrayed great grief at the loss 
 of his arm, a loss that would affect his whole after 
 life, as he had meant to rise unaided by sheer hard 
 work alone. 
 
 This acknowledged circumstance sent him up at 
 once fifty per cent, in Bronzewing Delamayne's 
 estimation, and pity for the maimed young fellow 
 crept in gradually more and more and softened the 
 heart already given to him. The doctor had been 
 afraid of Conroy's mental condition after recovery, 
 considering the state he had been brought in, but 
 as time progressed the wildness in his eyes died 
 down, until at last he was able to sit up in bed.
 
 236 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 One day, looking very curiously and strangely 
 at Nurse Jones when she had brought him some 
 beef-tea, having watched her more or less in 
 wonder twenty times a day since his senses came 
 back, he said feebly : 
 
 "I know you now, my dear nurse, or believe I 
 do, by the way you carry that tray. It is someone 
 I know, isn't it? Whatever brought you here?" 
 
 He was the only patient in a small, bright ward 
 at that time, and they were quite alone. 
 
 " Have you not learned more by your gallivant- 
 ing experiences since I dismissed you so abruptly ?" 
 asked Bronzewing, flushing painfully, with a touch 
 of her old manner through all her spectacles, lilac 
 dress, and Sister Dora cap with a neat little bow 
 under her chin. 
 
 "You have suffered far too much on my account. 
 But I am so glad you have pulled round. You 
 have been ill a long time, and I fear I have been 
 greatly the cause of it all." 
 
 "Oh, Miss Delamayne, I have lain night and 
 day under your soft and gentle presence, 
 even when I did not know who you were, and it 
 soothed me so to think I had someone to care for 
 me. It cannot be possible that you speak words of 
 hope to me in my awful affliction that I fear you 
 will gainsay afterwards, can it? although I am 
 sure you can never forgive me, or pass over my 
 late disgrace, can you ? Am I still wandering, or 
 am I sane?" he asked, with a sigh of painful 
 effort. "It can't be real, all this. To lose my 
 arm ! Oh," and he sank back hopelessly. "To 
 lose my sweetheart, too ! It must be a dream." 
 
 "Touch me and see! my poor boy, my dear 
 and injured boy," murmured Bronzewing, as she
 
 UNITED 237 
 
 removed her coloured glasses ; and he gazed into 
 her beautiful eyes. "I believe we both cared for 
 each other," she went on. "Don't doubt my 
 words for ever, if I was angry. I was given to 
 you really by your mother, but you were so 
 terribly reprehensible, you know, so shortly after 
 we first met, that I was obliged to give you 
 up." 
 
 It was a great admission for her, but his sickness 
 and trouble had turned her heart to severe repent- 
 ance, and she had winced at his suffering as if 
 it hurt herself, until he had drawn her to him as 
 if he was part of her. 
 
 "I shall beg your pardon for that first behaviour 
 all mv life," he rejoined humblv and penitentlv. 
 "But how strange all this is. Whatever could 
 have brought vou here, and what could have been 
 vour motives? Oh, I could have killed mvself 
 for mv rudeness to vou at first, and I tried so hard 
 to gain vour good opinion afterwards. But I am 
 alwavs unlucky, and thought you hard and im- 
 placable. Can I hope that you will forgive, for 
 you were quite justified in what vou did. Is there 
 anyone who can part us?" he asked, wonderinglv, 
 when she gently told him of his mother's wishes. 
 
 "One can," shot warningly into Bronzewing's 
 inner thoughts, the one who had made such a 
 mightv and terrible confession, a confession that 
 had blocked all h^r plans more than she had 
 blocked them herself, who now prevented her 
 from ever of her own free will disclosing the secret 
 she had kept for Conroy alone. What had become 
 of him ? What was she to do ? 
 
 She could not speak very fully to Conroy just 
 yet, for any over-excitement just now might have
 
 238 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 a bad effect upon him, so she soothed and calmed 
 him by all the means in her power, and led him 
 to think of her and himself, until, after he had 
 taken the beef-tea she had brought him, he fell into 
 a deep, comfortable sleep, and dated his gradual 
 recovery from that first gleam of sense in which 
 he had recognised her, and learned somewhat of 
 her motives and her love. As a professional nurse 
 she had out of her own heart administered the 
 anodyne that cured him, namely, the comfort of 
 her own presence, acknowledged though unknown 
 until his late great discoverv. His mind could 
 feed over that past and gather strength of body 
 from it. 
 
 She dared not tell him yet of "The Priest," this 
 new bush scourge, whom she divined at once was 
 one and the same man who had been the bane to 
 both of them, and as his mind had not yet gone 
 back to more than immediate happenings, she was 
 very prudent with him, and he began to improve 
 daily. The only information as to herself she gave 
 him was that her disguise was to be their secret, 
 and this seemed so romantic to Jim that as joy, 
 absolute joy, never kills, and his pardon gave him 
 also hope of the ultimate attainment of his desires, 
 he began to look upon the loss of a limb as a mere 
 trifle compared to the greater reward, merely ask- 
 ing to see her sometimes without her spectacles. 
 For this peerless girl he would willingly have given 
 another arm in the first full flush of his enthusiasm. 
 
 And Bronzewing, too, finding her salvation in 
 her allotted right to Conroy as a protector, doubly 
 so as he had only one arm, at length grew so dear 
 to him that he formally asked and was accepted, 
 but their marriage was postponed until their
 
 UNITED 239 
 
 enemy could be laid by the heels, and all their 
 purposes tending towards this was only discussed 
 between them in private. She became all things 
 to him, as he had felt she could have been before, 
 in her now rather rare visits, as he progressed 
 further towards recovery, for, with a word of 
 caution and a touch of pride, she told him she 
 wished to put her professional services sometimes 
 in the direction of other patients. It was necessary 
 just now for her to dissimulate, she told him, but 
 one day she brought Heartease Bethune as a casual 
 visitor in confidence, who was delighted with his 
 recovery also, but deeply touched with his 
 misfortune, and after a mutual and leading ex- 
 planation all round, it was decided bv Roddv's 
 wish that her father, who had come with her, 
 should inspect and buy into the countrv where 
 thev had made the discoverv of opals, and so give 
 them a chance to develoo it and make their own 
 way in the world. This came on through a 
 caution from Franks at Brangal, who was averse 
 to anv more mininp- matters there until Bvsrave 
 was caught, and wished them all, Conrov included, 
 to keep out of the district for some time. Bronze- 
 wing bought a half-share in the uo-countrv 
 sneculation, and one dav the rest of the partv, 
 Conrov included, left Cunnamulla, secretlv dis- 
 posed to traffic in opals to their hearts' content, 
 and feeling somewhat more secure in their united 
 strength. There had been no more talk of bush- 
 rangers, and Bethtine scorned them one and all 
 as a class to be despised, so thev never noticed on 
 the verv first dav of their gipsvlnfr a fall, clean- 
 shaven man who passed them walking on the road 
 like an ordinary traveller.
 
 240 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 It was worthy of remark, however^ that this 
 same individual, after this company of young 
 people had gone by more or less in evidence but 
 unobservant of his person, because so engrossed 
 with each other, became very angry when by 
 himself. Then, leaving the road, he went down 
 to the river, sprang into it, and swam across, 
 clothes and all, proceeding to dry them on his 
 person by still more rapid progression on the other 
 side. He kept diligently on a certain bee-line of 
 his own out into the back-country, and journeyed 
 day and night, pausing little anywhere. 
 
 When the party of overlanders had camped with 
 all their stock and household goods in the glorious 
 Australian air, the mysterious wanderer had flitted 
 far away with a desperate look upon his face, but 
 a never-failing purpose seeming to speed him on. 
 
 One look through his coloured spectacles had 
 done all this, just because that glance had settled 
 upon the radiant countenance of Jim Conrov, 
 bereft of one arm but thoroughlv recovered, with 
 Bronzewing by his side attending to him like a 
 guardian angel ; therefore a mad heart surged in 
 consequence. But as he went, the stranger 
 arranged the future entirely to his own satisfaction. 
 
 The little knot of travellers by the main camp 
 fire discussed their new venture, and bv-and-bve 
 all was still save now and then the bleating of the 
 sheep Bethune had bought to stock the new 
 country with, and even that died away before the 
 dawn. But the river tinkled on over its pebbly 
 shallows until its waters grew roseate, and at that 
 time a frenzied but determined man burst through 
 the intervening scrub at the base of the distant 
 ranges and frightened Doughboy out of Conroy's
 
 UNITED 241 
 
 cave far away into the bush, whilst the alarmed 
 Rosie shrieked and struggled with an apparition 
 of a male of her own tribe, whom she presently 
 recognised as her former terrible and all-powerful 
 master come back again, who chid her gravely and 
 gently for her outcry and asked for food and drink. 
 
 Meantime at Bygrave's deserted station a 
 coterie of emus leaving the river were disturbed 
 by another fleeting black fellow, who rushed into 
 the house and emerged with a Winchester rifle and 
 some cartridges. Then he left for some fastnesses 
 he thought were known only to himself. He 
 passed again at noon on his way back to the cave, 
 lurking silent and ghost-like behind trees and 
 rocks, and ever ready for some deadly purpose. 
 But when he reached his dwelling place once 
 more, there was still no appearance of his comely 
 young lubra, who had been spirited away by the 
 wild man. But the child was there, and glad to 
 see him. 
 
 A couple of white, peeled sticks crossed and 
 planted in a peculiar fashion near Doughboy's 
 deserted hearth bore apparently some message for 
 him, for, taking his child by his hand, he fled 
 away in the direction Conroy's party were coming 
 in. 
 
 And miles away in the bush, in the very lone- 
 some place in the bush Doughboy had left in the 
 morning, after his visit to the station, sat a savage 
 king with a savage mistress, monarch of all he 
 surveyed. 
 
 Q
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 A TERROR OF THE BUSH 
 
 BEFORE Conroy's party with himself in the light 
 of a hero enthroned in their midst, a halo round 
 his head with all their gladness of heart and 
 rejoicing of spirit at his ultimate recovery 
 reached the very station he had struck off from 
 down the Warrego into Colonial adventures of his 
 own, to everyone's intense astonishment Dough- 
 boy met them. 
 
 He looked very care-worn and sorrowful, and 
 was leading his little boy by the hand. 
 
 Something appeared to greatly frifhten and 
 confuse him when he saw Bronzewing, but he 
 confided his child to her custody and that of 
 Heartsease Bethune, and left them abruptly after 
 they had given him something to eat. 
 
 Then he wended his way alone down the river 
 as if he was going to other parts, but once out of 
 sight he ran at a steady lope until he came to the 
 exact spot where the excited traveller of a day or 
 two ago had swum the river, crossed it in the same 
 way as he had done, and went on unhesitatingly 
 until he got to Conroy's cave, whence he disap- 
 peared at once and crossed the Paroo by the old 
 deserted station, going to the back of an abrupt 
 rocky hill near by and passing on his way to his 
 own secret fastness.
 
 A TERROR OF THE BUSH 243 
 
 It was not until a fortnight or so later that 
 Conroy's party arrived and pitched their tents on 
 the new selection by the opal cave and began to 
 clear ground towards the cliffs. And one morning 
 Roddy McGregor, Heartsease, and Miss Dela- 
 mayne left Conroy and Bethune in camp, and 
 rode out in armed company to view the strategic 
 parts of their new possessions, for the terror of 
 "The Priest" had not left them vet. On their 
 excursion a mutual understanding was arrived at 
 between the three concerning their monetary and 
 business matters, and the offset of their mutual 
 likes and dislikes. The two young women had 
 been confidential, and as Heartsease told Bronze- 
 wing the moment she first saw her she felt inclined 
 to throw her arms round her neck, embrace her, 
 and deliver up her voung lover to her, notwith- 
 standing she felt she had a certain claim to him 
 herself, whence a complete understanding between 
 the two young women was amicably arrived at. 
 
 Roddv McGregor, who now felt that he stood 
 on a certain equalitv with Miss Delamayne as a 
 partner in his great find, and on account of his 
 own late engagement to another part proprietress 
 of the same great acres of valuable gem-bearing 
 back-countrv, had listened to confidences between 
 the two girls as thev rode along without a spark 
 of iealousv, and was quite loquacious himself with 
 Bronzewing concerning various matters of build- 
 ing- and improvement, with an occasional mention 
 of the hero. 
 
 "T alwavs said this Southern land would mak^ 
 a clinkiner good man of him," he volunteered, as 
 he reined up with Heartsease and Bronzewing and 
 pointed to a gorge in the hills far on ahead^
 
 244 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Indicating their first base camp thereby, "but I 
 never wanted him to lose an arm by it." 
 
 Then he drew her attention to the well-grassed 
 plains about them, the wall of purple, flat-topped 
 hills, the creek running through the middle of it 
 all, and the wide sweep of golden prairie land clear 
 to the forest of trees that lay around it. 
 
 "It will be a splendid place for a big dairy farm 
 by-and-bye," he concluded, "when we have 
 cleared the approaches to our houses; but when I 
 consider the big opal cows we have got the milking 
 of back at Conroy's camp, I go farther and sav 
 the whole country about here is a place with 
 enormous possibilities awaiting us." 
 
 "Am I not the particular gem of your collection, 
 Roddy?" flung in Heartsease, all of a sudden 
 quizzically. "Roddy, do you know that I was 
 very nearly marrying your partner?" 
 
 "Aye, he told me all about that when he came 
 back the second time, let it out when he was off 
 his head with the pain of his wound. But on our 
 first acquaintance I knew he felt otherwise, for 
 when we were at our base camp up there in that 
 niche of the hills yonder, he spoke of gems that 
 dwelt in other eyes. And they were not in yours, 
 Heartsease, although you have plentv when you 
 like." 
 
 "It didn't take me long to find that out for 
 myself, either," she retorted. "But I've got a 
 soft spot in my heart for poor old Jim yet. Look 
 at him with" only one arm after all his striving. 
 Take care you don't fan my partiality to him into 
 activity by any indiscretions elsewhere." 
 
 "As if it were possible," edged in Bronzewing, 
 taking up the cudgels for Roddy vivaciously.
 
 A TERROR OF THE BUSH 245 
 
 "Roddy is rather more than half a confidant of 
 mine, and has always been so on subjects we 
 cannot broach at present. I may yet have to 
 become poor myself for Jim's sake, whilst all you 
 people are rolling in money. Oh, I cannot yet 
 disclose to you the whole of what we know ; but 
 Roddy has been a staunch friend to me before I 
 knew Jim. It is something you don't know yet, 
 Heartsease." 
 
 "Why, Miss Bronzewing," asked Roddy in 
 wonderment. "I mean," he added, abashed, 
 "don't tell anything yet." 
 
 "It may be forced from me some day," she 
 added, casually, and Roddy went on, trying to 
 divert her from her subject. 
 
 "We'll be building a bungalow, that is Bethune 
 will, when the drays come up. Why, we are all 
 partners together now, and are all going to live 
 together until we get married. We'll build two 
 bungalows, if necessary, and enclose Conroy's 
 cave, as I always call it, within our garden fences. 
 I shouldn't wonder when we touch our wealth to 
 see eventually a town springing up here. 
 
 "Bar that treacherous madman who attacked 
 Conroy and myself, I haven't seen a living soul, 
 but Doughboy, Rosie and their child. It has been 
 a no-man's-land to me until Conroy's wanderings 
 told me the real value of it to posterity. It is a 
 safe get-away for us all now ; and that's something 
 considering our unsettled circumstances." 
 
 Bronzewing looked grave at the mention of the 
 madman, and her face clouded over at once. 
 
 "Where did you and James Conroy live first?" 
 she asked, quickly. "You mentioned it just now, 
 but my mind was elsewhere. Please show me the
 
 246 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 exact place again. I'd like to visit it and see for 
 myself his first attempt to become a bushman." 
 
 "You are not afraid of 'The Priest,' Miss 
 Delamayne? Suppose he should come back?" 
 Roddy asked cautiously. 
 
 "No," she replied, and tapped a small revolver 
 strapped in a leather case to her waistbelt. "I can 
 take care of myself. It's not the first time I've 
 risked things." 
 
 She paid bitterly for her unguarded and tell-tale 
 speech, for the eyes of both her companions were 
 fixed upon her in new and grave surprise, and to 
 hide her confusion and mental confutation she 
 touched her mettled steed with the spur, galloping 
 hard towards the rift in the hills indicated by 
 Roddy with his riding-whip in answer to her 
 question. She rode so recklessly that she was but 
 a mere spot in the distance 'ere they began to 
 canter onwards in her direction, and it took them 
 a little while to recover from their astonishment. 
 
 "I think she must be a bit huffed about my free- 
 and-easy mention of young Conroy," Heartsease 
 declared. "Well, and I don't wonder; I shouldn't 
 have said it, and I should not have liked it myself. 
 But I really did love him, Roddy. Excepting 
 yourself, he was the nicest fellow I ever came 
 across. And now, with that poor arm, or rather 
 no arm at all, of his, I just love him double, in 
 my own impulsive way. But what has she on her 
 mind that is troubling her?" 
 
 "I don't exactly know," Roddy replied, staving 
 her question off, for he did not know all. "She 
 has all she wants in the money line by all reports, 
 but there's some dead hitch connected with 
 Brangal affairs that bothers her somehow, and
 
 A TERROR OF THE BUSH 247 
 
 which she will never share with anyone. Perhaps 
 it's because she bought the place over young Con- 
 roy's head before he came out. That's the only 
 thing I can think of. Thinks it put a price on her. 
 
 "That's what people say, of course, and that it 
 was to catch him she did it ; but when I asked 
 father about it, he just told me to shut 'up and 
 mind my own business. I was managing his farm 
 for him down Brisbane way before Mr. Franks 
 told me to shepherd young Conroy; but I have 
 been connected with Mr. Franks and the Dela- 
 maynes ever since I can remember." 
 
 "What can it be?" mused Heartsease. "I know 
 something is troubling her beyond herself." 
 
 When Bronzewing reached the edge of the 
 plateau in the gorge she turned in her saddle to 
 see if the others noticed her. She saw them wave 
 their hands in answer to her challenge, but they 
 were a clear mile-and-a-half away still, out on the 
 open plain, as she vanished from their sight. 
 
 Riding forward in the grassy gorge, she came 
 to a bush hut which had been put up by Roddy 
 himself after Conroy got lost, as a look-out station 
 disconnected with the cave inhabited by himself 
 and Doughboy. Dismounting there, she tried the 
 latch, when the door was flung suddenly open from 
 within, her horse caught by the bridle, and herself 
 swung back into the saddle by a tall, muscular 
 black native, who, leaping up beside her, bore her 
 senseless form away, murmuring in her ear : 
 
 "At last, my long-lost Queen, I have got you, 
 and mean to keep you." 
 
 After riding hard and desperately for an hour 
 by almost trackless ways, he forced Bronzewing's 
 horse into a thickly-valed and timbered mountain
 
 248 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 range where, by the smouldering remains of a 
 large camp fire, was a bough gunyah, near by 
 which he laid his senseless victim and proceeded to 
 heap more logs lengthwise amongst the embers. 
 He hung the horse by the bridle to a tree and took 
 a long, gloating look upon the face of the one 
 woman he had coveted ever since he first saw her. 
 
 She had moaned once or twice through the 
 terrible journey, even in her insensibility, but 
 when she came to full consciousness again in the 
 grip of the muscular savage who confronted her, 
 she was appalled beyond anything. She recog- 
 nised, even through that cunning device of his, 
 the man whose advent into her life had been a 
 constant source of terror and confusion to her. 
 
 "Bronzewing, my darling," he panted, breath- 
 lessly, strung to fever pitch by all his emotions, 
 "I told you I would hesitate at nothing. I have 
 been mad at your loss, but am sane enough now, 
 and would always be sane in your presence. The 
 sight of your own dear face has brought me back 
 to light and reason in my deep love for you, and 
 I have you for my own all to myself now. Live 
 with me in the wilderness here, where I can 
 provide for you and shelter you until I have shaken 
 off all pursuit. When my time comes, and I have 
 laid my detractors low at my feet, I will take you 
 out into the world again in our own character and 
 class. I'll give you up now to no one, and, if 
 forced, only with my life and yours." 
 
 Bronzewing shuddered, and in terrible straits of 
 bodily terror gasped helplesslv as she stared in 
 horror at him, unable to articulate. She was in 
 the power of a man who knew no mercy, no self- 
 restraint.
 
 A TERROR OF THE BUSH 249 
 
 When I lied to you about shooting my cousin, 
 I did it with a purpose," he went on, sarcastically. 
 "I knew it would bind you hand and foot to be my 
 slave. Nothing can part us now but Death." 
 
 A pair of squatter pigeons rose in the scrub 
 somewhere near, and one clap of their beating 
 wings seemed to be rather louder than the others. 
 Bronzewing's savage captor rose convulsively with 
 a sudden start to his knees from the half recumbent 
 attitude he occupied against her, and then sank 
 suddenly down sideways, with passionate hands 
 clasped over his head, which was turned away 
 from her in his unaccountable change of position. 
 He remained still and silent. 
 
 Through the mercy of Heaven, the girl fainted 
 dead away again, and lay once more oblivious to 
 all the outer world. 
 
 For a second time in her life she had been saved 
 as by - a miracle, and knew not how it was done, 
 nor what was the matter with her abductor. She 
 must have lain unconscious where she was for a 
 long time, but when she came to herself again 
 there was no trace of the man she had seen beside 
 her in those moments of paralyzed agony. It was 
 night ; she heard the mopoke calling, and the stars 
 shone here and there like points of white fire 
 through the openings and sides of the timbered 
 fastnesses around her. She found a full fire of 
 new logs, and by it half of a cooked wallaby, 
 together with a pint-pot of tea and a cold Johnny 
 cake placed on a piece of clean, fresh-stripped 
 inner bark. 
 
 She fortified nature first, wondering who had 
 prepared the meal, and greatly fearing Bygrave's 
 re-appearance; then, child of the bush as she was,
 
 250 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 slept or swooned till daylight, when, hearing her 
 horse close by, she remounted thankfully, and rode 
 the tracks of the previous day back, until she found 
 all her party in similar careful pursuit of those 
 same indications of her yesterday's trail, and then 
 she fainted again. 
 
 When their tender care had brought her round 
 once more, and she recognised that she was safe 
 with those who were nearer and dearer to her than 
 ever, Conroy said anxiously : 
 
 "Bronzewing, my darling, was it 'The Priest' ?" 
 
 "No, it was my enemy, the arch-enemy of us 
 all," she said, trembling all over, "and I fear he 
 is not dead, but gone away again to trouble us 
 further. We shall never be safe when he is about. 
 Oh, what shall we do ? He is relentless, merci- 
 less." 
 
 "Tell me, you have suffered no harm at his 
 hands," Conroy furiously exclaimed, fearing 
 greatly at her words. "He did not hurt or injure 
 you? Oh, Bronzewing, tell me, tell me!" 
 
 "He did not injure me in any way," she 
 answered, mournfully, "but I fear he can never be 
 exorcised from our lives. He is a demon of 
 wickedness." 
 
 In her dreadful excitement she had seen nothing, 
 heard nothing, understood nothing, but the fact 
 that Bygrave, in the guise of a savage, had whirled 
 her away, and, with his arms around her, had 
 pleaded his cause afterwards, until he sank beside 
 her. 
 
 On hearing this, Bethune, Roddy and Hearts- 
 ease pressed on. They were all armed, and Conroy 
 and Bronzewing rode slowly homewards together. 
 
 "I am frightened," she said, "because of the
 
 A TERROR OF THE BUSH 251 
 
 unhallowed and deadly mystery of this man and 
 his constant disappearances and changes. And 
 now, my dear boy, sick of his persecution, I am 
 going to act so as to lead you to an inheritance 
 that should be yours by right, one that I have kept 
 for you. But when I give myself up, I may be 
 lost to you." 
 
 She described to him the whole late abduction, 
 how her captor had fallen apparently senseless or 
 in a fit close beside her, how he had vanished 
 again like a spirit before she recovered, how he 
 had prepared a meal for her which, famished and 
 terrified as she had been, she had partaken of in 
 the one hope of escaping, how she fainted or slept 
 again, and how she found her horse and got free 
 at last. 
 
 "I have hesitated to act before about this 
 inheritance of yours," she went on, alluding to 
 her giving up the secret that had jarred on her so 
 long, "but now we really seem to belong to each 
 other I can procrastinate no longer. I have so 
 much to face, so much to dare yet, to make my 
 way, and yours, sure and if that is indeed possible 
 we must leave this at once and go down to Brangal, 
 so that I can face the shame and sorrow of it all. 
 
 "I shall have to fight against doubt, suspicion, 
 and all sorts of pain and misgivings. Our way is 
 dark, and I cannot yet see the end of it ; but I must 
 bear it, and so must you. This last outrage is 
 more than I can stand, and until that man is taken, 
 living or dead, we cannot be married, as you 
 already know." 
 
 Conroy was amazed and alarmed, but she told 
 him to trust her. Then she, making no half- 
 confidences of her whole story, for the first time in
 
 252 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 her life told him all about "Kangaroo" Austen 
 and the gold mine, to wKich relation he listened in 
 blank reflection, for it gave him some clue to her 
 behaviour of late. Just then the others came back, 
 having found no trace of anyone but the burnt- 
 out camp fire, from which even the pint pot had 
 gone. 
 
 "That incarnate devil is abroad still," Bethune 
 said, "but it is a strange thing that he has left no 
 tracks whatever, and I cannot understand that part 
 of it." 
 
 Next morning they all departed down country 
 for Brangal, Bethune taking even his sheep from 
 his new selection, and thinking a little more 
 judgmatically about this one vanishing bush- 
 ranging fiend than he had done yet of others of 
 his kidney. None of them cared to stay there, as 
 things were at present.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 THE COURT OF HALF EVIDENCE 
 
 "ON Miss Delamayne's evidence, ladies and gentle- 
 men," Aaron Levinstein, J.P., said, at the Barilla 
 Court House on the day of the great inquiry, 
 "there is no proof that the Bygrave we knew here 
 is dead, after all. I haf no great pelief in spooks, 
 but all I haf to say that her affidavit on the behalf 
 of something supernatural connected with this man 
 is quite beyond the marvellous altogether, and 
 almost shows him to be in league mit der teufel. 
 I must say I haf long suspected it ; and if it is all 
 true, what if I may haf to change my opinion that 
 a man cannot disappear like a ghost, as id is nod 
 the first time he has done so and turned up again. 
 I haf seen him tame a wild horse, a regular man- 
 eater, that no one about would have tackled as he 
 did. How he did it I could never tell. I called 
 that supernatural, and my only sorrow is that I 
 have not been introduced to him before he took to 
 such wild and terrifying courses." 
 
 There was an uneasy look from several people 
 amongst the crowds in the court, and here and 
 there some of them seemed to be bursting with 
 suppressed evidence. Everyone who had come 
 across Bygrave at any part of his career had been 
 summoned, on the strength of that knowledge, and 
 Bronzewing had been subjected to a searching
 
 254 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 cross-examination that had shown her life right 
 through in all its goodness, and as well as the 
 Court being with her in sympathy, small phases 
 of questioning had told in her favour. Her evi- 
 dence disclosed that, being persecuted, she had 
 destroyed the "Rest," and had run away and con- 
 cealed herself, and so far led up to the fact that she 
 had seen Bygrave quite lately, apparently helpless 
 after his last outrage, but after that neither herself 
 nor any of her party had seen him. No one knew 
 what had become of him. And Conroy had given 
 evidence that he had seen him in a fit, and he had 
 been identified as "The Priest," the scourge and 
 terror of many districts. 
 
 Bronzewing's lawyer, a clever Queen's Counsel 
 from Brisbane, though on tenterhooks of purpose 
 through all this, could not disclose the secret of the 
 mine he was aware of from his client until the pro- 
 per time came, and took a fresh line of interest for 
 his audience and the Court, on the very supersti- 
 tion lurking amongst the hearers concerning 
 Bygrave. Acting on Levinstein's lead, he went 
 further with it. 
 
 "He may have escaped and left no trace," the 
 Q.C. said. " It is done every day a man is left 
 for dead and disappears. He may turn up again 
 materially enough for us all, and therefore we 
 ought to be prepared to protect Miss Delamayne 
 more thoroughly than has been done. He must 
 have got clean away." 
 
 "Not with bushmen about," broke in Bethune, 
 stubbornly. "There were no tracks. It is only 
 another proof of the supernatural. There's some- 
 thing uncanny about him, no doubt, and though I 
 have never believed in anything of this sort before
 
 THE COURT OF HALF EVIDENCE 255 
 
 in any particular man, I rather incline to it now in 
 him." 
 
 " Do you believe in legerdemain or, shall we say, 
 athleticism, Mr. Bethune?" Bronzewing's lawyer 
 asked. "A deception can be practised with it. 
 Personally, as a cause for an effect, in this case I 
 do. A bound, a spring, a Catherine wheel of his 
 hands, if the man were an athlete, would have 
 removed him, or landed him on a rock or a log 
 when the lady was in a heavy swoon, without leav- 
 ing indicative tracks. Then he could have gone 
 from tree to tree. But who prepared the lady's 
 supper for her ? Were there no tracks then ? I 
 believe the man is mad at times. Only a madman 
 would have done, or perhaps acted, as he did then." 
 
 " No man could have got away without detec- 
 tion," said Bethune, at once defiant. His credit 
 as a bushman was at fault, and he did not like it. 
 
 "He was imitating a black fellow," Counsel re- 
 plied, "and almost had the knowledge of one, by 
 all accounts. The police should use extra vigil- 
 ance in this case, and work as if they were after 
 one." 
 
 "There were no tracks, nothing, no sign of the 
 body being moved even if he was dead. He must 
 have flown away," Bethune argued. 
 
 "Did you ever see him, Mr. Bethune?" 
 
 "Never, sir, neither dead nor alive." 
 
 "Well, you can sit down now. I recall my pre- 
 vious witness." 
 
 When Bronzewing had again taken her place in 
 the box he asked her with grave deference : 
 
 "What sort of influence had the man over you, 
 Miss Delamayne?" 
 
 "Well, he always frightened me, or I was other-
 
 256 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 wise unaccountably terrified in his presence. Once, 
 just before he seized upon Mr. Conroy and carried 
 him off, my parrakeet spoke to me about him. I 
 thought he had an evil influence, and that my bird 
 had warned me." 
 
 There was an uneasy murmur all round the 
 Court, and several nodding heads appeared among 
 the audience, as if they were prepared to back this 
 assertion to the full. 
 
 "What did the bird say?" The Counsel paused 
 for her reply, but a look of distress in his client's 
 eye showed him he was on dangerous ground for 
 their case. "Miss Delamayne is overwrought," he 
 said, warmly ; " I ask your permission to let her 
 retire just now. She has been on her feet all the 
 morning, your worship," he added to Aaron 
 Levinstein. 
 
 "Certainly, Mr. Hastings. We are all sorry for 
 Miss Delamayne, and would do anything for her." 
 
 "What did the bird say?" shot in the Counsel 
 for the police, not to be done. " I shall have other 
 evidence to call if this question is not answered 
 correctly, and I must put it." 
 
 Aaron Levinstein was obliged to allow this ques- 
 tion to be pressed, but his brother Levi left the 
 Court suddenly, apparently having forgotten some- 
 thing." 
 
 "I cannot tell you," she said, firmly, with a look 
 of defiance at the opposing Counsel, "but I will 
 confess to this, that I shot ' Kangaroo ' Austen 
 myself in self-defence, and that accounts for his 
 disappearance. Mr. Bygrave saw me do so, and 
 on that showing has persecuted me ever since." 
 
 There was an enormous sensation in Court, in 
 the midst of which :
 
 THE COURT OF HALF EVIDENCE 257 
 
 "Then you are my prisoner," ejaculated the Ser- 
 geant of Police at Barilla, briskly stepping forward. 
 
 "Stop a moment, my friend," Hastings Q.C., 
 interposed; "that must be proved. Someone else 
 shot him, I believe. Cases that baffle the police 
 must give way to magisterial decision and full 
 examination of important witnesses. I will find 
 any amount of bail for my fair client, and I may 
 state that if she shot Austen, he deserved it, in the 
 first place, as it was done in self-defence. His 
 body must be found. My client has yet to speak." 
 
 Bronzewing then calmly and clearly gave all 
 details of Austen's death to an amazed audience. 
 
 A murmur of applause rose in the Court as the 
 Sergeant stepped down on her conclusion, for he 
 had been standing on the step of the dock during 
 her recital. 
 
 "I don't wonder at her being so afraid of 
 Bygrave," Conroy said, standing up. "I've had a 
 similar experience, not only of his fell personality, 
 but in a similarly alarming way besides. When I 
 was in his company, tied to the saddle, my horse, 
 or rather his horse that I was riding, spoke quite 
 plainly to me. It was when it was neighing." 
 
 A roar of laughter broke in at Conroy's declara- 
 tion. 
 
 "What did it say?" asked the Counsel for the 
 police. 
 
 Conroy coloured up and refused to answer. 
 
 " And mine shied when he wanted it to shy, and 
 snorted words at me," declared the horse-dealer 
 Thompson, jumping up in his turn. 
 
 "This is very extraordinary," said Mr. Hastings, 
 Q.C. "It is very plain that all people connected 
 with this absconder and bushranger have been
 
 258 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 affected in a very remarkable way by something 
 happening to them we cannot, and they cannot, 
 understand, and if a lady's impression of a certain 
 meeting with him is so delicate that she cannot 
 utter the words spoken by a bird, it must surely 
 show that the man is possessed of some extra 
 power which really makes him seem to be in league 
 with the devil himself." 
 
 " I thought it was God speaking to me through 
 the bird," said Bronzewing, simply, "and warning 
 me of him. But I cannot say wnat I heard from 
 it. It would be impossible just now." 
 
 And so with every other witness, strange to say, 
 not one of them would state exactly what was said 
 to them in Court, or anywhere else, on any consi- 
 deration whatever. Neither pains nor penalties 
 affrighted them, or had the power to move them 
 to make a declaration, and harassed police and 
 Counsel were unable to shake the determination of 
 any one of those principally concerned, until the 
 horse-dealer at last, in partial confession, admitted 
 that when his horse threw him, it first gave him full 
 warning, before declaring something else, and he 
 frankly said that he was always afraid of the man 
 Bygrave's personality whenever he was near him, 
 and never more so than after this incident. So 
 the mystery deepened. 
 
 Now what was to be done with such a case as 
 this, with such people? Nothing remained but to 
 probe for ocular evidence from the outset of 
 matters, so Franks commenced to throw r open the 
 Safeguard gully rift as a preliminary. 
 
 There at the bottom, when the effects of the old 
 explosion had been cleared away by gangs of work- 
 men, lay the mouldered skeleton of "Kangaroo"
 
 THE COURT OF HALF EVIDENCE 259 
 
 Austen, with a bullet wound in its skull, just over 
 the left eye-socket. 
 
 Bronzewing's revolver lay uncharged and rusted 
 where it had fallen from her hand, and the car- 
 tridges belonging to it were in the pockets of the 
 clothes and alongside the corpse that was rotted 
 and decomposed, as corpse and clothes might have 
 been expected to be. There was no evidence at all 
 against Bronzewing on this showing, as it was 
 proved that a rifle bullet of a larger bore than that 
 of her pistol had killed Austen, and the mine, on 
 being re-opened, also, to the further amazement of 
 the district, held an invitation for shareholders to 
 invest, the only full and consistent declaration 
 about the matter, and perfectly within the limits of 
 the law, to the full community. 
 
 But who had shot Austen ? That was the main 
 point. 
 
 In the absence of the man who had harried the 
 district, and elsewhere, in different characters, and 
 Bronzewing's further evidence, Levi Levinstein 
 was taken up upon suspicion, simply because he 
 had left Court with a countenance that suggested a 
 guilty conscience, and was arrested by the Sergeant 
 in a parlous state of mind. But Bronzewing's new 
 and powerful influence among the people got him 
 off after a night's incarceration, and inhabitants 
 settled down to the vivid excitement of gold shares 
 all round the district with remarkable avidity, all, 
 however, with an eye to Bygrave's return. The 
 rightful heir was installed in his father's house, and 
 crushing and refining works began rapidly to re- 
 place Austen Conroy's old herbariums, and other 
 buildings. 
 
 Then there was a new sensation just at the time
 
 260 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 when Austen Bygrave's mysterious and unhallowed 
 reputation was at its height. The district univer- 
 sally acknowledging now that if he was not a sort 
 of demi-god, he was a man of extraordinary power 
 and strength of will, discovered that he had never 
 actually committed a murder, that he had the heart 
 of a man, a certain extra latitude being allowed for 
 his escapades, even as the rich, eccentric squatter, 
 the hard and wonderful rider, the daring bush- 
 ranger who had only ventured violence because of 
 a love affair, and had led the police completely 
 astray by his wonderful bushmanship until his last 
 magic disappearance. All these were qualities 
 talked into being not quite despicable. So as 
 Austen Bygrave only he became favourably rein- 
 carnated in the public fancy, and if they had neither 
 been able to prove nor disprove his death, perhaps 
 he would turn up again some day and not be unwel- 
 come. Such softening influence has distance, not 
 presence, upon people's imagination. The popu- 
 lace expecting the resurrection, however, still had 
 impressions and reactions, and when one day a 
 sudden motor-car turned up at Brangal Downs 
 Mines, with two persons in it, onlookers generally 
 suspected that the chauffeur was Bygrave himself 
 in another disguise, and promptly, with menacing 
 gestures and ready weapons, without any refer- 
 erence to their talked-out opinions, assumed the 
 offensive. Bethune himself prepared to immolate 
 the man at the wheel on the spot with a crowbar, 
 because he had left no tracks behind him, only to 
 discover that the suspected chauffeur was really a 
 mild-looking man when he removed his goggles 
 and cap and collars ; and all bystanders were more 
 astonished still to be told by Bygrave's solicitor,
 
 THE COURT OF HALF EVIDENCE 261 
 
 his companion, that Conroy was the next sought 
 heir to the Austen estates in England. 
 
 But Conroy stated, on hearing this, that he 
 didn't want them. No one would get him out of 
 Australia until the mystery about Bygrave had 
 been cleared up, as he still believed in his return. 
 But his solicitor knowing nothing about him, and 
 being disgusted with the way that the Austen 
 money had worked round to him, he cared less and 
 less for his chances of it, because he had all he 
 wanted without it, except his right arm, and as 
 Bronzewing supplied the want of that until his 
 marriage which was still postponed by his 
 fiancee's wishes, backed up by his own ideas 
 having feasted the family solicitor, he told him 
 he could put the estates into Chancery, and sent 
 him off entirely nonplussed back to Brisbane again, 
 Bethune's last words ringing in his ears and those 
 of his chauffeur, despite their enveloping habili- 
 ments : " Until Tariff Reform comes in, sir, Eng- 
 land's no country for anyone to live in. Any 
 estates, even those rebought from their former and 
 legal owners out of the dumped goods of foreign 
 countries, would be an incumbrance to their pos- 
 sessors, and you may keep 'em for all we care. 
 When any of us are bankrupts here or turn Social- 
 ists, we'll go, but not before." 
 
 But for a change of sight and sound different 
 from the roar of the furnaces in the blacksmiths' 
 shops and engine works of the great Brangal 
 Mines, the young couples still decided to have a 
 jaunt in company under strong escort to where 
 they had taken the dairy farm under their former 
 affliction, and where again opals, being buried 
 until their own decree came to work them, afforded
 
 262 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 pleasurable speculation. But no word came of 
 Bygrave, or "The Priest" either, good, bad, or in- 
 different. Only the memory of one strong, deter- 
 mined man was left, and that alone shook up some 
 individuals pretty considerably even yet.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 CONROY'S HAVEN 
 
 IT came to pass that Levi Levinstein, now a large 
 shareholder in the great Brangal Mines, was asked 
 for a summer jaunt to the Arcadia the friends were 
 forming in the interior, and, though most of them 
 were now resting in at the new bungalows at Con- 
 roy's old camp, which was just clear of the opal 
 mines, McLeod, who happened to be in a wander- 
 ing mood, was out shooting beyond Roddyston, 
 as this new settlement was called, with Levi, and 
 the pair had just sat down on the first plateau bank 
 of one of the conical hills below Roddy McGregor's 
 old base camp, where they were in solitude. They 
 were talking of Bronzewing's abduction, and pre- 
 sently McLeod averred : 
 
 "Now that many people in the Barilla district 
 have shares in the Brangal mines, and up here too, 
 and they are both solid and paying assets, I'll no' 
 deny that Conroy's Cave and the neighbourhood 
 of it is a pretty decent sort of bungalow residential 
 property suitable at this juncture for a pair of 
 friends such as we are, Levi, to discuss matters; 
 but I'll never be easy until I have discovered how 
 that devil Bygrave disappeared. There's not the 
 slightest clue to his disappearance. It has baffled 
 the police and baffled all of us, and as my dear 
 young mistress won't marry her lad until it all
 
 264 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 comes right by proved evidence, I vote we have a 
 try to find it out for ourselves. Let's get on to the 
 very spot he vanished at and see if we can discover 
 anything." 
 
 "How did you like being arrested over all the 
 upshot of it, and your night in chokey as one of 
 the consequences ? That should make you try to 
 help me, anyway," he went on, surveying his com- 
 panion's gorgeousness, even to his ornamental and 
 tasselled powder-horn. Levi used to shoot, in 
 spite of remonstrances, to the oft-time alarms and 
 dismays of his friends, as he was about as unskil- 
 ful with a gun as he had proved himself to be with 
 a stockwhip. 
 
 As McLeod's interrogation was finished, a kan- 
 garoo coughed in the long grass below them. 
 
 " Perhaps it's that uneasy demoniac come to life 
 again, eh, mon ?" suggested McLeod, alert on the 
 instant with his Winchester at the ready. "Losh, 
 mon, suppose he should take the form or guise 
 of a big old-man kangaroo ! for that's what it 
 was." 
 
 "Look here," retorted Levi, for the moment in 
 such trepidation that he nearly shot his stalwart 
 friend dead, "the mention of that Bygrave man or 
 his cousin brings sad and terrifying thoughts to 
 me, more than to any other individual, I really 
 believe, for it connects me with Austen and all der 
 worry of his disappearance. Now I'd have you 
 know that der arrest to me did goot. Between 
 man and man I dell to you der trut'. I was in a 
 way deserving of dat chokey. You do not know 
 my story? Veil, I will dell it. 
 
 "Austen he komm to Prangal Towns von day 
 ven I was mit him, and then it pelonged to Levin-
 
 CONROY'S HAVEN 265 
 
 stein Brothers. Id vas a long time before he vas 
 disappear afdervarts, and I expect he forgot all 
 about it, put I did not know, only thought he 
 might remember. He dell me there vas gold indi- 
 cation in der hills between der ' Rest ' and 
 Prangal Towns himselfs. I say nodings to him, 
 only pooh-pooh at it, and so ve komm avay. But 
 one day I go dere myself and look, and I find one 
 liddel bit of kvartz as big as my thumb-nail, mit 
 ore all through it, but ore of a very brassy look 
 which put me off to think it vas only pyrites, but 
 which I know now is gold-copper in an oxidized 
 state, since I am a shareholder and haf gone to der 
 roots of der matter, and der mine as veil. Id vas 
 very rich. 
 
 " I see a very yellow gankaroo at the same dime 
 hop like I do." He imitated the motion. 
 
 "Der jomp of dot gankaroo fix himselfs in my 
 memory, mein son, and ven Miss Bronzewing, 
 whom we all admire so much, flout me one day in 
 mein store apout der brice of a frying-pan, I say 
 to mine selfs : ' Look here, my lady, I vill to you 
 'ave some revenges.' 
 
 " I write to Austen about dot gankaroo, dot jomp 
 like I do. I say the skin is of a golden tint, and 
 he see der gonglusion, and go and get shod for 
 what I thought was really pyrites. Id was all 
 mein vault. 
 
 "Now Miss Delamayne, she did not shood him. 
 Who did, when it vas not me for being pud in 
 arrest? And if it was nod Pygrave, who vas it? 
 Pygrave had no rifle on dat day. That was proven 
 at der inquest on his cousin's remains." 
 
 At this moment a strong ray of light flashed in 
 their eyes from the hills opposite the old base
 
 266 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 camp, but nearer Conroy's Cave than their pre* 
 sent situation. 
 
 "What's that?" cried McLeod, this time really 
 perplexed, and thinking he might have been 
 caught in his own chaff-bag. He started to his 
 feet as the old eerie feeling of superstition and un- 
 easiness about Bygrave crept over him. " It really 
 may be that devil Bygrave, after all, and I believe 
 he shot his cousin himself just to get rid of him 
 and inherit the family estates, as everybody else 
 believes by this time, proof or no proof. There 
 it is again, but we'll be doing nothing by just 
 standing still. Let's go and see what is causing 
 it." 
 
 After considerable exertion in scrambling up 
 between steep cliffs, they got to the spot on the 
 opposite plateau where they had seen the flash of 
 light, but, despite all their search, valour, and 
 brandishing of weapons, they found nothing. 
 
 "It's Bygrave right enough," McLeod declared 
 with emphasis, still more uneasy. " Now, it's no 
 good frightening the ladies, Levi, up at the bun- 
 galows. Let you and I keep this discovery to 
 ourselves. We're men enough to tackle him if he 
 doesn't take us unawares, and the others are too 
 occupied with their own affairs to help us. I'll 
 not have that plucky young sweetheart of Conroy's 
 put about by any more ghost talk of the man. 
 She's had enough trouble with him, and the past 
 as it is." 
 
 The two men strode onward, and at length 
 reached Conroy's Cave, now only a dramatic monu- 
 ment in a far-off corner of a big garden enclosure, 
 where imported trees were planted, and cunningly 
 mingled with the native ones.
 
 CONROY'S HAVEN 267 
 
 At length they reached, in the middle of large 
 cleared and planted spaces, one of the two elegant 
 bungalows built in a style the great riches of 
 Brangal permitted, where, in a broad and shady 
 verandah Bronzewing Delamayne, Conroy, Hearts- 
 ease Bethune, and Roddy McGregor were now 
 seated. 
 
 Doughboy's child, dressed in European fashion, 
 was running about here and there on an open, 
 grassed patch of ground, and seemed to have won 
 the hearts of the company. 
 
 "He's a smart little nigger," said Conroy. "See 
 here, he's brought me a small flying squirrel and 
 three geckoes. He caught the flying squirrel last 
 night, and kept it in a perforated box. I told him 
 to get me a kangaroo mouse, but he don't know 
 them, although there are plenty about Brangal." 
 
 " Not in the same quantity like in the old days, 
 though, even there," McLeod struck in. "But if 
 he got you a bush rat here it would do just as well. 
 It's quite as pretty an animal in its way, though 
 not perhaps so curious." 
 
 "Here, Doughboy junior !" Roddy cried, "leave 
 digging for that yam root in a garden flower-bed 
 and come here. Don't you know you're supposed 
 to be a white boy now ?" 
 
 "Yes, Massa Roddy," babbled the little fellow, 
 beaming all over his chubby cheeks and nodding 
 in a bright ripple of smiles and satisfaction at his 
 own cleverness. "Me give woot to Heartsease. I 
 put him in the bed to dig up when I wanted him." 
 
 "Thank you, Dodo," replied Miss Bethune. 
 
 "Eat him up," said the little fellow, dancing and 
 grimacing with delight. "That one sweet like 
 Kismas nut."
 
 268 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "He means Brazilian, and remembers our festi- 
 vities at Brangal Downs after the opening of the 
 mines," Heartsease said. "He's getting on. 
 You'll be a big man some day, Dodo." 
 
 "Well, I was considering," said McLeod, 
 " Brangal was a lovely country in the old days, 
 from the gap in the ranges your father got lost in, 
 Conroy, aye, right down to the river and Barilla. 
 Talk of kangaroo mice, do you ever see butterfly 
 quail now, or the swarms of ducks in the river 
 I used to see? One man couldn't hear another 
 shouting quite near him when they got up. As 
 for turtle, and fresh-water cod ! 
 
 "Oh, stow it, McLeod," Conroy said. "There's 
 enough row there with machinery and men without 
 the quacking of ducks now. You weren't over 
 civil to me once, so I'm bound to extinguish you 
 sometimes in return." 
 
 "You wouldn't get an ounce of civility out of 
 me but for Miss Delamayne's sake," the Scotsman 
 returned, "and but from the fact that ye're worth 
 more than a dizzen or twa bawbees now, I wouldn't 
 hold you in any higher esteem that I did then. 
 But did ye ever see the butterfly quail, even after 
 ye missed my buggy tracks?" 
 
 " No, but there are lots of squatter pigeons about 
 here, and I like to get away to this place after the 
 racket at Brangal. Roddy and I used to live on 
 them at times. Eight went to a stew, and with 
 some of the potato lily and a herb or two I could 
 get, they were very passable eating. I have learned 
 something, McLeod. We're tired of your old times 
 and old mines just at present ; that's why we're 
 here, and we're going to stay here. Don't you 
 wish you had foreclosed on Brangal now, Levi?"
 
 CONROY'S HAVEN 269 
 
 " I would sooner 'ave 'ad the person who stopped 
 dot foreclosure, and brought fortune to us all," 
 Levi said, with his hands on his heart, as he turned 
 to her. " Pud to you, my tear Miss Delamayne, 
 pelong all der abologies in my zystems besides. 
 I have concerning myselfs and my gonduct been 
 confessing to McLeod." 
 
 " Let me get you all an iced brandy-and-soda 
 apiece, or a John Collins, stone-fences or cock- 
 tails," she said, and ran off. 
 
 " Bud what did those lights we saw mean ?" Levi 
 thought. " I shall never sleep quite sound until 
 that man Pygrave is proved to be resting in a 
 sounder sleep than I shall be getting. Dese 
 jokers seem to have forgotten him altogether." 
 
 Conroy's retreat was gay with flowers, and 
 McLeod had got a couple of artesian bores down 
 which supplied ample water all day and all night, 
 and ran away also to supply the main creek and 
 irrigate all the plain, if required. 
 
 "Conroy's Haven would have been a better 
 name for our dwellings and the big town there is 
 to be," Heartsease Bethune exclaimed. "Cave 
 sounds somewhat hollow like your old general 
 fallacies. Don't you think so, Jim?" 
 
 " I accept the new naming with thanks, but how 
 many have I left of the old failings?" he asked, in 
 the old breathless fashion. 
 
 "One is that you don't love me just as much as 
 ever," she flashed, impetuously. 
 
 He caught her by the wrist, smiling into her 
 eyes. 
 ' "Or that 7 don't love you better." 
 
 "Do you?" he asked, his heart in his voice. 
 
 "Of course! How could you doubt it? But
 
 270 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 what news have you ? Is it an end to all our sus- 
 pense ?" 
 
 "Ask Bronzewing," he said, as she appeared 
 with a large silver salver, ice, and various foaming 
 and sparkling mixtures in long, frosted tumblers, 
 which the sportsmen imbibed, as well as all the 
 others. 
 
 " Miss Delamayne, Jim has been confessing love 
 with Heartsease, or rather she has to him. Do you 
 permit it? Roddy asked. 
 
 "It would be no use my objecting, that I can 
 see. They always did it, and always will do it. I 
 am no buffer to their sentiments, absent or present. 
 It seems to do them good, and perhaps Jim finds 
 her a sort of compensation for the loss of his arm 
 when I'm not near him." She gave him a sly 
 smile. 
 
 "Suppose we have a game of nap?" McLeod 
 suggested. 
 
 "Yes," Bronzewing agreed. "Go and get the 
 card-tables if you are bound to distinguish your- 
 self in any other way than that of babbling about 
 love-making." 
 
 "I should have thought Mr. Conroy was more 
 a man of the vorldt now, Miss Delamayne," said 
 Levi, "than to go back to his preakings ins." He 
 could not forego this rather spiteful allusion. 
 
 "Levi, I'll spiflicate ye!" roared McLeod. 
 "Take care I don't let on about what you told me 
 of vourself." 
 
 But Levi, though abashed, had his own affair 
 not yet made public, and, like the parrot, thought 
 more of it, and about a suit he had had made to 
 celebrate it with than about other people, and con- 
 sequently was uplifted with pride. He still was
 
 CONROY'S HAVEN 271 
 
 awkward about bush matters, but burned to dis- 
 tinguish himself generally. His company taught 
 him that, and although he was a great source of 
 amusement to them, he was apt still to make mis- 
 takes. On the face of what Miss Delamayne had 
 said, which he put down to the possibility of his 
 distinguishing himself, he had been in a horribly 
 nervous state of mind about Bygrave, until the 
 memory of his new suit struck him. Then he 
 determined to shine out more conspicuously than 
 ever on his discovery of the flashing lights because 
 of a damsel who was not present, as well as to gain 
 credit with Miss Delamayne, from his superior 
 bearing.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 LEVI AGAIN 
 
 FULL of this new notion, he sprang out of his 
 luxurious couch next morning very early, had a 
 refreshing dip in Conroy's well-appointed bath- 
 room, and finally set out to seek for squatter 
 pigeons, fired by the talk of the previous evening, 
 and his last idea of capturing Bygrave himself. 
 
 He hadn't gone far before a large bird flew up 
 off the ground into a tree overhead, and he, taking 
 a hasty aim, managed to secure it, before it flew 
 away again. Its proximity delivered it in a rather 
 unkempt condition into his enraptured hands, 
 minus a liberal amount of skin and feathers. 
 
 " Ein !" he exclaimed joyfully, " it shall be der 
 squatter bigeon pird I haf peen after so long." 
 Then he shot a brown snake, and marched along 
 towards the flat-topped mountains. 
 
 None of the community of the settlement was 
 about yet, and he had heard no one stirring about 
 the bungalows when he left, and, still more intent 
 upon his purpose of valour than yesterday, he saw 
 Roddy McGregor coming down a gorge in the hills 
 some distance off, to be joined at the base by Miss 
 Delamayne. From where Levi was in a hollow 
 surrounded by rocks, which led right up to the 
 pair, he was able to stalk them and, getting into a 
 position where he could see them without being
 
 LEVI AGAIN 273 
 
 seen, he narrowly watched their movements. 
 Creeping closer, he was able to overhear such 
 scraps of conversation as : 
 
 " He is dying, poor fellow. We mustn't let 
 everybody know it just yet. I trust you entirely, 
 Roddy." 
 
 To which speech Levi gave his own interpreta- 
 tion an interpretation that scared him immensely. 
 
 "It is Bygrave they are dalking of," ran his 
 thoughts, "and he must be up there on the hills 
 somewhere out of sight. I do nod think this shod 
 gun very goot pusiness just now, so I vill vait 
 behind my rock undil they go back to the houses. 
 Berhaps I had bedder to my dale of the squatter 
 bigeon pirds stick." 
 
 He did not go any further now, for, having a 
 wholesome horror of the curious occasional flash- 
 ing light seen yesterday, and McLeod's hints, he 
 therefore saw the participants of his new secret 
 well on their way back to the bungalows before he 
 followed them at a distance, looking shudderingly 
 over his shoulders every now and then until, be- 
 coming more himself, and assuming an air of 
 bravado as he got nearer home, he dashed sud- 
 denly into a large, bright room where they were all 
 at breakfast and, to their joint alarm and merri- 
 ment, stood just inside the door brandishing his 
 fowling-piece and waving the relics of his sport. 
 
 "Losh, man," exclaimed McLeod, irritably, 
 "ye've spoiled the taste of ma black duck. Tak' 
 awa' the gun, mon, tak' away the gun. Conroy, 
 put him outside till he learns better manners than 
 bringing firearms into a respectable family 
 gathering." 
 
 "I haf a squadder bigeon pird shooded!" Levi 
 
 s
 
 274 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 exclaimed, still dancing in the doorway, "und I 
 haf shooded a snake, but left him the ants to fatten 
 mid. And, to der best of my pelief, I have found 
 Pygrave." 
 
 "Sakes alive," McLeod observed, "ye must have 
 been pretty close to the first of them. Whaur's 
 his feathers, ye galoot? Chase the gouk!" he 
 roared, jumping up to put his friend outside. "Ha, 
 ha, ha ! it's a Johnny, indeed, once upon a time a 
 kookaburra! Ye've shot a sacred thing, Levi. 
 Ye've committed sacrilege against all the sporting 
 laws of the bush, once, twice, three times, ye 
 trebly-distilled scops-eared owl. And don't you 
 talk about Bygrave till I tell you. I've learned 
 something you don't know of since you got out of 
 bed this morning," he added as he got him to the 
 door. 
 
 A subdued murmur of uneasiness from one or 
 two there ran round the room, until Conroy said it 
 would be proved shortly that Bygrave was really 
 dead, and that there was no more danger to be 
 apprehended by any of them. 
 
 With which Levi had to be content, but, being 
 hungry, he went to put away his gun, wash his 
 hands, take his featherless and shattered specimen 
 away from offended eyes, and hurry back. 
 
 Almost directly he was outside, there was a loud 
 report, and an acute if feeble cry of anguish and 
 horror. 
 
 "The fule's shot himself deid, the noo!" cried 
 McLeod, flinging down his knife and fork, and 
 rushing out, followed by the entire party, to find 
 Levi quaking providentially in the verandah, hav- 
 ing blown a pot of flowers on a frame all to
 
 LEVI AGAIN 275 
 
 smithereens, and spotted the walls with a liberal 
 supply of No. 5 shot. 
 
 " Der triccker got entangled mit der dassels on 
 my camepag," the alarmed Teuton murmured. "I 
 vill dose ornamendal dassels gut zem off." 
 
 " Do so, unless you want to finish some of our 
 careers abruptly, or your own," the Scotsman re- 
 marked. "Did you see anything more of the sun- 
 glare lights?" he asked, when he got him alone 
 afterwards after breakfast, measuring a line for a 
 fence. 
 
 "No, but I heard Miss Delamayne dell Roddy 
 that someone was dying, and I thought it must be 
 Bygrave. Berhaps he died after she came back 
 here." 
 
 "Go and bury yourself," the irate Scotsman re- 
 plied, annoyed at his innate foolery and want of 
 judicious wisdom. "You heard what Conroy said. 
 Hold that measuring tape straight and mind your 
 own business in future. I'm going to run the line 
 from the junction of the home enclosure here, and 
 as we do it, we'll have another look round if we 
 can find time, for there's something I don't like 
 about those lights we saw, though they can't have 
 any connection with Bygrave." 
 
 Levi struck an attitude, and forgot his end of the 
 line. 
 
 "What's the callant got hold of the noo?" 
 McLeod mused, seeing Levi thinking over this last 
 communication. "I never got him for ten minutes 
 together in conversation, or saw him working that 
 brain of his, that he didn't fossick out some mare's- 
 nest or other out of the bush to fall foul of. But 
 losh, he's gey entertaining, so I'll just humour 
 him whenever I can to get another rise out of him."
 
 276 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Conroy and Heartsease rode away that morning 
 on a long planned expedition of their own towards 
 the old base camp, talking over old times, and 
 Roddy and Bronzewing left their motor far in the 
 bush from Bygrave's old station on the other side 
 of the Paroo, and disappeared from thence by a 
 faint bridle track, both armed. 
 
 When, an hour later, they stood by the place to 
 which she had been taken by Bygrave, she showed 
 Roddy the exact spot where her captor had rolled 
 over with his hands to his head, and explained the 
 whole matter as far as she was able. She also 
 pointed to the burnt logs of the big fire close to 
 which she was. 
 
 "How long were you senseless, Miss Dela- 
 mayne?" 
 
 "For hours, off and on," she said. "It was far 
 on in the night when I came to myself. After his 
 extraordinary collapse, it was very strange there 
 were no signs of his removal when I looked around 
 me again. He was gone, clean gone." 
 
 "Perhaps we could explain it to Mr. Bethune 
 now, Roddy. But we dare not, eh ? For we are 
 like the witnesses at the great case, tongue-tied as 
 to our own peculiar relations in the matter until a 
 certain mournful event happens. I don't care to 
 give you my impressions from the first part of this 
 affair, but we are quite in accordance about the 
 secrecy of the second, until the proper time." 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Roddy.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 THE MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS 
 
 "JuST there and now," Heartsease Bethune said, 
 at the same time, with the old imperious wave of 
 her hand. "Now, Jim! for your precious exper- 
 ience, your long, long tramp after the elves and 
 fairies and pixies of the bush, with me, the final 
 faithful and deserted one, at the end of it all, the 
 turning-point of both our existences. 
 
 " Our horses are all right, so come to the mono- 
 liths that guard the pass at the edge of the gorge 
 and show me! Lean on me, and I'll help you. I 
 should like to see your start in life as well as 
 Roddy's from its very commencement." 
 
 The inflection of her voice on the pronoun 
 seemed to say that if the old times were gone, they 
 were both a little older, wiser, and richer, and she 
 was still the adviser, the good angel of his life. 
 
 And she pitied him so much now, he was so 
 slight, so careworn-looking, so pulled down by all 
 he had come through, so pitiable fn the seriously 
 maimed condition of his frame, even with all his 
 riches and happy expectations. She gave a little 
 sigh as she thought over it all. 
 
 He went with her obediently. It was a curious 
 parallel that when with her he bowed to her wish 
 as before, when he was her servant, compelled by 
 the weight of her personality. It was mere force
 
 278 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 of habit, mutual attraction and sympathy on his 
 part, a knowledge in each of what lay in the other, 
 and even now engaged in other directions matri- 
 monially, as they both were, no syllogism or 
 sympathy of friendship in their natures had been 
 ever really divided from them since they parted. 
 They were born friends, parted friends, well-met 
 friends, eternal friends ; and each had a part in life 
 even now not taken from the other, to share in. 
 
 "So you went down to those conical hills below 
 us there out on the plain then on to the belar 
 clump over the dividing range on to the War- 
 rego ; yes, I see, past the Kanakas' hut, until you 
 struck the station we passed on the banks of the 
 big river." 
 
 Just then there was an appallingly loud splash 
 about ten yards behind them, and, turning round, 
 they saw Levi, who had fallen about ten feet, from 
 one of the walls of the gorge into a pool of water, 
 a rain reservoir made by Roddy during his stay 
 there. 
 
 They ran towards him. 
 
 He was wet to the hair of his head, of course, 
 and grabbing with both hands at the steep, muddy 
 bank, his gun at the bottom of the pool, and with 
 his hands and countenance smeared and dripping, 
 the latter as red as beetroot from the shame of being 
 seen in such a position. In truth, he was a curious 
 spectacle. In spite of McLeod's advice he had left 
 him, and come on here. 
 
 Conroy being unable to help with his former 
 vigour, necessitated the most of the rescue being 
 done by Heartsease, who was strength personified 
 on this occasion. 
 
 "You are perfectly killing, Levi!" she said,
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS 279 
 
 shaking with merriment as she assisted him to 
 regain terra firma. "What in the name of good- 
 ness were you doing up there, and why did you 
 not give us warning that you were about to become 
 somewhat acrobatic?" 
 
 "I vas vatching somedings else," he replied, 
 "some great danger to us all. Dere vas someone 
 signalling from dose hills over there all der morn- 
 ing. But you gannot see it from dis walled-in 
 ground." 
 
 "Signalling?" asked Conroy. "What for, do 
 you suppose?" 
 
 "Dat vas beyond me. I vas thinking it might 
 be Pygrave up to somedings fresh. So I ran to- 
 wards where I knew you two were, and stop to see 
 again before I dell you. Then I slipped over der 
 cliff into der vorder-'ole as I vas looking." 
 
 Conroy looked amazed. 
 
 The sun had begun to dry Levi now with its 
 warm rays, but some of his colours had run, and 
 his whites were variegates of unhappy mixtures. 
 
 "I told you Bygrave was incapable to harm us 
 now," retorted Conroy, when he could control 
 himself. "You will know all about it by-and-bye 
 if you will only have patience, but I believe if you 
 were to ask Miss Delamayne, she would tell you 
 something about those mysterious lights that would 
 calm you down, and even relieve you from all 
 suspicions, even those cast by others upon yourself 
 heretofore. My opinion of Bygrave is that he long 
 ago met with the fate that follows all unprincipled 
 men." 
 
 "But vot can dose lights be?" muttered Levi, 
 cantankerously, as, all a-drip, he turned away 
 looking very much like an addled egg. "Dat is
 
 280 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 vot I cannod make oud, bud I vill yet haf mine 
 own liddel satisfaction on der events of der past, 
 and dat is somedings to improve mine constitu- 
 tions." 
 
 "And now that we have got so far, my dear 
 Jim," Heartsease said, reading Levi's eyes on the 
 instant, " I suppose we had better follow. What 
 did you allude to? And what is the matter with 
 Bronzewing, and why is she so frequently away 
 with Roddy? Why is he so mysterious lately?" 
 
 "He always was as close as wax. Those two 
 are used to hunting in couples with Franks as go- 
 between, and they are the sleuth-hounds in this 
 case. Did I ever tell you how Franks set Roddy 
 on to find me?" 
 
 " I'll get all your family history in due time," she 
 said, laughingly, now busy with her horse. 
 
 It was some trouble for them both to mount, but 
 she assisted him, getting on from a boulder her- 
 self. 
 
 "You are partly my own property when you are 
 away from Bronzewing without your arm, Jim, 
 aren't you? and we hunted together for a long 
 time, too, in couples. Never forget I trained you, 
 developed you, took an interest in you, and oh ! 
 lost you, the old Jim ! Your poor arm, your 
 strength and grace gone, it almost breaks my 
 heart to think of it." Her eyes were full of 
 tears. 
 
 He reined up with his sole hand and looked at 
 her critically. 
 
 "Heartsease, perhaps in my very troubles I have 
 attained your parting gift to me. I often think so," 
 he said, gravely. " Have I the credit of your good 
 opinion?"
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS 281 
 
 The tears were in her eyes as she assented. Then 
 she broke in : 
 
 "It's destiny, Jim. But, had our ways not been 
 separated you might still have had your arm. All 
 the same, I see what you mean. Riches in adver- 
 sity are sent for plain steering, extra plain steering, 
 with lessons of unselfishness; but I can see the 
 flash from across the plain myself now. What- 
 ever is it? And who is that speaking to Levi just 
 below by the conical hills? A man in a big motor." 
 
 " It must be Franks come up on urgent busi- 
 ness," Conroy replied, cheerfully. "I know 
 Bronzewing expected him. Let's get on." 
 
 " No, stay a little ; Levi will be all the drier when 
 we get to him. I am living in old times yet, and 
 can't forget them. Don't you remember when we 
 took the fences side by side? Wasn't it jolly to 
 get out together when our work was done?" 
 
 "It was the happiest time of my life then," he 
 declared. "But," he said 
 
 "We," she added. 
 
 "Well?" he asked, judicially. 
 
 "Parted to share trouble." 
 
 There *was a short pause. 
 
 "And live it down together," he added, bravely. 
 
 Then she, inquisitive, pressing, asked : 
 
 "Won't you tell me what is the secret with 
 Bronzewing? Do, Jim, and why you can't get 
 married." 
 
 "I cannot," he replied; "at least not just yet. 
 But here we are. It's Franks, and here is Levi, 
 half-dried. Jump on my horse, Levi," he added. 
 "I'm going home with Franks; Heartsease will 
 look after you. 
 
 "How do, Franks?" he went on.
 
 282 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 "Well enough, my son. Jump in. I have 
 brought your father, Heartsease. Take care of 
 Mr. Levinstein. Ta, ta!" And the motor shot 
 off. 
 
 "We've had such fun with Levi, Arthur," 
 Conroy continued during its progress. "Now 
 Heartsease will tune him up a bit, but he deserves 
 a little consolation, poor beggar. 
 
 " He took Bronzewing's pet cat for a 'possum 
 the other night, because it was up in a tree, and 
 would have shot it but for McLeod, who is his bear 
 leader. Just now, working his own way as usual, 
 in spite of warnings from others, and as usual not 
 knowing anything, he fell off a cliff into Roddy's 
 tank and lost his gun, just about the contingency 
 we all hoped for; but no one could suffer from 
 dyspepsia whilst he is about. He keeps us all 
 alive." 
 
 " Why, you are a bigger child than ever, Jim !" 
 
 "Smaller, you mean; and thinner. I'm less by 
 an arm, four digits, and a thumb, and I only love 
 two women in creation. I lose myself, as you 
 please, in comparative childhood with one, and 
 adore the other. That is to say, I live my hale, 
 sound life over again with Heartsease sometimes, 
 and find all subliminal realizations in Bronze- 
 wing." 
 
 "You've come to full manhood early," replied 
 Franks, sorrowfully. " It took me longer than you, 
 my son. But here we are." 
 
 " Gee !" asserted Conroy, not one whit less cheer- 
 ful, as he got out, "your new motor can go! 
 Hullo, Bethune," he said, after he came back with 
 Franks from the garages, "I've been turning over 
 old times again with your daughter."
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS 283 
 
 "As per usual, I suppose," the latter assented, 
 gruffly. "You ought to be used to it by now, you 
 two. Any news about those tracks yet?" 
 
 "That's what we assembled for, wasn't it? Your 
 bushmanship and Roddy's were beaten by a 
 superior hand, I can tell you that much." 
 
 " Impossible !" Bethune declared, wrathfully, 
 "unless it was God Almighty." 
 
 "Through His creature's unhallowed acts, it 
 was," replied Conroy, reverently, removing his 
 Panama hat. "You'll know all about it by-and- 
 bye." 
 
 "Then I shall be satisfied, not before," said 
 Bethune, turning to embrace his daughter. 
 
 Levi went to change into a full-dress Highland 
 costume, and Conroy exclaimed aloud to Bethune : 
 
 "You shall He satisfied, old Stonewall Jackson, 
 it's your due, after all. Your daughter can't en- 
 lighten you, but Bronzewing, Roddy, and I can 
 when the time comes."
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 INNOCENT AND GUILTY 
 
 NEXT day,' for some mysterious reason, Roddy and 
 Conroy were away all day with McLeod and 
 Franks in his motor, but Levi, on asking to go out 
 in his, was kept back by the ladies ; and he did not 
 help himself out of his various old dilemmas by 
 taking an extra glass of wine or two at dinner that 
 night. 
 
 No one would have thought that the checks he 
 received from various attempts to eclipse others in 
 bush matters, had impressed him in the least. He 
 blazed with Cairngorms, black velvets, gorgeous 
 stockings, dirk, skene dhus and all, but still if 
 he could have seen himself as others saw 
 him, he would have written " first cause of 
 trouble" as a sign of his character above all his 
 finery. 
 
 After the ladies had left the table, he waxed pot- 
 valiant, declaring that he believed he could have 
 taken Bygrave himself, if he had been put to it, 
 became magnificently eloquent about the flashing 
 light signals, his own physique, boasted about his 
 shares in the mines, of which he declared he was 
 the original discoverer, and generally made himself 
 rather more than bumptious. 
 
 "Ye're hardly knowing what you're saying, 
 Levi, my lad," observed McLeod, nudging him
 
 INNOCENT AND GUILTY 285 
 
 judiciously. "To make such an assertion before 
 any of us, who have borne the whole of the burden 
 and heat of the day brought on by yourself, is no' 
 very wise, and what I call bad manners; aye, the 
 worst of manners, to those who knew their troubles 
 before ye were born, so to speak, aye, before ye 
 were born. There's a quorum of us here will sit 
 on ye the noo for your ain cheek." 
 
 " I saw it my own eyes rriit, I mean heard mit my 
 ears, what I allude to," argued Levi, in no whit 
 abashed, "and I am going to say good-by to you 
 all to-night if you dink I haf no manners." 
 
 "Who's to drive your motor?" McLeod asked 
 disdainfully. 
 
 "Who but myself? I've learned to shood. I 
 have learned to drive my own modor gar." 
 
 "Suppose you met Bygrave?" suggested 
 Conroy, knowing his unbelief. 
 
 "Someone's been signalling to him that you're 
 coming," Roddy hinted. 
 
 And Bethune capped the whole matter by rising 
 and saying : 
 
 " I vote we admit Mr. Levinstein into our frater- 
 nity as McLeod wishes, that we put him to the 
 final test of the whole matter to-night, and further- 
 more, that if he behaves himself in future, on 
 coming out of it with an altered opinion of himself, 
 we accept him permanently, for, contrary to his 
 own opinions, just expressed, we all wish him well, 
 even though we have not seemed capable of attain- 
 ing the level of his own perfection. I put it to the 
 general ruling, gentlemen." 
 
 Every hand was raised. 
 
 "Carried!" McLeod observed. "And now let 
 us join the ladies."
 
 286 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Levi, somewhat sobered, and certainly very 
 much mystified, followed them into the drawing- 
 room, but there was a certain gloom over the com- 
 pany which he had noticed all along, and which 
 still continued to his further confounding. 
 
 The only people engaged in conversation, a short 
 time afterwards, were Conroy and Heartsease, and 
 they spoke in low voices. She said : 
 
 "Oh, why don't you tell me, Jim?" 
 
 " I cannot yet. It's a lesson to be learned for 
 all of us, a long line of innocent trouble, caused 
 through inferior practices with only three actors in 
 it." 
 
 "I learned my lesson long ago in self-sacrifice," 
 she added, wistfully. 
 
 " I know, dear. So have I, at least since my 
 
 "What?" she asked, exactly in the tone and 
 timbre of his voice. 
 
 "Downfall," he replied. "There sat big pride." 
 
 "No need to ape humility," she shot in, softly. 
 " Enjoy ourselves in proper manner, and share our 
 lives." 
 
 " With gladness," he added. " So you are 
 coming with me to-night to be enlightened further. 
 Levi will have a fellow passenger. We go out 
 to the garages soon, and harness our petrol 
 steeds. 
 
 " Bygrave is not in our category now, so let us 
 be joyful and satisfied. His troubling and 
 troubled spirit is gone to rest, down, down no, I 
 hope it is released after punishment. Oh, Hearts- 
 ease, I never could keep a secret. What am I say- 
 ing? My thoughts ran away with me." 
 
 "I nearly knew," she replied. "Oh, Jim, you 
 softy! But why did you stop?
 
 INNOCENT AND GUILTY 287 
 
 "There go Roddy and Bronzewing with my 
 father," she added. "But what is the mystery?" 
 
 McLeod touched Levi on the arm, and they went 
 also with the others. 
 
 Furs and wraps for the Queensland interior/ 
 winter night were donned, and all stood ready, 
 their breath showing white on the frosty air when 
 outside. 
 
 A Siddeley departed first, Bethune driving 
 Roddy and Miss Delamayne ; then Conroy and 
 Heartsease Bethune in a large Napier. Lastly, 
 Franks in a new Beeston Humber with McLeod 
 and Levi. 
 
 "To-night is a new era setting in, Heartsease," 
 Conroy observed, when three miles on the road. 
 "I am wondering what your father will say," he 
 indicated the old base camp as they came opposite 
 to it on the other side of the frost-studded moonlit 
 plain. 
 
 " See the stars above the gorge, and by Jingo ! 
 nearly over that kangaroo. Mind your driving," 
 he said to his chauffeur, "and stop her; we get out 
 here." For the others had waited a little further 
 on. 
 
 "Here's the place," he went on, as they alighted, 
 and she waited for him. "See those emus scudding 
 up the creek in the moonlight far out? And there's 
 a wild dog, too, trying to catch them." 
 
 All the party now climbed the grassy ridge, 
 where McLeod and Levi had seen the lights, and 
 by a rock was not Bygrave, but Doughboy, weak, 
 emaciated and dying. He told them all that he had 
 shot both Kangaroo Austen, Bygrave, and Rosie, 
 through force of circumstances, burying the bodies 
 of the two latter under the big camp fire, where
 
 288 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 Bronzewing had laid in a dead faint after her 
 abduction. Near to where the dying blackfellow 
 sat was a hollow under the rock into which he could 
 creep, which accounted for McLeod not seeing him 
 two days ago. He had a circular looking-glass 
 which he had been using as a heliograph to signal 
 with, and had been ill some time. They left him 
 and went on, Bronzewing giving him wine and 
 refreshment. 
 
 "That is all the secret," said Conroy. "He 
 surrendered to Roddy a week ago. Poor chap, he 
 saved Bronzewing twice. And now we've some 
 walking to do after a further run. Boots in good 
 order? Good-night, Doughboy. We'll take care 
 of little Dodo; he is waiting for you. Bronzewing 
 and Roddy will take Doughboy back to the bun- 
 galows." 
 
 The cars left in a body, except the one indicated. 
 When they got to Bygrave's deserted station, and 
 pulled up for a bit, Conroy said in an undertone 
 to Heartsease : 
 
 "Here I suffered my penitentiary. I was 
 chained to that verandah post with a bullock chain, 
 but what Bronzewing must have suffered where we 
 are going to is beyond my own experiences, and 
 far more awful, than we can conceive. Thank 
 God, the avenger was at hand to strike the villain 
 down." 
 
 Daylight surprised them all in the wildest part 
 imaginable on the flat side of a gorge, where they 
 left the motors and walked amongst hills and thick 
 timber, until they came to a bare spot with the 
 ashes of a large camp fire and partially-burned logs 
 showing old traces of a sojourn there, the place
 
 INNOCENT AND GUILTY 289 
 
 Bronzewing and Roddy had previously visited, 
 and where she had been in such peril. 
 
 A burial service was read over the ashes, and 
 Conroy said " Amen !" Then, turning to his 
 friends, he said : 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, beneath the ashes of this 
 old camp fire at our feet, once a scene of great 
 danger to my beloved Bronzewing, lie the dead 
 bodies of Bygrave, our persecutor-in-chief, and 
 Rosie, Doughboy's wife, whom Doughboy had 
 shot previously, when Bygrave was away lurking 
 at our old base camp to catch Miss Delamayne. 
 
 " Doughboy came to Roddy when we arrived up 
 here lately, dying from consumption. He lived 
 by choice in that wallaby cave under a rock on 
 the hills since he shot Bygrave, and was supported 
 by Bronzewing and Roddy. Latterly he insisted 
 upon using a glass they gave him, a small pocket 
 looking-glass, to flash signals with, in the hope 
 that Dodo would see them, and as a sort of good- 
 bye to Bronzewing, for he knew he was dying. He 
 has been the only one who has preserved our for- 
 tunes and saved my future wife from peril and 
 assault throughout our trials. He it is who has 
 brought us all together at last. 
 
 " We hold his evidence copied in duplicate before 
 Roddy, Bronzewing, and myself, taken down as 
 the words fell from his lips, and the men of our 
 party are here to-night to verify all truths of the 
 statement I am making, with a new and important 
 witness in their midst, whom they will not part 
 with until he too signs our united testimony and 
 clears us in any Court. And now, Heartsease, 
 come with me again home. There are times when 
 it is good to have only one arm, when it makes for 
 
 T
 
 290 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 sweet friendship and compassion and companion- 
 ship, when revenge is dead, and one's only enemy 
 lies beyond the utmost bourne that we ourselves 
 know not yet, but hope to attain some day in a 
 worthier manner."
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 THE GRAVE'S GATHERINGS 
 
 DIGGING down under the soft ground where the 
 old ashes and logs of the big camp fire lay, Bethune 
 found the man who had left no tracks behind him. 
 The astute Doughboy had raked the fire aside when 
 Bronzewing was in a state of coma, and buried him 
 beside the body of Rosie, whom he shot earlier in 
 the day when Bygrave had gone to the base camp 
 and captured Miss Delamayne. There lay the 
 remains, mostly bones now, with a Winchester 
 bullet through the skull of both man and woman, 
 the point of entry just the same as "Kangaroo" 
 Austen's had been, a mark of similarity of purpose 
 notified at once by Franks to the company. 
 
 "Under the fire !" Bethune said musingly. "Now 
 no one but a blackfellow would have thought of 
 that. It's just as I said, and have always said : No 
 one but a black fellow could have got away or got 
 the body away without leaving tracks." 
 
 "This discovery sets the whole matter right in 
 the eyes of the world at large," Franks averred. 
 "It shows that Austen's unexplained death caused 
 the obstruction in opening the mine, and making it 
 public, as was my intention ; so that clears my ward 
 and myself. This man's death and sepulture here 
 keeps it without a flaw in our evidence as to the 
 rights of the case. Doughboy has been a public
 
 292 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 benefactor," he continued, as the dead bodies were 
 covered up again. "But as to a 'crowner's 
 'quest,' our sworn evidence will do, and should be 
 sufficient, as it would seem like sacrilege to move 
 the bodies now." 
 
 " We can bring the coroner here and show them 
 to him," Bethune said, "if he requires it. Well, 
 gentlemen, we can go now. Are you satisfied, 
 Levi, that the lights of your injury-making imagin- 
 ation are now authentic, and provable, as far as 
 Miss Delamayne is concerned?" 
 
 "I am satisfied, gentlemen, and make my apolo- 
 gies all round," Levi said, with a face aflame, deep 
 contrition in his heart. 
 
 "Beyond being yourself the accessory to all the 
 facts that have transpired," put in McLeod, a little 
 angrily, "I could take ye up yet for being abso- 
 lutely the primal cause of it all Levi. How will ye 
 like that?" 
 
 "I haf been kilty of it all der time," almost 
 sobbed Levi, now painfully ashamed of himself. 
 He was not the one to take things quietly. 
 
 "I am kilty all through," he kept repeating, 
 until McLeod threw a douche of sympathy over 
 him, which revived him like a May flower. 
 
 " Hoots, you only want a native dog's head to 
 your sporran, my lad," he said. "Ye must learn 
 a little more experience to join the bush crowd, 
 that's all, now that we've drawn the poison fangs 
 of revenge without a just cause from ye. As to 
 being 'kilty,' as you call it, ye really knew no 
 more about the various goings-on about ye than 
 the man in the moon. It's yer fashious way of 
 meddlin' that forced ye into it. You'll do well if 
 ye keep quiet in future, and mind yer own business.
 
 THE GRAVE'S GATHERINGS 293 
 
 But how about the sun-glints, eh? Dods, we 
 didn't find the cause of them. But I expect we 
 were too much bothered with thinking it was some 
 new device of Bygrave's to want to search very 
 much. That's another lesson to ye, Levi, that self, 
 self, self and the results that same self causes to 
 ye, and all of us. It's only that that is at the 
 bottom of all human nature." 
 
 "I'll not give my own opinion in," Bethune said. 
 " It's a credit to be beaten by a blackfellow, and a 
 blackfellow only, just as I said. Bushcraft comes 
 ready born to them, the only inheritance by birth 
 the poor beggars have. But how in the world did 
 we not think of looking under the logs and the 
 ashes ? Snakes alive, what a trick !" 
 
 " Now Jwe can go back under sealed orders, 
 having accomplished our mission," Franks 
 observed. "See, the day is glorious." 
 
 "Aye, forward gentlemen," McLeod cried, 
 "these penitents will guard our property here 
 and yonder at Brangal all our lifetime; but as I 
 shall have big gangs of workmen up here shortly, 
 I'll stay at Conroy's Haven. Ye'll not be wanting 
 all the motors when ye go back." 
 
 "Nod mine," said Levi. "I'll stay mit you, 
 McLeod. I want to learn some garpendering. 
 May I offer my humble beditions to all and stay 
 to cain pedder manners? Id vill be like some old 
 dimes mit you at Prangal Towns, McLeod, ven 
 you managed it for us." 
 
 "I'll be wondering what next mare's nest is com- 
 ing, for all that " mused McLeod, as he and Levi 
 prepared in Indian file to follow the rest of the 
 party. 
 
 "I of a spell to moralize up here shall be very
 
 294 
 
 clad," Levi informed him confidentially, en route. 
 "I am of necessity for prains of wisdom to become 
 one of your own race because of a Scotch lassie. 
 Dat may bring to me the native dog's head." 
 
 He adjusted his new Glengarry and blew, 
 imaginary pibrochs in the air. A pebble brooch 
 mounted in Brangal gold made to order and stuck 
 on the side of his cap, with an enormous Cairn- 
 gorm in it, attracted McLeod's attention. 
 
 "What's the new branch off?" he asked him- 
 self, dubiously. Then he said: "Mon, I'll teach 
 ye about our wark up here, if that's all ye're 
 differin' about. But what's your reason for 
 sparkin' yourself that gear?" 
 
 "I'm engaged," Levi said, proudly, "to Jessie 
 McGregor. She cave me her bromises true, or is 
 it trews?" 
 
 McLeod quivered with laughter. 
 
 "She'll wear 'em, ye ken, ye blind deevil. Faith 
 she'll wear 'em. Ye can't take the breeks off a 
 Highlander." 
 
 "Ah," said Levi, sighing, "I hope to see the 
 banks of Bonnie Doon, and and the heather of 
 the Highlands." 
 
 "Cast your bonnet on it here, lad. We'll im- 
 port some. Well, I'm glad. Fusel oil's not in 
 it, in the crack we'll have thegither to-night, nor 
 the stuff we drink our ain health in when the 
 others are gone. Levi, my lad, here's ma hand on 
 it ! But after all our trouble, Bygrave's mvstery 
 is only half explained. How did he get the terri- 
 fying power he wielded until the rifle bullet stopped 
 the springs of it?"
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 MCLEOD'S DEDUCTIONS 
 
 IT was after the various marriages had been 
 arranged, when the honeymoons fading into the 
 past had welded all the principal performers 
 together again, that the Society of small-talk at 
 Barilla continuously ranged over all the various 
 matters connected with the Levinsteins, the Con- 
 roys, the McGregors, the McLeods, hinting sharp 
 things sometimes but with no sting in the bitterest 
 of them now that matters had turned out so well. 
 The worst of them were little better than 
 suppositions all along. The opals at Conroy's 
 Haven were "potch," they said, therefore no good, 
 a matter, like others, which didn't in the least 
 matter to the partners, as they happened to know 
 better. 
 
 Conroy's artesian wells, under McLeod's 
 management at Roddyston, the new opal fields, 
 formed ground for countless acres of tillage, irri- 
 gated and brook-sided fields, allotments of 
 pasturage and settlement, and a most enterprising 
 and paying establishment sprang up all around 
 their up-country possessions, worked entirely by 
 the originators, shareholders, and employees of 
 the great gold-copper Brangal mines, which had, 
 in their turn, recently changed the former 
 little town of Barilla into a rising metropolis in a
 
 2 g6 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 very short time, and people fond of talk found it 
 all very pleasant to jeer a little, especially if they 
 were not shareholders; but a scientific and mining 
 library and laboratory was established at Brangal 
 at just this time, and in it Conroy spent the greater 
 part of the day learning to write and type with his 
 left hand. But on holidays there was a regular 
 exodus to the Arcadia in the interior which in- 
 creased largely and developed also. A sanatorium 
 for all over-tasked brains and bodies sprang up 
 there, under the base camp, with the conical hills 
 as background, and was utilized by those who 
 required it, even outsiders from other parts of the 
 country being sent there for the sake of the cheerful 
 relaxation and variety of a dry, warm climate, and 
 cheerful, healthy surroundings. 
 
 To the partners, from the thousand and one 
 circumstances about them, Bethune's dairy farm 
 sprang into fuller existence than before, and it was 
 even reported in family circles that Conroy once 
 made a cream cheese with his own one arm, being 
 assisted in the old-fashioned old-time style by Mrs. 
 Roddy McGregor before they returned to Brangal 
 again. 
 
 Then Franks, with his right-hand man, McLeod, 
 insisted upon building a large public auditorium 
 of two stories at that great mining town, for the 
 benefit of the workers, their wives and children, 
 and on the first occasion of throwing it open, got 
 a clever conjuror up from Brisbane at great 
 expense. McLeod himself was the moving spirit 
 all through this performance, acting as one of the 
 stewards of the meeting, and wearing a great blue 
 rosette as a buttonhole. The performance was 
 largely attended on the top storey of the new
 
 McLEOD'S DEDUCTIONS 297 
 
 building, in a great room that was intended for 
 concerts or theatricals. McLeod, to bring on a 
 boom in the proceedings, had given his best silk 
 hat to the conjuror, towards the end, who promptly 
 produced various articles and living things out of 
 it, including a guinea pig and two live rabbits. 
 Then the conjuror made the audience laugh 
 enormously by making porridge in the hat, and 
 after it had been tasted by those nearest to the 
 stage, and pronounced excellent by Levi, brought 
 canaries and pigeons from the same receptacle out 
 of its inexhaustible recesses, and finally fired a 
 pistol through it and bashed it out of recognition. 
 However, it was handed back in some mysterious 
 manner safe and sound and better brushed than 
 when McLeod had given it to him. Recitations 
 and songs had formed interim parts of the enter- 
 tainment, in which some of the merry-making 
 proprietorship joined, including Levi, but the 
 conjuror was so popular that he had a last call at 
 the very end of the programme. 
 
 He entered listening, holding his finger up in 
 a warning attitude. People began to listen too, 
 wondering what was the matter. What could the 
 conjuror have heard to make him put his hand up 
 in that manner? They thought of Bygrave and 
 the old days for a brief instant, and did not know 
 it was a still further solution of their troubles in 
 that direction ; but it was, and was almost as 
 exciting as if he had himself appeared after all. 
 
 For, amid a breathless pause, down the new 
 streets far away, they could hear the bay of a 
 hound coming nearer and nearer, with the quest- 
 ing call of a hunting animal, its deep-tongued 
 music taken up by another and another, until there
 
 298 McLEOD'S DEDUCTIONS 
 
 was a big, savage pack, apparently, in full cry 
 after something down the street, and seeming to 
 find the scent hotter and hotter, giving tongue in 
 chorus closer and nearer still they came on, until 
 they all jumped suddenly in at the window and 
 chased whatever they were after with a wild 
 baying chorus right under the very feet of the 
 startled, horrified and amazed audience, who all 
 got up on the seats a good deal quicker than any- 
 thing, whilst some of the ladies screamed aloud 
 and fainted with fright, to find it was nothing after 
 all but a bad scare. 
 
 When the sell had been established, in the light 
 of ventriloquism, because it was perfectly impos- 
 sible for any dogs in the world to jump a storey 
 high and chase their prey amongst the audience, 
 McLeod talked the matter over amongst the 
 principals of the mine during a large supper, 
 and Bygrave, of course, was the subject of his 
 remarks. 
 
 "Maybe ye'll remember your little parrot 
 speaking now, Mrs. Conroy. Here's the reason 
 vouchsafed to me to-night. Bygrave got at a 
 family secret or two with his devilish cunning, and 
 just exploited them on his victims in small-talk by 
 animals and birds, and that's my theory, plain, 
 enough to us all now. There'll be no wonder at 
 the way he worked upon manv of us, when ye fit 
 his own reasonings to the coniuror's abilitv, as we 
 have just heard it, for, ladies and gentlemen, 
 Bygrave was just as good and wonderful a 
 ventriloquist as the professional we have heard, 
 although he kept his gift secret for his own 
 purposes. 
 
 "What with the whisperin's and th* jisperin's
 
 McLEOD'S DEDUCTIONS 299 
 
 and the cackle and the clack about Bygrave and 
 his doings, ye have been through, all of ye, myself 
 included, we and the witnesses at the big trial 
 barring the ladies were just a set of blitherin' 
 idiots, fearing to give full reasons when they 
 might have set the whole case solidly right, but 
 ye've heard the talk since, how he sold his soul 
 to the devil, who was always with him on a black 
 horse, and the rest of it? He was just a clever 
 man, that's all, though mad as a March hare at 
 last, a man of weighty, selfish, sinful passions 
 which drove him to the devil post-haste, a love- 
 sick fool with a vein of mad chivalry in him. 
 
 "Beneath his surface lay the gist of iron pride 
 without redemption, pride in his overbearing 
 strength, pride in himself, pride in his voice, 
 pride all over him with a great portion of malice 
 to all who went against him. With his grand 
 voice, his wonderful imitation of birds and animals, 
 his musical talents, people, of whom you and I 
 are but a small quota, put him on a higher 
 pedestal than he deserved, that's all. Now, on 
 my way over here since the end of the performance, 
 not asking you whv vou didn't tell your mysteri- 
 ous hearings at the Magisterial Court, I got one 
 without enquiry from a man who did not turn up 
 there at the time, for the same particular reasons 
 of his own. 
 
 "He came to me solo, this very hour, a creepy- 
 crawly sort of chap named Stanley, looking a gev 
 sight more like a mute at a funeral, or maybe a 
 discharged valet, than a good, hard-working man. 
 Says he, 'I'd be glad if you'd give me a job on 
 the mines, Mr. McLeod.' 
 
 "Says I : 'Are you any good at the deep levels?'
 
 300 WHAT LAY BENEATH 
 
 " 'No, sir,' says he. 'I can shave, keep petty 
 cash or accounts, undertake storekeeping.' 
 
 " 'Not for me,' thinks I. 
 
 So he let on how he had been with a travelling 
 showman named Yerkes, until my questioning 
 made Bygrave spring out of that original in my 
 own mind. 
 
 "Yerkes, from this man's tale, spotted Stanley 
 stealing petty cash and made a big baboon talk to 
 him about it. 'You've taken some of Mr. Yerkes' 
 marked money! You know you have. I've had 
 my eye on you a long time.' That's what he told 
 me the baboon roared at him. I shall put him on 
 as a book-duster in the library. He thinks he's 
 been in Hades, listening to the devil talking out 
 of a baboon's mouth, and I didn't just enlighten 
 him, but said it might be D.T. But he'll be a 
 decent, sober enough sort of man for my purpose, 
 as I've got his secret and he can't go back on me. 
 And he'll steal no more petty cash ; he's had too 
 big a fright. But I'm glad he was no' at the 
 concert, as what I learned there concerns ourselves 
 far more than the general public. 
 
 "Bygrave made the birds and horses talk to 
 Doughboy, and so gained such great control over 
 him, and held him as a cat's-paw for his own 
 personal safety. Now what did his horse say to 
 you, Conroy? Perhaps you'll tell us now, as we 
 are all partners who won't talk, and you are the 
 principal." 
 
 " 'Judas Iscariot,' " returned Conroy, laughing. 
 "But I couldn't own up to that in Court, could I ? 
 It nearly scared me out of my seven senses when 
 I did hear it, and what with his madness and 
 necromancy, I really thought at times I had got
 
 McLEOD'S DEDUCTIONS 301 
 
 into the hands of His Satanic Majesty himself, 
 the same as Stanley." 
 
 "Ye Balaam's Ass!" added McLeod, paren- 
 thetically, in a hoarse stage whisper. 
 
 THE END 
 
 BENNETT'S PRINTING WORKS, PORTSMOUTH
 
 JOHN OUSELEY, LTD, 
 
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