uch remark, and he looked down at her, the hard face
breaking into a smile.

'That's good.... Wait a bit, my dear, until they've steadied down
again.... Y'see they take a lot of driving, and I don't want to lay an
accident on top of that unholy shindy....' He spoke in jerks. The roans
were inclined to 'show nasty' as Moongarr Bill came abreast of them,
and Wombo's pack jingled behind. McKeith gave Moongarr Bill directions
about the camp in Bush lingo, which again turned Bridget's thoughts.
The black boy and the stockman spurred on as the roans slackened pace.
McKeith was able to relax the strain.

'My word! we scooted pretty quick out of that piece of scenery,' he
said. 'I felt downright mad at your being let in for such a disgraceful
bit of business. I hadn't time to tell you that I'd sacked those men
half an hour before. Found them in the lowest of the grog shanties,
their horses not looked after, dray only half loaded, and the three of
them--Gumsucker Steve was to have come and taken off our leaders when
we got into broken country--thick with the Union delegates and sticking
for higher wages. I paid them off and filled their places on the spot
with two chaps off a wool-drive.... So I left the brutes vowing
vengeance, and I suppose they thought they'd lose no time in giving me
a taste of it.... Well, they're no loss.' He had been explaining things
in jerks while he brought the team to an harmonious jog-trot along a
piece of uneven road. 'That fellow Steadbolt is a wrong 'un--not good
even at his own job of wood and water joey--which means, my dear, the
odd cart-driving on a place--and not to be trusted within ten miles of
a public house.'

Lady Bridget asked suddenly:

'I want to know, Colin--what did that man mean by saying you had an
insult ready for me at your Bachelor's Quarters? What insult?'

It seemed as though blue fire leaped from McKeith's eyes.

'Insult! Good God! Biddy you can't hold me responsible for the foul
insinuations of a beast like that. Insult YOU! my wife!'

The passionate tenderness thrilling his voice, the honest wrath and
bewilderment in his face must have silenced any doubt, had doubt
existed in Lady Bridget's mind.

'I don't know, Colin. I don't even know what Bachelors' Quarters mean.
Have you an army of Bachelors at Moongarr, and what do they do when
they're at home?'

He laughed. 'It's a shanty I put up for the new-chums when I've got
any--and for the gentlemen-sun-downers that