ered, as she laughed
lightly.

The woman turned her head quickly and held out her hand, as a smile,
soft and gentle, rippled over her face, and almost overcame the fixed
stare in the sightless eyes.

"You will, dearie? Ay, and you shall. Come to me, dearie, when you are
alone. Make Barellan your home whenever you need one."

As she spoke Dickson and Nellie came round the corner of the verandah.
The shifty eyes of the one twinkled for a moment with a glee which was
not beautiful to see; the dark eyes of the other glittered.

"She never said that to me," Nellie said under her breath. "You'll have
to tell her--or I shall."

"She's only cranky," Dickson answered in the same tone. "She's dotty
half her time and scotty the other."

CHAPTER VII.

THE EVOLUTION OF SLAUGHTER.

The Three-mile, where Slaughter lived--Cold-blood Slaughter, as they
termed him, from his pessimistic, cynical manner of thought and
speech--was an out-of-the-way spot even for the district of Birralong. A
track, which was little more than what would result were a dray driven
off the road at right angles, branched off the main road, and meandered
for a couple of miles, always indistinct and never straight, until a
small patch of cultivation, a few acres square, showed green and
picturesque amid the prevailing sombre hues of the untamed bush. On the
far side of it, as one approached from the direction of the main road,
was a small hut, built of roughly split slabs of timber, and roofed with
sheets of bark, standing in almost aggressive solitude away from the
trees which, farther behind it, formed an unbroken background of subdued
colour. There was a waterhole some thirty yards from the hut, and a
fork-and-sapling fence cut it into two portions, one of which, the
smaller, was included in the small paddock where Slaughter kept his
horse, the only living creature besides himself which resided at the
Three-mile.

Viewed from the point on the track where first it came into sight, there
was a certain pictorial attractiveness about the place which roused
curiosity and interest--the contrast of the green of the cultivation
patch with the prevailing neutral greys and yellowy-browns of the
gum-tree forest; the simple form of the hut standing distinct and clear
against the darker line of shade caused by the solid growth of bush
beyond; and the quiet and apparently peaceful solitude of the whole
scene appealing to the imagination. Nearer inspection