," Nellie replied. "He's fooling you just as he is
the others."

"Well, Bobby was pleased enough to go when he suggested it, anyhow,"
Dickson said.

"Yes; and if Bobby was here now----"

"But, look here, they'll be wondering where you are," Dickson
interrupted. "You'll have to ride right round by the boundary now----"

"I shan't come any more," the girl exclaimed. "Not till--till after. I
know you told lies, and if you don't come to me before then, I'll know
sure; and then"--she looked him straight in the face, with an ugly gleam
and flash in her dark eyes that held his like a snake's holds a
bird's--"then I'll come, and--and--then I'll come for you. I came here
to tell you that. It's your last chance. You men don't know what women
are. There are some things you can't understand."

"Don't be a fool," he said once more, as he held out his arms and
touched her.

She stepped back with her mouth hardening and the gleam still in her
eyes.

"No, that's finished," she said. "I know you now--I hate you now--and
I'm going to hurt you just where I can--most."

He laughed uneasily, and looked away for a moment from the fascination
of the gleaming eyes, and as though it was he who had broken the spell,
the girl's face changed. With the exception of the eyes all her features
had been passive up to that moment, but then it was as though a
reservoir of passion had suddenly broken out and flooded over her face.
He gave one scared look at it and stepped back from her.

"Where I can hurt you--most," she repeated in a voice that quivered.

He edged away towards his horse and heard her push through the bushes to
hers. Then he heard the bushes crash as the horse charged through them,
and, turning, he saw her riding at a full gallop away down the straight
stretch of the open.

He mounted his own horse and rode slowly back to the station, striving
to form some plan in his mind by which he could explain matters to
Ailleen, or at least prevent her from telling his mother of what had
transpired. When he arrived at the house, he found Ailleen sitting alone
on the verandah.

"Funny how Nellie rode over to-day, just as you were talking about her,
wasn't it?" he asked, as he came up beside her.

Ailleen looked at him without answering, and, with his glance averted,
he went on--

"I think she's a bit gone, don't you? Fancy her talking like she did. I
thought you----"

"Look here," Ailleen exclaimed quickly, "Nellie and I have been