her. Forgetful
of what had occurred when last he was at the station; forgetful of the
anger he had felt at her apparent preference of another to himself,--he
remembered only that Ailleen might be in danger. Without heeding whether
he was not himself riding into danger from whence there was no escape,
he spurred his horse forward, and galloped off in the direction of the
station.

As he rode the mirk of the smoke became denser, until his eyes were
smarting and his lungs choking. His horse shied and tried to turn back,
but Tony kept him going. The signs which served to show how great and
widespread the fire was, only served to stimulate his anxiety to reach
the station.

Suddenly the bush gave way before him as he emerged on to the Barellan
road. The smoke was rolling along it in heavy volumes, but was less
trying than it had been amongst the timber, and Tony again urged his
horse into a gallop. The crackle and roar of the conflagration sounded
on both sides, and he was marvelling that it had not yet burst out on to
the road, when the sound of a horse coming towards him at break-neck
speed arrested his attention. Scarcely had he heard the sound than
through the haze of the smoke the horse, ridden by a girl, came into
sight. Instinctively he reined up, and the thought flashed through his
brain that it might be Ailleen.

The horse and its rider dashed out of the smoke, the horse with its neck
stretched out, its eyes starting from its head, its tongue hanging out
and blood-flecked foam on its nostrils. The rider was hatless, her
clothes torn in shreds, and her hair streaming out on the wind. With one
arm she was flogging her horse unmercifully; the other she was waving
wildly around her head. The pace of the gallop carried her past Tony in
a moment, but in that moment he recognized her--Nellie Murray.

With her eyes staring in a frenzy of madness, with her face wet and
ghastly, and her voice raised in an endless mocking shriek of laughter,
she dashed past him. There was no time to catch the words that seemed to
blend with the laughter, there was no time to learn whether she saw him
as she rode past, but there was time enough for his intuitions to work
and teach him the originator of the fire and the reason of its
existence. Nellie was avenging her defeat by Ailleen.

Straight down the road she raced, travelling with the smoke which, as it
rolled along in great clouds of density, appealed to her as something
that was h