f her heart. But never had he seen her as
she appeared to him at that moment and later, when they arrived at the
scene of the outrage, cool, clear-headed, capable, thinking only of the
sufferings of others, cheering them with tactful sympathy, tending them
with gentle care, the while her own soul was down-weighted with care and
sorrow.

Throughout the ten-mile drive little was said, each one of the three
instinctively refraining from all reference to the subject which was
uppermost in their minds, and failing to maintain even a desultory
conversation on more commonplace topics. Gale drove his pair at a hand
gallop all the way till the road swerved from the straight and through
the dim mystery of the starlit bush an angry red glow showed among the
trees.

The last of the homestead, now an irregular heap of smouldering ashes
over which stray lambent flames flickered and danced, served to shed
sufficient light to show where two still figures lay under the shelter
of Dudgeon's rackety old buggy, thrown over on its side. The trooper's
horse, tethered to a tree, pawed the ground impatiently as it champed
its bit, while its master, with a carbine on his arm, paced slowly to
and fro. As the galloping pair swung into sight he faced round sharply
and brought his carbine to the ready, till he recognised Harding.

"Are you the doctor? You're badly wanted," he exclaimed as Gale reined
up beside him.

"Quick. Help me out," Mrs. Eustace said as Harding leaped to the ground.
She ran lightly over to the two figures. Through the rough bandage the
troopers had tied round Durham's head a red stain was spreading. Dudgeon
lay with glittering eyes staring vacantly. His right leg was bandaged,
but more than a stain showed upon it.

She knelt down beside the old man, and as with deft, quick fingers she
untied the bandage, she looked up at Harding.

"Bring me that packet of cotton-wool, the little leather case, all the
bandages, and the bottle with the red label, at once. Tell the trooper
to fetch the others."

By the time he returned she had the handkerchief the trooper had bound
round the old man's leg loosened.

"Open the case and give me the scissors," she said without a trace of
excitement or nervousness in her voice.

She slipped a rent in the trouser and held the edges back, revealing a
punctured wound out of which a red stream gushed. In a moment she had a
wad of cotton-wool rolled and moistened it from the bottle with the red