in moral stability and scruples.
Indirectly, he was the pivot on which the course of Dudgeon's life
turned from the normal.

The direct cause was Kitty Lambton.

In a community where men predominate, every woman ranks as a belle; but
throughout Waroona and the districts for hundreds of miles round, Kitty
was queen, acknowledged even by her sister rivals. Before her charms
young Dudgeon fell prostrate in adoration, and she, jealous of her sway
over all with whom she came in contact, trifled and philandered with him
until neither earth nor heaven held anything more adorable for him than
herself. He was her slave, devoting himself to her with such abandon
that her vanity was gratified to the extent of influencing her, when
others began to remark upon the manly attractions of her admirer, to
allow him the privilege of believing that she would marry him.

But she was only trifling with him, callously and not too gently, for
the edification of herself and her real lover, O'Guire. The truth leaked
out when one day O'Guire vanished from the district and with him
vanished Kitty.

Thereafter Dudgeon was a changed man. Filled with an insensate belief
that Lambton and his wife were mainly, if not entirely, responsible for
an ill which brought them almost as much suffering as it brought him, he
went from the place, hugging schemes of deep vengeance to his breast. It
was in the days of the early gold finds, and Fortune showered on Dudgeon
her compensation for the injury of Love. All that came to him he took
and treasured, until he had enough for his purpose. Then he returned to
Waroona, and set about exacting the full measure of his revenge upon the
Lambtons.

He drove them from Waroona Downs, following them from the district when
they went, following them until he found them living with Kitty and her
husband in one of the southern cities, struggling fiercely for a bare
existence. The slings and arrows of misfortune had not brought out the
better side of O'Guire's nature and, at the time Dudgeon pounced down
upon them, he had only just emerged from prison. Detail was lacking in
the current legend as to what immediately happened thereafter, for when
Dudgeon came back to Waroona Downs he was silent on the subject, and
only rumours filtered through of Lambton and his wife going down, each
heart-broken, to a pauper's grave, while O'Guire and his wife barely
eluded the final act of vengeance by escaping over sea.

Under Dudgeon's o