ens! No--only a silly girl would think that. Was I ever
good? I'm sure I don't know. If I was a woman soon knocked it out of
me."

"A woman! Did you love her?"

"Love her--of course I loved her."

"More 'n you do me?"

"More than I do you!--You're only a little girl--and she--she was a
woman of thirty, and she just wound me round her fingers,--her!"

The tears gathered in the girl's eyes--only one thing her simple soul
hungered after--she wanted this man's love--she wanted to be allowed to
love him in return.

"She didn't love you like me," she said.

"She didn't love me at all, it was I loved her, the young fool. That's
the way of the world. Come, Nell, don't cry--that s the bitterness of
it. Where's the good of crying? Where's the good of loving me? I wasted
all the love I had to give on a woman, who made a plaything of me--oh,
about the time you were born I suppose. That's the way of the world, my
dear; oh, you 'll learn as you grow older."

"Ben Fisher," said Nellie slowly--"Ben Fisher, Gran says, loves me, an'
'ud marry me. An' he's Macartney's boss man."

The man sprang to his feet and caught her roughly in his arms. He
hurt her, but she did not mind; such fierce wooing was better than the
indifference which had seemed to mark his manner before. His hot breath
was on her face, and in his eyes was an angry gleam, but she read love
there too, and was content.

"You, Nellie--you--do you want Ben Fisher? If you go to him--if you have
any truck with him--I 'll kill you, Nell."

She closed her eyes and drooped her head on to his shoulder.

"Jes' so," she said, "you can."

"Nell, Nell," called her grandmother's voice from above. "Nell, you come
up this minute. Drat the girl, where's she got to? You come along, miss,
and help to get supper. There's the bread to set, for Macartney's mob 'll
be here early to-morrow."

James Newton held the girl for a moment with a merciless hand.

"Nell, I 'll kill you."

She smiled at him through her tears, then stooped and kissed the hand
that held her, and as he loosened his grasp, flew up the embankment and
joined her grandmother.

Next day the Durham lads and Gentleman Jim had disappeared. It seemed
a wonder in that flat open plain where they could disappear to, but the
creek had many windings, and its bed was so wide and so far beneath the
surface of the plain, there was ample room for men and horses to hide
there.

About three in the afternoon, a lowing of cat