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238 "I don't know why Waveryng and I shouldn't do as well with our stud cattle as Blake and Trant at Baròlin Gorge have done with their stud horses."

"By the way," said Mrs. Jem Hallett, "have you heard anything about Mr. Blake? I have written to ask him to come and stay. Frank and Elsie are bent on the picnic to Baròlin Waterfall, and he made me promise to let him know when it was coming off."

"Blake has taken ministerial leave, and has disappeared," said Jem Hallett. "I heard somebody say that he was hipped at Elsie's engagement."

Jem Hallett's "chaff" was truly Australian in its directness. Elsie, who was paying her first visit to Tunimba as Frank Hallett's affianced wife, coloured; and Frank looked annoyed.

"He is inspecting the northern police department," he said quietly, "and he will be down in Leichardt's Town directly."

"He had better inspect the southern police department," said a squatter of the neighbourhood, who was staying at Tunimba. "It's a disgrace to the colony that they haven't caught Moonlight."

"Oh, Moonlight has been keeping quiet since that Wallaroo business," said Jem. "Perhaps he has left the district." And then Lord Horace declared his ardent desire to have the Dell bailed up during the Waveryngs' visit. "Em says she is going to write a book of her doings and impressions in the Antipodes," he said; "and I'd give anything for her to have a real live bushranger adventure."

"It might be managed, perhaps," said Blake himself, who entered that very moment, accompanied by his partner, Dominic Trant.

There was a general confusion, and a volley of exclamations. Blake shook hands with Mrs. Jem, and apologized for having taken her unawares. He was on his way to Baròlin. He intended, he said, to take advantage of her invitation later. He then went straight to Elsie, who gave him her hand without speaking. She had turned a little paler,