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242 only that Jem had got to be such a luxurious beggar, and Mrs. Jem mightn't like to camp in the new house; he knew Mrs. Allanby didn't mind, because she had told him so. Lord Horace proceeded to explain that they had given up the greater part of the Humpey proper to Lord and Lady Waveryng; though, bless you, "Em" didn't mind roughing it—she wanted to go and milk the cows that morning—but Waveryng was rheumatic and afraid of new walls. But there was the new tiled bathroom which must surely atone for all deficiencies. Even at Tunimba they couldn't boast a tiled bathroom.

Mrs. Jem thought it would be delightful to ride over for the day. Of course if Mrs. Allanby liked to stay there was nothing to prevent her, but she (Mrs. Jem) was rather tied by the babies; and Jem had his mustering, and it would be a much better plan, as there was so much more accommodation at Tunimba, if she might arrange with Ina and Lady Waveryng to spend a few days there and have the picnic to Baròlin on that occasion. And then Mr. Blake was appealed to. Was Pompo superstitious, and how near could they get to the Fall, and did he think there was any truth in the theory Captain Macpherson had started, that Moonlight had a hiding-place in Mount Luya? and did Mr. Blake know that Captain Macpherson had sworn to unearth the bushranger in his lair, and that he counted on the assistance of the Baròlin half-castes for that purpose?

"The Baròlin half-castes were at Captain Macpherson's service," Blake said gravely, but he did not think that Moonlight's lair—if he had one—was in that direction; and as for the Baròlin Falls, he certainly did not think they would prove worth the trouble of a march through a bunya scrub and the chance of being swallowed up in a quicksand. He was sure that Mrs. Hallett and Miss Valliant, to say nothing of Lady Waveryng, would decide that a gorge a little beyond Point-row, of which he knew, was quite sufficiently picturesque to camp out in.

"It was only the camping out that mattered," bleated Mrs. Allanby. "To camp out in the very heart of the