Page:Outlawandlawmak00praegoog.djvu/277

Rh going to do something wrong—what is it?—is it cattle-stealing? And it sounded like Mr. Trant's voice. It couldn't have been Mr. Trant. It can't be anything you know of. Tell me." She caught his arm. And yet the idea was absurd. His laugh dispelled her vague fancy.

"Cattle stealing! Yes, most likely. If Sam Shehan is up to that devilry it must be stopped. Trant, why what are you thinking of? He went away half an hour ago, and now I think of it that couldn't have been Sam Shehan, for he had to have the horses ready, and they were all going together. No, Elsie, my dear, whatever Trant's sins may be, he is not accessory to cattle-stealing."

"Oh, I did not mean" she cried. And of course it hadn't been Sam Shehan, she said to herself. It was one of the loafers about the Dell. All Colonial voices had the same drawl. Lord Horace would encourage what are called in Australia "sun-downers" by his free handed hospitality, and it was such a bad plan. And everybody knew that the Upper Luya was infested with small settlers who "nuggetted" the calves of the large owners, and when occasion offered, stole their cattle. Had not Frank told her that the Hallett's were the principal sufferers? He had prosed on this subject only a few nights back, conscientiously endeavouring to convey to her his sources of income, and wherein the income was precarious. And how bored she had been! As if she cared whether the Hallett Brothers branded so many thousands and sold so many thousands more or less in the year.

With Blake's next words she threw away the whole matter, and he seemed to have thrown it away too.

"Elsie, my love," he said, "I want to tell you something to-night, this last night which will never come again, no, nor any other night like it. I want to tell you that you are the only woman in the world whom I have loved, and whom I have wished to marry, whom I would have married if things had been different. I have fought against you, but you have conquered, and I tell you so this night. But if you were to say to me, now this moment, 'Morres