Page:Outlawandlawmak00praegoog.djvu/308

296 of the Luya, he must in no wise desert his English charge. She herself had no reason to complain. Trant was deference itself. Whatever there may have been of underlying passion, outwardly he was quite composed and showed nothing of the desperation of the day before. Lord Horace and Mrs. Allanby lagged somewhat. She was fragile, and he was unused to such rough climbing. But she had the spirit of race, and she would not be outdone by Lady Waveryng and Elsie.

From the spot where they had encamped, it was not really any great distance to Baròlin, it was the roughness of the country that made the expedition so difficult. They had left the camp almost at daylight, and some three hours of arduous walking brought them within sight of their destination. The noise of the Waterfall had partly guided them, increasing with every step they took. They had kept on the edge of the bunya scrub. Once, when Frank Hallett had tried to push his way through the thickness of the trees in order to avoid a stony ridge hard to scale, Trant and Sam Shehan had interposed in an uneasy manner, and had assured him that it was dangerous to venture within the mazes of the scrub, and that progress was impossible on account of the density of the prickly foliage. Frank had resented the imputation on his bushmanship, but Trant and the stockman carried their point, and they had climbed over the rocks of the river bed instead of going round.

And now, at last, they were at the base of the V. The mountain towered straight overhead. The precipice took a slight curve to the left, making another side nick in the mountain, and giving to the secondary platform the appearance of an island, or of an extremely narrow-necked peninsula. They could almost fancy that they saw the waters of a lake in the slight depression of the summit. But Trant, who had keener eyes than the others, declared that it was only the sun making a rocky surface glisten.

"By Jove," cried Lord Horace, excitedly, " I'd give anything to get to the top of that peak," and he went off to consult the half castes. But both Pompo and Jack Nutty shook