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Rh "How did you find that out?" she asked, interested.

"Because I came here. I was determined that I, and no other, should stand with you before that rock. I meant' to tell you there of my love; you see, however, that I couldn't wait for that. Now I want you to let me bid you there my last good-bye. No other white woman will ever have stood there, Elsie," he went on. "There's a secret track through the mountain known only to one or two of the blacks. Pompo showed it to me. At one time the blacks had their mysterious Bora grounds here, and then something happened. I think from Pompo's description that it must have been an earthquake shock, and since then they have had a superstitious terror of the place and will never speak of it. They look upon it as the abode of the Great Yoolatanah, and it's sacrilege to give any information about it. But as I have told you, Pompo would do anything for me."

"Oh! go on. This is quite interesting. Is it far?"

"Not half a mile. We could go and come back before it is time to start for the camp. Elsie, will you come?"

She looked doubtful. The man's eagerness frightened her a little. And yet she loved danger. Why do you want me to go? May Minnie Pryde come?"

"Minnie Pryde!" He gave a gesture of disgust.

"Then Lady Waveryng. Think of her book!"

"No, to rob the whole thing of its poetry, it's one especial charm to me. I have thought of this and nothing else since we planned the picnic. I am thankful Blake is not with us," he went on, "for now I can have you to myself—no one to interpose. Oh, I know you love Blake; you need not deny it. He has been here too. And you, he, and I will for ever be associated with this wild poetic spot. Elsie, you are the one poetic element of my Australian life—you are the goddess of these wilds. I want you to be enshrined in them as it were—enshrined in my heart—in my memory. It is a fitting scene for an everlasting farewell." He laughed in a grim way, yet his face twitched with emotion.

"Well?" he said. "Are you afraid of me?"