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320 general impression was that she and Trant had wandered into the quicksands and got engulfed therein, or had been lost in the bunya scrub. At first, in the confusion following Lord Horace's death, it had been taken for granted that the two were making their way to the camp. When it was discovered that they were missing, Frank Hallett had gone back to the Falls with two of the stockmen and the half-castes, and had searched in vain. Trant described with fiendish malice how Pompo had led him off the trail, and contrived that no suspicion of her real hiding-place could be aroused. Search-parties had been sent out from Tunimba. They were exploring the scrub. But the quicksand theory would certainly be accepted, and Trant told how he had bidden Pompo find on the borders of the lagoon where the sands shelved from the bank, a handkerchief of Elsie's that he, Trant, had stolen, and the hat he himself had worn. That would settle the question, and it would be believed, for a time, at any rate, that the fate of Elsie Valliant was the same as that of Scott's Ravenswood.

"Now it's time this should end," Trant went on. "I am going to take you away with me to-night."

Elsie laughed hysterically. "You can't do that," she said. "I am not a baby that you can carry me. I think you would find me a very troublesome burden, and I tell you that I will throw myself down the precipice rather than go with you."

"We shall see," he said grimly. "I think I can find a means of making you obedient."

She understood. He meant to drug her, as he had done on her entrance. She realized her helplessness—realized also the uselessness of appeal or defiance.

"Tell me," she said quietly, "what you mean to do?"

"Pompo will be here with the horses about sundown. We shall ride all night, camp out if necessary. To-morrow we will take the steamer from Myall Heads for Sydney, and once there I shall marry you, and sail immediately for Europe."

"Very well," said Elsie, "I will go with you peaceably