“You must have something to eat, Dick,” says Aileen; “it’s a long ride—from where we know—and what with one thing and another I daresay you’ve an appetite. Let me see what there is. Mrs. Storefield sent us over a quarter of veal from the farm yesterday, and we’ve plenty of bacon of our own. Mother and I live half our time on it and the eggs. I’m making quite a fortune by the butter lately. These diggings are wonderful places to send up the price of everything we can grow.”

So she got out the frying-pan, and she and I and mother had some veal chops, with a slice or two of bacon to give it a flavour. My word! they were good after a forty-mile ride, and we’d had nothing but corned beef in the Hollow lately. Fresh butter and milk, too; it was a treat. We had cows enough at the Hollow, but we didn’t bother ourselves milking; bread and beef and tea, with a glass of grog now and then, was the general run of our grub.

We had a talk about the merry time at the Turon races, and Aileen laughed in spite of herself at the thought of Starlight walking down the ballroom to be introduced to her, and being taken up to all the swell people of the place. “He looked grander than any of them, to my fancy,” said she; “and oh! what a cruel shame it seems that he should ever have done what keeps him from going among his equals as he was born to do. Then I should never have seen him, I suppose, and a thousand times better, too. I’d give up every hope of seeing him again in this world, God knows how cheerfully, if it would serve him or help his escape.”

“I’m down here now to see you about the same escape,” I said; and then I told her about Jim’s letter, and what he said about the mate of the ship. She listened for a good while patiently, with her hand in mine, like we used to sit in old days, when we were young and happy and alive—alive, not dead men and women walking about and making believe to live. So I told her how we made it up to meet somewhere near the Queensland border. Jim to come up the Murray from Melbourne, and so on to the Darling, and we to make across for the Lower Bogan. If we could carry this out all right—and it looked pretty likely—the rest of the game would be easy; and once on blue water. Oh my God, what new creatures we should all be!