initial commit of ebook 7047HEADmain

2 files changed, 9331 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/bkblb10.txt b/old/bkblb10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4a23f58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/bkblb10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9331 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Back to Billabong, by Mary Grant Bruce
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Back To Billabong
+
+Author: Mary Grant Bruce
+
+Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7047]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACK TO BILLABONG ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Don Lainson [dlainson@sympatico.ca]
+
+
+
+
+
+BACK TO BILLABONG
+
+
+by
+
+
+MARY GRANT BRUCE
+
+
+
+1921
+
+
+
+
+"Beyond the distant sky-line
+(Now pansy-blue and clear),
+We know a land is waiting,
+A brown land, very dear:
+A land of open spaces,
+Gaunt forest, treeless plain:
+And if we once have loved it
+We must come back again."
+
+(Dorothea Mackellar.)
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAP.
+
+I.  LANCASTER GATE, LONDON, W
+
+II.  THE RAINHAMS
+
+III.  PLAYING TRUANT
+
+IV.  COMING HOME
+
+V.  THE TURN OF FORTUNE'S WHEEL
+
+VI.  SAILING ORDERS
+
+VII.  THE WATCH DOGS
+
+VIII.  HOW TOMMY BOARDED A STRANGE TAXI
+
+IX.  THE WELCOME OF AUSTRALIA
+
+X.  BILLABONG
+
+XI.  COLONIAL EXPERIENCES
+
+XII.  ON INFLUENZA AND FURNITURE
+
+XIII.  THE HOME ON THE CREEK
+
+XIV.  THE CUNJEE RACES
+
+XV.  HOW WALLY RODE A RACE
+
+XVI.  BUILDING UP AGAIN
+
+
+
+
+BACK TO BILLABONG
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+LANCASTER GATE, LONDON, W
+
+
+"Do the beastly old map yourself, if you want it.  I shan't,
+anyhow!"
+
+"Wilfred!"
+
+"Aw, Wil-fred!"  The boy at the end of the schoolroom table, red-
+haired, snub-nosed and defiant, mimicked the protesting tone.
+"I've done it once, and I'm blessed if I do it again."
+
+"No one would dream that it was ever meant for Africa."  The young
+teacher glanced at the scrawled and blotted map before her.  "It--
+it doesn't look like anything earthly.  You must do it again,
+Wilfred."
+
+"Don't you, Wilf."  Wilfred's sister leaned back in her chair,
+tilting it on its hind legs.
+
+"You have nothing to do with Wilfred's work, Avice.  Go on with
+your French."
+
+"Done it, thanks," said Avice.  "And I suppose I can speak to my
+own brother if I like."
+
+"No, you can't--in lesson time," said the teacher.
+
+"Who's going to stop me?"
+
+Cecilia Rainham controlled herself with an effort.
+
+"Bring me your work," she said.
+
+She went over the untidy French exercise with a quick eye.  When
+she had finished it resembled a stormy sky--a groundwork of blue-
+black, blotted writing, lit by innumerable dashes of red.  Cecilia
+put down her red pencil.
+
+"It's hopeless, Avice.  You haven't tried a bit.  And you know it
+isn't hard--you did a far more difficult piece of translation
+without a mistake last Friday."
+
+"Yes, but the pantomime was coming off on Saturday," said Wilfred,
+with a grin.  "Jolly little chance of tickets from Bob if she
+didn't!"
+
+"You shut up!" said Avice.
+
+"Be quiet, both of you," Cecilia ordered, a spot of red in each
+pale cheek.  "Remember, there will be other Saturdays.  Bob will do
+nothing for you if I can't give him a decent report of you."  It
+was the threat she hated using, but without it she was helpless.
+And the red-haired pair before her knew to a fraction the extent of
+her helplessness.
+
+For the moment the threat was effective.  Avice went back to her
+seat, taking with her the excited-looking French exercise, while
+Wilfred sullenly recommenced a dispirited attack upon the African
+coastline.  Cecilia leaned back in her chair, and took up a half-
+knitted sock--to drop it hastily, as a long-drawn howl came from a
+low chair by the window.
+
+"Whatever is the matter, Queenie?"
+
+"I per-ricked my finger," sobbed the youngest Miss Rainham.  She
+stood up, tears raining down her plump cheeks.  No one, Cecilia
+thought, ever cried so easily, so copiously, and so frequently as
+Queenie.  As she stood holding out a very grubby forefinger, on
+which appeared a minute spot of blood, great tears fell in splashes
+on the dark green linoleum, while others ran down her face to join
+them, and others trembled on her lower eyelids, propelled from some
+artesian fount within.
+
+"Oh, dry up, Queenie!" said Wilfred irritably.  "Anyone 'ud think
+you'd cut your silly finger off!"
+
+"Well--it'th bleed-in'!" wailed Queenie.  She dabbed the injured
+member with the pillow case she was hemming, adding a scarlet touch
+in pleasant contrast to its prevailing grime.
+
+"Well--you're too big a girl to cry for a prick," said Cecilia
+wearily.  "People who are nearly seven really don't cry except for
+something awfully bad."
+
+"There--I'll tell the mater you said awfully!" Avice jeered.  "Who
+bites our heads off for using slang, I'd like to know?"
+
+"You wouldn't have much head left if I bit for every slang word you
+use," retorted her half-sister.  "Do get on with your French,
+Avice--it's nearly half-past twelve, and you know Eliza will want
+to lay the table presently.  Come here, Queenie."  She took the
+pillow case, and unpicked a few stitches, which clearly indicated
+that the needle had been taking giant strides.  "Just hem that last
+inch or two again, and see if you can't make it look nice.  I
+believe the needle only stuck into your finger because you were
+making it sew so badly.  Have you got a handkerchief?--but, of
+course, you haven't."  She polished the fat, tear-stained cheek
+with her own.  "Now run and sit down again."
+
+Queenie turned to go obediently enough--she was too young, and
+possibly too fat, to plan, as yet, the deliberate malice in which
+her brother and sister took their chief pleasure.  Unfortunately,
+Wilfred arrived at the end of Africa at the wrong moment for her.
+He pushed the atlas away from him with a jerk that overturned the
+ink bottle, sending a stream of ink towards Avice--who, shoving her
+chair backwards to escape the deluge, cannoned into Queenie, and
+brought her headlong to the floor.  Howls broke out anew, mingled
+with a crisp interchange of abuse between the elder pair, while
+Cecilia vainly sought to lessen the inky flood with a duster.  Upon
+this pleasant scene the door opened sharply.
+
+"A nice way you keep order at lessons," said Mrs. Mark Rainham
+acidly.  "And the ink all over the cloth.  Well, all I can say is,
+you'll pay for a new one, Cecilia."
+
+"I did not knock it over," said Cecilia, in a low tone.
+
+"It's your business to look after the children, and see that they
+do not destroy things," said her stepmother.
+
+"The children will not obey me."
+
+"Pouf!" said Mrs. Rainham.  "A mere question of management.  High-
+spirited children want tact in dealing with them, that is all.  You
+never trouble to exercise any tact whatever."  Her eyes dwelt
+fondly on her high-spirited son, whose red head was bent
+attentively over Africa while he traced a mighty mountain range
+along the course of the Nile.  "Wilfred, have you nearly finished
+your work?"
+
+"Nearly, Mater," said the industrious Wilfred, manufacturing
+mountains tirelessly.  "Just got to stick in a few more things."
+
+"Say 'put,' darling, not 'stick.'  Cecilia, you might point out
+those little details--that is, if you took any interest in their
+English."
+
+"Thethilia thaid 'awfully' jutht now," said Queenie, in a shrill
+pipe.
+
+"I don't doubt it," said Mrs. Rainham, bitterly.  "Of course,
+anyone brought up in Paris is too grand to trouble about English--
+but we think a good deal of these things in London."  A little
+smile hovered on her thin lips, as Cecilia flushed, and Avice and
+her brother grinned broadly.  The Mater could always make old
+Cecilia go as red as a beetroot, but it was fun to watch,
+especially when the sport beguiled the tedium of lessons.
+
+A clatter of dishes on a tray heralded the approach of Eliza.
+
+"It is time the table was clear," Mrs. Rainham said.  "Wilfred,
+darling, I want you to post a letter.  Put up your work and get
+your cap.  Cecilia, you had better try to clean the cloth before
+lunch; it is ruined, of course, but do what you can with it.  I
+will choose another the next time I am in London.  And just make
+sure that the children's things are all in order for the dancing
+lesson this afternoon.  Avice, did you put out your slippers to be
+cleaned?"
+
+"Forgot all about it, Mater," said Avice cheerfully.
+
+"Silly child--and it is Jackson's day off.  Just brush them up for
+her, Cecilia.  When the children have gone this afternoon, I want
+you to see to the drawing-room; some people are coming in to-night,
+and there are fresh flowers from Brown's to arrange."
+
+Cecilia looked up, with a sudden flush of dismay.  The children's
+dancing lesson gave her one free afternoon during the week.
+
+"But--but I am going to meet Bob," she stammered.
+
+"Oh, Bob will wait, no doubt; you need not keep him long, if you
+hasten yourself.  Yes, Eliza, you can have the table."  Mrs.
+Rainham left the room, with the children at her heels.
+
+Cecilia whisked the lesson books hastily away; Eliza was waiting
+with a lowering brow, and Eliza was by no means a person to be
+offended.  Maids were scarce enough in England in the months after
+the end of the war; and, even in easier times, there had been a
+dreary procession of arriving and departing servants in the Rainham
+household--the high-spirited characteristics of the children being
+apt to pall quickly upon anyone but their mother.  In days when
+there happened to be no Eliza, it was Cecilia who naturally
+inherited the vacant place, adding the duties of house-maid to
+those of nurse, governess, companion and general factotum; all
+exacting posts, and all of them unpaid.  As Mrs. Rainham gracefully
+remarked, when a girl was not earning her own living, as so many
+were, but was enjoying the comfort of home, the least she could do
+was to make herself useful.
+
+"Half a minute, Eliza."  She smiled at the slatternly girl.  "Sorry
+to keep you waiting; there's a river of ink gone astray here."  She
+placed the soaked cloth on the waste-paper basket and polished the
+top of the table vigorously.
+
+"I'll bet it worn't you wot spilt it--but it's you wot 'as the
+cleanin' up," muttered Eliza.  "Lemme rub that up now, Miss."  She
+put down her tray and took the cloth from Cecilia's hand.
+
+"Thanks, ever so, Eliza--but you've got plenty to do yourself."
+
+"Well, if I 'ave, I ain't the on'y one wot 'as," said Eliza darkly.
+Her wizened little face suddenly flushed.  "Lor, Miss," she said
+confidentially, "you doan't know wot a success that 'at you trimmed
+for me is.  It's a fair scream.  I wore it larst night, an' me
+young man--'im wot's in the Royal Irish--well, it fair knocked 'im!
+An' 'e wants me to go out wiv 'im next Benk 'Oliday--out to
+'Ampstead 'Eath.  'E never got as far as arstin' me that before.
+I know it was that 'at wot done it."
+
+"Not it, Eliza," Cecilia laughed.  "It was just your hair under the
+hat.  I told you how pretty it would be, if you would only brush it
+more."
+
+"Well, I never 'ad no brush till you give me your old one," said
+Eliza practically.  "I did brush it, though, a nundred times every
+night, till Cook reckoned I was fair cracked.  But 'air's on'y
+'air, an' anyone 'as it--it's not every one 'as an 'at like that."
+She clattered plates upon the table violently.  "You goin' out this
+awfternoon, Miss?"
+
+"As soon as I can, Eliza."  Cecilia's face fell.  "I must arrange
+flowers first."
+
+"I'll 'ave the vawses all ready wiv clean water for you," said
+Eliza.  "An' don't you worry about the drorin'-room--I'll see as
+it's nice."
+
+"Oh, you can't, Eliza--you have no time.  I know it's silver-
+cleaning afternoon."
+
+"Aw, I'll squeeze it in some'ow."  Eliza stopped suddenly, at a
+decided footstep in the passage, and began to rattle spoons and
+forks with a vigour born of long practice.  Cecilia picked up the
+inky cloth, and went out.
+
+Her stepmother was standing by the hall-stand, apparently intent on
+examining Wilfred's straw hat.  She spoke in a low tone as the girl
+passed her.
+
+"I wish you did not find so much pleasure in gossiping with
+servants, Cecilia.  It is such a bad example for Avice.  I have
+spoken about it to you before."
+
+Cecilia did not answer.  She went upstairs with flaming cheeks, and
+draped the cloth across the hand basin in the bathroom, turning the
+tap vengefully.  A stream of water flowed through the wide stain.
+
+"There's more real kindness in that poor little Cockney's finger
+than there is in your whole body!" Cecilia whispered, apparently
+addressing the unoffending cloth--which, having begun life as a
+dingy green and black, did not seem greatly the worse for its new
+decoration.  "Hateful old thing!"  A smile suddenly twitched the
+corners of her mouth.  "Well, she can't stop the money for a new
+cloth out of this quarter's allowance, because I've just got it.
+That's luck, anyhow.  I'll give it to Bob to keep, in case she goes
+through my desk again."  She poured some ammonia upon the stain,
+and rubbed gingerly, surveying the result with a tilted nose.  It
+was not successful.  "Shall I try petrol?  But petrol's an awful
+price, and I've only got the little bottle I use for my gloves.
+Anyhow, the horrible old cloth is so old and thin that it will fall
+to pieces if I rub it.  Oh, it's no use bothering about it--nothing
+will make it better."  She squeezed the water from the cloth and
+spread the stained area over a chair to dry, looking disgustedly at
+her own dyed finger-nails.  "Now for Avice's shoes before I scrub
+my hands."
+
+Avice's shoes proved a lengthy task, since the younger Miss Rainham
+had apparently discovered some clay to walk through in Regent's
+Park on her way home from the last dancing lesson; and well-
+hardened clay resists ordinary cleaning methods, and demands edged
+tools.  The luncheon bell rang loudly before Cecilia had finished.
+She gave the shoes a final hurried rub, and then fell to cleansing
+her hands; arriving in the dining-room, pink and breathless, some
+minutes later, to find a dreary piece of tepid mutton rapidly
+congealing on her plate.
+
+"I think you might manage to be down in time for meals, Cecilia,"
+was Mrs. Rainham's chilly greeting.
+
+Cecilia said nothing.  She had long realized the uselessness of any
+excuses.  To be answered merely gave her stepmother occasion for
+further fault-finding--you might, as Cecilia told Bob, have a
+flawless defence for the sin of the moment, but in that case Mrs.
+Rainham merely changed her ground, and waxed eloquent about the sin
+of yesterday, or of last Friday week, for which there might happen
+to be no defence at all.  It was so difficult to avoid being a
+criminal in Mrs. Rainham's eyes that Cecilia had almost given up
+the attempt.  She attacked her greasy mutton and sloppy cabbage in
+silence, unpleasantly conscious of her stepmother's freezing
+glance.
+
+Mrs. Rainham was a short, stout woman, with colourless, rather
+pinched features, and a wealth of glorious red hair.  Some one had
+once told her that her profile was classic, and she still rejoiced
+in believing it, was always photographed from a side view, and wore
+in the house loose and flowing garments of strange tints,
+calculated to bring out the colour of her glowing tresses.
+Cecilia, who worshipped colour with every bit of her artist soul,
+adored her stepmother's hair as thoroughly as she detested her
+dresses.  Bob, who was blunt and inartistic, merely detested her
+from every point of view.  "Don't see what you find to rave about
+in it," he said.  "All the warmth of her disposition has simply
+gone to her head."
+
+There was certainly little warmth in Mrs. Rainham's heart, where
+her stepdaughter was concerned.  She disapproved very thoroughly of
+Cecilia in every detail--of her pretty face and delicate colouring,
+of the fair hair that rippled and curled and gleamed in a manner so
+light-hearted as to seem distinctly out of place in the dingy room,
+of the slender grace that was in vivid contrast to her own
+stoutness.  She resented the very way Cecilia put on her clothes--
+simple clothes, but worn with an air that made her own elaborate
+dresses cheap and common by comparison.  It was so easy for her to
+look well turned out; and it would never be easy to dress Avice,
+who bade fair to resemble her mother in build, and had already a
+passion for frills and trimmings, and a contempt for plain things.
+Mrs. Rainham had an uneasy conviction that the girl who bore all
+her scathing comments in silence actually dared to criticize her in
+her own mind--perhaps openly to Bob, whose blue eyes held many
+unspoken things as he looked at her.  Once she had overheard him
+say to Cecilia:  "She looks like an over-ornamented pie!"  Cecilia
+had laughed, and Mrs. Rainham had passed on, unsuspected, her mind
+full of a wild surmise.  They would never dare to mean her--and
+yet--that new dress of hers was plastered with queer little bits of
+purposeless trimmings.  She never again wore it without that
+terrible sentence creeping into her mind.  And she had been so
+pleased with it, too!  An over-ornamented pie.  If she could only
+have been sure they meant her!
+
+She thought of it again as she sat looking at Cecilia.  The new
+dress was lying on her bed, ready to be worn that afternoon; and
+Cecilia was going to meet Bob--Bob, who had uttered the horrible
+remark.  Well, at least there should be no haste about the meeting.
+It would do Bob no harm to cool his heels for a little.  She set
+her thin lips tightly together, as she helped the rice pudding.
+
+The meal ended, amidst loud grumbles from Wilfred that the pudding
+was rice; and Cecilia hurried off to find the flowers and arrange
+them.  The florist's box was near the vases left ready by the
+faithful Eliza; she cut the string with a happy exclamation of
+"Daffodils!" as she lifted the lid.  Daffodils were always a joy;
+this afternoon they were doubly welcome, because easy to arrange.
+She sorted them into long-necked vases swiftly, carrying each vase,
+when filled, to the drawing-room--a painful apartment, crowded with
+knick-knacks until it resembled a bazaar stall, with knobby and
+unsteady bamboo furniture and much drapery of a would-be artistic
+nature.  It was stuffy and airless.  Cecilia wrinkled her pretty
+nose as she entered.  Mrs. Rainham held pronounced views on the
+subject of what she termed the "fresh-air fad," and declined to let
+London air--a smoky commodity at best--attack her cherished
+carpets; with the result that Cecilia breathed freely only in her
+little attic, which had no carpet at all.
+
+The lady of the house rustled in, in her flowing robe, as Cecilia
+put the last vase into position on the piano--finding room for it
+with difficulty amid a collection of photograph frames and china
+ornaments.  She carried some music, and cast a critical eye round
+the room.
+
+"This place looks as if it had not been properly dusted for a
+week," she remarked.  "See to it before you go, Cecilia."  She
+opened the piano.  "Just come and try the accompaniment to this
+song--it's rather difficult, and I want to sing it to-night."
+
+Cecilia sat down before the piano, with woe in her heart.  Her
+stepmother's delusion that she could sing was one of the minor
+trials of her life.  She had been thoroughly trained in Paris,
+under a master who had prophesied great things for her; now her
+hours at the Rainhams' tinkly piano, playing dreary accompaniments
+to sentimental songs with Mrs. Rainham's weak soprano wobbling and
+flattening on the high notes, were hours of real distress, from
+which she would escape feeling her teeth on edge.  Her stepmother,
+however, had thoroughly enjoyed herself since the discovery that no
+accompaniment presented any difficulty to Cecilia.  It saved her a
+world of trouble in practising; moreover, when standing, it was far
+easier to let herself go in the affecting passages, which always
+suffered from scantiness of breath when she was sitting down.
+Therefore she would stand beside Cecilia, pouring forth song after
+song, with her head slightly on one side, and one hand resting
+lightly on the piano--an attitude which, after experiment with a
+mirror, she had decided upon as especially becoming.
+
+The song of the moment did make some demands upon her attention.
+It had a disconcerting way of changing from sharps to flats;
+trouble being caused by the singer failing to change also.  Cecilia
+took her through it patiently, going over and over again the tricky
+passages, and devoutly wishing that Providence in supplying her
+stepmother with boundless energy, a tireless voice and an enormous
+stock of songs, had also equipped her with an ear for music.  At
+length the lady desisted from her efforts.
+
+"That's quite all right," she said, with satisfaction.  "I'll sing
+it to-night.  The Simons will be here, and they do like to hear
+what's new.  Go on with your dusting; I'll just run through a few
+pieces, and you can tell me if I go wrong."
+
+Cecilia hesitated, glancing at the clock.
+
+"It is getting very late," she said.  "Eliza told me she could dust
+the room."
+
+"Eliza!" said Mrs. Rainham.  "Why, it's her silver day; she had no
+business to tell you anything of the sort--and neither had you, to
+ask her to do it.  Goodness knows it's hard enough to make the lazy
+thing do her own work.  Just get your duster, and make sure as you
+come down that the children are properly dressed for the dancing
+class."  She broke into a waltz.
+
+Cecilia ran.  Sounds of woe greeted her as she neared Avice's room,
+and she entered, to find that damsel plunged in despair over a
+missing button.
+
+"It was on all right last time I wore the beastly dress," wailed
+she.  "If you'd look after my clothes like Mater said you had to, I
+wouldn't be late.  Whatever am I to do?  I can't make the old dress
+shut with a safety pin."
+
+"No, you certainly can't," said her half-sister.  "Never mind;
+there are spare buttons for that frock, and I can sew one on."  She
+accomplished the task with difficulty, since Avice appeared quite
+unable to stand still.
+
+"Now, are you ready, Avice?  Shoes, hat, gloves--where are your
+gloves?  How do you ever manage to find anything in that drawer?"
+She rooted swiftly in a wild chaos, and finally unearthed the
+gloves.  "Yes, you'll do.  Now, where's Wilfred?"  Search revealed
+Wilfred, who hated dancing, reading a "penny dreadful" in his room--
+ready to start, save for the trifling detail of having neglected
+to wash an extremely dirty face.  Cecilia managed to make him
+repair the omission, after a struggle, and saw them off with a
+thankful heart--which sank anew as she heard a neighbouring clock
+strike three.  Three--and already she should be meeting Bob in Hyde
+Park.  She fled for a duster, and hurried to the drawing-room.
+Eliza encountered her on the way.
+
+"Now, wotcher goin' to do wiv that duster, Miss?" she inquired.
+"I told yer I'd do it for yer."
+
+"Mrs. Rainham is waiting for me to do it, Eliza.  I'm sorry."
+
+"Ow!"  Eliza's expression and her tilted nose spoke volumes.
+"Suppose she finks I wouldn't clean 'er old silver proper.  Silver,
+indeed!--'lectrer-plyte, an' common at that.  Just you cut and run
+as soon as she's out of the 'ouse, Miss; I know she's goin', 'cause
+'er green and yaller dress is a-airin' on 'er bed."
+
+"It's not much good, Eliza.  I ought to be in the Park now."
+Cecilia knew she should not allow the girl to speak of her mistress
+so contemptuously.  But she was disheartened enough at the moment
+not to care.
+
+"Lor!" said Eliza.  "A bloomin' shyme, I calls it!"
+
+Cecilia found her stepmother happily engaged upon a succession of
+wrong notes that made her wince.  She dusted the room swiftly,
+aware all the time of a watchful eye.  Occasionally came a crisp
+comment:  "You didn't dust that window-sill."  "Cecilia, that table
+has four legs--did you only notice two?"--the effort to speak while
+playing generally bringing the performer with vigour upon a wrong
+chord.  The so-called music became almost a physical torment to the
+over-strained girl.
+
+"If she would only stop--if she would only go away!" she found
+herself murmuring, over and over.  Even the thought of Bob waiting
+in Hyde Park in the chill east wind became dim beside that horrible
+piano, banging and tinkling in her ear.  She dusted mechanically,
+picking up one cheap ornament after another--leaving the collection
+upon the piano until the last, in the hope that by the time she
+reached it the thirst for music would have departed from the
+performer.  But Mrs. Rainham's tea appointment was not yet; she was
+thoroughly enjoying herself, the charm of her own execution added
+to the knowledge that Cecilia was miserable, and Bob waiting
+somewhere, with what patience he might.  She held on to the bitter
+end, while the girl dusted the piano's burden with a set face.
+Then she finished a long and painful run, and shut the piano with a
+bang.
+
+"There--I've had quite a nice practice, and it isn't often the
+drawing-room gets really decently dusted," she remarked.  "Nothing
+like the eye of the mistress; I think I must practise every day
+while you are dusting, Cecilia.  Oh, and, Cecilia, give the legs of
+the piano a good rubbing.  Dear me, I must go and dress."
+
+Cecilia dragged herself upstairs a few minutes later.  All the
+spring was gone out of her; it really did not seem to matter much
+now whether she met Bob or not; she was too tired to care.  This
+was only a sample of many days; so it had been for two years--so it
+would be for two more, until she was twenty-one, and her own
+mistress.  But it did not seem possible that she could endure
+through another two years.
+
+She reached her own room, and was about to shut the door, when the
+harsh voice rasped upwards.
+
+"Cecilia!  Cecilia!  Come here a minute."
+
+The girl went down slowly.  Mrs. Rainham was standing before her
+mirror.
+
+"Just come and hook my dress, Cecilia.  This new dressmaker has a
+knack of making everything hard to fasten.  There--see that you
+start with the right hook and eye."
+
+At the moment, physical contact with her stepmother was almost the
+last straw for the girl.  She obeyed in silence, shrinking back as
+far as she could from the stout, over-scented body and the powdered
+face with the thin lips.  Mrs. Rainham watched her with a little
+smile.
+
+"Yes, that's all right," she said.  "Now, my hat, Cecilia--it's in
+the bandbox under the bed.  I can't stoop in this dress, that's the
+worst of it.  And my gloves are in that box on the chest of
+drawers--the white pair.  Hurry, Cecilia, my appointment is for
+four o'clock."
+
+"Mine was for three o'clock," said the girl in a low voice.
+
+"Oh, well, you should manage your work better.  I always tell you
+that.  Nothing like method in getting through every day.  However,
+Bob is only your brother--it would be more serious if it was a
+young man you were meeting.  Brothers don't matter much."
+
+Cecilia flamed round upon her.
+
+"Bob is more to me than anyone in the world," she cried.  "And I
+would rather keep any other man waiting."
+
+"Really?  But I shouldn't think it very likely that you'll ever
+have to trouble about other young men, Cecilia; you're not the
+sort.  Too thin and scraggy."  Mrs. Rainham surveyed her own
+generous proportions in the glass, and gathered up her gloves with
+a pleased air.  For the moment she could not possibly believe that
+anyone could have referred to her as "an over-ornamented pie."
+"Good-bye, Cecilia; don't be late for tea."  She sailed down the
+stairs.
+
+Even the bang of the hall door failed to convey any relief to
+Cecilia.  For the second time she toiled upstairs, to the bare
+freshness of her little room.  Generally, it had a tonic effect
+upon her; to-day it seemed that nothing could help her.  She leaned
+her head against the window, a wave of homesick loneliness flooding
+all her soul.  So deep were its waters that she did not hear the
+hall door open and close again, and presently swift feet pounding
+up the stairs.  Someone battered on her door.
+
+"Cecilia!  Are you there?"
+
+She ran to open the door.  Bob stood there, a short, muscular
+fellow, in Air Force blue, with twinkling eyes.  She put out her
+hands to him with a little pitiful gesture.
+
+"Don't say that horrible name again," she whispered.  "If anyone
+else calls me Cecilia I'll just go mad."
+
+Bob came in, and flung a brotherly arm round her shoulders.
+
+"Has it been so beastly?" he said.  "Poor little Tommy.  Oh, Tommy,
+I saw the over-ornamented pie sailing down the street, and I dived
+into a side alley until she'd gone out of range.  I guessed from
+her proud and happy face that you'd been scarified."
+
+"Scarified!" murmured Cecilia.  But Bob was not listening.  His
+face was radiant.
+
+"I couldn't wait in the park any longer," he said.  "I had to come
+and tell you.  Tommy, old thing--I'm demobilized!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RAINHAMS
+
+
+It was one of Mrs. Mark Rainham's grievances that, comparatively
+late in her married life, she should suddenly find herself brought
+into association with the children of her husband's first marriage.
+They were problems that Fate had previously removed from her path;
+she found it extremely annoying--at first--that Fate should cease
+to be so tactful, casting upon her a burden long borne by other
+shoulders.  It was not until she had accepted Mark Rainham, eleven
+years before, that she found out the very existence of Bob and
+Cecilia; she resented the manner of the discovery, even as she
+resented the children themselves.  Not that she ever dreamed of
+breaking off her engagement on their account.  She was a milliner
+in a Kensington shop, and to marry Mark Rainham, who was vaguely
+"something in the city," and belonged to a good club, and dressed
+well, was a distinct step in the social scale, and two unknown
+children were not going to make her draw back.  But to mother them
+was quite another question.
+
+Luckily, Fate had a compassionate eye upon the young Rainhams, and
+was quite willing to second their stepmother's resolve that they
+should come into her life as little as possible.  Their father had
+never concerned himself greatly about them.  A lazy and selfish
+man, he had always been willing to shelve the care of his small son
+and daughter--babies were not in his line, and the aunt who had
+brought up their mother was only too anxious to take Bob and
+Cecilia when that girl-mother had slipped away from life, leaving a
+week-old Cecilia and a sturdy, solemn Bob of three.
+
+The arrangement suited Mark Rainham very well.  Aunt Margaret's
+house at Twickenham was big enough for half a dozen babies; the
+children went there, with their nurse, and he was free to slip back
+into bachelor ways, living in comfortable chambers within easy
+reach of his club and not too far, with a good train service, from
+a golf links.  The regular week-end visits to the babies suffered
+occasional interruptions, and gradually grew fewer and fewer, until
+he became to the children a vague and mysterious person named Papa,
+who dropped from the skies now and then, asked them a number of
+silly questions, talked with great politeness to Aunt Margaret--
+who, they instinctively felt, liked him no better than they did--
+and then disappeared, whereupon every one was immensely relieved.
+Even the fact that he generally brought them a packet of expensive
+sweets was as nothing beside the harrowing knowledge that they must
+kiss him, thereby having their faces brushed with a large and
+scrubby moustache.  Aunt Margaret and nurse did not have to endure
+this infliction--which seemed to Bob and Cecilia obviously unfair.
+But the visits did not often happen--not enough to disturb
+seriously an existence crammed with interesting things like puppies
+and kittens, the pony cart, boats on the river that ran just beyond
+the lawn, occasional trips to London and the Zoo, and delirious
+fortnights at the seaside or on Devonshire moors.  Cecilia had
+never known even Bobby's shadowy memories of their own mother.
+Aunt Margaret was everything that mattered, and the person called
+Papa was merely an unpleasant incident.  Other little boys and
+girls whom they knew owned, in their houses, delightful people
+named Daddy and Mother; but Cecilia and Bob quite understood that
+every one could not have the same things, for possibly these
+fortunate children had no puppies or pony carts.  Nurse had pointed
+out this, so that it was perfectly clear.
+
+It was when Cecilia was eight and Bob eleven, that their father
+married again.  To the children it meant nothing; to Aunt Margaret
+it was a bomb.  If Mark Rainham had happened to die, or go to the
+North Pole, she would have borne the occurrence calmly; but that he
+should take a step which might mean separating her from her beloved
+babies shook her to her foundations.  Even when she was assured
+that the new Mrs. Rainham disliked children, and had not the
+slightest intention of adding Bob and Cecilia to her household,
+Aunt Margaret remained uneasy.  The red-haired person, as she
+mentally labelled her, might change her mind.  Mark Rainham was wax
+in her hands, and would always do as he was told.  Aunt Margaret,
+goaded by fear, became heroic.  She let the beloved house at
+Twickenham while Mr. and Mrs. Rainham were still on their
+honeymoon; packed up the children, her maids, nurse, the parrot and
+most of the puppies; and kept all her plans a profound secret until
+she was safely established in Paris.
+
+To the average Londoner, Paris is very far off.  There are, of
+course, very many people who run across the Channel as easily as a
+Melbourne man may week-end in Gippsland or Bendigo, but the
+suburban section of London is not fond of voyaging across a strip
+of water with unpleasant possibilities in the way of choppiness, to
+a strange country where most of the inhabitants have the bad taste
+not to speak English.  Neither Mark Rainham nor his new wife had
+ever been in France, and to them it seemed, as Aunt Margaret had
+shrewdly hoped it would, almost as though the Twickenham household
+had gone to the North Pole.  A great relief fell upon them, since
+there could now be no question of assuming duties when those duties
+were suddenly beyond their reach.  And Aunt Margaret's letter was
+convincing--such a good offer, suddenly, for the Twickenham house;
+such excellent educational opportunities for the children, in the
+shape of semi-English schools, where Bob and Cecilia might mix with
+English children and retain their nationality while acquiring
+Parisian French.  If Mark Rainham felt any inward resentment at the
+summary disposal of his son and daughter, he did not show it; as of
+old, it was easier to let things slide.  Aunt Margaret was given a
+free hand, save that at fourteen Bob returned to school in England;
+an arrangement that mattered little, since all his holidays were
+spent at the new home at Fontainebleau--a house which, even to the
+parrot, was highly reminiscent of Twickenham.
+
+Bob and Cecilia found life extremely interesting.  They were
+cheery, happy-go-lucky youngsters, with an immense capacity for
+enjoyment; and Aunt Margaret, while much too shrewd an old lady to
+spoil children, delighted in giving them a good time.  They found
+plenty of friends in the little English community in Paris, as well
+as among their French neighbours.  Paris itself was full of
+fascination; then there were wonderful excursions far afield--
+holidays in Brussels, in the South of France, even winter sporting
+in Switzerland.  Aunt Margaret was determined that her nurselings
+should miss nothing that she could give them.  The duty letters
+which she insisted on their writing, once a month, to their father
+told of happenings that seemed strangely remote from the humdrum
+life of London.  "By Jove, the old lady gives those youngsters a
+good time!" Mark Rainham would comment, tossing them across the
+table to his wife.  He did not guess at the dull rage that filled
+her as she read them--the unreasoning jealousy that these children
+should have opportunities so far beyond any that were likely to
+occur for her own, who squabbled angrily over their breakfast while
+she read.
+
+"She seems to have any amount of money to spend on gadding about,"
+she would say unpleasantly.
+
+"Oh, pots of money.  Wish to goodness I had some of it," her
+husband would answer.  Money was always scarce in the Rainham
+household.
+
+When the thunderbolt of war fell upon the world, Aunt Margaret,
+after the first pangs of panic, stiffened her back, and declined to
+leave France.  England, she declared, was not much safer than
+anywhere else; and was it likely that she and Cecilia would run
+away when Bob was coming back?  Bob, just eighteen, captain of his
+school training corps, stroke of its racing boat, and a mighty man
+of valour at football, slid naturally into khaki within a month of
+the outbreak of war, putting aside toys, with all the glad company
+of boys of the Empire, until such time as the Hun should be taught
+that he had no place among white men.  Aunt Margaret and Cecilia,
+knitting frantically at socks and mufflers and Balaclava helmets,
+were desperately proud of him, and compared his photograph, in
+uniform, with all the pictures of Etienne and Henri and Armand, and
+other French boys who had played with him under the trees at
+Fontainebleau, and had now marched away to join him at the greater
+game.  It was difficult to realize that they were not still little
+boys in blouses and knickerbockers--difficult even when they
+swooped down from time to time on short leave, filling the quiet
+houses with pranks and laughter that were wholly boyish.  Even when
+Bob had two stars on his cuff, and wore the ribbon of the Military
+Cross, it would have astonished Aunt Margaret and Cecilia very much
+had anyone suggested that he was grown up.
+
+Indeed, Aunt Margaret was never to think of him as anything but
+"one of the children."  Illness, sudden and fierce, fell upon her
+after a long spell of duty at the hospital where she worked from
+the first few months of the war--working as cook, since she had no
+nursing experience, and was, she remarked, too old to learn a new
+trade.  Brave as she was, there was no battling for her against the
+new foe; she faded out of life after a few days, holding Cecilia's
+hand very tightly until the end.
+
+Bob, obtaining leave with much difficulty, arrived a few days
+later, to find a piteous Cecilia, white-faced, stunned and
+bewildered.  She pleaded desperately against leaving France; amidst
+all the horror and chaos that had fallen upon her, it seemed
+unthinkable that she should put the sea between herself and Bob.
+But to remain was impossible.  Aunt Margaret's English maids wanted
+to go back to their friends, and a girl of seventeen could scarcely
+stay alone in a country torn by two years of war.  Besides, Aunt
+Margaret's affairs were queerly indefinite; there seemed very
+little money where there had formerly been plenty.  There was no
+alternative for Cecilia but England--and England meant the Rainham
+household, and such welcome as it might choose to give her.
+
+She was still bewildered when they made the brief journey across
+the Channel--a new Channel, peopled only with war-ships of every
+kind, from grim Dreadnoughts to submarines; with aircraft, bearing
+the red, white and blue circles of Britain, floating and circling
+overhead.  Last time Cecilia had crossed, it had been with Aunt
+Margaret on a big turbine mail boat; they had reached Calais just
+as an excursion steamer from Margate came up, gay with flags and
+light dresses, with a band playing ragtime on the well-deck, and
+people dancing to a concertina at the stern.  Now they zig-zagged
+across, sometimes at full speed, sometimes stopping dead or
+altering their course in obedience to the destroyer nosing ahead of
+them through the Channel mist; and she could see the face of the
+captain on the bridge, strained and anxious.  There were so few
+civilians on board that Cecilia and the two old servants were
+greeted with curious stares; nearly all the passengers were in
+uniform, their boots caked with the mud of the trenches, their
+khaki soiled with the grime of war.  It was all rather dream-like
+to Cecilia; and London itself was a very bad dream; darkened and
+silent, with the great beams of searchlights playing back and forth
+over the black skies in search of marauding Zeppelins.  And then
+came her father's stiff greeting, and the silent drive to the tall,
+narrow house in Lancaster Gate, where Mrs. Rainham met her coldly.
+In after years Cecilia never could think without a shudder of that
+first meal in her father's house--the struggle to eat, the lagging
+talk round the table, with Avice and Wilfred, frankly hostile,
+staring at her in silence, and her stepmother's pale eyes
+appraising every detail of her dress.  It was almost like happiness
+again to find herself alone, later; in a dingy little attic bedroom
+that smelt as though it had never known an open window--a sorry
+little hole, but still, out of the reach of those unblinking eyes.
+
+For the first year Cecilia had struggled to get away to earn her
+own living.  But a very few weeks served to show Mrs. Rainham that
+chance had sent her, in the person of the girl whose coming she had
+sullenly resented, a very useful buffer against any period of
+domestic stress.  Aunt Margaret had trained Cecilia thoroughly in
+all housewifely virtues, and her half-French education had given
+her much that was lacking in the stodgy damsels of Mrs. Rainham's
+acquaintance.  She was quick and courteous and willing; responding,
+moreover, to the lash of the tongue--after her first wide-eyed
+stare of utter amazement--exactly as a well-bred colt responds to a
+deftly-used whip.  "I'll keep her," was Mrs. Rainham's inward
+resolve.  "And she'll earn her keep too!"
+
+There was no doubt that Cecilia did that.  Wilfred and Avice saw to
+it, even had not their mother been fully capable of exacting the
+last ounce from the only helper she had ever had who had not the
+power to give her a week's notice.  Cecilia's first requests to be
+allowed to take up work outside had been shelved vaguely.  "We'll
+find some nice war-work for you presently". . . and meanwhile, the
+household was short-handed, Mrs. Rainham was overstrained--Cecilia
+found later that her stepmother was always "overstrained" whenever
+she spoke of leaving home--and duties multiplied about her and
+hemmed her in.  Mrs. Rainham was clever; the net closed round the
+girl so gradually that she scarcely realized its meshes until they
+were drawn tightly.  Even Bob helped.  "You're awfully young to
+start work on your own account," he wrote.  "Can't you stick it for
+a bit, if they are decent to you?"  And, rather than cause him any
+extra worry, Cecilia decided that she must "stick it."
+
+Of her father she saw little.  He was, just as she remembered him
+in her far-back childhood at Twickenham, vague and colourless.
+Rather to her horror, she found that the ordeal of being kissed by
+his large and scrubby moustache was just as unpleasant as ever.
+Cecilia had no idea of how he earned his living--he ate his
+breakfast hurriedly, concealed behind the Daily Mail, and then
+disappeared, bound for some mysterious place in the city--the part
+of London that was always full of mystery to Cecilia.  Golf was the
+one thing that roused him to any enthusiasm, and golf was even more
+of a mystery than the city.  Cecilia knew that it was played with
+assorted weapons, kept in a bag, and used for smiting a small ball
+over great expanses of country, but beyond these facts her
+knowledge stopped.  Mrs. Rainham had set her to clean the clubs one
+day, but her father, appearing unexpectedly, had taken them from
+her hands with something like roughness.  "No, by Jove!" he said.
+"You do a good many odd jobs in this house, but I'm hanged if you
+shall clean my golf sticks."  Cecilia did not realize that the
+assumed roughness covered something very like shame.
+
+Money matters were rather confusing.  A lawyer--also in the city--
+paid her a small sum quarterly--enough to dress on, and for minor
+expenses.  Bob wrote that Aunt Margaret's affairs were in a beastly
+tangle.  An annuity had died with her, and many of her investments
+had been hit by the war, and had ceased to pay dividends--had even,
+it seemed, ceased to be valuable at all.  There was a small
+allowance for Bob also, and some day, if luck should turn, there
+might be a little more.  Bob did not say that his own allowance was
+being hoarded for Cecilia, in case he "went west."  He lived on his
+pay, and even managed to save something out of that, being a youth
+of simple tastes.  His battalion had been practically wiped out of
+existence in the third year of the war, and after a peaceful month
+in a north country hospital, near an aerodrome, the call of the air
+was too much for him--he joined the cheerful band of flying men,
+and soon filled his letters to Cecilia with a bewildering mixture
+of technicalities and aviation slang that left her gasping.  But he
+got his wings in a very short time, and she was prouder of him than
+ever--and more than ever desperately afraid for him.
+
+The children's daily governess, a down-trodden person, left after
+Cecilia had been in England for a few months, and the girl stepped
+naturally into the vacant position until some one else should be
+found.  She had no idea that Mrs. Rainham made no effort at all to
+discover any other successor to Miss Simpkins.  Where, indeed, Mrs.
+Rainham demanded of herself, would she be likely to find anyone
+with such qualifications--young, docile, with every advantage of a
+modern education, speaking French like a native, and above and
+beyond all else, requiring no pay?  It would be flying in the face
+of Providence to ignore such a chance.  Wherefore Cecilia continued
+to lead her step-sisters and brother in the paths of learning, and
+life became a thing of utter weariness.  For Mrs. Rainham, though
+shrewd enough to get what she wanted, in the main was not a far-
+sighted woman; and in her unreasoning dislike and jealousy of
+Cecilia she failed to see that she defeated her own ends by making
+her a drudge.  Whatever benefit the girl might have given the
+children was lost in their contempt for her.  She had no authority,
+no power to enforce a command, or to give a punishment, and the
+children quickly discovered that, so long as they gave her the
+merest show of obedience in their mother's presence, any
+shortcomings in education would be laid at Cecilia's door.  Lesson
+time became a period of rare sport for the young Rainhams; it was
+so easy to bait the new sister with cheap taunts, to watch the
+quick blood mount to the very roots of her fair hair, to do just as
+little as possible, and then to see her blamed for the result.
+Mrs. Rainham's bitter tongue grew more and more uncontrolled as
+time went on and she felt the girl more fully in her power.  And
+Cecilia lived through each day with tight-shut lips, conscious of
+one clear thing in her mist of unhappy bewilderment--that Bob must
+not know: Bob, who would probably leave his job of skimming through
+the air of her beloved France after the Hun, and snatch an hour to
+fly to England and annihilate the entire Rainham household,
+returning with Cecilia tucked away somewhere in his aeroplane.  It
+was a pleasant dream, and served to carry her through more than one
+hard moment.  But it did not always serve; and there were nights
+when Cecilia mounted to her attic with dragging footsteps, to sit
+by her window in the darkness, gripping her courage with both
+hands, afraid to let herself think of the dear, happy past; of Aunt
+Margaret, whose very voice was love; least of all of Bob, perhaps
+even now flying in the dark over the German lines.  There was but
+one thing that she could hold to: she voiced it to herself, over
+and over with clenched hands, "It can't last for ever!  It can't
+last for ever!"
+
+And then, after the long years of clutching anxiety, came the
+Armistice, and Cecilia forgot all her troubles in its overwhelming
+relief.  No one would shoot at Bob any longer; there were no more
+hideous, squat guns, with muzzles yawning skywards, ready to shell
+him as he skimmed high overhead, like a swallow in the blue.
+Therefore she sang as she went about her work, undismayed by the
+laboured witticisms of Avice and Wilfred, or by Mrs. Rainham's
+venom, which increased with the realization that her victim might
+possibly slip from her grasp, since Bob would come home, and Bob
+was a person to be reckoned with.  Certainly Bob had scarcely any
+money; moreover, Cecilia was not of age, and, therefore, still
+under her father's control.  But Mrs. Rainham felt vaguely uneasy,
+and visions floated before her of the old days when governesses and
+maids had departed with unpleasant frequency, leaving her to face
+all sorts of disagreeable consequences.  She set her thin lips,
+vowing inwardly that Cecilia should remain.
+
+Nevertheless it was a relief to her that early demobilization did
+not come for Bob.  At the time of the Armistice he was attached to
+an Australian flying squadron, and for some months remained abroad;
+then he was sent back to England, and employed in training younger
+fliers at a Surrey aerodrome.  This had its drawbacks in Mrs.
+Rainham's eyes, since he was often able to run up to London, and,
+to Bob, London merely meant Cecilia.  It was only a question of
+time before he discovered something of what life at Lancaster Gate
+meant--his enlightenment beginning upon an afternoon when, arriving
+unexpectedly, and being left by Eliza to find Cecilia for himself,
+he had the good fortune to overhear Mrs. Rainham in one of her best
+efforts--a "wigging" to which Avice and Wilfred were listening
+delightedly, and which included not only Cecilia's sin of the
+moment, but her upbringing, her French education, her "foreign
+fashion of speaking," and her sinful extravagance in shoes.  These,
+and other matters, were furnishing Mrs. Rainham with ample material
+for a bitter discourse when she became aware of another presence in
+the room, and her eloquence faltered at the sight of Bob's
+astonished anger.
+
+Mrs. Rainham did not recall with any enjoyment the interview which
+followed--Cecilia and the children having been brushed out of the
+way by the indignant soldier.  Things which had been puzzling to
+Bob were suddenly made clear--traces of distress which Cecilia had
+often explained away vaguely, the children's half-contemptuous
+manner towards her, even Eliza's tone in speaking of her--a queer
+blend of anger and pity.  Mrs. Rainham held her ground to some
+extent, but the brother's questions were hard to parry, and some of
+his comments stung.
+
+"Well, I'll take her away," he stormed at length.  "It's evident
+that she does not give you satisfaction, and she certainly isn't
+happy.  She had better come away with me to-day."
+
+"Ah," said his stepmother freezingly, "and where will you take
+her?"
+
+Bob hesitated.
+
+"There are plenty of places--" he began.
+
+"Not for a young girl alone.  Cecilia is very ignorant of England;
+you could not be with her.  Your father would not hear of it.  You
+must remember that Cecilia is under his control until she is
+twenty-one."
+
+"My father has never bothered about either of us," Bob said
+bitterly.  "He surely won't object if I take her off your hands."
+
+"He will certainly not permit any such thing.  Whatever arrangement
+he made during your aunt's lifetime was quite a different matter.
+If you attempt to take Cecilia from his control you commit an
+illegal action," said Mrs. Rainham--hoping she was on safe ground.
+To her relief Bob did not contradict her.  English law and its
+mysteries were beyond him.
+
+"I don't see that that matters," he began doubtfully.  His
+stepmother cut him short.
+
+"You would very soon find that it matters a good deal," she said
+coldly.  "It would be quite simple for your father to get some kind
+of legal injunction, forbidding you to interfere with your sister.
+Home training is what she needs, and we are determined that she
+shall get it.  You will only unsettle and injure her by trying to
+induce her to disobey us."
+
+The hard voice fell like lead on the boy's ears.  He felt very
+helpless; if he did indeed snatch his sister away from this
+extremely unpleasant home, and their father had only to stretch out
+a long, legal tentacle and claw her back, it was clear that her
+position would be harder than ever.  He could only give in, at any
+rate, for the present, and in his anxiety for the little sister
+whom Aunt Margaret had always trained him to protect, he humbled
+himself to beg for better treatment for her.  "No one ever was
+angry with her," he said.  "She'll do anything for you if you're
+decent to her."
+
+"She might give less cause for annoyance if she had had a little
+more severity," said Mrs. Rainham with an unspoken sneer at poor
+Aunt Margaret.  "You had better advise her to do her best in return
+for the very comfortable home we give her."  With which Bob had to
+endeavour to be content, for the present.  He went off to find
+Cecilia, with a lowering brow, leaving his stepmother not nearly so
+easy in her mind as she seemed.  For Bob had a square jaw, and was
+apt to talk little and do a good deal; and his affection for
+Cecilia was, in Mrs. Rainham's eyes, little short of ridiculous.
+
+Thereafter, the brother and sister took counsel together and made
+great plans for the future, when once the Air Force should decide
+that it had no further wish to keep Captain Robert Rainham from
+earning his living on terra firma.  What that future was to be for
+Bob was very difficult to plan.  Aunt Margaret had intended him for
+a profession; but the time for that had gone by, even had the money
+been still available.  "I'm half glad that it isn't," Bob said; "I
+don't see how a fellow could go back to swotting over books after
+being really alive for nearly five years."  There seemed nothing
+but "the land" in some shape or form; they were not very clear
+about it, but Bob was strenuously "keeping his ears open"--like so
+many lads of his rank in the early months of 1919, when the future
+that had seemed so indefinite during the years of war suddenly
+loomed up, very large and menacing.  Cecilia had less anxiety; she
+had a cheerful faith that Bob would manage something--a three-
+roomed cottage somewhere in the country, where he could look after
+sheep, or crops, or something of the kind, while she cooked and
+mended for him, and grew such flowers as had bloomed in the dear
+garden at Fontainebleau.  Sheep and crops, she was convinced, grew
+themselves, in the main; a person of Bob's ability would surely
+find little difficulty in superintending the process.  And,
+whatever happened, nothing could be worse than life in Lancaster
+Gate.
+
+Neither of them ever thought of appealing to their father, either
+for advice or for help.  He remained, as he had always been to
+them, utterly colourless; a kind of well-bred shadow of his wife,
+taking no part in her hard treatment of Cecilia, but lifting not a
+finger to save her.  He did not look happy; indeed, he seldom
+spoke--it was not necessary, when Mrs. Rainham held the floor.  He
+had a tiny den which he used as a smoking-room, and there he spent
+most of his time when at home, being blessed in the fact that his
+wife disliked the smell of smoke, and refused to allow it in her
+drawing-room.  Nobody took much notice of him.  The younger
+children treated him with cool indifference; Bob met him with a
+kind of strained and uncomfortable civility.
+
+Curiously enough, it was only Eliza who divined in him a secret
+hankering after his eldest daughter--Cecilia, who would have been
+very much astonished had anyone hinted at such a thing to her.  The
+sharp eyes of the little Cockney were not to be deceived in any
+matter concerning the only person in the house who treated her as
+if she were a human being and not a grate-cleaning automaton.
+
+"You see 'im foller 'er wiv 'is eyes, that's all," said Eliza to
+Cook, in the privacy of their joint bedroom.  "Fair 'ungry he
+looks, sometimes."
+
+"No need for 'im to be 'ungry, if 'e 'ad the sperrit of a man,"
+said Cook practically.  "Ain't she 'is daughter?"
+
+"Well, yes, in a manner of speakin'," said Eliza doubtfully.  "But
+there ain't much of father an' daughter about them two.  I'd ruther
+'ave my ole man, down W'itechapel way; 'e can belt yer a fair
+terror, w'en 'e's drunk, but 'e'll allers tike yer out an' buy yer
+a kipper arterwards.  Thet's on'y decent, fatherly feelin'."
+
+"Well, Master don't belt 'er, does 'e?"
+
+"No; but 'e don't buy 'er the kipper, neither.  An' I'd ruther 'ave
+the beltin' from my ole man, even wivout no kipper, than 'ave us
+allers lookin' at each other as if we was wooden images.  Even a
+beltin' shows as 'ow a man 'as some regard for 'is daughter."
+
+"It do," said Cook.  "Pity is, you ain't 'ad more of it, that's the
+only thing!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PLAYING TRUANT
+
+
+"Demobilized!  Oh, Bob--truly?"
+
+"Truly and really," said Bob.  "At least, I shall be in twenty-
+seven days.  Got my orders.  Show up for the last time on the
+fifteenth of next month.  Get patted on the head, and told to run
+away and play.  That's the programme, I believe, Tommy.  The
+question is--What shall we play at?"
+
+Cecilia brushed the hair from her brow.
+
+"I don't know," she said vaguely.  "It's too big to think of; and I
+can't think in this awful house, anyhow.  Take me out, quick,
+please, Bobby."
+
+"Sure," said Bob, regarding her with an understanding eye.  "But
+you want to change or something, don't you, old girl?"
+
+"Why, yes, I suppose I do," said Cecilia, with a watery smile,
+looking at her schoolroom overall.  "I forgot clothes.  I've had a
+somewhat packed morning."
+
+"You look as if this had been your busy day," remarked Bob.
+"Right-oh, old girl; jump into your things, and I'll wait on the
+mat.  Any chance of the she-dragon coming back?"
+
+"No; she's gone out to tea."
+
+"More power to her," said Bob cheerfully.  "And the dragon
+puppies?"
+
+"Oh, they're safely out of the way.  I won't be five minutes, Bob.
+Don't shut the door tight--you might disappear before I opened it."
+
+"Not much," said Bob, through the crack of the door.  "I'm a
+fixture.  Want any shoes cleaned?"
+
+"No, thanks, Bobby dear.  I have everything ready."
+
+"From what the other fellows say about their sisters, I'm inclined
+to believe that you're an ornament to your sex," remarked Bob.
+"When you say five minutes, it really does mean not more than five
+and a half, as a rule; other girls seem to mean three-quarters of
+an hour."
+
+"I get all my things ready the night before when I'm going to meet
+you," said Cecilia.  "Catch me losing any time on my one day out.
+You can come back again--my coat's on the hanger there, Bobby."  He
+put her into it deftly, and she leaned back against him.  "If you
+knew how good it is to see you again--and you smell of clean fresh
+air and good tobacco and Russia leather, and all sorts of nice
+things."
+
+"Good gracious, I'll excite attention in the street!" grinned Bob.
+"I didn't imagine I was a walking scent-factory!"
+
+"Neither you are--but everything in this house smells of coal-smoke
+and cabbage-water and general fustiness, and you're a nice change,
+that's all," said Cecilia.  They ran downstairs together light-
+heartedly, and let themselves out into the street.
+
+"Do we catch a train or a 'bus?"
+
+"Oh, can't we walk?" Cecilia said.  "I think if I walked hard I
+might forget Mrs. Rainham."
+
+"I'd hate you to remember her," Bob said.  "Tell me what she has
+been doing, anyhow, and then we won't think of her any more."
+
+"It doesn't sound much," Cecilia said.  "There never is anything
+very much.  Only it goes on all the time."  She told him the story
+of her day, and managed to make herself laugh now and then over it.
+But Bob did not laugh.  His good-humoured young face was set and
+angry.
+
+"There isn't a whole lot in it, is there?" Cecilia finished.  "And
+no one would think I was badly off--especially when the thing that
+hit me hardest of all was just dusting that awful drawing-room
+while she plays her awful tunes.  Yes, I know I shouldn't say
+awful, and that no lady says it--that must be true because Mrs.
+Rainham frequently tells me so--but it's such a relief to say
+whatever I feel like."
+
+"You can say what you jolly well please," said Bob wrathfully.
+"Who's she, I'd like to know, to tell us what to say?  And she kept
+you there all the afternoon, when she knew you were due to meet
+me!--my hat, she is a venomous old bird!  And now it's half-past
+four, and what time does she expect you back?"
+
+"Oh--the usual thing; the children's tea-time at six.  She told me
+not to be late."
+
+Bob set his jaw.
+
+"Well, you won't be late, because you won't be there," he said.
+"No going back to tea for you.  We'll have dinner at the Petit
+Riche in Soho, and then we'll do a theatre, and then I'll take you
+home and we'll face the music.  Are you game?"
+
+Cecilia laughed.
+
+"Game?  Why, of course--but there will be awful scenes, Bobby."
+
+"Well, what can she do to you?" asked Bob practically.  "You're too
+big to beat, or she'd certainly do it; she can't stop your pay,
+because you don't get any; and as you have your meals with the
+youngsters, she can't dock your rations.  That doesn't leave her
+much beside her tongue.  Of course, she can do a good deal with
+that; do you think you can stand it?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said Cecilia.  "You see, I generally have it, so it
+really doesn't matter much.  But if she forbids me to go out with
+you again, Bobby?"
+
+Bob pondered.
+
+"Well--you're nineteen," he said.  "And the very first minute I
+can, I'm going to take you away from her altogether.  If you were a
+kid I wouldn't let you defy her.  But, hang it all, Tommy, I'm not
+going to let her punish you as though you were ten.  If she forbids
+you to meet me--well, you must just take French leave, that's all."
+
+"Oh, Bob, you are a satisfying person!" said Cecilia, with a sigh.
+
+"Well, I don't know--it's you who will have to stand the racket,"
+said Bob.  "I only wish I could take my share, old girl.  But,
+please goodness, it won't be for long."
+
+"Bob," said Cecilia, and paused.  "What about that statement of
+hers--that it would be illegal for you to take me away?  Do you
+think it's true?"
+
+"I've asked our Major, and he's a bit doubtful," said Bob.  "All
+the other fellows say it's utter nonsense.  But I'm going to ask
+the old lawyer chap who has charge of Aunt Margaret's money--he'll
+tell me.  We won't bother about it, Tommy; if I can't get you
+politely, I'll steal you.  Just forget the she-dragon and all her
+works."
+
+"But have you thought about what you are going to do?"
+
+"I don't think of much else, and that's the truth, Tommy," said her
+brother ruefully.  "You see, there's mighty little in sight.  I
+could get a clerkship, I suppose.  I could certainly get work as a
+day labourer.  But I don't see much in either of those possibilities
+towards a little home with you, which is what I want.  I'm going to
+answer every advertisement I can find for fellows wanted on farms."
+He straightened his square shoulders.  "Tommy, there must be plenty
+of work for any chap as strong as an ox, as I am."
+
+"I'm sure there's work," said Cecilia.  "But the men who want jobs
+don't generally advertise themselves as 'complete with sister.'
+I'm what's technically known as an encumbrance, Bob."
+
+"You!" said Bob.  "You're just part of the firm, so don't you
+forget it.  Didn't we always arrange that we should stick
+together?"
+
+"We did--but it may not be easy to manage," Cecilia said,
+doubtfully.  "Perhaps we could get some job together; I could do
+inside work, or teach, or sew."
+
+"No!" said Bob explosively.  "If I can't earn enough for us both, I
+ought to be shot, Aunt Margaret didn't bring you up to work."
+
+"But the world has turned upside down since Aunt Margaret died,"
+said Cecilia.  "And I have worked pretty hard for the last two
+years, Bob; and it hasn't hurt me."
+
+"It has made you older--and you ought to be only a kid yet," said
+Bob wistfully.  "You haven't had any of the fun girls naturally
+ought to have.  I don't want you to slave all your time, Tommy."
+
+"Bless you!" said his sister.  "But I wouldn't care a bit, as long
+as it was near you--and not in Lancaster Gate."
+
+They had turned across Hyde Park, where a big company of girl
+guides was drilling, watched by a crowd of curious on-lookers.
+Across a belt of grass some boy scouts were performing similar
+evolutions, marching with all the extra polish and swagger they
+could command, just to show the guides that girls were all very
+well in their way, but that no one with skirts could really hope to
+do credit to a uniform.  Cecilia paused to watch them.
+
+"Thank goodness, the children can come and drill in the park
+again!" she said.  "I hated to come here before the armistice--
+soldiers, soldiers, drilling everywhere, and guns and searchlight
+fixings.  Whenever I saw a squad drilling it made me think of you,
+and of course I felt sure you'd be killed!"
+
+"I do like people who look on the bright side of life!" said Bob
+laughing.  "And whenever you saw an aeroplane I suppose you made
+sure I was crashing somewhere?"
+
+"Certainly I did," said his sister with dignity.
+
+"Women are queer things," Bob remarked.  "If you had these
+unpleasant beliefs, how did you manage to write as cheerfully as
+you did?  Your letters were a scream--I used to read bits of 'em
+out to the fellows."
+
+"You had no business to do any such thing," said Cecilia, blushing.
+
+"Well, I did, anyhow.  They used to make 'em yell.  How did you
+manage them?"
+
+"Well, it was no good assuring you you'd be killed," said Cecilia
+practically.  "I thought it was more sensible to try to make you
+laugh."
+
+"You certainly did that," said Bob.  "I fancied from your letters
+that life with the she-dragon was one huge joke, and that Papa was
+nice and companionable, and the kids, sweet little darlings who ate
+from your hand.  And all the time you were just the poor old toad
+under the harrow!"
+
+"I'm not a toad!" rejoined his sister indignantly.  "Don't you
+think you could find pleasanter things to compare me to?"
+
+"Toads aren't bad," said Bob, laughing.  "Ever seen the nice old
+fellow in the Zoo who shoots out a tongue a yard long and picks up
+a grub every time?  He's quite interesting."
+
+"I certainly never had any inclination to do any such thing,"
+Cecilia laughed.
+
+They had turned into Piccadilly and were walking down, watching the
+crowded motor traffic racing north and south.  Suddenly Bob
+straightened up and saluted smartly, as a tall staff officer,
+wearing a general's badges, ran down the steps of a big club, and
+nearly cannoned into Cecilia.
+
+"I beg your pardon!" he said--and then, noticing Bob--"How are you,
+Rainham?"  He dived into a waiting taxi, and was whisked away.
+
+"Did he bump you?" inquired Bob.
+
+"No--though it would be almost a privilege to be bumped by anyone
+as splendid as that!" Cecilia answered.  "He knows you, too!--who
+is he, Bobby?"
+
+"That's General Harran, the Australian," said Bob proudly.  "He's a
+great man.  I've run into him occasionally since I've been with the
+Australians in France."
+
+"He looks nice."
+
+"He is nice," replied Bob.  "Awful martinet about duty, but he
+treats every one under him jolly well.  Never forgets a face or a
+name, and he's always got a decent word for everybody.  He's had
+some quite long talks to me, when we were waiting for some 'plane
+or other to come back."
+
+"Why wouldn't he?" asked Cecilia, who considered it a privilege for
+anyone to talk to her brother.
+
+Bob regarded her in amazement.
+
+"Good gracious!" he ejaculated.  "Why, he's a major-general; I can
+tell you, most men of his rank haven't any use for small fry like
+me--to talk to, that is."
+
+Cecilia had a flash of memory.
+
+"Isn't he the general who was close by when you brought that German
+aeroplane down behind our lines?  Didn't he say nice things to you
+about it?"
+
+"Oh, that was only in the way of business," said Bob somewhat
+confused.  "The whole thing was only a bit of luck--and, of course,
+it was luck, too, that he was there.  But he is just as nice to
+fellows who haven't had a chance like that."
+
+Out of the crowd two more figures in Air Force uniform came,
+charging at Bob with outstretched hands.
+
+"By Jove, old chap!  What luck to meet you!"
+
+They shook hands tumultuously, and Bob made them known to Cecilia--
+comrades he had not seen for months, but with whom he had shared
+many strange experiences in the years of war.  They fell into quick
+talk, full of the queer jargon of the air.  The newcomers, it
+appeared, had been with the army of occupation in Germany; there
+seemed a thousand things they urgently desired to tell Bob within
+the next few minutes.  One turned to Cecilia, presently, with a
+laughing interpretation of some highly technical bit of slang.
+
+"Oh, you needn't bother to translate to Tommy," Bob said.  "She
+knows all about it."
+
+The other boys suddenly gave her all their attention.
+
+"Are you Tommy?  But we know you awfully well."
+
+"Me?"  Cecilia turned pink.
+
+"Rather.  We used to hear your letters."
+
+The pink deepened to a fine scarlet.
+
+"Bob!" said his sister reproachfully.  "You really shouldn't."
+
+"Oh, don't say that," said the taller boy, by name Harrison.  "They
+were a godsend--there used to be jolly little to laugh about,
+pretty often, and your letters made us all yell.  Didn't they,
+Billy?"
+
+"They did," said Billy, who was small and curly-haired--and
+incidentally a captain, with a little row of medal ribbons.
+"Jolliest letters ever.  We passed a vote of thanks to you in the
+mess, Miss Tommy, after old Bob here had gone.  Some one was to
+write and tell him about it, but I don't believe anyone ever did.
+I say, you must have had a cheery time--all the funny things that
+ever happened seemed to come your way."
+
+Cecilia stammered something, her scarlet confusion deepening.  A
+rather grim vision of the war years swept across her mind--of the
+ceaseless quest in papers and journals, and wherever people talked,
+for "funny things" to tell Bob; and of how, when fact and rumour
+gave out, she used to sit by her attic window at night, deliberately
+inventing merry jests.  It had closely resembled a job of hard work
+at the time; but apparently it had served its purpose well.  She
+had made them laugh; and some one had told her that no greater
+service could be rendered to the boys who risked death, and worse
+than death, during every hour of the day and night.  But it was
+extremely difficult to talk about it afterwards.
+
+Bob took pity on her.
+
+"I'll tell you just what sort of a cheery time she had, some time
+or other," he remarked.  "What are you fellows doing this evening?"
+
+"We were just going to ask you the same thing," declared Billy.
+"Can't we all go and play about somewhere?  We've just landed, and
+we want to be looked after.  Any theatres in this little town
+still?"
+
+"Cheer-oh!" ejaculated Billy.  "Let's all go and find out."
+
+So they went, and managed very successfully to forget war and even
+stepmothers.  They were all little more than children in enjoyment
+of simple pleasures still, since war had fallen upon them at the
+very threshold of life, cutting them off from all the cheery
+happenings that are the natural inheritance of all young things.
+The years that would ordinarily have seen them growing tired of
+play had been spent in grim tasks; now they were children again,
+clamouring for the playtime they had lost.  They found enormous
+pleasure in the funny little French restaurant, where Madame, a
+lady whose sympathies were as boundless as her waist, welcomed them
+with wide smiles, delighting in the broken French of Billy and
+Harrison, and deftly tempting them to fresh excursions in her
+language.  She put a question in infantile French to Bob presently,
+whereupon that guileless youth, with a childlike smile, answered
+her with a flood of idiomatic phrases, in an accent purer than her
+own--collapsing with helpless laughter at her amazed face.  After
+which, Madame neglected her other patrons to hover about their
+table like a stout, presiding goddess, guiding them gently to the
+best dishes on the menu, and occasionally putting aside their own
+selection with a hasty, "Mon-non; you vill not like that one to-
+day."  She patted Cecilia in a motherly fashion at parting, and
+their bill was only about half what it should have been.
+
+They found a musical comedy, and laughed their way through it--
+Billy and Harrison had apparently no cares in the world, and Bob
+and Cecilia were caught up in the whirl of their high spirits, so
+that anything became a huge joke.  The evening flew by on airy
+wings, when Billy insisted on taking them to supper after the
+theatre.  Cecilia allowed herself a fleeting vision of Mrs.
+Rainham, and then, deciding that she might as well be hanged for a
+sheep as a lamb, followed gaily.  And supper was so cheery a meal
+that she forgot all about time--until, just at the end, she caught
+sight of the restaurant clock.
+
+"Half-past eleven!  Oh, Bobby!"
+
+"Well, if it is--you poor little old Cinderella," said Bob.
+
+But he hurried her away, for all that, amid a chorus of farewells
+and efforts, on the part of Billy and Harrison, to arrange further
+meetings.  They ran to the nearest tube station, and dived into its
+depths; and, after being whisked underground for a few minutes,
+emerged into the cool night.  Cecilia slipped her arm through her
+brother's as they hurried along the empty street.
+
+"Now, you keep your nose in the air," Bobby told her.  "You aren't
+exactly a kid now, and she can't really do anything to you.  Oh, by
+Jove--I was thinking, in the theatre, she might interfere with our
+letters."
+
+"She's quite equal to it," said Cecilia.
+
+"Just what she'd revel in doing.  Well, you can easily find out.
+I'll write to you to-morrow, and again the next day--just ordinary
+letters, with nothing particular in them except an arrangement to
+meet next Saturday.  If you don't get them you'll know she's
+getting at the mail first."
+
+"What shall I do, then?"
+
+"Drop me a line--or, better still, wire to me," said Bob.  "Just
+say, 'Address elsewhere.'  Then I'll write to you at Mr.
+M'Clinton's; the old solicitor chap in Lincoln's Inn; and you'll
+have to go there and get the letters.  You know his address, don't
+you?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  I have to write to him every quarter when he sends me my
+allowance.  You'll explain to him, then, Bob, or he'll simply
+redirect your letters here."
+
+"Oh, of course.  I want to go and see the old chap, anyhow, to talk
+over Aunt Margaret's affairs.  I might as well know a little more
+about them.  Tommy, the she-dragon can't actually lock you up, can
+she?"
+
+"No--it couldn't be done," said Cecilia.  "Modern houses aren't
+built with dungeons and things.  Moreover, if she tried to keep me
+in the house she would have to take the children out for their
+walks herself; and she simply hates walking."
+
+"Then you can certainly post to me, and get my letters, and I'll be
+up again as soon as ever I can.  Buck up, old girl--it can't be for
+long now."
+
+They turned in at the Rainhams' front gate, and Cecilia glanced up
+apprehensively.  All the windows were in darkness; the grey front
+of the house loomed forbiddingly in the faint moonlight.
+
+"You're coming in, aren't you?" she asked, her hand tightening on
+his arm.
+
+"Rather--we'll take the edge off her tongue together."  Bob rang
+the bell.  "Wonder if they have all gone to bed.  The place looks
+pretty dark."
+
+"She's probably in the little room at the back--the one she calls
+her boudoir."
+
+"Horrible little den, full of bamboo and draperies and pampas
+grass--I know," nodded Bob.  "Well, either she's asleep or she
+thinks it's fun to keep us on the mat.  I'll try her again."  He
+pressed the bell, and the sound of its whirring echoed through the
+silent house.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+COMING HOME
+
+
+The bolt grated, as if grudgingly, and slowly the door opened as
+far as the limits of its chain would permit, and Mrs. Rainham's
+face appeared in the aperture.  She glared at them for a minute
+without speaking.
+
+"So you have come home?" she said at last.  The chain fell, and the
+door opened.  "I wonder you trouble to come home at all.  May I ask
+where you have been?"
+
+"She has been with me, Mrs. Rainham," Bob said cheerfully.  "May I
+come in?"
+
+Mrs. Rainham did not move.  She held the door half open, blocking
+the way.
+
+"It is far too late for me to ask you in," she answered frigidly.
+"Cecilia can explain her conduct, I presume."
+
+"Oh, there's really nothing to explain," Bob answered.  "It was so
+late when she got out this afternoon that I kept her--why, it was
+after half-past four before she was dressed."
+
+"I told her to be in for tea."
+
+"Yes; but I felt sure you couldn't realize how late she was in
+getting out," said Bob in a voice of honey.
+
+"That was entirely her own mismanagement--" began the hard tones.
+
+"Oh, no, Mrs. Rainham; really it wasn't," said Cecilia mildly.
+"Your accompaniments, you remember--your dress--your music," she
+stopped, in amazement at herself.  It was rarely indeed that she
+answered any accusation of her stepmother's.  But to be on the mat
+at midnight, with Bob in support, seemed to give her extraordinary
+courage.
+
+"You see, Mrs. Rainham, there seems to have been quite a number of
+little details that Cecilia couldn't mismanage," said Bob,
+following up the advantage.  It was happily evident that his
+stepmother's rage was preventing her from speaking, and, as he
+remarked later, there was no knowing when he would ever get such a
+chance again.  "She really needed rest.  I'm sure you'll agree that
+every one is entitled to some free time.  Of course, you couldn't
+possibly have realized that it was a week since she had been off
+duty."
+
+"It's her business to do what I tell her," said Mrs. Rainham,
+finding her voice, in an explosive fashion that made a passing
+policeman glance up curiously.  "She knew I had company, and
+expected her help.  I had to see to the children's tea myself.  And
+how do I know where she's been?--gallivanting round to all sorts of
+places!  I tell you, young lady, you needn't think you're going to
+walk in here at midnight as if nothing was the matter."
+
+"I never expected to," said Cecilia cheerfully.  "But it was worth
+it."
+
+Bob regarded her in solemn admiration.
+
+"I don't think we gallivanted at all reprehensibly," he said.
+"Just dinner and a theatre.  I haven't made much claim to her time
+during the last four years, Mrs. Rainham; surely I'm entitled to a
+little of it now."
+
+"You!"  Mrs. Rainham's tone was vicious.  "You don't give her a
+home, do you?  And as long as I do, she'll do what I tell her."
+
+"No; I don't give her a home--yet," said Bob very quietly.  "But I
+very soon will, I assure you; and meanwhile, she earns a good deal
+more than her keep in her father's house.  You can't treat her
+worse than your servants--"
+
+Cecilia suddenly turned to him.
+
+"Ah, don't, Bob darling.  It doesn't matter--truly--not a bit."
+With the end of the long penance before her, it seemed beyond the
+power of the angry woman in the doorway to hurt her much.  What she
+could not bear was that their happy evening should be spoiled by
+hard and cruel words at its close.  Bob's face, that had been so
+merry, was sterner than she had ever seen it, all its boyishness
+gone.  She put up her own face, and kissed him.
+
+"Good night--you mustn't stay any longer.  I'll be all right."  She
+whispered a few quick words of French, begging him to go, and Bob,
+though unwillingly, gave in.
+
+"All right," he said.  "Go to bed, little 'un.  I'll do as I
+promised about writing."  He saluted Mrs. Rainham stiffly.  "You'll
+remember, Mrs. Rainham, that she stayed out solely at my wish--I
+take full responsibility, and I'll be ready to tell my father so."
+The door closed behind Cecilia, and he strode away down the street,
+biting his lip.  He felt abominably as though he had deserted the
+little sister--and yet, what else could he do?  One could not
+remain for ever, brawling on a doorstep at midnight--and Tommy had
+begged him to go.  Still--
+
+"Hang it!" he said viciously.  "If she were only a decent Hun to
+fight!"
+
+In the grim house in Lancaster Gate Cecilia was facing the music
+alone.  She listened unmoved, as she had listened many times
+before, to the catalogue of her sins and misdeeds--only she had
+never seen her stepmother quite so angry.  Finally, a door above
+opened, and Mark Rainham looked out, his dull, colourless face
+weakly irritable.
+
+"I wish you'd stop that noise, and let the girl go to bed," he
+said.  "Come here, Cecilia."
+
+She went to him hesitating, and he looked at her with a spark of
+compassion.  Then he kissed her.
+
+"Good night," he said, as though he had called her to him simply to
+say it, and not to separate her from the furious woman who stood
+looking at them.  "Run off to bed, now--no more talking."  Cecilia
+ran upstairs obediently.  Behind her, as she neared her attic, she
+heard her stepmother's voice break out anew.
+
+"Just fancy Papa!" she muttered.  Any mother sensations were lost
+in wonder at her father's actually having intervened.  The
+incredible thing had happened.  For a moment she felt a wave of
+pity for him, left alone to face the shrill voice.  Then she
+shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Ah, well--he married her," she said.  "I suppose he has had it
+many a time.  Perhaps he knows how to stop it--I don't!"  She
+laughed, turning the key in the lock, and sitting down beside the
+open window.  The glamour of her happy evening was still upon her;
+even the scene with her stepmother had not had power to chase it
+away.  The scene was only to be expected; the laughter of the
+evening was worth so every-day a penalty.  And the end of Mrs.
+Rainham's rule was nearly in sight.  Not even to herself for a
+moment would she admit that there was any possibility of Bob
+failing to "make good" and take her away.
+
+She went downstairs next morning to an atmosphere of sullen
+resentment.  Her father gave her a brief, abstracted nod, in
+response to her greeting, and went on with his bacon and his Daily
+Mail; her stepmother's forbidding expression checked any attempt at
+conversation.  The children stared at her with a kind of malevolent
+curiosity; they knew that a storm had been brewing for her the
+night before, and longed to know just how thoroughly she had
+"caught it."  Eliza, bringing in singed and belated toast, looked
+at her with pity, tinged with admiration.  Cook and she had been
+awakened at midnight by what was evidently, in the words of Cook,
+"a perfickly 'orrible bust-up," and knowing Cecilia to have been
+its object, Eliza looked at her as one may look who expects to see
+the scars of battle.  Finding none, but receiving instead a
+cheerful smile, she returned to the kitchen, and reported to Cook
+that Miss Cecilia was "nuffink less than a neroine."
+
+But as that day and the next wore on, Cecilia found it difficult to
+be cheerful.  That she was in disgrace was very evident, Mrs.
+Rainham said no more about her sins of the night before; instead,
+she showed her displeasure by a kind of cold rudeness that gave a
+subtle insult to her smallest remark.  The children were manifestly
+delighted.  Cecilia was more or less in the position of a beetle on
+a pin, and theirs was the precious opportunity of seeing her
+wriggle.  Wherefore they adopted their mother's tone, openly defied
+her, and turned school-hours into a pandemonium.
+
+Cecilia at last gave up the attempt to keep order.  She opened her
+desk and took out her knitting.
+
+"Well, this is all very pleasant," she said, calmly.  "You seem
+determined to do no work at all, so I can only hope that in time
+you will get tired of being idle.  I can't attempt to teach you any
+more.  I am quite ready, however, if you bring your lessons to me."
+
+"You'll get into a nice row from the Mater," jeered Wilfred.
+
+"Very possibly.  She may even punish me by finding another
+governess," said Cecilia, with a twinkle.  "However that may be, I
+do not feel compelled to talk to such rude little children as you
+any more.  When you are able to speak politely you may come to me
+for anything you want; until then, I shall not answer you."  She
+bent her attention to the mysteries of heel-turning.
+
+The children were taken aback.  To pinprick with rudeness a victim
+who answered back was entertaining; but there was small fun in
+baiting anybody who sat silently knitting with a half-smile of
+contempt at the corners of her mouth.  They gave it up after a
+time, and considered the question of going out; a pleasant thing to
+do, only that their mother had laid upon them a special injunction
+not to leave Cecilia, and she was in a mood that made disobedience
+extremely dangerous.  Cecilia quite understood that she was being
+watched.  No letters had yet come from Bob, and she knew that her
+stepmother had been hovering near the letter-box whenever the
+postman had called.  Mrs. Rainham had accompanied them on their
+walk the day before; a remark of Avice's revealed that she meant to
+do so again to-day.
+
+"It's all so silly," the girl said to herself.  "If I chose to dive
+into a tube station or board a motor-bus she couldn't stop me;
+and she can't go on watching me and intercepting my letters
+indefinitely.  I suppose she will get tired of it after a while."
+But meanwhile she found the spying rather amusing.  Avice popped up
+unexpectedly if she went near the front door; Wilfred's bullet head
+peeped in through the window whenever she fancied herself alone in
+the schoolroom.  Only her attic was safe--since to spy upon it
+would have required an aeroplane.
+
+The third day brought no letter from Bob.  Cecilia asked for her
+mail when she went down to breakfast, and was met by a blank stare
+from her stepmother--"I suppose if there had been any letters for
+you they would be on your plate."  She flushed a little under the
+girl's direct gaze, and turned her attention to Queenie's table
+manners, which were at all times peculiar; and Cecilia sat down
+with a faint smile.  It was time to obey orders and telegraph to
+Bob.
+
+She planned how to do it, during a long morning when the children
+actually did some work--since to be rude or idle meant that their
+teacher immediately retired into her shell of silence, and knitted,
+and life became too dull.  To employ Eliza was her first thought--
+rejected, since it seemed unlikely that Eliza would be able to get
+time off to go out.  If Mrs. Rainham's well-known dislike for
+walking proved too strong for her desire to watch her stepdaughter,
+it would be easy enough to do it during the afternoon; but this
+hope proved vain, for when she appeared in the hall with her
+charges at three o'clock the lady of the house sailed from the
+drawing-room, ready for the march.  They moved off in procession;
+Mrs. Rainham leading the way, with Avice and Wilfred, while Cecilia
+brought up the rear, holding Queenie's podgy hand.
+
+She had telegraph forms in her desk, and the message, already
+written, and even stamped, was in the pocket of her coat.  There
+was nothing for it but to act boldly, and accordingly, when they
+entered a street in which there was a post office, she let Queenie
+lag until they were a little distance behind the others.  Then, as
+they reached the post office, she turned sharply in.
+
+"Wait a minute, Queenie."
+
+She thrust her message across the counter hurriedly.  The clerk on
+duty was provokingly slow; he finished checking a document, and
+then lounged across to the window and took the form, running over
+it leisurely.
+
+"Oh, you've got the stamps on.  All right," he said, and turned
+away just as quick steps were heard, and Mrs. Rainham bustled in,
+panting.
+
+"What are you doing?"
+
+Cecilia met her with steady eyes.
+
+"Nothing wrong, I assure you."  She had had visions of covering her
+real purpose by buying stamps--but rejected it with a shrug.
+
+"Thethilia gave the man a pieth of paper!" said Queenie shrilly.
+
+"What was it?  I demand to know!" cried Mrs. Rainham.  She turned
+to the clerk, who stood open-mouthed, holding the telegram in his
+hand.  "Show me that telegram.  I am this young lady's guardian."
+
+The clerk grinned broadly.  The stout and angry lady made no appeal
+to him, and Cecilia was a pretty girl, and moreover her telegram
+was for a flying captain.  The clerk wore a returned soldier's
+badge himself.  He fell back on Regulations.
+
+"Can't be done, ma'am.  The message is all in order."
+
+"Let me see it."
+
+"Much as my billet's worth, if I did," said the clerk.  "Property
+of the Postmaster-General now, ma'am.  Couldn't even give it back
+to the young lady."
+
+"I'll report you!" Mrs. Rainham fumed.
+
+"Do, ma'am.  I'll get patted on the head for doin' me duty."  The
+clerk's grin widened.  Cecilia wished him good afternoon gravely,
+and slipped out of the office, pursued by her stepmother.
+
+"What was in that telegram?"
+
+"It was to my brother."
+
+"What was in it?"
+
+"It was to Bob, and that is guarantee that there was nothing wrong
+in it," Cecilia said steadily.  "It was on private business."
+
+"You have no right to have any business that I do not know about."
+
+Cecilia found her temper rising.
+
+"My father may have the power to say that--I do not know," she
+said.  "But you have none, Mrs. Rainham."
+
+"I'll let you see whether I have the right!" her stepmother blazed.
+"For two pins, young lady, I'd lock you up."
+
+Cecilia laughed outright.
+
+"Ah, that's not done now," she said.  "You really couldn't, Mrs.
+Rainham--especially as I have done nothing wrong."  She dropped her
+voice--passers-by were looking with interest at the elder woman's
+face.  "Why not let me go?  You do not approve of me--let me find
+another position."
+
+"You'll stay in your father's house," Mrs. Rainham said.  "We'll
+see what the law has to say to your leaving with your precious Bob.
+Your father's your legal guardian, and in his control you stay
+until you're twenty-one, and be very thankful to make yourself
+useful.  The law will deal with Bob if he tries to take you away--
+you're a minor, and it'd be abduction."  The word had a pleasantly
+legal flavour; she repeated it with emphasis.  "Abduction; that's
+what it is, and there's a nice penalty for it.  Now you know, and
+if you don't want to get Bob into trouble, you'd best be careful."
+
+Cecilia had grown rather white.  The law was a great and terrible
+instrument, of which she knew nothing.  It seemed to have swallowed
+up Aunt Margaret's money; it might very well have left her
+defenceless.  Her stepmother seemed familiar with its powers, and
+able to evoke them at will; and though she did not trust her, there
+was something in her glib utterance that struck fear into the
+girl's heart.  She did not answer, and Mrs. Rainham followed up her
+advantage.
+
+"We'll go home," she said.  "And you make up your mind to tell me
+what was in that telegram, and not to have any secrets from me.
+One thing I can tell you--until you decide to behave yourself--Bob
+shan't show his nose in my house, and you shan't go out to meet
+him, either.  He only leads you into mischief; I don't consider he
+has at all a good influence over you.  The sooner he's away
+somewhere, earning his own living in a proper manner, the better
+for every one; and it'll be many a long day before he can give you
+as good a home as you've got now."  She paused for breath.
+"Anyhow, he's not going to have the chance," she finished grimly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE TURN OF FORTUNE'S WHEEL
+
+
+"Is Mr. M'Clinton in?"
+
+The clerk, in a species of rabbit hutch, glanced out curiously at
+the young flying officer.
+
+"Yes; but he's very busy.  Have you an appointment?"
+
+"No--I got leave unexpectedly.  Just take him my card, will you?"
+
+The clerk handed the card to another clerk, who passed it to an
+office-boy, who disappeared with it behind a heavy oaken door.  He
+came back presently.
+
+"Mr. M'Clinton will see you in ten minutes, if you can wait, sir."
+
+"I'll wait," said Bob, sitting down upon a high stool.  "Got a
+paper?"
+
+"To-day's Times is here, sir."  He whisked off, to return in a
+moment with the paper, neatly folded.
+
+"You'll find a more comfortable seat behind the screen, sir."
+
+"Thanks," said Bob, regarding him with interest--he was so dapper,
+so alert, so all that an office-boy in a staid lawyer's
+establishment ought to be.  "How old might you be?"
+
+"Fourteen, sir."
+
+"And are you going to grow into a lawyer?"
+
+"I'm afraid I'll never do that, sir," said the office-boy gravely.
+"I may be head clerk, perhaps.  But--" he stopped, confused.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"I'd rather fly, sir, than anything in the world!"  He looked
+worshippingly at Bob's uniform.  "If the war had only not stopped
+before I was old enough, I might have had a chance!"
+
+"Oh, you'll have plenty of chances," Bob told him consolingly.  "In
+five years' time you'll be taking Mr. M'Clinton's confidential
+papers across to Paris in an aeroplane--and bringing him back a
+reply before lunch!"
+
+"Do you think so, sir?"  The office-boy's eyes danced.  Suddenly he
+resumed his professional gravity.
+
+"I must get back to my work, sir."  He disappeared behind another
+partition; the office seemed to Bob to be divided into water-tight
+compartments, in each of which he imagined that a budding lawyer or
+head clerk was being brought up by hand.  It was all rather grim
+and solid and forbidding.  To Bob the law had always been full of
+mystery; this grey, silent office, in the heart of the city, was a
+fitting place for it.  He felt a little chill at his heart, a
+foreboding that no comfort could come of his mission there.
+
+The inner door opened, after a little while, and a woman in black
+came out.  She passed hurriedly through the outer office, pulling
+down her veil over a face that showed traces of tears.  Bob looked
+after her compassionately.
+
+"Poor soul!" he thought.  "She's had her gruel, evidently.  Now I
+suppose I'll get mine."
+
+A bell whirred sharply.  The alert office-boy sprang to the
+summons, returning immediately.
+
+"Mr. M'Clinton can see you now, sir."
+
+Bob followed him through the oaken door, and along a narrow passage
+to a room where a spare, grizzled man sat at a huge roll-top desk.
+He rose as the boy shut the door behind his visitor.
+
+"Well, Captain Rainham.  How do you do?"
+
+Bob gripped the lean hand offered him--it felt like a claw in his
+great palm.  Then he sat down and looked uncomfortably at the
+lawyer.
+
+"I had thought to have seen you here before, Captain."
+
+"I suppose I should have shown up," said Bob--concealing the fact
+that the idea had never occurred to him.  "But I've been very busy
+since I've been back to England."
+
+"And what brings you now?"
+
+"I'm all but demobilized," Bob told him, "and I'm trying to get
+employment."
+
+"What--in this office?"
+
+"Heavens, no!" ejaculated Bob, and at once turned a fine red.
+"That is--I beg your pardon, sir; but I'm afraid I'm not cut out
+for an office.  I want to get something to do in the country, where
+I can support my sister."
+
+"Your sister?  But does not your father support her?  She is an
+inmate of his house, is she not?"
+
+"Very much so," said Bob bitterly.  "She's governess, and lady-
+help, and a good many other things.  You couldn't call it a home.
+Besides, we have always been together.  I want to take her away."
+
+"And what does your father say?"
+
+"He says she mustn't go.  At least, that's what my stepmother says,
+so my father will certainly say it too."
+
+"Your sister is under age, I think?"
+
+"She's just nineteen--I'm over twenty-two.  Can my father prevent
+her going with me, sir?"
+
+"Mph," said the lawyer, pondering.  "Do I gather that the young
+lady is unhappy?"
+
+"If she isn't, it's because she has pluck enough for six people,
+and because she always hopes to get away."
+
+"And do you consider that you could support her?"
+
+"I don't know," said Bob unhappily.  "I would certainly have
+thought I could, but there seems mighty little chance for a fellow
+whose only qualification is that he's been fighting Huns for nearly
+five years.  I've answered advertisements and interviewed people
+until my brain reels; but there's nothing in it, and I can't leave
+Tommy there."
+
+"Tommy?" queried the lawyer blankly.
+
+Bob laughed.
+
+"My sister, I mean, sir.  Her name's Cecilia, but, of course, we've
+never called her that.  Even Aunt Margaret called her Tommy."
+
+Mr. M'Clinton made no reply.  He thought deeply for a few moments.
+Then he looked up, and there was a glint of kindness in his hard
+grey eyes.
+
+"I think you had better tell me all about it, Captain Rainham.
+Would it assist you to smoke?"
+
+"Thanks awfully, sir," said Bob, accepting the proffered cigarette.
+He plunged into his story; and if at times it was a trifle
+incoherent, principally from honest wrath, yet on the whole
+Cecilia's case lost nothing in the telling.  The lawyer nodded from
+time to time, comprehendingly.
+
+"Aye," he said at last, when Bob paused.  "Just so, just so.  And
+why did you come to me, Captain?"
+
+"I want your advice, sir," Bob answered.  "And I should like to
+know something about my aunt's property--if I can hope for any help
+from that source.  I should have more chance of success if I had a
+little capital to start with.  But I understand that most of it was
+lost.  My father seemed very disappointed over the small amount she
+left."  He hesitated.  "But apart from money, I should like to know
+if I am within the law in taking my sister away."
+
+Mr. M'Clinton thought deeply before replying.
+
+"I had better speak frankly to you, Captain Rainham," he said.
+"Your aunt, as you probably know, did not like your father.  I am
+not sure that she actually distrusted him.  But she considered him
+weak and indolent, and she recognized that he was completely under
+the thumb of his second wife.  Your late aunt, my old friend, had
+an abhorrence for that lady that was quaint, considering that she
+had scarcely ever seen her."  He permitted himself the ghost of a
+smile.  "She was deeply afraid of any of her property coming under
+the control of your father--and through him, of his wife.  And so
+she tied up her money very carefully.  She left direct to you and
+your sister certain assets.  The rest of her property she left, in
+trust, to me."
+
+"To you, sir?"
+
+"Aye.  Very carefully tied up, too," said Mr. M'Clinton, with a
+twinkle.  "I can't make ducks and drakes of it, no matter how much
+I may wish to.  It is tied up until your sister comes of age.  Then
+my trust ceases."
+
+"By Jove!"  Bob stared at him.  "Then--do we get something?"
+
+"Certainly.  Unfortunately, many of your aunt's investments were
+very hard hit through the war.  Certain stocks which paid large
+dividends ceased to pay altogether; others fell to very little.
+The sum left to you and your sister for immediate use should have
+been very much larger, but all that is left of it is the small
+allowance paid to you both.  I imagine that a smart young officer
+like yourself found it scarcely sufficient for tobacco."
+
+"I've saved it all," said Bob simply.  "A bit more, too."
+
+"Saved it!" said the lawyer in blank amazement.  "Do you tell me,
+now?  You lived on your pay?"
+
+"Flying pay's pretty good," said Bob.  "And there was always Tommy
+to think of, you know, sir.  I had to put something away for her,
+in case I crashed."
+
+"Dear me," said Mr. M'Clinton.  "Your aunt had great confidence in
+you as a boy, and it seems she was justified.  I'm very glad to
+hear this, Captain, for it enables me to do with a clear conscience
+something which I have the power to do.  There is a discretionary
+clause in your aunt's will, which gives me power to realize a
+certain sum of money, should you need it.  I could hand you over
+about three thousand pounds."
+
+"Three thousand!"  Bob stared at him blankly.
+
+"Aye.  And I see no reason why I should not do it--provided I am
+satisfied as to the use you will make of it.  As a matter of form I
+should like a letter from your commanding officer, testifying to
+your general character."
+
+"That's easy enough," said Bob.  "But--three thousand!  My hat,
+what a difference it will make to Tommy and me!  Poor old Aunt
+Margaret--I might have known she'd look after us."
+
+"She loved you very dearly.  And now, Captain, about your sister."
+
+"She's the big thing," said Bob.  "Can I kidnap her?"
+
+"It's rather difficult to say just how your father might act.  Left
+to himself, I do not believe he would do anything.  But urged by
+your stepmother, he might make trouble.  And the good lady is more
+likely to make trouble if she suspects that there is any money
+coming to your sister."
+
+"That's very certain," Bob remarked.  "I wish to goodness I could
+get her right out of England, sir.  How about Canada?"
+
+The lawyer pondered.
+
+"Do you know any one there?"
+
+"Not a soul.  But I suppose one could get introductions.  And one
+can always get Government expert advice there, I believe, to
+prevent one chucking away one's money foolishly."
+
+Mr. M'Clinton nodded approvingly.
+
+"I don't know, but you might do worse," he said.  "I believe in
+these new countries for young people; the old ones are getting
+overcrowded and worn out.  And your relations are likely to give
+trouble if you are within their reach.  A terrible woman, that
+stepmother of yours; a terrible woman.  She came to see me with
+your father; he said nothing, but she talked like a mill-race.
+Miss Tommy has my full sympathy.  A brawling woman in a wide house,
+as the Scripture says.  I reproach myself, Captain, that I did not
+inquire personally into Miss Tommy's well-being.  She told you
+nothing of her trials, you say, during the war?"
+
+"Not a word.  Wrote as if life were a howling joke always.  I only
+found out for myself by accident a few months ago."
+
+"A brave lassie.  Well, I'll do what I can to help you, Captain.
+I'll keep a lookout for a likely land investment for your money,
+and endeavour to prepare a good legal statement to frighten Mrs.
+Rainham if she objects to your taking your sister away.  Much may
+be done by bluffing, especially if you do it very solemnly and
+quietly.  So keep a good heart, and come and see me next time
+you're in London.  Miss Tommy will be in any day, I presume, after
+the telegram you told me about?"
+
+"Sure to be," said Bob.  "She'll be anxious for her letters.  I'm
+leaving one for her, if you don't mind, and I'll write to her again
+to-night."  He got up, holding out his hand.  "Good-bye--and I
+don't know how to thank you, sir."
+
+"Bless the boy--you've nothing to thank me for," said the lawyer.
+"Just send me that letter from your commanding officer, and
+remember that there's no wild hurry about plans--Miss Tommy can
+stand for a few weeks longer what she has borne for two years."
+
+"I suppose she can--but I don't want her to," Bob said.
+
+The brisk office-boy showed him out, and he marched down the grey
+streets near Lincoln's Inn with his chin well up.  Life had taken a
+sudden and magical turn for the better.  Three thousand pounds!--
+surely that meant no roughing it for Tommy, but a comfortable home
+and a chance of success in life.  It seemed a sum of enormous
+possibilities.  Everything was very vague still, but at least the
+money was certain--it seemed like fairy gold.  He felt a sudden
+desire to get away somewhere, with Tommy, away from crowded England
+to a country where a man could breathe; his heart rejoiced at the
+idea, just as he had often exulted when his aeroplane had lifted
+him away from the crowded, buzzing camp, into the wide, free places
+of the air.  Canada called to him temptingly.  His brain was
+seething with plans to go there when, waiting for a chance to cross
+a crowded thoroughfare, he heard his own name.
+
+"Asleep, Rainham?"
+
+Bob looked up with a start.  General Harran, the Australian, was
+beside him, also waiting for a break in the crawling string of
+motor-buses and taxi-cabs.  He was smiling under his close-clipped
+moustache.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," stammered the boy, coming to the salute
+stiffly.  "I was in a brown study, I believe."
+
+"You looked it.  I spoke to you twice before you heard me.  What is
+it?--demobilization problems?"
+
+"Just that, sir," said Bob, grinning.  "Most of us have got them, I
+suppose--fellows of my age, anyhow.  It's a bit difficult to come
+down to earth again, after years spent in the air."
+
+"Very difficult," Harran agreed gravely.  He glanced down with
+interest at the alert face and square-built figure of the boy
+beside him.  There were so many of them, these boys who had played
+with Death for years.  They have saved their country from horror
+and ruin, and now it seemed very doubtful if their country wanted
+them.  They were in every town in England, looking for work; their
+pitiful, plucky advertisements greeted the eye in every newspaper.
+The problem of their future interested General Harran keenly.  He
+liked his boys; their freshness and pluck and unspoiled enthusiasm
+had been a tonic to him during the long years of war.  Now it hurt
+him that they should be looking for the right to live.
+
+"I'm just going to lunch, Rainham," he said.  "Would you care to
+come with me?"
+
+Bob lifted a quaintly astonished face.
+
+"Thanks, awfully, sir," he stammered.
+
+"Then jump on this 'bus, and we'll go to my club," said the
+General, swinging his lean, athletic body up the stairs of a
+passing motor-'bus as he spoke.  Bob followed, and they sped,
+rocking, through the packed traffic until the General, who had sat
+in silence, jumped up, threaded his way downstairs, and dropped to
+the ground again from the footboard of the hurrying 'bus--with a
+brief shake of the head to the conductor, who was prepared to check
+the speed of his craft to accommodate a passenger with such
+distinguished badges of rank.  Bob was on the ground almost as
+quickly, and they turned out of the crowded street into a quieter
+one that presently led them into a silent square, where dignified
+grey houses looked out upon green trees, and the only traffic was
+that of gliding motors.  General Harran led the way into one of the
+grey houses, up the steps of which officers were constantly coming
+and going.  A grizzled porter in uniform, with the Crimean medal on
+his tunic, swung the door open and came smartly to attention as
+they passed through.  The General greeted him kindly.
+
+"How are you, O'Shea?  The rheumatism better?"
+
+"It is, sir, thank you."  They passed on, through a great hall
+lined with oil-paintings of famous soldiers, and trophies of big
+game from all over the world; for this was a Service club, bearing
+a proud record of soldier and sailor members for a hundred years.
+Presently they were in the dining-room, already crowded.  The
+waiter found them a little table in a quiet corner.
+
+There was a sprinkling of men whom Bob already knew; he caught
+several friendly nods of recognition us he glanced round.  Then
+General Harran pointed out others to him--Generals, whose names
+were household words in England--a notable Admiral, and a Captain
+with the V.C. ribbon--earned at Zeebrugge.  He seemed to know every
+one, and once or twice he left his seat to speak to a friend--
+during which absence Bob's friends shot him amazed glances, with
+eyebrows raised in astonishment that he should be lunching with a
+real Major-General.  Bob was somewhat tongue-tied with bewilderment
+over the fact himself.  But when their cold beef came, General
+Harran soon put him at his ease, leading him to talk of himself and
+his plans with quiet tact.  Before Bob fairly realized it he had
+unfolded all his little story--even to Tommy and her hardships.
+The General listened with interest.
+
+"And was it Tommy I saw you with on Saturday?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  She was awfully interested because it was you," blurted
+Bob.  "You see, she and I have always been pals.  I'm jolly keen to
+get some place to take her to."
+
+"And you think of Canada.  Why?"
+
+"Well--I really don't know, except that it would be out of reach of
+England and unpleasantness," Bob answered.  "And my money would go
+a lot further there than here, wouldn't it, sir?  Three thousand
+won't buy much of a place in England--not to make one's living by,
+I mean."
+
+"That's true.  I advise every youngster to get out to one of the
+new countries, and, of course, a man with a little capital has a
+far greater chance.  But why Canada?  Why not Australia?"
+
+"There's no reason why not," said Bob laughing.  "Only it seems
+further away.  I don't know more of one country than the other--
+except the sort of vague idea we all have that Canada is all cold
+and Australia all heat!"
+
+General Harran laughed.
+
+"Yes--the average Englishman's ideas about the new countries are
+pretty sketchy," he said.  "People always talk to me about the
+fearfully hot climate of Australia, and seem mildly surprised if I
+remark that we have about a dozen different climates, and that we
+have snow and ice, and very decent winter sports, in Victoria.  I
+don't think they believe me, either.  But seriously, Rainham, if
+you have no more leaning towards one country than the other, why
+not think of Australia?  I could help you there, if you like."
+
+"You, sir!" Bob stammered.
+
+"Well, I can pull strings.  I dare say I could manage a passage out
+for you and your sister--you see, you were serving with the
+Australians, and you're both desirable immigrants--young and
+energetic people with a little capital.  That would be all right, I
+think, especially now that the first rush is over.  And I could
+give you plenty of introductions in Australia to the right sort of
+people.  You ought to see something of the country, and what the
+life and work are, before investing your money.  It would be easy
+enough to get you on to a station or big farm--you to learn the
+business, and your sister to teach or help in the house.  She
+wouldn't mind that for about a year, with nice people, would she?"
+
+"Not she!" said Bob.  "It was her own idea, in fact; only I didn't
+want to let her work.  But I can see that it might be best.  Only I
+don't know how to thank you, sir--I never imagined--"
+
+General Harran cut him short.
+
+"Don't worry about that.  If I can help you, or any of the flying
+boys, out of a difficulty, and at the same time get the right type
+of settlers for Australia--she needs them badly--then I'm doing a
+double-barrelled job that I like.  But see here--do I understand
+that what you really want to do is to take your sister without
+giving your father warning?  To kidnap her, in short?"
+
+"I don't see anything else to do, sir.  I spoke to him a while ago
+about taking her away, and he only hummed and hawed and said he'd
+consult Mrs. Rainham.  And my stepmother will never let her go as
+long as she can keep her as a drudge.  We owe them nothing--he's
+never been a father to us, and as for my stepmother--well, she
+should owe Tommy for two years' hard work.  But honestly, to all
+intents and purposes, they are strangers to us--it seems absolutely
+ridiculous that we should be controlled by them."
+
+"You say your aunt's family lawyer approves?"
+
+"Yes, or he wouldn't let me have the money.  I could get him to see
+you, sir, if you like; though I don't see why you should be
+bothered about us," said Bob flushing.
+
+"Give me his address--I'll look in on him next time I'm in
+Lincoln's Inn," said the General.  "Your own, too.  Now, if I get
+you and your sister passages on a troopship, can you start at short
+notice--say forty-eight hours?"
+
+Bob gasped, but recovered himself.  After all, his training in the
+air had taught him to make swift decisions.
+
+"Any time after the fifteenth, sir.  I'll be demobilized then, and
+a free agent.  I'll get my kit beforehand."
+
+"Don't get much," counselled the General.  "You can travel in
+uniform--take flannels for the tropics; everything you need in
+Australia you can get just as well, or better, out there.  Most
+fellows who go out take tons of unnecessary stuff.  Come into the
+smoking-room and give me a few more details."
+
+They came out upon the steps of the club a little later.  Bob's
+head was whirling.  He tried to stammer out more thanks and was cut
+short, kindly but decisively.
+
+"That's all right, my boy.  I'll send you letters of introduction
+to various people who will help you, and a bit of advice about
+where to go when you land.  Tell your sister not to be nervous--she
+isn't going to a wild country, and the people there are much the
+same as anywhere else.  Now, good-bye, and good luck"; and Bob
+found himself walking across the Square in a kind of solemn
+amazement.
+
+"This morning I was thinking of getting taken on as a farm hand in
+Devonshire, with Tommy somewhere handy in a labourer's cottage," he
+pondered.  "And now I'm a bloated capitalist, and Tommy and I are
+going across the world to Australia as calmly as if we were off to
+Margate for the day!  Well, I suppose it's only a dream, and I'll
+wake up soon.  I guess I'd better go back and tell Mr. M'Clinton;
+and I've got to see Tommy somehow."  He bent his brows over the
+problem as he turned towards Lincoln's Inn.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SAILING ORDERS
+
+
+"Are you there, miss?"
+
+The sepulchral whisper came faintly to Cecilia's ears as she sat in
+her little room, sewing a frock of Queenie's.  The children were
+out in the garden at the back of the house.  Mrs. Rainham was
+practising in the drawing-room.  The sound of a high trill floated
+upwards as she opened the door.
+
+"What is it, Eliza?"
+
+"It's a letter, miss.  A kid brought it to the kitchen door--a bit
+of a boy.  Arsked for me as if 'e'd known me all 'is life--called
+me Elizer!  'E's waitin' for an answer.  I'll wait in me room,
+miss, till you calls me."  The little Cockney girl slipped away,
+revelling in furthering any scheme to defeat Mrs. Rainham and help
+Cecilia.
+
+Cecilia opened the letter hurriedly.  It contained only one line.
+
+"Can you come at once to Lincoln's Inn?  Important.--BOB."
+
+Cecilia knitted her brows.  It was nearly a month since the
+memorable evening when she and Bob had revolted; and though she was
+still made to feel herself in disgrace, and she knew her letters
+were watched, the close spying upon her movements had somewhat
+relaxed.  It had been too uncomfortable for Mrs. Rainham to keep it
+up, since it made heavy demands upon her own time, and interfered
+with too many plans; moreover, in spite of it, Cecilia had slipped
+away from the house two or three times, going and coming openly,
+and replying to any questions by the simple answer that she had
+been to meet Bob.  Angry outbreaks on the part of her stepmother
+she received in utter silence, against which the waves of Mrs.
+Rainham's wrath spent themselves in vain.
+
+Indeed, the girl lived in a kind of waking dream of happy
+anticipation, beside which none of the trials of life in Lancaster
+Gate had power to trouble her.  For on her first stolen visit to
+Mr. M'Clinton's office the wonderful plan of flight to Australia
+had been revealed to her, and the joy of the prospect blotted out
+everything else.  Mr. M'Clinton, watching her face, had been amazed
+by the wave of delight that had swept over it.
+
+"You like it, then?" he had said.  "You are not afraid to go so
+far?"
+
+"Afraid--with Bob?  Oh, the farther I can get from England the
+better," she had answered.  "I have no friends here; nothing to
+leave, except the memory of two bad years.  And out there I should
+feel safe--she could not get a policeman to bring me back."  There
+was no need to ask who "she" was.
+
+Cecilia had made her preparations secretly.  She had not much to
+do--Aunt Margaret had always kept her well dressed, and the simple
+and pretty things she had worn two years before, and which had
+never been unpacked since she put on mourning for her aunt, still
+fitted her, and were perfectly good.  It had never seemed worth
+while to leave off wearing mourning in Lancaster Gate--only when
+Bob had come home had she unpacked some of her old wardrobe.  Much
+was packed still, and in store under Mr. M'Clinton's direction,
+together with many of Aunt Margaret's personal possessions.  It was
+as well that it was so, since Mrs. Rainham had managed to annex a
+proportion of Cecilia's things for Avice.  To Lancaster Gate she
+had only taken a couple of trunks, not dreaming of staying there
+more than a short time.  So packing and flitting would be easy,
+given ordinary luck and the certain co-operation of Eliza.  Her few
+necessary purchases had been made on one of her hurried excursions
+with Bob; she had not dared to have the things sent home, and they
+had been consigned in a tin uniform case to Bob's care.
+
+She pondered over his note now, knitting her brows.  It would be
+easy enough to act defiantly and go at once; but if this meant that
+the final flight were near at hand she did not wish to excite anew
+her stepmother's anger and suspicion.  Then, as she hesitated, she
+heard a heavy step on the stairs, and she crushed the note
+hurriedly into her pocket.
+
+Mrs. Rainham came into the room without the formality of knocking--
+a formality she had never observed where Cecilia was concerned.
+The afternoon post had just come, and she carried some letters in
+her hand.
+
+"Cecilia, I want you to put on your things and go to Balding's for
+me," she said, her voice more civil than it had been for a month.
+"I'm asked up to Liverpool for a few days; my sister there is
+giving a big At Home--an awfully big thing, with the Lady Mayoress
+and all the Best People at it--and she wants me to go up.  I
+suppose she'll want me to sing."
+
+"That is nice," said Cecilia, speaking with more truth than Mrs.
+Rainham guessed.  "What will you wear?"
+
+"That's just it," said her stepmother eagerly.  "My new evening
+dress isn't quite finished--we ran short of trimming.  I can't go
+out, because the Simons are coming in to afternoon tea; so you just
+hurry and go over to Balding's to match it.  I got it there, and
+they had plenty.  Here's a bit."  She held out a fragment of gaudy
+sequin trimming.  "I think you could finish the dress without me
+getting in the dressmaker again--she's that run after she makes a
+regular favour of coming."
+
+"Very well," said Cecilia--who would, at the moment, have agreed to
+sew anything or everything that might hasten her stepmother's
+journey.  "When do you go?"
+
+"The day after to-morrow.  I'll stay there a few days, I suppose;
+not worth going so far for only one evening.  Mind, Cecilia, you're
+not to have Bob here while I'm away.  When I come back, if I'm
+satisfied with you, I'll see about asking him again."
+
+"That is very good of you," said the girl slowly.
+
+"Well, that's all right--you hurry and get ready; there's always a
+chance they may have sold out, because it was a bargain line, and
+if they have you'll have to try other places.  I don't know what on
+earth I'll do if you can't match it."  She turned to go, and then
+hesitated.  "I was thinking you might take Avice with you--but
+you'll get about quicker alone, and she isn't ready.  The tubes and
+buses are that crowded it's no catch to take a child about with
+you."  In moments of excitement Mrs. Rainham's English was apt to
+slip from her.  At other times she cultivated it carefully,
+assisted by a dramatic class, which an enthusiastic maiden lady,
+with leanings towards the stage, conducted each winter among
+neighbouring kindred souls.
+
+Cecilia had caught her breath in alarm, but she breathed a sigh of
+relief as the stout, over-dressed figure went down the narrow
+stairs, with a final injunction to hurry.  There was, indeed, no
+need to give Cecilia that particular command.  She scribbled one
+word, "Coming," on Bob's note, thrust it into an envelope and
+addressed it hastily, and then tapped on the wall between the
+servants' room and her own.
+
+Eliza appeared with the swiftness of a Jack-in-the-box, full of
+suppressed excitement.
+
+"Lor!  I fought she was never goin'," she breathed.  "Got it ready,
+Miss?  The boy'll fink I've gorn an' eloped wiv it."  She took the
+envelope and pattered swiftly downstairs.
+
+A very few moments saw Cecilia flying in her wake--to Balding's
+first, as quickly as tube and motor-bus could combine to take her,
+since she dared not breathe freely until Mrs. Rainham's commission
+had been settled.  Balding's had never seemed so huge and so
+complicated, and when she at length made her way to the right
+department the suave assistant regretted that the trimming was sold
+out.  It was Cecilia's face of blank dismay that made him suddenly
+remember that there was possibly an odd length somewhere, and a
+search revealed it, put away in a box of odds and ends.  Cecilia's
+thanks were so heartfelt that the assistant was mildly surprised.
+
+"For she don't seem the sort to wear ghastly stuff like that," he
+pondered, glancing after the pretty figure in the well-cut coat and
+skirt.
+
+Outside the great shop Cecilia glanced up and caught the eye of a
+taxi-driver who had just set down a fare.
+
+"I'll be extravagant for once," she thought.  She beckoned to the
+man, and in a moment was whirring through the streets in the
+peculiar comfort a motor gives to anyone in a hurry in London--
+since it can take direct routes instead of following the roundabout
+methods of buses and underground railways.  She leaned back,
+closing her eyes.  If this summons to Bob indeed meant that their
+sailing orders had come, she would need all her wits and her
+coolness.  For the first time she realized what her stepmother's
+absence from home might mean--a thousandfold less plotting and
+planning, and no risk of a horrible scene at the end.  Cecilia
+loathed scenes; they had not existed in Aunt Margaret's scheme of
+existence.  Since Bob's plans had become at all definite, she had
+looked forward with dread to a final collision with Mrs. Rainham--
+it was untold relief to know that it might not come.
+
+She hurried up the steps of Mr. M'Clinton's office.  The alert
+office boy--who had been Bob's messenger to Lancaster Gate--met
+her.
+
+"You're to go straight in, miss.  The Captain's there."
+
+Bob was in the inner sanctum with Mr. M'Clinton.  They rose to meet
+her.
+
+"Well--are you ready, young lady?" the old man asked.
+
+"Is it--are we to sail soon?"
+
+"Next Saturday--and this is Monday.  Can you manage it, Tommy?"
+Bob's eyes were dancing with excitement.
+
+"Oh, Bobby--truly?"  She caught at his coat sleeve.  "When did you
+hear?"
+
+"I had a wire from General Harran this morning.  A jolly good ship,
+too, Tommy; one of the big Australian liners--the Nauru.  You're
+all ready, aren't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  And there's the most tremendous piece of luck, Bobby--
+Mrs. Rainham's going away on Wednesday!"
+
+"Going away!  How more than tactful!" ejaculated Bob.  "Where is
+she going?"
+
+"To Liverpool."
+
+"Liverpool?  Oh, by Jove!"  Bob ended on a low whistle, while his
+face assumed a comical expression of dismay.  He turned to the
+lawyer.  "Did you ever hear of anything so queer?"
+
+"Queer?  Why?" demanded Cecilia.
+
+"Well, it looks as if she wanted to see the last of you, that's
+all.  The Nauru sails from Liverpool."
+
+"Bobby!"  Cecilia's face fell.  "I thought we went from Gravesend
+or Tilbury, or somewhere."
+
+"So did I.  But the General's wire says Liverpool, so it seems we
+don't," said Bob.  "And that she-dragon is going there too!"
+
+"I don't think you need really worry," Mr. M'Clinton said drily.
+"Liverpool is not exactly a village.  The chances are that if you
+went there, trying to meet some one, you would hunt for him for a
+week in vain.  And you'll probably go straight from the train to
+the docks, so that you won't be in the least likely to encounter
+Mrs. Rainham."
+
+"Why, of course, we'd never run into her in a huge place like
+Liverpool," Bob said, laughing.  "Don't be afraid, Tommy--you'll
+have seen the last of her when you say good-bye on Wednesday."
+
+"It seems too good to be true," said Cecilia solemnly.  "I remember
+how I felt once before, when she went away to visit her sister in
+Liverpool; the beautiful relief when one woke, to think that not
+all through the day would one even have to look at her.  It's
+really very terrible to look at her often; her white face and hard
+eyes seem to fascinate one.  Oh, I don't suppose I ought to talk
+like that, especially here."  She looked shamefacedly at Mr.
+M'Clinton, and blushed scarlet.
+
+Both men laughed.
+
+"The good lady had something of the same effect on me," Mr.
+M'Clinton admitted.  "I found her a very terrible person.  Cheer
+up, Miss Tommy, you've nearly finished with her.  And, now, what
+about getting you away?"
+
+Cecilia turned to her brother.
+
+"What am I to do, Bob?"
+
+"We'll have to go to Liverpool on Friday," Bob replied promptly.
+"I can't find out the Nauru's sailing time, and it isn't safe to
+leave it until Saturday.  There's a train somewhere about two
+o'clock that gets up somewhere about seven or eight that evening.
+Mr. M'Clinton and I don't want to leave it to the last moment to
+get your luggage away from Lancaster Gate.  Can you have it ready
+the night before?"
+
+"It would really be safer to take it in the afternoon," Cecilia
+said after a moment's thought.  "Mrs. Rainham's absence will make
+that quite easy, for I know I can depend upon Eliza and Cook.  I
+can get my trunks ready, leave them in my room, and tell Eliza you
+will be there to call for them, say, at four o'clock.  Then I take
+the three children out for a walk, and when we return everything is
+gone.  Will that do?"
+
+"Perfectly," said Bob, laughing.  "And four o'clock suits me all
+right.  Then you'll saunter out on Friday morning with an
+inoffensive brown paper parcel containing the rest of your worldly
+effects, and meet me for lunch at the Euston Hotel.  Is that
+clear?"
+
+"Quite.  I suppose I had better put no address on my trunks?"
+
+"Not a line--I'll see to that.  And don't even mention the word
+'Australia' this week, just in case your eye dances unconsciously,
+and sets people thinking!  I think you'd better cultivate a
+downtrodden look, at any rate until Mrs Rainham is out of the
+house; at present you look far too cheerful to be natural--doesn't
+she, sir?"
+
+"You have to see to it that she does not look downtrodden again,
+after this week," said Mr. M'Clinton.  "Remember that, Captain--
+she's going a long way, and she'll have no one but you."
+
+"I know, sir.  But, bless you, it's me that will look downtrodden,"
+said Bob with a grin.  "She bullies me horribly--always did."  He
+slipped his hand through her arm, and they looked up at him with
+such radiant faces that the old man smiled involuntarily.
+
+"Ah, I think you'll be all right," he said.  "Remember, Miss Tommy,
+I'll expect to hear from you--fairly often, too.  I shall not say
+good-bye now--you'll see me on Friday at luncheon."
+
+They found themselves down in the grey precincts of Lincoln's Inn,
+which, it may be, had rarely seen two young things prancing along
+so dementedly.  In the street they had to sober down, to outward
+seeming; but there was still something about them, as they hurried
+off to find a teashop to discuss final details, that made people
+turn to look at them.  Even the waitress beamed on them, and
+supplied them with her best cakes--and London waitresses are a
+bored race.  But at the moment, neither Cecilia nor Bob could have
+told you whether they were eating cakes or sausages.
+
+"The money is all right," Bob said.  "It'll be available at a
+Melbourne bank when we get there; and meanwhile, there's plenty of
+ready money, with what I've saved and my war gratuity.  So if you
+want anything, Tommy, you just say so, and don't go without any
+pretties just because you think we'll be in the workhouse."
+
+"Bless you--but I don't really need anything," she told him
+gratefully.  "It would be nice to have a little money to spend at
+the ports, but I think we ought to keep the rest for Australia,
+don't you, Bob?"
+
+"Oh, yes, of course; but you're not to go without a few pounds if
+you want 'em," said Bob.  "And, Tommy, don't leave meeting me on
+Friday until lunch time.  I'll be worrying if you do, just in case
+things may have gone wrong.  Make it eleven o'clock at the Bond
+Street tube exit, and if you're not there in half an hour I'll
+jolly well go and fetch you."
+
+"I'll be there," Cecilia nodded.  "You had better give me the half-
+hour's grace, though, in case I might be held up at the last
+moment.  One never knows--and Avice and Wilfred are excellent
+little watchdogs."
+
+"Anyhow, you won't have the she-dragon to reckon with, and that's a
+big thing," Bob said.  "I don't see how you can have any trouble--
+Papa certainly will not give you any."
+
+"No, he won't bother," said Cecilia slowly.  "It's queer to think
+how little he counts--our own father."
+
+"A pretty shoddy apology for one, I think," Bob said bitterly.
+"What has he ever done for us?  But I'd forgive him that when I
+can't forgive him something else--the way he has let you be treated
+these two years."
+
+"He hasn't known everything, Bobby."
+
+"He has known quite enough.  And if he had the spirit of a man he'd
+have saved you from it.  No; we don't owe him any consideration,
+Tommy; and he saw to it years ago that we should never owe him any
+affection.  So we really needn't worry our heads about him.  By the
+way, there are to be some Australians on the Nauru who General
+Harran says may be of use to us--I don't remember their names, but
+he's going to give me a letter to them.  And probably there will be
+some other flying people whom I may know.  I think the voyage ought
+to be rather good fun."
+
+"I think so, too.  It will be exciting to be on a troopship,"
+Cecilia said.  "But, then, anything will be heavenly after
+Lancaster Gate!"
+
+She hurried home, as soon as the little meal was over, knowing that
+Mrs. Rainham would be impatiently awaiting her.  Luckily, her
+success in matching the trimming made her stepmother forget how
+long she had been away; and from that moment until a welcome four-
+wheeler removed the mistress of the house on Wednesday, she sewed
+and packed for her unceasingly.  Her journey excited Mrs. Rainham
+greatly.  She talked almost affably of her sister's grandeur, and
+of the certainty of meeting wealthy and gorgeously dressed people
+at her party.
+
+"Not that I'll be at all ashamed of my dress," she added, looking
+at the billowy waves on which Cecilia was plastering yet more
+trimming.  "Unusual and artistic, that's what it is; and it'll show
+off my hair.  Don't forget the darning when I'm gone, Cecilia.
+There's a tablecloth to mend, as well as the stockings.  I'll be
+home on Saturday night, unless they persuade me to stay over the
+week-end."
+
+Cecilia nodded, sewing busily.
+
+"And just see if you can't get on a bit better with the children.
+You've got to make allowances for their high spirits, and treat
+them tactfully.  Of course you can't expect them to be as obedient
+to you as they would be to a regular governess, you being their own
+half-sister, and not so much older than Avice, after all.  But tact
+does wonders, especially with children."
+
+"Yes," said Cecilia, and said no more.
+
+"Well, just bear it in mind.  I don't suppose you'll see much of
+your father, so you needn't worry about him.  But don't let Eliza
+gossip and idle; she never does any work if she's not kept up to
+it, and you know you're much too familiar with her.  Always keep
+girls like her at a distance, and they'll work all the better,
+that's what I say.  Treat her as an equal, and the next thing you
+know she'll be trying on your hats!"
+
+"I haven't caught Eliza at that yet," said Cecilia with the ghost
+of a smile.
+
+"It'll come, though, if you're not more stand-offish with her--you
+mark my words.  Keep them in their place--that's what I always do
+with my servants and governesses," said Mrs. Rainham without the
+slightest idea that she was saying anything peculiar.  "Now, I'll
+go and put my things out on my bed, and as soon as you've finished
+that you can come up and pack for me."
+
+Cecilia stood at the hall door that afternoon to watch her go--
+bustling into the cab, with loud directions to the cabman, her hard
+face full of self-importance and satisfaction.  The plump hand
+waved a highly scented handkerchief as the clumsy four-wheeler
+moved off.
+
+"To think I'll never see you again!" breathed the girl.  "It seems
+too good to be true!"
+
+A kind of wave of relief seemed to have descended upon the house.
+The children were openly exulting in having no one to obey; an
+attitude which, in the circumstances, failed to trouble their half-
+sister.  Eliza went about her work with a cheery face; even Cook,
+down in the basement, manifested lightness of heart by singing love
+songs in a cracked soprano and by making scones for afternoon tea.
+Mark Rainham did not come home until late--he had announced his
+intention of dining at his club.  Late in the evening he sauntered
+into the dining-room, where Cecilia sat sewing.
+
+"Still at it?" he asked.  He sat down and poked the fire.  "What
+are you sewing?"
+
+"Just darning," Cecilia told him.
+
+He sat looking at her for a while--at the pretty face and the well-
+tended hair; and who shall say what thoughts stirred in his dull
+brain?
+
+"You look a bit pale," he said at last.  "Do you go out enough?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I think so," Cecilia answered in astonishment.  Not in
+two years had he shown so much interest in her; and it braced her
+to a sudden resolve.  She had never been quite satisfied to leave
+him without a word; whatever he was, he was still her father.  She
+put her darning on her knee, and looked at him gravely.
+
+"You know Bob is demobilized, don't you, Papa?"
+
+"Yes--he told me so," Mark Rainham answered.
+
+"And you know he wants to take me away?"
+
+Her father's eyes wavered and fell before her.
+
+"Oh, yes--but the idea's ridiculous, I'm afraid.  You're under age,
+and your stepmother won't hear of it."  He poked the fire savagely.
+
+"But if Bob could make a home for me!  We have always been
+together, you know, Papa."
+
+"Oh, well--wait and see.  Time enough when you're twenty-one, and
+your own mistress; Bob will have had a chance to make good by then.
+I--I can't oppose my wife in the matter--she says she's not strong
+enough to do without your help."
+
+"But she never seems satisfied with me."
+
+Mark Rainham rose with an irritably nervous movement.
+
+"Oh, no one is ever perfect.  I suspect, if each of you went a
+little way to meet the other, things would be better.  Your
+stepmother says her nerves are all wrong, and I'm sure you do take
+a great deal of trouble off her shoulders."
+
+"Then you won't let me go?"  The girl's low voice was relentless,
+and her father wriggled as though he were a beetle and she were
+pinning him down.
+
+"I--I'm afraid it's out of the question, Cecilia.  I should have to
+be very satisfied first that Bob could offer you a home--and by
+that time he'll probably be thinking of getting married, and won't
+want you.  Why can't you settle down comfortably to living at
+home?"
+
+"There isn't any home for me apart from Bob," said the girl.
+
+"Well, I can't help it."  Mark Rainham's voice had a hopeless tone.
+He walked to the door, and then half turned.  "If you can make my
+wife agree to your going, I won't forbid it.  Good night."
+
+"Good night," said Cecilia.  The slow footsteps went up the stairs,
+and she turned to her darning with a lip that curled in scorn.
+
+"Well, that let's me out.  I don't owe you anything--not even a
+good-bye note on my pincushion," she said presently; and laughed a
+little.  She folded a finished pair of socks deliberately, and,
+rising, stretched her arms luxuriously above her head.  "Two more
+days," she whispered.  She switched off the light, and crept
+noiselessly upstairs.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE WATCH DOGS
+
+
+"Well, if you ask me, she's up to something," said Avice with
+conviction.
+
+"How d'you mean?"  Wilfred looked up curiously.
+
+"Lots of things.  She looks all different.  First of all--look how
+red she is all the time, and the excited look in her eyes."
+
+"That's all look--look!" jeered her brother.  "Girls always have
+those rotten ideas about nothing at all.  Just because Cecilia's
+got a bit sunburnt, and because she's havin' an easy time 'cause
+Mater's away--"
+
+"Oh, you think because you're a boy, you know everything," retorted
+his sister hotly.  "You just listen, and see if I've got rotten
+ideas.  Did you know, she's kept her room locked for days?"
+
+"Well--if she has?  That's nothing."
+
+"You shut up and let me go on.  Yesterday she forgot, and left it
+open while she was down talking to Cook, and I slipped in.  And
+there was one of her great big trunks, that she always keeps in the
+box room, half-packed with her things.  I nicked this necklace out
+of it, too," said Avice with triumph, producing a quaint string of
+Italian beads.
+
+"Good business," said Wilfred with an appreciative grin.  "Did she
+catch you?"
+
+"Not she--I can tell you I didn't wait long, 'cause she always
+comes upstairs as quick as lightning.  She did come, too, in an
+awful hurry, and locked up the room--I only got out of the way just
+in time.  And every minute she could, yesterday, she was up there."
+
+"Well, I don't see much in that."
+
+"No, but look here, I got another chance of looking into her room
+this morning, and that trunk was gone!"
+
+"Gone back to the box-room," said Wilfred with superiority.
+
+"No, it wasn't--I went up and looked.  And her other trunk's not
+there, either."
+
+"Oh, you're dreaming!  I bet she'd just pushed it under her bed."
+
+"Pooh!" said Avice.  "That great big trunk wouldn't go under her
+bed--you know she's only got a little stretcher-bed.  And I tell
+you they'd both gone.  I bet you anything she's going to run away."
+
+"Where'd she run to?"
+
+"Oh, somewhere with Bob."
+
+"Well, let her go."
+
+"Yes, and Mater 'd have to spend ever so much on a new governess;
+and most likely she'd be a worse beast than Cecilia.  And no
+governess we ever had did half the things Mater makes Cecilia do to
+help in the house.  Why she's like an extra servant, as well as a
+governess.  Mater told me all about it.  I tell you what, Wilfred,
+it's our business to see she doesn't run away."
+
+"All right," said Wilfred, "I suppose we'd better watch out.  When
+do you reckon she'd go?  People generally run away at night, don't
+they?"
+
+"Well, anyone can see she's just taking advantage of Mater being
+away.  Yes, of course she'd go at night.  She might have sent her
+boxes away yesterday by a carrier--I bet that horrid little Eliza
+would help her.  Ten to one she means to sneak out to-night--she
+knows Mater will be home to-morrow."
+
+"What a sell it will be for her if we catch her!" said Wilfred with
+glee.  "I say, what about telling Pater?"
+
+Avice looked sour.
+
+"I did tell him something yesterday, and he only growled at me.  At
+least, I said, 'Do you think Cecilia would ever be likely to run
+away?'  And he just stared at me, and then he said, 'Not your
+business if she does.'  So I'm not going to speak to him again."
+
+"Well, we'd better take it in turns to watch her," Wilfred said.
+"After dark's the most likely time, I suppose, but we'd better be
+on the look-out all the time.  Where's she now, by the way?"
+
+"Why, I don't know.  I say, she's been away a long time--I never
+noticed," said Avice, in sudden alarm.  "She said we were to go on
+with our French exercises--and that's ages ago."
+
+"Come on and see," said Wilfred jumping up.
+
+Outside the room he caught Avice by the arm.
+
+"Kick off your shoes," he said.  "We'll sneak up to her room."
+
+They crept up silently.  The door of Cecilia's room was ajar.
+Peeping in, they saw her standing before her tiny looking-glass,
+pinning on her hat.  A small parcel lay upon her bed, with her
+gloves and parasol.  The children were very silent--but something
+struck upon the girl's tightly strung nerves.  She turned swiftly
+and saw them.
+
+"What are you doing?" she demanded.  "How dare you come into my
+room?"
+
+"Why, we thought you were lost," said Avice.  "We finished our
+French ages ago.  Where are you going?"
+
+"I am going out," said Cecilia.  "I'll set you more work to do
+while I'm away."
+
+"But where are you going?"
+
+"That has nothing to do with you.  Come down to the schoolroom."
+
+Avice held her brother firmly by the arm.  Together they blocked
+the way.
+
+"Mater wouldn't let you go out in lesson time.  I believe you're
+going to run away!"
+
+A red spot flamed in each of Cecilia's white cheeks.
+
+"Stand out of my way, you little horrors!" she said angrily.  She
+caught up her things and advanced upon them.
+
+"I'm hanged if you're going," said Wilfred doggedly.  He pushed her
+back violently, and slammed the door.
+
+The attic doors in Lancaster Gate, like those of many London
+houses, were fitted with heavy iron bolts on the outside--a
+precaution against burglars who might enter the house by rooms
+ordinarily little used.  It was not the first time that Cecilia had
+been bolted into her room by her step-brother.  When first she
+came, it had been a favourite pastime to make her a prisoner--until
+their mother had made it an offence carrying a heavy penalty, since
+it had often occurred that Cecilia was locked up when she happened
+to need her.
+
+But this time Cecilia heard the heavy bolt shoot home with feelings
+of despair.  It was already time for her to leave the house.  Bob
+would be waiting for her in Bond Street, impatiently scanning each
+crowd of passengers that the lift shot up from underground.  She
+battered at the door wildly.
+
+"Let me out!  How dare you, Wilfred?  Let me out at once!"
+
+Wilfred laughed disagreeably.
+
+"Not if we know it--eh, Avice?"
+
+"Rather not," said Avice.  "What d'you think Mater'd say to us if
+we let you run away?"
+
+"Nonsense!" said Cecilia, controlling her voice with difficulty.
+"I was going to meet Bob."
+
+There was silence, and a whispered consultation.  Then Avice spoke.
+
+"Will you give us your word of honour you weren't going to run
+away?"
+
+Words of honour meant little to the young Rainhams.  But they knew
+that Cecilia held it as a commonplace of decent behaviour that
+people did not tell lies.  They had, indeed, often marvelled that
+she preferred to "take her gruel" rather than use any ready untruth
+that would have shielded her from their mother's wrath.  Avice and
+Wilfred had no such scruples on their own account: but they knew
+that they could depend upon Cecilia's word.  They were, indeed,
+just a little afraid of their own action in locking her up; their
+mother might have condoned it as "high spirits," but their father
+was not unlikely to take a different view.  So they awaited her
+reply with some anxiety.
+
+Cecilia hesitated.  Never in her life had she been so tempted.
+Perhaps because the temptation was so strong she answered swiftly.
+
+"No--I won't tell you anything of the kind.  But look here--if you
+will let me out I'll give you each ten shillings."
+
+Ten shillings!  It was wealth, and the children gasped.  Wilfred,
+indeed, would have shot back the bolt instantly.  It was Avice who
+caught at his arm.
+
+"Don't you!" she whispered.  "It'll cost heaps more than that to
+get a new governess--and we'll make Mater give us each ten
+shillings for keeping her.  I say, we'll have to get the Pater
+home."
+
+"How?"  Wilfred looked at her blankly.
+
+"Easy.  You go to the post office and telephone to him at his
+office.  Tell him to come at once.  I'll watch here, in case Eliza
+lets her out.  Run--hard as you can.  Mater'll never forgive us if
+she gets away."
+
+Wilfred clattered off obediently, awed by his sister's urgency.
+Avice sat down on the head of the stairs, close to the bolted door;
+and when Cecilia spoke again, repeating her offer, she answered her
+in a voice unpleasantly like her mother's:
+
+"No, you don't, my fine lady.  Wilfred's gone for the Pater--he'll
+be here presently.  You just stay there quietly till he comes."
+
+"Avice!"  The word was a wail.  "Oh, you don't know how important
+it is--let me out.  I'll give you anything in the world."
+
+"So'll Mater if I stop your little game," said Avice.  "You just
+keep quiet."
+
+Eliza's sharp little face appeared at the foot of the flight of
+stairs.
+
+"Wot's up, Miss Avice?  Anyfink wrong with Miss 'Cilia?"
+
+"Nothing to do with you," said Avice rudely.  "I'm looking after
+her."  But Cecilia's sharp ears had caught the new voice.
+
+"Eliza!  Eliza!" she called.
+
+The girl came up the stairs uncertainly.  Avice rose to confront
+her.
+
+"Now, you just keep off," she said.  "You're not coming past here.
+The master'll be home directly, and till he comes, no one's going
+up these stairs."  She raised her voice, to drown that of Cecilia,
+who was speaking again.
+
+Eliza looked at her doubtfully.  She was an undersized, wizened
+little Cockney, and Avice was a big, stoutly-built girl--who held,
+moreover, the advantage of a commanding position on the top step.
+In an encounter of strength there was little doubt as to who would
+win.  She turned in silence, cowed, and went down to the kitchen,
+while Avice sang a triumphant song, partly as a chant of victory,
+and partly to make sure that no one would hear the remarks that
+Cecilia was steadily making.  She herself had caught one phrase--
+"Tell my brother"--and her sharp little mind was busy.  Did that
+mean that Bob would be coming, against its mistress's orders, to
+Lancaster Gate.
+
+In the kitchen Eliza poured out a frantic appeal to Cook.
+
+"She's got Miss 'Cilia locked up--the little red-'eaded cat!  An'
+Master Wilfred gorn to fetch the Master!  Oh, come on, Cookie
+darlin', an' we'll let 'er out."
+
+Cook shook her head slowly.
+
+"Not good enough," she said.  "I got a pretty good place.  I ain't
+goin' to risk it by 'avin' a rough-an'-tumble with the daughter of
+the 'ouse on the hattic stairs.  You better leave well alone, Liza.
+You done your bit, 'elpin' 'er git them trunks orf yes'day."
+
+"Wot's the good of 'avin the trunks off if she can't go, too?"
+demanded Eliza.
+
+"Oh, she'll git another chance.  Don't worry your 'ead so much over
+other people's business.  If the Master comes 'ome an' finds us
+scruffin' 'is daughter, 'e'll 'and us both over to the police for
+assault--an' then you'll 'ave cause for worry.  Now you git along
+like a good gel--I got to mike pastry."  Cook turned away
+decisively.
+
+Wilfred had come home and had raced up the stairs.
+
+"Did you get him?" Avice cried.
+
+"No--he was out.  So I left a message that he was to come home at
+once, 'cause something was wrong."
+
+"That'll bring him," said Avice with satisfaction.  "Now, look
+here, Wilf--I believe Bob may come.  You go and be near the front
+door, to block Eliza, if he does.  Answer any ring."
+
+"What'll I say if he comes?"
+
+"Say she's gone out to meet him--if he thinks that, he'll hurry
+back to wherever they were to meet.  Don't give him a chance to get
+in.  Hurry!"
+
+"Right," said Wilfred, obeying.  He sat down in a hall chair, and
+took up a paper, with an eye wary for Eliza.  Half an hour passed
+tediously, while upstairs Cecilia begged and bribed in vain.  Then
+he sprang to his feet as a ring came.
+
+Bob was at the door; and suddenly Wilfred realized that he had
+always been afraid of Bob.  He quailed inwardly, for never had he
+seen his half-brother look as he did now--with a kind of still,
+terrible anger in his eyes.
+
+"Where's Cecilia?"
+
+"Gone out," said the boy.
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Gone to meet you."
+
+"Did she tell you so?"
+
+"Yes, of course--how'd I know if she didn't?"
+
+"Then that's a lie, for she wouldn't tell you.  Let me in."
+
+"I tell you, she's gone out," said Wilfred, whose only spark of
+remaining courage was due to the fact that he had prudently kept
+the door on the chain.  "And Mater said you weren't to come in
+here."
+
+From the area below a shrill voice floated upwards.
+
+"Mr. Bob!  Mr. Bob!  Daon't you believe 'im.  They got Miss 'Cilia
+locked up in 'er room."
+
+"By Jove!" said Bob between his teeth.  "Bless you, Eliza!  Open
+that door, Wilfred, or I'll make it hot for you."  He thrust a foot
+into the opening, with a face so threatening that Wilfred shrank
+back.
+
+"I shan't," he said.  "You're not going to get her."
+
+"Am I not?" said Bob.  He leaned back, and then suddenly flung all
+his weight against the door.  The chain was old and the links eaten
+with rust--it snapped like a carrot, and the door flew open.  Bob
+brushed Wilfred out of his way, and went upstairs, three at a time.
+
+Avice blocked his path.
+
+"You aren't coming up."
+
+"Oh, yes, I think so," Bob said.  He stooped, with a quick
+movement, and picked her up, holding her across his shoulder, while
+she beat and clawed unavailingly at his back.  So holding her, he
+thrust back the bolt of Cecilia's door and flung it open.
+
+"Did you think they had got you, Tommy?"
+
+She could only cling to his free arm for a moment speechless.  Then
+she lifted her face, her voice shaking, still in fear.
+
+"We must hurry, Bob.  They've sent for Papa."
+
+"Have they?" said Bob, with interest.  "Well, not a regiment of
+papas should stop you now, old girl.  Got everything?"
+
+Cecilia gathered up her things, nodding.
+
+"Then we'll leave this young lady here," said Bob.  He placed Avice
+carefully on Cecilia's bed, and made for the door, having the
+pleasure, as he shot the bolt, of hearing precisely what the
+younger Miss Rainham thought of him and all his attributes,
+including his personal appearance.
+
+"A nice gift of language, hasn't she?" he said.  "Inherits it from
+her mamma, I should think."  He put his arm round Cecilia and held
+her closely as they went downstairs, his face full of the joy of
+battle.  Wilfred was nowhere to be seen, but by the door Eliza
+waited.  Bob slipped something into her hand.
+
+"I expect you'll lose your place over this, Eliza," he said.
+"Well, you'll get a better--I'll tell my lawyer to see to that.
+He'll write to you--by the way, what's your surname?  Oh, Smithers--
+I'll remember.  And thank you very much."
+
+They shook hands with her, and passed out into the street.  Cecilia
+was still too shaken to speak--but as Bob pulled her hand through
+his arm and hurried her along, her self-control returned, and the
+face that looked up at his presently was absolutely content.  Bob
+returned the look with a little smile.
+
+"Didn't you know I'd come?" he asked.  "You dear old stupid."
+
+"I knew you'd come--but I thought Papa would get there first,"
+Cecilia answered.  "Somehow, it seemed the end of everything."
+
+"It isn't--it's only the beginning," Bob answered.
+
+There was a narrow side street that made a short cut from the tube
+station to the Rainhams' home; and as they passed it Mark Rainham
+came hurrying up it.  Bob and Cecilia did not see him.  He looked
+at them for a moment, as if reading the meaning of the two happy
+faces--and then shrank back into an alley and remained hidden until
+his son and daughter had passed out of sight.  They went on their
+way, without dreaming that the man they dreaded was within a
+stone's throw of them.
+
+"So it was that," said Mark Rainham slowly, looking after them.
+"Out of gaol, are you--poor little prisoner!  Well, good luck to
+you both!"  He turned on his heel, and went back to his office.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+HOW TOMMY BOARDED A STRANGE TAXI
+
+
+"We're nearly in, Tommy."
+
+Cecilia looked up from her corner with a start, and the book she
+had been trying to read slipped to the floor of the carriage.
+
+"I believe you were asleep," said Bob, laughing.  "Poor old Tommy,
+are you very tired?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, really.  Only I was getting a bit sleepy," his sister
+answered.  "Are we late, Bob?"
+
+"Very, the conductor says.  This train generally makes a point of
+being late.  I wish it had made a struggle to be on time to-night;
+it would have been jolly to get to the ship in daylight."  Bob was
+strapping up rugs briskly as he talked.
+
+"How do we get down to the ship, Bob?"
+
+"Oh, no doubt there'll be taxis," Bob answered.  "But it may be no
+end of a drive--the conductor tells me there are miles and miles of
+docks, and the Nauru may be lying anywhere.  But he says there's
+always a military official on duty at the station--a transport
+officer, and he'll be able to tell me everything."  He did not
+think it worth while to tell the tired little sister what another
+man had told him, that it was very doubtful whether they would be
+allowed to board any transport at night, and that Liverpool was so
+crowded that to find beds in it might be an impossibility.  Bob
+refused to be depressed by the prospect.  "If the worst came to the
+worst, there'd be a Y.W.C.A. that would take in Tommy," he mused.
+"And it wouldn't be the first time I've spent a night in the open."
+Nothing seemed to matter now that they had escaped.  But, all the
+same, there seemed no point in telling Tommy, who was extremely
+cheerful, but also very white-faced.
+
+They drew into an enormous station, where there seemed a dense
+crowd of people, but no porters at all.  Bob piled their hand
+luggage on the platform, and left Cecilia to guard it while he went
+on a tour of discovery.  He hurried back to her presently.
+
+"Come on," he said, gathering up their possessions.  "There's a big
+station hotel opening on to the platforms.  I can leave you sitting
+in the vestibule while I gather up the heavy luggage and find the
+transport officer.  I'm afraid it's going to take some time, so
+don't get worried if I don't turn up very soon.  There seem to be
+about fifty thousand people struggling round the luggage vans, and
+I'll have to wait my turn.  But I'll be as quick as I can."
+
+"Don't you worry on my account," Cecilia said.  "This is ever so
+comfortable.  I don't mind how long you're away!"  She laughed up
+at him, sinking into a big chair in the vestibule of the hotel.
+There were heavy glass doors on either side that were constantly
+swinging to let people in or out; through them could be seen the
+hurrying throng of people on the station, rushing to and fro under
+the great electric lights, gathered round the bookstall, struggling
+along under luggage, or--very occasionally--moving in the wake of a
+porter with a barrow heaped with trunks.  There were soldiers
+everywhere, British and Australian, and officers in every variety
+of Allied uniform.
+
+An officer came in with a lady and two tiny boys--Cecilia
+recognized them as having been passengers on their train.  With
+them came an old Irish priest, who had met them, and the officer
+left them in his care while he also went off on the luggage quest.
+The small boys were apparently untired by their journey; they
+immediately began to use the swinging glass doors as playthings to
+the imminent risk of their own necks, since they were too little to
+be noticed by anyone coming in or out, and were nearly knocked flat
+a dozen times by the swing of the doors.  The weary mother spent a
+busy time in rescuing them, and was not always entirely successful--
+bumps and howls testified to the doors being occasionally quicker
+than the boys.  Finally, the old priest gathered up the elder, a
+curly-haired, slender mite, into his arms and told him stories,
+while his plump and solemn brother curled up on his mother's knee
+and dozed.  It was clearly long after their bed-time.
+
+The procession of people came and went unceasingly, the glass doors
+always aswing.  In and out, in and out, men and women hurried, and
+just beyond the kaleidoscope of the platforms moved and changed
+restlessly under the glaring arc lights.  Cecilia's bewildered mind
+grew weary of it all, and she closed her eyes.  It was some time
+later that she woke with a start, to find Bob beside her.
+
+"Sleepy old thing," he said.  "Oh, I've had such a wild time,
+Tommy; to get information of any kind is as hard as to get one's
+luggage.  However, I've got both.  And the first thing is we can't
+go on board to-night."
+
+"Bob!  What shall we do?"
+
+"I was rather anxious about that same thing myself," said Bob,
+"since everyone tells me that Liverpool is more jammed with people
+than even London--which is saying something.  However, we've had
+luck.  I went to ask in here, never imagining I had the ghost of a
+chance, and they'd just had telegrams giving up two rooms.  So
+we're quite all right; and so is the luggage.  I've had all the
+heavy stuff handed over to a carrier to be put on the Nauru to-
+morrow morning."
+
+"You're the great manager," said Cecilia comfortably.  "Where is
+the Nauru, by the way?"
+
+"Sitting out in the river, the transport officer says.  She doesn't
+come alongside until the morning; and we haven't to be on board
+until three o'clock.  She's supposed to pull out about six.  So we
+really needn't have left London to-day--but I think it's as well we
+did."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Cecilia, with a shiver.  "I don't think I could
+have stood another night in Lancaster Gate.  I've been awake for
+three nights wondering what we should do if any hitch came in our
+plans."
+
+"Just like a woman!" said Bob, laughing.  "You always jump over
+your hedges before you come to them."  He pulled her gently out of
+her chair.  "Come along; I'll have these things sent up to our
+rooms, and then we'll get some dinner--after which you'll go to
+bed."  It was a plan which sounded supremely attractive to his
+sister.
+
+Not even the roar and rattle of the trains under the station hotel
+kept Cecilia awake that night.  She slept, dreamlessly at first;
+then she had a dream that she was just about to embark in a great
+ship for Australia; that she was going up the gangway, when
+suddenly behind her came her father and her stepmother, with Avice,
+Wilfred and Queenie, who all seized her, and began to drag her
+back.  She fought and struggled with them, and from the top of the
+gangway came Mr. M'Clinton and Eliza, who tugged her upwards.
+Between the two parties she was beginning to think she would be
+torn to pieces, when suddenly came swooping from the clouds an
+areoplane, curiously like a wheelbarrow, and in it Bob, who leaned
+out as he dived, grasped her by the hair, and swung her aboard with
+him.  They whirred away over the sea; where, she did not know, but
+it did not seem greatly to matter.  They were still flying between
+sea and sky when she woke, to find the sunlight streaming into her
+room, and some one knocking at her door.
+
+"Are you awake, Tommy?"  It was Bob's voice.  "Lie still, and I'll
+send you up a cup of tea."
+
+That was very pleasant, and a happy contrast to awakening in
+Lancaster Gate; and breakfast a little later was delightful, in a
+big sunny room, with interesting people coming and going all the
+time.  Bob and Cecilia smiled at each other like two happy
+children.  It was almost unbelievable that they were free; away
+from tryanny and coldness, with no more plotting and planning, and
+no more prying eyes.
+
+Bob went off to interview the transport officer after breakfast,
+and Cecilia found the officer's wife with the two little boys
+struggling to attend to her luggage, while the children ran away
+and lost themselves in the corridors or endeavoured to commit
+suicide by means of the lift.  So Cecilia took command of them and
+played with them until the harassed mother had finished, and came
+to reclaim her offspring--this time with the worry lines smoothed
+out of her face.  She sat down by Cecilia and talked, and presently
+it appeared that she also was sailing in the Nauru.
+
+"Indeed, I thought it was only wives who were going," she said.  "I
+didn't know sisters were permitted."
+
+"I believe General Harran managed our passages," Cecilia said.  "He
+has been very kind to my brother."
+
+"Well, you should have a merry voyage, for there will be scarcely
+any young girls on board," said Mrs. Burton, her new friend.  "Most
+of the women on the transports are brides, of course.  Ever so many
+of our men have married over here."
+
+"You are an Australian?" Cecilia asked.
+
+"Oh, yes.  My husband isn't.  He was an old regular officer, and
+returned to his regiment as soon as war broke out.  I don't think
+there will be many women on board: the Nauru isn't a family ship,
+you know."
+
+"What is that?" Cecilia queried.
+
+"Oh, a ship with hundreds of women and children--privates' wives
+and families, as well as officers'.  I believe they are rather
+awful to travel on--they must be terrible in rough weather.  The
+non-family ships carry only a few officers' wives, as a rule: a
+much more comfortable arrangement for the lucky few."
+
+"And we are among the lucky few?"
+
+"Yes.  I only hope my small boys won't be a nuisance.  I've never
+been without a nurse for them until last night.  However, I suppose
+I'll soon get into their ways."
+
+"You must let me help you," Cecilia said.  "I love babies."  She
+stroked Tim's curly head as she spoke: Dickie, his little brother,
+had suddenly fallen asleep on his mother's knee.
+
+Mrs. Burton smiled her thanks.
+
+"Well, it is pleasant to think we shan't go on board knowing no
+one," she said.  "I hope our cabins are not far apart.  Oh, here is
+my husband; I hope that means all our luggage is safely on board."
+
+Colonel Burton came up--a pleasant soldierly man, bearing the
+unmistakable stamp of the regular officer.  They were still
+chatting when Bob arrived, to be introduced--a ceremony which
+appeared hardly necessary in the case of the colonel and himself.
+
+"We've met at intervals since last night in various places where
+they hide luggage," said the colonel.  "I'm beginning to turn faint
+at the sight of a trunk!"
+
+"It's the trunks I can't get sight of that make me tremble,"
+grinned Bob.  "One of mine disappeared mysteriously this morning,
+and finally, after a breathless hunt, turned up in a lamp-room--
+your biggest Saratoga, Tommy!  Why anyone should have put it in a
+lamp-room seems to be a conundrum that is going to excite the
+station for ever.  But there it was."
+
+"And have they really started for the ship?" asked Cecilia.
+
+"Well--I saw them all on a lorry, checked over my list with the
+driver's, and found everything right, and saw him start," said Bob,
+laughing.  "More than that no man may say."
+
+"It would simplify matters if we knew our cabin numbers," said
+Colonel Burton.  "But we don't; neither does anyone, as far as I
+can gather, since cabins appear to be allotted just as you go on
+board--a peculiar system.  Can you imagine the ghastly heap of
+miscellaneous luggage that will be dumped on the Nauru, with
+frenzied owners wildly trying to sort it out!"
+
+"It doesn't bear thinking of," said Bob, laughing.  "Come along,
+Tommy, and we'll explore Liverpool."
+
+They wandered about the crowded streets of the great port, where
+may, perhaps, be seen a queerer mixture of races than anywhere in
+England, since ships from all over the world ceaselesly come and go
+up and down the Mersey.  Then they boarded a tram and journeyed out
+of the city, among miles of beautiful houses, and, getting down at
+the terminus, walked briskly for an hour, since it would be long
+before there would be any land for them to walk on again.  They got
+back to the hotel rather late for lunch, and very hungry; and
+afterwards it was time to pack up their light luggage and get down
+to the docks.  General Harran had warned them to take enough hand-
+baggage to last them several nights, since it was quite possible
+that their cabin trunks would be swept into the baggage room, and
+fail to turn up for a week after sailing.
+
+A taxi whisked them through streets that became more and more
+crowded.  The journey was not a long one; they turned down a slope
+presently, and drew up before a great gate across the end of a pier
+where two policemen were on duty to prevent the entrance of anyone
+without a pass.  Porters were there in singular numbers--England
+had grown quite used to being without them; and Bob had just
+transferred their luggage to the care of a cheerful lad with a
+barrow when Cecilia gave a little start of dismay.
+
+"Bob, I've left my watch!"
+
+"Whew!" whistled her brother.  "Where?"
+
+"I washed my hands just before I left my room," said the shamefaced
+Cecilia.  "I remember slipping it off my wrist beside the basin."
+
+"Well, there's no need to worry," said Bob cheerfully.  "Ten to one
+it's there still.  You'll have to take the taxi and go back for it,
+Tommy: I can't leave the luggage, and I may be wanted to show our
+papers, besides; but you won't have any difficulty.  Come along,
+and I'll see that the policeman lets you through when you come
+back."
+
+The constable was sympathetic.  He examined Cecilia's passport,
+declared that he would know her anywhere again, and that she had no
+cause for anxiety.
+
+"Is it time?  Sure, ye'll be tired of waitin' on the ould pier
+hours afther ye get back," he said cheerfully.  "I know thim
+transports.  Why, there's not one of the throops marched in yet.
+There comes the furrst lot."
+
+A band swung round the turn of the street playing a quickstep:
+behind it, a long line of Australian soldiers, marching at ease,
+each man with his pack on his shoulder.  A gate with a military
+sentry swung wide to admit them, and they passed on to where a high
+overhead bridge carried them aboard a great liner moored to the
+pier.
+
+"'Tis the soldiers have betther treatment than the officers whin it
+comes to boardin' transports," said the friendly policeman.  "They
+get marched straight on board.  The officers and their belongin's
+has to wait till they've gone through hivin knows what formalities.
+So you needn't worry, miss, an' take your time.  The ould ship'll
+be there hours yet."
+
+The taxi driver appeared only too glad of further employment, and
+Cecilia, much cheered, though still considerably ashamed of
+herself, leaned back comfortably in the cab as they whisked through
+the streets.  At the hotel good fortune awaited her, for a
+chambermaid had just found her watch and had brought it to the
+office for safe keeping.  Cecilia left her thanks, with something
+more substantial, for the girl, and hurried back to the cab.
+
+The streets seemed more thronged than ever, and presently traffic
+was blocked by a line of marching men--more "diggers" on their way
+to the transport.  Cecilia's chauffeur turned back into a side
+street, evidently a short cut.  Half-way along it the taxi jarred
+once or twice and came to a standstill.
+
+The chauffeur got out and poked his head into the bonnet,
+performing mysterious rites, while Cecilia watched him, a little
+anxiously.  Presently he came round to the door.
+
+"I'm awful sorry, miss," he said respectfully.  "The old bus has
+broke down.  I'm afraid I can't get another move out of 'er--I'll
+'ave to get 'er towed to a garage."
+
+"Oh!" said Cecilia, jumping out.  "Do you think I can find another
+near here?"
+
+"You oughter pick one up easy in the street up there," said the
+chauffeur.  "Plenty of 'em about 'ere.  Even if you shouldn't,
+miss, you can get a tram down to the docks--any p'liceman 'll
+direct you.  You could walk it, if you liked--you've loads of
+time."  He touched his cap as she paid him.  "Very sorry to let you
+down like this, miss--it ain't my fault.  All the taxis in England
+are just about droppin' to pieces--it'll be a mercy when repair
+shops get goin' again."
+
+"It doesn't matter," Cecilia said cheerfully.  She decided that she
+would walk; it would be more interesting, and the long wait on the
+pier would be shortened.  She set off happily towards the main
+street where the tram lines ran, feeling that short cuts were not
+for strangers in a big city.
+
+Even in the side street the shops were interesting.  She came upon
+a fascinating curio shop, and stopped a moment to look at the queer
+medley in its window; such a medley as may be seen in any port
+where sailor-men bring home strange things from far countries.  She
+was so engrossed that she failed to notice a woman who passed her,
+and then, with an astonished stare, turned back.  A heavy hand fell
+on her wrist.
+
+"Cecilia!"
+
+She turned, with a little cry.  Mrs. Rainham's face, inflamed with
+sudden anger, looked into her own.  The hard grasp tightened on her
+wrist.
+
+"What are you doing here, you wicked girl?  You've run away."
+
+At the moment no speech was possible to Cecilia.  She twisted her
+arm away fiercely, freeing herself with difficulty, and turning,
+ran, with her stepmother at her heels.  Once, Mrs. Rainham gasped
+"Police!" after which she required all the breath to keep near the
+flying girl.  The street was quiet; only one or two interested
+passers-by turned to look at the race, and a street urchin shouted:
+"Go it, red 'ead--she's beatin' yer!"
+
+It follows naturally, when one person pursues another through city
+streets, that the pursued falls under public suspicion and is
+liable to be caught and held by any officious person.  Cecilia felt
+this, and her anxiety was keen as she darted round the corner into
+the next street, looking about wildly for a means of escape.  A big
+van, crawling across the road, held Mrs. Rainham back for a moment,
+giving her a brief respite.
+
+Just in front of her, a block in the traffic was beginning to move.
+A taxi was near her.  She held up her hand desperately, trying to
+catch the driver's eye.  He shook his head, and she realized that
+he was already engaged--there was a pile of luggage beside him with
+big labels, and a familiar name struck her--"H.M.T. Nauru."  A
+girl, leaning from the window of the taxi, met her glance, and
+Cecilia took a sudden resolve.  She sprang forward, her hand on the
+door.
+
+"I am a passenger by the Nauru.  Could you take me in your car?"
+she gasped.
+
+"Why, of course," said the other girl.  "Plenty of room, isn't
+there, dad?"
+
+"Yes, certainly," said the other occupant of the cab--a big,
+grizzled man, who looked at the new-comer in blank amazement.  He
+had half risen, but there was no time for him to assist his self-
+invited guest; she had opened the door and jumped in before his
+daughter had finished speaking.  Leaning forward, Cecilia saw her
+stepmother emerge from the traffic, crimson-faced, casting wild and
+wrathful glances about her.  Then her wandering eye fell upon
+Cecilia, and she began to run forward.  Even as she did the
+chauffeur quickened his pace, and the taxi slid away, until the
+running, shouting figure was lost to view.
+
+Cecilia sat back with a gasp, and began to laugh helplessly.  The
+others watched her with faces that clearly showed that they began
+to suspect having entertained a lunatic unawares.
+
+"I do beg your pardon," said Cecilia, recovering.  "It was
+inexcusable.  But I was running away."
+
+"So it seemed," said the big man, in a slow, pleasant voice.  "I
+hope it wasn't from the police?"
+
+"Oh no!"  Cecilia flushed.  "Only from my stepmother.  My own taxi
+had just broken down, and she found me, and she would have made a
+scene in the street--and scenes are so vulgar, are they not?  When
+I saw Nauru on your luggage, you seemed to me to have dropped from
+heaven."
+
+She looked at them, her pretty face pink, her eyes dancing with
+excitement.  There was something appealing about her, in the big
+childish eyes, and in the well-bred voice with its faint hint of a
+French accent.  The girl she looked at could hardly have been
+called pretty--she was slender and long-limbed, with honest grey
+eyes and a sensitive mouth that seemed always ready to break into
+smiles.  A little smile hovered at its corners now, but her voice
+held a note of protection.
+
+"I don't think we need bother you to tell us," she said.  "In our
+country it's a very ordinary thing to give anyone a lift, if you
+have a seat to spare.  Isn't it, daddy?"
+
+"Of course," said her father.  "And we are to be fellow-passengers,
+so it was very lucky that we were there in the nick of time."
+
+Cecilia looked at them gratefully.  It might have been so
+different, she thought; she might have flung herself on the mercy
+of people who would have been suspicious and frigid, or of others
+who would have treated her with familiarity and curious questioning.
+These people were pleasantly matter-of-fact; glad to help, but
+plainly anxious to show her that they considered her affairs none
+of their business.  There was a little catch in her throat as she
+answered.
+
+"It is very good of you to take me on trust--I know I did an
+unwarrantable thing.  But my brother, Captain Rainham, will explain
+everything, and he will be as grateful to you as I am.  He is at
+the ship now."
+
+"Then we can hand you over to his care," said her host.  "By the
+way, is there any need to guard against the--er--lady you spoke of?
+Is she likely to follow you to the docks?"
+
+"She doesn't know I'm going," said Cecilia, dimpling.  "Of course,
+if it were in a novel she would leap into a swift motor and bid the
+driver follow us, and be even now on our heels--"
+
+"Goodness!" said the other girl.  She twisted so that she could
+look out of the tiny window at the back; turning back with a
+relieved face.
+
+"Nothing near us but a carrier's van and a pony cart," she said.
+"I shouldn't think you need worry."
+
+"No.  I really don't think I need.  My stepmother did see me in the
+taxi, but her brain doesn't move very swiftly, nor does she, for
+that matter--and I'm sure she wouldn't try to follow me.  She
+knows, too, that if she found me she couldn't drag me away as if I
+were two years old.  Oh, I'm sure I'm safe from her now," finished
+Cecilia, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"At any rate, if she comes to the docks she will have your brother
+to deal with," said the big man.  "And here we are."
+
+They got out at the big gate where the Irish policeman greeted
+Cecilia with a friendly "Did ye find it now, miss?" and beamed upon
+her when she held up her wrist, with her watch safely in its place.
+He examined her companions' passports, but let her through with an
+airy "Sure, this young lady's all right," which made Cecilia feel
+that no further proof could be needed of her respectability.  Then
+Bob came hurrying to meet her.
+
+"I was just beginning to get uneasy about you," he said.  "Did you
+have any trouble?"
+
+"My taxi broke down," Cecilia answered.  "But this lady and
+gentleman most kindly gave me a seat, and saved me ever so much
+trouble.  I'll tell you my story presently."
+
+Bob turned, saluting.
+
+"Thanks, awfully," he said.  "I wasn't too happy at letting my
+little sister run about alone in a strange city, but it couldn't be
+helped."
+
+"I'm very glad we were there," said the big man.  "Now, can you
+tell me where luggage should go?  My son and a friend are somewhere
+on the pier, I suppose, but it doesn't seem as though finding them
+would be an easy matter."
+
+The pier, indeed, resembled a hive in which the bees have broken
+loose.  Beside it lay the huge bulk of the transport, towering high
+above all the dock buildings near.  Already she swarmed with
+Australian soldiers, and a steady stream was still passing aboard
+by the overhead gangway to the blare and crash of a regimental
+march.  The pier itself was crowded with officers, with a
+sprinkling of women and children--most of them looking impatient
+enough at being kept ashore instead of being allowed to seek their
+quarters on the ship.  Great heaps of trunks were stacked here and
+there, and a crane was steadily at work swinging them aboard.
+
+"We can't go aboard yet, nobody seems to know why," Bob said.  "An
+individual called an embarkation officer, or something of the kind,
+has to check our passports; he was supposed to be here before three
+o'clock, but there's no sign of him yet, and every one has to wait
+his convenience.  It's hard on the women with little children--the
+poor mites are getting tired and cross.  Luggage can be left in the
+care of the ship's hands, to be loaded; I'll show you where, sir,
+if you like.  Is this yours?"  His eye fell on a truck-load of
+trunks, wheeled up by a porter, and lit up suddenly as he noticed
+the name on their labels.
+
+"Oh--are you Mr. Linton?" he exclaimed.  "I believe I've got a
+letter for you, from General Harran."
+
+"Now, I was wondering where I'd heard your name before, when your
+sister happened to say you were Captain Rainham," said the big man.
+"How stupid of me--of course, I met Harran at my club this week,
+and he told me about you."  He held out his hand, and took Bob's
+warmly; then he turned to his daughter.  "Norah, it's lucky that we
+have made friends with Miss Rainham already, because you know she's
+in our care, after a fashion."
+
+Norah Linton turned with a quick smile.
+
+"I'm so glad," she said.  "I've been wondering what you would be
+like, because we didn't know of anyone else on board."
+
+"General Harran told my brother that you would befriend us, but I
+did not think you would begin so early," Cecilia said.  "Just
+fancy, Bob, they rescued me almost from the clutches of the she-
+dragon!"
+
+Bob jumped.
+
+"You don't mean to say you met her?"
+
+"I did--as soon as my cab broke down.  And I lost my head and ran
+from her like a hare, and jumped into Mr. Linton's car!"
+
+Bob regarded her with solemn amazement.
+
+"So this is what happens when I let you go about alone!" he
+ejaculated.  "Why, you might have got yourself into an awful mess--
+it might have been anybody's car--"
+
+"Yes, but it wasn't," said his sister serenely.  "You see, I looked
+at Miss Linton first, and I knew it would be all right."
+
+The Lintons laughed unrestrainedly.
+
+"That's your look of benevolent old age, Norah," said her father.
+"I've often noticed it coming on."
+
+"I wish you'd mention it to Wally," Norah said.  "He might treat me
+with more respect if you did."
+
+"I doubt it; it isn't in Wally," said her father.  "Now, Rainham,
+shall we see about this luggage?"
+
+They handed it over to the care of deck hands, and watched it
+loaded, with many other trunks, into a huge net, which the crane
+seized, swung to an enormous height and then lowered gently upon
+the deck of the Nauru.  Just as the operation was finished two
+figures threaded their way through the crowd towards them;
+immensely tall young officers, with the badge of a British regiment
+on their caps.
+
+"Hullo, dad," said the taller--a good-looking grave-faced fellow,
+with a strong resemblance to Norah.  "We hardly expected you down
+so early."
+
+"Well, Norah and I had nothing to do, so we thought we might as
+well come; though it appears that we would have been wiser not to
+hurry," said Mr. Linton.  "Jim, I want to introduce you to two
+courageous emigrants--Miss Rainham, Captain Rainham--my son."
+
+Jim Linton shook hands, and introduced his companion, Captain
+Meadows, who was dark and well built, with an exceedingly merry
+eye.
+
+"We've been trying to get round the powers that be, to make our way
+on board," he said.  "The chief difficulty is that the powers that
+be aren't there; everything is hung up waiting for this blessed
+official.  I suppose the honest man is sleeping off the effects of
+a heavy lunch."
+
+"If he knew what hearty remarks are being made about him by over
+two hundred angry people, it might disturb his rest," said Wally
+Meadows.  "Come along and see them--you're only on the fringe of
+the crowd here."
+
+"Wally's been acting as nursemaid for the last half hour," Jim
+said, as they made their way along the pier.  "He rescued a curly-
+haired kid from a watery grave--at least, it would have been in if
+he hadn't caught it by the hind leg--and after that the kid refused
+to let him go."
+
+"He was quite a jolly kid," said Wally.  "Only he seems to have
+quicksilver in him, instead of blood.  I'm sorry for his mother--
+she'll have a packed time for the next five weeks."  He sighed.
+"Hide me, Norah--there he is now!"
+
+The curly-haired one proved to be little Tim Burton, who detached
+himself from his mother on catching sight of Wally, and trotted
+across to him with a shrill cry of "There's mine officer!"--whereat
+Wally swung him up on his shoulder, to his infinite delight.  Mrs.
+Burton hurried up to claim her offspring, and was made known to
+every one by Cecilia.
+
+"It's such an awful wait," she said wearily.  "We came here soon
+after two o'clock, thinking we would get the children on board
+early for their afternoon sleep; now it's after four, and we have
+stood here ever since.  It's too tantalizing with the ship looking
+at us, and the poor babies are so tired.  Still, I'm not the worst
+off.  Look at that poor girl."
+
+She pointed out a white-faced girl who was sitting in a drooping
+attitude on a very dirty wooden case.  She was dainty and refined
+in appearance; and looking at her, one felt that the filthy case
+was the most welcome thing she had found that afternoon.  Her
+husband, an officer scarcely more than a boy, stood beside, trying
+vainly to hush the cries of a tiny baby.  She put up her arms
+wearily as they looked at her.
+
+"Oh, give her to me, Harry."  She took the little bundle and
+crooned over it; and the baby wailed on unceasingly.
+
+"Oh!" said Norah Linton.  She took a quick stride forward.  They
+watched her accost the young mother--saw the polite, yet stiff,
+refusal on the English girl's face; saw Norah, with a swift decided
+movement stoop down and take the baby from the reluctant arms,
+putting any protest aside with a laugh.  A laugh went round the
+Linton party also.
+
+"I knew she'd get it," said Jim.
+
+"Rather!" his friend echoed.  "But she hasn't arms enough for all
+the babies who want mothering here."
+
+There were indeed plenty of them.  Tired young mothers stood about
+everywhere, with children ranging from a few months to three or
+four years, all weary by this time, and most of them cross.
+Harassed young husbands, unused to travelling with children--
+unused, indeed, to anything but War--went hither and thither trying
+to hasten the business of getting on board--coming back, after each
+useless journey, to try and soothe a screaming baby or restrain a
+tiny boy anxious to look over the edge of the pier.  It was only a
+few minutes before Cecilia had found a mother exhausted enough to
+yield up her baby without much protest; and Jim and Wally Meadows
+and Bob "adopted" some of the older children, and took them off to
+see the band; which diversions helped to pass the time.  But it was
+after five o'clock before a stir went round the pier, and a rush of
+officers towards a little wooden room at the foot of the gangway
+told that the long-waited-for official had arrived.
+
+"Well, we won't hurry," said Mr. Linton.  "Let the married men get
+on first."
+
+There were not many who did not hurry.  A few of the older officers
+kept back; the majority, who were chiefly subalterns, made a dense
+crowd about the little room, their long-pent impatience bursting
+out at last.  Passports examined, a procession began up the
+gangway; each man compelled to halt at a barrier on top, where two
+officers sat allotting cabins.  It was difficult to see why both
+these preliminaries could not have been managed before, instead of
+being left until the moment of boarding; the final block strained
+every one's patience to breaking-point.
+
+The Lintons and the Rainhams were almost the last to board the
+ship, having, not without thankfulness, relinquished their adopted
+babies.  The officers allotting berths nodded comprehendingly on
+hearing the names of the two girls.
+
+"Oh yes--you're together."  He gave them their number.
+
+"Together--how curious!" said Cecilia.
+
+"Not a bit; you're the only unmarried ladies on board.  And they're
+packed like sardines--not a vacant berth on the ship.  Over two
+thousand men and two hundred officers, to say nothing of wives and
+children."  He leaned back, thankful that his rush of work was
+over.  "Well, when I make a long voyage I hope it won't be on a
+trooper!"
+
+"Well, that's a bad remark to begin one's journey on," said Jim
+Linton, following the girls up the gangway.  "Doesn't it scare you,
+Miss Rainham?"
+
+"No," she said, with a little laugh.  "Nothing would scare me
+except not going."
+
+"Why, that's all right," he said.  His hand fell on his sister's
+shoulder.  "And what about you, Nor?"
+
+The face she turned him was so happy that words were hardly needed.
+
+"Why--I'm going back to Billabong!" she said.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE WELCOME OF AUSTRALIA
+
+
+A path of moonlight lay across the sea.  Into it drifted a great
+ship, her engines almost stopped, so that only a dull, slow throb
+came up from below, instead of the swift thud-thud of the screw
+that had pounded for many weeks.  It was late; so late that most of
+the ship's lights were extinguished.  But all through her was a
+feeling of pulsating life, of unrest, of a kind of tense
+excitement, of long-pent expectation.  There were low voices
+everywhere; feet paced the decks; along the port railings on each
+deck soldiers were clustered thickly, looking out across the grey,
+tossing sea to a winking light that flashed and twinkled out of the
+darkness like a voice that cried "Greeting!"  For it was the Point
+Lonsdale light, at the sea gate of Victoria; and the men of the
+Nauru were nearly home.
+
+There was little sleep for anyone on board on that last night.
+Most of the Nauru's great company were to disembark in Melbourne;
+the last two days had seen a general smartening up, a mighty
+polishing of leather and brass, a "rounding-up" of scattered
+possessions.  The barber's shop had been besieged by shaggy crowds;
+and since the barber, being but human, could not cope with more
+than a small proportion of his would-be customers, amateur clipping
+parties had been in full swing forward, frequently with terrifying
+results.  Nobody minded.  "Git it orf, that's all that matters!"
+was the motto of the long-haired.
+
+No one knew quite when the Nauru would berth; it was wrapped in
+mystery, like all movements of troopships.  So every one was ready
+the night before--kit bags packed, gear stowed away, nothing left
+save absolute necessaries.  Then, with the coming of dusk, unrest
+settled down upon the ship, and the men marched restlessly, up and
+down, or, gripping pipe stems between their teeth, stared from the
+railings northwards.  And then, like a star at first, the Point
+Lonsdale light twinkled out of the darkness, and a low murmur ran
+round the decks--a murmur without words, since it came from men
+whose only fashion of meeting any emotion is with a joke; and even
+for a "digger" there is no joke ready on the lips, but only a catch
+at the heart, at the first glimpse of home.
+
+Norah Linton had tucked herself away behind a boat on the hurricane
+deck, and there Cecilia Rainham found her just after dusk.  The two
+girls had become sworn friends during the long voyage out, in the
+close companionship of sharing a cabin--which is a kind of acid
+test that generally brings out the best--and worst--of travellers.
+There was something protective in Norah's nature that responded
+instantly to the lonely position of the girl who was going across
+the world to a strange country.  Both were motherless, but in
+Norah's case the blank was softened by a father who had striven
+throughout his children's lives to be father and mother alike to
+them, while Cecilia had only the bitter memory of the man who had
+shirked his duty until he had become less than a stranger to her.
+If any pang smote her heart at the sight of Norah's worshipping
+love for the tall grey "dad" for whom she was the very centre of
+existence, Cecilia did not show it.  The Lintons had taken them
+into their little circle at once--more, perhaps, by reason of
+Cecilia's extraordinary introduction to them than through General
+Harran's letter--and Bob and his sister were already grateful for
+their friendship.  They were a quiet quartet, devoted to each other
+in their undemonstrative fashion; Norah was on a kind of boyish
+footing with Jim, the huge silent brother who was a major, with
+three medal ribbons to his credit, and with Wally Meadows, his
+inseparable chum, who had been almost brought up with the brother
+and sister.
+
+"They were always such bricks to me, even when I was a little scrap
+of a thing," she had told Cecilia.  "They never said I was 'only a
+girl,' and kept me out of things.  So I grew up more than three
+parts a boy.  It was so much easier for dad to manage three boys,
+you see!"
+
+"You don't look much like a boy," Cecilia had said, looking at the
+tall, slender figure and the mass of curly brown hair.  They were
+getting ready for bed, and Norah was wielding a hair-brush
+vigorously.
+
+"No, but I really believe I feel like one--at least, I do whenever
+I am with Jim and Wally," Norah had answered.  "And when we get
+back to Billabong it will be just as it always was--we'll be three
+boys together.  You know, it's the most ridiculous thing to think
+of Jim and Wally as grown-ups.  Dad and I can't get accustomed to
+it at all.  And as for Jim being a major!--a major sounds so
+dignified and respectable, and Jim isn't a bit like that!"
+
+"And what about Captain Meadows?"
+
+"Oh--Wally will simply never grow up."  Norah laughed softly.
+"He's like Peter Pan.  Once he nearly managed it--in that bad time
+when Jim was a prisoner, and we thought he was killed.  But Jim got
+back just in time to save him from anything so awful.  One of the
+lovely parts of getting Jim again was to see the twinkle come back
+into Wally's eyes.  You see, Wally is practically all twinkle!"
+
+"And when you get back to Australia, what will you all do?"
+
+Norah had looked puzzled.
+
+"Why, I don't know that we've ever thought of it," she said.
+"We'll just all go to Billabong--we don't seem to think further
+than that.  Anyway, you and Bob are coming too--so we can plan it
+all out then."
+
+Looking at her, on this last night of the voyage, Cecilia wondered
+whether the unknown "Billabong" would indeed be enough, after the
+long years of war.  They had been children when they left; now the
+boys were seasoned soldiers, with scars and honours, and such
+memories as only they themselves could know; and Norah and her
+father had for years conducted what they termed a "Home for Tired
+People," where broken and weary men from the front had come to be
+healed and tended, and sent back refitted in mind and body.  This
+girl, who leaned over the rail and looked at the Point Lonsdale
+light, had seen suffering and sorrow; the mourning of those who had
+given up dear ones, the sick despair of young and strong men
+crippled in the very dawn of life; and had helped them all.  Beside
+her, in experience, Cecilia felt a child.  And yet the old bush
+home, with its simple life and the pleasures that had been
+everything to her in childhood, seemed everything to her now.
+
+Cecilia went softly to her side, and Norah turned with a start.
+
+"Hallo, Tommy!" she said, slipping her arm through the new-comer's--
+Cecilia had become "Tommy" to them all in a very short time, and
+her hated, if elegant, name left as a legacy to England.  "I didn't
+hear you come.  Oh, Tommy, it's lovely to see home again!"
+
+"You can't see much," said Tommy, laughing.
+
+"No, but it's there.  I can feel it; and that old winking eye on
+Point Lonsdale is saying fifty nice things a minute.  And I can
+smell the gum leaves--don't you tell me I can't, Tommy, just
+because your nose isn't tuned up to gum leaves yet!"
+
+"Does it take long to tune a nose?" asked Tommy, laughing.
+
+"Not a nice nose like yours."  Norah gave a happy little sigh.  "Do
+you see that glow in the sky?  That's the lights of Melbourne.  I
+went to school near Melbourne, but I never loved it much; but
+somehow, it seems different now.  It's all just shouting welcomes.
+And back of beyond that light is Billabong."
+
+"I want to see Billabong," said the other girl.  "I never had a
+home that meant anything like that--I want to see yours."
+
+"And I suppose you'll just think it's an ordinary, untidy old
+place--not a bit like the trim English places, where the woods look
+as though they were swept and dusted before breakfast every
+morning.  I suppose it is all ordinary.  But it has meant just
+everything I wanted, all my life, and I can't imagine its meaning
+anything less now."
+
+"And what about Homewood--the Home for Tired People?"
+
+"Oh, Homewood certainly is lovely," Norah said.  "I like it better
+than any place in the world that isn't Billabong--and it was just
+wonderful to be able to carry it on for the Tired People: dad and I
+will always be thankful we had the chance.  But it never was home:
+and now it's going to run itself happily without us, as a place for
+partly-disabled men, with Colonel Hunt and Captain Hardress to
+manage it.  It was just a single chapter in our lives, and now it
+is closed.  But we're--all of us--parts of Billabong."
+
+Some one came quietly along the deck and to the vacant place on her
+other side.
+
+"Who's talking Billabong again, old kiddie?"  Jim Linton's deep
+voice was always gentle.  Norah gave his shoulder a funny little
+rub with her head.
+
+"Ah, you're just as bad as I am, so you needn't laugh at me,
+Jimmy."
+
+"I wasn't laughing at you," Jim defended himself.  "I expected to
+find you ever so much worse.  I thought you'd sing anthems on the
+very word Billabong all through the voyage, especially in your
+bath.  Of course I don't know what Tommy has suffered!"
+
+"Tommy doesn't need your sympathy," said that lady.  "However, she
+wants to look her best for Melbourne, so she's going to bed.  Don't
+hurry, Norah; I know you want to exchange greetings with that light
+for hours yet!"
+
+She slipped away, and Norah drew closer to Jim.  Presently came
+Wally, on her other side, and a few moments later a deep voice
+behind them said, "Not in bed yet, Norah?"--and Wally made room for
+Mr. Linton.
+
+"I couldn't go to bed, dad."
+
+"Apparently most of the ship is of your mind--I didn't feel like
+bed myself," admitted the squatter, letting his hand rest for a
+moment on his daughter's shoulder.  He gave a great sigh of
+happiness.  "Eh, children, it's great to be near home again!"
+
+"My word, isn't it!" said Jim.  "Only it's hard to take in.  I keep
+fancying that I'll certainly wake up in a minute and find myself in
+a trench, just getting ready to go over the top.  What do you
+suppose they're doing at Billabong now, Nor?"
+
+"Asleep," said Norah promptly.  "Oh, I don't know--I don't believe
+Brownie's asleep."
+
+"I know she's not," Wally said.  He and the old nurse-housekeeper
+of Billabong were sworn allies; though no one could ever quite come
+up to Jim and Norah in Brownie's heart, Wally had been a close
+third from the day, long years back, that he had first come to the
+station, a lonely, dark-eyed little Queenslander.  "She's made the
+girls scrub and polish until there's nothing left for them to rub,
+and she's harried Hogg and Lee Wing until there isn't a leaf
+looking crooked in all the garden, and she and Murty have planned
+all about meeting you for the hundred and first time."
+
+"And she's planning to make pikelets for you!" put in Norah.
+
+"Bless her.  I wouldn't wonder.  She's planning the very wildest
+cooking, of course--do you remember what the table used to be the
+night we came home from school?  And now she's gone round all the
+rooms to make sure she couldn't spend another sixpence on them, and
+she's sitting by her window trying to see us all on the Nauru.
+'Specially you, old Nor."
+
+"'Tis the gift of second sight you have," said Jim admiringly.  "A
+few hundred years ago you'd have got yourself ducked as a witch or
+something."
+
+"Oh, Wally and Brownie were always twin souls; no wonder each knows
+what the other is thinking of," Norah said, laughing.  "It all
+sounds exactly true, at any rate.  Boys, what a pity you can't land
+in uniform--wouldn't they all love to see you!"
+
+"Can't do it," Jim said.  "Too long since we were shot out of the
+army; any enterprising provost-marshal could make himself obnoxious
+about it."
+
+"I know--but I'm sorry," answered Norah.  "Brownie won't be
+satisfied unless she sees you in all your war paint."
+
+"We'll put it on some night for dinner," Jim promised.  He peered
+suddenly into the darkness.  "There's a moving light--it's the
+pilot steamer coming out for us."
+
+They watched the light pass slowly from the dim region that meant
+the Heads, until, as the pilot boat swung out through the Rip to
+where the Nauru lay, her other lights grew clear, and presently her
+whole outline loomed indistinctly, suddenly close to them.  She lay
+to across a little heaving strip of sea, and presently the pilot
+was being pulled across to them by a couple of men and was coming
+nimbly up the Nauru's ladder, hand over hand.  He nodded cheerily
+at his welcome--a fusillade of greetings from every "digger" who
+could find a place at the railings, and a larger number who could
+not, but contented themselves with shouting sweet nothings from
+behind their comrades.  A lean youngster near Jim Linton looked
+down enviously at the retreating boat.
+
+"If I could only slide down into her, an' nick off to the old
+Alvina over there, I'd be home before breakfast," he said.  "Me
+people live at Queenscliff--don't it seem a fair cow to have to go
+past 'em, right up to Melbourne?"
+
+The pilot's head appeared above on the bridge, beside the
+captain's, and presently the Nauru gathered way, and, slowly
+turning, forged through the tossing waters of the Rip.  Before her
+the twin lights of the Heads opened out; soon she was gliding
+between them, and under the silent guns of the Queenscliff forts,
+and past the twinkling house lights of the little seaside town.
+There were long coo-ees from the diggers, with shrill, piercing
+whistles of greeting for Victoria; from ashore came faint answering
+echoes.  But the four people from Billabong stood silently, glad of
+each other's nearness, but with no words, and in David Linton's
+heart and Norah's was a great surge of thankfulness that, out of
+many perils, they were bringing their boys safely home.
+
+The Nauru turned across Port Phillip Bay, and presently they felt
+the engines cease, and there came the rattle of the chain as the
+anchor shot into the sea.
+
+"As the captain thought," said Jim.  "He fancied they'd anchor us
+off Portsea for the night and bring us up to Port Melbourne in the
+morning, after we'd been inspected.  Wouldn't it be the limit if
+some one developed measles now, and they quarantined us!"
+
+"You deserve quarantining, if ever anyone did," said Norah,
+indignantly.  "Why do you have such horrible ideas?"
+
+"I don't know--they just seem to waft themselves to me," said Jim
+modestly.  "Anyhow, the quarantine station is a jolly little place
+for a holiday, and the sea view is delightful."  He broke off,
+laughing, and suddenly flung his arm round her shoulders in the
+dusk of the deck.  "I think I'm just about insane at getting home,"
+he said.  "Don't mind me, old kiddie--and you'd better go to bed,
+or you'll be a ghost in the morning."
+
+They weighed anchor after breakfast, following a perfunctory
+medical inspection--so perfunctory that one youth who, having been
+a medical student, and knowing well that he had a finely-developed
+feverish cold, with a high temperature, and not wishing to
+embarrass his fellow-passengers, placed in his mouth the wrong end
+of the clinical thermometer handed him by the visiting nurse.  He
+sucked this gravely for the prescribed time, reversing it just as
+she reappeared; and, being marked normal and given a clean bill of
+health, returned to his berth to shiver and perspire between huge
+doses of quinine.  More than one such hero evaded the searching eye
+of regulations; until finally the Nauru, free to land her
+passengers, steamed slowly up the Bay.
+
+One by one the old, familiar landmarks opened out--Mornington,
+Frankston, Mordialloc, while Melbourne itself lay hidden in a mist
+cloud ahead.  Then, as the sun grew stronger the mist lifted, and
+domes and spires pierced the dun sky, towering above the jumbled
+mass of the grey city.  They drew closer to Port Melbourne, and lo!
+St. Kilda and all the foreshore were gay with flags, and all the
+ships in the harbour were dressed to welcome them; and beyond the
+pier were long lines of motors, each beflagged, waiting for the
+fighting men whom the Nauru was bringing home.
+
+"Us!" said a boy.  "Why, it's us!  Flags an' motors--an' a blessed
+band playin' on the pier!  Wot on earth are they fussin' over us
+for?  Ain't it enough to get home?"
+
+The band of the Nauru was playing Home, Sweet Home, very low and
+tenderly, and there were lumps in many throats, and many a pipe
+went out unheeded.  Slowly the great ship drew in to the pier,
+where officers in uniform waited, and messengers of welcome from
+the Government.  Beyond the barriers that held the general public
+back from the pier was a black mass of people; cheer upon cheer
+rose, to be wafted back from the transport, where the "diggers"
+lined every inch of the port side, clinging like monkeys to yards
+and rigging.  Then the Nauru came to rest at last, and the gangways
+rattled down, and the march off began, to the quick lilt of the
+band playing "Oh, it's a Lovely War."  The men took up the words,
+singing as they marched back to Victoria--coming back, as they had
+gone, with a joke on their lips.  So the waiting motors received
+them, and rolled them off in triumphal procession to Melbourne,
+between the cheering crowds.
+
+From the top deck the Lintons, with the Rainhams, watched the men
+go--disembarkation was for the troops first, and not till all had
+gone could the unattached officers leave the ship.  The captain
+came to them, at last a normal and friendly captain--no more the
+official master of a troopship, in which capacity, as he ruefully
+said, he could make no friends, and could scarcely regard his ship
+as his own, provided he brought her safely from port to port.  He
+cast a disgusted glance along the stained and littered decks.
+
+"This is her last voyage as a trooper, and I'm not sorry," he said.
+"After this she'll lie up for three months to be refitted; and then
+I'll command a ship again and not a barracks.  You wouldn't think
+now, to see her on this voyage, that the time was when I had to
+know the reason why if there was so much as a stain the size of a
+sixpence on the deck.  Oh yes, it's been all part of the job, and
+I'm proud of all the old ship has done, and the thousands of men
+she's carried; and we've had enough narrow squeaks, from mines and
+submarines, to fill a book.  But I'm beginning to hanker mightily
+to see her clean!"
+
+The Lintons laughed unfeelingly.  A little mild grumbling might
+well be permitted to a man with his record; few merchant captains
+had done finer service in the war, and the decoration on his breast
+testified to his cool handling of his ship in the "narrow squeaks"
+he spoke of lightly.
+
+"Oh yes.  I never get any sympathy," said the captain, laughing
+himself.  "And yet I'll wager Miss Linton was 'house-proud' in that
+'Home for Tired People' of hers, and she ought to sympathize with a
+tidy man.  You should have seen my wife's face when she came aboard
+once at Liverpool, and saw the ship; and she's never had the same
+respect for me since!  There--the last man is off the ship, and the
+gangways are clear; nothing to keep all you homesick people now."
+He said good-bye, and ran up the steps to his cabin under the
+bridge.
+
+It was a queer home-coming at first, to a vast pier, empty save for
+a few officials and policemen--for no outsiders were allowed within
+the barriers.  But once clear of customs officials and other
+formalities they packed themselves into cabs, and in a few moments
+were outside the railed-off space, turning into a road lined on
+either side with people--all peering into the long procession of
+cabs, in the hope of finding their own returning dear ones.  It was
+but a few moments before a posse of uncles, aunts and cousins
+swooped down upon the Lintons, whose cab prudently turned down a
+side street to let the wave of welcome expend itself.  In the side
+street, too, were motors belonging to the aunts and uncles; and
+presently the new arrivals were distributed among them, and were
+being rushed up to Melbourne, along roads still crowded by the
+people who had flocked to welcome the "diggers" home.  The Rainhams
+found themselves adopted by this new and cheery band of people--at
+least half of whose names they never learned; not that this seemed
+to matter in the least.  It was something new to them, and very un-
+English; but there was no doubt that it made landing in a new
+country a very different thing from their half-fearful anticipations.
+
+"And you really came out all alone--not knowing anyone!" said an
+aunt.  "Aren't you English people plucky!  And I believe that most
+of you think we're all black fellows--or did until our diggers went
+home, and proved unexpectedly white!"
+
+"I don't think we're quite so bad as that!" Bob said, laughing.
+"But certainly we never expected quite so kind a welcome."
+
+"Oh, we're all immensely interested in people who take the trouble
+to come across the world to see us," said Mrs. Geoffrey Linton.
+"That is, if they don't put on 'side'; we don't take kindly to
+being patronized.  And you have no idea how many new chums do
+patronize us.  Did you know, by the way, that you're new chums
+now?"
+
+"It has been carefully drilled into us on the ship," Bob said
+gravely.  "I think we know pretty well all we have to face--the
+snakes that creep into new chums' boots and sleep under their
+pillows, the goannas that bite our toes if we aren't watchful, and
+the mosquitoes that sit on the trees and bark!"
+
+"Also the tarantulas that drop from everywhere, especially into
+food," added Tommy, dimpling.  "And the bush fires every Sunday
+morning, and the blacks that rush down--what is it?  Oh yes, the
+Block, casting boomerangs about!  There is much spare time on a
+troopship, Mrs. Linton, and all of it was employed by the
+subalterns in telling us what we might expect!"
+
+"I can quite imagine it," Mrs. Geoffrey laughed.  "Oh well,
+Billabong will be a good breaking-in.  Norah tells me you are going
+up there at once?"
+
+"Well, not quite at once," Bob said.  "We think it is only fair to
+let them get home without encumbrances, and as we have to present
+other letters of introduction in Melbourne, we'll stay here for a
+few days, and then follow them."
+
+"Then you must come out to us," said Mrs. Geoffrey firmly.  "No use
+to ask my brother-in-law, of course; he has just one idea, and that
+is to stay at Scott's, get his luggage through the customs, see his
+bankers as quickly as possible, and then get back to his beloved
+Billabong.  If we get them out to dinner to-night, it's as much as
+we can hope for.  But you two must come to us--we can run you here
+and there in the car to see the people you want."  She put aside
+their protests, laughing.  "Why, you don't know how much we like
+capturing bran-new English people--and think what you have done for
+our boys all these four years!  From what they tell us, if anyone
+wants to go anywhere or do anything he likes in England, all he has
+to do is to wear a digger's slouched hat!"
+
+They stopped in Collins Street, and in a moment the new-comers,
+slightly bewildered, found themselves in a tea-room; a new thing in
+tea-rooms to Tommy and Bob, since it was a vision of russet and
+gold--brown wood, masses of golden wattle and daffodils, and of
+bronze gum leaves; and even the waitresses flitted about in russet-
+brown dresses.  David Linton hung back at the doorway.
+
+"It isn't a party, Winifred?"
+
+"My dear David, only a few people who want to welcome you back.
+Really, you're just as bad as ever!" said his sister-in-law, half
+vexed.  "The children's school friends, too--Jim and Wally's mates.
+You can't expect us to get you all back, after so long--and with
+all those honours, too!--and not give people a chance of shaking
+hands with you."  At which point Norah said, gently, but firmly,
+"Dad, you mustn't be naughty," and led him within.
+
+Some one grasped his hand.  "Well, Linton, old chap!"  And he found
+himself greeting the head of a big "stock and station" firm.  Some
+one else clapped him on the shoulder, and he turned to meet his
+banker; behind them towered half a dozen old squatter friends, with
+fellow clubmen, all trying at once to get hold of his hand.  David
+Linton's constitutional shyness melted in the heartiness of their
+greeting.  Beyond them Norah seemed to be the centre of a mass of
+girls, one of whom presently detached herself, and came to him.  He
+said in amazement, "Why, it's Jean Yorke--and grown up!" and
+actually kissed her, to the great delight of Jean, who had been an
+old mate of Norah's.  As for Jim and Wally, they were scarcely to
+be seen, save for their heads, in a cluster of lads, who were
+pounding and smiting them wherever space permitted.  Altogether,
+it was a confused and cheerful gathering, and, much to the
+embarrassment of the russet-brown waitresses, the last thing
+anybody thought of was tea.
+
+Still, when the buzz of greetings had subsided, and at length
+"morning tea"--that time-honoured institution of Australia--had a
+chance to appear, it was of a nature to make the new arrivals gasp.
+The last four years in England had fairly broken people in to plain
+living; dainties and luxuries had disappeared so completely from
+the table that every one had ceased to think about them.
+Therefore, the Linton party blinked in amazement at the details of
+what to Melbourne was a very ordinary tea, and, forgetting its
+manners, broke into open comment.
+
+"Cakes!" said Wally faintly.  "Jean, you might catch me if I
+swoon."
+
+"What's wrong with the cakes?" said Jean Yorke, bewildered.
+
+"Nothing--except that they are cakes!  Jim!"--he caught at his
+chum's sleeve--"that substance in enormous layers in that enormous
+slice is called cream.  Real cream.  When did you see cream last,
+my son?"
+
+"I'm hanged if I know," Jim answered, grinning.  "About four years
+ago, I suppose.  I'd forgotten it existed.  And the cakes look as
+if they didn't fall to pieces if you touched 'em."
+
+"What, do the English cakes do that?" asked a pained aunt.
+
+"Rather--when there are any.  It's something they take out of the
+war flour--what is it, Nor?"
+
+"Gluten, I think it's called," said Norah doubtfully.  "It's
+something that ordinarily makes flour stick together, but they took
+it all out of the war flour, and put it into munitions.  So
+everything you made with war flour was apt to be dry and crumbly.
+And when you made cakes with it, and war sugar, which was half full
+of queer stuff like plaster of paris, and egg substitute, because
+eggs--when you could get them--were eightpence halfpenny, and
+butter substitute (and very little of that)--well, they weren't
+exactly what you would call cakes at all."
+
+"Butter substitute!" said the aunt faintly.  "I could not live
+without good butter!"
+
+"Bless you, Norah and dad hadn't tasted butter for nearly three
+years before they came on board the Nauru," said Jim.  "It was
+affecting to see Nor greeting a pat of butter for the first time!"
+
+"But you had some butter--we read about it."
+
+"Two ounces per head weekly--but they put all their ration into the
+'Tired People's food,'" said Wally.
+
+"It wasn't only dad and I," said Norah quickly.  "Every soul we
+employed did that--Irish maids, butler, cook-lady and all.  And we
+hadn't to ask one of them to do it.  The Tired People always had
+butter.  They used to think we had a special allowance from
+Government, but we hadn't."
+
+"Dear me!" said the aunt.  "It's too terrible.  And meat?"
+
+"Oh, meat was very short," said Norah, laughing.  "Of course we
+were fairly well off for our Tired People, because they had
+soldiers' rations; but even so, we almost forgot what a joint
+looked like.  Stews and hot pots and made dishes--you call them
+that because you make them of anything but meat!  We became very
+clever at camouflaging meat dishes.  Somehow the Tired People ate
+them all.  But"--she paused, laughing--"you know I never thought I
+could feel greedy for meat.  And I did--I just longed, quite often,
+for a chop!"
+
+"And could you not have one?"
+
+"Gracious, no!"  Norah looked amazed.  "Chops were quite the most
+extravagant thing of all--too much bone.  You see, the meat ration
+included bone and fat, and I can tell you we were pretty badly
+worried if we got too much of either."
+
+"To think of all she knows," said the aunt, regarding her with a
+tearful eye.  Whereat Norah laughed.
+
+"Oh, I could tell you lots of homely things," she said.  "How we
+always boiled bones for soup at least four times before we looked
+on them as used up; and how we worked up sheep's heads into the
+most wonderful chicken galantines; and--but would you mind if I ate
+some walnut cake instead?  It's making me tremble even to look at
+it."
+
+After which Jean Yorke and the russet-brown waitresses vied in
+plying the new-comers with the most elaborate cakes, until even Jim
+and Wally begged for mercy.
+
+"You ought to remember we're not used to these things," Wally
+protested, waving away a strange erection of cream, icing and
+wafery pastry.  "If I ate that it would go to my head, and I'd have
+to be removed in an ambulance.  And the awful part of it is--I want
+to eat it.  Take it out of my sight, Jean, or I'll yield, and the
+consequences will be awful."
+
+"But it is too dreadful to think of all you poor souls have gone
+through," said an aunt soulfully.  "How little we in Australia know
+of what war means!"
+
+"But if it comes to that, how little we knew!" Norah exclaimed,
+"Why, there we were, only a few miles from the fighting--you could
+hear the guns on a still day, when a big action was going on; and
+except for the people who came directly in the way of air raids,
+England knew little or nothing of war: I mean, war as the people of
+Belgium and Northern France knew it.  The worst we had to admit was
+that we didn't get everything we liked to eat, and that was a joke
+compared to what we might have had.  Hardly anyone in England went
+cold or hungry through the war, and so I don't think we knew much
+about it either."  She broke off blushing furiously, to find every
+one listening to her.  "I didn't mean to make a speech."
+
+"It's quite true, though," said her father, "even if you did make a
+speech about it.  There were privations in some cases, no doubt--
+invalids sometimes suffered, or men used to a heavy meat diet,
+whose wives had not knowledge--or fuel--enough to cook substitutes
+properly.  On the other hand, there was no unemployment, and the
+poor were better fed than they had ever been, since every one could
+make good wages at munitions.  The death rate among civilians was
+very much lower than usual.  People learned to eat less, and not to
+waste--and the pre-war waste in England was terrific.  And I say--
+and I think we all say--that anyone who grumbles about 'privations'
+in England deserves to know what real war means--as the women of
+Belgium know it."
+
+He stopped, and Norah regarded him with great pride, since his
+remarks were usually strictly limited to the fewest possible words.
+
+"Well, it's rather refreshing to hear you talk," remarked another
+squatter.  "A good many people have come back telling most pathetic
+tales of all they had to endure.  I suppose, though, that some were
+worse off than you?"
+
+"Oh, certainly," David Linton said.  "We knew one Australian, an
+officer's wife, who was stranded in a remote corner of South Wales
+with two servants and two babies; it was just at the time of
+greatest scarcity before compulsory rationing began, when most of
+the food coming in was kept in the big towns and the Midlands.
+That woman could certainly get milk for her youngsters; but for
+three months the only foods she and her maids were sure of getting
+were war bread, potatoes, haricot beans and salt herrings.  She was
+a good way from the nearest town, and there was deep snow most of
+the time.  There was no carting out to her place, and by the time
+she could get into the town most of the food shops would be empty."
+
+"And if you saw the salt herrings!" said Norah.  "They come down
+from Scotland, packed thousands in a barrel.  They're about the
+length and thickness of a comb, and if you soak them for a day in
+warm water and then boil them, you can begin to think about them as
+a possible food.  But Mrs. Burton and her maids ate them for three
+months.  She didn't seem to think she had anything to grumble
+about--in fact, she said she still felt friendly towards potatoes,
+but she hoped she'd never see a herring or a bean again!"
+
+"She had her own troubles about coal, too," remarked Jim.  "The
+only coal down there is a horrible brownish stuff that falls into
+damp slack if you look at it; it's generally used only for
+furnaces, but people had to draw their coal allowance from the
+nearest supply, and it was all she could get.  The only way to use
+the beastly stuff was to mix it with wet, salt mud from the river
+into what the country people call culm--then you cut it into
+blocks, or make balls of it, and it hardens.  She couldn't get a
+man to do it for her, and she used to mix all her culm herself--and
+you wouldn't call it woman's work, even in Germany.  But she used
+to tell it as a kind of joke."
+
+"She used to look on herself as one of the really lucky women,"
+said David Linton, "because her husband didn't get killed.  And I
+think she was--herrings and culm and all.  And we're even luckier,
+since we've all come back to Australia, and to such a welcome as
+you've given us."  He stood up, smiling his slow, pleasant smile at
+them all.  "And now I think I've got to go chasing the Customs, if
+I'm ever to disinter our belongings and get home."
+
+The girls took possession of Norah and Tommy, who left their
+menfolk to the drear business of clearing luggage, and thankfully
+spent the afternoon in the Botanical Gardens, glad to have firm
+ground under their feet after six weeks of sea.  Then they all met
+at dinner at Mrs. Geoffrey Linton's, where they found her son,
+Cecil, who greeted Norah with something of embarrassment.  There
+was an old score between Norah and Cecil Linton, although they had
+not seen each other for years; but its memory died out in Norah's
+heart as she looked at her cousin's military badge and noted that
+he dragged one foot slightly.  Indeed, there was no room in Norah's
+heart for anything but happiness.
+
+The aunts and uncles tried hard to persuade David Linton to remain
+a few days in Melbourne, but he shook his head.
+
+"I've been homesick for five years," he told them.  "And it feels
+like fifty.  I'll come down again, I promise--yes, and bring the
+children, of course.  But just now I can't wait.  I've got to get
+home."
+
+"That old Billabong!" said Mrs. Geoffrey, half laughing.  "Are you
+going to live and die in the backblocks, David?"
+
+"Why, certainly--at least I hope so," he said.  "I suppose there
+must be lucid intervals, now that Norah is grown up, or imagines
+she is--not that she seems to me a bit different from the time when
+her hair was down.  Still I suppose I must bring her to town, and
+let her make her curtsy at Government House, and do all the correct
+things--"
+
+Some one slipped a hand through his arm.
+
+"But when we've done them, daddy," said Norah cheerfully, "there
+will always be Billabong to go home to!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BILLABONG
+
+
+"Will it be fine, Murty?"
+
+The person addressed made no answer for a moment, continuing to
+stare at the western horizon with his eyes wrinkled and his face
+anxious.  He turned presently; a tall, grizzled man, with the
+stooping shoulders and the slightly bowed legs that are the
+heritage of those who spend nine-tenths of their time in the
+saddle.
+
+"Sorra a one of me knows," he said.  "It's one of thim unchancy
+days that might be annything.  Have ye looked at the glass?"
+
+"It's mejum," replied the first speaker.  She was a vast woman,
+with a broad, kindly face, lit by shrewd and twinkling blue eyes,
+dressed, as was her custom, in a starched blue print, with a snowy
+apron.  "Mejum only.  But I don't feel comferable at that there
+bank of clouds, Murty."
+
+"I'd not say meself it was good," admitted Murty O'Toole, head
+stockman on the Billabong run.  He looked again at the doubtful
+sky, and then back to Mrs. Brown.  "Have ye no corns, at all, that
+'ud be shootin' on ye if rain was coming?"
+
+"Corns I 'ave, indeed," said Mrs. Brown, with the sigh of one who
+admits that she is but human.  "But no--they ain't shootin' worth
+speakin' about, Murty.  Nor me rheumatic knee ain't givin' tongue,
+as Master Jim would say."
+
+"Yerra, that's all to the good," said the stockman, much cheered.
+"I'll not look at the ould sky anny longer--leastways, not till I
+have that cup of tea ye were speakin' about."
+
+"Come in then," said Mrs. Brown, leading the way into the kitchen--
+a huge place so glittering with cleanliness and polish that it
+almost hurt the eye.  "Kettle's boilin'--I'll have it made in a
+jiffy.  No, Murty, you will not sit on that table.  Pounds of bath-
+brick 'ave gone into me tables this last week."
+
+"Ye have them always that white I do not see how ye'd want them to
+be whiter," remarked Murty, gazing round him.  "But I niver see
+anything to aiqual the shine ye have on them tins an' copper.  And
+the stove is that fine it's a shame to be cookin' with it."  He
+looked with respect at the black satin and silver of the stove,
+where leaping flames glowed redly.  "Well, I'll always say there
+isn't a heartsomer place to come into than the Billabong kitchen.
+And isn't it the little misthress that thinks so?"
+
+"Bless her, she was always in and out of it from the time she could
+toddle," said Mrs. Brown, pausing with the teapot in her hand.
+"And she wasn't much more than toddlin' before she was at me to
+teach her to cook.  When she was twelve she could cook a dinner as
+well as anyone twice her age.  I never see the beat of her--handy
+as a man out on the run, too--"
+
+"She was that," said Murty solemnly.  "Since she was a bit of a
+thing I never see the bullock as could get away from her.  And the
+ponies she'd ride!  There was nothin' ever looked through a bridle
+that cud frighten her."
+
+"Poof!  Miss Norah didn't know what it was to be afraid," said Mrs.
+Brown, filling the huge brown teapot.  "Sometimes I've wished she
+was, for me heart's been in me mouth often and often when I see her
+go caperin' down the track on some mad-'eaded pony."
+
+"An' there was niver a time when they was late home but you made
+sure the whole lot of 'em was killed," said Murty, grinning.  "I'd
+come in here an' find you wit' all the funerals planned, so to
+speak--"
+
+"Ah, go on!  At least, I alwuz stayed at home when I was nervis,"
+said Mrs. Brown.  "Who was it I've known catch an 'orse in the
+dark, an' go off to look for 'em when they were a bit late?  Not
+me, Mr. O'Toole!"  She filled his cup and handed it to him with a
+triumphant air.
+
+"Yerra, I misremember doin' any such thing," said Murty, slightly
+confused.  "'Tis the way I was most likely goin' afther a sick
+bullock, or it might be 'possum shootin'."  He raised his cup and
+took a deep draught; then, with a wry face, gazed at its contents.
+"I dunno is this a new brand of tea you're afther usin', now?
+Sure, it looks pale."
+
+Mrs. Brown cast a glance at the cup he held out, and gave a gasp of
+horror.
+
+"Well, not in all me born days 'ave I made tea an' forgot to put
+the tea in!" she exclaimed, snatching it from his hand.  "Don't you
+go an' tell Dave and Mick, Murty, or I'll never hear the end of it.
+Lucky there's plenty of hot water."  She emptied the teapot
+swiftly, and refilled it, this time with due regard to the tea-
+caddy.
+
+"Now, Murty, don't you sit there grinnin' at me like a hyener--it
+isn't every day I get Miss Norah home."
+
+"It is not," said Murty, taking his renewed cup and a large piece
+of bread and butter.  "Sure, I'd not blame ye if ye fried bacon in
+the tea-pot--not this morning.  I dunno, meself, am I on me head or
+me heels.  All the men is much the same; they've been fallin' over
+each other, tryin' to get a little bit of extra spit-an'-polish on
+the whole place.  I b'lieve Dave Boone wud 'a' set to work an'
+whitewashed the paddock fences if I'd encouraged him at all."
+
+"There's that Sarah," said Mrs. Brown.  "Ornery days it takes me,
+an alarum clock, an' Mary, to say nothin' of a wet sponge, to get
+her out of bed.  But bless you--these last three days she's up
+before the pair of us, rubbin' an' polishin' in every corner.  An'
+she an' 'Ogg at each other's throats over flowers; she wantin' to
+pick every one to look pretty in the 'ouse, an' 'Ogg wantin' every
+one to look pretty in the garden."
+
+"Well, Hogg's got enough an' to spare," was Murty's comment.  "No
+union touch about his work.  I reckon he's put in sixteen hours a
+day at that garden since we heard they were comin'."
+
+"But there never was any union touch about Billabong," said Mrs.
+Brown.
+
+"Not much!  We all know when we're well off," said Murty.  "I'll
+bet no union was ever as good a boss as David Linton."
+
+Two other men appeared at the kitchen door--Mick Shanahan and Dave
+Boone--each wearing, in defiance of regulations, some battered
+remnant of uniform that marked the "digger," while Mick, in
+addition, would walk always with a slight limp.  He was accustomed
+to say 'twas a mercy it didn't hinder his profession--which, being
+that of a horsebreaker, freed him, as a rule, from the necessity of
+much walking.  Other men Billabong had sent to the war, and not all
+of them had come back; the lonely station had been a place of
+anxiety and of mourning.  But to-day the memories of the long years
+of fighting and waiting were blotted out in joy.
+
+"Come in, boys," Mrs. Brown nodded at the men.  "Tea's ready.
+What's it going to be?"
+
+"Fine, I think," said Boone, replying to this somewhat indefinite
+question with complete certainty as to the questioner's meaning.
+"I seen you an' Murty pokin' your heads up at them clouds, but
+there ain't nothin' in them."  A smile spread over his good-
+looking, dark face.  "Bless you, it couldn't rain today, with Miss
+Norah comin' home!"
+
+"I don't believe, meself, that Providence 'ud 'ave the 'eart," said
+Mrs. Brown.  "Picksher them now, all flyin' round and gettin' ready
+to start, and snatchin' a bite of breakfast--"
+
+"If I know Master Jim 'twill be no bite he'll snatch!" put in Mick.
+
+"Well, all I 'ope is that the 'otel don't poison them," said Mrs.
+Brown darkly.  "I on'y stopped in a Melbin' 'otel once, and then I
+got pot-o'-mine poisoning, or whatever they call it.  I've 'eard
+they never wash their saucepans!"
+
+"No wonder you get rummy flavours in what you eat down there, if
+that's so," said Dave.  "Surprisin' what the digestions of them
+city people learn to put up with.  Well, I suppose you won't be
+addin' to their risks by puttin' up much of a dinner for them to-
+day, Mrs. Brown."  He grinned wickedly.
+
+"You go on, imperence!" said the lady.  "If I let you look into the
+larder now (w'ich I won't, along of knowin' you too well), there'd
+be no gettin' you out to work to-day.  Murty, that turkey weighed
+five-and-thirty pound!"
+
+"Sure he looked every ounce of it," said Murty.  "I niver see his
+aiqual--he was a regular Clydesdale of a bird!"
+
+"I rose him from the aig meself," said Mrs. Brown, "and I don't
+think I could 'a' brung meself to 'ave 'im killed for anythink less
+than them comin' 'ome.  As it was, I feel 'e's died a nobil death.
+An' 'e'll eat beautiful, you mark my words."
+
+"Well, it'll be something to think of the Boss at the head of his
+table, investigatin' a Billabong turkey again," said Boone, putting
+down his empty cup.  "And as there's nothing more certain than that
+they'll all be out at the stables d'reckly after dinner, wantin' to
+see the 'orses, you an' I'd better go an' shine 'em up a bit more,
+Mick."  They tramped out of the kitchen, while Mrs. Brown waddled
+to the veranda and cast further anxious glances at the bank of
+clouds lying westward.
+
+Norah was watching them, too.  She was sitting in the corner of the
+compartment, as the swift train bore them northward, with her eyes
+glued to the country flying past.  Just for once the others did not
+matter to her; her father, Jim, and Wally, each in his own corner,
+as they had travelled so many times in the past, coming back from
+school.  Then she had had eyes only for them; to-day her soul was
+hungry for the dear country she had not seen for so long.  It lay
+bare enough in the early winter--long stretches of stone-walled
+paddocks where the red soil showed through the sparse, native
+grass; steep, stony hillsides, with little sheep grazing on them--
+pygmies, after the great English sheep; oases of irrigation, with
+the deep green of lucerne growing rank among weed-fringed water-
+channels; and so on and on, past little towns and tiny settlements,
+and now and then a stop at some place of more importance.  But
+Norah did not want the towns; she was homesick for the open
+country, for the scent of the gum trees coming drifting in through
+the open window, for the long, lonely plains where grazing cattle
+raised lazy eyes to look at the roaring engine, or horses flung up
+nervous heads and went racing away across the grass--more for the
+fun of it than from fear.  The gum trees called to her, beckoned to
+her; she forgot the smooth perfection of the English landscape as
+she feasted her eyes on the dear, untidy trees, whose dangling
+strips of bark seemed to wave to her in greeting, telling her she
+was coming home.  They passed a great team of working bullocks in a
+wagon loaded with an enormous tree trunk; twenty-four monsters,
+roan and red and speckled, with a great pair of polled Angus in the
+lead; they plodded along in their own dust, their driver beside
+them with his immense whip over his shoulder.  Norah pointed them
+out to the others with a quick exclamation, and Jim and Wally came
+to look out from her window.
+
+"By Jove, what a team!" said Jim.  "Well, just at this moment I'd
+rather see those fellows than the meet of the Coaching Club in Hyde
+Park--and I had a private idea that that was the finest sight in
+the world!"
+
+"Aren't you a jungly animal!" quoth Wally.
+
+"Rather--just now," Jim rejoined.  "Some day, I suppose, I'll be
+glad to go back to London, and look at it all again.  But just now
+there doesn't seem to be anything to touch a fellow's own country--
+and that team of old sloggers there is just a bit of it.  Isn't it,
+old Nor?"  She nodded up at him; there was no need of words.
+
+The morning was drawing towards noon when they came in sight of
+their own little station: Cunjee, looking just as they had left it
+years ago, its corrugated iron roofs gleaming in the sunlight, its
+one street green with feathery pepper trees along each side.  The
+train pulled up, and they all tumbled out hastily; presumably the
+express wasted no more time upon Cunjee than in days gone by, when
+it was necessary to hustle out of the carriage, and to race along
+to the van, lest the whistle should sound and your trunks be
+whisked away somewhere down the line.
+
+There were many people on the platform, and, wonderful to relate, a
+band was playing--Home Sweet Home; a little band, some of its
+musicians still in the aprons in which they had rushed from their
+shop duties; with instruments few and poor, and with not much
+training, so that the cornet was apt to be half a bar ahead of the
+euphonium.  The Lintons had heard many bands since they had been
+away, and some had played before the King himself; but no music had
+ever gripped at their heartstrings like the music of the little
+backblocks band that stood on the gravelled platform of Cunjee and
+played to welcome them home.
+
+Suddenly, as they stood bewildered, there seemed people all round
+them; kindly, homely faces, gripping their hands, shouting
+greetings.  Evans, the manager of Billabong, showed a delighted
+face for a moment, said, "Luggage in the van.  I'll see to it;
+don't you bother," and was gone.  Little Dr. Anderson and his wife,
+friends of long years, were trying to shake hands with all four at
+once.  They were the centre of an excited little crowd--and found
+it hard to believe that it was really for them.  The train roared
+away, unnoticed, and the station-master and the porter ran up to
+add their voices to the chorus.  Somehow they were outside the
+station, gently propelled; and there was a great arch of gum
+leaves, with a huge WELCOME in red letters, and beneath it were the
+shire president and his councillors, and other weighty men, all
+with speeches ready.  But the speeches did not come to much, for
+the shire president had lads himself who had gone to the war, and a
+lump came in his throat as he looked at the tall boys from
+Billabong, whom he had known as little children; so that half the
+fine things he had prepared were never said--which did not matter,
+since he had it all written out and gave it to the reporter of the
+local paper afterwards!  Something of speech-making there
+undoubtedly was, but no one could have told you much about it--and
+suddenly it ended in some one calling for "Three cheers!" which
+every one gave with a will, while the band played that they were
+Jolly Good Fellows--and some of the band cheered while they played,
+with very curious results.  Then David Linton tried to speak, and
+that was a failure also, as far as eloquence went; but nobody
+seemed to mind.  So, between hand grips and cheers, they made their
+way through the welcome of Cunjee to where the big double buggy of
+Billabong stood, with three fidgeting brown horses, each held by a
+volunteer.  Beyond that was the carry-all of the bush; an express
+wagon, with a grinning black boy at the horses' heads--and Norah
+went to him with outstretched hands.
+
+"Why, Billy!" she said.
+
+Billy's grin expanded in a perfectly reckless fashion.
+
+"Plenty glad!" he stammered--and thereby doubled his usual output
+of words.
+
+Willing hands were tossing their luggage into the wagon--unfamiliar
+luggage to Cunjee, with its jumble of ship labels, Continental
+hotel brands, and the names of towns all over England, Ireland and
+Scotland.  There were battered tin uniform cases of Jim and
+Wally's, bearing their rank and regiment in half effaced letters:
+"Major J. Linton"; "Captain W. Meadows"--it was hard to realize
+that they belonged to the two merry-faced boys, who did not seem
+much changed from the days when Cunjee had seen them arrive light-
+heartedly from school.  Mr. Linton ran his eye over the pile,
+pronouncing it complete.  Then Evans was at his side.
+
+"The motor you sent is ready at the garage in the township if you
+want it," he said.  "But you wired that I was to bring the buggy."
+
+"I did," said David Linton, with a slow smile.  "I suppose for
+convenience sake we'll have to shake down to using the motor.  But
+I drove the old buggy away from Billabong, and I'll drive home now.
+Jump in, children."
+
+He gathered up the reins, sitting, erect and spare, with one foot
+on the brake, while the brown horses plunged impatiently, and the
+volunteers found their work cut out in holding them.  Norah was by
+him, Evans on her other hand; Jim and Wally "tumbled up" into the
+back seat, as they had done so many times.  David Linton looked
+down at the crowd below.
+
+"Thank you all again," he said.  "We'll see you soon--it's not
+good-bye now, only 'so-long.'  Let 'em go, boys."
+
+The volunteers sprang back, thankfully.  The browns stood on their
+hind legs for a moment, endeavouring to tie themselves in knots;
+then the whip spoke, and they came to earth, straightened
+themselves out with a flying plunge, and wheeled out of the station
+yard and up the street.  Behind them cheers broke out afresh, and
+the band blared once more--which acted as a further spur to the
+horses; they were pulling double as the high buggy flashed along
+the street, where every house and every shop showed smiling faces,
+and handkerchiefs waved in welcome.  So they passed through Cunjee,
+and wheeled to the right towards the open country--the country that
+meant Billabong.
+
+There were seventeen miles of road ahead, but the browns made
+little of them.  They had come into the township the evening
+before, and had done nothing since but eat the hotel oats and wish
+to be out of a close stable and back in their own free paddocks.
+They took the hills at a swift, effortless trot, and on the down
+slopes broke into a hand-gallop; light-hearted, but conscious all
+the time of the hand on the reins, that was as steel, yet light as
+a feather upon a tender mouth.  They danced merrily to one side
+when they met a motor or a hawker's van with flapping cover; when
+the buggy rattled over a bridge they plainly regarded the drumming
+of their own hoofs as the last trump, and fled wildly for a few
+hundred yards, before realizing that nothing was really going to
+happen to them.  But the miles fled under their swift feet.  The
+trim villas near the township gave place to scattered farms.  These
+in their turn became further and further apart, and then they
+entered a wide belt of timber, ragged and wind-swept gums, with
+dense undergrowth of dogwood and bracken fern.  The metalled road
+gave place to a hard, earthern track, on which the spinning tyres
+made no sound; it curved in and out among the trees, which met
+overhead and cast upon it a waving pattern of shadows.  Grim things
+had once happened to Norah in this belt of trees, and the past came
+back to her as she looked at its gloomy recesses again.
+
+They were all silent.  There had been few questions to ask of
+Evans, a few to be answered; then speech fled from them and the old
+spell of the country held them in its power.  Every yard was
+familiar; every little bridge, every culvert, every quaint old
+skeleton tree or dead grey log.  Here Jim's pony had bolted at
+sight of an Indian hawker, in days long gone, and had ended by
+putting his foot into a hole and turning a somersault, shooting Jim
+into a well-grown clump of nettles.  Here Norah had dropped her
+whip when riding alone, and her fractious young mare had succeeded
+in pulling away when she dismounted, and had promptly departed
+post-haste for home; leaving her wrathful owner to follow as she
+might.  A passing bullock-wagon had given her a lift, and the
+somewhat anxious rescue party, setting out from Billabong, had met
+its youthful mistress, bruised from much bumping, but otherwise
+cheerful, progressing in slow majesty towards its gates.  Here--but
+the memories were legion, even to the girl and the two boys.  And
+David Linton's went further back, to the day when he had first
+driven Norah's mother over the Billabong track; little and dainty
+and merry, while he had been as always, silent, but unspeakably
+proud of her.  The little mother's grave had long been green, and
+the world had turned topsy-turvy since then, but the old track was
+the same, and the memory, and the pride, were no less clear.
+
+They emerged from the timber at last, and spun across a wide plain,
+scattered with clumps of gum-trees.  Then another belt of bush, a
+narrow one this time; and they came out within view of a great
+park-like paddock where Shorthorn bullocks, knee-deep in grass,
+scarcely moved aside as the buggy spun past, with the browns
+pulling hard.  The track ran near the fence, and turned in at a big
+white gate glistening with new paint.  It stood wide open, and
+beside it was a man on a splendid bay horse.
+
+"There's Murty, and he's on Garryowen," spoke Jim quickly.  "The
+old brick!"
+
+"I guess if anyone else had wanted to open the gate for you to-day,
+he'd have had to fight Murty for the job," said Evans.  "And
+Garryowen's been groomed till he turns pale at the sight of a
+brush, Great horse he's made, Mr. Jim."
+
+"He's all that," said his owner, leaning out to view him better,
+with his eyes shining.  He raised his voice in a shout as they
+swung in through the gateway.  "Good for you, Murty!  Hurroo!"
+
+"Hurroo for ye all!" said Murty, and found to his amazement that
+his voice was shaky.  "Ah, don't shtop, sir, they're all waitin' on
+ye.  I'll be up as soon as ye."
+
+Norah had tried to speak, and had found that she had no voice at
+all.  She could only smile at him, tremulously--and be sure the
+Irishman did not fail to catch the smile.  Then, as they dashed up
+the paddock, her hand sought for her father's knee under the rug,
+in the little gesture that had been hers from babyhood.  The track
+curved round a grove of great pines, and suddenly they were within
+sight of Billabong homestead, red-walled and red-roofed, nestled in
+the deep green of its trees.
+
+"By Jove!" said Jim, under his breath.  "I thought once I'd never
+see the old place again."
+
+They flashed through mighty red gums and box trees, Murty galloping
+beside them now.  There was a big flag flying proudly on Billabong
+house--they found later that the household had unanimously
+purchased it on the day they heard that Jim had got his captaincy.
+The gate of the great sanded yard stood open, and near it, on a
+wide gravel sweep, were the dear and simple and faithful people
+they loved.  Mrs. Brown first, starched and spotless, her hair
+greyer than it had been five years before, with Sarah and Mary
+beside her--they had married during the war, but nothing had
+prevented them from coming back to make Billabong ready.  Near them
+the storekeeper, Jack Archdale, and his pretty wife, with their
+elfish small daughter; and Mick Shanahan and Dave Boone, with the
+Scotch gardener, Hogg, and his Chinese colleague--and sworn enemy--
+Lee Wing.  They were all there, a little welcoming group--but Norah
+could see them only through a mist of happy tears.  The buggy
+stopped, and Evans sprang out over the wheel; she followed him
+almost as swiftly, running to the old woman who had been all the
+mother she had known.
+
+"Oh, Brownie--Brownie!"
+
+"My precious lamb!" said Brownie, and held her tightly.  She had no
+hands left for Jim and Wally, and they did not seem to mind; they
+kissed her, patting her vast shoulders very hard.  Then Mrs.
+Archdale claimed Norah, and Brownie found herself looking mistily
+up at David Linton and he was gripping her hand tightly, the other
+hand on her shoulder.
+
+"Why, old Brownie!" he said.  "Dear old Brownie!"
+
+They were shaking hands all round, over and over again.  Nobody
+made any speeches of welcome--there were only disjointed words, and
+once or twice a little sob.  Indeed, Brownie only found her tongue
+when they had drifted across the yard in a confused group, and had
+reached the wide veranda.  Then she looked up at Jim and seemed
+suddenly to realize his mighty height and breadth.
+
+"Oh!" she said.  "Oh!  Ain't 'e grown big an' beautiful!"  Whereat
+Wally howled with laughter, and Jim, scarlet, kissed her again, and
+told her she was a shameful old woman.
+
+No one on Billabong could have told you much of that day, after the
+first wonderful moment of getting home.  It was a day of blurred
+memories.  The new-comers had to wander through the house where
+every big window stood open to the sunlight, and every room was gay
+with flowers; and from every window it was necessary to look out at
+the view across the paddocks and down at the gardens, and to follow
+the winding course of the creek.  The gong summoned them to dinner
+in the midst of it, and Brownie's dinner deserved to be remembered;
+the mammoth turkey flanked by a ham as gigantic, and somewhat
+alarming to war-trained appetites; followed by every sweet that
+Brownie could remember as having been a favourite.  They drifted
+naturally to the stables afterwards, to find their special horses,
+apparently little changed by five years, though some old station
+favourites were gone, and the men spoke proudly of some new young
+ones that were going to be "beggars to go," or "a caution to jump."
+Then they wandered down to the big lagoon, where the old boat yet
+lay at the edge of the reed-fringed water; and on through the home
+paddock to look at the little herd of Jerseys that were kept for
+the use of the house, and some great bullocks almost ready for the
+Melbourne market.  So they came back to the homestead, wandering up
+from the creek through Lee Wing's rows of vegetables, and came to
+rest naturally in the kitchen, where they had afternoon tea with
+Brownie, who beamed from ear to ear at the sight of Jim and Wally
+again sitting on her table.
+
+"I used to think of you in them 'orrible trenches, an' wonder wot
+you got to eat, an' if it was anything at all," she said
+tremulously.
+
+"We got something, but it was apt to be queer," said Jim, laughing.
+"We used to think of sitting on the table here, Brownie, and eating
+hot scones--like this.  May I have another?"
+
+"My pore dears!" said Brownie, hastily supplying him with the
+largest scone in sight.  "Now, Master Wally, my love, ain't you
+ready for another?  Your appetite's not 'alf wot it used to be.
+A pikelet, now?"
+
+"I believe I've had six!" said Wally, defending himself.
+
+"An' wot used six pikelets to be to you?  A mere fly in the
+ointment," said Brownie, whose similes were always apt to be
+peculiar.  "Just another, then, my dear.  An' I've got your
+fav'rite sponge cake, Miss Norah--ten aigs in it!"
+
+"Ten!" said Norah faintly.  "Hold me, daddy!  Doesn't it make you
+feel light-headed to think of putting ten eggs in one cake again?"
+
+"An' why not?" sniffed Brownie.  "Ah, you got bad treatment in that
+old England.  I never could see why you should go short, an' you
+all 'elpin' on the war as 'ard as you could."  Brownie's
+indifference to national considerations where her nurselings were
+concerned was well known, and nobody argued with her.  "Any'ow, the
+cake's there, an' just you try it--it's as light as a feather,
+though I do say it."
+
+Once in the kitchen Norah and the boys went no further.  They
+remained sitting on the tables, talking, while presently David
+Linton went away to his study, and, one by one, Murty and Boone and
+Mick Shanahan drifted in.  There was so much to tell, so much to
+ask about; they talked until the dusk of the short winter afternoon
+stole into the kitchen, making the red flames in the stove leap
+more redly.  It was time to dress for tea.  They went round the
+wide verandas and ran upstairs to their rooms, while old Brownie
+stood in the kitchen doorway listening to the merry voices.
+
+"Ain't it just 'evinly to 'ear 'em again!" she uttered.
+
+"It is that," said Murty.  "We've been quare an' lonesome an' quiet
+these five years."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+COLONIAL EXPERIENCES
+
+
+Cecilia--otherwise Tommy--and Bob Rainham came up to Billabong
+three days later, and were met by Jim, who had ridden into Cunjee
+with Black Billy, and released the motor from inglorious seclusion
+in the local garage.  Billy jogged off, leading Garryowen, and Jim
+watched them half wistfully for a minute before turning to the car.
+Motors had their uses certainly; but no Linton ever dreamed of
+giving a car the serious and respectful consideration that
+naturally belonged to a horse.
+
+Nevertheless, it was a good car; a gift to Norah from an Irishman
+they had known and loved; and Jim drove well, having developed the
+accomplishment over Flemish roads that were chiefly a succession of
+shell holes.  He took her quietly up to the station, and walked on
+to the platform as the train thundered in.
+
+Tommy and Bob were looking eagerly from their carriage window, and
+hailed him with delight; they had been alone, for the first time
+since leaving England, and had begun to feel that Australia was a
+large and slightly populated country, and that they were
+inconsiderable atoms, suddenly dumped into its vacant spaces.  Jim
+was like a large and friendly rock, and Australia immediately
+became less wide and desolate in their eyes.  He greeted them
+cheerily and helped Bob to pack their luggage into the car.
+
+"Now, I could get you afternoon tea here," he said; "and I warn
+you, it will be bad.  Or I could have you home in well under an
+hour, and you wouldn't be too late for tea there.  Which is it to
+be, Tommy?"
+
+"Oh--home," said Tommy.  "I don't care a bit about tea; and I want
+to see this Billabong of yours.  Do let's go, Jim."
+
+"I hoped you wouldn't choose tea here," said Jim, striding off to
+the car.  "Bush townships don't run to decent tea places, as a
+rule; the hotel is the only chance, and though they can give you a
+fair dinner, tea always seems to be a weak spot."  He packed them
+in, and they moved off down the winding street.
+
+"Do you know," Jim said, "that I never went down this street before
+except on a horse, or behind one?  It seems quite queer and
+unnatural to be doing it in a car.  I suppose I'll get used to it.
+Had a good trip up?"
+
+"Oh, quite," Tommy told him.  "Jim, how few people seem to be
+living in Australia!"
+
+Jim gave a crack of laughter.
+
+"Well, you saw a good many in Melbourne, didn't you?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes.  But Melbourne isn't Australia.  It's only away down in a
+wee little corner."  Tommy flushed a little.  "You see, I haven't
+seen much of any country except France and the England that's near
+London," she said.  "And there isn't much waste space there."
+
+"No, there isn't," Jim agreed.  "I suppose we'll fill up Australia
+some day.  But the people who come out now seem to have a holy
+horror of going into the 'waste spaces,' as you call 'em, Tommy.
+They want to nestle up to the towns, and go to picture theatres."
+
+"Well, I want to go and find a nice waste space," said Tommy.  "Not
+too waste, of course, only with room to look all round.  And I'd
+like it to be not too far from Norah, 'cause she's very cheering to
+a lone new-chum.  But don't you go planning to settle in one of
+those horrid little tin-roofed towns, Bobby, for I should simply
+hate it."
+
+"Certainly, ma'am," said Bob cheerfully.  "We'll get out into the
+open.  I can always run you about in an aeroplane, if you feel
+lonesome, provided we make enough money to buy one, that is.  Only
+new-chums don't always make heaps of money, do they, Jim?"
+
+"Not at first, I'm afraid," Jim said.  "The days of picking up
+fortunes in Australia seem to be over; anyway, there's no more gold
+lying about.  Nowadays, you have to put your back into it extremely
+hard, if you've no capital to start with; and even if you have, you
+can't loaf.  How did you get on in Melbourne?  I hope you didn't
+buy a station without consulting us."
+
+"Rather not," Bob answered.  "We raced round magnificently in your
+aunt's car and presented our letters, and had more invitations to
+sundry meals than we could possibly accept.  Every one was
+extraordinarily kind to us.  I've offers and promises of advice in
+whatever district we settle; three squatters asked me up to their
+places, to stay awhile and study the country; and one confiding
+man--I hadn't a letter to him at all, by the way, only some one
+introduced us to him in Scott's--actually offered me a job as
+jackeroo on a Queensland run.  But he was a lone old bachelor, and
+when he heard I had a sister he shied off in terror.  I think he's
+running yet."
+
+Jim shouted with laughter.
+
+"Poor old Tommy!" he said.
+
+"Yes, is it not unfair?" said Tommy.  "I told Bob I was a mere
+encumbrance, but he would bring me."
+
+"You wait until you've settled, and Bob wants some one to run his
+house, and then see how much of an encumbrance you are," rejoined
+Jim.  "Then you'll suddenly stop being meek and get swelled head."
+
+"And not be half so nice," interjected Bob.
+
+"But so useful!" said Tommy demurely.  "Only sometimes I become
+afraid--for you seem always to kill a whole sheep or bullock up in
+the bush, and how I am to deal with it I do not know!"
+
+"It sounds as if you preferred some one to detach an occasional
+limb from the sheep as it walked about!" said Jim, laughing.
+
+"Much easier for me--if not for the sheep," said Tommy.
+
+"Well, don't you worry--the meat problem will get settled somehow,"
+Jim told her cheerfully.  "All problems straighten out, if you give
+'em time.  Now we're nearly home--that's the fence of our home-
+paddock.  And there are Norah and Wally coming to meet you."
+
+"Oh--where?"  Tommy started up, looking excitedly round the
+landscape.  "Oh--there she is--the dear!  And isn't that a
+beautiful horse!"
+
+"That's Norah's special old pony, Bosun," said Jim.  "We're making
+her very unhappy by telling her she's grown too big for him, but he
+really carries her like a bird.  A habit might look too much on
+him, but not that astride kit.  You got yours, by the way, Tommy, I
+hope?"
+
+"Oh yes.  I look very strange in it," said Tommy.  "And Bob thinks
+I might as well have worn out his old uniforms.  But I shall never
+ride like that--as Norah does."
+
+She looked at Norah, who was coming across the paddock with Wally,
+at a hard canter.  Her pony was impatient, reefing and plunging in
+his desire to gallop; and Norah was sitting him easily, her hands,
+well down, giving to the strain on the bit, her slight figure, in
+coat and breeches, swaying lightly to each bound.  The sunlight
+rippled on Bosun's glossy, bay coat, and on the big black horse
+Wally rode.  They pulled up, laughing, at the gateway, just as the
+car turned off the road.  There were confused and enthusiastic
+greetings, and the car dashed on up the track, with an outrider on
+each side--both horses strongly resenting this new and ferocious
+monster.  The years had brought a good deal of sober sense to Bosun
+and Monarch, but motors were still unfamiliar objects on Billabong.
+Indeed, no car of the size of Norah's Rolls-Royce had ever been
+seen in the district, and the men gaped at it open-mouthed as Jim
+drove it round to the stable after unloading his passengers.
+
+"Yerra, but that's the fine carry-van," said Murty.  "Is that the
+size they have them in England, now?"
+
+"No, it isn't, Murty--not as a rule," Jim answered.  "This was
+built specially for a man who was half an invalid; he used to go
+for long tours, and sleep in the car because he hated hotels.  So
+it's a special size.  It used to be jolly useful taking out wounded
+men in England."
+
+"Sure, it would be," Murty said.  "Only--somehow, it don't seem to
+fit into Billabong, Mr. Jim!"
+
+"So big as that!  I say, Murty!"
+
+"Yerra, there's room enough for it," grinned the Irishman.  "Only,
+motors and Billabong don't go hand in hand--we've always stuck to
+horses, haven't we, Mr. Jim?"
+
+"We'll do that still," Jim said.  "But it will be useful, all the
+same, Murty."  He laughed at the stockman's lugubrious face.  "Oh,
+I know it's giving you the sort of pain you had when dad had the
+telephone put on--"
+
+"Well, 'tis the quare onnatural little machine, an' I niver feel
+anyways at home with it, Mr. Jim," Murty defended himself.
+
+"There's lots like you, Murty.  But you'll admit that when we've
+got to send a telegram, it's better to telephone it than make a man
+ride thirty-four miles with it?"
+
+"I suppose it is," said the Irishman doubtfully.  "I dunno, though--
+if 'twas that black imp of a Billy he'd as well be doing that as
+propping up the stable wall an' smokin'!"
+
+Jim chuckled.
+
+"There's no getting round an Irishman when he makes up his mind,"
+he said.  "And if you had to catch the eight o'clock train to
+Melbourne I believe you'd rather get up at three in the morning and
+run up the horses to drive in, than leave here comfortably in the
+car at seven."
+
+"Is it me to dhrive in it?" demanded Murty, in horror.  "Begob, I'd
+lose me life before I'd get into one of thim quare, sawed-off
+things.  Give me something with shafts, Mr. Jim, and a dacint horse
+in them.  More by token, I would not get up at three in the morning
+either, but dhrive in aisy an' comfortable the night before."  He
+beamed on Jim with so clear a conviction that he was unanswerable
+that Jim hadn't the heart to argue further.  Instead he ran the car
+deftly into a buggy-shed whence an ancient double buggy had been
+deposed to make room for her, and then fell to discussing with
+Murty the question of building a garage, with a turn-table and pit
+for cleaning and repairs.  To which Murty gave the eager interest
+and attention he would have shown had Jim proposed building
+anything, even had it been an Eiffel Tower on the front lawn.
+
+Brownie came out through the box-trees to the stables, presently.
+
+"Now, Master Jim, afternoon tea's in these ten minutes."
+
+"Good gracious!  I forgot all about tea!" Jim exclaimed.  "Thanks
+awfully, Brownie.  Had your own?"  He slipped his arm through hers
+as they turned back to the house.
+
+"Not yet, my dear," said Brownie, beaming up at him.  That this
+huge Major, with four years of war service to his credit, was
+exactly the same to her as the little boy she had bathed and
+dressed in years gone by, was a matter of nightly thanksgiving in
+her prayers.  "I was just goin' to settle to it when it come over
+me that you weren't in--and the visitors there an' all."
+
+"I'd come and have mine with you in the kitchen if they weren't
+there," Jim told her.  "Tea in your kitchen is better than anything
+else."  He patted her shoulders as he left her at the door of her
+domain, going off with long strides to wash his hands.
+
+"We didn't wait for you," Norah said, as he came into the drawing-
+room; a big cheery room, with long windows opening out upon the
+veranda, and a conservatory at one end.  A fire of red gum logs
+made it pleasantly warm; the tea table was drawn near its blaze,
+and the arm-chairs made a semicircle round it.  "These poor people
+looked far too hungry to wait--to say nothing of Wally and myself.
+How did the car go, Jimmy?"
+
+"Splendidly," Jim said, taking his cup, and retiring from the tea-
+table with a scone.  "Never ran better; that man in Cunjee knows
+his job, which I didn't expect.  Are you tired, Tommy?"
+
+"Tired?--no," said Tommy.  "I was very hungry, but that is getting
+better.  And Norah is going to show me Billabong, so I could not
+possibly dream of being tired."
+
+"If Norah means to show you all Billabong before dark, she'll have
+to hurry," said Jim lazily.  "Don't you let yourself be persuaded
+into anything so desperate, Tommy."
+
+"Don't you worry; I'll give her graduated doses," Norah said.
+"I'll watch the patient carefully, and see if there is any sign of
+strength failing.  When do you begin to teach Bob to run a
+station?"
+
+"I never saw anyone in such a hurry," said Jim.  "Why, the poor
+beggar hasn't had his tea yet--give him time."
+
+"But we are in a hurry," said Tommy.  "We're burning to learn all
+about it.  Norah is to teach me the house side, while you instruct
+Bob how to tell a merino bullock--is it not?--from an Ayrshire."
+Everybody ate with suspicious haste, and she looked at them
+shrewdly.  "Now, I have said that all wrong, I feel sure, but it's
+just as well for you to be prepared for that.  Norah will have a
+busy time correcting my mistakes."
+
+"You aren't supposed to know anything about cattle and things like
+that," said Norah.  "And when it comes to the house side, I don't
+think you'll find I can teach you much--if anyone brought up to
+know French cooking and French housekeeping has much to learn from
+a backblocks Australian, I'll be surprised."
+
+"In fact," said Mr. Linton, "I should think that the lessons will
+generally end in the students of domestic economy fleeing forth
+upon horses and studying how to deal with beef--on the hoof.  Don't
+you, Wally?"
+
+"Rather," said Wally.  "And Brownie will wash up after them, and
+say, 'Bless their hearts, why would they stay in a hot kitchen!'
+And so poor old Bob will go down the road to ruin!"
+
+"It's a jolly prospect," said Bob placidly.  "I think we'll knock a
+good deal of fun out of it!"
+
+They trooped out in a body presently on their preliminary voyage of
+discovery; touring the house itself, with its big rooms and wide
+corridors, and the broad balconies that ran round three sides, from
+which you looked far across the run--miles of rolling plains,
+dotted with trees and clumps of timber, and merging into a far line
+of low, scrub-grown hills.  Then outside, and to the stables--a
+massive red brick pile, creeper-covered, where Monarch and
+Garryowen, and Bosun, and the buggy ponies, looked placidly from
+their loose boxes, and asked for--and got--apples from Jim's
+pockets.  Tommy even made her way up the steep ladder to the loft
+that ran the whole length of the stables--big enough for the men's
+yearly dance, but just now crammed with fragrant oaten hay.  She
+wanted to see everything, and chatted away in her eager, half-
+French fashion, like a happy child.
+
+"It is so lovely to be here," she told Norah later, when the keen
+evening wind had driven them indoors from a tour of the garden.
+She was kneeling on the floor of her bedroom, unpacking her trunk,
+while Norah perched on the end of the bed.  "You see, I am no
+longer afraid; and I have always been afraid since Aunt Margaret
+died.  In Lancaster Gate I was afraid all the time, especially when
+I was planning to run away.  Then, on the ship, though every one
+was so kind, the big, unknown country was like a wall of Fear
+ahead; even in Melbourne everything seemed uncertain, doubtful.
+But now, quite suddenly, it is all right.  I just know we shall get
+along quite well."
+
+"Why, of course you will," Norah said, laughing down at the earnest
+face.  "You're the kind of people who must do well, because you are
+so keen.  And Billabong has adopted you, and we're going to see
+that you make a success of things.  You're our very own immigrants!"
+
+"It's nice to be owned by some one who isn't my step-mother," said
+Tommy happily.  "I began to think I was hers, body and soul--when
+she appeared on that awful moment in Liverpool.  I made sure all
+hope was over.  Bob says I shouldn't have panicked, but then Bob
+had not been a toad under her harrow for two years."
+
+"I'm very glad you panicked, since it sent you straight into our
+arms," said Norah.  "If we had met you in an ordinary, stodgy way--
+you and Bob presenting your letter of introduction, and we saying
+'How do you do?' politely--it would have taken us ages to get to
+know you properly.  And as it was, we jumped into being friends.
+You did look such a poor, hunted little soul as you came dodging
+across that street!"
+
+"And you took me on trust, when, for all you know, the police might
+have been after me," said Tommy.  "Well, we won't forget; not that
+I suppose Bob and I will ever be able to pay you back."
+
+"Good gracious, we don't want paying back!" exclaimed Norah,
+wrinkling her nose disgustedly.  "Don't talk such utter nonsense,
+Tommy Rainham.  And just hurry up and unpack, because tea will be
+ready at half-past six."
+
+"My goodness!" exclaimed the English girl, to whom dinner at half-
+past seven was a custom of life not lightly to be altered.  "And I
+haven't half unpacked, and oh, where is my blue frock?  I don't
+believe I've brought it."  She sought despairingly in the trunk.
+
+"Yes, you have--I hung it up for you in the wardrobe ages ago,"
+said Norah.  "And it doesn't matter if you don't finish before tea.
+There's lots of time ahead.  However, I certainly won't be dressed
+if I don't hurry, because I've to see Brownie first, and then sew
+on a button for Jim.  You'll find me next door when you're ready."
+Tommy heard her go, singing downstairs, and she sighed happily.
+This, for the first time for two years, was a real home.
+
+The education of the new-chums began next morning, and was carried
+out thoroughly, since Mr. Linton did not believe in showing their
+immigrants only the pleasanter side of Australian life.  Bob was
+given a few days of riding round the run, spying out the land, and
+learning something about cattle and their handling as he rode.
+Luckily for him, he was a good horseman.  The stockmen, always on
+the alert to "pick holes" in a new-chum, had little fault to find
+with his easy seat and hands, and approved of the way in which he
+waited for no one's help in saddling up or letting go his horse; a
+point which always tells with the man of the bush.
+
+"We've had thim on this run," said Murty, "as wanted their horses
+led gently up to thim, and then they climb into the saddle like a
+lady.  And when they'd come home, all they'd be lookin' for 'ud be
+some one to casht their reins to, the way they cud strowl off to
+their tay.  Isn't that so, Mick?"
+
+"Yairs," said Mick.  He was riding an unbroken three-year-old, and
+had no time for conversation.
+
+After a few days of "gentle exercise," Bob found himself put on to
+work.  He learned something of cutting out and mustering, both in
+cleared country and in scrub; helped bring home young cattle to
+brand, and studied at first hand the peculiar evilness of a scrub
+cow when separated from her calf.  They gave him jobs for himself,
+which he accomplished fairly well, aided by a stock horse of
+superhuman intelligence, which naturally knew far more of the work
+than its rider could hope to do.  Bob confided to Tommy that never
+had he felt so complete a fool as when he rode forth for the first
+time to cut out a bullock alone under the eyes of the experts.
+
+"Luckily, the old mare did all the work," he said.  "But I knew
+less about it than I did the first time I went up alone at the
+flying school!"
+
+His teaching went on all the time.  Mr. Linton and Jim were
+tireless in pointing out the points of cattle, and the variations
+in the value of feed on the different parts of the run, with all
+the details of bush lore; and the airman's eyes, trained to
+observe, and backed by keen desire to learn, picked up and retained
+knowledge quickly.  Billabong was, in the main, a cattle run, but
+Mr. Linton kept as well a flock of high class sheep, with the usual
+small mob for killing for station use, and through these a certain
+amount of sheep knowledge was imparted to the new-chum.  To their
+surprise, for all his instructors were heart and soul for cattle,
+Bob showed a distinct leaning towards mutton.
+
+"They're easier to understand, I think," he said.  "Possibly it's
+because they're not as intelligent as cattle, and I don't think I
+am, either!"
+
+"Well, I know something about bullocks, but these woolly objects
+have always been beyond me," said Jim.  "Necessary evils, but I
+can't stand them.  I used to think there was nothing more hopeless
+than an old merino ewe, until I met a battery mule--he's a shade
+worse!"
+
+"Wait till you've worked with a camel in a bad temper, Mr. Jim,"
+said Dave Boone darkly; he had put in a weary time in Egypt.  "For
+downright wickedness them snake-headed beggars is the fair limit!"
+
+"Yes, I've heard so," said Jim.  "Anyhow, we haven't added mules
+and camels to our worries in Victoria yet; sheep are bad enough for
+me.  Norah says turkey hens are worse, and she's certainly tried
+both; there isn't much about the run young Norah doesn't know.  But
+you aren't going to make a living out of turkeys."
+
+"No--Tommy can run them as a side line," said Bob.  "I fancy sheep
+will give me all I want in the way of worry."
+
+"And you really think you'll go in for sheep, old man?" asked Jim
+with pity.
+
+Bob set his lips obstinately.
+
+"I don't think anything yet," he said.  "I don't know enough.  Wait
+until I've learned a bit more--if you're not sick of teaching such
+an idiot."
+
+"Yerra, ye're no ijit," said Murty under his breath.
+
+Education developed as the weeks went on.  Wally had gone to
+Queensland, to visit married brothers who were all the "people" he
+possessed; and Jim, bereft of his chum, threw himself energetically
+into the training of the substitute.  Bob learned to slaughter a
+bullock and kill a sheep--being instructed that the job in winter
+was not a circumstance to what it would be in summer, when flies
+would abound.  He never pretended to like this branch of learning,
+but stuck to it doggedly, since it was explained to him that the
+man who could not be his own butcher in the bush was apt to go
+hungry, and that not one hired hand in twenty could be trusted to
+kill.
+
+More to Bob's taste were the boundary riding expeditions made with
+Jim to the furthest corners of the run; taking a pack horse with
+tucker and blankets, and camping in ancient huts, of which the sole
+furniture was rough sacking bunks, a big fireplace, and empty
+kerosene cases for seats and tables.  It was unfortunate, from the
+point of view of Bob's instruction, that the frantic zeal of Murty
+and the men to have everything in order for "the Boss" had left no
+yard of the Billabong boundary unvisited not a month before.
+Still, winter gales were always apt to bring down a tree or two
+across the wires, laying a few panels flat; the creeks, too, were
+all in flood, and where a wire fence crossed one, floating
+brushwood often damaged the barrier, or a landslip in a water-worn
+bank might carry away a post.  So Jim and his pupil found enough
+occupation to make their trips worth while; and Bob learned to sink
+post holes, to ram a post home beyond the possibility of moving,
+and to strain a wire fence scientifically.  He was not a novice
+with an axe, though Jim's mighty chopping made him feel a child;
+still, when it was necessary to cut away a fallen tree, he could do
+his share manfully.  His hands blistered and grew horny callouses,
+even as his muscles toughened and his shoulders widened; and all
+the time the appeal of the wide, free country called to his heart
+and drew him closer and closer to his new life.
+
+"But he's too comfortable, you know," David Linton said to Jim one
+night.  "He's shaping as well as anyone could expect; but he won't
+always have Billabong at his back."
+
+Jim nodded wisely.
+
+"I know," he said.  "Been thinking of that.  If you can spare me
+for a bit we'll go over and lend ourselves as handy men to old Joe
+Howard."
+
+His father whistled.
+
+"He'll make you toe the mark," he said, laughing.  "He won't have
+you there as gentlemen boarders, you know."
+
+"Don't want him to," said Jim.
+
+So it came about that early on Monday morning Jim and Bob fixed
+swags more or less scientifically to their saddles--Jim made his
+disciple unstrap his three times before he consented to pass it--
+and rode away from Billabong, amidst derisive good wishes from
+Norah and Tommy, who kindly promised to feed them up on their
+return, prophesying that they would certainly need it.  They took a
+westerly direction across country, and after two or three hours'
+riding came upon a small farm nestling at the foot of a low range
+of hills.
+
+"That's old Howard's," Jim said.  "And there's the old chap
+himself, fixing up his windmill.  You wait a minute, Bob; I'll go
+over and see him."
+
+He gave Bob his bridle, and went across a small paddock near the
+house.  Howard, a hard-looking old man with a long, grey beard, was
+wrestling with a home-made windmill--a queer erection, mainly
+composed of rough spars with sails made from old wheat-sacks.  He
+clambered to the ground as Jim approached, and greeted him civilly.
+
+"I thought you'd have forgotten me, Mr. Howard," said Jim.
+
+"Too like your dad--an', anyhow, I know the horses," was the
+laconic answer.  "So you're back.  Like Australia better'n
+fightin'?"
+
+"Rather!" said Jim.  "Fighting's a poor game, I think, when you
+hardly ever see the other fellow.  Want any hands, Mr. Howard?"
+
+"No."  The old man shook his head.  "They want too much money
+nowadays, an' they're too darned partickler about their tucker.
+Meat three times a day, whether you've killed it or not.  An'
+puddin'.  Cock 'em up with puddin'--a fat lot of it I ever saw
+where I was raised.  An' off to the township on Saturday afternoon,
+an' lucky if they get back in time for milkin' nex' mornin'.  No--
+the workin' man ain't what 'e was, an' the new kind'll make
+precious little of Australia!"
+
+"That's about right, I'm afraid," said Jim, listening sympathetically
+to this oration.  "Well, will you take me and my friend as hands
+for a few weeks, Mr. Howard?"
+
+"You!"  The old man stared at him.  "Ain't 'ad a quarrel with yer
+dad, 'ave yer?  You take my tip, if yer 'ave--go back and make it
+up.  Not many men in this districk like yer dad."
+
+"I know that, jolly well," said Jim, laughing.  "No--but my
+friend's a new-chum, and I want to show him something of work on a
+place like yours.  We've been breaking him in on Billabong, but
+he'll have to take a small place for himself, if he settles, and
+he'd better see what it's like."
+
+The old man shook his head doubtfully.
+
+"English officer, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I dunno," said Howard.  "Too much of the fine gent about that
+sort, Mr. Jim.  I dunno 'ow I'd get down to orderin' the pair of
+yous about.  An' I ain't got no 'comodation for yous; an' the
+tucker's not what yous 'ave bin used ter."
+
+"You needn't let any of that worry you," said Jim cheerfully.  "He
+isn't a bit of a fine gent, really, and we'll tackle any job that's
+going.  As for accommodation, we've brought our blankets, and, in
+case you were short of tucker, we've a big piece of corned beef and
+some bread.  I wish you'd try it, Mr. Howard; we don't want pay,
+and we'll do no end of work.  Murty reckons you won't be sorry if
+you take on Captain Rainham."
+
+"Oh, Murty says that, does 'e?" asked the old man, visibly cheered.
+"Well, Murty ain't the man to barrack for a useless new-chum."
+
+"Great Scott, do you think I am?" demanded Jim, laughing.  "Or my
+father?"
+
+"Yous cert'nly didn't ought to be," agreed Howard.  "All the same"--
+he pushed his hat back from his worried brow--"I dunno as I quite
+like it.  If I take on a chap I like 'im to step quick an' lively
+when I tell him anything I want done; an' I don't make no guests of
+'em either.  They got to do their own cookin', an' keep things
+clean an' tidy, too."
+
+"We'll take our share," said Jim.  "As for stepping quick and
+lively, we've both been trained to that pretty thoroughly during
+the last few years.  If you're worse than some of the Sergeant-
+majors I met when I was training, I'll eat my hat."
+
+"I'm told they're 'ard," said Howard.  "Well, I s'pose I'd better
+take yous on, though it's a queer day when the son of Linton of
+Billabong comes askin' old Joe Howard for a job.  But, I say"--and
+anguish again settled on his brow--"wot am I to call yous?  I can't
+order you about as Mr. Jim.  It wouldn't seem to come natural."
+
+"Oh, call us any old thing," said Jim, laughing.
+
+The old man pondered.
+
+"Well, I'll call yous Major an' Captin," he declared, at length.
+"That'll sound like a pair of workin' bullocks, an' I'll feel more
+at 'ome."
+
+"Right-o," said Jim, choking slightly.  "Where shall we put our
+horses?"
+
+"Put 'em in the little paddock over there, an' stick yer saddles in
+the shed," said his employer.  "An' then bring in yer beef, an'
+we'll 'ave a bit o' dinner.  I ain't killed for a fortnight."
+
+Then began for Bob Rainham one of the most strenuous fortnights of
+his existence.  Once having agreed to employ them, old Joe speedily
+became reconciled to the prospect of cheap labour, and worked his
+willing guests with a devouring energy.  Before dawn had reddened
+the eastern sky a shout of "Hi, Captin!  Time the cow was in!"
+drove him from his blankets, to search in the darkness of a scrub-
+covered paddock for a cow, who apparently loved a game of hide-and-
+seek, and to drive her in and milk her by the fitful light of a
+hurricane lantern.  Then came the usual round of morning duties;
+chopping wood, feeding pigs, cleaning out sheds and outhouses,
+before the one-time airman had time to think of breakfast.  By the
+time he came in Howard and Jim had generally finished and gone out--
+the old man took a sly delight in keeping "Major" away from
+"Captin"--and after cooking his meal, it was his job to wash up and
+to clean out the kitchen, over which old Joe proved unexpectedly
+critical.  Then came a varied choice of tasks to tackle to while
+away the day.  Sometimes he would be sent to scrub cutting, which
+he liked best, particularly as Jim was kept at it always; sometimes
+he slashed mightily at a blackberry-infested paddock, where the
+brambles would have daunted anyone less stout of heart--or less
+ignorant.  Then came lessons in ploughing on a dry hillside; he
+managed badly at first, and came in for a good deal of the rough
+side of old Joe's tongue before he learned to keep to anything
+approaching a straight line.  Ploughing, Bob reflected, was clearly
+an art which needed long apprenticeship before you learned to
+appreciate it, and he developed a new comprehension and sympathy
+for the ploughman described by Gray as "homeward plodding his weary
+way."  He also wondered if Gray's ploughman had to milk and get his
+own tea after he got home.
+
+Other relaxations of the bush were open to him.  Old Joe had a
+paddock, once a swamp, which he had drained; it was free of water,
+but abounded in tussocks and sword grass which "Captin" was
+detailed to grub out whenever no duty more pressing awaited him.
+And sword grass is a fearsome vegetable, clinging of root and so
+tough of stem that, if handled unwarily, it can cut a finger almost
+to the bone; wherefore the unfortunate "Captin" hated it with a
+mighty hatred, and preferred any other branch of his education.
+There were stones to pick up and pile in cairns; red stones, half
+buried in grass and tussocks, and weighing anything from a pound to
+half a hundredweight.  He scarred his hands and broke his
+fingernails to pieces over them, but, on the whole, considered it
+not a bad employment, except when old Joe took it into his head to
+perch on the fence and spur him on to greater efforts by
+disparaging remarks about England.  Whatever his work, there was
+never any certainty that old Joe would not appear, to sit down,
+light his short, black pipe, and make caustic remarks about his
+methods or his country--or both.  Bob took it all with a grin.  He
+was a cheerful soul.
+
+They used to meet for dinner--dinner consisting of corned beef and
+potatoes until the corned beef ran out; then it became potatoes and
+bread and jam for some days, until Joe amazed them by saddling an
+ancient grey mare and riding into Cunjee, returning with more
+corned beef--and more jam.  He boiled the beef in a kerosene tin,
+and Bob thought he had never tasted anything better.  Appetites did
+not need pampering on Howard's Farm.  Work in the evening went on
+until there was barely light enough to get home and find the cow;
+it was generally quite dark by the time milking was finished, and
+Bob would come in with his bucket to find Jim just in, and lighting
+the fire--"Major," not being the milking hand, worked in the
+paddocks a little longer.  Tea required little preparation, since
+the only menu that occurred to old Joe seemed to be bread and jam.
+Jim, being a masterful soul, occasionally took the matter into his
+own hands and, aided by Bob, made "flap-jacks" in the frying-pan;
+they might have been indigestible for delicately-constituted
+people, but at least they had the merit of being hot and comforting
+on a biting winter night.  Old Joe growled under his breath at the
+"softness" of people who required "cocking up with fal-lals."  But
+he ate the flap-jacks.
+
+After tea the "hands" divided the duties of the evening; taking it
+in turn, one to wash up, while the other "set" bread.  Joe's only
+baking implement was a camp-oven, which resembles a large saucepan
+on three legs; it could hold just enough for a day's supply, so
+that it was necessary to set bread every night, and bake every
+morning.  This wounded their employer, who never failed to tell
+them, with some bitterness, that when alone he had to bake only
+twice a week.  However, he knew all that there was to know about
+camp-oven baking, and taught them the art thoroughly, as well as
+that of making yeast from potatoes.  "That's an extry," he remarked
+thoughtfully, "but I won't charge yer for it, yous 'avin' bin
+soldiers!"
+
+With the bread set, and rising pleasantly before the fire, under a
+bit of old blanket, and the kitchen tidy, a period of rest ensued,
+when "Major" and "Captin" were free to draw up chairs--seated with
+greenhide with the hair left on, and very comfortable--and smoke
+their pipes.  This was the only time of the day when old Joe
+unbent.  At first silent, he would presently shift his pipe to the
+corner of his mouth and spin them yarns of the early days, told
+with a queer, dry humour that kept his hearers in a simmer of
+laughter.  It was always a matter of regret to poor "Captin" that
+he used to be the one to end the telling, since no story on earth
+could keep him, after a while, from nodding off to sleep.  He would
+drag himself away to his blankets in the next room, hearing, as
+sleep fully descended upon him, the droning voice still entertaining
+Jim--whose powers of keeping awake seemed more than human!
+
+Saturday brought no slackening of work.  Whatever his previous
+hired men had done, old Joe was evidently determined that his
+present "parlour-boarders" should not abate their efforts, and even
+kept them a little later than usual in the paddocks, remarking that
+"ter-morrer bein' Sunday, yous might as well cut a bit more scrub."
+The next morning broke fine and clear, and he looked at them a
+little doubtfully after breakfast.
+
+"Well, there ain't no work doin' on Sunday, I reckon.  I can manage
+the ol' keow to-night, if yous want to go home."
+
+The guests looked at each other doubtfully.
+
+"What do you say, Bob?  Shall we ride over?"
+
+Bob pondered.
+
+"All one to me, o' course," said Joe, getting up and stumping out.
+He paused at the door.  "On'y if yous mean ter stick on 'ere a bit
+you'll find comin' back a bit 'ard, onced yous see Billabong."
+
+"Just what I was thinking," said Bob, as the old man disappeared.
+"I'm not going, Jim; I know jolly well I'd hate to come back after--
+er--fleshpotting at your place.  But look here, old chap--why
+don't you go home and stay there?  You've done quite enough of
+this, especially as you've no earthly need to do it at all.  You go
+home, and I'll stay out my fortnight."
+
+"What, leave you here alone?" queried Jim.  "Not much, Bobby."
+
+"But why not?  I've Joseph, and we'd become bosom friends.  And
+your father must think it ridiculous for you to be kept over here,
+slaving--"
+
+"Don't you worry your old head about dad," said Jim cheerfully.
+"It's a slack time, and he doesn't need me, and he's perfectly
+satisfied at my being here.  Bless you, it's no harm for me to get
+a bit of this sort of life."
+
+"You'll never have to do it."
+
+"No one can tell that," said Jim.  "The bottom has dropped out of
+land in other countries, and it may happen here.  Besides, if
+you've got to employ labour it's just as well to know from
+experience what's a fair thing to expect from a man as a day's
+work.  For which reason, I have desired our friend Joseph to take
+me off scrub-duty, which I feel I know pretty well, and to detail
+me for assorted fatigues, like yours, next week.  And anyhow, my
+son, having brought you to this savage place, I'm not going to
+leave you.  Finally, we couldn't go anywhere, because this is the
+day that we must wash."
+
+"I have washed!" said Bob indignantly.
+
+"I didn't mean your person, Bobby, but your clothes.  The laundress
+doesn't call out here."
+
+"Oh!" said Bob, and grinned.  "Then I'd better put on a kettle."
+
+So they washed, very cheerfully, taking turns in the one bucket,
+which was all Joe could offer as laundry equipment.  He had an
+iron, but after brief consultation, "Major" and "Captin" decided
+that to iron working shirts would be merely painting the lily.  Old
+Joe watched them with a twinkle, saying nothing.  But a spirit of
+festivity and magnificence must have entered into him, for when the
+washermen went for a walk, after disposing their damp raiment upon
+bushes, he entered the kitchen hurriedly and dived for the flour-
+bag; and later, they found unwonted additions to the corned beef
+and potatoes--the said additions being no less than boiled onions
+and a jam tart.
+
+The week that followed was a repetition of the first, save for a
+day of such rain that even old Joe had to admit that work in the
+paddocks was out of the question.  He consoled himself by making
+them whitewash the kitchen.  Large masses of soot fell down into
+the fireplace throughout the day, seriously interfering with
+cooking operations, which suggested to Joe that "Captin" might
+acquire yet another art--that of bush chimney sweeping--which he
+accomplished next day, under direction, by the simple process of
+tugging a great bunch of tea-tree up and down the flue.  "Better'n
+all them brushes they 'ave in towns," said Joe, watching his
+blackened assistant with satisfaction.
+
+"Well, we're off to-morrow, Mr. Howard," said Jim on Saturday
+night.  They were seated round the fire, smoking.
+
+"I s'pose so.  Didn't think yous'd stick it out as long," the old
+man said.
+
+"We've had a very good time," said Bob; and was astonished to find
+himself speaking truthfully.  "Jolly good of you to have me; I know
+a new-chum isn't much use."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't say as how you weren't," said old Joe deliberately.
+"I ain't strong on new-chums, meself--some of them immy-grants
+they send out are a fair cow to handle; but I will say, Captin,
+you ain't got no frills, nor you don't mind puttin' your back into
+a job.  I worked you pretty 'ard, too."  He chuckled deeply.
+
+"Did you?" asked Bob--and chuckled in his turn.
+
+"Well, I didn't see no points in spoon-feedin' you.  If a man's
+goin' on the land he may as well know wot 'e's likely to strike.
+There's lots'll tell you you won't strike anythink 'arder than ol'
+Joe--an' p'raps you won't," he added.  "Any'ow, yous asked fer
+work, an' it was up ter me ter see that yous got it.  But don't go
+imaginin' you've learned all there is ter know about farmin' yet."
+
+"If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that," said Bob a trifle
+grimly.
+
+"That's right.  I ain't got much of a farm, an' any'ow, it's
+winter.  I on'y showed yous a few of the odd jobs--an' wot it is to
+'ave to batch fer yerself, not comin' in like a lord to Billabong
+ter see wot Mrs. Brown's been cookin' for yous.  Nothin' like a bit
+o' batchin' ter teach a cove.  An' you mind, Captin--if you start
+anywhere on yer own, you batch decent; keep things clean an' don't
+get into the way o' livin' just any'ow.  I ain't much, nor the
+meenoo ain't excitin'; but things is clean."
+
+"Well--I have a sister," said Bob.  "So I'm in luck.  But I guess I
+know a bit more about her side of the job now."
+
+"And that's no bad thing for Tommy," said Jim.
+
+"Oo's 'e?" demanded Joe.
+
+"Oh--that's his sister."
+
+"Rum names gals gets nowadays," said Joe, pondering.  "Not on'y
+gels, neither.  'S a chap on top of the 'ill 'as a new baby, an'
+'e's called it 'Aig Wipers Jellicoe.  'Course, 'e did go to the
+war, but 'e ain't got no need ter rub it into the poor kid like
+that."  He paused to ram the tobacco into the bowl of his pipe with
+a horny thumb.  "One thing--I'd like to pay you chaps somethin'.
+Never 'ad blokes workin' fer me fer nothin', an' I don't much care
+about it."
+
+"No, thanks, Mr. Howard," said Jim.  "We came for colonial
+experience."
+
+"You!" said old Joe, and permitted himself the ghost of a grin.
+"Well, I ain't goin' ter fight yous about it, an' I'm not worryin'
+a mighty lot about you, Major, 'cause your little bit o' country's
+ready made for you.  But Captin's different.  We won't 'ave no
+fight about cash, Captin; but that last year's calf of the ol'
+keow's goin' ter be a pretty decent steer, an' when you gets yer
+farm 'e's goin' on it as yer first bit o' stock.  An' 'e'll get the
+best o' my grass till 'e goes."
+
+"Rubbish!" said Bob, much embarrassed.  "Awfully good of you, Mr.
+Howard, but that wasn't the agreement.  I know I'm not worth wages
+yet."
+
+"Oh, ain't you?" Joe asked.  "Well, there's two opinions about
+that.  Any'ow, 'e's yours, an' I've christened 'im Captin, so there
+ain't no way out of it."  He rose, cutting short further protests.
+"Too much bloomin' argument about this camp; I'm off ter bed."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+ON INFLUENZA AND FURNITURE
+
+
+"So you think he'll do, Jim?"
+
+"Yes, I certainly do," Jim answered.  He was sitting with his
+father in the smoking-room at Billabong, his long legs outstretched
+before the fire, and his great form half-concealed in the depths of
+an enormous leather armchair.  "Of course he'll want guidance; you
+couldn't expect him to know much about stock yet, though he's
+certainly picked up a good bit."
+
+"Yes--so it seems.  His great point is his quick eye and his
+keenness.  I haven't found him forget much."
+
+"No, and he's awfully ashamed if he does.  He's a tiger for work,
+and very quick at picking up the way to tackle any new job.  That
+was one of the things that pleased old Joe about him.  I fancy the
+old chap had suffered at the hands of other new-chums who reckoned
+they could teach him how to do his work.  'Captin ain't orffered me
+not one bit of advice,' he told me with relief."
+
+Mr. Linton laughed.
+
+"Yes, I've had them here like that," he said.  "Full of sublime
+enthusiasm for reforming Australia and all her ways.  I don't say
+we don't need it, either, but not from a new-chum in his first five
+minutes."
+
+"Not much," agreed Jim.  "Well, there's nothing of that sort about
+old Bob.  He just hoes in at anything that's going, and doesn't
+talk about it.  Joe says he must have been reared sensible.  He's
+all right, dad.  I've had a lot of men through my hands in the last
+few years, and you learn to size 'em up pretty quickly."
+
+David Linton nodded, looking at his big son.  Sometimes he had a
+pang of regret for Jim's lost boyhood, swallowed up in war.  Then,
+when he was privileged to behold him rough-and-tumbling with Wally,
+singing idiotic choruses with Norah and Tommy, or making himself
+into what little Babs Archdale ecstatically called "my bucking
+donkey," it was borne in upon him that there still was plenty of
+the boy left in Jim--and that there always would be.  Nevertheless,
+he had great confidence in his judgment; and in this instance it
+happened to coincide with his own.
+
+The door opened, and Bob Rainham came in, hesitating as he caught
+sight of the father and son.
+
+"Come in, Bob," Mr. Linton said.  "I was just wishing you would
+turn up.  We've been talking about you.  I understand you've made
+up your mind to get a place of your own."
+
+"If you don't think I'm insane to tackle it, sir," Bob answered.
+"Of course, I know I'm awfully ignorant.  But I thought I could
+probably get hold of a good man, and if I can find a place anywhere
+in this district, Jim says he'll keep an eye on me.  Between the
+two, I oughtn't to make very hopeless mistakes.  And I might as
+well have my money invested."
+
+"Quite so.  I think you're wise," the squatter answered.  "As it
+happens, I was in Cunjee yesterday, talking to an agent, and I
+heard of a little place that might suit you very well--just about
+the price you ought to pay, and the land's not bad.  There's a
+decent cottage on it--you and Tommy could be very comfortable
+there.  It's four miles from here, so we should feel you hadn't got
+away from us."
+
+"That sounds jolly," said Bob.  "I'd be awfully glad to think Tommy
+was so near to Norah.  Is it sheep country, Mr. Linton?"
+
+"So it's to be sheep, is it?  Well, I'd advise you to put some
+young cattle on to some scrub country at the back, but you could
+certainly run sheep on the cleared paddocks," Mr. Linton answered.
+"We could drive over and look at it to-morrow, if you like.  The
+terms are easy; you'd have money over to stock it, or nearly so.
+And there's plenty to be done in improving the place, if you should
+buy it; you could easily add a good deal to its value."
+
+"That's what I'd like," Bob answered eagerly.  "It doesn't take a
+whole lot of brains to dig drains and cut scrub.  I could be doing
+that while the sheep turn into wool and mutton!"
+
+"So you could; though there's a bit more to be done to sheep than
+just to watch them turn," said the squatter, with a twinkle.  "I
+fancy Tommy will be pleased if you get this place."
+
+"Tommy's mad keen to start," Bob said.  "She says Norah has taught
+her more than she ever dreamed that her head could contain, and she
+wants to work it all off on me.  I think she has visions of making
+me kill a bullock, so that she can demonstrate all she knows about
+corning and spicing and salting beef.  I mentioned it would take
+two of us quite a little while to work through a whole bullock, but
+she evidently didn't think much of the objection."
+
+"I'll see you get none fat enough to kill," grinned Jim.  "Norah
+says Tommy's a great pupil, dad."
+
+"Oh, they have worked as if they were possessed," Mr. Linton
+answered.  "I never saw such painfully busy people.  But Norah
+tells me she has had very little to teach Tommy--in fact, I think
+the teaching has been mutual, and they've simply swapped French and
+Australian dodges.  At all events they and Brownie have lived in
+each other's pockets, and they all seem very content."
+
+"Are you all talking business, or may we come in?" demanded a
+cheery voice; and Norah peeped in, with Tommy dimly visible in the
+background.
+
+"Come in--'twas yourselves we were talking about," Jim said, rising
+slowly from the armchair; a process which, Norah was accustomed to
+say, he accomplished yard by yard.  "Sit here, Tommy, and let's
+hear your views on Australia!"
+
+Tommy shook her head.
+
+"Too soon to ask me--and I've only seen Billabong," she said,
+laughing.  "Wait until I've kept house for Bob for a while, and
+faced life without nice soft buffers like Norah and Mrs. Brown!"
+
+"I'm not a nice soft buffer!" said Norah indignantly.  "Do I look
+like one, Jimmy?"
+
+"Brownie certainly fits the description better," Jim said.  "Never
+mind, old girl, you'll probably grow into one.  We'd be awfully
+proud of you if you got really fat, Norah."
+
+"Then I hope you'll never have cause for pride," retorted his
+sister.  "I couldn't ride Bosun if I did, and that would be too
+awful to think about.  Oh, and Tommy's making a great stock-rider,
+Bob.  She declared she could never ride astride, but she's
+perceiving the error of her ways."
+
+"I thought I could never stick on without the moral support of the
+pommels," said Tommy.  "When you arrange yourself among pommels and
+horns and things on a side-saddle, there seems no real reason why
+you should ever come off, except of your own free will.  But a
+man's saddle doesn't offer any encouragement to a poor scared new-
+chum.  I pictured myself sliding off it whenever the horse side-
+stepped.  However, somehow, it doesn't happen."
+
+"And what happens when your steed slews around after a bullock?"
+asked Jim.
+
+"Indeed, I hardly know," said Tommy modestly.  "I generally shut my
+eyes, and hold on to the front of the saddle.  After a while I open
+them, and find, to my astonishment, that nothing has occurred, and
+I'm still there.  Then we sail along after Norah, and I hold up my
+head proudly and look as if that were really the way I have always
+handled cattle.  And she isn't a bit taken in.  It's dreadfully
+difficult to impress Norah."
+
+Every one laughed, and looked at the new-chum affectionately.  This
+small English girl, so ready to laugh at her own mistakes, had
+twined herself wonderfully about their hearts.  Even Brownie,
+jealous to the point of prickliness for her adored Norah, and at
+first inclined to turn up a scornful nose at "Miss Tommy's" pink
+and white daintiness, had been forced to admit that she "could
+'andle things like a workman."  And that was high praise from
+Brownie.
+
+The telephone bell whirred in the hall, and Jim went out to answer
+it.  In a few minutes they heard his voice.
+
+"Norah, just come here a moment."  He came back presently, leaving
+Norah at the telephone.
+
+"It's Dr. Anderson," he said.  "They're in trouble in Cunjee--
+there's a pretty bad outbreak of influenza.  Some returned men came
+up with it, and now it's spreading everywhere, Anderson says.  Mrs.
+Anderson has been nursing in the hospital, but now two of her own
+kiddies have got it, so she has had to go home, and they're awfully
+shorthanded.  Nurses seem to be scarce everywhere; they could only
+get one from Melbourne, and she's badly overworked."
+
+"Norah will go, I suppose," said David Linton, with a half-sigh--
+the sigh of a man who has looked forward to peace and security, and
+finds it again slipping from his grasp.
+
+"Oh, yes, I'm sure she will.  They have a certain number of
+volunteers, not nearly enough."
+
+"I'm going," said Tommy, and David Linton nodded at her kindly.
+
+"What about you and me, Jim?" Bob asked.
+
+"Well, Anderson says they have a number of men volunteers.  Such a
+lot of returned fellows about with nothing to do yet.  I told him
+to count on us for anything he wanted, but the need seems chiefly
+for women."
+
+"Must they go to-night?  It's pretty late," said Mr. Linton.
+
+"No, not to-night," Norah answered, entering.  "It would be eight
+o'clock before I could get in, and Dr. Anderson says I'm to get a
+good sleep and come in early in the morning.  Tommy, darling, will
+you mind if I leave you for a few days?"
+
+"Horribly," said Tommy drily.  "It would be unpardonably rude for a
+hostess.  So I 'm coming too."
+
+Norah laughed down at her.
+
+"Somehow, I thought you would," she said.  "Well, Jimmy, you'll
+take us in after breakfast, won't you?  We'll have it early."  She
+perched on the arm of her father's chair, letting her fingers rest
+for a moment on his close-cropped grey hair.  "And I've never asked
+you if I could go, daddy."
+
+"No," said David Linton; "you haven't."  He put his arm gently
+round her.
+
+"But then I knew that you'd kick me out if I didn't.  So that
+simplifies matters.  You'll take care of yourself while I'm away,
+won't you, dad?  No wild rides by yourself into the ranges, or
+anything of that sort?"
+
+"Certainly not," said her father.  I'll sit quietly at home, and
+let Brownie give me nourishment at short intervals."
+
+"Nothing she'd like better."  Norah laughed.  "I don't believe
+Brownie will really feel that she owns us again until one of us is
+considerate enough to fall ill and give her a real chance of
+nursing and feeding us.  Then the only thing to do is to forget you
+ever had a will of your own, and just to open your mouth and be fed
+like a young magpie, and Brownie's perfectly happy."
+
+"She won't be happy when she hears of this new plan," Mr. Linton
+said.  "Poor old soul, I'm sorry she should have any worry, when
+she has just got you home."
+
+"Yes; I'm sorry," Norah answered.  "But it can't be helped.  I'll
+go and talk to her now, and arrange things--early breakfast among
+them."
+
+"You might make it a shade earlier than you meant to, while you're
+at it, Nor," Jim observed.  "Then we could turn off the track as we
+go in to-morrow to let Tommy have a look at the place that has been
+offered Bob--you know that place of Henderson's, off the main road.
+Bob can go over the land with us when we're coming back.  But once
+you and Tommy get swallowed up in Cunjee, there's no knowing when
+we could get you out; and Tommy ought to inspect the house."
+
+"Oh, I'd love to," said Tommy enthusiastically.  "No mere man can
+be trusted to buy a house."
+
+"Don't go to look at it with any large ideas of up-to-date
+improvements floating in your mind," Jim warned her.  "It's sure to
+be pretty primitive, and probably there isn't even a bathroom."
+
+"Don't you worry, Tommy; we'll build you one," said Mr. Linton.
+
+"I'm not going to worry about anything; there are always washtubs,"
+spoke Tommy cheerfully--"and thank you, all the same, Mr. Linton.
+I didn't expect much when I came out to Australia, but I'm getting
+so much more than I expected that I'm in a state of bewilderment
+all the time.  Someday I feel that I shall come down with a bump,
+and I shall be thankful if it's only over a bathroom."
+
+"Distressing picture of the valiant pioneer looking for discomforts
+and failing to find them," said Bob, laughing.  "It's so difficult
+to feel really pioneerish in a place where there are taps, and
+electric light, and motors, and no one appears to wear a red shirt,
+like every Australian bushman I ever saw on the stage."
+
+"Did you bring any out with you?" demanded Norah wickedly.
+
+"I didn't.  But honest, it was only because I had so many khaki
+ones, and I thought they'd do.  Otherwise I'd certainly have
+thought that scarlet shirts were part of the ordinary outfit for
+the Colonies.  And if you believed all the things they tell you in
+outfitting shops, you would bring a gorgeous assortment.  We'd have
+even arrived here with tinware.  It was lucky I knew some
+Australians--they delicately hinted that you really had a shop or
+two in the principal cities."
+
+"I've often marvelled at the queer collection people seem to bring
+out," said Mr. Linton.  "It's not so bad of late years, but ten
+years ago a jackeroo would arrive here with about a lorry-load of
+stuff, most of which he could have bought much more cheaply in
+Melbourne or Sydney--and he'd certainly never use the greater part
+of it.  Apparently a London shop will sell you the same kind of
+outfit for a Melbourne suburb as if you were going into the wilds
+of West Africa.  They haven't any conscience."
+
+"They just never learn geography," said Norah.  "And 'the Colonies'
+to them mean exactly the same thing, no matter in what continent
+the colony may be.  If they can sell pioneers tinware to take out
+to Melbourne, so much the better for them.  Well, I must see
+Brownie, or there may not be early breakfast for pioneers or any
+one else."
+
+Brownie rose to the occasion--there had never been any known
+occasion to which Brownie did not rise--and the hospital at Cunjee
+was still grappling with early morning problems next day when the
+Billabong motor pulled up at the door, after a flying visit to the
+new home--which Tommy, regarding with the large eye of faith, had
+declared to be full of boundless possibilities.  Dr. Anderson came
+out to meet the new-comers, Norah and Tommy, neat and workmanlike;
+Jim, bearing their luggage; and Mr. Linton and Bob sharing a large
+humper, into which Brownie had packed everything eatable she could
+find--and Brownie's capacity for finding things eatable at short
+notice was one of her most astonishing traits.  The little doctor,
+harassed as he was, greeted them with a twinkle.
+
+"You Lintons generally appear bearing your sheaves with you," he
+said.  "Well, you're very welcome.  How many of you do I keep?"
+
+"Tommy and Norah, for certain," said Mr. Linton.  "And as many more
+of us as you please.  Want us all, doctor?"
+
+"Well, I really don't; there are a good many men volunteers.  But
+if I might commandeer the car and a driver for a few hours, I
+should be glad," the doctor went on.  "There are some cases to be
+brought in from Mardale and Clinthorpe.  I heard of them only this
+morning, on the telephone, and I was wondering how to get them in."
+
+"We're at your disposal, and you've only to telephone for us or the
+car whenever you want it," said Mr. Linton.  "How are things this
+morning?"
+
+"Oh--bad enough.  We have several very troublesome cases; people
+simply won't give in soon enough.  My youngsters are very ill, but
+I'm not really worried about them as long as my wife keeps up.  Our
+biggest trouble is that our cook here went down this morning.  She
+told me she couldn't sleep a wink all night, and when she woke up
+in the morning her tongue was sticking to the roof of her head!--
+and certainly she has temperature enough for any strange symptoms.
+But we feel rather as if the bottom had dropped out of the
+universe, for none of our volunteers are equal to the job."
+
+"I can cook," said Norah and Tommy together.
+
+"Can you?" said the little doctor, staring at them as though the
+heavens had opened and rained down angels on his head.  "Are you
+sure?  You don't look like it!"
+
+"I can guarantee them," said Mr. Linton, laughing.  "Only you'll
+have to watch Norah, for the spell of the war is heavy upon her,
+and she'll boil your soup bones thirteen times, and feed you all on
+haricot beans and lentils if nobody checks her!"
+
+"Dad, you haven't any manners," said Norah severely.  "May I cook,
+Doctor?"
+
+"You can share the job," said Dr. Anderson thankfully.  "I really
+think it's more than enough for one of you.  This place is getting
+pretty full.  Of course, I've wired to town for a cook, but
+goodness knows if we'll get one; it's unlikely.  Come on, now, and
+I'll introduce you to Sister."
+
+Sister proved to be a tall, capable, quiet woman, with war
+decorations.  She greeted the volunteers thankfully, and
+unhesitatingly pronounced their place to be cooks, rather than
+nurses.
+
+"I can get girls who will do well enough in the wards," she said,
+"where I can direct them.  But I can't be in the kitchen too.  If
+you two can carry on without supervision it will be a godsend."
+
+So the kitchen swallowed up Norah and Tommy, and there they worked
+during the weeks that followed, while the influenza scourge raged
+round Victoria.  The little cottage-hospital became full almost
+to bursting-point.  Even the rooms for the staff had to be
+appropriated, and nurses and helpers slept in a cottage close by.
+Luckily for the cooks, Cunjee now boasted a gas supply and its
+citizens supplied them with gas-stoves, as Norah said, "in
+clutches," so that they worked in comfort.  It was hard work, with
+little time to spare, but the girls had learned method, and they
+soon mapped out a routine that prevented their ever being rushed or
+flurried.  And they blessed the cold weather that saved constant
+watching lest supplies should go bad.
+
+From Billabong came daily hampers that greatly relieved their
+labours.  It was a matter of some amazement to the Lintons that
+Brownie did not volunteer for the hospital, and indeed, it had been
+the first thought of Brownie herself.  But she repressed it firmly,
+though by no means feeling comfortable.  To Murty she confided her
+views, and was relieved by his approval.
+
+"I know I did ought to go," she said, almost tearfully.  "There's
+those two blessed lambs in the kitchen, doing wot I'd ought to be
+doing; and I know Mrs. Archdale 'ud come up an' run things 'ere for
+me.  But wot 'ud 'appen if I did go, I ask you, Murty?  Simply
+they'd take the two blessed lambs out of the kitchen an' put 'em to
+nursing in the wards, an' next thing you knew they'd both be down
+with the beastly flu' themselves.  They're safer among the pots and
+pans, Murty.  But when the master looks at me I don't feel
+comferable."
+
+"Yerra, let him look," said Murty stoutly.  "'Tis the great head ye
+have on ye; I'd never have thought of it.  Don't go worryin', now.
+Are ye not sendin' them in the heighth of good livin' every day?"
+
+"That's the least I can do," said Brownie, brightening a little.
+"Only I'd like to think Miss Norah and Miss Tommy got some of it,
+and not just them patients, gethered up from goodness knows where."
+
+"Yerra, Miss Norah wouldn't want to know their addresses before
+she'd feed 'em," said the bewildered Murty.  But there came a
+suspicious smell from the kitchen, as of something burning, and
+Mrs. Brown fled with a swiftness that was surprising, considering
+her circumference.
+
+Jim lived a moving existence in those days, flying between
+Billabong and Cunjee in the car, bringing supplies, always on hand
+for a job if wanted, and insisting that on their daily "time off"
+Norah and Tommy should come out for a spin into the country.
+Sometimes they managed to take Sister, too, or some of the other
+helpers.  The car never went out with any empty seats.  Presently
+they were recovering patients to be given fresh air or taken home;
+white-faced mothers, longing to be back to the house and children
+left in the care of "dad," and whatever kindly neighbours might
+drop in; or "dads" themselves, much bewildered at the amazing
+illness that had left them feeling as if neither their legs nor
+their heads belonged to them.  Occasionally, after dropping one of
+these convalescents, Jim would find jobs waiting to his hand about
+the bush homestead; cows to milk, a fence to be mended, wood
+waiting to be chopped.  He used to do them vigorously, while in the
+house "mum" fussed over her restored man and tried to keep him from
+going out to run the farm immediately.  There were generally two or
+three astonished children to show him where tools were kept--milk
+buckets, being always up-ended on a fence post, needed no
+introduction, and the pump, for a sluice afterwards, was not hard
+of discovery.  The big Rolls-Royce used to purr gently away through
+the bush paddock afterwards, often with a bewildered "mum" looking
+amazedly at the tall young man who drove it.
+
+Meanwhile Bob Rainham, left alone with his host, set about the
+business of his new farm in earnest, since there seemed nothing
+else for him to do; and David Linton, possibly glad of the
+occupation, threw himself into the work.  The farm was bought on
+terms that seemed to Bob very easy--he did not know that Mr. Linton
+stood security for his payments--and then began the task of
+stocking it and of planning just what was best to do with each
+paddock.  The house, left bare and clean by the last owners, was in
+good repair, save that the dingy white painting of the exterior,
+and the varnished pine walls and ceilings within were depressing
+and shabby.  Mr. Linton decided that his house-warming present to
+Tommy should be a coat of paint for her mansion, and soon it looked
+new--dark red, with a gleaming white roof, while the rooms were
+painted in pretty fresh colours.  "Won't Tommy get a shock!"
+chuckled Bob gleefully.  The dinginess of the house had not escaped
+him on the morning that they had made their first inspection, but
+Tommy, who loved freshness and colours, had made no sign.  Had you
+probed the matter, Tommy would probably have remarked, with some
+annoyance, that it was not her job to begin by grumbling.
+
+Wally came hurtling back from Queensland at the first hint of the
+influenza outbreak, and was considerably depressed at finding his
+twin souls, Jim and Norah, engaged in jobs that for once he could
+not share.  Therefore he, too, fell back on the new farm, and found
+Bob knitting his brow one evening over the question of furniture.
+
+"I don't want to buy much," he said.  "Tommy doesn't, either; we
+talked it over.  We'd rather do with next to nothing, and buy
+decent stuff by degrees if we get on well.  Tommy says she doesn't
+want footling little gimcracky tables and whatnots and things, nor
+dressing-tables full of drawers that won't pull out.  But I've been
+looking at the cheap stuff in Cunjee, and, my word, it's nasty!
+Still, I can't afford good things now, and Tommy wouldn't like it
+if I tried to get 'em.  Tommy's death on the simple life."
+
+"How are you on tools?" queried Wally.
+
+"Using tools?  Pretty fair," admitted Bob.  "I took up carpentering
+at school; it was always a bit of a hobby of mine.  I'm no cabinet-
+maker, if that's what you mean."
+
+"You don't need to be," Wally answered.  "Up where I come from--we
+were pretty far back in Queensland--we hardly ever saw real
+furniture, the stuff you buy in shops.  It was all made out of
+packing-cases and odd bits of wood.  Jolly decent, too; you paint
+'em up to match the rooms, or stain 'em dark colours, and the girls
+put sort of petticoats round some of the things."
+
+"We began that way," said David Linton, with a half-sigh.  "There
+was surprisingly little proper furniture in our first house, and we
+were very comfortable."
+
+"Couldn't we begin, sir?" asked Wally eagerly.  "This wet weather
+looks like setting in.  Bob can't do much on the farm.  If we could
+get out a few odd lengths of timber and some old packing cases from
+the township--"
+
+"Heavens, you don't need to do that!" exclaimed their host.  "The
+place is full of both; packing-cases have been arriving at
+Billabong since Jim was a baby, and very few of them have gone away
+again.  There's plenty of timber knocking about, too.  We'll go
+over to the farm if you like, Bob, and plan out measurements."
+
+"I think it's a splendid idea, thanks, sir," said Bob slowly.
+"Only I don't quite see why I should bother you--"
+
+"Oh, don't talk rubbish!" said David Linton, getting up.  "I
+believe I'm glad of the job--the place seems queer without Jim and
+Norah."
+
+"My word!" said Wally.  "Let's all turn carpenters, and give Tommy
+the surprise of her life!"
+
+They flung themselves at the work with energy.  A visit to the new
+house, and a careful study of each room, revealed unsuspected
+possibilities to Bob, whose English brain, "brought up," as Wally
+said, "on a stodgy diet of bedroom suites," had failed to grasp
+what might be done by handy people with a soul above mere fashion
+in the matter of furniture.  They came back with a notebook bulging
+with measurements and heads seething with ideas.  First, they dealt
+with the bedrooms, and made for each a set of long shelves and a
+dressing-table-cupboard--the latter a noble piece of furniture,
+which was merely a packing-case, smoothed, planed and fitted with
+shelves; the whole to be completed with a seemly petticoat when
+Tommy should be able to detach her mind from influenza patients.
+They made her, too, a little work-table, which was simply a wide,
+low shelf, at which she could write or sew--planned to catch a good
+light from her window, so that as she sat near it, she could see
+the line of willows that marked the creek and the rolling plains
+that ended in the ranges behind Billabong.  Tommy's room was
+painted in pale green; and when they had stained all these exciting
+additions dark green, Bob heaved a great sigh, and yearned audibly
+for the swift recovery of the influenza patients, so that Tommy
+could return and behold her new possessions.
+
+"We could make washstands," said Mr. Linton, when they had fitted
+out the two remaining bedrooms.  "But washstands are depressing
+things, and would take up a good deal of space in these little
+rooms.  You have a good water supply, Bob; why not have built-in
+basins with taps, and lay on water through the bedrooms?"
+
+Bob whistled.
+
+"My aunt!  Is that really possible?"
+
+"Quite, I should say.  It wouldn't take elaborate plumbing, and the
+pipes could discharge into an irrigation drain for your vegetable
+garden.  It would save Tommy ever so much work in carrying water,
+too.  There's a fearsome amount of water carried in and out of
+bedrooms, and I can't see why pipes shouldn't do the work.  It need
+not cost you much--just a shelf across a corner, with an enamelled
+basin let in."
+
+"Save you buying jugs and basins," said Wally.  "Great money-saving
+idea!"
+
+"Rather," said Bob.  "Is there anyone in Cunjee who can plumb?"
+
+"Oh, yes; there's a handy man who can do the whole thing.  We'll
+get Jim to go and see him tomorrow."
+
+They left this job to the handy man, who proved equal to all
+demands, and went on themselves to higher flights.  Kitchen and
+pantry were already fitted with shelves, but they built in a
+dresser, and found a spare corner, where they erected a linen press
+warranted to bring tears of joy to the eye of any housewife.  Round
+the little dining-room and sitting-room they ran a very narrow
+shelf, just wide enough to carry flowers and ornaments, and they
+made wide, low window seats in each room.  Then, becoming bold by
+success, they turned to cabinet making, and built into the dining-
+room a sideboard, which was only a glorified edition of the kitchen
+dresser, but looked amazingly like walnut, aided by a little stain;
+and for both sitting-rooms made low cupboards, with tops wide
+enough to serve as little tables.  Even the verandah was furnished
+with wide shelf tables and a cupboard, and with low and broad
+seats.
+
+"And it's all done by kindness--and packing cases!" said Jim,
+surveying the result with admiration.
+
+"Indeed, I'm afraid a lot of your father's good timber has gone
+into it," said Bob half ruefully.  "He was awfully good about it,
+and the supply of just-what-you-want timber on Billabong seemed
+inexhaustible."
+
+"No, you really used very little good stuff," David Linton said.
+"It's chiefly packing cases, truly, Jim.  But we had plenty of time
+to plane it up and make it look decent.  Bob ran an electric light
+into the workshop and we worked every night.  I believe it's kept
+us from getting influenza from sheer boredom, with all you people
+away."
+
+"They'll soon be home," Jim said cheerfully.  "Influenza's dying
+out, I believe.  No fresh cases for three days, and all the
+patients are getting better.  The little Andersons are up and
+about.  By the way, Dad, couldn't we bring those kiddies out to
+Billabong for a change?"
+
+"Why, of course," his father answered.  "Tell Mrs. Anderson to come
+too, or, if she won't leave her husband, Brownie will be delighted
+at the chance of getting two children to look after again.  Are the
+cooks quite cheery, Jim?"
+
+"As cheery as possible," Jim answered.  "They got off early to-day,
+and I took them and Sister and the Anderson youngsters out for a
+run.  Did 'em all good.  I'm coming home to-night, and they don't
+want me to-morrow, because they're going to afternoon tea with some
+one or other.  Flighty young things, those cooks!  So I can help
+you carpenters or do any odd jobs."
+
+"We've lots," said Wally, who was putting a finishing coat of dark
+green enamel to a rod destined as a towel rail for Tommy's room.
+"Simple jobs, suitable for your understanding.  Take care, Jimmy,
+I've a wet paint brush, and you have a good suit on!  I want to put
+shelves from floor to ceiling of the bathroom, because the walls
+are rough and unlined, and nothing on earth will make it a
+beautiful room.  So Tommy may as well store there all the things
+she doesn't want anywhere else.  And you can make her a medicine
+cupboard.  I shan't have time to look at any of you unskilled
+labourers, for I'm going to build her a draining-rack for plates
+and things over the kitchen sink.  And I can tell you, that takes
+brains!"
+
+"Then it's not your job!" said Jim definitely.
+
+"Isn't it?  I'll show you, you old Bond Street fashion plate!"
+Wally stretched his long form, simply attired in a khaki shirt and
+dungaree trousers, much be-splashed by paint, and looked scornfully
+at his neatly dressed friend.  "You needn't think, because you come
+here dressed like the lilies of the field and fresh from motoring
+girls round the country, that--"
+
+"My hat!" said Jim justly incensed.  "And I after cleaning out and
+whitewashing the hospital fowl-houses all the morning!  Young
+Wally, you need some one to sit on your head."  He took off his
+coat slowly.
+
+"Ten to one," said Wally hastily, "if we had time to look into the
+matter we'd find you'd whitewashed the fowls as well!  These Army
+Johnnies are so beastly impractical!"  He gathered up his brushes
+and fled, pursued by his chum.  Sounds of warfare came faintly from
+the distance.
+
+"It's a good thing some of us are sane," said Mr. Linton laughing.
+"Nearly finished, Bob?"
+
+He was painting a shelf-table, screwed to the wall within a space
+at the end of the verandah, which they had completely enclosed with
+wire mosquito netting.  Bob was hanging the door of this open-air
+room in position, a task requiring judgment, as the floor of the
+verandah was old and uneven.
+
+"Nearly, sir," he mumbled, his utterance made difficult by the fact
+of having several screws in his mouth.  He worked vigorously for a
+few moments, and then stood back to survey his job.  "This is going
+to be a great little room--though it's hard just now to imagine
+that it will ever be warm enough for it."
+
+"Just you wait a few months until we get a touch of hot weather,
+and the mosquitoes come out!" said David Linton.  "Then you and
+Tommy will thankfully entrench yourselves in here at dusk, and
+listen to the singing hordes dashing themselves against the netting
+in the effort to get at you!"
+
+"That's the kind of thing they used to tell me on the Nauru," Bob
+said laughing; "but I didn't quite expect it from you, Mr. Linton!"
+
+The squatter chuckled.
+
+"Well, indeed, it's no great exaggeration in some years," he said.
+"They can be bad enough for anything, though it isn't always they
+are.  But an open-air room is never amiss, for if there aren't
+mosquitoes a lamp will attract myriads of other insects on a hot
+night.  That looks all right, Bob; you've managed that door very
+well."
+
+"First rate!" said Jim and Wally approvingly, returning arm in arm.
+
+"You're great judges!" David Linton rejoined, looking at the pair.
+"Have you returned to work, may I ask, or are you still imitating
+the lilies of the field?"
+
+"Jim is; he couldn't help it," said Wally.  "But I have been
+studying that oak tree out in the front, Mr. Linton.  It seems to
+me that a seat built round it would be very comforting to weary
+bones on warm evenings--"
+
+Bob gathered up his tools with decision in each movement.
+
+"Wally has come to that state of mind in which he can't look at
+anything on the place without wanting to build something out of a
+packing case in it, or round it, or on top of it!" he said.  "When
+the sheep come I'll have to keep you from them, or you'll be
+building shelves round them!"
+
+"Why, you're nearly as bad yourself!" grinned Wally.
+
+"I know I am, and that's why I've got to stop.  I'm going to leave
+nice little chisels and spokeshaves and smoothing planes, and mend
+up the pigsty; it needs it badly, and so does the cow-shed.  And
+then I've got to think of ploughing, and cutting that drain across
+the flat, and generally earning my living."
+
+"Don't you worry," said David Linton.  "You couldn't have done much
+outside in this wet weather, and at least your house is half-
+furnished.  And we'll help you through with the other things."
+
+"You're all just bricks," said Bob, his fair skin flushing--"only I
+begin to feel as if I were fed with a spoon.  I can't always expect
+to have my work done for me."
+
+"You haven't shown much wish to leave it for anyone else," Jim said
+drily.  "Neither you nor Tommy strikes this district as a loafer.
+Just stop talking bosh, old man, and think what Tommy's going to
+say to her mansion."
+
+"Say?" queried Mr. Linton.  "Why, she'll point out to us all the
+places where she wants shelves!"
+
+"Shelves?" yelled the three as one man.
+
+"Yes, certainly.  There was never a woman born who had enough.
+Don't lose sight of your tools, Bob, for you'll go on putting up
+shelves as long as you've an inch of wall to put them on.  Come
+along, boys, and we'll go home."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE HOME ON THE CREEK
+
+
+"I think it's the loveliest home that ever was!" said Tommy
+solemnly.
+
+"Well, indeed, it takes some beating," Wally agreed.
+
+"Creek Cottage"--the name was of Tommy's choosing--was ready for
+occupation, and they had just finished a tour of it.  There was
+nothing in it that was not fresh and bright and dainty--like Tommy
+herself.  The rooms were small, but they had good windows, where
+the crisp, short curtains were not allowed to obscure the view.
+There were fresh mattings and linoleums on the floors, and the
+home-made furniture now boasted, where necessary, curtains of
+chintz or cretonne, that matched its colouring.  Norah and Tommy
+had spent cheery hours over those draperies.  The curtains for
+Tommy's "suite" had been Norah's gift--of dark-green linen,
+embroidered in dull blue silks; and in the corner there was a
+little sofa with cushions of the same.  Tommy had purred--was, in
+fact, still purring--over that home-made furniture, and declared it
+superior to any that money could buy.  She had also suggested new
+ideas for shelves.
+
+They had not troubled furniture shops much.  Save for a few
+comfortable arm-chairs, there was nothing solid and heavy in the
+house; but it was all pleasant and home-like, and the little rooms,
+bright with books and pictures and flowers, had about them the
+touch of welcome and restfulness that makes the difference between
+a home and a mere house.  The kitchen was Tommy's especial pride--
+it was cool and spotless, with fresh-painted walls and ceilings,
+and shining white tiles round the white sink--over which Wally's
+draining-rack sat in glory.  Dazzling tin-ware decorated the walls,
+and the dresser held fresh and pretty china.  For weeks it had been
+a point of honour for no one to visit Cunjee without bringing Tommy
+a gift for the kitchen--meat fork, a set of skewers, a tin pepper
+castor; offerings wrapped in many coverings of tissue paper, and
+presented with great solemnity, generally at dinner.  The last
+parcel had been from Mr. Linton, and had eclipsed all the others--
+an alarum clock, warranted to drive the soundest sleeper from her
+bed.  Bob declared it specially designed to ensure his getting fed
+at something approaching a reasonable hour.
+
+A wide verandah ran round the whole house, and rush lounges and
+deck chairs stood about invitingly--Tommy had insisted that there
+should be plenty of seating accommodation on the verandah for all
+the Linton party, since they filled the little rooms to an alarming
+extent.  Near where they stood the drawing-room opened out by a
+French window.  Something caught Tommy's eye, and she dived into
+the room--to return, laughing with new treasure-trove--a sink brush
+and saucepan-scrubber, tied up with blue ribbon.
+
+"Your doing?" she asked, brandishing them.
+
+"Not mine."  Wally shook his head.  "I don't do frivolous things
+like that.  But I heard Jim wheedling blue ribbon out of Norah this
+morning, and I don't fancy he has much use for it ordinarily.
+You'd better ask him."
+
+"It's like both of you--you nice stupids!" she said.
+
+"What?--the pot-scrub!  That's not polite of you, Miss Rainham; and
+so untrue, where I'm concerned."  Wally sat down on the arm of a
+lounge and regarded her with a twinkle.  "What's old Bob doing?"
+
+Tommy laughed happily.
+
+"I think whenever we don't know where Bob is, he's safe to be out
+looking at either the sheep or the pigs," she said.  "He just loves
+them; and he says he can see them growing."
+
+There was a hint of Spring in the air, and more than a hint of good
+grass in the green paddocks stretching away from the house.  By the
+creek the willows were putting out long, tender shoots that would
+soon be a thick curtain.  The lucerne patch that stretched along
+its bank was dense and high.  The Rainhams had been delayed in
+taking possession of Creek Cottage; a severe cold had smitten Tommy
+just at the end of her labours in the hospital, and, being
+thoroughly tired out, it had been some time before she could shake
+off its effects.  Mr. Linton and Norah had put down their feet with
+joint firmness, declaring that in no circumstances should she begin
+housekeeping until she was thoroughly fit; so the Rainhams had
+remained at Billabong.  Tommy was petted and nursed in a way she
+had not known since Aunt Margaret had died, while Bob worked
+feverishly at his farm, riding over every day from Billabong, with
+a package of Brownie's sandwiches in his pocket, and returning at
+dusk, dirty and happy.  Bob was responding to Australian conditions
+delightfully, and was only discontented because he could not make
+his farm all that he wanted it to be within the first week.
+
+Therein, however, he had unexpected help.  The Cunjee district was
+a friendly one; station owners and farmers alike looked kindly on
+the young immigrant who turned so readily to work after four years'
+fighting.  Moreover, Tommy's work in the hospital was well known;
+the general opinion being that "anything might be expected from
+young Norah Linton, but you wouldn't think a bit of a new-chum kid
+like Bob Rainham's sister would turn to and cook for a crowd, and
+she hardly off the ship!"  So the district laid its heads together
+and consulted Mr. Linton; with the result that one morning Bob
+found himself unexpectedly accompanied to work by his host.  It was
+nothing unusual for Jim or Wally, or both, to go with him.  He was
+cutting a drain, which they declared to be a job for which they had
+a particular fancy.  But to-day he found Monarch saddled with the
+other horses, and Mr. Linton, not only ready to start, but hurrying
+them off; and there was no lunch to carry, Norah airily declaring
+that since she and Tommy were to be deserted they declined to be
+downtrodden, and would motor over with a hamper and picnic at Creek
+Cottage.  There was a mysterious twinkle in Norah's eye; Bob
+scented something afoot, and tried--in vain--to pump her on the
+matter.  He rode away, his curiosity unsatisfied.
+
+But when they rode up the homestead paddock at his farm, he gave a
+long whistle.
+
+"What on earth--?" he began amazedly.
+
+There were men in sight everywhere, and all working.  Eight or nine
+ploughs were moving across the paddocks destined for cultivation;
+already wide strips of freshly turned earth showed that they had
+been some time at work.  On the flat where Bob had begun his drain
+was a line of men, and some teams with earth-scoops, cutting a deep
+channel.  There were even men digging in the garden; and the sound
+of axes came faintly from a belt of scrub that Bob was planning to
+clear--some day.  He gaped at them.
+
+"What does it mean?"
+
+"It's a bee," said Wally kindly.  "A busy bee, improving each
+shining hour."
+
+Bob turned a puzzled, half-distressed face to Mr. Linton.
+
+"I say, sir--what is it?"
+
+"It's just that, my boy," said David Linton.  "The district had a
+fancy to help you--Cunjee thinks a heap of soldiers, you see.  So a
+lot of the fellows got together and planned to put in a day on the
+creek, doing odd jobs."
+
+"I say," said poor Bob flushing scarlet, "I never heard such a
+thing--and I hardly know any of them.  Whatever am I to say to
+them, sir?"
+
+"I wouldn't say much at all," said David Linton laughing.  "You'll
+only embarrass them if you do.  Just take a hand in any job you
+like, and carry on--as we're all going to do."
+
+"There's one man you know, anyhow," said Jim grinning.  He pointed
+out old Joe Howard, the nearest to them among the ploughmen.
+
+"Heavens!" ejaculated Bob.  "You don't mean to tell me old Joe has
+come of his own accord!"
+
+"Couldn't keep him away," Jim said.  "He remarked that you were a
+very decent young feller, and he'd taught you how to work, so he
+might as well lend an 'and.  It's like old Joe's cheek, but he'll
+claim for ever that he made you a worker."
+
+"Oh, let him," said Bob.  "It doesn't hurt me, and it may amuse
+him."  His gaze travelled across the busy paddocks.  "Well--I'm
+just staggered," he said.  "The least I can do is to get to work
+quickly."
+
+They turned the horses out and scattered; Bob to cutting scrub--it
+was the job he liked least, so it seemed to him the decent thing to
+tackle it--Jim to the drain construction, while Wally joined the
+band of workers in the garden, since he knew Tommy's plans
+concerning it; and Mr. Linton attacked a fence that needed repairs.
+In the middle of the morning came the Billabong motor, driven by
+Norah, with Brownie and a maid in the tonneau with Tommy, and
+hampers packed wherever possible.  A cart with other supplies had
+been driven over by Evans in the very early morning, since
+Billabong had undertaken the feeding of the workers for the day.
+The Rolls-Royce picked its way delicately round the paddocks, while
+the girls carried drinks and huge slabs of cake to the different
+bands of workers--this being the time for "smoke-oh."  Then they
+hurried back to the cottage, where Brownie and Maria were busy
+unpacking hampers on the verandah, and Brownie was preparing to
+carve great joints of beef and mutton and pork in readiness for the
+hungry horde that would descend on them at dinner time.
+
+It was all ready when the men trooped up from the paddocks--
+squatters and stockmen, farmers, horse breakers, bush workers of
+every degree; all dirty and cheery, and filled with a mighty
+hunger.  Soap and water awaited them at the back; then they came
+round to sit on the edge of the long verandahs, balancing heaped
+plates on their knees, and making short work of Brownie's
+provisions.  Jokes and cheery talk filled the air.  Tommy, carrying
+plates shyly at first, found herself the object of much friendly
+interest.  "Little Miss Immigrant," they called her, and vied with
+each other in making her feel that they were all welcoming her.
+But they did not waste much time over dinner--soon one after
+another got up and sauntered away, lighting his pipe, and presently
+there were straggling lines of figures going back to work across
+the paddocks.  After which Norah and Tommy bullied Bob into eating
+something--he had been far too anxious to wait on his hungry "bee"
+to think of feeding himself, and then the ladies of the party
+lunched with the ardour of the long-delayed, and fell upon the
+colossal business of dish-washing.
+
+Afternoon tea came early, by which time nearly all the ploughing
+was done, and the brown ribbon of the new drain stretched, wide and
+deep, across the flat.  The girls took the meal round the paddocks,
+this time with Bob to carry the steaming billies of tea; it gave
+him a chance to thank his helpers, when it was difficult to say
+whether the thanker or the thanked were the more embarrassed.  Soon
+after "cow time" loomed for some of the workers, and whatever waits
+in Australia, it must not be the cow; so that here and there a man
+shouldered his tools, and, leaving them at the shed, caught his
+horse and rode away--apologizing to Bob, if he happened to meet
+him, for going so early, with the brief apology of the dairy
+farmer, "Gotter get home an' milk."  But the majority worked on
+until dusk came down and put an end to their efforts, and then came
+up for their horses, singing and laughing.
+
+Bob stood at the gate, bareheaded, as they rode away.  By this time
+he had no words at all.  He wished from the bottom of his heart
+that he could tell them what good fellows he thought them; but he
+could only stand, holding the gate for them with Tommy by his side;
+and it may be that the look on each tired young face moved "the
+bee" more than eloquence would have done.  They shouted cheery
+good-byes as they went.  "Good luck, Miss Immigrant!  Good luck,
+Captain!"  And the dusk swallowed them up, leaving only the sound
+of the cantering hoofs.
+
+Thanks to "the bee," the little farm on the creek looked very
+flourishing on the great day when the lady of the house came down
+in state to take possession of her domain.  Bob had worked hard in
+the garden, where already rows of vegetables showed well; Jim and
+Wally had aided Norah and Tommy in the making of a flower garden,
+laying heavy toll on Hogg's stores for the purpose; to-day it was
+golden and white with daffodils and narcissi and snowdrops.  The
+cultivation paddocks, no longer brown, rippled with green oats; and
+cattle were grazing on the rough grass of the flats, once a swamp,
+but already showing the influence of the big drain.  Bob had great
+plans for ploughing all his flats next year.  Dairy cows pastured
+in the creek paddock near the house; beyond, Bob's beloved sheep
+were steadily engrossed in the fascinating pursuit of "turning into
+wool and mutton."  He never grew tired of watching the process.
+
+The ever-present problem of labour, too, had solved itself
+pleasantly enough.  Sarah, for many years housemaid at Billabong,
+had married a man on a farm near Cunjee, whose first attempt at
+renting a place for himself had been brought to an untimely end by
+the drought; and Sarah had returned to Billabong, to help in
+preparing for the home-coming of the long-absent family, while her
+husband secured a temporary job in Cunjee and looked about for
+another chance.  There Jim had found him, while helping at the
+hospital; the end of the matter being that Sarah and Bill and their
+baby were installed at Creek Cottage, Bill to be general utility
+man on the farm, and to have a share of profits, while Sarah helped
+Tommy in the house.  Every one was satisfied, and already there
+were indications that Tommy would be daft over the baby.
+
+Sarah came out now to say that tea was ready--she had insisted on
+being responsible for everything on this first day.  Not that there
+was much to do, for Brownie had sent over a colossal hamper,
+declaring that Miss Tommy shouldn't be bothered with thinking about
+food when she wasn't 'ardly settled.  So they packed into the
+little dining-room; where, indeed, it took no small ingenuity to
+stow so large a party, when three of the six happened to be of the
+size of David Linton and Jim and Wally; and Tommy did the honours
+of her own table for the first time.
+
+"And to think," she said presently, "that six months ago there was
+only Lancaster Gate!  Of course, there was always Bob"--she flashed
+him a quick smile--"but Bob was--"
+
+"In the air," put in Norah.
+
+"Very much so.  And it didn't seem a bit certain that I could ever
+get him out of it; or, if I did, that I could ever escape from
+Lancaster Gate."
+
+"And you wouldn't, if the she-dragon had had her way," Bob said.
+
+"No.  There was nothing to do but run.  But even when I dreamed of
+running, I never thought of more than a workman's cottage, with you
+earning wages and me trying to make both ends meet.  And now--look
+at us!  Bloated capitalists and station owners."
+
+"Well, you were a cook not so long ago.  I wouldn't be too proud,"
+Wally gibed.
+
+"All the more reason for me to be proud--I've risen in the world,"
+declared Tommy.  "Left my situation to better myself--isn't that
+the right way to put it?  And we've got the jolliest home in
+Australia--thanks to all of you.  Do have some more cake, Mr.
+Linton; I'd love to say I made it myself, but Brownie did--still,
+all the same, it's mine."
+
+"Don't you worry," he told her.  "I'm coming here plenty of times
+for cake of your own baking."
+
+"That's what I want."  She beamed at him.  "All of you.  Bob and I
+will feel lost and lonesome if we don't see you all--oh, often."
+
+"But you're going to," Norah said.  "We'll be over goodness knows
+how many times a week, and you two are always coming to dinner on
+Sunday, and ever so many other days as well."
+
+"Was it in your plans that any work should be done on this estate?"
+queried Bob solemnly.
+
+"Why, yes, in your spare time," Wally answered.  "Any time you're
+not on the road between here and Billabong, or catching a horse to
+go there, or letting one go after coming back, or minding the
+Billabong horde when it comes over, you can do a little towards
+improving the creek.  I say, Bob, it sounds the sort of life I'd
+love.  Can't you give me a job, old man?"
+
+"Seeing that you've done little but work on this place since you
+came back from Queensland, I shouldn't think you'd need to ask for
+a job," retorted Bob.  "However, I'll take you on as milker if you
+like--it's about the only thing you haven't sampled."
+
+"No," said Wally, "you won't.  Whatever beast I finally take to by
+way of earning my living, it won't be the cow--if I can help it.
+I'd sooner graze giraffes!"
+
+"Oh, do try!" Norah begged.  "I'd love to see you trying to put a
+bridle on one in a hurry!"
+
+"Wonder what would happen if one rode a giraffe and he reared?"
+pondered Jim.
+
+"You'd have to swarm up his neck and hang on to his little horns,"
+Wally said.  "But they're nice, silent beasts, giraffes, and I
+think they'd be very restful to deal with."
+
+Every one laughed unsympathetically.  Restfulness was the last
+quality to be associated with Wally, who had been remarkable
+throughout his life for total inability to keep still.
+
+"It's always the way," said Wally, in tones of melancholy.  "Every
+fortune teller I ever saw told me that no one understood me."
+
+"All fortune tellers say that, and that's why people think them
+so clever," said Tommy.  "It's so soothing to think one is
+misunderstood.  My stepmother always thought so.  Did Bob tell you,
+Mr. Linton, that we had had letters from home?"
+
+"No--from your people?"
+
+"From Papa.  The she-dragon didn't write.  I think her words would
+have been too burning to put on paper.  But Papa wrote a pretty
+decent letter--for him.  He didn't speak of our letters from
+Liverpool--the notes we wrote from the hotel, saying we were
+leaving for Australia.  But he acknowledged Bob's letter from
+Melbourne, saying we were going up country under your wing, and
+actually wished us luck!  Amazing, from Papa!"
+
+"I think he's jolly glad we got away," Bob said.
+
+"I think that's highly probable," said David Linton.  "You'll write
+to him occasionally, won't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I suppose so," Bob answered.  "Sometimes I'm a bit sorry
+for him; it must be pretty awful to be always under the heel of a
+she-dragon.  Oh, and there was a really fatherly sort of letter
+from old Mr. Clinton.  He's an old brick; and he's quite pleased
+about our finding you--or you finding us.  He was always a bit
+worried lest Tommy should feel lonesome in Australia."
+
+"And not you?" Norah asked laughing.
+
+"No, he didn't worry a bit about me; he merely hoped I'd be working
+too hard to notice lonesomeness.  I think the old chap always was a
+bit doubtful that any fellow would get down to solid work after
+flying; he used to say the two things wouldn't agree.  But you sent
+him a decent report of me, didn't you, sir?"
+
+"Oh, yes--I wrote when you asked me, just after you bought this
+place," David Linton said.  "Told him you were working like a cart-
+horse, which was no more than the truth, and that Tommy was serving
+her adopted country as a cook; and that I considered your prospects
+good.  He'll have had that letter before now--and I suppose others
+from you."
+
+"We wrote a few weeks ago--sent him a photograph of the house, and
+of Tommy on a horse, and Tommy told him all about our furniture,"
+Bob chuckled.  "I don't quite know how a staid old London lawyer
+will regard the furniture; he won't understand its beauty a bit.
+But he ought to be impressed with our stern regard for economy."
+
+"He should," said Mr. Linton with a twinkle.  "And I presume you
+mentioned the sheep?"
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Tommy confidentially, "his letter was
+little but mutton.  He described all his ewes in detail--"
+
+"Colour of their eyes?" queried Wally.
+
+"And their hair," nodded Tommy.  "I never read anything so
+poetical.  And any enthusiasm he had over went to the pigs and the
+Kelpie pup!"
+
+"But what about the cows?" laughed Norah.  "And the young
+bullocks?"
+
+"Oh, he mentioned them.  But cattle are just four-legged animals to
+Bob; they don't stir his soul like sheep and pigs.  He couldn't
+write beautiful things about them.  But when it comes to sheep, he
+just naturally turns into a poet!"
+
+The object of these remarks helped himself serenely to cake.
+
+"Go on," he nodded at his sister cheerfully.  "Wait until my wool
+cheque comes in, and you want a new frock--then you'll speak
+respectfully of my little merinoes.  And if you don't, you won't
+get the frock!"
+
+"Why, I wouldn't disrespect them for anything," Tommy said.  "I
+think they're lovely beasts.  So graceful and agile.  Will any of
+them come yet when you whistle, Bobby?"
+
+"Are you going to put up with this sort of thing, Bob?" demanded
+Jim.
+
+Bob smiled sweetly.
+
+"I'm letting her have her head," he said confidently.  "It's badly
+swelled just now, because she's got a house of her own--but you
+wait until she wants a new set of shelves, or a horse caught in a
+hurry so that she can tear over and find out from Norah how to cook
+something--then she'll come to heel.  It's something in your
+climate, I think, because she was never so cheeky at home--meek was
+more the word to describe her."
+
+"Meek!" said his sister indignantly.  "Indeed, I never was meek in
+my life!"
+
+"Indeed you were, and it was very becoming," Bob assured her.  "Now
+you're more like a suffragette--"  He stopped, staring.  "Why,
+that's it!  It must be in the air!  She knows she'll have the vote
+pretty soon!"  He broke into laughter.  "Glory!  Fancy little Tommy
+with a vote!"
+
+Tommy joined in the general mirth.
+
+"I hadn't realized it," she said, "and I needn't bother for over
+eighteen months, anyhow.  And I don't believe that any of you have
+ever voted, even if you are twenty-one--except Mr. Linton, of
+course; and you don't know a bit more about it than I do."
+
+"Hear, hear!" said Wally.  "I certainly don't, and neither does
+Jim.  But when we do vote, it's going to be for the chap who'll let
+us go and dig our own coal out if there's a strike.  That's sense;
+and it seems to me the only sensible thing I've ever heard of in
+politics!"  A speech which manifested so unusual an amount of
+reflection in Wally that every one was spellbound, and professed
+inability to eat any more.
+
+Bob and Tommy stood on the verandah to watch their visitors go; Mr.
+Linton and Norah in the motor, while Jim and Wally rode.  The merry
+shouts of farewell echoed through the gathering dusk.
+
+"Bless them," said Tommy--"the dears.  I don't believe we'd have a
+home now but for them, Bob."
+
+"We certainly wouldn't," Bob answered.  "And sometimes I feel as if
+they'd spoon-fed us.  Look at all they've done for us--these months
+at Billabong and all they've taught us, and all the things that
+they've showered on us.  We couldn't pay them back in twenty
+years."
+
+"And they talk as if the favour were on their side," his sister
+said.  "There's the buggy they've lent us--Mr. Linton spent quite a
+long time in pointing out to me how desirable it was for them that
+we should use it, now that they have the car and don't need it.
+And the horses that apparently would have gone to rack and ruin
+from idleness if we hadn't come."
+
+"And the cows that don't seem to have had any reason for existence
+except to supply us with milk," Bob said laughing; "and the farm
+machinery that never was really appreciated until immigrants came
+along--at least, you'd think so to hear Jim talk, only its
+condition belies him.  Oh, they're bricks, all right.  Only I don't
+seem as if I were standing squarely on my own feet."
+
+"I don't think we could expect to, just yet," said Tommy pondering.
+"And if they have helped us, Bobby, you can see they have loved
+doing it.  It would be ungracious for us not to take such help--
+given as it has been."
+
+"Yes, of course," Bob answered and squared his shoulders.  "Well,
+I'm going to work like fury.  The only thing I can do now is not to
+disappoint them.  I feel an awful new-chum, Tommy, but I've got to
+make good."
+
+"Why, of course you're going to," she said, slipping a hand through
+his arm.  "Jim wouldn't let you make mistakes; and the land is
+good, and even if we strike a bad season, there's always the creek--
+we'll never be without water, Jim says.  And we're going to have
+the jolliest home--it's that now, and we're going to make it
+better."
+
+"It's certainly that now," Bob said.  "I just can't believe it's
+ours.  Come and prowl round, old girl."
+
+They prowled round in the dusk; up and down the garden paths by the
+nodding daffodils, out round the sheds and the pigsties, and so
+down to where the creek rippled and murmured in the gloom, flowing
+through paddocks that, on either side, were their own.  Memories of
+war and of gloomy London fell away from them; only the bright
+present and a future yet more bright filled them; and there was no
+loneliness, since all the big new country had smiled to them and
+stretched out hands of friendliness.  They came back slowly to
+their house, arm in arm; two young things, like shadows in the
+gloom, but certain in their own minds that they could conquer
+Australia.
+
+Bob lit the hanging lamp in the little sitting-room, and looked
+round him proudly.  A photograph caught his eye; a large group at
+his Surrey Aerodrome, young officers clustered round a bi-plane
+that had just landed.
+
+"Poor chaps," he said, and stared at them.  "Most of 'em don't know
+yet that there's anything better in the world than flying."
+
+"But they've never met merino sheep," said Tommy solemnly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE CUNJEE RACES
+
+
+"Who's going to the races?" demanded Jim.
+
+He had ridden over to the creek alone, and Tommy had come to the
+garden gate to greet him, since the young horse he was riding
+firmly declined to be tied up.  It was a very hot morning in
+Christmas week.  Tommy was in a blue print overall, and her face
+was flushed, her hair lying in little damp rings on her forehead.
+Jim, provokingly cool in riding breeches and white silk shirt,
+smiled down at her across the gate.
+
+"Races!" said Tommy.  "But what frivolity.  Why, I'm bottling
+apricots."
+
+"No wonder you look warm, you poor little soul," said Jim.  "You
+oughtn't to choose a scorcher like this for bottling.  Anyhow, the
+races aren't to-day, but New Year's day--Cunjee Picnic meeting.
+We're all going, so you and Bob have got to come.  Orders from
+Norah."
+
+"Oh, New Year's day.  I'd love to come," Tommy said.  "I've never
+seen races."
+
+"Never seen races!" ejaculated young Australia in sheer amazement.
+"Where were you dragged up?"  They laughed at each other.
+
+"Aunt Margaret wasn't what you'd call a racing woman," Tommy said.
+"I don't fancy Bob has seen any, either.  Bill and Sarah, to say
+nothing of the baby, are going.  I offered to mind the baby, but
+Sarah didn't seem to think the picnic would be complete without
+her."
+
+"People have queer tastes," Jim said.  "I wouldn't choose a long
+day at races as the ideal thing for a baby; but Sarah seems to
+think differently.  Wonder what Bill thinks?  Still, I'm glad she
+didn't take you at your word, because we'd have had to dispose of
+the baby somewhere if she had.  I suppose we could put it under the
+seat of the car!"
+
+"Oh, do you?"  Tommy regarded him with a glint in her eye.  "No;
+we'd have made you nurse her--she isn't 'it.'  She's the nicest
+baby ever, and I won't have her insulted."
+
+"Bless you, I wouldn't insult the baby for worlds," grinned Jim.
+"I'll look forward to meeting her at the races--especially as you
+won't be minding her.  Then it's settled, is it, Tommy?  We thought
+of riding; will it be too far for you?"
+
+"Not a bit," Tommy said.  "Bob and I rode in and out of Cunjee the
+other day, and I wasn't tired--and it was dreadfully hot."
+
+"Then you'll be all right on New Year's day, because the racecourse
+is two miles this side of the township," Jim said.  "But Norah said
+I was to tell you some of us could easily go in the car if you'd
+rather drive."
+
+"Oh, no, thanks; I know you always ride, and I should love it,"
+Tommy answered.  "Is Mr. Linton going?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  Indeed, as far as I can tell, the whole station's
+going," Jim said.  "All except Brownie, of course; she scorns
+races.  She says she can't imagine why anyone should make anything
+run fast in the 'eat if they don't want to."
+
+"Does Brownie ever leave Billabong?"
+
+"Hardly ever," Jim answered, laughing--"and it's getting more and
+more difficult to make her.  I think in a year or two it will need
+a charge of dynamite.  Oh, but, Tommy, we got her out in the car
+the other evening--had to do it almost by main force.  It was a hot
+evening, and we took her for a spin along the road.  She trembled
+like a jelly when we started, and all the time she gripped the side
+with one hand and Norah's knee with the other--quite unconsciously."
+
+"Do you think she enjoyed it at all?"  Tommy smiled.
+
+"No, I'm jolly well sure she didn't," Jim responded.  "Brownie's
+much too well mannered to criticize anyone else's property, but
+when she got out she merely said, 'You have great courage, my
+dear.'  And wild horses wouldn't get her into it again, unless we
+promised to 'make it walk,' like we did the day we brought her over
+to help at your working bee.  The funny part of it is that Norah
+believes she was just as frightened that morning, only she had a
+job on, and so was too busy to think of it.  But as for going in a
+car for mere pleasure--not for Brownie!"
+
+"Brownie's a dear," said Tommy irrelevantly.  "Jim, can't you put
+that fierce animal in the stable or the horse paddock, or
+somewhere, and come in for some tea?  I simply must get back to my
+apricots."
+
+"And I've certainly no business to be keeping you standing here in
+the heat," Jim said.  "No, I can't stay, thanks, Tommy--I promised
+dad I'd meet him at the Far Plain gate at eleven o'clock, and it's
+nearly that now.  You run in to your apricots, and don't kill your
+little self over them; it's no day for cooking if you can avoid
+it."
+
+"Oh, but I couldn't," Tommy answered.  "They were just right for
+bottling; the sun to-day would have made them a bit too soft.  And
+it's better to get them done; to-morrow may be just as hot, or
+hotter."
+
+"That's true enough," Jim said.  "Feeling the heat much, little
+Miss Immigrant?"
+
+"Oh, not enough to grumble at," she answered, smiling.  "And the
+bathing-hole in the creek is a joy; it's almost worth a hot day to
+get a swim at the end of it.  Bob has built me a bathing-box out of
+a tree, and it's a huge success; he's very pleased with himself as
+an architect."
+
+"That's good business," approved Jim.  "You two never grumble, no
+matter what comes along."
+
+"Well, but nothing has come along but good luck," Tommy said.
+"What have we had to grumble at, I should like to know?"
+
+"Oh, some people find cause for grousing, no matter how good their
+luck is," Jim answered.  "I believe you and old Bob would decline
+to recognize bad luck even if it did come your way."
+
+"It's not coming," Tommy said, laughing.  "So don't talk about it--
+I don't believe it exists."  She stood watching him for a moment as
+he tried to mount; his big young thoroughbred resented the idea of
+anyone on his back, and Jim had to hop beside him, with one foot in
+the stirrup, while he danced round in a circle, trying to get away.
+Jim seized an opportunity, and was in the saddle with a lithe
+swing; whereupon the horse tried to get his head down to buck, and,
+being checked in that ambition, progressed down the paddock in a
+succession of short, staccato bounds.
+
+"I think I should have to recognize bad luck coming if I had to
+ride him instead of Jim," remarked Tommy quaintly.  She turned and
+ran in to her neglected apricots.
+
+New Year's day broke clear and hot, like all the week before it.
+Norah, arriving at the Creek about ten o'clock, looked a little
+anxiously at her friend.
+
+"We're used to riding in the heat, Tommy, dear," she said.  "But
+you're not--are you sure you feel up to it?"
+
+"Why, I'm going to love it," Tommy said.  She looked cool and
+workman-like in a linen habit and white pith helmet--Norah's
+Christmas present.  "I hadn't these nice things to wear when Bob
+and I brought the sheep out from Cunjee three weeks ago; and it was
+just as hot, and so dusty.  And that didn't kill me.  I liked it,
+only I never got so dirty in my life."
+
+"Well, we shall only have a hot ride one way," said Norah
+philosophically.  "There's a concert in Cunjee, and the boys want
+to stay for it.  The concert won't be much, but the ride home in
+the moonlight will be lovely.  You and Bob can stay, of course?"
+
+"Oh, yes.  Bill must bring Sarah and the baby home in good time, so
+he will milk the cows," Tommy answered.  "He wanted them to stay
+for the concert, but Sarah had an amazing attack of common sense,
+and said it was no place for a baby.  I didn't think she considered
+any place unfit for a baby, and certainly Bill doesn't."
+
+"Bush people don't," said Norah, laughing.  "If they did, they
+would never go anywhere, because the babies must go too, no matter
+what happens.  And the babies get accustomed to it, and don't cry
+nearly as much as pampered ones that are always in the nursery."
+
+"Bush kiddies grow a stock of common sense quite early," said
+Wally's voice from the door.  "It leaves them in later life, and
+they stay gossiping with immigrants in new riding-kit, leaving
+their unfortunate fathers grilling in the sun.  Which he says--"
+But at this point Norah and Tommy brushed the orator from their
+path, and hastened out to the horses--finding all the men
+comfortably smoking under a huge pepper tree, and apparently in no
+hurry to start.
+
+Bob bewailed his yellow paddocks as they rode down to the gate.
+
+"They were so beautifully green a few weeks ago," he said.  "Now
+look at them--why, they're like a crop.  The sun has burnt every
+bit of moisture out of them."
+
+"Don't let that worry you, my boy," David Linton said.  "The stock
+are doing all right; as long as they have plenty of good water at
+this time of the year they won't ask you for green grass."  He gave
+a low chuckle.  "You wouldn't think this was bad feed if you had
+seen the country in the drought years--why, the paddocks were as
+bare as the palm of your hand.  Now you've grass, as you say
+yourself, like a crop."  He looked at it critically.  "I could wish
+you hadn't as much; fires will be a bit of an anxiety later on."
+
+"Grass fires?" queried Bob.
+
+"Yes.  There's not enough timber here to have a real bush fire.
+But this grass is dry enough now, and by February it will go like
+tinder if any fool swagman drops a match carelessly.  However,
+you'll just have to keep your eyes open.  Luckily, your creek can't
+burn--you'll always have so much safeguard, because your stock
+could take to it; and that row of willows along the bank would
+check any grass fire."
+
+"My word, wouldn't a fire race across the Billabong plains this
+year!" said Wally.
+
+"Yes, it would certainly travel," agreed Mr. Linton.  "Well, we've
+ploughed fire-breaks, and burned round the house, and we can only
+hope for good luck.  You'd better burn a break round your house
+soon, Bob."
+
+"Bill was saying so only this morning," Bob answered.  "I nearly
+chucked the races and stayed at home to do it--only I was afraid it
+might get away from me single-handed, and I couldn't very well keep
+Bill at home."
+
+"Oh, time enough," the squatter said lightly.  "You're not so dry
+as we are, and we only burned last week."
+
+"We'll come over and help you to-morrow, if you like," Jim said.
+"Wally wants work; he's getting too fat.  A little gentle exercise
+with a racing fire on a hot day would be the very thing for him.
+We'll come and burn off with you, and then have a bathing party in
+the creek, and then you and Tommy must come back to tea with us."
+Which was a sample of the way much of the work was done on the
+Creek Farm.  It had never occurred to the two Rainhams that life in
+Australia was lonely.
+
+The road to Cunjee was usually bare of much traffic, but on the one
+race day of the year an amazing number of vehicles were dotted
+along it, light buggies, farm wagonettes, spring carts and the
+universal two-wheeled jinker, all crammed with farmers and settlers
+and their families.  Wives, a little red-faced and anxious,
+resplendent in their Sunday finery, kept a watchful eye on small
+boys and girls; the boys in thick suits, the girls with white
+frocks, their well-crimped hair bearing evidence of intense
+plaiting overnight.  Hampers peeped from under the seats, and in
+most cases a baby completed the outfit.  Now and then a motor
+whizzed by, leaving a long trail of dust-cloud in its wake, and
+earning hearty remarks from every slower wayfarer.  There were
+riders everywhere, men and women--most of the latter with riding-
+skirts slipped on over light dresses that would do duty that night
+at the concert and the dance that was to follow.  Sometimes a
+motor-cycle chugged along, always with a girl perched on the
+carrier at the back, clinging affectionately to her escort.  As
+Cunjee drew nearer and the farms closer together the crowd on the
+road increased, and the dust mounted in a solid cloud.
+
+The Billabong people drew to one side, as close as possible to the
+fence, cantering over the short, dusty grass.  It was with a sigh
+of relief that Jim at last pointed out a paddock across which
+buggies and horsemen were making their way.
+
+"There's the racecourse," he said.
+
+"Racecourse!" Tommy ejaculated.  "But it just looks like an
+ordinary paddock."
+
+"That's all it is," said Jim, laughing.  "You didn't expect a
+grand-stand and a lawn, did you?  Cunjee is very proud of itself
+for having a turf club at all, and nobody minds anything as long as
+they get an occasional glimpse of the horses."
+
+"But where do they run?"
+
+"Oh, the track goes in and out among the trees.  There's some talk
+of clearing it before the next meeting by means of a working bee.
+But they won't worry if it doesn't get done--every one will come
+and have a picnic just the same.  You see, there are only two days
+in the year when a bush place can really let itself go--Show day
+and Race day.  Show day is more serious and business-like, but Race
+day is a really light-hearted affair, and the horses don't matter
+to most of the people."
+
+They turned into a gate where two men were busily collecting
+shillings and keeping a wary eye lest foot passengers should dodge
+in through the fence without paying.  There were no buildings at
+all in the bush paddock in which they found themselves.  It lay
+before them, flat, save for a rise towards the southern boundary,
+where already the crowd was thickening, and sparsely timbered.  As
+they cantered across it they came to a rough track, marked out more
+or less effectively by pink calico flags nailed to the trees.
+
+"That's the racing track," Wally said.  "Let's ride round it, and
+we'll have a faint idea of what the horses are doing later on."
+
+They turned along the track, where the grass had been worn by
+horses training for the races during the few weeks preceding the
+great day.  The trees had been cleared from it, so that it was good
+going.  In shape it was roughly circular, with an occasional dint
+or bulge where a big red gum had been too tough a proposition to
+clear, and the track had had to swing aside to avoid it--a practice
+which must, as Jim remarked, make interesting moments in riding a
+race, if the field were larger than usual and the pace at all hot.
+Presently they emerged from the timber and came into the straight
+run that marked the finish--running along the foot of the southern
+rise, so that, whatever happened in the mysterious moments in the
+earlier parts of a race, the end was within full view of the crowd.
+The winning-post was a sawed-off sapling, painted half-black and
+half-white; opposite to it was the judge's box, a huge log which
+made a natural grand-stand, capable of accommodating the racing
+committee as well.  Behind, a rough wire fence enclosed a small
+space known as the saddling paddock.  The crowd picked out its own
+accommodation--it was necessary to come early if you wanted a good
+place on the rise.  Already it was dotted with picnic parties,
+preparing luncheon, and a procession of men and boys, bearing
+teapots and billies, came and went about a huge copper, steaming
+over a fire, where the racing club dispensed hot water free of
+charge, a generosity chiefly intended to prevent the casual
+lighting of fires by the picnickers.  All over the paddock people
+were hastening through the business of the midday meal; the men
+anxious to get it over before the real excitement of the day began
+with the racing, the women equally keen to feed their hungry
+belongings and then settle down to a comfortable gossip with
+friends perhaps only seen once or twice in the twelve months.
+Children tore about wildly, got in the way of buggies and motors,
+climbed trees and clustered thickly round any horse suspected of
+taking part in the racing.  More than one candidate for a race
+appeared on the course drawing a jinker; and, being released from
+the shafts, was being vigorously groomed by his shirt-sleeved
+owner.
+
+"There's an awful lot to see!" ejaculated Tommy, gazing about her.
+
+"That is if you've eyes," Jim said.  "But most of it can be seen on
+foot, so I vote Wally and Bob and I take the horses and tie them up
+while there's still a decent patch of shade left for them to stand
+in--every tree in the paddock will have horses tied to it before
+long.  Do you know where Evans was to leave the buggy, Dad?"
+
+"Yes--it's under a tree over there," said his father, nodding
+towards a bushy clump of wattles.  "I told him to pick out a good
+shady place for lunch.  We'll go on and get ready, boys.  I'll take
+the teapot for hot water."
+
+"Not you!" said Jim.  "We'll be back in a few minutes and can
+easily get it.  Just help the girls with the things, Dad, and we'll
+get lunch over; I'm as hungry as a hawk."
+
+"I'm not hungry," said Norah.  "But I want, oh! gallons of tea."
+
+Tea seemed the main requirement of everybody.  It was almost too
+hot to eat, even in the deep shade of the wattles.  The boys,
+taught by the war to feed wherever and whenever possible, did some
+justice to Brownie's hamper; but Mr. Linton soon drew aside and lit
+his pipe at a little distance, while Tommy and Norah nibbled tomato
+and lettuce sandwiches, kept fresh and cool by being packed in huge
+nasturtium leaves, and drank many cups of tea.  Then they lay under
+the trees until a bell, ringing from the saddling paddock, hinted
+that the first race was at hand.  There was a surge of people
+towards the rise.
+
+"Come on," Jim said, jumping up.  "Help me to stow these things in
+the buggy, Wally--we'll want most of them for afternoon tea later
+on.  Then we might as well go and see the fun.  You girls rested?"
+
+They were, they declared; and presently they set off towards the
+rise.  Already the horses were appearing on the track, most of the
+jockeys wearing silk jackets and caps, although a few were content
+with doffing coat and waistcoat, and riding in blue and pink
+shirts--occasionally, but not always, complete with collar and tie.
+The horses were a mixed lot; some bore traces of birth and
+breeding, but the majority were just grass-fed horses from the
+neighbouring farms and stations, groomed and polished in a way that
+only happened to them once a year.  The well-bred performers were
+handicapped with heavy weights, while the others had been let off
+lightly, so that all had a chance.
+
+"Billabong has a horse running to-day--did you know?" Jim inquired.
+
+"No!"  Tommy looked up, dimpling with interest.  "But how exciting,
+Jim.  Is it yours?"
+
+"No."  Jim shook his head.  "I won't enter a horse if I can't ride
+him myself, and of course I'm too heavy.  He belongs to the
+station, but he's always looked upon as Murty's, and black Billy's
+going to ride him.  He's in the Hurdle Race."
+
+"Do you think he has any chance?"
+
+"Well, he can gallop and jump all right," Jim said.  "But he hasn't
+had much training, and whether he'll jump in company is open to
+doubt.  But I don't think he'll disgrace us.  You've seen Murty
+riding him--a big chestnut with a white blaze."
+
+"Oh, yes--he calls him Shannon, doesn't he?" said Tommy.  "I saw
+him jump three fences on him last time we were out mustering with
+your people.  He's a beauty, Jim."
+
+"Yes, he's pretty good.  Murty thinks he's better than Garryowen,
+but I don't," Jim observed.
+
+"If the Archangel Gabriel turned into a horse you wouldn't think he
+was up to Garryowen!" said Wally.
+
+"No, and he probably wouldn't be," said Jim, laughing.  "If you
+begin life as an archangel, how would you settle down to being a
+horse after?"
+
+"I suppose it needs practice," Wally admitted.  "Look out--here
+they come!"
+
+The horses were coming down the straight in their preliminary
+canter, and the crowd abandoned the business of picnicking and
+turned its attention to the first race.  The riders, mostly local
+boys, looked desperately serious, and, as they pulled up after
+their canter, and turning, trotted slowly back past the rise,
+shouts of warning and encouragement and instruction came to them--
+from the owners of their mounts--which had the effect of making the
+boys look yet more unhappy.  A bookmaker, the sole representative
+of his profession, yelled steadily from under a lightwood tree;
+those who were venturesome enough to do business with him were
+warned solemnly by more experienced men to keep a sharp look-out
+that he did not get away with their money before the end of the
+day.
+
+"That happened in Cunjee some years ago," said Mr. Linton.  "A
+bookmaker appeared from goodness knows where, and struck a very
+solid patch of bad luck.  All the district seemed to know how to
+pick winners that day, and he lost solidly on every race.  He
+plunged a bit on the fourth race, hoping to get his money back; but
+that was worse still, and when he saw the favourite winning, he
+knew he had no hope of settling up.  So he quietly collected his
+horse, which he had tied up in a convenient place, in case it was
+wanted in a hurry, and made tracks before the race finished."
+
+"What happened to him?" asked Bob.
+
+Mr. Linton chuckled.
+
+"Well, he added considerably to the excitement of the day.  Some
+one saw him going, and passed the word round, and every man to whom
+he owed money--and they were many--ran for his horse and went after
+him.  He had a good start, and no one knew what road he would take,
+so it was quite a cheery hunt.  I think it was Dave Boone who
+tracked him at last, and he paused at a cross-roads, and coo-eed
+steadily until he had a number of followers.  Then they set sail
+after the poor bookie, and caught him about seven or eight miles
+away.  They found he had practically no money--not nearly enough to
+divide up; so they took what he had and presented it to the Cunjee
+Hospital, and finished up the day happily by tarring and feathering
+the bookie, and riding him on a fence rail round Cunjee that
+night!"
+
+"What do your police do in a case like that?" Bob asked.
+
+"Well, there's only one policeman in Cunjee, and, being a wise man,
+he went to the concert, and probably enjoyed himself very much,"
+said Mr. Linton, laughing.
+
+"And what happened to the bookie?"
+
+"Just what you might expect--the boys got sorry for him, made a
+collection for him, bought him some cheap clothes--I believe they
+didn't err on the side of beauty!--and shipped him off to Melbourne
+by the first train in the morning.  I don't think he'll try his
+artful dodges on this section of the bush again; and it has made
+all the boys very watchful about betting, so it wasn't a bad thing,
+on the whole.  They think they know all about the ways of the world
+now.  Look, Tommy--the horses are off!  Watch through the trees,
+and you'll get a glimpse presently."
+
+The gay jackets flashed into view in a gap in the timber, and then
+were lost again.  Soon they came in sight once more and rounded the
+last curve into the straight, amid shouts from the crowd.  They
+came up the straight, most of the jockeys flogging desperately,
+while everyone rushed to get as near the winning-post as possible.
+Hats were flung in the air and yells rose joyfully, as a Cunjee
+boy, riding a desperate finish, got his horse's nose in front in
+the last couple of lengths and won cleverly.
+
+"She's excited!" said Wally, looking down at Tommy's flushed face.
+
+"I should think so," said Tommy.  "Why, it was dreadfully exciting.
+I'd love to have been riding myself."  At which everyone laughed
+extremely, and a tall young stockman from a neighbouring station,
+overhearing, was so impressed that he hovered as near as possible
+to Tommy for the rest of the day.
+
+The next event was the Hurdle Race, and interest for the Linton
+party centred in the candidate described on the race-card as Mr. M.
+O'Toole's Shannon.  Nothing further could be done for Shannon--he
+was groomed until the last hair on his tail gleamed; but black
+Billy, resplendent in a bright green jacket and cap, the latter
+bearing an embroidered white shamrock, became the object of advice
+and warning from every man from Billabong, until anyone except
+Billy would probably have turned in wrath upon the multitude of his
+counsellors.  Billy, however, had one refuge denied to most of his
+white brothers.  He hardly ever spoke; and if some reply was
+absolutely forced upon him, he merely murmured "Plenty!" in a vague
+way, which, as Wally said, left you guessing as to his meaning.
+
+"Yerra, lave off badgerin' the boy," said Murty at last, brushing
+aside Dave Boone and Mick Shanahan, and the other Billabong
+enthusiasts.  "If he listens to the lot of ye anny longer he won't
+know whether he's ridin' a horse or an airyplane.  There's only wan
+insthruction to be kapin' in your head, Billy--get to the front an'
+stay there.  Ridin' a waitin' race is all very well on the flat,
+but whin it comes to jumpin', anything that's in front of ye is apt
+to turn a somersault an' bring ye down in a heap."
+
+"Plenty!" agreed Billy; and lit a cigarette.
+
+"Shannon don't like anny other horse in front of him at all," went
+on Murty.  "He's that full of pride he never tuk kindly to bein'
+behind, not since he was bruk in.  He'll gallop like a machine an'
+lep like a deer if he gets his head."
+
+"I don't b'lieve you've much show, anyhow," Dave Boone said.
+"There's that horse from the hotel at Mulgoa--Blazer, they call
+him.  He's done no end of racin', and won, too."
+
+"Well, an' if he has, hasn't he the great weight itself to be
+carryin'?" demanded Murty.
+
+"Why, he's top weight, of course; but you're carryin' ever so much
+over weight," responded Mr. Boone.  "If you'd put up a boy instead
+of Billy, you could be pounds lighter."
+
+"Ah, git away with your advisin'," replied Murty.  "Billy knows the
+horse--an' where'd a shlip of a boy be if Shannon cleared out with
+him?  I'd rather carry too much weight, an' know I'd put a man up
+as could hold the horse."  His anxious eye fell on the girls.
+"Miss Norah and Miss Tommy!--come here an' wish him luck without
+offerin' me any advice, or I'll lose me life over the ould race!
+They have desthroyed me with all the things they're afther tellin'
+me to do."
+
+"We won't tell you a thing, Murty--except that he's looking
+splendid," Norah said, stroking Shannon's nose, to which the horse
+responded by nuzzling round her pocket in search of an apple.  "No,
+I can't give you one, old man--I wouldn't dare.  But you shall have
+one after the race, whether you win or not, can't he, Murty?"
+
+"He can so," said Murty.  "Wance he's gone round that thrack he can
+live on the fat of the land--an' Billy, too.  It's a dale aisier to
+get the condition off a horse than off Billy.  No man on this earth
+'ud make a black fellow see why he shouldn't have a good blow-out
+whenever it came his way.  Only that Providence made him skinny by
+nature, he'd be fat as a porpoise this day.  I've been watchin'
+over his meals like a mother with a delicate baby these three weeks
+back; but what hope 'ud I have with Christmas comin' in the way?
+He got away on me at Christmas dinner, an' what he didn't ate in
+the way of turkey an puddin' wouldn't be worth mentioning--an' him
+booked to ride to-day!  'Plenty' always did be his motter, an' he
+lives up to it.  So he's pounds overweight, an' no help for it."
+
+"Never mind, Murty," Jim said.  "He knows the horse, and Shannon's
+able to stand a few pounds extra.  He'll give us a good run."
+
+"I believe ye, Masther Jim," said Murty, beaming.  "He'll not
+disgrace us, an' if he don't win itself, then he'll not be far
+behind.  There you are, Billy--that's the bell for weighin'.  Hurry
+up now, and get over to the scales."
+
+The black boy's lean figure, saddle and bridle on arm, threaded its
+way through the crowd round the weighing enclosure--a little space
+fenced off by barbed wire.  Presently they saw him coming back
+grinning.
+
+"That pfeller sayin' I plenty too much pounds," he said in an
+unusual burst of eloquence.
+
+"Ah, don't be rubbin' it in--don't I know it?" quoth Murty, taking
+the saddle and slipping it deftly on Shannon's back.  "I dunno, did
+he think he was givin' me a pleasant surprise with the information
+by way of a New Year's gift.  Does he think we've never a scales on
+Billabong, did ye ask him?  There now, he's ready.  Get on him,
+Billy, an' shove out into the track for a canter.  I'll get nothing
+but chat from every one as long as you're here.  Take him for a
+look at some of the hurdles, the way he'll know all about them when
+he comes to jump."  He stood with a frown on his good-humoured face
+as Shannon and his rider made off.
+
+Norah laid a hand on his arm.
+
+"There's not a horse on the course better turned out, Murty," she
+said.  "No one can say the Billabong representative doesn't look
+fit."
+
+Murty turned on her, beaming again.
+
+"Well, indeed, he'll not be doin' the station any discredit, Miss
+Norah," he said happily, "an' if he don't win, well, we can't all
+be winnin', can we?  Only we did win a race last year, whin none of
+ye were here to be watchin' us an' make it worth while.  I'd like
+to score to-day, now that ye're all here to see--an' Miss Tommy
+too, that's never seen racin'."  He smiled down at the English
+girl's pink face.
+
+"I'm going to see you win to-day, Murty--I feel it in my bones,"
+said Tommy promptly.  "I've always loved Shannon, ever since I saw
+you jump those big fences with him when we put up the hare out
+mustering."
+
+"Yerra, that one'd make a steeplechaser if he got the trainin',"
+declared Murty, all his troubles forgotten.  "Come a little higher
+up, won't ye, Miss Norah; we can see every jump from the top of the
+rise, barrin' the wan that's in the timber."
+
+They followed him up the little hill until he declared himself
+satisfied with his position; and he spent the time until the flag
+fell in pointing out to Tommy the exact places where the hurdles
+were erected--pausing only for a proud look when Shannon thundered
+past below them in his preliminary canter, the green jacket bright
+in the sun, and every muscle in the horse's gleaming body rippling
+as he moved.  He was reefing and plunging in his gallop, trying to
+get his head; but Billy soon steadied him, and presently brought
+him up the straight again at a quiet trot.  The other horses went
+out, one by one, until at length a field of eight faced the
+starter; and presently they were off, and over the first jump in a
+body.  They came down the straight on the first time round, packed
+closely, a glittering mass of shining horses and bright colours.
+One dropped at the jump near the judge's box, and as the other
+horses raced away round the turn the riderless horse followed,
+while his jockey lay still for a moment, a little scarlet blur upon
+the turf.  Eager helpers ran forward to pick him up, but he was on
+his feet before they could reach him, and came limping up the hill,
+a little bruised and infinitely disgusted.
+
+"He's all right," Murty said.  "Yerra, Mr. Jim, did ye see the ould
+horse jump!  He wint ahead at his fences like a deer!"
+
+The horses were in the timber; they peered anxiously at the bright
+patch of colour that showed from time to time, trying to see the
+familiar green jacket.  Then, as the field came into view Murty
+uttered an irrepressible yell, for his horse shot ahead at the next
+jump and came into the straight in the lead.  Murty gripped at the
+nearest object, which happened to be Norah's shoulder, and clenched
+it tightly, muttering, in his excitement, words in his native
+Irish.  They thundered up the straight, Billy crouching on
+Shannon's neck, very still.  Then behind him the Mulgoa horse drew
+out from the ruck and came in chase.  Nearer and nearer he came,
+while the shouts from the crowd grew louder.  Up, up, till his nose
+was at Shannon's quarter--at his girth--at his shoulder, and the
+winning-post was very near.  Then suddenly Billy lifted his whip
+and brought it down once, and Shannon shot forward with a last wild
+bound.  Murty's hat went up in the air--and Wally's with it.
+
+"He's done it!" Murty babbled.  "Yerra, what about Billabong now?"
+He suddenly found himself gripping Norah's shoulder wildly, and
+would have apologized but that Norah herself was dancing with
+delight, and looking for his hand to grasp.  And the crowd was
+shouting "Shannon!  Shannon!  Billabong!"--since all of these
+Cunjee folk loved Billabong and were steadily jealous of Mulgoa.
+Jim and Wally were thumping Murty on the back.  Bob and Mr. Linton
+stood beaming at him.  Below them Billy came trotting back on his
+victorious steed, sitting with a grave face, as expressionless as
+if he had not just accomplished his heart's desire.  But his dark,
+mysterious eyes scanned the crowd as he turned from weighing in,
+and only grew satisfied when he saw the Billabong party hurrying to
+greet him.  They shook his hand, and smote him on the back, Dave
+Boone and Mick Shanahan prancing with joy.  And Shannon, his glossy
+coat dark with sweat, nuzzled again at Norah's pocket for an apple--
+and this time got it.
+
+This glorious event over, interest became focused on a trotting
+race, which brought out a queer assortment of competitors, ranging
+from King Lightfoot, a horse well known in Melbourne, to Poddy, an
+animal apparently more fitted to draw a hearse than to trot in a
+race--a lean, raw-boned horse of a sad countenance and a long nose,
+with a shaggy black coat which rather resembled that of a long-
+haired Irish goat.  There were other candidates, all fancied by
+their owners, but the public support was only for King Lightfoot,
+who ran in elaborate leather and rubber harness, and was clearly
+regarded by his rider as of infinite condescension to be taking
+part in such a very mixed company.
+
+It proved, however, not to be King Lightfoot's lucky day.  The
+horses started at intervals, according to their performances or
+merit, Poddy being the first to move, the Melbourne horse the last.
+King Lightfoot, however, obstinately refused to trot, whereas Poddy
+revealed unexpected powers, flinging his long legs abroad in a
+whirlwind fashion, and pounding along doggedly, with his long nose
+outstretched as if hoping to get it past the winning-post as soon
+as possible.  No other horse came near him; his initial lead was
+never lessened, and he plugged doggedly to victory, while the crowd
+roared with laughter, and out in the timber King Lightfoot's rider
+wrestled with his steed in vain.  Later, his prejudice against
+trotting in the bush removed by stern measures, King Lightfoot
+flashed up the track like a meteor, with his furious rider
+determined to show something of what his steed could do.  By that
+time Poddy was once more unsaddled, and was standing under a tree
+with his weary nose drooping earthwards, so that the crowd merely
+yelled with laughter anew, while the stewards unfeelingly requested
+the Melbourne man to get off the track.
+
+"Oh, isn't it hot!"  Norah fanned herself with a bunch of gum
+leaves, and cast an anxious look at Tommy.
+
+It was breathlessly hot.  Not a hint of air stirred among the trees
+or moved the long dry grass that covered the paddock--now showing
+many depressions, where tired people or horses had lain down to
+rest.  The horses stood about, drooping their heads, and swishing
+their tails ceaselessly at the tormenting flies; men and women
+sought every available patch of shade, while dogs stretched
+themselves under the buggies, panting, with lolling tongues.
+Children alone ran about, as though nothing could mar their
+enjoyment; but babies fretted wearily in their mothers' arms.
+Overhead the sun blazed fiercely in a sky of brass.  Now and then
+came a low growl of thunder, giving hope of a change at night; but
+it was very far distant, although a dull bank of cloud lay to the
+west.  David Linton watched the cloud a little uneasily.
+
+"I don't quite like the look of it," he muttered to himself.  "I'll
+go and ask Murty what he thinks of it."  But Murty had been
+swallowed up in a crowd anxious to congratulate him on Shannon's
+success, and his employer failed to find him at the moment.  He
+came upon Sarah, however--sitting under a tree, with her baby
+wailing dismally.
+
+"To hot for her, Sarah," David Linton said kindly.
+
+"That's right, sir--it's too hot for anyone, let alone a little
+tiny kid," Sarah said wearily.  "I'd get Bill to go home if I
+could, but I can't get on his tracks--and it's too hot to take baby
+out in the sun looking for him.  If you come across him, sir, you
+might tell him I want him."
+
+"All right," said the squatter.  "But you wouldn't take that long
+drive home yet, Sarah--better wait until the sun goes down."
+
+"Well, I'd go into Cunjee, to me sister-in-law's," said Sarah.
+"She'd let me take baby's things off an' sponge her--an' I'd give a
+dollar to do it.  No more races with kids for me in weather like
+this!"  She crooned to the fretting baby as Mr. Linton went off.
+
+He found Tommy and Norah together under a tree near the track--hot,
+but interested.
+
+"Where are the boys?"
+
+"They're all holding ponies," Norah said.  "I don't quite know why,
+but a very hot and worried man collected them to help start the
+race.  What is it for, Dad, do you know?"
+
+"Oh, I see!"  David Linton laughed.  "It's--a distance handicap--
+the ponies all start at the same moment, but from different points
+along the track."
+
+"Yes, that must be it," Norah said.  "Jim's away over near the
+timber with a little rat of a pony, and Bob is shepherding another
+fifty yards behind him, while Wally is quite near here with that
+big pony of the blacksmith's that has won ever so many races.
+She'll have a lot of ground to make up.  But why must each one be
+shepherded, Dad?"
+
+"Human nature," said David Linton, smiling.  "These youngsters who
+are riding would sneak a yard or two if they weren't closely
+watched, and they would never start fair; the only way is to put
+each in charge of a responsible man with a good watch, and let him
+start them.  What time is the race?  Oh, four o'clock.  Well, I
+never yet saw a pony race that started on time; neither the ponies
+nor the boys are easy to handle, and I see there are ten of them.
+Watch them; it's after four, and they must be nearly ready to
+start."
+
+The ponies were strung out round the course, each with a "shepherd"
+standing to attention near its bridle, watch in hand.  They could
+see Jim's great form standing sentinel over a tiny animal, whose
+diminutive rider was far too afraid of the huge Major to try to
+snatch even a yard of ground; nearer, Wally kept a wary eye on the
+experienced jockey on the blacksmith's racing mare, who was afraid
+of nothing, but nevertheless had a certain wholesome respect for
+the tall fellow who lounged easily against a tree near him, but
+never for an instant shifted his gaze.  The shepherds were waiting
+for a signal from the official starter.
+
+It came presently, a long shrill whistle, and simultaneously each
+guardian stepped back, and the released ponies went off like a
+flash--all save Bob's charge, who insisted on swinging round and
+bolting in the wrong direction, while his jockey sawed at his mouth
+in vain.  Yawing across the track the rebel encountered the
+blacksmith's pony, who swerved violently in her swift course to
+avoid him, and lost so much ground that any chance she had in the
+race was hopelessly lost, whereat the blacksmith, who was standing
+on the hill, raved and tore his hair unavailingly.  A smart little
+bay pony fought out the finish with Jim's tiny charge, and was
+beaten by a short head, just as Wally, walking quickly, came back
+to his party.
+
+"That was a great race," said Norah.  "Wally, you shouldn't walk so
+fast on such a day.  It makes one warm only to look at you."
+
+Wally answered with an absent air that was unlike his usual
+alertness.  The girls, watching the ponies come in, noticed
+nothing, and presently he drew Mr. Linton aside.
+
+"Did you notice that cloud, sir?" he asked, in a low voice.  "I
+didn't until I was down on the track with the pony, looking in that
+direction.  But it's twice the size it was when I went down."
+
+"I've been looking at it, and I don't like it," said Mr. Linton.
+"It's smoke, I'm positive, and too near Billabong and the Creek to
+be comfortable.  I think we'll make tracks for home, Wally.  Have
+you seen Murty anywhere?"
+
+As if in answer, Mr. O'Toole came running down the hill.
+
+"I've been huntin' ye's everywhere," he panted.  "There's a man
+just kem out from Cunjee lookin' for ye, sir--some one's
+tallyphoned in that there's a big grass fire comin' down on the
+Creek, an' 'twill be a miracle if it misses Billabong!  I've told
+the men--they're off to get the horses."
+
+Norah and Tommy had turned, with dismayed eyes.
+
+"Will it be at our place, Murty?" Tommy asked.
+
+"I dunno will it, Miss Tommy," the Irishman answered.  "But as like
+as not 'twill miss it--or anyhow, we'll get there first, an' stop
+it doing much damage.  Don't you worry your little head, now."
+
+She looked up at him gratefully.  Norah's hand was thrust through
+her arm.
+
+"It may not be near the Creek at all, Tommy dear," she said.
+
+"Oh, I hope it isn't--my poor old Bob!" Tommy said, under her
+breath.  "Can we hurry, Norah?"
+
+"They're bringing the horses," Norah answered.  "We'll be off in a
+minute--see, dad has gone to meet Bob."
+
+Wally had turned to Murty.
+
+"Murty, do you mind if I ride Shannon and take him across country?
+I'm on Marshal to-day, you know, and he can't jump for nuts.  But
+Shannon can take every fence between here and the Creek, and I can
+cut the distance in half if I go across.  I'm about the lightest of
+us, I think."
+
+"So ye are--an' the horse'll take ye like a bird," said Murty.
+"Don't shpare him, Mr. Wally, if ye think ye can do any good.  He's
+over there under the big wattle."
+
+"Right-o!" said Wally.  "Tell Mr. Jim, will you, Murty?"  He turned
+and ran down the hill with long strides.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HOW WALLY RODE A RACE
+
+
+Already the cloud was growing in the western sky--so high that it
+threatened to obscure the sun that still blazed fiercely down.  At
+first a dull brown, there was a curious light behind it; at the
+edges it trailed away into ragged wisps like floating mist.  There
+was something mysteriously threatening in its dense heaviness.
+
+There were other men running for their horses, as Wally raced
+towards Shannon.  The news of a grass fire had spread quickly, and
+every man wanted to be on his own property, for the whole
+countryside was covered with long, dry grass, and no one could say
+where a fire might or might not end.  Boone and Shanahan passed
+Wally, leading several horses--his own amongst them.  They hailed
+him quickly.
+
+"We've got Marshal, Mr. Wally."
+
+"Give him to Murty," Wally answered as he ran.  "I'm riding
+Shannon."  He raced on.
+
+"That means he's going across country," said Dave Boone.  "For two
+pins I'd go too."
+
+"Don't you--you'd never get your horse over them fences," Shanahan
+said.  "An' it'll take Mr. Wally all his time to get across them
+wired paddocks of Maclennan's.  Hope he don't break Shannon's
+laigs."
+
+"Not he; Mr. Wally's no fool," said Boone.  "Git up, y' ol'
+sardine!"  He kicked the horse he was leading, and they trotted up
+to Norah and Tommy.
+
+Shannon, standing with drooping head, showed little interest as
+Wally flung the saddle on his back.  He had won his race
+handsomely, and it was a scorching day; possibly the big chestnut
+felt that no more should be required of him; in which case he was
+soon to be rudely awakened.  Wally swung into the saddle with a
+quick movement, and turned him, not towards the gate, but in the
+opposite direction, which further puzzled Shannon.  But he was a
+stock horse first and a hurdle racer as an afterthought; and a good
+stock horse knows his rider's mind, if that rider is a good man.
+He made one tentative movement towards his paddock mates, now
+moving away towards the gate; then, feeling the touch of Wally's
+hand on the bit, and the light pressure of his knee, he decided
+that some new game was on foot, and cantered easily away.
+
+They crossed the racing track, going westward over the big paddock,
+away from the buggies and the crowd.  A belt of timber checked
+their swift progress a moment; then they came out into clear ground
+in sight of the boundary fence, a stiff three-railer.  Wally peered
+at it anxiously, unable, for an instant, to see if there were a
+wire on top; but it was clear, and he shook up his horse, putting
+him straight at the middle of a panel.  Shannon pricked his ears
+and flew it daintily--this was work he loved, and hot though the
+day might be, he was ready for any amount of it.  Also Wally was
+lighter than Murty, his usual rider; and although he loved Murty,
+and respected him greatly, this new man had a seat like a feather
+and a hand gentle as silk upon his tender mouth.  Shannon broke
+into the gallop that he felt sure his rider wanted.
+
+They were in a wide paddock, bare, save for a few clumps of timber,
+in the shade of which sheep were thickly clustered.  It was good,
+sound going, with a few little rises; and, knowing that he would
+have to slacken speed presently, Wally let the chestnut have his
+head across the clear grass.  They took the next fence and the next
+before he drew rein.  He was in country he did not know--all big
+farms, with many stubble fields with newly erected stacks, and with
+good homesteads, where now and then a woman peered curiously from a
+verandah at him.  There were no men in sight; every man in the
+neighbourhood was at the races on New Year's day.
+
+He found himself in a paddock where rough ground, thickly strewn
+with fallen timber, sloped down abruptly to a creek.  Checking
+Shannon, he rode more steadily down to the water, and trotted along
+the bank for a hundred yards, looking for a good place to ford--the
+banks shelved abruptly down, and the water was unusually deep.  But
+the only promising fords were too thickly snagged to be tempting;
+and presently, with a shrug, Wally gave up the quest, and choosing
+a place where the fall of the bank was a shade less abrupt, he put
+the horse at it.
+
+Shannon hesitated, drawing back.  Water was the one thing to which
+he had not been schooled on Billabong, and this place was
+mysterious and deep.  But Wally's hand was firm, and he spoke
+sharply--so that the chestnut repented of the error of his ways,
+and plunged obediently downwards.  The bank gave under them, and
+they slithered down among its remnants and landed in the water with
+a profound splash, almost hidden for a moment by the spray that
+drenched Wally's thin silk coat and shirt.  Shannon floundered
+violently, and nearly lost his footing--and then, deciding that
+this was an excellent entertainment on a hot day, he thrust his
+thirsty nose into the water.  Wally checked him after one mouthful.
+
+"I'm sorry, old chap," he said regretfully.  "I'd like it as much
+as you.  But I can't let you have a drink just now."
+
+He pressed him on across the muddy stream, floundering over sunken
+logs, slipping into holes, dodging half-concealed snags; and so
+they came to a bank which scarcely seemed a possible place, so
+steep was it.  But Wally looked at the smoke-cloud, and grew
+desperate, and for the first time touched Shannon with the spur;
+and the chestnut answered gamely, springing at the bank and
+climbing almost like a cat.  Twice it broke under him; the third
+time he made some footing, and Wally suddenly flung himself from
+his back, scrambling up ahead of him, and hauling at the bridle.
+Shannon followed, floundering and snorting; desperately relieved to
+find himself on firm ground again.  Wally swung into the saddle and
+they galloped forward.
+
+The next two fences were log ones, and the chestnut took them
+almost in his stride.  Then Wally's lips tightened, for he saw a
+homestead that he knew must be Maclennan's, the most prosperous
+farmer about; and Maclennan had strong views on the subject of
+inflammable fences in a country so liable to grass fires, and all
+his property was wire-fenced.  The first fence stretched before
+him, taut and well-strung; he looked up and down its length in
+search of a gate, but there was none in sight.
+
+"I could put my coat on the top wire for you to jump if it was a
+thick one, old chap," he told Shannon.  "But a scrap of wet silk
+wouldn't be much good to you.  We'll have to chance a post."
+
+He drew rein, trotting up to the fence, where he let the horse put
+his nose over a post--and set his lips again when he saw that the
+top wire was barbed.
+
+"Just you remember to pick up all your toes well, old man," he
+said.
+
+He trotted back a little way, and, turning, came hard at the fence,
+putting Shannon directly at the post.  This also was new to the
+chestnut; but once, when a foal, he had been badly pricked on
+barbed wire, and, ever since, one glance at its hideous spikes had
+been enough for him.  Refusing was out of the question--Wally was
+leaning forward, keeping him absolutely straight, lifting him at
+the post with a little shout of encouragement.  He flew over it as
+if it had been a hurdle.  Wally patted his neck with a big sigh of
+relief.
+
+"Eh, but I was scared for your legs, old man!" he said.
+
+They galloped across a wide stubble field, while Wally's keen eyes
+searched the fence for a gate.  He caught sight of one presently, a
+stiff, four-railed gate, considerably higher than the fence.  High
+as it was, Wally preferred it to barbed wire; and by this time he
+had a queer feeling that no jump would prove too much for the big,
+honest chestnut, who was doing so gamely everything that he was
+asked.  Nor did Shannon disappoint him; he rose at the gate
+cheerfully, and barely tipped it with one hind foot as he cleared
+it.  Wally fancied there was something of apology in the little
+shake of his head as he galloped on.
+
+"If I'd time to take you back over that you wouldn't lay a toe on
+it again, I believe.  Never mind, there's sure to be another."
+
+There was, and the chestnut flew it with never a touch.
+Maclennan's paddocks were wide and well cleared--such galloping
+ground as Wally dared not waste--and he took full advantage of
+them, leaving one after another behind swiftly, to the beat of
+Shannon's sweeping stride.  Fence after fence the chestnut cleared,
+taking them cleanly, with his keen ears pricked; never faltering or
+flagging as he galloped.  Wally sat him lightly, leaning forward to
+ease him, cheering him on with voice and touch.  Before him the
+cloud grew dense and yet more dense; he could feel its hot breath
+now, although a bush-covered paddock ahead blocked the fire itself
+from his immediate view.  He had to choose between picking his way
+through the trees or galloping round them; and chose the latter,
+since Shannon showed no sign of fatigue.  He put the last wire
+fence behind him with a sigh of relief.  A small farm with easy
+enough fences remained to be crossed, and then he swung round the
+timber at top speed.  Once round it, he should come within view of
+the Rainhams' house.
+
+He came into the open country, and pulled up with a shout of
+dismay.  Before him was the long line of timber marking the creek,
+but between lay nothing but a rolling cloud of smoke, lit with
+flashes of flame.  A hot gust of wind blew it aside for a moment,
+and through it he caught a glimpse of Creek Cottage, burning
+fiercely.  Wally uttered a smothered groan, and thrust Shannon
+forward, over the last fence, and up a little lane that led near
+the Rainhams' back gate.
+
+The paddock was nearly all on fire.  It had started somewhere back
+in the bush country, and had swept across like a wall, burning
+everything before it.  As Wally reached the gate, it was rolling
+away across the paddocks, a sheet of flame, licking up the dry
+grass; leaving behind it bare and blackened ground, with here and
+there a fence post, or a tree burning, and, in the midst of its
+track, Creek Cottage wrapped in flames.
+
+The boy slipped from his saddle and flung Shannon's bridle over the
+gate-post.  Then, as a thought struck him, he turned back and
+released him, buckling the reins into one stirrup.
+
+"I don't dare to tie you up, old man," he said.  "The beastly fire
+might swing round.  Go home, if you like.  I can't take you across
+that hot ground."  He gave the chestnut's neck a hasty pat; then,
+putting one hand on the gate, he vaulted it cleanly and ran across
+the burnt ground.
+
+The grass was yet smouldering; it broke away under his feet,
+crackling and falling into black powder.  He ran desperately, not
+feeling the burning breath of the fire, in blind hope of being able
+to save something.  The house itself, he knew, was doomed; no fire-
+brigade could have checked the flames which had laid hold of the
+flimsy weatherboard.  The fire had divided round it, checked a
+little by Tommy's flower-garden, which was almost uninjured yet,
+and by Bob's rows of green vegetables which lay singed and ruined;
+then, unable to wait, it had swept on its way through the long dry
+grass, which carried it swiftly forward, leaving the burning
+cottage and the green garden in the midst of a blackened waste.
+
+The front verandah, and one side, were yet untouched, nor had the
+front rooms caught.  Wally raced through the garden and tried the
+front door.  It was locked.  He sprang to the nearest window and
+smashed it with quick blows from a hoe standing near; then,
+flinging up the sash, dived in.  The room was full of smoke, the
+heat stifling.  It was Tommy's room.  He gathered up her little
+personal belongings from the dressing-table and flung them on the
+quilt, following them with armfuls of clothes hastily swept from
+shelves.  A trunk, covered with a bright Navajo blanket, stood near
+the window.  He thrust it through to the verandah, and scrambled
+out after it with the quilt and blankets bundled round the things
+he had saved.  Dragging them across the lawn, he thrust them under
+some green bushes, and returned for the trunk.
+
+"I don't believe you'll catch there," he said, choking.  "Wonder if
+I can try another room?"
+
+He had opened the door from Tommy's room into the hall, but the
+rush of flame and smoke were so appalling that he had to shut it
+again quickly, realizing that the draught only helped the fire.  To
+break in by another window was the only way.  He smashed his way in
+to the other front room, and hurriedly gathered up all he could.
+There was no time to save anything heavy.  His quick mind guided
+him to the things he knew Bob and Tommy valued most--things that
+had been Aunt Margaret's in the past, that spoke of their old happy
+life in France.  He spread an embroidered cloth on the floor and
+pitched his treasure trove into it--working feverishly, choking and
+gasping, until the flames began to crackle through the wall, and
+the ceiling above him split across.  Then he plunged through the
+window, and staggered across the lawn with his burden--falling
+beside it at last, spent and breathless, his throat parched with
+smoke, and his eyes almost sightless.  But he picked himself up
+presently and went back.  All the rooms were blazing now.  The side
+verandah had not yet caught, and on it he saw an old oaken chest
+that did double duty as a seat and as a wardrobe for Bob's spare
+clothes.  The sight brought fresh energy back to Wally.
+
+"By Jove, there's old Bob's box!" he uttered.  "I'll have to get
+that."
+
+He dragged it across the verandah and on to the path.  It was
+cruelly heavy.  He had to stop and rest again and again; but still
+he struggled on, a few yards at a time, until it, too, was in
+comparative safety.  Then there was nothing else that he could do
+but sit on the grass and watch the gay little home that they had
+all loved as it fell into ruins.  The flames made mercifully short
+work of it; they roared and crackled and spat wreathing fiery
+tongues round the chimneys and up and down the verandah posts;
+shooting out of the broken windows and turning the white-painted
+iron of the roof into a twisted and blackened mass.  It fell in
+presently with a deafening roar, bringing one chimney with it; and
+soon all that Wally had to look at was a smouldering heap of coals,
+in the midst of which one chimney stood, tottering and solitary,
+with the kitchen stove a glowing mass of red-hot iron, and
+strangely contorted masses of metal that once were beds.  The boy
+uttered a groan.
+
+"And they were so proud of it," he said.  "Poor souls--how are they
+going to stick it?"
+
+He got up presently and made his way round to the back.  All the
+sheds and buildings were burned; he turned with a shudder from
+where Bob's beloved Kelpie had died at his post chained in
+helplessness.  The metal parts of the buggy, writhed into knots and
+tangles, lay in the ashes of the big shed; beyond, the pigsty
+smouldered.
+
+"They've gone, too, I suppose," Wally said.  "By George, where are
+all his stock?  They can't all be burned, surely."
+
+There was nothing visible in the bare, black paddocks.  He cast a
+wild look round, and then made for the creek at a staggering run.
+The fire had died away for lack of material as it neared the banks,
+for great willows overhung them, a camping-ground for the stock all
+through the summer heat, and the ground was always beaten hard and
+bare.  Wally uttered a shout of relief as he came to the trees.
+Below in the wide, shallow pools, all the stock had taken refuge--
+carthorses and cows, sheep and pigs, all huddled together, wild-
+eyed and panting, but safe.  They stared up at Wally, dumbly
+bewildered.
+
+"Poor brutes," said Wally.  "Well, you chose a good spot, anyhow.
+I say, what a jolly good thing Bob let his pigs out.  Poor old
+chap--he's not broke yet."  He leaned against the gnarled trunk of
+a willow for a moment.  "Well, I suppose I'd better get up to the
+gate and tell them--it won't do for Tommy to come on the ruins all
+of a sudden."
+
+But he realized, as he made his slow way up from the creek, that he
+was too late.  There was a little knot of horses beside the garden
+gate.  His eye caught the light linen habit coats that Tommy and
+Norah wore.  They were looking silently at the blackened heap of
+ashes, with the tottering chimney standing gaunt in its midst,
+Bob's face grey under its coating of smoky dust.  Norah was holding
+Tommy's hand tightly.  They did not hear Wally as he came slowly
+across the black powder that had been grass.
+
+"I suppose the stock have gone, too," Bob said heavily.
+
+"No, they haven't, old man," Wally said.  "I believe every head is
+safe; they're in the creek."
+
+They turned sharply, and cried out at the sight of him--blackened
+and ragged, his eyes red-rimmed in his grimy face, his hands, cut
+by the broken window glass, smeared with dried blood.  His coat and
+shirt, burnt in a score of places, hung in singed fragments round
+him.  There were great holes burnt in his panama hat, even in his
+riding breeches.  Jim flung himself from his horse, and ran to him.
+
+"Wal, old man!  Are you hurt?"
+
+"Not me," said Wally briefly.  "Only a bit singed.  I say, you two,
+you don't know how sorry I am.  Tommy, I wish I could have got here
+in time."
+
+"You seem to have got here in time to try, anyhow," said Tommy, and
+her lip trembled.  "Are you sure you're not hurt, Wally?"  She
+slipped from her saddle, and came to him.  "Were you in the fire?"
+
+"No, I'm truly all right," Wally assured her.  He suddenly realized
+that he had not known how tired he was; something in his head began
+to whirl round, and a darkness came before his aching eyes.  He
+felt Jim catch him; and then he was sitting on the ground, propped
+against the fence, and blinking up at them all, while indignantly
+assuring them that he had never been better.
+
+"Did you meet the fire?  It was away from here before I got here."
+
+"It crossed the road in front of us," Mr. Linton said.  "There were
+a good many men about by that time--we got it stopped before it
+reached Elston's."  His pitying eyes went back to the brother and
+sister.  Anxiety for Wally had drawn them from their own disaster
+for a moment; now they had moved away together, and stood looking
+at the ashes of their home, where so many hopes were ashes, too.
+David Linton went over to them, and put a hand on a shoulder of
+each.
+
+"You're not to be down-hearted," he said firmly.  "It's bad enough,
+and bitter enough--but it might be worse.  The stock are safe, and
+the land is there--one good shower will turn the paddocks green
+again.  Why, there's even most of your garden left, Tommy.  And
+we'll build the house and sheds better than before."
+
+"You're jolly good, Mr. Linton," Bob said, with dry lips.  "But we
+owe you enough already."
+
+"If you talk that sort of nonsense, I'll be really annoyed," David
+Linton said.  "Why, hard luck comes to all of us--we got burned out
+ourselves once, didn't we, Norah?"
+
+"Rather--and had to live in tents," said Norah.  "No, you'll have
+to come back to us at Billabong until we build up the cottage
+again--oh, and, Tommy darling, I've been lonesome for you!"  She
+put a hand on Bob's arm.  "You won't worry, Bob?  One bit of bad
+luck isn't going to beat you!"
+
+"I suppose it won't," Bob said slowly.  "There's the insurance
+money, anyhow.  But it was the jolliest little home--and our very
+own.  And I was so jolly proud of being independent."
+
+"Well, you're that still," Jim said.  "This is a country where
+everybody helps everybody else--because you and Tommy come to stay
+with us, and run your stock for a while on Billabong until your own
+grass grows, that isn't going to make you less independent.
+Wouldn't you do the same for us, if we were in the same box?"
+
+"That goes without saying--and I'm as grateful as I can be," Bob
+said.  "But the cases are different.  I'm deep enough in your debt,
+as it is.  I--"  His lip quivered, and he turned away, staring at
+the ruins.
+
+"I don't see any good arguing about it, at all events," said Norah,
+practically.  "We're all hot and tired, and I vote we just get home
+and have tea.  We'll all feel better after a tub, and then we can
+begin to make plans.  Come on, Tommy dear, it's just lovely to
+think we're going to have you."
+
+Bob stood with one hand on the scorched gate.
+
+"I wish I could have got here in time to get out a few things," he
+muttered.
+
+"Oh, I did that," said Wally, brightening.  "I forgot, in the shock
+of finding all Noah's Ark turned out in the creek.  Come along,
+Tommy, and see my little lot of salvage!"
+
+He dragged himself up from the ground and seized Tommy's hand.
+They trooped across the lawn.
+
+"I saved the cuckoo clock and that set of Swiss bears," said Wally.
+"And lots of oddments from goodness knows where--the sort of thing
+you can't buy in Cunjee.  I expect I've hauled out all the things
+you wouldn't have saved, Tommy, but you'll just have to let me down
+lightly--I'd have made a shot for the beloved cake tins, only I
+hadn't time."
+
+"Oh, Wally, you dear old idiot," said Tommy.  "And that's how you
+nearly killed yourself."  They came in sight of Wally's heap of
+loot, and she stopped in amazement.
+
+"Bob--just look!"
+
+"By Jupiter!" said Bob, "you saved my old box!  You old brick.  How
+did you manage it?  Why, it weighs a ton!"
+
+Tommy was on her knees by the bundles.  "Look!" she said.  "Look,
+Bobby!  My silver things--and all Aunt Margaret's, and my little
+jewel box.  And my clothes!  How did you do it, Wally?"  Suddenly
+her voice broke.  She put her head down on the bundle in a passion
+of sobs.
+
+"That's the best thing she could do," said David Linton gently.  He
+turned to Norah.  "Let her cry--and bring her along presently, and
+we'll take her home.  Come along, boys, we'll get the horses and go
+and see Wally's Noah's Ark."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+BUILDING UP AGAIN
+
+
+It was three months later, and Billabong lay in the peace of an
+exquisite autumn evening.  The orchard showed yellow and bronze
+against the green of the pine trees; here and there oak and elm
+leaves fluttered down lazily upon the lawn.  The garden flamed with
+dahlias and asters, amidst which Hogg worked contentedly.  And
+there was utter content upon the face of David Linton, as he stood
+on the broad stone steps of his home, and looked towards the
+setting sun.  Beyond the garden gleamed the reed-fringed waters of
+the lagoon; further yet, the broad paddocks stretched away, dotted
+with feeding Shorthorns.  It was the view, of all others, that he
+loved--his soul had longed for it during weary years of exile and
+war.  Now, it seemed that he could never tire of looking at it.
+
+Brownie came up from the garden, a basket on her arm laden with
+splendid mauve and pink asters.  David Linton strolled across the
+gravel sweep to meet her.
+
+"What, Brownie--taking Miss Norah's job, are you?"
+
+"Well, it ain't 'ardly that, sir," Brownie answered.  "Miss Norah
+she done the vases this morning, same as ushul, an' Miss Tommy
+elpin' her.  Only she wouldn't pick these 'ere astors, 'cause
+they're 'Oggs best, an' she didn't like to 'urt 'im; you see she
+always remembers that onst they go into the 'ouse, 'Ogg, 'e don't
+see 'em no more.  An' she do love 'em in the vases.  So I just put
+the matter sensible like to 'Ogg, an', of course, 'e saw reason and
+give me 'alf; an' I'll 'ave 'em on the table to-night.  Only
+they've filled every vase in the house already, I believe I'll be
+druv to puttin' 'em in Mason jars!"
+
+"Miss Norah will love them, no matter what they're in," said Mr.
+Linton.  "There's no sign of them yet, Brownie--it's nearly time
+they were home."
+
+"Well, they meant to 'ave a long day's work fixin' the 'ouse," said
+Brownie comfortably.  "Mrs. Archdale druv me over to see them, an'
+Sarah gave us all afternoon tea--she an' Bill are real toffs in
+their little new cottage there.  Sarah ain't indulgin' in any
+regrets over that fire!  And they were all busy as bees.  Miss
+Tommy's room's fixed, an' her little sleep-out place off it, and
+so's Mr. Bob's, an' they were workin' at the drorin'-room; 'omelike
+it looked with all their nice old things in it again."
+
+"I'm sure it will," David Linton agreed.  "How do you like the new
+house, Brownie?"
+
+"Why, it's lovely," said Brownie.  "An' a fair treat to work, with
+all them new improvements--no corners to the rooms, an' no silly
+skirtin' boards that'll catch dust, an' the water laid on
+everywhere, an' the air gas, an' all them other patent fixings.
+An' so comferable; better than the old one, any way you look at it.
+Miss Tommy's the lucky young lady to be comin' in for such a
+place."
+
+"Well, she deserves it, Brownie."
+
+"She do," said Brownie heartily.  "Ain't it lovely to see Miss
+Norah an' 'er so 'appy together?  Our blessed lamb never 'ad a
+friend like that before, and she needed one--every girl do."
+
+"Long may it last, that's all I say," agreed the squatter.  "Norah
+needed her badly, although she didn't know it.  And she and her
+brother are the best type of immigrants, aren't they?"
+
+"They are that," said Brownie, "always cheery, an' workin' 'ard,
+an' takin' the ups and downs sensibly.  Now, it was a real nasty
+knock to find their nice little 'ome burnt down on New Year's day,
+but after the first shock they never 'ung their lip at all--just
+bucked in to make good again."
+
+She went on her way with her asters, and David Linton walked slowly
+across the lawn and stood looking over the gate, along the track
+where his children would come riding home.  Somehow, he found it
+difficult not to think of them all as his children.  Wally had made
+an attempt to go away and set up a place for himself, but the idea
+had been received with such amazed horror by the whole household
+that it had been temporarily shelved.  After all, Wally had more
+money than was good for him, the result of having always been an
+orphan.  He could establish himself in a place at any time if he
+wished.  And meanwhile, he was never idle.  David Linton had handed
+over most of the outside management of the big run to Jim and his
+mate.  They worked together as happily as they had played together
+as boys.  There was time for play now, as well; Mr. Linton saw to
+that.  The years that they had left on Flanders fields were not to
+rob them of their boyhood.
+
+There had also been time to help the Rainhams--and there again the
+district had taken a hand.  It was not to be imagined that the
+people who had helped in the first working bee would sit calmly by
+when so stupendous a piece of bad luck as the New Year fire
+overtook the just established young immigrants; and so there had
+been several other bees, to replace Bob's burnt fencing, to clear
+away the ruins of the house and sheds, and, finally, to rebuild for
+him.  There had been long discussions at Billabong over plans--the
+first Creek Cottage had taught them much of what was desirable in
+the way of a house; so that the second Creek Cottage, which rose
+from the ashes of the old one when kindly rains had drawn a green
+mantle over all the blackened farm, was a very decided improvement
+upon the old house, and contained so many modern ideas and "dodges"
+that the wives and sisters of all the working bees, who helped to
+build it, came miles to see it, and went home, in most cases,
+audibly wishing that they could have a fire.  It was illuminating,
+too, to the working bees, to see how Bob and the Billabong men
+planned for the comfort of the women who were to run the house, and
+for its easy working; so that presently a wave of labour-saving
+devices swept through the Cunjee district in imitation, and wives
+who had always carried buckets of water found taps conveniently
+placed where they were needed, and sinks and draining racks built
+to ease the dreary round of dish-washing, and air-gas plants
+established to supersede the old kerosene lamps.  After which the
+district was very much astonished that it had not done it before.
+
+The cottage was finished now, and nearly ready for its occupants;
+Bill, Sarah and the baby had been installed for some time in a neat
+little two-roomed place with a side verandah, a short distance from
+the main building.  Home-made furniture, even more ambitious than
+the first built, had been erected, and a fresh supply of household
+goods bought during an exciting week in Melbourne, where Mr. Linton
+had taken them all--all, that is, but Bob, who had steadfastly
+declined to go away and play when other people were helping him.
+So Bob had remained at his post, giving Tommy a free hand as to
+shopping; a freedom cautiously used by Tommy, but supplemented by
+the others with many gifts, both useful and idiotic.  Tommy had an
+abiding affection for the idiotic efforts.
+
+She had spent so much time in the saddle that she now rode like an
+old hand; the brown-faced girl who came up the paddock presently
+with the cheery band of workers was very different to the pink and
+white "little Miss Immigrant" of eight months before.  She rode
+Jim's big favourite, Garryowen, who, although years had added
+wisdom to him, was always impatient when nearly home; he was
+reefing and pulling, as they swept up at a hand gallop, but Tommy
+held him easily, and pulled up near Mr. Linton, laughing.  He
+looked at them with grave content.
+
+"I began to think you meant me to have tea alone," he said.  "Have
+they been doing any work, Bob, or couldn't you keep them in hand at
+all?"
+
+"Oh, they've been working," Bob answered.  "I told Sarah not to
+give them any afternoon tea if they didn't, and it acted like a
+charm."
+
+"You to talk!" said Norah, with tilted nose.  "They said they'd
+sample the new deck chairs, dad, and it took them about an hour to
+make sure if they liked them--they just smoked while Tommy and I
+toiled."
+
+"Well, you'd only have been annoyed with us if we hadn't done the
+sampling properly, and had grumbled afterwards," said Wally.  "I'm
+always trying to teach you to be thorough, Norah.  Of course, they
+say they work all the time, sir--but when they disappear into
+Tommy's room there's an awful lot of talking."
+
+"There would be something wrong with them if there weren't," said
+the squatter sagely.  "And I have no doubt there yet remains much
+awaiting their expert supervision in Tommy's room."  Whereat Tommy
+and Norah beamed at him, and commended him as a person of
+understanding, while Wally remarked feelingly to Bob that there was
+no chance of justice where those two females were concerned.  At
+this point Jim observed that the conversation showed signs of
+degenerating into a brawl, and that, in any case, it was time the
+horses were let go.  They trotted off to the stables, a light-
+hearted body.
+
+Tommy slipped her arm into Bob's as they went upstairs to dress.
+
+"Come into my room and talk for a moment."
+
+He came in and sat down in a low chair by the window.
+
+"Your quarters at the new place won't be as big as this, old girl."
+
+"They'll be bigger, for it will all be ours," rejoined Tommy
+promptly.  "Who wants a big room, anyway?  I don't.  Bobby, I'd be
+hard to please if I wanted more than I've got."
+
+"You're always satisfied," he said.  "There never was anything
+easier than pleasing you, old Tommy."
+
+"Life's all so good, now," she said.  "No hideous anxiety about
+you--no Lancaster Gate--no she-dragon.  Only peace, and
+independence, and the work we like.  Aren't you satisfied, Bob?"
+
+"I'd like to be really independent," he said slowly.  "Our amount
+of debt isn't heavy, of course, and it doesn't cause real anxiety,
+with Mr. Linton guaranteeing us to the bank--"
+
+"And as we had to build again, it was worth while to improve the
+house and make it just what we wanted," Tommy added.  "We'll pay
+the debt off, Bob.  Mr. Linton assures me that with ordinary
+seasons we should easily do it."
+
+"I know, and I'm not anxious," Bob said.  "Only I'll be glad when
+it's done; debt, even such an easy debt as this, gives me the
+creeps.  And I want to feel we stand on our own feet."
+
+"And not on the Lintons'!" said Tommy, laughing.  "I quite agree--
+though it's amazing to see how little they seem to mind our weight.
+Was there ever such luck as meeting them, Bob?"
+
+"Never," he agreed.  "We'd have been wage-earners still, or
+struggling little cocky farmers at the best, but for that letter of
+General Harran's--though, I think more was due to the way you
+butted into their taxi!"
+
+"I believe it was," laughed Tommy.  "It was the sort of thing to
+appeal to the Lintons--it wouldn't to everybody.  But the letter
+was behind it, saying what a worthy young man you were!"
+
+"Well, when you start calling me such a thing as 'worthy,' it's
+time I left and got dressed for tea," said her brother, rising
+slowly.  "English mail ought to be in, by the way; I'm wondering
+what old Mr. M'Clinton will say when he hears we were burned out in
+our first season."
+
+"He'll wish he'd sent us to the snows of Canada, where such things
+don't happen on New Year's day," Tommy said.  "Still, he ought not
+to be anxious about us--Mr. Linton wrote and told him our position
+was quite sound."
+
+"Oh, I don't think he'll worry greatly," said Bob.  "I must hurry,
+old girl, or I'll be late--and I want a tub before tea."
+
+The boys came down in flannels, ready for a game of tennis after
+tea; and Bob and Wally were just leaving the court after a stoutly-
+contested set, when black Billy brought the mail-bag across the
+lawn to Mr. Linton.  The squatter unlocked it and sorted out the
+letters quickly.
+
+"Nothing for you, Tommy; two for Norah; three for Bob, and bundles
+for Wally and Jim.  Papers beyond counting, and parcels you girls
+can deal with."  He gathered up a package of his own letters.
+"Chiefly stock and station documents--though, I see, there's a
+letter from your aunt, Norah; I expect she's anxious to know when
+I'm going to cease bringing you up like a boy, and send you to
+Melbourne to be a perfect lady."
+
+"Tell her, never," said Norah lazily.  "I don't see any spare time
+ahead--not enough to make me into a lady after Aunt Winifred's
+pattern.  Cecil is much more lady-like than I am."
+
+"He always was," Jim said.  "Years ago we used to wonder that he
+didn't take to wool-work, and I expect he'll do it yet.  Even
+serving in the war didn't keep Cecil from manicuring his nails--he
+gets a polish on them that beats anything I ever saw."
+
+"Never mind--he's got a limp," said Norah, in whose eyes that
+legacy of the war covered a multitude of sins.
+
+"Well, he has.  But he even limps in a lady-like way," grinned Jim.
+"And he has no time for Wal and me.  He told me that he was
+surprised that five years of France and England hadn't made us less
+Australian."
+
+"It's a matter of regret to us all," said Norah placidly.  "We
+hoped for great things when you came out--more attention to polite
+conversation, and a passion for top-hats, and--"  At which point
+further eloquence was checked by a cushion placed gently, but
+firmly, by a brotherly hand on her face, and so she subsided, with
+a gurgle of laughter, into the cool depths of the buffalo grass
+where they were all lying.
+
+"Oh, by Jove!" said Bob suddenly.  He looked at them, and finally
+at Tommy, his eyes dancing.
+
+"What's up, old man?" Jim asked.  "Not your stepmother coming out?"
+
+"England couldn't spare her," Bob said.  "But the sky has fallen,
+for all that.  Just listen to old M'Clinton.
+
+"'. . . It was with deep regret that I learned from you and from
+Mr. Linton of the calamity which had befallen you on New Year's
+day.  Such disasters seem common in Australia, like blizzards in
+Canada, and I presume every settler is liable to them.  In your
+case your loss, being partly covered by insurance, will not, Mr.
+Linton assures me, be crushing, although it seems to me very
+severe.  To have your initial endeavours, too, handicapped by so
+calamitous an occurrence would have excused despondency, but--'"
+
+"Hasn't he a lovely style?" chuckled Wally, as the reader paused to
+turn over.
+
+"'But Mr. Linton assures me that you and your sister are facing the
+situation with calmness and courage.'  Did you know you were calmly
+courageous, Tommy?"
+
+"I am not," said Tommy.  "I am courageously calm.  Go on, Bobby--my
+calmness will waver if you don't get to the point.  Where does the
+sky fall?"
+
+"Half a second.  'Further, I am immensely interested to learn from
+Mr. Linton, who appears to be the kindest of benefactors'--that's
+you, sir--'that the people of the district, who have already helped
+you so remarkably by a working bee, are so much in sympathy with
+you both that they intend again lending you their assistance over
+rebuilding your house.  This shows me, even without Mr. Linton's
+letter, that you have earned their esteem and regard.  Nevertheless,
+I estimate that you cannot fail to be at some monetary embarrassment,
+and this I am luckily able to ease for you. Certain rubber
+investments of your late aunt's have recently risen in value, after
+the long period of depression due to the war; and I deemed it
+prudent to sell them while their price in the market was high.  The
+terms of your aunt's will enable me to reinvest this money,
+amounting to a little over nine hundred pounds, for you, or, at my
+discretion, to hand it over to you; and such is the confidence I
+repose in you, after Mr. Linton's letter, that I feel justified in
+remitting you the money, to use as you think best.  I presume that
+will be in the reduction of your liabilities.  I should like to
+think you had the benefit of Mr. Linton's advice in the matter.'
+Shall I, sir?"
+
+"I never listened to such language," returned the squatter.  "I
+should like it read three times a day, before meals.  But if it's
+my advice you want, Bob, you can have it.  Meanwhile, I'm very glad
+for you to have such a windfall, my boy."
+
+Tommy and Norah had collapsed on each other's shoulders,
+speechless.
+
+"Joy never kills, they say," said Wally, regarding them anxiously.
+"But it's been known to turn the brain, when the brain doesn't
+happen to be strong.  Will we turn the hose on them, Jim?"
+
+"Sit on him, Bob," came faintly from Norah.
+
+"I will--with the weight of nine hundred pounds!" said Bob--and did
+so.
+
+"Get off, you bloated capitalist," said Wally, struggling.  He
+succeeded in dislodging him, with a mighty effort.  "You're just
+purse-proud, that's what's the matter with you.  What'll you do
+with it, Bobby--go racing?  Or buy an aeroplane?"
+
+"Get out of debt," said Bob, sitting up with rumpled hair and a
+face like a happy child's.  "And there'll be a bit over to play
+with.  What shall we put it into, Tommy?  Want any pretty things?"
+
+"Just merino sheep," said Tommy.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of BACK TO BILLABONG, by MARY GRANT BRUCE
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BACK TO BILLABONG ***
+
+This file should be named bkblb10.txt or bkblb10.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, bkblb11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, bkblb10a.txt
+
+This eBook was produced by Don Lainson [dlainson@sympatico.ca]
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
diff --git a/old/bkblb10.zip b/old/bkblb10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0147013
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/bkblb10.zip