parson
fellow and Kate to be together at Cape Conway, fifteen miles away
from her home? And then his receptive brain conjured up the blackest
suspicions. Forde had come into money, and Kate had written to him
saying that she could not marry him, "because she would never marry and
leave her father." He set his teeth.

"I think we could do another bottle, Aulain," said Lacey presently.

"Right, old man!" replied the sub-Inspector mechanically, and then Lacey
noticed that his bronzed face had become pallid.

"'Shakes' coming on?" he asked, sympathetically.

"Just a bit; but the fizz is doing me good."

CHAPTER XIV

Mustering on Kaburie was almost over, much to the satisfaction of every
one taking part in it, for the weather had been unpleasantly hot even
for North Queensland, and heavy tropical thunderstorms had added to
the difficulty of the work by the creeks coming down in flood. All
the cattle running in the mountain gullies and on the spurs, had been
brought in, the calves and "clean-skins" branded, and now there remained
only those which roamed about the coast lands.

Early one morning Gerrard, Fraser, and Kate, with three stockmen,
were camped near the mouth of a wide, but shallow creek, whose yellow,
muddied waters were rushing swiftly to the sea. The party had arrived
there the previous evening, and now, breakfast over, were ready to start
to muster the cattle in the vicinity. Heavy rain had fallen during the
night, but Kate's little tent, with its covering fly had kept her dry,
and the rest of the party had slept under a rough, but efficient shelter
of broad strips of ti-tree bark spread upon a quickly-extemporised frame
of thin saplings.

Just as they started the sky cleared and the blue dome above was
unflecked by a single cloud as they rode in single file along a cattle
track leading to the beach, which they reached in half an hour.

"What a glorious sight!" said Gerrard, as he drew rein and pointed to
the blue Pacific, shimmering and sparkling under the rays of the morning
sun. "Look, there is a brig-rigged steamer quite close in--evidently she
must be calling in at Port Denison, or would not be so near the land."

"Yes," said Kate, "that is one of the new China mail boats, the
_Ching-tu_. How beautiful she is--for a steamer, with those sloping
masts, with the yards across, and the curved shapely bow like a sailing
ship. Oh! I do so wish I were on board. I love ships and the If I were a
man