me to fish, and I see them all looking so placidly content with their
pipes in their mouths, I feel as if I was missing something. Now,
watch!"

She made a cast with her light rod of bamboo, and almost at the same
moment that the impaled grasshopper fell upon the glassy surface of
the pool it was seized by a fish of the grayling species; known to
Queenslanders as "speckled trout."

"There you are!" she cried triumphantly, as she swung the silvery-scaled
beauty out of the water, and deftly grasped it with her left hand.
"First to me."

The music of her laugh, and her bright, animated features, filled
Gerrard with delight as he watched her make a second cast. Then he too
set to work, and, for the next quarter of an hour, they vied to make
the greatest catch. Gerrard was a long way behind, when Douglas Fraser
appeared. He was saying over and over again to himself: "There is
nothing between her and Aulain! there is nothing between them!" Then, as
he put his hand to his scarred face, the wild elation in his heart died
away.

*****

"Well, young people, what luck?" said the burly mine-owner, as with his
hands on his hips, he leant against a she-oak.

"Splendid, father! thirty-five. How is the reef going?"

"Pinched out all together, chick. We can hang the battery up now."

Kate laid down her rod, and covered her face with her hands, and Gerrard
saw the tears trickling through her fingers. For she loved the Gully, as
she had loved no other place before.

Fraser stepped over to her, and placed his hand on her bent head.

"Never mind, little girl! We'll strike it rich some day."

"Yes, father!" she whispered, as she smiled through her tears, "we
_shall_ strike a patch some day."

CHAPTER XVIII

On their way home, Gerrard and Fraser discussed the position, and
Kate's heart beat quicker when her father said, "I think you are right,
Gerrard. Ill give up the idea of the Gilbert, and shall try my luck on
the Batavia."

"Very well, it is settled. We can leave by the next steamer for
Somerset."

"I meant to overland it."

"Don't think of it. It is over a thousand miles, and you would have
to pass through some fearful country, full of poison bush, and would
perhaps lose all your horses. Then, too, the blacks are bad, very bad."

"Some of my men will be sure to come with me; especially Young and
Smith."

"Don't think of overlanding it," persisted Gerrard. "It would take you,
even with the best of luck, tw