you, Fraser?" he cried.

The big man sprang to his feet, and came towards him with outstretched
hand.

"Aulain, by Jove! I _am_ pleased to see you again. I saw some one
leading a pack-horse coming into the camp below, but never dreamt it was
you. Come inside. Kate will be here in a few minutes. We have a bit of
garden close by, and the confounded bandicoots and paddymelons ravage
it at nights, and she has just been knocking some over. She will be
delighted to see you."

CHAPTER XXVI

Kate was _not_ pleased to see Aulain, but did not show it; for she
guessed why he had come, and could not but feel a little frightened. But
after a little while she felt more at her ease, when he began to tell
her father and herself of his mining experiences, and said laughingly
that malarial fever was not half as bad as gold fever.

"You see," he said, turning to Kate, "the one only takes possession of
your body: the other takes your soul as well. The more gold you get, the
more you want; and one does not feel that he has a corporeal existence
at all when he turns up a fifty or sixty ounce nugget--as I did on
three or four occasions. You feel as if you belonged to another--a more
glorious world; and before you, you see the open, shining gates of the
bright City of Fortune."

The grizzled ex-judge laughed. "You have missed your vocation in life,
Aulain. Man, you're a poet But I know the feeling, and so does Kate.
Well, I am pleased that you have had such luck."

"And so am I," said Kate incautiously, "and I wish you better luck still
at the new rush at Cape Grenville; but I think what has pleased me most,
Mr Aulain, is that you have left the Native Police. Do you know that
when the escort was here a few weeks ago with ten black troopers, and
your successor came here to see us, I could hardly be civil to him,
although he was very nice, and gave us some very late newspapers--only
two months old."

"The Black Police are certainly your _betes noire_, Kate," said her
father with a smile, as he pushed the bottle of whisky towards his
guest.

"They are, dad. They are very especial black beetles to me--beetles
with Snider rifles and murderous tomahawks for shooting and cutting down
women and children."

Aulain's dark face flushed, and Kate reddened too, for she was sorry
she had spoken so hastily. Then, to her relief, there sounded a sudden
outburst of barking from Fraser's kangaroo dogs.

"Oh, those horrid paddy melons and ban