childish face.

"Thanks, Murty," Norah said steadily.

"And--all of you." She turned from the pitying faces, and ran indoors.

"Oh, Brownie, don't let any one see me!"

Then came a dazed time, when she did not know anything clearly. Once,
lying on her bed, with her face pressed into the pillow, trying not to
see a lean head that beat on the ground, she heard a dull sound that
rose to an angry shout from the men; and immediately the buggy drove
away quickly, as Wally took Cecil away from Billabong. She only
shivered, pressing her face harder. Jim was always near at first; the
touch of his hand made her calm when dreadful, shuddering fits came
over her. All through the night he sat by her bed, watching
ceaselessly.

Then there was a longer time when she was alone, and there seemed much
going to and fro. But no sounds touched her nearly. She could only
think of Bobs, lying in the bracken, and calling silently to her with
his pain-filled eyes.

Then, late on, the second evening, Jim came back with a troubled face
and sat on the bed.

"Norah," he said, "I want you."

"Yes, Jim?"

"I want you to be brave, old chap," he said slowly. Something in his
tone made her start and scan his tired face.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It may be all right," Jim said, "but--but I thought I'd better tell
you, Norah, they--we can't find Dad!"

CHAPTER XVIII

BROTHER AND SISTER

We were mates together,
And I shall not forget.
W. H. OGILVIE.

Jim had not wanted to tell Norah. It had been Brownie who had
counselled differently.

"I think she's got enough to bear," the boy had said, sitting on the
edge of the kitchen table, and flicking his boots mechanically with his
whip. He had been riding hard almost all day, but anxiety, not fatigue,
had put the lines into his face. "What's the good of giving her any
more?"

"I do believe it'd be best for her, the poor lamb!" Brownie had said.
"She's there all day, not speaking--it'll wear her out. An' you know,
Master Jim, dear, she'd never forgive us for keepin' anything back from
her about the master."

"No--but we've nothing definite. And it may make her really ill, coming
on top of the other."

"I don't think Miss Norah's the sort to let herself get ill when there
was need of her. It may take her poor mind off the other--she can't help
that now, an' he was only a pony--"

"Only a pony! By George, Brownie--!"

"Any horse is only a pony when compared to y