eabouts.

'Never mind, Dick, old man,' said Harry kindly, 'it's all UP.'

'All up?' cried Dick.

'Yes, I know why you went to Yarraman; but it's been a wasted journey,
Dick. Shine was arrested a couple of hours ago, an' she's broken
hearted.'

Dick received the news in silence, and they walked homewards together.

'What'll I do with this?' asked Dick at Hardy's gate, producing a parcel
from under his vest.

'Hide it away, an' keep it dark. Not a word must be said to hurt her.'

'Good,' answered the boy. 'I know a cunnin' holler tree. So long, Harry.'

'So long, mate.'

Dick liked the word mate; it touched him nearly with its fine hint of
equality and community of interests; it seemed to suit their romantic
conspiracy, too, and sent him away with a little glow of pride in his
heart.

When Harry re-entered his own home he found his mother seated as he had
left her. She arose and approached him, placing a hand on either
shoulder.

'Well, my boy?'

'Well, mother?

'You have seen her?'

'Yes. I've taken her to the homestead. She is dazed. It seems as if she
no longer cared.'

'It will pass, Henry.'

'You think my love will pass?'

'All this seeming great trouble.'

'It'll pass, mother, if she comes back to me; never unless.'

'The sins of the fathers,' sighed Mrs. Hardy as he turned from her to his
own room, like a wounded animal seeking darkness. 'The sins of the
fathers.'

CHAPTER XXIII.

NEXT morning all Waddy knew of the arrest, and it was felt that the game
was nearly played out. Dick's confession was published in the same issue
of the Yarraman Mercury and public opinion in the township had decided
against the searcher in spite of his long and faithful service as teacher
and superintendent. The murder theory was reluctantly abandoned.

Harry Hardy called at the homestead to inquire after Chris before going
to work, and was told that she was much rested but not yet up. At
dinner-time he heard that she had been driven into Yarraman by Jock
Summers to be near her father; the fact that she had left him without a
word or a line seemed to confirm his worst suspicion, and again her
words, 'I deceived them all. I lied to everybody,' returned to mock him.
Harry had no quality of patience: he was impetuous, a fighter, not a
waiter on fortune; but here was nothing to fight, and in his desperation
he did battle on the hard ground.

They had cut the dyke in the new shaft at a shallower depth than