n opal earring the size of
a form; her old dress was secured round her thick, muscular neck by a
brooch that looked like an opal quarry, and whenever she turned to the
sun she flashed out rays like a lighthouse.

Her face was fat and red, full of a sort of good-humoured ferocity; she
moved like a queen among the bystanders, and shook hands gravely with
each and all of them. She was hot, but very dignified. Evidently she was
preparing to start in the coach, for she packed into the vehicle with
jealous care a large carpet-bag of garish colouring that seemed to
harmonise well with the opals. While she was packing this away, Charlie
and Carew went into the store, and bought such supplies as were needed
for the establishment at No Man's Land. Gordon took the opportunity
to ask the shock-headed old storekeeper, Pike's deputy, some questions
about the lady, who was still scintillating between the coach and the
house, carrying various small articles each trip.

"Don't yer know 'er?" said the man, in much the same tone that Bret
Harte's hero must have used when he was so taken aback to find that a
stranger--

"Didn't know Flynn,--
Flynn of Virginia."

"Don't yer know 'er?" he repeated, pausing in his task of scooping
some black cockroachy sugar from the bottom of a bin. "That's the Hopal
Queen! She's hoff South, she is. Yer'll be going in the coach, will
yer?"

"Yes," said Charlie. "We're going in the coach. There's no extra fare
for travelling with such a swell, is there? Where on earth did she get
all those opals?"

"Ho, blokes gives 'em to 'er, passin' back from the hopal fields. In the
rough, yer know! Hopal in the rough, well, it's 'ard to tell what it'll
turn out, and they'll give 'er a 'unk as sometimes turns out a fair
dazzler. She's a hay-one judge of it in the rough, too. If she buys a
bit of hopal, yer bet yer life it ain't a bad bit when it's cut. What
about these 'ere stores? Goin' to take 'em with yer?"

"No," said Charlie. "The black boy is here for them. He's going to take
them back with him."

"What, Keogh's black boy! Well, I don't know as Pike'll stand old Paddy
Keogh any longer. Paddy's 'ad a dorg tied hup 'ere" (i.e., an account
outstanding) "this two years, and last time Pike was 'ome 'e was
reck'nin' it was about hup to Keogh to pay something."

"They're not for Keogh," said Charlie. "They're for me. I've taken
Keogh's block over."

The old man looked a