ad the horses up, ready saddled and fed, by sundown, and as soon as
the moon rose we made a start of it. I had time for a bit of a talk
with Aileen about the Storefields, though I couldn't bring myself to say
their names at first. I was right in thinking that Gracey had seen me
led away a prisoner by the police. She came into the hut afterwards with
Aileen, as soon as mother was better, and the two girls sat down beside
one another and cried their eyes out, Aileen said.

George Storefield had been very good, and told Aileen that, whatever
happened to us or the old man, it would make no difference to him or
to his feelings towards her. She thanked him, but said she could never
consent to let him disgrace himself by marrying into a family like
ours. He had come over every now and then, and had seen they wanted for
nothing when father and Jim were away; but she always felt her heart
growing colder towards him and his prosperity while we were so low down
in every way. As for Gracey, she (Aileen) believed that she was in love
with me in a quiet, steady way of her own, without showing it much, but
that she would be true to me, if I asked her, to the end of the world,
and she was sure that she could never marry any one else as long as
I lived. She was that sort of girl. So didn't I think I ought to do
everything I could to get a better character, and try and be good enough
for such a girl? She knew girls pretty well. She didn't think there was
such another girl in the whole colony, and so on.

And when we went away where were we going to hide? I could not say about
particular distances, but I told her generally that we'd keep out of
harm's way, and be careful not to be caught. We might see her and mother
now and then, and by bush-telegraphs and other people we could trust
should be able to send news about ourselves.

'What's the Captain going to do?' she said suddenly. 'He doesn't look
able to bear up against hardship like the rest of you. What beautiful
small hands he has, and his eyes are like sleeping fires.'

'Oh, he's a good deal stronger than he looks,' I said; 'he's the
smartest of the lot of us, except it is dad, and I've heard the old man
say he must knock under to him. But don't you bother your head about
him; he's quite able to take care of himself, and the less a girl like
you thinks about a man like him the better for her.'

'Oh, nonsense,' she said, at the same time looking down in a
half-confused sort of way