ut of
her wits of the myalls down by the creek there."

Stanesby shrugged his shoulders.

"All bunkum! I know her ways. She wants to get me to stop. She seems to
guess there's something in the wind. The myalls! pooh! They 're as tame
as possible. They steal any odds and ends that are left about--that's
about their form."

"But the poor child is frightened."

"Frightened! Get out. There wasn't much fright about her when she took
the knife to you last night! She knows very well how to take care of
herself, I can tell you."

"But those myalls. On Jinfalla we--Well, it really seems to me risky to
leave her all alone. Even if there isn't any danger--the very fact of
being alone--."

"Pooh! Considering she tramped from the head-station here all the eighty
miles on foot, just because of some breeze with the cook there, she must
be mightily afraid of being alone. However, if you don't like her being
left, it 's open to you to stop and look after her. I 'm going to start
in about two minutes."

"Oh, well, if you think it s all right--"

"Of course it's all right. There 's Jimmy got your horse for you. Come
on, old chap."

Turner mounted, and Stanesby was just about to do the same, when with a
quick cry the girl ran out of the hut and caught his arm.

She said no word, and before he, taken by surprise, could stop her, she
had wound both her arms around his neck and laid her face against his
breast.

Turner put his spurs into his horse, and rode off smartly. It was no
affair of his. The whole thing made him angry whenever he thought of it.

As for Dick Stanesby, though usually never anything but gentle with a
woman, he was thoroughly angry now; he had felt angry before, but now he
was roused, which did not often happen, to put his anger into words.

"Confound you, Kitty! Do you hear me? Don't be a fool!" and he roughly
shook her off, so roughly that she lost her balance, staggered, and
fell. He made a step forward to take his horse, which was held by the
stolid black boy, but she was too quick for him and, grovelling on
the ground at his feet, put out her arms and held him there, murmuring
inarticulate words of tenderness and love. Stanesby stooped down, and
caught her wrists in both his hands.

"Get up!" he said roughly, and dragged her to her feet. She stood there,
leaning all her weight on his supporting hands, looking at him with
reproachful eyes.

They were beautiful eyes, and there was need enough for her