had
stretched her across the bed, so that her head hung over the side. Her
hair swept the floor--one scoundrel trod on it ... trod on her hair!
And I had to stand by and watch, while they butchered her--butchered my
girl.--Oh, there are things, Mahony, one cannot dwell on and live!"

"You must not look at it like that. Yet, when I recall some of the
cases I've seen contraction induced in ..."

"Ah yes, if you had been here ... my God, if only you had been here!"

But Mahony did not encourage this idea; it was his duty to unhitch
John's thoughts from the past. He now suggested that, the children and
Sarah safe in his keeping, John should shut up the house and go away.
To his surprise John jumped at the proposal, was ready there and then
to put it into effect. Yes, said he, he would start the very next
morning, and with no more than a blanket on his back, would wander a
hundred odd miles into the bush, sleeping out under the stars at night,
and day by day increasing the distance between himself and the scene of
his loss. And now up he sprang, in a sudden fury to be gone. Warning
Sarah into the background, Mahony helped him get together a few
necessaries, and then walked him to a hotel. Here he left him sleeping
under the influence of a drug, and next day saw him off on his tramp
northwards, over the Great Divide.

John's farewell words were: "Take the keys of the house with you, and
don't give them up to me under a month, at least."

That day's coach was full; they had to wait for seats till the
following afternoon. The delay was not unwelcome to Mahony; it gave
Polly time to get the letter he had written her the night before. After
leaving John, he set about raising money for the extra fares and other
unforeseen expenses: at the eleventh hour, Sarah informed him that
their young brother Jerry had landed in Melbourne during Emma's
illness, and had been hastily boarded out. Knowing no one else in the
city, Mahony was forced, much as it went against the grain, to turn to
Henry Ocock for assistance. And he was effusively received--Ocock tried
to press double the sum needed on him. Fortune was no doubt smiling on
the lawyer. His offices had swelled to four rooms, with appropriate
clerks in each. He still, however, nursed the scheme of transferring
his business to Ballarat.

"As soon, that is, as I can hear of suitable premises. I understand
there's only one locality to be considered, and that's the western
township." O