OUTLAW AND LAWMAKER.
CHAPTER I.
ELSIE.
Anyone who has travelled through Australia will identify the Leichardt's Land of these pages, though in the map it is called differently, with that colony in which the explorer Leichardt met his tragic fate, and to a part of which he gave his name, and the same person, if he will examine the map, should have no difficulty in discovering the Luya district, which lies on the southern border of the colony in a bend of the great Dividing Range.
The Luya, in its narrowest part, is fenced on almost three sides with mountains. Here the country is wild and mostly scrubby, intersected by spurs from the range, and broken by deep ravines and volcanic-looking gorges. There is scarcely any grazing land, and till Goondi Diggings were started, the Upper Luya was spoken of as the most picturesque district in Leichardt's Land, but as offering the least attractions to a settler of any kind. Even the Goondi "rush" some few years back, though it had for a time let loose a horde of prospectors, did not do much towards populating this particular nook below the Dividing Range. Goondi became a flourishing township and its output of gold continued steadily, but though other gold fields sprang up on the further side of the district, contrary to expectations no gold was discovered on the Luya waters, and prospectors had now given up the useless search. Moreover, Goondi was on the very edge of the district, across the highroad to the next
(1)
