this expedition, and throwing all the difficulties he could in the way."
If, however, Shehan was dead against the expedition, certainly Trant was wild that it should be carried through. He had wakened out of his grim and apathetic mood at a suggestion on Lord Waveryng's part that the Falls should be abandoned. Ina had timidly seconded the suggestion. She did not want Elsie to go and get lost in the Bush, and perhaps bitten by a snake. Ina, herself, was one of those who turned back. She was not a coward, but she was delicate, and Lord Horace did not seem to want her company. It was quite evident that he thought Mrs. Allanby enough to take care of. Mrs. Allanby had in her way a sort of quiet recklessness. She had never looked handsomer: the slumbering fires of her eyes had darted into life, and her pale cheeks were reddened with excitement or sunburn. Trant swore that he would be responsible for Elsie's safety. He knew the country better than Frank—scrubbers from Baròlin Gorge often got lost in Baròlin scrub, he explained. Lady Horace need not be alarmed. Ina kissed her sister in a melancholy way as they parted at the lichen-covered boulders. Both afterwards remembered Ina's fears. Lord Horace grumbled—Jem Hallett laughed at her. "I'm superstitious," said the little woman—"yes, I know. But I can't help it, and I shall not be happy until you all get safe back to Tunimba."
The party divided. Those turning their faces to the wilderness mounted and rode into the defile with the blackness of the scrub before them and Mount Luya barring the horizon, while the others went down along the gulley, and both parties were soon swallowed up in the gloom of the gorge. Elsie seemed fated to hear the asides of Trant and his henchman. Perhaps this was because Trant kept so assiduously at her bridle rein. Lord Waveryng had solemnly committed his wife into Frank Hallett's keeping. Lady Waveryng did not like Trant—she had counted, she said, on Mr. Blake being of the party, and joined her entreaties to those of her husband. Thus Elsie found herself for the nonce deserted
