For he sleeps where the wattles
Their sweet fragrance shed,
And tall gum trees shadow
The Stockman's last bed.
And when the music ceased there came the wild sounds of the Australian night, the curlew's moan, the howl of the dingoes, the strange sad plaint of the native bear, which is like the cry of a lost child; and through all the clank of the horses' hobbles and the "poo-mp, poom-p" of their bells. It was a long time before Elsie, on her grass-tree bed, fell asleep, and then she dreamed unquiet dreams.
How wild and wonderful it was! They had left their horses in charge of one of the stockmen, and were threading their way through the scrub to the foot of Baròlin Fall. It was not quite so difficult as Sam Shehan's description would have made them believe, but it was still sufficiently hard going for even a stout bushman, to say nothing of delicate women. They tried to follow the bed of the river, diverging only when the water-side track became impracticable. For there were quicksands, slimy and treacherous, in which at any moment they might have got engulfed, and of which the half castes showed a curious knowledge; and there were giant trunks of fallen trees, and there were landslips and impassable rocks and impenetrable thickets of the horrible prickly spinnifex. And there was always the especial danger to beware of—the dreaded piora, of which they heard much, but which as yet they had not seen. They had, however, seen more than one dead adder, more dangerous than the pursuing piora, for squat and sluggish and of colour and shape resembling a bit of dead wood, it may be trodden on or kicked aside with consequences, alas, too fatal.
Lady Waveryng's stout hunting habit was torn in many places, and her smart, high boots were scratched and blistered. She was the most adventurous of the party, and kept ahead with Frank Hallett, between whom and Trant there was a friendly rivalship as to which should best guide the fair being committed to his care. Perhaps more than once Frank envied Elsie's cavalier, but Elsie insisted that, for the honour
