ends with me. I am the last of my name, the last Blake of Coola."
There was a rush of feet. "Stand back, Elsie, against the rock," said Blake, hoarsely. "Good-bye, my one love," he whispered; "pray for me and forgive me. Keep beside her, Hallett. Take care of her."
He stepped boldly forward to the edge of the precipice. At that moment Captain Macpherson's voice sounded in ringing tones, as, with his gun pointed, he appeared round the curve of the gallery followed by a black line of troopers, the mountings of their carbines glittering in the moonlight. "Stir, and I fire! Morres Blake, alias Moonlight, in the Queen's name I arrest you."
Blake made no answer. With one swift, sudden movement he threw himself backward and disappeared. They heard the thud of his fallen body, a hundred feet below, and then a splash as it was swallowed up for ever in the depths of the Baròlin waterhole.
And this was the end of Morres Blake, last Baron Coola.
········
These things happened a good many years ago. This strange tragic episode was felt to be a blot on the history of Leichardt's Land, and the leaders on both sides did their utmost to shroud in mystery the facts of their late Colonial Secretary's double life. By his death Blake had done all he could to spare his friends and his adopted country disgrace. The Moonlight tragedy was never wholly cleared up. Trant disappeared, and was not heard of again. Sam Shehan disappeared also. Pompo was pardoned, and Jack Nutty had been killed by one of the first shots fired that night. Lady Waveryng got some of her diamonds, but the rest were gone from her descendants for ever.
Elsie was very ill after the events of that terrible night. She had an attack of brain fever, and for weeks all was dark. She never knew of the blare of notoriety which surrounded her name, and no one ever spoke to her of Moonlight. She thought of Blake only as the embodiment of an ideal love, and as such in her heart she worshipped his memory, cling-
