ported bull, let alone the new house. You'd better make up your mind to go to Goondi."
It was nearly a fortnight after Mr. Slaney's death and the sticking up of the coach by Moonlight. The excitement over Moonlight's escapade had paled before that of the election. The police had patrolled the district, and had explored as far as they were able the fastnesses of the Upper Luya. But the Upper Luya was not easily explored. Every trace of Moonlight seemed to have disappeared, and the police returned to headquarters to await the next full moon and be on the lookout for another outrage.
The Tunimba festivities had been postponed in view of the election. They had now been fixed for a date after the polling day, and would, it was supposed, inaugurate the entrance of Frank Hallett into public life. In the meantime young Hallett, accompanied by his supporters, harangued the district and started a reputation for making telling speeches. Lord Horace also made speeches of a somewhat humorous description, and exposed his friend to the risk of being unseated on a charge of bribery, from the lavish manner in which he regaled the electors and distributed champagne. If, however, Hallett and his friends were energetic, Blake of Baròlin and his partner, Dominic Trant, were more energetic still. Elsie read the accounts of Mr. Blake's meetings in the papers and she read his speeches, and contrasted them with those of her lover, not altogether to Frank Hallett's advantage. She began to think that it was perhaps as well she had not been brought into personal relations with the opposing candidate, since she might have found it more difficult to canvass with enthusiasm for Hallett among the Luya selectors. And yet she longed to see Blake. Everything she read about him appealed to her imagination. He was almost a stranger on the Luya, but this was perhaps better for him, since he had come daringly into the country, bold, picturesque, as it seemed irresistible; and had taken it by storm. It was said that he would run Frank Hallett hard, though no one among the squatters doubted that Frank Hallett would win. Blake appealed to the masses.
