Tom Gerrard

a young girl was riding a wild-eyed, long-maned and sweating bay filly, which, newly broken in, had been making the most frantic effo

many miles. Here the girl drew rein and dismounted, deftly whipped her hair into a loose coil, quickly took off the saddle, placed it, seat down,

eed, I hope you will consider the error of your ways, and give up any m

away to the northward, with little beaches of shining white nestling at the heads of many a quiet bay, whose shores were untrodden, except by the feet of the black and savage aborigines inhabiting the mainland. Far out to sea, a

ve I am a man-a man in heart and will and strength of mind and body, and yet a woman. And for father's sake I ought to have been born a boy." She sighed, and leaning her chin on her hand gazed longingly at the tiny fleet and wished she-a man-were at the tiller of one of the luggers, listening to the tales of the bronze-faced, bearded pearl-shellers; tales of mighty pearls worth thousands of pounds, o

th and Wesson revolver from her saddle. The blacks about Repulse Bay and Whitsunday Passage had an evil reputation, and many an unfortunate sto

feet coming along the track through the scrub. In a few moments horse and rider a

s eyes; "this is a pleasant surprise. I was on my way to see your father, and when riding along the beach below caught sight of your filly feedin

hands; "now, will you have something to eat? I have plenty of Fraser's

e to-day? To look at the sea-the 'ever treacherous sea'-I suppose, an

Certainly, I've only met three in my life, but then--" Here th

ad sticks he broke them across his knee. "But you haven't told me how it is I am

orses are missing, and I have bee

gravely. "You should not venture so far away, Miss Fraser. How can you tell but that whilst you are trying

overnment of this colony can employ these uniformed savages to murder-I call it murder-their own race? Every time I see a patrol pass, I shudder; their fierce, insolently-evil faces, and the horrid way they show the whites of their eyes when they ride by with their Snider carbines by their sides, looking at every tame black with such a savage, supercilious hatred!

ld b

d with scorn as she spoke. The clergyman looked

is coast have committed some dreadful murders. How many set

ing grounds! We shoot them down as vermin, because, impelled by the hunger that we have brought upon them, they occasionally spear a bullock or horse or two! Why cannot the Government do as my father suggests-reserve a long

mpossible to segregate the coastal tribes of the Australian mainland. The cost of such an

a bullock's hide, worth twenty shillings, is of more moment than the welfare of thousands of poor, naked savages, whose co

ead, a beautiful g

k you a pair of woollen slippers like English girls do in novels for the pale-fac

unclerical. For he only wore his clerical "rig" when visiting towns sufficiently populous for him to hold services therein. At the present time he was clad in the usual Crimean shirt, white moleskins, and brown leather legging

kes you. Then, too, you can ride-I mean sit a horse as an Australian does; and you smoke a pipe, and-oh, I wonder, Mr Forde, t

ven if I was sure she would say 'yes.'" Then he added quietly, "There is only one woman in the world for me; and I have not even da

hough I don't think I shoul

ion with such sudden earn

church built at Boorala, and made your predecessor's life miserable for the two years he was in the district. She told him that she strongly disapproved of single cle

he fled t

s, and twenty-four cows and calves to take up new country on the Campaspe River, and, in six months' journey overland, his herd of cattle had increased to a thousand head-most of them full-grown, and by some mysterious agency they were branded 'T' as well! And the six horses had multiplied to an astonishing extent; f

tle s

Forde, the more so as he knew that

country, you see,

Forde, going to the edge of the bluff, saw a horseman comin

s Fraser. There is some one