OUTLAW AND LAWMAKER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1851, 17 August 1893, Page 39

OUTLAW AND LAWMAKER.

By MMB CAMPBELL PRAJBD, Author of "The Head Station," "The Bond of Wedlock," "The Brother of the Shadow," "Passion and Policy," "Nadine," " An Australian Heroine,

And joint author with Mr Justin M'CARTHr of "The Ladies' Gallery," "The Right Honourable," &c

GOPXBIGHT, 1892, BY TILLOTSON AND BON.

VOLUME 111. Chapter XXVI. " Copy " for Lady Waveryng. HE Waveryngs were a success. : lea was perhaps happier with " Em Waveryng " than she had been durirg her short married life, Em was sweet, warm-

hearted, and utterly without affectation. She had no nonsense about her, and in spite of her

weak devotion to Lord Horace,

Bhe was not by any means blind to his faults. She was, however, like a doting mother who pardons everything to her darling and is prepared in the long run to uphold his vagaries. Lady Waveryng, notwithstanding, found it a little difficult to pardon Lord Horace for Mrs Allanby.

Bhe was sufficiently ill-advised to speak to Ina on the subject of Lord Horace's flirtation. But Ina would have none of it. She was exaggerated in her defence of her husband. Lady Waveryng reported what she bad said to her brother, and Lord Horace went in a shame-faced kind of way to 'his wife.

" Em says you have been fightin' for me like a bantam hen for her cbiok," he said. " Don't do that, my dear. You rcay come to find that I don't deserve it." Something in his tcne struck Ina. "Why do you say that, Horace?" she said.

" Because it's true. I'm a bad lot — always was. You know I told you before I married you that I couldn't see a pretty woman without wantin' to flirt with her."

"Yes, I know you did. And I don't mind in the least your flirting with Mrs Allanby." "By Jove, I see that plainly enough," he answered sulkily. "If you minded and made a row sometimes, life would be a little more amusin'."

Ina's soft face flushed. " t know that Mrs' Allanby is much cleverer than I am, and altogether more the kind of woman that men admire," she said with some dignity. "I am quite willing that you should amuse yourself ; I am quite aware that you have not always found me very entertaining. I—lI — I often think, Horace, that our marriage was a great mistake"— lna's voice faltered, but she went bravely on—" still it is a mistake that cannot be mended now ; and if I thought you were wronging either Mrs Allanby or me or yourself by your flirtation I think you would find that I did mind a little, and that I should not hesitate to say so." Lord Horace did not answer for a minute or two ; then he said, " Why do you say that our marriage is a mistake 1 " " Because you yourself have told me so, Ina answered. "That was only when I was in a rage, and the cookin' was abominable. A fellow who has been accustomed to a decent style of life in England can't be" expected to put up with Australian roughness." "I thought you called it picturesque," said Ina, with unconscious sarcasm.' "So it is—tbe'outside of it. And there's a freedom about it that's splendid. I never could stand all that cut and dried conventionalism of English society, and even English sport, Over there it's all a question

of money. Given a certain income and you know exactly what you can afford to have. You can't have a moor and a deer forest on a precaiious six hundred a year. Here you can have as good, and no echlg of income to measure by. But I suppose I'm like the boy who wanted to have bis cake and eat it too. The life is magnificent— out of doors— only I want indoor comfort as well, and I'm gettiu' a little tired of it. I tell you what, Ina" he stopped rather guiltily. " What are you going to tell me 1 " she asked presently. " Nothing ; only if Waveryng is as good as his word, and the investments turn out as they ought, we might put a manager here and take a run home."

He had been discussing it with Mra Allanby the night before. Ina said nothing. Lord Horace was very full of his corroboree. " I don'c know what you fellows of the Exeautive will do to me," he said to Blake, who with the rest of the Dell party were lounging in the verandah of the Humpey. " I've been doin' my best to get up a war among the natives. There's three tribes of them," he went on to explain — " the Moonsan and the Barolin and the Dprundur, and "they are all at loggerheads with each other. It's quite a romantic affair, a sort of Paiis and Helen and Siege of Troy business."

"Ob, do tell us," murmured Mrs Allanby. "Is he cramming me 1 " observed Lady Waveryng. "Eemember I am going to write a book. .Let us hear the blacks' Iliad, Horace.". " This is it. Paris— otherwise Luya Tommy — ran away with Helen, commonly called Bean-tree Bessy. Paris is a Moongan. Helen is of the Barolins. Helen has a husband who is of the Durundur tribe, and he is a chief also, and not by any means of a complaisant turn of mind. He resents the theft of his wife, or else his terms] for the transfer are too high to be within Paris Tommy's means. Menelaus Tommy— they are both Tommiesis disposed for battle, and the Darundurs are a mighty tribe, so that the only chance for Paris and Helen, there bein' no Troy convenient, is in the Barolins and the Moongans joinin' forces and fightin' the Darundurs, and this is what I have been tryin' to compass—all for the benefit of your book of travels, Em ; so I think it is rather bard of you to throw doubts on my veracity." "I have promised you the proceeds of that book any hoar, Horace," put in Lady Waveryng, " so that you are an interested party." "Oh! then that accounts for Horaces zeal, and now I understand why he was so anxious to soothe the free selectors and the cedar-cotters, who object to having the blacks encouraged about the place," said Lord Waveryng. " It's all with a view to ultimate profit in providing copy for my lady." " I've managed it," Lord Horace went on triumphantly, " with a considerable expends ture of rum and tobacco — doled out in driblets. If I had given it in a lump, the Tommies, Paris and Menelaue, might have struck a bargain, and the dramatic motif of the corroboree would have been done for. Yesterday there was a little throwin' of spears, and the end of it is that the Moongans and the Barolins have agreed at my suggestion to have a big oorroboree and a • woolla '—that's what they call their Parliamentary Council, Em— the night after tomorrow, and then to go forth and fight the Darundurs. Get you notebook ready, Em, dear. It's to be a real swagger thing in corroborees." Lady Waveryng's book was a stock joke. It afforded a pretext for the trotting out of all the oddities available, and gave point to the various expeditions and bush experiences. She insisted upon learning everything that had to do with station routine, and handed saddles as if she bad been born in a stockman's hut, and Bhe was learning to crack a stock whip, to plait a dilly-bag, and to make a damper. Lord Waverytg took life less enthusiastically, perhaps because he was a little gouty. Racing and stud cattle were his bobbies, and be was interested in the Barolin and Tunimbah breeds, and rode about a good deal, admiring the scenery and getting a fair amount of amusement out of the free selectors and the proprietors of the grog shanties. A blaokboy was despatched to Tunimbah, and Mr and. Mrs Jem Hallett turned up the next day in time for breakfast. The party was a large one, for Blake and Trant were there also, and naturally Frank' Hallett, and besides, the Waveryngs, Mrs Allanby, and Elsie. Elsie was strangely Bubdued— indeed, almost melancholy. Do what she would to distract her thoughts— and surely in the attentions of her lover and the discussion of future plans there was enough to distract them— she could not keep them away from Blake and the mystery of his life, for she was certain there was a mystery. Apart from Blake and her immediate matrimonial prospects, Lady WaveryDg, as the typical aristocrat, the embodiment of that sphere of life for which Elsie bad always vainly sighed, afforded fertile subject for reflection. Elsia could not help being impressed by Lady Waveryng's thoroughbred simplicity, her dignity, combined with perfect freedom of manner, her absolute refinement, and all those delicate niceties and all those indefinable characteristics which make up what is technically termed among the lower classes a " real lady," as distinguished from a fine lady. Lady Waveryng was a "real lady," but she was not in the very least a fine lady — except, indeed, when she was in her full panoply of diamonds and velvet and Venatian point. El3ie pondered a good deal upon these qualities of Lady Waveryog'p. She began to realise how entirely impossible it would have been for Lady Waveryng to do many of the things whfeb. she, Elsie, had done so ignorantly and so innocently. She could not imagine Lady Waveryng "on the rampage for beaux," which was Minnie Pryde's inelegant way of expressing a fashion peculiar to some of the faster yourg ladies of Leichardt's Town of sauntering about the botanical gardens, or up and down Victoria 6treet, ready to meet the salutations of their admirers with smiling readiness for flirtation. She could not imagine Lady Waveryng holding verandah receptions, or receiving tribute from her variouß adorers, or allowing herself to be taken borne by a young man after a dance,

like a servant maid keeping company. Elsie grew hot and red as she thought of that walk from Fermoy'e, of many other walks, of many other episodes. She was unconsciously learcing lessons. She would never again be the EUie Valliant who had " got engaged " to Jensen, for fun, and broken the young man's heart, the Elsie Valliant who had, challenged Blake to a flirtation tournament, and who had been the object of Lord Astar's disrespectful attentions. ■

Waveryng. "I never saw such droll creatures. I'd like to take Pompo back with me. Will you let me have him, Mr Trant V He shall be well treated, I promise you." "Pompo would pine and die i£ he were parted from me," said Trant. "Do you know, Lady Waveryng, that I've gob a sort of mesmeric power over that black boy. I believe if I told him to cut off his hand he'd do it." "Ishe as devoted to Mr Blake 1 " asked

Ina. "No," said Blake; "it's fear keeps him in subjection, as far as I am concerned — iear and devotion to Trant. I haven't got Trant's knack with the blacks."

The gins pressed closer ; the camp odour became objectionable, even in the fresh •night air, and Lady Waveryng shuddered. Xord Horace came excitedly towards them. He had been in the scrub dressing room of the warriors. He confessed to having plied them with rum. " Now look out, Em ; they are goin' to begin." There was a signal shout— a sort of Banshee cry — ending in a war whoop. The •gins souttled off to gather up their boome*anga, and squatted in a semi-circle in two tows along the line of the fires. Tnen ■sounded the music— a queer, savage chant 'in long monotonous cadences, with something at once eerie aud exciting in its ■strains. The gins in the front row saDg, ■those behind swung their boomerangs together, keeping clanking time to the music. From the blackness of the scrub a cohort of grotesque forms came stealing. Suddenly the huge bonfire, which had baen made of quickly inflammable material, blazed forth, and the circle of the corroboree was a glow of red light. The gigantic figure in the centre looked like some monstrous idol. It had a rough-hewn, painted head, gleaming white and dead black, cut out of new peeled bark and with withes of grey-green moss floating down its shoulders. "Birolinl Barolin I " shouted the halfcastes. It was a suggestion of the Waterfall rock, the legend of the great chief. The figure was built up in bark. Its solemn arms were extended as if for prey. Brilliant patterned handkerchiefs in crimson and yellow were drawn about its neck, and a red blanket concealed the lower part of the form. The red flames of the bonfire leaped, extinguishing the moon's rays and throwing darting shadows among the tall gum trees, black stemmed and hoary with moss. The gins leaned forward, their bare black bosoms palpitating, their arms swinging, their boomerangs and nullas clashing. White and red-tipped spears quivered in the earth, making a sort of pallisade against the scrub. Thendancisg began. Troop after troop of demoniac beings pressed from the scrub and ranged themselves round the centre idol. They were naked save for a belt about the loins. All were painted in white and red and yellow ; some to represent skeletons, others had crawling snakes meandering upon their limbs, others fishes,- others in a nightmare pattern, meaning nothing ; and on their heads were cookatco feathers, white and pale yellow, and plumes from the parrots' breasts, They danced round the idol, making all kinds of graceful silent gestures in time to the music, which changed as the figures of the dance 3 varied.

Elsie sat as if in a dream. She had been seated between Frank Hallett and Blake. Her dress touched Blake. She was conscious almost of something electrical, highly changed in him— a suppressed agitation, though he sat perfectly still. An odd fancy struck heir that he would not move, lest he should lose the contact of her dress. Was it a dream— the hellish merriment, the savage gestures, the fiendish shouts and yells, in which there seemed a note of such unutterable melancholy ? And the brassy glow rising'and falling, the solemn idol with its staring painted eyes and outstretched arms, the •circle of gins, women like herself — torn perhaps by love and longing, as she was torn now... . . And the wide silent bush, and all the vast barbaric world. And, here this little group of civilised beings, the old world and the new meeting — Lord and Lady Waveryng, Lord Horace, Ina, Frank, Blake, Trant. She heard Trant speak at the moment. He was bidding good-bye to Lady Horace and Mrs Jem Hallett, saying that he meant to take advantage of the moonlight 1 and go back to the gorge to meet a butcher he was expecting the first thing in the morn- • ing. "And fancy keeping a butcher waiting, Mr Hallett, and for us poor beggars, who don't sell a hundred head in the year 1 I couldn't trust Sam Shehan to soothe his wounded feelings." "A butcher, Lady Waveryng, is the aristocrat of the bush," explained Jem Hallett. "We all bow down to bim. Good luck to you, Trant. But what do you want with your paltry free-selection salep, and yonr . partner Colonial Secretary of Leichardb'a Land ? It's incongruous." Elsie laughed. Wasn't everything incongruous 7 She wa<J thinking co while Trant pressed her hand and tried to put some meaning into his good-bye The interlude was over. She went

back upon her own foolish fancies. Yes, there they were, sittiDg side by si<?e on that dead gam tree, all different types, all collected from different ends of the eartb, and

yet all so curiously linked together. Was she not be3ide the man who was to be her husband! And on her other side, touching her very skirt, was the man she loved. Oh 1 , yes, she loved him, she loved him. If he would but take her in his arms now— before them all— as he had taken her that night, and press upon her lip 3 kisses as hot and passionate, would she resent the kisses 1 Would they not seem very life of her life 1 \ . . . Now there came a move. In& called softly to Frank. She wanted to ask - him a question, and he got up and went f «raud to her,- and then involuntarily as it were, and as though each had been tortured and oppressed by that otb.9r presence, Blake and Elsie turned to each other. What was it that made his eyes so strange to-night? What epirit of recklessness and passion and wild yet restrained impulse leaped out of them, and kindled in her a well-nigh overmastering emotion / He seemed to draw a little closer to her, and then to check himself. The shouts grew louder ' and wilder; the gleaming forma went faster; the red lights became lurid : ; the acrid barbario odour intensified, JEBlale felt jriddy and faint. She ball rose, In au vn~ $my swaying movement Bhke's arm

touched her. They were at the very end of the log. tie bad risen and had noiselessly drawn her' away, and before she knew what had happened they were apart from the rest in thd night alone. He had supported her to a little clamp of wattle growing close and making a kind of bower, which sheltered them Erom observation. Neither said a word. The hood of her ulster had fallen back, and her head was upraised and her eyes were meeting his, the gaze of both intense, beseeching, and - terribly sad. Still neither said a word. But he drew her quite close to him as they. leaned against the wattle tree, and bent his head to hers and their lips were joined.

(To he continued.) v