route would bring us to the horses in half the time. Plunging down gullies, scrambling up slippery slopes through ferns and bush, we did at last come out, very hot and tired, on the grassy terraces, and threw ourselves down beside the lunch-bag. It was past four o’clock, and we had not eaten since the start; and I think he enjoyed his meal as much as we did. Then the horses were saddled, and in the yellow afternoon sunlight we rode down the west Matukituki valley, well pleased.
Mrs. Macpherson had made a famous redcurrant tart as a crown to her other hospitable efforts, and we sat chatting over our supper till the moon rose above the valley walls. The last tints of sunset vanished from the mountains, and a great peace fell upon all things. As we rode, for the last time, towards the “Gate of Death,” I turned and said good-bye to the Lone Shieling. It was all so still: the children had gone indoors to bed, and the soft, dark curtain of the night was falling across the mountains; we had come into the circle of the lonely home for a space, and now we vanished as suddenly as we had come; but I think we will never in after years forget.
