such miles above me. You look as if you had put yourself up for a landmark."
"So I did. I thought my red shawl would attract attention. I was trying how far I could see down the Gorge—wondering if anyone were in hiding there, and from how far they could see me. I was thinking how easy it would be to hide up in Mount Luya, and wondering" She stopped, and then taking his proffered hand, stepped from the pointed stone on which she had been balancing herself to a lower one, and so till she was on the level beside him. He finished her sentence—
"Wondering if there was any chance of Moonlight coming along. How should you like to be carried off by him?"
"On his black horse Abatos?"
"How do you know that his black horse is called Abatos?"
"Ah, that's part of Braile's story. Moonlight hardly ever speaks, you know. It is the Shadow who conveys his orders and intentions. But that night Moonlight was heard to say one word as he rode towards the coach, and that was 'Abatos.'"
"Why his horse's name? Why not a new 'swear'?"
"Oh!" she said with a slight accent of contempt. "Ask Horace to lend you his Lemprière."
Hallett flushed. "I am not as ignorant as you think. I had forgotten for the moment. And so you would like to be carried off by the bushrangers?"
"I think I should like it immensely. I should enjoy the opportunity of talking to Moonlight and his masked henchmen. I shouldn't be at all afraid of their not treating me in a gentlemanly and considerate manner. Only you see I shouldn't be worth carrying off. Unless Mammie realized on the piano and the sewing-machine—we've not a stick else worth twopence—there would be nothing to ransom me with. And anyhow the piano and the sewing-machine would hardly run to a ransom."
"Your brother-in-law?" suggested Hallett.
"Poor Horace has telegraphed to his brother-in-law. The
