CHAPTER XXXVIII.
"THE LAST BARON COOLA."
Nearly a week later Elsie was sitting on her cairn by the Crossing. She had got into the way latterly of taking up this position in the afternoon, perhaps because the place had tender associations for her; perhaps because she was always expecting Blake. He was still at Baròlin, and had written to her again, but he had not yet ridden over to the Dell, as in the letter he had promised to do. It was getting towards sundown when she heard the tramp of a horse's feet—a hurried tramp, as though the rider were in fear or distress. The sound did not come from the Baròlin road, but from that which led to Tunimba.
Elsie got up and walked to the edge of the creek to see Frank Hallett pressing eagerly down the opposite bank.
He urged his horse across and then up to where she stood, then dismounted, his face full of trouble.
"Elsie," he exclaimed, not waiting for her to speak, "I am thankful to have found you here! You have heard nothing?"
"Nothing," she repeated. "What is there to hear?"
"Bad news for you, my poor Elsie. I thought it might have been telegraphed from the Bean-tree. That villain Trant, I suppose, has caused Blake to be denounced as Moonlight, and Macpherson with the police arrived at Tunimba just before I left, on their way to the cave at the Falls."
Elsie staggered, and would have fallen but for Frank's protecting arm.
"Be brave," he said. "I have come to you that we may save him. We will give him warning at Baròlin, if he is there. If not, tell me where he may be found."
"He is at Barolin," she said, recovering herself. "Come, I will go with you."
"You!" he exclaimed.
"Yes. I will be with him whatever happens. But we will save him. Oh, Frank, we must save him!"
