Aleck Gault rose to his feet. “Well, it’s time we turned in,” he said. “Perhaps we’ll dream of the bright eyes of Scottie’s niece.”
“Let’s hope they’re not what Blazes supposed—eyes like a boiled cod and teeth like tombstones, wasn’t it?” said Knight. “Though, perhaps for the peace of Thunder Ridge, it’ll be best if the prediction’s right.”
CHAPTER II.
“Are ye tired, lass?” said Scottie.
Ess Lincoln straightened her bent shoulders.
“Yes,” she admitted, “I am, rather. It was so bumpy and rough and dusty in the coach. But it was interesting in a way, and the driver was so good. I think he was delighted to get an ignorant city new chum to tell his tales to, of the wonders of the back-country. He was astonished that I’d never been anywhere in the real out-back, but he didn’t seem to think I’d any reason to be astonished when he told me he’d never seen any of the big cities in Australia, and had never even seen the sea.”
“There’s more like him about,” said Scottie, “though they’re gettin’ fewer.”
“When do we come on to the station?” asked Ess.
“We’ve been drivin’ through one of the paddocks of it since half an hour after we left the township,” said Scottie.