As time wore on, Helen had to take active superintendence of her father's concerns, even to the occasional visiting of the out-station, for he was becoming feeble and forgetful. It was in fulfilment of this duty that she had, soon after the conversation just recorded, to take cognisance of a plot she had discovered (but in which the man Styles had no part), and which had some time been in operation, for seriously damaging the livestock on the distant run.
On making this discovery, there was no alternative but to lodge an information with the nearest district magistrate; and Helen had, reluctantly enough but courageously, to be a witness against the conspirators. These were convicted, principally on her evidence, and heavily sentenced. Being remitted to headquarters to undergo a lengthened imprisonment, these men were replaced in the station by others of the same class.
But thenceforth it could not be concealed from the Sedleys (father and daughter) that they were surrounded by greater dangers than ever. Is it to be wondered that, in the bitterness of her loneliness, Helen sometimes uttered the mournful plaint within herself, "Oh, why did we ever leave England?"
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
AN ADVENTURE.
ON the afternoon of an early day in an Australian spring, a solitary horseman was leisurely enough passing over a longish stretch of plain, bounded behind him by a forest from which he must have emerged some half an hour or more, and in advance by a range of hills looking blue by reason of distance. On either hand the ground rose irregularly, so as to hide any distant prospect.
The traveller was a tall young man, strongly built, with an open countenance, somewhat sunburnt, expressive of unsuspiciousness and general good humour, though with a dash of determination in some of the features—especially the firmly-set lips, which, to a physiognomist, might have denoted a certain amount of obstinate determination. An old colonist would, moreover, have discovered at the first glance that the stranger was but a recent importation from the old country.
The horse on which he rode was a serviceable, rough-coated animal, strong-limbed and long-winded, as it had need to be, seeing that though it had already made several days' journeys, on scant fare and with little stable luxury, it had yet to bear its rider many other days before a day's rest could be granted. The steed was plainly accoutred, well-bitted, however; and the saddle, though it had seen service, was sufficiently comfortable for both man and beast.