Part 34 (1/2)

Frohter leaped to the ground The sreat opaque billows and the air scorched their faces, for through the denseand springing like living things thrown out in a skirrass-covered stretch of country They dashed forward towards it, their eyes half blinded, their lungs choking, and their skin blistering

”Light it there,” Slaughter gasped; and Tony paused to get his rass, and in a round, the fla hither and thither as they licked up the fuel of the grass In acircle, the curve to ardas it ran over the ground Through the line of flame and smoke he saw the station loom A moment later it stood clear on the blackened earth, and on either side of it the broken line of fla to his feet, he ran over the still sht in his ht

He reached the verandah, which was reeking with the smell of scorched wood, and rushed round to the other side The line of flarass country at the back with toweringoverhead On the verandah the blind woainst the wall, and beside her Ailleen was standing

She turned as she heard him, and took a step towards him with outstretched hands

”Thank God you caht her in his ar!” he whispered ”Ailleen, you areto hiht you had forgotten”

”You sent me away the day I came, and they said----”

”Tony!”

She raised her head as she spoke, and looked at him with eyes full of deep reproach

”I hardly cared for anything then,” he said

”Tony, I never ht----I'm so sorry, Tony”

The voice of the blind woman interrupted them

”Where is he? Where is he? Why doesn't he coot,” Ailleen exclaio to her”

”And where's Slaughter?” Tony cried, co back from the clouds of happiness to the reality of their situation to discover that he only had returned to the station

He hurried round to the other side of the house The ground was black, with s here and there for a considerable distance ahile a hundred yards off he saw an undefined heap lying

The sight of itwhat he dared not think

It was Slaughter, senseless, with blackened face and singed hair, lying where he fell when the flames swept up around hi his till he was overco, half dragging hi hi, met him with some water, and between then of returning vitality But consciousness was longer in reviving, and Slaughter still lay insensible when a rescue party froh the lines and reached Barellan

For hter lay ill, al; for the nightly gatherings at Marmot's tee which careat bush fire

The charred ruins of the Three-h to put to shahter's shoulders, and for that alone Birralong, collectively, acknowledged the blarievous fault But there was ment of error needed to balance accounts The fire that Tony lit in the grass at Barellan would have been of no value in saving the station had not another been lit farther away and nearer the onward rushi+ng line of raging fury The heat and shter had dashed alrass; and the , who knehat bush fires hter's act

”Cold-blood Slaughter, eh?” Cullen said, when he heard it; and then he stood up and took off his hat, and reht his hter lay nearly dying at Barellan, the reeted the mention of his naossips of the town The story that Tony had heard fro Barber, and which he had re-told at the Flat, was known to every one; Nuggan, anxious to cover his retreat fro it

Later, when rumour had it that the Lady of Barellan had clai was prepared to support her, more especially when it was known that Ailleen had never wavered in her allegiance to the chaht to hter had recovered, and even then, in a legal sense, there was not o on Only was there the stateain in the features and figure of Tony; but it satisfied Birralong, and no one came forward to dispute it Even if the question had been raised no interest would have been served, for Mrs dickson willed that if Barellan could not be his, it should be Ailleen's, and with Peters's Reef a ”boomer,” as Palmer Billy averred, their future was assured when Tony and Ailleen ed

Birralong took it soberly till the last event occurred Then festivity reigned supreme, and the resources of the Rest were strained to meet the calls, made by a thirsty district, to do honour to the occasion And alas there another cheer and another excuse for a toast when the raucous voice of Pal of dawn--that they were ”both to be ranked with the real McKay, and both were colonial born”