The Rider of Waroona Part 50

"You found it? When?"

"Early to-day. Before I met you."

The head fell back. "I am glad," she said. "You are the first man to beat me--but I love you."

"Tell me how you managed to deceive everyone as you did."

"I acted. Once, for a time, when things got too hot for us, I went on the stage. It threw the 'tecks off the scent. I wanted to stay at it, for I liked it, but mother was mad to ruin Dudgeon, and Dad could not keep straight. So we began again. I wore a wig and made up. You'll find it in the cave."

"I have seen it."

"Oh, if I could only have married you," she gasped. "If I had only met you earlier!"

"But about Eustace," he said quietly.

"Yes, I'll tell you. I went to the bank--like this--and saw Eustace. I slipped into the kitchen and drugged the tea. I knew they all took it.

Then Dad and I broke in. It was quite easy. I climbed up the verandah, opened the back door, and let Dad in. They were all dead asleep. We took the keys and cleared the safe. Every place was locked up again and left just as we found it. Dad went out, and when I had locked the back door I went over the verandah again."

"How did you get the gold away?"

"The buggy was in the bush. We whitewashed the horses as a blind. We knew they hated the colour up here. It puzzled everyone."

"But when did you discover this place?"

"Dad knew it in the old days. He and mother used to meet here in secret--there is a way across to the ford--the water gets shallow in one place--it was there Dad shot----"

Her voice caught and she turned appealing eyes to him as she struggled for breath.

"Give me--rum," she muttered, and he rested her head on his arm, while he slowly poured some of the spirit between her lips. For a time she lay so still he thought she had gone, till there came a wavering sigh and she moved her head slightly.

"It was--nearly--over----" she whispered.

"About Eustace?" he said. "Can you tell me now?"

"Yes--I'll try," she answered. "Don't leave me--stay with me till the end, won't you? Give me--your word."

"I will stay," he replied.

The head resting on his arm turned until the eyes looked straight into his. They were filled with the gentle light he had seen in them when, through the momentary lifting of the veil of unconsciousness, he had been enabled to catch a glimpse of her real nature.

"Then I'll tell you--everything," she whispered. "We had to fix suspicion on someone. When I saw him he had no nerve. I offered to shelter him. He agreed, and I let him out of the window, and pretended to go on talking to him all the time he was getting away into the bush.

You know what happened then."

"At the bank? Yes. But what became of Eustace?"

"He was at the house. He was there the night you came. He nearly gave himself up. He was coming when he heard you say who you were. So Dad knocked him on the head and put him in the cellar."

"While I was there?" Durham exclaimed.

"Yes. When you went to see to your horse. Then later we had to trick you. Dad put something in the tea like I did at the bank, only it would have killed you all he put in. He wanted to. He wanted to after, and tried to, but I--I wouldn't let him--because I loved you. But I made you sleep that night--Dad had to make fresh tea, and I put the stuff in. We watched you go off on the verandah while you were smoking, and then tied you up. It was hard to make you wake, but we had to--Dad had taken Eustace's handkerchief--we knew you would be convinced if you found it--after seeing me--and we--we shot your horse, and made the others bolt."

"But afterwards? What happened to Eustace afterwards?" he asked as she stopped.

"We had to keep him there, then, because he knew. He was there in the cellar the night you came from Taloona. You heard him cry out. So Dad brought him here and tied him up. He was here all the time you were at the house. The evening after you saw Brennan, when you talked to me on the verandah, Dad came and found him escaping. Dad killed him. He had to. He shammed drunk next day, so that you should not suspect him. There is a short cut from the house, and Dad took it after you left, and got to the ford before you. That's all."

"When Taloona was stuck up----"

"Dad and I," she said. "We didn't know you were there. You hit me, and I--oh, darling, it broke my heart when I saw you fall, but I had to.

That is why I took you away to nurse you. I kissed you when you didn't know."

"The other night--when you rode through the town?"

She lay silent and he repeated the question.

"I was--half drunk. So was Dad. We did it out of devilment. They were all such fools--all but you--and you nearly shot me. The bullet grazed my horse. You will see the cut on the shoulder. You nearly caught Dad.

He was in the police-station when you got back. He cracked every crib in the place--I wasn't in that."

"Where did he hide?" Durham asked.

"In the yard--where Eustace was--you never looked there."

A convulsive shudder ran through her.

"But to-night--where were you going to-night when I met you?" he asked.

"To kill Dudgeon. Dad only just got home. I could die happy if I only had."

Again her frame quivered, and she was racked with a fierce struggle to get her breath. She lay against him, her head resting in the hollow of his arm, her eyes closed, and her mouth twitching.

"Tell him," she whispered between her panting gasps. "Tell him--I--tried----"

He touched her hands lying limply in her lap; they were icy cold. Her head was growing heavy on his arm and her lips were turning blue. He moistened them once more with rum as her breathing became almost imperceptible.

For a moment her eyes opened and looked into his with an expression of wonderful tenderness.

"Dudgeon is already dead," he whispered gently.

She started and tried to sit up, but could only raise her head.

"Dead," she whispered. "Dead!"

Then, as though the news galvanised her waning strength into one last tumultuous effort, she flung out her arms and sat up, with wide-open eyes staring fixedly into s.p.a.ce.

"Dad! Dad!" she cried. "You did--you did, Dad. Oh, thank----"

Her arms fell, her head lolled forward, and her body lurched against Durham as, with a broken, gasping sigh, she collapsed into a nerveless, jointless thing.

He bent his head and placed his ear to her breast above her heart. There was not the faintest throb, and he took his arm from around her. As he did so she rolled over, her face upturned towards the moon, at which her wide-open eyes stared and her mouth gaped.