Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 28, 2025
"Sure he's just pining for a change of air and a sight of the bush once more. It's Waroona Downs that's the place where he can get what he wants and recover so as to catch those villains that have done him so much harm. I've come to fetch you, Mr. Durham.
Had he not just ridden along the track round the edge of the water, he would not have believed it was there, so absolutely was it hidden from the roadway. For a moment he hesitated whether to go on to Waroona Downs or return to the township at once, and arrange for the treasure to be removed.
"Hands up, or you're dead men!" Springing to his feet Durham faced towards the door. Standing in it were two figures, one the yellow-bearded man he had seen at Waroona Downs, the other a man of slighter build whose face was entirely concealed by a handkerchief hanging from under his hat and gathered in at the throat, with two holes burned for the eyes.
Then he rose and stood staring blankly out over the sombre mystery of the bush, long since bereft of the faint glimmer of the new-born moon, veiled in shade, silent as the thin wisps of filmy mist which floated in the still air along the course of Waroona Creek. In the morning Mrs.
Burke had rebuffed him on the previous evening, the hostility of manner she had displayed towards him up to the time he and Brennan left Waroona Downs, weighed upon him. He could not account for the change which had come over her.
Each time he had measured swords with her she had triumphed just as, in the far-off days, Kitty Lambton had triumphed. Kitty Lambton! He pulled himself up short as the name passed through his mind. Why should he recall her now as Kitty Lambton when she had ceased to be that the day she left Waroona Downs with O'Guire?
They would have turned out en masse and escorted her some miles on her way to the junction when she set out from Waroona for the south, but word was passed round that she wanted to go away in silence, unobserved. Three months later Harding followed her. There was no staying the township then.
It was more to ascertain whether the heroine of the coach journey were the same as the owner of Waroona Downs, than to learn what Eustace had or had not said, that Durham determined to ride out to the station. Even as his glance wandered over the picturesque scene before him, he was impatient to press on five miles had yet to be covered before he reached Waroona Downs.
Under Dudgeon's ownership Waroona Downs flourished, and later he acquired the largest station in the district. The success he enjoyed at Waroona Downs followed him. His ownership of Taloona alone made him the richest man in the community. But no amount of money could bring back to him the nature which had been his before the bitterness of betrayal changed him to a misanthropical cynic.
He made another effort to sit up. It was not entirely successful, but it enabled him to see out of the vehicle. Away behind them the dark shadow of the range between the township and Waroona Downs rose against the sky. "Where is Mrs. Burke?" he called, turning his face towards the form of the driver. The horses stopped, and the figure on the box leaned back as a merry laugh came down to him.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking