of an English gentleman. They both could ride as soon as they could walk, and had gained that perfect mastery and management of a horse that only constant riding from childhood can give. Then they were both excellent bushmen, and could do everything on the station as well as any of the hands, which perhaps, after all, was of more importance to two Australian boys than any command of Latin prose or knowledge of Greeks roots could be.

Climbing up the other branch of the creek, and passing through the thick strip of uncleared bush, where in the darkness the laughing jackasses were uttering their strange weird cry, they entered the paddock and approached the house.

Wandaroo had been purchased by Mr. Law shortly after the separation of Queensland from the colony of New South Wales, and whilst the former country was in a wild and almost unknown state. He had selected Wandaroo on account of the creek which ran through it, as he thought it would always furnish water for his flocks. The timber house that he had originally built was still standing, but had been greatly added to as his family increased, and he became able to afford to extend the old homestead. A large and wide verandah ran along two sides of the house, shading the living rooms (for coolness is the one thing most desired in tropical Queensland), and the posts and roof of it were covered with a mass of gorgeous creepers. The roof of the house and verandah was formed of large sheets of bark carefully stripped from the trees and flattened for the purpose. These are pegged down on to the rafters and make an admirable heat- and water-proof covering.

The buildings about a head station are numerous, and from a distance Wandaroo looked more like a little village than merely the homestead and out-buildings of a single squatter. On one side was the store, a most important part of every head station, where all imaginable articles in the way of food and clothing were kept. Beyond it was the bachelors' hut, where the men attached to the station lived, and farther away were the stables and cart-shed, and the dry store where flour, salt, &c., were kept. On the other side was the strongly-built stockyard into which the herds of horses and cattle were driven at mustering time, and close by was the great wool shed where the sheep were clipped at shearing time and the fleeces stored.

To-night, by the light of the full moon, and of those great and glorious southern stars which blaze so royally in the Australian sky, the whole of the commonplace station buildings looked very beautiful. All little uglinesses were hidden, and the tender light, which fell so softly upon roof and wall and fencing, invested everything with a shadowy charm. The great gum trees by the house gleamed blue in the moonlight, and under their boughs the ruddy lights from the house shone out in brilliant contrast.

"Look at it, Alec," said George, breaking silence at last, as they crossed the paddock and approached the house. "Do you think that we can lose Wandaroo, which our father made, and where we were born?"

"No, we will not. We will find that gold, or die in the attempt. Nothing shall turn me back!"

So saying they entered the house.

CHAPTER II.

GAINING INFORMATION.

Only staying to wash their hands and to put themselves in some slight degree of order, they entered the large and comfortable room where tea was waiting for them; it was the largest in the house, and served for dining and general living room. Mrs. Law and Margaret had finished their meal before the boys came in, for they could not keep the manager, old Macleod, waiting. They were standing near the bright petroleum lamp talking earnestly. Mrs. Law, whose busy hands were never idle, was knitting a grey worsted stocking for one of the boys. The one woman servant, Mrs. Beffling by name, whom Mrs. Law kept to help her in the house was busy at one of the large cupboards at the end of the room, so that at first Alec could say nothing of what he intended doing, but directly that tea was over—it did not take them long that night, for both boys were too excited to eat—and the woman had left the room, he rose from the table.

"Mother," he began, with that simple directness of speech that was so characteristic of him, "I have been up at the rocks over the gully, and have been thinking what we must do. George came and found me out." Here he half turned and nodded towards his brother, who had moved to the wide open window, and was looking out into the night. "And I have told him all about it. We have laid our heads together, and have determined to go out prospecting to-morrow. You know that when father first bought Wandaroo he reserved the right of extending the run, at the same price per mile, towards the north-west. He never prospected the country in that direction, and since his death we have never done it. If we find good grass land there, and well-watered country, we might, if the worst comes to the worst, be able to take up a run there, and in a few years' time be doing all right again."

All this that Alec said was quite true. He had long wanted to prospect the country that lay beyond the borders of their own great run, but although it was the truth it was not the whole of the truth. He said nothing of their wild dream of finding gold in those far-distant north-west ranges. As he had said to George, he knew that the thought of it would alarm their mother, for the native tribes were warlike, cruel, and unfriendly, and besides this he did not wish to give her any hope that might fail her at last. Alec spoke in the low tones his voice always sank to when he was excited, and when he ended his square jaw was set in a firm, resolute manner that in itself showed the determined and unconquerable spirit of the young man.

Mrs. Law knew her sons well enough to be sure that when Alec spoke and looked as he then did he would brook no opposition, and she was a wise enough woman to have learned that she might lead her high-spirited sons when she would fail did she try to drive them. In Australia, too, a man seems to develop earlier than in Europe; and although Alec was only nineteen, he was always consulted on the management of the run, and his opinion as an experienced bushman and stock rider attentively listened to.

"Have you carefully thought of it, Alec?" said Mrs. Law, laying aside her knitting for a moment, and looking at her son, for the suddenness of his resolve had somewhat astonished her, as she had never heard anything of this plan before. "How will the station go on?"

"Yes, mother, I have thought of it all, I think. We are full-handed just now, for Macleod engaged that extra shepherd that we wanted for the South Creek station when he was down in Bateman. He will be a good useful fellow, I think. And Yesslett can act as ration-carrier; he knows the run well enough by this time."

"How long shall you be away?" asked Mrs. Law.

"Can't say. We shall take flour enough, and tea, and so on, for a month or so, but we may be longer, so you mustn't be frightened, mother. We must face the worst, and be prepared for a move if that old brute of a Crosby turns us out."

"Who shall you take with you?" asked Mrs. Law, managing to repress the tears that lay so near her poor sorrowful eyes.

"George, and one or two of the black boys."

"Oh, shall you take Geordie?"

"Yes, mother," Margaret interposed; "let George go." She knew well enough that the brothers would stand by each other to the death, and that George, young though he was, would be Alec's best protection.

"Do you think that I would let Alec go without me?" said a clear voice from the window.

And Alec said, "I would sooner take Geordie than any man on the station. He rides and climbs better than any one of them, and nothing tires him. And now, mother, good-night. Don't sit up for me; you have had an anxious, sad day. I am going down to the gunyahs" (huts) "to get a couple of boys to go