"Ah, there was a nice pair of you." Crellock groaned and seemed about to turn away, but the man's good genius had him tightly gripped that day, and he smiled again. "Don't be hard on me, Sir Gordon. I want to say something to you. I was going to your friend, Mr Christie Bayle, but--I couldn't do that." Sir Gordon watched him curiously. "You haven't turned bushranger, then? You're not going to rob me?" "No," said Crellock grimly. "Haven't I robbed you enough!" "Humph! Well?" "Ah, that's better," said Crellock; "now you'll listen to me. The fact is, sir, I've been thinking, since I've been living all alone, that forty isn't too old for a man to begin again." "Too old? No, man. Why, I'm--there, never mind how old. Older than that, and I'm going to begin again. Forty! Why, you're a boy!" "Well, Sir Gordon, I'm going to begin the square. I gave up the drink because--there, never mind why," he said huskily. "I had a reason, and now I'm going to make a start." "Well, go and do it, then. What are you going to do?" "Oh, get up the country, sir, stockman or shepherding." "Wolfing, you mean, sir." "Oh, no, I don't, Sir Gordon," said Crellock, laughing. "There's plenty of work to be got, and I like horses and cattle better than I do men now." "Well, look here," said Sir Gordon testily; "I don't believe you." "Eh?" "I don't believe you, sir. If you meant all this you'd have gone and begun it instead of talking. There, be off. I'm hot and tired, and want to be alone." Crellock frowned again, but his good genius gave him another grip of the shoulder, and the smile came back. "You don't understand me yet, Sir Gordon," he said. "No, I never shall." "I wanted to tell you, sir, that since Hallam was taken, I've been living up in the Gully House. I'd nowhere else to go, and I was desperate like. I thought every day that you or somebody would come and take possession, but no one did. Law seems all anyhow out here. Then the days went on. This horse had been down--sprained leg from a bad jump." "Confound your horse, sir! I don't want to hear your stable twaddle," cried Sir Gordon. Crellock seemed to swallow a lump in his throat, and paused, but he went on after a while: "The poor brute was a deal hurt, and tending and bandaging his leg seemed to do me good like. Then I used to send one of the blacks to town for food." "And drink?" said Sir Gordon acidly. "No--for tea; and I've lived up there with the horses ever since. There's--" "Well, why don't you go on, man?" "Give me time," said Crellock, who had stopped short. "There's Miss Hallam's mare there, too. She was very fond of that mare," he added huskily. Sir Gordon's eyes seemed half shut, as he watched the man and noted the changes in his voice. "Well, sir, I've lived there six months now, and nobody has taken any notice. There's the furniture and the house, and there's a whole lot of money left yet of what Mrs Hallam brought over." "Well?"