She's mad sure enough," he thought to himself; "I thought it was a ghost."

"I don't know," she wailed, "I don't know. You're a man,
and I'm a helpless girl. They turned me out! My mother's dead,
and my brothers gone away. Look! Look here!" pointing to a bruise
on her forehead. "The woman did that. My own father stood by and saw it done
-- said it served me right! Oh, my God!"

"What woman? Tell me all about it."

"The woman father brought home! . . . I want to go away from the bush!
Oh! for God's sake take me away from the bush! . . . Anything! anything!
-- you know! -- only take me away from the bush!"

Bob and his mate -- who had been roused -- did their best to soothe her;
but suddenly, without a moment's warning, she sprang to her feet
and scrambled to the top of the rock overhanging the camp.
She stood for a moment in the bright moonlight, gazing intently
down the vacant road.

"Here they come!" she cried, pointing down the road. "Here they come --
the troopers! I can see their cap-peaks glistening in the moonlight! . . .
I'm going away! Mother's gone. I'm going now! -- Good-bye! -- Good-bye!
I'm going away from the bush!"

Then she ran through the trees towards the foot of Long Gully.
Bob and his mate followed; but, being unacquainted with the locality,
they lost her.

She ran to the edge of a granite cliff on the higher side