G. B. Lancaster

“ It was the sea, without life, without movement. It was the empty beginning of the world before man moved on the face of it. And, more truly than all, it was the rimless, mysterious country that had clogged his feet through the dreams of many years, and he feared it.
There was evil in the sensuous smell of flax-swamp that rose to windward; and in the clumps of stiff, wide headed cabbage-trees that whispered together with a feverish tapping of dried fronds; and in the tussock that rolled out eternally before the stumbling hoofs to meet the livid sky afar off. ”

“ Verenin swore in stolid fashion. “I'm hanged if you're going to patronise us for it,” he said. “She is Our Lady. But she ought to go—though God knows how we'll, get on without her.”
Harton stared through the window at the flushed sunset over the plain. “You're right,” he said slowly. “It's not a life for a girl. She stays out half the night talking to the wind and the cabbage-trees and things. I've heard her. And the joy has gone out of her. But—I don't know if this is the way. She doesn't love you, Crandeck.”
“What does that matter?” said Crandeck, and laughed. “She's only a child. ”

“ There were two brace of teal on the string, and they had fallen to Our Lady's gun.
She climbed the little hill, and ran along the track to the flagstaff; and the bite of crystal air had brought the red to her cheeks and the gay laugh to her mouth. “Do you feel like a demon or a god?” she asked. “I feel like both every time I shoot. It is so wonderful and so very terrible to have power over life and death——”
“One god shoots only to wound,” said Crandeck, drawing closer. ”

“ Then Harton ground his heel into the tussock of the plain, and departed, cursing in his beard.
Harton did not speak of this to any man until the night before Our Lady's wedding, when he and Tony rode home through the night past what had once been Jamison's eastern boundary.
Tony nodded at the bald recital. “Yes,” he said. The plain is not even good arable land to Crandeck. But to her, none of us know a tithe of what it is to her.”
“Don't be a fool! How can it be anything to her?”
“That depends on whether inanimate things have soul-power over humans.” ”

“ She should marry and go away from it. In England, women aren't allowed to——”
“Don't talk piffle,” said Harton, driving a nail home steadily; “and don't come to me for comfort if you let those ideas out on Our Lady. We can't get along without her, and she can't get along without us. So you'd best take those sheep of yours, and be off home, young man. It's going to be a snorter of a night.”
“I think that very probably I shall marry her and take her away myself,” said Crandeck unheeding. ”

“ Harton came to his feet as Crandeck swung round.
“S'pose you'd better shut up,” he said sharply. “Do you think any of us would speak to her of marriage with this sorrow upon her? She is more ours to guard than ever. No.... We'll keep the house-block, and Mrs. Rooney and Our Lady shall live on there till we see how things turn out. And no man shall say a word of love to her without consulting us first. We are on our honour, now, boys.”
Tony and Harton bought the land that Jamison's boundary-dogs had guarded, and gave them new places whereon to beat their flint-hard circles in the tussock. ”

“ They are stupidest of all—except granny knots, and—and dad's 'Must nots' when I want to do something and he won't let me. Take the ducks down to the kitchen, Crandeck. I'm going to light the lantern.”
No man dare lay hand on the flagstaff if it was not Our Lady's will, and Crandeck slid down over the frozen tussock until he bumped into Harton with such a force that over-set his temper. ”

“ Then Tony's young voice took command. “Crandeck's got more sense than I gave him credit for. Our Lady will give obedience to you, Harton, if you tell her in the name of us all. But no other earthly power will move her away from the plain.”
“I'll do it,” said Harton; and got up and went out into the night.
And Payne was muttering low to Verenin: “This is a tough bone for any of us. But it's old Harton has to break his teeth over it.”
Next morning Harton tracked Our Lady to the patch of manuka beyond the creek, and she looked up from her half-plaited stock-whip gravely. ”

“ Tony! Is he asleep in there, boys?”
Jamison pulled out his pipe. “Lassie ... come here! Harton and Crandeck——”
Our Lady came to the window, and the frank brightness of her young face met Crandeck's curious eyes.
“Did they give you any tea?” she said. “Whisky and pipes! Oh, how very silly! You'll have a head in the morning, you know. Vic always has a head when he comes back from town, You do, Vic, and then you're not fit to speak to. Was he fit to speak to coming up, Crandeck?”
“Don't ask it,” said Payne. “There's never any sense in telling too much truth. ”

“ She says she gets it from the plain. But ... there are times when a fellow needs just the sort of help that a woman only can give—another man's no use; and who would do it but Our Lady? And she knows how to use a whip when we deserve it, too. By George, she does!”
Crandeck was angry and disgusted. Because it pleased him to take interest in Our Lady, he did not care to hear that these other men held a claim to her.
“It's iniquitous,” he said. “No good can come to a girl who tries to lead a man's life. I shall tell Jamison so.”
“Do,” said Harton dryly. ”

“ She turned from him then, her hands hanging loose. All power for fight had gone out of her. “Very well,” she said. “It doesn't matter. You are too strong for me. But—I don't know if you are too strong for—it.” ”

“ Crandeck saw this for himself in the next week when he went the round of the boundary-dogs with Our Lady. She drove the tip-tray through the creeks and scrub, and Crandeck guarded the water-billies and the piles of raw meat when the grades were steep. The smell of the wide dun plain was growing yet more horrible with the weeks; and with the taste of it in his mouth he spoke to her.
“What's the best thing to do with anything you hate and can't get away from?” ”

“ Harton's saddle creaked. He was gathering himself for direct speech.
“The only woman,” he said. “But you are not the only man, and you needn't begin to think it. There are always half a score fellows knocking about Jamison's station——”
“Quite so. Of course there would be. Where do you come in?”
“That's no business of: yours,” said Harton in sudden curtness. “Look here, Crandeck, it's as well to be plain about this. We—we all think a lot of Our Lady——”
“Sort of syndicate. I see.”
“You don't,” said Harton, losing his temper. “Our Lady is a child, and we are her playmates ”