From Billabong to London

David Linton had just ridden into the stable-yard. It was midday, and though the night had been frosty, the sun was so warm that the master of Billabong was in his shirt-sleeves...

ONE of the men had found an injured wallaby in an outlying paddock. It had caught in a sagging fence-wire, and broken its leg; the man, engaged in restoring the fence to tautnes...

Norah kept her face from the room, looking out into the hurrying London street. Something quite unfamiliar was in her throat—a hard, hot lump. She felt Jim’s hand on her shoulde...

THE _Perseus_ was coming gently in to Durban Harbour, past a long breakwater and a high green bluff that towered sheer from the water. Some one had just told Norah that it swarm...

“Well, you forget all about everything else. At least, I do. Don’t you? It’s only a week since we saw land, but I feel as if I’d never been anywhere but on this old ship. You wa...

DUSK falls early in an Australian mid-winter, and as evening draws in, the frost in the air nips sharply after the brilliant sunshine of the day. It was half an hour later that...

THE passengers of the good ship _Perseus_ were holding what they bravely called a gymkhana. Their numbers had been slightly reinforced in South Africa; some people had left the...

“AS you know, Miss Norah,” the captain said gravely, “I discourage early rising. It’s a bad thing—leads to chronic attacks of superfluous energy, and embroils passengers with th...

Jim’s hand touched her arm, and Norah looked round. They had passed the Gellibrand light and were heading towards the wider spaces of Port Phillip Bay. Across the water the sunl...

IF you came to the homestead of Billabong by the front entrance, you approached a great double gate of wrought iron, which opened stiffly, with protesting creaks, and creaked al...

“You can’t keep it to yourselves,” Mr. Linton had said. “If there’s nothing in it, you might get yourselves into a good deal of trouble by interfering; and if your suspicions ar...

DARKNESS still hung over the sea when the little company on the _Perseus_ met at breakfast. Most of them were heavy-eyed and pale; but they made a brave effort at cheerfulness a...

Along every yard of its great length lay mighty ocean-going steamers: mail-boats, Orient and P. & O., big White Star cargo-ships, French liners, and all the miscellaneous collec...

NORAH and her father left their patients sound asleep, after luncheon, and went out to Umgeni on the top of an electric tram—seeing Kaffirs innumerable, in gala Sunday dress, an...

“No, they’re not bathing. I’ve been down, and there was no sign of them. I suppose they have gone out somewhere. They might at least get back in time for breakfast.”

She sat up in bed in the dark. From the skylight over her door a very faint light filtered in from the shaded lamp in the alley-way; but the cabin was very gloomy.

Jim, in his sleep, was riding after a bullock on the Billabong plains. The bullock was speedy, and he and Garryowen were doing their utmost to catch and turn him. They drew near...

They were steaming slowly in to the big harbour of Las Palmas. Jim and Wally were great friends with the quartermaster, although he had once fallen over them bodily, an awkward...

“Beast!” he said sleepily, and hit out in a wild fashion which had, very naturally, no effect. He opened his eyes, to see Jim, in his pyjamas, grinning at him over the end of th...

From Las Palmas the _Perseus_ ran into bad weather, and the Australians were sharply reminded that instead of their own hot December they were coming to English winter. Ice-cold...