"I suppose we must go," she said. "The blow is harder coming from one we trusted as a friend."
Geordie sprang up as Macleod finished speaking. His pale face was brilliant with excitement. Alec had told him that as yet he had said nothing of the gold, and that he meant to wait till George was strong enough to go with him to rescue it from its hiding-place. His voice was vibrating with triumph and delight as he said--
"Go, mother? Not we, indeed! What must you do, Macleod? Why, start off with Alec and see what he thinks about matters. Alec, you know. Take two or three men, and just look sharp about it. I wish I were strong enough to go. I believe I am; I feel quite right."
But he found his strength was not equal to his courage when he came to try.
"Yesslett, you go with Alec. It is more exciting than anything Crosby or I can tell you. And now I am not going to say another word about it till Alec comes back."
He was quite resolute, and notwithstanding the entreaties of Mrs. Law and Margaret and Martin he would not give them any further clue to his meaning.
Alec darted from the room, followed by Macleod and Yesslett, and a moment afterwards they saw them from the verandah, riding towards "the Dip" in the paddock, accompanied by Willetts and Howard from the Yarrun Station, who happened to be ready mounted in the yard.
Rather more than half an hour after Alec's departure to "the Dip" there was a great commotion amongst the dogs about the yard; they ran barking to the other side of the house, as they never did but when strangers rode up to the station. A moment or so afterwards Mrs. Beffling came in, all floury as to her arms, and said that two gentlemen, "leastways, ma'am, they wears coats and cloth trousers," had ridden up to the house, and that they wished to see Mrs. Law.
"Yes, I expected them. Show them in here, Beffling," said Mrs. Law, quite calmly.
Geordie was surprised to see how quietly his mother awaited her unwelcome guests. He was alone in the room with Mrs. Law, as Crosby and Margaret had gone into the garden just before.
It rather astonished George to find that Mr. Crosby, when he came in the next moment, was not a cruel, miserly-looking man, for he had depicted him in his imagination as a little, thin, and eager-faced man, with hungry eyes and bird-like claws. Old Crosby was small, to be sure, and had thin, tightly pursed-up lips, but the general expression of his face was kindly, almost benign. His voice, when he spoke, matched it, for it was smooth, insinuating, and false in every tone of it. He came in smiling and settling his yellow, unwholesome-looking neck in his limp shirt collar. His friend followed close behind him.