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But it didn’t end, though it didn’t occur to either of them then. Georgina was the first to make the discovery.

She had brought Larry straight to the homestead, and now, since he needed no watching, she went down at last to her hut. The moment she stepped inside the room, she knew.

‘Oh, no! ’ she cried.

The room itself was untouched, but her desk was in a turmoil. The papers had been turned over, those not needed ... like her notes for the book ... tossed carelessly on the floor. But everything to do with the exploration— not the exploration in the Roper property but beyond the property, the fields where they had found the really big signs and consequently double-checked—was gone.

Georgina went through all the papers again—she must have made a mistake! But she hadn’t. All the pertinent details were missing, and only the non-relevant notes remained.

She sat down and bit by bit she began to piece things together.

That day she and Joanne had come back from the drove and Joanne had generously insisted that Georgina have first bath, when she had come down to her hut later she had had a feeling she had not left her papers quite like that. Now it wasn’t just a feeling, she
knew.
While she had been up at the homestead, Joanne had come and taken what she needed to take. Whether that had been the beginning, she did not know, but she did know now that other things had followed.

Joanne suddenly becoming a different person, Joanne pleading to type for her. A lost lab key. It had only been lost for a short period, but in that period Joanne could have had a duplicate cut; this was remote country, but she still might have known where to go.

Had
she had a duplicate cut? There was only one way to find out. Georgina went up to the house.

She went straight to the lab and put her own key in the door. But she did not turn the key, for there was no need. Someone in the lab must have heard her coming.

Larry Roper opened the door.

‘Yes,’ he said to her unasked question, and his voice was

tired, discouraged, ‘we’re a week too late. Well,’ stepping back for Georgina to come right in, ‘what do you think?’

What did she think? Georgina looked around and knew a moment of truth which, at another quick look at his tired and discouraged face, he must have known too, and only minutes before, for all the signs of shock and dismay remained.

Like the end of the table where she had done her reports, the pertinent portion of the lab was in a shambles. Everything to do with what they had discovered was missing.

‘She evidently knew, or was told, what to take, because ’ Larry shrugged helplessly and extended his hands.

‘Joanne wouldn’t know, she would have to be told. But who?’ Yet even as she said it, Georgina’s voice trailed off. There was only one possible person.

‘She came from Sydney with this idea?’ Roper asked.

‘Oh, no, she wouldn’t know about it then.’

He did not speak, but he was looking at her keenly.

Gulping, Georgina said: ‘Would—Craig Everson— would he ’

‘Yes, he would,’ Roper said grimly, ‘He‘d do anything to settle a score with me.’

‘But it’s more than that, isn’t it? It was something bigger than a settled score he was after. But would he have that knowledge?’

‘Everyone out here has a bit of know-how. Why, even Willy knows rocks from scones. Wouldn’t you, with a possible million waiting to be unearthed? But apart from that Everson would know very clearly. He might not have made a raging success at being a pastoralist, but he was always a bright boy.’

‘It needn’t have been him,’ Georgina said.

‘I think you know, as I know, now, that it’s him. They met at Fortescues’, didn’t they? Oh, yes, I saw them in my headlights just as you did. I think they met pretty frequently after that.’

‘They did,’ said Georgina.

‘Why do you say that?’ he demanded.

‘My stepsister told me.’

‘She told you, yet you saw no reason to pass the information on to me?’

‘No. I was upset. I knew it wasn’t rights but—but I didn’t want you hurt.’

‘What?’ he rapped.

‘At the time I thought—I believed –'

‘Then you were, and are, a fool, Brown. But now your foolishness has gone a step further—You’re a disaster. A disaster to me. Your consideration ... I can think of other words, but I won’t use them ... has cost me a cool million. Yes,’ at her stunned look, ‘it has.’

She rallied. ‘I’m not questioning the amount. I’m questioning the result of my consideration for you, as you put it. Surely there’s time yet—surely they couldn’t have –'

‘I’ve been in touch with Mining H.Q. already.’ Now Larry Roper paused, and when he spoke again he did so almost indifferently. ‘I’m a week too late.’

‘A week!’

‘Seven days. The length of time we’ve been away. Our friends got to work at once. I think if we could question Joanne she would admit that she was in this lab five minutes after we took off, down at your hut ten minutes later. She wouldn’t need long; she would have been well briefed as to what she was after.'

‘And then?’ Georgina questioned.

‘Mrs Willmott provided the “and then”. What was it she said while I lay concussed?’ A wry laugh.

‘She said,’ said Georgina wretchedly, ‘left ... gone ... moved on. But it takes a few days to get to Sydney by car, and by the time one settles in ’ She stopped at the look on Roper’s face.

‘You little fool,’ he said, ‘if you went up to Brydens’ now you’d find two cars, Everson’s and Joanne’s. With a prospect as big as this, they would fly.’

‘But there’s no service from here.’

‘They would charter a service with a million in view.’

‘Do you really credit that sum?’ she asked, awed.

‘I know it,’ he retorted.

‘Do you really think they went straight to the Mines Department?’

‘I also know that,’ he said grimly, ‘I told you so before. We’re a week too late. The claims were registered and paid seven days ago. Well, it was a nice thought to be that rich. And at least it will keep her out of her stepbrother’s hair, won’t it?’ He laughed sourly.

‘It’s all my fault.’ Georgina stood and clasped and unclasped her hands. She waited a little piteously for him to say, ‘No. No, it’s one of those things,’ but factually, baldly, a little cruelly, Roper agreed.

‘Yes.’

There was a moment’s silence in the verandah room that he had turned into a study-lab.

‘You knew something was going on but you never told me, and don’t go giving me that sentimental rot about not wanting to hurt me, because it doesn’t ring true. Why didn’t you tell me, Brown?’

Georgina shrugged. ‘Because Joanne has always been like that, going through strings of men, I mean. She will probably tire of Craig.’

‘Not with a fortune she won’t. But
Craig
, you said—you sound knowledgeable. Did you know him before?’

‘I travelled up here with him. My outfit broke down halfway and Craig brought me the rest of the way.’

‘That would give you several days and nights on the road,’ he said sharply.

‘Yes,’ she admitted.

‘So on your stepsister’s arrival you promptly introduced the pair. Why?’

‘I didn’t. Craig saw Joanne one day—I was there, too—then you and Joanne went past in your car, and he—well, he was instantly attracted. When Joanne came home she was interested too.’

‘It went on from there?’ he demanded.

‘Yes.’

‘And when did this’ ... he spread his hands to the shambles ... ‘first begin?’

‘I don’t know. I mean, I do now, but there were no signs then.’

‘With him meeting her every day! ’

‘But that was typical of Joanne,’ she pointed out.

‘It was also typical of Everson. Did you know that from your journey up?’ Again that sharp, probing note in his voice, but he did not probe. Instead he said: ‘So you don’t know when it began, but tell me what you do know, please.’

‘Coming home from the overlanding, Joanne changed.’

‘Yes, you mentioned that,’ he agreed, ‘she insisted you bathed first.’

‘When I went to the hut I had the feeling something had been touched, not obviously like this, but—but ’

‘Go on.’

‘There wasn’t anything else except Joanne insisting on typing for me.’

‘What?’ he demanded.

‘Yes,’ said Georgina miserably, ‘and the key.’

‘I was waiting for that,’ he nodded.

‘It was lost for a while. Only a short time.'

‘But enough time for an impression to be made,’ he said grimly.

‘Yes,’ Georgina agreed.

‘Anything more? I mean, how did she know what was in there?’

‘I—I’d taken her. She asked me to, and I saw no harm. All she did was clap her hands at the ribbons.’

‘And now she’s clapping her hands over our claims.’

‘Your claims, Mr Roper. And I’m sorry.’

‘I’m sorry, too. I’ve enough money, but a man is always sufficiently ambitious to be interested in more, otherwise the world wouldn’t go round. Besides’ ... a pause ... ‘I intend becoming a family man, and that always entails more.'

‘You—are marrying?’ she gasped.

‘Yes.’

‘Then Joanne wouldn’t have ’

‘Wouldn’t have had a chance? No,' he agreed, tightlipped.

‘Congratulations, Mr Roper. Do I know her?' Georgina was trying to think of all the girls around, but then the chosen one might be a city girl, and possibly was. Mrs Willmott had said she believed there was someone, but she did not know where.

‘Know her?' Roper said smoothly. ‘No—no, I don't think you do, not a boy like you.'

‘Mr Roper, I'll resign, of course,' she said with difficulty.

‘Yes, I think so, Brown. After all, we can’t go on like this.’

‘Like what?’ Georgina caught her breath and waited.

‘Living in deceit as you have,’ he returned.

‘Deceit...?’ her voice faded away.

‘Pretending all was well with Joanne when all the time she was ’

‘Oh, that,’ Georgina broke in.

‘What else is there?’ His glance was keen.

‘Nothing, sir. If—if you’ve finished with me, sir, I’ll go and pack.’

‘By all means, George. I've finished with you.— George ' he said as Georgina reached the door.

‘Yes, Mr Roper?’ she hesitated.

‘If you’ve anything else to say I'll still be here. At least I have to get back some order.'

About to offer to do it, Georgina said instead: ‘What else do you want me to say?'

‘The whole truth?' he suggested.

‘You’ve had it.'

‘Have I, Brown?’

She squared her shoulders. ‘If you think you haven’t, then it’s up to you, isn’t it, sir? Up to you, I mean, to reach your own conclusion.’

‘It would still have to be
said.'
The mighty Roper began discarding sheets of now unwanted papers and throwing them into a basket.

Georgina went out.

She did not know how to get away from this place, for she had no transport and no Craig any longer to take her, and it was scarcely a road where you could stand and thumb a lift. Nonetheless Georgina packed and stacked and tried not to think. Whatever happens, even if I have to walk every step of the way with my haversack on my back, she thought, I will
not
go in and ask him for help to get away.

She did it like that. She left the bags as she had before and just took her essentials, then she went out of the little hut for ever, trudged up the track for the last time and began the long walk to the gate. Heaven only knew what would happen then.

She was still a long way from the gate when he came after her in the jeep.

‘You damn fool, Brown, you can’t think of walking, and your chances of a lift in a car are very remote.’

'I'll walk, and I’ll camp at night,’ she said defiantly.

‘The heck you will! Haven’t you ever heard of the dangers of the open road these days?’

‘I can cope.’

‘Even a man is hard put to cope, and you are only a ’

‘Yes, Mr Roper?’

‘Only a boy,’ he finished.

She flushed. ‘I don’t want to borrow any transport, I don’t know when I can return it.’

‘Then the obvious thing is to keep working until you have enough money to enable you to leave independently.’

‘But you don’t want me, sir, you said so.’

‘Yes, I did,’ he said sternly, ‘I’ve finished with George Brown.'

‘Then ’

‘Oh, no, Brown,' he smiled thinly, ‘you're not tricking me into this.
You
have to say it.'

‘Say what?'

‘The whole truth. I told you so.’

‘But I've given it all to you,’ she said desperately, 'I've said how Craig and Joanne '

‘But you’ve still never said the most important thing, and it has to be said.'

‘You mean—about me?' she asked faintly.

‘Yes.' His smile was gone now.

‘But why '

‘Because it has to be said. Because you have to come to me as a Good lord, George, I’ve known from the beginning! Is it that hard to tell me?'

‘Yes. Yes, it is.'

‘But why?’

‘Because—well, because I'm brown and freckled and khaki and '

‘Does that matter to a boy?' he insisted.

‘No, but it matters to a ' she broke off.

‘I’m waiting, Brown.'

‘To a girl,' she concluded miserably.

‘Which you are?'

‘Yes.'

‘A girl who would have left here without telling me, because she was just a stubborn cuss.'

‘You knew already,’ she protested, ‘you just said so.'

‘I knew, but heavens above, I had to be
told
, hadn’t I?'

‘Why?'

‘Why? Because you had to be a woman coming to a man, surely even you can understand that? Why, Brown, you’re crying.' His stern voice softened.

‘I’ve wanted to for weeks,' confessed Georgina. ‘Women do cry, Mr Roper.'

‘My name is Larry. What’s yours? I’ve often wondered.’

‘Georgina.’

‘Well, you stuck near the truth at least in that. Why did you do it all? Why did you come and stay?’

She wiped her eyes. ‘I had to do it, out here is my world.’