McKeith returned, without warning, the following afternoon.

He was not alone, but had spurred on in advance of the other two men he had brought with him.

Lady Bridget, reading in her hammock at the upper end of the veranda, heard the sound of a horse approaching, and saw her husband appear above the hill from the Gully Crossing.

She got to her feet, expecting that he would ride up to the veranda, calling 'Biddy--Biddy,' as he usually did after an absence.

But instead, he pulled up suddenly, turned his horse in the direction of the Bachelors' Quarters, and passed from her line of vision.
She supposed, naturally, that someone at the Quarters had attracted his attention, then remembering that Ninnis and the white men were out with the cattle, wondered, as the minutes went by, who and what detained him.
Tommy Hensor, running up from the garden with his evening dole of vegetables, enlightened her.
'Boss come back, Ladyship.