Page:The little blue devil (IA littlebluedevil00mackiala).pdf/298

At Cooktown he had seen a paragraph in the Brisbane Courier, which stated that a young Englishman calling himself Lord Trent had attempted to reach Tanami overland, leaving Widgery on January 2nd. As nothing further had been heard of him, it was feared—etc. Tony was delighted at the firstfruits. The paper was nearly three weeks old. The news would be everywhere by now—everywhere that mattered. The relations would have sent for poor little Pamela. He wondered how long it would take to establish her firmly again as Lady Trent. And he wondered what Alison was thinking, supposing she saw a paragraph like that, and he wondered what he would find to do in Brisbane. . . .

There were plenty of things to wonder about, the difficulty was to find something of which you could be quite certain. He thought he would try and get a place as chauffeur, if there was a good chance. It is a life in which there are openings.

It was not hard to find a job. He was engaged by a Mr. Attwood, a bachelor. They liked each other at first sight, and Tony respected the car he had to look after; so, as he was a good worker and an excellent driver, there was peace in the land. He had not much time to himself, as his employer, an idle person, wanted the car very often. But that did not worry Tony much; the hardest part of his work was to answer promptly when he was addressed as Stacy, and not to omit the “sir” at the end of a sentence.

A pathetic, shadowy Pamela, with dark rims round her big eyes and a shabby serge frock, followed Mrs. Taylor off the boat in Brisbane, and sat wearily all day in the hotel, a solitary figure with no part in the many reunions which claimed her friend. Mr. Taylor, from their station somewhere in the north, had telegraphed to his wife that he