Excerpt from Love, the Tyrant, or Where Her Heart Led In the intense stillness and clearness of the Australian night there was something weird and strangely oppressive; and a young man who stood at the door of a shepherd's hut which stood in a small clearing, looked round and shuddered slightly as if the solitude might be peopled by ghosts. He was pale and thin, with that red look about the eyes which fever paints so skilfully; and as he leant against the door he listened with the eagerness and impatience which revealed themselves in the twitch of his thin, parched lips. At his feet a dog lay curled up as if asleep, but his eyes were open, for, like the man, he was listening, and when his master said: "Arthur's late, Bob, isnt' he?" the dog wagged his tail as if he understood: which it's even money he did. The young man went in presently and stirred the fire under the rough kettle, lit the tallow candle, though the moon was shining brightly through the window, then dropped, rather than threw himself, beside the fire, and sighed wearily. Notwithstanding the heat, he shivered now and again as if with cold, and once he wiped the chilly dampness from his forehead with the sleeve of his coat. Half an hour passed and he had fallen into a fitful doze, when he heard the sound of a horse; the dog heard it, to, and sprang up with a bark of welcome. The young fellow rose, staggering slightly, and made his way to the door. As he did so, a horseman rode into the clearing, dropped from the saddle, spoke to the dog, that leapt caressingly upon him, and said, cheeringly: "Back at last, old man. How goes it?" "Oh, so so," replied the other. "I thought you were never coming - that something had happened. Look sharp and come in, Arthur." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.