.

NO COMPROMISE.
While Gavan Blake was conferring with his clients, a very different sort of conference was being held at Kuryong.

The return of Charlie Gordon, accompanied by Carew, had been voted by common consent an occasion for holiday; and although, according to theory, a bush holiday is invariably spent in kangaroo-hunting, yet the fact is that men who are in the saddle from daylight to dark, from week-end to week-end, generally spend a holiday resting legs that are cramped from the saddle, and arms that ache from lifting sheep over hurdles or swinging the gates of drafting-yards.
Thus it was that, on the holiday at Kuryong, the Bachelors' Quarters--two large dormitory-like rooms that opened into one another--were full of athletic male figures sprawling on the beds, smoking black pipes all day, and yarning interminably.

The main topic of conversation was Peggy's claim against the estate.

They had all heard the rumours that were going round; each had quietly been trying to find out what Peggy had to go on, and this pow-wow was utilised for the purpose of comparing notes.