After his clients were gone Blake looked at the certificate for a
long time, asking himself, "Shall I take the risk or not?" He was
about to do a criminal act, and though it was not his first, he
flinched every time he crossed the border-line. He lifted his hand,
and hesitated; then he remembered his dismissal from Kuryong, and
caught sight of a dunning letter lying on his table. That decided
him. The risk was worth taking. The danger was great, but the stake
was worth it. He took an eraser, made a few swift light strokes
on the paper over the almost illegible writing, and "Patrick Henry
Keogh" disappeared; on the space that it had occupied he wrote
"William Grant," in faint strokes of a pencil. He had crossed the
border-line of crime once more.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
A LEGAL BATTLE.
And now, after hauling the reader pretty well all over Australia--from
mountain-station to out-back holding, from cattle-camp to buffalo
run--we must ask him to take a seat in the Supreme Court at Sydney,
to hear the trial of the "great Grant Will Case."
Gavan Blake had made no effort towards compromise. He knew the
risk he was running, but he had determined to see it through. The
love, the ambition, the hope that had once possessed him had turned
to a grim desperate hatred, and he would risk everything rather
than withdraw the case.
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