“Ben’s got it. You ought to ask him to show it to you some time.” I wasn’t interested in the Green Flash at Sunset. I wasn’t interested in anything that night but Desmond. Most of the other guests were older than we were. We danced together and talked and talked.

“He told me he intended to go back to Australia in about two or three weeks’ time. He had been longing to get back because he had discovered land which he was sure was opal country, and he wanted to go out and prospect it. Ben and some others were interested in the project; it was going to need a good deal of money to develop it. He had a feeling about it. Some of the old miners laughed at him. They called it Desmond’s Fancy. But he believed in it. He was going to make his fortune out of Desmond’s Fancy.

“I can feel it, Jessie,” he said. (He always called me Jessie. ) “It’s Opal Country. Dry bush land … flat … lots of saltbush and not much timber except the mulga-that’s a sort of acacia-and mulga grass too. It's lowlying, scorched, eroded, with dry watercourses. I said to myself. That land speaks for itself. There’s something there-gold or tin perhaps, wolfram or copper, but something tells me it’s opal … precious opal.” He talked in an excited way . rather like Ben Henniker and I couldn’t help being excited too.

“We talked … how we talked, and I only realized how the time was flying when I heard the clock in the courtyard chime midnight. When the ball was over, Hannah helped me to change into my day dress. She was one of the servants who had stayed on at Oakland when we left. She hadn’t been there very long and was about my age, which I suppose made her understanding. Maddy helped too. She crept down the Dower House stairs and let me in. Without those two it would have been very difficult for me. The next day Hannah was to bring my ball dress across the stream and I would be able to choose my moment to take it into the house unobserved. So there was only Miriam to placate. That was easy. All she wanted was to hear about the ball so I told her. She was completely on my side then and thought with me that it was a wonderful adventure.

“When I brought the dress back next day there was a note from Desmond, delivered by Hannah at the stream. He must see me that afternoon. Of course I was there. We walked through Oakland Park and talked and talked and that night I went once more to Oakland to dine. I knew the servants were very pleased to see me there. Hannah told me that I had always been a favourite with them and that they enjoyed working for Mr. Henniker, so the fact that I had become friendly with him even though the rest of the family hadn’t -pleased them. Hannah said they talked of little else in the servants’ hall.

“They talked about you and Mr. Desmond Dereham,” she said.

“They think it’s beautiful.”

“And beautiful it was. You guess, of course, that we were in love. We were absolutely sure before the first week was out that there couldn’t be anyone else for either of us. It was true.” You must believe that.

Opal, in spite of what happened. I know they were all wrong. I know how it appeared. But it couldn’t be true. I never believed it for one moment. not even the very worst and most tragic moment. I knew it was untrue.

“He didn’t go back at the end of two weeks. He kept putting it off.

When he went, he said, he would take me with him. We would marry and go out together.

“How will you like being a miner’s wife, Jessie?” he used to ask.

“Ifs not an easy life, but never mind, we’ll make our fortunes just as Ben has, and then everything you wish for shall be yours.” Every night I would slip out across the bridge into the park and there he would be waiting for me. I couldn’t describe the bliss of those September nights. I couldn’t have managed without Maddy and Hannah. They were wonderful. I must have been very deceitful for Mama never guessed, and how I managed that I cannot imagine.

We had planned it all carefully. We were going to be married in three weeks’ time. Desmond would get a special licence and afterwards we would go to Australia together. We had told no one . not even Ben.

I was sure Ben would help us, but Desmond was not so sure. Ben seemed to think I was a fragile little doll who must not be subjected to the hardships of life, and life in a mining camp was very different from that lived in a gracious Dower House. I knew this and I was prepared.

So we put off telling anyone . even Ben . and then we came to that terrible night.

“Desmond told me that several of Ben’s associates were coming to Oakland and very soon Ben himself would be leaving for Australia. Such knowledge would have upset me some time ago but now that I was to go to Australia too I was glad that Ben would be there. They would decide about this project of exploiting the land which Desmond was so sure of and discuss prospecting and setting up shafts. Desmond was very excited.

“There’ll be Ben, myself and one of the leading opal merchants there,” he told me.

“When we get the funds we shall start at once.” Because of this conference which was to be held that night he wouldn’t be able to see me until the following afternoon, he told me.

Then he would be waiting by the stream as usual.

“But he never came. I never saw him again. What happened on that night nobody really knew, but many thought they did. Desmond had gone. He had disappeared without saying goodbye to anyone, and the Green Flash at Sunset had disappeared at the same time.

“You can guess what people said, for they were both missing at once.

They said there was only one answer-but it wasn’t the right one. I know it wasn’t. I will never believe it was. How could he have gone like that without telling me? We were going to be married in a few weeks. He was going to get the licence and I was going to Australia with him, but he had gone without telling me, although we were to have met that afternoon. He had gone . and the Green Flash at Sunset was gone too.

“I waited for him the next afternoon. Hannah came to me there. She had been crying.

“He’s gone. Miss Jessica,” she said.

“He went last night or early this morning. No one saw him go but he’s gone.”

“Gone, Hannah!” I cried.

“Gone where?” Hannah shook her head, then she said angrily: “As far as he can get from here. He’d better. He’s taken the Green Flash opal with him.” I cried out: “It’s not true. It can’t be true. ” I “I’m afraid it is,” said Hannah mournfully and looking at me with such pity in her eyes that I wanted to weep. She went on: “It wasn’t until mid-morning that we discovered his bed hadn’t been slept in. We couldn’t make it out. He’d taken his things with him though, and his room was quite empty. Then just when everyone was wondering why he went off like that, Mr. Henniker went to his safe for something. He knew right away that someone had been there … things weren’t just in their right places … and when he opened the case where he kept this Green Flash, it was empty. Mr. Henniker’s raging mad. He’s going to have that Desmond Dereham’s blood, he reckons. He’s calling him a thief, a scoundrel and a lying hound. You should hear the names he calls him. Are you all right. Miss Jessica ?”

“I don’t believe it, Hannah. I just don’t believe it.”

“You wouldn’t, but everyone else does.”

“I felt sick with fear, but I kept telling myself how absurd it was. I couldn’t forget how Desmond had glowed when he talked of the opals he would find.

“There’d never be one like the Green Flash,” he had said.

Then he had added quickly:

“But why shouldn’t there be?”

The days started to pass while I felt that I was living through a nightmare. I kept telling myself that it was a silly mistake and that Ben would find he had put his opal in another case. I went to see Ben.

He was like a raging bull.

“He’s got it,” he shouted.

“He’s gone off with the Green Hash. By God, I’ll have his blood. I showed it to them that night. They were all there when I took it out of the safe. He was sitting on my right … the young devil. I’ll shoot him dead. He’s got my Green Flash.”

“He didn’t do it, Ben,” I cried.

“I know he didn’t.”

“He stopped raging and stared at me.

“He’s deceived you,” he said soberly.

“Such a good-looking boy … such a pleasant young man. But he wasn’t all he appeared to be.”

There was nothing to be done, nothing to say. I couldn’t bear to talk to Ben. He was going away, he said. He was going to lose no time. He was going to follow Master Desmond Dereham to Desmond’s Fancy because he reckoned that was where he had gone. He would not be able to stay away from that place. Ben had seen the opal lust in his eyes and he had thought it was for what awaited finding in the Fancy, but it was for the Green Hash. He hadn’t realized this when he’d opened his safe and disclosed what lay in the box. He’d been blind, and he ought to have known what the young devil was after.

“I couldn’t bear to hear Ben talk like that so I stopped going to Oakland. I shut myself in with my grief, and they thought I was ill, for I grew pale and listless. For a time I simply didn’t care what happened to me. Then Hannah told me that Ben was going back to Australia.

“He’s going after the Green Flash,” she said.

“I saw him before he went, but our friendship had changed. Desmond was between us. Ben was so sure he was guilty. I was so certain that he was not.

“I cannot describe the desolation which had come into my life. Ben had gone and I had lost Desmond. I could not imagine greater tragedy. I still went to Oakland to see Mrs. Bucket and the rest, and they used to entertain me in the kitchen and talk about when Mr. Henniker would come back, for he would come back, they were sure. He had to keep coming back to Oakland; he had such a fancy for the place. They didn’t mention Desmond to me, but I knew they talked about him when I was not there.