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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Roaring Fifties, by Edward Dyson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In the Roaring Fifties
+
+Author: Edward Dyson
+
+Release Date: November 11, 2005 [EBook #17045]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE ROARING FIFTIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Peter O'Connell
+
+
+
+
+
+IN THE ROARING FIFTIES
+
+By
+
+EDWARD DYSON
+1906
+
+I
+
+THE night was bright and cool, and the old East Indiaman moved slowly on
+the heaving bosom of the ocean, under a strong full moon, like a
+wind-blown ghost to whose wanderings there had been no beginning and
+could be no end--so small, so helpless she seemed between the two
+infinities of sea and sky. There was no cloud to break the blue
+profundity of heaven, no line of horizon, no diversity in the long lazy
+roll of the green waters to dispel the illusion of an interminable ocean.
+The great crestless waves rose and fell with pulsing monotony, round,
+smooth and intolerably silent. It was as if the undulating sea had been
+stricken motionless, and the ship was damned to the Sisyphean task of
+surmounting one mysterious hill that eternally reappeared under her prow,
+and beyond which she might never pass. Suddenly the ghost faltered on the
+crest of a wave, fluttering her rags in the moonlight, possessed with a
+vague indecision. Shouting and the noise of hurrying feet broke the
+silence. There was a startling upheaval of men; they swarmed in the
+rigging, and faces were piled above the larboard bulwarks. A boat dropped
+from the ship's side, striking the sea with a muffled sound, and was
+instantly caught into the quaint lifting and falling motion of the
+Francis Cadman, as the oily-backed waves slid under. Four men in the boat
+bent smartly to the oars, a fifth stood erect in the prow, peering under
+his hand over the waste of waters; another at the tiller encouraged the
+rowers with cordial and well-meant abuse. A hundred people shouted futile
+directions from the ship. The gravity of the Indian Ocean was disturbed
+by the babble of dialects. One voice rose above all the rest, sonorous,
+masterful, cursing the ship into order with a deliberate flow of
+invective that had the dignity and force of a judgment.
+
+The boat drew off rapidly. The men, squarely and firmly seated, bent
+their heavy shoulders with machine-like movements, and when they threw
+back their faces the rays of the moon glittered and flashed in their
+dilated eyes and on their bared teeth. The sailor at the tiller swayed in
+unison, and grunted encouragement, breaking every now and then into
+bitter speech, spoken as if in reverent accord with the night and their
+mission, in a low, pleading tone, much as a patient mother might address
+a wayward child.
+
+'Lift her, lads--lift her, blast you! Oh, my blighted soul, Ellis! I'd
+get more square-pullin' out of a starved cat with ten kittens--I would,
+by thunder! Now, men, all together! Huh! Huh! hub!'
+
+The boatswain strained as if tugging a stubborn oar. In the interval of
+silence that followed all bent attentive ears, but no call came from the
+sea. The sleek oars dipped into the waves without a sound, and swung
+noiselessly in the worn rowlocks. The man at the prow remained rigid as a
+statue, and Coleman resumed his whispered invocation.
+
+'Bend to it, you devils! One! two! three! Morton, don't go to sleep, you
+swine! Ryan! Tadvers, you herrin'-gutted, boss-eyed son of a barber's
+ape, are you rowin' or spoonin' up hot soup? Pull, men! Huh! That's a
+clinker! Huh! Shift her! Huh! May the fiend singe you for a drowsy pack
+o' sea-cows! Pull!'
+
+The men threw every ounce of power into each stroke, the voice of the
+boatswain blending with their efforts like an intoned benediction, and
+the treacly sea foamed under the prow into drifted snow which ran merrily
+in their wake. For a tense moment the boat hung poised upon a high
+roller, as if about to be projected into the air, and the man in the
+prow, electrified, threw out an arm with a dramatic gesture. The
+instincts of the ex-whaler triumphed in that moment of excitement.
+
+'There she blows!'
+
+Instantly Coleman fell into a condition of profound agitation; he poured
+out a lava-flow of vituperation upon the heads of his men; he cursed them
+for weaklings and waster and hissed phrases shameful to them and
+discreditable to their parents. The crew increased their stroke. Already
+the perspiration was streaming from their indurated hides; their wet
+faces and breasts glistened in the night. Every now and again the
+look-out, discovering a black spot where the moon's rays splashed a
+smooth-backed wave with silver, uttered an inarticulate cry that struck
+the men like a spur, and all the time his pointing hand was a finger-post
+to the steersman.
+
+Meanwhile the object of this chase, a fragile, white-faced girl, had
+fought with the mammoth waves as with inveterate beasts seeking to stifle
+her in icy embraces. A mere atom plunged in their depths as in cavernous
+and boundless darkness, she had struggled with an ocean the whole of the
+focus of which were leagued against her, possessed all the time with a
+foolish and trivial remembrance of child hood, the vision of a little
+gray kitten, with a weight about its neck, striving to beat its way up
+through clear waters, sending out tiny bubbles of crystal that danced in
+mockery of its dying.
+
+On the surface she was swung across seeming great distances, till a
+strong arm out of the night and the vastness of things seized her, and
+the tension of the struggle passed from her limbs, leaving a sense of
+appeasement as sweet as sleep. She heard a man's voice directing her, and
+obeyed without understanding. Now the sea supported her like a soft and
+pleasant bed, she had no fear and little consciousness. A few stern words
+buzzed in her head like bees--'Sink your arms! Don't try to breathe when
+we're under! Keep your mouth shut!' They were very absurd: they could
+have nothing to do with her; but she had heard them somewhere, and she
+obeyed.
+
+The man lay well back in the water, with little more than his chin and
+lips above the surface, his left hand, twisted in the woman's hair,
+rested in the nape of her neck, sustaining her with scarcely an effort.
+An ocean swimmer from his early boyhood, great waters had no terrors for
+him, and when he found the drowning girl he knew that all would be well,
+provided the ship's boats were successful in their search.
+
+The girl was very tractable: she lay perfectly still. He looked into her
+pale face; her eyes were wide open, staring straight up at the feeble
+stars. Every minute or so he cried aloud, or whistled a shrill call
+between his teeth, but the action did not disturb the flow of his
+thoughts. Despite the peculiarity of his position, he had drifted into a
+strange mood of introspection. Why had he done this thing? What was the
+girl to him that at the first sight of her danger he should have
+forgotten his philosophy of self, his pride in his contempt for his kind,
+and his fine aloofness? She was no more in his life than any other of the
+four hundred strangers on board. The act of leaping into the sea had been
+a mere impulse, the prompting of an unsuspected instinct. She might hate
+his race, but he was still its slave. All his life he had been an
+Ishmael, feared and disliked; humankind had given him only cause to hate
+and despise it, and yet blood remained stronger than belief when a human
+life was in peril. The young man laughed, and the boat's from the Francis
+Cadman, drawing near, heard the mocking laughter and ceased rowing,
+chilled with a superstitious terror.
+
+'Good God!' cried the look-out, 'there's two of 'em.'
+
+The sailors turned in their seats, staring in stupid awe at two heads
+clearly visible in the moonlight that lay like silver gossamer on the
+dark green sea--two heads where they had expected to find but one. The
+boatswain, frozen in the forward movement of his swing, glared
+open-mouthed, speechless; he felt his stiff hair stirring strangely under
+his hat, a pronounced uneasiness moved in the boat. Only one woman had
+fallen from the ship, and here, out in the deep trough of the lone sea,
+they found two creatures, and one laughed eerily. Sailormen believed in
+many awesome mysteries: ghosts and goblins peopled the ocean like a vast
+graveyard. The boat held off, and no man spoke, but Ryan shivered under
+his skin, and fumbled his memory for the name of a potent saint.
+
+'Ahoy, there!' cried the young man impatiently; but winning no response,
+he swam slowly to meet the boat as she drifted. He raised the girl, and
+one of the men seized her mechanically, and drew her limp form from the
+water. No hand was offered to the rescuer, but as the boat lifted he
+seized her prow, and drew himself aboard. All eyes were upon him, staring
+dubiously.
+
+'Divil take me if it ain't the Hermit!' gasped Ryan, with an expiration
+of intense relief.
+
+Coleman's stony expression instantly relaxed, he recovered himself with a
+jerk of the bead.
+
+'Well,' he murmured bitterly, 'of all the stuck pigs! What the blue fury
+'re ye all sittin' garpin' at like a lot o' demented damn kelpies? Give
+way there! How's the young lady, Smith?'
+
+'She don' seem perticler bad,' answered Smith doubtfully. He was
+struggling to wrap his charge in a length of stiff, crackling sailcloth,
+puzzled by the white face of the girl.
+
+Coleman looked sharply at the young man, who was seated on the gunwale,
+but, discovering no encouragement in his set face and careless eyes,
+repressed his curiosity, and devoted himself to the task of overhauling
+the Francis Cadman. It was a long and trying job, but he accomplished it
+without having exhausted his eloquence. Indeed, his terms of endearment
+had been cautiously selected throughout, out of a heroic respect for the
+lady passenger. The boatswain's idea of language becoming in the presence
+of the gentler sex was rather liberal, perhaps; but in any case his nice
+consideration was wasted upon the girl, who heard never a word. She lay
+as if in the grip of fever, her distorted mind pursuing quaint visions
+and trifling and irrelevant ideas. As they drew near, the rescue-party
+sent out a breathless cheer, which was answered from the ship with a wild
+yell of exultation, and then a broadside of questions burst from the deck
+of the Francis Cadman, where every creature on board excitedly awaited
+the boat's return. The sonorous and masterful voice enforced silence
+again with a sentence.
+
+'How is it, bo's'n?' called the same voice a moment later.
+
+'Got 'em both, sir,' answered Coleman.
+
+'Both!'
+
+'Ay, ay, sir!'
+
+A tumult of voices surged over the ship again; the heads piled themselves
+afresh, craning one above the other. Two had gone overboard! Only one had
+been reported, and one only was missed. Interest was doubled. For four
+weeks the Francis Cadman had been pottering about the Indian Ocean
+without discovering a single adventure to break the stupid monotony of
+sky and sea, and restore the faith of the passengers in their favourite
+maritime authors; but here, at last, was a sensation and a mystery.
+
+Perhaps, after all, it was no mere accident, but a tragedy. Men and women
+thronged the deck, thrilling with sympathy, and yet secretly hoping for a
+complete drama, even though someone must suffer.
+
+The girl was first passed up. When the young man followed she had been
+carried below. He was barefooted, and clad only in singlet and trousers;
+his coat and shirt had been discarded in the sea.
+
+Ryan's expression sprang from every tongue.
+
+'The Hermit!'
+
+The young man stood with his shoulders to the gunwale, facing the crowd.
+There was something resentful in his attitude. His face was that of a man
+about twenty-two, beardless and boyish, but the firm, straight mouth,
+with its compressed, slightly protuberant lips, and the thick line of
+dark brows, throwing the eyes into shadows, imparted an appearance of
+sullen reserve that belonged to an older face. His scrutiny condemned men
+and repelled them. His figure, about three inches above middle height,
+was that of a labourer whose strength was diffused through the limbs by
+swift and subtle exercise. There was nothing rugged in his powerful
+outline, and every attitude had an architectural suggestion of strength.
+
+Captain Evan peered at the youth closely, and not without a hint of
+suspicion. 'Your name's Done, isn't it?' he said.
+
+The Hermit nodded shortly.
+
+'How did all this happen, my man?'
+
+'I was leaning on the gunnel by the main-chains when I heard a cry and a
+splash, and saw the girl's body past. I dropped in after her.'
+
+'You saved her life, then?'
+
+'I helped her to keep afloat till the boat reached us.'
+
+'Good boy!' Captain Evan put out his hand as if with the intention of
+giving Done an approving pat on the shoulder, but the young man turned
+away abruptly, thrusting himself through the men, who had clustered
+around him muttering diffident compliments, and endeavouring to shake him
+by the hand.
+
+'Blast it all, don't maul a man about!' said the hero sulkily, and the
+crowd made way for him.
+
+Below Jim Done stripped hastily, wrung out his wet clothes upon the
+littered floors and climbed into his bunk, threatening to tear down a
+whole terrace of the crazy structures as he did so.
+
+The Francis Cadman was not ordinarily a passenger boat: she was
+commissioned to carry two hundred and fifty sailors to the ships left
+helpless in Corio Bay and Hobson's Bay, deserted by their crews, who, in
+spite of official strategies, had fled to the diggings immediately after
+anchors were dropped in Victorian waters.
+
+The accommodation for the men was the roughest imaginable. Bunks of
+unplaned timber were strung up in tiers under the forecastle, and
+wherever space could be found for them in the dark and musty depths of
+the ship. A few second-class male passengers shared these delectable
+quarters with the sailors, and the Francis Cadman had secured a
+complement of first-class patrons willing to pay exorbitant prices for
+the dubious comforts and plain fare of the 'cabin' passage.
+
+The gold lust was burning in the blood of Europe. Fabulous stories of
+Australian treasures were flying about the nations; greedy ears drank
+them in, and the wildest yarns were never doubted. In their frantic
+eagerness to share in the golden harvests being reaped at Buninyong,
+Clunes, Bendigo, and Ballarat, the people wasted no thought on the
+hardships of the journey; there was not a ship too crazy or a doghole too
+dark to carry the desperate adventurers.
+
+Jim Done's bunk was in a third story. The den it was built in was like a
+steam-warm pest-house in the hot latitudes, and in the cold a clammy
+tomb; but he had no thought of complaints. A new country and a new life
+lay before him; he cared little for the troubles and privations by the
+way. To-night his mind was given over to reflections arising out of the
+incidents of the last few hours. They were not pleasant reflections. The
+adventure loomed like a misfortune. He hated the idea of the notoriety it
+would bring him; and, picturing himself the object of the sentimental
+admiration of a score of simpering busybodies of both sexes, fumed
+fiercely, and framed biting invectives. A voice close to his ear startled
+him. Turning sharply, he saw the head of Phil Ryan on a level with his
+own. Phil was standing on the lowermost bunk, offering the first tribute,
+a pint pannikin of steaming hot grog.
+
+''Tis the thing the docthor orthered,' said Ryan, with timorous humour,
+fearing an ungenerous response.
+
+It was Jim's first impulse to refuse the offer with out compliments, but
+at that moment the greasy ship's lantern swinging above them on a rope's
+end illumined the Irishman's face, and Done saw his mark upon it--a long
+purple wheal under the left eye, a week old yesterday, but still
+conspicuous. For a reason he could not have explained even to himself,
+that changed the young man's mind. He drank the liquor, and returned the
+pannikin with a 'Thank you!' not over-cordial.
+
+'Yer a proper man, Done,' said Ryan, 'an' I'm proud I fought wid ye, an'
+mighty glad ye bate me. Good-night!'
+
+'Good-night,' answered Done coldly. He had been too long at variance with
+men to take kindly to popularity now.
+
+II
+
+NEXT morning Done lingered below till the day was well advanced, but the
+darkness and the heavy atmosphere 'tween decks drove him into the open.
+It was a fair day, a big placid sun was shining, and the breeze followed
+them with a crisp suggestion of glittering ice-fields far down in the
+south. The sailors and passengers were grouped in small parties of six or
+seven, lounging about the deck in lazy abandonment, leaning over the
+side, smoking comfortably, and spitting with a certain dreamy
+satisfaction into the sweet, clean sea, or sitting in rings on improvised
+seats, alert, and loud in argument.
+
+Jim's youthful face was even more than usually forbidding that morning as
+he stepped amongst the men to his favourite position on one of the guns.
+He feared an attempt to break through his reserve, some demonstration
+arising out of last night's adventure, that might be taken advantage of
+by the men to force their society and friendship upon him. He looked at
+none of the faces turned curiously in his direction, and his expression
+of stubborn enmity killed the cheer that sprang from a few of the
+forecastle passengers, and it tailed into a feeble absurdity. Leaning
+upon the old wooden gun-carriage, with his arms supporting his chin; he
+stared at the cleavage of the green sea and the swelling foam, feeling at
+his back all the time the cackle of criticism, like an irritation of the
+spinal marrow, chafing fretfully at this further proof of the failure of
+his long endeavour to school himself into complete indifference.
+
+Absolute serenity in the teeth of public opinion--good, bad, or
+indifferent--that was an ideal frame of mind, to the attainment of which
+he had set himself when still a mere boy; but men and women remained
+powerful to hurt and to auger him. He had acquired from his long moral
+exercise a certain power of restraint up to the point at which his fierce
+temper blazed; he reached the stage of ignition without those displays of
+sparks and smoke that are usual preliminaries to a 'flare-up.' He had
+learned, too, in the course of his schooling, to simulate an imposing
+unconcern under commonplace trials and tribulations, when it so pleased
+him, and between the satisfaction to be felt in being able successfully
+to assume a given virtue and in having actual possession of that virtue
+the distinction is too delicate for unregenerate minds.
+
+The young man did not envelop himself in his spare skin of
+imperturbability at this crisis, because he felt that some show of active
+resentment was necessary to repel effusive admirers and maintain the
+barrier he had set up between himself and his fellow-travellers. When Jim
+Done set foot on board the Francis Cadman he was flying from an
+intolerable life, seeking to escape from despair. This he did not admit
+to himself, for he had the indomitable pride of a lonely man who gave to
+thought the time that should have been gloriously wasted on boon
+companions and young love.
+
+Done was a sensitive man, who had been some thing of a pariah since his
+knickerbocker period, and was first the butt and later the bane of the
+narrow, convention-governed public of a small English village. A fierce
+defiance of the people amongst whom he had lived his life kept him in his
+native place till after his twenty-first birthday. He rebelled with all
+his soul against the animal unreason of these men, women, and children,
+puzzling over the fanatical stupidity of their prejudice, and, striving
+to beat it down, intensified it and kept it active long years after all
+might have been forgotten had he bowed meekly to 'the workings of
+Providence,' as manifested in the thinkings and doings of the Godfearing
+people of Chisley.
+
+When James Done was five years old the only murder that had been
+committed in Chisley district within the memory of the oldest inhabitant
+was done by a member of little Jim's family. The murderer was tried,
+found guilty, and sentenced accordingly.
+
+The murder had a romantic plot and melodramatic tableaux, and was
+incorporated in the history of Chisley--in fact, it was the history of
+Chisley.
+
+The murderer passed out, but his family remained, and upon them fell the
+horror of his deed, the disgrace of his punishment. They became creatures
+apart. With all Chisley understood of the terror in those dread words,
+'Thou shalt not kill,' it invested the unhappy family, and they bowed as
+if to the will of God.
+
+Jim's mother, a thin, sensitive woman, with a patient face, put on a
+black veil, and was never afterwards seen abroad without it. She helped
+her boy a few weary miles along the road of life, and then one evening
+went quietly to her room and died. Jim's sister, ten years older than
+himself, took up the struggle where the mother dropped it, and sustained
+it until the boy could go into the fields and earn a mean living for
+himself, at which point she drowned herself, leaving a quaint note in
+which she stated that life was too dreadful, but she hoped 'God and Jimmy
+would forgive her--especially Jimmy.'
+
+At this stage Chisley might have forgiven Jimmy, and condescended to
+forget, and even indulge itself in some sentimental compassion for the
+poor orphan, had the boy shown any disposition to accept these advances
+kindly and with proper gratitude; but for years Jim had been reasoning
+things out in a direct, childish way, and in his loneliness he was filled
+with an inveterate hatred. He chose to live on as he had lived, accepting
+no concessions, disguising nothing, and Chisley quite conscientiously
+discovered in his sullen exclusiveness and his vicious dislike of worthy
+men the workings of homicidal blood, and accepted him as an enemy of
+society.
+
+Early in his teens Jim recognised the value of brute strength and human
+guile in his dealings with the youth of Chisley, and set himself to work
+to cultivate his physical qualities. All that the pugilists and wrestlers
+could teach him he picked up with extraordinary quickness, and to the
+arts thus acquired he added cunning tricks of offence and defence of his
+own contriving. He had a peculiar aptitude for wrestling and pugilism,
+delighted secretly in his strength and swiftness, and would walk five
+miles to plunge like a porpoise in the stormy sea.
+
+He had submitted to much in his joyless youth, but now, conscious of his
+strength and expertness in battle, he set himself deliberately to defy
+his enemies and resent with force of arms every encroachment upon his
+liberty, every insolence. There was a sudden epidemic of black eyes
+amongst the youth of the village; cut faces, broken ribs, and noses of
+abnormal size served the heirs of Chisley as stinging reminders of the
+old shame and the new courage and power of Jim o' Mill End, that being
+the name given to the boy in accordance with an awkward provincial custom
+of identifying a man with his property, the situation of his residence,
+or some peculiarity of manner.
+
+On one occasion the lad fell upon a hobbledehoy who had just given a
+highly diverting pantomime representing the hanging of a man, with
+realistic details, and, having beaten him in fair fight, broke his
+collar-bone with an atrocious fall. For this outrage Jim o' Mill End was
+called upon to answer to the law, and, the answer he had to give being
+considered wholly unsatisfactory, Jim was sent to gaol for a term of
+days.
+
+Chisley, if Slow to discover its mistakes, was not wholly imbecile; it
+learned in time to respect the fists of Jim o' Mill End, and now hated
+him quite heartily for the restraint imposed. But Jim derives little
+satisfaction from his triumph; Chisley conquered him by stupid
+submission. His physical superiority won him nothing but immunity from
+open insult; the young men and their elders were careful to give him no
+reasonable opportunity of asserting the rights of man in their teeth with
+a dexterous left, and Jim was now beyond disputing with children. The
+unhappy boy was not deceived by the new attitude his neighbours had
+assumed towards him. He saw an increased dislike behind the stolid,
+animal-like faces that met him everywhere, and felt that silence was
+worse than insult, more galling than blows. He detected jeers under the
+mask of dogged respect, and had passionate impulses to beat and tear,
+finding himself still powerless against the brutal injustice that had
+poisoned his life.
+
+Baffled here, Jim o' Mill End turned greedily to the fount of wisdom
+seeking justification for his deep contempt for his fellows,
+corroboration of his opinions as to the stupidity, ignorance, and
+vileness of mankind, He read greedily, finding justification everywhere.
+Poets, philosophers, novelists, historians--they had all found man out,
+just as he had done. Discovering an echo of his beliefs, he thrilled with
+hot delight. He met allies amongst the poets, and adored them. It is
+strange how sympathetic books drift to the hand of a reader possessed
+with a consuming idea; how they gather around him, fall open to his eye,
+and give up the thing he yearns to feed on. Without the knowledge
+necessary to selection, Jim had an affinity for books of pessimistic
+doctrine, and though both means and opportunities were limited, he
+gathered together, in the course of two years, quite a library of
+precious volumes, and he came forth from these an intellectual giant
+refreshed. He saw Chisley on a plane far below him, a sink of ignorance,
+and judged it like a god--or a boy. Whatever Chisley respected he found
+excellent occasion to despise; whatever it revered he discovered to be
+false and contemptible. His sense of superiority was magnificent; it gave
+him a glorious exultation. A few hot words with the clerical caretaker of
+the Chisley conscience over the question of Sabbath observance exposed
+the young man--the gaol-bird--as an infidel and a scoffer. Jim was no
+infidel, but communities like Chisley do not under stand subtle
+distinctions in theology. Here was fresh occasion to fear and abhor Jim
+o' Mill End; here was justification for many evil prophecies.
+
+For a time Jim revelled in his great moral superiority and dreamed
+dreams. But the gnawing impatience returned--the unrest, the craving for
+something he could not define, but which always merged itself into his
+great grievance. He lived alone. At his work--which he obtained readily,
+for he was strong and efficient, and gave double value for his wages--he
+had no mates. Girls he had seen grow up from babyhood developed into
+beautiful creatures, with miraculous eyes, round limbs, and cheeks so
+red, so tender, that their soft ripeness haunted his dreams. Under cover
+and in secret he would watch them pass or at play with a throbbing heart
+and a passionate hunger for companionship, and discover himself doing
+this with something of a shock, ashamed of his interest in his enemies,
+resentful of all emotions that ran counter to his cherished antipathies.
+
+When the news of the discovery of fabulous gold deposits in far Australia
+reached Chisley, Jim had thoughts of a new life in a new land: he craved
+for a wide field and a wild life; nothing withheld him but pride, the
+egotism that would not permit of his abandoning a struggle even with men
+so contemptible as these ignorant villagers. But the hunger for humanity
+filled him with visions of a new society in which he would be one with
+his fellow-men, and then his enemies seemed so pitiful that he knew
+himself for fool and blind to waste a care upon them. So he sold the
+small property at Mill End, took up his few belongings, and left Chisley
+quietly by night, eager to leave all the old life behind him, anxious for
+the new.
+
+Standing thus, looking out along the pathway of the Francis Cadman, Done
+had reviewed his life almost daily, sometimes broadly and briefly, as
+given here--sometimes going into excruciating details of suffering,
+shame, terror, and hate; but his eyes were always turned forward.
+
+Done meditated uninterruptedly for nearly an hour. Gradually the
+conversation of the group behind him had drifted from his business and
+the affair of the previous night to the great absorbing topic of the past
+four months--Australia, the land of mad dreams, where the hills were
+powdered with precious 'dust,' and the rivers purled over nuggets of pure
+gold.
+
+A hand fell upon the young man's shoulder; he turned sharply, angrily,
+and beheld the bland face and trim figure of Captain Evan. With the
+Captain was a handsome lady in black, who had already created in Jim's
+mind a confused impression of massed raven hair and big, innocent dark
+eyes that had a trick of floating up from under heavy lids and thick,
+long lashes to their greatest magnitude, and then disappearing again like
+revolving lights.
+
+'All right after your plunge, my lad?' inquired the Captain heartily.
+
+Done gave the expected reply, conscious of the eyes signalling
+appreciation, and there was a pause.
+
+'You do not inquire after the young lady, Done!'
+
+'I've heard the men speaking of her, Captain. I understand she' pretty
+well?'
+
+'Still, a little gentlemanly attention, you know. She is most grateful.'
+
+Done stiffened a trifle, and the line of brows asserted itself.
+
+'I don't ape gentility,' he said quietly. 'I'm glad the young lady's well
+again, but genteel formal ain't much in my line, I think.'
+
+'Hem!' The Captain's eyes narrowed, his air of patronage lifted. He was
+as gentlemanly an old sea-dog as ever bully-damned a ship from the gates
+of hell on a blind night, and was proud of his first-cabin
+accomplishments. 'This lady is Mrs. Donald Macdougal,' he said. 'Miss
+Lucy Woodrow is Mrs. Macdougal's companion.'
+
+Jim gathered his soft cap in a handful and bowed moderately; but the lady
+held out dainty gloved fingers, and flashed her bright eyes upon him.
+
+'We all think you quite a hero, Mr. Done,' she lisped--' quite!'
+
+'Fact is,' said the Captain, 'the ladies and gentle men greatly admire
+your noble conduct.'
+
+'Most noble and brave,' added Mrs. Macdougal softly.
+
+The young man had a presentiment of mischief, and fortified himself.
+
+'And,' the Captain continued, 'they have held a little meeting to consider
+the idea of--ah, expressing their appreciation in a--er----hem!--an
+adequate and proper manner.'
+
+The Captain was quoting the chief orator--himself. He paused with an
+expectant air, but Done was apparently quite impassive; evidently the
+fact that the ladies and gentlemen of the first class wished to put on
+record their very proper respect for British pluck and the positive
+virtues by giving the hero of the moment an inscribed watch or a gold
+locket did not appeal to this young man.
+
+The pause became uneasy. If Jim had betrayed some confusion--blushed
+stammered, protested--all would have been well; but he waited calmly.
+Captain Evan had only two manners--his polished, first-class maimer and
+his ship manner, the manner with which he worked the Francis Cadman--and
+it was a mere step from one to the other. For a moment he was perilously
+near assuming his natural and most successful manner, blasting Done to
+the depths for a high-stomached, adjectival swab, and commanding him out
+of hand to accept the proposed honours and emoluments with proper respect
+and gratitude, and be hanged to him.
+
+'Of course,' said Mrs. Macdougal gracefully, 'only if you approve, Mr.
+Done.' But the inference was that he could do nothing less with such eyes
+openly beseeching him.
+
+'I can't agree to this,' said Jim decisively, addressing himself to the
+Captain.
+
+'Oh, come, you must not be shy!' murmured the lady.
+
+'I cannot agree to any demonstration or accept any gifts,' persisted Jim.
+'You're very kind, I believe; but I'm reserved--I detest display.'
+
+'Still, you know, my man, brave actions like yours cannot be totally
+disregarded by feeling people.'
+
+'To be sure!' from the lady.
+
+'Captain Evan,' said the young man firmly, 'ever since I came on board
+the Francis Cadman I've endeavoured to keep myself to myself. I asked
+nothing from anybody on this ship, but simply to be left alone. That's
+all I ask now. Perhaps I appear boorish to the lady, but the instincts of
+a lifetime must be respected.' Jim spoke like an old man. The lady found
+him very impressive.
+
+'Very well, Done,' said the Captain, looking searchingly into Jim's
+strong young face, 'we'll say no more about the matter.' He moved away,
+but the lady extended the slim gloved fingers again, lowering her eyes
+for an effective unveiling.
+
+'I respect your feelings,' she said, as if making great concession.
+
+Really, the boy was most interesting, so handsome, so unusual. She smiled
+upon him like a guardian angel with exquisite teeth, and the scamp turned
+again to the sea, apostrophizing in fo'c'sle idiom all interfering fools
+and sentimental humbugs.
+
+III
+
+Lucy Woodrow did not appear on the deck until after nightfall. Jim
+understood that she would insist upon expressing lifelong gratitude with
+the usual effusion and the usual tears. He feared the ordeal, and
+prepared himself for it. He had seen the girl often during the voyage,
+sometimes accompanied by a blonde youth, whose beautiful clothes and
+exquisite manners afforded unfailing material for primitive satire in the
+forecastle, but, as a rule, quite alone, muffled in a dark, hooded cloak,
+watching the sea, always with her face turned yearningly back, as if
+England and home lay straight out along the vessel's wake. She was
+middling tall, eighteen perhaps, with a thin but supple and pleasing
+figure, and a quiet, smileless face, that wanted only happiness to make
+it beautiful.
+
+Done's misanthropy was not a quality of his nature, it was thrust upon
+him, and did not prevent his being a close observer of men and things;
+but that he had the smallest interest in any person on board was not
+believed by one of his shipmates, since he was instinctively careful to
+betray no concern. He had been struck by the girl's apparent loneliness.
+The attentions of the blonde youth were borne meekly, as part of the
+contiguous discomforts--that much was obvious to the forecastle and all
+under. It never occurred to Jim that she was probably placed like
+himself, and had good reason to stand aloof.
+
+When he had been on board the Francis Cadman a month or so, Jim was
+amazed to find that the attitude of the passengers and the crew towards
+himself was almost analogous to that of the people of Chisley. Nearly
+every phase of feeling that was manifested amongst the villagers
+presented itself here, and he was troubled. His first suspicion was that
+his identity had become known. He had small knowledge of men, and a sick
+fear gripped him at the thought that all communities were alike, and
+would reflect the suspicions and animosities of his little village if it
+were known among them that one of his blood had done murder, and had
+suffered as a murderer. But no whisper of his story reached his ears, and
+he remained perplexed. He had yet to learn that society in all its phases
+is ever intensely suspicious of the man apart. His one desire had been
+that he might be lost amongst the passengers, that he might efface
+himself in the crowd by keeping carefully out of every man's way and
+concerning himself with the interests of none. By doing this he hoped to
+land in Australia unknown, unheeded, and start his life again, cut off
+from the past completely. He had only succeeded in making himself
+notorious. He was silent, reserved, but he was different to the others,
+and to hide amongst sheep one must be a sheep. Jim's very anxiety to
+escape notice made him conspicuous. His aloofness was resented as 'dirty
+pride,' and, being strange to all, he became the butt of many.
+
+Jim Done was not of the type that rough-living men select as the victims
+of their small jokes; but in the forecastle the disposition to play upon
+the Hermit developed from small and secret things into open harassment,
+and Jim's stoicism was wholly misconstrued. He did not seem to see things
+that would have caused others in the company to fill the ship with bad
+language and dread of death; he was impervious to rhymed jibes and broad
+sarcasms that were supposed to have peculiar powers of irritation if
+repeated constantly, day after day and night after night, without any
+apparent feeling, or motive, or reason under the sun.
+
+Fire was struck one evening with a particularly good joke played upon
+Done in his bunk. Jim stepped down amongst the laughing men in his shirt,
+and selecting the one whose laugh was loudest and most hearty, he struck
+him an open-handed blow that drove him like a log along the floor. There
+was little noise. A narrow 'ring' was improvised, two or three bits of
+candle were found to help the sooty ship's lantern, and the men fought as
+they stood.
+
+Jim's opponent was Phil Ryan, a smart young sailor, six or seven years
+his senior. The fight was short but lively, and the onlookers had not one
+word of comment to offer after the first round. The men gazed at Done
+with a ludicrous expression of stupid reproach. He had deceived, betrayed
+them; he had posed as a quiet, harmless man, with the manners of an
+aristocrat, when he might have been ship's champion at any moment by
+merely putting up his hands.
+
+Phil went down five times. The fifth time he remained seated, gazing
+straight before him, with one sad, meditative eye, and another that
+looked as if it could never be of any use as an eye again.
+
+'Get up, Ryan!' urged Phil's second.
+
+Phil did not move; he gave no indication of having heard.
+
+'Ryan, get up, man!' The second prompted him with his toe.
+
+'Meanin' me?' said the vanquished.
+
+'To be sure. Be a man! Get up and face him.'
+
+'Divil a fear o' me!' said Ryan. 'I'm never goin' to get up agin till you
+put that wild man to bed.' He pointed at Jim.
+
+'Are you licked, then, Ryan?'
+
+'Licked it is. Any man is li'ble to wander into error, maybe, but there's
+wan thing about Phil Ryan, he's open to conviction, an' he's had all the
+conviction he wants this blessed night.'
+
+'Then we've had enough?' said the second, with an uneasy eye on Jim.
+
+'We have that,' continued Ryan, 'onless some other gintleman would like
+to resoom th' argumint where I dthropped it.' The fallen hero ran his
+good eye eagerly from face to face.
+
+But Done had already returned to his bunk, and the others seemed
+indisposed to put him to further trouble. No more jokes were played upon
+the Hermit. The cynics and the wits developed a pronouncedly serious
+vein, and it was resolved that for the future Jim Done should take his
+own road, and behave in his own peculiar way, without provoking objection
+from the company.
+
+'Tis a curtyis an' gintlemanly risolution,' said Ryan, tenderly
+caressing his inflated eye, 'an' a great pity it is we forgot to think iv
+it sooner.'
+
+The respect the forecastle had acquired for Done was vastly increased by
+his rescue of Lucy Woodrow. Conduct that had previously been ascribed to
+mere conceit was now accounted for by most romantic imaginings, for it is
+a cardinal belief amongst men of their class that the true fighter is
+superior to all little weaknesses and small motives. When the girl
+crossed the moonlit deck to Done's side, the sailors drifted away out of
+earshot, and inquisitive eyes could not turn in Jim's direction without
+provoking a profane reproof.
+
+Done's heart beat heavily as the slim, dark figure faced him, extending a
+trembling hand.
+
+'I am Lucy Woodrow,' she said in a voice little above a whisper.
+
+'Yes,' he answered simply.
+
+Her hand closed upon his fingers, and she was silent for a moment,
+evidently deeply agitated. Her head was bent, hiding her face from his
+eyes; and he noticed curiously the moonlight glimmering like tiny sparks
+in her red-brown hair.
+
+'You saved my life,' she continued; 'you risked your own. I thank you
+with all my heart.'
+
+There was something in her voice that made the simple, formal words quite
+eloquent, but Jim scarcely heeded them; he was terrified lest she should
+kiss his hand, and withdrew it abruptly.
+
+'I can only say thank you--thank you! And one says that in gratitude for
+a mere politeness. But you understand, don't you? My heart is full.'
+
+'Yes, I understand,' he said. 'Now, please, try to say no more about it.
+I'm glad to have helped you; but the risk I took was very small after
+all. I've almost lived in the sea.'
+
+She raised her face and looked into his eyes.
+
+'It is very easy for you to speak like that,' she said; 'but I know that
+if it were not for you at this moment my poor body--' She sobbed and
+turned to the sea, with something of its terror and desolation in her
+face, and Done understood the grim idea that possessed her.
+
+'Thank God, it was not to be!' he said; and he felt more deeply at that
+moment than he had done for many years.
+
+Lucy Woodrow remained silent, leaning upon the gunwale with her face to
+the sea, and he noticed presently that she was weeping, and was silent
+too. When she spoke again the new feeling in her voice startled him.
+
+'Why did you save me?' she asked in a passionate whisper.
+
+'Why?' He was full of wonder, and repeated the interrogation vaguely.
+
+'Yes, why--why? You had no right!'
+
+'Is it a matter of right?' he asked, stunned. 'I saw you fall. I don't
+know why I jumped over. My next conscious action was of striking out in
+the water. The act was quite involuntary.'
+
+'You had no right!' Her voice was very low, but instinct with a grief
+that was tragic.
+
+'Tell me what you mean.' Unconsciously, he spoke in the soothing tone one
+adopts towards an injured child.
+
+'I did not fall overboard.'
+
+'Then, what happened?'
+
+'I threw myself into the sea!'
+
+'You--you wished to drown?'
+
+'Yes, I wanted to die--to be rid of my wretched, empty life.'
+
+Done was thrilled. He gazed earnestly upon the frail young figure; he had
+a dawning sense of the possibilities of life and emotion in others. He,
+too, had often thought of self-slaughter in an abstract way as the final
+defiance; but here was a mere girl for whom life held so little that she
+craved for and dared death. A remembrance of his own sister came back to
+him, softening his heart to pity. He touched Lucy's arm gently.
+
+'And when you were thanking me just now,' he said, 'you--'
+
+'I lied? No, no, no!' she cried, with a revulsion of feeling; 'I meant
+it! I am grateful--indeed I am grateful! I longed to die; but the thought
+of washing about in these terrible waters makes me ill with fear. When
+the waves took hold of me and swept me under I wished to live--I had a
+wild yearning for life. Many times since last night I have felt the water
+sucking me down and the mighty waves piling above me, and have felt again
+the utter helplessness and terror.' Shuddering, she covered her face with
+her hands, but continued speaking after a moment's pause. 'It was
+horrible to die; but I am wretched--wretched! and I shall never be brave
+enough to venture again--never!'
+
+She threw the hood back from her abundant hair and stood a little apart,
+her hands pressed upon her eyes, struggling with her tears, already
+wondering at the sudden, overwhelming emotion that had swept her into
+this betrayal. He mused in a troubled way, perplexed by her
+contradictions avowal, feeling that, after all, he might have done this
+girl a great wrong.
+
+'Has your life been so unhappy, then?' he asked.
+
+'It has been too happy,' she replied in a constrained voice.
+
+'Too happy?'
+
+'If I had learned to know sorrow sooner I could have borne it better,
+perhaps; but until a year ago my life was all happiness. Before that I
+had those who loved me, and neither fears nor cares. My father died, and
+mother followed him within seven months. I was their only child; I found
+myself alone, beset with anxieties and terrors, utterly desolate. I am
+going to be Mrs. Macdougal's companion at her husband's sheep-run, deep
+in the Australian Bush, and to teach their children. Since coming aboard
+I have been too much alone; I have had too much time to think of my
+hopelessness, my loneliness. There were moments when I seemed to be cut
+off from the world. It was in one of these moments that I--I--' She made
+a significant gesture. Her voice had grown faint, and her limbs trembled.
+
+'Stay,' he said gently, 'I'll get you a seat.'
+
+His concern about this stranger, his curiosity, occasioned no
+self-questionings, no probing into motives. For the time being his
+customary attitude of mind--that of the pessimist sceptically weighing
+every emotion--deserted him. He had been, in his small circle in Chisley,
+the one person with a tangible grievance against life, but here he found
+another at more bitter variance with Fate, and weaker by far for the
+fight. A mutual grievance is a strong bond. He was lifted out of himself.
+When he returned he found Lucy Woodrow much more composed. She thanked
+him, and seated herself in the shadow.
+
+'Mr. Done,' she said, 'I owe you an apology. You did me a great service,
+and I have made that an excuse for inflicting my troubles upon you.' Jim
+noted the conventional phrases with a feeling of uneasiness. 'You are
+very kind, but something I have confessed I want you to forget. I lost
+control of myself.'
+
+'You may trust me to say nothing.'
+
+Yes, yes; I am sure of that,' she added hastily, 'but I want you to
+forget. I should not like to see it in your face if we meet again.'
+
+'Why fear that? For what you did you have to answer to yourself alone.'
+
+'I did not confess the truth even to Mrs. Macdougal,' the girl went on in
+a low voice. 'I have been a little hysterical, and it is very good of you
+to bear with me.'
+
+'I'm glad you told me; it gives me an interest, and I've never been
+interested in the fate of another human creature since I was a mere boy.'
+
+'I did wrong in the sight of God. You have saved me from a great crime.'
+
+'No! If life had become unbearable you were justified. When you said I
+had no right to interfere, you spoke the truth. No man has the right to
+insist upon a fellow-creature continuing to live when life has become
+intolerable.' Jim was most emphatic on this point.
+
+'Hush! Oh, hush! I know I said it, and I have thought it too; but the
+thought was born of weakness and cowardice.'
+
+Done, who thought he understood himself clearly, and believed he had a
+plan of life as precise and logical as the multiplication table, was
+puzzled by a nature almost wholly emotional, and she continued:
+
+'I mean to be brave, to meet the future with hope. It was my loneliness
+that terrified me. I thought it might be always so, but perhaps real
+happiness awaits me out there. I may make true friends.'
+
+She spoke eagerly, anxiously, seeking corroboration, looking to him for
+encouragement with touching wistfulness, as if he had been a graybeard
+and an old and trusted friend, rather than a mere youth in years, and an
+acquaintance of only a few hours.
+
+He felt the appeal, and tried to respond.
+
+'Yes yes,' he said. 'Then, at least, one can always fight the world. If
+we can't be loved, we can make ourselves feared. There's a great deal in
+that.'
+
+The girl was surprised at his warmth, and a little startled by his
+philosophy.
+
+'I could not think that,' she said softly. 'It must be terrible to be
+feared--to meet always with doubt and shrinking where you look for
+confidence and affection.'
+
+'But when the world refuses to accept us, when it uses all our fine
+emotions as scourges to torture us, then we must fight.'
+
+'I--I fight the world!' The girl rose in some agitation, and raised two
+tremulous hands, as if in evidence of her weakness.
+
+The gesture staggered him a little. He had been not so much defining her
+position as defending his own, and although he could see the futility of
+his principle of resentment as applied to her case, it was not in his
+nature to preach the pleasing gospel of sentimental optimism. He had no
+words of comfort to offer her; the gentle platitudes of encouragement and
+consolation she needed, and which would have fallen so glibly from the
+lips of an average man, were impossible to him. He was silent.
+
+'One had better die,' continued Lucy Woodrow, 'than live at enmity with
+one's fellow-creatures. Ah! the world is good and kind, under its seeming
+cruelties. People are more generous than we know, but we should meet them
+with open hearts, and give a warm welcome to their affection and
+confidence. There must be something evil in the nature that is shut out
+from human sympathy, human fellowship--something wanting in the heart
+that is lonely, where there are scores of men and women eager to give
+friendship and love. We repel those who are drawn to us by their goodness
+of heart; we refuse what we most long for, and then blame others because
+we are unhappy.'
+
+The girl was speaking the thoughts in which she had vainly sought
+comfort. She ceased abruptly, and, moving to the side, stood with her
+eyes turned yearningly back over the sea, oppressed by her loneliness and
+the home-sickness that had not left her since the shores of England faded
+from her sight.
+
+Jim felt a stir of something like resentment at his heart. He found in
+the girl's words a reflection of the beliefs of his native village, and
+perhaps justification of them, and saw her for the moment as the
+embodiment of the respectability, the piety, and all the narrowness of
+Chisley. The thought revived his habitual reserve. He meditated an
+escape, already regretting that he had permitted himself to drift into
+this extraordinary position.
+
+IV
+
+MRs. MACDOUGAL came to Done's rescue a moment later. She sauntered
+languidly up to the young couple in her character of the interesting
+invalid, careful to make a charming picture in the moonlight.
+
+'It is a delightful night, Mr. Done, is it not?' she said.
+
+Jim admitted as much, without any display of interest, and the lady
+continued:
+
+'You know our dear girl is not strong. You must not keep her in the night
+air. Why, Lucy, how foolish you are! not a single wrap, and the wind so
+chilly! You'll certainly have a sickness.'
+
+'I shall not be ill, Mrs. Macdougal,' said Lucy. 'But you are very good.'
+
+Mrs. Macdougal's plump figure was covered with furs, and a handsome shawl
+trailed from her arm; but it was characteristic of Mrs. Macdougal to
+profess the sweetest solicitude for other people, whilst appropriating
+for her own use and pleasure all the comfortable, pleasant, and pretty
+things. She was not more than thirty-three, and looked like a gipsy
+spoiled by refinements. Her social schooling had been confined to a long
+course of that delectable literature devoted to the amours of a strictly
+honourable aristocracy with superior milkmaids, nursery governesses, and
+other respectable young persons in lowly walks. Indeed, Mrs. Macdougal,
+having had no early training worth speaking of, had successfully modelled
+her manners upon those of a few favourite heroines. She fancied the
+expression, 'It is, is it not?' lent an air of exquisite refinement to
+ordinary conversation. She was naturally artificial. Artifice would have
+been her certain resort in whatever path it had pleased Fate to plant her
+small feet. Her temper was excellent so far as it went, and her manner
+tender and clinging. She would have preferred to have been tragic with
+such eyes and such hair, but with her plump figure it was not possible.
+She loved attention, particularly the attentions of men, and employed
+many artifices to secure them, usually with success. She had engaged
+Captain Evan on the deck during every afternoon for a whole week, fanning
+away a purely hypothetical headache. Altogether Mrs. Macdougal was a
+delightful fool; almost everybody liked her.
+
+'Really, for your own sake, my dear! It will not do for two of us to be
+invalids.' Mrs. Macdougal pressed a firm white hand upon her ample bosom,
+and coughed a melancholy little cough, hinting at a deep-seated
+complaint, the seriousness of which she could not long hope to disguise
+from her friends.
+
+Lucy retired dutifully, and her mistress composed herself in an effective
+attitude for a long chat with the young man.
+
+'Darling girl!' she said, gazing affectionately after the retreating
+figure. It suddenly occurred to her that she was very fond of Lucy
+Woodrow, although up to the time of the accident she had not given her a
+second thought.
+
+The young man did not feel called upon to make a demonstration; he merely
+inclined his head and watched Lucy along the deck as a manifestation of
+some little interest in the subject.
+
+'If anything had happened to her that awful time!' Mrs. Macdougal's eyes
+waxed to their greatest dimensions to express terror, distress, all the
+excitement of the accident, and were veiled under their white lids and
+heavy lashes to convey some idea of the grief that would have lacerated
+that gentle breast had Lucy Woodrow perished in the cruel sea. 'Ah, Mr.
+Done, I, too, owe you a debt of gratitude!' she continued. 'The poor girl
+is in my care. I should never have forgiven myself.'
+
+'I can't accept your gratitude, ma'am,' said Jim brusquely.
+
+'So gallant, so noble!' murmured the lady. She was not succeeding, and
+she felt it. The boy was too ridiculous. She assumed a new pose, gazing
+dreamily over the side into the scudding sea.
+
+'If I were to fall in, Mr. Done,' she said, after a telling pause, 'you
+would save me too?' She smiled coquettishly.
+
+'I should not, Mrs. Macdougal; the responsibility is too great.'
+
+She did not fully understand him, and was quite shocked, but answered
+brightly:
+
+'Oh yes, it is, is it not?'
+
+Jim now resented the woman's intrusion upon him with a cublike
+sullenness. He even longed to be avenged upon her for his uneasiness, and
+would have liked to have said quite coolly, 'In the devil's name, madam,
+leave me to myself!' It piqued him that, after all, he had not the moral
+courage to do this, so he turned a forbidding shoulder, pretending
+interest in the scud of sea.
+
+'Really, Mr. Done, you are foolish to hide yourself here,' continued Mrs.
+Macdougal. 'It is so much pleasanter in our part, and you have the
+freedom of the ship, you know. Dear, kind Captain Evan could not deny me.
+Do come! Our little entertainments will delight you, and everybody will
+be so pleased.'
+
+'I'm very well where I am, thanks.' The lad's tone was not at all
+gracious.
+
+'But you are so much above these men, and there are several nice cabin
+passengers--quite superior people, who are anxious to know you.'
+
+'You're mistaken, ma'am. I'm a farm labourer going out there to earn my
+living. I'm at home here with common men, and I hate superior people!'
+
+'They are trying, are they not?' This with a gush of confidence and a
+little air of being weary of the great ones of the earth.
+
+Mrs. Macdougal made several further efforts to induce Done to allow
+himself to be lionized by the first-class passengers, who, to escape for
+a time the boredom of a long, dull voyage, were eager to make a pet of
+the interesting and mysterious hero; but Jim's moroseness deepened under
+the attacks, and at length he escaped with only a glance of almost
+maidenly coyness whenever circumstances threw him in the lady's way.
+
+But Lucy Woodrow was not to be denied; she had been forced into the
+current of his life, and he would make no effective fight against her.
+After a few days her pale face, animated with an expression of pathetic
+appeal, obtruded itself upon his meditations. He surprised himself
+mapping out a pleasant and beautiful future for her, or dwelling upon her
+misfortunes with a tender regret, and at such times took refuge from his
+thoughts in sudden action, shaking this folly off with fierce impatience,
+heaping abusive epithets upon his own head, arraigning himself as a
+drivelling sentimentalist; and what shame could equal that of a puling
+sentimentality?
+
+After all, this girl stood for everything he had learned to despise and
+hate. To her the conventions behind which society shields itself, its
+shams and its bunkum, were sacred. He was convinced that had she known
+the whole truth as Chisley knew it, she must have ranged herself with his
+enemies. He admitted that he had been guilty of an impertinent
+interference in her private affairs when he plucked her from the sea, but
+did it follow that he need worry himself further about the young woman?
+Certainly not! That point being settled, he could return to his dreams of
+the Promised Land, the land of liberty, only to find the fair face
+obscuring his fine visions, or to be interrupted by the girl herself, who
+sometimes took refuge near him from the importunities of the male blonde,
+but more often sought him out to satisfy the new interest his morbid and
+peculiar character and, it must be admitted, his cold, good looks had
+created in her breast.
+
+At her approach Done felt the stir of a novel exultation in his
+traitorous flesh. To be sure, he had woven romances for himself, but his
+heroines were always of a type totally different to Lucy Woodrow. They
+were strong, dark-eyed, imperious creatures, who espoused all his beliefs
+and echoed his defiance of the world. What sense of humour had as yet
+found place in his nature was exercised to the full at the expense of the
+lackadaisical lover in life and in fiction, and now he felt there was
+something absurdly pensive in this phenomenon of his own. He satisfied
+himself that he was not in love with Lucy, but here were the marked
+characteristics of the fond and fatuous hero--the obtruding face of the
+beloved, idealized and transfused with a sickly pathos; the premonitory
+tremblings; the recurrence of thoughts of the fair. It was all in
+defiance of his philosophy--an insult to his manhood. Like many very
+young men, Done was extremely jealous of the honour of his manhood. It is
+the pride of a new possession.
+
+Certainly Lucy Woodrow was quite honest to her nature in her attitude
+towards the young stranger. She did not dissect her emotions: she did not
+even question them. In becoming her hero Done had levelled all the
+conventional barriers, and her friendship and concern were sincere. She
+had never recurred to the incident of the rescue, feeling that the
+subject was painful to him, and glad to dwell no further upon an act of
+her own that of late had become quite inexplicable to her. Lucy no longer
+turned her eyes to the wake of the Francis Cadman: she no longer yearned
+backward to the land where she had left only a grave. Her mind was
+employed with a most serious duty: she had adopted a mission, and that
+mission was the regeneration of James Done. The regeneration was not to
+be so much religious as moral. The poor boy's life was disordered; he had
+suffered some great wrong; his naturally beautiful, brave, generous
+disposition was soured; he had lost faith in God and in woman, and it
+remained for her to restore his belief, to teach him that his
+fellow-creatures were in the main animated with the most excellent
+motives, and to drive away all those strange, wild opinions of his, and
+generally brighten and sweeten his life and turn him out a new man. She
+could not have explained how she was going to accomplish all this, but
+every maiden is at heart a missionary of some sort, and Lucy had a vague
+idea that the influence of a good woman was always effective in such
+cases. She never imagined that the youth would test her pretty, heartfelt
+opinions and her glowing faith in the rightness of things in the cold,
+sceptical light of his logic.
+
+'Women don't bother themselves much to know if things are true,' he said.
+'They're content with thinking they ought to be true.'
+
+'Well,' she answered, 'why not try to be true to the things that ought to
+be true?'
+
+'If I wanted to, the world wouldn't let me.'
+
+'You cannot believe that. The really good man is always obeyed and
+reverenced.'
+
+'And has always a fat billet. Yes; that kind of goodness is an excellent
+thing as a speculation.'
+
+She thought him wilfully paradoxical, and it came about, when their
+acquaintanceship was about three weeks old, that while Jim Done, the
+small and early philosopher, held Lucy in fine disdain as a born fool,
+his vital humanity discovered strange allurements in her, and her
+proximity fired a craving in his blood that sometimes tempted him to
+crush her in his arms and bruise her lips with kisses. He grew less
+brusque with her, and showed on occasions a sort of diffident gentleness,
+and then Lucy was satisfied that her work was progressing.
+
+'You never talk of your life there in England,' she said one night as
+they stood by the mizzen-chains overlooking the sea. Since the use of the
+forepart of the ship had been offered him as a privilege, Done
+religiously abstained from encroaching a foot beyond the steerage limit,
+although he had previously invaded the sacred reserve on occasion in
+defiance of authority.
+
+'No,' he said; 'I am running away from that.'
+
+He gave little thought to the conversation, but he was thinking much of
+the girl. She looked strangely beautiful and unreal in the dim
+light--curiously visionary--and yet he felt that she radiated warmth and
+life. Something stirred hotly within him: he was drawn to her as with
+many hands.
+
+'It would interest me,' she said--'it would interest me deeply.' She
+turned her face up to him, and her eyes caught the light, and burned with
+curious lustre in the shadowy face.
+
+He did not misjudge her; he knew her concern for him to be the outcome of
+gratitude and the kindliness of a simple nature, but it conveyed a sweet
+flattery. Her hand rested upon his arm, and from its soft pressure flowed
+currents of emotion. At his heart was a savage hunger. The faint scent
+her hair exhaled seemed to cloud his brain and his vision.
+
+'I feel that it is some sorrow, some wrong done you in your early life,
+that makes you so bitter against the world,' she said. 'You think ill of
+all because one or two have been unkind and unjust, perhaps. Because
+someone has been false or unfair to you at home there, you are cold and
+contemptuous and distrustful of the people around you here, who are eager
+to be your friends.' Her tone was almost caressing.
+
+For answer he caught her up in his arms, using his strength roughly,
+cruelly, clasping her to his breast, and kissing her mouth twice, thrice,
+with a fierce rapture. A moment he held her thus, gazing into her face,
+and the girl's hands seemed to flutter up to his neck. Suddenly she
+experienced an awakening. On the heels of the new joy came a new terror.
+Setting her palms against his breast, she pushed herself from his relaxed
+arms. A few feet of deck, a space of cold moonlight, divided them, and
+they stood thus, facing each other in silence. Lucy had an intuitive
+expectancy; the situation called for an avowal. It became awkward. A
+boyish shamefacedness had followed Done's outburst of passion, and he
+spoke never a word. The two were victims of a painful anti-climax. A girl
+has but one resource in such an emergency. The tears came, and Lucy
+Woodrow turned and stole away, leaving Jim stunned, abashed, with
+unseeing eyes bent upon the sea. Done's right hand was striking at the
+woodwork mechanically; his mind was in a turmoil. The blows increased in
+force till blood ran from his knuckles, and then through his clenched
+teeth came the bitter words. His rage against himself had a biting
+vindictiveness. He cursed in whispers.
+
+What a fool he had been! What a fatuous, blundering ass! What had he
+done? Why had he done it? Was he in love, with Lucy Woodrow? This latter
+question recurred again and again through the night, and the answer came
+vehemently--no, no, and no again! He had nothing in common with the girl.
+He recited a score of her simple, silly opinions in self-defence, and,
+having strenuously reasserted his freedom, turned over to sleep, and
+slept never a wink all night. What disturbed him most was the fear of
+meeting Lucy Woodrow again. Perhaps she would avoid him now. There was no
+comfort in the thought. He knew that what had happened must alter their
+relations towards each other, but could neither admit that Lucy was
+necessary to him nor summon up a comfortable indifference.
+
+V
+
+DONE caught a fleeting glimpse of Lucy Woodrow next day, Tuesday. She was
+certainly avoiding him. The conviction made him bitter. How well
+Schopenhauer knew these women! Lucy's squeamishness was further proof of
+a narrow and commonplace mind. Had he suffered so much all his life at
+the hands of people of this class, and learned to measure them so well
+and hate them so sincerely, only to be won over by the prettiness of a
+simple girl? He brooded over the matter for some hours, when it was
+driven from his mind by an important happening. Early on the following
+morning the first mate reported that land had been sighted. The news
+stirred the ship as an intruding foot stirs an anthill. The people
+swarmed upon the decks, and strained their eyes in the direction pointed
+by Captain Evan's glass, which was in eager demand amongst the cabin
+passengers all the forenoon.
+
+One sailor, a canny Scot, produced a battered old telescope, and did a
+very profitable business with the excited emigrants, whom he charged
+'saxpence' for their first peep at the land where fortune and glory
+waited them. The telescope was quite unequal to the occasion, but its
+owner had carefully drawn a mark on the lens to represent the desired
+object, and there were no complaints, although the Australian coast-line
+sometimes sloped at acute angles, and often appeared to be quite
+perpendicular.
+
+Jim awoke to new sensations, and all his hopes and ambitions surged back
+upon him with redoubled force. A childish rapture possessed him; he had
+an impulse to run and jump, to act foolishly, and to yell like a boy at
+play. It required some self-restraint to keep from throwing wide his arms
+to the warm sun, that seemed to instil delight into his very veins.
+
+Meanwhile Lucy Woodrow had experienced another shock, and had been
+afforded some idea of the cheerful readiness with which a censorious
+world misconstrues our amiable intentions, and imputes selfish motives to
+the most disinterested missioner. She found herself quite unable to work
+up a proper feeling of indignation against Done. Her training impelled
+her to stigmatize his conduct as ungentlemanly, ungenerous, and
+absolutely shocking. The words of condemnation came readily enough, but
+there was no proper spirit of maidenly pride behind them. On the
+contrary, deep down in her breast there glowed a sense of triumph, an
+abiding joy, of which she made some effort to be ashamed. Her avoidance
+of the young man on the day following his misdemeanour was a pathetic bit
+of dissimulation, an effort on Lucy's part to deceive herself with a show
+of coldness and dignity.
+
+During the Tuesday afternoon and evening Mrs. Donald Macdougal had
+assumed towards Lucy the touching airs of an injured innocent. Her cough
+required more than usual attention, and her head was extremely bad, but
+she bore it all with conspicuous resignation. She could not contain
+herself long, however, and gave utterance to her grievance in the
+evening.
+
+'I do think you ought to give me a little more of your confidence, Lucy,'
+she said, with an aggrieved air.
+
+'In what way, Mrs. Macdougal?' asked Lucy, surprised at the words and the
+tone.
+
+'Well, my dear, I have treated you almost like a sister. I am in a manner
+your guardian; and it's nice to feel one is trusted, is it not?'
+
+'But I do trust you; and I am grateful too--most grateful.'
+
+'It isn't that. You don't tell me things. For instance, about young
+Done.'
+
+'Really, Mrs. Macdougal, there is nothing of interest that you do not
+know.
+
+'Oh, nonsense, Lucy! Why are you blushing, then? You have been a great
+deal together since the accident, and I permitted it because he is so
+brave and handsome, and he is quite a gentleman, in spite of his
+position. But '--and here the voice grew petulant--'I thought you would
+give me your confidence. You ought to have had more consideration for me,
+seeing how dull I was, and how stupid it is here, with nothing to do and
+nothing to talk about.'
+
+'My meetings with Mr. Done have been merely friendly. It would not amuse
+you in the least to hear our conversation repeated.' Lucy felt that her
+face was scarlet. She was angry and combative.
+
+'Come, now, is that fair?' continued Mrs. Macdougal, patiently sad.
+
+'You know you are the heroine of the ship's romance. We're just aching
+with curiosity about it.'
+
+'Mrs. Macdougal, you amaze me!'
+
+'We have scarcely talked of anything else for weeks, and I did think
+you'd put your trust in me.'
+
+The girl was standing with squared shoulders and erect head, a patch of
+colour on either cheek, a courageous spark in either eye, and wrath in
+every gesture and in every line of her slim figure.
+
+'Is this true?' she said. 'Do you mean to tell me that my friendship with
+Mr. Done has been the subject of the usual idle chatter here, day and
+night?'
+
+'What could you expect, my dear?'
+
+'That I have been criticised and scandalized and spied upon?'
+
+'But with the nicest feelings and the best wishes. What else was there to
+interest anyone? I thought you understood. It was so romantic and
+delightful, and we were all so pleased to find him taking a real interest
+in you. The people quite expect you to become engaged, you know. It would
+be a most delightful ending, would it not?'
+
+'It is a shame--a great shame!' cried Lucy. These people have no decency.
+I will tell you this, Mrs. Macdougal that no word of what you speak of
+has passed between Mr. Done and me.'
+
+Mrs. Macdougal was quite grieved. 'The passengers will be disappointed
+she said. 'I'm afraid they won't think it quite nice of you. You see,
+these things are expected to end prettily. It's customary.'
+
+It's very absurd and very mean.'
+
+Mrs. Macdougal shook her head ominously. The thought of the chagrin of
+the cabins, deprived of a satisfactory climax to their little romance,
+filled her with gravest apprehension. Her strong belief was that Done and
+Lucy owed it as a sacred duty to the eternal verities, as set forth in
+popular fiction, to marry. If they failed to conform, they gave people
+good grounds for a grievance.
+
+Lucy Woodrow's spirit was up in arms. The girl who had feared nothing so
+much as to find herself at variance with her fellows, and had believed
+the affection and the goodwill of those about her to be the first
+essentials to happiness, felt no weakness, no lack of self-reliance, now
+that she was in some measure pitted against the many. She resented the
+conduct of the passengers in making her the subject of their
+tittle-tattle with a bitterness she had never felt before. In overlooking
+her actions and assuming a right to influence her in a purely personal
+matter, these people were guilty of an insolence to which she would not
+submit. She thought she discovered a certain antagonism amongst those
+with whom she presently came into contact, and the opposition developed
+character. Pride came to her aid. No doubt some peeping Tom or prying
+woman had been witness to the theft of kisses. In that case the incident
+would now be a theme of conversation in the cabins. She could not trust
+Mrs. Macdougal to withhold from the gossips a single word of their
+conversation. Lucy's determination was to show herself superior to the
+ship's opinion; she would not have it thought she was influenced one way
+or the other, and for that reason it was necessary that there should be
+no appearance of a quarrel between herself and Done.
+
+She found him sitting on a gun-carriage, and seated herself by his side,
+having offered her hand in token of amity.
+
+Jim's heart had never been so light; his cherished animosities were fled
+for the time being. But conversation was difficult. He detected a
+difference in the girl that was not explicable to him, and imagined that
+she was still angry. He realized, too, that she was at a disadvantage,
+because of the service he had rendered her, and presently blurted
+something like an apology.
+
+'I suppose I oughtn't to have done that the other night?' he said.
+
+'No,' she murmured. Her head was bowed, and her foot tapped tremulously
+on the deck.
+
+'It's the sort of thing the respectables pretend to be shocked at, isn't
+it? Well, I regretted it immediately.' His voice had grown softer. 'I
+did, upon my word!'
+
+'Please don't speak of it,' she pleaded. In truth, the apology troubled
+her deeply where the offence had left no pain. She wished it had never
+been spoken The thought of it had power to provoke tears long after.
+
+The Francis Cadman sailed majestically through the Heads into Port
+Phillip on a beautiful Sunday morning in November, when the beneficent
+spring was merging into a fiery Southern summer. The sun blazed with
+tropic splendour in a sky of unspotted sapphire; the blue, translucent
+waters danced in unison with the hearts on deck, rippling into gold and
+silver and the sparkle of a myriad diamonds. Eager eyes saw the symbols
+of wealth in all things, and a fever of exultation and expectancy burned
+in the ship. Done was like a man drunken. It was as if sunshine were a
+strange, new thing to him, as if he had never breathed deeply and truly
+the good air of God till now. He had big affectionate impulses; he felt
+that the sailors were fine fellows, his shipmates cheerful souls. He
+would have liked to shake hands all round and assure them of his
+friendship, but sailors and passengers were full of their own affairs,
+and took no notice of him. For two days past there had been much
+whispering amongst the crew and the men under contract to work the ship
+that had been left crewless in Australian waters. Done detected an
+undercurrent of excitement, and noticed many guarded consultations. That
+there was some conspiracy afloat he was convinced, but the plotting was
+conducted in so cheerful--even hilarious--a spirit that he suspected no
+evil.
+
+The ship was anchored off Queenscliff to bide the coming of the noisy,
+grimy, paddle-tug engaged to tow her wearily into Hobson's Bay, and up to
+her berth by the primitive river wharf. And now speculation and curiosity
+were awakened in the cabins by the peculiar conduct of Captain Evan in
+stationing armed sailors along the ship, larboard and starboard.
+
+Shortly after, Done, who was watching developments with keen interest,
+saw a Scandinavian seaman named Jorgensen steal over the side, and slip
+into the sea like a porpoise. Jorgensen struck out for the shore,
+swimming under water for the most part, till he had covered a distance of
+about two hundred yards from the ship. Others, including the armed
+sailors, had witnessed Jorgensen's escape, but no one spoke.
+
+Nearly an hour passed, and then Jim saw that two boats were coming
+towards them from a distant point. At the sight of these there was a rush
+of sailors. No orders had been given, but a score of men busied
+themselves lowering the Francis Cadman's boats, laughing at their work
+and joking uproariously. Others came singing and yelling from the
+forecastle and up through the hatchways, with bundles which they piled on
+the deck. All order was abolished; the jubilant cries of the sailors were
+echoed back from the shores over the placid sea.
+
+Captain Evan stood upon the deck, pale with passion, gesticulating
+furiously, shouting orders that no one heard. Every time he opened his
+lips the sailors responded with louder yells of cheerful derision. Evan
+rushed at one of the armed sailors, cursing heroically.
+
+'Fire on them! Fire, I tell you!' he cried.
+
+The man paid not the slightest heed, and Captain Evan, snatching the gun
+from his hands, levelled it at the boatswain.
+
+'Down on your knees, you mutinous dog!' he thundered.
+
+The boatswain grinned amiably, and thrust his finger into the barrel of
+the piece.
+
+'By the holy, we've spiked your gun, Captain!' he said.
+
+Evan pulled the trigger. The cap snapped and nothing more, and now,
+worked into an ungovernable passion, he clubbed his gun, and bringing the
+stock down upon the boatswain's head, stretched him upon the deck with a
+cracked skull. Swinging his weapon, the Captain dashed at the men, but a
+dozen pair of hands were on him, and he was dragged down. Bently, the
+first mate, who went to his assistance, was served similarly. In a few
+moments they lay helpless, trussed like turkeys ready for the roasting.
+The cabin passengers gathered about, white-faced, full of terror,
+thinking of piracy and all its attendant horrors. Some of the women were
+screaming. The sailors lifted Evan and Bently; and Done, who was watching
+the turn of events, greatly agitated, was startled into a new train of
+thought by a woman who had thrown herself at his feet, clinging to his
+knees, crying:
+
+'Help him! help him! They are going to do murder!'
+
+It was Mrs. Macdougal. Done started forward, and half a dozen sailors
+moved to intercept him.
+
+'You don't mean mischief?' he said.
+
+'Devil a bit!' replied a big Irishman. 'We'll stow them out of harm's way
+till we're safe on shore, an' never a mischief will be done to annywon at
+all. Come along, Captain darlin',' he added. 'Ye'll rist aisier in yer
+cabin. We're goin' diggin' fer the gould, an' not all the fiends out iv
+Connaught could shtop us.'
+
+Captain and mate were bestowed under lock and key, and, like a band of
+schoolboys at breaking-up, the men continued their mutinous work. One
+section had started a quaint chanty; the rest caught it up presently, and
+with the rhythm of the song came something like order among the
+mutineers. Singing lustily, they piled their baggage into the boats, and
+Done, who had recovered the feeling of annoyance his impulsive
+interference had occasioned him, watched them, rejoicing in sympathy. He
+had brought no particular respect for law and order from the Old Land,
+and this happy revolt delighted him. He would have loved to join the
+merry adventurers in their defiance of authority. It was grand! Lustily
+he sang the chanty, and as the boats, loaded down with sailors and their
+traps, and towing astern in the warm sea strings of deserters for whom
+there was no room aboard, moved off, he leaned over the bulwarks waving
+his hat, and shouted with all the power of his lungs:
+
+'Good luck to you, boys!'
+
+They answered with a cheer, forgetting all differences in their present
+robust animal spirits. Ryan sprang up in one of the boats.
+
+'Come wid us, man; why don't you?' he cried.
+
+Jim had a strong impulse to follow, but a small hand seized his.
+
+'No, no--please, no!' whispered Lucy at his side.
+
+He shook his head at the men. After all, there was no occasion for him to
+run away; he was bound to no man.
+
+The sailors had taken the key of the Captain's cabin with them, and by
+the time Evan and the mate were liberated the crew of the Francis Cadman
+and all the sailors under contract to the distracted owners of vessels
+riding idle and helpless on Corio Bay and Hobson's Bay had disappeared
+amongst the ti-tree fringing the shore, leaving the ship's boats afloat.
+Five sailors remained aboard--one, the boatswain, was temporarily
+disabled; two of the others were sick and bedridden. Captain Evan stood
+on the main hatchway and reviewed the situation, and in his manner of
+expressing himself there remained no trace whatever of the suave autocrat
+of the cabins. In less than an hour his voyage had been converted into an
+utter and ignominious failure.
+
+The journey from the Heads to the river mouth in the wake of the tug-boat
+Platypus, slow and toil some, set Jim in an itch of impatience. He was
+longing to feel land under his feet once more, and was leaning over the
+side, his awkwardly-packed canvas bag of belongings at his feet, watching
+the line of Liardit Beach, with its few dingy buildings standing back
+from the sea, apprehensive lest this, after all, should prove to be
+Melbourne, his brave city of refuge, when Lucy Woodrow approached him to
+say farewell.
+
+'They tell me we are very near our journey's end,' she said. 'I wish to
+ask you a favour before you go.'
+
+She looked strong and confident, and he was grateful there were to be no
+tears, having anticipated something like a scene. She had prepared to
+land, too, and wore a dark dress he had not seen before, and a quaint
+little hat that became her well. He thought her beautiful. The idea of
+parting with her hurt now, and his pulse stirred impatiently. The
+admiration in his eyes caused a flush to relieve the pale olive of her
+cheeks.
+
+'I'll do anything you ask,' he said,
+
+'It is a very little thing. This is Mrs. Macdougal's address. I want you
+to promise to write to me.'
+
+'I will.'
+
+'Your life in this new land will be active and adventurous, I'm sure, but
+some day, in one month, or two, or perhaps a year, you will find time to
+send me a letter to say how you are, and how the strange country pleases
+you?'
+
+'You are the only human creature I have met in friendship,' he said,
+betrayed into warmth by her unaffected concern. 'I can never forget you,
+Lucy.' He used her Christian name for the first time.
+
+'Thank you, James,' she answered simply.
+
+'No, no--Jim! Jim!' He had been called James only by the parson and the
+magistrates of Chisley, and he despised the unctuousness that seemed to
+cling to the name.
+
+'Thank you, Jim,' she said, smiling. 'You see,' she continued gravely,
+'what you have done for me makes it impossible that I can ever be
+careless about your welfare. I shall always want to know where you are,
+and if you are well and happy.'
+
+'I'm not used to this sort of thing,' he stammered.
+
+I bear it badly.' And, indeed, he had a most amazing disposition to lapse
+into tears The disposition was never near to mastering him, but there it
+was.
+
+She saw his agitation, and it warmed the mothering feeling which, though
+still a child in heart and years his junior, she had long felt for the
+big, strong, friendless youngster.
+
+'You will take this, won't you? I intend it as a little keepsake.'
+
+She proffered a small gold locket somewhat shyly, and blushed deeply when
+he opened it and discovered a tiny miniature of herself. He was pleased
+to have it, and told her so in a graceless way.
+
+'Do you mean to go ashore at once?' she asked presently.
+
+'Yes; just as soon as I can.'
+
+'Mrs. Macdougal is ready, and I suppose we leave the ship immediately.'
+
+He took her small hand in his. 'Good-bye,' he said. He longed to hold her
+in his arms again.
+
+'Good-bye,' she whispered.
+
+'I hope you'll find things easy for you out there, and that you will be
+happy.'
+
+'I think I shall. I am going to try hard for happiness--to be as happy as
+I once was. Say you will try too.'
+
+He looked at the wide sweep of blue sky, and the new land swathed in a
+golden atmosphere of glorious sunshine and more glorious hopes, and did
+not smile at her idea of happiness recoverable by distraint.
+
+Mrs. Macdougal bustled up. She had brought dresses from Europe with the
+object of prostrating what little feminine society there was in the
+neighbourhood of Boobyalla, and wore one of them now. If her colour was
+not all natural, it was a very excellent imitation. She looked charming.
+
+'Sure you are quite ready, my dear?' she said. 'Macdougal will be
+waiting. Macdougal of Boobyalla, you know.' This to Jim: 'And he's a most
+impatient wretch. Saying au revoir?' she queried archly, after a pause.
+
+'I was bidding Mr. Done good-bye,' said Lucy.
+
+'It is very sad, parting with old friends,' murmured Mrs. Macdougal, with
+veiled eyes.
+
+'Sadder parting with new ones,' replied Jim, glancing towards Lucy.
+
+'Oh yes, it is, is it not? But you will come and visit us some time at
+Boobyalla. We are shipmates, and that's a sort of relationship in
+Australia.'
+
+Done thanked her, but equivocated. He could not see himself as the guest
+of the great Donald Macdougal, J.P., of Boobyalla. The lady experienced a
+glow of impatience. Only a hobbledehoy could prefer Lucy Woodrow's
+immature charms to the ripe perfections of a woman of her years.
+
+VI
+
+JIM was the first off the Francis Cadman on the Monday afternoon when she
+drew alongside the rough Yarra wharf just under Bateman's Hill, and when
+he set his foot on Australian soil he planted one tendril of his heart
+there. He let fall his bag, and looked about him. The arrival of the ship
+had occasioned no interest that he could discover. Perhaps the news was
+not yet common property. A dusty road along the banks of the river on his
+right led to the town; there were a few scattered houses of dark stone
+and primitive design on the hill before him, beside which the lawless
+gum-trees flourished. The day was intensely hot; a wind that might have
+breathed o'er the infernal regions whipped up clouds of dust, and spun
+them into fantastic shapes, filling eyes and lungs, but no discomfort
+could dull the joy he felt on coming into his kingdom. He had turned his
+back to the wind to wait the passing of a sirocco of sand, when a
+double-seated American waggon, drawn by two steaming horses, flashed on
+him out of the storm, driving him headlong to the ground, and coming to a
+standstill within a few feet. The bag had served as a buffer, and the
+deeply-ploughed roadway made a soft bed, so that no bones were broken;
+but Done arose with all his fighting instincts aflame, and turned upon
+the driver.
+
+'You murderous ruffian!' he cried. 'I've a mind to break--'
+
+He stopped short, one foot upon the step, one hand grasping the ironwork
+of the seat, staring at the driver, suddenly disarmed. The man on the
+seat was a grizzled, malformed creature of about fifty, with a
+deeply-wrinkled small face, burnt a dark tan, and almost covered with a
+tangle of short, crisp, iron-gray whiskers. The suggestion of a
+rough-haired terrier was so strong that Done expected the brute to bark
+at him. The small eyes in the protecting shade of tufted brows, like
+miniature overhanging horns, were keen and shrewd This extraordinary head
+was supported by a small and shapeless body, the legs of which were much
+too long and extremely thin, as were the arms also; but the wrists and
+hands, strained to hold the restive horses, were hard, corded, and hairy,
+suggesting a gorilla-like vitality in the curious man. Done let himself
+down to the roadway again. One could not fight with so miserable a
+cripple.
+
+'You drive like a madman, mister,' he said in a milder tone.
+
+'Maybe yer off the ship just now?' said the ape like driver, quite
+ignoring Done's grievance and his words. 'So bein', you can tell we if
+there's a Mistress Macdougal aboard her.'
+
+The man kept his eyes on his horses; his heels were firmly set on the
+footboard. It. needed all the strength of his iron wrists to restrain the
+beasts--tall, lean bays, with a certain piratical rakishness about them,
+long-maned and long-tailed, effective weapons against the voracious flies
+that swarmed over their rumps. Their powerful frames showed through
+clean, healthy hides, and their blood in the proud carriage of their
+heads and their hot impatience under restraint. A half-caste aboriginal
+boy, dressed apparently in his master's old clothes--and the master's own
+clothes were none too new--sprawled on the bottom of the vehicle, and
+grinned at Done in a friendly way over the tailboard. Jim resented the
+cripple's contempt for his wrongs, and ignored the question put to him.
+He was taking up his belongings again, when Mrs. Macdougal herself
+fluttered by.
+
+'Why, Mack!' she cried.
+
+The driver's eyes left his horses' ears for a moment, and rested on the
+lady. They displayed no particular feeling.
+
+'Hello, missus!' he said casually, adding, after a pause: 'Best jump up.
+Nags a bit fresh.'
+
+Jim walked on. So this was Donald Macdougal, J.P., of Boobyalla. The
+young man's annoyance fell from him. He thought of the devoted husband's
+greeting after their long parting, and laughed aloud. Macdougal of
+Boobyalla was no demonstrative lover. A few minutes later the waggon
+dashed past Done; the bays were being driven at a gallop, and the vehicle
+fairly jumped on the broken road. The young man caught a glimpse of Lucy
+clinging desperately to her seat, and then waggon and horses were buried
+in a dust-cloud of their own making, which was whirled away at a terrific
+pace, and spun out of his view round a distant corner.
+
+Done plodded along with his bag upon his shoulder. He had no definite
+plan of action. He thought now of looking about him for a day or two
+before leaving for the fields. No doubt it would be an easy matter to get
+accommodation at some hotel or lodging-house. After that he would move
+with the throng, and his future actions would depend upon such knowledge
+as he might be able to gather from the experienced people with whom he
+came in contact. He presently had ample proof that the driving of
+Macdougal of Boobyalla was nothing extraordinary here. Three horsemen
+passed him at a racing speed, and with much shouting and cracking of
+whips, and a wild, bewhiskered Bushman, driving two horses in a light,
+giglike vehicle, charged through the dust at a pace implying some
+business of life or death; but a little further on Jim came upon the
+steaming pair tethered to a post outside a rough structure labelled the
+'Miner's Rest,' and at the bar stood the driver toying lazily with a
+nobbler of brandy. He passed groups of men lounging against the building
+and sitting in the street, all smoking, none showing particular concern
+about anything. Their lethargy surprised him. He had expected to find the
+town mad with excitement, to behold here the gold fever blazing without
+restraint; but wherever there was a post to lean against a man was
+leaning against it, exactly as if there were nothing doing, and the world
+had not just run demented over the richness of their Victorian fields. It
+remained for him to learn that this very excitement provoked a
+corresponding lassitude, and that when the Australian diggers were not
+indulging in the extreme of frenzied exertion or boisterous recreation
+their inertia surpassed that of their own koala, the native sloth.
+
+Ere he reached the busier part of the town, Jim made the disconcerting
+discovery that he was a marked man, an object of public contumely. He had
+heard calls of derision at various points along the road, and was
+convinced now that for some reason or another he was exciting the
+laughter and badinage of the men. This was a painful shock to Done's
+happiness. The situation recalled Chisley, and something of the old
+Ishmael stirred within him. He set his teeth and hurried on.
+'Pea-souper!' was the epithet most in favour amongst his tormentors. Why
+'Pea-souper!' Jim could not understand. He could see no aptness in its
+application to him, and yet it was certainly a term of mockery.
+'Pea-souper!' The taunt had an ignominious flavour. It hurt because it
+recalled so much of what he had travelled halfway round the world to
+escape.
+
+He plunged into Elizabeth Street as if seeking cover. Here the crowd was
+thick, and one man might pass unheeded. Elizabeth Street was the busiest
+thoroughfare of Melbourne--a miserable, unformed street, the buildings of
+which were perched on either side of a gully. Pedestrians who were not
+sober ran serious risks of falling from the footpaths into the roadway
+below, a rather serious fall in places. Plunged is the right word; the
+road was churned into a dust-pit, on the footpath the dust lay
+ankle-deep, and people on foot had the appearance of wading through
+shallow water. Occasional gusts of the hot north wind seemed to lift the
+Street like a blanket, and shake its yellow, insinuating dust in the
+faces of the people.
+
+Here Done found the characteristic lassitude of the unemployed digger and
+the surging life of a town suddenly thronged with the adventurous men of
+the earth blended in a strange medley. Men were lounging everywhere,
+talking and smoking, or merely sunk in a state of abstraction. The talk
+was all of digging. The miners were exchanging news, rumour and opinions,
+and lying about their past takings, or the fabulous patches they had just
+missed--lying patiently and pertinaciously. Many faces were marked and
+discoloured from recent debauches. Lowly inebriates slept peacefully in
+the dust, one with his head affectionately pillowed on a dog that snarled
+and snapped at anyone coming within three feet of its master.
+
+There was little variety in the dress worn. Even the man who had not been
+two miles from Melbourne affected the manner of the digger, and donned
+his uniform. Cabbage-tree hats or billycocks were on every head, and for
+the rest a gray or blue jumper tucked into Clay-stained trousers and
+Wellington boots satisfied the majority. A few swells and 'flash' diggers
+exhibited a lively fancy in puggaries and silk sashes and velvet
+corduroys and natty patent-leather leggings, but anything more
+pretentious was received with unmistakable manifestations of popular
+disfavour. A large bullock-team hauling a waggon load of bales blundered
+slowly along the road, the weary cattle swinging from side to side under
+the lash of the bullocky, who yelled hoarse profanity with the volubility
+of an auctioneer and the vocabulary of a Yankee skipper unchecked by
+authority. A little further on another team, drawn up before a hotel, lay
+sprawling, half buried, the patient bullocks twisted into painful angles
+by reason of their yokes, quietly chewing the cud. Riders and drivers
+conformed to no rule of the road, and maintained a headlong pace implying
+a great contempt for horseflesh, and no more respect for their own limbs
+than for the neck of the merest stranger. From the bars, which were
+frequent, came a babel of laughter and shouting. To the 'Pea-souper'
+every thing was new and wonderful.
+
+A squalid aboriginal swathed in an old tablecloth fresh from some
+breakfast started from a corner, pointing a long, dirty finger at Done,
+and grinning a wide grin.
+
+'Yah! dam new chum!' he said. Then he laughed as only an Australian black
+can, with a glitter of seemingly endless white teeth, and a strident roar
+that might have been heard a mile off.
+
+'New chum!' This appellation had been thrown at Done a dozen times.
+
+'Pea-souper!' trumpeted a horseman through his hands. There were
+sarcastic references to 'limejuice,' and Jim was asked by several
+strangers, with a show of much concern, if his mother knew he was out.
+'Does your mother know you're out?' was then a new and popular street
+gag, and the query implied a childlike incapability of taking care of
+himself on the part of the person addressed, and was generally accepted
+as a choice piece of humour. Jim heard so many references to the 'new
+chum's bundle' that he was presently satisfied he owed all these
+unpleasant little attentions to the burden he carried, and he determined
+to rid himself of it at the first opportunity. Turning into Bourke
+Street, he eventually found a hotel where there was comparative peace.
+Entering, he called for a drink.
+
+'New chum?' queried the barman, after serving him.
+
+'I suppose I am,' replied Jim. 'Look here, would you mind telling me what
+in the devil's name a new chum is?'
+
+'A new chum is a man fresh from home.'
+
+'From England?'
+
+'Scotland, Ireland, anywhere else, if he's green and inexperienced.
+Miners from the Californian fields don't rank as new chums.'
+
+'And how am I known as a new chum?'
+
+The barman grinned. 'That'll tell on you all over the place,' he said,
+indicating the bag. 'That's a true new chum's bundle. No Australian would
+expatriate himself by carrying his goods in that fashion. He makes them
+up in a roll, straps them, and carries them in a sling on his back. His
+bundle is then a swag. The swag is the Australian's national badge.'
+
+'Well, I'm hanged if that isn't a little thing to make a row about. Do
+you reckon it shameful to be a new chum, then?'
+
+'Not exactly. No offence is intended; the men jeer out of mere harmless
+devilment. The new churn's got so much to learn here, he can't help
+looking a born fool as a general thing.'
+
+'And pea-souper and lime-juicer?'
+
+'They've been hazing you properly, mate. Pea-soupers and lime-juicers are
+strangers off shipboard. They'd never have spotted you, though, without
+the bundle. There's no raw-meat tint about you; you're tanned like a
+native. Buy a blue jumper and get a cabbage-tree up in place of that cap,
+and you'd pass muster as a Sydney-sider born and bred.'
+
+'A cabbage-tree?'
+
+'Hat--straw. Get a second-hand one if you can: they're more appreciated.
+Usually a man likes to colour his own hat as he colours his own pipe; but
+you're eager to meet the Australian prejudice against newness. Another
+bit of advice,' continued the bar-man, who was glad of the chance to turn
+his vast antipodean experience to some account. 'If you happen to be
+anybody in particular, as you love your peace of mind and your bodily
+comfort, don't speak of it.'
+
+'Luckily, I'm nobody in particular.'
+
+'That's all right. I was idiot enough to let it be known that I was
+afflicted with an aristocratic name, and I had to hold this job against
+banter enough to drive a cow daft. Now my name's Smith.'
+
+'Are you a new chum, then?'
+
+'Lord no! I've been out seven weeks.'
+
+It was Jim's turn to laugh. 'Well,' he said, 'if a man can qualify as a
+representative Australian in seven weeks, I'm not going to complain.'
+
+The barman provided much more valuable information. Bed and board could
+not be had at that establishment for love or money, and, furthermore, it
+was unlikely Jim would be able to find lodgings anywhere in Melbourne.
+
+'I suppose you can take care of yourself--you look a likely man,' he
+said. 'Well, the nights are so warm no man needs a dwelling. When you're
+tired of knocking round to-night, take your traps down by the river, roll
+yourself in your blanket in the lee of a gum-tree, and sleep there. Did
+it myself for a week, and only had to put up one fight all the time.
+Sleeping out's no hardship here. Meanwhile, in exchange for the latest
+news from down under, I'll dump your swag, and keep an eye on her till
+you call again.'
+
+The young fellow's ready friendship was most grateful to Done, and he
+remained in the bar till a run of business rendered further conversation
+impossible, picking up useful knowledge by the way, and presently
+discovering the barman to be a gentleman with an expensive polish, whose
+most earnest desire was to hide his gentility and disguise the contingent
+gloss under a brave assumption of the manners and speech peculiar to the
+people of the rough young democracy.
+
+Tea that evening was the most expensive meal Jim Done had ever eaten, and
+far from being the best; but his appetite was equal to anything, and the
+fare on the Francis Cadman had not been so dainty as to give him any
+epicurean prejudices. It was night when Jim came from the primitive
+restaurant, darkness having come down with a suddenness surprising to a
+new chum accustomed to long twilights. Jim had taken tea in a tent near
+Paddy's Market. Here scores of tents of all sorts and sizes were huddled
+together. All cooking was done out of doors. Fires were everywhere, their
+glow, reflected brightly on the canvas of the 'flies,' giving a fantastic
+brilliance to the scene. Life stirred around him, jubilant, bounteous,
+pulsing life. The levity of the people was without limit. Their
+childishness astonished Done, but he lived to find this a characteristic
+of the diggers in all parts; even the roughest men in the roughest camps
+exhibited a schoolboy's love of horseplay and a great capacity for
+primitive happiness. It was as if the people, having thrown off the more
+galling restraints of civilization and order, felt their limbs and
+spirits free for the first time, and exercised both with the freedom and,
+the austere critic may say, the foolishness of mountain goats.
+
+Jim's whole being was infected with the spirit of the place, his blood
+danced. He had discarded his cap for a well-seasoned cabbage-tree, and
+wore a blue jumper under his coat, and now passed unheeded, excepting
+when a jovial digger, flown with brandy and success, roared a 'Good luck,
+mate!' or commanded him in to drink. Social restraints were gone;
+equality ruled the road; all men were brothers, and friendships of ten
+minutes' standing were as sacred as the ties of kinship.
+
+The night was young, but already turbulent. The hot wind had passed, and
+the air was sweet and free from dust. As he moved along the street,
+Done's ear caught the squeak and the twang of fiddle and banjo coming
+through the confusion of voices. Step-dancing and singing were the most
+popular delights. The ability to sing a comic song badly was passport
+enough in digger society. The streets were lit with kerosene. Here and
+there a slush lamp or a torch blazed before an establishment seeking
+notoriety, shedding a note of lurid colour upon the faces of the bearded
+men thronging the footpath. If there were laws controlling all these
+elements, Jim failed to discover a sign of them; neither did he see sign
+of the flagrant lawlessness he had been led to expect. The absence of
+arms surprised him most of all. He looked to find knives and revolvers in
+every belt, but saw no display of weapons, and noting the bluff,
+lumbering kindliness animating the crowd, he thought of his own small but
+carefully selected arsenal with some contempt.
+
+Jim Done walked about the streets for two hours, interested in
+everything, disappointed with nothing. All this satisfied the craving
+that had driven him from home. Here he was one of the people, a man
+amongst men, accepted at his face and physical value by fellow-creatures
+who respected most the fearless eye and the strong arm. Moreover, there
+were no signs of those hated forces, respectability, piety,
+conventionality, all of which had seemed to range themselves
+automatically on the side of his enemies.
+
+He came to a large wooden hall with a row of lamps blazing along its
+front and a foreign sign over the door. From within floated strains of
+music and the beating of many feet. Jim entered. The place was crowded
+with hairy diggers--mostly successful, he learned presently. The
+atmosphere was heavy with smoke. A wild dance was going on, and several
+sets held the floor. Half a dozen of the most fortunate of the men had
+female partners, the others danced 'bucks,' man and man, and the pounding
+of their heavy boots and the yells of laughter provoked by their clumsy
+movements quite drowned the music of the feeble orchestra, crowded away
+in the far corner of the room. Along one end ran an unplaned wooden
+counter, where two or three barmen were kept busy serving gin, brandy,
+and rum to the parched dancers. When the dance was ended there was a rush
+for the bar, and Jim found now that dancing did not go by favour, the
+hands of the fair being bestowed upon the highest bidders. One tall,
+lack-haired, laughing girl, with the figure and face of a Bacchante,
+sprang upon a chair, shaking aloft a yellow scarf, and was auctioned for
+the next dance amidst a storm of bidding and a hurricane of merriment.
+She was borne down the room in the arms of the triumphant digger, who had
+paid thirty 'weights' for his bouncing partner--six pounds for ten
+minutes' dancing, and the proud purchaser couldn't dance a step!
+
+Jim watched the women curiously; they were a new type to him--young,
+virile, red-lipped, flushed with wine, shameless in the face of the
+crowd, their faces kindled with laughter. They led the men in their wild
+revel--pagans absolute. One in particular attracted Done; she was tall,
+dark-eyed, and black-haired. This, in conjunction with the bold
+combination of red and black in her costume, gave him the belief that she
+was Spanish. There was about her some suggestion of character and
+strength that pleased him. She romped like a child; her merriment was
+clean and unforced. He saw nothing of the corruption that Vice is
+supposed to stamp upon the faces of her votaries. These women, despite
+the feeble kerosene lights, the tobacco-smoke, and the bare, ugly walls,
+might have been participants in the revels of Dionysus.
+
+Several times, passing him in the dance, the eyes of the Spaniard flashed
+into his own, and she smiled. When the dance was ended she confronted
+him.
+
+'Sure, you're goin' to dance wid me, ain't ye now?' she said in the most
+mellifluous brogue.
+
+Done shook his head and laughed with diffidence.
+
+'No, thanks,' he said. 'I'm not a rich digger. Only a poor new chum,' he
+added, hoping to carry conviction.
+
+'Straight from the Ould Country, is it?' asked the girl eagerly. 'Have ye
+the word of ould Ireland, an' how does she stand? The dance is yours for
+the shmallest token.'
+
+'I'm sorry I don't know Ireland,' said Jim.
+
+'Then I'll give you the dance fer natural love an' affection.'
+
+Done protested that he could not dance, but the laughing girl dragged him
+into the thick of it.
+
+'Come along!' she cried, dropping the brogue. 'I'm a patriot, and I love
+you for the green in your eye.'
+
+Jim danced. He was literally forced into it, and presently found himself
+getting along quite decently in a barbaric sort of polka. When the music
+ceased he followed the custom of the country, and shouted for his
+partner. She drank sherry. He left the hall a few minutes later, with the
+girl's kiss, lightly given, tingling on his lips, and walked away
+quickly, treading on air. Presently he began to question himself. Why
+this growing exuberance? Was it drink? Never before had he felt its
+influence. He pulled himself together. He was crowding his sensation: it
+was time to cry a halt.
+
+The young man returned to the hotel where he had left his belongings. The
+long bar was crowded with men. The hotel was little more than a large
+tent with a pretentious wooden front. It was illumined by a single lamp
+suspended above the counter. This lamp lit up the faces of the men
+gathered under it, but beyond the countenances of the customers faded
+into a mist of tobacco-smoke, deepening into darkness in the corners.
+
+Done leant against the bar, watching the scene, still curious, content to
+wait till the busy barman had leisure to attend to him. After a few
+moments he found himself an object of most marked interest to a tall,
+thin digger, perched on an up-ended barrel, drinking porter. The man was
+watching him narrowly, and at length, as if to leave no doubt of his
+attentions, he stepped down, and, standing squarely in front of Done,
+looked him closely in the face. Jim returned the stare, finding curiosity
+deepen into surprise, and surprise into conviction, in the countenance
+confronting him.
+
+'Solo!' cried the man. 'Solo, by all that's holy!' As he spoke he sprang
+between Jim and the door way, as if to cut off escape. 'Bail up!' he
+said; 'we've got you tight this trip.'
+
+'You're making a mistake, I think, mate,' said Jim. 'Anyhow, my name is
+not Solo.'
+
+'That's a bluff! I know you too damn well! Boys,' continued the miner,
+addressing the crowd, 'it's Solo. I'll wager my soul on it. Get at him!
+There's five hundred cold guineas on his head!'
+
+'I tell you you're wrong!' blurted Done.
+
+The tall man waited for no further argument, but jumped at Done, and they
+closed. There was a short struggle, and Jim put his opponent down with an
+old Cousin-Jack trick that he had often tried on better men.
+
+'The man's drunk!' said Jim, as the crowd narrowed in on him. He set his
+back against the counter, prepared to make a good fight.
+
+A raw-boned, brown-faced native of about twenty-six grappled with him, but
+only as a pretence, as Done speedily found.
+
+'Bolt, or you're a done man!' whispered the Australian at his ear. 'When
+I smash the lamp, over the counter and under the tent, and skedaddle for
+your life!'
+
+This young fellow allowed himself to be thrown off, and backed into the
+crowd. The long man, who had recovered his wind, turned to address the
+men.
+
+'It's Solo, mates,' he said, 'and there's five hundred waiting for us if
+we take him.'
+
+The men moved forward in a body, but just then a pewter crashed into the
+lamp, and there was darkness. Acting on his new friend's advice, Done
+cleared the counter at a bound, and dived under the canvas. Picking
+himself up, he ran into the darkness. He heard footsteps following him,
+and increased his pace, stumbling on the strange ground. But a voice
+assured him.
+
+'Keep to the right! Make for cover!' panted his pursuer.
+
+
+VII
+
+FINDING only one man following, Jim Done ceased running on reaching a
+clump of trees, and presently he was joined by the young Australian who
+had aided him.
+
+'My colonial, you sprint like an emu!' gasped the latter. 'All the same,
+that was a mad sort o' thing to do.'
+
+'What was?'
+
+'Why, showin' yourself 'bout here with the cheek of a dashed
+commissioner, while there's five hundred on your head, hot or cold, live
+or dead, an' every trooper in the country whim' to give his long ears to
+pot you.'
+
+'But you are quite wrong; I'm not this Solo.'
+
+'Not Solo! That won't wash. Wasn't I there with Long Aleck when you got
+away with the gold Hoban hid in our nosebag other side o' Geelong?'
+
+'You're on the wrong scent. My name is Done. I'm a new chum, landed only
+this morning off the Francis Cadman.'
+
+'Here, let's look you over again.' The stranger struck a match, and,
+shielding it with his hands, examined Jim's face. 'Dunno,' he said, 'but
+p'r'aps you are a bit young. Still, rig a beard around that chiv of
+yours, and it's Solo to the life.'
+
+'If it's worth while, walk down to the ship with me, and I'll satisfy you
+in two minutes.'
+
+Your word's good enough for me. Solo or no, taint my deal.'
+
+'Well, you've gone to some trouble to help me out of a hole, and I'm
+obliged.' Done offered his hand, and the other shook it heartily. 'You
+might tell me who and what this Solo is,' continued Jim.
+
+'Smartest, coolest, most darin' gold-thief in Australia. Outlawed for
+robbery under arms, wanted by all the police 'tween here and the Murray,
+and his head's worth five hundred to you 'r me, 'r any yob that can rob
+him of it. He works alone. What his right name is no one knows.'
+
+'That's all a bright look-out for me!' laughed Jim. 'But if he's such an
+infernal scoundrel, and he's robbed you among the rest, why come to his
+rescue?'
+
+''Pon my soul, I dunno I' replied the Australian, scratching his head
+dubiously, ''less it's 'cause of his pluck 'n' the dashed pleasant,
+gentlemanly way he has o' doin' things. By the way, what 're you out for?
+Goin' diggin'? Got a mate? Where 're you makin'?'
+
+'I'm going digging. I have no mate. I can't say what field I'm making for
+till I know more about them.'
+
+'Look here, take in my points.' The native struck another match, and held
+it that Done might make an inventory of his perfections. 'Five foot ten
+high, strong as a horse, sound in wind and limb, know the country, know
+the game, been on three fields, want a mate. Name's Micah Wentworth
+Burton--Mike for short. Got all traps, pans, shovels, picks, cradle, tub,
+windlass, barrow. Long Aleck--chap that attacked you--was my mate; he's
+turning teamster. Take me on, an' here's my hand. We're made for a pair.'
+
+Burton stopped for lack of wind. He jerked his words with a slight nasal
+intonation, and his manner and his action indicated a characteristic
+impetuosity. Done was astounded at his own seeming good fortune and the
+other's rash confidence.
+
+'Come,' he said doubtingly, 'do you mean to say you'll go into
+partnership in this desperate way with a man you don't know, but whom you
+suspect of being a notorious rogue, and give him all the advantages of
+your property and your knowledge?'
+
+'Will I? My oath! Is it a deal? All that about Solo is off. I might 'a'
+known he had too much horse-sense to mooch about Melbourne disguised only
+in a daily shave. As for the rest, blast it! we're men. I take you on
+chance, you take me on spec. We can look after ourselves, I s'pose. Well,
+what say?'
+
+'I couldn't ask for anything better. The only objection to the
+arrangement is that I take all and give nothing.'
+
+'Done, then! But don't you run away with a wrong idea. There 're heaps o'
+decent men an' good miners in Melbourne who'd jump at a mate of your
+stamp. Come along to my tent up Canvas Town to-night. There's a spare
+bunk. Aleck started on a jamboree that won't mature for a week. We can
+talk things into order.'
+
+Jim Done awoke next morning with a fear in his heart that he had made a
+fool of himself. His mate was sitting just without the tent, grilling
+chops on a piece of hoop-iron twisted into a grid. Jim's head felt new to
+him, and ached badly; old doubts, old prejudices, possessed him. Why
+should all the regard this stranger expressed have developed in an
+acquaintanceship of minutes? Why should Burton be so eager to bestow
+benefits upon him? That was not the customary way of men. He got up,
+dressed and washed, and took breakfast with his mate, and the sullen
+suspicion lingered; but Mike talked volubly, questioning nothing, and as
+the morning wore on his obvious sincerity won on Done, and ere they
+turned their backs upon Melbourne the Australian's spontaneous, careless
+confidence in him and his open-hearted cordiality planted in Done the
+seeds of one of those strong, lasting friendships which are never half
+expressed in words, although they may sometimes be attested in eloquent
+and heroic actions.
+
+On the afternoon of his second day in Melbourne Jim saw Lucy Woodrow once
+more. She passed in Macdougal's trap as Done and his mate were walking
+along Swanston Street. She looked very pretty, and was laughing gaily at
+something her companion had said. The sight of that companion affected
+Jim in a peculiar way. He looked a man of about forty, strongly but
+sparely built; his face, clean-shaven but for the triangle of hair coming
+just below the ears, had a cameo-like correctness of outline; the lips
+were firm and full, the eyes deep. He wore one of the flat-brimmed
+bell-toppers fashionable at the time, a skirted coat, and a high collar.
+In a flash the whole man was photographed on Jim's mind--why he could not
+understand. The sensations given him by the sight of that face were quite
+apart from the pang he experienced on noting Lucy's apparent interest in
+the man. Jim felt for the miniature in his pocket. It was hard to believe
+that only about twenty-four hours had sped since their parting. Looking
+back now over so much that was strange, he thought as many weeks might
+have gone in the interval.
+
+'Monkey Mack,' said Mike, following the direction of Jim's eyes.
+
+'Do you know him?'
+
+'Everybody knows of him. Owns the best-stocked station out of New South.
+Made a pile through the rushes, selling stock at famine prices. Richest
+squatter in Vic, an' that dirty mean he won't wash 'cause o' the ruinous
+wear and tear on soap. Used to go round collecting the wool the sheep
+scraped off on his fences an' trees, an' for years cadged his toby,
+(tobacco, you know) off passing teamsters; then, when the teamsters shied
+at him, gave up smokin'. Owns thousands of acres an' hundreds o'
+thousands o' pounds, an' wears toe-rags, an' yet lets his wife have what
+she likes, an' spend what she pleases. That was his wife 'long side him.'
+
+'Yes, she came over in our ship.'
+
+'Shipmates, eh? That's as good as first-cousins.'
+
+'Who was the other man?'
+
+'Donno. Looked like something just blown ashore. Very superior, likely.
+Mrs Mack's got a weakness for gentility. She was a neighbourin'
+squatter's milkmaid, they say.'
+
+'Well, Macdougal's not mean in the matter of horseflesh.'
+
+'Right. That's his other great extravagance. See, he gets about badly on
+those spider-legs of his, and makes up for his misfortune when he splits
+across a horse. He breeds the best, drives like a fiend, an' can ride
+anythin' lapped in hide.'
+
+A week later Done and Burton were on their way to Forest Creek diggings.
+Everything worth working on Ballarat was pegged out, Mike said. Forest
+Creek was the new Eldorado. Their tools and stores were four days ahead,
+in the care of an experienced teamster whom Mike knew well, and whom he
+could trust to pull through, despite the abominable roads and the
+misfortunes that had knocked up many a well-found team and marked the
+track with crippled horses and stranded wagons. For two days Jim had
+carried his swag through the Australian Bush, and one night he had slept
+on the brown grass, using his folded blanket for a pillow, the camp-fire
+flickering palely at a distance, the wide-branching, dreamy gum-trees
+spreading their limbs above him, the warmth of summer in the scented air
+Already the instincts of the Bushman were developing in him. He began to
+feel a friendship for the towering gums in their flaunting independence;
+their proud individuality pleased him. To his mind they reflected the
+spirit of the people--it must be the spirit of the land. Nowhere in their
+feathery elegance did he find a law of conformity; each tree was a law
+unto itself, tall and strong and slender, youthful and buoyant, opening
+fond arms to the blue sky. The absence of the sap-greens of England
+conveyed at first an impression of barrenness, but that wore off, and the
+artistic side of his nature fed upon the soft harmonies of faded grass
+and subdued green foliage nursing misty purples in its shade. The ground
+was his bed and chair and table; never had he been so intimate with
+Mother Earth. Here she was uncontaminated, the soil was sweet, and it
+gave no hint of untold generations of dead fattening the grass upon which
+he couched as in sweet hay. From the earth he drew an ardent patriotism.
+He was already a more enthusiastic Australian than the loose-limbed
+native with whom he fraternized.
+
+They camped five miles beyond Miner's Rest on the second night,
+preferring the comparative solitude of the Bush to the scant
+accommodation and some what boisterous company at the shanty lately
+established to cater for the fortune-hunters streaming to the new rushes.
+Mike selected the spot and dropped his swag.
+
+'We've tramped far enough to-day,' he said. 'You'll find water just over
+that rise there. I'll light the fire.'
+
+'So you've been over this part before,' said Jim, unstrapping the billy
+from his mate's swag.
+
+'No; this is new country to me.'
+
+'Then, how do you know I shall find water beyond that hillock?'
+
+''Pon my soul, I don't know why I know,' Mike answered; 'but I'll wager
+my share of our first tub it's there.'
+
+Jim found the water. There was a water-hole in a small creek at the spot
+indicated. His mate's knowledge of things about him in the Bush, things
+unseen and unheard, had seemed uncanny at first; he was getting used to
+it now. Mike was born in the Bush, and the greater part of his life had
+been spent in it. He knew it as thoroughly as its familiar animals did,
+and much in the same way, without being aware of his knowledge, which was
+mainly instinctive. The billy was on the blazing fire, and Done sat
+watching Mike smartly mixing a damper in the lid. To Jim this, too, was a
+wonderful accomplishment. Water and flour were deftly manipulated until a
+ball of dough that quite filled the small lid resulted. It was done with
+the cleanness and quickness of a conjuring trick. The dough was divided
+into two pats, to be cooked under the hot ashes. Then Mike improvised his
+wire grid again, and in a few minutes the steak he had carried in a
+dilly-bag from Miner's Rest was sizzling and spitting over the embers.
+
+Done's admiration for his mate was growing rapidly. Mike looked like a
+model in new copper, kneeling by the fire, his face thrown back,
+reflecting the glow of the flame in the surrounding dusk. Jim realized
+what had gone to the making of that hard, lean frame, and, proud as he
+was of his own strength, envied the other his endurance. He knew that
+Burton had been making concessions to him throughout their journey, that
+he could have walked miles further in the time without fatigue, carrying
+his swag as jauntily as if it were a butterfly poised on his back. His
+boyish exuberance of manner when stirred was in direct contrast to the
+quiet assurance with which he went about ordinary affairs. He was never
+in difficulties, never at a loss; the Bush was his living-room, bedroom,
+and larder. He had already shown himself independent of what the stores
+could provide when a meal was wanted. Mike might have been a pink Adonis
+in another climate and under other conditions; his gray eyes and fair
+moustache were in almost ludicrous contrast with his tanned hide--he
+appeared to be bound in morocco.
+
+After their meal Jim spread himself upon the ground, his head pillowed on
+the swag, stretching his tired limbs. Mike sat smoking, and there was
+silence over and about them. One of those brief hushes, when all the
+night voices are stilled and the trees merge into black, motionless
+masses, was upon the Bush, and it infected the men. All day they had
+marched with the throng; their tramp had never been lonely, thousands of
+men were moving upon Forest Creek, and every now and again they passed a
+toiling party burdened with tools and utensils, or were passed in turn by
+more enthusiastic spirits pushing on, eager for a share in the treasure
+of Red Gully, Diamond Gully, and Castlemaine. The shouts of the joyous
+travellers were still echoing in Done's ears.
+
+He had seen diggers on the track under varying fortunes, cursing
+dreadfully by broken-down teams, urging on their dull bullocks--slow, but
+very sure--singing exuberantly as they paced by, carrying heavy swags
+with light hearts, shouting as they went, under the impulse of a common
+hope that begot friendliness in all; and yet each man was armed
+now--there was a revolver or a pistol in every belt. They came out of the
+Bush, and the Bush swallowed them again--strange groups. Two Jim passed
+he recognised as sailors off the Francis Cadman: one was in the shafts of
+a loaded wheel barrow, the other, with a rope over his shoulder, trudged
+ahead, towing manfully, both as merry as boys at play, despite the ten
+days' journey ahead of them.
+
+'Good luck, mate!' 'Good luck!' The trees showered kindly wishes, and
+hearty compliments danced from lip to lip. A spirit of irrepressible
+jollity laughed in the land. Drays, waggons, buggies, cabs, vehicles of
+all kinds, were pressed into the service of the adventurers. Four diggers
+went roaring by in a dilapidated landau that had seen vice-regal service
+in Hobart Town, driven by a fifth blackguard dressed in an old livery,
+and they brandished champagne bottles, and scattered the liquid gold like
+emperors--lucky pioneers from Buninyong. A ragged, bare-footed, hatless
+urchin, a stowaway fresh from the streets of London, whipped behind, as
+he might have done a few weeks earlier on a Bishop's carriage in Rotten
+Row. The mates next encountered a band of Chinamen carrying their burdens
+on bamboos, covering the ground smartly with their springing trot and
+cackling gaily as they went; then a 'hatter,' drunk as a lord rolling
+heavily, his hands in his pockets, his hat jauntily set on the back of
+his head, bellowing the latest comic song, a lonely soul; then a dray,
+piled high with cradles, pans, picks, shovels, swags, and a miscellaneous
+cargo, on the top of which perched a bulky Irishwoman, going to the
+diggings to make her fortune as the proprietress of the Forest Creek
+Laundry. This and much more in the depths of a pathless forest, the grave
+solitude of which was disturbed only for the moment as each jocund
+company hastened on into the mysterious vastness ahead, or fell back into
+the dense Bush that lay behind. That anybody could have a definite idea
+whither he was going in this ocean of trees, that engulfed them all like
+stones dropped into the sea, Done found it hard to believe.
+
+'You're a curious kind of devil, Jim,' said Mike, who had been watching
+Done closely during the last few minutes.
+
+'How's that?'
+
+'You don't talk. Worse still, you don't smoke.'
+
+'No; in England I had neither mates nor friends, and smoking's a
+convivial disease--a kid catches it from his companions.'
+
+'I might have guessed you were bred a "hatter"; you're as dumb as a
+mute.'
+
+'Same reason, Mike; but I'm getting over it. I'm getting over a good many
+things rather too suddenly. I'm sort of mentally breathless. A year ago
+I'd have sworn that friendship and good-fellowship were impossible to me.'
+
+'Go on!'
+
+'And just now I'm feeling things too keenly to talk much about them.'
+
+''Nough said, Jimmy; I ain't complaining.' Mike knocked the ashes from his
+pipe on his boot. 'I s'pose I'd best get somethin' for breakfast,' he
+said, rising and stretching himself.
+
+'What, here?' Jim looked about him into the darkness.
+
+'Here or hereabouts. Keep an eye on the swags. I won't be gone more'n an
+hour at the outside.'
+
+Micah Burton went off into the dense Bush, that to Jim looked grimly
+unpromising, and the latter lay back upon the grass again, with quite a
+luxurious sensation. The hard day's walking made this rest peculiarly
+agreeable: he had eaten well, his mind was at peace--he no longer
+concerned himself with psychological theories--he was content to live and
+feel.
+
+Sharply out of the silence came a ringing report. Jim was jerked to a
+sitting posture, listening with all his ears. The report was repeated
+several times, a fusillade of shots, followed by faint echoes of a voice
+raised in anger. There was an interval of quiet, and when the sound broke
+in again Done sighed contentedly, and relapsed into his former position.
+He recognised the crack of a cattle-whip. In a minute or two he heard the
+voice of the bullocky admonishing Bally and Spot with a burst of
+alliterative invective, and presently the leaders came labouring out of
+the darkness, the great red bullocks, with bowed heads, moving slowly and
+with that suggestion of impassive invincibility that goes always with a
+big team of good working bullocks in action.
+
+'Hello, mate!' cried someone beyond in the shadows.
+
+'Hello, there!'
+
+'Plenty o' water 'bout?'
+
+'A creek down to the left.'
+
+'Right-o! We'll camp here, Stony. Woa, Strawberry! Woa, there, Spot!
+Bally! Blackboy!'
+
+The cattle came to a standstill, and while the others busied themselves
+unyoking the team, one man went off through the trees, and presently
+returned, carrying a billy he had just filled. He kicked the fire
+together, threw on a few pieces of wood, and began to prepare a meal,
+paying no attention to Jim, who lay watching him. It was not customary to
+say 'By your leave!' in little matters of this kind. On the track every
+man's company was supposed to be welcome. Following a habit of
+observation, Jim examined the man without curiosity. He was thin,
+sandy-haired, and wiry, about forty-five, with restless hands, and a
+cowed, half-sullen expression--a drinker of strong drinks of the kind
+manufactured at the shanties, corrosive liquids that ate the souls out of
+men in quick order.
+
+Having disposed of the bullocks, the tinkling of whose bells was a
+foreign note in the night, two others came to the fire, carrying the
+tucker-box. They were brothers, long, bearded, brown-faced Australians of
+the runs, going up to the rush with stores for Coolan and Smith, or
+Aberdeen, the universal providers of the Roaring Fifties.
+
+'Hurry up that blasted quart-pot, Stony!' ejaculated the elder of the
+two. 'I feel as if I'd done a three days' perish-me!'
+
+The men ate hungrily, sitting about in the light of the fire, drinking
+the hot tea from pannikins and from the billy lid, and as they ate they
+talked. Done was beginning to find himself at home in the society of men.
+The humanities were finding place in his soul. Everything about these
+people interested him--their work, their pleasures, their ideas. They
+were so closely in touch with vital things, so tolerant. They cherished
+no political, social, and religious convictions to the exclusion of their
+fellow-men.
+
+Burton returned, swinging four featherless birds. The invasion of their
+camp did not surprise him. He greeted the strangers cheerfully, and held
+the birds up for Jim's inspection.
+
+'Our breakfast,' he said. 'Fat 'n young.'
+
+'Where did they come from?'
+
+'A lagoon half a mile up the creek. Four shots, four duck.' He touched
+his revolver.
+
+'But Nature doesn't provide plucked birds for our benefit.'
+
+'Skinned an' cleaned 'em at the water.'
+
+The teamsters were not averse to boiled duck and broth for breakfast, and
+the two billies were soon steaming on the camp-fire, while the company
+yarned and smoked. It was nearly ten o'clock, and all hands were thinking
+of taking to their blankets for the night, when a sixth man came quietly
+through the trees, unobserved until his greeting disturbed them. Done had
+to turn on his side to look at the newcomer, a handsome, beardless man in
+the garb of a digger, but much more scrupulous in the matter of
+cleanliness and fit than the majority.
+
+'I did not like the society at the Rest,' he said, 'and walked on,
+looking for quieter company.'
+
+'Make yourself at home,' answered Mike. 'There's tea in the pannikin, an'
+there's grub in the dilly-bag. You're not carryin' traps.'
+
+'No. Sent everything ahead but this 'possum rug. Thanks for--'
+
+He ceased speaking. His face had been composed, almost colourless; into
+it there sprang an expression of amazement, which deepened into an animal
+ferocity shocking to see. The mouth twitched spasmodically, the eyes
+caught the glare of the flame, and glowed with a catlike lustre.
+Surprised, Done turned in the direction of his glance, and discovered the
+man Stony crouching on the other side of the fire, his weak, tremulous
+hands stretched out before him, his face gray as ashes and convulsed with
+horror. Glaring at the stranger, he lifted his hands, thrusting the
+vision from him, and a cry of terror burst in his throat, as the man
+sprang at him, bearing him to the ground as a tiger might have done,
+groping fiercely at his throat with iron fingers. Stony lay on his back;
+his enemy, kneeling on his body, choking him, bent his face down, and
+cried fiercely:
+
+'It is you, then? I am not mistaken! You know me, you dog, and you know
+that I mean to tear the heart out of you!'
+
+Releasing his grip on the flesh, he wrenched at Stony's shirt, ripping it
+at the neck.
+
+'Help!' gasped the prostrate wretch. 'For the love of God, help!'
+
+'There's your brand--your brand, Peter!' He thrust his face into Stony's
+again, and all the hate that a face can carry and that a voice can convey
+was betrayed in his expression and his words. 'Do you know what I have
+endured, Peter? Do you know what I have suffered?'
+
+Clutching at Stony's throat again, he bored his knee into the body under
+him, his arms became rigid with the power of his grip, and Stony lay
+choking, clawing feebly at the other's sleeves, his face distorted into a
+hideous caricature.
+
+The other men stood about, watching, the Australians reluctant to
+interfere in a quarrel they did not understand. It was Done who seized
+the stranger, tearing him off his victim, and then Mike and a teamster
+laid hands upon him, while Stony was writhing and panting on the ground.
+The digger offered no resistance; he seemed unconscious of everything but
+his hatred and his vengeance, and his eyes never moved from Stony.
+
+'We draw the line at cold-blooded murder, mate!' said Mike, but the other
+gave no answer.
+
+Stony had picked himself up, and, casting one horrified look at his
+enemy, turned away, and plunged into the blackness of the Bush, running
+like a frightened animal.
+
+'What's he been up to, anyhow?' asked one of the teamsters, as they
+released the stranger. The latter did not reply, but instantly darted
+after the runaway. The four men listened to the retreating footsteps, and
+presently the Bush echoed two pistol shots fired in rapid succession. The
+birds murmured and moved in the trees, a monkey-bear grunted disgustedly,
+and then all was still again.
+
+VIII
+
+FOR some little time the four men stood with their faces turned in the
+direction Stony and his pursuer had taken, listening breathlessly, and
+then they went to their blankets again. Done was greatly disturbed; the
+others took it more as a matter of course.
+
+'You won't follow them?' said Jim.
+
+'Well,' one of the brothers replied, 'I ain't particularly busy just now,
+but my hands are too full for that kind of foolishness.'
+
+'He meant murder!'
+
+'Somethin' too like it to please old Stony.'
+
+'What do you think it was all about?'
+
+'Can't say. Long grudge, evidently.'
+
+'The clean-shaven man was a lag,' said Mike. 'Convict,' he added, seeing
+a question in Jim's eye. 'Maybe your friend lagged him.'
+
+'Don't know him from a crow,' replied the teamster addressed. 'We're
+taking some traps and ware up to the Creek for him on our load, and he
+travelled along.'
+
+'I think you're mistaken about that man being a convict, Burton,' said
+Done to Mike later, breaking a long silence.
+
+'Sure I'm not. Saw the cuff-marks on his wrists as he was battling with
+Stony. Why?'
+
+'He's the man who was in the trap with Macdougal of Boobyalla the other
+day in Swanston Street.'
+
+'The swell in the choker and double-decker?'
+
+'Yes. For some reason his face impressed me. I couldn't mistake it.'
+
+'Didn't notice it; but if he's own brother to Governor Latrobe himself,
+I'll take my affie he's a lag.'
+
+The mates overtook the carter with their tent and stores and tools within
+a day's journey of the rush, and pushed on to secure a claim. Done's
+first sight of a busy goldfield was gained on a clear, sunny morning,
+when, after passing through Sawpit Gully, they came upon the beginning of
+the long lead that comprised many rushes, known as Forest Creek. The
+impression Jim retained was a semi-humorous one of humans reduced to the
+proportions and the dignity of ants, engaged upon the business of ants
+wrought to a pitch of excitement by some grand windfall at their doors.
+Little figures bustled about, carrying burdens; pigmies swarmed along the
+lead. The holes, with their white and yellow tips, were clustered as
+close together as the cells in a great honeycomb, and into the shafts and
+out of them bobbed hurrying, eager creatures. The whirring of windlasses,
+the clatter of nail-keg buckets, the incessant calls, 'Look up below!'
+and the distinct ringing of hammer on anvil, blended into a quaint
+symphony of labour. The swish, swish, swish, of the wet dirt in the
+cradle-hoppers and the rattling of the tailings thrown from the shovels
+providing an unvarying substratum of sound. There were tents everywhere,
+large and small, dotting the distance, but clustering into a township of
+canvas to the right of the Creek, and over the scene floated a faint
+mirage, so that the whole field and all in it quivered in the warm
+ascending air, the gauzy effect aiding the idea of stagy unreality.
+
+At the first sight of the lead Mike threw his hat into the air and
+cheered wildly. Another party coming in were beating their jaded horses
+to a run, the men jumping beside the team mad with joy, shouting like
+maniacs. On all hands were the waggons and drays unloading by tents not
+yet fully erected. The men who were not busy at their claims or puddling,
+cradling or panning-off dishes by the creek, were breathlessly engaged
+upon the work of getting their canvas houses into order and be stowing
+their goods; newcomers passed unheeded, however boisterous.
+
+'Before tea we'll have our pegs in here, Jim,' said Mike joyfully.
+
+They had been walking since two hours before daybreak, but elation
+possessed them to the exclusion of all thought of fatigue. The sight of
+the field of action set Jim's sinews twitching; he longed for the strife,
+and found some difficulty in restraining himself from running with the
+preceding party pell-mell on to the creek. But he had nothing of the
+gold-seeker's fever in his blood; the thought of amassing a fortune had
+merely occurred to him: it was the free, strong, exhilarating life that
+stirred him most deeply.
+
+Burton discovered an old acquaintance in a sooty blacksmith perspiring
+copiously over an open-air forge, and the mates left their swags in his
+tent and hastened to the high-walled, square tent occupied by the warden
+of the field to secure their licenses. Here Jim had his first taste of
+officialdom in Australia, and he did not like it. The tent was thronged
+with miners eager to secure their papers; they were met with cold-blooded
+intolerance by a class of officials often bred to their business in the
+infamous convict system, and now incapable of putting off their tyrannous
+insolence in the faces of free men. Several foot police--Vandemonians
+from the convict settlements--were stationed in the tent to enforce the
+mandate of Commissioner McPhee, or any understrapper who might resent the
+impatience of a digger, and order him to be propelled into the open on
+the toe of a regulation boot. The new hands bore the indignities
+carelessly, but the experienced diggers came up to the rough counter
+grimly and silently, conveying in their attitude Some suggestion of a
+reckoning almost due. They under stood all the injustice and flagrant
+abuse the licenses implied, the new chums did not.
+
+'Take care o' that, Done,' said Mike, flipping his own license with his
+thumb; 'they're important. I've heard em called tickets of admission to
+the new republic.'
+
+'What do they stand for, Mike?'
+
+'One month. For one month James Done is entitled to burrow for gold in
+Her Majesty's mud hereabout, an' for that time he's reckoned to have a
+right to be alive. At the end of the month he trots up to renew, and the
+price is thirty bob every time.'
+
+'But if James Done doesn't happen to have thirty bob?'
+
+'Then his right to be alive is null and void, and if he's caught so much
+as scraping dirt to bury a pup he's dealt with according to law. If in
+his month's work he doesn't earn enough to buy grease for his windlass,
+he must take out his miner's right or run the chance of being scragged.'
+
+'That seems strangely out of place here. And the men stand it?'
+
+'And heaps more. This license qualifies a miner to be dragged out of his
+hole at any moment, like a blasted wombat, by the scruff, to be
+bully-damned from Geelong to breakfast by some lag-punching, lop-eared
+ex-warder with a string of troopers at his heels!' Jim saw his mate in a
+bitter mood, for the first time.
+
+'But why the license, if it confers no benefit?'
+
+'To rob the diggers mercilessly, and to provide swine like those in there
+with a chance of riding the high horse over better men!' Mike was mixing
+his metaphors in his wrath. 'But you'll know all about it in time. If
+you're in the habit of using your hands, keep 'em tight in your pockets
+when the traps are out man-hunting. It's worse than manslaughter to punch
+a trooper. They'd have you in the logs in ten ticks less 'n no time.'
+
+Done refused to be depressed by the prospect. He understood that with his
+right in his pocket a miner was safe, and the charge did not seem to him
+a serious grievance in this land of plenteous gold.
+
+The mates had a crib with Duffy, the blacksmith; and after the meal,
+armed with wooden pegs, a pick, and a shovel, they set out to secure a
+claim. Acting on the urgent advice of Duffy, they headed for Diamond
+Gully, nearly two miles off; and here Mike loitered about amongst the
+claims, chatting with the men on top, keeping his eyes wide open, and
+gathering information as he went. The majority of the miners were quite
+enthusiastic; they were doing well, and had no desire to conceal the
+fact. One showed a prospect in the tin dish that wrung a wondering oath
+from Mike, and yet he moved on. Done could not understand. There was
+plenty of free land on either side, extending for miles.
+
+'Why not here, Burton?' he asked, indicating a pleasant spot.
+
+'Off the lead, probably,' answered Mike. 'We don't want to waste time
+bottoming shicers--sinking duffers,' he added in explanation. Done was
+still unenlightened. 'Putting down shafts where there isn't a colour,'
+continued Burton. 'We'll get right on the lead, or I'm a spud-miner from
+Donegal.'
+
+In due course they came to a claim that interested Burton deeply, but the
+man at the windlass was gloomy, almost despairing. He didn't believe he'd
+got a tucker show, and sadly advised Mike to shepherd a hole down to the
+left.
+
+'We ain't in sight of her here,' he said.
+
+Burton took a pinch of dirt from the side of the bucket at his feet,
+rubbed it between his finger and thumb, and grinned at the digger.
+
+'Take me for a Johnny Raw, don't you?' he said. 'This is good enough for
+me. Quick, Jim, the pegs!'
+
+The exclamation was drawn from him by the sight of three men running
+along the lead in their direction.
+
+As Burton hammered in his first peg, the newcomers started hammering a
+peg for the same holding. Mike paced the twenty-four feet, and kicked the
+stranger's peg out of the ground. Not a word was spoken. The intruding
+digger, a stoutly-built, cheerful-looking Geordie, promptly struck at
+Mike, and they fought. Done stood aside, nonplussed by the suddenness of
+all this, and for a minute a hard give-and-take battle raged on the
+claim. Jim discovered the Geordie's mate busying himself driving in a
+peg. Seizing the man by the back of the neck, he dragged him to his feet,
+and sent him spinning with a long swing. After which he gripped Mike's
+opponent in the same way, and bowled him over and over.
+
+'Now you get the pegs in, Mike,' said Jim. 'I'll attend to these.'
+
+The Geordie arose and rushed at Jim with the vehemence of an old fighter,
+but Done stopped him with a straight left, closed, and threw him. Mike
+ceased hammering the peg to applaud.
+
+'Neat and nice!' he cried. 'Would any other gentleman like a sample?'
+
+'I'm quite satisfied,' said the Geordie, without a trace of ill-feeling.
+
+'Then peg out the next,' continued Mike. 'It should be quite as good a
+spec as this if your friend's on anything like a gutter.'
+
+'Ay, ay, lad!' responded the Tynesider, who had a mouse on his cheek as
+big as his thumb, and he set cheerfully to work to peg out two men's
+ground further on. His bluff having failed, he cherished not the
+slightest resentment, and two minutes later, to Jim's great amusement,
+all concerned were indulging in affable conversation. The newcomers were
+friends of the party in the working mine, where the lead had been cut, a
+prospect from the headings promising so well that the holders had
+hastened to acquaint the Geordie with the fact. The latter arrived too
+late, however--first come, first served, being the law of the diggings,
+and first peg in meant legal possession.
+
+Two men's ground measured twelve feet by twenty-four feet. Mike had taken
+the twenty-four feet in the direction in which the lead seemed to be
+running, and now he lined out a shaft about four feet by two feet, and
+commenced sinking. He dug down to the depth of his waist, and at sunset
+the mates returned to Forest Creek. That night the teamster arrived with
+their goods, and Done and Burton slept under canvas, the tent having been
+hastily thrown across a hurdle to provide a screen from the glowing
+moonlight, the trees here being stunted and widely scattered.
+
+'So you're a wrestler, Jim said Mike, when they had turned in for the
+night.
+
+'I know a fall or two,' answered Done.
+
+'You put Long Aleck down on his chin in short order, an' he fancied his
+mutton, I can tell you. Know how to turn a fist to the best advantage,
+too, don't you? That Geordie's an old sailor who's been through the mill.
+I know the breed. You stopped him like a stone wall. I'm satisfied I
+struck it lucky when we met.'
+
+'Glad you think I'll be useful. I don't seem to have been of much account
+up to now.
+
+'Useful! A man's got to fight 'r knuckle under. The rushes ain't peopled
+with penny saints. You've got to punch a few to get yourself respected.'
+
+Done was not long learning the truth of this. He found in time that the
+feats of arms he had mastered with the idea of impressing his enemies in
+Chisley were his most valuable accomplishments in Australia.
+
+Next day the mates carted their belongings to their claim, and the
+morning was spent in erecting the tent, rigging bunks, and making things
+shipshape. They got to work in the shaft again after dinner, Done taking
+his first lesson in sinking. Within two hours they came upon the wash
+dirt, the sinking at Diamond Gully being very shallow. While they were
+busy Jack Thorn, the Geordie, came up from the creek and approached them,
+grinning broadly, and hiding something under his hat.
+
+'Hope yer eyesight's good, mates,' he said. 'I've got a bit of a dazzler
+here to spring on you. What d'yer think o' that?' He removed his hat, and
+exposed a pint pannikin filled to the brim with clean, coarse nuggets.
+
+'Whew!' whistled Jim. 'You've hit it thick.'
+
+'Yes,' he said. 'That's from three buckets off the bottom. I s'pose
+you'll get her just ez good. My mate's got a few ounces o' finer stuff.
+We're mightily obliged to you boys for puttin' us in this hole.'
+
+'You're welcome,' said Mike, grinning. 'We did it for your own good.'
+
+'What weight is there in that?' asked Done.
+
+'Over two hundred ounces. Eight hundred pounds' worth, perhaps.'
+
+Jim gasped and turned to his work again, digging rapidly. Later, Burton
+took a sample of the gravel in the dish, and carried it away to the
+creek. He returned in ten minutes with a little water in the pan. Jim
+could see only a few specks of gold in the bottom of the pan, and his
+face fell.
+
+'A shicer?' he said.
+
+'Not a bit of it. That's a good enough prospect. Let me have a cut at
+her.'
+
+The hole was now too deep for Done to throw the dirt to the surface,
+inexperienced as he was in the use of a shovel in so narrow a space.
+Burton continued the work till sundown, and then washed a prospect that
+made his eyes glisten. Next morning they bottomed. Jim was at the mouth
+of the shaft when Burton called from below:
+
+'Look out on top! Catch, old man
+
+Jim caught the object thrown up to him. It was coated with clay, but the
+gold shone through, and Done handled his first nugget--a plump one of
+about ten ounces. A little later they set to work, puddling the best of
+the wash dug out in the course of sinking; and then the debris was put
+through the cradle, and Jim awoke at last to the full zest of the
+digger's lust. Pawing among the gravel in the hopper of the cradle, he
+picked out the gold too coarse to pass through the holes, and the
+gleaming yellow metal fired him with a passion that had in it all the
+frenzy the winning gambler feels, with an added sense of triumph and
+success. When Mike lifted the slides out and sluiced water over them,
+showing the gold lying thick and deep, he felt a miser's rapture, and yet
+had no great desire for wealth. He did not fear work, and had no love of
+luxury, so that the hunger for riches never possessed him; but this joy
+was something apart from avarice. The yearnings of untold generations
+after the precious gold have filtered the love of it into our blood, made
+the desire for it an instinct. Jim went to bed that night richer by over
+one hundred pounds than he had been when he rose in the morning.
+
+Done and Burton logged up their shaft and rigged the windlass, and set
+about the methodical working of the claim. The second day's cleaning up
+was not as good as the first, but it was highly satisfactory. It was not
+usual for the miners to keep the gold about them for any length of time.
+If it was not carried to the storekeepers at Forest Creek, there were
+gold-buyers--buying for the Melbourne banks, as a rule--who called
+regularly, eager to exchange bank-notes for the virgin gold. On the
+afternoon of their third working day, Jim and his mate were leaning on
+the windlass, talking to two or three men who had gathered about, waiting
+for one of the gold-buyers then riding along the lead, when they were
+joined by a tall, fine-looking digger, with a remark ably handsome brown
+beard and bushy brows.
+
+'Good-day, mates! Got a good thing here?' he said, seating himself on one
+of the logs.
+
+'Oh, not so bad!'
+
+The newcomer had dropped his revolver, apparently by accident. He stooped
+and picked it up, but instead of returning it to his belt, toyed with it
+absently as he made inquiries about the lead and the yields on the field.
+All eyes were attracted by the peculiar manner in which he handled the
+weapon, tossing it to and fro carelessly, and twirling it through his
+fingers with remarkable rapidity.
+
+'That's a pretty clever trick,' said Thorn.
+
+'This is no great shakes.' The owner of the beautiful beard twirled his
+revolver more rapidly. 'Lend me another.'
+
+Thorn threw his, and the stranger caught it smartly, and juggled with the
+two.
+
+Brigalow Dick, the gold-buyer, rode up. A particularly bright ex-trooper
+from Sydney, Brigalow Dick had a reputation as a safe man, and the horse
+he rode was one of the finest on the field. On one side of the front of
+his saddle was strapped the stout leather case carrying the gold, on the
+other was a bag containing money.
+
+'Any gold to sell to-day, Burton?' asked Dick.
+
+'Yes, in half a minute, old man,' replied Mike, deeply interested in the
+tricks of the juggler.
+
+Brigalow Dick drew his horse up closer and watched the performance.
+
+'Bet you're Californian, Whiskers,' he said.
+
+The stranger nodded. 'Let me have another shooter,' he said.
+
+A third was thrown to him, and he twirled the three in the air,
+discharging each into the tip as it reached his hand.
+
+'Bravo! bravo!' The performance was growing quite exciting.
+
+'That's simply nothing,' said the amateur prestidigitateur modestly.
+'Throw me another, and I'll show what I call a damn good trick.' He cast
+his eye around the group. It lit upon the gold-buyer casually.
+
+'Here you are.' Brigalow drew his revolver from his belt, and threw it.
+
+'Very good, and many thanks,' said the stranger. He coolly placed the
+other revolver in his shirt, turned the gold-buyer's long six-shooter on
+its owner, and said: 'Come down off that horse, Richard, my boy!'
+Brigalow laughed uneasily, but did not stir. 'Comedown, curse you!' cried
+the other with sudden ferocity; and, springing to his feet, he seized
+Dick, and brought him heavily to the ground over his horse's rump. 'Lie
+there, or, by God, I'll scatter your brains on the grass!' said the
+juggler. 'The first man that moves will peg out a claim in hell
+to-night,' he continued, leading the horse away, and walking backwards
+himself, with the revolver pointed. No man doubted his word. Dick
+crouched on the ground, staring after him, furious, but quite beaten.
+Suddenly the robber sprang to the horse's back with a clean jump. 'Now,
+that is what I call damn good sleight of hand, Brigalow!' he cried; and,
+producing a short, heavy green-hide whip from his shirt, he lashed the
+horse mercilessly, and went riding at a breakneck pace down the gully,
+heading for the distant timber.
+
+'Tricked!' cried the ex-trooper, jumping to his feet--' tricked by the
+great Blue Bunyip! Tricked like a kid!' He turned and ran for the
+troopers.
+
+'I surmise Mr. Solo was lurkin' behind them there whiskers,' said a tall,
+thin Californian, when the party had somewhat recovered the surprise.
+
+Jim started, recalling the encounter with Long Aleck in the Melbourne
+bar.
+
+'Was that Solo, do you think?' he asked.
+
+'Dead cert' replied the Californian. 'Them's his playful ways.'
+
+'If you guessed it, why didn't you give a hint?'
+
+'Not knowin', can't say; but it's just pawsible I ain't pushin' myself
+forward as a target this spring.'
+
+Done found this indisposition to interfere in 'other people's business'
+very marked amongst the diggers; and their toleration of notorious
+evildoers was a pronounced feature of their easy-going character,
+encouraged, no doubt, by their contempt for the law, which appealed to
+them only as an instrument of oppression.
+
+'This means a gallop for the troopers,' said Mike.
+
+'They'll run him down!' ejaculated Jim at a venture.
+
+'The man occupyin' my socks is bettin' ten ounces agin all the feathers
+off a wart-hog that they don't,' answered the Californian.
+
+'But look at the weight he carries!'
+
+'You're a bright boy--a most remarkably bright boy!' drawled the
+American, 'an' I guess you'll pick up a heap o' knowledge afore you die
+out, but up to now you don't know much about Solo. He kin ride like the
+devil, an' fight like the hosts of hell, an' he's ez full o' tricks ez a
+pum'kin's full o' pips. I tell you, Amurka's proud of her son.'
+
+'Who sez he's American?' asked a digger, resenting the appropriation.
+
+'Well, sir, if he ain't he's that good an imitation he might's well be
+the real thing.'
+
+About half an hour later three troopers came cantering through Diamond
+Gully, looking very smart in their Bedford cords and shining top-boots,
+and the diggers yelled derisive orders, and greeted them with cries of
+contempt, jeering them from every hole along the lead. 'Jo!' was the
+favourite epithet hurled at the troopers and all representatives of
+constituted authority. Done never discovered the origin of the term, but
+into it the diggers compressed all the hatred they felt for unjust laws,
+domineering officials, and flagrant maladministration.
+
+'I thought you knew this Solo,' said Jim to his mate that evening.
+
+'Well,' replied Mike, 'I reckoned I did; but he changes his disguises
+pretty smartly, 'r else that was another party in the same line o'
+business.'
+
+
+IX
+
+IN the four days and a half of their first week on the field Burton and
+Done cleared close upon seven hundred pounds. By the end of the second
+week they had worked out their first mine, and Jim possessed eight
+hundred pounds. They tried another claim, and bottomed on the pipeclay.
+The hole was a duffer. They tried a third, and cut the wash once more.
+This claim was not nearly so rich as their first, but rich enough to pay
+handsomely, and Mike, young as he was, was too old a miner to abandon a
+good claim on the chance of finding a better. By this time Jim was
+feeling himself quite an experienced digger; he could sink a straight
+shaft, knock down wash-dirt with the best, and pan off a prospect as
+neatly and with as workmanlike a flourish as any man on the field. He was
+rapidly coming into close touch with the life about him, adopting the
+manners of his associates, and slowly wearing down that diffidence which
+still clung to him in the society of strangers. He was reticent, but
+there remained no suspicion, no animosity towards his kind. Looking back
+a year, he could hardly recognise himself; the Jim Done of Chisley seemed
+an old man by comparison. Already Jim of Forest Creek could laugh at Jim
+o' Mill End, but the consciousness of an escape from a horror remained.
+How serious he had been in those days! How he had permitted himself to
+suffer! Thank God, it was all gone!
+
+Going into the tent on the afternoon of the second Sunday, Jim found his
+mate asleep on one of the bunks. In the hollow of his out-thrown hand lay
+a cheap lacquered frame containing a daguerreotype of a girl's face. A
+sudden contrition smote Jim; he turned anxiously to his bunk, throwing
+the clothes left and right. The vest he had worn when he left the Francis
+Cadman lay under the pillow. He dived his finger into the watch-pocket,
+and heaved a sigh of relief. Yes, it was there, safe and sound. He held
+Lucy Woodrow's miniature, gazing on it, suffused with chastened emotions.
+Heavens! how beautiful she was, and so gentle and generous! What an ass
+he had been! He kissed the picture very tenderly, and with a bit of twine
+secured it in the pocket of his jumper in dangerous proximity to his
+heart.
+
+Jim Done had now seen much of the fanciful night life of the camps. A
+populous lead presented a picturesque appearance by night. The
+illuminated tents and the flaring camp-fires dotted the field thickly,
+and where the tents of the business people were drawn in line and
+something like a main street formed, slush lights and kerosene torches
+flamed and swinging oil-lamps lit up the scene. Here the wilder spirits
+assembled and drank square gin, and gambled in the canvas shanty bars, or
+danced with fine frenzy to music provided by some enterprising German
+Fraeulein stolidly grinding a hurdy-gurdy. There were numerous sly
+grog-shops amongst the tents, and most of the storekeepers sold illicit
+drink with open impudence. These places were often centres of roaring,
+ribald life after nightfall; but the majority of the diggers lay in
+groups about their camp-fires, chatting quietly or reading the most
+recent papers available, and were peaceably inclined, easy-going
+citizens.
+
+It was the fiercer side of existence on the fields that appealed most
+directly to Jim; he loved the strong colour, the exultant animation, the
+devil-may-care character, that marked the gatherings in the bars and the
+gambling-saloons. He took little active part in the playing and the
+drinking, but the feverish energy of the men and the stirring scenes
+provided such vivid contrast to what he had hitherto known and seen of
+life that his soul was greedy for it all. To Mike these scenes were all
+familiar; his attitude towards them was one of quiet indifference, and he
+regarded Jim's rapture with the amused tolerance a sedate, elderly
+gentleman feels for the enthusiasm of a little boy.
+
+The mates had shifted their tent to a convenient position near the claim
+they were now working, and were camped within two hundred yards of the
+establishment of Mrs. Ben Kyley, laundress and baker. Mrs. Kyley was a
+big-limbed, fresh-coloured, dimpled woman, whose native canniness did
+not, militate in the least against an amazonian joviality that made her
+hail-fellow-well-met with half the diggers on the field. Her voice was
+the loudest amid the clamouring tongues in her large tent at night, and
+her guffaw overbore everything; it was one of the wonders of Forest
+Creek. Many a time its echoes, rebounding from Boulder Hill, had set all
+Diamond Gully grinning in sympathy. It was not known whether Mrs. Kyley
+and Ben were married or merely mates, but popular opinion tended to the
+latter belief, legal unions being incompatible with a nice adjustment of
+forces at the rushes. The exigencies of life on the diggings made sudden
+changes of scene necessary to the men, and a woman like Mrs. Kyley
+couldn't be expected to abandon her business for the sake of a husband,
+seeing that it was so much easier to set up another husband than another
+establishment. But the most important branch of the business, that of sly
+grog-selling, made a man who could handle the riotous and evil-disposed
+quite essential. Ben Kyley's appearance, broad, thickly-set, solid as a
+gum-butt, broken-nosed and heavy-handed, and his reputation as the man
+who was beaten by Bendigo only after an hour's hard fighting, marked him
+as the fittest man on the field for the position he held. For the rest,
+Ben was a quiet, mild man, whose voice was seldom heard, and whose
+subjugation to Mrs. Ben was almost comical. Ben worked on his claim by
+day, and at night he officiated as 'chucker-out' in Mrs. Kyley's bar--for
+a bar it was, to all intents and purposes. Ben's duty was not to suppress
+disorder, but merely to see that the common disorder did not develop into
+licentiousness, to the danger of Mrs. Kyley's property or the detriment
+of her trade.
+
+Mrs. Ben Kyley made bread because bread-baking at three shillings a loaf
+was an exceedingly profitable business. For the same reason she washed
+shirts at twelve shillings the half-dozen. But selling rum at a shilling
+a nobbler to 'flash' diggers who despised change was much more profitable
+still. The industrious woman, who washed and baked all day, was kept busy
+for the greater part of the night retailing rum to insatiable diggers,
+and the mystery was that, although nobody could see rum in the bottle or
+in bulk anywhere about the place, it was rare that the supply ran short.
+
+Jim had visited the tent on one or two occasions, walking from the other
+side of the gully; he went again on the Saturday afternoon following
+their removal to buy bread. Mrs. Kyley's big camp-ovens were nestled in
+the fires outside the tent, three of them in a row; Mrs. Kyley herself,
+half smothered in suds, was washing with the rapidity and the
+indefatigability of a machine.
+
+'Aurora will attend to you, my boy,' blared Mrs. Kyley, blowing a storm
+of suds out of her mop of hair.
+
+Aurora! Jim entered the tent wondering, and found three or four men at
+the counter, conversing with a young woman, twenty-three perhaps, tall,
+black-haired, dark-eyed, flushed with colour, happy in temperament, free
+in manner, a striking representative of a not uncommon type of the time,
+meeting men on a mutual footing, asking no concessions and making
+none--Jim's 'Spaniard' of the Melbourne dance saloon. She recognised him
+immediately.
+
+'Hello!' she cried. 'Look now! if it ain't the boy wid the blushes, an'
+there's the blush to prove it agin' him.'
+
+Jim was blushing; his rebellious blood gave the lie to his assumption of
+easy indifference.
+
+'How are you?' he said. 'I knew you at once.'
+
+'To be sure. 'Twould be indacent to forgit, seem' it's my debtor ye are,
+for the price of a dance.'
+
+'Which you gave me for natural love and affection.'
+
+''Deed, then 'twas because you were poor an' motherless in a strange
+land, but now the gold's a worry to you, I doubt.'
+
+Jim laughed and shook his head. 'I want a loaf,' he said. 'My mate is
+hungry and waiting.'
+
+'Heigho!' sighed Aurora; 'devil a scrap of gallantry have these slips of
+boys, Quigley! You wouldn't leave me for all the mates on earth, would
+you, now?'
+
+The big bearded digger banged his fist on the counter, and swore a firm,
+fluent oath that he would not.
+
+'Worse luck,' added Aurora, with a twinkling eye. 'Here's yer bread,
+Teddy-was-me-darlin', an' ye'd have it fer love if 'twas me own to give.'
+
+Aurora assumed and dropped the musical brogue according to her whim.
+Ordinarily her English was as pure as Mrs. Kyley's, and Mrs. Kyley had
+the reputation of being a lady of vast attainments.
+
+'There's the money,' said Jim, 'and will you take this for the dance?' He
+offered her a nugget he had picked from the week's yield, a flat,
+heart-shaped slug, curiously embossed.
+
+''Deed, an' it's mighty fine,' said the girl, 'but I'd rather have ye me
+debtor for life.'
+
+'Take it for natural love and affection, then.'
+
+'Ah, if it's the heart you're givin' me, I'll be uncommon greedy, so I
+will.' She kissed the nugget, and slipped it into her breast.
+
+Jim went away, glowing with the satisfaction a very young fellow feels in
+having provoked the admiration of a woman and the jealousy of a man.
+Aurora's of interest was open and unabashed. Quigley's jealous passion
+was just as artless and free from disguise. Done had intended to send
+that nugget as a natural curiosity to Lucy Woodrow. He put the shade of
+regret the recollection provoked hastily out of his mind. Mike had heard
+a good deal of talk about the new girl at Mrs. Kyley's, now Jim swelled
+the chorus of admiration. Both young men spent that evening at the
+washerwoman's tent.
+
+The Kyley establishment consisted of a tent some fifty feet long, divided
+into two compartments with a canvas partition. This screen ran just
+behind the counter, and through it Mrs. Kyley dived to replenish her jug
+of rum; but that room at the back represented the sanctity of the Kyley
+home-life, and to it the diggers never penetrated. The public portion was
+furnished with two long deal tables, at which the men sat on the Bush
+stools and diced and drank, or played monotonous, if noisy, games of
+euchre and forty-fives.
+
+That night Aurora--surnamed Australis by a facetious digger--was
+particularly attentive to Done. Jim was flattered by her open preference,
+dazzled by her bright eyes and glowing cheeks, and piqued by her
+bantering manner, for she still implied that he might be allowed
+indulgences because of his beardless, boyish face and his seeming
+ingenuousness. As a protest against this attitude, Done was impelled to
+drink rather more rum than was good for him, and under the influence of
+the fiery spirit he lost some thing of his habitual reserve, and a fight
+with Quigley was only averted by the tactful intervention of Burton.
+
+'Didn't like interferin', Jim,' said Mike next morning, 'but Quigley's a
+hard nut and an ugly fighter. He'd have eaten you if you'd taken him on
+as you stood.'
+
+'I'm much obliged, old man,' answered Done mournfully. 'I suppose I made
+an outrageous ass of myself.'
+
+But he went back to Mrs. Kyley's bar again on the Monday evening, and
+there got good advice from Aurora.
+
+'You don't like this rubbish, Jimmy,' she said, serving him with the
+drink he had asked for. The remark was made with an air of positive
+assurance. They were alone.
+
+'Well, no, I don't particularly,' he admitted.
+
+'Then, don't be a fool. Don't gammon you do. You need not drink it. I
+don't want you to. See here, Jimmy,' she continued gravely, 'Quigley
+doesn't like you; he is looking for a chance to do you a mischief, and he
+would have had his chance the other night if I hadn't overlooked you like
+a mothering hen, and sold you good creek water at a shilling the nip.'
+
+'I did act the fool, I admit.'
+
+'Never a bit; but don't give Quigley his chance by numbing your good
+sense with Mary Kyley's rum. Sure,' said Aurora, dropping into her honied
+brogue, 'it's fer the love of me ye're comin', not for the dthrop o'
+drink. Murther! would ye kill me wid denyin' it?' She was sitting on the
+counter; she pressed her fingers on his lips, and laughed in his face
+with happy impudence, her large handsome mouth full of pearls, her eyes
+flashing a challenge. Jim's arm stole to her waist of its own initiative.
+
+Then Mrs. Ben Kyley came roaring into the tent. 'Inveigling my girl
+away!' she cried. 'Get out, you kidnapper! Where's your taste, anyhow,
+philandering with a slip of a girl when there's a fine woman about with a
+heart as empty as a big sieve?' And the bouncing washerwoman bore down
+upon him, and bombarded him out of the place with gusts of laughter.
+
+As yet, Done had seen little of the trials and tribulations of the
+diggers. Diamond Gully was a prosperous rush, and the impositions under
+which the Victorian miners complained so bitterly had not come home to
+many on this field; but he had heard a great deal. The political and
+social wrongs of the diggers were the staples of conversation about the
+camp-fires. To Jim's great surprise, he found these men, surrounded with
+the exciting conditions of their peculiar life, allowing their minds to
+be occupied with aspirations after political freedom. The failure of
+Chartism in England had driven thousands of hot-blooded champions of
+popular rights to Australia, and these were the leaven that leavened the
+whole lump. They talked of people's parliaments, manhood suffrage, and
+payment of members in a country governed by a pack of British nominees
+who had no knowledge of the bulk of the people and no sympathy with their
+aspirations. The ideas stirred the miners; they found a lodgment in every
+breast, and already men spoke of an Australian Republic south of the
+Murray, governed on the liberal principles enunciated by Fergus O'Connor.
+
+Jim had supposed the tolerance of man towards man, the absence of petty
+prejudices, and the large appreciation of individual liberty that
+belonged to the character of a brave, self population to be
+manifestations of an absolute freedom; he found the men fired with a
+passionate aspiration for liberty, just as the masses in England had been
+five years earlier, and possessed of even more substantial reasons for
+revolt. The idea of the young republic delighted him; he was already
+prepared to shed his blood in establishing that glorious ideal. Stories
+he had heard of the indignities to which the miners were subjected by an
+insolent bureaucracy, of men being hunted down like dingoes and beaten
+with the drawn swords of the troopers because of their failure to comply
+with the outrageous licensing decrees, bred in him a hatred akin to that
+felt by the diggers who had suffered in person.
+
+But Done's first experience of a license-hunt was largely farcical. Mr.
+Commissioner McPhee had chosen a sweltering hot day for his hunt. Most of
+the diggers on Diamond Gully were below, sheltered from the mordant rays
+of a sun that blazed in the cloudless sky, so close to earth that its
+heat struck the face like a licking flame. Jim had just brought some
+picks from the smithy, when he saw the troopers, headed by the magnate on
+a fine chestnut, descend upon the gully, their glazed cap-peaks and their
+swords flashing gaily in the sun. The mounted men divided at the head of
+the gully, and came down on each side of the lead; the foot police
+followed Commissioner McPhee, head Serang and cock of the walk from
+Sawpit Gully to Castlemaine. The duty of the foot police was to rouse the
+diggers out of their drives, and enforce the orders of the high and
+mighty McPhee. On Diamond Gully the wash was so shallow that the police
+had no difficulty in getting the men to the surface, and the inrush of
+the troopers was the signal for a swarming The men poured from the
+crowded claims, and in a few seconds the gully was awakened to violent
+action, and given over to tumult.
+
+The air resounded with the yells of the miners, raised in warning and
+derision. 'Jo!--Jo!--Jo!' The cries travelled the whole length of the
+lead, like a salute of musketry. Mike came up the rope, hand over hand.
+
+'A license-hunt,' he said. 'Now you'll see how these gaol warders amuse
+themselves.'
+
+'What are we supposed to do?'
+
+'Have your license handy. Show it to Huntsman McPhee, and keep your hands
+off his hounds.'
+
+Mr. Commissioner was not having much trouble; he came through the claims
+like a monarch demanding obeisance and tribute, and the shouts of the
+miners followed him. 'Jo!--Jo!--Jo!' The men made a sort of chorus of the
+jibe. A fistful of wet pipe-clay thrown from the cover of a tip struck
+the sergeant of troopers in the face, and he spurred his horse furiously
+towards the spot. There was a rush of police and diggers, and a bit of a
+melee resulted, but Sergeant Wallis received no satisfaction. Four or
+five unlicensed diggers had been captured, luckless workers for whom
+Fortune had spread no favours, and these were handed over to the mounted
+police, who guarded them with drawn swords, accelerating their movements
+with blows of the blade and not infrequent prickings, for the hatred in
+which the diggers held the troopers was not more fierce than the
+troopers' hatred for the men.
+
+Done and Burton stood on the little hillock of mulluck about their shaft,
+watching the course of events, when the Grand Serang rode at them. He was
+a fine stamp of a man, and loved an effect in which he was the central
+figure. It was becoming in a mere digger to make way for the horse of Mr.
+Commissioner. Burton, however, stood his ground, the flush burning
+through his tan, and, rather than give way an inch or be run down, raised
+his hand and struck the noble nag of the big official on the nose with
+his palm, with the result that the chestnut went up on his hind-legs,
+pawing the air, and rattled down the tip on his heels, while the crowding
+diggers, to whom any indignity inflicted upon a commissioner, however
+trivial, was a joy and a solace, set up a shout of scornful laughter.
+
+'What the devil, sir, do you mean by striking my horse?' thundered the
+irascible McPhee.
+
+'I don't care to be ridden down like a thieving dingo' replied Mike.
+
+'Sergeant, search this impudent jackanapes, and if his license isn't
+O.K., jam the beggar into the logs!'
+
+At this point another handful of white clay was thrown from the back of
+the crowd, and this time McPhee was the target. The clay struck hint in
+the breast, and clung to his black cloth. Again there was a rush of
+indignant and amazed under-strappers, and the Commissioner, crimson with
+wrath, raised himself in his stirrups and shouted orders, the execution
+of which it was beyond even his great power to enforce. They enjoined the
+immediate precipitation of the offenders into the Bottomless Pit.
+
+A diversion was created by the sudden appearance of a new quarry. A slim
+youth had darted from behind one of the piles of mullock, and was running
+at full speed up the lead towards the head of the gully, followed by
+three foot police.
+
+'After him!' shouted McPhee.
+
+A couple of troopers and two more foot police joined in the chase, but
+the youngster was a good runner and very cunning. He kept to the mined
+ground, where the troopers would certainly have broken their necks had
+they put their horses after him, and springing like a wallaby he cleared
+the holes, and darted in and out amongst the tips, to the utter confusion
+of the lubberly and ill-conditioned pursuers. Straight up the lead he
+ran, and now all the foot police were hunting him, while the troopers
+rode along the right and the left of the gully to keep him from breaking
+for the tents, or for Boulder Hill, where there were hiding places
+amongst the big rocks and in the wombat-holes under them.
+
+'Run him down!' shouted McPhee, furious after the indignities that had
+been put upon his high office. 'Five pounds to the man who nabs him!'
+
+The diggers shouted a grand chorus of encouragement to the lad, and added
+a cry of contempt for Mr. Commissioner and all his horde. A number of the
+men joined in the chase, to add to the confusion of the police. The rest,
+crowded on the higher ground, formed a large audience, and a more
+enthusiastic audience, or a more vociferous one for its size, had never
+witnessed a sporting event in wide Australia. The excitement grew with
+every successful trick of the runaway, and now he was leading his hunters
+in and out amongst the claims at the gully's head, apparently quite
+indifferent to the heat of the day or the stress of the chase. The miners
+were giving the youth all the assistance they could by devising
+hindrances for the police. Barrows, picks, shovels, buckets, and
+hide-bags found their way under the legs of the pursuers, windlass-ropes
+were stretched to trip them up, and preoccupied miners jostled them at
+every turn, and endeavoured to detain them in argument.
+
+Presently the prisoners, in the charge of three troopers, finding
+attention diverted from them, seized the opportunity to make a bolt for
+the hunted digger's haven of refuge, Boulder Hill, and the confusion of
+tongues swelled to one rapturous howl at the sight. The unlicensed
+diggers spread, running their best, and dodging smartly to avoid the
+horses. One poor devil went down under the hoofs of a big roan, and there
+arose another roar of different portent.
+
+The youngster was being hemmed in amongst a few claims on the extreme
+left. The troopers had stationed themselves beyond, and the police were
+closing in on him, while the crowd yelled encouragement and advice. With
+a rush and a reckless spring from a mullock-heap, the youth cleared his
+enemies again, and came racing up the gully once more, the baffled police
+and a number of miners following pell-mell, the troopers cantering on the
+wings of the hunt. If the boy could reach the crowd where it was thickest
+there was a chance for him, but he was running straight at Commissioner
+McPhee, who sat upon his horse watching the chase, and relieving his
+official feelings with a flow of elegant objurgation.
+
+On came the young digger, the cheers swelling as he advanced. The men of
+Diamond Gully had never so thoroughly enjoyed anything in the nature of a
+chase. It seemed that the race was to be to the swift. The crowd parted
+to take the runner to its heart, when Sergeant Wallis threw himself from
+his horse, and the young digger simply sank panting into his arms. Wallis
+put on a grip that had reduced many a recalcitrant convict to order, and
+looked inquiringly at McPhee, who had ridden to the spot. The crowd
+closed round, overlooking the scene from mullock-heaps and
+windlass-stands.
+
+'Produce your license, you rascal!' roared the Commissioner.
+
+The youth was too short of breath to speak, and remained panting under
+Wallis's hand.
+
+'He has no license, sergeant. Run him in!' said McPhee.
+
+'Sure, Commissioner dear, what'd I be doin' wid a license whin I'm only a
+woman?' The captive plucked the billycock from her head, and a mass of
+black hair fell over her shoulders.
+
+Done, who had pressed to the front, recognised Aurora. That section of
+the crowd which saw and understood sent up a shout of surprise and
+jubilation. Wallis retained his grip on the girl, and the sight of his
+hands upon her stirred a savage resentment in Jim. He made a rush at the
+sergeant, but Mike was beside him and held him.
+
+'Don't be a fool, Jim. Don't give them a chance,' he said. 'She's right
+as rain. McPhee can do nothing to her; he'll lumber you if you only open
+your mouth!'
+
+'What'll I do with him--her, sir?' asked Wallis.
+
+'A pretty chase you've led us, you vixen!' blurted the Serang. 'For two
+pins I'd chain you to the nearest log, and give the flies a treat.'
+
+'Would hairpins do, Mack dear?' panted Aurora, thrusting an impertinent,
+flushed, handsome face up at the Serang, and feeling amongst her tangled
+hair.
+
+There had been an expectant hush upon the men for the last few moments.
+On this broke a great bovine roar of merriment from the opulent lungs of
+Mrs. Ben Kyley, who stood foremost in the ring surrounding McPhee, the
+sergeant, and the girl, her strong white hands, suspiciously pipeclayed,
+supporting her shaking sides. The familiar guffaw was infectious; the
+diggers caught it up, and, laughing like madmen, closed in on Wallis,
+snatched his prisoner from his hands, and, hoisting her shoulder high,
+bore her off in triumph.
+
+Commissioner McPhee, surrounded by his minions, rode from Diamond Gully
+that afternoon with one prisoner--the man who had been run down, and the
+crowd that ushered him out bore Aurora Griffiths aloft, and sang a long
+chant of derision, which, keenly as he felt it, the Serang did not dare
+resent.
+
+X
+
+NATURALLY, Aurora's popularity was greatly increased, and the tent of
+Mrs. Ben Kyley became a favourite rendezvous. The girl's good looks and
+her good and Mrs. Kyley's own breezy, genial disposition, were sufficient
+to assure a large interest on the part of the men; but Aurora, in taking
+action against the troopers, had identified herself with the enemies of
+officialdom. Thenceforth she was a public character. There were not so
+many women about the rush but that scores of sober, reputable diggers
+would have travelled far and drunk much indifferent rum merely for the
+privilege of gazing upon the merry, handsome face of a girl like Aurora
+Griffiths. Now she was in some measure their championess there was more
+reason for offering devotion at her shrine, and Kyley's saw busy nights.
+
+'Why did you do it?' asked Jim a few nights later, throwing into his
+words a hint of reproach. Done was unconsciously assuming some little air
+of proprietorship over Aurora. Whenever the girl noticed it smiles
+sparkled in the corners of her brown eyes.
+
+'Pure devilment! What else?' she answered.
+
+'Wasn't it a little--just a little--' He was at a loss to express
+himself, and Aurora's laugh chimed in.
+
+'The dear boy's brought his sinse iv propriety wid him!' she cried.
+'Maybe ye' have a few words to say on moral conduct an' the dacent
+observances iv polite society, an' ye'll be axin' me to put on a proper
+decorum before the min. Arrah! ye have some purty maxims for young
+ladies, an' a heap iv illegant an' rare ideals iv yer own as to what's
+good an' becomin' in young persons iv the other sex, haven't ye, dear?'
+
+'No, no, no!' cried Done, shocked to find how easily he had slipped into
+the attitude of the common moralist.
+
+'I stand on my merits and my lack of them, Jimmy. There's only one of me
+here!' She touched her breast. 'And good, bad, or indifferent, my friends
+must take me whole.'
+
+'Whole, then.'
+
+'Wait, boy, you don't know a fifth of it yet.'
+
+'Do your worst, and test my devotion, Aurora. I defy you!' Jim was
+getting on.
+
+'Devil doubt you. You're a bold man, Mister Jimmy Done, an' I like your
+cheek, for all it's as smooth as my own.' She touched his face
+caressingly with her fingers, and turned to serve clamouring customers at
+the other end of the counter.
+
+'Good-night, mate,' said a quiet voice at Jim's elbow. Done turned
+quickly, and started back a step with some amazement on beholding the
+pale, impassive face of the stranger who had attacked Stony at their camp
+in the Black Forest. The man was smoking a cigar. He was dressed after
+the manner of a successful digger, with a touch of vanity. He regarded
+Jim earnestly, and the young man experienced again the peculiar feeling
+the first sight of this stranger had provoked.
+
+'Good-night,' he said.
+
+'I see you recollect me.'
+
+'Oh yes. Did Stony quite escape you that night?'
+
+'He did, thank's to you, Done.'
+
+'A man couldn't see murder done under his very nose without stirring a
+hand.'
+
+'Don't apologize. I have no grievance. If I had killed him I should have
+regretted it more than the death of my dearest friend, although no man
+from the time of Cain had better excuse for murder. I suppose you have
+not seen the man since?'
+
+'No!' answered Jim with emphasis.
+
+'Meaning that you would not tell me if you had. You need not fear being
+an accessory before the act. I want Stony alive, Mr. Done.'
+
+'Mister Done!' Jim laughed. 'I did not think there was a Mister on the
+camp. But how do you know my name?'
+
+'I have heard it here to-night half a dozen times. My name is Wat
+Ryder--Walter Ryder, but mono syllabic Christian names are insisted on
+amongst our friends.' He pointed his cigar towards the diggers at the
+tables. 'Forgive me,' he continued in an even voice, 'but your scrutiny
+of me is suggestive. May I ask what there is in my appearance or my
+manner that disturbs you?'
+
+The question was put without feeling of any kind, but it startled Jim a
+little. He was surprised to find that he had betrayed any trace of his
+emotion.
+
+'Well,' he said, 'my experience of you has not been commonplace.'
+
+'You mean that affair in the Bush?--a casual fight, with the usual loud
+language merely, for all you know.' Ryder maintained silence for a few
+moments. He was studying his cigar when he spoke again. 'By the way,' he
+said abruptly, 'I know a good deal about you, Done, if you came out in
+the Francis Cadman. He expected this announcement to have some effect.
+
+'I saw you one day in Melbourne,' Jim replied. 'You were driving with
+Mrs. Macdougal.'
+
+'Mrs. Donald Macdougal of Boobyalla,' said Ryder gravely.
+
+'She was a shipmate of mine.'
+
+Yes; and you saw my face for a moment in Melbourne and remembered it. You
+observe narrowly and quickly, Mr. Done. It was not Mrs. Macdougal who was
+most communicative on the interesting subject I have broached, however,
+but a very charming young friend of hers, Miss Woodrow. The young lady's
+concern was excusable in view of certain services, but nevertheless
+flattering. She asked me to constitute myself a sort of foster-Providence
+over you if we ever met, Mr. Done.'
+
+Jim laughed to smother a pang.
+
+'Do I need it, Mr. Ryder?' he asked. He fancied there was a flutter of
+the other's eye towards Aurora, but Ryder did not reply to the question.
+'Miss Woodrow told me of the rescue,' he said, 'of your solitary
+disposition, and spoke of a life of suffering in England.'
+
+Done's lips tightened; he squared his shoulders. The fear that had
+possessed him on leaving his birthplace was no longer upon him, but he
+desired no revelations, no digging into the past, and there was a hint of
+motive in the other's tone--he was inviting confidence. For a few moments
+Ryder bent a keen glance upon the younger man, his face bowed and in
+shadow, toying with his cigar.
+
+'Jo!' yelled a voice out in the darkness.
+
+Instantly every pannikin was emptied on the floor, and thrust into a
+digger's shirt.
+
+'The traps!' cried Mrs. Ben, and her rum-jug flew into a tub of water
+behind the counter. Several bundles of washing were tossed out, a loaf of
+bread was thrust upon Done, and at the same moment the door was thrown
+back, and in marched Sergeant Wallis, followed by five police. Mrs. Ben
+Kyley was not surprised, and had expected that Aurora's imposition would
+bring a raid down upon her sooner or later, and here it was.
+
+'You're selling sly grog here, ma'am,' said Wallis, sniffing like a
+retriever.
+
+Ben Kyley rose silently from his stool and approached Wallis.
+
+'Sit you down, Ben Kyley!' roared Mrs. Ben; and Kyley returned as
+silently to his seat, and sat smoking throughout the scene that followed,
+apparently quite listless.
+
+'Am I selling sly grog, Mr. Sergeant? Then it's a miracle where it comes
+from. I haven't a drop in the place, or I'd stand you a nobbler gladly.
+It's my opinion there are worse-looking men than Sergeant Wallis in
+gaol.'
+
+'Rubbish, ma'am! the place reeks of rum,' said Wallis.
+
+'A bit of a bottle Quigley shouted for the boys, this being his
+birthday.'
+
+'Quigley has too many birthdays. Search the place, boys!'
+
+The police commenced a systematic search of the tent, examining both
+compartments, and trying the earthen floor for a secret cellar. They
+found nothing, and meanwhile Mrs. Kyley was bantering Wallis with
+boisterous good-fellowship.
+
+'The idea of an officer of your penetration, sergeant, mistaking a poor
+washerwoman's tent for a grog-shop.'
+
+The poor washerwoman does a big business, Mrs. Kyley.'
+
+'Not amongst the police, Sergeant Wallis. It is a miserable living a
+washerwoman would make out of them. I hear they beat their shirts with a
+stick once a month, as we dusted the carpets in the old Country.'
+
+'We can find nothing, sergeant,' said one of the police.
+
+'Remember how Imeson tricked you all at Bendigo, Wallis, with a hollow
+tent-pole that held ten gallons of brandy.'
+
+'I do, Mrs. Kyley. You were Mrs. Imeson then.'
+
+'And if you have the luck I may be Mrs. Wallis one of these days.'
+
+'Heaven forbid, ma'am!'
+
+'Don't waste your prayers on me, sergeant. Maybe I deserve even that, my
+sins being many and various.'
+
+'And sly grog-selling is one of them. But I'll have you there yet, my
+good woman.' Wallis turned his thumb down.
+
+'Remember I am only a poor weak woman when that happens, sergeant. Will
+you have a drink before going? There's a nip left in Quigley's bottle.'
+
+'No, ma'am, I don't drink,' answered Wallis from the door.
+
+'Then, sergeant, commit your nose for perjury. It's bearing false witness
+against you all over the field.'
+
+There was a yell of laughter, interspersed with the usual cries of 'Jo!'
+as Wallis passed out after his men, and the diggers bombarded Mrs. Kyley
+with the bundles of washing that had been hastily distributed amongst
+them. Ben Kyley followed the police out, and presently returned and
+nodded to Mary, who seized her jug and dived through the canvas
+partition. She was back again in a minute with a jug full of spirits.
+
+'My shout, lads!' she cried. 'Roll up, and drink the health and long life
+of Mary Kyley!'
+
+The device that enabled the washerwoman to deceive the police was known
+to a few of the diggers, but they kept the secret well. Her tent was
+pitched close to a big hollow gum-tree. High up in the butt nestled a
+barrel of rum, the bottom coated with cinders, like the interior of the
+burnt tree. From this barrel a pipe came down under the bark to a neatly
+disguised little trap-door where the canvas lay against the butt. A
+hidden slit in the tent corresponded with the trap-door. It was Ben's
+office to replenish the barrel at night, with kegs brought from their
+safe hiding-place in an abandoned claim, over which was pitched the tent
+of his mate, Sandy Harris. Mary had adopted this plan on three rushes,
+and her savings, regularly banked in Melbourne, already assumed the
+proportions of a modest fortune.
+
+When the police were gone Jim looked about him in search of Ryder, but
+his acquaintance had disappeared. As his friendship with Aurora Griffiths
+ripened, Done shook off thoughts of Lucy Woodrow, since they never came
+without an underlying sense of accusation. He was enjoying his present
+life to the full. In his heart was a great kindness towards the people
+with whom he mingled. He was naturally sociable, a lover of his kind, and
+recognised now that half the torment of his life since coming to manhood
+had arisen from his isolation, from the lack of opportunities of
+gratifying this affection. He admired Aurora, comparing her with his
+youthful ideal, the strong animal, self-reliant, careless of custom.
+True, she lacked the intellectual superiority with which he had endowed
+his defiant Dulcinea, but he had even forgotten to take delight in his
+own mental excellence of late, so that did matter. He only concerned
+himself with living now. He was quite at his ease in Aurora's society,
+and the atmosphere on the Kyley establishment pleased him. The place was
+full of interest, but his warmest interest was in the full-blooded pagan
+who officiated as Hebe to the assembled diggers.
+
+He had quite respectable qualms at times, seeing her the object of so
+much rough gallantry--qualms he stifled instantly as being in flat
+rebellion to his fine philosophy of individualism as applied to
+behaviour. His rights of man must be rights of women too. But, for all
+that, there was much comfort in the belief that Aurora showed no
+preference elsewhere. Quigley's prominence as a suitor was not due to any
+partiality on the part of the girl, but rather to Quigley's own
+aggressive character, and his imperturbability under her eloquent banter.
+To be sure, she persisted in treating Jim as an interesting boy, a line
+of conduct he found somewhat absurd, but which was partly the vein of her
+humour, and partly due to his inexperience in the role of Don Juan.
+
+So the merry months passed, and the mates worked claim after claim on
+Diamond Gully, doing much prospecting work and sinking sundry duffers,
+but unearthing sufficient gold to make Done's riches a good deal of a
+nuisance to him, although translated into the biggest bank-notes
+available. During all this time Quigley's dislike for Jim was only kept
+within bounds by the vein of flippancy that ran through Aurora's
+demonstrations of preference for the younger man. The quarrel was
+inevitable, however, and it was precipitated by a half-drunken
+demonstration of affection towards Aurora on Quigley's part, which the
+girl resented with a savageness that betrayed an unexpected trait.
+
+One Saturday night Done and Burton were partners in a four-handed game of
+euchre going on at one of the tables, when a sudden disturbance arose at
+the counter. Mrs. Ben Kyley's familiar rum-jug crashed and flew to pieces
+on the table amongst the men. The players were on their feet in an
+instant. At the other end of the compartment Aurora was struggling in the
+hands of Pete Quigley. Pete held her wrists firmly, and Aurora's fingers
+clutched the neck of a bottle. Her face was distorted with passion, no
+trace of its habitual humour remained; the fury of a mountain cat blazed
+in her eyes, her lips were drawn back from her large white teeth, which
+were clenched with a biting vindictiveness. The other men reseated
+themselves, watching the struggle without much concern. Mrs. Kyley
+shouted an uncomplimentary summary of Quigley's character from behind the
+counter. Jim alone advanced to interfere.
+
+'Drop it, Quigley,' he said quietly, but his warmer feelings stirred.
+'Blast it, man, let the girl be!'
+
+'An' have my brains knocked out with a bottle? I'll see you flaming
+first!'
+
+Done pressed Aurora's fingers apart, and threw the bottle behind the
+counter.
+
+'Now release her!' he said in a tone conveying a threat.
+
+'Mind your own infernal business!' answered Pete. 'I'll deal with you in
+half a minute.'
+
+'Release her!' Done was at Quigley's throat with a grip that started
+Pete's eyes from their sockets, and the elder digger abandoned his hold
+on Aurora to fight for his own breath. There was a brief struggle, and
+Jim sent Pete sprawling over a stool.
+
+Quigley picked himself up. He did not rush at Done: he was apparently
+composed. He undid the wrist and collar buttons of his jumper, drew the
+garment over his head, and threw it on the floor at Jim's feet.
+
+'I suppose you'll take it fighting!' he said. 'If you won't I'll thump
+the soul out of you, anyhow.'
+
+Aurora rushed between them, and endeavoured to grapple with Pete again.
+
+'You shall not fight!' she cried. 'You coward! You brute!'
+
+At this juncture Kyley, who had been away replenishing the rum-barrel,
+entered the tent. He took in the situation at a glance.
+
+'Look after Aurora, Ben!' ordered Mrs. Kyley, and Kyley calmly took the
+struggling girl in his arms, and handed her bodily over the counter into
+the washer-woman's gentle care.
+
+Mike was promptly at his mate's back. 'Stave him off, Jim,' he said. 'Use
+your straight left, and if he gets in throw him. He's a dirty
+in-fighter.' Mike had boxed a good deal with Done lately, and did not
+tremble for his friend.
+
+Kyley came forward again. It was no part of his duty to prevent an
+honourable settlement of a quarrel between man and man, and very far from
+his inclination.
+
+'If yer meanin' fight,' he said, it's got to be fair, square, an' in
+order. First man that fouls 'll hear from me. Are you ready?'
+
+The men had formed themselves into ranks along the sides and the end of
+the tent, leaving a clear space about eighteen feet square. Jim threw
+aside his shirt, and stood erect and composed. The flannel he wore was
+sleeveless, and his uncommon length of arm excited the attention of the
+cognoscenti, and if there was a miner on Diamond Gully who did not know
+the points of a fighter, he was ashamed to admit it. Done had done most
+of the windlass work since coming to the field, and his forearm was
+corrugated with muscle, while the flexors responded to movements like
+balls of iron starting under the brown skin. His shoulders were broad and
+set well back, his poise buoyant, and his air of absolute confidence gave
+a dubious tone to the words of the quidnuncs who were allowing Quigley
+three minutes to whip him out of all recognition. Done looked slight and
+small before his big opponent, but Pete's bigness was due largely to
+surplus material, and Pete had been anything but a temperate man of late.
+Jim recollected this in calculating his chances and determining his
+methods.
+
+'Time!' cried Kyley.
+
+Done took his ground easily, with his left arm well up, and his right in
+for defence, a style so unusual at that date as to provide a little
+derision amongst the onlookers. Mike, standing with his arms outspread
+and his shoulders to the crowd, keeping the ring, smiled complacently.
+Pete, confident in his height, weight, and strength, was determined to
+make a short, hot fight of it, and went straight at Jim, both hands up,
+and launched his right for the young man's face with terrific force. This
+must have been a decisive blow had Jim's face remained there to receive
+it, but Done ducked neatly, and the next moment his left was shot into
+Quigley's cheek, sending the big man staggering, and raising a purple
+wheal under the eye almost instantly. Pete's composure forsook him at the
+first set back, and uttering a furious oath he rushed in again, swinging
+both fists; but that shooting left hand met him full in the mouth, and
+balked him again, his own sledge-hammer blows falling short of his
+opponent. He pushed in recklessly, punching right and left, but Jim
+dodged smartly, slipped under his arm, and jumped to the other end of the
+ring. Quigley swung round and dashed at him, and once more Done's hard
+left shot into his face, while the heavy blow of the giant was neatly
+parried, and again Jim bewildered his man by ducking and slipping from
+him.
+
+'Why don't you stand up and fight him like a Briton?' cried one of the
+supporters of the big digger.
+
+'He's fightin' fair, an' as long as he fights fair he'll fight as he dom
+well pleases!' said Ben Kyley, who had constituted himself referee.
+
+Already Quigley was bleeding freely and panting from his exertions, while
+Done, who betrayed no excitement and conserved his energies with miserly
+care, was no more disturbed than if he had been taking a hand at cards.
+He faced his foe as before, presenting as little as possible of his body
+for a target, and met Pete's rush this time with an adroit side movement
+and a heavy lifting blow in the body that made Quigley gasp, and robbed
+him of the little bit of sense that had remained. He went blundering at
+Jim, lashing out with left and right. There was a rapid exchange, and
+using his guard arm in offence for the first time, Jim sent in a swinging
+blow that crashed on Pete's chin; and Pete dropped as if his legs had
+suddenly broken under him, and lay in a grotesque attitude, his cheek
+pressed to the earthen floor, while the assembled miners sent up yells of
+excitement that presently settled into a babel of criticism.
+
+Quigley made an effort to rise, but collapsed, and was lifted into his
+corner, and freely sprayed and towelled by his seconds. Jim sat unmoved,
+while Mike and an aristocratic digger, known as the Prodigal, fanned him
+with the towels Mrs. Kyley had thoughtfully provided.
+
+Quigley came up again at the call. He was still blinking and a little
+dazed, but far from being beaten, and the first round had taught him a
+lesson. He advanced more warily, displaying some little respect for his
+enemy's darting left, but Jim's tactics puzzled and disgusted him. The
+young man was as nimble as a cat, and no matter how Pete pushed him, he
+always broke ground and slipped away when it seemed that his towering
+opponent had him at his mercy.
+
+'Why don't you fight, blast yer!' stuttered Pete, swinging on the runaway
+for the third time in two minutes.
+
+'Yes, stand up to it. This ain't a dancing lesson!' his second growled.
+
+Jim's answer was a quick feint and a hard drive on the nose with the
+left, following up quickly with the right on Quigley's ear. Both blows
+sank in deeply, and Jim eluded Pete's rush, jumped out of his reach, and,
+coming at him from the side, punched him heavily in the neck, whereat
+Mike and his friends clamoured joyously. Quigley rushed at Jim, spitting
+oaths, but he was a better fighter than he appeared to be, and was
+prepared for the other's swift, cutting left hand by this, and, ducking,
+he landed both fists on Jim's body. Jim countered on the ear and neck,
+there was a fierce rally that set the crowd jumping and shouting madly,
+and Jim slid out and skipped away, then got back at Pete before he had
+quite realized what had happened with a powerful blow over the kidneys.
+
+Pete's blood was up; he set his teeth, and went at Done with hungry
+passion. The young man's style of fighting was new to most of the
+onlookers, and few of them appreciated it. What they liked was to see
+combatants stand up to each other, giving punch for punch, a system in
+which the strong brute had all the advantage. Adroitness in avoiding
+punishment was not regarded with favour; but, in spite of the derisive
+cries of Quigley's backers, Jim kept strictly to his methods.
+
+'Shut up, you!' cried Kyley. 'The lad's fightin' his own battle, an'
+fightin' it well. He could wipe the floor with a bunch of you.'
+
+Breathing heavily, and looking extremely ugly under his blood and
+bruises, Pete followed Jim round, watching for an opportunity to rush in
+and grip him. He felt that it was only necessary for him to get the
+smaller man in his arms to settle the contest once and for all; but Jim
+fought him warily, sparring, ducking, and dodging, cutting Pete again and
+again with left-hand punches, or clipping him neatly with a swinging
+right when an opening offered. Taking advantage of an instant when Done
+was driven against the line of men, Quigley bore in, shaking his head
+from a blow that might have felled a bullock, and, clasping Jim round the
+waist, deliberately carried him into the centre of the ring, making
+nothing of the short-arm punches that cut like a hammer. Three times he
+tried to dash Done to the ground, but the latter was lithe as a serpent,
+and his limbs writhed themselves about Quigley and clung tenaciously. The
+crowd was shouting the two men's names, and exchanging cries of triumph
+and abuse. Suddenly an arm shot across Pete's breast, an elbow was driven
+into his throat, the two men wheeled, and the big one was sprung from his
+feet and sent down, with a stunning shock. The yelling ceased suddenly,
+every eye was upon Quigley.
+
+'My God! he's killed!' said one awed voice.
+
+They dragged Pete to his corner, and Jim submitted himself to the
+attentions of his seconds. All the passion had gone out of his heart
+before the first round was finished: there remained no emotion but the
+lust of conquest. Aurora, who had watched the fight lying across the
+counter under the washer-woman's restraining arm, her dark eyes shining,
+her face ablaze, beat the boards with her knuckles, and cried out
+incessantly, a prey to a fever of excitement that quivered in all her
+flesh.
+
+'Time!' cried Ben Kyley, and the men came to the scratch for the third
+round, Pete badly shaken, but game and still eager.
+
+'Stand in an' fight me, an' I'll belt the hide off you!' he said
+savagely.
+
+Jim laughed mockingly, and pushed his face forward, inviting the other to
+lead, and when Pete lunged at it he ducked, and got right and left on to
+his enemy's ribs, slipping, away under Pete's arm when he endeavoured to
+return the blows. For a time Jim simply led the big man a dance round the
+ring, landing a stinging blow now and then, to add to Pete's
+discomfiture; but the latter got him cornered at last, and the thud,
+thud, thud of the blows stirred the crowd to enthusiasm once more. Pete
+got after Jim smartly when the latter broke ground, and landed his best
+blow, a heavy right swing on the temple that sent Done down, and left him
+confused for a few seconds. Quigley's friends shouted themselves hoarse
+as Mike helped his mate to the chair.
+
+'How goes it, Jim?' asked Burton anxiously.
+
+'He's beaten, but my hat won't fit me for a day or two,' answered Done,
+smiling through the water.
+
+Quigley showed his bad condition very markedly when he came up, and Jim,
+excepting for a cut chin and a big lump over his temple, appeared none
+the worse. Pete maintained his wild policy, rushing the young man about
+the ring, wasting energy in terrible blows that were rarely within a foot
+of their object, while Done, who scarcely seemed to be fighting at all,
+slipped in every now and again and battered Pete's body, chary of hitting
+his cut and swollen face. This was maintained for two rounds more, and
+three times Quigley went down. When time was called for the seventh round
+Jim said decisively:
+
+'I'll fight the man no more! He's beaten!'
+
+There was a yell from Quigley's corner, and Pete rushed Jim, forcing him
+back among the men. Again they clinched, but Jim broke away, and Quigley
+followed, almost blind, and scarcely able to stagger. Done put him off
+with the left, and drove in a right-hand blow that took Pete on the point
+of the chin, sending him to earth, helpless and hopelessly beaten.
+
+'Jimmy Done's the winner,' said Kyley authoritatively, when a measure of
+quiet was restored, 'an' I don't mind sayin' I ain't seen a prettier bit
+o' fightin' this five year. You've got a lot o' Tom Sayers's dainty
+tricks, my lad!' he added, shaking Done by the hand.
+
+ XI
+
+THE miners pressed about the victor, eager to shake hands with him, and
+invitations to drink were showered upon him. Aurora clamoured on the out
+skirts of this crowd, trying to fight her way through, still half
+delirious with excitement and exultation, calling Jim's name. Her rapture
+was uncouth, half savage; she had many of the instincts of the primitive
+woman. But Mike dragged Done's shirt over his head and led his mate away.
+Burton prepared a hot tub for Jim that night, and after nine hours' sleep
+the hero awakened on Sunday morning with only a bruise or two, a lump on
+his forehead, and a stiff and battered feeling about the ribs, to remind
+him of his fight with Quigley.
+
+It was a pleasant morning, the winter was already well advanced; but only
+an improved water-supply, an occasional wetting at the windlass, and the
+need of a rug on the bunk, marked the change of season, so far as Jim
+could see. There was no place for verdure on Diamond Gully; the whole
+field turned upside down, littered with the debris of the mines, washed
+with yellow slurry, and strewn in places with white boulders and the
+gravel tailings sluiced clean by the gold-seekers. The creek, recently a
+limpid rivulet, was now a sluggish, muddy stream, winding about its
+tumbled bed; but a bright sky was over all, and a benignant sun smiled
+upon the gully, scintillating among the tailings and burnishing the muddy
+stream to silver. The tents looked white and clean, and the smoke from
+the camp-fires rose straight and high in the peaceful atmosphere. A
+strange quiet was upon the lead; it needed only the chastened clanging of
+a church-bell to complete the suggestion of an English Sabbath.
+
+Jim was sitting on the foot of his bunk reading. Mike had gone up the
+creek on a prospecting expedition. Presently a magpie in a dead tree at a
+little distance burst into full-throated melody. Done dropped his book to
+listen. That clarion of jubilation always delighted him. It seemed to him
+that if the young Australian republic men were talking of ever came into
+being its anthem must ring with the wild, free notes of its bravest
+singing-bird.
+
+'So the bold hayro was not kilt intoirely?' Aurora was smiling in at him,
+her eyes full of sunshine, her cheeks suffused with more than their
+wonted colour. 'Are ye axin' me in? Thank ye, kind sir.' She slipped into
+the tent, and, placing a hand upon each shoulder, examined him
+critically, while he smiled back into her face, and wondered why she
+brought with her suggestions of a bounteous rose-garden. 'Ah, Jimmy, I
+thought I'd hardly know ye!
+
+        '"Where are your eyes that looked so mild?
+              Hurroo! Hurroo!
+          Where are your eyes that looked so mild
+              Hurroo! Hurroo!
+          Where are your eyes that looked so mild,
+          When my poor heart you first beguiled?"
+
+She sang no more, but sank upon his knee, and her arms were about his
+neck. Her accent was mischievious, but there was the fire of rubies in
+her eyes.
+
+'They're both there fast enough,' laughed Jim. 'An' niver a black one
+among them. The big fellow didn't spoil your picture, then? Ah, Jim, it
+was fine! fine! fine! It maddened me with delight to see you beating him.
+You--you sprig of a fighting devil, I love you for it!'
+
+Jim's heart took fire at hers. He strained her to him, and his lips sank
+upon her handsome, eager mouth in a long kiss that transported him.
+
+'Dearest, you have kissed my heart,' she whispered. 'You fought him for
+the love of me, didn't you?'
+
+Only twice in his life had he kissed a woman, and as if greedy from long
+fasting he kissed her now, lips, cheeks, eyes, and neck. His lips
+searched the deep corners of her mouth.
+
+'But you don't say you love me, ma bouchal!' Aurora murmured, and her
+arms tightened about his neck.
+
+'You are beautiful! You are beautiful!' he said fiercely.
+
+'But you don't say you love me!'
+
+'I love you! I love you! I love you!' There was not now in the young
+man's mind any self-questioning; there was no probing for logical
+reasons, no doubting, no examining emotions in a suspicious, pessimistic
+spirit. Done abandon himself to the delicious intoxication of the moment,
+and Aurora was transfigured under his caresses her aggressiveness, her
+bonhomie, her bold independence of spirit, were all gone; she developed a
+clinging and almost infantile tenderness, and breathed about him a cloud
+of ecstasy.
+
+When Burton returned in two hours' time, Done said nothing about Aurora's
+visit, but Mike did not fail to mark his mate's demeanour, which was
+unusually thoughtful.
+
+'Not feelin' too bright, old man?' asked Mike
+
+'Nonsense, Mike; I'm all right.'
+
+'Thought p'r'aps those rib-benders o' Quigley's were pullin' you up.'
+
+'Not a bit of it. I haven't a thought to spare for Quigley.'
+
+Burton understood better later in the evening, when he saw Jim and Aurora
+sitting together at Kyley's in the dim corner furthest from the wide
+fireplace, and the Geordie touched him on the arm and jerked his thumb in
+their direction.
+
+'She was down to your tent to see after her champion this mornin',' he
+said.
+
+'Spoils to the victor!' said the Prodigal.
+
+Mike's eyes drifted towards Jim and Aurora several times during the
+evening, and he thumbed his chin in a troubled way. He had been thinking
+it was almost time to try fresh fields; but it was not going to be so
+easy a matter to shift as he had imagined.
+
+A few nights later, seizing the opportunity when he was alone in the
+tent, Jim cut the stitches that secured the locket containing Lucy
+Woodrow's portrait in the breast pocket of his jumper, convenient to his
+heart; and drawing from under his pillow the tin box that held his
+mother's brooch and picture, and the few papers and heirlooms he
+cherished, he placed Lucy's gift somewhat reverently amongst his
+treasures, and hastily stowed the box away again. He had formulated no
+definite reason for doing this, and experienced some contrition in
+performing the act, and a sense of relief when it was done.
+
+The young man's complete victory over Quigley made his reputation
+throughout Diamond Gully. Pete Quigley had two or three hard-won battles
+to his credit, and it was thought there was no man on the field so hard
+to handle, with the exception of Ben Kyley, whose showing against a
+professional of Bendigo's calibre set him on a plane above the mere
+amateur. Pete confessed himself beaten without equivocation.
+
+'I ain't got any patience with this blanky new fangled style o'
+fightin',' he said. 'A man ought to toe the scratch an' take his gruel
+like a man. With those Johnnie-jump-ups it's all cut an' run, an' I admit
+it licks me. I ain't neither a foot-racer nor a acrobat, an' Done gave me
+as much as I cared about.'
+
+Indeed, Quigley looked it. The fact was patent on the face of him, and he
+would not be in a condition to dispute the thoroughness of his trouncing
+for three weeks at least.
+
+Jim was regarded as a celebrity. Strangers even went to him, and gravely
+asked to be permitted to shake hands with him as such. He was pointed out
+to newcomers, and observed on all hands with a serious respect that had
+all the comedy of piquant burlesque.
+
+''Pon my soul, Mike!' said Jim, 'if your republic comes while my
+popularity lasts, I shall be first President.'
+
+'Well,' answered Mike soberly, 'if you could talk as well as you fight,
+I'd like your chances.'
+
+Done's opportunity of increasing his popularity came on the following
+Saturday. The Saturday afternoon off was strictly observed on the rushes.
+The miners were nearly all batchers--that is, bachelors keeping house for
+themselves--and the tidy men amongst them needed one half-day for washing
+and cleaning and putting their tents in order. Only the more prodigal
+spirits cared to pay Mrs. Kyley's exorbitant rates for laundry work, and
+for the others who cherished a respect for cleanliness--the nearest the
+ordinary digger came to Godliness--Saturday afternoon was washing day,
+and scores might have been seen after crib outside their tents performing
+the laundress's office, usually astride a log, on which 'the wash' was
+spread to be alternately splashed and soaped and rubbed. Saturday was the
+great 'settling day,' too. If there were any differences to be fought
+out, or any disputes requiring the nice adjustment of the prize-ring,
+they were almost in variably made fixtures for Saturday afternoon.
+
+For a month past Aurora had forcibly taken over the mates' washing, and
+as they were well-disciplined batchers who performed their domestic
+duties effectually from day to day, for them Saturday afternoon was
+really a holiday; and on this particular afternoon they were sitting in
+the open, sunning themselves, and talking with the Prodigal of the latest
+news from Ballarat, where the leaders of the diggers' cause were
+agitating resolutely for alterations in the mining laws and reform of the
+Constitution, when a party of about twenty men approached them from the
+direction of Forest Creek. The party halted at a distance of about fifty
+yards, and after a short conference two of the men came on.
+
+'Hello!' said Mike, 'here's trouble.'
+
+'Five ounces to a bone button they are looking for fight, added the
+Prodigal.
+
+'Good day, mates!' The foremost of the two strangers greeted them with
+marked civility, and the friends replied in kind. 'One of you is the man
+that beat Pete Quigley, we're told.'
+
+'This is Jim Done,' said Mike, giving an informal introduction,
+indicating Jim with the toss of a pebble.
+
+'Glad to know you,' the other said, with some show of deference. 'Fact
+is, we've got a man here who's willing to fight you for anything you care
+to mention up to fifty pounds.'
+
+'What!' cried Done in amazement.
+
+'Oh, quite friendly, and all that. He hasn't anything against you.'
+
+'Confound his cheek! Does he--do you think I've nothing better to do than
+to offer myself to be thumped by every blackguardly bruiser who comes
+along?'
+
+'Softly, mate; no need for hard names. We come here as sportsmen, making
+you a fair offer, thinking, perhaps, you'd be glad of a bit of a rough-up
+this fine day.'
+
+'Then you can go to the devil!' said Jim, laughing in spite of himself.
+
+'You won't fight?'
+
+'I will not. I'm no fighting man. I only fight when forced, and then with
+a bad grace, I can assure you.'
+
+The two men looked quite pathetic in their disappointment as they turned
+to rejoin their companions.
+
+'Well, of all the outrageous--' gasped Jim.
+
+'Price of fame! said the Prodigal.
+
+Mike grinned. 'Don't be selfish, Jim. I've got nothing to do this
+afternoon, an' would just as soon watch a good scrap. Why not oblige the
+kind gentleman?'
+
+'You and the kind gentleman can go hang!'
+
+'They've got Brummy the Nut there,' the Prodigal said. 'Brummy is a lag
+who had all the sensibilities battered out of him in the quarries. He has
+no science, but hits like the kick of a cart-horse, and is humbly
+grateful for punishment that would knock the hide off an old man
+hippopotamus.'
+
+'Look here, you won't disappoint poor Brummy the Nut,' pleaded Mike, with
+mock gravity.
+
+The deputation of two returned after another conference.
+
+'How would you take it,' asked the first speaker--. 'mind, we're just
+asking, being anxious to bring about a friendly meeting--how would you
+take it if our man gave you a bit of a clip over the ear?'
+
+This was put as a reasonable possibility, and as a simple and pleasant
+method of establishing a casus belli that might satisfy Done's ridiculous
+punctilio.
+
+'I'd take it very badly,' said Jim warmly, 'and probably knock your man's
+confounded head off his shoulders with this pick-handle.'
+
+''Twouldn't be done unfriendly,' said the second man in a hurt tone.
+
+'Why doesn't your man show himself?'
+
+'They guessed his beauty would prejudice you,' said the Prodigal. 'You
+might have conscientious scruples, and refuse to do anything to mar so
+perfect a specimen of Nature's handiwork.'
+
+One of the strangers beckoned, and his party advanced with their
+champion. Done gazed wonderingly at the man they brought against him.
+Brummy the Nut was perhaps five feet nine inches in height, but walked in
+the stooping attitude of a person under a burden, his long arms swinging
+in a manner that strengthened the hint of gorilla in his broad, battered
+face; he dragged his feet as if the ball and chain were still at his
+heels, and, despite the enormous strength suggested by his massive limbs
+and great trunk, bore himself with a childish meekness in ludicrous
+contrast with his sinister appearance. All that long years in a convict
+hell could do to rob a man of the grace of humanity and harden him to
+pain and labour had been done for Brummy the Nut. The Nut favoured Jim,
+Mike, and the Prodigal each with a duck of the head and a movement of his
+hand towards the forehead.
+
+'This is our man, Brummy the Nut,' said the party's spokesman.
+
+'Well, Brummy, I won't fight you,' replied Done. Brummy ducked his head
+again, and muttered something in a husky voice about being 'proud to hey
+a fr'en'ly go with any gent ez is a gent.'
+
+'He's a gentleman amateur like yourself,' said the spokesman persuasively
+'and a fairer fighter never stripped.'
+
+'Oh, make tracks!' retorted Burton with some impatience. 'We're tired.
+Set your man-eater at a red-gum butt or a bull--something in his class.'
+
+'It's very disappointing after coming so far to oblige you.'
+
+'You didn't receive a pressing invitation from any body here,' said Jim.
+
+'Any other day,' ventured the Nut deferentially in his small, hoarse
+voice, intelligible only at intervals. 'Way o' friendship--no
+ill-feelin's--gent ez is a gent--no 'arm did.'
+
+'I'll not fight you at any time,' Done replied. 'You see, Brummy, my
+friend hesitates to raise false hopes in your heart,' said the Prodigal.
+'He might promise to punch the hair and hide off you at some future date,
+and then disappoint all your tender, joyful anticipations; but he's not a
+man of that sort: he tells you straight he wouldn't attempt to 'spoil
+beauty like yours for all the gilt in the Gravel Pits.'
+
+'Gent don't wanter fight,' whispered Brummy; 'tha's all right--no 'arm
+did.' Brummy was the only man of his party who betrayed no feeling
+whatever in the matter.
+
+There was a further conference, and the spokesman turned to Jim again.
+
+Brummy claims the championship of Diamond Gully,' he said.
+
+'That's no business of mine. He's welcome to claim anything he takes a
+fancy to for me,' replied Jim.
+
+'No ill-feelin's----way o' frien'ship,' said the husky champion; and he
+made his curious salutation again, and went shuffling off with his
+keepers, who had the airs of sorely ill-used citizens.
+
+'Well,' gasped Jim, 'if this is what a man brings down on himself by
+waging a casual battle in his own defence, I'll be careful to keep out of
+fights in the future.'
+
+However, Jim Done was not again called upon to do battle while he
+remained on Diamond Gully. The reputation he had won was a guarantee
+against further molestation and Aurora's open and unabashed devotion
+prevented any approach to serious rivalry. The girl still preserved her
+manner of a boon companion in the presence of Mrs. Ben Kyley's customers,
+but no man of them was given occasion for the ghost of a hope of
+supplanting Jim in her tempestuous heart. She now assumed towards Done an
+attitude of happy submission; the quizzical insistence on his boyishness
+was abandoned: she acknowledged her master with an exuberant rapture that
+had not the faintest suspicion of coyness, and although Jim often blushed
+under it, and experienced a great uneasiness in the course of a public
+demonstration, Aurora showed a barbaric disregard for contemporary
+opinion. She felt no shame in the presence of her emotions, and
+consequently had no impulse to hide them. She beguiled Jim from his work
+to take long rambles; she devoted herself to him, to the neglect of Mrs.
+Ben Kyley's patrons.
+
+Mike Burton was often lonely in his tent, and often Mrs. Kyley stormed at
+Jim, highly vociferous and wildly pantomimic, but good-natured and
+sympathetic at bottom, for there was a vagabondish harmony between the
+two women that made them fast friends, and caused Mary Kyley to feel a
+share in Aurora's happiness.
+
+The writing of the letter to Lucy Woodrow was now indefinitely postponed,
+and Jim found himself reluctant to open the box containing Lucy's locket.
+When his hand fell upon it by chance he put it by hastily, as if it were
+just possible that the face in the trinket might force itself upon his
+attention. He never lived to understand this fugitive idea, for the
+thoughts were cast aside just as hastily, and with an absurd touch of
+impatience.
+
+The young man had given himself up to Aurora's influence. The plenitude
+and the ardour of her love carried him along; he felt at times like a
+twig in a torrent, but the sensation was luxurious, and another joy of
+life was with him. He opened wide arms to it. Once again he saw the world
+with new eyes, and for having despised and mistrusted it so found it the
+more adorable. He squared his shoulders and experienced a curious
+sensation of physical growth and accrued manhood. Two years ago he might
+have weighed his feelings for Aurora and hers for him, and sought out
+motives; to-day he went along the flow of life, unresisting, with a
+leaping heart, and had he been questioned would have said that not he but
+the world had changed.
+
+Mike Burton watched the development of events in a judicial way, without
+offering any comment. There had not been a waste month in his life for as
+long as he could remember. In spite of his busy days and his Bush
+breeding, he had been much in touch with the humanities, and he knew men
+and women well enough to expect no startling surprises from them; but Jim
+was a curiosity. With a certain robustness of character, no little
+knowledge, and considerable worldly wisdom in abstract matters, the
+younger man yet seemed to bring a boy's mind to bear upon actualities,
+and excited himself absurdly over matters which, from Mike's patriarchal
+point of view, were merely the expected events of existence--the things
+that happen to all men, and about which no man need distress himself. He
+had seen a good deal of the women of the camps, and thought he knew the
+types well. He summed up Aurora to his own satisfaction: 'Like an
+eel--easy to catch, but hard to hold!' Amongst other pleasant qualities,
+Mike had the comfortable human one of often being wrong in his estimates
+of men and women and things. He expected the girl's infatuation to wear
+itself out quickly, and meanwhile possessed his soul with patience,
+prospected here and there, tried new claims, and found a few payable and
+one rich before the summer came again; but he wanted to try the other
+rushes, and the winter passed without his having broached the matter to
+Done.
+
+Jim was quite ignorant of the fact that he was making unfair demands upon
+his mate's loyalty. They were doing well on the whole; the life on
+Diamond Gully had lost none of its attractiveness--it was still vigorous
+and eventful. There had been a riot in Forest Creek during May, providing
+a stirring week, and many alarms and excursions on the part of the miners
+and the license-hunters. Solo had visited Diamond Gully again, and neatly
+victimized Cootmeyer--a gold-buyer at one of the stores--gagging his
+victim with his own bacon-knife, and imprisoning him in a salt-pork
+barrel. The revolutionary feeling in the hearts of the men had increased
+in intensity, and the talk about the camp-fires stirred the bad blood to
+fever-heat. To Done time had gone on wings so swift that he could not
+mark its flight. Burton, a nomad in blood and breeding, thirsted for
+change, and in ordinary circumstances would have rolled his swag and gone
+on alone long ago; but the liking he had for Jim was the strongest
+emotion that had crept into his stolid soul, excepting only the affection
+he bore for a certain black-browed boss-cockie's daughter on the Sydney
+side, and be found it hard to break away. But Aurora's hold on Jim had
+not weakened so far as he could judge, and the time came at length when
+his restless spirit drove him on. He broke the news to Jim one night as
+they lay in their bunks, he smoking, Jim reading.
+
+'I'm full o' this, old man,' he said abruptly.
+
+'Of what?'
+
+'Oh, of Diamond Gully! I reckon it's played out or thereabouts.'
+
+'And we got twelve ounces a man for the last week's work.
+
+'Not enough, Jimmy. Not more 'n wages, an' men like you 'n me should be
+in the thickest an' richest of it. I'm gettin' along to-morrow.'
+
+'You mean to say you are going?' Done jerked himself on to his elbow and
+stared across the tent at his mate.
+
+'Um--m Mean to try a new rush.'
+
+'Anything wrong, Mike? Have I been getting on your raw lately? You want
+to break up this partner ship of ours.'
+
+'My oath, no!' Mike had raised himself eagerly, and was looking at Jim.
+
+Then you reckoned on having me along?'
+
+'No; I thought maybe you wouldn't care to pad out from here jes' yet
+awhile.
+
+'If it rests with me, mate, where you go I go. You've given me a bit of a
+jolt, old man.'
+
+'You'll come, then?' cried Mike.
+
+'Why, yes! What should keep me?'
+
+The two men gripped hands, and a few minutes of, silence followed, during
+which Mike's pipe went out and Jim's book fell to the floor. Both were
+more moved than they cared to show.
+
+'This makes things much more comfortable,' said Burton presently.
+
+'Where do we go?'
+
+'To Jim Crow, an' from there we may make tracks to Ballarat.
+
+'To Ballarat!' The name epitomized all that Done knew of mining life and
+the aspirations of the diggers.
+
+'Yes, Jim. If there's goin' to be fightin', we must be in it.'
+
+'Mike,' said Jim, breaking the thoughtful silence that followed, 'what
+put into your head the mad idea that I would want to break with you? God,
+man, I'd be a desolate, helpless wastrel without you!'
+
+'Aurora!' said Mike sententiously.
+
+'Aurora!' Jim sat up abruptly, and then sank slowly back upon his pillow
+again. It was very curious, but till this moment no thought of Aurora had
+occurred to him.
+
+Mike blew out the candle, and it was quite half an hour later when he
+said, speaking as if the conversation had just been dropped: 'You'll go
+all the same, Jimmy?'
+
+'Yes,' said Jim, with the emphasis of a man making a resolution.
+
+XII
+
+AURORA! What would she say? What would she do? It was less the thought of
+his losing Aurora than the picture of her great distress that worried
+him. She would be broken-hearted. And yet go he must, there was no
+question of that; he had not come to Australia to tether himself to a
+woman's apron strings, even though that woman be the brightest and
+winsomest of her sex--excepting one. He smuggled that saving clause in in
+a cowardly way. He had carefully masked his treachery even to his own
+eyes, and yet it was treachery that was in his bones. Of course, he must
+assure her that they would meet again: they were not necessarily parting
+for ever; but even as these thoughts worked in his mind he was not
+conscious of any anxiety at the prospect of a lasting separation. Jim did
+not realize to what extent the passion for Aurora had fastened upon his
+blood; he still liked her, there remained a decided tenderness, and he
+hated the idea of hurting her or causing her grief. This was the better
+part of his liking for the girl, but the vehement selfishness seemed to
+have gone from his love, and without a fierce note of selfishness love
+becomes as pale as friendship. She had been a wonder, a revelation, a
+great glory; she had become merely an attractive, handsome girl, rather
+exuberant in her affection. If Done were our villain we could show him
+unmanly, ignoble, and vile for all this, but not one voluntary impulse
+went to the making of his present attitude; it was a development entirely
+foreign to his will, and that much at least must be remembered in the
+defence of our hero.
+
+Mike put off their departure a day. He had intended leaving the tools and
+camp-ware with his mate, but now it was necessary to make arrangements
+with a teamster to follow them to the new rush with their property.
+
+Done approached Aurora with great misgivings; he expected a passionate
+demonstration. There had been no sign of waning affection on her part; on
+the contrary, she had seemed to grow more devoted to him.
+
+'Burton thinks this field is pretty well worked out,' said Jim, as a
+preparatory announcement.
+
+'Well, I suppose it is, Jimmy. Been panning out badly of late?'
+
+'Not very badly, old girl; but not good enough compared with what we hear
+of from the other fields.'
+
+She was sitting on the counter, holding his arm, and turned and looked
+sharply into his face.
+
+'You're off?' she said.
+
+Done nodded his head, and watched her apprehensively. She was not
+disturbed; next moment there was merriment in the eyes turned up to him
+from where her head nestled on his breast.
+
+'Mike thinks we are wasting valuable time here.'
+
+And you are, too. Good luck go wid you, ma bouchal' She kissed the point
+of his chin.
+
+'You don't mind, Aurora?' He had come in shivering with apprehension at
+the prospect of a passionate outburst, knowing the possibilities of her
+fervid temperament, and now experienced some sense of disappointment at
+finding her unmoved.
+
+'Mind, darlin'? Cud I expect to be keepin' you here all the days of your
+life? Where are you going?'
+
+'To the new diggin's, Jim Crow.'
+
+'It's a wild field, they tell me, Jimmy. No fighting, mind. Leastwise,
+none for other girls.'
+
+'We start early in the morning.'
+
+'I'll be up to throw an old shoe after you.'
+
+'I came to say good-bye to-night.'
+
+'Good-bye, is it?' She flashed upon him, her face crimsoned, and a look,
+half fearful, half angry, glowed in her splendid eyes. But the feeling
+was only momentary; laughter rippled into her cheeks again, and she wound
+her arms about his neck. 'Good-bye?' she said. 'And isn't it breakin'
+your heart you are to be sayin' good-bye to me?'
+
+Done clasped her closer, and kissed her, stirred by her warmth and her
+beauty.
+
+'Ah, my dear, dear boy, you may say good-bye to me a thousand times if
+you'll cure the sting with such kisses,' she said softly.
+
+When Jim returned to their tent he found Burton already abed. Mike
+continued to read his paper, smoking placidly, but he was feeling no
+little concern. He had feared the result of that last interview with
+Aurora, and now waited the word from Done, who seated himself on his bunk
+and unlaced his boots in silence.
+
+'She took it without a whimper,' he said presently.
+
+'No!'
+
+'She didn't speak a word or raise a finger to keep me.'
+
+'Well, I'm blowed!' Burton was openly delighted; not so Done, who, true
+to the contrariness of poor human nature, was apparently quite depressed.
+
+Jim Crow, maddest of fields, like Tarrangower, which came later, resort
+of the most turbulent spirits, and a favourite centre with runaway
+convicts, gold-robbers, and the riffraff of the rushes, was still young
+when Burton and Done went, hastening down the hills on to the lead, with
+the thin but turbulent stream of diggers, but its character was already
+formed. Here the revolver was counted among the necessities of life, and
+although the main body of the diggers, as on all the other fields, were
+sober, industrious, and decent men, there was so strong a leaven of
+dare-devils and so varied an admixture of rogues and vagabonds that Jim
+Crow quickly won itself an unenviable reputation on all the rushes, from
+Buninyong to Bendigo, and, rich as it was, diggers found it as difficult
+to keep their gold as to win it. The Jim Crow ranges were within an
+hour's flight, and offered splendid cover for the members of Coleman's
+gang, or the friends of Black Douglas, or any other rapscallion who
+preferred stealing gold to seeking it.
+
+On the day of their arrival at Jim Crow the mates pegged out a claim and
+pitched their tent, which Mike had added to his swag. With the help of
+Mrs. Ben Kyley, they had succeeded in depositing the larger part of their
+earnings at Diamond Gully in a Melbourne bank, and now they were hampered
+with no great responsibility in the way of riches. That night Jim and
+Mike walked over the field, through the clustering tents, and Jim
+discovered that what he had taken for a wild life at Diamond Gully was
+peace itself compared with the devilment and disorder of a new field. Jim
+Crow had opened well, the first discoveries were enormously rich, and the
+restless diggers were pouring in from all quarters, and glare and
+confusion and a babel of music and tongues rioted in the camp. Here,
+again, Jim was struck with the untamed boyishness of the miners; their
+levity was that of coarse, healthy children. 'Is it civilization that is
+choking gaiety out of the souls of men?' he asked himself.
+
+Done had a curious experience on the following day. He had gone to the
+tent to light the fire, boil the billy, and prepare the mid-day meal, and
+was carrying water from a convenient spring, when, in passing the tent of
+their nearest neighbours, twin brothers named Peetree, the first
+prospectors of Jim Crow, he was startled by a furious yell, more like the
+howl of a madman than the cry of a sentient creature. Jim turned and
+looked about. There was nobody within sight from whom the amazing sound
+could have come, but as he stood the cry was repeated. Done set down his
+billy, and, approaching the tent, peeped in. There was nobody there, but
+again the wild cry rang out. He looked under the bunks, and then walked
+round the tent, but discovered nothing to explain the mystery. He paused
+dubiously, suspecting a trick, when for the fourth time he heard the
+marrow-chilling scream, and this time so near that he sprang aside in
+real alarm. Against the side of the tent, chocked to prevent its rolling,
+was a barrel, brought to Jim Crow by the Peetrees to be cut into two
+puddling-tubs, no doubt. Jim examined it suspiciously.
+
+'Le' me out, yer swines! le' me out!' cried a shrill old voice, following
+the words with a long dolorous howl, not unlike that of a moonstruck cur.
+
+'Who the devil are you?' asked Done. 'What are you doing in there?'
+
+His words only served to enrage the man in the cask; he had a paroxysm of
+linguistic fury, and curses spouted from the bunghole a geyser of
+profanity.
+
+'I'll be the death o' you when I get loose!' screamed the prisoner.
+Another long-drawn yell followed, and then sounds as of a terrible
+struggle going on inside, with occasional cries and curses.
+
+Done was greatly perplexed, but there was, he thought, only one course
+open to him. A fellow-creature was pent in the barrel, and it was
+manifestly his duty to go to the rescue. He had seized the Peetrees' axe
+with the intention of knocking in the head of the cask, when a warning
+shout from the direction of the lead caused him to desist. One of the
+Peetree brothers was running up from their claim. He arrived angry and
+breathless.
+
+'What in thunder 're you up to?' he panted.
+
+'There's a man in that barrel,' answered Jim.
+
+'Well, I'm likely to know all about that, ain't I? Drop that axe and
+mooch along after your own business.'
+
+'I don't know,' said Done, 'but it seems to me that this is almost any
+man's business. You're not at liberty to keep a fellow-creature cooped in
+a barrel at your own pleasure, even on Jim Crow.'
+
+'That's just so, but the man in there's my father, which makes a
+dif'rence, perhaps.'
+
+'Your father? Are you keeping the old man in pickle?'
+
+'No; we're keeping him outer mischief, an' that ought to be enough for
+you.'
+
+'Of course, I don't want to interfere with your family arrangements, but
+this is a bit out of the ordinary, and you'll admit my action was only
+natural.' Jim picked up his billy and crossed to his own tent, the man in
+the barrel breaking into fresh clamour, and calling down Heaven's
+vengeance on his son's head through the bunghole.
+
+'Shut up, you infernal ole idiot!' cried the dutiful son. While Done was
+busy over the fire, Peetree junior drove the bung into the barrel, and
+then rejoined our hero.
+
+'Naturally, you wouldn't understan',' he said, jerking his thumb towards
+the barrel, 'but the ole man's such a dashed nuisance when he's on we
+gotter do somethin' with him.' The tone was apologetic.
+
+'I dare say you are quite justified,' Jim answered. 'A man doesn't keep
+his father in a barrel for mere amusement.'
+
+'No, he don't ordinary, does he?' answered the native gravely. 'Fact is,
+the dad goes on a tear now 'n again, an' we pen him up to sober off. We
+can look after him all right after knocking off, but if we was to let him
+loose while we was at work he'd go pourin' Bill Mooney's fork-lightnin'
+gin into him till he had his bluchers full o' snakes 'an the whole lead
+swarmin' with fantods. So when he starts to work up a jamboree we pull
+off his boots an' tuck him in the tub, fastens the head, an' leave him
+till he's willin' to think better of it.'
+
+'Well, that's bringing up a father in the way he should go,' laughed Jim.
+'I apologize for attempting to break into your inebriates' retreat.'
+
+'Inebriates' retreat!' A wide grin slowly developed on Peetree's gaunt
+face. 'That's a first name for it,' he said. 'Hanged if we don't have it
+painted up!'
+
+'A sign of some kind is necessary. But isn't the old man likely to
+suffocate with that bung in?'
+
+'Not he; there's heaps o' breathin' in the cask. That bung's just to gag
+him awhile.'
+
+That evening after tea the two sons, with old Peetree under guard between
+them, joined the mates at their fire. Harry, Jim's friend of the
+morning's adventure, was about twenty-eight, tall and bony, with the
+shoulder stoop of a hard worker. Con and the father had the same general
+peculiarities. The three were identical in height and complexion, and in
+their mannerism and tricks of speech; but to-night the old man had a
+vacant, helpless expression, and seemed for the greater part of the time
+unconscious of the company he was in, and looked furtively about him into
+the night, muttering strangely to himself, and picking eagerly at his
+shirt-sleeves. The sons pressed their father to a sitting position, and
+then seated themselves one on each side, mounting guard.
+
+'See, we got him loose again,' said Harry.
+
+'He's milder to-night,' answered Done. 'What's the matter with him?'
+
+'Only a touch o' the jims. He's liable to howl a bit now 'n again, but
+don't mind him. He's all right. Ain't you, dad?' He gave the old man's
+head an affectionate push.
+
+'Once he takes to smoke he's comin' round,' said Con Peetree, making a
+vain attempt to induce the old man to draw at his pipe.
+
+'There ain't a finer ole tough walkin' when he's off the licker,' said
+the elder proudly, 'an' not a better miner-ever lived.'
+
+Done watched the group with keen delight. The young men's respect for
+their bibulous parent was quite sincere, their care of him was marked
+with a rough but unmistakable liking. The conversation turned upon the
+characteristics of the lead at Jim Crow, and drifted to the inevitable
+subject, the development of the agitation for the emancipation of the
+miners and the doings and sayings of the insurgent party at Ballarat, and
+every now and again Peetree senior would whisper ambiguously: 'There
+ain't such a thing ez a drop of gin? No, of course not.'
+
+Once Harry drew a small flask from his pocket, poured a little spirit
+into a pannikin, and gave it to the old man. 'Hair off his dog, you
+know,' he said. And two or three times Con made an effort to induce his
+father to take a whiff of smoke, but old Peetree shook his head
+disgustedly, and returned to his mutterings and the picking of imaginary
+tarantulas off his sleeves.
+
+In the morning Jim noticed that the wards 'Inebrits' Retreet' had been
+printed on the barrel with pipeclay.
+
+The good luck that had marked their initial effort on Diamond Gully
+followed the mates to Jim Crow. They struck the wash-dirt in their first
+claim, and Jim, in sinking through the alluvial, stuck his pick into the
+largest nugget he had yet seen, a lump of rugged gold, pure and clean,
+which Mike estimated to be worth four hundred pounds. It glowed in the
+sunlight with the lustre of a live ember, and, gazing upon it, Done
+trembled again with the vehement joy that thrills in the veins of the
+least avaricious digger at the sight of such a find.
+
+'If there's a large family o' these we're made men,' said Burton,
+fondling the nugget.
+
+'Unless some of Douglas's men take a fancy to them when we've unearthed
+them.'
+
+'Or Solo chips in an' lifts the pile. We must keep it dark till this
+field sobers up a bit.'
+
+The tub of dirt taken from the bottom of their hole--that is, the deepest
+part of the strata of alluvial deposit, to which the best of the gold
+almost in variably gravitates--was extremely rich. The dregs in the tub,
+after all the clay and dirt had been washed away, blazed with coarse
+pieces, and Done carried away at least five hundred pounds' worth in
+nuggets wrapped in his gray jumper. The coarse gold was picked out of the
+washed gravel, and then the remainder of the stuff was put through the
+cradle, the slides of which captured and retained the smaller gold, with
+a certain amount of sand, and this was washed again in the tin dish, the
+last grains of base material being got rid of by shaking the gold on a
+sheet of paper after it had been thoroughly dried, and blowing with the
+mouth, a process at which the diggers became so expert that very little
+of even the finest gold-dust was lost in the operation.
+
+The mates finished their third day's work on Jim Crow, wet to the hips,
+smeared from top to toe with yellow clay, dog-weary, but quite jubilant.
+They were as well satisfied with their next day's work, and the next.
+They had succeeded in keeping the knowledge of their big find to
+themselves; but returning to their camp one night about a week later,
+Done was amazed to find the earthen floor of the tent dug up to a depth
+of about a foot. Burton grinned.
+
+'Someone's bottomed a shicer to-night,' he said.
+
+'What's the meaning of this?' asked Done.
+
+'We've had a little visit from some damn scoundrel who thought we'd buried
+our gold here. Must 'a' taken us for a pair o' Johnnie-come-latelies.'
+
+At that moment a shot rang out on the night air, and sounds of angry
+voices and scuffling came from the direction of the Peetrees' tent.
+
+'By the Lord Harry, they've nabbed him!' said Mike. 'Come along!'
+
+They found Con Peetree holding a man down with a persuasive revolver,
+while Harry, with a burning match sheltered in his palm, examined the
+captive.
+
+'Cot him diggin' in our tent. He broke 'way, but I've winged him,' said
+Harry.
+
+'He gave us a look in, too,' said Mike.
+
+'Lose any stuff?'
+
+'Not a colour.'
+
+'Same here; but we can't let him go scot-free. That kink in the calf
+counts for nothing, and handin' him over to the beaks means too much
+worry. Here, give's a light, Burton.'
+
+Mike struck a match, and, taking the thief by the ear, Harry Peetree drew
+a knife.
+
+'Good God!' cried Jim, 'you don't mean to--' Jim's intervention was too
+late to help the prostrate man; Peetree had already slashed off the lobe
+of his left ear. He threw the fragment in the man's face.
+
+'Now scoot!' he said, 'an' don't show yer ugly chiv on Jim Crow again, 'r
+you'll catch a fatal dose o' lead.
+
+The crippled thief limped away without a word, pressing a palm to his
+streaming ear.
+
+'That seemed an infernally brutal thing to do,' said Jim to his mate,
+when they were discussing the incident.
+
+'Not a bit of it,' answered Burton. 'We've got to mark his sort, an' a
+brand like that's known every where. A bloke with an ear stripped off
+can't pretend to be a honest man here; he's got to be either a trooper or
+one of Her Majesty's commissioners.'
+
+'But you weren't at all bitter about Solo.'
+
+'Solo ain't a tent-robber; he generally robs the people who rob us. A
+tent-robber is the meanest kind of hound that runs.'
+
+Jim was grateful for this lesson in diggers' ethics, and went peacefully
+to sleep on it, having by this time acquired complete confidence in
+Burton's hiding-place.
+
+When the mates had more gold than they could carry in their belts with
+comfort, and trustworthy gold-buyers were not available, choosing a
+suitable hour long after midnight, Burton dug a hole near the tent, Jim
+keeping careful watch the while to make sure they were not observed. The
+gold was placed in a pan, and buried in this hole, and after that the
+camp-fire was built on the spot, and kept burning day and night. It never
+occurred to anyone to look under the fire for hidden gold.
+
+Their first claim was nearly worked out, and the two young men were busy
+below digging out the last of the wash-dirt, when a voice calling down
+the shaft caused both picks to be suspended simultaneously, and the mates
+looked curiously into each other's faces in the dim candle-light.
+
+Hello below, there!'
+
+'Aurora!' said Mike.
+
+Jim went up the rope suspended in the shaft hand over hand. Aurora was
+standing by the windlass smiling down at him. The girl was remarkably
+well dressed. The gown she wore was too florid, perhaps, for that sickly
+refinement which abhors colour, but it suited her tall figure and her
+hale and exuberant good looks. As he came up the shaft the picture she
+made standing in the sunlight, with a background of sun-splashed,
+vari-coloured tips, and one drowsing gum-tree fringed with the gold and
+purple of young growth, gave him a thrill of joy, so vivid she seemed, so
+fresh. She had occupied his mind little since the departure from Diamond
+Gully; but seeing her again so radiant, he was glad through and through,
+and laughed with pure delight when she met him at the shaft's mouth with
+a kiss. Once upon his feet, he clasped her in his arms. Her walk along
+the lead had attracted a good deal of attention, and the embrace was the
+signal for a sympathetic cheer from the miners about, and the men whirled
+their hats in the air.
+
+'Arrah! Won't ye sarve the bla'gards all alike, darlin'?' cried a young
+fellow on the left.
+
+Aurora bowed low, and scattered kisses over the field with both hands,
+winning another cheer. Jim watched her with pride. After all, she it was
+who stood as his goddess of gaiety in the twelve months of absolutely
+happy life that had marked the reaction from the brutal stupidity and
+sourness of that other existence. He owed her much gratitude, much
+tenderness. He kissed her again almost reverently.
+
+'Did you think I was never coming, Jimmy?' she asked softly.
+
+Jim practised the virtue of equivocation. It had never occurred to him
+that she would come, but he would rather have bitten a piece off his
+tongue than have said so just then.
+
+'So you made up your mind to follow the moment I told you I was going?'
+he said.
+
+'What else? Could I have bid you good-bye so glibly? Could you have
+walked off with a smile and a kiss, and never a word of coming again?'
+
+'Darling, I can never want to lose you.'
+
+'Whist' no words fer the future!' she said, reverting to her whimsical
+brogue. 'We're weak mortals, an' every one iv us is born again wid the
+new sun. I'd not have ye bind the strange man ye may be to-morrow wid
+oaths, an' I won't bind the unknown colleen I may be for the likes iv
+ye.'
+
+'But to-day?'
+
+'To-day? To-day I love you with a big, big heart!' she said, with deep
+feeling. 'Kiss me!'
+
+'Knock off!' cried Burton, whose head appeared suddenly at the mouth of
+the shaft. 'I reckoned you'd had time to get through with that.'
+
+'Och! we've been a long time gittin' through wid it, an' we're not
+through yet,' said Aurora, shaking Mike warmly by the hand. 'You may have
+one for yourself--there.' She placed her finger on a dimple, and Mike
+kissed her gallantly enough. 'Ah!' she sighed, 'you love another. The
+kiss betrays you.'
+
+Something that might have been a blush, had the deep tan of his skin
+permitted such a thing, warmed Burton's cheek.
+
+'And where's Mrs. Ben?' he asked.
+
+'Somewhere about the field.'
+
+'They are with you?' said Jim.
+
+'To be sure; and the whole business--bakery, laundry, and light
+refreshments--has followed at my skirt with proper humility.'
+
+'They pitch tents here?'
+
+'Ben and Mary are now seeking a good business site.'
+
+'Adjacent to a hollow tree?'
+
+'The same bein' a convanyint haunt fer Mary Kyley's familiar evil
+shpirits.'
+
+Done laughed, giving Aurora a one-armed, parenthetical hug. 'They
+wouldn't part with you, then?'
+
+'They would not, nor I with them. Dan's been as good as a mother to me.
+But how is the luck, boys?'
+
+'Great,' answered Mike. 'We dropped on a patch here.'
+
+'Come and see us cradle the last tubful, and I'll give you the prettiest
+bit in the hopper,' said Jim.
+
+'Not a colour! The heart nugget you gave me long ago has worn tender
+places all over me.' She tugged at the thin ribbon about her neck. 'I'll
+carry no more.'
+
+Done did not press the point, although he knew that she took gifts of
+quaintly-shaped nuggets from the other men with the indifference of a
+queen accepting tribute.
+
+Mrs. Ben Kyley greeted the mates with noisy joviality when they met, and
+Ben took his pipe from his mouth, and said he was 'right down blarsted
+glad,' which amounted to quite a demonstration, coming from him. Within
+two days the tents were up, and Mrs. Kyley's business was resumed, and
+was carried on as at Diamond Gully, and with much the same success. But
+here for some time Ben's services as 'chucker-out' were more in
+requisition, spirits being more unruly on Jim Crow. One night he even had
+to fight a five-round battle with a riotous young Cousin Jack, in which
+engagement Done seconded him by special request. Ben triumphed, but came
+out of the contest with a black eye and an inflamed nose of a
+preposterous size, at which Mary was virtuously indignant.
+
+'You, a professional, fighting for diversion like any fool of a
+gentleman!' she said scornfully.
+
+'Man mus' keep his hand in,' replied Ben.
+
+'If you can't attend to your duties without making such a mess of
+yourself, you'd better have a month's notice. What was the good of me
+taking on a pugilist if I'm to have fighting about the place
+continually?'
+
+'Come, come, Mrs. Ben,' said Jim; 'if you treat him like this when he
+wins, what would you do if he lost?'
+
+'Divorce him and take up with the Cornishman!' replied the raffish
+washerwoman, exploding into Gargantuan laughter.
+
+Done had often thought of Ryder since the night of the troopers' raid on
+Mrs. Kyley's grog-store, but had seen nothing of him in the meantime.
+Mike recalled him to his mind again as they were lying out in the
+moonlight on a Sunday night about two weeks later.
+
+'Remember the chap that tried to throttle Stony that night in the Black
+Forest?' he said. 'Saw him on the lead to-day.'
+
+'You did? Ryder was hunting Stony on Diamond Gully.'
+
+'He's gettin' pretty warm, then. Stony's here too. That's his tent above
+the bend to the left. He's a hatter, an' works a lone hand in the shallow
+ground.'
+
+'Then trouble's brewing for Mr. Stony.'
+
+'You seemed to feel for him. Better drop him the word, hadn't you?'
+
+'No. My sympathies are with the other man, and as he means something
+short of manslaughter, Stony can take his chances.'
+
+It was not long after this that Jim encountered Stony in Mary Kyley's
+tent. He was drinking alone, and drinking with the feverish haste of a
+man who deliberately seeks intoxication. He was more tremulous than when
+Done first met him, and his face had the colour, and looked as if it
+might have the consistency, of putty. The man was an instinctive hater:
+he lived alone, worked alone, and desired no companionship. Previous to
+the gold discoveries he had served for years in the capacity of shepherd
+on one of the big Australian sheep-runs, and had lived cut off from
+communion with his kind in the great lone land, absorbing into his blood
+the spirit of solitude that broods in the Bush and in time robs man of
+his gregarious impulses.
+
+Jim had been in the shanty about an hour, and was standing with his back
+to the counter; Stony was sitting in the corner, his hands clasped
+between his knees, his eyes fixed upon the floor, unconscious of his
+surroundings, when the flap of the tent was lifted, and Ryder stepped in,
+running a keen, searching eye over the company. Jim saw him start as his
+gaze encountered Stony. He paused for a moment, and then slipped back
+into darkness, dropping the tent-door after him. Done understood his
+intention. 'He will wait,' he said to himself, and determined to watch
+events. Ryder had awakened in him an extraordinary interest.
+
+Stony sat in a state of abstraction for close upon half an hour, and when
+he arose and left the place Jim followed him. The night was dark, and
+Stony had disappeared, but the young man walked quietly in the direction
+of the hatter's camp. He could see nothing of either man, and had decided
+that he was mistaken regarding Ryder's intention, when a low but
+blood-chilling sound--the noise made by a man fighting against
+strangulation--broke upon his ear. He had been seeking for this, but the
+shock unnerved him for a moment.
+
+XIII
+
+PEERING through the darkness, Done discovered the shadowy figures of two
+men. The figures were rigid upon the ground. There was no further sound.
+The young man approached closely and stood by Ryder, dropping his hand
+upon his shoulder. There was just light enough for him to see a revolver
+snatched from the belt, or a movement of such suggestiveness, but he
+fastened on that right arm with a grip to which it succumbed instantly.
+
+'It is I, Jim Done!' he said.
+
+'Save me! Save me!' cried Stony in accents of supreme terror.
+
+'Why do you interfere?' asked Ryder with a ring of anger. 'What interest
+can you have in this hound?'
+
+'None,' replied Jim. 'I followed from the shanty, guessing something
+would happen. I'm shamefully curious.'
+
+'You are a fool! It might have cost you your life.'
+
+'You certainly do not show any particular respect for human life.' Jim
+released the other's arm.
+
+'For Christ's sake don't leave me!' moaned Stony. 'He means murder!'
+
+'I have told you I value this man's life. I tell you again I have no
+intention of killing him, but I hate him so that the ravenous desire to
+crush the soul out of him is hard to resist. There is a story he must
+tell me; when that is told he may go. If he refuses to tell there is no
+power on God's earth to keep me from my vengeance. But he shall tell--the
+craven shall tell! There'll be no further mischief done, I promise you.
+Leave us.'
+
+'For the love of Heaven!' pleaded Stony. 'He'll kill! He'll kill!'
+
+'I have your word,' said Jim.
+
+'My word of honour,' answered Ryder.
+
+'If it's broken, I swear to help you to your hanging.'
+
+'I tell you, I want this man alive.'
+
+'Good-night!'
+
+'Help!' screamed Stony; but the other's hand was at his throat again.
+
+'Listen, you foul cur!' Ryder said. 'I mean to spare you, but you must
+tell--tell all!'
+
+Jim Done turned and walked away, leaving the enemies alone. Next morning
+he saw Stony moving about his tent, and experienced a feeling of relief.
+He had been unable to divest himself of a sense of responsibility for the
+safety of the miserable hatter.
+
+By this time quite a strong friendship had grown up between the three
+Peetrees and Done and Burton. Joshua Peetree, whom the twins called Josh,
+with a friendly absence of formalities, was found in his sober moments to
+share the moral qualities of his sons, and had the same quiet,
+deliberative manner of speech, as if every sentence, even those of the
+most insignificant character, were subjected to two or three successive
+processes of investigation internally before delivery. Indeed, the men
+spoke so little en famille that they might have lost ordinary power of
+easy articulation. Speech was hardly necessary between the three; they
+understood each other by something very like telepathic divination. At
+least, so it appeared to Done, who was puzzled again and again to see the
+ideas of one brother anticipated by the other, and his wishes met without
+any communication, audible or visible, to the third person. Men who have
+lived together in the Bush for the better part of their lives, cut off
+from other society and outside interest, often develop this quaint
+instinct of mutual apprehension. The Peetrees were not unsociable, but
+with them conversation was not essential to human intercourse. They were
+content to sit on a log, or spread themselves on the dry grass in company
+with friendly diggers, smoking composedly through a whole evening,
+without contributing more than an approving 'My word!' or 'My colonial!'
+to the night's debate. Mike was in full sympathy with their neighbours.
+Like him, they were deeply imbued with the spirit of revolt stirring in
+the land, and they were as eager to participate in the struggle that was
+to overthrow the rule of the nominees of Downing Street and strangle the
+hydra of official tyranny; but Done, although his sentiments were just as
+strongly on the side of the miners, was too profoundly concerned with the
+actions and interests of the moment to content himself with the society
+of the Peetrees and the discussion of possibilities. He liked them; they
+were amusing elements in the varied life around him, but he wanted to see
+and to hear. His blood ran too hotly for camp-fire argument. When the
+time for fighting came, well and good: none would be more eager than he;
+but meanwhile love and laughter, play and strife, invited a man, and Jim
+responded with the impetuosity of an impish boy just escaped from
+parental control.
+
+The mates continued to do well at Jim Crow, and Jim Done found himself
+growing tolerably rich without any marked gratification. He could not see
+what more gold could confer upon him. He was now a nightly visitor at
+Mrs. Ben Kyley's tent, but gambled with rather more spirit of late, and,
+finding himself a much less easy victim to Mary's rum, drank more than
+formerly. A certain stage of intoxication--an intoxication of the blood
+rather than the senses--threw a roseate glamour over the gaieties of the
+shanty, and robbed him of that remaining reticence of manner and speech
+that would have kept him an observer rather than a participant.
+
+Police supervision was fitful and weak at Jim Crow, and there were wild
+nights at Mary Kyley's. Aurora appeared in a new character--that of
+popular musician. Seated with her heels tucked under her on the end of
+the shanty bar, she rattled off lively dance-music on an old violin; or,
+mounted on an inverted tub, she sang songs of rebellion and devilment to
+a crowd of diggers warm with rum and rampant with animal spirits. Mary
+Kyley, whose gay heart responded readily to the conviviality of her
+guests, danced at these times, contesting in breathless jigs and reels,
+displaying amazing agility and a sort of barbaric frenzy, while the men
+yelled encouragement and applause, the pannikins circulated, and the
+smoke gathered in a cloud along the ridge-pole. Sitting above the crowd
+in a gay gown, with a splash of artificial red roses in her mass of black
+hair, flushed with animation, her eyes beaded with fire, Aurora was a
+striking queen of the revels, and Done exulted over her, and called her
+Joy. It was the new name he had given her, Aurora sounding too formidable
+for a lover's lips.
+
+One such night Aurora played them 'The Wearing of the Green,' breaking in
+upon a moment of exuberant merriment with the quaint melancholy of the
+music. She wrung from the strings a pathetic appeal, and played the crowd
+into a sudden reverent silence. They were rebel hearts there to a man,
+and many exiles from Erin were in the company. The simple tune went right
+home to them all. The men sat still, gazing into their pannikins, and big
+bearded diggers had a chastened pensiveness that might have been comic
+had there been any there to laugh at them. Just as suddenly the girl
+swung into a rollicking dance-step, abandoning her tender mood with a
+burst of happy laughter; but Tim Carrol, a young new chum; fresh from
+'the most distressful country,' sprang to the counter beside her, and,
+clasping Aurora and her fiddle in a generous hug, kissed the girl on the
+cheek.
+
+'Shtop!' he cried. 'Niver another word will ye play till the hold iv
+that's gone from us!'
+
+Done, who was standing near, saw the action, saw Aurora laughing in the
+man's arms, and experienced a revulsion of feeling that turned him giddy,
+and blurred the lights and the figures about him. He sprang at Carrol
+savagely. It seemed to him that what followed occurred in darkness. A few
+blows, a scuffle, and then he was torn away. The next moment he found
+himself in Kyley's hands, and Aurora before him, her eyes flashing anger,
+her white teeth bared, her hands clenched--exactly the termagant she had
+appeared on the night she confronted Quigley in her wrath; but to-night
+her fury was directed against him.
+
+'How dare you interfere?' she said. 'How dare you meddle with my
+affairs?' She struck herself upon the breast. She blazed with passion.
+
+'He kissed you!' said Jim. 'I couldn't stand that!'
+
+'And what of me? If I do not object, what then?'
+
+'Aurora!'
+
+'Am I my own mistress? Are my inclinations to count for something?'
+
+Jim had recovered himself. He felt cold, sobered. He shook the hands off
+him, 'Your inclinations count for everything!' he said with composure. 'I
+acted on impulse. I beg your pardon, Aurora. I'll apologize to Carrol if
+he wishes it. I've had too much rum, Tim; I acted like a fool.'
+
+'Tush, man, 'twas nothin'! You didn't hit me,' said the Irishman
+cheerfully. 'Don't shpake iv it. I disarved what I didn't get fer kissin'
+your sweet, heart, any-how.'
+
+Aurora's anger fell from her suddenly, and she moved away. She played no
+more that night, and was markedly subdued in her manner, turning an
+anxious eye upon Done every now and again, and Jim, to carry off the
+situation, was much too free with the liquor and uncommonly friendly with
+everybody.
+
+'You took my temper like a gentleman, Jimmy dear,' said Aurora, coming
+behind him when he sat alone. She was bidding for reconciliation.
+
+'I ought to have known better, Joy,' he answered. I was an idiot!'
+
+'No, dear, you were jealous, and that is an easy thing for a woman to
+forgive.'
+
+'I don't think I was even jealous.'
+
+'Then you should have been!' she said, with a flash of anger.
+
+'Then, if I should have been, I was jealous--furiously, murderously
+jealous!'
+
+'Sure, how could you blame the poor boy,' she murmured, winding an arm
+about his neck, 'wid the love of the dear ould sod hot in the heart iv
+him? 'Twasn't a lover's kiss he gave me, darlin', but a patriot's.'
+
+'This is a lover's, Joy!' He kissed her softly.
+
+All the same, flushed with liquor though he was, he was conscious that
+his attack on Carrol had been prompted by a meaner impulse than jealousy,
+and was more a manifestation of the rum-flown arrogance of a man fighting
+for a prize in the possession of which he felt a large conceit. He was
+conscious, too, that there was little of a true lover's ardour in the
+kiss he gave her. But men are deceivers ever, and never so cunning in
+deceit as when love has slipped from their hearts. To be sure, Jim had
+the grace to be ashamed of all this in certain moods, but acknowledgment
+of the sin was not followed by renunciation. Aurora's flash of passion
+was probably due to the instinct that warned her of the fading of Done's
+love for her.
+
+Mike took his mate home that night, and had to help him into his bunk,
+and Jim awoke in the morning with feelings of mistrust and bitterness, a
+craven consciousness of having been untrue to him self. For a moment
+there was a belief that his new life was nothing but a dream. He stepped
+out into the sunshine with a childish fear upon him, and looked about
+him, breathing deeply, and relief came, but there remained a
+consciousness of loss of power. Drink was not for him: he was a hale man,
+full of vitality; in his normal state his sensibilities were capable of
+drawing the most generous emotions from the events of existence; excess
+of liquor gave him, in place of that natural gratification, a set of
+feverish and unreal sensations. He could understand others, from whom
+Nature withheld the joy of life, finding in intoxication a pale
+substitute, but for him it was a sacrifice of self, a sacrifice he could
+not afford, for it was only the other day that self had become sweet to
+him. How could he exchange his rich reality for the pale, misty, groping
+unreality he had become last night--give up the exhilaration he derived
+from the stir of life and friendly contact with men for the fantastic,
+fleeting emotions of the reveller in drink, emotions that fly through the
+darkened brain like shooting stars, the stir of a blatant egotism, the
+prickly heat of tiny, aimless joys that never penetrate below the skin!
+He determined to be content with sobriety for the future.
+
+This very excellent and virtuous resolution did not keep Done from Mary
+Kyley's tent, however, and he retained his relish for the revels there:
+the boisterous horseplay of the diggers, the dancing, the gay spirits of
+Aurora, her beauty and her music. He believed Aurora still loved him, but
+the recollection of her appearance that night, and the fury with which
+she had repudiated his right to interfere, contrasted with her attitude
+on the occasion when he championed her cause against Quigley, gave him
+moments of dubious reflection. Coming up from their claim one evening at
+sundown after a particularly hard day, the mates found Aurora busy at the
+fire preparing their tea. They hailed her with shouts of thankfulness and
+welcome. She was bare-armed and bare-headed; a snowy-white apron of Mrs.
+Kyley's covered her frock, and was, if anything, an additional adornment
+to her trim figure. The tea was made, and the big billy stood by the
+embers, while Aurora attended to the grilling of the steak. She made a
+charming picture, with the firelight on her face and gleaming in her
+hair, and the men watched her for some minutes in quiet admiration, Josh
+Peetree being particularly moved by the glamour of domesticity her
+presence threw over the camp, and throughout the evening ejaculated a
+fervent 'My colonial!' every time his eyes encountered the girl.
+
+'Hello!' said Aurora. 'I've invited myself to tea, boys.'
+
+''Pon my soul, you're good to see,' cried Burton feelingly.
+
+'That's mighty kind for a man who doesn't waste much breath in
+compliments.'
+
+This is magnificent!' said Jim. 'Why have you never thought of it
+before?'
+
+'Hear him! Little he knows I'm just here to convince him what a model
+wife I'd make. Would you believe it, boys, all the time I've known the
+villain it never occurred to him to ask me?'
+
+'I'd ask yer quick enough, b'gosh!' blurted Con.
+
+Jim blushed. 'She wouldn't have me,' he cried in self-defence.
+
+'At laste ye might have given a poor girl the refusal.'
+
+'Take me, then,' said Jim through the soapsuds. He was washing over a
+bucket.
+
+'I will not. You know you're safe, anyhow, when there's not priest or
+parson to be got for love or money. Come, hurry up, there's enough for
+all, and my contribution is an armful of Mary Kyley's hot scones.'
+
+The butt of a tree lying a few yards from the fire served the diggers as
+table and on to this Jim lifted Aurora.
+
+'That's your place,' he said, 'at the head of the board.'
+
+'No, no!' cried the girl, slipping to the ground again. 'I am mistress. I
+mean to attend at table.' She served the men with the manners of a kindly
+hostess. 'There's milk for the tea!' she cried.
+
+'Milk! I haven't seen the colour of it in Australia. Who work the
+miracle?' said Jim.
+
+'Mary sent to a station out there by the ranges. She got a quart, and I
+cabbaged half for my tea-party.'
+
+'You're an angel, Aurora!'
+
+'There!' she laughed; 'and the trouble I've taken to keep it dark.'
+
+'We'll be the envy of the whole field,' said Mike; and Con uttered a
+corroborative 'My colonial oath!' that was eloquent of a grateful heart.
+
+Aurora poured out the tea and buttered the scones, and then, sitting on a
+gin-case with her plate in her lap, ate a good meal in cheeriest
+fellowship, adding to the felicity of the party with gay badinage and
+happy laughter. Aurora's laugh was a delightful thing to hear; it had
+never ceased to give Done a peculiar stir of joyance, whilst awakening
+something of surprise. It was the laugh of a merry child; its mirth was
+strangely infectious, strangely suggestive of an unsullied soul. Hearing
+it, Jim turned to her wonderingly, but he had long since acquitted her of
+the suspicion of dissimulation. She was the least self-conscious creature
+living, the least calculating. If she had really set herself the task of
+displaying to the best advantage the more gentle and womanly side of her
+nature, she would certainly not have succeeded as well as she did this
+evening, moved by one of the thousand vagrant impulses that lent such
+varying colour to her character. Her humour was more subdued, her gaiety
+was restrained within the limits of an almost conventional decorum. She
+helped the men with a graciousness that was wholly effeminate, and the
+diggers responded to its influence.
+
+'Blast me if it don't make a cove feel religious!' was Harry Peetree's
+sober comment, after he had lit his pipe and settled his back comfortably
+against the log.
+
+The night came while they were still at their meal, and sticks were
+thrown on the fire to provide light. Other diggers, attracted by the glow
+and the cheerful atmosphere of the party, sauntered up, and modestly
+disposed themselves in the shadows, where they lay smoking. Women of any
+kind were few on Jim Crow, and a scene like this was sufficient to stir
+the deeper feelings of many of the miners, particularly those in whose
+hearts long absence from hearth and home had served to invest domesticity
+with a reverent sentimentality.
+
+Aurora insisted on washing up, but Josh dried the dishes, while the
+others lit their pipes, and, lying on their backs, with knees drawn up
+and hands clasped under their heads, gave themselves over to quiet
+enjoyment of the night. A big moon was stealing through the tree-tops;
+the denuded gully still lay in the lower gloom, dotted with camp-fires
+and illumined tents. But Aurora threw aside her domestic mood with her
+apron, and reappeared as the enemy of reflection and repose. Throned on
+her gin-case, where the ruddy light of the wood-fire glowed upon her, she
+chattered in her delectable brogue for an hour or more, the picture of
+animation. Then came Mary Kyley storming upon the scene.
+
+'Do I pay a girl the wages of a princess to run a temperance meeting
+among my customers?' she cried.
+
+'Go away, Mother Kyley, an' work yer own ould shebang,' replied Aurora,
+'or else bring me fiddle wid ye, an' give us a step on the turf!'
+
+'Not a step will I.'
+
+'Then I'll lave divil a man in the shanty, dthrunk or dthry!'
+
+Aurora sprang upon her box, and began to sing a rousing nonsensical song
+of the moment. The chorus was caught up, and swelled in the shadows.
+Waving her scarf as she had done in the dance-room in Melbourne on the
+night when Done first saw her, she sang again, and her clear soprano rang
+in the gullies like the call of a bird, and brought the miners from their
+tents and their arguments. When the song ended half the diggers on Jim
+Crow were gathered about Burton's camp-fire, and the loudest roar of
+applause came from Mary Kyley! Presently somebody out in the crowd
+commenced to play a flute, and slid from a few bars of' Home, Sweet
+Home!' into a rollicking jig. Half a dozen strong hands--Jim's
+first--were laid upon Mrs. Ben, and she was dragged to the front.
+
+'Dance, alauna machree!' cried Aurora.
+
+The flute piped higher, a hundred voices took up the cry, and Mary was
+conquered. Gathering a bunch of skirts in either hand, the big woman
+commenced a step. Aurora enlivened it with quaint, melodious Irish cries,
+the men roared encouragement, and presently Mary Kyley was dancing with
+heart and soul and every ounce of energy. Dancing was a passion with Mrs.
+Ben; she experienced a sort of delirium of movement once the swing of the
+melody took hold of her, and at such moments, despite her uncommon size,
+the woman became animated with a wild dignity and grace. Now, with head
+thrown back and face uplifted, her crimson petticoat flashing in the
+firelight, she danced like something wild, till she could dance no more,
+and Done took her in his arms and half carried her to the log, where he
+fanned her gallantly with his cabbage-tree, while the audience cheered
+again and again.
+
+Aurora found a partner for a reel in Tim Carrol, and the fun grew warmer,
+a liberal digger having contributed a keg of rum, which was rolled from
+Kyley's shanty into the illumined circle. But at this point a man stepped
+forward from the crowd, and stood where the light fell full upon him, a
+strongly-built digger of about five foot nine, not yet thirty years of
+age, with a powerful face, not handsome, but uncommonly attractive in its
+blend of kindliness and rugged force. Done recognised Alfred Lambert, a
+voice of the disaffected--one of the little band of men who, animated
+with that ardent love of freedom which is bred of tyranny and fed on
+oppression, were ever busy fanning the embers of discontent, and striving
+to work the diggers up to the point at which it would be impossible for
+the Government to withhold from the vast majority of the people their
+liberties and civil rights. Lambert held up his hand to impose silence.
+
+'I have a great bit of news, men,' he said. 'The day before yesterday, at
+five in the afternoon, the M'Ivor escort was stuck up on the corduroy
+road in the Black Forest, and the gang got away with all the gold.'
+
+This information was greeted with a yell of amazement, in which Jim
+thought he detected no little exultation. It was the greatest coup
+executed by the gangs since the opening of the goldfields; its magnitude
+astounded everybody.
+
+'The robbers came on the escort suddenly, shot their horses under them,
+and carried off the whole swag,' Lambert continued.
+
+'Whose gang?' 'Who 're suspected?' A score of voices shouted questions.
+
+'It is believed that the raid was headed by Solo!'
+
+'No, no; Solo goes alone!' cried a foremost miner with absolute
+conviction.
+
+'He has always worked alone before, but it is pretty certain that this
+raid was planned and carried out by Solo, and that he had behind him a
+gang of the coolest and most daring robbers in the colony He outwitted
+the troopers at every point; they had no more chance with him than so
+many sheep. The fools had their carbines strapped behind them, as usual.
+Before they could fire a shot they were at the mercy of the thieves.' The
+crowd yelled again-a yell of derision. The discomfiture of the troopers
+was a source of grim satisfaction. Lambert held up his hand once more.
+
+'This Solo is a ruffian and a robber. When we say that he stops short of
+murder we say the best we can for him; but the Government that denies to
+citizens the rights of men, and enforces laws the people have no voice in
+making through a vicious and brutal constabulary, cannot look to citizens
+to respect those laws or feel any sympathy with its officers.'
+
+'You're right, old man!' The crowd took advantage of the pause that
+followed to raise a clamour of fierce words.
+
+'I have more news for you,' said the orator. 'The cause of liberty is
+spreading, deepening, strengthening. We are on the verge of civil war.
+Latest information from Ballarat, Bendigo, and all the large centres
+shows that the hour of strenuous resistance, of resistance to the death,
+has almost come. Even now it may have struck. As I speak, the men of
+Ballarat may be shedding their blood to rescue our adopted country from
+the foul and foolish rule of that pitiful handful of nominees in
+Melbourne, the despicable instruments of a far-off power that is as
+ignorant of our needs as it is careless of our sufferings. We are
+commanded to stand ready--commanded by God, I believe with all my
+soul--and those of us who have the aspirations of men and the spirit of
+true Britons must look to our arms. The commissioners of the various
+fields have been particularly venomous in their treatment of the poorer
+diggers of late. On all the fields license-hunting has been pushed to
+such an extremity of oppression that only dingoes and Chinamen could bear
+it. We must fight! Men, no human creature detests bloodshed more than I,
+but what else can your leaders ask of you but to fight? Every channel of
+peaceful progression is closed to you. You are a great population of
+strong men, the adventurous spirits of the world, and you are held under
+the lash by a stupid minority so weak that one free movement of your
+limbs may dash them to perdition. You are asked to confine yourselves to
+peaceful and legal forms in conducting this agitation, while those who
+ask you deny you a breath of power, an iota of right, and manifest their
+goodwill by riding you down like wallabies, or rounding you up like
+scrub-cattle, and tearing from you the scandalous taxes that go to pay
+the expenses of a robber Government that represents only your enemies.'
+
+The spirit of the crowd had undergone a surprising revolution; the gaiety
+of a few minutes since had fled from every heart, and Lambert confronted
+a great crowd, the faces of which glowed whitely in the moonlight, a
+crowd that broke into vehement cheering and a babel of oaths and yells at
+every pause.
+
+The quoted words were the opening sentences of a speech that lasted
+nearly an hour, and held the diggers by their heart-strings every second
+of the time. Done felt himself strongly moved--the vehemence, the lusty
+eloquence, and the unquestionable honesty of the speaker possessed him.
+He was filled with a longing for strife; the fighting spirit strong
+within him was up in arms. Like many another in the crowd, he was ready
+to carve out a republic with a pick-handle, even though a score came to
+resist him with rifles.
+
+Lambert spoke of the simple rights of manhood, of the demands of the new
+democracy in the Old World, and the growing belief in the sacred right of
+a people to govern themselves according to their light, and finished with
+an impassioned description of a recent digger-hunt on Forest Creek, in
+the course of which a man had been killed. The crowd was slow to depart
+when the speech was ended, and broke into knots, the men feverishly
+discussing the great news of the robbery and the possibility of a riot
+extending over the whole of the rushes. Whilst sitting on the log
+thinking of what he had heard, Jim saw Aurora approach Lambert. She was
+visibly excited, and offered him an eager hand.
+
+'Did I do well?' she asked.
+
+Lambert seized her hand and pressed it warmly. 'Splendidly, my girl,' he
+said. 'A man couldn't want a better audience. Like a true Irishwoman,
+you're the twin sister of Liberty, Miss Aurora.'
+
+Done drew Aurora to his side a few minutes later. 'So,' he said lightly,
+'my Joy is a conspiratress.' 'It's the hard name, me darlin',' she
+answered, taking his hand between hers. 'I just promised Lambert to have
+the half of Jim Crow here to hear him an' I'm afther keepin' me word.'
+
+XIV
+
+THE rising Lambert had anticipated in August did not come off. For a few
+days the country trembled on the verge of civil war, but the blow did not
+fall. The trouble was averted; the anger remained in men's hearts. During
+the lovely spring weather that followed Done saw much of the Bush. He and
+Mike spent weeks prospecting about the Jim Crow district. They loitered
+away a few restful days among the ranges, and for the first time Jim saw
+a wattle-gully in full blaze, a stream of golden bloom sweeping along the
+course of a little mountain creek as far as the eye could see, each tree
+a huge bouquet, the whole mass foaming in the gentle breeze, a rich feast
+of colour, lit up by a glowing noonday sun, and bordered by the subdued
+green of the mountain gums. The delicate perfume stole up to where the
+mates lay on the side of the range in peaceful enjoyment of the scene,
+and Done, looking with half-closed eyes, day-dreaming, felt the
+inspiration that has since driven about twenty-five per cent of the
+native-born population of Australia desperately to poesy.
+
+Beyond and below them stretched the Bush, an ocean of tree-tops, as level
+as the windless sea, and over this green expanse shadows of fleecy clouds
+chased each other. Presently Jim discovered a brown space in the
+distance, and detected a thin column of smoke rising on occasions between
+the vagrant winds. He called Burton's attention, and Mike turned
+experienced eyes in that direction.
+
+'A settler's clearing,' he said. 'No; by Jove, it's Macdougal's
+homestead!'
+
+'What!' cried Done, sitting up with a jerk. 'Donald Macdougal's station?'
+
+'Yes, Monkey Mack's.' Burton rose to his feet and looked about him.
+'There isn't a doubt,' he continued. 'That's Boobyalla all right. I was
+over the country to the west once with cattle.'
+
+'And since we came to Jim Crow I have been so near.'
+
+''Bout twenty mile as the crow flies. Why, old man, you look all caved
+in.'
+
+'I'm greatly surprised. I thought Boobyalla was right away in the wilds.'
+
+A pity this isn't wild enough for you.'
+
+'Yes; but cut off completely from the people.'
+
+'The people have been distributin' themselves a good deal o' late.
+Boobyalla was far enough out o' the runnin' till the rushes broke out at
+Forest Creek an' Jim Crow. As 'tis, I'll bet my boots the Macdougal's as
+lonesome down there as a sick sheep.'
+
+'Why do you think that?'
+
+''Cause you can't keep white men on the runs these times; they prefer the
+rushes. Squatter, J.P., ain't the little god almighty he used to be when
+he held his hands as if they were niggers bought an' paid for.'
+
+Done was silent and thoughtful for a few minutes. The knowledge of his
+proximity to Lucy Woodrow awakened mixed feelings, and contrition was
+prominent. He had promised to write to her. He remembered how anxious she
+seemed to win the promise, and how deep her interest in him had been.
+Suffused with a melancholy tenderness, he told himself he had never
+forgotten her; her image had lived in his heart as in a shrine, screened
+perhaps, but only for sanctity's sake. No thought of Aurora stole in to
+disturb his unconscious hypocrisy. He had an unexpected longing to see
+Lucy again.
+
+'Fact is, Mike,' he said presently, 'there is a ship mate of mine down
+there at Macdougal's I should very much like to meet again. What do you
+say?'
+
+'I'm on. This shipmate, is she married or single?' Mike accented the
+third person feminine.
+
+'Single. She is teaching Macdougal's youngsters. I had no other friend
+aboard.' Aurora obtruded now, and he looked into his mate's face. It was
+suspiciously vacant. 'What the devil are you thinking of, Mike?' he said
+with warmth.
+
+'A friend o' mine,' answered Mike.
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'Aurora!'
+
+'The devil you are? It's an infernal impertinence, then, let me tell
+you.'
+
+'That Irish girl would tear hair like a mountain cat,' continued Mike
+serenely.
+
+'You're wrong, Mike, quite wrong,' said Jim impressively. 'This girl
+is--well, absolutely different.'
+
+Done found the trip to Boobyalla very much longer than he had expected,
+but the mates reached the homestead at about two o'clock. The place was
+almost deserted. Two or three wolfish cattle-dogs ran from the huts, and
+barked at them in a half hearted kind of way; a black boy shouted from
+the shed, and two gins came to the kitchen door, watching them. On the
+shady side of the same structure a dilapidated, miserable-looking white
+man of about fifty lay in a drunken sleep, buzzed over by a swarm of
+flies. The dwelling-house was a wandering weather-board structure with
+shingle roofs and iron chimneys; a deep veranda, partly latticed, ran
+round three sides, and ebullient creepers of many kinds swarmed over the
+house at their own wild will. The homestead faced into a big garden
+spreading into an orchard, now green and gay with the verdancy and the
+blooms of spring.
+
+'Didn't I tell you? Not a white man round but the motherless drunk
+there,' said Mike.
+
+One of the cattle-dogs had returned to the side of the sleeper, and
+employed himself snapping at the greedy flies, yapping impatiently to
+keep them from the man's face.
+
+'No boss sit down there, Mary?' said Mike, addressing the eider of the
+gins.
+
+The aborigine grinned cheerfully. 'Boss him bin gone sit down longa
+Porkpine,' she said. 'Missus ride by Longabenna. Bill dam drunk, White
+feller all gone make it hole, catch plenty gold. Gib it 'bacca!'
+
+Burton threw his half-plug of tobacco to the gin; she caught it deftly,
+the second one snatched, and the two set up a shrill yabbering, like
+excited monkeys.
+
+'Miss Woodrow?' said Jim interrogatively.
+
+'Teachy missie longa garden,' answered the gin, with illustrative
+pantomime.
+
+'Better go and hunt her out,' Mike said. 'I'll find the black boy, and
+work him for drinks if possible.'
+
+Done passed through a side-gate into the garden, found his way to the
+main walk, and looked about him.
+
+'Well?' called a voice from the veranda.
+
+He turned quickly. Within a few feet of him, in the space between the
+vines where the steps led up to the doorway, a little dark-eyed girl of
+about seven, the miniature of Mrs. Macdougal, peeped round her skirts at
+the stranger. Lucy did not recognise Jim in a moment.
+
+'Lucy!' he said.
+
+'Jim!' Her face crimsoned; she sprang down the steps, extending two
+hands.
+
+He took both in his, and looked at her. She had changed and
+strengthened--he could see that. Evidently she had lived much in the sun;
+the pallor had gone from her face, and it had warmed to a tender
+olive-brown, pure and soft, deepening to a ruddier tint on the cheeks.
+She was much stouter, too, and carried herself with more character. There
+was a swing in her movements, hinting at hearty exercises in the open.
+She was looking at him, and saw a wonderful difference. There was a
+short, thick, youthful beard upon his chin, a slight moustache upon his
+lip, both heightening the Grecian quality of his face; his tan had taken
+a deeper tone; he was the picture of health and strength, she thought.
+
+Done saw that she was greatly disturbed, and regretted having come upon
+her so suddenly. There was no questioning her delight; her colour came
+and went half a dozen times as they stood thus, hand in hand; her eyes
+were misty with tears, but she laughed through all.
+
+'Well?' he queried.
+
+'Oh, I am so glad to see you--so very glad!'
+
+'And is it to be Jim and Lucy still?'
+
+'Yes, to be sure. How changed you are! Come, come, sit down and talk.
+Talk till my senses come back to me. I am bushed!' She laughed a little
+hysterically.
+
+'I have startled you.'
+
+'No, no, it's pure gladness--it is indeed. It was good of you to come.'
+
+'You are changed, too. Have you stood to your determination to be happy?'
+
+'I am not unhappy.' She had seated herself beside him, and passed an arm
+about the shy child, of whom little more than one dark eye was visible,
+peeping at Jim from the other side, and yet that one eye recalled
+humorous impressions of Mrs. Donald Macdougal of Boobyalla. He expected
+to see it start revolving coquettishly.
+
+'You are stronger. You have grown,' he said.
+
+'Yes, I ride a lot with the children. It is good for me. I love it. This
+life agrees with me well. But it is not only a change in you, it is a
+transformation. Why, you can laugh!'
+
+'Come, come! I could always laugh.'
+
+She shook her head. 'Not convincingly. You love the new land? You have
+prospered?'
+
+'Yes,' he answered, 'I have had a wonderful spell of life.'
+
+'And the people--you find you can like them?'
+
+The question gave him rather a shock; he had to think a moment to recall
+her optimistic advice and his old frame of mind.
+
+'Like is too feeble a word,' he said presently. 'The thought of them
+warms my heart.'
+
+'Ah, that is good!' She clasped his hand impulsively. 'That is best of
+all. I was afraid you might cling to your mistrust, and shut the kindly
+people out of your life.'
+
+'Before it was the people shut me out.'
+
+'Are you sure?'
+
+He had never doubted, now the question set him wondering for a minute. He
+looked at her again. Certainly she had developed observation, acuteness.
+Or had he? Once more he wondered. He watched her with new interest. She
+was not so pretty as she had seemed on the Francis Cadman; the
+ethereality was gone, but Done liked her the better for it. He felt his
+whole physical being to be in sympathy with vital things, and, after all,
+how often the poets, in their rhapsodies on spirituelle and unearthly
+women, were merely rapturously apostrophizing the evidences of
+dissolution! He met her now without a doubt in his heart, with a soul
+free to respond to his natural emotions, and she filled him with delight.
+Unconsciously he was wooing her--not with words, but with accents more
+eloquent, and the girl felt it instinctively, with a sense of triumph.
+
+'I can't take my eyes off you,' he said. 'In what are you so different?'
+
+She smiled pleasantly. 'I am dreadfully sunburnt; I am no longer thin; I
+do not brood.'
+
+'No, no; it is a difference of spirit. Where is that constraint we felt?'
+
+'The constraint was wholly with you.' She blushed again.
+
+The kissing episode had been recalled to both. He laughed gaily, feeling
+very comfortable, quite forgetful of his mate.
+
+'Yes, I was certainly a humourless, gloomy young fool he said.
+
+'Only an unhappy boy,' she murmured, 'and my wonderful hero.' She, too,
+spoke as if it were a matter of long years ago, when she was a silly slip
+of a girl.
+
+'And is there no hero now?'
+
+'I have found no other.'
+
+'Ah, that is something! Do you still pray for the old one, Lucy?'
+
+'But you have no faith in prayers.'
+
+'I may have in the prayer.'
+
+'Well, then, I do. You see, you can never be wholly undeserving in my
+eyes.' With Lucy, as with many girls in whom gratitude is the precursor
+of love, most of the sentiments due to the kindling affection were
+credited to gratitude.
+
+'You have not blamed me for neglecting to write.'
+
+'No; I have had no anxiety for some time. I knew where you were and how
+you were.'
+
+'You knew!'
+
+'I knew that you had made friends, that you were on pay dirt at Diamond
+Gully, and that the good Australian sunshine had warmed your heart.' She
+smiled mysteriously.
+
+'Ah, I know,' he said after a moment's thought--'Ryder.'
+
+'Yes, Mr. Walter Ryder. He wrote me that he had come across you at
+Diamond Gully. He seemed quite interested in you.'
+
+'And I am interested by him. He is a peculiar personality.'
+
+'Yes, so flippant; and behind it all you seem to feel something
+iron-like, strong and impenetrable.'
+
+Flippant! Ryder had appealed to Jim as anything but a flippant character.
+
+'He is a man of good family. He came to Australia seeking change and
+adventure. He is rich--very. He did Mr. Macdougal some service, and we
+saw a good deal of him in Melbourne. Mrs. Macdougal thinks he is an earl
+at least, and has woven quite a romance about him. She will be glad to
+see you.'
+
+Done's mind had flown to Burton's estimate of Ryder, and Lucy's evident
+admiration of, him gave him a little uneasiness.
+
+'Is Mrs. Macdougal of Boobyalla quite well?' he asked.
+
+'Quite. But you must not laugh at her. One gets to like her.'
+
+'If one is quite determined.'
+
+'Whether or no,' persisted Lucy. 'One would care for nobody if one were
+resolved to see only the bad points.'
+
+'That serves me right. The little girl is very like her.'
+
+'Eva is my boon companion, my confidante, my guide, philosopher, and
+friend--aren't you, dear?'
+
+'My oath!' said the child in a grave, sweet voice. Jim started at the
+incongruous expression, and looked inquiringly at Lucy.
+
+'Your teaching?'
+
+'How dare you? No; that is the teaching of rouseabouts and gins. I am
+trying to unteach it. Poor kiddies! I found them queer, wild, little Bush
+animals, with no childish companions, so I became a child myself, and we
+are the best mates in the world. The other is a boy, a monkey and a rip,
+but we are civilizing together. Do you know the funniest things in the
+world? Children like these and half-grown dogs. I discovered that at
+Boobyalla.'
+
+'The world is a pretty good sort of place, after all eh?'
+
+'Yes.' She did not wonder at its seeming so very delightful to her just
+then. 'But you do not tell me. Talk, talk! I want your Australian
+history.'
+
+He talked, describing his life, pleased with his own fluency, and not a
+little surprised at it. In half an hour she knew his story since the day
+he left the Francis Cadman, with certain judicious reservations and
+emendations. Aurora's name did not appear once in the narrative. This
+suppression was quite instinctive? Lucy told something of her existence
+on the station, and they chatted cheerfully of the people on shipboard
+and the incidents of the voyage, avoiding only the most sensational
+incident of all--the rescue from the sea.
+
+'Dear me I' cried Lucy; 'I am playing the hostess badly. I have offered
+you nothing, and you must have had a long tramp.'
+
+'And I've forgotten poor Burton.'
+
+'Go, bring him while I get tea. I must know your mate. Of course you
+drink tea? Here everybody drinks tea at all hours.'
+
+Jim found Mike admiring a wonderful big bay horse, the astounding virtues
+of which stimulated the black boy to an incoherent flow of yabber.
+
+'Don't mind me,' said Burton. 'I've had a drink an' a sleep, and I've
+seen the loveliest animal that was ever lapped in horse-hide. Look at
+him!'
+
+'We were chatting away in there, and I forgot you, old man. But come
+along; we are to have tea and grub on the veranda.'
+
+'Not me!' Mike looked wildly for a way of escape.
+
+'Here, here! but you must, Mike--I promised.'
+
+'There's a dirty trick to serve 'a man!' Burton was genuinely alarmed.
+'Yarding him up with a mob of old women! I'm hanged if I do it!'
+
+'There's no mob. There's only one, and she's young and pleasant. Come
+along, I'll stand by you.'
+
+'Gi' me your solemn oath you'll break away as soon as possible.'
+
+'I do, I do.'
+
+Mike was led on to the veranda and introduced to Lucy, who gave him a
+pleasant welcome. He placed his hat by his chair, drank his tea quietly,
+said very little and ate less, flipped his fingers once or twice at the
+little girl in a friendly way, looked quite imperturbable, and all the
+time was painfully ill at ease, and raging inwardly at Jim's delay. When
+Lucy left them in quest of fruit, he turned furiously on his mate.
+
+'What's that she says about staying?'
+
+'She wants us to take a shakedown in one of the huts for to-night. Mrs.
+Macdougal will be home before dark. She wishes to see me.'
+
+'By the big blue Bunyip, if you stay I'll bush you in the next scrubby
+gully, an' leave you to do a three days' perish!' Mike's tribulation was
+pitiful, but Jim laughed derisively.
+
+Done did not accept Lucy's invitation, however. To tell the truth,
+although it would have been a great pleasure to remain near the girl, he
+had no desire to meet Mrs. Macdougal. He made suitable excuses. Mike said
+it would require smart travelling to bring them to the camp where their
+tools and swags were left, and, having shaken hands with Lucy, sauntered
+away.
+
+'You will come again?' said the girl to Jim.
+
+'Yes, if I have the chance; but Burton is the Bush man. I could never
+find you without his help.'
+
+'In any case you will write?'
+
+'I am bound to.'
+
+They parted with a handshake, but fingers unclasped reluctantly and with
+a clinging appeal.
+
+Done and Burton, on returning to Jim Crow, found that Harry Peetree,
+quietly prospecting in the vicinity of the rush, had opened up a new
+gully. The 'find' was kept dark pending Mike's return, and when the
+Peetrees had secured their ground, the mates were given the pick of the
+lead. The discovery leaked out as soon as the friends started operations,
+and a little rush from the original field followed. Jim was now a mile
+and a half from Mrs. Kyley's shanty, and derived some satisfaction from
+that fact. His feelings towards Aurora had undergone another change.
+Lucy's image loomed to the almost total eclipse of that of her rival, and
+yet he could not spend ten minutes in the company of the girl at the
+shanty without being won by her buoyant spirits and the kindliness of her
+soul. He had some dread of growing to hate Aurora now that Lucy had
+reestablished herself--a dread founded more on some familiarity with
+popular fiction than on a knowledge of his own heart.
+
+Christmas came, and there was a rough attempt to celebrate it on Jim
+Crow, an attempt by which Mrs. Ben Kyley profited largely, as she and
+Aurora were kept working at high pressure for two days, making Christmas
+puddings, for which the diggers cheerfully paid half a guinea apiece.
+Rich plum-pudding, hearty eating, and heavy drinking, the proper
+concomitants to an English Christmas as the miners understood it, were
+not compatible with merriment during an Australian Christmas-tune, with
+the glass at one hundred degrees in the shade; but trifling
+considerations of that kind were not allowed to interfere with the
+uproarious festivities at Jim Crow. January passed quietly. The dirt at
+One Tree Gully proved highly remunerative, and the mates worked hard.
+Done had discovered an object beyond the rapturous enjoyment of the
+moment, and showed himself more anxious to win gold. He was living a
+comparatively quiet life, and the locket containing Lucy Woodrow's
+picture was restored to its rightful place next his heart. There was a
+time when the thought of such an act of flagrant and foolish
+sentimentality would have made him groan aloud.
+
+One night in the following March, returning to their tent from the
+shanty, where he had left Burton deep in a game of euchre, Jim was
+startled to see a stream of light flash momentarily across the canvas
+wall. His first thought was of thieves, and, drawing his revolver, he
+stole noiselessly to the entrance and peeped in. He saw the figure of a
+man seated at the head of Mike's bed. On the small table between the two
+bunks at the end of the tent was a lighted candle, which the man was
+screening with his hat. Before the intruder the small tin-box in which
+Done's few heirlooms and papers were stored lay open, and the man was
+absorbed in its contents.
+
+'If you stir a hand I'll fire!' said Jim, presenting his revolver.
+
+Instinctively the other smothered the light, but after that he sat quite
+still.
+
+'I can see you distinctly,' said Jim, 'and I'm a fair shot!'
+
+There was silence for a moment, the thief making no attempt to escape.
+
+'I am going to light the candle,' said a voice.
+
+'Light it, then; but no tricks! I'll shoot to kill!'
+
+XV
+
+A MATCH was struck, and in its glow Done recognised his visitor. It was
+Ryder. The latter lit the candle, and then turned towards Jim. He was
+quite composed, apparently. Not so Done; the revelation amazed him. The
+hand containing the revolver sank to his side. He stood for some moments
+awaiting an explanation. None was offered.
+
+'Is Mr. Walter Ryder a tent thief?' he asked bitterly.
+
+Ryder shook his head. 'No,' he said.
+
+'It looks strangely like it.'
+
+'It does.'
+
+'And I purpose raising the camp, and submitting the matter to the men.'
+
+'You won't do that.'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'Because I can satisfy you that I have a very excellent excuse for being
+here and for prying into your affairs.'
+
+'I'll wait two minutes for that.'
+
+'It won't take one, Jim. I am your brother, Richard Done!'
+
+The revolver dropped from Jim's hand. He did not speak; every particle of
+him thrilled with intense emotion. For half a minute he stood rooted,
+speechless, and then he strode forward and seated himself on the bunk,
+staring closely into Ryder's face by the dim light of the candle.
+
+'You will want proof?' said Ryder.
+
+Jim shook his head. Ryder's declaration, abrupt and dramatic as it was,
+had struck him with absolute conviction. He was amazed, but he did not
+doubt. He understood now the origin of the deep impression this man had
+made upon him.
+
+'That is proof enough,' he said, laying a trembling hand upon the
+miniature of his mother upon the table.
+
+'Almost,' answered Ryder, 'but not enough. We are both very like poor
+mother.'
+
+'We are very like each other.' Jim's faculties were stunned for the time;
+there was a dreamlike unreality in their positions.
+
+Ryder nodded. 'We are.'
+
+'It must have been that and your resemblance to my mother impressed me. I
+was impressed without consciousness of the reason.'
+
+'Miss Woodrow noticed the resemblance, and when I heard your name and
+your age I thought it very likely that you were my brother. When I saw
+you that night in the shanty I was almost convinced. These satisfied me.'
+He indicated the scattered articles upon the table.
+
+Jim made no demonstration; he sat with his eyes fixed upon the miniature,
+still dazed by the blow. There was something in his had--something he
+wished to know, but his ideas were all out of control. The thought
+centred with a shock.
+
+'Good God, no!' he cried, clutching Ryder with a nerveless hand. 'They
+hanged my brother!'
+
+Ryder's face was perfectly bloodless; it looked cold. He shook his head
+slowly.
+
+'I was condemned to be hanged. They altered it to transportation for
+life.'
+
+'But they all believed--'
+
+'Mother must have known. It would have made little difference. The horror
+of it was a little greater than the horror of hanging. It probably gave
+her no comfort.'
+
+'She died of it all.' Jim spoke without volition. 'Yes,' responded Ryder
+dully. 'She was the kind of woman who would. I was transported, and for
+all those years I lived in hell.'
+
+'For murder!' said Jim sharply.
+
+Ryder shook his head again. His voice was quite even. 'I did no murder.
+There was no murder done.'
+
+'The body--what of the body?'
+
+'There was none. The man for whose murder I was condemned still lives.
+Stony is the man!'
+
+'Stony!' Jim peered into the other's face again. 'Stony!' he cried. 'It's
+not possible. You are lying. It's utterly incredible. Stony! Then this
+explains?' He did not doubt even while the words of unbelief were on his
+lips.
+
+'This explains. My coming upon you that night in the Black Forest was not
+so extraordinary as it seemed. I was following you both. I had been to
+Melbourne on Stony's track, having caught a glimpse of him one night at
+Ballarat. I ascertained that he had started for Forest Creek. Meanwhile
+Mrs. Macdougal and Miss Woodrow had told me of you. It was reasonable to
+assume that you also had started for the field everybody was talking of.
+At our first meeting I did not see you: I was too deeply interested in
+Mr. Stony.'
+
+'Stony was not the name.'
+
+'Stony is an assumed name. Cannon is his real name--Peter Cannon.'
+
+'That is the name. But I cannot understand. My head fails me. I am
+utterly bewildered!'
+
+'You'll hear Stony's story? He is in his tent.'
+
+'Not now. You have overwhelmed: me. For God's sake, give me time to
+straighten things out!'
+
+Jim sat in silence for some minutes, but the excitement lingered. He
+drifted into questions, and plied the other like a cross-examining lawyer
+eager to trap a witness; but Ryder knew every detail of the family
+history. He told Jim of a birthmark on his own body. He described the
+furnishing of the home in Chisley much as it remained within Jim's
+memory.
+
+'You have not mentioned our sister,' he said.
+
+'She killed herself.' Jim spoke with blunt brutality. He had no energy
+for equivocation.
+
+Ryder accepted this piece of news in the spirit of a man steeled to the
+keenest strokes of Fate.
+
+'She was a beautiful girl,' he said. 'I remember I loved her dearly.'
+
+'You speak as if it were fifty years ago.'
+
+'I have been in hell since, I tell you.'
+
+Jim looked closely into his brother's face again, but it baffled him; it
+betrayed no more feeling than a stone.
+
+'Why have you divulged this now?' he asked.
+
+'You forced it from me. I did not expect you to return. I saw you playing
+cards at the shanty. But it is as well. I should have told you later.'
+
+'There is something behind?'
+
+'Much; but till you have heard Stony tell his part I shall say no more.
+And for the present let this be our secret.'
+
+'Burton may come in at any moment.'
+
+'Good-night, then.'
+
+'No; I'll go with you. I cannot face Mike in this condition. He would
+think me mad.'
+
+'To Stony's tent?'
+
+'If you like. In Heaven's name, man, why are you so cold? Why am I like a
+stunned brute? We are brothers. We may shake hands.'
+
+Ryder made no advance. 'Better hear the story out,' he said.
+
+It was a two-mile walk from where Jim and Mike were now camped to Stony's
+tent, and the hour was midnight. The two men walked in silence, Jim with
+his head bowed, racked with nervous excitement, his mind running from
+point to point, grasping nothing wholly, seeing nothing clearly, the
+other erect and calm. When the tent was reached Ryder entered
+unceremoniously, and, striking a match, looked about him for a candle.
+There was a slush-lamp on a box by the bunk, and this he lit. Jim saw
+Stony start up in bed, and stare at the intruder with a look of mortal
+terror.
+
+'I have brought you a visitor,' said Ryder.
+
+The apprehension faded from the hatter's face when he Jim.
+
+'A nice hour!' he grumbled.
+
+'I have not studied your convenience,' answered Ryder. 'Here is the man
+to whom you are to tell the story of Richard Done and Peter Cannon. Tell
+it briefly, as you told it to me.'
+
+Ryder seated himself on a block near the tent entrance, his back half
+turned to the others, and neither spoke nor moved throughout the
+narration. Stony looked from one to the other, and then commenced his
+story. He told it in a monotonous voice, with a dull face and eyes heavy
+with drink.
+
+'We were always enemies, Dick Done and I--enemies as boys at school at
+Chisley, fighting over everything, picking at each other from morn till
+night. As young chaps we remained enemies. It seemed as if God or the
+devil had sent us to plague each other. Our enmity grew with us. In
+manhood we were as bitter as death. Then the woman came. We both wanted
+her. It was just natural of us to get set on the same girl. She liked
+him--she didn't care a snap of her fingers for me; but I didn't give up.
+I followed her, plagued her, persecuted her, and hated Done worse than
+poison. With all my soul I hated him! Of course, we quarrelled over her,
+and Done went so far as to talk of killing. He didn't mean it, perhaps,
+but it told against him later. One bright night I came on him and her
+sitting on Harry's Crag. 'Twasn't an accident. I'd been told they'd gone
+down to the sea, and I followed. I interfered, furious at heart, but
+making a show of civility, knowing that would madden him. He was soon up
+in arms. He tried to drive me off, struck me. I used my stick, and we
+fought there and then--fought like madmen on the cliff edge, two hundred
+feet above the sea. The girl, frightened almost to death, ran away. Done
+got my stick from me, and we fought with our hands. He could beat me at
+that game, and at length struck me a blow that stunned me; then he left
+me lying there, and went after the girl.'
+
+Stony paused for a moment, and, drawing a bottle from the back of his
+bunk, took a long drink. Then his eyes wandered to Ryder again, and he
+went on:
+
+'When I came to I was alone. I crept a little further from the edge of
+the cliff, and lay down again. I was pretty badly knocked about; my nose
+was bleeding freely. Presently, moving my hand, I struck a knife--his
+knife! It was closed. I opened it, looking at the long blade. The idea
+had already formed in my mind. I smeared the blade with blood, and
+dropped the knife, open as it was, over the cliff, being careful that it
+should fall on the ledge about twenty feet below. Then I smeared blood
+upon the brink, tore a scrap from my coat, and left it there, throwing
+the coat with the hat into the sea. I was never seen in Chisley again. I
+walked all that night. In London I read of the arrest of Done on a charge
+of murder. They had found my hat and my coat and the knife. The girl had
+told her story. Done was condemned to death; and then I stowed away in an
+Australian boat, and was allowed to work my passage out I thought Richard
+Done had been hanged till I saw him that night at the camp in the Bush.
+The man sitting there is Richard Done.'
+
+Stony fell back upon his grimy pillow again, and was silent; his eyes
+were fixed upon Ryder, but at that moment he had more to fear from Jim,
+who looked down upon him, fierce with disgust, his fingers itching to be
+at the thin neck of the brute.
+
+'Let us get out of this!' he gasped.
+
+'Have you no questions to ask?' said Ryder quietly.
+
+'None, none! And when I think of what this dog has brought upon me and
+mine I feel murderous.'
+
+Ryder left the tent without another word, and Jim followed him. As they
+walked away, Done was stirred with deep sympathy for his companion.
+Ryder's reiteration of the words, 'I have been in hell!' recurred to him.
+He felt that there were years of suffering and a fathomless hatred behind
+the phrase, and his blood ran hotly.
+
+'I wonder you have not killed that man!' he blurted after a few minutes'
+silence. 'I regret ever having raised a hand to prevent it.'
+
+'I needed him,' answered Ryder.
+
+'You intend to establish your innocence?'
+
+For the first time that night a smile moved Ryder's stark lips--a hard,
+mirthless smile.
+
+'No,' he said; 'where's the use?'
+
+'How is it you are free?' asked Jim with surprise. This view had not
+occurred to him before.
+
+They were standing between the stunted and twisted gums. The Bush here
+was spare and dwarfed, and the moonlight shone clearly upon Ryder's face.
+
+'I am an escaped convict!' he replied
+
+A bitter curse leapt from Done's tongue. He felt himself bound to this
+man by a common wrong, a wrong that had clouded with misery the greater
+part of their two lives.
+
+'You may be retaken,' he said.
+
+'I may, but I do not think it likely.'
+
+At that moment recollection flashed upon Jim. He recalled the adventure
+with Long Aleck in the Bourke Street bar, and the robbery of Brigalow,
+the gold-buyer, at Diamond Gully. His hand was upon Ryder again: he gazed
+at him with a new apprehension.
+
+'Sit,' he said. Ryder seated himself on a stump by the side of the young
+man, and Jim continued:
+
+'You say Miss Woodrow noticed a strong resemblance between us. Others
+have remarked it.'
+
+'I am not surprised. There is no difference in our faces but that which
+years have made.'
+
+'It was in Melbourne on the night of my arrival. I was attacked in a bar
+by a man who mistook me for Solo.'
+
+The brothers looked into each other's eyes for some little time, Jim
+anxiously, Ryder with no appearance of concern in his strong, handsome
+face.
+
+'I am the man they call Solo.'
+
+'Solo the robber!' Instinctively Jim had moved back from the other, but
+Ryder took no notice of the action.
+
+'My boy,' he said, 'there are two kinds of men--the active criminal and
+the passive. I am fairly active.'
+
+'But the blind folly of it--here, where fortunes are made so easily!'
+
+'Are they? You have had a bit of luck. There are thousands on the rushes
+who do not make tucker. In any case I could not afford to place myself
+directly under the supervision of the troopers. Not that I had any weak
+desire to earn an honest living, by the way.'
+
+'What are you hoping for? Where is it all leading?' Jim felt an emotion
+of despair.
+
+'Perhaps you would rather hear no more to-night.'
+
+'I must hear all. For God's sake, speak!'
+
+'I have been in hell. For fifteen years I remained in the convict
+prisons. It might have been fifteen centuries, an eternity. Everything
+beyond is so distant that my youth seems a mere dot in the perspective.'
+
+Ryder was talking in a clear, even, unemotional voice.
+
+'I cannot hope to give you anything approaching a true idea of the horror
+of that life. I know I can only faintly comprehend it myself now. Taken
+from happiness, a comparative boy, I was plunged into a state of absolute
+torment, an existence of brutalizing labour, ceaseless cruelty, and
+blackest infamy. I herded with men who had degenerated from criminals
+into brutes under the influence of the infamous system. Those fifteen
+years served to burn out of me most of the fine emotions and sentiments
+on which civilized men pride themselves, and then, during the blackest
+year of all, a wild craving to preserve something of humanity arose
+within me. That was my salvation. I had always before me the hope of
+escape. I fought now cease to retain some qualities of clean manhood,
+that I might appear amongst fellow as a man, and not like one of the
+lowering monsters by whom I was surrounded--men upon whose every feature
+and limb were stamped the repulsive brands of the lag. During that first
+period I maintained an attitude of fierce revolt, then, recognising my
+helplessness, I brought cunning into play, and practised dissimulation
+night and day. This saved me in some measure, but the ghastly life
+continued year after year, and I was thirty-eight before a reasonable
+chance of escape presented itself. My plans had been perfected, and when
+the opportunity came I seized it, with the resolution of a man for whom
+there was only one alternative to liberty--death.'
+
+Jim never took his eyes from Ryder's; he sat as if fascinated by the
+ivory-pale face of his companion.
+
+'I had one friend in Hobart Town, a freed convict named Wainewright. He
+provided me with the clothes of a gentleman. The beard I wore, and which
+has since served me as a disguise in my many enterprises, was given to me
+in the first place by Wainewright. To perfect that beard and destroy
+every semblance of artificiality, I had worked at it for three years in
+the cunning, patient way old prisoners toil at such a task. Wainewright
+helped me to get to the mainland, and I was safe, with a forged
+ticket-of-leave in my pocket in case the marks of the chains should be
+discovered by prying official eyes.'
+
+'Did you make any effort to live honestly?' asked Jim.
+
+'Almost my first action on reaching the neighbour hood of Melbourne was
+to bail-up a prominent resident, whom I robbed. That act afforded me
+absolute joy. He was a decent, orderly citizen, a pillar of the State, a
+powerful upholder of the law. No robbery I have since committed has given
+me quite the same delight. I stole then because I needed money. I rob now
+because I am a keen sportsman, and that is the particular sport I affect.
+Possibly you would not appreciate the pleasure of the game; you have not
+had the humbug of the world eaten out of your heart with live flame.
+Having wilfully exposed itself to me, and translated my respect for it
+into a magnificent hatred, society cannot reasonably expect to find me
+docile. I prey upon society.'
+
+'It will avenge itself.'
+
+'True, it may. Robbery under arms is a hanging matter, but I have
+graduated in a marvellous school for cunning, and have perfect
+confidence.'
+
+'Yet you place yourself in my hands. What can the ties of blood count for
+between us two? For as long as I can remember I've thought of you only as
+something evil hovering over the door, silencing the home, darkening
+life.'
+
+'I counted on finding in you a mind not wholly at variance with my own.
+What those two women told me gave me some insight into your character. I
+perceived that at least the flame had scorched the bloom from your soul.'
+
+'Here I am a new man. I have known happiness, I have tasted love, and
+made friends with good men. Here I can live!'
+
+Ryder looked at him closely. 'You must tell me of your life,' he said--'
+the life in Chisley after my supposed hanging. No, no; not now. Go to
+your tent and sleep.'
+
+'Sleep! I shall not sleep.'
+
+'Think over what I have told you.'
+
+'There is more behind?' 'There may be.'
+
+'You think I will join you?'
+
+'In my present career? No. For the time being, let us say no more. I need
+not ask you to be silent. Meet me here to-morrow night at nine. While you
+are thinking, bear always in mind the fact that Peter Cannon is there
+'--he pointed in the direction of Stony's tent--' a living man.
+Good-night.'
+
+The reminder was well timed; pity stirred warmly in Jim's heart again,
+and he offered his hand.
+
+'So long,' he said, dropping into the vernacular of mateship.
+
+Ryder took his hand with no demonstration of emotion. 'So long,' he
+replied.
+
+XVI
+
+BURTON found his mate gloomy and taciturn all next day, a condition so
+remarkable in Done that it gave Mike some little concern, but he made no
+comment; and Jim was too absorbed in the strange, new development in his
+life to discover his friend's uneasiness. Ryder's story brought Jim's
+youthful sufferings back to him with painful vividness; it awakened some
+animosities he had thought dead, and he recognised, though shrinking from
+the idea with actual terror, in Ryder's attitude towards his kind the
+frame of mind into which he was drifting when he broke away from Chisley
+and its associations. Remembering well his own heart up to the time when
+human interests and sympathies began to awaken kindred emotions within
+him, he understood that the resemblance between himself and his brother
+was as close on the moral side as it was on the physical, but with Ryder
+the demoralizing influences had worked their utmost. How like their
+sufferings had been! differing only in degree; but his own sufferings
+looked pale and fanciful now beside those of his brother. His afflictions
+were of the spirit only. He and Ryder were of a supersensitive race and
+every soul-pang he endured had been augmented a thousand times in his
+brother's case, and driven in by the prison cell, the leg-irons, the
+loathsome associations, the animalizing toil in the quarries--the lash!
+Jim had heard enough of the infamy of the system to understand, if not
+the worst, sufficient to make his skin creep at the thought of it. He
+realized to what state of heart and mind Ryder had been driven, knowing
+how he himself had developed under the stress of comparatively trivial
+wrongs, and the whole man ached with sympathy. It required a strong
+effort to restrain his inclination to tears, a weakness of the flesh he
+had surprised in himself before now.
+
+And Ryder had suffered all this, knowing himself to be guiltless of the
+crime of which he was convicted. Stony was there in his tent. If Jim had
+known where to find his brother he would have gone to him in the morning,
+prompted by the generous affection that had sprung in his heart, feeling
+that Ryder might be won over by new friendships and new interests. It
+seemed to him that the wholesome effects worked in his case might be
+repeated in that of his brother, forgetting their disparity in years. The
+change had come to him while he was yet little more than a boy; Ryder was
+a man in middle life, and no longer capable of youth's saving
+enthusiasms.
+
+Jim was early for the appointment, but Ryder was already at the
+rendezvous, seated on the log, smoking, and apparently deriving placid
+enjoyment from his cigar. The young man's greeting was warm, but the
+elder showed no emotion. If any liking for Jim existed in him it was
+carefully hidden away. Throughout their previous meeting he had borne
+himself with seriousness, as if something of importance to him were at
+stake; to-night he was in a wholly different humour, more like the man
+who had encountered Jim in Mary Kyley's bar.
+
+'Are we to consider the relationship established?' he said.
+
+'I am quite convinced,' answered Jim. 'I have not doubted it from the
+moment you declared yourself.'
+
+'You are much too confiding, my boy. As an impostor I might have gathered
+all these details from the real Richard Done.'
+
+'With what object?'
+
+'Well, I have an object, an ulterior motive. I want you to share a large
+fortune with me.'
+
+Jim laughed. 'You may pick up a large family of brothers on those terms,'
+he said.
+
+'You will do. Is it a bargain?'
+
+'What is this fortune? Where is it? How was it come by?'
+
+'The fortune is mainly in virgin gold; it is in an untried alluvial
+field.'
+
+'If the field is untried, how do you know the gold is in it?'
+
+'I put it there.'
+
+Jim looked at Ryder sharply. 'You have not answered one of my questions,'
+he said. 'How was the gold come by?'
+
+'There's no objection on that score,' Ryder answered lightly. 'It was
+come by dishonestly, every grain of it.'
+
+'To me that is a serious objection. I am an honest man, my instincts are
+all for fair dealing, and I believe, as a simple everyday working
+principle, honesty is the best policy.'
+
+'Honesty is not a policy, my boy: it is a misfortune.'
+
+'Why do you wish to share your loot with me?'
+
+'Seventy or eighty thousand ounces of gold is not easily accounted for
+nor easily disposed of by a guest of the Queen who is on leave without a
+ticket that will bear the closest investigation. You could dispose of it
+safely enough.'
+
+'And if I were asked to account for it?'
+
+'That is provided for. I have discovered a field within a day's journey
+that nobody else knows of--that nobody else is likely to know of. You and
+I go there, we work it for a few months, and the gold I have mentioned is
+to be represented as the result of our labours if it becomes necessary to
+make explanations. A few thousand ounces in nuggets which might 'by some
+unhappy chance be recognised by previous owners we shall batter into
+slugs and reserve for sale in other lands.'
+
+And then?'
+
+'Then all that life in London and Paris means to men with great
+fortunes.' Ryder was smiling as he spoke. 'Then to seize and enjoy all
+that smug respectability is willing to give to the wealthy, and much that
+it is unwilling to give, but which it shall be our pleasure to take. Then
+to exact our revenge for all we have endured at the hands of society by
+making it in some measure the slave to minister to our needs and our
+desires. I positively tremble, my brother, when I think of the little
+mischief one man can work; but with money and ingenuity, combined with
+devotion to purpose, we may succeed in accomplishing quite a decent
+vengeance.'
+
+'I have no desire for revenge upon society.'
+
+'To be sure, you have not sat through the long black night in, a cold
+cell with the rats, a wet rag thrown over your lacerated back, the chains
+eating into your flesh like the nibbling of tiny teeth, thinking of the
+good people who rule England, sitting at their blazing fires or smiling
+round the laden tables.'
+
+'No, thank God!'
+
+'If you had you might appreciate the subtle delight of sinning against
+your enemies. I am going back to England to devote what arts I know, what
+cunning I have, and what attractions I can assume, to the gratification
+of the only passion left me. When I think of the fair daughters and the
+fair sons of the comfortable middle class, Jim, I have exquisite hopes.'
+Ryder rolled the cigar between his fingers, and smiled at his brother in
+a gentle, kindly way. 'If I can bring an honoured son of reputable
+parents to taste the joys of the hulks and feel the caresses of the
+leaded cat, I shall, I feel, be almost reconciled to my past. They talk
+of stopping transportation and abolishing the system. I never cease to
+pray that the system may be spared to us. If it is done away with before
+I have gratified the magnificent malice I have stored up in this breast,
+morsel by morsel, hoarding it with the greed of a miser, I am afraid I
+shall lose my faith in a just Providence.'
+
+'This is simply hideous exclaimed Jim. 'But you are joking. You speak
+without bitterness.
+
+'I speak without bitterness because I would not waste any jot of it. When
+my moments come (and I have had a few) I desire to experience the perfect
+emotion. Revenge is only sweet when it opens the flood-gates of a pent-up
+hatred.'
+
+'Richard!' cried the young man, 'for God's sake put this black evil out
+of your heart! Here is a clean world--come into it, take part in it with
+the good men. Your soul is poisoned--purge it. Open your eyes to the
+sun. I'll help you!'
+
+Ryder placed his cigar on the log beside him, and turning back the left
+wrist of the silk undershirt he wore, struck a match, and showed Jim a
+broad red wheal encircling the arm like the scar of a deep burn.
+
+'Would you like to see my ankle?' he said. 'Or my back? It's a pretty
+sight. I am a hunted man. But if I were not, I would not consent to
+sacrifice my exquisite desires merely because the sun shines and girls
+are merry.'
+
+'But I have been happy. I'll have none of this ugly gospel of hatred and
+revenge.'
+
+'Happy! Because you are free for a moment; because you are not treated
+quite as a pariah because that black-eyed houri down at the shanty smiles
+at you? You'll sicken of this presently. I tell you you must come back to
+your healthy hatred. The spirit of revolt is in your blood; the contempt
+is with you. I shall win you over.'
+
+Never! Never!'
+
+'Happy! Son of a mother tortured to death by a Christian people; brother
+of the girl driven to suicide by hate; brother of the man whom society
+set in hell.' Ryder's voice was low and musical, and his words were more
+dreadful than curses. 'You have not told me all,' he continued. 'Sit
+down, man--tell me of your life at home there.'
+
+Jim demurred, but Ryder led him on to the narrative, and eventually he
+described his past, and as he talked of the old troubles and
+tribulations, his former prejudices awoke, and something of the early
+hatred and disdain. Ryder, quick to detect the effect of the revival of
+his boyish grievances, kept the young man's thoughts on the more painful
+features of the story, and worked upon his feelings guilefully probing
+his soul, finding his weaknesses with an unerring touch, prompted, no
+doubt, by his knowledge of Richard Done, the man he had been, whose
+youthful character he found faithfully reflected here.
+
+'You'll come with me?' said Ryder.
+
+'No, I couldn't do it,' answered Jim. 'Your idea of vengeance strikes me
+only as the dream of a madman.'
+
+'But you'll think it over?'
+
+'You don't suppose a man can get this sort of thing out of his mind in a
+day.'
+
+'Remember, I bind you to nothing, and there is a big fortune at stake.'
+
+Got by crime.'
+
+'By open, honest daylight robbery.'
+
+Jim looked at his brother with a feeling of despair; he recognised the
+utter hopelessness of argument based on accepted ideas of right and
+wrong. In disputing he felt like a child blowing bubbles against a stone
+wall. Ryder's attitude implied that he had tested everything in the fire
+of a terrible experience.
+
+'Man, man!' cried Done, 'how can you hope to beat the world?'
+
+'For four years I have beaten it. And I am appreciated. The Government of
+Victoria has just raised the price of my head to one thousand pounds.'
+
+'Why not leave the country at once?'
+
+'As soon as you are ready.'
+
+'Impossible. I will not go.'
+
+'I remain until you change your mind, unless, in the meantime, some safe
+and convenient means of transporting my hard-earned gold presents itself.
+I have an alternative scheme, but it means greater risks, and, besides, I
+find I am still capable of the preposterous folly of liking. I like you.'
+
+'Then give up this brutal scheme, join with me, make an effort to work
+the poison out of your blood, to revive a clean, honest interest in
+existence, and I'll stand by you through thick and thin, against the law
+and all your enemies, while I've a heart-beat left in me. It's worth the
+effort, Dick; the world is fair, men are decent, and women are sweet.'
+
+Ryder sat nursing a foot, smiling a smile of kindly interest. 'My boy,'
+he said, 'you have the ardent sentimentality of a good mother's
+pink-cheeked cub of nineteen. Has it occurred to you that I have run a
+very great risk in being seen for five minutes in your company? Your name
+is Done, and you made the name rather familiar along Forest Creek; we are
+alike, as you have noted, and although Richard Done, the escaped convict,
+is not much thought of at this date, it is certain that hearing your name
+awakened recollection amongst the old Vandemonians in the police here,
+and they have probably run the rule over you more than once. If I were to
+join with you, they'd clap the darbies on me within a week.'
+
+Jim spread his hands in a gesture of despair. 'I have been mistaken for
+Solo once; that risk must always follow you,' he said.
+
+'I am prepared; but the Government shall never pay their thousand pounds
+for a live man. I appear as little as possible in the diggings in this
+guise, however. You did not know me as the chief performer in that little
+comedy with Brigalow on Diamond Gully. You did not recognise me in the
+dark man who talked with you and Burton while the madcap from Kyley's was
+leading the troopers a merry dance along the lead. By the way, I admire
+your taste in women, Jim. She's a fine, unshamed barbarian, this Aurora.'
+
+The subject was distasteful to Jim. He put it aside hastily. 'If I worked
+with you in this scheme for disposing of the gold you would run the same
+risk,' he said.
+
+'No; I need not appear in the matter. The field I speak of, which is
+probably very rich in itself, is so situated that we might work it for a
+year without being discovered. Meanwhile, by making frequent trips to
+Ballarat and Bendigo, you could sell a great deal of my gold along with
+such as we may earn. Then I should sail for England, taking with me as
+much gold as I could safely handle, leaving you to sell more, and
+eventually join me with the remainder. In this way we can, if we choose,
+rid ourselves of three hundred thousand pounds' worth without attracting
+any particular attention.'
+
+'You reckoned on finding me greedy for gold.'
+
+'I reckoned more on finding you willing to seize an opportunity of
+exacting from society some return for death, torture, and infamy!'
+
+'There was a time when you might have prevailed.'
+
+'That time may come again. It needs only a new grievance--the law to
+bruise you, the women to betray.'
+
+Jim shook his head. He felt the disc of Lucy's locket pressing against
+his breast under his folded arms. 'I cannot believe it,' he said.
+
+The other was silent for some moments, and Jim watched him with troubled
+eyes. None of the cruelty and the viciousness to which Ryder had given
+utterance found expression in his features, which were marked with
+sensitive lines and some refinement. Done thought of Brummy the Nut, and
+it seemed to him little short of miraculous that this man had been able
+to come through similar experiences and yet show no evidence of it in his
+face. Ryder arose and moved away a few paces.
+
+'If you go from here to another field,' he said, 'leave word for me at
+one of the stores.'
+
+'Are you going?'
+
+'I may not leave Jim Crow for a few days.'
+
+'You have something in hand?'
+
+'Meaning some robbery? No; it is possible Solo has made a dramatic
+disappearance from contemporaneous history.'
+
+You'll drop the game? Good! Good!'
+
+'It all depends. I have the gold I need, but the sporting instinct may be
+too strong for me. Just now there is other work in view. Be assured, my
+intentions are not honourable, however. We shall meet again. My
+proposition may appeal to you later. You will not forget it.'
+
+'Put it out of your head,' said Jim appealingly. 'Leave the country, take
+the gold if you must, live luxuriously if you care to, but dig out of
+your heart this devilish malice against people who have done you no
+conscious wrong. Do this for your own sake; the course you have decided
+upon is one of desolation and despair.'
+
+'Least of all did I expect to find my brother a pulpiteer and a moralist
+with all the popular faith in the domestic virtues, and the quaint
+conviction that misery dogs the sinner,' said Ryder dryly.
+
+'I have used no cant,' answered Jim, 'and I said nothing of sin or
+virtue. I don't ask you to trust God, but to trust man. Be at peace with
+your kind!'
+
+'And this is the man they called the Hermit on board the Francis Cadman!'
+
+'Yes; and I was wretched aboard simply because I met the free and hearty
+men around me in a spirit of sullenness and suspicion. But my sick
+misanthropy was not proof against the heart-quickening sunshine and the
+grand enthusiasm of those fine sane men.'
+
+'Evidently your philosophy sprang from a disordered liver. The
+sea-voyage, in stimulating that, cured you of your cherished beliefs.
+Another trip would probably make a devout Wesleyan of you,' said Ryder
+banteringly. 'Now, my liver is a perfect instrument, and you couldn't
+alter a single opinion of mine with a long course of antibilious
+treatment. In defiance of all Sunday-school precedents, I can be cheerful
+though wicked, and, having attained the splendid isolation of perfect
+selfishness, my happiness is not dependent on the gaiety or gloom of the
+crowd, My boy, you might remember that your experience is not so wide as
+to justify you in asking mankind at large to accept you as the touchstone
+for all human emotions. Good-bye.'
+
+Jim gripped his brother's hand and held it. 'Good bye!' he said. 'I wish
+I could do something for you, but you leave me helpless.'
+
+Ryder went off with a laugh, and a moment later his voice came back
+through the trees--a light, musical baritone, singing an Irish love-song,
+and Jim, listening, troubled in spirit, wondered how much of the true man
+he had been permitted to see.
+
+Throughout the quiet months that followed Done lived a sober, methodical
+life. He saw no more of his brother while they remained on the Jim Crow
+diggings, but thought of him constantly, dreading to hear of some further
+daring escapade on the part of Solo, fearing more the possibility of his
+capture. Burton was perplexed by the note of gravity that had developed
+in his mate, until he made an accidental discovery of Lucy Woodrow's
+locket, and then he thought he understood all, especially as Jim's visits
+to Kyley's shanty were comparatively rare of late. Meanwhile, Jim had
+written once to Lucy, but had received no answer--a fact that did not
+disturb him, however, as the postal service on the fields and in the Bush
+was extremely erratic. He was quite satisfied now that he had been in
+love with his shipmate all the time, but it was not easy to account for
+Aurora. Certainly he had been very fond of her: he was fond of her still,
+and could not bring himself to regret having known her. He strove
+resolutely to refrain from applying conventional standards of judgment,
+with which, he assured himself, he had no sympathy, but little
+uneasinesses and awkward moments would obtrude. It was difficult to
+maintain the fine idea of rationalism. 'I won't have you bind the strange
+man you may be to-morrow with oaths,' Aurora had said; yet it was evident
+the change in him was a source of great distress to her.
+
+'I haven't seen you for a fortnight, Jim,' she said one evening, with a
+tinge of reproach that she was striving to repress.
+
+'No,' he said shortly.
+
+'And absence hasn't made you particularly fond.'
+
+He was leaning on the counter, and took her hand between his own, but was
+silent.
+
+'At least, you don't lie to me,' she continued.
+
+Jim did not plume himself on that; he knew in his heart that if he had
+not lied it was because a thoroughly satisfactory fiction had not
+presented itself. He kissed her knuckles, which, in itself was a lie of
+inference. Aurora pulled her hand away, and robbed him of his one
+resource. He felt abashed and defenceless without it. He thrust his hands
+in his pockets, and turned his shoulders to her, gazing moodily on the
+floor, having a dawning sense of the differences that may suddenly
+afflict two hearts that have beat as one, realizing that the ardent
+affection of yesterday and yesterday's kisses count for nothing in the
+present estrangement. He could, not essay the role of friendship: it was
+as if they were strangers without a single affinity.
+
+'The fact is, Aurora,' he said desperately, 'I'm a good deal changed.
+I've experienced a great shock lately, and it has pulled me up short.'
+
+'And the woman?'
+
+He turned upon her again with genuine surprise. 'The woman! The woman!'
+he cried. 'It has nothing to do with a woman. Upon my soul, no! Something
+has been revealed to me that has hit me hard. I don't get over it easily;
+it clings in my mind. If I could tell you, old girl, you'd sympathize;
+but I can't--the secret is not my own.' He spoke with emotion, and
+Aurora, watching him sharply, was touched. She put a hand on his arm.
+
+'Not another word, Jimmy,' she said. 'I won't bother you. Sure,' she
+continued lightly, we weemin 're niver contint wid the throubles of the
+day. We're that curious we must be wonderin' how much more's comin'. We
+may boast iv bein' sensible an' sthrong, but we're alwiz pushin' our
+tentacles out to feel the sorrow iv to-morrow. I reckoned you'd be hatin'
+me in a week, ma bouchal.'
+
+Done felt himself justified in kissing her there and then, but the kiss
+partook a good deal of the nature of a benediction.
+
+This explanation did not serve to restore confidence; the constraint
+remained, and increased with time. Jim noted its effect on Aurora with
+some misgiving. His appearance in the tent was the signal for a display
+of boisterous animation on her part. If she had been depressed before,
+she suddenly became gay; if she had been animated, she became jubilant.
+She sang, and joked, and danced, and played, with an excess of jocosity
+that jarred him painfully. He gave her credit for uncommon intelligence,
+and undoubtedly she had been educated above the position in life she was
+content to occupy. Why should she resort to the shallow and obvious
+subterfuges of the most foolish and frivolous of her sex? He had no
+perception of the extent of her sufferings, and would not, in any case,
+have understood how independent are the workings of the head and the
+heart of a loving woman. On such occasions she flirted audaciously with
+the miners, and her blood burned in her veins because Done showed no
+disposition to be moved by it.
+
+Tim Carrol imagined himself to be the specially favoured man, and was
+Aurora's most devoted slave, and the girl played upon his big,
+affectionate heart, with no object but to awaken in Done a sparkle of the
+recent fire. One night Aurora danced with him through a lively reel, and
+at its conclusion, in a spirit of mirthless mischief, put up her red
+mouth to be kissed. Not for all the powers of good and evil would Tim
+have foregone that delight. He kissed her, but this time Done offered no
+objection. Indeed, he gave no indication of having seen what was passing,
+although in reality he had been watching Aurora, impressed with the idea
+that she was drinking. Never since the first night he met her had she
+seemed to him to be under the influence of drink, and he admitted to
+himself that he might have been mistaken then, and was probably deceived
+now by the fervour of her character.
+
+Done's indifference struck a chill to the girl's heart. She went back to
+her place silent, but feeling within her the stirring of a tempest. A
+quarter of an hour later she confronted Jim as he stood talking with
+Harry Peetree. For a moment she looked into his face, and all eyes were
+upon her. Then she struck him in the mouth with her right hand, and her
+eyes, cheeks, and whole being seemed to blaze into passion at the same
+moment.
+
+'I have something belonging to you. Is it that you are waiting for?' She
+threw the small nugget in his face with her other hand.
+
+The gold cut his temple, but he did not flinch; his eyes met hers without
+passion; his cultivated power of control helped him now. Taking out a
+handkerchief, he wiped the blood from his eye, and then, picking up the
+nugget, offered it to her.
+
+'Aurora,' he said, 'you know in your heart that is a lie.'
+
+His quietness made her action ridiculous, whatever his intention may have
+been, and the girl felt it with an access of frenzy; but at this point
+Tim Carrol felt himself called upon to intervene in his new character as
+knight-errant.
+
+'D'ye mean to call the lady a liar?' he cried hotly.
+
+Jim, who had a real liking for the cheerful young Irishman, evaded the
+awkward blow aimed at his head, and stood back, and Ben Kyley saved
+further trouble by seizing Tim and hustling him into a corner.
+
+'I'm the on'y man what's permitted to punch the customers in this tent,'
+said Ben.
+
+At the same time Mrs. Ben descended upon Aurora and bore her off with a
+mighty hug, much as if she were a rebellious infant.
+
+XVII
+
+IT was some time before Jim Done visited Mrs. Kyley's tent again. He bore
+Aurora no animosity, he had the kindliest feelings for her, but
+recognised that in frequenting the shanty he increased the difficulty of
+the situation and prolonged the task he had set himself. A letter had
+come to him from Lucy Woodrow--a bright, breezy letter, about Bush-life,
+about herself and the youngsters, and a good deal about him. Certainly a
+pleasant enough letter, but, considered as a literary production merely,
+not deserving of Jim's high appreciation of it. Alter receiving it Jim
+sat down in a reverent humour and decided, with the formality of a
+meeting carrying a resolution, that Lucy was the only woman in the world
+for him, the one possible woman. The resolution practically abolished all
+other women so far as he was concerned. He could never think of another
+with patience, and his longing for her was so great that it left him
+little mind for Ryder, and scarcely any for Aurora. He was eager to pay
+Boobyalla another visit, but Mike was deaf to all insinuations, and Jim
+consoled himself with pretty imaginative pictures in which Lucy was
+vividly represented sitting on the shady veranda at Macdougal's home
+stead, spotted with flakes of golden sunshine filtered through the tangle
+of vine and creeper. How sweet she was, how gentle, how tender, and yet
+brave of heart and keen-witted withal. She had understood him better than
+he had understood himself. That was very gratifying; it showed her deep
+interest in him, but he did not put it to himself in that bald way. Why
+hadn't he taken her up in his arms and kissed her when they parted in the
+garden? Every drop of his blood prompted him to it, and something told
+him she would not have resented it. He had been a fool. He should have
+told her then that he loved her. Of course, it had hardly occurred to him
+then that he really did love her, but he was a fool in any case for not
+seeing it and understanding it.
+
+Burton and the Peetrees had resolved to try a new rush before Done called
+at the shanty again.
+
+'I have come to say goodbye, Mrs. Ben,' he said to the big washerwoman,
+'and to thank you for a thousand kindnesses.'
+
+'Thank me for nothing!' cried Mrs. Kyley. 'Is it true you are off on the
+wallaby again?'
+
+'We shall start for Simpson's Ranges in the morning.'
+
+'It is so long since we've seen you that you won't mind if we don't break
+our hearts at parting.' She glanced towards Aurora, who had turned her
+back to them.
+
+'That's the least I expect of you, Mrs. Ben.'
+
+'Well, you're not a bad lad, though inconstant. Give me a kiss, and good
+luck go with you. Be a man,' she added in a whisper. 'Say a few kind
+words to the poor girl.' She nodded towards Aurora.
+
+'I came wishing to.'
+
+'You ruffian!' she said aloud; 'and you pretending you cared a copper
+dump about Mother Kyley. She pushed him towards Aurora, and rolled from
+the tent with one of her great gusts of laughter.
+
+'I'm off, Joy!' said Done.
+
+She turned and looked at him. She was in one of her quiet humours. If she
+had felt much grief, it had left little impression upon her. She was
+neatly dressed and looking very fresh and girlish to-day.
+
+'I heard you were going,' she answered.
+
+'Joy!' He put out an open hand. 'Let us part friends; I'm fond of you--I
+am, upon my soul!'
+
+She caught his hand in both of hers and pressed it to her breast. 'I was
+wondering if you would come to see me before leaving.'
+
+'Ah, that's better,' he said. 'I'd be pretty miserable if I went thinking
+I'd left you an enemy, because--because--' He had a heart full of
+gratitude and big, generous emotions towards her, and could not express
+himself. 'God bless you, Joy! he murmured, kissing her hair. 'Don't think
+me an utterly selfish kind of brute, dear.'
+
+'I haven't one ill thought of you, Jimmy. Didn't I woo you with every
+trick I know, but with my whole heart, too, for all that? It's been a
+fair deal, old man.'
+
+'I'll never cease to wish you happiness, and I'll always regret any
+trouble I may have caused you.'
+
+'Regret nothing--nothing! You've been a big joy to me, and you bore my
+tantrums like a brick. I'm sorry I struck you, Jimmy.' She drew his head
+down and kissed the scar over his right eye.
+
+'There was another blow here.' He touched his left cheek, and she kissed
+that too, but she was showing no sign of sentimentality. Her attitude was
+that of a good friend, and in this pose she was delightful, Jim thought.
+
+'We are certain to meet again, Joy,' he said. 'If ever I could do
+anything for you, would you ask me?'
+
+She looked into his eyes for a moment. 'Yes,' she answered, 'before
+anyone else in the world.'
+
+'That's good. You're one of the best, Joy. We go to Simpson's Ranges, but
+may find our way down to Ballarat in the course of a few months if things
+don't pan out well.'
+
+'When you hear of anyone coming this way, you'll send a message, Jim?'
+
+They were interrupted by three or four diggers, and in the course of half
+an hour the tent filled. Aurora was very charming that night, very
+gracious, very like the Aurora who supervised their open-air tea the
+night of Lambert's big speech, but less buoyant. Jim felt her soft touch
+upon him many times, and watched her with curiosity. She had retained
+this peculiar quality of provoking faint wonder. He felt that he had not
+known her thoroughly, and drifted into the building of the suitable
+future for her with many 'ifs' and 'buts.'
+
+'I am going, Joy,' he whispered later.
+
+'Not here,' she said, taking his arm. 'Outside.'
+
+They passed out together, and stood by the big tree in which Mrs. Ben's
+stock was hidden.
+
+'Good-bye!' he said.
+
+'It's hard!' She put her hands upon his shoulders, and her voice
+trembled. 'I've been pretty badly in love, Jimmy. Remember that in
+kindness, Won't you? It seems to excuse a good deal. It might even excuse
+a poor colleen makin' the fool an' all iv herself.' The brogue sounded
+deeply pathetic. 'A kiss,' she whispered quickly. 'One of the old kisses,
+dear.'
+
+As he bent down to her his cheek crushed a tear on hers, and he was
+touched deeply. The kiss was long and tender; as the kiss of a man for
+whom there was only one woman in the world, and she not the one being
+kissed, it was emphatically successful. It drew a deep sigh from poor
+Aurora, and thrilled Jim with not a little of the old rapture.
+
+'Good-bye!' she said; but her fingers clung to him.
+
+'Good-bye!' he repeated, taking her hands in his.
+
+'Have you the little heart of gold?' she asked.
+
+'It's here.' He drew it from his pocket.
+
+'Give it back to me.'
+
+He pressed it into her hand, kissed her cheek, and hurried away. Aurora
+stood for some minutes turning the nugget over and over in her fingers;
+then she moved to the shanty door and looked in, but turned away with a
+muttered exclamation, and went to the entrance of the back tent.
+
+'You'll have to attend to those brutes in there,' she said to Mary Kyley.
+'I've had as much as I can stand for one night.' She threw herself upon
+her bed, and hid her face in the pillow.
+
+'Has he gone, dear?' asked Mrs. Kyley, laying a big but gentle hand upon
+the girl.
+
+Aurora nodded her bead in the pillow, and after looking at her in silence
+for a moment, Mary went in to attend to her customers, shaking her head
+sadly as she went. When she peeped into the back tent again an hour later
+Aurora still lay face downwards upon the bed.
+
+'Are you asleep, Aurora?' whispered Mrs. Ben. 'No!' answered the girl
+fiercely. 'For God's sake, don't bother me!'
+
+Mrs. Ben went away again, sadder than before.
+
+'Oh, the men, the men!' murmured the wise woman. 'To think of the good
+women wasted on them, and the chits they're often wasted on!'
+
+Jim Done enjoyed the tramp to Simpson's Ranges. The weather was fine, the
+country was picturesque, and the company highly congenial. He liked the
+Peetrees better in his present mood, and his interest in the popular
+movement that was to culminate at Eureka was deepening daily. He had even
+addressed a small meeting of miners on the subject of the rights of the
+people, and he was no pusillanimous reformer. He declared the diggers had
+reached that point at which toleration meant meanness of spirit. The
+thought of civil war was appalling, but not so much so as the degradation
+of a nation in which the manhood plodded meekly under the whip, like
+driven cattle yoked to their load.
+
+The men carried small swags, having entrusted their tools and tents to
+teamsters, and, travelled quietly, taking four days to accomplish the
+journey. The route lay through trackless country. As yet few parties from
+Forest Creek had set out for Simpson's Ranges, and Jim and his friends
+encountered no other travellers until they were approaching the new rush,
+and then the road assumed the familiar characteristics, and the noisy,
+boisterous troops went gaily by. These might have been the identical men
+who tramped to Diamond Gully through the Black Forest, so much did they
+resemble the former in their joyousness and their wild exuberance of word
+and action, and in their manner of conveying their belongings too, and in
+their frank good-fellowship. But by this time Jim was an experienced
+Antipodean, and knew that in such circumstances men always behave much in
+the same way, and that dignity is the first oppressive observance to be
+abandoned immediately man breaks loose from the restraints of society.
+The novelty had gone from the rushes, but not the charm. The sight of the
+courageous, healthy, happy gold-seekers swinging by struck sympathetic
+chords in his own heart. He had kindred impulses, and was by far the most
+jubilant of his party, the Bush-bred Australians being the least
+demonstrative of all the men on the track.
+
+On the morning of the fourth day Jim encountered a face he knew amongst a
+party of five travelling with a waggon.
+
+'Hullo, Phil Ryan!' he said.
+
+Phil advanced with a puzzled expression on his face, that presently gave
+way to a broad grin.
+
+'The Hermit!' he cried, and, seizing Jim's hand, he shook it with
+effusive heartiness. One might think he had occasion to remember Done for
+many kindnesses, whereas the ignominious beating the Hermit had given him
+on the Francis Cadman was all he had to be grateful for.
+
+'I've given up trying to be a hermit,' said Jim. 'There was nothing in
+it.'
+
+'Begor, I'm that glad!' said Phil, and he certainly looked radiant. 'But
+you're th' changed man, Done. I hardly knew you wid th' amiable shmile.
+Have things been goin' rare an' good?'
+
+'They have, Ryan. I'm a made man.' Jim meant the expression to be taken
+in a spiritual rather than a pecuniary sense.
+
+It's hearin',' said Phil. 'My soul, but it's th' great land, man! I've had
+more gold through me hands these twelve munts than I iver dramed iv
+before. But it don't shtick,' he added ruefully, glancing at his horny
+palms.
+
+'And the others--have you heard of them?'
+
+'We broke up into twos an' twos whin we come near Geelong, fer fear iv
+being nailed by th' police fer disertion. Jorgensen's made his pile over
+be Buniyong; an' Tommy th' Tit--him what seconded me in th' bit iv a
+contention we had aboard--have been rootin' out nuggets be th' tubful at
+Ballarat, an' talkin' fight and devilment t' th' min iv nights in th'
+intherests iv peace an' humanity an' good gover'mint. Be th' same token,
+there's goin' t' be no ind iv sin an' throuble down there, an' I'd be
+sorry to be missin' it.'
+
+'He's no true digger who'll stand out when the time comes, Ryan.'
+
+'Thrue fer you, man. Och! it's a lovely land fer a gravyince, an' I'll
+niver lave it.' He looked Jim up and down again. 'It's put th' good heart
+in you, Done.' Jim nodded smilingly. 'D'ye be hearin' iv th' little lady
+from off the ship?' continued Phil, as if following a natural sequence.
+
+'Yes,' answered Jim, his cheeks warming a little. 'She is with Mrs.
+Macdougal at Boobyalla, just beyond Jim Crow, and is well and cheerful.'
+
+'Good agin!' Ryan sighed heavily as he resumed his swag. 'It's th' on'y
+thing I'm lamentin' here, th' mighty scarcity iv fine wimmin,' he said.
+
+'They'll be bringing them out by the ship-load presently, old man.'
+
+'Th' sooner th' quicker. Manewhoile I haven't seen th' taste iv one fer
+sivin munts. So long to you! We'll be meetin' on the new rush?'
+
+'Yes. So long and good luck!'
+
+Phil hastened on to overtake his mates, and Jim, looking after him,
+wondered that he had ever been anything but good friends with this man,
+whose lovable, ugly face radiated geniality as a diamond reflects light.
+
+Simpson's Ranges at first sight was a repetition of the other fields Jim
+had seen. The scene was one of intense excitement. No experience prepared
+the ordinary miner to take the possibilities of a new field in a
+philosophical spirit. The impetuosity, the bustling hurry, and the
+clamour that had so impressed him at Forest Creek were repeated here.
+Everywhere over a space of some fifty acres tents were being unfurled and
+carts and waggons unloaded in the midst of chaotic disorder. The feverish
+eagerness of new arrivals to peg out their claims on a rich lead
+accounted for much of the tumult. Those already in possession of golden
+holes were working like fiends to exhaust their present claims, and
+secure others before the land was pegged out all along the lead and the
+whizzing of windlasses and the monotonous cries of the workers added the
+usual character to the prevailing clamour.
+
+Storekeepers who had dumped their stocks down in the open air were
+desperately busy, serving profane customers, or running up hasty
+structures over their goods. Newcomers were pouring in like visitors to a
+fair, shouting as they came, and of all the people Jim could see, Mike
+Burton and the Peetrees alone were prepared to take things calmly. For
+his own part, he had again proof of his susceptibility to the humours of
+the crowd; the excitement of the scene communicated itself to him; he
+wanted to add to the noise and the movement without acknowledging any
+sensible reason for doing so.
+
+'Me an' Mike 'll get up the lead an' spike a claim while you boys rig the
+tent,' said Josh.
+
+The mates had brought one tent to serve them, pending the arrival of
+their other belongings. It had been resolved that the five men should
+work on shares during their stay at Simpson's Ranges, and Mike and
+Peetree senior secured the land to which the party was entitled under its
+licenses.
+
+'She's well in on the lead all right,' said Josh, commenting on their
+claim that evening after tea, 'an' if we don't hit it rich I'm a
+Dutchman.'
+
+Josh's opinion proved correct in the main. Mike cut the wash-dirt on the
+following evening, and after sinking in it to the depth of two feet,
+washed a prospect that promised the party an excellent return for their
+labour. So far Jim Done had every reason to be grateful for his luck; and
+the diggers were nearly all implicit believers in luck; a faith they held
+to be justified by the scores of instances recited of good fortune
+following individuals through extraordinary conditions, when less
+favoured men all around them were not earning enough to satisfy the
+storekeepers.
+
+Although the various Victorian rushes were much alike in general
+character, some peculiarity attached to each of them. Jim Crow was famous
+for its vigorous and varied rascality; Simpson's Ranges became notorious
+as the most reckless gambling-field in the country. Card-playing was the
+recreation the diggers most indulged in here, if we except a decided
+penchant for Chow-baiting. Done found that already the gambling
+propensity had impressed itself on the lead, and the luckiest man on
+Simpson's was a short, fat, complacent Yankee, who refused to handle pick
+or shovel because, as he said to Done, it might spoil his hand. Jim did
+not doubt that hands so slick in the manipulation of cards were worth all
+the care Mr. Levi Long devoted to them. Jim became rather interested in
+Long. The man was an amusing blackguard, and took the 'gruellings' that
+occasional manual lapses led him into with a placidity that amounted
+almost to quiet enjoyment, and tickled Done's sense of humour immensely.
+
+'Man who drifts down the stream o' life in a painted barge on the broad
+of his back among the Persian rugs, with a fat cigar in his teeth, an'
+all his favourite drinks within reach, has gotter strike a snag now 'n
+agin,' said Long. 'The question's just this--is it wuth it?'
+
+'I can't understand why a tired man like you takes the trouble to shave,'
+Jim said to him one night.
+
+'Ever been tarred 'n feathered in your busy career, Mr. Done?' answered
+Long.
+
+Never.'
+
+'If you had you'd realize that the onpleasantest thing that kin happen to
+a man this side o' the great hot finish is to get his chin whiskers full
+o' tar. In my native town tarring the man you disagreed with was a
+favourite amusement.'
+
+'But there is no tar here.'
+
+'Well, no; but I guess this has become instinctive.' He passed a hand
+over his fat, smooth face.
+
+Chow-baiting was a later development. The Chinese and Mongolians came
+early to Victorian rushes, and remained long. They were never
+discoverers, never pioneers, but, following quickly upon the heels of the
+white prospectors, they frequently succeeded in securing the richest
+claims in the alluvial beds, and from the first they were hated with an
+instinctive racial hatred, that became inveterate when the whites found
+in Sin Fat a rival antagonistic in all his tastes and views, in most of
+his virtues, and in all his pet vices, bar one. The Chows were
+industrious diggers; they worked with ant-like assiduity from daylight to
+dark, and often long after that were to be seen at their holes, toiling
+by the light of lanterns.
+
+They had vices of their own, and not nice ones, but they gave way to only
+one of the amiable little social weaknesses in which the Europeans
+indulged, and displayed the overpowering passion for gambling that has
+since become characteristic of the China-men in all their Australian
+camps. They had no other amusement, and desired no leisure; they were
+squalid in their habits, and herded like animals; they were barren of
+aspirations, and their industry was brutish (though of a kind still
+belauded), since it left no leisure for humanizing exercises, no room for
+sweetness and light. They were law-abiding, but that was not a virtue to
+commend itself to the Victorian diggers at this date, and they were only
+law-abiding because of their slavish instincts and their lack of
+courageous attributes. The antipathy bred then survives in the third
+generation of Australians, but is less demonstrative now that laws have
+been enacted in accordance with the racial instinct.
+
+The Pagans had secured a big stretch of the field close to the claim
+pegged out by Mike and Josh Peetree, and they were thought to have
+possession of the most profitable part of the alluvial deposit, but
+worked their claims with great caution, and were as secretive as so many
+mopokes, so that the whites really had no idea what their ground was
+like, excepting such as the experienced miners could gather from the
+general trend of the richer wash dirt. Extraordinary stories of the
+success of the Chinese were in circulation, and provoked strenuous
+profanity and exceeding bitterness in the Europeans, Particularly in
+those whose luck was not good. There was already talk of a white rising
+to drive the heathen from the field, and Done found his mates entirely in
+sympathy with the common sentiment; to him; also the Celestials became
+exceedingly repellent as he grew more familiar with their habits and
+manners, although he was opposed to making differences of race an excuse
+for wholesale robbery.
+
+The Chinese camp was strictly apart from that of the whites, and there
+was no intercourse between the two parties, Levi Long being the only man
+who seemed attracted to the squalid huts into which the Mongolians packed
+themselves by some process mysterious to the Caucasian understanding. Men
+in whom gambling was an absorbing passion could never be wholly
+objectionable to a man of his peculiar principles; but he came back from
+his third visit to their camp with his hands sunk to the bottoms of his
+pockets and a troubled look on his smooth countenance.
+
+'They've sprung a new game on me down there,' he said to a crowd in the
+shanty, nodding his head back. 'I thought I'd picked up something about
+it, an' it's cost me every bit o' glitter I had on me to demonstrate to
+my entire satisfaction that I was quite wrong. I haven't got a scale
+left. I'm feelin' like a little boy who's been tryin' to teach his gran'
+mother all about eggs.'
+
+'Fantan?' said Burton.
+
+'Somethin' o' that character an' complexion. Boys, I begin to think that
+p'r'aps after all we're doin' wrong in submittin' to the encroachments o'
+the alien.'
+
+Hear, hear!' shouted half a dozen voices.
+
+'It strikes me that the inferior race that can skin Levi Long to his pelt
+in a gamble is providin' no fit associates for guileless an' confidin'
+children o' the Occident, like yourselves, f'r instance.'
+
+Long's professional pride was hurt; the idea of being beaten at his own
+business by a pack of unlettered Asiatics made him sad. 'It kinder
+destroys a man's faith in himself he said. As a result of his eloquence
+the miners knotted windlass-ropes together, and stole down upon the
+Chinese camp in the small and early hours of morning. There were twenty
+men on each cable, and one lot kept to the right of the camp, the other
+to the left, and, going noiselessly, they dragged the ropes through the
+frail huts and kennels in which the Mongols were sleeping, mowing them
+down as if they had been houses of cards, and towing an occasional
+screaming Chow out of the ruins, rolled in his filthy bedding. The whole
+camp of huddled shanties was razed to the ground in about two minutes,
+and the diggers drew off, without having given any clue to the cause of
+the disaster, leaving the heathen raging in the darkness.
+
+At about six o'clock Jim Done and his mates were awakened and brought
+pell-mell from their bunks by the sound of a great commotion coming from
+the direction of the Chinese camp. They saw the Chinamen gathered near
+the ruins of their dwellings, evidently in a state of tremendous
+excitement. A number of them were jumping about, gesticulating wildly,
+and uttering shrill cries, while half a dozen or so, armed with stout
+sticks, were energetically beating an object that lay upon the ground.
+
+'By thunder! it's a man they're murdering!' cried Jim.
+
+Mike and the Peetrees laughed aloud. 'Not a bit of it,' said Burton.
+'They're only bastin' their Joss!'
+
+'What's that?'
+
+'They're beatin' their god. They keep a few of them little pottery or
+wooden gods round, an' if things don't go quite as well as they think
+they ought to go, they up an' take it out o' the god just then on the
+job, by knocking splinters off him.'
+
+'They argue that Joss ain't been attendin' to his part o' the contract,'
+said Harry Peetree, 'an' they belt him for neglectin' his business. Saw a
+lot o' them blow up a big Joss at Bendigo 'cause their dirt was pannin'
+out badly.'
+
+By this time the Europeans were all up and out, enjoying the spectacle,
+and Simpson's Ranges echoed their laughter, it being assumed that the
+Celestials' gods were being punished for the sins of those diggers who
+had wrecked the camp. Jim and Con joined a few curious men sauntering
+down to take a nearer view of the ceremony.
+
+'Wha' for?' Con asked one grave Chow who was looking on.
+
+'Welly much bad Joss!' answered the Celestial composedly. 'Let um earth
+shake-shake, all sem this, knockum poo' Chinaman's house down.'
+
+A favourite way of tormenting the Chows was to rob them of their
+pigtails. A Mongolian's pride in his pigtail is very great, and his grief
+over the loss of it seems to be tinged with a superstitious fear. As soon
+as the diggers were made aware of this they vied with each other in
+reaving Sin Fat and hi brethren of their cherished adornments, and the
+rape of the lock was a daily occurrence at Simpson Ranges. No Red Indian
+was ever prouder of his trophy of scalps than the diggers were of their
+collection of tails, and the woe that fell upon the de spoiled Asiatics
+was most profound, but touched no sympathetic chords in the callous
+hearts of the miners.
+
+It is not to be assumed that the Chows bore all their afflictions like
+lambs. They had methods of their own of getting even, and were efficient
+tent thieves, and peculiarly expert in the art of rifling tips, although
+this was not proved against them until the eleventh hour. They fought
+back on occasions, and one morning a big Californian was found near their
+claims, beaten almost to death. Evidently the digger had deserved his
+fate, and had been caught stealing wash-dirt from Sin Fat's tips; but his
+denials were readily and gladly accepted by the whites, and another
+excellent reason for demolishing the Chows was registered in the minds of
+the men.
+
+Being up just after daybreak one morning, or not yet having gone to bunk,
+Levi Long was the unsuspected witness of acts of Chinese iniquity that
+brought about the climax of the anti-Chinese agitation. There was no
+water-supply at Simpson's Ranges, and the wash-dirt had to be carted four
+miles to the river at Carisbrook, to be puddled and washed. This morning
+the Chinamen were busy bright and early, carting their wash away; but the
+Celestials, always frugal, to save as much as possible the expense of
+drays, each carried two hide-bags of dirt suspended on a bamboo, and
+followed the loaded carts through the diggings with the peculiar trot
+they always adopted when bearing burdens. What Long noticed was that
+every now and again, when passing the tips on the claims of the
+Europeans, the sly Celestials dug their shovels into the wash-dirt, and
+threw a few shovelfuls on to their own loads or into the bags they
+carried. Keeping himself in concealment, Levi quietly awakened a few of
+the diggers, and drew their attention to what was going on. The Chinamen
+chattered noisily as they passed, and the movements of the crowd were
+evidently artfully designed to cover the depredations of the thieves.
+
+Within a quarter of an hour every white man on the field knew what had
+been going on, and now the miners thought they understood the motive of
+the Chows in always carting their dirt away in the gray hours of morning,
+before the too-confiding Europeans were up and about. This was the last
+straw. A meeting was held very quietly, and, to Done's astonishment, his
+mate took an active part in the proceedings.
+
+'The lepers have got to change their spots, I guess,' said Long. 'Is that
+understood, men?'
+
+'You bet!' answered a prominent digger, and the crowd uttered a unanimous
+'Hear, hear!' that left no room for doubt.
+
+'Then, get ready!' cried Mike. 'Every man get a pick-handle. There's to
+be no killin'. We'll drive 'em out like sheep. If the troopers interfere,
+unhorse them, an' bolt the nags. Meet here again as quick's you can.'
+
+The miners scattered, and within half an hour the whole body of the white
+diggers marched upon the Chinamen remaining on the claims.
+
+XVIII
+
+THE Chinese, most of whom were on the surface, viewed the approach of the
+enemy with great uneasiness, but did not anticipate the worst Evidently
+they trembled only for their tails, and a few took to their claims like
+startled rabbits. The others stood watching the advance, jabbering
+excitedly, with the volubility of so many monkeys.
+
+'Wha' for? wha' for?' cried the foremost, when confronted by the
+Europeans.
+
+'This here's an eviction, I reckon,' drawled Long.
+
+'Go!' said Burton, pointing threateningly.
+
+'Away with the lepers!' yelled the men.
+
+The Chows understood monosyllables, and began to expostulate in pigeon
+English.
+
+'Charge!' cried Long, and the drive commenced in earnest.
+
+Keeping a solid front, the whites drove the yellow men before them along
+the lead. Those below were dragged to the surface, and their movements
+were accelerated by prods from the pick and presently the whole mass was
+going at a run across the field, the Chinese in front, flying, as they
+thought, for their lives, the whites following, and the howls of the
+pursued and the yells of the pursuers united to make an uproar
+unprecedented on Simpson's Ranges.
+
+'The troopers!' The warning voices came from the left, and the full
+strength of the force on Simpson's came riding gallantly from that
+direction, between white men and yellow.
+
+'Pull 'em down!' cried Mike, 'but do no damage.'
+
+'Halt there!' ordered the sergeant, rising in his stirrups, but the crowd
+took little account of him and his four gallant followers. It swarmed
+round them for a moment, plucked the five men from their saddles, and
+passed on, leaving the troopers sprawling on the ground, and driving
+their horses before them with the terrified Celestials.
+
+The chase continued all the way to Carisbrook, and for a mile or so
+beyond; but at the river, where the main body of Chinese was overtaken,
+there was a brief but vigorous fight. The Chinese used their shovels and
+sticks and stones, and what other weapons presented themselves, in
+defence of their property, and for about five minutes the hand-to-hand
+conflict raged with a rattle of pick-handles, a thud, thud, thud of busy
+clubs, oaths in good round English, and a squeaking and yelling in shrill
+Chinese, and then the Chows, overborne by numbers, backed, broke, and
+fled, and the hunt was continued. In two hours' time there was not a
+Chinaman in sight, and virtuous Europeans were busy washing the golden
+gravel left near the river, satisfying their consciences when they
+pinched that only even handed justice had been done in robbing the
+robbers.
+
+Five weeks passed before the Chinese went creeping back to Simpson's
+Ranges, and by this time the diggers were engrossed in more important
+affairs, and offered no serious opposition. It seemed that the trouble
+was rapidly coming to a head at Ballarat. Wearying of the effort to
+secure reform by peaceful agitation, the men were arming themselves as
+best they could. The lawful endeavours of the miners had resulted only in
+spurring their enemies to greater activity in oppression, and blundering
+and brutal officials had chosen the moment when the agitation was at its
+height to institute one of the most strenuous and tyrannical
+license-hunting expeditions that had been inflicted upon the miners of
+Ballarat. Diggers were brutally man-handled; in some cases their clothes
+were torn from their backs, in others they were insulted and beaten by
+the troopers. The hunt was manifestly an organized and deliberate effort
+to display the contempt officialdom felt for the men and their cause.
+Blood ran hotly; there were casual skirmishes between the people and the
+police, who, while serving as the zealous and willing instruments of
+oppression, offered the diggers absolutely no protection from the thieves
+and ruffians infesting the fields.
+
+Arrangements had been made to convey the news of a general rising to the
+men at Simpson's Ranges in time to enable them to reach the disturbed
+centre before the outbreak of hostilities, and on a Friday morning,
+shortly after midnight, Jim Done, Mike Burton, and the three Peetrees set
+off together. They left their tents as they stood, and carrying only a
+blue blanket apiece and such arms as they possessed, started on their
+long tramp to Ballarat as gaily as if bent upon a pleasure excursion.
+They slept in the Bush on Friday night, and reached the Australian
+Eldorado on Saturday at about noon. Approaching the field from the north,
+they were bailed up on the edge of wide lagoon fringed with gum-trees and
+scrub by a party of men on horseback.
+
+'Halt!' cried the leader.
+
+'What's the matter now?' said Mike.
+
+'I demand all arms and ammunition you may have about you.'
+
+'Then I'm hanged if you'll get them!'
+
+'For the use of the forces of the republic of Victoria,' continued the
+leader.
+
+But we're goin' to join the rebels.'
+
+'That's all right. You'll be given arms in the stockade. Peter Lalor has
+been elected chief of the insurgents. I have his warrant here for my
+action. Arms are badly needed. We can take no chances.'
+
+The mates conferred, and after examining the warrant signed by the rebel
+leader, resolved to comply with the demand.
+
+'Has there been any fighting?' asked Jim.
+
+'A bit of a shindy with the swaddies in Warrenheip Gully, and an attack
+on the troopers at the Gravel Pits. Nothing really serious. The Imperial
+troops were drawn up under arms at our big meeting on Bakery Hill on the
+29th. The flag has been floated, the men have taken the oath under it,
+and are now drilling within the stockade on Eureka.'
+
+'We are none too soon.'
+
+'Not a moment.'
+
+The five men had only their revolvers and a stock of cartridges; these
+they handed over to the emissary of the 'republican forces,' and
+continued their journey with eager feet, greatly elated. Ballarat was at
+this time the centre of the feverish interest the Victorian gold
+discoveries had excited throughout the world. Men were digging fortunes
+out of the prodigal earth with a turn of the hand. The Gravel Pits,
+Golden Point, Bakery Hill, Specimen Hill, Canadian Hill, White Hills,
+White Flat, and half a dozen other local rushes, were in the height of
+their amazing prosperity; economists were gravely considering the
+possibility of this tremendous output reducing gold to the status of a
+base metal, and Main Road seethed with life.
+
+Done's experiences on Forest Creek and at Jim Crow and Simpson's Ranges
+had not prepared him for the stormy exuberance of Ballarat. This was the
+largest, most populous, and most prosperous of all the fields. In a
+little over two years' time the population of a large town had overrun
+the Bush, swept the trees from the face of the earth, and had dug at and
+torn and tortured the wide fields till the landscape resembled a great
+cemetery where thousands of open graves yawned in advance of a mighty
+sacrifice. The work of devastation climbed up the hills, overthrowing
+them piece by piece, and through the debacle the sloven creeks, filled
+with yellow slurry, and thrown out of their natural courses a score of
+times by the ravishers, wound their painful way. Tents, glowing whitely
+under the bright sun, dotted the flats, and gathered into villages of
+canvas on the sides of the hills. Here and there a flag fluttered in the
+breeze, and men were everywhere--men remarkably alike in type, strong,
+bearded, sun burnt, their digger's garb as monotonous as a uniform, but
+picturesque and easy. Evidently little work was going forward. The
+excitement of the revolt was at its height, a sense of the imminent
+climax was in the air, and the men were gathered in knots and meetings
+discussing the position.
+
+As Jim and his friends came in by Specimen Hill, they saw bodies of
+troopers being moved as if in drill at the camp on their left. These
+operations were watched by hundreds of diggers. Further on they saw the
+massed red coats of swaddies, and heard the faint rattle of kettle-drums.
+The British flag floated over the camp. A mounted officer in crimson and
+gold passed them, riding at a gallop, and the sound of a gunshot struck
+upon their ears, a sharp note of war.
+
+Main Road and Plank Road were well-defined streets of tents and stores.
+The great majority of the dwellings and places of business were of canvas
+still, but here and there a pretentious weatherboard hotel, iron-roofed,
+stood proudly eminent, luring the diggers with a flaring topical sign.
+Here again the way was crowded with blue-shirted men, smoking, talking,
+gesticulating, never a coat nor a petticoat amongst them. There were a
+good many women in Ballarat in '54, but nearly all miners' wives, little
+was seen of them where the men assembled. Jim noted yet again juvenile
+levity of the diggers.
+
+The situation was serious enough in all conscience, but the great
+majority of the miners refused to see it in that light. They had endured
+much; they felt that it was necessary to assert their rights as men, but
+the consciousness of their wrongs was borne down in a measure by the
+light-heartedness that follows great good fortune. Under the influence of
+a digger-drive or the stimulus of an impassioned speech they could feel
+keenly; but the sun shone upon them, the virgin gold glowed in their
+hands, the riot of devil-me-care existence, unchecked by social
+restraints, called them, and bitterness could not live in their hearts.
+They danced, and sang, and roared, and were glad, who two or three hours
+earlier might have offered their lives freely to avenge a slight or to
+mark their sense of a gross injustice.
+
+Jim and his friends were served with a rough dinner at one of the hotels.
+The waiter, an old Frenchman, told them that bands sent out by the
+insurgent leader were taking levies on all hands.
+
+'Some gather at Eureka. Ze fight mus' be soon,' he said; 'but ze
+crowd--ah, zey laugh, zey drink, zey dance wis ze fiddle, zey will not
+believe! Et ces a great pity, but zey haff not ze--what, ah?--ze
+experience.'
+
+'Are many coming in from the other fields?' asked Jim.
+
+The Frenchman shook his head. 'Et ees expect zey will come; but the men
+say always, "Oh, et will go over!" Ze soldier say not so: they are ver'
+bitter. My friend, the blow come soon; I go to the army of the republic
+this to-night.'
+
+'The men are rolling up all right,' said a digger at another table.
+'They're rallying them at Creswick again, and on the other fields. We'll
+have an army of thousands in a week.'
+
+'A week!' cried the waiter. 'My soul! in two day more et will all be up
+wiss ze republic, suppose zey are not here!'
+
+'That Frenchman's an all-fired skite,' said the digger disgustedly. 'The
+swaddies don't like the job: they won't strike. We'll have the making of
+the fight, and we'll call time when it suits us.'
+
+'All the same,' commented Mike later, 'the Frenchman's got the safest
+grip o' things, it seems to me.'
+
+In the streets the watchword of the most serious of the diggers was 'Roll
+up!' and the friends heard it passing from lip to lip. They did not lack
+company on their way to Eureka, but Done experienced a keen
+disappointment in the absence of deep and genuine emotion amongst the
+main body of the men. The popular impression was that there would be no
+fighting; it was thought that the demonstration Lalor and his men were
+making would have the effect of bringing the powers to reason, and this
+opinion was held in spite of past bitter experience of the stupid
+immobility of the Legislative Council in Melbourne.
+
+The five friends were challenged at the stockade, and on expressing their
+wish to be enlisted were marched before an officer of the rebel forces
+and sworn in. Standing under the blue Australian flag, with its five
+silver stars, they took Peter Lalor's oath: 'We swear by the Southern
+Cross to stand truly by each other, and fight to defend our rights and
+liberties.'
+
+There was really no stockade in the military sense. The enclosure was
+little more than a drill-ground fenced with rough slabs. These slabs, a
+few logs, and two or three drays, represented all that had been attempted
+in the nature of a barricade, and could not have been expected by the
+least experienced of the insurgent leaders to offer any serious
+impediment to a charge of regulars. Two or three small companies of men
+were being drilled within the limited space, and Done and Burton were
+attached to one of these and the three Peetrees to another. At this point
+Jim was again sadly disillusioned. He was given no weapon but a pike--a
+short, not too sharp, blade of iron secured to a pole about five feet
+long. Pikes were the only arms the men of his company possessed, and a
+blacksmith, who had his smithy within the stockade, was hard at work
+manufacturing the primitive weapons. One small company was armed with
+rifles, and another with pistols, but ammunition was so scarce that these
+could be of no great value in the event of an early attack.
+
+Done estimated that there were about two hundred and fifty men within the
+stockade. He heard that there had been many more, but that the volunteers
+had returned to their camps on the surrounding fields to make further
+preparations, believing that there was no likelihood of an early
+encounter. There was much confusion on Eureka, and Jim could not see how
+the men were to benefit from the simple drill in which they were being
+instructed with great assiduity. The site chosen was an old mining
+ground, and the field was broken with holes and piles of dirt, rendering
+proper formation impossible; and although the leaders were serious and
+earnest men, the bulk of the rank and file preserved a spirit of careless
+levity, and were like big boys playing a game.
+
+The rebel leader addressed the men during the afternoon, and Jim listened
+to him with deep interest. Peter Lalor was a young Irishman, not yet
+thirty-five, not far short of six feet in height, and splendidly
+proportioned; keen-eyed, too, with regular features and a resolute,
+convincing air. There was a note of domination in the man's character,
+and he was certainly the strongest personality in the republican
+movement. He pleaded for zeal in the sacred cause for which they might
+presently be called upon to shed their hearts' blood, and although his
+language was as simple as the diggers' speech, there was a warmth in his
+manner that stirred the men, and a whole-hearted conviction pointed every
+phrase; but even while his rebels were gathered under arms and drilling
+behind a palisade within a short distance of the regular troops sent to
+suppress the expected out break on Ballarat, Lalor did not expect the
+authorities to take the initiative.
+
+As night fell fires were lit within the stockade. A slaughtered bullock
+lay on its skin, near the smithy, and from this the rebels who remained
+on Eureka cut steaks, and they cooked their own rough meal. It was
+Saturday, and a number of the diggers left the encampment to participate
+in the gaieties peculiar to the evening in the Main Road dancing-booths
+and in the pubs and shanty bars. As yet, so backward were the
+preparations, there was only the feeblest attempt at military discipline
+in the stockade, and the password was common property. A few zealous
+recruits continued their drilling by the light of the fires, and the
+smith toiled nobly at his pikes. His hammer rang a spirited tattoo on the
+anvil till far into the Sunday morning, and he and his grimy but tireless
+boy helper made a dramatic picture against the night in the glow of their
+open forge. The rebels played and sang, and there was a little skylarking
+amongst the younger men; but Done and his companions, wearied by their
+long tramp and the drilling, had spread their blankets on the ground, and
+made themselves as comfortable as possible, Jim watching the antics of
+the rebels through half-closed eyes, the others smoking thoughtfully.
+
+'Well, ole man, what d'yer think of it?' said Josh.
+
+'I don't like it,' answered Jim, feeling himself addressed.
+
+'Mus' say there ain't a very desperate air about the business so far.'
+
+'Why doesn't Paisely attack?' continued Done. 'He must know what's going
+on here. There's nothing to hinder him knowing as much of the rebels'
+business as Lalor himself, so far as I can see. Why doesn't he come on?'
+
+'You might join me in a little prayer that he won't,' said Mike. 'What
+sort o' chance 're we goin' to have if he drops in on us here with his
+mounted men?'
+
+'Mighty poor, and you can bet the Colonel knows it. Unless he's afraid of
+precipitating a general rising, he'll charge down here and wipe this
+place out.'
+
+'If there should be any fightin', gi' me a call, won't you?' said Harry,
+with a yawn.
+
+The others laughed and took the hint. Slowly the fires faded, and the
+encampment sank into stillness and silence, save for the slow movements
+of the sentinels and the clang of the smith's hammer. The night had been
+warm, the early hours of Sunday morning were cold, but the men were all
+accustomed to camping in the open, and, huddling together, they slept
+soundly. The lights of Ballarat had flickered out; the whole field lay in
+darkness. The slow hours stole on, the sentinels were changed, and
+absolute quiet descended upon Eureka, for even the heroic blacksmith had
+stretched himself by his forge, and was sleeping, with the boy by his
+side.
+
+'The swaddies are on us!'
+
+At about three o'clock that one fierce cry shook the camp into action.
+The men sprang from the ground; there was an almost simultaneous rush
+into position--the pikemen nearest the pickets, the rifle men to the
+left, the revolver corps to the right. It was a false alarm, but it gave
+Jim more confidence in the men, who had shown much better order than he
+had expected, and their promptness and determination pleased him.
+
+'They'll make a good fight of it when the swaddies do come,' he said
+cheerfully, as they settled down in their blankets.
+
+'My oath!' replied Mike. 'But we were chumps to give up our revolvers.
+What good can a man do pokin' round in the dark with a blanky spike?'
+
+The men lay with their primitive weapons in their hands. There was a
+little growling and cursing and once more the encampment was given over
+to sleep.
+
+Jim Done awoke as the grayness of dawn was creeping through the
+night--awoke with an idea that he was sleeping under the gum-trees. There
+was a vague belief in his head that he and his mates were on the wallaby,
+but where they were going to, he was too sleepy to decide. A slight
+drizzle was falling, but he curled himself in his blanket, and disposed
+himself to sleep again. Then, with the shock of a heavy blow, he heard a
+sharp voice challenging. A gunshot followed.
+
+This time there was no mistake. The men rushed to their positions, and
+the sudden confusion fell as suddenly into order. Jim found himself
+standing with his column, his pike grasped firmly in two hands, without
+quite realizing how it had come about that he was there. Mike was on his
+right; on his left was a little wild Irishman, and even in the intense
+excitement of that moment, when he could see the black line of infantry
+coming down upon them through the heavy dusk of early dawn, he marked the
+fierce, semi-conscious jabbering of the Paddy, with an inclination to
+laugh aloud.
+
+'Glory be, they're comin'! they're comin'! they're comin'! Plaze the
+pigs, I'll have wan! Jist wan 'll satisfy me. Blessed saints, make it the
+wan that shot O'Keif! Och, they're comin', th' darlin's! Hit home, Tim
+Canty, an' Holy Mary make it the wan that shot Barty O'Keif!'
+
+Jim's eyes were fixed upon the dark mass charging the stockade. The
+soldiers were now not more than sixty yards off, and he could see a
+horseman leading. He heard the order to charge, and heard Lalor's sharp,
+stern reply. There followed a blast of rifles from the stockade, and the
+shadowy equestrian figure leading the Imperial infantry became blurred
+and broken in the dusk and the thin rain, and the riderless horse at the
+head of the column cantered on, and leapt into the stockade through the
+smoke.
+
+'First blood!' muttered Mike, as the officer fell.
+
+Finding the attack concentrated on one point of the stockade, Lalor
+gathered his handful of rifles here, and they met the charge of the
+regulars with another volley, checking their advance. A volley from the
+carbines replied, and the lead whistled into the stockade. A pikeman ran
+forward a few steps, plunged on his face at Jim's feet, and lay still.
+
+'Holy Mother, if I can git wan iv them I'll be content--almost!'
+continued the little Irishman in his fierce monologue.
+
+'Down, men! Take cover under the logs!' said the captain of the pikes,
+and Done obeyed with the rest; and crouching there, hearing the cracking
+of the carbines, the terrible impatience of Canty began to work in his
+own blood. He felt himself to be utterly useless; his pike was impotent
+against the carbines of the enemy, and the lust of battle was in him. He
+burned for the stress of action, longed for the order to dash upon the
+enemy. It was difficult to repress the impatience that spurred him to
+jump to his feet, and, calling his mates to follow to throw himself
+against, the soldiers.
+
+That wait under the logs seemed interminable, and meanwhile the riflemen
+within the stockade and the carbineers without exchanged several volleys,
+and in between there was an indecisive pattering of independent rifles,
+and Jim saw the vague figures of his comrades falling in the gloom,
+falling falteringly, without apparent motive. He could not connect the
+discharge of the guns with the dropping of the wounded: it was all so
+cold-blooded, so dispassionate.
+
+'They're not comin'!' cried Canty, whose frenzy would not permit of his
+keeping cover. 'Why don't they come on like min? God sind me wan--jist--'
+
+He fell like a man whose legs had suddenly lost all power, and lay there,
+his face pressed to the moist earth, and Jim felt the dying man's fingers
+moving upon his leg in a trifling way. Presently a hand clutched his own,
+and he was drawn down.
+
+'Are you hit badly, old man?' said Done.
+
+'Mortal! I'm hit mortal bad!' The hand clung desperately, and Jim peered
+into Canty's face, and saw a smear of blood about his mouth. He was shot
+through the breast. 'Mate,' he said eagerly, 'kill wan fer me! Kill
+wan--if it's only a little wan!'
+
+'I'll do my best, old man.'
+
+'But one fer me, an' fer the good man they murthered. Say "Take that for
+Barty O'Keif!" when you hit him.'
+
+'So help me God, I will!'
+
+Jim placed Canty well under the cover of the logs, with his head pillowed
+on a clod.
+
+'Give me me pike here in the right hand. Good enough!' He lay quite still
+now, and muttered no more, but Jim could see his bright eyes stirring in
+the semi-darkness.
+
+The firing from without was maintained, but the swaddies were in no hurry
+to cover the patch of ground that lay between them and the stockade,
+although the insurgents had already almost exhausted their ammunition.
+Lalor sprang to the top of the barrier, and stood for a moment, turning
+as if to give an order, but the order was never spoken. A ball struck
+him, and he fell into the enclosure, severely wounded. The rebels had
+fought bravely so far. While their powder lasted they beat off the well
+armed, well trained regulars, and for twenty minutes held the swaddies at
+bay across their poor palisade; but at the expiration of that time there
+were not two dozen charges left in the stockade, and now the riflemen
+were ordered to retreat to the shallow shafts and use them as pits; and
+presently the noble 40th finding the resistance broken, was tearing at
+the logs and pickets, and at last the pikemen were on their feet and face
+to face with the foe.
+
+The infantry poured into the stockade with fixed bayonets, and against
+their experience and their efficient weapons the insurgents made a poor
+show; but they fought stubbornly, if clumsily, and now Jim found himself
+fighting in grim earnest. He saw a big Lanky spring at him from the logs,
+with bayonet set stock to hip, and with a lucky twist of, his pole he
+beat down the other's weapon. But the long hafts of the pikes made them
+most unwieldy, and in the few seconds that followed Jim stood
+cheek-by-jowl with death. Suddenly his eyes encountered the face of Canty
+over the left shoulder of the swaddy. The little Irishman had pulled
+himself to his feet, his back was to the logs, his pike raised in his two
+hands. Lurching forward, he plunged the blade into the neck of the
+soldier. The Lanky's bayonet dropped from his hand, and he fell
+backwards. The haft of the pike striking the ground stopped him for a
+moment, and then he swung sideways and dropped on to his face; the pike
+remaining wedged in his spine, the shaft sprang into the air in a manner
+that was never after quite free of a suggestion of the hideously
+ludicrous in Jim's mind. Canty stared for a moment at his fallen enemy,
+and then, uttering a strange Irish cry of exultation, he fell back across
+the logs, never to stir again.
+
+The fight at the logs was brief, but fierce. Finding the pikes useless
+for thrusting, many of the diggers clubbed them. Following this example,
+Jim swept a second soldier off his feet, and was laying about him with
+all his strength, when a cavalryman drove his horse at the stockade, and
+came over almost on top of him, slashing wildly right and left as he
+came. The soldier's sword struck Done on the left side of the head,
+inflicting a wound extending from the neck almost to the crown. Jim fell
+against the horse, clinging weakly to his pike, feeling the hot blood
+rolling down his neck. He saw the sword raised again, but at that instant
+a revolver flashed over his shoulder, and the mounted man dived forward,
+rolled on the neck of his horse, and slid slowly to the ground--dead. Jim
+turned and recognised the pale face of his brother in the dim light of
+morning, but at the same instant was struck again, and fell with a bullet
+in his shoulder.
+
+Wat Ryder uttered a fierce oath, and sprang at the bridle of the
+riderless horse. With the rein over his arm, he knelt by Jim's side, and
+endeavoured to rouse him. The infantry were now all within the stockade,
+pressing forward, firing amongst the scattered insurgents and into the
+holes where the riflemen were, and the cavalry and mounted troopers were
+pursuing the rebels, cutting them down ruthlessly.
+
+Ryder succeeded in getting Jim to his feet, and he clung limply to the
+horse's mane, only dimly conscious of what was happening.
+
+'For God's sake, make an effort, Jim!' cried Ryder. 'Here, up with you,
+stranger! I'll give the boy a lift,' said an insurgent, suddenly
+appearing from a hiding-place amongst the logs.
+
+Ryder vaulted to the back of the horse, and, with the assistance of Levi
+Long, for it was the American who had intervened, soon had Jim in the
+saddle. A few blows from Long's pike started the nag, and Ryder rushed
+him blindly at the slabs of the stockade, and the powerful animal
+blundered through. A shot from an infantryman, intended for the riders,
+struck the charger, and he plunged forward, snorting with pain, and
+bolted madly across the broken ground of Eureka, and Ryder, clinging to
+the unconscious man with one arm, made no attempt to check or regulate
+their dangerous flight.
+
+XIX
+
+IT was now almost day; the fighting was over. A smart shower had fallen
+during the struggle, and the wet pipeclay within the stockade was strewn
+with dead and wounded diggers, and along the line of attack taken by the
+three companies of infantry wounded and dead soldiers lay scattered,
+their red coats dotting the white ground with curious blotches of colour,
+the figures of the men still vague and indefinite in the mist and the
+feeble light of the dawning day. A wounded soldier near the logs writhed
+in his agony, with worm-like movements terrible to see. Confusion
+remained within the stockade. The killing was ended, but the prisoners
+were to be collected and guarded. Many of the insurgents had escaped,
+some by hiding in the claims, others by making a run for the surrounding
+diggings. A few brave friends who had hidden Peter Lalor under slabs
+sloped against a log succeeded in carrying the wounded leader away under
+the noses of the soldiers, and he escaped.
+
+The fight had not lasted half an hour, and by the time the people of
+Ballarat fully realized what was happening it was too late to give help
+to the devoted few within the stockade; and the men gathered as near the
+miniature battlefield as they were permitted to go, with white faces,
+awed and penitent, many feeling the keenest pangs of remorse, knowing how
+bitterly the earnest souls had paid for their neglect.
+
+One woman had made her way into the stockade within a few minutes of the
+firing of the last shot. She passed unnoticed in the confusion; her face
+was hidden in a shawl, and she went quickly amongst the fallen rebels.
+Some of the wounded men lay in puddles--these she helped; but it was
+evident that she was seeking someone she knew as she passed from one to
+another, peering into their faces, seeking to identify them in the feeble
+light.
+
+This was Aurora Griffiths, and she was seeking Jim Done, cherishing an
+agonized hope that she might not find him. One wounded man dragged
+himself to a puddle to satisfy his craving for drink, and died with his
+face in the thick water; another, a mere boy, was sitting with his back
+to a log, staring with a puzzled expression at the gory fingers he had
+dipped in his wound. Presently, coming to a man lying face downward where
+the soldiers had broken through, Aurora uttered a sharp cry. The figure
+was familiar. Quickly she turned the face to, the light. It was pale and
+bloodless; the only disfigurement was a small purple wound in a slight
+depression near the temple, but the man was dead.
+
+'It's Mike!' murmured Aurora. She knelt in the mud; her trembling hand
+sought his heart. 'Dead!' she cried. She looked about her in terror,
+then, rising to her feet, she ran to others lying near. They were
+strangers. 'Thank God!' she cried--' thank God!' Aurora returned to
+Mike's side, and, kneeling there, gazed upon him with streaming eyes.
+Burton's face had assumed a Spartan dignity in death. 'Poor, poor boy!'
+she said, and with her fingers upon his eyelids she whispered a prayer
+for his soul. It was long since she had minded to pray for her own, but
+the dead are so helpless. They invite even the intercession of the
+faithless.
+
+A soldier touched her on the shoulder.
+
+'You'll have to get out of this, miss,' he said. Glancing at the dead
+face, he corrected himself, and called her Mrs.
+
+Aurora went with him. She looked closely at the prisoners as they passed,
+but Jim Done was not amongst them. Beyond the cordon of troopers she was
+liberated, and returned wearily to Mrs. Kyley's tent, for the Kyleys had
+shifted their prosperous business to the vicinity of Bakery Hill a month
+before. At the tent-door she was met by Mary.
+
+'He is not amongst the dead, thank God!' said Aurora, 'and he's not with
+the prisoners. Jim is safe, but poor Mike Burton--'
+
+'Wounded, is he?'
+
+'Dead. Shot through the head.'
+
+Mrs. Kyley threw up her hands. 'My God!' she said. 'The poor lad! Oh,
+Aurora, my dear girl, it's a bad, bad business!' The tears were trickling
+down Mrs. Ben's plump cheeks.
+
+'Why, Mary, what else has happened?'
+
+Mrs. Kyley had set her large bulk before the girl, barring the door.
+
+'You'd better not go in yet awhile, Joy darling.'
+
+'What is it--is it Ben?'
+
+'No, no, it's not Ben, but someone is in there who is hurt pretty badly.'
+
+Somebody I know?' Aurora clutched Mary Kyley's arm, and stared into her
+face with a sudden new fear.
+
+'Yes, deary, somebody you know.'
+
+It's Jim!'
+
+Mary Kyley nodded her bead, and mopped her tears. 'Yes, it's Jimmy Done.'
+
+Aurora paled to her eyes, her lips tightened to thin purple lines across
+her white teeth, and she fought with Mary for a moment, seeking to make
+her way into the tent; but Mrs. Kyley was a powerful woman, and in her
+grasp, when she was really determined, Aurora was as a mere child.
+
+'For God's sake, let me see him!' said the young woman.
+
+'You mustn't be a fool, Aurora,' the washerwoman said firmly. 'I can't
+let you go blundering in on to a sick man--and this one is a very sick
+man.'
+
+'He's dying!'
+
+'No, no; he'll not die easily--he's tough stuff; but he's got two ugly
+wounds, and we'll have to handle him fine and gently. Pull yourself up,
+Aurora dear.' She wound her strong arms fondly about the girl and kissed
+her cheek, and, with a restraining arm still about her, led her into the
+tent.
+
+Jim Done lay on Mary Kyley's comfortable white bed. His face was ghastly.
+Aurora uttered a little cry of pain and terror at the sight of him. There
+was blood upon the sheets and the pillows, and Wat Ryder, working in his
+shirt-sleeves, was deftly closing a gaping scalp wound with horsehair
+stitches.
+
+Ryder had carried Jim straight to Kyley's tent, and Mrs. Ben received the
+wounded man with open arms.
+
+'We may be followed,' he said. 'I've brought him out of the thick of it.
+Keep watch, please, and give me warning if you see anything of the
+troopers. May I use your bed?'
+
+'My bed! Yes, and my blood and bones if they're any good to you.'
+
+'Your eyes can do me better service. I'm a done man if the police lay a
+hand on me, and Jim here needs attention.'
+
+'Then, go to work with an easy mind.'
+
+So Mary kept watch while Ryder worked over Jim with the quickness and
+decision of a surgeon. It was not the first time by many that he had
+dealt with ugly wounds.
+
+'Don't neglect the watch,' he said, a minute after Aurora's entrance.
+
+Mary looked at Aurora. The girl was now apparently quite composed; she
+had cast aside the shawl, and was hastily tying on an apron. So Mrs.
+Kyley slipped out again, quite reassured.
+
+'It would be better, perhaps, if I held his head,' said Aurora.
+
+'Yes,' answered Ryder shortly.
+
+She seated herself on the bed, and took Done's head between her hands,
+raising it, and Ryder continued his work rapidly. No further words were
+spoken till the scalp wound was stitched, and Aurora, gazing into the
+seemingly lifeless face of the patient, had a strange feeling of
+insensibility, as if all her emotions were numbed for the time. There was
+not a tremor in her fingers; she felt that under the influence that
+possessed her she could have suffered any trial without a cry.
+
+'Now hunt up anything that will do for bandages,' said the man.
+
+She lowered Jim's head gently to the pillow again, and made haste to
+obey, while Ryder examined the bullet-wound. He showed her how to tear
+the material, and then bandaged the patient's head.
+
+'I was assistant in a hospital for a time,' he said, in explanation of
+his masterly work, but he did not say that it was a gaol hospital in
+which he had gathered his experience.
+
+Aurora watched the man's hands. They were extraordinary hands, long and
+very narrow--wonderfully capable they seemed. They inspired her with
+complete faith. He was feeling for the ball in Jim's shoulder. She helped
+him to turn the young man upon his face, and the slim, dexterous fingers
+probed the flesh above the shoulder-blades.
+
+'Ah!' he said, with a sigh of relief; and taking his knife, he cut
+boldly, and, behold--the bullet! It was like a feat of legerdemain. This
+cut was washed with fluid from a small bottle on the table, smartly
+stitched, and then, after the wound in front had been treated, the
+shoulder was firmly bandaged, and Ryder seemed satisfied. He was none too
+soon, for at that moment Mary Kyley darted in.
+
+'Half a dozen troopers are coming along the hill,' she said.
+
+'Bluff them!' said Ryder quickly. 'If they insist on searching, swear the
+boy was hurt at a blast. Cover his shoulders. Show no surprise in any
+alteration in my appearance. I am a customer.' 'He snatched his coat and
+revolver, and sprang into the next tent.'
+
+At that moment the sound of horses' hoofs was heard on the gravel, and a
+voice cried 'Halt!' Mrs. Kyley's broad figure filled the doorway.
+
+'How many of those blackguard rebels are you hiding in your tent, Mother
+Kyley?' said the sergeant.
+
+'Is that you, Sergeant Wallis? Was there ever so attentive an admirer?
+You'd follow me to the world's end for the love you have of me. I've a
+dozen rebels inside. Come and be introduced.'
+
+A tall bearded digger with a loaf of bread under his arm had slouched
+from the business tent, and stood watching the scene with incurious eyes.
+
+'Who the devil are you, and where did you spend last night, my man?' said
+the trooper.
+
+'I'm a party by the name of Smith, Ephraim Smith--called Eph. I spent
+last night in my bunk, bein' too damn drunk to join the boys down there,
+worse luck!'
+
+'Your license, Mr. Ephraim Smith.'
+
+The license was handed up, and found correct. 'You had too much
+discretion to burn your license with the rest of the seditious
+blackguards, at any rate, Mr. Smith.'
+
+As it happens.'
+
+'And your ruffianly husband, Mrs. Kyley?'
+
+'I haven't such a thing about me; but if you mean Ben Kyley,' said Mary,
+'come down in your private capacity, sergeant, and put the question to
+him in the same gentlemanly way. I'll hold your coat and see you get fair
+play, if I have to referee the argument myself.'
+
+'Where is Kyley, you harridan?'
+
+'He went out an hour ago to watch the murder and manslaughter going on
+down at Eureka, Sergeant Wallis, and if you miscall me again, you
+Vandemonian pig-stealer, I'll drag you from your horse and drown you in a
+tub of suds!'
+
+Wallis struck his horse with his open hand, and rode away, followed by
+his men, laughing back at the seemingly furious Mrs. Kyley, whose assumed
+anger, however, suddenly gave place to a broad grin as they passed from
+sight, and she winked a mischievous aside at the bearded digger.
+
+'My oath, but that's a beautiful beard you have,' she said. 'I've a mind
+to see how it would suit me.'
+
+'Get a doctor to Done as quickly as you can. There are several among the
+diggers who'll stand by you,' said Ryder, disregarding Mary's levity.
+'You'll look after him? You can draw on me for money to any amount.'
+
+'I'll look after the poor boy, and I won't draw on you for a sixpence.'
+
+'He's with good friends, I know.'
+
+'He is. There's a girl in there who would work the fingers off her two
+hands to serve him.'
+
+'I will call again when I can, and as often as I can, but I'm in no
+little danger myself.
+
+I understand. You were one of Lalor's men.' Ryder nodded. That idea would
+suit him very well.
+
+Then, if it wasn't that I love the boy in there, I'd do it for your sake
+as a good man and true,' continued Mary.
+
+Ryder gave a few directions as to the treatment of the patient and then
+turned and sauntered away, carrying the loaf under his arm. Mary
+reentered the tent, and found Aurora, very pale but apparently quite
+calm, busying herself about the patient. She had removed all the blood
+articles, and they lay in a heap on the floor. These Mrs. Kyley would
+have gathered up, but the girl interfered.
+
+'No, no,' she said, 'leave it to me--leave it all to me! I must work--I
+must be busy! If I stopped now my heart would break. Look at him!'
+
+'My God! it is very like death,' whispered Mrs. Kyley.
+
+It was not easy to get a doctor in Ballarat that day. Ben was entrusted
+with the mission, and warned to proceed cautiously. He found the doctors
+in urgent demand. There were wounded men hidden away in many places, and
+the authorities had obtained a monopoly of the services of the practising
+physicians. At ten o'clock that night Ben led a young Scotchman named
+Clusky in triumph to the tent. Clusky had qualified but gold on the
+rushes had proved more attractive than the wearisome hunt for fees in a
+Scottish villages and on Ballarat Dr. Clusky was a working miner.
+
+'He's the third to-day,' Clusky said to Mary, 'and the worst--by far the
+worst. No fool did that, though,' he continued, referring to the
+bandaging of the shoulder, as he rapidly removed the linen. 'The damage
+is not so very great here, after all,' he said a moment later; 'but
+there's no blood to spare left in his veins, poor devil!'
+
+The doctor refused to interfere with Ryder's stitching in the scalp
+wound, and gave a long prescription and much advice, and Jim was left to
+the tender mercies of Aurora, Mary, and Ben. Ryder called every night for
+a week, and then, having received a favourable verdict from the doctor,
+disappeared, his disappearance being satisfactorily accounted for by the
+earnest inquiries of a police officer who called upon Ben a few days
+later. Meantime, Harry Peetree, who had remained in Ballarat to try and
+discover the whereabouts of Jim and Mike, hunted the Kyleys out, and
+learned the truth. He left a message for Jim, and then followed his
+father and brother, who had made for Simpson's Ranges again immediately
+after their escape from the stockade. But ere this, and long before Jim
+Done was again conscious of the world about him, poor Mike Burton had
+been buried with the rest of the slain insurgents in a common grave.
+
+Fever supervened on Jim Done's injuries, and December passed as he lay
+helpless in Mary Kyley's tent, babbling of Chisley, of life on the
+Francis Cadman, and of Diamond Gully and Boobyalla. The injury to his
+head proved the most serious wound, and there were moments when despair
+filled the heart of Aurora; but she nursed him with a devotion that
+overlooked nothing, and Mrs. Kyley, and Ben, and the business were all
+sacrificed to the patient's needs. Mrs. Kyley and Ben made the sacrifice
+gladly, the former because of the big soft heart she hid under her
+formidable bulk, and Ben because gall and wormwood were sweet compared
+with the bitterness he felt in being one of the many whose neglect had
+contributed to the sacrifice of the rebels in the stockade. Business was
+practically suspended in the shanty while Done lay in the adjoining tent,
+only peaceful drinkers being permitted to refresh themselves with Mary's
+wonderful rum. Mrs. Ben, too, was indefatigable in her care of the
+wounded man; but Aurora was jealous of her labour of love, and Mary was
+sometimes compelled to force her to take rest, and to go out in the open
+air and make some effort to drive the pallor from her cheeks.
+
+Aurora's beauty was entirely the beauty of perfect health and fine
+vitality; under the influence of her long labours and the wearing anxiety
+she endured her good looks faded. She was apparently years older than she
+had seemed a month before.
+
+'Your prettiness is all dying out of you, dear,' said Mary; 'you must
+rest yourself, you must go into the air and let the roses freshen again,
+or the boy won't look at you when he wakes.'
+
+''Twill all come back fast enough when he is well,' Aurora would answer;
+and it was into her pale face that Jim gazed with a long look of
+childlike gravity when he opened his eyes to consciousness. She detected
+the light of reason in his gaze, and her fingers clasped his hand. From
+her face his eyes went slowly round the apartment, lingering with an
+intent look on familiar objects, and then they went to the roof, and for
+fully twenty minutes he watched the glowing patch where a sunbeam struck
+the canvas cover, and there was in his face something of the wonder of a
+creature born into a new world. Aurora was very grave: she did not smile,
+her heart felt no elation--it was numb and old. Jim had a perplexing
+sensation of feathery lightness; he felt like a frail snowflake in an
+unsubstantial world. The bed under him was a bed of gossamer, if not
+wholly visionary. He might fall through at any moment, and if he did he
+might go on falling endlessly, a pinch of down in a bottomless abyss. He
+tried to close his fingers on Aurora's strong hand. He knew she was
+there, and she was real, substantial, although something of the wanness
+of this mysterious world was about her.
+
+'Joy,' he whispered. She bent her head to him. 'Where--what--' He
+relapsed with a sigh. After all, it did not matter.
+
+'You have been very ill, Jimmy,' she said.
+
+His eyes moved to her face again, and he tried to nod, but found that
+that was too much trouble too. It was too much trouble to pretend to
+understand even. Aurora would hold him and prevent his floating out into
+the fantastical, fairy atmosphere. It seemed right and natural that she
+should be there. He had quite expected it. But had he? The train of
+thought was too laborious: he abandoned it. Joy gave him something to
+drink. She poured it into his mouth, and it ran down his throat. It was
+good, wonderfully good--nectar, surely. Had he been told it was water he
+would have resented the lie with as much energy as he was capable of
+putting into any thought, and that was just the thin, silken line, next
+to none at all. As a matter of fact, Joy had given him nothing but water.
+It seemed to add to his weight, to give some little quality of substance
+to his being. He thought he might thank her with a pressure of his
+fingers presently, but the necessary power did not come, and he drifted
+into sleep.
+
+XX
+
+THE Christmas of 1854 was the gayest ever known at Boobyalla; never had
+Mrs. Donald Macdougal been so prodigal, never had such lavish hospitality
+been dispensed under Macdougal's roof-tree, and the squatter wore a dour
+and anxious look as he saw the liquor flowing, and heard the music, and
+the laughter, and the clatter of dishes, and found himself in collision
+with his wife's guests in all the passages and windings of his large,
+wandering homestead. Macdougal, who, in addition to his sobriquet of
+Monkey Mack, was known as Old Dint-the-Tin by the sundowners, shearers,
+and miscellaneous swagmen to whom he sold pints of flour out of a
+pannikin dinted in to shorten the measure, was not miserly in his
+dealings with his wife and his children. He was reputed to be mean enough
+to steal the buttons off a shepherd's shirt for his own use, and yet
+permitted his wife to indulge in all the extravagances of purple and fine
+linen, and paid, if not cheerfully--for it was not in his nature to be
+cheerful over anything--at least without open complaint, for social
+indulgences that ate up a large part of the results of his miraculous
+economies in station management, and a sedulous penuriousness in
+everything beyond his wife, his children, and his few favourite horses.
+
+But on this occasion Mrs. Macdougal had outdone herself, and had exceeded
+all her previous efforts to shine as a generous hostess. Her aim had been
+to make Boobyalla the centre of attraction for thirty miles round
+throughout the merry Yuletide, and for nearly two weeks Donald had gone
+about with an air of lively trepidation, due to an idea that he was being
+brought precipitately to ruin by all this wasteful and ridiculous excess.
+When Mrs. Macdougal's guests came upon her lord and master laboriously
+casting up sums with a stab of carpenter's pencil on bits of waste-paper,
+or smooth chips, or even on the walls, they understood perfectly that he
+was satisfying himself, with accurate calculations, that the shameful
+increase in the household expenses their presence entailed had not
+dragged him over the jealously guarded margin between income and
+expenditure.
+
+Mrs. Macdougal's guests did not mind Macdougal in the least, however; the
+eccentricities of Old Dint-the-Tin were well known to the neighbouring
+squatters, and from their point of view, as visitors at Boobyalla on
+pleasure bent, he did not count. They bumped against him in the dark
+passages of his absurdly disjointed house, and found him on occasions in
+the drawing-room and the dining-room, but nothing was done or left undone
+out of consideration for his feelings. If they were content to talk about
+sheep and cattle, he would converse with them, and he was even capable of
+enthusiasm on the subject of horses, but evidently had no interests apart
+from these matters. Nobody outside the family circle had known him to
+address more than half a dozen words to his wife at one time, and his
+average remark contained one monosyllable. He behaved a good deal like a
+stranger towards his own children. Occasionally he went so far as to
+place a hand on a curly head, with an uncouth show of interest, or to say
+a few words of kindness; but it was done diffidently, and a close
+observer might have detected in the man a sensitive shrinking from the
+idea of bringing his misshapen figure and weird ugliness into contrast
+with the peculiar beauty of the youngsters. The only human creature about
+Boobyalla in whose company he seemed to be quite at home was Yarra, the
+half-caste aboriginal boy, scandalously reputed in the neighbourhood--not
+without excellent reason, it must be admitted--to be his own son.
+
+We have seen Donald Macdougal, J.P., as he appeared in Melbourne, but
+that was on one of the few very special occasions when he condescended to
+'dress up.' At home on Boobyalla his usual attire comprised a heavy pair
+of water-tights, old trousers, much the worse for wear more senses than
+one, hanging in great folds, a dark gray jumper tucked into the trousers,
+and a battered felt hat, pulled, after long service, into the shape of a
+limp cone. The only concession to 'company manners' Mack would make was
+in drawing on a despised black coat over his collarless jumper.
+
+In addition to the peculiarities already mentioned, Donald Macdougal had
+an extraordinary trick of chewing his tongue, and a most disconcerting
+habit of allowing his trousers to drift down, wrinkle after wrinkle, till
+chance strangers fell into an agony of apprehension, and then suddenly
+recovering them with a with a convulsion of his body that was entirely
+instinctive.
+
+And yet nobody with a pinch of brains ever made the mistake of supposing
+Donald Macdougal to be a fool. Old Dint-the-Tin was a wealthy man, and
+had made his fortune out of the land by exercising a shrewdness that was
+the envy of half the squatters in the colony, and had no apparent desire
+in life but to go on increasing that fortune in the same way, although
+there were some who credited him with a great if secret satisfaction in
+seeing his wife outdo the wives of his neighbours in the social graces, a
+satisfaction superior to the gratification he derived from adding to his
+great accumulation in the Bank of New South Wales.
+
+Mrs. Macdougal spent a merry Christmas, if not a New Year. She was
+extremely fond of company, particularly the company of young people, and
+that amiable trait was indulged to the utmost. She had drawn her guests
+from far and wide, and the most superior people amongst the 'squatocracy'
+had not hesitated to accept her invitations, although there were a few
+who in her absence occasionally referred to her as the cow-girl, to show
+they had no intention of forgetting the fact that she was once dairymaid
+to Mrs. Martin Cargill at Longabeena. But society at this stage could not
+very well afford to be punctilious in the matter of parentage and
+pedigree, and Mrs. Mack derived no little satisfaction from the mystery
+surrounding her birth. Her father had carried her to Longabeena, a child
+just able to toddle; he described himself as a widower, and asked for
+work, and it was given him, but a week later he disappeared, leaving
+little Marcia, and the Cargills never heard of him again.
+
+This Mrs. Macdougal found ever so much nicer than having prosaic parents
+who could be produced at any moment; it left a wide field for the
+imagination, and Marcia was free to think herself a misplaced princess,
+or, at the very least, the daughter of a distressed earl. Naturally,
+being a sentimental soul, she provided herself with a sufficiently
+romantic history up to the moment of the disappearance of her nondescript
+papa; and if she could not substantiate it, there was much satisfaction
+in knowing that no body could disprove it. That she had been christened
+with an aristocratic and poetical name like Marcia she held to be
+convincing testimony of her inherent gentility.
+
+Not a little of the extra merriment of Mrs. Macdougal's Christmas and the
+happiness of her New Year was due to the fortunate circumstance that she
+had a lion to present to her guests in the person of the Honourable
+Walter Ryder. It was Marcia herself who insisted upon giving Mr. Walter
+Ryder the title of quality; he merely implied that at the most he was a
+man of good family, eccentric enough to prefer the rough-and-ready
+Australian life to the methodical weariness of the social order 'at
+home'; and when his hostess laughingly insisted on not being deceived by
+his plebeian pretensions, he gallantly submitted.
+
+'Give me what title you please, Mrs. Macdougal,' he said; 'you are my
+queen.'
+
+Mr. Ryder had done Macdougal of Boobyalla a great service in rescuing him
+and his sovereigns from the revolver and the predatory fingers of Dan
+Coleman and one of his gang, and was always welcome to Boobyalla. To be
+sure, Macdougal was not to be expected to know how much Coleman had been
+paid for providing Walter Ryder with this opportunity of ingratiating
+himself with a prominent squatter, the proprietor of a large sheep-run.
+The Honourable Walter arrived at the station a week before Christmas,
+riding a fine gray horse, and carrying with him the paraphernalia of a
+gentleman. His clothing was cut in the latest possible London style, and
+he was splendidly equipped. He lamented the one thing Australia could not
+produce, a satisfactory valet.
+
+'My profound objection to democracy as a principle arises from the fact
+that the levelling process destroys our perfect valets,' he told Mrs.
+Macdougal.
+
+'Oh yes, it does, does it not?' she answered brightly. Possibly it was to
+provide for his deficiency in this respect that after a few days'
+residence on Boobyalla Mr. Ryder was at no little expense and trouble to
+win the good graces of Yarra, the half-caste. Yarra was a remarkably
+clever tracker, and uncommonly cute for his years; but within a fortnight
+the new comer had secured so powerful an influence over him that the boy
+had confided to one of the gins:
+
+'That plurry pfeller good man him. Mine die alonga that pfeller!' meaning
+that he would cheer fully have given his life for Ryder, which was a
+great deal, coming from the child of an undemonstrative race.
+
+Yarra had been ordered by Mrs. Macdougal to consider himself Mr. Ryder's
+servant during the latter's stay at Boobyalla, and as there was always a
+danger of a man of the Honourable Walter's inexperience being bushed if
+he rode alone, Yarra followed him on many of his long rides into the
+ranges, and helped him to explore the gorges and secret recesses of the
+heavily-timbered hills; but as a rule Mrs. Macdougal accompanied the
+Englishman, and then Yarra's services were not required. On occasions
+Miss Lucy Woodrow made a third, riding a hardy little chestnut mare her
+mistress had placed at her disposal.
+
+These parties were usually very merry, for Lucy had been transformed into
+quite a daring Bush-rider, and Mrs. Macdougal, accustomed to the use of
+many horses since her babyhood, could sit anything in reason with the
+ease with which she reclined in her invalid chair when her languishing
+mood was upon her; while Ryder, to repeat Monkey Mack's compliment, rode
+'like a cattle thief.'
+
+Ryder's horsemanship and his interest in horses formed something like a
+bond of sympathy between him and his host, too. Macdougal never walked a
+hundred yards from his own door; he rode every where, and rode hard
+always. Mike Burton's description of him was quite accurate in this
+respect. He no sooner got across a good horse, or behind one, than he
+seemed to become possessed with a sort of frenzy of speed, and rode and
+drove like a madman. He had killed many horses, and once a fine animal
+died under him, leaving him about fifty miles from home, with one pint in
+his water-bag and he was nearly dead himself when at length he succeeded
+in dragging his misshapen limbs to one of the huts on the run. When Ryder
+first saw Mack on a galloping horse he was reminded of a goat-riding
+monkey he had seen at a fair in his youth, and had a convulsive
+disposition to laughter; but he learned to respect the horseman who
+pushed a spirited animal through timber at a speed that an ordinary rider
+rarely indulged in on an open road.
+
+The Honourable Walter was at some little trouble to win the good graces
+of his host; he admired his horses with unaffected enthusiasm,
+particularly Wallaroo, the beautiful bay entire that had excited Mike's
+admiration, reputedly the fastest animal in the colony, and Macdougal's
+pride and joy. He even consented to be educated on the points of cattle,
+and to absorb useful information in homeopathic doses about the various
+breeds of sheep; but Mack never at any time seemed grateful to Ryder for
+his kindly condescension, and the affliction under the influence of which
+Mack indulged in strange and disconcerting gymnastics with his tongue
+rendered conversation with him something of an ordeal, even to a man of
+Ryder's insensitive character. Mack's tongue seemed to become too large
+for his mouth at times, and then he obtruded it, rolled it first in one
+cheek and then in the other, chewed it, and finished with an amazing
+gulp, implying that the troublesome organ was at length effectually
+disposed of.
+
+'He's been like that as long as I've known him, and I met him first on
+the Liverpool Plains in New South twenty years ago,' said Martin Cargill
+of Longabeena to Ryder. 'He seems exactly the same man now as then.'
+
+'Yet these little peculiarities did not make him impossible in the eyes
+of the fair,' answered Ryder. 'He has a charming wife.'
+
+'Oh yes but he had heaps of gold.'
+
+'Enough to gild that dome on his back!'
+
+'And a girl had not many opportunities of picking and choosing in the
+Bush here ten years ago.'
+
+'Besides, the sex is so compassionate, Mr. Cargill; the ladies love us
+for our imperfections.'
+
+'Have you been dearly loved, Mr. Ryder?' asked an impudent Sydneyside
+girl of nineteen.
+
+'No, no!' laughed Ryder; 'my opportunities have neglected me terribly!'
+
+Conversation sometimes ran in this vein even at Boobyalla, and when it
+did Ryder was responsible for much confusion of thought. Conversation in
+the main dealt with riding-trips, dancing-parties, the stirring incidents
+of the goldfields, and that prolific subject in all societies and at all
+times--scandal. Mrs. Macdougal would have been thunderstruck to know that
+she and her British lion provided the choicest morsels for discussion for
+some days prior to the breaking up of the party.
+
+The Honourable Walter Ryder had been a great social success; he had
+introduced an absolutely foreign element into the Bush party. His pose of
+the cynical, dashing, amiable aristocrat, with a cheerful contempt for
+all aristocratic pretensions, was admirably sustained. His ready
+good-fellowship pleased the men; his good looks, his facility in adopting
+a deep interest in his companion for the moment, and his flow of spirits,
+delighted the women; and yet it not infrequently happened that his
+conversation was designed more for his own edification than for the
+entertainment of his hearers. It seemed to Lucy Woodrow that the man only
+half concealed a sort of mephistophelian contempt for the people towards
+whom he still contrived to maintain a semblance of cordiality.
+
+The interesting Englishman was certainly very attentive to Mrs.
+Macdougal, and Mrs. Macdougal was certainly very much flattered and
+disturbed by his attentions. The gossip that had sprung up, from which
+the principals, and Lucy, Mr. and Mrs. Cargill, and Macdougal alone were
+excluded, was, to some extent, founded on fact, and the guests left the
+house reluctantly, confident that interesting mischief was brewing at
+Boobyalla.
+
+For all this, Ryder's attitude towards Marcia in the presence of her
+guests had been merely a piquant travesty of that of an adorer. He had
+offered her gallant homage with a humorous reservation. Perhaps he had
+reckoned on a keener sense of humour than the guests were possessed of.
+At any rate, they preferred to put a rather serious construction on all
+they saw. But Mrs. Macdougal alone had good reason for regarding her lion
+in a serious light; she alone saw him in his other guise, that of the
+passionate man whose passions burnt behind a cold face--pale as if with
+the pallor of a prison that could never leave it, handsome with a quality
+of suggestive beauty most certain to appeal to a simple, romantic woman.
+Already Walter Ryder had infused a new strain into Marcia Macdougal's
+character--terror, the terror that is akin to love, had endowed her with
+a womanly gravity. Though the other guests had been gone a fortnight or
+more, Ryder still remained at Boobyalla.
+
+Lucy Woodrow was deeply interested in Ryder. He treated her as a comrade,
+an equal, and she could not help noticing the difference in his tone
+toward her and that he had adopted towards the others, nor could she help
+being flattered by the implied compliment. She was exempt from his
+raillery. All along he inferred that she understood him, and accepted his
+veneer of jocosity and insincerity at its true value.
+
+'What a hypocrite you are!' she said one afternoon, as they rode in the
+shadow of the range. The children on their ponies were cantering ahead.
+
+'I a hypocrite!' he exclaimed. 'Why, I have not pretended to a single
+virtue.'
+
+'No,' she continued laughingly, 'you are a hypocrite of the other sort.
+You pretend to be cruel, and callous, and careless of all that's good--a
+cynic and a mocker. But I have found you out: you are really gentle and
+kind--an amiable hypocrite.'
+
+'Miss Woodrow, you are taking my character away.'
+
+'Pish! the disguise was too thin. Why, the children have penetrated it.
+So has poor Yarra. They love you! You are brave--you rescued Mr.
+Macdougal from the Bushrangers. You are generous--you do not try to make
+him appear contemptible because of his afflictions, as some of the others
+have done. You are gentle--I see it in your bearing towards the little
+ones. You are kind, and Yarra is devoted to you.'
+
+'And yet I swear there are no wings under my coat.'
+
+'Often, when looking at you, I wonder at your resemblance to Mr Done; and
+I wonder most when I find you expressing a vein of thought I believed to
+be peculiar to him. It makes me think that there is something in common
+between you, aside from your physical likeness, if only a common wrong,
+or a common sorrow, that has coloured your characters.'
+
+'It is hard to hide anything from those divine eyes,' he said gravely.
+
+'I have guessed rightly?'
+
+'Believe me, if I ever make confession, it shall be to one quick in
+sympathy and merciful in judgment as you are.' There was a strain of deep
+emotion in his voice, and as he reached towards her she gave him her
+hand, and he pressed her slender fingers gently and gratefully,
+continuing with feeling, and in the manner of one whose superior years
+gave him the privilege: 'Lucy, you are as good as you are beautiful, and
+in all sincerity I say I have never seen a woman one half as beautiful as
+you appear in my eyes at this moment.'
+
+He had given the girl an impression that she was helping him, that her
+sympathy was precious. In her innocence she was deeply stirred, and yet
+glad at heart. She was silent for some minutes, and then said:
+
+'Do you know, I think you sometimes underestimate Mrs. Macdougal's
+sensibilities.'
+
+'In what manner?'
+
+'I think you hurt her without being conscious of it. Her sense of humour
+is not keen, and I know she is pained when you least suspect it.'
+
+A ghost of a smile stirred about Ryder's mouth. 'I would not pain her for
+the world,' he said. 'She is a kindly little woman, and her hospitality
+is charming; but you must admit she is droll. What are my faults?'
+
+'Forgive me if I seem to be treating you as a pupil.'
+
+'There is no one on earth to whom I would rather go to school.
+
+'Well, then, you must not laugh at Mrs. Macdougal.
+
+'But, really, is one expected to take those extravagantly romantic poses
+seriously?'
+
+'They are meant seriously.'
+
+'The eyes and sighs, the pensive melancholy, the little maladies, the
+mysterious missing family? You must not tell me this is not burlesque.'
+
+'I am sure you know it is not. Mrs. Macdougal has dreamed so much
+rubbish, and read so much more, that all this humbug has become part of
+her nature, and one has to be a bit of a humbug one's self and humour her
+out of kindness In her girlhood there was no escape from the loneliness
+and stupidity of the Bush but in dreams.
+
+'My manners have been abominable. I shall mind them now.'
+
+The evening of that day was spent in the garden before the homestead. The
+day had been hot--there had been Bush-fires. The smoke hung about, and
+the big moon floated like a great round blood-red kite above the range.
+Ryder was sitting by Mrs. Macdougal on the garden-seat; Lucy played with
+the children on the grass till it was their bed time, when the three
+romped indoors together. Mrs. Macdougal turned her eyes upon Ryder
+timidly, expecting the usual change in his demeanour. She had used all
+her little arts on this man--the foolish, simple devices with which she
+had bewitched the captain of the Francis Cadman, and with no more guile
+in her soul. Suddenly she discovered the danger, but not before he had
+turned her comedy into a tragedy. He overawed her, dominated her; she
+dreaded him, and yet adored him as a splendid hero of romance.
+
+He moved nearer into the shadow of the honey suckle and seized her hand.
+
+'Marcia,' he said in a low voice, 'I can pretend no longer. I am sick of
+the farce of treating you as a child before these people, while all the
+time my heart hungers for you. I love you, Marcia!'
+
+'For pity's sake--for pity's sake!' she said, struggling weakly.
+
+'You know I love you. You have known it all along. Oh, my queen, how
+could I help loving you--a rose in this wilderness? Marcia, Marcia, love
+me! By God, you shall!' He kissed her again and again.
+
+She ceased struggling. 'I do love you,' she said. 'I don't care--I don't
+care; I love you! Oh, how can I help myself? I have been mad, but I love
+you! I don't care; I love you!'
+
+XXI
+
+IT was February, and the Honourable Walter Ryder lingered at the
+homestead. He had broached to Macdougal an intention of buying the whole
+of the next season's wool-clip at Boobyalla, and carrying it back to
+England with him. He thought it might be a profitable investment. He had
+talked of going, but was pressed to stay; and meanwhile the change in
+Mrs. Macdougal was so marked that Lucy had often commented on it to
+Ryder. A real romance had come into Marcia's life--a terrible one, she
+thought it--and her poor little foolish dreams were swept away. They had
+been innocent enough, those fanciful imaginings of hers, and had given
+her some joy. This reality filled her with agonies of apprehension. She
+was never free of terror, and found herself studying her husband's
+impassive face, wondering what was behind those dull eyes, fearing the
+worst always.
+
+Ryder had been most attentive to Lucy Woodrow during the last two or
+three weeks. He accompanied her and the children on their daily ride, and
+he had taught Lucy to shoot with both fowling-piece and revolver. She was
+a good pupil, and enjoyed the sport. Her facility gave her a peculiar
+pleasure that was sweetened by his praise. He still greeted her with
+studied deference, and in his transient moments of melancholy he spoke
+feelingly of a life's sorrow.
+
+'There was a wound I thought would never heal,' he told her one day; 'but
+the pain is gone--the memory will go. What cannot a good woman do with
+the life of a man? But how few of us learn the potency of these sweet and
+tender hands until perhaps it is too late!' He bent over her hand, and,
+turning away, left her abruptly.
+
+Marcia noticed his marked attentions to Lucy, and complained tremblingly
+and with tears.
+
+'Nonsense!' he said; 'there is nothing in it. It is to divert suspicion.
+I want the people about to think it is Miss Woodrow I love. They must
+never know it is you, my queen!' He kissed her cheek. 'And you need have
+no fear, Marcia. She is devoted to that man Done.'
+
+But at length Ryder announced his intention of leaving. He could put off
+his departure no longer than a week, he told Marcia, and a few minutes
+later conveyed the news to Lucy. He was sitting in one of the windows
+when she came on to the veranda.
+
+'Have they told you I am leaving?' he asked abruptly.
+
+'Leaving!' She was about to take a book from the small table, but did not
+do so. She turned from him, and stood with face averted, plucking at the
+vine tendrils. 'At once?' she asked.
+
+'Almost. I fear I have outstayed my welcome.'
+
+'That is hardly fair.'
+
+'True, you have been very, very kind. I can never forget your goodness.'
+
+'You owe me no gratitude. After all, I am only governess here.'
+
+'I owe you more than anyone else--I owe you the happiness Boobyalla could
+never have given me without you.'
+
+'You have not told me when you leave.'
+
+'In a week.'
+
+'A week! Oh, that is quite a long time!' Her voice had become stronger,
+and she passed down the steps and along the garden walk to the children
+without having turned her face to him. It seemed that she could not trust
+herself.
+
+He watched her closely, pressing his lower lip between finger and thumb,
+and a mirthless smile curled the corners of his mouth.
+
+To Marcia's great surprise, her husband insisted on her arranging another
+party in honour of their guest, and to give their neighbours an
+opportunity of bidding him good-bye. To be sure, nothing like the
+Christmas gathering could be attempted, but the Cargills and two or three
+other families living within twenty miles were to be invited, and Yarra
+and Bob Hooke were despatched with the invitations. Hooke had been a
+shepherd at the five-mile hut till within three days, when a new hand
+Mack had employed was sent to take his place, and now Bob was acting
+rouse-about. Ryder had heard of this new hand as a man of atrocious
+ugliness--in fact, the man had been sent away, Marcia said, because the
+children were frightened half out of their wits at the sight of him.
+
+Lucy received a letter from Jim Done on the afternoon of the day on which
+Ryder announced his impending departure. The letter was not a long one,
+and it lacked the cheerfulness that had characterized Jim's previous
+letters to Lucy. It told of Burton's death, of his own injuries and his
+long sickness, and of Ryder's gallant conduct. He was now almost
+recovered, he said, and by the time she received his letter would be back
+at Jim Crow with the Peetrees, who had returned and pegged out claims on
+Blanket Flat, having failed to do anything for themselves at Simpson's
+Ranges. Jim admitted that his mate's death had been a heavy blow. 'I had
+not realized how strong our friendship was,' he wrote. 'He was the best
+man I have known, and I do not think it probable I shall ever make such
+another friend.' Done concluded with a fervent wish that he might see her
+soon. There was the melancholy and the weakness of an invalid in the
+letter, and it disturbed Lucy greatly. She recalled, with a poignant
+sense of remorse, how little he had been in her mind during the past two
+months while he lay struggling for life. She felt that she had done him a
+wrong, and, scarcely understanding herself, gave way to a flood of tears
+over the wavering lines, every word of which bore evidence of the
+enfeebled hand of the convalescent.
+
+Later she told Ryder of the letter, and of Done's return to Jim Crow.
+
+'And you did not tell me of his injuries,' she said reproachfully.
+
+'I could not find it in my heart to spoil your Christmas,' he said. 'He
+was getting on famously when I left Ballarat, and he has a magnificent
+constitution. I knew he was safe, but felt that you would be certain to
+worry. You see, it is best.'
+
+'I cannot think so. You were silent because you feared to speak of your
+own splendid bravery.'
+
+'Believe me, no. It was nothing to pick up a wounded man and carry him to
+safety. I was silent to spare you.'
+
+'I am grateful for your kind intentions, and more than grateful for what
+you have done for him. To Mr. Done I owe my life, and I feel that a
+service done to him is something for which I, too, am much beholden.'
+
+'And for a life that is precious to you I would--' He ceased suddenly,
+but was careful that she should understand him well.
+
+'A life that was precious to her!' The phrase seemed to have an
+extraordinary significance. Were the words a test? Her heart beat
+quickly; for a moment she looked into his eyes. It was as if his whole
+soul burned in them. Her face paled, a faint cry broke on her lips, and
+she moved back with faltering feet. He dropped his extended hands with a
+hopeless gesture, and turned from her. A footstep was heard in the
+passage.
+
+The party was fixed for the third evening prior to the date of Ryder's
+departure, and it was a great success. All the resources of a
+well-appointed station were brought into play for the gratification of
+the guests. The night was warm; the company were gathered in the big
+drawing the French window of which opened on to the wide veranda. Lucy
+was at the piano, providing an accompaniment, and the Sydneyside girl was
+singing an ardent love song. Yarra paused before Ryder with a tray, on
+which was a cool drink. In the act of lifting the glass the latter
+noticed that a uniformed trooper had suddenly appeared in the doorway. A
+turn of the eye satisfied him that there was another at the French
+window. He gave no sign of emotion, but leaned forward and spoke in a low
+voice to Yarra.
+
+'You remember, Yarra, what I have told you. Trooper fellow come now,
+maybe.' He added a few words in the aboriginal tongue. 'Go quick!' he
+said.
+
+There was a wait of some minutes, during which Ryder sat sipping at his
+drink, apparently entirely unconscious of anything but the singing. But
+presently he knew that he was the third point of a triangle, from the
+other points of which two regulation revolvers covered him. He satisfied
+himself with a movement of his elbow that his own revolver was in its
+place under his vest.
+
+'Wat Ryder, alias Solo, I arrest you in the name of the Queen!' The
+trooper from the door had advanced into the room. 'You are my prisoner.
+Stir a finger, and I'll shoot you where you sit.'
+
+Ryder had shown no disposition to stir; he was still sipping at the
+glass, the coolest man in the room. The other guests looked unspeakably
+stupid in their open-mouthed amazement. Ryder saw that another trooper
+had taken the sergeant's place at the door, and that the man at the
+French window was now on the inside.
+
+The first trooper had advanced to within a few feet of Ryder before it
+seemed to occur to the latter that he was the person addressed.
+
+'Do you mean me, my man?' he said.
+
+'I do; and I may tell you hanky-panky won't be healthy for you. We've got
+you cornered.'
+
+Ryder arose quite unruffled, and set down his glass. Looking round upon
+the guests, he smiled and said:
+
+'This is another of the possibilities of social life in Victoria. Will
+you tell me who I am supposed to be, and what I am supposed to do?'
+
+'You are supposed to take these on for one thing,' said the trooper,
+swinging a pair of handcuffs in his left hand.
+
+'Oh, certainly, if it's in the game.' Ryder offered his wrists.
+
+'Behind you, please.'
+
+'To be sure.' With his clenched fists behind him, Ryder submitted to the
+handcuffs, and then, as he stood manacled, his eye fell upon Donald
+Macdougal. The squatter was almost at his elbow, leaning against a small
+table, rolling his tongue under his teeth. The eyes of the two men met,
+and under the bushy brows of Monkey Mack there was a reddish gleam in
+which the Honourable Walter Ryder read a baboon-like malignancy, and in a
+moment the latter realized that in all his plans and precautions he had
+never made due allowance for the cunning and depth of this extraordinary
+man; but his face expressed nothing.
+
+'Ah--h!' The sergeant gave a sigh of relief as he dropped his pistol
+hand. 'That's better.'
+
+'Now,' said Ryder coldly, 'will you tell me if this is a new parlour
+game, or are these actual troopers who are a little more idiotic than the
+average?'
+
+Ryder addressed Cargill. He was standing with his back to the piano; the
+gaping guests formed a semicircle in front of him. Marcia, sitting on a
+couch, motionless, with cheeks of deadly whiteness, uttered no sound, and
+her eyes looked like patches of darkness in her icy face. Lucy, standing
+at the piano, never took her eyes from Ryder. She could see what the
+others could not see--the long, thin hands of the prisoner slowly but
+easily working themselves out of the grip of the handcuffs.
+
+'Call it a parlour game if you like, Mr. Solo, but I'm the winner, and
+I'll trouble you to come with me.'
+
+'Wait a moment. Macdougal, this farce has gone far enough. As your guest,
+I demand an explanation.'
+
+Macdougal looked at Ryder in silence for a moment, and then said quietly:
+'They're callin' the new man yonder at the five-mile Brummy the Nut;
+maybe ye mind him.'
+
+'I do not. I--'
+
+He was interrupted by the report of a revolver out in the darkness. The
+trooper at the French window remained upright for a moment, then fell to
+his knees, and then forward upon the carpet. For two or three seconds all
+eyes but Lucy's and Ryder's were fixed upon the window, and there was
+apprehension in every face. Lucy's eyes were upon Ryder's hands; she saw
+the handcuff fall from one, saw him swing with a sudden, swift movement
+of the right arm, and the heavy manacle struck the trooper at his side on
+the temple, and the man fell without a groan. Then Ryder made a dash for
+the French window, and was gone before a hand could be raised to stay
+him. Lucy, who had had some understanding of his plan before he acted
+upon it, followed him swiftly, closing the windows after him; and she
+stood there, confronting the people, pale, but with determination in her
+face and the flash of courage in her eyes. The trooper from the other
+side dashed across the room, faltered for a moment, perceiving that time
+would be lost in a struggle with the girl, and then turned and rushed
+back through the door. The suddenness of all this had robbed the majority
+of the guests of their wits; they stood as if petrified. The wounded
+trooper rose slowly from the floor--it occurred to no one to offer to
+help him--staggered a few steps into the room, and fell again, and lay
+amongst the guests, his blood dyeing the carpet at their feet. Mean while
+Marcia had not moved; but now her white face had the expression of one
+listening with the intensity of an unspeakable fear for the message of
+death, and the sergeant in command was groping for the door, still dazed
+from the blow he had received, and almost blinded by the blood flowing
+from his wound.
+
+Outside two troopers had jumped into their saddles, and were off in hot
+pursuit of the fugitive, who had galloped out of the thick cover of the
+orchard on Galah, Ryder's beautiful gray, and was riding at a breakneck
+pace for the heavily-timbered country to the east. It was a stern chase,
+and once Trooper Casey came so near to overhauling the gray horse that he
+ventured a revolver shot; but after that the hunted man drew away, and
+the troopers lost sight of him in the timber. The pursuit was maintained
+for about an hour, and then the pursuers came upon Galah trotting quietly
+back towards Boobyalla, riderless and without a saddle. Imagining that
+Solo had been swept from the horse by the limb of a tree, the troopers
+made a long search, and while they sought, Yarra--for it was he who had
+led the police away on this wild-goose chase--had doubled on his
+pursuers, and was making a bee-line for the station again on foot. He was
+found in his bed at home two hours later, cowering under the blankets,
+pretending an overpowering fear of the shooting and the blood.
+
+Walter Ryder, when he passed through the window, sprang from the veranda,
+and dashed into the garden. A voice called to him to stand in the name of
+the law, and a revolver bullet clipped his shoulder, but he ran on until
+the thick growth of trees and shrubbery quite covered him, then, turning
+sharply to the left, he hid in the hollow of an old gum-tree, the creeper
+overgrowing which offered a perfect screen. From here he uttered the
+mopoke's call, repeating it twice. He had made himself familiar with all
+the advantages the garden and orchard offered a hunted man ere he had
+been a week at Boobyalla. Ryder remained in this hiding-place for some
+time. He heard the thunder of Galah's hoofs and the cries of the
+troopers. Yarra had timed his break from cover to a second. When the
+sound of the chase died out in the distance, Solo walked quietly to the
+corner of the orchard opposite to that from which the black boy had
+started, where a horse was standing. This was Wallaroo. The saddle had
+been hastily thrown on to the entire's back, and the bridle was looped
+over a post. Ryder fastened the girths, buckled the bridle securely, and,
+mounting the horse, walked him to the slip panels, keeping well under
+cover of the trees. When about a quarter of a mile off, he stirred
+Wallaroo to a canter, but kept to the track thickly seared with new
+hoof-prints, so that it should be impossible for any but a clever tracker
+to follow him. After riding for about three miles, he bore to the right
+along the course of a small creek, and made his way into the ranges up a
+deepening gorge, the sides of which were clothed with heath and scrub,
+and ribbed thickly with the trunks of tall gums as straight as lances,
+shooting high into the air, and spreading their branches in the moonlight
+over two hundred feet above him. He turned from this gorge into a
+narrower ravine, which widened into a gully. Ryder continued for another
+half-mile to where three or four gigantic rocks thrown together formed a
+sort of natural stronghold with a rampart of white gums. Here he
+dismounted. Having rolled a boulder from a niche in the rocks, he drew
+out a rope, and with this tethered Wallaroo. Then, after removing the bit
+from his mouth and loosening the girths, he left the horse to graze.
+
+The niche in the rocks was well stocked with food, and contained a rug, a
+bottle of brandy, several small parcels of ammunition, two revolvers, a
+few other articles, a miner's 'rig-out,' and the false beards Ryder had
+been in the habit of using as disguises.
+
+Having removed the suit he was wearing, Ryder bathed and dressed the
+wound in his shoulder as best he could. He put on the digger's clothes,
+and, wrapping himself in the rug, lay under the sloping rock on a couch
+of dry bracken, and slept as if in a comfortable bed and at peace with
+the world.
+
+The sun was throwing oblique rays into the heath on the side of the gully
+when Ryder awoke. He found his bridle-arm very stiff and painful, and
+dressed the wound again. He breakfasted on biscuits and smoked fish, and
+drank water flavoured with brandy. The greater part of that day he spent
+collecting fodder for Wallaroo, and leading the horse about to those
+spots where the grass was most luxuriant. He was waiting with absolute
+confidence and the greatest composure. The vicissitudes of his life had
+taught him patience.
+
+At about a quarter past ten that night Ryder was sitting on the rug with
+his back to the rock, smoking reflectively, when a voice called almost at
+his elbow:
+
+'Hist! Yarra bin come, boss!'
+
+'Good boy!' Ryder replaced his revolver on a convenient ledge, and as
+Yarra appeared before him, grinning in-the moonlight, he added a few
+words of thanks and of praise in the native tongue.
+
+'What happen by Boobyalla?'
+
+'Mine bin chase it that feller all day.' Yarra pointed at Solo, and his
+white teeth glittered like tiny mirrors. 'Track him longa trooper plenty
+far.' He pointed beyond Boobyalla 'My word, Yarra make it big one damn
+fool that trooper.' The thought of the manner in which he had tricked the
+police tickled the black boy, and he emitted a yell of laughter that
+startled the Bush sleepers for a mile round, and filled the trees with
+movements and murmurs of complaint. Ryder, knowing the susceptibilities
+of the race, to gratify the boy laughed too.
+
+'Yarra plenty clever,' he said.
+
+'My word! Yarra follow track all away topside Shepherd's Scrub. Go this
+way, that way, make much plurry humbug. Say: "This feller gone lame, limp
+it bad. Some time he creep by scrub, lie down." Trooper go search it
+scrub all day, nex' day, nex' day. They catch it that fellar by'n-by.'
+Again he pointed at Ryder, and again his laugh echoed in the gorge. 'Mine
+tink it trooper search him scrub plenty long time. Boss tink I go hunt by
+scrub to-morrow, mine come sit down longa here.'
+
+All of which meant that Yarra had been employed by the troopers to follow
+the track of Ryder, and had led them as far astray as possible, and left
+them with the impression that the fugitive was wounded and lying in
+hiding in Shepherd's Scrub, a dense ti-tree growth to the north-east of
+Boobyalla, extending for two or three miles.
+
+Ryder rewarded his accomplice with a nobbler of brandy and a cigar, and
+the black sat smoking with a grand air, while the former explained that
+he would remain where he was until his arm was in a more serviceable
+state, trusting to Yarra to keep him apprised of what was going forward,
+and to warn him instantly danger threatened. During the last few hours
+the idea of inducing Lucy Woodrow to visit him there in the Bush had been
+stirring in Ryder's mind, and he reckoned upon turning his wound to good
+advantage. For the troopers he had the greatest contempt, and his
+confidence in Yarra was absolute. The half-caste remained with him for
+about an hour, and then returned into the gorge, and keeping to the bed
+of the creek picked up his horse, a sober old cattle nag, where he had
+left him at the foot of the range.
+
+Yarra returned to Wat Ryder early in the forenoon of the following day.
+The trooper the boy shot at the window was being nursed at Boobyalla, the
+others were away beating the scrub. The half-caste brought with him a
+wild duck he had trapped, and set about cooking this in its feathers. The
+two dined together shortly after mid-day, and the sun was streaming into
+the gully, the air was heavy with the odour of wild musk, and the Bush
+was as silent as if no life remained in the intense heat. Ryder had
+risen, and was looking at Wallaroo standing with his nose in the shade of
+a gum-butt, fighting the avaricious flies with his tail. At that instant
+a loud report rang along the gully, and Ryder staggered a few paces, and
+fell with his back to one of the boulders, stunned. A bullet ricocheting
+from the rock had struck him in the neck. Yarra threw himself forward,
+face downward, at a space between the boulders. He saw a wreath of smoke
+in the gully and a slight movement in the thick growth, and fired twice,
+but the distance was too great for a revolver. The enemy, whoever he was,
+was armed with a gun. The half-caste listened for a moment, and his black
+eyes searched the gully. Then he heard the beat of a horse's hoofs. A
+look of enlightenment came to his face. There was one horseman only; he
+was riding at a pace which, in such country, threatened death at every
+stride.
+
+The boy looked at Ryder, pointing back in the direction from which the
+shot had come.
+
+'That feller mine boss,' he said, and fear tinged his blackness a slaty
+gray.
+
+Ryder had slipped to a sitting position--one hand held a blood-stained
+handkerchief to his neck, the other clutched a revolver. He was white to
+the lips, but his eyes blazed with life and the passion of a wounded
+lion.
+
+XXII
+
+RYDER knew himself to be badly hurt; he realized that he was in a
+desperate situation, a situation from which it would require all his
+cunning to extricate himself. The plans he had formed were abandoned, and
+even while suffering the first shock of the wound his mind was busy. He
+had been attacked by one man; his enemy knew he was not alone, and was
+not sure of the effect of his shot, otherwise he would not have fled. The
+outlaw felt that he might rely upon immunity from further attack for some
+time, and meanwhile all the strength and energy remaining to him must be
+devoted to the task of reaching another refuge. In Macdougal be had met
+an enemy of a kind he had never before been called upon to deal with. The
+squatter was indefatigable in pursuit of his vengeance, evidently an
+expert Bushman, and bent upon dealing retribution with his own hand. Wat
+Ryder wasted no time in fruitless lamentation over his folly in not
+having made good his escape while the opportunity offered. Already he had
+lost much blood. The muscle on the right side of the neck was badly
+lacerated. First of all, the wound must be dressed. For years he had been
+prepared for an exigency of this sort, and was never without materials
+for the treatment of serious hurts. With Yarra's assistance, the wound
+was washed with a lotion, closed as well as possible, and then carefully
+bandaged, without the waste of a moment.
+
+Ryder lay with his revolver by his side. He knew perfectly that he might
+be engaged in a life or death struggle at any moment, and was prepared to
+die by his own hand the instant the fight became hopeless.
+
+'Go, Yarra; pick up his track; find which way he has gone; come back one
+minute.'
+
+He knew there was no occasion to warn the half-caste, in whom the
+instincts of his mother's people were paramount. Yarra was a child of the
+Bush; nothing would escape his eye or his ear, and at the same time he
+would be as swift and as secret as a snake.
+
+While the boy was away Ryder wrote a note in pencil addressed to Lucy
+Woodrow. Yarra was back within five minutes.
+
+'Him Boss belonga me all right. Him run longa gully, catch up horse by
+ole man blackbutt, ride longa gorge same debble chase him,' reported the
+half-caste.
+
+'Right, right! Yarra plurry fine feller!' said Ryder. 'Now we go up over
+small spur, down by gorge, sit down little stone cave near big splash.
+Pretty quick you come back, catch Wallaroo, lead him down to the gorge
+along down the creek. Make a track by the bank some time, turn him in
+pool where black fish sit down, and ride back up creek again, and tie
+horse up by big rock same monkey bear. Then to-night you creep down by
+Boobyalla, knock on Miss Lucy's window, gib Miss Lucy this letter. No one
+else must see. If Miss Lucy say yes, when sun jumps up to-morrow you take
+Wallaroo down by wattle track, gib her horse, come back sit down by me.
+Yarra catch hold all that?'
+
+Yarra nodded brightly. 'My word, mine know him all right,' he said.
+
+'Yarra always good friend by me?'
+
+'My word!'
+
+The climb over the spur that divided the outlaw's first retreat from the
+gorge proved a terrible task for the wounded man. For some distance the
+boy followed him, obliterating his tracks; but before the journey was
+half completed Ryder required all the assistance the half-caste could
+give him, and he reached the small cave in the side of the gorge, about a
+mile and a half from its entrance, in an exhausted and feverish
+condition. There Yarra gave him drink, and, having made him a comfortable
+bed, left him with a revolver by his side, and returned for Wallaroo and
+Ryder's belongings. The boy followed the instructions he had received
+faithfully, and was with the outlaw again before sundown, watching over
+him with an interest he had never before felt in any human creature.
+Ryder knew now that his life depended upon the boy's fidelity, and that
+there was only one other person in the world upon whom he could rely in
+his extremity--Jim Done.
+
+We left Done in a poor condition to help any man--lying in Kyley's tent,
+enfeebled by sickness, clinging to Aurora's fingers as some sort of
+anchorage in a fragile world. When he awoke again Aurora was still by his
+side. He grew quite accustomed to waking and finding her there, and in
+his waking moments for two or three days he clasped her fingers with an
+almost infantile helplessness. The first stages of recovery were slow,
+and in them his chief delight was to lie watching his nurse, scarcely
+conscious of anything beyond. He found her very worn, and she looked old.
+Few of the qualities that had impelled him to call her Joy remained in
+this anxious face. She attended to him assiduously; but she was only a
+nurse, nothing of a lover, and presently he found himself wondering at
+her lack of emotion, fretting for the absent caress with an invalid's
+petulance. As his strength returned, Aurora permitted Mary Kyley to
+assume the larger share of the nursing, and Jim was told what news there
+was, excepting the truth about poor Mike. It was Ryder who had informed
+Aurora that Done and his friends were in the stockade, where he had seen
+them during the Saturday afternoon. Mary read a letter from the Peetrees
+inviting Jim to join them at Blanket Flat--where they had taken his and
+Mike's belongings--when he was strong enough to get about. According to
+Mrs. Ryley's version of this letter, Mike was with the Peetrees.
+
+Eventually Jim was strong enough to sit up for a while, and in the course
+of a few days Ben helped him out into the open, and the pure, hot
+sunshine seemed to pour new life into his veins. It was after this that
+Done missed Aurora. Mrs. Ben said she had gone away for a few days to
+recruit; but eventually, when Jim was hobbling about, she admitted that
+she did not know where the girl had gone, and believed that she might not
+come back.
+
+'But why?' said Jim--' why go away without a word, without giving me a
+chance to thank her for what she has done?'
+
+'Thank her!' said Mary, with some contempt. 'Are you thinking the poor
+girl wanted thanks from you?'
+
+'It is strange that she should leave in this way,' answered Done
+impatiently.
+
+'There's nothing strange in it, man; it's just natural. You never
+understood how much that girl cared for you, Jimmy. If you did, perhaps
+you would know what it meant for her to be working herself to a ghost
+over your bed there while you babbled of love to another woman.'
+
+'I did?'
+
+'Did you? Night and day. It was Lucy, Lucy, Lucy--always Lucy. Lucy with
+the brown hair and the beautiful eyes--Lucy the pure, and sweet, and
+good. Never a word of Joy--never the smallest word of the woman who was
+beating the devil off you, you blackguard!'
+
+'But I was delirious! Surely----'
+
+'True, you were wandering; but it's only when a man's mad or drunk that
+one gets the truth out of him about women. "There's not a thought of me
+left in his heart, Mary!" said the poor girl.'
+
+'She was wrong--wrong!' he protested.
+
+'Not a bit, boy! 'Twas the pure girl had all your soul. Heavens! and how
+you rubbed it in about her purity and goodness! Mother of us! let a man
+be so infernally bad that the very fiend sniffs at him, but he'll bargain
+with the impudence of an archangel for the pure girl.'
+
+'And she went away for this?'
+
+'Sure enough. Aurora's the sort to hide her hurts. When she can't fight
+over them, she'll not cry a whimper.'
+
+'That's true; and I've hurt her deepest of all.'
+
+Mary detected the expression of his face with quick alarm. She had said
+too much.
+
+'There, there, Jimmy boy,' she said anxiously; 'we mustn't be forgetting
+that Joy's the strong sort. She'll come again, fresh and rosy and merry
+as ever--bet your life on it.'
+
+Jim went into the tent that had been his sick-room, and sat for over an
+hour in deep thought, and his thoughts were all of Aurora. He missed
+her--missed her at every turn, and in every hour of his convalescence. As
+a reward for her love and tenderness, he had afflicted her with the
+greatest bitterness her brave heart could bear. His eyes were fixed upon
+the floor, and eventually discovered two oval objects half buried in the
+hard earth. He stooped to pick them up, and found them to be the halves
+of the locket that contained Lucy Woodrow's miniature. The case had been
+stamped into the floor with the heel of a boot, the pieces were torn
+apart, and the portrait ground off the ivory on which it was painted.
+With the fragments of the locket in his hand, Jim pursued a new train of
+thought, but there was no comfort in it. He recalled Joy's words: 'I
+won't bind the strange man you may be to-morrow.' Her love had been too
+strong for her philosophy. What of his? Had he ever seriously considered
+the possibilities of a life wholly apart from her? His mind flew to Lucy,
+but by no effort could he devote his thoughts to either of the women who
+had so deeply influenced him.
+
+It was no longer possible to keep the truth about Mike Burton from the
+invalid, and Mary broke the news to him as gently as she could, The shock
+seemed to stun Jim's sensibilities for a time. As the numbness wore off,
+a bitter, blind hatred grew in his heart against the men he chose to
+regard as Mike's murderers, and he had a ferocious longing for vengeance.
+Again law and order, the forces of society, had intervened to embitter
+him. His subsequent sorrow over his mate was deep and lasting. He felt
+now that although their friendship had been free of demonstrativeness, it
+had been warmed with a generous sincerity.
+
+Done awakened one day, with some sense of fear, to the knowledge that he
+was drifting back into a morbid condition. He found he had bred a
+disposition to brood over his weakness. The loss of Mike and the
+disappearance of Aurora were becoming grievances that he cherished with
+youthful unreason. He determined to rejoin the Peetrees at once, and,
+although far from being his old self physically, began to make
+preparations for the return to Jim Crow.
+
+'There's somethin' I'd like you to be doin' fer me afore you go, mate,'
+said Ben Kyley to Jim one evening.
+
+'Well, you know I'll do it.
+
+'I reckoned you would. You see, I've been thinkin' of marryin' my wife,
+an' I'd like you to be bes' man.'
+
+'You've been thinking!' cried Mary. 'No, Jimmy, I've been doing the
+thinking: Kyley merely agrees. One of these days we're going to build a
+big hotel in Ballarat, and settle down. It won't be till the rushes peg
+out, as they're bound to do in time; but certificates of marriage are
+getting quite common amongst married people here, and we thought it would
+be as well to be in the fashion.' Mrs. Ben laughed boisterously.
+
+'Well,' said Jim, smiling, 'a couple who disagree as pleasantly as you do
+can't go far wrong in marrying.'
+
+'The customers at a decent family hotel would expect it, I think,' Mary
+added soberly.
+
+'Jonathan Prator married his wife a week 'r two back, an' he's skitin'
+about it,' grumbled Ben.
+
+So Jim remained for the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Kyley, which was
+quite a public ceremony. He was Ben's best man, and he gave the rosy
+bride the prettiest brooches, rings, and bangles he could buy in
+Ballarat, and left, the blushless couple to the enjoyment of their
+honeymoon with his warmest blessing. Mary nearly smothered him in a
+billowy hug as he was trying to thank them for their goodness.
+
+'Leave a kind word for my poor girl,' she said, 'and the minute she comes
+back I'll write you.'
+
+'Tell her I shall be a miserable devil till I hear of her dancing jigs on
+Mary Kyley's bar counter again,' said Jim. 'And tell her she wrongs me
+when she says there is nothing of her in this heart of mine. She is an
+ineradicable part of it.'
+
+Done found the Peetrees working a fairly profitable mine at Blanket Flat,
+a sort of tributary field to Jim Crow, and situated about three miles
+distant from the original rush. Harry stood in with Done, and the two
+pegged out a claim and set to work; but Jim did not derive the
+satisfaction he had expected from this return to his friends and his
+familiar pursuits. His weakness clung to him, and he was subject to pains
+in the head. His missed Mike more than ever now, and permitted the idea
+that he had blasted Aurora's happiness to worry him a good deal. He
+remembered the blithe heartiness of the girl in the early days of their
+acquaintance, and the image of the pale, worn face he had last seen
+haunted him with an abiding reproach. He could not enjoy the life, the
+scenes, and the companionship that had delighted him, and believed the
+capacity would never come back to him.
+
+He had been on Blanket Flat less than a fortnight when one morning Harry
+thrust his head into the tent.
+
+'Blowed if there ain't a lady here to see you, Jim!' he said.
+
+'A lady?' Jim's first thought was of Aurora. 'Don't you know her?'
+
+He stepped from the tent as he spoke, and was astonished to find that his
+visitor was Lucy Woodrow. She was riding a splendid bay horse, and
+leading a small, sturdy-looking chestnut, and was dust-stained and tired.
+Her face was gray with anxiety. She did not smile as he approached her,
+but held a letter towards him.
+
+'Read,' she said. 'He says you will understand.'
+
+'But, Lucy, won't you dismount? You are tired.'
+
+'For pity's sake, waste no time! Read!'
+
+He unfolded the note, and read:
+
+'DEAR MISS WOODROW,
+
+'I am seriously wounded, and lying helpless. My life is in danger. There
+is one man who will save me; there is one woman whom I can trust to go to
+him. You are that woman. I appeal to all that is good, kind, and merciful
+in you to help me. Believe nothing you have heard. I am the victim of
+circumstances--circumstances of the most terrible kind. Only be the
+sweet, tender woman you have always seemed to me. Ride to Jim Done at
+Blanket Flat as soon as possible in the morning; bring him to me. I know
+he will not hesitate when he knows that I am crippled in the Bush, and at
+the mercy of my enemies. The boy will explain the rest.
+
+'Your unfortunate friend,
+
+'WALTER RYDER.'
+
+'The half-caste boy at the station, who knows where Mr. Ryder is hidden,
+brought that to me,' Lucy said. 'He met me at a gorge leading into the
+range this morning with this horse. The boy is to meet us at the mouth of
+the gorge and take us to him. He escaped from Boobyalla when the troopers
+came, and hid in the Bush. He was seen and shot in the neck, but found
+another hiding-place, and is waiting for you. You will come?'
+
+She had spoken in a hard, unimpassioned voice, as if repeating a lesson;
+only her eyes betrayed the intense feeling that possessed her.
+
+'I will go,' he answered. 'Hadn't you better have some tea and something
+to eat? It is a long ride.'
+
+'No, no,' she said; 'we cannot spare a moment.'
+
+'I insist.' He put up his hands to help her. His words were quiet, but
+his tone was masterful. She looked into his face, and obeyed him. 'Better
+rest a while now than break down later--and I do not know the way.
+Harry,' he called, turning to his mate, 'will you give the horses a
+drink? You have not pressed them?' he said to Lucy.
+
+'No; I was afraid, knowing they would have to carry us back.'
+
+'My mate will change the saddles. I must ride the stronger horse.
+Meanwhile, get something to eat. We have just breakfasted; there is tea
+in the billy.'
+
+He showed neither hurry nor agitation, he displayed no feeling, but,
+watching him narrowly, Lucy was convinced of his great earnestness, and
+the strain of anxiety that had gripped her heart like a band of steel
+relaxed. She breathed freely. Part of the burden had gone to him, and he
+would bear it.
+
+Jim felt himself strong again in the face of this great need. Apart from
+the tie of blood, he owed Ryder the best service of which he was
+capable--his very life, if need be--but he did not question the matter,
+even in his own heart, and it was not till Blanket Flat lay four or five
+miles behind them that he sought further information from his companion.
+They had ridden in silence, Lucy overwrought, thinking only of the
+wounded man hunted like a beast, perhaps dying in the Bush, Jim
+endeavouring to decide upon a plan of action. The news had not greatly
+surprised him; ever since Ryder's declaration of his identity Done had
+foreseen some such possibility.
+
+'Do you know the reason of the attempt to arrest Ryder?' said Jim,
+breaking the long silence.
+
+'The troopers called him Solo. I have heard of a notorious gold robber of
+that name. Mrs. Macdougal says a new shepherd called Brummy recognised
+him.' She gave Done a concise account of the arrest and Ryder's escape.
+'That is Wallaroo you are riding,' she said in conclusion, 'and Mr.
+Macdougal is furious over his loss. I believe it was he who shot Mr.
+Ryder.'
+
+'If Ryder dies, I'll kill Macdougal!'
+
+Lucy turned sharply, and looked at Jim. He had spoken the words in a tone
+sounding almost casual, curiously incongruous with their grim
+significance. She knew that he meant what he had said, and her heart
+sank.
+
+'You would not be so mad,' she said.
+
+'Let us push on,' he replied, disregarding her comment.
+
+Lucy had experienced no difficulty in finding Jim. Since his visit to
+Boobyalla she had been three times to Jim Crow with parties on horseback,
+and knew the country well.
+
+They reached the mouth of the gorge at about eleven o'clock, and had
+ridden only about two hundred yards along the bed of the creek, when
+Yarra arose from a clump of scrub-ferns at Lucy's side.
+
+'Come longa me,' he said. 'Boss Ryder plenty sick.'
+
+Yarra had left the outlaw two hours earlier. Ryder was then tossing
+feverishly on his rough couch. The small cave in which he lay was
+situated some thirty yards up the side of the gorge, and the hot morning
+sun reached it early, converting it into an oven of stone. The wounded
+man was suffering acutely; his wound had become a burning agony that had
+no longer a limit: the pain of it penetrated his whole being. Soon after
+the black boy's departure Ryder ceased to toss and turn, movement only
+increasing his torment. He now lay very still on the floor of the cave;
+his eyes had a feline lustre in the dim light, his face was as white and
+hollow as that of a corpse, saving for the fever spot that burned in
+either cheek. Gradually his mind was drifting from his danger and his
+sufferings--it was fashioning strange images, mere dreams, but
+startlingly realistic. From the first one or two he reverted to sanity
+and to a fleeting sense of his position, and then the images trooped in
+again, the visions reappeared--beautiful visions of coolness, and
+sweetness, and shade that, it seemed later, only came to tantalize him.
+He was now a soul in hell, tortured with the sight of clustering green
+trees and flowing streams. Through all these dreams one sweet sound
+prevailed. He recognised it at length: it was the music of falling
+water--beautiful, cold, clear water, falling in thin sheets from the high
+rock and breaking into snow on the edge of the deep stone basin. He
+lifted himself upon his hands and listened. Yes, there was a waterfall
+below him, so near that he might almost reach and dip his fingers into
+it, and he was set in flame that lapped him round, licking his face,
+dipping its forked tongue into the hollows of his eyes, penetrating to
+his heart, and coursing in all his veins. He was mad to stay there and
+suffer, when he might slip from the grip of the fiend, and lave his limbs
+in the pool and drink from the cascade. Ryder dragged himself from the
+cave, upsetting the water the half-caste had placed near his bed as he
+did so. The water ran over his fingers, but he did not heed it. Outside
+he raised himself to his feet with the help of a tree, and, staggering a
+few paces down the slope, pitched on his face, cutting his mouth badly on
+the stones. The wound in his neck opened, and the blood oozed from the
+bandages, smearing his hands as he dragged himself along.
+
+It was like some wild beast with a mortal wound in its breast slowly
+crawling to the water to die. Every few yards he thought the stream was
+reached and dipping his mouth to drink, cut his lips oh the granite. He
+had come to the level ground banking the creek, and was almost at the
+edge of the basin, when a figure appeared on the brink of the waterfall
+above him. The figure looked hardly human, bent down, watching Ryder's
+movements in the attitude of a curious ape.
+
+Macdougal sprang down the rocks with an agility in keeping with his
+apelike appearance, and interposed between the creeping man and the
+water.
+
+Ryder turned aside, and again Macdougal interposed. Three times this
+happened, and the squatter had a grin on his small terrier's face; he was
+deriving malicious amusement from the bewilderment of the fever-stricken
+wretch at his feet. In his left hand he held a revolver.
+
+Ryder raised a hand, and, clutching Monkey Mack, made an effort to regain
+his feet. The other helped him, and clinging to his enemy for support,
+the outlaw looked at Macdougal. The latter thrust his face forward, and
+again there was a red gleam under the shadows of his heavy brows.
+
+'Ye know me, man,' he said.
+
+Ryder was staring with eyes in which there was a dawning of
+consciousness, and, steadying him with one hand, the squatter dipped some
+water in his hat, and dashed it in the other's face.
+
+'Ye know me!' he said with fierce eagerness. 'Ye know me! Man, ye must
+know me--Macdougal! Look at me. Ay, ye know me well!'
+
+There was recognition in Ryder's eyes; they were intent upon those of his
+foe, and, clutching him by the shoulder, Macdougal continued:
+
+'Well ye know me, and well ye know what I mean to do by ye. I'm about to
+kill ye, Mr. Walter Ryder, an' no harm will come to me for the killin'.
+Man, man, but it's a sweet thing to kill your enemy, an' to be paid well
+for the doin' of it! Ah, I'm right sure ye know me now. I would na' have ye
+die by another hand, for 'tis me ye wronged most. I know my wrongs, ye
+foul villain, an' it's in my mind to carry your carrion head to Melbourne
+for the money they've set upon it. Ye mind me! ye mind me! Good! good!'
+
+Macdougal's face was literally convulsed with the fury of his hate; he
+spat at Ryder as he spoke, and then, with the swiftness and the strength
+that had marked them in health, the outlaw's fingers fastened upon his
+hairy throat. The long, thin hands clamped themselves upon his neck, and
+for a moment Monkey Mack was helpless in the agonies of suffocation. Then
+his left hand pointed the revolver at Ryder's ear; there was a sharp
+report, and the outlaw fell limply, and rolled back upon the flat
+water-worn rock, his shattered head to the stone, his arms out thrown,
+his lifeless face turned up to the blue sky.
+
+XXIII
+
+MONKEY MACK stood for a few seconds gazing down upon the dead man,
+unconscious of the fact that at the moment his shot was fired Lucy
+Woodrow and Jim Done had come suddenly upon the scene around one of the
+huge boulders with which the gorge was strewn. He was recalled to himself
+by the exclamation of horror uttered by the girl, and discovered Jim,
+revolver in hand. Turning, he fled up the right side of the gorge, where
+the timber offered good cover. Jim raised his revolver, and took
+deliberate aim at the flying figure, but Lucy seized his arm and bore it
+down, and, clinging to him, she cried:
+
+'No, no! for God's sake, not that!'
+
+Jim tore himself from her with bitter words, and the next moment they saw
+Macdougal riding furiously along the side of the gorge, swinging his
+apparently maddened horse through the thick timber with marvellous
+dexterity. Done uttered a cry, and ran for the horses, and Lucy followed
+him, calling piteously. She saw Jim spring upon Wallaroo and turn his
+head down the gully, and, knowing his intention, snatched the revolver
+from Yarra's hand and fired at the stallion. The shot took effect in the
+horse's neck, and he plunged forward, throwing Jim heavily, and, rolling
+on his side, lay half submerged in the water of the creek.
+
+Done was stunned and shaken by the fall, and it was some minutes before
+he quite recovered. Then, turning upon Lucy in the blind fury that filled
+his soul, he said:
+
+'You have saved that foul murderer, and while he lives I swear I'll never
+forgive you!'
+
+She made no reply, but followed Jim to Ryder's side, trembling in every
+limb, with a bursting pain at her heart and a feeling of utter desolation
+upon her. Done knelt by the dead outlaw, looking into the white face, and
+remembered standing as a boy gazing into another dead face wonderfully
+like this, the face of his mother. He felt no sorrow; there was room in
+his soul only for his black wrath. For some minutes he remained kneeling,
+with set teeth, his hands clenched, his blood hot with rage. When he
+arose Lucy was by his side, but her eyes were bent upon the dead man.
+
+'You stood between me and my brother's murderer,' he said.
+
+She looked at him vaguely, as if she had not heard aright, and passed a
+faltering hand across her eyes.
+
+'Your brother's murderer?' she said.
+
+'The man lying there is my brother. For no crimes for no wrong against
+man or woman, his life was made a horror to him. And this is the end,
+butchered by a foul beast.'
+
+'Don't!' she murmured. She put out her hands appealingly, and continued
+in a choking voice: 'I can bear no more. All my strength is gone. For
+pity's sake, no more, no more!' She turned from him, and, falling to her
+knees, sank her face upon Ryder's breast, and gave way to a fit of
+sobbing that shook her from head to foot. Her attitude was one of
+complete abandon; one hand lay upon the cheek of the dead outlaw,
+suggesting an ineffable caress.
+
+Done sat upon a rock, watching her without understanding. Yarra, who had
+stolen near to Ryder's body, crouched upon the rock, staring intently at
+the face of his friend. Presently Jim noticed that Lucy was lying inert,
+and he lifted her to the pool and bathed her forehead with the cool
+water. Yarra brought a pannikin and a bottle containing brandy from the
+cave, and Jim poured a little of the spirit between the girl's lips. Lucy
+revived after a few minutes, and lay for a time in the shade before she
+was strong enough to walk.
+
+'I must go,' she said with a strange listless ness.
+
+'Take the boy with you,' Jim answered. 'He will see you safely to
+Boobyalla.'
+
+'And you?' she asked.
+
+'There is something for me to do here.'
+
+She looked at the body, and said, 'Yes, yes, of course,' but the only
+expression in her face was one of utter weariness.
+
+He helped her on to the horse. She did not thank him. No words of
+farewell were spoken, but as the horse moved away he said:
+
+'Contrive to let Yarra bring me a shovel.'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'At least the brute beast shall not have the price of his head
+
+'No.' She repeated the word quite mechanically. 'No, no!'
+
+Done returned to his brother. He lifted the body into the shade, and
+composed the limbs, and then seated himself and gave his mind over to
+bitter reflection. Ryder's face exerted a strong influence upon him. In
+death it had assumed a delicacy almost effeminate. It was the face of a
+saint and an ascetic. What was most evil in him had been grown in the
+forcing-house of vice and crime society had set up, and for being the
+thing it had made him society had butchered him like a mad dog. Jim
+recognised Monkey Mack only as the instrument of society. His logic may
+not have been perfect: his mind was in no state to deal with ethical
+nuances; he saw only the ruined life, remembered what Ryder had endured,
+and, above all, that he had been an innocent man, crushed, tortured,
+brutalized into an enemy of the law and the existing order. He felt
+himself capable of taking up his brother's fight. In his heart he was
+resolved to seek out Macdougal and kill him. That much must be done. He
+never questioned his capability for murder, and it is probable that had
+the chance come to him in cold blood his spirit would have failed him.
+
+It was three o'clock in the afternoon when Yarra returned with pick and
+shovel, and Jim had already selected the spot for Ryder's resting-place,
+beside a great boulder above the waterfall. There he started to dig the
+grave.
+
+'Him brother belonga you?' asked Yarra.
+
+'Yes,' said Jim.
+
+'Good feller,' continued Yarra, and his black eyes gleamed maliciously.
+'Boss belonga me kill him. You kill mine Boss?' Perhaps it was the
+remembrance of the many kicks and cuts he had received at the hands of
+Monkey Mack that inspired the impish eagerness in Yarra's face, perhaps
+his affection for the dead man moved him.
+
+Jim Done looked at the boy curiously. 'Boss belonga you sit down by
+Boobyalla?' he asked.
+
+Yarra shook his head. 'No fear,' he said. 'Yarra stop 'way pretty quick
+when Boss bin there.'
+
+'Suppose Yarra catch up track of Boss belonga him, come back when sun
+jump up, tell me.'
+
+'My word! Budgery that! Mine tink it Boss yabber-yabber longa trooper.'
+
+Yarra set off at once, and Done continued his work. He was determined
+that the grave should be deep enough to protect the body froth burrowing
+animals, and secret enough to save it from human brutes eager for the
+price on Solo's head. This task was not complete when Yarra returned, his
+eyes ablaze with excitement.
+
+'Hell bin jump up, mine tink it!' he cried. 'Boss belonga me sit down
+there all right. You come!'
+
+'You know where Macdougal is?'
+
+'My word! Come longa me.'
+
+Jim took up his revolver and followed the half caste, leaving the body
+between the sheets of bark with which he had fashioned a rude coffin.
+
+'Boss close up here,' said Yarra as they scrambled up the side of the
+gorge, after following the creek for about a quarter of a mile. The boy
+proceeded with out caution, and presently they came upon a saddled horse
+lying under a big white gum. The animal' neck was broken; evidently it
+had collided with the tree when at a gallop.
+
+'Boss make big smash up here,' said Yarra. He pointed to a huddled,
+shapeless heap lying amongst the scrub-ferns at a distance of about
+twenty feet.
+
+Done stood over the body of Macdougal, and felt for a moment a resentment
+against the Fates that had robbed him of his revenge. The squatter had
+dreaded the probability of confederates coming to the assistance of the
+outlaw, and his ride for safety had been absolutely desperate. He lay
+within a quarter of a mile of the waterfall, and had been killed on the
+spot. His head was crushed and hideous. Done turned from the sight with a
+shudder.
+
+Jim buried Ryder by the light of the moon. He spent the night in the
+gorge, but slept little, and Yarra, who had all the superstitions of his
+mother's race, crouched close to the white man, and his teeth chattered
+with fear the whole night through. He had conceived the idea that the
+spirit of Macdougal had taken possession of the gorge, and for the future
+the place must be a haunt of terror to him. After daybreak, with the
+boy's assistance, Done hid all traces of the new-made grave, and by this
+time he was grateful for the food Yarra brought from the cave. Breakfast
+strengthened him greatly. He had eaten nothing for close upon twenty
+hours, and the exhaustive experiences of that time told heavily upon his
+enfeebled frame. As a result of his night's reflection and the judgment
+that had come with cooler blood, he was determined to visit Lucy at the
+station. Yesterday's bitterness towards her had been real enough, but he
+assured himself that it was the effect of the extraordinary excitement
+worked in his brain by the events of the day. This morning there was upon
+him a physical and moral apathy: the reaction left him without interest.
+The invalid lassitude possessed him again, and he stood over his
+brother's grave for a few minutes, without feeling any recurrence of the
+resentments that had so recently blazed within him.
+
+Lucy met him in the garden; she was still pale, but showed no sign of
+physical weakness.
+
+'I treated you brutally,' he said abruptly. I am sorry; I was mad with
+rage.'
+
+'I know; I understood then. You know I am sorry for you.'
+
+'You saved Macdougal for my own sake, not for his,'
+
+'Yes. Innocent or guilty, your brother was an outlaw, Legally, Macdougal
+was justified in killing him, but if you kill Macdougal it will be
+murder. Ah! that terrible thought has gone from your mind?'
+
+'Yes; Macdougal is dead.'
+
+'Dead!' She caught his hand, and looked into his face with terror. 'You
+have killed him!'
+
+'No. His horse must have collided with a tree as he galloped down the
+gorge. Yarra found him.'
+
+'Thank God vengeance was not left to you!'
+
+'It is best. I have buried my brother. The whereabouts of his grave must
+be kept secret.'
+
+'Tell me where he lies.' She spoke with eagerness. 'I swear none shall
+know from me!'
+
+Done was impressed by her emotion, and the picture of her sobbing figure
+prostrate over the body of the outlaw was recalled to his mind. 'Under
+the great round boulder above the waterfall to the left, just where the
+shadow falls at noon,' he said. 'Better never speak of his death even. I
+have warned Yarra, and I think he will be faithful.'
+
+'You can trust me.' She paused for a moment falteringly, and then
+continued with an effort and in a low voice: 'I must respect the grave,
+for in it my heart is buried. More than my heart,' she continued with
+passion--' a part of my very soul. I loved him!' She had made this
+confession, feeling that it was her duty to let Jim know that the
+tenderness she had felt for him had been swept away in the tide of an
+overwhelming love for the other.
+
+Whatever Done's feelings may have been, neither face nor voice betrayed
+him. 'Good-bye,' he said, and turned away.
+
+She followed him a few paces, and seized his arm.
+
+'You are not going with unkindness in your heart?' she pleaded.
+
+'No,' he answered. 'I am very sorry for you.'
+
+'I want your friendship always.'
+
+It is yours.'
+
+He held her hands in his, and noticed that there were tears upon her
+cheeks. He was certainly sorry for her; it was pitiful to think that her
+new happiness had been wrecked in this way, but he could not overcome the
+coldness that was about him; and so they parted on the spot where a few
+months earlier Jim had said good-bye with a heart full of love and
+longing.
+
+XXIV
+
+A BITTER time followed with Jim Done. He had rejoined Harry Peetree at
+Blanket Flat, and continued working there; but his strength returned
+slowly, and the joy of life had fled from his heart again, leaving him
+more miserable than he had been as a youth in his native village. In
+those days his resentments helped to sustain him; he took pride in the
+spirit with which he faced the enmity of the people, and not a little
+comfort came to him from the egotism he had cultivated as a refuge from
+the common contempt. Now the fighting spirit was gone all hatred had gone
+with it, and his self-confidence had degenerated. For a few weeks after
+Ryder's death he made a deliberate effort to stir himself into a state of
+passionate revolt, dwelling long upon the barbarous sufferings his
+brother had endured, drawing upon his affection for Mike Burton to
+stimulate his fading emotions; but he failed to lift himself out of the
+slough of despond into which he had fallen.
+
+Jim fled from his nurses too early, and the trials he subsequently
+endured served to retard his restoration. He had pretty good health,
+without either strength of body or spirit. Half an hour's work at the
+windlass wearied him, and this weariness irritated him with a dull,
+abiding anger. He spent much of his time when not at work lying on his
+bunk. The life on the field was not different from that which had
+delighted him at Diamond Gully; there was the same cheerfulness amongst
+the men, the shanties flared at night, and the diggers roared, and
+gambled, and drank with no less enthusiasm. He alone was changed.
+
+These moods and the manner of life he was leading fostered a most
+unhealthy habit of introspection. He was for ever examining his emotions.
+He thought much about Lucy Woodrow, and of the love he had borne her, but
+without sorrow for the loss of her. He tried to account for the fact that
+there was no grief in his heart on Lucy's accounts whilst keeping Aurora
+jealously in the background. He was unconsciously dishonest to himself in
+these self-examinings, and one day this dawned upon him. He laughed over
+the discovery, laughed aloud at himself, but the amusement was grim.
+
+'So, then, it is Aurora I need after all,' he said in satirical
+soliloquy, 'and my soul has been playing the hypocrite these few weeks.
+What a marvel of constancy is man! Lucy is lost to me, and secretly the
+baffled heart sneaks back to the other love.'
+
+Behind all this was a fretful longing for the past happiness to which the
+new country, the new conditions, Aurora Mike, and his own abounding
+vitality, had contributed. He shunned the conditions, and was angry
+because the object eluded him. Done, in his sick desire to know himself
+ceased to be truly himself. Had he been content with the fact that he
+loved Aurora and needed her--needed her love, her beauty, her fine
+joyousness and splendid vitality--the rest would have been easy.
+
+He had written from Ballarat to Mike Burton's family in New South Wales,
+and at about this time there came a letter from a relative, asking his
+assistance in Melbourne to secure the money lying to Burton's credit in
+the bank. Jim went to Melbourne, and a quiet trip and the change improved
+him considerably. When he returned again there was a letter from Mary
+Kyley, It was brief:
+
+'DEAR JIMMY,
+
+'We are at Tarrangower. Joy is back with us, well and strong again, and
+as pretty as a picture; but the mischief is she doesn't forget the boy
+who isn't fit to kiss the boots she wears--meaning your self, you scamp!
+'Tisn't a far ride! Maybe you'll come one of these fine Sundays.
+
+'Your middle-aged friend,
+
+'MARY KYLEY.'
+
+Jim spent nearly three days over that letter, and then determination came
+suddenly on top of much contrary argument. He would go. No sooner had he
+made up his mind than a consuming eagerness to see Aurora seized him. All
+other considerations were lost. He must go at once, take her in his arms,
+plead with her with all the fervour of his heart, compel her with every
+argument love could advance, beseech her with all the humility of the
+conquered to be his wife.
+
+Now his love of Lucy appeared as a mere aberration. His overwhelming
+eagerness for life, for new faces, scenes, sensations, had whirled him
+from the true path of his happiness. Thank God, it was not too late! Joy
+alone was his true mate, his true love, the real need of his being, and
+he had never loved her as now. The passion came back upon him like a
+dammed torrent. His impatience made his mate open his eyes in grave
+wonder.
+
+'I want to reach Tarrangower before noon to' morrow, Harry,' he said.
+'Can it be done?'
+
+'You could cover the distance in 'bout five hours on a decent horse. But
+what's struck you, ole man?'
+
+'The idea that I've been playing the melancholy fool. I've been
+questioning life, bargaining with it like a suspicious huckster
+--suspecting, doubting, rejecting, instead of opening wide my arms and
+taking the good to me wherever it offered.'
+
+'I dunno what you're drivin' at, Jim; but if it means you're goin' to
+cheer up I'm all-fired glad to hear it. You've been as miserable as a
+dingo in a springer since Eureka.'
+
+'It means that, Harry. Can we get horses?'
+
+'We--meanin' me too?'
+
+'Yes; you'll come with me? I don't know the lay of the country, and I
+must go.'
+
+'Oh, I'll go fast enough. You can get horses from Croker, but they'll
+cost you a bite.'
+
+This was on Saturday. Jim was in Tarrangower an hour before noon on
+Sundays The first digger they met directed them to Mary Kyley's tent.
+Mary was busy preparing dinner, but dropped everything, and rushed at the
+visitors, half' smothering Jim in a motherly hug.
+
+'Murder! you're looking peeky and thin, Jimmy!' she cried.
+
+'Never mind me, Mrs. Ben; I'm all right. Where's Joy?'
+
+'She's gone for a bit of a walk in the sun.'
+
+'Could I find her?'
+
+'Deuce take your impatience! This isn't flattering to me!'
+
+'Harry will comfort you. I want Aurora, and I want her badly. If she
+doesn't want me, you'd better have left me to die when I had the good
+chance down there at Eureka, Mary Kyley.'
+
+'That's good to hear. On my soul, I like the ring of it! Keep round the
+bend of the hill to the left. You'll see her among the saplings.'
+
+He found her within a few minutes. Seeing her in the distance, he ran
+like a schoolboy, and arrived at her side breathless. She was sitting on
+a log; her hat was at her feet. She was radiant with health and colour
+again. It seemed to him that she had a peculiar affinity with the
+sunshine. He sank on his knees, seizing her hands, speaking nothing,
+seeking a verdict in her face. She slipped her hands from his and clasped
+them about his neck, and her face sank down to his.
+
+'Oh, ma bouthal, you have come back to me,' she murmured.
+
+'Yes, I've come back, Joy he said hoarsely.
+
+'And with the true light in eyes.'
+
+'With my soul full of love for you, my Joy.'
+
+'And the other?'
+
+'There is no other! There never was another! There was a childish
+waywardness, a summer madness--God knows what! But I know now Joy, that
+you are mistress and master of me, that without you I am worthless. I
+want you, my darling.'
+
+'You have me!--you have me, Jim! Every beat of the heart of me!'
+
+She pressed her face to his, and their first kiss had not the rapture of
+that kiss. In it mingled the old sweet emotions, and new ones born of
+sorrow that were sweeter still.
+
+'I only understood one side of my love for you,' he said presently. 'I
+had to be taught the rest in a hard school.'
+
+'I knew you would come back to me, sooner or later. You have come soon.'
+
+'You knew?' He looked at her wonderingly for a moment, but the surprise
+passed. It only seemed strange that he had not recognised all along how
+inevitable was his return. 'Now that I have come I go no more,' he said.
+'I cannot spare you from my side. I want the ties. I would clamp you to
+my heart with iron if I could.'
+
+'Arrah! 'tis a happy girl I am, Jimmy,' she whispered. 'Hush! d'ye hear
+the song in heart?'
+
+He laughed at the brogue, and pressed his lips amongst her thick hair.
+
+'I want you for my wife,' he said.
+
+She clung to him closely in silence for a moment and then he raised her
+gently and they walked back to the tent, hand in hand.
+
+Nearly a year later Mr. and Mrs. Done were in Melbourne together when the
+Petral sailed for England. Amongst the ship's passengers were Mrs. Donald
+Macdougal, her two children, and Lucy Woodrow. Mrs. Macdougal, a wealthy
+and attractive widow, had sold Boobyalla, and intended to make her home
+in England. Lucy was still her companion, and, bidding them farewell, Jim
+was glad to know that the girl was well and not unhappy.
+
+Jim and Aurora followed the rushes for some years after their marriage,
+and when they settled down in a substantial house at Ballarat, Done long
+regretted the canvas walls and the stir and gaiety of the tented fields.
+
+By this time Ballarat was a prim town of many churches and strong
+Wesleyan proclivities, and Eureka had been justified by the concession of
+nearly all that the diggers fought for. One-armed Peter Lalor was a staid
+Parliamentarian and a stout Constitutionalist now, and the grave in which
+Micah Burton and the other rebels lay buried was an honoured spot. But by
+this time, too, new interests had been born into Done's life, new
+existences had been incorporated with his own, and he had a quaint
+fellowship with the youngsters, for in his heart remained a sneaking
+delight in the folly that is the scorn of fools. There were people who
+called Joy a hoyden at forty, but she retained the invincible soul of the
+woman who laughs.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Roaring Fifties, by Edward Dyson
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