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diff --git a/24805.txt b/24805.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fa17a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/24805.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3367 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Chinkie's Flat and Other Stories, by Louis Becke + +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: Chinkie's Flat and Other Stories + 1904 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: March 11, 2008 [EBook #24805] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINKIE'S FLAT AND OTHER STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +CHINKIE'S FLAT AND OTHER STORIES + +By Louis Becke + + +Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company 1904 + + + + TO MY DEAR OLD COMRADES + + North Queensland. + + December, 1908 + + + + + +CHAPTER I ~ "CHINKIE'S FLAT" + +"Chinkie's Flat," In its decadence, was generally spoken of, by the +passing traveller, as a "God-forsaken hole," and it certainly did +present a repellent appearance when seen for the first time, gasping +under the torrid rays of a North Queensland sun, which had dried up +every green thing except the silver-leaved ironbarks, and the long, +sinuous line of she-oaks which denoted the course of Connolly's Creek on +which it stood. + +"The township" was one of the usual Queensland mining type, a dozen +or so of bark-roofed humpies, a public-house with the title of "The +Digger's Best," a blacksmith's forge, and a quartz-crushing battery. + +The battery at Chinkie's Flat stood apart from the "township" on a +little rise overlooking the yellow sands of Connolly's Creek, from +whence it derived its water supply--when there happened to be any water +in that part of the creek. The building which covered the antiquated +five-stamper battery, boiler, engine, and tanks, was merely a huge roof +of bark supported on untrimmed posts of brigalow and swamp gum, but rude +as was the structure, the miners at Chinkie's Flat, and other camps in +the vicinity, had once been distinctly proud of their battery, which +possessed the high-sounding title of "The Ever Victorious," and had +achieved fame by having in the "good times" of the Flat yielded a +certain Peter Finnerty two thousand ounces of gold from a hundred tons +of alluvial. The then owner of the battery was an intelligent, but +bibulous ex-marine engineer, who had served with Gordon in China, +and when he erected the structure he formally christened it "The Ever +Victorious," in memory of Gordon's army, which stamped out the Taeping +rebellion. + +The first crushing put through was Finnerty's, and when the "clean-up" +was over, and the hundreds of silvery balls of amalgam placed in the +retorts turned out over one hundred and sixty-six pounds' weight +of bright yellow gold, Chinkie's Flat went wild with excitement and +spirituous refreshment. + +In less than three months there were over five hundred diggers on the +field, and the "Ever Victorious" banged and pounded away night and day, +the rattle and clang of the stamps only ceasing at midnight on Saturday, +and remaining silent till midnight on Sunday, the Sabbath being devoted +"to cleaning-up," retorting the amalgam, and overhauling and repairing +the machinery, and for relaxation, organising riding parties of twenty +or thirty, and chasing Chinamen, of whom there were over three hundred +within a radius of twenty miles. + +The rich alluvial of Chinkie's Flat had, as a matter of fact, been first +discovered by a number of Chinese diggers, who were each getting from +five to ten ounces of gold per day, when they were discovered by the +aforesaid Peter Finnerty, who was out prospecting with a couple of +mates. Their indignation that a lot of heathen "Chows" should be +scooping up gold so easily, while they, Christians and legitimate +miners, should be toiling over the barren ridges day after day without +striking anything, was so great that for the moment, as they sat on +their horses and viewed the swarming Chinese working their cradles +on the bank of the creek, the power of speech deserted them. Hastily +turning their tired horses' heads, they rode as hard as they could to +the nearest mining camp, and on the following day thirty hairy-faced +foreign-devils came charging into the Chinese camp, uttering fearful +threats, and shooting right and left (with blank cartridges). The +Chinese broke and fled, and in half an hour each of the thirty men +had pegged out a claim, and Chinkie's Flat became famous as one of the +richest, though smallest, alluvial diggings in the Far North. + +Three months after the "discovery" of the field by Mr. Peter Finnerty, +old "Taeping," as Gordon's ex-marine engineer had been promptly +nicknamed, arrived with his crushing battery, and then indeed were +halcyon days for the Flat. From early morn till long past midnight, the +little bar of the "Digger's Best" was crowded with diggers, packhorsemen +and teamsters; a police trooper arrived and fixed his tent on the ridge +overlooking the creek, and then--the very zenith of prosperity--a bank +official followed, and a stately building, composed of a dozen sheets of +bark for a roof, and floor sacks for the sides, was erected and opened +for business on the same day, amid much rejoicing and a large amount +of liquid refreshment dispensed by the landlord of the "hotel" at a +shilling per nobbler. + +For six months longer all went well: more alluvial patches were +discovered in the surrounding country, and then several rich reefs were +found a mile away from the Flat, and every day new men arrived from +Cooktown to the north, and Brisbane, Sydney, and far New Zealand to the +south. Three new "hotels" sprang up; the police force was increased by +another trooper and two black trackers, who rode superciliously around +the camp, carbines on thighs, in their dark blue uniforms with scarlet +facings, and condescended to drink with even the humblest white man; and +then came the added glory of the "Chinkie's Flat Gold Escort"--when a +police van with an Irish sergeant, two white troopers, and eight black +police rattled through the camp, and pulled up at the bank, which now +had a corrugated iron roof, a proper door, and two windows, and (the +manager's own private property) a tin shower bath suspended by a cord +under the verandah, a seltzogene, and a hen with seven chickens. The +manager himself was a young sporting gentleman of parts, and his efforts +to provide Sunday recreation for his clients were duly appreciated--he +was secretary of the Chinkie's Flat Racing Club (meeting every alternate +Sunday), and he and old "Taeping" between them owned a dozen of kangaroo +dogs, which lived on the community generally, and afforded much exciting +sport every Saturday, either in hunting kangaroos or Chinamen, both of +which were plentiful in the vicinity. + +For although Peter Finnerty and his party had succeeded in driving away +the heathen from the Flat itself, the continued further discoveries of +rich alluvial had brought them swarming into the district from all the +other gold-fields in the colony in such numbers that it was impossible +to keep the almond-eyed mining locusts out, especially as the Government +was disposed to give them a measure of protection--not from any +unnatural sentiment, but purely because they were revenue producers, and +the Government badly wanted money. Then, too, their camps were so large, +and so many of them were armed, and disposed to fight when in a corner, +that the breaking up of a "Chows' Camp" became more and more difficult, +and in the end the white diggers had to be content with surprising +outlying prospecting parties, chasing them with kangaroo dogs back to +their main camp, and burning their huts and mining gear, after first +making a careful search for gold, concealed under the earthen floor, or +among their ill-smelling personal effects. Sometimes they were rewarded, +sometimes not, but in either case they were satisfied that they were +doing their duty to Queensland and themselves by harrying the heathen +who raged so furiously, and were robbing the country of its gold. + +Then, after old "Taeping" had succumbed to too much "Digger's Rest," and +Finnerty--now Peter Grattan Finnerty, Esq., Member of the Legislative +Assembly of Queensland--had left the Flat and become the champion of the +"struggling white miner" in the House at a salary of L300 a year, came +bad times, for the alluvial became worked out; and in parties of twos +and threes the old hands began to leave, heading westward across the +arid desert towards the Gilbert and the Etheridge Rivers, dying of +thirst or under the spears of the blacks by the way, but ever heedless +of what was before when the allurements and potentialities of a new +field lay beyond the shimmering haze of the sandy horizon. + +Then, as the miners left, the few "cockatoo" settlers followed them, +or shifted in nearer to the town on the sea-coast with their horse and +bullock teams, and an ominous silence began to fall upon the Flat when +the tinkle of the cattle bells no longer was heard among the dark fringe +of sighing she-oaks bordering the creek. As day by day the quietude +deepened, the parrots and pheasants and squatter pigeons flew in and +about the Leichhardt trees at the foot of the bluff, and wild duck at +dusk came splashing into the battery dam, for there was now no one who +cared to shoot them; the merry-faced, rollicking, horse-racing young +bank manager and his baying pack of gaunt kangaroo dogs had vanished +with the rest; and then came the day when but eight men remained--seven +being old hands, and the eighth a stranger, who, with a blackboy, had +arrived the previous evening. + +And had it not been for the coming of the stranger, Chinkie's Flat +would, in a few weeks, have been left to solitude, and reported to the +Gold-fields Warden as "abandoned and duffered out." + + + + +CHAPTER II ~ GRAINGER MAKES A "DEAL" + +Three years before Edward Grainger had been the leader of a small +prospecting party which had done fairly well on the rivers debouching +into the Gulf of Carpentaria from the western side of Cape York +Peninsula. He was an Englishman, his mates were all Australian-born, +vigorous, sturdy bushmen, inured to privation and hardship, and +possessing unbounded confidence in their leader, though he was by no +means the oldest man of the party, and not a "native." But Grainger +had had great experience as an explorer and prospector, for he had been +compelled to begin the battle of life when but a lad of fifteen. His +father, once a fairly wealthy squatter in the colony of Victoria, was +ruined by successive droughts, and died leaving his station deeply +mortgaged to the bank, which promptly foreclosed, and Mrs. Grainger +found herself and two daughters dependent upon her only son, a boy of +fifteen, for a living. He, however, was equal to the occasion. Leaving +his mother and sisters in lodgings in Melbourne, he made his way to New +South Wales with a mob of travelling cattle, earning his pound a week +and rations. At Sydney he worked on the wharves as a lumper, and then +joined in the wild rush to the famous Tambaroora diggings, and was +fortunate enough to meet with remunerative employment, and from then +began his mining experiences, which in the course of the following ten +years took him nearly all over the Australian colonies, New Zealand, +and Tasmania. Never making much money, and never very "hard up," he had +always managed to provide for his mother and sisters; and when he formed +his prospecting party to Cape York and sailed from Brisbane, he knew +that they would not suffer from any financial straits for at least two +years. + +For nearly three years he and his party wandered from one river to +another along the torrid shores of the great gulf, sometimes doing well, +sometimes not getting enough gold to pay for the food they ate, but +always, always hopeful of the day when they would "strike it rich." Then +came misfortune--sharp and sudden. + +Camped on the Batavia River during the wet season, the whole party of +five sickened with malaria, and found themselves unable to move to the +high land at the head of the river owing to all their horses having died +from eating "poison plant." Too weak to travel by land, they determined +to build a raft and reach the mouth of the river, where there was a +small cattle station. Here they intended to remain till the end of the +rains, buy fresh horses and provisions, and return and prospect some of +the deep gullies and watercourses at the head of the Batavia River. + +Scarcely had they completed the raft, and loaded it with their effects, +when they were rushed by a mob of blacks, and in a few seconds two of +the five were gasping out their lives from spear wounds, and all the +others were wounded. Fortunately for the survivors, Grainger had his +revolver in his belt, and this saved them, for he at once opened fire on +the savages, whilst the other men worked the raft out into the middle +of the stream, where they were out of danger from spears and able to use +their rifles. + +After a terrible voyage of three days, and suffering both from their +wounds and the bone-racking agonies of fever, they at last reached the +cattle station, where they were kindly received in the rough, hospitable +fashion common to all pioneers in Australia. But, when at the end of a +month one of Grainger's mates died of his wounds, and the other bade him +goodbye and went off in a pearling lugger to Thursday Island, the leader +sickened of Cape York Peninsula, and turned his face southwards once +more, in the hope that fortune would be more kind to him on the new +rushes at the Cloncurry, seven hundred miles away. From the station +owner he bought six horses, and with but one black-boy for a companion, +started off on his long, long journey through country which for the most +part had not yet been traversed even by the explorer. + +Travelling slowly, prospecting as he went, and adding a few ounces of +gold here and there to the little bag he carried in his saddle-pouch, +quite three months passed ere he and the black boy reached the +Cloncurry. Here, however, he found nothing to tempt him--the field +was overcrowded, and every day brought fresh arrivals, and so, after a +week's spell, he once more set out, this time to the eastward towards +the alluvial fields near the Burdekin River, of which he had heard. + +It was at the close of a long day's ride over grassless, sun-smitten +country, that he came in sight of Chinkie's Flat, and the welcome green +of the she-oaks fringing Connolly's Creek and soughing to the wind. The +quietness and verdancy of the creek pleased him, and he resolved to have +a long, long spell, and try and get rid of the fever which had again +attacked him and made his life a misery. + +Riding up to the hotel he found a party of some twenty or more diggers +who were having a last carouse--for the "benefit" of the landlord---ere +they bade goodbye to Chinkie's Flat on the following evening. Among them +were two men who had become possessed of the "Ever Victorious" battery, +left to them by the recently deceased "Taeping," who had succumbed to +alleged rum and bad whiskey. They jocularly offered Grainger the +entire plant for twenty-five pounds and his horses. He made a laughing +rejoinder and said he would take a look at the machine in the morning. +He meant to have a long spell, he said, and Chinkie's Flat would suit +him better than Townsville or Port Denison to pull up, as hotels there +were expensive and he had not much money. Then, as was customary, he +returned the drink he had accepted from them by shouting for all hands, +and was at once voted "a good sort." + +In the morning he walked down to the deserted battery, examined it +carefully, and found that although it was in very bad order, and +deficient especially in screens--the one greatest essential--it was +still capable of a great deal of work. Then he washed off a dish or two +of tailings from one of the many heaps about, and although he had no +acid, nor any other means of making a proper test in such a short time, +his scientific knowledge acquired on the big gold-fields of the +southern colonies and New Zealand showed him that there was a very +heavy percentage of gold still to be won from the tailings by simple and +inexpensive treatment. + +"I'll buy the thing," he said to himself; "I can't lose much by doing +so, and there's every chance of saving a good deal of gold, if I once +get some fine screens, and that will only take six weeks or so." + +By noon the "deal" was completed, and in exchange fer twenty-five +pounds in cash, six horses and their saddlery, Grainger, amid much +good-humoured chaff from the vendors, took possession of the "Ever +Victorious" crushing mill, together with some thousands of tons of +tailings, but when he announced his intention of putting the plant in +order and crushing for the "public" generally, as well as for himself, +six men who yet had some faith in the field and believed that some +of the many reefs would pay to work, elected to stay, especially when +Grainger said that if their crushings turned out "duffers" he would +charge them nothing for using the battery. + +At one o'clock that day there were but eight Europeans and one black +boy left on the once noisy Chinkie's Flat--the landlord of "The Digger's +Best," six miners, Grainger, and the black boy, "Jacky," who had +accompanied him on his arduous journey from the Batavia River. At +Grainger's request they all met at the public-house! and sat down to a +dinner of salt meat, damper, and tea, and after it was finished and each +man had lit his pipe, Grainger went into details. + +"Now, boys, this is how the thing hangs. I've bought the old rattletrap +because I believe there's a lot of life in the old girl yet, and I'm +going to spend all the money I have in putting her in order and getting +some new gear up from Brisbane or Sydney. If I lose my money I won't +grumble, but I don't think I _shall_ lose it if you will agree to give +some of the reefs a thorough good trial. As I told you, I won't ask you +for a penny if the stone I crush for you turns out no good; but it is +my belief--and I know what I am talking about--that there are a thousand +tons of surface stuff lying around this field which will give half an +ounce to an ounce to the ton if it is put through a decent machine. +And I'm going to make the old 'Ever Victorious' a pretty decent battery +before long. But it's no good my spending my money--I possess only four +hundred pounds--if you don't back me up and lend a hand." + +"You're the man for us," said one of the men; "we'll stick to you and +do all the bullocking. But the battery is very old, and we have the idea +that old Taeping wasn't much of a boss of a crushing mill, and didn't +know much about amalgamation." + +Grainger nodded: "I am sure of it. I don't believe that he saved more +than 50 per cent, of the gold from the surface stuff he put through, and +not more than a third from the stone.... Well, boys, what is it to be?" + +The men looked at each other for a moment or two, and then they one and +all emphatically asserted their intention of remaining on the field, +assisting Grainger in repairing the plant and raising trial crushings of +stone from every reef on the field. + +"That's all right, then, boys," said Grainger. "Now you go ahead and +raise the stone, and as soon as I am a bit stronger I'll start off +for the Bay and buy what I want in the way of screens, grinding pans, +quicksilver, and other gear. I'm almost convinced that with new, fine +screens we shall get good results out of the stone, and if we are +disappointed, then well tackle that heap of tailings. I've seen a lot of +tailings treated without being roasted in Victoria, and understand the +process right enough." + +"Well, we'll do our share of yacker, mister," said a man named Dick +Scott. + +"And I'll do mine. As soon as I am fit some of you must lend me a couple +of horses, and I'll ride down to the Bay.{*} I daresay I can get all +that we want there in the way of machinery without my going or sending +to Brisbane for it." + + * The present city of Townsville, then always called "The + Bay," it being situated on the shores of Cleveland Bay. + +On the following morning work was started by the six men, the landlord +of the public-house agreeing to cook for all hands for the first week, +while Grainger and the black boy (though the former was still very weak +from recurrent attacks of ague) tried numberless prospects from all +parts of the heaps of tailings. At the end of a week the miners began to +raise some very likely-looking stone! and Grainger, finding some jars +of muriatic acid among the stores belonging to the battery, made some +further tests of the tailings with results which gave him the greatest +satisfaction. He, however, said nothing about this to his new mates, +intending to give them a pleasant surprise later on in the week before +he left on his journey to the coast. + +At six o'clock one evening, just as the men were returning from the +claim for supper, Jacky, the black boy, was seen coming along the track +at a fast canter. He had been out looking for some cattle belonging to +Jansen the landlord, which had strayed away among the ranges. + +"What's the matter, Jacky?" asked the men, as the boy jumped off his +horse. + +"I bin see him plenty feller Chinaman come along road. Altogether +thirty-one. Close to now--'bout one feller mile away, I think it." + + + + +CHAPTER III ~ JIMMY AH SAN + +Consternation was depicted on the faces of the men. And they all began +to question Jacky at once, until Grainger appeared, and then the black +boy gave them farther particulars--the Chinamen, he said, were all on +foot, each man carrying two baskets on a stick, but there were also five +or six pack-horses loaded with picks, shovels, dishes, and other mining +gear. + +"Curse the dirty, yaller-hided swine!" cried Dick Scott, turning +excitedly to Grainger. "What's to be done? They've come to rush the Flat +again; but, by thunder! I'll be a stiff 'un afore a Chow fills another +dish with wash-dirt on Connolly's Creek." + +"And me, too!" "And me, too!" growled the others angrily, and Grainger, +as he looked at their set, determined faces, knew they would soon be +beyond control, and bloodshed would follow if the advancing Chinamen +tried to come on to the field. But, nevertheless, he was thoroughly in +sympathy with them. The advent of these Chinese--probably but an advance +guard of many hundreds--would simply mean ruination to himself and his +mates, just as their prospects were so bright. The men looked upon him +as their leader, and he must act--and act quickly. + +"Let them come along, boys. Then we'll bail them up as soon as they come +abreast of us, and have a little 'talkee, talkee' with them. But for +heaven's sake try and keep cool, and I daresay when they see we look +ugly at them, they'll trot on. How many of you have guns of any kind?" + +Four rifles and two shot guns were quickly produced, and then every one +waited till the first of the Chinese appeared, marching one behind the +other. The foremost man was dressed in European clothes, and the moment +Scott saw him, he exclaimed-- + +"Why, it's Jimmy Ah San! I used to know him at Gympie in the old times. +He's not a bad sort of a Chow. Come on, boys!" + +Grainger, who was not just then well enough to go with them, but +remained in his seat with his revolver on his knee, could not help +smiling at the sudden halt and terrified looks of the Chinese, when +Scott and the others drew up in front of them with their weapons at the +present. Half of them at once dropped their baskets and darted off into +the bush, the rest crowding together like a flock of terrified sheep. +The leader, however, came steadily on. Scott stepped out and met him. + +"Good-morning. What do you and all your crowd want here?" + +"Nothing," replied the Chinaman quietly, in excellent English, "nothing +but to get down to the creek and camp for a few days. But why do you all +come out with guns? We cannot do you any harm." + +"Just so. But we can do _you_ a lot if you try on any games, Mr. Jimmy +Ah San." + +"Ah, you know me then," said the man, looking keenly at Scott. + +"Yes, I do, an' you're all right enough. But me an' my mates is going +to keep this field for white men--it ain't goin' to be no Chinaman's +digging'. So what's yer move?" + +"Only what I said. Look at my men! We do not want to stop here; we wish +to push along to the coast. Some of them are dying from exhaustion, and +my pack-horses can hardly go another quarter of a mile." + +Soott scratched his chin meditatively, and then consulted with his +mates. He, although so rough in his speech, was not a bad-natured man, +and he could see that the Chinese were thoroughly done up, and worn down +to skin and bone. Then presently Grainger walked over and joined them, +and heard what Ah San had to say. + +"I'm sorry that you are in such a bad fix," he said, "but you know as +well as I do that if any of your men put a pick into ground here, +there will be serious trouble, and if they lose their lives you will be +responsible--and may perhaps lose your own." + +"I promise you that nothing like that will happen," replied the +Chinaman. "My men are all diggers, it is true, but we will not attempt +to stay on any field where we are not wanted. My name is James Ah San. I +am a British subject, and have lived in Australia for twenty-five years. +That man" (pointing to Scott) "knows me, and can tell you that 'Jimmy Ah +San' never broke a promise to any man." + +"That is right enough," said Scott promptly; "every one in Gympie knew +you when you was storekeepin' there, and said you was a good sort." + +"We have come over three hundred miles from the Cloncurry," went on the +Chinese leader, quickly seeing that Scott's remark had much impressed +the other miners; "the diggers there gave us forty-eight hours to clear +out. The blacks killed fifteen of us and speared ten of my horses, and +six more men died on the way. We can do no harm here. We only want to +spell a week, or two weeks." + +"Poor devils!" muttered Grainger; then he said to Ah San: "Very well. +Now, you see the track going through that clump of sandalwood? Well, +follow it and you'll come to a little ironstone ridge, where you'll find +a good camping-ground just over a big pool in the creek. There's a +bit of sweet grass, too, for your horses, so they can get a good feed +to-night. In the morning this black boy will, if you like, show you a +place in the ranges, about four miles from here, where you can let them +run for a week. There's some fine grass and plenty of water, and they +ought to pick up very quickly. But you will have to keep some one to see +that they don't get round the other side of the range--through one of +the gaps; if they do, you'll lose them to a dead certainty, for there +are two or three mobs of brumbies{*} running there. Do you want any +tucker?"{**} + + * Wild horses. + + ** Provisions. + +"No, thank you," replied Ah San, with an unmistakable inflexion of +gratitude in his voice; "we have plenty of rice and tea, but I should +like to buy a bullock to-morrow, if I can--I saw some cattle about two +miles from here. Is there a cattle station near here?" + +"No. The cattle you saw belong to one of us--this man here," pointing to +Jansen, "will sell you a beast to-morrow, I daresay." + +Then the armed protectors of the integrity from foreign invasion of the +rights of Chinkie's Flat nodded "Good evening" to Ah San, and walked +back across the road to the "Digger's Best," and the Chinamen, with +silent, childlike patience, resumed their loads and trotted along after +their leader. They disappeared over the hill, and ere darkness descended +the glare of their camp fires was casting steady gleams of light upon +the dark waters of the still pool beneath the ridge. + + + + +CHAPTER IV ~ GRAINGER AND JIMMY AH SAN TALK TOGETHER + +It was eight o'clock in the morning, and Jimmy Ah San, a fat, +pleasant-faced Chinaman, dressed in European costume, came outside his +tent, and filling his pipe, sat down on the ground, and with his hands +clasped on his knees, saw six of the white men emerge from two or three +humpies, and walk down to the new shaft to begin work. + +He was well acquainted with the previous history of the spot upon which +he was now gazing, and something like a scowl darkened his good-humoured +face as he looked upon the ragged, half-famished surrivors of his +company, and thought of the past horrors and hardships of the fearful +journey from the Cloncurty. Fifteen of their number had been murdered by +blacks in less than a fortnight, and the bones of half a dozen more, who +had succumbed to exhaustion or thirst lay bleaching on a strip of desert +country between the Cloncurry and the Burdekin River. + +But Ah San was a man of courage--and resource as well--and his +five-and-twenty years' experience of bush and mining life in the Far +North of Australia enabled him to pilot the remainder of his men by +forced marches to the Cape River, where they had spelled for a month so +as to gain strength for the long stage between that river and Conolly's +Creek, on one of the deserted fields of which he hoped to settle and +retrieve his broken fortunes. + +As he sat and watched and thought, eight or ten members of his company +came and crouched near him, gazing with hungry eyes at the heaps of +mullock and the mounds of tailings surrounding the "Ever Victorious" +battery, watching the Europeans at work, and wondering when they, too, +would give it up and follow their departed comrades. For the Chinamen +knew that those dry and dusty heaps of mullock and grey and yellow sand, +on which the death adder and the black-necked tiger snake now coiled +themselves to sleep in the noon-day sun, still contained gold enough to +reward patient industry--industry of which the foreign-devils were not +capable when the result would be but five pennyweights a day, washed +out in the hot waters of the creek under a sky of brass, "with flour at +two-pounds-ten per 50 lb. bag," as Dick Scott said. + +Presently, turning to a sun-baked, lanky Chinaman near him--his +lieutenant--he bade him tell the men to prepare to go down to the Creek, +and drag some of the pools with a small seine. + +"There are many fish in all these creeks which run into the great river" +(the Burdekin), "but I will first go to the foreigners and ask their +permission. The tall, sick man is well disposed towards us, and we must +be patient and submit to the tyranny of the others for a little while. +But all may yet be well with us if I can but get speech of him alone. +Meanwhile, keep the company under close watch; let no man wander from +the camp till I return." + +Then entering his tent, he took from a canvas pack-bag a small bottle, +put it in his coat pocket, and, descending the ridge, walked towards the +"Digger's Best." + +As he drew near, Grainger, followed by the landlord, came out of the +house and sat down on rudely made reclining chairs, composed of two +pieces of sapling, with cross-pieces, from which was slung a flour sack. + +"Good morning, gentlemen," said the Chinaman politely. + +"Good morning," they replied civilly, and then Grainger, who was wearing +a heavy overcoat, for the chill of an attack of ague was near, asked him +to sit down and inquired how his men were. + +"They are getting on very well, thank you, sir," replied Ah San, "but +several of them are very weak, and will not be fit to travel for a +fortnight unless we carry them. But the rest will do them much good, +especially if they get a change of food. I have come now to ask you if +you and your mates will let us drag some of the pools in the creek for +fish. We have a small net." + +"Certainly," replied Jansen; "some fish will do them good, and the pools +are alive with them now that the creek is so low. And anyway, we don't +want to stop you from getting food--do we, Mr. Grainger?" + +"Certainly not; we have no earthly right to prevent you from taking +fish in the creek, and even if we had we should not use it. We are not +brutes." + +"Thank you very much," said Ah San--and then, addressing himself to the +landlord, he asked him if he had a bullock to sell. + +Jansen was an alert business man at once. He had a small herd of cattle +running wild about the creek! and was only too glad to sell a beast. + +"You can have any bullock you like--the biggest in the lot--for a +fiver--but, cash down." + +The Chinaman pulled out his purse, handed him a five-pound note, and +asked when he could have the beast. + +"In about an hour, if you want to kill right off; but you ought not to +kill till sundown in such weather as this. But, anyway, I'll saddle up +and get a man to help me run the mob into the stockyard. Then you can +pick one out for yourself---there's half a dozen bullocks, and some fine +young fat cows, so you can have your choice." + +In a few minutes the landlord had caught and saddled two horses, and +riding one, and leading the other, he went off to the new shaft, where +the spare horse was mounted by one of the men working there. + +Then Ah San turned to the sick man, and said interrogatively-- + +"You have fever?" + +"Yes, I caught it up Normanton way in the Gulf Country six months ago, +and thought I was getting clear of it, but a month back it came on +again, and I have been pretty bad ever since." + +"I can see that, and the Gulf kind of fever is bad--very bad. I know all +about it, for I lived in the Gulf Country for ten years, and have had it +myself. Now, here is some medicine which will do you good--it will cure +you in ten days if you take a dose every time you feel the 'shakes' +coming on. But you must not eat more than you can help." + +"Thank you," said Grainger eagerly, as he took the bottle; "it is very +kind of you. But you may want it yourself?" + +"I have three or four more bottles left. I had a dozen from the doctor +at Georgetown on the Etheridge River. He is a man who knows all about +fever, and I can assure you that you will be a well man in ten days. +Show me your hand, please." + +The European extended his hand languidly to the Chinaman, who looked at +the finger-nails for a moment or two: "You will have the 'shakes' in a +few hours." + +"Yes. They generally come on as soon as the sun gets pretty high--about +nine or ten o'clock." + +"Then you must take a dose now. Can I go inside and get a glass and some +water?" + +"Yes, certainly. It is very good of you to take so much trouble." + +Returning with a glass and some water, the Chinaman poured out a dose of +the mixture, and with a smile of satisfaction watched the sick man drink +it. + +Then Grainger and his visitor began to talk, at first on general matters +such as the condition of the country between the Cloncurry and the +Burdekin, and then about Chinkie's Flat, its past glories and its +present condition. The frank, candid manner of Ah San evoked a similar +freedom of speech from the Englishman, who recognised that he was +talking to an intelligent and astute man who knew more about the Far +North of Queensland and its gold-fields than he did himself. + +Then Ah San saw the opportunity for which he had been waiting, and +drawing his seat nearer to Grainger's he spoke earnestly to him, told +him exactly of the situation of himself and his company, and ended up by +making him a certain proposition regarding the working of the abandoned +claims, and the restarting of the rusting and weather-worn "Ever +Victorious" battery. + +Grainger listened intently, nodding his head now and then as Ah San +emphasised some particular point. At the end of an hour's conversation +they heard the cracking of the landlord's stock whip and the bellowing +of cattle as they crossed the creek, and the Chinaman rose and held out +his hand. + +"Then good morning, Mr. Grainger. I hope you will be able to convince +your mates that we can all pull together." + +"I am sure of it. We are all pretty hard up. And you and your men can +help us, and we can help you. Come down again to-night, and I'll tell +you the result of my talk with them." + + + + +CHAPTER V ~ THE RESURRECTION OF THE "EVER VICTORIOUS" + +At six o'clock in the evening, Grainger was seated at one end of the +rough dining-table in the "Digger's Best" with some papers laid before +him, At the other end was Dick Scott, and the rest of the men sat on +either side, smoking their pipes, and wondering what was in the wind. + +Grainger did not keep them waiting long. Taking his pipe ont of his +month, and laying it on the table, he went into business at once, He +spoke to them as if he were one of themselves, adopting a simplicity of +language and manner that he knew would appeal to their common sense and +judgment far more than an elaborately prepared speech. + +"Now, boys, I've got something to say, and I'll say it as quick as I +can. None of you know anything of me beyond what I have told you myself; +but I don't think any one of you will imagine I'm a man who would try to +ring in a swindle on you when I bought the old rattletrap down there?" + +"Go ahead, mister," said Dick Scott, "we didn't think no such thing. We +on'y thought you was chuckin' away your money pernicious." + +Grainger laughed so heartily that his hearers followed suit Then he went +on-- + +"No. I'm not throwing my money away, boys. I am going to _make_ money on +this field, and so are you. But there are not enough of us. We want more +men--wages' men; and presently I'll explain _why_ we shall want them. +But first of all, let me show you what I obtained the other day out of +between 200 and 250 lbs. weight of those tailings." + +He rose, went into the second room, and returned with a small enamelled +dish, and placed it upon the table. The miners rose and gathered round, +and saw lying on the bottom about an ounce and a quarter of fine powdery +gold. + +"Holy Moses!" cried one of them, as he drew his forefinger through the +bright, yellow dust, "there's more than an ounce there." + +"There is," affirmed Grainger: "there are twenty-five pennyweights, and +all that came out of not more than 250 lbs. of tailings!" + +The men looked at each other with eyes sparkling with excitement, +and then Grainger poured the gold out upon a clean plate for closer +examination. + +"Why," exclaimed Scott, "that means those tailings would go ten ounces +to the ton!" + +"Just so," said Grainger, "but we can't get those ten ounces out of them +by ordinary means, though with new screens, new tables and blankets I +am pretty sure we can get four ounces to the ton. But we want the ten, +don't we?" + +"You bet," was the unanimous response. + +"Well, I'll guarantee that we shall get eight ounces at least. But first +of all I'll tell you how I got the result. You can try some of the stuff +in the morning, and you will find that those tailings will pan out about +eight or ten ounces to the ton." + +"But acid is mighty dear stuff," said Scott. + +"Just so, but it is very good as a test, and of course we are not +such duffers as to try to treat more than a couple of thousand tons of +tailings with acid. We'd die of old age before we finished. Now, I'll +get on and tell you what I do propose. You remember that I said I had +seen tailings treated in Victoria without roasting. Well, we could do +that now, though we should only get half the gold and lose the other +half in the sludge pits. Now, as I told you, I have about four hundred +pounds' worth of alluvial gold, which I brought with me from the north, +and which I can sell to any bank in the Bay. I intended when I bought +the 'Ever Victorious' to spend this L400 in buying some fine screens, a +couple of grinding pans, and some other gold-saving machinery, so that +when I was not crushing stone for you men I could be running those +tailings through. But we can do better--now that the Chinamen are here." + +Something like dismay was depicted on the men's faces when they heard +this, but no one interrupted as he went on-- + +"We can do much better. Instead of treating those tailings by simply +running them through the screens again and losing half the gold, we can +build a proper roasting farnaoe, and _then_ we can grind them, keeping +the stampers for crushing alone. This morning I had a long yarn with Ah +San, the boss Chinaman, and he is willing to let us have as many of his +men as we want for twenty-five shillings a week each, and indenture them +to me for six months--there's the labour we want, right to our hand. +It's cheap labour, I admit, but that is no concern of ours. The Chows, +so Ah San tells me, will be only too glad to get a six months' job at +twenty-five bob a week--of which he takes half." + +"Aye," said Scott contemptuously, "they're only bloomin' slaves." + +"To their boss, no doubt; but not to us. They will be well pleased to +work for us and earn what they consider good wages. I propose that we +get at least twenty of them and set them to work right away. There is +any amount of good clay here, I know, and we'll start them digging. I +know how to build a brick-kiln, and we'll get a proper bricklayer up +from the Bay, and I guarantee that by the time the new machinery is up +that the roasting furnace will be built." + +"No need to get a bricklayer from the Bay and pay him about eight pound +a week," said a man named Arthur O'Hare; "I'm a bricklayer by trade." + +"Bully for you," said Grainger; "will you take four pounds a week to put +up the furnace and chimney?" + +"I'm willing, if my mates are." + +"Well, boys, that's pretty well all I have to say. We'll build the +roasting furnace; the Chinamen will do all the bullocking{*} both at +that and the battery, and we'll put on half-a-dozen to help at the new +shaft. I'll boss the battery, drive the engine, and do the amalgamating, +and you men can go on roasting stone. Every Saturday we'll stop the +battery and clean her up, and at the end of every four weeks we'll send +the gold to the bank and go shares in the plunder. Now, tell me, what do +you think? Do you think it's a fair proposition?" + + * "Bullocking"--hard work--i.e., to work like bullook. In a + team. + +After a very brief consultation together, Scott, speaking on behalf of +his mates, said they were all willing, and not only willing, but pleased +to "come in" with him, but they thought that he would only be acting +fairly to himself if he, as manager of the battery, amalgamator, and +general supervisor of the whole concern, took a salary of ten pounds a +week. + +"No, boys. I'll take six pounds if you like. Of course, however, you +will not object to refunding me the money I am expending on the new +machinery. As for the profits, we shall divide equally. + +"Well then," said Scott, banging his brawny fist on the table and +turning to his mates, "if you treats us in that generous way, we must do +the same with you as regards the stone we raise. Boys, I proposes that +as our new mate is finding the money to start the old battery again, and +going even shares with us in the gold from the tailings, that we go even +shares with him in whatever gold we get from the claims." + +"Right," was the unanimous response. And then they all came up one by +one and shook hands with Grainger, whose face flushed with pleasure. +Then Jansan produced a bottle of rum and Grainger gave them a toast-- + +"Boys, here's good luck to us all, and here's to the day when we shall +hear the stampers banging away in the boxes and the 'Ever Victorious' be +as victorious as she was in the good old days of the field." + + + + +CHAPTER VI ~ "MAGNETIC VILLA" + +"Magnetic Villa" was one of the "best" houses in the rising city of +Townsville. It stood on the red, rocky, and treeless side of Melton +Hill, overlooked the waters of Cleveland Bay, and faced the rather +picturesque-looking island from whence it derived its name. + +About ten months after the resurrection of the "Ever Victorious" and the +concomitant reawakening to life of Chinkie's Flat, three ladies arrived +by steamer from Sydney to take possession of the villa--then untenanted. +In a few hours it was generally known that the newcomers were Mrs. +Trappeme, Miss Trappeme, and Miss Lilla Trappeme. There was also a +Master Trappeme, a lanky, ill-looking, spotted-faced youth of fourteen, +in exceedingly new and badly-fitting clothes much too large for him. By +his mother and sisters he was addressed as "Mordaunt," though until a +year or so previously his name had been Jimmy. + +A few weeks after the ladies had installed themselves in the villa there +appeared a special advertisement in the Townsville _Champion_ (over +the leader) informing the public that "Mrs. Lee-Trappeme is prepared to +receive a limited number of paying guests at 'Magnetic Villa.' Elegant +appointments, superior _cuisine_, and that comfort and hospitality which +can Only be obtained in a Highly-refined Family Circle." + +"Hallo!" said Mallard, the editor of the _Champion_, to Flynn, his sub, +who called his attention to the advertisement, "so 'Magnetic Villa' +is turned into a hash house, eh? Wonder who they are? 'Highly refined +family circle'--sounds fishy, doesn't it? Do you know anything about +them?" + +"No, but old Maclean, the Melbourne drummer who came up in the _Barcoo_ +from Sydney with them, does--at least he knew the old man, who died +about a year and a half ago." + +"What was he?" + +"Bank messenger in Sydney at thirty bob a week; used to lend money to +the clerks at high interest, and did very well; for when he pegged out +he left the old woman a couple of thousand. His name was Trappem--John +Trappem, but he was better known as 'Old Jack Trap.' When they came on +board the _Barcoo_ they put on no end of side, and they were 'Mrs., the +Misses, and Master Lee-Trappeme.'" + +"Lord! what a joke! Did the drummer give the show away on board?" + +"No, for a wonder. But he told me of it." + +"Daughters good looking?" + +"Younger one is not too bad; elder's a terror--thin, bony, long face, +long nose, long feet, long conceit of herself, and pretty long age, +walks mincingly, like a hen on a hot griddle, and------" + +"Oh, stop it! The old woman?" + +"Fat, ruddy-faced, pleasant-looking, white hair, talks of her 'poor +_papaless_ girls,' &c. She's a pushing old geyser, however, and has +already got the parsons and some of the other local nobility to call on +her." + +"Wonder what sort of tucker they'd give one, Flynn? I'm tired of paying +L6 a week at the beastly overcrowded dog-kennel, entitled the 'Royal' +Hotel--save the mark!--and I'm game even to try a boarding-house, but," +and here he rubbed his chin, "this 'refined family circle' business, you +know?" + +"They all say that," remarked the sub. "You couldn't expect 'em to +tell the truth and say, 'In Paradise Mansions Mrs. de Jones feeds her +boarders on anything cheap and nasty; the toilet jugs have no handles, +and the floors are as dirty as the kitchen slave, who does the cooking +and waits at table, and the family generally are objectionable in their +manners and appearance.'" + +"Are you game to come with me this afternoon and inspect 'Magnetic +Villa' and the 'refined family circle'?" + +"Yes. And, by Jove! if you take up your quarters there, I will do so +as well. We could try it, anyway. I'm batching with Battray, the police +inspector, and three other fellows. It was only going to cost us L3 a +week each; it costs us more like L6." + +"Of course, too much liquor, and all that," said the editor of the +_Champion_, with a merry twinkle in his eye. + +Scarcely had the sub-editor left when a knock announced another visitor, +and Grainger, booted and spurred, entered the room. + +Mallard jumped from his chair and shook hands warmly with him. "This is +a surprise, Grainger. When did you get to town?" + +"About an hour ago. Myra is with me; her six months' visit has come to +an end, and my mother and my elder sister want her back again; so she is +leaving in the next steamer. But all the hotels are packed full, and +as the steamer does not leave for a week, I don't know how to manage. +That's why I came to see you, thinking you might know of some place +where we could put up for a week." + +"I shall be only too delighted to do all I can. The town is very full +of people just now, and the hotels are perfect pandemoniums, what with +Chinkie's Flat, the rush to the Haughton, Black Gully, and other places +Townsville is off its head with bibulous prosperity, and lodgings of +any kind fit for a lady are unobtainable. Ah, stop! I've forgotten +something. I do know of a place which might suit Miss Grainger very +well. Where is she now?" + +"In the alleged sitting-room at the 'Queen's.' I gave the head waiter a +sovereign to let her have it to herself for a couple of hours whilst I +went out and saw what I could do." + +Then Mallard told Grainger of "Magnetic Villa." + +"Let us go and see this refined family," he said with a laugh. "I don't +know them, but from what my sub tells me, I daresay Miss Grainger could +manage with them for a week. I know the house, which has two advantages: +it is large, and is away from this noisy, dirty, dusty, and sinful +town." + +"Very well," said Grainger" as he took out his pipe, "will three o'clock +suit? My sister might come." + +"Of course. Now tell me about Chinkie's Flat. Any fresh news?" + +"Nothing fresh; same old thing." + +"'Same old thing!'" and Mallard spread out his arms yearningly and +rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Just listen to the man, O ye gods! +'The same old thing!' That means you are making a fortune hand over +fist, you and Jimmy Ah San." + +"We are certainly making a lot of money, Mallard," replied Grainger +quietly, as he lit his pipe and crossed his strong, sun-tanned hands +over his knee. "My own whack, so far, out of Chinkie's Flat, has come to +more than L16,000." + +"Don't say 'whack,' Grainger; it's vulgar. Say 'My own emolument, +derived in less than one year from the auriferous wealth of Chinkie's +Flat, amounts to L16,000.' You'll be going to London soon, and floating +the property for a million, and--" + +Grainger, who knew the man well, and had a sincere liking and respect +for him, laughed again, though his face flushed. "You know me better +than that, Mallard; I'm not the man to do that sort of thing. I could +float the concern and make perhaps a hundred thousand or so out of it +if I was blackguard enough to do it. But, thank God, I've never done +anything dirty in my life, and never will." + +"Don't mind my idiotic attempt at a joke, Grainger," and Mallard pat ont +his hand. "I know you are the straightest man that ever lived. But I did +really think that you would be going off to England soon, and that +we--I mean the other real friends beside myself you have made in this +God-forsaken colony--would know you no more except by reading of your +'movements' in London." + +"No, Mallard, Australia is my home. I know nothing of England, for I +left there when I was a child. As I told you, my poor father was one +of the biggest sheep men in Victoria, and died soon after the bank +foreclosed on him. The old station, which he named 'Melinda Downs,' +after my mother, who has the good old-fashioned name of Melinda, has +gone through a lot of vicissitudes since then; but a few weeks ago my +agent in Sydney bought it for L10,000, and now my mother and sisters are +going back there." + +"And yourself?" + +"Oh, a year or two more--perhaps three or four; and then, when Chinkie's +Flat is worked out, I too, will go south to the old home." + +Mallard sighed, and then, taking a cigar, lit it, and the two men smoked +together in silence for a few minutes. + +"Mallard!" + +"Yes, old man." + +"This continual newspaper grind is pretty tough, isn't it?" + +"Yes, it is. But thanks to you--by putting me on to the 'Day Dawn' Reef +at Chinkie's Flat--I've made a thousand or two and can chuck it at any +time." + +"Don't say 'chuck.' It's vulgar; and the editor of the 'leading journal +in North Queensland' must not be vulgar," and he smiled. + +"Ah, Grainger my boy, you have been a good friend to me!" + +"It's the other way about, Mallard. You were the only man in the whole +colony of Queensland who stood to me when I began to employ Chinese +labour. That ruffian, Peter Finnerty, said in the House, only two months +ago, that I deserved to be shot." + +"Well, you stuck to your guns, and I to mine. Fortunately the _Champion_ +is my own 'rag,' and not owned by a company. I stuck to you as a matter +of principle." + +"And lost heavily by it." + +"For six months or so. A lot of people withdrew their advertisements; +but they were a bit surprised when at the end of that time they came +back to me, and I refused to insert their ads. at any price. I consider +that you not only did wisely, but right, in employing the Chinamen. Are +they going on satisfactorily?" + +"Very; they do work for me at twenty-five shillings a week that white +men would not do at all--no matter what you offered them: emptying +sludge-pits, building dams, etc." + +"Exactly! And now all the people who rose up and howled at you for +employing Chinamen, and the _Champion_ for backing you up, are shouting +themselves hoarse in your praise. And the revival of Chinkie's Flat, +and the new rushes all round about it, have added very materially to the +wealth of this town." After a little further conversation, Grainger went +back to the Queen's Hotel, where Mallard was to call at three o'clock. + +Myra Grainger, a small, slenderly-built girl of nineteen, looked up as +he entered the sitting-room. + +"Any success, Ted?" + +"Here, look at this advertisement. Mallard knows the place, but not the +people. He's coming here at three, and we'll all go and interview Mrs. +Trappeme--'which her real name is Trappem,' I believe." + +"I shall be glad to see Mr. Mallard again. I like him--in fact, I liked +him before I ever saw him for the way in which he fought for you." + +"And I'm strongly of the opinion that Mr. Thomas Mallard has a very +strong liking for Miss Myra Grainger." + +"Then I like him still more for that." + +Grainger patted his sister's cheek. "He is a good fellow, Myra. I think +he will ask you to marry him." + +"I certainly expect it, Ted." + + + + +CHAPTER VII ~ SHEILA CAROLAN + +Although Mrs. Trappeme had been so short a time in Townsville, she had +contrived to learn a very good deal, not only about people in the town +itself, but in the surrounding districts, and knew that Grainger was a +wealthy mine-owner, had a sister staying with him on a visit--and was a +bachelor. She also knew that Mallard was the editor of the _Champion_, +and was likewise a bachelor--in fact, she had acquired pretty well +all the information that could be acquired; her informant being the +talkative, scandal-mongering wife of the Episcopalian curate. + +She was therefore highly elated when at four o'clock in the afternoon +Miss Grainger and her brother, and Mallard, after a brief inspection +of the rooms--which were really handsomely furnished--took three of the +largest and a private sitting-room, at an exorbitant figure, for a week, +and promised to be at the Villa that evening for dinner. + +"He's immensely rich, Juliette," she said to her daughter (she was +speaking of Grainger after he had gone), "and you must do your best, +your very best. Wear something very simple, as it is the first evening; +and be particularly nice to his sister--I'm sure he's very fond of her. +She'll only be here a week, but he and Mr. Mallard will probably be here +a month. So now you have an excellent chance. Don't throw it away by +making a fool of yourself." + +Juliette (who had been christened Julia, and called "Judy" for +thirty-two years of her life) set her thin lips and then replied +acidly-- + +"It's all very well for you to talk, but whenever I did have a +chance--which was not often--you spoilt it by your interference. And if +you allow Jimmy to sit at the same table with us to-night he'll simply +disgust these new people. When you call him 'Mordaunt' the hideous +little wretch grins; and he grins too when you call me 'Juliette' and +Lizzie 'Lilla.'" + +Mrs. Trappeme's fat face scowled at her daughter, and she was about to +make an angry retort when the frontdoor bell rang. + +"A lady wants to see yez, ma'am," said the "new chum" Irish housemaid, +who had answered the door. + +"Did you show her into the reception room, Mary?" + +"Sure, an' is it the wee room wid the sthuffed burd in the fireplace, or +is it the wan beyant wid the grane carpet on de flore; becos' I'm after +puttin' her in the wan wid the sthuffed burd? Anny way it's a lady she +is, sure enough; an' it's little she'll moind where she do be waitin' on +yez." + +"Did she send in her card, Mary?" + +"Did she sind in her _what_?" + +"Her card, you stupid girl." + +"Don't you be after miscallin' me, ma'am. Sure I can get forty shillings +a wake annywhere an' not be insulted by anny wan, instead av thirty +here, which I do be thinkin' is not the place to shuit me"--and the +indignant daughter of the Emerald Isle, a fresh-complexioned, handsome +young woman, tossed her pretty head and marched out. + +So Mrs. Trappeme went into the room "wid the sthuffed burd in it," +and there rose to meet her a fair-haired girl of about eighteen, with +long-lashed, dark-grey eyes, and a somewhat worn and drawn expression +about her small mouth, as if she were both mentally and physically +tired. Her dress was of the simplest--a neatly fitting, dark-blue, +tailor-made gown. + +"I saw your advertisement in the _Champion_ this morning," she said, +"and called to ascertain your terms." Mrs. Trappeme's big, protruding, +and offensive pale-blue eyes stared at and took in the girl's modest +attire and her quiet demeanour as a shark looks at an unsuspecting or +disabled fish which cannot escape its maws. + +"Please sit down," she said with a mingled ponderous condescension +and affability. "I did not _advertise_. I merely _notified_ in the +_Champion_ that I would receive paying guests. But my terms are very +exclusive." "What are they?" + +"Five guineas a week exclusive of extras, which, in this place, amount +to quite a guinea more. You could not afford that, I suppose?" + +The dark-grey eyes flashed, and then looked steadily at those of the +fishy blue. + +"Your terms are certainly very high, but I have no option. I find it +impossible to get accommodation in Townsville. I only arrived from +Sydney this morning in the _Corea_, and as I am very tired, I should +like to rest in an hour or so--as soon as you can conveniently let +me have my room," and taking out her purse she placed a L5 note, a +sovereign, and six shillings on the table. + +"Will you allow me to pay you in advance?" she said, with a tinge of +sarcasm in her clear voice. "I will send my luggage up presently." + +Mrs. Trappeme at once became most affable. She had noticed that the +purse the girl had produced was literally stuffed with new L5 notes. + +"May I send for it?" she said beamingly, "and will you not stay and go +to your room now?" + +"No, thank you," was the cold reply, "I have some business to attend to +first. Can you tell me where Mr. Mallard, the editor of the _Champion_, +lives? I know where the office is, but as it is a morning paper, I +should not be likely to find him there at this early hour." + +Mrs. Trappeme was at once devoured with curiosity. "How very +extraordinary! Mr. Mallard was here only half an hour ago with a Mr. +Grainger and Miss Grainger. They are coming here to stay for a few +weeks." + +The girl's fair face lit up. "Oh, indeed! I am sorry I was not here, as +I particularly wish to see Mr. Grainger also. I had no idea that he was +in Townsville, and was calling on Mr. Mallard--who, I know, is a friend +of his--to ascertain when he was likely to be in town." + +"They will all be here for dinner, Miss----" + +"My name is Carolan," and taking out her cardcase she handed Mrs. +Trappeme a card on which was inscribed, "Miss Sheila Carolan." + +"Then Mr. Grainger is a friend of yours?" said Mrs. Trappeme +inquisitively, thinking of the poor chance Juliette would have with such +a Richmond in the field as Miss Sheila Carolan. + +"No, I have never even seen him," said the girl stiffly, and then she +rose. + +"Then you will send for my luggage, Mrs. Trappeme?" + +"With pleasure, Miss Carolan. But will you not look at your room, and +join my daughter and myself in our afternoon tea?" + +"No, thank you, I think I shall first try and see either Mr. Mallard or +Mr. Grainger. Do you know where Mr. Mallard lives?" + +"At the Royal Hotel in Flinders Street. My daughter Lilla will be +delighted to show you the way." + +But Miss Sheila Carolan was stubborn, and declined the kind offer, and +Mrs. Trappeme, whose curiosity was now at such a pitch that she was +beginning to perspire, saw her visitor depart, and then called for +Juliette. + +"I wonder who she is and what she wants to see Mr. Grainger for?" she +said excitedly, as she mopped her florid face: "doesn't know him, and +yet wants to see him particularly. There is something mysterious about +her." + +"What is she like?" asked Miss Trappeme eagerly. "I didn't see her +face, but her clothes are all right, I can tell you." (She knew all +about clothes, having been a forewoman in a Sydney drapery establishment +for many years.) + +"Oh, a little, common-looking thing, but uppish. I wonder what on earth +she _does_ want to see Mr. Grainger for?" + +Half an hour later, when Miss Carolan's luggage arrived, it was duly +inspected and criticised by the whole Trappeme family. Each trunk bore +a painted address: "Miss Carolan, Minerva Downs, Dalrymple, North +Queensland." + +"Now where in the world is Minerva Downs?" said Mrs. Trappeme, "and why +on earth is she going there? And her name too--Carolan--Sheila Carolan! +I suppose she's a Jewess." + +"Indade, an' it's not that she is, ma'am, whatever it manes," +indignantly broke in Mary, who had helped to carry in the luggage, and +now stood erect with flaming face and angry eyes. "Sure an' I tould yez +she was a lady, an' anny wan cud see she was a lady, an' Carolan is wan +av the best names in Ireland--indade it is." + +"You may leave the room, Mary," said Miss Trappeme loftily. + +"Lave the room, is it, miss? Widout maning anny disrespect to yez, I +might as well be telling yez that I'm ready to lave the place intirely, +an' so is the cook an' stableman, an' the gardener. Sure none av +us--having been used to the gintry--want to sthay in a place where we do +be getting talked at all day." + +The prospect of all her servants leaving simultaneously was too awful +for Mrs. Trappeme to contemplate. So she capitulated. + +"Don't be so hasty, Mary. I suppose, then, that Miss Carolan is an +Irishwoman?" + +"She is that, indade. Sore an' her swate face toold me so before she +spoke to me at all, at all." + +"Then you must look after her wants yery carefully, Mary. She will only +be here for a few weeks." + +Mary's angry eyes softened. "I will that ma'am. Sure she's a sweet young +lady wid the best blood in her, I'm thinkin'." + +Miss Trappeme sniffed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII ~ MYRA AND SHEILA + +There was nothing mysterious about Sheila Carolan; her story was a very +simple one. Her parents were both dead, and she had no relatives, with +the exception of an aunt, and with her she had lived for the last five +years. The two, however, did not agree very well, and Sheila being of a +very independent spirit, and possessing a few hundred pounds of her own, +frankly told her relative that she intended to make her own way in the +world. There was living in North Queensland a former great friend of her +mother's--a Mrs. Farrow, whose husband was the owner of a large cattle +station near Dalrymple--and to her she wrote asking her if she could +help her to obtain a situation as a governess. Six weeks later she +received a warmly worded and almost affectionate letter. + + "My dear Sheila,--Why did you not write to me long, long + ago, and tell me that you and your Aunt Margaret did not get + on well together! I remember as a girl that she was somewhat + 'crotchetty.' I am not going to write you a long letter. _I + want you to come to us_. Be my children's governess--and I + really do want a governess for them--but remember that you + are coming to your mother's friend and schoolmate, and that + although you will receive L100 a year--if that is too little + let us agree for L160--it does not mean that you will be + anything else to me but the daughter of your dear mother. + Now I must tell you that Minerva Downs is a difficult place + to reach, and that you will have to ride all the way from + Townsville--250 miles--but that will be nothing to an + Australian-born girl 'wid Oirish blood in her.' When you get + to Townsville call on Mr. Mallard, the editor of the + _Champion_, who is a friend of ours (I've written him), and + he will 'pass' you on to another friend of ours, a Mr. + Grainger, who lives at a mining town called Chinkie's Flat, + ninety miles from here, and Mr. Grainger (don't lose your + heart to him, and defraud my children of their governess) + will 'pass' you on with the mailman for Minerva Downs. The + enclosed will perhaps be useful (it is half a year's salary + you advance), and my husband and _all_ my large and furious + family of rough boys and rougher girls will be delighted to + see you. + + "Very sincerely yours, my dear Sheila, + + "Noba Fabbow." + +With the letter was enclosed a cheque for L50 on a Sydney bank. + +As the girl descended Melton Hill into hot, dusty, and noisy Flinders +Street, she smiled to herself as she thought how very much she had +stimulated the curiosity of Mrs. Trappeme--to whom she had, almost +unconsciously, taken an instinctive dislike. + +As she entered the crowded vestibule of the Royal Hotel, a group of +men--diggers, sugar planters, storekeepers, bankers, ship captains, and +policemen, who were all laughing hilariously at some story which was +being told by one of their number--at once made a lane for her +to approach the office, for ladies--especially young and pretty +ladies--were few in comparison to the men in North Queensland in those +days, and a murmured whisper of admiration was quite audible to her as +she made her inquiry of the clerk. + +"No; Mr. Mallard is with Mr. and, Miss Grainger at the 'Queen's.' He +left here a few minutes ago." + +"May I show you the way, miss?" said a huge bearded man, who, booted and +spurred, took off his hat to her in an awkward manner. "I'm Dick Scott, +one of Mr. Grainger's men." + +"Thank you," replied Sheila, "it is very kind of you," and, escorted by +the burly digger, she went out into the street again. + +"Are you Miss Caroline, ma'am?" said her guide to her respectfully, as +he tried to shorten his lengthy strides. + +"Yes, my name is Carolan," she replied, trying to hide a smile. + +"Thought so, ma'am. I heerd the boss a-tellin' Miss Grainger as you +would be a-comin' to Chinkie's on yer way up ter Minervy Downs. Here's +the 'Queen's,' miss, an' there's the boss and his sister and Mr. +Mallard on the verandah there havin' a cooler," and then, to her +amusement and Grainger's astonishment, Mr. Dick Scott introduced her. + +"This is Miss Caroline, boss. I picked her up at the 'Royal,'" and then, +without another word, he marched off again with a proud consciousness of +having "done the perlite thing." + +"I am Sheila Carolan, Mr. Grainger. I was at the 'Royal 'asking for Mr. +Mallard when Mr. Scott kindly brought me here." + +"I am delighted to meet you, Miss Carolan," said Grainger, who had risen +and extended his hand. "I had not the slightest idea you had arrived." +And then he introduced her to his sister and Mallard. + +"Now, Miss Carolan, please let me give you a glass of this--it is simply +lovely and cold," said Myra, pouring some champagne into a glass with +some crashed ice in it. "My brother is the proad possessor of a big but +rapidly diminishing lump of ice, which was sent to him by the captain of +the _Corea_ just now." + +"Thank you, Miss Grainger. I really am very thirsty. I have had quite a +lot of walking about to-day. I have a letter to you, Mr. Mallard, from +Mrs. Farrow," and she handed the missive to him. + +"I am so very sorry I did not know of your arrival, Miss Carolan," said +Mallard. "I would have met you on board, but, as a matter of fact, I did +not expect you in the _Corea_, as she is a very slow boat." + +"I was anxious to get to Mrs. Farrow," Sheila explained, "and so took +the first steamer." + +"Where are you staying, Miss Carolan?" asked Myra. + +"Oh, I've been very fortunate. I have actually secured a room at +'Magnetic Villa,' on Melton Hill; in fact I went there just after you +had left." + +Myra clapped her hands with delight. "Oh, how lovely! I shall be there +for a week, and my brother and Mr. Mallard are staying there as well." + +"So Mrs. Lee Trappeme informed me," said Sheila with a bright smile. + +Mallard--an irrepressible joker and mimic--at once threw back his head, +crossed his hands over his chest, and bowed in such an exact imitation +of Mrs. Trappeme that a burst of laughter followed. + +"Now you two boys can run away and play marbles for a while, as Miss +Carolan and I want to have a little talk before we go to the 'refined +family circle' for dinner," said Myra to her brother. "It is now six +o'clock; our luggage has gone up, and so, if you will come back for us +in half an hour, we will let you escort us there--to the envy of all the +male population of this horrid, dusty, noisy town." + +"Very well," said Grainger with a laugh, "Mallard and I will contrive to +exist until then," and the two men went off into the billiard-room. + +"Now, Miss Carolan," said the lively Myra, as she opened the door of +the sitting-room and carried in the table on which were the glasses, +champagne bottle, and ice, "we'll put these inside first. The sight of +that ice will make every man who may happen to see it and who knows Ted +come and introduce himself to me. Oh, this is a very funny country! I'm +afraid it rather shocked you to see me drinking champagne on an hotel +verandah in full view of passers-by. But, really, the whole town is +excited--it has gold-fever on the brain--and then all the men are so +nice, although their free and easy ways used to astonish me considerably +at first. But diggers especially are such manly men---you know what I +mean." + +"Oh, quite. I know I shall like North Queensland. There were quite a +number of diggers on board the _Carea_, and one night we held a concert +in the saloon and I sang 'The Kerry Dance'--I'm an Irishwoman--and next +morning a big man named O'Hagan, one of the steerage passengers, came up +and asked me if I would 'moind acceptin' a wee bit av a stone,' and he +handed me a lovely specimen of quartz with quite two ounces of gold in +it. He told me he had found it on the Shotover River, in New Zealand. +I didn't know what to say or do at first, and then he paid me such a +compliment that I fairly tingled all over with vanity. 'Sure an' ye'll +take the wee bit av a stone from me, miss,' he said. 'I'm a Kerry man +meself, an' when I heard yez singin' "The Kerry Dance," meself and half +a dozen more men from the oold sod felt that if ye were a man we'd have +carried yez around the deck in a chair." + +"How nice of him!" said Myra; "but they are all like that. Nearly every +one of my brother's men at Chinkie's Flat gave me something in the way +of gold specimens when I left there." + +"Then," resumed Sheila, "in the afternoon _all_ the steerage passengers +sent me and the captain what they call a 'round robin,' and asked if he +would let them have a concert in the steerage, and if I would sing. +And we did have it--on the deck--and I had to sing that particular song +_three_ times." + +"I wish I had been there! Do you know, Miss Carolan, that that big man +who brought you here--Dick Scott--rough and uneducated as he is, is a +gentleman. On our way down from Chinkie's Flat we had to swim our horses +across the Ross River, which was in flood. When we reached the other +side I was, of course, wet through, and my hair had come down, and I +looked like a half-drowned cat, I suppose. There is a public-house on +this side of the Ross, and we went there at once to change our clothes, +which were in canvas saddle bags on a pack-horse, and came over dry. +The public-house was full of people, among whom were three commercial +travellers, who were doing what is called 'painting the place red'--they +were all half-intoxicated. As I came in wet and dripping they leered at +me, and one of them said, 'Look at the sweet little ducky--poor little +darling--with her pitty ickle facey-wacey all wet and coldy-woldy.' Ted +was not near me at the time, but Scott heard, and ten minutes later, +as I was changing my clothes, I heard a dreadful noise, and the most +_awful_ language, and then a lot of cheering. I dressed as quickly as +possible and went out into the dining-room, and there on the floor were +the three commercial travellers. Their faces looked simply dreadful, +smothered in blood, and I felt quite sick. At the other end of the room +were a lot of men, miners and stockmen, who were surrounding Dick Scott, +slapping him on the back, and imploring him to drink with them. It seems +that as soon as I had gone to my room to change, the valiant Dick had +told them that the 'drummers' had insulted Mr. Grainger's sister, and in +a few minutes the room was cleared and a ring formed, and Dick actually +did what the landlord termed 'smashed up the whole three in five +minutes.'" + +"I'm sure I shall like Mr. Dick Scott," said Sheila. "I had to try hard +and not laugh when he pointed to you, and said in his big, deep voice, +'There they are, having a "cooler"'--I thought at first he meant you +were cooling yourselves." + +"Any drink is called a 'cooler,' "explained Myra; "but, oh dear, how I +do chatter! The fact is, I'm so wildly excited, and want to talk so +much that I can't talk fast enough. But I _must_ first of all tell you +this--I'm really most sincerely glad to meet you, for I feel as if I +knew you well. Mrs. Farrow--I spent a week at Minerva Downs--told me you +were coming, and that she was longing to see you. I am sure you will be +very, very happy with her. She is the most lovable, sweet woman in the +world, and when she spoke of your mother her eyes filled with tears. And +the children are simply _splendid_. I suppose I am unduly fond of them +because they made so much of me, and think that my brother is the finest +rider in the world--'and he is that, indade'--isn't that Irish?" + +"Yes," said Sheila smilingly, "that is Irish; and I am sure I shall be +very happy there." + +Myra Grainger, who was certainly, as she had said, wildly excited, +suddenly moved her chair close to that on which Sheila sat. + +"Miss Carolan, I'm sure that you and I will always be great 'chums'--as +they say here in North Queensland--and I'm just dying to tell you of +something. Within this last hour I have become engaged to Mr. Mallard! +Even Ted doesn't know it yet. Oh, I have heaps and heaps of things to +tell you. Can't we have a real, nice long talk to-night?" + +"Indeed we can," said Sheila, looking into the girl's bright, happy +face. + + + + +CHAPTER IX ~ DINNER WITH "THE REFINED FAMILY" + +Somewhat to the annoyance of Grainger and his friends, they found on +their arrival at "Magnetic Villa" that there were several other visitors +there who had apparently come to dine. Whether they were personal +friends of Mrs. Trappeme or not, or were "paying guests" like +themselves, they could not at first discover. + +"Dinner will be ready at eight o'clock, Miss Grainger," said Mrs. +Trappeme sweetly to Myra, who with Sheila had been shown into their +private sitting-room; and then she added quickly, as she heard a +footstep in the passage, "You have not met my daughter. Come, Juliette, +dear--Miss Grainger, my eldest daughter; Miss Carolan, Miss Trappeme." + +The two girls bowed rather coldly to Miss Trappeme, who, after the usual +commonplaces, asked Miss Grainger if she were not tired. + +"Very--and so is Miss Carolan. We shall be glad of an hour's rest before +dinner." + +The hint was unmistakable, and Miss Trappeme smiled herself out, +inwardly raging at what she told her mother was Sheila's forwardness in +so soon thrusting herself upon Miss Grainger. + +As she went out, Sheila looked at Myra and laughed. "We are certainly +meant to be treated as members of the family, whether we like it or +not. I wonder if the other people we saw are as pushful as 'Mamma' and +'Juliette.'" + +"I trust not; that would be awful--even for a week." + +Mallard was in Grainger's room, sprawled out on the bed, talking to +him and smoking, whilst the latter was opening a leather trunk which +contained some bottles of whisky and soda water, and a small box which +held the remains of the ice. + +"We can't let this 'melt on as,' as the Irish would say, Mallard," and +he placed it in the toilet basin in its covering of blanket. "Now move +your lazy self and break a piece off with your knife, whilst I open this +bottle of Kinahan's and some soda. I trust the cultured family will not +object to the sound of a cork popping at seven o'clock." + +"Not they," said Mallard, as he rose; "they would not mind if you took +the whisky to the table and drank it out of the bottle. Oh, I can gauge +the old dame pretty well, I think; avarice is writ large in her face, +and she'll squeeze us all she can. She told me in a mysterious aside +that the butler kept all the very best wines and liquor obtainable. I +thanked her, and said I usually provided my own. She didn't like it a +bit; but I'm not going to pay her a sovereign for a bottle of whisky or +Hennessey when I can get a case of either for a five-pound note. Oh!" +he added disgustedly, "they're all alike." + +"Well, don't worry, old man," said his friend philosophically, as he +handed him a glass; "there, take this. I wonder if Mrs. Trap--Trapper, +or whatever her name is, thinks we are going to dress for dinner. +Neither my sister nor Miss Carolan will, and I'm sure I'm not going to +establish a bad precedent." + +"Same here. If other people like to waste time dressing for dinner, let +them; this town is altogether too new and thriving a place for busy men +like ourselves to worry about evening dress. By the way, Grainger, I've +some news for you that I trust will give you pleasure: your sister has +promised to marry me next year." + +Grainger grasped his friend's hand. "I'm glad, very glad, old man. I was +wondering what made her so unusually bright this afternoon; but she has +kept it dark." + +"Hasn't had a chance to tell you yet. I only asked her a couple of hours +ago." + +"Well, let us go and see her and Miss Carolan before dinner. I can hear +them talking in the sitting-room. Hallo! who is that little fellow out +there crossing the lawn with the younger Miss Trappeme. He's in full +fig.." + +Mallard looked out of the window and saw a very diminutive man in +evening dress. + +"Oh, that's little Assheton, the new manager for the Australian +Insurance Company. He's just out from England. He's a fearfully +conceited ape, but a smart fellow at the insurance business. Great fun +at the 'Queen's' the other day with him. He came in, dressed in frock +coat, tall hat, and carrying a thick, curly stick as big as himself. Of +course every one smiled, and he took it badly--couldn't see what there +was to laugh at; and when old Charteris, the Commissioner, asked him +how much he would 'take for the hat,' he put his monocle up and said +freezingly, 'Sir, I do not know you.' That made us simply howl, and +then, when we had subsided a bit, Morgan the barrister, who is here on +circuit with Judge Cooper, said in that fanny, deep, rumbling voice of +his-- + +"'Are you, sir, one of the--ah--ah--circus company which--ah--arrived +to-day?' + +"The poor little beggar was furious, lost his temper, and called us a +lot of ill-mannered, vulgar fellows, and then some one or other whipped +off the offending hat, threw it into the street, and made a cockshy of +it. + +"'I'll have satisfaction for this outrage!' he piped. 'Landlord, send +for a policeman. I'll give all these men in charge. Your house is very +disorderly. Do you know _who_ I am?' + +"'No, nor do I care,' said old Cramp, down whose cheeks the tears were +running; 'but if you'll come here like that every day, I'll give you a +sovereign, and we'll have the hat. Oh, you're better than any circus I +ever saw. Oh, oh, oh!' and he went off into another fit. + +"The poor little man looked at us in a dazed sort of a way--thought us +lunatics, and then when old Char-tens asked him not to mind a bit of +miners' horseplay, but to sit down and have some fizz, he called him 'an +audacious ruffian,' and shrieked out-- + +"'I am Mr. B. D. Assheton--the manager of the Australian Insurance +Company. Do you possibly imagine I would drink with a person _like +you_?'" + +Grainger laughed: "It must have been great fun." + +"Rather--but the cream of it is to come yet. He rushed oat into Flinders +Street, found Sergeant Doyle and a policeman, and came back panting and +furious, and pointing, to Charteris, told them to take him in charge. +Doyle looked at us blankly, saw we were nearly dead with laughing, and +then took Assheton aside, and said in his beautiful brogue-- + +"'Me little mahn, it's drinkin' ye've been. Do yez want me to arrest the +Po-liss Magisthrate himsilf? Who are ye at all, at all? Ye'd betther +be after goin' home and lyin' down, or I'll lock ye up for making a +dishturbance. Do ye moind me now?'" + +Grainger could no longer control his laughter, and in the midst of it, +Myra tapped vigorously at the door, He rose and opened it. + +"Whatever is all this noise about, Ted? You two great boys!" + +"Oh, take Mallard away, Myra, for heaven's sake!" + +A little before eight o'clock the deafening clamour of a gong announced +dinner, and the company filed in. Mrs. Trappeme and the Misses Trappeme +were in "very much evening dress" as Sheila murmured to Myra, and they +seemed somewhat surprised that neither Miss Grainger nor Miss Carolan +had donned anything more unusual than perfectly-made dainty gowns of +cool white Indian muslin. Grainger and Mallard wore the usual white duck +suits (the most suitable and favoured dress for a climate like that +of torrid North Queensland), and Sheila could not but admire their +big well-set-up figures--both were "six feet men"--and contrast their +handsome, bronzed and bearded faces with the insignificant appearance +of Assheton and another gentleman in evening dress--a delicate but +exceedingly gentlemanly young Scotsman. Of course there were more +introductions--all of which were duly and unnecessarily carried out by +Mrs. Trappeme. Others of that lady's guests were the local Episcopalian +clergyman and his wife--the former was a placid, dreamy-looking, mild +creature, with soft, kindly eyes. He smiled at everybody, was evidently +in abject terror of his wife--a hard-featured lady about ten years his +senior, with high cheek-bones and an exceedingly corrugated neck and +shoulders. She eyed Myra and Sheila with cold dissatisfaction, and +after dinner had once begun, devoted herself to the task of extracting +information from the latter regarding her future movements. She had +already discussed her with Mrs. Trappeme, and had informed her hostess +that she had "suspicions" about a girl who affected mystery in the +slightest degree, and who could afford to pay six guineas a week for +simple board and lodging. + +"Quite so, Mrs. Wooler," Mrs. Trappeme had assented; "I must confess it +doesn't look quite right. Even Juliette thinks it very strange for her +to be so reticent as to who she is and where she is going. Of course I +could have refused to receive her, and am now rather sorry I did not. I +understood from her that Mr. Grainger was an utter stranger to her--and +I was quite surprised to see them all come in together as if they had +known each other for years. Not quite correct, I think." + +"Mr. Grainger is very rich," said the clergyman's wife meditatively. + +"Very," said her friend, who knew that Mrs. Wooler meant to do a little +begging (for church purposes) as soon as opportunity offered. + +"It would be a pity for him to be involved with such a--a +forward-looking young person," she said charitably. + +But for the first quarter of an hour she had no opportunity of +satisfying her curiosity, for Sheila was quite hungry enough not to +waste too much time in conversation. At last, however, a chance came, +when Mr. Assheton said in his mincing voice-- + +"I believe, Miss Carolan, that like me, you are quite a new arrival in +this country." + +"Oh, dear no! I have lived here ever since I was two years old." + +"Heah! in Townsville?" + +"I meant Australia," Sheila observed placidly. + +"Then you are not an Australian born, Miss Carolan?" put in Mrs. Wooler +with a peculiarly irritating condescension of manner and surprised +tone, as if she meant to say, "I am sure you are--you certainly are not +lady-like enough to be an English girl." + +"No, I am not," was the reply. "Do you think you will like Queensland, +Mr. Assheton?" + +"I really have as yet formed no definite impression. Possibly I may in +the end contrive to like it." + +"Do. It would be a great pity for the country if you did not," said +Sheila gravely, without moving an eyelid. + +"Do you purpose making a long stay in Queensland, Miss Carolan?" pursued +Mrs. Wooler. + +"A very long one, perhaps--perhaps on the other hand a very short one. +Or it may be that I may adopt a middle course, and do neither." + +Grainger, who was opposite, heard her, and as she looked across at him, +he saw that she was "playing" her questioner and quite enjoying it. + +Never for one moment did the clergyman's wife dream that Sheila meant +to be anything else but evasive, so she followed up. To her mind it +was absolutely incredible that any woman would dare to snub her--Mrs. +Wooler--daughter of a dean, and possessing an uncle who had on several +occasions been spoken of by the Bishop of Dullington as his probable +successor; such a thing was impossible! + +"I presume, however, that your stay in Townsville itself will be short, +Miss Carolan? You will find it a very expensive place--especially if you +have no friends to whom you can go." + +Sheila's face flushed. Her blood was getting up, and Myra looked at her +nervously. + +"Is there no 'Girls' Friendly Society,' 'Young Women's Christian +Association,' or other kindred institution, where I could 'be taken in +and done for'?" she asked sweetly. + +"Not as yet; but I am thinking of taking steps to found a Girls' +Friendly Society. Such an institution will soon be a necessity in a +growing place like this." + +"How nice it would be for me to go there instead of staying at--at a +boarding house!" + +Juliette Trappeme's sallow face flushed with rage, and Mrs. Trappeme, +who saw that something was occurring, spoke loudly to Mr. Wooler, who +answered in his usual soft voice. But Mallard, who was seated next to +Miss Lilla Trappeme, shot Sheila an encouraging glance. + +"Quite so," went on Mrs. Wooler. "I disapprove most strongly of any +young woman incurring risks that can be avoided." + +"What risks?" and Sheila turned and looked steadily at Mrs. Wooler. + +The sharp query somewhat upset the inquisitive lady, who hardly knew +what she meant herself. + +"Oh, the risks of getting into debt--living beyond one's means--and +things like that." + +"Oh, I see, madam," and Sheila bowed gravely, although the danger +signals were showing now on her cheeks. Then she added very clearly and +distinctly, "That would be most dreadful to happen to any one, would it +not, Mr. Assheton?" + +"Oh, howwible--for a lady." + +"But," she went on--and as she spoke she gazed so intently into Mrs. +Wooler's face that every one at the table saw her change colour--"but +I am sure, Mrs. Wooler, that no girl could possibly come to such a sad +condition while _you_ are in Townsville, to give her the benefit of +_your_ years, _your_ advice, and _your_ experience--even though that +advice was thrust upon her in a manner that I believe might possibly +cause well-deserved resentment," and then, with a scornful smile still +on her lips, she turned to Mr. Assheton and asked him sweetly if he did +not "think it was beginning to be very warm so early in the year?" + +"By heavens!" mattered Mallard to Myra, "she has done the parson woman +good. Look at her face. It's unpleasant to look at." + +Mrs. Wooler's features were a study. Unable to speak, and her hands +trembling with rage, she gave the girl one glance of hatred, and then +tried to eat; and Viveash, who had the sense to do so, at once began +telling her some idiotic and pointless story about himself when he sang +in a cathedral choir until his voice "failed him." + +Just then a long ring was heard at the front door, and the butler +presently came to Mallard, and said-- + +"One of the reporters, sir, from the _Champion_ wishes to see you. Most +important, sir, he says. Will you please see him at once?" + +Making his excuses, Mallard left the dining-room and went into one of +the sitting-rooms, where the reporter was awaiting him. + + + + +CHAPTER X ~ THE "CHAMPION" ISSUES A "SPECIAL" + +Ten minutes later Mallard was at the hall door giving instructions to +the reporter. + +"Hurry back as fast as you can, Winthrop, and tell Mr. Flynn to rash +the special through. And as fast as any farther news come in rap +out another. Get all the boys you can, and distribute the specials +everywhere--anywhere. Chuck some over into the cemetery--they'll make +the dead 'get up and holler.' Tell the boys that they are not to make +any charge--get the foreman to head it 'Special! Gratis! (Any one +newsboy who makes a charge for this special will be immediately +dismissed.)' See? And tell the boys they will get five shillings each +extra in the morning. I'll be down in another twenty minates or so. Go +on, Winthrop, loop!" + +Mr. Winthrop, who was as excited as Mallard himself, "looped," and the +editor returned to the dining-room with a galley-proof slip in his hand. +Every one, of coarse, saw by his face that something had occurred. + +"I won't sit down again, Mrs. Trappeme, if you and the other ladies +will excuse me, for I have to hurry back to the office to attend to some +important business. There is great news." Then, bending down, he placed +his hand on Grainger's shoulder, and whispered, "You must come with me, +old man. There is glorious news from Chinkie's. I'll tell you all about +it in a minute, as soon as we are outside. Make your apologies and let +us go," and then going over to Mrs. Trappeme, he handed her the proof to +read to her guests and hurried out with Grainger, leaving every one in +the room eager to learn what had occurred. + +"Oh, dear me!" began Mrs. Lee-Trappeme, adjusting her pince-nez, which +always interfered with her sight. + + + "SPECIAL. 'TOWNSVILLE CHAMPION.' + + "WRECK. + + "9 P.M., May 2nd. "Authentic news has just reached the + _Champion_ office that the mail steamer _Flintshire_ was + wrecked on the Great Barrier Beef three days ago (the 5th). + All the crew and passengers--200 in number-were saved, and + are now on their way to Townsville. [Further particulars + later.]" + + + "DREADFUL MASSACRE BY THE NOTORIOUS BLACK OUTLAWS. + + "The Clonourry mail, which has been delayed by floods, + brings news of a terrible massacre perpetrated by the ootlaw + black ex-troopers Sandy and Daylight. A party of five miners + who were camped at a lagoon near Dry Creek were surprised + and murdered in their sleep by the two outlaws and a number + of myall blacks. The bodies were found by the mail man. + Inspector Lamington and a patrol of Native Polioe leave to- + morrow to punish the murderers. Detailed particulars of the + affair will be given in to-morrow's issue--Mudoch, the mail + man, being too exhausted to stand the test of a long + interview to-night." + + + "WONDERFUL GOLD DISCOVERY NEAR CHINKIN'S FLAT. + + "A NEW EL DORADO. "MR. GRAINGER + AND HIS PARTNERS THE LUCKY MEN. + + "By the Clonourry mail, which brought intelligence of the + tragedy at Dry Creek, also comes most pleasurably exciting + news. The 'Ever Victorious Grainger,' as his many friends + often designate him, some months ago sent out a prospecting + party to try the country near the headwaters of Banshee + Greek, with the result that probably the richest alluvial + field in Australia has been discovered. Over 2,000 os. of + gold--principally in nuggets ranging from 100 oz. to 2 oz.-- + have already been taken by Mr. Grainger's party. Warden + Charteris, accompanied by an escort of white and black + polioe, leaves for the place to-morrow night. The news of + this wonderfully rich field has been two weeks reaching + Townsville owing to the flooded condition of the country + between Banshee Creek and Chinkie's Flat. + + "Mr. Grainger is at present in this city on a short visit. + His good fortune will benefit the country at large as well + as himself and his energetic partners." + +"Dear me, how very exciting to be getting gold so easily!" said Mrs. +Trappeme, as she laid the proof on the table; "your brother will be +delighted, Miss Grainger." + +"He will be pleased, of course," absented Myra. "He always had a belief +that a rich alluvial gold-field would be discovered in the Banshee +Creek country. He sent this particular prospecting party away nearly two +months ago." + +"What a hawwid story about the murdered diggahs!" said Mr. Assheton to +Myra. "Did it occur neah where you were living, Miss Graingah?" + +"About a hundred miles further westward, towards the Minerva Downs +district. These two men, Sandy and Daylight, have committed quite a +number of murders during the past two years. They killed five or six +poor Chinese diggers on the Cloncurry Road last year. They are both well +armed, and it is almost impossible to capture them, as they retreat to +the ranges whenever pursued." + +"They are a most ferocious and desperate pair," said Mr. Wooler, who +then told their story, which was this:-- + +Some two or three years previously Sandy and Daylight, who belonged to +one of the Native Police camps in the Gulf district,{*} had, while out +on patrol, urged one of their comrades to join with them in murdering +their white officer and then absconding. The other man refused, and, +later on in the day, secretly told the officer that he was in great +danger of being shot if he rode on ahead of the patrol as usual. As soon +as the party returned to camp the two traitors were quietly disarmed, +handcuffed, and then chained to a log till the morning. During the night +they managed to free themselves (aided, no doubt, by the trooper who was +detailed to guard them), killed the man who had refused to join them by +cleaving his skull open with a blow from a tomahawk, and then decamped +to the ranges with their rifles and ammunition. They found a refuge and +safe retreat with the savage myalls (wild blacks) inhabiting the granite +ranges, and then began a career of robbery and murder. Small parties of +prospectors found it almost impossible to pursue their vocation in the +"myall country," for the dreaded ex-troopers and their treacherous and +cannibal allies were ever, on the watch to cut them off. In the course +of a few months, by surprising and killing two unfortunate Chinese +packers, the desperadoes became possessed of their repeating rifles +and a lot of ammunition, and the old single-shot police carbines were +discarded for the more effective weapons. Sandy, who was the leader, was +a noted shot, and he and his companion now began to haunt the +vicinity of isolated mining camps situated in country of the roughest +description. Parties of two or three men who had perhaps located +themselves in some almost inaccessible spot would go on working for a +few weeks in apparent security, leaving one of their number to guard +the camp and horses, and on returning from their toil would find their +comrade dead or severely wounded, the camp rifled of everything it +contained, and the horses speared; and the hardy and adventurous +pioneers would have to retreat to one of the main mining camps, situated +perhaps fifty miles away, with nothing left to them but the hard-won +gold they had saved and their mining tools, but ready and eager to +venture forth again. + + * Gulf of Carpentaria. + +One day, so the clergyman related, a man named Potter was travelling +from Burketown to Port Denison, and camped beside a small water-hole to +rest until the morning. After unsaddling and hobbling out the horse he +had been riding, and unloading the pack-horse, he threw his packbags at +the foot of a Leichhardt tree, lit a fire, and began to boil a billy of +tea. He knew that he was in dangerous country, and that it was unwise of +him to light a fire, but being of a reckless disposition, and having a +firm belief in his luck, he took no further precaution beyond opening +the flap of his revolver pouch. + +He had just taken out a piece of damper and some salt meat, which, with +the hot tea, were to be his supper, when he was startled to hear some +one address him by name, and looking up, he saw a powerfully-built black +fellow with a long black beard and smiling face standing a dozen yards +or so away. He was all but nude, but round his waist was buokled a broad +leather police belt with two ammunition pouches; in his right hand he +carried a repeating rifle. + +"Don't you know me, Mr. Potter?" he said in excellent English. + +Potter recognised him at once, and the two shook hands. + +"Why, you're Sandy! Have you left the police?" (He knew nothing of what +had occurred.) + +"Yes," was the reply, "I skipped," and carelessly putting his rifle +down, he asked Potter if he had any tobacco to spare. + +"Yes, I can give you a few plugs," and going to his saddle bags he +produced four square plugs of tobacco, which he handed to his visitor, +who took them eagerly, at once produced a silver-mounted pipe (probably +taken from some murdered digger) filled it, and began to smoke and talk. + +"My word, Mr. Potter," he said with easy familiarity, "it is a good +thing for you that I knew you," and he showed his white, even teeth in a +smile. "But I haven't forgot that when I got speared on the Albert River +five years ago you drove me into Burketown in your buggy to get a doctor +for me." (He had formerly been one of Potter's stockmen, and had been +badly wounded in an encounter with wild blacks.) + +Potter made some apparently careless reply. He knew that Sandy, though +an excellent stockman, had always had a bad record, and indeed he had +been compelled to dismiss him on account of his dangerous temper. He +heard later on that the man had joined the Black Police, and a deserter +from the Black Police is in nine cases out of ten an unmitigated +villain. + +Then Sandy became communicative, and frankly told his involuntary host +part--but part only--of his story, and wound up by saying-- + +"You must not sleep here to-night. There is a big mob of myalls camped +in the river-bed three miles away from here. If they see you, they'll +kill you for certain between now and to-morrow night, when you are going +through some of the gorges. You must saddle up again, and I'll take you +along another track and leave you safe." + +Tired as the horses were, Potter took Sandy's advice, and the two +started at sunset, the blackfellow leading. They travelled for some +hours, and then again camped--this time without a fire. Sandy remained +till daylight, and during a further conversation boasted that he had +enough gold in nuggets to allow him to have "a fine time in Sydney or +Melbourne," where he meant to make his way some day "when things got +a bit quiet and people thought he was dead." In proof of his assertion +about the gold he gave Potter a two ounce nugget he picked out from +several others which were carried in one of his ammunition pouches. +Before they parted Potter gave him--at his particular request--one of +the two blankets he carried, and then Sandy and he shook hands, and the +blackfellow, rifle in hand, disappeared, and left his former master to +continue his journey. + +"What a hawwid chawacter!" said Mr. Assheton, when the clergyman had +concluded his story. "Why don't the police exert themselves and catch or +shoot the fellow?" + +"It is such very difficult country," explained Myra, "and, in fact, has +not yet all been explored." + +The ladies rose, and Myra and Sheila, pleading fatigue, went to their +rooms--or rather to Myra's--leaving Mrs. and Miss Trappeme and Mrs. +Wooler to, as Sheila said, "Tear me to pieces. But I could not let that +woman insult me without retaliating." + +"Of course you did right. She's an odious creature." + +Grainger returned alone about eleven o'clock. He tapped at Myra's door, +and asked her if she was asleep. + +"No. Miss Carolan is here; we've been having a lovely talk." + +"Well, go to bed, and have a lovely sleep. I want to see you both, +especially Miss Carolan, very early in the morning. We can all go out on +the beach before breakfast." + +"Very well, Ted. Has Mr. Mallard come in?" + +"No. He will not be here for another half-hour or more. Good-night." + +Mrs. Trappeme had heard his voice, and quietly opened the door of her +own sitting-room, where she and Juliette (Mrs. Wooler had gone) had been +discussing Sheila's delinquencies. + +"Well!" gasped the mother to her daughter, as she softly closed the door +again. "What on earth _is_ going on, I should like to know! Did you hear +that--'I want to see you both very early, especially Miss Garolan'? What +_is_ there going on? I must go and see Mrs. Wooler in the morning and +tell her. And on the beach too! Why can't they be more open?" + +Master Mordaunt, who was in the corner devouring some jelly and pastry +given to him by his fond mother, looked up and said, with distended +cheeks-- + +"Ain't the beach open enough?" + +"Hold your tongue, you horrid little animal," said the irate Juliette. + + + + +CHAPTER XI ~ A CHANGE OF PLANS + +Myra and Sheila, both early risers, were dressed and awaiting Grainger +on the verandah when he came out of his room at seven o'clock, and they +at once descended the steep Melton Hill to the beach. The morning was +delightfully fresh and cool, and the smooth waters of Cleveland Bay were +rippling gently to a fresh southerly breeze. Eastward, and seven miles +away, the lofty green hills and darker-hued valleys of Magnetic Island +stood clearly out in the bright sunlight, and further to the north Great +Palm Island loomed purple-grey against the horizon. Overhead was a sky +of clear blue, flecked here and there by a few fleecy clouds, and below, +on the landward side, a long, long curve of yellow beach trending from +a small rocky and tree-clad point on the south to the full-bosomed and +majestic sweep of Cape Halifax to the north. + +"What a lovely day!" exclaimed Sheila as Grainger, as soon as they had +descended the hill and stepped on the firm yellow sand, led them to a +clump of black, shining rocks. "I wish I were a girl of twelve, so that +I could paddle about in the water." + +"There is nothing to stop you doing that at Minerva Downs, Miss Cardan," +said Grainger with a smile. "There is a lovely fresh-water lagoon there, +with a dear sandy bottom, and the Farrow children--big and little--spend +a good deal of their time there bathing and fishing." Then, as the girls +seated themselves, he at once plunged into the subject uppermost in his +mind. + +"Myra, the news that came through last night has put me in a bit of a +quandary, both as regards you and Miss Carolan. Now tell me, would you +mind very much if I left you to-day and returned to Chinkie's Flat?" + +"No, indeed, Ted. Surely I would not be so selfish as to interfere with +your business arrangements!" + +"That's a good little girl. I did want to stay in Townsville for a week +or two after you had left, then I could have taken Miss Carolan as far +as Chinkie's Flat on her way to Minerva Downs. But I can do something +better, as far as she is concerned. You will only be here for a week, +and you can suffer the Trappeme people for that time. Mallard"--and he +smiled--"will no doubt try to make the time pass pleasantly for you." + +"Don't be so silly, Ted. Get to the point about Miss Carolan. When is +she leaving?" + +"To-day--if you will, Miss Carolan--with me. The Warden and his troopers +are leaving at noon for the new rush; and Charteris, when I explained +things to him (I saw him last night at Mallard's office) said he will be +very pleased if we will come with him. Will it be too much of a rush for +you?" + +"Oh no, Mr. Grainger! But I have no horse," and then, as she thought +of leaving her newly-found girl friend so soon, she looked a little +miserable, and her hand stole into Myra's. + +"Oh, that's all right," said Grainger cheerfully. "I've two for +you--Myra's, and one Charteris is lending me for you. Can you ride hard +and fast? Charteris is a terror of a man for pushing along to a new +rush." + +"I won't make him feel cross, I assure you, Mr. Grainger." + +"Then it's decided." (Sheila well knew that whether | she had or had not +decided, he had; yet though dimly resentful, she was quite content when +she looked into his quiet grey eyes.) "You see, Miss Carolan, it's quite +likely I may be able to go all the way with you to Minerva Downs, and +therefore we ought not to miss travelling with the Commissioner as +far as he goes. Sub-Inspector Lamington, of the Native Police, is +also coming with us. He's off on a wild goose--or rather, a wild +nigger--chase after Sandy and Daylight and their myall friends. If, +when we get to Chinkie's Flat, I find that I _must_ go with Charteris to +the new rush, your friend Dick Scott and my own trusty black boy Jacky +will take you on to Minerva Downs. You can travel with Lamington and +his troopers part of the way after you leave Chinkie's. Take some light +luggage on a pack-horse--the rest, I am sorry to say, will have to come +on from here by bullock team. But it is not unlikely that I may be able +to take you all the way." + +"I am very, very grateful to you, Mr. Grainger," said Sheila. "I fear I +am going to prove a great encumbrance to you." + +"Oh, Ted is a dear old brother!" said Myra, patting his brown, +sun-tanned hand affectionately. + +After a walk along the beach as far as the small, rocky point, they +returned to breakfast, and great was Mrs. Trappeme's astonishment when +Grainger informed her that he was leaving in a few hours. + +"Not for long, I trust?" she said graciously, bearing in mind that he +had told her he might remain for a week or two after Myra had left. + +"I do not think I shall be in Townsville again for some months," he +replied, as he handed her fourteen guineas. "This is for the week for my +sister and for me." + +"Thank you," said the lady, with a dignified bow--for she felt a little +resentful at his not telling her more. Then she said with a sweet smile, +"We will take good care of Miss Grainger. Either my daughters or I will +be delighted to see her safely on board the steamer." + +"Thank you; but Mr. Mallard will do that." + +"Oh, indeed!" said the lady, with unmistakable disappointment in her +voice, and then Grainger, without saying a word about Sheila, went to +his room to pack, and talk to Mallard, who had not yet risen. + +"I wonder if Mr. Mallard is leaving too now that his friend is going," +anxiously said Juliette a few minutes later. + +"If he does I shall insist upon having the ful six guineas," remarked +her mother angrily. "No, on second thoughts I won't _ask_ for it. +Whether he leaves or not, I may find him very useful. I quite mean to +ask him to every day publish a 'list of guests at "Magnetic Villa."'" + +"Miss Carolan wud like to see yez, mum, if ye are dishengaged," said +Mary, entering the room. + +Sheila was in the drawing-room, and thither Mrs. Trappeme sailed. + +"I shall be leaving Townsville to-day, I find," she said politely. +"Would it be inconvenient for you to have my luggage sent to Hanran & +Co., who will store it for me until I need it?" + +Mrs. Trappeme's curiosity was intense, but she remembered Mrs. Wooler's +experience of the previous evening--and feared. And then she had had the +girl's money in advance. + +"Oh, I am so sorry you are going," she said, with a would-be motherly +smile. "Of course I will send it anywhere you wish--but why not leave +it here in my care?" And then she could not resist asking one question: +"Are you going to Minerva Downs, Miss Carolan, may I ask?" + +"Yes; I am going there." + +"What a dreadfully long journey for you! Does it not alarm you? And you +are surely not travelling alone?" + +"Oh, no; I am fortunate in having quite a large escort. Will you send +the luggage down as soon as possible, Mrs. Trappeme?" + +"Certainly," replied the lady--this time with a stiff bow; for she was +now inwardly raging at not having learnt more. Then she went off to tell +Juliette this new development. + +At ten o'clock, after Mallard had breakfasted, he and Grainger (the +latter bidding Mrs. and the Misses Trappeme a polite goodbye) went +away, and shortly after Dick Scott appeared, leading a pack-horse. He +took off the empty bags, and marched up to the front door. + +"Mr. Grainger has sent these to Miss Caroline, miss," he said to Lilla +Trappeme, "and will you please ask her to put her things into 'em and +I'll wait?" + +Myra helped Sheila pack some clothing, rugs, &c, into the bags, and Mary +took them out to the burly Dick. + +"By jingo! you're the finest woman I've seen here yet," said he affably +to the blushing Mary. "Now, will you tell Miss Caroline and Miss +Grainger that I'll be up with the horses in half an hour? Goodbye, +bright eyes." + +He returned within the time, riding his own horse and leading two +others. + +"Sidesaddles," said Juliette to her mother as they watched through the +dining-room windows the big digger dismount and hang the horses' reins +over the front gate. + +As he strode across the lawn, they heard Mary's voice in the hall. It +sounded as if she were half crying. + +"Goodbye, miss, and Hivin's blessin' on ye; and may God sind ye a good +husband." + +A moment or two later she entered, wiping her eyes. "The ladies are +goin', and wish to spake to yez," she said. + +Mrs. Trappeme and her daughters rose, as Myra and Sheila, clad in their +neatly-fitting habits, came into the room. + +"I am going to accompany Miss Carolan and my brother for a few miles, +Mrs. Trappeme, so I shall not be here for lunch," said Myra. + +"Oh, indeed," said Mrs. Trappeme faintly; and then, with a pleasant +smile from Myra, and a coldly polite bow from Sheila, they were gone. + +Scott swung them up into their saddles, and in another minute they were +descending the hill. + +Mother and daughter looked at each other. + +"So she's going with Mr. Grainger," said Juliette, with an unpleasant +twitch of her thin lips; "the--the little _cat!_ I'd like to see her +fall off!" + +"Never mind her--she's gone now--and I have had six guineas from her," +remarked her amiable mamma. "Now, if you are coming into Flinders Street +with me, make haste, and don't sit grizzling." + +Poor Juliette! Poor Mrs. Lee-Trappeme! When they descended the hill and +emerged out into Flinders Street, they found the side-path crowded with +people, who were all gazing into the great yard of the Queen's Hotel, +from which was emerging a cavalcade. First came four people--the +white-bearded Charteris with Myra, and Grainger with Sheila; after them +a sergeant and six white police, and ten Native Police with carbines on +thighs, and then Dick Scott and dark-faced Inspector Lamington; behind +followed a troop of spare horses. + +As they swung through the gates, the crowd cheered as Charteris gave +the word, and the whole party went off at a sharp canter down the long, +winding street. + + + + +CHAPTER XII ~ SHEILA BECOMES ONE OF A VERY "UNREFINED" CIRCLE + +The night wind was soughing mournfully through the dark line of she-oaks +fringing the banks of a small, swiftly-running creek, when Sheila was +awakened by some one calling to her from outside the little tent in +which she was sleeping. She sat up and looked out. + +"Did you call me, Mr. Grainger?" + +"Yes. There is a storm coming down from the ranges. Sorry to awaken you, +but we want to make your tent more secure." + +Aided by Scott, whose giant figure Sheila could scarcely discern--so +dark was the night--Grainger soon had the tent prepared to resist the +storm. As they worked, there came such an appalling thunderclap that +it shook the ground beneath her, and for some minutes she was unable to +hear even the droning roar of the rain-laden tornado that came tearing +down from the mountains, snapping off the branches of the gum-trees, +bending low the pliant boles of the moaning she-oaks, and lifting the +waters of the creek up in sheets. + +A hand touched her face in the Cimmerian darkness, and Dick Scott's +voice (he was shouting with all the strength of his mighty lungs) seemed +to whisper-- + +"Lie down, miss; lie down, and don't be afeerd. The tent will stand, as +we are pretty well sheltered here, and------" + +Another fearful thunderclap cut short his words, and she instinctively +clutched his hand. She was used to terrific thunderstorms in New South +Wales, but she had neyer heard anything so awful as this--it seemed as +if the heavens had burst. + +"Where is Mr. Grainger?" she asked, putting her lips to Dick's ear and +speaking loudly. + +"Here, beside me, miss." + +"And poor Jacky! Where is he?" + +"We'll find out presently, miss. Most likely the horses have cleared +out, and he's gone after 'em," shouted Scott. + +For another five minutes the howling fury of the wind and the hissing +of the rain rendered any further conversation impossible. Then came a +sudden lull of both. Grainger struck a match and lit a small lantern he +was holding, and Sheila felt a great satisfaction as the light showed +upon his face---calm and quiet as ever--as he looked at her and smiled. + +"You must pardon us coming into the tent, Miss Carolan, but we wanted to +light and leave the lantern with you. I'm afraid the horses have bolted +for shelter into the sandalwood scrub lower down the creek, or into the +gullies, and Jacky has gone after them. Will you mind staying here alone +for an hour or two whilst Scott and I help him to find them?" + +"Not at all," she replied bravely, "and I really do not need the light. +I am not at all afraid." + +"I know that, Miss Garolan. But it will serve to show us the way back." +(This was merely a kindly fiction.) "And if, during a lull in the rain, +you should hear any of the horses' bells, will you fire two shots from +that Winchester rifle there beside you? It is possible that they may +be quite near to us. Old Euchre" (one of the pack-horses) "has as much +sense as a Christian, and it is quite likely that whilst Scott, Jacky, +and I are looking for them in the scrub, he will lead them back here." + +Then placing the lantern beside her, and partly shielding it with a +saddle cloth to protect it more folly from the gusts of wind, he and +Scott went out into the blackness. + +She heard Scott a minute or two later give a loud _Coo-ee!_ for Jacky, +and fancied she heard an answering cry from the blackboy, a long +distance away. Then the rain again descended in a torrential downpour, +and drowned out all other sounds. + +***** + +Two weeks had passed since Sheila had left Townsville with Grainger +and the hard-riding old Warden and the swarthy-faced Lamington and his +savage-eyed, half-civilised troopers. At Chinkie's Flat they had learnt +that there were now three hundred white miners at the new rush on +Banshee Creek, but that everything was quiet, and that no disputes of +any kind had occurred, and all that Charteris would have to do would be +to visit the place, and, according to the "Gold-fields Act," proclaim +Banshee Creek to be a new gold-field. So, after spending a night +at Grainger's new house, built on the ridge overlooking the "Ever +Victorious" battery, with its clamorous stampers pounding away night and +day, the Warden bid Sheila and Grainger goodbye, and rode off with his +hardy white police, leaving Lamington and his black, legalised murderers +to go their own way in pursuit of Sandy and Daylight, and "disperse" the +myalls--if they could find them--such dispersion meaning the shooting of +women and children as well as men. + +Now, the truth is, that Grainger should have gone on with the Warden +to the new rush, where his prospecting party was anxiously awaiting his +arrival; but he was deeply in love with Sheila Carolan, and she with +him, although she did not know it. But she was mightily pleased when the +"Ever Victorious" Grainger told her that he was going to take her all +the way to Minerva Downs, as he "wanted to see Farrow about buying a +hundred bullocks to send to the new rush at Banshee Creek." (This was +perfectly true, but he could very easily have dispatched a letter to +Farrow, who would have sent the bullocks to the meat-hungry diggers as a +matter of business.) + +As she had stood on the verandah of Grainger's house in the early +morning, watching Charteris and his troopers depart, and listening to +the clang and thud of the five-and-twenty stampers of the new battery +of the "Ever Victorious" pounding out the rich golden quartz, handsome, +swarthy-faced Sub-Inspector Lamington ascended the steps and bade her +good morning. + +"So you and Grainger travel with me for another ninety miles or so, Miss +Carolan," he said with undisguised pleasure. "Will you be ready soon?" + +"In half an hour." + +"Ah, that's right. My boys and I are anxious to get to work," and he +went on to the horse yard. + +Sheila could not help a slight shudder as she heard the soft-voiced, +_debonnair_ Lamington speak of his "work." She knew what it meant--a +score or two of stilled, bullet-riddled figures of men, women, and +children lying about in the hot desert sand, or in the dark shades of +some mountain scrub. + +Charteris had told her Lamington's story. He was the only survivor of an +entire family who had been massacred by the blacks of Fraser's Island, +and had grown up with but one object in life--to kill every wild black +he came across. For this purpose alone he had joined the Native Police, +and there were dark tales whispered of what he had done. But the +authorities considered him "a good man," and when he and his fierce +troopers rode into town and reported that a mob of wild blacks had been +"dispersed," no one ventured to ask him any questions, but every one +knew what had occurred. + +So with Lamington and his silent, grim Danites, Sheila, Grainger, Scott, +and Jacky travelled together for nearly a hundred miles, and then the +two companies separated--Lamington heading towards that part of the +forbidding-looking mountain range where he hoped to find his prey, and +Grainger and his party keeping on to the west. + +"It's dangerous country, Grainger," the police officer said as he bade +them goodbye. "There are any amount of niggers all around, so you will +need to be careful about your fire at night. Shift your camp a good half +mile after you have lit your fire and had supper." + +Grainger smiled. "I've been through the mill, Lamington. But I don't +think we shall have any trouble unless you head them off and send Sandy +and his friends down on to us." + +"I do mean to head them off, and drive them down from the range into +the spinifex country about thirty miles from here, when I can round +them up," said Lamington softly, as if he were speaking of driving game. +"Sorry you won't be with me to see the fun. The L500 reward for the +production of Messieurs Sandy and Daylight--alive or dead--I already +consider as mine. It will give up a trip to Melbourne to see the Cup +next year." + +"But you can't claim the money--you're an official." + +"This is an exceptional case, and no distinction is to be made +between civilians and policemen--the Government does sensible things +_sometimes_." + + * * * * * + +Two hours passed, and Sheila, anxiously awaiting the sound of the +horses' bells, or the reappearance of Grainger and Scott, began to feel +that something had gone amiss. The storm had ceased, and when she rose +and stepped outside she saw that a few stars were shining. Seating +herself upon a granite boulder, she listened intently, but the only +sound that broke the black silence of the night was the rushing of the +waters of the creek. + +She placed her hands to her mouth, and was about to give a loud +_Coo-ee!_ when her pride stopped her. + +"If they hear me," she thought, "they will think I am frightened." + +She went back into the tent and again lay down, and tried by the light +of the lantern to read a book which Myra Grainger had given her. Her +watch had stopped, and when she put the book aride she knew that the +dawn was near for the harsh cackle of a wild pheasant sounded from the +branches of a Leichhardt tree near by, and was answered by the shrill, +screaming notes of a flock of king-parrots which the storm had driven to +settle amidst the thick, dense scrub on the bank of the creek. + +Quite suddenly she became aware that something was moving about in the +grass outside the tent, and a thrill of alarm made her instinctively +clutch the Winchester rifle beside her. Surely there was some one there, +whispering! Very quietly she sat up and waited. Yes, there certainly +were people outside, and a cold chill of terror possessed her when +the whisperings changed to a rapid and louder muttering in an unknown +tongue, and she knew that her visitors were blacks! + +Unable to even speak, she heard the soft rustle of footsteps drawing +nearer and nearer, and then the closed flap of the tent was pulled +slowly aside by a long black hand, and the wicked eyes of the bearded +face of a huge aboriginal, naked to the waist, gazed into hers. For a +second or two he looked at her, watching her terrified expression as a +snake watches the fascinated bird; then he drew back his lips and showed +two rows of gleaming teeth in a fierce smile of exultation. By a mighty +effort she tried to raise the Winchester, and in another moment the +blackfellow sprang at her, covered her head with a filthy kangaroo skin +and silently bore her outside. + +For quite ten minates she felt herself being carried swiftly along, till +her captor came to the creek, which he crossed. Then he uncovered her +face and spoke to her in English. + +"If you make a noise I will kill you, and throw your body in the creek. +I am Sandy the Trooper." + +She gazed at him mechanically, too horrified at her surroundings +to utter a sound. For dawn had just broken and she saw that she was +standing in a small open space in the midst of a sandalwood scrub, and +encircled by twenty or thirty ferocious-looking myall blacks all armed +with spears and waddies. The strong ant-like odour which emanated from +their jet-black skins filled her nostrils and, putting her hands to her +eyes, she shuddered and fell upon her knees with a choking sob. + +"Come, none of that, missie," said another voice in English, and her +hands were rudely pulled aside; "you must get up and walk. Perhaps we +won't hurt you. But if you make a noise I'll give you a tap on the head +with this waddy," and the speaker flourished a short club over her head. +"Come! get up!" + +She obeyed him, rose slowly to her feet, and in another instant darted +aside, and, breaking through the circle of myalls, plunged into the +scrub towards the creek. But before she had gone twenty yards one of +them had seized her by her loosened hair, and a long pent-up scream +burst from her lips. + +Again the filthy skin was thrown over her head, then her hands were +quickly tied behind her with a strip of bark. + +Sandy lifted her up in his arms, and he, Daylight, and their followers +plunged into the forest and set off towards the mountains. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII ~ ON THE SCENT + +Through the blackness of the night and the pouring rain Grainger and +Scott made their way down the right bank of the creek to where, a mile +or a mile and a half away, was a thick scrub of sandalwood trees, in +which they imagined the terrified horses had taken refuge. The rushing, +foaming waters guided them on their way, though every now and then they +had to make a detour round the heads of some gullies, which were bank +high with backwater from the swollen creek. As soon as there was a lull +in the storm they again _Coo-eed_, but received no answer from Jacky. +Grainger, who had the most implicit faith in the judgment of his +blackboy, now began to fear that the horses, instead of making for the +scrub, had gone towards the mountains, where it would perhaps be most +difficult to get them. However, there was nothing to be done but to +first examine the scrub, and then to see what had become of Jacky. Both +he and Scott had brought their bridles with them, and the blackboy, +they knew, had his as well, and they were hoping that at any moment they +might meet him driving the horses back to the camp. + +By the time the scrub was reached the storm had begun to break somewhat, +for although rain still fell heavily, the wind was losing its violence; +and presently, to their satisfaction, they heard Jacky's voice shouting +somewhere near them. + +"Where are you?" called out Scott. + +"Here, on cattle camp, in middle of scrub. I been catch old Euchre and +two more horse, but can't find other pack-horse and bay filly and roan +colt. I 'fraid they been go 'way back up mountain." + +They found him engaged in tying up the foreleg of Scott's horse with +strips of his shirt. The animal, when racing along in the dark, had +fallen and out itself badly from knee to hoof. Grainger examined the +injury, and saw that, although the poor creature was very lame, it could +easily be led to the camp. But the loss of the remaining horses was a +serious matter, and after a brief discussion it was resolved to first +make a thorough search along the creek for another mile before giving +up any hopes of finding them in the vicinity of the scrub. Then, if +no traces could be found, they were to return to the camp for their +saddles, and Jacky and Grainger would endeavour to pick up their tracks +as soon as daylight broke. + +An hour was spent fruitlessly, and they turned back and made for the +camp, Scott and Grainger riding barebacked, and Jacky going ahead on +foot, leading the lame horse. Presently they came to a deep, rocky +gully, which they crossed, and were carefully ascending the steep bank +when Scott's horse tripped over a loose stone and fell heavily, with his +rider underneath. + +Jacky and Grainger at once went to his assistance and got the horse +away, but Scott lay perfectly motionless, and when spoken to did not +answer. Grainger, like all good bushmen, had kept his matches dry, and, +striking a light, he saw that the big digger had not only received some +injury to his head, but, worse still had broken his leg; the bone had +snapped completely across half-way down from the knee. + +For quite ten minutes the poor fellow remained unconscious, then, when +he came to his senses, his first question was about the horse. Was he +hurt? + +"No, Dick; but your leg is broken." + +The language that flowed from Mr. Scott's bearded lips cannot possibly +be set down, but he resigned himself cheerfully to Grainger and Jacky +when they put the broken limb into rough splints made of bark and twigs +to keep it in position until they could do something better on their +arrival at the camp. + +Refusing to be carried, Scott dragged himself up the bank, and then +allowed them to lift him on Euchre's back, Grainger riding and Jacky +walking beside him. + +By the time they reached the camp it was broad daylight, and an alarmed +look came into Grainger's eyes when there was no response to his loud +_Coo-ee!_ thrice repeated. + +Suddenly Jacky, whose dark eyes were rolling unnaturally as he glanced +all around him, let go the horse he was leading, sprang forward, and +entered the tent. He reappeared in a moment. + +"What is wrong, Jacky? Where is she?" + +"Gone," was the quick reply. "Myall blackfellow been here and take her +away!" + +"Good God!" said Grainger hoarsely, feeling for the moment utterly +unnerved as he watched the black-boy walk quickly round and round the +tent, examining the grass. + +"Plenty blackfellow been here," he said, "but only one fellow been go +inside tent. I think it, he catch him up missie when she sleep------" + +An oath broke from Scott's lips. "Let me down, boss, let me down! It's +all my fault. Quick! put me inside the tent and let me be. You and Jacky +has two good horses, and Jacky is the best tracker this side o' the +country." + +"I'll see to your leg first, Dick," cried Grainger, as he and Jacky +lifted him off Euchre and helped him into the tent. + +"By jingo, you won't, boss!" was the energetic reply. "What does it +matter about my leg? Let me be. I'll pull along all right, even if you +are away for a day, or two days, or a week. For God's sake, boss, don't +fool about me! Think of _her_. Saddle up, saddle up, and bring her back! +They can't be far away. Jacky, I'll give you fifty pounds if you get +her. Boss, take plenty o' cartridges an' some tucker. I'll be as right +as rain here. But hurry, hurry, boss! If they get her into the mountains +we'll never see any more of her but her gnawed bones," and the big man +struck his clenched fist passionately upon the ground. + +But Grainger, although almost maddened with fear as to Sheila's fate, +would not leave the man helpless, and whilst Jacky was saddling the +horses, he put provisions and water, and matches and tobacco, near the +poor, excited digger. Then, with the blackboy's aid, he quickly and +effectively set the broken leg with proper splints, seized round with +broad strips of ti-tree bark. "There, Dick, that's all I can do for you +now." "You're losing time over me, boss. Hurry, hurry! and get the young +lady back for God's sake." + +Five minutes later Jacky had picked up the tracks of Sandy and Daylight +and their allies, and he and Grainger, with hearts beating high with +hope, were following them up swiftly and surely. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV ~ "MISS CAROLINE" IS "ALL RIGHT" (VIDE DICK SCOTT ) + +The tracks of the abductors of Sheila were easily discernible to the +practised eyes of Jacky--than whom a better tracker was not to be found +in North Queensland. They led in an almost direct line towards the +grim mountain range for about seventeen miles, and then were lost at +a rapidly-flowing, rocky-bottomed stream--a tributary of that on which +Grainger's camp had been made. + +Never for one instant did Grainger think of questioning the judgment +of his tried and trusted blackboy, when, as they came to the stream, he +jumped off his horse and motioned to his master to do the same. + +"Them fellow myall have gone into water, boss, and walk along up," he +said placidly, as he took out his pipe, filled and lit it. Then he added +that they had better take the saddles off the horses, short-hobble them, +and let them feed. + +"You don't think, Jacky, that they" (he meant the blacks) "might get on +too far ahead of us?" he asked, as he dismounted. + +"No, boss, they are camped now, 'bout a mile or two mile farther +up creek. We can't take horses there--country too rough, and myall +blackfellow can smell horse long way off--all same horse or bullock can +smell myall blackfellow long way off." + +Grainger knew that this was perfectly true--cattle and horses can always +scent wild blacks at a great distance, and at once show their alarm. And +that the country was too rough for Jacky and him to go any further +with the horses was quite evident. However, he knew that as soon as his +companion had taken a few pulls at his pipe he would learn from him what +his plans were. + +The weapon that the black boy usually carried was a Snider carbine, but +he had left that at the camp, and taken the spare Winchester--the one +Sheila had dropped in the tent: and he was now carefully throwing back +the lever, and ejecting the cartridges, and seeing that it was in good +order ere he re-loaded it. + +"Your rifle all right, boss?" he asked. + +"All right, Jacky; and my revolver too." + +Jacky grunted--somewhat contemptuously--at the mention of the revolver. +"You won't get chance with rewolber, boss. Rifle best for you an' me +this time, I think it. Rewolber right enough when you ride after myall +in flat country." + +"Very well, Jacky," said Grainger, "I'll leave the revolver behind. What +are we going to do?" + +"First, short-hobble horses, and let 'em feed--plenty grass 'bout here. +Then you follow me. I think it that them fellow myall camp" (rest) +"'bout two mile up creek." + +"How many are there, Jacky?" + +"'Bout twenty, boss--perhaps thirty. And I think it that some feller +runaway policeman with them--Sandy or Daylight, I beleeb." + +"What makes you think that?" said Grainger, instantly remembering that +Lamington had said that he meant to try and head off Sandy and his +myalls down into the spinifex country. + +"Come here, boss." + +Grainger followed him to the margin of the creek, which although at dawn +had been running half bank high, owing to the tremendous downpour of +rain, was now at its normal level. + +"Look at that, boss." + +He pointed to a triangular indentation, which, with footmarks, was +imprinted in the soft yellow sand at the foot of a small boulder; and +taking the butt of his Winchester rifle, fitted it into the impression. + +"Some feller with Winchester rifle been sit down here, boss, and light +his pipe. See, he been scrape out pipe," and he indicated some partially +consumed shreds of tobacco and some ashes which were lying on the sand. + +"Ah, I see, Jacky," and a cold chill of horror went through him as +he thought of Sheila being in the power of such a fiend as Sandy. The +myalls would in all likelihood want to kill and eat her, but Sandy or +Daylight would probably wish to keep her a captive. And that Jacky +was correct in his surmise there could be but little doubt--both the +outlawed ex-policemen had Winchesters, taken from the Chinese packers +whom they had murdered. + +"Go on, Jacky, my boy, for God's sake!" he said hoarsely, placing his +hand on the blackboy's shoulder. "Missie may be killed if we do not +hurry." + +"No fear, boss!" replied Jacky with cheerful confidence, as he proceeded +to strip. "You 'member what I told you 'bout that white woman myall +blacks take away with them long time ago when ship was break up near +Cape Melville, and they find her lying on beach? They didn't kill +her--these myall nigger like White Mary {*} too much. I don't think +these fellow will kill Missie. I think it Daylight or Sandy will want +her for _lubra_. {**} Take off boots, boss." + +Grainger pulled off his knee boots, and threw them up on the bank, +and then he and Jacky short-hobbled the horses, and let them feed. The +blackboy had stripped himself of every article of clothing, except the +remnants of his shirt, which he had tied round his loins; over it was +strapped his leather belt with its cartridge pouch. + +"Come on, boss," and then instead of crossing the creek as Grainger had +imagined he would, he led the way along the same side, explaining that +the myalls, expecting--but not fearing--pursuit, would do all that they +could to make the pursuers believe that they had walked up through the +creek for a certain distance, and then crossed over to the opposite +side. The gins{***} and picaninnies, he said, were not with the party +that had seized Sheila, neither were there any dogs with them. + + * "White Mary"--A white woman. + + ** Wife. + + *** Gins. Synonymous with _lubra_--i.e., a wife. + +"And you will see, boss," he said, as, after they had come a mile and +a half, he pointed to a sandbank on the side of the creek, deeply +imprinted with footmarks, "we will find them eating fish in their camp. +Look there." + +Grainger saw that on the sandbank were a number of dead fish which had +been swept down the creek from pools higher up. That many more had been +left stranded, and then taken away, was very evident by the disturbed +state of the sand and the numerous footmarks. + +Suddenly a harsh sound of many voices fell upon their ears, and Jacky +came to a dead stop. + +Motioning to Grainger to lie down and await his return, he slipped +quietly away, his lithe, black body gliding like a snake through the +dense jungle which clothed the banks of the creek. + +A quarter of an hour later he came back, his black eyes rolling with +subdued excitement. + +"Come on, boss; it is all right. They are camped in an old _boora_ {*} +ground, and Sandy and Daylight are going to fight for Missie. I saw +Missie." + + * A place which the Australian aborigines use for their + corroborees and certein religious rites. + +"Where was she?" said Grainger, whose heart was thumping fiercely as, +rifle in hand, he sprang to his feet. + +"In the middle of the _boora_ ground. She sit up, but all the same as if +she sleep---eyes shut." + +"Oh, God, to think that I left her!--to look after horses," Grainger +said bitterly to himself as he followed Jacky, who little knew how dear +Sheila was to the heart of his "boss." + +Swiftly but cautiously Jacky led the way through the scrub until they +came to the margin of the _boora_ ground, and then Grainger saw twenty +or thirty blacks seated on the ground in a circle, spears and waddies +in hand. In the centre was Sheila, crouched on her knees, with her hands +covering her eyes. On each side of her was a Winchester rifle, and a +belt with an ammunition pouch--her dowry. And standing near by her, +attended by their nude seconds, were Daylight and Sandy, who were also +armed with spears and waddies. They were both stripped and painted, and +ready to slaughter each other. + +"Boss," whispered Jacky, "which feller you want to take?" + +"I'll take the big man with the beard," said Grainger, as he drew up his +Winchester. + +"All right, boss! I take the other man--that's Daylight. But don't shoot +until they walk across _boora_ ground, and turn and face each other. +Shoot him through _bingie_,{*} boss--don't try for head, you might miss +him." + + * Stomach. + +"All right, Jacky," and Grainger lay flat on the ground and brought his +rifle to his shoulder, "but don't miss your man." + +"No fear of that, boss. I'm going to give it to Daylight between the +eyes. But let me drop him first." + +"Right." + +Daylight and Sandy were taken by their seconds to opposite sides of the +ring, and then, drawing their heads back and poising their spears, they +awaited each other's attack. + +Then Jacky's Winchester cracked, and Daylight span round and fell dead, +and Sandy's spear flew high in air as a bullet took him fair in the +chest. And then the savage instinct to slay came upon and overwhelmed +Grainger, as well as his black boy, and shot after shot rang out and +laid low half a dozen of the sitting and expectant savages ere they +could recover from their surprise and flee. + +Grainger rushed forward to Sheila and lifted her up. + +A hysterical sob burst from her as she put her trembling hands out +towards him. + +"Oh, I knew you would come! I knew you would come!" and then her eyes +closed, and she lay quiet in his arms. + + * * * * * + +That night, as Sheila, with tear-swollen eyes of gratitude to God for +her preservation, lay sleeping in the little tent, Grainger and the +ever-faithful Jacky sat smoking their pipes beside the recumbent figure +of burly Dick Scott, who, broken-legged as he was, had insisted upon +being taken outside and camping with them. + +"Boss," he said, as he handed his pipe to Jacky to be filled, "this will +be suthin' for Mr. Mallard to put in the _Champion_, eh?" + +"Yes, Dick, old son," and Grainger put his hand on the big man's +shoulder, with a kindly light shining in his quiet, grey eyes. +"I'll write and tell him all about it. And I'll tell him what a real, +downright, out-and-out 'white man' you are." + +"Git out, boss," and the rough, bearded digger laughed childishly with +pleasure; "if I sees anythin' in the Champion about me, blow me but +I'm goin' back to Townsville, and I mean to spark that gal at 'Magnet +Villa'--she that was a-cryin' when Miss Caroline came away." + +"Right you are, Dick. You have promised Jacky fifty pounds if he brought +Miss Carolan back--and you will give it to him. But you are one of the +'Ever Victorious' crowd, and don't want money, so I won't say any more +except that I'll give Mrs. Dick Scott five hundred sovereigns for a +wedding present. What is her present surname, Dick?" + +"Don't know, boss. Didn't ask her. But if she isn't snapped up by one of +them flash banker fellows, or some other paper-collared swell, I think +I'll get her. Mr. Mallard and Miss Myra said they would put in a good +word for me, seein' as I hadn't no time to do any courtin' myself." + +"Dick, old son, she's yours! If you have got my sister and Mr. Mallard +to speak for you, it's all right--that's a dead certainty. How is your +leg?" + +"Bully, boss--just bully. Say, boss!" + +"Yes, Dick." + +"D'ye think we'll get them missin' horses?" + +"Horses be hanged! Do you think I'm troubling about them just now?" + +"Why, certingly you ought to be troublin' about 'em. Isn't the roan colt +and the bay filly worth troublin' about? The best blood in the whole +bloomin' country is in that bay filly o' Miss Caroline's. And Jimmy Ah +San offered you ninety pound for the roan, didn't he?" + +Grainger put out his hand, and grasping Scott's long beard, pretended to +shake it. + +"Just you go to sleep, Dick Scott, and don't waggle your chin and talk +about horses or anything else. You are a blessed nuisance, and if you +wake Miss Carolan up I'll pound you when you get better!" + +Scott grinned, and then he put out his hand. + +"Boss, have you fixed it up with her? I thought as how that there was +nothin' in the world so sweet in the way of wimmen as Miss Myra; but +Miss Caroline runs her a close second." + +"I have not asked her yet, Dick." + +"You ask her to-morrow, boss. You take my tip, or before you knows where +you are some other fellow will be jumpin' your claim and gettin' her." + +"I'll think of it, Dick." + +"Don't think too long over it, boss. If it wos me, I'd see it through +the first thing to-morrow momin'." + +"You mind your own business, Mister Richard Scott," said Grainger, with +a laugh. + +"All right, boss; but what about them horses? That bay filly------" + +"Go to sleep, you silly old ass." + +* * * * * + +At dawn Lamington and his Danites came splashing through the creek, and +Grainger was aroused by a loud "Hallo!" as the swarthy-faced Inspector +cantered up to the tent and dismounted. + +"Well, here you are, Grainger. I know all that has happened. I rounded +up the myalls outside the _boora_ ground, only half an hour after you +had left, and one of the bucks--whom I dropped with a bullet through +his thigh--told me what had occurred, when Sandy and Daylight were just +about to fight. How is Miss Carolan?" + +"Well. She is sleeping. Take a peg," and he handed Lamington his brandy +flask. + +The officer poured out a stiff nip, drank it off, and then pointed to +one of his troopers, who had just dismounted, and was holding in his +hand a heavy bundle, wrapped up in an ensanguined saddle-cloth. + +"That's my L500, Grainger. I'll have to send those heads to Townsville +for identification before I can claim the reward. Awfully smart of you +to pot both of them." + +"Lamington, you're a _beast_. Tell that nigger of yours to take that +infernal bundle away and keep it out of sight, or, by heavens, you and I +will quarrel." + +Lamington, gentleman at heart, apologised: "I _am_ a beast, Grainger. I +didn't think of Miss Carolan." + + * * * * * + +When Sheila awakened she had to bid Dick Scott goodbye, for Lamington +was taking him back to Chinkie's Flat. + +"Goodbye, Miss Caroline. You an' the boss will pull along all right to +Minerva Downs. And when I sees you again, I hope that------" + +"Dry up, Dick," said Grainger, with assumed severity. + +"Oh, I know it's all right, boss; isn't it, Miss Caroline?" + +"Yes, Mr. Scott," said Sheila with a smile, as she put her little hand +into his. "I don't think I shall stay very long at Minerva Downs, and I +do think you will soon see me again." + +"At Chinkie's Flat?" + +"Yes, at Chinkie's Flat," said Grainger, as he put his arm round Sheila, +and drew her to him. "Mr. Lamington is sending up a parson from the Bay +to Minerva Downs." + +"Boss," cried Scott, exultantly, "there's goin' to be a red, rosy, high +old time by and by at Chinkie's Flat." + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Chinkie's Flat and Other Stories, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINKIE'S FLAT AND OTHER STORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 24805.txt or 24805.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/8/0/24805/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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