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diff --git a/25059.txt b/25059.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72763d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/25059.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1204 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In The Far North, 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: In The Far North + 1901 + +Author: Louis Becke + +Release Date: April 12, 2008 [EBook #25059] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE FAR NORTH *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +IN THE FAR NORTH + +From "The Tapu Of Banderah and Other Stories" + +By Louis Becke + +C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. + +1901 + + "Out on the wastes of the Never Never-- + That's where the dead men lie! + There where the heat-waves dance for ever-- + That's where the dead men lie!" + (Barcroft Boake, + in the Sydney Bulletin.) + + + + +I + +Jack Barrington, nominal owner of Tinandra Downs cattle station on the +Gilbert River in the far north of North Queensland, was riding slowly +over his run, when, as the fierce rays of a blazing sun, set in a sky of +brass, smote upon his head and shoulders and his labouring stock-horse +plodded wearily homewards over the spongy, sandy soil, the lines +of Barcroft Boake came to his mind, and, after he had repeated them +mentally, he cursed aloud. + +"_That's where the dead men lie!_ Poor Boake must have thought of this +God-forsaken part of an utterly God-forsaken country, I think, when he +wrote 'Out where the Dead Men Lie.' For I believe that God Almighty has +forgotten it! Oh for rain, rain, rain! Rain to send the Gilbert down +in a howling yellow flood, and turn this blarsted spinifex waste of +scorching sand and desolation into green grass--and save me and the +youngsters from giving it best, and going under altogether.... Boake +knew this cursed country well.... I wonder if he ever 'owned' a +station--one with a raging drought, a thundering mortgage, and a +worrying and greedy bank sooling him on to commit suicide, or else +provide rain as side issues.... I don't suppose he had a wife and +children to leave to the mercy of the Australian Pastoralists' Bank. +D----n and curse the Australian Pastoralists' Bank, and the drought, and +this scorching sand and hateful spinifex--and God help the poor cattle!" + +He drew rein almost under the shade of a clump of stunted sandalwood, +which had, in good seasons, been a favourite mustering camp, and looked +about him, and then he passed his hand over his eyes to shut out for a +few moments the melancholy spectacle before him. + +I have said that he pulled up "almost" under shelter; further he could +not advance, for the hard, parched ground immediately under the shade of +the sandalwoods was thickly covered by the stiffened sun-dried carcasses +of some hundreds of dead cattle, which, having become too weak to leave +the sheltering trees in search of food and water had lain down and died. +Beyond, scattered singly and about in twos and threes, were the remains +of scores of other wretched beasts, which, unable to drag themselves +either to the sandy river-bed or to the scanty shade of the stunted +timber, had perished where they fell. + +With a heavy sigh Harrington dismounted, took off his water-bag from the +saddle, and pouring a little water into his hat, gave his horse a drink. +Then he drank a few mouthfuls himself, filled and lit his pipe, and sat +down, to rest awhile until the sun had lost its fierce intensity--and +think. + +And he thought despairingly of the black prospect which for the past +six or seven months had tormented him by day, and haunted him at night, +broken now and then with a gleam of hope when the pitiless blue of +the sky changed to grey, and rain seemed near, only to be followed by +renewed and bitter disappointment. + +"It cannot last much longer," he thought; "even if rain came within +a week the rest of the poor brutes left alive will be too weak to +recover--and there's not hands enough on the station to cut leaves for +them. Even the blacks have cleared out lower down the river... found a +good water-hole I daresay, and, like wise niggers, are camping there. +Why doesn't Providence give a poor honest bullock as much show for his +life in a drought as a damned, filthy blackfellow! Instead of hoofs--in +this part of the country at any rate--cattle ought to have feet like a +bandicoot, then the poor beasts could worry along by digging waterholes +in the river bed." + +Then, sick at heart as he was, a faint smile flitted over his +sun-bronzed face at the fancy. + +An hour passed, and Harrington, with another weary sigh, rose and +saddled his horse--one of the few now remaining to him and able to carry +a rider. Five miles away from the sandalwood camp was another and larger +patch of timber--tall, slender brigalows, which grew on the edge of a +dried-up swamp, once the haunt and breeding place of countless thousands +of wild duck, teal, and geese. This was another of the mustering camps +on Tinandra, and as it lay on his way home, he decided to go there and +see if any of the "Big Swamp" cattle were still alive. As he rode slowly +over towards the fringe of timber, the westering sun turned from a +dazzling, blinding gold to a gradually deepening red; and his sweating +horse gave a snort of satisfaction as the soft, spongy, and sandy +spinifex country was left behind, and the creature's hoofs struck upon +the hard sun-baked plain of yellow earth which lay between the two +camps. Looking down at the great, widely spreading cracks in the hungry +soil, the result of a seven-months' continuous drought, Harrington +almost unconsciously bent his head and thought that surely God would +send rain. He was not a religious man in the conventional sense--he +had never been inside a church in his life--but the memory of his dead +mother's belief in God's mercy and goodness was still strong within him. + +The brigalow scrub was about half a mile in length, and stood between +the swamp and the high river bank. At the dried-up bed of the swamp +itself he did not care to look a second time; its once reedy margin was +now a sight of horror, for many hundreds of cattle had been bogged there +long months before, as they had striven to get further out to the centre +where there was yet left a little water, saved from evaporation by the +broad leaves of the blue water-lilies. + +Skirting the inner edge of the scrub till he reached its centre, he +looked carefully among the timber, but not a beast was to be seen; then +dismounting he led his horse through, came out upon the river bank, and +looked across the wide expanse of almost burning sand which stretched +from bank to bank, unbroken in its desolation except by a few ti-trees +whose roots, deep down, kept them alive. + +"Bob, old fellow," he said to his horse, "we've another ten miles to +go, and there's no use in killing ourselves. I think that we can put in +half an hour digging sand, and manage to raise a drink down there in the +river bed." + +Still leading the animal, which seemed to know his master's intention, +Harrington walked down the sloping bank, his long riding-boots sinking +deeply into the fine, sandy soil, and Bob pricked up his ears and gave a +true stock-horse sigh of weariness and anticipation combined. + +On the opposite side of the river bed and close under the bank were +growing two or three heavy ti-trees, and here, just as the sun had set, +he halted, again unsaddled, and after lighting a fire, began to scoop +out a hole with his quart pot in between the roots of the trees. For +some minutes he worked on with energy, then he stopped and listened, +and Bob, too, turned his head inquiringly, for he also had heard the +sound--it was only the cry of a beast, but it seemed so near that +Harrington ceased his digging and stood up to look. + +Not a hundred yards distant he saw, by the light of the now brightly +blazing fire, four gaunt steers and a skeleton heifer, staggering and +swaying over the river sand towards him in their weakness and agony of +hunger and thirst The poor creatures had seen the man and the horse! +As they toiled towards the light of the fire, a dreadful, wheezing +moan came from the parched throat of the leading steer as it laboured +pantingly over to something human--something it associated with water, +and grass, and life, and presently the wretched animal, with one last +effort, fell in its tracks almost at Harrington's feet. It lay there +quiet enough for a minute or two, with lean, outstretched neck and one +horn buried in the sand, its fast glazing eye turned to the man, and +seeming to say, "Give me water or death." + +Harrington, wrought up and excited to the last pitch, flung himself upon +his knees, and placed his cheek against that of the dying steer, and a +sob burst from his bosom. + +"O God, if there is a God! have mercy upon these Thy dumb creatures who +suffer such agony." + +He stepped up to his horse, took his revolver out of the pouch, and then +a merciful bullet ended the sufferings of the thirst-stricken animal at +his feet. + +"Steady, Bob, old man! Steady there!" he said brokenly, "I may have to +do the same to you before long." And then, tearing off a long piece of +dried ti-tree bark from one of the trees, he thrust it into the fire. +Then, with the blazing torch in his left hand, and his pistol in his +right, he tramped over the sand to the remaining cattle, and shot them +dead one by one. + +Then back to his digging again. A drink of thick, muddy water for his +horse, and then with a dull sense of misery in his heart he led Bob up +the bank and began the last stage of his ride home--home to his anaemic, +complaining, shallow-brained wife and the weakly children who, instead +of being the consolation of his life in his misfortunes, were an added +and ever-present source of misery and despair. + +* * * * * + + + + +II + +A few years before, Harrington had bought Tinandra Downs, and had +stocked the run with three thousand head of store cattle; for half of +which number he had paid, the remainder he had bought on long terms from +a neighbouring squatter--a man who knew his sterling merits, and was +confident that he (Harrington) would make Tinandra one of the best +cattle stations in the far north. Fortune had smiled upon him from the +first; for within two years came the discovery of the famous Palmer +River goldfields, only a few hundred miles distant, and cattle and +station properties doubled in value, for in less than half a year there +were six thousand diggers on the field, and more came pouring in from +the southern colonies by every steamer to Cooktown. New townships sprang +suddenly into existence, provisions of all kinds brought an enormous +price, and Harrington cleared off his debt to his squatter friend almost +ere he could realise having done so, and that he had several thousands +of pounds to the good as well. And his good luck stuck to him, for +it was attended by careful management, and every mob of fat cattle he +despatched to the goldfield instead of sending them on a three-hundred +league journey to Brisbane, meant another couple of thousand sovereigns. + +Then he began to improve the head station--and to think of Myra, a girl +whom he had once met in Sydney, and who sent him newspapers, and, once +or twice, at long intervals, had written him letters. He had answered +these letters with a secret hope that, if all went well with him, he +would take another trip to Sydney, and then--well, he could at least +ask her. If she said no, why, who was there to chaff him? He was not a +communicative man, had very few intimate men friends, and the few women +whom he knew were not the sort he could possibly talk to about a lady. +Both his parents had died before he was ten years of age, leaving him +utterly alone in the world. Born in a bush town, in the interior of New +South Wales, he had turned to the bush and to the wide, open, grassy +plains, as an infant would have turned to its mother in its distress; +and the bush and the plains and the grey mountain ranges had taken him +to their bosoms; and the silent, reserved boy became the resolute, hardy +bushman, stock-rider, and then miner--a man fit and ready to meet the +emergencies of his rough life. Of the outside world he was as ignorant +as a child, as indeed were most of the men with whom for many years he +had associated. But there was nothing despicable in his ignorance; +and when as time went on, and his improved circumstances threw him in +contact with men and women of refinement and culture, he was quick to +take advantage of such opportunities; but the honest, simple nature of +the man always remained the same. + +Before he was thirty, Harrington was known as one of the most +experienced and fortunate over-lander drovers in Australia, and he +became as familiar with the long and lonely stock-route from the +stations on the Gulf of Carpentaria to Sydney and Melbourne, in his many +journeys, as if it were a main road in an English county. + +At the conclusion of one of these tedious drives of seven months' +duration, the brown-faced, quiet drover was asked by an acquaintance +with whom he had business transactions, to spend the evening with him at +his house. He went, and there met Myra Lyndon. He was attracted by her +bright manner and smiling face, and when she questioned him about his +life in the Far North, his adventures among the blacks, and the many +perils of a drover's existence, he thought her the fairest and +sweetest woman in the world. And Miss Myra Lyndon encouraged him in his +admiration. Not that she cared for him in the least She had not reached +eight-and-twenty years of age to throw herself away on a man who had +no other ambition than to become a squatter and live amongst a lot of +"horrid bellowing cattle." But he was nice to talk to, though terribly +stupid about some things, and so she did not mind writing to him once +or twice--it would reward him for the horse he had one day sent to her +father with a lamely worded note, saying that it was one of a mob he had +just bought at the saleyards, and as he had no use for a lady's hack, +he thought that perhaps Miss Lyndon would be so kind as to accept it Mr. +Lyndon smiled as he read the note, he knew that drovers did not usually +buy ladies' hacks; but being a man harassed to death with an expensive +family, he was not disposed to discourage Harrington's attentions to +Myra; though, having a conscience, he felt that Jack Harrington was too +good a man for such a useless, empty-brained, and selfish creature as +his eldest daughter. + +So Harrington went back to his "bellowing bullocks," and then, having +saved enough money, bought the very run he had so often wished he +could buy; and "Jack" Harrington, the overlander, became "Mr." John +Harrington, the pastoralist and owner of Tinandra Downs, and then the +vision of Myra Lyndon's face came to him very often--now that he was so +prosperous. + +One day he told his overseer that he was going to Sydney for a trip, and +being a man of action, packed his valise, mounted his horse, and rode +off on his journey of five hundred miles to the nearest seaport where he +could take passage for Sydney. + +For the first week or so after his arrival in the city, he "mooned" +about doing nothing, and trying to pluck up courage enough to go to Myra +Lyndon to ask her to be his wife. He had called several times upon her +father and discussed business matters with him; but beyond inquiring +after "Mrs. Lyndon and the Misses Lyndon," had said nothing further, +and in a nervous, shamefaced manner had each time accepted Mr. Lyndon's +invitation to "come and see the girls before he went back to the North," +but had not had the courage to go. Next week, or the week after +that, would do, he thought. If she said "No," he wouldn't feel it so +much--once he was on his way North again in the old _Florence Irving_; +he would put it off till just as he was ready to start. Then if she said +"Yes," he would stay in Sydney as long as his love wished--a month--aye, +six months, so long as she came back with him to Tinandra Downs. And +Myra Lyndon, who knew from her father that her "bullock-driver admirer," +as she had mockingly called him to her friends, was in Sydney, waited +for him impatiently. A systematic course of jilting and being jilted had +made her feel anxious as to her future, and gall and wormwood had come +to her now that her two younger sisters had married before her, and left +her, as her somewhat acidulous-tongued mother said, "the Lyndon family +wallflower." She meant to marry him, spend a year or so among the +"beastly bellowing cattle," and then return to Sydney, where as Mrs. +Harrington, the wealthy squatter's wife, she could enjoy herself +thoroughly, snub some of the women she hated, and flirt with some of the +men she liked. + +Late one night, Harrington, sauntering from the theatre to his hotel, +met, to his intense astonishment, a man he knew--had known years before +when he (Harrington) was a drover and the other man--Walters--was a +mounted trooper in the Queensland police. + +They shook hands warmly, and then Walters said, "Come along with me, +Jack, to the Water Police Station; we can have a yarn there.... Oh, yes, +I'm a Sydney man now--a full-fledged inspector of police... tell you +all about it by and by. But, push along, old man. One of my men has just +told me that a woman who jumped off the Circular Quay and tried to drown +herself, is lying at the station, and is not expected to pull through. +Hallo! here's a cab! Jump in, Jack; there's some whisky in the +sergeant's room, and after I've seen the cadaver--if she has +cadavered--we'll have a right down good yarn." + +The cab rattled through the now almost deserted street, and in a few +minutes Harrington and his friend alighted at a small stone building +overlooking the waters of Sydney Harbour. A water-policeman, who stood +at the door under the big gas-lamp, saluted the inspector and then +showed Harrington into the sergeant's room. + +Ten minutes passed, and then Walters, accompanied by a big, stout, +red-faced man, came in. + +"Ha, here you are, old man. Jack, Dr. Parsons--the man who does the +resuscitating and such silly business of this institution; Parsons, my +old friend, Jack Harrington. Sergeant, where is that whisky?" + +"Is the woman dead, doctor?" asked Harrington presently, as the +sergeant's wife brought in a bottle of whisky and some glasses. + +"No," replied the police doctor slowly, as he poured some whisky into +his glass, "she is not dead; but she may not live much longer--a day or +so perhaps. It all depends. Shock to the system." + +"One of the usual sort, Parsons, I suppose?" inquired Walters--"left the +baby on the wharf, with a written request for some 'kind Christian to +love it,' eh?" + +The fat doctor grunted. "You're a beast, Walters. There's no baby in the +case. Here, give me ten shillings--you'll spend more than that in drinks +before you go to bed to-night This girl _isn't_ one of the usual +sort. She's a lady--and she's been starving. So ante-up, you +ex-nigger-shooting Queensland policeman; and I'll add another half-sov. +Then perhaps your friend will give me something for her. And I'm not +going to send her off to the hospital. I'm going to take her to some +people I know, and ask them to keep her for a few days until she gets +round." + +Harrington put his hand in his pocket, and then in a nervous, diffident +way, looking first at Walters and then at the doctor, put five +sovereigns on the table. + +"I'm pretty flush now, you know.... I'm not a plunger, but I shall be +glad, doctor, if you will take that and give it to her.... I was almost +starving myself once---_you_ know, Walters, when I got the sack from the +'Morning Star' Mine for plugging the English manager when he called me a +'damned colonial lout.'" + +The fat-faced doctor looked steadily at him for a moment or two. Then he +reached out his hand. + +"You're a good fellow, Mr. Harrington. I'll take a sovereign or two. +Come in here with me." + + + + +III + +Harrington followed him into an adjoining room, where, upon a +wicker-work couch was reclining the figure of a young girl. Standing +beside her was the police-sergeant's wife, who, as soon as the two men +came in, quietly drew aside. + +"Now, here I am back again, my dear child," said the doctor +good-humouredly, "and here is a very old friend of mine, Mr. Jack +Harrington; and we have come to cheer you up and tell you that you have +two or three good friends. And we won't let any women or parsons come +to you and worry you, and tell you that you have been a wicked girl, +and ought to have thrown yourself upon God's mercy and all that sort of +thing. So just drink that coffee, and then by and by we will take you to +some people I know well, and you shall come and tell us in a day or two +how sorry you are for being so foolish." + +The girl's dark hazel eyes looked steadily at them both; then she put +out a thin white hand. + +"You are very kind to me. I know it was very wicked to try and kill +myself, but I was so lonely, and... and I had not eaten anything since +Wednesday... and I wanted to die." Then she covered her face and sobbed +softly, whilst the doctor patted her on the shoulder and said-- + +"Don't worry, little girl; you are in good hands now. Never mind Mrs. +Thornton and her un-kindness. You are better away from her--isn't she, +Mr. Harrington?" + +Mr. Harrington, knowing nothing about Mrs. Thornton, promptly said "Oh, +most certainly," and the girl's eyes met his for a second, and a faint +smile flushed upon her pale lips. The tall, bearded, and brown-faced +man's face seemed so full of pity. + +"Now you must go to sleep for an hour or two," said the doctor +imperatively; "so now then, little girl, 'seepy-by, beddy-bo.' That's +what _my_ mother used to say to me." + +Harrington followed the doctor out into the sergeant's room, where +Inspector Walters, with his heels upon the table, was falling asleep. + +"Sit down a moment, Mr. Harrington," said Dr. Parsons, taking up a book +which the sergeant had left upon the table; "this is a sad case. Here +is a girl, Nellie Alleyne, age 19, nursery governess to Mrs. +Lavery-Thornton, of Waverly, jumped into the water off the Quay; rescued +by Water-police Constables Casey and Boyce." + +Harrington nodded. + +"This girl has told me her story. She is alone and friendless in Sydney. +She came out to Australia when she was seventeen, got a billet with +this Mrs. Lavery-Thornton--who seems to be a perfect brute of a +woman--suffered a two years' martyrdom, and then was dismissed from her +situation with the large sum of twenty-two shillings in her pocket Tried +to get another such position, but people wouldn't take her without a +recommendation from her last place. The Thornton woman wouldn't give her +one; said she was too independent. High-spirited girl with twenty-two +shillings between her and starvation, wanders about from one registry +office to another for a couple of weeks, living in a room in a Miller's +Point slum; money all gone; pestered by brutes in the usual way, jumps +into the water to end her miseries. Rough, isn't it?" + +Harrington nodded. "Poor thing! I should like you, Dr. Parsons, to--to +let her know that she _has_ friends. Will you let me help. Fifty pounds +or a hundred pounds won't hurt me... and I've been stone-broke myself. +But a man can always peg along in the bush; and it's an awful thing for +a child like that to be adrift in a big city." + +The kind-hearted police doctor looked steadily into Harrington's face +for a moment, then he said quietly-- + +"An awful thing indeed. But there are some good men in the world, +Mr. Harrington, who are able and willing to save pure souls from +destruction. You are one of them. Tom Walters and myself are both +hard-up devils--we see a lot of misery, but can do nothing to alleviate +it; a few shillings is all we can give." + +Harrington rose, and his sun-tanned face flushed as he drew out his +cheque-book. "I never try to shove myself in, in such matters as these, +doctor, but I should feel pleased if you will let me help." + +Then he wrote out a cheque for fifty pounds, pushed it over to the +doctor, said he thought it was getting late, and that he had better get +back to his hotel. + +Dr. Parsons gave the sleeping inspector a shake, and in a few words told +him what Harrington had done. + +"You're a dashed fool, old man," said Walters sleepily to Harrington; +"most likely she'll blue your fifty quid, and then blackmail----" + +The doctor's hand descended upon the inspector's shoulder. "Shut up, you +beastly old wretch--do you think _all_ women are alike. Come, now, let +us have another nip and get away. Mr. Harrington is tired. Sergeant!" + +The sergeant came to the door. + +"Thompson, take good care of that young _lady_. We happen to know her. +If she awakes before eight o'clock in the morning, tell her that she +is to stay with your wife till I come to see her at nine o'clock. Any +effects, sergeant?" + +"Yes, sir," and the sergeant took out his note-book, "seven pawn +tickets, five pennies, and a New Testament with 'Nellie Alleyne' written +inside." + +"Here, give me those tickets, I'll take care of them; and Thompson, if +the newspaper fellows come here to-night, say that the young lady fell +over the wharf accidentally, and has gone home to her friends. See?" + +"I see, sir," said Thompson, as the good-hearted doctor slipped half a +sovereign into his hand. + +Then the three men stepped out into the street and strolled up to the +Royal Hotel, and sat down in the smoking-room, which was filled with a +noisy crowd, some of whom soon saw Walters and called him away, leaving +the doctor and Harrington by themselves. + +"Better take this back, Mr. Harrington," and Dr. Parsons handed him his +cheque. "Two or three pounds will be quite enough for the poor girl." + +"Not I," said Harrington with a smile, "fifty pounds won't ruin me, as +I said--and it may mean a lot to her, poor child. And I feel glad that I +can help some one... some one who is all right, you know. Now I must be +off. Good night, doctor." + +Parsons looked at the tall manly figure as he pushed his way through +the noisy crowd in the smoking-room, and then at the cheque in his hand. +"Well, there's a good fellow. Single man, I'll bet; else he wouldn't be +so good to a poor little devil of a stranded girl. Didn't even ask her +name. May the Lord send him a good wife." + +The Lord did not send Harrington a good wife; for the very next day he +called upon Mrs. Lyndon, and Mrs. Lyndon took good care that he should +be left alone with Myra; and Myra smiled so sweetly at him, when with +outstretched hands she came into the drawing-room, that he fatuously +believed she loved him. And she of course, when he asked her to be his +wife, hid her face on his shoulder, and said she could not understand +why he could love _her_. Why, she was quite an old maid! Amy and Gwen +were ever so much prettier than she, and she was sure that both Gwen +and Amy, even though they were now both married, would feel jealous when +they knew that big, handsome Jack Harrington had asked her to be his +wife; and so on and so forth, as only the skilled woman of thirty, +whose hopes of marriage are slipping by, knows how to talk and lie to +an "eligible" man unused to women's ways. And Harrington kissed Myra's +somewhat thin lips, and said--and believed--that he was the happiest man +in Australia. Then Mrs. Lyndon came in, and, in the manner of mothers +who are bursting with joy at getting rid of a daughter whose matrimonial +prospects are looking gloomy, metaphorically fell upon Harrington's +neck and wept down his back, and said he was robbing her of her dearest +treasure, &c., &c. Harrington, knowing nothing of conventional women's +ways, believed her, and married, for him, the most unsuitable woman in +the world. + +A week or so after his marriage he received a letter from Dr. Parsons +enclosing the cheque he had given him for Nellie Alleyne:-- + +"Dear Harrington,--Girl won't take the cheque. Has a billet--cashier in +a restaurant. Says she is writing to you. She's true gold. You ought to +marry her and take her away with you to your outlandish parts. Would ask +her to marry me--if I could keep her; but she wouldn't have me whilst +you are about. Always glad to see you at my diggings; whisky and soda +and such, and a hearty welcome." + +And by the same post came a letter from the girl herself--a letter that, +simply worded as it was, sent an honest glow through his heart:-- + + "Dear Mr. Harrington,--I shall never, never forget your + kindness to me; as long as I live I shall never forget Dr. + Parsons tells me that you live in Queensland--more than a + thousand miles from Sydney, and that you are going away + soon. Please will you let me call on you before you go away? + I shall be so unhappy if I do not see you again, because in + a letter I _cannot_ tell you how I thank you, how deeply + grateful I am to you for your goodness and generosity to me. + "Yours very sincerely, + + "Helen Alleyne." + +Harrington showed the letter to Myra, who bubbled over with pretty +expressions of sympathy and wrote and asked her to call. Nellie did +call, and the result of her visit was that when Harrington took his +newly married wife to Tinandra Downs, she went with her as companion. +And from the day that she entered the door of his house, Helen Alleyne +had proved herself to be, as Dr. Parsons had said, "true gold." As the +first bright years of prosperity vanished, and the drought and financial +worries all but crushed Harrington under the weight of his misfortunes, +and his complaining, irritable wife rendered his existence at home +almost unbearable, her brave spirit kept his from sinking under the +incessant strain of his anxieties. Mrs. Harrington, after her third +child was born, had given up even the semblance of attending to the +children, and left them to Nellie and the servants. She was doing quite +enough, she once told her husband bitterly, in staying with him at such +a horrible place in such a horrible country. But she nevertheless always +went away to the sea-coast during the hottest months, and succeeded in +having a considerable amount of enjoyment, leaving the children and Jack +and Miss Alleyne to swelter through the summer at Tinandra Downs as best +they could. + + + + +IV + +It was nearly midnight as Harrington took down the slip-rails and led +his horse through the paddock up to the house, which, except for a dimly +burning lamp in the dining-room, was in darkness. The atmosphere was +close and sultry, and the perspiration ran down his skin in streams as +he gave his horse to the head-stockman, who was sitting on the verandah +awaiting him. + +"Terrible night, sir, but I'm thinking if it keeps on like this for +another hour or two we'll get a big thunderstorm. 'Sugar-bag'" (one of +the black boys) "was here just now and says that the ant-heaps about are +covered with ants--that's a sure sign, sir." + +"God send it so, Banks! If no rain comes within two days, you'll have to +start away for Cleveland Bay with Mrs. Harrington and Miss Alleyne and +the children. We must find horses somehow to take them there." + +Before Banks led the horse away for a drink, he stopped. + +"Miss Alleyne went to Canton Reef, sir, this morning with little Sandy. +She ought to have been here before dark, but I expect the horses knocked +up. There's a couple of cows with young calves there, so Sandy says, +and Miss Alleyne said she would try and bring them in if I would let her +take Sandy. We've had no milk, sir, for the children since Tuesday, and +Miss Alleyne said that you would be vexed. I would have gone +myself, sir, but I couldn't well leave, and I know Miss Alleyne will +manage--it's only fifteen miles, and Sandy says that the two cows and +calves are pretty fat and can travel; there's a bit of feed at those +waterholes about the Canton. Most likely she and the little black boy +have yarded the cows at the Seven-mile Hut and are camping there for +the night But I'll start off now, sir. I've got Peter the Pig already +saddled." + +"Yes, yes, Banks, certainly. Why didn't you start long ago?" + +"Mrs. Harrington said I must wait for you, sir," the man answered +somewhat sullenly. + +Harrington nodded. "Hurry up, Banks; but here, take a glass of grog +first." + +He watched the stockman disappear down the dusty track to the +slip-rails, then he went inside, and sitting down at the table buried +his face in his hands. Then, booted and dusty, and tired in mind and +body, he slept. + +An hour had passed, and no sound disturbed the hot oppressive silence of +the night but the heavy breathing of the wearied man. Then through his +dreamless slumber came the murmur of voices, and presently three figures +walked quickly up from the milking-yard towards the house. + +"He's asleep, miss," whispered Banks, "he's dog tired But the news you +have got for him will put fresh life into him. Now just you go to him, +miss, and tell him, and then as soon as I have given them cows a drink, +I'll bring you in some tea. Sandy, you little black devil, light a fire +in the kitchen and don't make a noise, or I'll tan your hide, honest." + +For a minute or so the girl stood in the doorway of the dining-room, +holding a heavy saddle-pouch, in her hand, her frame trembling with +emotion and physical exhaustion; and trying to speak. As soon as she +could speak, she walked over to the sleeping man and touched him on +the shoulder He awoke with a start just as she sank on her knees, and +leaning her elbows on a chair beside him, burst into a fit of hysterical +weeping. He waited for her to recover herself. + +"Oh, I am so glad, so glad, Mr. Harrington! Now you need not give up +Tinandra... and the drought doesn't matter... and oh, I thank God for +His goodness that He has let me help you at last!" She broke off with a +choking sob, and then, with streaming eyes, placed her hand in his. + +Harrington lifted her up and placed her on a couch. "Lie there, Miss +Alleyne. I will call Mrs. Harrington----" + +She put out her hand beseechingly. "Please _don't_, Mr. Harrington. She +is not at all strong, and I think I made her very angry this morning by +going away to look for the milkers.... But look, Mr. Harrington, look +inside the saddle pouch." Then she sat up, and her eyes burnt with +feverish expectation, "Quick, quick, please," and then she began to +laugh wildly, but clenching her hands tightly together she overcame her +hysteria, and attempted to speak calmly. + +"I shall be better in a minute... empty it out on the table, please... +Banks says it is another outcrop of the old Canton Reef." + +Harrington picked up the saddle-pouch, and putting it on the table, +turned up the lamp, and unfastened the straps; it was filled with pieces +of rough weather-worn quartz thickly impregnated with gold. The largest +piece contained more gold than quartz, and an involuntary cry of +astonishment and admiration burst from his lips as he held it to the +light. + +Nellie's eyes sparkled with joy. "Isn't it lovely! I can't talk, my lips +are so dry." + +Harrington dashed outside to the verandah filled a glass from the canvas +water-bag hanging from a beam overhead, and gave it to the exhausted +girl. + +"Now don't you attempt to speak for five minutes." + +"No, I won't," she said, with a faint smile, as she drank off the cold +water--and then at once began to tell him of her discovery. + +"Sandy and I found the two cows and calves a mile this side of the +Canton Reef in a gully, but before we could head them off they had got +away into the ironbark ridges. Sandy told me to wait, and galloped after +them. I followed him to the top of the first ridge, and then pulled up, +and there, right under my horse's feet I saw a small 'blow' of quartz +sticking up out of the baked ground, and I saw the gold in it quite +plainly. Of course I was wildly excited, and jumped off. The stone was +quite loose and crumbly, and I actually pulled some pieces away with my +hands, and when I saw the thick yellow gold running all through it I sat +down and cried. Then I became so frightened that Sandy might not find +me again, for it would be dark in another hour, and so I ran up and down +along the ridge, listening for the sound of his stockwhip. And then I +went back towards the outcrop of the reef again, and half-way down I +picked up that big lump--it was half buried in the ground.... And +oh, Mr. Harrington, all that ridge is covered with it... I could have +brought away as much again, but Sandy had no saddle-pouch... and I was +dying to come home and tell you." + +She breathed pantingly for a few minutes. + +"It was nearly dark when Sandy came back. He had run the cattle on to a +camp about three miles away.... I don't know which pleased me most, +to get the cows so that poor Mable and Harry can have some milk in the +morning, or the gold.... Banks met us half-way from the Seven-mile Hut, +and took me off my horse and put me in front of him." + +Banks came to the door, carrying a tray with a cup of tea and some food. +"Here ye are, Miss Alleyne; ye're a born stockman, an' a prospector, +an'--God bless you, miss, _you've brought the rain as well_." + +For as the rough, hairy-faced stockman began to speak, a low rumbling +sound of thunder smote the silence of the night, followed by a loud +appalling clap, and then another, and another, and presently a cooling +blast of wind came through the open door, and stirred and shook the +Venetian blinds hanging outside. Banks almost dropped the tea-tray, and +then darting outside, dashed his cabbage-tree hat on the ground, and +began to dance as the first heavy drops of the coming deluge fell upon +his head. + +In less than ten minutes, Harrington, with silent joy in his heart, was +standing at the doorway, watching the descending torrents of rain--that +rain which to his bushman's heart meant more than all the gold which lay +beneath the earth. He had, as it first began to fall, rushed into his +wife's bedroom, and kissed her and the terrified children. + +"The rain has come, Myra, thank God," he said, and then he added +quietly, "I have more good news for you in the morning." + +Mrs. Harrington said she was quite aware of the rain having come--the +disgusting noise of the thunder had made the children scream. Had Miss +Alleyne come back? And brought the cows? His other good news could keep +till the morning. + +Harrington turned away from her with a feeling of dulled resentment. +_He_ knew what the girl had suffered, and his wife's heartlessness cut +him to the quick. + +As he stood watching Banks and the black boys filling every available +tank and cask on the station from the downpour off the roof, Nellie rose +from the couch on which she had been lying, and touched his arm timidly. + +"Don't you believe in God's goodness _now_, Mr. Harrington? See, He has +sent the rain, and He has granted my daily prayer to Him that I, too, +might help you. And Banks says that this is not a passing thunderstorm, +but that the drought has broken up altogether--for see, the wind is from +the south." + +Harrington raised her hand to his lips. "I have always tried to believe +in God and in His mercy, Miss Alleyne." + +"Not always, Mr. Harrington," she said softly. "Don't you remember when +all the Big Swamp! mob were bogged and dying, that you said that if +He would not hear the moans and see the agonies of the beasts He had +created, that He would not listen to the prayers of human beings who +were not suffering as they suffered? And to-day, as Sandy and I rode +along to the Canton Reef, I prayed again and again, and always when I +passed a dying beast I said, '_O God! have mercy upon these Thy dumb +creatures who suffer much agony!_" + +Harrington's chest heaved. "And I prayed as you prayed, Miss Alleyne; +but I said, 'O God! if there is a God.'" + +She put out her hand to him and her dark eyes filled with tears. "He has +answered our prayers.... And now, good night... I wish I could go out +into the rain; I feel I could dance for joy.... Mr. Harrington, _do_ +let me go to the Canton Reef with you to-morrow. Everything will be +all right to-morrow, won't it? But there, how thoughtless I am.... I +am going to milk those two cunning cows till they are dry; poor little +Harry does so want some fresh milk. Good night, Mr. Harrington; I shall +sleep happily to-night--everything will be all right to-morrow." + +At breakfast-time next morning the rain was still falling steadily, and +Mrs. Harrington decided to join her husband at the morning meal. + +Harrington rode up to the door and smiled brightly at his wife. "Waiting +for me, dear? I won't be long. The river is running now, Myra--running +after two years! I'm off to Miss Alleyne's reef as soon as I've had a +bit of tucker. Where is she?" + +"In bed, I presume," said Mrs. Harrington acidulously. "She might +have remembered that I was very much upset last night by that horrible +thunder, and have risen earlier and attended to the children." + +A look of intense disgust came over her husband's face. + +"Myra, the girl was done-up, dead beat! Won't you go and see if she is +able to get up?" + +Mrs. Harrington rose stiffly. "Oh, certainly, if you wish it. But I +think it is a great mistake. She really ought to have considered the +children, and----" + +The head stockman's wife met her at the door, and looking past her +mistress, spoke to Harrington in terrified tones----- + +"Miss Alleyne is dead, sir!" + +Harrington sprang from his chair. "Dead, Mrs. Banks!" + +"Yes, sir. I was only just in time. She on'y sez, 'Tell Mr. Harrington +that I am so glad that everythink will be all right now.' An' then she +smiled, sir, and sez as I was to kiss Master Harry and Miss Mabel for +her, as she was agoin'. And then she sez, 'Isn't God good to send +the rain, Mrs. Banks? Everything will be all right now for poor Mr. +Harrington--rain and gold.' Then she just laid quiet for a minute, an' +when I looked at her face again, I saw she was dead." + +***** + +A year later, Jack Harrington, again one of the wealthiest cattle men in +North Queensland, and the owner of one of the richest gold mines in the +colony, was riding home to his station. Behind him he heard the clatter +and clash of the twenty-stamper battery that on the "Canton Ridge" was +pounding him in so many thousands of pounds a month; before him lay +the sweeping grassy downs and thickly timbered creeks of a now smiling +country. His wife and children had long before returned to the cooler +South, and in his heart was a great loneliness. Not, perhaps, for them, +but because of the memory of the girl whose prayer to the Almighty had +been answered, and who was resting on the bank of the Gilbert under the +shade of a big Leichhardt tree. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In The Far North, by Louis Becke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE FAR NORTH *** + +***** This file should be named 25059.txt or 25059.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/0/5/25059/ + +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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