diff options
Diffstat (limited to '3786.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 3786.txt | 23688 |
1 files changed, 23688 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/3786.txt b/3786.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c719e3c --- /dev/null +++ b/3786.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23688 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn, by Henry Kingsley + +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: The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn + +Author: Henry Kingsley + +Posting Date: June 20, 2009 [EBook #3786] +Release Date: February, 2003 +First Posted: September 6, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF GEOFFREY HAMLYN *** + + + + +Produced by Col Choat. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + +The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn + + +by + +Henry Kingsley + + + + + TO + MY FATHER AND MOTHER + THIS BOOK, THE FRUIT OF SO MANY WEARY + YEARS OF SEPARATION, IS DEDICATED WITH + THE DEEPEST LOVE AND REVERENCE + + + +CONTENTS + + I INTRODUCTORY. + II THE COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE OF JOHN THORNTON, CLERK, AND THE + BIRTH OF SOME ONE WHO TAKES RATHER A CONSPICUOUS PART IN OUR + STORY. + III THE HISTORY OF (A CERTAIN FAMILY LIVING IN) EUROPE, FROM THE + BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR TO THE PEACE OF 1818, CONTAINING FACTS + HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED. + IV SOME NEW FACES. + V IN WHICH THE READER IS MADE ACCOMPLICE TO A MISPRISION OF + FELONY. + VI GEORGE HAWKER GOES TO THE FAIR--WRESTLES, BUT GETS THROWN ON + HIS BACK, SHOOTS AT A MARK, BUT MISSES IT. + VII MAJOR BUCKLEY GIVES HIS OPINION ON TROUT-FISHING, ON + EMIGRATION, AND ON GEORGE HAWKER. + VIII THE VICAR HEARS SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE. + IX WHEN THE KYE CAME HAME. + X IN WHICH WE SEE A GOOD DEAL OF MISCHIEF BREWING. + XI IN WHICH THE VICAR PREACHES A FAREWELL SERMON. + XII IN WHICH A VERY MUSCULAR CHRISTIAN INDEED, COMES ON THE STAGE. + XIII THE DISCOVERY OF THE FORGERIES. + XIV THE MAJOR'S VISIT TO THE "NAG'S-HEAD." + XV THE BRIGHTON RACES, AND WHAT HAPPENED THEREAT. + XVI THE END OF MARY'S EXPEDITION. + XVII EXODUS. + XVIII THE FIRST PUFF OF THE SOUTH WIND. + XIX I HIRE A NEW HORSEBREAKER. + XX A WARM CHRISTMAS DAY. + XXI JIM STOCKBRIDGE BEGINS TO TAKE ANOTHER VIEW OF MATTERS. + XXII SAM BUCKLEY'S EDUCATION. + XXIII TOONARBIN. + XXIV IN WHICH MARY HAWKER LOSES ONE OF HER OLDEST SWEETHEARTS. + XXV IN WHICH THE NEW DEAN OF B---- MAKES HIS APPEARANCE, AND + ASTONISHES THE MAJOR OUT OF HIS PROPRIETY. + XXVI WHITE HEATHENS + XXVII THE GOLDEN VINEYARD. + XXVIII A GENTLEMAN FROM THE WARS. + XXIX SAM MEETS WITH A RIVAL, AND HOW HE TREATED HIM. + XXX HOW THE CHILD WAS LOST, AND HOW HE GOT FOUND AGAIN--WHAT + CECIL SAID TO SAM WHEN THEY FOUND HIM--AND HOW IN CASTING + LOTS, ALTHOUGH CECIL WON THE LOT, HE LOST THE PRIZE. + XXXI HOW TOM TROUBRIDGE KEPT WATCH FOR THE FIRST TIME. + XXXII WHICH IS THE LAST CHAPTER BUT ONE IN THE SECOND VOLUME. + XXXIII IN WHICH JAMES BRENTWOOD AND SAMUEL BUCKLEY, ESQUIRES, + COMBINE TO DISTURB THE REST OF CAPTAIN BRENTWOOD, R.A. AND + SUCCEED IN DOING SO. + XXXIV HOW THEY ALL WENT HUNTING FOR SEA ANEMONES AT CAPE + CHATHAM--AND HOW THE DOCTOR GOT A TERRIBLE FRIGHT--AND HOW + CAPTAIN BLOCKSTROP SHOWED THAT THERE WAS GOOD REASON FOR IT. + XXXV A COUNCIL OF WAR. + XXXVI AN EARTHQUAKE, A COLLIERY EXPLOSION, AND AN ADVENTURE. + XXXVII IN WHICH GEORGE HAWKER SETTLES AN OLD SCORE WITH WILLIAM LEE, + MOST HANDSOMELY, LEAVING, IN FACT, A LARGE BALANCE IN HIS + OWN FAVOUR. + XXXVIII HOW DR. MULHAUS GOT BUSHED IN THE RANGES, AND WHAT BEFEL HIM + THERE. + XXXIX THE LAST GLEAM BEFORE THE STORM. + XL THE STORM BURSTS. + XLI WIDDERIN SHOWS CLEARLY THAT HE IS WORTH ALL THE MONEY SAM + GAVE FOR HIM. + XLII THE FIGHT AMONG THE FERN-TREES. + XLIII ACROSS THE SNOW. + XLIV HOW MARY HAWKER HEARD THE NEWS. + XLV IN WHICH THERE ARE SOME ASTONISHING REVELATIONS WITH REGARD + TO DR. MULHAUS AND CAPTAIN DESBOROUGH. + XLVI IN WHICH SAM MEETS WITH A SERIOUS ACCIDENT, AND GETS CRIPPLED + FOR LIFE. + XLVII HOW MARY HAWKER SAID "YES." + XLVIII THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE. + + + + +Chapter I + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +Near the end of February 1857, I think about the 20th or so, though it +don't much matter; I only know it was near the latter end of summer, +burning hot, with the bushfires raging like volcanoes on the ranges, +and the river reduced to a slender stream of water, almost lost upon +the broad white flats of quartz shingle. It was the end of February, I +said, when Major Buckley, Captain Brentwood (formerly of the +Artillery), and I, Geoffry Hamlyn, sat together over our wine in the +veranda at Baroona, gazing sleepily on the grey plains that rolled away +east and north-east towards the sea. + +We had sat silent for some time, too lazy to speak, almost to think. +The beautiful flower-garden which lay before us, sloping towards the +river, looked rather brown and sere, after the hot winds, although the +orange-trees were still green enough, and vast clusters of purple +grapes were ripening rapidly among the yellowing vine-leaves. On the +whole, however, the garden was but a poor subject of contemplation for +one who remembered it in all its full November beauty, and so my eye +travelled away to the left, to a broad paddock of yellow grass which +bounded the garden on that side, and there I watched an old horse +feeding. + +A very old horse indeed, a horse which seemed to have reached the +utmost bounds of equine existence. And yet such a beautiful beast. Even +as I looked some wild young colts were let out of the stockyard, and +came galloping and whinnying towards him, and then it was a sight to +see the old fellow as he trotted towards them, with his nose in the +air, and his tail arched, throwing his legs out before him with the +ease and grace of a four-year-old, and making me regret that he wasn't +my property and ten years younger;--altogether, even then, one of the +finest horses of his class I had ever seen, and suddenly a thought came +over me, and I grew animated. + +"Major Buckley," I said, "what horse is that?" + +"What horse is that?" repeated the major very slowly. "Why, my good +fellow, old Widderin, to be sure." + +"Bless me!" I said; "You don't mean to say that that old horse is alive +still?" + +"He looks like it," said the major. "He'd carry you a mile or two, yet." + +"I thought he had died while I was in England," I said. "Ah, major, +that horse's history would be worth writing." + +"If you began," answered the major, "to write the history of the horse, +you must write also the history of every body who was concerned in +those circumstances which caused Sam to take a certain famous ride upon +him. And you would find that the history of the horse would be reduced +into very small compass, and that the rest of your book would assume +proportions too vast for the human intellect to grasp." + +"How so?" I said. + +He entered into certain details, which I will not give. "You would +have," he said, "to begin at the end of the last century, and bring one +gradually on to the present time. Good heavens! just consider." + +"I think you exaggerate," I said. + +"Not at all," he answered. "You must begin the histories of the Buckley +and Thornton families in the last generation. The Brentwoods also, must +not be omitted,--why there's work for several years. What do you say, +Brentwood?" + +"The work of a life-time;" said the captain. + +"But suppose I were to write a simple narrative of the principal events +in the histories of the three families, which no one is more able to do +than myself, seeing that nothing important has ever happened without my +hearing of it,--how, I say, would you like that?" + +"If it amused you to write it, I am sure it would amuse us to read it," +said the major. + +"But you are rather old to turn author," said Captain Brentwood; +"you'll make a failure of it; in fact, you'll never get through with +it." + +I replied not, but went into my bedroom, and returning with a thick +roll of papers threw it on the floor--as on the stage the honest notary +throws down the long-lost will,--and there I stood for a moment with my +arms folded, eyeing Brentwood triumphantly. + +"It is already done, captain," I said. "There it lies." + +The captain lit a cigar, and said nothing; but the major said, "Good +gracious me! and when was this done?" + +"Partly here, and partly in England. I propose to read it aloud to you, +if it will not bore you." + +"A really excellent idea," said the major. "My dear!"--this last was +addressed to a figure which was now seen approaching us up a long vista +of trellised vines. A tall figure dressed in grey. The figure, one +could see as she came nearer, of a most beautiful old woman. + +Dressed I said in grey, with a white handkerchief pinned over her grey +hair, and a light Indian shawl hanging from her shoulders. As upright +as a dart: she came towards us through the burning heat, as calmly and +majestically as if the temperature had been delightfully moderate. A +hoary old magpie accompanied her, evidently of great age, and from time +to time barked like an old bulldog, in a wheezy whisper. + +"My dear," said the major; "Hamlyn is going to read aloud some +manuscript to us." + +"That will be very delightful, this hot weather," said Mrs. Buckley. +"May I ask the subject, old friend?" + +"I would rather you did not, my dear madam; you will soon discover, in +spite of a change of names, and perhaps somewhat of localities." + +"Well, go on," said the major; and so on I went with the next chapter, +which is the first of the story. + +The reader will probably ask: + +"Now, who on earth is Major Buckley? and who is Captain Brentwood? and +last not least, who the Dickens are you?" If you will have patience, my +dear sir, you will find it all out in a very short time--Read on. + + + + +Chapter II + +THE COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE OF JOHN THORNTON, CLERK, AND THE BIRTH OF +SOME ONE WHO TAKES RATHER A CONSPICUOUS PART IN OUR STORY. + + +Sometime between the years 1780 and 1790, young John Thornton, then a +Servitor at Christ Church, fell in love with pretty Jane Hickman, whose +father was a well-to-do farmer, living not far down the river from +Oxford; and shortly before he took his degree, he called formally upon +old Hickman, and asked his daughter's hand. Hickman was secretly well +pleased that his daughter should marry a scholar and a gentleman like +John Thornton, and a man too who could knock over his bird, or kill his +trout in the lasher with any one. So after some decent hesitation he +told him, that as soon as he got a living, good enough to support Jane +as she had been accustomed to live, he might take her home with a +father's blessing, and a hundred pounds to buy furniture. And you may +take my word for it, that there was not much difficulty with the young +lady, for in fact the thing had long ago been arranged between them, +and she was anxiously waiting in the passage to hear her father's +decision, all the time that John was closeted with him. + +John came forth from the room well pleased and happy. And that evening +when they two were walking together in the twilight by the quiet river, +gathering cowslips and fritillaries, he told her of his good prospects, +and how a young lord, who made much of him, and treated him as a friend +and an equal, though he was but a Servitor--and was used to sit in his +room talking with him long after the quadrangle was quiet, and the fast +men had reeled off to their drunken slumbers--had only three days +before promised him a living of 300L. a-year, as soon as he should take +his priest's orders. And when they parted that night, at the old stile +in the meadow, and he saw her go gliding home like a white phantom +under the dark elms, he thought joyfully, that in two short years they +would be happily settled, never more to part in this world, in his +peaceful vicarage in Dorsetshire. + +Two short years, he thought. Alas! and alas! Before two years were +gone, poor Lord Sandston was lying one foggy November morning on +Hampstead Heath, with a bullet through his heart. Shot down at the +commencement of a noble and useful career by a brainless gambler--a man +who did all things ill, save billiards and pistol-shooting; his beauty +and his strength hurried to corruption, and his wealth to the senseless +DEBAUCHEE who hounded on his murderer to insult him. But I have heard +old Thornton tell, with proud tears, how my lord, though outraged and +insulted, with no course open to him but to give the villain the power +of taking his life, still fired in the air, and went down to the vault +of his forefathers without the guilt of blood upon his soul. + +So died Lord Sandston, and with him all John's hopes of advancement. A +curate now on 50L. a-year; what hope had he of marrying? And now the +tearful couple, walking once more by the river in desolate autumn, +among the flying yellow leaves, swore constancy, and agreed to wait +till better times should come. + +So they waited. John in his parish among his poor people and his +school-children, busy always during the day, and sometimes perhaps +happy. But in the long winter evenings, when the snow lay piled against +the door, and the wind howled in the chimney; or worse, when the wind +was still, and the rain was pattering from the eaves, he would sit +lonely and miserable by his desolate hearth, and think with a sigh of +what might have been had his patron lived. And five-and-twenty years +rolled on until James Brown, who was born during the first year of his +curateship, came home a broken man, with one arm gone, from the battle +of St. Vincent. And the great world roared on, and empires rose and +fell, and dull echoes of the great throes without were heard in the +peaceful English village, like distant thunder on a summer's afternoon, +but still no change for him. + +But poor Jane bides her time in the old farm-house, sitting constant +and patient behind the long low latticed window, among the geraniums +and roses, watching the old willows by the river. Five-and-twenty times +she sees those willows grow green, and the meadow brighten up with +flowers, and as often she sees their yellow leaves driven before the +strong south wind, and the meadow grow dark and hoar before the breath +of autumn. Her father was long since dead, and she was bringing up her +brother's children. Her raven hair was streaked with grey, and her step +was not so light, nor her laugh so loud, yet still she waited and +hoped, long after all hope seemed dead. + +But at length a brighter day seemed to dawn for them; for the bishop, +who had watched for years John Thornton's patient industry and +blameless conversation, gave him, to his great joy and astonishment, +the living of Drumston, worth 350L. a-year. And now, at last, he might +marry if he would. True, the morning of his life was gone long since, +and its hot noon spent in thankless labour; but the evening, the sober, +quiet evening, yet remained, and he and Jane might still render +pleasant for one another the downward road toward the churchyard, and +hand-in-hand walk more tranquilly forward to meet that dark tyrant +Death, who seemed so terrible to the solitary watcher. + +A month or less after John was installed, one soft grey day in March, +this patient couple walked slowly arm-in-arm up the hill, under the +lychgate, past the dark yew that shadowed the peaceful graves, and so +through the damp church porch, up to the old stone altar, and there +were quietly married, and then walked home again. No feasting or +rejoicing was there at that wedding; the very realization of their long +deferred hopes was a disappointment. In March they were married, and +before the lanes grew bright with the primroses of another spring, poor +Jane was lying in a new-made grave, in the shadow of the old grey tower. + +But, though dead, she yet lived to him in the person of a bright-eyed +baby, a little girl, born but three months before her mother's death. +Who can tell how John watched and prayed over that infant, or how he +felt that there was something left for him in this world yet, and +thought that if his child would live, he should not go down to the +grave a lonely desolate man. Poor John!--who can say whether it would +not have been better if the mother's coffin had been made a little +larger, and the baby had been carried up the hill, to sleep quietly +with its mother, safe from all the evil of this world. + +But the child lived and grew, and, at seventeen, I remember her well, a +beautiful girl, merry, impetuous, and thoughtless, with black waving +hair and dark blue eyes, and all the village loved her and took pride +in her. For they said--"She is the handsomest and the best in the +parish." + + + + +Chapter III + +THE HISTORY OF (A CERTAIN FAMILY LIVING IN) EUROPE, FROM THE BATTLE OF +TRAFALGAR TO THE PEACE OF 1818, CONTAINING FACTS HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED. + + +Among all the great old commoner families of the south of England, who +have held the lands of their fore-fathers through every change of +dynasty and religion, the Buckleys of Clere stand deservedly high among +the brightest and the oldest. All down the stormy page of this great +island's history one sees, once in a about a hundred years, that name +in some place of second-rate honour at least, whether as admiral, +general, or statesman; and yet, at the beginning of this present +century, the representative of the good old family was living at Clere +House, a palace built in the golden times of Elizabeth, on 900L. +a-year, while all the county knew that it took 300L. to keep Clere in +proper repair. + +The two Stuart revolutions had brought them down from county princes to +simple wealthy squires, and the frantic efforts made by Godfrey +Buckley, in the "South Sea" scheme to retrieve the family fortunes, had +well nigh broke them. Year by year they saw acre after acre of the +broad lands depart, and yet Marmaduke Buckley lived in the home of his +ancestors, and the avenue was untouched by axe or saw. + +He was a widower, with two sons, John and James. John had been to sea +from his earliest youth, and James had joined his regiment a year or +more. John had been doing the state good service under his beloved +Collingwood; and on the 19th October 1805, when Nelson and Collingwood +made tryst to meet at the gates of hell, John Buckley was one of the +immortals on the deck of the "Royal Sovereign." And when the war fog +rolled away to leeward, and Trafalgar was won, and all seas were free, +he lay dead in the cockpit, having lived just long enough to comprehend +the magnitude of the victory. + +Brave old Marmaduke was walking up and down the terrace at Clere uneasy +and impatient. Beside him was the good old curate who had educated both +the boys, and wearily and oft they turned to watch down the long vista +of the ancient avenue for the groom, who had been despatched to +Portsmouth to gain some tidings of the lieutenant. They had heard of +the victory, and, in their simple way, had praised God for it, drinking +a bottle of the rarest old wine to his Majesty's health and the +confusion of his enemies, before they knew whether they themselves were +among the number of the mourners. And now, as they paced the terrace, +every moment they grew more anxious and uneasy for the long delayed +intelligence. + +Some trifle took them into the flower-garden, and, when they came back, +their hearts leapt up, for the messenger was there dismounted, opening +the gate. The curate ran down the steps, and taking a black-edged +letter from the sorrowful groom, gave it into the trembling hands of +the old man with a choking sob. He opened it and glanced over it, and +then, throwing it towards his friend, walked steadily up the steps, and +disappeared within the dark porch. + +It was just three hasty lines from the great Collingwood himself. That +brave heart, in the midst of the din of victory, had found time to +scrawl a word to his old schoolmate, and tell him that his boy had died +like a hero, and that he regretted him like a son. + +The old man sat that evening in the western gallery, tearless and +alone, brooding over his grief. Three times the curate had peeped in, +and as often had retreated, fearful of disturbing the old man's solemn +sorrow. The autumn sun had gone down in wild and lurid clouds, and the +gallery was growing dark and gloomy, when the white figure of a +beautiful girl entering silently at the lower door came gliding up the +darkening vista, past the light of the windows and the shadow of the +piers, to where the old man sat under the high north window, and knelt +at his feet, weeping bitterly. + +It was Agnes Talbot, the daughter of his nearest neighbour and best +friend, whom the curate had slyly sent for, thinking in his honest +heart that she would make a better comforter than he, and rightly; for +the old man, bending over her, lifted up his voice and wept, speaking +for the first time since he heard of his bereavement, and saying, "Oh, +my boy, my boy!" + +"He is gone, sir," said Agnes, through her tears; "and gone the way a +man should go. But there is another left you yet; remember him." + +"Aye, James," said he; "alas, poor James! I wonder if he knows it. I +wish he were here." + +"James is here," said she. "He heard of it before you, and came posting +over as fast as he could, and is waiting outside to know if you can see +him." + +The door at the lower end of the gallery opened, and a tall and +noble-looking young man strode up and took his father's hand. + +He was above the ordinary height of man, with a grand broad forehead +and bold blue eyes. Old Marmaduke's heart warmed up as he parted his +curling hair, and he said, + +"Thank God, I've got one left still! The old house will not perish yet, +while such a one as you remains to uphold it." + +After a time they left him, at his own request, and walked out together +through the dark rooms towards the old hall. + +"Agnes, my beloved, my darling!" said James, drawing his arm round her +waist; "I knew I should find you with him like a ministering angel. Say +something to comfort me, my love. You never could love John as I did; +yet I know you felt for him as your brother, as he soon would have +been, if he had lived." + +"What can I say to you, my own?" she replied, "save to tell you that he +fell as your brother should fall, amongst the foremost, fighting for +his country's existence. And, James, if you must go before me, and +leave me a widow before I am a bride, it would render more tolerable +the short time that would be left me before I followed you, to think +that you had fallen like him." + +"There will be a chance of it, Agnes," said James, "for Stuart, they +say, is going to Italy, and I go with him. There will be a long and +bloody war, and who knows how it will end? Stay you here quiet with the +old man, my love, and pray for me; the end will come some day. I am +only eighteen and an ensign; in ten years I may be a colonel." + +They parted that night with tears and kisses, and a few days afterwards +James went from among them to join his regiment. + +From that time Agnes almost lived with old Marmaduke. Her father's +castle could be seen over the trees from the windows of Clere, and +every morning, wet or dry, the old man posted himself in the great +north window of the gallery to watch her coming. All day she would +pervade the gloomy old mansion like a ray of sunlight, now reading to +him, now leading him into the flower-garden in fine weather, till he +grew quite fond of flowers for her sake, and began even to learn the +names of some of them. But oftenest of all she would sit working by his +side, while he told her stories of times gone by, stories which would +have been dull to any but her, but which she could listen to and +applaud. Best of all she liked to hear him talk of James, and his +exploits by flood and field from his youth up; and so it was that this +quiet couple never tired one another, for their hearts were set upon +the same object. + +Sometimes her two sisters, noble and beautiful girls, would come to see +him; but they, indeed, were rather intruders, kind and good as they +were. And sometimes old Talbot looked round to see his old friend, and +talked of bygone fishing and hunting, which roused the old man up and +made him look glad for half a day after. Still, however, Agnes and the +old curate were company enough for him, for they were the only two who +loved his absent son as well as he. The love which had been divided +between the two, seemed now to be concentrated upon the one, and yet +this true old Briton never hinted at James' selling out and coming +home, for he said that the country had need of every one then, more +particularly such a one as James. + +Time went on, and he came back to them from Corunna, and spending +little more than a month at home, he started away once more; and next +they heard of him at Busaco, wounded and promoted. Then they followed +him in their hearts along the path of glory, from Talavera by Albuera +and Vittoria, across the Pyrenees. And while they were yet reading a +long-delayed letter, written from Toulouse at midnight--after having +been to the theatre with Lord Wellington, wearing a white cockade--he +broke in on them again, to tell them the war was well-nigh over, and +that he would soon come and live with them in peace. + +Then what delightful reunions were there in the old gallery window, +going over all the weary campaigns once more; pleasant rambles, too, +down by the river-side in the sweet May evenings, old Marmaduke and the +curate discreetly walking in front, and James and Agnes loitering far +behind. And in the succeeding winter after they were married, what +pleasant rides had they to meet the hounds, and merry evenings before +the bright wood-fire in the hall. Never were four people more happy +than they. The war was done, the disturber was confined, and peace had +settled down upon the earth. + +Peace, yes. But not for long. Spring came on, and with it strange +disquieting rumours, growing more certain day by day, till the terrible +news broke on them that the faithless tyrant had broke loose again, and +that all Europe was to be bathed in blood once more by his insane +ambition. + +James had sold out of the army, so that when Agnes first heard the +intelligence she thanked God that her husband at least would be safe at +home during the storm. But she was soon to be undeceived. When the news +first came, James had galloped off to Portsmouth, and late in the +evening they saw him come riding slowly and sadly up the avenue. She +was down at the gate before he could dismount, and to her eager +inquiries if the news were true, he replied, + +"All too true, my love; and I must leave you this day week." + +"My God!" said she; "leave me again, and not six months married? Surely +the king has had you long enough; may not your wife have you for a few +short months?" + +"Listen to me, dear wife," he replied. "All the Peninsular men are +volunteering, and I must not be among the last, for every man is wanted +now. Buonaparte is joined by the whole army, and the craven king has +fled. If England and Prussia can combine to strike a blow before he +gets head, thousands and hundreds of thousands of lives will be spared. +But let him once get firmly seated, and then, hey! for ten years' more +war. Beside the thing is done; my name went in this morning." + +She said, "God's will be done;" and he left his young bride and his old +father once again. The nightingale grew melodious in the midnight +woods, the swallows nestled again in the chimneys, and day by day the +shadows under the old avenue grew darker and darker till merry June was +half gone; and then one Saturday came the rumour of a great defeat. + +All the long weary summer Sabbath that followed, Agnes and Marmaduke +silently paced the terrace, till the curate--having got through his own +services somehow, and broken down in the "prayer during war and +tumults,"--came hurrying back to them to give what comfort he could. + +Alas! that was but little. He could only speculate whether or not the +duke would give up Brussels, and retire for reinforcements. If the two +armies could effect a union, they would be near about the strength of +the French, but then the Prussians were cut to pieces; so the curate +broke down, and became the worst of the three. + +Cheer up, good souls! for he you love shall not die yet for many long +years. While you are standing there before the porch, dreading the long +anxious night, Waterloo has been won, and he--having stood the +appointed time in the serried square, watching the angry waves of +French cavalry dash in vain against the glittering wall of bayonets--is +now leaning against a gun in the French position, alive and well, +though fearfully tired, listening to the thunder of the Prussian +artillery to the north, and watching the red sun go down across the +wild confusion of the battle-field. + +But home at Clere none slept that night, but met again next morning +weary and harassed. All the long three days none of them spoke much, +but wandered about the house uneasily. About ten o'clock on the +Wednesday night they went to bed, and the old man sleeps from sheer +weariness. + +It was twelve o'clock when there came a clang at the gate, and a sound +of horses' feet on the gravel. Agnes was at the window in a moment. + +"Who goes there?" she cried. + +"An orderly from Colonel Mountford at Portsmouth," said a voice below. +"A letter for Mr. Buckley." + +She sent a servant to undo the door; and going to the window again, she +inquired, trembling,-- + +"Do you know what the news is, orderly?" + +"A great victory, my dear," said the man, mistaking her for one of the +servants. "Your master is all right. There's a letter from him inside +this one." + +"And I daresay," Mrs. Buckley used to add, when she would tell this old +Waterloo story, as we called it, "that the orderly thought me a most +heartless domestic, for when I heard what he said, I burst out laughing +so loud, that old Mr. Buckley woke up to see what was the matter, and +when heard, he laughed as loud as I did." + +So he came back to them again with fresh laurels, but Agnes never felt +safe, till she heard that the powers had determined to chain up her +BETE NOIR, Buonaparte, on a lonely rock in the Atlantic, that he might +disturb the world no more. Then at last she began to believe that peace +might be a reality, and a few months after Waterloo, to their delight +and exultation, she bore a noble boy. + +And as we shall see more of this boy, probably, than of any one else in +these following pages, we will if you please appoint him hero, with all +the honours and emoluments thereunto pertaining. Perhaps when I have +finished, you will think him not so much of a hero after all. But at +all events you shall see how he is an honest upright gentleman, and in +these times, perhaps such a character is preferable to a hero. + +Old Marmaduke had been long failing, and two years after this he had +taken to his bed, never to leave it again alive. And one day when the +son and heir was rolling and crowing on his grandfather's bed, and +Agnes was sewing at the window, and James was tying a fly by the +bedside, under the old man's directions; he drew the child towards him, +and beckoning Agnes from the window spoke thus:-- + +"My children, I shan't be long with you, and I must be the last of the +Buckleys that die at Clere. Nay, I mean it, James; listen carefully to +me: when I go, the house and park must go with me. We are very poor as +you well know, and you will be doing injustice to this boy if you hang +on here in this useless tumble-down old palace, without money enough to +keep up your position in the county. You are still young, and it would +be hard for you to break up old associations. It got too hard for me +lately, though at one time I meant to do it. The land and the house are +the worst investment you can have for your money, and if you sell, a +man like you may make money in many ways. Gordon the brewer is dying to +have the place, and he has more right to it than we have, for he has +ten acres round to our one. Let him have the estate and found a new +family; the people will miss us at first, God bless 'em, but they'll +soon get used to Gordon, for he's a kindly man, and a just, and I am +glad that we shall have so good a successor. Remember your family and +your ancestors, and for that reason don't hang on here, as I said +before, in the false position of an old county family without money, +like the Singletons of Hurst, living in a ruined hall, with a miserable +overcropped farm, a corner of the old deer park, under their +drawing-room window. No, my boy, I would sooner see you take a farm +from my lord, than that. And now I am tired with talking, and so leave +me, but after I am gone, remember what I have said." + +A few days after this the old man passed peacefully from the world +without a sigh. + +They buried him in the family vault under the chancel windows. And he +was the last of the Buckleys that slept in the grave of his +forefathers. And the old arch beneath the east window is built up for +ever. + +Soon after he was gone, the Major, as I shall call him in future, sold +the house and park, and the few farms that were left, and found himself +with twelve thousand pounds, ready to begin the world again. He funded +his money and made up his mind to wait a few years and see what to do; +determining that if no other course should open, he would emigrate to +Canada--the paradise of half-pay officers. But in the meantime he moved +into Devonshire, and took a pretty little cottage which was to let, not +a quarter of a mile from Drumston Vicarage. + +Such an addition to John Thornton's little circle of acquaintances was +very welcome. The Major and he very soon became fast friends, and noble +Mrs. Buckley was seldom a day without spending an hour at least, with +the beautiful, wilful, Mary Thornton. + + + + + +Chapter IV + +SOME NEW FACES. + + +The twilight of a winter's evening, succeeding a short and stormy day, +was fast fading into night, and old John Thornton sat dozing in his +chair before the fire, waiting for candles to resume his reading. He +was now but little over sixty, yet his hair was snowy white, and his +face looked worn and aged. Anyone who watched his countenance now in +the light of the blazing wood, might see by the down-drawn brows and +uneasy expression that the old man was unhappy and disquieted. + +The book that lay in his lap was a volume of Shakespeare, open at the +"Merchant of Venice." Something he had come across in that play had set +him thinking. The book had fallen on his knees, and he sat pondering +till he had fallen asleep. Yet even in his slumber the uneasy +expression stayed upon his face, and now and then he moved uneasily in +his chair. + +What could there be to vex him? Not poverty at all events, for not a +year ago a relation, whom he had seldom seen, and of late years +entirely lost sight of, had left him 5000L. and a like sum to his +daughter Mary. And his sister, Miss Thornton, a quiet good old maid, +who had been a governess all her life, had come to live with him, so +that he was now comfortably off, with the only two relations he cared +about in the world staying with him to make his old age comfortable. +Yet notwithstanding all this, John was unhappy. + +His daughter Mary sat sewing in the window, ostensibly for the purpose +of using the last of the daylight. But the piece of white muslin in her +hand claimed but a small part of her attention. Sometimes she gave a +stitch or two; but then followed a long gaze out of the window, across +the damp gravel and plushy lawn, towards the white gate under the +leafless larches. Again with an impatient sigh she would address +herself to her sewing, but once more her attention would wander to the +darkening garden; so at length she rose, and leaning against the +window, began to watch the white gate once more. + +But now she starts, and her face brightens up, as the gate swings on +its hinges, and a tall man comes with rapid eager step up the walk. +John moves uneasily in his sleep, but unnoticed by her, for she stands +back in the shadow of the curtain, and eagerly watches the new comer in +his approach. Her father sits up in his chair, and after looking sadly +at her for a moment, then sinks back with a sigh, as though he would +wish to go to sleep again and wake no more. + +The maid, bringing in candles, met the new comer at the door, and, +carrying in the lights before him, announced-- + +"Mr. George Hawker." + +I remember his face indistinctly as it was then. I remember it far +better as it was twenty years after. Yet I must try to recall it for +you as well as I can, for we shall have much to do with this man before +the end. As the light from the candles fell upon his figure while he +stood in the doorway, any man or woman who saw it would have exclaimed +immediately, "What a handsome fellow!" and with justice; for if +perfectly regular features, splendid red and brown complexion, +faultless white teeth, and the finest head of curling black hair I ever +saw, could make him handsome, handsome he was without doubt. And yet +the more you looked at him the less you liked him, and the more +inclined you felt to pick a quarrel with him. The thin lips, the +everlasting smile, the quick suspicious glance, so rapidly shot out +from under the overhanging eyebrows, and as quickly withdrawn, were +fearfully repulsive, as well as a trick he had of always clearing his +throat before he spoke, as if to gain time to frame a lie. But, +perhaps, the strangest thing about him was the shape of his head, +which, I believe, a child would have observed. We young fellows in +those times knew little enough about phrenology. I doubt, indeed, if I +had ever heard the word, and yet among the village lads that man went +by the name of "flat-headed George." The forehead was both low and +narrow, sloping a great way back, while the larger part of the skull +lay low down behind the ears. All this was made the more visible by the +short curling hair which covered his head. + +He was the only son of a small farmer, in one of the distant outlying +hamlets of Drumston, called Woodlands. His mother had died when he was +very young, and he had had but little education, but had lived shut up +with his father in the lonely old farm-house. And strange stories were +in circulation among the villages about that house, not much to the +credit of either father or son, which stories John Thornton must in his +position as clergyman have heard somewhat of, so that one need hardly +wonder at his uneasiness when he saw him enter. + +For Mary adored him; the rest of the village disliked and distrusted +him; but she, with a strange perversity, loved him as it seldom falls +to the lot of man to be loved--with her whole heart and soul. + +"I have brought you some snipes, Mr. Thornton," said he, in his most +musical tones. "The white frost last night has sent them down off the +moor as thick as bees, and this warm rain will soon send them all back +again. I only went round through Fernworthy and Combe, and I have +killed five couple." + +"Thank you, Mr. George, thank you," said John, "they are not so +plentiful as they were in old times, and I don't shoot so well either +as I used to do. My sight's going, and I can't walk far. It is nearly +time for me to go, I think." + +"Not yet, sir, I hope; not yet for a long time," said George Hawker, in +an offhand sort of way. But Mary slipped round, kissed his forehead, +and took his hand quietly in hers. + +John looked from her to George, and dropped her hand with a sigh, and +soon the lovers were whispering together again in the darkness of the +window. + +But now there is a fresh footfall on the garden walk, a quick, rapid, +decided one. Somebody burst open the hall-door, and, without shutting +it, dashes into the parlour, accompanied by a tornado of damp air, and +announces in a loud though not unpleasant voice, with a foreign accent-- + +"I have got the new Scolopax." + +He was a broad, massive built man, about the middle height, with a +square determined set of features, brightened up by a pair of merry +blue eyes. His forehead was, I think, the finest I ever saw; so high, +so broad, and so upright; and, altogether, he was the sort of man that +in a city one would turn round and look after, wondering who he was. + +He stood in the doorway, dripping, and without "Good-even," or +salutation of any sort, exclaimed-- + +"I have got the new Scolopax!" + +"No!" cried old John, starting up all alive, "Have you though? How did +you get him? Are you sure it is not a young Jack? Come in and tell us +all about it. Only think." + +"The obstinacy and incredulity of you English," replied the new comer, +totally disregarding John's exclamations, and remaining dripping in the +doorway, "far exceeds anything I could have conceived, if I had not +witnessed it. If I told you once, I told you twenty times, that I had +seen the bird on three distinct occasions in the meadow below Reel's +mill; and you each time threw your jacksnipe theory in my face. To-day +I marked him down in the bare ground outside Haveldon wood, then ran at +full speed up to the jager, and offered him five shillings if he would +come down and shoot the bird I showed him. He came, killed the bird in +a style that I would give a year's tobacco to be master of, and +remarked as I paid him his money, that he would like to get five +shillings for every one of those birds he could shoot in summer time. +The jolter-head thought it was a sandpiper, but he wasn't much further +out than you with your jacksnipes. Bah!" + +"My dear Doctor Mulhaus," said John mildly, "I confess myself to have +been foolishly incredulous, as to our little place being honoured by +such a distinguished stranger as the new snipe. But come in to the +fire, and smoke your pipe, while you show me your treasure. Mary, you +know, likes tobacco, and Mr. George, I am sure," he added, in a +slightly altered tone, "will excuse it." + +Mr. George would be charmed. But the Doctor, standing staring at him +open-eyed for a moment, demanded in an audible whisper-- + +"Who the deuce is that?" + +"Mr. George Hawker, Doctor, from the Woodlands. I should have thought +you had met him before." + +"Never," replied the Doctor. "And I don't--and I mean I have had the +honour of hearing of him from Stockbridge. Excuse me, sir, a moment. I +am going to take a liberty. I am a phrenologist." He advanced across +the room to where George sat, laid his hand on his forehead, and +drawing it lightly and slowly back through his black curls, till he +reached the nape of his neck, ejaculated a "Hah!" which might mean +anything, and retired to the fire. + +He then began filling his pipe, but before it was filled set it +suddenly on the table, and drawing from his coat pocket a cardboard +box, exhibited to the delighted eyes of the vicar that beautiful little +brown-mottled snipe, which now bears the name of Colonel Sabine, and +having lit his pipe, set to work with a tiny penknife and a pot of +arsenical soap, all of which were disinterred from the vast coat-pocket +before mentioned, to reduce the plump little bird to a loose mass of +skin and feathers, fit to begin again his new life in death in a +glass-case in some collector's museum. + +George Hawker had sat very uneasy since the Doctor's phrenological +examination, and every now and then cast fierce angry glances at him +from under his lowered eyebrows, talking but little to Mary. But now he +grows more uneasy still, for the gate goes again, and still another +footfall is heard approaching through the darkness. + +"That is James Stockbridge. I should know that step among a thousand. +Whether brushing through the long grass of an English meadow in May +time, or quietly pacing up and down the orange alley in the New World, +between the crimson snow and the blazing west; or treading lightly +across the wet ground at black midnight, when the cattle are restless, +or the blacks are abroad; or even, I should think, staggering on the +slippery deck, when the big grey seas are booming past, and the good +ship seems plunging down to destruction." + +He had loved Mary dearly since she was almost a child; but she, poor +pretty fool, used to turn him to ridicule, and make him fetch and carry +for her like a dog. He was handsomer, cleverer, stronger, and better +tempered than George Hawker, and yet she had no eyes for him, or his +good qualities. She liked him in a sort of way; nay, it might even be +said that she was fond of him. But what she liked better than him was +to gratify her vanity, by showing her power over the finest young +fellow in the village, and to use him as a foil to aggravate George +Hawker. My aunt Betsy (spinster), used to say, that if she were a man, +sooner than stand that hussy's airs (meaning Mary's), in the way young +Stockbridge did, she'd cut, and run to America, which, in the old +lady's estimation, was the last resource left to an unfortunate human +creature, before suicide. + +As he entered the parlour, John's face grew bright, and he held out his +hand to him. The Doctor, too, shoving his spectacles on his forehead, +greeted him with a royal salute, of about twenty-one short words; but +he got rather a cool reception from the lovers in the window. Mary gave +him a quiet good evening, and George hoped with a sneer that he was +quite well, but directly the pair were whispering together once more in +the shadow of the curtain. + +So he sat down between the Doctor and the Vicar. James, like all the +rest of us, had a profound respect for the Doctor's learning, and old +John and he were as father and son; so a better matched trio could +hardly be found in the parish, as they sat there before the cheerful +blaze, smoking their pipes. + +"A good rain, Jim; a good, warm, kindly rain after the frost," began +the Vicar. + +"A very good rain, sir," replied Jim. + +"Some idiots," said the Doctor, "take the wing bones out first. Now, my +method of beginning at the legs and working forward, is infinitely +superior. Yet that ass at Crediton, after I had condescended to show +him, persisted his own way was the best." All this time he was busy +skinning his bird. + +"How are your Southdowns looking, Jim?" says the Vicar. "Foot-rot, eh?" + +"Well, yes, sir," says James, "they always will, you know, in these wet +clays. But I prefer 'em to the Leicesters, for all that." + +"How is scapegrace Hamlyn?" asked the Vicar. + +"He is very well, sir. He and I have been out with the harriers to-day." + +"Ah! taking you out with the harriers instead of minding his business; +just like him. He'll be leading you astray, James, my boy. Young men +like you and he, who have come to be their own masters so young, ought +to be more careful than others. Besides, you see, both you and Hamlyn +being 'squires, have got an example to set to the poorer folks." + +"We are neither of us so rich as some of the farmers, sir." + +"No; but you are both gentlemen born, you see, and, therefore, ought to +be in some way models for those who are not." + +"Bosh," said the Doctor. "All this about Hamlyn's going out +hare-hunting." + +"I don't mind it once a-week," said the Vicar, ignoring the Doctor's +interruption; "but FOUR TIMES is rather too much. And Hamlyn has been +out four days this week. Twice with Wrefords, and twice with Holes. He +can't deny it." + +Jim couldn't, so he laughed. "You must catch him, sir," he said, "and +give him a real good wigging. He'll mind you. But catch him soon, sir, +or you won't get the chance. Doctor, do you know anything about New +South Wales?" + +"Botany Bay," said the Vicar abstractedly, "convict settlement in South +Seas. Jerry Shaw begged the judge to hang him instead of sending him +there. Judge wouldn't do it though; Jerry was too bad for that." + +"Hamlyn and I are thinking of selling up and going there," said Jim. +"Do you know anything about it, Doctor?" + +"What!" said the Doctor; "the mysterious hidden land of the great South +Sea. Tasman's land, Nuyt's land, Leuwin's land, De Witt's land, any +fool's land who could sail round it, and never have the sense to land +and make use of it--the new country of Australasia. The land with +millions of acres of fertile soil, under a splendid climate, calling +aloud for some one to come and cultivate them. The land of the +Eucalypti and the Marsupials, the land of deep forests and boundless +pastures, which go rolling away westward, plain beyond plain, to none +knows where. Yes; I know something about it." + +The Vicar was "knocked all of a heap" at James' announcement, and now, +slightly recovering himself, said-- + +"You hear him. He is going to Botany Bay. He is going to sell his +estate, 250 acres of the best land in Devon, and go and live among the +convicts. And who is going with him? Why, Hamlyn, the wise. Oh dear me. +And what is he going for?" + +That was a question apparently hard to answer. If there was a reason, +Jim was either unwilling or unable to give it. Yet I think that the +real cause was standing there in the window, with a look of unbounded +astonishment on her pretty face. + +"Going to leave us, James!" she cried, coming quickly towards him. +"Why, whatever shall I do without you?" + +"Yes, Miss Mary," said James somewhat huskily; "I think I may say that +we have settled to go. Hamlyn has got a letter from a cousin of his who +went from down Plymouth way, and who is making a fortune; and besides, +I have got tired of the old place somehow, lately. I have nothing to +keep me here now, and there will be a change, and a new life there. In +short," said he, in despair of giving a rational reason, "I have made +up my mind." + +"Oh!" said Mary, while her eyes filled with tears, "I shall be so sorry +to lose you." + +"I too," said James, "shall be sorry to start away beyond seas and +leave all the friends I care about save one behind me. But times are +hard for the poor folks here now, and if I, as 'squire, set the example +of going, I know many will follow. The old country, Mr. Thornton," he +continued, "is getting too crowded for men to live in without a hard +push, and depend on it, when poor men are afraid to marry for fear of +having children which they can't support, it is time to move somewhere. +The hive is too hot, and the bees must swarm, so those that go will +both better themselves, and better those they leave behind them, by +giving them more room to work and succeed. It's hard to part with the +old farm and the old faces now, but perhaps in a few years, one will +get to like that country just as one does this, from being used to it, +and then the old country will seem only like a pleasant dream after one +has awoke." + +"Think twice about it, James, my boy," said the Vicar. + +"Don't be such an ass as to hesitate," said the Doctor impatiently. "It +is the genius of your restless discontented nation to go blundering +about the world like buffaloes in search of fresh pasture. You have +founded already two or three grand new empires, and you are now going +to form another; and men like you ought to have their fingers in the +pie." + +"Well, God speed you, and Hamlyn too, wherever you go. Are you going +home, Mr. Hawker?" + +George, who hated James from the very bottom of his heart, was not +ill-pleased to hear there would be a chance of soon getting rid of him. +He had been always half jealous of him, though without the slightest +cause, and to-night he was more so than ever, for Mary, since she had +heard of James' intended departure, had grown very grave and silent. He +stood, hat in hand, ready to depart, and as usual, when he meant +mischief, spoke in his sweetest tones. + +"I am afraid I must be saying good evening, Mr. Thornton. Why, James," +he added, "this is something quite new. So you are going to Botany +without waiting to be sent there. Ha! ha! Well, I wish you every sort +of good luck. My dear friend, Hamlyn, too. What a loss he'll be to our +little society, so sociable and affable as he always is to us poor +farmers' sons. You'll find it lonely there though. You should get a +wife to take with you. Oh, yes, I should certainly get married before I +went. Good night." + +All this was meant to be as irritating as possible; but as he went out +at the door he had the satisfaction to hear James' clear honest laugh +mingling with the Vicar's, for, as George had closed the door, the +Doctor had said, looking after him-- + +"Gott in Himmel, that young man has got a skull like a tom-cat." + +This complimentary observation was lost on Mary, who had left the room +with George. The Vicar looked round for her, and sighed when he missed +her. + +"Ah!" said he; "I wish he was going instead of you." + +"So does the new colony, I'll be bound," added the Doctor. + +Soon after this the party separated. When James and the Doctor stood +outside the door, the latter demanded, "Where are you going?" + +"To Sydney, I believe, Doctor." + +"Goose. I mean now." + +"Home." + +"No, you ain't," said the Doctor; "you are going to walk up to Hamlyn's +with me, and hear me discourse." Accordingly, about eleven o'clock, +these two arrived at my house, and sat before the fire till half-past +three in the morning; and in that time the Doctor had given us more +information about New South Wales than we had been able to gather from +ordinary sources in a month. + + + + +Chapter V + +IN WHICH THE READER IS MADE ACCOMPLICE TO A MISPRISION OF FELONY. + + +Those who only know the river Taw as he goes sweeping, clear and full, +past orchards and farmhouses, by woods and parks, and through long +green meadows, after he has left Dartmoor, have little idea of the +magnificent scene which rewards the perseverance of anyone who has the +curiosity to follow him up to his granite cradle between the two +loftiest eminences in the West of England. + +On the left, Great Cawsand heaves up, down beyond down, a vast sheet of +purple heath and golden whin, while on the right the lofty serrated +ridge of Yestor starts boldly up, black against the western sky, +throwing a long shadow over the wild waste of barren stone at his feet. + +Some Scotchmen, perhaps, may smile at my applying the word +"magnificent" to heights of only 2,100 feet. Yet I have been among +mountains which double Ben Nevis in height, and, with the exception of +the Murray Gates in Australia, and a glen in Madeira, whose name I have +forgotten, I have never seen among them the equal of some of the +northern passes of Dartmoor for gloomy magnificence. For I consider +that scenery depends not so much on height as on abruptness. + +It is an evil, depressing place. Far as the eye can reach up the glen +and to the right it is one horrid waste of grey granite; here and there +a streak of yellow grass or a patch of black bog; not a tree nor a +shrub within the sky-line. On a hot summer's day it is wearisome enough +for the lonely angler to listen to the river crawling lazily through +the rocks that choke his bed, mingled with the clocking of some +water-moved boulder, and the chick-chick of the stonechat, or the +scream of the golden plover overhead. But on a wild winter's evening, +when day is fast giving place to night, and the mist shrouds the hill, +and the wild wind is rushing hoarse through tor and crag, it becomes +awful and terrible in the extreme. + +On just such a night as that, at that time when it becomes evident that +the little light we have had all day is about to leave us, a lonely +watcher was standing by the angry swelling river in the most desolate +part of the pass, at a place where a vast confusion of formless rocks +crosses the stream, torturing it into a hundred boiling pools and +hissing cascades. + +He stood on the summit of a cairn close to the river, and every now and +then, shading his eyes with his hand, he looked eastward through the +driving rain, as though expecting some one who came not. But at length, +grown tired of watching, he with an oath descended to a sheltered +corner among the boulders, where a smouldering peat-fire was giving out +more smoke than heat, and, crouching over it, began to fan the embers +with his hat. + +He was a somewhat short, though powerful man, in age about forty, very +dark in complexion, with black whiskers growing half over his chin. His +nose was hooked, his eyes were black and piercing, and his lips thin. +His face was battered like an old sailor's, and every careless, +unstudied motion of his body was as wild and reckless as could be. +There was something about his TOUTE ENSEMBLE, in short, that would have +made an Australian policeman swear to him as a convict without the +least hesitation. + +There were redeeming points in the man's face, too. There was plenty of +determination, for instance, in that lower jaw, and as he bent now over +the fire, and his thoughts wandered away to other times and places, the +whole appearance of the man seemed to change and become milder and +kindlier; yet when some slight noise makes him lift his head and look +round, there is the old expression back again, and he looks as reckless +and desperate as ever; what he is is more apparent, and the ghost of +what he might have been has not wholly departed. + +I can picture to myself that man scowling behind the bayonet line at +Maida, or rapidly and coolly serving his gun at Trafalgar, helping to +win the dominion of all seas, or taking his trick at the helm through +arctic iceblocks with Parry, or toiling on with steadfast Sturt, +knee-deep in the sand of the middle desert, patiently yet hopelessly +scanning the low quivering line of the north-west horizon. + +In fifty situations where energy and courage are required, I can +conceive that man a useful citizen. Yet here he is on the lone moor, on +the winter's night, a reckless, cursing, thrice convicted man. His very +virtues,--his impatient energy and undeniable courage,--his greatest +stumbling-blocks, leading him into crimes which a lazy man or a coward +would have shrunk from. Deserted apparently by God and man, he crouched +there over the low fire, among his native rocks, and meditated fresh +villanies. + +He had been transported at eighteen for something, I know not what, +which earned transportation in those days, and since then his naturally +violent temper, aggravated instead of being broken by penal discipline, +had earned him three fresh convictions in the colony. From the last of +these sentences he had escaped, with a cunning and address which had +baffled the vigilance of the Sydney police, good as they were, and had +arrived home, two years before this time, after twentyone years' +absence, at his native village in the moor. + +None there knew him, or even guessed who he was. His brother, a small +farmer, who would have taken him to his heart had he recognised him, +always regarded him as a suspicious stranger; and what cut him deeper +still, his mother, his old, half-blind, palsied mother, whose memory he +had in some sort cherished through the horrors of the hulk, the +convict-ship, the chaingang, and the bush, knew him not. Only once, +when he was speaking in her presence, she said abruptly,-- + +"The voice of him is like the voice of my boy that was took away. But +he was smooth-faced, like a girl, and ye're a dark, wrinkled man. +'Sides, he died years agone, over the water." + +But the old lady grew thoughtful and silent from that day, and three +weeks after she was carried up to her grave,-- + + +"By the little grey church on the windy hill." + + +At the funeral, William Lee, the man whom I have been describing, +pushed quietly through the little crowd, and as they threw the first +earth on the coffin, stood looking over the shoulder of his brother, +who was unconscious of his existence. + +Like many men who have been much in great solitudes, and have gone days +and weeks sometimes without meeting a fellow-creature, he had acquired +the habit of thinking aloud, and if anyone had been listening they +would have heard much such a soliloquy as the following, expletives +omitted, or rather softened:-- + +"A brutal cold country this, for a man to camp out in. Never a buck-log +to his fire, no, nor a stick thicker than your finger for seven mile +round; and if there was, you'd get a month for cutting it. If the +young'un milks free this time, I'll be off to the bay again, I know. +But will he? By George, he shall though. The young snob, I know he +daren't but come, and yet it's my belief he's late just to keep me +soaking out in the rain. Whew! it's cold enough to freeze the tail off a +tin possum; and this infernal rubbish won't burn, at least not to warm +a man. If it wasn't for the whisky I should be dead. There's a rush of +wind; I am glad for one thing there is no dead timber overhead. He'll +be drinking at all the places coming along to get his courage up to +bounce me, but there ain't a public-house on the road six miles from +this, so the drink will have pretty much died out of him by the time he +gets to me, and if I can get him to sit in this rain, and smoke 'backer +for five minutes, he won't be particular owdacious. I'll hide the grog, +too, between the stones. He'll be asking for a drink the minute he +comes. I hope Dick is ready; he is pretty sure to be. He's a good +little chap, that Dick; he has stuck to me well these five years. I +wouldn't like to trust him with another man's horse, though. But this +other one is no good; he's got all the inclination to go the whole hog, +and none of the pluck necessary. If he ever is lagged, he will be a +worse one than ever I was, or Dick either. There he is, for a hundred +pounds." + +A faint "halloo!" sounded above the war of the weather; and Lee, +putting his hand to his mouth, replied with that strange cry, so well +known to all Australians--"Coee." + +A man was now heard approaching through the darkness, now splashing +deep into some treacherous moss hole with a loud curse, now blundering +among loose-lying blocks of stone. Lee waited till he was quite close, +and then seizing a bunch of gorse lighted it at his fire and held it +aloft; the bright blaze fell full upon the face and features of George +Hawker. + +"A cursed place and a cursed time," he began, "for an appointment. If +you had wanted to murder me, I could have understood it. But I am +pretty safe, I think; your interests don't lie that way." + +"Well, well, you see," returned Lee, "I don't want any meetings on the +cross up at my place in the village. The whole house ain't mine, and we +don't know who may be listening. I am suspected enough already, and it +wouldn't look well for you to be seen at my place. Folks would have +begun axing what for." + +"Don't see it," said George. "Besides, if you did not want to see me at +home, why the devil do you bring me out here in the middle of the moor? +We might have met on the hill underneath the village, and when we had +done business gone up to the publichouse. D----d if I understand it." + +He acquiesced sulkily to the arrangement, however, because he saw it +was no use talking about it, but he was far from comfortable. He would +have been still less so had he known that Lee's shout had brought up a +confederate, who was now peering over the rocks, almost touching his +shoulder. + +"Well," said Lee, "here we are, so we had better be as comfortable as +we can this devil's night." + +"Got anything to drink?" + +"Deuce a swipe of grog have I. But I have got some real Barret's twist, +that never paid duty as I know'd on, so just smoke a pipe before we +begin talking, and show you aint vexed." + +"I'd sooner have had a drop of grog, such a night as this." + +"We must do as the Spaniards do, when they can't get anything," said +Lee; "go without." + +They both lit their pipes, and smoked in silence for a few minutes, +till Lee resumed:-- + +"If the witches weren't all dead, there would be some of them abroad +to-night; hear that?" + +"Only a whimbrel, isn't it?" said George. + +"That's something worse than a whimbrel, I'm thinking," said the other. +"There's some folks don't believe in witches and the like," he +continued; "but a man that's seen a naked old hag of a gin ride away on +a myall-bough, knows better." + +"Lord!" said George. "I shouldn't have thought you'd have believed in +the like of that--but I do--that old devil's dam, dame Parker, that +lives alone up in Hatherleigh Wood, got gibbering some infernal +nonsense at me the other day, for shooting her black cat. I made the +cross in the road though, so I suppose it won't come to anything." + +"Perhaps not," said Lee; "but I'd sooner kill a man than a black cat." + +Another pause. The tobacco, so much stronger than any George had been +accustomed to, combined with the cold, made him feel nervous and +miserable. + +"When I was a boy," resumed Lee, "there were two young brothers made it +up to rob the 'squire's house, down at Gidleigh. They separated in the +garden after they cracked the crib, agreeing to meet here in this very +place, and share the swag, for they had got nigh seventy pound. They +met and quarrelled over the sharing up; and the elder one drew out a +pistol, and shot the younger dead. The poor boy was sitting much where +you are sitting now, and that long tuft of grass grew up from his +blood." + +"I believe that's all a lie," said George; "you want to drive me into +the horrors with your humbugging tales." + +Lee, seeing that he had gone far enough, if not too far, proposed, +somewhat sulkily, that they should begin to talk about what brought +them there, and not sit crouching in the wet all night. + +"Well," said George, "it's you to begin. What made you send for me to +this infernal place?" + +"I want money," said Lee. + +"Then you'd better axe about and get some," said George; "you'll get +none from me. I am surprised that a man with your knowledge of the +world should have sent me such a letter as you did yesterday, I am +indeed--What the devil's that?" + +He started on his feet. A blaze of sudden light filled the nook where +they were sitting, and made it as bright as day, and a voice shouted +out, + +"Ha, ha, ha! my secret coves, what's going on here? something quiet and +sly, eh? something worth a fifty-pound note, eh? Don't you want an +arbitrator, eh? Here's one, ready made." + +"You're playing a dangerous game, my flash man, whoever you are," said +Lee, rising savagely. "I've shot a man down for less than that. So +you've been stagging this gentleman and me, and listening, have you? +For just half a halfpenny," he added, striding towards him, and drawing +out a pistol, "you shouldn't go home this night." + +"Don't you be a fool, Bill Lee;" said the new comer. "I saw the light +and made towards it, and as I come up I heard some mention made of +money. Now then, if my company is disagreeable, why I'll go, and no harm +done." + +"What! it's you, is it?" said Lee; "well, now you've come, you may stop +and hear what it's all about. I don't care, you are not very squeamish, +or at least, usedn't to be." + +George saw that the arrival of this man was preconcerted, and cursed +Lee bitterly in his heart, but he sat still, and thought how he could +out-manoeuvre them. + +"Now," said Lee, "I ain't altogether sorry that you have come, for I +want to tell you a bit of a yarn, and ask your advice about my +behaviour. This is about the state of the case. A young gentleman, a +great friend of mine, was not very many years ago, pretty much given up +to fast living, cock-fighting, horse-racing, and many other little +matters which all young fellows worth anything are pretty sure to +indulge in, and which are very agreeable for the time, but which cost +money, and are apt to bring a man into low society. When I tell you +that he and I first met in Exeter, as principals in crossing a fight, +you may be sure that these pursuits HAD brought the young gentleman +into VERY low company indeed. In fact, he was over head and ears in +debt, raising money in every way he could, hook or crook, square or +cross, to satisfy certain creditors, who were becoming nasty impatient +and vexatious. I thought something might be made of this young +gentleman, so finding there was no pride about him, I cultivated his +acquaintance, examined his affairs, and put him up to the neatest +little fakement in the world, just showed him how to raise two hundred +pounds, and clear himself with everybody, just by signing his father's +name, thereby saving the old gent the trouble of writing it (he is very +infirm, is dad), and anticipating by a few years what must be his own +at last. Not to mention paying off a lot of poor publicans and +horse-dealers, who could not afford to wait for their money. Blowed if +I don't think it the most honest action he ever did in his life. Well, +he committed the--wrote the name I mean,--and stood two ten-pound notes +for the information, quite handsome. But now this same young gent is +going to marry a young lady with five thousand pounds in her own right, +and she nearly of age. Her father, I understand, is worth another five +thousand, and very old; so that what he'll get ultimately if he marries +into that family, counting his own expectations, won't be much less I +should say than twenty thousand pounds. Now I mean to say, under these +circumstances, I should be neglecting my own interests most culpably, +if I didn't demand from him the trifling sum of three hundred pounds +for holding my tongue." + +"Why, curse you," broke in Hawker, "you said two hundred yesterday." + +"Exactly so," said Lee, "but that WAS yesterday. To-morrow, if the job +ain't settled, it'll be four, and the day after five. It's no use, +George Hawker," he continued; "you are treed, and you can't help +yourself. If I give information you swing, and you know it; but I'd +rather have the money than see the man hanged. But mind," said he, with +a snarl, "if I catch you playing false, by the Lord, I'll hang you for +love." + +For an instant the wretched George cast a hurried glance around, as if +considering what wild chance there was of mastering his two enemies, +but that glance showed him that it was hopeless, for they both stood +close together, each holding in his hand a cocked pistol, so in despair +he dropped his eyes on the fire once more, while Lee chuckled inwardly +at his wise foresight in bringing an accomplice. + +"By Jove," he said to himself, "it's lucky Dick's here. If I had been +alone, he'd have been at me then like a tiger. It would have been only +man to man, but he would have been as good as me; he'd have fought like +a rat in a corner." + +George sat looking into the embers for a full half minute, while the +others waited for his answer, determined that he should speak first. At +length he raised his head, and said hoarsely, looking at neither of +them,-- + +"And where am I to get three hundred pounds?" + +"A simple question very easily answered," said Lee. "Do what you did +before, with half the difficulty. You manage nearly everything now your +father is getting blind, so you need hardly take the trouble of +altering the figures in the banker's book, and some slight hint about +taking a new farm would naturally account for the old man's drawing out +four or five hundred. The thing's easier than ever." + +"Take my advice, young man," said Dick, "and take the shortest cut out +of the wood. You see my friend here, William, has got tired of these +parts, as being, you see, hardly free and easy enough for him, and he +wants to get back to a part of the world he was rather anxious to leave +a few years ago. If he likes to take me back with him, why he can. I +rather fancy the notion myself. Give him the money, and in three months +we'll both be fourteen thousand odd miles off. Meanwhile, you marry the +young lady, and die in your bed, an honest gentleman, at eighty-four, +instead of being walked out some cold morning to a gallows at +twenty-two." + +"Needs must where the devil drives," replied George. "You shall have +the money this day week. And now let me go, for I am nearly froze dead." + +"That's the talk," said Lee; "I knew you would be reasonable. If it +hadn't been for my necessities, I am sure I never would have bothered +you. Well, good night." + +George rose and departed eastward, towards the rising moon, while Lee +and his companion struck due west across the moor. The rain had ceased, +and the sky was clear, so that there was not much difficulty in picking +their way through the stones and moss-hags. Suddenly Lee stopped, and +said to his comrade, with an oath,-- + +"Dick, my boy, I didn't half like the way that dog left us." + +"Nor I either," replied the other. "He has got some new move in his +head, you may depend on it. He'll give you the slip if he can." + +"Let him try it," said Lee; "oh, only just let him try it." + +And then the pair of worthies walked home. + + + + +Chapter VI + +GEORGE HAWKER GOES TO THE FAIR--WRESTLES, BUT GETS THROWN ON HIS BACK, +SHOOTS AT A MARK, BUT MISSES IT. + + +Lee had guessed rightly. When George found himself so thoroughly +entrapped, and heard all his most secret relations with Lee so openly +discussed before a third man, he was in utter despair, and saw no hope +of extrication from his difficulties. But this lasted for a very short +time. Even while Lee and Dick were still speaking, he was reflecting +how to turn the tables on them, and already began to see a sparkle of +hope glimmering afar. + +Lee was a returned convict, George had very little doubt of that. A +thousand queer expressions he had let fall in conversation had shown +him that it was so. And now, if he could but prove it, and get Lee sent +back out of the way. And yet that would hardly do after all. It would +be difficult to identify him. His name gave no clue to who he was. +There were a thousand or two of Lees hereabouts, and a hundred William +Lees at least. Still it was evident that he was originally from this +part of the country; it was odd no one had recognised him. + +So George gave up this plan as hopeless. "Still," said he, "there is a +week left; surely I can contrive to bowl him out somehow." And then he +walked on in deep thought. + +He was crossing the highest watershed in the county by an open, +low-sided valley on the southern shoulder of Cawsand. To the left lay +the mountain, and to the right tors of weathered granite, dim in the +changing moonlight. Before him was a small moor-pool, in summer a mere +reedy marsh, but now a bleak tarn, standing among dangerous mosses, +sending ghostly echoes across the solitude, as the water washed wearily +against the black peat shores, or rustled among the sere skeleton reeds +in the shallow bays. + +Suddenly he stopped with a jar in his brain and a chill at his heart. +His breath came short, and raising one hand, he stood beating the +ground for half a minute with his foot. He gave a stealthy glance +around, and then murmured hoarsely to himself,-- + +"Aye, that would do; that would do well. And I could do it, too, when I +was half-drunk." + +Was that the devil, chuckling joyous to himself across the bog? No, +only an innocent little snipe, getting merry over the change of +weather, bleating to his companions as though breeding time were come +round again. + +Crowd close, little snipes, among the cup-moss and wolf's-foot, for he +who stalks past you over the midnight moor, meditates a foul and +treacherous murder in his heart. + +Yes, it had come to that, and so quickly. He would get this man Lee, +who held his life in his hand, and was driving him on from crime to +crime, to meet him alone on the moor if he could, and shoot him. What +surety had he that Lee would leave him in peace after this next +extortion? none but his word,--the word of a villain like that. He knew +what his own word was worth; what wonder if he set a small value on +Lee's? He might be hung as it was; he would be hung for something. Taw +Steps was a wild place, and none were likely to miss either Lee or his +friend. It would be supposed they had tramped off as they came. There +could be no proof against him, none whatever. No one had ever seen them +together. They must both go. Well, two men were no worse than one. +Hatherleigh had killed four men with his own hand at Waterloo, and they +gave him a medal for it. They were likely honest fellows enough, not +such scoundrels as these two. + +So arguing confusedly with himself, only one thing certain in his mind, +that he was committed to the perpetration of this crime, and that the +time for drawing back was passed long ago, he walked rapidly onwards +towards the little village where he had left his horse in an outhouse, +fearing to trust him among the dangerous bogs which he had himself to +cross to gain the rendezvous at Taw Steps. + +He rapidly cleared the moor, and soon gained the little grey street, +lying calm and peaceful beneath the bright winter moon, which was only +now and then obscured for a moment by the last flying clouds of the +late storm hurrying after their fellows. The rill which ran brawling +loud through the village, swollen by the late rains, at length forced +on his perception that he was fearfully thirsty, and that his throat +was parched and dry. + +"This is the way men feel in hell, I think," said he. "Lord! let me get +a drink while I can. The rich man old Jack reads about couldn't get one +for all his money." + +He walked up to a stone horse-trough, a little off the road. He stooped +to drink, and started back with an oath. What pale, wild, ghastly face +was that, looking at him out of the cool calm water? Not his own, +surely? He closed his eyes, and, having drunk deep, walked on +refreshed. He reached the outhouse where his horse was tied, and, as he +was leading the impatient animal forth, one of the children within the +cottage adjoining woke up and began to cry. He waited still a moment, +and heard the mother arise and soothe it; then a window overhead +opened, and a woman said-- + +"Is that you, Mr. Hawker?" + +"Aye," said he, "it's me. Come for the horse." + +He was startled at the sound of his own voice. It was like another +man's. But like the voice of some one he seemed to know, too. A new +acquaintance. + +"It will be morn soon," resumed the woman. "The child is much worse +to-night, and I think he'll go before daybreak. Well, well--much sorrow +saved, maybe. I'll go to bed no more to-night, lest my boy should be +off while I'm sleeping. Good night, sir. God bless you. May you never +know the sorrow of losing a first-born." + +Years after he remembered those random words. But now he only thought +that if the brat should die, there would be only one pauper less in +Bickerton. And so thinking, mounted and rode on his way. + +He rode fast, and was soon at home. He had put his horse in the stable, +and, shoeless, was creeping up to bed, when, as he passed his father's +door, it opened, and the old man came out, light in hand. + +He was a very infirm old man, much bent, though evidently at one time +he had been of great stature. His retreating forehead, heavy grey +eyebrows, and loose sensual mouth, rendered him no pleasing object at +any time, and, as he stood in the doorway now, with a half drunken +satyr-like leer on his face, he looked perfectly hideous. + +"Where's my pretty boy been?" he piped out. "How pale he looks. Are you +drunk, my lad?" + +"No! wish I was," replied George. "Give me the keys, dad, and let me +get a drink of brandy. I've been vexed, and had nought to drink all +night. I shall be getting the horrors if I don't have something before +I go to bed." + +The old man got him half a tumbler of brandy from his room, where there +was always some to be had, and following him into his room, sat down on +the bed. + +"Who's been vexing my handsome son?" said he; "my son that I've been +waiting up for all night. Death and gallows to them, whoever they are. +Is it that pale-faced little parson's daughter? Or is it her +tight-laced hypocrite of a father, that comes whining here with his +good advice to me who know the world so well? Never mind, my boy. Keep +a smooth face, and play the humbug till you've got her, and her money, +and then break her impudent little heart if you will. Go to sleep, my +boy, and dream you are avenged on them all." + +"I mean to be, father, on some of them, I tell you," replied George. + +"That's right, my man. Good night." + +"Good night, old dad," said George. As he watched him out of the room, +a kinder, softer, expression came on his face. His father was the only +being he cared for in the world. + +He slept a heavy and dreamless sleep that night, and when he woke for +the first time, the bright winter's sun was shining into his room, and +morning was far advanced. + +He arose, strengthened and refreshed by his sleep, with a light heart. +He began whistling as he dressed himself, but suddenly stopped, as the +recollection of the night before came upon him. Was it a reality, or +only a dream? No; it was true enough. He has no need to whistle this +morning. He is entangled in a web of crime and guilt from which there +is no escape. + +He dressed himself, and went forth into the fresh morning air for a +turn, walking up and down on the broad gravel walk before the dark old +porch. + +A glorious winter's morning. The dismal old stonehouse, many-gabled, +held aloft its tall red chimneys towards the clear blue sky, and looked +bright and pleasant in the sunshine. The deep fir and holly woods which +hemmed it in on all sides, save in front, were cheerful with sloping +gleams of sunlight, falling on many a patch of green moss, red fern, +and bright brown last year's leaves. In front, far below him, rolled +away miles of unbroken woodland, and in the far distance rose the moor, +a dim cloud of pearly grey. + +A robin sat and sung loud beside him, sole songster left in the wintry +woods, but which said, as plain as bird could say, could he have +understood it, "See, the birds are not all dead in this dreary winter +time. I am still here, a pledge from my brothers. When yon dim grey +woods grow green, and the brown hollows are yellow with kingcups and +primroses, the old melody you know so well shall begin again, and the +thrush from the oak top shall answer to the goldentoned blackbird in +the copse, saying--'Our mother is not dead, but has been sleeping. She +is awake again--let all the land rejoice.'" + +Little part had that poor darkened mind in such thoughts as these. If +any softening influence were upon him this morning, he gave no place to +it. The robin ceased, and he only heard the croak of a raven, an old +inhabitant of these wild woods, coming from the darkest and tallest of +the fir-trees. Then he saw his father approaching along the garden walk. + +One more chance for thee, unhappy man. Go up to him now, and tell him +all. He has been a kind father to you, with all his faults. Get him on +your side, and you may laugh Lee to scorn. Have you not the courage to +tell him? + +For a moment he hesitated, but the dread of his father's burst of anger +kept him silent. He hardened his heart, and, whistling, waited for the +old man to come up. + +"How is he this morning?" said his father. "What has he got his old +clothes on for, and such fine ones as he has in his drawer?" + +"Why should I put on my best clothes this day, father?" + +"Aint'ee going down to revils?" + +"True," said George. "I had forgotten all about it. Yes; I shall go +down, of course." + +"Are you going to play (wrestle)?" asked the father. + +"Maybe I may. But come in to breakfast. Where's Madge?" + +"In-doors," said the father, "waiting breakfast--mortal cross." + +"Curse her crossness," said George. "If I were ye, dad, I'd kick her +out in the lane next time she got on one of her tantrams." + +A tall woman about forty stepped out of the house as he uttered these +words. "Ye hear what he says, William Hawker," she said. "Ye hear what +ye're own lawful son says. He'd kick me out in the lane. And ye'd stand +there and let him, ye old dog; I don't doubt." + +"Hush, George," said the old man. "You don't know what you're saying, +boy. Go in, Madge, and don't be a fool; you bring it on yourself." + +The woman turned in a contemptuous way and walked in. She was a very +remarkable looking person. Tall and upright, at least six feet high, +with swarthy complexion, black eyes, and coal-black hair, looped up +loosely in a knot behind. She must have been very beautiful as a young +girl, but was now too fierce and hawkish looking, though you would +still call her handsome. She was a full-blooded gipsy, of one of the +best families, which, however, she totally denied. When I say that she +bore the worst of characters morally, and had the reputation besides of +being a witch of the highest acquirements,--a sort of double first at +Satan's university,--I have said all I need to say about her at present. + +These three sat down to breakfast, not before each of them, however, +had refreshed themselves with a dram. All the meal through, the old man +and Madge were quarrelling with one another, till at length the contest +grew so fierce that George noticed it, a thing he very seldom took the +trouble to do. + +"I tell thee," said the old man, "ye'll get no more money this week. +What have 'ee done with the last five pounds?" + +George knew well enough, she had given it to him. Many a time did she +contrive to let him have a pound or two, and blind the old man as to +where it was gone. The day before he had applied to her for some money +and she had refused, and in revenge, George had recommended his father +to turn her out, knowing that she could hear every word, and little +meaning it in reality. + +"Ye STINGY OLD BEAST," she replied, very slowly and distinctly, "I wish +ye were dead and out of the way. I'll be doing it myself some of these +odd times." And looking at him fixedly and pointing her finger, she +began the Hebrew alphabet--Aleph, Beth, &c. from the 119th Psalm. + +"I won't have it," screamed the old man. "Stop, or I'll kill you, I +will--! George, you won't see your father took before your eyes. Stop +her!" + +"Come, quiet, old girl; none of that;" said George, taking her round +the waist and putting his hand before her mouth. "Be reasonable now." +She continued to look at the old man with a smile of triumph for a +short time, and then said, with a queer laugh: + +"It's lucky you stopped me. Oh, very lucky indeed. Now, are you going +to give the money, you old Jew?" + +She had carried the day, and the old man sulkily acquiesced. George +went up stairs, and having dressed himself to his taste, got on +horseback and rode down to the village, which was about three miles. + +This was the day of the Revels, which corresponds pretty well with what +is called in other parts of England a pleasure fair; that is to say, +although some business might be done, yet it was only a secondary +object to amusement. + +The main village of Drumston was about a mile from the church which I +have before noticed, and consisted of a narrow street of cob-houses, +whitewashed and thatched, crossing at right angles, by a little stone +bridge, over a pretty, clear trout-stream. All around the village, +immediately behind the backs of the houses, rose the abrupt red hills, +divided into fields by broad oak hedges, thickly set with elms. The +water of the stream, intercepted at some point higher up, was carried +round the crown of the hills for the purposes of irrigation, which, +even at this dead season, showed its advantages by the brilliant +emerald green of the tender young grass on the hill-sides. Drumston, in +short, was an excellent specimen of a close, dull, dirty, and, I fear, +not very healthy Devonshire village in the red country. + +On this day the main street, usually in a state of ancle-deep mud six +months in the year, was churned and pounded into an almost knee-deep +state, by four or five hundred hobnail shoes in search of amusement. +The amusements were various. Drinking (very popular), swearing (ditto), +quarrelling, eating pastry ginger-bread and nuts (female pastime), and +looking at a filthy Italian, leading a still more filthy monkey, who +rode on a dog (the only honest one of the three). This all day, till +night dropped down on a scene of drunkenness and vice, which we had +better not seek to look at further. Surely, if ever man was right, old +Joey Bender, the methodist shoemaker, was right, when he preached +against the revels for four Sundays running, and said roundly that he +would sooner see all his congregation leave him and go up to the +steeplehouse (church) in a body, than that they should attend such a +crying abomination. + +The wrestling, the only honest sensible amusement to be had, was not in +much favour at Drumston. Such wrestling as there was was carried on in +a little croft behind the principal of the public-houses, for some +trifling prize, given by the publicans. In this place, James +Stockbridge and myself had wandered on the afternoon of the day in +question, having come down to the revel to see if we could find some +one we wanted. + +There was a small ring of men watching the performances, and talking, +each and all of them, not to his neighbour, or to himself, but to the +ambient air, in the most unintelligible Devonshire jargon, rendered +somewhat more barbarous than usual by intoxication. Frequently one of +them would address one of the players in language more forcible than +choice, as he applauded some piece of FINESSE, or condemned some +clumsiness on the part of the two youths who were struggling about in +the centre, under the impression they were wrestling. There were but +two moderate wrestlers in the parish, and those two were George Hawker +and James Stockbridge. And James and myself had hardly arrived on the +ground two minutes, before George, coming up, greeted us. + +After a few common-place civilities, he challenged James to play. "Let +us show these muffs what play is," said he; "it's a disgrace to the +county to see such work." + +James had no objection; so, having put on the jackets, they set to work +to the great admiration of the bystanders, one of whom, a drunken +tinker, expressed his applause in such remarkable language that I +mildly asked him to desist, which of course made him worse. + +The two wrestlers made very pretty play of it for some time, till +James, feinting at some outlandish manoeuvre, put George on his back by +a simple trip, akin to scholar's-mate at chess. + +George fell heavily, for they were both heavy men. He rose from the +ground and walked to where his coat was, sulkily. James thinking he +might have been hurt, went up to speak to him; but the other, greeting +him with an oath, turned and walked away through the crowd. + +He was in a furious passion, and he went on to the little bridge that +crossed the stream. We saw him standing looking into the water below, +when a short light-looking man came up to him, and having spoken to him +for a few minutes, walked off in the direction of Exeter, at a steady, +rapid pace. + +That man was Dick, the companion of Lee, (I knew all this well +afterwards). George was standing as I have described on the bridge, +when he came up to him, and touching him, said: + +"I want to speak to you a moment, Mr. Hawker." + +George turned round, and when he saw who it was, asked, angrily, + +"What the--do you want?" + +"No offence, sir. You see, I'm in trouble, there's a warrant out +against me, and I must fly. I am as hardup as a poor cove could be; can +you give me a trifle to help me along the road?" + +Here was a slice of good luck; to get rid of this one so easily. George +gave him money, and having wished him farewell, watched him striding +steadily up the long hill towards Exeter with great satisfaction; then +he went back to the public-house, and sat drinking an hour or more. At +last he got out his horse to ride homeward. + +The crowd about the public-house door was as thick as ever, and the +disturbance greater. Some of the women were trying to get their drunken +husbands home, one man had fallen down dead-drunk beside the door in +the mud, and his wife was sitting patiently beside him. Several girls +were standing wearily about the door, dressed in their best, each with +a carefully folded white pocket-handkerchief in her hand for show, and +not for use, waiting for their sweethearts to come forth when it should +suit them; while inside the tap all was a wild confusion of talk, +quarrelling, oaths, and smoke enough to sicken a scavenger. + +These things are changed now, or are changing, year by year. Now we +have our rural policeman keeping some sort of order, and some show of +decency. And indeed these little fairs, the curse of the country, are +gradually becoming extinct by the exertions of a more energetic class +of county magistrates; and though there is probably the same amount of +vice, public propriety is at all events more respected. I think I may +say that I have seen as bad, or even worse, scenes of drunkenness and +disorder at an English fair, as ever I have in any Australian mining +town. + +George Hawker was so hemmed in by the crowd that he was unable to +proceed above a foot's-pace. He was slowly picking his way through the +people, when he felt some one touching him on the leg, and, looking +round, saw Lee standing beside him. + +"What, Lee, my boy, you here!" said he; "I have just seen your amiable +comrade--he seems to be in trouble." + +"Dick's always in trouble, Mr. Hawker," replied he. "He has no care or +reason; he isn't a bad fellow, but I'm always glad when he is out of my +way; I don't like being seen with him. This is likely to be his last +time, though. He is in a serious scrape, and, by way of getting out of +it, he is walking into Exeter, along the high road, as if nothing was +the matter. There's a couple of traps in Belston after him now, and I +came down here to keep secure. By-the-bye, have you thought of that +little matter we were talking about the other night? To tell you the +truth, I don't care how soon I am out of this part of the country." + +"Oh! ah!" replied George, "I've thought of it, and it's all right. Can +you be at the old place the day after to-morrow?" + +"That can I," said Lee, "with much pleasure." + +"You'll come alone this time, I suppose," said George. "I suppose you +don't want to share our little matter with the whole country?" + +"No fear, Mr. George; I will be there at eight punctual, and alone." + +"Well, bye-bye," said George, and rode off. + +It was getting late in the evening when he started, and ere he reached +home it was nearly dark. For the last mile his road lay through +forest-land: noble oaks, with a plentiful under-growth of holly, +over-shadowed a floor of brown leaves and red fern; and at the end of +the wood nearest home, where the oaks joined their own fir plantations, +one mighty gnarled tree, broader and older than all the rest, held +aloft its withered boughs against the frosty sky. + +This oak was one of the bogie haunts of the neighbourhood. All sorts of +stories were told about it, all of which George, of course, believed; +so that when his horse started and refused to move forward, and when he +saw a dark figure sitting on the twisted roots of the tree, he grew +suddenly cold, and believed he had seen a ghost. + +The figure rose, and stalked towards him through the gathering gloom; +he saw that it held a baby in its arms, and that it was tall and +noble-looking. Then a new fear took possession of him, not +supernatural; and he said in a low voice--"Ellen!" + +"That was my name once, George Hawker," replied she, standing beside +him, and laying her hand upon his horse's shoulder. "I don't know what +my name is now, I'm sure; It surely can't remain the same, and me so +altered." + +"What on earth brings you back just at this time, in God's name?" asked +George. + +"Hunger, cold, misery, drunkenness, disease. Those are the merry +companions that lead me back to my old sweetheart. Look here, George, +should you know him again?" + +She held up a noble child about a year old, for him to look at. The +child, disturbed from her warm bosom, began to wail. + +"What! cry to see your father, child?" she exclaimed. "See what a +bonnie gentleman he is, and what a pretty horse he rides, while we +tread along through the mire." + +"What have you come to me for, Ellen?" asked George. "Do you know that +if you are seen about here just now you may do me a great injury?" + +"I don't want to hurt you, George," she replied; "but I must have +money. I cannot work, and I dare not show my face here. Can't you take +me in to-night, George, only just to-night, and let me lie by the fire? +I'll go in the morning; but I know it's going to freeze, and I do dread +the long cold hours so. I have lain out two nights, now, and I had +naught to eat all day. Do'ee take me in, George; for old love's sake, +do!" + +She was his own cousin, an orphan, brought up in the same house with +him by his father. Never very strong in her mind, though exceedingly +pretty, she had been early brought to ruin by George. On the birth of a +boy, about a year before, the old man's eyes were opened to what was +going on, and in a furious rage he turned her out of doors, and refused +ever to see her again. George, to do him justice, would have married +her, but his father told him, if he did so, he should leave the house +with her. So the poor thing had gone away and tried to get needlework +in Exeter, but her health failing, and George having ceased to answer +all applications from her, she had walked over, and lurked about in the +woods to gain an interview with him. + +She laid her hand on his, and he felt it was deadly cold. "Put my coat +over your shoulders, Nelly, and wait an instant while I go and speak to +Madge. I had better let her know you are coming; then we shan't have +any trouble." + +He rode quickly through the plantation, and gave his horse to a boy who +waited in front of the door. In the kitchen he found Madge brooding +over the fire, with her elbows on her knees, and without raising her +head or turning round, she said: + +"Home early, and sober! what new mischief are you up to?" + +"None, Madge, none! but here's the devil to pay. Ellen's come back. +She's been lying out these three nights, and is awful hard up. It's not +my fault, I have sent her money enough, in all conscience." + +"Where is she?" inquired Madge, curtly. + +"Outside, in the plantation." + +"Why don't you bring her in, you treacherous young wolf?" replied she. +"What did you bring her to shame for, if you are going to starve her?" + +"I was going to fetch her in," said George, indignantly; "only I wanted +to find out what your temper was like, you vicious old cow. How did I +know but what you would begin some of your tantrums, and miscall her?" + +"No fear o' that! no fear of pots and kettles with me! lead her in, +lad, before she's frozen!" + +George went back for her, and finding her still in the same place, +brought her in. Madge was standing erect before the fire, and, walking +up to the unfortunate Ellen, took her baby from her, and made her sit +before the fire. + +"Better not face the old man," said she; "he's away to the revels, and +he'll come home drunk. Make yourself happy for to-night, at all events." + +The poor thing began to cry, which brought on such a terrible fit of +coughing that Madge feared she would rupture a blood-vessel. She went +to get her a glass of wine, and returned with a candle, and then, for +the first time, they saw what a fearful object she was. + +"Oh!" she said to George, "you see what I am now. I ain't long for this +world. Only keep me from worse, George, while I am alive, and do +something for the boy afterwards, and I am content. You're going to get +married, I know, and I wish you well. But don't forget this poor little +thing when it's motherless. If you do, and let him fall into vice, +you'll never be lucky, George." + +"Oh, you ain't going to die, old Nelly," said George; "not for many +years yet. You're pulled down, and thin, but you'll pick up again with +the spring. Now, old girl, get some supper out before he comes home." + +They gave her supper, and put her to bed. In the morning, very early, +George heard the sound of wheels below his bedroom window; and looking +out, saw that Madge was driving out of the yard in a light cart, and, +watching her closely, saw her pick up Ellen and the child just outside +the gate. Then he went to bed again, and, when he awoke, he heard +Madge's voice below, and knew she was come back. + +He went down, and spoke to her. "Is she gone?" he asked. + +"In course she is," replied Madge. "Do you think I was going to let her +stay till the old man was about?" + +"How much money did you give her, besides what she had from me?" + +"I made it five pounds in all; that will keep her for some time, and +then you must send her some more. If you let that wench starve, you +ought to be burnt alive. A MAN would have married her in spite of his +father." + +"A likely story," said George, "that I was to disinherit myself for +her. However, she shan't want at present, or we shall have her back +again. And that won't do, you know." + +"George," said Madge, "you promise to be as great a rascal as your +father." + +The old man had, as Madge prophesied, come home very drunk the night +before, and had lain in bed later than usual, so that, when he came to +breakfast, he found George, gun in hand, ready to go out. + +"Going shooting, my lad?" said the father. "Where be going?" + +"Down through the hollies for a woodcock. I'll get one this morning, +it's near full moon." + +All the morning they heard him firing in the bottom below the house, +and at one o'clock he came home, empty-handed. + +"Why, George!" said his father, "what hast thee been shooting at? I +thought 'ee was getting good sport." + +"I've been shooting at a mark," he replied. + +"Who be going to shoot now, eh, George?" asked the old man. + +"No one as I know of," he replied. + +"Going over to Eggesford, eh, Georgey? This nice full moon is about the +right thing for thee. They Fellowes be good fellows to keep a fat +haunch for their neighbours." + +George laughed, as he admitted the soft impeachment of deer-stealing, +but soon after grew sullen, and all the afternoon sat over the fire +brooding and drinking. He went to bed early, and had just got off his +boots, when the door opened, and Madge came in. + +"What's up to now, old girl?" said George. + +"What are you going to be up to, eh?" she asked, "with your gun?" + +"Only going to get an outlying deer," said he. + +"That's folly enough, but there's a worse folly than that. It's worse +folly to wipe out money-scores in blood. It's a worse folly if you are +in a difficulty to put yourself in a harder one to get out of the +first. Its a worse--" + +"Why, you're mad," broke in George. "Do you think I am fool enough to +make away with one of the keepers?" + +"I don't know what you are fool enough to do. Only mind my words before +it's too late." + +She went out, and left him sitting moodily on the bed. "What a clever +woman she is," he mused. "How she hits a thing off. She's been a good +friend to me. I've a good mind to ask her advice. I'll think about it +to-morrow morning." + +But on the morrow they quarrelled about something or another, and her +advice was never asked. George was moody and captious all day; and at +evening, having drank hard, he slipped off, and, gun in hand, rode away +through the darkening woods towards the moor. + +It was dark before he had got clear of the labyrinth of lanes through +which he took his way. His horse he turned out in a small croft close +to where the heather began; and, having hid the saddle and bridle in a +hedge, strode away over the moor with his gun on his shoulder. + +He would not think; he would sooner whistle; distance seemed like +nothing to him; and he was surprised and frightened to find himself +already looking over the deep black gulf through which the river ran +before he thought he was half-way there. + +He paused to look before he began to descend. A faint light still +lingered in the frosty sky to the southwest, and majestic Yestor rose +bold and black against it. Down far, far beneath his feet was the +river, dimly heard, but not seen; and, as he looked to where it should +be, he saw a little flickering star, which arrested his attention. That +must be Lee's fire--there he began to descend. + +Boldly at first, but afterwards more stealthily, and now more silently +still, for the fire is close by, and it were well to give him no +notice. It is in the old place, and he can see it now, not ten yards +before him, between two rocks. + +Nearer yet a little, with cat-like tread. There is Lee, close to the +fire, sitting on the ground, dimly visible, yet clearly enough for his +purpose. He rests the gun on a rock, and takes his aim. + +He is pinioned from behind by a vigorous hand, and a voice he knows +cries in his ear--"Help, Bill, or you'll be shot!" + +The gun goes off in the scuffle, but hurts nobody, and Lee running up, +George finds the tables completely turned, and himself lying, after a +few desperate struggles, helplessly pinioned on the ground. + +Dick had merely blinded him by appearing to go to Exeter. They both +thought it likely that he would attack Lee, but neither supposed he +would have stolen on him so treacherously. Dick had just noticed him in +time, and sprung upon him, or Lee's troubles would have been over for +ever. + +"You treacherous young sweep, you shall hang for this," were Lee's +first words. "Ten thousand pounds would not save you now. Dick, you're +a jewel. If I had listened to you, I shouldn't have trusted my life to +the murdering vagabond. I'll remember to-night, my boy, as long as I +live." + +Although it appeared at first that ten thousand pounds would not +prevent Lee handing George over to justice, yet, after a long and +stormy argument, it appeared that the lesser sum of five hundred would +be amply sufficient to stay any ulterior proceedings, provided the +money was forthcoming in a week. So that ultimately George found +himself at liberty again, and, to his great astonishment, in higher +spirits than he could have expected. + +"At all events," said he to himself, as he limped back, lame and +bruised, "I have not got THAT on my mind. Even if this other thing was +found out, there is a chance of getting off. Surely my own father +wouldn't prosecute--though I wouldn't like to trust to it, unless I got +Madge on my side." + +His father, I think I have mentioned, was too blind to read, and George +used to keep all his accounts; so that nothing would seem at first to +look more easy than to imitate his father's signature, and obtain what +money he wished. But George knew well that the old man was often in the +habit of looking through his banker's book, with the assistance of +Madge, so that he was quite unsafe without her. His former embezzlement +he had kept secret, by altering some figure in the banker's book; but +this next one, of such a much larger amount, he felt somewhat anxious +about. He, however, knew his woman well, and took his measures +accordingly. + +On the day mentioned, he met Lee, and gave him the money agreed on; and +having received his assurances that he valued his life too much to +trouble him any more, saw him depart, fully expecting that he should +have another application at an early date; under which circumstances, +he thought he would take certain precautions which should be conclusive. + +But he saw Lee no more. No more for many, many years. But how and when +they met again, and who came off best in the end, this tale will truly +and sufficiently set forth hereafter. + + + + +Chapter VII + +MAJOR BUCKLEY GIVES HIS OPINION ON TROUT-FISHING, ON EMIGRATION, AND ON +GEORGE HAWKER. + + +Spring had come again, after a long wet winter, and every +orchard-hollow blushed once more with appleblossoms. In warm sheltered +southern valleys hedges were already green, and even the tall +hedgerow-elms began, day after day, to grow more shady and dense. + +It was a bright April morning, about ten o'clock, when Mary Thornton, +throwing up her father's studywindow from the outside, challenged him +to come out and take a walk; and John, getting his hat and stick, +immediately joined her in front of the house. + +"Where is your aunt, my love?" said John. + +"She is upstairs," said Mary. "I will call her." + +She began throwing gravel at one of the upper windows, and crying out, +"Auntie! Auntie!" + +The sash was immediately thrown (no, that is too violent a word--say +lifted) up, and a beautiful old lady's face appeared at the window. + +"My love," it said, in a small, soft voice, "pray be careful of the +windows. Did you want anything, my dear?" + +"I want you out for a walk, Auntie; so come along." + +"Certainly, my love. Brother, have you got your thick kerchief in your +pocket?" + +"No," said the Vicar, "I have not, and I don't mean to have." + +Commencement of a sore-throat lecture from the window, cut short by the +Vicar, who says,-- + +"My dear, I shall be late if you don't come;" (jesuitically on his +part, for he was going nowhere.) + +So she comes accordingly, as sweet-looking an old maid as ever you saw +in your life. People have no right to use up such beautiful women as +governesses. It's a sheer waste of material. Miss Thornton had been a +governess all her life; and now, at the age of five-and-forty, had come +to keep her brother's house for him, add her savings to his, and put +the finishingtouch on Mary's somewhat rough education. + +"My love," said she, "I have brought you your gloves." + +"Oh, indeed, Auntie, I won't wear them," said Mary. "I couldn't be +plagued with gloves. Nobody wears them here." + +"Mrs. Buckley wears them, and it would relieve my mind if you were to +put them on, my dear. I fear my lady's end was accelerated by, +unfortunately, in her last illness, catching sight of Lady Kate's hands +after she had been assisting her brother to pick green walnuts." + +Mary was always on the eve of laughing at these aristocratic +recollections of her aunt; and to her credit be it said, she always +restrained herself, though with great difficulty. She, so wildly +brought up, without rule or guidance in feminine matters, could not be +brought to comprehend that prim line-and-rule life, of which her aunt +was the very impersonation. Nevertheless, she heard what Miss Thornton +had to say with respect; and if ever she committed an extreme +GAUCHERIE, calculated to set her aunt's teeth on edge, she always +discovered what was the matter, and mended it as far as she was able. + +They stood on the lawn while the glove controversy was going on, and a +glorious prospect there was that bright spring morning. In one +direction the eye was carried down a long, broad, and rich vale, +intersected by a gleaming river, and all the way down set thick with +hamlet, farm, and church. In the dim soft distance rose the two massive +towers of a cathedral, now filling all the countryside with the gentle +melody of their golden-toned bells, while beyond them, in the misty +south, there was a gleam in the horizon, showing where the sky + + +"Dipped down to sea and sands." + + +"It's as soft and quiet as a Sunday," said the Vicar; "and what a +fishing day! I have half a mind--Hallo! look here." + +The exclamation was caused by the appearance on the walk of a very tall +and noble-looking man, about thirty, leading a grey pony, on which sat +a beautiful woman with a child in her arms. Our party immediately moved +forward to meet them, and a most friendly greeting took place on both +sides, Mary at once taking possession of the child. + +This was Major Buckley and his wife Agnes. I mentioned before that, +after Clere was sold, the Major had taken a cottage in Drumston, and +was a constant visitor on the Vicar; generally calling for the old +gentleman to come fishing or shooting, and leaving his wife and his +little son Samuel in the company of Mary and Miss Thornton. + +"I have come, Vicar, to take you out fishing," said he. "Get your rod +and come. A capital day. Why, here's the Doctor." + +So there was, standing among them before any one had noticed him. + +"I announce," said he, "that I shall accept the most agreeable +invitation that any one will give me. What are you going to do, Major?" + +"Going fishing." + +"Ah! and you, madam?" turning to Miss Thornton. + +"I am going to see Mrs. Lee, who has a low fever, poor thing." + +"Which Mrs. Lee, madam?" + +"Mrs. Lee of Eyford." + +"And which Mrs. Lee of Eyford, madam?" + +"Mrs. James Lee." + +"Junior or senior?" persevered the doctor. + +"Junior," replied Miss Thornton, laughing. + +"Ah!" said the Doctor, "now we have it. I would suggest that all the +Mrs. Lees in the parish should have a ticket with a number on it, like +the VOITURIERS. Buckley, lay it before the quarter-sessions. If you say +the idea came from a foreigner, they would adopt it immediately. Miss +Thornton, I will do myself the honour of accompanying you, and +examining the case." + +So the ladies went off with the Doctor, while the Vicar and Major +Buckley turned to go fishing. + +"I shall watch you, Major, instead of fishing myself," said the Vicar. +"Where do you propose going?" + +"To the red water," said the Major. Accordingly they turn down a long, +deep lane, which looks certainly as if it would lead one to a red +brook, for the road and banks are of a brick-colour. And so it does, +for presently before them they discern a red mill, and a broad, +pleasant ford, where a crystal brook dimples and sparkles over a bed of +reddish-purple pebbles. + +"It is very clear," says the Major. "What's the fly to be, Vicar?" + +"That's a very hard question to answer," says the Vicar. "Your +Scotchman, eh? or a small blue dun?" + +"We'll try both," says the Major; and in a very short time it becomes +apparent that the small dun is the man, for the trout seem to think +that it is the very thing they have been looking for all day, and rise +at it two at a time. + +They fish downwards; and after killing half-a-dozen half-pound fish, +come to a place where another stream joins the first, making it double +its original size, and here there is a great oak-root jutting into a +large deep pool. + +The Vicar stands back, intensely excited. This is a sure place for a +big fish. The Major, eager but cool, stoops down and puts his flies in +just above the root at once; not as a greenhorn would, taking a few +wide casts over the pool first, thereby standing a chance of hooking a +little fish, and ruining his chance for a big one; and at the second +trial a deep-bodied brown fellow, about two pounds, dashes at the +treacherous little blue, and gulps him down. + +Then what a to-do is there. The Vicar jumping about on the grass, +giving all sorts of contradictory advice. The Major, utterly despairing +of ever getting his fish ashore, fighting a losing battle with infinite +courage, determined that the trout shall remember him, at all events, +if he does get away. And the trout, furious and indignant, but not in +the least frightened, trying vainly to get back to the old root. Was +there ever such a fish? + +But the Major is the best man, for after ten minutes troutie is towed +up on his side to a convenient shallow, and the Vicar puts on his +spectacles to see him brought ashore. He scientifically pokes him in +the flank, and spans him across the back, and pronounces EX CATHEDRA-- + +"You'll find, sir, there won't be a finer fish, take him all in all, +killed in the parish this season." + +"Ah, it's a noble sport," says the Major. "I shan't get much more of +it, I'm afraid." + +"Why shouldn't you?" + +"Well, I'll tell you," says the Major. "Do you know how much property I +have got?" + +"No, indeed." + +"I have only ten thousand pounds; and how am I to bring up a family on +the interest of that?" + +"I should fancy it was quite enough for you," said the Vicar; "you have +only one son." + +"How many more am I likely to have, eh? And how should I look to find +myself at sixty with five boys grown up, and only 300L. a-year?" + +"That is rather an extreme case," said the Vicar; "you would be poor +then, certainly." + +"Just what I don't want to be. Besides wanting to make some money, I am +leading an idle life here, and am getting very tired of it. And so--" +he hesitated. + +"And so?" said the Vicar. + +"I am thinking of emigrating. To New South Wales. To go into the +sheep-farming line. There." + +"There indeed," said the Vicar. "And what has put you up to it?" + +"Why, my wife and I have been thinking of going to Canada for some +time, and so the idea is not altogether new. The other day Hamlyn (you +know him) showed me a letter from a cousin of his who is making a good +deal of money there. Having seen that letter, I was much struck with +it, and having made a great many other inquiries, I laid the whole +information before my wife, and begged her to give me her opinion." + +"And she recommended you to stay at home in peace and comfort," +interposed the Vicar. + +"On the contrary, she said she thought we ought by all means to go," +returned the Major. + +"Wonderful, indeed. And when shall you go?" + +"Not for some time, I think. Not for a year." + +"I hope not. What a lonely old man I shall be when you are all gone." + +"Nay, Vicar, I hope not," said the Major. "You will stay behind to see +your daughter happily married, and your grand-children about your +knees." + +The Vicar sighed heavily, and the Major continued. + +"By-the-bye, Miss Thornton seems to have made a conquest already. Young +Hawker seems desperately smitten; did it ever strike you?" + +"Yes, it has struck me; very deep indeed," said the Vicar; "but what +can I do?" + +"You surely would not allow her to marry him?" + +"How can I prevent it? She is her own mistress, and I never could +control her yet. How can I control her when her whole heart and soul is +set on him?" + +"Good God!" said the Major, "do you really think she cares for him?" + +"Oh, she loves him with her whole heart. I have seen it a long while." + +"My dear friend, you should take her away for a short time, and see if +she will forget him. Anything sooner than let her marry him." + +"Why should she not marry him?" said the Vicar. "She is only a farmer's +grand-daughter. We are nobody, you know." + +"But he is not of good character." + +"Oh, there is nothing more against him than there is against most young +fellows. He will reform and be steady. Do you know anything special +against him?" asked the Vicar. + +"Not actually against him; but just conceive, my dear friend, what a +family to marry into! His father, I speak the plain truth, is a most +disreputable, drunken old man, living in open sin with a gipsy woman of +the worst character, by whom George Hawker has been brought up. What an +atmosphere of vice! The young fellow himself is universally disliked, +and distrusted too, all over the village. Can you forgive me for +speaking so plain?" + +"There is no forgiveness necessary, my good friend;" said the Vicar. "I +know how kind your intentions are. But I cannot bring myself to have a +useless quarrel with my daughter merely because I happen to dislike the +object of her choice. It would be quite a useless quarrel. She has +always had her own way, and always will." + +"What does Miss Thornton say?" asked the Major. + +"Nothing, she never does say anything. She regards Hawker as Mary's +accepted suitor; and though she may think him vulgar, she would sooner +die than commit herself so far as to say so. She has been so long under +others, and without an opinion save theirs, that she cannot form an +opinion at all." + +They had turned and were walking home, when the Vicar, sticking his +walking-cane upright in the grass, began again. + +"It is the most miserable and lamentable thing that ever took place in +this world. Look at my sister again: what a delicate old maid she is! +used to move and be respected, more than most governesses are, in the +highest society in the land. There'll be a home for her when I die. +Think of her living in the house with any of the Hawkers; and yet, sir, +that woman's sense of duty is such that she'd die sooner than leave her +niece. Sooner be burnt at the stake than go one inch out of the line of +conduct she has marked out for herself." + +The Vicar judged his sister most rightly: we shall see that hereafter. + +"A man of determination and strength of character could have prevented +it at the beginning, you would say. I dare say he might have; but I am +not a man of determination and strength of character. I never was, and +I never shall be." + +"Do you consider it in the light of a settled question, then," said the +Major, "that your daughter should marry young Hawker?" + +"God knows. She will please herself. I spoke to her at first about +encouraging him, and she began by laughing at me, and ended by making a +scene whenever I spoke against him. I was at one time in hopes that she +would have taken a fancy to young Stockbridge; but I fear I must have +set her against him by praising him too much. It wants a woman, you +know, to manage those sort of things." + +"It does, indeed." + +"You see, as I said before, I have no actual reason to urge against +Hawker, and he will be very rich. I shall raise my voice against her +living in the house with that woman Madge--in fact, I won't have it; +but take it all in all, I fear I shall have to make the best of it." + +Major Buckley said no more, and soon after they got home. There was +Mrs. Buckley, queenly and beautiful, waiting for her husband; and there +was Mary, pretty, and full of fun; there also was the Doctor, smoking +and contemplating a new fern; and Miss Thornton, with her gloved-hands +folded, calculating uneasily what amount of detriment Mary's complexion +would sustain in consequence of walking about without her bonnet in an +April sun. + +One and all cried out to know what sport; and little Sam tottered +forward demanding a fish for himself, which, having got, he at once put +into his mouth head foremost. The Doctor, taking off his spectacles, +examined the contents of the fish-basket, and then demanded: + +"Now, my good friend, why do you give yourself the trouble to catch +trout in that round-about way, requiring so much skill and patience? In +Germany we catch them with a net--a far superior way, I assure you. Get +any one of the idle young fellows about the village to go down to the +stream with a net, and they will get more trout in a day than you would +in a week." + +"What!" said the Major, indignantly; "put a net in my rented water?--if +I caught any audacious scoundrel carrying a net within half a mile of +it, I'd break his neck. You can't appreciate the delights of +fly-fishing, doctor--you are no sportsman." + +"No, I ain't," said the Doctor; "you never said anything truer than +that, James Buckley. I am nothing of the sort. When I was a young man, +I had a sort of brute instinct, which made me take the same sort of +pleasure in killing a boar that a cat does in killing a mouse; but I +have outlived such barbarism." + +"Ha! ha!" said the Vicar; "and yet he gave ten shillings for a snipe. +And he's hand-and-glove with every poacher in the parish." + +"The snipe was a new species, sir," said the Doctor indignantly; "and +if I do employ the hunters to collect for me, I see no inconsistency in +that. But I consider this fly-fishing mania just of a piece with your +IDIOTIC, I repeat it, IDIOTIC institution of fox-hunting. Why, if you +laid baits poisoned with NUX VOMICA about the haunts of those animals, +you would get rid of them in two years." + +The Doctor used to delight in aggravating the Major by attacking +English sports; but he had a great admiration for them nevertheless. + +The Major got out his wife's pony; and setting her on it, and handing +up the son and heir, departed home to dinner. They were hardly inside +the gate when Mrs. Buckley began: + +"My dear husband, did you bring him to speak of the subject we were +talking about?" + +"He went into it himself, wife, tooth and nail." + +"Well?" + +"Well! indeed, my dear Agnes, do you know that, although I love the old +man dearly, I must say I think he is rather weak." + +"So I fear," said Mrs. Buckley; "but he is surely not so weak as to +allow that young fellow to haunt the house, after he has had a hint +that he is making love to Mary?" + +"My dear, he accepts him as her suitor. He says he has been aware of it +for some time, and that he has spoken to Mary about it, and made no +impression; so that now he considers it a settled thing." + +"What culpable weakness! So Mary encourages him, then?" + +"She adores him, and won't hear a word against him." + +"Unfortunate girl," said Mrs. Buckley! "and with such a noble young +fellow as Stockbridge ready to cut off his head for her! It is +perfectly inconceivable." + +"Young Hawker is very handsome, my dear, you must remember." + +"Is he?" said Mrs. Buckley. "I call him one of the most evil-looking +men I ever saw." + +"My dear Agnes, I think if you were to speak boldly to her, you might +do some good. You might begin to undermine this unlucky infatuation of +her's; and I am sure, if her eyes were once opened, that the more she +saw him, the less she would like him." + +"I think, James," said Mrs. Buckley, "that it becomes the duty of us, +who have been so happy in our marriage, to prevent our good old vicar's +last days from being rendered miserable by such a mesalliance as this. +I am very fond of Mary; but the old Vicar, my dear, has taken the place +of your father to me." + +"He is like a second father to me too," said the Major; "but he wants a +good many qualities that my own father had. He hasn't his energy or +determination. Why, if my father had been in his place, and such an +ill-looking young dog as that came hanging about the premises, my +father would have laid his stick about his back. And it would be a good +thing if somebody would do it now." + +Such was Major Buckley's opinion. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +THE VICAR HEARS SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE. + + +"My dear," said old Miss Thornton, that evening, "I have consulted Mrs. +Buckley on the sleeves, and she is of opinion that they should be +pointed." + +"Do you think," said Mary, "that she thought much about the matter?" + +"She promised to give the matter her earnest attention," said Miss +Thornton; "so I suppose she did. Mrs. Buckley would never speak at +random, if she once promised to give her real opinion." + +"No, I don't think she would, Auntie, but she is not very particular in +her own dress." + +"She always looks like a thorough lady, my dear: Mrs. Buckley is a +woman whom I could set before you as a model for imitation far sooner +than myself." + +"She is a duck, at all events," said Mary; "and her husband is a +darling." + +Miss Thornton was too much shocked to say anything. To hear a young +lady speak of a handsome military man as a "darling," went quite beyond +her experience. She was considering how much bread and water and +backboard she would have felt it her duty to give Lady Kate, or Lady +Fanny, in old times, for such an expression, when the Vicar, who had +been dozing, woke up and said:-- + +"Bless us, what a night! The equinoctial gales come back again. This +rain will make up for the dry March with a vengeance; I am glad I am +safely housed before a good fire." + +Unlucky words! he drew nearer to the fire, and began rubbing his knees; +he had given them about three rubs, when the door opened and the maid's +voice was heard ominous of evil. + +"Thomas Jewel is worse, sir, and if you please his missis don't expect +he'll last the night; and could you just step up?" + +"Just stepping up," was a pretty little euphemism for walking three +long miles dead in the teeth of a gale of wind, with a fierce rushing +tropical rain. One of the numerous tenders of the ship Jewel (74), had +just arrived before the wind under bare poles, an attempt to set a rag +of umbrella having ended in its being blown out of the bolt-ropes, and +the aforesaid tender Jewel was now in the vicarage harbour of refuge, +reflecting what an awful job it would have in beating back against the +monsoon. + +"Who has come with this message?" said the Vicar, entering the kitchen +followed by Miss Thornton and Mary. + +"Me, sir," says a voice from the doorway. + +"Oh, come in, will you," said the Vicar; "it's a terrible night, is it +not?" + +"Oh Loord!" said the voice in reply--intending that ejaculation for a +very strong affirmative. And advancing towards the light, displayed a +figure in a long brown great-coat, reaching to the ancles, and topped +by some sort of head-dress, resembling very closely a small black +carpet bag, tied on with a red cotton handkerchief. This was all that +was visible, and the good Vicar stood doubting whether it was male or +female, till catching sight of an immense pair of hobnail boots peeping +from the lower extremity of the coat, he made up his mind at once, and +began:-- + +"My good boy--" + +There was a cackling laugh from under the carpet bag, and a harsh +grating voice replied: + +"I be a gurl." + +"Dear me," said the Vicar, "then what do you dress yourself in that +style for?--So old Jewel is worse." + +"Us don't think a'll live the night." + +"Is the doctor with him?" said the Vicar. + +"The 'Talian's with un." + +By which he understood her to mean Dr. Mulhaus, all foreigners being +considered to be Italians in Drumston. An idea they got, I take it, +from the wandering organ men being of that nation. + +"Well," said the Vicar, "I will start at once, and come. It's a +terrible night." + +The owner of the great-coat assented with a fiendish cackle, and +departed. The Vicar, having been well wrapped up by his sister and +daughter, departed also, with a last injunction from Miss Thornton to +take care of himself. + +Easier said than done, such a night as this. A regular south-westerly +gale, accompanied by a stinging, cutting rain, which made it almost +impossible to look to windward. Earth and sky seemed mixed together, +and each twig and bough sent a separate plaint upon the gale, indignant +at seeing their fresh-acquired honours torn from them and scattered +before the blast. + +The Vicar put his head down and sturdily walked against it. It was well +for him that he knew every inch of the road, for his knowledge was +needed now. There was no turn in the road after he had passed the +church, but it took straight away over the high ground up to Hawker's +farm on the woodlands. + +Old Jewel, whom he was going to see, had been a hind of Hawker's for +many years; but about a twelvemonth before the present time he had left +his service, partly on account of increasing infirmity, and partly in +consequence of a violent quarrel with Madge. He was a man of +indifferent character. He had been married once in his life, but his +wife only lived a year, and left him with one son, who had likewise +married and given to the world seven as barbarous, neglected, young +savages as any in the parish. The old man, who was now lying on his +deathbed, had been a sort of confidential man to old Hawker, retained +in that capacity on account, the old man said once in his drink, of not +having any wife to worm family affairs out of him. So it was generally +believed by the village folks, that old Jewel was in possession of some +fearful secrets (such as a murder or two, for instance, or a brace of +forgeries), and that the Hawkers daren't turn him out of the cottage +where he lived for their lives. + +Perhaps some of these idle rumours may have floated through the Vicar's +brain as he fought forwards against the storm; but if any did, they +were soon dismissed again, and the good man's thoughts carried into a +fresh channel. And he was thinking what a fearful night this would be +at sea, and how any ship could live against such a storm, when he came +to a white gate, which led into the deep woods surrounding Hawker's +house, and in a recess of which lived old Jewel and his family. + +Now began the most difficult part of his journey. The broader road that +led from the gate up to the Hawkers' house was plainly perceptible, but +the little path which turned up to the cottage was not so easily found, +and when found, not easily kept on such a black wild night as this. +But, at length, having hit it, he began to follow it with some +difficulty, and soon beginning to descend rapidly, he caught sight of a +light, and, at the same moment, heard the rushing of water. + +"Oh," said he to himself, "the water is come down, and I shall have a +nice job to get across it. Any people but the Jewels would have made +some sort of a bridge by now; but they have been content with a fallen +tree ever since the old bridge was carried away." + +He scrambled down the steep hill side with great difficulty, and not +without one or two nasty slips, which, to a man of his age, was no +trifle, but at length stood trembling with exertion before a flooded +brook, across which lay a fallen tree, dimly seen in the dark against +the gleam of the rushing water. + +"I must stand and steady my nerves a bit after that tumble," he said, +"before I venture over there. That's the 'Brig of Dread' with a +vengeance. However, I never came to harm yet when I was after duty, so +I'll chance it." + +The cottage stood just across the brook, and he halloed aloud for some +one to come. After a short time the door opened, and a man appeared +with a lantern. + +"Who is there?" demanded Dr. Mulhaus' wellknown voice. "Is it you, +Vicar?" + +"Aye," rejoined the other, "it's me at present; but it won't be me long +if I slip coming over that log. Here goes," he said, as he steadied +himself and crossed rapidly, while the Doctor held the light. "Ah," he +added, when he was safe across, "I knew I should get over all right." + +"You did not seem very certain about it just now," said the Doctor. +"However, I am sincerely glad you are come. I knew no weather would +stop you." + +"Thank you, old friend," said the Vicar; "and how is the patient?" + +"Going fast. More in your line than mine. The man believes himself +bewitched." + +"Not uncommon," said the Vicar, "in these parts; they are always +bothering me with some of that sort of nonsense." + +They went in. Only an ordinary scene of poverty, dirt, and vice, such +as exists to some extent, in every parish, in every country on the +globe. Nothing more than that, and yet a sickening sight enough. + +A squalid, damp, close room, with the earthen floor sunk in many places +and holding pools of water. The mother smoking in the chimney corner, +the eldest daughter nursing an illegitimate child, and quarrelling with +her mother in a coarse, angry tone. The children, ragged and hungry, +fighting for the fireside. The father away, at some unlawful occupation +probably, or sitting drinking his wages in an alehouse. That was what +they saw, and what any man may see to-day for himself in his own +village, whether in England or Australia, that working man's paradise. +Drink, dirt, and sloth, my friends of the working orders, will produce +the same effects all over the world. + +As they came in the woman of the house rose and curtseyed to the Vicar, +but the eldest girl sat still and turned away her head. The Vicar, +after saluting her mother, went gently up to her, and patting the +baby's cheek, asked her kindly how she did. The girl tried to answer +him, but could only sob. She bent down her head again over the child, +and began rocking it to and fro. + +"You must bring it to be christened," said the Vicar kindly. "Can you +come on Wednesday?" + +"Yes, I'll come," she said with a sort of choke. And now the woman +having lit a fresh candle, ushered them into the sick man's room. + +"Typhus and scarlatina!" said the Doctor. "How this place smells after +being in the air. He is sensible again, I think." + +"Quite sensible," the sick man answered aloud. "So you've come, Mr. +Thornton; I'm glad of it; I've got a sad story to tell you; but I'll +have vengeance if you do your duty. You see the state I am in!" + +"Ague!" said the Vicar. + +"And who gave it me?" + +"Why, God sent it to you," said the Vicar. "All people living in a +narrow wet valley among woodlands like this, must expect ague." + +"I tell you she gave it to me. I tell you she has overlooked me; and +all this doctor's stuff is no use, unless you can say a charm as will +undo her devil's work." + +"My good friend," said the Vicar, "you should banish such fancies from +your mind, for you are in a serious position, and ought not to die in +enmity with anyone." + +"Not die in enmity with her? I'd never forgive her till she took off +the spell." + +"Whom do you mean?" asked the Vicar. + +"Why, that infernal witch, Madge, that lives with old Hawker," said the +man excitedly. "That's who I mean!" + +"Why, what injury has she done you?" + +"Bewitched me, I tell you! Given me these shaking fits. She told me she +would, when I left; and so she has, to prevent my speaking. I might a +spoke out anytime this year, only the old man kept me quiet with money; +but now it's nigh too late!" + +"What might you have spoken about?" asked the Vicar. + +"Well, I'll just relate the matter to you," said the man, speaking fast +and thick, "and I'll speak the truth. A twelvemonth agone, this Madge +and me had a fierce quarrel, and I miscalled her awful, and told her of +some things she wasn't aware I knew of; and then she said, 'If ever a +word of that escapes your lips, I'll put such a spell on ye that your +bones shall shake apart.' Then I says, if you do, your bastard son +shall swing." + +"Who do you mean by her bastard son?" + +"Young George Hawker. He is not the son of old Mrs. Hawker! Madge was +brought to bed of him a fortnight before her mistress; and when she +bore a still-born child, old Hawker and I buried it in the wood, and we +gave Madge's child to Mrs. Hawker, who never knew the difference before +she died." + +"On the word of a dying man, is that true?" demanded the Vicar. + +"On the word of a dying man that's true, and this also. I says to +Madge, 'Your boy shall swing, for I know enough to hang him.' And she +said, 'Where are your proofs?' and I--O Lord! O Lord! she's at me +again." + +He sank down again in a paroxysm of shivering, and they got no more +from him. Enough there was, however, to make the Vicar a very silent +and thoughtful man, as he sat watching the sick man in the close +stifling room. + +"You had better go home, Vicar," said the Doctor; "you will make +yourself ill staying here. I do not expect another lucid interval." + +"No," said the Vicar, "I feel it my duty to stay longer. For my own +sake too. What he has let out bears fearfully on my happiness, Doctor." + +"Yes, I can understand that, my friend, from what I have heard of the +relations that exist between your daughter and that young man. You have +been saved from a terrible misfortune, though at the cost, perhaps, of +a few tears, and a little temporary uneasiness." + +"I hope it may be as you say," said the Vicar. "Strange, only to-day +Major Buckley was urging me to stop that acquaintance." + +"I should have ventured to do so too, Vicar, had I been as old a friend +of yours as Major Buckley." + +"He is not such a very old friend," said the Vicar; "only of two years' +standing, yet I seem to have known him ten." + +At daybreak the man died, and made no sign. So as soon as they had +satisfied themselves of the fact, they departed, and came out together +into the clear morning air. The rain-clouds had broken, though when +they had scrambled up out of the narrow little valley where the cottage +stood, they found that the wind was still high and fierce, and that the +sun was rising dimly through a yellow haze of driving scud. + +They stepped out briskly, revived by the freshness of all around, and +had made about half the distance home, when they descried a horseman +coming slowly towards them. It seemed an early time for any one to be +abroad, and their surprise was increased at seeing that it was George +Hawker returning home. + +"Where can he have been so early?" said the Doctor. + +"So late, you mean," said the Vicar; "he has not been home all night. +Now I shall brace up my nerves and speak to him." + +"My good wishes go with you, Vicar," said the Doctor, and walked on, +while the other stopped to speak with George Hawker. + +"Good morning, Mr. Thornton. You are early a-foot, sir." + +"Yes, I have been sitting up all night with old Jewel. He is dead." + +"Is he indeed, sir," said Hawker. "He won't be much loss, sir, to the +parish. A sort of happy release, one may say, for every one but +himself." + +"Can I have the pleasure of a few words with you, Mr. Hawker?" + +"Surely, sir," said he, dismounting. "Allow me to walk a little on the +way back with you?" + +"What I have to say, Mr. Hawker," said the Vicar, "is very short, and, +I fear, also very disagreeable to all parties. I am going to request +you to discontinue your visits to my house altogether, and, in fact, +drop our acquaintance." + +"This is very sudden, sir," said Hawker. "Am I to understand, sir, that +you cannot be induced by any conduct of mine to reconsider this +decision?" + +"You are to understand that such is the case, sir." + +"And this is final, Mr. Thornton?" + +"Quite final, I assure you," said the Vicar; "nothing on earth should +make me flinch from my decision." + +"This is very unfortunate, sir," said George. "For I had reason to +believe that you rather encouraged my visits than otherwise." + +"I never encouraged them. It is true I permitted them. But since then +circumstances have come to my ears which render it imperative that you +should drop all communication with the members of my family, more +especially, to speak plainly, with my daughter." + +"At least, sir," said George, "let me know what charge you bring +against me." + +"I make no charges of any sort," replied the Vicar. "All I say is, that +I wish the intercourse between you and my daughter to cease; and I +consider, sir, that when I say that, it ought to be sufficient. I +conceive that I have the right to say so much without question." + +"I think you are unjust, sir; I do, indeed," said George. + +"I may have been unjust, and I may have been weak, in allowing an +intimacy (which I do not deny, mind you) to spring up between my +daughter and yourself. But I am not unjust now, when I require that it +should cease. I begin to be just." + +"Do you forbid me your house, sir?" + +"I forbid you my house, sir. Most distinctly. And I wish you good-day." + +There was no more to be said on either side. George stood beside his +horse, after the Vicar had left him, till he was fairly out of earshot. +And then, with a fierce oath, he said,-- + +"You puritanical old humbug, I'll do you yet. You've heard about Nell +and her cursed brat. But the daughter ain't always the same way of +thinking with the father, old man." + +The Vicar walked on, glad enough to have got the interview over, till +he overtook the Doctor, who was walking slowly till he came up. He felt +as though the battle was gained already, though he still rather dreaded +a scene with Mary. + +"How have you sped, friend?" asked the Doctor. "Have you given the +young gentleman his CONGEE?" + +"I have," he replied. "Doctor, now half the work is done, I feel what a +culpable coward I have been not to do it before. I have been deeply to +blame. I never should have allowed him to come near us. Surely, the +girl will not be such a fool as to regret the loss of such a man. I +shall tell her all I know about him, and after that I can do no more. +No more? I never had her confidence. She has always had a life apart +from mine. The people in the village, all so far below us in every way, +have been to me acquaintances, and only that; but they have been her +world, and she has seen no other. She is a kind, affectionate daughter, +but she would be as good a daughter to any of the farmers round as she +is to me. She is not a lady. That is the truth. God help the man who +brings up a daughter without a wife." + +"You do her injustice, my friend," said the Doctor. "I understand what +you mean, but you do her injustice. All the female society she has ever +seen, before Mrs. Buckley and your sister came here, was of a rank +inferior to herself, and she has taken her impressions from that +society to a great extent. But still she is a lady; compare her to any +of the other girls in the parish, and you will see the difference." + +"Yes, yes, that is true," said the Vicar. "You must think me a strange +man to speak so plainly about my own daughter, Doctor, and to you, too, +whom I have known so short a time. But one must confide in somebody, +and I have seen your discretion manifested so often that I trust you." + +They had arrived opposite the Vicar's gate, but the Doctor, resisting +all the Vicar's offers of breakfast, declined to go in. He walked +homeward toward his cottage-lodgings, and as he went he mused to +himself somewhat in this style,-- + +"What a good old man that is. And yet how weak. I used to say to myself +when I first knew him, what a pity that a man with such a noble +intellect should be buried in a country village, a pastor to a lot of +ignorant hinds. And yet he is fit for nothing else, with all his +intelligence, and all his learning. He has no go in him,--no back to +his head. Contrast him with Buckley, and see the difference. Now +Buckley, without being a particularly clever man, sees the right thing, +and goes at it through fire and water. But our old Vicar sees the +right, and leaves it to take care of itself. He can't manage his own +family even. That girl is a fine girl, a very fine girl. A good deal of +character about her. But her animal passions are so strong that she +would be a Tartar for anyone to manage. She will be too much for the +Vicar. She will marry that man in the end. And if he don't use her +properly, she'll hate him as much as she loves him now. She is more +like an Italian than an English girl. Hi! there's a noble Rhamnea!" + +The Vicar went into his house, and found no one up but the maids, who +were keeping that saturnalia among the household gods, which, I am +given to understand, goes on in every well-regulated household before +the lords of the creation rise from their downy beds. I have never seen +this process myself, but I am informed, by the friend of my heart, who +looked on it once for five minutes, and then fled, horror struck, that +the first act consists in turning all the furniture upside down, and +beating it with brooms. Further than this, I have no information. If +any male eye has penetrated these awful secrets beyond that, let the +owner of that eye preserve a decent silence. There are some things that +it is better not to know. Only let us hope, brother, that you and I may +always find ourselves in a position to lie in bed till it is all over. +In Australia, it may be worth while to remark, this custom, with many +other religious observances, has fallen into entire desuetude. + +The Vicar was very cross this morning. He had been sitting up all +night, which was bad, and he had been thinking these last few minutes +that he had made a fool of himself, by talking so freely to the Doctor +about his private affairs, which was worse. Nothing irritated the +Vicar's temper more than the feeling of having been too free and +communicative with people who did not care about him, a thing he was +very apt to do. And, on this occasion, he could not disguise from +himself that he had been led into talking about his daughter to the +Doctor, in a way which he characterised in his own mind as being +"indecent." + +As I said, he was cross. And anything in the way of clearing up or +disturbance always irritated him, though he generally concealed it. But +there was a point at which his vexation always took the form of a +protest, more or less violent. And that point was determined by anyone +meddling with his manuscript sermons. + +So, on this unlucky morning, in spite of fresh-lit fires smoking in his +face, and fenders in dark passages throwing him headlong into lurking +coalscuttles, he kept his temper like a man, until coming into his +study, he found his favourite discourse on the sixth seal lying on the +floor by the window, his lectures on the 119th Psalm on the hearthrug, +and the maid fanning the fire with his CHEF D'OEUVRE, the Waterloo +thanksgiving. + +Then, I am sorry to say, he lost his temper. Instead of calling the +girl by her proper name, he addressed her as a distinguished Jewish +lady, a near relation of King Ahab, and, snatching the sermon from her +hand, told her to go and call Miss Mary, or he'd lay his stick about +her back. + +The girl was frightened--she had never seen her master in this state of +mind before. So she ran out of the room, and, having fetched Mary, +ensconced herself outside the door to hear what was the matter. + +Mary tripped into the room looking pretty and fresh. "Why, father," she +said, "you have been up all night. I have ordered you a cup of coffee. +How is old Jewel?" + +"Dead," said the Vicar. "Never mind him. Mary, I want to speak to you, +seriously, about something that concerns the happiness of your whole +life." + +"Father," she said, "you frighten me. Let me get you your coffee before +you begin, at all events." + +"Stay where you are, I order you," said the father. "I will have no +temporizing until the matter grows cold. I will speak now; do you hear. +Now, listen." + +She was subdued, and knew what was coming. She sat down, and waited. +Had he looked in her face, instead of in the fire, he would have seen +an expression there which he would little have liked--a smile of +obstinacy and self-will. + +"I am not going to mince matters, and beat about the bush, Mary," he +began. "What I say I mean, and will have it attended to. You are very +intimate with young Hawker, and that intimacy is very displeasing to +me." + +"Well?" she said. + +"Well," he answered. "I say it is not well. I will not have him here." + +"You are rather late, father," she said. "He has had the run of this +house these six months. You should have spoken before." + +"I speak now, miss," said the Vicar, succeeding in working himself into +a passion, "and that is enough. I forbid him the house, now!" + +"You had better tell him so, father. I won't." + +"I daresay you won't," said the Vicar. "But I have told him so already +this morning." + +"You have!" she cried. "Father, you had no right to do that. You +encouraged him here. And now my love is given, you turn round and try +to break my heart." + +"I never encouraged him. You all throw that in my face. You have no +natural affection, girl. I always hated the man. And now I have heard +things about him sufficient to bar him from any honest man's house." + +"Unjust!" she said. "I will never believe it." + +"I daresay you won't," said the Vicar. "Because you don't want to. You +are determined to make my life miserable. There was Jim Stockbridge. +Such a noble, handsome, gentlemanly young fellow, and nothing would +please you but to drive him wild, till he left the country. Now, go +away, and mind what I have said. You mean to break my heart, I see." + +She turned as she was going out. "Father," she said, "is James +Stockbridge gone?" + +"Yes; gone. Sailed a fortnight ago. And all your doing. Poor boy, I +wonder where he is now." + +Where is he now? Under the cliffs of Madeira. Standing on the deck of a +brave ship, beneath a rustling cloud of canvas, watching awe-struck +that noble island, like an aerial temple, brown in the lights, blue in +the shadows, floating between a sapphire sea and an azure sky. Far +aloft in the air is Ruivo, five thousand feet overhead, father of the +great ridges and sierras that run down jagged and abrupt, till they end +in wild surf-washed promontories. He is watching a mighty glen that +pierces the mountain, dark with misty shadows. He is watching the +waterfalls that stream from among the vineyards into the sea below, and +one long white monastery, perched up among the crags above the highway +of the world. + +Borne upon the full north wind, the manhood and intelligence of Europe +goes past, day by day, in white winged ships. And above all, unheeding, +century after century, the old monks have vegetated there, saying their +masses, and ringing their chapel bells, high on the windy cliff. + + + + +Chapter IX + +WHEN THE KYE CAME HAME. + + +And when Mary had left the room, the Vicar sat musing before the fire +in his study. "Well," said he to himself, "she took it quieter than I +thought she would. Now, I can't blame myself. I think I have shown her +that I am determined, and she seems inclined to be dutiful. Poor dear +girl, I am very sorry for her. There is no doubt she has taken a fancy +to this handsome young scamp. But she must get over it. It can't be so +very serious as yet. At all events I have done my duty, though I can't +help saying that I wish I had spoken before things went so far." + +The maid looked in timidly, and told him that breakfast was ready. He +went into the front parlour, and there he found his sister making tea. +She looked rather disturbed, and, as the Vicar kissed her, he asked her +"where was Mary?" + +"She is not well, brother," she answered. "She is going to stay +upstairs; I fear something has gone wrong with her." + +"She and I had some words this morning," answered he, "and that happens +so seldom, that she is a little upset, that is all." + +"I hope there is nothing serious, brother," said Miss Thornton. + +"No; I have only been telling her that she must give up receiving +George Hawker here. And she seems to have taken a sort of fancy to his +society, which might have grown to something more serious. So I am glad +I spoke in time." + +"My dear brother, do you think you have spoken in time? I have always +imagined that you had determined, for some reason which I was not +master of, that she should look on Mr. Hawker as her future husband. I +am afraid you will have trouble. Mary is selfwilled." + +Mary was very self-willed. She refused to come down-stairs all day, +and, when he was sitting down to dinner, he sent up for her. She sent +him for an answer, that she did not want any dinner, and that she was +going to stay where she was. + +The Vicar ate his dinner notwithstanding. He was vexed, but, on the +whole, felt satisfied with himself. This sort of thing, he said to +himself, was to be expected. She would get over it in time. He hoped +that the poor girl would not neglect her meals, and get thin. He might +have made himself comfortable if he had seen her at the cold chicken in +the back kitchen. + +She could not quite make the matter out. She rather fancied that her +father and Hawker had had some quarrel, the effects of which would wear +off, and that all would come back to its old course. She thought it +strange too that her father should be so different from his usual self, +and this made her uneasy. One thing she was determined on, not to give +up her lover, come what would. So far in life she had always had her +own way, and she would have it now. All things considered, she thought +that sulks would be her game. So sulks it was. To be carried on until +the Vicar relented. + +She sat up in her room till it was evening. Twice during the day her +aunt had come up, and the first time she had got rid of her under +pretence of headache, but the second time she was forced in decency to +admit her, and listen entirely unedified to a long discourse, proving, +beyond power of contradiction, that it was the duty of every young +Englishwoman to be guided entirely by her parents in the choice of a +partner for life. And how that Lady Kate, as a fearful judgment on her +for marrying a captain of artillery against the wishes of her noble +relatives, was now expiating her crimes on 400L. a-year, and when she +might have married a duke. + +Lady Kate was Miss Thornton's "awful example," her "naughty girl." She +served to point many a moral of the old lady's. But Lady Fanny, her +sister, was always represented as the pattern of all Christian virtues +who had crowned the hopes of her family and well-wishers by marrying a +gouty marquis of sixty-three, with fifty thousand a-year. On this +occasion, Mary struck the old lady dumb--"knocked her cold," our +American cousins would say--by announcing that she considered Lady +Emily to be a fool, but that Lady Kate seemed to be a girl of some +spirit. So Miss Thornton left her to her own evil thoughts, and, as +evening began to fall, Mary put on her bonnet, and went out for a walk. + +Out by the back door, and round through the shrubbery, so that she +gained the front gate unperceived from the windows; but ere she reached +it she heard the latch go, and found herself face to face with a man. + +He was an immensely tall man, six foot at least. His long heavy limbs +loosely hung together, and his immense broad shoulders slightly +rounded. In features he was hardly handsome, but a kindly pleasant +looking face made ample atonement for want of beauty. He was dressed in +knee-breeches, and a great blue coat, with brass buttons, too large +even for him, was topped by a broad-brimmed beaver hat, with fur on it +half-aninch long. In age, this man was about five-and-twenty, and well +known he was to all the young fellows round there for skill in all +sporting matters, as well as for his kind-heartedness and generosity. + +When he saw Mary pop out of the little side walk right upon him, he +leaned back against the gate and burst out laughing. No, hardly "burst +out." His laughter seemed to begin internally and silently, till, after +one or two rounds, it shook the vast fabric of his chest beyond +endurance, and broke out into so loud and joyous a peal that the +blackbird fled, screeching indignantly, from the ivy-tree behind him. + +"What! Thomas Troubridge," said Mary. "My dear cousin, how are you? +Now, don't stand laughing there like a great gaby, but come and shake +hands. What on earth do you see to laugh at in me?" + +"Nothing, my cousin Poll, nothing," he replied. "You know that is my +way of expressing approval. And you look so pretty standing there in +the shade, that I would break any man's neck who didn't applaud. Shake +hands, says you, I'll shake hands with a vengeance." So saying, he +caught her in his arms, and covered her face with kisses. + +"You audacious," she exclaimed, when she writhed herself free. "I'll +never come within arm's-length of you again. How dare you?" + +"Only cousinly affection, I assure you, Poll. Rather more violent than +usual at finding myself back in Drumston. But entirely cousinly." + +"Where have you been then, Tom?" she asked. + +"Why, to London, to be sure. Give us ano--" + +"You keep off, sir, or you'll catch it. What took you there?" + +"Went to see Stockbridge and Hamlyn off." + +"Then, they are gone?" she asked. + +"Gone, sure enough. I was the last friend they'll see for many a long +year." + +"How did Stockbridge look? Was he pretty brave?" + +"Pretty well. Braver than I was. Mary, my girl, why didn't ye marry +him?" + +"What--you are at me with the rest, are you?" she answered. "Why, +because he was a gaby, and you're another; and I wouldn't marry either +of you to save your lives--now then!" + +"Do you mean to say you would not have me, if I asked you? Pooh! pooh! +I know better than that, you know." And again the shrubbery rang with +his laughter. + +"Now, go in, Tom, and let me get out," said Mary. "I say Tom dear, +don't say you saw me. I am going out for a turn, and I don't want them +to know it." + +Tom twisted up his great face into a mixture of mystery, admiration, +wonder, and acquiescence, and, having opened the gate for her, went in. + +But Mary walked quickly down a deep narrow lane, overarched with oak, +and melodious with the full rich notes of the thrush, till she saw down +the long vista, growing now momentarily darker, the gleaming of a ford +where the road crossed a brook. + +Not the brook where the Vicar and the Major went fishing. Quite a +different sort of stream, although they were scarcely half a mile +apart, and joined just below. Here all the soil was yellow clay, and, +being less fertile, was far more densely wooded than any of the red +country. The hills were very abrupt, and the fields but sparely +scattered among the forest land. The stream itself, where it crossed +the road, flowed murmuring over a bed of loose blue slate pebbles, but +both above and below this place forced its way, almost invisible, +through a dense oak wood, deeply tangled with undergrowth. + +A stone foot-bridge spanned the stream, and having reached this, it +seemed as if she had come to her journey's end. For leaning on the rail +she began looking into the water below, though starting and looking +round at every sound. + +She was waiting for some one. A pleasant place this to wait in. So +dark, so hemmed in with trees, and the road so little used; spring was +early here, and the boughs were getting quite dense already. How +pleasant to see the broad red moon go up behind the feathery branches, +and listen to the evensong of the thrush, just departing to roost, and +leaving the field clear for the woodlark all night. There were a few +sounds from the village, a lowing of cows, and the noise of the boys at +play; but they were so tempered down by the distance, that they only +added to the evening harmony. + +There is another sound now. Horses' feet approaching rapidly from the +side opposite to that by which she had come; and soon a horseman comes +in sight, coming quickly down the hill. When he sees her he breaks into +a gallop, and only pulls up when he is at the side of the brook below +her. + +This is the man she was expecting--George Hawker. Ah, Vicar! how +useless is your authority when lovers have such intelligence as this. +It were better they should meet in your parlour, under your own eye, +than here, in the budding spring-time, in this quiet spot under the +darkening oaks. + +Hawker spoke first. "I guessed," he said, "that it was just possible +you might come out to-night. Come down off the bridge, my love, and let +us talk together while I hang up the horse." + +So as he tied the horse to a gate, she came down off the bridge. He +took her in his arms and kissed her. "Now, my Poll," said he, "I know +what you are going to begin talking about." + +"I daresay you do, George," she answered. "You and my father have +quarrelled." + +"The quarrel has been all on one side, my love," he said; "he has got +some nonsense into his head, and he told me when I met him this +morning, that he would never see me in his house again." + +"What has he heard, George? it must be something very shocking to +change him like that. Do you know what it is?" + +"Perhaps I do," he said; "but he has no right to visit my father's sins +on me. He hates me, and he always did; and he has been racking his +brains to find out something against me. That rascally German doctor +has found him an excuse, and so he throws in my teeth, as fresh +discovered, what he must have known years ago." + +"I don't think that, George. I don't think he would be so deceitful." + +"Not naturally he wouldn't, I know; but he is under the thumb of that +doctor; and you know how HE hates me--If you don't I do." + +"I don't know why Dr. Mulhaus should hate you, George." + +"I do though; that sleeky dog Stockbridge, who is such a favourite with +him, has poisoned his mind, and all because he wanted you and your +money, and because you took up with me instead of him." + +"Well now," said Mary; "don't go on about him--he is gone, at all +events; but you must tell me what this is that my father has got +against you." + +"I don't like to. I tell you it is against my father, not me." + +"Well!" she answered; "if it was anyone but me, perhaps, you ought not +to tell it; but you ought to have no secrets from me, George--I have +kept none from you." + +"Well, my darling, I will tell you then: you know Madge, at our place?" + +"Yes; I have seen her." + +"Well, it's about her. She and my father live together like man and +wife, though they ain't married; and the Vicar must have known that +these years, and yet now he makes it an excuse for getting rid of me." + +"I always thought she was a bad woman," said Mary; "but you are wrong +about my father. He never knew it till now I am certain; and of course, +you know, he naturally won't have me go and live in the house with a +bad woman." + +"Does he think then, or do you think," replied George, with virtuous +indignation, "that I would have thought of taking you there? No, I'd +sooner have taken you to America!" + +"Well, so I believe, George." + +"This won't make any difference in you, Mary? No, I needn't ask it, you +wouldn't have come here to meet me to-night if that had been the case." + +"It ought to make a difference, George," she replied; "I am afraid I +oughtn't to come out here and see you, when my father don't approve of +it." + +"But you will come, my little darling, for all that;" he said. "Not +here though--the devil only knows who may be loitering round here. Half +a dozen pair of lovers a night perhaps--no, meet me up in the croft of +a night. I am often in at Gosford's of an evening, and I can see your +window from there, you put a candle in the right-hand corner when you +want to see me, and I'll be down in a very few minutes. I shall come +every evening and watch." + +"Indeed," she said, "I won't do anything of the sort; at least, unless +I have something very particular to say. Then, indeed, I might do such +a thing. Now I must go home or they will be missing me." + +"Stay a minute, Mary," said he; "you just listen to me. They will, some +of them, be trying to take my character away. You won't throw me off +without hearing my defence, dear Mary, I know you won't. Let me hear +what lies they tell of me, and don't you condemn me unheard because I +come from a bad house? Tell me that you'll give me a chance of clearing +myself with you, my girl, and I'll go home in peace and wait." + +What girl could resist the man she loved so truly, when he pleaded so +well? With his arm about her waist, and his handsome face bent over +her, lit up with what she took to be love. Not she, at all events. She +drew the handsome face down towards her, and as she kissed him +fervently, said: + +"I will never believe what they say of you, love. I should die if I +lost you. I will stay by you through evil report and good report. What +is all the world to me without you?" + +And she felt what she said, and meant it. What though the words in +which she spoke were borrowed from the trashy novels she was always +reading--they were true enough for all that. George saw that they were +true, and saw also that now was the time to speak about what he had +been pondering over all day. + +"And suppose, my own love," he said; "that your father should stay in +his present mind, and not come round?" + +"Well!" she said. + +"What are we to do?" he asked; "are we to be always content with +meeting here and there, when we dare? Is there nothing further?" + +"What do you mean?" she said in a whisper. "What shall we do?" + +"Can't you answer that?" he said softly. "Try." + +"No, I can't answer. You tell me what." + +"Fly!" he said in her ear. "Fly, and get married, that's what I mean." + +"Oh! that's what you mean," she replied. "Oh, George, I should not have +courage for that." + +"I think you will, my darling, when the time comes. Go home and think +about it." + +He kissed her once more, and then she ran away homeward through the +dark. But she did not run far before she began to walk slower and think. + +"Fly with him," she thought. Run away and get married. What a +delightfully wild idea. Not to be entertained for a moment, of course, +but still what a pleasant notion. She meant to marry George in the end; +why not that way as well as any other? She thought about it again and +again, and the idea grew more familiar. At all events, if her father +should continue obstinate, here was a way out of the difficulty. He +would be angry at first, but when he found he could not help himself he +would come round, and then they would all be happy. She would shut her +ears to anything they said against George. She could not believe it. +She would not. He should be her husband, come what might. She would +dissemble, and keep her father's suspicions quiet. More, she would +speak lightly of George, and make them believe she did not care for +him. But most of all, she would worm from her father everything she +could about him. Her curiosity was aroused, and she fancied, perhaps, +George had not told her all the truth. Perhaps he might be entangled +with some other woman. She would find it all out if she could. + +So confusedly thinking she reached home, and approaching the door, +heard the noise of many voices in the parlour. There was evidently +company, and in her present excited state nothing would suit her +better; so sliding up to her room, and changing her dress a little, she +came down and entered the parlour. + +"Behold," cried the Doctor, as she entered the room, "the evening-star +has arisen at last. My dear young lady, we have been loudly lamenting +your absence and indisposition." + +"I have been listening to your lamentations, Doctor," she replied. +"They were certainly loud, and from the frequent bursts of laughter, I +judged they were getting hysterical, so I came down." + +There was quite a party assembled. The Vicar and Major Buckley were +talking earnestly together. Troubridge and the Doctor were side by +side, while next the fire was Mrs. Buckley, with young Sam asleep on +her lap, and Miss Thornton sitting quietly beside her. + +Having saluted them all, Mary sat down by Mrs. Buckley, and began +talking to her. Then the conversation flowed back into the channel it +had been following before her arrival. + +"I mean to say, Vicar," said the Major, "that it would be better to +throw the four packs into two. Then you would have less squabbling and +bickering about the different boundaries, and you would kill the same +number of hares with half the dogs." + +"And you would throw a dozen men out of work, sir," replied the Vicar, +"in this parish and the next, and that is to be considered; and about +half the quantity of meat and horseflesh would be consumed, which is +another consideration. I tell you I believe things are better as they +are." + +"I hear they got a large stern-cabin; did they, Mr. Troubridge?" said +the Doctor. "I hope they'll be comfortable. They should have got more +amidships if they could. They will be sick the longer in their +position." + +"Poor boys!" said Troubridge; "they'll be more heart-sick than +stomach-sick, I expect. They'd halfrepented before they sailed." + +Mary sat down by Mrs. Buckley, and had half an hour's agreeable +conversation with her, till they all rose to go. Mrs. Buckley was +surprised at her sprightliness and good spirits, for she had expected +to find her in tears. The Doctor had met the Major in the morning, and +told him what had passed the night before, so Mrs. Buckley had come in +to cheer Mary up for the loss of her lover, and to her surprise found +her rather more merry than usual. This made the good lady suspect at +once that Mary did not treat the matter very seriously, or else was +determined to defy her father, which, as Mrs. Buckley reflected, she +was perfectly able to do, being rich in her own right, and of age. So +when she was putting on her shawl to go home, she kissed Mary, and said +kindly,-- + +"My love, I hope you will always honour and obey your father, and I am +sure you will always, under all circumstances, remember that I am your +true friend. Good night." + +And having bidden her good night, Mary went in. The Doctor was gone +with the Major, but Tom Troubridge sat still before the fire, and as +she came in was just finishing off one of his thundering fits of +laughter at something that the Vicar had said. + +"My love," said the Vicar, "I am so sorry you have been poorly, though +you look better to-night. Your dear aunt has been to Tom's room, so +there is nothing to do, but to sit down and talk to us." + +"Why, cousin Tom," she said, laughing, "I had quite forgot you; at +least, quite forgot you were going to stay here. Why, what a time it is +since I saw you." + +"Isn't it?" he replied; "such a very long time. If I remember right, we +met last out at the gate. Let's see. How long was that ago?" + +"You ought to remember," she replied; "you're big enough. Well, good +night. I'm going to bed." + +She went to her room, but not to bed. She sat in the window, looking at +the stars, pale in the full moonlight, wondering. Wondering what George +was doing. Wondering whether she would listen to his audacious +proposal. And wondering, lastly, what on earth her father would say if +she did. + + + + +Chapter X + +IN WHICH WE SEE A GOOD DEAL OF MISCHIEF BREWING. + + +A month went on, and May was well advanced. The lanes had grown dark +and shadowy with their summer bravery; the banks were a rich mass of +verdure once more, starred with wild-rose and eglantine; and on the +lesser woodland stream, the king fern was again concealing the channel +with brilliant golden fronds; while brown bare thorn-thickets, through +which the wind had whistled savagely all winter, were now changed into +pleasant bowers, where birds might build and sing. + +A busy month this had been for the Major. Fishing every day, and pretty +near all day, determined, as he said, to make the most of it, for fear +it should be his last year. There was a beaten path worn through the +growing grass all down the side of the stream by his sole exertions; +and now the May-fly was coming, and there would be no more fishing in +another week, so he worked harder than ever. Mrs. Buckley used to bring +down her son and heir, and sit under an oak by the river-side, sewing. +Pleasant, long days they were when dinner would be brought down to the +old tree, and she would spend the day there, among the long +meadow-grass, purple and yellow with flowers, bending under the soft +west wind. Pleasant to hear the corncrake by the hedge-side, or the +moorhen in the water. But pleasantest of all was the time when her +husband, tired of fishing, would come and sit beside her, and the boy, +throwing his lately-petted flowers to the wind, would run crowing to +the spotted beauties which his father had laid out for him on the grass. + +The Vicar was busy in his garden, and the Doctor was often helping him, +although the most of his time was spent in natural history, to which he +seemed entirely devoted. One evening they had been employed rather +later than usual, and the Doctor was just gone, when the Vicar turned +round and saw that his sister was come out, with her basket and +scissors, to gather a fresh bouquet for the drawing-room. + +So he went to join her, and as he approached her he admired her with an +affectionate admiration. Such a neat, trim figure, with the snow-white +handkerchief over her head, and her white garden gloves; what a +contrast to Mary, he thought; "Both good of their sort, though," he +added. + +"Good evening, brother," began Miss Thornton. "Was not that Dr. Mulhaus +went from you just now?" + +"Yes, my dear." + +"You had letters of introduction to Dr. Mulhaus, when he came to reside +in this village?" asked Miss Thornton. + +"Yes; Lord C----, whom I knew at Oxford, recommended me to him." + +"His real name, I daresay, is not Mulhaus. Do you know what his real +name is, brother?" + +How very awkward plain plump questions of this kind are. The Vicar +would have liked to answer "No," but he could not tell a lie. He was +also a very bad hand at prevaricating; so with a stammer, he said "Yes!" + +"So do I!" said Miss Thornton. + +"Good Lord, my dear, how did you find it out?" + +"I recognised him the first instant I saw him, and was struck dumb. I +was very discreet, and have never said a word even to you till now; +and, lately, I have been thinking that you might know, and so I thought +I would sound you." + +"I suppose you saw him when you were with her ladyship in Paris, in +'14?" + +"Yes; often," said Miss Thornton. "He came to the house several times. +How well I remember the last. The dear girls and I were in the +conservatory in the morning, and all of a sudden we heard the door +thrown open, and two men coming towards us talking from the +breakfast-room. We could not see them for the plants, but when we heard +the voice of one of them, the girls got into a terrible flutter, and I +was very much frightened myself. However, there was no escape, so we +came round the corner on them as bold as we could, and there was this +Dr. Mulhaus, as we call him, walking with him." + +"With him?--with who?" + +"The Emperor Alexander, my dear, whose voice we had recognised; I +thought you would have known whom I meant." + +"My dear love," said the Vicar, "I hope you reflect how sacred that is, +and what a good friend I should lose if the slightest hint as to who he +was, were to get among the gentry round. You don't think he has +recognised you?" + +"How is it likely, brother, that he would remember an English +governess, whom he never saw but three times, and never looked at once? +I have often wondered whether the Major recognised him." + +"No; Buckley is a Peninsular man, and although at Waterloo, never went +to Paris. Lans--Mulhaus, I mean, was not present at Waterloo. So they +never could have met. My dear discreet old sister, what tact you have! +I have often said to myself, when I have seen you and he together, 'If +she only knew who he was;'--and to think of your knowing all the time. +Ha! ha! ha! That's very good." + +"I have lived long where tact is required, my dear brother. See, there +goes young Mr. Hawker!" + +"I'd sooner see him going home than coming here. Now, I'd go out for a +turn in the lanes, but I know I should meet half a dozen couples +courting, as they call it. Bah! So I'll stay in the garden." + +The Vicar was right about the lanes being full of lovers. Never a vista +that you looked down but what you saw a ghostly pair, walking along +side by side. Not arm in arm, you know. The man has his hands in his +pockets, and walks a few feet off the woman. They never speak to one +another--I think I don't go too far in saying that. I have met them and +overtaken them, and come sharp round corners on to them, but I never +heard them speak to one another. I have asked the young men themselves +whether they ever said anything to their sweethearts, and those young +men have answered, "No; that they didn't know as they did." So that I +am inclined to believe that they are contented with that silent +utterance of the heart which is so superior to the silly whisperings +one hears on dark ottomans in drawing-rooms. + +But the Vicar had a strong dislike to lovers' walks. He was a practical +man, and had studied parish statistics for some years, so that his +opinion is entitled to respect. He used to ask, why an honest girl +should not receive her lover at her father's house, or in broad +daylight, and many other impertinent questions which we won't go into, +but which many a west-country parson has asked before, and never got an +answer to. + +Of all pleasant places in the parish, surely one of the pleasantest for +a meeting of this kind was the old oak at the end of Hawker's +plantation, where George met Nelly a night we know of. So quiet and +lonely, and such pleasant glimpses down long oaken glades, with a +bright carpet of springing fern. Surely there will be a couple here +this sweet May evening. + +So there is! Walking this way too! George Hawker is one of them; but we +can't see who the other is. Who should it be but Mary, though, with +whom he should walk, with his arm round her waist talking so +affectionately. But see, she raises her head. Why! that is not Mary. +That is old Jewel's dowdy, handsome, brazen-faced grandaughter. + +"Now I'm going home to supper, Miss Jenny," he says. "So you pack off, +or you'll have your amiable mother asking after you. By-the-bye, your +sister's going to be married, ain't she?" + +He referred to her eldest sister--the one that the Vicar and the Doctor +saw nursing a baby the night that old Jewel died. + +"Yes," replied the girl. "Her man's going to have her at last; that's +his baby she's got, you know; and it seems he'll sooner make her work +for keeping it, than pay for it hisself. So they're going to be +married; better late than never." + +George left her and went in; into the gloomy old kitchen, now darkening +rapidly. There sat Madge before the fire, in her favourite attitude, +with her chin on her hand and her elbow on her knee. + +"Well, old woman," said he, "where's the old man?" + +"Away to Colyton fair," she answered. + +"I hope he'll have the sense to stay there to-night, then," said +George. "He'll fall off his horse in a fit coming home drunk some of +these nights, and be found dead in a ditch!" + +"Good thing for you if he was!" + +"May be," said George; "but I'd be sorry for him, too!" + +"You would," she said laughing. "Why, you young fool, you'd be better +off in fifty ways!" + +"Why, you unnatural old vixen," said he indignantly, "do you miscall a +man for caring for his own father? Aye, and not such a bad 'un either; +and that's a thing I'm best judge of!" + +"He's been a good father to you, George, and I like you the better, +lad, for speaking up for him. He's an awful old rascal, my boy, but +you'll be a worse if you live!" + +"Now, stop that talk of yours, Madge, and don't go on like a mad woman, +or else we shall quarrel; and that I don't want, for I've got something +to tell you. I want your help, old girl!" + +"Aye, and you'll get it, my pretty boy; though you never tell me aught +till you are forced." + +"Well, I'm going to tell you something now; so keep your ears open. +Madge, where is the girl?" + +"Up-stairs." + +"Where's the man?" + +"Outside, in the stable, doing down your horse. Bend over the fire, and +whisper in my ear, lad!" + +"Madge, old girl," he whispered, as they bent their heads +together,--"I've wrote the old man's name where I oughtn't to have +done." + +"What! again!" she answered. "Three times! For God's sake, mind what +you're at, George." + +"Why," said he, astonished, "did you know I'd done it before?" + +"Twice I know of," she said. "Once last year, and once last month. How +do you think he'd have been so long without finding it out if it hadn't +been for me? And what a fool you were not to tell me before. Why, you +must be mad. I as near let the cat out of the bag coming over that last +business in the book without being ready for it, as anything could be. +However, it's all right at present. But what's this last?" + +"Why, the five hundred. I only did it twice." + +"You mustn't do it again, George. You were a fool ever to do it without +me. We are hardly safe now, if he should get talking to the bank +people. However, he never goes there, and you must take care he don't." + +"I say, Madge," said George, "what would he do if he found it out?" + +"I couldn't answer for him," said she. "He likes you best of anything +next his money; and sometimes I am afraid he wouldn't spare even you if +he knew he had been robbed. You might make yourself safe for any storm, +if you liked." + +"How?" + +"Marry that little doll Thornton, and get her money. Then, if it came +to a row, you could square it up." + +"Well," said George, "I am pushing that on. The old man won't come +round, and I want her to go off with me, but she can't get her courage +up yet." + +"Well, at all events," said Madge, "you should look sharp. There's a +regular tight-laced mob about her, and they all hate you. There's that +Mrs. Buckley. Her conversation will be very different from yours, and +she'll see the difference, and get too proud for the like of you. That +woman's a real lady, and that's very dangerous, for she treats her like +an equal. Just let that girl get over her first fancy for you, and +she'll care no more about you than nothing. Get hold of her before +she's got tired of you." + +"And there's another thing," said George. "That Tom Troubridge is +staying there again." + +"That's very bad," said Madge. "She is very likely to take a fancy to +him. He's a fine young fellow. You get her to go off with you. I'll +find the money, somehow. Here comes the old man." + +Old Hawker came in half-drunk and sulky. + +"Why, George," he said; "you at home. I thought you'd have been down, +hanging about the parson's. You don't get on very fast with that girl, +lad. I thought you'd have had her by now. You're a fool, boy." + +He reeled up to bed, and left the other two in the kitchen. + +"George," said Madge, "tell us what you did with that last money." + +"I ain't going to tell you," he answered. + +"Ha, ha!" she said; "you hadn't need to hide anything from me now." + +"Well, I like to tell you this least of all," he said. "That last money +went to hush up the first matter." + +"Did any one know of the first matter, then?" said Madge aghast. + +"Yes; the man who put me up to it." + +"Who was that?" + +"No one you know. William Lee of Belston." + +"No one I know," she answered sarcastically. "Not know my old +sweetheart, Bill Lee of Belston. And I the only one that knew him when +he came back. Well, I've kept that to myself, because no good was to be +got by peaching on him, and a secret's always worth money. Why, lad, I +could have sent that man abroad again quicker than he come, if I had +a-wanted. Why hadn't you trusted me at first? You'd a-saved five +hundred pound. You'll have him back as soon as that's gone." + +"He'd better mind himself, then," said George vindictively. + +"None o' that now," said Madge; "that's what you were after the other +night with your gun. But nothing came of it; I saw that in your face +when you came home. Now get off to bed; and if Bill Lee gives you any +more trouble, send him to me." + +He went to bed, but instead of sleeping lay thinking. + +"It would be a fine thing," he thought, "to get her and her money. I am +very fond of her for her own sake, but then the money would be the +making of me. I ought to strike while the iron is hot. Who knows but +what Nell might come gandering back in one of her tantrums, and spoil +everything. Or some of the other girls might get talking. And this +cursed cheque, too; that ought to be provided against. What a fool I +was not to tell Madge about it before. I wonder whether she is game to +come, though. I think she is; she has been very tender lately. It don't +look as if she was getting tired of me, though she might take a fancy +into her head about Troubridge. I daresay her father is putting him up +to it; though, indeed, that would be sure to set her against him. If he +hadn't done that with Stockbridge, she'd have married him, I believe. +Well, I'll see her to-morrow night, and carry on like mad. Terribly +awkward it will be, though, if she won't. However, we'll see. There's a +way to make her;" and so he fell asleep. + +As Somebody would have it, the very next day the Vicar and Mary had a +serious quarrel. Whether his digestion was out of order; whether the +sight of so many love-couples passing his gate the night before had +ruffled him and made him bilious; or whether some one was behind hand +with his tithe, we shall never know. Only we know, that shortly after +dinner they disagreed about some trifle, and Mary remained sulky all +the afternoon; and that at tea-time, driven on by pitiless fate, little +thinking what was hanging over him, he made some harsh remark, which +brought down a flood of tears. Whereat, getting into a passion, he told +Mary, somewhat unjustly, that she was always sulking, and was making +his life miserable. That it was time that she was married. That Tom +Troubridge was an excellent young fellow, and that he considered it was +her duty to turn her attention immediately to gaining his affections. + +Mary said, with tearful indignation, that it was notorious that he was +making love to Miss Burrit of Paiskow. And that if he wasn't, she'd +never, never, think of him, for that he was a great, lumbering, stupid, +stupid fool. There now. + +Then the Vicar got into an unholy frame of mind, and maddened by Mary's +tears, and the sight of his sister wiping her frightened face with her +handkerchief, said, with something like an asseveration, that she was +always at it. That she was moping about, and colloquing with that +infamous young scoundrel, Hawker. That he would not have it. That if he +found him lurking about his premises, he'd either break his neck +himself, or find some one who could; and a great deal more frantic +nonsense, such as weak men generally indulge in when they get in a +passion; much better left unsaid at any time, but which on this +occasion, as the reader knows, was calculated to be ruinous. + +Mary left the room, and went to her own. She was in a furious passion +against her father, against all the world. She sat on the bed for a +time, and cried herself quiet. It grew dark, and she lit a candle, and +put it in the right corner of the window, and soon after, wrapping a +shawl around her, she slipped down the back-stairs, and went into the +croft. + +Not long before she heard a low whistle, to which she replied, and in a +very few minutes felt George's arm round her waist, and his cheek +against hers. + +"I knew you would not disappoint me to-night, my love," he began. "I +have got something particular to say to you. You seem out of sorts +to-night, my dear. It's not my fault, is it?" + +"Not yours, George. Oh no," she said. "My father has been very cruel +and unjust to me, and I have been in a great passion and very +miserable. I am so glad you came to-night, that I might tell you how +very unhappy I was." + +"Tell me everything, my love. Don't keep back any secrets from me." + +"I won't indeed, George. I'll tell you everything. Though some of it +will make you very angry. My father broke out about you at tea-time, +and said that you were hanging about the place, and that he wouldn't +have it. And then he said that I ought to marry Tom Troubridge, and +that I said I'd never do. And then he went on worse again. He's quite +changed lately, George. I ain't at all happy with him." + +"The cure is in your own hands, Mary. Come off with me. I can get a +licence, and we could be married in a week or so, or two. Then, what +follows? Why, your father is very angry. He is that at present. But +he'll of course make believe he is in a terrible way. Well, in a few +weeks he'd see it was no use carrying on. That his daughter had married +a young man of property, who was very fond of her, and as she was very +fond of. And that matters might be a deal worse. That a bird in hand is +worth two in the bush. And so he'll write a kind affectionate letter to +his only child, and say that he forgives her husband for her sake. +That's how the matter will end, depend upon it." + +"Oh, George, George! if I could only think so." + +"Can you doubt it? Use your reason, my dear, and ask yourself what he +would gain by holding out. You say he's so fond of you." + +"Oh, I know he is." + +"Well, my darling, he wouldn't show it much if he was angry very long. +You don't know what a change it will make when the thing's once done. +When I am his son-in-law he'll be as anxious to find out that I'm a +saint as he is now to make me out a sinner. Say yes, my girl." + +"I am afraid, George." + +"Of nothing. Come, you are going to say yes, now." + +"But when, George? Not yet?" + +"To-morrow night." + +"Impossible! Sunday evening?" + +"The better the day the better the deed. Come, no refusal now, it is +too late, my darling. At ten o'clock I shall be here, under your +window. One kiss more, my own, and good night." + + + + +Chapter XI + +IN WHICH THE VICAR PREACHES A FAREWELL SERMON. + + +WHO has not seen the misery and despair often caused in a family by the +senseless selfishness of one of its members? Who has not felt enraged +at such times, to think that a man or woman should presume on the +affection and kindheartedness of their relatives, and yet act as if +they were wholly without those affections themselves? And, lastly, who +of us all is guiltless of doing this? Let him that is without sin among +us cast the first stone. + +The Spring sun rose on the Sabbath morning, as if no trouble were in +store for any mortal that day. The Vicar rose with the sun, for he had +certain arrears of the day's sermons to get through, and he was in the +habit of saying that his best and clearest passages were written with +his window open, in the brisk morning air. + +But although the air was brisk and pleasant this morning, and all +nature was in full glory, the inspiration did not come to the Vicar +quite so readily as usual. In fact, he could not write at all, and at +one time was thinking of pleading ill health, and not preaching, but +afterwards changed his mind, and patched the sermons up somehow, making +both morning and afternoon five minutes shorter than usual. + +He felt queer and dull in the head this morning. And, after breakfast, +he walked to church with his sister and daughter, not speaking a word. +Miss Thornton was rather alarmed, he looked so dull and stupid. But +Mary set it all down to his displeasure at her. + +She was so busy with far other thoughts at church that she did not +notice the strange halting way in which her father read the +service--sometimes lisping, sometimes trying twice before he could +pronounce a word at all. But, after church, Miss Thornton noticed it to +her; and she also noticed, as they stood waiting for him under the +lychgate, that he passed through the crowd of neighbours, who stood as +usual round the porch to receive him, without a word, merely raising +his hat in salutation. Conduct so strange that Miss Thornton began to +cry, and said she was sure her brother was very ill. But Mary said it +was because he was still angry with her that he spoke to no one, and +that when he had forgotten his cause of offence he would be the same +again. + +At lunch, the Vicar drank several glasses of wine, which seemed to do +him good; and by the time he had, to Miss Thornton's great +astonishment, drunk half a bottle, he was quite himself again. Mary was +all this time in her room, and the Vicar asked for her. But Miss +Thornton said she was not very well. + +"Oh, I remember," said the Vicar, "I quarrelled with her last night. I +was quite in the wrong, but, my dear sister, all yesterday and to-day I +have been so nervous, I have not known what I said or did. I shall keep +myself up to the afternoon service with wine, and to-morrow we will see +the Doctor. Don't tell Mary I am ill. She will think she is the cause, +poor girl." + +Afternoon service went off well enough. When Mary heard his old +familiar voice strong, clear, and harmonious, filling the aisles and +chapels of the beautiful old church, she was quite re-assured. He +seemed stronger than usual even, and never did the congregation listen +to a nobler or better sermon from his lips, than the one they heard +that spring afternoon; the last, alas, they ever had from their kind +old Vicar. + +Mary could not listen to it. The old innocent interest she used to have +in her father's success in preaching was gone. As of old, sitting +beneath the carved oak screen, she heard the sweet simple harmony of +the evening hymn roll up, and die in pleasant echoes among the lofty +arches overhead. As of old, she could see through the rich traceried +windows the moor sloping far away, calm and peaceful, bathed in a misty +halo of afternoon sunshine. All these familiar sights and sounds were +the same, but she herself was different. She was about to break rudely +through from the old world of simple routine and homely pleasure, and +to cast herself unthinking into a new world of passion and chance, and +take the consequences of such a step, let them be what they might. She +felt as if she was the possessor of some guilty secret, and felt +sometimes as if some one would rise in church and denounce her. How +would all these quiet folks talk of her to-morrow morning? That was not +to be thought of. She must harden her heart and think of nothing. Only +that tomorrow she would be far away with her lover. + +Poor Mary! many a woman, and many a man, who sat so quiet and calm in +the old church that afternoon, had far guiltier secrets than any you +ever had, to trouble them, and yet they all drank, slept, and died, as +quietly as many honest and good men. Poor girl! let us judge as kindly +of her as we can, for she paid a fearful penalty for her self-will. She +did but break through the prejudices of her education, we may say; and +if she was undutiful, what girls are not, under the influence of +passion? If such poor excuses as these will cause us to think more +kindly of her, let us make them, and leave the rest to God. Perhaps, +brother, you and I may stand in a position to have excuses made for us, +one day; therefore, we will be charitable. + +My Lord was at church that afternoon, a very rare circumstance, for he +was mostly at his great property in the north, and had lately been much +abroad for his health. So when Miss Thornton and Mary joined the Vicar +in the main aisle, and the three went forth into the churchyard, they +found the villagers drawn respectfully back upon the graves, and his +lordship waiting in close confabulation with farmer Wreford, to receive +the Vicar as he came out. + +A tall, courtly, grizzled-looking man he was, with clear grey eyes, and +a modulated harmonious voice. Well did their lordships of the +upper-house know that voice, when after a long sleepy debate it aroused +them from ambrosial slumbers, with biting sarcasm, and most +disagreeably told truths. And most heartily did a certain proportion of +their lordships curse the owner of that voice, for a talented, +eloquent, meddlesome innovator. But on all his great estates he was +adored by the labourers and town's-folk, though hated by the farmers +and country 'squires; for he was the earliest and fiercest of the +reform and free-trade warriors. + +He came up to the Vicar with a pleasant smile. "I have to thank you, +Mr. Thornton, for a most charming sermon, though having the fault +common to all good things, of being too short. Miss Thornton, I hope +you are quite well; I saw Lady D---- the other day, and she begged that +when I came down here, I would convey her kindest love to you. I think +she mentioned that she was about to write to you." + +"I received a letter from her ladyship last week," said Miss Thornton; +"informing me that dear Lady Fanny had got a son and heir." + +"Happy boy," said my Lord; "fifty thousand a-year, and nothing to do +for it, unless he likes. Besides a minority of at least ten years for +L---- is getting very shaky, Miss Thornton, and is still devotedly +given to stewed mushrooms. Nay, my dear lady, don't look distressed, +she will make a noble young dowager. This must be your daughter, Mr. +Thornton--pray introduce me." + +Mary was introduced, and his Lordship addressed a few kindly +commonplaces to her, to which she replied with graceful modesty. Then +he demanded of the Vicar, "where is Dr. Mulhaus, has he been at church +this afternoon?" + +At that moment the Doctor, attended by the old clerk, was head and +shoulders into the old oak chest that contained the parish registers, +looking for the book of burials for sixteen hundred and something. Not +being able to get to the bottom, he got bodily in, as into a bath, and +after several dives succeeded in fishing it up from the bottom, and +standing there absorbed for a few minutes, up to his middle in dusty +parchments and angry moths, he got his finger on a particular date, and +dashed out of church, book in hand, and hatless, crying, "Vicar, +Vicar!" just as the villagers had cleared off, and my lord was moving +away with the Vicar to the parsonage, to take tea. + +When his Lordship saw the wild dusty figure come running out of the +church porch with the parish register in his hand, and no hat on his +head, he understood the position immediately. He sat down on a +tombstone, and laughed till he could laugh no longer. + +"No need to tell me," he said through his laughter, "that he is +unchanged; just as mad and energetic as ever, at whatever he takes in +hand, whether getting together impossible ministries, or searching the +parishregister of an English village. How do you do, my dear old +friend?" + +"And how do you do, old democrat?" answered the Doctor. "Politics seem +to agree with you; I believe you would die without vexation--just +excuse me a moment. Look you here, you infidel," to the Vicar, showing +him the register; "there's his name plain--'Burrows, Curate of this +parish, 1698.'--Now what do you say?" + +The Vicar acquiesced with a sleepy laugh, and proposed moving +homewards. Miss Thornton hoped that the Doctor would join them at +dinner as usual. The Doctor said of course, and went back to fetch his +hat, my Lord following him into the church. When the others had gone +down the hill, and were waiting for the nobleman and the Doctor at the +gate, Miss Thornton watched the two coming down the hill. My Lord +stopped the Doctor, and eagerly demonstrated something to him with his +forefinger on the palm of his hand; but the Doctor only shook his head, +and then the pair moved on. + +My Lord made himself thoroughly agreeable at dinner, as did also the +Doctor. Mary was surprised too at the calm highbred bearing of her +aunt, the way she understood and spoke of every subject of +conversation, and the deference with which they listened to her. It was +a side of her aunt's character she had never seen before, and she felt +it hard to believe that that intellectual dignified lady, referred to +on all subjects, was the old maid she had been used to laugh at, and +began to feel that she was in an atmosphere far above what she was +accustomed to. + +"All this is above me," she said to herself; "let them live in this +sphere who are accustomed to it, I have chosen wiser, out of the rank +in which I have been brought up. I would sooner be George Hawker's wife +than sit there, crushed and bored by their highflown talk." + +Soon after dinner she retired with her aunt; they did not talk much +when they were alone, so Mary soon retired to her room, and having made +a few very slight preparations, sat down at the window. The time was +soon to come, but it was very cold; the maids were out, as they always +were on Sunday evening, and there was a fire in the kitchen,--she would +go and sit there--so down she went. + +She wished to be alone, so when she saw a candle burning in the kitchen +she was disappointed, but went in nevertheless. My Lord's groom, who +had been sitting before the fire, rose up and saluted her. A handsome +young man, rather square and prominent about the jaws, but nevertheless +foolish and amiable looking. The sort of man one would suppose, who, if +his lord were to tell him to jump into the pit Tophet, would pursue one +of two courses, either jump in himself, without further to do, or throw +his own brother in with profuse apologies. From the top of his sleek +round head to the sole of his perfect top-boot, the model and living +exponent of what a servant should be--fit to be put into a case and +ticketed as such. + +He saluted her as she came in, and drawing a letter from his hat, put +it into her astonished hands. "My orders were, Miss, that I was not to +give it to you unless I saw you personally." + +She thanked him and withdrew to read it. It was a scrawl from George +Hawker, the first letter she had ever received from him, and ran as +follows:-- + + +"MY HEART'S DARLING, + +"I SHALL be in the croft to-night, according to promise, ready to make +you the happiest woman in England, so I know you won't fail. My Lord is +coming to church this afternoon, and will be sure to dine with you. So +I send this present by his groom, Sam; a good young chap, which I have +known since he was so high, and like well, only that he is soft, which +is not to his disadvantage. + +G.H." + + +She was standing under the lamp reading this when she heard the +dining-room door open, and the men coming out from their wine. She +slipped into the room opposite, and stood listening in the dark. She +could see them as they came out. There was my Lord and the Doctor +first, and behind came Major Buckley, who had dropped in, as his custom +was, on Sunday evening, and who must have arrived while she was +up-stairs. As they passed the door, inside which she stood, his +Lordship turned round and said:-- + +"I tell you what, my dear Major, if that old Hawker was a tenant of +mine, I'd take away his lease, and, if I could, force him to leave the +parish. One man of that kind does incalculable harm in a village, by +lowering the tone of the morality of the place. That's the use of a +great landlord if he does his duty. He can punish evildoers whom the +law does not reach." + +"Don't say anything more about him," said the Doctor in a low voice. +"It's a tender subject in this house." + +"It is, eh!" said my Lord; "thanks for the hint, good--bah!--Mulhaus. +Let us go up and have half an hour with Miss Thornton before I go!" + +They went up, and then her father followed. He seemed flushed, and she +thought he must have been drinking too much wine. After they were in +the drawing-room, she crept up-stairs and listened. They were all +talking except her father. It was half-past nine, and she wished they +would go. So she went into her bedroom and waited. The maids had come +home, and she heard them talking to the groom in the kitchen. At ten +o'clock the bell was rung, and my Lord's horse ordered. Soon he went, +and not long afterwards the Major and the Doctor followed. Then she saw +Miss Thornton go to her room, and her father walk slowly to his; and +all was still throughout the house. + +She took her hat and shawl and slipped down stairs shoeless into her +father's study. She laid a note on his chimney-piece, which she had +written in the morning, and opening the back-door fled swiftly forth, +not daring to look behind her. Quickly, under the blinking stars, under +the blooming apple-trees, out to the croft-gate, and there was George +waiting impatiently for her, according to promise. + +"I began to fear you were not coming, my dear. Quick, jump!" + +She scrambled over the gate, and jumped into his arms; he hurried her +down the lane about a hundred yards, and then became aware of a dark +object in the middle of the road. + +"That's my gig, my dear. Once in that, and we are soon in Exeter. All +right, Bob?" + +"All right!" replied a strange voice in the dark, and she was lifted +into the gig quickly; in another moment George was beside her, and they +were flying through the dark steep lanes at a dangerous speed. + +The horse was a noble beast--the finest in the country side--and, like +his driver, knew every stock and stone on the road; so that ere poor +Mary had recovered her first flurry, they had crossed the red ford, and +were four miles on the road towards the capital, and began to feel a +little more cheerful, for she had been crying bitterly. + +"Don't give way, Polly," said George. + +"No fear of my giving way now, George. If I had been going to do that, +I'd have done it before. Now tell us what you are going to do? I have +left everything to you." + +"I think we had better go straight on to London, my dear," he replied, +"and get married by licence. We could never stop in Exeter; and if you +feel up to it, I should like to get off by early coach to-morrow +morning. What do you say?" + +"By all means! Shall we be there in time?" + +"Yes; two hours before the coach starts." + +"Have you money enough, George?" she asked. + +"Plenty!" he replied. + +"If you go short, you must come to me, you know," she said. + +They rattled through the broad streets of a small country town just as +the moon rose. The noble minster, which had for many years been used as +the parish church, slept quietly among the yews and gravestones; all +the town was still; only they two were awake, flying, she thought, from +the fellowship of all quiet men. Was her father asleep now? she +wondered. What would Miss Thornton say in the morning? and many other +things she was asking herself, when she was interrupted by George +saying, "Only eight miles to Exeter; we shall be in by daybreak." + +So they left Crediton Minster behind them, and rolled away along the +broad road by the river, beneath the whispering poplars. + + +* * * * * + + +As Miss Thornton was dressing herself next morning she heard the Vicar +go down into his study as usual. She congratulated herself that he was +better, from being up thus early, but determined, nevertheless, that he +should see a doctor that day, who might meet and consult with Dr. +Mulhaus. + +Then she wondered why Mary had not been in. She generally came into her +aunt's room to hook-and-eye her, as she called it; but not having come +this morning, Miss Thornton determined to go to her, and accordingly +went and rapped at her door. + +No answer. "Could the girl have been fool enough?" thought Miss +Thornton. "Nonsense! no! She must be asleep!" + +She opened the door and went in. Everything tidy. The bed had not been +slept in. Miss Thornton had been in at an elopement, and a famous one, +before; so she knew the symptoms in a moment. Well she remembered the +dreadful morning when Lady Kate went off with Captain Brentwood, of the +Artillery. Well she remembered the Countess going into hysterics. But +this was worse than that; this touched her nearer home. + +"Oh you naughty girl! Oh you wicked, ungrateful girl; to go and do such +a thing at a time like this, when I've been watching the paralysis +creeping over him day by day! How shall I tell him? How shall I ever +tell him? He will have a stroke as sure as fate. He was going to have +one without this. I dare not tell him till breakfast, and yet I ought +to tell him at once. I was brought into the world to be driven mad by +girls. Oh dear, I wish they were all boys, and we might send them to +Eton and wash our hands of them. Well, I must leave crying, and prepare +for telling him." + +She went into his study, and at first could not see him; but he was +there--a heap of black clothes lay on the hearthrug, and Miss Thornton +running up, saw that it was her brother, speechless, senseless, +clasping a letter in his hand. + +She saw that the worst was come, and nerved herself for work, like a +valiant soul as she was. She got him carried to his bed by the two +sturdy maids, and sent an express for Dr. Mulhaus, and another for the +professional surgeon. Then she took from her pocket the letter which +she had found in the poor Vicar's hand, and, going to the window, read +as follows: + +"When you get this, father, I shall be many miles away. I have started +to London with George Hawker, and God only knows whether you will see +me again. Try to forgive me, father, and if not, forget that you ever +had a daughter who was only born to give you trouble.--Your erring but +affectionate Mary." + +It will be seen by the reader that this unlucky letter, written in +agitation and hurry, contained no allusion whatever to marriage, but +rather left one to infer that she was gone with Hawker as his mistress. +So the Vicar read it again and again, each time more mistily, till +sense and feeling departed, and he lay before his hearth a hopeless +paralytic. + +At that moment Mary, beside George, was rolling through the fresh +morning air, up the beautiful Exe valley. Her fears were gone with +daylight and sunshine, and as he put his arm about her waist, she said, + +"I am glad we came outside." + +"Are you quite happy now?" he asked. + +"Quite happy!"---- + + + + +Chapter XII + +IN WHICH A VERY MUSCULAR CHRISTIAN INDEED, COMES ON THE STAGE. + + +For the first four weeks that the Vicar lay paralyzed, the neighbouring +clergymen had done his duty; but now arose a new difficulty at +Drumston. Who was to do the duty while the poor Vicar lay there on his +back speechless? + +"How," asked Miss Thornton of Tom Troubridge, "are we to make head +against the dissenters now? Let the duty lapse but one single week, my +dear friend, and you will see the chapels overflowing once more. My +brother has always had a hard fight to keep them to church, for they +have a natural tendency to dissent here. And a great number don't care +what the denominations are, so long as there is noise enough." + +"If that is the case," answered Tom, "old Mark Hook's place of worship +should pay best. I'd back them against Bedlam any day." + +"They certainly make the loudest noise at a Revival," said Miss +Thornton. "But what are we to do?" + +"That I am sure I don't know, my dearest auntie," said Troubridge, "but +I am here, and my horse too, ready to go any amount of errands." + +"I see no way," said Miss Thornton, "but to write to the Bishop." + +"And I see no way else," said Tom, "unless you like to dress me up as a +parson, and see if I would do." + +Miss Thornton wrote to the Bishop, with whom she had some acquaintance, +and told him how her brother had been struck down with paralysis, and +that the parish was unprovided for; that if he would send any gentleman +he approved of, she would gladly receive him at Drumston. + +Armed with this letter, Tom found himself, for the first time in his +life, in an episcopal palace. A sleek servant in black opened the door +with cat-like tread, and admitted him into a dark, warm hall; and on +Tom's saying, in a hoarse whisper, as if he was in church, that he had +brought a note of importance, and would wait for an answer, the man +glided away, and disappeared through a spring-door, which swung to +behind him. Tom thought it would have banged, but it didn't. Bishops' +doors never bang. + +Tom had a great awe for your peers spiritual. He could get on well +enough with a peer temporal, particularly if that proud aristocrat +happened to be in want of a horse; but a bishop was quite another +matter. + +So he sat rather uncomfortable in the dark, warm hall, listening to +such dull sounds as could be heard in the gloomy mansion. A broad oak +staircase led up from the hall into lighter regions, and there stood, +on a landing above, a lean, wheezy old clock, all over brass knobs, +which, as he looked on it, choked, and sneezed four. + +But now there was a new sound in the house. An indecent, secular sound. +A door near the top of the house was burst violently open, and there +was a scuffle. A loud voice shouted twice unmistakeably and distinctly, +"So--o, good bitch!" And then the astounded Tom heard the worrying of a +terrier, and the squeak of a dying rat. There was no mistake about it; +he heard the bones crack. Then he made out that a dog was induced to go +into a room on false pretences, and deftly shut up there, and then he +heard a heavy step descending the stairs towards him. + +But, before there was time for the perpetrator of these sacrileges to +come in sight, a side door opened, and the Bishop himself came forth +with a letter in his hand (a mild, clever, gentlemanly-looking man he +was too, Tom remarked) and said,-- + +"Pray is there not a messenger from Drumston here?" + +Tom replied that he had brought a letter from his cousin the Vicar. He +had rather expected to hear it demanded, "Where is the audacious man +who has dared to penetrate these sacred shades?" and was agreeably +relieved to find that the Bishop wasn't angry with him. + +"Dear me," said the Bishop; "I beg a thousand pardons for keeping you +in the hall; pray walk into my study." + +So in he went and sat down. The Bishop resumed,-- + +"You are Mr. Thornton's cousin, sir?" + +Tom bowed. "I am about the nearest relation he has besides his sister, +my lord." + +"Indeed," said the Bishop. "I have written to Miss Thornton to say that +there is a gentleman, a relation of my own, now living in the house +with me, who will undertake Mr. Thornton's duties, and I dare say, +also, without remuneration. He has nothing to do at present.--Oh, here +is the gentleman I spoke of!" + +Here was the gentleman he spoke of, holding a dead rat by the tail, and +crying out,-- + +"Look here, uncle; what did I tell you? I might have been devoured +alive, had it not been for my faithful Fly, your enemy." + +He was about six feet or nearly so in height, with a highly +intellectual though not a handsome face. His brown hair, carelessly +brushed, fell over a forehead both broad and lofty, beneath which shone +a pair of bold, clear grey eyes. The moment Troubridge saw him he set +him down in his own mind as a "goer," by which he meant a man who had +go, or energy, in him. A man, he thought, who is thrown away as a +parson. + +The Bishop, ringing the bell, began again, "This is my nephew, Mr. +Frank Maberly." + +The sleek servant entered. + +"My dear Frank, pray give that rat to Sanders, and let him take it +away. I don't like such things in the study." + +"I only brought it to convince you, uncle," said the other. "Here you +are, Sanders!" + +But Sanders would have as soon shaken hands with the Pope. He rather +thought the rat was alive; and, taking the tongs, he received the beast +at a safe distance, while Tom saw a smile of contempt pass over the +young curate's features. + +"You'd make a good missionary, Sanders," said he; and, turning to +Troubridge, continued, "Pray excuse this interlude, sir. You don't look +as if you would refuse to shake me by my ratty hand." + +Tom thought he would sooner shake hands with him than fight him, and +was so won by Maberly's manner, that he was just going to say so, when +he recollected the presence he was in, and blushed scarlet. + +"My dear Frank," resumed his uncle, "Mr. Thornton of Drumston is taken +suddenly ill, and I want you to go over and do his duties for him till +he is better." + +"Most certainly, my dear lord; and when shall I go?" + +"Say to-morrow; will that suit your household, sir?" said the Bishop. + +Tom replied, "Yes, certainly," and took his leave. Then the Bishop, +turning to Frank, said,-- + +"The living of Drumston, nephew, is in my gift; and if Mr. Thornton +does not recover, as is very possible, I shall give it to you. I wish +you, therefore, to go to Drumston, and become acquainted with your +future parishioners. You will find Miss Thornton a most charming old +lady." + +Frank Maberly was the second son of a country gentleman of good +property, and was a very remarkable character. His uncle had always +said of him, that whatever he chose to take up he would be first in; +and his uncle was right. At Eton he was not only the best cricketer and +runner, but decidedly the best scholar of his time. At Cambridge, for +the first year, he was probably the noisiest man in his college, though +he never lived what is called "hard;" but in the second year he took up +his books once more, and came forth third wrangler and first class, and +the second day after the class-list came out, made a very long score in +the match with Oxford. Few men were more popular, though the fast men +used to call him crotchety; and on some subjects, indeed, he was very +impatient of contradiction. And most of his friends were a little +disappointed when they heard of his intention of going into the Church. +His father went so far as to say,-- + +"My dear Frank, I always thought you would have been a lawyer." + +"I'd sooner be a--well, never mind what." + +"But you might have gone into the army, Frank," said his father. + +"I am going into the army, sir," he said; "into the army of Christ." + +Old Mr. Maberly was at first shocked by this last expression from a son +who rarely or never talked on religious matters, and told his wife so +that night. + +"But," he added, "since I've been thinking of it, I'm sure Frank meant +neither BLAGUE nor irreverence. He is in earnest. I never knew him tell +a lie; and since he was six years old he has known how to call a spade +a spade." + +"He'll make a good parson," said the mother. + +"He'll be first in that, as he is in everything else," said the father. + +"But he'll never be a bishop," said Mrs. Maberly. + +"Why not?" said the husband, indignantly. + +"Because, as you say yourself, husband, he will call a spade a spade." + +"Bah! you are a radical," said the father. "Go to sleep." + +At the time of John Thornton's illness, he had been ordained about a +year and a-half. He had got a title for orders, as a curate, in a +remote part of Devon, but had left it in consequence of a violent +disagreement with his rector, in which he had been most fully borne out +by his uncle, who, by the bye, was not the sort of man who would have +supported his own brother, had he been in the wrong. Since then Frank +Maberly had been staying with his uncle, and, as he expressed it, +"working the slums" at Exeter. + +Miss Thornton sat in the drawing-room at Drumston the day after Tom's +visit to the Bishop, waiting dinner for the new Curate. Tom and she had +been wondering how he would come. Miss Thornton said, probably in the +Bishop's carriage; but Tom was inclined to think he would ride over. +The dinner time was past some ten minutes, when they saw a man in black +put his hand on the garden-gate, vault over, and run breathless up to +the hall-door. Tom had recognised him and dashed out to receive him, +but ere he had time to say "good day" even, the new comer pulled out +his watch, and, having looked at it, said in a tone of vexation:-- + +"Twenty-one minutes, as near as possible; nay, a little over. By Jove! +how pursy a fellow gets mewed up in town! How far do you call it, now, +from the Buller Arms?" + +"It is close upon four miles," said Tom, highly amused. + +"So they told me," replied Frank Maberly. "I left my portmanteau there, +and the landlord-fellow had the audacity to say in conversation that I +couldn't run the four miles in twenty minutes. It's lucky a parson +can't bet, or I should have lost my money. But the last mile is very +much up-hill, as you must allow." + +"I'll tell you what, sir," said Tom; "there isn't a man in this parish +would go that four mile under twenty minutes. If any man could, I ought +to know of it." + +Miss Thornton had listened to this conversation with wonder not unmixed +with amusement. At first she had concluded that the Bishop's carriage +was upset, and that Frank was the breathless messenger sent forward to +chronicle the mishap. But her tact soon showed the sort of person she +had to deal with, for she was not unacquainted with the performances of +public schoolboys. She laughed when she called to mind the +BOULEVERSEMENT that used to take place when Lord Charles and Lord +Frederick came home from Harrow, and invaded her quiet school-room. So +she advanced into the passage to meet the new-comer with one of her +pleasantest smiles. + +"I must claim an old woman's privilege of introducing myself, Mr. +Maberly," she said. "Your uncle was tutor to the B----s, when I was +governess to the D----s; so we are old acquaintances." + +"Can you forgive me, Miss Thornton?" he said, "for running up to the +house in this lunatic sort of way? I am still half a school-boy, you +know. What an old jewel she is!" he added to himself. + +Tom said: "May I show you your room, Mr. Maberly?" + +"If you please, do," said Frank; and added, "Get out, Fly; what are you +doing here?" + +But Miss Thornton interceded for the dog, a beautiful little black and +tan terrier, whose points Tom was examining with profound admiration. + +"That's a brave little thing, Mr. Maberly," said he, as he showed him +to his room. "I should like to put in my name for a pup." + +They stood face to face in the bed-room as he said this, and Frank, not +answering him, said abruptly:-- + +"By Jove! what a splendid man you are! What do you weigh, now?" + +"Close upon eighteen stone, just now, I should think;" said Tom. + +"Ah, but you are carrying a little flesh," said Frank. + +"Why, yes;" said Tom. "I've been to London for a fortnight." + +"That accounts for it," said Frank. "Many dissenters in this parish?" + +"A sight of all sorts," said Tom. "They want attracting to church here; +they don't go naturally, as they do in some parts." + +"I see," said Frank; "I suppose they'll come next Sunday though, to see +the new parson; my best plan will be to give them a stinger, so that +they'll come again." + +"Why, you see," said Tom, "it's got about that there'll be no service +next Sunday, so they'll make an excuse for going to Meeting. Our best +plan will be, for you and I to go about and let them know that there's +a new minister. Then you'll get them together, and after that I leave +it to you to keep them. Shall we go down to dinner?" + +They came together going out of the door, and Frank turned and said:-- + +"Will you shake hands with me? I think we shall suit one another." + +"Aye! that we shall," said Tom heartily; "you're a man's parson; that's +about what you are. But," he added, seriously; "you wouldn't do among +the old women, you know." + +At dinner, Miss Thornton said, "I hope, Mr. Maberly, you are none the +worse after your run? Are you not afraid of such violent exercise +bringing on palpitation of the heart?" + +"Not I, my dear madam," he said. "Let me make my defence for what, +otherwise, you might consider mere boyish folly. I am passionately fond +of athletic sports of all kinds, and indulge in them as a pleasure. No +real man is without some sort of pleasure, more or less harmless. Nay, +even your fanatic is a man who makes a pleasure and an excitement of +religion. My pleasures are very harmless; what can be more harmless +than keeping this shell of ours in the highest state of capacity for +noble deeds? I know," he said, turning to Tom, "what the great +temptation is that such men as you or I have to contend against. It is +'the pride of life;' but if we know that and fight against it, how can +it prevail against us? It is easier conquered than the lust of the +flesh, or the lust of the eye, though some will tell you that I can't +construe my Greek Testament, and that the 'pride of life' means +something very different. I hold my opinion however, in spite of them. +Then, again, although I have taken a good degree (not so good as I +might, though), I consider that I have only just begun to study. +Consequently, I read hard still, and shall continue to do so the next +twenty years, please God. I find my head the clearer, and my intellect +more powerful in consequence of the good digestion produced by +exercise; so I mean to use it till I get too fat, which will be a long +while first." + +"Ain't you afraid," said Tom, laughing, "of offending some of your +weaker brothers' consciences, by running four miles, because a publican +said you couldn't?" + +"Disputing with a publican might be an error of judgment," said Frank. +"Bah! MIGHT be--it WAS; but with regard to running four miles--no. It +is natural and right that a man at five-and-twenty should be both able +and willing to run four miles, a parson above all others, as a protest +against effeminacy. With regard to consciences, those very tender +conscienced men oughtn't to want a parson at all." + +Miss Thornton had barely left the room, to go up to the Vicar, leaving +Tom and Frank Maberly over their wine, when the hall-door was thrown +open, and the well-known voice of the Doctor was heard exclaiming in +angry tones:-- + +"If! sir, if! always at if's. If Blucher had destroyed the bridge, say +you, as if he ever meant to be such a Vandal. And if he had meant to do +it, do you think that fifty Wellesleys in one would have stayed him? +No, sir; and if he had destroyed every bridge on the Seine, sir, he +would have done better than to be overruled by the counsels of +Wellington (glory go with him, however! He was a good man). And why, +forsooth?--because the English bore the brunt at Waterloo, in +consequence of the Prussians being delayed by muddy roads." + +"And Ligny," said the laughing voice of Major Buckley. "Oh, Doctor, +dear! I like to make you angry, because then your logic is so very +outrageous. You are like the man who pleaded not guilty of murder: +first, because he hadn't done it; secondly, that he was drunk when he +did it; and thirdly, that it was a case of mistaken identity." + +"Ha, ha!" laughed the Doctor, merrily, recovering his good humour in a +moment. "That's an Irish story for a thousand pounds. There's nothing +English about that. Ha! ha!" + +They were presented to Frank as the new curate. The Doctor, after a +courteous salutation, put on his spectacles, and examined him +carefully. Frank looked at him all the time with a quiet smile, and in +the end the Doctor said-- + +"Allow me the privilege of shaking hands with you, sir." "Shall I be +considered rude if I say that I seldom or never saw a finer head than +yours on a man's shoulders? And, judging by the face, it is well lined." + +"Like a buck-basket," said Frank, "full of dirty linen. Plenty of it, +and of some quality, but not in a state fit for use yet. I will have it +washed up, and wear such of it as is worth soon." + +The Doctor saw he had found a man after his own heart, and it was not +long before Frank and he were in the seventh heaven of discussion. +Meanwhile, the Major had drawn up alongside of Tom, and said-- + +"Any news of the poor little dove that has left the nest, old friend?" + +"Yes," said Tom, eagerly; "we have got a letter. Good news, too." + +"Thank God for that," said the Major. "And where are they?" + +"They are now at Brighton." + +"What's that?" said the Doctor, turning round. "Any news?" + +They told him, and then it became necessary to tell Frank Maberly what +he had not known before, that the Vicar had a daughter who had "gone +off." + +"One of the prettiest, sweetest creatures, Mr. Maberly," said the +Major, "that you ever saw in your life. None of us, I believe, knew how +well we loved her till she was gone." + +"And a very remarkable character, besides," said the Doctor. "Such a +force of will as you see in few women of her age. Obscured by passion +and girlish folly, it seemed more like obstinacy to us. But she has a +noble heart, and, when she has outlived her youthful fancies, I should +not be surprised if she turned out a very remarkable woman." + + + + +Chapter XIII + +THE DISCOVERY OF THE FORGERIES. + + +One morning the man who went once a-week from old Hawker's, at the +Woodlands, down to the post, brought back a letter, which he delivered +to Madge at the door. She turned it over and examined it more carefully +than she generally did the old man's letters, for it was directed in a +clerk-like hand, and was sealed with a big and important-looking seal, +and when she came to examine this seal, she saw that it bore the words +"B. and F. Bank." "So, they are at it again, are they?" she said. "The +deuce take 'em, I say: though for that matter I can't exactly blame the +folks for looking after their own. Well, there's no mistake about one +thing, he must see this letter, else some of 'em will be coming over +and blowing the whole thing. He will ask me to read it for him, and +I'll do so, right an end. Lord, what a breeze there'll be! I hope I +shall be able to pull my lad through, though it very much depends on +the old 'uns temper. However, I shall soon know." + +Old Hawker was nearly blind, and, although an avaricious, suspicious +old man, as a general rule, trusted implicitly on ordinary occasions to +George and Madge in the management of his accounts, reflecting, with +some reason, that it could not be their interest to cheat him. Of late, +however, he had been uneasy in his mind. Madge, there was no denying, +had got through a great deal more money than usual, and he was not +satisfied with her account of where it had gone. She, we know, was in +the habit of supplying George's extravagances in a way which tried all +her ingenuity to hide from him, and he, mistrusting her statements, had +determined as far as he could to watch her. + +On this occasion she laid the letter on the breakfast table, and waited +his coming down, hoping that he might be in a good humour, so that +there might be some chance of averting the storm from George. Madge was +much terrified for the consequences, but was quite calm and firm. + +Not long before she heard his heavy step coming down the stairs, and +soon he came into the room, evidently in no favourable state of mind. + +"If you don't kill or poison that black tom-cat," was his first speech, +"by the Lord I will. I suppose you keep him for some of your witchwork. +But, if he's the devil himself, as I believe he is, I'll shoot him. I +won't be kept out of my natural sleep by such a devil's brat as that. +He's been keeping up such a growling and a scrowling on the hen-house +roof all night, that I thought it was Old Scratch come for you, and +getting impatient. If you must keep an imp of Satan in the house, get a +mole, or a rat, or some quiet beast of that sort, and not such a +vicious toad as him." + +"Shoot him after breakfast if you like," she said. "He's no friend of +mine. Get your breakfast, and don't be a fool. There's a letter for +you; take and read it." + +"Yah! Read it, she says, and knows I'm blind," said Hawker. "You artful +minx, you want to read it yourself." + +He took the letter up, and turned it over and over. He knew the seal, +and shot a suspicious glance at her. Then, looking at her fixedly, he +put it in his breastpocket, and buttoned up his coat. + +"There!" he said. "I'll read it. Oh yes, believe me, I'll read it. You +Jezebel!" + +"You'd better eat your meat like a Christian man," she answered, "and +not make such faces as them." + +"Where's the man?" he asked. + +"Outside, I suppose." + +"Tell him I want the gig. I'm going out for a drive. A pleasure drive, +you know. All down the lane, and back again. Cut along and tell him +before I do you a mischief." + +She saw he was in one of his evil humours, when nothing was to be done +with him, and felt very uneasy. She went and ordered the gig, and when +he had finished breakfast, he came out to the door. + +"You'd best take your big coat," she said, "else you'll be getting +cold, and be in a worse temper than you are,--and that's bad enough, +Lord knows, for a poor woman to put up with." + +"How careful she is!" said Hawker. "What care she takes of the old man! +I've left you ten thousand pounds in my will, ducky. Good-bye." + +He drove off, and left her standing in the porch. What a wild, tall +figure she was, standing so stern and steadfast there in the morning +sun!--a woman one would rather have for a friend than an enemy. + +Hawker was full of other thoughts than these. Coupling his other +suspicions of Madge with the receipt of this letter from the bank, he +was growing very apprehensive of something being wrong. He wanted this +letter read to him, but whom could he trust? Who better than his old +companion Burrows, who lived in the valley below the Vicarage? So, +whipping up his horse, he drove there, but found he was out. He turned +back again, puzzled, going slowly, and as he came to the bottom of the +hill, below the Vicarage, he saw a tall man leaning against the gate, +and smoking. + +"He'll do for want of a better," he said to himself. "He's an +honest-going fellow, and we've always been good friends, and done good +business together, though he is one of that cursed Vicarage lot." + +So he drew up when he came to the gate. "I beg your pardon, Mr. +Troubridge," he said, with a very different tone and manner to what we +have been accustomed to hear him use, "but could you do a kindness for +a blind old man? I have no one about me that I can trust since my son +is gone away. I have reason to believe that this letter is of +importance; could you be so good as to read it to me?" + +"I shall be happy to oblige you, Mr. Hawker," said Tom. "I am sorry to +hear that your sight is so bad." + +"Yes; I'm breaking fast," said Hawker. "However, I shan't be much +missed. I don't inquire how the Vicar is, because I know already, and +because I don't think he would care much for my inquiries, after the +injury my son has done him. I will break the seal. Now, may I trouble +you?" + +Tom Troubridge read aloud:-- + +"B. and F. Bank. [Such a date.] + +"SIR,--May I request that you will favour me personally with a call, at +the earliest possible opportunity, at my private office, 166, Broad +Street? I have reason to fear that two forged cheques, bearing your +signature, have been inadvertently cashed by us. The amount, I am sorry +to inform you, is considerable. I need not further urge your immediate +attention. This is the third communication we have made to you on the +subject, and are much surprised at receiving no answer. I hope that you +will be so good as to call at once. + +Yours, sir, &c., P. ROLLOX, Manager." + +"I thank you, Mr. Troubridge," said the old man, quietly and politely. +"You see I was not wrong when I thought that this letter was of +importance. May I beg as a favour that you would not mention this to +any one?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Hawker. I will respect your wish. I hope your loss may +not be heavy." + +"The loss will not be mine though, will it?" said old Hawker. "I +anticipate that it will fall on the bank. It is surely at their risk to +cash cheques. Why, a man might sign for all the money I have in their +hands, and surely they would be answerable for it?" + +"I am not aware how the law stands, Mr. Hawker," said Troubridge. +"Fortunately, no one has ever thought it worth while to forge my name." + +"Well, I wish you a good day, sir, with many thanks," said Hawker. "Can +I do anything for you in Exeter?" + +Old Hawker drove away rapidly in the direction of Exeter; his horse, a +fine black, clearing the ground in splendid style. Although a cunning +man, he was not quick in following a train of reasoning, and he was +half-way to Exeter before he had thoroughly comprehended his situation. +And then, all he saw was that somebody had forged his name, and he +believed that Madge knew something about it. + +"I wish my boy George was at home," he said. "He'd save me getting a +lawyer now. I am altogether in the hands of those Bank folks if they +like to cheat me, though it's not likely they'd do that. At all events +I will take Dickson with me." + +Dickson was an attorney of good enough repute. A very clever, quiet +man, and a good deal employed by old Hawker, when his business was not +too disreputable. Some years before, Hawker had brought some such +excessively dirty work to his office, that the lawyer politely declined +having anything to do with it, but recommended him to an attorney who +he thought would undertake it. And from that time the old fellow +treated him with marked respect, and spoke everywhere of him as a man +to be trusted: such an effect had the fact of a lawyer refusing +business made on him! + +He reached Exeter by two o'clock, so rapidly had he driven. He went at +once to Dickson's, and found him at home, busy swinging the poker, in +deep thought, before the fireplace in his inner office. He was a small +man, with an impenetrable, expressionless face, who never was known to +unbend himself to a human being. Only two facts were known about him. +One was that he was the best swimmer in Exeter, and had saved several +lives from drowning, and the other was, that he gave away (for him) +large sums in private charity. + +Such was the man who now received old Hawker, with quiet politeness; +and having sent his horse round to the inn stable by a clerk, sat down +once more by the fire, and began swinging the poker, and waiting for +the other to begin the conversation. + +"If you are not engaged, Mr. Dickson," said Hawker, "I would be much +obliged to you if you could step round to the B. and F. Bank with me. I +want you to witness what passes, and to read any letters or papers for +me that I shall require." + +The attorney put down the poker, got his hat, and stood waiting, all +without a word. + +"You won't find it necessary to remark on anything that occurs, Mr. +Dickson, unless I ask your opinion." + +The attorney nodded, and whistled a tune. And then they started +together through the crowded street. + +The bank was not far, and Hawker pushed his way in among the crowd of +customers. It was some time before he could get hold of a clerk, there +was so much business going on. When, at last, he did so, he said--"I +want to see Mr. Rollox; he told me to call on him at once." + +"He is engaged at present," said the clerk. "It is quite impossible you +can see him." + +"You don't know what you are talking about, man," said Hawker. "Send in +and tell him Mr. Hawker, of Drumston, is here." + +"Oh, I beg your pardon, Mr. Hawker. I have only just come here, and did +not know you. Porter, show Mr. Hawker in." + +They went into the formal bank parlour. There was the leather writing +table, the sheet almanac, the iron safe, and all the weapons by which +bankers war against mankind, as in all other sanctuaries of the kind. +Moreover, there was the commander-in-chief himself, sitting at the +table. A bald, clever, gentlemanly-looking man, who bowed when they +came in. "Good day, Mr. Hawker. I am obliged to you for calling at +last. We thought something was wrong. Mr. Dickson, I hope you are well. +Are you attending with Mr. Hawker, or are you come on private business?" + +The attorney said--"I'm come at his request," and relapsed into silence. + +"Ah!" said the manager. "I am, on the whole, glad that Mr. Hawker has +brought a professional adviser with him. Though," he added, laughing, +"it is putting me rather at a disadvantage, you know. Two to one,--eh?" + +"Now, gentlemen, if you will be so good as to close the door carefully, +and be seated, I will proceed to business, hoping that you will give me +your best attention. About six or eight months ago,--let me be +particular, though," said he, referring to some papers,--"that is +rather a loose way of beginning. Here it is. The fourth of September, +last year--yes. On that day, Mr. Hawker, a cheque was presented at this +bank, drawn 'in favour of bearer,' and signed in your name, for two +hundred pounds, and cashed, the person who presented it being well +known here." + +"Who?" interrupted Hawker. + +"Excuse me, sir," said the manager; "allow me to come to that +hereafter. You were about to say, I anticipate, that you never drew a +cheque 'on bearer' in your life? Quite true. That ought to have excited +attention, but it did not till, a very few weeks ago, our head-clerk, +casting his eye down your account, remarked on the peculiarity, and, on +examining the cheque, was inclined to believe that it was not in your +usual handwriting. He intended communicating with me, but was prevented +for some days by my absence; and, in the meantime, another cheque, +similar, but better imitated, was presented by the same person, and +cashed, without the knowledge of the head-clerk. On the cheque coming +into his hands, he reprimanded the cashier, and he and I, having more +closely examined them, came to the conclusion that they were both +forgeries. We immediately communicated with you, and, to our great +surprise, received no answer either to our first or second application. +We, however, were not idle. We ascertained that we could lay our hands +on the utterer of the cheques at any moment, and tried a third letter +to you, which has been successful." + +"The two letters you speak of have never reached me, Mr. Rollox," said +Hawker. "I started off on the receipt of yours this morning--the first +I saw. I am sorry, sir, that the bank should lose money through me; +but, by your own showing, sir, the fault lay with your own clerks." + +"I have never attempted to deny it, Mr. Hawker," said the manager. "But +there are other matters to be considered. Before I go on, I wish to +give you an opportunity of sending away your professional adviser, and +continuing this conversation with me alone." + +They both turned and looked at the lawyer. He was sitting with his +hands in his pockets, and one would have thought he was whistling, only +no sound came. His face showed no signs of intelligence in any feature +save his eyes, and they were expressive of the wildest and most +unbounded astonishment. + +"I have nothing to do in this matter, sir," said Hawker, "that I should +not wish Mr. Dickson to hear. He is an honourable man, and I confide in +him thoroughly." + +"So be it, then, Mr. Hawker," said the manager. "I have as high an +opinion of my friend Mr. Dickson as you have; but I warn you, that some +part of what will follow will touch you very unpleasantly." + +"I don't see how," said Hawker; "go on, if you please." + +"Will you be good enough to examine these two cheques, and say whether +they are genuine or not?" + +"I have only to look at the amount of this large one, to pronounce it +an impudent forgery," said Hawker. "I have not signed so large a cheque +for many years. There was one last January twelvemonth of 400 pounds, +for the land at Highcot, and that is the largest, I believe, I ever +gave in my life." + +"There can be no doubt they are forgeries. Your sight, I believe, is +too bad to swear easily to your own signature; but that is quite +enough. Now, I have laid this case before our governor, Lord C----, and +he went so far as to say that, under the painful circumstances of the +case, if you were to refund the money, the bank might let the matter +drop; but that, otherwise, it would be their most painful duty to +prosecute." + +"I refund the money!" laughed Hawker; "you are playing with me, sir. +Prosecute the dog; I will come and see him hung! Ha! ha!" + +"It will be a terrible thing if we prosecute the utterer of these +cheques," said the manager. + +"Why?" said Hawker. "By-the-bye, you know who he is, don't you? Tell me +who it is?" + +"Your own son, Mr. Hawker," said the manager, almost in a whisper. + +Hawker rose and glared at them with such a look of deadly rage that +they shrank from him appalled. Then, he tottered to the mantelpiece and +leant against it, trying to untie his neckcloth with feeble, trembling +fingers. + +"Open your confounded window there, Rollox," cried the lawyer, starting +up. "Where's the wine? Look sharp, man!" + +Hawker waved to him impatiently to sit down, and then said, at first +gasping for breath, but afterwards more quietly: + +"Are you sure it was he that brought those cheques?" + +"Certainly, sir," said the manager. "You may be sure it was he. Had it +been any one else, they would not have been cashed without more +examination; and on the last occasion he accounted rather elaborately +for your drawing such a large sum." + +Hawker recovered himself and sat down. + +"Don't be frightened, gentlemen," he said. "Not this time. I've +something to do before that comes. It won't be long, the doctor says, +but I must transact some business first. O Lord! I see it all now. That +cursed, cursed woman and her boy have been hoodwinking me and playing +with me all this time, have they? Oh, but I'll have my vengeance on 'em +one to the stocks, and another to the gallows. I, unfortunately, can't +give you any information where that man is that has the audacity to +bear my name, sir," said he to the manager. "His mother at one time +persuaded me that he was a child of mine; but such infernal gipsy drabs +as that can't be depended on, you know. I have the honour to wish you a +very good afternoon, sir, thanking you for your information, and hoping +your counsel will secure a speedy conviction. I shall probably trouble +you to meet me at a magistrate's tomorrow morning, where I will take my +oath in his presence that those cheques are forgeries. You will find +alterations in my banker's book, too, I expect. We'll look into it all +to-morrow. Come along, Dickson, my sly little weasel; I've a gay +night's work for you; I'm going to leave all my property to my cousin +Nick, my bitterest enemy, and a lawsuit with it that'll break his +heart. There's fun for the lawyers,--eh, my boy!" + +So talking, the old man strode firmly forth, with a bitter, malignant +scowl on his flushed face. The lawyer followed him, and, when they were +in the street, Hawker again asked him to come to the inn and make his +will for him. + +"I'll stay by you, Hawker, and see that you don't make a fool of +yourself. I wish you would not be so vindictive. It's indecent; you'll +be ashamed of it tomorrow; but, in the meantime, it's indecent." + +"Ha, ha!" laughed Hawker; "how quietly he talks! One can see that he +hasn't had a bastard child fathered on him by a gipsy hag. Come along, +old fellow; there's fifty pounds' worth of work for you this week, if I +only live through it!" + +He took the lawyer to the inn, and they got dinner. Hawker ate but +little, for him, but drank a good deal. Dickson thought he was getting +drunk; but when dinner was over, and Hawker had ordered in +spirits-and-water, he seemed sober enough again. + +"Now, Mr. Dickson," said he, "I am going to make a fresh will to-morrow +morning, and I shall want you to draw it up for me. After that I want +you to come home with me and transact business. You will do a good +day's work, I promise you. You seem to me now to be the only man in the +world I can trust. I pray you don't desert me." + +"As I said before," replied the lawyer, "I won't desert you; but listen +to me. I don't half like the sudden way you have turned against your +own son. Why don't you pay this money, and save the disgrace of that +unhappy young man? I don't say anything about your disinheriting +him--that's no business of mine--but don't be witness against him. The +bank, or rather my Lord C----, has been very kind about it. Take +advantage of their kindness and hush the matter up." + +"I know you ain't in the pay of the bank," said Hawker, "so I won't +charge you with it. I know you better than to think you'd lend yourself +to anything so mean; but your conduct looks suspicious. If you hadn't +done me a few disinterested kindnesses lately, I should say that they'd +paid you to persuade me to stop this, so as they might get their money +back, and save the cost of a prosecution. But I ain't so far gone as to +believe that; and so I tell you, as one man to another, that if you'd +come suddenly on such a mine of treason and conspiracy as I have this +afternoon, and found a lad that you have treated as, and tried to +believe was, your own son, you'd be as bad as me. Every moment I think +of it, it comes out clearer. That woman that lives with me has palmed +that brat of hers on me as my child; and he and she have been +plundering me these years past. The money that woman has made away with +would build a ship, sir. What she's done with it, her master, the +devil, only knows; and I've said nought about it, because she's a +witch, and I was afraid of her. But now I've found her out. She has +stopped the letters that they wrote to me about this boy's forgery, and +that shows she was in it. She shall pack. I won't prosecute her; no. +I've reasons against that; but I'll turn her out in the world without a +sixpence. You see I'm quiet enough now!" + +"You're quiet enough," said the lawyer, "and you've stated your case +very well. But are you sure this lad is not your son?" + +"If I was sure that he was," said Hawker, "it wouldn't make any +difference, as I know on. Ah, man, you don't know what a rage I'm in. +If I chose, I could put myself into such an infernal passion at this +moment as would bring on a 'plectic fit, and lay me dead on the floor. +But I won't do it, not yet. I'll have another drop of brandy, and sing +you a song. Shall I give 'ee 'Roger a-Maying,' or what'll ye have?" + +"I'll have you go to bed, and not take any more brandy," said the +lawyer. "If you sing, get in one of the waiters, and sing to him; he'd +enjoy it. I'm going home, but I shall come to breakfast to-morrow +morning, and find you in a different humour." + +"Good night, old mole," said Hawker; "good night, old bat, old +parchment skin, old sixty per cent. Ha, ha! If a wench brings a brat to +thee, old lad, chuck it out o' window, and her after it. Thou can only +get hung for it, man. They can only hang thee once, and that is better +than to keep it and foster it, and have it turn against thee when it +grows up. Good night." + +Dickson came to him in the morning, and found him in the same mind. +They settled down to business, and Hawker made a new will. He left all +his property to his cousin (a man he had had a bitter quarrel with for +years), except 100 pounds to his groom, and 200 pounds to Tom +Troubridge, "for an act of civility" (so the words ran), "in reading a +letter for a man who ought to have been his enemy." And when the will +(a very short one) was finished, and the lawyer proposed getting two of +his clerks as witnesses, Hawker told him to fold it up and keep it; +that he would get it witnessed by-and-by. + +"You're coming home with me," he said, "and we'll get it witnessed +there. You'll see why, when it's done." + +Then they went to the manager of the bank, and got him to go before a +magistrate with him, whilst he deposed on oath that the two cheques, +before mentioned, were forgeries, alleging that his life was so +uncertain that the criminal might escape justice by his sudden death. +Then he and Dickson went back to the inn, and after dinner started +together to drive to Drumston. + +They had been so engaged with business that they had taken no notice of +the weather. But when they were clear of the northern suburbs of the +town, and were flying rapidly along the noble turnpike-road that +turning eastward skirts the broad Exe for a couple of miles before +turning north again, they remarked that a dense black cloud hung before +them, and that everything foreboded a violent thunder-storm. + +"We shall get a drowning before we reach your place, Hawker," said the +lawyer. "I'm glad I brought my coat." + +"Lawyers never get drowned," said Hawker, "though I believe you have +tried it often enough." + +When they crossed the bridge, and turned to the north, along the pretty +banks of the Creedy, they began to hope that they would leave it on the +right; but ere they reached Newton St. Cyres they saw that it was +creeping up overhead, and, stopping a few minutes in that village, +perceived that the folks were all out at their doors talking to one +another, as people do for company's sake when a storm is coming on. + +Before they got to Crediton they could distinguish, above the sound of +the wheels, the thunder groaning and muttering perpetually, and as they +rattled quickly past the grand old minster a few drops of rain began to +fall. + +The boys were coming out of the Grammar School in shoals, laughing, +running, whooping, as the manner of boys is. Hawker drove slowly as he +passed through the crowd, and the lawyer took that opportunity to put +on his great-coat. + +"We've been lucky so far," he said, "and now we are going to pay for +our good luck. Before it is too late, Hawker, pull up and stay here. If +we have to stop all night, I'll pay expenses; I will indeed. It will be +dark before we are home. Do stop." + +"Not for a thousand pound," said Hawker. "I wouldn't baulk myself now +for a thousand pound. Hey! fancy turning her out such a night as this +without sixpence in her pocket. Why, a man like you, that all the +county knows, a man who has got two gold medals for bravery, ain't +surely afraid of a thunderstorm?" + +"I ain't afraid of the thunderstorm, but I am of the rheumatism," said +the other. "As for a thunderstorm, you're as safe out of doors as in; +some say safer. But you're mistaken if you suppose I don't fear death, +Hawker. I fear it as much as any man." + +"It didn't look like it that time you soused in over the weir after the +groom lad," said Hawker. + +"Bah! man," said the lawyer; "I'm the best swimmer in Devon. That was +proved by my living at that weir in flood time. So I have less to fear +than any one else. Why, if that boy hadn't been as quiet and plucky as +he was, I knew I could kick him off any minute, and get ashore. Hallo! +that's nearer." + +The storm burst on them in full fury, and soon after it grew dark. The +good horse, however, stepped out gallantly, though they made but little +way; for, having left the high road and taken to the narrow lanes, +their course was always either up hill or down, and every bottom they +passed grew more angry with the flooding waters as they proceeded. +Still, through darkness, rain, and storm, they held their way till they +saw the lights of Drumston below them. + +"How far is it to your house, Hawker?" said the lawyer. "This storm +seems to hang about still. It is as bad as ever. You must be very wet." + +"It's three miles to my place, but a level road, at least all up-hill, +gently rising. Cheer up! We won't be long." + +They passed through the village rapidly, lighted by the lightning. The +last three miles were done as quickly as any part of the journey, and +the lawyer rejoiced to find himself before the white gate that led up +to Hawker's house. + +It was not long before they drew up to the door. The storm seemed worse +than ever. There was a light in the kitchen, and when Hawker had +halloed once or twice, a young man ran out to take the horse. + +"Is that you, my boy?" said Hawker. "Rub the horse down, and come in to +get something. This ain't a night fit for a dog to be out in; is it?" + +"No, indeed, sir," said the man. "I hope none's out in it but what +likes to be." + +They went in. Madge looked up from arranging the table for supper, and +stared at Hawker keenly. He laughed aloud, and said,-- + +"So you didn't expect me to-night, deary, eh?" + +"You've chose a bad night to come home in, old man," she answered. + +"A terrible night, ain't it? Wouldn't she have been anxious if she'd a' +known I'd been out?" + +"Don't know as I should," she said. "That gentleman had better get +dried, and have his supper." + +"I've got a bit of business first, deary. Where's the girl?" + +"In the other kitchen." + +"Call her.--Lord! listen to that." + +A crash of thunder shook the house, heard loud above the rain, which +beat furiously against the windows. Madge immediately returned with the +servant girl, a modest, quiet-looking creature, evidently in terror at +the storm. + +"Get out that paper, Dickson, and we'll get it signed." + +The lawyer produced the will, and Madge and the servant girl were made +to witness it. Dickson, having dried the signatures, took charge of it +again; and then Hawker turned round fiercely to Madge. + +"That's my new will," he said; "my new will, old woman. Oh, you cat! +I've found you out." + +Madge saw a storm was coming, worse than the one which raged and +rattled outside, and she braced her nerves to meet it. + +"What have you found out, old man?" she said quietly. + +"I've found out that you and that young scoundrel have been robbing and +cheating me in a way that would bring me to the workhouse in another +year. I have found out that he has forged my name for nearly a thousand +pounds, and that you've helped him. I find that you yourself have +robbed me of hundreds of pounds, and that I have been blinded, and +cozened, and hoodwinked by two that I kept from the workhouse, and +treated as well as I treated myself. That's what I have found out, +gipsy." + +"Well?" was all Madge said, standing before him with her arms folded. + +"So I say," said Hawker; "it is very well. The mother to the streets, +and the boy to the gallows." + +"You wouldn't prosecute him, William; your own son?" + +"No, I shan't," he replied;--"but the Bank will." + +"And couldn't you stop it?" + +"I could. But if holding up my little finger would save him, I wouldn't +do it." + +"Oh, William," she cried, throwing herself on her knees; "don't look +like that. I confess everything; visit it on me, but spare that boy." + +"You confess, do you?" he said. "Get up. Get out of my house; you +shan't stay here." + +But she would not go, but, hanging round him, kept saying, "Spare the +boy, William, spare the boy!" over and again, till he struck her in his +fury, and pulled her towards the door. + +"Get out and herd with the gipsies you belong to," he said. "You witch, +you can't cry now." + +"But," she moaned, "oh, not such a night as this, William; not +to-night. I am frightened of the storm. Let me stay to-night. I am +frightened of the lightning. Oh, I wouldn't turn out your dog such a +night as this." + +"Out, out, you devil!" + +"Oh, William, only one--" + +"Out, you Jezebel, before I do you a mischief." + +He had got the heavy door open, and she passed out, moaning low to +herself. Out into the fierce rain and the black darkness; and the old +man held open the door for a minute, to see if she were gone. + +No. A broad, flickering riband of light ineffable wavered for an +instant of time before his eyes, lighting up the country far and wide; +but plainly visible between him and the blaze was a tall, dark, +bare-headed woman, wildly raising her hands above her head, as if +imploring vengeance upon him, and, ere the terrible explosion which +followed had ceased to shake the old house to its foundations, he shut +the door, and went muttering alone up to his solitary chamber. + +The next morning the groom came into the lawyer's room, and informed +him that when he went to call his master in the morning, he had found +the bed untouched, and Hawker sitting half undressed in his arm-chair, +dead and cold. + + + + +Chapter XIV + +THE MAJOR'S VISIT TO THE "NAG'S-HEAD." + + +Major Buckley and his wife stood together in the verandah of their +cottage, watching the storm. All the afternoon they had seen it +creeping higher and higher, blacker and more threatening up the eastern +heavens, until it grew painful to wait any longer for its approach. But +now that it had burst on them, and night had come on dark as pitch, +they felt the pleasant change in the atmosphere, and, in spite of the +continuous gleam of the lightning, and the eternal roll and crackle of +the thunder, they had come out to see the beauty and majesty of the +tempest. + +They stood with their arms entwined for some time, in silence; but +after a crash louder than any of those which had preceded it, Major +Buckley said:-- + +"My dearest Agnes, you are very courageous in a thunderstorm." + +"Why not, James?" she said; "you cannot avoid the lightning, and the +thunder won't harm you. Most women fear the sound of the thunder more +than anything, but I suspect that Ciudad Rodrigo made more noise than +this, husband?" + +"It did indeed, my dear. More noise than I ever heard in any storm yet. +It is coming nearer." + +"I am afraid it will shake the poor Vicar very much," said Mrs. +Buckley. "Ah, there is Sam, crying." + +They both went into the sitting-room; little Sam had petitioned to go +to bed on the sofa till the storm was over, and now, awakened by the +thunder, was sitting up in his bed, crying out for his mother. + +The Major went in and lay down by the child on the sofa, to quiet him. +"What!" said he, "Sammy, you're not afraid of thunder, are you?" + +"Yes! I am," said the child; "very much indeed. I am glad you are come, +father." + +"Lightning never strikes good boys, Sam," said the Major. + +"Are you sure of that, father?" said the little one. + +That was a poser; so the Major thought it best to counterfeit sleep; +but he overdid it, and snored so loud, that the boy began to laugh, and +his father had to practise his deception with less noise. And by +degrees, the little hand that held his moustache dropped feebly on the +bedclothes, and the Major, ascertaining by the child's regular +breathing that his son was asleep, gently raised his vast length, and +proposed to his wife to come into the verandah again. + +"The storm is breaking, my love," said he; "and the air is deliciously +cool out there. Put your shawl on and come out." + +They went out again; the lightning was still vivid, but the thunder +less loud. Straight down the garden from them stretched a broad gravel +walk, which now, cut up by the rain into a hundred water channels, +showed at each flash like rivers of glittering silver. Looking down +this path toward the black wood during one of the longest continued +illuminations of the lightning, they saw for an instant a dark, tall +figure, apparently advancing towards them. Then all the prospect was +wrapped again in tenfold gloom. + +Mrs. Buckley uttered an exclamation, and held tighter to her husband's +arm. Every time the garden was lit up, they saw the figure, nearer and +nearer, till they knew that it was standing before them in the +darkness; the Major was about to speak, when a hoarse voice, heard +indistinctly above the rushing of the rain, demanded: + +"Is that Major Buckley?" + +At the same minute the storm-light blazed up once more, and fell upon +an object so fearful and startling that they both fell back amazed. A +woman was standing before them, tall, upright, and bareheaded; her long +black hair falling over a face as white and ghastly as a three days' +corpse; her wild countenance rendered more terrible by the blue glare +of the lightning shining on the rain that streamed from every lock of +her hair and every shred of her garments. She looked like some wild +daughter of the storm, who had lost her way, and came wandering to them +for shelter. + +"I am Major Buckley," was the answer. "What do you want? But in God's +name come in out of the rain." + +"Come in and get your things dried, my good woman," said Mrs. Buckley. +"What do you want with my husband such a night as this?" + +"Before I dry my things, or come in, I will state my business," said +the woman, coming under the verandah. "After that I will accept your +hospitality. This is a night when polecats and rabbits would shelter +together in peace; and yet such a night as this, a man turns out of his +house the woman who has lain beside him twenty years." + +"Who are you, my good soul?" said the Major. + +"They call me Madge the Witch," she said; "I lived with old Hawker, at +the Woodlands, till to-night, and he has turned me out. I want to put +you in possession of some intelligence that may save much misery to +some that you love." + +"I can readily believe that you can do it," said the Major, "but pray +don't stand there; come in with my wife, and get your things dried." + +"Wait till you hear what I have to say: George Hawker, my son--" + +"Your son--good God!" + +"I thought you would have known that. The Vicar does. Well, this son of +mine has run off with the Vicar's daughter." + +"Well?" + +"Well, he has committed forgery. It'll be known all over the country +to-morrow, and even now I fear the runners are after him. If he is +taken before he marries that girl, things will be only worse than they +are. But never mind whether he does or not, perhaps you differ with me; +perhaps you think that, if you could find the girl now, you could stop +her and bring her home; but you don't know where she is. I do, and if +you will give me your solemn word of honour as a gentleman to give him +warning that his forgery for five hundred pounds is discovered, I will +give you his direction." + +The Major hesitated for a moment, thinking. + +"If you reflect a moment, you must see how straightforward my story is. +What possible cause can I have to mislead you? I know which way you +will decide, so I wait patiently." + +"I think I ought to say yes, my love," said the Major to his wife; "if +it turned out afterwards that I neglected any opportunity of saving +this poor girl (particularly if this tale of the forgery be true), I +should never forgive myself." + +"I agree with you, my dear," said Mrs. Buckley. "Give your promise, and +go to seek her." + +"Well, then," said the Major; "I give you my word of honour that I will +give Hawker due warning of his forgery being discovered, if you will +give me his direction. I anticipate that they are in London, and I +shall start to-night, to be in time for the morning coach. Now, will +you give me the address?" + +"Yes!" said Madge. "They are at the Nag's Head, Buckingham Street, +Strand, London; can you remember that?" + +"I know where the street is," said the Major; "now will you go into the +kitchen, and make yourself comfortable? My dear, you will see my valise +packed? Ellen, get this person's clothes dried, and get her some hot +wine. By-the-bye," said he, following her into the kitchen, "you must +have had a terrible quarrel with Hawker, for him to send you out such a +night as this?" + +"It was about this matter," she said: "the boy forged on his father, +and I knew it, and tried to screen him. My own son, you know." + +"It was natural enough," said the Major. "You are not deceiving me, are +you? I don't see why you should, though." + +"Before God, I am not. I only want the boy to get warning." + +"You must sleep here to-night," said the Major; "and to-morrow you can +go on your way, though, if you cannot conveniently get away in the +morning, don't hurry, you know. My house is never shut against +unfortunate people. I have heard a great deal of you, but I never saw +you before; you must be aware, however, that the character you have +held in the place is not such as warrants me in asking you to stay here +for any time." + +The Major left the kitchen, and crossed the yard. In a bedroom above +the stable slept his groom, a man who had been through his campaigns +with him from first to last. It was to waken him that the Major took +his way up the narrow stairs towards the loft. + +"Jim," he said, "I want my horse in an hour." + +The man was out of bed in a moment, and while he was dressing, the +Major continued:-- + +"You know Buckingham Street, Strand, Jim, don't you? When you were +recruiting you used to hang out at a public-house there, unless I am +mistaken." + +"Exactly so, sir! We did; and a many good chaps we picked up there, +gents and all sorts. Why, it was in that werry place, Major, as we +'listed Lundon; him as was afterwards made sergeant for being the first +man into Sebastian, and arterwards married Skettles; her as fell out of +eighteen stories at Brussels looking after the Duke, and she swore at +them as came to pick her up, she did; and walked in at the front door +as bold as brass." + +"There, my good lad," said the Major; "what's the good of telling such +stories as that? Nobody believes them, you know. Do you know the Nag's +Head there? It's a terribly low place, is it not?" + +"It's a much changed if it ain't, sir," said Jim, putting on his +breeches. "I was in there not eighteen months since. It's a +fighting-house; and there used to be a dog show there, and a reunion of +vocal talent, and all sorts of villanies." + +"Well, see to the horse, Jim, and I'll sing out when I'm ready," said +the Major, and went back into the house. + +He came back through the kitchen, and saw that Madge was being treated +by the maids with that respect that a reputed witch never fails to +command; then, having sat for some time talking to his wife, and +finding that the storm was cleared off, he kissed his sleeping child +and its mother, and, mounting his horse in the stable-yard, rode off +towards Exeter. + +In the morning, when Mrs. Buckley came down stairs, she inquired for +Madge. They told her she had been up some time, and, having got some +breakfast, was walking up and down in front of the house. Going there, +Mrs. Buckley found her. Her dress was rearranged with picturesque +neatness, and a red handkerchief pinned over her rich dark hair, that +last night had streamed wild and wet in the tempest. Altogether, she +looked an utterly different being from the strange, storm-beaten +creature who had craved their hospitality the night before. Mrs. +Buckley admired the bold, upright, handsome figure before her, and gave +her a cheery "good morning." + +"I only stayed," said Madge, "to wish you goodbye, and thank you for +your kindness. When they who should have had some pity on me turned me +out, you took me in!" + +"You are heartily welcome," said Mrs. Buckley. "Cannot I do more for +you? Do you want money? I fear you must!" + +"None, I thank you kindly," she replied; "that would break the spell. +Good-bye!" + +"Good-bye!" said Mrs. Buckley. + +Madge stood in front of the door and raised her hand. + +"The blessing of God," she said, "shall be upon the house of the +Buckleys, and more especially upon you and your husband, and the boy +that is sleeping inside. He shall be a brave and a good man, and his +wife shall be the fairest and best in the country side. Your kine shall +cover the plains until no man can number them, and your sheep shall be +like the sands of the sea. When misfortune and death and murder fall +upon your neighbours, you shall stand between the dead and the living, +and the troubles that pass over your heads shall be like the shadow of +the light clouds that fly across the moor on a sunny day. And when in +your ripe and honoured old age you shall sit with your husband, in a +garden of your own planting, in the lands far away, and see your +grandchildren playing around you, you shall think of the words of the +wild, lost gipsy woman, who gave you her best blessing before she went +away and was seen no more." + +Mrs. Buckley tried to say "Amen," but found herself crying. Something +there was in that poor creature, homeless, penniless, friendless, that +made her heart like wax. She watched her as she strode down the path, +and afterwards looked for her re-appearing on a high exposed part of +the road, a quarter of a mile off, thinking she would take that way. +But she waited long, and never again saw that stern, tall figure, save +in her dreams. + +She turned at last, and one of the maids stood beside her. + +"Oh, missis," she said, "you're a lucky woman today. There's some in +this parish would have paid a hundred pounds for such a fortune as that +from her. It'll come true,--you will see!" + +"I hope it may, you silly girl," said Mrs. Buckley; and then she went +in and knelt beside her sleeping boy, and prayed that the blessing of +the gipsy woman might be fulfilled. + + +* * * * * + + +It was quite late on the evening of his second day's journey that the +Major, occupying the box-seat of the "Exterminator," dashed with +comet-like speed through so much of the pomps and vanities of this +wicked world as showed itself in Piccadilly at half-past seven on a +spring afternoon. + +"Hah!" he soliloquized, passing Hyde-park Corner, "these should be the +folks going out to dinner. They dine later and later every year. At +this rate they'll dine at half-past one in twenty years' time. That's +the Duke's new house; eh, coachman? By George, there's his Grace +himself, on his brown cob; God bless him! There are a pair of +good-stepping horses, and old Lady E---- behind 'em, by Jove!--in her +war-paint and feathers--pinker than ever. She hasn't got tired of it +yet. She'd dance at her own funeral if she could. And there's Charley +Bridgenorth in the club balcony--I wonder what he finds to do in peace +time?--and old B---- talking to him. What does Charley mean by letting +himself be seen in the same balcony with that disreputable old fellow? +I hope he won't get his morals corrupted! Ah! So here we are! eh?" + +He dismounted at the White Horse Cellar, and took a hasty dinner. His +great object was speed; and so he hardly allowed himself ten minutes to +finish his pint of port before he started into the street, to pursue +the errand on which he had come. + +It was nearly nine o'clock, and he thought he would be able to reach +his destination in ten minutes. But it was otherwise ordered. His evil +genius took him down St. James Street. He tried to persuade himself +that it was the shortest way, though he knew all the time that it +wasn't. And so he was punished in this way: he had got no further than +Crockford's, when, in the glare of light opposite the door of that +establishment, he saw three men standing, one of whom was talking and +laughing in a tone perhaps a little louder than it is customary to use +in the streets nowadays. Buckley knew that voice well (better, perhaps, +among the crackle of musketry than in the streets of London), and, as +the broad-shouldered owner of it turned his jolly, handsome face +towards him, he could not suppress a low laugh of satisfaction. At the +same moment the before-mentioned man recognised him, and shouted out +his name. + +"Busaco Buckley, by the Lord," he said, "revisiting once more the +glimpses of the gas-lamps! My dear old fellow, how are you, and where +do you come from?" + +The Major found himself quickly placed under a lamp for inspection, and +surrounded by three old and well-beloved fellow-campaigners. What could +a man do under the circumstances? Nothing, if human and fallible, I +should say, but what the Major did--stay there, laughing and joking, +and talking of old times, and freshen up his honest heart, and shake +his honest sides with many an old half-forgotten tale of fun and +mischief. + +"Now," he said at last, "you must let me go. You Barton (to the first +man he had recognised), you are a married man; what are you doing at +Crockford's?" + +"The same as you are," said the other,--"standing outside the door. The +pavement's free, I suppose. I haven't been in such a place these five +years. Where are you staying, old boy?" + +The Major told them, and they agreed to meet at breakfast next morning. +Then, after many farewells, and callings back, he pursued his way +towards the Strand, finding to his disgust that it was nearly ten +o'clock. + +He, nevertheless, held on his way undiscouraged, and turning by degrees +into narrower and narrower streets, came at last on one quieter than +the others, which ended abruptly at the river. + +It was a quiet street, save at one point, and that was where a blaze of +gas (then recently introduced, and a great object of curiosity to the +Major) was thrown across the street, from the broad ornamented windows +of a flash public-house. Here there was noise enough. Two men fighting, +and three or four more encouraging, while a half-drunken woman tried to +separate them. From the inside, too, came a noise of singing, +quarrelling, and swearing, such as made the Major cross the road, and +take his way on the darker side of the street. + +But when he got opposite the aforesaid public-house, he saw that it was +called the "Nag's Head," and that it was kept by one J. Trotter. "What +an awful place to take that girl to!" said the Major. "But there may be +some private entrance, and a quiet part of the house set by for a +hotel." Nevertheless, having looked well about him, he could see +nothing of the sort, and perceived that he must storm the bar. + +But he stood irresolute for a moment. It looked such a very low place, +clean and handsome enough, but still the company about the door looked +so very disreputable. "J. Trotter!" he reflected. "Why, that must be +Trotter the fighting-man. I hope it may be; he will remember me." + +So he crossed. When he came within the sphere of the gas lamps, those +who were assisting at the fight grew silent, and gazed upon him with +open eyes. As he reached the door one of them remarked, with a little +flourish of oaths as a margin or garland round his remark, that "of all +the swells he'd ever seen, that 'un was the biggest, at all events." + +Similarly, when they in the bar saw that giant form, the blue coat and +brass buttons, and, above all, the moustache (sure sign of a military +man in those days), conversation ceased, and the Major then and there +became the event of the evening. He looked round as he came in, and, +through a door leading inwards, he saw George Hawker himself, standing +talking to a man with a dog under each arm. + +The Major was not deceived as to the identity of J. Trotter. J. +Trotter, the hero of a hundred fights, stood himself behind his own +bar, a spectacle for the gods. A chest like a bull, a red neck, +straight up and down with the back of his head, and a fist like a +seal's flipper, proclaimed him the prize-fighter; and his bright grey +eye, and ugly laughing face, proclaimed him the merry, good-humoured +varlet that he was. + +What a wild state of amazement he was in when he realized the fact that +Major Buckley of the --th was actually towering aloft under the +chandelier, and looking round for some one to address! With what +elephantine politeness and respect did he show the Major into a private +parlour, sweeping off at one round nearly a dozen pint-pots that +covered the table, and then, shutting the door, stand bowing and +smiling before his old pupil! + +"And so you are gone into business, John, are you?" said the Major. +"I'm glad to see it. I hope you are doing as well as you deserve." + +"Much better than that," said the prize-fighter. "Much better than +THAT, sir, I assure you." + +"Well, I'm going to get you to do something for me," said the Major. +"Do you know, John, that you are terribly fat?" + +"The business allus does make flesh, sir. More especially to coves as +has trained much." + +"Yes, yes, John, I am going from the point. There is a young man of the +name of Hawker here?" + +The prize-fighter remained silent, but a grin gathered on his face. "I +never contradicts a gentleman," he said. "And if you say he's here, +why, in course, he is here. But I don't say he's here; you mind that, +sir." + +"My good fellow, I saw him as I came in," said the Major. + +"Oh, indeed," said the other; "then that absolves me from any +responsibility. He told me to deny him to anybody but one, and you +ain't she. He spends a deal of money with me, sir; so, in course, I +don't want to offend him. By-the-bye, sir, excuse me a moment." + +The Major saw that he had got hold of the right man, and waited +willingly. The fighting-man went to the door, and called out, "My +dear." A tall, goodlooking woman came to the bar, who made a low +curtsey on being presented to the Major. "My dear," repeated Trotter, +"the south side." "The particular, I suppose," she said. "In course," +said he. So she soon appeared with a bottle of Madeira, which was of +such quality that the Major, having tasted it, winked at the +prize-fighter, and the latter laughed, and rubbed his hands. + +"Now," said the Major, "do you mind telling me whether this Hawker is +here alone?" + +"He don't live here. He only comes here of a day, and sometimes stays +till late. This evening a pretty young lady--yes, a LADY--come and +inquired for him in my bar, and I was struck all of a heap to see such +a creature in such a place, all frightened out of her wits. So I showed +her through in a minute, and up stairs to where my wife sits, and she +waited there till he come in. And she hadn't been gone ten minutes when +you come." + +The Major swore aloud, without equivocation or disguise. "Ah," he said, +"if I had not met Barton! Pray, Trotter, have you any idea where Hawker +lives?" + +"Not the least in the world, further than it's somewhere Hampstead way. +That's a thing he evidently don't want known." + +"Do you think it likely that he and that young lady live in the same +house? I need not disguise from you that I am come after her, to +endeavour to get her back to her family." + +"I know they don't live in the same house," said Trotter, "because I +heard her say, to-night, before she went away, 'Do look round, George,' +she says, 'at my house, for ten minutes, before you go home.'" + +"You have done me a great kindness," said the Major, "in what you have +told me. I don't know how to thank you." + +"It's only one," said the prize-fighter, "in return for a many you done +me; and you are welcome to it, sir. Now, I expect you'd like to see +this young gent; so follow me, if you please." + +Through many passages, past many doors, he followed him, until they +left the noise of the revelry behind, and at last, at the end of a long +dark passage, the prizefighter suddenly threw open a door, and +announced--"Major Buckley!" + +There were four men playing at cards, and the one opposite to him was +George Hawker. The Major saw at a glance, almost before anyone had time +to speak, that George was losing money, and that the other three were +confederates. + +The prize-fighter went up to the table and seized the cards; then, +after a momentary examination, threw both packs in the fire. + +"When gents play cards in my house, I expect them to use the cards I +provides at the bar, and not private packs, whether marked or not. Mr. +Hawker, I warned you before about this; you'll lose every sixpence +you're worth, and then you will say it was done at my house, quite +forgetting to mention that I warned you of it repeatedly." + +But George took no notice of him. "Really, Major Buckley," he began, +"this is rather--" + +"Rather an intrusion, you would say--eh, Mr. Hawker?" said the Major; +"so it is, but the urgency of my business must be my apology. Can you +give me a few words alone?" + +George rose and came out with them. The prizefighter showed them into +another room, and the Major asked him to stand in the passage, and see +that no one was listening; "you see, John," he added, "we are very +anxious not to be overheard." + +"I am not at all particular myself," said George Hawker. "I have +nothing to conceal." + +"You will alter your mind before I have done, sir," said the Major. + +George didn't like the look of affairs.--How came it that the Major and +the prize-fighter knew one another so well? What did the former mean by +all this secrecy? He determined to put a bold face on the matter. + +"Miss Thornton is living with you, sir, I believe?" began the Major. + +"Not at all, sir; Miss Thornton is in lodgings of her own. I have the +privilege of seeing her for a few hours every day. In fact, I may go as +far as to say that I am engaged to be married to her, and that that +auspicious event is to come off on Thursday week." + +"May I ask you to favour me with her direction?" said the Major. + +"I am sorry to disoblige you, Major Buckley, but I must really +decline;" answered George. "I am not unaware how disinclined her family +are to the connexion; and, as I cannot but believe that you come on +their behalf, I cannot think that an interview would be anything but +prejudicial to my interest. I must remind you, too, that Miss Thornton +is of age, and her own mistress in every way." + +While George had been speaking, it passed through the Major's mind: +"What a checkmate it would be, if I were to withhold the information I +have, and set the runners on him, here! I might save the girl, and +further the ends of justice; but my hands are tied by the promise I +gave that woman,--how unfortunate!" + +"Then, Mr. Hawker," he said aloud, "I am to understand that you refuse +me this address?" + +"I am necessitated to refuse it most positively, sir." + +"I am sorry for it. I leave it to your conscience. Now, I have got a +piece of intelligence to give you, which I fear will be somewhat +unpalatable--I got your address at this place from a woman of the name +of Madge--" + +"You did!" exclaimed George. + +"Who was turned out of doors by your father, the night before last, in +consequence, I understood, of some misdeeds of hers having come to +light. She came immediately to my house, and offered to give me your +direction, on condition of my passing my word of honour to deliver you +this message: 'that the forgery (500 pounds was the sum mentioned, I +think) was discovered, and that the Bank was going to prosecute.' I of +course form no judgment as to the truth or falsehood of this: I leave +you to take your own measures about it--only I once again ask you +whether you will give me an interview with Miss Thornton?" + +George had courage enough left to say hoarsely and firmly, "No!" + +"Then," replied the Major, "I must call you to witness that I have +performed my errand to you faithfully. I beg, also, that you will carry +all our kindest remembrances to Miss Thornton, and tell her that her +poor father was struck with paralysis when he missed her, and that he +is not expected to live many weeks. And I wish you good night." + +He passed out, and down the stairs; as he passed the public +parlour-door, he heard a man bawling out a song, two or three lines of +which he heard, and which made him blush to the tips of his ears, old +soldier as he was. + +As he walked up the street, he soliloquised: "A pretty mess I've made +of it--done him all the service I could, and not helped her a bit--I +see there is no chance of seeing her, though I shall try. I will go +round Hampstead to-morrow, though that is a poor chance. In Paris, now, +or Vienna, one could find her directly. What a pity we have no police!" + + + + +Chapter XV + +THE BRIGHTON RACES, AND WHAT HAPPENED THEREAT. + + +George Hawker just waited till he heard the retiring footsteps of the +Major, and then, leaving the house, held his way rapidly towards Mary's +lodgings, which were in Hampstead; but finding he would be too late to +gain admittance, altered his course when he was close to the house, and +went to his own house, which was not more than a few hundred yards +distant. In the morning he went to her, and she ran down the garden to +meet him before the servant had time to open the door, looking so +pretty and bright. "Ah, George!" said she, "you never came last night, +after all your promises. I shall be glad when it's all over, George, +and we are together for good." + +"It won't be long first, my dear," he answered; "we must manage to get +through that time as well as we can, and then we'll begin to sound the +old folks. You see I am come to breakfast." + +"I expected you," she said; "come in and we will have such a pleasant +chat, and after that you must take me down the town, George, and we +will see the carriages." + +"Now, my love," said George; "I've got to tell you something that will +vex you; but you must not be down-hearted about it, you know. The fact +is, that your friends, as they call themselves, moving heaven and earth +to get you back, by getting me out of the way, have hit on the +expedient of spreading false reports about me, and issuing scandals +against me. They found out my address at the Nag's Head, and came there +after me not half an hour after you were gone, and I only got out of +their way by good luck. You ought to give me credit for not giving any +living soul the secret of our whereabouts, so that all I have got to do +is to keep quiet here until our little business is settled, and then I +shall be able to face them boldly again, and set everything straight." + +"How cruel!" she said; "how unjust! I will never believe anything +against you, George." + +"I am sure of that, my darling;" he said, kissing her. "But now, there +is another matter I must speak about, though I don't like to,--I am +getting short of money, love." + +"I have got nearly a hundred pounds, George," she said; "and, as I told +you, I have five thousand pounds in the funds, which I can sell out at +any time I like." + +"We shall do well, then, my Polly. Now let us go for a walk." + +All that week George stayed with her quietly, till the time of +residence necessary before they could be married was expired. He knew +that he was treading on a mine, which at any time might burst and blow +his clumsy schemes to the wind. But circumstances were in his favour, +and the time came to an end at last. He drank hard all the time without +letting Mary suspect it, but afterwards, when it was all over, wondered +at his nerve and self-possession through all those trying days, when he +was forced eternally to have a smile or a laugh ready, and could not +hear a step behind him without thinking of an officer, or look over his +head without thinking he saw a gallows in the air. + +It was during this time that he nursed in his heart a feeling of +desperate hatred and revenge against William Lee, which almost became +the leading passion of his life. He saw, or thought he saw, that this +man was the author of all the troubles that were gathering so thick +around his head, and vowed, if chance threw the man in his way again, +that he would take ample and fearful vengeance, let it cost what it +might. And though this feeling may have sometimes grown cold, yet he +never to the last day forgot or forgave the injuries this man had done +him. + +Mary was as innocent of business as a child, and George found little +difficulty in persuading her, that the best thing she could do under +present circumstances, was to sell out the money she had in the funds, +and place it in a bank, to be drawn on as occasion should require; +saying that they should be so long perhaps, before they had any other +fund to depend on, that they might find it necessary to undertake some +business for a living, in which case, it would be as well to have their +money under command at a moment's notice. + +There was, not far from the bank, an old Stockbroker, who had known her +father, and herself, for many years, and was well acquainted with all +their affairs, though they had but little intercourse by letter. To him +she repaired, and, merely informing him that she was going to marry +without her father's consent, begged him to manage the business for +her; which he, complimenting her upon her good fortune in choosing a +time when the funds were so high, immediately undertook; at the same +time recommended her to a banker, where she might open an account. + +On the same day that this business was concluded, a licence was +procured, and their wedding fixed for the next day. "Now," thought +George, as he leapt into bed on that night, "let only to-morrow get +over safely, and I can begin to see my way out of the wood again." + +And in the morning they were married in Hampstead church. Parson, +clerk, pew-opener, and beadle, all remarked what a handsome young +couple they were, and how happy they ought to be; and the parson +departed, and the beadle shut up the church, and the mice came out +again and ate the Bibles, and the happy pair walked away down the road, +bound together by a strong chain, which nothing could loose but death. + +They went to Brighton. Mary had said she would so like to see the sea; +and the morning after they arrived there--the morning after their +wedding--Mary wrote an affectionate penitential letter to her father, +telling him that she was married, and praying his forgiveness. + +They were quite gay at Brighton, and she recovered her spirits +wonderfully at first. George soon made acquaintances, who soon got very +familiar, after the manner of their kind,--greasy, tawdry, bedizened +bucks,--never asleep, always proposing a game of cards, always carrying +off her husband. Mary hated them, while she was at times proud to see +her husband in such fine company. + +Such were the eagles that gathered round the carcass of George Hawker; +and at last these eagles began to bring the hen-birds with them, who +frightened our poor little dove with the amplitude and splendour of +their feathers, and their harsh, strange notes. George knew the +character of those women well enough, but already he cared little +enough about his wife, even before they had been a month married, going +on the principle that the sooner she learned to take care of herself, +the better for her; and after they had been married little more than a +month, Mary thought she began to see a change in her husband's +behaviour to her. + +He grew sullen and morose, even to her. Every day almost he would come +to her with a scowl upon his face; and when she asked if he was angry +with her, would say, "No, that he wasn't angry with her; but that +things were going wrong--altogether wrong; and if they didn't mend, he +couldn't see his way out of it at all." + +But one night he came home cheerful and hilarious, though rather the +worse for liquor. He showed her a roll of notes which he had won at +roulette--over a hundred pounds--and added, "That shall be the game for +me in future, Polly; all square and above-board there." + +"My dear George, I wish you'd give up gambling." + +"So I will, some of these fine days, my dear. I only do it to pass the +time. It's cursed dull having nothing to do." + +"To-morrow is the great day at the races, George. I wish you would take +me; I never saw a horserace." + +"Ay, to be sure," said he; "we'll go, and, what's more, we'll go alone. +I won't have you seen in public with those dowdy drabs." + +So they went alone. Such a glorious day as it was--the last happy day +she spent for very long! How delightful it was, all this rush and +crush, and shouting and hubbub around, while you were seated in a +phaeton, secure above the turmoil! What delight to see all the +beautiful women in the carriages, and, grandest sight of all, which +struck awe and admiration into Mary's heart, was the great Prince +himself, that noble gentleman, in a gutter-sided hat, and a wig so +fearfully natural that Mary secretly longed to pull his hair. + +But princes and duchesses were alike forgotten when the course was +cleared for the great event of the day, and, one by one, the sleek +beauties came floating along, above the crowd, towards the +starting-post. Then George, leaving Mary in the phaeton to the care of +their landlady, pushed his way among the crowd, and, by dint of hard +squeezing, got against the rail. He had never seen such horses as +these; he had never known what first-class horse-racing was. Here was a +new passion for him, which, like all his others, should only by its +perversion end in his ruin. + +He had got some money on one of the horses, though he, of course, had +never seen it. There was a cheer all along the line, and a dark bay +fled past towards the starting-post, seeming rather to belong to the +air than the ground. "By George," he said, aloud, as the blood mounted +to his face, and tingled in his ears, "I never saw such a sight as that +before." + +He was ashamed of having spoken aloud in his excitement, but a groom +who stood by said, for his consolation,-- + +"I don't suppose you ever did, sir, nor no man else. That's young +Velocipede, and that's Chiffney a-ridin' him. You'll see that horse +walk over for everything next year." + +But now the horses came down, five of them abreast; at a walk, amid a +dead silence from the crowd, three of them, steady old stagers, but two +jumping and pulling. "Back, Velocipede; back, Lara!" says the starter; +down goes the flag, they dart away, and then there is a low hum of +conversation, until a murmur is heard down the course, which swells +into a roar as you notice it. The horses are coming. One of the royal +huntsmen gallops by, and then, as the noise comes up towards you, you +can hear the maddening rush of the horses' feet upon the turf, and, at +the same time, a bay and a chestnut rush past in the last fierce +struggle, and no man knows yet who has won. + +Then the crowd poured once more over the turf, and surged and cheered +round the winning horses. Soon it came out that Velocipede had won, and +George, turning round delighted, stood face to face with a gipsy woman. + +She had her hood low on her head, so that he could not see her face, +but she said, in a low voice, "Let me tell your fortune." + +"It is told already, mother," said George. "Velocipede has won; you +won't tell me any better news than that this day, I know." + +"No, George Hawker, I shan't," replied the gipsy, and, raising her hood +for an instant, she discovered to his utter amazement the familiar +countenance of Madge. + +"Will you let me tell your fortune now, my boy?" she said. + +"What, Madge, old girl! By Jove, you shall. Well, who'd a' thought of +seeing you here?" + +"I've been following you, and looking for you ever so long," she said. +"They at the Nag's Head didn't know where you were gone, and if I +hadn't been a gipsy, and o' good family, I'd never have found you." + +"You're a good old woman," he said. "I suppose you've some news for me?" + +"I have," she answered; "come away after me." + +He followed her into a booth, and they sat down. She began the +conversation. + +"Are you married?" she asked. + +"Ay; a month since." + +"And you've got her money?" + +"Yes," he said; "but I've been walking into it." + +"Make the most of it," said Madge. "Your father's dead." + +"Dead!" + +"Ay, dead. And, what's worse, lad, he lived long enough to alter his +will." + +"Oh, Lord! What do you mean?" + +"I mean," she said, "that he has left all his money to your cousin. He +found out everything, all in a minute, as it were; and he brought a new +will home from Exeter, and I witnessed it. And he turned me out of +doors, and, next morning, after I was gone, he was found dead in his +bed. I got to London, and found no trace of you there, till, by an +accident, I heard that you had been seen down here, so I came on. I've +got my living by casting fortins, and begging, and cadging, and such +like. Sometime I've slept in a barn, and sometime in a hedge, but I've +fought my way to you, true and faithful, through it all, you see." + +"So he's gone," said George, between his teeth, "and his money with +him. That's awful. What an unnatural old villain!" + +"He got it into his head at last, George, that you weren't his son at +all." + +"The lunatic!--and what put that into his head?" + +"He knew you weren't his wife's son, you see, and he had heard some +stories about me before I came to live with him, and so, at the last, +he took to saying he'd nought to do with you." + +"Then you mean to say----" + +"That you are my boy," she said, "my own boy. Why, lad, who but thy own +mother would a' done for thee what I have? And thou never thinking of +it all these years! Blind lad!" + +"Good God!" said George. "And if I had only known that before, how +differently I'd have gone on. How I'd have sneaked and truckled, and +fetched and carried for him! Bah, it's enough to drive one mad. All +this hide-and-seek work don't pay, old woman. You and I are bowled out +with it. How easy for you to have given me a hint of this years ago, to +make me careful! But you delight in mystery and conglomeration, and you +always will. There--I ain't ungrateful, but when I think of what we've +lost, no wonder I get wild. And what the devil am I to do now?" + +"You've got the girl's money to go on with," she said. + +"Not so very much of it," he replied. "I tell you I've been playing +like--never mind what, this last month, and I've lost every night. Then +I've got another woman in tow, that costs--oh curse her, what don't she +cost, what with money and bother?--In short, if I don't get something +from somewhere, in a few months I shall be in Queer Street. What chance +is there of the parson's dying?" + +"It don't matter much to you when he dies, I expect," said she, "for +you may depend that those that's got hold of him won't let his money +come into your hands. He's altered his will, you may depend on it." + +"Do you really think so?" + +"I should think it more probable than not. You see that old matter with +the Bank is known all over the country, although they don't seem +inclined to push it against you, for some reason. Yet it's hardly +likely that the Vicar would let his money go to a man who couldn't be +seen for fear of a rope." + +"You're a raven, old woman," he said. "What am I to do?" + +"Give up play, to begin with." + +"Well?" + +"Start some business with what's left." + +"Ha, ha! Well, I'll think of it. You must want some money, old girl! +Here's a fipunnote." + +"I don't want money, my boy; I'm all right," she said. + +"Oh, nonsense; take it." + +"I won't," she answered. "Give me a kiss, George." + +He kissed her forehead, and bent down his head reflecting. When he +looked up she was gone. + +He ran out of the booth and looked right and left, but saw her nowhere. +Then he went sulkily back to his wife. He hardly noticed her, but said +it was time to go home. All the way back, and after they had reached +their lodgings, he kept the same moody silence, and she, frightened at +some unheard-of calamity, forbore to question him. But when she was +going to bed she could withhold her anxiety no longer, and said to him: + +"Oh, George, you have got some bad news; let me share it with you. If +it is anything about my father, I implore you to tell me. How is it I +have got no answer to the letter I wrote a month ago?" + +He answered her savagely: "I don't know anything about your father, and +I don't care. I've got bad news, d----d bad news, if that will make you +sleep the sounder. And, once for all, you'll find it best, when you see +me sulky, not to give me any of your tantrums in addition. Mind that." + +He had never spoken to her like that before. She went to her bed +crushed and miserable, and spent the night in crying, while he went +forth and spent the night with some of his new companions, playing +wildly and losing recklessly, till the summer morning sun streamed +through the shutters, and shone upon him desperate and nigh penniless, +ripe for a fall lower than any he had had as yet. + + + + +Chapter XVI + +THE END OF MARY'S EXPEDITION. + + +Let us hurry over what is to follow. I who knew her so well can have no +pleasure in dwelling over her misery and degradation. And he who reads +these pages will, I hope, have little sympathy with the minor details +of the life of such a man as George Hawker. + +Some may think that she has been punished enough already, for leaving +her quiet happy home to go away with such a man. "She must have learnt +already," such would say, "that he cares nothing for her. Let her leave +her money behind, and go back to her father to make such amends as she +may for the misery she has caused him." Alas, my dear madam, who would +rejoice in such a termination of her troubles more than myself? But it +is not for me to mete out degrees of punishment. I am trying with the +best of my poor abilities to write a true history of certain people +whom I knew. And I, no more than any other human creature, can see the +consequences that will follow on any one act of folly or selfishness, +such as this poor foolish girl has committed. We must wait and watch, +judging with all charity. Let you and me go on with her, even to the +very end. + +Good men draw together very slowly. Yet it is one of the greatest +happinesses one is capable of, to introduce two such to one another, +and see how soon they become friends. But bad men congregate like crows +or jackals, and when a new one appears, he is received into the pack +without question, as soon as he has given proof sufficient of being a +rascal. + +This was the case with George Hawker. His facility for making +acquaintance with rogues and blacklegs was perfectly marvellous. Any +gentleman of this class seemed to recognise him instinctively, and +became familiar immediately. So that soon he had round him such a +circle of friends as would have gone hard to send to the dogs the most +honourable and virtuous young man in the three kingdoms. + +When a new boy goes to school, his way is smoothed very much at first +by the cakes and pocket-money he brings with him. Till these are gone +he must be a weak boy indeed who cannot (at a small school) find some +one to fight his battles and fetch and carry for him. Thackeray has +thought of this (what does he not think of?) in his little book, "Dr. +Birch," where a young sycophant is represented saying to his friend, +who has just received a hamper, "Hurrah, old fellow, I'LL LEND YOU MY +KNIFE." This was considered so true to nature, on board a ship in which +I once made a long voyage, that it passed into a proverb with us, and +if any one was seen indulging in a luxury out of the way at +dinner,--say an extra bottle of wine out of his private +store,--half-a-dozen would cry out at once, "Hurrah, old fellow, I'll +lend you my knife:" a modest way of requesting to be asked to take a +glass of wine better than that supplied by the steward. + +In the same way, George Hawker was treated by the men he had got round +him as a man who had a little property that he had not got rid of, and +as one who was to be used with some civility, until his money was gone, +and he sank down to the level of the rest of them--to the level of +living by his wits, if they were sharp enough to make a card or +billiard sharper; or otherwise to find his level among the proscribed +of society, let that be what it might. + +And George's wits were not of the first order, or the second; and his +manners and education were certainly not those of a gentleman, or +likely to be useful in attracting such unwary persons as these Arabs of +the metropolis preyed upon. So it happened that when all his money was +played away, which came to pass in a month or two, the higher and +cleverer class of rascals began to look uncommonly cold upon him. + +At first poor crushed Mary used to entertain of an evening some of the +ELITE among the card-sharpers of London--men who actually could have +spoken to a gentleman in a public place, and not have got kicked. These +men were polite, and rather agreeable, and one of them, a Captain +Saxon, was so deferential to her, and seemed so entirely to understand +her position, that she grew very fond of him, and was always pleased to +see him at her house. + +Though, indeed, she saw but little of any men who came there soon after +any of them arrived, she used to receive a signal from George, which +she dared not disobey, to go to bed. And when she lay there, lonely and +sleepless, she could detect, from the absence of conversation, save now +and then a low, fierce oath, that they were playing desperately, and at +such times she would lie trembling and crying. Once or twice, during +the time she remembered these meetings, they were rudely broken upon by +oaths and blows, and on one particular occasion, she heard one of the +gamesters, when infuriated, call her husband "a d----d swindling dog of +a forger." + +In these times, which lasted but a few months, she began to reflect +what a fool she had been, and how to gratify her fancy she had thrown +from her everything solid and worth keeping in the world. She had +brought herself to confess, in bitterness and anguish, that he did not +love her, and never had, and that she was a miserable, unhappy dupe. +But, notwithstanding, she loved him still, though she dreaded the sight +of him, for she got little from him now but oaths and taunts. + +It was soon after their return from Brighton that he broke out, first +on some trivial occasion, and cursed her aloud. He said he hated the +sight of her pale face, for it always reminded him of ruin and misery; +that he had the greatest satisfaction in telling her that he was +utterly ruined; that his father was dead, and had left his money +elsewhere, and that her father was little better; that she would soon +be in the workhouse; and, in fine, said everything that his fierce, +wild, brutal temper could suggest. + +She never tempted another outbreak of the kind; that one was too +horrible for her, and crushed her spirit at once. She only tried by +mildness and submission to deprecate his rage. But every day he came +home looking fiercer and wilder; as time went on her heart sunk within +her, and she dreaded something more fearful than she had experienced +yet. + +As I said, after a month or two, his first companions began to drop +off, or only came, bullying and swearing, to demand money. And now +another class of men began to take their place, the sight of whom made +her blood cold--worse dressed than the others, and worse mannered, with +strange, foul oaths on their lips. And then, after a time, two +ruffians, worse looking than any of the others, began to come there, of +whom the one she dreaded most was called Maitland. + +He was always very civil to her; but there was something about him, his +lowering, evil face, and wild looks, which made him a living nightmare +to her. She knew he was flying from justice, by the way he came and +went, and by the precaution always taken when he was there. But when he +came to live in the room over theirs, and when, by listening at odd +times, she found that he and her husband were engaged in some great +villany, the nature of which she could not understand, then she saw +that there was nothing to do, but in sheer desperation to sit down and +wait the catastrophe. + +About this time she made another discovery, that she was penniless, and +had been so some time. George had given her money from time to time to +carry on household expenses, and she contrived to make these sums +answer well enough. But one day, determined to know the worst, she +asked him, at the risk of another explosion, how their account stood at +the bank? He replied in the best of his humours, apparently, "that the +five thousand they had had there had been overdrawn some six weeks, and +that, if it hadn't been for his exertions in various ways, she'd have +been starved out before now." + +"All gone!" she said; "and where to?" + +"To the devil," he answered. "And you may go after it." + +"And what are we to do now, George?" + +"The best we can." + +"But the baby, George? I shall lie-in in three months." + +"You must take your chance, and the baby too. As long as there's any +money going you'll get some of it. If you wrote to your father you +might get some." + +"I'll never do that," she said. + +"Won't you?" said he; "I'll starve you into it when money gets scarce." + +Things remained like this till it came to be nearly ten months from +their marriage. Mary had never written home but once, from Brighton, +and then, as we know, the answer had miscarried; so she, conceiving she +was cast off by her father, had never attempted to communicate with him +again. The time grew nigh that she should be confined, and she got very +sick and ill, and still the man Maitland lived in the house, and he and +George spent much of their time at night, away together. + +Yet poor Mary had a friend who stayed by her through it all--Captain +Saxon, the great billiard sharper. Many a weary hour, when she was +watching up anxious and ill for her husband, this man would come and +sit with her, talking agreeably and well about many things; but chiefly +about the life he used to lead before he fell so low as he was then. + +He used to say, "Mrs. Hawker, you cannot tell what a relief and +pleasure it is to me to have a LADY to talk to again. You must conceive +how a man brought up like myself misses it." + +"Surely, Captain Saxon," she would say, "you have some relations left. +Why not go back to them?" + +"They wouldn't own me," he said. "I smashed everything, a fine fortune +amongst other things, by my goings on; and they very properly cast me +off. I never got beyond the law, though. Many well-known men speak to +me now, but they won't play with me, though; I am too good. And so you +see I play dark to win from young fellows, and I am mixed up with a lot +of scoundrels. A man brought an action against me the other day to +recover two hundred pounds I won of him, but he couldn't do anything. +And the judge said, that though the law couldn't touch me, yet I was +mixed up notoriously with a gang of sharpers. That was a pleasant thing +to hear in court--wasn't it?--but true." + +"It has often surprised me to see how temperate you are, Captain +Saxon," she said. + +"I am forced to be," he said; "I must keep my hand steady. See there; +it's as firm as a rock. No; the consolation of drink is denied me; I +have something to live for still. I'll tell you a secret. I've insured +my life very high in favour of my little sister whom I ruined, and who +is out as a governess. If I don't pay up to the last, you see, or if I +commit suicide, she'll lose the money. I pay very high, I assure you. +On one occasion not a year ago, I played for the money to pay the +premium only two nights before it would have been too late. There was +touch and go for you. But my hand was as steady as a rock, and after +the last game was over I fainted." + +"Good Lord," she said, "what a terrible life! But, suppose you fall +into sickness and poverty. Then you may fall into arrear, and she will +lose everything after all." + +He laughed aloud. A strange wild laugh. "No," said he; "I am safe +there, if physicians are to be believed. Sometimes, when I am falling +asleep, my head begins to flutter and whirl, and I sit up in bed, +breathless and perspiring till it grows still again. Then I laugh to +myself, and say, 'Not this time then, but it can't be long now.' Those +palpitations, Mrs. Hawker, are growing worse and worse each month. I +have got a desperate incurable heart complaint, that will carry me off, +sudden and sure, without warning, I hope to a better sort of world than +this." + +"I am sorry for you, Captain Saxon," she said, sobbing, "so very, very +sorry for you!" + +"I thank you kindly, my good friend," he replied. "It's long since I +had so good a friend as you. Now change the subject. I want to talk to +you about yourself. You are going to be confined." + +"In a few days, I fear," she said. + +"Have you money?" + +"My husband seems to have money enough at present, but we have none to +fall back upon." + +"What friends have you?" + +"None that I can apply to." + +"H'm," he said. "Well, you must make use of me, and as far as I can +manage it of my purse too, in case of an emergency. I mean, you know, +Mrs. Hawker," he added, looking full at her, "to make this offer to you +as I would to my own sister. Don't in God's name refuse my protection, +such as it is, from any mistaken motives of jealousy. Now tell me, as +honestly as you dare, how do you believe your husband gets his living?" + +"I have not the least idea, but I fear the worst." + +"You do right," he said. "Forewarned is forearmed, and, at the risk of +frightening you, I must bid you prepare for the worst. Although I know +nothing about what he is engaged in, yet I know that the man Maitland, +who lives above, and who you say is your husband's constant companion, +is a desperate man. If anything happens apply to me straightway, and I +will do all I can. My principal hope is in putting you in communication +with your friends. Could you not trust me with your story, that we +might take advice together?" + +She told him all from beginning to the end, and at the last she said, +"If the worst should come, whatever that may be, I would write for help +to Major Buckley, for the sake of the child that is to come." + +"Major Buckley!"--he asked eagerly,--"do you mean James Buckley of the +--th?" + +"The same man," she replied, "my kindest friend." + +"Oh, Lord!" he said, growing pale, "I've got one of these spasms coming +on. A glass of water, my dear lady, in God's name!" + +He held both hands on his heart, and lay back in his chair a little, +with livid lips, gasping for breath. By degrees his white hands dropped +upon his lap, and he said with a sigh, "Nearer still, old friend, +nearer than ever. Not far off now." + +But he soon recovered and said, "Mrs. Hawker, if you ever see that man +Buckley again, tell him that you saw Charley Biddulph, who was once his +friend, fallen to be the consort of rogues and thieves, cast off by +everyone, and dying of a heart complaint; but tell him he could not die +without sending a tender love to his good old comrade, and that he +remembered him and loved him to the very end." + +"And I shall say too," said Mary, "when all neglected me, and forgot +me, this Charles Biddulph helped and cheered me; and when I was fallen +to the lowest, that he was still to me a courteous gentleman, and a +faithful adviser; and that but for him and his goodness I should have +sunk into desperation long ago. Be sure that I will say this too." + +The door opened, and George Hawker came in. + +"Good evening, Captain Saxon," said he. "My wife seems to make herself +more agreeable to you than she does to me. I hope you are pleased with +her. However, you are welcome to be. I thank God I ain't jealous. +Where's Maitland?" + +"He has not been here to-night, George," she said, timidly. + +"Curse him then. Give me a candle; I'm going up-stairs. Don't go on my +account, Captain Saxon. Well, if you will, good night." + +Saxon bade him good-night, and went. George went up into Maitland's +room, where Mary was never admitted; and soon she heard him hammer, +hammering at metal, over-head. She was too used to that sound to take +notice of it; so she went to bed, but lay long awake, thinking of poor +Captain Saxon. + +Less than a week after that she was confined. She had a boy, and that +gave her new life. Poorly provided for as that child was, he could not +have been more tenderly nursed or more prized and loved if he had been +born in the palace, with his Majesty's right honourable ministers in +the ante-room, drinking dry Sillery in honour of the event. + +Now she could endure what was to come better. And less than a month +after, just as she was getting well again, all her strength and courage +were needed. The end came. + +She was sitting before the fire, about ten o'clock at night, nursing +her baby, when she heard the street-door opened by a key; and the next +moment her husband and Maitland were in the room. + +"Sit quiet, now, or I'll knock your brains out with the poker," said +George; and, seizing a china ornament from the chimney-piece, he thrust +it into the fire, and heaped the coals over it. + +"We're caught like rats, you fool, if they have tracked us," said +Maitland; "and nothing but your consummate folly to thank for it. I +deserve hanging for mixing myself up with such a man in a thing like +this. Now, are you coming; or do you want half-an hour to wish your +wife good-bye?" + +George never answered that question. There was a noise of breaking +glass down-stairs, and a moment after a sound of several feet on the +stair. + +"Make a fight for it," said Maitland, "if you can do nothing else. Make +for the back-door." + +But George stood aghast, while Mary trembled in every limb. The door +was burst open, and a tall man coming in said, "In the King's name, I +arrest you, George Hawker and William Maitland, for coining." + +Maitland threw himself upon the man, and they fell crashing over the +table. George dashed at the door, but was met by two others. For a +minute there was a wild scene of confusion and struggling, while Mary +crouched against the wall with the child, shut her eyes, and tried to +pray. When she looked round again she saw her husband and Maitland +securely handcuffed, and the tall man, who first came in, wiping the +blood from a deep cut in his forehead, said, + +"There is nothing against this woman, is there, Sanders?" + +"Nothing, sir, except that she is the prisoner Hawker's wife." + +"Poor woman!" said the tall man. "She has been lately confined, too. I +don't think it will be necessary to take her into custody. Take away +the prisoners; I shall stay here and search." + +He began his search by taking the tongs and pulling the fire to pieces. +Soon he came to the remnants of the china ornament which George had +thrown in; and, after a little more raking, two or three round pieces +of metal fell out of the grate. + +"A very green trick," he remarked. "Well, they must stay there to cool +before I can touch them;" and turning to Mary said, "Could you oblige +me with some sticking-plaster? Your husband's confederate has given me +an ugly blow." + +She got some, and put it on for him. "Oh, sir!" she said, "Can you tell +me what this is all about?" + +"Easy, ma'am," said he. "Maitland is one of the most notorious coiners +in England, and your husband is his confederate and assistant. We've +been watching, just to get a case that there would be no trouble about, +and we've got it." + +"And if it is proved?" she asked, trembling. + +He looked very serious. "Mrs. Hawker, I know your history, as well as +your husband's, the same as if you told it to me. So I am sorry to give +a lady who is in misfortune more pain than I can help; but you know +coining is a hanging matter." + +She rocked herself wildly to and fro, and the chair where she sat, +squeezing the child against her bosom till he cried. She soothed him +again without a word, and then said to the officer, who was searching +every nook and cranny in the room: + +"Shall you be obliged to turn me out of here, or may I stay a few +nights?" + +"You can stay as long as you please, madam," he said; "that's a matter +with your landlady, not me. But if I was you I'd communicate with my +friends, and get some money to have my husband defended." + +"They'd sooner pay for the rope to hang him," she said. "You seem a +kind and pitiful sort of man; tell me honestly, is there any chance for +him?" + +"Honestly, none. There may be some chance of his life; but there is +evidence enough on this one charge, leave alone others, mind you, to +convict twenty men. Why, we've evidence of two forgeries committed on +his father before ever he married you; so that, if he is acquitted on +this charge, he'll be arrested for another outside the court." + +All night long she sat up nursing the child before the fire, which from +time to time she replenished. The officers in possession slept on +sofas, and dozed in chairs; but when the day broke she was still there, +pale and thoughtful, sitting much in the same place and attitude as she +did before all this happened, the night before, which seemed to her +like a year ago, so great was the change since then. "Then," thought +she, "he was nothing but a villain after all. He had merely gained her +heart for money's sake, and cast her off when it was gone. What a +miserable fool she had been, and how rightly served now, to be left +penniless in the world!" + +Penniless, but not friendless. She remembered Captain Saxon, and +determined to go to him and ask his advice. So when the strange weird +morning had crept on to such time as the accustomed crowd began to +surge through the street, she put on her bonnet, and went away for the +first time to seek him at his lodgings, in a small street, leading off +Piccadilly. + +An old woman answered the door. "The Captain was gone," she said, "to +Boulogne, and wouldn't be back yet for a fortnight. Would she leave any +name?" + +She hardly thought it worth while. All the world seemed to have +deserted her now; but she said, more in absence of mind than for any +other reason, "Tell him that Mrs. Hawker called, if you please." + +"Mrs. Hawker!" the old woman said; "there's a letter for you, ma'am, I +believe; and something particular too, 'cause he told me to keep it in +my desk till you called. Just step in, if you please." + +Mary followed her in, and she produced a letter directed to Mrs. +Hawker. When Mary opened it, which she did in the street, after the +door was shut, the first thing she saw was a bank-note for five pounds, +and behind it was the following note:-- + +"I am forced to go to Boulogne, at a moment's notice, with a man whom I +must not lose sight of. Should you have occasion to apply to me during +my absence (which is fearfully probable), I have left this, begging +your acceptance of it, in the same spirit as that in which it was +offered; and I pray you to accept this piece of advice at the same +time:-- + +"Apply instantly to your friends, and go back to them at once. Don't +stop about London on any excuse. You have never known what it is to be +without money yet; take care you never do. When a man or a woman is +poor and hungry, there is a troop of devils who always follow such, +whispering all sorts of things to them. They are all, or nearly all, +known to me: take care you do not make their acquaintance. + +"Yours most affectionately, + +"CHARLES BIDDULPH." + +What a strange letter, she thought. He must be mad. Yet there was +method in his madness, too. Devils such as he spoke of had leant over +her chair and whispered to her before now, plain to be heard. But that +was in the old times, when she sat brooding alone over the fire at +night. She was no longer alone now, and they had fled--fled, scared at +the face of a baby. + +She went home and spoke to the landlady. But little was owing, and that +she had money enough to pay without the five pounds that the kind +gambler had given her. However, when she asked the landlady whether she +could stay there a week or two longer, the woman prayed her with tears +to begone; that she and her husband had brought trouble enough on them +already. + +But there was still a week left of their old tenancy, so she held +possession in spite of the landlady; and from the police-officers, who +were still about the place, she heard that the two prisoners had been +committed for trial, and that that trial would take place early in the +week at the Old Bailey. + +Three days before the trial she had to leave the lodgings, with but +little more than two pounds in the world. For those three days she got +lodging as she could in coffee-houses and such places, always meeting, +however, with that sort of kindness and sympathy from the women +belonging to them which could not be bought for money. She was in such +a dull state of despair, that she was happily insensible to all smaller +discomforts, and on the day of the trial she endeavoured to push into +the court with her child in her arms. + +The crowd was too dense, and the heat was too great for her, so she +came outside and sat on some steps on one side of a passage. Once she +had to move as a great personage came up, and then one of the officers +said,-- + +"Come, my good woman, you mustn't sit there, you know. That's the +judge's private door." + +"I beg pardon," she said, "and I will move, if you wish me. But they +are trying my husband for coining, and the court is too hot for the +child. If you will let me sit there, I will be sure to get out of the +way when my lord comes past." + +The man looked at her as if it was a case somewhat out of his +experience, and went away. Soon, however, he came back again, and, +after staring at her a short time, said,-- + +"Do you want anything, missis? Anything I can get?" + +"I am much obliged to you, nothing," she said; "but if you can tell me +how the trial is going on, I shall be obliged to you." + +He shook his head and went away, and when he returned, telling her that +the judge was summing up, he bade her follow him, and found her a place +in a quiet part of the court. She could see her husband and Maitland +standing in the dock, quite close to her, and before them the judge was +calmly, slowly, and distinctly giving the jury the history of the case +from beginning to end. She was too much bewildered and desperate to +listen to it, but she was attracted by the buzz of conversation which +arose when the jury retired. They seemed gone a bare minute to her, +when she heard and understood that the prisoners were found guilty. +Then she heard Maitland sentenced to death, and George Hawker condemned +to be transported beyond the seas for the term of his natural life, in +consideration of his youth; so she brought herself to understand that +the game was played out, and turned to go. + +The officer who had been kind to her stopped her, and asked her "where +she was going?" She answered "to Devonshire," and passed on, but almost +immediately pushed back to him through the crowd, which was pouring out +of the doors, and thanked him for his kindness to her. Then she went +out with the crowd into the street, and almost instinctively struck +westward. + +Through the western streets, roaring with carriages, crowded with foot +passengers--like one in a dream--past the theatres, and the arches, and +all the great, rich world, busy seeking its afternoon pleasure, through +the long suburbs, getting more scattered as she went on, and so out on +to the dusty broad western highway; a lonely wanderer, with only one +thought in her throbbing head, to reach such home as was left her, +before she died. + +At the first quiet spot she came to she sat down and forced herself to +think. Two hundred miles to go, and fifteen shillings to keep her. +Never mind, she could beg; she had heard that some made a trade of +begging, and did well; hard if she should die on the road. So she +pushed on through the evening toward the sinking sun, till the +milestones passed slower and slower, and then she found shelter in a +tramps' lodging-house, and got what rest she could. In a week she was +at Taunton. Then the weather, which had hitherto been fair and +pleasant, broke up, and still she held on, with the rain beating from +the westward in her face, as though to stay her from her refuge, dizzy +and confused, but determined still, along the miry high-road. + +She had learnt from a gipsy woman, with whom she had walked in company +for some hours, how to carry her child across her back, slung in her +shawl. So, with her breast bare to the storm, she fought her way over +the high bleak downs, glad and happy when the boy ceased his wailing, +and lay warm and sheltered behind her, swathed in every poor rag she +could spare from her numbed and dripping body. + +Late on a wild rainy night she reached Exeter, utterly penniless, and +wet to the skin. She had had nothing to eat since noon, and her breast +was failing from want of nourishment and over-exertion. Still it was +only twenty miles further. Surely, she thought, God had not saved her +through two hundred such miles, to perish at last. The child was dry +and warm, and fast asleep, if she could get some rest in one of the +doorways in the lower part of the town, till she was stronger she could +fight her way on to Drumston; so she held on to St. Thomas's, and +finding an archway drier than the others sat down, and took the child +upon her lap. + +Rest!--rest was a fiction; she was better walking--such aches, and +cramps, and pains in every joint! She would get up and push on, and yet +minute after minute went by, and she could not summon courage. + +She was sitting with her beautiful face in the light of a lamp. A woman +well and handsomely dressed was passing rapidly through the rain, but +on seeing her stopped and said:-- + +"My poor girl, why do you sit there in the damp entry, such a night as +this?" + +"I am cold, hungry, ruined; that's why I sit under the arch," replied +Mary, rising up. + +"Come home with me," said the woman; "I will take care of you." + +"I am going to my friends," replied she. + +"Are you sure they will be glad to see you, my dear," said the woman, +"with that pretty little pledge at your bosom?" + +"I care not," said Mary, "I told you I was desperate." + +"Desperate, my pretty love," said the woman; "a girl with beauty like +yours should never be desperate; come with me." + +Mary stepped forward and struck her, so full and true that the woman +reeled backwards, and stood whimpering and astonished. + +"Out! you false jade," said Mary; "you are one of those devils that +Saxon told me of, who come whispering, and peering, and crowding behind +those who are penniless and deserted; but I have faced you, and struck +you, and I tell you to go back to your master, and say that I am not +for him." + +The woman went crying and frightened down the street, thinking that she +had been plying her infamous trade on a lunatic; but Mary sat down +again and nursed the child. + +But the wind changed a little, and the rain began to beat in on her +shelter; she arose, and went down the street to seek a new one. + +She found a deep arch, well sheltered, and, what was better, a lamp +inside, so that she could sit on the stone step, and see her baby's +face. Dainty quarters, truly! She went to take possession, and started +back with a scream. What delusion was this? There, under the lamp, on +the step, sat a woman, her own image, nursing a baby so like her own +that she looked down at her bosom to see if it was safe. It must be a +fancy of her own disordered brain; but no--for when she gathered up her +courage, and walked towards it, a woman she knew well started up, and, +laughing wildly, cried out, + +"Ha! ha! Mary Thornton." + +"Ellen Lee?" said Mary, aghast. + +"That's me, dear," replied the other; "you're welcome, my love, welcome +to the cold stones, and wet streets, and to hunger and drunkenness, and +evil words, and the abomination of desolation. That's what we all come +to, my dear. Is that his child?" + +"Whose?" said Mary. "This is George Hawker's child." + +"Hush, my dear!" said the other; "we never mention his name in our +society, you know. This is his too--a far finer one than yours. Cis +Jewell had one of his too, a poor little rat of a thing that died, and +now the minx is flaunting about the High-street every night, in her +silks and her feathers as bold as brass. I hope you'll have nothing to +say to her; you and I will keep house together. They are looking after +me to put me in the madhouse. You'll come too, of course." + +"God have mercy on you, poor Nelly!" said Mary. + +"Exactly so, my dear," the poor lunatic replied. "Of course He will. +But about him you know. You heard the terms of his bargain?" + +"What do you mean?" asked Mary. + +"Why, about him you know, G---- H----, Madge the witch's son. He sold +himself to the deuce, my dear, on condition of ruining a poor girl +every year. And he has kept his contract hitherto. If he don't, you +know--come here, I want to whisper to you." + +The poor girl whispered rapidly in her ear; but Mary broke away from +her and fled rapidly down the street, poor Ellen shouting after her, +"Ha, ha! the parson's daughter too,--ha, ha!" + +"Let me get out of this town, O Lord!" she prayed most earnestly, "if I +die in the fields." And so she sped on, and paused not till she was +full two miles out of the town towards home, leaning on the parapet of +the noble bridge that even then crossed the river Exe. + +The night had cleared up, and a soft and gentle westerly breeze was +ruffling the broad waters of the river, where they slept deep, dark, +and full above the weir. Just below where they broke over the low rocky +barrier, the rising moon showed a hundred silver spangles among the +broken eddies. + +The cool breeze and the calm scene quieted and soothed her, and, for +the first time for many days, she began to think. + +She was going back, but to what? To a desolated home, to a heart-broken +father, to the jeers and taunts of her neighbours. The wife of a +convicted felon, what hope was left for her in this world? None. And +that child that was sleeping so quietly on her bosom, what a mark was +set on him from this time forward!--the son of Hawker the coiner! Would +it not be better if they both were lying below there in the cold still +water, at rest? + +But she laughed aloud. "This is the last of the devils he talked of," +said she. "I have fought the others and beat them. I won't yield to +this one." + +She paused abashed, for a man on horseback was standing before her as +she turned. Had she not been so deeply engaged in her own thoughts she +might have heard him merrily whistling as he approached from the town, +but she heard him not, and was first aware of his presence when he +stood silently regarding her, not two yards off. + +"My girl," he said, "I fear you're in a bad way. I don't like to see a +young woman, pretty as I can see you are even now, standing on a +bridge, with a baby, talking to herself." + +"You mistake me," she said, "I was not going to do that; I was resting +and thinking." + +"Where are you going?" he asked. + +"To Crediton," she replied. "Once there, I should almost fancy myself +safe." + +"See here," he said; "my waggon is coming up behind. I can give you a +lift as far as there. Are you hungry?" + +"Ah," she said, "If you knew. If you only knew!" + +They waited for the waggon's coming up, for they could hear the horses' +bells chiming cheerily across the valley. "I had an only daughter went +away once," he said. "But, glory to God! I got her back again, though +she brought a child with her. And I've grown to be fonder of that poor +little base-born one than anything in this world. So cheer up." + +"I am married," she said; "this is my lawful boy, though it were +better, perhaps, he had never been born." + +"Don't say that, my girl," said the old farmer, for such she took him +to be, "but thank God you haven't been deceived like so many are." + +The waggon came up and was stopped. He made her take such refreshment +as was to be got, and then get in and lie quiet among the straw till in +the grey morning they reached Crediton. The weather had grown bad +again, and long before sunrise, after thanking and blessing her +benefactor, poor Mary struck off once more, with what strength she had +left, along the deep red lanes, through the driving rain. + + + + +Chapter XVII + +EXODUS. + + +But let us turn and see what has been going forward in the old +parsonage this long weary year. Not much that is noteworthy, I fear. +The chronicle of a year's sickness and unhappiness, would be rather +uninteresting, so I must get on as quick as I can. + +The Vicar only slowly revived from the fit in which he fell on the +morning of Mary's departure to find himself hopelessly paralytic, +unable to walk without support, and barely able to articulate +distinctly. It was when he was in this state, being led up and down the +garden by the Doctor and Frank Maberly, the former of whom was trying +to attract his attention to some of their old favourites, the flowers, +that Miss Thornton came to him with the letter which Mary had written +from Brighton, immediately after their marriage. + +It was, on the whole, a great relief for the Vicar. He had dreaded to +hear worse than this. They had kept from him all knowledge of Hawker's +forgery on his father, which had been communicated to them by Major +Buckley. So that he began to prepare his mind for the reception of +George Hawker as a son-in-law, and to force himself to like him. So +with shaking palsied hand he wrote:-- + + +"Dear Girl,--In sickness or sorrow, remember that I am still your +father. I hope you will not stop long in London, but come back and stay +near me. We must forget all that has passed, and make the best of it.-- + +"JOHN THORNTON." + + +Miss Thornton wrote:-- + + +"My dearest foolish Mary,--How could you leave us like that, my love! +Oh, if you had only let us know what was going on, I could have told +you such things, my dear. But now you will never know them, I hope. I +hope Mr. Hawker will use you kindly. Your father hopes that you and he +may come down and live near him, but we know that is impossible. If +your father were to know of your husband's fearful delinquencies, it +would kill him at once. But when trouble comes on you, my love, as it +must in the end, remember that there is still a happy home left you +here." + + +These letters she never received. George burnt them without giving them +to her, so that for a year she remained under the impression that they +had cast her off. So only at the last did she, as the sole hope of +warding off poverty and misery from her child, determine to cast +herself upon their mercy. + +The year had nearly passed, when the Vicar had another stroke, a stroke +that rendered him childish and helpless, and precluded all possibility +of his leaving his bed again. Miss Thornton found that it was necessary +to have a man servant in the house now, to move him, and so on. So one +evening, when Major and Mrs. Buckley and the Doctor had come down to +sit with her, she asked, did they know a man who could undertake the +business? + +"I do," said the Doctor. "I know a man who would suit you exactly. A +strong knave enough. An old soldier." + +"I don't think we should like a soldier in the house, Doctor," said +Miss Thornton. "They use such very odd language sometimes, you know." + +"This man never swears," said the Doctor. + +"But soldiers are apt to drink sometimes, you know, Doctor," said Miss +Thornton. "And that wouldn't do in this case." + +"I've known the man all my life," said the Doctor, with animation. "And +I never saw him drunk." + +"He seems faultless, Doctor," said the Major, smiling. + +"No, he is not faultless, but he has his qualifications for the office, +nevertheless. He can read passably, and might amuse our poor old friend +in that way. He is not evil tempered, though hasty, and I think he +would be tender and kindly to the old man. He had a father once +himself, this man, and he nursed him to his latest day, as well as he +was able, after his mother had left them and gone on the road to +destruction. And my man has picked up some knowledge of medicine too, +and might be a useful ally to the physician." + +"A paragon!" said Mrs. Buckley, laughing. "Now let us hear his faults, +dear Doctor." + +"They are many," he replied, "I don't deny. But not such as to make him +an ineligible person in this matter. To begin with, he is a fool--a +dreaming fool, who once mixed himself up with politics, and went on the +assumption that truth would prevail against humbug. And when he found +his mistake, this fellow, instead of staying at his post, as a man +should, he got disgusted, and beat a cowardly retreat, leaving his duty +unfulfilled. When I look at one side of this man's life, I wonder why +such useless fellows as he were born into the world. But I opine that +every man is of some use, and that my friend may still have manhood +enough left in him to move an old paralytic man in his bed." + +"And his name, Doctor? You must tell us that," said Mrs. Buckley, +looking sadly at him. + +"I am that man," said the Doctor, rising. "Dear Miss Thornton, you will +allow me to come down and stay with you. I shall be so glad to be of +any use to my old friend, and I am so utterly useless now." + +What could she say, but "yes," with a thousand thanks, far more than +she could express? So he took up his quarters at the Vicarage, and +helped her in the labour of love. + +The Sunday morning after he came to stay there, he was going down +stairs, shortly after daybreak, to take a walk in the fresh morning +air, when on the staircase he met Miss Thornton, and she, putting +sixpence into his hand, said, + +"My dear Doctor, I looked out of window just now, and saw a tramper +woman sitting on the door-step. She has black hair and a baby, like a +gipsy. And I am so nervous about gipsies, you know. Would you give her +that and tell her to go away?" + +The Doctor stepped down with the sixpence in his hand to do as he was +bid. Miss Thornton followed him. He opened the front door, and there +sure enough sat a woman, her hair, wet with the last night's rain, +knotted loosely up behind her hatless head. She sat upon the door-step +rocking herself to and fro, partly it would seem from disquietude, and +partly to soothe the baby which was lying on her lap crying. Her back +was towards him, and the Doctor only had time to notice that she was +young, when he began,-- + +"My good soul, you musn't sit there, you know. It's Sunday morning, +and----" + +No more. He had time to say no more. Mary rose from the step and looked +at him. + +"You are right, sir, I have no business here. But if you will tell him +that I only came back for the child's sake, he will hear me. I couldn't +leave it in the workhouse, you know." + +Miss Thornton ran forward, laughing wildly, and hugged her to her +honest heart. "My darling!" she said, "My own darling! I knew she would +find her home at last. In trouble and in sorrow I told her where she +was to come. Oh happy trouble, that has brought our darling back to us!" + +"Aunt! aunt!" said Mary, "don't kill me. Scold me a little, aunt dear, +only a little." + +"Scold you, my darling! Never, never! Scold you on this happy Sabbath +morn! Oh! never, my love." + +And the foolishness of these two women was so great that the Doctor had +to go for a walk. Right down the garden, round the cow-yard, and in by +the back way to the kitchen, where he met Frank, and told him what had +happened. And there they were at it again. Miss Thornton kneeling, +wiping poor Mary's blistered feet before the fire. While the maid, +foolishly giggling, had got possession of the baby, and was talking +more affectionate nonsense to it than ever baby heard in this world +before. + +Mary held out her hand to him, and when he gave her his vast brown paw, +what does she do, but put it to her lips and kiss it?--as if there was +not enough without that. And, to make matters worse, she quoted +Scripture, and said, "Forasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of +these, ye have done it unto me." So our good Doctor had nothing left +but to break through that cloak of cynicism which he delighted to wear, +(Lord knows why!) and to kiss her on the cheek, and to tell her how +happy she had made them by coming back, let circumstances be what they +might. + +Then she told them, with bursts of wild weeping, what those +circumstances were. And at last, when they were all quieted, Miss +Thornton boldly volunteered to go up and tell the Vicar that his +darling was returned. + +So she went up, and Mary and the Doctor waited at the bed-room door and +listened. The poor old man was far gone beyond feeling joy or grief to +any great extent. When Miss Thornton raised him in his bed, and told +him that he must brace up his nerves to hear some good news, he smiled +a weary smile, and Mary looking in saw that he was so altered that she +hardly knew him. + +"I know," he said, lisping and hesitating painfully, "what you are +going to tell me, sister. She is come home. I knew she would come at +last. Please tell her to come to me at once; but I can't see HIM yet. I +must get stronger first." So Mary went in to him, and Miss Thornton +came out and closed the door. And when Mary came downstairs soon +afterwards she could not talk to them, but remained a long time silent, +crying bitterly. + +The good news soon got up to Major Buckley's, and so after church they +saw him striding up the path, leading the pony carrying his wife and +baby. And while they were still busy welcoming her back, came a ring at +the door, and a loud voice, asking if the owner of it might come in. + +Who but Tom Troubridge! Who else was there to raise her four good feet +off the ground, and kiss her on both cheeks, and call her his darling +little sister! Who else was there who could have changed their tears +into laughter so quick that their merriment was wafted up to the +Vicar's room, and made him ring his bell, and tell them to send Tom up +to him! And who but Tom could have lit the old man's face up with a +smile, with the history of a new colt, that my lord's mare Thetis had +dropped last week! + +That was her welcome home. To the home she had dreaded coming to, +expecting to be received with scorn and reproaches. To the home she had +meant to come to only as a penitent, to leave her child there and go +forth into the world to die. And here she found herself the honoured +guest--treated as one who had been away on a journey, whom they had +been waiting and praying for all the time, and who came back to them +sooner than expected. None hold the force of domestic affection so +cheap as those who violate it most rudely. How many proud unhappy souls +are there at this moment, voluntarily absenting themselves from all +that love them in the world, because they dread sneers and cold looks +at home! And how many of these, going back, would find only tears of +joy to welcome them, and hear that ever since their absence they had +been spoken of with kindness and tenderness, and loved, perhaps, above +all the others! + +After dinner, when the women were alone together, Mrs. Buckley began,-- + +"Now, my dear Mary, you must hear all the news. My husband has had a +letter from Stockbridge." + +"Ah, dear old Jim!" said Mary; "and how is he?" + +"He and Hamlyn are quite well," said Mrs. Buckley, "and settled. He has +written such an account of that country to Major Buckley, that he, half +persuaded before, is now wholly determined to go there himself." + +"I heard of this before," said Mary. "Am I to lose you, then, at once?" + +"We shall see," said Mrs. Buckley; "I have my ideas. Now, who do you +think is going beside?" + +"Half Devonshire, I should think," said Mary; "at least, all whom I +care about." + +"It would seem so, indeed, my poor girl," said Mrs. Buckley; "for your +cousin Troubridge has made up his mind to come." + +"There was a time when I could have stopped him," she thought; "but +that is gone by now." And she answered Mrs. Buckley:-- + +"Aunt and I will stay here, and think of you all. Shall we ever hear +from you? It is the other side of the world, is it not?" + +"It is a long way; but we must wait, and see how things turn out. We +may not have to separate after all. See, my dear; are you fully aware +of your father's state? I fear you have only come home to see the last +of him. He probably will be gone before this month is out. You see the +state he is in. And when he is gone, have you reflected what to do?" + +Mary, weeping bitterly, said, "No; only that she could never live in +Drumston, or anywhere where she was known." + +"That is wise, my love," said Mrs. Buckley, "under the circumstances. +Have you made up your mind where to go, Miss Thornton, when you have to +leave the Vicarage for a new incumbent?" + +"I have made up my mind," answered Miss Thornton, "to go wherever Mary +goes, if it be to the other end of the earth. We will be Ruth and +Naomi, my dear. You would never get on without me." + +"That is what I say," said Mrs. Buckley. "Never leave her. Why not come +away out of all unhappy associations, and from the scorn and pity of +your neighbours, to live safe and happy with all the best friends you +have in the world?" + +"What do you mean?" said Mary. "Ah, if we could only do so!" + +"Come away with us," said Mrs. Buckley, with animation; "come away with +us, and begin a new life. There is Troubridge looking high and low for +a partner with five thousand pounds. Why should not Miss Thornton and +yourself be his partners?" + +"Ah me!" said Miss Thornton. "And think of the voyage! But I shall not +decide on anything; Mary shall decide." + + +* * * * * + + +Scarcely more than a week elapsed from the day that Mary came home, +when there came a third messenger for old John Thornton, and one so +peremptory that he arose and followed it in the dead of night. So, when +they came to his bedside in the morning, they found his body there, +laid as it was when he wished them good night, but cold and dead. He +himself was gone, and nothing remained but to bury his body decently +beside his wife's, in the old churchyard, and to shed some tears, at +the thought that never, by the fireside, or in the solemn old church, +they should hear that kindly voice again. + +And then came the disturbance of household gods, and the rupture of +life-old associations. And although they were begged by the new comer +not to hurry or incommode themselves, yet they too wished to be gone +from the house whence everything they loved had departed. + +Their kind true friend Frank was presented with the living, and they +accepted Mrs. Buckley's invitation to stay at their house till they +should have decided what to do. It was two months yet before the Major +intended to sail, and long before those two months were past, Mary and +Miss Thornton had determined that they would not rend asunder the last +ties they had this side of the grave, but would cast in their lot with +the others, and cross the weary sea with them towards a more hopeful +land. + +One more scene, and we have done with the Old World for many a year. +Some of these our friends will never see it more, and those who do will +come back with new thoughts and associations, as strangers to a strange +land. Only those who have done so know how much effort it takes to say, +"I will go away to a land where none know me or care for me, and leave +for ever all that I know and love." And few know the feeling which +comes upon all men after it is done,--the feeling of isolation, almost +of terror, at having gone so far out of the bounds of ordinary life; +the feeling of self-distrust and cowardice at being alone and +friendless in the world, like a child in the dark. + + +* * * * * + + +A golden summer's evening is fading into a soft cloudless summer's +night, and Doctor Mulhaus stands upon Mount Edgecombe, looking across +the trees, across the glassy harbour, over the tall men-of-war, out +beyond the silver line of surf on the breakwater, to where a tall ship +is rapidly spreading her white wings and speeding away each moment more +rapidly for a fair wind, towards the south-west. He watches it growing +more dim minute by minute in distance and in darkness, till he can see +no longer; then brushing a tear from his eye he says aloud:-- + +"There goes my English microcosm, all my new English friends with whom +I was going to pass the rest of my life, peaceful and contented, as a +village surgeon. Pretty dream, two years long! Truly man hath no sure +abiding place here. I will go back to P----, and see if they are all +dead, or only sleeping." + +So he turned down the steep path under the darkening trees, towards +where he could see the town lights along the quays, among the crowded +masts. + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +THE FIRST PUFF OF THE SOUTH WIND. + + +A new heaven and a new earth! Tier beyond tier, height above height, +the great wooded ranges go rolling away westward, till on the lofty +sky-line they are crowned with a gleam of everlasting snow. To the +eastward they sink down, breaking into isolated forests, fringed peaks, +and rock-crowned eminences, till with rapidly straightening lines they +disappear gradually into broad grey plains, beyond which the Southern +Ocean is visible by the white reflection cast upon the sky. + +All creation is new and strange. The trees, surpassing in size the +largest English oaks, are of a species we have never seen before. The +graceful shrubs, the bright-coloured flowers, ay, the very grass +itself, are of species unknown in Europe; while flaming lories and +brilliant parroquets fly whistling, not unmusically, through the gloomy +forest, and over head in the higher fields of air, still lit up by the +last rays of the sun, countless cockatoos wheel and scream in noisy +joy, as we may see the gulls do about an English headland. + +To the northward a great glen, sinking suddenly from the saddle on +which we stand, stretches away in long vista, until it joins a broader +valley, through which we can dimly see a full-fed river winding along +in gleaming reaches, through level meadow land, interspersed with +clumps of timber. + +We are in Australia. Three hundred and fifty miles south of Sydney, on +the great watershed which divides the Belloury from the Maryburnong, +since better known as the Snowy-river of Gipps-land. + +As the sun was going down on the scene I have been describing, James +Stockbridge and I, Geoffry Hamlyn, reined up our horses on the ridge +above-mentioned, and gazed down the long gully which lay stretched at +our feet. Only the tallest trees stood with their higher boughs glowing +with the gold of the departing day, and we stood undetermined which +route to pursue, and half inclined to camp at the next waterhole we +should see. We had lost some cattle, and among others a valuable +imported bull, which we were very anxious to recover. For five days we +had been passing on from run to run, making inquiries without success, +and were now fifty long miles from home in a southerly direction. We +were beyond the bounds of all settlement; the last station we had been +at was twenty miles to the north of us, and the occupiers of it, as +they had told us the night before, had only taken up their country +about ten weeks, and were as yet the furthest pioneers to the southward. + +At this time Stockbridge and I had been settled in our new home about +two years, and were beginning to get comfortable and contented. We had +had but little trouble with the blacks, and, having taken possession of +a fine piece of country, were flourishing and well to do. + +We had never heard from home but once, and that was from Tom +Troubridge, soon after our departure, telling us that if we succeeded +he should follow, for that the old place seemed changed now we were +gone. We had neither of us left any near relations behind us, and +already we began to think that we were cut off for ever from old +acquaintances and associations, and were beginning to be resigned to it. + +Let us return to where he and I were standing alone in the forest. I +dismounted to set right some strap or another, and, instead of getting +on my horse again at once, stood leaning against him, looking at the +prospect, glad to ease my legs for a time, for they were cramped with +many hours' riding. + +Stockbridge sat in his saddle immoveable and silent as a statue, and +when I looked in his face I saw that his heart had travelled further +than his eye could reach, and that he was looking far beyond the +horizon that bounded his earthly vision, away to the pleasant old home +which was home to us no longer. + +"Jim," said I, "I wonder what is going on at Drumston now?" + +"I wonder," he said softly. + +A pause. + +Below us, in the valley, a mob of jackasses were shouting and laughing +uproariously, and a magpie was chanting his noble vesper hymn from a +lofty tree. + +"Jim," I began again, "do you ever think of poor little Mary now?" + +"Yes, old boy, I do," he replied; "I can't help it; I was thinking of +her then--I am always thinking of her, and, what's more, I always shall +be. Don't think me a fool, old friend, but I love that girl as well now +as ever I did. I wonder if she has married that fellow Hawker?" + +"I fear there is but little doubt of it," I said; "try to forget her, +James. Get in a rage with her, and be proud about it; you'll make all +your life unhappy if you don't." + +He laughed. "That's all very well, Jeff, but it's easier said than +done.--Do you hear that? There are cattle down the gully." + +There was some noise in the air, beside the evening rustle of the south +wind among the tree-tops. Now it sounded like a far-off hubbub of +waters, now swelled up harmonious, like the booming of cathedral bells +across some rich old English valley on a still summer's afternoon. + +"There are cattle down there, certainly," I said, "and a very large +number of them; they are not ours, depend upon it: there are men with +them, too, or they would not make so much noise. Can it be the blacks +driving them off from the strangers we stayed with last night, do you +think? If so, we had best look out for ourselves." + +"Blacks could hardly manage such a large mob as there are there," said +James. "I'll tell you what I think it is, old Jeff; it's some new chums +going to cross the watershed, and look for new country to the south. If +so, let us go down and meet them: they will camp down by the river +yonder." + +James was right. All doubt about what the new comers were was solved +before we reached the river, for we could hear the rapid detonation of +the stock-whips loud above the lowing of the cattle; so we sat and +watched them debouche from the forest into the broad river meadows in +the gathering gloom: saw the scene so venerable and ancient, so seldom +seen in the Old World--the patriarchs moving into the desert with all +their wealth, to find new pasture-ground. A simple primitive action, +the first and simplest act of colonization, yet producing such great +results on the history of the world, as did the parting of Lot and +Abraham in times gone by. + +First came the cattle lowing loudly, some trying to stop and graze on +the rich pasture after their long day's travel, some heading noisily +towards the river, now beginning to steam with the rising evening mist. +Now a lordly bull, followed closely by two favourite heifers, would try +to take matters into his own hands, and cut out a route for himself, +but is soon driven ignominiously back in a lumbering gallop by a +quick-eyed stockman. Now a silly calf takes it into his head to go for +a small excursion up the range, followed, of course, by his doting +mother, and has to be headed in again, not without muttered wrath and +lowerings of the head from madame. Behind the cattle came horsemen, +some six or seven in number, and last, four drays, bearing the +household gods, came crawling up the pass. + +We had time to notice that there were women on the foremost dray, when +it became evident that the party intended camping in a turn of the +river just below. One man kicked his feet out of the stirrups, and, +sitting loosely in his saddle, prepared to watch the cattle for the +first few hours till he was relieved. Another lit a fire against a +fallen tree, and while the bullock-drivers were busy unyoking their +beasts, and the women were clambering from the dray, two of the +horsemen separated from the others, and came forward to meet us. + +Both of them I saw were men of vast stature. One rode upright, with a +military seat, while his companion had his feet out of his stirrups, +and rode loosely, as if tired with his journey. Further than this, I +could distinguish nothing in the darkening twilight; but, looking at +James, I saw that he was eagerly scanning the strangers, with elevated +eyebrow and opened lips. Ere I could speak to him, he had dashed +forward with a shout, and when I came up with him, wondering, I found +myself shaking hands, talking and laughing, everything in fact short of +crying, with Major Buckley and Thomas Troubridge. + +"Range up alongside here, Jeff, you rascal," said Tom, "and let me get +a fair hug at you. What do you think of this for a lark; eh?--to meet +you out here, all promiscuous, in the forest, like Prince Arthur! We +could not go out of our way to see you, though we knew where you were +located, for we must hurry on and get a piece of country we have been +told of on the next river. We are going to settle down close by you, +you see. We'll make a new Drumston in the wilderness." + +"This is a happy meeting, indeed, old Tom," I said, as we rode towards +the drays, after the Major and James. "We shall have happy times, now +we have got some of our old friends round us. Who is come with you? How +is Mrs. Buckley?" + +"Mrs. Buckley is as well as ever, and as handsome. My pretty little +cousin, Mary Hawker, and old Miss Thornton, are with us; the poor old +Vicar is dead." + +"Mary Hawker with you?" I said. "And her husband, Tom?" + +"Hardly, old friend. We travel in better company," said he. "George +Hawker is transported for life." + +"Alas! poor Mary," I answered. "And what for?" + +"Coining," he answered. "I'll tell you the story another time. To-night +let us rejoice." + +I could not but watch James, who was riding before us, to see how he +would take this news. The Major, I saw, was telling him all about it, +but James seemed to take it quite quietly, only nodding his head as the +other went on. I knew how he would feel for his old love, and I turned +and said to Troubridge-- + +"Jim will be very sorry to hear of this. I wish she had married him." + +"That's what we all say," said Tom. "I am sorry for poor Jim. He is +about the best man I know, take him all in all. If that fellow were to +die, she might have him yet, Hamlyn." + +We reached the drays. There sat Mrs. Buckley on a log, a noble, happy +matron, laughing at her son as he toddled about, busy gathering sticks +for the fire. Beside her was Mary, paler and older-looking than when we +had seen her last, with her child upon her lap, looking sad and worn. +But a sadder sight for me was old Miss Thornton, silent and frightened, +glancing uneasily round, as though expecting some new horror. No child +for her to cling to and strive for. No husband to watch for and +anticipate every wish. A poor, timid, nervous old maid, thrown adrift +in her old age upon a strange sea of anomalous wonders. Every old +favourite prejudice torn up by the roots. All old formulas of life +scattered to the winds! + +She told me in confidence that evening that she had been in sad trouble +all day. At dinner-time, some naked blacks had come up to the dray, and +had frightened and shocked her. Then the dray had been nearly upset, +and her hat crushed among the trees. A favourite and precious bag, +which never left her, had been dropped in the water; and her +Prayer-book, a parting gift from Lady Kate, had been utterly spoiled. A +hundred petty annoyances and griefs, which Mary barely remarked, and +which brave Mrs. Buckley, in her strong determination of following her +lord to the ends of the earth, and of being as much help and as little +incumbrance to him as she could, had laughed at, were to her great +misfortunes. Why, the very fact, as she told me, of sitting on the top +of a swinging jolting dray was enough to keep her in a continual state +of agony and terror, so that when she alit at night, and sat down, she +could not help weeping silently, dreading lest any one should see her. + +Suddenly, Mary was by her side, kneeling down. + +"Aunt," she said, "dearest aunt, don't break down. It is all my wicked +fault. You will break my heart, auntie dear, if you cry like that. Why +did ever I bring you on this hideous journey?" + +"How could I leave you in your trouble, my love?" said Miss Thornton. +"You did right to come, my love. We are among old friends. We have come +too far for trouble to reach us. We shall soon have a happy home again +now, and all will be well." + +So she, who needed so much comforting herself, courageously dried her +tears and comforted Mary. And when we reached the drays, she was +sitting with her hands folded before her in serene misery. + +"Mary," said the Major, "here are two old friends." + +He had no time to say more, for she, recognising Jim, sprang up, and, +running to him, burst into hysterical weeping. + +"Oh, my good old friend!" she cried; "oh, my dear old friend! Oh, to +meet you here in this lonely wilderness! Oh, James, my kind old +brother!" + +I saw how his big heart yearned to comfort his old sweetheart in her +distress. Not a selfish thought found place with him. He could only see +his old love injured and abandoned, and nought more. + +"Mary," he said, "what happiness to see you among all your old friends +come to live among us again! It is almost too good to believe in. +Believe me, you will get to like this country as well as old Devon +soon, though it looks so strange just now. And what a noble boy, too! +We will make him the best bushman in the country when he is old enough." + +So he took the child of his rival to his bosom, and when the innocent +little face looked into his, he would see no likeness to George Hawker +there. He only saw the mother's countenance as he knew her as a child +years gone by. + +"Is nobody going to notice me or my boy, I wonder?" said Mrs. Buckley. +"Come here immediately, Mr. Stockbridge, before we quarrel." + +In a very short time all our party were restored to their equanimity, +and were laying down plans for pleasant meetings hereafter. And long +after the women had gone to bed in the drays, and the moon was riding +high in the heavens, James and myself, Troubridge and the Major, sat +before the fire; and we heard, for the first time, of all that had gone +on since we left England, and of all poor Mary's troubles. Then each +man rolled himself in his blanket, and slept soundly under the rustling +forest-boughs. + +In the bright cool morning, ere the sun was up, and the belated opossum +had run back to his home in the hollow log, James and I were afoot, +looking after our horses. We walked silently side by side for a few +minutes, until he turned and said:-- + +"Jeff, old fellow, of course you will go on with them, and stay until +they are settled?" + +"Jim, old fellow," I replied, "of course you will go on with them, and +stay till they are settled?" + +He pondered a few moments, and then said, "Well, why not? I suppose she +can be to me still what she always was? Yes, I will go with them." + +When we returned to the dray we found them all astir, preparing for a +start. Mrs. Buckley, with her gown tucked up, was preparing breakfast, +as if she had been used to the thing all her life. She had an imperial +sort of way of manoeuvring a frying-pan, which did one good to see. It +is my belief, that if that woman had been called upon to groom a horse, +she'd have done it in a ladylike way. + +While James went among the party to announce his intention of going on +with them, I had an opportunity of looking at the son and heir of all +the Buckleys. He was a sturdy, handsome child about five years old, and +was now standing apart from the others, watching a bullock-driver +yoking-up his beast. I am very fond of children, and take great +interest in studying their characters; so I stood, not unamused, behind +this youngster, as he stood looking with awe and astonishment at the +man, as he managed the great, formidable beasts, and brought each one +into his place; not, however, without more oaths than one would care to +repeat. Suddenly, the child, turning and seeing me behind him, came +back, and took my hand. + +"Why is he so angry with them?" the child asked at once. "Why does he +talk to them like that?" + +"He is swearing at them," I said, "to make them stand in their places." + +"But they don't understand him," said the boy. "That black and white +one would have gone where he wanted it in a minute; but it couldn't +understand, you know; so he hit it over the nose. Why don't he find out +how they talk to one another? Then he'd manage them much better. He is +very cruel." + +"He does not know any better," I said. "Come with me and get some +flowers." + +"Will you take me up?" he said; "I musn't run about for fear of snakes." + +I took him up, and we went to gather flowers. + +"Your name is Samuel Buckley, I think," said I. + +"How did you know that?" + +"I remember you when you were a baby," I said. "I hope you may grow to +be as good a man as your father, my lad. See, there is mamma calling +for us." + +"And how far south are you going, Major?" I asked at breakfast. + +"No further than we can help," said the Major. "I stayed a night with +my old friend Captain Brentwood, by the way; and there I found a man +who knew of some unoccupied country down here, which he had seen in +some bush expedition. We found the ground he mentioned taken up; but he +says there is equally good on the next river. I have bought him and his +information." + +"We saw good country away to the south yesterday," I said. "But are you +wise to trust this man? Do you know anything about him?" + +"Brentwood has known him these ten years, and trusts him entirely; +though, I believe, he has been a convict. If you are determined to come +with us, Stockbridge, I will call him up and examine him about the +route. William Lee, just step here a moment." + +A swarthy and very powerfully built man came up. No other than the man +I have spoken of under that name before. He was quite unknown either to +James or myself, although, as he told us afterwards, he had recognised +us at once, but kept out of our sight as much as possible, till by the +Major's summons he was forced to come forward. + +"What route to-day, William?" asked the Major. + +"South and by east across the range. We ought to get down to the river +by night if we're lucky." + +So, while the drays were getting under way, the Major, Tom, James, and +myself rode up to the saddle where we had stood the night before, and +gazed southeast across the broad prospect, in the direction that the +wanderers were to go. + +"That," said the Major, "to the right there must be the great glen out +of which the river comes; and there, please God, we will rest our weary +bodies and build our house. Odd, isn't it, that I should have been +saved from shot and shell when so many better men were put away in the +trench, to come and end my days in a place like this? Well, I think we +shall have a pleasant life of it, watching the cattle spread further +across the plains year after year, and seeing the boy grow up to be a +good man. At all events, for weal or woe, I have said good bye to old +England, for ever and a day." + +The cattle were past, and the drays had arrived at where we stood. With +many a hearty farewell, having given a promise to come over and spend +Christmas-day with them, I turned my horse's head homewards and went on +my solitary way. + + + + +Chapter XIX + +I HIRE A NEW HORSEBREAKER. + + +I must leave them to go their way towards their new home, and follow my +own fortunes a little, for that afternoon I met with an adventure quite +trifling indeed, but which is not altogether without interest in this +story. + +I rode on till high noon, till having crossed the valley of the +Belloury, and followed up one of its tributary creeks, I had come on to +the water system of another main river, and the rapid widening of the +gully whose course I was pursuing assured me that I could not be far +from the main stream itself. At length I entered a broad flat, +intersected by a deep and tortuous creek, and here I determined to camp +till the noon-day heat was past, before I continued my journey, +calculating that I could easily reach home the next day. + +Having watered my horse, I turned him loose for a graze, and, making +such a dinner as was possible under the circumstances, I lit a pipe and +lay down on the long grass, under the flowering wattle-trees, smoking +and watching the manoeuvres of a little tortoise, who was disporting +himself in the waterhole before me. Getting tired of that I lay back on +the grass, and watched the green leaves waving and shivering against +the clear blue sky, given up entirely to the greatest of human +enjoyments--the after dinner pipe, the pipe of peace. + +Which is the pleasantest pipe in the day? We used to say at home that a +man should smoke but four pipes a-day: the matutinal, another I don't +specify, the post-prandial, and the symposial or convivial, which last +may be infinitely subdivided, according to the quantity of drink taken. +But in Australia this division won't obtain, particularly when you are +on the tramp. Just when you wake from a dreamless sleep beneath the +forest boughs, as the east begins to blaze, and the magpie gets +musical, you dash to the embers of last night's fire, and after blowing +many fire-sticks find one which is alight, and proceed to send abroad +on the morning breeze the scent of last night's dottle. Then, when +breakfast is over and the horses are caught up and saddled, and you are +jogging across the plain, with the friend of your heart beside you, the +burnt incense once more goes up, and conversation is unnecessary. At +ten o'clock when you cross the creek (you always cross a creek about +ten if you are in a good country), you halt and smoke. So after dinner +in the lazy noon-tide, one or perhaps two pipes are necessary, with, +perhaps, another about four in the afternoon, and last, and perhaps +best of all, are the three or four you smoke before the fire at night, +when the day is dying and the opossums are beginning to chatter in the +twilight. So that you find that a fig of Barret's twist, seventeen to +the pound, is gone in the mere hours of day-light without counting such +a casualty as waking up cold in the night, and going at it again. + +So I lay on my back dreaming, wondering why a locust who was in full +screech close by, took the trouble to make that terrible row when it +was so hot, and hoping that his sides might be sore with the exertion, +when to my great astonishment I heard the sound of feet brushing +through the grass towards me. "Black fellow," I said to myself; but no, +those were shodden feet that swept along so wearily. I raised myself on +my elbow, with my hand on my pistol, and reconnoitred. + +There approached me from down the creek a man, hardly reaching the +middle size, lean and active-looking, narrow in the flanks, thin in the +jaws, his knees well apart; with a keen bright eye in his head; his +clothes looked as if they had belonged to ten different men; and his +gait was heavy, and his face red, as if from a long hurried walk; but I +said at once, "Here comes a riding man, at all events, be it for peace +or war." + +"Good day, lad," said I. + +"Good day, sir." + +"You're rather off the tracks for a foot-man;" said I. "Are you looking +for your horse?" + +"Deuce a horse have I got to my name, sir,--have you got a feed of +anything? I'm nigh starved." + +"Ay, surely: the tea's cold; put it on the embers and warm it a bit; +here's beef, and damper too, plenty." + +I lit another pipe and watched his meal. I like feeding a real hungry +man; it's almost as good as eating oneself--sometimes better. + +When the edge of his appetite was taken off he began to talk; he said +first-- + +"Got a station anywheres about here, sir?" + +"No, I'm Hamlyn of the Durnongs, away by Maneroo." + +"Oh! ay; I know you, sir; which way have you come this morning?" + +"Southward; I crossed the Belloury about seven o'clock." + +"That, indeed! You haven't seen anything of three bullock drays and a +mob of cattle going south?" + +"Yes! I camped with such a lot last night!" + +"Not Major Buckley's lot?" + +"The same." + +"And how far were they on?" + +"They crossed the range at daylight this morning;--they're thirty miles +away by now." + +He threw his hat on the ground with an oath: "I shall never catch them +up. I daren't cross that range on foot into the new country, and those +black devils lurking round. He shouldn't have left me like that;--all +my own fault, though, for staying behind! No, no, he's true enough--all +my own fault. But I wouldn't have left him so, neither; but, perhaps, +he don't think I'm so far behind." + +I saw that the man was in earnest, for his eyes were swimming;--he was +too dry for tears; but though he looked a desperate scamp, I couldn't +help pitying him and saying,-- + +"You seem vexed you couldn't catch them up; were you going along with +the Major, then?" + +"No, sir; I wasn't hired with him; but an old mate of mine, Bill Lee, +is gone along with him to show him some country, and I was going to +stick to him and see if the Major would take me; we haven't been parted +for many years, not Bill and I haven't; and the worst of it is, that +he'll think I've slipped away from him, instead of following him fifty +mile on foot to catch him. Well! it can't be helped now; I must look +round and get a job somewhere till I get a chance to join him. Were you +travelling with them, sir?" + +"No, I'm after some cattle I've lost; a fine imported bull, too,--worse +luck! We'll never see him again, I'm afraid, and if I do find them how +I am to get them home single handed, I don't know." + +"Do you mean, a short-horned Durham bull with a key brand? Why, if +that's him, I can lay you on to him at once; he's up at Jamieson's, +here to the west. I was staying at Watson's last night, and one of +Jamieson's men staid in the hut--a young hand; and, talking about +beasts, he said that there was a fine short-horned bull come on to +their run with a mob of heifers and cows, and they couldn't make out +who they belonged to; they were all different brands." + +"That's our lot for a thousand," says I; "a lot of store cattle we +bought this year from the Hunter, and haven't branded yet,--more shame +to us." + +"If you could get a horse and saddle from Jamieson's, sir," said he, "I +could give you a hand home with them: I'd like to get a job somehow, +and I'm well used to cattle." + +"Done with you," said I; "Jamieson's isn't ten miles from here, and we +can do that to-night if we look sharp. Come along, my lad." + +So I caught up the horse, and away we went. Starting at right angles +with the sun, which was nearly overhead, and keeping to the left of him +holding such a course, as he got lower, that an hour and half, or +thereabouts, before setting he should be in my face, and at sundown a +little to the left;--the best direction I can give you for going about +due west in November, without a compass--which, by the way, you always +ought to have. + +My companion was foot-sore, so I went slowly; he, however, shambled +along bravely when his feet got warm. He was a talkative, lively man, +and chattered continually. + +"You've got a nice place up at the Durnongs, sir," said he; "I stayed +in your huts one night. It's the comfortablest bachelor station on this +side. You've got a smart few sheep, I expect?" + +"Twenty-five thousand. Do you know these parts well?" + +"I knew that country of yours long before any of it was took up." + +"You've been a long while in the country, then?" + +"I was sent out when I was eighteen; spared, as the old judge said, on +account of my youth: that's eleven years ago." + +"Spared, eh? It was something serious, then?" + +"Trifling enough: only for having a rope in my hand." + +"They wouldn't lag a man for that," said I. + +"Ay, but," he replied, "there was a horse at the end of the rope. I was +brought up in a training stable, and somehow there's something in the +smell of a stable is sure to send a man wrong if he don't take care. I +got betting and drinking, too, as young chaps will, and lost my place, +and got from bad to worse till I shook a nag, and got bowled out and +lagged. That's about my history, sir; will you give me a job, now?" and +he looked up, laughing. + +"Ay, why not?" said I. "Because you tried hard to go to the devil when +you were young and foolish, it don't follow that you should pursue that +line of conduct all your life. You've been in a training stable, eh? If +you can break horses, I may find you something to do." + +"I'll break horses against any man in this country--though that's not +saying much, for I ain't seen not what I call a breaker since I've been +here; as for riding, I'd ridden seven great winners before I was +eighteen; and that's what ne'er a man alive can say. Ah, those were the +rosy times! Ah for old Newmarket!" + +"Are you a Cambridgeshire man, then?" + +"Me? Oh, no; I'm a Devonshire man. I come near from where Major Buckley +lived some years. Did you notice a pale, pretty-looking woman, was with +him--Mrs. Hawker?" + +I grew all attention. "Yes," I said, "I noticed her." + +"I knew her husband well," he said, "and an awful rascal he was: he was +lagged for coining, though he might have been for half-a-dozen things +besides." + +"Indeed!" said I; "and is he in the colony?" + +"No; he's over the water, I expect." + +"In Van Diemen's Land, you mean?" + +"Just so," he said; "he had better not show Bill Lee much of his face, +or there'll be mischief." + +"Lee owes him a grudge, then?" + +"Not exactly that," said my communicative friend, "but I don't think +that Hawker will show much where Lee is." + +"I am very glad to hear it," I thought to myself. "I hope Mary may not +have some trouble with her husband still." + +"What is the name of the place Major Buckley comes from?" I inquired. + +"Drumston." + +"And you belong there too?" I knew very well however, that he did not, +or I must have known him. + +"No," he answered; "Okehampton is my native place. But you talk a +little Devon yourself, sir." + +The conversation came to a close, for we heard the barking of dogs, and +saw the station where we were to spend the night. In the morning I went +home, and my new acquaintance, who called himself Dick, along with me. +Finding that he was a first-rate rider, and gentle and handy among +horses, I took him into my service permanently, and soon got to like +him very well. + + + + +Chapter XX + +A WARM CHRISTMAS DAY. + + +All through November and part of December, I and our Scotch overseer, +Georgy Kyle, were busy as bees among the sheep. Shearers were very +scarce, and the poor sheep got fearfully "tomahawked" by the new hands, +who had been a very short time from the barracks. Dick, however, my new +acquaintance, turned out a valuable ally, getting through more sheep +and taking off his fleece better than any man in the shed. The +prisoners, of course, would not work effectually without extra wages, +and thus gave a deal of trouble; knowing that there was no fear of my +sending them to the magistrate (fifty miles off) during such a busy +time. However, all evils must come to an end some time or another, and +so did shearing, though it was nearly Christmas before our wool was +pressed and ready for the drays. + +Then came a breathing time. So I determined, having heard nothing of +James, to go over and spend my Christmas with the Buckleys, and see how +they were getting on at their new station; and about noon on the day +before Boxing-day, having followed the track made by their drays from +the place I had last parted with them, I reined up on the cliffs above +a noble river, and could see their new huts, scarce a quarter of a mile +off, on the other side of the stream. + +They say that Christmas-day is the hottest day in the year in those +countries, but some days in January are, I think, generally hotter. +To-day, however, was as hot as a salamander could wish. All the vast +extent of yellow plain to the eastward quivered beneath a fiery sky, +and every little eminence stood like an island in a lake of mirage. +Used as I had got to this phenomenon, I was often tempted that morning +to turn a few hundred yards from my route, and give my horse a drink at +one of the broad glassy pools that seemed to lie right and left. Once +the faint track I was following headed straight towards one of these +apparent sheets of water, and I was even meditating a bathe, but, lo! +when I was a hundred yards or so off, it began to dwindle and +disappear, and I found nothing but the same endless stretch of grass, +burnt up by the midsummer sun. + +For many miles I had distinguished the new huts, placed at the apex of +a great cape of the continent of timber which ran down from the +mountains into the plains. I thought they had chosen a strange place +for their habitation, as there appeared no signs of a watercourse near +it. It was not till I pulled up within a quarter of a mile of my +destination, that I heard a hoarse roar as if from the bowels of the +earth, and found that I was standing on the edge of a glen about four +hundred feet deep, through which a magnificent snow-fed river poured +ceaselessly, here flashing bright among bars of rock, there lying in +dark, deep reaches, under tall, white-stemmed trees. + +The scene was so beautiful and novel that I paused and gazed at it. +Across the glen, behind the houses, rolled up a dark mass of timbered +ranges, getting higher and steeper as far as the eye could reach, while +to the north-east the river's course might be traced by the timber that +fringed the water's edge, and sometimes feathered some tributary gully +almost to the level of the flat lofty table-land. On either side of it, +down behind, down folded one over the other, and, bordered by great +forests, led the eye towards the river's source, till the course of the +valley could no longer be distinguished, lost among the distant ranges; +but above where it had disappeared, rose a tall blue peak with streaks +of snow. + +I rode down a steep pathway, and crossed a broad gravelly ford. As my +horse stopped to drink, I looked delighted up the vista which opened on +my sight. The river, partly over-shadowed by tall trees, was hurrying +and spouting through upright columns of basalt, which stood in groups +everywhere like the pillars of a ruined city; in some places solitary, +in others, clustered together like fantastic buildings, while a hundred +yards above was an island, dividing the stream, on which, towering +above the variety of low green shrubs which covered it, three noble +fern trees held their plumes aloft, shaking with the concussion of the +falling water. + +I crossed the river. A gully, deep at first, but getting rapidly +shallower, led up by a steep ascent to the tableland above, and as I +reached the summit I found myself at Major Buckley's front door. They +had, with good taste, left such trees as stood near the house--a few +deep-shadowed light-woods and black wattles, which formed pretty groups +in what I could see was marked out for a garden. Behind, the land began +to rise, at first, in park-like timbered forest glades, and further +back, closing into dense deep woodlands. + +"What a lovely place they will make of this in time!" I said to myself; +but I had not much time for cogitation. A loud, cheerful voice shouted: +"Hamlyn, you are welcome to Baroona!" and close to me I saw the Major, +carrying his son and heir in his arms, advancing to meet me from the +house-door. + +"You are welcome to Baroona!" echoed the boy; "and a merry Christmas +and a happy New-year to you!" + +I went into the house and was delighted to find what a change a few +weeks of busy, quiet, and HOME had made in the somewhat draggle-tailed +and disconsolate troop that I had parted with on their road. Miss +Thornton, with her black mittens, white apron, and spectacles, had +found herself a cool corner by the empty fire-place, and was stitching +away happily at baby linen. Mrs. Buckley, in the character of a +duchess, was picking raisins, and Mary was helping her; and, as I +entered, laughing loudly, they greeted me kindly with all the old +sacred good wishes of the season. + +"I very much pity you, Mr. Hamlyn," said Mrs. Buckley, "at having +outlived the novelty of being scorched to death on Christmas-day. My +dear husband, please refresh me with reading the thermometer!" + +"One hundred and nine in the shade," replied the Major, with a chuckle. + +"Ah, dear!" said Mrs. Buckley, "If the dear old rheumatic creatures +from the alms-house at Clere could only spend to-morrow with us, how it +would warm their old bones! Fancy how they are crouching before their +little pinched grates just now!" + +"Hardly that, Mrs. Buckley," I said laughing; "they are all snug in bed +now. It is three o'clock in the morning, or thereabouts, at home, you +must remember. Miss Thornton, I hope you have got over your journey." + +"Yes, and I can laugh at all my mishaps now," she replied; "I have just +got homely and comfortable here, but we must make one more move, and +that will be the last for me. Mary and Mr. Troubridge have taken up +their country to the south-west, and as soon as he has got our house +built, we are going to live there." + +"It is not far, I hope," said I. + +"A trifle: not more than ten miles," said Miss Thornton; "they call the +place Toonarbin. Mary's run joins the Major's on two sides, and beyond +again, we already have neighbours, the Mayfords. They are on the river +again; but we are on a small creek towards the ranges. I should like to +have been on the river, but they say we are very lucky." + +"I am so glad to see you," said Mary; "James Stockbridge said you would +be sure to come; otherwise, we should have sent over for you. What do +you think of my boy?" + +She produced him from an inner room. He was certainly a beautiful +child, though very small, and with a certain painful likeness to his +father, which even I could see, and I could not help comparing him +unfavourably, in my own mind, with that noble six-year-old Sam Buckley, +who had come to my knee where I sat, and was looking in my face as if +to make a request. + +"What is it, my prince?" I asked. + +He blushed, and turned his handsome gray eyes to a silver-handled +riding-whip that I had in my hand "I'll take such care of it," he +whispered, and, having got it, was soon astride of a stick, full gallop +for Banbury Cross. + +James and Troubridge came in. To the former I had much to tell that was +highly satisfactory about our shearing; and from the latter I had much +to hear about the state of both the new stations, and the adventures of +a journey he had had back towards Sydney to fetch up his sheep. But +these particulars will be but little interesting to an English reader, +and perhaps still less so to an Australian. I am writing a history of +the people themselves, not of their property. I will only say, once for +all, that the Major's run contained very little short of 60,000 acres +of splendidly grassed plain-land, which he took up originally with +merely a few cattle, and about 3,000 sheep; but which, in a few years, +carried 28,000 sheep comfortably. Mrs. Hawker and Troubridge had quite +as large a run; but a great deal of it was rather worthless forest, +badly grassed; which Tom, in his wisdom, like a great many other new +chums, had thought superior to the bleak plains on account of the +shelter. Yet, notwithstanding this disadvantage, they were never, after +a year or two, with less than 15,000 sheep, and a tolerable head of +cattle. In short, in a very few years, both the Major and Troubridge, +by mere power of accumulation, became very wealthy people. + +Christmas morn rose bright; but ere the sun had time to wreak his fury +upon us every soul in the household was abroad, under the shade of the +lightwood trees, to hear the Major read the Litany. + +A strange group we were. The Major stood with his back against a +tree-stem, and all his congregation were ranged around him. To his +right stood Miss Thornton, her arms folded placidly before her; and +with her, Mary and Mrs. Buckley, in front of whom sat the two boys: +Sam, the elder, trying to keep Charles, the younger, quiet. Next, going +round the circle, stood the old housekeeper, servant of the Buckleys +for thirty years; who now looked askance off her Prayer-book to see +that the two convict women under her charge were behaving with decorum. +Next, and exactly opposite the Major, were two free servants: one a +broad, brawny, athleticlooking man, with, I thought, not a bad +countenance; and the other a tall, handsome, foolish-looking Devonshire +lad. The round was completed by five convict man-servants, standing +vacantly looking about them; and Tom, James, and myself, who were next +the Major. + +The service, which he read in a clear manly voice, was soon over, and +we returned to the house in groups. I threw myself in the way of the +two free servants, and asked,-- + +"Pray, which of you is William Lee?"--for I had forgotten him. + +The short thickset man I had noticed before touched his hat and said +that he was. That touching of the hat is a very rare piece of courtesy +from working men in Australia. The convicts are forced to do it, and so +the free men make it a point of honour not to do so. + +"Oh!" said I, "I have got a groom who calls himself Dick. I found him +sorefooted in the bush the day I met the Major. He was trying to pick +you up. He asked me to tell you that he was afraid to cross the range +alone on account of the blacks, or he would have come up with you. He +seemed anxious lest you should think it was his fault." + +"Poor chap!" said Lee. "What a faithful little fellow it is! Would it +be asking a liberty if you would take back a letter for me, sir?" + +I said, "No; certainly not." + +"I am much obliged to you, sir," he said. "I am glad Dick has got with +A GENTLEMAN." + +That letter was of some importance to me, though I did not know it till +after, but I may as well say why now. Lee had been a favourite servant +of my father's, and when he got into trouble my father had paid a +counsel to defend him. Lee never forgot this, and this letter to Dick +was shortly to the effect that I was one of the RIGHT SORT, and was to +be taken care of, which injunction Dick obeyed to the very letter, +doing me services for pure good will, which could not have been bought +for a thousand a-year. + +After breakfast arose the question, "What is to be done?" Which +Troubridge replied to by saying: "What could any sensible man do such +weather as this, but get into the water and stop there?" + +"Shall it be, 'All hands to bathe,' then?" said the Major. + +"You won't be without company," said Mrs. Buckley, "for the black +fellows are camped in the bend, and they spend most of their time in +the water such a day as this." + +So James and Troubridge started for the river with their towels, the +Major and I promising to follow them immediately, for I wanted to look +at my horse, and the Major had also something to do in the paddock. So +we walked together. + +"Major," said I, when we had gone a little way, "do you never feel +anxious about Mary Hawker's husband appearing and giving trouble?" + +"Oh, no!" said he. "The man is safe in Van Diemen's Land. Besides, what +could he gain? I, for one, without consulting her, should find means to +pack him off again. There is no fear." + +"By the bye, Major," I said, "have you heard from our friend Doctor +Mulhaus since your arrival? I suppose he is at Drumston still?" + +"Oh dear, no!" said he. "He is gone back to Germany. He is going to +settle there again. He was so sickened of England when all his friends +left, that he determined to go home. I understood that he had some sort +of patrimony there, on which he will end his days. Wherever he goes, +God go with him, for he is a noble fellow!" + +"Amen," I answered. And soon after, having got towels, we proceeded to +the river; making for a long reach a little below where I had crossed +the night before. + +"Look there!" said the Major. "There's a bit for one of your painters! +I wish Wilkie or Martin were here." + +I agreed with him. Had Etty been on the spot he would have got a hint +for one of his finest pictures; though I can give but little idea of it +in writing, however, let me try. Before us was a long reach of deep, +still water, unbroken by a ripple, so hemmed in on all sides by walls +of deep green black wattle, tea-tree, and delicate silver acacia, that +the water seemed to flow in a deep shoreless rift of the forest, above +which the taller forest trees towered up two hundred feet, hiding the +lofty cliffs, which had here receded a little back from the river. + +The picture had a centre, and a strange one. A little ledge of rock ran +out into deep water, and upon it, rising from a heap of light-coloured +clothing, like a white pillar, in the midst of the sombre green +foliage, rose the naked carcass of Thomas Troubridge, Esq., preparing +for a header, while at his feet were grouped three or four black +fellows, one of whom as we watched slid off the rock like an otter. The +reach was covered with black heads belonging to the savages, who were +swimming in all directions, while groups of all ages and both sexes +stood about on the bank in Mother Nature's full dress. + +We had a glorious bathe, and then sat on the rock, smoking, talking, +and watching the various manoeuvres of the blacks. An old lady, +apparently about eighty, with a head as white as snow, topping her +black body (a flourbag cobbler, as her tribe would call her), was +punting a canoe along in the shallow water on the opposite side of the +river. She was entirely without clothes, and in spite of her +decrepitude stood upright in the cockleshell, handling it with great +dexterity. When she was a little above us, she made way on her barque, +and shot into the deep water in the middle of the stream, evidently +with the intention of speaking us. As, however, she was just half-way +across, floating helplessly, unable to reach the bottom with the spear +she had used as a puntpole in the shallower water, a mischievous black +imp canted her over, and souse she went into the river. It was amazing +to see how boldly and well the old woman struck out for the shore, +keeping her white head well out of the water; and, having reached dry +land once more, sat down on her haunches, and began scolding with a +volubility and power which would soon have silenced the loudest tongue +in old Billingsgate. + +Her anger, so far from wearing out, grew on what fed it; so that her +long-drawn yells, which seemed like parentheses in her jabbering +discourse, were getting each minute more and more acute, and we were +just thinking about moving homewards, when a voice behind us sang out,-- + +"Hallo, Major! Having a little music, eh? What a sweet song that old +girl is singing! I must write it down from dictation, and translate it, +as Walter Scott used to do with the old wives' ballads in Scotland." + +"I have no doubt it would be quite Ossianic--equal to any of the +abusive scenes in Homer. But, my dear Harding, how are you? You are +come to eat your Christmas dinner with us, I hope?" + +"That same thing, Major," answered the new comer. "Troubridge and +Stockbridge, how are you? This, I presume, is your partner, Hamlyn?" + +We went back to the house. Harding, I found, was half-owner of a +station to the north-east, an Oxford man, a great hand at skylarking, +and an inveterate writer of songs. He was good-looking too, and +gentlemanlike, in fact, a very pleasant companion in every way. + +Dinner was to be at six o'clock, in imitation of home hours; but we did +not find the day hang heavy on our hands, there was so much to be +spoken of by all of us. And when that important meal was over we +gathered in the open air in front of the house, bent upon making +Christmas cheer. + +"What is your last new song, eh, Harding?" said the Major; "now is the +time to ventilate it." + +"I've been too busy shearing for song-writing, Major." + +Soon after this we went in, and there we sat till nearly ten o'clock, +laughing, joking, singing, and drinking punch. Mary sat between James +Stockbridge and Tom, and they three spoke together so exclusively and +so low, that the rest of us were quite forgotten. Mary was smiling and +laughing, first at one and then at the other, in her old way, and now +and then as I glanced at her I could hardly help sighing. But I soon +remembered certain resolutions I had made, and tried not to notice the +trio, but to make myself agreeable to the others. Still my eyes +wandered towards them again intuitively. I thought Mary had never +looked so beautiful before. Her complexion was very full, as though she +were blushing at something one of them had said to her, and while I +watched I saw James rise and go to a jug of flowers, and bring back a +wreath of scarlet Kennedia, saying:-- + +"Do us a favour on Christmas night, Mary; twine this in your hair." + +She blushed deeper than before, but she did it, and Tom helped her. +There was no harm in that, you say, for was he not her cousin? But +still I could not help saying to myself, "Oh Mary, Mary, if you were a +widow, how long would you stay so?" + +"What a gathering it is, to be sure!" said Mrs. Buckley!--"all the old +Drumstonians who are alive collected under one roof." + +"Except the Doctor," said the Major. + +"Ah, yes, dear Doctor Mulhaus. I am so sad sometimes to think that we +shall never see him again." + +"I miss him more than any one," said the Major. "I have no one to +contradict me now." + +"I shall have to take that duty upon me, then," said his wife. "Hark! +there is Lee come back from the sheep station. Yes, that must be his +horse. Call him in and give him a glass of grog. I was sorry to send +him out to-day." + +"He is coming to make his report," said Mrs. Buckley; "there is his +heavy tramp outside the door." + +The door was opened, and the new comer advanced to where the glare of +the candles fell full upon his face. + +Had the Gentleman in Black himself advanced out of the darkness at that +moment, with his blue bag on his arm and his bundle of documents in his +hand, we should not have leapt to our feet and cried out more suddenly +than we did then. For Doctor Mulhaus stood in the middle of the room, +looking around him with a bland smile. + + + + +Chapter XXI + +JIM STOCKBRIDGE BEGINS TO TAKE ANOTHER VIEW OF MATTERS. + + +He stood in the candle-light, smiling blandly, while we all stayed for +an instant, after our first exclamation, speechless with astonishment. + +The Major was the first who showed signs of consciousness, for I verily +believe that one half of the company at least believed him to be a +ghost. "You are the man," said the Major, "who in the flesh called +himself Maximilian Mulhaus! Why are you come to trouble us, O +spirit?--not that we shouldn't be glad to see you if you were alive, +you know, but--my dear old friend, how are you?" + +Then we crowded round him, all speaking at once and trying to shake +hands with him. Still he remained silent, and smiled. I, looking into +his eyes, saw that they were swimming, and divined why he would not +trust himself to speak. No one hated a show of emotion more than the +Doctor, and yet his brave warm heart would often flood his eyes in +spite of himself. + +He walked round to the fire-place, and, leaning against the board that +answered for a chimney-piece, stood looking at us with beaming eyes, +while we anxiously waited for him to speak. + +"Ah!" he said at length, with a deep sigh, "this does me good. I have +not made my journey in vain. A man who tries to live in this world +without love must, if he is not a fool, commit suicide in a year. I +went to my own home, and my own dogs barked at me. Those I had raised +out of the gutter, and set on horseback, splashed mud on me as I +walked. I will go back, I said, to the little English family who loved +and respected me for my own sake, though they be at the ends of the +earth. So I left those who should have loved me with an ill-concealed +smile on their faces, and when I come here I am welcomed with tears of +joy from those I have not known five years. Bah! Here is my home, +Buckley: let me live and die with you." + +"Live!" said the Major--"ay, while there's a place to live in; don't +talk about dying yet, though,--we'll think of that presently. I can't +find words enough to give him welcome. Wife, can you?" + +"Not I, indeed," she said; "and what need? He can see a warmer welcome +in our faces than an hour's clumsy talk could give him. I say, Doctor, +you are welcome, now and for ever. Will that serve you, husband?" + +I could not help looking at Miss Thornton. She sat silently staring at +him through it all, with her hands clasped together, beating them upon +her knee. Now, when all was quiet, and Mrs. Buckley and Mary had run +off to the kitchen to order the Doctor some supper, he seemed to see +her for the first time, and bowed profoundly. She rose, and, looking at +him intently, sat down again. + +The Doctor had eaten his supper, and Mrs. Buckley had made him +something to drink with her own hands; the Doctor had lit his pipe, and +we had gathered round the empty fire-place, when the Major said,-- + +"Now, Doctor, do tell us your adventures, and how you have managed to +drop upon us from the skies on Christmas-day." + +"Soon told, my friend," he answered. "See here. I went back to Germany +because all ties in England were broken. I went to Lord C----: I said, +'I will go back and see the palingenesis of my country; I will see what +they are doing, now the French are in the dust.' He said, 'Go, and God +speed you!' I went. What did I find? Beggars on horseback everywhere, +riding post-haste to the devil--not as good horsemen, either, but as +tailors of Brentford, and crowding one another into the mud to see who +would be there first. 'Let me get out of this before they ride over +me,' said I. So I came forth to England, took ship, and here I am." + +"A most lucid and entirely satisfactory explanation of what you have +been about, I must say," answered the Major; "however, I must be +content." + +At this moment, little Sam, who had made his escape in the confusion, +came running in, breathless. "Papa! papa!" said he, "Lee has come home +with a snake seven feet long." Lee was at the door with the reptile in +his hand--a black snake, with a deep salmon-coloured belly, deadly +venomous, as I knew. All the party went out to look at it, except the +Doctor and Miss Thornton, who stayed at the fire-place. + +"Mind your hands, Lee!" I heard James say; "though the brute is dead, +you might prick your fingers with him." + +I was behind all the others, waiting to look at the snake, which was +somewhat of a large one, and worth seeing, so I could not help +overhearing the conversation of Miss Thornton and the Doctor, and +having heard the first of it my ears grew so unnaturally quickened, +that I could not for the life of me avoid hearing the whole, though I +was ashamed of playing eavesdropper. + +"My God, sir!" I heard her say, "what new madness is this? Why do you +persist in separating yourself from your family in this manner?" + +"No madness at all, my dear madam," he answered; "you would have done +the same under the circumstances. My brother was civil, but I saw he +would rather have me away, and continue his stewardship. And so I let +him." + +Miss Thornton put another question which I did not catch, and the sense +of which I could not supply, but I heard his answer plainly: it was,-- + +"Of course I did, my dear lady, and, just as you may suppose, when I +walked up the Ritter Saal, there was a buzz and giggle, and not one +held out his hand save noble Von H----; long life to him!" + +"But--?" said Miss Thornton, mentioning somebody, whose name I could +not catch. + +"I saw him bend over to M---- as I came up to the Presence, and they +both laughed. I saw a slight was intended, made my devoirs, and backed +off. The next day he sent for me, but I was off and away. I heard of it +before I left England." + +"And will you never go back?" she said. + +"When I can with honour, not before; and that will never be till he is +dead, I fear; and his life is as good as mine. So, hey for natural +history, and quiet domestic life, and happiness with my English +friends! Now, am I wise or not?" + +"I fear not," she said. + +The Doctor laughed, and taking her hand, kissed it gallantly; by this +time we had all turned round, and were coming in. + +"Now, Doctor," said the Major, "If you have done flirting with Miss +Thornton, look at this snake." + +"A noble beast, indeed," said the Doctor. "Friend," he added to Lee, +"if you don't want him, I will take him off your hands for a sum of +money. He shall be pickled, as I live." + +"He is very venomous, sir," said Lee. "The blacks eat 'em, it's true, +but they always cut the head off first. I'd take the head off, sir, +before I ventured to taste him." + +We all laughed at Lee's supposing that the Doctor meant to make a meal +of the deadly serpent, and Lee laughed as loudly as anybody. + +"You see, sir," he said, "I've always heard that you French gents ate +frogs, so I didn't know as snakes would come amiss." + +"Pray, don't take me for a Frenchman, my good lad," said the Doctor; +"and as for frogs, they are as good as chickens." + +"Well, I've eaten guaners myself," said Lee, "though I can't say much +for them. They're uglier than snakes any way." + +Lee was made to sit down and take a glass of grog. So, very shortly, +the conversation flowed on into its old channel, and, after spending a +long and pleasant evening, we all went to bed. + +James and I slept in the same room; and, when we were going to bed, I +said,-- + +"James, if that fellow were to die, there would be a chance for you +yet." + +"With regard to what?" he asked. + +"You know well enough, you old humbug," I said; "with regard to Mary +Hawker,--NEE Thornton!" + +"I doubt it, my lad," he said. "I very much doubt it indeed; and, +perhaps, you have heard that there must be two parties to a bargain, so +that even if she were willing to take me, I very much doubt if I would +ask her." + +"No one could blame you for that," I said, "after what has happened. +There are but few men who would like to marry the widow of a coiner." + +"You mistake me, Jeff. You mistake me altogether," he answered, walking +up and down the room, with one boot off. "That would make but little +difference to me. I've no relations to sing out about a mesalliance, +you know. No, my dear old fellow, not that; but--Jeff, Jeff! You are +the dearest friend I have in the world." + +"Jim, my boy," I answered, "I love you like a brother. What is it?" + +"I have no secrets from you, Jeff," he said; "so I don't mind telling +you." Another hesitation! I grew rather anxious. "What the deuce is +coming?" I thought. "What can she have been up to? Go on, old fellow," +I added aloud; "let's hear all about it." + +He stood at the end of the room, looking rather sheepish. "Why, the +fact is, old fellow, that I begin to suspect that I have outlived any +little attachment I had in that quarter. I've been staying in the house +two months with her, you see; and, in fact!--in fact!"--here he brought +up short again. + +"James Stockbridge," I said, sitting up in bed, "you atrocious humbug; +two months ago you informed me, with a sigh like a groggy pair of +bellows, that her image could only be effaced from your heart by death. +You have seduced me, whose only fault was loving you too well to part +with you, into coming sixteen thousand miles to a barbarous land, far +from kindred and country, on the plea that your blighted affections +made England less endurable than--France, I'll say for argument;--and, +now having had two months' opportunity of studying the character of the +beloved one, you coolly inform me that the whole thing was a mistake. I +repeat that you are a humbug." + +"If you don't hold your tongue, and that quick," he replied, "I'll send +this boot at your ugly head. Now, then!" + +I ducked, fully expecting it was coming, and laughed silently under the +bed-clothes. I was very happy to hear this--I was very happy to hear +that a man, whom I really liked so well, had got the better of a +passion for a woman who I knew was utterly incapable of being to him +what his romantic high-flown notions required a wife to be. "If this +happy result," I said to myself, "can be rendered the more sure by +ridicule, that shall not be wanting. Meanwhile, I will sue for peace, +and see how it came about." + +I rose again and saw he had got his other boot half off, and was +watching for me. "Jim," said I, "you ain't angry because I laughed at +you, are you?" + +"Angry!" he answered. "I am never angry with you, and you know it. I've +been a fool, and I ought to be laughed at." + +"Pooh!" said I, "no more a fool than other men have been before you, +from father Adam downwards." + +"And he was a most con--" + +"There," I interrupted: "don't abuse your ancestors. Tell me why you +have changed your mind so quick?" + +"That's a precious hard thing to do, mind you;" he answered. "A +thousand trifling circumstances, which taken apart are as worthless +straws, when they are bound up together become a respectable truss, +which is marketable, and ponderable. So it is with little traits in +Mary's character, which I have only noticed lately, nothing separately, +yet when taken together, to say the least, different to what I had +imagined while my eyes were blinded. To take one instance among fifty; +there's her cousin Tom, one of the finest fellows that ever stepped; +but still I don't like to see her, a married woman, allowing him to +pull her hair about, and twist flowers in it." + +This was very true, but I thought that if James instead of Tom had been +allowed the privilege of decorating her hair, he might have looked on +it with different eyes. James, I saw, cared too little about her to be +very jealous, and so I saw that there was no fear of any coolness +between him and Troubridge, which was a thing to be rejoiced at, as it +would have been a terrible blow on our little society, and which I +feared at one time that evening would have been the case. + +"Jim," said I, "I have got something to tell you. Do you know, I +believe there is some mystery about Doctor Mulhaus." + +"He is a walking mystery," said Jim; "but he is a noble good fellow, +though unhappily a frog-eater." + +"Ah! but I believe Miss Thornton knows it." + +"Very like," said Jim, yawning. + +"I told him all the conversation I overheard that evening." + +"Are you sure she said 'the king'?" he asked. + +"Quite sure," I said; "now, what do you make of it?" + +"I make this of it," he said: "that it is no earthly business of ours, +or we should have been informed of it; and if I were you, I wouldn't +breathe a word of it to any mortal soul, or let the Doctor suspect that +you overheard anything. Secrets where kings are concerned are precious +sacred things, old Jeff. Good night!" + + + + +Chapter XXII + +SAM BUCKLEY'S EDUCATION. + + +This narrative which I am now writing is neither more nor less than an +account of what befell certain of my acquaintances during a period +extending over nearly, or quite, twenty years, interspersed, and let us +hope embellished, with descriptions of the country in which these +circumstances took place, and illustrated by conversations well known +to me by frequent repetition, selected as throwing light upon the +characters of the persons concerned. Episodes there are, too, which I +have thought it worth while to introduce as being more or less +interesting, as bearing on the manners of a country but little known, +out of which materials it is difficult to select those most proper to +make my tale coherent; yet such has been my object, neither to dwell on +the one hand unnecessarily on the more unimportant passages, nor on the +other hand to omit anything which may be supposed to bear on the +general course of events. + +Now, during all the time above mentioned, I, Geoffry Hamlyn, have +happened to lead a most uninteresting, and with few exceptions +prosperous existence. I was but little concerned, save as a hearer, in +the catalogue of exciting accidents and offences which I chronicle. I +have looked on with the deepest interest at the lovemaking, and ended a +bachelor; I have witnessed the fighting afar off, only joining the +battle when I could not help it, yet I am a steady old fogey, with a +mortal horror of a disturbance of any sort. I have sat drinking with +the wine-bibbers, and yet at sixty my hand is as steady as a rock. +Money has come to me by mere accumulation; I have taken more pains to +spend it than to make it; in short, all through my life's drama, I have +been a spectator, and not an actor, and so in this story I shall keep +myself as much as possible in the background, only appearing personally +when I cannot help it. + +Acting on this resolve I must now make my CONGE, and bid you farewell +for a few years, and go back to those few sheep which James Stockbridge +and I own in the wilderness, and continue the history of those who are +more important than myself. I must push on too, for there is a long +period of dull stupid prosperity coming to our friends at Baroona and +Toonarbin, which we must get over as quickly as is decent. Little Sam +Buckley also, though at present a most delightful child, will soon be a +mere uninteresting boy. We must teach him to read and write, and ride, +and what not, as soon as possible, and see if we can't find a young +lady--well, I won't anticipate, but go on. Go on, did I say?--jump on, +rather--two whole years at once. + +See Baroona now. Would you know it? I think not. That hut where we +spent the pleasant Christmas-day you know of is degraded into the +kitchen, and seems moved backward, although it stands in the same +place, for a new house is built nearer the river, quite overwhelming +the old slab hut in its grandeur--a long low wooden house, with deep +cool verandahs all round, already festooned with passion-flowers, and +young grapevines, and fronted by a flower garden, all a-blaze with +petunias and geraniums. + +It was a summer evening, and all the French windows reaching to the +ground were open to admit the cool south wind, which had just come up, +deliciously icily cold after a scorching day. In the verandah sat the +Major and the Doctor over their claret (for the Major had taken to +dining late again now, to his great comfort), and in the garden were +Mrs. Buckley and Sam watering the flowers, attended by a man who drew +water from a new-made reservoir near the house. + +"I think, Doctor," said the Major, "that the habit of dining in the +middle of the day is a gross abuse of the gifts of Providence, and I'll +prove it to you. What does a man dine for?--answer me that." + +"To satisfy his hunger, I should say," answered the Doctor. + +"Pooh! pooh! stuff and nonsense, my good friend," said the Major; "you +are speaking at random. I suppose you will say, then, that a black +fellow is capable of dining?" + +"Highly capable, as far as I can judge from what I have seen," replied +the Doctor. "A full-grown fighting black would be ashamed if he +couldn't eat a leg of mutton at a sitting." + +"And you call that DINING?" said the Major. "I call it gorging. Why, +those fellows are more uncomfortable after food than before. I have +seen them sitting close before the fire and rubbing their stomachs with +mutton fat to reduce the swelling. Ha! ha! ha!--dining, eh? Oh, Lord!" + +"Then if you don't dine to satisfy your hunger, what the deuce do you +eat dinners for at all?" asked the Doctor. + +"Why," said the Major, spreading his legs out before him with a benign +smile, and leaning back in his chair, "I eat my dinner, not so much for +the sake of the dinner itself, as for the after-dinnerish feeling which +follows: a feeling that you have nothing to do, and that if you had +you'd be shot if you'd do it. That, to return to where I started from, +is why I won't dine in in the middle of the day." + +"If that is the way you feel after dinner, I certainly wouldn't." + +"All the most amiable feelings in the human breast," continued the +Major, "are brought out in their full perfection by dinner. If a fellow +were to come to me now and ask me to lend him ten pounds, I'd do it, +provided, you know, that he would fetch out the cheque-book and pen and +ink." + +"Laziness is nothing," said the Doctor, "unless well carried out. I +only contradicted you, however, to draw you out; I agree entirely. Do +you know, my friend, I am getting marvellously fond of this climate." + +"So am I. But then you know, Doctor, that we are sheltered from the +north wind here by the snow-ranges. The summer in Sydney, now, is +perfectly infernal. The dust is so thick you can't see your hand before +you." + +"So I believe," said the Doctor. "By the bye, I got a new butterfly +to-day; rather an event, mind you, here, where there are so few." + +"What is he?" + +"An Hipparchia," said the Doctor, "Sam saw him first and gave chase." + +"You seem to be making quite a naturalist of my boy, Doctor. I am +sincerely obliged to you. If we can make him take to that sort of thing +it may keep him out of much mischief." + +"He will never get into much," said the Doctor, "unless I am mistaken; +he is the most docile child I ever came across. It is a pleasure to be +with him. What are you going to do with him?" + +"He must go to school, I am afraid," said the Major with a sigh, "I +can't bring my heart to part with him; but his mother has taught him +all she knows, so I suppose he must go to school and fight, and get +flogged, and come home with a pipe in his mouth, and an oath on his +lips, with his education completed. I don't fancy his staying here +among these convict servants, when he is old enough to learn mischief." + +"He'll learn as much mischief at a colonial school, I expect," said the +Doctor, "and more too. All the evil he hears from these fellows will be +like the water on a duck's back; whereas, if you send him to school in +a town, he'll learn a dozen vices he'll never hear of here. Get him a +tutor." + +"That is easier said than done, Doctor. It is very hard to get a +respectable tutor in the colony." + +"Here is one at your hand," said the Doctor. "Take me." + +"My dear friend," said the Major, jumping up, "I would not have dared +to ask such a thing. If you would undertake him for a short time?" + +"I will undertake the boy's education altogether. Potztausend, and why +not! It will be a labour of love, and therefore the more thoroughly +done. What shall he learn, now?" + +"That I must leave to you." + +"A weighty responsibility," said the Doctor. "No Latin or Greek, I +suppose? They will be no use to him here." + +"Well--no; I suppose not. But I should like him to learn his Latin +grammar. You may depend upon it there's something in the Latin grammar." + +"What use has it been to you, Major?" + +"Why, the least advantage it has been to me is to give me an insight +into the construction of languages, which is some use. But while I was +learning the Latin grammar, I learnt other things besides, of more use +than the construction of any languages, living or dead. First, I learnt +that there were certain things in this world that MUST be done. Next, +that there were people in this world, of whom the Masters of Eton were +a sample, whose orders must be obeyed without question. Third, I found +that it was pleasanter in all ways to do one's duty than to leave it +undone. And last, I found out how to bear a moderate amount of birching +without any indecent outcry." + +"All very useful things," said the Doctor. "Teach a boy one thing well, +and you show him how to learn others. History, I suppose?" + +"As much as you like, Doctor. His mother has taught him his catechism, +and all that sort of thing, and she is the fit person, you know. With +the exception of that and the Latin grammar, I trust everything to your +discretion." + +"There is one thing I leave to you, Major, if you please, and that is +corporal chastisement. I am not at all sure that I could bring myself +to flog Sam, and, if I did, it would be very inefficiently done." + +"Oh, I'll undertake it," said the Major, "though I believe I shall have +an easy task. He won't want much flogging." + +At this moment Mrs. Buckley approached with a basketful of +fresh-gathered flowers. "The roses don't flower well here, Doctor," she +said, "but the geraniums run mad. Here is a salmon-coloured one for +your button-hole." + +"He has earned it well, Agnes," said her husband. "He has decided the +discussion we had last night by offering to undertake Sam's education +himself." + +"And God's blessing on him for it!" said Mrs. Buckley warmly. "You have +taken a great load off my mind, Doctor. I should never have been happy +if that boy had gone to school. Come here, Sam." + +Sam came bounding into the verandah, and clambered up on his father, as +if he had been a tree. He was now eleven years old, and very tall and +wellformed for his age. He was a good-looking boy, with regular +features, and curly chestnut hair. He had, too, the large grey-blue eye +of his father, an eye that never lost for a moment its staring +expression of kindly honesty, and the lad's whole countenance was one +which, without being particularly handsome, or even very intelligent, +won an honest man's regard at first sight. + +"My dear Sam," said his mother, "leave off playing with your father's +hair, and listen to me, for I have something serious to say to you. +Last night your father and I were debating about sending you to school, +but Doctor Mulhaus has himself offered to be your tutor, thereby giving +you advantages, for love, which you never could have secured for money. +Now, the least we can expect of you, my dear boy, is that you will be +docile and attentive to him." + +"I will try, Doctor dear," said Sam. "But I am very stupid sometimes, +you know." + +So the good Doctor, whose head was stored with nearly as much of human +knowledge as mortal head could hold, took simple, guileless little Sam +by the hand, and led him into the garden of knowledge. Unless I am +mistaken, these two will pick more flowers than they will dig potatoes +in the aforesaid garden, but I don't think that two such honest souls +will gather much unwholesome fruit. The danger is that they will waste +their time, which is no danger at all, but a certainty. + +I believe that such an education as our Sam got from the Doctor would +have made a slattern and a faineant out of half the boys in England. If +Sam had been a clever boy, or a conceited boy, he would have ended with +a superficial knowledge of things in general, imagining he knew +everything when he knew nothing, and would have been left in the end, +without a faith either religious or political, a useless, careless man. + +This danger the Doctor foresaw in the first month, and going to the +Major abruptly, as he walked up and down the garden, took his arm, and +said,-- + +"See here, Buckley. I have undertaken to educate that boy of yours, and +every day I like the task better, and yet every day I see that I have +undertaken something beyond me. His appetite for knowledge is +insatiable, but he is not an intellectual boy; he makes no deductions +of his own, but takes mine for granted. He has no commentary on what he +learns, but that of a dissatisfied idealist like me, a man who has been +thrown among circumstances sufficiently favourable to make a prime +minister out of some men, and yet who has ended by doing nothing. +Another thing: this is my first attempt at education, and I have not +the schoolmaster's art to keep him to details. Every day I make new +resolutions, and every day I break them. The boy turns his great eyes +upon me in the middle of some humdrum work, and asks me a question. In +answering, I get off the turnpike road, and away we go from lane to +lane, from one subject to another, until lesson-time is over, and +nothing done. And, if it were merely time wasted, it could be made up, +but he remembers every word I say, and believes in it like gospel, when +I myself couldn't remember half of it to save my life. Now, my dear +fellow, I consider your boy to be a very sacred trust to me, and so I +have mentioned all this to you, to give you an opportunity of removing +him to where he might be under a stricter discipline, if you thought +fit. If he was like some boys, now, I should resign my post at once +but, as it is, I shall wait till you turn me out, for two reasons. The +first is, that I take such delight in my task, that I do not care to +relinquish it; and the other is, that the lad is naturally so orderly +and gentle, that he does not need discipline, like most boys." + +"My dear Doctor," replied Major Buckley, "listen to me. If we were in +England, and Sam could go to Eton, which, I take it you know, is the +best school in the world, I would still earnestly ask you to continue +your work. He will probably inherit a great deal of money, and will not +have to push his way in the world by his brains; so that close +scholarship will be rather unnecessary. I should like him to know +history well and thoroughly; for he may mix in the political life of +this little colony by and by. Latin grammar, you know," he said, +laughing, "is indispensable. Doctor, I trust my boy with you because I +know that you will make him a gentleman, as his mother, with God's +blessing, will make him a Christian." + +So, the Doctor buckled to his task again, with renewed energy; to +Euclid, Latin grammar, and fractions. Sam's good memory enabled him to +make light of the grammar, and the fractions too were no great +difficulty, but the Euclid was an awful trial. He couldn't make out +what it was all about. He got on very well until he came nearly to the +end of the first book, and then getting among the parallelogram +"props," as we used to call them (may their fathers' graves be +defiled!), he stuck dead. For a whole evening did he pore patiently +over one of them till A B, setting to C D, crossed hands, poussetted, +and whirled round "in Sahara waltz" through his throbbing head. +Bed-time, but no rest! Whether he slept or not he could not tell. Who +could sleep with that long-bodied, ill-tempered-looking parallelogram A +H standing on the bed-clothes, and crying out, in tones loud enough to +waken the house, that it never had been, nor never would be equal to +the fat jolly square C K? So, in the morning, Sam woke to the +consciousness that he was farther off from the solution than ever, but, +having had a good cry, went into the study and tackled to it again. + +No good! Breakfast time, and matters much worse! That long peaked-nose +vixen of a triangle A H C, which yesterday Sam had made out was equal +to half the parallelogram and half the square, now had the audacity to +declare that she had nothing to do with either of them; so what was to +be done now? + +After breakfast Sam took his book and went out to his father, who was +sitting smoking in the verandah. He clambered up on to his knee, and +then began:-- + +"Father, dear, see here; can you understand this? You've got to prove, +you know,--oh, dear! I've forgot that now." + +"Let's see," said the Major; "I am afraid this is a little above me. +There's Brentwood, now, could do it; he was in the Artillery, you know, +and learnt fortification, and that sort of thing. I don't think I can +make much hand of it, Sam." + +But Sam had put his head upon his father's shoulder, and was crying +bitterly. + +"Come, come, my old man," said the Major, "don't give way, you know; +don't be beat." + +"I can't make it out at all," said Sam, sobbing. "I've got such a +buzzing in my head with it! And if I can't do it I must stop; because I +can't go on to the next till I understand this. Oh, dear me!" + +"Lay your head there a little, my boy, till it gets clearer; then +perhaps you will be able to make it out. You may depend on it that you +ought to learn it, or the good Doctor wouldn't have set it to you: +never let a thing beat you, my son." + +So Sam cried on his father's shoulder a little, and then went in with +his book; and not long after, the Doctor looked in unperceived, and saw +the boy with his elbows on the table and the book before him. Even +while he looked a big tear fell plump into the middle of A H; so the +Doctor came quietly in and said,-- + +"Can't you manage it, Sam?" + +Sam shook his head. + +"Just give me hold of the book; will you, Sam?" + +Sam complied without word or comment; the Doctor sent it flying through +the open window, halfway down the garden. "There!" said he, nodding his +head, "that's the fit place for him this day: you've had enough of him +at present; go and tell one of the blacks to dig some worms, and we'll +make holiday and go a fishing." + +Sam looked at the Doctor, and then through the window at his old enemy +lying in the middle of the flowerbed. He did not like to see the poor +book, so lately his master, crumpled and helpless, fallen from its high +estate so suddenly. He would have gone to its assistance, and picked it +up and smoothed it, the more so as he felt that he had been beaten. + +The Doctor seemed to see everything. "Let it lie here, my child," he +said; "you are not in a position to assist a fallen enemy; you are +still the vanquished party. Go and get the worms." + +He went, and when he came back he found the Doctor sitting beside his +father in the verandah, with a penknife in one hand and the ace of +spades in the other. He cut the card into squares, triangles, and +parallelograms, while Sam looked on, and, demonstrating as he went, +fitted them one into the other, till the boy saw his bugbear of a +proposition made as clear as day before his eyes. + +"Why," said Sam, "that's all as clear as need be. I understand it. Now +may I pick the book up, Doctor?" + +History was the pleasantest part of all Sam's tasks, for they would sit +in the little room given up for a study, with the French windows open +looking on the flower-garden, Sam reading aloud and the Doctor making +discursive commentaries. At last, one day the Doctor said,-- + +"My boy, we are making too much of a pleasure of this: you must really +learn your dates. Now tell me the date of the accession of Edward the +Sixth." + +No returns. + +"Ah! I thought so: we must not be so discursive. We'll learn the dates +of the Grecian History, as being an effort of memory, you not having +read it yet." + +But this plan was rather worse than the other; for one morning, Sam +having innocently asked, at half-past eleven, what the battle of +Thermopylae was, Mrs. Buckley coming in, at one, to call them to lunch, +found the Doctor, who had begun the account of that glorious fight in +English, and then gone on to German, walking up and down the room in a +state of excitement, reciting to Sam, who did not know delta from psi, +the soul-moving account of it from Herodotus in good sonorous Greek. +She asked, laughing, "What language are you talking now, my dear +Doctor?" + +"Greek, madam, Greek! and the very best of Greek!" + +"And what does Sam think of it? I should like you to learn Greek, my +boy, if you can." + +"I thought he was singing, mother," said Sam; but after that the lad +used to sit delighted, by the river side, when they were fishing, while +the Doctor, with his musical voice, repeated some melodious ode of +Pindar's. + +And so the intellectual education proceeded, with more or less energy; +and meanwhile the physical and moral part was not forgotten, though the +two latter, like the former, were not very closely attended to, and +left a good deal to Providence. (And, having done your best for a boy, +in what better hands can you leave him?) But the Major, as an old +soldier, had gained a certain faith in the usefulness of physical +training; so, when Sam was about twelve, you might have seen him any +afternoon on the lawn, with his father, the Major, patiently teaching +him singlestick, and Sam as patiently learning, until the boy came to +be so marvellously active on his legs, and to show such rapidity of eye +and hand, that the Major, on one occasion, having received a more than +usually agonizing cut on the forearm, remarked that he thought he was +not quite so active on his pins as formerly, and that he must hand the +boy over to the Doctor. + +"Doctor," said he that day, "I have taught my boy ordinary sword play +till, by Jove, sir, he is getting quicker than I am. I wish you would +take him in hand and give him a little fencing." + +"Who told you I could fence?" said the Doctor. + +"Why, I don't know; no one, I think. I have judged, I fancy, more by +seeing you flourish your walking-stick than anything else. You are a +fencer, are you not?" + +The Doctor laughed. He was, in fact, a consummate MAITRE D'ARMES; and +Captain Brentwood, before spoken of, no mean fencer, coming to Baroona +on a visit, found that our friend could do exactly as he liked with +him, to the Captain's great astonishment. And Sam soon improved under +his tuition, not indeed to the extent of being a master of the weapon; +he was too large and loosely built for that; but, at all events, so far +as to gain an upright and elastic carriage, and to learn the use of his +limbs. + +The Major issued an edict, giving the most positive orders against its +infringement, that Sam should never mount a horse without his special +leave and licence. He taught him to ride, indeed, but would not give +him much opportunity for practising it. Once or twice a-week he would +take him out, but seldom oftener. Sam, who never dreamt of questioning +the wisdom and excellence of any of his father's decisions, rather +wondered at this; pondering in his own mind how it was that, while all +the lads he knew around, now getting pretty numerous, lived, as it +were, on horseback, never walking a quarter of a mile on any occasion, +he alone should be discouraged from it. "Perhaps," he said to himself +one day, "he doesn't want me to make many acquaintances. Its true, +Charley Delisle smokes and swears, which is very ungentlemanly; but +Cecil Mayford, Dad says, is a perfect little gentleman, and I ought to +see as much of him as possible, and yet he wouldn't give me a horse to +go to their muster. Well, I suppose he has some reason for it." + +One holiday the Doctor and the Major were sitting in the verandah after +breakfast, when Sam entered to them, and, clambering on to his father +as his wont was, said,-- + +"See here, father! Harry is getting in some young beasts at the +stockyard hut, and Cecil Mayford is coming over to see if any of theirs +are among them; may I go out and meet him?" + +"To be sure, my boy; why not?" + +"May I have Bronsewing, father? He is in the stable." + +"It is a nice cool day, and only four miles; why not walk out, my boy?" + +Sam looked disappointed, but said nothing. + +"I know all about it, my child," said the Major; "Cecil will be there +on Blackboy, and you would like to show him that Bronsewing is the +superior pony of the two. That's all very natural; but still I say, get +your hat, Sam, and trot through the forest on your own two legs, and +bring Cecil home to dinner." + +Sam still looked disappointed, though he tried not to show it. He went +and got his hat, and, meeting the dogs, got such a wild welcome from +them that he forgot all about Bronsewing. Soon his father saw him +merrily crossing the paddock with the whole kennel of the +establishment, Kangaroo dogs, cattle dogs, and colleys, barking +joyously around him. + +"There's a good lesson manfully learnt, Doctor," said the Major; "he +has learnt to sacrifice his will to mine without argument, because he +knows I have always a reason for things. I want that boy to ride as +little as possible, but he has earned an exception in his favour +to-day.--Jerry!" (After a few calls the stableman appeared.) "Put Mr. +Samuel's saddle on Bronsewing, and mine on Ricochette, and bring them +round." + +So Sam, walking cheerily forward singing, under the light and shadow of +the old forest, surrounded by his dogs, hears horses' feet behind him, +and looking back sees his father riding and leading Bronsewing saddled. + +"Jump up, my boy," said the Major; "Cecil shall see what Bronsewing is +like, and how well you can sit him. The reason I altered my mind was +that I might reward you for acting like a man, and not arguing. Now, I +don't want you to ride much yet for a few years. I don't want my lad to +grow up with a pair of bow legs like a groom, and probably something +worse, from living on horseback before his bones are set. You see I +have a good reason for what I do." + +But I think that the lessons Sam liked best of all were the swimming +lessons, and at a very early age he could swim and dive like a black, +and once when disporting himself in the water, when not more than +thirteen, poor Sam nearly had a stop put to his bathing for ever, and +that in a very frightful manner. + +His father and he had gone down to bathe one hot noon; the Major had +swum out and was standing on the rock wiping himself while Sam was +still disporting in the mid-river; as he watched the boy he saw what +seemed a stick upon the water, and then, as he perceived the ripple +around it, the horrible truth burst on the affrighted father: it was a +large black snake crossing the river, and poor little Sam was swimming +straight towards it, all unconscious of his danger. + +The Major cried out and waved his hand; the boy, seeing something was +wrong, turned and made for the shore, and the next moment his father, +bending his body back, hurled himself through the air and alighted in +the water alongside of him, clutching him round the body, and heading +down the river with furious strokes. + +"Don't cling, Sam, or get frightened; make for the shore." + +The lad, although terribly frightened at he knew not what, with +infinite courage seconded his father's efforts although he felt +sinking. In a few minutes they were safe on the bank, in time for them +to see the reptile land, and crawling up the bank disappear among the +rocks. + +"God has been very good to us, my son. You have been saved from a +terrible death. Mind you don't breathe a word to your mother about +this." + +That night Sam dreamt that he was in the coils of a snake, but waking +up found that his father was laid beside him in his clothes with one +arm round his neck, so he went to sleep again and thought no more of +the snake. + +"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not"--a saying which it +is just possible you have heard before. I can tell you where it comes +from: it is one of the apothegms of the king of a little eastern nation +who at one time were settled in Syria, and whose writings are not much +read now-a-days, in consequence of the vast mass of literature of a +superior kind which this happy century has produced. I can recommend +the book, however, as containing some original remarks, and being +generally worth reading. The meaning of the above quotation (and the +man who said it, mind you, had at one time a reputation for shrewdness) +is, as I take it, that a man's morals are very much influenced by the +society he is thrown among; and although in these parliamentary times +we know that kings must of necessity be fools, yet in this instance I +think that the man shows some glimmerings of reason, for his remark +tallies singularly with my own personal observation; so, acting on +this, while I am giving you the history of this little wild boy of the +bush, I cannot do better than give some account of the companions with +whom he chiefly assorted out of school-hours. + +With broad intelligent forehead, with large loving hazel eyes, with a +frill like Queen Elizabeth, with a brush like a fox; deep in the +brisket, perfect in markings of black, white, and tan; in sagacity a +Pitt, in courage an Anglesey, Rover stands first on my list, and claims +to be king of Colley-dogs. In politics I should say Conservative of the +high Protectionist sort. Let us have no strange dogs about the place to +grub up sacred bones, or we will shake out our frills and tumble them +in the dust. Domestic cats may mioul in the garden at night to a +certain extent, but a line must be drawn; after that they must be +chased up trees and barked at, if necessary, all night. Opossums and +native cats are unfit to cumber the earth, and must be hunted into +holes, wherever possible. Cows and other horned animals must not come +into the yard, or even look over the garden fence, under penalties. +Black fellows must be barked at, and their dogs chased to the uttermost +limits of the habitable globe. Such were the chief points of the creed +subscribed to by Sam's dog Rover. + +All the love that may be between dog and man, and man and dog, existed +between Sam and Rover. Never a fresh cheery morning when the boy arose +with the consciousness of another happy day before him, but that the +dog was waiting for him as he stepped from his window into clear +morning air. Never a walk in the forest, but that Rover was his merry +companion. And what would lessons have been without Rover looking in +now and then with his head on one side, and his ears cocked, to know +when he would be finished and come out to play? + +Oh, memorable day, when Sam got separated from his father in the Yass, +and, looking back, saw a cloud of dust in the road, and dimly descried +Rover, fighting valiantly against fearful odds, with all the dogs in +the township upon him! He rode back, and prayed for assistance from the +men lounging in front of the publichouse; who, pitying his distress, +pulled off all the dogs till there were only left Rover and a great +white bulldog to do battle. The fight seemed going against Sam's dog; +for the bulldog had him by the neck, and held him firm, so that he +could do nothing. Nevertheless, mind yourself, master bulldog; you've +only got a mouthful of long hair there; and when you do let go, I +think, there is danger for you in those fierce gleaming eyes, and +terrible grinning fangs. + +Sam was crying; and the men round were saying, "Oh! take the bulldog +off; the colley's no good to him,"--when a man suddenly appeared at +Sam's side, and called out, + +"I'll back the colley for five pounds, and here's my money!" + +Half-a-dozen five-pound notes were ready for him at once; and he had +barely got the stakes posted before the event proved he was right. In +an evil moment for him the bulldog loosed his hold, and, ere he had +time to turn round, Rover had seized him below the eye, and was +dragging him about the road, worrying him as he would worry an opossum: +so the discomfited owner had to remove his bulldog to save his life. +Rover, after showing his teeth and shaking himself, came to Sam as +fresh as a daisy; and the new comer pocketed his five pounds. + +"I am so much obliged to you," said Sam, turning to him, "for taking my +dog's part! They were all against me." + +"I'm much obliged to your dog, sir, for winning me five pound so easy. +But there ain't a many bad dogs, or bad men either, about Major +Buckley's house." + +"Then you know us?" said Sam. + +"Ought to it, sir. An old Devonshire man. Mr. Hamlyn's stud-groom, +sir--Dick." + +Well, as I am going to write Rover's life, in three volumes post +octavo, I won't any further entrench on my subject matter, save to say +that, while on the subject of Sam's education, I could not well omit a +notice of the aforesaid Rover. For, I think that all a man can learn +from a dog, Sam learnt from him; and that is something. Now let us go +on to the next of his notable acquaintances. + +Who is this glorious, blue-eyed, curly-headed boy, who bursts into the +house like a whirlwind, making it ring again with merry laughter? This +is Jim Brentwood, of whom we shall see much anon. + +At Waterloo, when the French cavalry were coming up the hill, and our +artillerymen were running for the squares, deftly trundling their +gun-wheels before them, it happened that there came running towards the +square where Major Buckley stood like a tower of strength (the tallest +man in the regiment), an artillery officer, begrimed with mud and +gunpowder, and dragging a youth by the collar, or rather, what seemed +to be the body of a youth. Some cried out to him to let go; but he +looked back, seeming to measure the distance between the cavalry and +the square, and then, never loosing his hold, held on against hope. +Every one thought he would be too late; when some one ran out of the +square (men said it was Buckley), and, throwing the wounded lad over +his shoulder, ran with him into safety; and a cheer ran along the line +from those who saw him do it. Small time for cheering then; for neither +could recover his breath before there came a volley of musketry, and +all around them, outside the bayonets, was a wild sea of fierce men's +faces, horses' heads, gleaming steel, and French blasphemy. A strange +scene for the commencement of an acquaintance! And yet it throve; for +that same evening, Buckley, talking to his Colonel, saw the artillery +officer coming towards them, and asked who he might be? + +"That," said the Colonel, "is Brentwood of the Artillery, who ran away +with Lady Kate Bingley, and they haven't a rap to bless themselves +with, sir. It was her brother that you and he fetched into the square +to-day." + +And so began a friendship which lasted the lives of both men; and, I +doubt not, will last their sons' lives too. For Brentwood lived within +thirty miles of the Major, and their sons spent much of their time +together, having such a friendship for one another as only boys can +have. + +Captain Brentwood's son Jim was a very different boy to Sam, though a +very fine fellow too. Mischief and laughter were the apparent objects +of his life; and when the Doctor saw him approaching the house, he used +to put away Sam's lesson-books with a sigh and wait for better times. +The Captain had himself undertaken his son's education, and, being a +somewhat dreamy man, excessively attached to mathematics, Jim had got, +altogether, a very remarkable education indeed; which, however, is +hardly to our purpose just now. Brentwood, I must say, was a widower, +and a kindhearted, easy-going man; he had, besides, a daughter, who was +away at school. Enough of them at present. + +The next of Sam's companions who takes an important part in this +history is Cecil Mayford--a delicate, clever little dandy, and +courageous withal; with more brains in his head, I should say, than Sam +and Jim could muster between them. His mother was a widow, who owned +the station next down the river from the Buckleys', distant about five +miles, and which, since the death of her husband, Doctor Mayford, she +had managed with the assistance of an overseer. She had, besides Cecil, +a little daughter of great beauty. + +Also, I must here mention that the next station below Mrs. Mayford's, +on the river, distant by the windings of the valley fifteen miles, and +yet, in consequence of a bend, scarcely ten from Major Buckley's at +Baroona, was owned and inhabited by Yahoos (by name Donovan), with whom +we had nothing to do. But this aforesaid station, which is called +Garoopna, will shortly fall into other hands, when you will see that +many events of deep importance will take place there, and many pleasant +hours spent there by all our friends, more particularly one--by name +Sam. + +"There is one other left of whom I must say something here, and more +immediately. The poor, puling little babe, born in misery and disaster, +Mary Hawker's boy Charles!" + +Toonarbin was but a short ten miles from Baroona, and, of course, the +two families were as one. There was always a hostage from the one house +staying as a visitor in the other; and, under such circumstances, of +course, Charles and Sam were much together, and, as time went on, got +to be firm friends. + +Charles was two years younger than Sam; the smallest of all the lads, +and perhaps the most unhappy. For the truth must be told: he was morose +and uncertain in his temper; and although all the other boys bore with +him most generously, as one whom they had heard was born under some +great misfortune, yet he was hardly a favourite amongst them; and the +poor boy, sometimes perceiving this, would withdraw from his play, and +sulk alone, resisting all the sober, kind inducements of Sam, and the +merry, impetuous persuasions of Jim, to return. + +But he was a kind, good-hearted boy, nevertheless. His temper was not +under control; but, after one of his fierce, volcanic bursts of +ill-humour, he would be acutely miserable and angry with himself for +days, particularly if the object of it had been Jim or Sam, his two +especial favourites. On one occasion, after a causeless fit of anger +with Jim, while the three were at Major Buckley's together, he got his +pony and rode away home, secretly speaking to no one. The other two +lamented all the afternoon that he had taken the matter so seriously, +and were debating even next morning going after him to propitiate him, +when Charles reappeared, having apparently quite recovered his temper, +but evidently bent upon something. + +He had a bird, a white corrella, which could talk and whistle +surprisingly, probably, in fact, the most precious thing he owned. This +prodigy he had now brought back in a basket as a peace-offering, and +refused to be comforted, unless Jim accepted it as a present. + +"But see, Charley," said Jim, "I was as much in the wrong as you were" +(which was not fact, for Jim was perfectly innocent). "I wouldn't take +your bird for the world." + +But Charles said that his mother approved of it, and if Jim didn't take +it he'd let it fly. + +"Well, if you will, old fellow," said Jim, "I'll tell you what I would +rather have. Give me Fly's dun pup instead, and take the bird home." + +So this was negotiated after a time, and the corrella was taken back to +Toonarbin, wildly excited by the journey, and calling for strong liquor +all the way home. + +Those who knew the sad circumstances of poor Charles's birth (the +Major, the Doctor, and Mrs. Buckley) treated him with such kindness and +consideration, that they won his confidence and love. In any of his +Berserk fits, if his mother were not at hand, he would go to Mrs. +Buckley and open his griefs; and her motherly tact and kindness seldom +failed to still the wild beatings of that poor, sensitive, silly little +heart, so that in time he grew to love her as only second to his mother. + +Such is my brief and imperfect, and I fear tedious account of Sam's +education, and of the companions with whom he lived, until the boy had +grown into a young man, and his sixteenth birthday came round, on which +day, as had been arranged, he was considered to have finished his +education, and stand up, young as he was, as a man. + +Happy morning, and memorable for one thing at least--that his father, +coming into his bedroom and kissing his forehead, led him out to the +front door, where was a groom holding a horse handsomer than any Sam +had seen before, which pawed the gravel impatient to be ridden, and ere +Sam had exhausted half his expressions of wonder and admiration--that +his father told him the horse was his, a birthday-present from his +mother. + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +TOONARBIN. + + +"But," I think I hear you say, "What has become of Mary Hawker all this +time? You raised our interest about her somewhat, at first, as a young +and beautiful woman, villain-beguiled, who seemed, too, to have a +temper of her own, and promised, under circumstances, to turn out a bit +of a b--mst-ne. What is she doing all this time? Has she got fat, or +had the small-pox, that you neglect her like this? We had rather more +than we wanted of her and her villanous husband in the first volume; +and now nothing. Let us, at all events, hear if she is dead or alive. +And her husband, too,--although we hope, under Providence, that he has +left this wicked world, yet we should be glad to hear of it for +certain. Make inquiries, and let us know the result. Likewise, be so +good as inform us, how is Miss Thornton?" + +To all this I answer humbly, that I will do my best. If you will bring +a dull chapter on you, duller even than all the rest, at least read it, +and exonerate me. The fact is, my dear sir, that women like Mary Hawker +are not particularly interesting in the piping times of peace. In +volcanic and explosive times they, with their wild animal passions, +become tragical and remarkable, like baronesses of old. But in tranquil +times, as I said, they fall into the back-ground, and show us the value +and excellence of such placid, noble helpmates, as the serene, +high-bred Mrs. Buckley. + +A creek joined the river about a mile below the Buckleys' station, +falling into the main stream with rather a pretty cascade, which even +at the end of the hottest summer poured a tiny silver thread across the +black rocks. Above the cascade the creek cut deep into the table land, +making a charming glen, with precipitous blue stone walls, some eighty +or ninety feet in height, fringed with black wattle and lightwood, and +here and there, among the fallen rocks nearest the water, a fern tree +or so, which last I may say are no longer there, Dr. Mulhaus having cut +the hearts out of them and eaten them for cabbage. Should you wander up +this little gully on a hot summer's day, you would be charmed with the +beauty of the scenery, and the shady coolness of the spot; till coming +upon a black snake coiled away among the rocks, like a rope on the deck +of a man of war, you would probably withdraw, not without a strong +inclination to "shy" at every black stick you saw for the rest of the +day. For this lower part of the Moira creek was, I am sorry to say, the +most troubled locality for snakes, diamond, black, carpet, and other, +which I ever happened to see. + +But following this creek you would find that the banks got rapidly less +precipitous, and at length it swept in long curves through open forest +glades, spreading, too, into deep dark water-holes, only connected by +gravelly fords, with a slender stream of clear water running across the +yellow pebbles. These water-holes were the haunts of the platypus and +the tortoise. Here, too, were flocks of black duck and teal, and as you +rode past, the merry little snipe would rise from the water's edge, and +whisk away like lightning through the trees. Altogether a pleasant +woodland creek, alongside of which, under the mighty box-trees, ran a +sandy road, bordered with deep beds of bracken fern, which led from +Baroona of the Buckleys to Toonarbin of the Hawkers. + +A pleasant road, indeed, winding through the old forest straight +towards the mountains, shifting its course so often that every minute +some new vista opened upon you, till at length you came suddenly upon a +clear space, beyond which rose a picturesque little granite cap, at the +foot of which you saw a charming house, covered with green creepers, +and backed by huts, sheepyards, a woolshed, and the usual concomitants +of a flourishing Australian sheep station. Behind all again towered +lofty, dark hanging woods, closing the prospect. + +This is Toonarbin, where Mary Hawker, with her leal and trusty cousin +Tom Troubridge for partner, has pitched her tent, after all her +spasmodic, tragical troubles, and here she is leading as happy, and by +consequence as uninteresting, an existence as ever fell to the lot of a +handsome woman yet. + +Mary and Miss Thornton had stayed with the Buckleys until good cousin +Tom had got a house ready to receive them, and then they moved up and +took possession. Mary and Tom were from the first copartners, and, +latterly, Miss Thornton had invested her money, about 2,000 pounds, in +the station. Matters were very prosperous, and, after a few years, Tom +began to get weighty and didactic in his speech, and to think of +turning his attention to politics. + +To Mary the past seemed like a dream--as an old dream, well-nigh +forgotten. The scene was so changed that at times she could hardly +believe that all those dark old days were real. Could she, now so busy +and happy, be the same woman who sat worn and frightened over the dying +fire with poor Captain Saxon? Is she the same woman whose husband was +hurried off one wild night, and transported for coining? Or is all that +a hideous imagination? + +No. Here is the pledge and proof that it is all too terribly real. This +boy, whom she loves so wildly and fiercely, is that man's son, and his +father, for aught she knows, is alive, and only a few poor hundred +miles off. Never mind; let it be forgotten as though it never was. So +she forgot it, and was happy. + +But not always. Sometimes she could not but remember what she was, in +spite of the many kind friends who surrounded her, and the new and busy +life she led. Then would come a fit of despondency, almost of despair, +but the natural elasticity of her temper soon dispersed these clouds, +and she was her old self again. + +Her very old self, indeed. That delicate-minded, intellectual old maid, +Miss Thornton, used to remark with silent horror on what she called +Mary's levity of behaviour with men, but more especially with honest +Tom Troubridge. Many a time, when the old lady was sitting darning (she +was always darning; she used to begin darning the things before they +were a week out of the draper's shop), would her tears fall upon her +work, as she saw Mary sitting with her child in her lap, smiling, while +the audacious Tom twisted a flower in her hair, in the way that pleased +him best. To see anything wrong, and to say nothing, was a thing +impossible. She knew that speaking to Mary would only raise a storm, +and so, knowing the man she had to deal with, she determined to speak +to Tom. + +She was not long without her opportunity. Duly darning one evening, +while Mary was away putting her boy to bed, Tom entered from his wine. +Him, with a combination of valour and judgment, she immediately +attacked, acting upon a rule once laid down to Mary--"My dear, if you +want to manage a man, speak to him after dinner." + +"Mr. Troubridge," said Miss Thornton. "May I speak a few words to you +on private affairs?" + +"Madam," said Tom, drawing up a chair, "I am at your service night or +day." + +"A younger woman," said Miss Thornton, "might feel some delicacy in +saying what I am going to say. But old age has its privileges, and so I +hope to be forgiven." + +"Dear Miss Thornton," said Tom, "you must be going to say something +very extraordinary if it requires forgiveness from me." + +"Nay, my dear kinsman," said Miss Thornton; "if we begin exchanging +compliments, we shall talk all night, and never get to the gist of the +matter after all. Here is what I want to say. It seems to me that your +attentions to our poor Mary are somewhat more than cousinly, and it +behoves me to remind you that she is still a married woman. Is that too +blunt? Have I offended you?" + +"Nay--no," said Tom; "you could never offend me. I think you are right +too. It shall be amended, madam." + +And after this Mary missed many delicate little attentions that Tom had +been used to pay her. She thought he was sulky on some account at +first, but soon her good sense showed her that, if they two were to +live together, she must be more circumspect, or mischief would come. + +For, after all, Tom had but small place in her heart. Heart filled +almost exclusively with this poor sulky little lad of hers, who seemed +born to trouble, as the sparks went upward. In teething even, +aggravating beyond experience, and afterwards suffering from the whole +list of juvenile evils, in such a way as boy never did before; coming +out of these troubles too, with a captious, disagreeable temper, +jealous in the extreme,--not a member who, on the whole, adds much to +the pleasure of the little household,--yet, with the blindest +passionate love towards some folks. Instance his mother, Thomas +Troubridge, and Sam Buckley. + +For these three the lad had a wild hysterical affection, and yet none +of them had much power over him. Once by one unconsidered word arouse +the boy's obstinacy, and all chance of controlling him was gone. Then, +your only chance was to call in Miss Thornton, who had a way of +managing the boy, more potent than Mary's hysterics, and Tom's +indignant remonstrances, or Sam's quiet persuasions. + +For instance,--once, when he was about ten years old, his mother set +him to learn some lesson or another, when he had been petitioning to go +off somewhere with the men. He was furiously naughty, and threw the +book to the other end of the room, all the threats and scoldings of his +mother proving insufficient to make him pick it up again. So that at +last she went out, leaving him alone, triumphant, with Miss Thornton, +who said not a word, but only raised her eyes off her work, from time +to time, to look reproachfully on the rebellious boy. He could stand +his mother's anger, but he could not stand those steady wondering looks +that came from under the old lady's spectacles. So that, when Mary came +in again, she found the book picked up, and the lesson learned. +Moreover, it was a fortnight before the lad misbehaved himself again. + +In sickness and in health, in summer and in winter, for ten long years +after they settled at Toonarbin, did this noble old lady stand beside +Mary as a rock of refuge in all troubles, great or small. Always +serene, patient, and sensible, even to the last; for the time came when +this true and faithful servant was removed from among them to receive +her reward. + +One morning she confessed herself unable to leave her bed; that was the +first notice they had. Doctor Mayford, sent for secretly, visited her. +"Break up of the constitution," said he,--"no organic disease,"--but +shook his head. "She will go," he added, "with the first frost. I can +do nothing." And Dr. Mulhaus, being consulted, said he was but an +amateur doctor, but concurred with Dr. Mayford. So there was nothing to +do but to wait for the end as patiently as might be. + +During the summer she got out of bed, and sat in a chair, which Tom +used to lift dexterously into the verandah. There she would sit very +quietly; sometimes getting Mrs. Buckley, who came and lived at +Toonarbin that summer, to read a hymn for her; and, during this time, +she told them where she would like to be buried. + +On a little knoll, she said, which lay to the right of the house, +barely two hundred yards from the window. Here the grass grew shorter +and closer than elsewhere, and here freshened more rapidly beneath the +autumn rains. Here, on winter's evenings, the slanting sunbeams +lingered longest, and here, at such times, she had been accustomed to +saunter, listening to the sighing of the wind, in the dark funeral +sheoaks and cypresses, like the far-off sea upon a sandy shore. Here, +too, came oftener than elsewhere a flock of lories, making the dark low +trees gay with flying living blossoms. And here she would lie with her +feet towards the east, her sightless eyes towards that dreary ocean +which she would never cross again. + +One fresh spring morning she sat up and talked serenely to Mrs. +Buckley, about matters far higher and more sacred than one likes to +deal with in a tale of this kind, and, after a time, expressed a wish +for a blossom of a great amaryllis which grew just in front of her +window. + +Mrs. Buckley got the flower for her, and so holding the crimson-striped +lily in her delicate, wasted fingers, the good old lady passed from +this world without a struggle, as decently and as quietly as she had +always lived in it. + + +* * * * * + + +This happened when Charles was about ten years old, and, for some time, +the lad was subdued and sad. He used to look out of the window at night +towards the grave, and wonder why they had put her they all loved so +well, to lie out there under the wild-sweeping winter rain. But, by +degrees, he got used to the little square white railing on the sheoak +knoll, and, ere half a year was gone, the memory of his aunt had become +very dim and indistinct. + +Poor Mary, too, though a long while prepared for it, was very deeply +and sincerely grieved at Miss Thornton's death; but she soon recovered +from it. It came in the course of nature, and, although the house +looked blank and dull for a time, yet there was too much life all +around her, too much youthful happy life, to make it possible to dwell +very long on the death of one who had left them full of years and +honour. But Lord Frederick, before spoken of incidentally in this +narrative, playing billiards at Gibraltar, about a year after this; had +put into his hand a letter, from which, when opened, there fell a lock +of silver grey hair on the green cloth, which he carefully picked up, +and, leaving his game, went home to his quarters. His comrades thought +it was his father who was dead, and when they heard it was only his +sister's old governess, they wondered exceedingly; "for Fred," said +they, "is not given to be sentimental." + +And now, in a year or two, it began to be very difficult to keep Master +Charley in order. When he was about thirteen, there was a regular +guerilla-war between him and his mother, on the subject of learning, +which ended, ultimately, in the boy flatly refusing to learn anything. +His natural capacities were but small, and, under any circumstances, +knowledge would only have been acquired by him with infinite pains. +But, as it was, with his selfishness fostered so excessively by his +mother's indulgence, and Tom's good-humoured carelessness, it became +totally impossible to teach him anything. In vain his mother scolded +and wept, in vain Tom represented to him the beauties and excellences +of learning--learn the boy would not; so that at fourteen he was given +up in despair by his mother, having learnt nearly enough of reading, +writing, and ciphering, to carry on the most ordinary business of life, +a most lamentable state of things for a lad who, in after life, would +be a rich man, and who, in a young and rapidly-rising country, might +become, by the help of education, politically influential. + +I think that when Samuel Buckley and James Brentwood were grown to be +young men of eighteen or nineteen, and he was about seventeen or so, a +stranger would have seen a great deal of difference between the two +former and the latter, and would, probably, have remarked that James +and Sam spoke and behaved like two gentlemen, but that Charles did not, +but seemed as though he had come from a lower grade in society,--with +some truth too, for there was a circumstance in his bringing up which +brought him more harm than all his neglect of learning, and all his +mother's foolish indulgences. + +Both Major Buckley and Captain Brentwood made it a law of the Medes and +Persians that neither of their sons should hold any conversation with +the convict servants, save in the presence of competent authorities; +and, indeed, they both, as soon as increased emigration enabled them, +removed their old household servants, and replaced them by free men, +newly arrived: a lazy independent class, certainly, with exaggerated +notions of their own importance in this new phase of their life, but +without the worse vices of the convicts. This rule, even in such +well-regulated households, was a very hard one to get observed, even +under flogging penalties; and, indeed, formed the staple affliction of +poor thoughtless Jim's early life, as this little anecdote will show:-- + +One day going to see Captain Brentwood, when Jim was about ten years +old, I met that young gentleman (looking, I thought, a little out of +sorts) about two hundred yards from the house. He turned with me to go +back, and, after the first salutations, I said,-- + +"Well, Jim, my boy, I hope you've been good since I saw you last?" + +"Oh dear, no," was the answer, with a shake of the head that meant +volumes. + +"I'm sorry to hear that; what is the matter?" + +"I've been CATCHING it," said Jim, in a whisper, coming close alongside +of me. "A tea-stick as thick as my forefinger all over."--Here he +entered into particulars, which, however harmless in themselves, were +not of a sort usually written in books. + +"That's a bad job," I said; "what was it for?" + +"Why, I slipped off with Jerry to look after some colts on the black +swamp, and was gone all the afternoon; and so Dad missed me; and when I +got home didn't I CATCH IT! Oh lord, I'm all over blue wales; but that +ain't the worst." + +"What's the next misfortune?" I inquired. + +"Why, when he got hold of me he said, 'Is this the first time you have +been away with Jerry, sir?' and I said, 'Yes' (which was the awfullest +lie ever you heard, for I went over to Barker's with him two days +before); then he said, 'Well, I must believe you if you say so. I shall +not disgrace you by making inquiries among the men;' and then he gave +it to me for going that time, and since then I've felt like Cain and +Abel for telling him such a lie. What would you do,--eh?" + +"I should tell him all about it," I said. + +"Ah, but then I shall catch it again, don't you see! Hadn't I better +wait till these wales are gone down?" + +"I wouldn't, if I were you," I answered; "I'd tell him at once." + +"I wonder why he is so particular," said Jim; "the Delisles and the +Donovans spend as much of their time in the huts as they do in the +house." + +"And fine young blackguards they'll turn out," I said; in which I was +right in those two instances. And although I have seen young fellows +brought up among convicts who have turned out respectable in the end, +yet it is not a promising school for good citizens. + +But at Toonarbin no such precautions as these were taken with regard to +Charles. Tom was too careless, and Mary too indulgent. It was hard +enough to restrain the boy during the lesson hours, falsely so called. +After that he was allowed to go where he liked, and even his mother +sometimes felt relieved by his absence; so that he was continually in +the men's huts, listening to their yarns--sometimes harmless bush +adventures, sometimes, perhaps, ribald stories which he could not +understand; but one day Tom Troubridge coming by the hut looked in +quietly, and saw master Charles smoking a black pipe, (he was not more +than fourteen,) and heard such a conversation going on that he advanced +suddenly upon them, and ordered the boy home in a sterner tone than he +had ever used to him before, and looked out of the door till he had +disappeared. Then he turned round to the men. + +There were three of them, all convicts, one of whom, the one he had +heard talking when he came in, was a large, desperate-looking fellow. +When these men mean to deprecate your anger, I have remarked they +always look you blankly in the face; but if they mean to defy you and +be impudent, they never look at you, but always begin fumbling and +fidgetting with something. So when Tom saw that the big man before +mentioned (Daniel Harvey by name) was stooping down before the fire, he +knew he was going to have a row, and waited. + +"So boss," began the ruffian, not looking at him, "we ain't fit company +for the likes of that kinchin,--eh?" + +"You're not fit company for any man except the hangman," said Tom, +looking more like six-foot-six than six-foot-three. + +"Oh my---- (colonial oath!)" said the other; "oh my---- 'cabbage tree!' +So there's going to be a coil about that scrubby little myrnonger; eh? +Don't you fret your bingy; boss; he'll be as good a man as his father +yet." + +For an instant a dark shadow passed over Tom's face. + +"So," he thought, "these fellows know all about George Hawker, eh? +Well, never mind; what odds if they do?" And then he said aloud, +turning round on Harvey, "Look you here, you dog; if I ever hear of +your talking in that style before that boy, or any other boy, by George +I'll twist your head off!" + +He advanced towards him, as if to perform that feat on the spot; in a +moment the convict had snatched his knife from his belt and rushed upon +him. + +Very suddenly indeed; but not quite quick enough to take the champion +of Devon by surprise. Ere he was well within reach Tom had seized the +hand that held the knife, and with a backward kick of his left foot +sent the embryo assassin sprawling on his back on the top of the fire, +whence Tom dragged him by his heels, far more astonished than burnt. +The other two men had, meanwhile, sat taking no notice, or seeming to +take none, of the disturbance. Now, however, one of them spoke, and +said,-- + +"I'm sure, sir, you didn't hear me say nothing wrong to the young +gent," and so on, in a whining tone, till Tom cut him short by saying +that, "if he had any more nonsense among them, he would send 'em all +three over to Captain Desborough, to the tune of fifty (lashes) +a-piece." + +After this little EMEUTE Charles did not dare to go into the huts, and +soon after these three men were exchanged. But there remained one man +whose conversation and teaching, though not, perhaps, so openly +outrageously villanous as that of the worthy Harvey, still had a very +unfortunate effect on his character. + +This was a rather small, wiry, active man, by name Jackson, a native, +colonially convicted, very clever among horses, a capital light-weight +boxer, and in running superb, a pupil and PROTEGE of the immortal +"flying pieman," (May his shadow never be less!) a capital cricketer, +and a supreme humbug. This man, by his various accomplishments and +great tact, had won a high place in Tom Troubridge's estimation, and +was put in a place of trust among the horses; consequently having +continual access to Charles, to whom he made himself highly agreeable, +as being heir to the property; giving him such insights into the worst +side of sporting life, and such truthful accounts of low life in +Sydney, as would have gone far to corrupt a lad of far stronger moral +principle than he. + +And so, between this teaching of evil and neglect of good, Mary +Hawker's boy did not grow up all that might be desired. And at +seventeen, I am sorry to say, he got into a most disreputable connexion +with a Highland girl, at one of the Donovans' out-station huts; which +caused his kindly guardian, Tom Troubridge, a great deal of vexation, +and his mother the deepest grief, which was much increased at the same +time by something I will relate in the next chapter. + +So sixteen years rolled peacefully away, chequered by such trifling +lights and shadows as I have spoken of. The new generation, the +children of those whom we knew at first, are now ready to take their +places, and bear themselves with more or less credit in what may be +going on. And now comes a period which in the memory of all those whom +I have introduced to you ranks as the most important of their lives. To +me, looking back upon nearly sixty years of memory, the events which +are coming stand out from the rest of my quiet life, well defined and +remarkable, above all others. As looking on our western moors, one sees +the long straight sky-line, broken only once in many miles by some +fantastic Tor. + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +IN WHICH MARY HAWKER LOSES ONE OF HER OLDEST SWEETHEARTS. + + +Sixteen years of peace and plenty had rolled over the heads of James +Stockbridge and myself, and we had grown to be rich. Our agent used to +rub his hands, and bow, whenever our high mightinesses visited town. +There was money in the bank, there was claret in the cellar, there were +race-horses in the paddock; in short, we were wealthy prosperous +men--James a magistrate. + +November set in burning hot, and by the tenth the grass was as dry as +stubble; still we hoped for a thunder-storm and a few days' rain, but +none came. December wore wearily on, and by Christmas the smaller +creeks, except those which were snow-fed, were reduced to a few muddy +pools, and vast quantities of cattle were congregated within easy reach +of the river, from other people's runs, miles away. + +Of course, feed began to get very scarce, yet we were hardly so bad off +yet as our neighbours, for we had just parted with every beast we could +spare, at high prices, to Port Phillip, and were only waiting for the +first rains to start after store cattle, which were somewhat hard to +get near the new colony. + +No rain yet, and we were in the end of January; the fountains of heaven +were dried up, but now all round the northern horizon the bush fires +burn continually, a pillar of smoke by day, and a pillar of fire by +night. + +Nearer, night by night, like an enemy creeping up to a beleaguered +town. The weather had been very still for some time, and we took +precaution to burn great strips of grass all round the paddocks to the +north, but, in spite of all our precautions, I knew that, should a +strong wind come on from that quarter, nothing short of a miracle would +save us. + +But as yet the weather was very still, not very bright, but rather +cloudy, and a dense haze of smoke was over everything, making the +distances look ten times as far as they really were, and rendering the +whole landscape as grey and melancholy as you can conceive. There was +nothing much to be done, but to sit in the verandah, drinking +claret-and-water, and watching and hoping for a thunderstorm. + +On the third of February the heat was worse than ever, but no wind; and +as the sun went down among the lurid smoke, red as blood, I thought I +made out a few brush-shaped white clouds rising in the north. + +Jim and I sat there late, not talking much. We knew that if we were to +be burnt out our loss would be very heavy; but we thanked God that even +were we to lose everything it would not be irreparable, and that we +should still be wealthy. Our brood mares and racing stock were our +greatest anxiety. We had a good stack of hay, by which we might keep +them alive for another month, supposing all the grass was burnt; but if +we lost that, our horses would probably die. I said at last,-- + +"Jim, we may make up our minds to have the run swept. The fire is +burning up now." + +"Yes, it is brightening," said he, "but it must be twenty miles off +still, and if it comes down with a gentle wind we shall save the +paddocks and hay. There is a good deal of grass in the lower paddock. I +am glad we had the forethought not to feed it down. Well, fire or no +fire, I shall go to bed." + +We went to bed, and, in spite of anxiety, mosquitoes, and heat, I feel +asleep. In the grey morning I was awakened, nearly suffocated, by a +dull continuous roar. It was the wind in the chimney. The north wind, +so long imprisoned, had broke loose, and the boughs were crashing, and +the trees were falling, before the majesty of his wrath. + +I ran out, and met James in the verandah. "It's all up," I said. "Get +the women and children into the river, and let the men go up to +windward with the sheep-skins. [Note: Sheep-skins, on sticks, used for +beating out the fire when in short grass.] I'll get on horseback, and +go out and see how the Morgans get on. That obstinate fellow will wish +he had come in now." + +Morgan was a stockman of ours, who lived, with a wife and two children, +about eight miles to the northward. We always thought it would have +been better for him to move in, but he had put it off, and now the fire +had taken us by surprise. + +I rode away, dead-up wind. Our station had a few large trees about it, +and then all was clear plain and short grass for two miles; after that +came scrubby ranges, in an open glade of which the Morgans' hut stood. +I feared, from the density of the smoke, that the fire had reached them +already, but I thought it my duty to go and see, for I might meet them +fleeing, and help them with the children. + +I had seen many bush-fires, but never such a one as this. The wind was +blowing a hurricane, and, when I had ridden about two miles into scrub, +high enough to brush my horse's belly, I began to get frightened. Still +I persevered, against hope; the heat grew more fearful every moment; +but I reflected that I had often ridden up close to a bush-fire, turned +when I began to see the flame through the smoke, and cantered away from +it easily. + +Then it struck me that I had never yet seen a bushfire in such a +hurricane as this. Then I remembered stories of men riding for their +lives, and others of burnt horses and men found in the bush. And, now, +I saw a sight which made me turn in good earnest. + +I was in lofty timber, and, as I paused, I heard the mighty cracking of +fire coming through the wood. At the same instant the blinding smoke +burst into a million tongues of flackering flame, and I saw the +fire--not where I had ever seen it before--not creeping along among the +scrub--but up aloft, a hundred and fifty feet overhead. It had caught +the dry bituminous tops of the higher boughs, and was flying along from +tree-top to tree-top like lightning. Below, the wind was comparatively +moderate, but, up there, it was travelling twenty miles an hour. I saw +one tree ignite like gun-cotton, and then my heart grew small, and I +turned and fled. + +I rode as I never rode before. There were three miles to go ere I +cleared the forest, and got among the short grass, where I could save +myself--three miles! Ten minutes nearly of intolerable heat, blinding +smoke, and mortal terror. Any death but this! Drowning were pleasant, +glorious to sink down into the cool sparkling water. But, to be burnt +alive! Fool that I was to venture so far! I would give all my money now +to be naked and penniless, rolling about in a cool pleasant river. + +The maddened, terrified horse, went like the wind, but not like the +hurricane--that was too swift for us. The fire had outstripped us +over-head, and I could see it dimly through the infernal choking reek, +leaping and blazing a hundred yards before me, among the feathery +foliage, devouring it, as the south wind devours the thunder clouds. +Then I could see nothing. Was I clear of the forest? Thank the Lord, +yes--I was riding over grass. + +I managed to pull up the horse, and as I did so, a mob of kangaroos +blundered by, blinded, almost against me, noticing me no more in their +terror than if I had been a stump or a stone. Soon the fire came +hissing along through the grass scarcely six inches high, and I walked +my horse through it; then I tumbled off on the blackened ground, and +felt as if I should die. + +I lay there on the hot black ground. My head felt like a block of +stone, and my neck was stiff so that I could not move my head. My +throat was swelled and dry as a sand-hill, and there was a roaring in +my ears like a cataract. I thought of the cool waterfalls among the +rocks far away in Devon. I thought of everything that was cold and +pleasant, and then came into my head about Dives praying for a drop of +water. I tried to get up, but could not, so lay down again with my head +upon my arm. + +It grew cooler, and the atmosphere was clearer. I got up, and, mounting +my horse, turned homeward. Now I began to think about the station. +Could it have escaped? Impossible! The fire would fly a hundred yards +or more such a day as this even in low plain. No, it must be gone! +There was a great roll in the plain between me and home, so that I +could see nothing of our place--all around the country was black, +without a trace of vegetation. Behind me were the smoking ruins of the +forest I had escaped from, where now the burnt-out trees began to +thunder down rapidly, and before, to the south, I could see the fire +raging miles away. + +So the station is burnt, then? No! For as I top the ridge, there it is +before me, standing as of old--a bright oasis in the desert of burnt +country round. Ay! the very hay-stack is safe! And the paddocks?--all +right!--glory be to God! + +I got home, and James came running to meet me. + +"I was getting terribly frightened, old man," said he. "I thought you +were caught. Lord save us, you look ten years older than you did this +morning!" + +I tried to answer, but could not speak for drought. He ran and got me a +great tumbler of claret-and-water; and, in the evening, having drunk +about an imperial gallon of water, and taken afterwards some claret, I +felt pretty well revived. + +Men were sent out at once to see after the Morgans, and found them +perfectly safe, but very much frightened; they had, however, saved +their hut, for the fire had passed before the wind had got to its full +strength. + +So we were delivered from the fire; but still no rain. All day, for the +next month, the hot north wind would blow till five o'clock, and then a +cool southerly breeze would come up and revive us; but still the +heavens were dry, and our cattle died by hundreds. + +On the eighteenth of March, we sat in the verandah looking still over +the blackened unlovely prospect, but now cheerfully and with hope; for +the eastern sky was piled up range beyond range with the scarlet and +purple splendour of cloud-land, and, as darkness gathered, we saw the +lightning, not twinkling and glimmering harmlessly about the horizon, +as it had been all the summer, but falling sheer in violet-coloured +rivers behind the dark curtain of rain that hung from the black edge of +a teeming thunder-cloud. + +We had asked our overseer in that night, being Saturday, to drink with +us; he sat very still, and talked but little, as was his wont. I +slapped him on the back, and said:-- + +"Do you remember, Geordie, that muff in Thalaba who chose the wrong +cloud? He should have got you or me to choose for him; we wouldn't have +made a mistake, I know. We would have chosen such a one as yon glorious +big-bellied fellow. See how grandly he comes growling up!" + +"It's just come," said he, "without the praying for. When the fire came +owre the hill the other day, I just put up a bit prayer to the Lord, +that He'd spare the haystack, and He spared it. (I didna stop working, +ye ken; I worked the harder; if ye dinna mean to work, ye should na +pray.) But I never prayed for rain,--I didna, ye see, like to ask the +Lord to upset all his gran' laws of electricity and evaporation, just +because it would suit us. I thocht He'd likely ken better than mysel. +Hech, sirs, but that chiel's riding hard!" + +A horseman appeared making for the station at full speed; when he was +quite close, Jim called out, "By Jove, it is Doctor Mulhaus!" and we +ran out into the yard to meet him. + +Before any one had time to speak, he shouted out: "My dear boys, I'm so +glad I am in time: we are going to see one of the grandest electrical +disturbances it has ever been my lot to witness. I reined up just now +to look, and I calculated that the southern point of explosion alone is +discharging nine times in the minute. How is your barometer?" + +"Haven't looked, Doctor." + +"Careless fellow," he replied, "you don't deserve to have one." + +"Never mind, sir, we have got you safe and snug out of the +thunderstorm. It is going to be very heavy I think. I only hope we will +have plenty of rain." + +"Not much doubt of it," said he. "Now, come into the verandah and let +us watch the storm." + +We went and sat there; the highest peaks of the great cloud alps, +lately brilliant red, were now cold silver grey, harshly defined +against a faint crimson background, and we began to hear the thunder +rolling and muttering. All else was deadly still and heavy. + +"Mark the lightning!" said the Doctor; "that which is before the +rain-wall is white, and that behind violetcoloured. Here comes the +thundergust." + +A fierce blast of wind came hurrying on, carrying a cloud of dust and +leaves before it. It shook the four corners of the house and passed +away. And now it was a fearful sight to see the rain-spouts pouring +from the black edge of the lower cloud as from a pitcher, nearly +overhead, and lit up by a continuous blaze of lightning: another blast +of wind, now a few drops, and in ten minutes you could barely +distinguish the thunder above the rattle of the rain on the shingles. + +It warred and banged around us for an hour, so that we could hardly +hear one another speak. At length the Doctor bawled,-- + +"We shall have a crack closer than any yet, you'll see; we always have +one particular one;--our atmosphere is not restored to its balance +yet,--there!" + +The curtains were drawn, and yet, for an instant, the room was as +bright as day. Simultaneously there came a crack and an explosion, so +loud and terrifying, that, used as I was to such an event, I +involuntarily jumped up from my seat. + +"Are you all right here?" said the Doctor; and, running out into the +kitchen, shouted, "Any one hurt?" + +The kitchen girl said that the lightning had run all down her back like +cold water, and the housekeeper averred that she thought the thunder +had taken the roof of the house off. So we soon perceived that nothing +was the matter, and sat down again to our discourse, and our supper. +"Well," began I, "here's the rain come at last. In a fortnight there +will be good grass again. We ought to start and get some store cattle." + +"But where?" replied James. "We shall have to go a long way for them; +everyone will be wanting the same thing now. We must push a long way +north, and make a depot somewhere westward. Then we can pick them up by +sixes and sevens at a time. When shall we go?" + +"The sooner the better." + +"I think I will come with you," said the Doctor. "I have not been a +journey for some time." + +"Your conversation, sir," I said, "will shorten the journey by +one-half"--which was sincerely said. + +Away we went northward, with the mountains on our left, leaving +snow-streaked Kosciusko nearly behind us, till a great pass, through +the granite walls, opened to the westward, up which we turned, Mount +Murray towering up the south. Soon we were on the Murrumbidgee, +sweeping from side to side of his mountain valley in broad curves, +sometimes rushing hoarse, swollen by the late rains, under belts of +high timber, and sometimes dividing broad meadows of rich grass, +growing green once more under the invigorating hand of autumn. All +nature had awakened from her deep summer sleep, the air was brisk and +nimble, and seldom did three happier men ride on their way than James, +the Doctor, and I. + +Good Doctor! How he beguiled the way with his learning!--in ecstasies +all the time, enjoying everything, animate or inanimate, as you or I +would enjoy a new play or a new opera. How I envied him! He was like a +man always reading a new and pleasant book. At first the stockmen rode +behind, talking about beasts, and horses, and what not--often talking +about nothing at all, but riding along utterly without thought, if such +a thing could be. But soon I noticed they would draw up closer, and +regard the Doctor with some sort of attention, till toward the evening +of the second day, one of them, our old acquaintance, Dick, asked the +Doctor a question, as to why, if I remember right, certain trees should +grow in certain localities, and there only. The Doctor reined up +alongside him directly, and in plain forcible language explained the +matter: how that some plants required more of one sort of substance +than another, and how they get it out of particular soils; and how, in +the lapse of years, they had come to thrive best on the soil that +suited them, and had got stunted and died out in other parts. "See," +said he, "how the turkey holds to the plains, and the pheasant +(lyrebird) to the scrub, because each one finds its food there. Trees +cannot move; but by time, and by positively refusing to grow on +unkindly soils, they arrange themselves in the localities which suit +them best." + +So after this they rode with the Doctor always, both hearing him and +asking him questions, and at last, won by his blunt kindliness, they +grew to like and respect him in their way, even as we did. + +So we fared on through bad weather and rough country, enjoying a +journey which, but for him, would have been a mere trial of patience. +Northward ever, through forest and plain, over mountain and swamp, +across sandstone, limestone, granite, and rich volcanic land, each +marked distinctly by a varying vegetation. Sometimes we would camp out, +but oftener managed to reach a station at night. We got well across the +dry country between the Murrumbidgee and the Lachlan, now abounding +with pools of water; and, having crossed the latter river, held on our +course toward Croker's Range, which we skirted; and, after having been +about a fortnight out, arrived at the lowest station on the Macquarrie +late in the afternoon. + +This was our present destination. The owner was a friend of ours, who +gave us a hearty welcome, and, on our inquiries as to store cattle, +thought that we might pick up a good mob of them from one station or +another. "We might," said he, "make a depot for them, as we collected +them, on some unoccupied land down the river. It was poor country, but +there was grass enough to keep them alive. He would show us a good +place, in a fork, where it was impossible to cross on two sides, and +where they would be easily kept together; that was, if we liked to risk +it." + +"Risk what?" we asked. + +"Blacks," said he. "They are mortal troublesome just now down the +river. I thought we had quieted them, but they have been up to their +old games lately, spearing cattle, and so on. I don't like, in fact, to +go too far down there alone. I don't think they are Macquarrie blacks; +I fancy they must have come up from the Darling, through the marshes." + +We thought we should have no reason to be afraid with such a strong +party as ours; and Owen, our host, having some spare cattle, we were +employed for the next three days in getting them in. We got nearly a +hundred head from him. + +The first morning we got there the Doctor had vanished; but the third +evening, as we were sitting down to supper, in he came, dead beat, with +a great bag full of stones. When we had drawn round the fire, I said: + +"Have you got any new fossils for us to see?" + +"Not one," said he; "only some minerals." + +"Do not you think, sir," said Owen, our host, "that there are some ores +of metals round this country? The reason I ask you is, we so often pick +up curiouscoloured stones, like those we get from the miners at home, +in Wales, where I come from." + +"I think you will find some rich mines near here soon. Stay; it can do +you no harm. I will tell you something: three days ago I followed up +the river, and about twenty miles above this spot I became attracted by +the conformation of the country, and remarked it as being very similar +to some very famous spots in South America. 'Here,' I said to myself, +'Maximilian, you have your volcanic disturbance, your granite, your +clay, slate, and sandstone upheaved, and seamed with quartz;--why +should you not discover here, what is certainly here, more or less?'--I +looked patiently for two days, and I will show you what I found." + +He went to his bag and fetched an angular stone about as big as one's +fist. It was white, stained on one side with rust-colour, but in the +heart veined with a bright yellow metallic substance, in some places +running in delicate veins into the stone, in others breaking out in +large shining lumps. + +"That's iron-pyrites," said I, as pat as you please. + +"Goose!" said the Doctor; "look again." + +I looked again; it was certainly different to ironpyrites; it was +brighter, it ran in veins into the stone; it was lumpy, solid, and +clean. I said, "It is very beautiful; tell us what it is?" + +"Gold!" said he, triumphantly, getting up and walking about the room in +an excited way; "that little stone is worth a pound; there is a quarter +of an ounce in it. Give me ten tons, only ten cartloads such stone as +that, and I would buy a principality." + +Every one crowded round the stone open-mouthed, and James said: + +"Are you sure it is gold, Doctor?" + +"He asks me if I know gold, when I see it,--me, you understand, who +have scientifically examined all the best mines in Peru, not to mention +the Minas Geraes in the Brazils! My dear fellow, to a man who has once +seen it, native gold is unmistakeable, utterly so; there is nothing at +all like it." + +"But this is a remarkable discovery, sir," said Owen. "What are you +going to do?" + +"I shall go to the Government," said he, "and make the best bargain I +can." + +I had better mention here that he afterwards did go to the Government, +and announce his discovery. Rather to the Doctor's disgust, however, +though he acknowledged the wisdom of the thing, the courteous and able +gentleman who then represented his Majesty informed him that he was +perfectly aware of the existence of gold, but that he for one should +assert the prerogative of the Crown, and prevent any one mining on +Crown-lands: as he considered that, were the gold abundant, the effects +on the convict population would be eminently disastrous. To which +obvious piece of good sense the Doctor bowed his head, and the whole +thing passed into oblivion--so much so, that when I heard of +Hargreave's discovery in 1851, I had nearly forgotten the Doctor's gold +adventure; and I may here state my belief that the knowledge of its +existence was confined to very few, and those well-educated men, who +never guessed (how could they without considerable workings?) how +abundant it was. As for the stories of shepherds finding gold and +selling it to the Jews in Sydney, they are very mythical, and I for one +entirely disbelieve them. + +In time we had collected about 250 head of cattle from various points +into the fork of the river, which lay further down, some seven miles, +than his house. As yet we had not been troubled by the blackfellows. +Those we had seen seemed pretty civil, and we had not allowed them to +get familiar; but this pleasant state of things was not to last. James +and the Doctor, with one man, were away for the very last mob, and I +was sitting before the fire at the camp, when Dick, who was left behind +with me, asked for my gun to go and shoot a duck. I lent it him, and +away he went, while I mounted my horse and rode slowly about, heading +back such of the cattle as appeared to be wandering too far. + +I heard a shot, and almost immediately another; then I heard a queer +sort of scream, which puzzled me extremely. I grew frightened and rode +towards the quarter where the shots came from, and almost immediately +heard a loud call. I replied, and then I saw Dick limping along through +the bushes, peering about him and holding his gun as one does when +expecting a bird to rise. Suddenly he raised his gun and fired. Out +dashed a black fellow from his hiding place, running across the open, +and with his second barrel Dick rolled him over. Then I saw +half-a-dozen others rise, shaking their spears; but, seeing me riding +up, and supposing I was armed, they made off. + +"How did this come about, Dick, my lad?" said I. "This is a bad job." + +"Well," he said, "I just fired at a duck, and the moment my gun was +gone off, up jumped half-a-dozen of them, and sent a shower of spears +at me, and one has gone into my leg. They must a' thought that I had a +single-barrel gun and waited till I'd fired it; but they found their +mistake, the devils; for I gave one of them a charge of shot in his +stomach at twenty yards, and dropped him; they threw a couple more +spears, but both missed, and I hobbled out as well as I could, loading +as I went with a couple of tallow cartridges. I saw this other beast +skulking, and missed him first time, but he has got something to +remember me by now." + +"Do you think you can ride to the station and get some help?" said I. +"I wish the others were back." + +"Yes," he replied, "I will manage it, but I don't like to leave you +alone." + +"One must stay," I said, "and better the sound man than the wounded +one. Come, start off, and let me get to the camp, or they will be +plundering that next." + +I started him off and ran back to the camp. Everything was safe as yet, +and the ground round being clear, and having a double-barrel gun and +two pistols, I was not so very much frightened. It is no use to say I +was perfectly comfortable, because I wasn't. A Frenchman writing this, +would represent himself as smoking a cigar, and singing with the +greatest nonchalance. I did neither. Being an Englishman, I may be +allowed to confess that I did not like it. + +I had fully made up my mind to fire on the first black who showed +himself, but I did not get the opportunity. In about two hours I heard +a noise of men shouting and whips cracking, and the Doctor and James +rode up with a fresh lot of cattle. + +I told them what had happened, and we agreed to wait and watch till +news should come from the station, and then to start. There was, as we +thought, but little danger while there were four or five together; but +the worst of it was, that we were but poorly armed. However, at +nightfall, Owen and one of his men came down, reporting that Dick, who +had been speared, was getting all right, and bringing also three +swords, and a brace of pistols. + +James and I took a couple of swords, and began fencing, in play. + +"I see," said the Doctor, "that you know the use of a sword, you two." + +"Lord bless you!" I said, "we were in the Yeomanry (Landwehr you call +it); weren't we, Jim? I was a corporal." + +"I wish," said Owen, "that, now we are together, five of us, you would +come and give these fellows a lesson; they want it badly." + +"Indeed," I said, "I think they have had lesson enough for the present. +Dick has put down two of them. Beside, we could not leave the cattle." + +"I am sorry," said James, "that any of our party has had this collision +with them. I cannot bear shooting the poor brutes. Let us move out of +this, homeward, to-morrow morning." + +Just before dark, who should come riding down from the station but +Dick!--evidently in pain, but making believe that he was quite +comfortable. + +"Why, Dick, my boy," I said, "I thought you were in bed; you ought to +be, at any rate." + +"Oh, there's nothing much the matter with me, Mr. Hamlyn," he said. +"You will have some trouble with these fellows, unless I am mistaken. I +was told to look after you once, and I mean to do it." + +(He referred to the letter that Lee had sent him years before.) + +That night Owen stayed with us at the camp. We set a watch, and he took +the morning spell. Everything passed off quietly; but when we came to +examine our cattle in the morning, the lot that James had brought in +the night before were gone. + +The river, flooded when we first came, had now lowered considerably, so +that the cattle could cross if they really tried. These last, being +wild and restless, had gone over, and we soon found the marks of them +across the river. + +The Doctor, James, Dick, and I started off after them, having armed +ourselves for security. We took a sword a-piece, and each had a pistol. +The ground was moist, and the beasts easily tracked; so we thought an +easy job was before us, but we soon changed our minds. + +Following on the trail of the cattle, we very soon came on the +footsteps of a black fellow, evidently more recent than the hoof-marks; +then another footstep joined in, and another, and at last we made out +that above a dozen blacks were tracking our cattle, and were between us +and them. + +Still we followed the trail as fast as we could. I was uneasy, for we +were insufficiently armed, but I found time to point out to the Doctor, +what he had never remarked before, the wonderful difference between the +naked foot-print of a white man and a savage. The white man leaves the +impression of his whole sole, every toe being distinctly marked, while +your black fellow leaves scarce any toe-marks, but seems merely to +spurn the ground with the ball of his foot. + +I felt very ill at ease. The morning was raw, and a dense fog was over +everything. One always feels wretched on such a morning, but on that +one I felt miserable. There was an indefinable horror over me, and I +talked more than any one, glad to hear the sound of my own voice. + +Once, the Doctor turned round and looked at me fixedly from under his +dark eyebrows. "Hamlyn," he said, "I don't think you are well; you talk +fast, and are evidently nervous. We are in no danger, I think, but you +seem as if you were frightened." + +"So I am, Doctor, but I don't know what at." + +Jim was riding first, and he turned and said, "I have lost the black +fellows' track entirely: here are the hoof-marks, safe enough, but no +foot-prints, and the ground seems to be rising." + +The fog was very thick, so that we could see nothing above a hundred +yards from us. We had come through forest all the way, and were wet +with pushing through low shrubs. As we paused came a puff of air, and +in five minutes the fog had rolled away, and a clear blue sky and a +bright sun were overhead. + +Now we could see where we were. We were in the lower end of a +precipitous mountain-gully, narrow where we were, and growing rapidly +narrower as we advanced. In the fog we had followed the cattle-track +right into it, passing, unobserved, two great heaps of tumbled rocks +which walled the glen; they were thickly fringed with scrub, and, it +immediately struck me that they stood just in the place where we had +lost the tracks of the black fellows. + +I should have mentioned this, but, at this moment, James caught sight +of the lost cattle, and galloped off after them; we followed, and very +quickly we had headed them down the glen, and were posting homeward as +hard as we could go. + +I remember well there was a young bull among them that took the lead. +As he came nearly opposite the two piles of rock which I have +mentioned, I saw a black fellow leap on a boulder, and send a spear +into him. + +He headed back, and the other beasts came against him. Before we could +pull up we were against the cattle, and then all was confusion and +disaster. Two hundred black fellows were on us at once, shouting like +devils, and sending down their spears upon us like rain. I heard the +Doctor's voice, above all the infernal din, crying "Viva! Swords, my +boys; take your swords!" I heard two pistol shots, and then, with +deadly wrath in my heart, I charged at a crowd of them, who were +huddled together, throwing their spears wildly, and laid about me with +my cutlass like a madman. + +I saw them scrambling up over the rocks in wild confusion; then I heard +the Doctor calling me to come on. He had reined up, and a few of the +discomfited savages were throwing spears at him from a long distance. +When he saw me turn to come, he turned also, and rode after James, who +was two hundred yards ahead, reeling in his saddle like a drunken man, +grinding his teeth, and making fierce clutches at a spear which was +buried deep in his side, and which at last he succeeded in tearing out. +He went a few yards further, and then fell off his horse on the ground. + +We were both off in a moment, but when I got his head on my lap, I saw +he was dying. The Doctor looked at the wound, and shook his head. I +took his right hand in mine, and the other I held upon his true and +faithful heart, until I felt it flutter, and stop for ever. + +Then I broke down altogether. "Oh! good old friend! Oh! dear old +friend, could you not wait for me? Shall I never see you again?" + +Yes! I think that I shall see him again. When I have crossed the dark +river which we must all cross, I think he will be one of those who come +down to meet me from the gates of the Everlasting City.---- + + +* * * * * + + +"A man," said the Doctor to me, two days after, when we were sitting +together in the station parlour, "who approached as nearly the model +which our Great Master has left us as any man I know. I studied and +admired him for many years, and now I cannot tell you not to mourn. I +can give you no comfort for the loss of such a man, save it be to say +that you and I may hope to meet him again, and learn new lessons from +him, in a better place than this." + + + + +Chapter XXV + +IN WHICH THE NEW DEAN OF B---- MAKES HIS APPEARANCE, AND ASTONISHES THE +MAJOR OUT OF HIS PROPRIETY. + + +One evening towards the end of that winter Mrs. Buckley and Sam sat +alone before the fire, in the quickly-gathering darkness. The candles +were yet unlighted, but the cheerful flickering light produced by the +combustion of three or four logs of sheoak, topped by one of dead gum, +shone most pleasantly on the wellordered dining-room, on the +close-drawn curtains, on the nicely-polished furniture, on the +dinner-table, laid with fair array of white linen, silver, and glass, +but, above all, on the honest, quiet face of Sam, who sat before his +mother in an easy chair, with his head back, fast asleep. + +While she is alternately casting glances of pride and affection towards +her sleeping son, and keen looks on the gum log, in search of +centipedes, let us take a look at her ourselves, and see how sixteen +years have behaved to that handsome face. There is change here, but no +deterioration. It is a little rounder perhaps, and also a little fuller +in colour, but there are no lines there yet. "Happiness and ceaseless +good temper don't make many wrinkles, even in a warmer climate than old +England," says the Major, and says, also, confidentially, to Brentwood, +"Put a red camelia in her hair, and send her to the opera even now, and +see what a sensation she would make, though she is nearer fifty than +forty,"--which was strictly true, although said by her husband, for the +raven hair is as black as it was when decorated with the moss-roses of +Clere, and the eye is as brilliant as when it flashed with the news of +Trafalgar. + +Now, the beautiful profile is turned again towards the sleeper as he +moves. "Poor boy!" she said. "He is quite knocked up. He must have been +twenty-four hours in the saddle. However, he had better be after cattle +than in a billiard-room. I wonder if his father will be home to-night." + +Suddenly Sam awoke. "Heigho!" said he. "I'm nice company, mother. Have +I been asleep?" + +"Only for an hour or so, my boy," said she. "See; I've been defending +you while you slumbered. I have killed three centipedes, which came out +of that old gum log. I cut this big one in half with the fire-shovel, +and the head part walked away as if nothing had happened. I must tell +the man not to give us rotten wood, or some of us will be getting a +nip. It's a long fifty miles from Captain Brentwood's," said Mrs. +Buckley after a time. "And that's a very good day's work for little +Bronsewing, carrying your father." + +"And what has been the news since I have been away,--eh, mother?" + +"Why, the greatest news is that the Donovans have sold their station, +and are off to Port Phillip." + +"All the world is moving there," said Sam. "Who has he sold it to?" + +"That I can't find out.--There's your father, my love." + +There was the noise of horses' feet and merry voices in the little +gravelled yard behind the house, heard above a joyous barking of dogs. +Sam ran out to hold his father's horse, and soon came into the room +again, accompanied by his father and Captain Brentwood. + +After the first greetings were over, candles were lighted, and the +three men stood on the hearth-rug together--a very remarkable group, as +you would have said, had you seen them. You might go a long while in +any country without seeing three such men in company. + +Captain Brentwood, of Artillery renown, was a square, powerfully built +man, say five-foot-ten in height. His face, at first sight, appeared +rather a stupid one beside the Major's, expressing rather determination +than intelligence; but once engage him in a conversation which +interested him, and you would be surprised to see how animated it could +become. Then the man, usually so silent, would open up the store-house +of his mind, speaking with an eloquence and a force which would +surprise one who did not know him, and which made the Doctor often take +the losing side of an argument for the purpose of making him speak. Add +to this that he was a thoroughly amiable man, and, as Jim would tell +you (in spite of a certain severe whipping you wot of), a most +indulgent and excellent father. + +Major Buckley's shadow had grown no less,--nay, rather greater, since +first we knew him. In other respects, very little alteration, except +that his curling brown hair had grown thinner about the temples, and +was receding a little from his forehead. But what cared he for that! He +was not the last of the Buckleys. + +One remarks now, as the two stand together, that Sam, though but +nineteen, is very nearly as tall as his father, and promises to be as +broad across the shoulders some day, being an exception to +colonially-bred men in general, who are long and narrow. He is standing +and talking to his father. + +"Well, Sam," said the Major, "so you're back safe,--eh, my boy! A rough +time, I don't doubt. Strange store-cattle are queer to drive at any +time, particularly such weather as you have had." + +"And such a lot, too!" said Sam. "Tell you what, father: it's lucky +you've got them cheap, for the half of them are off the ranges." + +"Scrubbers, eh?" said the Major; "well, we must take what we can catch, +with this Port Phillip rush. Let's sit down to dinner; I've got some +news that will please you. Fish, eh? See there, Brentwood! What do you +think of that for a blackfish? (What was his weight, my dear?)" + +"Seven pounds and a half, as the black fellows brought him in," said +Mrs. Buckley. + +"A very pretty fish," said the Major. "My dear, what is the news?" + +"Why, the Donovans have sold their station." + +"Ha! ha!" laughed the Major. "Why, we have come from there to-day. Why, +we were there last night at a grand party. All the Irishmen in the +country side. Such a turmoil I haven't seen since I was quartered at +Cove. So that's your news,--eh?" + +"And so you stepped on there without calling at home, did you?" said +Mrs. Buckley. "And perhaps you know who the purchaser is." + +"Don't you know, my love?" + +"No, indeed!" said Mrs. Buckley. "I have been trying to find out these +two days. It would be very pleasant to have a good neighbour +there,--not that I wish to speak evil of the Donovans; but really they +did go on in such terrible style, you know, that one could not go +there. Now, tell me who has bought Garoopna." + +"One Brentwood, captain of Artillery." + +"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Buckley. "Is he not joking now, Captain +Brentwood? That is far too good news to be true." + +"It is true, nevertheless, madam," said Captain Brentwood. "I thought +it would meet with your approval, and I can see by Sam's face that it +meets with his. You see, my dear lady, Buckley has got to be rather +necessary to me. I miss him when he is absent, and I want to be more +with him. Again, I am very fond of my son Jim, and my son Jim is very +fond of your son Sam, and is always coming here after him when he ought +to be at home. So I think I shall see more of him when we are ten miles +apart than when we are fifty. And, once more, my daughter Alice, now +completing her education in Sydney, comes home to keep house for me in +a few months, and I wish her to have the advantage of the society of +the lady whom I honour and respect above all others. So I have bought +Garoopna." + +"If that courtly bow is intended for me, my dear Captain," said Mrs. +Buckley, "as I cannot but think it is, believe me that your daughter +shall be as my daughter." + +"Teach her to be in some slight degree like yourself, Mrs. Buckley," +said the Captain, "and you will put me under obligations which I can +never repay." + +"Altogether, wife," said the Major, "it is the most glorious +arrangement that ever was come to. Let us take a glass of sherry all +round on it. Sam, my lad, your hand! Brentwood, we have none of us ever +seen your daughter. She should be handsome." + +"You remember her mother?" said the Captain. + +"Who could ever forget Lady Kate who had once seen her?" said the Major. + +"Well, Alice is more beautiful than her mother ever was." + +There went across the table a bright electric spark out of Mrs. +Buckley's eye into her husband's, as rapid as those which move the +quivering telegraph needles, and yet not unobserved, I think, by +Captain Brentwood, for there grew upon his face a pleasant smile, +which, rapidly broadening, ended in a low laugh, by no means +disagreeable to hear, though Sam wondered what the joke could be, until +the Captain said,-- + +"An altogether comical party that last night at the Donovans', Buckley! +The most comical I ever was at." + +Nevertheless, I don't believe that it was that which made him laugh at +all. + +"A capital party!" said the Major, laughing. "Do you know, Brentwood, I +always liked those Donovans, under the rose, and last night I liked +them better than ever. They were not such very bad neighbours, although +old Donovan wanted to fight a duel with me once. At all events, the +welcome I got last night will make me remember them kindly in future." + +"I must go down and call there before they go," said Mrs. Buckley. +"People who have been our neighbours so many years must not go away +without a kind farewell. Was Desborough there?" + +"Indeed, he was. Don't you know he is related to the Donovans?" + +"Impossible!" + +"Fact, my dear, I assure you, according to Mrs. Donovan, who told me +that the De Novans and the Desboroughs were cognate Norman families, +who settled in Ireland together, and have since frequently +inter-married." + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Buckley, laughing, "that Desborough did not deny +it." + +"Not at all, my dear: as he said to me privately, 'Buckley, never deny +a relationship with a man worth forty thousand pounds, the least penny, +though your ancestors' bones should move in their graves.'" + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Buckley, "that he made himself as agreeable as +usual." + +"As usual, my dear! He made even Brentwood laugh; he danced all the +evening with that giddy girl Lesbia Burke, who let slip that she +remembered me at Naples in 1805, when she was there with that sad old +set, and who consequently must be nearly as old as myself." + +"I hope you danced with her," said Mrs. Buckley. + +"Indeed I did, my dear. And she wore a wreath of yellow chrysanthemum, +no other flowers being obtainable. I assure you we 'kept the flure' in +splendid style." + +They were all laughing at the idea of the Major dancing, when Sam +exclaimed, "Good Lord!" + +"What's the matter my boy?" said the Major. + +"I must cry peccavi," said Sam. "Father, you will never forgive me! I +forgot till this moment a most important message. I was rather knocked +up, you see, and went to sleep, and that sent it out of my head." + +"You are forgiven, my boy, be it what it may. I hope it is nothing very +serious." + +"Well, it is very serious," said Sam. "As I was coming by Hanging Rock, +I rode up to the door a minute, to see if Cecil was at home,--and Mrs. +Mayford came out and wanted me to get off and come in, but I hadn't +time; and she said, 'The Dean is coming here to-night, and he'll be +with you to-morrow night, I expect. So don't forget to tell your +mother.'" + +"To-morrow night!" said Mrs. Buckley, aghast. "Why, my dear, boy, that +is to-night! What shall I do?" + +"Nothing at all, my love," said the Major, "but make them get some +supper ready. He can't have expected us to wait dinner till this time." + +"I thought," said Captain Brentwood, "that the Dean was gone back to +England." + +"So he is," said the Major. "But this is a new one. The good old Dean +has resigned." + +"What is the new one's name?" said the Captain. + +"I don't know," said the Major. "Desborough said it was a Doctor +Maypole, and that he was very like one in appearance. But you can't +trust Desborough, you know; he never remembers names. I hope he may be +as good a man as his predecessor." + +"I hope he may be no worse," said Captain Brentwood; "but I hope, in +addition, that he may be better able to travel, and look after his +outlying clergy a little more." + +"It looks like it," said the Major, "to be down as far as this, before +he has been three months installed." + +Mrs. Buckley went out to the kitchen to give orders; and after that, +they sat for an hour or more over their wine, till at length, the Major +said,-- + +"We must give him up in another hour." + +Then, as if they had heard him, the dogs began to bark. Rover, who had, +against rules, sneaked into the house, and lain PERDU under the sofa, +discovered his retreat by low growling, as though determined to do his +duty, let the consequences be what they might. Every now and then, too, +when his feelings overpowered him, he would discharge a 'Woof,' like a +minute gun at sea. + +"That must be him, father," said Sam. "You'll catch it, Mr. Rover!" + +He ran out; a tall black figure was sitting on horseback before the +door, and a pleasant cheery voice said, "Pray, is this Major Buckley's?" + +"Yes, sir," said Sam; "we have been expecting you." + +He called for the groom and held the stranger's horse while he +dismounted. Then he assisted him to unstrap his valise, and carried it +in after him. + +The Major, Mrs. Buckley, and the Captain had risen, and were standing +ready to greet the Church dignitary as he came in, in the most +respectful manner. But when the Major had looked for a moment on the +tall figure in black, which advanced towards the fire, instead of +saying, "Sir, I am, highly honoured by your visit," or, "Sir, I bid you +most heartily welcome," he dashed forward in the most undignified +fashion, upsetting a chair, and seizing the reverend Dean by both +hands, exclaimed, "God bless my heart and soul! Frank Maberly!" + +It was he: the mad curate, now grown into a colonial dean,--sobered, +apparently, but unchanged in any material point: still elastic and +upright, looking as if for twopence he would take off the black cutaway +coat and the broad-brimmed hat, and row seven in the University eight, +at a moment's notice. There seems something the matter with him though, +as he holds the Major's two hands in his, and looks on his broad +handsome face. Something like a shortness of breath prevented his +speech, and, strange, the Major seems troubled with the same complaint; +but Frank gets over it first, and says,-- + +"My dear old friend, I am so glad to see you!" + +And Mrs. Buckley says, laying her hand upon his arm, "It seems as if +all things were arranged to make my husband and myself the happiest +couple in the world. If we had been asked to-night, whom of all people +in the world we should have been most glad to see as the new Dean, we +should have answered at once, Frank Maberly; and here he is!" + +"Then, you did not know whom to expect," said Frank. + +"Not we, indeed," said the Major. "Desborough said the new Dean was a +Doctor Maypole; and I pictured to myself an old schoolmaster with a +birch rod in his coat tail-pocket. And we have been in such a stew all +the evening about giving the great man a proper reception. Ha! ha! ha!" + +"And will you introduce me to this gentleman?" said the Dean, moving +towards Sam, who stood behind his mother. + +"This," said the Major, with a radiant smile, "is my son Samuel, whom, +I believe, you have seen before." + +"So, the pretty boy that I knew at Drumston," said the Dean, laying his +hands on Sam's shoulders, "has grown into this noble gentleman! It +makes me feel old, but I am glad to feel old under such circumstances. +Let me turn your face to the light and see if I can recognise the +little lad whom I used to carry pickaback across Hatherleigh Water." + +Sam looked in his face--such a kindly good placid face, that it seemed +beautiful, though by some rules it was irregular and ugly enough. The +Dean laid his hand on Sam's curly head, and said, "God bless you, +Samuel Buckley," and won Sam's heart for ever. + +All this time Captain Brentwood had stood with his back against the +chimney-piece, perfectly silent, having banished all expression from +his countenance; now, however, Major Buckley brought up the Dean and +introduced him:-- + +"My dear Brentwood, the Dean of B----; not Dean to us though, so much +as our dear old friend Frank Maberly." + +"Involved grammar," said the Captain to himself, but, added aloud: "A +Churchman of your position, sir, will do me an honour by using my +house; but the Mr. Maberly of whom I have so often heard from my friend +Buckley will do me a still higher honour if he will allow me to enrol +him among the number of my friends." + +Frank the Dean thought that Captain Brentwood's speech would have made +a good piece to turn into Greek prose, in the style of Demosthenes; but +he didn't say so. He looked at the Captain's stolid face for a moment, +and said, as Sam thought, a little abruptly: + +"I think, sir, that you and I shall get on very well together when we +understand one another." + +The Captain made no reply in articulate speech, but laughed internally, +till his sides shook, and held out his hand. The Dean laughed too, as +he took it, and said: + +"I met a young lady at the Bishop's the other day, a Miss Brentwood." + +"My daughter, sir," said the Captain. + +"So I guessed--partly from the name, and partly from a certain look +about the eyes, rather unmistakeable. Allow me to say, sir, that I +never remember to have seen such remarkable beauty in my life." + +They sat Frank down to supper, and when he had done, the conversation +was resumed. + +"By-the-bye, Major Buckley," said he, "I miss an old friend, who I +heard was living with you; a very dear old friend,--where is Doctor +Mulhaus?" + +"Dear Doctor," said Mrs. Buckley; "this is his home indeed, but he is +away at present on an expedition with two old Devon friends, Hamlyn and +Stockbridge." + +"Oh!" said Frank, "I have heard of those men; they came out here the +year before the Vicar died. I never knew either of them, but I well +remember how kindly Stockbridge used to be spoken of by everyone in +Drumston. I must make his acquaintance." + +"You will make the acquaintance of one of the finest fellows in the +world, Dean," said the Major; "I know no worthier man than Stockbridge. +I wish Mary Thornton had married him." + +"And I hear," said Frank, "that the pretty Mary is your next door +neighbour, in partnership with that excellent giant Troubridge. I must +go and see them to-morrow. I will produce one of those great roaring +laughs of his, by reminding him of our first introduction at the +Palace, through a rat." + +"I am sorry to say," said the Major, "that Tom is away at Port Phillip, +with cattle." + +"Port Phillip, again," said Frank; "I have heard of nothing else +throughout my journey. I am getting bored with it. Will you tell me +what you know about it for certain?" + +"Well," said the Major, "it lies about 250 miles south of this, though +we cannot get at it without crossing the mountains, in consequence of +some terribly dense scrub on some low ranges close to it, which they +call, I believe, the Dandenong. It appears, however, when you are +there, that there is a great harbour, about forty miles long, +surrounded with splendid pastures, which stretch west further than any +man has been yet. Take it all in all, I should say it was the best +watered, and most available piece of country yet discovered in New +Holland." + +"Any good rivers?" asked the Dean. + +"Plenty of small ones, only one of any size, apparently, which seems to +rise somewhere in this direction, and goes in at the head of the bay. +They tried years ago to form a settlement on this bay, but Collins, the +man entrusted with it, could find no fresh water, which seems strange, +as there is, according to all accounts, a fine full-flowing river +running by the town." + +"They have formed a town there, then?" said the Dean. + +"There are a few wooden houses gone up by the river side. I believe +they are going to make a town there, and call it Melbourne; we may live +to see it a thriving place." + +The Major has lived to see his words fulfilled--fulfilled in such +marvellous sort, that bald bare statistics read like the wildest +romance. At the time he spoke, twenty-two years ago from this present +year 1858, the Yarra rolled its clear waters to the sea through the +unbroken solitude of a primeval forest, as yet unseen by the eye of a +white man. Now there stands there a noble city, with crowded wharves, +containing with its suburbs not less than 120,000 inhabitants. A +thousand vessels have lain at one time side by side, off the mouth of +that little river, and through the low sandy heads that close the great +port towards the sea, thirteen millions sterling of exports is carried +away each year by the finest ships in the world. Here, too, are +waterworks constructed at fabulous expense, a service of steam-ships, +between this and the other great cities of Australia, vieing in speed +and accommodation with the coasting steamers of Great Britain; noble +churches, handsome theatres. In short, a great city, which, in its +amazing rapidity of growth, utterly surpasses all human experience. + +I never stood in Venice contemplating the decay of the grand palaces of +her old merchant princes, whose time has gone by for ever. I never +watched the slow downfal of a great commercial city; but I have seen +what to him who thinks aright is an equally grand subject of +contemplation--the rapid rise of one. I have seen what but a small +moiety of the world, even in these days, has seen, and what, save in +this generation, has never been seen before, and will, I think, never +be seen again. I have seen Melbourne. Five years in succession did I +visit that city, and watch each year how it spread and grew until it +was beyond recognition. Every year the press became denser, and the +roar of the congregated thousands grew louder, till at last the scream +of the flying engine rose above the hubbub of the streets, and two +thousand miles of electric wire began to move the clicking needles with +ceaseless intelligence. + +Unromantic enough, but beyond all conception wonderful. I stood at the +east end of Bourke Street, not a year ago, looking at the black +swarming masses, which thronged the broad thoroughfare below. All the +town lay at my feet, and the sun was going down beyond the distant +mountains; I had just crossed from the front of the new Houses of +Legislature, and had nearly been run over by a great omnibus. Partly to +recover my breath, and partly, being not used to large cities, to enjoy +the really fine scene before me, I stood at the corner of the street in +contemplative mood. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked round,--it +was Major Buckley. + +"This is a wonderful sight, Hamlyn," said he. + +"When you think of it," I said, "really think of it, you know, how +wonderful it is!" + +"Brentwood," said the Major, "has calculated by his mathematics that +the progress of the species is forty-seven, decimal eight, more rapid +than it was thirty-five years ago." + +"So I should be prepared to believe," I said; "where will it all end? +Will it be a grand universal republic, think you, in which war is +unknown, and universal prosperity has banished crime? I may be too +sanguine, but such a state of things is possible. This is a sight which +makes a man look far into the future." + +"Prosperity," said the Major, "has not done much towards abolishing +crime in this town, at all events; and it would not take much to send +all this back into its primeval state." + +"How so, Major?" said I; "I see here the cradle of a new and mighty +empire." + +"Two rattling good thumps of an earthquake," said the Major, "would +pitch Melbourne into the middle of Port Phillip, and bury all the gold +far beyond the reach even of the Ballarat deep-sinkers. Come down and +dine with me at the club." + + + + +Chapter XXVI + +WHITE HEATHENS + + +Captain Brentwood went back to Garoopna next morning; but Frank Maberly +kept to his resolution of going over to see Mary; and, soon after +breakfast, they were all equipped ready to accompany him, standing in +front of the door, waiting for the horses. Frank was remarking how +handsome Mrs. Buckley looked in her hat and habit, when she turned and +said to him,-- + +"My dear Dean, I suppose you never jump over five-barred gates +now-a-days? Do you remember how you used to come over the white gate at +the Vicarage? I suppose you are getting too dignified for any such +thing?" + +There was a three-railed fence dividing the lower end of the yard from +the paddock. He rammed his hat on tight, and took it flying, with his +black coattails fluttering like wings; and, coming back laughing, +said,-- + +"There's a bit of the old Adam for you, Mrs. Buckley! Be careful how +you defy me again." + +The sun was bright overhead, and the land in its full winter verdure, +as they rode along the banks of the creek that led to Toonarbin. Frank +Maberly was as humorous as ever, and many a merry laugh went ringing +through the woodland solitudes, sending the watchman cockatoo screaming +aloft to alarm the flock, or startling the brilliant thick-clustered +lories (richest coloured of all parrots in the world), as they hung +chattering on some silver-leaved acacia, bending with their weight the +fragile boughs down towards the clear still water, lighting up the dark +pool with strange, bright reflections of crimson and blue; startling, +too, the feeding doe-kangaroo, who skipped slowly away, followed by her +young one--so slowly that the watching travellers expected her to stop +each moment, and could scarcely believe she was in full flight till she +topped a low ridge and disappeared. + +"That is a strange sight to a European, Mrs. Buckley," said Frank; "a +real wild animal. It seems so strange to me, now, to think that I could +go and shoot that beast, and account to no man for it. That is, you +know, supposing I had a gun, and powder and shot, and, also, that the +kangaroo would be fool enough to wait till I was near enough; which, +you see, is presupposing a great deal. Are they easily approached?" + +"Easily enough, on horseback," said Sam, "but very difficult to come +near on foot, which is also the case with all wild animals and birds +worth shooting in this country. A footman, you see, they all mistake +for their hereditary enemy, the blackfellow; but, as yet, they have not +come to distinguish a man on horseback from a four-footed beast. And, +this seems to show that animals have their traditions like men." + +"Pray, Sam, are not these pretty beasts, these kangaroos, becoming +extinct?" + +"On sheep-runs, very nearly so. Sheep drive them off directly; but on +cattle-runs, so far from becoming extinct, they are becoming so +numerous as to be a nuisance; consuming a most valuable quantity of +grass." + +"How can you account for that?" + +"Very easily," said Sam; "their enemies are all removed. The settlers +have poisoned, in well-settled districts, the native dogs and +eagle-hawks, which formerly kept down their numbers. The blacks prefer +the beef of the settlers to bad and hard-earned kangaroo venison; and, +lastly, the settlers never go after them, but leave them to their own +inventions. So that the kangaroo has better times of it than ever." + +"That is rather contrary to what one has heard, though," said Frank. + +"But Sam is right, Dean," said the Major. "People judge from seeing +none of them on the plains, from which they have been driven by the +sheep; but there are as many in the forest as ever." + +"The Emu, now," said Frank, "are they getting scarce?" + +"They will soon be among the things of the past," said the Major; "and +I am sorry for it, for they are a beautiful and harmless bird." + +"Major," said Frank, "how many outlying huts have you?" + +"Five," said the Major. "Four shepherds' huts, and one stockkeeper's in +the range, which we call the heifer station." + +"You have no church here, I know," said Frank; "but do these men get +any sort of religious instruction?" + +"None whatever," said the Major. "I have service in my house on Sunday, +but I cannot ask them to come to it, though sometimes the stockmen do +come. The shepherds, you know, are employed on Sunday as on any other +day. Sheep must eat!" + +"Are any of these men convicts?" + +"All the shepherds," said the Major. "The stockman and his assistant +are free men, but their hut-keeper is bond." + +"Are any of them married?" + +"Two of the shepherds; the rest single; but I must tell you that on our +run we keep up a regular circulation of books among the huts, and my +wife sticks them full of religious tracts, which is really about all +that we can do without a clergyman." + +"Do you find they read your tracts, Mrs. Buckley?" asked Frank. + +"No," said Mrs. Buckley, "with the exception, perhaps, of 'Black Giles +the Poacher,' which always comes home very dirty. Narrative tracts they +will read when there is nothing more lively at hand; but such treatises +as 'Are You Ready?' and 'The Sinner's Friend,' fall dead. One copy +lasts for years." + +"One copy of either of them," said Frank, "would last. Then these +fellows, Major, are entirely godless, I suppose?" + +"Well, I'll tell you, Dean," said the Major, stopping short, "it's +about as bad as bad can be; it can't be worse, sir. If by any means you +could make it worse, it would be by sending such men round here as the +one who was sent here last. He served as a standing joke to the hands +for a year or more; and I believe he was sincere enough, too." + +"I must invade some of these huts, and see what is to be done," said +Frank. "I have had a hard spell of work in London since old times; but +I have seen enough already to tell me that that work was not so +hopeless as this will be. I think, however, that there is more chance +here than among the little farmers in the settled districts. Here, at +all events, I shan't have the rum-bottle eternally standing between me +and my man. What a glorious, independent, happy set of men are those +said small freeholders, Major! What a happy exchange an English peasant +makes when he leaves an old, well-ordered society, the ordinances of +religion, the various give-and-take relations between rank and rank, +which make up the sum of English life, for independence, godlessness, +and rum! He gains, say you! Yes, he gains meat for his dinner every +day, and voila tout! Contrast an English workhouse schoolboy--I take +the lowest class for example, a class which should not exist--with a +small farmer's son in one of the settled districts. Which will make the +most useful citizen? Give me the workhouse lad!" + +"Oh, but you are over-stating the case, you know, Dean," said the +Major. "You must have a class of small farmers! Wherever the land is +fit for cultivation it must be sold to agriculturists; or, otherwise, +in case of a war, we shall be dependent on Europe and America for the +bread we eat. I know some excellent and exemplary men who are farmers, +I assure you." + +"Of course! of course!" said Frank. "I did not mean quite all I said; +but I am angry and disappointed. I pictured to myself the labourer, +English, Scotch, or Irish--a man whom I know, and have lived with and +worked for some years, emigrating, and, after a few years of honest +toil, which, compared to his old hard drudgery, was child's-play, +saving money enough to buy a farm. I pictured to myself this man +accumulating wealth, happy, honest, godly, bringing up a family of +brave boys and good girls, in a country where, theoretically, the +temptations to crime are all but removed: this is what I imagined. I +come out here, and what do I find? My friend the labourer has got his +farm, and is prospering, after a sort. He has turned to be a drunken, +godless, impudent fellow, and his wife little better than himself; his +daughters dowdy hussies; his sons lanky, lean, pasty-faced, blaspheming +blackguards, drinking rum before breakfast, and living by cheating one +another out of horses. Can you deny this picture?" + +"Yes," said the Major, "I can disprove it by many happy instances, and +yet, to say the truth, it is fearfully true in as many more. There is +no social influence in the settled districts; there are too many men +without masters. Let us wait and hope." + +"This is not to the purpose at present, though," said Mrs. Buckley. +"See what you can do for us in the bush, my dear Dean. You have a very +hopeless task before you, I fear." + +"The more hopeless, the greater glory, madam," said Frank, taking off +his hat and waving it; called, chosen, and faithful. "There is a +beautiful house!" + +"That is Toonarbin," said the Major; "and there's Mary Hawker in the +verandah." + +"Let us see," said Mrs. Buckley, "if she will know him. If she does not +recognise him, let no one speak before me." + +When they had ridden up and dismounted, Mrs. Buckley presented Frank. +"My dear," said she, "the Dean is honouring us by staying at Baroona +for a week, and proposes to visit round at the various stations. +To-morrow we go to the Mayfords, and next day to Garoopna." + +Mary bowed respectfully to Frank, and said, "that she felt highly +honoured," and so forth. "My partner is gone on a journey, and my son +is away on the run, or they would have joined with me in bidding you +welcome, sir." + +Frank would have been highly honoured at making their acquaintance. + +Mary started, and looked at him again. "Mr. Maberly! Mr. Maberly!" she +said, "your face is changed, but your voice is unchangeable. You are +discovered, sir!" + +"And are you glad to see me?" + +"No!" said Mary, plainly. + +"Now," said Mrs. Buckley to herself, "she is going to give us one of +her tantrums. I wish she would behave like a reasonable being. She is +always bent on making a scene;" but she kept this to herself, and only +said aloud: "Mary, my dear! Mary!" + +"I am sorry to hear you say so, Mrs. Hawker," said Frank; "but it is +just and natural." + +"Natural," said Mary, "and just. You are connected in my mind with the +most unhappy and most degraded period of my life. Can you expect that I +should be glad to see you? You were kind to me then, as is your nature +to be, kind and good above all men whom I know. I thought of you always +with love and admiration, as one whom I deeply honoured, but would not +care to look upon again. As the one of all whom I would have forget me +in my disgrace. And now, to-day of all days; just when I have found the +father's vices confirmed in the son, you come before me, as if from the +bowels of the earth, to remind me of what I was." + +Mrs. Buckley was very much shocked and provoked by this, but held her +tongue magnanimously. And what do you think, my dear reader, was the +cause of all this hysteric tragic nonsense on the part of Mary? Simply +this. The poor soul had been put out of temper. Her son Charles, as I +mentioned before, had had a scandalous liason with one Meg Macdonald, +daughter of one of the Donovans' (now Brentwood's) shepherds. That +morning, this brazen hussy, as Mary very properly called her, had come +coolly up to the station and asked for Charles. And on Mary's shaking +her fist at her, and bidding her be gone, had then and there rated poor +Mary in the best of Gaelic for a quarter of an hour; and Mary, instead +of venting her anger on the proper people, had taken her old plan of +making herself disagreeable to those who had nothing to do with it, +which naturally made Mrs. Buckley very angry, and even ruffled the +placid Major a little, so that he was not sorry when he saw in his +wife's face, the expression of which he knew so well, that Mary was +going to "catch it." + +"I wish, Mary Hawker," said Mrs. Buckley, "that you would remember that +the Dean is our guest, and that on our account alone there is due to +him some better welcome than what you have given him." + +"Now, you are angry with me for speaking truth too abruptly," said Mary +crying. + +"Well, I am angry with you," said Mrs. Buckley. "If that was the truth, +you should not have spoken it now. You have no right to receive an old +friend like this." + +"You are very unkind to me," said Mary. "Just when after so many years' +peace and quietness my troubles are beginning again, you are all +turning against me." And so she laid down her head and wept. + +"Dear Mrs. Hawker," said Frank, coming up and taking her hand, "if you +are in trouble, I know well that my visit is well timed. Where trouble +and sorrow are, there is my place, there lies my work. In prosperity my +friends sometimes forget me, but my hope and prayer is, that when +affliction and disaster come, I may be with them. You do not want me +now; but when you do, God grant I may be with you! Remember my words." + +She remembered them well. + +Frank made an excuse to go out, and Mary, crying bitterly, went into +her bedroom. When she was gone, the Major, who had been standing by the +window, said,-- + +"My dear wife, that boy of hers is aggravating her. Don't be too hard +upon her." + +"My dear husband," said Mrs. Buckley, "I have no patience with her, to +welcome an old friend, whom she has not seen for nearly twenty years, +in that manner! It is too provoking." + +"You see, my love," said the Major, "that her nerves have been very +much shaken by misfortune, and at times she is really not herself." + +"And I tell you what, mother dear," said Sam, "Charles Hawker is going +on very badly. I tell you, in the strictest confidence, mind, that he +has not behaved in a very gentlemanlike way in one particular, and if +he was anyone else but who he is, I should have very little to say to +him." + +"Well, my dear husband and son," said Mrs. Buckley, "I will go in and +make the AMENDE to her. Sam, go and see after the Dean." + +Sam went out, and saw Frank across the yard playing with the dogs. He +was going towards him, when a man entering the yard suddenly came up +and spoke to him. + +It was William Lee--grown older, and less wildlooking, since we saw him +first at midnight on Dartmoor, but a striking person still. His hair +had become grizzled, but that was the only sign of age he showed. There +was still the same vigour of motion, the same expression of enormous +strength about him as formerly; the principal change was in his face. +Eighteen years of honest work, among people who in time, finding his +real value, had got to treat him more as a friend than a servant, had +softened the old expression of reckless ferocity into one of +good-humoured independence. And Tom Troubridge, no careless observer of +men, had said once to Major Buckley, that he thought his face grew each +year more like what it must have been when a boy. A bold flight of +fancy for Tom, but, like all else he said, true. + +Such was William Lee, as he stopped Sam in the yard, and, with a bold, +honest look of admiration, said-- + +"It makes me feel young to look at you, Mr. Buckley. You are a great +stranger here lately. Some young lady to run after, I suppose? Well, +never mind; I hope it ain't Miss Blake." + +"A man may not marry his grandmother, Lee," said Sam, laughing. + +"True for you, sir," said Lee. "That was wrote up in Drumston church, I +mind, and some other things alongside of it, which I could say by heart +once on a time--all on black boards, with yellow letters. And also, I +remember a spick and span new board, about how Anthony Hamlyn (that's +Mr. Geoffry Hamlyn's father) 'repaired and beautified this church;' +which meant that he built a handsome new pew for himself in the +chancel. Lord, I think I see him asleep in it now. But never mind that +I've kept a pup of Fly's for you, sir, and got it through the +distemper. Fly's pup, by Rollicker, you know." + +"Oh, thank you," said Sam. "I am really much obliged to you. But you +must let me know the price, you know, Lee. The dog should be a good +one." + +"Well, Mr. Buckley," said Lee, "I have been cosseting this little beast +up in the hopes you'd accept it as a present. And then, says I to +myself, when he takes a new chum out to see some sport, and the dog +pulls down a flying doe, and the dust goes up like smoke, and the dead +sticks come flying about his ears, he will say to his friends, 'That's +the dog Lee gave me. Where's his equal?' So don't be too proud to take +a present from an old friend." + +"Not I, indeed, Lee," said Sam. "I thank you most heartily." + +"Who is this long gent in black, sir?" said Lee, looking towards Frank, +who was standing and talking with the Major. "A parson, I reckon." + +"The Dean of B----," answered Sam. + +"Ah! so,"--said Lee,--"come to give us some good advice? Well, we want +it bad enough, I hope some on us may foller it. Seems a man, too, and +not a monkey." + +"My father says," said Sam, "that he was formerly one of the best +boxers he ever saw." + +Any further discussion of Frank's physical powers was cut short, by his +coming up to Sam and saying,-- + +"I was thinking of riding out to one of the outlying huts, to have a +little conversation with the men. Will you come with me?" + +"If you will allow me, I shall be delighted beyond all measure." + +"I beg your pardon, sir," said Lee, "but I understood you to say that +you were going to one of our huts to give the men a discourse. Would +you let me take you out to one of them? I'd like well to hear what +you'd got to say myself, sir, and I promise you the lads I'll show you +want good advice as well as any." + +"You will do me infinite service," said Frank. "Sam, if you will excuse +me, let me ask you to stay behind. I have a fancy for going up alone. +Let me take these men in the rough, and see what I can do unassisted." + +"You will be apt to find them uncivil, sir," said Sam. "I am known, and +my presence would ensure you outward respect at all events." + +"Just what I thought," said Frank. "But I want to see what I can do +alone and unassisted. No; stay, and let me storm the place +single-handed." + +So Lee and he started toward the ranges, riding side by side. + +"You will find, sir," said Lee, "that these men, in this here hut, are +a rougher lot than you think for. Very like they'll be cheeky. I would +almost have wished you'd a' let Mr. Buckley come. He's a favourite +round here, you see, and you'd have gone in as his friend." + +"You see," said Frank, turning confidentially to Lee, "I am not an +ordinary parson. I am above the others. And what I want is not so much +to see what I can do myself, but what sort of a reception any parson +coming haphazard among these men will get. That is why I left Mr. +Buckley behind. Do you understand me?" + +"I understand you, sir," said Lee. "But I'm afear'd." + +"What are you afraid of?" said Frank, laughing. + +"Why, if you'll excuse me, sir, that you'll only get laughed at." + +"That all!" said Frank. "Laughter breaks no bones. What are these men +that we are going to see?" + +"Why, one," said Lee, "is a young Jimmy (I beg your pardon, sir, an +emigrant), the other two are old prisoners. Now, see here. These +prisoners hate the sight of a parson above all mortal men. And, for +why? Because, when they're in prison, all their indulgences, and half +their hopes of liberty, depend on how far they can manage to humbug the +chaplain with false piety. And so, when they are free again, they hate +him worse than any man. I am an old prisoner myself, and I know it." + +"Have you been a prisoner, then?" said Frank, surprised. + +"I was transported, sir, for poaching." + +"That all!" said Frank. "Then, you were the victim of a villanous old +law. Do you know," he added, laughing, "that I rather believe I have +earned transportation myself? I have a horrible schoolboy recollection +of a hare who would squeak in my pocket, and of a keeper passing within +ten yards of where I lay hidden. If that is all, give me your hand." + +Lee shook his head. "That is what I was sent out for," said he, "but +since then there are precious few villanies I have not committed. You +hadn't ought to shake hands with me, sir." + +Frank laid his hand kindly on his shoulder. "I am not a judge," he +said. "I am a priest. We must talk together again. Now, we have no +time, for, if I mistake not, there is our destination." + +They had been riding through splendid open forest, growing denser as +they approached the ranges. They had followed a creek all the way, or +nearly so, and now came somewhat suddenly on a large reedy waterhole, +walled on all sides by dense stringy bark-timber, thickly undergrown +with scrub. Behind them opened a long vista, formed by the gully, +through which they had been approaching, down which the black burnt +stems of the stringy bark were agreeably relieved by the white stems of +the red and blue gum, growing in the moister and more open space near +the creek. In front of them was a slab hut of rich mahogany colour, by +no means an unpleasing object among the dull unbroken green of the +forest. In front of it was a trodden space littered with the chips of +firewood. A pile of the last article lay a few yards in front of the +door. And against the walls of the tenement was a long bench, on which +stood a calabash, with a lump of soap and a coarse towel; a lamp oven, +and a pair of black top-boots, and underneath which lay a noble cattle +dog, who, as soon as he saw them, burst out into furious barking, and +prepared to give battle. + +"Will you take my horse for me," said Frank to Lee, "while I go inside?" + +"Certainly, sir," said Lee. "But mind the dog." + +Frank laughed and jumped off. The dog was unprepared for this. It was +irregular. The proper and usual mode of proceeding would have been for +the stranger to have stayed on horseback, and for him (the dog) to have +barked himself hoarse, till some one came out of the hut and pacified +him by throwing billets of wood at him. No conversation possible till +his barking was turned into mourning. He was not up to the emergency. +He had never seen a man clothed in black from head to foot before. He +probably thought it was the D----. His sense of duty not being strong +enough to outweigh considerations of personal safety, he fled round the +house, and being undecided whether to bark or to howl, did both, while +Frank opened the door and went in. + +The hut was like most other bush huts, consisting of one undivided +apartment, formed of split logs, called slabs, set upright in the +ground. The roof was of bark, and the whole interior was stained by the +smoke into a rich dark brown, such as Teniers or our own beloved +Cattermole would delight in. You entered by a door in one of the long +sides, and saw that the whole of the end on your right was taken up by +a large fireplace, on which blazed a pile of timber. Round the walls +were four bed places, like the bunks on board ship, each filled with a +heap of frouzy blankets, and in the centre stood a rough table, +surrounded by logs of wood, sawn square off, which served for seats. + +The living occupants of the hut were scarcely less rude than the hut +itself. One of the bed places was occupied by a sleepy, not bad-looking +young fellow, clad in greasy red shirt, greasy breeches and boots, and +whose shabby plated spurs were tangled in the dirty blankets. He was +lying on his back, playing with a beautiful little parrot. Opposite +him, sitting up in his bunk, was another young fellow, with a +singularly coarse, repulsive countenance, long yellow hair, half-way +down his back, clothed like the other in greasy breeches. This last one +was puffing at a short black pipe, in an affected way, making far more +noise than was necessary in that operation, and seemed to be thinking +of something insolent to say to the last speaker, whoever he may have +been. + +Another man was sitting on the end of the bench before the fire, with +his legs stretched out before it. At the first glance Frank saw that +this was a superior person to the others. He was dressed like the +others in black top-boots, but, unlike the others, he was clean and +neat. In fact the whole man was clean and neat, and had a clean-shaved +face, and looked respectable, so far as outward appearances were +concerned. The fourth man was the hut-keeper, a wicked-looking old +villain, who was baking bread. + +Frank looked at the sleepy young man with the parrot, and said to +himself, "There's a bad case." He looked at the flash, yellow-haired +young snob who was smoking, and said, "There's a worse." He looked at +the villanous grey-headed old hut-keeper, and said, "There's a hopeless +case altogether." But when he looked at the dry, neatly-dressed man, +who sat in front of the fire, he said, "That seems a more likely +person. There is some sense of order in him, at all events. See what I +can do with him." + +He stood with his towering tall black figure in the doorway. The sleepy +young man sat up and looked in wonder, while his parrot whistled and +chattered loudly. The yellow-haired young man looked round to see if he +could get the others to join him in a laugh. The hut-keeper said, "Oh, +h--!" and attended once more to the cooking; but the neat-looking man +rose up, and gave Frank courteously "good day." + +"I am a clergyman," said Frank, "come to pay you a visit, if you will +allow me." + +Black-hair looked as if astonishment were a new sensation to him, and +he was determined to have the most of it. Meanwhile, little parrot +taking advantage of his absence of mind, clambers up his breast and +nips off a shirt-button, which he holds in his claw, pretending it is +immensely good to eat. Hut-keeper clatters pots and pans, while yellow +hair lies down whistling insolently. These last two seem inclined to +constitute themselves his Majesty's Opposition in the present matter, +while Black-hair and the neat man are evidently inclined towards Frank. +There lay a boot in front of the fire, which the neat man, without +warning, seized and hurled at Yellow-hair, with such skill and +precision that the young fellow started upright in bed and demanded, +with many verbs and adjectives, what he meant by that? + +"I'll teach you to whistle when a gentleman comes into the hut--you +Possumguts! Lie down now, will you?" + +Yellow-hair lay down, and there was no more trouble with him. +Hut-keeper, too, seeing how matters were going, left off clattering his +pots, and Frank was master of the field. + +"Very glad to see you, sir," says the neat man; "very seldom we get a +visit from a gentleman in a black coat, I assure you." + +Frank shook hands with him and thanked him, and then, turning suddenly +upon Black-hair, who was sitting with his bird on his knee, one leg out +of his bunk, and his great black vacant eyes fixed on Frank, said,-- + +"What an exceedingly beautiful bird you have got there! Pray, what do +you call it?" + +Now it so happened that Black-hair had been vacantly wondering to +himself whether Frank's black coat would meet across his stomach, or +whether the lower buttons and buttonholes were "dummies." So that when +Frank turned suddenly upon him he was, as it were, caught in the fact, +and could only reply in a guilty whisper, "Mountain blue." + +"Will he talk?" asked Frank. + +"Whistle," says Black-hair, still in a whisper, and then, clearing his +throat continued, in his natural tone, "Whistle beautiful. Black +fellows gets 'em young out of the dead trees. I'll give you this one if +you've a mind." + +Frank couldn't think of it; but could Black-hair get him a young +cockatoo, and leave it with Mr. Sam Buckley for transmission?--would be +exceedingly obliged. + +Yes, Black-hair could. Thinks, too, what a pleasant sort of chap this +parson was. "Will get him a cockatoo certainly." + +Then Frank asks may he read them a bit out of the Bible, and neat man +says they will be highly honoured. And Black-hair gets out of his bunk +and sits listening in a decently respectful way. Opposition are by no +means won over. The old hut-keeper sits sulkily smoking, and the +yellow-haired man lies in his bunk with his back towards them. Lee had +meanwhile come in, and, after recognitions from those inside, sat +quietly down close to the door. Frank took for a text, "Servants, obey +your masters," and preached them a sermon about the relations of master +and servant, homely, plain, sensible and interesting, and had succeeded +in awakening the whole attention and interest of the three who were +listening, when the door was opened and a man looked in. + +Lee was next the door, and cast his eyes upon the new comer. No sooner +had their eyes met than he uttered a loud oath, and, going out with the +stranger, shut the door after him. + +"What can be the matter with our friend, I wonder?" asked Frank. "He +seems much disturbed." + +The neat man went to the door and opened it. Lee and the man who had +opened the door were standing with their backs towards them, talking +earnestly. Lee soon came back without a word, and, having caught and +saddled his horse, rode away with the stranger, who was on foot. He was +a large, shabbily-dressed man, with black curly hair; this was all they +could see of him, for his back was always towards them. + +"Never saw Bill take on like that before," said the neat man. "That's +one of his old pals, I reckon. He ain't very fond of meeting any of +'em, you see, since he has been on the square. The best friends in +prison, sir, are the worst friends out." + +"Were you ever in prison, then?" said Frank. + +"Lord bless you!" said the other, laughing, "I was lagged for forgery." + +"I will make you another visit if I can," said Frank. "I am much +obliged to you for the patience with which you heard me." + +The other ran out to get his horse for him, and had it saddled in no +time. "If you will send a parson round," he said, when Frank was +mounted, "I will ensure him a hearing, and good bye, sir." + +"And God speed you!" says Frank. But, lo! as he turned to ride away, +Black-hair the sleepy-headed comes to the hut-door, looking important, +and says, "Hi!" Frank is glad of this, for he likes the stupid-looking +young fellow better than he fancied he would have done at first, and +says to himself, "There's the making of a man in that fellow, unless I +am mistaken." So he turns politely to meet him, and, as he comes +towards him, remarks what a fine, good-humoured young fellow he is, +Blackhair ranges alongside, and, putting his hand on the horse's neck, +says, mysteriously-- + +"Would you like a native companion?" + +"Too big to carry, isn't it?" says Frank. + +"I'll tie his wings together, and send him down on the ration dray," +says Black-hair. "You'll come round and see us again, will you?" + +So Frank fares back to Toonarbin, wondering where Lee has gone. But +Black-hair goes back into the hut, and taking his parrot from the +bedplace, puts it on his shoulder, and sits rubbing his knees before +the fire. Yellow-hair and the hut-keeper are now in loud conversation, +and the former is asking, in a loud, authoritative tone (the neat man +being outside), "whether a chap is to be hunted and badgered out of his +bed by a parcel of ---- parsons?" To which the Hut-keeper says, "No, +by ----! A man might as well be in barracks again." Yellowhair, morally +comforted and sustained by this opinion, is proceeding to say, that, +for his part, a parson is a useless sort of animal in general, who gets +his living by frightening old women, but that this particular parson is +an unusually offensive specimen, and that there is nothing in this +world that he (Yellow-hair) would like better than to have him out in +front of the house for five minutes, and see who was best man,--when +Black-hair, usually a taciturn, peaceable fellow, astonishes the pair +by turning his black eyes on the other, and saying, with lowering +eyebrows,-- + +"You d----d humbug! Talk about fighting him! Always talking about +fighting a chap when he is out of the way, when you know you've no more +fight in you than a bronsewing. Why, he'd kill you, if you only waited +for him to hit you! And see here: if you don't stop your jaw about him, +you'll have to fight me, and that's a little more than you're game for, +I'm thinking." + +This last was told me by the man distinguished above as "the neat man," +who was standing outside, and heard the whole. + +But Frank arrived in due time at Toonarbin, and found all there much as +he had left it, save that Mary Hawker had recovered her serenity, and +was standing expecting him, with Charles by her side. Sam asked him, +"Where was Lee?" and Frank, thinking more of other things, said he had +left him at the hut, not thinking it worth while to mention the +circumstance of his having been called out--a circumstance which became +of great significance hereafter; for, though we never found out for +certain who the man was, we came in the end to have strong suspicions. + +However, as I said, all clouds had cleared from the Toonarbin +atmosphere, and, after a pleasant meal, Frank, Major and Mrs. Buckley, +Sam, and Charles Hawker, rode home to Baroona under the forest arches, +and reached the house in the gathering twilight. + +The boys were staying behind at the stable as the three elders entered +the darkened sitting-room. A figure was in one of the easy chairs by +the fire--a figure which seemed familiar there, though the Major could +not make out who it was until a well-known voice said,-- + +"Is that you, Buckley?" + +It was the Doctor. They both welcomed him warmly home, and waited in +the gloom for him to speak, but only saw that he had bent down his head +over the fire. + +"Are you ill, Doctor?" said Mrs. Buckley. + +"Sound in wind and limb, my dear madam, but rather sad at heart. We +have had some very severe black fighting, and we have lost a kind old +friend--James Stockbridge." + +"Is he wounded, then?" said Mrs. Buckley. + +"Dead." + +"Dead!" + +"Speared in the side. Rolled off his horse, and was gone in five +minutes." + +"Oh, poor James!" cried Mrs. Buckley. "He, of all men! The man who was +their champion. To think that he, of all men, should end in that way!" + + +* * * * * + + +Charles Hawker rode home that night, and went into the room where his +mother was. She was sitting sewing by the fire, and looked up to +welcome him home. + +"Mother," said he, "there is bad news to tell. We have lost a good +friend. James Stockbridge is killed by the blacks on the Macquarrie." + +She answered not a word, but buried her face in her hands, and very +shortly rose and left the room. When she was alone, she began moaning +to herself, and saying,-- + +"Some more fruit of the old cursed tree! If he had never seen me, he +would have died at home, among his old friends, in a ripe, honoured old +age." + + + + +Chapter XXVII + +THE GOLDEN VINEYARD. + + +On a summer's morning, almost before the dew had left the grass on the +north side of the forest, or the belated opossum had gone to his nest, +in fact just as the East was blazing with its brightest fire, Sam +started off for a pleasant canter through the forest, to visit one of +their out-station huts, which lay away among the ranges, and which was +called, from some old arrangement, now fallen into disuse, "the heifer +station." + +There was the hut, seen suddenly down a beautiful green vista in the +forest, the chimney smoking cheerily. "What a pretty contrast of +colours!" says Sam, in a humour for enjoying everything. "Dark brown +hut among the green shrubs, and blue smoke rising above all; prettily, +too, that smoke hangs about the foliage this still morning, quite in +festoons. There's Matt at the door!" + +A lean long-legged clever-looking fellow, rather wide at the knees, +with a brown complexion, and not unpleasant expression of face, stood +before the door plaiting a cracker for his stockwhip. He looked pleased +when he saw Sam, and indeed it must be a surly fellow indeed, who did +not greet Sam's honest phiz with a smile. Never a dog but wagged his +tail when he caught Sam's eye. + +"You're abroad early this morning, sir," said the man; "nothing the +matter; is there, sir?" + +"Nothing," said Sam, "save that one of Captain Brentwood's bulls is +missing, and I came out to tell you to have an extra look round." + +"I'll attend to it, sir." + +"Hi! Matt," said Sam, "you look uncommonly smart." + +Matt bent down his head, and laughed, in a rather sheepish sort of way. + +"Well, you see, sir, I was coming into the home station to see if the +Major could spare me for a few days." + +"What, going a courting, eh? Well, I'll make that all right for you. +Who is the lady,--eh?" + +"Why, its Elsy Macdonald, I believe." + +"Elsy Macdonald!" said Sam. + +"Ay, yes, sir. I know what you mean, but she ain't like her sister; and +that was more Mr. Charles Hawker's fault than her own. No; Elsy is good +enough for me, and I'm not very badly off, and begin to fancy I would +like some better sort of welcome in the evening than what a cranky old +brute of a hutkeeper can give me. So I think I shall bring her home." + +"I wish you well, Matt," said Sam; "I hope you are not going to leave +us though." + +"No fear, sir; Major Buckley is too good a master for that!" + +"Well, I'll get the hut coopered up a bit for you, and you shall be as +comfortable as circumstances will permit. Good morning." + +"Good morning, sir; I hope I may see you happily married yourself some +of these days." + +Sam laughed, "that would be a fine joke," he thought, "but why +shouldn't it be, eh? I suppose it must come some time or another. I +shall begin to look out; I don't expect I shall be very easily suited. +Heigh ho!" + +I expect, however, Mr. Sam, that you are just in the state of mind to +fall headlong in love with the first girl you meet with a nose on her +face; let us hope, therefore, that she may be eligible. + +But here is home again, and here is the father standing majestic and +broad in the verandah, and the mother with her arm round his neck, both +waiting to give him a hearty morning's welcome. And there is Doctor +Mulhaus kneeling in spectacles before his new Grevillea Victoria, the +first bud of which is just bursting into life; and the dogs catch sight +of him and dash forward, barking joyfully; and as the ready groom takes +his horse, and the fat housekeeper looks out all smiles, and retreats +to send in breakfast, Sam thinks to himself, that he could not leave +his home and people, not for the best wife in broad Australia; but then +you see, he knew no better. + +"What makes my boy look so happy this morning?" asked his mother. "Has +the bay mare foaled, or have you negotiated James Brentwood's young +dog? Tell us, that we may participate." + +"None of these things have happened, mother; but I feel in rather a +holiday humour, and I'm thinking of going down to Garoopna this +morning, and spending a day or two with Jim." + +"I will throw a shoe after you for luck," said his mother. "See, the +Doctor is calling you." + +Sam went to the Doctor, who was intent on his flower. "Look here, my +boy; here is something new: the handsomest of the Grevilleas, as I +live. It has opened since I was here." + +"Ah!" said Sam, "this is the one that came from the Quartz Ranges, last +year; is it not? It has not flowered with you before." + +"If Linnaeus wept and prayed over the first piece of English furze +which he saw," said the Doctor, "what everlasting smelling-bottle +hysterics he would have gone into in this country! I don't sympathise +with his tears much, though, myself; though a new flower is a source of +the greatest pleasure to me." + +"And so you are going to Garoopna, Sam?" said his father, at breakfast. +"Have you heard, my dear, when the young lady is to come home?" + +"Next month, I understand, my dear," said Mrs. Buckley. "When she does +come I shall go over and make her a visit." + +"What is her name, by-the-bye?" asked the Doctor. + +"Alice!" + +So, behold Sam starting for his visit. The very Brummel of +bush-dandies. Hunt might have made his well-fitting cord breeches, Hoby +might have made those black top-boots, and Chifney might have worn them +before royalty, and not been shamed. It is too hot for coat or +waistcoat; so he wears his snow-white shirt, topped by a blue +"bird's-eye-handkerchief," and keeps his coat in his valise, to be used +as occasion shall require. His costume is completed with a cabbage-tree +hat, neither too new nor too old; light, shady, well ventilated, and +three pounds ten, the production, after months of labour, of a private +in her Majesty's Fortieth Regiment of Foot: not with long streaming +ribands down his back, like a Pitt Street bully, but with short and +modest ones, as became a gentleman,--altogether as fine a looking young +fellow, as well dressed, and as well mounted too, as you will find on +the country side. + +Let me say a word about his horse, too; horse Widderin. None ever knew +what that horse had cost Sam. The Major even had a delicacy about +asking. I can only discover by inquiry that, at one time, about a year +before this, there came to the Major's a traveller, an Irishman by +nation, who bored them all by talking about a certain "Highflyer" colt, +which had been dropped to a happy proprietor by his mare "Larkspur," +among the Shoalhaven gullies; described by him as a colt the like of +which was never seen before; as indeed he should be, for his sire +Highflyer, as all the world knows, was bought up by a great +Hunter-river horse-breeder from the Duke of C----; while his dam, +Larkspur, had for grandsire the great Bombshell himself. What more +would you have than that, unless you would like to drive Veno in your +dog-cart? However, it so happened that, soon after the Irishman's +visit, Sam went away on a journey, and came back riding a new horse; +which when the Major saw, he whistled, but discreetly said nothing. A +very large colt it was, with a neck like a rainbow, set into a splendid +shoulder, and a marvellous way of throwing his legs out;--very dark +chestnut in colour, almost black, with longish ears, and an eye so +full, honest, and impudent, that it made you laugh in his face. +Widderin, Sam said, was his name, price and history being suppressed; +called after Mount Widderin, to the northward there, whose loftiest +sublime summit bends over like a horse's neck, with two peaked crags +for ears. And the Major comes somehow to connect this horse with the +Highflyer colt mentioned by our Irish friend, and observes that Sam +takes to wearing his old clothes for a twelvemonth, and never seems to +have any ready money. We shall see some day whether or no this horse +will carry Sam ten miles, if required, on such direful emergency, too, +as falls to the lot of few men. However, this is all to come. Now in +holiday clothes and in holiday mind, the two noble animals cross the +paddock, and so down by the fence towards the river; towards the old +gravel ford you may remember years ago. Here is the old flood, spouting +and streaming as of yore, through the basalt pillars. There stand the +three fern trees, too, above the dark scrub on the island. Now up the +rock bank, and away across the breezy plains due North. + +Brushing through the long grass tussocks, he goes his way singing, his +dog Rover careering joyously before him. The horse is clearly for a +gallop, but it is too hot to-day. The tall flat-topped volcanic hill +which hung before him like a grey faint cloud, when he started, now +rears its fluted columns overhead, and now is getting dim again behind +him. But ere noon is high he once more hears the brawling river beneath +his feet, and Garoopna is before him on the opposite bank. + +The river, as it left Major Buckley's at Baroona, made a sudden bend to +the west, a great arc, including with its minor windings nearly +twenty-five miles, over the chord of which arc Sam had now been riding, +making, from point to point, ten miles, or thereabouts. The Mayfords' +station, also, lay to the left of him, being on the curved side of the +arc, about five miles from Baroona. The reader may, if he please, +remember this. + +Garoopna was an exceedingly pretty station; in fact, one of the most +beautiful I have ever seen. It stood at a point where the vast forests +which surround the mountains in a belt, from ten to twenty miles broad, +run down into the plains and touch the river. As at Baroona, the stream +runs in through a deep cleft in the table land, which here, though +precipitous on the eastern bank, on the western breaks away into a +small natural amphitheatre bordered by fine hanging woods just in +advance of which, about two hundred yards from the river, stood the +house, a long, low building densely covered with creepers of all sorts, +and fronted by a beautiful garden. Right and left of it were the +woolsheds, sheepyards, stockyards, men's huts etc. giving it almost the +appearance of a little village; and behind the wooded ranges begin to +rise, in some places broken beautifully by sheer scarps of grey rock. +The forest crosses the river a little way, so Sam, gradually descending +from the plains to cross, went the last quarter of a mile through a +shady sandy forest tract, fringed with bracken, which leads down to a +broad crossing place, where the river sparkles under tall over-arching +red gums and box-trees; and then following the garden fence, found +himself before a deep cool-looking porch, in a broad neatly-kept +courtyard behind the house. + +A groom came out and took his horse. Rover has enough to do; for there +are three or four sheep dogs in the yard, who walk round him on tiptoe, +slowly, with their frills out and their tails arched, growling. Rover, +also, walks about on tiptoe, arches his tail, and growls with the best +of them. He knows that the slightest mistake would be disastrous, and +so manoeuvres till he gets to the porch, where, a deal of gravel having +been kicked backwards, in the same way as the ancients poured out their +wine when they drank a toast, or else (as I think is more probable) as +a symbol that animosities were to be buried, Rover is admitted as a +guest, and Sam feels it safe to enter the house. + +A cool, shady hall, hung round with coats, hats, stockwhips; a gun in +the corner, and on a slab, the most beautiful nosegay you can imagine. +Remarkable that for a bachelor's establishment;--but there is no time +to think about it, for a tall, comfortable-looking housekeeper, whom +Sam has never seen before, comes in from the kitchen and curtseys. + +"Captain Brentwood not at home, is he?" said Sam. + +"No, sir! Away on the run with Mr. James." + +"Oh! very well," says Sam; "I am going to stay a few days." + +"Very well, sir; will you take anything before lunch?" + +"Nothing, thank you." + +"Miss Alice is somewhere about sir. I expect her in every minute." + +"Miss Alice!" says Sam, astonished. "Is she come home?" + +"Came home last week, sir. Will you walk in and sit down?" + +Sam got his coat out of his valise, and went in. He wished that he had +put on his plain blue necktie instead of the blue one with white spots. +He would have liked to have worn his new yellow riding-trousers, +instead of breeches and boots. He hoped his hair was in order, and +tried to arrange his handsome brown curls without a glass, but, in the +end, concluded that things could not be mended now, so he looked round +the room. + +What a charming room it was! A couple of good pictures, and several +fine prints on the walls. Over the chimneypiece, a sword, and an old +gold-laced cap, on which Sam looked with reverence. Three French +windows opened on to a dark cool verandah, beyond which was a beautiful +flower garden. The floor of the room, uncarpeted, shone dark and +smooth, and the air was perfumed by vases of magnificent flowers, a +hundred pounds worth of them, I should say, if you could have taken +them to Covent-garden that December morning. But what took Sam's +attention more than anything was an open piano, in a shady recess, and +on the keys a little fairy white glove. + +"White kid gloves, eh, my lady?" says Sam; "that don't look well." So +he looked through the bookshelves, and, having lighted on "Boswell's +Johnson," proceeded into the verandah. A colley she-dog was lying at +one end, who banged her tail against the floor in welcome, but was too +utterly prostrated by the heat and by the persecution of her puppy to +get up and make friends. The pup, however, a ball of curly black wool, +with a brown-striped face, who was sitting on the top of her with his +head on one side, seemed to conclude that a game of play was to be got +out of Sam, and came blundering towards him; but Sam was, by this time, +deep in a luxurious rocking-chair, so the puppy stopped half way, and +did battle with a great black tarantula spider who happened to be +abroad on business. + +Sam went to the club with his immortal namesake, bullied Bennet +Langton, argued with Beauclerk, put down Goldsmith, and extinguished +Boswell. But it was too hot to read; so he let the book fall on his +lap, and lay a-dreaming. + +What a delicious verandah is this to dream in! Through the tangled +passion-flowers, jessamines and magnolias, what a soft gleam of bright +hazy distance, over the plains and far away! The deep river-glen +cleaves the table-land, which, here and there, swells into breezy +downs. Beyond, miles away to the north, is a great forest-barrier, +above which there is a blaze of late snow, sending strange light aloft +into the burning haze. All this is seen through an arch in the dark +mass of verdure which clothed the trellis-work, only broken through in +this one place, as though to make a frame for the picture. He leans +back, and gives himself up to watching trifles. + +See here. A magpie comes furtively out of the house with a key in his +mouth, and, seeing Sam, stops to consider if he is likely to betray +him. On the whole he thinks not; so he hides the key in a crevice, and +whistles a tune. + +Now enters a cockatoo, waddling along confortably and talking to +himself. He tries to enter into conversation with the magpie, who, +however, cuts him dead, and walks off to look at the prospect. + +Flop, flop, a great foolish-looking kangaroo comes through the house +and peers round him. The cockatoo addresses a few remarks to him, which +he takes no notice of, but goes blundering out into the garden, right +over the contemplative magpie, who gives him two or three indignant +pecks on his clumsy feet, and sends him flying down the gravel walk. + +Two bright-eyed little kangaroo rats come out of their box peering and +blinking. The cockatoo finds an audience in them, for they sit +listening to him, now and then catching a flea, or rubbing the backs of +their heads with their fore-paws. But a buck 'possum, who stealthily +descends by a pillar from unknown realms of mischief on the top of the +house, evidently discredits cocky's stories, and departs down the +garden to see if he can find something to eat. + +An old cat comes up the garden walk, accompanied by a wicked kitten, +who ambushes round the corner of the flowerbed, and pounces out on her +mother, knocking her down and severely maltreating her. But the old +lady picks herself up without a murmur, and comes into the verandah +followed by her unnatural offspring, ready for any mischief. The +kangaroo rats retire into their box, and the cockatoo, rather nervous, +lays himself out to be agreeable. + +But the puppy, born under an unlucky star, who has been watching all +these things from behind his mother, thinks at last, "Here is some one +to play with," so he comes staggering forth and challenges the kitten +to a lark. + +She receives him with every symptom of disgust and abhorrence; but he, +regardless of all spitting, and tail swelling, rolls her over, spurring +and swearing, and makes believe he will worry her to death. Her +scratching and biting tell but little on his woolly hide, and he seems +to have the best of it out and out, till a new ally appears +unexpectedly, and quite turns the tables. The magpie hops up, ranges +alongside of the combatants, and catches the puppy such a dig over the +tail as sends him howling to his mother with a flea in his ear. + +Sam lay sleepily amused by this little drama; then he looked at the +bright green arch which separated the dark verandah from the bright hot +garden. The arch was darkened, and looking he saw something which made +his heart move strangely, something that he has not forgotten yet, and +never will. + +Under the arch between the sunlight and the shade, bareheaded, dressed +in white, stood a girl, so amazingly beautiful, that Sam wondered for a +few moments whether he was asleep or awake. Her hat, which she had just +taken off, hung on her left arm, and with her delicate right hand she +arranged a vagrant tendril of the passion-flower, which in its +luxuriant growth had broken bounds and fallen from its place above.--A +girl so beautiful that I in all my life never saw her superior. They +showed me the other day, in a carriage in the park, one they said was +the most beautiful girl in England, a descendant of I know not how many +noblemen. But, looking back to the times I am speaking of now, I said +at once and decidedly, "Alice Brentwood twenty years ago was more +beautiful than she." + +A Norman style of beauty, I believe you would call it. Light hair, deep +brilliant blue eyes, and a very fair complexion. Beauty and high-bred +grace in every limb and every motion. She stood there an instant on +tiptoe, with the sunlight full upon her, while Sam, buried in gloom, +had time for a delighted look, before she stepped into the verandah and +saw him. + +She floated towards him through the deep shadow. "I think," she said in +the sweetest, most musical little voice, "that you are Mr. Buckley. If +so, you are a very old friend of mine by report." So she held out her +little hand, and with one bold kind look from the happy eyes, finished +Sam for life. + +Father and mother, retire into the chimney corner and watch. Your day +is done. Doctor Mulhaus, put your good advice into your pocket and +smoke your pipe. Here is one who can exert a greater power for good or +evil than all of you put together. It was written of old,--"A man shall +leave his father and mother and cleave unto his----" Hallo! I am +getting on rather fast, I am afraid. + +He had risen to meet her. "And you, Miss Brentwood," he said, "are +tolerably well known to me. Do you know now that I believe by an +exertion of memory I could tell you the year and the month when you +began to learn the harp? My dear old friend Jim has kept me quite AU +FAIT with all your accomplishments." + +"I hope you are not disappointed in me," said Alice, laughing. + +"No," said Sam. "I think rather the contrary. Are you?" + +"I have not had time to tell yet," she said. "I will see how you behave +at lunch, which we shall have in half an hour TETE-A-TETE. You have +been often here before, I believe? Do you see much change?" + +"Not much. I noticed a new piano, and a little glove that I had never +seen before. Jim's menagerie o wild beasts is as numerous as ever, I +see. He would have liked to be in Noah's Ark." + +"And so would you and I, Mr. Buckley," she answered, laughing, "if we +had been caught in the flood." + +Good gracious! Think of being in Noah's Ark with her. + +"You find them a little troublesome, don't you, Miss Brentwood?" + +"Well, it requires a good deal of administrative faculty to keep the +kitten and the puppy from open collision, and to prevent the magpie +from pecking out the cockatoo's eye and hiding it in the flower bed. +Last Sunday morning he (the magpie) got into my father's room, and +stole thirty-one shillings and sixpence. We got it all back but half a +sovereign, and that we shall never see." + +The bird thus alluded to broke into a gush of melody, so rich, full, +and metallic, that they both turned to look at him. Having attracted +attention, he began dancing, crooning a little song to himself, as +though he would say, "I know where it is." And lastly he puffed out his +breast, put back his bill, and swore two or three oaths that would have +disgraced a London scavenger, with such remarkable distinctness too, +that there was no misunderstanding him; so Sam's affectation of not +having caught what the bird said, was a dead failure. + +"Mr. Buckley," said she, "if you will excuse me I will go and see about +lunch. Can you amuse yourself there for half an hour?" Well, he would +try. So he retired again to the rocking-chair, about ten years older +than when he rose from it. For he had grown from a boy into a man. + +He had fallen over head and ears in love, and all in five minutes, +fallen deeply, seriously in love, to the exclusion of all other +sublunary matters, before he had well had time to notice whether she +spoke with an Irish brogue or a Scotch (happily she did neither). +Sudden, you say: well, yes; but in lat. 34 degrees, and lower, whether +in the southern or northern hemisphere, these sort of affairs come on +with a rapidity and violence only equalled by the thunder-storms of +those regions, and utterly surprising to you who perhaps read this book +in 52 degrees north, or perhaps higher. I once went to a ball with as +free and easy, heart-whole a young fellow as any I know, and agreed +with him to stay half an hour, and then come away and play pool. In +twenty-five minutes by my watch, which keeps time like a ship's +chronometer, that man was in the tragic or cut-throat stage of the +passion with a pretty little thing of forty, a cattledealer's widow, +who stopped HIS pool-playing for a time, until she married the great +ironmonger in George Street. Romeo and Juliet's little matter was just +as sudden, and very Australian in many points. Only mind, that Romeo, +had he lived in Australia, instead of taking poison, would probably have + + +"Took to drinking ratafia, and thought of poor Miss Baily," + + +for full twenty-four hours after the catastrophe. + +At least such would have been the case in many instances, but not in +all. With some men these suddenly-conceived passions last their lives, +and, I should be inclined to say longer, were there not strong +authority against it. + +But Sam? He saw the last twinkle of her white gown disappear, and then +leant back and tried to think. He could only say to himself, "By Jove, +I wonder if I can ever bring her to like me. I wish I had known she was +here; I'd have dressed myself better. She is a precious superior girl. +She might come to like me in time. Heigh ho!" + +The idea of his having a rival, or of any third person stepping in +between him and the young lady to whom he had thrown his handkerchief, +never entered into his Sultanship's head. Also, when he came to think +about it, he really saw no reason why she should not be brought to +think well of him. "As well me as another," said he to himself; "that's +where it is. She must marry somebody, you know!" + +Why was she gone so long? He begins to doubt whether he has not after +all been asleep and dreaming. There she comes again, however, for the +arch under the creepers is darkened again, and he looks up with a +pleasant smile upon his face to greet her. + +"God save us! What imp's trick is this?" There, in the porch, in the +bright sun, where she stood not an hour ago in all her beauty and +grace, stands a hideous, old savage, black as Tophet, grinning; showing +the sharp gap-teeth in her apish jaws, her lean legs shaking with old +age and rheumatism. + +The colley shakes out her frill, and, raising the hair all down her +back, stands grinning and snarling, while her puppy barks pot-valiantly +between her legs. The little kangaroo rats ensconce themselves once +more in their box, and gaze out amazed from their bright little eyes. +The cockatoo hooks and clambers up to a safe place in the trellis, and +Sam, after standing thunder-struck for a moment, asks, what she wants? + +"Make a light," [Note: "See"] says the old girl, in a pathetic squeak. +Further answer she makes none, but squats down outside, and begins a +petulant whine: sure sign that she has a tale of woe to unfold, and is +going to ask for something. + +"Can that creature," thinks Sam, "be of the same species as the +beautiful Alice Brentwood? Surely not! There seems as much difference +between them as between an angel and an ordinary good woman." Hard to +believe, truly, Sam: but perhaps, in some of the great European cities, +or even nearer home, in some of the prison barracks, you may chance to +find a white woman or two fallen as low as that poor, starved, +ill-treated, filthy old savage! + +Alice comes out once more, and brings sunshine with her. She goes up to +the old lubra with a look of divine compassion on her beautiful face; +the old woman's whine grows louder as she rocks herself to and fro. +"Yah marah, Yah boorah, Oh boora Yah! Yah Ma!" + +"What! old Sally!" says the beautiful girl. "What is the matter? Have +you been getting waddy again?" + +"Baal!" says she, with a petulant burst of grief. + +"What is it, then?" says Alice. "Where is the gown I gave you?" + +Alice had evidently vibrated the right chord. The "Yarah Moorah" +coronach was begun again; and then suddenly, as if her indignation had +burst bounds, she started off with a shrillness and rapidity +astonishing to one not accustomed to black-fellows, into something like +the following: "Oh Yah (very loud), oh Mah! Barkmaburrawurrah, +Barkmamurrahwurrah, Oh Ya Barkmanurrawah Yee (in a scream. Then a +pause). Oh Mooroo (pause). Oh hinaray (pause). Oh Barknamurrwurrah Yee!" + +Alice looked as if she understood every word of it, and waited till the +poor old soul had "blown off the steam," and then asked again: + +"And what has become of the gown, Sally?" + +"Oh dear! Young lubra Betty (big thief that one) tear it up and stick +it along a fire. Oh, plenty cold this old woman. Oh, plenty hungry this +old woman. Oh, Yarah Moorah," &c. + +"There! go round to the kitchen," said Alice, "and get something to +eat. Is it not abominable, Mr. Buckley? I cannot give anything to this +old woman but the young lubras take it from her. However, I will 'put +the screw on them.' They shall have nothing from me till they treat her +better. It goes to my heart to see a woman of that age, with nothing to +look forward to but kicks and blows. I have tried hard to make her +understand something of the next world: but I can't get it out of her +head that when she dies she will go across the water and come back a +young white woman with plenty of money. Mr. Sandford, the missionary, +says he has never found one who could be made to comprehend the +existence of God. However, I came to call you to lunch; will you give +me your arm?" + +Such a self-possessed, intrepid little maiden, not a bit afraid of him, +but seeming to understand and trust him so thoroughly. Not all the +mock-modesty and blushing in the world would have won him half so +surely, as did her bold, quiet, honest look. Although a very young man, +and an inexperienced, Sam could see what a candid, honest, gentle soul +looked at him from those kind blue eyes; and she, too, saw something in +Sam's broad noble face which attracted her marvellously, and in all +innocence she told him so, plump and plain, as they were going into the +house. + +"I fancy I shall like you very much, Mr. Buckley. We ought to be good +friends, you know; your father saved the lives of my father and uncle." + +"I never heard of that before," said Sam. + +"I dare say not," said Alice. "Your father is not the man to speak of +his own noble deeds; yet he ran out of his square and pulled my father +and uncle almost from under the hoofs of the French cavalry at +Waterloo. It makes my cheeks tingle to tell of it now." + +Indeed it did. Sam thought that if it brought such a beautiful flush to +her face, and such a flash from her eyes, whenever she told it, that he +would get her to tell it again more than once. + +But lunch! Don't let us starve our new pair of turtle-doves, in the +outset. Sam is but a growing lad; and needs carbon for his muscles, +lime for his bones, and all that sort of thing; a glass of wine won't +do him any harm either, and let us hope that his new passion is not of +such lamentable sort as to prevent his using a knife and fork with +credit and satisfaction to himself. + +Here, in the dark, cool parlour, stands a banquet for the gods, white +damask, pretty bright china, and clean silver. In the corner of the +table is a frosted claret-jug, standing, with freezing politeness, +upright, his hand on his hip, waiting to be poured out. In the centre, +the grandfather of watermelons, half-hidden by peaches and +pomegranates, the whole heaped over by a confusion of ruby cherries +(oh, for Lance to paint it!) Are you hungry, though? If so, here is a +mould of potted-head and a cold wild duck, while, on the sideboard, I +see a bottle of pale ale. My brother, let us breakfast in Scotland, +lunch in Australia, and dine in France, till our lives' end. + +And the banquet being over, she said, as pleasantly as possible, "Now, +I know you want to smoke in the verandah. For my part, I should like to +bring my work there and sit with you, but, if you had rather not have +me, you have only to say that 'you could not think,' &c. &c., and I +will obediently take myself off." + +But Sam didn't say that. He said that he couldn't conceive anything +more delightful, if she was quite sure she did not mind. + +Not she, indeed! So she brought her work out, and they sat together. A +cool wind came up, bending the flowers, swinging the creepers to and +fro, and raising a rushing sound, like the sea, from the distant +forest. The magpie having been down the garden when the wind came on, +and having been blown over, soon joined them in a very captious frame +of mind; and, when Alice dropped a ball of red worsted, he seized it as +lawful prize, and away in the house with a hop and a flutter. So both +Sam and Alice had to go after him, and hunt him under the sofa, and the +bird, finding that he must yield, dropped the ball suddenly, and gave +Sam two vicious digs on the fingers to remember him by. But when Alice +just touched his hand in taking it from him, he wished it had been a +whipsnake instead of a magpie. + +So the ball of worsted was recovered, and they sat down again. He +watched her nimble fingers on the delicate embroidery; he glanced at +her quiet face and down-turned eyelids, wondering who she was thinking +of. Suddenly she raised her eyes and caught him in the fact. You could +not swear she blushed; it might only be a trifling reflection from one +of the red China roses that hung between her and the sun; yet, when she +spoke, it was not quite with her usual self-possession; a little +hurriedly perhaps. + +"Are you going to be a soldier, as your father was?" + +Sam had thought for an instant of saying "yes," and then to prove his +words true of going to Sydney, and enlisting in the "Half Hundred." +Truth, however, prompting him to say "no," he compromised the matter by +saying he had not thought of it. + +"I am rather glad of that, do you know," she said. "Unless in India, +now, a man had better be anything than a soldier. I am afraid my +brother Jim will be begging for a commission some day. I wish he would +stay quietly at home." + +That was comforting. He gave up all thoughts of enlisting at once. But +now the afternoon shadows were beginning to slant longer and longer, +and it was nearly time that the Captain and Jim should make their +appearance. So Alice proposed to walk out to meet them, and, as Sam did +not say no, they went forth together. + +Down the garden, faint with the afternoon scents of the flowers before +the western sun, among petunias and roses, oleander and magnolia; here +a towering Indian lily, there a thicket of scarlet geranium and +fuschia. By shady young orange trees, covered with fruit and blossom, +between rows of trellissed vines, bearing rich promise of a purple +vintage. Among fig trees and pomegranates, and so leaving the garden, +along the dry slippery grass, towards the hoarse rushing river, both +silent till they reached it. There is a silence that is golden. + +They stood gazing on the foaming tide an instant, and then Alice said,-- + +"My father and Sam will come home by the track across there. Shall we +cross and meet them? We can get over just below." + +A little lower down, all the river was collected into one headlong +race; and a giant tree, undermined by winter floods, had fallen from +one bank to the other, offering a giddy footway across the foaming +water. + +"Now," said Alice, "if you will go over, I will follow you." + +So he ran across, and then looked back to see the beautiful figure +tripping fearlessly over, with outstretched arms, and held out his +great brown hand to take her tiny fingers as she stepped down from the +upturned roots on to the soft white sand. He would like to have taken +them again, to help her up the bank, but she sprang up like a deer, and +would not give him the opportunity. Then they had a merry laugh at the +magpie, who had fluttered down all this way before them, to see if they +were on a foraging expedition, and if there were any plunder going, and +now could not summon courage to cross the river, but stood crooning and +cursing by the brink. Then they sauntered away, side by side, along the +sandy track, among the knolls of braken, with the sunlit boughs +whispering knowingly to one another in the evening breeze as they +passed beneath.--An evening walk long remembered by both of them. + + + "Oh see ye not that pleasant road, + That winds along the ferny brae? + Oh that's the road to fairy land, + Where thou and I this e'en must gae." + + +"And so you cannot remember England, Mr. Buckley?" says Alice. + +"Oh dear, no. Stay though, I am speaking too fast. I can remember some +few places. I remember a steep, red road, that led up to the church, +and have some dim recollection of a vast grey building, with a dark +porch, which must have been the church itself. I can see too, at this +moment, a broad green flat, beside a creek, which was covered with +yellow and purple flowers, which mother and I made into nosegays. That +must be the place my father speaks of as the Hatherleigh Meadows, where +he used to go fishing, and, although I must have been there often, yet +I can only remember it on one occasion, when he emptied out a basket of +fish on the grass for me to look at. My impression of England is, that +everything was of a brighter colour than here; and they tell me I am +right." + +"A glorious country," said Alice; "what would I give to see it?--so +ancient and venerable, and yet so amazingly young and vigorous. It +seems like a waste of existence for a man to stay here tending sheep, +when his birthright is that of an Englishman: the right to move among +his peers, and find his fit place in the greatest empire in the world. +Never had any woman such a noble destiny before her as this young lady +who has just ascended the throne." + +But the conversation changed here, and her Majesty escaped criticism +for the time. They came to an open space in the forest, thickly grown +with thickets of bracken fern, prickly acacia, and here and there a +solitary dark-foliaged lightwood. In the centre rose a few blackened +posts, the supports of what had once been a hut, and as you looked, you +were surprised to see an English rose or two, flowering among the +dull-coloured prickly shrubs, which were growing around. A place, as +any casual traveller would have guessed, which had a history, and Sam, +seeing Alice pause, asked her, "what old hut was this?" + +"This," she said, "is the Donovans' old station, where they were burnt +out by the blacks." + +Sam knew the story well enough, but he would like to hear her tell it; +so he made believe to have heard some faint reports of the occurrence, +and what could she do, but give him the particulars? + +"They had not been here a year," she said; "and Mrs. Donovan had been +confined only three days; there was not a soul on the station but +herself, her son Murtagh, and Miss Burke. All day the blackfellows were +prowling about, and getting more and more insolent, and at night, just +as Murtagh shut the door, they raised their yell, and rushed against +it. Murtagh Donovan and Miss Burke had guessed what was coming all day, +but had kept it from the sick woman, and now, when the time came, they +were cool and prepared. They had two double-barrelled guns loaded with +slugs, and with these they did such fearful execution from two +loop-holes they had made in the slabs, that the savages quickly +retired; but poor Miss Burke, incautiously looking out to get a shot, +received a spear wound on her shoulder, which she bears the mark of to +this day. But the worst was to come. The blackfellows mounted on the +roof, tried to take off the bark, and throw their spears into the hut, +but here they were foiled again. Wherever a sheet of bark was seen to +move they watched, and on the first appearance of an enemy, a charge of +shot at a few yards' distance told with deadly effect. Mrs. Donovan, +who lay in bed and saw the whole, told my father that Lesbia Burke +loaded and fired with greater rapidity and precision than her cousin. A +noble woman, I say." + +"Good old Lesbia!" said Sam; "and how did it end?" + +"Why, the foolish blacks fired the woolshed, and brought the Delisles +upon them; they tried to fire the roof of the hut, but it was raining +too hard; otherwise it would have gone hard with poor Miss Burke. See, +here is a peach-tree they planted, covered with fruit; let us gather +some; it is pretty good, for the Donovans have kept it pruned in memory +of their escape." + +"But the hut was not burnt," said Sam; "where did it stand?" + +"That pile of earth there, is the remains of the old turf chimney. They +moved across the river after it happened." + +But peaches, when they grow on a high tree, must be climbed for, +particularly if a young and pretty girl expresses a wish for them. And +so it fell out, that Sam was soon astride of one of the lower boughs, +throwing the fruit down to Alice, who put them one by one into the +neatest conceivable little basket that hung on her arm. + +And so they were employed, busy and merry, when they heard a loud +cheery voice, which made both of them start. + +"Quite a scene from 'Paradise Lost,' I declare; only Eve ought to be up +the tree handing down the apples to Adam, and not VICE VERSA. I miss a +carpet snake, too, who would represent the D----, and make the thing +complete.--Sam Buckley, how are you?" + +It was Captain Brentwood who had come on them so inaudibly along the +sandy track, on horseback, and beside him was son Jim, looking rather +mischievously at Sam, who did not show to the best of advantage up in +the peach-tree; but, having descended, and greetings being exchanged, +father and son rode on to dress for dinner, the hour for which was now +approaching, leaving Sam and Alice to follow at leisure, which they +did; for Captain Brentwood and Jim had time to dress and meet in the +verandah, before they saw the pair come sauntering up the garden. + +"Father," said Jim, taking the Captain's hand. "How would that do?" + +"Marvellous well, I should say;" replied the Captain. + +"And so I think, too," said Jim. "Hallo! you two; dinner is ready, so +look sharp." + +After dinner the Captain retired silently to the chimney-corner, and +read his book, leaving the three young people to amuse themselves as +they would. Nothing the Captain liked so much as quiet, while he read +some abstruse work on Gunnery, or some scientific voyage; but I am +sorry to say he had got very little quiet of an evening since Alice +came home, and Jim had got some one to chatter to. This evening, +however, seemed to promise well, for Alice brought out a great book of +coloured prints, and the three sat down to turn them over, Jim of +course, you know, being in the middle. + +The book was "Wild Sports of the East," a great volume of coloured +lithographs, worth some five-andtwenty guineas. One never sees such +books as that now-a-days, somehow; people, I fancy, would not pay that +price for them. What modern travels have such plates as the old +editions of "Cook's Voyages"? The number of illustrated books is +increased tenfold, but they are hardly improved in quality. + +But Sam, I think, would have considered any book beautiful in such +company. "This," said Alice, "is what we call the 'Tiger Book'--why, +you will see directly.--You turn over, Jim, and don't crease the pages." + +So Jim turned over, and kept them laughing by his simple remarks, more +often affected than real, I suspect. Now they went through the tangled +jungle, and seemed to hear the last mad howl of the dying tiger, as the +elephant knelt and pinned him to the ground with his tusks. Now they +chased a lordly buffalo from his damp lair in the swamp; now they saw +the English officers flying along on their Arabs through the high grass +with well-poised spears after the snorting hog. They have come +unexpectedly on a terrible old tiger; one of the horses swerves, and a +handsome young man, losing his seat, seems just falling into the +monster's jaws, while the pariah dogs scud away terrified through the +grass. + +"That chap will be eaten immediately," says Jim. + +"He has been in that position ever since I can remember," says Alice; +"so I think he is pretty safe." + +Now they are with the British army on the march. A scarlet bar +stretches across the plain, of which the further end is lost in the +white mirage--all in order, walking irresistibly on to the conquest of +an empire greater than Haroun Al Raschid's, so naturally done, that as +you look, you think you see the columns swing as they advance, and hear +the heavy, weary tramp of the troops above the din and shouting of the +cloud of camp-followers, on camels and elephants, which surrounds them. +Beyond the plain the faint blue hills pierce the grey air, barred with +a few long white clouds, and far away a gleaming river winds through a +golden country, spanned with long bridges, and fringed with many a +fantastic minaret. + +"How I should like to see that!" said Alice. + +"Would you like to be a countess," said Jim, "and ride on an elephant +in a howitzer?" + +"Howdah, you goose!" said Alice. "Besides, that is not a countess; that +is one of the soldiers' wives. Countesses don't go to India; they stay +at home to mind the Queen's clothes." + +"What a pleasant job for them," said Jim, "when her Most Gracious +Majesty has got the toothache! I wonder whether she wears her crown +under her bonnet or over it?" + +Captain Brentwood looked up. "My dear boy," he said, "does it not +strike you that you are talking nonsense?" + +"Did you ever see the old King, father?" said Jim. + +"I saw King George the Third many times." + +"Ah, but I mean to speak to him." + +"Once only, and then he was mad. He was sitting up with her Majesty, +waiting for intelligence which I brought. His Royal Highness took the +despatches from me, but the King insisted on seeing me." + +"And what did he say, father? Do tell us," said Alice eagerly. + +"Little enough, my love," said the Captain, leaning back. "He asked, +'Is this the officer who brought the despatches, York?' And his Royal +Highness said 'Yes.' Then the King said, 'You bring good news, sir; I +was going to ask you some questions, but they are all gone out of my +head. Go and get your supper; get your supper, sir.' Poor old +gentleman. He was a kindly old man, and I had a great respect for him. +Alice, sing us a song, my love." + +She sang them "The Burial of Sir John Moore" with such perfect taste +and pathos that Sam felt as if the candle had gone out when she +finished. Then she turned round and said to him, "You ought to like +that song; your father was one of the actors in it." + +"He has often told me the story," said Sam, "but I never knew what a +beautiful one it was till I heard you sing it." + +All pleasant evenings must end, and at last she rose to go to bed. But +Sam, before he went off to the land of happy dreams, saw that the +little white glove which he had noticed in the morning was lying +neglected on the floor; so he quietly secured and kept it. And, last +year, opening his family Bible to refer to certain entries, now pretty +numerous, in the beginning; I found a little white glove pinned to the +fly-leaf, which I believe to be the same glove here spoken of. + + + + +Chapter XXVIII + +A GENTLEMAN FROM THE WARS. + + +I need hardly say that Sam was sorry when the two days which he had +allowed himself for his visit were over. But that evening, when he +mentioned the fact that he was going away in the morning, the Captain, +Alice, and Jim, all pressed him so eagerly to stay another week, that +he consented; the more as there was no earthly reason he knew of why he +should go home. + +And the second morning from that on which he should have been at home, +going out to the stable before breakfast, he saw his father come riding +over the plain, and, going to meet him, found that he, too, meditated a +visit to the Captain. + +"I thought you were come after me, father," said Sam. "By the bye, do +you know that the Captain's daughter, Miss Alice, is come home?" + +"Indeed!" said the Major; "and what sort of a body is she?" + +"Oh, she is well enough. Something like Jim. Plays very well on the +piano, and all that sort of thing, you know. Sings too." + +"Is she pretty?" asked the Major. + +"Oh, well, I suppose she is," said Sam. "Yes; I should say that a great +many people would consider her pretty." + +They had arrived at the door, and the groom had taken the Major's +horse, when Alice suddenly stepped out and confronted them. + +The Major had been prepared to see a pretty girl, but he was by no +means prepared for such a radiant, lovely, blushing creature as stepped +out of the darkness into the fresh morning to greet him, clothed in +white, bareheaded, with + + +"A single rose in her hair." + + +As he told his wife, a few days after, he was struck "all of a heap;" +and Sam heard him whisper to himself, "By Jove!" before he went up to +Alice and spoke. + +"My dear young lady, you and I ought not to be strangers, for I +recognise you from my recollections of your mother. Can you guess who I +am?" + +"I recognise you from my recollections of your son, sir," said Alice, +with a sly look at Sam; "I should say that you were Major Buckley." + +The Major laughed, and, taking her hand, carried it to his lips: a +piece of old-fashioned courtesy she had never experienced before, and +which won her heart amazingly. + +"Come, come, Buckley!" said the quiet voice of Captain Brentwood from +the dark passage; "what are you at there with my daughter? I shall have +to call out and fight some of you young fellows yet, I see." + +Alice went in past her father, stopping to give him a kiss, and +disappeared into the breakfast-room. The Captain came out, and shook +hands warmly with the Major, and said, + +"What do you think of her,--eh?" + +"I never saw such beauty before," answered the Major; "never, by Jove! +I tell you what, Brentwood, I wish she could come out this season in +London. Why, she might marry a duke." + +"Let us get her a rouge-pot and a French governess, and send her home +by the next ship; eh, Buckley?" said the Captain, with his most +sardonic smile. "She would be the better for a little polishing; +wouldn't she, eh? Too hoydenish and forward, I am afraid; too fond of +speaking the truth. Let's have her taught to amble, and mince, and---- +Bah, come to breakfast!" + +The Major laughed heartily at this tirade of the Captain's. He was fond +of teasing him, and I believe the Captain liked to be teased by him. + +"And what are you three going to do with yourselves to-day, eh?" asked +the Captain at breakfast. "It is a matter of total indifference to me, +so long as you take yourselves off somewhere, and leave me in peace." + +Alice was spokesman:--"We are going up to the Limestone Gates; Mr. +Samuel Buckley has expressed a desire to see them, and so Jim and I +thought of taking him there." + +This was rather a jesuitical speech. The expedition to the Limestone +Gates involved a long ride through very pretty scenery, which she +herself had proposed. As for Sam, bless you! he didn't care whether +they rode east, west, north, or south, so long as he rode beside her; +however, having got his cue, he expressed a strong wish to examine, +geologically, the great band of limestone which alternated with the +slate towards the mountains, the more particularly as he knew that the +Captain and the Major intended to ride out in another direction, to +examine some new netting for sheep-yards which the Captain had imported. + +If Major Buckley thought Alice beautiful as he had seen her in the +morning, he did not think her less so when she was seated on a +beautiful little horse, which she rode gracefully and courageously, in +a blue ridinghabit, and a sweet little grey hat with a plume of +companion's feathers hanging down on one side. The cockatoo was on the +door-step to see her start, and talked so incessantly in his +excitement, that even when the magpie assaulted him and pulled a +feather out of his tail, he could not be quiet. Sam's horse Widderin +capered with delight, and Sam's dog Rover coursed far and wide before +them, with joyful bark. So they three went off through the summer's day +as happy as though all life were one great summer's holiday, and there +were no storms below the horizon to rise and overwhelm them; through +the grassy flat, where the quail whirred before them, and dropped again +as if shot; across the low rolling forest land, where a million parrots +fled whistling to and fro, like jewels, in the sun; past the old +stockyard, past the sheep-wash hut, and then through forest which grew +each moment more dense and lofty, along the faint and narrow track +which led into one of the most abrupt and romantic gullies which pierce +the Australian Alps. + +All this became classic ground to them afterwards, and the causes which +made it so were now gathering to their fulfilment, even now, while +these three were making happy holiday together, little dreaming of what +was to come. Afterwards, years after, they three came and looked on +this valley again; not as now, with laughter and jokes, but silently, +speaking in whispers, as though they feared to wake the dead. + +The road they followed, suddenly rising from the forest, took over the +shoulder of a rocky hill, and then, plunging down again, followed a +little running creek up to where a great ridge of slate, crossing the +valley, hemmed them in on either side, leaving only room for the creek +and the road. Following it further, the glen opened out, sweeping away +right and left in broad curves, while straight before them, a quarter +of a mile distant, there rose out of the low scrub and fern a mighty +wall of limestone, utterly barring all further progress save in a +single spot to the left, where the vast grey wall was split, giving a +glimpse of another glen beyond. This great natural cleft was the +limestone gate which they had come to see, and which was rendered the +more wonderful by a tall pinnacle of rock, which stood in the centre of +the gap about 300 feet in height, not unlike one of the same kind in +Dovedale. + +"I don't think I ever saw anything so beautiful," said Alice. "How fine +that spire of rock is, shooting up from the feathered shrubs at the +base! I will come here some day and try to draw it." + +"Wait a minute," said Jim; "you have not seen half yet." + +He led them through the narrow pass, among the great boulders which +lined the creek. The instant they came beyond, a wind, icy cold, struck +upon their cheeks, and Alice, dropping her reins, uttered a cry of awe +and wonder, and Sam too exclaimed aloud; for before them, partly seen +through crowded tree stems, and partly towering above the forest, lay a +vast level wall of snow, flecked here and there by the purple shadow of +some flying summer cloud. + +A sight so vast and magnificent held them silent for a little; then +suddenly, Jim, looking at Alice, saw that she was shivering. + +"What is the matter, Alice, my dear?" he said; "let us come away; the +snow-wind is too much for you." + +"Oh! it is not that!" she said. "Somebody is walking over my grave." + +"Oh, that's all!" said Jim; "they are always at it with me, in cold +weather. Let 'em. It won't hurt, that I know of." + +But they turned homeward nevertheless; and coming through the rock +walls again, Jim said, + +"Sam, what was that battle the Doctor and you were reading about one +day, and you told me all about it afterwards, you know?" + +"Malplacquet?" + +"No; something like that, though. Where they got bailed up among the +rocks, you know, and fought till they were all killed." + +"Thermopylae?" + +"Ah! This must be just such another place, I should think." + +"Thermopylae was by the sea-shore," said Alice. + +"Now, I should imagine," said Sam, pointing to the natural glacis +formed by the decay of the great wall which they had seen fronting them +as they came up, "that a few determined men with rifles, posted among +those fern-trees, could make a stand against almost any force." + +"But, Sam," said Jim, "they might be cut up by cavalry. Horses could +travel right up the face of the slope there. Now, suppose a gang of +bushrangers in that fern-scrub; do you think an equal number of police +could not turn them out of it? Why, I have seen the place where Moppy's +gang turned and fought Desborough on the Macquarrie. It was stronger +than this, and yet--you know what he did with them, only kept one small +one for hanging, as he elegantly expressed it." + +"But I ain't talking of bushrangers," said Sam. "I mean such fellows as +the Americans in the War of Independence. See what a dance they led our +troops with their bushfighting." + +"I wonder if there will ever be a War of Independence here," said Alice. + +"I know which side I should be on, if there was," said Sam. + +"Which would that be?" asked Jim. + +"My dear friend," said Sam, testily, "how can you, an officer's son, +ask me, an officer's son, such a question? The King's (I beg pardon, +the Queen's) side, of course." + +"And so would I," said Jim, "if it came to that, you know." + +"You would never have the honour of speaking to your sweet sister +again, if you were not," said Alice. + +"But I don't think those Americans were in the wrong; do you, Miss +Brentwood?" said Sam. + +"Why no; I don't suppose that such a man as General Washington, for +instance, would have had much to do with them if they had been." + +"However," said Sam, "we are talking of what will never occur here. To +begin with, we could never stand alone against a great naval power. +They would shut us up here to starve. We have everything to lose, and +nothing to gain by a separation. I would hardly like myself, for the +sake of a few extra pounds taxes, to sell my birthright as an +Englishman." + +"Conceive," said Alice, "being in some great European city, and being +asked if you were British, having to say, No!" + +They were coming through the lower pass, and turned to look back on the +beautiful rock-walled amphitheatre, sleeping peaceful and still under +the afternoon sun. The next time (so it happened) that Sam and Jim +looked at that scene together, was under very different circumstances. +Now the fronds of the ferntrees were scarce moved in the summer's +breeze, and all was silent as the grave. They saw it again;--when every +fern tuft blazed with musketry, and the ancient cliffs echoed with the +shouts of fighting, and the screams of dying men and horses. + +"It is very early," said Alice. "Let us ride to the left, and see the +great waterfall you speak of, Jim." + +It was agreed. Instead of going home they turned through the forest, +and debouched on the plains about two miles above Garoopna, and, +holding their course to the river, came to it at a place where a great +trap dike, crossing, formed a waterfall, over which the river, now full +with melting snow, fell in magnificent confusion. They stood watching +the grand scene with delight for a short time, and then, crossing the +river by a broad, shallow ford, held their way homeward, along the +eastern and more level bank, sometimes reining up their horses to gaze +into the tremendous glen below them, and watch the river crawling on +through many impediments, and beginning to show a golden light in its +larger pools beneath the sloping, westering sun. + +Just as they sighted home, on the opposite side of the river, they +perceived two horsemen before them, evidently on the track between +Major Buckley's and Garoopna. They pushed on to "overhaul them," and +found that it was Doctor Mulhaus, whom they received with boisterous +welcome, and a tall, handsome young gentleman, a stranger. + +"A young gentleman, Sam," said the Doctor, "Mr. Halbert by name, who +arrived during your father's absence with letters of introduction. I +begged him to follow your father over here, and, as his own horse was +knocked up, I mounted him at his own request on Jezebel, he preferring +her to all the horses in the paddock on account of her beauty, after +having been duly warned of her wickedness. But Mr. Halbert seems of the +Centaur species, and rather to enjoy an extra chance of getting his +neck broke." + +Politeness to strangers was one of the first articles of faith in the +Buckley and Brentwood families; so the young folks were soon on the +best of terms. + +"Are you from Sydney way, Mr. Halbert?" said Sam. + +"Indeed," said the young man, "I have only landed in the country six +weeks. I have got three years' leave of absence from my regiment in +India, and, if I can see a chance, I shall cut the army and settle +here." + +"Oh!" said Alice, "are you a soldier, Mr. Halbert?" + +"I have that honour, Miss Brentwood. I am a lieutenant in the Bengal +Horse Artillery." + +"That is delightful. I am a soldier's daughter, and Mr. Buckley here +also, as you know, I suppose." + +"A soldier's daughter, is he?" said impudent Jim. "A very fine girl +too!" + +Sam, and Jim too, had some disrespectful ideas about soldiers' riding +qualities; Sam could not help saying,-- + +"I hope you will be careful with that mare, Mr. Halbert; I should not +like a guest of ours to be damaged. She's a desperate brute,--I'm +afraid of her myself." + +"I think I know the length of her ladyship's foot," said Halbert, +laughing good-naturedly. + +As they were speaking, they were passing through a narrow way in a +wattle scrub. Suddenly a blundering kangaroo, with Rover in full chase, +dashed right under the mare's nose and set her plunging furiously. She +tried to wheel round, but, finding herself checked, reared up three or +four times, and at last seemed to stand on her hind legs, almost +overbalancing herself. + +Halbert sat like a statue till he saw there was a real chance of her +falling back on him; then he slipped his right foot quickly out of the +stirrup, and stood with his left toe in the iron, balancing himself +till she was quieter; then he once more threw his leg across the +saddle, and regained his seat, laughing. + +Jim clapped his hands; "By Jove, Sam, we must get some of these army +men to teach us to ride, after all!" + +"We must do so," said Sam. "If that had been you or I, Jim, with our +rough clumsy hands, we should have had the mare back atop of us." + +"Indeed," said Alice, "you are a splendid rider, Mr. Halbert: but don't +suppose, from Mr. Buckley's account of himself, that he can't ride +well; I assure you we are all very proud of him. He can sit some +bucking horses which very few men will attempt to mount." + +"And that same bucking, Miss Brentwood," said Halbert, "is just what +puzzles me utterly. I got on a bucking horse in Sydney the other day, +and had an ignominious tumble in the sale-yard, to everybody's great +amusement." + +"We must give one another lessons, then, Mr. Halbert," said Sam;--"but +I can see already, that you have a much finer hand than I." + +Soon after they got home, where the rest of the party were watching for +them, wondering at their late absence. Halbert was introduced to the +Major by the Doctor, who said, "I deliver over to you a guest, a young +conqueror from the Himalayas, and son of an old brother-warrior. If he +now breaks his neck horse-riding, his death will not be at my door; I +can now eat my dinner in peace." + +After dinner the three young ones, Sam, Alice, and Jim, gathered round +the fire, leaving Halbert with the Major and the Captain talking +military, and the Doctor looking over an abstruse mathematical +calculation, with which Captain Brentwood was not altogether satisfied. +Alice and Sam sat in chairs side by side, like Christians, but Jim lay +on the floor, between the two, like a blackfellow; they talked in a low +voice about the stranger. + +"I say," said Jim, "ain't he a handsome chap, and can't he ride? I dare +say, he's a devil to fight too,--hear him tell how they pounded away at +those Indians in that battle. I expect they'd have made a general of +him before now, only he's too young. Dad says he's a very distinguished +young officer. Alice, my dear, you should see the wound he's got, a +great seam all down his side. I saw it when he was changing his shirt +in my room before dinner." + +"Poor fellow!" said Alice; "I like him very much. Don't you, Mr. +Buckley?" + +"I like him exceedingly;--I hope he'll stop with us," continued Jim. + +"And I also," said Sam, "but what shall we do to-morrow?" + +"Let's have a hunt," said Jim. "Halbert, have you ever been kangaroo +hunting?" + +"Never!--I want to go!" + +"Well, we can have a capital hunt to-morrow: Sam has got his dog Fly +here, and I'll take one of my best dogs, and we'll have a good run, I +dare say." + +"I shall come, too," said Alice: "that is," added she, looking shyly at +Sam, "if you would be kind enough to take care of me, and let Mr. +Halbert and Jim do the riding. But I'm afraid I shall be sadly in your +way." + +"If you don't go," said Sam, "I shall stay at home: now then!" + +At this minute, the housekeeper came in bearing jugs and glasses. +"Eleanor," said Jim, "is Jerry round?" + +"Yes, sir; he's coiled somewhere in the woodhouse," said she. + +"Just rouse him out and send him in." + +"Who is this Jerry who coils in woodhouses?" said Halbert. + +"A tame black belonging to us. He is great at all sorts of hunting; I +want to see if he can find us a flying doe for to-morrow." + +Jerry entered, and advanced with perfect self-possession towards the +fire. He was a tall savage, with a big black beard, and wavy hair like +a Cornishman. He was dressed in an old pair of dandy riding breeches of +Jim's, which reached a short way below the knees, fitting closely, and +a blue check shirt rolled up above the elbow showing his lean wiry +forearm, seamed and scarred with spear wounds and bruises. He addressed +nobody, but kept his eyes wandering all over the room; at length he +said, looking at the ceiling,-- + +"Cobbon thirsty this fellow: you got a drop of brandy?" + +"Jerry," said Jim, having produced the brandy, "you make a light +kangaroo." + +"All about plenty kangaroo," said Jerry. + +"Yowi; but mine want it big one flying doe." + +"Ah-h-h! Mine make a light flying doe along a stockyard this morning; +close by, along a fent, you see!" + +"That'll do," says Jim. "We'll be up round the old stockyard after +breakfast to-morrow. You, Jerry, come with us." + +It was a fresh breezy autumn morning in April, when the four sallied +forth, about nine o'clock, for their hunt. The old stockyard stood in +the bush, a hundred yards from the corner of the big paddock fence, and +among low rolling ranges and gullies, thickly timbered with gum, +cherry, and sheoak: a thousand parrots flew swiftly in flocks, +whistling and screaming from tree to tree, while wattled-birds and +numerous other honeyeaters clustered on the flowering basksias. The +spurwinged plover and the curlew ran swiftly among the grass, and on a +tall dead tree white cockatoos and blue cranes watched the intruders +curiously. + +Alice and Sam rode together soberly, and before them were Halbert and +Jim, just up, ready for the chase. Before them, again, was the active +blackfellow, holding the dogs in a leash,--two tall hounds, bred of +foxhound and greyhound, with a dash of colley. + +A mob of kangaroos crosses their path, but they are all small; so the +dogs, though struggling fiercely, are still held tight by Jerry: now he +crosses a little ridge before them and looks down into the gully +beyond, holding up his hand. + +The two young men gather up their reins and settle themselves in their +seats. "Now, Halbert," says Jim, "sit fast and mind the trees." + +They ride up to the blackfellow; through the low wattles, they can see +what is in the gully before them, though the dogs cannot. + +"Baal, flying doe this one," says Jerry in a whisper. "Old man this +fellow, cobbon matong, mine think it." + +A great six-foot kangaroo was standing about two hundred yards from +them, staring stupidly about him. + +"Let go, Jerry," said Jim. The dogs released; sprang forward, and, in +an instant, saw their quarry, which, with a loud puff of alarm, bounded +away up the opposite slope at full speed, taking twenty feet at each +spring. + +Halbert and Jim dashed off after the dogs, who had got a good start of +them, and were laying themselves out to their work right gallantly; +Sam's dog, Fly, slightly leading. Both dogs were close on the game, and +Halbert said,-- + +"We are going to have a short run, I'm afraid." + +"Talk about that twenty minutes hence," said Jim, settling to his work. + +Over range after range they hold their headlong course. Now a bandicoot +scuttles away from under their feet to hide in his hollow log; now a +mob of terrified cattle huddle together as they sweep by; now they are +flying past a shepherd's hut, and the mother runs out to snatch up a +child, and bear him out of harm's way, after they are safe past. A +puppy, three weeks old, joins the chase with heart and soul, but "eaves +in" at about fifty yards, and sits him down to bark. Now they are +rushing on through a broad flat, with another great range before them. +Still always the grey bounding figure holds on, through sunlight and +shadow, with the dogs grim and steadfast close in his wake. + +The work begins to tell on the horses. Fat Jezebel, who could hardly be +held at first, now is none the worse for a little spur; and Jim's lean, +long-legged horse, seems to consider that the entertainment ought to +conclude shortly. "Well done, Fly!" he shouts; "bravely tried, my +girl!" She had drawn herself ahead, and made a bold strike at the +kangaroo, but missed him. Now the other dog, Bolt, tries it, but +without luck; and now they have both dropped a little back, and seem in +for another mile or so. + +Well done, lass!--there she goes again! With a furious effort she +pushes ahead, and seizes the flying beast by the hock--this time with +some luck, for down he goes in a cloud of dust and broken sticks, and +both the dogs are on him at once. Now he is up again and running, but +feebly. And see, what is the matter with the young dog? He runs on, but +keeps turning, snapping fiercely at his side, and his footsteps are +marked with blood. Poor lad! he has got a bad wound in that last +tumble,--the kangaroo has ripped up his flank with a kick from his hind +foot. But now the chase is over,--the hunted beast has turned, and is +at bay against a tree, Fly standing before him, waiting for assistance, +snarling fiercely. + +They pulled up. Jim took out a pistol and presented it to Halbert. + +"Thank you," said he. "Hair trigger?" + +"Yes." + +He balanced it for a second, and in another the kangaroo was lying +quivering on the ground, shot through the heart. + +"Well done!" said Jim. "Now, I must look to this dog." + +All his flank along the ribs was laid open, and Jim, producing a needle +and thread, proceeded to sew it up. + +"Will you let me do that for you?" said Halbert. + +"I wish you would. I'm fond of the poor thing, and my hand shakes. +You've seen the surgeons at work, I expect." + +"Yes, indeed." And he tenderly and carefully stitched up the dog's +side, while Jim held him. + +"What do we do with the game?" said he. + +"Oh, Jerry will be along on our tracks presently," said Jim. "He brings +me the tail, and does what he likes with the rest. I wonder where Sam +and Alice are?" + +"Oh, they are right enough," said Halbert, laughing. "I dare say they +are not very anxious about the kangaroo, or anything else. That's 'a +case,' I suppose?" + +"Well, I hope it is," said Jim; "but you see I don't know. Girls are so +odd." + +"Perhaps he has never asked her." + +"No; I don't think he has. I wish he would. You are not married, are +you?" + +"My God--no!" said Halbert, "nor ever shall be." + +"Never?" + +"Never, Jim. Let me tell you a story as we ride home. You and I shall +be good friends, I know. I like you already, though we have only known +one another two days. I can see well what you are made of. They say it +eases a man's mind to tell his grief. I wish it would mine. Well; +before I left England I had secretly engaged myself to marry a +beautiful girl, very much like your sister, a governess in my +brother-in-law's family. I went off to join my regiment, and left her +there with my sister and her husband, Lord Carstone, who treated her as +if she was already one of the family--God bless them! Two years ago my +father died, and I came into twenty thousand pounds; not much, but +enough to get married on in India, particularly as I was getting on in +my profession. So I wrote to her to come out to me. She sailed in the +Assam, for Calcutta, but the ship never arrived. She was spoken off the +Mauritius, but never seen after. The underwriters have paid up her +insurance, and everyone knows now that the Assam went down in a +typhoon, with all hands." + +"God bless you," said Jim! "I'm very sorry for that." + +"Thank you. I have come here for change of scene more than anything, +but I think I shall go back soon." + +"I shall come with you," said Jim. "I have determined to be a soldier, +and I know the governor has interest enough to get me into some +regiment in India." (I don't believe he had ever thought of it before +that morning.) + +"If you are determined, he might. His services in India were too +splendid to have been forgotten yet." + +"I wonder," said Jim, "if he will let me go? I'd like to see Alice +married first." + +They jogged on in silence for a little, and slowly, on account of the +wounded dogs. Then Jim said,-- + +"Well, and how did you like your sport?" + +"Very much, indeed; but I thought bush-riding was harder work. We have +only had one or two leaps over fallen logs altogether." + +"There ain't much leaping, that's a fact. I suppose you have been +fox-hunting?" + +"My father was a master of hounds," replied Halbert. "On the first day +of the season, when the hounds met at home, there would be two hundred +horsemen on our terrace, fifty of them, at least, in pink. It was a +regular holiday for all the country round. Such horses, too. My +father's horse, the Elk, was worth three hundred pounds, and there were +better horses than him to be seen in the field, I promise you." + +"And all after a poor little fox!" + +"You don't know Charley I can see," said Halbert. "Poor little fox, +indeed! Why, it's as fair a match between the best-tried pack of hounds +in England, and an old dog-fox, as one would wish to see. And as hard +work as it is to ride up to them, even without a stiff fence at every +two hundred yards, to roll you over on your head, if your horse is +blown or clumsy. Just consider how many are run, and how few are +killed. I consider a fox to be the noblest quarry in the world. His +speed, courage, and cunning are wonderful. I have seen a fox run +fifteen miles as the crow flies, and only three of us in at the death. +That's what I call sport." + +"So do I, by Jove!" said Jim. "You have some good sport in India, too?" + +"Yes. Pig-sticking is pretty--very pretty, I may say, if you have two +or three of the right sort with you. All the Griffins ought to hunt +together though. There was a young fellow, a King's-officer, and a +nobleman too, came out with us the other day, and rode well forward, +but as the pig turned he contrived to spear my horse through the +pastern. He was full of apologies, and I was outwardly highly polite +and indifferent, but internally cursing him up hill and down dale. I +went home and had the horse shot; but when I got up next morning, there +was a Syce leading up and down a magnificent Australian, a far finer +beast than the one which I had lost, which my Lord had sent up to +replace my unfortunate nag. I went down to his quarters and refused to +accept it; but he forced me in the end, and it gave me a good lesson +about keeping my temper over an unavoidable accident, which I don't +mean to forget. Don't you think it was prettily done?" + +"Yes, I do," said Jim; "but you see these noblemen are so rich that +they can afford to do that sort of thing, where you or I couldn't. But +I expect they are very good fellows on the whole." + +"There are just as large a proportion of good noblemen as there are of +any other class--more than that you have no right to expect. I'm a +Liberal, as my father was before me, and a pretty strong one too; but I +think that a man with sixty thousand acres, and a seat in the House of +Lords, is entitled to a certain sort of respect. A Grand Seigneur is a +very capital institution if he will only stay on his estates some part +of the year." + +"Ay!" said Jim; who was a shrewd fellow in his way. "They know that +here, well enough: look at our Macarthurs and Wentworths,--but then +they must be men, and not snobs, as the governor says." + +When they got home, they found Sam and Alice sitting in the verandah as +comfortable as you please. + +"Well," said Jim, "you are a nice lot! This is what you call +kangaroo-hunting!" + +"Oh, you went too fast for us. Have you killed?" + +"Yes! out by the big swamp." + +"You have taken your time to get home then." + +"Poor Bolt is cut up, and we couldn't go out of a walk. Now give us +something to eat, will you, Alice?" + +"Well, ring the bell and we will have lunch." + +But just as Jim rang the bell, there was a loud voice outside, and the +three young men went out to see who it was, and found two horsemen in +front of the door. + +One, who was still sitting on his horse, was a darkhaired slight young +man, Charles Hawker in fact, whom we know already, but the other, who +had dismounted, and was leaning against his horse, was a highbred, +delicate little fellow, to whom we have yet to be introduced. + +He was a slight lad, perhaps not more than eighteen, with one of the +pleasantest, handsomest faces of his own that you could wish to see, +and also a very intellectual look about him, which impressed you at +once with the idea that if he lived he would have made some sort of +figure in life. He was one of the greatest dandies, also, in those +parts, and after the longest ride used to look as if he had been turned +out of a bandbox. On the present occasion he had on two articles of +dress which attracted Jim's attention amazingly. The first was a new +white hat, which was a sufficiently remarkable thing in those parts at +that time; and the second, a pair of yellow leather riding-trousers. + +"Why, Cecil Mayford!" said Sam, "How do you do? Charley, how are you? +Just in time for lunch. Come in." + +Jim was walking round and round Cecil without speaking a word. At last +the latter said, "How do YOU do, James Brentwood?" + +"How do your breeches do, Cecil?" answered Jim; "that is a much more +important question, By-the-bye, let me introduce you to Mr. Halbert. +Also, allow me to have the honour to inform you that my sister Alice is +come home from school." + +"I am aware of that, and am come over to pay my respects. Sam, leave me +alone. If I were to disarrange my dress before I was presented to Miss +Brentwood, I would put a period to my existence. Jim, my dear soul, +come in and present me. Don't all you fellows come mobbing in, you +know." + +So Jim took Cecil in, and the other young fellows lounged about the +door in the sun. "Where have you come from, Charley?" asked Sam. + +"I have been staying at the Mayfords'; and this morning, hearing that +you and your father were here, we thought we would come over and stay a +bit." + +"By-the-bye," said Sam, "Ellen Mayford was to have come home from +Sydney the same time as Alice Brentwood, or thereabouts. Pray, is she +come?" + +"Oh, yes!" said Charles; "she is come this fortnight, or more." + +"What sort of a girl has she grown to be?" + +"Well, I call her an uncommonly pretty girl. A very nice girl indeed, I +should say. Have you heard the news from the north?" + +"No!" + +"Bushrangers! Nine or ten devils, loose on the upper Macquarrie, caught +the publican at Marryong alone in the bush; he had been an overlooker, +or some such thing, in old times, so they stripped him, tied him up, +gave him four dozen, and left him to the tender mercies of the +blowflies, in consequence of which he was found dead next day, with the +cords at his wrists cutting down to the bone with the struggles he made +in his agony." + +"Whew!" said Sam. "We are going to have some of the old-fashioned work +over again. Let us hope Desborough will get hold of them before they +come this way." + +"Some of our fellow-countrymen," said Halbert, "are, it seems to me, +more detestably ferocious than savages, when they once get loose." + +"Much of a muchness--no better, and perhaps no worse," said Sam. "All +men who act entirely without any law in their actions arrive at much +the same degree, whether white or black." + +"And will this Captain Desborough, whom you speak of, have much chance +of catching these fellows?" asked Halbert. + +"They will most likely disperse on his approach if he takes any force +against them," said Sam. "I heard him say, myself, that the best way +was to tempt them to stay and show fight, by taking a small force +against them, as our admirals used to do to the French, in the war. +By-the-bye, how is Tom Troubridge? He is quite a stranger to me. I have +only seen him twice since he was back from Port Phillip." + +"He is off again now, after some rams, up to the north." + +"I hope he won't fall in with the bushrangers. Anybody with him?" + +"William Lee," answered Charles. + +"A good escort. There is lunch going in,--come along." + + + + +Chapter XXIX + +SAM MEETS WITH A RIVAL, AND HOW HE TREATED HIM. + + +That week one of those runs upon the Captain's hospitality took place +which are common enough in the bush, and, although causing a temporary +inconvenience, are generally as much enjoyed by the entertainer as +entertained. Everybody during this next week came to see them, and +nobody went back again. So by the end of the week there were a dozen or +fourteen guests assembled, all uninvited, and apparently bent on making +a good long stay of it. + +Alice, who had expected to be rather put out, conducted everything with +such tact and dignity that Mrs. Buckley remarked to Mrs. Mayford, when +they were alone together, "that she had never seen such beauty and such +charming domestic grace combined, and that he would be a lucky young +fellow who got her for a wife." + +"Well, yes, I should be inclined to say so too," answered Mrs. Mayford. +"Rather much of the boarding-school as yet, but that will wear off, I +dare say. I don't think the young lady will go very long without an +offer. Pray, have you remarked anything, my dear madam?" + +Yes, Mrs. Buckley had remarked something on her arrival the day before +yesterday. She had remarked Sam and Alice come riding over the paddock, +and Sam, by way of giving a riding-lesson, holding the little white +hand in his, teaching it (the dog!) to hold the reins properly. And on +seeing Alice she had said to herself, "That will do." But all this was +not what Mrs. Mayford meant,--in fact, these two good ladies were at +cross-purposes. + +"Well, I thought I did," replied Mrs. Buckley, referring to Sam. "But +one must not be premature. They are both very young, and may not know +their own minds." + +"They seem as if they did," said Mrs. Mayford. "Look there!" Outside +the window they saw something which gave Mrs. Buckley a sort of pang, +and made Mrs. Mayford laugh. + +There was no one in the garden visible but Cecil Mayford and Alice, and +she was at that moment busily engaged in pinning a rose into his +buttonhole. "The audacious girl!" thought Mrs. Buckley; "I am afraid +she will be a daughter of debate among us. I wish she had not come +home." While Mrs. Mayford continued,-- + +"I am far from saying, mind you, my dear Mrs. Buckley, that I don't +consider Cecil might do far better for himself. The girl is pretty, +very pretty, and will have money. But she is too decided, my dear. +Fancy a girl of her age expressing opinions! Why, if I had ventured to +express opinions at her age, I----I don't know what my father would +have said." + +"Depend very much on what sort of opinions they were; wouldn't it?" +said Mrs. Buckley. + +"No; I mean any opinions. Girls ought to have no opinions at all. +There, last night when the young men were talking all together, she +must needs get red in the face and bridle up, and say, 'She thought an +Englishman who wasn't proud of Oliver Cromwell was unworthy of the name +of an Englishman.' Her very words, I assure you. Why, if my daughter +Ellen had dared to express herself in that way about a murderous +Papist, I'd have slapped her face." + +"I don't think Cromwell was a Papist; was he?" said Mrs. Buckley. + +"A Dissenter, then, or something of that sort," said Mrs. Mayford. "But +that don't alter the matter. What I don't like to see is a young girl +thrusting her oar in in that way. However, I shall make no opposition, +I can assure you. Cecil is old enough to choose for himself, and a +mother's place is to submit. Oh, no; I assure you, whatever my opinions +may be, I shall offer no opposition." + +"I shouldn't think you would," said Mrs. Buckley, as the other left the +room: "rather a piece of luck for your boy to marry the handsomest and +richest girl in the country. However, madam, if you think I am going to +play a game of chess with you for that girl, or any other girl, why, +you are mistaken." + +And yet it was very provoking. Ever since she had begun to hear from +various sources how handsome and clever Alice was, she had made up her +mind that Sam should marry her, and now to be put out like this by +people whom they had actually introduced into the house! It would be a +great blow to Sam too. She wished he had never seen her. She would +sooner have lost a limb than caused his honest heart one single pang. +But, after all, it might be only a little flirtation between her and +Cecil. Girls would flirt; but then there would be Mrs. Mayford +manoeuvring and scheming her heart out, while she, Agnes Buckley, was +constrained by her principles only to look on and let things take their +natural course. + +Now, there arose a coolness between Agnes Buckley and the Mayfords, +mother and son, which was never made up--never, oh, never! Not very +many months after this she would have given ten thousand pounds to have +been reconciled to the kind-hearted old busy-body; but then it was too +late. + +But now, going out into the garden, she found the Doctor busy planting +some weeds he had found in the bush, in a quiet corner, with an air of +stealth, intending to privately ask the gardener to see after them till +he could fetch them away. The magpie, having seen from the window a +process of digging and burying going on, had attended in his official +capacity, standing behind the Doctor, and encouraging him every now and +then with a dance, or a few flute-like notes of music. I need hardly +mention that the moment the Doctor's back was turned the bird rooted up +every one of the plants, and buried them in some secret spot of his +own, where they lie, I believe, till this day. + +To the Doctor she told the whole matter, omitting nothing, and then +asked his advice. "I suppose," she said, "you will only echo my own +determination of doing nothing at all?" + +"Quite so, my dear madam. If she loves Sam, she will marry him; if she +don't, he is better without her." + +"That is true," said Mrs. Buckley. "I hope she will have good taste +enough to choose my boy." + +"I hope so too, I am sure," said the Doctor. "But we must not be very +furious if she don't. Little Cecil Mayford is both handsomer and +cleverer than Sam. We must not forget that, you know." + +That evening was the first thoroughly unhappy evening, I think, that +Sam ever passed in his life. I am inclined to imagine that his +digestion was out of order. If any of my readers ever find themselves +in the same state of mind that he was in that night, let them be +comforted by considering that there is always a remedy at hand, before +which evil thoughts and evil tempers of all kinds fly like mist before +the morning sun. How many serious family quarrels, marriages out of +spite, alterations of wills, and secessions to the Church of Rome, +might have been prevented by a gentle dose of blue pill! What awful +instances of chronic dyspepsia are presented to our view by the +immortal bard in the characters of Hamlet and Othello! I look with awe +on the digestion of such a man as the present King of Naples. Banish +dyspepsia and spirituous liquors from society, and you would have no +crime, or at least so little that you would not consider it worth +mentioning. + +However, to return to Sam. He, Halbert, Charles Hawker, and Jim had +been away riding down an emu, and had stayed out all day. But Cecil +Mayford, having made excuse to stay at home, had been making himself in +many ways agreeable to Alice, and at last had attended her on a ride, +and on his return had been rewarded with a rose, as we saw. The first +thing Sam caught sight of when he came home was Alice and Cecil walking +up and down the garden very comfortably together, talking and laughing. +He did not like to see this. He dreaded Cecil's powers of entertainment +too much, and it made him angry to hear how he was making Alice laugh. +Then, when the four came into the house, this offending couple took no +notice of them at all, but continued walking up and down in the garden, +till Jim, who, not being in love, did'nt care twopence whether his +sister came in or not, went out to the verandah, and called out "Hi!" + +"What now?" said Alice, turning round. + +"Why, we're come home," said Jim, "and I want you." + +"Then you won't get me, impudence," said Alice, and began walking up +and down again. But not long after, having to come in, she just said, +"How do, Mr. Halbert?" and passed on, never speaking to Sam. Now there +was no reason why she should have spoken to him, but "Good evening, Mr. +Buckley," would not have hurt anybody. And now in came Cecil, with that +unlucky rose, and Jim immediately began,-- + +"Hallo, Cis, where did you get your flower?" + +"Ah, that's a secret," said Cecil, with an affected look. + +"No secret at all," said Alice, coming back. "I gave it to him. He had +the civility to stay and take me out for a ride, instead of going to +run down those poor pretty emus. And that is his reward. I pinned it +into his coat for him." And out she went again. + +Sam was very sulky, but he couldn't exactly say with whom. With himself +more than anybody, I believe. + +"Like Cecil's consummate impudence!" was his first thought; but after +he had gone to his room to dress, his better nature came to him, and +before dinner came on he was his old self again, unhappy still, but not +sulky, and determined to be just. + +"What right have I to be angry, even suppose she does come to care more +for him than for me? What can be more likely? He is more courtly, +amusing, better-looking, they say, and certainly cleverer; oh, +decidedly cleverer. He might as well make me his enemy as I make him +mine. No; dash it all! He has been like a brother to me ever since he +was so high, and I'll be d----d if there shan't be fair play between us +two, though I should go into the army through it. But I'll watch, and +see how things go." + +So he watched at dinner and afterwards, but saw little to comfort him. +Saw one thing, nay, two things, most clearly. One was, that Cecil +Mayford was madly in love with Alice; and the other was, that poor +Cecil was madly jealous of Sam. He treated him differently to what he +had ever done before, as though on that evening he had first found his +rival. Nay, he became almost rude, so that once Jim looked suddenly up, +casting his shrewd blue eyes first on one and then on the other, as +though to ask what the matter was. But Sam only said to himself, "Let +him go on. Let him say what he will. He is beside himself now, and some +day he will be sorry. He shall have fair play, come what will." + +But it was hard for our lad to keep his temper sometimes. It was hard +to see another man sitting alongside of her all the evening, paying her +all those nameless little attentions which somehow, however +unreasonably, he had brought himself to think were his right, and no +one else's, to pay. Hard to wonder and wonder whether or no he had +angered her, and if so, how? Halbert, good heart! saw it all, and +sitting all the evening by Sam, made himself so agreeable, that for a +time even Alice herself was forgotten. But then, when he looked up, and +saw Cecil still beside her, and her laughing and talking so pleasantly, +while he was miserable and unhappy, the old chill came on his heart +again, and he thought--was the last happy week only a deceitful gleam +of sunshine, and should he ever take his old place beside her again? + +Once or twice more during the evening Cecil was almost insolent to him, +but still his resolution was strong. + +"If he is a fool, why should I be a fool? I will wait and see if he can +win her. If he does, why, there is India for me. If he does not, I will +try again. Only I will not quarrel with Cecil, because he is blinded. +Little Cecil, who used to bathe with me, and ride pickaback round the +garden! No; he shall have fair play. By Jove, he shall have fair play, +if I die for it." + +And he had some little comfort in the evening. When they had all risen +to go to bed, and were standing about in confusion lighting candles, he +suddenly found Alice by his side, who said in a sweet, low, musical +tone,-- + +"Can you forgive me?" + +"What have I to forgive, my dear young lady?" he said softly. "I was +thinking of asking your forgiveness for some unknown fault." + +"I have behaved so ill to you to-day," she said, "the first of my new +friends! I was angry at your going out after our poor emus, and I was +cross to you when you came home. Do let us be friends again." + +There was a chance for a reconciliation! But here was Cecil Mayford +thrusting between them with a lit candle just at the wrong moment; and +she gave him such a sweet smile, and such kind thanks, that Sam felt +nearly as miserable as ever. + +And next morning everything went wrong again. Whether it was merely +coquetry, or whether she was angry at their hunting the emus, or +whether she for a time preferred Cecil's company, I know not; but she, +during the next week, neglected Sam altogether, and refused to sit +beside him, making a most tiresome show of being unable to get on +without Cecil Mayford, who squired her here, there, and everywhere, in +the most provoking fashion. + +But it so happened that the Doctor and the Major sat up later than the +others that night, taking a glass of punch together before the fire, +and the Major said, abruptly,-- + +"There will be mischief among the young fellows about that girl. It is +a long while since I saw one man look at another as young Mayford did +at our Sam tonight. I wish she were out of the way. Sam and Mayford are +both desperately in love with her, and one must go to the wall. I wish +that boy of mine was keener; he stayed aloof from her all to-night." + +"Don't you see his intention?" said the Doctor. "I am very much +mistaken if I do not. He is determined to leave the field clear for all +comers, unless she herself makes some sort of advances to him. 'If she +prefers Mayford,' says Sam to himself, 'in the way she appears to, why, +she is welcome to him, and I can go home as soon as I am assured of +it.' And go home he would, too, and never say one word of complaint to +any living soul." + +"What a clear, brave, honest soul that lad has!" said the Major. + +"Truly," said the Doctor, "I only know one man who is his equal." + +"And who is he?" + +"His father. Good night; good dreams!" + + +* * * * * + + +So Sam kept to his resolution of finding out whether or no Alice was +likely to prefer Cecil to him. And, for all his watching and puzzling, +he couldn't. He had never confided one word of all this to his mother, +and yet she knew it all as well as he. + +Meanwhile, Cecil was quite changed. He almost hated Sam, and seldom +spoke to him, and at the same time hated himself for it. He grew pale, +too, and never could be persuaded to join any sport whatever; while +Sam, being content to receive only a few words in the day from My Lady, +worked harder than ever, both in the yards and riding. All day he and +Jim would be working like horses, with Halbert for their constant +companion, and, half an hour before dinner, would run whooping down to +the river for their bathe, and then come in clean, happy, hungry--so +full of life and youth, that in these sad days of deficient grinders, +indigestion, and liver, I can hardly realize that once I myself was as +full of blood and as active and hearty as any of them. + +There was much to do the week that Alice and Sam had their little tiff. +The Captain was getting in the "scrubbers" cattle, which had been left, +under the not very careful rule of the Donovans, to run wild in the +mountains. These beasts had now to be got in, and put through such +processes as cattle are born to undergo. The Captain and the Major were +both fully stiff for working in the yards, but their places were well +supplied by Sam and Jim. The two fathers, with the assistance of the +stockman, and sometimes of the sons, used to get them into the yards, +and then the two young men would go to work in a style I have never +seen surpassed by any two of the same age. Halbert would sometimes go +into the yard and assist, or rather hinder; but he had to give up just +when he was beginning to be of some use, as the exertion was too +violent for an old wound he had. + +Meanwhile Cecil despised all these things, and, though a capital hand +among cattle, was now grown completely effeminate, hanging about the +house all day, making, in fact, "rather a fool of himself about that +girl," as Halbert thought, and thought, besides, "What a confounded +fool she will make of herself if she takes that little dandy!--not that +he isn't a very gentlemanlike little fellow, but that Sam is worth five +hundred of him." + +One day, it so happened that every one was out but Cecil and Alice; and +Alice, who had been listening to the noises at the stockyard a long +while, suddenly proposed to go there. + +"I have never been," she said; "I should so like to go! I know I am not +allowed, but you need not betray me, and I am sure the others won't. I +should so like to see what they are about!" + +"I assure you, Miss Brentwood, that it is not a fit place for a lady." + +"Why not?" + +Cecil blushed scarlet. If women only knew what awkward questions they +ask sometimes! In this instance he made an ass of himself, for he +hesitated and stammered. + +"Come along!" said she; "you are going to say that it is +dangerous--(nothing was further from his thoughts); I must learn to +face a little danger, you know. Come along." + +"I am afraid," said Cecil, "that Jim will be very angry with me;" which +was undoubtedly very likely. + +"Never mind Jim," she said; "come along." + +So they went, and in the rush and confusion of the beasts' feet got to +the yard unnoticed. Sam and Jim were inside, and Halbert was perched +upon the rails; she came close behind him and peeped through. + +She was frightened. Close before her was Sam, hatless, in shirt and +breeches only, almost unrecognisable, grimed with sweat, dust, and +filth beyond description. He had been nearly horned that morning, and +his shirt was torn from his armpit downwards, showing rather more of a +lean muscular flank than would have been desirable in a drawing-room. +He stood there with his legs wide apart, and a stick about eight feet +long and as thick as one's wrist in his hand; while before him, crowded +into a corner of the yard, were a mob of infuriated, terrified cattle. +As she watched, one tried to push past him and get out of the yard; he +stepped aside and let it go. The next instant a lordly young bull tried +the same game, but he was "wanted;" so, just as he came nearly abreast +of Sam, he received a frightful blow on the nose from the stick, which +turned him. + +But only for a moment. The maddened beast shaking his head with a roar +rushed upon Sam like a thunderbolt, driving him towards the side of the +yard. He stepped on one side rapidly, and then tumbled himself bodily +through the rails, and fell with his fine brown curls in the dust, +right at the feet of poor Alice, who would have screamed, but could not +find the voice. + +Jim and Halbert roared with laughter, and Sam, picking himself up, was +beginning to join as loud as anybody, when he saw Alice looking very +white and pale, and went towards her. + +"I hope you haven't been frightened by that evildisposed bull, Miss +Brentwood," he said pleasantly; "you must get used to that sort of +work." + +"Hallo, sister!" shouted Jim; "what the deuce brings you here? I +thought you were at home at your worsted work. You should have seen +what we were at, Cecil, before you brought her up. Now, miss, just +mount that rail alongside of Halbert, and keep quiet." + +"Oh, do let me go home, Jim dear; I am so frightened!" + +"Then you must learn not to be frightened," he said. "Jump up now!" + +But meanwhile the bull had the best of it, and had got out of the yard. +A long lithe lad, stationed outside on horseback, was in full chase, +and Jim, leaping on one of the horses tied to the rails, started off to +his assistance. The two chased the unhappy bull as a pair of greyhounds +chase a hare, with their whips cracking as rapidly and as loudly as you +would fire a revolver. After an excursion of about a mile into the +forest, the beast was turned and brought towards the yard. Twice he +turned and charged the lad, with the same success. The cunning old +stockhorse wheeled round or sprang aside, and the bull went blundering +into empty space with two fourteen-foot stock-whips playing on his +unlucky hide like rain. At length he was brought in again, and one by +one those entitled to freedom were passed out by Sam, and others +reserved unto a day of wrath--all but one cow with her calf. + +All this time Alice had sat by Halbert. Cecil had given no assistance, +for Jim would have done anything rather than press a guest into the +service. Halbert asked her, what she thought of the sport? + +"Oh, it is horrible," she said. "I should like to go home. I hope it is +all over." + +"Nearly," said Halbert; "that cow and calf have got to go out. Don't +get frightened now; watch your brother and Buckley." + +It was a sight worth watching; Sam and Jim advanced towards the +maddened beasts to try and get the cow to bolt. The cattle were huddled +up at the other end of the yard, and, having been so long in hand, were +getting dangerous. Once or twice young beasts had tried to pass, but +had been driven back by the young men, with a courage and dexterity +which the boldest matador in Spain could not have surpassed. Cecil +Mayford saw, with his well-accustomed eye, that matters were getting +perilous, and placed himself at the rails, holding one ready to slip if +the beasts should break. In a moment, how or why none could tell, they +made a sudden rush: Jim was borne back, dealing blows about him like a +Paladin, and Sam was down, rolled over and over in the dust, just at +Alice's feet. + +Half-a-dozen passed right over him as he lay. Jim had made good his +retreat from the yard, and Cecil had quietly done just the right thing: +put up the rail he held, and saved the day's work. The cattle were +still safe, but Sam lay there in the dust, motionless. + +Before any of them had appreciated what had happened, Alice was down, +and, seizing Sam by the shoulders, had dragged him to the fence. +Halbert, horrified to see her actually in the presence of the cattle, +leaped after her, put Sam through the rails, and lifted her up to her +old post on the top. In another instant the beasts swept furiously +round the yard, just over the place where they had been standing. + +They gathered round Sam, and for an instant thought he was dead; but +just as Jim hurriedly knelt down, and raising his head began to untie +his handkerchief, Sam uprose, and, shaking himself and dusting his +clothes, said,-- + +"If it had been any other beast which knocked me down but that poley +heifer, I should have been hurt;" and then said that "it was +bathing-time, and they must look sharp to be in time for dinner:" three +undeniable facts, showing that, although he was a little unsteady on +his legs, his intellect had in nowise suffered. + +And Halbert, glancing at Alice, saw something in her face that made him +laugh; and, dressing for dinner in Jim's room, he said to that young +gentleman,-- + +"Unless there are family reasons against it, Jim, which of course I +can't speak about, you know, I should say that you would have Sam for +your brother-in-law in a very short time." + +"Do you really think so, now?" said Jim; "I rather fancied she had +taken up with Cecil. I like Sam's fist, mind you, better than Cecil's +whole body, though he is a good little fellow, too." + +"She has been doing that, I think, rather to put Sam on his mettle; for +I think he was taking things too easy with her at first; but now, if +Cecil has any false hopes, he may give them up; the sooner the better. +No woman who was fancy free could stand seeing that noble head of Sam's +come rolling down in the dust at her feet; and what courage and skill +he exhibited, too! Talk of bull-fights! I have seen one. Bah! it is +like this nail-brush to a gold watch, to what I saw to-day. Sam, sir, +has won a wife by cattledrafting." + +"If that is the case," said Jim, pensively brushing his hair, "I am +very glad that Cecil's care for his fine clothes prevented his coming +into the yard; for he is one of the bravest, coolest hands among +cattle, I know; he beats me." + +"Then he beats a precious good fellow, Jim. A man who could make such +play as you did to-day, with a stick, ought to have nothing but a big +three-foot of blue steel in his hand, and Her Majesty's commission to +use it against her enemies." + +"That will come," said Jim, "the day after Sam has got the right to +look after Alice; not before; the governor is too fond of his +logarithms." + +When Sam came to dress for dinner he found that he was bruised all +over, and had to go to the Captain for "shin plaster," as he called it. + +Captain Brentwood had lately been trying homeopathy, which in his case, +there being nothing the matter with him, was a decided success. He +doctored Sam with Arnica externally, and gave him the five-hundredth of +a grain of something to swallow; but what made Sam forget his bruises +quicker than these dangerous and violent remedies, was the delightful +change in Alice's behaviour. She was so agreeable that evening, that he +was in the seventh heaven; the only drawback to his happiness being +poor Cecil Mayford's utter distraction and misery. Next morning, too, +after a swim in the river, he handled such a singularly good knife and +fork, that Halbert told Jim privately, that if he, Sam, continued to +sport such a confoundedly good appetite, he would have to be carried +half-a-mile on a heifer's horns and left for dead, to keep up the +romantic effect of his tumble the day before. + +They were sitting at breakfast, when the door opened, and there +appeared before the assembled company the lithe lad I spoke of +yesterday, who said,-- + +"Beg your pardon, sir; child lost, sir." + +They all started up. "Whose child?" asked the Captain. + +"James Grewer's child, sir, at the wattle hut." + +"Oh!" said Alice, turning to Sam, "it is that pretty little boy up the +river that we were admiring so last week." + +"When was he lost?" asked Major Buckley. + +"Two days now, sir," said the lad. + +"But the hut is on the plain side of the river," said the Major; "he +can't be lost on the plains." + +"The river is very low, sir," said the lad; "hardly ancle deep just +there. He may have crossed." + +"The black fellows may have found him," suggested Mrs. Buckley. + +"They would have been here before now to tell us, if they had, I am +afraid," said Captain Brentwood. "Let us hope they may have got him; +however, we had better start at once. Two of us may search the river +between this and the hut, and two may follow it towards the Mayfords'. +Sam, you have the best horse; go down to the hut, and see if you can +find any trace across the river, on this side, and follow it up to the +ranges. Take some one with you, and, by-thebye, take your dog Rover." + +They were all quickly on the alert. Sam was going to ask Jim to come +with him; but as he was putting the saddle on Widderin he felt a hand +on his arm, and, turning, saw Cecil Mayford. + +"Sam Buckley," said Cecil, "let me ride with you; will you?" + +"Who sooner, old friend?" answered Sam heartily: "let us come together +by all means, and if we are to go to the ranges, we had better take a +blanket a-piece, and a wedge of damper. So if you will get them from +the house, I will saddle your horse." + + + + +Chapter XXX + +HOW THE CHILD WAS LOST, AND HOW HE GOT FOUND AGAIN--WHAT CECIL SAID TO +SAM WHEN THEY FOUND HIM--AND HOW IN CASTING LOTS, ALTHOUGH CECIL WON +THE LOT, HE LOST THE PRIZE. + + +Four or five miles up the river from Garoopna stood a solitary hut, +snug, sheltered by a lofty bare knoll, round which the great river +chafed among the boulders. Across the stream was the forest, sloping +down in pleasant glades from the mountain; and behind the hut rose the +plain four or five hundred feet over head, seeming to be held aloft by +the blue-stone columns which rose from the river side. + +In this cottage resided a shepherd, his wife, and one little boy, their +son, about eight years old. A strange, wild little bush child, able to +speak articulately, but utterly without knowledge or experience of +human creatures, save of his father and mother; unable to read a line; +without religion of any sort or kind; as entire a little savage, in +fact, as you could find in the worst den in your city, morally +speaking, and yet beautiful to look on; as active as a roe, and, with +regard to natural objects, as fearless as a lion. + +As yet unfit to begin labour. All the long summer he would wander about +the river bank, up and down the beautiful rock-walled paradise where he +was confined, sometimes looking eagerly across the water at the waving +forest boughs, and fancying he could see other children far up the +vistas beckoning to him to cross and play in that merry land of +shifting lights and shadows. + +It grew quite into a passion with the poor little man to get across and +play there; and one day when his mother was shifting the hurdles, and +he was handing her the strips of green hide which bound them together, +he said to her,-- + +"Mother, what country is that across the river?" + +"The forest, child." + +"There's plenty of quantongs over there, eh, mother, and raspberries? +Why mayn't I get across and play there?" + +"The river is too deep, child, and the Bunyip lives in the water under +the stones." + +"Who are the children that play across there?" + +"Black children, likely." + +"No white children?" + +"Pixies; don't go near 'em child; they'll lure you on, Lord knows +where. Don't get trying to cross the river, now, or you'll be drowned." + +But next day the passion was stronger on him than ever. Quite early on +the glorious cloudless midsummer day he was down by the river side, +sitting on a rock, with his shoes and stockings off, paddling his feet +in the clear tepid water, and watching the million fish in the shallows +black fish and grayling--leaping and flashing in the sun. + +There is no pleasure that I have ever experienced like a child's +midsummer holiday. The time, I mean, when two or three of us used to go +away up the brook, and take our dinners with us, and come home at night +tired, dirty, happy, scratched beyond recognition, with a great +nosegay, three little trout, and one shoe, the other one having been +used for a boat till it had gone down with all hands out of soundings. +How poor our Derby days, our Greenwich dinners, our evening parties, +where there are plenty of nice girls, are after that! Depend on it, a +man never experiences such pleasure or grief after fourteen as he does +before, unless in come cases in his first love-making, when the +sensation is new to him. + +But, meanwhile, there sits our child, barelegged, watching the +forbidden ground beyond the river. A fresh breeze was moving the trees, +and making the whole a dazzling mass of shifting light and shadow. He +sat so still that a glorious violet and red king-fisher perched quite +close, and, dashing into the water, came forth with a fish, and fled +like a ray of light along the winding of the river. A colony of little +shell parrots, too, crowded on a bough, and twittered and ran to and +fro quite busily, as though they said to him, "We don't mind you, my +dear; you are quite one of us." + +Never was the river so low. He stepped in; it scarcely reached his +ancle. Now surely he might get across. He stripped himself, and, +carrying his clothes, waded through, the water never reaching his +middle all across the long, yellow, gravelly shallow. And there he +stood naked and free in the forbidden ground. + +He quickly dressed himself, and began examining his new kingdom, rich +beyond his utmost hopes. Such quantongs, such raspberries, surpassing +imagination; and when tired of them such fern boughs, six or eight feet +long! He would penetrate this region, and see how far it extended. + +What tales he would have for his father to-night. He would bring him +here, and show him all the wonders, and perhaps he would build a new +hut over here, and come and live in it? Perhaps the pretty young lady, +with the feathers in her hat, lived somewhere here, too? + +There! There is one of those children he had seen before across the +river. Ah! ah! it was not a child at all, but a pretty grey beast, with +big ears. A kangaroo, my lad; he won't play with you, but skips away +slowly, and leaves you alone. + +There is something like the gleam of water on that rock. A snake! Now a +sounding rush through the wood, and a passing shadow. An eagle! He +brushes so close to the child; that he strikes at the bird with a +stick, and then watches him as he shoots up like a rocket, and, +measuring the fields of air in ever-widening circles, hangs like a +motionless speck upon the sky; though, measure his wings across, and +you will find he is nearer fifteen feet than fourteen. + +Here is a prize, though! A wee little native bear, barely eight inches +long,--a little grey beast, comical beyond expression, with broad +flapped ears, sits on a tree within reach. He makes no resistance, but +cuddles into the child's bosom, and eats a leaf as they go along; while +his mother sits aloft, and grunts indignant at the abstraction of her +offspring, but, on the whole, takes it pretty comfortably, and goes on +with her dinner of peppermint leaves. + +What a short day it has been! Here is the sun getting low, and the +magpies and jackasses beginning to tune up before roosting. + +He would turn and go back to the river. Alas! which way? + +He was lost in the bush. He turned back and went, as he thought, the +way he had come, but soon arrived at a tall, precipitous cliff, which, +by some infernal magic, seemed to have got between him and the river. +Then he broke down, and that strange madness came on him which comes +even on strong men when lost in the forest: a despair, a confusion of +intellect, which cost many a bold man his life. Think what it must be +with a child. + +He was fully persuaded that the cliff was between him and home, and +that he must climb it. Alas! every step he took aloft carried him +further from the river and the hope of safety; and when he came to the +top, just at dark, he saw nothing but cliff after cliff, range after +range, all around him. He had been wandering through steep gullies all +day unconsciously, and had penetrated far into the mountains. Night was +coming down, still and crystal-clear, and the poor little lad was far +away from help or hope, going his last long journey alone. + +Partly perhaps walking, and partly sitting down and weeping, he got +through the night; and when the solemn morning came up again he was +still tottering along the leading range, bewildered; crying, from time +to time, "Mother, mother!" still nursing his little bear, his only +companion, to his bosom, and holding still in his hand a few poor +flowers he had gathered the day before. Up and on all day, and at +evening, passing out of the great zone of timber, he came on the bald, +thunder-smitten summit ridge, where one ruined tree held up its +skeleton arms against the sunset, and the wind came keen and frosty. +So, with failing, feeble legs, upward still, towards the region of the +granite and the snow; towards the eyrie of the kite and the eagle. + + +* * * * * + + +Brisk as they all were at Garoopna, none were so brisk as Cecil and +Sam. Charles Hawker wanted to come with them, but Sam asked him to go +with Jim; and, long before the others were ready, our two had strapped +their blankets to their saddles, and, followed by Sam's dog Rover, now +getting a little grey about the nose, cantered off up the river. + +Neither spoke at first. They knew what a solemn task they had before +them; and, while acting as though everything depended on speed, guessed +well that their search was only for a little corpse, which, if they had +luck, they would find stiff and cold under some tree or crag. + +Cecil began: "Sam, depend on it that child has crossed the river to +this side. If he had been on the plains he would have been seen from a +distance in a few hours." + +"I quite agree," said Sam. "Let us go down this side till we are +opposite the hut, and search for marks by the river side." + +So they agreed; and in half an hour were opposite the hut, and, riding +across to it to ask a few questions, found the poor mother sitting on +the door-step, with her apron over her head, rocking herself to and fro. + +"We have come to help you, mistress," said Sam. "How do you think he is +gone?" + +She said, with frequent bursts of grief, that "some days before he had +mentioned having seen white children across the water, who beckoned him +to cross and play; that she, knowing well that they were fairies, or +perhaps worse, had warned him solemnly not to mind them; but that she +had very little doubt that they had helped him over and carried him +away to the forest; and that her husband would not believe in his +having crossed the river." + +"Why, it is not knee-deep across the shallow," said Cecil. + +"Let us cross again," said Sam: "he MAY be drowned, but I don't think +it." + +In a quarter of an hour from starting they found, slightly up the +stream, one of the child's socks, which in his hurry to dress he had +forgotten. Here brave Rover took up the trail like a bloodhound, and +before evening stopped at the foot of a lofty cliff. + +"Can he have gone up here?" said Sam, as they were brought up by the +rock. + +"Most likely," said Cecil. "Lost children always climb from height to +height. I have heard it often remarked by old bush hands. Why they do +so, God, who leads them, only knows; but the fact is beyond denial. Ask +Rover what he thinks?" + +The brave old dog was half-way up, looking back for them. It took them +nearly till dark to get their horses up; and, as there was no moon, and +the way was getting perilous, they determined to camp, and start again +in the morning. + +They spread their blankets and lay down side by side. Sam had thought, +from Cecil's proposing to come with him in preference to the others, +that he would speak of a subject nearly concerning them both; but Cecil +went off to sleep and made no sign; and Sam, ere he dozed, said to +himself, "By Jove, if he don't speak this journey, I will. It is +unbearable that we should not come to some understanding. Poor Cecil!" + +At early dawn they caught up their horses, which had been hobbled with +the stirrup leathers, and started afresh. Both were more silent than +ever, and the dog, with his nose to the ground, led them slowly along +the rocky rib of the mountain, ever going higher and higher. + +"It is inconceivable," said Sam, "that the poor child can have come up +here. There is Tuckerimbid close to our right, five thousand feet above +the river. Don't you think we must be mistaken?" + +"The dog disagrees with you," said Cecil. "He has something before him +not very far off. Watch him." + +The trees had become dwarfed and scattered; they were getting out of +the region of trees; the real forest zone was now below them, and they +saw they were emerging towards a bald elevated down, and that a few +hundred yards before them was a dead tree, on the highest branch of +which sat an eagle. + +"The dog has stopped," said Cecil, "the end is near." + +"See," said Sam, "there is a handkerchief under the tree." + +"That is the boy himself," said Cecil. + +They were up to him and off in a moment. There he lay, dead and stiff, +one hand still grasping the flowers he had gathered on his last happy +play-day, and the other laid as a pillow, between the soft cold cheek +and the rough cold stone. His midsummer holiday was over, his long +journey was ended. He had found out at last what lay beyond the shining +river he had watched so long. + +Both the young men knelt beside him for a moment in silence. They had +found only what they had expected to find, and yet, now that they had +found it, they were far more touched and softened than they could have +thought possible. They stayed in silence a few moments, and then Cecil, +lifting up his head, said suddenly,-- + +"Sam Buckley! there can be no debate between us two, with this lying +here between us. Let us speak now." + +"There has never been any debate, Cecil," said he, "and there never +would be, though this little corpse was buried fathoms deep. It takes +two to make a quarrel, Cecil, and I will not be one." + +"Sam," said Cecil, "I love Alice Brentwood better than all the world +besides." + +"I know it." + +"And you love her too, as well, were it possible, as I do." + +"I know that too." + +"Why," resumed Cecil hurriedly, "has this come to pass? Why has it been +my unlucky destiny, that the man I love and honour above all others +should become my rival? Are there no other women in the world? Tell me, +Sam, why is it forced on me to choose between my best friend and the +woman I love dearer than life? Why has this terrible emergency come +between us?" + +"I will tell you why," said Sam, speaking very quietly, as though +fearing to awaken the dead: "to teach us to behave like men of honour +and gentlemen, though our hearts break. That is why, Cecil." + +"What shall we do?" said Cecil. + +"Easily answered," said Sam. "Let her decide for herself. It may be, +mind you, that she will have neither of us. There has been one living +in the house with her lately, far superior in every point to you or I. +How if she thought fit to prefer him?" + +"Halbert!" + +"Yes, Halbert! What more likely? Let you and I find out the truth, +Cecil, like men, and abide by it. Let each one ask her in his turn what +chance he has." + +"Who first?" + +"See here," said Sam; "draw one of these pieces of grass out of my +hand. If you draw the longest piece ask her at once. Will you abide by +this?" + +He said "yes," and drew--the longest piece. + +"That is well," said Sam. "And now no more of this at present. I will +sling this poor little fellow in my blanket and carry him home to his +mother. See, Cecil, what is Rover at?" + +Rover was on his hind legs against the tree, smelling at something. +When they came to look, there was a wee little grey bear perched in the +hollow of the tree. + +"What a very strange place for a young bear!" said Cecil. + +"Depend on it," said Sam, "that the child had caught it from its dam, +and brought it up here. Take it home with you, Cecil, and give it to +Alice." + +Cecil took the little thing home, and in time it grew to be between +three and four feet high, a grandfather of bears. The magpie protested +against his introduction to the establishment, and used to pluck +billfulls of hair from his stomach under pretence of lining a nest, +which was never made. But in spite of this, the good gentle beast lived +nigh as long as the magpie--long enough to be caressed by the waxen +fingers of little children, who would afterwards gather round their +father, and hear how the bear had been carried to the mountains in the +bosom of the little boy who lost his way on the granite ranges, and +went to heaven, in the year that the bushrangers came down. + +Sam carried the little corpse back in his blanket, and that evening +helped the father to bury it by the river side. Under some fern trees +they buried him, on a knoll which looked across the river, into the +treacherous beautiful forest which had lured him to his destruction. + +Alice was very sad for a day or two, and thought and talked much about +this sad accident, but soon she recovered her spirits again. And it +fell out, that a bare week after this, the party being all out in one +direction or another, that Cecil saw Alice alone in the garden, tending +her flowers, and knew that the time was come for him to keep his +bargain with Sam and speak to her. He felt like a man who was being led +to execution; but screwed his courage to the highest point, and went +down to where she was tying up a rose-tree. + +"Miss Brentwood," he said, "I am come to petition for a flower." + +"You shall have a dozen, if you will," she answered. "Help yourself; +will you have a peony or a sunflower? If you have not made up your +mind, let me recommend a good large yellow sunflower." + +Here was a pretty beginning! + +"Miss Brentwood, don't laugh at me, but listen to me a moment. I love +you above all earthly things besides. I worship the ground you walk on. +I loved you from the first moment I saw you. I shall love you as well, +ay, better, if that could be, on the day my heart is still, and my hand +is cold for ever: can you tell me to hope? Don't drive me, by one hasty +half-considered word, to despair and misery for the rest of my life. +Say only one syllable of encouragement, and I will bide your time for +years and years." + +Alice was shocked and stunned. She saw he was in earnest, by his looks, +and by his hurried, confused way of speaking. She feared she might have +been to blame, and have encouraged him in her thoughtlessness, more +than she ought. "I will make him angry with me," she said to herself. +"I will treat him to ridicule. It is the only chance, poor fellow!" + +"Mr. Mayford," she said, "if I thought you were in jest, I should feel +it necessary to tell my father and brother that you had been +impertinent. I can only believe that you are in earnest, and I deeply +regret that your personal vanity should have urged you to take such an +unwarrantable liberty with a girl you have not yet known for ten days." + +He turned and left her without a word, and she remained standing where +she was, half inclined to cry, and wondering if she had acted right on +the spur of the moment--sometimes half inclined to believe that she had +been unladylike and rude. When a thing of this kind takes place, both +parties generally put themselves in immediate correspondence with a +confidant. Miss Smith totters into the apartments of her dearest +friend, and falls weeping on the sofa, while Jones rushes madly into +Brown's rooms in the Temple, and, shying his best hat into the +coalscuttle, announces that there is nothing now left for him but to +drown the past in debauchery. Whereupon Brown, if he is a good fellow, +as all the Browns are, produces the whisky and hears all about it. + +So in the present instance two people were informed of what had taken +place before they went to bed that night; and those two were Jim and +Doctor Mulhaus. Alice had stood where Cecil had left her, thinking, +could she confide it to Mrs. Buckley, and ask for advice. But Mrs. +Buckley had been a little cross to her that week for some reason, and +so she was afraid; and, not knowing anybody else well enough, began to +cry. + +There was a noise of horses' feet just beyond the fence, and a voice +calling to her to come. It was Jim, and, drying her eyes, she went out, +and he, dismounting, put his arm round her waist and kissed her. + +"Why, my beauty," he said, "who has been making you cry?" + +She put her head on his shoulder and began sobbing louder than ever. +"Cecil Mayford," she said in a whisper. + +"Well, and what the d----l has he been at?" said Jim, in a rather +startling tone. + +"Wants to marry me," she answered, in a whisper, and hid her face in +his coat. + +"The deuce doubt he does," said Jim; "who does not? What did you tell +him?" + +"I told him that I wondered at his audacity." + +"Sent him off with a flea in his ear, in fact," said Jim. "Well, quite +right. I suppose you would do the same for any man?" + +"Certainly I should," she said, looking up. + +"If Doctor Mulhaus, now,--eh?" + +"I'd box his ears, Jim," she said, laughing; "I would, indeed." + +"Or Sam Buckley; would you box his ears, if he were to--you know?" + +"Yes," she said. But there spread over her face a sudden crimson blush, +like the rosy arch which heralds the tropical sun, which made Jim laugh +aloud. + +"If you dared to say a word, Jim," she said, "I would never, never--" + +Poor Cecil had taken his horse and had meant to ride home, but came +back again at night, "just," he thought, "to have one more look at her +before he entered on some line of life which would take him far away +from Garoopna and its temptations." + +The Doctor (who has been rather thrust aside lately in the midst of all +this love-making and so on) saw that something had gone very wrong with +Cecil, who was a great friend of his, and, as he could never bear to +see a man in distress without helping him, he encouraged Cecil to +stroll down the garden with him, and then kindly and gently asked him +what was wrong. + +Cecil told him all, from beginning to end, and added that life was over +for him, as far as all pleasure and excitement went; and, in short, +said what we have all said, and had said to us in our time, after a +great disappointment in love; which the Doctor took for exactly what it +was worth, although poor little Cecil's distress was very keen; and, +remembering some old bygone day when he had suffered so himself, he +cast about to find some comfort for him. + +"You will get over this, my boy," said he, "if you would only believe +it." + +"Never, never!" said Cecil. + +"Let me tell you a story, as we walk up and down. If it does not +comfort you, it will amuse you. How sweet the orange bloom smells! +Listen:--Had not the war broke out so suddenly, I should have been +married, two months to a day, before the battle of Saarbruck. Catherine +was a distant cousin, beautiful and talented, about ten years my +junior. Before Heaven, sir, on the word of a gentleman, I never +persecuted her with my addresses, and if either of them ay I did, tell +them from me, sir, that they lie, and I will prove it on their bodies. +Bah! I was forgetting. I, as head of the family, was her guardian, and, +although my younger brother was nearer her age, I courted her, in all +honour and humility proposed to her, and was accepted with even more +willingness than most women condescend to show on such occasions, and +received the hearty congratulations of my brother. Few women were ever +loved better than I loved Catherine. Conceive, Cecil, that I loved her +as well as you love Miss Brentwood, and listen to what follows. + +"The war-cloud burst so suddenly that, leaving my bride that was to be, +to the care of my brother, and putting him in charge over my property, +I hurried off to join the Landsturm, two regiments of which I had put +into a state of efficiency by my sole exertions. + +"You know partly what followed,--in one day an army of 150,000 men +destroyed, the King in flight to Konigsberg, and Prussia a province of +France. + +"I fled, wounded badly, desperate and penniless, from that field. I +learnt from the peasants, that what I had thought to be merely a +serious defeat was an irretrievable disaster; and, in spite of wounds, +hunger, and want of clothes, I held on my way towards home. + +"The enemy were in possession of the country, so I had to travel by +night alone, and beg from such poor cottages as I dared to approach. +Sometimes got a night's rest, but generally lay abroad in the fields. +But at length, after every sort of danger and hardship, I stood above +the broad, sweeping Maine, and saw the towers of my own beloved castle +across the river, perched as of old above the vineyards, looking +protectingly down upon the little town which was clustered on the +river-bank below, and which owned me for its master. + +"I crossed at dusk. I had to act with great caution, for I did not know +whether the French were there or no. I did not make myself known to the +peasant who ferried me over, further than as one from the war, which my +appearance was sufficient to prove. I landed just below a long high +wall which separated the town from the river, and, ere I had time to +decide what I should do first, a figure coming out of an archway caught +me by the hand, and I recognised my own major domo, my foster-brother. + +"'I knew you would come back to me,' he said, 'if it was only as a pale +ghost; though I never believed you dead, and have watched here for you +night and day to stop you.' + +"'Are the French in my castle, then?' + +"'There are worse than the French there,' he said; 'worse than the +devil Bonaparte himself. Treason, treachery, adultery!' + +"'Who has proved false?' I cried. + +"'Your brother! False to his king, to his word, to yourself. He was in +correspondence with the French for six months past, and, now that he +believes you dead, he is living in sin with her who was to have been +your wife.' + +"I did not cry out or faint, or anything of that sort. I only said, 'I +am going to the castle, Fritz,' and he came with me. My brother had +turned him out of the house when he usurped my property, but by a still +faithful domestic we were admitted, and I, knowing every secret passage +in my house, came shoeless from behind some arras, and stood before +them as they sat at supper. I was a ghastly sight. I had not shaved for +a fortnight, and my uniform hung in tatters from my body; round my head +was the same bloody white handkerchief with which I had bound up my +head at Jena. I was deadly pale from hunger, too; and from my entering +so silently they believed they had seen a ghost. My brother rose, and +stood pale and horrified, and Catherine fell fainting on the floor. +This was all my revenge, and ere my brother could speak, I was +gone--away to England, where I had money in the funds, accompanied by +my faithful Max, whom Mary Hawker's father buried in Drumston +churchyard. + +"So in one day I lost a brother, a mistress, a castle, a king, and a +fatherland. I was a ruined, desperate man. And yet I lived to see old +Blucher with his dirty boots on the silken sofas at the Tuileries, and +to become as stout and merry a middle-aged man as any Prussian subject +in her young Majesty's dominions." + + + + +Chapter XXXI + +HOW TOM TROUBRIDGE KEPT WATCH FOR THE FIRST TIME. + + +Human affairs are subject to such an infinite variety of changes and +complications, that any attempt to lay down particular rules for +individual action, under peculiar circumstances, must prove a failure. +Hence I consider proverbs, generally speaking, to be a failure, only +used by weak-minded men, who have no opinion of their own. Thus, if you +have a chance of selling your station at fifteen shillings, and buying +in, close to a new gold-field on the same terms, where fat sheep are +going to the butcher at from eighteen shillings to a pound, butter, +eggs, and garden produce at famine prices, some dolt unsettles you, and +renders you uncertain and miserable by saying that "rolling stone +gathers no moss;" as if you wanted moss! Again, having worked harder +than the Colonial Secretary all the week, and wishing to lie in bed +till eleven o'clock on Sunday, a man comes into your room at half-past +seven, on a hot morning, when your only chance is to sleep out an hour +or so of the heat, and informs you that the "early bird gets the +worms." I had a partner, who bought in after Jim Stockbridge was +killed, who was always flying this early bird, when he couldn't sleep +for musquitoes. I have got rid of him now; but for the two years he was +with me, the dearest wish of my heart was that my tame magpie Joshua +could have had a quiet two minutes with that early bird before any one +was up to separate them. I rather fancy he would have been spoken of as +"the late early bird" after that. In short, I consider proverbs as the +refuge of weak minds. + +The infinite sagacity of the above remarks cannot be questioned; their +application may. I will proceed to give it. I have written down the +above tirade nearly, as far as I can guess, a printed pageful (may be a +little more, looking at it again), in order to call down the wrath of +all wise men, if any such have done me the honour of getting so far in +these volumes, on the most trashy and false proverb of the whole: +"Coming events cast their shadows before." + +Now, they don't, you know. They never did, and never will. I myself +used to be a strong believer in pre-(what's the word?--prevarications, +predestinations)--no--presentiments; until I found by experience that, +although I was always having presentiments, nothing ever came of them. +Sometimes somebody would walk over my grave, and give me a creeping in +the back, which, as far as I can find out, proceeded from not having my +braces properly buttoned behind. Sometimes I have heard the +death-watch, produced by a small spider (may the deuce confound him!), +not to mention many other presentiments and depressions of spirit, +which I am now firmly persuaded proceed from indigestion. I am far from +denying the possibility of a coincidence in point of time between a fit +of indigestion and a domestic misfortune. I am far from denying the +possibility of more remarkable coincidences than that. I have read in +books, novels by the very best French authors, how a man, not heard of +for twenty years, having, in point of fact, been absent during that +time in the interior of Africa, may appear at Paris at a given moment, +only in time to save a young lady from dishonour, and rescue a property +of ten million francs. But these great writers of fiction don't give us +any warning whatever. The door is thrown heavily open, and he stalks up +to the table where the will is lying, quite unexpectedly; stalks up +always, or else strides. (How would it be, my dear Monsieur Dumas, if, +in your next novel, he were to walk in, or run in, or hop in, or, say, +come in on all-fours like a dog?--anything for a change, you know.) And +these masters of fiction are right--"Coming events do not cast their +shadows before." + +If they did, how could it happen that Mary Hawker sat there in her +verandah at Toonarbin singing so pleasantly over her work? And why did +her handsome, kindly face light up with such a radiant smile when she +saw her son Charles come riding along under the shadow of the great +trees only two days after Cecil Mayford had proposed to Alice, and had +been refused? + +He came out of the forest shadow with the westering sunlight upon his +face, riding slowly. She, as she looked, was proud to see what a fine +seat he had on his horse, and how healthy and handsome he looked. + +He rode round to the back of the house, and she went through to meet +him. There was a square court behind, round which the house, huts, and +store formed a quadrangle, neat and bright, with white quartz gravel. +Bythe-bye, there was a prospecting party who sank two or three shafts +in the flat before the house last year; and I saw about eighteen +pennyweights of gold which they took out. But it did not pay, and is +abandoned. (This in passing, A PROPOS of the quartz.) + +"Is Tom Troubridge come home, mother?" said he, as he leaned out of the +saddle to kiss her. + +"Not yet, my boy," she said. "I am all alone. I should have had a dull +week, but I knew you were enjoying yourself with your old friend at +Garoopna. A great party there, I believe?" + +"I am glad to get home, mother," he said. "We were very jolly at first, +but latterly Sam Buckley and Cecil Mayford have been looking at one +another like cat and dog. Stay, though; let me be just; the fierce +looks were all on Cecil Mayford's side." + +"What was the matter?" + +"Alice Brentwood was the matter, I rather suspect," he said, getting +off his horse. "Hold him for me, mother, while I take the saddle off." + +She did as requested. "And so they two are at loggerheads, eh, about +Miss Brentwood? Of course. And what sort of a girl is she?" + +"Oh, very pretty; deuced pretty, in fact. But there is one there takes +my fancy better." + +"Who is she?" + +"Ellen Mayford; the sweetest little mouse----Dash it all; look at this +horse's back. That comes of that infernal flash military groom of Jim's +putting on the saddle without rubbing his back down. Where is the +bluestone?" + +She went in and got it for him as naturally as if it was her place to +obey, and his to command. She always waited on him, as a matter of +course, save when Tom Troubridge was with them, who was apt to rap out +something awkward about Charles being a lazy young hound, and about his +waiting on himself, whenever he saw Mary yielding to that sort of thing. + +"I wonder when Tom will be back?" resumed Charles. + +"I have been expecting him this last week; he may come any night. I +hope he will not meet any of those horrid bushrangers." + +"Hope not either," said Charles; "they would have to go a hundred or +two of miles out of their way to make it likely. Driving rams is slow +work; they may not be here for a week." + +"A nice price he has paid!" + +"It will pay in the end, in the quality of the wool," said Charles. + +They sat in silence. A little after, Charles had turned his horse out, +when at once, without preparation, he said to her,-- + +"Mother, how long is it since my father died?" + +She was very much startled. He had scarcely ever alluded to his father +before; but she made shift to answer him quietly. + +"How old are you?" + +"Eighteen!" he said. + +"Then he has been dead eighteen years. He died just as you were born. +Never mention him, lad. He was a bad man, and by God's mercy you are +delivered from him." + +She rose and went into the house quite cheerfully. Why should she not? +Why should not a handsome, still young, wealthy widow be cheerful? For +she was a widow. For years after settling at Toonarbin, she had +contrived, once in two or three years, to hear some news of her +husband. After about ten years, she heard that he had been reconvicted, +and sentenced to the chain-gang for life; and lastly, that he was dead. +About his being sentenced for life, there was no doubt, for she had a +piece of newspaper which told of his crime,--and a frightful piece of +villany it was,--and after that, the report of his death was so +probable that no one for an instant doubted its truth. Men did not live +long in the chain-gang, in Van Diemen's Land, in those days, brother. +Men would knock out one another's brains in order to get hung, and +escape it. Men would cry aloud to the judge to hang them out of the +way! It was the most terrible punishment known, for it was hopeless. +Penal servitude for life, as it is now, gives the very faintest idea of +what it used to be in old times. With a little trouble I could tell you +the weight of iron carried by each man. I cannot exactly remember, but +it would strike you as being incredible. They were chained two and two +together (a horrible association), to lessen the chances of escape; +there was no chance of mitigation for good conduct; there was hard +mechanical, uninteresting work, out of doors in an inclement climate, +in all weathers: what wonder if men died off like rotten sheep? And +what wonder, too, if sometimes the slightest accident,--such as a blow +from an overseer, returned by a prisoner, produced a sudden rising, +un-preconcerted, objectless, the result of which were half a dozen +murdered men, as many lunatic women, and five or six stations lighting +up the hill-side, night after night, while the whole available force of +the colony was unable to stop the ruin for months? + +But to the point. Mary was a widow. When she heard of her husband's +death, she had said to herself, "Thank God!" But when she had gone to +her room, and was sat a-thinking, she seemed to have had another +husband before she was bound up with that desperate, coining, forging +George Hawker--another husband bearing the same name; but surely that +handsome curly-headed young fellow, who used to wait for her so +patiently in the orchard at Drumston, was not the same George Hawker as +this desperate convict? She was glad the convict was dead and out of +the way; there was no doubt of that; but she could still find a corner +in her heart to be sorry for her poor old lover,--her handsome old +lover,--ah me! + +But that even was passed now, and George Hawker was as one who had +never lived. Now on this evening we speak of, his memory came back just +an instant, as she heard the boy speak of the father, but it was gone +again directly. She called her servants, and was telling them to bring +supper, when Charles looked suddenly in, and said,--"Here they are!" + +There they were, sure enough, putting the rams into the sheep-yard. Tom +Troubridge, as upright, bravelooking a man as ever, and, thanks to +bush-work, none the fatter. William Lee, one of our oldest +acquaintances, was getting a little grizzled, but otherwise looked as +broad and as strong as ever. + +They rode into the yard, and Lee took the horses. + +"Well, cousin," said Tom; "I am glad to see you again." + +"You are welcome home, Tom; you have made good speed." + +Tom and Charles went into the house, and Mary was about following them, +when Lee said, in so low a tone, that it did not reach the +others,--"Mrs. Hawker!" + +She turned round and looked at him, she had welcomed him kindly when he +came into the yard with Tom, and yet he stood still on horseback, +holding Tom's horse by the bridle. A stern, square-looking figure he +was; and when she looked at his face, she was much troubled, at--she +knew not what. + +"Mrs. Hawker," he said, "can you give me the favour of ten minutes' +conversation, alone this evening?" + +"Surely, William, now!" + +"Not now,--my story is pretty long, and, what is more, ma'am, somebody +may be listening, and what I have got to tell you must be told in no +ear but your own." + +"You frighten me, Lee! You frighten me to death." + +"Don't get frightened, Mrs. Hawker. Remember if anything comes about, +that you have good friends about you; and, that I, William Lee, am not +the worst of them." + +Lee went off with the horses, and Mary returned to the house. What +mystery had this man to tell her, "that no one might hear but +she"?--very strange and alarming! Was he drunk?--no, he was evidently +quite sober; as she looked out once more, she could see him at the +stable, cool and self-possessed, ordering the lads about: something +very strange and terrifying to one who had such a dark blot in her life. + +But she went in, and as she came near the parlour, she heard Charles +and Tom roaring with laughter. As she opened the door she heard Tom +saying: "And, by Jove, I sat there like a great snipe, face to face +with him, as cool and unconcerned as you like. I took him for a flash +overseer, sporting his salary, and I was as thick as you like with him. +And 'Matey,' says I, (you see I was familiar, he seemed such a jolly +sort of bird), 'Matey, what station are you on?' 'Maraganoa,' says he. +'So,' says I, 'you're rather young there, ain't you? I was by there a +fortnight ago.' He saw he'd made a wrong move, and made it worse. 'I +mean,' says he, 'Maraganoa on the Clarence side.' 'Ah!' says I, 'in the +Cedar country?' 'Precisely,' says he. And there we sat drinking +together, and I had no more notion of its being him than you would have +had." + +She sat still listening to him, eating nothing. Lee's words outside +had, she knew not why, struck a chill into her heart, and as she +listened to Tom's story, although she could make nothing of it, she +felt as though getting colder and colder. She shivered, although the +night was hot. Through the open window she could hear all those +thousand commingled indistinguishable sounds that make the night-life +of the bush, with painful distinctness. She arose and went to the +window. + +The night was dark and profoundly still. The stars were overhead, +though faintly seen through a haze; and beyond the narrow enclosures in +front of the house, the great forest arose like a black wall. Tom and +Charles went on talking inside, and yet, though their voices were loud, +she was hardly conscious of hearing them, but found herself watching +the high dark wood and listening to the sound of the frogs in the +creek, and the rustle of a million crawling things, heard only in the +deep stillness of night. + +Deep in the forest somewhere, a bough cracked, and fell crashing, then +all was silent again. Soon arose a wind, a partial wandering wind, +which came slowly up, and, rousing the quivering leaves to life for a +moment, passed away; then again a silence, deeper than ever, so that +she could hear the cattle and horses feeding in the lower paddock, a +quarter of a mile off; then a low wail in the wood, then two or three +wild weird yells, as of a devil in torment, and a pretty white curlew +skirled over the housetop to settle on the sheepwash dam. + +The stillness was awful; it boded a storm, for behind the forest blazed +up a sheet of lightning, showing the shape of each fantastic elevated +bough. Then she turned round to the light, and said,-- + +"My dear partner, I had a headache, and went to the window. What was +the story you were telling Charles, just now? Who was the man you met +in the publichouse, who seems to have frightened you so?" + +"No less a man than Captain Touan, my dear cousin!" said Tom, leaning +back with the air of a man who has made a point, and would be glad to +hear "what you have to say to that, sir." + +"Touan?" repeated Mary. "Why, that's the great bushranger, that is out +to the north; is it not?" + +"The same man, cousin! And there I sat hob and nob with him for half an +hour in the 'Lake George' public-house. If Desborough had come in, he'd +have hung me for being found in bad company. Ha! ha! ha!" + +"My dear partner," she said, "what a terrible escape! Suppose he had +risen on you?" + +"Why I'd have broken his back, cousin," said Tom, "unless my right hand +had forgot her cunning. He is a fine man of his weight: but, Lord, in a +struggle for life and death, I could break his neck, and have one more +claim on Heaven for doing so; for he is the most damnable villain that +ever disgraced God's earth, and that is the truth. That man, cousin, in +one of his devil's raids, tore a baby from its mother's breast by the +leg, dashed its brains out against a tree, and then--I daren't tell a +woman what happened." [Note: Tom was confusing Touan with Michael Howe. +The latter actually did commit this frightful atrocity; but I never +heard that the former actually combined the two crimes in this way.] + +"Tom! Tom!" said Mary, "how can you talk of such things?" + +"To show you what we have to expect if he comes this way, cousin; that +is all." + +"And is there any possibility of such a thing?" asked Mary. + +"Why not? Why should he not pay us the compliment of looking round this +way?" + +"Why do they call him Touan, Tom?" asked Charles. + +"Can't, you see," said Tom, "the Touan, the little grey flying +squirrel, only begins to fly about at night, and slides down from his +bough sudden and sharp. This fellow has made some of his most terrible +raids at night, and so he got the name of Touan." + +"God deliver us from such monsters!" said Mary, and left the room. + +She went into the kitchen. Lee sat there smoking. When she came in he +rose, and, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, touched his forehead and +stood looking at her. + +"Now then, old friend," she said, "come here." + +He followed her out. She led the way swiftly, through the silent night, +across the yard, over a small paddock, up to the sheep-yard beside the +woolshed. There she turned shortly round, and, leaning on the fence, +said abruptly-- + +"No one can hear us here, William Lee. Now, what have you to say?" + +He seemed to hesitate a moment, and then began: "Mrs. Hawker, have I +been a good servant to you?" + +"Honest, faithful, kindly, active; who could have been a better servant +than you, William Lee! A friend, and not a servant; God is my witness; +now then?" + +"I am glad to hear you say so," he answered. "I did you a terrible +injury once; I have often been sorry for it since I knew you, but it +cannot be mended now." + +"Since you knew me?" she said. "Why, you have known me ever since I +have been in the country, and you have never injured me since then, +surely." + +"Ay, but at home," he said. "In England. In Devonshire." + +"My God!" + +"I was your husband's companion in all his earlier villanies. I +suggested them to him, and egged him on. And now, mind you, after +twenty years, my punishment is coming." + +She could only say still, "My God!" while her throat was as dry as a +kiln. + +"Listen to what I have got to tell you now. Hear it all in order, and +try to bear up, and use your common sense and courage. As I said +before, you have good friends around you, and you at least are +innocent." + +"Guilty! guilty!" she cried. "Guilty of my father's death! Read me this +horrible riddle, Lee." + +"Wait and listen," said Lee, unable to forego, even in her terror, the +great pleasure that all his class have of spinning a yarn, and using as +many words as possible. "See here. We came by Lake George, you know, +and heard everywhere accounts of a great gang of bushrangers being out. +So we didn't feel exactly comfortable, you see. We came by a bush +public-house, and Mr. Troubridge stops, and says he, 'Well, lad, +suppose we yard these rams an hour, and take drink in the parlour?' +'All right,' I says, with a wink, 'but the tap for me, if you please. +That's my place, and I'd like to see if I can get any news of the +whereabouts of the lads as are sticking up all round, because, if +they're one way, I'd as lief be another.' 'All right,' says he. So in I +goes, and sits down. There was nobody there but one man, drunk under +the bench. And I has two noblers of brandy, and one of Old Tom; no, two +Old Toms it was, and a brandy; when in comes an old chap as I knew for +a lag in a minute. Well, he and I cottoned together, and found out that +we had been prisoners together five-and-twenty years agone. And so I +shouted for him, and he for me, and at last I says, 'Butty,' says I, +'who are these chaps round here on the lay' (meaning, Who are the +bushrangers)? And he says, 'Young 'uns--no one as we know.' And I says, +'Not likely, matey; I've been on the square this twenty year.' 'Same +here,' says the old chap; 'give us your flipper. And now,' says he, +'what sort of a cove is your boss' (meaning Mr. Troubridge)? 'One of +the real right sort,' says I. 'Then see here,' says he, 'I'll tell you +something: the head man of that there gang is at this minute a-sitting +yarning with your boss in the parlour.' 'The devil!' says I. 'Is so,' +says he, 'and no flies.' So I sings out, 'Mr. Troubridge, those sheep +will be out;' and out he came running, and I whispers to him, 'Mind the +man you're sitting with, and leave me to pay the score.' So he goes +back, and presently he sings out, 'Will, have you got any money?' And I +says, 'Yes, thirty shillings.' 'Then,' says he, 'pay for this, and come +along.' And thinks I, I'll go in and have a look at this great new +captain of bushrangers; so I goes to the parlour door, and now who do +you think I saw?" + +"I know," she said. "It was that horrible villain they call Touan." + +"The same man," he answered. "Do you know who he is?" + +She found somehow breath to say, "How can I? How is it possible?" + +"I will tell you," said Lee. "There, sitting in front of Mr. +Troubridge, hardly altered in all these long years, sat George Hawker, +formerly of Drumston,--your husband!" + +She gave a low cry, and beat the hard rail with her head till it bled. +Then, turning fiercely round, she said, in a voice hoarse and strangely +altered,-- + +"Have you anything more to tell me, you croaking raven?" + +He had something more to tell, but he dared not speak now. So he said, +"Nothing at present, but if laying down my life----" + +She did not wait to hear him, but, with her hands clasped above her +head, she turned and walked swiftly towards the house. She could not +cry, or sob, or rave; she could only say, "Let it fall on me, O God, on +me!" over and over again. + +Also, she was far too crushed and stunned to think precisely what it +was she dreaded so. It seemed afterwards, as Frank Maberly told me, +that she had an indefinable horror of Charles meeting his father, and +of their coming to know one another. She half feared that her husband +would appear and carry away her son with him, and even if he did not, +the lad was reckless enough as it was, without being known and pointed +at through the country as the son of Hawker the bushranger. + +These were after-thoughts, however; at present she leaned giddily +against the house-side, trying, in the wild hurrying night-rack of her +thoughts, to distinguish some tiny star of hope, or even some glimmer +of reason. Impossible! Nothing but swift, confused clouds everywhere, +driving wildly on,--whither? + +But a desire came upon her to see her boy again, and compare his face +to his father's. So she slid quietly into the room where Tom and +Charles were still talking together of Tom's adventure, and sat looking +at the boy, pretending to work. As she came in, he was laughing loudly +at something, and his face was alive and merry. "He is not like what +his father was at his age," she said. + +But they continued their conversation. "And now, what sort of man was +he, Tom?" said Charles. "Was he like any one you ever saw?" + +"Why, no. Stay, let's see. Do you know, he was something like you in +the face." + +"Thank you!" said Charles, laughing. "Wait till I get a chance of +paying you a compliment, old fellow. A powerful fellow--eh?" + +"Why, yes,--a tough-looking subject," said Tom. + +"I shouldn't have much chance with him, I suppose?" + +"No; he'd be too powerful for you, Charley." + +A change came over his face, a dark, fierce look. Mary could see the +likeness NOW plain enough, and even Tom looked at him for an instant +with a puzzled look. + +"Nevertheless," continued Charles, "I would have a turn with him if I +met him; I'd try what six inches of cold steel between----" + +"Forbear, boy! Would you have the roof fall in and crush you dead?" +said Mary, in a voice that appalled both of them. "Stop such foolish +talk, and pray that we may be delivered from the very sight of these +men, and suffered to get away to our graves in peace, without any more +of these horrors and surprises. I would sooner," she said, increasing +in rapidity as she went on, "I would far sooner, live like some one I +have heard of, with a sword above his head, than thus. If he comes and +looks on me, I shall die." + +She had risen and stood in the firelight, deadly pale. Somehow one of +the bands of her long black hair had fallen down, and half covered her +face. She looked so unearthly that, coupling her appearance with the +wild, senseless words she had been uttering, Tom had a horrible +suspicion that she was gone mad. + +"Cousin," he said, "let me beseech you to go to bed. Charles, run for +Mrs. Barker. Mary," he added, as soon as he was gone, "come away, or +you'll be saying something before that boy you'll be sorry for. You're +hysterical; that's what is the matter with you. I am afraid we have +frightened you by our talk about bushrangers." + +"Yes, that is it! that is it!" she said; and then, suddenly, "Oh! my +dear old friend, you will not desert me?" + +"Never, Mary; but why ask such a question now?" + +"Ask Lee," she said, and the next moment Mrs. Barker, the housekeeper, +came bustling in with smelling salts, and so on, to minister to a mind +diseased. And Mary was taken off to bed. + +"What on earth can be the matter with her, cousin Tom?" said Charles +when she was gone. + +"She is out of sorts, and got hysterical; that's what it is," said Tom. + +"What odd things she said!" + +"Women do when they are hysterical. It's nothing more than that." + +But Mrs. Barker came in with a different opinion. She said that Mary +was very hot and restless, and had very little doubt that a fever was +coming on. "Terribly shaken she had been," said Mrs. Barker, "hoped +nothing was wrong." + +"There's something decidedly wrong, if your mistress is going to have a +fever," said Tom. "Charley, do you think Doctor Mulhaus is at Baroona +or Garoopna?" + +"Up at the Major's," said Charles, "Shall I ride over for him? There +will be a good moon in an hour." + +"Yes," said Tom, "and fetch him over at once. Tell him we think it's a +fever, and he will know what to bring. Ride like h----l, Charley." + +As soon as he was alone, he began thinking. "What the DOOSE is the +matter?" was his first exclamation, and, after half-an-hour's +cogitation, only had arrived at the same point, "What the DOOSE is the +matter?" Then it flashed across him, what did she mean by "ask Lee?" +Had she any meaning in it, or was it nonsense? There was an easy +solution for it; namely, TO ask Lee. And so arising he went across the +yard to the kitchen. + +Lee was bending low over the fire, smoking. "William," said Tom, "I +want to see you in the parlour." + +"I was thinking of coming across myself," said Lee; "In fact I should +have come when I had finished my pipe." + +"Bring your pipe across, then," said Tom. "Girl, take in some hot water +and tumblers." + +"Now, Lee," said Tom, as soon as Lee had gone through the ceremony of +"Well, here's my respex, sir," "Now Lee, you have heard how ill the +mistress is." + +"I have indeed, sir," said he; "and very sorry I am, as I am partly the +cause of it." + +"All that simplifies matters, Will, considerably," said Tom. "I must +tell you that when I asked her what put her in that state, she said, +'ask Lee.'" + +"Shows her sense, sir. What she means is, that you ought to hear what +she and I have heard; and I mean to tell you more than I have her. If +she knew everything, I am afraid it would kill her." + +"Ay! I know nothing as yet, you know." + +Lee in the first place put him in possession of what we already +know--the fact of Hawker's reappearance, and his identity with "The +Touan;" then he paused. + +"This is very astonishing, and very terrible, Lee," said he. "Is there +anything further?" + +"Yes, the worst. That man has followed us home!" + +Tom had exhausted all his expressions of astonishment and dismay before +this; so now he could only give a long whistle, and say, "Followed us +home?" + +"Followed us home!" said Lee. "As we were passing the black swamp, not +two miles from here, this very morning, I saw that man riding parallel +with us through the bush." + +"Why did not you tell me before?" + +"Because I had not made up my mind how to act. First I resolved to tell +the mistress; that I did. Then after I had smoked a pipe, I resolved to +tell you, and that I did, and now here we are, you see." + +That was undeniable. There they were, with about as pretty a +complication of mischief to unravel as two men could wish to have. Tom +felt so foolish and nonplussed, that he felt inclined to laugh at Lee +when he said, "Here we are." It so exactly expressed the state of the +case; as if he had said, "All so and so has happened, and a deuce of a +job it is, and here sit you and I, to deliberate what's to be done with +regard to so and so." + +He did not laugh, however; he bit his lip, and stopped it. Then he +rose, and, leaning his great shoulders against the mantelpiece, stood +before the fireless grate, and looked at Lee. Lee also looked at him, +and I think that each one thought what a splendid specimen of his style +the other was. If they did not think so, "they ought to it," as the +Londoners say. But neither spoke a few minutes; then Tom said,-- + +"Lee, Will Lee, though you came to me a free man, and have served me +twenty years, or thereabouts, as free man, I don't conceal from myself +the fact that you have been convict. Pish, man! don't let us mince +matters now,--a lag." + +Lee looked him full in the face, without changing countenance, and +nodded. + +"Convicted more than once, too," continued Tom. + +"Three times," said Lee. + +"Ah!" said Tom. "And if a piece of work was set before me to do, which +required pluck, honesty, courage, and cunning, and one were to say to +me, 'Who will you have to help you?' I would answer out boldly, 'Give +me Will Lee the lag; my old friend, who has served me so true and +hearty these twenty years.'" + +"And you'd do right, sir," said Lee quietly. And rising up, he stood +beside Tom, with one foot on the fender, bending down and looking into +the empty grate. + +"Now, Will," said Tom, turning round and laying his hand on his +shoulder, "this fellow has followed us home, having found out who we +were. Why has he done so?" + +"Evident," said Lee, "to work on the fears of the mistress, and get +some money from her." + +"Good!" said Tom. "Well answered. We shall get to the bottom of our +difficulty like this. Only answer the next question as well, and I will +call you a Poly--, Poly--; d--n the Greek." + +"Not such a bad name as that, I hope, sir," said Lee smiling. "Who +might she have been? A bad un, I expect. You don't happen to refer to +Hobart-town Polly, did you, sir?" + +"Hold your tongue, you villain," said Tom, "or you'll make me laugh; +and these are not laughing times." + +"Well, what is your question, sir?" asked Lee. + +"Why, simply this: What are we to do?" + +"I'll tell you," said Lee, speaking in an animated whisper. "Watch, +watch, and watch again, till you catch him. Tie him tight, and hand him +over to Captain Desborough. He may be about the place tonight: he will +be sure to be. Let us watch to-night, you and I, and for many nights, +till we catch him." + +"But," whispered Tom, "he will be hung." + +"He has earned it," said Lee. "Let him be hung." + +"But he is her husband," urged Tom, in a whisper. "He is that boy's +father. I cannot do it. Can't we buy him off?" + +"Yes," answered Lee in the same tone, "till his money is gone. Then you +will have a chance of doing it again, and again, all your life." + +"This is a terrible dilemma," said Tom; and added in a perplexity +almost comical, "Drat the girl! Why did'nt she marry poor old Jim +Stockbridge, or sleepy Hamlyn, or even your humble servant? Though, in +all honour, I must confess that I never asked her, as those two others +did. No! I'll tell you what, Lee: we will watch for him, and catch him +if we can. After that we will think what is to be done. By-the-bye, I +have been going to ask you:--do you think he recognised you at the +public-house there?" + +"That puzzles me," said Lee. "He looked me in the face, but I could not +see that he did. I wonder if he recognised you?" + +"I never saw him in my life before," said Tom. "It is very likely that +he knew me, though. I was champion of Devon and Cornwall, you know, +before little Abraham Cann kicked my legs from under me that unlucky +Easter Monday. (The deuce curl his hair for doing it!) I never forgave +him till I heard of that fine bit of play with Polkinghorn. Yes! he +must have known me." + +Lee lit the fire, while Tom, blowing out the candles, drew the +curtains, so that any one outside could not see into the room. +Nevertheless, he left the French window open, and then went outside, +and secured all the dogs in the dog-house. + +The night was wonderfully still and dark. As he paused before entering +the house, he could hear the bark falling from the trees a quarter of a +mile off, and the opossums scratching and snapping little twigs as they +passed from bough to bough. Somewhere, apparently at an immense +distance, a morepork was chanting his monotonous cry. The frogs in the +creek were silent even, so hot was the night. "A good night for +watching," said he to Lee when he came in. "Lie you down; I'll take the +first watch." + +They blew out the candle, and Lee was in the act of lying down, when he +arrested himself, and held up his finger to Tom. + +They both listened, motionless and in silence, until they could hear +the spiders creeping on the ceiling. There it was again! A stealthy +step on the gravel. + +Troubridge and Lee crouched down breathless. One minute, two, five, but +it did not come again. At length they both moved, as if by concert, and +Lee said, "'Possum." + +"Not a bit," said Troubridge; and then Lee lay down again, and slept in +the light of the flickering fire. One giant arm was thrown around his +head, and the other hung down in careless grace; the great chest was +heaved up, and the head thrown back; the seamed and rugged features +seemed more stern and marked than ever in the chiaroscuro; and the +whole man was a picture of reckless strength such as one seldom sees. +Tom had dozed and had awoke again, and now sat thinking, "What a +terrible tough customer that fellow would be!" when suddenly he +crouched on the floor, and, reaching out his hand, touched Lee, who +woke, and silently rolled over with his face towards the window. + +There was no mistake this time--that was no opossum. There came the +stealthy step again; and now, as they lay silent, the glass-door was +pushed gently open, showing the landscape beyond. The gibbous moon was +just rising over the forest, all blurred with streaky clouds, and +between them and her light they could see the figure of a man, standing +inside the room. + +Tom could wait no longer. He started up, and fell headlong with a crash +over a little table that stood in his way. They both dashed into the +garden, but only in time to hear flying footsteps, and immediately +after the gallop of a horse, the echoes of which soon died away, and +all was still. + +"Missed him, by George!" said Lee. "It was a precious close thing, +though. What could he mean by coming into the house,--eh?" + +"Just as I expected; trying to get an interview with the mistress. He +will be more cautious in future, I take it." + +"I wonder if he will try again?" + +"Don't know," said Troubridge; "he might: not to-night, however." + +They went in and lay down again, and Troubridge was soon asleep; and +very soon that sleep was disturbed by dreadful dreams. At one time he +thought he was riding madly through the bush for his bare life; +spurring on a tired horse, which was failing every moment more and +more. But always through the tree-stems on his right he saw glancing, a +ghost on a white horse, which kept pace with him, do what he would. Now +he was among the precipices on the ranges. On his left, a lofty +inaccessible cliff; on the right, a frightful blue abyss; while the +slaty soil kept sliding from beneath his horse's feet. Behind him, +unseen, came a phantom, always gaining on him, and driving him along +the giddiest wallaby tracks. If he could only turn and face it, he +might conquer, but he dare not. At length the path grew narrower and +narrower, and he turned in desperation and awoke--woke to see in the +dim morning light a dark figure bending over him. He sprang up, and +clutched it by the throat. + +"A most excellent fellow this!" said the voice of Doctor Mulhaus. "He +sends a frantic midnight message for his friend to come to him, +regardless of personal convenience and horseflesh; and when this friend +comes quietly in, and tries to wake him without disturbing the sick +folks, he seizes him by the throat and nearly throttles him." + +"I beg a thousand pardons, Doctor," said Tom; "I had been dreaming, and +I took you for the devil. I am glad to find my mistake." + +"You have good reason," said the Doctor; "but now, how is the patient?" + +"Asleep at present, I believe; the housekeeper is with her." + +"What is the matter with her?" + +"She has had a great blow. It has shaken her intellect, I am afraid." + +"What sort of a blow?" asked the Doctor. + +Tom hesitated. He did not know whether to tell him or not. + +"Nay," said the Doctor, "you had better let me know. I can help then, +you know. Now, for instance, has she heard of her husband?" + +"She has, Doctor. How on earth came you to guess that?" + +"A mere guess, though I have always thought it quite possible, as the +accounts of his death were very uncertain." + +Tom then set to work, and told the Doctor all that we know. He looked +very grave. "This is far worse than I had thought," he said, and +remained thoughtful. + +Mary awoke in a fever and delirious. They kept Charles as much from her +as possible, lest she should let drop some hint of the matter to the +boy; but even in her delirium she kept her secret well; and towards the +evening the Doctor, finding her quieter, saddled his horse, and rode +away ten miles to a township, where resided a drunken surgeon, one of +the greatest blackguards in the country. + +The surgeon was at home. He was drunk, of course; he always was, but +hardly more so to-day than usual. So the Doctor hoped for success in +his object, which was to procure a certain drug which was neither in +the medicine-chest at the Buckleys' nor at Toonarbin; and putting on +his sweetest smile when the surgeon came to the door, he made a remark +about the beauty of the weather, to which the other very gruffly +responded. + +"I come to beg a favour," said Doctor Mulhaus. "Can you let me have a +little--so and so?" + +"See you d--d first," was the polite reply. "A man comes a matter of +fourteen thousand miles, makes a pretty little practice, and then gets +it cut into by a parcel of ignorant foreigners, whose own country is +too hot to hold them. And not content with this, they have the brass to +ask for the loan of a man's drugs. As I said before, I'll see you d--d +first, AND THEN I WON'T." And so saying, he slammed the door. + +Doctor Mulhaus was beside himself with rage. For the first and last +time since I have known him he forgot his discretion, and instead of +going away quietly, and treating the man with contempt, he began +kicking at the door, calling the man a scoundrel, &c., and between the +intervals of kicking, roaring through the keyhole, "Bring out your +diploma; do you hear, you impostor?" and then fell to work kicking +again. "Bring out your forged diploma, will you, you villain?" + +This soon attracted the idlers from the public-house: a couple of +sawyers, a shepherd or two, all tipsy, of course, except one of the +sawyers, who was drunk. The drunken sawyer at length made out to his +own complete satisfaction that Doctor Mulhaus' wife was in labour, and +that he was come for the surgeon, who was probably drunk and asleep +inside. So, being able to sympathize, having had his wife in the straw +every thirteen months regularly for the last fifteen years, he prepared +to assist, and for this purpose took a stone about half a +hundredweight, and coming behind the Doctor, when he was in full kick, +he balanced himself with difficulty, and sent it at the lock with all +the force of his arm, and of course broke the door in. In throwing the +stone, he lost his balance, came full butt against Dr. Mulhaus, +propelled him into the passage, into the arms of the surgeon, who was +rushing out infuriated to defend his property, and down went the three +in the passage together, the two doctors beneath, and the drunken +sawyer on the top of them. + +The drunken surgeon, if, to use parliamentary language, he will allow +me to call him so, was of course underneath the others; but, being a +Londoner, and consequently knowing the use of his fists, ere he went +down delivered a "one, two," straight from the shoulder in our poor +dear Doctor's face, and gave him a most disreputable black eye, besides +cutting his upper lip open. This our Doctor, being, you must remember, +a foreigner, and not having the rules of the British Ring before his +eyes, resented by getting on the top of him, taking him round the +throat, and banging the back of his head against the brick floor of the +passage, until he began to goggle his eyes and choke. Meanwhile the +sawyer, exhilarated beyond measure in his drunken mind at having raised +a real good promising row, having turned on his back, lay procumbent +upon the twain, and kicking everything soft or human he came across +with his heels, struck up "The Bay of Biscay, Oh," until he was dragged +forth by two of his friends; and, being in a state of wild excitement, +ready to fight the world, hit his own mate a violent blow in the eye, +and was only quieted by receiving a sound thrashing, and being placed +in a sitting posture in the verandah of the public house, from which he +saw Doctor Mulhaus come forth from the surgeon's with rumpled feathers, +but triumphant. + +I am deeply grieved to have recorded the above scene, but I could not +omit it. Having undertaken to place the character of that very noble +gentleman, Doctor Mulhaus, before my readers, I was forced not to omit +this. As a general rule, he was as self-contained, as calm and as +frigid as the best Englishman among us. But under all this there was, +to speak in carefullyselected scientific language, a substratum of +pepper-box, which has been apparent to me on more than one occasion. I +have noticed the above occasion per force. Let the others rest in +oblivion. A man so true, so wise, so courteous, and so kindly, needs +not my poor excuses for having once in a way made a fool of himself. He +will read this, and he will be angry with me for a time, but he knows +well that I, like all who knew him, say heartily, God bless you, old +Doctor! + +But the consequences of the above were, I am sorry to say, eminently +disastrous. The surgeon got a warrant against Doctor Mulhaus for +burglary with violence, and our Doctor got a warrant against him for +assault with intent to rob. So there was the deuce to pay. The affair +got out of the hands of the Bench. In fact they sent BOTH parties for +trial, (what do you think of that, my Lord Campbell?) in order to ge +rid of the matter, and at sessions, the surgeon swore positively that +Doctor Mulhaus had, assisted by a convict, battered his door down with +stones in open day, and nearly murdered him. Then in defence Doctor +Mulhaus called the sawyer, who, as it happened, had just completed a +contract for fencing for Mrs. Mayford, the proceeds of which bargain he +was spending at the public-house when the thing happened, and had just +undertaken another for one of the magistrates; having also a large +family dependent on him; being, too, a man who prided himself in +keeping an eye to windward, and being slightly confused by a trifling +attack of delirium tremens (diddleums, he called it): he, I say, to our +Doctor's confusion and horror, swore positively that he never took a +stone in his hand on the day in question; that he never saw a stone for +a week before or after that date; that he did not deny having rushed +into the passage to assist the complainant (drunken surgeon), seeing +him being murdered by defendant; and, lastly, that he was never near +the place on the day specified. So it would have gone hard with our +Doctor, had not his Honour called the jury's attention to the +discrepancies in this witness's evidence; and when Dr. Mulhaus was +acquitted, delivered a stinging reproof to the magistrates for wasting +public time by sending such a trumpery case to a jury. But, on the +other hand, Dr. Mulhaus' charge of assault with intent fell dead; so +that neither party had much to boast of. + +The night or so after the trial was over, the Doctor came back to +Toonarbin, in what he intended for a furious rage. But, having told Tom +Troubridge the whole affair, and having unluckily caught Tom's eye, +they two went off into such hearty fits of laughter that poor Mary, now +convalescent, but still in bed, knocked at the wall to know what the +matter was. + + + + +Chapter XXXII + +WHICH IS THE LAST CHAPTER BUT ONE IN THE SECOND VOLUME. + + +The state of terror and dismay into which poor Mary Hawker was thrown +on finding that her husband, now for many years the BETE NOIR of her +existence, was not only alive, but promising fairly to cause her more +trouble than ever he did before, superadded, let me say, for mere +truth's sake, to a slight bilious attack, brought on by good living and +want of exercise, threw her into a fever, from which, after several +days' delirium, she rose much shattered, and looking suddenly older. +All this time the Doctor, like a trusty dog, had kept his watch, and +done more, and with a better will than any paid doctor would have been +likely to do. He was called away a good deal by the prosecution arising +out of that unhappy affair with the other doctor, and afterwards with a +prosecution for perjury, which he brought against the sawyer; but he +was generally back at night, and was so kind, so attentive, and so +skilful that Mary took it into her head, and always affirmed +afterwards, that she owed her life to him. + +She was not one to receive any permanent impression from anything. So +now, as day by day she grew stronger, she tried to undervalue the +mischief which had at first so terrified her, and caused her +illness;--tried, and with success, in broad daylight; but, in the +silent dark nights, as she lay on her lonely bed, she would fully +appreciate the terrible cloud that hung over her, and would weep and +beat her pillow, and pray in her wild fantastic way to be delivered +from this frightful monster, cut off from communion with all honest men +by his unutterable crimes, but who, nevertheless, she was bound to +love, honour, and obey, till death should part her from him. + +Mrs. Buckley, on the first news of her illness, had come up and taken +her quarters at Toonarbin, acting as gentle a nurse as man or woman +could desire to have. She took possession of the house, and managed +everything. Mrs. Barker, the house-keeper, the only one who did not +submit at once to her kindly rule, protested, obstructed, protocolled, +presented an ultimatum, and, at last, was so ill advised as to take up +arms. There was a short campaign, lasting only one morning,--a decisive +battle,--and Mrs. Barker was compelled to sue for peace. "Had Mr. +Troubridge been true to himself," she said, "she would never have +submitted;" but, having given Tom warning, and Tom, in a moment of +irritation, having told her, without hesitation or disguise, to go to +the devil (no less), she bowed to the circumstances, and yielded. + +Agnes Buckley encouraged Dr. Mulhaus, too, in his legal affairs, and, I +fear, was the first person who proposed the prosecution for perjury +against the sawyer: a prosecution, however, which failed, in +consequence of his mate and another friend, who was present at the +affair, coming forward to the sawyer's rescue, and getting into such a +labyrinth and mist of perjury, that the Bench (this happened just after +quarter sessions) positively refused to hear anything more on either +side. Altogether, Agnes Buckley made herself so agreeable, and kept +them all so alive, that Tom wondered how he had got on so long without +her. + +At the end of three weeks Mary was convalescent; and one day, when she +was moved into the verandah, Mrs. Buckley beside her, Tom and the +Doctor sitting on the step smoking, and Charles sleepily reading aloud +"Hamlet," with a degree of listlessness and want of appreciation +unequalled, I should say, by any reader before; at such time, I say, +there entered suddenly to them a little-cattle dealer, as brimful of +news as an egg of meat. Little Burnside it was: a man about eight stone +nothing, who always wore top-boots and other people's clothes. As he +came in, Charles recognised on his legs a pair of cord breeches of his +own, with a particular grease patch on the thigh: a pair of breeches he +had lent Burnside, and which Burnside had immediately got altered to +his own size. A good singer was Burnside. A man who could finish his +bottle of brandy, and not go to bed in his boots. A man universally +liked and trusted. An honest, hearty, little fellow, yet, one who +always lent or spent his money as fast as he got it, and was as poor as +Job. The greatest vehicle of news in the district, too. "Snowy river +Times," he used to be called. + +After the usual greetings, Tom, seeing he was bursting with something, +asked him, "What's the news?" + +Burnside was in the habit of saying that he was like the Lord Mayor's +fool--fond of everything that was good. But his greatest pleasure, the +one to which he would sacrifice everything, was retailing a piece of +news. This was so great an enjoyment with him that he gloried in +dwelling on it, and making the most of it. He used to retail a piece of +news, as a perfect novel, in three volumes. In his first he would take +care to ascertain that you were acquainted with the parties under +discussion; and, if you were not, make you so, throwing in a few +anecdotes illustrative of their characters. In In his second, he would +grow discursive, giving an episode or two, and dealing in moral +reflections and knowledge of human nature rather largely. And in his +third he would come smash, crash down on you with the news itself, and +leave you gasping. + +He followed this plan on the present occasion. He answered Tom's +question by asking,-- + +"Do you know Desborough?" + +"Of course I do," said Tom; "and a noble good fellow he is." + +"Exactly," said Burnside; "super of police; distinguished in Indian +wars; nephew of my Lord Covetown. An Irishman is Desborough, but far +from objectionable." + +This by way of first volume: now comes his second:-- + +"Now, sir, I, although a Scotchman born, and naturally proud of being +so, consider that until these wretched national distinctions between +the three great nations are obliterated we shall never get on, sir; +never. That the Scotch, sir, are physically and intellectually +superior----" + +"Physically and intellectually the devil," burst in Tom. "Pick out any +dozen Scotchmen, and I'll find you a dozen Londoners who will fight +them, or deal with them till they'd be glad to get over the borders +again. As for the Devon and Cornish lads, find me a Scotchman who will +put me on my back, and I'll write you a cheque for a hundred pounds, my +boy. We English opened the trade of the world to your little two +millions and a-half up in the north there; and you, being pretty well +starved out at home, have had the shrewdness to take advantage of it; +and now, by Jove, you try to speak small of the bridge that carried you +over. What did you do towards licking the Spaniards; eh? And where +would you be now, if they had not been licked in 1588, eh? Not in +Australia, my boy! A Frenchman is conceited enough, but, by George, he +can't hold a candle to a Scotchman." + +Tom spoke in a regular passion; but there was some truth in what he +said, I think. Burnside didn't like it, and merely saying, "You +interrupt me, sir," went on to his third volume without a struggle. + +"You are aware, ladies, that there has been a gang of bushrangers out +to the north, headed by a miscreant, whom his companions call Touan, +but whose real name is a mystery." + +Mrs. Buckley said, "Yes;" and Tom glanced at Mary. She had grown as +pale as death, and Tom said, "Courage, cousin; don't be frightened at a +name." + +"Well, sir," continued Burnside, putting the forefinger and thumb of +each hand together, as if he was making "windows" with soapsuds, +"Captain Desborough has surprised that gang in a gully, sir, and," +spreading his hands out right and left, "obliterated them." + +"The devil!" said Tom, while the Doctor got up and stood beside Mary. + +"Smashed them, sir," continued Burnside; "extinguished them utterly. He +had six of his picked troopers with him, and they came on them suddenly +and brought them to bay. You see, two troopers have been murdered +lately, and so our men, when they got face to face with the cowardly +hounds, broke discipline and wouldn't be held. They hardly fired a +shot, but drew their sabres, and cut the dogs down almost to a man. +Three only out of twelve have been captured alive, and one of them is +dying of a wound in the neck." And, having finished, little Burnside +folded his arms and stood in a military attitude, with the air of a man +who had done the thing himself, and was prepared to receive his meed of +praise with modesty. + +"Courage, Mary," said Tom; "don't be frightened at shadows."--He felt +something sticking in his throat, but spoke out nevertheless. + +"And their redoubted captain," he asked; "what has become of him?" + +"What, Touan himself?" said Burnside. "Well, I am sorry to say that +that chivalrous and high-minded gentleman was found neither among the +dead nor the living. Not to mince, matters, sir, he has escaped." + +The Doctor saw Mary's face quiver, but she bore up bravely, and +listened. + +"Escaped, has he?" said Tom. "And do they know anything about him?" + +"Desborough, who told me this himself," said Burnside, "says no, that +he is utterly puzzled. He had made sure of the arch-rascal himself; +but, with that remarkable faculty of saving his own skin which he has +exhibited on more than one occasion, he has got off for the time, with +one companion." + +"A companion; eh?" + +"Yes," said Burnside, "whereby hangs a bit of romance, if I may profane +the word in speaking of such men. His companion is a young fellow, +described as being more like a beautiful woman than a man, and bearing +the most singular likeness in features to the great Captain Touan +himself, who, as you have heard, is a handsome dog. In short, there is +very little doubt that they are father and son." + +Tom thought to himself, "Who on earth can this be? What son can George +Hawker have, and we not know of it?" He turned to Burnside. + +"What age is the young man you speak of?" he asked. + +"Twenty, or thereabouts, by all description," said the other. + +Tom thought again: "This gets very strange. He could have no son of +that age got in Van Diemen's Land: it was eight years before he was +free. It must be some one we know of. He had some byeblows in Devon, by +all accounts. If this is one of them, how the deuce did he get here?" + +But he could not think. We shall see presently who it was. Now we must +leave these good folks for a time, and just step over to Garoopna, and +see how affairs go there. + + + + +Chapter XXXIII + +IN WHICH JAMES BRENTWOOD AND SAMUEL BUCKLEY, ESQUIRES, COMBINE TO +DISTURB THE REST OF CAPTAIN BRENTWOOD, R.A. AND SUCCEED IN DOING SO. + + +The morning after Cecil Mayford had made his unlucky offer to Alice, he +appeared at Sam's bedside very early, as if he had come to draw Priam's +curtains; and told him shortly, that he had spoken, and had been +received with contempt; that he was a miserable brute, and that he was +going back home to attend to his business;--under the circumstances, +the best thing he could possibly do. + +So the field was clear for Sam, but he let matters stay as they were, +being far too pleasant to disturb lightly; being also, to tell the +truth, a little uncertain of his ground, after poor Cecil had suffered +so severely in the encounter. The next day, too, his father and mother +went home, and he thought it would be only proper for him to go with +them, but, on proposing it, Jim quietly told him he must stay where he +was and work hard for another week, and Halbert, although a guest of +the Buckleys, was constrained to remain still at the Brentwoods', in +company with Sam. + +But at the end of a week they departed, and Jim went back with them, +leaving poor Alice behind, alone with her father. Sam turned when they +had gone a little way, and saw her white figure still in the porch, +leaning in rather a melancholy attitude against the door-post. The +audacious magpie had perched himself on the top of her head, from which +proud elevation he hurled wrath, scorn, and mortal defiance against +them as they rode away. Sam took off his hat, and as he went on kept +wondering whether she was thinking of him at all, and hoping that she +might be sorry that he was gone. "Probably, however," he thought, "she +is only sorry for her brother." + +They three stayed at Baroona a week or more, one of them riding up +every day to ask after Mary Hawker. Otherwise they spent their time +shooting and fishing, and speculating how soon the rains would come, +for it was now March, and autumn was fairly due. + +But at the end of this week, as the three were sitting together, one of +those long-legged, slab-sided, lean, sunburnt, cabbage-tree-hatted +lads, of whom Captain Brentwood kept always, say half-a-dozen, and the +Major four or five (I should fancy, no relation to one another, and yet +so exactly alike, that Captain Brentwood never called them by their +right names by any chance); lads who were employed about the stable and +the paddock, always in some way with the horses; one of those +representatives of the rising Australian generation, I say, looked in, +and without announcing himself, or touching his hat (an Australian +never touches his hat if he is a free man, because the prisoners are +forced to), came up to Jim across the drawingroom, as quiet and as +self-possessed as if he was quite used to good society, and, putting a +letter into his hand, said merely, "Miss Alice," and relapsed into +silence, amusing himself by looking round Mrs. Buckley's drawing-room, +the like of which he had never seen before. + +Sam envied Jim the receipt of that little threecornered note. He +wondered whether there was anything about him in it. Jim read it, and +then folded it up again, and said "Hallo!" + +The lad,--I always call that sort of individual a lad; there is no +other word for them, though they are of all ages, from sixteen to +twenty,--the lad, I say, was so taken up with the contemplation of a +blown-glass pressepapier on the table, that Jim had to say, "Hallo +there John!" + +The lad turned round, and asked in a perfectly easy manner, "What the +deuce is this thing for, now?" + +"That," said Jim, "is the button of a Chinese mandarin's hat, who was +killed at the battle of Waterloo in the United States by Major Buckley." + +"Is it now?" said the lad, quite contented. "It's very pretty; may I +take it up?" + +"Of course you may," said Jim. "Now, what's the foal like?" + +"Rather leggy, I should say," he returned. "Is there any answer?" + +Jim wrote a few lines with a pencil on half his sister's note, and gave +it him. He put it in the lining of his hat, and had got as far as the +door, when he turned again. He looked wistfully towards the table where +the pressepapier was lying. It was too much for him. He came back and +took it up again. What he wanted with it, or what he would have done +with it if he had got it, I cannot conceive, but it had taken his +simple fancy more, probably, than an emerald of the same size would +have done. At last he put it to his eye. + +"Why, darn my cabbage-tree," he said, "if you can't see through it! He +wouldn't sell it, I suppose, now?" + +Jim pursed his lips and shook his head, as though to say that such an +idea was not to be entertained, and the lad, with a sigh, laid it down +and departed. Then Jim with a laugh threw his sister's note over to +Sam. I discovered this very same note only last week, while searching +the Buckley papers for information about the family at this period. I +have reason to believe that it has never been printed before, and, as +far as I know, there is no other copy extant, so I proceed to give it +in full. + +"What a dear, disagreeable old Jim you are," it begins, "to stay away +there at Baroona, leaving me moping here with our daddy, who is +calculating the explosive power of shells under water at various +temperatures. I have a good mind to learn the Differential Calculus +myself, only on purpose to bore you with it when you come home." + +"By the bye, Corrella has got a foal. Such a dear little duck of a +thing, with a soft brown nose, and sweet long ears, like leaves! Do +come back and see it; I am so very, very lonely!" + +"I hope Mr. Halbert is pretty well, and that his wound is getting quite +right again. Don't let him undertake cattle-drafting or anything +violent. I wish you could bring him back with you, he is such a nice, +agreeable creature." + +"Your magpie has attacked cocky, and pulled a yellow feather out of his +crest, which he has planted in the flower-bed, either as a trophy, or +to see if it will grow." + +Now this letter is historically important, when taken in connexion with +certain dates in my possession. It was written on a Monday, and +Halbert, Jim, and Sam started back to Garoopna the next day, rather a +memorable day for Sam, as you will see directly. Now I wish to call +attention to the fact, that Sam, far from being invited, is never once +mentioned in the whole letter. Therefore what does Miss Burke mean by +her audacious calumnies? What does she mean by saying that Alice made +love to Sam, and never gave the "poor boy" a chance of escape? Can she, +Lesbia, put her hand on her heart and say that she wasn't dying to +marry Sam herself, though she was (and is still, very likely) thirty +years his senior? The fact is, Lesbia gave herself the airs, and +received the privileges of being the handsomest woman in those parts, +till Alice came, and put her nose out of joint, for which she never +forgave her. + +However, to return to this letter. I wonder now, as I am looking at the +age-stained paper and faded writing, whether she who wrote it +contemplated the possibility of its meeting Sam's eye. I rather imagine +that she did, from her provoking silence about him. At any rate, Jim +was quite justified in showing him the letter, "for you know," he said, +"as there is nothing at all about you in it, there can be no breach of +confidence." + +"Well!" said Sam, when he had read it. + +"Well!" said Jim. "Let us all three ride over and look at the foal." + +So they went, and were strictly to be home at dinner time; whereas not +one of them came home for a week. + +When they came to the door at Garoopna, there was Alice, most +bewitchingly beautiful. Papa was away on the run, and Dr. Mulhaus with +him; so the three came in. Alice was very glad to see Halbert--was glad +also to see Sam; but not so glad, or, at all events, did not say so +much about it. + +"Alice, have you seen the newspaper?" said Jim. + +"No; why?" + +"There is a great steamer gone down at sea, and three hundred persons +drowned!" + +"What a horrible thing! I should never have courage to cross the sea." + +"You would soon get accustomed to it, I think," said Halbert. + +"I have never even seen it as yet," she said, "save at a distance." + +"Strange, neither have I," said Sam. "I have dim recollections of our +voyage here, but I never stood upon the shore in my life." + +"I have beat you there," said Jim. "I have been down to Cape Chatham, +and seen the great ocean itself: a very different thing from Sydney +Harbour, I promise you. You see the great cape running out a mile into +the sea, and the southern rollers tumbling in over the reefs like +cascades." + +"Let us go and see it!--how far is it?" said Alice. + +"About thirty miles. The Barkers' station is about half a mile from the +Cape, and we could sleep there, you know." + +"It strikes me as being a most brilliant idea," said Sam. + +And so the arrangement was agreed to, and the afternoon went on +pleasantly. Alice walked up and down with Sam among the flowers, while +Jim and Halbert lay beneath a mulberry tree and smoked. + +They talked on a subject which had engaged their attention a good deal +lately: Jim's whim for going soldiering had grown and struck root, and +become a determination. He would go back to India when Halbert did, +supposing that his father could be tempted to buy him a commission. +Surely he might manage to join some regiment in India, he thought. +India was the only place worth living in just now. + +"I hope, Halbert," he said, "that the Governor will consent. I wouldn't +care when I went; the sooner the better. I am tired of being a +cattle-dealer on a large scale; I want to get at some MAN'S work. If +one thing were settled I would go to-morrow." + +"And what is that?" said Halbert. + +Jim said nothing, but looked at the couple among the flower-beds. + +"Is that all?" said Halbert. "What will you bet me that that affair is +not concluded to-night?" + +"I'll bet you five pounds to one it ain't," said Jim; "nor any time +this twelvemonth. They'll go on shillyshallying half their lives, I +believe." + +"Nevertheless I'll bet with you. Five to one it comes off to-night! +Now! There goes your sister into the house; just go in after her." + +Jim sauntered off, and Sam came and laid his great length down by the +side of Halbert. + +They talked on indifferent matters for a few minutes, till the latter +said,-- + +"You are a lucky fellow, Sam." + +"With regard to what?" said Sam. + +"With regard to Miss Buckley, I mean." + +"What makes you think so?" + +"Are you blind, Sam? Can't you see that she loves you better than any +man in the world?" + +He answered nothing, but turning his eyes upon Halbert, gazed at him a +moment to see whether he was jesting or no. No, he was in earnest. So +he looked down on the grass again, and, tearing little tufts up, said,-- + +"What earthly reason have you for thinking that?" + +"What reason!--fifty thousand reasons. Can you see nothing in her eyes +when she speaks to you, which is not there at other times; hey, Bat?--I +can, if you can't." + +"If I could think so!" said Sam. "If I could find out?" + +"When I want to find out anything, I generally ask," said Halbert. + +Sam gave him the full particulars of Cecil's defeat. + +"All the better for you," said Halbert; "depend upon it. I don't know +much about women, it is true, but I know more than you do." + +"I wish I knew as much as you do," said Sam. + +"And I wish I knew as little as you do," said Halbert. + +Dinner-time came, but the Captain and the Doctor were not to the fore. +After some speculations as to what had become of them, and having +waited an hour, Jim said, that in the unexplained absence of the +crowned head, he felt it his duty to the country, to assume the reins +of government, and order dinner. Prime Minister Alice, having entered a +protest, offered no further opposition, and dinner was brought in. + +Young folks don't make so much of dinner as old ones at any time, and +this dinner was an unusually dull one. Sam was silent and thoughtful, +and talked little; Alice, too, was not quite herself. Jim, as usual, +ate like a hero, but talked little; so the conversation was principally +carried on by Halbert, in the narrative style, who really made himself +very useful and agreeable, and I am afraid they would have been a very +"slow" party without him. + +Soon after the serious business of eating was over, Jim said,-- + +"Alice, I wonder what the Governor will say?" + +"About what, brother?" + +"About my going soldiering." + +"Save us! What new crotchet is this?" + +"Only that I'm going to bother the Governor, till he gets me a +commission in the army." + +"Are you really serious, Jim?" + +"I never was more so in my life." + +"So, Mr. Halbert," said Alice, looking round at him, "you are only come +to take my brother away from me!" + +"I assure you, Miss Brentwood, that I have only aided and abetted: the +idea was his own." + +"Well, well, I see how it is;--we were too happy I suppose." + +"But, Alice," said Jim, "won't you be proud to see your brother a good +soldier?" + +"Proud! I was always proud of you. But I wish the idea had never come +into your head. If it was in war time I would say nothing, but now it +is very different. Well, gentlemen, I shall leave you to your wine. Mr. +Halbert, I like you very much, but I wish you hadn't turned Jim's head." + +She left them, and walked down the garden; through the twilight among +the vines, which were dropping their yellow leaves lightly on the turf +before the breath of the autumn evening. So Jim was going,--going to be +killed probably, or only coming back after ten years' absence, "full of +strange oaths and bearded like a pard!" She knew well how her father +would jump at his first hint of being a soldier, and would move heaven +and earth to get him a commission,--yes, he would go--her own darling, +funny, handsome Jim, and she would be left all alone. + +No, not quite! There is a step on the path behind her that she knows; +there is an arm round her waist which was never there before, and yet +she starts not as a low voice in her ear says,-- + +"Alice, my love, my darling, I have come after you to tell you that you +are dearer to me than my life, and all the world besides. Can you love +me half as well as I love you? Alice, will you be my wife?" + +What answer? Her hands pressed to her face, with + +flood of happy tears, she only says,-- + +"Oh! I'm so happy, Sam! So glad, so glad!" + +Pipe up there, golden-voiced magpie; give us one song more before you +go to roost. Laugh out, old jackass; till you fetch an echo back from +the foggy hollow. Up on your bare boughs, it is dripping, dreary +autumn: but down here in the vineyard, are bursting the first green +buds of an immortal spring. + +There are some scenes which should only be undertaken by the hand of a +master, and which, attempted by an apprentice like myself, would only +end in disastrous failure, calling down the wrath of all honest men and +true critics upon my devoted head,--not undeservedly. Three men in a +century, or thereabouts, could write with sufficient delicacy, and +purity to tell you what two such young lovers as Sam Buckley and Alice +Brentwood said to one another in the garden that evening, walking up +and down between the yellow vines. I am not one of those three. Where +Charles Dickens has failed, I may be excused from being diffident. I am +an old bachelor, too--a further excuse. But no one can prevent my +guessing, and I guess accordingly,--that they talked in a very low +tone, and when, after an hour, Alice said it was time to come in, that +Sam was quite astonished to find how little had been said, and what +very long pauses there had been. + +They came in through the window into the sittingroom, and there was Dr. +Mulhaus, Captain Brentwood, and also, of all people, Major Buckley, +whom the other two had picked up in their ride and brought home. My +information about this period of my history is very full and complete. +It has come to my knowledge on the best authority, that when Sam came +forward to the light, Halbert kicked Jim's shins under the table, and +whispered, "You have lost your money, old fellow!" and that Jim +answered, "I wish it was ten pounds instead of five." + +But old folks are astonishingly obtuse. Neither of the three seniors +saw what had happened; but entered CON AMORE into the proposed +expedition to Cape Chatham, and when bedtime came, Captain Brentwood, +honest gentleman, went off to rest, and having said his prayers and +wound up his watch, prepared for a comfortable night's rest, as if +nothing was the matter. + +He soon found his mistake. He had got his boots off, and was sitting +pensively at his bedside, meditating further disrobements, when Jim +entered mysteriously, and quietly announced that his whole life in +future would be a weary burden if he didn't get a commission in the +army, or at least a cadetship in the East India Company's service. Him +the Captain settled by telling, that if he didn't change his mind in a +month he'd see about it, and so packed him off to bed. Secondly, as he +was taking off his coat, wondering exceedingly at Jim's communication, +Sam appeared, and humbly and respectfully informed him that he had that +day proposed to his daughter and been accepted,--provisionally; hoping +that the Captain would not disapprove of him as a sonin-law. He was +also rapidly packed off to bed, by the assurance that he (Brentwood) +had never felt so happy in his life, and had been sincerely hoping that +the young folks would fall in love with one another for a year past. + +So, Sam dismissed, the Captain got into bed; but as soon as the light +was blown out two native cats began grunting under the washing-stand, +and he had to get out, and expel them in his shirt; and finally he lost +his temper and began swearing. "Is a man never to get to sleep?" said +he. "The devil must be abroad tonight, if ever he was in his life." + +No sleep that night for Captain Brentwood. His son, asking for a +commission in the army, and his daughter going to be married! Both +desirable enough in their way, but not the sort of facts to go to sleep +over, particularly when fired off in his ear just as he was lying down. +So he lay tossing about, more or less uncomfortable all night, but +dozed off just as the daylight began to show more decidedly in the +window. He appeared to have slept from thirty to thirty-five seconds, +when Jim awoke him with,-- + +"It's time to get up, father, if you are going to Cape Chatham to-day." + +"D--n Cape Chatham," was his irreverent reply when Jim was gone, which +sentiment has been often re-echoed by various coasting skippers in +later times. "Why, I haven't been to sleep ten minutes,--and a frosty +morning, too. I wish it would rain. I am not vindictive, but I do +indeed. Can't the young fools go alone, I wonder? No; hang it, I'll +make myself agreeable to-day, at all events!" + + + + +Chapter XXXIV + +HOW THEY ALL WENT HUNTING FOR SEA ANEMONES AT CAPE CHATHAM--AND HOW THE +DOCTOR GOT A TERRIBLE FRIGHT--AND HOW CAPTAIN BLOCKSTROP SHOWED THAT +THERE WAS GOOD REASON FOR IT. + + +And presently, the Captain, half dressed, working away at his hair with +two very stiff brushes, betook himself to Major Buckley's room, whom he +found shaving. "I'll wait till you're done," said he; "I don't want you +to cut yourself." + +And then he resumed: "Buckley, your son wants to marry my daughter." + +"Shows his good taste," said the Major. "What do you think of it?" + +"I am very much delighted," said the Captain. + +"And what does she say to it?" + +"She is very much delighted." + +"And I am very much delighted, and I suppose Sam is too. So there you +are, you see: all agreed." + +And that was the way the marriage negotiations proceeded; indeed, it +was nearly all that was ever said on the subject. But one day the Major +brought two papers over to the Captain (who signed them), which were +supposed to refer to settlements, and after that all the arrangements +were left to Alice and Mrs. Buckley. + +They started for Cape Chatham about nine o'clock in the day; Halbert +and Jim first, then Sam and Alice, and lastly the three elders. This +arrangement did not last long, however; for very soon Sam and Alice +called aloud to Halbert and Jim to come and ride with them, for that +they were boring one another to death. This they did, and now the +discreet and sober conversation of the oldsters was much disturbed by +loud laughter of the younger folks, in which, however, they could not +help joining. It was a glorious crystal clear day in autumn; all +nature, aroused from her summer's rest, had put off her suit of hodden +grey, and was flaunting in gaudiest green. The atmosphere was so +amazingly pure that miles away across the plains the travellers could +distinguish the herds of turkeys (bustards) stalking to and fro, while +before them, that noble maritime mountain Cape Chatham towered up, +sharply defined above the gleaming haze which marked the distant sea. + +For a time their way lay straight across the broad well-grassed plains, +marked with ripples as though the retiring sea had but just left it. +Then a green swamp; through the tall reeds the native companion, king +of cranes, waded majestic; the brilliant porphyry water hen, with +scarlet bill and legs, flashed like a sapphire among the emerald green +water-sedge. A shallow lake, dotted with wild ducks; here and there a +group of wild swan, black with red bills, floating calmly on its bosom. +A long stretch of grass as smooth as a bowling-green. A sudden rocky +rise, clothed with native cypress (Exocarpus--Oh my botanical +readers!), honeysuckle (Banksia), she-oak (Casuarina), and here and +there a stunted gum. Cape Chatham began to show grander and nearer, +topping all; and soon they saw the broad belt of brown sandy heath that +lay along the shore. + +"Here," said the Doctor, riding up, "we leave the last limit of the +lava streams from Mirngish and the Organ-hill. Now, immediately you +shall see how we pass from the richly-grassed volcanic plains, into the +barren sandstone heaths; from a productive pasture land into a useless +flower-garden. Nature here is economical, as she always is: she makes +her choicest ornamental efforts on spots otherwise useless. You will +see a greater variety of vegetation on one acre of your sandy heath +than on two square miles of the thickly-grassed country we have been +passing over." + +It was as he said. They came soon on to the heath; a dark dreary +expanse, dull to look upon after so long a journey upon the bright +green grass. It stretched away right and left interminably, only broken +here and there with islands of dull-coloured trees; as melancholy a +piece of country as one could conceive: yet far more thickly peopled +with animal as well as vegetable life, than the rich pastoral downs +further inland. Now they began to see the little red brush kangaroo, +and the grey forester, skipping away in all directions; and had it been +summer they would have been startled more than once by the brown snake, +and the copper snake, deadliest of their tribe. The painted quail, and +the brush quail (the largest of Australian game birds I believe), +whirred away from beneath their horses' feet; and the ground parrot, +green with mottlings of gold and black, rose like a partridge from the +heather, and flew low. Here, too, the Doctor flushed a "White's +thrush," close to an outlying belt of forest, and got into a great +state of excitement about it. "The only known bird," he said, "which is +found in Europe, America, and Australia alike." Then he pointed out the +emu wren, a little tiny brown fellow, with long hairy tail-feathers, +flitting from bush to bush; and then, leaving ornithology, called their +attention to the wonderful variety of low vegetation that they were +riding through; Hakeas, Acacias, Grevilleas, and what not. In spring +this brown heath would have been a brilliant mass of flowers; but now, +nothing was to be seen save a few tall crimson spikes of Epacris, and +here and there a bunch of lemon-coloured Correas. Altogether, he kept +them so well amused, that they were astonished to come so quickly upon +the station, placed in a snug cove of the forest, where it bordered on +the heath beside a sluggish creek. Then, seeing the mountain towering +up close to them, and hearing, as they stayed at the door, a low +continuous thunder behind a high roll in the heath which lay before +them, they knew that the old ocean was close at hand, and their journey +was done. + +The people at the station were very glad to see them, of course. +Barker, the paterfamilias, was an old friend of both the Major and the +Captain, and they found so much to talk about, that after a heavy +midday-meal, excellent in kind, though that kind was coarse, and +certain libations of pale ale and cold claret and water, the older of +the party, with the exception of Dr. Mulhaus, refused to go any +farther; so the young people started forth to the Cape, under the +guidance of George Barker, the fourth or fifth son, who happened to be +at home. + +"Doctor," said Alice as they were starting, "do you remark what +beautiful smooth grass covers the cape itself, while here we have +nothing but this scrubby heath? The mountain is, I suppose, some +different formation?" + +"Granite, my dear young lady," said the Doctor. "A cap of granite +rising through and partly overlying this sandstone." + +"You can always tell one exactly what one wants to know," said Alice; +and, as they walked forwards, somehow got talking to Halbert, which I +believe most firmly had been arranged beforehand with Sam. For he, +falling back, ranged alongside of the Doctor, and, managing to draw him +behind the others, turned to him and said suddenly,-- + +"My dear old friend! my good old tutor!" + +The Doctor stopped short, pulled out a pair of spectacles, wiped them, +put them on, and looked at Sam through them for nearly a minute, and +then said: + +"My dear boy, you don't mean to say----" + +"I do, Doctor.--Last night.--And, oh! if you could only tell, how happy +I am at this moment! If you could guess at it!----" + +"Pooh, pooh!" said the Doctor; "I am not so old as that, my dear boy. +Why, I am a marrying man myself. Sam, I am so very, very glad! You have +won her, and now wear her, like a pearl beyond all price. I think that +she is worthy of you: more than that she could not be." + +They shook hands, and soon Sam was at her side again, toiling up the +steep ascent. They soon distanced the others, and went forwards by +themselves. + +There was such a rise in the ground seawards, that the broad ocean was +invisible till they were half way up the grassy down. Then right and +left they began to see the nether firmament, stretching away +infinitely. But the happy lovers paused not till they stood upon the +loftiest breezy knoll, and seemed alone together between the blue +cloudless heaven and another azure-sphere which lay beneath their feet. + +A cloudless sky and a sailless sea. Far beneath them they heard but saw +not the eternal surges gnawing at the mountain. A few white albatrosses +skimmed and sailed below, and before, seaward, the sheets of turf, +falling away, stretched into a shoreless headland, fringed with black +rock and snow-white surf. + +She stood there, flushed and excited with the exercise, her bright hair +dishevelled, waving in the free sea-breeze, the most beautiful object +in that glorious landscape, her noble mate beside her. Awe, wonder, and +admiration kept both of them silent for a few moments, and then she +spoke. + +"Do you know any of the choruses in the 'Messiah'?" asked she. + +"No, I do not," said Sam. + +"I am rather sorry for it," she said, "because this is so very like +some of them." + +"I can quite imagine that," said Sam. "I can quite imagine music which +expresses what we see now. Something infinitely BROAD I should say. Is +that nonsense now?" + +"Not to me," said Alice. + +"I imagined," said Sam, "that the sea would be much rougher than this. +In spite of the ceaseless thunder below there, it is very calm." + +"Calm, eh?" said the Doctor's voice behind them. "God help the ship +that should touch that reef this day, though a nautilus might float in +safety! See, how the groundswell is tearing away at those rocks; you +can just distinguish the long heave of the water, before it breaks. +There is the most dangerous groundswell in the world off this coast. +Should this country ever have a large coast-trade, they will find it +out, in calm weather with no anchorage." + +A great coasting trade has arisen; and the Doctor's remark has proved +terribly true. Let the Monumental City and the Schomberg, the Duncan +Dunbar and the Catherine Adamson bear witness to it. Let the drowning +cries of hundreds of good sailors, who have been missed and never more +heard of, bear witness that this is the most pitiless and unprotected, +and, even in calm weather, the most dangerous coast in the world. + +But Jim came panting up, and, throwing himself on the short turf, said-- + +"So this is the great Southern Ocean; eh! How far can one see, now, +Halbert?" + +"About thirty miles." + +"And how far to India; eh?" + +"About seven thousand." + +"A long way," said Jim. "However, not so far as to England." + +"Fancy," said Halbert, "one of those old Dutch voyagers driving on this +unknown coast on a dark night. What a sudden end to their voyage! Yet +that must have happened to many ships which have never come home. +Perhaps when they come to explore this coast a little more they may +find some old ship's ribs jammed on a reef; the ribs of some ship whose +name and memory has perished." + +"The very thing you mention is the case," said the Doctor. "Down the +coast here, under a hopeless, black basaltic cliff, is to be seen the +wreck of a very, very old ship, now covered with coral and seaweed. I +waited down there for a spring tide, to examine her, but could +determine nothing, save that she was very old; whether Dutch or Spanish +I know not. You English should never sneer at those two nations: they +were before you everywhere." + +"And the Chinese before any of us in Australia," replied Halbert. + +"If you will just come here," said Alice, "where those black rocks are +hid by the bend of the hill, you get only three colours in your +landscape; blue sky, grey grass, and purple sea. But look, there is a +man standing on the promontory. He makes quite an eyesore there. I wish +he would go away." + +"I suppose he has as good a right there as any of us," answered the +Doctor. "But he certainly does not harmonise very well with the rest of +the colouring. What a strange place he has chosen to stand in, looking +out over the sea, as though he were a shipwrecked mariner--the last of +the crew." + +"A shipwrecked mariner would hardly wear breeches and boots, my dear +Doctor," said Jim. "That man is a stockman." + +"Not one of ours, however," said George Barker; "even at this distance +I can see that. See, he's gone! Strange! I know of no way down the +cliff thereabouts. Would you like to come down to the shore?" + +So they began their descent to the shore by a winding path of turf, +among tumbled heaps of granite, down towards the rock-walled cove, a +horseshoe of smooth white sand lying between two long black reefs, +among whose isolated pinnacles the groundswell leapt and spouted +ceaselessly. + +Halbert remarked, "This granite coast is hardly so remarkable as our +Cornish one. There are none of those queer pinnacles and tors one sees +there, just ready to topple down into the sea. This granite is not half +so fantastic." + +"Earthquakes, of which you have none in Cornwall," said the Doctor, +"will just account for the difference. I have felt one near here quite +as strong as your famous lieutenant, who capsized the Logan stone." + +But now, getting on the level sands, they fell to gathering shells and +sea-weeds like children. Jim trying to see how near he could get to a +wave without being caught, got washed up like jetsam. Alice took Sam's +pocket-handkerchief, and filled it indiscriminately with everything she +could lay her hand on, principally Trochuses, as big as one's fist, and +"Venus-ears," scarlet outside. And after an hour, wetfooted and happy, +dragging a yard or so of sea-tang behind her, she looked round for the +Doctor, and saw him far out on the reef, lying flat on his stomach, and +closely examining a large still pool of salt water, contained in the +crevices of the rocks. + +He held up his hand and beckoned. Sam and Alice advanced towards him +over the slippery beds of seaweed, Sam bravely burying his feet in the +wet clefts, and holding out his hand to help her along. Once there was +a break in the reef, too broad to be jumped, and then for the first +time he had her fairly in his arms and swung her across, which was +undoubtedly very delightful, but unfortunately soon over. At length, +however, they reached the Doctor, who was seated like a cormorant on a +wet rock, lighting a pipe. + +"What have you collected?" he asked. "Show me." + +Alice proudly displayed the inestimable treasures contained in Sam's +handkerchief. + +"Rubbish! Rubbish!" said the Doctor, "Do you believe in mermaidens?" + +"Of course I do, if you wish it," said Alice. "Have you seen one?" + +"No, but here is one of their flower-gardens. Bend down and look into +this pool." + +She bent and looked. The first thing she saw was her own exquisite +face, and Sam's brown phiz peering over her shoulder. A golden tress of +hair, loosened by the sea breeze, fell down into the water, and had to +be looped up again. Then gazing down once more, she saw beneath the +crystal water a bed of flowers; dahlias, ranunculuses, carnations, +chrysanthemums, of every colour in the rainbow save blue. She gave a +cry of pleasure: "What are they, Doctor? What do you call them?" + +"Sea anemones, in English, I believe," said the Doctor, "actinias, +serpulas, and sabellas. You may see something like that on the European +coasts, on a small scale, but there is nothing I ever have seen like +that great crimson fellow with cream-coloured tentacles. I do not know +his name. I suspect he has never been described. The common European +anemone they call 'crassicornis' is something like him, but not half as +fine." + +"Is there any means of gathering and keeping them, Doctor?" asked Sam. +"We have no flowers in the garden like them." + +"No possible means," said the Doctor. "They are but lumps of jelly. Let +us come away and get round the headland before the tide comes in." + +They wandered on from cove to cove, under the dark cliffs, till +rounding a little headland the Doctor called out,-- + +"Here is something in your Cornish style, Halbert." + +A thin wall of granite, like a vast buttress, ran into the sea, pierced +by a great arch, some sixty feet high. Aloft all sharp grey stone: +below, wherever the salt water had reached, a mass of dark clinging +weed: while beyond, as though set in a dark frame, was a soft glimpse +of blue sky and snow-white seabirds. + +"There is nothing so grand as that in Cornwall, Doctor," said Halbert. + +"Can we pass under it, Mr. Barker?" said Alice. "I should like to go +through; we have been into none of the caves yet." + +"Oh, yes!" said George Barker. "You may go through for the next two +hours. The tide has not turned yet." + +"I'll volunteer first," said the Doctor, "and if there's anything worth +seeing beyond, I'll come for you." + +It was, as I said, a thin wall of granite, which ran out from the rest +of the hill, seaward, and was pierced by a tall arch; the blocks which +had formerly filled the void now lay weed-grown, half buried in sand, +forming a slippery threshold. Over these the Doctor climbed and looked +beyond. + +A little sandy cove, reef-bound, like those they had seen before, lay +under the dark cliffs; and on a water-washed rock, not a hundred yards +from him, stood the man they had seen on the downs above, looking +steadily seaward. + +The Doctor slipped over the rocks like an otter, and approached the man +across the smooth sand, unheard in the thunder of the surf. When he was +close upon him, the stranger turned, and the Doctor uttered a low cry +of wonder and alarm. + +It was George Hawker! The Doctor knew him in a moment: but whether the +recognition was mutual, he never found out, for Hawker, stepping +rapidly from stone to stone, disappeared round the headland, and the +thunderstruck Doctor retraced his steps to the arch. + +There were all the young people gathered, wondering and delighted. But +Alice came to meet him, and said,-- + +"Who was that with you just now?" + +"A mermaid!" replied he. + +"That, indeed!" said Alice. "And what did she say?" + +"She said, 'Go home to your supper; you have seen quite enough; go home +in good time.'" + +"Doctor, there is something wrong!" said Alice. "I see it in your face. +Can you trust me, and tell me what it is?" + +"I can trust you so far as to tell you that you are right. I don't like +the look of things at all. I fear there are evil times coming for some +of our friends! Further than this I can say nothing. Say your prayers, +and trust God! Don't tell Sam anything about this: to-morrow I shall +speak to him. We won't spoil a pleasant holiday on mere suspicion." + +They rejoined the others, and the Doctor said, "Come away home now; we +have seen enough. Some future time we will come here again: you might +see this fifty times, and never get tired of it." + +After a good scramble they stood once more on the down above, and +turned to take a last look at the broad blue sea before they descended +inland; at the first glance seaward, Halbert exclaimed,-- + +"See there, Doctor! see there! A boat!" + +"It's only a whale, I think," said George Barker. + +There was a black speck far out at sea, but no whale; it was too steady +for that. All day the air had been calm; if anything, the breeze was +from the north, but now a strong wind was coming up from the +south-east, freshening every moment, and bringing with it a pent bank +of dark clouds; and, as they watched, the mysterious black speck was +topped with white, and soon they saw that it was indeed a boat driving +before the wind under a spritsail, which had just been set. + +"That is very strange!" said George Barker. "Can it be a shipwrecked +party?" + +"More likely a mob of escaped convicts from Van Diemen's Land," said +Jim. "If so, look out for squalls, you, George, and keep your guns +loaded." + +"I don't think it can be that, Jim," said Sam. "What could bring them +so far north? They would have landed, more likely, somewhere in the +Straits, about the big lakes." + +"They may have been driven off shore by these westerly winds which have +been blowing the last few days," replied Jim, "and kept their boat's +head northward, to get nearer the settlements. They will be terribly +hungry when they do land, for certain. What's your opinion, Doctor?" + +"I think that wise men should be always prepared. We should communicate +with Captain Desborough, and set the police on the alert." + +"I wonder," said Sam, "if that mysterious man we saw to-day, watching +on the cliff, could have had any connexion with this equally mysterious +boat. Not likely, though. However, if they are going to land to-night, +they had better look sharp, for it is coming on to blow." + +The great bank of cloud which they had been watching, away to the +south-east, was growing and spreading rapidly, sending out little black +avant-couriers of scud, which were hurrying fanlike across the heavens, +telling the news of the coming storm. Landward, in the west, the sun +was going down in purple and scarlet splendours, but seaward, all +looked dark and ominous. + +The young folks stood together in the verandah before they went into +dinner, listening to the wind which was beginning to scream angrily +round the corners of the house. The rain had not yet gathered strength +to fall steadily, but was whisked hither and thither by the blast, in a +few uncertain drops. They saw that a great gale was coming up, and knew +that, in a few hours, earth and sky would be mingled in furious war! + +"How comfortable it is to think that all the animals are under shelter +to-night!" said Sam. "Jim, my boy, I am glad you and I are not camped +out with cattle this evening. We have been out on nights as bad as this +though; eh? Oh, Lord! fancy sitting the saddle all to-night, under the +breaking boughs, wet through!" + +"No more of that for me, old Sam. No more jolly gallops after cattle or +horses for me. But I was always a good hand at anything of that sort, +and I mean to be a good soldier now. You'll see." + +At dark, while they were sitting at dinner, the storm was raging round +the house in full fury; but there, in the well-lighted room, before a +good fire, they cared little for it. When dinner was over, the Doctor +called the Captain and the Major aside, and told them in what manner he +had seen and recognised George Hawker on the beach that day; and raised +their fears still more by telling them of that mysterious boat which +the Doctor thought Hawker had been watching for. None of them could +understand it, but all agreed that these things boded no good; and so, +having called their host into their confidence, with regard to the +boat, they quietly loaded all the fire-arms in the place, and put them +together in the hall. This done, they returned to the sitting-room, +and, having taken their grog, retired to bed. + +It must be remembered that hitherto Major Buckley knew nothing of +George Hawker's previous appearance, but the Doctor now let him into +the secret. The Major's astonishment and wrath may be conceived, at +finding that his old PROTEGEE Mary, instead of being a comfortable +widow, was the persecuted wife of one of the greatest bushrangers +known. At first he was stunned and confused, but, ere he slept, his +clear straightforward mind had come to a determination that the first +evil was the worst, and that, God give him grace, he would hand the +scoundrel over to justice on the first opportunity, sure that he was +serving Mary best by doing so. + +That night Jim and Sam lay together in a little room to the windward of +the house. They were soon fast asleep, but, in the middle of the night, +Jim was woke by a shake on the shoulder, and, rousing himself, saw that +Sam was sitting up in the bed. + +"My God, Jim!" said he,--"I have had such an awful dream! I dreamed +that those fellows in the boat were carrying off Alice, and I stood by +and saw it, and could not move hand or foot. I am terribly frightened. +That was something more than a dream, Jim." + +"You ate too much of that pie at dinner," said Jim, "and you've had the +nightmare,--that's what is the matter with you. Lord bless you, I often +have the nightmare when I have eaten too much at supper, and lie on my +back. Why, I dreamed the other night that the devil had got me under +the wool-press, screwing me down as hard as he could, and singing the +Hundredth Psalm all the time. That was a much worse dream than yours." + +Sam was obliged to confess that it was. "But still," said he, "I think +mine was something more than a dream. I'm frightened still." + +"Oh, nonsense; lie down again. You are pulling all the clothes off me." + +They lay down, and Jim was soon asleep, but not so Sam. His dream had +taken such hold of his imagination, that he lay awake, listening to the +storm howling around the house. Now and then he could hear the +unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din, and, above all, he +could hear the continuous earth-shaking thunder of the surf upon the +beach. Soon after daylight, getting Halbert to accompany him, he went +out to have a look at the shore, and, forcing their way against the +driving, cutting rain, they looked over the low cliff at the furious +waste of waters beneath them, and saw mountain after mountain of water +hurl itself, in a cloud of spray, upon the shore. + +"What terrible waves, now!" said Sam. + +"Yes," replied Halbert; "there's no land to windward for six thousand +miles or more. I never saw heavier seas than those. I enjoy this, Sam. +It reminds me of a good roaring winter's day in old Cornwall." + +"I like it, too," said Sam. "It freshens you up. How calm the water is +to the leeward of the Cape!" + +"Yes; a capital harbour of refuge that. Let us go home to breakfast." + +He turned to go, but was recalled by a wild shout from Sam. + +"A ship! A ship!" + +He ran back and looked over into the seething hell of waters helow. Was +it only a thicker spot in the driving mist, or was it really a ship? If +so, God help her. + +Small time to deliberate. Ere he could think twice about it, a +full-rigged ship, about five hundred tons, with a close-reefed topsail +and a rag of a foresail upon her, came rushing, rolling, diving, and +plunging on, apparently heading for the deadly white line of breakers +which stretched into the sea at the end of the promontory. + +"A Queen's ship, Sam! a Queen's ship! The Tartar, for a thousand +pounds! Oh, what a pity; what a terrible pity!" + +"Only a merchant ship, surely," said Sam. + +"Did you ever see a merchant ship with six such guns as those on her +upper deck, and a hundred blue-jackets at quarters? That is the Tartar, +Sam, and in three minutes there will be no Tartar." + +They had run in their excitement out to the very end of the Cape, and +now the ship was almost under their feet, an awful sight to see. She +was rolling fearfully, going dead before the wind. Now and then she +would slop tons of water on her deck, and her mainyard would almost +touch the water. But still the dark clusters of men along her bulwarks +held steadfast, and the ship's head never veered half a point. Now it +became apparent that she would clear the reef by a hundred yards or +more, and Halbert, waving his hat, cried out,-- + +"Well done, Blockstrop! Bravely done, indeed! He is running under the +lee of the Cape for shelter. Her Majesty has one more ship-of-war than +I thought she would have had five minutes ago." + +As he spoke, she had passed the reef. The yards, as if by magic, swung +round, and, for a moment, she was broadside on to the sea. One wave +broke over her, and nought but her masts appeared above a sheet of +white foam; but, ere the water had well done pouring from her open deck +ports, she was in smooth water, her anchor was down, and the topsail +yard was black with men. + +"Let us come down, Sam," said Halbert: "very likely they will send a +boat ashore." + +As they were scrambling down the leeward side of the cliff, they saw a +boat put off from the ship, and gained the beach in time to meet a +midshipman coming towards them. He, seeing two well-dressed gentlemen +before him, bowed, and said,-- + +"Good morning; very rough weather." + +"Very, indeed," said Halbert. "Is that the Tartar, pray?" + +"That is the Tartar; yes. We were caught in the gale last night, and we +lay-to. This morning, as soon as we recognised the Cape, we determined +to run for this cove, where we have been before. We had an anxious +night last night, I assure you. We have been terribly lucky. If the +wind had veered a few more points to the east, we should have been done +for. We never could have beaten off in such a sea as this." + +"Are you going to Sydney?" + +"No; we are in chase of a boat full of escaped convicts from +Launceston. Cunning dogs; they would not land in the Straits. We missed +them and got across to Port Phillip, and put Captain D---- and his +black police on the alert; and they have got scent of it, and coasted +up north. We have examined the coast all along, but I am afraid they +have given us the slip; there is such a system of intelligence among +them. However, if they had not landed before last night, they have +saved us all trouble; and if they are ashore we wash our hands of them, +and leave them to the police." + +Halbert and Sam looked at one another. Then the former said,-- + +"Last night, about an hour before it came on to blow, we saw a boat +making for this very headland, which puzzled us exceedingly; and, what +was stranger still, we saw a man on the Cape, who seemed to be on the +look-out." + +"That is quite possible," replied the midshipman; "these fellows have a +queer system of communication. The boat you saw must certainly have +been them; and if they landed at all they must have landed here." + + +* * * * * + + +I must change the scene here, if you please, my dear reader, and get +you to come with me on board his (I beg pardon, her) Majesty's ship +Tartar for a few minutes, for on the quarter-deck of that noble sloop +there are at this moment two men worth rescuing from oblivion. + +The first is a stoutish, upright, middle-aged man, in a naval uniform, +with a brickdust complexion, and very light scanty whiskers; the +jolliest, cheeriest-looking fellow you are likely to meet in a year's +journey. Such a bright merry blue eye as he has, too! This is Captain +Blockstrop, now, I am happy to say, C.B.; a right valiant officer, as +the despatches of Lyons and Peel will testify. + +The other is a very different sort of man;--a long, wiry, brown-faced +man, with a big forehead, and a comical expression about his eyes. This +is no less a person than the Colonial Secretary of one of our three +great colonies: of which I decline to mention. Those who know the +Honourable Abiram Pollifex do not need to be told; and those who do not +must find out for themselves. I may mention that he has been known to +retain office seven years in succession, and yet he seldom threatens to +resign his office and throw himself upon the country fewer than three +times, and sometimes four, per annum. Latterly, I am sorry to say, a +miserable faction, taking advantage of one of his numerous +resignations, have assumed the reins of government, and, in spite of +three votes of want of confidence, persist in retaining the seals of +office. Let me add to this, that he is considered the best hand at +quiet "chaff" in the House, and is allowed, both by his supporters and +opponents, to be an honourable man, and a right good fellow. + +Such were the two men who now stood side by side on the quarter-deck, +looking eagerly at Sam and Halbert through a pair of telescopes. + +"Pollifex," said the Captain, "what do you make of these?" + +"Gentlemen," said the Secretary, curtly. + +"So I make out," said the Captain; "and apparently in good condition, +too. A very well fed man that biggest, I should say." + +"Ye-es; well, ye-es," said the Secretary; "he does look well-fed +enough. He must be a stranger to these parts; probably from the Maneroo +plains, or thereabout." + +"What makes you think so?" + +"Dear me," said the Secretary; "have you been stationed nearly three +years on this coast, and ask how a man could possibly be in good +condition living in those scrubby heaths?" + +"Bad-looking country; eh?" said the Captain. + +"Small cattle-stations, sir," said the Secretary, "I can see at a +glance. Salt beef, very tough, and very little of it. I shall run a +bill through the House for the abolition of small cattle-stations next +session." + +"Better get your estimates through first, old fellow. The bagpipes will +play quite loud enough over them to last for some time." + +"I know it, but tremble not," replied the undaunted Secretary; "I have +got used to it. I fancy I hear Callaghan beginning now: 'The unbridled +prodigality, sir, and the reckless profligacy, sir, of those +individuals who have so long, under the name of government----'" + +"That'll do, now," said the Captain; "you are worse than the reality. I +shall go ashore, and take my chance of getting breakfast. Will you +come?" + +"Not if I know it, sir, with pork chops for breakfast in the cabin. +Blockstrop, have you duly reflected what you are about to do? You are +about to land alone, unarmed, unprovisioned, among the offscourings of +white society, scarcely superior in their habits of life to the nomadic +savages they have unjustly displaced. Pause and reflect, my dear +fellow. What guarantee have you that they will not propose to feed you +on damper, or some other nameless abomination of the same sort?" + +"It was only the other day, in the House," said the Captain, "that you +said the small squatters and freehold farmers represented the greater +part of the intelligence and education of the colony, and now----" + +"Sir! sir!" said the Secretary, "you don't know what you are talking +about. Sir, we are not in the House now. Are you determined, then?" + +The Captain was quite determined, and they went down to the waist. They +were raising a bag of potatoes from somewhere, and the Colonial +Secretary, seizing two handfuls of them, presented them to the Captain. + +"If you will go," he said, "take these with you, and teach the poor +benighted white savages to plant them. So if you fall a victim to +indigestion, we will vote a monument to you on the summit of the Cape, +and write:--'He did not live in vain. He introduced the potato among +the small cattle stations around Cape Chatham.'" + +He held out his potatoes towards the retiring Captain with the air of +Burke producing the dagger. His humour, I perceive, reads poor enough +when written down, but when assisted by his comical impassible face, +and solemn drawling delivery, I never heard anything much better. + +Good old Pollifex! my heart warms towards him now. When I think what +the men were whose clamour put him out of office in 184-, I have the +conviction forced upon me, that the best among them was not worth his +little finger. He left the colony in a most prosperous state, and, +retiring honourably to one of his stations, set to work, as he said, to +begin life again on a new principle. He is wealthy, honoured, and +happy, as he deserves to be. + +I cannot help, although somewhat in the wrong place, telling the reader +under what circumstances I saw him last. Only two years ago, fifteen +after he had left office, I happened to be standing with him, at the +door of a certain club, in a certain capital, just after lunch time, +when we saw the then Colonial Secretary, the man who had succeeded +Pollifex, come scurrying round the corner of the street, fresh from his +office. His face was flushed and perspiring, his hat was on wrong-side +before, with his veil hanging down his back. In the one hand he held +papers, in the other he supported over his fevered brow his white +cotton umbrella; altogether he looked harassed beyond the bounds of +human endurance, but when he caught sight of the open club-doors, he +freshened a bit, and mended his pace. His troubles were not over, for +ere he reached his haven, two Irishmen, with two different requests, +rose as if from the earth, and confronted him. We saw him make two +promises, contradictory to each other, and impossible of fulfilment, +and as he came up the steps, I looked into the face of Ex-Secretary +Pollifex, and saw there an expression which is beyond description. Say +that of the ghost of a man who has been hanged, attending an execution. +Or say the expression of a Catholic, converted by torture, watching the +action of the thumb-screws upon another heretic. The air, in short, of +a man who had been through it all before. And as the then Secretary +came madly rushing up the steps, Pollifex confronted him, and said,-- + +"Don't you wish you were me, T----?" + +"Sir!" said the Secretary, "dipping" his umbrella and dropping his +papers, for the purpose of rhetorically pointing with his left hand at +nothing; "Sir! flesh and blood can't stand it. I resign to-morrow." And +so he went in to his lunch, and is in office at this present moment. + +I must apologize most heartily for this long digression. The Captain's +gig, impelled by the "might of England's pride," was cleverly beached +alongside of the other boat, and the Captain stepped out and confronted +the midshipman. + +"Got any news, Mr. Vang?" + +"Yes, sir!" said the midshipman. "These gentlemen saw the boat +yesterday afternoon." + +Sam and Halbert, who were standing behind him, came forward. The +Captain bowed, and looked with admiration at the two highbred-looking +men, that this unpromising desert had produced. They told him what they +had told the midshipman, and the Captain said,--"It will be a very +serious thing for this country side, if these dogs have succeeded in +landing. Let us hope that the sea has done good service in swallowing +fourteen of the vilest wretches that ever disgraced humanity. Pray, are +either of you gentlemen magistrates?" + +"My father, Major Buckley, is a magistrate," said Sam. "This gentleman +is Lieutenant Halbert, of the Bengal Artillery." + +The Captain bowed to Halbert, and turning to Sam, said,--"So you are +the son of my old friend Major Buckley! I was midshipman in the +'Phlegethon' when she took him and part of his regiment to Portugal, in +1811. I met him at dinner in Sydney, the other day. Is he in the +neighbourhood?" + +"He is waiting breakfast for us not a quarter of a mile off," said Sam. +"Will you join us?" + +"I shall be delighted; but duty first. If these fellows have succeeded +in landing, you will have to arm and prepare for the worst. Now, unless +they were caught by the gale and drowned, which I believe to be the +case, they must have come ashore in this very bay, about five o'clock +last night. There is no other place where they could have beached their +boat for many miles. Consequently, the thing lies in a nutshell: if we +find the boat, prepare yourselves,--if not, make yourselves easy. Let +us use our wits a little. They would round the headland as soon as +possible, and probably run ashore in that furthest cove to our right, +just inside the reef. I have examined the bay through a telescope, and +could make out nothing of her. Let us come and examine carefully. +Downhaul!" (to his Coxswain). "Come with me." + +They passed three or four indentations in the bay examining as they +went, finding nothing, but when they scrambled over the rocks which +bounded the cover the Captain had indicated, he waved his hat, and +laughing said,-- + +"Ha, ha! just as I thought. There she is." + +"Where, Captain Blockstrop?" said Halbert. "I don't see her." + +"Nor I either," said the Captain. "But I see the heap of seaweed that +the cunning dogs have raked over her.--Downhaul; heave away at this +weed, and show these gentlemen what is below it." + +The Coxswain began throwing away a pile of seatang heaped against a +rock. Bit by bit was disclosed the clean run of a beautiful white +whale-boat, which when turned over discovered her oars laid neatly side +by side, with a small spritsail. The Captain stood by with the air of a +man who had made a hit, while Sam and Halbert stared at one another +with looks of blank discomfiture and alarm. + + + + +Chapter XXXV + +A COUNCIL OF WAR. + + +"This is a very serious matter for us, Captain Blockstrop," said Sam, +as they were walking back to the boats. "An exceedingly serious matter." + +"I have only one advice to give you, Mr. Buckley," said the Captain; +"which is unnecessary, as it is just what your father will do. Fight, +sir!--hunt 'em down. Shoot 'em! They will give you no quarter: be sure +you don't give them any." + +A wild discordant bellow was here heard from the ship, on which the +Captain slapped his leg, and said,-- + +"Dash my buttons, if he hasn't got hold of my speaking-trumpet." + +The midshipman came up with a solemn face, and, touching his cap, +"reported,"-- + +"Colonial Secretary hailing, sir." + +"Bless my soul, Mr. Vang, I can hear that," said the Captain. "I don't +suppose any of my officer would dare to make such an inarticulate, no +sailor-like bellow as that on her Majesty's quarterdeck. Can you make +out what he says? That would be more to the purpose." + +Again the unearthly bellow came floating over the water, happily +deadened by the wind, which was roaring a thousand feet over head. "CAN +you make out anything, Mr. Vang?" said the Captain. + +"I make out 'pork-chops!' sir," said the midshipman. + +"Take one of the boats on board, Mr. Vang. My compliments, and will be +much obliged if he will come ashore immediately! On important business, +say. Tell him the convicts have landed; will you? Also, tell the +lieutenant of the watch that I want either Mr. Tacks, or Mr. Sheets: +either will do." + +The boat was soon seen coming back with the Colonial Secretary in a +statesman-like attitude in the stern sheets, and beside him that +important officer Mr. Tacks, a wee little dot of a naval cadet, +apparently about ten years old. + +"What were you bellowing about pork-chops, Pollifex?" asked the +Captain, the moment the boat touched the shore. + +"A failure, sir," said the Colonial Secretary; "burnt, sir; +disgracefully burnt up to a cinder, sir. I have been consulting the +honourable member for the Cross-jack-yard (I allude to Mr. Tack's N.C., +my honourable friend, if he will allow me to call him so) as to the +propriety of calling a court-martial on the cook's mate. He informs me +that such a course is not usual in naval jurisprudence. I am, however, +of opinion that in one of the civil courts of the colony an action for +damages would lie. Surely I have the pleasure of seeing Mr. Buckley of +Baroona?" + +Sam and he had met before, and the Secretary, finding himself on shore +and where he was known, dropped his King Cambyses' vein, and appeared +in his real character of a shrewd, experienced man. They walked up +together, and when they arrived at the summit of the ridge, and saw the +magnificent plains stretching away inland, beyond the narrow belt of +heath along the shore, the Secretary whispered to the Captain,-- + +"I have been deceived. We shall get some breakfast, after all. As fine +a country as I ever saw in my life!" + +The party who were just sitting down to breakfast at the station were +sufficiently astonished to see Captain Blockstrop come rolling up the +garden walk, with that small ship-of-war Tacks sailing in his wake, +convoying the three civilians; but on going in and explaining matters, +and room having been made for them at the table, Sam was also +astonished on looking round to see that a new arrival had taken place +since that morning. + +It was that of a handsome singular-looking man. His hair was light, his +whiskers a little darker, and his blonde moustache curled up towards +his eyes like corkscrews or a ram's horns (congratulate me on my +simile). A very merry laughing eye he had, too, blue of course, with +that coloured hair; altogether a very pleasant-looking man, and yet +whose face gave one the idea that it was not at all times pleasant, but +on occasions might look terribly tigerish and fierce. A man who won you +at once, and yet one with whom one would hardly like to quarrel. Add to +this, also, that when he opened his mouth to speak, he disclosed a +splendid set of white teeth, and the moment he'd uttered a word, a +stranger would remark to himself, "That is an Irishman." + +Sam, who had ensconced himself beside Alice, looked up the long table +towards him with astonishment. "Why, good gracious, Captain +Desborough," he said, "can that be you?" + +"I have been waiting," said Desborough, "with the greatest patience to +see how long you would have the audacity to ignore my presence. How do +you do, my small child? Sam, my dear, if ever I get cashiered for being +too handsome to remain in the Service, I'll carry you about and exhibit +you, as the biggest and ugliest boy in the Australian colonies." + +Captain Desborough has been mentioned before in these pages. He was an +officer in the army, at the present time holding the situation of +Inspector of Police in this district. He was a very famous hunter-down +of bushrangers, and was heartily popular with every one he was thrown +against, except the aforesaid bushrangers. Sam and he were very old +friends, and were very fond of one another. + +Desborough was sitting now at the upper end of the table, with the +Colonial Secretary, Major Buckley, Captain Blockstrop, Captain +Brentwood, and Doctor Mulhaus. They looked very serious indeed. + +"It was a very lucky thing, Desborough," said the Major, "that you +happened to meet Captain Blockstrop. He has now, you perceive, handed +over the care of these rascals to you. It is rather strange that they +should have landed here." + +"I believe that they were expected," said the Doctor. "I believe that +there is a desperate scheme of villany afloat, and that some of us are +the objects of it." + +"If you mean," said Desborough, "that that man you saw on the Cape last +night was watching for the boat, I don't believe it possible. It was, +possibly, some stockman or shepherd, having a look at the weather." + +The Doctor had it on the tip of his tongue to speak, and astound them +by disclosing that the lonely watcher was none other than the ruffian +Touan, alias George Hawker; but the Major pressed his foot beneath the +table, and he was silent. + +"Well," said Desborough, "and that's about all that's to be said at +present, except that the settlers must arm and watch, and if necessary +fight." + +"If they will only do that," said the Colonial Secretary; "if they will +only act boldly in protecting their property and lives, the evil is +reduced by one-half; but when Brallagan was out, nothing that I or the +Governor could do would induce the majority of them to behave like men." + +"Look here, now," said Barker, the host, "I was over the water when +Brallagan was out, and when Howe was out too. And what could a lonely +squatter do against half-a-dozen of 'em? Answer me that?" + +"I don't mean that," said the Colonial Secretary; "what I refer to is +the cowardly way in which the settlers allowed themselves to be +prevented by threats from giving information. I speak the more boldly, +Mr. Barker, because you were not one of those who did so." + +Barker was appeased. "There's five long guns in my hall, and there's +five long lads can use 'em," he said. "By-the-bye, Captain Desborough, +let me congratulate you on the short work you made with that gang to +the north, the other day. I am sorry to hear that the principal rascal +of the lot, Captain Touan, gave you the slip." + +The Doctor had been pondering, and had made up his mind to a certain +course; he bent over the table, and said,-- + +"I think, on the whole, that it is better to let you all know the +worst. That man whom we saw on the cliff last night I met afterwards, +alone, down on the shore, and that man is no other than the one you +speak of, Captain Touan." + +Any one watching Desborough's face as the Doctor spoke would have seen +his eyebrows contract heavily, and a fierce scowl settle on his face. +The name the Doctor mentioned was a very unwelcome one. He had been +taunted and laughed at, at Government-house, for having allowed Hawker +to outwit him. His hot Irish blood couldn't stand that, and he had +vowed to have the fellow somehow. Here he had missed him again, and by +so little, too! He renewed his vow to himself, and in an instant the +cloud was gone, and the merry Irishman was there again. + +"My dear Doctor," he said, "I am aware that you never speak at random, +or I should ask you, were you sure of the man? Are you not mistaken?" + +"Mistaken in HIM,--eh?" said the Doctor. "No, I was not mistaken." + +"You seem to know too much of a very suspicious character, Doctor!" +said Desborough. "I shall have to keep my eye on you, I see!" + + +* * * * * + + +Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, more agreeable subjects were +being talked of. There sat our young coterie, laughing loudly, grouping +themselves round some exceedingly minute object, which apparently was +between Sam and Alice, and which, on close examination, turned out to +be little Tacks, who was evidently making himself agreeable in a way +hardly to be expected in one of his tender years. And this is the way +he got there:-- + +When Captain Blockstrop came in, Alice was duly impressed by the +appearance of that warrior. But when she saw little Tacks slip in +behind him, and sit meekly down by the door; and when she saw how his +character was appreciated by the cattle-dogs, one of whom had his head +in the lad's lap, while the other was licking his face--when she saw, I +say, the little blue and gold apparition, her heart grew pitiful, and, +turning to Halbert, she said,-- + +"Why, good gracious me! You don't mean to tell me that they take such a +child as that to sea; do you?" + +"Oh dear, yes!" said Halbert, "and younger, too. Don't you remember the +story about Collingwood offering his cake to the first lieutenant? He +became, remember, a greater man than Nelson, in all except worldly +honour." + +"Would you ask him to come and sit by me, if you please?" said Alice. + +So Halbert went and fetched him in, and he sat and had his breakfast +between Alice and Sam. They were all delighted with him; such a child, +and yet so bold and self-helpful, making himself quietly at home, and +answering such questions as were put to him modestly and well. Would +that all midshipmen were like him! + +But it became time to go on board, and Captain Blockstrop, coming by +where Alice sat, said, laughing,-- + +"I hope you are not giving my officer too much marmalade, Miss +Brentwood? He is over-young to be trusted with a jam-pot,--eh, Tacks?" + +"Too young to go to sea, I should say," said Alice. + +"Not too young to be a brave-hearted boy, however!" said the Captain. +"The other day, in Sydney harbour, one of my marines who couldn't swim +went overboard and this boy soused in after him, and carried the +lifebuoy to him, in spite of sharks. What do you think of that for a +ten-year-old?" + +The boy's face flushed scarlet as the Captain passed on, and he held +out his hand to Alice to say good-bye. She took it, looked at him, +hesitated, and then bent down and kissed his cheek--a tender, sisterly +kiss--something, as Jim said, to carry on board with him! + +Poor little Tacks! He was a great friend of mine; so I have been +tempted to dwell on him. He came to me with letters of introduction, +and stayed at my place six weeks or more. He served brilliantly, and +rose rapidly, and last year only I heard that Lieutenant Tacks had +fallen in the dust, and never risen again, just at the moment that the +gates of Delhi were burst down, and our fellows went swarming in to +vengeance. + + + + +Chapter XXXVI + +AN EARTHQUAKE, A COLLIERY EXPLOSION, AND AN ADVENTURE. + + +So the Captain, the Colonial Secretary, and the small midshipman left +the station and went on board again, disappearing from this history for +evermore. The others all went home and grew warlike, arming themselves +against the threatened danger; but still weeks, nay months, rolled on, +and winter was turning into spring, and yet the country side remained +so profoundly tranquil that every one began to believe that the +convicts must after all have been drowned, and that the boat found by +sagacious Blockstrop had been capsized and thrown bottom upwards on the +beach. So that, before the brown flocks began to be spotted with white +lambs, all alarm had gone by. + +Only four persons, besides Mary Hawker herself, were conversant of the +fact that the Bushranger and George Hawker were the same man. Of these +only three, the Doctor, Major Buckley, and Captain Brentwood, knew of +his more recent appearance on the shore, and they, after due +consultation, took honest Tom Troubridge into their confidence. + +But, as I said, all things went so quietly for two months, that at the +end of that time no one thought any more of bushrangers than they would +of tigers. And just about this time, I, Geoffry Hamlyn, having finished +my last consignment of novels from England, and having nothing to do, +determined to ride over, and spend a day or two with Major Buckley. + +But when I rode up to the door at Baroona, having pulled my shirt +collar up, and rapped at the door with my whip, out came the +housekeeper to inform me there was not a soul at home. This was deeply +provoking, for I had got on a new pair of riding trousers, which had +cost money, and a new white hat with a blue net veil (rather a neat +thing too), and I had ridden up to the house under the idea that +fourteen or fifteen persons were looking at me out of window. I had +also tickled my old horse, Chanticleer, to make him caper and show the +excellency of my seat. But when I came to remember that the old horse +had nearly bucked me over his head instead of capering, and to find +that my hat was garnished with a large cobweb of what is called by +courtesy native silk, with half-a-dozen dead leaves sticking in it, I +felt consoled that no one had seen me approach, and asked the +housekeeper, with tolerable equanimity, where they were all gone. + +They were all gone, she said, over to Captain Brentwood's, and goodness +gracious knew when they would be back again. Mrs. Hawker and Mr. +Charles were gone with them. For her part, she should not be sorry when +Mr. Sam brought Miss Brentwood over for good and all. The house was +terrible lonesome when they were all away. + +I remarked, "Oho!" and asked whether she knew if Mr. Troubridge was at +Toonarbin. + +No, she said; he was away again at Port Phillip with store cattle; +making a deal of money, she understood, and laying out a deal for the +Major in land. She wished he would marry Mrs. Hawker and settle down, +for he was a pleasant gentleman, and fine company in a house. Wouldn't +I get off and have a bit of cold wild duck and a glass of sherry? + +Certainly I would. So I gave my horse to the groom and went in. I had +hardly cut the first rich red slice from the breast of a fat teal, when +I heard a light step in the passage, and in walked my man Dick. You +remember him, reader. The man we saw five and twenty years ago on +Dartmoor, combining with William Lee to urge the unhappy George Hawker +on to ruin and forgery, which circumstance, remember, I knew nothing of +at this time. The same man I had picked up footsore and penniless in +the bush sixteen years ago, and who had since lived with me, a most +excellent and clever servant--the best I ever had. This man now came +into Major Buckley's parlour, hat in hand, looking a little foolish, +and when I saw him my knife and fork were paralyzed with astonishment. + +"Why, what the Dickens" (I used that strong expression) "brings you +here, my lad?" + +"I went up to Hipsley's about the colt," he said, "and when I got home +I found you were gone off unexpectedly; so I thought it better to come +after you and tell you all about it. He won't take less than +thirty-five." + +"Man! man!" I said, "do you mean to say that you have ridden fifty +miles to tell me the price of a leggy beast like that, after I had told +you that twentyfour was my highest offer?" + +He looked very silly, and I saw very well he had some other reason for +coming than that. But with a good servant I never ask too many +questions, and when I went out a short time after, and found him +leaning against a fence, and talking earnestly to our old acquaintance +William Lee, I thought, "He wanted an excuse to come up and see his old +friend Lee. That is quite just and proper, and fully accounts for it." + +Lee always paid me the high compliment of touching his hat to me, for +old Devon' sake, I suppose. "How's all at Toonarbin, Lee?" I asked. + +"Well and hearty, sir. How is yourself, sir?" + +"Getting older, Lee. Nothing worse than that. Dick, I am going on to +Captain Brentwood's. If you like to go back to Toonarbin and stay a day +or two with Lee, you can do so." + +"I would rather come on with you, sir," he said eagerly. + +"Are you sure?" I said. + +"Quite sure, sir." And Lee said, "You go on with Mr. Hamlyn, Dick, and +do your duty, mind." + +I thought this odd; but, knowing it was useless to ask questions of an +old hand, or try to get any information which was not volunteered, I +held my tongue and departed, taking Dick with me. + +I arrived at Captain Brentwood's about three o'clock in the afternoon. +I flatter myself that I made a very successful approach, and created +rather a sensation among the fourteen or fifteen people who were +sitting in the verandah. They took me for a distinguished stranger. But +when they saw who it was they all began calling out to me at once to +know how I was, and to come in (as if I wasn't coming in), and when at +last I got among them, I nearly had my hand shaken off; and the Doctor, +putting on his spectacles and looking at me for a minute, asked what I +had given for my hat? + +Let me see, who was there that day? There was Mary Hawker, looking +rather older, and a little worn; and there was her son Charles sitting +beside pretty Ellen Mayford, and carrying on a terrible flirtation with +that young lady, in spite of her fat jolly-looking mother, who sat with +folded hands beside her. Next to her sat her handsome brother Cecil, +looking, poor lad! as miserable as he well could look, although I did +not know the cause. Then came Sam, beside his mother, whose noble happy +face was still worth riding fifty miles to see; and then, standing +beside her chair, was Alice Brentwood. + +I had never seen this exquisite creature before, and I immediately fell +desperately and hopelessly in love with her, and told her so that same +evening, in the presence of Sam. Finding that my affection was not +likely to be returned, I enrolled myself as one of her knights, and +remain so to this present time. + +The Major sat beside his wife, and the Doctor and Captain Brentwood +walked up and down, talking politics. There were also present, certain +Hawbucks, leggy youths with brown faces and limp hair, in appearance +and dress not unlike English steeplechaseriders who had been treated, +on the face and hands, with walnut-juice. They never spoke, and the +number of them then present I am uncertain about, but one of them I +recollect could spit a great deal farther than any of his brothers, and +proved it beyond controversy about twice in every three minutes. + +I missed my old friend Jim Brentwood, and was informed that he had gone +to Sydney, "on the spree," as Sam expressed it, along with a certain +Lieutenant Halbert, who was staying on a visit with Major Buckley. + +First I sat down by Mary Hawker, and had a long talk with her about old +times. She was in one of her gay moods, and laughed and joked +continuously. Then I moved up, by invitation, to a chair between the +Major and his wife, and had a long private and confidential +conversation with them. + +"How," I began, "is Tom Troubridge?" + +"Tom is perfectly well," said the Major. "He still carries on his old +chronic flirtation with Mary; and she is as ready to be flirted with as +ever." + +"Why don't they marry?" I asked, peevishly. "Why on earth don't they +marry one another? What is the good of carrying on that old folly so +long? They surely must have made up their minds by now. She knows she +is a widow, and has known it for years." + +"Good God! Hamlyn, are you so ignorant?" said the Major. And then he +struck me dumb by telling me of all that had happened latterly: of +George Hawker's reappearance, of his identity with the great +bushranger, and, lastly, of his second appearance not two months before. + +"I tell you this in strict confidence, Hamlyn, as one of my oldest and +best friends. I know how deeply your happiness is affected by all this." + +I remained silent and thunderstruck for a time, and then I tried to +turn the conversation:-- + +"Have you had any alarm from bushrangers lately? I heard a report of +some convicts having landed on the coast." + +"All a false alarm!" said the Major. "They were drowned, and the boat +washed ashore, bottom upwards." + +Here the Doctor broke in: "Hamlyn, is not this very queer weather?" + +When he called my attention to it, I remarked that the weather was +really different from any I had seen before, and said so. + +The sky was grey and dull, the distances were clear, and to the eye it +appeared merely a soft grey autumnal day. But there was something very +strange and odd in the deadly stillness of all nature. Not a leaf +moved, not a bird sang, and the air seemed like lead. At once Mrs. +Buckley remarked,-- + +"I can't work, and I can't talk. I am so wretchedly nervous that I +don't know what to do with myself, and you know, my dear," she said, +appealing to her husband, "that I am not given to that sort of thing." + +Each man looked at his neighbour, for there was a sound in the air now +a weird and awful sound like nothing else in nature. To the south arose +upon the ear a hollow quivering hum, which swelled rapidly into a roar +beneath our feet; there was a sickening shake, a thump, a crash, and +away went the earthquake, groaning off to the northward. + +The women behaved very well, though some of them began to cry; and +hearing a fearful row in the kitchen I dashed off there, followed by +the Doctor. The interior was a chaos of pots and kettles, in the centre +of which sat the cook, Eleanor, holding on by the floor. Every now and +then she would give a scream which took all the breath out of her; so +she had to stop and fetch breath before she could give another. The +Doctor stepped through the saucepans and camp-ovens, and trying to +raise her said,-- + +"Come, get up, my good woman, and give over screaming. All the danger +is over, and you will frighten the ladies." + +At this moment she had got her "second wind," and as he tried to get +her up she gave such a yell that he dropped her again, and bolted, +stopping his ears; bolted over a teakettle which had been thrown down, +and fell prostrate, resounding like an Homeric hero, on to a heap of +kitchen utensils, at the feet of Alice, who had come in to come see +what the noise was about. + +"Good Lord!" said he, picking himself up, "what lungs she has got! I +shall have a singing in my ears to my dying day. Yar! it went through +my head like a knife." + +Sam picked up the cook, and she, after a time, picked up her pots, +giving, however, an occasional squall, and holding on by the dresser, +under the impression that another earthquake was coming. We left her, +however, getting dinner under way, and went back to the others, whom we +soon set laughing by telling poor Eleanor's misadventures. + +We were all in good spirits now. A brisk cool wind had come up from the +south, following the earthquake, making a pleasant rustle as it swept +across the plain or tossed the forest boughs. The sky had got clear, +and the nimble air was so inviting that we rose as one body to stroll +in groups about the garden and wander down to the river. + +The brave old river was rushing hoarsely along, clear and full, between +his ruined temple-columns of basalt, as of old. "What a grand +salmon-river this would be, Major!" said I; "what pools and stickles +are here! Ah! if we only could get the salmon-spawn through the tropics +without its germinating.--Can you tell me, Doctor, why these rocks +should take the form of columns? Is there any particular reason for it +that you know?" + +"You have asked a very puzzling question," he replied, "and I hardly +know how to answer it. Nine geologists out of ten will tell you that +basalt is lava cooled under pressure. But I have seen it in places +where that solution was quite inapplicable. However, I can tell you +that the same cause which set these pillars here, to wall the river, +piled up yon Organ-hill, produced the caves of Widderin, the great +crater-hollow of Mirngish, and accommodated us with that brisk little +earthquake which we felt just now. For you know that we mortals stand +only on a thin crust of cooled matter, but beneath our feet is all +molten metal." + +"I wish you could give us a lecture on these things, Doctor," I said. + +"To-morrow," said he, "let us ride forth to Mirngish and have a picnic. +There I will give you a little sketch of the origin of that hill." + +In front of the Brentwoods' house the plains stretched away for a dozen +miles or so, a bare sheet of grass with no timber, grey in summer, +green in winter. About five miles off it began to roll into great +waves, and then heaved up into a high bald hill, a lofty down, capped +with black rocks, bearing in its side a vast round hollow, at the +bottom of which was a little swamp, perfectly circular, fringed with a +ring of white gum-trees, standing in such an exact circle that it was +hard to persuade oneself that they were not planted by the hand of man. +This was the crater of the old volcano. Had you stood in it, you would +have remarked that one side was a shelving steep bank of short grass, +while the other reared up some five hundred feet, a precipice of +fire-eaten rock. At one end the lip had broken down, pouring a torrent +of lava, now fertile grass-land, over the surrounding country, which +little gap gave one a delicious bit of blue distance. All else, as I +said, was a circular wall of grass, rock, and tumbled slag. + +This was Mirngish. And the day after the earthquake there was a fresh +eruption in the crater. An eruption of horsemen and horse-women. An +eruption of talk, laughter, pink-bonnets, knives and forks, and +champagne. Many a pleasant echo came ringing back from the old +volcano-walls overhead, only used for so many ages to hear the wild +rattle of the thunder and the scream of the hungry eagle. + +Was ever a poor old worn-out grass-grown volcano used so badly? Here +into the very pit of Tophet had the audacious Captain that very morning +sent on a spring-cart of all eatables and drinkables, and then had +followed himself with a dozen of his friends, to eat and drink, and +talk and laugh, just in the very spot where of old roared and seethed +the fire and brimstone of Erebus. + +Yet the good old mountain was civil, for we were not blown into the +air, to be a warning to all people picnicing in high places; but when +we had eaten and drunk, and all the ladies had separately and +collectively declared that they were SO fond of the smell of tobacco in +the open air, we followed the Doctor, who led the way to the summit of +the hill. + +I arrived last, having dragged dear fat old Mrs. Mayford up the +slippery steep. The Doctor had perched himself on the highest +flame-worn crag, and when we all had grouped ourselves below him, and +while the wind swept pleasantly through the grass, and rushed humming +through the ancient rocks, he in a clear melodious voice thus began:-- + +"Of old the great sea heaved and foamed above the ground on which we +stand; ay, above this, and above yon farthest snowy peak, which the +westering sun begins to tinge with crimson. + +"But in the lapse of ten thousand changing centuries, the lower deeps, +acted on by some Plutonic agency, began to grow shallow; and the +imprisoned tides began to foam and roar as they struggled to follow the +moon, their leader, angry to find that the stillness of their ancient +domain was year by year invaded by the ever-rising land. + +"At that time, had man been on the earth to see it, those towering Alps +were a cluster of lofty islands, each mountain pass which divides them +was a tide-swept fiord, in and out of which, twice in the day, age +after age, rushed the sea, bringing down those vast piles of water-worn +gravel which you see accumulated, and now covered with dense +vegetation, at the mouth of each great valley. + +"So twenty thousand years went on, and all this fair champagne country +which we overlook became, first a sand-bank, then a dreary stretch of +salt saturated desert, and then, as the roar of the retiring ocean grew +fainter and fainter, began to sustain such vegetation as the Lord +thought fit. + +"A thousand years are but as yesterday to Him, and I can give you no +notion as to how many hundred thousand years it took to do all this; or +what productions covered the face of the country. It must have been a +miserably poor region: nothing but the debris of granite, sandstone, +and slate; perhaps here and there partially fertilized by rotting +seaweed, dead fish and shells; things which would, we may assume, have +appeared and flourished as the water grew shallower. + +"New elements were wanting to make the country available for man, so +soon to appear in his majesty; and new elements were forthcoming. The +internal fires so long imprisoned beneath the weight of the incumbent +earth, having done their duty in raising the continent, began to find +vent in every weak spot caused by its elevation. + +"Here where we stand, in this great crack between the granite and the +sandstone, they broke out with all their wildest fury; hurling stones +high in the air, making mid-day dark with clouds of ashes, and pouring +streams of lava far and wide. + +"So the country was desolated by volcanoes, but only desolated that it +might grow greener and richer than ever, with a new and hitherto +unknown fertility; for, as the surface of the lava disintegrated, a new +soil was found, containing all the elements of the old one, and many +more. These are your black clay, and your red burnt soil, which, I take +it, are some of the richest in the world. + +"Then our old volcano, our familiar Mirngish, in whose crater we have +been feasting, grew still for a time, for many ages probably; but after +that I see the traces of another eruption; the worst, perhaps, that he +ever accomplished. + +"He had exhausted himself, and gradually subsided, leaving a perfect +cup or crater, the accumulation of the ashes of a hundred eruptions; +nay, even this may have been filled with water, as is Mount Gambier, +which you have not seen, forming a lake without a visible outlet; the +water draining off at that level where the looser scoriae begin. + +"But he burst out again, filling this great hollow with lava, till the +accumulation of the molten matter broke through the weaker part of the +wall, and rolled away there, out of that gap to the northward, and +forming what you now call the 'stony rises,'--turning yon creek into +steam, which by its explosive force formed that fantastic cap of rocks, +and, swelling into great bubbles under the hot lava, made those long +underground hollows which we now know as the caves of Bar-ca-nah. + +"Is he asleep for ever? I know not. He may arise again in his wrath and +fill the land with desolation; for that earthquake we felt yesterday +was but a wild throe of the giant struggling to be free. + +"Let us hope that he may not break his chains, for as I stand here +gazing on those crimson Alps, the spirit of prophecy is upon me, and I +can see far into the future, and all the desolate landscape becomes +peopled with busy figures. + +"I see the sunny slopes below me yellow with trellissed vines. They +have gathered the vintage, and I hear them singing at the wine-press. +They sing that the exhausted vineyards of the old world yield no wine +so rare, so rich, as the fresh volcanic slopes of the southern +continent, and that the princes of the earth send their wealth, that +their hearts may get glad from the juice of the Australian grapes. + +"Beyond I see fat black ridges grow yellow with a thousand cornfields. +I see a hundred happy homesteads, half-hidden by clustering +wheatstacks. What do they want with all that corn? say you; where is +their market? + +"There is their market! Away there on the barren forest ranges. See, +the timber is gone, and a city stands there instead. What is that on +the crest of the hill? A steam-engine; nay, see, there are five of +them, working night and day, fast and busy. Their cranks gleam and +flash under the same moon that grew red and lurid when old Mirngish +vomited fire and smoke twenty thousand years ago. As I listen I can +hear the grinding of the busy quartz-mill. What are they doing? you +ask. They are gold-mining. + +"They have found gold here, and gold in abundance, and hither have +come, by ship and steamship, all the unfortunate of the earth. The +English factory labourer and the farmer-ridden peasant; the Irish +pauper; the starved Scotch Highlander. I hear a grand swelling chorus +rising above the murmur of the evening breeze; that is sung by German +peasants revelling in such plenty as they never knew before, yet still +regretting fatherland, and then I hear a burst of Italian melody +replying. Hungarians are not wanting, for all the oppressed of the +earth have taken refuge here, glorying to live under the free +government of Britain; for she, warned by American experience, has +granted to all her colonies such rights as the British boast of +possessing." + +I did not understand him then. But, since I have seen the living wonder +of Ballarat, I understand him well enough. + +He ceased. But the Major cried out, "Go on, Doctor, go on. Look farther +yet, and tell us what you see. Give us a bit more poetry while your +hand is in." + +He faced round, and I fancied I could detect a latent smile about his +mouth. + +"I see," said he, "a vision of a nation, the colony of the greatest +race on the earth, who began their career with more advantages than +ever fell to the lot of a young nation yet. War never looked on them. +Not theirs was the lot to fight, like the Americans, through bankruptcy +and inexperience towards freedom and honour. No. Freedom came to them, +Heavensent, red-tape-bound, straight from Downing-street. Millions of +fertile acres, gold in bushels were theirs, and yet----" + +"Go on," said the Major. + +"I see a vision of broken railway arches and ruined farms. I see a +vision of a people surfeited with prosperity and freedom grown +factious, so that now one party must command a strong majority ere they +can pass a law the goodness of which no one denies. I see a bankrupt +exchequer, a drunken Governor, an Irish ministry, a----" + +"Come down out of that," roared the Major, "before I pull you down. +You're a pretty fellow to come out for a day's pleasure! Jeremiah was a +saint to him," he added, turning appealingly to the rest of us. "Hear +my opinion, 'per contra,' Doctor. I'll be as near right as you." + +"Go on, then," said the Doctor. + +"I see," began the Major, "the Anglo-Saxon race--" + +"Don't forget the Irish, Jews, Germans, Chinese, and other barbarians," +interrupted the Doctor. + +"Asserting," continued the Major, scornfully, "as they always do, their +right to all the unoccupied territories of the earth." + +("Blackfellow's claims being ignored," interpolated the Doctor.) + +"And filling all the harbours of this magnificent country----" + +("Want to see them.") + +"With their steamships and their sailing vessels. Say there be gold +here, as I believe there is, the time must come when the mines will be +exhausted. What then? With our coals we shall supply----" + +("Newcastle," said the Doctor, again.) + +"The British fleets in the East Indies----" + +"And compete with Borneo," said the Doctor, quietly, "which contains +more coal than ever India will burn, at one-tenth the distance from her +that we are. If that is a specimen of your prophecies, Major, you are +but a Micaiah after all." + +"Well," said the Major, laughing, "I cannot reel it off quite so quick +as you; but think we shall hardly have time for any more prophesying; +the sun is getting very low." + +We turned and looked to westward. The lofty rolling snow-downs had +changed to dull lead colour, as the sun went down in a red haze behind +them; only here and there some little elevated pinnacle would catch the +light. Below the mountain lay vast black sheets of woodland, and nearer +still was the river, marked distinctly by a dense and rapidly-rising +line of fog. + +"We are going to have a fog and a frost," said the Major. "We had +better hurry home." + +Behind all the others rode Alice, Sam, and myself. I was fearful of +being "de trop," but when I tried to get forward to the laughing, +chattering, crowd in front, these two young lovers raised such an +outcry that I was fain to stay with them, which I was well pleased to +do. + +Behind us, however, rode three mounted servants, two of Captain +Brentwood's, and my man Dick. + +We were almost in sight of the river, nearly home in fact, when there +arose a loud lamentation from Alice. + +"Oh, my bracelet! my dear bracelet! I have lost it." + +"Have you any idea where you dropped it?" I inquired. + +"Oh, yes," she said. "I am sure it must have been when I fell down, +scrambling up the rocks, just before the Doctor began his lecture. Just +as I reached the top, you know, I fell down, and I must have lost it +there." + +"I will ride back and find it, then, in no time," I said. + +"No, indeed, Uncle Jeff," said Sam. "I will go back." + +"I use an uncle's authority," I replied, "and I forbid you. That +miserable old pony of yours, which you have chosen to bring out to-day, +has had quite work enough, without ten miles extra. I condescend to no +argument; here I go." + +I turned, with a kind look from both of them, but ere I had gone ten +yards, my servant Dick was alongside of me. + +"Where are you going, sir?" said he. + +"I am going back to Mirngish," I replied. "Miss Alice has dropped her +bracelet, and I am going back for it." + +"I will come with you, sir," he said. + +"Indeed no, Dick; there is no need. Go back to your supper, lad. I +shan't be long away." + +"I am coming with you, sir," he replied. "Company is a good thing +sometimes." + +"Well, boy," I said, "if you will come, I shall be glad of your +company; so come along." + +I had noticed lately that Dick never let me go far alone, but would +always be with me. It gave rise to no suspicion in my mind. He had been +tried too often for that. But still, I thought it strange. + +On this occasion, we had not ridden far before he asked me a question +which rather surprised me. He said,-- + +"Mr. Hamlyn; do you carry pistols?" + +"Why, Dick, boy?" I said, "why should I?" + +"Look you here, Mr. Hamlyn," said he. "Have you tried me?" + +"I have tried you for twenty years, Dick, and have not found you +wanting." + +"Ah!" said he, "that's good hearing. You're a magistrate, sir, though +only just made. But you know that coves like me, that have been in +trouble, get hold of information which you beaks can't. And I tell you, +sir, there's bad times coming for this country side. You carry your +pistols, sir, and, what's more, YOU USE 'EM. See here." + +He opened his shirt, and showed me a long sharp knife inside. + +"That's what I carries, sir, in these times, and you ought to carry +ditto, and a brace of barkers besides. We shan't get back to the +Captain's to-night." + +We were rising on the first shoulder of Mirngish, and daylight was +rapidly departing. I looked back. Nothing but a vast sea of fog, one +snow peak rising from it like an iceberg from a frozen sea, piercing +the clear frosy air like a crystal of lead and silver. + +"We must hurry on," I said, "or we shall never have daylight to find +the bracelet. We shall never find our way home through that fog, +without a breath of wind to guide us. What shall we do?" + +"I noticed to-day, sir," said Dick, "a track that crossed the hill to +the east; if we can get on that, and keep on it, we are sure to get +somewhere. It would be better to follow that than go blundering across +the plain through such a mist as that." + +As he was speaking, we had dismounted and commenced our search. In five +minutes, so well did our recollection serve us, Dick had got the +bracelet, and, having mounted our horses, we deliberated what was next +to be done. + +A thick fog covered the whole country, and was rapidly creeping up to +the elevation on which we stood. To get home over the plains without a +compass seemed a hopeless matter. So we determined to strike for the +track which Dick had noticed in the morning, and get on it before it +was dark. + +We plunged down into the sea of fog, and, by carefully keeping the same +direction, we found our road. The moon was nearly full, which enabled +us to distinguish it, though we could never see above five yards in +front of us. + +We followed the road above an hour; then we began to see ghostly +tree-stems through the mist. They grew thicker and more frequent. Then +we saw a light, and at last rode up to a hut-door, cheered by the warm +light, emanating from a roaring fire within, which poured through every +crack in the house-side, and made the very fog look warm. + +I held Dick's horse while he knocked. The door was opened by a wee +feeble old man, about sixty, with a sharp clever face, and an iron-grey +rough head of hair. + +"Night, daddy," said Dick. "Can me and my master stay here to-night? +We're all abroad in this fog. The governor will leave something +handsome behind in the morning, old party, I know." (This latter was in +a whisper.) + +"Canst thou stay here, say'st thou?" replied the old fellow. "In course +thou canst. But thy master's money may bide in a's pouch. Get thy +saddles off, lad, and come in; 'tis a smittle night for rheumatics." + +I helped Dick to take off the saddles, and, having hobbled our horses +with stirrup-leathers, we went in. + +Our little old friend was the hut-keeper, as I saw at a glance. The +shepherd was sitting on a block before the fire, in his shirt, smoking +his pipe and warming his legs preparatory to turning in. + +I understood him in a moment, as I then thought (though I was much +deceived). A short, wiry, blackheaded man, with a cunning face--convict +all over. He rose as we came in, and gave us good evening. I begged he +would not disturb himself; so he moved his block into the corner, and +smoked away with that lazy indifference that only a shepherd is master +of. + +But the old man began bustling about. He made us sit down before the +fire, and make ourselves comfortable. He never ceased talking. + +"I'll get ye, lads, some supper just now," said he. "There's na but twa +bunks i' the hut; so master and man must lie o' the floor, 'less indeed +the boss lies in my bed, which he's welcome to. We've a plenty +blankets, though, and sheepskins. We'll mak ye comfortable, boys. +There's a mickle back log o' the fire, and ye'll lie warm, I'se warrant +ye. There's cowd beef, sir (to me), and good breed, no' to mind boggins +o' tea. Ye'll be comfortable, will ye. What's yer name?" + +"Hamlyn," I said. + +"Oh, ay! Ye're Hamlyn and Stockbridge! I ken ye well; I kenned yer +partner: a good man--a very good man, a man o' ten thousand. He was put +down up north. A bad job--a very bad job! Ye gat terrible vengeance, +though. Ye hewed Agag in pieces! T' Governor up there to Sydney was +wild angry at what ye did, but he darena' say much. He knew that every +free man's heart went with ye. It were the sword of the Lord and of +Gideon that ye fought with! Ye saved many good lives by that raid of +yours after Stockbridge was killed. The devils wanted a lesson, and ye +gar'd them read one wi' a vengeance!" + +During this speech, which was uttered in a series of interjections, we +had made our supper, and drawn back to the fire. The shepherd had +tumbled into his blankets, and was snoring. The old man, having cleared +away the things, came and sat down beside us. The present of a fig of +tobacco won his heart utterly, and he, having cut up a pipeful, began +talking again. + +"Why," said he, "it's the real Barret's twist--the very real article! +Eh, master, ye're book-learned: do you ken where this grows? It must be +a fine country to bring up such backer as this; some o' they Palm +Isles, I reckon." + +"Virginia," I told him, "or Carolina, one of the finest countries in +the world where they hold slaves." + +"Ah," said he, "they couldn't get white men to mess with backer and +such in a hot country, and in course every one knows that blacks won't +work till they're made. That's why they bothers themselves with 'em, I +reckon. But, Lord! they are useless trash. White convicts is useless +enough; think what black niggers must be!" + +How about the gentleman in bed? I thought; but he was snoring +comfortably. + +"I am a free man myself," continued the old man. "I never did aught, +ay, or thought o' doing aught, that an honest man should not do. But +I've lived among convicts twenty odd year, and do you know, sir, +sometimes I hardly know richt fra wrang. Sometimes I see things that +whiles I think I should inform of, and then the devil comes and tells +me it would be dishonourable. And then I believe him till the time's +gone by, and after that I am miserable in my conscience. So I haven't +an easy time of it, though I have good times, and money to spare." + +I was getting fond of the honest, talkative old fellow; so when Dick +asked him if he wanted to turn in, and he answered no, I was well +pleased. + +"Can't you pitch us a yarn, daddy?" said Dick. "Tell us something about +the old country. I should like well to hear what you were at home." + +"I'll pitch ye a yarn, lad," he replied, "if the master don't want to +turn in. I'm fond of talking. All old men are, I think," he said, +appealing to me. "The time's coming, ye see, when the gift o' speech +will be gone from me. It's a great gift. But happen we won't lose it +after all." + +I said, "No, that I thought not; that I thought on the other side of +the grave we should both speak and hear of higher things than we did in +the flesh." + +"Happen so," said he; "I think so too, sometime. I'll give ye my yarn; +I have told it often. Howsever, neither o' ye have heard it, so ye're +the luckier that I tell it better by frequent repetition. Here it is:-- + +"I was a collier lad, always lean, and not well favoured, though I was +active and strong. I was small, too, and that set my father's heart +agin me somewhat, for he was a gran' man, and a mighty fighter. + +"But my elder brother Jack, he was a mighty fellow, God bless him; and +when he was eighteen he weighed twelve stone, and was earning man's +wages, tho' that I was hurrying still. I saw that father loved him +better than me, and whiles that vexed me, but most times it didn't, for +I cared about the lad as well as father did, and he liked me the same. +He never went far without me; and whether he fought, or whether he +drunk, I must be wi' him and help. + +"Well, so we went on till, as I said, I was seventeen, and he eighteen. +We never had a word till then; we were as brothers should be. But at +this time we had a quarrel, the first we ever had; ay, and the last, +for we got something to mind this one by. + +"We both worked in the same pit. It was the Southstone Pit; happen +you've heard of it. No? Well, thus things get soon forgot. Father had +been an overman there, but was doing better now above ground. He and +mother kept a bit shop; made money. + +"There was a fair in our village, a poor thing enough; but when we boys +were children we used to look forward to it eleven months out o' +twelve, and the day it came round we used to go to father, and get +sixpence, or happen a shilling apiece to spend. + +"Well, time went on till we came to earn money; but still we kept up +the custom, and went to the old man reg'lar for our fairin', and he +used to laugh and chaff us as he'd give us a fourpenny or such, and we +liked the joke as well as he. + +"Well this time--it was in '12, just after the comet, just the worst +times of the war, the fair came round, 24th of May, I well remember, +and we went in to the old man to get summut to spend--just for a joke +like. + +"He'd lost money, and been vexed; so when Jack asked him for his +fairin' he gi'ed him five shillin', and said, 'I'll go to gaol but what +my handsome boy shan't have summut to treat his friends to beer.' But +when I axed him, he said, 'Earn man's wages, and thee'll get a man's +fairin,' and heaved a penny at me. + +"That made me wild mad, I tell you. I wasn't only angry wi' the old +man, but I was mad wi' Jack, poor lad! The devil of jealousy had got +into me, and, instead of kicking him out, I nursed him. I ran out o' +the house, and away into the fair, and drunk, and fought, and swore +like a mad one. + +"I was in one of the dancing booths, half drunk, and a young fellow +came to me, and said, 'Where has thee been? Do thee know thy brother +has foughten Jim Perry, and beaten him?' + +"I felt like crying, to think my brother had fought, and I not there to +set him up. But I swore, and said, 'I wish Jim Perry had killed un;' +and then I sneaked off home to bed, and cried like a lass. + +"And next morning I was up before him, and down the pit. He worked a +good piece from me, so I did not see him, and it came on nigh nine +o'clock before I began to wonder why the viewer had not been round, for +I had heard say there was a foul place cut into by some of them, and at +such times the viewer generally looks into every corner. + +"Well, about nine, the viewer and underviewer came up with the overman, +and stood talking alongside of me, when there came a something sudden +and sharp, as tho' one had boxed your ears, and then a 'whiz, whiz,' +and the viewer stumbled a one side, and cried out, 'God save us!' + +"I hardly knew what had happened till I heard him singing out clear and +firm, 'Come here to me, you lads; come here. Keep steady, and we'll be +all right yet.' Then I knew it was a fire, and a sharp one, and began +crying out for Jack. + +"I heard him calling for me, and then he ran up and got hold of me; and +so ended the only quarrel we ever had, and that was a one-sided one. + +"'Are you all here?' said the viewer. 'Now follow me, and if we meet +the afterdamp hold your breath and run. I am afraid it's a bad job, but +we may get through yet.' + +"We had not gone fifty yards before we came on the afterdamp, filling +the headway like smoke. Jack and I took hold of each other's collars +and ran, but before we were half-way through, he fell. I kept good hold +of his shirt, and dragged him on on the ground. I felt as strong as a +horse; and in ten seconds, which seemed to me like ten hours, I dragged +him out under the shaft into clear air. At first I thought he was dead, +but he was still alive, and very little of that. His heart beat very +slow, and I thought he'd die; but I knew if he got clear air that he +might come round. + +"When we had gotten to the shaft bottom we found it all full of smoke; +the waft had gone straight up, and they on the top told us after that +all the earth round was shook, and the black smoke and coal-dust flew +up as though from a gun-barrel. Any way it was strong enough to carry +away the machine, so we waited there ten minutes and wondered the +basket did not come down; but they above, meanwhile, were rigging a +rope to an old horse-whim, and as they could not get horses, the men +run the poles round themselves. + +"But we at the bottom knew nothing of all this. There were thirty or so +in the shaft bottom, standing there, dripping wet wi' water, and +shouting for the others, who never came; now the smoke began to show in +the west drive, and we knew the mine was fired, and yet we heard nought +from those above. + +"But what I minded most of all was, that Jack was getting better. I +knew we could not well be lost right under the shaft, so I did not +swear and go on like some of them, because they did not mind us above. +When the basket came down at last, I and Jack went up among the first, +and there I saw such a sight, lad, as ye'll never see till ye see a +colliery explosion. There were hundreds and hundreds there. Most had +got friends or kin in the pit, and as each man came up, his wife or his +mother would seize hold of him and carry on terrible. + +"But the worst were they whose husbands and sons never came up again, +and they were many; for out of one hundred and thirty-one men in the +pit, only thirtynine came up alive. Directly we came to bank, I saw +father; he was first among them that were helping, working like a +horse, and directing everything. When he saw us, he said, 'Thank the +Lord, there's my two boys. I am not a loser to-day!' and came running +to us, and helped me to carry Jack down the bank. He was very weak and +sick, but the air freshened him up wonderful. + +"I told father all about it, and he said, 'I've been wrong, and thou'st +been wrong. Don't thou get angry for nothing; thou hast done a man's +work to-day, at all events. Now come and bear a hand. T'owd 'ooman will +mind the lad.' + +"We went back to the pit's mouth; the men were tearing round the whim +faster than horses would a' done it. And first amongst 'em all was old +Mrs. Cobley, wi' her long grey hair down her back, doing the work o' +three men; for her two boys were down still, and I knew for one that +they were not with us at the bottom; but when the basket came up with +the last, and her two boys missing, she went across to the master, and +asked him what he was going to do, as quiet as possible. + +"He said he was going to ask some men to go down, and my father +volunteered to go at once, and eight more went with him. They were soon +up again, and reported that all the mine was full of smoke, and no one +had dared leave the shaft bottom fifty yards. + +"'It's clear enough, the mine's fired, sir,' said my father to the +owner. 'They that's down are dead. Better close it, sir.' + +"'What!' screamed old Mrs. Cobley, 'close the pit, ye dog, and my boys +down there? Ye wouldn't do such a thing, master dear?' she continued; +'ye couldn't do it.' Many others were wild when they heard the thing +proposed; but while they raved and argued, the pit began to send up a +reek of smoke like the mouth of hell, and then the master gave orders +to close the shaft, and a hundred women knew they were widows, and went +weeping home. + +"And Jack got well. And after the old man died, we came out here. Jack +has gotten a public-house in Yass, and next year I shall go home and +live with him. + +"And that's the yarn about the fire at the Southstone Pit." + +We applauded it highly, and after a time began to talk about lying +down, when on a sudden we heard a noise of horses' feet outside; then +the door was opened, and in came a stranger. + +He was a stranger to me, but not to my servant, who I could see +recognized him, though he gave no sign of it in words. I also stared at +him, for he was the handsomest young man I had ever seen. + +Handsome as an Apollo, beautiful as a leopard, but with such a peculiar +style of beauty, that when you looked at him you instinctively felt at +your side for a weapon of defence, for a more reckless, dangerous +looking man I never yet set eyes on. And while I looked at him I +recognised him. I had seen his face, or one like it, before often, +often. And it seemed as though I had known him just as he stood there, +years and years ago, on the other side of the world. I was almost +certain it was so, and yet he seemed barely twenty. It was an +impossibility, and yet as I looked I grew every moment more certain. + +He dashed in in an insolent way. "I am going to quarter here to-night +and chance it," he said. "Hallo! Dick, my prince! You here? And what +may your name be, old cock?" he added, turning to me, now seeing me +indistinctly for the first time, for I was sitting back in the shadow. + +"My name is Geoffry Hamlyn. I am a Justice of the Peace, and I am at +your service," I said. "Now perhaps you will favour me with YOUR name?" + +The young gentleman did not seem to like coming so suddenly into close +proximity with a "beak," and answered defiantly,-- + +"Charles Sutton is my name, and I don't know as there's anything +against me, at present." + +"Sutton," I said; "Sutton? I don't know the name. No, I have nothing +against you, except that you don't appear very civil." + +Soon after I rolled myself in a blanket and lay down. Dick lay at right +angles to me, his feet nearly touching mine. He began snoring heavily +almost immediately, and just when I was going to give him a kick, and +tell him not to make such a row, I felt him give me a good sharp shove +with the heel of his boot, by which I understood that he was awake, and +meant to keep awake, as he did not approve of the strangers. + +I was anxious about our horses, yet in a short time I could keep awake +no longer. I slept, and when I next woke, I heard voices whispering +eagerly together. I silently turned, so that I could see whence the +voices came, and perceived the hut-keeper sitting up in bed, in close +confabulation with the stranger. + +"Those two rascals are plotting some villany," I said to myself; +"somebody will be minus a horse shortly, I expect." And then I fell +asleep again; and when I awoke it was broad day. + +I found the young man was gone, and, what pleased me better still, had +not taken either of our horses with him. So, when we had taken some +breakfast, we started, and I left the kind little old man something to +remember me by. + +We had not ridden a hundred yards, before I turned to Dick and said,-- + +"Now mind; I don't want you to tell me anything you don't like, but +pray relieve my mind on one point. Who was that young man? Have I ever +seen him before?" + +"I think not, sir; but I can explain how you come to think you have. +You remember, sir, that I knew all about Mrs. Hawker's history?" + +"Yes! Yes! Go on." + +"That young fellow is George Hawker's son." + +It came upon me like a thunderbolt. This, then, was the illegitimate +son that he had by his cousin Ellen. Oh miserable child of sin and +shame! to what end, I wondered, had he been saved till now? + +We shall see soon. Meanwhile I turned to my companion and said, "Tell +me how he came to be here." + +"Why you see, sir, he went on in his father's ways, and got lagged. He +found his father out as soon as he was free, which wasn't long first, +for he is mortal cunning, and since then they two have stuck together. +Most times they quarrel, and sometimes they fight, but they are never +far apart. Hawker ain't far off now." + +"Now, sir," he continued, "I am going to tell you something which, if +it ever leaks out of your lips again, in such a way as to show where it +came from, will end my life as sure as if I was hung. You remember +three months ago that a boatful of men were supposed to have landed +from Cockatoo?" + +"Yes," I said, "I heard it from Major Buckley. But the police have been +scouring in all directions, and can find nothing of them. My opinion is +that the boat was capsized, and they were all drowned, and that the +surf piled the boat over with sea-weed. Depend on it they did not land." + +"Depend on it they did, sir; those men are safe and well, and ready for +any mischief. Hawker was on the look-out for them, and they all stowed +away till the police cleared off, which they did last week. There will +be mischief soon. There; I have told you enough to cut my throat, and +I'll tell you more, and convince you that I am right. That shepherd at +whose hut we stayed last night was one of them; that fellow was the +celebrated Captain Mike. What do you think of that?" + +I shuddered as I heard the name of that fell ruffian, and thought that +I had slept in the hut with him. But when I remembered how he was +whispering with the stranger in the middle of the night, I came to the +conclusion that serious mischief was brewing, and pushed on through the +fog, which still continued as dense as ever, and, guided by some +directions from the old hut-keeper, I got to Captain Brentwood's about +ten o'clock, and told him and the Major the night's adventures. + +We three armed ourselves secretly and quietly, and went back to the hut +with the determination of getting possession of the person of the +shepherd Mike, who, were he the man Dick accused him of being, would +have been a prize indeed, being one of the leading Van Diemen's Land +rangers, and one of the men reported as missing by Captain Blockstrop. + +"Suppose," said Captain Brentwood, "that we seize the fellow, and it +isn't him after all?" + +"Then," said the Major, "an action for false imprisonment would lie +sir, decidedly. But we will chance it." + +And when we got there, we saw the old hut-keeper, he of the colliery +explosion experiences, shepherding the sheep himself, and found that +the man we were in search of had left the hut that morning, apparently +to take the sheep out. But that going out about eleven the old man had +found them still in the yard, whereby he concluded that the shepherd +was gone, which proved to be the case. And making further inquiries we +found that the shepherd had only been hired a month previously, and no +man knew whence he came: all of which seemed to confirm Dick's story +wonderfully, and made us excessively uneasy. And in the end the Major +asked me to prolong my visit for a time and keep my servant with me, as +every hand was of use; and so it fell out that I happened to be present +at, and chronicle all which follows. + + + + +Chapter XXXVII + +IN WHICH GEORGE HAWKER SETTLES AN OLD SCORE WITH WILLIAM LEE, MOST +HANDSOMELY, LEAVING, IN FACT, A LARGE BALANCE IN HIS OWN FAVOUR. + + +I pause here--I rather dread to go on. Although our course has been +erratic and irregular; although we have had one character disappearing +for a long time (like Tom Troubridge); and, although we have had +another entirely new coming bobbing up in the manner of Punch's +victims, unexpected, and apparently unwanted; although, I say, the +course of this story may have been ill-arranged in the highest degree, +and you may have been continually coming across some one in Vol. II. +who forced you to go back to Vol. I. (possibly sent back to the +library) to find out who he was; yet, on the whole, we have got on +pleasantly enough as things go. Now, I am sorry to say I have to record +two or three fearful catastrophes. The events of the next month are +seldom alluded to by any of those persons mentioned in the preceding +pages; they are too painful. I remark that the Lucknow and Cawnpore men +don't much like talking about the affairs of that terrible six weeks; +much for the same reason, I suspect, as we, going over our old +recollections, always omit the occurrences of this lamentable spring. + +The facts contained in the latter end of this chapter I got from the +Gaol Chaplain at Sydney. + +The Major, the Captain, and I, got home to dinner, confirmed in our +suspicions that mischief was abroad, and very vexed at having missed +the man we went in search of. Both Mrs. Buckley and Alice noticed that +something was wrong, but neither spoke a word on the subject. Mrs. +Buckley now and then looked anxiously at her husband, and Alice cast +furtive glances at her father. The rest took no notice of our silence +and uneasiness, little dreaming of the awful cloud that was hanging +above our heads, to burst, alas! so soon. + +I was sitting next to Mary Hawker that evening, talking over old Devon +days and Devon people, when she said,-- + +"I think I am going to have some more quiet peaceful times. I am +happier than I have been for many years. Do you know why? Look there." + +"I shuddered to hear her say so, knowing what I knew, but looked where +she pointed. Her son sat opposite to us, next to the pretty Ellen +Mayford. She had dropped the lids over her eyes and was smiling. He, +with his face turned toward her, was whispering in his eager impulsive +way, and tearing to pieces a slip of paper which he held in his hand. +As the firelight fell on his face, I felt a chill come over me. The +likeness was so fearful!--not to the father (that I had been long +accustomed to), but to the son, to the half-brother--to the poor lost +young soul I had seen last night, the companion of desperate men. As it +struck me I could not avoid a start, and a moment after I would have +given a hundred pounds not to have done so, for I felt Mary's hand on +my arm, and heard her say, in a low voice,-- + +"Cruel! cruel! Will you never forget?" + +I felt guilty and confused. As usual, on such occasions, Satan was at +my elbow, ready with a lie, more or less clumsy, and I said, "You do me +injustice, Mrs. Hawker. I was not thinking of old times. I was +astonished at what I see there. Do you think there is anything in it?" + +"I sincerely hope so," she said. + +"Indeed, and so do I. It will be excellent on every account. Now," said +I, "Mrs. Hawker, will you tell me what has become of your old servant, +Lee? I have reasons for asking." + +"He is in my service still," she said; "as useful and faithful as ever. +At present he is away at a little hut in the ranges, looking after our +ewes." + +"Who is with him?" I asked. + +"Well, he has got a new hand with him, a man who came about a month or +so ago, and stayed about splitting wood. I fancy I heard Lee remark +that he had known him before. However, when Lee had to go to the +ranges, he wanted a hut-keeper; so this man went up with him." + +"What sort of a looking man was he?" + +"Oh, a rather large man, red-haired, much pitted with the small-pox." + +All this made me uneasy. I had asked these questions, by the advice of +Dick, and, from Mrs. Hawker's description tallying so well with his, I +had little doubt that another of the escaped gang was living actually +in her service, alone too, in the hut with Lee. + +The day that we went to Mirngish, the circumstances I am about to +relate took place in Lee's hut, a lonely spot, eight miles from the +home station, towards the mountain, and situated in a dense dark +stringy bark forest--a wild desolate spot, even as it was that +afternoon, with the parrots chattering and whistling around it, and the +bright winter's sun lighting up the green tree-tops. + +Lee was away, and the hut-keeper was the only living soul about the +place. He had just made some bread, and, having carried out his +camp-oven to cool, was sitting on the bench in the sun, lazily, +thinking what he would do next. + +He was a long, rather powerfully-built man, and seemed at first sight, +merely a sleepy half-witted fellow, but at a second glance you might +perceive that there was a good deal of cunning, and some ferocity in +his face. He sat for some time, and was beginning to think that he +would like a smoke, so he got out his knife preparatory to cutting +tobacco. + +The hut stood at the top of a lone gully, stretching away in a vista, +nearly bare of trees for a width of about ten yards or so, all the way +down, which gave it the appearance of a grass-ride, walled on each side +by tall dark forest; looking down this, our hutkeeper saw, about a +quarter of a mile off, a horseman cross from one side to the other. + +He only caught a momentary glimpse of him, but that was enough to show +him that it was a stranger. He neither knew horse nor man, at least +judging by his dress; and while he was still puzzling his brains as to +what stranger would be coming to such an out-of-the-way place, he heard +the "Chuck, kuk, kuk, kuk," of an opossum close behind the hut, and +started to his feet. + +It would of course have startled any bushman to hear an opossum cry in +broad day, but he knew what this meant well. It was the arranged signal +of his gang, and he ran to the place from whence the sound came. + +George Hawker was there--well dressed, sitting on a noble chestnut +horse. They greeted one another with a friendly curse. + +As is my custom, when recording the conversation of this class of +worthies, I suppress the expletives, thereby shortening them by nearly +one half, and depriving the public of much valuable information. + +"Well, old man," began Hawker, "is the coast clear?" + +"No one here but myself," replied the other. "I'm hut-keeping here for +one Bill Lee, but he is away. He was one of the right sort once +himself, I have heard; but he's been on the square for twenty years, so +I don't like to trust him." + +"You are about right there, Moody, my lad," said Hawker. "I've just +looked up to talk to you about him, and other matters,--I'll come in. +When will he be back?" + +"Not before night, I expect," said the other. + +"Well," said Hawker, "we shall have the more time to talk; I've got a +good deal to tell you. Our chaps are all safe and snug, and the traps +are off. Only two, that's you and Mike, stayed this side of the hill; +the rest crossed the ranges and stowed away in an old lair of mine on +one of the upper Murray gullies. They've had pretty hard times, and if +it hadn't been for the cash they brought away, they'd have had worse. +Now the coast is clear, they're coming back by ones and twos, and next +week we shall be ready for business. I'm going to be head man this +bout, because I know the country better than any; and the most noble +Michael has consented, for this time only, to act as lieutenant. We +haven't decided on any plans yet, but some think of beginning from the +coast, because that part will be clearest of traps, they having +satisfied themselves that we ain't there. In fact, the wiseacres have +fully determined that we are all drowned. There's one devil of a +foreign doctor knows I'm round though: he saw me the night before you +came ashore, and I am nigh sure he knew me. I have been watching him, +and I could have knocked him over last week as clean as a whistle, +only, thinks I, it'll make a stir before the time. Never mind, I'll +have him yet. This Lee is a black sheep, lad. I'm glad you are here; +you must watch him, and if you see him flinch, put a knife in him. He +raised the country on me once before. I tell you, Jerry, that I'd be +hung, and willing, to-morrow, to have that chap's life, and I'd have +had it before now, only I had to keep still for the sake of the others. +That man served me the meanest, dirtiest trick, twenty years ago, in +the old country, that ever you or any other man heard of, and if he +catches sight of me the game's up. Mind, if you see cause, you deal +with him, or else,----" (with an awful oath) "you answer to the others." + +"If he's got to go, he'll go," replied the other, doggedly. "Don't you +fear me; Moody the cannibal ain't a man to flinch." + +"What, is that tale true then?" asked Hawker, looking at his companion +with a new sort of interest. + +"Why, in course it is," replied Moody; "I thought no one doubted that. +That Van Diemen's Land bush would starve a bandicoot, and Shiner and I +walked two days before we knocked the boy on the head; the lad was +getting beat, and couldn't a' gone much further. After three days more +we began to watch one another, and neither one durst walk first, or go +to sleep. Well, Shiner gave in first; he couldn't keep his eyes open +any longer. And then, you know, of course my own life was dearer than +his'n." + +"My God! That's worse than ever I did!" said Hawker. + +"But not worse than you may do, if you persevere. You promise well," +said Moody, with a grin. + +Hawker bent and whispered in his ear; the other listened for a time, +and then said,-- + +"Make it twenty." + +Hawker after a little consideration nodded--then the other nodded--then +they whispered together again. Something out of the common this must +be, that they, not very particular in their confidences, should whisper +about it. + +They looked up suddenly, and Lee was standing in the doorway. + +Hawker and he started when they saw one another, but Lee recovered +himself first, and said,-- + +"George Hawker, it's many years since we met, and I'm not so young as I +was. I should like to make peace before I go, as I well know that I'm +the chief one to blame for you getting into trouble. I'm not humbugging +you, when I say that I have been often sorry for it of late years. But +sorrow won't do any good. If you'll forgive and forget, I'll do the +same. You tried my life once, and that's worse than ever I did for you. +And now I'll tell you, that if you want money to get out of the country +and set up anywhere else, and leave your poor wife in peace, I'll find +it for you out of my own pocket." + +"I don't bear any malice," said Hawker; "but I don't want to leave the +country just yet. I suppose you won't peach about having seen me here?" + +"I shan't say a word, George, if you keep clear of the home station; +but I won't have you come about there. So I warn you." + +Lee held out his hand, and George took it. Then he asked him if he +would stay there that night, and George consented. + +Day was fast sinking behind the trees, and making golden boughs +overhead. Lee stood at the hut door watching the sun set, and thinking, +perhaps, of old Devon. He seemed sad, and let us hope he was regretting +his old crimes while time was left him. Night was closing in on him, +and having looked once more on the darkening sky, and the fog coldly +creeping up the gully, he turned with a sigh and a shudder into the +hut, and shut the door. + +Near midnight, and all was still. Then arose a cry upon the night so +hideous, so wild, and so terrible, that the roosting birds dashed off +affrighted, and the dense mist, as though in sympathising fear, +prolonged the echoes a hundred fold. One articulate cry, "Oh! you +treacherous dog!" given with the fierce energy of a dying man, and then +night returned to her stillness, and the listeners heard nothing but +the weeping of the moisture from the wintry trees. + + +* * * * * + + +The two perpetrators of the atrocity stood silent a minute or more, +recovering themselves. Then Hawker said in a fierce whisper,-- + +"You clumsy hound; why did you let him make that noise? I shall never +get it out of my head again, if I live till a hundred. Let's get out of +this place before I go mad; I could not stay in the house with it for +salvation. Get his horse, and come along." + +They got the two horses, and rode away into the night; but Hawker, in +his nervous anxiety to get away, dropped a handsome cavalry pistol,--a +circumstance which nearly cost Doctor Mulhaus his life. + +They rode till after daylight, taking a course toward the sea, and had +gone nearly twelve miles before George discovered his loss, and broke +out into petulant imprecations. + +"I wouldn't have lost that pistol for five pounds," he said; "no, nor +more. I shall never have one like it again. I've put over a parrot at +twenty yards with it." + +"Go back and get it, then," said Moody, "if it's so valuable. I'll camp +and wait for you. We want all the arms we can get." + +"Not I," said George; "I would not go back into that cursed hut alone +for all the sheep in the country." + +"You coward," replied the other; "afraid of a dead man. Well, if you +won't, I will: and, mind, I shall keep it for my own use." + +"You're welcome to it, if you like to get it," said George. And so +Moody rode back. + + + + +Chapter XXXVIII + +HOW DR. MULHAUS GOT BUSHED IN THE RANGES, AND WHAT BEFEL HIM THERE. + + +I must recur to the same eventful night again, and relate another +circumstance that occurred on it. As events thicken, time gets more +precious; so that, whereas at first I thought nothing of giving you the +events of twenty years or so in a chapter, we are now compelled to +concentrate time so much that it takes three chapters to twenty-four +hours. I read a long novel once, the incidents of which did not extend +over thirty-six hours, and yet it was not so profoundly stupid as you +would suppose. + +All the party got safe home from the picnic, and were glad enough to +get housed out of the frosty air. The Doctor, above all others, was +rampant at the thoughts of dinner, and a good chat over a warm fire, +and burst out, in a noble bass voice, with an old German student's song +about wine and Gretchen, and what not. + +His music was soon turned into mourning; for, as they rode into the +courtyard, a man came up to Captain Brentwood, and began talking +eagerly to him. + +It was one of his shepherds, who lived alone with his wife towards the +mountain. The poor woman, his wife, he said, was taken in labour that +morning, and was very bad. Hearing there was a doctor staying at the +home station, he had come down to see if he could come to their +assistance. + +"I'll go, of course," said the Doctor; "but let me get something to eat +first. Is anybody with her?" + +"Yes, a woman was with her; had been staying with them some days." + +"I hope you can find the way in the dark," said the Doctor, "for I can +tell you I can't." + +"No fear, sir," said the man; "there's a track all the way, and the +moon's full. If it wasn't for the fog it would be as bright as day." + +He took a hasty meal, and started. They went at a foot's pace, for the +shepherd was on foot. The track was easily seen, and although it was +exceedingly cold, the Doctor, being well wrapped up, contrived, with +incessant smoking, to be moderately comfortable. All external objects +being a blank, he soon turned to his companion to see what he could get +out of him. + +"What part of the country are you from, my friend?" + +"Fra' the Isle of Skye," the man answered. "I'm one of the Macdonalds +of Skye." + +"That's a very ancient family, is it not?" said the Doctor at a +venture, knowing he could not go wrong with a Highlander. + +"Very ancient, and weel respeckit," the man answered. + +"And who is your sheik, rajah, chieftain, or what you call him?" + +"My lord Macdonald. I am cousin to my lord." + +"Indeed! He owns the whole island, I suppose?" + +"There's Mackinnons live there. But they are interlopers; they are +worthless trash," and he spit in disgust. + +"I suppose," said the Doctor, "a Mackinnon would return the compliment, +if speaking of a Macdonald." + +The man laughed, and said, he supposed "Yes," then added, "See! what's +yon?" + +"A white stump burnt black at one side,--what did you think it was?" + +"I jaloused it might be a ghaist. There's a many ghaists and bogles +about here." + +"I should have thought the country was too young for those gentry," +said the Doctor. + +"It's a young country, but there's been muckle wickedness done in it. +And what are those blacks do you think?--next thing to devils--at all +events they're no' exactly human." + +"Impish, decidedly," said the Doctor. "Have you ever seen any ghosts, +friend?" + +"Ay! many. A fortnight agone, come to-morrow, I saw the ghost of my +wife's brother in broad day. It was the time of the high wind ye mind +of; and the rain drove so thick I could no see all my sheep at once. +And a man on a white horse came fleeing before the wind close past me; +I knew him in a minute; it was my wife's brother, as I tell ye, that +was hung fifteen years agone for sheep-stealing, and he wasn't so much +altered as ye'd think." + +"Some one else like him!" suggested the Doctor. + +"Deil a fear," replied the man, "for when I cried out and said, 'What, +Col, lad! Gang hame, and lie in yer grave, and dinna trouble honest +folk,' he turned and rode away through the rain, straight from me." + +"Well!" said the Doctor, "I partly agree with you that the land's +bewitched. I saw a man not two months ago who ought to have been dead +five or six years at least. But are you quite sure the man you saw was +hung?" + +"Well nigh about," he replied. "When we sailed from Skye he was under +sentence, and they weren't over much given to reprieve for +sheep-stealing in those days. It was in consequence o' that that I came +here." + +"That's a very tolerable ghost story," said the Doctor. "Have you got +another? If you have, I shouldn't mind hearing it, as it will beguile +the way." + +"Did ye ever hear how Faithful's lot were murdered by the blacks up on +the Merrimerangbong?" + +"No, but I should like to; is it a ghost story?" + +"Deed ay, and is it. This is how it happened:--When Faithful came to +take up his country across the mountains yonder, they were a strong +party, enough to have been safe in any country, but whether it was food +was scarce, or whether it was on account of getting water, I don't +know, but they separated, and fifteen of them got into the Yackandandah +country before the others. + +"Well, you see, they were pretty confident, being still a strong mob, +and didn't set any watch or take any care. There was one among them +(Cranky Jim they used to call him--he as told me this yarn--he used to +be about Reid's mill last year) who always was going on at them to take +more care, but they never heeded him at all. + +"They found a fine creek, with plenty of feed and water, and camped at +it to wait till the others came up. They saw no blacks, nor heard of +any, and three days were past, and they began to wonder why the others +had not overtaken them. + +"The third night they were all sitting round the fire, laughing and +smoking, when they heard a loud co'ee on the opposite side of the +scrub, and half-a-dozen of them started up, and sang out, "There they +are!" + +"Well, they all began co'eeing again, and they heard the others in +reply, apparently all about in the scrub. So off they starts, one by +one, into the scrub, answering and hallooing, for it seemed to them +that their mates were scattered about, and didn't know where they were. +Well, as I said, fourteen of them started into the scrub to collect the +party and bring them up to the fire; only old Cranky Jim sat still in +the camp. He believed, with the others, that it was the rest of their +party coming up, but he soon began to wonder how it was that they were +so scattered. Then he heard one scream, and then it struck him all at +once that this was a dodge of the blacks to draw the men from the camp, +and, when they were abroad, cut them off one by one, plunder the drays, +and drive off the sheep. + +"So he dropped, and crawled away in the dark. He heard the co'ees grow +fewer and fewer as the men were speared one by one, and at last +everything was quiet, and then he knew he was right, and he rose up and +fled away. + +"In two days he found the other party, and told them what had happened. +They came up, and there was some sharp fighting, but they got a good +many of their sheep back. + +"They found the men lying about singly in the scrub, all speared. They +buried them just where they found each one, for it was hot weather. +They buried them four foot deep, but they wouldn't lie still. + +"Every night, about nine o'clock, they get up again, and begin co'eeing +for an hour or more. At first there's a regular coronach of them, then +by degrees the shouts get fewer and fewer, and, just when you think +it's all over, one will break out loud and clear close to you, and +after that all's still again." + +"You don't believe that story, I suppose?" + +"If you press me very hard," said the Doctor, "I must confess, with all +humility, that I don't!" + +"No more did I," said Macdonald, "till I heard 'em!" + +"Heard them!" said the Doctor. + +"Ay, AND SEEN THEM!" said the man, stopping and turning round. + +"You most agreeable of men! pray, tell me how." + +"Why, you see, last year I was coming down with some wool-drays from +Parson Dorken's, and this Cranky Jim was with us, and told us the same +yarn, and when he had finished, he said, 'You'll know whether I speak +truth or not to-night, for we're going to camp at the place where it +happened.' + +"Well, and so we did, and, as well as we could reckon, it was a little +past nine when a curlew got up and began crying. That was the signal +for the ghosts, and in a minute they were co'eeing like mad all round. +As Jim had told us, one by one ceased until all was quiet, and I +thought it was over, when I looked, and saw, about a hundred yards off, +a tall man in grey crossing a belt of open ground. He put his hand to +his mouth, gave a wild shout, and disappeared!" + +"Thank you," said the Doctor. "I think you mentioned that your wife's +confinement was somewhat sudden?" + +"Yes, rather," replied the man. + +"Pray, had you been relating any of the charming little tales to her +lately--just, we will suppose, to while away the time of the evening?" + +"Well, I may have done so," said Macdonald, "but I don't exactly mind." + +"Ah, so I thought. The next time your good lady happens to be in a +similar situation, I think I would refrain from ghost stories. I should +not like to commit myself to a decided opinion, but I should be +inclined to say that the tales you have been telling me were rather +horrible. Is that the light of your hut?" + +Two noble colley dogs bounded to welcome them, and a beautiful +bare-legged girl, about sixteen, ran forth to tell her father, in +Gaelic, that the trouble was over, and that a boy was born. + +On going in, they found the mother asleep, while her gossip held the +baby on her knee; so the Doctor saw that he was not needed, and sat +down, to wait until the woman should wake, having first, however, +produced from his saddle two bottles of port wine, a present from Alice. + +The woman soon woke, and the Doctor, having felt her pulse, and left +some medicine, started to ride home again, carrying with him an incense +of good wishes from the warm-hearted Highlanders. + +Instead of looking carefully for the road, the good Doctor was soon +nine fathoms deep into the reasons why the mountaineers and coast folk +of all northern countries should be more blindly superstitious than the +dwellers in plains and in towns; and so it happened that, coming to a +fork in the track, he disregarded the advice of his horse, and, instead +of taking the right hand, as he should have done, he held straight on, +and, about two o'clock in the morning, found that not only had he lost +his road, but that the track had died out altogether, and that he was +completely abroad in the bush. + +He was in a very disagreeable predicament. The fog was thicker than +ever, without a breath of air; and he knew that it was as likely as not +that it might last for a day or two. He was in a very wild part of the +mountain, quite on the borders of all the country used by white men. + +After some reflection, he determined to follow the fall of the land, +thinking that he was still on the water-shed of the Snowy-river, and +hoping, by following down some creek, to find some place he knew. + +Gradually day broke, cold and cheerless. He was wet and miserable, and +could merely give a guess at the east, for the sun was quite invisible; +but, about eight o'clock, he came on a track, running at right angles +to the way he had been going, and marked with the hoofs of two horses, +whose riders had apparently passed not many hours before. + +Which way should he go? He could not determine. The horsemen, it seemed +to him, as far as he could guess, had been going west, while his route +lay east. And, after a time, having registered a vow never to stir out +of sight of the station again without a compass, he determined to take +a contrary direction from them, and to find out where they had come +from. + +The road crossed gully after gully, each one like the other. The timber +was heavy stringy bark, and, in the lower part of the shallow gullies, +the tall white stems of the blue gums stood up in the mist like ghosts. +All nature was dripping and dull, and he was chilled and wretched. + +At length, at the bottom of a gully, rather more dreary looking, if +possible, than all the others, he came on a black reedy waterhole, the +first he had seen in his ride, and perceived that the track turned +short to the left. Casting his eye along it, he made out the dark +indistinct outline of a hut, standing about forty yards off. + +He rode up to it. All was as still as death. No man came out to welcome +him, no dog jumped, barking forth, no smoke went up from the chimney; +and, looking round, he saw that the track ended here, and that he had +ridden all these miles only to find a deserted hut. + +But was it deserted? Not very long so, for those two horsemen, whose +tracks he had been on so long, had started from here. Here, on this +bare spot in front of the door, they had mounted. One of their horses +had been capering; nay, here were their footsteps on the threshold. +And, while he looked, there was a light fall inside, and the chimney +began smoking. "At all events," said the Doctor, "the fire's in, and +here's the camp-oven, too. Somebody will be here soon. I shall go in +and light my pipe." + +He lifted the latch, and went in. Nobody there. Stay--yes, there is a +man asleep in the bed-place. "The watchman, probably," thought the +Doctor; "he's been up all night with the sheep, and is taking his rest +by day. Well, I won't wake him; I'll hang up my horse a bit, and take a +pipe. Perhaps I may as well turn the horse out. Well, no. I shan't wait +long; he may stand a little without hurting himself." + +So soliloquised the Doctor, and lit his pipe. A quarter of an hour +passed, and the man still lay there without moving. The Doctor rose and +went close to him. He could not even hear him breathe. + +His flesh began to creep, but his brows contracted, and his face grew +firm. He went boldly up, and pulled down the blanket, and then, to his +horror and amazement, recognised the distorted countenance of the +unfortunate William Lee. + +He covered the face over again, and stood thinking of his situation, +and how this had come to pass. How came Lee here, and how had he met +his death? At this moment something bright, half hidden by a blue shirt +lying on the floor, caught his eye, and, going to pick it up, he found +it was a beautiful pistol, mounted in silver, and richly chased. + +He turned it over and over till in a lozenge behind the hammer he +found, apparently scratched with a knife, the name, "G. Hawker." + +Here was light with a vengeance! But he had little time to think of his +discovery ere he was startled by the sound of horses' feet rapidly +approaching the hut. + +Instinctively he thrust the pistol into his pocket, and stooped down, +pretending to light his pipe. He heard some one ride up to the door, +dismount, and enter the hut. He at once turned round, pipe in mouth, +and confronted him. + +He was a tall, ill-looking, red-haired man, and to the Doctor's +pleasant good morning he replied by sulkily asking what he wanted. + +"Only a light for my pipe, friend," said the Doctor; "having got one, I +will bid you good morning. Our friend here sleeps well." + +The new comer was between him and the door, but the Doctor advanced +boldly. When the two men were opposite their eyes met, and they +understood one another. + +Moody (for it was he) threw himself upon the Doctor with an oath, +trying to bear him down; but, although the tallest man, he had met his +match. He was held in a grasp of iron; the Doctor's hand was on his +collar, and his elbow against his face, and thus his head was pressed +slowly backwards till he fell to avoid a broken neck, and fell, too, +with such force that he lay for an instant stunned and motionless, and +before he came to himself the Doctor was on horseback, and some way +along the track, glad to have made so good an escape from such an +awkward customer. + +"If he had been armed," said the Doctor, as he rode along, "I should +have been killed: he evidently came back after that pistol. Now, I +wonder where I am? I shall know soon at this pace. The little horse +keeps up well, seeing he has been out all night." + +In about two hours he heard a dog bark to the left of the track, and, +turning off in that direction, he soon found himself in a courtyard, +and before a door which he thought he recognised: the door opened at +the sound of his horse, and out walked Tom Troubridge. + +"Good Lord!" said the Doctor, "a friend's face at last; tell me where I +am, for I can't see the end of the house." + +"Why, at our place, Toonarbin, Doctor." + +"Well, take me in and give me some food; I have terrible tidings for +you. When did you last see Lee?" + +"The day before yesterday; he is up at an outlying hut of ours in the +ranges." + +"He is lying murdered in his bed there, for I saw him so not three +hours past." + +He then told Troubridge all that had happened. + +"What sort of man was it that attacked you?" said Troubridge. + +The Doctor described Moody. + +"That's his hut-keeper that he took from here with him; a man he said +he knew, and you say he was on horseback. What sort of a horse had he?" + +"A good-looking roan, with a new bridle on him." + +"Lee's horse," said Troubridge; "he must have murdered him for it. Poor +William!" + +But when Tom saw the pistol and read the name on it, he said,-- + +"Things are coming to a crisis, Doctor; the net seems closing round my +unfortunate partner. God grant the storm may come and clear the air! +Anything is better than these continual alarms." + +"It will be very terrible when it does come, my dear friend," said the +Doctor. + +"It cannot be much more terrible than this," said Tom, "when our +servants are assassinated in their beds, and travellers in lonely huts +have to wrestle for their lives. Doctor, did you ever nourish a passion +for revenge?" + +"Yes, once," said the Doctor, "and had it gratified in fair and open +duel; but when I saw him lying white on the grass before me, and +thought that he was dead, I was like one demented, and prayed that my +life might be taken instead of his. Be sure, Tom, that revenge is of +the devil, and, like everything else you get from him, is not worth +having." + +"I do not in the least doubt it, Doctor," said Tom; "but oh, if I could +only have five minutes with him on the turf yonder, with no one to +interfere between us! I want no weapons; let us meet in our shirts and +trowsers, like Devon lads." + +"And what would you do to him?" + +"If you weren't there to see, HE'D never tell you." + +"Why nourish this feeling, Tom, my old friend; you do not know what +pain it gives me to see a noble open character like yours distorted +like this. Leave him to Desborough,--why should you feel so deadly +towards the man? He has injured others more than you." + +"He stands between me and the hopes of a happy old age. He stands +between me and the light, and he must stand on one side." + +That night they brought poor Lee's body down in a dray, and buried him +in the family burying-ground close beside old Miss Thornton. Then the +next morning he rode back home to the Buckleys', where he found that +family with myself, just arrived from the Brentwoods'. I of course was +brimful of intelligence, but when the Doctor arrived I was thrown into +the shade at once. However, no time was to be lost, and we despatched a +messenger, post haste, to fetch back Captain Desborough and his +troopers, who had now been moved off about a week, but had not been as +yet very far withdrawn, and were examining into some "black" outrages +to the northward. + +Mary Hawker was warned, as delicately as possible, that her husband was +in the neighbourhood. She remained buried in thought for a time, and +then, rousing herself, said, suddenly,-- + +"There must be an end to all this. Get my horse, and let me go home." + +In spite of all persuasions to the contrary, she still said the same. + +"Mrs. Buckley, I will go home and see if I can meet him alone. All I +ask of you is to keep Charles with you. Don't let the father and son +meet, in God's name." + +"But what can you do?" urged Mrs. Buckley. + +"Something, at all events. Find out what he wants. Buy him off, +perhaps. Pray don't argue with me. I am quite determined." + +Then it became necessary to tell her of Lee's death, though the fact of +his having been murdered was concealed; but it deeply affected her to +hear of the loss of her old faithful servant, faithful to her at all +events, whatever his faults may have been. Nevertheless, she went off +alone, and took up her abode with Troubridge, and there they two sat +watching in the lonely station, for him who was to come. + +Though they watched together there was no sympathy or confidence +between them. She never guessed what purpose was in Tom's heart; she +never guessed what made him so pale and gloomy, or why he never stirred +from the house, but slept half the day on the sofa. But ere she had +been a week at home, she found out. Thus:-- + +They would sit, those two, silent and thoughtful, beside that unhappy +hearth, watching the fire, and brooding over the past. Each had that in +their hearts which made them silent to one another, and each felt the +horror of some great overshadowing formless calamity, which any instant +might take form, and overwhelm them. Mary would sit late, dreading the +weary night, when her overstrained senses caught every sound in the +distant forest; but, however late she sat, she always left Tom behind, +over the fire, not taking his comfortable glass, but gloomily +musing--as much changed from his old self as man could be. + +She now lay always in her clothes, ready for any emergency; and one +night, about a week after Lee's murder, she dreamt that her husband was +in the hall, bidding her in a whisper which thrilled her heart, to come +forth. The fancy was so strong upon her, that saying aloud to herself, +"The end is come!" she arose in a state little short of delirium, and +went into the hall. There was no one there, but she went to the front +door, and, looking out into the profoundly black gloom of the night, +said in a low voice,-- + +"George, George, come to me! Let me speak to you, George. It will be +better for both of us to speak." + +No answer: but she heard a slight noise in the sitting-room behind her, +and, opening the door gently, saw a light there, and Tom sitting with +parted lips watching the door, holding in his hand a cocked pistol. + +She was not in the least astonished or alarmed. She was too much TETE +MONTEE to be surprised at anything. She said only, with a laugh,-- + +"What! are you watching, too, old mastiff?--Would you grip the wolf, +old dog, if he came?" + +"Was he there, Mary? Did you speak to him?" + +"No! no!" she said. "A dream, a wandering dream. What would you do if +he came,--eh, cousin?" + +"Nothing! nothing!" said Tom. "Go to bed." + +"Bed, eh?" she answered. "Cousin; shooting is an easier death than +hanging,--eh?" + +Tom felt a creeping at the roots of his hair, as he answered,--"Yes, I +believe so." + +"Can you shoot straight, old man? Could you shoot straight and true if +he stood there before you? Ah, you think you could now, but your hand +would shake when you saw him." + +"Go to bed, Mary," said Tom. "Don't talk like that. Let the future lie, +cousin." + +She turned and went to her room again. + +All this was told me long after by Tom himself. Tom believed, or said +he believed, that she was only sounding him, to see what his intentions +were in case of a meeting with George Hawker. I would not for the world +have had him suppose I disagreed with him; but I myself take another +and darker interpretation of her strange words that night. I think, +that she, never a very strong-minded person, and now, grown quite +desperate from terror, actually contemplated her husband's death with +complacency, nay, hoped, in her secret heart, that one mad struggle +between him and Tom might end the matter for ever, and leave her a free +woman. I may do her injustice, but I think I do not. One never knows +what a woman of this kind, with strong passions and a not over-strong +intellect, may be driven to. I knew her for forty years, and loved her +for twenty. I knew in spite of all her selfishness and violence that +there were many good, nay, noble points in her character; but I cannot +disguise from myself that that night's conversation with Tom showed me +a darker point in her character than I knew of before. Let us forget +it. I would wish to have none but kindly recollections of the woman I +loved so truly and so long. + +For the secret must be told sooner or later,--I loved her before any of +them. Before James Stockbridge, before George Hawker, before Thomas +Troubridge, and I loved her more deeply and more truly than any of +them. But the last remnant of that love departed from my heart twenty +years ago, and that is why I can write of her so calmly now, and that +is the reason, too, why I remain an old bachelor to this day. + + + + +Chapter XXXIX + +THE LAST GLEAM BEFORE THE STORM. + + +But with us, who were staying down at Major Buckley's, a fortnight +passed on so pleasantly that the horror of poor Lee's murder had begun +to wear off, and we were getting once more as merry and careless as +though we were living in the old times of profound peace. Sometimes we +would think of poor Mary Hawker, at her lonely watch up at the forest +station; but that or any other unpleasant subject was soon driven out +of our heads by Captain Desborough, who had come back with six +troopers, declared the country in a state of siege, proclaimed martial +law, and kept us all laughing and amused from daylight to dark. + +Captain Brentwood and his daughter Alice (the transcendently +beautiful!) had come up, and were staying there. Jim and his friend +Halbert were still away, but were daily expected. I never passed a +pleasanter time in my life than during that fortnight's lull between +the storms. + +"Begorra (that's a Scotch expression, Miss Brentwood, but very +forcible)," said Captain Desborough. "I owe you more than I can ever +repay for buying out the Donovans. That girl Lesbia Burke would have +forcibly abducted me, and married me against my will, if she hadn't had +to follow the rest of the family to Port Phillip." + +"A fine woman, too," said Captain Brentwood. + +"I'd have called her a little coarse, myself," said Desborough. + +"One of the finest, strangest sights I ever saw in my life," resumed +Captain Brentwood, "was on the morning I came to take possession. None +of the family were left but Murtagh Donovan and Miss Burke. I rode over +from Buckley's, and when I came to the door Donovan took me by the arm, +and saying 'whist,' led me into the sitting-room. There, in front of +the empty fireplace, crouched down on the floor, bareheaded, with her +beautiful hair hanging about her shoulders, sat Miss Burke. Every now +and then she would utter the strangest low wailing cry you ever heard: +a cry, by Jove, sir, that went straight to your heart. I turned to +Donovan, and whispered, 'Is she ill?' and he whispered again, 'Her +heart's broke at leaving the old place where she's lived so long. She's +raising the keen over the cold hearthstone. It's the way of the +Burkes.' I don't know when I was so affected in my life. Somehow, that +exquisite line came to my remembrance,-- + + "'And the hare shall kindle on the cold hearth-stone,' + +"and I went back quietly with Donovan; and, by Jove, sir, when we came +out the great ass had the tears running down his cheeks. I have always +felt kindly to that man since." + +"Ah, Captain," said Desborough, "with all our vanity and absurdity, we +Irish have got good warm hearts under our waistcoats. We are the first +nation in the world, sir, saving the Jews." + +This was late in the afternoon of a temperate spring day. We were +watching Desborough as he was giving the finishing touches to a +beautiful watercolour drawing. + +"Doctor," he said, "come and pass your opinion." + +"I think you have done admirably, Captain," said the Doctor; "you have +given one a splendid idea of distance in the way you have toned down +the plain, from the grey appearance it has ten miles off to the rich, +delicate green it shows close to us. And your mountain, too, is most +aerial. You would make an artist." + +"I am not altogether displeased with my work, Doctor, if you, who never +flatter, can praise it with the original before you. How exceedingly +beautiful the evening tones are becoming!" + +We looked across the plain; the stretch of grass I have described was +lying before one like a waveless sea, from the horizon of which rose +the square abruptsided mass of basalt which years ago we had named the +Organ-hill, from the regular fluted columns of which it was composed. +On most occasions, as seen from Major Buckley's, it appeared a dim mass +of pearly grey, but to-night, in the clear frosty air, it was of a rich +purple, shining on the most prominent angles with a dull golden light. + +"The more I look at that noble fire-temple, the more I admire it," said +the Doctor. "It is one of the most majestic objects I ever beheld." + +"It is not unlike Staffa," said Desborough. "There come two travellers." + +Two dots appeared crawling over the plain, and making for the river. +For a few minutes Alice could not be brought to see them, but when she +did, she declared that it was Jim and Halbert. + +"You have good eyes, my love," said her father, "to see what does not +exist. Jim's horse is black, and Halbert's roan, and those two men are +both on grey horses." + +"The wish was parent to the thought, father," she replied, laughing. "I +wonder what is keeping him away from us so long? If he is to go to +India, I should like to see him as much as possible." + +"My dear," said her father, "when he went off with Halbert to see the +Markhams, I told him that if he liked to go on to Sydney, he could go +if Halbert went with him, and draw on the agent for what money he +wanted. By his being so long away, I conclude he has done so, and that +he is probably at this moment getting a lesson at billiards from +Halbert before going to dinner. I shall have a nice little account from +the agent just now, of 'Cash advanced to J. Brentwood, Esq.'" + +"I don't think Jim's extravagant, papa," said Alice. + +"My dear," said Captain Brentwood, "you do him injustice. He hasn't had +the chance. I must say, considering his limited opportunities, he has +spent as much money on horses, saddlery, &c., as any young gentleman on +this country side. Eh, Sam?" + +"Well sir," said Sam, "Jim spends his money, but he generally makes +pretty good investments in the horse line." + +"Such as that sweet-tempered useful animal Stampedo," replied the +Captain, laughing, "who nearly killed a groom, and staked himself +trying to leap out of the stockyard the second day he had him. Well, +never mind; Jim's a good boy, and I am proud of him. I am in some hopes +that this Sydney journey will satisfy his wandering propensities for +the present, and that we may keep him at home. I wish he would fall in +love with somebody, providing she wasn't old enough to be his +grandmother.--Couldn't you send him a letter of introduction to some of +your old schoolfellows, Miss Puss? There was one of them, I remember, I +fell in love with myself one time when I came to see you; Miss Green, I +think it was. She was very nearly being your mamma-in-law, my dear." + +"Why, she is a year younger than me," said Alice, "and, oh goodness, +such a temper! She threw the selections from Beethoven at Signor +Smitherini, and had bread and water-melon for two days for it. Serve +her right!" + +"I have had a narrow escape, then," replied the father. "But we shall +see who these two people are immediately, for they are crossing the +river." + +When the two travellers rose again into sight on the near bank of the +river, one of them was seen galloping forward, waving his hat. + +"I KNEW it was Jim," said Alice, "and on a new grey horse. I thought he +would not go to Sydney." And in a minute more she had run to meet him, +and Jim was off his horse, kissing his sister, laughing, shouting, and +dancing around her. + +"Well, father," he said, "here I am back again. Went to Sydney and +stayed a week, when we met the two Marstons, and went right up to the +Clarence with them. That was a pretty journey, eh? Sold the old horse, +and bought this one. I've got heaps to tell you, sister, about what +I've seen. I went home, and only stayed ten minutes; when I heard you +were here, I came right on." + +"I am glad to see you back, Mr. Halbert," said Major Buckley; "I hope +you have had a pleasant journey. You have met Captain Desborough?" + +"Captain Desborough, how are you?" says Jim. "I am very glad to see +you. But, between you and I, you're always a bird of ill omen. Whose +pig's dead now? What brings YOU back? I thought we should be rid of you +by this time." + +"But you are not rid of me, Jackanapes," said Desborough, laughing. +"But I'll tell you what, Jim; there is really something wrong, my boy, +and I'm glad to see you back." And he told him all the news. + +Jim grew very serious. "Well," said he, "I'm glad to be home again; and +I'm glad, too, to see you here. One feels safer when you're in the way. +We must put a cheerful face on the matter, and not frighten the women. +I have bought such a beautiful brace of pistols in Sydney. I hope I may +never have the chance to use them in this country. Why, there's Cecil +Mayford and Mrs. Buckley coming down the garden, and Charley Hawker, +too. Why, Major, you've got all the world here to welcome us." + +The young men were soon busy discussing the merits of Jim's new horse, +and examining with great admiration his splendid new pistols. Charley +Hawker, poor boy! made a mental resolution to go to Sydney, and also +come back with a new grey horse, and a pair of pistols more resplendent +than Jim's. And then they went in to get ready for dinner. + +When Jim unpacked his valise, he produced a pretty bracelet for his +sister, and a stockwhip for Sam. On the latter article he was very +eloquent. + +"Sam, my boy," said he, "there is not such another in the country. It +was made by the celebrated Bill Mossman of the Upper Hunter, the +greatest swearer at bullocks, and the most accomplished whipmaker on +the Sydney side. He makes only one in six months, and he makes it a +favour to let you have it for five pounds. You can take a piece of bark +off a blue gum, big enough for a canoe, with one cut of it. There's a +fine of two pounds for cracking one within a mile of Government House, +they make such a row. A man the other day cracked one of them on the +South Head, and broke the windows in Pitt Street." + +"You're improving, master Jim," said Charles Hawker. "You'll soon be as +good a hand at a yarn as Hamlyn's Dick." At the same time he wrote down +a stockwhip, similar to this one, on the tablets of his memory, to be +procured on his projected visit to Sydney. + +That evening we all sat listening to Jim's adventures; and pleasantly +enough he told them, with not a little humorous exaggeration. It is +always pleasant to hear a young fellow telling his first impressions of +new things and scenes, which have been so long familiar to ourselves; +but Jim had really a very good power of narration, and he kept us +laughing and amused till long after the usual hour for going to bed. + +Next day we had a pleasant ride, all of us, down the banks of the +river. The weather was slightly frosty, and the air clear and elastic. +As we followed the windings of the noble rushing stream, at a height of +seldom less than three hundred feet above his bed, the Doctor was busy +pointing out the alternations of primitive sandstone and slate, and the +great streams of volcanic bluestone which had poured from various +points towards the deep glen in which the river flowed. Here, he would +tell us, was formerly a lofty cascade, and a lake above it, but the +river had worn through the sandstone bar, drained the lake, leaving +nothing of the waterfall but two lofty cliffs, and a rapid. There again +had come down a lava-stream from Mirngish, which, cooled by the waters +of the river, had stopped, and, accumulating, formed the lofty +overhanging cliff on which we stood. He showed us how the fern-trees +grew only in the still sheltered elbows facing northward, where the sun +raised a warm steam from the river, and the cold south wind could not +penetrate. He gathered for Mrs. Buckley a bouquet of the tender +sweetscented yellow oxalis, the winter flower of Australia, and showed +us the copper-lizard basking on the red rocks, so like the stone on +which he lay, that one could scarce see him till a metallic gleam +betrayed him, as he slipped to his lair. And we, the elder of the +party, who followed the Doctor's handsome little brown mare, kept our +ears open, and spoke little,--but gave ourselves fully up to the +enjoyment of his learning and eloquence. + +But the Doctor did not absorb the whole party; far from it. He had a +rival. All the young men, and Miss Alice besides, were grouped round +Captain Desborough. Frequently we elders, deep in some Old World +history of the Doctor's, would be disturbed by a ringing peal of +laughter from the other party, and then the Doctor would laugh, and we +would all join; not that we had heard the joke, but from sheer sympathy +with the hilarity of the young folks. Desborough was making himself +agreeable, and who could do it better? He was telling the most +outrageous of Irish stories, and making, on purpose, the most +outrageous of Irish bulls. After a shout of laughter louder than the +rest, the Doctor remarked,-- + +"That's better for them than geology,--eh, Mrs. Buckley?" + +"And so my grandmother," we heard Desborough say, "waxed mighty wrath, +and she up with her goldheaded walking stick in the middle of Sackville +Street, and says she, 'Ye villain, do ye think I don't know my own +Blenheim spannel when I see him?' 'Indeed, my lady,' says Mike, ''twas +himself tould me he belanged to Barney.' 'Who tould you?' says she. +'The dog himself tould me, my lady.' 'Ye thief of the world,' says my +aunt, 'and ye'd believe a dog before a dowager countess? Give him up, +ye villain, this minute, or I'll hit ye!'" + +These were the sort of stories Desborough delighted in, making them up, +he often confessed, as he went on. On this occasion, when he had done +his story, they all rode up and joined us, and we stood admiring the +river, stretching westward in pools of gold between black cliffs, +toward the setting sun; then we turned homeward. + +That evening Alice said, "Now do tell me, Captain Desborough, was that +a true story about Lady Covetown's dog?" + +"True!" said he. "What story worth hearing ever was true? The old lady +lost her dog certainly, and claimed him of a dogstealer in Sackville +Street; but all the rest, my dear young lady, is historic romance." + +"Mr. Hamlyn knows a good story," said Charley Hawker, "about Bougong +Jack. Do tell it to us, Uncle Jeff." + +"I don't think," I said, "that it has so much foundation in fact as +Captain Desborough's. But there must be some sort of truth in it, for +it comes from the old hands, and shows a little more signs of +imagination than you would expect from them. It is a very stupid story +too." + +"Do tell it," they all said. So I complied, much in the same language +as I tell it now:-- + +You know that these great snow-ranges which tower up to the west of us +are, farther south, of great breadth, and that none have yet forced +their way from the country of the Ovens and the Mitta Mitta through +here to Gipp's-land. + +The settlers who have just taken up that country, trying to penetrate +to the eastward here towards us, find themselves stopped by a mighty +granite wall. Any adventurous men, who may top that barrier, see +nothing before them but range beyond range of snow Alps, intersected by +precipitous cliffs, and frightful chasms. + +This westward range is called the Bougongs. The blacks during summer +are in the habit of coming thus far to collect and feed on the great +grey moths (Bougongs) which are found on the rocks. They used to report +that a fine available country lies to the east embosomed in mountains, +rendered fertile by perpetual snow-fed streams. This is the more +credible, as it is evident that between the Bougong range on the west +and the Warragong range on the extreme east, towards us, there is a +breadth of at least eighty miles. + +There lived a few years ago, not very far from the Ovens-river, a +curious character, by name John Sampson. He had been educated at one of +the great English universities, and was a good scholar, though he had +been forced to leave the university, and, as report went, England too, +for some great irregularity. + +He had money, and a share in his brother-in-law's station, although he +never stayed there many months in the year. He was always away at some +mischief or another. No horse-race or prize-fight could go on without +him, and he himself never left one of these last-mentioned gatherings +without finding some one to try conclusions with him. Beside this, he +was a great writer and singer of comic songs, and a consummate horseman. + +One fine day he came back to his brother's station in serious trouble. +Whether he had mistaken another man's horse for his own or not, I +cannot say; but, at all events, he announced that a warrant was out +against him for horse-stealing, and that he must go into hiding. So he +took up his quarters at a little hut of his brother-in-law's, on the +ranges, inhabited only by a stockkeeper and a black boy, and kept a +young lubra in pay to watch down the glen for the police. + +One morning she came running into the hut, breathless, to say that a +lieutenant and three troopers were riding towards the hut. Jack had +just time to saddle and mount his horse before the police caught sight +of him, and started after him at full speed. + +They hunted him into a narrow glen; a single cattletrack, not a foot +broad, led on between a swollen rocky creek, utterly impassable by +horse or man, and a lofty precipice of loose broken slate, on which one +would have thought a goat could not have found a footing. The young +police lieutenant had done his work well, and sent a trooper round to +head him, so that Jack found himself between the devil and the deep +sea. A tall armed trooper stood in front of him, behind was the +lieutenant, on the right of the creek, and on the left the precipice. + +They called out to him to surrender; but, giving one look before and +behind, and seeing escape was hopeless, he hesitated not a moment, but +put his horse at the cliff, and clambered up, rolling down tons of +loose slate in his course. The lieutenant shut his eyes, expecting to +see horse and man roll down into the creek, and only opened them in +time to see Jack stand for a moment on the summit against the sky, and +then disappear. + +He disappeared over the top of the cliff, and so he was lost to the ken +of white men for the space of four years. His sister and brother-in-law +mourned for him as dead, and mourned sincerely, for they and all who +knew him liked him well. But at the end of that time, on a wild +winter's night, he came back to them, dressed in opossum skins, with +scarce a vestige of European clothing about him. His beard had grown +down over his chest, and he had nearly forgotten his mother tongue, +but, when speech came to him again, he told them a strange story. + +It was winter time when he rode away. All the table lands were deep +with snow; and, when he had escaped the policemen, he had crossed the +first of the great ridges on the same night. He camped in the valley he +found on the other side; and, having his gun and some ammunition with +him, he fared well. + +He was beyond the country which had ever been trodden by white men, and +now, for the mere sake of adventure, he determined to go further still, +and see if he could cross the great White Mountains, which had hitherto +been considered an insurmountable barrier. + +For two days he rode over a high table-land, deep in snow. Here and +there, in a shallow sheltered valley, he would find just grass enough +to keep his horse alive, but nothing for himself. On the third night he +saw before him another snow-ridge, too far off to reach without rest, +and, tethering his horse in a little crevice between the rocks, he +prepared to walk to and fro all night, to keep off the deadly snow +sleepiness that he felt coming over him. "Let me but see what is beyond +that next ridge," he said, "and I will lie down and die." + +And now, as the stillness of the night came on, and the Southern Cross +began to twinkle brilliantly above the blinding snow, he was startled +once more by a sound which had fallen on his ear several times during +his toilsome afternoon journey: a sound as of a sudden explosion, +mingled, strangely too, with the splintering of broken glass. At first +he thought it was merely the booming in his ears, or the rupture of +some vessel in his bursting head. Or was it fancy? No; there it was +again, clearer than before. That was no noise in his head, for the +patient horse turned and looked toward the place where the sound came +from. Thunder? The air was clear and frosty, and not a cloud stained +the sky. There was some mystery beyond that snow-ridge worth living to +see. + +He lived to see it. For an hour after daybreak next morning, he, +leading his horse, stumbled over the snowcovered rocks that bounded his +view, and, when he reached the top, there burst on his sight a scene +that made him throw up his arms and shout aloud. + +Before him, pinnacle after pinnacle towered up a mighty Alp, blazing in +the morning sun. Down through a black rift on its side wound a gleaming +glacier, which hurled its shattered ice crystals over a dark cliff, +into the deep profound blue of a lake, which stretched north and south, +studded with green woody islets, almost as far as the eye could see. +Toward the mountain the lake looked deep and gloomy, but, on the hither +side, showed many a pleasant yellow shallow, and sandy bay, while +between him and the lake lay a mile or so of park-like meadow land, in +the full verdure of winter. As he looked, a vast dislocated mass of ice +fell crashing from the glacier into the lake, and solved at once the +mystery of the noises he had heard the night before. + +He descended into the happy valley, and found a small tribe of friendly +blacks, who had never before seen the face of white man, and who +supposed him to be one of their own tribe, dead long ago, who had come +back to them, renovated and beautified, from the other world. With +these he lived a pleasant slothful life, while four years went on, +forgetting all the outside world, till his horse was dead, his gun +rusted and thrown aside, and his European clothes long since replaced +by the skin of the opossum and the koala. He had forgotten his own +tongue, and had given up all thoughts of crossing again the desolate +barriers of snow which divided him from civilization, when a slight +incident brought back old associations to his mind, and roused him from +sleep. + +In some hunting excursion he got a slight scratch, and, searching for +some linen to tie it up, found in his mi-mi an old waistcoat, which he +had worn when he came into the valley. In the lining, while tearing it +up, he found a crumpled paper, a note from his sister, written years +before, full of sisterly kindness and tenderness. He read it again and +again before he lay down, and the next morning, collecting such small +stock of provisions as he could, he started on the homeward track, and +after incredible hardships reached his station. + +His brother-in-law tried in vain with a strong party to reach the lake, +but never succeeded. What mountain it was he discovered, or what river +is fed by the lake he lived on, no man knows to this day. Some say he +went mad, and lived in the ranges all the time, and that this was all a +mere madman's fancy. But, whether he was mad or not then, he is sane +enough now, and has married a wife, and settled down to be one of the +most thriving men in that part of the country. + +"Well," said the Doctor, thrusting his fists deep into his breeches +pockets, "I don't believe that story." + +"Nor I either, Doctor," I replied. "But it has amused you all for half +an hour; so let it pass." + +"Oh!" said the Doctor, rather peevishly, "if you put it on those +grounds, I am bound, of course, to withhold a few little criticisms I +was inclined to make on its probability. I hope you won't go and pass +it off as authentic, you know, because if we once begin to entertain +these sort of legends as meaning anything, the whole history of the +country becomes one great fogbank, through which the devil himself +could not find his way." + +"Now, for my part," said mischievous Alice, "I think it a very pretty +story. And I have no doubt that it is every word of it true." + +"Oh, dear me, then," said the Doctor, "let us vote it true. And, while +we are about it, let us believe that the Sydney ghost actually did sit +on a three-rail fence, smoking its pipe, and directing an anxious crowd +of relatives where to find its body. By all means let us believe +everything we hear." + +The next morning our pleasant party suffered a loss. Captain Brentwood +and Alice went off home. He was wanted there, and all things seemed so +tranquil that he thought it was foolish to stay away any longer. Cecil +Mayford, too, departed, carrying with him the affectionate farewells of +the whole party. His pleasant even temper, and his handsome face, had +won every one who knew him, and, though he never talked much, yet, when +he was gone, we all missed his merry laugh, after one of Desborough's +good stories. Charley Hawker went off with him too, and spent a few +hours with Ellen Mayford, much to his satisfaction, but came in again +at night, as his mother had prayed of him not to leave the Major's till +he had seen her again. + +That night the Major proposed punch, and, after Mrs. Buckley had gone +to bed, Sam sang a song, and Desborough told a story, about a +gamekeeper of his uncle's, whom the old gentleman desired to start in +an independent way of business. So he built him a new house, and gave +him a keg of whisky, to start in the spirit-selling line. "But the +first night," said Desborough, "the villain finished the whisky +himself, broke the keg, and burnt the house down; so my uncle had to +take him back into service again, after all." And after this came other +stories equally preposterous, and we went rather late to bed. + +And the next morning, too, I am afraid, we were rather late for +breakfast. Just as we were sitting down, in came Captain Brentwood. + +"Hallo," said the Major; "what brings you back so soon, old friend. +Nothing the matter I hope?" + +"Nothing but business," he replied. "I am going on to Dickson's, and I +shall be back home to-night, I hope. I am glad to find you so late, as +I have had no breakfast, and have ridden ten miles." + +He took breakfast with us and went on. The morning passed somewhat +heavily, as a morning is apt to do, after sitting up late and drinking +punch. Towards noon Desborough said,-- + +"Now, if anybody will confess that he drank just three drops too much +punch last night, I will do the same. Mrs. Buckley, my dear lady, I +hope you will order plenty of pale ale for lunch." + +Lunch passed pleasantly enough, and afterwards the Major, telling Sam +to move a table outside into the verandah, disappeared, and soon came +back with a very "curious" bottle of Madeira. We sat then in the +verandah smoking for about a quarter of an hour. + +I remember every word that was spoken, and every trivial circumstance +that happened during that quarter of an hour; they are burnt into my +memory as if by fire. The Doctor was raving about English poetry, as +usual, saying, however, that the modern English poets, good as they +were, had lost the power of melody a good deal. This the Major denied, +quoting:-- + + + "By torch and trumpet fast array'd." + + +"Fifty such lines, sir, are not worth one of Milton's," said the Doctor. + + + "'The trumpet spake not to the armed throng.' + + +"There's melody for you; there's a blare and a clang; there's a----" + + +I heard no more. Mrs. Buckley's French clock, in the house behind, +chimed three quarters past one, and I heard a sound of two persons +coming quickly through the house. + +Can you tell the step of him who brings evil tidings? I think I can. At +all events, I felt my heart grow cold when I heard those footsteps. I +heard them coming through the house, across the boarded floor. The one +was a rapid, firm, military footstep, accompanied with the clicking of +a spur, and the other was unmistakably the "pad, pad" of a blackfellow. + +We all turned round and looked at the door. There stood the sergeant of +Desborough's troopers, pale and silent, and close behind him, clinging +to him as if for protection, was the lithe naked figure of a black lad, +looking from behind the sergeant, with terrified visage, first at one +and then at another of us. + +I saw disaster in their faces, and would have held up my hand to warn +him not to speak before Mrs. Buckley. But I was too late, for he had +spoken. And then we sat for a minute, looking at one another, each man +seeing the reflection of his own horror in his neighbour's eyes. + + + + +Chapter XL + +THE STORM BURSTS. + + +Poor little Cecil Mayford had left us about nine o'clock in the morning +of the day before this, and, accompanied by Charles Hawker, reached his +mother's station about eleven o'clock in the day. + +All the way Charles had talked incessantly of Ellen, and Cecil joined +in Charles's praises of his sister, and joked with him for being +"awfully spooney" about her. + +"You're worse about my sister, Charley," said he, "than old Sam is +about Miss Brentwood. He takes things quiet enough, but if you go on in +this style till you are old enough to marry, by Jove, there'll be +nothing of you left!" + +"I wonder if she would have me?" said Charles, not heeding him. + +"The best thing you can do is to ask her," said Cecil. "I think I know +what she would say though." + +They reached Mrs. Mayford's, and spent a few pleasant hours together. +Charles started home again about three o'clock, and having gone a +little way, turned to look back. The brother and sister stood at the +house-door still. He waved his hand in farewell to them, and they +replied. Then he rode on and saw them no more. + +Cecil and Ellen went into the house to their mother. The women worked, +and Cecil read aloud to them. The book was "Waverley;" I saw it +afterwards, and when supper was over he took it up to begin reading +again. + +"Not that book to-night, my boy," said his mother. "Read us a chapter +out of the Bible. I am very low in my mind, and at such times I like to +hear the Word." + +He read the good book to them till quite late. Both he and Ellen +thought it strange that their mother should insist on that book on a +week-night; they never usually read it, save on Sunday evenings. + +The morning broke bright and frosty. Cecil was abroad betimes, and went +down the paddock to fetch the horses. He put them in the stock-yard, +and stood for a time close to the stable, talking to a tame black lad, +that they employed about the place. + +His attention was attracted by a noise of horses' feet. He looked up +and saw about a dozen men riding swiftly and silently across the +paddock towards the house. + +For an instant he seems to have idly wondered who they were, and have +had time to notice a thickset gaudily dressed man, who rode in front of +the others, when the kitchen-door was thrown suddenly open, and the old +hut-keeper, with his grey hair waving in the wind, run out, +crying,--"Save yourself, in God's name, Master Cecil. The Bushrangers!" + +Cecil raised his clenched hands in wild despair. They were caught like +birds in a trap. No hope!--no escape! Nothing left for it now, but to +die red-handed. He dashed into the house with the old hut-keeper and +shut the door. + +The black lad ran up to a little rocky knoll within two hundred yards +of the house, and, hiding himself, watched what went on. He saw the +bushrangers ride up to the door and dismount. Then they began to beat +the door and demand admittance. Then the door was burst down, and one +of them fell dead by a pistolshot. Then they rushed in tumultuously, +leaving one outside to mind the horses. Then the terrified boy heard +the dull sound of shots fired rapidly inside the building (pray that +you may never hear that noise, reader: it always means mischief), and +then all was comparatively still for a time. + +Then there began to arise a wild sound of brutal riot within, and after +a time they poured out again, and mounting, rode away. + +Then the black boy slipt down from his lair like a snake, and stole +towards the house. All was still as death. The door was open, but, poor +little savage as he was, he dared not enter. Once he thought he heard a +movement within, and listened intently with all his faculties, as only +a savage can listen, but all was still again. And then gathering +courage, he went in. + +In the entrance, stepping over the body of the dead bushranger, he +found the poor old white-headed hutkeeper knocked down and killed in +the first rush. He went on into the parlour; and there,--oh, lamentable +sight!--was Cecil; clever, handsome little Cecil, our old favourite, +lying half fallen from the sofa, shot through the heart, dead. + +But not alone. No; prone along the floor, covering six feet or more of +ground, lay the hideous corpse of Moody, the cannibal. The red-headed +miscreant, who had murdered poor Lee, under George Hawker's directions. + +I think the poor black boy would have felt in his dumb darkened heart +some sorrow at seeing his kind old master so cruelly murdered. Perhaps +he would have raised the death-cry of his tribe over him, and burnt +himself with fire, as their custom is; but he was too terrified at +seeing so many of the lordly white race prostrated by one another's +hands. He stood and trembled, and then, almost in a whisper, began to +call for Mrs. Mayford. + +"Missis!" he said, "Miss Ellen! All pull away, bushranger chaps. Make a +light, good Missis. Plenty frightened this fellow." + +No answer. No sign of Mrs. Mayford or Ellen. They must have escaped +then. We will try to hope so. The black boy peered into one chamber +after another, but saw no signs of them, only the stillness of death +over all. + +Let us leave this accursed house, lest, prying too closely, we may find +crouching in some dark corner a Gorgon, who will freeze us into stone. + + +* * * * * + + +The black lad stripped himself naked as he was born, and running like a +deer, sped to Major Buckley's before the south wind, across the plain. +There he found the Sergeant, and told him his tale, and the Sergeant +and he broke in on us with the terrible news as we were sitting merrily +over our wine. + + + + +Chapter XLI + +WIDDERIN SHOWS CLEARLY THAT HE IS WORTH ALL THE MONEY SAM GAVE FOR HIM. + + +The Sergeant, as I said, broke in upon us with the fearful news as we +sat at wine. For a minute no man spoke, but all sat silent and horror +struck. Only the Doctor rose quietly, and slipped out of the room +unnoticed. + +Desborough spoke first. He rose up with deadly wrath in his face, and +swore a fearful oath, an oath so fearful, that he who endorsed every +word of it then, will not write it down now. To the effect, "That, he +would take neither meat, nor drink, nor pleasure, nor rest, beyond what +was necessary to keep body and soul together, before he had purged the +land of these treacherous villains!" + +Charles Hawker went up to the Sergeant, with a livid face and shaking +hands; "Will you tell me again, Robinson, ARE THEY ALL DEAD?" + +The Sergeant looked at him compassionately. "Well, sir!" he said; "the +boy seemed to think Mrs. and Miss Mayford had escaped. But you mustn't +trust what he says, sir." + +"You are deceiving me," said Charles. "There is something you are +hiding from me, I shall go down there this minute, and see." + +"You will do nothing of the kind, sir," said Mrs. Buckley, coming into +the doorway and confronting him; "your place is with Captain +Desborough. I am going down to look after Ellen." + +During these few moments, Sam had stood stupified. He stepped up to the +Sergeant, and said,-- + +"Would you tell me which way they went from the Mayfords'?" + +"Down the river, sir." + +"Ah!" said Sam; "towards Captain Brentwood's, and Alice at home, and +alone!--There may be time yet." + +He ran out of the room and I after him. "His first trouble," I +thought,--"his first trial. How will our boy behave now?" + +Let me mention again, that the distance from the Mayfords' to Captain +Brentwood's, following the windings of the river on its right bank, was +nearly twenty miles. From Major Buckley's to the same point, across the +plains, was barely ten; so that there was still a chance that a brave +man on a good horse, might reach Captain Brentwood's before the +bushrangers, in spite of the start they had got. + +Sam's noble horse, Widderin, a horse with a pedigree a hundred years +old, stood in the stable. The buying of that horse had been Sam's only +extravagance, for which he had often reproached himself, and now this +day, he would see whether he would get his money's worth out of that +horse, or no. + +I followed him up to the stable, and found him putting the bridle on +Widderin's beautiful little head. Neither of us spoke, only when I +handed him the saddle, and helped him with the girths, he said, "God +bless you." + +I ran out and got down the slip-rails for him. As he rode by he said, +"Good-bye, uncle Jeff, perhaps you won't see me again;" and I cried +out, "Remember your God and your mother, Sam, and don't do anything +foolish." + +Then he was gone; and looking across the plains the way he should go, I +saw another horseman toiling far away, and recognised Doctor Mulhaus. +Good Doctor! he had seen the danger in a moment, and by his ready wit +had got a start of every one else by ten minutes. + +The Doctor, on his handsome long-bodied Arabian mare, was making good +work of it across the plains, when he heard the rush of horses' feet +behind him, and turning, he saw tall Widderin bestridden by Sam, +springing over the turf, gaining on him stride after stride. In a few +minutes they were alongside of one another. + +"Good lad!" cried the Doctor; "On, forwards; catch her, and away to the +woods with her. Bloodhound Desborough will be on their trail in +half-an-hour. Save her, and we will have noble vengeance." + +Sam only waved his hand in good-bye, and sped on across the plain like +a solitary ship at sea. He steered for a single tree, now becoming +dimly visible, at the foot of the Organ hill. + +The good horse, with elastic and easy motion, fled on his course like a +bird; lifting his feet clearly and rapidly through the grass. The brisk +south wind filled his wide nostrils as he turned his graceful neck from +side to side, till, finding that work was meant, and not play, he began +to hold his head straight before him, and rush steadily forward. + +And Sam, poor Sam! all his hopes for life now brought down to this: to +depend on the wind and pluck of an unconscious horse. One stumble now, +and it were better to lie down on the plain and die. He was in the +hands of God, and he felt it. He said one short prayer, but that +towards the end was interrupted by the wild current of his thoughts. + +Was there any hope? They, the devils, would have been drinking at the +Mayfords', and perhaps would go slow; or would they ride fast and wild? +After thinking a short time, he feared the latter. They had tasted +blood, and knew that the country would be roused on them shortly. On, +on, good horse! + +The lonely shepherd on the plains, sleepily watching his feeding sheep, +looked up as Sam went speeding by, and thought how fine a thing it +would be to be dressed like that, and have nothing to do but to ride +bloodhorses to death. Mind your sheep, good shepherd; perhaps it were +better for you to do that and nothing more all your life, than to carry +in your breast for one short hour such a volcano of rage, indignation, +and terror, as he does who hurries unheeding through your scattered +flock. + +Here are a brace of good pistols, and they, with care, shall give +account, if need be, of two men. After that, nothing. It were better, +so much better, not to live if one were only ten minutes too late. The +Doctor would be up soon; not much matter if he were, though, only +another life gone. + +The Organ hill, a cloud of misty blue when he started, now hung in +aerial fluted cliffs above his head. As he raced across the long glacis +which lay below the hill, he could see a solitary eagle wheeling round +the topmost pinnacles, against the clear blue sky; then the hill was +behind him, and before him another stretch of plain, bounded by timber, +which marked the course of the river. + +Brave Widderin had his ears back now, and was throwing his breath +regularly through his nostrils in deep sighs. Good horse, only a little +longer; bear thyself bravely this day, and then pleasant pastures for +thee till thou shalt go the way of all horses. Many a time has she +patted, with kind words, thy rainbow neck, my horse; help us to save +her now. + +Alas! good willing brute, he cannot understand; only he knows that his +kind master is on his back, and so he will run till he drop. Good +Widderin! think of the time when thy sire rushed triumphant through the +shouting thousands at Epsom, and all England heard that Arcturus had +won the Derby. Think of the time when thy grandam, carrying Sheik +Abdullah, bore down in a whirlwind of sand on the toiling affrighted +caravan. Ah! thou knowest not of these things, but yet thy speed flags +not. We are not far off now, good horse, we shall know all soon. + +Now he was in the forest again, and now, as he rode quickly down the +steep sandy road among the braken, he heard the hoarse rush of the +river in his ears, and knew the end was well-nigh come. + +No drink now, good Widderin! a bucket of Champagne in an hour's time, +if thou wilt only stay not now to bend thy neck down to the clear +gleaming water; flounder through the ford, and just twenty yards up the +bank by the cherry-tree, we shall catch sight of the house, and know +our fate. + +Now the house was in sight, and now he cried aloud some wild +inarticulate sound of thankfulness and joy. All was as peaceful as +ever, and Alice, unconscious, stood white-robed in the verandah, +feeding her birds. + +As he rode up he shouted out to her and beckoned. She came running +through the house, and met him breathless at the doorway. + +"The bushrangers! Alice, my love," he said. "We must fly this instant, +they are close to us now." + +She had been prepared for this. She knew her duty well, for her father +had often told her what to do. No tears! no hysterics! She took Sam's +hand without a word, and placing her fairy foot upon his boot, vaulted +up into the saddle before him, crying,--"Eleanor, Eleanor!" + +Eleanor, the cook, came running out. "Fly!" said Alice. "Get away into +the bush. The gang are coming; close by." She, an old Vandemonian, +needed no second warning, and as the two young people rode away, they +saw her clearing the paddock rapidly, and making for a dense clump of +wattles, which grew just beyond the fence. + +"Whither now, Sam?" said Alice, the moment they were started. + +"I should feel safer across the river," he replied; "that little wooded +knoll would be a fine hiding-place, and they will come down this side +of the river from Mayford's." + +"From Mayford's! why, have they been there?" + +"They have, indeed. Alas! poor Cecil." + +"What has happened to him? nothing serious." + +"Dead! my love, dead." + +"Oh! poor little Cecil," she cried, "that we were all so fond of. And +Mrs. Mayford and Ellen?" + +"They have escaped!--they are not to be found.--They have hidden away +somewhere." + +They crossed the river, and dismounting, they led the tired horse up +the steep slope of turf that surrounded a little castellated tor of +bluestone. Here they would hide till the storm was gone by, for from +here they could see the windings of the river, and all the broad plain +stretched out beneath their feet. + +"I do not see them anywhere, Alice," said Sam presently. "I see no one +coming across the plains. They must be either very near us in the +hollow of the river-valley, or else a long way off. I have very little +doubt they will come here though, sooner or later." + +"There they are!" said Alice. "Surely there are a large party of +horsemen on the plain, but they are seven or eight miles off." + +"Ay, ten," said Sam. "I am not sure they are horsemen." Then he said +suddenly in a whisper, "Lie down, my love, in God's name! Here they +are, close to us!" + +There burst on his ear a confused sound of talking and laughing, and +out of one of the rocky gullies leading towards the river, came the men +they had been flying from, in number about fourteen. They had crossed +the river, for some unknown reason, and to the fear-struck riders it +seemed as though they were making straight towards their lair. + +He had got Widderin's head in his breast, blindfolding him with his +coat, for should he neigh now, they were undone, indeed! As the +bushrangers approached, the horse began to get uneasy, and paw the +ground, putting Sam in such an agony of terror that the sweat rolled +down his face. In the midst of this he felt a hand on his arm, and +Alice's voice, which he scarcely recognised, said, in a fierce +whisper,-- + +"Give me one of your pistols, sir!" + +"Leave that to me!" he replied in the same tone. + +"As you please," she said; "but I must not fall alive into their hands. +Never look your mother in the face again if I do." + +He gave one more glance round, and saw that the enemy would come within +a hundred yards of their hiding-place. Then he held the horse faster +than ever, and shut his eyes. + + +* * * * * + + +Was it a minute only, or an hour, till they heard the sound of the +voices dying away in the roar of the river? and, opening their eyes +once more, looked into one another's faces. + +Faces, they thought, that they had never seen before,--so each told the +other afterwards,--so wild, so haggard, and so strange! And now that +they were safe and free again--free to arise and leave their dreadful +rock prison, and wander away where they would, they could scarcely +believe that the danger was past. + +They came out silently from among the crags, and took up another +station, where they could see all that went on. They saw the miscreants +swarming about the house, and heard a pistol-shot--only one. + +"Who can they be firing at?" said Alice, in a subdued tone. They were +both so utterly appalled by their late danger, that they spoke in +whispers, though the enemy were a quarter of a mile off. + +"Mere mischief, I should fancy," said Sam; "there is no one there. Oh! +Alice, my love, can you realize that we are safe?" + +"Hardly yet, Sam! But who could those men be we saw at such a distance +on the plain? Could they have been cattle? I am seldom deceived, you +know; I can see an immense distance." + +"Why," said Sam, "I had forgotten them! They must be our friends, on +these fellows' tracks. Desborough would not be long starting, I know." + +"I hope my father," said Alice, "will hear nothing till he sees me. +Poor father! what a state he will be in. See, there is a horseman close +to us. It is the Doctor!" + +They saw Dr. Mulhaus ride up to one of the heights overlooking the +river, and reconnoitre. Seeing the men in the house, he began riding +down towards them. + +"He will be lost!" said Alice. "He thinks we are there. Call, Sam, at +all risks." + +Sam did so, and they saw the Doctor turn. Alice showed herself for a +moment, and then he turned back, and rode the way he had come. In a few +minutes he joined them from the rear, and, taking Alice in his arms, +kissed her heartily. + +"So, our jewel is safe, then--praise be to God! Thanks due also to a +brave man and a good horse. This is the last station those devils will +ruin, for our friends are barely four miles off. I saw them just now." + +"I wish, I only wish," said Sam, "that they may delay long enough to be +caught. I would give a good deal for that." + +There was but little chance of that, though; their measures were too +well taken. Almost as Sam spoke, the three listeners heard a shrill +whistle, and immediately the enemy began mounting. Some of them were +evidently drunk, and could hardly get on their horses, but were +assisted by the others. But very shortly they were all clear off, +heading to the northwest. + +"Now we may go down, and see what destruction has been done," said +Alice. "Who would have thought to see such times as these!" + +"Stay a little," said the Doctor, "and let us watch these gentlemen's +motions. Where can they be going nor'-west--straight on to the +mountains?" + +"I am of opinion," said Sam, "that they are going to lie up in one of +the gullies this evening. They are full of drink and madness, and they +don't know what they are about. If they get into the main system of +gullies, we shall have them like rats in a trap, for they can never get +out by the lower end. Do you see, Doctor, a little patch of white road +among the trees over there? That leads to the Limestone Gates, as we +call it. If they pass those walls upwards, they are confined as in a +pound. Watch the white road, and we shall see." + +The piece of road alluded to was about two miles off, and winding round +a steep hill among trees. Only one turn in it was visible, and over +this, as they watched, they saw a dark spot pass, followed by a crowd +of others. + +"There they go," said Sam. "The madmen are safe now. See, there comes +Desborough, and all of them; let us go down." + +They turned to go, and saw Jim coming towards them, by the route that +Sam had come, all bespattered with clay, limping and leading his new +grey horse, dead lame. + +He threw up his hat when he saw them, and gave a feeble hurrah! but +even then a twinge of pain shot across his face, and, when he was +close, they saw he was badly hurt. + +"God save you, my dear sister," he said; "I have been in such a state +of mind; God forgive me, I have been cursing the day I was born. Sam, I +started about three minutes after you, and had very nearly succeeded in +overhauling the Doctor, about two miles from here, when this brute put +his foot in a crab hole, and came down, rolling on my leg. I was so +bruised I couldn't mount again, and so I have walked. I see you are all +right though, and that is enough for me. Oh my sister--my darling +Alice! Think what we have escaped!" + +So they went towards the house. And when Major Buckley caught sight of +Alice, riding between Doctor Mulhaus and Sam, he gave such a stentorian +cheer that the retreating bushrangers must have heard it. + +"Well ridden, gentlemen," he said. "And who won the race? Was it +Widderin, or the Arabian, or the nondescript Sydney importation?" + +"The Sydney importation, sir, would have beaten the Arabian, barring +accident," said Jim. "But, seriously speaking, I should have been far +too late to be of any service." + +"And I," said the Doctor, "also. Sam won the race, and has got the +prize. Now, let us look forward, and not backward." + +They communicated to Desborough all particulars, and told him of the +way they had seen the bushrangers go. Every one was struck with the +change in him. No merry stories now. The laughing Irishman was gone, +and a stern gloomy man, more like an Englishman, stood in his place. I +heard after, that he deeply blamed himself for what had occurred +(though no one else thought of doing so), and thought he had not taken +full precautions. On the present occasion, he said,-- + +"Well, gentlemen, night is closing in. Major Buckley, I think you will +agree with me that we should act more effectually if we waited till +daylight, and refresh both horses and men. More particularly as the +enemy in their drunken madness have hampered themselves in the +mountains. Major, Doctor Mulhaus, and Mr. Halbert, you are military +men--what do you say?" + +They agreed that there was no doubt. It would be much the best plan. + +"I would sooner he'd have gone to-night and got it over," said Charles +Hawker, taking Sam's arm. "Oh! Sam, Sam! Think of poor Cecil! Think of +poor Ellen, when she hears what has happened. She must know by now!" + +"Poor Charley," said Sam, "I am so sorry for you. Lie down, and get to +sleep; the sun is going down." + +He lay down as he was bid, somewhere out of the way. He was crushed and +stunned. He hardly seemed to know at present what he was doing. After a +time, Sam went in and found him sleeping uneasily. + +But Alice was in sad tribulation at the mischief done. All her pretty +little womanly ornaments overturned and broken, her piano battered to +pieces, and, worst of all, her poor kangaroo shot dead, lying in the +verandah. "Oh!" said she to Major Buckley, "you must think me very +wicked to think of such things at a time like this, but I cannot help +it. There is something so shocking to me in such a sudden +BOULEVERSEMENT of old order. Yet, if it shocks me to see my piano +broken, how terrible must a visitation like the Mayfords' be. These are +not the times for moralizing, however. I must see about entertaining +the garrison." + +Eleanor, the cook, had come back from her lair, quite unconcerned. She +informed the company, in a nonchalant sort of way, that this was the +third adventure of the kind she had been engaged in, and, although they +seemed to make a great fuss about it; on the other side (Van Diemen's +Land), it was considered a mere necessary nuisance; and so proceeded to +prepare such supper as she could. In the same off-hand way she remarked +to Sam, when he went into the kitchen to get a light for his pipe, +that, if it was true that Mike Howe had crossed and was among them, +they had better look out for squalls; for that he was a devil, and no +mistake. + +Desborough determined to set a watch out on the road towards the mouth +of the gully, where they were supposed to be. "We shall have them in +the morning," said he. "Let every one get to sleep who can sleep, for I +expect every one to follow me to morrow." + +Charles Hawker had laid down in an inner room, and was sleeping +uneasily, when he was awakened by some one, and, looking up, saw Major +Buckley, with a light in his hand, bending over him. He started up. + +"What is the matter, sir?" he asked. "Why do you look at me so +strangely? Is there any new misfortune?" + +"Charles," said the Major, "you have no older friend than me." + +"I know it, sir. What do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to stay at home to-morrow." + +"Anything but that, sir. They will call me a coward." + +"No one shall do so. I swear that he who calls you a coward shall feel +the weight of my arm." + +"Why am I not to go with them? Why am I to be separated from the +others?" + +"You must not ask," said the Major; "perhaps you will know some day, +but not yet. All I say to you is, go home to your mother to-morrow, and +stay there. Should you fire a shot, or strike a blow against those men +we are going to hunt down, you may do a deed which would separate you +from the rest of mankind, and leave you to drag on a miserable guilty +life. Do you promise?" + +"I will promise," said Charles; "but I wonder----" + +"Never mind wondering. Good night." + +The troopers lay in the hall, and in the middle of the night there was +a sound of a horse outside, and he who was nearest the door got up and +went out. + +"Who is there?" said the voice of Captain Brentwood. + +"Jackson, sir." + +"My house has been stuck up, has it not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"And my daughter?" + +"Safe, sir. Young Mr. Buckley rode over and caught her up out of it ten +minutes before they got here." + +"Long life to him, and glory to God. Who is here?" + +The trooper enumerated them. + +"And what has become of the gang?" asked the Captain. + +"Gone into the limestone gully, sir. Safe for tomorrow." + +"Ah, well, I shall come in and lie in the hall. Don't make a noise. +What is that?" + +They both started. Some one of the many sleepers, with that strange +hoarse voice peculiar to those who talk in their dreams, said, with +singular energy and distinctness,-- + +"I will go, sir; they will call me coward." + +"That's young Mr. Hawker, sir," said the trooper. "His sweetheart's +brother, Mr. Mayford, was killed by them yesterday. The head of this +very gang, sir, that villain Touan--his name is Hawker. An odd +coincidence, sir." + +"Very odd," said the Captain. "At the same time, Jackson, if I were +you, I wouldn't talk about it. There are many things one had best not +talk about, Jackson. Pull out the corner of that blanket, will you? So +we shall have some fun to-morrow, up in the pass, I'm thinking." + +"They'll fight, sir," said the trooper. "If we can bail them up, +they'll fight, believe me. Better so; I think we shall save the hangman +some trouble. Good night, sir." + +So Captain Brentwood lay down beside the trooper, and slept the sleep +of the just among his broken chairs and tables. The others slept too, +sound and quiet, as though there were no fight on the morrow. + +But ere the moon grew pale they were woke by Desborough, tramping about +with clicking spurs among the sleepers, and giving orders in a loud +noise. At the first movement, while the rest were yawning and +stretching themselves, and thinking that battle was not altogether so +desirable a thing on a cold morning as it was overnight, Major Buckley +was by Charles Hawker's bedside, and, reminding him of his promise, got +him out unperceived, helped him to saddle his horse, and started him +off to his mother with a note. + +The lad, overawed by the major's serious manner, went without debate, +putting the note in his pocket. I have seen that note; Sam showed it to +me the next day, and so I can give you the contents. It was from Major +Buckley to Mary Hawker, and ran thus:-- + +"I have sent your boy to you, dear old friend, bearing this. You will +have heard by now what has happened, and you will give me credit for +preventing what might come to be a terrible catastrophe. The boy is +utterly unconscious that his own father is the man whose life is sought +this day above all others. He is at the head of this gang, Mary. My own +son saw him yesterday. My hand shall not be raised against him; but +further than that I will not interfere. Your troubles have come now to +the final and most terrible pass; and all the advice I have to give you +is to pray, and pray continually, till this awful storm is gone by. +Remember, that come what may, you have two friends entirely devoted to +you--my wife and myself." + +Hurriedly written, scrawled rather, as this note was, it showed me +again plainer than ever what a noble clear-hearted man he was who had +written it. But this is not to the purpose. Charles Hawker departed, +carrying this, before the others were stirring, and held his way +through the forest-road towards his mother's station. + +This same two days' business was the best stroke of work that the Devil +did in that part of the country for many years. With his usual sagacity +he had busied himself in drawing the threads of mischief so parallel, +that it seemed they must end in one and only one lamentable issue; +namely, that Charles Hawker and his father should meet pistol in hand, +as deadly enemies. But at this last period of the game, our good honest +Major completely check-mated him, by sending Charles Hawker home to his +mother. In this terrible pass, after this unexpected move of the +Major's; he (the Devil, no other) began casting about for a scoundrel, +by whose assistance he might turn the Major's flank. But no great rogue +being forthcoming he had to look round for the next best substitute, a +great fool,--and one of these he found immediately, riding exactly the +way he wished. Him he subpoenaed immediately, and found to do his work +better even than a good rogue would have done. We shall see how poor +Charles Hawker, pricking along through the forest, getting every moment +further from danger and mischief, met a man charging along the road, +full speed, who instantly pulled up and spoke to him. + +This was the consummate fool, sent of the Devil, whom I have mentioned +above. We have seen him before. He was the longest, brownest, stupidest +of the Hawbuck family. The one who could spit further than any of his +brothers. + +"Well, Charley," he said, "is this all true about the bushrangers?" + +Charles said it was. And they were bailed up in the limestone gully, +and all the party were away after them. + +"Where are you going then?" asked the unfortunate young idiot. + +"Home to my mother," blurted out poor Charles. + +"Well!" said the other, speaking unconsciously exactly the words which +the enemy of mankind desired. "Well, I couldn't have believed that. If +a chap had said that of you in my hearing, I'd have fought him if he'd +been as big as a house. I never thought that of you, Charley." + +Charles cursed aloud. "What have I done to be talked to like this? +Major Buckley has no right to send me away like this, to be branded as +coward through the country side. Ten times over better to be shot than +have such words as these said to me. I shall go back with you." + +"That's the talk," said the poor fool. "I thought I wasn't wrong in +you, Charley." And so Charles galloped back with him. + +We, in the meantime, had started from the station, ere day was well +broke. Foremost of the company rode Desborough, calm and serene, and on +either side of him Captain Brentwood and Major Buckley. Then came the +Doctor, Sam, Jim, Halbert, and myself; behind us again, five troopers +and the Sergeant. Each man of us all was armed with a sword; and every +man in that company, as it happened, knew the use of that weapon well. +The troopers carried carbines, and all of us carried pistols. + +The glare in the east changing from pearly green to golden yellow, gave +notice of the coming sun. One snow peak, Tambo, I think, began to catch +the light, and blaze like another morning star. The day had begun in +earnest, and, as we entered the mouth of the glen to which we were +bound, slanting gleams of light were already piercing the misty gloom, +and lighting up the loftier crags. + +A deep, rock-walled glen it was, open and level, though, in the centre, +ran a tangled waving line of evergreen shrubs, marking the course of a +pretty bright creek, which, half hidden by luxuriant vegetation, ran +beside the faint track leading to one of Captain Brentwood's mountain +huts. Along this track we could plainly see the hoof marks of the men +we were after. + +It was one of the most beautiful gullies I had ever seen, and I turned +to say so to some one who rode beside me. Conceive my horror at finding +it was Charles Hawker. I turned to him fiercely, and said,-- + +"Get back, Charles. Go home. You don't know what you are doing, lad." + +He defied me. And I was speaking roughly to him again, when there came +a puff of smoke from among the rocks overhead, and down I went, head +over heels. A bullet had grazed my thigh, and killed my horse, who. +throwing me on my head, rendered me HORS DE COMBAT. So that during the +fight which followed, I was sitting on a rock, very sick and very +stupid, a mile from the scene of action. + +My catastrophe caused only a temporary stoppage; and, during the +confusion, Charles Hawker was unnoticed. The man who had fired at me +(why at me I cannot divine), was evidently a solitary guard perched +among the rocks. The others held on for about a quarter of an hour, +till the valley narrowed up again, just leaving room for the walk +between the brawling creek and the tall limestone cliff. But after this +it opened out into a broader amphitheatre, walled on all sides by +inaccessible rock, save in two places. Sam, from whom I get this +account of affairs, had just time to notice this when he saw Captain +Brentwood draw a pistol and fire it, and, at the same instant, a man +dashed out of some scrub on the other side of the creek, and galloped +away up the valley. + +"They have had the precaution to set two watches for us, which I hardly +expected," said Captain Desborough. "They will fight us now, they can't +help it, thank God. They have had a short turn and a merry one, but +they are dead men, and they know it. The Devil is but a poor paymaster, +Buckley. After all this hide and seek work, they have only got two +days' liberty." + +The troopers now went to the front with Halbert and the other military +men, while Sam, Jim, and Charles, the last all unperceived by the Major +in his excitement, rode in the rear. + +"We are going to have a regular battle," said Jim. "They are bailed up, +and must fight; some of us will go home feet foremost to-day." + +So they rode on through the open forest, till they began to see one or +two horsemen through the treestems, reconnoitering. The ground began to +rise towards a lofty cliff that towered before them, and all could see +that the end was coming. Then they caught sight of the whole gang, +scattered about among the low shrubs, and a few shots were fired on +both sides before the bushrangers turned and retreated towards the wall +of rock, now plainly visible through the timber. Our party continued to +advance steadily in open order. + +Then under the beetling crags, where the fern-trees began to feather up +among the fallen boulders, the bushrangers turned like hunted wolves, +and stood at bay. + + + + +Chapter XLII + +THE FIGHT AMONG THE FERN-TREES. + + +Then Desborough cried aloud to ride at them, and spare no man. And, as +he spoke, every golden fernbough, and every coigne of vantage among the +rocks, began to blaze and crackle with gun and pistol shot. Jim's horse +sprung aloft and fell, hurling him forcibly to the ground, and a tall +young trooper, dropping his carbine, rolled heavily off his saddle, and +lay on the grass face downward, quite still, as if asleep. + +"There's the first man killed," said the Major, very quietly. "Sam, my +boy, don't get excited, but close on the first fellow you see a chance +at." And Sam, looking in his father's face as he spoke, saw a light in +his eyes, that he had never seen there before--the light of battle. The +Major caught a carbine from the hands of a trooper who rode beside him, +and took a snap shot, quick as lightning, at a man whom they saw +running from one cover to another. The poor wretch staggered and put +his hands to his head, then stumbled and fell heavily down. + +Now the fight became general and confused. All about among the fern and +the flowers, among the lemanshrubs, and the tangled vines, men fought, +and fired, and struck, and cursed; while the little brown bandiroots +scudded swiftly away, and the deadly snake hid himself in his darkest +lair, affrighted. Shots were cracking on all sides, two riderless +horses, confused in the MELEE, were galloping about neighing, and a +third lay squealing on the ground in the agonies of death. + +Sam saw a man fire at his father, whose horse went down, while the +Major arose unhurt. He rode at the ruffian, who was dismounted, and cut +him so deep between the shoulder and the neck, that he fell and never +spoke again. Then seeing Halbert and the Doctor on the right, fiercely +engaged with four men who were fighting with clubbed muskets and +knives, he turned to help them, but ere he reached them, a tall, +handsome young fellow dashed out of the shrub, and pulling his horse +short up, took deliberate aim at him, and fired. + +Sam heard the bullet go hissing past his ear, and got mad. "That young +dog shall go down," said he. "I know him. He is the one who rode first +yesterday." And as this passed through his mind, he rode straight at +him, with his sword hand upon his left shoulder. He came full against +him in a moment, and as the man held up his gun to guard himself, his +cut descended, so full and hard that it shore through the gunbarrel as +through a stick, and ere he could bring his hand to his cheek, his +opponent had grappled him, and the two rolled off their horses +together, locked in a deadly embrace. + +Then began an awful and deadly fight between these two young fellows. +Sam's sword had gone from his hand in the fall, and he was defenceless, +save by such splendid physical powers as he had by nature. But his +adversary, though perhaps a little lighter, was a terrible enemy, and +fought with the strength and litheness of a leopard. He had his hand at +Sam's throat, and was trying to choke him. Sam saw that one great +effort was necessary, and with a heave of his whole body, threw the +other beneath him, and struck downwards, three quick blows, with the +whole strength of his ponderous fist, on the face of the man, as he lay +beneath him. The hold on his throat loosened, and seeing that they had +rolled within reach of his sword, in a moment he had clutched it, and +drawing back his elbow, prepared to plunge it in his adversary's chest. + +But he hesitated. He could not do it. Maddened as he was with fighting, +the sight of that bloody face, bruised beyond recognition by his +terrible blows, and the wild fierce eyes, full of rage and terror, +looking into his own, stayed his hand, and while he paused the man +spoke, thick and indistinctly, for his jaw was broken. + +"If you will spare me," he said, "I will be King's evidence." + +"Then turn on your face," said Sam; "and I will tie you up." + +And as he spoke a trooper ran up, and secured the prisoner, who +appealed to Sam for his handkerchief. "I fought you fair," he said; +"and you're a man worth fighting. But you have broken something in my +face with your fist. Give me something to tie it up with?" + +"God save us all!" said Sam, giving him his handkerchief. "This is +miserable work! I hope it is all over." + +It seemed so. All he heard were the fearful screams of a wounded man +lying somewhere among the fern. + +"Where are they all, Jackson?" said he. + +"All away to the right, sir," said the trooper. "One of my comrades is +killed, your father has had his horse shot, the Doctor is hit in the +arm, and Mr. James Brentwood has got his leg broke with the fall of his +horse. They are minding him now. We've got all the gang, alive or dead, +except two. Captain Desborough is up the valley now after the head man, +and young Mr. Hawker is with him. D--n it all! hark to that." + +Two shots were fired in quick succession in the direction indicated; +and Sam having caught his horse, gallopped off to see what was going on. + + +* * * * * + + +Desborough fought neither against small nor great, but only against one +man, and he was George Hawker. Him he had sworn he would bring home, +dead or alive. When he and his party had first broken through the fern, +he had caught sight of his quarry, and had instantly made towards him, +as quick as the broken, scrub-tangled ground would allow. + +They knew one another; and, as soon as Hawker saw that he was +recognised, he made to the left, away from the rest of his gang, trying +to reach, as Desborough could plainly see, the only practicable way +that led from the amphitheatre in which they were back into the +mountains. + +They fired at one another without effect at the first. Hawker was now +pushing in full flight, though the scrub was so dense that neither made +much way. Now the ground got more open and easier travelled, when +Desborough was aware of one who came charging recklessly up alongside +of him, and, looking round, he recognised Charles Hawker. + +"Good lad," he said; "come on. I must have that fellow before us there. +He is the arch-devil of the lot. If we follow him to h-ll, we must have +him!" + +"We'll have him, safe enough!" said Charles. "Push to the left, +Captain, and we shall get him against those fallen rocks." + +Desborough saw the excellence of this advice. This was the last piece +of broken ground there was. On the right the cliff rose precipitous, +and from its side had tumbled a confused heap of broken rock, running +out into the glen. Once past this, the man they were pursuing would +have the advantage, for he was splendidly mounted, and beyond was clear +galloping ground. As it was, he was in a recess, and Desborough and +Charles, pushing forward, succeeded in bringing him to bay. Alas, too +well! + +George Hawker reined up his horse when he saw escape was impossible, +and awaited their coming with a double-barrelled pistol in his hand. As +the other two came on, calling on him to surrender, Desborough's horse +received a bullet in his chest, and down went horse and man together. +But Charles pushed on till he was within twenty yards of the +bushranger, and levelled his pistol to fire. + +So met father and son the second time in their lives, all +unconsciously. For an instant they glared on one another with wild +threatening eyes, as the father made his aim more certain and deadly. +Was there no lightning in heaven to strike him dead, and save him from +this last horrid crime? Was there no warning voice to tell him that +this was his son? + +None. The bullet sped, and the poor boy tumbled from his saddle, +clutching wildly, with crooked, convulsive fingers at the grass and +flowers--shot through the the chest! + +Then, ere Desborough had disentangled himself from his fallen horse, +George Hawker rode off laughing--out through the upper rock walls into +the presence of the broad bald snow-line that rolled above his head in +endless lofty tiers towards the sky. + +Desborough arose, swearing and stamping; but, ere he could pick up his +cap, Sam was alongside of him, breathless, and with him another +common-looking man--my man, Dick, no other--and they both cried out +together, "What has happened?" + +"Look there!" said Desborough, pointing to something dark among the +grass,--"that's what has happened. What lies there was Charles Hawker, +and the villain is off." + +"Who shot Charles Hawker?" said Dick. + +"His namesake," said Desborough. + +"His own father!" said Dick; "that's terrible." + +"What do you mean?" they both asked, aghast. + +"Never mind now," he answered. "Captain Desborough, what are you going +to do? Do you know where he's gone?" + +"Up into the mountain, to lie by, I suppose," said Desborough. + +"Not at all, sir! He is going to cross the snow, and get to the old +hut, near the Murray Gate." + +"What! Merryman's hut?" said the Captain. "Impossible! He could not get +through that way." + +"I tell you he can. That is where they came from at first; that is +where they went to when they landed; and this is the gully they came +through." + +"Are you deceiving me?" said Desborough. "It will be worse for you if +you are! I ain't in a humour for that sort of thing. Who are you?" + +"I am Mr. Hamlyn's groom--Dick. Strike me dead if I ain't telling the +truth!" + +"Do you know this man, Buckley?" said Desborough, calling out to Sam, +who was sitting beside poor Charles Hawker, holding his head up. + +"Know him! of course I do," he replied; "ever since I was a child." + +"Then, look here," said Desborough to Dick; "I shall trust you. Now, +you say he will cross the snow. If I were to go round by the Parson's I +shouldn't get much snow." + +"That's just it, don't you see? You can be round at the huts before +him. That's what I mean," said Dick. "Take Mr. Buckley's horse, and +ride him till he drops, and you'll get another at the Parson's. If you +have any snow, it will be on Broadsaddle; but it won't signify. You go +round the low side of Tambo, and sight the lake, and you'll be there +before him." + +"How far?" + +"Sixty miles, or thereabouts, plain sailing. It ain't eleven o'clock +yet." + +"Good; I'll remember you for this. Buckley, I want your horse. Is the +lad dead?" + +"No; but he is very bad. I'll try to get him home. Take the horse; he +is not so good a one as Widderin, but he'll carry you to the Parson's. +God speed you." + +They watched him ride away almost south, skirting the ridges of the +mountain as long as he could; then they saw him scrambling up a lofty +wooded ridge, and there he disappeared. + +They raised poor Charles Hawker up, and Sam, mounting Dick's horse, +took the wounded man up before him, and started to go slowly home. +After a time, he said, "Do you feel worse, Charles?" and the other +replied, "No; but I am very cold." After that he stayed quite still, +with his arm round Sam Buckley's neck, until they reached the +Brentwoods' door. + +Some came out to the door to meet them, and, among others, Alice. "Take +him from me," said Sam to one of the men. "Be very gentle: he is +asleep." And so they took the dead man's arm from off the living man's +shoulder, and carried him in; for Charles Hawker was asleep indeed--in +the sleep that knows no waking. + + +* * * * * + + +That was one of the fiercest and firmest stands that was ever made by +bushrangers against the authorities. Of the latter five were shot down, +three wounded, and the rest captured, save two. The gang was destroyed +at once, and life and property once more secure, though at a sad +sacrifice. + +One trooper was shot dead at the first onset,--a fine young fellow, +just picked from his regiment for good conduct to join the police. +Another was desperately wounded, who died the next day. On the part of +the independent men assisting, there were Charles Hawker killed, Doctor +Mulhaus shot in the left arm, and Jim with his leg broke; so that, on +that evening, Captain Brentwood's house was like a hospital. + +Captain Brentwood set his son's leg, under Dr. Mulhaus' directions, the +Doctor keeping mighty brave, though once or twice his face twisted with +pain, and he was nearly fainting. Alice was everywhere, pale and calm, +helping every one who needed it, and saying nothing. Eleanor, the cook, +pervaded the house, doing the work of seven women, and having the +sympathies of fourteen. She told them that this was as bad a job as +she'd ever seen; worse, in fact. That the nearest thing she'd ever seen +to it was when Mat Steeman's mob were broke up by the squatters; "But +then," she added, "there were none but prisoners killed." + +But when Alice had done all she could, and the house was quiet, she +went up to her father, and said,-- + +"Now, father, comes the worst part of the matter for me. Who is to tell +Mrs. Hawker?" + +"Mrs. Buckley, my dear, would be the best person. But she is at the +Mayfords', I am afraid." + +"Mrs. Hawker must be told at once, father, by some of us. I do so dread +her hearing of it by some accident, when none of her friends are with +her. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I never thought to have had such times as +these." + +"Alice, my darling," said her father, "do you think that you have +strength to carry the news to her? If Major Buckley went with you, he +could tell her, you know; and it would be much better for her to have +him, an old friend, beside her. It would be such a delay to go round +and fetch his wife. Have you courage?" + +"I will make courage," she said. "Speak to Major Buckley, father, and I +will get ready." + +She went to Sam. "I am going on a terrible errand," she said; "I am +going to tell Mrs. Hawker about this dreadful, dreadful business. Now, +what I want to say is, that you mustn't come; your father is going with +me, and I'll get through it alone, Sam. Now please," she added, seeing +Sam was going to speak, "don't argue about it; I am very much upset as +it is, and I want you to stay here. You won't follow us, will you?" + +"Whatever you order, Alice, is law," said Sam. "I won't come if you +don't wish it; but I can't see----" + +"There now. Will you get me my horse? And please stay by poor Jim, for +my sake." + +Sam complied; and Alice, getting on her riding-habit, came back +trembling, and trying not to cry, to tell Major Buckley that she was +ready. + +He took her in his arms, and kissed her. "You are a brave, noble girl," +he said; "I thank God for such a daughter-in-law. Now, my dear, let us +hurry off, and not think of what is to come." + +It was about five o'clock when they went off. Sam and Halbert, having +let them out of the paddock, went in-doors to comfort poor Jim's heart, +and to get something to eat, if it were procurable. Jim lay on his bed +tossing about, and the Doctor sat beside him, talking to him; pale and +grim, waiting for the doctor who had been sent for; no other than his +drunken old enemy. + +"This is about as nice a kettle of fish," said Jim, when they came and +sat beside him, "as a man could possibly wish to eat. Poor Cecil and +Charley; both gone, eh? Well, I know it ain't decent for a fellow with +a broken leg to feel wicked; but I do, nevertheless. I wish now that I +had had a chance at some of them before that stupid brute of a horse +got shot." + +"If you don't lie still, you Jim," said Sam, "your leg will never set; +and then you must have it taken off, you know. How is your arm, Doctor?" + +"Shooting a little," said the Doctor; "nothing to signify, I believe. +At least, nothing in the midst of such a tragedy as this. Poor Mary +Hawker; the pretty little village-maid we all loved so well. To come to +such an end as this!" + +"Is it true, then, Doctor, that Hawker, the bushranger, is her husband?" + +"Quite true, alas! Every one must know it now. But I pray you, Sam, to +keep the darkest part of it all from her; don't let her know that the +boy fell by the hand of his father." + +"I could almost swear," said Sam, "that one among the gang is his son +too. When they rode past Alice and myself yesterday morning, one was +beside him so wonderfully like him, that even at that time I set them +down for father and son." + +"If Hamlyn's strange tale be true, it is so," said the Doctor. "Is the +young man you speak of among the prisoners, do you know?" + +"Yes; I helped to capture him myself," said Sam. "What do you mean by +Hamlyn's story?" + +"Oh, a long one. He met him in a hut the night after we picnic'd at +Mirngish, and found out who he was. The secret not being ours, your +father and I never told any of you young people of the fact of this +bushranger being poor Mrs. Hawker's husband. I wish we had; all this +might have been avoided. But the poor soul always desired that the +secret of his birth might be kept from Charles, and you see the +consequences. I'll never keep a secret again. Come here with me; let us +see both of them." + +They followed him, and he turned into a little side room at the back of +the house. It was a room used for chance visitors or strangers, +containing two small beds, which now bore an unaccustomed burden, for +beneath the snow-white coverlids, lay two figures, indistinct indeed, +but unmistakeable. + +"Which is he?" whispered the Doctor. + +Sam raised the counterpane from the nearest one, but it was not +Charles. It was a young, handsome face that he saw, lying so quietly +and peacefully on the white pillow, that he exclaimed-- + +"Surely this man is not dead?" + +The Doctor shook his head. "I have often seen them like that," he said. +"He is shot through the heart." + +Then they went to the other bed, where poor Charles lay. Sam gently +raised the black curls from his face, but none of them spoke a word for +a few minutes, till the Doctor said, "Now let us come and see his +brother." + +They crossed the yard, to a slab outbuilding, before which one of the +troopers was keeping guard, with a loaded carbine, and, the Sergeant +coming across, admitted them. + +Seven or eight fearfully ill-looking ruffians lay about on the floor, +handcuffed. They were most of them of the usual convict stamp, dark, +saturnine looking fellows, though one offered a strange contrast by +being an Albino, and another they could not see plainly, for he was +huddled up in a dark corner, bending down over a basin of water, and +dabbing his face. The greater part of them cursed and blasphemed +desperately, as is the manner of such men when their blood is up, and +they are reckless; while the wounded ones lay in a fierce sullen +silence, more terrible almost than the foul language of the others. + +"He is not here," said Sam. "Stay, that must be him wiping his face!" + +He went towards him, and saw he was right. The young man he had taken +looked wildly up like a trapped animal into his face, and the Doctor +could not suppress an exclamation when he saw the likeness to his +father. + +"Is your face very bad?" said Sam quietly. + +The other turned away in silence. + +"I'll tie it up for you, if you like," said Sam. + +"It don't want no tying up." + +He turned his face to the wall, and remained obstinately silent. They +perceived that nothing more was to be got from him, and departed. But, +turning at the door, they still saw him crouched in the corner like a +wild beast, wiping his bruised face every now and then with Sam's +handkerchief, apparently thinking of nothing, hoping for nothing. Such +a pitiful sight--such an example of one who was gone beyond feeling +pity, or sorrow, or aught else, save physical pain, that the Doctor's +gorge rose, and he said, stamping on the gravel,-- + +"A man, who says that that is not the saddest, saddest sight he ever +saw, is a disgrace to the mother that bore him. To see a young fellow +like that with such a PHYSIQUE--and God only knows what undeveloped +qualities in him, only ripe for the gallows at five-and-twenty, is +enough to make the angels weep. He knows no evil but physical pain, and +that he considers but a temporary one. He knows no good save, perhaps, +to be faithful to his confederates. He has been brought up from his +cradle to look on every man as his enemy. He never knew what it was to +love a human being in his life. Why, what does such a man regard this +world as? As the antechamber of hell, if he ever heard of such a place. +I want to know what either of us three would have been if we had had +his training. I want to know that now. We might have been as much worse +than him as a wolf is worse than an evil-tempered dog." + +A beautiful colley came up to the Doctor and fawned on him, looking +into his face with her deep, expressive, hazel eyes. + +"We must do something for that fellow, Sam. If it's only for his name's +sake," said the Doctor. + + +* * * * * + + +That poor boy, sitting crouched there in the corner, with a broken jaw, +and just so much of human feeling as one may suppose a polecat to have, +caught in a gin, is that same baby that we saw Ellen Lee nursing on the +door-step in the rain, when our poor Mary came upon her on one wild +night in Exeter. + +Base-born, workhouse-bred! Tossed from workhouse to prison, from prison +to hulk--every man's hand against him--an Arab of society. As hopeless +a case, my lord judge, as you ever had to deal with; and yet I think, +my lord, that your big heart grows a little pitiful, when you see that +handsome face before you, blank and careless, and you try, fruitlessly, +to raise some blush of shame, or even anger in it, by your eloquence. + +Gone beyond that, my lord. Your thunderbolts fall harmless here, and +the man you say is lost, and naturally. Yet, give that same man room to +breathe and act; keep temptation from him, and let his good qualities, +should he have any, have fair play, and, even yet, he may convert you +to the belief that hardened criminals may be reformed, to the extent of +one in a dozen; beyond that no reasonable man will go. + +Let us see the end of this man. For now the end of my tale draws near, +and I must begin gathering up the threads of the story, to tie them in +a knot, and release my readers from duty. Here is all I can gather +about him,-- + +Sam and the Doctor moved heaven, earth, and the Colonial Secretary, to +get his sentence commuted, and with success. So when his companions +were led out to execution, he was held back; reserved for penal +servitude for life. + +He proved himself quiet and docile; so much so that when our greatest, +boldest explorer was starting for his last hopeless journey to the +interior, this man was selected as one of the twelve convicts who were +to accompany him. What follows is an extract which I have been favoured +with from his private journal. You will not find it in the published +history of the expedition:-- + +"Date--lat.--long.--Morning. It is getting hopeless now, and to-morrow +I turn. Sand, and nothing but sand. The salsolaceous plants, so long +the only vegetation we have seen, are gone; and the little sienite +peak, the last symptom of a water-bearing country, has disappeared +behind us. The sandhills still roll away towards the setting sun, but +get less and less elevated. The wild fowl are still holding their +mysterious flight to the north-west, but I have not wings to follow +them. Oh, my God! if I only knew what those silly birds know. It is +hopeless to go on, and, I begin to fear, hopeless to go back. Will it +never rain again? + +"Afternoon.--My servant Hawker, one of the convicts assigned to me by +Government, died to-day at noon. I had got fond of this man, as the +most patient and the bravest, where all have been so patient and so +brave. He was a very silent and reserved man, and had never complained, +so that I was deeply shocked on his sending for me at dinner-time, to +find that he was dying. + +"He asked me not to deceive him, but to tell him if there was any truth +in what the gaol-chaplain had said, about there being another life +after death. I told him earnestly that I knew it as surely as I knew +that the earth was under my feet; and went on comforting him as one +comforts a dying man. But he never spoke again; and we buried him in +the hot sand at sundown. The first wind will obliterate the little +mound we raised over him, and none will ever cross this hideous desert +again. So that he will have as quiet a grave as he could wish. + +"Eleven o'clock at night.--God be praised. Heavy clouds and thunder to +the north.--" + +So this poor workhouse-bred lad lies out among the sands of the middle +desert. + + + + +Chapter XLIII + +ACROSS THE SNOW. + + +Hawker the elder, as I said, casting one glance at the body of his son, +whom he knew not, and another at Captain Desborough, who was just +rising from the ground after his fall, set spurs to his noble chestnut +horse, and, pushing through the contracted barriers of slate which +closed up the southern end of the amphitheatre where they had been +surprised, made for the broader and rapidly rising valley which +stretched beyond. + +He soon reached the rocky gate, where the vast ridge of schist, +alternating with the limestone, and running north and south in high +serrated ridges, was cut through by a deep fissure, formed by the never +idle waters of a little creek, that in the course of ages had mined +away the softer portions of the slate, and made a practicable pass +toward the mountains. + +He picked his way with difficulty through the tumbled boulders that lay +in the chasm; and then there was a cool brisk wind on his forehead, and +a glare in his eyes. The chill breath of the west wind from the +mountain--the glare of the snow that filled up the upper end of the +valley, rising in level ridges towards the sky-line. + +He had been this path before; and if he had gone it a hundred times +again, he would only have cursed it for a rough, desperate road, the +only hope of a desperate man. Not for him to notice the thousand +lessons that the Lord had spread before him in the wilderness! Not for +him to notice how the vegetation changed when the limestone was passed, +and the white quartz reefs began to seam the slaty sides of the valley +like rivers of silver! Not for him to see how, as he went up and on, +the hardy Dicksoniae, still nestled in stunted tufts among the more +sheltered side gullies, long after her tenderer sister, the queenly +Alsophylla had been left behind. He only knew that he was a hunted wild +beast, and that his lair was beyond the snow. + +The creek flashed pleasantly among the broken slate, full and turbid +under the mid-day sun. After midnight, when its fountains are sealed +again by the frosty breath of night, that creek will be reduced to a +trickling rill. His horse's feet brushed through the delicate +asplenium, the Venus'-hair of Australia; the sarsaparilla still hung in +scant purple tufts on the golden wattle, and the scarlet correa lurked +among the broken quartz. + +Upwards and onwards. In front, endless cycles agone, a lava stream from +some crater we know not had burst over the slate, with fearful clang +and fierce explosion, forming a broad roadway of broken basalt up to a +plateau twelve hundred feet or more above us, and not so steep but that +a horse might be led up it. Let us go up with him, not cursing heaven +and earth, as he did, but noticing how, as we ascend, the scarlet +wreaths of the Kennedia and the crimson Grevillea give place to the +golden Grevillea and the red Epacris; then comes the white Epacris, and +then the grass trees, getting smaller and scantier as we go, till the +little blue Gentian, blossoming boldly among the slippery crags, tells +us that we have nearly reached the limits of vegetation. + +He turned when he reached this spot, and looked around him. To the west +a broad rolling down of snow, rising gradually; to the east, a noble +prospect of forest and plain, hill and gully, with old Snowy winding on +in broad bright curves towards the sea. He looked over all the beauty +and undeveloped wealth of Gipp's Land, which shall yet, please God, in +fulness of time, be one of the brightest jewels in the King of +England's crown, but with eyes that saw not. He turned towards the +snow, and mounting his horse, which he had led up the cliff, held +steadily westward. + +His plans were well laid. Across the mountain, north of Lake Omeo, not +far from the mighty cleft in which the infant Murray spends his youth, +were two huts, erected years before by some settler, and abandoned. +They had been used by a gang of bushrangers, who had been attacked by +the police, and dispersed. Nevertheless, they had been since inhabited +by the men we know of, who landed in the boat from Van Diemen's Land, +in consequence of Hawker himself having found a pass through the +ranges, open for nine months in the year. So that, when the police were +searching Gipp's Land for these men, they, with the exception of two or +three, were snugly ensconced on the other water-shed, waiting till the +storm should blow over. In these huts Hawker intended to lie by for a +short time, living on such provisions as were left, until he could make +his way northward, on the outskirts of the settlements, and escape. + +There was no pursuit, he thought: how could there be? Who knew of this +route but himself and his mates? hardly likely any of them would betray +him. No creature was moving in the valley he had just ascended; but the +sun was beginning to slope towards the west, and he must onwards. + +Onwards, across the slippery snow. At first a few tree-stems, blighted +and withered, were visible right and left, proving that at some time +during their existence, these bald downs had either a less elevation or +a warmer climate than now. Then these even disappeared, and all around +was one white blinding glare. To the right, the snow-fields rolled up +into the shapeless lofty mass called Mount Tambo, behind which the hill +they now call Kosciusko,--as some say, the highest ground in the +country,--began to take a crimson tint from the declining sun. Far to +the south, black and gaunt among the whitened hills, towered the +rounded hump of Buffaloe, while the peaks of Buller and Aberdeen showed +like dim blue clouds on the furthest horizon. + +Snow, and nothing but snow. Sometimes plunging shoulder deep into some +treacherous hollow, sometimes guiding the tired horse across the +surface frozen over unknown depths. He had been drinking hard for some +days, and, now the excitement of action had gone off, was fearfully +nervous. The snow-glint had dizzied his head, too, and he began to see +strange shapes forming themselves in the shade of each hollow, and +start at each stumble of his horse. + +A swift-flying shadow upon the snow, and a rush of wings overhead. An +eagle. The lordly scavenger is following him, impatient for him to drop +and become a prey. Soar up, old bird, and bide thy time; on yonder +precipice thou shalt have good chance of a meal. + +Twilight, and then night, and yet the snow but half past. There is a +rock in a hollow, where grow a few scanty tufts of grass which the poor +horse may eat. Here he will camp, fireless, foodless, and walk up and +down the livelong night, for sleep might be death. Though he is not in +thoroughly Alpine regions, yet still, at this time of the year, the +snow is deep and the frost is keen. It were as well to keep awake. + +As he paced up and down beneath the sheltering rock, when night had +closed in, and the frosty stars were twinkling in the cold blue +firmament, strange ghosts and fancies came crowding on him thick and +fast. Down the long vista of a misspent, ruined life, he saw people +long since forgotten trooping up towards him. His father tottered +sternly on, as with a fixed purpose before him; his gipsy-mother, +Madge, strode forward pitiless; and poor ruined Ellen, holding her +child to her heart, joined the others, and held up her withered hand as +if in mockery. But then there came a face between him and all the other +figures which his distempered brain had summoned, and blotted them out; +the face of a young man, bearing a strange likeness to himself; the +face of the last human creature he had seen; the face of the boy that +he had shot down among the fern. + +Why should this face grow before him wherever he turned, so that he +could not look on rock or sky without seeing it? Why should it glare at +him through a blood-red haze when he shut his eyes to keep it out, not +in sorrow, not in anger, but even as he had seen it last, expressing +only terror and pain, as the lad rolled off his horse, and lay a black +heap among the flowers? Up and away! anything is better than this. Let +us stumble away across the snow, through the mirk night once more, +rather than be driven mad by this pale boy's face. + +Morning, and the pale ghosts have departed. Long shadows of horse and +man are thrown before him now, as the slope dips away to the westward, +and he knows that his journey is well-nigh over. + +It was late, afternoon, before, having left the snow some hours, he +began to lead his horse down a wooded precipice, through vegetation +which grew more luxuriant every yard he descended. The glen, whose +bottom he was trying to reach, was a black profound gulf, with +perpendicular, or rather over-hanging walls, on every side, save where +he was scrambling down. Here indeed it was possible for a horse to keep +his footing among the belts of trees, that, alternating with +precipitous granite cliff, formed the upper end of one of the most +tremendous glens in the world--the Gates of the Murray. + +He was barely one-third of the way down this mountain wall, when the +poor tired horse lost his footing and fell over the edge, touching +neither tree nor stone for five hundred feet, while George Hawker was +left terrified, hardly daring to peer into the dim abyss, where the +poor beast was gone. + +But it was little matter. The hut he was making for was barely four +miles off now, and there was meat, drink, and safety. Perhaps there +might be company, he hoped there might,--some of the gang might have +escaped. A dog would be some sort of friend, anything sooner than such +another night as last night. + +His pistols were gone with the saddle, and he was unarmed. He reached +the base of the cliff in safety, and forced his way through the tangled +scrub that fringed the infant river, towards the lower end of the pass. +Here the granite walls, overhanging, bend forward above to meet one +another, almost forming an arch, the height of which, from the +river-bed, is computed to be nearly, if not quite, three thousand feet. +Through this awful gate he forced his way, overawed and utterly +dispirited, and reached the gully where his refuge lay, just as the sun +was setting. + +There was a slight track, partly formed by stray cattle which led up +it, and casting his eyes upon this, he saw the marks of a horse's feet. +"Some one of the gang got home before me," he said. "I'm right glad of +that, anything better than such another night." + +He turned a sharp angle in the path, just where it ran round an abrupt +cliff. He saw a horseman within ten yards of him with his face towards +him. Captain Desborough, holding a pistol at his head. + +"Surrender, George Hawker!" said Desborough. "Or, by the living Lord! +you are a dead man." + +Hungry, cold, desperate, unarmed; he saw that he was undone, and that +hope was dead. The Captain had an easier prey than he had anticipated. +Hawker threw up his arms, and ere he could fully appreciate his +situation, he was chained fast to Desborough's saddle, only to be +loosed, he knew, by the gallows. + +Without a word on either side they began their terrible journey. +Desborough riding, and Hawker manacled by his right wrist to the +saddle. Fully a mile was passed before the latter asked, sullenly,-- + +"Where are you going to take me to-night?" + +"To Dickenson's," replied Desborough. "You must step out you know. It +will be for your own good, for I must get there to-night." + +Two or three miles further were got over, when Hawker said abruptly,-- + +"Look here, Captain, I want to talk to you." + +"You had better not," said Desborough. "I don't want to have any +communication with you, and every word you say will go against you." + +"Bah!" said Hawker. "I must swing. I know that. I shan't make any +defence. Why, the devils out of hell would come into court against me +if I did. But I want to ask you a question or two. You haven't got the +character of being a brutal fellow, like O----. It can't hurt you to +answer me one or two things, and ease my mind a bit." + +"God help you, unhappy man;" said Desborough. "I will answer any +questions you ask." + +"Well, then, see here," said Hawker, hesitating. "I want to know--I +want to know first, how you got round before me?" + +"Is that all?" said Desborough. "Well, I came round over Broad-saddle, +and got a fresh horse at the Parson's." + +"Ah!" said Hawker. "That young fellow I shot down when you were after +me, is he dead?" + +"By this time," said Desborough. "He was just dying when I came away." + +"Would you mind stopping for a moment, Captain? Now tell me, who was +he?" + +"Mr. Charles Hawker, son of Mrs. Hawker, of Toonarbin." + +He gave such a yell that Desborough shrunk from him appalled,--a cry as +of a wounded tiger,--and struggled so wildly with his handcuffs that +the blood poured from his wrists. Let us close this scene. Desborough +told me afterwards that that wild, fierce, despairing cry, rang in his +ears for many years afterwards, and would never be forgotten till those +ears were closed with the dust of the grave. + + + + +Chapter XLIV + +HOW MARY HAWKER HEARD THE NEWS. + + +Troubridge's Station, Toonarbin, lay so far back from the river, and so +entirely on the road to nowhere, that Tom used to remark, that he would +back it for being the worst station for news in the country. So it +happened that while these terrible scenes were enacting within ten +miles of them, down, in fact, to about one o'clock in the day when the +bushrangers were overtaken and punished, Mary and her cousin sat +totally unconscious of what was going on. + +But about eleven o'clock that day, Burnside, the cattle dealer, +mentioned once before in these pages, arrived at Major Buckley's, from +somewhere up country, and found the house apparently deserted. + +But having coee'd for some time, a door opened in one of the huts, and +a sleepy groom came forth, yawning. + +"Where are they all?" asked Burnside. + +"Mrs. Buckley and the women were down at Mrs. Mayford's, streaking the +bodies out," he believed. "The rest were gone away after the gang." + +This was the first that Burnside had heard about the matter. And now, +bit by bit, he extracted everything from the sleepy groom. + +I got him afterwards to confess to me, that when he heard of this +terrible affair, his natural feeling of horror was considerably alloyed +with pleasure. He saw here at one glance a fund of small talk for six +months. He saw himself a welcome visitor at every station, even up to +furthest lonely Condamine, retailing the news of these occurrences with +all the authenticity of an eye witness, improving his narrative by each +repetition. Here was the basis of a new tale, Ode, Epic, Saga, or what +you may please to call it, which he Burnside, the bard, should sing at +each fireside throughout the land. + +"And how are Mrs. and Miss Mayford, poor souls!" he asked. + +"They're as well," answered the groom, "as you'd expect folks to be +after such a mishap. They ran out at the back way and down the garden +towards the river before the chaps could burst the door down. I am +sorry for that little chap Cecil; I am, by Jove! A straightforward, +manly little chap as ever crossed a horse. Last week he says to me, +says he, 'Benjy, my boy,' says he, 'come and be groom to me. I'll give +you thirty pound a-year.' And I says, 'If Mr. Sam----' Hallo, there +they are at it, hammer and tongs! Sharp work, that!" + +They both listened intensely. They could hear, borne on the west wind, +a distant dropping fire and a shouting. The groom's eye began to kindle +a bit, but Burnside, sitting yet upon his horse, grasped the lad's +shoulder and cried, "God save us, suppose our men should be beaten!" + +"Suppose," said the groom, contemptuously shaking him off; "why, then +you and I should get our throats cut." + +At this moment the noise of the distant fight breezed up louder than +ever. + +"They're beat back," said Burnside. "I shall be off to Toonarbin, and +give them warning. I advise you to save yourself." + +"I was set to mind these here things," said Benjy, "and I'm a-going to +mind 'em. And they as meddles with 'em had better look out." + +Burnside started off for Toonarbin, and when halfway there he paused +and listened. The firing had ceased. When he came to reflect, now that +his panic was over, he had very little doubt that Desborough's party +had gained the day. It was impossible, he thought, that it could be +otherwise. + +Nevertheless, being half-way to Toonarbin, he determined to ride on, +and, having called in a moment, to follow a road which took a way past +Lee's old hut towards the scene of action. He very soon pulled up at +the door, and Tom Troubridge came slowly out to meet him. + +"Hallo, Burnside!" said Tom. "Get off, and come in." + +"Not I, indeed. I am going off to see the fight." + +"What fight?" said Mary Hawker, looking over Tom's shoulder. + +"Do you mean to say you have not heard the news?" + +"Not a word of any news for a fortnight." + +For once in his life, Burnside was laconic, and told them all that had +happened. Tom spoke not a word, but ran up to the stable and had a +horse out, saddled in a minute, he was dashing into the house again for +his hat and pistols when he came against Mary in the passage, leaning +against the wall. + +"Tom," she whispered hoarsely. "Bring that boy back to me safe, or +never look me in the face again!" + +He never answered her, he was thinking of some one beside the boy. He +pushed past her, and the next moment she saw him gallop away with +Burnside, followed by two men, and now she was left alone indeed, and +helpless. + +There was not a soul about the place but herself; not a soul within ten +miles. She stood looking out of the door fixedly, at nothing, for a +time; but then, as hour by hour went on, and the afternoon stillness +fell upon the forest, and the shadows began to slant, a terror began to +grow upon her which at length became unbearable, and well-nigh drove +her mad. + +At the first she understood that all these years of anxiety had come to +a point at last, and a strange feeling of excitement, almost joy, came +over her. She was one of those impetuous characters who stand suspense +worse than anything, and now, although terror was in her, she felt as +though relief was nigh. Then she began to think again of her son, but +only for an instant. He was under Major Buckley's care, and must be +safe; so she dismissed that fear from her mind for a time, but only for +a time. It came back to her again. Why did he not come to her? Why had +not the Major sent him off to her at once? Could the Major have been +killed? even if so, there was Doctor Mulhaus. Her terrors were absurd. + +But not the less terrors that grew in strength hour by hour, as she +waited there, looking at the pleasant spring forest, and no one came. +Terrors that grew at last so strong, that they took the place of +certainties. Some hitch must have taken place, and her boy must be gone +out with the rest. + +Having got as far as this, to go further was no difficulty. He was +killed, she felt sure of it, and none had courage to come and tell her +of it. She suddenly determined to verify her thoughts at once, and went +in doors to get her hat. + +She had fully made up her mind that he must be killed at this time. The +hope of his having escaped was gone. We, who know the real state of the +case, should tremble for her reason, when she finds her fears so +terribly true. We shall see. + +She determined to start away to the Brentwoods', and end her present +state of terror one way or another. Tom had taken the only horse in the +stable, but her own brown pony was running in the paddock with some +others; and she sallied forth, worn out, feverish, halfmad, to try to +catch him. + +The obstinate brute wouldn't be caught. Then she spent a weary hour +trying to drive them all into the stockyard, but in vain. Three times +she, with infinite labour, drove them up to the slip-rack, and each +time the same mare and foal broke away, leading off the others. The +third time, when she saw them all run whinnying down to the further end +of the paddock, after half an hour or so of weary work driving them up, +when she had run herself off her poor tottering legs, and saw that all +her toil was in vain, then she sank down on the cold hard gravel in the +yard, with her long black hair streaming loose along the ground, and +prayed that she might die. Down at full length, in front of her own +door, like a dead woman, moaning and crying, from time to time, "Oh, my +boy, my boy." + +How long she lay there she knew not. She heard a horse's feet, but only +stopped her ears from the news she thought was coming. Then she heard a +steady heavy footstep close to her, and some one touched her, and tried +to raise her. + +She sat up, shook the hair from her eyes, and looked at the man who +stood beside her. At first she thought it was a phantom of her own +brain, but then looking wildly at the calm, solemn features, and the +kindly grey eyes which were gazing at her so inquiringly, she +pronounced his name--"Frank Maberly." + +"God save you, madam," he said. "What is the matter?" + +"Misery, wrath, madness, despair!" she cried wildly, raising her hand. +"The retribution of a lifetime fallen on my luckless head in one +unhappy moment." + +Frank Maberly looked at her in real pity, but a thought went through +his head. "What a magnificent actress this woman would make." It merely +past through his brain and was gone, and then he felt ashamed of +himself for entertaining it a moment; and yet it was not altogether an +unnatural one for him who knew her character so well. She was lying on +the ground in an attitude which would have driven Siddons to despair; +one white arm, down which her sleeve had fallen, pressed against her +forehead, while the other clutched the ground; and her splendid black +hair fallen down across her shoulders. Yet how could he say how much of +all this wild despair was real, and how much hysterical? + +"But what is the matter, Mary Hawker," he asked. "Tell me, or how can I +help you?" + +"Matter?" she said. "Listen. The bushrangers are come down from the +mountains, spreading ruin, murder, and destruction far and wide. My +husband is captain of the gang: and my son, my only son, whom I have +loved better than my God, is gone with the rest to hunt them down--to +seek, unknowing, his own father's life. There is mischief beyond your +mending, priest!" + +Beyond his mending, indeed. He saw it. "Rise up," he said, "and act. +Tell me all the circumstances. Is it too late?" + +She told him how it had come to pass, and then he showed her that all +her terrors were but anticipations, and might be false. He got her pony +for her, and, as night was falling, rode away with her along the +mountain road that led to Captain Brentwood's. + +The sun was down, and ere they had gone far, the moon was bright +overhead. Frank, having fully persuaded himself that all her terrors +were the effect of an overwrought imagination, grew cheerful, and tried +to laugh her out of them. She, too, with the exercise of riding through +the night-air, and the company of a handsome, agreeable, well-bred man, +began to have a lurking idea that she had been making a fool of +herself; when they came suddenly on a hut, dark, cheerless, deserted, +standing above a black, stagnant, reed-grown waterhole. + +The hut where Frank had gone to preach to the stockmen. The hut where +Lee had been murdered--an ill-omened place; and as they came opposite +to it, they saw two others approaching them in the moonlight--Major +Buckley and Alice Brentwood. + +Then Alice, pushing forward, bravely met her, and told her all--all, +from beginning to end; and when she had finished, having borne up +nobly, fell to weeping as though her heart would break. But Mary did +not weep, or cry, or fall down. She only said, "Let me see him," and +went on with them, silent and steady. + +They got to Garoopna late at night, none having spoken all the way. +Then they showed her into the room where poor Charles lay, cold and +stiff, and there she stayed hour after hour through the weary night. +Alice looked in once or twice, and saw her sitting on the bed which +bore the corpse of her son, with her face buried in her hands; and at +last, summoning courage, took her by the arm and led her gently to bed. + +Then she went into the drawing-room, where, besides her father, were +Major Buckley, Doctor Mulhaus, Frank Maberly, and the drunken doctor +before spoken of, who had had the sublime pleasure of cutting a bullet +from his old adversary's arm, and was now in a fair way to justify the +SOBRIQUET I have so often applied to him. I myself also was sitting +next the fire, alongside of Frank Maberly. + +"My brave girl," said the Major, "how is she?" + +"I hardly can tell you, sir," said Alice; "she is so very quiet. If she +would cry now, I should be very glad. It would not frighten me so much +as seeing her like that. I fear she will die!" + +"If her reason holds," said the Doctor, "she will get over it. She had, +from all accounts, gone through every phase of passion, down to utter +despair, before she knew the blow had fallen. Poor Mary!" + + +* * * * * + + +There, we have done. All this misery has come on her from one act of +folly and selfishness years ago. How many lives are ruined, how many +families broken up, by one false step! If ever a poor soul has expiated +her own offence, she has. Let us hope that brighter times are in store +for her. Let us have done with moral reflections; I am no hand at that +work. One more dark scene, reader, and then.-- + + +* * * * * + + +It was one wild dreary day in the spring; a day of furious wind and +cutting rain; a day when few passengers were abroad, and when the +boatmen were gathered in knots among the sheltered spots upon the +quays, waiting to hear of disasters at sea; when the ships creaked and +groaned at the wharfs, and the harbour was a sheet of wind-driven foam, +and the domain was strewed with broken boughs. On such a day as this, +Major Buckley and myself, after a sharp walk, found ourselves in front +of the principal gaol in Sydney. + +We were admitted, for we had orders; and a small, wiry, clever-looking +man about fifty bowed to us as we entered the white-washed corridor, +which led from the entrance hall. We had a few words with him, and then +followed him. + +To the darkest passage in the darkest end, of that dreary place; to the +condemned cells. And my heart sank as the heavy bolt shot back, and we +went into the first one on the right. + +Before us was a kind of bed-place. And on that bedplace lay the figure +of a man. Though it is twenty years ago since I saw it, I can remember +that scene as though it were yesterday. + +He lay upon a heap of tumbled blankets, with his face buried in a +pillow. One leg touched the ground, and round it was a ring, connecting +the limb to a long iron bar, which ran along beneath the bed. One arm +also hung listlessly on the cold stone floor, and the other was thrown +around his head, a head covered with short black curls, worthy of an +Antinous, above a bare muscular neck, worthy of a Farnese Hercules. I +advanced towards him. + +The governor held me back. "My God, sir," he said, "take care. Don't, +as you value your life, go within length of his chain." But at that +moment the handsome head was raised from the pillow, and my eyes met +George Hawker's. Oh, Lord! such a piteous wild look. I could not see +the fierce desperate villain who had kept our country-side in terror so +long. No, thank God, I could only see the handsome curly-headed boy who +used to play with James Stockbridge and myself among the gravestones in +Drumston churchyard. I saw again the merry lad who used to bathe with +us in Hatherleigh water, and whom, with all his faults, I had once +loved well. And seeing him, and him only, before me, in spite of a +terrified gesture from the governor, I walked up to the bed, and, +sitting down beside him, put my arm round his neck. + +"George! George! Dear old friend!" I said. "O George, my boy, has it +come to this?" + +I don't want to be instructed in my duty. I know what my duty was on +that occasion as well as any man. My duty as a citizen and a magistrate +was to stand at the further end of the cell, and give this hardened +criminal a moral lecture, showing how honesty and virtue, as in my +case, had led to wealth and honour, and how yielding to one's passions +led to disgrace and infamy, as in his. That was my duty, I allow. But +then, you see, I didn't do my duty. I had a certain tender feeling +about my stomach which prevented me from doing it. So I only hung +there, with my arm round his neck, and said, from time to time, "O +George, George!" like a fool. + +He put his two hands upon my shoulders, so that his fetters hung across +my breast; and he looked me in the face. Then he said, after a time, +"What! Hamlyn? Old Jeff Hamlyn! The only man I ever knew that I didn't +quarrel with! Come to see me now, eh? Jeff, old boy, I'm to be hung +to-morrow." + +"I know it," I said. "And I came to ask you if I could do anything for +you. For the sake of dear old Devon, George." + +"Anything you like, old Jeff," he said, with a laugh, "so long as you +don't get me reprieved. If I get loose again, lad, I'd do worse than I +ever did yet, believe me. I've piled up a tolerable heap of wickedness +as it is, though. I've murdered my own son, Jeff. Do you know that?" + +I answered--"Yes; I know that, George; but that was an accident. You +did not know who he was." + +"He came at me to take my life," said Hawker. "And I tell you, as a man +who goes out to be hung to-morrow, that, if I had guessed who he was, +I'd have blown my own brains out to save him from the crime of killing +me. Who is that man?" + +"Don't you remember him?" I said. "Major Buckley." + +The Major came forward, and held out his hand to George Hawker. "You +are now," he said, "like a dead man to me. You die to-morrow; and you +know it; and face it like a man. I come to ask you to forgive me +anything you may have to forgive. I have been your enemy since I first +saw you: but I have been an honest and open enemy; and now I am your +enemy no longer. I ask you to shake hands with me. I have been warned +not to come within arm's length of you, chained as you are. But I am +not afraid of you." + +The Major came and sat on the bed-place beside him. + +"As for that little animal," said George Hawker, pointing to the +governor as he stood at the further end of the cell, "if he comes +within reach of me, I'll beat his useless little brains out against the +wall, and he knows it. He was right to caution you not to come too near +me. I nearly killed a man yesterday: and to-morrow, when they come to +lead me out----But, with regard to you, Major Buckley, the case is +different. Do you know I should be rather sorry to tackle you; I'm +afraid you would be too heavy for me. As to my having anything to +forgive, Major, I don't know that there is anything. If there is, let +me tell you that I feel more kind and hearty towards you and Hamlyn for +coming to me like this to-day, than I've felt towards any man this +twenty year. By-the-bye; let no man go to the gallows without clearing +himself as far as he may. Do you know that I set on that red-haired +villain, Moody, to throttle Bill Lee, because I hadn't pluck to do it +myself." + +"Poor Lee," said the Major. + +"Poor devil," said Hawker. "Why that man had gone through every sort of +villany, from" (so and so up to so and so, he said; I shall not +particularize) "before my beard was grown. Why that man laid such plots +and snares for me when I was a lad, that a bishop could not have +escaped. He egged me on to forge my own father's name. He drove me on +to ruin. And now, because it suited his purpose to turn honest, and act +faithful domestic to my wife for twenty years, he is mourned for as an +exemplary character, and I go to the gallows. He was a meaner villain +than ever I was." + +"George," I asked, "have you any message for your wife?" + +"Only this," he said; "tell her I always liked her pretty face, and I'm +sorry I brought disgrace upon her. Through all my rascalities, old +Jeff, I swear to you that I respected and liked her to the last. I +tried to see her last year, only to tell her that she needn't be afraid +of me, and should treat me as a dead man; but she and her blessed +pig-headed lover, Tom Troubridge, made such knife and pistol work of +it, that I never got the chance of saying the word I wanted. She'd have +saved herself much trouble if she hadn't acted so much like a +frightened fool. I never meant her any harm. You may tell her all this +if you judge right, but I leave it to you. Time's up, I see. I ain't so +much of a coward, am I, Jeff? Good-bye, old lad, good-bye." + +That was the last we saw of him; the next morning he was executed with +four of his comrades. But now the Major and I, leaving him, went out +again into the street, into the rain and the furious wind, to beat up +against it for our hotel. Neither spoke a word till we came to a corner +in George Street, nearest the wharf: and there the Major turned back +upon me suddenly and I thought he had been unable to face the terrible +gust which came sweeping up from the harbour: but it was not so. He had +turned on purpose, and putting his hands upon my shoulders, he said,-- + +"Hamlyn, Hamlyn, you have taught me a lesson." + +"I suppose so," I said. "I have shown you what a fool a tender-hearted +soft-headed fellow may make of himself by yielding to his impulses. But +I have a defence to offer, my dear sir, the best of excuses, the only +real excuse existing in this world. I couldn't help it." + +"I don't mean that, Hamlyn," he answered. "The lesson you have taught +me is a very different one. You have taught me that there are bright +points in the worst man's character, a train of good feeling which no +tact can bring out, but yet which some human spark of feeling may +light. Here is this man Hawker, of whom we heard that he was dangerous +to approach, and whom the good chaplain was forced to pray for and +exhort from a safe distance. The man for whose death, till ten minutes +ago, I was rejoicing. The man I thought lost, and beyond hope. Yet you, +by one burst of unpremeditated folly, by one piece of silly +sentimentality; by ignoring the man's later life, and carrying him back +in imagination to his old schoolboy days, have done more than our good +old friend the Chaplain could have done without your assistance. There +is a spark of the Divine in the worst of men, if you can only find it." + +In spite of the Major's parliamentary and didactic way of speaking, I +saw there was truth at the bottom of what he said, and that he meant +kindly to me, and to the poor fellow who was even now among the dead; +so instead of arguing with him, I took his arm, and we fought homewards +together through the driving rain. + +Imagine three months to have passed. That stormy spring had changed +into a placid, burning summer. The busy shearing-time was past; the +noisy shearers were dispersed, heaven knows where (most of them +probably suffering from a shortness of cash, complicated with delirium +tremens). The grass in the plains had changed from green to dull grey; +the river had changed his hoarse roar for a sleepy murmur, as though +too lazy to quarrel with his boulders in such weather. A hot dull haze +was over forest and mountain. The snow had perspired till it showed +long black streaks on the highest eminences. In short, summer had come +with a vengeance; every one felt hot, idle, and thirsty, and "there was +nothing doing." + +Now that broad cool verandah of Captain Brentwood's, with its deep +recesses of shadow, was a place not to be lightly spoken of. Any man +once getting footing there, and leaving it, except on compulsion, would +show himself of weak mind. Any man once comfortably settled there in an +easy chair, who fetched anything for himself when he could get any one +else to fetch it for him, would show himself, in my opinion, a man of +weak mind. One thing only was wanted to make it perfect, and that was +niggers. To the winds with "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and "Dred" after it, in +a hot wind! What can an active-minded, self-helpful lady like Mrs. +Stowe, freezing up there in Connecticut, obliged to do something to +keep herself warm,--what can she, I ask, know about the requirements of +a southern gentleman when the thermometer stands at 125 degrees in the +shade? Pish! Does she know the exertion required for cutting up a pipe +of tobacco in a hot north wind? No! Does she know the amount of +perspiration and anger superinduced by knocking the head off a bottle +of Bass in January? Does she know the physical prostration which is +caused by breaking up two lumps of hard white sugar in a pawnee before +a thunderstorm? No, she doesn't, or she would cry out for niggers with +the best of us! When the thermometer gets over 100 degrees in the +shade, all men would have slaves if they were allowed. An Anglo-Saxon +conscience will not, save in rare instances, bear a higher average heat +than 95 degrees. + +But about this verandah. It was the model and type of all verandahs. It +was made originally by the Irish family, the Donovans, before spoken +of; and, like all Irish-made things, was nobly conceived, beautifully +carried out, and then left to take care of itself, so that when Alice +came into possession, she found it a neglected mine of rare creepers +run wild. Here, for the first time, I saw the exquisite crimson +passion-flower, then a great rarity. Here, too, the native +passion-flower, scarlet and orange, was tangled up with the common +purple sarsaparilla and the English honeysuckle and jessamine. + +In this verandah, one blazing morning, sat Mrs. Buckley and Alice +making believe to work. Mrs. Buckley really was doing something. Alice +sat with her hands fallen on her lap, so still and so beautiful, that +she might then and there have been photographed off by some +enterprising artist, and exhibited in the printshops as "Argia, Goddess +of Laziness." + +They were not alone, however. Across the very coolest, darkest corner +was swung a hammock, looking at which you might perceive two hands +elevating a green paper-covered book, as though the owner were +reading--the aforesaid owner, however, being entirely invisible, only +proving his existence by certain bulges and angles in the canvas of the +hammock. + +Now, having made a nice little mystery as to who it was lying there, I +will proceed to solve it. A burst of laughter came from the hidden man, +so uproarious and violent, that the hammock-strings strained and shook, +and the magpie, waking up from a sound sleep, cursed and swore in a +manner fearful to hear. + +"My dearest Jim!" said Alice, rousing herself, "What is the matter with +you?" + +Jim read aloud the immortal battle of the two editors, with their +carpet bags, in "Pickwick," and, ere he had half done, Alice and Mrs. +Buckley had mingled their laughter with his, quite as heartily, if not +so loudly. + +"Hallo!" said Jim; "here's a nuisance! There's no more of it. Alice, +have you got any more?" + +"That is all, Jim. The other numbers will come by the next mail." + +"How tiresome! I suppose the governor is pretty sure to be home +to-night. He can't be away much longer." + +"Don't be impatient, my dear," said Alice. "How is your leg?" + +Please to remember that Jim's leg was broken in the late wars, and, as +yet, hardly well. + +"Oh, it's a good deal better. Heigho! This is very dull." + +"Thank you, James!" said Mrs. Buckley. "Dear me! the heat gets greater +every day. If they are on the road, I hope they won't hurry themselves." + +Our old friends were just now disposed in the following manner:-- + +The Major was at home. Mary Hawker was staying with him. Doctor Mulhaus +and Halbert staying at Major Brentwood's, while Captain Brentwood was +away with Sam and Tom Troubridge to Sydney; and, having been absent +some weeks, had been expected home now for a day or two. This was the +day they came home, riding slowly up to the porch about five o'clock. + +When all greetings were done, and they were sat down beside the others, +Jim opened the ball by asking, "What news, father?" + +"What a particularly foolish question!" said the Captain. "Why, you'll +get it all in time--none the quicker for being impatient. May be, also, +when you hear some of the news, you won't like it!" + +"Oh, indeed!" said Jim. + +"I have a letter for you here, from the Commander-in-Chief. You are +appointed to the 3-th Regiment, at present quartered in India." + +Alice looked at him quickly as she heard this, and, as a natural +consequence, Sam looked too. They had expected that he would have +hurra'd aloud, or thrown up his hat, or danced about, when he heard of +it. But no; he only sat bolt upright in his hammock, though his face +flushed scarlet, and his eyes glistened strangely. + +His father looked at him an instant, and then continued,-- + +"Six months' leave of absence procured at the same time, which will +give you about three months more at home. So you see you now possess +the inestimable privilege of wearing a red coat; and what is still +better, of getting a hole made in it; for there is great trouble +threatening with the Affghans and Beloochs, and the chances are that +you will smell powder before you are up in your regimental duties. +Under which circumstances I shall take the liberty of requesting that +you inform yourself on these points under my direction, for I don't +want you to join your regiment in the position of any other booby. Have +the goodness to lie down again and not excite yourself. You have +anticipated this some time. Surely it is not necessary for you to cry +about it like a great girl." + +But that night, after dark, when Sam and Alice were taking one of those +agreeable nocturnal walks, which all young lovers are prone to, they +came smoothly gliding over the lawn close up to the house, and then, +unseen and unheard, they saw Captain Brentwood with his arm round Jim's +neck, and heard him say,-- + +"O James! James! why did you want to leave me?" + +And Jim answered. "Father, I didn't know. I didn't know my own mind. +But I can't call back now." + +Sam and Alice slipt back again, and continued their walk. Let us hear +what conversation they had been holding together before this little +interruption. + +"Alice, my darling, my love, you are more beautiful than ever!" + +"Thanks to your absence, my dear Sam. You see how well I thrive without +you." + +"Then when we are----" + +"Well?" said Alice. For this was eight o'clock in the evening, you +know, and the moon being four days past the full, it was pitch dark. +"Well?" says she. + +"When we are married," says Sam, audaciously, "I suppose you will pine +away to nothing." + +"Good gracious me!" she answered. "Married? Why surely we are well +enough as we are." + +"Most excellently well, my darling," said Sam. "I wish it could last +for ever." + +"Oh, indeed!" said Alice, almost inaudibly though. + +"Alice, my love," said Sam, "have you thought of one thing? Have you +thought that I must make a start in life for myself?" + +No, she hadn't thought of that. Didn't see why Baroona wasn't good +enough for him. + +"My dear!" he said. "Baroona is a fine property, but it is not mine. I +want money for a set purpose. For a glorious purpose, my love! I will +not tell you yet, not for years perhaps, what that purpose is. But I +want fifty thousand pounds of my own. And fifty thousand pounds I will +have." + +Good gracious! What an avaricious creature. Such a quantity of money. +And so she wasn't to hear what he was going to do with it, for ever so +many years. Wouldn't he tell her now? She would so like to know. Would +nothing induce him? + +Yes, there was something. Nay, what harm! Only an honest lover's kiss, +among the ripening grapes. In the dark, you say. My dear madam, you +would not have them kiss one another in broad day, with the cook +watching them out of the kitchen window? + +"Alice," he said, "I have had one object before me from my boyhood, and +since you told me that I was to be your husband, that object has grown +from a vague intention to a fixed purpose. Alice, I want to buy back +the acres of my forefathers; I wish, I intend, that another Buckley +shall be the master of Clere, and that you shall be his wife." + +"Sam, my love!" she said, turning on him suddenly. "What a magnificent +idea. Is it possible?" + +"Easy," said Sam. "My father could do it, but will not. He and my +mother have severed every tie with the old country, and it would be at +their time of life only painful to go back to the old scenes and +interests. But with me it is different. Think of you and I taking the +place we are entitled to by birth and education, in the splendid +society of that noble island. Don't let me hear all that balderdash +about the founding of new empires. Empires take too long in growing for +me. What honours, what society, has this little colony to give, +compared to those open to a fourth-rate gentleman in England? I want to +be a real Englishman, not half a one. I want to throw in my lot heart +and hand with the greatest nation in the world. I don't want to be +young Sam Buckley of Baroona. I want to be the Buckley of Clere. Is not +that a noble ambition?" + +"My whole soul goes with you, Sam," said Alice. "My whole heart and +soul. Let us consult, and see how this is to be done." + +"This is the way the thing stands," said Sam. "The house and park at +Clere, were sold by my father for 12,000L. to a brewer. Since then, +this brewer, a most excellent fellow by all accounts, has bought back, +acre by acre, nearly half the old original property as it existed in my +great grandfather's time, so that now Clere must be worth fifty +thousand pounds at least. This man's children are all dead; and as far +as Captain Brentwood has been able to find out for me, no one knows +exactly how the property is going. The present owner is the same age as +my father; and at his death, should an advantageous offer be made, +there would be a good chance of getting the heirs to sell the property. +We should have to pay very highly for it, but consider what a position +we should buy with it. The county would receive us with open arms. That +is all I know at present." + +"A noble idea," said Alice, "and well considered. Now what are you +going to do?" + +"Have you heard tell yet," said Sam, "of the new country to the north, +they call the Darling Downs?" + +"I have heard of it, from Burnside the cattle dealer. He describes it +as a paradise of wealth." + +"He is right. When you get through the Cypress, the plains are endless. +It is undoubtedly the finest piece of country found yet. Now do you +know Tom Troubridge?" + +"Slightly enough," said Alice, laughing. + +"Well," said Sam. "You know he went to Sydney with us, and before he +had been three days there he came to me full of this Darling Down +country. Quite mad about it in fact. And in the end he said: 'Sam, what +money have you got?' I said that my father had promised me seven +thousand pounds for a certain purpose, and that I had come to town +partly to look for an investment. He said, 'Be my partner;' and I said, +'What for?' 'Darling Downs,' he said. And I said I was only too highly +honoured by such a mark of confidence from such a man, and that I +closed with his offer at once. To make a long matter short, he is off +to the new country to take up ground under the name of Troubridge and +Buckley. There!" + +"But oughtn't you to have gone up with him, Sam?" + +"I proposed to do so, as a matter of course," said Sam. "But what do +you think he said?" + +"I don't know." + +"He gave me a great slap on the back," said Sam; "and, said he, 'Go +home, my old lad, marry your wife, and fetch her up to keep house.' +That's what he said. And now, my own love, my darling, will you tell +me, am I to go up alone, and wait for you; or will you come up, and +make a happy home for me in that dreary desert? Will you leave your +home, and come away with me into the grey hot plains of the west?" + +"I have no home in future, Sam," she said, "but where you are, and I +will gladly go with you to the world's end." + +And so that matter was settled. + +And now Sam disclosed to her that a visitor was expected at the station +in about a fortnight or three weeks; and he was no less a person than +our old friend the dean, Frank Maberly. And then he went to ask, did +she think that she could manage by that time to--, eh? Such an +excellent opportunity, you know; seemed almost as if his visit had been +arranged, which, between you and I, it had. + +She thought it wildly possible, if there was any real necessity for it. +And after this they went in; and Alice went into her bedroom. + +"And what have you been doing out there with Alice all this time, eh?" +asked the Captain. + +"I've been asking a question, sir." + +"You must have put it in a pretty long form. What sort of an answer did +you get?" + +"I got 'yes' for an answer, sir." + +"Ah, well! Mrs. Buckley, can you lend Baroona to a new married couple +for a few weeks, do you think? There is plenty of room for you here." + +And then into Mrs. Buckley's astonished ear all the new plans were +poured. She heard that Sam and Alice were to be married in a fortnight, +and that Sam had gone into partnership with Tom Troubridge. + +"Stop there," she said; "not too much at once. What becomes of Mary +Hawker?" + +"She is left at Toonarbin, with an overseer, for the present." + +"And when," she asked, "shall you leave us, Sam?" + +"Oh, in a couple of months, I suppose. I must give Tom time to get a +house up before I go and join him. What a convenient thing a partner +like that is, eh?" + +"Oh, by-the-bye, Mrs. Buckley," said Captain Brentwood, "what do you +make of this letter?" + +He produced a broad thick letter, directed in a bold running hand, + + "Major Buckley, + "Baroonah, Combermere County, + "Gipps-land. + +"If absent, to be left with the nearest magistrate, and a receipt taken +for it." + +"How very strange," said Mrs. Buckley, turning it over. "Where did you +get it?" + +"Sergeant Jackson asked me, as nearest magistrate, to take charge of +it; and so I did. It has been forwarded by orderly from Sydney." + +"And the Governor's private seal, too," said Mrs. Buckley. "I don't +know when my curiosity has been so painfully excited. Put it on the +chimney-piece, Sam; let us gaze on the outside, even if we are denied +to see the inside. I wonder if your father will come tonight?" + +"No; getting too late," said Sam. "Evidently Halbert and the Doctor +have found themselves there during their ride, and are keeping him and +Mrs. Hawker company. They will all three be over to-morrow morning, +depend on it." + +"What a really good fellow that Halbert is," said Captain Brentwood. +"One of the best companions I ever met. I wish his spirits would +improve with his health. A sensitive fellow like him is apt not to +recover from a blow like his." + +"What blow?" said Mrs. Buckley. + +"Did you never hear?" said the Captain. "The girl he was going to be +married to got drowned coming out to him in the Assam." + + + + +Chapter XLV + +IN WHICH THERE ARE SOME ASTONISHING REVELATIONS WITH REGARD TO DR. +MULHAUS AND CAPTAIN DESBOROUGH. + + +At ten o'clock the next morning arrived the Major, the Doctor, and +Halbert; and the first notice they had of it was the Doctor's voice in +the passage, evidently in a great state of excitement. + +"No more the common bower-bird than you, sir; a new species. His eyes +are red instead of blue, and the whole plumage is lighter. I will call +it after you, my dear Major." + +"You have got to shoot him first," said the Major. + +"I'll soon do that," said the Doctor, bursting into the room-door. "How +do you do, all of you? Sam, glad to see you back again. Brentwood, you +are welcome to your own house. Get me your gun--where is it?" + +"In my bedroom," said the Captain. + +The Doctor went off after it. He reappeared again to complain that the +caps would not fit; but, being satisfied on that score, he disappeared +down the garden, on murderous thoughts intent. + +Sam got his father away into the verandah, and told him all his plans. +I need hardly say that they met with the Major's entire approval. All +his plans I said; no, not all. Sam never hinted at the end and object +of all his endeavours; he never said a word about his repurchase of +Clere. The Major had no more idea that Sam had ever thought of such a +thing, or had been making inquiries, than had the owner of Clere +himself. + +"Sam, my dear boy," said he, "I am very sorry to lose you, and we shall +have but a dull time of it henceforth; but I am sure it is good for a +man to go out into the world by himself" (and all that sort of thing). +"When you are gone, Brentwood and I mean to live together, to console +one another." + +"My dear, are you coming in?" said Mrs. Buckley. "Here is a letter for +you, which I ought to have given you before." + +The Major went in and received the mysterious epistle which the captain +had brought the night before. When he saw it he whistled. + +They sat waiting to know the contents. He was provokingly long in +opening it, and when he did, he said nothing, but read it over twice +with a lengthening visage. Now also it became apparent that there was +another letter inside, at the superscription of which the Major having +looked, put it in his pocket, and turning round to the mantel-piece, +with his back to the others, began drumming against the fender with his +foot, musingly. + +A more aggravating course of proceeding he could not have resorted to. +Here they were all dying of curiosity, and not a word did he seem +inclined to answer. At last, Mrs. Buckley, not able to hold out any +longer, said,-- + +"From the Governor, was it not, my love?" + +"Yes," he said, "from the Governor. And very important too," and then +relapsed into silence. + +Matters were worse than ever. But after a few minutes he turned round +to them suddenly, and said,-- + +"You have heard of Baron Landstein." + +"What," said Sam, "the man that the Doctor's always abusing so? Yes, I +know all about him, of course." + +"The noble Landstein," said Alice. "In spite of the Doctor's abuse he +is a great favourite of mine. How well he seems to have behaved at Jena +with those two Landwehr regiments." + +"Landsturm, my love," said the Major. + +"Yes, Landsturm I mean. I wonder if he is still alive, or whether he +died of his wounds." + +"The Doctor," said Sam, "always speaks of him as dead." + +"He is not only alive," said the Major, "but he is coming here. He will +be here to-day. He may come any minute." + +"What! the great Landstein," said Sam. + +"The same man," said the Major. + +"The Doctor will have a quarrel with him, father. He is always abusing +him. He says he lost the battle of Jena, or something." + +"Be quiet, Sam, and don't talk. Watch what follows." + +The Doctor was seen hurrying up the garden-walk. He put down his gun +outside, and bursting open the glass door, stepped into the room, +holding aloft a black bird, freshly killed, and looking around him for +applause. + +"There!" he said; "I told you so." + +The Major walked across the room, and put a letter in his hand, the one +which was enclosed in the mysterious epistle before mentioned. "Baron," +he said, "here is a letter for you." + +The Doctor looked round as one would who had received a blow, and knew +not who smote him. He took the letter, and went into the window to read +it. + +No one spoke a word. "This, then, my good old tutor," thought Sam, +"turns out to be the great Landstein. Save us, what a piece of +romance." But though he thought this, he never said anything, and +catching Alice's eye, followed it to the window. There, leaning against +the glass, his face buried in his hands, and his broad back shaking +with emotion, stood Doctor Mulhaus. Alas! no. Our kindly, good, hearty, +learned, irritable, but dearly-beloved old friend, is no more. There +never was such a man in reality: but in his place stands Baron von +Landstein of the Niederwald. + +What the contents of the Doctor's (I must still call him so) letter, I +cannot tell you. But I have seen the letter which Major Buckley +received enclosing it, and I can give it you word for word. It is from +the Governor himself, and runs thus:-- + +"MY DEAR MAJOR, + +"I am informed that the famous Baron von Landstein has been living in +your house for some years, under the name of Dr. Mulhaus. In fact, I +believe he is a partner of yours. I therefore send the enclosed under +cover to you, and when I tell you that it has been forwarded to me +through the Foreign Office, and the Colonial Office, and is, in point +of fact, an autograph letter from the King of P---- to the Baron, I am +sure that you will ensure its safe delivery. + +"The Secretary is completely 'fixed' with his estimates. The salaries +for the Supreme Court Office are thrown out. He must resign. Do next +election send us a couple of moderates. + +"Yours, &c., G.G." + +This was the Major's letter. But the Doctor stood still there, moved +more deeply than any had seen him before, while Alice and Sam looked at +one another in blank astonishment. + +At length he turned and spoke, but not to them, to the empty air. Spoke +as one aroused from a trance. Things hard to understand, yet having +some thread of sense in them too. + +"So he has sent for me," he said, "when it seems that he may have some +use for me. So the old man is likely to go at last, and we are to have +the golden age again. If talking could do it, assuredly we should. He +has noble instincts, this young fellow, and some sense. He has sent for +me. If H----, and B----, and Von U----, and myself can but get his ear! + +"Oh, Rhineland! my own beloved Rhineland, shall I see you again? Shall +I sit once more in my own grey castle, among the vineyards, above the +broad gleaming river, and hear the noises from the town come floating +softly up the hillside! I wonder are there any left who will remember--" + +He took two short turns through the room, and then he turned and spoke +to them again, looking all the time at Sam. + +"I am the Baron von Landstein. The very man we have so often talked of, +and whose character we have so freely discussed. When the French +attacked us, I threw myself into the foremost ranks of my countrymen, +and followed the Queen with two regiments which I had raised almost +entirely myself. + +"I fled away from the blood-red sun of Jena, wounded and desperate. +That sun," I thought, "has set on the ruins of Great Frederick's +kingdom. Prussia is a province of France: what can happen worse than +this? I will crawl home to my castle and die. + +"I had no castle to crawl to. My brother, he who hung upon the same +breast with me, he who learnt his first prayer beside me, he who I +loved and trusted above all other men, had turned traitor, had sold +himself to the French, had deceived my bride that was to be, and seized +my castle. + +"I fled to England, to Drumston, Major. I had some knowledge of physic, +and called myself a doctor. I threw myself into the happy English +domestic life which I found there, and soon got around me men and women +whom I loved full well. + +"Old John Thornton and his sister knew my secret, as did Lord Crediton: +but they kept it well, and by degrees I began to hope that I would +begin a new life as a useful village apothecary, and forget for ever +the turmoils of politics. + +"Then you know what happened. There was an Exodus. All those I had got +to love, arose, in the manner of their nation, and went to the other +end of the earth, so that one night I was left alone on the cliff at +Plymouth, watching a ship which was bearing away all that was left me +to love in the world. + +"I went to Prussia. I found my brother had made good use of his +prosperity, and slandered me to the King. His old treachery seemed +forgotten, and he was high in power. The King, for whom I had suffered +so much, received me coldly, and leaving the palace, I spoke to my +brother, and said,--'Send me so much yearly, and keep the rest for a +time.' And then I followed you, Major, out here." + +"Shall I tell you any more, Sam?" + +"No!" said Sam, smiting his fist upon the table. "I can tell the rest, +Baron, to those who want to know it. I can tell of ten years' patient +kindness towards myself. I can tell--I can tell--" + +Sam was the worst orator in the world. He broke down, sir. He knew what +he meant very well; and so I hope do you, reader, but he couldn't say +it. He had done what many of us do, tried to make a fine speech when +his heart was full, and so he failed. + +But Alice didn't fail,--not she, though she never spoke a word. She +folded up her work; and going up to the good old man, took both his +hands in hers and kissed him on both his cheeks. A fine piece of +rhetorical action, wasn't it? And then they all crowded round him, and +shook hands with him, and kissed him, and God-blessed him, for their +kind, true, old friend; and prayed that every blessing might light upon +his noble head, till he passed through them speechless and wandered +away to his old friend, the river. + + +* * * * * + + +About the middle of this week, there arrived two of our former friends, +Frank Maberly and Captain Desborough, riding side by side. The Elders, +with the Doctor, were outside, and detained the Dean, talking to him +and bidding him welcome. But Captain Desborough, passing in, came into +the room where were assembled Alice, Sam, and Jim, who gave him a most +vociferous greeting. + +They saw in a moment that there was some fun in the wind. They knew, by +experience, that when Desborough's eyes twinkled like that, some +absurdity was preparing, though they were quite unprepared for the +mixture of reality and nonsense which followed. + +"Pace!" said Desborough, in his affected Irish accent; "be on this +house, and all in it. The top of the morning to ye all." + +"Now," said Alice, "we are going to have some fun; Captain Desborough +has got his brogue on." + +"Ye'll have some fun directly, Miss Brentwood," he said. "But there's +some serious, sober earnest to come first. My cousin, Slievedonad, is +dead." + +"Lord Slievedonad?" + +"The same. That small Viscount is at this moment in pur----. God +forgive me, and him too." + +"Poor fellow!" + +"That's just half. My uncle Lord Covetown was taken with a fit when he +heard of it, and is gone after him, and the Lord forgive him too. He +turned me, his own brother's son, out into the world with half an +education, to sink or swim; and never a kind word did he or his son +ever give me in their lives. It must have broken the old man's heart to +think how the estate would go. But as I said before, God forgive him." + +"You must feel his loss, Captain Desborough," said Alice. "I am very +sorry for you." + +"Ahem! my dear young lady, you don't seem to know how this ends." + +"Why, no," said Alice, looking up wonderingly; "I do not." + +"Why, it ends in this," said Desborough; "that I myself am Earl of +Covetown, Viscount Slievedonad, and Baron Avoca, with twenty thousand a +year, me darlin, the laste penny; see to there now." + +"Brogue again," said Alice. "Are you joking?" + +"True enough," said Desborough. "I had a letter from my grandmother, +the Dowager (she that lost the dog), only this very day. And there's a +thousand pounds paid into the Bank of New South Wales to my account. +Pretty good proof that last, eh?" + +"My dear Lord," said Alice, "I congratulate you most heartily. All the +world are turning out to be noblemen. I should not be surprised to find +that I am a duchess myself." + +"It rests with you, Miss Brentwood," said Desborough, with a wicked +glance at Sam, "to be a countess. I now formally make you an offer of +me hand and heart. Oh! tell me, Miss Brentwood, will ye be Mrs. Mars--I +beg pardon, Countess of Covetown?" + +"No, I thank you, my lord," said Alice, laughing and blushing. "I am +afraid I must decline." + +"I was afraid ye would," said Lord Covetown. "I had heard that a great +six-foot villain had been trifling with your affections, so I came +prepared for a refusal. Came prepared with this, Miss Brentwood, which +I pray you to accept; shall I be too bold if I say, as a wedding +present, from one of your most sincere admirers." + +He produced a jewel case, and took from it a bracelet, at the sight of +which Alice gave an honest womanly cry of delight. And well she might, +for the bauble cost 150L. It was a bracelet of gold, representing a +snake. Half-way up the reptile's back began a row of sapphires, getting +larger towards the neck, each of which was surrounded by small +emeralds. The back of the head contained a noble brilliant, and the +eyes were two rubies. Altogether, a thorough specimen of Irish +extravagance and good taste. + +"Can you clasp it on for her, Sam?" said Lord Covetown. + +"Oh, my Lord, I ought not to accept such a princely present!" said +Alice. + +"Look here, Miss Brentwood," said Covetown, laying his hand on Sam's +shoulder. "I find that the noblest and best fellow I know is going to +marry the handsomest woman, saving your presence, that I ever saw. I +myself have just come into an earldom, and twenty thousand a-year; and +if, under these circumstances, I mayn't make that woman a handsome +present, why then the deuce is in it, you know. Sam, my boy, your hand. +Jim, your hand, my lad. May you be as good a soldier as your father." + +"Ah!" said Jim. "So you're an earl are you? What does it feel like, eh? +Do you feel the blue blood of a hundred sires coursing in your veins? +Do you feel the hereditary class prejudices of the Norman aristocracy +cutting you off from the sympathies of the inferior classes, and +raising you above the hopes and fears of the masses? How very comical +it must be! So you are going to sit among the big-wigs in the House of +Lords. I hope you won't forget yourself, and cry 'Faug a Ballagh,' when +one of the bishops rises to speak. And whatever you do, don't sing +'Gama crem'ah cruiskeen' in the lobby." + +"My dear fellow," said he, "I am not in the House of Lords at all. Only +an Irish peer. I intend to get into the Commons though, and produce a +sensation by introducing the Australian 'Co'ee' into the seat of +British legislature." + +How long these four would have gone on talking unutterable nonsense, no +man can say. But Frank Maberly coming in, greeted them courteously, and +changed the conversation. + +Poor Frank! Hard and incessant work was beginning to tell on that noble +frame, and the hard marked features were getting more hard and marked +year by year. Yet, in spite of the deep lines that now furrowed that +kindly face, those who knew it best, said that it grew more beautiful +than it had ever been before. As that magnificent PHYSIQUE began to +fail, the noble soul within began to show clearer through its earthly +tenement. That noble soul, which was getting purified and ready for +what happened but a few years after this in Patagonia. When we heard +that that man had earned the crown of glory, and had been thought +worthy to sit beside Stephen and Paul in the Kingdom, none of us wept +for him, or mourned. It seemed such a fitting reward for such a pure +and noble life. But even now, when I wake in the night, I see him +before me as he was described in the last scene by the only survivor. +Felled down upon the sand, with his arms before his eyes, crying out, +as the spears struck him, one after another, "Lord, forgive them, they +know not what they do!" + + + + +Chapter XLVI + +IN WHICH SAM MEETS WITH A SERIOUS ACCIDENT, AND GETS CRIPPLED FOR LIFE. + + +What morning is this, when Sam, waking from silver dreams to a golden +reality, turns over in his bed and looks out of the open glass door; at +dog Rover, propped up against the lintel, chopping at the early flies; +at the flower-garden, dark and dewy; at the black wall of forest +beyond, in which the magpies were beginning to pipe cheerily; at the +blessed dawn which was behind and above it, shooting long rays of +primrose and crimson half-way up the zenith; hearing the sleepy +ceaseless crawling of the river over the shingle bars; hearing the +booming of the cattle-herds far over the plain; hearing the chirrup of +the grasshopper among the raspberries, the chirr of the cicada among +the wattles--what happy morning is this? Is it the Sabbath? + +Ah, no! the Sabbath was yesterday. This is his wedding morn. + +My dear brother bachelor, do you remember those old first-love +sensations, or have you got too old, and too fat? Do you remember the +night when you parted from her on the bridge by the lock, the night +before her father wrote to you and forbade you the house? Have you got +the rose she gave you there? Is it in your Bible, brother? Do you +remember the months that followed--months of mad grief and wild +yearning, till the yearning grew less--less wild--and the grief less +desperate; and then, worst of all, the degrading consciousness that you +were, in spite of yourself, getting rid of your love, and that she was +not to you as she had been? Do you remember all this? When you come +across the rose in your Bible, do you feel that you would give all the +honour and wealth of the world to feel again those happy, wretched, old +sensations? Do you not say that this world has nothing to give in +comparison to that? + +Not this world, I believe. You and I can never feel that again. So let +us make up our minds to it--it is dead. In God's name don't let us try +to galvanize an old corpse, which may rise upon us hideous, and scare +us to the lower pit. Let us be content as we are. Let us read that Book +we spoke of just now with the rose in it, and imitate the Perfect Man +there spoken of, who was crucified 1800 years ago, believing, like Him, +that all men are our brothers, and acting up to it. And then, Lord +knows what may be in store for us. + +Here's a digression. If I had had a good wife to keep me in order, I +never should have gone so far out of the road. Here is Sam in bed, +sitting up, with his happy head upon his hands, trying to believe that +this dream of love is going to be realized--trying to believe that it +is really his wedding morn. + +It evidently is; so he gets out of bed and says his prayers like an +honest gentleman--he very often forgot to do this same, but he did it +this morning carefully--much I am afraid as a kind of charm or +incantation, till he came to the Lord's Prayer itself, and then his +whole happy soul wedded itself to the eternal words, and he arose calm +and happy, and went down to bathe. + +Happy, I said. Was he really happy? He ought to have been; for every +wish he had in this life was fulfilled. And yet, when Jim, and he, and +Halbert, were walking, towel in hand down the garden, they held this +conversation:-- + +"Sam, my dear old brother, at last," said Jim, "are you happy?" + +"I ought to be, Jim," said Sam; "but I'm in the most confounded fright, +sir."--They generally are in a fright, when they are going to be +married, those Benedicts. What the deuce are they afraid of? + +Our dear Jim was in anything but an enviable frame of mind. He had +found out several things which did not at all conduce to his happiness; +he had found out that it was one thing to propose going to India, or +No-man'sland, and cutting off every tie and association which he had in +the world; and that it was quite another thing to do that same. He had +found out that it was one thing to leave his sister in the keeping of +his friend Sam, and another to part from her probably for ever; and, +last of all, he had found out, ever since his father had put his arm +round his neck and kissed him, that night we know of, that he loved +that father beyond all men in this world. It was a new discovery; he +had never known it till he found he had got to part with him. And now, +when he woke in the night, our old merry-hearted Jim sat up in bed, and +wept; aye, and no shame to him for it, when he thought of that +handsome, calm, bronzed face tearless and quiet there, over the +fortifications and the mathematics, when he was far away. + +"He will never say a word, Sam," said Jim, as they were walking down to +bathe this very morning of the wedding; "but he'll think the more. Sam, +I am afraid I have done a selfish thing in going; but if I were to draw +back now, I should never be the same to him again. He couldn't stand +that. But I am sorry I ever thought of it." + +"I don't know, Jim," said Halbert, pulling off his trowsers, "I really +don't know of any act of parliament passed in favour of the Brentwood +family, exempting them from the ordinary evils of humanity. Do you +think now, that when John Nokes, aged nineteen, goes into market at +Cambridge, or elsewhere, and 'lists, and never goes home again; do you +think, I say, that that lad don't feel a very strange emptiness about +the epigastric region when he thinks of the grey-headed old man, that +is sitting waiting for him at the cottage-door? And," added Halbert, +standing on the plunging-stage Adamically, without a rag upon him, +pointing at Jim with his finger in an oratorical manner; "do you think +that the old man who sits there, year after year, waiting for him who +never comes, and telling the neighbours that his lad who is gone for a +sodger, was the finest lad in the village, do you think that old man +feels nothing? Give up fine feelings, Jim. You don't know what trouble +is yet." + +And so he went souse into the water. + +And after the bathe all came up and dressed;--white trowsers and +brilliant ties being the order of the day. Then we all, from the +bachelor side of the house, assembled in the verandah, for the ceremony +was not to be performed till eight, and it was not more than halfpast +seven. There was the promise of a very awkward half hour, so I was glad +of a diversion caused by my appearing in a blue coat with gilt buttons, +and pockets in the tails,--a coat I had not brought out for twenty +years, but as good as new, I give you my honour. Jim was very funny +about that coat, and I encouraged him by defending it, and so we got +through ten minutes, and kept Sam amused. Then one of the grooms, a lad +I mentioned before as bringing a note to Baroona on one occasion, a +long brown-faced lad, born of London parents in the colony, made a +diversion by coming round to look at us. He admired us very much, but +my gilt buttons took his attention principally. He guessed they must +have cost a matter of twenty pound, but on my telling him that the +whole affair was bought for three pounds, he asked, I remember:-- + +"What are they made on, then?" + +Brass I supposed, and gilt. So he left me in disgust, and took up with +Jim's trowsers, wanting to know "if they was canvas." + +"Satin velvet," Jim said; and then the Major came out and beckoned us +into the drawing-room. + +And there she was, between Mrs. Buckley and Mary Hawker, dressed all in +white, looking as beautiful as morning. Frank Maberly stood beside a +little table, which the women had made into an altar, with the big +Prayer-book in his hand. And we all stood around, and the servants +thronged in, and Sam, taking Alice's hand, went up and stood before +Frank Maberly. + +Captain Brentwood, of the Artillery, would give this woman to be +married to this man, with ten thousand blessings on her head; and +Samuel Buckley, of Baroona, would take this woman as his wedded wife, +in sickness and health, for richer, for poorer, till death did them +part. And, "Yes, by George, he will," says Jim to himself,--but I heard +him, for we were reading out of the same Prayer-book. + +And so it was all over. And the Doctor, who had all the morning been +invisible, and had only slipt into the room just as the ceremony had +began, wearing on his coat a great star, a prodigy, which had drawn +many eyes from their Prayer-books, the Doctor, I say, came up, star and +all, and taking Alice's hand, kissed her forehead, and then clasped a +splendid necklace round her throat. + +Then followed all the usual kissings and congratulations, and then came +the breakfast. I hope Alice and Sam were happy, as happy as young folks +can be in such a state of flutter and excitement; but all I know is, +that the rest of the party were thoroughly and utterly miserable. The +certainty that this was the break-up of our happy old society, that all +that was young, and merry, and graceful, among us, was about to take +wing and leave us old folks sitting there lonely and dull. The thought, +that neither Baroona nor Garoopna could ever be again what they had +once been, and that never again we should hear those merry voices, +wakening us in the morning, or ringing pleasant by the river on the +soft summer's evening; these thoughts, I say, made us but a dull party, +although Covetown and the Doctor made talking enough for the rest of us. + +There was something I could not understand about the Doctor. He talked +loud and nervously all breakfast time, and afterwards, when Alice had +retired to change her dress, and we were all standing about talking, he +came up to me in a quiet corner where I was, and took me by the hand. +"My dear old friend," he said, "you will never forget me, will you?" + +"Forget you, Baron! never," I said. I would have asked him more, but +there was Alice in the room, in her pretty blue riding-habit and hat, +ready for a start, and Sam beside her, whip in hand; so we all crowded +out to say good-bye. + +That was the worst time of all. Mrs. Buckley had said farewell and +departed. Jim was walking about, tearless, but quite unable to answer +me when I asked him a question. Those two grim old warriors, the +Captain and the Major, were taking things very quietly, but did not +seem inclined to talk much, while the Doctor was conducting himself +like an amiable lunatic, getting in everybody's way as he followed Sam +about. + +"Sam," he said, after Alice had been lifted on her horse, "my dear Sam, +my good pupil, you will never forget your old tutor, will you?" + +"Never, never!" said Sam; "not likely, if I lived to be a hundred. I +shall see you to-morrow." + +"Oh yes, surely," said the Baron; "we shall meet to-morrow for certain. +But good-bye, my boy; good bye." + +And then the young couple rode away to Baroona, which was empty, swept, +and garnished, ready for their reception. And the servants cheered them +as they went away, and tall Eleanor sent one of her husband's boots +after them for luck, with such force and dexterity that it fell close +to the heels of Widderin, setting him capering;--then Sam turned round +and waved his hat, and they were gone. + +And we turned round to look at one another, and lo! another horse, the +Doctor's, was being led up and down by a groom, saddled; and, while we +wondered, out came the Doctor himself and began strapping his valise on +to the saddle. + +"And where are you going to-day, Baron?" asked the Major. + +"I am going," said he, "to Sydney. I sail for Europe in a week." + +Our astonishment was too great for ejaculations; we kept an awful +silence; this was the first hint he had given us of his intention. + +"Yes," said he, "I sail from Sydney this day week. I could not embitter +my boy's wedding-day by letting him know that he was to lose me; better +that he should come back and find me gone. I must go, and I foresaw it +when that letter came; but I would not tell you, because I knew you +would be so sorry to part. I have been inside and said farewell to Mrs. +Buckley. And now, my friends, shorten this scene for me. Night and day, +for a month, I have been dreading it, and now let us spare one another. +Why should we tear our hearts asunder by a long leave-taking. Oh, +Buckley, Buckley! after so many years--" + +Only a hurried shaking of hands, and he was gone. Down by the paddock +to the river, and when he reached the height beyond, he turned and +waved his hand. Then he went on his way across the old plains, and we +saw him lessening in the distance until he disappeared altogether, and +we saw him no more. No more! + +In two months from that time Jim and Halbert were gone to India, Sam +and Alice were away to the Darling Downs, Desborough and the Doctor had +sailed for Europe, and we old folks, taking up our residence at +Baroona, had agreed to make common house of it. Of course we were very +dull at first, when we missed half of the faces which had been used to +smile upon us; but this soon wore off. During the succeeding winter I +remember many pleasant evenings, when the Captain, the Major, Mrs. +Buckley, and myself played whist, shilling points and the rigour of the +game, and while Mary Hawker, in her widow's weeds, sat sewing by the +fireside, contentedly enough. + + + + +Chapter XLVII + +HOW MARY HAWKER SAID "YES." + + +It was one evening during the next spring, and the game of whist was +over for the night. The servant had just brought in tumblers with a +view to whiskey and water before bed. I was preparing to pay fourteen +shillings to Mrs. Buckley, and was rather nervous about meeting my +partner, the Major's eye, when he, tapping the table with his hand, +spoke:-- + +"The most childish play, Hamlyn; the most childish play." + +"I don't defend the last game," I said. "I thought you were short of +diamonds--at least I calculated on the chance of your being so, having +seven myself. But please to remember, Major, that you yourself lost two +tricks in hearts, in the first game of the second rubber." + +"And why, sir?" said the Major. "Tell me that, sir. Because you +confused me by leading queen, when you had ace, king, queen. The most +utterly schoolboy play. I wouldn't have done such a thing at Eton." + +"I had a flush of them," I said eagerly. "And I meant to lead ace, and +then get trumps out. But I put down queen by mistake." + +"You can make what excuses you like, Hamlyn," said the Major. "But the +fact remains the same. There is one great fault in your character, the +greatest fault I know of, and which you ought to study to correct. I +tell you of it boldly as an old friend. You are too confoundedly chary +in leading out your trumps, and you can't deny it." + +"Hallo!" said Captain Brentwood, "who comes so late?" + +Mary Hawker rose from her chair, and looked eagerly towards the door. +"I know who it is," she said, blushing. "I heard him laugh." + +In another moment the door was thrown open, and in stalked Tom +Troubridge. + +"By George!" he said. "Don't all speak to me at once. I feel the +queerest wambling in my innards, as we used to say in Devon, at the +sight of so many old faces. Somehow, a man can't make a new home in a +hurry. It's the people make the home, not the house and furniture. My +dear old cousin, and how are you?" + +"I am very quiet, Tom. I am much happier than I thought to have been. +And I am deeply thankful to see you again." + +"How is my boy, Tom?" said the Major. + +"And how is my girl, Tom?" said the Captain. + +"Sam," said Tom, "is a sight worth a guinea, and Mrs. Samuel looks +charming, but--In point of fact you know I believe she expects--" + +"No!" said the Captain. "You don't say so." + +"Fact, my dear sir." + +"Dear me," said the Major, drumming on the table. "I hope it will be a +b--. By the bye, how go the sheep?" + +"You never saw such a country, sir!" said Tom. "We have got nearly five +thousand on each run, and there is no one crowding up yet. If we can +hold that ground with our produce, and such store-sheep as we can pick +up, we shall do wonders." + +By this time Tom was set at supper, and between the business of +satisfying a hunger of fifteen hours, began asking after old friends. + +"How are the Mayfords?" he asked. + +"Poor Mrs. Mayford is better," said Mrs. Buckley. "She and Ellen are +just starting for Europe. They have sold their station, and we have +bought it." + +"What are they going to do in England?" asked Tom. + +"Going to live with their relations in Hampshire." + +"Ellen will be a fine match for some young English squire," said Tom. +"She will have twenty thousand pounds some day, I suppose." + +And then we went on talking about other matters. + +A little scene took place in the garden next morning, which may +astonish some of my readers, but which did not surprise me in the +least. I knew it would happen, sooner or later, and when I saw Tom's +air, on his arrival the night before, I said to myself, "It is coming," +and so sure enough it did. And I got all the circumstances out of Tom +only a few days afterwards. + +Mary Hawker was now a very handsome woman, about one and forty. There +may have been a grey hair here and there among her long black tresses, +but they were few and far between. I used to watch her sometimes of an +evening, and wonder to myself how she had come through such troubles, +and lived; and yet there she was on the night when Tom arrived, for +instance, sitting quite calm and cheerful beside the fire in her +half-mourning (she had soon dropped her weeds, perhaps, considering who +her husband had been, a piece of good taste), with quite a placid, +contented look on her fine black eyes. I think no one was capable of +feeling deeper for a time, but her power of resilience was marvellous. +I have noticed that before. It may, God forgive me, have given me some +slight feeling of contempt for her, because, forsooth, she did not +brood over and nurse an old grief as I did myself. I am not the man to +judge her. When I look back on my own wasted life; when I see how for +one boyish fancy I cut myself off from all the ties of domestic life, +to hold my selfish way alone, I sometimes think that she has shown +herself a better woman than I have a man. Ah! well, old sweetheart, not +much to boast of either of us. Let us get on. + +She was walking in the garden, next morning, and Tom came and walked +beside her; and after a little he said,-- + +"So you are pretty well contented, cousin?" + +"I am as well content," she said, "as a poor, desolate, old childless +widow could hope to be. There is no happiness left for me in this life!" + +"Who told you that?" said Tom. "Who told you that the next twenty years +of your life might not be happier than any that have gone before?" + +"How could that be?" she asked. "What is left for me now, but to go +quietly to my grave?" + +"Grave!" said Tom. "Who talks of graves for twenty years to come! Mary, +my darling, I have waited for you so long and faithfully, you will not +disappoint me at last?" + +"What do you mean? What can you mean?" + +"Mean!" said he; "why, I mean this, cousin: I mean you to be my +wife--to come and live with me as my honoured wife, for the next thirty +years, please God!" + +"You are mad!" she said. "Do you know what you say? Do you know who you +are speaking to?" + +"To my old sweetheart, Polly Thornton!" he said, with a laugh,--"to no +one else in the world." + +"You are wrong," she said; "you may try to forget now, but you will +remember afterwards. I am not Mary Thornton. I am an old broken woman, +whose husband was transported for coining, and hung for murder and +worse!" + +"Peace be with him!" said Tom. "I am not asking who your husband was; I +have had twenty years to think about that, and at the end of twenty +years, I say, my dear old sweetheart, you are free at last: will you +marry me?" + +"Impossible!" said Mary. "All the country-side knows who I am. Think of +the eternal disgrace that clings to me. Oh, never, never!" + +"Then you have no objection to me? eh, cousin?" + +"To you, my kind, noble old partner? Ah, I love and honour you above +all men!" + +"Then," said Tom, putting his arm round her waist, "to the devil with +all the nonsense you have just been talking, about eternal disgraces +and so forth! I am an honest man and you're an honest woman, and, +therefore, what cause or impediment can there be? Come, Mary, it's no +use resisting; my mind is made up, and you MUST!" + +"Oh, think!" she said; "oh, think only once, before it is too late for +ever!" + +"I have thought," said Tom, "as I told you before, for twenty years; +and I ain't likely to alter my opinion in ten minutes. Come, Mary. Say, +yes!" + +And so she said yes. + +"Mrs. Buckley," said Tom, as they came up arm in arm to the house, "it +will be a good thing if somebody was to go up to our place, and nurse +Mrs. Sam in her confinement." + +"I shall go up myself," said Mrs. Buckley, "though how I am to get +there I hardly know. It must be nearly eight hundred miles, I am +afraid." + +"I don't think you need, my dear madam," said he. "My wife will make an +excellent nurse!" + +"Your wife!" + +Tom looked at Mary, who blushed, and Mrs. Buckley came up and kissed +her. + +"I am so glad, so very glad, my love!" she said. "The very happiest and +wisest thing that could be! I have been hoping for it, my love, and I +felt sure it would be so, sooner or later. How glad your dear aunt +would be if she were alive!" + +And, in short, he took her off with him, and they were married, and +went up to join Sam and his wife in New England--reducing our party to +four. Not very long after they were gone, we heard that there was a new +Sam Buckley born, who promised, said the wise women, to be as big a man +as his father. Then, at an interval of very little more than two years, +Mrs. Buckley got a long letter from Alice, announcing the birth of a +little girl to the Troubridges. This letter is still extant, and in my +possession, having been lent me, among other family papers, by Agnes +Buckley, as soon as she heard that I was bent upon correcting these +memoirs to fit them for the press. I will give you some extracts from +it:-- + +... "Dear Mary Troubridge has got a little girl, a sweet, quiet, +brighteyed little thing, taking, I imagine, after old Miss Thornton. +They are going to call it Agnes Alice, after you and I, my dearest +mother. + +"You cannot imagine how different Mary is grown from what she used to +be! Stout, merry, and matronly, quite! She keeps the house alive, and I +think I never saw a couple more sincerely attached than are she and her +husband. He is a most excellent companion for my Sam. Not to make +matters too long, we are just about as happy as four people can be. +Some day we may all come to live together again, and then our delight +will be perfect. + +"I got Jim's letter which you sent me.... Sam and his partner are +embarking every sixpence they can spare in buying town and suburban +lots at Melbourne. I know every street and alley in that wonderful city +(containing near a hundred houses) on the map, but I am not very likely +to go there ever. Let us hope that Sam's speculations will turn out +profitable. + +"Best love to Mr. Hamlyn." ... + +I must make a note to this letter. Alice refers to a letter received +from Jim, which, as near as I can make the dates agree, must be the one +I hold in my hand at this moment. I am not sure, but I think so. This +one runs-- + +"Dear Dad, ... I have been down among the dead men, and since then up +into the seventh heaven, in consequence of being not only gazetted, but +promoted. The beggars very nearly did for us. All our fortifications, +the prettiest things ever done under the circumstances, executed under +Bobby's own eye, were thrown down by--what do you think?--an +earthquake! Perhaps we didn't swear--Lord forgive us! Akbar had a shy +at us immediately, but got a most immortal licking! + +"Is not this a most wonderful thing about Halbert? The girl that he was +to be married to was supposed to be lost, coming out in the Assam. And +now it appears that she wasn't lost at all (the girl I mean, not the +ship), but that she was wrecked on the east coast of Madagascar, and +saved, with five and twenty more. She came on to Calcutta, and they +were married the week after he got his troop. She is uncommonly +handsome and ladylike, but looks rather brown and lean from living on +birds' nests and sea-weed for above six months of her life." + +[Allow me to remark that this must be romance on Jim's part; birds' +nests and trepang are not found in Madagascar.] + +"My wound is nearly all right again. It was only a prick with a spear +in my thigh--" + +It is the very deuce editing these old letters without anything to +guide one. As far as I can make out by myself (Jim being now down at +Melton hunting, and not having answered my letter of inquiries), this +letter must have come accompanied by an Indian newspaper containing the +account of some battle or campaign in which he was engaged. Putting +this and that together, I am inclined to believe that it refers to the +defence of Jellalabad by Sir Robert Sale, in which I know he was +engaged. I form this opinion from the fact of his mentioning that the +fortifications were destroyed by an earthquake. And I very much fear +that the individual so disrespectfully mentioned above as "Bobby," was +no other than the great Hero himself. In my second (or if that goes off +too quick, in my third) edition, I will endeavour to clear this point +up in a satisfactory manner. + +After this there was a long dull time with no news from him or from any +one. Then Sam came down from New England, and paid us a visit, which +freshened us up a little. But in spite of this and other episodes, +there was little change or excitement for us four. We made common house +of it, and never parted from one another more than a day. Always of an +evening came the old friendly rubber, I playing with the Major, and +Captain Brentwood with Mrs. Buckley. The most remarkable event I have +to chronicle during the long period which followed, is, that one day a +bushfire came right up to the garden rails, and was beaten out with +difficulty; and that same evening I held nine trumps, Ace, Queen, +Knave, Nine of hearts, and the rest small. I cannot for the life of me +remember what year it was in, somewhere between forty-two and +forty-five, I believe, because within a year or two of that time we +heard that a large comet had appeared in England, and that Sir Robert +Peel was distrusted on the subject of Protection. After all, it is no +great consequence, though it is rather provoking, because I never +before or since held more than eight trumps. Burnside, the +cattle-dealer, claims to have held eleven, but I may state, once for +all, that I doubt that man's statements on this and every other subject +on which he speaks.-- He knows where I am to be found. + +My man Dick, too, somehow or another, constituted himself my groom and +valet. And the Major was well contented with the arrangement. So we +four, Major and Mrs. Buckley, Captain Brentwood and I, sat there in the +old station night after night, playing our whist, till even my head, +the youngest of the four, began to be streaked with grey, and sixteen +years were past. + + + + +Chapter XLVIII + +THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE. + + +It is March, 1856. The short autumn day is rapidly giving place to +night; and darkness, and the horror of a great tempest is settling down +upon the desolate grey sea, which heaves and seethes for ever around +Cape Horn. + +A great clipper ship, the noblest and swiftest of her class, is hurling +along her vast length before the terrible west wind. Hour by hour +through the short and gloomy day, sail after sail has gone fluttering +in; till now, at night-fall, she reels and rolls before the storm under +a single close reefed maintopsail. + +There is a humming, and a roaring, and a rushing of great waters, so +that they who are clinging to the bulwarks, and watching awe-struck +this great work of the Lord's, cannot hear one another though they +shout. Now there is a grey mountain which chases the ship, overtakes +her, pours cataracts of water over her rounded stern, and goes hissing +and booming past her. And now a roll more frantic than usual, nigh dips +her mainyard, and sends the water spouting wildly over her bulwarks. + +("Oh, you very miserable ass," said Captain Brentwood; "to sit down and +try to describe the indescribable. Do you think that because you can +see all the scene before you now, because your flesh creeps, and your +blood moves as you call it to mind, do you think, I say, that you can +describe it? Do you think that you can give a man, in black and white, +with ink, and on paper, any real notion of that most tremendous +spectacle, a sharp bowed ship running before a gale of wind through the +ice in the great South Sea, where every wave rolls round the world? Go +to--read Tom Cringle, who has given up his whole soul to descriptions, +and see how many pictures dwell in your mind's eye, after reading his +books. Two, or at most three, and they, probably, quite different from +what he intended you to see, lovely as they are;--leave describing +things, man, and give us some more facts." + +Said Major Buckley, "Go on, Hamlyn, and do the best you can. Don't mind +him." And so I go on accordingly.) + +61 degrees 30 minutes South. The Horn, storm-beaten, desolate, four +hundred miles to the North, and barely forty miles to the South, that +cruel, gleaming, ice barrier, which we saw to-day when the weather +lifted at noon, and which we know is there yet, though we dare not +think about it. There comes to us, though, in spite of ourselves, a +vision of what may happen any hour. A wild cry from the foretop. A +mass, grey, indistinct, horrible, rising from the wild waters, scarce a +hundred yards from her bowsprit. A mad hurrying to and fro. A crash. A +great ruin of masts and spars, and then utter, hopeless destruction. +That is the way the poor old Madagascar must have gone. The Lord send +us safe through the ice. + +Stunned, drenched to the skin, half-frightened, but wildly excited and +determined to see out, what a landsman has but seldom a chance of +seeing, a great gale of wind at sea, I clung tight to the starboard +bulwarks of Mr. Richard Green's new clipper, Sultan, Captain Sneezer, +about an hour after dark, as she was rounding the Horn, watching much +such a scene as I have attempted to give you a notion of above. And as +I held on there, wishing that the directors of my insurance office +could see me at that moment, the first mate, coming from forward, +warping himself from one belayingpin to another, roared in my ear, +"that he thought it was going to blow." + +"Man! man!" I said, "do you mean to tell me it is not blowing now?" + +"A bit of a breeze," he roared; but his roar came to me like a whisper. +However, I pretty soon found out that this was something quite out of +the common; for, crawling up, along the gangway which runs between the +poophouse and the bulwarks, I came with great difficulty to the stern; +and there I saw the two best men in the larboard watch (let us +immortalize them, they were Deaf Bob, and Harry the digger), lashed to +the wheel, and the Skipper himself, steadfast and anxious, alongside of +them, lashed to a cleat on the afterpart of the deck-house. So thinks +I, if these men are made fast, this is no place for me to be loose in, +and crawled down to my old place in the waist, at the after end of the +spare topsail-yard, which was made fast to the starboard-bulwarks, and +which extended a little abaft of the main shrouds. + +If any gentleman can detect a nautical error in that last sentence, I +shall feel obliged by his mentioning it. + +Somebody who came forth from the confusion, and was gone again, +informed me that "He was going to lay her to, and that I'd better hold +on." I comforted myself with the reflection that I was doing exactly +the right thing, holding on like grim death. + +Then something happened, and I am sorry to say I don't exactly know +what. I find in my notes, taken shortly afterwards, from the dictation +of an intelligent midshipman, "that the fore royal-yard got jammed with +the spanker-boom, and carried away the larboard quarter boat." Nautical +friends have since pointed out to me that this involves an +impossibility. I daresay it does. I know it involved an impossibility +of turning in without subjecting yourself to a hydropathic remedy of +violent nature, by going to bed in wet blankets, and of getting +anything for breakfast besides wet biscuit and cold tea. Let it go; +something went wrong, and the consequences were these. + +A wall of water, looming high above her mainyard, came rushing and +booming along, dark, terrible, opaque. For a moment I saw it curling +overhead, and would have cried out, I believe, had there been time; but +a midshipman, a mere child, slipped up before me, and caught hold of my +legs, while I tried to catch his collar. Then I heard the skipper roar +out, in that hoarse throaty voice that seamen use when excited. "Hold +on, the sea's aboard," and then a stunning, blinding rush of water +buried us altogether. The Sultan was on her beamends, and what was +more, seemed inclined to stay there, so that I, holding on by the +bulwarks, saw the sea seething and boiling almost beneath my feet, +which were swinging clear off the deck. + +But the midshipman sung out that she was righting again, which she did +rather quicker than was desirable, bringing every loose article on deck +down to our side again with a rush. A useless, thundering, four-pounder +gun, of which terrible implements of war we carried six, came plunging +across from the other side of the deck, and went crashing through the +bulwarks, out into the sea, within two feet of my legs. + +"I think," I said, trying to persuade myself that I was not frightened, +"I think I shall go into the cuddy." + +That was not very easy to do. I reached the door, and got hold of the +handle, and, watching my opportunity, slipped dexterously in, and +making a plunge, came against the surgeon, who, seated on a camp-stool, +was playing piquette, and overthrew him into a corner. + +"Repique, by jingo," shouted Sam Buckley, who was the surgeon's +opponent. "See what a capital thing it is to have an old friend like +Hamlyn, to come in and knock your opponent down just at the right +moment." + +"And papa was losing, too, Uncle Jeff," added a handsome lad, about +fifteen, who was leaning over Sam's shoulder. + +"What are they doing to you, Doctor?" said Alice Buckley, NEE +Brentwood, coming out of a cabin, and supporting herself to a seat by +her husband and son. + +"Why," replied the surgeon, "Hamlyn knocked me down just in a moment of +victory, but his nefarious project has failed, for I have kept +possession of my cards. Play, Buckley." + +Let us give a glance at the group which is assembled beneath the swing +lamp in the reeling cabin. The wife and son are both leaning over the +father's shoulder, and the three faces are together. Sam is about +forty. There is not a wrinkle in that honest forehead, and the eyes +beam upon you as kindly and pleasantly as ever they did; and when, +after playing to the surgeon, he looks up and laughs, one sees that he +is just the same old Sam that used to lie, as a lad, dreaming in the +verandah at Garoopna. No trouble has left its shadow there. Alice, +whose face is pressed against his, is now a calm, young matron of three +or four-and-thirty, if it were possible, more beautiful than ever, only +she has grown from a Hebe into a Juno. The boy, the son and heir, is +much such a stripling as I can remember his father at the same age, but +handsomer. And while we look, another face comes peering over his +shoulder; the laughing face of a lovely girl, with bright sunny hair, +and soft blue eyes; the face of Maud Buckley, Sam's daughter. + +They are going home to England. Sam--what between his New England runs, +where there are now, under Tom Troubridge's care, 118,000 sheep, and +his land speculations at Melbourne, which have turned him out somewhere +about 1,000 per cent. since the gold discovery--Sam, I say, is one of +the richest of her Majesty's subjects in the Southern hemisphere. I +would give 200,000L. for Sam, and make a large fortune in the surplus. +"And so," I suppose you say, "he is going home to buy Clere." Not at +all, my dear sir. Clere is bought, and Sam is going home to take +possession. "Marry, how?" Thus,-- + +Does any one of my readers remember that our dear old friend, Agnes +Buckley's maiden name was Talbot, and that her father owned the +property adjoining Clere? "We do not remember," you say; "or at least, +if we do, we are not bound to; you have not mentioned the circumstance +since the very beginning of this excessively wearisome book, forty +years ago." Allow me to say, that I have purposely avoided mentioning +them all along, in order that, at this very point, I might come down on +you like a thunderbolt with this piece of information; namely:--That +Talbot of Beaulieu Castle, the towers of which were visible from Clere +Terrace, had died without male issue. That Marian and Gertrude Talbot, +the two pretty girls, Agnes Buckley's eldest sisters, who used to come +in and see old Marmaduke when James was campaigning, had never married. +That Marian was dead. That Gertrude, a broken old maid, was sole owner +of Beaulieu Castle, with eight thousand a-year; and, that Agnes +Buckley, her sister, and consequently, Sam as next in succession, was +her heir. + +All the negotiations for the purchase of Clere had been carried on +through Miss Gertrude and her steward. The Brewer died, the property +was sold, and Sam, by his agents, bought old Clere back, eight months +before this, for 48,000L. + +"Then, why on earth," says Mrs. Councillor Wattlegum (our colonial Mrs. +Grundy), "didn't they go home overland? How could people with such +wealth as you describe, demean themselves by going home round the Horn, +like a parcel of diggers?" + +"Because, my dear Madam, the young folks were very anxious to see an +iceberg. Come, let us get on." + +The gale has lasted three days, and in that time we have run before it +on our course 970 miles. The fourth morning breaks gloriously bright, +with the shadows of a few fleecy clouds flying across the bright blue +heaving sea. The ship, with all canvas crowded on her, alow and aloft, +is racing on, fifteen knots an hour, with a brisk cold wind full on her +quarter, heeling over till the water comes rushing and spouting through +her leeward ports, and no man can stand without holding on, but all are +merry and happy to see the water fly past like blue champagne, and to +watch the seething wake that the good ship leaves behind her. Ah! what +is this, that all are crowding down to leeward to look at? Is this the +Crystal Palace, of which we have read, come out to sea to meet us? No! +the young folks are going to be gratified. It is a great iceberg, and +we shall pass about a mile to windward. + +Certainly worth seeing. Much more tremendous than I had expected, +though my imagination had rather run riot in expectation. Just a great +floating cluster of shining splintered crystals, about a mile long and +300 feet high, with the cold hungry sea leaping and gnawing at its +base,--that is all. Send up those German musicians here, and let us +hear the echo of one of Strauss' Waltzes come ringing back from the +chill green caverns. Then away, her head in northward again now, we may +sight the Falklands the day after to-morrow. + +Hardly worth telling you much more about that happy voyage, I think, +and really I remember but few things more of note. A great American +ship in 45 degrees, steaming in the teeth of the wind, heaving her long +gleaming sides through the roll of the South Atlantic. The Royal +Charter passing us like a phantom ship through the hot haze, when we +were becalmed on the line, waking the silence of the heaving glassy sea +with her throbbing propeller. A valiant vainglorious little gun-boat +going out all the way to China by herself, giving herself the airs of a +seventy-four, requiring boats to be sent on board her, as if we +couldn't have stowed her, guns and all, on our poop, and never crowded +ourselves. A noble transport, with 53 painted on her bows, swarming +with soldiers for India, to whom we gave three times three. All these +things have faded from my recollection in favour of a bright spring +morning in April. + +A morning which, beyond all others in my life, stands out clear and +distinct, as the most memorable. Jim Buckley shoved aside my cabin door +when I was dressing, and says he,--"Uncle Jeff, my Dad wants you +immediately; he is standing by the davits of the larboard quarterboat." + +And so I ran up to Sam, and he took my arm and pointed northward. Over +the gleaming morning sea rose a purple mountain, shadowed here and +there by travelling clouds, and a little red-sailed boat was diving and +plunging towards us, with a red flag fluttering on her mast. + +"What!" I said,--but I could say no more. + +"The Lizard!" + +But I could not see it now for a blinding haze, and I bent down my head +upon the bulwarks--Bah! I am but a fool after all. What could there +have been to cry at in a Cornish moor, and a Falmouth pilot boat? I am +not quite so young as I was, and my nerves are probably failing. That +must have been it. "When I saw the steeple," says M. Tapley, "I thought +it would have choked me." Let me say the same of Eddystone Lighthouse, +which we saw that afternoon; and have done with sentiment for good. If +my memory serves me rightly, we have had a good deal of that sort of +thing in the preceding pages. + +I left the ship at Plymouth, and Sam went on in her to London. I +satisfied my soul with amazement at the men of war, and the breakwater; +and, having bought a horse, I struck boldly across the moor for +Drumston, revisiting on my way many a well-known snipe-ground, and old +trout haunt; and so, on the third morning, I reached Drumston once +more, and stabled my horse at a little public-house near the church. + +It was about eight o'clock on a Tuesday morning; nevertheless, the +church-bell was going, and the door was open as if for prayer. I was a +little surprised at this, but having visited the grave where my father +and mother lay, and then passed on to the simple headstone which marked +the resting place of John Thornton and his wife, I brushed through the +docks and nettles, towards the lychgate, in the shadow of which stood +the clergyman, a gentlemanly looking young man, talking to a very aged +woman in a red cloak. + +He saluted me courteously, and passed on, talking earnestly and kindly +to his aged companion, and so the remarkable couple went into the +church, and the bell stopped. + +I looked around. Close to me, leaning against the gate, was a coarse +looking woman about fifty, who had just set down a red earthen pitcher +to rest herself, and seemed not disinclined for a gossip. And at the +same moment I saw a fat man, about my own age, with breeches, +unbuttoned at the knee, grey worsted stockings and slippers, and +looking altogether as if he was just out of bed, having had too much to +drink the night before; such a man, I say, I saw coming across the +road, towards us, with his hands in his pockets. + +"Good morning," I said to the woman. "Pray what is the clergyman's +name?" + +"Mr. Montague," she answered, with a curtsey. + +"Does he have prayers every morning?" + +"Every marnin' of his life," she said. "He's a Papister." + +"You'm a fool, Cis Jewell," said the man, who had by this time arrived. +"You'm leading the gentleman wrong, he's a Pussyite." + +"And there bain't much difference, I'm thinking, James Gosford," said +Cis Jewell. + +I started. James Gosford had been one of my favourite old comrades in +times gone by, and here he was. Could it be he? Could this fat +red-faced man of sixty-one, be the handsome hard-riding young dandy of +forty years ago? It was he, doubtless, and in another moment I should +have declared myself, but a new interruption occurred. + +The bell began again, and service was over. The old woman came out of +the porch and slowly down the pathway towards us. + +"Is that all his congregation?" I asked. + +"That's all, sir," said Gosford. "Sometimes some of they young villains +of boys gets in, and our old clerk, Jerry, hunts 'em round and round +all prayer time; but there's none goes regular except the old 'ooman." + +"And she had need to pray a little more than other folks," said Cis +Jewell, folding her arms, and balancing herself in a conversational +attitude. "My poor old grandfather----" + +Further conversation was stopped by the near approach of the old woman +herself, and I looked up at her with some little curiosity. A very old +woman she was surely; and while I seemed struggling with some sort of +recollection, she fixed her eyes upon me, and we knew one another. + +"Geoffry Hamlyn," she said, without a sign of surprise. "You are +welcome back to your native village. When your old comrade did not know +you, I, whose eyes are dim with the sorrow of eighty years, recognised +you at once. They may well call me the wise woman." + +"Good God!" was all I could say. "Can this be Madge?" + +"This is Madge," she said, "who has lived long enough to see and to +bless the man who saw and comforted her poor lost boy in prison, when +all beside fell off from him. The Lord reward you for it." + +"How did you know that, Madge?" + +"Ask a witch where she gets her information!" laughed she. "God forgive +me. I'll tell you how it was. One of the turnkeys in that very prison +was a Cooper, a Hampshire gipsy, and he, knowing my boy to be +half-blooded, passed all the facts on through the tribes to me, who am +a mother among them! Did you see him die?" she added, eagerly putting +her great bony hand upon my arm, and looking up in my face. + +"No! no! mother," I answered: "I hadn't courage for that." + +"I heard he died grim," she continued, half to herself. "He should a +done. There was a deal of wild blood in him from both sides. Are you +going up to the woodlands, to see the old place? 'Tis all in ruins now; +and the choughs and stares are building and brooding in the chimney +nook where I nursed him. I shall not have much longer to wait; I only +stayed for this. Goodbye." + +And she was gone; and Gosford, relieved by her departure, was +affectionately lugging me off to his house. Oh, the mixture of wealth +and discomfort that house exhibited! Oh, the warm-hearted jollity of +every one there! Oh, to see those three pretty, well-educated girls +taking their father off by force, and making him clean himself in +honour of my arrival! Oh, the merry evening we had! What, though the +cider disagreed with me? What, though I knew it would disagree with me +at the time I drank it? That noisy, jolly night in the old Devonshire +grange was one of the pleasantest of my life. + +And, to my great surprise, the Vicar came in in the middle of it, and +made himself very agreeable to me. He told me that old Madge, as far as +he could see, was a thoroughly converted and orderly person, having +thrown aside all pretence of witchcraft. That she lived on some trifle +of hoarded money of her own, and a small parish allowance that she had; +and that she had only come back to the parish some six years since, +after wandering about as a gipsy in almost every part of England. He +was so good as to undertake the delivery of a small sum to her weekly +from me, quite sufficient to enable her to refuse the parish allowance, +and live comfortably (he wrote to me a few months afterwards, and told +me that it was required no longer, for that Madge was gone to rest at +last); and a good deal more news he gave me, very little of which is +interesting here. + +He told me that Lord C----, John Thornton's friend, was dead; that he +never thoroughly got over the great Reform debate, in which he +over-exerted himself; and that, after the passing of the Bill, he had +walked joyfully home and had a fit, which prevented his ever taking any +part in politics afterwards, though he lived above ten years. That his +son was not so popular as his father, in consequence of his politics, +which were too conservative for the new class of tenants his father had +brought in; and his religious opinions, which, said the clergyman, were +those of a sound Churchman; by which he meant, I rather suspect, that +he was a pretty smart Tractarian. I was getting won with this young +gentleman, in spite of religious difference, when he chose to say that +the parish had never been right since Maberly had had it, and that the +Dissenters always raved about him to this day; whereby, he concluded, +that Frank Maberly was far from orthodox. I took occasion to say that +Frank was the man of all others in this world whom I admired most, and +that, considering he had sealed his faith with his life, I thought that +he ought to be very reverently spoken of. After this there arose a +little coolness, and he went home. + +I went up to town by the Great Western, and, for the first time, knew +what was meant by railway travelling. True, I had seen and travelled on +that monument of human industry, the Hobson's Bay Railroad, but that +stupendous work hardly prepared me for the Great Western. And on this +journey I began to understand, for the first time in my life, what a +marvellous country this England of ours was. I wondered at the wealth +and traffic I saw, even in comparatively unimportant towns. I wondered +at the beauty and solidity of the railway works; at the vast crowds of +people which I saw at every station; at the manly, independent bearing +of the men of the working classes, which combined so well with their +civility and intelligence; and I thought, with a laugh, of the fate of +any eighty thousand men who might shove their noses into this bee-hive, +while there was such material to draw upon. Such were the thoughts of +an Englishman landing in England, from whom the evils produced by dense +population were as yet hidden. + +But when I got into the whirl of London, I was completely overwhelmed +and stupified. I did not enjoy anything. The eternal roar was so +different to what I had been used to; and I had stayed there a couple +of months before I had got a distinct impression of anything, save and +except the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. + +It was during this visit to London that I heard of the fall of Von +Landstein's (Dr. Mulhaus') Ministry, which had happened a year or two +before. And now, also, I read the speech he made on his resignation, +which, for biting sarcasm and bitter truth rudely told, is unequalled +by any speech I ever read. A more witty, more insolent, more audacious +tirade, was never hurled at a successful opposition by a fallen +minister. The K---- party sat furious, as one by one were seized on by +our ruthless friend, held up to ridicule, and thrown aside. They, +however, meditated vengeance. + +Our friend, in the heat of debate, used the word "Dummerkopf," which +answers, I believe, to our "wooden head." He applied it to no one in +particular; but a certain young nobleman (Bow-wow Von Azelsberg was his +name) found the epithet so applicable to his own case, that he took +umbrage at it; and, being egged on by his comrades, challenged Von +Landstein to mortal combat. Von Landstein received his fire without +suffering, adjusted his spectacles, and shot the young gentleman in the +knee, stopping HIS waltzing for ever and a day. He then departed for +his castle, where he is at this present speaking (having just gone +there after a visit to Clere) busy at his great book, "The History of +Fanatics and Fanaticism, from Mahomet to Joe Smith." Beloved by all who +come in contact with him; happy, honoured, and prosperous, as he so +well deserves to be. + +But I used to go and see everything that was to be seen, though, having +no companion (for Sam was down at Clere, putting his house in order), +it was very wretched work. I DID, in fact, all the public amusements in +London, and, as a matter of course, found myself one night, about +eleven o'clock, at Evans's, in Covent Garden. + +The place was crowded to suffocation, but I got a place at a table +about half-way up, opposite an old gentleman who had been drinking a +good deal of brandy and water, and was wanting some more. Next me was +an honest-looking young fellow enough, and opposite him his friend. +These two looked like shop-lads, out for a "spree." + +A tall old gentleman made me buy some cigars, with such an air of +condescending goodwill, that I was encouraged to stop a waiter and +humbly ask for a glass of whisky and water. He was kind enough to bring +it for me; so I felt more at ease, and prepared to enjoy myself. + +A very gentlemanly-looking man sang us a song, so unutterably funny +that we were dissolved in inextinguishable laughter; and then, from +behind a curtain, began to come boys in black, one after another, as +the imps in a pantomime come from a place I dare not mention, to chase +the clown to his destruction. I counted twelve of them and grew dizzy. +They ranged themselves in a row, with their hands behind them, and +began screeching Tennyson's "Miller's Daughter" with such a maximum of +shrillness, and such a minimum of expression, that I began to think +that tailing wild cattle on the mountains, at midnight, in a +thunderstorm, with my boots full of water, was a far preferable +situation to my present one. + +They finished. Thank goodness. Ah! delusive hope. The drunken old +miscreant opposite me got up an encore with the bottom of his tumbler, +and we had it all over again. Who can tell my delight when he broke his +glass applauding, and the waiter came down on him sharp, and made him +pay for it. I gave that waiter sixpence on the spot. + +Then came some capital singing, which I really enjoyed; and then came a +remarkable adventure; "an adventure!" you say; "and at Evans's!" My +dear sir, do you suppose that, at a moment like this, when I am pressed +for space, and just coming to the end of my story;--do you suppose +that, at a moment like this, I would waste your time at a singing-house +for nothing? + +A tall, upright looking man passed up the lane between the tables, and +almost touched me as he passed. I did not catch his face, but there was +something so DISTINGUE about him that I watched him. He had his hat +off, and was smoothing down his close-cropped hair, and appeared to be +looking for a seat. As he was just opposite to us, one of the young +clerks leant over to the other, and said,-- + +"That is----." I did not catch what he said. + +"By George," said the other lad. "Is it now?" + +"That's HIM, sir," said the first one. + +The new comer was walking slowly up the room, and there began to arise +a little breeze of applause, and then some one called out, "Three +cheers for the Inkerman pet," and then there was a stamping of feet, +and a little laughter, and cheering in various parts of the room, but +the new comer made one bow and walked on. + +"Pray, sir," said I, bending over to one of those who had spoken +before, "who is that gentleman?" + +He had no need to tell me. The man we spoke of reached the orchestra +and turned round. It was Jim Brentwood! + +There was a great white seam down his face, and he wore a pair of light +curling moustachios, but I knew him in a moment; and, when he faced +round to the company, I noticed that his person seemed known to the +public, for there was not a little applause with the bottoms of +tumblers, not unlike what one remembers at certain banquets I have been +at, with certain brethren, Sons of Apollo. + +In one moment we were standing face to face, shaking one another by +both hands; in another, we were arm in arm, walking through the quiet +streets towards Jim's lodgings. He had been in Ireland with his +regiment, as I knew, which accounted for my not having seen him. And +that night, Major Brentwood recounted to me all his part in the last +great campaign, from the first fierce rush up the hill at the Alma, +down to the time when our Lady pinned a certain bit of gun metal on to +his coat in St. James's Park. + +A few days after this, Jim and I were standing together on the platform +of the Wildmoor station, on the South-Western Railway, and a couple of +porters were carrying our portmanteaus towards a pair-horse phaeton, in +which stood Sam Buckley, shouting to us to come on, for the horses +wouldn't stand. So, in a moment, I was alongside of Sam in the front +seat, with Jim standing up behind, between the grooms, and leaning over +between us, to see after Sam's driving; and away we went along a +splendid road, across a heath, at what seemed to me a rather dangerous +pace. + +"Let them go, my child," said Jim to Sam, "you've got a fair mile +before. You sit at your work in capital style. Give me time and I'll +teach you to drive, Sam. How do you like this, Uncle Jeff?" + +I said, "That's more than I can tell you, Master Jim. I know so little +of your wheeled vehicles that I am rather alarmed." + +"Ah!" said Jim, "you should have been in Calcutta when the O'Rourke and +little Charley Badminton tried to drive a pair of fresh imported +Australians tandem through the town. Red Maclean and I looked out of +the billiard-room, and we saw the two horses go by with a bit of a +shaft banging about the wheeler's hocks. So we ran down and found +Charley, with his head broke, standing in the middle of the street, +mopping the blood off his forehead. 'Charley,' says I, 'how the deuce +did this happen?' 'We met an elephant,' says he, in a faint voice." + +"Have you heard anything of the Mayfords lately?" said Jim. + +"You know Ellen is married?" said Sam. + +"No! Is she?" I said. "And pray to whom?" + +"The Squire of Monkspool," he answered. "A very fine young fellow, and +clever withal." + +"Did old Mrs. Mayford," asked Jim, "ever recover her reason before she +died?" + +"Never, poor soul," said Sam. "To the last, she refused to see my +mother, believing that the rivalry between Cecil and myself in some way +led to his death. She was never sane after that dreadful morning." + +And so with much pleasant talk we beguiled the way, till I saw, across +a deep valley on our right, a line of noble heights, well timbered, but +broken into open grassy glades, and smooth sheets of bright green lawn. +Between us and these hills flowed a gleaming river, from which a broad +avenue led up to the eye of the picture, a noble grey stone mansion, a +mass of turrets, gables, and chimneys, which the afternoon sun was +lighting up right pleasantly. + +"That is the finest seat I have seen yet, Sam," I said. "Whose is that?" + +"That," said Sam, "is Clere. My house and your home, old friend." + +Swiftly up under the shadow of the elm avenue, past the herds of +dappled deer, up to the broad graveled terrace which ran along in front +of the brave old house. And there, beneath the dark wild porch, above +the group of servants that stood upon the steps to receive their +master, was Alice, with her son and daughter beside her, waiting to +welcome us, with the happy sunlight on her face. + + +* * * * * + + +I bought a sweet cottage, barely a mile from Clere, with forty acres of +grass-land round it, and every convenience suited for an old bachelor +of my moderate though comfortable means. + +I took to fishing and to the breeding of horses on a small scale, and +finding that I could make myself enormously busy with these +occupations, and as much hunting as I wanted, I became very +comfortable, and considered myself settled. + +I had plenty of society, the best in the land. Above all men I was the +honoured guest at Clere, and as the county had rallied round Sam with +acclamation, I saw and enjoyed to the fullest extent that charming +English country-life, the like of which, I take it, no other country +can show. + +I was a great favourite, too, with old Miss Gertrude Talbot at the +castle. Her admiration and love for Sam and his wife was almost equal +to mine. So we never bored one another, and so, by degrees, gaining the +old lady's entire confidence, I got entrusted with a special mission of +a somewhat peculiar character. + +The leading desire of this good old woman's life was, that her sister +Agnes should come back with her husband, the Major, and take possession +of the castle. Again, Alice could not be content, unless her father +could be induced to come back and take up his residence at Clere. And +letters having failed to produce the desired effect in both instances, +the Major, saying that he was quite comfortable where he was, and the +Captain urging that the English winters would be too vigorous for his +constitution; under these circumstances, I say, I, the CONFIDANT of the +family, within fifteen months of landing at Plymouth, found myself in a +hot omnibus with a Mahomedan driver, jolting and bumping over the +desert of Suez on my way back to Australia, charged to bring the old +folks home, or never show my face again. + +And it was after this journey that the scene described in the first +chapter of this book took place; when I read aloud to them from the +roll of manuscript mentioned there, my recollections of all that had +happened to us during so many years, But since I have come back to +England, these "Recollections" have been very much enlarged and +improved by the assistance of Major Buckley, Agnes, and Captain +Brentwood. + +For I succeeded in my object, and brought them back in triumph through +the Red Sea, across the Isthmus of Suez, and so by way of the +Mediterranean, the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, Southampton +Water, the South-Western railway, and Alice's new dark-blue barouche, +safe and sound to Clere and the castle, where they all are at this +present speaking, unless some of them are gone out a walking. + +As for Tom Troubridge and Mary, they are so exceedingly happy and +prosperous, that they are not worth talking about. They will come +either by the Swiftsure or the Norfolk, and we have got their rooms +ready for them. They say that their second child, the boy, is one of +the finest riders in the colony. + +"You have forgotten some one after all," says the reader, after due +examination. "A man we took some little interest in. It is not much +matter though, we shall be glad when you have done." + +Is this the man you mean? + +I am sitting in Sam's "den" at Clere. He is engaged in receiving the +"afterdavy" of a man who got his head broke by a tinker at the +cricket-match in the park (for Sam is in the commission, and sits on +the bench once a month "a perfect Midas," as Mrs. Wattlegum would say). +I am busy rigging up one of these wonderful new Yankee spoons with a +view to killing a villanous pike, who has got into the troutwater. I +have just tied on the thirty-ninth hook, and have got the fortieth +ready in my fingers, when a footman opens the door, and says to me,-- + +"If you please, sir, your stud-groom would be glad to see you." + +I keep two horses of all work and a grey pony, so that the word "stud" +before the word groom in the last sentence must be taken to refer to my +little farm, on which I rear a few colts annually. + +"May he come in, Sam?" I ask. + +"Of course! uncle Jeff," says he. + +And so there comes in a little old man, dressed in the extreme of that +peculiar dandyism which is affected by retired jockeys and trainers, +and which I have seen since attempted, with indifferent success, by a +few young gentlemen at our great universities. He stands in the door +and says,-- + +"Mr. Plowden has offered forty pound for the dark chestnut colt, sir." + +"Dick," I say (mark that, if you please) "Dick, I think he may have the +brute." + +And so, my dear reader, I must at last bid you heartily farewell. I am +not entirely without hope that we may meet again. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn, by +Henry Kingsley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RECOLLECTIONS OF GEOFFREY HAMLYN *** + +***** This file should be named 3786.txt or 3786.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/3786/ + +Produced by Col Choat. HTML version by Al Haines. + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |