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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34240-8.txt b/34240-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a77907a --- /dev/null +++ b/34240-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12903 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nevermore, by Rolf Boldrewood + +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: Nevermore + +Author: Rolf Boldrewood + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [EBook #34240] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVERMORE *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + NEVERMORE + + BY ROLF BOLDREWOOD + +AUTHOR OF 'ROBBERY UNDER ARMS,' 'THE SQUATTER'S DREAM,' 'THE MINER'S +RIGHT,' ETC. + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND NEW YORK + 1892 + + _All rights reserved_ + + _First Edition 1892 + Second Edition July and December 1892_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +'Then, by Heaven! I'll leave the country. I won't stop here to be +bullied for doing what scores of other fellows have done and nothing +thought about it. It's unjust, it's intolerable--' + +Thus spoke impetuous Youth. + +'I should say something would depend upon the family tradition of the +"other fellows" to whom you refer. In ours gambling debts and shady +transactions with turf-robbers happen to be forbidden luxuries.' + +Thus spoke philosophic Age, calm, cynical, unsparing. + +No power of divination was needed to decide that the speakers were +father and son; no prophet to discover, on one side, sullen defiance +following a course of reckless folly; on the other, wounded family pride +and long-nursed consuming wrath. + +As the rebellious son stood up and faced his sire, it was curious to +mark the similarity of the inherited lineaments brought out more clearly +in his moments of rage and defiance. + +Both men were strong and sinewy, dark in complexion, and bearing the +ineffaceable impress of gentle nurture, leisure, and assured position. +The younger man was the taller, and of a frame which, when fully +developed, promised unusual strength and activity. More often than the +converse, does it obtain that the son, in outward appearance or mental +constitution, reproduces his mother's attributes or those of her male +relatives; the daughter, in complemental ratio, inheriting the paternal +traits. But in this case Nature had strongly adhered to the +old-established formula 'like father like son,' for whoso looked on +Mervyn Trevanion, of Wychwood--the head of one of the oldest families in +Cornwall--could not doubt for one moment that Launcelot Trevanion was +his son. + +If all other features had been amissing or impaired, the eyes alone, +which contributed the most striking and peculiar features in both faces, +would have been sufficient to establish the relationship, not only +because they were, in both faces, identical in colour and form, but +because of the strange, almost unnatural lustre which glowed in them in +that moment of excitement; neither large nor especially bright, they +were scarcely remarkable under ordinary circumstances--of the darkest +gray in colour and deeply-set under thick and overhanging eyebrows. A +stranger might well overlook them, but, when turned suddenly in anger or +surprise, a steady searching light commenced to glow in them which was +discomposing, if not alarming. Even in a quick glance such as mere +badinage might provoke, they were strange and weird of regard. Lighted +up by the deeper passions, those who had been in the position to witness +their effect spoke of it as unearthly and, in a sense, appalling. + +In the family portraits, which for centuries had adorned the walls of +the long gallery in Wychwood, the same feature could be distinctly +traced. There was a legend, indeed, of the 'wicked' squire--one of the +hard-drinking, duelling, dicing, dare-devils of the second Charles' +day--who had so terrified his young wife--a gentle girl whose wealth had +been the fatal attraction in the alliance--that she had fallen down +before him in a fit, and never afterwards recovered health or reason. + +All through Cornwall and the neighbouring counties they were known as +the 'Trevanion eyes.' There was a hint of demoniacal possession in the +first ancestor, who had brought them into the family from abroad, and a +legendary compact with the Enemy of mankind, from whom the fiendish +glare had been derived. Since the birth of the first Mervyn, 'the wicked +squire,' the eldest son had inherited the same peculiar regard as +regularly as to him had come the estate and most enviable rent-roll. + +A saying had long been current among the county people that when the +lands went to a younger son, this remarkable and, as they held, unlucky +feature would be removed from the family of Trevanion as suddenly as it +had entered it. But up to this time, no break in the succession, _de +male en male_, had ever occurred. + +Launcelot Trevanion (mostly called Lance) was the eldest son +of this ancient house. There were two younger boys--Arthur and +Penrhyn--respectively fourteen and twelve years old; but a cousin, +early orphaned, was the only girl in that silent and gloomy hall. Her +beauty--she was the fairest flower of a race of which the women were +proverbially lovely--irradiated Wychwood Hall, while her enforced gaiety +charmed the saturnine Sir Mervyn out of many a fit of his habitual +gloom. With the neighbours, the villagers, the friends of the house, she +enjoyed a popularity as universal as unaffected, and not unfrequently +had the remark been made by individuals of all these sections of +provincial society, that Estelle Chaloner had, in a measure, thrown +herself away, as the phrase runs, by betrothing herself to her wild +cousin Lance; that she was too bright and bonnie a creature to become +the mate of any Trevanion of Wychwood--hard, unyielding, and, in some +sense, ill-fated as they had all been since the days of the first Sir +Launcelot, no one knew how many centuries ago. + +Certainly they had not been a fortunate or a prosperous family. +Possessed originally of immense estates, and boasting an ancestry and +military suzerainté--long anterior to the Conquest--undeniably brave, +chivalrous, and daring to the point of desperation, they had uniformly +espoused the wrong side in every important conflict. They had suffered +from attainder, they had regained their lands only to lose them again. +Bit by bit they had lost one fair manor after another, until, at last, +Wychwood Hall and manor, a fine but heavily-mortgaged estate, were all +that remained out of the vast dominion which stretched, according to +time-worn charters still in the muniment room of the Hall, from Tintagel +to the Devonshire border. + +Estelle Chaloner, in whose veins ran several strains of Trevanion blood, +had a character curiously compounded of the qualities of both families; +outwardly resembling the Chaloners, who were a fair, blue-eyed race, +more conspicuous for the grace and charm of social life than for the +sterner traits, she possessed, unsuspectedly, a large infusion of the +ancestral Trevanion nature. + +In early youth those strongest tendencies and proclivities which come by +inheritance are chiefly latent. Like the seedlings of a tropical forest +they remain for years almost hidden by undergrowth. But when successive +summers have stirred sap and rind, the deeply-rooted scions commence to +assert themselves, towering over, and eventually, it may be, dwarfing +the plants of earlier maturity. + +Estelle and her cousin Lance had been playmates and friends since +earliest infancy. There were but three years between them; like twins +they had grown up with a curious similarity of thought and feeling, +though of strongly contrasted temperaments. Then the divergent stage was +reached when the girl begins to tread the path which leads to the goal +of womanhood, when the boy essays the freedom of speech and act which +mould the future man. + +She was so gentle, he so haughty, yet were they alike in fearlessness, +in love of dogs and horses, in passionate attachment to field-sports and +the teachings of animated nature. Wanderers in the summer woods, fishing +in the brook, climbing the old tower of the ruined church, what an +Eden-like season of unstinted freedom was that of their early youth! It +was a sorrowful day for both when Lance was sent to a public school and +Estelle was relegated to a prim, high-salaried governess who stigmatised +nearly all out-door exercise as unladylike, and forbade field-sports as +being destructive to the hope of mental progress. + +But though separated for the greater part of the year, there were still +the precious vacation intervals when the cousins met and wandered in +untrammelled freedom. Thus they rode and rambled, drove the young horses +in the mail-phaeton to Truro--the market town--fished and hunted, shot +and ferreted, she walking with the guns, none caring to make them +afraid. + +It had chanced in the year preceding Lance's unlucky quarrel with his +father that they told each other of the love which had grown up with +their lives, and which was to make a portion of them for evermore. + +And now this rupture between the stern father and the stubborn son +threatened the wreck of her young life's happiness. She had repeatedly +warned Lance of the imprudence of his conduct, and laid before him the +danger which he was too headstrong and reckless to forecast for himself; +had long since reminded him that of all youthful follies and outbreaks, +for some unexplained reason, his father was especially intolerant of +those connected with the turf. The very mention of a racecourse seemed +sufficient to arouse a paroxysm of rage. Why he was thus affected by the +concomitants of a popular sport which country gentlemen, as a rule, +regard in the light of a pardonable relaxation, was not known to any of +his household. Sir Mervyn was not so strait-laced in other matters as to +make it incumbent upon him to frown down horse-racing for the sake of +consistency. Still the fact remained. Any hint of race-meetings by +Lance was viewed with the utmost disfavour. No animal suspected of a +turn of speed was ever permitted lodgings in the Wychwood stables, +spacious as they were. And now the sudden bringing to light of Lance's +serious loss of money by bets at a recent county meeting, with moreover +a proved part-ownership of the unsuccessful quadruped, had raised to +white heat his sire's slow gathering, yet slower subsiding anger. Thus +it came to pass that after one other stormy interview in which the elder +man had heaped reproaches without stint upon the younger, the son had +declared his resolution of 'quitting England, and taking his chance of a +livelihood in some country where he would at least be free from the +galling interference of an unreasonably severe father, who had never +loved him, and who refused him the ordinary indulgence of his youth and +station.' + +'In the extremely improbable event of your quitting a comfortable home +for a life of labour and privation,' the elder man said slowly and +deliberately, 'I beg you distinctly to understand that I shall make you +no allowance, nor even suffer your cousin to do so, should she be weak +enough to wish it, and you sufficiently mean to accept it. Sink or swim +by your own efforts. _I_ shall never hold out a hand to save you.' + +Then the son gazed at the sire, looking him full and steadfastly in the +face for some seconds before he answered. Had there been a painter to +witness the strange and unnatural scene, he might have noted that the +light which blazed in the old man's eyes shot forth at times an almost +lurid gleam, as from a hidden fire, while the youth's regard was +scarcely less fell in its intensity. + +'It is possible, even probable,' he said, 'that we may never meet again +on earth. You have been hard and cruel to me, but I am not wholly +unmindful of our relationship. Careless and extravagant I may have +been--neither worse nor better than hundreds of men of my age and +breeding, and may well have angered you. I had resolved, partly +persuaded by Estelle, to humble myself and ask your pardon. That state +of mind has passed--passed for ever. I shall leave Wychwood to-morrow, +and if anything happens to me in Australia, where I am going, remember +this--if evil comes to me, on your head be it--with my last words, in my +dying hour, I shall curse and renounce you, as I do now.' + +As the boy spoke the last dreadful words, the older man, transported +almost beyond himself, made as though he could have advanced and struck +him. But with a strong effort he restrained himself. + +The younger never relaxed the intensity of his gaze, but with a slow and +measured movement approached the door, then halting for a moment +said--'Enjoy your triumph to the uttermost--think of me homeless and a +wanderer--if it pleases you. But as repentant or forgiving, +never--neither in this world nor the next.' + +Before the last words were concluded, Sir Mervyn turned his face with +studied indifference to the window, and gazed upon the park, over which +the last rays of the autumnal sun cast a crimson radiance. For a few +moments only the solar beams glowed above the horizon; the landscape +with strange suddenness assumed a pale, even sombre tone. A faint chill +wind rustled the leaves of the great lime-tree, which stood on the edge +of the lawn, and caused a few of the leaves to fall. When the squire +looked around, Launcelot Trevanion was gone. He turned again to the +window; mechanically his eye ranged over the lovely landscape, the +far-stretching champaign of the park--one of the largest in the county, +the winding river, the blue hills, the distant sea. + +'What a madman the boy is,' he groaned out, to leave all this for a few +hot words--and I too! Who is the wiser? I wonder. Will he be mad enough +to keep his word? He is a stubborn colt--a true descendant of old +Launcelot the wizard. If he fails to gather gold, as these fools expect, +a voyage and a year's experience of what poverty and a rough life mean +will be no bad teaching.' + +'For what is anger but a wild beast?' quotes the humorist How many a man +has, to his cost, been assured of this fact by personal experience. A +wild beast truly, which tears and rends those whom nature itself +fashions to be cherished. + +With most men, reason resumes her sway, after a temporary dethronement, +when regret, even remorse, appears on the scene. The consequences of the +violence of act or speech into which the choleric man may have been +hurried, stalk solemnly across the mental stage. Were but recantation, +atonement, possible, forgiveness would be gladly sued for. But in how +many instances is it too late? The sin is sinned. The penalty must be +paid. Pride, dumb and unbending, refuses to acknowledge wrong-doing, +and thus hearts are rent, friends divided, life-long misery and ruin +ensured, oftentimes by the act of those who, in a different position, +would have yielded up life itself in defence of the victim of an angry +mood. + +It was not long before the inhabitants of Truro, and, indeed, the +country generally, were fully aware that there had been a violent +quarrel between Sir Mervyn and his eldest son. + +'The family temper again,' said the village wiseacres, as they smoked +their pipes at night at the 'King Arthur,' 'the squire and the young +master are a dashed sight too near alike to get on peaceably together. +But they'll make it up again, the quality makes up everything nowadays.' + +'Blamed if I know,' answered Mark Hardred, the gamekeeper of Wychwood, +who, though not a regular attendant at the 'King Arthur,' thought it +good policy to put in an appearance there now and then, 'there's a many +of 'em like our people, just as dogged and worse, I'm feared Mr. Lance +won't come back in a hurry, more's the pity.' + +'He's a free-handed young chap as ever I see,' quoth the village +rough-rider, 'it's a pity the old squire don't take a bit slacker on the +curb rein, as to the matter of a bet now and then, all youngsters as has +any spirit in 'em tries their luck on the turf. But he'll come back +surely, surely.' + +'He said straight out to the squire as he'd be off to Australia, where +the goldfields has broke out so 'nation rich, along o' the papers, and +it's my opinion to Australia he'll go,' replied the keeper. 'I never +knew him go back of his word. He's main obstinate.' + +'I can't abear folks as is obstinate,' here interpolated the village +wheelwright, a red-faced solemn personage of unmistakable Saxon solidity +of face and figure. 'I feel most as if I could kill 'em. I'd a larruped +it out of him if I'd been the vather of un, same as I do my Mat and +Mark.' + +This produced a general laugh, as the speaker was well known to be the +most obstinate man in the parish, and his twin boys, Matthew and Mark, +inheriting the paternal characteristic in perfection, in spite of their +father's corrections, which were unremitting, were a true pair of wolf +cubs, taking their unmerciful punishment mutely and showing scant signs +of improvement. + +'I must be agoing,' said the keeper, putting on his fur cap. 'I feel +that sorry for Mr. Lance that I'd make bold to speak to the squire +myself if he was like other people. But it'd be as much as my place was +worth. It'll be poor Miss 'Stelle that the grief will fall on. +Good-night all.' And the sturdy, resolute keeper, whose office had +succeeded from father to son for generations at Wychwood, tramped out +into the night. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It looks at times, it must be confessed, as if, the individual once +embarked upon a course involving the happiness of a lifetime, an unseen +influence hurries on events as though the fabled Fates were weaving the +web of doom. Hardly had Lance thrown himself upon a horse and galloped +over to Truro, directing, in a hasty note left in his room, that his +personal effects should be forwarded to an address, than the first paper +he took up contained an announcement which fitted exactly with his +humour. It ran as follows-- + +'Steam to Australia.--For Melbourne and the Goldfields. The clipper +ship, _Red Jacket_, three thousand tons register, Forbes, Commander, +will have quick dispatch. Apply to Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co.' + +The die was cast. He saw himself speeding over the ocean on his way to +the wild and wondrous land of gold, absolutely uncontrolled henceforth +and free as air to follow his inclinations. There was intoxication in +the very thought. For years to come he would not be subject to the +trammels of civilisation. The trackless wilds, the rude, even savage +society of a new, half-discovered country had no terrors for him. The +wilder elements in the blood of the Trevanions seemed to have +precipitated themselves in the person of this their descendant; to have +rendered imperative a departure in some direction, no matter what, from +the conventional region with its galling limitations and absurd edicts. +Such are the problems of heredity. Despite of some natural regret that +so serious a quarrel with his father, and the head of the family, should +have been the proximate cause of his exile, the mere anticipation of a +wholly free and unfettered life in a new land filled him with joy. Then +arose visions such as course through the brain of ardent, inexperienced +youth; of wondrous wealth acquired by lucky speculation or the discovery +of a cavern filled with gold, after the manner of the _Arabian Nights_. +With what feelings of triumph would he _then_ return to his native land, +having in all respects given the lie to the predictions of his foes and +calumniators, receiving with complacent pride the congratulations of his +father, in that hour softened and converted by the reputation of his +distinguished son. His name, once spoken with bated breath, now a +by-word for success, would be in all men's mouths. + +'Then! yes! then, darling Estelle!' had he said to his cousin in their +last conversation, when she had vainly tried to shake his determination +to leave England--'then I shall pay off the mortgage on the old estate; +not that it matters much for one generation, I suppose, but I should +like to be able to give a cheque for it to old Centall. Then I would buy +the St. Austel lands, which will be pretty sure to be in the market by +that time. Every one knows the estate is eaten up with interest as it +is, and at the rate the Tredegars are living there must be an end in a +few years. After that it will be about time to look out for a wife. Now +whom would you like to recommend? Why, how grave you look!' + +'Dreams and visions, Lance. Vain hopes, false and unreal,' said the +girl. 'I see no prospect of success, much less of fairytale treasures. +Think of all the adventurers who have left this very Duchy of Cornwall +in old days or later. How few have ever returned!--fewer still who were +not poorer than they left! It seems to me madness that you should go at +all.' + +'You are no true Englishwoman, Estelle, if you have not a spice of +adventure in you,' he replied. 'Lovers and kinsfolk have always been +sped on the path of glory before now. How else would the Indies have +been gained or the new world discovered, if all hearts had been as faint +as yours?' + +'It is not that,' said the girl sadly, and laying her head wearily upon +his broad breast, as she threw her arms around his neck. 'It is not +that! I could send you away, almost rejoicing, in a good cause, were it +to fight the Queen's battles, for the glory of our native land. But my +heart sinks within me when I think of your going away with a father's +curse upon your head, with a deep quarrel about a light matter on your +mind, and for object and pursuit, only to seek for gold among an ignoble +crowd of rude adventurers.' + +'Gold!' said the young man, laughing lightly; 'and what else is every +one striving for in these latter days? Gold means perfect independence. +The realisation of dreams of fairyland--the respect of the herd--the +friendship of the powerful--the love of the lovely! Why decry gold, +cousin mine? But, except for the adventure--the wild freedom--the +strangeness and danger of a new world, few care so little for it as +Lance Trevanion. And that you well know.' + +'I know, my darling; I know. If it be so, why not stay at home? My +uncle, I am sure, is sorry for having been so hasty. He will be glad of +any chance to tell you so. A few years and your position as heir and +eldest son must be acknowledged. Why leave these proved and settled +privileges, and tempt dangers of sea, and storm, and an unknown land?' + +'Too late! it is too late!' he said gloomily. 'I am a changed man. I can +neither forget nor forgive his insults, my father though he be; and I +feel as if I was irresistibly driven to take the voyage--to see this new +country--to share in this great gold adventure. I could not draw back +now.' + +'And I feel, day by day, more strongly and vividly,' said the girl, +'that it will be your doom to go forth from us and return no more. It +seems like a prophetic instinct in me. I feel it in every fibre of my +being. But I will come to you, if you do not come to us. Whatever may +happen, I will never rest satisfied till I have seen you in your new +home. So, if you do not return in five years, you know what you have to +expect But you will return, will you not?' And again she clasped her +arms around him, sobbing as if her heart would break. + +Estelle Chaloner was a proud girl, one of those reserved yet passionate +natures which habitually conceal their deeper feelings, as if jealous of +exhibiting the sacred recesses of their hearts to the careless or +irreverent. Ice on the surface, they resemble those regions which in +springtime need but the touch of that great enchanter's wand to cause +the living streams to flow, to produce the magically sudden apparition +of verdure and fragrant flowerets. + +'Darling Estelle! in five years I will come back,' he said, 'if I am +alive. The time will soon pass. Think how much I shall have to talk +about, and what wonders I shall have seen. You will hardly know me +again.' + +The girl sighed deeply, then raised her head, and gazing steadfastly at +her lover, as the tears streamed unheededly adown her face, continued +her pleading appeal without noticing his jesting speech-- + +'You will promise me then, will you not, solemnly and faithfully, you +will swear by King Arthur's sword--our family vow--that on next +Christmas five years, whatever betide, you will return?' + +'Well,' he answered, slowly and heedfully, 'if nothing less will do, I +suppose I shall have done something in that time or failed utterly and +hopelessly. So I will promise. It wants nearly three months to +Christmas, and if I do not turn up in December 1857, you may make sure +that I am either dead or a captive among the Indians. I suppose there +are Indians there. "By Arthur's sword!"' and here he crossed his hands, +after the old Cornish fashion. + +'I don't believe there are Indians,' she said. 'If you would read a +little more, you naughty boy, you would know. Of course, there are +savages of some sort, the worst being white. But we must exchange +tokens, like lovers--and we are true lovers, are we not?' Here she +seemed as if her tears would flow afresh, but controlled herself with a +strong effort. Then she loosened a slender gold chain from her neck, to +which was attached a coin of foreign appearance, traced with strange +characters, and having upon it a wondrous woman's face, beauteous, but +of an antique cast. + +'Here,' she said, 'is my precious Egyptian princess. The man who gave it +to me said it was possessed of talismanic virtues, that it secured +safety and success to the wearer as long as he never permitted it to be +taken from him by force or fraud. If he did, the charm was broken. You +are the only person in the whole world to whom I would give it.' + +'I thought you were too wise,' he said, taking the chain in his hand +gently, nevertheless, 'to confess such superstition. But I will take it +if it cheers you, darling Estelle, and here I swear that it shall be my +companion night and day until we meet again. Here is a companion token, +you have often asked for it before.' + +'You are not going to give me the Chaloner ring, are you, Lance? How +happy it would have made me one little month ago,' she cried. 'I must +have it altered to fit my finger, I suppose? It can be altered back when +you return.' + +'It is yours from this moment, and for ever,' said he. 'May it bring you +the good fortune it has failed to give me, so far. On a woman's hand the +charm may be broken. It has my mother's name inside, and, see,' here he +touched a spring, disclosing a tiny recess under the principal stone, +which was a diamond of great value, 'take your scissors and cut off a +lock of my hair, and here is a place to put it. I may be gray when we +meet again. Isn't it a queer ring?' + +It was indeed an uncommon jewel. It had been his mother's, and by her +had been inherited from the uncle who had first made his own and the +family's fortunes by a long residence in India. He had received it from +a Rajah in those old days when jewels and gifts passed freely between +the servants of the Great East India Company and the native princes. A +large ruby and an emerald of equal size flanked the centre jewel. The +setting was peculiar, massive, but artfully disguised by the exquisite +delicacy of the workmanship. The great beauty and value of the jewel +would have made it noticeable and prized in any society in which the +wearer might have moved. + +'You have comforted me,' she said, smiling through her tears, and again +taking his head in her hands and pressing her lips again and again to +his brow and face. 'I feel now as if I had some guarantee that I should +look on your dear face again. And mind, if you do not return in five +years and three months I shall come to Australia to search for you.' + +Thus they parted. He to face the new world of the strange and the +unfamiliar--light of heart and ready of hand, as is the wont of untried +youth; she to mourn his absence in secret, and to brood over her sorrow, +as is ever the part of the steadfast heart of loving woman. The +separation from his cousin Estelle was his sole cause of regret on +leaving England. Yet that transient grief soon passed away amidst the +turmoil and excitement of which he found himself a part in his capacity +of six-hundredth-and-odd passenger on board the crowded ocean-going +clipper. A strange enough experience to the home-bred youth, who, save +on yachting cruises, had never dared the deep. Heterogeneous and +strangely assorted was the crowd of the passengers--adventurers of every +grade, feverishly anxious to reach the land of gold, chiefly +inexperienced, but all sanguine of acquiring the facile fortunes which +they had persuaded themselves the new world of the South had in store +for them. Young men were there--mere boys, like himself--for whom the +trials of toil, danger, and privation were all to come. Hitherto +unrealised abstractions. + +Others, again, whose grizzled beards showed them as men who had fronted +foes in the battle of life, and were ready for another campaign. Many +had never left England, and, in despite of occasional boasting, were +heavy-hearted at the thought of the homes which they had left and might +never see more. Nor was the emigration entirely masculine-- + + 'There was woman's fearless eye + Lit by her deep love's truth, + There was manhood's brow serenely high-- + And the fiery heart of youth.' + +A half-expressed hope that the company in the second cabin would be less +conventional and more amusing than in the first, joined to the necessity +for economising his slender funds, had decided Lance Trevanion upon +shipping as a second-class passenger. Certain to be compelled to lead a +rough life upon his arrival in Australia, surely, he argued, the sooner +he commenced to learn the way to do so the better. Nor would his +association with refined women and well-bred men in the first cabin aid +him in his search for gold--necessarily with rough, half-brigand +comrades. Thus, partly as the outcome of the defiant spirit in which he +was leaving home and native land, he booked himself as a second-class +passenger. + +Doubtless, in the curiously mingled crowd of passengers who thronged the +first saloon of the _Red Jacket_ in that fateful year of 1851, there +were many remarkable persons, whose lives had included a far greater +number of strange adventures than most modern novels. But for a wild and +fanciful commingling of all sorts and conditions of men--from every +clime, of every grade, degree, and shade of character, the second-class +passengers bore off the palm. Since the untimely collapse of the +architects of the Tower of Babel, there could seldom have been so +diverse and bizarre a collection of humanity. + +The _Red Jacket_, under the stern rule of Malcolm Forbes, from whose +fiat there was no appeal, the most daring and successful maker of quick +passages that the records of the Company knew, had steamed off at the +hour appointed. Started when far from ready, however, if the masses of +deck lumber which needed storage were to be taken into account. The +weather, bad from the commencement, became worse in the Bay of Biscay, +where raged a perfect hurricane--a storm, or rather a succession of +storms, under the fierce breath of which the _Red Jacket_ lay-to for +forty-eight hours at a stretch, afflicting the inexperienced voyagers +with the strongly impressed notion that their voyage would not be quite +so long as they expected. But the good ship held her own gallantly; +finally ploughed her way through the mountainous billows of the Bay of +Storms into lower latitudes. Milder airs and smoother seas cheered the +depressed and pallid passengers. An increasing number walked the deck or +sat in seats provided for them day by day. Cheerful conversation, +merriment, and even such games as the conditions of 'board-ship' life +permit were indulged in from time to time. Then Lance Trevanion had +leisure to look around and examine his fellow-passengers. He would have +been difficult to satisfy who could not among his compulsory comrades +have selected one or more congenial acquaintance. In that year the _Red +Jacket_ was 'the great Club of the unsuccessful': authors and +dramatists, University graduates, lawyers, and physicians, clergymen and +artists, soldiers and sailors, tinkers and tailors, plough-boy, +apothecary, thief--to quote the nursery classic. All were there. + +Men of good family, like himself, chiefly younger sons, however, who had +quitted Britain in order to enlarge the proverbial slenderness of a +cadet's purse-- + + 'One was a peer of ancient blood, + In name and fame undone-- + And one could speak in ancient Greek, + And one was a bishop's son.' + +The _soigné_ ex-guardsman, for whom the last Derby had been the knell of +fate, _he_ was there, plainly dressed and unpretentious of manner, yet +bearing the unmistakable stamp of the class whom King Fashion delighted +to honour. The middle-aged club lounger, who thought the new game of +Golden Hazard, at which the stakes were reported to be so heavy and the +players so inexperienced, worth a voyage and a deal or two--he was +there. The farmer's son, who had hunted too much; the farm labourer, who +was a bit of a poacher; the gamekeeper, who had kept an eye on him; the +shopman, whose soft hands had never done a day's hard work; the groom, +the coachman, the gardener, each and every one of the members of the +staff of rural and city life--were there. With some exceptions, they +were chiefly young, and now, as the fear and discomfort of the early +part of the voyage wore off, the natural characters of the individuals +commenced to exhibit themselves. + +It was pathetic to see the trustful confidence with which +delicately-nurtured women, following their improvident or heedless +mates, clung to the idea that, once safely landed in the wondrous land +of gold, all would be well. They had left in the old land all that had +made the solace of their lives, their tenderest memories and inherited +affection. After unutterable wretchedness and discomfort, they were now +voyaging towards a land the characteristics of which were practically an +unknown to them as those of the interior of Africa, and yet, 'O woman, +great in thy faith!' those victims of ironic fate were cheerful, even +gay. As they looked in the eyes of their husbands or the faces of their +children and saw them happy and sanguine, they dreaded no cloud in the +tropic sky, neither storm nor disaster, poverty nor danger, to come in +the far south land. + +With many young men on board, and others who, though no longer young, +were not disinclined for games of chance, it was only to be expected +that a little card-playing should go on. Lance was naturally fond of all +games of hazard--bad, indeed, born and bred in him--derived from +whatever ancestor--the true gambler's passion. He had enjoyed no great +opportunity of developing it yet. All games of chance had been strictly +interdicted at Wychwood. Now that he had come into freer +atmosphere--into another world, socially considered--he felt a +newly-arisen desire for play, so strong and unconquerable that it +astonished himself. He had, of course, £200 or £300 with him, not +intending to land in Australia quite penniless. This was more than many +of his shipmates could boast of possessing, and he passed among them, in +consequence, as quite a capitalist; in his way. Though he played +regularly, almost daily in fact, he was more than moderately successful. +The evil genius of chance, who lures men to their destruction by +ensuring their success in their early hazards, was not absent on this +occasion. Lance won repeatedly, so much so that his good fortune began +to be as much a matter of general observation as his apparent easiness +as regarded money. + +It may be imagined that Trevanion's circle of acquaintances became +enlarged. Inexperienced youngsters like himself mingled every day, when +the weather permitted, with men who had played for high stakes in good +London clubs. Success, of course, varied. Many of the callow gamblers +lost all they had, and had, perforce, to look forward to landing in +Melbourne without a penny in the world. + +Among those who were proverbially unsuccessful was a young man, who, +from that and other reasons, commenced to attract an unusual share of +attention from the other passengers. He and Lance Trevanion were +decidedly unsympathetic. They were always pitted against one another in +play. They appeared to be rivals in all things. More than once they had +been on the verge of a quarrel, which the bystanders had prevented from +being fought out. What was perhaps really curious was the fact, which +all were quick to remark, that the two men resembled each other in +personal appearance to a most uncommon degree. Lawrence Trevenna, for +such was his name, was probably a year older, but otherwise had much the +same figure, features, and complexion. The eyes, too, strange to say, +were of the same shape and colour; and, as the two men faced each other +in the quarrel before mentioned, more than one looker-on remarked the +curious peculiarity--the strange unearthly glitter, the lurid light, +which shone forth in the hour of wrath and defiance. No one had noticed +it before in either face. 'They were as much alike,' said the second +mate, who was standing by, somewhat disappointed that the fight did not +come off, 'as if they were brothers. There couldn't have been a closer +match.' + +As it turned out, they had never seen one another before,--in fact, came +from different parts of England. The other man, when looked at closely, +was decidedly coarser in feature and less refined in type. His +conversation, too, disclosed the fact that his early education had been +indifferent. Handsome and stalwart as he was, under no circumstances +could he be considered to rank as a gentleman. That his temper was +violent was put beyond a doubt by the savage outbreak which led to the +quarrel. It was not certain that he would have got the best of it in a +hand-to-hand encounter, but his expression on reluctantly retiring was +of unequivocal malevolence, as was indeed exhibited by his parting +speech. + +'I'll meet with you another day,' he said. 'Australia is not such a big +place, after all. You may not have so many backers next time.' + +'It's perfectly indifferent to me,' answered Trevanion, 'when or how we +meet. I dare say my hands will save my head there, as they can do here. +People shouldn't play for money who can't keep their tempers when they +lose.' + +The passengers of the _Red Jacket_ had in a general way too much to +think about to bother their heads about the accidental likeness existing +between two young fellows in the second class, still the story leaked +out. It was said 'that one of them was an eldest son and heir to an old +historic name and a fine estate. The other was a very fine young man, +but evidently a nobody, inasmuch as he dropped his aitches and so on. +_But_ they were so wonderfully alike that you could hardly tell them +apart. It would be worth while to get up amateur theatricals and play +the _Corsican Brothers_. Effect tremendous, you know! Queerest thing of +all, too, they'd never met before and didn't like each other now they +had met.' + +'Strange things, doubles,' said Captain Westerfield, late of H.M. 80th +Regiment. 'Not so very uncommon though. Most men in society have one. My +fellow turned up at Baden, most extraordinary resemblance, wasn't an +Englishman either. Raffish party too, spy and conspirator persuasion, +that sort of thing. Did me good service once, though. Story too long to +tell now.' + +'Oh, Captain Westerfield, _do_ tell it to us,' said the fascinating Mrs. +Grey, as they walked back to the first-class region, after inspecting +the two Dromios. + +'Some day, perhaps,' murmured the Captain. + +The _Red Jacket_ held on her way with unslackened speed. Night and day, +fair weather and foul, with winds ahead or astern, it was all the same +to Captain Forbes. Never was an inch of canvas taken in before the +'sticks' began to give token of ill-usage. 'What she couldn't carry she +might drag,' was his usual reply to remonstrating passengers. And he had +his accustomed luck. In the murkiest midnight, or when fogs made the +best lights invisible a ship's length in advance, the _Red Jacket_ ran +into no homeward-speeding bark. Nor did any other reckless-driving +vessel, with a captain vowed to make the passage of the season, +encounter him. The long, low coast-line of Australia and the Otway light +were sighted at as nearly as possible the hour when they were expected +to be visible, and through the Rip and up the vast land-locked haven of +Port Phillip Bay went the Racer of the Ocean one afternoon, fully two +days in advance of the shortest passage which had ever been known in +those days between the old old world and that new one which so long lay +unknown and unpeopled beneath the Southern Cross. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +So this was Melbourne! At least the nearest that the _Red Jacket_ could +get to it, on account of certain natural obstacles. But it lay only +seven miles off, that is by the river, of which they could trace the +windings through high walls of the thick-growing, but slender ti-tree +(melaleuca). Anchored now in a broad bay, a low sandy shore on the +eastern side, on the west a green level promontory, with a few huts and +cottages sprinkled over it, falling back to far-stretching plains, with +a volcanic peak in the foreground and a mountain range in the hazy +distance. + +Without much delay comes a roomy lighter alongside the _Red Jacket_, in +which the passengers mostly elect to embark. + +Their luggage, an avalanche of bags, bundles, trunks, and boxes, is shot +on deck. A puffing, vicious-looking tug, with the air of 'a guinea a +minute for my time,' drags them off, through the shoals of the Yarra, +and so bustles forward till that grand and wonderful structure, the +Melbourne wharf, a rudely planked platform fringing an illimitable ocean +of black mud into which the river flat, guiltless of macadam, has been +churned. Here their goods and chattels are unceremoniously transferred +to the unsheltered wharf. It had been raining. The passengers, +surrounded by draymen, hotel and lodging-house keepers, look blankly at +each other. A few of the women begin to cry. Thus for them, as for all +the _Red Jacket's_ passengers, save the favoured few of the saloon, the +hard schooling of colonial experience commences. If quarrels arise and +animosities are generated on board ship, so also do friendships, true +and permanent, spring up. Trevanion had made acquaintance with a young +couple from the border of his own county. The man was a sturdy fellow, +half miner, half farm-labourer, whom the hope of bettering his condition +had tempted to the desperate step, as it appeared to all his +neighbours, of emigration. His wife was a fresh-coloured, innocent, +country villager, their one child, an engaging little button of three +years old, one of the pets of the ship. The two men had arranged to go +up to the diggings together, and Trevanion decided that in some respects +he could not have a better mate. 'Gwenny here can cook and wash for us, +and if we get a share of the gold and Tottie doesn't fall into one of +their deep holes as they tell us about, we shall do main likely, Mr. +Trevanion.' So it was settled, Mrs. Polwarth was a little nervous about +travelling through the 'bush' and living at a 'digging,' but where her +man went, she, as an Englishwoman and wife, was bound to go too. '"For +better, for worse," pa'son he says, and I reckon, lad, I'll stick to +thee as long as we've bread to eat or a shed to cover us.' Such was her +simple creed. + +'It strikes me,' said Trevanion, after the first few minutes of blank +astonishment, in which the country-bred couple, and even he himself +gazed around at the strange crowd and unfamiliar surroundings, 'that +we'd better hail one of these drays and get our luggage taken up to a +lodging-house, till we can look around. The weather is rather cold to my +fancy for camping out, though it is Australia. We mustn't get laid up +with chills, and fever, and ague, as that American warned us, to start +with. So Jack, you take care of the boxes and the family--I'll soon +manage a conveyance.' + +After a short but spirited engagement with a drayman, who seemed an +educated person, to Lance's astonishment, he compounded for a payment of +two guineas, for which moderate sum the owner of this expensive +equipage--worth a hundred and fifty pounds at ruling prices--covenanted +to land them all in safety at a decent lodging-house. + +'You are in luck,' said the drayman, as they were walking back to the +wharf, 'to find a place to put your head in to-night, I can tell you. +Lots of your fellow-passengers will have to camp out under any shelter +they can extemporise. But I happen to hear the people I am taking you to +say they had one bedroom and a small attic to let, the occupants having +started for Ballarat this morning.' + +'And how is it you are not there with all the rest of the world, if it's +as rich as they say it is?' + +'They can't exaggerate the richness of it. I know so much of my own +knowledge, but I happened to buy this old nag and the dray, which +brings me in about a thousand a year at present. I'm not an avaricious +man, so I'm waiting on here till I feel in the humour to tackle digging +in earnest.' + +By this time the wharf was reached, and the dray being loaded with their +boxes and bundles, Mrs. Polwarth placed comfortably in the centre, the +men walked beside the driver. Two long and very broad streets were +traversed before they arrived at a neat weatherboard cottage with dormer +windows and an upper floor. The proprietor, a bronzed colonist, received +them cheerfully, and immediately set to work to take in their luggage. + +'Mother,' he said to a cheery, brisk little woman who now came up to the +garden gate, 'you take in this young lady and little gal, and make 'em +comfortable. Mr. Waters says as they've just come out in the _Red +Jacket_. They'll be all the readier for their tea, I'll be bound. We'll +see to all the boxes and things.' + +'Mr. Waters, you'll just have time to do up the old horse afore the +tea-bell rings. I wouldn't let them beef-steaks get cold, if I was you.' + +As they sat smoking over a snug fire in the kitchen, after a well-cooked +and sufficing meal, Lance and his 'mate' came fully to the conclusion +that they _had_ been in luck in falling across their friend the drayman, +and being guided to such good quarters. Here they were comfortably +lodged at a reasonable charge, and, moreover, had the advice of two +experienced and well-disposed men as to their future plans and +prospects. + +'Yes. After stopping a week in Melbourne, I should certainly make tracks +for Ballarat, if I were in your place,' said Mr. Waters the drayman. +'You've come all this way to dig. Jack has a wife and a child to work +for, and the sooner you set about it the better.' + +'But what is the best way to get there?' asked Lance. 'The road is bad, +and it's a long way there. We can't carry our boxes. It's too expensive +to go by coach. I don't see my way.' + +'What Mr. Waters says is God's truth,' chimed in their host. 'You can't +do nothing but spend money, and waste your time here, unless you was in +a way of business, which ain't likely. Your only dart is to buy a +staunch horse with a tip-cart, and put a tent atop of your luggage. Take +tea, and sugar, and flour with you, a little bacon and so on. Then you +camp every night. It costs you little or nothing, and you're as jolly as +sand boys.' + +'And how about finding the road, Mister?' asked Jack, looking rather +anxious. 'It's many a long mile, and mostly through the woods, as I'm +warned. We might lose our way.' + +'A blind man could find the road night or day,' said Waters, with a +laugh. 'It's a mile wide, and there's a string of carts and drays, men, +women, and children, going along it, like a travelling fair. Night and +day you can hear the bells on the horses and bullocks a couple of miles +off.' + +'Won't the turn-out cost heaps of money?' asked Lance, thinking of the +price of Mr. Waters's horse and dray. + +'Not above seventy or eighty pounds altogether, and you can sell them +for the same or more money when you get to the diggings. We'll try and +find you a decent turn-out with a canvas tilt to keep the rain off Mrs. +Polwarth and Tottie. My friend Burnett knows half the miners that come +here from Ballarat, and they often have a cheap lot, horse and cart, and +a good many useful things given in, which they are in a hurry to sell +before they leave for England.' + +'That will suit us down to the ground, eh, Jack, and then--this day +week--hey for Ballarat and a golden hole.' + +For the next week Trevanion devoted himself to exploring Melbourne, and +seeing as much as he could of the strange world to which he had voyaged +on the other side of the globe. It was--to his British and comparatively +untravelled idea--a state of society utterly foreign and at variance +with all his preconceived ideas. + +In the first place there were no poor people, no beggars, no evidence +anywhere to be seen that anybody lacked money, food, clothes, or +amusement. It was distinctly Utopian in the evidences of material +prosperity, which everywhere abounded. The diggings both at Ballarat and +Bendigo (as Sandhurst was then called) had been sufficiently long +established to have furnished a class of lucky diggers who dominated the +urban population, and gave a tone of universal opulence to the +community. + +With all this, though men were plentiful who had made their ten or +twenty thousand pounds each in a few weeks, there was but little +disorder, and no lawlessness observable. A good-natured extravagance, a +defiant recklessness of expenditure were the leading characteristics of +the mining aristocracy. + +It was true that their wives sported expensive silk dresses, gold +chains, and diamond earrings; that they entertained one another as +agreeable chance acquaintances regale at the Criterion--a hostelry built +in the most expensive period of skilled labour, every brick used in +which was reported to have cost half-a-crown. The theatres and +concert-halls were crowded every night with a fairly appreciative and +orderly audience. The theatrical and musical talent was exceptionally +good at that time. For the news of the abounding gold of Ballarat +travelled far and fast, and, where the auriferous lure is waved, have +ever been wont to gather the mimes and the sweet singers of the world's +best quality. + +It was literally, and in many respects a revival of the golden age, a +truly Arcadian time. A truce seemed to have been proclaimed to the +world's sad-faced task-workers, to the slavery of desk and plough and +loom. Save the exciting labour of the mine--when, perhaps, each stroke +of the pick brought down stone heavy with the precious metal, or +dislodged ingots and gold dust--work was there none. So, at last, a +strong, light box-cart, with a staunch and active draught horse, having +been purchased at a reasonable price,--their new-found friend arranged +that part of the business,--a start was made one fine morning for +Ballarat--the El Dorado of the South. All their worldly goods were +packed safely and snugly. There was a canvas tilt, under which Mrs. +Polwarth and Tottie would be sheltered from sun and storm, and could +sleep at night. There was a small tent in which the men could dispose +themselves. The bay horse, led by Jack, stepped off cheerfully and +briskly, and then, with the blessings, metaphorically speaking, of their +landlord and Mr. Waters, the little expedition set forth. The latter +gentleman accompanied them for a short distance, until fairly past the +outskirts of the town, and on the broad highway marked by a thousand +wheels which led to Ballarat. He volunteered a modicum of advice, +limited in quantity, but valuable. + +'There's plenty of gold there, never fear, and new finds every day. You +may go home with a fortune next year, and in the _Red Jacket_ too, if +she keeps lucky and don't get run down. You and that "Cousin Jack" are +both workers, I can see it in all your ways. Stick together, you can +trust each other, and don't make more friends than you can help. You'll +find men by the score there that would cut your throat for a ten-pound +note, and chuck Mrs. Polwarth and Tottie down a shaft for the same +price. Keep a good look-out at night. Don't drink or play cards with +strangers. If you fall across a streak of luck, follow it up to the end, +but don't keep gold in your tent. If you don't hit it just at first, +persevere all the same. It's bound to come. And now I'll say good-bye, +and good fortune to you. Look up Burnett when you come back; if I'm not +with him, he'll know my address.' + +So their friend--a good and true one in every sense--shook hands with +Jack and his wife, kissed Tottie, with whom he left a large parcel of +sugar-plums, and departed. It was strange that he and the boarding-house +keeper should have taken such a fancy to the party; but such was the +fact, and in new countries and wild places outside the pale of ordinary +society, sudden and chance-made friendships spring up and blossom into +full fruition much more frequently than people in old countries would +believe. They had nothing to gain from these emigrants. They only +accepted the bare amount due for services rendered. They prevented them +from being over-reached in the purchase of that vitally necessary +equipment in goldfield days--the horse and cart. They saw, too, that +unlike the hero in that exciting Anglo-Colonial romance 'It's Never too +late to Mend,' they were put in possession of a horse that _would pull +down hill_ as well as up. In fact they acted with simple good faith, +generosity, and gratuitous courtesy, all through. + +This was not the conduct to be expected from perfect strangers in a +'lawless community' like Melbourne, _vide_ the fiction of the day. But +it happened to be true nevertheless. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +It is unnecessary to accompany the little party along the somewhat +tedious and decidedly muddy road which led the adventurers of the day to +the spot 'where the root of all evil grew wild up the country.' O dear +old friend, who used to quote this, and make merry over Governor Tarbox, +where art thou now? They saw the Royal Mail dash by, drawn by six horses +in an American coach, the leather-brace springs of which, and the plank +road, were a constant wonder to Jack and Mrs. Polwarth. Now trotted +along a dozen well-mounted police troopers, their boots and steel +scabbards shining in the sun, conveying 50,000 ounces of gold in a +four-horse drag. Anon, a drove of staring, long-horned fat cattle, +engineered by a dog of high educational attainments, a black boy, and a +couple of bearded, wild-looking stock-riders. Then, again, the bullock +team of the period--fourteen bullocks drawing a laden canvas-covered +waggon, with a tall Australian driver, the whip of him at times raising +hair, at times volleying like musketry--was another unequivocal +surprise. A flock of 2000 fat sheep, a drove of unbroken horses, a train +of a dozen pack-mules, all these were fascinating novelties and wild +surprises to the newly-arrived Britishers. + +A few days, however, sufficed to inure the little party to the toils and +difficulties of the journey, such as they were, and to teach them to +make light of them. The road--as before stated--nearly a mile wide in +places, and marked in black mud on the green turf, was visible to the +naked eye night or day. Mrs. Polwarth learned to fry chops and steaks +and make cakes as if she had been to the manner born, while the men +pitched their tents and made their nightly camp as if they had done +nothing else all their lives. Tottie, even, used to run about and pick +great bunches of yellow flowers, which were so like buttercups, together +with daisies and fringed violets, and was the merriest of the party. + +'This is going gipsying with a vengeance,' said Lance one day. 'I never +expected to find myself driving a cart and hobbling out an old horse, +like a tinker on a common; but as it's the regular thing to do, and as +this Tom Tidler's ground can't be so very far off now, I suppose one +mustn't grumble.' + +'It's main cheap travelling,' Jack would reply to these occasional +repinings. 'It don't cost much, that's one thing, and the weather seems +like taking up, so the little one can play about same as if she was at +home.' + + * * * * * + +Ballarat--at length! The far-famed!--the wonder-town!--the capital of +the kingdom of gold! A confused array of huts, tents, weatherboard +houses, and stores huddled together, as if rained down from the sky, on +the side of a hill partly covered with the iron-stemmed, sombre +Eucalyptus. A brook, with yellow waters hurrying down between green and +grassy banks. Crowds of silent, preoccupied looking men anxiously +engaged in what, to the new-comers, seemed mysterious mining operations. +Some were standing mid-leg deep in the creek, protected by thigh boots, +rocking curious wooden cases, which looked like children's cradles, and +which they afterwards found were called by that name. Policemen and +mounted troopers went to and fro among them, or issued from an +encampment higher on the hill--which was evidently the headquarters of +the executive department. Mud-stained, bearded, and roughly dressed were +the greater part of the population; Lance thought he had never seen so +many ruffianly-looking fellows before. A marsh, filled with waving +reeds, lay on a plateau a short distance to the westward of the field. +The green banks looked pleasant to the eye, shaded, as they were, by +wide-spreading trees--thicker of foliage than the others. + +'If you think well, sir, we might just as well pitch our camp here,' +said Jack. 'It's away from the crowd like, and I'll manage to make it +snug and home-like in a week or two. We can leave the Missis here while +you and I look out for a claim, as they call it.' + +So they made their temporary home by the side of Lake Wendouree, as it +came afterwards to be called, little dreaming that the day would come +when the marsh would be dammed and deepened, when, steamers would ply +upon its surface, and boat races and regattas take place thereon, with a +thousand school-children holding high festival on its banks. + +However, these developments were in the future. Nothing was to be seen +now but the waving reeds, the green grass, and a great black log lying +on the ground, by the side of which they pitched the tent, as being a +species of shelter and handy for purposes of cookery. Then the men +wandered through the diggings, talking to the miners, as opportunity +offered, and trying to learn something about the recognised method of +making a commencement to dig gold. + +Chance favoured them the day after they arrived, by the occurrence of a +dramatic incident, instructive in its way, as it turned out. + +They were walking along the side of the creek, looking at a +curiously-silent toiling crowd of 20,000 men, who, working in very small +and shallow claims, 16 feet square, on the celebrated 'Jewellers' +Point,' were turning up gold in handfuls, panfuls, and, in some +instances, nearly bucketfuls. + +Suddenly every man raised his head and shouted 'Joe.' Jack and Lance +thought the whole crowd had gone mad, as they hasted to join in the +chorus. They noticed, however, a dozen or more individuals leave their +work and depart unobtrusively. A moment after, a man came running +desperately down a gully which led to the creek, hotly pursued by two +troopers. He wormed his way among the holes, where the horsemen could +not well follow him, and seemed in a fair way of escaping, when he ran +nearly into the arms of a constable on foot, whom, coming from another +direction, he had not seen. This official, a wily and active person, +promptly secured him. He was then handcuffed and led off to the camp, +where, to the great astonishment of the Englishmen, who followed to see +the end of the affair, he was chained to a log by the leg; evidently a +desperate criminal, they decided. + +Lance interrogated one of the troopers who remained by the prisoner. 'I +suppose he's a hardened offender. Is it for murder or robbery? or only +horse-stealing?' + +The trooper laughed. 'Well, he ain't what you might call a desprit bad +'un, though he's broke the law. He's been diggin' without a license.' + +'What's that?' + +'Well, you'll soon find out, young man. If you don't get one, you'll get +tethered like this chap here. It's a permit to dig gold, and you have to +pay thirty bob a month to the Crown. You didn't think you were going to +be let dig up a fortune on Crown land for nothing, did you?' + +'Oh, I understand. Well, where can we get one?' + +'D'ye see that big outside tent at the camp? Well, that's the Mining +Registrar's. He'll give you one apiece, if you've got the cash, and then +you can dig gold by the hundredweight, if so be as you can find it.' + +'All right. Can I have a word with the prisoner?' + +'Oh yes; while I'm here.' + +Lance went up to the manacled one and accosted him. 'What's your name, +my man?' + +'I'm not "my man," or your man or any one else's. Though I'm not a free +man, certainly, if it comes to that. Isn't it an infernal shame that a +free-born Englishman should be chained up like a dog because he hasn't +thirty shillings in his pocket?' + +'It doesn't seem right,' said Lance. 'The money's not much, but, of +course, a man may be out of luck and not have it. The reason I asked you +your name was that I was just going to the Registrar to get a couple of +licenses for my mate and myself, and I could get you one at the same +time.' + +'Didn't I tell you I had no money?' said the man, rather savagely. + +'What does it matter about such a trifle? Of course, I will pay for you, +and you can give it to me when convenient.' + +'Thanks, very much,' said the stranger, with a softened voice and an +accent which spoke of different surroundings. 'My name is Hastings. +Edward Charles are my Christian names. You must make allowance for my +being out of temper. This sort of thing is enough to gall any man, and +there will be trouble out of it yet.' + +'Now,' said Lance to the trooper, 'if I get a license, as you call it, +for our friend here, will you let him go?' + +'By rights,' said the trooper, who had a good-natured face, 'he ought to +be brought up to-morrow before the Commissioner for not producing his +license when called upon so to do by any authorised person. But they're +all away, and I can square it--say he had got one that day, or +something.' + +'That will do,' said Lance, with a smile, as he handed the man a +half-sovereign. 'I'll soon have his paper and my own. I can't leave a +man--a gentleman, too--like this. That's the tent, isn't it?' + +'He's a gentleman, that chap,' said the trooper to himself. 'Any one can +see that; just out from home, too. But he's too soft. His money won't +last long if he goes and pays up for every chap here that hasn't got a +license.' + +As it turned out, it was money well invested. + +Trevanion went to the tent, where he found a busy gentleman sitting +before a table covered with notes and gold and silver, official papers +and books, etc., all in rather a state of confusion. He cut short his +explanation by asking 'What names?' in a gruff voice. + +These being supplied, he filled up three forms printed on parchment, +which he cut out of a long narrow book like a cheque book, and, holding +them in his hand, said, 'Four pounds ten you have to pay.' + +Lance handed over five sovereigns and received ten shillings change. He +then glanced at the licenses, consecutively numbered and dated, which +gave permission to John Polwarth, Launcelot Trevanion, and Edward +Charles Hastings 'to dig and search for gold upon Her Majesty's Crown +lands in the colony of Victoria for the space of _one month_ from date.' +These documents had been signed in blank--'EVELYN P. S. STURT, +Commissioner.' + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The trooper came back to the log with the two 'new chums,' as he, a +native-born Australian, would have called them, and turned his back +while Trevanion handed Hastings his digging license. He then faced +round. 'You've been arrested according to law for digging in Growlers' +Gully without a license. Do you now produce one?' Hastings handed him +the parchment slip before referred to. 'You hand me this license all +correct and regular. I now discharge you from custody, and,' continued +the trooper, evidently thinking he ought to say something magisterial +and impressive, 'I hope it will be a warning to you.' He then unlocked +the padlock, which was passed through a chain which held the handcuff +which was round the man's ankle, and released him. + +Hastings laughed as he stood up and stretched himself. 'I expected a few +strange experiences when I started to dig gold in this extraordinary +country, but I never thought to be chained up to a log by the leg. +However, it's all in the day's work. You've only done your duty, Doolan, +and indeed you've stretched it a bit in letting me off. I'll perhaps be +able to do you a good turn some day. Good-bye.' + +'Now Mr. ----,--I really don't know your name,--Trevanion, thanks, I see +you and your friend are just off the ship and therefore not up to the +wicked ways of digging life. I may say now that I hold myself deeply +indebted to you. In requital, if you'll come to Growlers' Gully, where +I'm hanging out, I can lay you on to a "show," as we miners call it, +that may turn out something good.' + +'We know nothing as yet,' said Lance. 'We're quite raw and +inexperienced, therefore shall be very glad to go to Growlers' Gully or +any other place, if there's a chance of setting to work in good +earnest.' + +'The best thing you can do, then,' said his new friend, 'is to walk out +there and stay in our tent to-night. To-morrow you can get back and show +your party the way. It's no good staying where you are.' + +'Done with you,' said Lance. 'Jack, you can go back and tell your wife,' +and away they went. After walking three or four miles, a kind of open +ravine, which in Australia is called a gully, presented itself. The +tents were thinner and the miners not quite so busy. 'That's our tent,' +said Hastings, 'and there's my mate sitting on a log outside, smoking +and wondering what's become of me. Hulloa! Bob, did you think I was lost +or in chokee? This is Mr. Trevanion; he's stood my friend or else I +should have spent the night on the chain, so we must lay him on to a +show, if there's one in the gully.' + +'It's a nice way to treat a Christian, chaining of him up like a dorg, +ain't it, sir?' said the miner slowly. 'It'll raise trouble some day, +I'll go bail. Proud to see you, sir. There's plenty of tea in the billy, +it'll soon warm up. Luckily I baked last night and there's a goodish +lump of corned silver-side of beef. You'll be ready for dinner, both on +ye, I reckon.' + +'This child is,' said Hastings, and 'Mr. Trevanion has had a goodish +walk, which ought to sharpen his appetite. That's right, Bob.' + +As he spoke, his companion, who, if slow of speech, was evidently a man +of action, placed some tin plates on a small table in the tent, knives +and forks, with a large loaf, half a round of cold corned beef, and a +bottle of pickles. This done, he poured out two pint pannikins of tea, +and sitting a little way off outside, filled his pipe and lit it afresh. + +'Mind them Irishmen that took up number six claim above Jackson's?' +inquired he. + +'Think I do,' mumbled Hastings, whose mouth, like some people's hearts, +was too full for utterance. 'Think I do; what about them?' + +'What about 'em?' returned Bob. 'Why, they've jacked up and cut it. Said +they wanted summut more certain. A dashed good show, I call it.' + +'There's a chance for you, Trevanion,' said Hastings. 'Go and peg it out +the moment you've finished this humble meal. You've got twenty-four +hours to be at work in it. But the sooner you make a start the better. I +shouldn't like to see you lose it. Bob will go with you.' + +Lance made very good time over the corned beef, which he couldn't be +induced to leave for a while. But he and Bob made a formal pegging out +half an hour afterwards, thus taking legal possession of two men's +ground. + +The very next morning saw the party duly installed. Mrs. Polwarth and +Tottie had arrived, the tent was pitched, a fireplace made, the windlass +fitted with a new rope, and Lance and Jack working away as if they had +been mining all their lives. + +For nearly a fortnight the two men toiled and delved, one winding up and +the other picking and shovelling away at the various strata which +intervened between them and the precious ore they hoped to discover. + +'We shan't get no gold here, I don't believe,' quoth Jack, mournfully, +one day. 'I've heard of a grand diggings only fifty miles off. I'm +warned they're a-pickin' of it up in handfuls.' + +'It wants ten days to the end of the month,' replied Lance. 'I like to +stick to things when I've begun. Suppose we make up our minds to keep at +it till then. It isn't fair to Hastings to run away without a good +trial.' + +'All right, Mr. Lance, we'll give it till the thirty-first. If we don't +hit it then, I'm off to Forest Creek for good. Until then we'll see who +can work the hardest.' + +As far as manual labour was concerned there had now come to be perfect +equality between the man of birth and the son of toil. Stalwart and +symmetrical always, the frame of Lance Trevanion had now acquired from +daily labour and simple food the muscle and elasticity of an athlete in +full training. Hour after hour could he swing the pick and lift the +shovel weighted with clay and gravel, or wind up the heavy raw hide +bucket, fully loaded, without the slightest sense of fatigue, with +hardly a quickening of the breath. The healthful, yet abundant, food +always procurable at a prosperous digging, amply sufficed for all their +needs; the sound and dreamless sleep restored strength and tissue, and +sent them forth ready, even eager for the morning's toil. + +As Lance walked among the tents, or strolled up the busy lighted street +on Saturday night, resplendent in clean flannels or a half-worn +shooting-jacket of fashionable cut, many an admirer of form, even in +that _lanista_ of magnificent athletes, the flower of the adventurous +manhood of many a clime, stopped to make favourable comment on the +handsome young Englishman who had come to the gully with 'Callao' +Hastings. + +Just one day before the last one of the month, when the partners were +already inquiring the distance of the first stage to Forest Creek, Lance +broke into a stratum of decomposed rock mingled with quartz gravel. This +was from a foot to eighteen inches in depth, and extended across the +shaft. They did not know--ignorant as they were of the humblest mining +lore--what had happened till they consulted their guide, philosopher, +and friend, Hastings. + +'Why, you've bottomed,' he made answer, with a look of profound wisdom, +'I'll go down and have a look at the "wash."' + +They lowered him down. Ten minutes after he sent up the bucket, +half-full; then, after the rope was lowered, came up himself. 'Get a tin +dish and carry it down to the creek till I wash the "prospect,"' quoth +he. + +He filled the dish with the 'wash-dirt,' as he called it, dipped it +again and again in the yellow waters of the creek, sending out the +clay-stained water with a circular twist of his wrist, in a way +incomprehensible to Lance and Jack. Lastly, when bit by bit all the clay +and gravel had disappeared, leaving but a narrow ring of black and gray +sand around the bottom of the dish, he spoke again-- + +'Look there,' he said meaningly. + +They looked, and saw dull red and yellow streaks on the upper edge of +close-lying grains, with an occasional pea-like pebble of the same +colour. + +'Is that--is that----?' asked Lance in a husky voice. + +'Gold!' shouted Hastings, 'yes, that's what it is. I call it an ounce to +the dish, with eighteen inches of wash-dirt for the whole width of the +claim; your fortune's made. It's a golden hole, nothing less, and one of +the richest on the field.' + + * * * * * + +So it was.... Day after day the partners cradled the precious gravel; +day after day they returned to their tent with a tin pannikin or camp +kettle containing enough of the precious metal to cause the most +pleasurable excitement in the owners, and to occasion exaggerated +reports of their wealth and the inexhaustible richness of the claim to +pervade the field. + +'You'll have to look out now,' said Hastings, impressively, one day. +'You've got a most dangerous and unenviable reputation. You've supposed +to have gold untold in your tent. Do you know what that means here?' + +'But we take our gold to the Commissioner every day,' said Lance, 'and +we see it sealed up and labelled and put in a safe before we leave.' + +'That's all very well, and the most sensible thing you could do, but +nothing will persuade some of those fellows, with which the gully is +getting too full to please me, that you don't keep gold or cash in your +tent.' + +'Well, what of that?' + +'What of that among some of the greatest scoundrels unhung? Fellows that +for a ten-pound note would chop Mrs. Polwarth up for sausages and fry +Tottie with bread sauce, after knocking both of you on the head? You +don't know what a real bad digging crowd is, and when you do it may be +too late.' + + * * * * * + +Now the reign of Plutus had set in, as far as Lance and his companion +were concerned. A few short weeks and how had their prospects changed. +What was now their position?--shovelling in gold at the rate of five +hundred pounds a week per man. It seemed like a dream, a fairy tale to +Lance. A year or so at most of this kind of work and he would be able to +return to England in the triumphant position of a man who had seen the +world, who had been, as the phrase runs, the architect of his own +fortune, who had boldly accepted the alternative rather than own himself +in the wrong, and who now had carried out what he had vowed to do in +spite of the incredulity of disapproving friends. + +And his cousin, his beloved Estelle, what would be her feelings? He +wrote to her at once, telling her to abandon all doubt and fear on his +account. Where were her prophecies now? He should always bless the day +on which he sailed for Australia. He might even go the length of +thanking his father for his stern reproof, his unjust severities. After +all it had been for the best. It had made a man of him. Instead of +lounging about at home, or idling on the continent (for he would never +have taken his degree if he had stayed at Oxford till he was gray), he +had seen what a new country was like, met numbers of the most +interesting people, learned how to carry himself among all sorts of +queer characters, learned to work with his hands and to show himself a +man among men. To crown all, he was making eight or ten thousand a year. +With a little judicious speculation he was very likely to double or +quadruple this. And in three years from the day he left she would see +him back again, he had almost said dead or alive. What talks they would +have over his adventures and wonderful, really wonderful, experience! +loving each other as of old and rejoicing in one another's society. The +life agreed with him splendidly. He was in famous condition, and except +that he was sunburned and a little browner, there was no change to speak +of. She would be able to judge if he had altered for the worse in manner +or lost form. Perhaps he had roughened a little by associating with all +sorts and conditions of men, but it would soon come back again when once +more he found himself among his own people and near his heart's darling, +Estelle. + +Thus far the welcome letter--how welcome those alone can tell who have +longed for tidings from a far country, who have waited with the +heart-sickness of hope long deferred, and have at length snatched at the +precious missive that told of safety and success, even of the +approaching return. + +Estelle Chaloner treasured this missive from a far country, read it and +re-read it day after day: she watched the features change and the colour +fade from her uncle's face as he listened to the exulting cry with which +she announced a letter from Lance, watched the stern face soften and +heard the first words of regret which had passed his lips since the day +of wrath and despair. + +'I was hard upon the boy, perhaps,--it's this accursed family temper, I +suppose,' he said. 'Where is the lad that isn't a fool in some way or +other! We are a stubborn breed, and once heated slow to cool. Tell him +when you write that he will be welcome again at Wychwood. Not to stay +away too long, though, whatever his good fortune may be, for I am not +the man I was, Estelle, and I should like to see my boy's face again, +before--before I die.' + +Here the hard voice changed, the stern man turned his head. Could this +be Sir Mervyn? thought Estelle. In all her previous knowledge of him she +had never known him to express regret for any act, speech, or opinion +whatever, however placed in the wrong by after-consequences. That he +should be really regretful and repentant struck her in the light of a +species of miracle. More than that, it imbued her with a vague fear, as +if there was some impending ill when such an abnormal change took place +in the social atmosphere. + +'Do not grieve, my dearest uncle,' said she, winding her arms around +him, with a look of beseeching tenderness. 'I know, from the way Lance +has written to me, that he has long since ceased to harbour resentment. +He knows that he was in the wrong, though he, and I too, must I confess +it, at the time, thought that you were too hard upon him. Depend upon it +we shall see him in a year, if not less, and all will be forgotten in +the joy of his return, in the triumph of his success.' + +'God grant it,' said the old man, 'but I have evil dreams. I believe the +devil enters into a Trevanion at times. Perhaps Lance may break the +spell. If he has an angel for his wife like my darling Estelle, it will +be all the more likely.' + + * * * * * + +Trevanion and party, of Number Six, Growlers' Gully, were 'fair on +it'--'had struck it rich, and no mistake,' in miners' parlance. Fame and +fortune were both theirs, assured, unchallenged; the fame, as in too +many cases in this world, considerably in advance of the fortune. His +partner, Polwarth, a shrewd, long-headed 'Cousin Jack' (as the Cornish +miners are called), stuck steadily to his work, stayed at home with his +wife and child, and beyond building a comfortable weatherboard-fronted +bark cottage for them, made no difference in his equilibrium. + +But it was otherwise with Lance Trevanion. His striking appearance, his +manner and bearing, his reputation for wealth, coupled with romantic +tales of his family circumstances, commenced to make him a personage of +consideration, as well as to cause his society to be sought after in the +higher social strata in and around Ballarat. Even at the Gully, now that +it had developed a true and defined 'lead'--the auriferous course of a +dead and buried river of the past--a couple of branch banks had been +established, shops and hotels had sprung up. + +All created organisms, during certain periods of their existence, are +capable of development. The conditions being varied, plants and animals, +including that strangely-constituted vertebrate, man, suddenly or by +graduation, but not less surely, expand and change, or decrease and +degenerate, as the case may be. Physical expansion does not invariably +presume moral advancement, and, indeed, the removal of restrictive +pecuniary conditions occasionally conduces to the reverse result. Alas! +that the delightful freedom from restraints which our civilisation +renders galling, which is often described by the phrase 'money being no +object,' should, in itself, be ofttimes that broad road leading to +irrevocable ruin, to destruction of body and soul. + +When a man arises from sound and untroubled slumber at or about five +'A.M. in the morning,' _vide_ Mr. Chuckster, and within an hour is +commencing a long day's work, which process is continued week in, week +out, with the exception of Sundays, there is not much room or +opportunity for the Enemy of man, who proverbially finds work for 'the +unemployed.' + +These, and chiefly for such reasons, were the dangers of 'Growlers' +Gully' during the early period of their existence--an eminently peaceful +and virtuous community. Hard at work from morn till dewy eve, that is +from daylight to dark, a matter of fourteen hours, there was scant space +or opportunity for riotous living. A quiet talk over their pipes before +the so-early bedtime, a glass of beer or grog at the unpretending +shanty, which, before the era of hotel licenses, was compulsorily modest +and unobtrusive, was the outside dissipation indulged in by the +'Growlers.' There was sufficient prosperity to produce hope and +contentment, but not enough, except in rarely exceptional cases, to +bring forth the evil craving for luxury and excitement. There was no +theatre, no gaming saloon (under the rose, of course), no inrush of +fiends, male and female, as upon a diggings of published richness; and +therein lay safety, had they known it, such as should have made every +man thankful, and every woman deeply grateful to the Higher Power that +had so ordered their destiny and surroundings. + +So might, perchance, have continued their Arcadian freedom from evil had +not the exceptional richness of Number Six been known and bruited +abroad. But, somehow, principally through Lance's carelessness, it had +leaked out, been spread far and wide, been wildly exaggerated, and now, +every day new arrivals from the most unlikely places in other colonies +testified to the brilliant reputation which 'Growlers' had acquired. +Greatness, indeed, had been thrust upon them. There was no escaping the +celebrity, wholly undesired by the more thoughtful and fore-casting +miners. But the majority of the adventurers of the day were young and +inexperienced. Intoxicated with their suddenly-acquired wealth, they +were splendidly reckless as to the morrow. They ever welcomed the +irruption of the heterogeneous army of strangers which invaded their +hitherto rather close borough. They treated their rash migration, made +upon the flimsiest reports, as a humorous incident wholly appropriate to +goldfield life. As for the risks to which such an admixture might fairly +be held to expose the safety and solvency of the community, they were +contemptuously indifferent. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Among the new arrivals who came in numbers to swell the gathering crowd, +whose huts and tents were now scattered for miles around the original +gully, which, owing to the chronic discontent of the prospectors, had +given its name to the locality, were some people from a distant part of +the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. They constituted a large +family party, comprising brothers, cousins, the mother of the young men, +their sister, and a friend or two. Their tents were pitched in an open +flat at no great distance from claim Number Six, and without any special +overture on either side, a casual acquaintance commenced which bade fair +to ripen into friendship. The migrating party were all native-born +Australians. Gold-lured, they had travelled in one encampment from their +homesteads on the upper waters of the Eumeralla, a tributary of the +Snowy River. In that mountainous region, thinly settled with scattered +families, tending their herds of wild cattle and wilder horses, had +these stalwart men and fearless girls been born and reared. The men were +fine athletic fellows, free and cordial in their manners, apparently +liberal and obliging in such small matters as came into notice. Apart +from his natural curiosity, too, as to the characteristics of this +company of 'Sydney natives,' as they were generally called--people of +pure British race and descent, who had never seen Britain--Lance was +attracted by their riding feats as well as by the high quality of the +unusually large number of horses which belonged to the party. That they +were consummate horsemen, he, a fair judge and performer in the hunting +field, at once perceived. Their ways of managing the animals, catching, +handling and saddling them, were all new to him. He came to walk over to +their tent in the evening, to talk over the gold news of the 'day', to +hear their stories of adventure by flood and field, to him novel and +interesting, and by no means unattractively rendered. Besides all this, +there was another appendage to the Lawless family--one which, since the +ancientest days, has sufficed to attract the ardent susceptible male of +whatever age and character with steady resistless force. There was a +woman in the case, and a fairly prepossessing damsel she was. The sister +of the young men, Kate Lawless, was indeed a very handsome girl. +Bush-bred and reared as she was, uneducated and wholly unacquainted with +many of the habitudes of civilisation, she comprised much of the +perilous fascination of her sex. Tall and slight, but with a rounded +symmetrical figure, there was an ease and unstudied grace in all her +attitudes, which an artist would have recognised as true to the training +of nature. Like her brothers, more at home in the saddle than in a +chair, she compelled admiration when mounted on her favourite horse, a +gray of grand action; she swept through the forest paths or amid the +awkward traps and obstacles of a goldfield with such perfection of seat +and hand as can only be obtained by that practice which commences with +earliest childhood. Her complexion was delicate, indeed, unusually fair, +save where an envious freckle showed that the summer sun had been all +too rashly defied, her soft brown hair was unusually abundant, while her +bright dark gray eyes had a glitter at times, in moments of mirth or +excitement, which denoted, either for good or ill, a character of no +ordinary firmness. + +Lance Trevanion had been out of the way of female fascinations for a +considerable period. The o'ermastering strength of his feelings after +the quarrel with his father; the fierce, persistent determination with +which he had followed up the fortune which he had vowed to gain in +Australia, had for the time being dispossessed the minor frailties. But, +now that wealth had begun to pour in with a flowing tide, now that +leisure had succeeded ceaseless toil (for he had felt justified in +putting on a 'wages man'), now that flattery, spoken or implied, +commenced to indicate him as Trevanion of Number Six, 'a golden-hole +man,' and the half-owner of one of the richest claims on the field, the +ordinary results of more than sufficing money and time commenced to +exhibit themselves. + +'I don't know that I like that Lawless crowd over-much,' said Hastings +to him one day. 'I'd be a little careful, if I were you.' + +'Why, what's wrong with them?' answered Lance, rather hotly. 'They're +fine, manly fellows, and pretty good all round. They can ride and +shoot--they're very good with their hands--and I never saw smarter men +to work. Quite different from what I expected Sydney natives to be.' + +'And their sister's a very pretty girl--eh! Come, don't be offended, I'm +only advising you for your good. But I met an old friend, who was a +squatter in their district, and he says they are a bad lot--gamblers and +horse-thieves--more than suspected of worse things, indeed.' + +'Well, of course, your friend may be a little prejudiced,' answered +Trevanion, trying his best to repress his rising irritability. 'They may +have fallen out. What's the difference between squatters and drovers? +That's what they are. They told me----' + +'What's the difference between country gentlemen and poachers?' replied +Hastings. 'You haven't been long enough in the country to know the ins +and outs of things. But, take my word for it, the sooner you drop your +native friends the better.' + +'Really, my dear fellow,' answered Lance, putting on a lofty and +superior air, which his friend had never before observed, while the +strange glitter in his eyes became more intense with every word, 'you +must permit me to manage my own affairs and choose my own friends. I +have not been so long in the country as yourself, but I am not quite +devoid of common sense, and have seen a little life before I came here. +The Lawlesses are pleasant, manly fellows--quite as good as most of the +men we meet out here; and Miss Kate is a friend of mine of whom I shall +allow no one to speak disrespectfully.' + +Hastings was an exceptionally cool man, or he would doubtless have +requested his interlocutor, shortly, to go to the devil his own way, +and, thereafter, have washed his hands of him. But he owed a debt of +gratitude for his first generous service which he was too sincere and +genuine to forget. + +'You must take your own way, I suppose,' he said good-humouredly. 'We +won't quarrel, if I can help it. But I hope you won't have reason to +regret not taking my advice. Have you heard who the new Police +Magistrate is?' + +'His name is Mac, something or other; comes from Tasmania, and knows +every escaped convict in the colonies by sight, they say.' + +'Oh, Launceston Mac! Is that the P.M. who is to reign over us? No doubt +he's a good man, but a little too fond of appearing to know everybody, +and awfully severe. He's too quick in his decision, for my taste. I feel +like the sergeant in _Rob Roy_, who considers that, "Were it the +Bailie's own case, he would be in no such dashed hurry."' + +'Oh, well, there are plenty of rascals here and to spare. He may try his +hand on them, and welcome.' + +'There's a new Sergeant of Police, too,' he continued. 'Can't remember +his name; something like Barrell or Farrell. They say he's a "regular +terror," as Joe Lawless expressed it.' + +'Frank Dayrell! Is _he_ come?' asked Hastings, with a change of tone. 'I +used to know him in a wild district out back, before the gold. There was +great joy when he left Wanaaring.' + +'Why, what was the matter with him? I heard he was a very smart, active +officer.' + +'All that,' said Hastings, 'but more besides--much more. Sergeant +Francis Dayrell bore the name of being one of the most unscrupulous, +remorseless men that ever touched a revolver. When he has duty to do, +he's all right. But, above everything, he must have a conviction. If he +can manage that, with his prisoner, well and good. If not--_caveat +captivus_.' + +'Whatever he is,' answered Lance, 'it won't matter much to us. We can +afford to pay for "Miner's Rights" now,' he added laughingly, 'and +there's nothing else likely to bring us within the talons of the law.' + +'I wouldn't make too sure of _that_,' his companion returned half +musingly, and with a strangely altered expression. 'Dayrell is a most +extraordinary man.' + +That there was, in the early days of the great Australian gold +irruption, a large proportion of remarkable and exceptional characters +on all the goldfields, few who have the faintest recollection of that +socially volcanic period will be found to deny. It could hardly have +been otherwise. Adventurers of every sort and condition, of all ages and +both sexes, from every clime and country, had there congregated at these +wondrous auriferous centres. The first year's manual labour, which all +essayed as the recognised form of ticket in the lottery, saw many of the +unused toilers disgusted or discouraged. Meanwhile, a demand arose for +competent persons to fill appointments the emoluments attached to which +were calculated on war prices. The public and private service were both +undermanned. Hence, every day well-born and well-educated mining +amateurs relinquished the pick and shovel to become gentlemen, so to +speak, once more. The more fortunate became Goldfield Commissioners, +Police Magistrates, Customs Officers, Clerks, Agents, Storekeepers, +Inspectors of Police, Auctioneers, and what not. The salaries were +large; the profits extraordinary--in many cases far exceeding the gains +of the ordinary miner. The rank and file of the unsuccessful applicants, +fully equal, if not, in some cases, superior to the fortunate +competitors, contented themselves with becoming police-troopers, store +clerks and assistants, coach-drivers, billiard-markers, or barmen. In +all these conventionally humble situations they were, if sober and +shrewd, enabled to save money and lay the foundation of future opulence. +The police force--more particularly the mounted division--was popular +with the more aristocratic waifs. It afforded a reasonable degree of +leisure, a spice of danger, and the privilege of posing in _quasi_ +military array, besides riding a well-appointed charger and wearing a +showy uniform. Among the privates and, so to speak, non-commissioned +officers of the force were to be found, therefore, a large proportion of +what, in a regular army, would have been called soldiers of fortune. +They were occasionally impatient of discipline, wild and reckless in +their habits, given to occasional brawling, drinking, and dicing, much +as were the Royalist soldiery in the days of the first Charles. But, +like them, they were brave to recklessness, cool and daring amid fierce +and lawless crowds, and of all that strangely gathered band the wildest +and most untamed spirit, yet the coolest, the most _rusé_, deadliest +sleuth-hound, by general acclaim and common report, was Sergeant Francis +Dayrell. + +Tall and slight, with fair hair and beard, and a false air of almost +effeminate softness in his blue eyes, he was wonderfully active and +curiously muscular as compared with his outward appearance. That he had +received the education of a gentleman all could perceive. Of his family +nothing was known. Ever reticent about his own concerns, he was not a +man to be interrogated. An admirable man-at-arms--promoted, indeed, in +consequence of some exceptional deed of power, the taking, indeed, of a +desperate malefactor single-handed; he was an unsparing martinet to +those below him, merely respectful to his superiors in rank, and +habitually hard and merciless to the criminals with whom he had to +deal. With the exception of occasional boon companions, with whom, at +intervals, he drank deeply, and, it was alleged, gambled for high +stakes, he made no friends and had no intimates. Solitary, if not +unsocial, he was generally feared if not disliked, and the mixed +population of the goldfield, many of whom, doubtless, were conscious of +'sins unwhipt of justice,' united in giving the sergeant a very wide +berth indeed. Such was the man who had suddenly been transferred to the +police district which included Growlers' Gully and its vicinity. + +Among his friends, the Lawlesses, Lance was not long in perceiving that +the sergeant's advent was not regarded as a wholly unimportant +circumstance. He rather wondered to hear the tone of mingled dislike and +bitterness with which the affair was discussed. + +'Not that _they_,' Ned Lawless, the eldest of the brothers, and, in a +sense, the leader of the party, laughingly remarked, 'had any call to be +afraid, but there were friends of theirs, quiet, steady-going farmers +and drovers, upon whom this cove, Dayrell, had been tremendously +hard--treated them dashed unfairly indeed. So that if, by chance, his +horse came home some day without him, he, for one, would not be +surprised, nor would he be inclined to go into mourning for him.' + +'If he only does his duty, though,' Lance could not help answering, +'_that_ ought not to make Dayrell unpopular.' + +'There's ways and ways of doing things,' returned Ned. 'I quarrel with +no man for doing his duty--that he's paid for. But this man's a ---- dog, +and I'd shoot him like a crow if he came messing round me, and think +nothing of it either.' + +Trevanion couldn't quite understand the savage tone with which these +words were uttered; he thought that something had occurred to put Ned +out, as he was habitually a good-tempered fellow. When he went to Kate +for an explanation, he found himself no nearer to a solution. + +'I hate the sight of him,' she said, 'with his soft voice and sneering +ways. I believe he'd hang us all if he could. He nearly "run in" a young +man we knew on the other side, and him as innocent about the duffing as +the babe unborn. He'll get a rough turn yet, if he doesn't look sharp, +and serve him right, too.' + +'But _you_ have no cause to mind his coming here, Kate,' he said in a +bantering tone. 'You've never stolen a horse, or "stuck up" +anybody--isn't that the expression?--(except me, you know). I wonder you +girls don't admire a handsome man like Dayrell.' + +'I wouldn't mind laying him out for his coffin,' said the girl +vengefully. 'I might admire his features then. But,' and here her face +assumed, for a few seconds, an expression which caused her companion to +gasp in amazement, 'his turn may come yet, and if Frank Dayrell dies in +his bed he's a luckier man than some of us think he'll be. By Jove!' she +exclaimed suddenly, 'if that isn't him, and almost close enough to hear +me. He's the devil himself, I do believe.' + +By a curious coincidence the unconscious object of this discussion had +emerged from a by-track, and, suddenly reining up, rode slowly past the +pair. Whatever his moral qualities he was utterly _point device_ as a +man-at-arms. His tall erect figure and _manège_ horsemanship were well +displayed on the handsome roan thoroughbred which he rode as a charger. +High boots, very carefully polished, with bit, stirrup-irons, and +sabre-scabbard glittering in the sun, showed the military completeness +of his equipment. At his sword-belt hung a serviceable navy revolver, +while from toe to chin-strap no smallest detail was omitted. + +As his eye fell on Lance and the girl, he nodded and laughingly raised +his helmet. + +'Well, Miss Lawless--we mustn't say Kate now, I expect--have you had a +ride after moonlighters lately? I expect Mr. Trevanion doesn't know what +the meaning of the word is. However, you and Ned will soon enlarge his +limited colonial experience.' + +As the trooper rode slowly past them, his well-bred high-conditioned +horse arching his neck and champing the bit which had stopped him so +suddenly, the girl turned pale in spite of her angry look, and lowered +her defiant eyes. Without speaking more or altering his careless seat +and steady regard, he sauntered slowly on, with one foot dangling +sideways in the stirrup. For an instant his eyes met those of Trevanion, +who, irritated by the whole bearing of the man and a certain +ill-concealed air of authority, said, 'I daresay you'll know me again. +May I ask what reason you have for favouring Miss Lawless and me with +your particular attention?' + +The sergeant's features slightly relaxed, though his eyes maintained the +same cold, penetrating inscrutable expression which had so annoyed +Lance, as he replied-- + +'Kate Lawless and I are old acquaintances, perhaps I can hardly say +friends. As for you, we may possibly be better acquainted in future. But +if you take my advice--that of a well-wisher, little as you may suppose +it--you'll stick to your claim, and be careful in your choice of +associates.' + +Before the angry reply, which was rising to his lips, could find +utterance, the sergeant struck his charger lightly across the neck with +his glove and cantered off, raising his helmet in a half-mocking salute +to Kate Lawless. + +'Insolent scoundrel,' said Lance, 'if he dares to address me again I'll +knock him off his horse. If I was in my own country I'd show him the +difference in our positions. But in this confounded country things are +turned upside down with a vengeance. But what did he mean by saying you +and he were old acquaintances?' + +'He be hanged,' said the girl, whose colour and courage had apparently +returned. 'We never were nearer friends than to pass the time of day. +But he was stationed once on Monaro, where we all lived, and, of course, +he came to the place now and then. I think he was a bit sweet upon +Tessie, but she couldn't stand him and so he dropped coming to Mountain +Creek. He's not worth minding, any road. We'd better finish our walk and +get home for tea, I'm thinking.' + +It was the early summer. The winter had been cold and wet. The Ballarat +climate is by no means of that exceptional mildness which the Briton +innocently believes to characterise the whole of Australia, making no +allowance for widely diverging degrees of elevation and latitude. It had +been severe beyond the usual average, wild and tempestuous. But now, all +suddenly the delicious warmth of the first summer months made itself +felt. Day after day witnessed the riotous growth of pasture and herbage, +the blooming of flowerets before the joyous sorcery of a southern +spring. Their path lay through the primeval woodland, bordered by an +emerald carpet studded with flower-jewels and redolent with balsamic +forest odours. As the shadows lengthened and the birds' notes sounded +clear and sweet through the evening stillness, the girl's voice, as she +told of wild rides and solitary experiences in their mountain home, had +a strangely soft and caressing tone. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Following closely upon this little episode, a fresh discovery in Number +Six demonstrated to Lance Trevanion that whatever else was raw, +unfurnished, and disagreeable in Australia, the colony of Victoria +generally, and Growlers' Gully, in the district of Ballarat, +particularly, were the easiest places to make fortunes in, out of a book +of fairy tales. Each week the yield of the claim grew richer, the +balance at the bank to the credit of Trevanion and party became larger. +So imposing was it that Lance seriously thought of selling his share in +the claim to his mate, even if he lost a thousand or two by it. Jack +Polwarth was a good fellow, and what, indeed, did a little money matter +any more than an odd handful of precious stones to Sinbad in the valley +of diamonds? He would be at home with his friends in, say, half a year. +That is if he returned by India, took a look at the Himalayas, saw +Calcutta and Madras; or why not viâ Honolulu, getting by heart the new +world, including the Garden of Eden as exhibited in the isles of the +southern main, before reappearing triumphant in the old. What would his +father say now? Where would be his cousin Estelle's misgivings, that +unswerving friend and lady-love whose letters had been as constant as +her heart? What a heavenly change would it be once more to the ineffable +beauty and refinement of English society after the rude environment of a +goldfield, the primitive civilisation of an Australian colony, but so +few years emerged from the primeval wilderness. + +It was with a sort of sob or gasp that he realised the dream-picture on +which he allowed his thoughts, a rare indulgence, to dwell. And after +all why should he not carry out his purpose? Why indeed? Strong and +unbending in matters of need and pressure, a certain indolence, an +occasional tendency to irresolution, formed a portion of his character +which often delayed prompt action and permitted opportunity to pass by. +The loitering life he lived at present, a central figure, so to speak, +amid admiring associates and envious adventurers, was pleasant enough in +its way. Then the old old temptation! It would give him, yes, +undoubtedly it would, a certain amount of pain and uneasiness to break +off finally with Kate Lawless. + +Tameless in spirit as she was, reckless of speech and fierce of mood +when her ungovernable temper was aroused, Kate Lawless could be +wonderfully soft and alluring, like all such women, when the tender fit +took her. There was then a child-like simplicity and abandon which +caused her to seem, and, indeed, temporarily _to be_, a different woman. +She resembled one of those rare psychological studies--which are indeed +scientifically authenticated--who lead a dual existence. For no two +individuals could be more unlike than Kate Lawless in one of her +'tantrums' (as her brothers familiarly expressed it) and the same woman +when the paroxysm was over, imploring forgiveness and lavishing caresses +on the object of her causeless resentment. That there are such feminine +enigmas no student of humanity will deny. But with all her powers of +fascination, she was so uncertain in her mood that she caused Lance +Trevanion the most serious doubts whether she reciprocated the affection +which he had been repeatedly on the point of avowing for her. Sometimes +she was especially friendly, full of fun and vivacity, taking long rides +through the wild forest tracks with him, on which occasions she would +astonish him by the way in which she would ride at stiff timber or +gallop adown the rock-strewn ranges, breast high with fern, daring him +to follow her, and shouting to imaginary cattle. At these times her +whole aim and endeavour appeared to be to attract and subjugate him. At +other times she was cold and repellent to such a degree that he felt +inclined to break with her for ever, and to congratulate himself on +being quit of so strange and unsatisfactory a friendship. + +He had not told himself, indeed, that he was prepared to marry her. +Democratic as he had become in many of his opinions, and conscious, +self-convicted, of falsehood and treachery to his cousin Estelle, he yet +in his cooler moments shrank from the idea of marrying an uneducated +girl of humble extraction, reared in a wilderness and bearing traces of +a savage life, beautiful exceedingly, and despite of her wilful and +untamed nature, wildly fascinating, as he confessed her to be. Thus +swayed by opposing currents, his heart and brain drifted aimlessly to +and fro for a space, while still a strange and unreal tinge of romance +was given to his life by the ever onward and favouring current of the +golden tide. + +Although matters had not progressed sufficiently far on the pathway to +civilisation at Growlers' to establish a claim to society in any +conventional acceptation, yet was there a rudimentary germ or nucleus. +One or two of the Government officials were married. There was a +clergyman who had a couple of daughters, energetic, intelligent damsels, +who had adapted themselves with much tact to their unusual surroundings. +At the camp there were gatherings of the officials of various +grades--police, gold commissioners, magistrates, and so forth, with a +few of the more aristocratic adventurers whose names were known, and who +were armed with introductions. It would be inaccurate to deny that there +was a little loo now and then, also whist, of which the points were +certainly not sixpenny ones. To these rational expedients of passing the +time, which, when there was no actual business on hand, occasionally +lagged, Mr. Trevanion would have been a welcome addition; good-looking, +well-bred, and--more than all--exceptionally fortunate as a miner. But +to all these hints and suggestions he--with a certain perverseness +difficult to account for, and which was remembered in days to +come--obstinately turned a deaf ear. More than one hint--well meant--was +thrown out touching the expediency of being 'so thick with those +Lawlesses.' Of course one could understand a young fellow being +attracted by a handsome lively girl like Kate Lawless. In those wild +days every man was a law unto himself, and revelled in his freedom. Yet +was there not lacking, even in that _mêlée_ of rude adventurers and +unprecedented social conditions, more than one kindly adviser. There +were men who knew the world--European and Australian--well and +thoroughly. From them he received warnings and advice. But he repelled +all friendly aid, and obstinate with the perverse intractability of the +Trevanion nature, disregarded them all. + +Beside outside acquaintance, in addition to Hastings and his mate Jack +Polwarth--who with his honest-hearted good little wife never ceased to +disapprove and to keep up a persistent warfare, so to speak, against the +Lawlesses--he had a friend within the fortress who more than once gave +him a warning, had he cared to avail himself of it. + +Quiet and reserved as Tessie (or Esther) Lawless had always shown +herself, he had never fallen into the error of mistaking her for a +commonplace girl. Without the showy qualities of her cousin Kate, she +gave token from time to time of having been better educated and +differently brought up from the others. She was always treated with a +certain amount of respect, and, even in Kate's most irritating moods, as +she rarely replied, so was she the only one of the party who escaped her +scathing tongue. + +She never appeared to seek opportunity to gain Lance's attention, though +when she did speak there always appeared to be some underlying reason +for her remarks. One of her characteristics was a steady disapproval of +the sharp tricks and double dealings of which her cousin often boasted, +and which Lance did not generally comprehend. He supposed them, indeed, +to be among the acknowledged customs of the country, and not considered +to be illegal or discreditable. + +'They are nothing of the sort,' she was accustomed to say, with +considerable emphasis. 'They are theft and robbery--call them what you +will; they are certain to bring all concerned to the gaol at some time +or other. If people don't mind that, nothing I can say will have any +effect.' + +'You'll have to marry a parson,' Ned Lawless would reply. 'What do you +think of the young chap that preached to us in the flat last Sunday? +Why, half the squatters began by a little "duffing." Nobody thinks the +worse of a man for that.' + +'If they're caught they go to gaol,' replied the uncompromising Tessie. +'Then they're criminals, and can never look any one in the face again! +And serve them right too in a country like this, where the gold fairly +runs out of the ground into people's pockets.' + +They all laughed at this, and the conversation dropped, while all +hands--the girls excepted--set to at a night of pretty deep gambling, +which lasted well into the small hours. + +A fortnight after this, as Lance was sauntering down in the evening to +the Lawlesses' camp, he found to his great surprise that there appeared +to be no one at home. The tents were all down, and gone, but two. + +One of the younger boys--a silent apparently stupid youngster of +fourteen--was in charge of the few remaining horses and the packs left +behind. He could give little or no information, except that the party +had moved to a new digging, of which he did not know the name, or, +indeed, in which direction it was. All he knew was that he and Tessie +had been left behind, to stay till they were sent for. All the horses +were gone but three. Tessie had gone out for a walk along the Creek, but +would be back soon. 'Here she comes now.' + +The boy pointed to a female figure coming slowly along a track which +followed the banks of a little creek, near which the Lawlesses' camp had +been formed, and then walked over to where the hobbled horses were +grazing, as if glad to escape from the necessity of answering other +questions. + +The girl approached with her head down, and her eyes upon the ground, +walking slowly, as if immersed in deep thought. Suddenly she raised her +head and gazed at him with a peculiar expression in her brown eyes. They +were not large, but clear and steadfast and--while she was speaking--had +a singularly truthful expression. There was a kind of half-pitying look +in them, Lance thought, which made him suppose that some misfortune had +happened to the little community, of which he had so lately been a +regular member and associate. + +'What's the matter, Tessie?' said he. 'I can see at once that you are +troubled in your mind. Why are they all gone away? Didn't Kate leave any +word or message for me? All this is very sudden.' + +'Mr. Trevanion,' said the girl, stopping short as he approached her, 'I +sometimes think you are the most innocent person I ever met. We natives +think young men from England are not very sharp, sometimes--but that is +mostly about bush work and stock, which they can't be expected to know. +But of all I ever met I think you are the most simple and--well, I must +say--foolish.' + +'You are not complimentary,' replied Lance, rather sullenly, and 'You +don't rate my understanding very highly. May I ask if you have any +letter from your cousin Kate for me?' + +'Yes, I have,' replied the girl, speaking with more energy than he had +ever before noticed in her, 'and I have been tempted to tear it to +pieces and leave you to guess the meaning. If I had acted as your true +friend--which I have always been--I should have done so. Take my advice +and drop us all--once and for ever. Why should you persist in making +friends of us? We are not good company for you--a born gentleman. Why +don't you behave like one, and leave people alone who are not your +equals in any respect?' + +'May I ask for the letter you refer to?' + +'Listen to me for the last time,' she said, coming closer to him and +looking earnestly into his face. 'Listen to me, as if I was your +sister--your mother--or the dearest friend in a woman's shape you have +on earth. I know what is in that letter. Kate wants you to join her and +the rest of the crowd at Balooka. Don't go! Do you hear what I +say?--_don't go_! or you will repent it to the last hour of your life.' + +'Why should I not?' asked he. 'Are you not going yourself with Billy +here to-morrow?' + +'I am _not_ going,' she said. 'I shall go to Melbourne to-morrow by the +coach, and, perhaps, never see one of them again, or you either. They +have been kind to me in their own fashion. I have eaten their bread, +and, therefore, I will not say more than I can help. But beware of Kate +Lawless! She is not what she appears to be! She is deceiving you, and +worse even than being the dupe of a heartless and unprincipled woman may +happen to you. Oh, promise me,' she said, 'promise me before I leave +that you will not go!' + +'If I had any doubt, your last words have decided me,' he said, and as +the angry light commenced to gleam in his eyes the girl's expression +changed to that of wonder and strange terror, deepening visibly. + +'It is himself!' she said, almost shuddering. 'Can there be two? Is the +Evil One walking on the earth and working his will as in the old old +days? You will not be turned now,' she went on. 'God is my witness that +I have done my best. Your blood be on your own head!' + +'Say good-bye, Tessie,' he said. 'I shall never forget your good +intentions, at any rate.' + +'Good-bye,' she said, in a tone of such sadness that he felt impressed +in spite of himself. 'You will not forget _me_. No, whatever happens you +will not do that. For your dead mother's sake, for your sister's, and if +there is any one dearer than either beyond the seas, for _her_ sake, God +bless and keep you.' And, waving her hands distractedly, like a woman in +a dream, she walked swiftly towards one of the tents, which she entered, +and was hidden from his view. + +'Here it is,' she said, reappearing, 'if you will have it,' and, as if +moved to sudden despair, she cast the letter upon the ground with every +gesture of anger and contempt. 'If it was a snake you wouldn't pick it +up, would you? And yet,' she went on, suddenly dropping her voice to a +low, earnest whisper, 'the worst carpet snake you ever saw--a death +adder, even--would do you less harm than what's in that letter, if you +follow it. Be warned; oh, Mr. Trevanion, be warned.' + +As she spoke her face softened, she leaned forward in a beseeching +attitude, her eyes filled, and this ordinarily reserved and +self-contained Tessie began to weep hysterically. + +'Confound the girl!' said Lance to himself. 'What a terrible to-do about +nothing at all! What's the good of coming to Australia if one can't +choose one's own society? I might as well be in Cornwall again. Surely +this girl isn't in love with me, too?' + +His unspoken thought must have manifested itself in some mysterious +fashion, though no word escaped him, for Tessie Lawless left off crying, +and, wiping her eyes, with a haughty gesture, appeared to return to her +usual composed bearing. + +That night brought but little sleep to the eyes of Lance Trevanion. It +was late when he entered his hut, and, flinging himself on the bed +where, for the most part, he had known nought but dreamless repose, he +commenced to think over the situation. + +Should he accept the warning so solemnly given by this strange girl, +who, before this, had manifested but little interest in his career, and +had lived a merely negative and defensive life? + +'How little we know of people's natures,' thought he, 'women's +especially. Who would have thought this quiet girl had all this fire and +earnestness in her? Her warning squared curiously with all that he had +gathered from other sources. Was there something mysterious and by no +means fair and above-board about these Lawlesses? It looked like it. And +Kate! What an artful treacherous jade she had proved herself to be, if +what her cousin said was true. Well, at any rate, he would go and see +for himself. He knew, or thought he knew, enough of life not to entirely +trust one woman's word about another. If Kate was false and deceitful, +he would have the satisfaction of telling her so to her face. If she was +true, well, he really did not know what was to be done in that case. At +any rate, he would go and see. Yes, he would show he was not afraid to +meet them all, there or anywhere else.' + +The fateful letter was short, badly written and worse spelled. It merely +stated that her brothers had settled to move to Balooka, naming a new +digging nearly a hundred miles away, and not far from the foot-hills of +the great Alpine range. They had gone into a large purchase in horses, +and were going to drive them to Melbourne in another month, when they +expected to make a lot of money out of them. 'If he cared to see her +again he might meet them next week at Balooka. The road went by +Wahgulmerang.' This precious epistle was signed, 'Your true friend and +well-wisher, Kate Lawless. P.S. If you only seen the black mare that was +gave me by a friend.' + +There was nothing alarming in this apparently simple and guileless +missive. A ride to a new digging was not only a pleasant novelty, but +distinctly in the line of his occupation as a miner, now that he was an +authority as a 'golden-hole man' with local fame and reputation. He had +a good horse, and though stabling was expensive he had felt justified in +being well mounted, as the companion of such a horsewoman as Kate +Lawless. The reference to the black mare and the generous friend rather +piqued him, as was probably intended. He had never encountered any one +in the guise of a rival, and felt curious to see what kind of admirer +had come forward. + +His preparations were not long in making. He informed Hastings and his +mate Jack that he was going to Balooka and might be absent for a week or +two. + +They evidently suspected the nature of the magnet which was attracting +him, and by their manner showed anything but cheerful approval of his +plans; wise by experience, however, they refrained from expostulation. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +More than once--many times, in fact--Lance Trevanion revolved in his +mind the strange mysterious warning which he had received from Tessie +Lawless. Careless, indeed reckless, as he had become lately in the +gratification of his caprices; safe in the possession of wealth hitherto +undreamed of and daily increasing; basking in a local splendour of +reputation based on the broad pedestal of success, there was yet +something in the girl's earnest tones and candour of mien which awed and +impressed him. Did she--could she--know anything really important? What +_could_ there be behind the scenes likely to operate prejudicially as +far as he was concerned? Why should he not go to this place which Kate +had named, stating playfully that it was rather an out-of-the-way hole, +but one which, as he was always praising up the beauties of English +scenery, he might like to see? '_She_ couldn't talk that sort of +rubbish, but there was a big dark mountain, a running river, not like +this ditch of a creek, and a flat beside it, like a small plain; snow, +too, in the winter. He'd better come up and see. It would be a change +after this beastly hot, dusty diggings.' So between idleness, +irresolution, and the lure of womanly wiles not weakened in witchery, in +a latter day and a newer world, Lance Trevanion finally decided to go to +Balooka. 'He had given his word,' he told himself, 'and what a man says +he should stand by, in great things or small. Such, at least, has always +been the wont of the Trevanions of Wychwood.' + +So next morning he sent for and saddled his horse--an upstanding, +well-bred bay, with a star and two white hind legs, which he had bought +a month or two since from Ned Lawless. There was no finer horse on the +goldfield. More than once he had been asked from whom he had purchased +him, where he was bred, what his brand was, by inquiring admirers, after +a fashion which he was apt to dispose of hastily, if not rudely, as +betraying the ignorance and bad form of colonists. + +He had intended to make a very early start, but it so chanced that there +had been an unusually rich washing-up the night before, and Jack +Polwarth, honest but unlettered, was most urgent that he should make the +deposit in the bank himself, receive the receipt, and see the amount +duly divided and paid in to their separate accounts. To this, after some +grumbling, he agreed, though not without declaring that Jack could do it +just as well himself, for Mr. Stirling, the manager of the branch of the +Australian Joint Stock Bank, then doing the chief business at +"Growlers'," was smart, straight, and plucky enough to run the Bank of +England, if that time-honoured institution had rated at its true value +the growing gold-crop of Australia, and opened there. + +It may be here explained that the gentleman placed in charge of a branch +bank on a leading goldfield in Australia differs widely from the portly, +white-waistcoated, decorous potentate generally cast for the character +in the metropolis or the large towns of the settled districts. He must +be young, in order to undergo easily the shifts and privations of +goldfield life. High-couraged the man needs to be, who sleeps with one +revolver under his pillow and another at his right hand; himself, +perhaps, and his assistant, the sole custodians of a hundred thousand +pounds in gold and specie, within a bark-walled, bark-roofed shanty, +surrounded by an unscrupulous population, among whom, though not +disproportionately so, are some of the most reckless desperadoes, +refugees, and unhung murderers anywhere to be procured. He must be free +of speech and open of manner, so as in a general way to commend himself +to the miner of the period; a man, as a rule, who, while respecting and +preferring a gentleman in matters of business, abhors formality. It is +by no means to his detriment if, in his hours of ease, he demonstrates +his ability to give points at billiards or euchre to nearly all comers, +or to 'knock out in six rounds' the leading talent in the glove +tournaments periodically held. In addition to these various gifts and +graces he must have a cool and strong head, a firm will, and a resolute +determination to do his duty to his employers at whatever hazard, and +finally, while not holding aloof from the amusements of the hour, to +remain well governed, sober and temperate in all things, amid the +manifold and subtle temptations of the 'field.' + +Oftener than not when the General Manager looks around among his more +promising juniors for the possessor of these qualities, he finds him +among the scions of the aristocratic families (for there are these in +all British Colonies, and recognised as such), the heads of whom, +holding Imperial official appointments, or having received grants in the +old colonial days, have failed to follow any of the numerous paths to +fortune trodden by their humbler comrades. In many instances the +unsuccessful colonist of this class--often a retired military or naval +officer--had anxiously desired to imbue his sons with that mercantile +knowledge in which he himself stood confessedly deficient. And the +youngsters, shrewdly observant of the weak point in the paternal career, +in a large number of instances, have developed an aptitude for business +which has regained for the family the status lost in the past. +Furthermore, in the occasional adventures of a more or less dangerous +nature, inseparable from a transitional state of society, the pioneer +financier has more than once exhibited an amount of courage and +coolness, including steadiness under fire, which has proved him a worthy +descendant of the grizzled veteran who, with clasps and medals for half +the battles in the Peninsular War, had never mastered the difference +between principal and interest, much less the mystery of debit and +credit balances. + +Such a fortunate and not unusual combination was Charles--generally +known as Charlie Stirling. Him the miners on more than one 'rush' were +wont to pronounce emphatically 'a dashed good all-round man, if ever +there was one.' Australian born, and in right of such privilege, +standing six feet in his stocking soles, strong, lithe, sinewy, a fine +horseman, and a sure shot, courteous ever, yet, in business matters, +cautious if liberal, Charlie Stirling--one of a large family, in which +all the brothers were 'men and gentlemen,' and the sisters handsome and +intellectual--was, at that day, perhaps, the most popular and widely +trusted bank manager out of Melbourne. + +It was with this personage that Lance determined, as he expressed it, +'to waste the morning' in delivering Trevanion and party's gold, +watching the same being weighed and the proceeds calculated at the rate +of three pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence per ounce, duly paid to +the credit of the accounts of Lancelot Trevanion and John Polwarth, +respectively. + +Then, as he anticipated being absent a week or two--the weather was +getting very hot and he thought a change to a cooler climate would be +enjoyable--the idea suddenly occurred to him that he might as well leave +his brass-bound trunk containing all his English souvenirs and +valuables, including letters and papers, in Mr. Stirling's care. 'The +tent might be burned down or robbed in his absence,' he bethought +himself, 'and Stirling is such a brick that if I came back in ten years +instead of ten days, it would be as safe as when I left it. There are +not so many men I'd say the same of, but if there's any man to whom the +old boast "you can trust your life to him" applies, that man is Charlie +Stirling!' + +Between business and pleasure the day was pretty nearly disposed of. His +valise had been packed in the morning. The bright bay horse was faring +well in the stable of the 'Prospector's Arms' hard by the bank--where +all hands went to lunch at Mr. Stirling's invitation. He and his clerk +lodged there, as far as meals went, though they took care--as, indeed, +was strictly necessary--to sleep at the bank. Mrs. Delf, the smart and +proverbially energetic landlady, was instructed to prepare a more than +usually _recherché_ collation. Champagne ornamented the festive board, +of which a local magnate--the opulent squatter of the vicinity--was +invited to partake, and all things being fittingly concluded, Lance +Trevanion made his adieus. + +'Well, good-bye, Stirling!' he said, as he mounted the resolute bay, who +arched his neck and gave a playful plunge. 'You'll honour my drafts, I +suppose? and, by the bye'--here he drew a rather large envelope from his +shooting-coat pocket--'keep this till I return. I had a fit of the blues +last week, and scribbled what you'll find inside. Good-bye, Jack'--here +he shook hands with Polwarth--'I'll ride by the claim, and say good-bye +to Tottie and her mother.' + +Half an hour's fairly fast riding brought him to the claim, alongside of +which stood the rude canvas shelter which had for so many weeks, even +months, filled the place of 'home' for all the party. A true home in the +best sense had it been. There had the little party enjoyed, so far, +peace, security, warmth and shelter, sound sleep and wholesome meals. +Near it was the shaft through whose incursion into Mother Earth's +interior the _esse_, to be so much more noble _in posse_, had been reft +by hard and honest toil. Even such a dwelling is not quitted wholly +without regret. + +'Well, good-bye, Mrs. Polwarth!' he cried as he rode up to where that +worthy matron--having placed a gigantic loaf in the hot ashes of the +recent fire in the open chimney--was washing and cleaning up all her +belongings. 'I'm going away for a week.' + +'Where to, sir?' she queried, 'if I may make bold to ask.' + +'Well, up the country a bit. Ned Lawless wants me to join him at a new +diggings, more than a hundred miles from here.' + +'Ned Lawless!' the good woman echoed in a tone of voice by no means +expressive of satisfaction. 'And what call have you, Mr. Lance, to go +making free with the likes of him? I don't like none of the breed--men +nor women, if you ask me, and what I've heard is a deal worse than what +I've seen. They're most like a lot of gipsies, to my thinking, as a +cousin of mother's went away with, and never was heard of no more. Don't +have no truck with them, Mr. Trevanion. What 'ud the squire say?' + +This last appeal, like many well-meaning deterrents, signally failed of +its effect. With a frowning brow, such as Mrs. Polwarth had rarely if +ever seen, Lance turned his horse's head, muttering, 'Don't talk +nonsense, Mrs. Polwarth; things are very different from Cornwall, and +the Lawlesses are my friends. I'll trouble you not to----' + +At that moment, when, perhaps, something of the fierce nature of the +man--of late subjected to wholesome influences--might have broken forth, +a voice was heard saying, 'Kiss Tottie, Lance,' and that rosy little +innocent, bright-haired and blue-eyed, like one of Guido's angels, ran +forward from the tent almost up to the horse's shoulder. 'Keep away, +Tot,' he called out, springing down. 'You little puss, do you want +Pendragon to tread on your naughty toes?' The child ran to him, as if +secure of welcome, and throwing her arms round his neck, kissed him on +brow and eye, with all the loving abandon of childhood. 'Come back soon +to Tottie,' she cried. 'Naughty Lance, to go away.' + +'Lance come back soon,' he said, and his face softened as he looked at +the child, in a way which showed how the finer chords in that mysterious +mechanism, the human heart, may be stirred by one touch of simple +nature. 'And I'll bring a bag of sugar-plums twice as big as this,' +diving into his pocket and throwing towards her a large paper +receptacle of sweets. 'Bye-bye, Tottie. Good-bye, sweetheart, good-bye,' +he carolled forth, as he struck spurs into his horse, and disappeared +round a turn of the winding, tree-girdled forest-road. 'May the Lord +keep him from all evil, and from the Adversary,' said Mrs. Polwarth, a +sound disciple of Wesley. 'His heart is that good, if his head's a bit +wrong set.' + +Lunch had been, perhaps, slightly protracted owing to the accompanying +champagne, one consequence of which was that after going back to the +claim, and saying good-bye to Mrs. Polwarth, not to speak of putting a +few of his personal possessions in order at the tent, Lance Trevanion +found on reference to the sun's height above the horizon that it was +much later in the day than he supposed. It would not be possible without +hard riding to make the stage he had proposed. There was nothing to be +gained that he knew of by saving a day in the expedition; he therefore +decided to stay quietly in the township that night, stable his horse at +the hotel stables, retire early, and make a 'daylight start.' An +apparently trivial disturbance of his original plan, yet upon such +diminutive difference in action what enormous consequences frequently +depend. + +Day had scarce broken as Lance Trevanion rode down the slope and across +the creek flat, which so lately the Lawless encampment had occupied and +rendered home-like, where he had passed so many a pleasant hour. Empty +and deserted, it wore to him, now, a forlorn and melancholy aspect. The +boy had evidently packed the tents and removed the remaining chattels +according to instructions. Tessie was, of course, also gone. She had +indeed been seen on the Melbourne coach. + +The day promised to be perfect. The sun stealing through the eastern +woods was slowly irradiating the sombre slumberous landscape. Mists were +rising from the lower levels, forming lakelets of white vapour, into +which capes and promontories ran, and islands floated. The birds +awakened by the sun-rays commenced with note of carol to welcome the +golden azure day. The well-bred hackney stepped out gaily, shaking his +head and making his curb-chain ring in a fast and easy walk. 'What a +glorious climate! What a grand country this is!' thought he. 'How free +is every man's life here, untrammelled by the vexatious restraints of a +narrow society. The very air is intoxicating. Joyous, indeed, is this +life in a new world!' + +The journey was much longer, besides being rougher as to wayfaring, than +Lance had expected. Following the directions given to him and the +straggling tracks which the earlier digging parties had made, he began +to approach the celebrated Balooka 'Rush.' He had noticed that he was +gradually quitting the open forest country. All suddenly, after toiling +up one range after another, he found himself upon a mountain plateau. +Beneath this, and beside a rushing, brawling, snow-fed river, wholly +unlike any stream which Lance had yet seen in Australia, lay, far adown +a deep glen, the already populous mining camp. + +Lance gazed with astonishment at the novel and picturesque landscape. +'Am I in North Wales again?' he could not help asking himself. 'Who +would have thought to have seen such a river? Such richly green +meadowlands? Such a stupendous glen? And oh!' he thought, as he passed +round a cape of volcanic trap-rock which impinged upon the smooth +upland, 'what magic and enchantment is this?' Yes, truly, as a loftier +line of summit of the great Alpine mountain chain which bisects the +continent came into view. So sudden was the surprise, so strangely +contrasted with all his preconceived ideas of Australian scenery was the +presentment of the wondrous white battlements upreared against a +cloudless azure sky, that he was constrained to rein in his horse and +gaze, silent and spellbound, at the supernal splendour of the +apparition. 'If Estelle were by my side! If she could but behold this +entrancing prospect,' he thought. 'She, whom the view of a far blue +range of hills, of a peaceful lakelet, would send into ecstasies of +admiration! How often had they stood together in the fading summer eve +and gazed at the wide and wondrous landscape, as they then deemed it, +which extended for some twenty or thirty miles around Wychwood.' Here, +with a new world unfolding to his gaze, what crowds of ideas and +half-formed projects coursed through the adventurous brain of the gazer. +Born of the class and moulded of the race which had produced the +immortal voyagers, the unconquered warriors, the dauntless adventurers +of Elizabeth's reign, Lance Trevanion needed but the stimulus of his +present surroundings to be inspired with lofty and enterprising ideas. +His original intention of returning home and settling down to the +monotonous and luxurious stagnation of an English country gentleman's +life became hateful to him. Far rather, if Estelle would join him here, +would he invest in these half-tamed Australian wilds, acquire a +principality along with the colossal herds and countless flocks of the +typical squatter, which magnates he had seen and heard tell of. +Eventually, he would embark with a capital sufficient to buy up half the +Duchy, to restore the House of Trevanion to its ancient grandeur, and go +down to posterity as _the_ Trevanion, the latter-day champion of the +race, who had redeemed the once regal name from the mediocrity which had +oppressed and disfigured it. But these momentous plans and enterprises +could by no means be carried out without the companionship and solace of +'one sweet spirit to be his minister,' and in that hour of exultation +and unfaltering confidence there came to him, like the strain of distant +music, the low, sweet tones--the gentle chidings of his queenly Estelle. +_She_ would, unless he misjudged her, follow him to the ends of the +earth. Why, then, should he wait to linger here amid rude +surroundings--even ruder society? His business could be quite as well +managed in his absence by the faithful Jack Polwarth. How suddenly the +idea struck him! Why, he could take his passage in the _Red Jacket_--she +was to sail in a fortnight; he had seen the advertisement in the Port +Phillip _Patriot_ of the day before he left Growlers' Gully--and be in +England in six weeks! A month or two in England, a honeymoon trip on the +continent, and they could be easily back here before next winter. Miners +had done it, even in his experience. The great thing was to make a +start. He would not lose time. He had lost too much already. He had half +a mind to turn now, and get back as far as the Weather-board Inn he had +seen about ten miles distant. What was the use, after all, of seeing +this new field, Balooka--or the Lawlesses--which meant Kate? What good +could come of it? Perhaps the reverse, indeed. Was there really anything +hidden, at which Tessie had clearly hinted? So sharply and clearly did +this new view of his plans and prospects strike him. May there not be +moments when the voice of a man's guardian-angel sounds with a strangely +solemn and distinct warning in his ears, for the moment drowning, as +with a harp of no earthly tone, the fiend-voice which ever seeks to lure +him to his doom? It would appear so. For even as Lance Trevanion turned +his horse's head, and paced slowly, but resolvedly, in the opposite +direction by which he had advanced, a woman rode at half-speed from out +one of the forest tracks--leading a saddled horse--and reined up with +practised ease in the main road, almost beside him. It was Kate +Lawless. + +For the moment he could scarce believe his eyes. He awoke from his +day-dream with a half sense of disloyalty to his promise, as the +startled gaze of the girl rested upon him. Their eyes met. In hers he +thought he recognised a surprised and doubtful expression, unlike her +usual fearless regard. She looked athwart the track adown which she had +come, and along the main road into which she had entered. At the first +clattering sound of her horse's hoofs Lance had turned his horse's head +in the direction of Balooka, so that she had not the awkward admission +to make that he had been retracing his steps. + +'Did you meet or pass any one on the road?' she said, as soon as they +had interchanged greetings. 'I couldn't hardly make out who you were +when I came up. Sure you seen no one?' + +'Not a soul, except a Chinaman,' he said; 'but what does it matter? I've +met _you_--and you have ever so much more colour than when I saw you +last. How becoming it is!' And, in truth, the girl's cheeks showed a +heightened hue, whether from emotion or exercise, which he had never +observed before during their acquaintance. + +For the rest, she looked handsomer than he had ever thought her. Her +graceful figure swayed easily in the saddle as she steadied her +impatient horse--an animal of high quality, and, unknown to Lance, as +was also the thoroughbred she was leading. Her hair had become loosened +at the back from the great knot in which it was mostly confined, and +hung in bright luxuriance almost to her waist. Her eyes sparkled, her +smile seemed the outcome of unaffected pleasure at meeting Lance again. +The old witchery asserted itself--old as the birth of history, yet new +and freshly fair as the dawning day. For the time Lance felt +irresistibly impelled to follow where she might lead, to abide at all +hazards in the light of her presence. + +Where were now the high resolves--the lofty emprise of a short half-hour +since? _Où sont les neiges d'antan?_ Gone, gone, and for ever! Was there +a low sigh breathed beside him as he rode close by her bridle-rein adown +the long incline, in which they could see the diggers' tents in +thousands whitening the green valley beneath them? + +'So you have come to see us at last,' she said archly. 'I began to +think Tessie had frightened you off it. I can't tell what's come to the +girl. Billy told me she'd been pitching a lot to you: how bad we was, +and all the rest of it.' + +'I said I would come, didn't I? and here I am. And a grand country it +seems to be. But what are you about, yourself, and whose horse, saddle, +and bridle are they? You haven't been "shaking" them? isn't that the +word?' + +'No fear,' she answered--half shyly, half angrily, as it appeared to +him. 'I suppose you think we haven't got a decent horse. I rode out with +Johnnie Kemp--one of our chaps that's working a claim at Woolshed Creek, +and brought back his horse for him.' + +'Johnnie Kemp knows a good horse when he sees him,' he replied, as he +looked at the well-bred animal. 'You'd wonder how they got such a coat +up here. And how is Ned? You left Growlers' Gully rather suddenly, don't +you think?' + +'That was all Ned's doing; he heard about this place being so good, and +was afraid to wait. He and the boys have got a first-rate claim here; +but he's been buying a lot of horses lately, and talks of starting for +Melbourne with a mob next week.' + +'That would suit me exactly,' said Lance. 'I should like to make one of +the party, for I intend to be in Melbourne some time before the month is +out.' + +'What makes you in such a hurry to get to Melbourne?' the girl asked, +and, as she spoke, she leaned across nearer to him and laid her hand on +his horse's mane, holding her bridle-rein and the led horse in her right +hand. 'Old Pendragon looks lovely, don't he? You'd better stop and keep +me company while Ned's away. I shall be as miserable as a bandicoot, for +the chaps are away more than half the time, and this is a roughish +place--a deal worse than Growlers'; poor old Growlers'--I always liked +the place myself.' + +As she spoke, her voice became lower, with a softened, appealing tone in +it which strangely stirred the pulses of the listener. The day was +nearly done; the solemn summit of the snow range was becoming paler, and +yet more pale, as the crimson and gold bars of the sunset sky faded out. +There was a hush, almost an unbroken silence in the forest; far beneath, +still, the mining camp appeared to be a mimic _corps d'armée_, from +which one might expect to encounter sentinel and vedette. The girl's +gray eyes were fixed upon him with a pleading, almost childish +intensity. It was one of those moments in the life of man--frail and +unstable as it is his nature to be--when resolutions, principles, the +experience of the past, the hopes of the future are swept away like +leaves before the blast, like driftwood on the stream, like the bark +upon the ocean when the storm-winds are unchained. + +What an Enchantress is the Present; Ill fare the Past and the Absent! be +they never so divine of mien, so spotless of soul. Lance Trevanion +placed his hand on the girl's shoulder as she looked up in his face with +the smile of victory. 'I shall have to take care of you, Kate, if Ned's +going to desert the camp,' he said. 'I suppose he won't be wanting to +settle in Melbourne.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +They rode quietly adown the winding track, which the sharpness of the +grade rendered necessary, until finally reaching the wide green flat, +they halted before the much-vaunted 'rush' of Balooka. The early summer +sun's rays in that temperate region had as yet been unable to dim the +green lustre of the herbage, or turn to dust the close sward of the +river meadows. The contrast was sharply accented in this still dreamy +eve between the brilliant tones of the levels and the sombrely-purple +shadows of the overhanging mountain, the faintly-burning sunset tints, +while through all sounded the rhythmic murmur of the rushing river +rippling over slate and granite bars, in the crevices of which were +'pockets' filled with gold. The strange blending of sounds which arose +from the camp--an occasional shot, the barking of dogs, the low hum of +many voices indistinctly heard--were not devoid in unison of a rude +harmony. + +'Can anything be more wonderful than this change of scenery?' exclaimed +Lance admiringly. 'Who thought there _could_ be such a spot in +Australia? It is lovelier than a dream!' + +'It don't look bad,' assented his companion. 'That's our camp to the +right. You can see they've yarded the horses. Ned's in front with his +gray horse, and I spot a stranger or two. Perhaps he's sold the mob "to +a dealer."' + +Touching the led horse with the quince switch which she used as a +riding-whip, Kate dashed into a hand-gallop, and, riding at speed across +the boggy runlets which trickled from the hills, pulled up short at a +cluster of tents somewhat away from the main body of miners. They had +been pitched close to the edge of the far-extending flat; nearly +opposite was a brush and log stockyard, in which were nearly a hundred +horses. + +Springing from her horse, though still holding the two bridles in her +hand, the girl walked up to her brother, saying as she came, 'It's all +right, Ned, Trevanion's come with me. I fell in with him--My God!' she +continued in an altered tone, 'what's up?' Then for the first time +turning her searching glance on the plainly-dressed man with a slouched +felt hat who stood by her brother's side, she exclaimed, 'Frank Dayrell, +by the Lord! Why, I thought you were a hundred miles off. What call have +you to be worrying and tracking us down, like a black-hearted bloodhound +that you are?' + +'Hold your d--d chatter, Kate, can't you?' said her brother, whom she +now noticed had handcuffs on, though, with his hands before him, it was +not at first apparent. 'Why the devil didn't you keep away when you were +away? I thought you and he were gone for good.' + +'Johnnie Kemp was only going as far as his claim; you know that,' she +answered, with a meaning look, though her cheeks grew pale and her lips +became hard and set. 'Now, Sergeant Dayrell, what are you going to do to +me--put the bracelets on, eh?' + +Then this strange girl burst into a wild fit of laughter, which, though +bordering on hysterical seizure, was yet sufficiently natural to pass +for her amused acknowledgment of the humour of her situation. + +At this moment Lance Trevanion, who had been gazing around with the air +of a man surprised out of all ordinary power of expression, dismounted +and advanced towards the man-at-arms. + +'Sergeant Dayrell,' he said, 'I am quite at a loss to understand these +very strange proceedings. Have you a warrant for the arrest of my friend +Lawless here? Is he to be punished without trial? And for any rashness +to this young lady here be assured that I will hold you accountable.' + +The trooper smiled grimly as his eye, cold and contemptuous, met that of +the excited speaker. + +'Your _friend_, as you call him, is arrested on suspicion of stealing +certain horses missing from the Growlers' Gully and the Ballarat field +generally, several of which, in that yard, are already identified. +_Miss_ Kate Lawless will have quite enough to do to clear herself. She +knows where that led horse came from. As for you,' and here his voice +suddenly became harsh and menacing, 'the horse you ride is a stolen one, +and I arrest you on the charge of receiving, well knowing him to be +such. Put up your hands.' + +Lance Trevanion had come nearer to the sergeant as he spoke, the frown +upon his face becoming yet more ominous and dark, while the gloomy fire +in his eyes had become strangely intense. As the sergeant spoke the last +word he drew his revolver, and pointing it full at the young man's head +advanced upon him. He doubtless calculated upon the surprise which in +the case of most criminals, alleged or otherwise, rendered them easy of +capture, for he signed to one of the men in plain clothes who stood near +to bring the handcuffs ready in his hand. But at that moment Trevanion, +springing forward, knocked up the barrel of the revolver, and, catching +his enemy fair between the eyes with his left, felled him like a log. He +lay for an instant without sense or motion. Before Lance had time, +however, to consider what use he should make of his instinctive success +the two constables were upon him from either side. He made one frantic +struggle, but the odds were too great, and after a short but severe +contest the fetters were slipped over his wrists with practised +celerity, and the locks being snapped, Lance found himself, for the +first time in his life, a fettered captive. + +The sergeant rose slowly to his feet and gazed upon the young man, now +breathless and held on either side by the myrmidons of the law. His brow +was flushed and red, but there was, at present, no mark of +disfigurement. + +'That was one for you, Dayrell,' said the mocking voice of Kate Lawless, +as she stood by her brother, with a jeering smile on her lips. 'My word, +Lance Trevanion, you got home then if you never get the chance of +another round. Why don't you slip the bracelets, sergeant, and have it +out man to man? I'll see fair play. You've a lot of science, we all +know, but I'll back Lance for a tenner. What do you say?' + +The expression on the sergeant's face had never varied from the cold and +fixed expression which it had worn when he made the charge against +Lance, but now he relaxed visibly and wore a comparatively cheerful air. + +'You are a good straight hitter, Trevanion,' he said, 'and I like a man +all the better for being quick with his hands. I didn't count on your +showing fight, I must say. But you never can tell what a man will do the +first time he's shopped. You'll know more about it before we've done +with you.' + +'Good God!' said Trevanion, 'you don't surely mean to say that you +believe I have had anything to do with stealing horses? I may have been +deceived. I begin to suspect that I have, but how many men have bought +stolen horses on the diggings without a thought of anything dishonest? +What reason have I either, a man with more money than he knows what to +do with?' + +'You can tell all that to the Bench,' said the sergeant coldly. 'All I +know is that I find you in possession of a stolen horse and the +associate of horse-stealers. You must stand your trial like other men.' + +Had the mountain suddenly rolled down, filled up the river, and +pulverised the camp, Lance's astonishment could not have been more +profound. He groaned as he felt the touch of the cold iron, and then +sullenly resigned himself to the indignity. + +'Now, Miss Tiger-cat,' said this modern presentment of Nemesis, '_you_ +know pretty well where the horse you were riding came from, and where +the one you were leading ate his corn a week ago. I must take them with +me, but you can have your side-saddle. Whether you're brought into this +racket depends on yourself, _you understand me_.' And with a meaning +glance the sergeant turned to his men. 'One of you take the prisoners to +the lock-up. Shoot either of them if they try to run. The other take +these three horses and secure them at the camp stable. I'll remain here +till you come back to watch these horses in the yard.' + +The little procession moved on. The fettered prisoners--now linked +together--the three led horses. The number was swelled by dozens of idle +or curious spectators to nearly a hundred before they reached the +temporary but massive wooden building which did duty as a gaol; and +therein, for the first time in his life, Lance heard a prison key +turned, and a prison bolt shot, upon--himself. + +Words are vain things, after all. Who can essay to describe--be it ever +so faintly traced--the mingled shame and surprise--the agony and the +sorrow--the wrath and despair of the man unjustly imprisoned? Think of +Lance Trevanion, young, gently nurtured, ignorant, save by hearsay, of +crime or its punishment, suddenly captured, subjected to durance vile, +in danger of yet infinitely greater shame and more lasting disgrace. +Haughty and untamed--so far removed by race and tradition from the +meaner crimes from which the lower human tribes have for ages suffered, +it was as if one of the legendary demon-lovers of the daughters of men +had been ensnared and chained. Ceaselessly did Lance Trevanion rave and +fret on that never-to-be-forgotten night. The dawn found him pale and +determined, with set face and drawn lips. Every vestige of youth seemed +to have vanished. Years might have rolled on. A careless youth might +have been succeeded by the mordant cares of middle age. So changed was +every facial line--so fixed the expression which implied settled +resentment of an outrage--even more, the thirst for revenge! + +When he became--after hours of half-delirious raving--sufficiently calm +to reflect upon and realise his position, nothing could be clearer than +the explanation. Scales seemed, metaphorically, to have fallen from his +eyes. How blind! How imbecile had he been, thus to walk into the trap +with his eyes open! _This_, of course, was what the girl Tessie had +meant when with such disproportionate earnestness she had warned him not +to go on this ill-fated journey. She knew what Ned Lawless's past had +been, what any 'business' of his was likely to be; and Kate--double-dyed +hypocrite and false-tongued jade that she was--how she had lured him to +his doom. Perhaps not exactly that, for, of course, his utter ignorance +of their villainy would appear on the trial, if it went so far, and as +to buying a stolen horse it was next to impossible to avoid +that--numbers of people he knew had done so; and then, what motive could +she have for enticing him to Balooka, when she must have known the +tremendous risk to which she was exposing him? She, surely, had no +reason to wish to injure him? Surely, surely, not after her words, her +looks, her changes of voice and expression, all of which he knew so +well! But throughout, and above and below all his thoughts, imaginings, +and wonderings, came with recurring and regulated distinctness--What a +fool I have been, what a fool, what a thrice-sodden idiot and lunatic! +_Now_ he knew what the friendly warning of Hastings meant. _Now_ he +understood Mrs. Polwarth's dislike and Jack's blunt disapproval of that +intimacy. + +It was easily explained. He had had to buy his experience. He had paid +dearly for going to that school. And who were, proverbially, the people +who would learn at no other? Fools, fools, again fools! + +The day had passed without his touching the simple food which had been +placed before him. At sundown the constable who came to see that his +prisoner was all right for the night, pitying his evident misery, and +accepting the non-absorption of food and drink as an incontestable proof +of first offence, tried to persuade him to 'take it easy,' as he +expressed it. + +'You've never been shopped before, that's seen. Well, it's happened to +many a good man, and will again. Don't go back on your tucker. You've a +long ride before you. We shall start back for Ballarat to-morrow. If you +get clear, you're all the better for not losing heart. If you don't, it +won't matter one way or the other.' + +Lance nodded his head. Speech--to talk as he did when he was _that other +man_, the man who was a gentleman, free, proud, stainless, who never +needed to lower his eyes or doff his hat to any living being--to him now +speech was impossible. + +The policeman looked at him, turned again, and shook his head and walked +out, locking and bolting the door mechanically. + +'Dashed if I can make out that case,' said the trooper to himself. +'Dayrell knows why he arrested that young fellow, I don't. Any child can +see he didn't stand in with that crowd. They've had him soft, selling +him a cross horse as any man might have knowed was too good for them to +own on the square; but if he gives up the horse they can't touch him, I +should think. He floored Dayrell though, and that'll go agin him. The +sergeant can make it pretty hot for them as he don't fancy.' + +Early next morning, half an hour after a pannikin of tea and a plate of +meat surmounted by a large wedge of bread had been placed in his cell, +Lance Trevanion was taken out and placed upon a horse. He was helped +into the saddle, the feat of mounting in handcuffs being rather a +difficult one to the inexperienced captive, as any gentleman may +discover by tying his hands together and making the attempt. He was +permitted to hold the reins by means of a knot at the end, and, with +some limitation, to direct the animal's course. But a leading-rein was +buckled to the snaffle, by which a mounted trooper led his horse. Ned +Lawless, also handcuffed, was similarly accommodated. One trooper rode +ahead, one behind. Neither of the prisoners' horses were such that if +they had got loose and essayed to escape, would have had much chance by +reason of superior speed. They were leg-weary screws, and were, indeed, +nearly due for superannuation, the goal of which would be reached when +they had carried (and risked the lives of) a few dozen more prisoners. +Dayrell remained behind at Balooka. Possibly he had some reason for the +delay, but if so he did not disclose it. + +What a different return journey was this from the commencement of it, +when Lance had set out so light of heart, so joyous of mood, his pockets +full of money, his credit unlimited, all the world before him, as the +ordinary phrase goes; able to pick and choose, as he supposed, among the +world's pleasures and occupations, to select, to examine, to purchase, +to refuse, at his pleasure. A good horse under him, the fresh forest +breeze in each inhalation exhilarating every pulse as he rode at ease or +at headlong speed through the winding forest track. A man, a gentleman, +rich, successful, respected, more independent than a king and unlike +him, free to come or to go at his own sovereign will and pleasure. + +And now, how had a few short hours, a conspiracy, heedless imprudence, +and malign fate changed and disfigured him. A prisoner fettered and +confined, charged with a grave offence, at the mercy of a severe and +unscrupulous officer whom he had been imprudent enough to defy and later +on to resist, what might he not expect? + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Long and deadly wearisome was the journey to Ballarat. Necessarily slow, +it became insufferably tedious to impatient men who had been used to +take counsel but of their own will and caprice. An early start, a late +ending to the dragging day's journey, broken but by a short mid-day +halt. Such was the order of Lance's return to Ballarat, until, on the +fifth day, they saw once more in the distance the smoke of the thousand +camp fires and heard the distant surge-like murmur of the army of the +Mine. + +Wearied and heart-sick, melancholy and furious by turns, Lance Trevanion +almost commenced to doubt of his own identity. When they arrived at the +camp he found himself led forward between two troopers and half +conducted, half pushed into a cell, the clang of the bolt seeming to +intensify the strange unreality of his position. The trooper informed +him that his meal would be sent in directly; that he would have to make +the best of it with the blankets doubled up for a bed in a corner of the +cell until next day. Then he would be brought before the police +magistrate, and either discharged or committed, as the case might be. + +On the journey Lance had, after his first paroxysm of rage and disgust, +abundant leisure to think over and over the facts and probable +consequences of his position. He was apparently to be arraigned, if +committed for trial, for having in his possession a stolen horse. But +could they, could any one prove that he had 'guilty knowledge--that he +knew of its being dishonestly come by'? Were not half the horses then +sold in Ballarat supposed to be stolen, stolen from the 'Sydney side,' +from South Australia, from all parts of Victoria indeed? He had never +known any one tried on such a charge, and had, indeed, thought in his +ignorance that laxity about the ownership of live stock was one of the +customs of the country, rendered indeed almost inevitable from the +absence of fencing or natural boundaries between the immense herds and +flocks. + +He had not, of course, the smallest suspicion that Pendragon, the horse +he had so named in memory of the old Cornish legend, which he had bought +from Ned Lawless at a high figure, was other than perfectly 'square,' as +Ned would have phrased it. Had he known the truth he would have +repudiated the purchase with scorn. But now, to be arrested and marched +to gaol with as much formality as if he had taken a horse out of the +stable of a neighbouring proprietor in Cornwall, or 'lifted' a flock of +black-faced sheep, struck him as truly anomalous and absurd. + +Next morning, after a night which came to an end in spite of his forlorn +condition, he found himself making one of a large class of _détenues_ +who, for one offence or another, were to come up for judgment. + +The ordinary charge-sheet of a goldfield is fairly filled as a rule, and +at this particular period of the existence of Ballarat as a town a large +proportion of criminals of all shades and classes had managed to make it +their temporary home. Expirees from Tasmania, where the transportation +system had only lately come to an end, had swelled the proportion of +habitual criminals. These were daring and desperate men; an inexorable +penal system had partially controlled, but failed altogether to reform +them. So frequent had been the assaults upon life and property with +which this class was credited, that an official of exceptional firmness +and experience had been specially selected for the responsible post of +police magistrate of Ballarat. + +This gentleman, Mr. M'Alpine, generally familiarly and widely known as +'Launceston Mac,' was credited with using a short and trenchant way with +criminals. Presumably a large proportion of his _clientèle_ had been at +some time or other before him in Tasmania. He had, it was conceded, a +wonderful memory for faces, as also for 'accidents and offences.' It was +asserted for him that he never met a man under penal circumstances that +he could not recognise if encountered twenty years afterwards. It was +only necessary in the case of doubtful identity to direct the attendant +police to 'turn him round,' which formula was almost invariably followed +by the remark, 'Seen you before, my man, on the other side, your name is +so-and-so. Six months' imprisonment with hard labour.' + +Doubtless in nineteen cases out of twenty the inference was correct, and +the punishment just. But there _was_ a probability that occasionally the +worthy justice was mistaken. Among the hordes of criminals with which he +had been officially connected, small wonder if an occasional lapse of +memory took place, and then so much the worse for the accused. + +But, as in all comprehensive schemes of legislative repression the +individual suffers for the general advantage, so the occasional +misdirections of justice, in that era of widespread license which might +so easily degenerate into lawlessness, were but lightly regarded as +incident to a period of martial law; and no one gainsaid the fact that +the practised readiness, prompt decision, and stern resolve which Mr. +M'Alpine brought to bear upon the thousands of cases were of priceless +advantage to the body politic and all law-abiding citizens. + +It was this Rhadamanthus, before whom so many an evil-doer trembled, +that Lance Trevanion found himself compelled to confront. He knew him, +of course, by fame and report, as who did not?--but had never met him, +as it happened, personally. He did not doubt, however, but that a few +words of explanation would suffice to set him free. It was therefore +with a sense of awakening hope that he obeyed the summons to follow one +of the constables to the court-house. This was a large but not imposing +building, composed of weather-boards, rude, indeed, and deficient as to +architectural proportions. However, it was a great improvement upon the +large tent which did duty as a hall of justice in the primitive days of +the gold outbreak. + +Erect upon the bench, regarding the herd of prisoners, as one by one +they came before him, with a stern countenance and searching glance, sat +Mr. M'Alpine. His eyes had that fixed and penetrating expression +generally acquired by men who have had long experience of criminals. His +face seemed to say to such: 'I can identify you, if necessary--I know +every thought of your vile heart--every deed of your ruffian life. Don't +dare to _think_ of deceiving _me_ or it will be worse for you--plead +guilty if you are wise, and don't insult the court by a defence!' + +Long and so sombre had been Mr. M'Alpine's experiences of every kind of +iniquity, of evasion, if not defiance of the law, that it is doubtful if +he considered any person ever brought before him to be perfectly +innocent. Certainly not, unless conclusively proved by competent +witnesses. The _onus probandi_ lay with the accused. It is asserted by +outsiders that all police officials in time acquire a tinge of the +hunter instinct, which impels them to pursue, and, if possible, run down +every species of quarry once started, irrespective of guilt. But this, +doubtless, is an invention of the enemy. + +After the squad of 'drunks and disorderlies' had been dealt with, the +names Launcelot Trevanion and Edward Lawless were called; 'the +prisoners' were ordered to stand up. + +A novel experience, truly, for the heir of Wychwood. The court was +crowded. It had somehow leaked out that Trevanion, of Number Six, +Growlers', had been 'run in' by Sergeant Dayrell for horse-stealing. The +news had not yet got as far as the Gully proper--the time not having +allowed. But every 'golden-hole man' was pretty well known on the +'field,' and Lance was a prominent personage, by repute, in the mining +community. + +'What the blazes has a chap like that any call to shake a horse +for--that's what I want to know?' inquires a huge, blackbearded digger. +'Why, they say he's worth forty or fifty thousand, if he's worth a +penny, and the claim washing-up better and better every week?' + +'He never stole no moke,' returned his companion decisively, 'no more +than you or me prigged the post-office clock, that's just been +a-striking! He's a free-handed chap with his money, and that soft that +he don't know a cross cove from a straight 'un. He's been had by Ned +Lawless and his crowd. That's about the size of it.' + +'They can't shop him for that, though,' said the first man, +contemplatively filling his pipe. 'They say he was riding a crooked +horse when he was took. Kate Lawless was with him on another. The yard +was half-full of horses the Lawlesses had worked from hereabouts. It +looked ugly, didn't it?' + +'Looked ugly be blowed!' said his more logical and experienced friend. +'Things is getting pretty cronk if a chap can't ride alongside a pretty +gal without wanting to see a receipt for the nag she's on! I believe +it's a plant of that beggar Dayrell's. He wants a big case, and that +poor young chap may have to suffer for it.' + +'Dayrell wouldn't do a thing like that, surely,' exclaimed the first +speaker in tones of amazement. 'Why, it's as bad as murder, I call it. +What's to become of a swell chap like him, if he's lagged and sent to +the hulks?' + +'There's devilish few things as Dayrell _wouldn't_ do, it's my opinion, +if he thought he'd get a step by it,' replied his friend. 'But this +cove's friends'll make a fight for it. They'll have law. They've got +money, and so has he, of course. They'll have a lawyer from Melbourne.' + +It did not appear at first as if there was much danger to be apprehended +as far as Lance was concerned. Directly his case was called, he stood up +and faced the Bench and the expectant crowd with a stern +expression--half of defiance, half of contempt. + +'May I say a few words in my own defence?' he commenced. 'I am certain +that a short explanation would convince the Bench that any charge such +as I am called upon to answer is ludicrous in the extreme.' + +'We must first have the evidence of the apprehending constable,' said +the police magistrate decisively, 'after which the Bench will hear +anything you have to say.' + +'But, your worship, I wish to speak a few words before.' + +'After the evidence,' said the P.M. sternly. 'Swear Sergeant Dayrell.' + +That official strode forward, stepping into the vertical pew which is +placed for the apparent _in_-convenience of witnesses, by adding to +their natural nervousness and trepidation the discomfort of a cramped +wearisome posture. To him, at least, it made no difference. Cool and +collected, he made his statement with practised ease and deliberation, +as if reading an oft-recited passage out of a well-known volume, +watching the pen of the clerk of the Bench, so as to permit that +official to commit to writing correctly his oft-fateful words. They were +as follows-- + +'My name is Francis Dayrell, senior-sergeant of police for the colony of +Victoria, at present stationed at Growlers' Gully. I know the prisoners +before the court. On Friday the 20th September last, from information +received, I proceeded to a digging known as Balooka, situated in New +South Wales, and distant about one hundred and seventy miles from +Ballarat. I arrived on Monday evening the 23d, and proceeded to the camp +of the prisoner Edward Lawless, whom I arrested by virtue of a warrant, +which I produce. It is signed by a magistrate of the territory. In a +yard close to the prisoner's camp I found a large number of horses, +several of which I at once identified as being stolen from miners at +Ballarat, or in the vicinity. Others appeared to have brands resembling +those of squatters in the neighbourhood. The prisoner Lawless was unable +to account for his possession of these, or to produce receipts. He was +about to leave for Melbourne, I was informed, in order to sell the whole +mob. I arrested him and his cousin Daniel, and charged him with stealing +the horse named in the warrant. While he was in custody I observed the +other prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion by name, riding towards the camp in +company with a young woman. She was riding one horse, and leading +another. When he came up I identified both the horse he was riding and +that of his companion as stolen horses, both of which have been +advertised in the _Police Gazette_. I produce the _Gazette_ wherein the +brand and description correspond. I charged the prisoner with receiving +a certain bay horse branded H. J., well knowing him to be stolen, and +arrested him. I then conveyed the prisoners to the gaol at Ballarat +East, where I confined them.' + +This evidence--which even Lance admitted to himself placed matters in a +more unfavourable light than he could have supposed possible--being read +over, Mr. M'Alpine said, 'Have you any question to ask the witness?' + +'Yes, your worship,' answered Lance, bringing out the last two words +with apparent difficulty. + +'You are aware that I had the bay horse in my possession for some weeks +at Growlers', and rode him openly there?' + +'Yes, certainly.' + +'Then why did you not arrest me there?' + +'I had my reasons, one of which was that I had not received an answer +from Mr. Jeffreys--the breeder of the horse.' + +'Was that with reference to the hundred pound reward offered on +conviction of any one proved to have stolen one of his horses?' + +'No!' + +'That reward did not actuate you in arresting me on a charge of which +you must know that I am innocent, if you have watched my conduct at +all?' + +'I _have_ watched your conduct, and know you to be an habitual associate +of the Lawlesses, who, as a family, are known to be among the most +clever horse and cattle stealers in New South Wales. I have known you to +make a practice of gambling with them for large sums. It has been stated +to me that you have lost as much as five hundred pounds to them at a +sitting.' + +'Did you not know that I had come straight from Ballarat when I rode up +to the camp at Balooka?' + +'I am not in a position to state where you came from. I saw you ride up +with Kate Lawless, in whose company I have repeatedly seen you. On this +occasion you and she were in possession of three horses--all stolen +property--the one she rode, the one she led, and the horse you rode.' + +'How could I know that the horse I bought from Ned Lawless was stolen? +He did not know, I believe, or he would not have sold it to me, I am +sure.' + +'That you will have to explain to the court,' returned the sergeant, +with pitying contempt. + +'Good God! Did I look like a guilty man when you arrested me?' exclaimed +Lance, in a tone which had an echo of despair as plank by plank he felt +his defence foundering, as it were, at every cold and sinister answer of +this relentless foe. + +'You made a most violent resistance,' replied the sergeant calmly, 'of +which my face still bears the mark. I don't know whether that is to be +taken as a proof of your innocence.' + +'I appeal to your worship,' exclaimed the unfortunate accused as a +nameless terror stole over him--such as Quentin Durward may have +experienced when Tristan L'Hermite and Petit André were about to attach +him to the fatal tree--lest, ignorant of all legal forms, he should be +tried and condemned before he had a chance of exculpation. 'I appeal to +your worship to permit my case to be adjourned, in order that I may +bring witnesses who can prove my innocence, and also that I may obtain +legal assistance. Surely you cannot sit there and see an innocent man +wrongfully condemned. Though a miner, I am a gentleman of good, indeed +ancient family; an act such as I have been accused of is, therefore, +impossible to me. For God's sake, permit me an adjournment!' + +The magistrate's face was impassive. His nature was probably not less +compassionate than that of other men. But long familiarity with crime, +long official acquaintance with every variety of villainy, had indurated +his feelings to such an extent that but little trust in human nature, as +ordinarily displayed within the precincts of his court, had survived. No +doubt this young fellow looked and spoke like an innocent man; but how +many criminals had looked and spoken likewise? The wholesale stealing +of miners' and squatters' horses--now worth from fifty to a hundred +pounds each in the Melbourne market--had reached such a pitch that the +miners had declared their intention to shoot or lynch any future 'horse +thieves,' as the American miners called them, if justice was not done +them by the Government. Mr. M'Alpine had this in his mind at the time, +and, with all proper respect for the rules of evidence, had come fully +to the conclusion that it was high time that an exemplary sentence +should be passed upon the very next culprit caught 'red-handed'; he +therefore made no reply to the passionate appeal of the unlucky +prisoner. + +'Read over the evidence,' he said, in a cold voice, to the clerk of the +court. + +That official with colourless accuracy read out Dayrell's damaging +statement on oath, as well as Lance's questions thereupon, which, as +generally happens to the accused who essays his own defence, had injured +rather than aided his case. + +'Do you wish to ask the witness any other question?' he inquired, in a +tone which would have led a bystander to think that the process was a +pleasant interchange of ideas between gentlemen, which any prisoner +might enjoy. + +'No; certainly not, but I should like to say----' + +'I understood you to apply for an adjournment, for the purpose of +calling witnesses and employing a legal practitioner?' + +'Certainly I did, but I wish----' + +'The prisoner stands remanded to this day week at 10 A.M. Bail refused. +It is understood that any authorised person is not to be denied access +to him. The court stands adjourned till ten o'clock to-morrow morning.' + +As this closed proceedings, the police magistrate walked slowly forth, +leaving Lance to be re-conducted to prison, with, however, permission to +see all friends and legal advisers. + +Before the proceedings closed the sergeant had made a formal request for +the adjournment for a week of the case against Edward Lawless, assigning +as a reason that he was not fully prepared with the necessary evidence. +This had been assented to: both prisoners were then marched back to +gaol, and being locked up in separate cells, were left to their +reflections. + +From the sound of whistling and even singing which proceeded from the +apartment occupied by Mr. Edward Lawless, the penalty of imprisonment +did not appear to fall heavily upon his elastic spirits: the iron had +not entered into his soul in any marked degree. But far otherwise was it +with Lance Trevanion. He had buoyed himself up with the idea that he +would only need to make a short explanation to the magistrate, and that +he would be immediately set at liberty. In this expectation he had been +bitterly disappointed. So far from his release being an easy matter, it +seemed as if a fresh element of doubt, a dismal dread, undefined yet +ominous, had been introduced into the affair. Would he perhaps _really_ +be convicted and sentenced? The idea was maddening, but innocent persons +had been found guilty before, if some of the tales which he had heard +were not untrue. Why not again? This was a strange country. He had been +deceived and thoroughly duped, as he could not help confessing to +himself. Might he not find himself yet more fatally mistaken in all his +conclusions? + +Seated on the floor of his cell, he rapidly fell into a state of +semi-stupor as these sombre imaginings coursed through his brain, +sometimes slowly and with saddest procession, at other times with almost +delirious haste. Was he indeed Lance Trevanion, the free, fearless +traveller of a week since? It surely could not be! What was he to do +next? Life or liberty, which came to the same thing, was surely worth +fighting for. He must have legal assistance if it were possible. There +was hardly a lawyer in Ballarat that was _practising his profession_. A +sufficient number there abode doubtless, but they were all in the year +1852 engaged in mining. After a while the ebb of adventure set in, on +which a return took place to nearly all the professions. But in the +spring of 1852 the golden tide was at flood-mark. It was hard to find +any man in the place or position which he had formerly held. + +From this mood of doubt and despair Trevanion was aroused by steps in +the corridor and the opening of the door of the cell. He had but scant +time to rise and stand erect when Hastings and Jack Polwarth +entered--the latter with an expression of alarm and astonishment that +but for his evident sincerity would have been ludicrous. + +'Why, Mr. Lance--Mr. Trevanion,' cried Jack, in tones of subdued horror, +'whatever has come to ye, that they have had the face to do this? Can +they stand by it, think ye, Mr. Hastings? Locking up a gentleman like +Mr. Lance here and makin' oot as he's stolen a trumpery 'oss, him as +wouldn't do the like for a Black Forest full of 'em. It's fair murther +and worse--all the gully's talking on it, and I could fetch a hundred +Cousin Jacks and Devon lads as'lld pull the place about their ears if +you'd but say the word, Mr. Lance?' + +'I'm afraid that would do no good, Jack,' said Hastings, whose concern, +not so freely expressed, was as deep and sincere as that of Lance's +faithful partner. 'I see no reason though, Trevanion, why you shouldn't +be out in a week. However, all this is deucedly annoying and vexatious. +Still we must be patient. Queer things happen on a goldfield. You +remember my plight when first we made acquaintance?' + +'Annoying!' replied Trevanion, slowly turning his frowning face, in +which the lurid passion-light of his gloomy eyes had commenced to burn. +'Why in the world should I have been selected by Providence for this +damnable injustice? I feel already as if I was disgraced irrevocably. +How can I ever show my face among my equals again after having been +arrested, handcuffed, charged with felony, locked up like a criminal? +Great God! when I think of it all I wonder why I don't go mad!' + +'It's no use getting excited over it,' said Hastings. 'The thing is to +_do_ all that we can, not to think or talk about it over-much. Stirling +will be here to-morrow. He could not come to-day, but will leave his +bank before the stars are out of the sky to-morrow, and will be here by +breakfast-time. He could not come to-day because of business. We will +see about your witnesses and manage to get a lawyer up from Melbourne in +time. Keep up your spirits. There are dozens of men, and women too, that +can prove an _alibi_. If my claim was as good as yours I'd swap places +cheerfully with you.' + +'Don't be too sure of that,' returned Lance with a sardonic smile. 'I +have a kind of presentiment that evil will come of this business. Why, I +know not, but still the feeling haunts me. Well, Jack, we never thought +of this on board the _Red Jacket_ when we were so jolly, eh?' + +'Just to think of it,' exclaimed Jack, with the tears running down his +honest face. 'And never a Trevanion in a prison before since that +king--I can't mind his name--shut up one of them in the old Tower of +London and cut his head off. But that was dying like a gentleman--that +ever I should have lived to see this! I could never show my face at +Wychwood or St. Austell's again.' + +'Why, Jack, you're about as foolish as your--master, I was nearly +saying--as your mate there, at any rate. Why, Lance is not even +committed for trial. All sorts of things may happen in the meantime. +_Must_ happen; _must_ happen. Now, we must say good-bye, Lance. I'll +send you in some books. I don't see many about. For God's sake, keep up +your spirits.' + +The time fixed for the remand having expired, Lance and his +fellow-prisoner, Ned Lawless, were brought up for their preliminary +trial. All necessary arrangements had been completed; no further reason +existed for delay either on the part of the Crown or of the prisoners. + +The sergeant was quite ready with his witnesses; Stirling and Hastings +had secured the services of the celebrated Mr. England, the great +criminal lawyer, about whose capacity the general miners' opinion, as +expressed on the occasion, ran thus: 'Well, if England don't get him +off, nobody will.' + +These important preliminaries having been settled, the crowd waited with +impatience mingled with a certain satisfaction that so important a trial +was really to come off and not to be strangled in its infancy, like many +promising legal melodramas to which they had looked forward. There would +be no mistake about this one at any rate. Sergeant Dayrell had come down +in full uniform from the camp at an early hour. The show would be on +soon after the clock struck ten. + +At that hour punctually Mr. M'Alpine took his seat upon the bench. In +five minutes the court was crowded. After the ordinary business two men +were marched in with a policeman on either side and placed in the dock. +They were Lance Trevanion and Edward Lawless. The latter looked calmly +around at the crowd as if there was no particular occasion for +seriousness of mien. His mental attitude was easily comprehended by +those of his compatriots who were present, whatever might be thought by +the emigrant miners who were so visibly in the majority. Ned had played +for a heavy stake--he had staked his liberty on the hazard and lost. If +he had won there was a matter of two or three thousand pounds--indeed +more--in the pool. That would have set him up in a decent-sized cattle +station capable of indefinite development. It was a fair risk. He had +taken it knowingly and with his eyes open. Now that he had lost, as the +cards had been against him, there was nothing for it but to pay up. It +would be three years' gaol, or perhaps five at the outside. + +When Lance Trevanion stood up in the dock, confronting squarely the +assembled crowd and the Bench, an almost audible shudder, accompanied by +a species of gasping sigh, passed through the court. Quietly but +correctly dressed, access having been possible to his raiment at +Growlers', he looked thoroughly a gentleman, a man of race and gentle +nurture. As he stood, calm and impassive, with a steadfast unflinching +gaze, the most suspicious person, however permeated with universal +distrust, could not have connected him with the meaner crimes. In a +half-smile, haughty and grimly humorous, his features relaxed for a +moment as he met the sorrowful gaze of Mrs. Polwarth. Then he drew +himself up to his full height and awaited the first act of the drama in +which he played so important a part. + +The curtain was not long in rising. The clerk of the court stood up and +read out the evidence of Senior-Sergeant Dayrell, taken at the first +hearing of the case, as also the order of adjournment signed by the +police magistrate. A stoutish dark man, with a mobile face and direct +clear glance, stood up and said, 'May it please your honour, I beg +pardon, your worship, I appear for the prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion.' + +'By all means, pleased to hear it, Mr. England. Sergeant Dayrell, your +first witness.' + +'Call Herbert Jeffreys,' and in answer to the stentorian call outside of +the court a gentlemanlike man with a bronzed countenance and of quiet +demeanour stepped into the witness-box. On being sworn, he deposed as +follows: 'My name is Herbert Jeffreys, I am a land-holder and grazier, +residing at Restdown, which is distant about one hundred and twenty +miles from Ballarat. I have seen a bright bay horse with a star, outside +of the court, branded "H. J.," which is our station brand, at least for +all horses and cattle running on the Campaspe. I swear to the horse as +my property. He has been missing for nearly twelve months. I am +perfectly certain it is the horse, and cannot be mistaken. I notice a +slight cut inside of the hock, which was the result of an accident. I +never sold him or gave prisoner or any other person authority to take +him. He is a valuable animal, worth between eighty and a hundred pounds, +as prices go. We have had a large number of horses stolen during the +past year.' + +Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'We had more than two hundred horses +before the diggings. We have offered a hundred pounds reward for the +conviction of any person found stealing our horses or cattle. It was a +measure of self-defence. We should soon not have had one left. Do not +consider it an inducement to the police to make up imaginary cases. If +people do not steal our horses the reward is a dead-letter. If they do, +they deserve punishment. I never saw the prisoner Trevanion before. If I +had, I should probably not have been here to-day.' (Asked why.) 'Because +any one can see that he is a gentleman, and doubtless unused to this +kind of work. I have no doubt that he purchased my horse without +suspicion that he had been stolen. Can't say whether or not the horse +has been in the pound since I saw him last.' + +Trevanion looked over at the witness as he spoke thus with a frank +expression of gratitude, while Mr. Jeffreys, having descended from the +witness-box and signed his deposition, sat down in a chair provided for +him to watch the trial. + +The next witness called was Carl Stockenstrom. 'My name--ja wohl--I am a +dikker from Palooga. Haf been dere all der wege more 'an dree months. On +Thursday neuntzehn Zepdember, I saw de brisoner at the Gemp's Greek, ten +mile from der Palooga. He was ride mit de fräulein Lawless. He ride not +the horse outside de court. It was anoder. They was having one fine +lark. She can ride--she ride like nodings dat I never shall see. I swear +positif to de prisoner, his face, his figure, above all dings to his +eyes.' + +Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'I have lost a good horse myself. I did +not advertise him in the local baper. Many of my mates lost theirs. I +did not think it worth while. The two were driving some horses when I +see dem. I saw two of them in Ned Lawless's yard, and was told they was +sdolen. Police dook dem away mit de oders anyways.' + +'Call Hiram Edwards.' + +A gaunt American miner stalked forward, and with characteristic +self-possession stepped into the witness-box. + +'Diggin' at Balooka? Yes, sir; followed the first rush. Heard talk of +hoss-thieves among the boys; advised to hang the first man caught +riding a wrong horse, just to skeer other critters. Worked well in San +Francisco, that simple expedient. Do not know prisoner personally, but +saw a man durned like him on Friday, 20th September last, in company +with that skunk, Ned Lawless, trading horses. + +'Lost no horse? No, sir; know too much to keep one on a placer workin'. +Sold mine same day I struck the gulch.' + +Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'Hev a sorter dislike to swear positively +to prisoner as having been in company with Lawless on that Friday. To +the best of my belief he was the man. (Has the prisoner any objection to +look at me for a moment.)' Then Lance turned suddenly and looked at the +witness with a determined and sternly interrogatory expression. The +witness changed front noticeably. 'I now swear to the prisoner as the +man I saw with Lawless on Friday; positively and plum-centre. Know his +eyes anywhere. First day I saw him was the Wednesday before. He and +Lawless both carried stock-whips.' + +Senior-Constable Donnellan deposed: 'I am a mounted trooper, at present +stationed at Balooka. I know the prisoner, and have been observing him +closely at Balooka for the last three weeks. Frequently saw him in +company with Edward Lawless and his sister. As they were suspicious +characters, or, at any rate, had a name for finding horses that were not +lost, I thought it my duty to watch them. + +'On the morning of Wednesday, 18th instant, I saw Lawless and prisoner +ride out early from the former's camp; they went for some miles up a +gully, and on reaching the top, where there is a small plain, I saw two +men meet them with a small lot (ten, I believe) of riding horses. They +drove them to the camp and put them into a yard. I have ascertained that +nearly all of them were stolen, and have since been identified by +miners. Saw prisoner several times with Kate Lawless at Balooka; am +certain that prisoner is the same man. Sent a messenger to Ballarat +express to communicate with Sergeant Dayrell, who came over and arrested +both prisoners.' + +By Mr. England: 'Took particular notice of prisoner's +appearance--prisoner is tall and broad-shouldered, with dark curly hair +and dark complexion. Has no ill-will against prisoner, Trevanion. If it +is sworn that prisoner was in another place, near Ballarat, at the time +mentioned by me, would not believe it. It was impossible, unless a man +could be in two places at once. Never spoke to prisoner at Balooka but +once; noticed that he had remarkable eyes. Was at the Lawlesses' camp +when he rode up with Kate Lawless; had seen him leave Balooka with her +early that morning. He was riding the horse prisoner led back. Can't +account for prisoner returning with a different horse and saddle, unless +he "shook" it. Beg the Bench's pardon--meant he may have picked it up on +the road. Thought prisoner looked slightly different, and was +differently dressed. Spoke differently, a little, not much. Attributed +this to seeing the Lawlesses, Ned and Dan, in the hands of the police +when he returned; and was dressed differently from what he had on in the +morning; had several times noticed him change his dress more than once +in a day. Would swear to the prisoner; would know him by his eyes and +general appearance anywhere.' + +Several other witnesses--miners, stock-riders, and small farmers--were +examined. They swore to ownership of various horses found in Ned +Lawless's 'mob' or drove, now in charge of the police. + +'Is that your case, sergeant?' inquired the police magistrate, when the +last of these witnesses had, at some personal inconvenience, signed the +depositions. 'I have but one other witness, your worship,' answered +Dayrell with an air of great deference, 'rather a material one, however. +Call Catharine Lawless.' + +From whatever cause, the utterance of this witness's name produced a +profound and universal sensation in the crowded court. Every miner knew +that the young Englishman had foolishly, as most people thought,--very +naturally, in the opinion of others,--admired the girl, and made no +secret of his feelings. For what reason was she now to be called as a +witness for the Crown? Had she turned traitress? Would she betray her +sweetheart in the hour of his peril? Far from immaculate, vain, violent, +and reckless as she was, the girls of her class and country were +proverbially as true as steel to their lovers--clinging to them more +closely in adversity, ready even to stand by them on the scaffold if +need were. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +'Catharine Lawless!' Thrice was her name called outside of the court, as +by law directed. As the echo of the last summons died away, a tall woman +closely veiled issued from a side door and walked composedly over to the +witness-box. Every eye was directed towards her; no sound was audible, +save some involuntary exclamation as the most sensational character of +the _corps dramatique_ appeared on the stage. Quietly and becomingly +dressed, _bien gantée_ and in all respects accurately finished as to +each personal detail, she moved forward with an air of haughty +indifference to her surroundings, including the court, prisoners, and +spectators. These last might have deemed that she was some interesting +stranger, an eye-witness by chance of deeds concerning which she was +compelled to testify. + +'Swear the witness,' said the magistrate, as the book was placed in her +right hand, 'and will she be pleased to remove her veil?' + +Thus admonished, the girl threw back her veil with a half-petulant +gesture, and touching the sacred book lightly with her lips, as the +solemn formula was recited, gazed around the court with an air of +insouciance apparently as unstudied and natural as if she had come +direct from Arcadia. + +For one moment her clear gray eyes, unheeding every other creature in +the crowd of spectators, rested on the two men in the dock. Those who +knew her--and there were many such in the congregation--looked eagerly +for some softened expression, some sign of regret, as might any woman +wear when beholding her lover and her brother in the place set apart for +felons, who knew them to be charged with a serious offence, and liable +to years of degrading imprisonment, from which, perchance, a word from +her lips might save one--might even alleviate their lot--so great is the +sympathy felt for the power exercised by a handsome woman, even in the +temple of justice. + +Those who thus reasoned were doomed to disappointment. Her gaze passed +coldly over her brother's lounging form and tranquil features, but when +she encountered the stern interrogation which was written on the +frowning brow and set lips of Lance Trevanion, she drew back for an +instant, and then slightly raising her head and drawing herself up, an +action which displayed to perfection the symmetrical moulding of her +figure, returned his regard with a glance as fierce and unfaltering as +his own. For one moment only did the mental duel appear to last, for one +moment was each antagonistic electric current propelled along the mutual +course. Then, with an impatient gesture, she turned half round and +awaited the official questioning. + +The oppressive silence which up to that moment had pervaded the court +ceased, as by a broken spell, and comments were audible to those +immediately around the speaker, more than one of which went as follows-- + +'She's going to swear up, you bet your life. Never saw a woman look like +her that didn't. Sooner have her on my side than against me, that's all +_I_ know.' + +'Dayrell's been working a point to set her against him, that's where +he'll score the odd trick, you'll see,' observed his equally philosophic +friend. 'She's been dead nuts on that new chum, that's why she's +thirsting for his blood now. I think I knows 'em.' + +'What is your name?' commenced the sergeant, who in the preliminary +examination was, as the police officer in charge of the case, permitted +to officiate in Courts of Petty Sessions as Acting Crown Prosecutor. +'Catharine Lawless.' This answer was given in a low but distinct voice. +'You are the sister of Edward Lawless, one of the prisoners now before +the Court; and you have been residing with him at Balooka, and recently +at Growlers' Gully?' + +'Yes. We have all been living with him since father died.' + +'Just so. And you know the other prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion?' Here +the sergeant feigned to examine his notebook, ostensibly to refresh his +memory, but really in order to afford witness and prisoner opportunity +to look at each other. Also that the court, the spectators, the +magistrate, and lastly he, Francis Dayrell, might appreciate their +mutual discomfort. + +This Mephistophelian design was set at naught by the self-possession of +the witness, who after one glance, brief as the jagged lightning and as +scathing, answered deliberately--'Yes, I do know Lance Trevanion, _I +know him well_.' + +There was not much in this apparently harmless Saxon sentence, chiefly +monosyllabic, but those who were close enough to hear the last words +thrilled for long days after as they recalled the concentrated venom +with which they were saturated. + +'When you say you know the prisoner, Trevanion, well,' queried Dayrell, +with an air of respectful interest, 'you mean, I suppose, that he was a +great friend of your brothers, and of the family generally. Your brother +Dan, your cousin Harry, and his sister Tessie--you are rather a large +family, I believe--were all friendly towards him, as he to you?' + +'Yes; very friendly; we all thought no end of him.' + +'Of course, of course; most natural on your part and his. He was often +at your camp, at Growlers'. Used to play a game or two of cards +sometimes with your brothers--a little euchre--eh?' + +'Yes; I believe so.' + +'You believe so? Don't you know it, Miss Lawless? Were not the stakes +rather heavy sometimes?' + +'They may have been. I never played for money. The boys may have had a +gamble now and then.' + +'Really, your worship,' interposed Mr. England, 'I can't see what these +trivialities have to do with the case. The witness is an extremely +prepossessing young woman--outwardly. We admit at once that she +exercised a certain fascination over my client. Why shouldn't she? _Nemo +omnibus horis sapit, etc._, particularly on the diggings. But the +sergeant, apparently, will proceed to ask her if she ever sewed on a +button for my client, and I appeal to your worship, if we are to sit +here all day and listen to this mode of examination?' + +'I must ask your worship's permission to conduct the case in my own +way,' returned the sergeant. 'I guarantee that these apparently trivial +details are of material importance to the case.' + +'You may proceed, Sergeant Dayrell. I trust to you not to encumber the +depositions with needless details.' + +'I shall bear in mind your worship's directions; and now, Miss Lawless, +please to attend to me, and be careful in answering the next question.' +Here he fixed his eyes meaningly upon her countenance. + +'You remember the evening of Monday, the 23d of this month, when I saw +you ride into your brother's camp at Balooka, in company with the +prisoner, Trevanion?' + +'Yes; I do.' + +'Had he been with you and Ned at Balooka for some time previously?' + +There was a pause after the sergeant's measured and distinct words +sounded through the court, and the witness trembled slightly when they +first reached her ear. Then she raised her head, looked full at the two +prisoners in the dock, and answered-- + +'Yes; he had.' + +As the words left her lips, the face of Lance Trevanion worked like that +of a man about to fall down in a fit. His eyes blazed with wrath and +unrestrained passion. Wonder and scorn, anger and despair, struggled +together in every feature, as if in a stage of demoniac possession. +Placing his strong hand upon the rail of the dock, he shook the stout +structure until it swayed and rattled again. + +'You lie, traitress!' he said, in vibrating tones. 'I never saw Balooka +before that evening, and you know it. Your words--like yourself--are +false as hell!' + +'I submit, your worship, that the witness must be protected,' Dayrell +made haste to interpose. 'If she is to be intimidated, I cannot +guarantee her most important evidence.' + +A curious phase of human nature is it,--well worthy of the attention of +physiologists, but none the less known to those in the habit of +attending criminal courts,--that you may with tolerable certainty detect +a man deliberately swearing falsely when giving evidence on oath. +Villain as he may be,--scoundrel of the deepest dye,--even _he_ does not +altogether enjoy the sensation of, in cold blood, committing perjury +before a crowd of comrades, every one of whom knows that he is +forswearing himself. Thus feeling, there is generally some token of +uneasiness or shamefacedness by which the experienced magistrate or +judge, and most certainly his friends and fellows, can perceive his +perjury. + +But, strange and mysterious as it may seem, _it is not so_ in the case +of a female witness. She may be deposing to the truth of the most +atrocious falsehood, to what the greater part of her hearers, as well as +herself, _know to be false_, and not the quiver of an eyelid nor the +tremor of a muscle reveals that she has called upon the Supreme Being +to witness her deliberate betrayal of the truth. For all that can be +discerned in the countenance--in her mien and manner she may be clinging +to the truth with the constancy of a martyr. + +There was a murmur in the court from more than one voice as Lance +Trevanion's heart-felt exclamation burst forth. This being promptly +suppressed, the magistrate, with a more sympathetic tone of voice than +he had as yet used, 'requested the prisoner not to injure his case by +intemperate language. Possibly the outburst of conscious innocence, the +Bench admitted, but he would warn him, in his own interest, to reserve +his defence till the evidence was completed.' Lance apparently saw the +force of his argument, for after one withering glance at the +witness-box, he bowed his head without speaking, and resigned himself +apparently to listen unmoved to all further statements. + +'Did you--now consider carefully and _make no mistake_'--here the +sergeant fixed his eye sternly, even menacingly, upon the girl, who +stood calm and resolved before him--'did you know of your own knowledge +that the prisoner, Trevanion, met your brother Ned at the Swampy Plain +tableland and assisted him to drive certain horses into the yard?' + +The girl looked again across to the figures in the dock, neither of whom +apparently saw her, as they, by accident or otherwise, had averted their +faces. Then a mysterious darksome look of pride and revenge came over +Kate Lawless's face as she coolly scrutinised them both. Slowly she +answered-- + +'Yes; I was at home when he and Ned came in from Swampy Plains with ten +horses and put them into the yard.' + +'You swear that?' + +'Yes,' looking her interlocutor full in the face. 'Yes, I swear that.' + +Her face as she pronounced the words grew fixed and more intense of +expression. She changed colour, then gasped for breath, staggered, and +before any man near her was quick enough to intercept her swaying form, +fell, as one dead, her full length upon the floor. + +'The strain has been too great for her, she has fainted,' said the +sergeant. 'The witness is unable to bear further cross-examination at +present. Your worship must see that. I pray for a remand of the +prisoners, and will undertake that the witness appears to-morrow at ten +o'clock and submits herself to the cross-examination.' + +'No doubt,' said the magistrate, 'the position is most distressing, but +I shouldn't have expected Miss Lawless to faint on any occasion. +However, she is certainly not in a state to bear more of the witness-box +to-day. The prisoners stand remanded till to-morrow morning at ten +o'clock.' + +The unwilling crowd gradually left the building, when much various +comment arose as to the guilt or otherwise of the accused. + +'Wait till England gets at that Kate Lawless,' said a digger, 'he'll +turn her inside out. I don't believe half of what she says. She's gone +back on Trevanion for some reason or other; now she'd hang him if she +could. That's a woman all over.' + +'Serve him right for havin' no more sense than to go runnin' after a +bush filly like her instead of minding his business. It'll learn him +better if he gets lagged over the job; it looks bad for him, now, don't +it?' + +'It's dashed hard lines, I say,' answered his mate, 'that a fellow +should get jugged just for a bit of foolishness-like, as none of us are +above now and then. I'll never believe he knew that bay horse wasn't +square, and it'll be a burning shame if he gets into it.' + + * * * * * + +The day and the hour arrived. Again the crowded court--friends, foes, +strangers, and acquaintances, all were there. Lance's friends from +Growlers' mustered in force--Mr. Stirling, Jack Polwarth, Mrs. Polwarth, +and poor Tottie, who stretched forth her little hands with a piteous +gesture and then burst into tears as she saw her friend Lance placed in +the dock and shut in. The crowd was visibly affected by this little +incident, and more than one woman's tears flowed in unison with Mrs. +Polwarth's, who bent her head down and sobbed unrestrainedly. When Kate +Lawless, pale but composed, appeared and took her place in the +witness-box a menacing murmur ran through the crowd, and sounds +ominously like hisses made themselves audible. These were quickly +repressed as Mr. England, stepping forward, commenced his +cross-examination. + +Fixing his eyes searchingly upon the girl's defiant face, he thus +began-- + +'You said, I think, in your examination in chief that you knew the +prisoner, Trevanion, well?' + +'Yes; so I did.' + +'Now, when you say you knew him well, do you mean us to believe that you +were only ordinary friends and no more?' + +'I mean what I said; we were very friendly--all the time we were at +Growlers'.' + +'That's all very well, but I must have more. You know something of life, +Miss Lawless, though you've lived in the bush all your days. Now didn't +this unfortunate young gentleman make love to you?' + +'Well, I suppose he did.' + +'And you returned it, or gave him to understand that you did?' + +'I did like him very much. There was no reason why I shouldn't, was +there?' Here Miss Kate looked coolly at the barrister, who, trained +gladiator as he was, doubted whether he had ever had to deal with a +keener antagonist. + +'I am not here to answer questions,' he said, very gravely. 'You are to +reply to mine, as his worship will tell you.' + +'Then I am to understand that you and he considered yourselves +sweethearts (as the familiar expression goes) when you were at +Growlers'?' + +'Yes, and afterwards.' + +'And you have had no quarrel or misunderstanding?' + +'No; none at all.' + +'You wish his worship to believe that?' said the barrister, in sterner +tones. 'To believe that you come here prepared to swear at the dictation +of Sergeant Dayrell everything that he puts into your mouth which can +tell against this unfortunate young man--your sweetheart, as you have +admitted?' + +'I don't care whether you believe it or not. It's the truth.' + +'And your feelings have not changed towards him? Will you swear that?' + +The girl hesitated. Her face flushed, then paled, her bosom heaved. She +placed her hand upon her heart as if to still its beatings. + +'No,' she answered, with a changed voice; 'I won't swear that.' + +'Thank you, Miss Lawless. I will not trouble you with further +questioning. That admission gives the key to the more important points +of your evidence.' + +As the girl moved back from the witness-box she was stopped by one of +the constables and requested to sign her deposition. It was noticeable +then that her hand trembled so that she could hardly hold the pen. She +made this an excuse for requesting the clerk to write her name, to which +she affixed her mark, as in such case made and provided. + +The case for the Crown being closed, Mr. England proceeded to call the +witnesses for the defence. The first name was that of Charles Stirling. +He came forward with a firm, confident air, tempered with respect to the +court. Placed in the witness-box, his evidence was to this effect-- + +'My name--Charles Stirling, manager of the Growlers' Gully branch of the +Australian Joint-Stock Bank. Have known the prisoner, Trevanion, +intimately since his occupation of Number Six claim. Have a high opinion +of him as a man of honour and a gentleman. Remember him purchasing the +bay horse now proved to have been stolen from Mr. Jeffreys. Was +consulted as to the purchase. Advised him then to be careful about +Lawless's receipt, and to satisfy himself from whom he (Lawless) had +purchased the animal. Trevanion was unwilling to believe anything +against the Lawless family, and was not a man to be guided by others. As +far as he knew, he was scrupulously upright and honourable. He +(Stirling) was never so surprised at anything in his whole life as when +he heard that Trevanion was in the hands of the police. There must be a +mistake somewhere. Prisoner had a large balance to his credit in the +Joint-Stock Bank. There could be no motive for saving a paltry fifty +pounds by purchasing a stolen horse. If it was sworn that Trevanion had +been seen at Balooka on the 19th September or previously, that statement +was false, as on that day he had been all the morning at the Joint-Stock +Bank disposing of a parcel of gold, seeing it weighed, and the money +placed to credit.' + +Cross-examined by Sergeant Dayrell: 'He was as certain that Trevanion +was at his bank at Growlers' on Thursday as that he himself was at court +now. Any one who swore otherwise was deceived, or else had reasons of +their own for committing perjury. He did not intend to be other than +respectful to the court, but felt so strongly in this matter that he +could scarcely control his words. Was not aware, of his own knowledge, +that Trevanion was in the habit of gambling with the Lawlesses for heavy +stakes. May have heard something of the sort. Most of the young men at +the diggings played a little; it afforded a relief to the monotony of +their lives, and they (as far as he knew) never went very deeply into +it. Was a friend--he might say a particular friend--of prisoner's. He +and his mate, Mr. Polwarth, were customers of his bank. Neither had ever +owed his bank money, they were always depositors.' + +John Polwarth, sworn: 'Was mate and partner in "Number Six, Growlers'" +with Mr. Trevanion. Had known him in England. Came out in the same ship. +Could swear that he never knew the horse "Pendragon" was stolen. He was +a gentleman, and couldn't steal a horse if he tried ever so hard; or buy +a stolen one, knowingly. He had been with Mr. Trevanion at the bank all +the morning of Thursday, 19th inst. Mr. Stirling was there, and a +clerk.' + +'Was he sure it was him?' + +'Was he sure the judge was on the Bench now?' + +'How did he explain the fact of prisoner Trevanion being seen at Balooka +on Wednesday, 18th, and previously?' + +'Only by believing it to be "a straight lie," or that the witness saw +some one very like Trevanion.' + +'Very like Trevanion?' + +'Very like.' + +The witness appeared to be recalling something in his mind. + +'Ar hev it noo, boys,' quoth he, suddenly looking towards the Bench, 'I +humbly beg your worship's pardon, but this terrible business has put +things out of my head like. I see how it's all come about. There was a +chap aboard the _Red Jacket_, about a year older than Mr. Trevanion +then, as like him as two peas. Danged if I doan't believe it's he as +have been riding about with Ned Lawless here, and all the while he's +been taken for Master Lance. The name of the man he meant was Lawrence +Trevenna; came from North Devon, he did, though he had a Cornish name. +Had never set eyes on him since the day they landed in Melbourne. Never +liked him; thought it was a case of good riddance of bad rubbish. + +'Was a friend of Mr. Trevanion's; he wouldn't call him prisoner--not for +no man; any way he wasn't committed for trial yet; always would be a +friend--in gaol or out of it; but would not swear to a lie for him or +any other man--not if it was his own brother.' + +Gwennyth Polwarth was then called, and up came the poor woman--sore +abashed and troubled--with Tottie clinging to her, and refusing to be +separated from her mother. + +'Yes, she and her husband had come out with Mr. Lance. When in the _Red +Jacket_ had made it up to be mates. Mr. Trevanion, though he was a grand +gentleman at home, worked as hard in the claim as any man on the field; +would never believe that he had aught to do with a stolen horse. It was +that Ned Lawless there, and his bold gipsy of a sister. I say it to +their faces, as I have often warned him against, that's got him into +this trouble.' + +'Could he have been at Balooka on Thursday, or Wednesday, 18th, as was +sworn by one witness?' + +'Not unless he was a spirit. He came round to the claim, and said +"good-bye" to me and the child on _Thursday evening_; would swear that +to her dying day.' + +'As to his being at Balooka, or any place a hundred miles off, it was a +thing impossible. There were people in the court as wanted to swear away +his life, any one could see. But there's Cousin Jacks enough at +Growlers' to smash the gaol and the court-house too, if these things are +to be carried on, and it would be seen yet (the witness said in her +excitement) what would come of it.' + +'Sergeant Dayrell would ask the witness no questions. The Bench would +perceive the animus which coloured all the evidence.' + +Mrs. Delf was next called. 'Her name was Mary Anne Delf; she had no call +to be ashamed of it, and was the wife of the landlord of the "Diggers' +Rest." Know that gentleman?' pointing to Lance. 'Well, he always stayed +at her house. Dined there with Mr. Stirling, Mr. Ross (of Bundalong +Station), and Mr. Polwarth, on Thursday, the 19th of September last. +Remembered the day particular, because there had been a wash-up at +"Number Six" the day before, and they had sold the gold to the bank, and +had it weighed and settled up for. + +'Was she a friend of Mr. Trevanion's? Yes; and she was proud to say so. +It was a pity all his friends weren't as straight, though she said it +herself. But he was as innocent of all this duffing racket as Tottie +Polwarth there.' + +Here poor Tottie, hearing her name, turned her eyes away from the dock, +where they had been resting sadly for a long time, and said audibly-- + +'Isn't Lance coming, mammy?' + +This pathetic appeal, joined to a solitary glance from the prisoner, +proved too much for Mrs. Polwarth's self-possession, and, seizing Tottie +by the hand, she hurried from the court. Upon which Mrs. Delf, though +unused to the melting mood, had recourse to her handkerchief, and sobbed +aloud, as did various like-minded female sympathisers. + +'Have you any other witnesses to call for the defence?' said the police +magistrate, addressing Mr. England, as who should say, the case has +lasted long enough. + +'But one, your worship, but one. Call Esther Lawless.' + +Again the densely packed assemblage was visibly moved. Here was another +of those Lawless girls; and what evidence was she going to give? Surely +an _alibi_ had been fully proved in Trevanion's favour already. What +could shatter the evidence of Mr. Stirling and Polwarth, Mrs. Delf and +Mrs. Polwarth? However, here she comes. + +Tessie Lawless had not been so prominently before the public of +Growlers' as her cousin Kate, but, none the less, from the extreme +rarity of young and good-looking women at the earlier diggings, had she +been an object of curiosity and admiration. Hence she was well known by +sight and reputation, and her appearance in court was consequently of +the nature of a romantic incident. + +'Your name is Esther Lawless, and you were residing with your cousins, +at Growlers', recently,' began Mr. England, with the suave deferential +manner by which counsel are won't to placate the feminine witness, +'where you knew the prisoner, Lance Trevanion?' + +'Yes, certainly, I know Mr. Trevanion. He was often at our camp.' + +'He was on friendly terms with all of you?' + +'Yes; too much so for his own good.' + +'Why do you say that, Miss Lawless?' + +'Because my cousin Edward was not honest in his dealings, and I thought +Mr. Trevanion might be drawn in, unwarily, as he has been, I am sorry to +say.' + +'Can you say anything as to the purchase of the bay H. J. horse, stated +to have been stolen from Mr. Herbert Jeffreys?' + +'Yes; I wrote out the receipt which Edward gave Mr. Trevanion when he +bought the horse for fifty pounds from him. He was then described as +purchased from Henry Jones, of Black Dog Creek.' + +'How did you come to write the receipt in your cousin's presence?' + +Here the witness paused for an instant, as if hesitating what to answer. +Then she said, 'I was always in the habit of doing any writing that was +necessary.' + +'But why? for what reason?' persisted Mr. England. + +'_Because none of my cousins can read or write._' + +As this announcement was made, evidently with reluctance, by the girl, +over whose ordinarily colourless countenance a flush rose as she spoke, +all eyes were turned towards Kate Lawless, who was sitting upon a bench +reserved for witnesses, and afterwards in the direction of Ned. The +latter celebrity smiled faintly, as if the higher education thus implied +was comparatively unimportant. But on his sister the effect of the +disclosure was widely different. + +She turned her face quickly, and, as she did so, her eyes +sparkled and her set lips expressed--if not anger, malice, and all +uncharitableness--at least a far from benevolent intention towards the +speaker. Making as if to rise, but repressing herself with a strong +effort, she assumed a scornful attitude, as if prepared to listen with +resignation. + +'Do you remember any conversation with reference to the horse?' + +'Yes; Mr. Trevanion asked where Henry Jones lived, and whether he had +any more horses of the same breed. Ned answered that he lived at Monaro, +and that he would have some more to sell when he bought his next draught +from him.' + +'You believe, then, that Trevanion had no idea that the horse was +stolen?' + +'No more than you had. He said over and over again that he must get +another or two from Jones.' + +'Now, Miss Lawless, you need not answer this question unless you like. +_Did you know_ that the horse was stolen?' + +'No, I did not, or I would have warned Mr. Trevanion. I may have doubted +whether everything was quite square about him; but I never thought for a +moment that he was stolen.' + +'May I ask you, also, what reason you were likely to have for warning +Mr. Trevanion?' + +'Merely that I had a friendly feeling for him, and did not wish to see +him taken in.' + +'A very good reason, too. Now there has been evidence to the effect that +Mr. Trevanion admired your cousin Kate; that he paid her a good deal of +attention?' + +'Yes; no doubt he did.' + +'You must excuse my asking you, but it is necessary to come to a correct +understanding; was there any rivalry or jealous feeling between you?' + +'Not the slightest. He was polite--he couldn't be otherwise; but he +never cared two straws about me, or any one but Kate, though I was his +real friend; but he never knew it.' + +'Was there not a letter from Kate Lawless sent by your hand to him, +after she had left for Balooka?' + +'Yes; but she had to get some one to write it for her. I had a great +mind not to deliver it. I wish now that I never had, and all this might +have been saved.' + +'That will do, Miss Esther. Stay--one more question. You had never, of +course, seen Mr. Trevanion in company with your cousins before you came +to Ballarat?' + +It occasionally happens that an advocate, in putting a question which he +believes to be perfectly innocuous, makes some fatal mistake which +damages the whole of his previous evidence. The witness changed colour, +and hesitated, then appeared to wish to avoid answering the question. + +Mr. England divined the situation. 'It's of no consequence. The witness +is not strong. You can go down, Miss Lawless.' + +But it was too late. Dayrell was not the man to overlook a false move. +'I request that the witness's answer may be taken.' + +'As the question has been asked, Mr. England, I think it should be +answered,' said the magistrate. 'I will put it myself from the Bench.' + +'Have you at any time, witness, seen the prisoner Trevanion in company +with your cousins, before the family came to Ballarat?' + +Esther Lawless stood erect as she fixed her eye with a troubled gaze +upon Mr. M'Alpine's countenance. + +'Must I answer this question, your worship?' said she; 'is it necessary +in the case?' + +'I think you had better,' said he, not unkindly. 'I am sure you will +tell the truth.' + +'I would not swear falsely to save my own life,' said the girl, in a low +but distinct voice. 'I can only speak the truth while I stand here. I +_did_ see him riding with Ned one day before we left the Eumeralla.' + +At this admission, which apparently astonished the greater number of the +spectators as much as it did Mr. England and the magistrate, both +prisoners turned their faces towards the witness with undisguised +surprise. On the countenance of Lance Trevanion there suddenly arose a +look of complete bewilderment. Abandoning his pose of scornful +indifference, he beckoned hastily to Mr. England, who came over to the +dock. After a whispered colloquy, he again addressed the witness. + +'I do not wish in any way to lead you, or to induce you to alter any +part of your evidence which you feel certain of, but I entreat you, as +you value the liberty, perhaps the life of an innocent man, to +reconsider your last answer. I will repeat my question. Are you +prepared, upon your oath, to state that you ever saw the accused, Mr. +Trevanion, in company with your cousin before you left New South Wales +to come to Ballarat?' + +The witness looked upward for a moment and clasped her hands. She +shuddered, and essayed in vain to reply, but finally with recovered +firmness of mien said, 'I wish it were not so, but I cannot be mistaken. +I saw him once certainly, and I believe once again, but I did see him +once, if I can believe my eyes, near Eumeralla.' + +A keen observer who had watched Kate Lawless's countenance might have +marvelled at the mysterious smile which stole over her features at that +moment, might have noted also a look of conscious triumph mingled with +sudden wonder. For an instant, as she glanced towards the dock, her eyes +sought out those of her brother; they met hers with one swiftest glance +of sudden meaning. + +On Lance Trevanion's countenance a despair sombre and terrible commenced +to settle. His attitude expressed utter hopelessness, the deepest +disappointment. When Esther Lawless, after a sudden burst of tears, was +permitted to leave the court, he did not raise his head. Mr. England +made one of the brilliantly exhaustive speeches which had opened the +prison gates to so many enterprising or unlucky personages. The court +was charmed, captivated, convinced, by the overpowering rush and flow of +his persuasive eloquence. + +But Lance neither stirred nor looked up. The presentiment was about to +be fulfilled. He was prepared for the worst. + +The case was closed. Then. Mr. M'Alpine gave his decision-- + +'He had heard that day some of the most extraordinary and contradictory +evidence that in his varied experience he had ever listened to. In view +of the prisoner's high character and independent position, attested by +so many witnesses, he had been on the point of discharging him, but, +after hearing the witness's last answer, which amounted to an admission +that the prisoner had been an associate of the Lawless family, even +before they had migrated to Ballarat, he could not entertain a doubt as +to a committal. It was incontestably a case for a jury. It was for them +to decide as to the credibility of opposing witnesses.' + +Then came the concluding formula, after which the prisoner was asked if +he desired to say anything. + +'Only this,' said the erstwhile proud scion of an ancient race, +stainless in honour, flawless in blood, of whom he alone--oh, hard and +bitter fate!--had ever linked hands with disgrace! 'Only this: that I am +as innocent of all thoughts of wrong or dishonesty to any man as my +mate's little child. I never knew or thought that the horse was other +than honestly come by. I have been deceived--by man and woman both. But +the knowledge has come too late. The witness Catharine Lawless has lied +foully. The other witnesses, particularly Esther Lawless--who is good +and truthful--have been deceived by the resemblance borne to me by +another person. I never was at Balooka before, and never in my life saw +the Eumeralla district--never heard the name even! I protest my +innocence of this and all other charges. I can say no more.' + +Mr. M'Alpine paused in thought for a while--an unusual course with +him--then, amid the almost unnatural silence of the court, he said: 'I +feel compelled to send the case for trial. Launcelot Trevanion, you +stand committed to take your trial at the next ensuing Quarter Sessions, +to be holden at Ballarat, on a day to be named. Bail refused. Sergeant +Dayrell, call up the witnesses to be bound over to appear. + +'This court stands adjourned.' + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Bail having been refused, presumably at the instance of the police--who, +in cases where there is probability of the prisoner levanting or of +arrangements being made to defeat the ends of justice, are entitled to +object--there remained no course but that Lance Trevanion should be +re-committed to gaol. Ned Lawless was also detained for safe keeping, +the same reasons operating even with greater force in his case. This was +the third time that Lance had been brought forth to stand before a +gaping crowd--the third time that he had been transferred to the grim +precincts of a prison and heard the massive iron gates clang behind him. + +'I begin to feel,' he said bitterly to Stirling, 'almost like an +habitual criminal. If there is a God that judgeth the earth, as they +used to tell us in old days, why am I permitted to be thus degraded, +falsely accused, and unjustly imprisoned?' + +It was in this period of trial and sore need that Lance discovered the +nature of friendship. Genial acquaintances and friendly-seeming +personages he had encountered by the hundred. These were now for the +most part too busy or indifferent to visit him in his affliction. +Charles Stirling, however, in spite of his onerous and responsible +duties, lost no opportunity of aid or service. Sometimes he rode half +the night in order to get back to his work in proper time after visiting +the captive and comforting him as best he could. He petitioned the +Governor-in-Council, drafting and procuring signatures to a memorial +setting forth Lance's hard case and praying that he might be released on +bail. He addressed members of the Bench, and essayed to persuade them to +act independently, offering to find bail to any amount and lodge the +money. Hastings and Jack Polwarth canvassed their fellow-miners. The +newspaper press was invoked. But all in vain. The time was in-opportune. +So many horses had been stolen that a strong popular prejudice had +arisen; justice demanded a victim. A reactionary sentiment commenced to +prevail. It was openly stated that because Trevanion, of Number Six, was +a 'swell' and had dropped into a lucky claim, that was no reason why he +should be let off more than a poor man. + +Wild and unsettled were the times too--those years early in 'the +fifties.' Martial law was thought necessary for the holding in check of +an army of untamed spirits. A close discriminating adherence to legal +form could hardly be attained. The upshot of it all was that, to the +disgust and despair of Hastings and Jack Polwarth, who had hoped against +hope, all their efforts were vain, and Lance was compelled to resign +himself as best he might to his enforced and protracted _duresse_. + +Before leaving for Melbourne Mr. England had indeed almost guaranteed +that he only needed to be placed on his trial to be acquitted, asserting +that no jury in the colony could possibly find him guilty upon the +evidence brought before the Bench; that a committal was very different +from a conviction; that some magistrates made a point of committing for +trial all prisoners brought before them so as to escape responsibility; +that Mr. M'Alpine had a habit of acting in that way; that he (John +George England) would take the shortest odds that the jury acquitted +Lance without leaving the box. + +How the weeks dragged on! Autumn was fast changing into winter when the +Quarter Sessions were held. Lance had expected to have been in Melbourne +about the time. Only to think of it! And had he not paltered with his +duty and his solemn promise might he not have been in England now, +seeing the yearly miracle of the spring transformation in that favoured +clime and hearing the surges beat against the frowning headlands of +Tintagel? Madness was in his thoughts. Why did he not dash his brains +out against his prison walls and so end the hideous burlesque upon truth +and justice, honour and common honesty even? Why had he not courage to +do so? No--it would become his father's son to die in ways and fashions +many and varied; but within gaol walls! No! a thousand times, no! That +would be a doom impossible for a Trevanion of Wychwood. + +From time to time he had gleams of hope--this miserable captive so +unused to fetter and thrall. It _could_ not be. It should not be. The +eternal justice of heaven would be falsified were this wrong to befall +him. The words of prayer that he had lisped in childhood--the Bible +lessons to so many of which he had hearkened in the old Norman Church at +Wychwood--what would all these be but hollow cheats and ghastly +mockeries were he to be found guilty? It was a simple impossibility. He +had now but to wait--to eat out his heart for one other week, and +then--oh! joy unspeakable! he would be free--free! A free man--not a +prisoner! Did he ever imagine that he would attach such a meaning to the +word freedom? It mattered not. Let him but once set foot outside this +dismal gaol wall. Again he saw himself on the back of a good horse, or +at the claim with good old Jack Polwarth and his wife and Tottie--poor +dear Tottie! But here he could no longer follow out the chain of +probabilities. His eyes filled with tears, and the once-proud Lance +Trevanion, lowered in spirit and strength by confinement and meagre +diet, threw himself upon his miserable pallet and sobbed like a child. + + * * * * * + +The 'next ensuing Court of Quarter Sessions,' to which Lance Trevanion +had been committed for trial, was formally opened at Ballarat on a +certain Wednesday at ten of the clock. The sheriff was in attendance, +with bailiff and minor officials, and also various barristers, including +Mr. England. An unusual number of police appeared on the scene, +including the superintendent of the district--a very high personage +indeed. All were in full uniform, while conspicuous among them stood +Sergeant Dayrell, calm and impassive as usual, though a close observer +might have noticed an occasional sign of impatience. + +When the doors of the court-house were opened a rush took place which +filled the building so completely that many were excluded and compelled +to remain outside, trusting to occasional reports of the exciting +matters within. The judge in his robes, attended by the sheriff, took +his seat upon the bench punctually at the appointed time. And once more +Lance Trevanion and his fellow-prisoner Ned Lawless were brought forth +to serve as a spectacle to a wondering or sympathetic crowd, as the case +might be. + +The Crown prosecutor, in opening the case, alluded to 'the prevalence of +a system of horse-stealing, now become so notorious; if unchecked it +might lead to the gravest results. The jury would have an opportunity of +hearing the evidence in detail, from which they would of course form +their judgment. But they must not lose sight of the fact that the +prisoners had been caught "red-handed," if he might use the expression. +They were actually in possession of a large number of stolen horses, +many of which were of great value. Some had since been identified by +their owners, who were chiefly miners and working-men connected with the +diggings. He had no desire, he might assure them, to prejudice their +minds in any way; he would merely furnish his evidence for the Crown as +he was bound to do, and trust to the intelligent jury he saw before him +to do their duty without fear or favour. It was a painful sight to him, +as it doubtless was to them, to see two such fine specimens of early +manhood arraigned for so serious an offence. But no consideration of +that sort must be suffered to influence their minds. He would not detain +them longer, but would call the first witness.' + +As in all trials, the same witnesses as on the preliminary examinations +were heard, the difference being that no written depositions were taken, +the judge only recording in his notes the evidence with care and +exactness. Mr. England cross-examined the witnesses with increased +rigour and more searching scrutiny. Every fact or fiction in their +previous history which could tend to weaken or discredit their testimony +in the eyes of the jury was fully ventilated. Every motive which could +possibly colour this testimony against the prisoners was suggested or +exposed. + +Sergeant Dayrell's evidence was unsparingly criticised. To his calm and +carefully worded statements, studiously colourless, but little exception +could be taken. Still, more than one _historiette_ had been elicited +from the distant part of the colony where he once was stationed which +tended to establish his reputation for unscrupulousness, for desire for +conviction at all risks. He was forced to acknowledge that he had been +the apprehending constable in a well-known stock case near the New South +Wales border, as well as to admit that his zeal on that occasion being +in conflict with the law, had caused the committing magistrate to be +mulcted in heavy costs and damages. These and other facts being +mercilessly dragged forth somewhat detracted from the value of his +evidence. + +Then Catharine Lawless was once more called. Again it seemed that the +spectators, as upon the appearance on the stage of a favourite actress, +awoke to more than common excitement and intensity of interest. All eyes +were upon her as she walked composedly up to the witness-box. Dressed +quietly but in perfect taste as before, there was so much grace and +freedom about the girl's every movement--such self-possession in her +bearing--that she looked superior to her surroundings. + +She was evidently on her guard against such a display of emotion or +merely feminine weakness as had occurred at the first trial. Calmly and +imperturbably she gave her evidence, and as before deposed to having +seen Lance Trevanion in the companionship of her brother at Eumeralla, +and also at Balooka long before the day of arrest. + +If there be any force in the modern doctrines of the projection of nerve +force--of the subtle relation between the mesmeric will power and the +object of its current--then, as for one moment she turned towards the +dock and confronted the lurid light that blazed in Lance Trevanion's +haughty and contemptuous regard, she should have trembled and fallen to +the earth. + +But no such effect followed. She gazed back for an instant with a glance +fierce and tameless as his own, then coldly averted her face as she +repeated her lesson, as Mr. England vehemently characterised her +statement. + +'Then you still persist, Catharine Lawless,' said that gentleman, +turning with unchivalrous suddenness upon his fair antagonist, 'you +persist in declaring that you saw Lance Trevanion both at Balooka and +Eumeralla on the date you have stated?' + +'I have sworn I did see him,' she replied, while a shade of sullenness +commenced to overspread her countenance. + +'If these witnesses, Mr. Stirling, Mrs. Delf, Mrs. Polwarth and her +husband, besides several others, have sworn that they saw him at +Growlers' at a date which makes it absolutely impossible that he could +have been within a hundred miles of the localities you mention, is that +true or false?' + +'I don't care what they swear, I have told the truth.' + +'That is what they have sworn. Now, you know Mr. Stirling, Mrs. Delf, +Jack Polwarth, and the rest, don't you?' + +'Well, yes, I have seen them.' + +'Do you think they are people likely to swear to an untruth?' + +'I can't say. What I said was the truth.' + +'And what they say--false!' + +'I suppose so.' + +As before, she was the last witness for the Crown. When her evidence was +completed, she faced Mr. England, with one indignant, half-revengeful +expression on her face, then walked slowly, and with coolest composure, +from the court. + +When the case for the Crown had come to an end Mr. England in an +impressive speech 'put it to his Honour whether it was really necessary +to waste the time of the court by calling witnesses for the defence. The +other prisoner--the only accused, properly so called--had already +pleaded guilty. Was it not patent to his Honour, to the jury, to every +one in court, that this Edward Lawless--he desired to speak of him with +no undue harshness--was the real and only criminal. His client had no +doubt been highly imprudent in keeping company with such dangerous +associates as the Lawlesses, male and female, had proved themselves to +be, but he would ask his Honour, as a man of the world, Who amongst us, +in the heedless days of youth--careless of consequences, and +unsuspicious of guile--had not done likewise? Were people to be treated +as criminals--branded as felons--merely for socially encountering +persons afterwards guilty of felony? What a Star Chamber business would +this be in a British Colony!--where, thank God, every man was under the +ægis of the common law of the realm. His client, unfortunate in that +degree, had merely been a spectator, a looker-on. As to the H. J. horse, +he was as ignorant of all guilty knowledge as himself or his Honour; was +it not the wildest flight of absurdity to imagine for one moment that a +man with twenty thousand pounds to his credit in the bank would be +likely to receive--knowing him to be stolen--a fifty-pound horse? The +thing was absurd--so absurd that he would once more put it to his Honour +whether the farce should not be ended by at once asking the jury for +their verdict, which they would, he was confident, give without leaving +the box.' + +The judge 'felt the force of much that had been so ably presented in +favour of his client, but, with every wish to afford the prisoner +facilities for his defence, he was compelled to decline the application +of counsel. He would prefer to hear the witnesses for the defence before +summing up and addressing the jury.' + +Mr. England bit his lip, but he 'bowed, of course, to his Honour's +ruling,' and proceeded to call his witnesses. + +Then commenced the deeper interest of the performance. Every spectator +appeared to listen with concentrated attention. Not a syllable escaped +attention. Not a sound arose from the dense and closely packed crowd. + +All the former witnesses were called. Each in his turn gave evidence +which appeared to be so conclusively in favour of the prisoner that +every one in court thought with Mr. England that the jury would never +leave the box. Mr. Stirling, Jack Polwarth, Mrs. Delf, all testified to +the effect that Lance Trevanion had quitted Growlers' on that particular +day, Friday, the 20th September, for Balooka. When asked whether it was +possible for the prisoner, Trevanion, to have been seen at Balooka +shortly before the date named, they, with one accord, declared it to be +impossible. He had been seen every day by one or other for months +before. As to his being a couple of hundred miles off, it was absolutely +false and incredible. In addition to the witnesses heard previously, two +miners named Dickson and Judd were called, who swore positively that +they had seen the prisoner, Trevanion, on Friday, 20th September, near +'Growlers',' evidently commencing a journey to the eastward. He had a +valise strapped before his saddle, and was going along the mountain +road. + +'Would it lead to Balooka?' + +'Yes; that was the way to Balooka. One of them had been there, and a +rough shop it was. They were quite positive as to his identity.' + +'He was a noticeable chap, and the horse he rode wasn't a commoner +either. Any man with eyes in his head would know the pair of 'em +anywhere, let alone chaps as had worked the next claim but one to him +and Jack Polwarth.' + +Asked whether they were quite certain that they had met the prisoner on +the day stated by them, or whether they thought it might have been the +day before. + +'It was that very Saturday morning, and no other. They were as sure of +it as of their own lives. If men couldn't be sure of that they could not +be sure of anything.' + +Of course they knew Lance Trevanion well? + +'Yes, very well, by sight. Not that they had often spoken to him. He was +a gentleman, a big man in his own country, they heard tell. He kept +himself a deal to himself, except in regard to the Lawless family, and +he would have done well to have let them alone too.' + +Tessie Lawless, when called upon, moved towards the witness-box with a +much less assumed step than her cousin. She also turned her head towards +the dock. Those who watched her saw her face soften and change like that +of a woman who suddenly beholds a suffering child. As she scanned the +pallid and drawn features of Lance Trevanion, upon which anger and +despair, consuming anxiety and darkling doubt had written their +characters indelibly, it seemed as though she must force her way to him +and weep out her heart in bitter grief that he should be in such ignoble +toils. + +Then she braced herself for the effort and stood before the judge. The +statement which she made was almost identical with that on a former +occasion. A very good impression on the jury was evidently made by her +candour and earnestness. + +As she answered firmly yet modestly each question put to her by Mr. +England, the judge was observed to listen with close attention and the +jury to be unusually interested. Mr. England, scanning their faces with +practised readiness, saw in imagination their short retirement and a +unanimous verdict of 'not guilty' proceeding from the lips of the +foreman. Then, as he approached the critical period of the question +which had been so unlucky in its effects during the preliminary +examination, he felt as nearly nervous as a man of his proverbial +courage and varied experience could be. He was more than half disposed +to omit the question altogether; how he hated himself for having been +fool enough to put it in the first instance. + +'I don't think I need trouble the witness with any other questions, your +Honour,' he said tentatively; but here Dayrell rose and evidently +prepared himself to interpose. With lightning quickness Mr. England +decided to put the question in his own form and fashion, rather than +leave it to the enemy. + +'One minute, Miss Esther,' he said, as if the idea had just occurred to +him. 'I think you said that you were uncertain, or could not quite +recall, whether you had ever seen the accused Lance Trevanion before you +left the Eumeralla to come to Ballarat?' + +This he said with a smilingly suggestive air which would have given the +cue to an ordinary witness less imbued with a sense of unfaltering right +than Tessie Lawless. But as the girl's clear brown eyes searched his +face with a troubled expression, he comprehended that there was no hope +of evasion, that he had got hold of one of those impracticable witnesses +who really do speak 'the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' to the +consternation of lawyers and the disaster of defendants. + +'I said that I _had_ seen him before, at the Eumeralla,' she said +simply, 'I can't swear anything else. I _did_ see him, and it was a bad +day for him--and--and for me too,' she added. + +'Now think again, Miss Esther. Reflect that your answer to my question +is perhaps more important than any one you ever made in your life. How +can you account for Trevanion being so far from Ballarat? What business +had he there, and why should he leave Growlers' Gully, to which he came +from the ship, as I can prove?' + +The girl looked again at the dock and those who stood therein--at Ned +Lawless, who lounged good-natured as ever, and smiling to all +appearance; at Lance, who stood erect, darkly frowning and with a fixed +stern expression, as of one who should never smile more. + +'It will break my heart,' she said, 'but I must speak the truth while I +stand here. I _did_ see him on the Eumeralla, before we left home for +Ballarat, one day with Ned.' + +'I must ask again whether there is any possibility of your being +mistaken in the identity of the accused?' persisted Mr. England. 'You +have heard doubtless of men being so wonderfully alike that strangers +could not in many cases discover the difference?' + +'Just stand down for an instant. With his Honour's permission I will +recall the witness John Polwarth.' + +'You are recalled upon your former oath, Mr. Polwarth. I wish to ask you +whether you ever saw an individual most strangely resembling Trevanion? +If so, when and where?' + +'Yes--sartain,' replied John, looking pityingly upon Lance as he stood +in the cage, as Jack afterwards designated it. 'There was a chap as +called hisself Trevenna--Lawrence Trevenna--as coomed oot in ship with +us, and was as like the master here as he'd been his twin.' + +'Was the likeness really astonishing?' + +''Stonishin'! I believe you. It was the most surprisin' likeness ever I +seed, and so the missus'll tell you besides.' + +'Well, what became of him?' + +'Nivir heerd tale or tidings of him since he left the ship. Wasn't sorry +for that either. He was that bad-tempered and fond of card-playing that +I couldn't bear to have him in the same mess with me and the missus.' + +Mrs. Polwarth, also recalled, gave similar evidence with considerable +spirit, and hoped that some of the witnesses heard to-day might have +some good cause to know the individual as she meant. 'He was death on +playing cards, and that fond of money that he wouldn't leave off when he +lost. He was the worst-tempered man in the ship.' + +'That will do, Mrs. Polwarth. You may go and sit in the court with your +husband. Now, Miss Lawless, you have heard what these two most +respectable witnesses have sworn to. Are you still certain and positive +in your own mind that you saw Lance Trevanion _himself_ on the flats of +the Eumeralla, or did not rather fall in with Trevenna, who seems born +for the special purpose of complicating this most involved and unhappy +case?' + +A look of relief and sudden satisfaction passed over the girl's face as +she answered, 'I do now feel in doubt. Oh! I will not swear positively. +I never dreamed that there was any one so like Mr. Trevanion.' + +'Then,' pursued Mr. England, 'having now become aware that there is an +individual so strikingly like Lance Trevanion that a stranger could +hardly know them apart, are you desirous to correct your former +evidence, given in ignorance of the fact, by now declaring on your oath +that you are unable to identify the man you saw with the prisoner, +Trevanion?' + +The light came back to the witness's eyes, and even a faint colour rose +to her cheeks as she answered firmly, almost joyfully, 'I believe in my +heart that it must have been Trevenna that I saw. I cannot swear now +that I saw Mr. Trevanion.' + +A faint murmur of approval arose in the court, which was promptly +suppressed as the Crown Prosecutor rose. + +'I do not wish, your Honour, in any way to impugn this witness's +testimony. She has every desire, I feel convinced, to speak the truth. +But I wish to ask her whether of _her own knowledge_ she is aware that +such a person as Lawrence Trevenna exists?' + +'I have just heard two people swear to it,' the girl replied hastily, as +if fearful that this welcome solution of a dreadful doubt should be +taken from her. 'What more do I need?' + +'Just so. But you must perceive that in the event--improbable, I admit, +but possible--that these witnesses were mistaken or misleading, you have +no knowledge of your own to fall back upon?' + +'If I could only see them both together,' pleaded poor Tessie ruefully, +'I am sure I could pick out the one I saw at Eumeralla.' + +'I am afraid there is no chance of that,' said the barrister, 'unless +Sergeant Dayrell can produce him.' + +'Perhaps it would be convenient,' answered Dayrell, in the most coldly +incredulous tones, 'if I could produce a counterpart of the prisoner, +Lawless, at the same time. I do not wish to distress the last witness, +but one would be quite as easy as the other.' + +The girl faced round, as his clear but slightly raised voice sounded +through the court, and looked full at him, with scorn and indignation in +every line of her countenance. + +'I thought better of you, Francis Dayrell,' she said. 'You are acting a +falsehood, and you know it.' + +Dayrell's lips moved slightly, but no sound came from them for a moment. +He bowed with an affectation of extreme courtesy before addressing the +Bench. + +'Your Honour, I claim protection against such an imputation. But I make +great allowance for the witness, whose relation to the prisoners excuses +much.' + +His Honour was understood to reprove the witness mildly but +impressively, and to express a hope that she would abstain from all +aggressive remarks in future. + +Tessie's evidence being concluded, the Crown Prosecutor proceeded to +address the jury, pointing out what, in his opinion, were the salient +points of the case as brought out in evidence. + +'In the first place, they would remark that large numbers of horses had +been and were at that very time being systematically stolen from the +miners. There existed no doubt, in the minds of persons capable of +forming an opinion on such matters, that a well-organised and +widely-spread association had been formed, by means of which horses +stolen in one colony were driven by unfrequented routes to another, for +the purpose of sale. It was not as if an occasional animal here and +there had been taken. That offence, criminal in itself, doubtless, +deserved some punishment. But, considering the great value of horses at +the diggings, their almost vital importance in the ordinary course of +mining industry, and the difficulty of following up and punishing +marauders without ruinous loss of time and expense, he was there to tell +the jury that a greater wrong, a more flagrant injustice, could not be +inflicted on any mining community. + +'With regard to the prisoners arrested and arraigned together, one had +pleaded guilty and the other had denied all knowledge--all criminal +knowledge--of the fact that the horse he was riding when arrested had +been stolen. There had been evidence given that day before them which +directly pointed to the prisoner Trevanion's general association with +the Lawlesses, such evidence as, if believed by them, must lead to the +conclusion that the mode of procuring and disposing of the large number +of horses found in the elder Lawless's possession was not unknown to +him. + +'On the other hand, there had not been wanting evidence most favourable +to the prisoner, Trevanion; favourable in its purport, and entitled to +respect on account of the character and position of the witnesses. It +was their province to pronounce upon the credibility of the witnesses. +He would not detain them longer. They were the judges of fact. His +Honour would in his charge direct them as to the law of the case.' + +Then Mr. England arose, threw back his gown as if preparing for action +in another arena, and faced the jury with an air of confident valour. + +'His learned friend, the Crown Prosecutor, had most properly confined +himself to a bare statement of facts--if facts they could be called. In +the whole of his experience of alleged criminal cases it had never been +his good fortune to be connected with a defence, the conduct of which +was so childishly clear, the outcome of which was so ridiculously easy +of solution. Putting aside for the present the utter want of all +reasonable motive for the commission of a felony--the perpetration of a +crime by a man of good fame, family, and fortune--this extraordinary +purposeless deed, for which only the wildest condition of insanity could +account, he would briefly run over the evidence for the defence. + +'First, as to the character of the prisoner's witnesses, shame was it, +and sorrow as well, that he should have to refer to this unfortunate +gentleman--he would repeat the word--by such a designation. The jury +would note, giving the case that attention which was its due, that every +witness for the defence was a person of unblemished character. Beginning +with Mr. Stirling--their tried and trusted friend--what man within a +hundred miles of Ballarat would doubt his word, not to speak of his +solemn oath! Then, John Polwarth and his wife--the former a hard-working +legitimate miner, one of a class that the country was proud of, and +whose industry was rapidly lifting it to a lofty position among the +nations. His fond and faithful wife. Charles Edward Hastings, a man of +birth and culture, yet, like the majority of this population, an +earnest, efficient toiler. Then their respected friend and benefactress, +Mrs. Delf. He should like to see any one look into that lady's face and +doubt her word. The two wages-men from the Hand-in-Hand claim, men who +had no earthly interest but of upholding the truth; and last, but by no +means the least in weight of testimony, Miss Esther Lawless--the witness +of truth, even against her own sympathies, as any child could see. + +'So much for the character of our witnesses and their reliability. Then +as to the agreement of this testimony. Examined separately and without +suspicion of collusion, what had been their evidence, differing only +with those shades of discrepancy which before all practised tribunals +absolved them from any hint of tutoring? Why, it amounted to triumphant +proof beyond all question or challenge, that on Thursday, the 19th of +September, Launcelot Trevanion was at the Joint-Stock Bank at Growlers' +Gully, and that he could not have started on his journey to Balooka +earlier than Friday, 20th, the day he was asserted to have been seen +there. He held this important position to be proved, so much so that he +should not again perhaps refer to it. + +'Having thus briefly, but he hoped clearly, presented to them the +overwhelming weight of evidence, amounting to one of the most convincing +_alibis_ ever proved before a court, he should pass on to the evidence +for the Crown. There was an absence of direct proof, but he hesitated +not to impugn the _bona fides_ of Sergeant Dayrell and Catharine +Lawless. He owned to regarding it with considerable suspicion. He +implored the jury, as they valued their oaths, to scrutinise this part +of the case most heedfully. What the motives of these witnesses might be +he was not prepared to assert, but as men of the world they would +probably form their own opinion. Catharine Lawless had admittedly been +on friendly, more than friendly terms with the accused, why had she so +completely turned round and given damaging evidence against him? In the +history of light o' loves of this nature were found fatal enmities, and +hardly less fatal friendships; was it not probable that jealousy, "cruel +as the grave," was the motive power in this otherwise inconsequential +action? Cool and high-couraged as this witness had shown herself, he +could not avoid noticing signs of discomposure which pointed to +unnatural feelings and untruthful statements. Was there then some +relentless vengeance in the background, the secret of which was known +only to the Lawless family and Sergeant Dayrell, to be wreaked upon this +unfortunate victim of treachery? He was betrayed alike in love and in +friendship, in business and in pleasure. This conspiracy, he could call +it by no lighter name, was no accidental affair, but a carefully +planned, cold-blooded, and deliberate crime. In all trials involving +criminal action it was the habit of eminent judges to direct juries to +examine carefully the probability or otherwise of the prisoner's +_motive_ for committing the offence charged against him. In this case no +motive could possibly be said to exist. Was it likely, as he had before +inquired of them, that a man with a fortune, a large fortune to his +credit in a bank, with a weekly income of most enviable magnitude, +increasing rather than diminishing, should lend himself to a paltry +theft, such as was alleged against him? It was as though the leading +country gentleman of a county in Britain should steal a donkey off a +common, if they would pardon him the vulgarity of the simile. Gentlemen +might smile, but was there anything to excite mirth in the haggard +features and melancholy mien of the unhappy young man whom they saw in +that dock? Let them imagine one of their own relatives placed in that +position by no fault of his own, and they could understand his feelings. +He would not for an instant urge them to act inconsistently with their +oath, but he implored them to avoid by their verdict that day the dread +and terrible responsibility of convicting an innocent man.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Then the judge, with a final glance at his notes, commenced to sum up on +the evidence. He stood singular among his fellow-jurists for plain and +unostentatious demeanour, both on and off the bench. In the matter of +outward attire he could not be accused of extravagance. A studied +plainness of habit distinguished him on all occasions. Careless, +moreover, as to the fit of his garments as of their colour or quality. +As a lawyer he was proverbially keen, clear-headed, and deeply read; but +he wasted no time upon his judgments, and never was known to 'improve +the occasion' by the stern or pathetic harangues in which his +fellow-judges, for the most part, enclosed their decisions--the wrapper +of the pill, so to speak. So rapid and decisive were his Honour's +findings that some of them had passed into household words. When he +arose from his seat, and after taking a short walk along the judicial +dais, as if in mental conflict, resumed his position, the spectators +knew that they would not have long to wait. '"Very honest man rides a +stolen horse," would have been the gist of my charge, gentlemen of the +jury,' he said; 'but this truly strange and complicated case demands the +closest examination. The evidence presents exceptional features. On one +side you have a young man of good character and means. His pecuniary +circumstances should have removed all temptation to commit the offence +charged. In a spirit of recklessness he associates with the Lawless +family. About their character--with the sole exception of Esther +Lawless--the less said the better. He buys from Edward Lawless a horse +proved to have been stolen--many an honest man during the turmoil of the +gold period has done the same. He has occasionally gambled for large +sums, which is highly imprudent, but not felony, in the eyes of the law. +The evidence for the defence proves fully--if believed--that he did not +leave Growlers' Gully for Balooka until the 19th of September--competent +witnesses swear positively to this fact. If you believe them, the case +is at an end. On the other hand, as many swear to his having been seen +at Balooka long before the day referred to, and also at Eumeralla, the +old home of the Lawlesses, some of these witnesses must be in error, as +the prisoner manifestly could not have been in two places at once. +Catharine Lawless had evidently an animus _spretae injuria formae_, he +felt inclined to say, which might be freely translated into a lover's +quarrel of some sort. As men of the world, the jury would largely +discount her evidence. A still more remarkable feature of this truly +remarkable case was that Esther Lawless--whose conscientious scruples +did her honour--testified also to having seen the prisoner at Eumeralla +in association with Edward Lawless. They had heard John Polwarth's +evidence, and his wife's, regarding a shipmate curiously like Trevanion. +Such similarities, though rare, were not unknown. There was a +possibility of mistaken identity. These points, as well as the +credibility of the witnesses, were for them to consider. They were the +judges of fact. But it was their especial duty to give the prisoner the +benefit of all reasonable doubt--a doubt which he should certainly share +with them if they brought in a verdict of _not guilty_.' + +When Mr. England heard the conclusion of the judge's charge, he scarcely +doubted for a moment that after a short retirement of the jury his +Honour's last words would be repeated by that responsible body. He +therefore sat down, and calling over Charles Stirling, imparted to him +confidentially his feeling on the subject. 'His Honour plainly and +unmistakably was with them, and had summed up dead in favour of +Trevanion. He was one of the best judges of the Victorian Bench, +clear-headed and decisive, detesting all mere verbiage. A man, a +gentleman, a sound lawyer--all these Judge Buckthorne was known to be. +Pity he could not borrow a little deportment from Sir Desmond, who had +enough and to spare.' + +Thus they talked while the business of the court went forward. Another +jury had been impanelled; another case called on; another prisoner had +been put in the dock and placed on the farther side with Ned Lawless. +They seemed to know each other. Lance cast upon him a brief, indifferent +glance, and resigned himself to silent endurance. + +With respect to the issue, Charles Stirling was by no means so confident +as his legal friend, veteran as he was, boasting the scars of a hundred +battles. But in his character of banker he had the opportunity of +hearing the general public, as represented by the 'legitimate miner,' +as he was fond of calling himself, which means every sort and condition +of mankind, anxious to compel fortune by the primeval process, but +wholly without capital to develop enterprises. + +Now the jury was chiefly composed of ordinary miners. Of these it so +happened that a large number had had their horses stolen. They were +valuable animals at that period, most difficult to replace, and the +owners, therefore, felt their loss acutely. They came to the trial with +a fixed and settled intention of striking a blow at horse-stealers, to +which end it was necessary that some one, they hardly cared who, should +suffer. + +They were determined that an example should be made. It would do good +and prevent others from being so immoral and short-sighted as to rob +honest miners. + +'This Trevanion,' they reasoned, 'had really been mixed up with the +Lawless crowd, and a worse lot, now it turned out, had never been seen +near Ballarat.' + +It was argued that the evidence went to show that he had been a known +friend and an intimate of the family at the place with the native name, +and had been seen there when horse-stealing on a large scale was being +carried on. + +'Kate Lawless swore point-blank to his having been away with her +brothers long before the Lawless crowd had come to Growlers'. Trooper +Donnellan had sworn to seeing him there. Hiram Edwards, the Yankee +digger, had seen him there, and other miners. They had no call to have a +down on him, even if Dayrell and the girl had. + +'Besides these, Tessie Lawless, who every one knew was a straight girl, +and wouldn't have said a word against him for the world if she could +have helped it--even _she_ had to confess that she had seen him at +Eumeralla.' + +'What about this chap that was said to be the dead image of him?' asked +a younger juror. 'It was hard lines to be lagged innocent through +another cove's work.' + +'Well, they might believe that if they liked; it was put up, some +thought. Jack Polwarth and his wife, like all these Cousin Jacks, would +swear anything for a Cornishman. Mr. Stirling was a nice chap, but he +was a banker, and wasn't likely to go back on a man with a good account. +Mrs. Delf was a good sort, but Trevanion used her house regular and +spent his money free. They knew what that meant. His mind was made up. +If Ned Lawless, as was waiting for his sentence, was in it, Trevanion +was too. He must face the music. He'd be let off light, but it would be +a lesson to him. If they didn't shop some one over this racket there +wouldn't be a horse left on the field by Christmas.' + +At different times, and from different speakers, such was the general +tone and substance of the arguments advanced by the majority. The +minority defended their position, and from time to time denied that +sufficient evidence had been furnished to show guilty knowledge or +participation in crime on the part of the prisoner. But, after several +hours spent in debate, the minority yielded, disinclination to be locked +up all night lending force to the logic of their opponents. + +When the jury marched into court, after notice by the sheriff's officer +to the judge that they had agreed, a hush of anxious silence reigned +throughout the building. Lance stood up fearless and erect, as a soldier +faces the firing-party at his execution. Ned Lawless never changed his +position, but seemed as careless and unenvious as the youngest lad in +court. + +'How say you, gentlemen of the jury?' said the judge's associate, a very +young gentleman, with discretion, however, beyond his years. 'Do you +find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?' + +There was an air of solemnity pervading the jurors generally, from which +Mr. England at once deduced an adverse verdict. The women fastened their +eyes upon the foreman with eager expectation or painful anxiety; all +save Kate Lawless. For all her emotion displayed, expressed in her +countenance, the prisoners might have been Chinamen charged with +stealing cabbages. + +There was a slight pause, after which the foreman, a burly digger who +had been a 'forty-niner' in California, and had seen the first rush at +Turon, uttered the word 'Guilty!' The effect of the announcement was +electrical. A tumult seemed imminent. The great crowd swayed and surged +as if suddenly stirred to unwonted action. Groans mingled with hisses +were heard; women's cries and sobs, above which rose a girl's hysterical +shriek, thrilling and prolonged, temporarily in the ascendant. The deep +murmur of indignation seemed about to swell into riotous shouting, when +an additional force of police appeared at the outer entrance, by whom, +after vigorous expostulation, order was restored. + +The judge proceeded to pass sentence, contenting himself with telling +the jury that 'they had proved themselves scrupulous guardians of the +public welfare, and had not allowed themselves to be swayed by +considerations of mercy. Their grasp of the facts of the case was +doubtless most comprehensive. It was their verdict, not his. They had +accepted the sole responsibility. Launcelot Trevanion, the sentence of +the court is that you be imprisoned in Her Majesty's Gaol at Ballarat, +and kept to hard labour for the term of two years. Edward Lawless, the +sentence of the court is that you be imprisoned in Her Majesty's Gaol at +Pentridge, and kept to hard labour for the term of five years. Let the +prisoners be removed.' + +Then the disorder of the crowd, previously restrained, burst all bounds, +and appeared to become ungovernable. Tessie Lawless fell forward in a +faint and was carried out. Mrs. Polwarth shook her fist in the direction +of the sacred judgment-seat, and declared in resonant tones that more +would come of this if things were not mended. Snatching Tottie up, she +and Mrs. Delf followed in the wake of Mr. Stirling and Hastings, +continuing to impeach the existing order of things judicial, and +declaring 'that an honest man and a gentleman had no show in a country +like this, where straight folks' oaths counted for nought; where +policemen and lying jades had power to shut up in prison a man whose +shoes in England they wouldn't have been allowed to black.' + +'End of first act of the melodrama,' said Hastings to Charlie Stirling, +with grim pleasantry. 'Audience gone out for refreshment. "What may +happen to a man in Victoria!" as the Port Phillip _Patriot_ said the +other day. Poor Lance! it makes me feel revolutionary too.' + + * * * * * + +The end had come. With a hoarse murmur, half-repressed but none the less +sullen and resentful, the crowd surged outward from the court. A strong +body of police escorted the prisoners to the van, in which, despite of +threatened obstruction from some of the Growlers' Gully contingent, they +were placed and driven towards the gaol, which, built on a lofty +eminence, was nearly a mile from the court-house. Ned Lawless preserved +his ordinary cheerful indifference, nodding to more than one +acquaintance in the crowd, as who should say, 'They don't have me for no +five years, you bet!' + +But Lance moved like a man in a dream. The force of the blow seemed to +have arrested the ordinary action of the brain. 'Guilty! _Two years' +imprisonment!_ Oh, God! Was it possible! and not some evil dream from +which he would wake, as in the days of his boyhood, to find himself free +and happy. It could not be. The Almighty could not be so cruel, so +merciless, could not suffer a wrong so foul, so false to every principle +of right, truth, justice! This hideous phantasmagoria would vanish, and +he, Lance Trevanion, would find himself back at Number Six, hailing the +dawn with joy, ready to sing aloud as he left his couch with pure +elation of spirits.' + +The actuality of changed conditions was brought home to him by the +prompt alteration of treatment to which he was subjected on arriving at +the gaol. Marched through a large yard in which a number of prisoners +were sitting or standing aimlessly about, Lance became aware that a +great change had taken place in his status and prestige. Before this he +was only on committal; for all the prison authorities knew, he might be +acquitted, and walk forth from court unstained in reputation. + +But now things were different. He was a prisoner under sentence. Bound +to conform to the regulations of the establishment, who must _obey +orders_. Do, in plain words, what he was told, no matter in what tone or +manner couched, must perform menial services, descend from his former +position to be the servant of servants, nay more, their dumb and +unresisting slave, unless he saw fit to defy the terrible and crushing +weight of prison authority. Should he submit? he asked himself, sitting +down on the scanty bedding, neatly folded on a narrow board. + +'Should he submit? or rather should he not give volcanic vent to his +untamed temper, strangle the warder who next came to his cell, and "run +amok," scattering the gaol guards, dying by a rifle bullet rather than +by the slower but not less certain action of the prison atmosphere? Had +it not killed so many another, born, like him, to a life of +freedom?--and yet--he was young--so young! Life had joys in store--for a +man of three-and-twenty, even if he had to waste two years in this +thrice accursed living tomb! Disgrace! dishonour! Of course it +was--would be all the days of his life. Still there were other +countries--other worlds, almost, of which he had since his arrival in +Australia heard more than all his schooling had taught him. The Pacific +Slope; the South-Sea Islands; the Argentine Republic; New Mexico; Texas; +Colorado! These were localities of which many a miner talked as +familiarly as Jack Polwarth of Cornwall or Devon. Two years would pass +somehow. How many weeks was it? A hundred and more! The Judge, however, +had ordered the time he had spent under committal to be deducted from +the whole term--that was something. Well, he would see it out. He had +friends still who were staunch and true. He would change his name and go +to one of those places in the New World where men were not too +particular about their associates' former lives--as long as they paid +their way and lived a manly life. But home! Home to Wychwood! Home to +his father and Estelle! Never! No! He could not look them in the face +again.' + +These reflections were brought to a close abruptly by the sudden opening +of the cell door and the entrance of two warders, one of whom carried a +suit of prison clothes. One was a tall powerful man with a hard +expression of countenance and a cruel mouth. He looked at Lance with a +cold, scrutinising air. + +'Stand up, prisoner Trevanion,' he said, as if reading out of a book, +'and the next time you hear your cell door open comply with the +regulations.' + +'What regulations?' inquired Lance. + +'They're on that board,' pointing to a small board placed in a corner of +the cell. 'You can read, I expect? Now, strip, and dress yourself in +this uniform.' + +Disencumbering himself of his ordinary garments, Lance soon found +himself attired in a striped suit of coarse cloth, fitted also with +rough blucher boots and a woollen cap. + +'Follow Warder Jackson.' + +The shorter warder grinned: 'You've got to see the barber and the +photographer next. You won't hardly know yourself, will he, Bracker? +We've got yer photer' before you was took, and now all we want is yer +jug likeness. Then we have yer both ways in case yer gives us leg-bail. +Turn.' + +They halted in a wide passage where a man in prison garb stood by a +camera. He had been a photographer before committing the forgery for +which he was imprisoned. His talents were now utilised in securing +likenesses of his fellow-prisoners, a modern gaol invention which had +proved of immense value in the identification of criminals who had +either escaped or had committed fresh crimes. + +Before being placed in position a man came out of a passage bearing a +razor, with shaving materials and scissors of formidable size. + +'Sit down,' said the tall warder, pointing to a bench, 'the gaol barber +will cut your hair now and shave you, after this he will shave you twice +a week and cut your hair every fortnight.' Subduing a frenzied impulse +to seize the razor, cut every one's throat and his own afterwards, Lance +sat down, and in a marvellously short time found his face denuded of +moustache and whisker, while his head felt strangely cold and bristly. +He submitted, vacantly staring and unresistingly, to being placed in the +position proper for the apparatus. When the negative came out and was +shown to him exultingly as a first-rate likeness he did not recognise +himself. + +This creature in the repulsive and bizarre habiliments, with cropped +head and hairless face as of a patient in a lunatic asylum. Was this +really himself? Was this Lance Trevanion? It could not be, unless he had +gone mad. Perhaps he had without knowing it; men did not know when they +lost their reason, so he had read, or how would they persist in saying +they were sane? His head was burning, his eyes darkened, he gasped for +breath, and before either warder could save him, fell prone and heavily +on the stone floor. + + * * * * * + +He recovered to find himself in the cell to which he had first been +taken. He was sitting upon the two blankets which represented bed and +bedding for a hard-labour prisoner, and had been considerately propped +up against an angle of the wall. He had been 'under observation' of a +warder unconsciously since being carried there. This official was +enabled to look in through a small barred aperture for that purpose, +placed in the cell door. When the prisoner struggled into consciousness +he departed, leaving Lance to realise his position and to compose his +thoughts. + +Merciful heaven! what thoughts were his! Let those say who have suddenly +awakened to the consciousness of crime, not only alleged but legally +proved; who as criminals, in spite of denial and protest, have been +tried and sentenced. To the awakened knowledge of dishonour fixed, +public, irrevocable! A mark for the pity of friends, for the scorn of +strangers, for the chuckling triumph of enemies! Up to a certain stage +of legal conflict imagination cheats the boding heart with hope of +release, victory, sudden good fortune. + +But, the verdict once delivered, the sentence pronounced, hope trails +her wings and abandons the fated victim; faith permits the lamp to burn +so low that a breath of unbelief suffices to extinguish it; charity +flees in dismay from frenzied cries and imprecations. Then this is the +opportunity of the enemy of mankind. This demon train finds easy +entrance into the ruined fortress of the soul. The furies are not idle. +Remorse, revenge, jealousy, cruel as the grave, all the unclean and +baser spirits ravenous for his soul, forsaken of God and man, as he +holds himself to be, gather around the scapegoat of society as the +diablotins around the corpse of the physician in Doré's terrible +engraving. A carnival of evil, weird and Dantesque, begins in the lonely +cell. In that hour, unless his guardian angel has the power to shield +him from the dread assault of the lower forces, a transformation, such +as was but fabled in old classic days, takes place. The higher +qualities, the loftier aspirations, the old beliefs in honour, valour, +virtue, and justice take flight for ever, while the brute attributes +stalk forth threatening and unchallenged. + +Day after day Lance Trevanion performed mechanically his portion of +appointed work among the prison herd. To them he spoke no word. When +locked up with the rest for the long long solitary night, which +commenced before dark and did not end till after sunrise, under gaol +rules, he sat brooding over his woes. Stirling had called with printed +permission from the visiting justice to see prisoner Trevanion, but he +refused to meet him. How could he bear that any of his former friends +should look upon him degraded and repulsive of aspect? No! He would +never see them more--while in this hateful prison-house at least. +Afterwards, if he were living and not turned into a wild beast, he would +consider. Friends! How _could_ a man have friends while suffering this +degradation? + +Towards the warders his demeanour was silent rather than sullen, but he +could not be induced by threat or persuasion to affect the +respectfulness which is, by regulation, enjoined between prisoners and +officials. These last were indifferent, to do them justice, regarding +Lance as 'a swell chap as had got it hot, and was a bit off his chump.' +The exception to this state of feeling was Bracker, the head warder, who +desired to be regarded with awe, and was irritable at the slightest +failure of etiquette. His manner, devoid of the faintest trace of +sympathy, was harsh and overbearing. To the higher class of prisoners he +was especially distasteful, and from this knowledge, or other reason, +they were the inmates towards whom he appeared to have the strongest +dislike. It may easily be imagined that although the visiting +magistrate, to whom is entrusted the duty of trying and punishing all +descriptions of prison offences, is presumably impartial, yet it is +within the power of any gaol official, if actuated by malicious +feelings, to irritate a prisoner to the verge of frenzy, and afterwards +to ensure his punishment under form of law. The trial takes place within +the walls of the gaol. The warders give their evidence on oath. In a +general way they corroborate each other's testimony. It is not difficult +to foretell, even though the magistrate be acute and discriminating, how +the decision will go. The punishments permitted in prison vary in +severity. Confinement in a solitary cell with half rations, or even +bread and water, for periods varying from three days to a fortnight, +mark the initiatory stage of repression. Then comes the dark cell, an +experience which awes the boldest. + +After which, for insubordination coupled with unusual violence of speech +or action, flogging may be inflicted, if a second magistrate be present +at the hearing of the case. This was the code to which Lance Trevanion +now found himself amenable. All ignorant of its pains and penalties, he +bore himself with a sullen contempt alike of the tasks and routine +observances by regulation imposed upon all prisoners. He obeyed, indeed, +but with an air of indifference which provoked Bracker, who secretly +resolved to 'break' him, as the prison slang goes. To that end he +commenced a line of conduct which he had seldom known in his extended +experience to fail. More than once, however, in his career, Bracker had +been accused of cruelty to prisoners. At the last gaol where he had +served the visiting magistrate had come to the conclusion that these +repeated charges were not entirely without foundation, and so reporting, +his official superior had warned him that if any offence of the kind was +proved against him he would be disrated, if not dismissed. It was +therefore incumbent on him to be wary and circumspect. + +He commenced by speaking roughly to Lance almost every time he entered +his cell, compelling him to roll up his blankets several times in +succession under the pretence of insufficient neatness, swearing at him +when there was no one near, and abusing him as a lazy lubber who +wouldn't take the trouble to keep his cell neat and wanted to have a +body-servant to wait upon him. Among Mr. Bracker's other engaging +qualities was that of being a radical of the deepest dye in politics and +a democrat particularly advanced. A child of the masses, he had received +just sufficient education to qualify him for a rabid advocacy of certain +communistic theories. Arising from this mental enlightenment partly, as +well as from the fundamental condition of an envious and malignant +nature, was a hatred of privileged orders and an unreasoning spite +towards gentle-folk and aristocrats of whatever sex or grade. He had +read accounts of the French Revolution and lamented that he had not the +power to put in force, in these degenerate days, some of the drastic +remedies by which 'the people' of France ameliorated their own condition +and wiped out the long score of oppressions which they had suffered at +the hands of their natural enemies. + +As a man, a politician, and a warder he felt therefore a subtle +satisfaction in tormenting a member of the hated class secretly. He felt +it due to himself also, as a matter of professional etiquette, not to be +'bested' by a prisoner under sentence. He settled to his daily dole of +insult with cruel craft and grim resolve. Such may have actuated a +plantation overseer in South Carolina towards a contumacious 'nigger' in +the good old slave-holding days before the war. + +Daily the 'assistant torturer' pursued his course. Mere oaths and +continuous abuse were always carefully timed to be out of earshot of all +others. Daily Lance Trevanion endured in silence the varied taunts, the +bullying tone, which he had never needed to bear from living man before. +Indignant scorn lit up his sad despairing eyes at each fresh +provocation. More deeply glowed their smouldering fires, but no word +came from the tightly-compressed lips; no gesture told of the well-nigh +unendurable mental agony within, of the almost unnatural strain. + +'Yes, you may look,--blast you for an infernal stuck-up aristocrat,' +Bracker said one morning. 'You know you'd like to rub me out, but you're +not game--_not game_--do you hear that? You and all your breed in the +old country, and this too, have been living all your lives on the labour +of men like me, and treating us like the dirt under your feet, and you +can't salute your superiors like another prisoner. You're too grand, I +suppose. But by ----, I'll break you down, my fine fellow, before I've +done with you. I'll have you on your knees yet. You're not the first +that's tried it on with me, and, my word! they paid for it. I'd like you +to have seen them knuckle under before I left off dealing with them.' + +The next day, on some transparent pretence, Lance was ordered to take up +the work of one of the long-sentence prisoners, which involved menial +and degrading, not to say disgusting duties. These he performed +patiently and mechanically, yet with a far-off look as of a man in a +dream. Even this penance was insufficient to appease the malevolence of +his tormentor. He made a practice of standing near, watching his victim, +enjoying the spectacle of the captive 'swell' engaged for hours in the +meanest conceivable employment. From time to time he made brutal jokes +upon the situation with his assistant warders or those prisoners who +were always ready for personal reasons to take the side of their +taskmasters. + +After the night's stillness and respite--stillness how oppressive, even +terrible in its unbroken silence!--Lance would brace himself to confront +anew his bitter fate. He would repeat to himself all the reasons that he +could summon for stubborn endurance and patient adherence to the course +he had laid down for himself. But with the morning light came his +inexorable foe, ordering him here and there, persisting in declaring +that he was in the habit of breaking minor regulations, making a +laughing-stock of him before other prisoners in every way, driving him +along the road which was sure, in Bracker's experience, to land him in +some act of overt insubordination. + +One morning, after an hour's trial of every species of aggravation, +Lance's patience so far failed him that he turned upon his persecutor +and told him that no one but a coward would thus treat a man in his +position, and who was unable to defend himself or retaliate. He did not +say much, but doubtless committed himself to the extent of infringing +the gaol regulations, which enjoin respect and obedience to all +officials. + +His adversary at once seized his advantage, and ordering him back to his +cell locked him up, pushing him roughly inside the door. This portion +of his duty performed, he lodged a complaint in due form of +insubordination against Launcelot Trevanion, hard labour prisoner under +sentence. + +The gaoler held over the case until the end of the week, when Mr. +M'Alpine, as visiting magistrate, regularly attended to hear cases and +complaints. + +The trial of prisoners charged with such offences is conducted _in +camera_, the magistrate, the gaoler, the parties to the complaint, and +the witnesses being only present. For reasons held to be sufficient, the +public and the press are excluded. Evidence on oath is taken down in +writing, that the depositions may be afterwards referred to. The +magistrate decides on the evidence brought before him. The accused is +permitted to call witnesses. But for obvious reasons the warders and the +companions in captivity of the culprit or complainant constitute +necessarily the only available testimony. Thus it is to be feared that +occasionally the scales of justice may be deflected, and though forms +are adhered to, wrong-doing triumphs and revenge is wreaked. + +So, in the present case, Bracker swore positively that Lance had +habitually refused to obey orders, and on this occasion had abused and +threatened him in language unfit to be repeated. He handed in a paper on +which was written a selection of foul expressions of his own invention. +His tale was corroborated in part by another warder, who had heard Lance +speak in an excited tone of voice to the complainant--though he was not +near enough to catch the sense of his words. One of the +prisoners--mindful of favours to come--'swore up' in Bracker's interest, +and more circumstantially confirmed his story. Against this weight of +evidence Lance's denial availed nothing. His resentful demeanour tended +to prejudice Mr. M'Alpine against him as being mutinous and defiant. +There was no little difficulty in preserving order among the desperate +_détenus_ of the day, as it was. The sternest repression was thought +necessary. In view of example and deterrent effect, Lance was therefore +sentenced--after an admonition of curt severity--to a month's solitary +confinement upon bread and water, the last week to be passed in the dark +cell. + +The ill-concealed triumph depicted on Bracker's countenance was hard to +bear. The solitary cell, the meagre fare, often unduly abridged, +represented to a man of Lance's temperament and experiences the +extremity of human wretchedness. But a sharper sting was added by +Bracker's daily jeers: 'So you won't give a civil answer yet when you're +spoke to,' he said, one afternoon, stirring Lance rudely with his foot. +'And you won't stand up when you're told? Wait till to-morrow, when +you're due for the dark 'un--seven days and seven nights! That'll bleach +you, my flash horse-thief, like a stick of celery! I'll take the steel +out of yer before I've done! Bigger chaps than you have been +straightened here before now!' + +On the next morning, accordingly, Lance was marched to the dark cell, +and thrust in so roughly that, weakened as he was by his Lenten diet, he +fell down, bruised and half-fainting. There was barely sufficient room +in the small circular cell for him to lie at length, and as he regained +a sitting posture and strained his eyesight to discover one ray of light +amid the almost palpable darkness, he realised fully the utter +desolation and horror of his position. Despair took possession of him. +Forsaken of God and man, as he deemed himself to be, he raved and +blasphemed like a maniac, ceasing only when sheer exhaustion brought on +a stupor of insensibility, from which he passed into perturbed and +fitful slumbers. + +He awoke only to undergo with partially renewed faculties still keener +miseries. Unaware of the time which he had passed in sleep, he was +ignorant whether it was day or night. No sound penetrated the thick +walls of the cell. The Cimmerian gloom was unrelieved by the faintest +pencil of light. Had he been dead and entombed he could not have been +more utterly separated from knowledge of the outer world--from communion +with the living. Days seemed to have passed since he first entered the +cell. His brain throbbed. His heart-beats were plainly audible to him in +the horrible silence. Delirious fancies commenced to assail him. He saw +his father's form as he had last seen it, with visage stern and +inflexible. He seemed to say: 'All that I foresaw has come to pass. You +have dishonoured an ancient name!--blotted a stainless escutcheon! Die, +and make no sign!' + +Then his cousin Estelle's sweet face came slowly out of the gloom, +gazing upon him with sorrowful, angelic pity. The infinite tenderness, +the boundless compassion of love, shone in her starry eyes, which, in +his vision, commenced to irradiate the gloomy vault. Clearer grew the +outlines of her form--a celestial brightness appeared to render visible +every outline of her form, every lineament of her countenance, as she +inclined herself as if to raise him from his recumbent position. He +threw up his arms with a cry of joyous recognition. The action appeared +to recall his wandering senses. The impenetrable dungeon gloom again +closed over him like a descending iron platform. A steel band appeared +to compress and still more tightly environ his brain, until a deathlike +swoon terminated simultaneously both agony and sensation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +When Lance issued from the dark cell and was relegated to ordinary +confinement, he fully justified Bracker's anticipations in one respect. +He was 'bleached,' as that official had described the change of +complexion likely to result. His face was ashen white, his eyes had a +vacant stare like those of a blind man. He staggered from weakness, so +that the warders were fain to hold him up more than once. When addressed +he made no answer. It seemed as if his senses had suffered partial +obliteration. Bracker was not present when his victim was returned to +his cell after serving the full term of punishment. The other warders, +who had no special dislike to him, were indulgent rather than otherwise +in their treatment and comments. + +'You're a bit low, Trevanion,' one of them said; 'I'd ask to see the +doctor if I were you, and get sent to hospital for a week or two. He'll +order you wine, and soup, and things. You'll be slipping your cable like +that other chap Bracker got into trouble about, if you don't mind.' + +Lance made no reply. He sat down slowly and doubtfully upon the folded +blankets at the farther end of the cell, steadying himself with +difficulty against the angle of the wall. + +'Now, you take my tip,' said the elder of the two men to his fellow as +they left, after bolting the cell door with the clang inseparable from +prison life, 'that chap will do one of three things before a month's +out. Bracker's been running him too hard. He's a well-bred 'un, and they +won't stand driving. He'll either die, go mad, or----' + +'Or what?' said the younger man. + +'Well, Bracker had better look out. Some fine morning he'll have +Trevanion's fingers in his throat, and he mayn't find it so easy to get +'em slacked off again. I've known that happen before now. And when the +chap was choked off it didn't matter to Dawkins. _He_ was the warder. It +happened when I was at the stockade.' + +'Why didn't it matter?' + +'Because _Dawkins was dead_! The chap laughed when they dragged him +off, and said they might do what they liked with him. He'd settled +Dawkins, and that was all he cared for in the world. They might hang him +now, and welcome.' + +'And did they?' + +'Of course they did, but we old hands knew Dawkins had been tantalising +him; it was a way of his with some prisoners, and this cove made up his +mind to rub him out. He got him to rights, safe enough.' + +'Hadn't we better tell Bracker?' + +'What for? He thinks he knows everything, and wouldn't thank us. Likely +think we'd been putting up something to get his place. Let him take his +chance like another man.' + + * * * * * + +When the medical officer saw Lance he ordered his immediate removal to +the hospital ward. He said the prisoner was dangerously low and feeble; +that his health had suffered more than could be accounted for; and that +there were certain bruises and excoriations which could not have been +produced in any ordinary way. He spoke kindly to Lance, and advised him +to follow his treatment and diet marked out for him, and to be more +cheerful and resigned if he wished to get well and come safely through +his imprisonment. + +'You're only a young man, Trevanion,' he would say. 'After this couple +of years are out there is nothing to prevent your going to the United +States, or to any other part of the world where people have never heard +of you, of Ballarat--hardly of Australia, for that matter. And what a +deal of life there is to come for you--the best part too. Take courage +and make up your mind to bear the necessary hardship of your sentence, +and look forward to the day when you will go forth a free man.' + + * * * * * + +Whether acted upon by this well-meant advice, or following out some +course of action nurtured like the fungus of a dungeon in the dark +depths of his brooding heart, a change took place in the sullen +captive's mien. He seemed thankful for the 'medical comforts' doled out +to him, and availed himself of them readily. He listened respectfully to +the chaplain and gaol surgeon, and when, after a fortnight's treatment +in the hospital ward, he was reported fit for the ordinary discipline of +the gaol, the warders with one exception declared that they would not +have known him to be the same man. + +The ordinary routine of prison life is scarcely calculated to develop +the finer feelings in the keepers of the wild beasts in human form over +whom they hold watch and ward. Boundless dissimulation, craft and +subtlety, tameless ferocity, ruthless cruelty, are their leading +characteristics. Apparently peaceable and harmless, theirs is but the +guile of the red Indian or the dark-souled Hindoo, biding his time until +the hour comes for murder and rapine. Let but the keeper relax +vigilance; let the sentinel slumber at his post, and mutiny and murder +are prompt to unmask. Still, with this knowledge drilled into them by +decades of experience, the ordinary prison officials are just if not +merciful, strict but not severe; while their own discipline is so +rigorous that any departure from regulations is sternly and invariably +visited on the offending official. + +Bracker was an exception--for the credit of the department it must be +admitted that he was the only man in that great prison-house who would +have acted as he did towards any prisoner, however vexatious. + +As Lance passed into his cell he saw his oppressor watching him with the +expression he knew so well. He was not long left in suspense. + +'Didn't Saunders complain of not being strong enough for the wood and +water work, Jackson?' + +'Yes, sir,' replied the under warder. + +'Well, take this man here and put him in his place. He's fat and lazy +enough after his loafing in the hospital to do a little work again.' + +'This way, Trevanion,' said the warder. 'You've got to work in the lower +yard.' + +As he passed Bracker their eyes met for an instant. + +'You're not worked down yet, my man,' said Bracker, with an insolent +laugh. 'Wait till you've had another month's graft where I'm going to +put ye. "Jimmy Ducks" aboard an emigrant ship's a fool to it.' + +Lance drew himself up for an instant and looked full into his +tormentor's face. The cruel cowardly eyes fell for a moment before the +gaze of the patrician, degraded and despairing as he was. Then the +warder quietly pushed him on. + +'Don't cross him, if you take my advice,' he said. 'He's a devil all out +when he goes for a prisoner, and I never knew one that didn't come off +worst in the end. You lie low for a bit and give him his head. The +doctor's your friend now, and he'll see he doesn't crowd you.' + +Lance nodded his head in recognition of the kindness of the man's +intention, then silently commenced his laborious and uncongenial task. +When he returned to his cell at night worn out and exhausted by the +unwonted toil, hardly recovered indeed from the pitiable weakness to +which he had been reduced, he swore a bitter oath and then and there +registered an unholy vow. + +From that hour he awaited but opportunity to wreak a full measure of +vengeance upon his adversary. He felt his strength declining day by day. +Daily did he endure the cheap taunt, the cruel mockery, the ingenious +expedients, by which Bracker sought to intensify his misery. But a +single chance he would yet give to him, if he had the manhood to accept +it. + +One morning he addressed him with the usual salute. + +'I wish to speak a few words to you, and before I do so I wish you to +understand that I mean no--no--disrespect----' + +'Speak and be d--d,' was Bracker's courteous rejoinder. + +'It is only this. You have been what the people here would call "running +me,"--that is, putting me to work above my strength, insulting me +habitually as well. Why you should do so is best known to yourself. I +can't stand it much longer. If you will leave off this line of conduct +and treat me fairly, like any other prisoner, I will promise on my part +to--to--behave well and reasonably. Don't decide in a hurry--it may cost +both our lives.' + +Bracker laughed aloud. He stopped to look at Lance more than once, then +he laughed as at too exquisite a joke. It was the mockery of a fiend +exulting in the agonies of a demon-tortured soul. + +He misconceived the situation. He concluded that his captive's courage +had failed him; that henceforth he would be able to treat him with the +contemptuous cruelty with which he was wont to finish his persecutions. +He triumphed in his foresight, and could not forbear showing a cowardly +exultation. + +'So you've dropped down to it at last, my flash horse-duffer, have you? +You've shown the white feather that I always knew was in you--a rank cur +from the beginning, with all your brag. By God! I'll make it hotter than +ever for you, just for this very bit of impudence. D--n ye! Get back to +your muck.' + +As he spoke the last words, ending with a foul expression, he had drawn +near Lance, and raising his foot as if for a contemptuous kick, he +placed his hands on his shoulders. The long corridor between the cells +was for the moment without a second warder. With a panther-like bound +Lance sprang forward, and in another moment his hands were at Bracker's +throat, clutching with the grasp that death alone relaxes. + +'Dog!' he ground out between his teeth. 'Your last hour is come. Die, +wretch, and go to hell--die, if you had a hundred lives, scoundrel and +villain that you are--die for your cruelty to a helpless wretch that +never did you harm!' + +So sudden was the onslaught that Bracker, though a powerful man, had no +chance of resistance, never dreaming that the cowed convict, as he took +Lance to be, would turn upon him. In another moment he was on his back +on the floor of the cell, his foe with knee on chest awaiting the moment +when the blanched features should display no sign of life, nor abating +for one second the deadly gripe of the slayer of his kind. + +Of his own safety--of his assured doom for killing a prison official--he +thought not. The blood fury was on him. His unendurable wrongs, his +daily torment, had reached the point of desperation when the human +animal turns at bay, disregarding alike the hunter's spear, the baying +hound, the fast-flowing life-blood. + +Another minutest subdivision of time would have settled the matter. +Another dead warder would have been found by the side of a reckless and +desperate prisoner. The usual inquest would have been held, when, after +a verdict of wilful murder, the rope or a sentence of imprisonment for +life would have terminated all public interest for a season. + +But in mercy or otherwise to Mr. Bracker an attendant accidentally +returned to the corridor and noticed the open cell door. This, of +course, was irregular. Rushing towards it he was just in time--hardly a +second too soon--to prevent Mr. Bracker, 'our late respected head warder +of Ballarat gaol' as he would have been styled, from posing as a corpse, +and Lance Trevanion, late of Wychwood, Cornwall, from becoming a +murderer! + +Some considerable time elapsed before Mr. Bracker returned fully to his +senses after regaining consciousness. He had been hurled to the cell +floor with such violence that concussion of the brain had taken place, +while his swollen throat testified to the deadly gripe of the victim who +had so nearly turned the table upon his tormentor. It was fully a week +before he was in a condition to give evidence before the Visiting +Justice. The interval Lance was condemned to spend in 'solitary,' to be +nourished wholly on bread and water,--to be abandoned in fact to the +society of the Furies, which none the less mordantly than in the days of +the world's green youth rend the heart and shatter the brain of their +ill-fated or guilty victim. + +Lance was rapidly passing from one stage of misery to the other, from +the unmerciful to the merciful woe. As he sat or lay in his cell the +long hours through, the thought crossed his brain, revelled and ran riot +there, that if he had only persevered in his policy of endurance, if he +had been strong and patient instead of weak and impulsive, this needed +not to have happened. He might probably have found some door of escape +from his tribulation, not literally of course, but through the clergyman +and the Visiting Justice, the latter of whom would have been most +uncompromising in punishing an official who misused his power. + +Now that the storm of passion was over, the fury spent, the _brevis +insania_ passed away, calmer reflection would intrude. To what further +sentence had he rendered himself liable? Would he be committed for +attempted murder, or would it be manslaughter? Should he be condemned to +a further sentence of years--long years of imprisonment? Might he not be +hanged for the attempt to commit the capital offence? No doubt he +intended to kill Bracker--that he would not deny. His mind was made up. +If a shameful death or long imprisonment was to be his doom, he would +rid himself of a worthless life. He had procured the means of +self-destruction during his first remand. The feeling aroused among his +fellow-captives by his daring attempt to take the life of his gaoler was +peculiar and exceptional. Though many of the prisoners from motive of +policy were subservient to Bracker, he was liked by no one. He had been +known to be trying to 'break' or crush Trevanion. Cruelties and +unnecessary severity springing from the irresponsible use of power are +presumably not unknown in gaols. But the prison herd knows that at a +certain point despair sets in. Reckless retribution follows, and the +life of the agent or leading actor in the tragedy nearly always exacted +counts with himself and his fellows merely as dust in the balance. + +The criminals like to think that from their midst will arise at least +one man who devotes himself to sacrifice, so only may he avenge himself +and them upon their enemy. The time comes, and with curious certainty +the man. Then the words of the first warder come true. The sullen +patience of the harassed convict, who rarely resents routine discipline, +however severe, becomes exhausted, and the debt is paid in full by a +brutal murder or a life-long injury. Let it be borne in mind that 'early +in the fifties' the problem of successful goldfield management was yet +unsolved in Australia. The legislation had been chiefly tentative; the +police and prison arrangements were incomplete. From the seething mass +of the mining population, not always ruled with tact or temper, smarting +under alleged injustice and excited by the enormous yield of the +precious metal, arose a dangerously large and increasing criminal class. +The overcrowded gaols, ample for a pastoral colony, were unable to +contain them. Among the more experienced officers apprehensions of a +revolt of the mining population--unhappily but too well-founded--began +to assume the appearance of certainty. In such event the prisoners, if +altogether centralised or confined inland, might easily be +liberated--would hardly fail to be so on the first outbreak. Considering +these contingencies, the Government of the day determined to relieve the +pressure upon the metropolitan gaols by establishing prison hulks. +Vessels moored in the waters of Williamstown Bay could be more easily +guarded--would obviously be more difficult to escape from. Ships by +scores, deserted by their crews, lay at anchor motionless and tenantless +as that of the Ancient Mariner. Their owners were too happy to sell at +any reasonable price. The idea was approved--not sooner approved than +acted upon. The _President_, the _Success_, the _Sacramento_, the +_Deborah_, were purchased and forthwith proclaimed to be, and to be +considered, Her Majesty's gaols. They became from that day floating +prisons. There were those long after who did not hesitate to designate +them as floating hells. + +One of the leading ideas connected with the scheme was the compulsory +labour of the convicts, who, it was thought, might be employed +beneficially to themselves and to the state in building at +Williamstown--then a chief port of Melbourne--wharves, lighthouses, and +docks. There were millions of tons of blue-stone--a species of volcanic +trap--to be had near the shore for the quarrying. Harbour accommodation +was miserably insufficient. The labour of a thousand men was a valuable +consideration in that day of dearth of every kind of manual labour. Long +afterwards the navvies employed in the construction of the Yan Yean +aqueduct received one pound sterling per day. At this time double the +wage would not have furnished the labour these convicts performed, and +in many instances performed well. + +The _President_ enjoyed the bad eminence of being styled and worked as a +strictly penal hulk--an abode for refractory and desperate criminals. +Many of these were, in the prison slang, 'long-sentence men,' +incorrigible felons serving a life sentence for repeated offences; men +who could not be trusted to work even in the iron-gangs--so skilful and +determined were they in all methods of escape. Many of these were doomed +never to leave the _President's_ gloomy cells but for the coffin and the +shroud. Others again, after performing the allotted form of strictly +penal and reformatory discipline, were drafted on board the _Success_, +where they underwent the more popular and varied experience of working +in the quarries on the main-land--in irons, it is true, but having the +excitement of a daily voyage to and fro in one of the barges used for +the purpose. + + * * * * * + +When Lance was brought up for trial he found to his relief--if indeed +anything could have afforded him a gleam of satisfaction--that in spite +of the heinousness of his offence--penally considered--a favourable +feeling had sprung up with regard to him. Now that Bracker had in their +opinion got his deserts, several of the 'good conduct' prisoners came +forward with voluntary statements. They had seen the injured man +knocking about the prisoner Trevanion. He was always 'tantalising,' and +seemed to want to provoke him to a breach of regulations. Had not spoken +before, because they were afraid of Bracker, who was well known to be +revengeful. It was believed in the gaol (sent round, doubtless, in the +wonderful way criminals have of communicating with each other) that he +had caused a prisoner in another gaol to hang himself. + +Two warders had also noticed his conduct to prisoner Trevanion when he +came out of hospital. Thought it severe and unnecessary. The prisoner's +own statement was taken on oath. He admitted the offence, but averred +that he had become reckless through consistent ill-treatment. Bracker, +of course, denied everything in the most unabashed manner, looking with +evil eye upon the recalcitrant warders and the 'good conduct' prisoners. +But the papers had been sent for in the last inquiry made into his +conduct, also upon a charge of cruelty to prisoners. The evidence, +unfortunately for him, was very similar. Mr. M'Alpine, who was an +unsparing foe to all official misconduct, at once decided against him. +After a terrific lecture, he reminded Bracker that he had been disrated +for a former offence of a like nature. He should recommend him, +therefore, for dismissal, which recommendation, to the general joy of +the inhabitants of the Ballarat gaol, was promptly carried out. + +'Prisoner Trevanion, whose conduct if condoned must have a bad effect +upon the other prisoners (_other prisoners_, how the words fell like +drops of molten lead upon his heart!), is ordered to serve the rest of +his sentence on board Her Majesty's hulks at Williamstown.' + + * * * * * + + Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn + In the cold and heavy mist, + And Eugene Aram walked between + With gyves upon his wrists. + +This verse, from Hood's pathetic ballad, Lance had been fond of and +learned by heart as a schoolboy, little dreaming how closely the +circumstances would apply to himself in the after-time. + +It _would_ keep ringing through his brain with incessant automatic +iteration, as Lance found himself early next morning driven off to +Ballarat, leg-ironed and handcuffed, in charge of two warders. The two +men, with himself in the centre, took their seats in the back part of +Cobb's coach, and in company with various other passengers, clerical and +lay, male and female, as is the slightly unfair practice of the +Government, looking at it from the standpoint of the travelling public. +However, no great inconvenience having so far resulted, the sentimental +objection to travel with criminals has lessened. And being decidedly the +more economical mode of escort, as far as the Government is concerned, +the arrangement is continued. + +Of course glances of pitying wonder were cast from time to time, +especially by the female passengers in the crowded coach, at the men in +police uniform and the sad, sallow, clean-shaved man sitting between +them. One young girl alone, though sitting nearly opposite, had +exhibited no interest in the trio. She sat near the right-hand door of +the coach. Closely veiled, she had turned her head towards the town and +the crowd always attendant on the departure of a coach. + +The clock struck six. The powerful high-conditioned horses sprang at +their collars, obedient to the practised hand of 'Cabbage-tree Ned,' one +of the 'stage' heroes of the period. The heavily-laden coach swayed on +its thorough-brace springs and rattled down Sturt Street at the rate of +twelve miles an hour. More than once had Lance been the envied occupant +of the box seat beside this very driver, who, smoking the proffered +cigar, was as civil to Trevanion of Number Six as an official of his +exalted position could afford to be to any one. + + And now he sat, chained and alone, + The 'warder' by his side, + The plume, the helm, the charger gone, etc. + +Gone, gone, indeed,--how many things had gone!--fame and fortune, hope, +honour,--all that made life worth living. The sooner that wretched +dishonoured life went too, the better for all. Thank God, it would be +easy to drop overboard from barge or boat--the waters of the bay had +ended the sorrows of many a hopeless wretch, it was said. The heavy +irons provided for a quick and silent escape from life's weary burden. + +An involuntary sigh, as the sequel to the train of thought, from the +fettered captive, together with a faint but distinct tinkle from his +leg-irons, appeared to arouse the girl from her reverie. + +She gazed at the prisoner long and earnestly, then with a cry of grief +and despair which thrilled the hearts of all who heard her she threw +herself forward, and clasping his manacled hands within her own looked +into his face, worn and altered in every feature as it was, with the +piteous agony of a frightened child. + +It was Tessie Lawless! + +'Lance! oh, Lance!' she cried in tones so full of anguish that the +warders forbore to interfere, and the coach passengers listened in +sympathetic wonder. 'Is this what they have brought you to? Oh, wicked +wicked girl! Worse and more wicked man! For I know now how they plotted +to destroy you. Your blood will be on our heads. Surely we must suffer +for this if there's a God. Where are they taking you to? Oh, God! have +mercy!' + +The driver having inquired tersely into the occasion of the disturbance, +and having gathered that a girl had recognised a friend or relation in +the prisoner, lighted a fresh cigar and let his horses out adown the +incline with the remark that accidents would happen, but a good-looking +girl like her had no call to fret; she might have her pick of twenty new +sweethearts long before this one had served his time. Women would go on +like that, he supposed though, to the end of the world. + +The public, as represented by the twenty inside passengers, did not +exhibit undue surprise or other emotion. Some of the women whispered +'poor thing--fine young fellow too--pity he's gone wrong,' and so on. +The men kept mostly mute, though not unsympathetic. They were not unused +to seeing tragedies acted in everyday life in those unconventional days +of the early goldfields. The passions had lacked hiding-places such as +are furnished by a highly-civilised community. + +The crowded goldfields camp more nearly represented 'board ship' than +the provincial life pure and simple, and things were done and said, +necessarily _coram publico_, which in more conventional communities +would have been wholly suppressed or excited inconvenient remark. + +Therefore, after a vain attempt to persuade poor Tessie to moderate her +feelings, Lance was fain to yield to the contagion of her grief. +Weakened in mind and body by his late sufferings, softened by the +tenderness of her every tone, and touched by the first kind words he had +heard since his imprisonment, he was fain, though hating himself for the +weakness, to weep for company. As the tears streamed down the convict's +grief-worn countenance--tears which he vainly strived to hide with his +manacled hands--every heart was touched, and those emotions of our +common humanity which ennoble the species were deeply stirred. Murmurs +of 'Poor things,' 'Poor girl,' 'Hard lines,' etc., were heard. Even the +warders, though unused to the melting mood, were raised from out of +their ordinary groove of total indifference to human suffering not +provided for by the gaol regulations. After a short colloquy the one +nearest to Tessie motioned to the girl to exchange seats, an offer which +she thankfully accepted. + +There was no dereliction of duty involved in this charity, which was +heartily and unanimously endorsed by their public. Relaxation of +discipline was necessarily permitted in the case of escort of prisoners +from one part of the country to another. Such a task was generally +looked upon in the light of a holiday by warders or police troopers. It +involved change of air and scene, higher pay for a time, and with +various perquisites and indulgences. All that was required of them was +to deliver over their charge safely to the authorities. That being the +result, they were allowed a certain latitude with regard to the means. +If the prisoner thereby escaped, their punishment was exemplary. It +often happened, however, that the prisoner, being a fair sort of fellow +(as prisoners go), was conversed and generally associated with on terms +of equality. Of course proper security was exacted. A single trooper, +camping out through a stretch of thinly-inhabited pastoral country, has +been compelled to handcuff himself to the prisoner nightly for his +better safeguarding. But these formalities apart, much cheerful +companionship has ere now been enjoyed between the (official) 'wolf and +hound.' + +Hence, as the first warder observed in a gruff whisper, 'they had no +call to bother their heads if the poor chap's girl wanted a yarn with +him. It was the last one as he'd see for a spell, unless he fell across +a mermaid.' Here the speaker, who had been a ship's carpenter once, +growled a hoarse rumbling laugh. 'Let him have his bit o' luck for once. +He'd got stiffish times to come, or else they'd heard wrong.' + +So Tessie, sitting on the right side of Lance--there being no one to the +left of him at the coach-window--leaning her head on his shoulder, +commenced to whisper in his ear. The friendly warder studiously gazed at +the fast-flying landscape, as if it possessed peculiarly picturesque +effects. The second man almost turned his back upon Lance in his anxiety +to be out of the reach of confidential communications, while Tessie's +murmuring voice, instinct with more than womanly tenderness, sounded in +the ear--ay, in the heart of the captive, so lately sullenly despairing +of God and man--like the voice of an angel from heaven. + +'You may think me immodest, Lance,' she said--'I may call you that now, +may I not?--but I don't care. There are times when a woman must follow +her own heart, and this is one of them. I would tell you what I feel +now if there were hundreds looking on. I cannot help it; and what does +my poor life matter? When I think of what you were when I first saw you! +full of health, hope, and spirits, with a smile for every one, and under +compliment to no living man, I felt as if my heart would burst when I +saw you--saw you--as you are!' + +Here the girl's tears streamed down like rain--and she sobbed, though +striving with all her will power to restrain her feelings--till her +slender form shook and trembled in a manner piteous to see. Her forlorn +companion gazed at her silently, with a world of misery in his hollow +eyes. Just at that particular juncture the conversation in the coach +became, if not more cheerful, decidedly more loud and animated, and +their united voices helping to drown poor Tessie's lamentations, some +poor opportunity was given her to recover herself. + +'You think me very silly,' she said, with a miserable attempt to smile. +'I did not know how much I cared for you until the trial--women don't +always. I thought I had a friendly feeling, and no more, till I felt I +could have killed Kate--wretch that she is! for the part she took +against you. Then I knew--that I loved you! Oh! my God! I know now! But +you would never have been told it if you had been free and rich--not +now--not now either--except I thought I could do you some good--some +good, after helping to ruin you. God forgive me!' + +'I have been back to Ballarat, back to Eumeralla and the Snowy River, to +other places, too, because I was determined to find out how the thing +was worked between Dayrell and Kate.' + +'And did you find out?' Lance said, and his voice sounded strangely +hoarse in the girl's ear--even his voice had changed, she thought. 'What +fiends there are on earth!' + +'I am certain that I have,' she answered. 'I daresay you wondered--and +so did I--what made Kate so venomous against you all of a sudden? +Dayrell didn't like you because you thought yourself above him, and for +another reason, and besides he wanted to get his name up for a +conviction, because so many horses had been stolen and the Commissioner +had been blaming the police.' + +'What was the other reason, Tessie? I never did him any harm.' + +'Well, it doesn't matter now, but he--he--chose to fancy he admired +me--poor me!--when we lived at Eumeralla. I never could bear the sight +of him--and showed it. One of the boys stupidly chaffed him about it +after we came to Growlers', and said I was "gone upon you," as he called +it. That foolishness made all the mischief, I believe. He set himself to +have you somehow.' + +'And he did! May God blast and wither his soul and body, as he has +mine!' groaned Lance, with a savage intensity that made the girl +shudder. + +'Oh, don't--don't!' she cried. 'I can't bear to hear you speak like +that, you seem so different when you do. Then, when you were searched, +he found a letter which you had half-written to your cousin in England, +and out of that he made greater mischief still. He finished it himself +in his own way, and then read it to Kate, making her believe that you +had been engaged to your cousin all along, and were making game of her +as a half-bred, common bush girl that you were amusing yourself with.' + +'Then how about seeing me at Eumeralla? _you_ swore to that!' said Lance +reproachfully, unable to repress his anger as he thought of the strange +medley of fact and fraud by which he had been betrayed. + +'I did, God help me!' said poor Tessie, very humbly. 'Why couldn't I +swear falsely, like others? It was that villain Trevenna. I have seem +him since, but only for a moment or two. It is the most extraordinary +likeness that ever was seen. I was deceived, and so were the other +honest witnesses. He was also in the plot against you. He was an admirer +of Kate's, and she played fast and loose with him. When he heard that +you and she had met at Growlers', and were seen riding about together, +he was furious, and vowed to shoot you if he got a chance. He was in +with Ned and Dan in some cross work at Eumeralla, but only showed on +occasions. He used to come across from Omeo, where, if all reports are +true, the worst villains in all Australia are gathered together.' + +The day was cold, and long besides to the crowded passengers, relieved +only by a short mid-day halt for refreshment. The roads chiefly unmade +and deep with mud, through which the steaming team rushed, unrelaxing +the high rate of speed with which they had started. Their colours were +hardly discernible. Along the plank road for twenty miles matters were +something better; here the pace was at times little less than full +speed. Even then occasionally a loose plank would fly up as a horse trod +too near the end, and a shower of mud and water would be impartially +distributed. Two persons only felt not the enforced tedium to be a +weariness. Lance and Tessie, in the early gloom of a winter evening, +were enabled to talk still more at ease. They enjoyed their opportunity, +this wintry smile of fortune, as those who might never meet again in +life. So many chances were against it. But this strange interview had +been most beneficial to Lance. It had softened his heart and revived his +drooping, well-nigh extinguished faith in Providence and his fortune. +The girl persuaded him to promise that he would do his best to disarm +his gaolers by good conduct. The chances were against his finding a +second Bracker. She would find means of communicating with him from +Melbourne. Trust her for that! She had already given liberally to his +present guards, who were fully convinced that she was a young woman +deserving of every consideration. + +'You promise me, on your honour,' she said, as the lights of the town +and the well-macadamised street warned of the approaching halt. + +'My honour?' he said drearily. + +'Yes, your honour,' she answered proudly; 'I believe in it, and so will +others yet.' + +'I promise,' he said; 'may God bless you, Tessie, whatever may be my +fate.' + +They sat silently, her hands clasped around his, her head against his +shoulder. + +'Mine is a strange love tale,' she said, 'is it not? But for this +meeting, it might never have been told. No living man shall hear such +words again from me. And to think that you and I may never meet again!' + +The coach stopped. There was the usual bustle of escaping passengers and +mislaid luggage, as the girl threw her arms around Trevanion's neck and +kissed his lips, his cheeks, his forehead, with passionate fervour. + +'You are mine,' she said, 'for this day if for no other, and, unless my +heart tells me false, it is the last last time! Do not forget poor +Tessie; if she could have saved you with her life you would have been +free and happy. May God bless and keep you.' + +She descended the coach-steps slowly, and, walking calmly down the +lighted street without looking back, was soon lost in the crowd of busy +or pleasure-seeking wayfarers. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +After the conclusion of the sitting of the Court as presided over by His +Honour Judge Buckthorne, when Lance and Ned had been carried off to +undergo their allotted sentences, it was observed that Kate Lawless and +Sergeant Dayrell, while apparently strolling aimlessly together along +the street, were engaged in an earnest and apparently confidential +conversation. + +'Well, that chap was got to rights if ever a man was,' observed the +Sergeant. 'There'll be some of the flashness taken out of him before he +comes out again.' + +The girl looked at him searchingly before she answered. When she did +there was no triumph in her voice. + +'Poor devil! it _was_ hard lines, when you come to think of it. And all +for a horse that he knew no more about than the dead! He looked at me, +as he walked out, so sad and fierce-like I couldn't help pitying him.' + +'You mean you might have pitied him if he hadn't thrown you over for the +girl at home--if he hadn't treated you like the dirt beneath his feet +after promising to marry you--after amusing himself by making love to +you as if you were a South Sea Island _wahine_!' + +'Perhaps he did. Suppose he did,' replied the girl musingly, evidently +in one of those fits of reactionary regret which so often in the +feminine nature--strange and enigmatical always--are prone to succeed +the exaltation of passion. 'For all that, I feel sorry, now it's over. I +can't get him out of my head, locked up in one of those beastly cells.' + +'Your brother Ned's in one too. You don't seem to think of him.' + +'No, I don't--not so much. Ned's different. He's been working for it +these years. He's lost the deal and has to pay up. He's not one to whine +either, and I'd take the odds he's out again and in the mountains long +before his time's up. But when I think of Lance and what a swell chap he +was, so hearty and jolly when we first seen him, I feel like a good +cry.' + +'Perhaps you'd like to pass him over to Tessie when he comes out,' +sneered the Sergeant. 'She'd be so happy to console him.' + +'I've that feeling for him yet, bad as he's treated me,' said the girl, +raising her head and stamping her foot, 'that I'd kill any woman that +took him from me, even now. He's played me false and thrown me over, I +know, and yet, by George!' she cried, suddenly facing round upon the +Sergeant, while her eyes flashed and her bosom heaved with sudden +passion, 'I wonder if he _did_ write all you showed me? I can't read a +line, more shame to father and mother that never had me taught like that +Tessie. So what's to prevent you putting down anything you liked and +saying he wrote it? Suppose you'd been working a cross all along? Frank +Dayrell, if I ever find out as you turned dog on me that way your last +hour's come. By ----! I'd shoot you like a crow, and if I didn't I'd +find somebody that would. Don't you make any mistake.' + +Dayrell smiled in his old scornful way as he pointed out the extreme +improbability of Lance's writing to his affianced bride in England in +any other way. What else was he to say to her? 'Why, you never thought +he would marry you, did you, Kate?' + +'Why did he make a fool of me then?' said the girl, standing slightly +back and facing the trooper as if, like the tigress which such women are +said to resemble, she needed but another spark of anger to cause her to +spring upon him and rend with tooth and talon. 'Why shouldn't he marry +me? I'd have made him as good a wife as that girl or any other in the +world, I don't care who she was. I know I'm ignorant and all that, but +one woman's as good as another if she takes to a man. That makes all the +difference, and I'd have blacked his boots and waited on him hand and +foot, and been a good woman too, if he'd been true to me--as God hears +me, I could--I would!' + +And here, wrought up by a strange admixture of feelings--remorse, +regret, disappointment, doubt, and suspicion--newly aroused, the +half-wild daughter of the woods burst into tears and abandoned herself +to the womanly indulgence of a fit of passionate lamentation. + +'It's too late now, Kate,' he said after a while, coolly removing his +cigar, which he had lighted at the first appearance of lamentation. +'Better clear out for Eumeralla and make it up with Trevenna. I believe +you carried on with him till Lance came on the scene. He's a handsome +fellow, and Tessie, you know, and some other people couldn't tell the +difference.' + +Then he laughed in a sardonic, derisive manner, as though the joke was +an exceedingly good one--irresistible indeed. + +Kate Lawless dried her eyes and looked keenly at him with an expression +of contempt and dislike which, in spite of his habitual indifference, he +by no means relished. + +'Frank Dayrell,' she said, 'I believe you're the very devil himself; I +see your game partly now. You'd a down on Lance because Tessie was gone +on him, and wouldn't look at you. That's a nice reason to lag a man for, +isn't it? And if you'd play false in one thing, you would in another. I +see how you've worked it, partly. When I find out the rest it'll be a +bad day for you, mark my words. Good-bye.' + +'Good-bye, Miss Lawless!' here he made her a deferential and elaborate +bow. 'You'd better be civil though, or I may have to run in Larry +Trevenna. That'll make a double widow of you--the man you'll marry and +the man you were going to marry. Smart work that, eh?' + +'You look out for yourself, Dayrell,' she replied, as she moved slowly +away from him. 'You're pretty smart, but that mightn't save you some +day. You take my tip and leave us alone from this day out.' + +Thus they parted. The girl walked sullenly away--the Sergeant, strolling +in another direction, hummed an air from an opera, stepping lightly as +might a man without a care in the world. Had he but known the future! +How heedless are the feet of men, surrounded by the traps and pitfalls +of Fate, all ignorant, mercifully, that a few inches one way or the +other means instant, irrevocable destruction. As for the woman, she went +on her way and he saw her no more. + +'I wonder what the deuce _will_ become of the fair Kate?' he said +musingly, and half aloud, as he strolled along leisurely towards the +police camp. 'If she marries this fellow Trevenna she'll be paid out for +her sins, whatever they are. He's the making of one of the most precious +scoundrels that even this colony ever saw. The Lawlesses crowd can't +teach him much. If he marries her there'll be murder or something like +it before long. I think I see my way to another sensational case before +the game's played out--more than one indeed.' + + * * * * * + +The town at which the coach had stopped, on this his first and +memorable journey as a prisoner accommodated with leg-irons and +handcuffs, was Geelong, to the gaol of which town Lance was relegated +for the purpose of being forwarded to the hulk _President_. Accordingly, +after due course of procedure, Lance found himself one morning in a +police boat seated between his two Ballarat warders in near proximity to +the celebrated _Sacramento_. When they came within a certain distance of +the vessel they rested on their oars and commenced a conversation. The +ship's trumpet replied, but afforded no manner of information to Lance. +Apparently the colloquy was satisfactory. The sentry, who had been +steadily pointing his musket in their direction, presented it towards +the lighthouse, and all requisite permission being obtained the +momentous embarkation was commenced. + +The hulk _President_ was a plain solid barque of one thousand tons +register, broad in the beam. Dutch-built was she, and had been strong to +encounter storms, but was destined to defy such forces no more. + +On the fore part of her deck an iron roof protected the galley and +water-tank, giving her an expression of being settled in life. In front +of and around her bows was a planked and railed gangway, along which a +warder with a loaded rifle marched to and fro. + +The heat of the summer suns reflected from the cloudless sky, the +shimmering water plain, had blistered the paint--a staring dreadful +yellow it was--upon her weather-worn hull. Armed figures walked on +either side of this terrible vessel. Except the solitary boat in which +Lance was a passenger, nothing seemed to come near. To his excited fancy +she seemed a plague ship. He could imagine the dead in their +heavily-weighted shrouds being cast in scores from her gloomy +port-holes. He stared at her in sullen silence. He had lost the habit of +ejaculation. What did it matter--what did anything matter? He was in +hell. In hell! What difference did the depth of the pit, more or less, +make, once within the Inferno? + +There was a swell, consequent on a gale which had been blowing on the +previous night. The boat rocked and pitched as she came alongside of the +grim ungainly hulk. His fetters made it difficult for him to step from +the boat to the ladder. He tripped, and one of the warders was +constrained to hold him up. + +'Look out! you mustn't drop overboard and cheat Her Majesty's +Government like Dickson did last month. Blest if you wouldn't go down +like a stone with them clinks on.' + +A quick regret passed through Lance's heart that he had not dropped +quietly overboard, and so exchanged this torture-ship for eternal rest +and peace. But he clambered up with one warder in front and one +immediately behind. + +At the deck he was met by the first and second officers, to whom an +important-looking document was presented by the senior warder who had +come down in charge. + +'H--m, ha!' remarked the dignitary, opening it with deliberation and +then glancing searchingly at Lance. 'Refractory, determined, and--put +him into number fifty-six. If lower deck don't suit him, we must move +him aft. Show the way, Mr. Grastow.' + +The 'way' led down a narrow ladder, the gradient of which was such that +the fettered man, heavily weighted as he was, had some difficulty in +getting down safe. However, as before, one warder preceding and one +following, he was partly supported, partly led. As he touched the deck +he looked round, and for an instant laughed aloud at the grim pleasantry +which, like a ray of light in a dungeon cell, had found access to his +brain. He was on board a slaver! His boyhood rose up before him, and he +saw himself again reading _Tom Cringle's Log_ under the King's oak at +Wychwood. There were the iron gratings above, through which the sun came +grudgingly, which afforded the only air and light to the long low +corridor into which the deck had been altered. Rows of small cells on +either side, each duly numbered, into which a herd of some forty or +fifty chained men were being driven, as it appeared to him. In the gloom +of the half-lighted passage their dark or sallow countenances, in which +the eyes and teeth alone gleamed in relief, might well have passed for +those of negroes. They laughed and talked or cursed and swore with a +freedom which surprised Lance, used to the strict and silent rule of the +Ballarat gaol. It was their recreation hour, he found. They had returned +from their exercise on deck. + +As he scanned these foul and hideous countenances, from which all +semblance of the higher human attributes had departed, he shuddered +involuntarily, and a groan so deep and hollow came from him that the +warders who had accompanied him were affected. + +'Don't you take on, Number Fifty-six,' said one, 'it's a deal worse than +Ballarat, but you go in for good conduct now and your time won't be so +long in runnin' out. See what you've got by behaving awkward, and +they're a deal worse, if you go contrairy here, than ever our lot was.' + +'Down the ladder,' said the officer of the _President_; 'we've no time +to spare in this ship.' + +Lower, lower still, another ladder, another deck. Here the gratings were +nearer to the floor, the cells were smaller and more numerous, the whole +arrangement still more nearly resembling his fancy of the slave-ship. +Had there been a row of miserable Africans sitting down, with another +row between their knees, and another yet in the same condition, as was +formerly the human method of packing the 'goods' so largely dealt in by +our good friends the Spaniards, Portuguese, and French, and indeed our +own most merciful and Christian nation, the illusion would have been +complete. They would have sold well in Victoria at that time, doubtless, +labour being so very scarce and valuable. The air, foetid with the +odours and emanations from three hundred men, having even to be filtered +through the crowded deck above them, was indescribably offensive. In +spite of ordinary precautions, the odour was that of galley-slaves. +Below the level of the waters of the bay as this deck was, Lance could +hear the waves washing beside the prison-house, while from the cells, +the bolts of which were partially drawn and the opening secured with a +chain, came ribald songs, yells, and curses, with an occasional noise of +weeping and bursts of yet more dreadful laughter. + +Walking forward still towards the stern, they came to a cell numbered +fifty-six on the south side of the vessel. At no great distance, and +dividing it from the after-cabin, which was used as a sort of +store-room, was a grating of massive iron bars extending from one side +of the ship to the other. + +The padlock was unlocked, the massive bolt shot back from the staple, +and Lance saw his habitation. A low, narrow cell, with heavy timber on +every side, only excepting a small port-hole narrowing outwards and +capable of being closed at will. The length to the concave wall of the +vessel's side was about eight feet, the width scarcely six. From two +iron hooks hung a rude canvas hammock. Here he must abide for the +present. It would depend upon himself whether he remained there. + +From the timbers of the vessel's side protruded an iron ring with a +short chain dependent from it. + +'What's that for?' said one of the Ballarat gaolers. + +'Oh, nothing,' returned the hulk warder, 'it's there in case it's +wanted.' + +The narrow door closed, the heavy bolt shot into its place, the +padlock-key turned, and Trevanion was alone and at sea once more. Once +more Lance Trevanion found himself on ship-board, but under what +different circumstances. He felt the heaving deck under his feet. The +day was dark and squally, and the barque rolled and pitched in a +sufficiently lively manner. The familiar movement recalled the scenes +which he had loved so well. He was a born sailor, and of the breed of +men that joy in the strife of wind and wave. The revulsion of feeling +was so great that he staggered and well-nigh fell. + +How well he remembered the last time he had been at sea; the voyage out, +so free and joyous in spite of minor discomforts; the perfect +independence, the hearty, unconventional comradeship, the delight with +which all greeted the first step on _terra firma_; the general wonder, +excitement, and eager expectation of rapid fortunes to be acquired in +this strange new land of gold. + +And now he was a chained and guarded felon, reserved for Heaven alone +knew what new degradation, even torture, in this sea dungeon. Long +before dark--the days were short in July--a warder came with bread and +water. + +'When do we go on shore to work?' asked Lance, thinking to adapt himself +to his changed condition. + +'Work? They don't do no work in the _President_; this is the punishment +hulk. All you chaps is supposed to belong to the 'fractory lot--my word! +some of 'em just are, and no mistake. You gets one hour a day exercise +on deck. Ten on yer's sent up in the cage at a time. The rest of the +twenty-four hours has to be took out in the cell.' + +'My God!' groaned out the unhappy man, 'can this be true, twenty-three +hours in this den? Surely such cruelty can never be permitted.' + +'That's about the size of it, Fifty-six,' answered the warder, preparing +to lock up and depart. 'And the sooner you make up your mind to man it, +the better it'll be for you and the sooner you'll be drafted to the +_Success_, when you'll have a chance of fresh air. So long.' + +The lock closed, the bolt clanged, and Lance was left to sit down where +the last captive had leaned his weary frame, till his prison shoes--not +heavy either--had worn into the solid planking, and when at last heart +and brain had risen in wild revolt and he had cast away the wasted life +which had become so valueless and unendurable. + +From the time when the door that closed upon hope and the outer world +clanged to, Lance Trevanion sat statue-like and motionless. The day +passed, the cell grew darker, the night came with no cessation of the +subdued but truly infernal din of noise to which nearly every cell +contributed its quota. The wind rose and moaned, the ship rocked more +heavily, the waves plashed around and above his cell, and still Lance +Trevanion stirred not. He _must_ have slept at length, worn out and +over-fatigued, for he started suddenly from a dream of Wychwood and the +first meet of the season to feel the sun feebly lighting up his prison, +to listen and shudder as his irons clanked with the instinctive +movement. + +He sat up and gazed around for a while in the half-stupefied condition +produced by conflicting sensations. He endeavoured to collect his +thoughts and to resolve upon a course of action. What was he to do? At +present the mode of life--rather the living death--to which he felt +himself condemned seemed intolerable. But much would depend upon the +duration of the strictly penal term. If it were a matter of months only, +it might be borne. Then he would be 'promoted' to the _Success_, would +enjoy the favoured position of being permitted to work for ten hours a +day in a quarry--heavily ironed, of course--and on an equality and in +company with some of the most atrocious scoundrels that any country had +ever produced. It was not an alluring prospect. Still, he had at any +rate no actually malignant enemy like Bracker. It might be possible to +establish a friendly feeling with some of his guardians. He would make +the attempt. Even escape did not seem so altogether impossible. He +remembered Tessie's words. He knew that what one woman could do she +would accomplish. A man here and there _had_ escaped from the hulks and +got clear off, several had been drowned, two had been shot. Still these +were fair risks. The twenty-three hours a day in the cell constituted a +maddening monotony of captivity. Yet, from whatever reason, whether from +the sea air, his unexpected meeting with Tessie Lawless, or 'something +which never can be expressed,' Lance Trevanion's spirits rose higher +than they had done since the day of his conviction, and in the depth of +his saddened heart stirred a feeling that was almost hope. + +When his gaoler made his appearance with the one-pound loaf of bread +which was to serve for his daily dole and the can of water similarly +apportioned, he assumed a cheerful air. 'When do we go up for exercise?' +he said. + +'Your batch'll be sent up at eleven o'clock, Fifty-six. Then you get +down just in time for dinner, half-pound boiled beef for you then, so +you can save some for supper; half-pound of vegetables. That'll be the +lot.' + +'Now look here, I don't know your name--oh, Grastow! what I want to say +is, I have only two years to serve. When I get out I shall have plenty +of money. I can make it WELL worth your while to help me; what do you +say? Is there any harm in that?' + +'I don't know as there is, Fifty-six,' replied the gaoler warily. 'But a +many of the crew of the _President_ (we call 'em the crew among +ourselves) says the same thing. When they gets out they nat'rally +forgets. What are we to do? We can't summons 'em in the Small Debts +Court; how am I to know ye ain't on that lay?' + +'I can show you how if you'll carry a note from me on shore and leave it +in the post-office. I'll guarantee a five-pound note is sent to any +address you name within twenty-four hours.' + +'Ten-pun' note might do something,' answered the warder reflectively. +'The risk's a big 'un. If I'm nabbed I lose my berth straight off and +stand a blessed good chance of being brought into one of these here +fancy shops myself.' + +'Why, who's to know?' + +'Well,' replied the warder, looking round, 'it 'ud stun yer to count the +spies that seem to be bred regular in a place like this, one man +watching another for the reward. But I'll chance it, I will, the first +time I go ashore. Now then, you Fifty-five, what are you making all that +row for?' + +The occupant of the next cell, Number Fifty-five, as he was in due +sequence, had apparently gone mad. He raved and shrieked, cursed and +yelled continuously. He banged at the door, which he could not well kick +as they had taken away his boots. But ever and anon he amused himself +with wildly extravagant rhapsodies, as well as by devoting his gaolers +to the infernal deities, as also the heads of any Church running counter +to his sectarian prejudices. Then he was taken out, secured, and hauled +before the chief officer for punishment. That autocrat ordered the +sullen-visaged 'Vandemonian,' as the warders designated him, to undergo +several days in the 'box' on bread and water. He was carried off, +struggling and cursing, by main force, being crammed into the 'box' +aforesaid. This retreat, which was inspected by Lance on another +occasion, appeared to be a species of _oubliette_, apparently in the +very keel of the vessel, so constructed that the delinquent could +neither stand up, lie down, nor sit with ease. In addition to this +rigorous confinement a gag was placed in the mouth of the offender if he +refused to stop his unseemly outcry. + +A few minutes before eleven o'clock Lance's door was unlocked, and he +was summoned forth to take part in a new portion of the programme. Being +marched into the centre of the passage, he there saw a large iron cage, +of which the door, just sufficiently large to admit one man, was opened. +On either side stood an armed sentry with rifle at the _poise_. + +An additional pair of warders was in attendance. The inmates of the +cells, called by number, not by name, shuffled or stumbled out and made +for the door of the cage, like tamed wild beasts under the keeper's +whip. + +It was a piteous, strangely-moving sight to a lover of his kind, had +such been there. Men of various types and all ages obeyed the +summons--the white-haired convict, reckless and hopeless, the larger +half of whose life had been spent within prison walls, and who was now +doomed to linger out the last years of a ruined life in places of +confinement. The whole expression of the face denoted the human wreck +which the _forçat_ had become. The evil eye, furtive yet ferocious, the +animal mouth and jaw, the shaven, sallow cheek--every faculty once +capable of rising to the loftier attributes of manhood seemed +obliterated--the residuum but approached the type of the simian +anthropoid--bestial, savage, obscene. + +'Great God!' thought Lance, as one by one the felons passed into this +cage, some young and hardly developed into fullest manhood like himself, +some of middle age, some stunted and decrepit, bowed and misshapen from +constant confinement and the weight of their irons, yet all with the +same criminal impress upon form and feature,--'Great God! shall I ever +become like these men? And yet once I had as little fear of becoming +_what I am_----' + +He passed in last, the door was shut, the cage commenced to ascend. His +companions grinned and chuckled as, with a brutal oath, the older +convict asked what he was sent on board for. + +Lance hesitated for a moment, and then, reflecting that if he attempted +to show what his companions in misery might consider airs of superiority +they would find some way of revenging themselves, answered in as +careless a manner as he could assume-- + +'Well, I knocked over the head warder at Ballarat.' + +'Good boy! What for?' + +'He had been "running" me--wanted to make me break out, I suppose. I +couldn't stand it any longer and went for him.' + +'Why didn't yer choke the ---- wretch?' + +'Because I hadn't time.' Here the savage joy which he experienced when +his enemy lay gasping beneath him came with a rush of recollection, and +the old fire, so long absent, glowed lurid in his eyes. 'Another second +or two and Bracker would have been a dead man.' + +'Bracker, was it?' said one of the younger convicts. 'I was under him at +Pentridge, and a ---- dog he was! He tormented a cove there till he +hanged himself. I'm dashed glad he copped it, anyhow.' + +'You're a right 'un, anyhow,' said the older convict approvingly. 'It +wants a chap like you now and then to straighten them infernal wretches +that think a man's like a log of wood as you chop and chip at till it's +all done. I learned one of 'em different on the other side, and there's +one or two here as'll get a surprise yet if they don't look out.' + +At this stage of the conversation the slowly-ascending contrivance +reached the upper deck, and the inmates became as stolidly silent as +Eastern mutes. + +One by one, covered by the rifles of the deck guards, they stepped out +and followed each other in the shuffling walk peculiar to heavily-ironed +men along and around the deck. Each man was a certain distance behind +the one immediately preceding him. The foremost man walked to the bow of +the vessel. When reached, he turned stiffly round as if by machinery, +and resumed the same monotonous tramp in the opposite direction. + +Melancholy treadmill and mockery of locomotion as was this parade, still +it was not wholly without its attractions. The vision arose before their +aching eyes of the blue sky, the dancing wave, the far-off purple +mountain. There drove seaward an outgoing steamer. Alas, alas! what a +world of vain regrets did she evoke in Lance's mind! There were +white-winged gulls, yachts and skiffs that resembled them in free and +graceful flight. All these constituted a pageant impossible of +production within prison walls. Then the ocean breeze, with every +inspiration after the foetid atmosphere of the lower deck, revived and +in a sense exhilarated them. These joys and glories of the sea could not +be shut out even from the gaze of the fettered captives, unless the +further refinement of punishment of blindfolding had been added. And +even in the _President_ none of the officials had hit upon this +deterrent device. + +So by the time that Lance and his fellows had completed their allotted +tramp, at the end of which time he was fatigued, unused as he was to +lift his legs with such an encumbering weight, he felt, somewhat to his +surprise, that his general tone had been raised. He saw the shore, then +known as Liardet's Beach, which did not seem so great a distance away. +He could imagine in the night, when a dense fog enveloped the mud flats +of the bay, the low sandy beach, the thickets of the tall ti-tree +(_melaleuca_), that either by swimming or with friendly aid a prisoner +might cross the intervening stretch of mud flat, so dreary and darksome +at low water, and, disappearing into the thickets, be as little likely +to be again seen as a ghost flitting at cock-crow. + +During the remainder of this day Lance was sensible of an unusual +feeling of exaltation, so much so that when night came,--the dreary +night commencing so early and ending so late, when sleep would have been +the most precious of boons,--he was wholly unable to compose himself to +rest, as the phrase in orthodox fiction runs: Compose himself!--irony of +ironies!--with the murmur of the prison herd in his ears, in which ever +and anon a maniacal shriek shrilled through the murky midnight air. + +The waves plashed and the rising gale moaned as if in natural protest +against the foul cargo of crime, misery, and despair amid which he lay. + +In the strange half-delirious fancies which coursed through his brain, +he saw, plainly as it seemed to him, the face of the God-forsaken, +desperate criminal who had last occupied this very cell. He saw him +sitting crouched, hour after hour, day after day, in the very place +where he sat. He marked the spot where his boot-heels had worn the solid +plank. He saw him taken out to punishment. He saw him return more +dogged, hopeless, and defiant than before. Lastly, he could see him +apparently standing upright, but in reality suspended by the twisted +woollen cord, his blanket torn into strips, gone to carry his case into +that ultimate court of appeal where the wrongs of earth shall be righted +by the justice of Heaven. + + * * * * * + +From this time Lance Trevanion experienced a complete change of +sensation. 'Cabined, cribbed, confined' as he was most literally, there +seemed to have been breathed into his soul with the salt scent of the +ocean that which no art of man could shut out--the hope of freedom, the +promise of escape. Moreover, a brief note had reached the address agreed +upon between him and Tessie, and the warder, finding it transmutable +into sovereigns, had formed a different opinion of Number Fifty-six. He +began to look upon him as a victim of oppression, as something out of +the run of the ordinary 'crew' of the _President_; finally as a young +man who was worth taking a little trouble about, and for whom it might +in the end be worth encountering even the serious risk of dismissal. +After all, if made worth his while, what did dismissal from the +Government service amount to? It involved no moral stigma, no personal +disadvantage. If he cleared out with cash enough to set up a +public-house, or even a store, at some of these new goldfields which +were 'breaking out' every day, how could he do better? + +Having established friendly relations with his immediate attendant, +Lance soon proceeded to reap the benefit of confidential intercourse. +Articles of food, 'medical comforts'--luxuries, even--were smuggled in +to Number Fifty-six. With the aid of these and recovered appetite, born +of the sea air, and the tonic ideas which now pervaded his system, Lance +improved measurably. He was reported to the chief officer for good +conduct, and that dread official was pleased to address him one day, +and, remarking upon his behaviour, to inform him that he would be +transferred to the hulk _Success_ at the end of three months, being much +earlier than, from the grave nature of his offence, he might have +calculated upon. Lance touched his cap, smiling bitterly as he shuffled +off on his mechanical round with the faint rattle which his chains +_would_ make, however carefully he might be-wrap and bandage them. + +At the end of three months! Well, the first week was over. It had seemed +a month, and there were eleven more to follow before the penal period +would be completed. In Heaven's name, what was he to do until then, hour +after hour in solitude? But one little hour on deck, again to feel the +free ocean breeze, to note the curling waves, the gliding sea-bird. +Sometimes, indeed, even this faint solace was debarred. When the weather +was rough and the hulk unsteady at her moorings, the hour's exercise, +that precious respite, was forbidden. It was too difficult to haul up +the cage, to supervise satisfactorily the deck occupants. So the dark +dull day was fated to end in gloom and sadness as it had commenced. +Sometimes, indeed, the second day passed over without the blessed +interval. Not until the bad weather came to an end were the ill-fated +captives permitted the scanty dole of fresh air and sunshine. + +As much of Lance's leisure time while at exercise as he could devote to +this sort of reconnoitring he managed to concentrate on the mud flats, +which at low tide were hardly a mile distant. These he carefully +examined. He learnt by heart their bearings from the shore; satisfied +himself that once there he could manage for himself. Of course there was +the reverse side of the shield. The hulks--more especially the +_President_, as holding a sample of the worst and most desperate +criminals of the whole prison population--were most closely watched. No +boats but those of the water police were permitted to come within an +area marked by buoys, more than half a mile square. Was it worth while +to run the risk of being caught and run down by these, or would it be +more prudent to await his transfer to the _Success_ and take the chance +of escaping from the quarries? + +The latter idea seemed feasible. Amid a regiment of convicts nearly a +thousand strong, who worked from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. in the quarries, at +the piers, or the building of a lighthouse--surely amid such an army of +labourers some opportunity of escape would be afforded him. + +Meanwhile, in spite of adverse circumstances, matters were decidedly +improving. His friendly gaoler showed him how he could keep his +port-hole open in fine weather, even after locking-up time for the +night, and by other concessions materially lightened for him the weary +hours. + +More than once too had he received a letter from Tessie, carefully +written on the smallest possible scrap of paper, but with its few words +of priceless value and comfort to the captive. In the last one a +distinct plan of escape was devised. + +At this time, among the various pursuits and avocations by means of +which men of gentle nurture who had been unsuccessful at the goldfields +procured a living while leading an independent life, that of +wild-fowling ranked high. Game of all sorts was readily saleable at +fabulous prices to the hotel and restaurant keepers of Melbourne. Every +day scores of men, with pockets stuffed with bank notes, came to the +metropolis eager to embark for England with what seemed a fortune to +them, or to enjoy a season of revelry preparatory to returning to +Ballarat or Bendigo. There was, as the miner's phrase then went, 'plenty +more where that came from.' With such free-handed customers a +_recherché_ dinner, with fish, game, and fruit, preceding a theatre +party, was indispensable. The cost was not counted. Bills were despised +in those days when every river in favoured districts was a Pactolus. +Hotel-keepers and tradesfolk were reproached for their meanness in not +swelling their totals to a respectable sum. The free-handed miner, whose +drafts, payable in the rich red gold Dame Nature was so proud to honour, +mocked at expense, and exacted profusion at his quasi-luxurious +banquets. Such being the state of affairs, with teal and widgeon at ten +shillings a brace, and black duck at a sovereign the pair, a reduced +gentleman, with a punt and duck gun, was enabled to lead a +philosophical, remunerative, and far from laborious existence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +It came at last--the week--the day--the very night to which Lance had +looked forward with such nervous anxiety. When compelled to pace the +deck for the last morning, as he trusted, with his chained comrades, he +barely concealed his exultation at the thought that on the morrow he +might be a free man once more. He feared it would be visible in his +countenance, in his very step, which in spite of himself was almost +elastic, causing his chains to clank unusually. Indeed one of his +fellows in adversity noticed it. + +Keen to detect the slightest change from the stereotyped prison bearing, +he growled out, 'What the ---- are ye at, step-dancing with your +bloomin' irons, ye ---- fool? They'll clap the fourteen-pound clinks on +ye if ye try the shakin' lay. Stoush it, ye ----' + +The words were perhaps unfit for publication, but the intention was not +all unkind. The trained _forçat_ had quickly divined that something not +in the programme--an 'extra,' so to speak--was likely to be played, and +thus warned him against premature elation. + +Lance felt his heart stop as the possibility occurred to him that the +caprice of a warder might order him to wear irons weighing a quarter of +a hundredweight in place of the comparatively light ones which at +present confined his limbs. He at once 'dropped,' as the adviser would +have phrased it, and falling into the chain-gang shuffle as if +instinctively, said, 'All right, Scotty, this foggy day makes a fellow +want to warm his feet.' + +'Warm your feet!' scoffed the convict, 'you'll be lucky if you can raise +a trot without hobbles these years to come. When your time's up they'll +have ye for something else, like they did me. Once they've got a cove on +these ---- hell-boats they don't like to let him go again.' + +'How long have you been lagged, Scotty?' inquired Lance, less indeed +impelled by curiosity than desirous of turning the conversation from +what he felt was a dangerous direction. + +'Me?' growled the convict hoarsely, glaring for a moment at Lance with +his wolfish eyes--eyes which rarely met those of another steadfastly. 'I +did ten stretch on the Derwent afore I come across the Straits--ten long +years. That warn't enough for 'em, for I hadn't been a year at Bendigo +when I was "lumbered" for robbing a cove's tent as I'd never been nigh. +No! God strike me dead if I had! I knew the chap as did the "touch" as +well as I know you. He and Black Douglas did it between 'em. But I'd a +bad name. I'd come from the other side, and I was picked upon. I was +seen going towards the tent the night before. The chaps that lost their +gold swore to me; they wanted to "cop" somebody. And there was I, as was +going straight and had a good claim and didn't need to rob nobody, and +thought I had a chance in a new country, there was I--"lagged" and +dragged aboard again, and me no more in it than a sucking child. I went +_mad_ pretty well, and here's the end of it. But by ----' and here the +half-insane felon swore a terrible oath, 'I'll give 'em something to +talk about afore I'm done, and it'll be true this time--true as +death--death--death!' + +Here the unfortunate creature, whose features had gradually assumed an +expression of ungovernable rage, lashed to fury by the thought of real +or fancied injustice, raised his voice to a shriek like the cry of a +wild beast, and with every feature working like those of an epileptic, +fell on the floor of the deck helpless and insensible. + +'What's all this?' demanded a warder, marching to the spot, yet +cautiously, as always doubtful of a rush among the fierce animals over +which he and his comrades ruled. 'Dash it all, you fellows are like a +lot of old women--jabber, jabber. I shall have to put some of you in the +black hole if you don't look out.' + +'It's only Scotty, sir,' answered a crafty-looking convict who had been +looking on, with a strange mysterious smile. 'He's got a fit or +somethink. He's always mad when he gets on that Bendigo yarn of his.' + +'Oh, Scotty, is it?' replied the warder carelessly. 'Throw a bucket of +salt water over him; he'll come to directly. Your hour's up all but five +minutes, men. You can go below and keep quiet, or it'll be worse for +some of you.' + +So below they went, in tens and tens, one after the other, murmuring and +cursing among themselves, devoting Scotty, Lance, and the warder to the +least respectable deities, yet not daring to raise their voices lest the +dreaded 'black hole' or the more terrible 'box' should be apportioned to +some of them with indiscriminate severity. + +Lance, perhaps, was the only one who retired to his cell with a feeling +of satisfaction. Gloomy was the evening, dark yet not stormy. Brooding +over all things hung an enshrouding, clinging fog. The lights of the +vessels in the bay were invisible until the boats almost ran against +their sides, then they appeared like blurred and wavering moons. The +invisible flocks of sea-birds flying landwards, true precursors of a +storm, wailed and shrieked in curiously weird cadence, like the ghosts +of shipwrecked mariners. Yet no breath of rising wind or gathering +tempest stirred the black waveless plain which stretched for so many a +mile seaward and lay illimitable between the murky shores. To those long +versed in sea signs--and there were many such on board this mockery of a +ship--a storm was imminent. Phantom-like, motionless, lay the +_President_ on the oily moveless deep, a corpse-like hull upon the +lifeless water. In that hour she seemed a derelict of that dread fleet +which the poet dreamed of in his weirdest, grandest poem: + + 'And ships were drifting with the dead + To shores where all were dumb.' + + * * * * * + +If there was a period of comparative rest and peace in that lazar ship, +choked to the gunwales with human nature's foulest disorders, it was +between the second and third hour after midnight. Before that time there +was little or no repose, much less silence. The restless felons, +debarred from work or exercise, were loath to sleep or to permit such +indulgence to others. But from about an hour after midnight to the +lingering winter dawn a certain, or rather uncertain, quantity of sleep +was procured. Not incorrectly may it be said that then in all abodes of +sin and wretchedness. + + 'The wicked cease from troubling + And the weary are at rest.' + +The hush of nature, the strange compulsion of the tangible darkness and +solemn stillness of the night, was unbroken save by the flights of +sea-fowl and the occasional sound from the shore, when softly yet +distinctly touching the very stern of the vessel a grating sound was +heard by Lance, secreted in an old state-room. Two large-sized ports, +through which a man could easily crawl and drop himself into the water +or on a boat below, were open. 'Lower away,' said a carefully modulated +voice, 'and look sharp.' + +As he spoke a stout rope was let down, of which the man in the boat-punt +laid hold. Lance leaned out through the wide port of the state-room and +could just distinguish the outline of a small boat. 'Drop slowly down,' +said the strange voice; 'gently does it.' + +The captive had by this time seated himself on the window-sill with his +legs outward. His irons were wrapped and muffled with portions of his +blanket, which he had sacrificed for the purpose. A twisted rope was +made of strips of the same material, a stout gray woollen, woven and +milled in Pentridge, and therefore free from shoddy and mixture. + +Adown this Lance cautiously lowered himself--how cautiously and +anxiously! A slip--a touch of foot on the side instead of the centre of +the frail bark, and failure--recapture even--were imminent. The splash +would at once alarm the vigilant ears of the sentries, whose +rifle-bullets would be spurting in and about the spot in no time. Inch +by inch he lowered himself until he felt a man's hand touch and steady +him. His feet were on the flat bottom of a ducking canoe which floated +low on the surface of the stirless deep. Lower still and lower he sank +down until he found himself sitting on the floor of the punt with an arm +on either thwart and his back nearly touching the stern. With one strong +noiseless stroke the strange boatman sent his light craft yards away +from the prison-ship, and as the hull vanished abruptly, swallowed up in +the Egyptian darkness of the night, Lance felt a great throb at his +heart. He inhaled joyously the salt odour of the tide, for he knew that, +bar accidents, he was again a free man. + +'Steady,' said the boatman in a low but distinct voice as he settled to +his sculls, 'another quarter of a mile and we may talk as much as you +please. We shall make the shore before yon black cloud bursts, and after +that no boat leaves any ship in the bay till sunrise.' + +Lance sat carefully still, and indeed had little inclination to talk for +a while. Swiftly, smoothly, they seemed to speed through the ebon +darkness lit up from time to time by the phosphorescent scintillations +which fell from the black water at each dip of the oars. + +'How do you steer?' he said at length. 'It wouldn't do to get lost in +this fog; we might easily be picked up, and then my fate would be worse +than before.' + +'See that light?' said the rower, pointing to a tiny speck like a +beacon, miles away on the main. + +'I do see a very small glimmering,' said Lance; 'are you sure that is +the right direction?' + +'That light,' said the stranger slowly, 'is a fire in a nail can which +is kept alight by my mate. It stands before our hut in Fisherman's Bend, +and there could not be a better place to land.' + +'How so?' + +'Because it is cut off before and behind by marshes. There is no track +to Liardet's Beach, which is only half a mile off. There is a mud flat +in front, and hardly any one but ourselves knows the channel. It's dead +low water now; any boat, even if they chased us, would be stuck in the +mud in ten minutes, and it isn't every one that knows how to get off +again.' + +'Then we're right, and I'm a free man once more. Great God of Heaven! +what a feeling it is. May I ask your name, the name of a man that's +saved my life?' + +'My name's Wheeler. Not that it matters much, unless I'm had up for +being so soft-hearted as to mix myself up with the law's victims. But +one gentleman takes a fancy to help another now and then in this +topsy-turvy country. I've heard and can see for myself that you're one.' + +'I _was_,' groaned out Lance. 'People called me one. Shall I ever be one +again?' + +Here his irons, stirred with an involuntary movement, made a slight +sound. + +'That is the answer. My God, what had I done that I should be tortured +thus?' His head sank down upon his knees, and he made no sound or sign +till the boat glided up to the verge of the small beacon light and a +second man appeared out of the darkness, taking hold of the painter +which was thrown out to him. + +'Haul her up, Joe, as far as you can,' said the boatman, stepping out on +the low sedgy bank, so low as to be barely distinguishable above the +water. 'Stop, I'll help you. Sit quiet then till we come to you.' + +The shallow canoe, with the prow released from weight and tilted up, was +pulled bodily on to the land. Then the men stood on either side of +Lance, and, raising him from his cramped position, helped him to step on +to _terra firma_, and thence into the door of a small hut, in front of +which stood the nail can aforesaid. + +The hut was small, but weather-tight and snug as to its interior +fittings, displaying the extreme neatness coupled with economy of space +often observable where men live by themselves, especially if one of the +celibates happens to have been a sailor. + +'This is my mate, Trevanion,' said the first mariner. 'His name's Joe +Collins, formerly second lieutenant of Her Majesty's ship _Avenger_. My +name you know, so we needn't stand on ceremony with one another. We are +well posted up in your story, thanks to your plucky pretty friend, so +there's no need for explanation. You and I are ready for supper, I +suspect, so we'll turn to while Collins sees to the canoe and makes all +tight for the night. There's the first storm-note; it's going to blow +great guns before long, just as I thought it would.' + +Mr. Wheeler rattled on in a cheery, careless sort of way, while his +friend went in and out, fed the dogs, of which they had two or three +couples--retrievers, terriers, and one of the tall handsome greyhounds, +the kangaroo dog of the colonists. Lance knew that the talkativeness was +assumed for the sake of putting him at his ease. Too strange and excited +to converse himself, he could but sit in a rude but substantial chair, +fashioned out of a beer-barrel and covered with a kangaroo skin, and +look silently from one to the other. + +Meanwhile the tea was made, the corned beef and bread set forth in a tin +dish, pannikins placed ready, and the substantial bush meal, always +fully adequate to the needs of a healthy man in good training, was +ready. Before commencing, however, Mr. Wheeler fished forth from a +species of locker a square bottle, apparently containing Hollands. From +this he poured into each pannikin a pretty stiff 'second mate's glass.' + +'Do us no harm this cold night,' he said. 'Your health, Trevanion, and a +good journey to follow a bad start. It often happens here, take my word +for it.' + +The three men raised the tin pints and looked at each other. 'Thank you; +from my heart I thank you,' Lance gasped out. 'God bless you both, if my +wishing it will do you any good. I shall never forget this night.' + +One is far from recommending, or indeed palliating, the continuous use +of alcohol, but there is no evading the fact that when people are more +or less exhausted, beside being chilled and dispirited, a glass of +spirits, be it sound cognac, 'the real M'Kay,' or, as in this instance, +good square gin, produces an effect little less than magical. There are +those who, in the joyous season of early youth, or fixed in the higher +wisdom of abstinence, require it not. But strictly in moderation and +under exceptional circumstances it is a medicine, a luxury, an _elixir +vitae_. + +No sooner had the powerful cordial commenced to produce its ordinary +effect than the heart of the ransomed captive was conscious of a feeling +of lightness to which it had long been a stranger. Hope, timidly +approaching, whispered a soothing message; a vision of distant lands and +brighter days assumed form and colour. The cramped limbs recovered +warmth; the sluggish blood commenced a quicker circulation. He found +appetite for the simple meal, and listened with interest and amusement +to the tales of moving incidents by flood and field with which, between +their pipes, the woodsmen beguiled the winter evening. Lastly, the door +was bolted, the dogs let loose, and Lance was invited to avail himself +of a comfortable shakedown, where opossum cloaks and wallaby rugs +protected him from the searching night air, now keen-edged with the fury +of a howling storm. The wearied fugitive slept soundly, as he had not +done for months. He awakened to find that the sun had risen and that his +hosts had left him to complete his slumbers undisturbed by their exit. + +His feelings when he arose and looked around were instinctively tinged +with apprehension. By this time at least his escape had been made known. +What excitement must have been caused! What despatches to the other +prison-ships and their guards! To the water police! To the hunters of +men on land and sea whose beards had been mocked at! Their energy would +be further stimulated by the offer of a reward, as well as by the +certainty of promotion in the event of recapture. As the captive sat up +on his couch and looked through the open door upon the still waters of +the river-mouth, from which the fog, now that the storm had blown itself +out, was slowly lifting, he felt a shudder thrill through his frame as +he realised how near he was still to his prison home, how helpless too, +manacled as he was. He struggled to his feet, however, with a renewal +of hope and confidence in the future. The fresh and unpolluted air acted +like a cordial as he breathed it with long gasps of enjoyment. The close +walls of lofty ti-tree which shut in on three sides the nook of land, +indistinguishable from the water until at close quarters, provided at +once a shelter and a hiding-place almost impossible of surprise. The +wild-fowl swam and dived and splashed and squatted, heedless of their +chief enemy man. He found himself reverting in thought to the sports of +his youth, to the happy days when, gun in hand, he would have joyed to +have crawled within range of the shy birds and rattled in a right and +left shot. + +One of his irons clanked; the rag had slipped. How the sound brought him +back to the present! His lips had shaped themselves into a curse, his +brow had darkened, when his hosts suddenly appeared, emerging from a +creek which wound sinuously through the marshy level. Fastening up the +invaluable punt, they stepped lightly out, bearing with them a goodly +assortment of wild-fowl--noble black duck, delicate teal, and that +lovely minute goose, the _Anas boscha_, commonly known as the 'wood +duck.' + +'Grand bird this,' said Wheeler, throwing down a magnificent specimen of +that finest of all the family--the 'mountain duck'--with his +bronzed-fawn and metallic plumage. 'Splendid fellow to look at, but +that's all. Pity, isn't it? Not worth a button to eat. Why do we shoot +them? you'll ask. We sell them to the bird-stuffers. They pay well at +the price they give us. Now then, we'll proceed to business, which means +breakfast. Spatch duck--a couple of teal, eh? How do we do it? Pop 'em +into boiling water. Feathers off in a jiffy. Cut them in four, broil, +and serve hot. Tender as butter, these flappers, for they're not much +older. After breakfast we'll unfold the plot. Slept well? I thought so. +Hope you've got an appetite.' + +Lance was well aware that Mr. Wheeler's cheery, garrulous tone, not by +any means characteristic of men who live lonely lives, was assumed for +the purpose of concealing his real feelings and saving those of his +guest. But he appeared to take no heed, merely performing his toilet +with the aid of a bucket of water and a rough towel, and treating +himself to a more thorough lavation than had been lately possible. Mr. +Collins, R.N., had been setting-to with a will as caterer, and in far +less time than one would think, a meal, in some respects not to be +disdained by an epicure, appeared on the small table which, fixed upon +trestles, was placed before the hut door. + +'Try this teal, Trevanion; it's as plump as a partridge. Here's cayenne +pepper; lemons in that net. Cut one in half and squeeze--"squeeze +doughtily," as Dugald Dalgetty advises Ranald M'Eagh to do when he has +his hand on the Duke of Argyle's windpipe, in the event of His Grace +attempting to give the alarm. I read _A Legend of Montrose_ over again +last week. What a glorious old fellow Sir Walter is, to be sure! When +you've finished your first beaker of tea, there's more in the +camp-kettle, Australice "billy." Did I ever think--or you either, +Trevanion--that we should drink tea out of a "billy," or be our own +cooks, housemaids, washerwomen, and gamekeepers all in one. Still, there +are worse places than Australia, and that I'll live and die on.' + +While Wheeler's tongue was going at this brisk rate, it is not to be +supposed that his jaws were idle. The friends played a real good knife +and fork, and Lance, between invitation and the natural temptation of, +in its way, a dainty and appetising meal, followed suit. The other man +gave a lively sketch of their morning's sport, and by the time breakfast +was finished and pipes lighted, a well-worn briar-root having been made +over to Lance on the previous evening, the gnawing feeling of consuming +anxiety commenced to be somewhat allayed. + +'Now we open the council of war,' began Wheeler, after two or three +solemn puffs. 'Collins and I have to make a little _détour_ on business +which will occupy us till mid-day. Half an hour after we leave, a +mysterious artificer will suddenly appear, not out of the ground, like +Wayland Smith in _Kenilworth_ (pray excuse any excessive quotation of +Sir Walter, but the fact is we got a second-hand edition cheap last +month, and have been feasting upon him ever since). Well, this lineal +descendant of Tubal Cain will arise out of the ti-tree and will +disembarrass you of, say, any garniture which you may consider +inconvenient to travel with. I don't know him; you don't know him; he +don't know us; nobody knows anybody. You apprehend? But _the work will +be done_. Afterwards look in that bag and you will find a rig-out, +half-worn but serviceable, and somewhere about your measure.' + +'Stop a minute--just permit me one minute,' proceeded Wheeler +hurriedly, but ever courteously. 'A trifle more explanation is +necessary. Here is your route arranged for you by your good angel, your +admirable friend and protectress, with whom Collins and I are madly +enamoured--but this by the way. Listen again. When you feel ready for +the road, take this left-hand path through the ti-tree. You see it +starting behind that bush. You cannot get off it once you are on it. +Follow it for three miles. You will meet there, by a reedy lagoon, a man +with two horses. Mount the one which he leads, asking no questions. He +will say "Number Six?" you will say "Polwarth." Of course you are the +Mr. Polwarth of Number Six on a tour of inspection. He will ride with +you the whole night through, stopping only at necessary intervals. At +daylight you will find yourself more than fifty miles on the Gippsland +road. He will take you by "cuts" and by-tracks to a part of Gippsland +from which you may make your way to Monaro, to Twofold Bay, to Omeo--all +A1 places for a man who wishes rest and seclusion for a season. You will +take your choice. On the led horse--a good one, as I am informed--you +will find valise, waterproof, and other necessaries. Here is a +pocket-book, which I am commissioned to hand to you, in which are £50 in +notes and gold, besides a letter from her to whom you owe so much.' + +Mr. Wheeler rattled out this full and complete code of instructions with +his customary rapidity, finishing off with the delivery of the +pocket-book to Lance, who held out his hand mechanically and stood +staring at him for a few moments like a man in a dream. + +Then he found his tongue. + +'You have done for me that which many a man's brother would have +declined. I am a poor creature now, and can't speak even as once I +could. But may Heaven help you in your need, as you have stood by me. +Some day it may be. I cannot say, but the day may come when a scion of +the house of Wychwood may repay some slight portion of the debt of +gratitude its most ill-fated son has incurred. Farewell, and God for +ever bless you.' + +The men looked in each other's eyes for a little space, one strong +hand-clasp, after the manner of Englishmen, was exchanged, and they +parted. + +'That's a man of birth and breeding who has been wrongfully convicted, +I'll stake my life,' said Wheeler to his friend, as, with gun on +shoulder and long steady stride, they left the hut behind them. 'Had I +not been convinced of it, all Ballarat would not have tempted me to go +into the affair. But between pity and admiration for that trump of a +girl, I gave way. I wonder whether his luck will turn now and all come +right.' + +'There's a great deal in luck in this world,' said Mr. Collins +sententiously. 'It's hard to say.' + +Within a few minutes after the time specified, and for which Lance +waited with ever-increasing impatience, a quietly-dressed individual so +suddenly appeared as to startle him. He came around the side of the hut +while Lance was deep in the perusal of Tessie's letter, which also +contained a few lines from Mr. Stirling, telling him that his order for +cash, worded in a certain way, would always be paid to any person whom +he might name at any place. + +He looked up for an instant and saw the broad frame and steady eye of +the stranger confronting him. 'Could this be a detective in plain +clothes? The thought was madness.' + +The stranger smiled. 'All right,' he said; 'I'm the blacksmith; come to +take the clinks off--not the first job of the sort I've done. Sharp's +the word--sit down, sir.' + +Here the stranger produced from his pockets and a bag an assortment of +tools of various sorts, including files of marvellous finish and temper. +Seating himself, Lance freely yielded his limbs to the man of iron, who, +in something under half an hour, produced remarkable results. How the +heart of Lance Trevanion swelled with joy when he saw the hated manacles +drop heavily upon the rug on which he had been sitting! + +'So far so good,' remarked the liberator artisan. 'One of 'em's chafed +your ankle, but you'll soon get over that. Ugly, ain't they? If you'll +dress yourself while I take a walk along the river I'll show you what +I'll do with them.' + +A few minutes sufficed for the inspection of the beauties of the Yarra. +When he returned, the good-looking young man with the clean-shaved face +and short hair did not look in the least like the hunted convict of the +previous day. + +'My word,' quoth the smith, dragging out an old sugee bag, 'you look +fust-rate--never see any one change more for the better--for the better. +Here goes!' Thus speaking, he placed the irons in the bag, which he +afterwards nearly filled with the prison clothing of which Lance, even +to his boots, had denuded himself. These he took into the punt, and +rowing to a deep place in the river near the bank he threw in the sack, +which the weight of the irons caused to sink at once. 'Many a poor +fellow's been buried like that at sea,' he remarked, in soliloquy. 'I +wonder if it ain't as good a way as any. The p'leece won't find them in +a hurry, I bet. And now Mr. Never-Never, I'll show you the left-hand +road, as I was told to. There's your track, and good luck to you.' + +Lance had good reason to believe that this service had been paid for, +but he could not bear that the man who had rendered him such material +aid should go even temporarily unrewarded. So he extracted one of the +five-pound notes from the pocket-book and presented it to him at the +close of proceedings. + +'You're a gentleman,' said the smith, unconsciously using the +stereotyped expression of those receiving a gratuity in advance of +expectation. + +'I was once,' replied Lance, with a sadly humorous half-smile. 'God +knows if I ever shall be one again.' + +'No fear,' quoth the hammerman, with a cheery, consoling accent. 'You've +got the world afore you now. Many a man in this country has been a deal +lower down that holds his head high enough now. Keep up your "pecker." +It'll all come right in the end.' + +On the narrow marshy track, which led between thick-growing walls of +ti-tree eight or ten feet high, there was not, as Wheeler averred, much +chance of losing the way. Lance plodded on cheerfully for about an hour. +Once he could have done the distance in far less time, but from want of +exercise and other reasons he had contracted the habit of taking short +steps, which he found it difficult to change. He felt altogether out of +sorts, and was by no means sorry to see near a deep reed-fringed lagoon +a man who looked like a stock-rider sitting on a log watching two +hobbled horses that, saddled and bridled, fed close by the water's edge. + +As the foot traveller emerged from the ti-tree thicket, the man walked +to the horses' heads, and, after one look at the newcomer, commenced to +unloose the hobbles. These he buckled on to each saddle, and, tightening +the girths, said interrogatively, 'Number Six?' + +'Polwarth,' was the answer returned. + +Upon this he held the bridle of one of the horses and motioned for Lance +to mount, after altering the stirrup to suit the stranger's length of +limb. This done, he mounted and rode forward at a steady pace, turning +neither to the right nor left, except when apparently some advantage +would seem to be gained by it. Both horses walked fast, particularly the +one which Lance bestrode, which he found to be good in all his paces, +free, clever, and in all respects a superior style of hackney. + +Mile after mile did they ride after this fashion, walking, trotting, or +cantering as the roads, both deep and difficult in places, permitted. +The rate at which they travelled was on the whole rapid, though the +guide evidently husbanded the powers of both horses in view of a +toilsome journey still to be made. + +An hour before midnight, pursuing a by-track for some distance, they +came upon a hut in a forest near a deserted saw-pit. It had once been a +snug and substantial dwelling, but the timber had long been cut and +carted away, so the hut was no longer needed. The grass grew thick and +green around. The guide, with practised hand, first lighted a fire in +the large mud-lined chimney, and then unsaddled and hobbled out the +horses. He produced from a rude cupboard bread and cold meat, tea, +sugar, and the quart pot and pannikins necessary for a bush meal. These +had evidently been placed there in anticipation of such a visit. Besides +all this, there were a couple of rugs, and as many double blankets of +the ordinary gray colour used by travelling bushmen. + +The fire having burned well up, and a couple of dry back logs having +been placed so as to ensure a steady glow for at least half the evening, +his taciturn guide relaxed a little. 'Here we are for the night,' he +said, 'though we'd best make an early start, and I don't know as we +could be much more comfortable. We've plenty to eat and drink and a fire +to sleep by, no cattle to watch, and a good roof over us. I've often had +a worse night along this very road.' + +'I daresay,' said Lance, who began to shake off his fears of immediate +capture. 'This must be a queer road in wet weather.' + +'I believe yer,' answered the guide. 'Many a mob of fat cattle I've +drove along this very track. It's a nice treat on a wet night, sitting +on your horse soaking wet through, nearly pitch dark, and afraid to give +the bullocks a chance for fear they'd rush. This here's a picnic in a +manner of speaking.' + +'I suppose it is,' quoth Lance. 'Things might be worse, I daresay. I +shall sleep well, I don't doubt. I haven't been riding much lately. +Where shall we get to-morrow night?' + +'Somewhere about the Running Creek; it's a longish pull, but the horses +are good and in fine buckle. You can do a long day's journey with an +early start.' + +Their meal over, the two men sat before the glowing fire on the rude +seats which they had found in the hut. The soothing pipe helped still +further to produce in Lance's case a calm and equable state of mind. To +this succeeded a drowsily luxurious sensation of fatigue, which he did +not attempt to combat, and, stretching himself on his rug, he covered +himself with the blanket; he and his companion were soon asleep. + +The stars were still in the sky when he started at a touch on the +shoulder, and found that his companion had noiselessly arisen and +prepared breakfast. The horses also, ready saddled and bridled, were +standing with their bridles over the fork of a tree near the door. Lance +was soon dressed. Breakfast over, they were in the saddle and away while +as yet the first faint tinge of the dawn light had scarcely commenced to +irradiate the mountain peaks which stood ranked like a company of Titans +near the eastern sky-line. + +With this, the second day's journey, a change commenced to make itself +apparent in Lance Trevanion's mien and bearing. The fresh forest air was +in his lungs, the great woodland through which they were now riding +commenced to endue him with the fearless spirit of the waste. He could +hardly imagine that it was so short a time since he was in fettered +bondage. What a difference was there in his every movement and +sensations! He began unconsciously to act the free man in tone and +manner. He praised the paces of the horse he was riding, and criticised +that of his guide in a way which showed that experienced person that he +was no novice in the noble science of horse-flesh. He began to draw out +his companion. In him he perceived, as he thought, the ordinary bushman, +an experienced stock-rider, or, perhaps, confidential drover, and thence +he began to wonder how much of his past history he had been made +acquainted with. A chance question supplied the information. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +'Where are ye thinking of going, boss, when we get to Bairnsdale? +Twofold Bay's a terrible long way off to go prospectin'. I'd a deal +sooner chance Omeo. It's only twenty miles farther on.' + +'Omeo, Omeo!' repeated Lance. 'Why should I go to Omeo?' + +'Haven't ye heard? There's a big show struck close by the old township. +They say they're leaving Ballarat, lots of 'em, to go there. It's the +richest find yet, by all accounts; shallow ground too!' + +'Omeo, Omeo!' Lance again repeated half unconsciously to himself. Had +not Tessie made reference to it in the coach from Ballarat? Had she not +said that Lawrence Trevenna was there, the man to whose baleful shadow +he owed ruin and dishonour, the ineradicable disgrace which would always +be associated with his name? He had a heavy account to settle with him. +When they met all scores would be cleared off. This much he had vowed to +himself in the prison cell at Ballarat, in the hulk _President_ in the +silence of midnight, in that foetid hold of the prison-ship, where he +could scarcely breathe the polluted atmosphere, laden with crime, heavy +with curses. There, in that time of horror and dread, again and again +had he sworn to take his enemy's life--that one or other should die when +next they met, be it where it might. + +And then again, as he hoped to efface himself, to feel secure from the +pursuit which he heard in every breeze and feared in every echoing hoof, +where could he find so safe and unsuspected a refuge as this new +digging--wild, rough, isolated as Omeo must necessarily be? Far from +civilisation of any kind, on a lone mountain plateau, snow-covered in +winter, only to be reached by paths so devious and precipitous that +wheels could not be employed, where every pound of merchandise or +machinery was fain to be carried on pack-horses. There could be no +better place for a hunted man to disappear, to obliterate himself. There +he could remain for the present,--unknown, invisible to all who had +known the former Lance Trevanion,--until he matured his plans and could +make his way to a foreign shore. + +Here, as he recovered health and strength under the influence of the +mountain breezes and the wild woodlands which lay so near the +river-sources and the snow summits, it would be comparatively easy to +transmit his share of the Number Six washings, still safe in the +Joint-Stock Bank in the custody of Charlie Stirling. Here, once located +and established as Dick, Tom, or Harry--surnames were in the nature of +superfluities at goldfields of the class which Omeo was pretty sure to +be--he could make arrangements for selling out to Jack Polwarth. Quietly +and without suspicion he could arrange to have the whole of his property +transferred to him in cash, and some fine morning, under cover of a trip +to Melbourne on business or pleasure, he would show Australia a clean +pair of heels, and in America, North or South, in some far land where +his name was never heard, would live out the rest of a life with such +solace as he might, might even--when Time, the healer, should have +dulled the heart-pangs which now throbbed and agonised so +mordantly--might even reach some degree of contentment, if not of +happiness. + +And Estelle! Estelle! There was the sharpest sting--the bitterest +grief--the direst pang of all. Could he ever look again into those +lovely, trusting eyes, having undergone what he had done? Could he ask +her--angel of purity that she was; the embodiment of the refinement of +generations of stainless ancestors; sheltered, as she had been, by the +conditions of her birth and education from all knowledge of the evil +that there is in the world,--could he ask her to lay her head upon a +felon's breast?--to take his hand in life-long pledge of happiness, when +at any time, in any land where this long arm of extradition could reach, +the hand of justice might seize him? No! Such companionship, such love, +could never be his in the future. He had lost them for ever. On the +lower level to which he had sunk he must remain. To its privations he +must accustom himself; the surroundings he must endure. There was no +help for it. If Tessie Lawless chose to share his lot he might not deny +her. She knew the whole of his story. She loved him. She had been +faithful and true. She deserved any poor recompense, such as the damaged +future of his life, that of a nameless man, could offer, if she chose to +accept it. For Trevanion of Wychwood was dead, and his early love, with +all his high hopes and noble aspirations, lay deep in the grave of his +buried honour. + + * * * * * + +From the day of Lance Trevanion's arrest at Balooka, no word, by letter +or otherwise, had reached Wychwood of the fortunes of its heir. Days, +weeks, months succeeded each other in the uneventful round into which +country life in England has a tendency to settle when ordinary interests +are withdrawn or unduly concentrated. It was pitiable to note the +squire's anxiety when the Australian mail was due. For him, as for +Estelle, there seemed to be but one man whose fortunes were worth +following in the whole world--from whom letters were as the breath of +life. And now these tidings from a far land, regular, if brief and +sententious, up to this time, were suddenly withheld. + +With the failing health of the Squire--for he suffered from one of the +mysterious class of complaints before which strong men go down like +feeble children--passed away much of his fierce obstinacy, his pride and +arrogance. He thought of his son as he had last seen him,--haughty, +tameless, defiant, with all his faults a true Trevanion,--and now, when +he hoped to have seen him once again, grown and developed, though +bronzed and possibly roughened by the rude life of a colony, when he had +schooled himself to recall rash words and to make the _amende_ as far as +his nature would permit, here he was thwarted, bewildered, maddened by +this sudden arrest of all knowledge of his fate. + +'The boy has had the best of the fight,' he groaned out. + +Ever at his side, at this crisis chief counsellor and consoler, Estelle +here rose to her true position in the house. Awakened to the necessity +of taking a leading part in the family fortunes, the added weight of +responsibility appeared to nerve and mould her to a loftier resolve, to +a more sublimely unselfish purpose. She it was who suggested to the +desponding father every shade of excuse for the stoppage of the letters +which were as the life-blood to his failing constitution. She it was who +ransacked the newspapers for reports, meagre as they mostly were, of the +great Australian gold fields. She it was who looked up maps and +authorities upon the colonies, until she even acquired the recondite +knowledge, granted to so few Britons, that Victoria is not situated in +New South Wales, nor Tasmania the capital of Western Australia. + +Torn and rent as was her own heart when she allowed herself to think of +her lover,--lost to her in the wilds of a far country, perishing in the +wilderness for all she knew, exposed to dangers among savages and +outlaws even more ruthless,--she yet braced up her courage. She nerved +herself to bear the worst, if only she might soften the pain and anxiety +which began increasingly to sap the strength of the failing head of the +ancient house. + +More than once had she interviewed the passengers in vessels returning +from Melbourne, hungrily eager for any shred of news from Ballarat. Did +they know a miner named Trevanion, or even Polwarth? How long was it +since they had seen him, and what were his present circumstances? But +these inquiries were vain. Few of the returning adventurers had troubled +themselves to remember the names of their chance acquaintances. Others +indeed had heard of the untoward fate of the young Englishman, but +thought it no kindness to tell his friends. They could not possibly aid +him or alleviate his condition. Better to let the bad news unfold itself +in due time. + +So the weary days went on. Spring glided into summer. The ancient oaks +and 'immemorial elms' of Wychwood Chase were clothed anew with tender +greenery. The glad, brief life of the northern summer burst into joyous +fulness, then paled and waned. Autumn, with slow pace but ruthless hand, +despoiled the glades and strewed the forest aisles with withered leaves +and fallen chaplets. Ere the blasts of winter had commenced to herald +the doom of the dying year, it became generally known that the Squire of +Wychwood was failing fast--would, indeed, hardly last over the coming +Christmastide. It was observed that he buried himself in his library, +that he had given up all habitual modes of exercise. No guests were +invited to the house, and Miss Estelle more often dined by herself than +not in the great, lonely dining-room which had so often echoed with +festive mirth, or, in older days, still rang with ruthless revelry. + +As the Squire's health declined his affections seemed to concentrate +themselves upon his niece. She had in all respects borne herself as a +daughter to him--had shown even more than a daughter's sympathy and +constant, watchful care. + +The younger son was at college. He would be the heir to Wychwood in +case the adventurer on the far Australian goldfield never returned to +claim his inheritance. Amiable, well conducted, of respectable ability +and fair attainments, he had never (such is the perversity of the human +heart) been a favourite of his father's. The stern old man--bitterly as +he had quarrelled with the disobedient elder brother, whose nature was +in so many respects a reflex of his own, yet in his heart owned him for +the higher nature--recognised in him the befitting heir to his ancient +demesne, to the hall in which nobles had sat and princes feasted. Now to +his gloomy and brooding soul all hope was lost. Some dire misfortune, +even a fatal accident, had doubtless happened--must have occurred, +indeed, or Lance's chronicle of his life and adventures, meagre as to +detail, but of regular recurrence, would have continued. If only he +could have set eyes on Lance before he died! Could he but have told him +how he had regretted the rash words and bitter speech, the prayers he +had prayed for his safe return; ay, the tears he had shed in the agony +of his remorse--he, the proud, inexorable Trevanion of Wychwood! It was +well-nigh incredible. None of his old-time comrades and +fellow-roysterers could have believed it of the Dark Squire, as the +villagers then named him, with lowered tones and bated breath. But in +the days of sorrow and failing strength,--when the strong man is brought +low; when those hours, so long approaching, so long menacing, have come; +when death seems no longer a strange visitant but a familiar friend, +more welcome in truth than the sad alternation of sorrow and +unrest,--the haughtiest pride of man is lowered. In those hours of +lonely grief and dark despair many a recantation is made--many a vow +recorded undreamed of in life's festal season. + + * * * * * + +The death-day came at last. He lingered on past the season fixed by +general expectancy; but ere the first bud of the swelling leaflet had +been set free by the breath of spring in his ancestral glades, the +Squire lay with his warrior forefathers in the historic vault, which had +not been opened since the last Lady of Wychwood had been carried there, +long ere her beauty had faded. The retainers of the house, and not a few +of the notables of the county, assembled to pay the last form of respect +to one whom, in despite of his latter-day life of seclusion, they +recognised as one of the born leaders of the land. As the long +procession passed slowly along the winding road, which at one point +skirted the sea-cliff, to the venerable chapel which had seen so many +solemn ceremonies celebrated connected with the family, more than one +inquiry was made for the absent heir, and uniform regret expressed that +he should not have returned from the far south land to claim his own and +assume his rights. + +When the last sad duties had been paid to him whom, in spite of his +stormy outbursts of temper, Estelle could not help holding in love and +pity, a strong resolve appeared to actuate the once timid girl, +shrinking, as carefully-nurtured women do, from independent action and +strange surroundings. The estate would go, of course, to the +heir-at-law, strictly entailed as it had been for many generations. But +it had been in the old man's power to dispose as he pleased of the large +amount accruing from the savings of late years, and from the sale of an +estate which was not included in the entail. This bequest, which had +been made while the testator was of perfectly sound mind and body, was +of such amount as to render Estelle perfectly independent for the rest +of her life; indeed, to exalt her somewhat to the position of an +heiress. + +In the long conversations held in his latter days of decadence between +the Squire and his niece, it had been definitely agreed that Estelle +should proceed to Australia and there seek out the errant heir--should +bring him back if possible by force of entreaty or persuasion to the +land of his forefathers, to the rank and position handed down from the +fierce warriors and splendid courtiers whose presentments frowned or +smiled down upon their descendants in the old hall. + +'I have such faith in you, my darling Estelle,' said the Squire, in one +of his later confidences, 'that I shall die more peacefully knowing that +you will search this far country for my lost unhappy boy. You have sense +and courage in a degree rarely bestowed upon women. Your heart has been +true to him during his long absence--this more than anxious period of +doubt and dread. If he be in the neighbourhood of the place from which +we last heard from him, you will be sure to gain some tidings of him. If +you see him, your influence over him, powerful for good, always for +good, as in the past, will save him, and once more the old ancient race, +which has never yet failed of a male heir in the direct line, will be +fittingly represented. If Lance, the son of whom I was so proud, returns +no more from that far country, the estate will of course pass into the +hands of his brother. But you are in any case _well_ provided for. May +God bless and reward you, my darling Estelle, for your forbearing +kindness to a broken-spirited man. And now, kiss me, darling; I think I +could sleep.' + +He slept the sleep which knows no awakening on earth. + +The parting words of her uncle had for Estelle almost the sacredness of +a dying command. She had vowed, kneeling by his bedside, to leave no +region unexplored, to carry through the search with the completeness +which characterised all her proceedings. The high courage and resolute +will which were hers by inheritance from the Trevanions stood her now in +good stead. With an air of quiet resolve she arranged all her personal +affairs without parade or hesitation; within a fortnight her passage had +been taken, a few letters of introduction procured, also a very moderate +outfit suitable for a young lady travelling, if not incognito, in a very +unobtrusive way. And at the appointed day and hour Estelle found herself +speeding away over the waters blue in company with a stranger crowd of +enforced acquaintances, borne over an unknown sea on a wild and +desperate quest. Before her, in imagination, she pictured the rude +solitudes of an unknown land--even the fancied perils of a lawless +goldfield. + + * * * * * + +The low coast of the island-continent line, irregular and faint, +appearing from out the southern sky, so long unbroken. A new land--a new +city. Melbourne at last! The land how strange! The city how new! The +people how foreign-appearing and _bizarre_ to the voyager from the +region of tradition and settled form. Estelle looked and moved like a +strayed princess amid a horde of nomads. She had schooled herself into +the belief that in her quest she would be called upon to suffer all +kinds of privations, and to mingle with every variety of 'rough +colonists.' She resolved to make a trial essay. In pursuance of this +heroic resolution she preferred to go to an hotel upon her own +responsibility, before delivering the letters of introduction with which +she had armed herself. She was not exactly fortunate in her choice, as +indeed was to be expected. However, she was agreeably surprised at the +civility with which she was treated, as well as by the absence of +'roughness,' as displayed by the _habitués_, many of whom were patently +uneducated. Still Estelle made the discovery shortly, that even so +recently constructed a city as Melbourne, in the fret of a gold-fever, +was not essentially unlike an English town--that a handsome young woman +was more or less an object of attraction and curiosity. Tolerably well +veiled, doubtless; nevertheless an inquiring tone displayed itself +unmistakably. And, in spite of her resolve to brave all the social +inclemencies of her novel surroundings, Estelle Chaloner shrank from the +implied doubtfulness to which her unprotected condition led up. Escape +was easy. She smiled as she thought of her boasted independence; how +soon it had failed her! Being a sensible girl, however, in the least +restricted sense of the word, she capitulated forthwith, resolving to +present one of the letters of introduction without delay. + +Having packed up her belongings,--not too extensive,--paid her bill, and +arranged all things ready for departure, Estelle picked out a 'nice' +looking letter, and resolved to abide the hazard of the die. The address +was, 'Mrs. Vernon, Toorak, South Yarra, near Melbourne.' The aboriginal +sounding names gave no information as to distance. 'Near' might mean two +miles or twenty. A man's next-door neighbour in Australia was sometimes +fifty miles distant, she had heard. Happily she bethought herself of +asking information of the landlady of her hotel. + +'Toorak, Toorak!' said that important personage. 'Oh yes; I know it well +enough, and a nice place it is--all the swell people live there! Mrs. +Vernon's place is one of the best there. A grand house, and everything +in style. You'd better have a cab called; they'll take you there for ten +shillings, luggage and all.' + +'I may not be asked to stay,' replied Estelle diffidently, 'and if I am, +I am not sure that I----' + +'Oh yes you will,' interposed the hostess. 'Don't talk that way. Wait +till you see what sort of a place it is. And Mrs. Vernon's a lady that +won't let you go, I'll answer for it.' + +A short half-hour's drive across Princes' Bridge, through or around the +maze of Canvastown, past the Botanic Gardens, and along a newly made and +recently metalled road, brought Estelle to a pair of massive ornate iron +gates, on the northern side of the road leading along an avenue of some +length. + +'This is Charlton Lodge,' said the driver. 'Shall I drive to the front?' + +'Certainly,' she replied, as she smiled at the question. The winding +avenue was well gravelled, with a border of shaven grass, beyond which +were beds filled with flowering shrubs, planted amid and underneath tall +pines, with an admixture of elms, oaks, and Australian cedars. +Everything exhibited careful tendance, demonstrating that although many +of the best labourers had levanted to the goldfields there were still +some few servitors who preferred comfort to independence. Estelle was +beginning to wonder how long the preliminary approach was to last, when +a velvet-piled lawn came into view, around which the carriage-drive took +a sweep, her charioteer halting underneath a spacious portico of +classical proportion and finish. + +The cabman rang the bell, and receiving assurance from a neatly dressed +parlour-maid that her mistress was at home, returned to his seat and +awaited events, while Estelle was duly ushered into a handsomely +furnished drawing-room of unquestionable modernity of tone. + +After a reasonably short interval, employed by Estelle in a +comprehensive survey of the apartment, which, indeed, bore tokens of +intelligent and appreciative taste, a well-dressed elderly lady +appeared. + +'Miss Chaloner!' she exclaimed. 'I am truly glad to see you at last. I +have been wondering what had become of you. My dear friend, Mary Dacre, +wrote to me to say that you were coming out by the mail, and that you +had kindly brought a letter to me. I heard of the vessel's arrival, and +that you had left the vessel and gone to an hotel. I called at Scott's +and Menzies's, but they had not heard of you.' + +'I went to the Criterion,' said Estelle smilingly. 'I rather regretted +it afterwards.' + +'Of course you did, my dear, and permit me to say that it partly served +you right. Why did you not come to me _at once_? Melbourne is such a +queer place now since the diggings have broken out. There are all sorts +of strange characters and curious people about. It is hardly a place for +a young lady just now, unless under efficient chaperonage.' + +Estelle gazed at the kindly old lady, whose eyes at that moment shone +with maternal tenderness for an instant before she answered. Her voice +softened as she said-- + +'You must remember, as no doubt Miss Dacre told you, that I came to +Australia for a special purpose; and that if I expect to be successful +in my search I cannot afford to let small obstacles stand in my way.' + +'Small obstacles! That is very well, but surely you don't intend to go +up to the diggings and to horrid places in the bush all by yourself?' + +'That is just what I _do_ intend, my dear Mrs. Vernon,--neither more nor +less. I have thought over the matter scores--yes, hundreds of times--and +I can see no other way. If I merely wished to see the country I might +arrange things differently. But I have one important, principal, +all-absorbing purpose in view. It is my star. I fix my eye on that, and +all other things, even those which appear to be insuperable +difficulties, must give way.' + +'Dangers and difficulties, traps and pitfalls, do all those count for +nothing in your list of drawbacks?' + +'I must use a man's argument. I see other women have done--are doing the +same--why not I? Suppose I were a sempstress or a poor governess on her +way to an engagement, should I not have to do the same?--to travel +unattended; to take my chance of rough or uncongenial companionship? Why +am I so much more precious than other girls of my age, that I have to be +fenced round with so many precautions?' + +'All this is fine talking, my dear Miss Chaloner, and it's very nice of +you to say so; but a young lady of position and fortune cannot--_must +not_--travel about by herself as if she were a barmaid or a music-hall +singer. There _is_ a difference beside that of age and sex--and the +disagreeables--you have no idea of the nature of them.' + +'I don't know much about them, though I may partly guess, my dear Mrs. +Vernon, but we Chaloners and Trevanions are said in Cornwall to be an +obstinate race. My mind is made up. I must take a seat in the Ballarat +coach for next Monday.' + +'I am afraid you _are_ an obstinate girl,' said Mrs. Vernon +good-naturedly. 'Well, a wilful woman must, I suppose, have her own way. +I have relieved my mind, at any rate. Now the next thing is to see how +we can help you in your perilous adventure. Let me think. Do I know any +Ballarat people? No, but Mr. Vernon does; if not, his friends do, which +comes to the same thing.' + +'I hope that you won't take all this trouble about me,' said Estelle +earnestly. 'I know how to get there, with my own unaided intelligence. +You would be surprised how much I know about Port Phillip from books and +newspapers.' + +'And you are bent upon acquiring your own colonial experience? Well, my +dear, it may be all for the best in the end; but if you were a daughter +of mine I should not have one happy moment from the time I lost sight of +you till you returned. Do you know any one at Ballarat, or have you +letters to people there?' + +'There is one gentleman there whom I seem to know quite well through my +cousin's letters. He was never tired of praising him. He spoke of him as +his best friend. His name was Charles Stirling. He was a banker. Then +there was a Mr. Hastings, and John Polwarth, Lance's partner,--both +miners.' + +'A banker and two miners! Chiefly young and unmarried, I suppose. And +are these all your introductions in a strange town, and that town +Ballarat, you dear innocent lamb that you are? Well, well; we have five +days before us. Mr. Vernon will be home to dinner at seven, and we can +have a council of war. Here comes afternoon tea, after which we go for a +drive if you are not tired.' + +'I am not in the least tired,' replied Estelle. 'And now that my +departure is decided upon I am ready for anything.' + +So the carriage was ordered out--a costly enough equipage in those days +of unexampled enhancement of prices--the three-hundred-guinea pair of +horses that consumed oats at twelve shillings a bushel and hay at +seventy pounds a ton, driven by a coachman at three pounds a week. But +Mr. Vernon was a merchant who had made one fortune by the lucky cargoes +of mining necessaries, and was fast making another by gold-buying. Such +an additional item of expense as a carriage for his wife was the merest +bagatelle. + +So the ladies drove to St. Kilda for a breath of sea air, taking the +Botanic Gardens on their way back, where there was a flower-show +patronised by His Excellency, Mr. Latrobe, and all the rank and fashion +of the metropolis, chiefly represented by a few squatters and club men, +with a sprinkling of gold commissioners on leave. + +Mrs. Vernon was not averse to the company of so distinctly +aristocratic-looking a damsel as Estelle Chaloner, whose appearance, +quietly dressed as she was, elicited, in that day of matrimonial +competition and proportional scarcity of young ladies, endless admiring +comment. + +At dinner, for which they had barely time to dress, they were enlivened +by the society of Mr. Vernon--a shrewd, good-humoured mercantile +personage--and a gentleman whom he introduced as Mr. Annesley and +described as a Goldfields Commissioner. This last was a very +good-looking and correctly dressed young man, not long from England. He +was in Melbourne, on leave after twelve months' hard work on the +diggings, according to his own account, and had some flavour of the high +spirits and abounding cheerfulness of the naval officer on shore about +him. His host 'drew' him judiciously about mining life and adventure, on +which he was by no means loath to enlarge. He was evidently gratified by +the intense interest with which Estelle listened to his amusing and +justifiably egotistic rattle, and in the innocence of his heart essayed +to complete her subjugation. But, to Estelle's intense regret, he did +not come from Ballarat--'had been quartered in quite a different +district.' She was deeply interested in him, however, as marking a type +with which Lance must necessarily have often come into contact, and she +concluded an agreeable evening, widely different from her expectation of +things Australian, with an assurance from Mr. Vernon that he would bring +her a budget of definite information about Ballarat and its social +condition on the morrow. + +Had she been in a position to listen to the conversation of her host and +his guest when she and Mrs. Vernon had retired for the night, and the +gentlemen had adjourned to the smoking-room, she would have scarce slept +so soundly. + +'Lance Trevanion? of course I _had_ heard of the beggar,' said the +Commissioner, as he threw himself back in a settee and lighted one of +Mr. Vernon's choice cigars. 'We had a fellow from Ballarat staying at +the camp at Morrison's who had been at the trial and knew all about him. +But how could I tell the poor thing? What a sweet girl she is, by the +way! why, she'll have half Melbourne pursuing her with proposals if she +only lets them see her. Don't know when I've seen such a girl since I +left England. Why she should bother her head about Trevanion now, I +can't imagine.' + +'Well, he's her cousin, my wife tells me, for one thing. They were +engaged, it seems, too, before he left home. Sad pity that such a girl +should spoil her chances here and throw herself away. But that's their +nature, we all know. Tell us the tale, Annesley; I never heard.' + +'As it was told to me, this was about it. This fellow Trevanion, a +good-looking, well-set-up youngster, seems to have been a bad lot or a +d--d fool, one can hardly say which. Anyhow, he was fond of play, and +got mixed up with a crooked Sydney-side crowd. There was a girl in it, +of course. They won from him, it was said. He, like a young fool, +thought he might choose his own company at an Australian diggings, "all +people out here being alike," or some such rot. The end of it was that +he was run in for horse-stealing, or having a stolen horse in his +possession. Got two years. I've heard since that he was the wrong man, +but the Sergeant--queer card and deuced dangerous, that Dayrell--wanted +a case--the diggers had lost so many horses that they wanted a +conviction. So poor Trevanion had to pay for all.' + +'What an infernal shame!' said Mr. Vernon. 'Couldn't anything be done +for him?' + +'Well (by Jove, this is a cigar, I must have another by and by), looks +so, doesn't it? But it's necessary to be hard and sharp at the diggings +or the country would go to the devil. Wrong man shopped now and then, +like Tom Rattleton in California, but can't be helped. Ever hear that +yarn? No! Well, I'll just light number two, and here goes: Tom, you must +know, was a bit fastish before he left the paternal halls in another +colony. After one of his escapades, a friend of the family, good fellow, +observes one day, "Tom, it's no use talking, you'll come to be hanged." +"Thank you," says Tom, "I think I'll try San Francisco; this place is +too confined for a man of my talents." Gold at Suttor's Mill had just +been reported.' + +'And did he go?' + +'Like a bird, with lots of Australian "bloods," as they used to call +them. Had to work their way back before the mast, most of them. Tom had, +anyhow. After the fatted calf had been duly potted, friend of the family +arrives. + +'"Hulloa, Tom! home again? Proud to see you, my boy. Safe back to the +old place, hey?" + +'"That is so," answered Tom, putting on a little Yankee touch, "do you +remember what you said to me as I was leaving?" + +'"No, my boy, what was it?" Friend didn't like to own up, you see. + +'"Well, you said I'd come to be hanged, and, by Jove! _I nearly was_ in +'Frisco. _The rope was round my neck_, sure as you're there. Took me for +a gambler who'd shot a man the night before. He turned up in time to be +turned off, or I should have been--well, I _shouldn't_ have been here +to-day." + +'Friend turned quite pale, grasped his hand, and sloped. Affecting, +wasn't it?' + +'Good story, very,' quoth the host. 'Like Tom Rattleton. Reckless young +beggar he always was--but turned out well afterwards. _Experientia +docet._ Near thing, though. Now, touching this poor girl's cousin. +Nothing earthly will prevent her going to look for him.' + +'H--m! Does she know any one in Ballarat?' + +'Mr. Charles Stirling, a banker; Hastings and Polwarth, Trevanion's +mates.' + +'Charlie Stirling! I've heard of him. Awfully good sort, people say. +Well, he'll do all he can. If she goes up he's the man to break it to +her. Dalton's Sub-Commissioner there. I'll leave a line for him. Between +them both they'll see no harm come to her. Well, Number Two rivals his +predecessor. It's a fair thing, I suppose. Good-night.' + +A couple of days were spent pleasantly enough in Melbourne. A few of the +South Yarra notables dropped in, not quite accidentally, to Mrs. +Vernon's afternoon tea, whose manner and appearance rather altered +Estelle's preconceived notion of colonial society. They expressed the +wildest astonishment at hearing that she was about to explore Ballarat, +much as in London might a South Kensington coterie at hearing that a +cherished classmate thought it necessary thus to satisfy her doubts +about the Patagonians or the Modoc Indians, always ending their politest +commiseration with an invitation. + +Finally, all entreaties proving unavailing, Estelle was driven in before +sunrise, and at 6 A.M. found herself on the box-seat of the Ballarat +coach, specially commended to the care of Mr. Levi, the driver, who was +waiting for the clock of the Melbourne post-office to strike, +preparatory to the customary sensational start of Cobb and Co.'s team of +well-groomed, high-conditioned grays. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Much to Estelle's surprise, the journey, strange and unfamiliar as were +all things to the English maiden of a country family, was far from +unpleasant. The rapid rate of travelling, the speed and stoutness of the +horses, the astonishing dexterity of the American stage-driver, were +alike novel and interesting; and these were matters as to which she was +qualified to judge. Like many English girls brought up in a great +country-house, she rode well and fearlessly--had, indeed, for more than +one season, ere the shadow fell upon Wychwood, followed the hounds with +decided credit. Beginning with a pony carriage, she had in later years +amused herself with driving her uncle in a pair-horse phaeton, with a +groom in the back seat of course. She was therefore intelligently +interested in the ease and accuracy with which the laconic Mr. Levi +piloted his team alike adown crooked stump-guarded sidelings, through +dense primeval forests, and over unbridged creeks, for under such +perilous conditions the road to Ballarat in the early 'fifties' pursued +its devious course. The driver, in whose charge she had been placed, +with strong recommendations and a liberal _douceur_, by Mr. Vernon, +though saturnine and sparing of speech, as was customary with that +'spoiled child of fortune,' the stage-driver of the period, was, in his +way, courteous and respectful. He indicated from time to time points of +interest in the landscape. He even answered her questions civilly and +with a show of attention. Concerning the coach and harness, the leather +springs and the formidable brake, so diverse from all English +experience, he was explanatory and gracious. The day was fine, the air +clear and fresh, while from the close-ranked eucalyptus exuded balsamic +odours, which, to her aroused fancy and eager appreciation of the new +nature which encircled her, savoured of strange health-giving powers. +The flitting birds, the occasional forest cries, the great flocks of +sheep, the absence of enclosures, the droves of cattle and horses with +their equally wild-looking attendants, the long trains of bullock-drays +and waggons--were not these the wonders and portents of the land of +gold? In despite of forebodings and the sense of isolation with which +Estelle Chaloner had commenced this most eventful enterprise of her +life, the natural fearlessness of her race asserted itself, and, true +to the instincts of youth, her spirits rose perceptibly. When at the +close of the day the coach rattled along the macadamised road which +prepared the passengers for the lighted streets, the clanking engines, +and yawning shafts of Ballarat, she had confessed to herself that +Australia was by no means so dreadful a place as she had expected. + +The team was now pulled up nervously close to the doorstep of a large +well-lighted hotel, thus at once exhibiting the proverbial skill of Mr. +Levi, and scattering the group of loungers which surrounded the +entrance. Then a man's voice hailed the driver cheerfully, and demanded +of him whether Miss Chaloner from Melbourne was on the coach. + +'Right you are, Commissioner,' was the response. 'If you'll help the +young lady down, reckon I've delivered her into the protection of Her +Majesty's Government. Her luggage is in the rack. Joe'll have it near +out by this. Good-night, Miss. The Commissioner'll take care of you.' + +'Good-night, and thank you very much,' said Estelle, as, stepping +downwards cautiously from the high box-seat, she found herself almost in +the arms of a tall man, who half-assisted, half-lifted her down. + +'Permit me to introduce myself, Miss Chaloner,' he said, 'as Mr. Dalton +and Her Majesty's Commissioner of this goldfield. I had a note from a +friend and brother officer in Melbourne advising me of your coming. I +have arranged with Mrs. M'Alpine, the wife of the Police Magistrate, who +will be most happy to receive you. You will find her cottage more +comfortable than an hotel. Trust yourself to my escort and we shall be +there in a few minutes.' + +'This is some of Mrs. Vernon's kindness, I am sure,' said Estelle. +'Really I seem to have friends everywhere in this land of strangers.' + +'May you always find it so, Miss Chaloner. Please to honour me by +enrolling me among the number. This is our vehicle, and your luggage is +safely packed.' + +A nondescript trap with four high wheels and disproportionately large +lamps stood near. Into this her companion helped her, and taking the +reins dashed away into the darkness, as it seemed to Estelle, at a +reckless and extravagant pace. After threading several side streets, +however, and ascending a slight elevation without loss or damage, Mr. +Dalton drew up beside a garden gate, out of which issued a lady, who, +taking both her hands in hers, welcomed her guest with effusive warmth. + +'So glad to see you, my dear Miss Chaloner. Mrs. Vernon was afraid you +would get lost in our dreadful goldfield. We trust you will find us not +_quite_ such barbarians as the Melbourne people think us. Mr. Dalton, +you'll stay and have tea? No? Don't say you've got business; I know what +_that_ means--loo or poker at that wicked camp. Perhaps you'll look in +to-morrow evening? You may? That's very good of you. We'll manage a +whist party and a chat, at any rate. Good-night. Now, my dear, we'll +have a "small and early" all to ourselves. It's just as well Dalton +didn't come in. He suspected you were tired, I dare say.' + +After a few more disjointed, but all hospitable and sympathetic +utterances, Mrs. M'Alpine inducted Estelle into an extremely neat and +comfortable bedroom, and bidding her not to trouble herself to make any +change in her attire, for tea was quite ready, left her to consider the +situation. + +No sooner had this kindly acquaintance left the room than the +strangeness of the situation appeared to force itself upon Estelle. She +looked out through the open window--a hinged casement overhung with a +trailing creeper, the glossy leaves of which partly obscured, partly +diverted into glittering fragments of rays, the gleaming moonlight. It +was a still evening. The half-audible murmur of a large population, +confused and inarticulate, came faintly on her ear. There was a softness +in the air which soothed her somewhat excited brain. Thinking over the +strangely-varied experience of the past week, she could not help owning +to herself that so far everything had been rendered easy through the +kindness of these newly-found friends in a far land. + +'Who knows,' she asked herself, 'whether I may not find similar aid and +guidance throughout my quest? May Heaven grant it! My errand is one of +sacred necessity, pledged as I am to this by my vow to the memory of the +dead. As God shall help me, I will remain faithful to the end. I begin +to feel that though far from dear England's shores I am still surrounded +by English hearts and English homes--changed in form, and in form alone, +as the latter may be. "Onward" must be my motto.' + +Thus concluding her meditations, Estelle bathed her eyes, somewhat +sensitised after the day's exposure, and then making some slight but +befitting change in her attire, joined her hostess in the pleasant +sitting-room, now devoted to the exigencies of the evening meal. Over +the tea-table, and within the influence of a cheerful wood fire, the +younger woman became insensibly more unreserved and confiding as to her +place and purpose. Mr. M'Alpine had not returned to his home, presumably +detained by business of importance. It may be surmised that neither of +the ladies was deeply grieved at his absence, under the circumstances. + +Being in full possession of facts, as far as Estelle had resolved to +furnish them to Australian friends, Mrs. M'Alpine strongly recommended +her guest to remain with her for the present, and await the coming of +Mr. Stirling, who would be certain to arrive on the morrow or the day +after, on being notified of her presence in Ballarat. 'Our town looks +uncivilised, my dear, but Growlers' Gully (fancy such a name) is, of +course, only a rude caricature of it. I don't think you could possibly +exist there, though there is an hotel of some sort.' + +Very gently and quietly, but firmly, Estelle made it apparent to her +hostess that she was not to be shaken in her purpose. She had formed her +plans carefully before leaving Melbourne, indeed during the voyage, and +she had determined to see with her own eyes the very claim, as they +called it, where he, the loved, the lost Lance Trevanion had worked. She +must see John Polwarth, with whose name she was familiar, and his +honest-hearted wife. She would never be able to rest without full and +complete explanation from Mr. Stirling of all things connected with +Lance's mysterious disappearance. Of course she could imagine that in +Australia people often moved away to new diggings at great distances, +and, she supposed, left off writing to their friends, though she could +hardly account for it in her cousin's case. 'Poor thing! poor thing!' +said Mrs. M'Alpine to herself, 'she will have to hear the wretched truth +some time or other. _I_ can't venture upon it, but I don't know a man +who is more likely to break it to her gently than Charlie Stirling, and +so, as she is bent upon it, the sooner she gets safely out to +"Growlers'" the better.' + +So it came to pass that, as Mr. M'Alpine was still absent on outpost +duty, a trusty messenger was despatched next day for the Commissioner, +who regretfully saw Estelle safely into the coach which, leaving daily +for Growlers' at the convenient hour of 10 A.M., was the recognised mode +of communication with that rising goldfield and township. + +There were two horses instead of four. The coach was smaller, and by no +means so well appointed. The driver was less distinguished in air and +manner, but capable and civil, particularly after receiving the +Commissioner's strict injunction to take great care of his lady +passenger. The road was more than novel, indeed exciting, to Estelle's +untravelled mind, winding amid fallen trees, bounded on either side by +yawning dark-mouthed shafts of unknown depth--some desolate and +deserted, with unused windlass and dangling rope; others in work, with +full-laden buckets which, as they came to the surface, Estelle believed +to be partly filled with gold--now crossing a rushing water-race upon a +rustic bridge of most temporary nature, and finally plunging through a +creek which flowed level with the feet of the inside passengers. On the +farther bank of this much celebrated watercourse stood a scattered +collection of huts, tents, and cottages, threading which by no +particular roadway the coach dashed ostentatiously into a more closely +occupied thoroughfare, in which some dozen edifices of superior +pretensions denoted the business centre of the township. + +Here the minor peculiarities of a goldfield, somewhat shaded off in the +civilisation of Ballarat, commenced to present themselves. The 'Reefers' +Arms' was an enlarged cottage, the front of which boasted the more +expensive and, in goldfields architecture, more correct material of +'sawn stuff,' disposed weatherboard fashion, while the side walls, the +roof, and rear of the building were composed of large sheets of stringy +bark. It was wholly unlike any building which Estelle had ever +imagined--certainly with a view to lodging therein. However, this was +not the time to falter or hesitate; she had chosen her course and must +follow it out. + +Carrying her smaller property in each hand, and following the driver, +who walked through a group of loiterers or still unsated revellers who +encumbered the entrance, Estelle found herself in a painfully clean +sitting-room, in which her guide deposited her portmanteau, merely +saying, 'I'll call Mrs. Delf to see you, Miss,' and departed. + +He had probably explained that the young lady was a friend of the Police +Magistrate and the Commissioner. Nothing further was necessary to +ensure her the utmost respect and attention which Growlers' could +afford. Both functionaries were men in authority, and as such to be held +in awe. Though it is probable that even without these valuable +introductions any girl, though wholly unprotected, who was +conventionally correct of conduct would have met with similar attention. +As to the peculiarity of a young lady, apparently of position, electing +to abide temporarily in such a queer locality as Growlers', the hostess +was not likely to disquiet herself. So many strange things and strange +people were constantly in the habit of passing across the orbit of any +given goldfield that surprise was of all the emotions the most rare and +difficult to arouse. + +Mrs. Delf shortly presented herself: a neat, alert personage, shrewd of +aspect and decisive of speech. She anticipated any inquiry of Estelle by +remarking, 'Ned tells me, Miss Chaloner, as you want to stop here for a +while. Well, you know Growlers' always was a rough shop, and I can't say +as it's altogether A1 now, but I'll do what I can for you while you're +here, Miss.' + +'Thank you very much,' said Estelle. 'I may stay a few days, or even +longer. Would you kindly tell me if you remember a Mr. Trevanion who was +mining here more than a year ago?' + +'Trevanion--Lance Trevanion? Of course I do. Belonged to Number Six. He +and Jack Polwarth were mates--and a stunning claim it is this very day. +Know him? Why, he stayed here the very last night he was on the +field--poor fellow!' + +'Then he has gone away--left this part of the country?' asked Estelle, +with such anxiety depicted on her countenance that the quick-witted +matron at once divined that the real truth was as yet unknown to her. +'And why do you say "poor fellow"? Has anything happened to him?' + +'Oh no! Not at all, Miss--that is, not that I've heard of' ('and that's +a banger, if ever there was one,' ejaculated the good woman inwardly); +'it's a manner of speaking, that's all--we were all fond of him, and +sorry to lose him, you see. Is there any one else here you know, Miss? +Oh! Mr. Stirling of the Bank opposite will be here to dinner at one +o'clock; has his meals here regular, though of course he sleeps at the +Bank. He'll tell you all about Mr. Trevanion. Bless you, they was like +brothers. As for Mr. Stirling, he's that quiet--why, whatever's up at +the Bank? Not a fight, surely?' + +This exclamatory query was apparently caused by a simultaneous rush of +all the unoccupied portion of the population, with the exception of +three men who stood up in a cart, across to the comparatively +pretentious building with corrugated iron roof, legended on the front as +the Joint-Stock Bank of Australia. Mrs. Delf's experienced eye had noted +the formation of a ring, simultaneously with the sudden precipitation on +his head of an able-bodied miner through the Bank's portal. + +'It's that "Geordie" Billy, sure as I live; he's been cheekin' Mr. +Stirling about his gold and got chucked out. He's a rough chap when he's +had a drop. There's bound to be a row now.' + +A tall brown-bearded man, decidedly in undress uniform, but effectively +attired for service, had by this time appeared at the door. He wore a +coloured crimean shirt, to which, however, was attached a white linen +collar. His coat was off, and his sleeves had been rolled up. He watched +with a smile the burly miner recover himself, and standing upright glare +around him with the silent fury of the bull-dog in his small black eye. + +'Are ye game to come out of your box there and stand up to a _man_?' he +growled out. 'I'll show ye what it is to put your hands on me!' + +The banker's answer to the challenge was to walk calmly forward, while +the spectators, with cheerful expectancy, closed around, in confident +trust that one of the principal excitements of their monotonous +existence would not fail them. + +'I'd rather see you go home, Billy, and sleep off your sulk. It's the +grog that always makes a fool of you; but if you must have a licking, +come on.' + +'Oh dear me!' cried Estelle, who, with the most liberal allowance for +the free and lawless life which colonists are believed to lead, had +scarcely expected this. 'Are they really going to fight? How dreadful! +That gentleman may be killed.' + +'Not he, Miss. Mr. Stirling's a hard man to mark; not but what the +"Geordie's" as strong as a bull, and can fight too. Come to this window, +Miss; we can see it first-rate from here. They'll only have two or three +rounds, and his mates'll take away Billy.' + +'And is _that_ Mr. Stirling?' asked Estelle, with deepest amazement. 'I +thought you said he was so quiet?' + +'So he is, Miss, till he's put upon. I expect Geordie said he was +weighing the gold wrong, and Mr. Stirling won't likely stand that from a +digger, and put him out. That's about the size of it. Oh, do look, Miss; +they're going at it.' + +Estelle was much minded to turn her head away. In her own country she +would doubtless have thought shame to have looked on at any such +spectacle. But somehow the anxiety to see how the aristocrat fared in +conflict with the man of the people overpowered her scruples, so she +gazed eagerly at the conflict, as might her ancestress at a tournament +where her badge was worn by a knightly aspirant. + +'Geordie' Billy, belonging to a section of miners who hailed from 'canny +Newcassel,' was a low-set, broad-chested, unusually powerful man. Long +in the reach, and in the pink of condition from severe daily labour, his +enormous strength and dogged courage, independently of science, made him +a dangerous antagonist. Mr. Stirling was held to be the most finished +performer with the gloves on the field. It was therefore a contest of +champions, and as such awaited by the crowd with keen and pleasurable +expectation; and a very ugly customer indeed did Mr. Billy Corve appear, +as he came forward with an activity which the various 'nips' he had +indulged in that morning had but slightly impaired. Had one of those +sledgehammer blows which he delivered with fierce rapidity taken effect, +Mr. Stirling would have had some difficulty in 'coming to time.' But +stepping back from one, eluding another by what appeared to be the +slightest side movement of his head, and stopping a third neatly, he +caught his advancing foe such a left-handed facer as staggered him, +leaving him a prey to the body blow that followed, and which, getting +'home' to some purpose, sent him very decidedly to grass. + +'Oh dear, how dreadful!' said Estelle, pale with apprehension. 'Surely +they won't let them kill one another? That poor man must be badly hurt.' + +'Not a bit of it, Miss. You couldn't kill Billy with an axe. He'll be +all the steadier for it next round. Oh! look out, Mr. Stirling.' + +This friendly admonition, which in the ardour of her partisanship Mrs. +Delf screamed out at the top of her voice, was justified by the apparent +success of the very ugly rush which Mr. Corve made, with the evident +intention of getting to close quarters. He broke through Stirling's +guard, and nearly succeeded in getting his head 'into chancery,' as that +peculiar feat of the combat is designated. Once enfolded with that +mighty arm, and the enormous fist left free to pound away at discretion, +the classical outline of Charlie Stirling's features would have been +sadly marred, perhaps permanently altered. But _dis aliter visum_. +Countering with lightning quickness through the 'half-arm rally,' +Stirling managed, by the exercise of desperate agility, to keep clear of +the octopus-like hug, in which science would have been vain. Finally, +springing backward, he evaded a final lunge, and darting in from the +side administered a rattling hit on the 'point,' which for the moment +completely discomfited his antagonist. + +A ringing cheer went up from the discriminating crowd, while a friendly +bystander, moved to apprehensive sympathy, earnestly exclaimed, 'Keep +your head, Mr. Stirling; for God's sake, sir, keep your head.' + +But Charlie Stirling had already seen the necessity for caution, for +though his gray eyes glowed and his chest heaved as he regained his +corner, he seemed to fall mechanically into the attitude of calm +watchfulness with which he had commenced the encounter. + +'Wasn't that grand, Miss?' exclaimed Mrs. Delf. 'Mr. Stirling's as quick +on his pins as a wallaroo. I was most afeard the "Geordie" had him then. +This round will settle it. Don't go in, Miss. Maybe you'll never have a +chance to see a right-out good mill so comfortable again. Two to one on +Mr. Stirling.' + +For her life Estelle could not have moved away then, though she had +turned her head a minute before, deeming that for shame's sake she could +no longer look on at such a sight. But the ancient fire which glowed in +the breasts of the patrician dames of Rome's proudest day, though +stifled and repressed for centuries, has never quite died out of the +female heart. After all, no one would be killed, or perhaps mortally +wounded. Mr. Stirling was Lance's friend, thus necessarily hers. She +could not bear to leave the arena ignorant of the fate of their +champion. + +She had not long to wait. And now that her blood was slightly warmed by +the excitement of a real battle, a combat not quite _à l'outrance_, but +as near to it as is permitted in these degenerate days, she confessed to +herself that there was something not wholly inglorious in this ordeal by +combat. + +The tall athletic form of Charlie Stirling showed to great advantage as +he advanced, with head erect and elastic step, towards his truculent +antagonist, whose countenance, with a splash of blood from brow to bare +neck, wore a savagely stern expression. Furious at his late failure, he +made a rush, with every intention of ending the fight then and there. +Forcing the fighting, and compelling Stirling to use his utmost skill in +warding off or evading his terrific blows, each one of which was +sufficient to disable an ordinary man, he appeared at one time to have +mastered his adversary. But Charlie Stirling, the hero of a hundred +glove-fights, was too clever, in the language of the _lanista_. Feinting +suddenly, he drew the blow, of which he had thoroughly mastered an +infallible guard, at the same time getting home with his right in a +terrific body blow, the effect of which brought his man forward, to be +shot backward by a lightning left-hander on the temple, which stretched +the brawny gladiator senseless, putting the possibility of 'coming to +time' entirely out of the question. + +'Great work, Mr. Stirling! You gave him "London" that time,' shouted a +man who hailed from Bow Bells; and amid congratulatory cheers, in which +Estelle felt a sudden impulse to join, the discomfited champion, after +recovering his valuable intellects, was led off--resisting manfully, to +do him justice. But his crowd was decidedly against him, and by force of +numbers, in despite of oaths and protestations, he was borne off to a +rival hostelry, there to drown his mortification in beer, and finish the +day in a manner worthy of its auspicious commencement. + +As for Mr. Stirling, he 'retired into his kingdom' (like the king in +Hans Andersen), 'and shut the door after him'--presumably for ablution, +for he emerged in half an hour, at the sound of Mrs. Delf's dinner-bell, +arrayed in conventional garments, and, save a slightly flushed +countenance and a forehead bruise, unscathed from his recent encounter. + +Meanwhile Estelle proceeded to Mrs. Delf's dining-room--not without +natural misgivings as to the composition of the _table d'hôte_. These, +however, were set at rest by observing that only six guests were +provided for. They proved to be Mr. Stirling and the manager of another +bank, a commercial traveller, a gold-buyer, and a stranger unclassified, +all of whom were scrupulously correct and deferential of manner. Later +on she became aware that, according to the highly commendable custom of +Australian hotels, even on the most recent goldfields and out-of-the-way +country towns, there are two tables, corresponding to first and second +class in railways. At the first those who may be considered gentle-folk +are entertained, while to the second the rougher and less manageable +guests are relegated. + +'Miss Chaloner,' said Mr. Stirling, bowing deferentially upon entering, +'perhaps you will permit me to introduce myself, while expressing my +deep regret that you should have been an involuntary spectator of such a +disgraceful occurrence. We are not generally so badly behaved, though +you are the only lady that has so far honoured Growlers' with a visit. +We have no police to keep order, so we are obliged to protect +ourselves.' + +Estelle faintly smiled as she replied, 'You seem to be able to do so +pretty well, if I may judge from appearances. I hope no one is severely +hurt. Ought I to congratulate you on your victory?' + +'You don't know how relieved I feel at your forgiveness, Miss Chaloner,' +he replied. 'As for Geordie (who really is a deserving individual when +sober, and a capitalist besides), he is wholly unhurt, and to-morrow you +will probably see him on the most friendly terms with me and all +mankind.' + +Before returning to business, Stirling found means to intimate to +Estelle that he was aware from Mrs. M'Alpine's letter that she wished to +have some private conversation with him; that he would do himself the +honour of calling upon her later in the afternoon, when he would be most +happy to afford her whatever information he was possessed of about her +cousin. + +'Thank you very much,' she said. 'Oh, Mr. Stirling, if you knew how I +have longed to find some one who could give me authentic news of his +movements. And you knew him so well?' + +'Yes; _very_ well. I must go now, but you shall hear all that I can tell +you.' + +Easier said than done, thought he, as once more in the small inner room +of his unostentatious edifice he lit his pipe and abandoned himself to +fullest contemplation. 'And what in the world shall I tell her? What a +glorious girl she is. What an air of refinement, and yet with what +courage and high resolve she has faced the difficulties of her position. +Proud, cultured, aristocratic to the finger-tips, she has volunteered to +expose herself to rough journeyings, rude associates--even ruder in her +imagining than the reality. And for what? For the sake of a heedless, +self-indulgent scamp like Lance Trevanion, who never was good enough to +black her boots. God knows, I pity him from the very bottom of my heart; +but I cannot help believing that it was his own selfish obstinacy in a +great measure that brought about his ruin. And now I have to tell this +sweet and noble creature that her lover was till lately a convicted +felon--actually at present an escaped prisoner, at the mercy of the +first police trooper that falls across him. The bare idea is frightful.' +And then Mr. Charles Stirling filled his pipe again to the brim and +smoked on for some considerable time, apparently in a most anxious, not +to say despondent, frame of mind. The irruption of a party of diggers +with a parcel of gold to be weighed and deposited here temporarily +diverted his thoughts, but soon after four o'clock, having finished his +day's work and impressed upon his junior to keep close to the bank +premises in his absence, he betook himself to Mrs. Delf's hostelry. He +found Estelle awaiting him in walking attire. He proposed that they +should visit Number Six claim, where Jack Polwarth still lived and +worked. It was barely a mile distant. On the way he would be able to +give her all the information she desired. + +'Nothing would please her more. She was fond of walking, and should like +above all things to see a real claim at work.' So forth they fared +through the crooked, straggling street, crowded on either side with the +heterogeneous buildings of a goldfield town. Turning to the south, they +trod a winding track through a labyrinth of shafts of all sizes and +depths of sinking. Mounds of earth thrown up in every direction gave the +scene a ghastly resemblance to the cemetery of a plague-stricken city. +As if unwilling to enter upon the subject so unavoidably painful, +Stirling directed her attention to the various novel features of the +scene. When, suddenly turning towards him, she said in a low but +distinct tone of voice: 'And now, Mr. Stirling, please to tell me all +you know of my unfortunate cousin. No one has said so in so many words, +but I _feel_ it'--here she laid her hand upon her heart--'something +dreadful has happened to him. Is it not so?' + +'I wish I could deny it,' he answered, in a tone of the deepest +feeling; 'but I cannot. Your heart has warned you truly. He is a most +unfortunate man.' + +'He has left the locality altogether then, and permanently?' she asked. + +'Yes.' + +'Tell me all,'--here she clasped her hands and looked so imploringly in +his face that Charlie Stirling, seeing but the misery in her pleading +face, felt minded to kneel down and kiss the hem of her garment. 'Oh +that those eyes could so soften and glow for me,' he thought. 'And all +this heavenly love and tenderness wasted. Alas!' + +But he said only, 'My dear Miss Chaloner, my heart bleeds for you; you +must prepare to hear the worst.' + +'_Is he dead?_' said she hoarsely, in a changed voice. + +'No, not _dead_. Better perhaps that he had been. Were he my brother, I +should say the same.' + +'Thank God for that,' she said. 'If he is alive I may look upon his face +again. Tell me--tell me at once----' and here, oh marvellous and divine +power of woman's love! her face lit up with a glow of gratitude and +hope, which to her admiring companion's mind changed it into the +presentment of a saint. + +He motioned her to sit down upon one of the fallen forest trees which +thickly, in places, encumbered the earth, and there told her as briefly +as might be the whole miserable tale. He made but scant mention of the +Lawless sisters, laying great stress upon the iniquitous nature of the +trap into which Lance had fallen--the persistent hostility of Dayrell +and his settled intention to secure a conviction. + +'I see it all,' she said, rising from her seat and walking excitedly +onward. 'I see it all. He has been the victim of a conspiracy among +these wretches--poor poor Lance! Why did he insist upon coming to this +unhappy land? But is he alive--alive? Justice will yet be done. I will +see him if he is above ground in Australia, and together we must work, +with the aid of his friends, for an honourable release. Oh! I cannot +tell you how relieved I feel,' continued Estelle. 'I am glad; I thought +that he was dead. It has given me strength to bear the dreadful thought +of his imprisonment. And now tell me about it, tell me while I am +strong.' + +Stirling saw his opportunity. It was a hard, a most painful task; but +now he would go through with it. He scarce hoped that she would have +made it so easy for him. This ground had now become more open, and on +the bank of the ravine, widening into a green and level meadow, he saw +the windlass and shaft of Number Six, above which floated a red flag, +the well-known signal, brought here by Californian miners, that the +claim was 'on gold.' They had still some distance to go; her feet, that +were so fleet and eager a while since, became slow and listless. Ere +they reached the mound on the other side of which they saw the stalwart +form and good-humoured countenance of John Polwarth, he had told and she +had heard the sad finale to the high hopes and joyous aspirations of +Lance Trevanion. + +'And now that he has escaped from these terrible hulks, I suppose there +is not much chance of his being recaptured? This country is so wild and +large that surely prisoners must nearly always escape?' + +'No doubt they do, but not so often as we might think. The country is +wild, but those who pursue them are keen and fearless. However, the +place that he has reached is inaccessible and distant.' + +'Thank God for that,' she said softly. 'Perhaps he can travel safely +through the wilderness and find a ship for England. Oh, if he were but +once at home!--at home! Why did he ever leave? But I must not break down +now. Is that John Polwarth?' + +'Yes, and yonder is Mrs. Polwarth at the door of that neat cottage, and +Tottie standing by her. I think we may as well call upon her first, and +have Jack in by and by. She is a good, kindly woman, and Lance's +misfortune was a bitter grief to her.' + +'He seems to have had such _good_ friends around him,' said Estelle +sorrowfully; 'why could they not save him? But I know that he was wilful +and headstrong. Alas! alas!' + +By this time they had reached Mrs. Polwarth's cottage--a mansion in the +estimation of all 'Growlers',' inasmuch as it boasted of four rooms of +medium size, a verandah, and a detached slab kitchen. Mrs. Polwarth, who +was engaged in sweeping around her door,--a space in front of all +miners' habitations being scrupulously kept clear of sticks, leaves, and +other untidinesses,--halted in her occupation and greeted Mr. Stirling +warmly. + +'Why, whatever's brought you over to-day, Mr. Stirling? I suppose this +fine afternoon? Come inside and I'll get you a cup of tea after your +walk. Maybe the lady's a little tired.' + +'We shall be glad of the chance, I am sure. Mrs. Polwarth, this lady is +Miss Chaloner, a cousin of Lance Trevanion, our poor friend and Jack's +partner. She has come all the way from England, from his old home, to +see about him.' + +'The Lord bless and keep us!' said Mrs. Polwarth--a devout Wesleyan, as +are mostly Cornish mining folk. 'Only to think of that! It's the doing +of Providence, that's what it is. Sit ye down, Miss. To think I should +ever see you in my poor place. It's clean and neat what there is of it, +too. And to think of your being _his_ cousin--poor Mr. Lance's cousin. +Many's the tear I shed thinking o'er his sad fate. Oh dear! oh dear! I'm +that glad to see this day.' + +'And I am very glad to see you, Mrs. Polwarth,' said the English girl, +softening at once at the sight of the genuine grief displayed by the +good woman, for the tears were by this time running down her cheeks. 'I +have so often heard of you in my cousin's letters that I seem to know +you quite well. And is this Tottie? Come to me, my dear, and tell me how +old you are.' + +Tottie, a pretty child, rather more carefully attired than usual, was +not shy, and coming up to the pretty lady, as she ever afterwards +described her, looked up wonderingly, with great blue eyes and a wistful +smile. + +'Mother, is this Lance's sister?' she said, with the curious childish +intuition which seems to suggest so many guesses at truth--some near +enough in all conscience. 'Is he coming back to Tottie?' + +Mr. Stirling 'thought he would go and have a word with Jack,' and, not +sorry to leave the two women to open their hearts to each other, hastily +departed. + +There was no particular news about Number Six. 'She was going on +steady,' Jack said. 'Last week was as good as any washing-up they'd had +for a month, and she wasn't half worked out yet. So that was Mr. Lance's +cousin, her as had coomed with Mr. Stirling? All the way from England, +too? It was her as used to write to him and tell him about the old place +at home, and how his father, the Squire, was. And now the Squire was +dead. And Lance, poor chap, had broke jail, and was gone nobody knew +where. And this young lady was here all the way to Growlers'! It beats +all. Wait till I run out this bucket and tidy myself a bit, Mr. +Stirling, and I'll come over and see the young lady. It's a sight for +sore eyes to see any one from the old country; no offence to you, sir, +as never was there, more's the pity. But it'll do Gwenny and me to talk +about for a year to come, I'll warrant.' + +Thus discoursing, they walked over to the cottage, where Stirling +partook of the proffered cup of tea, and Polwarth, betaking himself to a +back apartment, performed ablutions which caused his honest face to +shine again, and, attired in his Sunday suit, presented himself after a +while to Miss Chaloner. This young lady shook him warmly by the hand, +and telling him that she had heard about him in every letter which Lance +had written until--until--lately, expressed her sincere pleasure at +seeing him and his wife. + +'You were Lance's true friend, he always said. And many a time the poor +Squire and I felt so happy that he had an honest English heart and a +stout English arm to rely upon in this far country.' + +'Ah, Miss! Me and the wife had that feeling for him as we'd ha' done +anything i' the world to keep him from harm, but there was them as he +took to, against our liking, that drawed him down the wrong way. It was +a bad day as he ever seed 'em. I was always at him to cut loose and quit +their company. But it was all no use; he was that set and headstrong.' + +'_We_ knew that well, his poor father and I,' replied Estelle sadly; +'that strange obstinacy of his, which runs in the family, they say, +seems to have been his ruin. But I've come out here on purpose to find +him, and if he lives in Australia I _will_ find him before I leave.' + +As Estelle pronounced the last words she raised her head proudly and +gazed with a fixed and steady glance into the forest path, as if in her +self-imposed task she could pierce their solitude and discover at +whatever distance the object of her quest. + +Her expressive countenance, even more than her words, carried conviction +to her hearers of a high resolve. Stirling regarded her with mingled +feelings of respect and admiration, while Jack Polwarth, in rude but +honest tones, broke out with, 'And so ye shall, Miss, and we'll help ye +to the last drop of our blood; won't we, Mr. Stirling? Ye have the old +courage and the old spirit in ye, Miss Chaloner; I could fancy I heard +Mr. Lance himself speaking, poor chap.' + +'I don't wish to pose as a heroine, Mr. Stirling,' she continued, +blushing slightly at the momentary excitement into which she had been +betrayed, 'but I wish all my friends to understand that I have fully +resolved, for several reasons, not the least of which is that so I +promised his father on his deathbed, to go through with this task, and, +Heaven helping me, will never abandon it while Lance is alive.' + +'I can quite appreciate your feeling in the matter, Miss Chaloner,' said +Stirling. 'Nothing would give me more pleasure than to join you in the +search for our unfortunate friend. But I am, so to speak, chained to +this spot. In all other ways you may command me, and I have good warrant +for saying Jack Polwarth here, as well as Mr. Hastings, who is our +staunch ally also, will join in the enterprise, heart and soul.' + +'This is truly the land of warm and unselfish friendship,' replied +Estelle. 'I have met with nothing else, for which I shall be grateful as +long as I live. It will give me fresh confidence in my search. I never +could have believed that the way would have been made so smooth for me. +I feel more at home here than I have done since I left England. So I +shall stay at Mrs. Delf's for a week longer, getting together all the +information which I shall need.' + +'I think we had better be moving, Miss Chaloner, or Mrs. Delf's gong +will be sounding an alarm for tea. She has many virtues, but punctuality +and scrubbing she may be said to carry to excess.' + +'Amiable weaknesses, to my mind,' said Estelle, rising from her chair. +'I feel disposed to humour them, and Mrs. Polwarth, if you will have me +to-morrow, I will come down after breakfast, now that I know the way to +Number Six, and spend the day with you and Tottie.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Not only on that next day, but for several days following, did Estelle +wend her way to Number Six soon after breakfast was concluded at Mrs. +Delf's very punctual establishment. During this repast, and for some +minutes afterwards, it generally happened that she found herself +conversing with Mr. Stirling. That gentleman took so deep an interest in +each and every question connected with Lance Trevanion, that, as she +more than once owned to herself, his own brother--had he one in this +strange land--could not have done more or appeared more anxiously +considerate. He caused Mr. Hastings to be sent for, and that gentleman +appeared dressed in a habit of the period, and by no means resembling +the picturesque miner of fiction. He also exhibited a keen sympathetic +interest in all Estelle's plans and prospects. He recounted his first +introduction to Lance, and amused her by picturing himself as a hunted +fugitive pursued by the minions of the law, finally captured and +manacled. 'Nothing that mortal man could do,' he repeated with emphasis, +'was too much for him and his friends to do for Lance, a gentleman at +all points--brave, generous--only too confiding; the victim of an unjust +sentence--if ever a man was in this world.' + +'You can't tell how grateful I am to you and Mr. Stirling for the way +you have spoken of him,' she answered. 'If only the poor Squire could +have heard you. Thank God! that he was spared the knowledge of his son's +disgrace; danger, or indeed death, he feared might have been his +portion; but imprisonment--a felon's doom and sentence--that!--oh, that! +he would not have survived a week.' + +'Stirling and I are his friends, Miss Chaloner,' he answered calmly. +'There is no more to be said. We are neither of us given to forming +friendships lightly, or changing them afterwards--we may not be able to +do all we wish--but what is in our power shall not be spared. Will you +permit me at this stage to ask whether you propose to go in search of +him, and how you are going to set about it?' + +'There seems no doubt that when poor Lance left Melbourne--escaped from +the hulks--he travelled into the interior. There is no one--no one that +I know or can think of--who could give me further information. But I +shall go to Melbourne. It is one stage on my journey; it may be that I +may discover the next one while there.' + +'I can give you positively no advice as to your movements, for the +moment,' returned Hastings thoughtfully. 'I can only counsel you to +remain here a few days longer, when, between Stirling and myself, some +plan of action may be arrived at.' + +'I am not restless,' she made answer, 'though I do not wish to lose +time. Anxiety and trouble in the end may be saved by not being too +hasty. I will therefore stay a few days longer than I at first intended. +But on Monday next I must return to Ballarat, _en route_ for Melbourne.' + +'And after that?' queried Hastings, almost unconsciously. For he could +not help pitying from his heart this high-souled maiden, so utterly +alien in every thought and feeling to the people by whom she must of +necessity be surrounded. He saw her quitting the comparative security of +even this humble retreat for a doubtful, even dangerous, succession of +journeys in quest of what--of whom? An outlaw and a felon! Guilty by his +country's laws, and self-convicted now by his breach of prison +regulations. Doubtless he had received hard measure and unjust sentence, +but had he been true to himself and the traditions of his race, he +needed never to have placed himself in peril of the law. 'However,' he +continued in mental converse, 'she will never be persuaded--woman +like--that he has descended from her ideal. She must "dree her weird," +as our Scottish friends say.' + +So for the next few days Estelle amused herself by studying the ordinary +miner's life, partly in company with Mr. Stirling, who generally found +her quietly seated in Mrs. Polwarth's cottage in the afternoon after +bank hours, and partly from information derived from that worthy dame, +who was far from averse to diffusing her information. + +'I don't see but what it's as good a country as the one we've left, +Miss,' said the shrewd matron; 'anyhow it's better for the likes of Jack +and me. There's a deal of rough ways and drinking, it's true, but no +one's bound to take part in it if they don't like. Jack, he's steady and +sober,--I'm thankful to the Lord for it,--and we're putting by more cash +every washing-up than we ever heard talk of in the Duchy. When Tottie's +a year or two older we'll send her to school in Melbourne. There's good +schools there, I'm told. There's no reason why she shouldn't have the +learning as we never had. We'll make a lady of her, please God.' + +'I see no objection, Mrs. Polwarth, to her having the best education +possible,' replied Estelle thoughtfully. 'At home we are apt to +disapprove of children being educated above their station, as it is +called. But in a new country every one has a chance to rise in life, if +they prove worthy of it, and there is no reason why my pretty little +Tottie shouldn't be as much a lady, in mind and manners, as any one +else.' + +'Do you really think so, Miss?' asked Mrs. Polwarth, anxiously. 'I've +known girls that were spoiled in the old country by being sent to +boarding-schools, and come back neither one thing nor the other. Spoiled +for farm lasses, and not quite up to being ladies, in spite of their +fal-lals and piano music. I'd break my heart if Tottie came to be like +that.' + +'I think you may put as much learning into this pretty little head as it +will hold,' said Estelle, stroking the child's clustering ringlets. +'You'll always be a good girl, won't you, Tottie?' + +'Tottie's mother's good girl,' said the small damsel, dimly conscious +that she was under discussion, and then reading the tenderness aright in +her visitor's face--that visitor so munificent in sugar plums and +dolls--'and Miss Chaloner's good girl too.' + +'I really believe you will, Tottie dear,' she said, lifting up the child +and kissing her. 'May God bless all this prosperity to her, and to you +and John also. Some people deserve their good fortune, and I am sure you +both do.' + + * * * * * + +The days passed on--the final Saturday came, and still no course had +shaped itself in the minds of her 'friends in council.' Tessie Lawless +certainly might have furnished information, but no one knew her address. +They were not even sure whether she would feel justified in disclosing +Lance's retreat. Stirling was still in much doubt--more than he cared to +show--with regard to Miss Chaloner setting forth on a hopeless quest, +when the daily mail arrived from Ballarat. Glancing through his letters, +he stopped suddenly, arrested by the handwriting of an unopened letter. +'Lance Trevanion, by heaven!' he exclaimed, half aloud; 'just in time, +too.' He tore it open. The fateful scroll commenced thus-- + + 'OMEO, _10th June 185--_. + + 'Here I am, my dear Charlie, so far restored to my old feelings + that I can put pen to paper again, at the very idea of which I + have shuddered till now. But the fresh mountain air--we had + snow for breakfast this morning--has made a man of me again; + that is, as much of a man as I ever shall be till I quit + Australia for good. + + 'After I left my _last place_, I made tracks for this digging. + The most out-of-the-way, rough, rowdy hole among the mountains + that ever gold was found in. It's a hard place to get to, + harder still to get safely out of, populated, as it is, by all + the scum of the colonies, and the rascaldom of half the world. + Very different from Ballarat or poor old Growlers', though I + have no reason to say so. + + 'How about the gold? you will say. _There is no mistake about + that._ I have no mates. I am a "hatter," and have worked on my + own hook--partly for occupation and partly for a blind. I have + just made up my mind to prospect a reef which has been + discovered near Mount Gibbo by a stock-rider called Caleb Coke. + He is an ex-convict, "an old-hand," as they say here, and there + are queer stories told about him, as indeed about most of the + people in Omeo; but if the reef is rich--and they say nothing + like it has been struck yet--I intend to have a shot at it. + + 'You would laugh to see my hut; it is as neat as a sailor's + cabin. I lock my door when I go out, and no one has "cracked + the crib" yet. I bought a sea-chest, brass-bound and + copper-fastened, which found its way up here on a pack-horse, + and am supposed to have gold and jewels and all sorts of + valuables therein. Henry Johnson is my purser's name, but the + fellows, finding that I know Ballarat, have christened me + "Ballarat Harry." + + 'To turn to business, I think the time has come for my getting + over by degrees, and very quietly, as much of my credit balance + with your bank as can be safely forwarded. My plan is, of + course, to clear out for the most handy port, and put the sea + between me and Australia. But there's time to think of that. If + you can manage it without risk, send me the portmanteau I left + with Jack. It contained letters, and a good many home + souvenirs that I should like to see again. My watch and rings + are in a small drawer; you can send the key in a letter. If you + forward a draft for a thousand, payable at a Melbourne bank to + H. Johnson, or bearer, I can get it cashed here and buy gold at + a heavy discount. It will be as good a way as any to transfer + my share of Number Six hither, till I can transfer myself for + good. + + 'Remember me to Jack and his wife, and kiss Tottie for me. I + wonder if I shall ever see her again. + + 'For the present, adieu.--Yours ever, L. T. + + 'Address: + 'Mr. Henry Johnson, + 'Long Plain Creek, + 'care of Barker & Jones, + 'Storekeepers, + 'Omeo.' + +Here was a discovery!--a revelation! Stirling barely suffered himself to +finish it before rushing over to Miss Chaloner with the astounding news. +At first he dreaded the effect which it might have upon her, hopeless as +she had been of late as to the whereabouts of the lost Lance. Still, he +had noted and admired her self-control when he divulged the sad +intelligence of his imprisonment. He felt unable to withhold it from +her. + +Leaving the bank entirely to the control of his junior,--a young man to +whom goldfield experience had imparted a discretion beyond his +years,--he hastened over to Mrs. Delf's, where he met Estelle just about +to start for her daily visit to Mrs. Polwarth. + +She looked up suddenly. 'You have news?' she said. 'I am sure it is not +bad tidings. Oh! can it be? Lance found? Is he safe? Does he know I am +here?' + +'My news is not quite so comprehensive as all that,' he answered, +looking admiringly at her fine features, so suddenly illumined with a +glow of tenderness, 'but I can say with truth that the good element +prevails.' + +'You have heard from him then?' + +'Yes,' he answered; 'by this morning's post. I have the letter here.' + +'And is there--oh! is there anything in it which I should not read? May +I--ought I to ask you to show it to me?' she cried. + +Stirling, inwardly congratulating himself that his correspondent had +refrained from mention of any member of the Lawless family, or indeed +from any chance allusion which might have shocked the innocent trusting +girl who now looked so imploringly at him, produced the precious missive +promptly. + +'Here is his letter; let him speak for himself, Miss Chaloner. There is +no earthly reason why you should not see it. It will give you all the +information you need. You will please excuse me until dinner-time.' + +'I am for ever grateful to you,' she said, with the tears fast flowing +from her shining eyes. 'I will walk down to the claim. I always feel at +home there. I shall be able to think over my plans calmly if this letter +changes them, as perhaps it may do.' + +Thus they parted, he returning to his treasure-house just in time to see +two rival parties of diggers, literally laden with gold, who were making +good time in a race for the bank door, each desiring to ensure a +division of the precious metal before the establishment closed. Estelle, +holding fast her coveted letter, which she pressed closely to her bosom, +walked slowly along the track across the flat which led to Number Six, +as one that hoards yet delays the savouring of a joy too sweet and +precious for hasty possession. + +Passing through the shaft-riddled portion of the creek meadow, where a +rich but shallow deposit had caused every yard of ground to be pierced +and tunnelled, she paused upon a grassy knoll where the outcrop of +basaltic rock had checked the miners' search. Here the timber had been +spared, and beneath a wide-spreading angophera Estelle Chaloner seated +herself, and on a basaltic monolith, first folding her hands and making +mute appeal to Heaven, commenced with hungry eyes to devour the +invaluable missive. + +She read and re-read--read again--word by word, and sighed over the +closing lines, then folding it carefully and placing it in her bosom, +walked thoughtfully forward. + +So he was at Omeo (such were her thoughts), a distant, rude, isolated +region as she had heard--indeed his letter so described it. But what of +that; he was safe, he was well, in recovered health and spirits--thank +an all-merciful God for this much. He had even _hope_--the expectation +of escape--of a life of happiness in England, or in some land beyond the +reach of this strange country's harsh unequal laws. + +Once safely at Wychwood, who would recognise in the proud heir of this +historical estate the erstwhile miner, the unjustly treated prisoner? +Then what would be her part in his future life? True, he made no +reference to her; perhaps in a letter to a friend, chiefly on business +matters, such were hardly likely. Still, to such a friend as Mr. +Stirling, so nobly steadfast and true-hearted, he _might_ have said a +word about his poor Estelle in the lonely manor-house, as he would +picture her. But he was safe, free, almost happy in the enjoyment of his +lately acquired liberty. That was happiness sufficient for the present. +It would be time enough in the future to cherish other thoughts. Then +walking forward with cleared brow and a resolved air she soon reached +Mrs. Polwarth's cottage, before the door of which Tottie, evidently +expectant, descried her and ran in to report. + +'Why, you're quite late to-day, Miss,' said the good woman. 'I began to +think you were never coming, and Tottie's been along the track as far as +I'd let her. Sit ye down and rest. Is there anything fresh? We heard as +the Ballarat men was talking of "rolling up" if the licenses wasn't +lowered.' + +'Yes, Mrs. Polwarth, there is news, but not about licenses; a letter has +come by the mail to-day--this very day only, think of that!--from--from +_him_.' + +'Not from Mr. Lance; you don't say so, Miss? Who'd iver have thought on +it? And is he well, has he gotten oot o' the country? The Lord bless and +keep him, wherever he is.' + +'I trust He will, in His great goodness and mercy. It seems so +wonderful, after all these weary months, that I should actually have his +letter--his own letter written to Mr. Stirling--this week here--here!' +and she drew forth the priceless treasure, as it seemed in her eyes, and +again devoured it with hungry regard. + +Then, half replying to Mrs. Polwarth's questions, half giving vent to +long-pent-up feelings which, in the presence of a tried friend of her +own sex, humble in social station as she might be, flowed freely and +unrestrainedly, Estelle Chaloner poured her heart out. After which she +experienced a feeling of intense relief, and was enabled to confer +rationally with Mrs. Polwarth about her course of action. + +'I had fully intended, as you know, to go into Ballarat on Monday,' she +said, 'and therefore there will be no change of plan. The difference +will only be that before this dear letter came'--here she gazed +earnestly at the well-known handwriting--'I had no earthly idea in what +direction I should go after leaving Melbourne. Now I _do_ know, and oh, +how differently I feel!' + +'Yes, I daresay,' said Mrs. Polwarth doubtfully; 'but then, Miss, how +are you to get to Omeo? It's a mighty rough place, everybody says, a +dreadful bad road, and worse a'most when you get there. Don't you think +it would be more prudent-like to wait a bit and let Mr. Stirling write +to him as you're here?' + +'And allow him to think that I am afraid to come to any place where _he_ +lives? Perhaps induce him to leave his retreat for my sake and risk +recapture? No! a hundred times no! I have not come so far to falter +now.' + +'But, my dear young lady, how will you get there? Jack heard some of the +diggers talking about it, and they said all the tools and provisions and +camp things had to be took up on pack-horses. Nothing on wheels could +get there. And what will you do then? you can't walk.' + +'I should not like to walk, certainly,' said Miss Chaloner, with a +smile. 'I wonder what some of my friends would say if they saw me +trudging along with a knapsack on my back. Not but what I would do that +if need were. But I can ride, fairly well too, so I will not let the +want of a coach stop me, I promise you.' + +'And you have friends in Melbourne, and you'll see them first, now won't +you, Miss?' said the kind soul, devoutly hoping that such personages, if +possessed of ordinary prudence, would interpose and prevent further +romantic enterprises, of the success of which she in her own mind felt +deeply distrustful. + +'I shall see them, of course, particularly Mrs. Vernon, who was like a +mother to me; but,' continued this headstrong and imperious young woman, +'all the Mrs. Vernons and Mrs. Grundys in Melbourne will not keep me +from Omeo--from any place where _he_ is.' + +As she spoke she raised her head, her dark eyes flashed with sudden +light, and her whole frame appeared instinct with defiance of +difficulties and obstacles, how numerous soever. + +Mrs. Polwarth seemed to recognise a familiar trait as she sighed and +merely replied, 'It runs in the family, Miss. I see you won't be said. I +could fancy as Mr. Lance was standin' before me this minute. Maybe +you'll get through safe, please the Lord's mercy. There'll be some as'll +pray for ye night and day.' + +'I know that,' she said, taking the toil-worn hands in hers. 'No girl in +a strange country ever found truer friends; I wonder at it sometimes by +myself. But you know Heaven helps those that help themselves, and though +I am a weak woman I feel that in my difficult path I must chiefly rely +on myself. I have his happiness and safety to think of as well as my +own.' + +The more worldly-wise matron could only press the delicate hand in hers, +while the tears came to her eyes. 'If he had only thought as much about +_her_!' she said inwardly. + +But she held her peace as they walked together adown the track which led +to the township. + + * * * * * + +At a conversation which took place on the Sunday evening preceding +Estelle's departure, she repeated her thanks to Stirling and Hastings +for their kindness to herself and their unswerving friendship for Lance. + +'I wish our companionship had been more effectual to protect him,' said +the latter; 'but, speaking among friends, I may say that he was +wilful--too much so for his own good. So have been many men, however, +who have never paid such a heavy penalty. After this last news, however, +the question is, how we are to help him?' + +'I shall travel at once to this--to where he is,' said Estelle quickly. +'You did not expect me to do anything else, did you?' + +'I am afraid that I did not,' he said, smiling; though he added gravely, +'None the less, both Stirling and I think it imprudent for you to take +such a journey by yourself.' + +'Yet I came here safely--even pleasantly.' + +'Omeo is a very different place. It has the worst reputation of any +goldfield yet discovered. The outlaws of all the colonies are gathered +there. Police protection is a mockery; they have no "Launceston Mac" to +regulate them, and the road is impracticable for wheels--well-nigh +impassable, indeed.' + +'All this sounds bad,' said Estelle, 'and, if I _could_ be intimidated, +might prevent my wishing to go. But I am past all that feeling. I must +have one more talk with you and Mr. Stirling. But on Monday I sleep in +Ballarat.' + +'Of course Mrs. M'Alpine will be most happy to receive you again,' he +said, rather ruefully; 'and next day the coach will take you to +Melbourne. I wish the rest of the journey was as plain sailing. If you +would accept me as your escort to Omeo, and I could go, nothing would +give me greater pleasure. But I am in honour bound to stay with my mate +here and see our claim worked out, or I would leave to-morrow.' + +'It is a great pity that Mr. Stirling can't shut up his bank and come +too,' she replied, smiling. 'But I know enough now about mining matters +to judge of the impossibility of your departing at a moment's notice. I +have been wonderfully helped so far. It really appears miraculous. And I +have the fullest faith that I shall not fall short of that aid which a +merciful God provides for His helpless creatures in the future. I will +write to you both, and hereby constitute Mr. Stirling as my banker and +guardian while I remain in Australia.' + +In this fashion it came to pass that on the Monday morning Estelle +carried out her purpose of making the start--that all-important _premier +pas_ which is so often the insuperable difficulty in life. + +The Growlers' Gully coach, departing with American punctuality at the +appointed minute, bore her away again as box-seat passenger, and, not +having more than two others besides the driver, went round by Mr. +M'Alpine's cottage and deposited her at the remembered garden gate. + +Before leaving she had a long and earnest conversation with Charles +Stirling, whom she had grown to regard almost as a brother. His uniform +gentleness of manner, his chivalrous courtesy and studious consideration +for her in every possible particular, joined with a certain firmness in +maintaining his opinion in matters of importance, had insensibly won +upon her regard. She would have been no true woman had it not been so. +Nor could she, from time to time, refrain from involuntarily drawing +mental comparisons between her _fiancé_ and his friend. + +Their circumstances and surroundings being similar, why could not Lance +have conducted himself with the prudence and self-respect which +characterised Mr. Stirling, and indeed Mr. Hastings also? Perhaps the +former, from holding a responsible position, was necessarily more +guarded by the proprieties; but there was Mr. Hastings, whom she had +seen working with his mate Bob, dressed like an ordinary miner, more +roughly living and lodging even than Jack Polwarth. Yet she could see +that he bore himself in all respects as a gentleman, and that such rank +by others was cheerfully accorded to him. Why could not Lance----? and +then she sighed deeply and turned her thoughts abruptly into another +channel. + +It had been decided in council that Miss Chaloner should be suffered to +pursue her journey towards Omeo, at any rate as far as Melbourne, when +she would again place herself under the guardianship of Mrs. Vernon. +After much difficulty, the friends prevailed upon her to promise that +she would not commence the journey to Omeo until Mr. Vernon had arranged +for, in his opinion, a suitable escort. Thus reassured, she was +permitted to depart, being seen off by Mrs. Polwarth and Mrs. Delf, +besides a score or two of casual spectators and miners off work. These +worthy fellows had gradually come to the conclusion that a young lady +who was known to the Commissioner, and treated with such high +consideration by Mr. Stirling, must be a person of rank and title. +Indeed such a report gained common credence, and Estelle was long +referred to in the chronicle of Growlers' as 'the lady in her own right +as had come from England to see after poor Trevanion of Number Six.' + +Before leaving, Estelle had volunteered to take charge of the +portmanteau which Lance had mentioned in his letter as containing some +of his much-cherished souvenirs and other possessions. But Stirling had +doubted the propriety of her burdening herself with a heavy and +presumably valuable package. It would be sure to cause her anxiety, and +from its very appearance might stimulate the cupidity of members of the +lawless class, at that time by no means easy to evade while travelling. +Both in her interest and Lance's he preferred to forward it by gold +escort to an agent in Melbourne, who again would await the opportunity +of police protection to send it on to Omeo. He would be in possession of +Lance's receipt for it before she had reached Omeo; perhaps even before +she had left Melbourne. + +It was finally decided by the friends that Lance should not be informed +of Estelle's arrival. 'It would only unsettle him,' she said. 'He might +even come to Melbourne, and so run the risk of recapture. It will not be +long before I rejoin him at Omeo, or the North Pole,' she added, with a +smile, 'if he roams so far.' + +The intervening stages were necessarily identical with those previously +encountered. Mrs. M'Alpine was still hospitably eager to receive this +wandering princess, as she evidently considered her to be. She would not +hear of her going on to Melbourne the following day, and Estelle, +fearful of the appearance of insufficiently appreciating her unusual +kindness, gracefully, though reluctantly, consented. Her hostess then +arranged so that a discreet selection of the officials then resident at +Ballarat should arrive in the evening. These were mostly young men, +among whom Estelle was pleased to greet her first Ballarat acquaintance, +Mr. Sub-Commissioner Dalton. Ladies were few and far between at that +period of 'the field,' but those who accepted Mrs. M'Alpine's invitation +showed that the exceptional circumstances amid which they lived and +moved had wrought no change in manner or mental habitudes. As for the +men, Estelle found them distinctly above the average in appearance, +bearing, and accomplishments. These last Mrs. M'Alpine unobtrusively +brought forward. Then it appeared that this one was well known as an +artist; another sang 'like an angel,' as one of his feminine admirers +expressed it, playing his own accompaniments on the piano; a third was a +distinguished performer in private theatricals, while all talked well +and amusingly. A rather extended course of travel, continental and +otherwise, joined with army and navy reminiscences, seemed to be common +to all. Mr. M'Alpine had arrived too, from some mining town with an +aboriginal name, and, much to Estelle's surprise, was a punctiliously +courteous and chivalrous elderly personage, mild and almost deferential +in manner to ladies, and possessing a vein of quiet humour which aroused +unexpected merriment from time to time,--very different, indeed, from +the stern, inflexible Rhadamanthus whom she had pictured in her +imaginings of the terrible 'Launceston Mac.' + +When the evening came to an end--not particularly early, it must be +confessed--and the piano and whist table were succeeded by a modest but +very cheerful supper, Estelle came to the conclusion that she had never +seen so many entertaining, cultured, and, in a sense, distinguished +people gathered together in one small room in her life. That it should +be her experience in this curious corner of the remote antipodes was the +crowning marvel of the whole. + + * * * * * + +Melbourne again! which--so accommodating is our mental to our bodily +vision--seemed quite a small London after Ballarat and Growlers'. + +Mrs. Vernon, who was just about organising one of her regular winter +parties, hailed Estelle's arrival with unaffected joy. This was rather +dashed when she understood her guest's intention to depart for Omeo at +the earliest possible moment. If the truth must be told, she considered +the discovery of Lance's abiding-place at Omeo to be an unalloyed +misfortune. This view of the case was of course unexpressed, out of +deference to Estelle's feelings, who made it--the announcement--with +such unfeigned pleasure that her hostess could not, for pity's sake, +forbear the conventional words of sympathy. + +'But, my dear, you cannot possibly go to that dreadful Omeo at present, +if indeed at all. It was only yesterday that I heard Mr. Vernon telling +some young man (a young man, my dear!) that he advised him to wait till +the winter was nearly over before he started for Omeo, as the roads were +positively dangerous.' + +'I will wait any reasonable time, and I shall certainly be guided by Mr. +Vernon's kind advice,' the girl said; 'but I am resolved to reach Omeo +before the spring.' + +'"A wilful woman,"' quoted the old lady, '"must, I suppose, have her +way," like a wilful man, but I am charmed to see that you recognise the +propriety of consulting Mr. Vernon. He has business relations with +Omeo--what they are I have not the faintest idea--mining requisites, I +presume--everything from picks and shovels to pianos and cornopeans--so +that he will know how to manage the transport service for you. And now, +my dear, come and see your room.' + +Mrs. Vernon's home was enticing. A roomy, well-furnished modern house, +the upper windows of which commanded a far-reaching view of the waters +of the harbour and the bluffs and headlands trending easterly towards a +dim and mighty forest world, beyond which again rose mountain peaks. A +broad verandah protected it equally from winter rain and summer heat. +The gardens, filled with exotics of every land, sloped down, with +winding walks amid trim grass lawns and thickets of ornamental shrubs, +to the waters of the Yarra. Exclusive enough for meditation and rambling +walks, beautiful also with the carefully-guarded flowers which the +half-tropical summer and mild winter of the south permit to develop in +rarest beauty, had Estelle desired a restful retreat wherein to stay her +pilgrim feet for a season, no pleasanter spot, no more alluring bower, +could she have found. But such loitering in the path of duty, synonymous +in her case with the passion around which the tendrils of her heart--the +heart of a self-controlled, habitually reserved woman--entwined, was not +for Estelle Chaloner. Pleased and grateful as she could not fail to be +with Mrs. Vernon's motherly warmth and kindly tendance, she told herself +that she would rather have been in a stagecoach, rumbling along the +roughest road towards Omeo, the goal of all her thoughts and +aspirations, than playing her part mechanically among the pleasant +society people seated around Mr. Vernon's handsomely appointed +dinner-table. + +As for that gentleman himself, he vied with his wife in welcoming his +prodigal daughter, as he persisted in calling her. + +'We have adopted you, my dear Miss Chaloner; ask Mrs. Vernon if we +haven't. We wept till bedtime after your departure, didn't we, Mary? and +now that our daughter that we lost is found, what do I hear about her +going away again? It can't be done. It's against Scripture; ask Mr. +Chasuble here if it isn't. The fatted calf is doomed, and she must stay +for the feast.' + +'I daresay you won't find me an undutiful daughter,' she replied +smilingly, 'but you must wait till I have returned from the wilderness +before feasting will be appropriate. I have seen little or nothing, so +far, of the rude and lawless waste I was led to expect--on the contrary, +refinement and courtesy seem indigenous to Australia.' + +'Oh! that's all very fine,' laughed back Mrs. Vernon; 'you've been +spoiled at Ballarat, but you mustn't expect to find the country full of +handsome Goldfields Commissioners, six feet high, and crammed full of +accomplishments--like Mr. Dalton, or even Mr. Annesley, whom you saw +here. There are places so different.' + +'Which we won't describe to-night, shall we, my dear?' Mr. Vernon +interpolated, appealing to his wife. 'Miss Chaloner shall do as she +likes, as the daughter of the house, while here and afterwards. If she +wants to go to the South Pole, John Vernon & Co. will charter a ship for +her, or a camel train; if Fort Bourke requires her presence, only give +us a little time--that is all I ask.' + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +Those adventurous wayfarers only who have traced the sources of the +Snowy River, which in its southward course pierces the fertile district +of Gippsland, are familiar with the strange wild region which lies +between it and the northern watershed, where the Ovens, the Mitta Mitta, +and the King rivers swell with their hurrying waters the Mississippi of +Australia. The scenery is of a weird and wondrous majesty. Far as eye +can reach, a verdurous plain extends--a mountain park, in truth, it may +be called, differing from almost any other such formation in Australia. +Three thousand feet above the sea, a sheet of snow in the mid-winter, it +is a prairie waving with giant grasses when remorseless suns are +scorching the heart of the continent into barrenness. Standing on the +northern edge of the Dargo plateau, what a landscape bursts upon the +view! Mount Feathertop, divided by a ravine two thousand feet in depth +from Mount Bogong, with Kosciusko, king of Austral Alps, like twin +Titans, rise snow-crowned in awful majesty amid the mist and cloud rack +of the illimitable mountain world. Storm-swept and desolate is this +region in winter. The strayed traveller wanders beneath an endless +succession of wooded peaks, descends abysmal glens, and seems doomed to +traverse eternally the unbroken solitudes of the primeval forest. + +Here first arose the hamlet, later on the mining township, of Omeo, +taking its name from the lonely lake so named by the wild tribes who had +hunted on its borders and fished in its depths from immemorial ages. Who +shall count the years from the launching of the first frail bark canoe +on its lonely waters? Situated in closest proximity to the region of +snows, which, if not eternal, commence to crown the mountain summits in +the early autumn, it is separated from the more civilised portions of +New South Wales and Victoria by roads which border precipices, by +mountain tracks, known only to the cattle-drover and the horse-stealer, +which, overhanging rivers thickly strewn with granite crags, offer +suicide on easy terms to the careless or the despondent. + +Rivers, full-fed from a thousand springs which have their sources in +these mountains, rush from unexplored heights in the springtime, or +murmur musically the long green summer through, when the great levels +of Australian deserts are sun-baked as the plains of Hindostan. + +Here dwell in scattered families or sparsely settled hamlets the various +classes of Australian highlanders. Hardy, active, fearless are they as +their Scottish prototypes;--originally recruited from the wandering +stock-rider, or in later years the lonely gold-seeker prospecting the +basaltic dykes and quartz-filled fissures of the foot-hills of the +Australian Alps. Herds of half-tamed or wholly wild cattle and horses +roam the profuse pastures, richly verdant during the short summer, +though snow-covered and deathlike during the winter months. Here, late +lingering and entrapped, they often perish, a company of skeletons +within a circle formed by unavailing trampling of the surrounding snow +only remaining in the spring to show the operation of nature's stern, +irrevocable laws. + +Lonely and chiefly silent this mountain land--dividing the watersheds of +three colonies--pierced by precipitous defiles--barred of access by +rugged ranges, the only means of crossing the savage region being by +dangerous tracks skirting terrific precipices, sometimes, as is the +well-known King River pass, narrow, elevated, almost in mid air, with +abysmal deeps on either side. + +The first dwellers in these dread solitudes were men inured to every +peril of the Australian bush, to whom the faint trail of the wilderness +was familiar as the field-path to the village rustic. Strayed cattle and +ownerless horses accumulated in the virgin mountain pastures. These were +at first driven to the nearest market by tracks only known to the +outlaws of the waste, or their confederates the stock-riders in charge +of rarely visited cattle-stations. Suddenly the trade developed, owing +to the higher prices ruling since the gold eruption. An organised system +of horse and cattle stealing arose. Outlying lots of fat cattle were +'cut out' or separated from the border herds of Monaro or Gippsland, and +crossed into opposite colonies. Detection in such cases was well-nigh +impossible. Much of the illegal work was done at night. If pursued, the +tracks were purposely blinded by station cattle driven across the trail, +while, from the rugged character of the country, strangers were at a +special disadvantage. Horses averaging from fifty to a hundred pounds +each, if capable of drawing a wash-dirt cart or transporting a digger's +movables from one mining district to another, were profitable plunder. + +Chief among these _caterans_ of the southern highlands--raiders, however, +of a lower grade than their Scottish prototypes--was the well-known and +deeply distrusted Caleb Coke--an ex-convict who had 'served his +time,'--that is, completed the term of penal servitude to which he had +been originally sentenced. He had graduated in a school of lawless +license tacitly permitted by the customs of the country. Commencing as a +stock-rider on Monaro Plains, then a wild unsettled region, he and his +convict companions reigned unchecked amid the aboriginal tribes. Reports +of capricious cruelty or savage vengeance against the blacks were more +than whispered. Wild tales were told of lawless deeds--of inoffensive +natives wantonly shot down in satisfaction for stock killed or +missing--of reckless indulgence in all the baser passions by these +modern buccaneers. The lack of police supervision enabled them to revel +in every species of lawlessness unchecked and unchallenged, and as +surely as any deed involving exceptional craft or cruelty came to light +the name of Caleb Coke was rarely absent from the recital. + +Rudely reared and wholly uneducated, this man represented the type of +Englishman that in earlier days helped to found the reputation of +British sailors and soldiers. Smugglers, mutineers, or buccaneers they +might become, but, whatever their faults, they possessed the cardinal +quality of courage in a degree unequalled by any other nation. + +Scarcely above the middle height, and possessing no remarkable muscular +development, Coke had proved himself the possessor of a measure of +endurance and sinewy strength which rendered him totally indifferent to +the hardships of a life in the wilderness. Heat or cold, night or day, +on foot or on horseback, all seemed alike to Caleb Coke. Like many of +the early stock-riders, though born in English hamlets and grown to +manhood before expatriation, the erstwhile poachers, smugglers, or +deer-stealers took kindly to the wild life of the interior of Australia. +Long used to watch the habits and follow the haunts of fur and feather, +the tracking of the half-tamed herds of cattle and horses came natural +to the quick eyes, from childhood studious of the waste. Those among +these exiled shepherds and stock-riders whom favourable conditions of +life tended to soften saved their money, acquired property, and founded +families not undistinguished in the future. On the other hand, all whom +misfortune had soured or crime indurated, found in their newly acquired +quasi-freedom the means of safely engaging in practices more secret but +not less nefarious than of old, or criminal operations on a scale +hitherto unprecedented. + +With the formation of a rich goldfield at Omeo, the centre of a +proverbially lawless region and a roving population, the results may be +imagined. Cash became plentiful, and was habitually carried in large +sums on the persons of gold-buyers and other speculators. Crime for a +while seemed about to overshadow the land. Fierce of aspect, ruthless in +beak and talon, 'the eagles were gathered together.' Had there been an +Asmodeus of the mountain, how plainly would he have descried, almost +without the aid of _le diable boiteux_, the Alsatia from which, as +surely as the levin-bolt from the thunder-cloud, wrong and rapine were +destined to result. + +With his habitual want of caution, Lance Trevanion made the acquaintance +of Caleb Coke soon after he reached Omeo. That worthy, wily and +unscrupulous, found means to ingratiate himself with the stranger, +apparently flush of money, and no novice in mining. He made a point of +providing horses when there was a newly-discovered 'rush' to inspect. In +certain ventures, as so often happens, when the broad road is to be +traversed, all his 'tips' proved correct. His advice, _quoad hoc_, +seemed uniformly trustworthy. Coke, however, had an advantage on his +side of which Trevanion little dreamed. Before long he was fully posted +in Lance's history; whereas, of Mr. Coke's eventful career, beyond the +careless chatter of goldfields, Lance knew nothing. Still less did he +suspect aught of the sinister influence behind Coke. Not many days had +elapsed after Lance had resolved to take up his abode at Omeo before he +received a letter from Tessie Lawless, to whom he had sent a few lines +by his returning guide. It was addressed to Mr. Harry Johnson, miner, to +the care of the chief storekeeper, a man of multifarious trusts and +responsibilities, keeping the post-office among other duties, and being +entrusted with all deposits, from a parcel of gold to a quartz-crushing +machine--from a 'last will and testament' to a baby 'to be left till +called for.' + +Tessie Lawless's missive--the outflow from a heart as true and faithful +as ever beat in a woman's bosom--ran as follows-- + + 'MELBOURNE HOSPITAL. + + 'When you receive this you will be safe--safe from persecutors, + and once more--oh! that I should have to write such words--a + free man again. What misery and degradation you have suffered! + my poor dear unjustly punished----. I dare not even write your + name for fear of--of consequences. But I shall be proud and + happy all my life through that I was able to contrive to set + you free--free! I have seen Mr. Wheeler since, and I could not + help laughing, anxious and miserable as I have been, and am, at + the way in which the affair was managed. + + 'You will see by the heading of my letter where I live. I am + not a patient, but I was so restless and anxious until I heard + of your safety that I took a situation as nurse in the + Melbourne Hospital. There has been a good deal of + sickness--fever, rheumatism, and so on--since the gold, and we + are all kept hard at work night and day. I was always fond of + helping sick people, and the work suits me exactly. So now you + know where to find me. Address--"Nurse Hester Lawless, Fever + Ward." + + 'I know, of course, that though Omeo is an out-of-the-way + place, you stand a chance of being arrested at any time. So, + for _my_ sake, if you value my feelings, be as careful as you + can. Don't make friends unless you are certain about them. You + have _paid dearly for that_, haven't you? My cousin Kate + married Trevenna soon after the trial. They are somewhere about + Monaro, and not likely to come across you, thank goodness. He + doesn't treat her well, they say, so I can fancy what their + life is. _It serves her right!_ You mustn't think me cruel, but + I never shall forgive her as long as I live. I heard that Ned + had got out of gaol, but am not sure whether it is true. Poor + Ned! he was not all bad. I hope he may clear out to another + colony, and keep straight for the future. + + 'I have been rambling on, but must now say good-bye. Good-bye, + too, in earnest. I shall not write again unless I hear + anything, and want to send you warning. You know my heart--I + need not say that if you only tell me to "come" I will follow + you to the end of the world. I do not advise you to do it--the + other way, indeed--but L---- T---- must judge for himself; + though he might easily win a grander wife, but he will never + never find a more loving and devoted mate than poor + + 'TESSIE.' + +'A truer woman never breathed!' Lance ejaculated, as he read this letter +in the lonely hut. 'But for her I should still be in those beastly +hulks--perhaps chucked overboard some morning, with a round shot for a +steadier! What in the world shall I do? What can I write to her? If she +comes up here it will be sure to make people talk. They always try to +find out more about a digger that's married than single, and if they +find out too much, that infernal Dayrell, or some other ambitious +trooper, will have the office given him, and _both_ of us made miserable +for life. No! she's the dearest little girl in the world, and I may as +well make up my mind to tour California or South Sea Islands with her +for a wife, as she says. England must be for me a foreign land +henceforth, and Estelle--poor Estelle--a beautiful dream! England's no +country for a man with a stain on his honour.' + +'"My native land, good-bye!" as Byron says. _He_ never saw it again, for +that matter. Heigho! I wonder if I shall? Something tells me his fate +will be mine. An early death, though there is no Greece to fight for--no +such luck in store for Lance Trevanion as a patriot's grave--a hero's +tomb. I used to think of such things once, strange to say. How queer it +seems that a soldier's death in the open, and so many many other things +are henceforth for me _impossible_. + +'I see nothing for it but to hang on here, putting the crowd off the +scent by working, talking, dressing like any other digger, till I get my +share of Number Six by degrees from Charlie Stirling,--trump that he +is,--then clear for Callao or 'Frisco without beat of drum, taking +Tessie Lawless with me.' + + * * * * * + +Both before and since the conviction of Ned Lawless, who was one of the +originators of the Omeo cattle-stealing gang, Lawrence Trevenna had been +a partner in crime, a sharer in ill-gotten profits. He it was at +Eumeralla whom the miners, the police, and indeed Tessie Lawless +herself, had seen from time to time, and had mistaken for Lance +Trevanion. They might well be excused. With some allowance for +discrepancies in speech and manner, only observable when the two men +stood side by side, few people could have told the difference. + +His nature, inheriting the strongest proclivities to lawlessness of +every shade and scope, needed but the occurrence of suitable conditions +to develop into the commission of the darkest deeds. The comparatively +easy profession of stock-lifting had, after his first chance wayfaring +to the Monaro district within a few months after he quitted the ship, +commended itself to him as an exciting and lucrative line of life. +Athletic, bold, and attractive after a fashion, he had singled out Kate +Lawless as the object of his admiration before the migration of the +family to Ballarat. Becoming aware of the reckless girl's flirtation +with his rival and antagonist of the voyage, he had sworn to take a +deadly revenge. With the aid of the Sergeant, and acting upon the girl's +jealous mood, he had been enabled to gratify his hatred to the full; and +now he heard through Caleb Coke, whose information from various sources +was rarely inaccurate, that his enemy had escaped from prison and was +actually living in Omeo. + +Trevenna's practice in connection with the 'duffing racket,' as Coke +would have expressed it, was to travel through from Monaro with drafts +of stolen animals and to await the arrival of others of the gang at +Dargo, a place about fifty miles from Omeo. The men who met him were not +suspected in their own neighbourhood, and as the stock were unknown +locally, were enabled to drive them down the Snowy River into Gippsland +or into Melbourne market by devious ways, known but to themselves, +without arousing suspicion. Thus the mining and general population of +Omeo had rarely seen and never noticed Trevenna. His beat lay on and +around the Monaro district. Occasionally, when conference with Coke was +necessary, he met him at the hut at Mount Gibbo, a lonely and rarely +visited spot. As far as the Omeo people were concerned, Trevenna was, to +all intents and purposes, an unknown man. It was, in a sense, against +his interest to meet with Lance Trevanion at present. He therefore took +general precautions against such an event, keeping himself, however, +well posted up, through Coke, as to his rival's movements. + +The destined meeting took place, however, after a fashion wholly +unexpected by either, Fate proving, as of old, too strong for the +machinations of mortals. + +Trevanion had appointed a day to go with Coke to one of the newly opened +reefs which bade fair to make Omeo the premier goldfield of Australia. +It was at no great distance from the old man's hut. Lance had borrowed a +horse and ridden to the point indicated by Coke, and after an hour's +ride found the reef which they had come to inspect. It was in truth +wonderfully rich,--the stones 'strung together with gold,' as the +prospectors expressed it. Lance secured a share which could hardly fall +short of an astounding profit as the claim developed; and when Coke +suggested riding to his hut for a meal he readily assented. + +The day was fine, the mountain air clear and bracing. The view, as they +gradually ascended one of the foot-hills of the main Alpine range, was +far-stretching and majestic. At the distance of a few miles, but +apparently almost overhanging the lonely hut,--a substantial building, +very solidly constructed,--arose the sullen shape of Mount Gibbo, +snow-capped, and ever bearing on its granite ribs the marks of the +Alpine winter. + +A couple of savage-looking kangaroo dogs and a collie of suspicious +aspect walked forward from the massive hut-door, which Lance noticed was +carefully secured by a padlock. A narrow bridge of logs led across a +sedgy runlet, which, like many mountain streams, was unfordable, except +in occasional spots. From the hut could be seen any man or beast +approaching at a considerable distance. The idea crossed Lance's mind +that in the middle ages it would have been a most suitable site for the +castle of a robber baron. He smiled as he thought that perhaps his +friend Mr. Coke was only a later survival of those picturesque +tax-gatherers. + +Dismounting at the door, Coke hung his bridle-rein over a wooden peg +driven into a stump close by, and, motioning to his companion to do +likewise, unlocked the door. + +'Hold on!' he said, as he pushed back the heavy door cautiously, and, +leaning forward, pulled out by the collar a brindled bull-dog of such +ferocious aspect that Lance drew back involuntarily. + +'You seem to believe in dogs, Coke,' said he, as he noted the savage +brute's red eye and grim jaw half approvingly. 'He would be rather a +surprise to any one that called upon you when you were not at home.' + +'He's not easy stopped when he goes for the throat,' said the old man, +dragging the brute along by the collar and fastening him to a chain +stapled into a section of a hollow log, which served as a kennel. 'He's +a queer customer, is Lang. He dashed near settled a cove as got into the +hut once by the winder when I was away. I was just back in time not to +have to bury him, but it was a near thing.' + +'One would think you had something valuable in your hut that you have to +guard it so well,' said Lance, looking at the dog, now lying down +licking his paws and showing his formidable teeth from time to time. + +'Maybe I have, maybe I haven't,' said the old man sourly. 'Anyhow, I +don't like people coming about my place when I'm away. I've always kept +a dorg or two as wasn't safe at close quarters. They know it now, black +fellows and white both, and lets us alone, eh, Lang, old man?' + +The dog gave a low growl as he spoke, while at the same moment the +collie and the kangaroo hounds raised their heads, and turning towards +the road, which wound along a rocky incline from the eastward, gave a +joint whimper, and seemed on the point of breaking out into a chorus of +barking. Lance, looking instinctively in the same direction, saw a +horseman emerging from a patch of timber, nearly a mile distant, and +apparently riding at speed towards the hut. The dogs, however, appeared +to have come to a conclusion in their own minds favourable to the +approaching stranger, inasmuch as they lay down and awaited events. + +'D--n him,' growled the old man, as, shading his eyes mechanically with +his hands, he gazed searchingly at the horseman. 'What the devil brings +him here now?' + +'You know him then?' queried Lance. + +'Know him? Well, yes,' answered Coke, with the tone of a man disgusted +with things in general. 'Maybe you do too, and if you'll take a fool's +advice, you'll neither make nor meddle with him. He's pretty hot +property, is Larry Trevenna.' + +'My God!' groaned out Lance, as his face flushed high, and then grew +pale to the lips. 'This is more than I could have hoped for. Now look +here, Coke,' and he turned upon the old man with a subdued wrath in +every look and tone that, fearless as he was, awed the ruffianly elder. +'This Trevenna did me the worst wrong that one man can do another. +Through his villainy I have been chained, starved, gaoled, treated like +a dog--falsely accused, too, if ever man was. If I shoot the infernal +hound as he pulls up his horse, I should be doing a good deed. If I +don't, it is only that he may feel that, man to man, I am his master, +and the punishment I intend to give him will not be so soon over. But if +you interfere, by word or deed, by God! I'll shoot the pair of you like +dogs.' + +He touched his pistol as the last words came from his lips in low +concentrated tones. His chest heaved, his hands were clenched until the +muscles in his bare arms stood out like cordage, and the lurid fire in +his deep-set eyes glowed as though ready to leap forth with volcanic +flame. The resistless force of long-repressed passion asserted itself at +this supreme moment. + +The crafty veteran recognised the necessity of neutrality, and assumed +his position with promptitude. 'Larry must take his chance. It's dashed +little I care which way it goes. I'll see fair play, anyhow.' + +There was little time to say more. The horseman had crossed the creek +and, riding at a hand-gallop, pulled up at the door, throwing his +bridle-reins, stock-rider fashion, on the ground, and leaving the +hard-ridden hackney, a grand three-parts bred animal, to recover his +wind and graze on the green tussock grass till he should need him. + +Without apparently taking notice of the stranger who, in ordinary +miner's garb, stood by the old man,--most probably taking him for a +wandering prospector or hard-up 'hatter,'--he called out, advancing the +while-- + +'I say, old King of the Duffers, do you know there's half-a-dozen chaps +from Monaro waiting for you at Dobbs' Hole? They've a stunning lot of +nags with them, so you'd better scratch all you know and get there +before dark. Who's this cove? Perhaps he'll give us a hand? I must have +a pot of tea first, though.' + +He moved towards the hut door, near which Lance and the old man were +standing. Lance stepped forward. + +'So we meet again, Lawrence Trevenna?' + +Trevenna was no coward. Still the sudden apparition of a deadly +enemy--as if he had arisen from the earth--would disturb the equilibrium +of most men. He started back. But a life filled with risk and imminent +peril had schooled his nerves. He smiled, as if in apparent +good-fellowship. + +'By Jove! So it's _you_, Trevanion? Who'd have thought of seeing you +here? Well, you've slipped the clinks, it seems. I was always dashed +sorry you got into that scrape so deep. You'd better go shares with Coke +and the rest of us in this lay. There's money in it--pots and pots of +it.' + +'D--n you and your money too, you scoundrel!' shouted Lance, advancing +upon him with hate burning in his eyes and vengeance written on every +line of his countenance. 'You!--You propose to me to share in your +villainies? Have not you and your accomplices worked me ruin enough +already? Put up your hands!' + +Trevenna smiled and took his ground. Among the younger members of the +lawless gang with which he had allied himself he had seen many a similar +encounter, half or wholly in earnest. And in the pugilistic practice so +popular among Australian youths of all classes, Larry Trevenna, to which +cognomen he had been, for greater convenience, reduced, was held to be, +if not the very cleverest of that wild band, so near the top of the +class that there were few--very few--that cared to arouse his anger. + +He had, as he supposed, advanced considerably in the science of the +prize ring, and fondly trusted that the fast and vigil inseparable from +a bushman's life would render him more than a match for any infernal +swell (as he would have phrased it), especially one who had so lately +'done time,' and been therefore precluded from the enjoyment of fresh +air and exercise. + +Old Caleb Coke's rugged features writhed themselves into a saturnine +grin as he watched the savage onset with an inherited instinctive +interest. + +'Dashed if I ever seen a better-matched pair,' he growled out, half +unconsciously. 'I'd a walked twenty mile when I was a youngster to see a +battle like it. It's even betting--Larry's a quick hitter and pretty +fit, but I doubt he's met his match. Well, it's d--d little to me who +wins. First blood to Larry, by ----!' + +By this time the two men were hard at it. The heavy blows on face and +body, which in such a contest fall fast and furious, sounded strangely +clear in the rarified mountain atmosphere--the old stock-rider and the +dogs the sole spectators. These last--comrades of mankind under such +ever-changing conditions--looked on with manifest interest. The +bull-dog, indeed, until warned by a kick from his master, being minded +to smash his chain and make a third in the encounter. The blow from +Trevenna to which Coke had alluded had split the flesh above the cheek, +showing the white bone underneath, as if gashed by a knife. Its effect +was due less to want of skill on Lance's part than to his desperate +determination to get to close quarters with his foe. And, indeed, all +unheeding of the punishment, which would have staggered another man +less iron-sinewed and agile, he forced his opponent before him with a +succession of blows, delivered with such terrific power and rapidity +that Trevenna's guard was completely broken in, eventually sending him +to the earth, half stunned and motionless. + +Lawrence Trevenna had underrated his foe in more than one respect. +During the few weeks which he had spent in Omeo Lance Trevanion had +worked harder than he had ever done in his life before. Partly to dull +the memories of the past, as well as to quiet the haunting fear of +apprehension, he had toiled incessantly. The keen air, the healthy +appetite, the free intercourse with his fellow-men, had restored him to +fullest strength and activity. Never in his life, as he stepped forward +to meet his foe, had he felt more fully conscious of muscular strength +and deer-like elasticity--those glorious physical gifts with which only +early manhood is endowed. + +As they fronted each other for the second time, face to face and eye to +eye, as is the wont of men of British race in such a contest, Coke could +not fail to be impressed with their extraordinary likeness to each +other, and the similarity of their general cast of feature. The colour +of the hair was identical, and but for a slight deviation in the +direction of coarseness on the one hand, and that indescribable +something which belongs to the man of birth on the other, they could +hardly have been distinguished from each other by a casual spectator. In +their eyes, so remarkable in both, burned in that hour the deadliest +fire of hate, the difference alone being that while it glowed +furnace-bright in the orbs of Lance Trevanion, Trevenna's glare, in +demoniacal malice, resembled the rage of a wild beast. + +'By ----,' said the old man, as once more he marked the blood-stained +faces of the desperate combatants, who again went at each other with +silent fury, 'I could fancy as they was brothers. They ought to shake +hands and travel the country. What a circus they'd be able to run. Ha! +Larry's down agen. The Ballarat cove's too good for him.' + +It was even so. For a short time only it appeared as if the issue was +doubtful. There was but little thought of evasion or parrying of blows +on either side. The terrific rally with which the second round ended +would have brought to a close more than one world-famous fight. But +Lance Trevanion fought as though each arm--like the Familiar of the +enchanter--wielded an iron flail. And when Lawrence Trevenna went down, +beaten dead and senseless from the last tremendous 'upper cut,' it was +evident that he would not come to time. + +'That last left-hander knocked him out,' said the old man, with a grin +of qualified approval, while a strange expression lurked in his evil +eyes. 'It ain't no use follerin' it up, as I see. Dip that pannikin in +the bucket while I sluish his neck a bit. You ain't settled him this +time, Harry, but it's a d--d close shave.' + +'He deserves death at my hands a dozen times over,' said Lance, gazing +down upon the fallen man, as Coke raised his bleeding face, and, after +an interval, succeeded in restoring animation, while the dogs stood +around licking their lips, as if the savour of blood had aroused their +ferocious instincts. 'But I have done with him for the present. Let him +cross my path again at his peril.' + +Thus speaking, he turned to where his horse had been secured and made +preparations for departure, waiting, however, in order to satisfy +himself as to the condition of his late antagonist. That personage, +after a few minutes, was sufficiently recovered to raise himself to a +sitting posture, and eventually to his feet, when he supported himself +by leaning against a tree. + +But though temporarily worsted in the conflict, Trevenna had no whit +abated of the ferocity with which he had commenced the encounter. + +Declining, with a wave of the hand, the proffer of bush hospitality by +the old man, Lance Trevanion made as though to mount his horse, when +Trevenna shook his hand, and, with a voice hoarse and almost +inarticulate, arrested his departure. + +'Stop!' he said. 'I want a word with Trevanion before he goes. You've +had the best of it now. I didn't think you were so good, blast you! But +I'll see you at my feet yet. I've got the girl you were so sweet on, and +you may thank her for being what you are--a runaway convict; d'ye hear +that, Lance Trevanion? Kate Lawless is my wife now, and d--d well broke +to come to heel when I crack the whip, you take your oath. I've got +square with you so far, and by ----!' and here the ruffian swore a +blasphemous oath, 'I'll be more than even with you yet.' + +He paused, apparently more from exhaustion than from other reasons, for +his disfigured face, all blood-stained though it was, grew ghastly pale +as he swayed forward as though he would have fallen. + +Lance rode towards him, and for an instant raised his hand; then gazing +at him with deepest contempt, made answer-- + +'No doubt you have treated your unfortunate wife as only brutes like +yourself are given to do. You are repaid in some slight degree for any +cruelty to her, little as she deserves it at my hands. As for you, you +scoundrel, I will shoot you like a dog if you come across me again. So I +give you fair warning.' + +Then Lance Trevanion mounted his horse, unheeding of food or shelter. +For, as if the elemental powers had awaited the issue of the conflict, +the sky was suddenly overcast, the wind arose and wailed stormily. The +ranges were blotted out by driving mists, and without warning one of the +sudden storms of a mountain region broke wrathfully over the plain. +Another man might have sought protection. At any other time such a +thought might have crossed his mind. But the fierce spirit of Lance +Trevanion in that hour of overwrought feeling joyed in the elemental +turmoil. Facing the tempest, he sent the spurs into his horse and drove +recklessly into the very teeth of the storm; the drenching rain, the +blinding lightning, the thunder rolling above him and echoing along the +mountain crags, only serving as distractions to the yet fiercer tumult +raging within. Two hours' desperate riding over flooded creeks, through +forest and flat, rocky ridge and sedgy morass, brought him to Omeo. The +storm-swept streets were deserted, the stores and hotels filled. Pulling +up at the door of his hut, he unsaddled his horse, whose heaving flanks +sufficiently attested the pace at which he had covered the distance, and +turned him loose, with all reasonable expectation that he would discover +his owner's abode, after the manner of 'mountain' horses, accustomed +from colt-hood to find their way to particular localities, wholly +irrespective of times and seasons. + +This duty performed, he unlocked the door, carrying the saddle and +bridle inside with him. His steed trotted off briskly, after a +preliminary shake, and apparently made a straight course for his home. +Nor was the act of turning him loose on that wild winter evening amid +the still driving rain and bitter wind in any sense cruel and +unfeeling. The stock-rider to whom he belonged would remark in such a +case that the rain would wash his coat clean from mud or sweat stain. He +had never been shod in his life, never known a rug or a stable, and was +as impervious to disease of the throat or lungs as his ancient comrades, +the wild cattle of the snowfields. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +For some days after his encounter with Trevenna, Lance Trevanion +avoided as much as possible going into the township. He devoted himself +to working steadily at his claim at the reef, to which he had gone +before the adjournment to Caleb Coke's hut with unexpected results. + +His first impulse was to prepare for sudden departure. Trevenna, as a +cheap and obvious form of revenge, would probably inform the police of +his identity without delay. He shuddered at the idea of +recapture--nothing, of course, could be easier than to send word to the +nearest police station that prisoner Trevanion, lately escaped from the +hulk _President_, and for whom a reward of no trifling amount was +offered in the _Police Gazette_, was living as 'Harry Johnson,' the +miner, just outside of Omeo township. + +Yet, upon further reflection, other considerations presented themselves: +Coke and Trevenna were evidently 'working' this horse and cattle +business together. They would not, presumably, be too anxious to bring +the police near to the scene of their illegal practices. They would +assume also that he, Trevanion, if recaptured, might reveal much to +their disadvantage. Besides, he was now receiving weekly drafts to a +considerable amount from Charles Stirling. These he exchanged through +Barker and Co., the storekeepers at Omeo, for drafts on a Melbourne +bank, keeping up the appearance of a mining speculator by buying parcels +of gold from time to time, which were transmitted to Melbourne by +escort--consigned to the same bank. He was loth to interrupt such +satisfactory financial operations, while proceeding in a manner so +favourable to his project of escape. In a few more weeks, if nothing +happened in the meantime, a sum would be placed to his credit in +Melbourne with which he could safely embark for San Francisco, +Valparaiso, or the Islands, leaving the remainder to be sent after him. + +Thus arguing, he determined to trust to the chapter of accidents, and, +unless he received further warning, to abide the issue. Besides this, he +believed that Coke entertained a friendly feeling towards him; even that +he might depend upon him for notice in case Trevenna was determined to +play the informer. + +As matters turned out, Trevenna and Coke were at that very time maturing +plans with which the sudden arrival of additional police would have +seriously interfered. But of this determination, as well as of its scope +and intention, Lance Trevanion was ignorant. + +He had not, of course, been able to keep out of sight and observation of +his fellow-miners at Omeo. A parcel of gold had been offered for +purchase by his friend Barker, and as it was rather larger than usual, +he felt bound to go into Omeo to inspect it. His face--decisively as the +battle had terminated in his favour--still bore the signs of the severe +punishment which he had received. And all unheeding as he had been of +the pain during the heat and fury of the conflict, the disfiguring +bruises and cuts were none the less _en évidence_ for days after the +affair. + +But this condition of facial disarrangement was too familiar to all +classes of society at Omeo to cause more than faint surprise or trivial +comment. 'Been having a friendly round and slipped the gloves off, +Harry?' said the storekeeper. 'I didn't think there was a chap on the +field that could paste you like that!' + +Lance muttered something about 'accidents will happen,' and so on. 'Tell +you all about it some other time.' Yet though not denying the +impeachment, he showed so little desire to be questioned upon the matter +that the storekeeper, a shrewd person, dropped the subject and addressed +himself to the more important business of the gold purchase. + +This was concluded, and the gold safely placed in the fire-proof safe, +at that time a necessary part of every storekeeper's outfit, there to +await the monthly or fortnightly escort. By far the greater portion of +the gold so purchased was sent to town by escort--the protection of the +police troopers being in general considered sufficient. In spite of the +perils of the road, there were, however, always to be found men, +fearless or foolhardy, as the case might be, who preferred to be the +bearers of their own winnings in Nature's lottery, or of that which they +had purchased as a speculation. + +Lance had been working for nearly a week after making this purchase, at +his claim, which, strangely enough, was the only payable one for some +distance on either side. He had heard nothing further of Trevenna. Coke +appeared to have left his usual haunts temporarily. Once more a feeling +of comparative security came over him. The apparently peaceful and +isolated nature of the locality assisted to lull his grief-worn spirit +into a condition of repose. + + * * * * * + +It was noon at the Tinpot Reef. He had been working hard since early +morning, and had just decided to prepare his mid-day meal. The fire was +kindled, the camp-kettle placed upon it, and the water for the tea, that +indispensable adjunct of the Australian's _al fresco_ refection, was +commencing to boil. In anticipation of this stage of proceedings, Lance +had seated himself upon a fallen tree and was smoking meditatively, +after the manner of his class. + +It was a lonely and silent spot--on this particular occasion rendered +more solitary and deserted-looking than ordinarily, from the fact that +the discouraged holders of the adjoining claims had arranged to prospect +a distant gully, and had, to that end, departed in a body on the +previous morning. The ropes were still upon the windlasses, the raw-hide +buckets on the braces. The tents and huts, with their rude adjuncts, +showed that the desertion was but temporary; therefore, the camp could +not legally be appropriated as 'worked and abandoned ground.' Still +there was an eerie, and it might have been thought by a supersensitive +resident an ill-omened, aspect about the place. + +The morning had been fair, but though no clouds obscured the sky a chill +wind had arisen, and the temperature seemed to fall as the rising blast +became shrill-voiced and wailing. + +Listening half mechanically to the boding signs of storm, Lance did not +notice the clatter of hoofs as a woman came at speed along the ravine +which lay to the eastward, and reined up her horse within a few yards of +his camp. + +He turned listlessly towards her, but started to his feet and gazed into +the face of the rider with the look, half intent, half horror-stricken, +as of one who views an apparition. + +'Kate Lawless!' he exclaimed. + +'I used to be once,' the woman made answer, in a voice which seemed +struggling with an attempt at cheerfulness over-lain with habitual +melancholy. 'Won't you lift me down, or have you forgotten the way?' + +He was at her side in a moment, and as, with the accustomed aid, she +sprang lightly to the earth, each gazed into the other's face for an +instant without speaking. + +'Hang the mare up to that dead tree,' she said. 'I've ridden her hard +and far to-day, but she'll have to carry me across the mountain +to-night; I mustn't chance letting her go. And now I suppose you're +wondering what brought me here? I've got something to say to you, Lance +Trevanion, that's well worth the hearing.' + +'And what may that be?' he made answer coldly. 'Let me remind you that +the last words I heard you speak caused my ruin, body and soul.' + +'For God's sake, don't talk to me like that,' she said. 'I'm the most +miserable woman this day that walks the earth. I've helped to ruin you, +I know, but how I've suffered for it! I'm risking my life in coming here +to-day, and except to warn you for your good I wouldn't have done it. +Look at me, Lance, and see if I'm speaking true or false!' + +'You took a false oath once,' he said slowly; 'why should I trust you +now, Kate?' + +But while he spoke he could not avoid marking the unmistakable traces +which misery had imprinted upon her face and form. His voice softened, +his heart relented in spite of his just scorn and indignation. How +changed was she indeed! And could that haggard woman, who, with +streaming eyes and sorrow-laden features, stood before him in a +suppliant attitude, be the Kate Lawless of old days? + +The trim and lissom girl, with an air of wild unconscious grace, lithe +of form and displaying in her every movement the instinctive charm of +early womanhood, had disappeared for ever. In her place stood a +hard-faced woman--bitter, reckless, and despairing. Her dress, that +unfailing test of feeling, showed that she had ceased to concern herself +about her personal appearance. Her fair hair was carelessly twisted into +a large knot, which showed behind the old felt hat which she wore: a +shabby kirtle was secured with a belt around her waist above a torn and +faded gray tweed riding-skirt. A red silk handkerchief knotted loosely +round her neck furnished the only coquettish-looking bit of colour that +her dress afforded, and, in spite of the carelessness and disorder of +her apparel, formed an effective contrast to her dark gray eyes, still +bright, and her abundant hair. + +'You are changed, indeed, Kate,' he said musingly. 'So am I. Don't you +think, by the way, I ought to call you Mrs. Trevenna?' + +'Call me Kate this time,' she said; 'God knows whether we shall ever +meet again. Do I look miserable, neglected, downtrodden to the very +ground? For that's what I am, besides being the wife of the greatest +brute, the meanest villain, ever God made. But it serves me right, Lance +Trevanion; it serves me well right!' + +Here the wretched woman burst into a fit of passionate weeping. Hiding +her face in her hands, she sat down upon the log, and in broken +sentences detailed her wrongs and described the cruelty with which she +was habitually treated. Why did she marry him? Well, she hardly knew. +She was restless and miserable after the trial. Ned was gone, and she +was half mad, and could have drowned herself when all was over. Once in +Trevenna's power, the brute had shown her that one of his reasons for +making her his wife was to wreak his spite upon her as a former +favourite of his enemy; to punish her by every ingenious device of +callous cruelty for having preferred Trevanion to himself. She had been +worked upon before the trial by the artfulness of Dayrell and Trevenna, +the former having caused a letter to be written, as if from Lance to his +cousin, sneering at her low birth and bush manners in a way which led +her to believe that he had from the first intended to impose upon her +ignorance. Hasty, credulous, and madly ungovernable in her fits of +ill-temper, she had been practised on to bear false witness at the +trial. Then Tessie, ignorant of the wonderful likeness of the two men to +each other, had really mistaken Trevenna for Lance, having come upon him +unexpectedly in one of his trips to Eumeralla. + +'And this is what I've brought you to,' she continued, gazing at his +rude attire, his changed aspect; for _never_ does the look of freedom +and careless pride return to the man who has known the prison garb, the +clanking chain,--who has once answered mechanically to the harsh summons +of the gaol warder. 'A working digger, and worse. Oh, my God! An escaped +prisoner. God forgive me! I don't see as _you_ can. No man could that +has gone through what you have!' + +And here the frantic woman cast herself at his feet and bowed her head +to the earth in an attitude of despairing supplication almost oriental +in intense self-abasement. + +In spite of his cruel wrongs, of the life-wreck and dishonour in which +this woman had been chiefly instrumental, Lance Trevanion's heart was +touched as he saw the once haughty and tameless Kate prone in the dust +at his feet. + +He raised her gently, and, seating her beside him, essayed to comfort +her. 'Kate,' he said, taking her hand, 'we are two miserable wretches, +destined to be each other's ruin. Why should all the blame fall upon +you? Fate was too strong for us. It is over now. We must bear it as we +may. If I have undergone the torments of the damned, your deadliest +enemy could not have chosen a worse lot than you have made for yourself. +I forgive you freely. Now you have far to go, and I must finish my shift +by sundown. Let us make believe we are at the camp at Ballarat again; my +dinner is nearly ready.' + +A faint flicker, dying out instantly into rayless gloom, was visible in +the woman's sad eyes. She dried her tears, and with a strong effort +recovered her self-possession. + +'You are too good to me, Lance; God bless you for it,' she murmured. 'I +shall thank you to my dying day, whenever that is: I somehow think it +mayn't be long. Anyway, I _will_ have a few mouthfuls. There's thirty +miles of mountain road to go back, and I must be home before _he_ comes. +I see you're marked,' she continued, looking with curiously blended +sympathy and shyness at his discoloured face, 'but you're nothing like +as bad hurt as _he_ was, or you couldn't move about or stoop to blow up +that fire. He was close upon dead for a week after he got back. He +didn't tell me who done it till one day we quarrelled when he was +better. Then he half killed me,--kicked and trampled on me, as he's done +many a time. If it wasn't for--for the child,'--here she hesitated and +looked down,--'I'd have left him long ago.' + +'Cowardly brute, ruffianly dog!' groaned Lance, grinding his teeth, 'why +didn't I kill him when we met at Gibbo? I had two minds to finish him +there and then. Things could hardly be worse than they are. But the next +time we meet one of us dies; I swear it, as God hears me.' + +'Oh! don't talk like that,' she cried, and even in his wrath Lance +recognised with amazement the new element of pitying tenderness which +anxiety for his safety evoked (oh! wondrous-fashioned instrument, the +woman's heart! soaring to seraphic melody, yet at times clanging with +frenzied discords, echoes from the Inferno); 'if there's anything of +that sort you'll be sure to be taken, then it will be "life" or worse. +But,' changing her tone to one of grave entreaty, 'what I came for +to-day was this,--I knew you were here, no matter how; where I live we +know a lot, all the worse for us and other people.' + +'And what was it, Kate?' + +'_I came to warn you_,' she said, as she fixed her eyes imploringly upon +his countenance, 'and you believe me, just as if Tessie was talking to +you this minute.' + +'To take care of my horse, Kate?' he said, half jestingly; 'I haven't +any to lose.' + +'To take care of your LIFE!' she cried, almost with a scream. 'You have +that to lose, haven't you? and unless you are carefuller than I ever +knew you to be, you'll find it out too late. I overheard him and that +old wretch Caleb Coke (and of all the murdering dogs I ever heard of I +think he's the worst) talking over some plan they've put up, and from +words I caught I made out it was about you. There was a deal about +gold-buying and some hut, and a box with nuggets and things locked up in +it--money as well. You'll know if that fits. The man, whoever it was, +was to be "put away," as Coke said. So you take my tip! _Trust nobody +about this field_, Caleb Coke above all, and get shut of Omeo the first +minute you can.' + +'When did you hear this?' + +'The day before yesterday. They sat up late drinking, and Coke took more +than he does in general; he's that full of villainy of all +sorts,--robberies and murders too, people say,--that he's afraid of grog +for fear of giving himself away. Anyhow, they both went off early this +morning, and Trevenna's to be back to-night. So I ran up this little +mare--she's the only one I've got now to my name--as soon as they were +well off the place, and rode here on the chance of finding you at this +reef.' + +'Well, Kate, my poor girl, you've done me a good turn, if you never do +another. You may have saved my life, you see. Not that it's worth much. +But I've a notion of getting away to California or the Islands next +month, and if I carry that out what you want me to be careful about may +rise in value, do you see?' + +'Oh, don't joke in that horrid way; you never used to,' said the woman, +rising and gathering up her skirt, as if in preparation to depart. 'It +makes my heart ache'--here she pressed her hand to her breast; 'I have +one, though you mightn't think it. But oh, for my sake, for every one's +sake, for the sake of that girl in England, if you want to see her +again, be careful! Don't go out of sight of Omeo--if you value your +life--till you start for Melbourne, and then travel in company. Coke +thinks no more of a man's life than a wild dingo's, and Trevenna's as +bad. The things I've heard, I wonder God lets them live. I must go now. +I've stayed too long. Remember my words; they're as true as if I was on +my dying-bed.' + +Then she walked rapidly to where her horse stood patiently--a small roan +mare, the fineness of whose limbs, together with the character of head +and eye, denoted Arab blood, crossed probably with the wild 'mustang' of +the hills. Trevanion kept by her side, wondering when the strange scene +would end. + +She made again as if to depart, for an instant touching the mare's +bridle. Then, turning towards him, held out her hand--'Good-bye, Lance, +and God bless you, wherever you are. You are sure you forgive me, don't +you?' + +'As I hope to be forgiven,' he said solemnly, unconsciously using a +half-forgotten form of words, the true meaning of which had long been +alien to his heart. 'That is, you poor ill-treated Kate, I forgive you +freely, and with all my heart.' + +As he spoke, the woman turned upon him a countenance so transfigured by +gratitude and tenderness that Lance Trevanion, for the moment, hardly +recognised her, so wonderfully softened, so refined and ennobled, was +every lineament by the unwonted emotions. Deep and bright in her lifted +eyes shone the fires of a buried passion as she gazed for a moment into +those of her companion. Then, as if inspired with sudden frenzy, she +threw her arms around him, and, pressing his head to her bosom, kissed +him passionately on the lips and forehead. + +Disengaging herself as suddenly, she waved him back from approaching +her, and, springing into the saddle, drove the astonished mare wild, +plunging over the crown of the ridge and adown the rocky side of the +ravine, which the roused and sure-footed animal cleared with leaps like +the 'flying doe' of her native woods. + +'Poor Kate!' he exclaimed, as he slowly retraced his steps, and, +gathering up his mining tools mechanically, proceeded to complete his +day's work; 'there is good about her after all. How queerly men and +women are compounded in this mad world--as I begin to think it is. What +a life hers must be, tied to a scoundrel like Trevenna! and yet _he_ is +a free man--whose whole life, since he came to the colony, has been +criminal--while I, who, God knows, never had a thought of wrong-doing, +have worn the felon's chain, and may again, who can tell? "A mad world, +my masters!" in truth and saddest earnest.' + +No doubt remained in Trevanion's mind, as in the seclusion of his hut +that evening he pondered this singular interview, but that the woman had +warned him in all good faith. If her words were not true, she was indeed +the falsest of her sex. But there are looks, tones, gestures which +neither man nor woman can feign; moments in which all the truth of the +being comes to the surface; portions of our lives when a clearer insight +is gained in the passing of seconds than can be derived from years of +ordinary experience. + +Such a flash of enlightenment was this, as when the lightning gleam +pierces the gloom of midnight, showing the perils of the road, +disclosing pitfalls and precipices previously shrouded in darkness. His +course had been thus illumined. How heedless was he, pursuing what +appeared to be a fairly open pathway; and yet, what unsuspected dangers +lurked on every side. These two remorseless villains, attracted by the +report of his comparative opulence,--of course the gold-buying would +reach all ears,--were evidently planning his robbery and murder. If not +his own, whose then could it be? + +There was another man whom it possibly concerned--Con Gray, well known +as a gold-buyer in Omeo. He had lately made heavy purchases--had even +stated that this was his last trip to Melbourne. This man was perhaps +the fated victim. Under any circumstances Omeo was no longer safe +harbour. He would sell his claim on the reef. He would invest his cash +in gold, and, making some excuse, join the escort, and so get to +Melbourne unsuspected, and safe from being robbed on the road--if a man +could be said to be safe at any point of the journey between these +savage solitudes and the metropolis. + + * * * * * + +Thus having fully resolved to quit Omeo, taking whatever risks might be +involved in that step rather than await the perils which seemed to be +thickening around him, a feeling of impatience now took possession of +Lance Trevanion. On the very day on which he had met Kate, he had +'broken down' some stone of extraordinary richness, which, though it +might prove to be only a 'shoot,' in mining parlance, served to cause +the value of the claim to rise measurably. He had therefore no +difficulty in disposing of it to very great advantage, giving as his +reason for quitting so promising a 'show' that he had decided on +devoting himself to gold-buying for the future. + +Meanwhile, the vision of final escape from a life of dread and +suspicion, from the rude surroundings and mean shifts by which alone he +could hope to secure safety under present circumstances, commenced to +arise clear and inspiriting before him. It seemed comparatively easy to +slip down to town under cover of having gold to dispose of--as did many +a miner of the period. And then--and then, once on blue water with a +draft for five thousand pounds in his pocket, and more to follow at +regular intervals as long as Number Six continued 'payable,' what a +vista of change, affluence, almost happiness, opened out before him! +This was Saturday; on this day week the monthly gold escort would leave +Omeo for Melbourne. It gave him ample time to make needful preparations. +It was the last day of the month. It might be the last day of his exile. + + * * * * * + +The week passed in an uneventful fashion. It seemed to Lance Trevanion +as if all things were working harmoniously for his release from the +thraldom he had so long endured. The claim had been well sold. He had +received the proceeds in cash, as indeed is the custom of goldfields. He +had made several advantageous purchases of gold, and had received +advices from the mercantile house in Melbourne with whom, through Barker +and Co., the storekeepers, he had established business relations, that +they would be prepared to honour his drafts or furnish him with bills of +exchange in Britain or America. All things seemed prosperously working +together for a noiseless and unsuspected exit from Omeo--from +Melbourne--from Australia. He had reduced his worldly possessions to the +smallest portable quantity, while leaving his hut and belongings in +apparently the state which they would present during his absence, +presuming merely a temporary absence. + +So steadily had he laboured, so assiduously had he devoted himself to +the arrangement of every detail which by any chance could be needed, +that on the Thursday evening he was in the somewhat nervous position of +a man who had nothing to do but to await the signal for departure. At +the same time, he had neglected no precautions which could tend to throw +his comrades of Omeo and the public generally off their guard. He had +not signified his intention of starting with the escort. He had made the +same arrangements which would have been necessary for the consignment of +his gold if he himself was absent. + +He had said casually to his friend Barker, the storekeeper, that 'he +might go, or he might not; he was not sure; just as the fit might take +him. Anyhow, he would only be away a fortnight. It depended upon any +fresh "show" turning up. There was a talk of something towards the Snowy +River.' + +He had purposely, from the day of his arrival at Omeo, adopted a rough, +laconic manner, in keeping with his assumed character of 'Ballarat +Harry'; had been, indeed, at some pains to efface tokens of gentle +blood, of culture, of refinement, of that chiefly indefinable personal +accompaniment which is usually described as 'the manners of a +gentleman.' + +This curious possession, sometimes laboriously acquired, and yet only +perfect when merely derived from the accident of birth and inheritance, +is, by some shrewd observers of human nature, believed to be wholly +inseparable from the individual who has once possessed it. Others +believe--granting a careless habit of association, a looseness of fibre, +recklessness of mood, sordid surroundings, not to mention a fixed +intention of cutting loose from all the influences of early +training--that wondrous, almost incredible declension may take place. +One likes to fancy that the refinement produced by years of early +training, joined with hereditary tendency, can never be obliterated. But + + 'Want can quench the eyes' bright grace, + Hard toil can roughen form and face.' + +Although in the case of Lance Trevanion it would have been an +exaggeration to have said with the poet-- + + 'Poor wretch! The mother that him bare, + In his wan cheek and sunburnt hair + She had not known her child.' + +But (and I who write have many a time witnessed the transformation) it +is by no means so easy to recognise the 'lapsed gentleman' after he has, +for whim, indolence, or necessity, played the bush labourer for a year +or two. The roughened hands, the altered expression of face, the gradual +disappearance of _les nuances_, the minor society tricks of expression +and manner, the rough habiliments, the changed step--all these and +more--the inevitable concomitants of the comparatively rude life of the +miner, the 'sundowner,' the shepherd or boundary-rider--denote the +disrated aristocrat. Any one of the subdivisions of Australian manual +labour _does_ inevitably, indisputably, change and disguise the +individual, of whatever previous history. There are exceptions, +doubtless; but such are rare. + +In addition to the safeguards which a miner's garb, daily labour, and +rude association provided against recognition, Lance had practised of +set purpose the slang phrases and ungrammatical idioms common among men +of his adopted occupation. This kind of verbal deterioration is more +easy to acquire by careless habit than to relinquish when an upper +stratum of society is again reached, as relatives of young men returning +from 'back block' sojourns or 'northern territory' explorations have +discovered to their regret. Taking his privations into consideration, it +must not be considered very wonderful that the 'Ballarat Harry' of Omeo +was a different-appearing personage from the Lance Trevanion of No. 6, +Growlers', much more the haughty, rebellious heir of Wychwood. + +The expected morning broke--a transcendent day of early spring, known +even to this mountain land, mist-shrouded and storm-swept though it be +in its winter garb. The sky was cloudless, the air breezeless, as the +sun uplifted his golden shield over the forest-clothed shoulders of the +Bogong and the Buffalo. + +As the pearl-gray tints of the dawn-light insensibly dissolved,--losing +themselves, even as had the darker hues of the earlier morning, in a +bath of delicatest pink, enriched ere the eye could trace the +translucence with hues prodigal of crimson and burnished gold,--the +austere marble-white snow-peaks appeared to stand forth in yet more +awful and supernal splendour. Contrasted with colouring of indescribable +brilliancy, they appeared a company of phantasmal apparitions in the +silence of that wondrous dawn pageant. + +Lance Trevanion was but a man as other men. How many times had he looked +upon these and kindred wonder-signs of Nature with incurious eyes, +holding them to be but ordinary phenomena with which, in the grip and +peril of Circumstance, he had nought to do. But now, his nervous system +being more tense, and his mental tone exalted in view of an imminent +deliverance, a stir took place among faculties long disused. In curious +unexplained fashion the beatific vision connected itself with his cousin +Estelle, whom he had ceased to regard as a terrestrial entity. Severed +from her, not less by seas and oceans than by inexorable fate, her +image, bright and celestial as it had formerly appeared, was now fading +rapidly; becoming fainter and yet more ethereal with each succeeding +recollection. + +But on this, the last morn which he hoped to spend in this wilderness, +her image seemed to present itself with strangely persistent clearness +before him. How she would have joyed,--she that was so passionately fond +of landscape scenery, who discovered fresh beauties in every humble +hillock and lowly streamlet,--could but she have stood here with him; +together could they have beheld this entrancing vision. With quickened +tide, the back-borne stream of memory brought to his recollection the +many times they had stood hand in hand and gazed at sunset, stream, or +woodland, glorified by Nature's alchemy. He could almost fancy that he +heard her voice, soft and low, rich, yet so clear and distinct, as she +dwelt upon each feature of the landscape with instructed enthusiasm. He +recalled her dainty ways--her unvarying softness and sweetness, her +unfailing tact and temper, which had so often turned the tide of the +Squire's wrath, the discreet counsel that had so often been displayed in +times of perplexity. + +And now, what torture to think of her! of all the sweetness and beauty, +divine as it now appeared to him, lost for ever, as much alien to him, +henceforth and for evermore, as though she had been born on another +planet! + +The sudden change from the currents of his thoughts led the lonely, +half-despairing man to an almost complete temporary detachment from his +surroundings. He forgot much of the misery, the despair, the evil hap of +this past year--that year which had been so much more eventful than the +whole of his previous life. A new hope appeared to arise within his +outworn, wearied heart. Might he not, if he regained the old +land--might he not yet recover his position? Great heavens! was it then +possible that such an elysium should be in store for him? He knew +Estelle's steadfast fearless nature; he knew the sweet and loving pardon +that would shine in her eyes when they met, if ever permitted by a +merciful God. Was there a God? and could He be thus merciful even to a +forlorn, degraded outcast like himself? + +As he stood leaning, with folded arms and meditative air, against the +doorpost of his humble dwelling, the clatter of hoofs along the track +which led near the hillock upon which the hut stood gave a fresh current +to his thoughts, and recalled him to a sense of the present. 'One day +more,' he said, half aloud. 'Shall I ever see these hills and valleys +again? I owe them much. They have proved good harbour for the stricken +deer.' + +'Who the deuce is this?' His thought shaped itself into speech as a +wild-looking rider forced his horse, a half-broken colt, as near to the +hut door as he could get him. The colt snorted and trembled, after the +manner of his kind, but refused to budge a foot nearer. The horseman,--a +long-haired, long-legged native lad,--exercising his spurs vigorously, +besides devoting the colt and all his relatives to the infernal deities, +was fain to hold out a scrap of paper in his hand and await Lance's +approach. + +'It was you as sold Number One South, on the Tinpot Reef, to Yorkey +Dickson, wasn't it?' inquired the ingenuous youth, staring at Lance. + +'Yes; what then?' + +'Well, there's been a bloomin' row between him and his mates and Mick +Doolan's crowd. They're measuring him off, and makes out as you'd took +up too much ground. He wants you to come. He give me this for ye; blank +ye, I'll knock the blank head off ye, if ye don't stand quiet.' + +This last communication, though in strict continuation with his previous +address, was apparently intended for the colt's progressive education, +that vivacious animal having taken fright at Lance's approach, and +swerved backward with rear and plunge directly Lance reached out his +hand for the missive. He, however, retained hold of the paper, which, +after some difficulty, he deciphered-- + + MR. HARRY JOHNSON. + + Dear Sir,--I paid you honest for Number One South, which I + stand a good show of loosin' if you don't come out and prove + your pegs. The Tips are trying the bluff game, and if you don't + stand by me I'll be regular jumped and run off the field. Come + afore dinner. + + Yours trewly, + YORKEY DICKSON. + +'My word! I'll have him steady enough by the time we get back to Tin +Pot. Been backed first time the day afore yesterday, and of course he's +touchy,' he explained, as the colt, after a wild rear, in which he +nearly fell backwards, stood with his forefeet rooted to the ground and +snorted, trumpet-like. 'Shall I say you're a-comin'?' + +'I suppose so--yes,' slowly answered Trevanion, half absently. 'Curse +the claim and all belonging to it! I never wanted to see it again. But I +won't have the fellow done out of it. Tell him I've half a mind not to +come, as I'm going to Melbourne to-morrow. It's lucky for him I got word +to-day.' + +'All right! I'll tell him you'll be there by dinner-time. So 'long!' and +with the words on his lips he turned his horse's head, and with spur and +shout forced him into a hand-gallop along the main track to the +township, up the principal street, and opposite the hotel door before +the half-tamed excited animal had time to halt or resist. + +'It's an infernal nuisance,' said Trevanion, half aloud. 'But I don't +want to leave things tangled up. Yorkey paid me good money, and I +shouldn't like the poor devil to be wronged by those scoundrels. I'll +walk, too; it will do me good, and keep me from thinking.' + +The day promised to be glorious. Slowly the mountain mist had rolled +back, and gradually disclosed the tones and magically blended colour +effects which the awakened morn revealed. A dull grayish green tinted +the undulating prairies, stretching to the darkly dense forest which +clothed the foot-hills of the Australian Alps. The sombre mountains +gradually ripened in colour as the sun-rays pierced them in concentric +lines, so that a graduated scale, shading from darkest green to +brilliant emerald, developed hourly. Deathlike, still eternal-seeming, +majestic, their snow-crowns rested on Bogong and Buffalo, with far-seen +Kosciusko and Feathertop in the azure distance. + +The solar heat became distinctly noticeable--indeed, bordering on +oppressive. But Lance, excited in spite of himself, stepped joyously +forward as he felt the miles slipping behind him, as though on some +long-remembered schoolboy truant expedition. How different was the free +elastic stride with which he covered the ground now from the aimless, +dejected shuffle of himself and his fellow galley-slaves of the +_President_! His spirits rose with each mile of the way traversed. +Surely everything was turning in his favour. He would be pardoned yet, +his fair fame re-established. His innocence would not be so hard to +prove, after all. Tessie and Kate could _now_ give different evidence. + +'Yes! England, Estelle, Wychwood! Fate would repent her of this dire +injustice. He would yet again place foot on the shore of his native +land, the home of his ancestors, as surely as he would presently ascend +the ridge on the other side of this Mountain Ash Gully, into which he +was now descending; as surely as he would behold the plain +far-stretching towards the horizon, the diggers' tents in the secluded +valley.' + +Thus thinking, and moving forward with eager, quickened step, he reached +the bottom of the ravine, which--a notable exception to the general +distribution of timber--was covered with a scrub or thicket of the +mountain ash saplings for some distance back. From the course of the +little stream, eastward, appeared a narrow flat, riddled with shafts +long worked and abandoned, but still furnishing, in this depth and +closeness, a record of former richness. + +'What would Kate say if she saw me here to-day?' he thought to himself. +And then her warning rang in his ears. 'As you value your life,' he +seemed to hear. 'When I get back,' he said, 'I will swear to take +excellent care of myself.' + +'If such a thing as prudence can be knocked into a Trevanion, surely +what I have undergone should produce it. But what a lunatic! what a +benighted idiot I was to leave England at all! Why couldn't I have borne +the old man's petulance, like scores of other fellows that I have known? +All would have come right in the end, with Estelle's help. What a girl +she was! And what a fool I have been! Looking back, it seems incredible +that I--that _any man_--could have been so mad, so blindly besotted! I +wonder how the old Squire is now? He and Estelle must have a lonely time +enough of it in the gloomy old manor-house. Well, I swear--as God hears +me now--that when I return--if I ever do--I will humble myself before +the old man, and, yes, try for the rest of my life to make amends to him +and to her for the sorrow and anxiety which I have cost them.' + +As this last thought passed through his mind, shaping itself +unconsciously into articulate speech, he stopped, with his right foot +raised upon a block of stone, and listened intently, with head half +turned towards the thickest portion of the scrub, which here approached +the narrow track worn in old days by the cattle-herds of the surrounding +pastures. + +At that moment a shot was heard, and Lance Trevanion fell forward on his +face, temporarily disabled, if not mortally wounded. Following the +report, two men emerged from the covert, one of whom carried a gun. They +were Caleb Coke and Lawrence Trevenna. + +'That dropped him,' said the former, with a fiendish chuckle. 'Not far +from the "curl," I'd say, if it was a bullock. Many a one the old single +barrel has finished. I thought she'd carry straight that distance.' + +Here the wounded man moved his arm and groaned. + +'Ha! my fine gentleman!' said Trevenna, 'I swore I'd have ye under my +feet yet. Where are ye now?' And here the hellish villain spurned the +unresisting form of his prostrate foe. 'What do ye say about "time" now? +This is the last round of all.' + +'That's no good,' growled Coke, 'and d--d cowardly, into the bargain. +You couldn't stand up to him when he was right, so ye may leave him +alone now. He's only stunned; the ball's grazed his forehead. Lend us +that tomahawk o' yourn. I'll finish him.' + +Two crashing blows, one of which clove the skull even to the brain, and +this man--this 'masterpiece of nature,' so lately in full possession of +the strength and beauty of youth--lay a disfigured corpse. + +'Now lend a hand and let's get him off the road a bit,' said Coke, as +coolly as if he was directing the assistants of a slaughter-yard. +'Scrape some sand over that blood; there ain't much, but it might show. +We've got to strip him first, and then it won't take long to drop him +where he won't be seen again in a hurry.' + +Dragged through the scrub some twenty yards or more, the dead man lay +with dreadful widely open eyes as they had placed him. A heartrending +spectacle surely, had but the men who now busied themselves in stripping +the corpse possessed the feelings of ordinary humanity. But a lifetime +of crime, for the most part undetected, had dulled the heart and brain +of the older ruffian, to the exclusion of all but the baser instincts--a +veritable demon disguised in form of man. Fiends of the pit could scarce +have exceeded him in remorseless cruelty. + +In Trevenna's case the love of gain, the hope of booty, together with +complicated feelings of jealousy and revenge, rendered him callous to +all natural feeling. Swiftly was the dead man divested of his clothing; +his watch, a few bank notes, which he had perhaps placed in his purse in +readiness for the morrow, were secured, and after counting and +inspection, taken possession of by Trevenna. + +This done, the old man pointed to a mound a few yards distant around +which the saplings clustered thickly, showing that some time had elapsed +since the shaft which it marked had been commenced. + +'That's the deepest shaft on the flat; they was a-sinking for the blue +"lead" and bottomed on rock. You take hold of him.' + +A combined effort placed the dead man on the edge of a shaft, down which +the old man peered with ghoulish glee, as if to gauge the depth. 'Hold +on,' he said, as he dropped a stone. The men waited for some seconds, +which seemed long, until a dull thud came up from the lower level, +telling by its delay that the shaft was little under a hundred feet. + +In another moment the unresisting form was drawn to the edge of the +yawning black-mouthed pit, which, so wondrous straight and narrow, had +been driven deeply into the bowels of the earth. A push, a heave, and +the once noble and beautiful form of him who was Lance Trevanion +disappeared from the face of the earth, hidden from the light of the +sun, from the ken of mortal man, for ever and for ever! + + * * * * * + +As the strange dull sound, so unlike any other, which follows the fall +of a human body down a deep shaft came up from below, Trevenna shuddered +in spite of his hardihood. + +The old man laughed aloud. 'You're only half baked yet, Larry, with all +your blowing. When you've seen as many coves rubbed out as I have, +you'll have better narves. We've got a ticklish game to play yet, mind +ye, so don't go a-shivering and shaking like a school-girl. Take off yer +duds now and collar his, and let's see how yer look.' + +Trevenna, with a rude oath, repelled the accusation of softness, and +doffing his own garments, which he made into a bundle and threw down the +shaft, proceeded to dress himself in the dead man's clothes. This +transformation effected, the curious similarity between the two men +became so apparent to the only spectator that Coke yelled with apparent +amazement and danced around him with fiendish delight. + +'By ----!' he cried, 'if that ain't the rummiest fake ever I see. Your +own mother wouldn't know the difference. Hanged if _I_ could tell, and I +knowed the pair on ye purty well. Pitch a log or two down the hole; it +won't be long afore it falls in. It's bad standing ground, and then he +won't need no tombstone. We'd as well collar our horses now and get to +the cove's hut after dark. Then you start fair to-morrow morning as +'Ballarat Harry,' alias Lance Trevanion, Esquire, and I'm d--d if +there's a digger on Omeo as'll know the difference. What are ye lookin' +in the grass for?' + +'When we had the--the mill--I swear he had a watch-chain. It must have +dropped hereabouts.' + +'Well, I'm blowed!' chuckled the older ruffian, 'if that ain't a good +'un. Takin' a man's life, his money, his duds, and his watch, and then +growlin' because the chain's a-missin'. You'll find it in his hut, I'll +go bail.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Lance Trevanion, dwelling and working by himself, had accustomed the +miners around Omeo to his irregular, independent mode of life. Sometimes +he was absent for days together, returning at midnight or dawn, as the +case might be. When it was reported that he had been seen to enter his +hut just after dark in company with another man, no one looked upon the +circumstance as calling for comment. He had been at the claim which he +had sold to Yorkey Dickson early in the day, and being detained there, +discussing the intricacies of a mining dispute, had reached his home +after sunset. + +On the next morning--the one fixed for the departure of the escort for +Melbourne--he was heard inquiring from the Barker storekeeper if his +gold had been properly labelled and directed. 'He was not sure about +going himself,' he said, 'but thought it likely he might at the last +minute.' The storekeeper looked at him with a certain air of surprise. +'What are you staring at?' he asked abruptly, at the same time fixing +his eyes intently on the man. + +'Oh, nothing, Harry,' Barker replied apologetically, 'only I thought +there was something queer about you this morning. If you'd been a +drinking man I'd have thought you'd had a booze on the quiet. And your +face ain't got rid of them marks yet. Seemed they was about gone, last +time I seen yer.' + +'They'll not last much longer,' he said grimly, 'and the man that gave +them to me got the worst of it. He won't be so ready for a row in +future.' + +'Is that so?' inquired the trader confidentially. 'We all thought it +must have been his fault, you bein' such a quiet card in a general way. +Serve him right, I say.' + +'So I say too,' replied his auditor. 'By the way, just send your boy +over to the post-office to see if there are any letters for me. I'll +have a smoke while he runs over.' + +In a few minutes the letters came. One from the banker in Melbourne +acknowledging his last draft and informing 'Mr. Henry Johnson' that they +would receive and hold to his order the parcel of gold of which they had +advices. The other, addressed to 'Mr. Henry Johnson, Long Creek, Omeo,' +was in a female hand. Mr. Johnson placed it in his pocket unread, +saying carelessly that it would do to read when he got home. + +'He's a rum chap, that Ballarat Harry, as ever I see in Omeo,' said the +storekeeper. 'Sometimes so jolly in a quiet way, and then he's as stiff +and stand off as can be. But I'm dashed if ever I seen him as queer as +he was to-day; why, I hardly knowed him when he came in first!' + +When 'Harry Johnson' reached his hut, he sat down, and shutting the +door, which he carefully secured with a bolt, took out the letter and +read as follows--a sardonic smile upon his features the while-- + + TOORAK, _10th September 185-_. + + MY OWN DARLING LANCE--Could you ever expect to receive a letter + from me written in this country? In your wildest dreams, did it + ever occur to you that I should come out to Australia in search + of you? I told you at our last parting at dear old Wychwood + that I would come, if you did not return within the time + specified. I don't know that the time has quite elapsed, but + when the poor old Squire died (how changed and softened he was, + Lance, in his latter days you can hardly think) I could not + stay in England. You never wrote. We did not know what had + become of you: whether you were dead or alive. I promised him, + Lance, on his deathbed, that I would seek you out. And you know + we Chaloners and Trevanions hold to our word. + + I _know now_ all that you have done and suffered, my poor + darling--_all_! I can partly understand why you did not write. + Still you should have done so; you know you should. I am not + going to reproach you or to write a long letter. But fancy me + having been up at Ballarat and stayed at Mrs. Delf's inn at + 'Growlers',' and know Jack Polwarth and his wife and dear + little Tottie--who hasn't forgotten you--and Mr. Hastings and + Mr. Stirling! I was actually there when your letter came from + Omeo! + + Why didn't I write? You see _now_ how hard it is to bear when + friends are silent. But I refrained, sorely against the grain, + _for your sake_. It might unsettle you, I thought, even tempt + you to come to Melbourne, where the risk would be terrible. So + I waited till I could get a really good opportunity and escort + for Omeo. You will see me--I am almost beside myself with joy + at the thought--almost as quickly as this letter reaches you, + Mr. Vernon, my kind host, says. He bought me a delightful + horse--so safe and pleasant. I shall quite enjoy the ride up. A + storekeeper, his wife and daughter, also an assistant, are my + companions, so you see I am well protected. Have you got the + ring and the token? I have mine safe. Ever and till we meet, + your own + + ESTELLE. + +'Well, I'm blowed,' was the reader's inelegant but characteristic +exclamation as he folded up the letter,--oh! rare and precious +outpouring of a fond woman's love and tenderness,--'if this game isn't +right into my hand! I've got his gold. I've got his cash. His girl's +running fair into my arms, and, if the luck holds, I'll have his house +and land in the old country. Lance Trevanion, if I haven't got square +with you, the devil's in it, or Caleb Coke, which comes to the same +thing! I've got to take care _he_ don't turn dog on me, though. It was +he put me on to plant for Trevanion in Mountain Ash Gully. We're both in +it, though he fired the shot and knocked him on the head afterwards. +We've gone whacks so far in the nuggets and cash in the hut; who'd 'a +thought he'd such a pile stowed away there? But if I can get to +Melbourne, take the girl on the hop, marry her, and clear out to England +or 'Frisco the day after, as I expect he intended to have done, old +Caleb may whistle for his share. By Jove! what a lucky job it was that +Coke and I had a good overhaul of the hut on the quiet. It's put me up +to all I wanted to know to act Lance Trevanion to the life. I've done it +before, but now I'm up in my part to the letter. I've got the very +clothes he was last seen in, the marks on my face _he_ gave me, damn +him, much about the same as I gave _him_; with putting on a bit of a +drawl that he always had, the devil himself wouldn't know us apart. I +wonder if he will when _my_ turn comes below?' + +Then the villain laughed aloud, a ghastly sound in the lonely hut and +still night The unnatural sound died away,--guilt rarely laughs +long,--when, lighting his pipe and stirring the embers of the fire in +the chimney, he recommenced his meditative plotting. + +'Now then, the devil of it is, that I'll have deuced little time to work +things in, if this girl Estella, or whatever she calls herself, comes up +to-morrow or next day. However, perhaps the shorter the time the better +the chance; she'll be bustled, and won't have time to think. All I've +got to do is to play Lance Trevanion to the life for a day or two, get +her off to Melbourne, and follow up after. The sooner I'm off the +better, for fear Kate gets wind of it and blows the whole bloomin' plant +to blazes. There's nothing she'd like better, blast her! I think I can +do the swell business middling near the mark. I've been studying some of +those squatter toffs that come to Monaro for store catch. If a bit of +slang leaks out, or a slip in grammar, why, of course, it's from +associating with rough cards at the diggings, not to mention the +chain-gang business; she'll believe, like all these flats of new chums, +that Australian life's enough to take the shine out of any man's mind +and manners, grammar, and good looks. Then the wedding! Ha! ha! if that +won't be the best joke out. Fancy Larry Trevenna spliced to a real +lady--a dashed handsome girl I believe she is--anyhow her likeness says +so. Next day off to England or America,--the last if I can fix it--and +no more Australia for yours truly. + +'The best of it is, even if I _am_ nabbed, I can easily prove that _I'm +not him_. Then there's the bigamy racket, though I daresay if I let Kate +off, she'd be glad enough to take her own way and clear out. It's a +ticklish business, of course; but I stand to win or lose a heavy stake, +and I'll play it out, by God! I don't see how she can doubt I'm the real +man. I've read his letters and things till I nearly know all the places +and people by heart. I've got the ring and the locket she talks about, +and a lot of family trinkets and nicknacks, and there's no mistake we +_are_ as like--that is, were--as two peas. Why the deuce we should be, +the devil only knows. Well, I'll have another smoke and turn in. There's +a deal to think about to-morrow.' + +Next day being Sunday, which even at the wildest Australian digging +differs somewhat from other days, Mr. Harry Johnson dressed himself more +carefully than usual, and after breakfast went 'down town'--that is, he +proceeded to Barker's store, in order to gather up news generally and +discover whether Miss Chaloner was on the road up, so that he might be +fully prepared for the momentous meeting. + +As it happened, he found out precisely what he wanted. A young fellow +had arrived that morning and had passed a party one stage back on the +road answering to their description. The young man was not a miner, but +a cattle-dealer, making a forced march to Monaro in order to buy store +cattle. The price was rising daily, so he was riding post-haste for fear +of losing the market. He had overtaken the storekeeper's party, in +which were three women--one a fine-looking girl--to this he could +swear--and riding a clever, well-bred hackney: such a horse was never +bought in Melbourne under a hundred pounds. He believed they would be in +Omeo to-morrow evening before sundown, and were going to stay at the +Reefers' Arms. + +On Monday, therefore, Lawrence Trevenna devoted the whole of his +energies to the fullest preparation for the leading part which he had to +play. He neglected no precaution. He made fresh search among the papers +of Lance Trevanion. He read and re-read the letters contained in the +brass-bound portmanteau which had been sent to Omeo by Charles Stirling. +He reckoned up over and over again the various points on which it was +necessary for him to be accurately informed in order to satisfy any +lurking doubt of Miss Chaloner. + +He had noted more than one reference to the chain with a coin attached, +and an almost historical heirloom which he had given her at parting. The +ring which Lance always wore, and which he had taken from the dead man's +finger, was also alluded to. The half threat which Estelle had made to +come to Australia, if Lance did not return, or write, was spoken of. Of +course, as a passenger in the _Red Jacket_, he knew the day on which +that vessel sailed, when she arrived in Melbourne, and those occurrences +of the voyage which Lance had described in his home letters. The doubt +in his mind was naturally whether this high-born damsel would throw +herself into his arms with the unreserve of plighted love, and be ready +to marry and depart with him from Australia at the earliest possible +period; or whether she might have her doubts as to his being the right +man, and so work confusion or even danger. Much was on the cards. All +depended on the deal. But he held a strong hand, he told himself. +Trumps, too, in profusion. And, with the hardihood of a born and +practised gambler, he stood prepared to back his luck to the last. + +The following day passed slowly; but as the evening wore on he lounged +over to the hotel at which the travellers were to arrive, and made it +carelessly but generally known that he expected a young lady who was +coming up with Caldwell and his wife and sister. He was thereupon +congratulated in a jocular manner, when finally, as the early spring day +was fading fast into the short twilight, the tramp of horses' feet was +heard along the well-worn track which came up from the coast town, and +the little cavalcade, composed of two men and three women, halted before +the hotel verandah. + +The inn loungers gathered around the strangers, proffering aid, much +stimulated by the prospect of news. The ladies had been assisted from +their steeds, and the landlord was leading the way to the principal +sitting-room, in which a cheerful fire was blazing, when a tall man came +through the party, and, pausing before the young lady who followed at +the rear of the party, said, in a voice tremulous with emotion, +'Estelle, my darling, we meet at last!' + +The girl gazed earnestly in his face for a moment, his eyes meanwhile +fixed on hers with an intense and even increasingly fervid glance; then, +as he wound his arm around her waist and drew her towards him, she +murmured with undoubting faith--'Lance, ah! my dearest Harry, I hardly +knew you at first. It must be your beard, I think. And how did you +happen to be here to meet me?' she continued, disengaging herself from +his embrace, as a sense of shyness and confusion commenced to assert +itself as she looked around. + +'And why did you not write and tell me you were in Australia before?' he +said, half menacingly; 'it was hardly fair to me, I think.' + +'It is a long story; we shall have plenty of time to talk it over. I did +it for the best, though I daresay you will blame me. But I must go and +rest a little; we are all terribly tired. You will be here this evening, +though I warn you we shall go to bed early.' + +She did not appear at the ordinary evening meal, sending out word that +she was fatigued, and had a quite too overpowering headache. The +storekeeper's wife and daughter were loud in praise of the uncomplaining +manner in which Miss Chaloner had undergone the hardships of the +journey. 'It's not as if she was used to it, poor dear,' said the +matron, 'like me and Bessie here, as has had to rough it all our lives, +pretty near. Yet there she was, taking everything as it come, and never +a growl out of her. My word! she can ride though.' + +'And that horse of hers is a plum,' assented Miss Bessie; 'she looked +after him well, and he's worth it. I'd like to have him, I know, instead +of my old crock. I believe he's thoroughbred, or close up; and if they +ever have races in this beastly hole, he'd win all the money they're +game to put up, hands down.' + +'Nonsense, Bessie,' replied the elder woman; 'how do you know? Your +tongue goes too fast, Miss. Don't you think so, Mr. Johnson? I don't +know what's come to the girls nowadays, they're that forward and think +they know everything. But you're a lucky man, if it's true as you're +engaged to be married to the young lady, as it seems is a fact. There's +very few girls like her in this country or any other, you mark my words, +and I hope you're good enough for her, that I do. I'll just go and see +how she is.' + +The worthy dame, on returning from the bedchamber, brought the +intelligence that Miss Chaloner could not appear again, being prostrated +by a nervous headache, but sent a message to Mr. Johnson that she would +be quite well in the morning, and would be glad to see him after +breakfast. With this ultimatum 'Mr. Johnson' was fain to be outwardly +content, and, though inwardly chafing, betook himself to his hut, there +to spend the night with what 'companions of Sintram' might be available. +He was not, however, wholly dissatisfied with the progress made. +'Anyhow,' he thought, as, after a couple of potent 'nips,' he sat +smoking over his fire, 'the first act's over, and pretty right too. She +believes I'm the man, and though something or other's startled +her,--like a half-broken filly,--she'll come to, after a bit. I must +have a regular good pitch to her to-morrow, and bring out the cove's +rings, and trinkets, and keepsakes, that she knows about. I'll have the +whole thing out with her, and settle about when we're to meet in +Melbourne and get spliced. It's a job that won't stand waiting about. I +must get her away and on the road in a day or two, and pick up the +escort and get down by myself. If I leave with her, that infernal +Kate'll get wind of it and be on our track as sure as a gun. She thinks +I went to Monaro for horses, and won't be back for a month, but she'd +fossich out any woman business if I was the other side of h--l, I do +believe.' + +'I shall be cornered,' he said to himself, pursuing the same train of +thought, 'if she wants to stay here a while and see where I was working, +and all that rot that women are so dashed foolish about. I must lay it +out that I might be taken any day, and the sooner we both get to +Melbourne and off by the first ship--the day after we're married, if +possible--the safer for her dearest Lance--that's me--_me_!'--here the +villain laughed aloud with fiendish enjoyment of the base deceit of +which the unhappy girl was to be the victim. 'If he could only see us! +ha! ha! Once we're married, there's no get over that. Once we're clear +away, hang it, I'd almost like to have him alive again, to enjoy the +sight of his face and see how he took it. His lady-cousin--his wife as +was to be, that wouldn't touch me with a pair of tongs--if she +knew--_if_ she only knew--that it was Larry Trevenna, that used to be a +stable-boy, a farm-lad, a horse-dealer's tout. If mother hadn't died, +things might have been better, and old granddad too. She used to talk as +if there was some mystery. I wonder if there was, and what sort. Anyhow +there will be, and that's enough for the present, if it comes off.' + +Estelle rose early next morning with a view to survey at leisure her +novel surroundings. She had perfectly recovered from the fatigue of the +previous day. The regular exercise of the bush journey had acted +beneficially upon her health and spirits, as indeed such a term of +travel does upon all normally constituted people. The night had been +clear and frosty. As she paced the verandah, which, as in most houses of +the class, absorbed the whole front of the hotel, she was first +surprised, then charmed and excited, by the view of the majestic Alpine +range, the snow-covered peaks of which were glittering in the rays of +the morning sun. + +'How grand! how inconceivably lovely!' said she, half aloud; as +gradually the view opened out, in a sense expanded itself before her +rapturous gaze. 'How little I expected to feast my eyes upon a scene +like this! Poor Lance, poor fellow! how often such a glorious landscape +as this must have comforted him in his loneliness! Perhaps he thought of +me at such times; he could not help it. He used to tease me at Wychwood, +I remember, about what he called my craze for scenery. I must remind him +of it to-day. Yes, to-day; how strangely it sounds! I shall have to make +up my mind----' and here she seemed to fall into a musing mood, while a +sigh from time to time escaped involuntarily. 'Yes,' she thought; 'it +would be hardly advisable to live here after we--after we were married. +Reports would be sure to get abroad, and then, perhaps, if he was +recaptured his punishment would be increased, and that would kill +him--would kill us both indeed. I could never survive it, I feel sure. + +'Then, what would be the safer course to pursue? To go to some seaport, +where they could take ship for Europe or America, as the case might be? +Why should they not take their passage for San Francisco? Once landed +there, who was to know Lance from any other Australian digger, numbers +of whom had been backward and forward since the earliest "rush," in +1849? Melbourne in some respects would be the better port of shipment; +it was nearer, more easily reached, and there was such a mixed multitude +of "pilgrims and strangers," miners, speculators, colonists, Europeans, +and foreigners, that any number of persons "illegally at large" (an +expression she had caught in Melbourne) might pass unnoticed.' + +The clang of the breakfast-bell put an end to her meditation, and +exchanging the keen air of the outer world for a seat near the glowing +fire, high piled with logs, she took the place reserved for her near her +travelling companions of the previous day. The social atmosphere of the +_table d'hôte_ was less 'select' than that at 'Growlers',' but the +utmost decorum nevertheless prevailed. Among the strangers to her was a +middle-aged man, whom she heard addressed as Mr. Gray, and more +familiarly as Con. He was a gold-buyer, about to leave for Melbourne on +the following day. + +'How many ounces are you taking down this time, Con?' asked a jocular +miner at the other end of the table 'You'll be waited for some day, if +you don't look out.' + +'Not much this time, old man,' said Gray. 'But you're right; it _is_ a +risky game, and I don't think I'll chance it much longer. Indeed this +may be my last trip.' + +'Right you are,' said the furnisher of the raw material. 'I'm blessed if +I'd travel that road the way you fellows do, and known to have gold on +you, for all the percentage you make out of it. There's too many cross +chaps about, for my fancy and so I tell you.' + +'Well, a man must live, you know, Johnny,' replied the gold-buyer +good-humouredly. 'But I think I'll take your advice and cut the road +after this.' + +When her lover arrived, Estelle, as was natural, bent an earnest gaze +upon his form and features. Neatly but plainly dressed, his stalwart +figure, erect and stately, showed to great advantage among the +carelessly attired loungers who thronged the entrance. His bold regard, +his dark and clustering hair, his regular features, stamped him as a +being of different mould, in her eyes, from the ordinary persons around +them. A thickly growing beard and moustache hid the lower part of his +face, and concealing much of his mouth and chin, somewhat altered +(Estelle thought) the expression of his countenance. It was not wholly +an improvement, though she could understand his reason for adopting the +prevailing Australian fashion. + +He passed carelessly into the parlour, where there were still a few +people gathered around the fireplace. Putting his arm round her waist, +he said jocularly, as he drew her towards him, 'So you have recovered +from your fatigue. After our long separation, it seems awfully hard on +me that we should see so little of each other.' + +The storekeeper's wife smiled, and Miss Bessie giggled, as Estelle, +blushing deeply, withdrew herself from his clasp, saying hurriedly, 'I +don't think there's any necessity for being so affectionate in public. +We have a great deal to talk over and decide to-day.' + +It was a strange feeling that had come over her for the moment. Added to +her natural dislike to such endearments before spectators of the class +then present, a curious indefinable sensation of repulsion took +possession of her temporarily, as strong as it was instinctive. He drew +back, with a half-angry look; then, assuming an air of injured dignity, +said, 'I ought to apologise. I forgot you hadn't been long out from +home. We don't mind these trifles in Omeo. Do we, Mrs. Caldwell?' + +'Not when people's engaged,' said the matron; while Miss Bessie tossed +her head, and said, 'She thought all the gentlemen wanted keeping in +their places; she'd let them know when she'd a young man of her own, +that she would.' + +All this was of course painful to Estelle; but fearing, from his changed +expression, that she had hurt his feelings, she proceeded to make +amends, after the manner of her sex, by hastily proffering concessions. +The sudden thought of his melancholy life, of his wrongs and +misfortunes, almost impelled her to beg his pardon in the humblest +manner for the involuntary slight. Yet the thought _would_ obtrude +itself of how differently Mr. Stirling or Mr. Dalton would have acted +under the same circumstances, and a sigh told how grieved she felt that +any environment, how sad and mournful soever, should have obscured the +refinement so inherent in the blood of Trevanion. + +Prompt to redress the fancied injury, she placed her hand within his +arm, saying, 'I think the best thing we can do is to go for a nice long +walk on this lovely day, and you shall show me a little of the +"field,"--you see I understand diggers now,--and your hut, where you +have been living all this time by yourself, you poor lonely hermit that +you were.' + +"Now that's the way to behave," said Mrs. Caldwell, smiling, with +motherly approval; "I see you'll know all you've got to do after a +while--girls is flighty at first, Mr. Johnson." + +So they walked forth along the principal (and only) street of Omeo, not +wholly without observation from the miscellaneous crowd of miners, +teamsters, wayfarers, tradespeople, bushmen, and others, with which a +mining town where gold is abundant--and such was then the stage at which +Omeo had arrived--is filled up. More than one head was turned from time +to time to gaze with interest and surprise at the distinguished-looking +though plainly dressed girl 'who had come up to Ballarat Harry.' + +'His luck's in, my word,' was the remark of a stalwart miner, who, pick +on shoulder, was following a cart with his mate, conveying their worldly +possessions. 'I wonder if they're going to live in that hut of his on +the ridge. She don't look as if she'd been used to cook in a slab +fireplace, or lift the lid off a camp-oven.' + +'Camp-oven be blowed,' rejoined his mate, who was affectionately +carrying a long-handled shovel, as being too valuable an implement to be +trusted in a vehicle, 'they're a-goin' to Melbourne to be spliced; and +most like he'll settle there and take to gold-buying on a big scale. +He's well in, is Harry, by all accounts.' + +'It beats me what she sees in him, then--a gal like her, as might have +any man in the whole bloomin' colony, in a manner of speaking. Harry was +a jolly, free-handed chap, as you'd see when he first come, but he's got +that surly and short lately as you'd hardly know him as the same man.' + +'Well, I warn't here when he first come, but from the look of him, when +I see him the other day, I shouldn't be surprised if there was something +"cronk" about him, for all his gold-buying.' + +All unheeding of this careless but not inaccurate criticism, the lovers +sauntered on. As they cleared the outskirts of the town, Estelle said, +'Now you must show me your hut. I _must_ see the place where you have +lived your lonely life, poor fellow. How I used to pity you, when I +thought of it.' + +'There it is, on that rise--this track leads up to it. It's such a +miserable hovel, I hardly like you to see it.' + +'Nonsense! you forget I've been to Growlers' and Ballarat, and know all +about diggings. Why, it's the regular thing, like a shooting-box or a +bothy in the Highlands. Everybody does it. Better men than you (I was +going to say) live in huts. Why, this is quite a grand hut! What fine +broad slabs, and a big padlock too. I thought the miners were so +honest?' + +'Sometimes,' he said; 'not always.' + +They walked into Ballarat Harry's hut. Estelle sat herself down on a +three-legged stool by the side of the still smouldering fire, and gazed +into the pile of ashes on the hearth. Here, for so many a lonely +evening, had he sat and smoked and thought--ah! with what bitterness--of +a lost home, a forfeited birthright, of a father's curse, which, +harmless as thistledown at first, had commenced to be so fatally +prophetic. It _was_ hard. Fate had been against him--against them from +the beginning. But she would make up to him--as far as woman's love +might repair the wrongs of destiny and the cruelty of man--for this +dreadful episode of his life. + +'Oh Lance--dear Lance!' she said; 'how you have lived through it all I +can hardly imagine.' + +'If I had not had the thoughts of you to keep me up,' he said, looking +at her with eyes of bold admiration, 'I might have given in. But I kept +always saying to myself, _she_ will reward me, Stella will be mine when +we meet, and all the past will be forgotten--and you _are_ mine,' he +said, as he took her hand in his and made as if to exact the betrothed +lover's accustomed tribute. + +But again a shrinking feeling of denial--for which she could not +account--possessed her whole frame. She drew back shuddering. 'Pray, +don't let us have any nonsense of that kind,' she said; 'there will be +plenty of time by and by. At present, I feel as if I had so much rather +hear all about your trial and the cruel unjust sentence which ruined +you, and of your life in those dreadful hulks; I always wonder how you +managed to escape.' + +For one moment the flash of his eyes in stern displeasure reminded her +vividly of bygone days and their lovers' quarrels at Wychwood. Then he +spoke, in a voice studiously free from irritation-- + +'I got out through the help and managing of Tessie Lawless--a girl that +cared a deal more for me than you do, if that's the way you're going to +treat me. You've forgotten our old Wychwood days, I suppose. Well, as +you'll have to leave to-morrow, or next day at furthest, for Melbourne, +and we go different ways, we mustn't fall out, must we? I can wait. So +we'd better talk over this journey.' + +'Now don't be cross, my dear Lance; you must give me time. Remember, +I've been a lonely and very sad woman for years, and all thoughts of +love and marriage were put out of my head. Do tell me of your escape.' + +'Well, I DID escape,--which is the chief thing that concerns us now,--or +I believe I should have hanged myself, like the fellow that was in my +cell before me--or got shot, like two other men, for trying to clear out +by day. What I suffered, no tongue can tell!'--here he assumed the most +tragic expression possible, and groaned as if at the recollection,--'the +very thoughts of it make my blood boil.' + +'But how did this girl--Tessie Lawless, was that her name?--succeed in +releasing you?' + +'Well, she persuaded a man who, I believe, was pretty sweet after _her_, +to come one dark night with a boat to the stern of the old hulk. She +sent money and bribed my warder, so I was able to get out and drop down +into the boat. After I was free, she sent a man and two horses to where +I could meet them, and I came up here.' + +'What a brave girl! I should like to see and thank her. She must have +been a great friend of yours?' + +'Well, I suppose she thought a good deal of me in her way, poor thing. I +believe she's in Melbourne somewhere, but I've never seen her since.' + +'You don't seem to have been very anxious to thank her for all the +devotion and courage, I must say. It's the way of the world, I suppose, +and Australia is very like other places in essentials, I begin to +suspect. And now, what are our plans to be? It will be a risk for you to +remain here longer, I suppose?' + +'To be sure it will. You can't tell what may happen. Any day I might be +arrested. Our dart--our plan, I mean--is to get to Melbourne as soon as +possible. You can go down with Holmes Dayton and Con Gray. A policeman +goes with them as escort, and, I think, Gray's sister-in-law. You +couldn't have a safer party. I shall go across country towards the +Murray, and travel a way of my own. We can meet in Melbourne at any +place you arrange, and be married at once--that is, the day before the +vessel sails that we take our passage in for San Francisco. Then we're +off as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and no one the wiser! What do you say to +that?' + +'I suppose,' she answered slowly and reflectively, 'that it would be the +best plan.' + +'The best plan!' he repeated, almost angrily, while a sudden flash shone +from his eyes, and a frown of impatience crossed his face, which brought +back old memories with magical suddenness. 'Why, of course it is. There +can't be any other, unless I hang on here till that infernal hound +Dayrell track me down. But you don't seem to be half keen about it. Can +it be'--and here he changed his voice and looked earnestly, almost +pleadingly, into the girl's face--'that you have changed your mind? If +you have, say so. I have lost home and friends--everything--I know. Am I +to lose you too?' + +His eyes rested on the girl with almost magnetic power. Then a blush +came to her cheek, as she replied-- + +'You have my promise, Lance, and the word of a Chaloner is sacred. +Surely you should know that? Of course I will do as you wish. But--and +here she smiled and raised her eyes pleadingly--you must not be hasty, +but bear with me a little. All things are so strange, and the time is +short. After all my looking forward to our meeting, you have taken me a +little by surprise.' + +'Forgive me, my darling,' he said, with well-acted warmth; 'I _was_ +hasty, but you know the Trevanion temper--my pride was touched. And you +will be ready to start to-morrow? That horse of yours (old Vernon, or +whatever his name was, is no bad judge, if he picked him) is as fit for +the road as when he left Melbourne. I suppose he expected to get a +commission out of you?' + +'You must not talk in that way of my good old friend,' she said gravely. +'He was like a father to me; I can't be too grateful to him and his dear +good wife. But I shall be quite ready to start in the morning with the +people you mention. I am so glad there is a girl in the party.' + +As they walked back to the inn, the arrangements for meeting in +Melbourne were discussed in detail and completely sketched out. She was +to go to Mr. Vernon's house, and thence, when apprised of his arrival, +she would meet him at the South Yarra Church, only escorted by her +friends. Mr. Vernon would 'give her away,' and she would ask them to +keep the matter secret. The ceremony would be deferred till the day +before the sailing of their vessel for Honolulu or San Francisco, as +might be decided. Unless Fate intervened with unexampled unkindness, it +seemed as though a burst of sunshine was about to break through the +cloud of misfortune which had so long encircled them. + +'By this time to-morrow evening,' he said, 'you will be on your way to +Melbourne. It's lucky you've had so much practice lately in riding. I +suppose you found it rather awkward at first?' + +'Awkward?' she said, gazing at him with astonishment, 'Why, you surely +must have forgotten that I hunted regularly the season before you left +home.' + +'Oh yes; of course--of course,' he said. 'But I seem to have forgotten +so many things,'--here he assumed an air as of one indistinctly +recalling long-past incidents. 'Then the horses out here are so +different.' + +'I don't think that at all,' she answered; 'I have seen some wonderfully +fine horses here. And I am sure my good old Wanderer, that I rode up, is +as grand a hackney as ever was saddled. You mustn't run down Australian +horses, you know.' + +'Never mind the horses,' he said pettishly; 'I wish _I'd_ never seen +one, out here at any rate; and now let us settle it all, how we're to +meet, and all the rest of it. I'm to send a note to John Vernon and +Company, Flinders Lane,--is that the address?--and you'll be ready at a +day's notice, won't you?' + +'Yes,' she said slowly and half absently; 'I suppose so.' + +'You see it's this way,' he said, coming still nearer to her and looking +into her face as if to read her inmost thoughts. 'I can't afford to hang +about Melbourne. What I've got to do is to find out the first steamer, +take our passages as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, then get the license: there's +a church close by the Vernons, isn't there, where all the swells +go?--Toorak, or some such name. We slip over there before lunch, and +next day we're man and wife and at sea--clear of Australia--free and +safe for ever! What a sell it will be for those bloodhounds of police!' + +As he spoke rapidly, his eyes gleamed with unholy triumph, carefully +schooled as was the general expression of his countenance. In spite of +her deep abiding sympathy for his sorrows, the girl's gentle spirit +recoiled from the savage satisfaction displayed in his closing words. + +'Oh! Lance,' she said, 'do not speak like that. It pains me to hear even +a tone of lightness about our deliverance. If God permits it, we should +be thankful all our lives. But even if there has been pursuit, these men +that you so hate have only been doing what they supposed to be their +duty.' + +'You are an angel,' he said, with an air of deepest conviction and +tenderness, 'too good for me and for every one. For your sake, I suppose +I must forgive these rascally traps, especially if they don't run me +down. And now, as we shan't see each other in the morning, just one kiss +before we part for the last time.' + +But again she drew back; the same indefinable feeling of repulsion arose +in her instinctively, as strong, as inexplicable. 'You have not long to +wait now,' she said softly; 'until then, you must humour all my whims. +You will, Lance, won't you?' + +'I suppose so,' he said half sullenly; 'women are all alike, full of +fancies. But I _did_ think you would remember old days. You used not to +be so stand off and distant.' + +'We were girl and boy then,' she said. 'Everything seems so changed. I +can hardly fancy even now that we are to be married in a fortnight, +though I have come all this way to find you out. Some strange mysterious +feeling stirs within me from time to time. I can hardly explain it. It +is almost like a presentiment of evil.' + +He laughed suddenly, and as suddenly stopped. '_I_ am not changed,' he +said, 'except by what I have gone through'; then he dropped his voice +into a mournful murmur, as he carelessly and apparently by chance +touched the Chaloner ring. 'But if you can't make up your mind; if you +would like to cry off, to leave me to my fate, say so in time. Perhaps +it would be better for you after all.' + +'No, Lance!' she said, and as she spoke she raised her eyes heavenward, +moist with tears of tenderest sympathy, as the thought rushed across her +brain of his lonely and desperate condition, abandoned by _her_ as by +all the world. 'We Chaloners keep faith. I am your plighted bride, and +I am ready to fulfil my vow, my promise to the living and to the dead. +But you must bear with a woman's weakness and consider how little time I +have to prepare. What would they say at Wychwood, I wonder?' + +'We're in Australia, Stella, and not in England--don't forget that,' he +answered, the frown again darkening his countenance. 'I hope we shan't +see the old country for many a day. We must learn to forget old ways and +fashions.' + +'I can never do so, wherever we may wander,' she answered, with quiet +emotion. 'I don't like to hear you speak of it as a thing of course, and +I wish you would call me Estelle, Lance, not Stella. You never used to +do so.' + +'Very well, Estelle,' he said, 'I won't do it again, if it bothers you. +Stella's a common name out here; that's the reason, I suppose. And now, +as we're at the hotel, we'd better say good-bye. I won't come in the +morning. It's no use making people talk; they're ready enough, without +helping them. You and that Miss Graham can get away with old Dayton +to-morrow. It's the way everybody up here travels, and nothing's thought +of it. I'll write the moment I get down. Most likely I'll be in +Melbourne as soon as you.' + +They parted with a simple hand-clasp, she gazing into his face as if to +read the signs of a spirit worn and wearied with the worldly injustice. +His face was calm, and betrayed no emotion other than deep regret at the +departure of a friend. He tried to throw into the parting words the +sentiment which the occasion demanded, but it was patently an effort, +and had not the ring of truth or tenderness. + +'He _is_ changed,' she told herself, as she moved forward across the +verandah of the hotel and sought her bedroom. 'How changed, I could +hardly have imagined. But who would not have been altered by the +frightful experience he has gone through! I must try and make him happy, +as some poor recompense for all his sorrows.' + +Could she have noted the dark and evil expression of her companion's +face, as he lit his pipe and strode savagely along the path to his +solitary hut, heard the foul oaths with which from time to time he +essayed to relieve his feelings, or the vows of vengeance upon her for +her coldness, she would have deemed him changed indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +The morning of their departure rose bright and cloudless. The air was +fresh and bracing, for the hoar-frost lay unthawed for hours on the +wire-grass in the sheltered valleys, adown which the little cavalcade +passed on the Gippsland road. The trooper, a young mounted constable of +the Victorian Police, with the storekeeper, Holmes Dayton, rode in +front. Then came Estelle Chaloner and her travelling companion, Janie +Graham, a young girl born and nurtured in the bush, the niece of the +gold-buyer Constantine Gray. She had been on a visit to Omeo (save the +mark!), and was now returning to her friends. They had not gone far when +Dayton, the storekeeper, turning into a forest track which ran at right +angles to the main road, explained that he had occasion to meet an +acquaintance on business, and would rejoin them at the next +stopping-place. The trooper then fell back to effect companionship with +Gray, while the girls succeeded to the leading position. + +Mounted on the good steed which she had learned to love, Estelle's +spirits rose as she felt his free elastic motion. Rested by his sojourn +in the inn stable, he paced fast and easily along the forest paths. + +Though unable to account for the feeling, Estelle was conscious of a +distinct sensation of relief, almost amounting to exhilaration. She was +quitting Omeo for ever, and she looked forward with pleasurable +anticipation to the few days of wayfaring which the journey to Melbourne +would necessitate. + +'It will be my last week of freedom,' she told herself. 'I shall have to +sell you, though, my poor Wanderer, you dear, good, faithful creature!' +and she patted her horse's arching neck and pushed over a stray lock of +his mane. 'Well, wherever I go, and whenever I see the old land again, I +shall never have a better horse. I have ridden some good ones in the old +country, but I doubt if any one of the lot was as sure-footed, as easy, +as untiring--certainly not on the food and treatment you have had to put +up with. I wish I could take you home. Indeed, if we were going back in +the ordinary fashion, I _would_ take you with me, whatever it cost. It +would be only buying you over again; and good horses are cheaper here, +even at gold prices, than in England. + +'Now let me see,' she continued, in soliloquy, 'we shall be near +Melbourne by the end of this week. Then, for I suppose it would be +dangerous for him to wait, I must huddle up a few dresses and be +married at once. _Married at once!_' Here she sighed; the light died out +of her eyes, and the freshness of the morn seemed to fade out of her +face. How different was it from the meeting in Australia which she had +promised herself in her more sanguine imaginings! Even if he had been +comparatively poor, her fortune would have sufficed for all needs until +he was enabled to claim his paternal heritage. But now, how +immeasurably worse than poverty was his condition!--disgrace, +dishonour,--irrevocable, perhaps inexpiable,--possibly debarring him +from ever claiming his rights! She saw herself after the vow had been +sworn which bound her to a dishonoured man, a passenger in a foreign +vessel, voyaging to a distant land, with perhaps dangers and privations +in store of which she had no previous conception. How strange and unreal +it all seemed! + +But it was too late to despond--to falter. She had promised: she would +perform. Shrinking with maidenly reluctance from the hasty, and in a +measure clandestine, union to which she found herself committed, she +felt compelled to call up all the reserves of resolution, of which she +had so uncommon a portion, before she could still the instinctive +dislike to the next act in the drama of her destiny. + + * * * * * + +As these thoughts--sombre, hopeful, and desponding by turns--passed +through her brain, the bright spring day wore on; the babbling +brooklets, through which their horses plashed ever and anon, ran clear +and sparkling. As Estelle Chaloner mused over her surroundings and gazed +upwards through the tall white-stemmed eucalypts which, rank upon rank, +hemmed in the rugged bridle-track, looked at the trooper, the +gold-buyer, the rustic damsel who was to be by day and night her closely +associated companion, she could hardly realise her own identity. 'How +changed is my _monde_,' she thought, 'in the course of a few short +months--my daily thoughts and feelings, my plans of the present, my +prospects in the future! Am I indeed the same Estelle Chaloner who sat +in the old hall at Wychwood for all the long sad autumn months, who saw +the red leaves fall in those ancient woods, waiting the while for the +last sands of a sick man's life to run out? And now, where am I? and +_what am I_? What I shall be in the future I almost tremble to think.' + +Immersed in reverie, she had trusted the conduct of her horse almost +entirely to his own discretion. A hackney exceptionally good in the slow +paces, as are many Australian horses, the Wanderer had, for his own +pleasure and satisfaction, gone forward at the top of his walking speed, +which was sufficiently fast to keep her companion's horse at a jog-trot. +From time to time, at an earlier stage, the rustic maiden had laughingly +protested; then Wanderer was held back. However, in this particular +instance the failure of consideration was unnoticed, until Estelle was +aroused by a cry from her companion, so loud and vehement in tone that +she knew at once that no ordinary occurrence had called it forth. + +Reining up sharply, she turned in her saddle to behold a sight which +blanched her cheek and well-nigh froze the life-blood in her veins. + +From out the tangled forest growth, emerging from behind a gigantic +eucalypt, two men, masked and armed, had stepped into the roadway, +abreast of the gold-buyer and the trooper. A third man, half hidden by +the bushes, levelled his fire-arm a few paces in the rear. Both girls +sat horror-stricken on their horses as the trooper's carbine and the +fire-arms of the robbers appeared to make simultaneous reports. The +gold-buyer fell heavily from his horse in the road; the trooper +staggered and swayed in the saddle, dropping his reins, but recovered +himself, though evidently hard hit and unable to control his horse. The +wounded man rose to his knees, but at that moment one of the masked +strangers rushed over and struck him over the head. Estelle's eyes +darkened, and she felt as if all sensation was leaving her; but, +recovering herself, she shook her reins, and the free horse dashed down +the slope leading to the creek of which they had been told, with the +speed of a racer, accompanied by her terror-stricken companion, whose +hackney followed suit with the instinct of his kind. + +The creek was crossed almost immediately. Mile after mile fled away like +a dream before either of the girls thought of drawing rein. At length, +at the foot of a steep and rocky range, the horses commenced to slacken +speed. + +'My God!' said the girl, 'did you see that? They have murdered my poor +uncle! Whatever shall we do? Do you think they will come after us? Is +there any house that we can go to along this horrid road? I know we +shall both be killed and planted so as never to be heard of again.' + +'Let us think over our best course,' said Estelle, aroused to the +necessity of self-possession in the hour of need, and in the presence of +a weaker nature. 'I remember this range. Five miles on the other side is +an inn, near a water-race. If we can get there we are safe; there seemed +to be a good many people about when we passed up. But I hear horses +galloping after us. Good heavens!' + +They stopped, and, listening, could plainly hear the sound of more than +one horse coming fast along the rocky road behind them. + +'We must turn into the wood,' said Estelle; 'fortunately it is thick +enough to hide us until we see who are following up.' + +They rode some distance into the forest, the low-growing pendent shrubs +of which, the product of a damp climate and constant rainfall, were +sufficiently dense to shield them from observation. + +Nearer and nearer came the hoof-beats. The girls gazed anxiously through +the close foliage. Then a chestnut horse came round a corner of the +range, upon which sat a man whose arms were apparently helpless. + +'Great Heaven!' said Estelle, 'it is Beresford the police trooper. He +has been wounded in the arms. See! he cannot hold the reins, poor +fellow!' + +'That's his chestnut horse,' said the rural young lady excitedly; 'I'd +know his blaze and white stockings a mile off. But what's follerin' him +up? I'm blessed if it ain't poor old Uncle Con's horse, and he's got his +pack all right and reg'lar too. Those chaps is gone cronk and done their +villainy for nothing. I'm dashed if I ever see the like!' + +'We had better catch them up,' said Estelle; 'the Lawyers Rest is hardly +five miles distant. We might help that poor Beresford.' + +Suddenly relieved from the deadly fear of the close presence of the +wretches whose deed of blood they had witnessed, the girls put their +horses to full speed and overtook one fugitive before he reached the +hill-top. Bending down from her saddle, the Australian maid caught the +pack-horse's bridle, bursting into tears and loud lamentation as she +recognised her dead kinsman's effects attached to different sections of +the pack-saddle. + +'Poor old Uncle Con,' she said, 'there's his mackintosh, his water-bag, +his billy-can--all the old traps I know so well. Many a time I've joked +him about them--so particular to have everything handy for camping, he +was. He won't camp no more, poor old man! He said it would be his last +trip, and so it was. I wonder if I shall live to see those villains +hanged? That old wretch Coke's in it for one, I'll swear.' + +Scarcely had they ridden another mile when they overtook the police +trooper. Partly disabled and in pain, and guiding his horse with +difficulty, the deathlike pallor of his face told of weakness from loss +of blood; yet he braced himself gallantly for the work that lay before +him. + +'Let me hold your rein,' said Estelle, as she rode up to his horse's +shoulder; 'are your arms badly hurt?' + +'Riddled through and through,' said the young fellow, groaning. 'The +brute must have loaded with slugs; my wrists feel the worst, and there's +a hole in my shoulder as well. I may get some one to ride back with me +from the inn. I can't leave poor Con dead on the road.' + +The sight of the unpretentious slab edifice with a bark verandah which +was dignified with the title of Lawyers' Rest was more grateful to +Estelle's strained vision than would have been the most palatial hotel +in Europe, for around it stood a dozen men, while several horses, 'hung +up' to the palings of the little garden, testified to an unusual +gathering. The trooper's dull eye brightened at the sight, and he looked +as if the spirit within him had power to overcome the weakness of the +flesh. They rode up to the door, a strange cortège, in the eyes of the +miners and squatters there assembled--a woman leading a horse, upon +which swayed and bent forward a wounded man, while a girl followed with +a pack-horse heavily laden and mud-splashed to the eyes. + +As they reined up amid the excited crowd, the trooper lay forward in a +deathlike swoon, and was only saved from falling by the strong arms +which lifted him from the saddle and bore him tenderly to a couch. + +In broken and disjointed sentences Estelle described the deed of blood, +while the gold-buyer's niece inveighed wildly against the murderers of +her uncle. He was a well-known man, and a corresponding degree of +indignation was aroused, while all necessary steps were taken for the +relief of the fugitives. + +The gold was removed, and, after being weighed in the presence of +witnesses, deposited with the landlord, as also the other effects of the +deceased. Wanderer and his comrades were stabled, a comfortable room +prepared by the landlord's wife for the girls, while a dozen well-armed +men were ready to start for the scene of murder within ten minutes of +their arrival. With them rode Trooper Beresford, recovered from his +faint. Revived with eau-de-vie de Cognac, he insisted on accompanying +them. + +But this was a bootless errand. Beresford pointed out where the men +first appeared from behind the buttress of the forest giant. The tracks +were as a printed page to the experienced dwellers in the waste who +stood beside him. But the gold-buyer lay dead in the centre of the road. +From a gunshot wound the blood had welled forth into a pool, while his +skull had been cleft with more than one stroke of an axe. + +'We'd better take him back to the shanty with us, boys,' said one of the +older men, by common consent elected to act as leader. 'You young chaps +as has got sharp eyes hunt about, and don't leave so much as a button +behind if you come across one, next or anigh him. It's no use follerin' +the tracks for more than a bit, just to see which way they've headed. +Beresford here ain't fit, and if they're the men we suspect, one of +'em's near Mount Gibbo by this, and the rest many a mile off some other +way.' + +So the dead man was placed on a horse, and the party wended their way +sadly back to the little hostelry with their silent blood-stained +companion. + +On the morrow, at a formal meeting, it was decided that a strong body of +volunteers, with a black tracker, should follow up the trail of the +murderers. A reward sufficiently large to tempt an accomplice was +offered for information leading to a conviction, an old comrade of the +dead man subscribing more than half the amount. A messenger had been +despatched to the nearest police station, and the Coroner shortly +arrived to hold an inquest upon the body. + +This melancholy business having been completed, and a verdict of 'wilful +murder by persons unknown' having been brought in, Estelle felt +sufficiently recovered to recommence her journey. Now that she had +experienced one of the dread realities of goldfields life, much of her +former confidence had departed. She felt an overwhelming impatience to +regain the security of civilisation, and cheerfully accepted the offer +of the escort of the Coroner, who was also a police magistrate. He +accompanied her as far as the next township on the way to Melbourne. +There were also a couple of police troopers _en route_ for the barracks +at Jolimont, so that nothing better could be wished. At the township +they fell in with a squatter and his daughter bound for Melbourne, with +whom they joined forces till Toorak once more rose to view and the +winding Yarra Yarra. And now this strange and terrible occurrence had +passed like the horror of a dream, and Estelle Chaloner was again in +Melbourne, safe under the sheltering wing of Mrs. Vernon. Awakening on +the first morning in that well-ordered home, she felt as if evil-hap or +danger could never menace her more. Shaken in nerve and outworn by the +journey, words could faintly express the need she felt for rest. Yet a +shuddering dread possessed her lest she might be destined for +experiences not less terrifying and lawless in her future. + +But no season of repose was as yet for her. She must risk whatever +further trials fate had in store. Her word was given; the plighted vow +must be kept. The life, the very soul of him to whom she was pledged to +entrust all that womanhood holds most sacred, trembled in the balance. +Was she, from girlish timidity, from mere nervous shrinking and feminine +reluctance, to which she could not give a name, to draw back meanly from +mere personal considerations? What were her wrongs and probable +privations to _his_? The die was cast. + +Early in the following week the half-expected, half-dreaded fateful +letter arrived. 'He had taken _their_ passage,'--'_our passage_,' she +repeated to herself--'in the _John T. Whitman_ for Callao, in the name +of Mr. and Mrs. H. Johnson. He had arranged for the marriage at the +little church at South Yarra, on the morning of the day the vessel was +to sail. She would sail on that afternoon, and no humbug about it; he +had seen the first mate and made things right with him, so his +information was good. Nothing remained, then, but for his heart's +darling Estelle to hold herself in readiness to be at St. Mark's at the +hour appointed, and all would yet be well. What he had suffered since +they parted, no tongue could tell!... She might imagine his feelings +when he became aware of the diabolical crime that had been committed. He +was half-way to Melbourne when he heard of it. No doubt justice would +overtake the guilty parties. '_She_ had escaped--that was everything. +Poor Con Gray was right when he said it should be his _last trip_.' + +And so the day was at hand--close, inevitable! This was on Tuesday. +Saturday was the day fixed for the sailing of the _John T. Whitman_--for +the joining of two hearts, two bodies, two souls--irrevocably, +eternally--in this world and the world to come. For how can the human +mind realise the essential dissociation during the probation of this +earthly life, or even amid the spiritualised conditions of another +existence, of those _once_ made one flesh--wedded, and welded together +under the sanction of the most tremendous of human sacraments? + +Like most prospective occurrences seen dimly and afar, Estelle Chaloner +had not closely analysed her feelings when the day of doom should +arrive. Now, she experienced a kind of minute analysis of her +sensations, distinctly painful in its intensity. She read and re-read +Lance's letter, and, among other things, marked with surprise an +occasional lapse in grammar, or the use of a small letter when a capital +was imperative. Even the handwriting, though more like Lance's letters +from school than his latter-day epistles, seemed cramped and laboured. +'Poor fellow, poor fellow!' she said softly to herself, 'I suppose he +hasn't written much lately. Australia is a bad country for +correspondence, and yet----' here she smiled and blushed slightly as she +recalled the pile of home letters she had watched Mr. Stirling despatch +one Sunday morning, and her playful reference to his dutiful habits. +'People differ in Australia, I suppose,' she continued, 'as in all other +places. What ignorant folly it is to think otherwise!' and again she +sighed--sighed deeply; then rose from her seat half impatiently. 'It is +my fate,' she said; 'man or woman, who can escape their destiny?' + +Of course, all Melbourne rang with the account of the Omeo Tragedy, as +it was called. Every provincial paper, from one end of Australia to the +other, had its moral deduction, its elaborate amplification. Murders and +robberies were unhappily far from infrequent in those early days of the +Gold Revolution--that social, political, and pecuniary upheaval which +overturned so many preconceived opinions, and changed the destinies of +states no less than individuals. + +But for this special crime the horror was universal, the clamour for +vengeance upon the villains who had done to death a worthy and +inoffensive citizen was exceptionally loud and persistent. A friend of +the murdered man offered three hundred pounds for information leading to +conviction; the Government as much more. It was confidently hoped that +such 'honour among thieves' as existed would disintegrate before so +powerful a solvent. + +Meanwhile Estelle found herself, to her surprise and slight annoyance, +placed involuntarily in the position of a heroine. Her portrait was in +the illustrated papers; not, however, limned from any miniature, but hit +off from a thumb-nail sketch made by an ingenious but deeply respectful +young gentleman connected with the press, during the passage of a brief +interview. It had leaked out in some way, probably through her +travelling companion, that Estelle was about to be married to a man +connected with mining pursuits (so he was described) at Omeo. This fact +was dwelt upon and emphasised as adding to the natural interest felt in +the case. This version of the affair was more than distasteful to her; +as, apart from her natural disinclination to be described and commented +upon from every conceivable point of view, she dreaded lest the +additional publicity forced upon her private affairs might prove fatal +to + +Lance's freedom. + +The bridal preparations, however, went on. Mrs. Vernon, having once +expressed her sincere regret at the sacrifice, so complete and uncalled +for, which Estelle was about to make, and having withstood, not wholly +unmoved, the indignant remonstrance of the high-souled maiden, remained +acquiescent under protest. Their vessel, an American clipper, was +visited; the cabin allotted to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson criticised, but +finally furnished and fitted up with many a cunning device for staving +off the ills of a life on the ocean wave or lightening the _ennui_ of a +'home on the rolling deep.' + +Finally, the very day fixed for the ceremony _did_ arrive. Estelle +appeared at breakfast pale but determined, and about eleven o'clock Mr. +Vernon returned from Melbourne in a cab, prepared for paternal +functions. Then this abnormally small South Yarra wedding-party drove +down the Toorak Road, and, not far from the entrance of Caroline Street +thereunto, alighted before the small but ornate church of St. Mark's. + +'By the bye, Estelle,' said Mr. Vernon suddenly (he had long since +arrived at the semi-paternal stage, which included the use of her +Christian name), 'I met an old friend of yours in Melbourne, just down +from the diggings.' + +'An old friend?' she replied smilingly. + +'Well, one of your oldest in this country, excepting ourselves. Guess +who it was.' + +'I am sure I cannot tell,' she said, 'unless it be John Polwarth. I +shall always think of him as a real friend.' + +'Not very far off. Was there no one else at Growlers'? Think again.' + +'Mr. Stirling or Mr. Hastings then--good and true friends both. Which of +them can it be?' + +'Well, it was Charlie Stirling. His father was an old friend of mine, +and a better fellow than Charlie doesn't live.' + +'How strange! how wonderful!' said Estelle, almost musingly. 'To think +that he should be down here before Lance goes away. Do you think he will +come to see--to see--the ceremony?' And here a blush faintly overspread +her countenance. + +'He wasn't sure. Just off the coach, and covered with mud, but would +rush off to his hotel and do his best. Then he told me a piece of news +about himself.' + +'What was that?' + +'Why, he had got a year's leave of absence, and as he had made a lucky +hit in the Coming Event,--a claim that's nearly as good as Number Six, +he says,--he's going to treat himself to a run home.' + +'Going to England! Mr. Stirling going home! You don't say so? Who would +have thought it?' + +'Well, he is just the man to appreciate it thoroughly. It will improve +him, as it does every Australian with the requisite amount of brains. +Though I really don't see how Charlie Stirling _could_ be much +improved--except by a good wife,' he added thoughtfully. + +'I am sure I hope he will find one,' Estelle replied; 'no one is more +worthy of that or any other happiness. I wonder if he will come, and +whether he will think Lance much altered?' + +Mr. Vernon made no reply to this latter remark. Indeed he was strongly +inclined to say, 'Confound Lance!'--or even to use a stronger +expression. But he consoled himself with the conviction that it was +impossible to advise women for their good--even the best of them. And +thus reflecting he preceded the little party into the church. + +They had purposely delayed so as to be as near the appointed +hour--half-past eleven o'clock--as possible; and the half-hour chimes +from the churches in the city were rhythmically audible as they entered +and took their places. The gray-haired clergyman--a tall, venerable +personage--advanced from the vestry and stood as expectant of the +entrance of the bridegroom. As a side door opened, that personage +entered from the right side of the chancel. + +Mrs. Vernon gazed at the newcomer with unaffected interest. In certain +respects he was a man whom no girl would have been ashamed to +acknowledge--tall, erect, stalwart, his dark crisp hair and beard +trimmed according to the prevailing fashion. He looked around with a +quick and searching glance which apparently took in every individual in +the church. Then he fixed his eyes steadily upon the group in the midst +of which Estelle stood, and advanced towards his bride. He smiled as +Estelle murmured his name, and hastily shook hands with Mr. and Mrs. +Vernon, who seemed hardly prepared for the salutation. + +There was nothing particular to find fault with in his morning suit, yet +somehow Estelle could have wished one or two details altered. + +The bride looked more than once towards the rear of the church, as if +expectant. But the inexorable minutes fled, and walking forward, at a +sign from the clergyman, she knelt before the communion rails. One gleam +of triumph, which, had she caught, would have strangely disturbed her +thoughts, flashed from her companion's eyes. He knelt beside her, and +the time-honoured service commenced. + +Every precaution had been taken to secure secrecy in the matter of the +ceremony. When the little party walked unobtrusively in and the service +began, there appeared to be no spectators but those already known and +invited. In some mysterious way, however, the news spread. A wedding is +rarely, if ever, conducted without a few attendants not included in the +original programme. Some few strangers appeared as the clergyman +commenced to read the opening sentences. They were not, however, such as +to attract attention. But just as the clergyman reached the words, 'Wilt +thou take this woman to be thy wedded wife?' two men entered at one of +the side doors and looked searchingly at the bridal pair. One of them +gave vent to a sudden ejaculation, while the other, a tall man in police +uniform, drenched and travel-stained, walked rapidly up to the altar. To +the dismay of the congregation, he placed his hand on the bridegroom's +shoulder. Not less menacing and abrupt were his words than this unusual +act, of such unnatural seeming in a sacred edifice-- + +'Lawrence Trevenna, you are my prisoner. I charge you with the murder of +a man known as Ballarat Harry, otherwise Lance Trevanion. Put up your +hands,'--here the speaker's tones became harsh and resonant,--'or +by ----! I'll shoot you where you stand.' + +At the first touch of the stranger's hand, the bridegroom started as if +to resist his captors, for by this time Charles Stirling stood by +Dayrell's side. For one moment he raised his hand as if to strike his +antagonist, but as he faced the pistol level with his brow, and marked +the Sergeant's steady eye and grim, set countenance, his courage +appeared to waver, then to fail utterly. He mutely acquiesced while the +manacles were slipped over his unresisting hands. At this moment +Estelle, who had been gazing at this strange and sudden apparition with +wide eyes of wonder and alarm, uttered one piercing, heartrending shriek +and fell senseless into the arms of Mrs. Vernon. + +Then Mr. Vernon, hitherto silent in wonder, as were the other witnesses +of the scene, moved as if to address the intruder. It was not necessary +to make verbal interrogation; for, advancing a few steps and bowing to +the company, he thus addressed them-- + +'My excuse to you, reverend sir, and these ladies and gentlemen, must be +the extremely urgent nature of my errand. My name is Francis Dayrell, a +sergeant in the police force of Victoria, at present quartered at +Bairnsdale. I have ridden night and day to effect this arrest, and must +ask permission to congratulate the lady's friends upon her escape from a +fate too terrible to think of. This scoundrel, who has so successfully +personated his victim, the late Launcelot Trevanion, is the husband of +one Catharine Lawless, through whose information his villainy has been +frustrated. Mr. Stirling (here he motioned to that gentleman, who +advanced to where the spectators stood amazed and awe-stricken) is in +possession of the facts. I leave him to make fuller explanation.' Here +Sergeant Dayrell bowed again, not without a certain ease which spoke of +different experiences, and removed his prisoner. + + * * * * * + +It has been remarked that those clever people who dedicate themselves to +a criminal career are prone to small oversights and inadvertent acts +which often lead to their detection when success seems assured. Were it +not so, such are the qualities of coolness and energy displayed by the +'irregulars' of society, that its virtuous members would have but little +chance of survival in _la lutte pour la vie_. After the event every one +is wise; surprised, too, that the criminal should not have perceived to +what his heedlessness plainly led. The evil-doer himself is even +genuinely astonished when, in his interval of enforced leisure, he gains +the opportunity of reviewing his 'plan of campaign.' He perhaps owns to +the gaol chaplain that he has been 'most imprudent.' But generally he is +more concerned to establish a theory of unadulterated bad luck, and to +lay the blame upon every one but himself. + +Such misadventure occurred to Mr. Lawrence Trevenna--not less cautious +than daring, as he had previously proved himself to be. He left home +with surly abruptness, telling his ill-used wife that he was going to +Monaro and might be a month or more away. She was not to expect him till +she saw him, and so on. A large draft of horses to take delivery of, +etc. + +To these considerate explanations the woman made answer that he need not +trouble himself to hurry back on her account--indeed, if he never came +back she would be all the better pleased. He might spare himself the +trouble of telling more lies than usual, as whatever he did say about +his business would make her believe something different. + +'It would serve you right, you jade, if I never did come back,' he +ground out between his teeth, mingling the words with a savage oath. 'I +may take you at your word yet.' + +'Do so,' she replied, 'and I'll go down on my knees and thank God for +it. As He is my judge, if it wasn't for the child, you'd never have seen +me here a day after you struck me first. Don't think I've left off +cursing the day I ever set eyes on you--coward and thief--and worse that +you are!' + +He looked at her for one moment as she spoke, his eyes so full of +murderous rage that a bystander would have thought to see him strike her +to the earth. But putting strong constraint on himself, as, with a more +than malevolent smile, he bade her go back to the hut and mind her +baby,--'you're my wife now--for better, for worse, you know,' he +sneered. 'Stay at home and mind the house while your husband's away.' + +The last part of this admonition was lost upon the person to whom it was +addressed, as with one fierce glance, expressive of the last extremity +of hatred and contempt, the woman passed into the hut and slammed the +heavy door, while her lord and master, whistling carelessly, pressed his +horse's side and moved rapidly away. + +In apparent pursuance of his proposed plan, Trevenna rode for a dozen +miles down the Monaro road, then, wheeling suddenly to the eastward, +struck across the bush until he picked up the track which led to Mount +Gibbo. There he met by appointment Mr. Caleb Coke, and was thus enabled +to arrange certain illegal enterprises upon which they had resolved to +embark. + +For the first few days after his departure Kate felt little else but an +all-pervading sense of relief, almost amounting to absolute pleasure. +Lonely and depressing as was her isolated life, miles away from any +neighbour; left for weeks at a time without a soul to speak to,--as she +would have expressed it,--she still had her homely and simple +avocations, amid which, like many a similarly situated bush matron, she +found sufficient daily occupation. + +She had her baby boy,--a fine sturdy year-old fellow,--her poultry, +milch cows, and small patch of garden, to all of which she addressed +herself in turn. By degrees a softened expression came over her face. +The hard lines died out for a little space. It may have been that she +even repented of the bitter words and angry mood which had of late +become habitual with her. And when in the sunset-time she caught her +roan mare and rode around the paddock for the cows, carrying the +laughing baby boy before her on the saddle, there was a wondrous +transformation of the sullen-browed shrew of the morning. + +The days passed on. The weather changed. The fresh, bright, cloudless +days of the early Austral summer commenced to follow each other in +unbroken peaceful beauty. The proud heart of the desolate woman was +insensibly touched by the softening influences of the Great Mother. +'Bird and bee and blossom taught her'--a lesson of self-reproach and +faintly shadowed amendment. + +'Perhaps if I took him more easy like, he'd be a better man. Suppose +he'd married Tessie, I wonder if he would have been different. She was +always that quiet and patient with us all. She could get round Ned and +bring him straight when no one else could. Anyhow I might have a try.' + +Revolving good resolutions, Kate Trevenna, who, with all her faults, was +energetic and most capable in household work, as are most of the +bush-bred Australian girls of her class, set to work with a will and +made her dwelling and everything within fifty feet of it as neat as a +new pin. The forenoon having passed quickly in this occupation, she sat +down to her mid-day meal,--a cup of tea, a slice of cold corned beef, +with home-baked bread and butter of her own making,--when a traveller +rode up. Him she knew well as a stock-rider on one of the far-out +stations in the Monaro district. + +'Come in and have a cup of tea, Billy. Let your horse go for a bit,' was +the invitation by custom of the country. 'You've come a good way, by the +look of him. I'm all alone, you see; Larry's gone a journey.' + +'I know that, Mrs. Trevenna,' said the young fellow, taking off his +saddle and putting a pair of hobbles on his horse before he permitted +him his liberty; 'I've just come from Omeo.' + +'Omeo? that's not where he went. He's nigh Monaro by this time, and +going farther still.' + +'Well, he was in Omeo last Monday,' said the stock-rider, 'or some one +dashed like him. They talked as if it was Ballarat Harry. I don't know +him, but anyhow Larry's bay horse Bredbo was there, for I seen _him_ +right enough. I couldn't be mistook about _that_. He was foaled near our +old place.' + +'Trevenna at Omeo! Then he never went to Monaro at all!' cried the +woman, with such a look, partly of surprise and partly of wild reproach, +in her eyes that the young man recoiled for an instant. Something was +wrong, he saw with instinctive quickness. He made a futile effort to +undo the domestic damage he felt he had brought to pass. + +'Perhaps he changed his mind,' he suggested doubtfully. 'He's such a rum +cove, is Larry. No one knows when he's comin' or goin' half the time.' + +'I expect not,' answered the woman gloomily, as if talking to herself. +'Now look here, Billy Dykes,' she said suddenly, walking up to the man +and looking into his face as if her flashing eyes could see his inmost +thought, 'you and I knowed each other this years; you tell me all you +heard about Larry, and keep nothing back, as you're a man.' + +The young fellow seemed for the moment to have fallen completely under +the spell of this fierce woman, whose burning eyes and passionate speech +were for the moment suggestive of a disordered brain. He stared at her +for a moment, and then replied-- + +'There ain't a lot to tell, Mrs. Trevenna; but I expect you have a right +to hear it. He's no man to leave you like this, and there's more than me +thinks it. He's gone to Melbourne, that's what's up. Barker, the +storekeeper, told me.' + +'Any one gone with him?' + +'No; not as I heard on.' + +'You're keeping something back, Billy Dykes. Don't try and humbug me, or +I'll----In God's name, tell me everything. Was there a woman in it?' + +'Well, she didn't go with him, they said, but, in a manner of speaking, +it was all the same. He followed her, and a regular tip-top young lady, +by all accounts.' + +'Did you hear her name?' + +'Miss Chalmers, or Challner; something like that. Not long from +England.' + +'_That English girl!_ the _cousin_, of course,' she murmured, in a +strange, low-toned, hesitating voice. 'So she's come out after all. +You're mistook, Billy, old man; it was Lance Trevanion they seen--Mr. +Trevanion, I mean--an Englishman, and very like Larry. They came out in +the same ship. He was to marry this young lady, his cousin. And I know +_he_ was at Omeo.' + +'That makes it all right then. You've no call to fret, Mrs. Trevenna, +and I'm dashed glad of it. Only what was old Bredbo doing there? _I saw +him_, and couldn't be mistook. No fear. I know every hair in his tail.' + +'It _is_ queer,' said the woman, whose countenance had cleared +wondrously, 'but, law, she may have got away from him on the road and +turned up at Omeo. Anyhow, I'll ride over and have a look. You eat your +dinner now, while I go down the paddock and catch my little mare.' + +The bushman addressed himself to the cold beef and damper with a sigh of +relief as he watched his hostess pick up a bridle and walk rapidly +across the horse-paddock. + +'She's a hot 'un, by the Lord Harry,' he said to himself, as he filled a +pannikin of tea from the camp-kettle near the fire. 'I wouldn't be in +Larry's shoes for a trifle if he's working on the cross with her. It's +a bloomin' mixed-up fakement, anyhow. I heard as Ballarat Harry at Omeo +was that like him you couldn't scarce tell 'em apart. And of course it +must be him as went down with the girl. But how does Bredbo come to be +there? and old Caleb Coke handy too--like an eagle-hawk shepherding a +dead lamb. It looks "cronk" somehow.' + +He had finished a satisfying meal, providing against future +contingencies after the fashion of Captain Dugald Dalgetty (formerly of +Marischal College), of happy memory, when his hostess rode up, sitting +lightly yet erect on her barebacked steed, with an instinctive poise, as +in the side-saddle of the period, such as only the practice of a +lifetime could impart. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Accustomed from earliest years to hasty departures, the nomadic +Australian housewife was not long in making her simple preparation for a +hundred mile journey. + +The roan mare was carefully saddled and tied up to a tree. A leather +valise was strapped on. Finally the child, dressed for the road, was +brought out and placed upon the side-saddle, where with inbred sagacity +he sat steadily and looked around with a pleased expression. Then Kate +Trevenna, leading the mare to a log, lifted the child, mounted without +assistance, and gathered up the loose bridle-rein. + +'We're going different ways, Billy,' she said to her visitor. 'You're +bound for Monaro, and I'm going to be in Omeo to-morrow, if Wallaroo +here stands up. I'll stop with Mrs. Rooney to-night at the Running +Creek, and leave the boy there till I come back. She's awfully fond of +children, and will do for him if it's a month. I'm going to find out the +rights of this business before I come back. I don't know what to think +of it, and so I tell you. If Larry's left me, it's the worst day's work +he ever did in his life. I've got a horrid thought in my head. I can't +hardly bear to think of it. If it hadn't been for you seeing old Bredbo +there I'd have known it was Trevanion. I seen him nigh hand there one +day last month. But _only one of 'em_ at Omeo, and him off to Melbourne +after that girl! There's something that wants taking out of winding. God +send it ain't as black as I fear it is. Well, so 'long.' + +Thus they parted. The bushman filled his pipe mechanically while she was +talking, and rode meditatively adown the well-worn track which ran +towards the east; while the woman, giving her bridle-rein an impatient +shake, started off at a fast amble, which her spirited hackney seemed +only awaiting the signal to change into a stretching canter. She held +her boy upon her knee, resting and partly supported against her right +arm. Like bush children generally, he had a natural love for all sorts +and conditions of horse-flesh, and as his baby fingers closed upon the +rein, he seemed contented, even exhilarated by the motion, crowing and +laughing with infantine delight. As for his mother, she appeared to take +little heed of his childish ways, gazing straight before her with a +far-off look in her eyes and an occasional shudder, as some darker +imagining crossed her brooding brain. Occasionally she varied the fast +amble at which her mare slipped along the forest track by a smart canter +not far removed from a hand-gallop, but which, thanks to the easy +gliding stride of the gallant little animal which carried her, did not +render her living burden one whit less safe or easy to carry. + +The sun was low when she sighted the paddock fence of the humble +homestead where she proposed to pass the night. + +The fence ran across a broad green flat or meadow, which had gradually +widened from the upper portion of the gurgling mountain stream which +traversed it. There were no gates. They were of infrequent occurrence in +those days. But the slip-rails--three in number, and fairly +substantial--showed where means of ingress had been provided. + +Scarce half a mile from the primitive entrance, which necessitated her +dismounting, was the hut, or homestead cottage, standing upon a sort of +forest cape high above the rippling creek. + +As she rode up to the door of the unpretending building, walled with +slabs and roofed with bark, Kate gave a sigh of relief and stopped her +horse. No one appeared for a minute or two. Then she raised her voice, +in the high-pitched Australian call--originally borrowed from the +blacks, but since heard (unless modern novelists lie) in the streets of +London--ay, even in the 'Eternal City' itself. + +Before she had finished the second call, a young woman came running out +from some building at the rear, and with many exclamations made haste to +welcome her. + +'The saints presarve us, and sure 'tis Mrs. Trevenna and her darlin' boy +wid ye. 'Tis yourself is the moral of a good neighbor to be coming over +to see me. And yees will stay the night--the Lord be good to us. It's no +time to be travelling after dark. We'll have to take the saddle off +ourselves. Sure we haven't half a man about the place, or as much as a +dog. It's himself is away, and thim all afther him.' + +'I'm come to stay the night,' Kate made answer, 'and I want to leave my +boy with you for a day or two while I go to Omeo on business. Now you +have the whole story, Mrs. Rooney. How does that suit you?' + +''Tis what I do be praying for,' replied the handsome young Irishwoman, +who lifted down the child without more ado and fondled him effusively. +'Here's my beauty-boy; sure I'll look after him as if he was a young +governor waiting to grow up. It's the darlin' of the world he is; the +finest boy betwane here and Monaro. Come in and tell us your news, +alanna. And the saints be good to us, whatever are ye doing wid the +horse. Are yez going to hobble him, and the paddock the best grass +between here and Gipp Land?' + +'I don't doubt that, Mrs. Rooney, but I must be off while the stars are +in the sky, and so I must make sure of Wallaroo. She can spell +afterwards, but she must travel to-morrow, if she never does again. I'll +tell you all about it as soon as I've put Harry to bed.' + +'Come in; arrah, don't be standing talkin' there; come in, for the sake +of all the blessed saints. And you looking pale and tired like! Wait +till I get you a cup of hot tay.' + +'All right, Mrs. Rooney; I'll be glad to have one. I feel thirsty +enough, though the evening's chilly. But while the kettle's boiling, +I'll take the mare down to the creek for a drink, and then she won't be +rambling about half the night looking for water. I want to be able to +lay my hand on her at daylight, or before. There's a long day before us +to-morrow, and perhaps Omeo won't be the end of it.' + +'Saints above!' exclaimed Mrs. Rooney, who, an emigrant not long out +from the Green Isle, and newly married to an 'Irish native,' was filled +with daily wonder at the manners and customs of the bush,--'sure and ye +does be taking terrible rides in Australia. And do ye be telling me +ye'll be at Omeo by this time to-morrow? But hurry now, and I'll have a +cup of tay and an egg and a buttered scone ready for ye whin ye come +back.' + +The saddle had been taken off and placed on a wooden stool in the +verandah. Kate led her palfrey down to the clear, fast-flowing streamlet +and watched her drink her fill. She then plucked a few handfuls of the +strong tussac grass which lined the little flat and rubbed dry the marks +on back and girth. This, with a slight general application of the +improvised currycomb, completed in her eyes all necessary grooming. +Slowly, and with eyes on the ground, she retraced her steps, coming +close up to the house before she unloosed the throat-strap of the +bridle. + +'Have you got a bell, Mrs. Rooney?' she said. 'I shall know where to +look for her if it's dark.' + +'To think of your wanting that now! 'Tis clivir of ye, so it is. Sure +Mick left one here before he went away. Here it is now, and a good +strong strap.' + +The bell was fastened round the docile animal's neck, and then only was +she suffered to depart, short-hobbled and quietly munching the tall +gray-green grass, and looking as if no thought of wandering could ever +enter her head. None the less was it probable, as her mistress well +knew, that if slip-rail or panel was down she would be at her old home +by morning light. + +The two women sat long over the fire, talking about things new and old, +the baby boy sleeping peacefully the while. Nor did Kate Trevenna find +rest when at length she sought her pillow. An hour before daylight she +dressed and prepared for the road, caught and saddled her horse, which +she fastened to the fence in front of the hut. Taking a cup of tea and a +crust of buttered bread from her warm-hearted hostess, and kissing her +child again and again, she rode away in the darkness ere the first +streak of dawn-light illumined the eastern sky. + +'Sure and she's the fine woman,' soliloquised Mrs. Rooney, as she +listened to the sharp hoof-strokes which rang clearly on the rocky +track; 'she has some great sorrow on her entirely, or she'd never leave +the darlin' babe this way. Anyhow, I'll be the mother he's lost, and +maybe more, till she comes back. The saints be between us and harm,' +with which pious utterance the kind, simple soul betook herself back to +bed. + +No grass grew under the roan mare's feet. Mile after mile she threw +behind her; now striking out freely at half speed, now pulling up for a +down-hill mile or so, over which she went at her fast, clever amble. Ere +the sun was well up Kate was miles away from her resting-place of the +night. A long day lay before her, for the journey would need every hour +and every minute of the time. Long and tedious was the ride to Omeo. But +the good mare had ere now known many a journey when the saddle had not +been off her back between dawn and dark--far into the night, indeed. The +Kate Lawless of old days was tireless as a forest doe. Some change in +nerve and constitution had doubtless taken place since then. None the +less was she still a woman of exceptional energy and courage. And with +bitter wrongs ceaselessly corroding in her heart, and the haunting fear +of a dark and bloody deed uprearing itself before her in that lonely +ride, she defied alike fatigue and womanly weakness with passionate +disdain. + +Mile after mile, over rough track and smooth, as the narrow winding but +still plainly marked bridle-path led, with but rare and momentary halts, +the brave roan mare, with her stretching, gliding pace, at times a +hand-gallop, at times even faster still, swept on. An occasional drink +in a mountain runlet--a half trot up or down the steeper hills--yet all +unflinching, unswerving, the pair held onward their rapid way. + +The day was far spent when the straggling tents and red-streaked +mullock-heaps around the Tin Pot Reef came in view. + +'Here it was,' she thought, 'where I saw poor Lance last. It isn't far +to his claim--near the old dead urabba log. There it is! I'll go over +and have a look.' + +She rode to the spot. The reef was not abandoned. The claim was in work. +The raw-hide bucket was ascending and descending with its +gold-besprinkled load, as so many a time at Ballarat and other places +she had watched it before. + +'Curse the gold,' she said aloud, 'and all that belongs to it! It was a +bad day for the country when the first speck was found.' + +'Halloo! mate,' she said to the miner above ground who was pensively +turning out the broken quartz on the 'paddock' side of the shaft. 'How +are you doing? Ground pretty good?' + +'Might be better--might be worse, missus. Can't complain,' said the man +civilly. + +'Wasn't this Ballarat Harry's claim?' she inquired, with an assumption +of carelessness, though her voice trembled and her cheek paled. 'You +bought him out?' + +'That's so. Sold it to Yorkey Dickson and me. Yorkey's below. We very +nigh had to fight for it, after that. Some of the "Tips" tried to bluff +us out of it. Harry was a-comin' to see us through. Leastways he told a +young man as we sent to him. But he never turned up. That was queer, +wasn't it?' + +'And you never seen him after?' + +'Not a sign of him. Yorkey was for goin' into Omeo after him. Only we +heard he was off for Melbourne. So we didn't bother, and the jumpers +gave us best next day.' + +'It _was_ strange!' she said musingly. 'He was never the man to say he'd +do a thing and then change his mind. No; good or bad, he'd stick to it, +poor Lance! Well, I must be going. So 'long.' + +Slowly the woman rode forward--rode along lost in thought, while the +mare, keeping to the track instinctively, like most bush hackneys, +shuffled along at her fast amble till they came to the Mountain Ash +Flat, which lay between this reef and Omeo. + +Here the mare made as if to follow an old cattle track, at right angles +to the road, of which she possibly had previous knowledge. + +'Won't do, old woman,' said Kate, aroused from her reverie by the slight +change of direction; 'what road's this, I wonder? More tracks than one +along it--one would think it led somewhere.' She stooped low from her +horse, scanning with keen and practised vision the footmarks upon the +pathway. 'God in heaven!' she suddenly exclaimed, 'how did that come +there?' + +In an instant she was off her horse and eagerly grasping at a glittering +speck amid the grass. It was a chain--a gold watch-chain with a curious +coin attached, which she knew well. She had often playfully noticed the +female face upon it. Here it was. She held it to the light. A part was +dimmed and mud-encrusted. It had been trodden into the earth, but since +washed by the rain. And what was the stain, dark red across the gold? +'_His_ chain--Lance Trevanion's chain!' she murmured to herself. 'How +did it come here? Of course he may have dropped it. I'll run these +tracks a bit. It looks as if--as if--but no! surely, it can't--_can't +have been_. Oh, my God! they never could have _murdered him_!' As she +muttered to herself, in disjointed and broken sentences, she led her +horse along the narrow track, searching eagerly for the signs of passage +or conflict--tokens that lie clearer than the printed page to the vision +of the Children of the Waste. Yes! there _were_ footmarks, deeply +indented in places, as of men that bore a burden. Here was a fragment of +a check shirt of the pattern the bush labourer mostly wears, there a +scrap of paper; and at a turn in the thicket-bordered path a +long-abandoned shaft came into view. Lower she bent, and lower still, +scanned yet more earnestly the slight mark of impress, invisible save to +eyesight keen as those of the wild tribes which had been wont to roam +these lonely wastes. + +'The grass is longer here,' she whispered to herself in low and ghastly +tones. 'Something's been _dragged_ this way; the edge of the shaft looks +broken down. Oh, my God! poor Lance, poor fellow, is this what you've +come to after all?' + +With stern set lips and eyes dry yet burning with deep unsparing hate, +she secured her horse to a sapling. Then lying flat upon the earth, +leaned over the edge of the dark unfathomed pit, and gazed into its +depths, half dreading what her boding fears had shaped. She called too, +at first brokenly, then loudly on him by name--'but none answered.' The +tree limbs they had cast down had been lately dragged a few paces. The +recent mark did not escape her watchful eye. As she looked heavenward in +her despair she caught sight of a soaring eagle. On an adjacent tree sat +a detachment of crows; she knew too well what their presence portended. + +She drew herself upward, then walked slowly, almost totteringly, toward +the patient mare. But before reaching her she dropped suddenly on her +knees, and raising her clasped hands cried aloud, 'As God Almighty hears +me this day, I swear that I will take neither rest nor food until I've +got the tracks of the murdering dogs that killed the man I loved. Oh, +Lance, Lance! It was a bad day for you when we met first. But I'll have +revenge on your murderers--revenge--blood for blood--cowards and thieves +that they are. They had him crooked, I'll take my oath. And now, +Lawrence Trevenna,' she said, rising from her knees, 'it's you or I for +it--my life against yours to the bitter end,' she continued, in the same +broken, muttering monologue which she had half unconsciously used since +she had commenced to follow the trail of blood. Half mechanically she +loosed the mare and remounted. Then, giving the reins a shake, the +tireless animal dashed off at half speed--a pace from which her rider +never slackened until she reined up, after the darkening eve had dimmed +the outlines of forest and mountain, within sight of the lights of Omeo. + +She had covered nearly seventy miles since daylight. Yet the fast +gliding pace at which she rode up the main street indicated no trace of +fatigue on the part of her hackney. For herself, every nerve seemed at +fullest tension; she felt as if she could have ridden day and night for +a week. + +Attaching the bridle-rein to one of the iron staples with which the +verandah of the chief hostelry was supplied, she went at once to the +principal store, never very far from the hotel in country townships. + +'Mr. Barker in?' she inquired of a tall slouching youth who was gravely +engaged in selling matches to a Chinaman. Economical of speech, like +most of his countrymen, he silently pointed to a stout man in a check +shirt standing before a desk. To him Kate walked. + +'You're Mr. Barker?' He nodded. 'Well, I'm Mrs. + +Trevenna! Has my husband, Lawrence Trevenna, been here lately?' + +'I don't know as I remember,' said the trader cautiously; 'what sort of +looking man is he, missus?' + +'Tall and dark; what most men and all fools of women call handsome. He +_said_ he was going to Monaro, but he's working a "cross," it seems to +me. I shouldn't wonder if he's gone to Melbourne.' + +'There's no one left here for Melbourne, or indeed for anywheres, +lately, except Ballarat Harry,' answered Barker. 'We know him well +enough, and your description fits him to a hair. There's been a young +lady as come from England all the way to marry him. It was quite pretty +to see 'em together.' + +'So he's gone to Melbourne--Ballarat Harry, I mean?' she asked. 'Did he +talk of being back soon?' + +'Well, didn't say much one way or t'other. Rather short and grumpy he +was lately, was Harry. I hardly knowed him, he seemed so different. He'd +had a row with some chap too, and got his face pasted a bit. P'raps that +made him cut up rough like.' + +'Was he badly cut, then,' asked the woman, gazing earnestly in the +trader's face, 'or just a bit of a rally like--half in joke, half in +earnest?' + +'Not it. A regular hard-fought battle. A fight to a finish, if ever +there was one. First time I didn't notice it so much. Next time I saw +he'd had a fearful pounding. But I expect he's all right now.' + +'All right--very likely,' assented the woman absently. 'Can you tell me +where the police barracks are?' + +'There's the place, near that big fallen tree, but there's no one in it. +Tracy went away home to White Rock yesterday. The other chap went away +with the gold escort.' + +'How far to White Rock?' + +'A good thirty mile. There's a straight road; you can't miss it. It +starts south as soon as you cross the bridge over the creek.' + +'All right,' she answered, 'there's no turn off?' + +'No; half-way you come to a shepherd's hut. There's no one living there +now. Keep it on your left, and the track gets plain again.' + +'Thanks; good-night. I must see Tracy on business. I shall be there by +bedtime, I expect.' + +Then fared she forth into the night. No rest, no food for steed or rider +till her errand should be done. The game, bright-eyed mountain mare, as +much refreshed by the halt as a less high-caste steed would have been by +a feed of corn, started away as if just mounted. Kate patted the smooth +arching neck. 'Carry me well to-night, Wallaroo, and you'll never have +another hard day's work as long as you live. Not if I own you, anyhow. +And it'll have to be bad times when we're parted.' + + * * * * * + +Away through the darksome close-ranked forest groves--away through the +rocky defiles where the mare's bare hoofs rang from time to time as on +metal--away through sedgy morass and water-laden plain--away through the +long gray tussac grass, which rustled wiry and dry in the hoar-frost. +The stars burned and scintillated in the dark blue cloudless sky. The +low moon rose and stared--redly, weird, and witch-like--upon the +solitary woman threading alone the dim desolate waste. All silently, yet +surely, the slow hours sped. Still wound the forest path, serpent-like, +amid untouched primeval giants. Still clattered the fleet mare's hoofs +along the uneven trail. The great constellation of the southern heavens +had changed the aspect of its cross when a chorus of barking dogs +disclosed the outpost of law and order. A couple of huts, a slab stable, +a small but securely fenced paddock, made up the establishment. She rode +up to the gate of the little garden, and throwing down her reins as she +slipped from the saddle, walked stiffly to the door of the cottage. She +rapped sharply with the end of her riding-whip. + +'Who's there?' a man called out. + +'It's me--Kate Trevenna. Police work. Look alive.' + +'All right, Mrs. Trevenna,' replied a cheery voice. 'Wait till I strike +a light. Here we are. Walk in and sit down.' + +'Oh, it's you, Tracy; I'm glad of that. Look here, is your horse in the +stable and fit?' + +'Fit as a fiddle; what's up?' + +'Hell's up--murder--robbery--the devil's turned out, or something like +it. You'll have to ride, I tell you. Where's Dayrell?' + +'At Warrandorf, fifty miles off.' + +'That's all right,' she answered; 'he'll do it yet, if he's sharp. Can +you start in half an hour and take a letter to him?' + +'Yes; in a quarter. Where's your letter?' + +'You go and saddle your horse. You'll have to ride harder than ever you +did since you were in the force, and I'll tell you what to write. Is +your paddock all right?' + +'Yes.' + +'Then I'll turn my mare out while you're saddling and make the fire up a +bit. I see there's a back log. I must have a cup of tea and a bite +before I go to bed.' + +In ten minutes the trooper was back, whistling to himself and apparently +as cheerful as if a fifty mile night ride over a bad road was an +adventure calculated to raise any man's spirits. + +'Now, Mrs. Trevenna, where's your letter? You'd better turn in with the +wife when I'm gone and you've made yourself a cup of tea. There's bread +and meat in the safe.' + +'How far is it to where Dayrell is? Fifty odd--nearly sixty miles. I can +do it in seven hours--perhaps less. I'll be there soon after daylight, +so as he can start at once.' + +'That will do. Get your pen and a sheet of paper and write down what I +tell you. Are you ready? Begin like this-- + +'This is from Mrs. Trevenna--Kate Lawless that was; every word is God's +truth. Lawrence Trevenna and Coke have murdered Lance Trevanion and hid +his body in a shaft near the Tin Pot Reef. I tracked them down, and +to-day can show the place. Trevenna went to Omeo and passed himself off +as Lance to the young lady that came out from England to marry him. He's +off to Melbourne, where they are to be married and start for England, he +taking Lance's name, money, and wife. Ride like hell if you want to +block the villain's game. Only left here a few days. That's all.' + +'By Jove,' quoth the trooper, folding up the paper and putting it +carefully in his pocket, 'that's something like a letter! I knew he was +an infernal scoundrel, but I didn't think he was quite so bad as that. I +do pity you, Mrs. Trevenna; but there's no time, is there? So I'll say +good-bye to my old woman and clear. You chum in with her till +to-morrow. I'll go back with you, and we'll see further about that +shaft.' + +Three minutes afterwards the trooper's horse-hoofs clattered along the +stony track. Kate sat long over the fire, from time to time mechanically +addressing herself to the simple meal which she had made ready. Then she +arose, and slowly, with uncertain steps, betook herself to the +goodwife's inner chamber. + + * * * * * + +Thus, and by such means, was Lawrence Trevenna tracked--followed up--run +to earth. From what trivial neglect and want of caution in 'blinding his +trail' had the sleuthhounds of the law been loosed upon his flying +steps; and from what apparently savoured of the merest chance had the +avenger of blood been enabled to seize him in the hour of his triumph. +Had but the ceremony been completed, had but the ship which sailed for +Callao on the next day taken 'Mr. and Mrs. Johnson' among her +passengers, what woe, limitless and irrevocable, would have been +wrought! In that day no ocean telegraph was available to intercept the +criminal, to ensure his arrest ere his foot touched the alien shore. Had +but the trooper at White Rock been 'absent on duty,' had Dayrell been +from home when he arrived at Warrandorf, the precious, indispensable +time would have been lost--that day--that night during which a desperate +trooper, careless of life and limb, rode on relays of horses to +Melbourne, and, haggard, sleepless, travel-worn, but cool and resolute +as ever, arrived before the fatal vow was sworn. + +Little remains to be told. The once brave, stalwart, gladsome +presentment of him who was Lance Trevanion was recovered from the shaft +and identified beyond dispute. For his murder, as well as for that of +the gold-buyer Gray, Trevenna, Coke, and a confederate named Fogarty +were tried. All difficulties of legal proof and identification were +removed by the consistent conduct of Mr. Caleb Coke. True to his +unvarying principles, he turned Queen's evidence. His life was spared. +Trevenna and Fogarty were hanged. Unaffected by the curses of his +comrades in crime and the execrations of the crowd, Coke retired to +Mount Gibbo, and there lived out to extreme old age an unblest and +solitary life. His secrets died with him, and were only told _sub +sigillo confessionis_. + +He retained possession of the hut under Mount Gibbo to the last. But +the wandering bush tramp turned aside with a curse when he marked the +sinister elder standing at his door, or sitting on the rude bank +surrounded by his dogs. It was popularly asserted that he abstained from +the use of ardent spirits, being fearful of betraying the crimes with +the memory of which his soul was laden. But the stock-riders averred +that more than once, when passing the lonely hut after midnight, they +had heard shouts and curses, mingled with screams and laughter even more +dreadful. These were popularly believed to proceed from the Enemy of +Mankind, or some one of his lieutenants engaged in spending the evening +with his sworn liegeman, Caleb Coke. + +After such brief interval as sufficed for her recovery from the shock +her feelings had sustained, Estelle Chaloner naturally decided to return +to England. The recurring horror with which she recalled her +providential escape from a fate too dreadful to conceive needed the +anodyne of complete change of surroundings, of which a long voyage only +could supply the requisite conditions. She therefore, to the unaffected +grief of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon, caused her passage to be taken in the good +ship _Candia_, in which the luxurious nature of her cabin fittings, duly +provided by Mr. Vernon, caused much wonder and admiration among the +other passengers. Mr. Charles Stirling, who had been so considerate as +to delay his voyage, 'went home' by the same boat. It did not surprise +her Australian friends to hear that he made such use of the exceptional +opportunities enjoyed by a fellow-passenger, that Miss Chaloner +consented to merge her future existence in that of Mr. Charles Stirling. +This arrangement was completed at St. George's, Hanover Square, after +the shortest interval allowed for the trousseau of a young lady of +position. Mrs. Vernon's remark was something to the effect, that though +she had striven to be true to her plighted faith, she really believed +that Estelle liked Charlie Stirling better all the time. + +Number Six, Growlers', was worked out in due course, but not before Jack +Polwarth found himself one of the richest men 'on Ballarat,' as he would +have phrased it. This was what the world calls the height of good +fortune. But there was an even rarer possession which John Polwarth and +his good wife had been gifted with, even before the advent of the gold +so plentifully showered upon them. This was such a proportion of sense +and shrewdness as sudden wealth and its destructive flatteries had no +power to assail. + +In accordance with Mrs. Polwarth's aspiration, Tottie had been sent to +one of the best ladies' schools in Melbourne. Here she had received +careful instruction, and enjoyed the privilege of association with girls +of the higher colonial families. Acknowledged to be 'sweetly pretty' in +her maiden prime, as well as amiable, popular, and an undoubted heiress, +no difficulties were placed in the way of her invitation to vice-regal +entertainments. Her father's mansion in St. Kilda was noted for its +princely yet unostentatious hospitality. Small wonder then that +Tottie--beautiful, cultured, a lady in mind and manner, such as her +mother had fondly hoped to behold her, and withal credited with 'pots of +money'--should marry a distinguished globe-trotter, a man of rank and +ancient birth, be presented to her gracious Majesty on her arrival in +England, and gain golden opinions in every sense of the word. + +The after-life of Tessie Lawless was that of the woman who, partly from +a natural tendency to self-sacrifice, partly from despair and hopeless +sorrow, remained in the hospital to which she had devoted her life. Her +course henceforth was the onward path of duty. During an epidemic of +fever several of the nurses fell victims to their labours. A modest +inscription in the Melbourne cemetery bears testimony to the anxious +care and continued watchfulness of Nurse Esther Lawless, the best loved +and most deeply respected of all the hospital attendants. + +Charles Stirling returned to Australia, but only to settle his affairs, +and so that he might take up his abode in England 'for good.' His wife, +naturally, could never be induced to return to Australia, even for a +short sojourn. In spite of occasional twinges of regret which assail him +when the continued absence of the northern sun tends to lower his +spirits and suggest the 'golden summer eves' of his native land, Charlie +Stirling finds the old country very fairly habitable. His wife's +fortune, added to his own, provides an extremely comfortable, not to say +luxurious existence, as well as an assured provision for the olive +branches. The Honourable Mrs. Delamere (_née_ Polwarth) and her +husband--who will be a peer some day--are frequent and welcome guests. +Mrs. Stirling takes great pride in introducing her beautiful Australian +friend, whose fairy godmother, while endowing her with fortune and +fashion, added the rarer gifts of unselfish kindliness. + +The estate and revenues of Wychwood went to the younger son--a +devolution which afforded to all the country people unfeigned +satisfaction, as removing the curse under which they devoutly believed +the family to exist. + +One mystery was unravelled, in the closer search made after his +succession among the Squire's papers. In a secret receptacle was +discovered a collection of letters which proved incontestably that +Lawrence Trevenna was his natural son, born two years before his +marriage to the mother of Lance Trevanion. The girl's father was a +disreputable horse-and-turf-tout and betting man in a small way in a +distant county; the girl herself the worthy offspring of such a +father--handsome, bold, unprincipled. The Squire discovered that a +deliberate plot had been laid for him. Hence his previous inexplicable +hatred to all and every form of horse-racing and the gambling therewith +concomitant. Attempts at blackmail were referred to as having been +resisted by legal advice, but finally compromised by the payment of a +comparatively large sum--only a part of which had helped to provide +passage-money and outfit for Lawrence Trevenna. Some fragmentary addenda +to the faded writing and curiously worded letters told of deep and +bitter regret--even of repentance. But the sin had been sinned. The +guilt lightly incurred in the riot of youthful passion had grown dark +and menacing of aspect with the slow gathering years. And 'the vengeance +due of all our wrongs' had haltingly, but with sleuth-hound deadliness, +tracked down his happiness and shortened the wrongdoer's life. But for +the fatal resemblance, the mysterious heritage of unbridled passion +bequeathed to the Ishmaelite offspring, the heir of his ancient house +had doubtless escaped injustice, imprisonment, and death. And now, +'Conrad, Lara, Ezzelia are gone.' A youthful scion--fair, blue-eyed, +mirthful--makes merry in the old halls of his race. But of the wandering +heir--he who defiantly quitted home, and friends, and native land in +search of gold; who vowed to conquer fortune with the aid of the strong +arm and tameless heart; to return successful, rich, honoured of all men; +to claim his bride in his own ancient hall--of him the oaks in the +Druids' Grove of Wychwood murmur to the midnight stars, 'Nevermore.' + + +THE END + + + + +POPULAR NOVELS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + + +_ROBBERY UNDER ARMS._ + +A STORY OF LIFE AND ADVENTURE IN THE BUSH AND IN THE GOLD-FIELDS OF +AUSTRALIA. + + _GUARDIAN_--"A singularly spirited and stirring tale of + Australian life, chiefly in the remoter settlements.... + Altogether it is a capital story, full of wild adventure and + startling incidents, and told with a genuine simplicity and + quiet appearance of truth, as if the writer were really drawing + upon his memory rather than his imagination." + + _SPECTATOR_--"We have nothing but praise for this story. Of + adventure of the most stirring kind there is, as we have said, + abundance. But there is more than this. The characters are + drawn with great skill. Every one of the gang of bushrangers is + strongly individualised. A book of no common literary force." + + +_THE MINER'S RIGHT._ + +A TALE OF THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD-FIELDS. + + _ATHENÆUM_--"The picture is unquestionably interesting, thanks + to the very detail and fidelity which tend to qualify its + attractiveness for those who like excitement and incident + before anything else." + + _WORLD_--"Full of good passages, passages abounding in + vivacity, in the colour and play of life." + + +_THE SQUATTER'S DREAM._ + + _SATURDAY REVIEW_--"It is not often that stories of colonial + life are so interesting as Mr. Boldrewood's _Squatter's Dream_. + There is enough story in the book to give connected interest to + the various incidents, and these are all told with considerable + spirit, and at times picturesqueness." + + _FIELD_--"The details are filled in by a hand evidently well + conversant with his subject, and everything is _ben trovato_, + if not actually true. A perusal of these cheerfully-written + pages will probably give a better idea of realities of + Australian life than could be obtained from many more + pretentious works." + + +_A SYDNEY-SIDE SAXON._ + + _GLASGOW HERALD_--"The interest never flags, and altogether _A + Sydney-Side Saxon_ is a really refreshing book." + + _ANTI-JACOBIN_--"Thoroughly well worth reading.... A clever + book, admirably written.... Brisk in incident, truthful and + lifelike in character.... Beyond and above all it has that + stimulating hygienic quality, that cheerful, unconscious + healthfulness, which makes a story like _Robinson Crusoe_ or + _The Vicar of Wakefield_ so unspeakably refreshing after a + course of even good contemporary fiction." + + +_A COLONIAL REFORMER._ + + _GLASGOW HERALD_--"One of the most interesting books about + Australia we have ever read." + + _SATURDAY REVIEW_--"Mr. Boldrewood can tell what he knows with + great point and vigour, and there is no better reading than the + adventurous parts of his books." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nevermore, by Rolf Boldrewood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVERMORE *** + +***** This file should be named 34240-8.txt or 34240-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/4/34240/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Nevermore + +Author: Rolf Boldrewood + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [EBook #34240] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVERMORE *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<h1>NEVERMORE</h1> + +<h2>BY ROLF BOLDREWOOD</h2> + +<h3>AUTHOR OF 'ROBBERY UNDER ARMS,' 'THE SQUATTER'S DREAM,' 'THE MINER'S +RIGHT,' ETC.</h3> + + +<h3>London<br /> +MACMILLAN AND CO.<br /> +AND NEW YORK<br /> +1892</h3> + +<h3><i>All rights reserved</i></h3> + +<h3><i>First Edition 1892<br /> +Second Edition July and December 1892</i></h3> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a><br /><br /> +<a href="#POPULAR_NOVELS_BY_THE_SAME_AUTHOR">BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + +<p>'Then, by Heaven! I'll leave the country. I won't stop here to be +bullied for doing what scores of other fellows have done and nothing +thought about it. It's unjust, it's intolerable—'</p> + +<p>Thus spoke impetuous Youth.</p> + +<p>'I should say something would depend upon the family tradition of the +"other fellows" to whom you refer. In ours gambling debts and shady +transactions with turf-robbers happen to be forbidden luxuries.'</p> + +<p>Thus spoke philosophic Age, calm, cynical, unsparing.</p> + +<p>No power of divination was needed to decide that the speakers were +father and son; no prophet to discover, on one side, sullen defiance +following a course of reckless folly; on the other, wounded family pride +and long-nursed consuming wrath.</p> + +<p>As the rebellious son stood up and faced his sire, it was curious to +mark the similarity of the inherited lineaments brought out more clearly +in his moments of rage and defiance.</p> + +<p>Both men were strong and sinewy, dark in complexion, and bearing the +ineffaceable impress of gentle nurture, leisure, and assured position. +The younger man was the taller, and of a frame which, when fully +developed, promised unusual strength and activity. More often than the +converse, does it obtain that the son, in outward appearance or mental +constitution, reproduces his mother's attributes or those of her male +relatives; the daughter, in complemental ratio, inheriting the paternal +traits. But in this case Nature had strongly adhered to the +old-established formula 'like father like son,' for whoso looked on +Mervyn Trevanion, of Wychwood—the head of one of the oldest families in +Cornwall—could not doubt for one moment that Launcelot Trevanion was +his son.</p> + +<p>If all other features had been amissing or impaired, the eyes alone, +which contributed the most striking and peculiar features in both faces, +would have been sufficient to establish the relationship, not only +because they were, in both faces, identical in colour and form, but +because of the strange, almost unnatural lustre which glowed in them in +that moment of excitement; neither large nor especially bright, they +were scarcely remarkable under ordinary circumstances—of the darkest +gray in colour and deeply-set under thick and overhanging eyebrows. A +stranger might well overlook them, but, when turned suddenly in anger or +surprise, a steady searching light commenced to glow in them which was +discomposing, if not alarming. Even in a quick glance such as mere +badinage might provoke, they were strange and weird of regard. Lighted +up by the deeper passions, those who had been in the position to witness +their effect spoke of it as unearthly and, in a sense, appalling.</p> + +<p>In the family portraits, which for centuries had adorned the walls of +the long gallery in Wychwood, the same feature could be distinctly +traced. There was a legend, indeed, of the 'wicked' squire—one of the +hard-drinking, duelling, dicing, dare-devils of the second Charles' +day—who had so terrified his young wife—a gentle girl whose wealth had +been the fatal attraction in the alliance—that she had fallen down +before him in a fit, and never afterwards recovered health or reason.</p> + +<p>All through Cornwall and the neighbouring counties they were known as +the 'Trevanion eyes.' There was a hint of demoniacal possession in the +first ancestor, who had brought them into the family from abroad, and a +legendary compact with the Enemy of mankind, from whom the fiendish +glare had been derived. Since the birth of the first Mervyn, 'the wicked +squire,' the eldest son had inherited the same peculiar regard as +regularly as to him had come the estate and most enviable rent-roll.</p> + +<p>A saying had long been current among the county people that when the +lands went to a younger son, this remarkable and, as they held, unlucky +feature would be removed from the family of Trevanion as suddenly as it +had entered it. But up to this time, no break in the succession, <i>de +male en male</i>, had ever occurred.</p> + +<p>Launcelot Trevanion (mostly called Lance) was the eldest son +of this ancient house. There were two younger boys—Arthur and +Penrhyn—respectively fourteen and twelve years old; but a cousin, +early orphaned, was the only girl in that silent and gloomy hall. Her +beauty—she was the fairest flower of a race of which the women were +proverbially lovely—irradiated Wychwood Hall, while her enforced gaiety +charmed the saturnine Sir Mervyn out of many a fit of his habitual +gloom. With the neighbours, the villagers, the friends of the house, she +enjoyed a popularity as universal as unaffected, and not unfrequently +had the remark been made by individuals of all these sections of +provincial society, that Estelle Chaloner had, in a measure, thrown +herself away, as the phrase runs, by betrothing herself to her wild +cousin Lance; that she was too bright and bonnie a creature to become +the mate of any Trevanion of Wychwood—hard, unyielding, and, in some +sense, ill-fated as they had all been since the days of the first Sir +Launcelot, no one knew how many centuries ago.</p> + +<p>Certainly they had not been a fortunate or a prosperous family. +Possessed originally of immense estates, and boasting an ancestry and +military suzerainté—long anterior to the Conquest—undeniably brave, +chivalrous, and daring to the point of desperation, they had uniformly +espoused the wrong side in every important conflict. They had suffered +from attainder, they had regained their lands only to lose them again. +Bit by bit they had lost one fair manor after another, until, at last, +Wychwood Hall and manor, a fine but heavily-mortgaged estate, were all +that remained out of the vast dominion which stretched, according to +time-worn charters still in the muniment room of the Hall, from Tintagel +to the Devonshire border.</p> + +<p>Estelle Chaloner, in whose veins ran several strains of Trevanion blood, +had a character curiously compounded of the qualities of both families; +outwardly resembling the Chaloners, who were a fair, blue-eyed race, +more conspicuous for the grace and charm of social life than for the +sterner traits, she possessed, unsuspectedly, a large infusion of the +ancestral Trevanion nature.</p> + +<p>In early youth those strongest tendencies and proclivities which come by +inheritance are chiefly latent. Like the seedlings of a tropical forest +they remain for years almost hidden by undergrowth. But when successive +summers have stirred sap and rind, the deeply-rooted scions commence to +assert themselves, towering over, and eventually, it may be, dwarfing +the plants of earlier maturity.</p> + +<p>Estelle and her cousin Lance had been playmates and friends since +earliest infancy. There were but three years between them; like twins +they had grown up with a curious similarity of thought and feeling, +though of strongly contrasted temperaments. Then the divergent stage was +reached when the girl begins to tread the path which leads to the goal +of womanhood, when the boy essays the freedom of speech and act which +mould the future man.</p> + +<p>She was so gentle, he so haughty, yet were they alike in fearlessness, +in love of dogs and horses, in passionate attachment to field-sports and +the teachings of animated nature. Wanderers in the summer woods, fishing +in the brook, climbing the old tower of the ruined church, what an +Eden-like season of unstinted freedom was that of their early youth! It +was a sorrowful day for both when Lance was sent to a public school and +Estelle was relegated to a prim, high-salaried governess who stigmatised +nearly all out-door exercise as unladylike, and forbade field-sports as +being destructive to the hope of mental progress.</p> + +<p>But though separated for the greater part of the year, there were still +the precious vacation intervals when the cousins met and wandered in +untrammelled freedom. Thus they rode and rambled, drove the young horses +in the mail-phaeton to Truro—the market town—fished and hunted, shot +and ferreted, she walking with the guns, none caring to make them +afraid.</p> + +<p>It had chanced in the year preceding Lance's unlucky quarrel with his +father that they told each other of the love which had grown up with +their lives, and which was to make a portion of them for evermore.</p> + +<p>And now this rupture between the stern father and the stubborn son +threatened the wreck of her young life's happiness. She had repeatedly +warned Lance of the imprudence of his conduct, and laid before him the +danger which he was too headstrong and reckless to forecast for himself; +had long since reminded him that of all youthful follies and outbreaks, +for some unexplained reason, his father was especially intolerant of +those connected with the turf. The very mention of a racecourse seemed +sufficient to arouse a paroxysm of rage. Why he was thus affected by the +concomitants of a popular sport which country gentlemen, as a rule, +regard in the light of a pardonable relaxation, was not known to any of +his household. Sir Mervyn was not so strait-laced in other matters as to +make it incumbent upon him to frown down horse-racing for the sake of +consistency. Still the fact remained. Any hint of race-meetings by +Lance was viewed with the utmost disfavour. No animal suspected of a +turn of speed was ever permitted lodgings in the Wychwood stables, +spacious as they were. And now the sudden bringing to light of Lance's +serious loss of money by bets at a recent county meeting, with moreover +a proved part-ownership of the unsuccessful quadruped, had raised to +white heat his sire's slow gathering, yet slower subsiding anger. Thus +it came to pass that after one other stormy interview in which the elder +man had heaped reproaches without stint upon the younger, the son had +declared his resolution of 'quitting England, and taking his chance of a +livelihood in some country where he would at least be free from the +galling interference of an unreasonably severe father, who had never +loved him, and who refused him the ordinary indulgence of his youth and +station.'</p> + +<p>'In the extremely improbable event of your quitting a comfortable home +for a life of labour and privation,' the elder man said slowly and +deliberately, 'I beg you distinctly to understand that I shall make you +no allowance, nor even suffer your cousin to do so, should she be weak +enough to wish it, and you sufficiently mean to accept it. Sink or swim +by your own efforts. <i>I</i> shall never hold out a hand to save you.'</p> + +<p>Then the son gazed at the sire, looking him full and steadfastly in the +face for some seconds before he answered. Had there been a painter to +witness the strange and unnatural scene, he might have noted that the +light which blazed in the old man's eyes shot forth at times an almost +lurid gleam, as from a hidden fire, while the youth's regard was +scarcely less fell in its intensity.</p> + +<p>'It is possible, even probable,' he said, 'that we may never meet again +on earth. You have been hard and cruel to me, but I am not wholly +unmindful of our relationship. Careless and extravagant I may have +been—neither worse nor better than hundreds of men of my age and +breeding, and may well have angered you. I had resolved, partly +persuaded by Estelle, to humble myself and ask your pardon. That state +of mind has passed—passed for ever. I shall leave Wychwood to-morrow, +and if anything happens to me in Australia, where I am going, remember +this—if evil comes to me, on your head be it—with my last words, in my +dying hour, I shall curse and renounce you, as I do now.'</p> + +<p>As the boy spoke the last dreadful words, the older man, transported +almost beyond himself, made as though he could have advanced and struck +him. But with a strong effort he restrained himself.</p> + +<p>The younger never relaxed the intensity of his gaze, but with a slow and +measured movement approached the door, then halting for a moment +said—'Enjoy your triumph to the uttermost—think of me homeless and a +wanderer—if it pleases you. But as repentant or forgiving, +never—neither in this world nor the next.'</p> + +<p>Before the last words were concluded, Sir Mervyn turned his face with +studied indifference to the window, and gazed upon the park, over which +the last rays of the autumnal sun cast a crimson radiance. For a few +moments only the solar beams glowed above the horizon; the landscape +with strange suddenness assumed a pale, even sombre tone. A faint chill +wind rustled the leaves of the great lime-tree, which stood on the edge +of the lawn, and caused a few of the leaves to fall. When the squire +looked around, Launcelot Trevanion was gone. He turned again to the +window; mechanically his eye ranged over the lovely landscape, the +far-stretching champaign of the park—one of the largest in the county, +the winding river, the blue hills, the distant sea.</p> + +<p>'What a madman the boy is,' he groaned out, to leave all this for a few +hot words—and I too! Who is the wiser? I wonder. Will he be mad enough +to keep his word? He is a stubborn colt—a true descendant of old +Launcelot the wizard. If he fails to gather gold, as these fools expect, +a voyage and a year's experience of what poverty and a rough life mean +will be no bad teaching.'</p> + +<p>'For what is anger but a wild beast?' quotes the humorist How many a man +has, to his cost, been assured of this fact by personal experience. A +wild beast truly, which tears and rends those whom nature itself +fashions to be cherished.</p> + +<p>With most men, reason resumes her sway, after a temporary dethronement, +when regret, even remorse, appears on the scene. The consequences of the +violence of act or speech into which the choleric man may have been +hurried, stalk solemnly across the mental stage. Were but recantation, +atonement, possible, forgiveness would be gladly sued for. But in how +many instances is it too late? The sin is sinned. The penalty must be +paid. Pride, dumb and unbending, refuses to acknowledge wrong-doing, +and thus hearts are rent, friends divided, life-long misery and ruin +ensured, oftentimes by the act of those who, in a different position, +would have yielded up life itself in defence of the victim of an angry +mood.</p> + +<p>It was not long before the inhabitants of Truro, and, indeed, the +country generally, were fully aware that there had been a violent +quarrel between Sir Mervyn and his eldest son.</p> + +<p>'The family temper again,' said the village wiseacres, as they smoked +their pipes at night at the 'King Arthur,' 'the squire and the young +master are a dashed sight too near alike to get on peaceably together. +But they'll make it up again, the quality makes up everything nowadays.'</p> + +<p>'Blamed if I know,' answered Mark Hardred, the gamekeeper of Wychwood, +who, though not a regular attendant at the 'King Arthur,' thought it +good policy to put in an appearance there now and then, 'there's a many +of 'em like our people, just as dogged and worse, I'm feared Mr. Lance +won't come back in a hurry, more's the pity.'</p> + +<p>'He's a free-handed young chap as ever I see,' quoth the village +rough-rider, 'it's a pity the old squire don't take a bit slacker on the +curb rein, as to the matter of a bet now and then, all youngsters as has +any spirit in 'em tries their luck on the turf. But he'll come back +surely, surely.'</p> + +<p>'He said straight out to the squire as he'd be off to Australia, where +the goldfields has broke out so 'nation rich, along o' the papers, and +it's my opinion to Australia he'll go,' replied the keeper. 'I never +knew him go back of his word. He's main obstinate.'</p> + +<p>'I can't abear folks as is obstinate,' here interpolated the village +wheelwright, a red-faced solemn personage of unmistakable Saxon solidity +of face and figure. 'I feel most as if I could kill 'em. I'd a larruped +it out of him if I'd been the vather of un, same as I do my Mat and +Mark.'</p> + +<p>This produced a general laugh, as the speaker was well known to be the +most obstinate man in the parish, and his twin boys, Matthew and Mark, +inheriting the paternal characteristic in perfection, in spite of their +father's corrections, which were unremitting, were a true pair of wolf +cubs, taking their unmerciful punishment mutely and showing scant signs +of improvement.</p> + +<p>'I must be agoing,' said the keeper, putting on his fur cap. 'I feel +that sorry for Mr. Lance that I'd make bold to speak to the squire +myself if he was like other people. But it'd be as much as my place was +worth. It'll be poor Miss 'Stelle that the grief will fall on. +Good-night all.' And the sturdy, resolute keeper, whose office had +succeeded from father to son for generations at Wychwood, tramped out +into the night.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + + +<p>It looks at times, it must be confessed, as if, the individual once +embarked upon a course involving the happiness of a lifetime, an unseen +influence hurries on events as though the fabled Fates were weaving the +web of doom. Hardly had Lance thrown himself upon a horse and galloped +over to Truro, directing, in a hasty note left in his room, that his +personal effects should be forwarded to an address, than the first paper +he took up contained an announcement which fitted exactly with his +humour. It ran as follows—</p> + +<p>'Steam to Australia.—For Melbourne and the Goldfields. The clipper +ship, <i>Red Jacket</i>, three thousand tons register, Forbes, Commander, +will have quick dispatch. Apply to Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co.'</p> + +<p>The die was cast. He saw himself speeding over the ocean on his way to +the wild and wondrous land of gold, absolutely uncontrolled henceforth +and free as air to follow his inclinations. There was intoxication in +the very thought. For years to come he would not be subject to the +trammels of civilisation. The trackless wilds, the rude, even savage +society of a new, half-discovered country had no terrors for him. The +wilder elements in the blood of the Trevanions seemed to have +precipitated themselves in the person of this their descendant; to have +rendered imperative a departure in some direction, no matter what, from +the conventional region with its galling limitations and absurd edicts. +Such are the problems of heredity. Despite of some natural regret that +so serious a quarrel with his father, and the head of the family, should +have been the proximate cause of his exile, the mere anticipation of a +wholly free and unfettered life in a new land filled him with joy. Then +arose visions such as course through the brain of ardent, inexperienced +youth; of wondrous wealth acquired by lucky speculation or the discovery +of a cavern filled with gold, after the manner of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>. +With what feelings of triumph would he <i>then</i> return to his native land, +having in all respects given the lie to the predictions of his foes and +calumniators, receiving with complacent pride the congratulations of his +father, in that hour softened and converted by the reputation of his +distinguished son. His name, once spoken with bated breath, now a +by-word for success, would be in all men's mouths.</p> + +<p>'Then! yes! then, darling Estelle!' had he said to his cousin in their +last conversation, when she had vainly tried to shake his determination +to leave England—'then I shall pay off the mortgage on the old estate; +not that it matters much for one generation, I suppose, but I should +like to be able to give a cheque for it to old Centall. Then I would buy +the St. Austel lands, which will be pretty sure to be in the market by +that time. Every one knows the estate is eaten up with interest as it +is, and at the rate the Tredegars are living there must be an end in a +few years. After that it will be about time to look out for a wife. Now +whom would you like to recommend? Why, how grave you look!'</p> + +<p>'Dreams and visions, Lance. Vain hopes, false and unreal,' said the +girl. 'I see no prospect of success, much less of fairytale treasures. +Think of all the adventurers who have left this very Duchy of Cornwall +in old days or later. How few have ever returned!—fewer still who were +not poorer than they left! It seems to me madness that you should go at +all.'</p> + +<p>'You are no true Englishwoman, Estelle, if you have not a spice of +adventure in you,' he replied. 'Lovers and kinsfolk have always been +sped on the path of glory before now. How else would the Indies have +been gained or the new world discovered, if all hearts had been as faint +as yours?'</p> + +<p>'It is not that,' said the girl sadly, and laying her head wearily upon +his broad breast, as she threw her arms around his neck. 'It is not +that! I could send you away, almost rejoicing, in a good cause, were it +to fight the Queen's battles, for the glory of our native land. But my +heart sinks within me when I think of your going away with a father's +curse upon your head, with a deep quarrel about a light matter on your +mind, and for object and pursuit, only to seek for gold among an ignoble +crowd of rude adventurers.'</p> + +<p>'Gold!' said the young man, laughing lightly; 'and what else is every +one striving for in these latter days? Gold means perfect independence. +The realisation of dreams of fairyland—the respect of the herd—the +friendship of the powerful—the love of the lovely! Why decry gold, +cousin mine? But, except for the adventure—the wild freedom—the +strangeness and danger of a new world, few care so little for it as +Lance Trevanion. And that you well know.'</p> + +<p>'I know, my darling; I know. If it be so, why not stay at home? My +uncle, I am sure, is sorry for having been so hasty. He will be glad of +any chance to tell you so. A few years and your position as heir and +eldest son must be acknowledged. Why leave these proved and settled +privileges, and tempt dangers of sea, and storm, and an unknown land?'</p> + +<p>'Too late! it is too late!' he said gloomily. 'I am a changed man. I can +neither forget nor forgive his insults, my father though he be; and I +feel as if I was irresistibly driven to take the voyage—to see this new +country—to share in this great gold adventure. I could not draw back +now.'</p> + +<p>'And I feel, day by day, more strongly and vividly,' said the girl, +'that it will be your doom to go forth from us and return no more. It +seems like a prophetic instinct in me. I feel it in every fibre of my +being. But I will come to you, if you do not come to us. Whatever may +happen, I will never rest satisfied till I have seen you in your new +home. So, if you do not return in five years, you know what you have to +expect But you will return, will you not?' And again she clasped her +arms around him, sobbing as if her heart would break.</p> + +<p>Estelle Chaloner was a proud girl, one of those reserved yet passionate +natures which habitually conceal their deeper feelings, as if jealous of +exhibiting the sacred recesses of their hearts to the careless or +irreverent. Ice on the surface, they resemble those regions which in +springtime need but the touch of that great enchanter's wand to cause +the living streams to flow, to produce the magically sudden apparition +of verdure and fragrant flowerets.</p> + +<p>'Darling Estelle! in five years I will come back,' he said, 'if I am +alive. The time will soon pass. Think how much I shall have to talk +about, and what wonders I shall have seen. You will hardly know me +again.'</p> + +<p>The girl sighed deeply, then raised her head, and gazing steadfastly at +her lover, as the tears streamed unheededly adown her face, continued +her pleading appeal without noticing his jesting speech—</p> + +<p>'You will promise me then, will you not, solemnly and faithfully, you +will swear by King Arthur's sword—our family vow—that on next +Christmas five years, whatever betide, you will return?'</p> + +<p>'Well,' he answered, slowly and heedfully, 'if nothing less will do, I +suppose I shall have done something in that time or failed utterly and +hopelessly. So I will promise. It wants nearly three months to +Christmas, and if I do not turn up in December 1857, you may make sure +that I am either dead or a captive among the Indians. I suppose there +are Indians there. "By Arthur's sword!"' and here he crossed his hands, +after the old Cornish fashion.</p> + +<p>'I don't believe there are Indians,' she said. 'If you would read a +little more, you naughty boy, you would know. Of course, there are +savages of some sort, the worst being white. But we must exchange +tokens, like lovers—and we are true lovers, are we not?' Here she +seemed as if her tears would flow afresh, but controlled herself with a +strong effort. Then she loosened a slender gold chain from her neck, to +which was attached a coin of foreign appearance, traced with strange +characters, and having upon it a wondrous woman's face, beauteous, but +of an antique cast.</p> + +<p>'Here,' she said, 'is my precious Egyptian princess. The man who gave it +to me said it was possessed of talismanic virtues, that it secured +safety and success to the wearer as long as he never permitted it to be +taken from him by force or fraud. If he did, the charm was broken. You +are the only person in the whole world to whom I would give it.'</p> + +<p>'I thought you were too wise,' he said, taking the chain in his hand +gently, nevertheless, 'to confess such superstition. But I will take it +if it cheers you, darling Estelle, and here I swear that it shall be my +companion night and day until we meet again. Here is a companion token, +you have often asked for it before.'</p> + +<p>'You are not going to give me the Chaloner ring, are you, Lance? How +happy it would have made me one little month ago,' she cried. 'I must +have it altered to fit my finger, I suppose? It can be altered back when +you return.'</p> + +<p>'It is yours from this moment, and for ever,' said he. 'May it bring you +the good fortune it has failed to give me, so far. On a woman's hand the +charm may be broken. It has my mother's name inside, and, see,' here he +touched a spring, disclosing a tiny recess under the principal stone, +which was a diamond of great value, 'take your scissors and cut off a +lock of my hair, and here is a place to put it. I may be gray when we +meet again. Isn't it a queer ring?'</p> + +<p>It was indeed an uncommon jewel. It had been his mother's, and by her +had been inherited from the uncle who had first made his own and the +family's fortunes by a long residence in India. He had received it from +a Rajah in those old days when jewels and gifts passed freely between +the servants of the Great East India Company and the native princes. A +large ruby and an emerald of equal size flanked the centre jewel. The +setting was peculiar, massive, but artfully disguised by the exquisite +delicacy of the workmanship. The great beauty and value of the jewel +would have made it noticeable and prized in any society in which the +wearer might have moved.</p> + +<p>'You have comforted me,' she said, smiling through her tears, and again +taking his head in her hands and pressing her lips again and again to +his brow and face. 'I feel now as if I had some guarantee that I should +look on your dear face again. And mind, if you do not return in five +years and three months I shall come to Australia to search for you.'</p> + +<p>Thus they parted. He to face the new world of the strange and the +unfamiliar—light of heart and ready of hand, as is the wont of untried +youth; she to mourn his absence in secret, and to brood over her sorrow, +as is ever the part of the steadfast heart of loving woman. The +separation from his cousin Estelle was his sole cause of regret on +leaving England. Yet that transient grief soon passed away amidst the +turmoil and excitement of which he found himself a part in his capacity +of six-hundredth-and-odd passenger on board the crowded ocean-going +clipper. A strange enough experience to the home-bred youth, who, save +on yachting cruises, had never dared the deep. Heterogeneous and +strangely assorted was the crowd of the passengers—adventurers of every +grade, feverishly anxious to reach the land of gold, chiefly +inexperienced, but all sanguine of acquiring the facile fortunes which +they had persuaded themselves the new world of the South had in store +for them. Young men were there—mere boys, like himself—for whom the +trials of toil, danger, and privation were all to come. Hitherto +unrealised abstractions.</p> + +<p>Others, again, whose grizzled beards showed them as men who had fronted +foes in the battle of life, and were ready for another campaign. Many +had never left England, and, in despite of occasional boasting, were +heavy-hearted at the thought of the homes which they had left and might +never see more. Nor was the emigration entirely masculine—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'There was woman's fearless eye<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lit by her deep love's truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was manhood's brow serenely high—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the fiery heart of youth.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A half-expressed hope that the company in the second cabin would be less +conventional and more amusing than in the first, joined to the necessity +for economising his slender funds, had decided Lance Trevanion upon +shipping as a second-class passenger. Certain to be compelled to lead a +rough life upon his arrival in Australia, surely, he argued, the sooner +he commenced to learn the way to do so the better. Nor would his +association with refined women and well-bred men in the first cabin aid +him in his search for gold—necessarily with rough, half-brigand +comrades. Thus, partly as the outcome of the defiant spirit in which he +was leaving home and native land, he booked himself as a second-class +passenger.</p> + +<p>Doubtless, in the curiously mingled crowd of passengers who thronged the +first saloon of the <i>Red Jacket</i> in that fateful year of 1851, there +were many remarkable persons, whose lives had included a far greater +number of strange adventures than most modern novels. But for a wild and +fanciful commingling of all sorts and conditions of men—from every +clime, of every grade, degree, and shade of character, the second-class +passengers bore off the palm. Since the untimely collapse of the +architects of the Tower of Babel, there could seldom have been so +diverse and bizarre a collection of humanity.</p> + +<p>The <i>Red Jacket</i>, under the stern rule of Malcolm Forbes, from whose +fiat there was no appeal, the most daring and successful maker of quick +passages that the records of the Company knew, had steamed off at the +hour appointed. Started when far from ready, however, if the masses of +deck lumber which needed storage were to be taken into account. The +weather, bad from the commencement, became worse in the Bay of Biscay, +where raged a perfect hurricane—a storm, or rather a succession of +storms, under the fierce breath of which the <i>Red Jacket</i> lay-to for +forty-eight hours at a stretch, afflicting the inexperienced voyagers +with the strongly impressed notion that their voyage would not be quite +so long as they expected. But the good ship held her own gallantly; +finally ploughed her way through the mountainous billows of the Bay of +Storms into lower latitudes. Milder airs and smoother seas cheered the +depressed and pallid passengers. An increasing number walked the deck or +sat in seats provided for them day by day. Cheerful conversation, +merriment, and even such games as the conditions of 'board-ship' life +permit were indulged in from time to time. Then Lance Trevanion had +leisure to look around and examine his fellow-passengers. He would have +been difficult to satisfy who could not among his compulsory comrades +have selected one or more congenial acquaintance. In that year the <i>Red +Jacket</i> was 'the great Club of the unsuccessful': authors and +dramatists, University graduates, lawyers, and physicians, clergymen and +artists, soldiers and sailors, tinkers and tailors, plough-boy, +apothecary, thief—to quote the nursery classic. All were there.</p> + +<p>Men of good family, like himself, chiefly younger sons, however, who had +quitted Britain in order to enlarge the proverbial slenderness of a +cadet's purse—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'One was a peer of ancient blood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In name and fame undone—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one could speak in ancient Greek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one was a bishop's son.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The <i>soigné</i> ex-guardsman, for whom the last Derby had been the knell of +fate, <i>he</i> was there, plainly dressed and unpretentious of manner, yet +bearing the unmistakable stamp of the class whom King Fashion delighted +to honour. The middle-aged club lounger, who thought the new game of +Golden Hazard, at which the stakes were reported to be so heavy and the +players so inexperienced, worth a voyage and a deal or two—he was +there. The farmer's son, who had hunted too much; the farm labourer, who +was a bit of a poacher; the gamekeeper, who had kept an eye on him; the +shopman, whose soft hands had never done a day's hard work; the groom, +the coachman, the gardener, each and every one of the members of the +staff of rural and city life—were there. With some exceptions, they +were chiefly young, and now, as the fear and discomfort of the early +part of the voyage wore off, the natural characters of the individuals +commenced to exhibit themselves.</p> + +<p>It was pathetic to see the trustful confidence with which +delicately-nurtured women, following their improvident or heedless +mates, clung to the idea that, once safely landed in the wondrous land +of gold, all would be well. They had left in the old land all that had +made the solace of their lives, their tenderest memories and inherited +affection. After unutterable wretchedness and discomfort, they were now +voyaging towards a land the characteristics of which were practically an +unknown to them as those of the interior of Africa, and yet, 'O woman, +great in thy faith!' those victims of ironic fate were cheerful, even +gay. As they looked in the eyes of their husbands or the faces of their +children and saw them happy and sanguine, they dreaded no cloud in the +tropic sky, neither storm nor disaster, poverty nor danger, to come in +the far south land.</p> + +<p>With many young men on board, and others who, though no longer young, +were not disinclined for games of chance, it was only to be expected +that a little card-playing should go on. Lance was naturally fond of all +games of hazard—bad, indeed, born and bred in him—derived from +whatever ancestor—the true gambler's passion. He had enjoyed no great +opportunity of developing it yet. All games of chance had been strictly +interdicted at Wychwood. Now that he had come into freer +atmosphere—into another world, socially considered—he felt a +newly-arisen desire for play, so strong and unconquerable that it +astonished himself. He had, of course, £200 or £300 with him, not +intending to land in Australia quite penniless. This was more than many +of his shipmates could boast of possessing, and he passed among them, in +consequence, as quite a capitalist; in his way. Though he played +regularly, almost daily in fact, he was more than moderately successful. +The evil genius of chance, who lures men to their destruction by +ensuring their success in their early hazards, was not absent on this +occasion. Lance won repeatedly, so much so that his good fortune began +to be as much a matter of general observation as his apparent easiness +as regarded money.</p> + +<p>It may be imagined that Trevanion's circle of acquaintances became +enlarged. Inexperienced youngsters like himself mingled every day, when +the weather permitted, with men who had played for high stakes in good +London clubs. Success, of course, varied. Many of the callow gamblers +lost all they had, and had, perforce, to look forward to landing in +Melbourne without a penny in the world.</p> + +<p>Among those who were proverbially unsuccessful was a young man, who, +from that and other reasons, commenced to attract an unusual share of +attention from the other passengers. He and Lance Trevanion were +decidedly unsympathetic. They were always pitted against one another in +play. They appeared to be rivals in all things. More than once they had +been on the verge of a quarrel, which the bystanders had prevented from +being fought out. What was perhaps really curious was the fact, which +all were quick to remark, that the two men resembled each other in +personal appearance to a most uncommon degree. Lawrence Trevenna, for +such was his name, was probably a year older, but otherwise had much the +same figure, features, and complexion. The eyes, too, strange to say, +were of the same shape and colour; and, as the two men faced each other +in the quarrel before mentioned, more than one looker-on remarked the +curious peculiarity—the strange unearthly glitter, the lurid light, +which shone forth in the hour of wrath and defiance. No one had noticed +it before in either face. 'They were as much alike,' said the second +mate, who was standing by, somewhat disappointed that the fight did not +come off, 'as if they were brothers. There couldn't have been a closer +match.'</p> + +<p>As it turned out, they had never seen one another before,—in fact, came +from different parts of England. The other man, when looked at closely, +was decidedly coarser in feature and less refined in type. His +conversation, too, disclosed the fact that his early education had been +indifferent. Handsome and stalwart as he was, under no circumstances +could he be considered to rank as a gentleman. That his temper was +violent was put beyond a doubt by the savage outbreak which led to the +quarrel. It was not certain that he would have got the best of it in a +hand-to-hand encounter, but his expression on reluctantly retiring was +of unequivocal malevolence, as was indeed exhibited by his parting +speech.</p> + +<p>'I'll meet with you another day,' he said. 'Australia is not such a big +place, after all. You may not have so many backers next time.'</p> + +<p>'It's perfectly indifferent to me,' answered Trevanion, 'when or how we +meet. I dare say my hands will save my head there, as they can do here. +People shouldn't play for money who can't keep their tempers when they +lose.'</p> + +<p>The passengers of the <i>Red Jacket</i> had in a general way too much to +think about to bother their heads about the accidental likeness existing +between two young fellows in the second class, still the story leaked +out. It was said 'that one of them was an eldest son and heir to an old +historic name and a fine estate. The other was a very fine young man, +but evidently a nobody, inasmuch as he dropped his aitches and so on. +<i>But</i> they were so wonderfully alike that you could hardly tell them +apart. It would be worth while to get up amateur theatricals and play +the <i>Corsican Brothers</i>. Effect tremendous, you know! Queerest thing of +all, too, they'd never met before and didn't like each other now they +had met.'</p> + +<p>'Strange things, doubles,' said Captain Westerfield, late of H.M. 80th +Regiment. 'Not so very uncommon though. Most men in society have one. My +fellow turned up at Baden, most extraordinary resemblance, wasn't an +Englishman either. Raffish party too, spy and conspirator persuasion, +that sort of thing. Did me good service once, though. Story too long to +tell now.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, Captain Westerfield, <i>do</i> tell it to us,' said the fascinating Mrs. +Grey, as they walked back to the first-class region, after inspecting +the two Dromios.</p> + +<p>'Some day, perhaps,' murmured the Captain.</p> + +<p>The <i>Red Jacket</i> held on her way with unslackened speed. Night and day, +fair weather and foul, with winds ahead or astern, it was all the same +to Captain Forbes. Never was an inch of canvas taken in before the +'sticks' began to give token of ill-usage. 'What she couldn't carry she +might drag,' was his usual reply to remonstrating passengers. And he had +his accustomed luck. In the murkiest midnight, or when fogs made the +best lights invisible a ship's length in advance, the <i>Red Jacket</i> ran +into no homeward-speeding bark. Nor did any other reckless-driving +vessel, with a captain vowed to make the passage of the season, +encounter him. The long, low coast-line of Australia and the Otway light +were sighted at as nearly as possible the hour when they were expected +to be visible, and through the Rip and up the vast land-locked haven of +Port Phillip Bay went the Racer of the Ocean one afternoon, fully two +days in advance of the shortest passage which had ever been known in +those days between the old old world and that new one which so long lay +unknown and unpeopled beneath the Southern Cross.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<p>So this was Melbourne! At least the nearest that the <i>Red Jacket</i> could +get to it, on account of certain natural obstacles. But it lay only +seven miles off, that is by the river, of which they could trace the +windings through high walls of the thick-growing, but slender ti-tree +(melaleuca). Anchored now in a broad bay, a low sandy shore on the +eastern side, on the west a green level promontory, with a few huts and +cottages sprinkled over it, falling back to far-stretching plains, with +a volcanic peak in the foreground and a mountain range in the hazy +distance.</p> + +<p>Without much delay comes a roomy lighter alongside the <i>Red Jacket</i>, in +which the passengers mostly elect to embark.</p> + +<p>Their luggage, an avalanche of bags, bundles, trunks, and boxes, is shot +on deck. A puffing, vicious-looking tug, with the air of 'a guinea a +minute for my time,' drags them off, through the shoals of the Yarra, +and so bustles forward till that grand and wonderful structure, the +Melbourne wharf, a rudely planked platform fringing an illimitable ocean +of black mud into which the river flat, guiltless of macadam, has been +churned. Here their goods and chattels are unceremoniously transferred +to the unsheltered wharf. It had been raining. The passengers, +surrounded by draymen, hotel and lodging-house keepers, look blankly at +each other. A few of the women begin to cry. Thus for them, as for all +the <i>Red Jacket's</i> passengers, save the favoured few of the saloon, the +hard schooling of colonial experience commences. If quarrels arise and +animosities are generated on board ship, so also do friendships, true +and permanent, spring up. Trevanion had made acquaintance with a young +couple from the border of his own county. The man was a sturdy fellow, +half miner, half farm-labourer, whom the hope of bettering his condition +had tempted to the desperate step, as it appeared to all his +neighbours, of emigration. His wife was a fresh-coloured, innocent, +country villager, their one child, an engaging little button of three +years old, one of the pets of the ship. The two men had arranged to go +up to the diggings together, and Trevanion decided that in some respects +he could not have a better mate. 'Gwenny here can cook and wash for us, +and if we get a share of the gold and Tottie doesn't fall into one of +their deep holes as they tell us about, we shall do main likely, Mr. +Trevanion.' So it was settled, Mrs. Polwarth was a little nervous about +travelling through the 'bush' and living at a 'digging,' but where her +man went, she, as an Englishwoman and wife, was bound to go too. '"For +better, for worse," pa'son he says, and I reckon, lad, I'll stick to +thee as long as we've bread to eat or a shed to cover us.' Such was her +simple creed.</p> + +<p>'It strikes me,' said Trevanion, after the first few minutes of blank +astonishment, in which the country-bred couple, and even he himself +gazed around at the strange crowd and unfamiliar surroundings, 'that +we'd better hail one of these drays and get our luggage taken up to a +lodging-house, till we can look around. The weather is rather cold to my +fancy for camping out, though it is Australia. We mustn't get laid up +with chills, and fever, and ague, as that American warned us, to start +with. So Jack, you take care of the boxes and the family—I'll soon +manage a conveyance.'</p> + +<p>After a short but spirited engagement with a drayman, who seemed an +educated person, to Lance's astonishment, he compounded for a payment of +two guineas, for which moderate sum the owner of this expensive +equipage—worth a hundred and fifty pounds at ruling prices—covenanted +to land them all in safety at a decent lodging-house.</p> + +<p>'You are in luck,' said the drayman, as they were walking back to the +wharf, 'to find a place to put your head in to-night, I can tell you. +Lots of your fellow-passengers will have to camp out under any shelter +they can extemporise. But I happen to hear the people I am taking you to +say they had one bedroom and a small attic to let, the occupants having +started for Ballarat this morning.'</p> + +<p>'And how is it you are not there with all the rest of the world, if it's +as rich as they say it is?'</p> + +<p>'They can't exaggerate the richness of it. I know so much of my own +knowledge, but I happened to buy this old nag and the dray, which +brings me in about a thousand a year at present. I'm not an avaricious +man, so I'm waiting on here till I feel in the humour to tackle digging +in earnest.'</p> + +<p>By this time the wharf was reached, and the dray being loaded with their +boxes and bundles, Mrs. Polwarth placed comfortably in the centre, the +men walked beside the driver. Two long and very broad streets were +traversed before they arrived at a neat weatherboard cottage with dormer +windows and an upper floor. The proprietor, a bronzed colonist, received +them cheerfully, and immediately set to work to take in their luggage.</p> + +<p>'Mother,' he said to a cheery, brisk little woman who now came up to the +garden gate, 'you take in this young lady and little gal, and make 'em +comfortable. Mr. Waters says as they've just come out in the <i>Red +Jacket</i>. They'll be all the readier for their tea, I'll be bound. We'll +see to all the boxes and things.'</p> + +<p>'Mr. Waters, you'll just have time to do up the old horse afore the +tea-bell rings. I wouldn't let them beef-steaks get cold, if I was you.'</p> + +<p>As they sat smoking over a snug fire in the kitchen, after a well-cooked +and sufficing meal, Lance and his 'mate' came fully to the conclusion +that they <i>had</i> been in luck in falling across their friend the drayman, +and being guided to such good quarters. Here they were comfortably +lodged at a reasonable charge, and, moreover, had the advice of two +experienced and well-disposed men as to their future plans and +prospects.</p> + +<p>'Yes. After stopping a week in Melbourne, I should certainly make tracks +for Ballarat, if I were in your place,' said Mr. Waters the drayman. +'You've come all this way to dig. Jack has a wife and a child to work +for, and the sooner you set about it the better.'</p> + +<p>'But what is the best way to get there?' asked Lance. 'The road is bad, +and it's a long way there. We can't carry our boxes. It's too expensive +to go by coach. I don't see my way.'</p> + +<p>'What Mr. Waters says is God's truth,' chimed in their host. 'You can't +do nothing but spend money, and waste your time here, unless you was in +a way of business, which ain't likely. Your only dart is to buy a +staunch horse with a tip-cart, and put a tent atop of your luggage. Take +tea, and sugar, and flour with you, a little bacon and so on. Then you +camp every night. It costs you little or nothing, and you're as jolly as +sand boys.'</p> + +<p>'And how about finding the road, Mister?' asked Jack, looking rather +anxious. 'It's many a long mile, and mostly through the woods, as I'm +warned. We might lose our way.'</p> + +<p>'A blind man could find the road night or day,' said Waters, with a +laugh. 'It's a mile wide, and there's a string of carts and drays, men, +women, and children, going along it, like a travelling fair. Night and +day you can hear the bells on the horses and bullocks a couple of miles +off.'</p> + +<p>'Won't the turn-out cost heaps of money?' asked Lance, thinking of the +price of Mr. Waters's horse and dray.</p> + +<p>'Not above seventy or eighty pounds altogether, and you can sell them +for the same or more money when you get to the diggings. We'll try and +find you a decent turn-out with a canvas tilt to keep the rain off Mrs. +Polwarth and Tottie. My friend Burnett knows half the miners that come +here from Ballarat, and they often have a cheap lot, horse and cart, and +a good many useful things given in, which they are in a hurry to sell +before they leave for England.'</p> + +<p>'That will suit us down to the ground, eh, Jack, and then—this day +week—hey for Ballarat and a golden hole.'</p> + +<p>For the next week Trevanion devoted himself to exploring Melbourne, and +seeing as much as he could of the strange world to which he had voyaged +on the other side of the globe. It was—to his British and comparatively +untravelled idea—a state of society utterly foreign and at variance +with all his preconceived ideas.</p> + +<p>In the first place there were no poor people, no beggars, no evidence +anywhere to be seen that anybody lacked money, food, clothes, or +amusement. It was distinctly Utopian in the evidences of material +prosperity, which everywhere abounded. The diggings both at Ballarat and +Bendigo (as Sandhurst was then called) had been sufficiently long +established to have furnished a class of lucky diggers who dominated the +urban population, and gave a tone of universal opulence to the +community.</p> + +<p>With all this, though men were plentiful who had made their ten or +twenty thousand pounds each in a few weeks, there was but little +disorder, and no lawlessness observable. A good-natured extravagance, a +defiant recklessness of expenditure were the leading characteristics of +the mining aristocracy.</p> + +<p>It was true that their wives sported expensive silk dresses, gold +chains, and diamond earrings; that they entertained one another as +agreeable chance acquaintances regale at the Criterion—a hostelry built +in the most expensive period of skilled labour, every brick used in +which was reported to have cost half-a-crown. The theatres and +concert-halls were crowded every night with a fairly appreciative and +orderly audience. The theatrical and musical talent was exceptionally +good at that time. For the news of the abounding gold of Ballarat +travelled far and fast, and, where the auriferous lure is waved, have +ever been wont to gather the mimes and the sweet singers of the world's +best quality.</p> + +<p>It was literally, and in many respects a revival of the golden age, a +truly Arcadian time. A truce seemed to have been proclaimed to the +world's sad-faced task-workers, to the slavery of desk and plough and +loom. Save the exciting labour of the mine—when, perhaps, each stroke +of the pick brought down stone heavy with the precious metal, or +dislodged ingots and gold dust—work was there none. So, at last, a +strong, light box-cart, with a staunch and active draught horse, having +been purchased at a reasonable price,—their new-found friend arranged +that part of the business,—a start was made one fine morning for +Ballarat—the El Dorado of the South. All their worldly goods were +packed safely and snugly. There was a canvas tilt, under which Mrs. +Polwarth and Tottie would be sheltered from sun and storm, and could +sleep at night. There was a small tent in which the men could dispose +themselves. The bay horse, led by Jack, stepped off cheerfully and +briskly, and then, with the blessings, metaphorically speaking, of their +landlord and Mr. Waters, the little expedition set forth. The latter +gentleman accompanied them for a short distance, until fairly past the +outskirts of the town, and on the broad highway marked by a thousand +wheels which led to Ballarat. He volunteered a modicum of advice, +limited in quantity, but valuable.</p> + +<p>'There's plenty of gold there, never fear, and new finds every day. You +may go home with a fortune next year, and in the <i>Red Jacket</i> too, if +she keeps lucky and don't get run down. You and that "Cousin Jack" are +both workers, I can see it in all your ways. Stick together, you can +trust each other, and don't make more friends than you can help. You'll +find men by the score there that would cut your throat for a ten-pound +note, and chuck Mrs. Polwarth and Tottie down a shaft for the same +price. Keep a good look-out at night. Don't drink or play cards with +strangers. If you fall across a streak of luck, follow it up to the end, +but don't keep gold in your tent. If you don't hit it just at first, +persevere all the same. It's bound to come. And now I'll say good-bye, +and good fortune to you. Look up Burnett when you come back; if I'm not +with him, he'll know my address.'</p> + +<p>So their friend—a good and true one in every sense—shook hands with +Jack and his wife, kissed Tottie, with whom he left a large parcel of +sugar-plums, and departed. It was strange that he and the boarding-house +keeper should have taken such a fancy to the party; but such was the +fact, and in new countries and wild places outside the pale of ordinary +society, sudden and chance-made friendships spring up and blossom into +full fruition much more frequently than people in old countries would +believe. They had nothing to gain from these emigrants. They only +accepted the bare amount due for services rendered. They prevented them +from being over-reached in the purchase of that vitally necessary +equipment in goldfield days—the horse and cart. They saw, too, that +unlike the hero in that exciting Anglo-Colonial romance 'It's Never too +late to Mend,' they were put in possession of a horse that <i>would pull +down hill</i> as well as up. In fact they acted with simple good faith, +generosity, and gratuitous courtesy, all through.</p> + +<p>This was not the conduct to be expected from perfect strangers in a +'lawless community' like Melbourne, <i>vide</i> the fiction of the day. But +it happened to be true nevertheless.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + +<p>It is unnecessary to accompany the little party along the somewhat +tedious and decidedly muddy road which led the adventurers of the day to +the spot 'where the root of all evil grew wild up the country.' O dear +old friend, who used to quote this, and make merry over Governor Tarbox, +where art thou now? They saw the Royal Mail dash by, drawn by six horses +in an American coach, the leather-brace springs of which, and the plank +road, were a constant wonder to Jack and Mrs. Polwarth. Now trotted +along a dozen well-mounted police troopers, their boots and steel +scabbards shining in the sun, conveying 50,000 ounces of gold in a +four-horse drag. Anon, a drove of staring, long-horned fat cattle, +engineered by a dog of high educational attainments, a black boy, and a +couple of bearded, wild-looking stock-riders. Then, again, the bullock +team of the period—fourteen bullocks drawing a laden canvas-covered +waggon, with a tall Australian driver, the whip of him at times raising +hair, at times volleying like musketry—was another unequivocal +surprise. A flock of 2000 fat sheep, a drove of unbroken horses, a train +of a dozen pack-mules, all these were fascinating novelties and wild +surprises to the newly-arrived Britishers.</p> + +<p>A few days, however, sufficed to inure the little party to the toils and +difficulties of the journey, such as they were, and to teach them to +make light of them. The road—as before stated—nearly a mile wide in +places, and marked in black mud on the green turf, was visible to the +naked eye night or day. Mrs. Polwarth learned to fry chops and steaks +and make cakes as if she had been to the manner born, while the men +pitched their tents and made their nightly camp as if they had done +nothing else all their lives. Tottie, even, used to run about and pick +great bunches of yellow flowers, which were so like buttercups, together +with daisies and fringed violets, and was the merriest of the party.</p> + +<p>'This is going gipsying with a vengeance,' said Lance one day. 'I never +expected to find myself driving a cart and hobbling out an old horse, +like a tinker on a common; but as it's the regular thing to do, and as +this Tom Tidler's ground can't be so very far off now, I suppose one +mustn't grumble.'</p> + +<p>'It's main cheap travelling,' Jack would reply to these occasional +repinings. 'It don't cost much, that's one thing, and the weather seems +like taking up, so the little one can play about same as if she was at +home.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Ballarat—at length! The far-famed!—the wonder-town!—the capital of +the kingdom of gold! A confused array of huts, tents, weatherboard +houses, and stores huddled together, as if rained down from the sky, on +the side of a hill partly covered with the iron-stemmed, sombre +Eucalyptus. A brook, with yellow waters hurrying down between green and +grassy banks. Crowds of silent, preoccupied looking men anxiously +engaged in what, to the new-comers, seemed mysterious mining operations. +Some were standing mid-leg deep in the creek, protected by thigh boots, +rocking curious wooden cases, which looked like children's cradles, and +which they afterwards found were called by that name. Policemen and +mounted troopers went to and fro among them, or issued from an +encampment higher on the hill—which was evidently the headquarters of +the executive department. Mud-stained, bearded, and roughly dressed were +the greater part of the population; Lance thought he had never seen so +many ruffianly-looking fellows before. A marsh, filled with waving +reeds, lay on a plateau a short distance to the westward of the field. +The green banks looked pleasant to the eye, shaded, as they were, by +wide-spreading trees—thicker of foliage than the others.</p> + +<p>'If you think well, sir, we might just as well pitch our camp here,' +said Jack. 'It's away from the crowd like, and I'll manage to make it +snug and home-like in a week or two. We can leave the Missis here while +you and I look out for a claim, as they call it.'</p> + +<p>So they made their temporary home by the side of Lake Wendouree, as it +came afterwards to be called, little dreaming that the day would come +when the marsh would be dammed and deepened, when, steamers would ply +upon its surface, and boat races and regattas take place thereon, with a +thousand school-children holding high festival on its banks.</p> + +<p>However, these developments were in the future. Nothing was to be seen +now but the waving reeds, the green grass, and a great black log lying +on the ground, by the side of which they pitched the tent, as being a +species of shelter and handy for purposes of cookery. Then the men +wandered through the diggings, talking to the miners, as opportunity +offered, and trying to learn something about the recognised method of +making a commencement to dig gold.</p> + +<p>Chance favoured them the day after they arrived, by the occurrence of a +dramatic incident, instructive in its way, as it turned out.</p> + +<p>They were walking along the side of the creek, looking at a +curiously-silent toiling crowd of 20,000 men, who, working in very small +and shallow claims, 16 feet square, on the celebrated 'Jewellers' +Point,' were turning up gold in handfuls, panfuls, and, in some +instances, nearly bucketfuls.</p> + +<p>Suddenly every man raised his head and shouted 'Joe.' Jack and Lance +thought the whole crowd had gone mad, as they hasted to join in the +chorus. They noticed, however, a dozen or more individuals leave their +work and depart unobtrusively. A moment after, a man came running +desperately down a gully which led to the creek, hotly pursued by two +troopers. He wormed his way among the holes, where the horsemen could +not well follow him, and seemed in a fair way of escaping, when he ran +nearly into the arms of a constable on foot, whom, coming from another +direction, he had not seen. This official, a wily and active person, +promptly secured him. He was then handcuffed and led off to the camp, +where, to the great astonishment of the Englishmen, who followed to see +the end of the affair, he was chained to a log by the leg; evidently a +desperate criminal, they decided.</p> + +<p>Lance interrogated one of the troopers who remained by the prisoner. 'I +suppose he's a hardened offender. Is it for murder or robbery? or only +horse-stealing?'</p> + +<p>The trooper laughed. 'Well, he ain't what you might call a desprit bad +'un, though he's broke the law. He's been diggin' without a license.'</p> + +<p>'What's that?'</p> + +<p>'Well, you'll soon find out, young man. If you don't get one, you'll get +tethered like this chap here. It's a permit to dig gold, and you have to +pay thirty bob a month to the Crown. You didn't think you were going to +be let dig up a fortune on Crown land for nothing, did you?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, I understand. Well, where can we get one?'</p> + +<p>'D'ye see that big outside tent at the camp? Well, that's the Mining +Registrar's. He'll give you one apiece, if you've got the cash, and then +you can dig gold by the hundredweight, if so be as you can find it.'</p> + +<p>'All right. Can I have a word with the prisoner?'</p> + +<p>'Oh yes; while I'm here.'</p> + +<p>Lance went up to the manacled one and accosted him. 'What's your name, +my man?'</p> + +<p>'I'm not "my man," or your man or any one else's. Though I'm not a free +man, certainly, if it comes to that. Isn't it an infernal shame that a +free-born Englishman should be chained up like a dog because he hasn't +thirty shillings in his pocket?'</p> + +<p>'It doesn't seem right,' said Lance. 'The money's not much, but, of +course, a man may be out of luck and not have it. The reason I asked you +your name was that I was just going to the Registrar to get a couple of +licenses for my mate and myself, and I could get you one at the same +time.'</p> + +<p>'Didn't I tell you I had no money?' said the man, rather savagely.</p> + +<p>'What does it matter about such a trifle? Of course, I will pay for you, +and you can give it to me when convenient.'</p> + +<p>'Thanks, very much,' said the stranger, with a softened voice and an +accent which spoke of different surroundings. 'My name is Hastings. +Edward Charles are my Christian names. You must make allowance for my +being out of temper. This sort of thing is enough to gall any man, and +there will be trouble out of it yet.'</p> + +<p>'Now,' said Lance to the trooper, 'if I get a license, as you call it, +for our friend here, will you let him go?'</p> + +<p>'By rights,' said the trooper, who had a good-natured face, 'he ought to +be brought up to-morrow before the Commissioner for not producing his +license when called upon so to do by any authorised person. But they're +all away, and I can square it—say he had got one that day, or +something.'</p> + +<p>'That will do,' said Lance, with a smile, as he handed the man a +half-sovereign. 'I'll soon have his paper and my own. I can't leave a +man—a gentleman, too—like this. That's the tent, isn't it?'</p> + +<p>'He's a gentleman, that chap,' said the trooper to himself. 'Any one can +see that; just out from home, too. But he's too soft. His money won't +last long if he goes and pays up for every chap here that hasn't got a +license.'</p> + +<p>As it turned out, it was money well invested.</p> + +<p>Trevanion went to the tent, where he found a busy gentleman sitting +before a table covered with notes and gold and silver, official papers +and books, etc., all in rather a state of confusion. He cut short his +explanation by asking 'What names?' in a gruff voice.</p> + +<p>These being supplied, he filled up three forms printed on parchment, +which he cut out of a long narrow book like a cheque book, and, holding +them in his hand, said, 'Four pounds ten you have to pay.'</p> + +<p>Lance handed over five sovereigns and received ten shillings change. He +then glanced at the licenses, consecutively numbered and dated, which +gave permission to John Polwarth, Launcelot Trevanion, and Edward +Charles Hastings 'to dig and search for gold upon Her Majesty's Crown +lands in the colony of Victoria for the space of <i>one month</i> from date.' +These documents had been signed in blank—'<span class="smcap">Evelyn P. S. Sturt</span>, +Commissioner.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<p>The trooper came back to the log with the two 'new chums,' as he, a +native-born Australian, would have called them, and turned his back +while Trevanion handed Hastings his digging license. He then faced +round. 'You've been arrested according to law for digging in Growlers' +Gully without a license. Do you now produce one?' Hastings handed him +the parchment slip before referred to. 'You hand me this license all +correct and regular. I now discharge you from custody, and,' continued +the trooper, evidently thinking he ought to say something magisterial +and impressive, 'I hope it will be a warning to you.' He then unlocked +the padlock, which was passed through a chain which held the handcuff +which was round the man's ankle, and released him.</p> + +<p>Hastings laughed as he stood up and stretched himself. 'I expected a few +strange experiences when I started to dig gold in this extraordinary +country, but I never thought to be chained up to a log by the leg. +However, it's all in the day's work. You've only done your duty, Doolan, +and indeed you've stretched it a bit in letting me off. I'll perhaps be +able to do you a good turn some day. Good-bye.'</p> + +<p>'Now Mr. ——,—I really don't know your name,—Trevanion, thanks, I see +you and your friend are just off the ship and therefore not up to the +wicked ways of digging life. I may say now that I hold myself deeply +indebted to you. In requital, if you'll come to Growlers' Gully, where +I'm hanging out, I can lay you on to a "show," as we miners call it, +that may turn out something good.'</p> + +<p>'We know nothing as yet,' said Lance. 'We're quite raw and +inexperienced, therefore shall be very glad to go to Growlers' Gully or +any other place, if there's a chance of setting to work in good +earnest.'</p> + +<p>'The best thing you can do, then,' said his new friend, 'is to walk out +there and stay in our tent to-night. To-morrow you can get back and show +your party the way. It's no good staying where you are.'</p> + +<p>'Done with you,' said Lance. 'Jack, you can go back and tell your wife,' +and away they went. After walking three or four miles, a kind of open +ravine, which in Australia is called a gully, presented itself. The +tents were thinner and the miners not quite so busy. 'That's our tent,' +said Hastings, 'and there's my mate sitting on a log outside, smoking +and wondering what's become of me. Hulloa! Bob, did you think I was lost +or in chokee? This is Mr. Trevanion; he's stood my friend or else I +should have spent the night on the chain, so we must lay him on to a +show, if there's one in the gully.'</p> + +<p>'It's a nice way to treat a Christian, chaining of him up like a dorg, +ain't it, sir?' said the miner slowly. 'It'll raise trouble some day, +I'll go bail. Proud to see you, sir. There's plenty of tea in the billy, +it'll soon warm up. Luckily I baked last night and there's a goodish +lump of corned silver-side of beef. You'll be ready for dinner, both on +ye, I reckon.'</p> + +<p>'This child is,' said Hastings, and 'Mr. Trevanion has had a goodish +walk, which ought to sharpen his appetite. That's right, Bob.'</p> + +<p>As he spoke, his companion, who, if slow of speech, was evidently a man +of action, placed some tin plates on a small table in the tent, knives +and forks, with a large loaf, half a round of cold corned beef, and a +bottle of pickles. This done, he poured out two pint pannikins of tea, +and sitting a little way off outside, filled his pipe and lit it afresh.</p> + +<p>'Mind them Irishmen that took up number six claim above Jackson's?' +inquired he.</p> + +<p>'Think I do,' mumbled Hastings, whose mouth, like some people's hearts, +was too full for utterance. 'Think I do; what about them?'</p> + +<p>'What about 'em?' returned Bob. 'Why, they've jacked up and cut it. Said +they wanted summut more certain. A dashed good show, I call it.'</p> + +<p>'There's a chance for you, Trevanion,' said Hastings. 'Go and peg it out +the moment you've finished this humble meal. You've got twenty-four +hours to be at work in it. But the sooner you make a start the better. I +shouldn't like to see you lose it. Bob will go with you.'</p> + +<p>Lance made very good time over the corned beef, which he couldn't be +induced to leave for a while. But he and Bob made a formal pegging out +half an hour afterwards, thus taking legal possession of two men's +ground.</p> + +<p>The very next morning saw the party duly installed. Mrs. Polwarth and +Tottie had arrived, the tent was pitched, a fireplace made, the windlass +fitted with a new rope, and Lance and Jack working away as if they had +been mining all their lives.</p> + +<p>For nearly a fortnight the two men toiled and delved, one winding up and +the other picking and shovelling away at the various strata which +intervened between them and the precious ore they hoped to discover.</p> + +<p>'We shan't get no gold here, I don't believe,' quoth Jack, mournfully, +one day. 'I've heard of a grand diggings only fifty miles off. I'm +warned they're a-pickin' of it up in handfuls.'</p> + +<p>'It wants ten days to the end of the month,' replied Lance. 'I like to +stick to things when I've begun. Suppose we make up our minds to keep at +it till then. It isn't fair to Hastings to run away without a good +trial.'</p> + +<p>'All right, Mr. Lance, we'll give it till the thirty-first. If we don't +hit it then, I'm off to Forest Creek for good. Until then we'll see who +can work the hardest.'</p> + +<p>As far as manual labour was concerned there had now come to be perfect +equality between the man of birth and the son of toil. Stalwart and +symmetrical always, the frame of Lance Trevanion had now acquired from +daily labour and simple food the muscle and elasticity of an athlete in +full training. Hour after hour could he swing the pick and lift the +shovel weighted with clay and gravel, or wind up the heavy raw hide +bucket, fully loaded, without the slightest sense of fatigue, with +hardly a quickening of the breath. The healthful, yet abundant, food +always procurable at a prosperous digging, amply sufficed for all their +needs; the sound and dreamless sleep restored strength and tissue, and +sent them forth ready, even eager for the morning's toil.</p> + +<p>As Lance walked among the tents, or strolled up the busy lighted street +on Saturday night, resplendent in clean flannels or a half-worn +shooting-jacket of fashionable cut, many an admirer of form, even in +that <i>lanista</i> of magnificent athletes, the flower of the adventurous +manhood of many a clime, stopped to make favourable comment on the +handsome young Englishman who had come to the gully with 'Callao' +Hastings.</p> + +<p>Just one day before the last one of the month, when the partners were +already inquiring the distance of the first stage to Forest Creek, Lance +broke into a stratum of decomposed rock mingled with quartz gravel. This +was from a foot to eighteen inches in depth, and extended across the +shaft. They did not know—ignorant as they were of the humblest mining +lore—what had happened till they consulted their guide, philosopher, +and friend, Hastings.</p> + +<p>'Why, you've bottomed,' he made answer, with a look of profound wisdom, +'I'll go down and have a look at the "wash."'</p> + +<p>They lowered him down. Ten minutes after he sent up the bucket, +half-full; then, after the rope was lowered, came up himself. 'Get a tin +dish and carry it down to the creek till I wash the "prospect,"' quoth +he.</p> + +<p>He filled the dish with the 'wash-dirt,' as he called it, dipped it +again and again in the yellow waters of the creek, sending out the +clay-stained water with a circular twist of his wrist, in a way +incomprehensible to Lance and Jack. Lastly, when bit by bit all the clay +and gravel had disappeared, leaving but a narrow ring of black and gray +sand around the bottom of the dish, he spoke again—</p> + +<p>'Look there,' he said meaningly.</p> + +<p>They looked, and saw dull red and yellow streaks on the upper edge of +close-lying grains, with an occasional pea-like pebble of the same +colour.</p> + +<p>'Is that—is that——?' asked Lance in a husky voice.</p> + +<p>'Gold!' shouted Hastings, 'yes, that's what it is. I call it an ounce to +the dish, with eighteen inches of wash-dirt for the whole width of the +claim; your fortune's made. It's a golden hole, nothing less, and one of +the richest on the field.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>So it was.... Day after day the partners cradled the precious gravel; +day after day they returned to their tent with a tin pannikin or camp +kettle containing enough of the precious metal to cause the most +pleasurable excitement in the owners, and to occasion exaggerated +reports of their wealth and the inexhaustible richness of the claim to +pervade the field.</p> + +<p>'You'll have to look out now,' said Hastings, impressively, one day. +'You've got a most dangerous and unenviable reputation. You've supposed +to have gold untold in your tent. Do you know what that means here?'</p> + +<p>'But we take our gold to the Commissioner every day,' said Lance, 'and +we see it sealed up and labelled and put in a safe before we leave.'</p> + +<p>'That's all very well, and the most sensible thing you could do, but +nothing will persuade some of those fellows, with which the gully is +getting too full to please me, that you don't keep gold or cash in your +tent.'</p> + +<p>'Well, what of that?'</p> + +<p>'What of that among some of the greatest scoundrels unhung? Fellows that +for a ten-pound note would chop Mrs. Polwarth up for sausages and fry +Tottie with bread sauce, after knocking both of you on the head? You +don't know what a real bad digging crowd is, and when you do it may be +too late.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Now the reign of Plutus had set in, as far as Lance and his companion +were concerned. A few short weeks and how had their prospects changed. +What was now their position?—shovelling in gold at the rate of five +hundred pounds a week per man. It seemed like a dream, a fairy tale to +Lance. A year or so at most of this kind of work and he would be able to +return to England in the triumphant position of a man who had seen the +world, who had been, as the phrase runs, the architect of his own +fortune, who had boldly accepted the alternative rather than own himself +in the wrong, and who now had carried out what he had vowed to do in +spite of the incredulity of disapproving friends.</p> + +<p>And his cousin, his beloved Estelle, what would be her feelings? He +wrote to her at once, telling her to abandon all doubt and fear on his +account. Where were her prophecies now? He should always bless the day +on which he sailed for Australia. He might even go the length of +thanking his father for his stern reproof, his unjust severities. After +all it had been for the best. It had made a man of him. Instead of +lounging about at home, or idling on the continent (for he would never +have taken his degree if he had stayed at Oxford till he was gray), he +had seen what a new country was like, met numbers of the most +interesting people, learned how to carry himself among all sorts of +queer characters, learned to work with his hands and to show himself a +man among men. To crown all, he was making eight or ten thousand a year. +With a little judicious speculation he was very likely to double or +quadruple this. And in three years from the day he left she would see +him back again, he had almost said dead or alive. What talks they would +have over his adventures and wonderful, really wonderful, experience! +loving each other as of old and rejoicing in one another's society. The +life agreed with him splendidly. He was in famous condition, and except +that he was sunburned and a little browner, there was no change to speak +of. She would be able to judge if he had altered for the worse in manner +or lost form. Perhaps he had roughened a little by associating with all +sorts and conditions of men, but it would soon come back again when once +more he found himself among his own people and near his heart's darling, +Estelle.</p> + +<p>Thus far the welcome letter—how welcome those alone can tell who have +longed for tidings from a far country, who have waited with the +heart-sickness of hope long deferred, and have at length snatched at the +precious missive that told of safety and success, even of the +approaching return.</p> + +<p>Estelle Chaloner treasured this missive from a far country, read it and +re-read it day after day: she watched the features change and the colour +fade from her uncle's face as he listened to the exulting cry with which +she announced a letter from Lance, watched the stern face soften and +heard the first words of regret which had passed his lips since the day +of wrath and despair.</p> + +<p>'I was hard upon the boy, perhaps,—it's this accursed family temper, I +suppose,' he said. 'Where is the lad that isn't a fool in some way or +other! We are a stubborn breed, and once heated slow to cool. Tell him +when you write that he will be welcome again at Wychwood. Not to stay +away too long, though, whatever his good fortune may be, for I am not +the man I was, Estelle, and I should like to see my boy's face again, +before—before I die.'</p> + +<p>Here the hard voice changed, the stern man turned his head. Could this +be Sir Mervyn? thought Estelle. In all her previous knowledge of him she +had never known him to express regret for any act, speech, or opinion +whatever, however placed in the wrong by after-consequences. That he +should be really regretful and repentant struck her in the light of a +species of miracle. More than that, it imbued her with a vague fear, as +if there was some impending ill when such an abnormal change took place +in the social atmosphere.</p> + +<p>'Do not grieve, my dearest uncle,' said she, winding her arms around +him, with a look of beseeching tenderness. 'I know, from the way Lance +has written to me, that he has long since ceased to harbour resentment. +He knows that he was in the wrong, though he, and I too, must I confess +it, at the time, thought that you were too hard upon him. Depend upon it +we shall see him in a year, if not less, and all will be forgotten in +the joy of his return, in the triumph of his success.'</p> + +<p>'God grant it,' said the old man, 'but I have evil dreams. I believe the +devil enters into a Trevanion at times. Perhaps Lance may break the +spell. If he has an angel for his wife like my darling Estelle, it will +be all the more likely.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Trevanion and party, of Number Six, Growlers' Gully, were 'fair on +it'—'had struck it rich, and no mistake,' in miners' parlance. Fame and +fortune were both theirs, assured, unchallenged; the fame, as in too +many cases in this world, considerably in advance of the fortune. His +partner, Polwarth, a shrewd, long-headed 'Cousin Jack' (as the Cornish +miners are called), stuck steadily to his work, stayed at home with his +wife and child, and beyond building a comfortable weatherboard-fronted +bark cottage for them, made no difference in his equilibrium.</p> + +<p>But it was otherwise with Lance Trevanion. His striking appearance, his +manner and bearing, his reputation for wealth, coupled with romantic +tales of his family circumstances, commenced to make him a personage of +consideration, as well as to cause his society to be sought after in the +higher social strata in and around Ballarat. Even at the Gully, now that +it had developed a true and defined 'lead'—the auriferous course of a +dead and buried river of the past—a couple of branch banks had been +established, shops and hotels had sprung up.</p> + +<p>All created organisms, during certain periods of their existence, are +capable of development. The conditions being varied, plants and animals, +including that strangely-constituted vertebrate, man, suddenly or by +graduation, but not less surely, expand and change, or decrease and +degenerate, as the case may be. Physical expansion does not invariably +presume moral advancement, and, indeed, the removal of restrictive +pecuniary conditions occasionally conduces to the reverse result. Alas! +that the delightful freedom from restraints which our civilisation +renders galling, which is often described by the phrase 'money being no +object,' should, in itself, be ofttimes that broad road leading to +irrevocable ruin, to destruction of body and soul.</p> + +<p>When a man arises from sound and untroubled slumber at or about five +'<span class="smcap">A.M.</span> in the morning,' <i>vide</i> Mr. Chuckster, and within an hour is +commencing a long day's work, which process is continued week in, week +out, with the exception of Sundays, there is not much room or +opportunity for the Enemy of man, who proverbially finds work for 'the +unemployed.'</p> + +<p>These, and chiefly for such reasons, were the dangers of 'Growlers' +Gully' during the early period of their existence—an eminently peaceful +and virtuous community. Hard at work from morn till dewy eve, that is +from daylight to dark, a matter of fourteen hours, there was scant space +or opportunity for riotous living. A quiet talk over their pipes before +the so-early bedtime, a glass of beer or grog at the unpretending +shanty, which, before the era of hotel licenses, was compulsorily modest +and unobtrusive, was the outside dissipation indulged in by the +'Growlers.' There was sufficient prosperity to produce hope and +contentment, but not enough, except in rarely exceptional cases, to +bring forth the evil craving for luxury and excitement. There was no +theatre, no gaming saloon (under the rose, of course), no inrush of +fiends, male and female, as upon a diggings of published richness; and +therein lay safety, had they known it, such as should have made every +man thankful, and every woman deeply grateful to the Higher Power that +had so ordered their destiny and surroundings.</p> + +<p>So might, perchance, have continued their Arcadian freedom from evil had +not the exceptional richness of Number Six been known and bruited +abroad. But, somehow, principally through Lance's carelessness, it had +leaked out, been spread far and wide, been wildly exaggerated, and now, +every day new arrivals from the most unlikely places in other colonies +testified to the brilliant reputation which 'Growlers' had acquired. +Greatness, indeed, had been thrust upon them. There was no escaping the +celebrity, wholly undesired by the more thoughtful and fore-casting +miners. But the majority of the adventurers of the day were young and +inexperienced. Intoxicated with their suddenly-acquired wealth, they +were splendidly reckless as to the morrow. They ever welcomed the +irruption of the heterogeneous army of strangers which invaded their +hitherto rather close borough. They treated their rash migration, made +upon the flimsiest reports, as a humorous incident wholly appropriate to +goldfield life. As for the risks to which such an admixture might fairly +be held to expose the safety and solvency of the community, they were +contemptuously indifferent.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + + +<p>Among the new arrivals who came in numbers to swell the gathering crowd, +whose huts and tents were now scattered for miles around the original +gully, which, owing to the chronic discontent of the prospectors, had +given its name to the locality, were some people from a distant part of +the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. They constituted a large +family party, comprising brothers, cousins, the mother of the young men, +their sister, and a friend or two. Their tents were pitched in an open +flat at no great distance from claim Number Six, and without any special +overture on either side, a casual acquaintance commenced which bade fair +to ripen into friendship. The migrating party were all native-born +Australians. Gold-lured, they had travelled in one encampment from their +homesteads on the upper waters of the Eumeralla, a tributary of the +Snowy River. In that mountainous region, thinly settled with scattered +families, tending their herds of wild cattle and wilder horses, had +these stalwart men and fearless girls been born and reared. The men were +fine athletic fellows, free and cordial in their manners, apparently +liberal and obliging in such small matters as came into notice. Apart +from his natural curiosity, too, as to the characteristics of this +company of 'Sydney natives,' as they were generally called—people of +pure British race and descent, who had never seen Britain—Lance was +attracted by their riding feats as well as by the high quality of the +unusually large number of horses which belonged to the party. That they +were consummate horsemen, he, a fair judge and performer in the hunting +field, at once perceived. Their ways of managing the animals, catching, +handling and saddling them, were all new to him. He came to walk over to +their tent in the evening, to talk over the gold news of the 'day', to +hear their stories of adventure by flood and field, to him novel and +interesting, and by no means unattractively rendered. Besides all this, +there was another appendage to the Lawless family—one which, since the +ancientest days, has sufficed to attract the ardent susceptible male of +whatever age and character with steady resistless force. There was a +woman in the case, and a fairly prepossessing damsel she was. The sister +of the young men, Kate Lawless, was indeed a very handsome girl. +Bush-bred and reared as she was, uneducated and wholly unacquainted with +many of the habitudes of civilisation, she comprised much of the +perilous fascination of her sex. Tall and slight, but with a rounded +symmetrical figure, there was an ease and unstudied grace in all her +attitudes, which an artist would have recognised as true to the training +of nature. Like her brothers, more at home in the saddle than in a +chair, she compelled admiration when mounted on her favourite horse, a +gray of grand action; she swept through the forest paths or amid the +awkward traps and obstacles of a goldfield with such perfection of seat +and hand as can only be obtained by that practice which commences with +earliest childhood. Her complexion was delicate, indeed, unusually fair, +save where an envious freckle showed that the summer sun had been all +too rashly defied, her soft brown hair was unusually abundant, while her +bright dark gray eyes had a glitter at times, in moments of mirth or +excitement, which denoted, either for good or ill, a character of no +ordinary firmness.</p> + +<p>Lance Trevanion had been out of the way of female fascinations for a +considerable period. The o'ermastering strength of his feelings after +the quarrel with his father; the fierce, persistent determination with +which he had followed up the fortune which he had vowed to gain in +Australia, had for the time being dispossessed the minor frailties. But, +now that wealth had begun to pour in with a flowing tide, now that +leisure had succeeded ceaseless toil (for he had felt justified in +putting on a 'wages man'), now that flattery, spoken or implied, +commenced to indicate him as Trevanion of Number Six, 'a golden-hole +man,' and the half-owner of one of the richest claims on the field, the +ordinary results of more than sufficing money and time commenced to +exhibit themselves.</p> + +<p>'I don't know that I like that Lawless crowd over-much,' said Hastings +to him one day. 'I'd be a little careful, if I were you.'</p> + +<p>'Why, what's wrong with them?' answered Lance, rather hotly. 'They're +fine, manly fellows, and pretty good all round. They can ride and +shoot—they're very good with their hands—and I never saw smarter men +to work. Quite different from what I expected Sydney natives to be.'</p> + +<p>'And their sister's a very pretty girl—eh! Come, don't be offended, I'm +only advising you for your good. But I met an old friend, who was a +squatter in their district, and he says they are a bad lot—gamblers and +horse-thieves—more than suspected of worse things, indeed.'</p> + +<p>'Well, of course, your friend may be a little prejudiced,' answered +Trevanion, trying his best to repress his rising irritability. 'They may +have fallen out. What's the difference between squatters and drovers? +That's what they are. They told me——'</p> + +<p>'What's the difference between country gentlemen and poachers?' replied +Hastings. 'You haven't been long enough in the country to know the ins +and outs of things. But, take my word for it, the sooner you drop your +native friends the better.'</p> + +<p>'Really, my dear fellow,' answered Lance, putting on a lofty and +superior air, which his friend had never before observed, while the +strange glitter in his eyes became more intense with every word, 'you +must permit me to manage my own affairs and choose my own friends. I +have not been so long in the country as yourself, but I am not quite +devoid of common sense, and have seen a little life before I came here. +The Lawlesses are pleasant, manly fellows—quite as good as most of the +men we meet out here; and Miss Kate is a friend of mine of whom I shall +allow no one to speak disrespectfully.'</p> + +<p>Hastings was an exceptionally cool man, or he would doubtless have +requested his interlocutor, shortly, to go to the devil his own way, +and, thereafter, have washed his hands of him. But he owed a debt of +gratitude for his first generous service which he was too sincere and +genuine to forget.</p> + +<p>'You must take your own way, I suppose,' he said good-humouredly. 'We +won't quarrel, if I can help it. But I hope you won't have reason to +regret not taking my advice. Have you heard who the new Police +Magistrate is?'</p> + +<p>'His name is Mac, something or other; comes from Tasmania, and knows +every escaped convict in the colonies by sight, they say.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, Launceston Mac! Is that the P.M. who is to reign over us? No doubt +he's a good man, but a little too fond of appearing to know everybody, +and awfully severe. He's too quick in his decision, for my taste. I feel +like the sergeant in <i>Rob Roy</i>, who considers that, "Were it the +Bailie's own case, he would be in no such dashed hurry."'</p> + +<p>'Oh, well, there are plenty of rascals here and to spare. He may try his +hand on them, and welcome.'</p> + +<p>'There's a new Sergeant of Police, too,' he continued. 'Can't remember +his name; something like Barrell or Farrell. They say he's a "regular +terror," as Joe Lawless expressed it.'</p> + +<p>'Frank Dayrell! Is <i>he</i> come?' asked Hastings, with a change of tone. 'I +used to know him in a wild district out back, before the gold. There was +great joy when he left Wanaaring.'</p> + +<p>'Why, what was the matter with him? I heard he was a very smart, active +officer.'</p> + +<p>'All that,' said Hastings, 'but more besides—much more. Sergeant +Francis Dayrell bore the name of being one of the most unscrupulous, +remorseless men that ever touched a revolver. When he has duty to do, +he's all right. But, above everything, he must have a conviction. If he +can manage that, with his prisoner, well and good. If not—<i>caveat +captivus</i>.'</p> + +<p>'Whatever he is,' answered Lance, 'it won't matter much to us. We can +afford to pay for "Miner's Rights" now,' he added laughingly, 'and +there's nothing else likely to bring us within the talons of the law.'</p> + +<p>'I wouldn't make too sure of <i>that</i>,' his companion returned half +musingly, and with a strangely altered expression. 'Dayrell is a most +extraordinary man.'</p> + +<p>That there was, in the early days of the great Australian gold +irruption, a large proportion of remarkable and exceptional characters +on all the goldfields, few who have the faintest recollection of that +socially volcanic period will be found to deny. It could hardly have +been otherwise. Adventurers of every sort and condition, of all ages and +both sexes, from every clime and country, had there congregated at these +wondrous auriferous centres. The first year's manual labour, which all +essayed as the recognised form of ticket in the lottery, saw many of the +unused toilers disgusted or discouraged. Meanwhile, a demand arose for +competent persons to fill appointments the emoluments attached to which +were calculated on war prices. The public and private service were both +undermanned. Hence, every day well-born and well-educated mining +amateurs relinquished the pick and shovel to become gentlemen, so to +speak, once more. The more fortunate became Goldfield Commissioners, +Police Magistrates, Customs Officers, Clerks, Agents, Storekeepers, +Inspectors of Police, Auctioneers, and what not. The salaries were +large; the profits extraordinary—in many cases far exceeding the gains +of the ordinary miner. The rank and file of the unsuccessful applicants, +fully equal, if not, in some cases, superior to the fortunate +competitors, contented themselves with becoming police-troopers, store +clerks and assistants, coach-drivers, billiard-markers, or barmen. In +all these conventionally humble situations they were, if sober and +shrewd, enabled to save money and lay the foundation of future opulence. +The police force—more particularly the mounted division—was popular +with the more aristocratic waifs. It afforded a reasonable degree of +leisure, a spice of danger, and the privilege of posing in <i>quasi</i> +military array, besides riding a well-appointed charger and wearing a +showy uniform. Among the privates and, so to speak, non-commissioned +officers of the force were to be found, therefore, a large proportion of +what, in a regular army, would have been called soldiers of fortune. +They were occasionally impatient of discipline, wild and reckless in +their habits, given to occasional brawling, drinking, and dicing, much +as were the Royalist soldiery in the days of the first Charles. But, +like them, they were brave to recklessness, cool and daring amid fierce +and lawless crowds, and of all that strangely gathered band the wildest +and most untamed spirit, yet the coolest, the most <i>rusé</i>, deadliest +sleuth-hound, by general acclaim and common report, was Sergeant Francis +Dayrell.</p> + +<p>Tall and slight, with fair hair and beard, and a false air of almost +effeminate softness in his blue eyes, he was wonderfully active and +curiously muscular as compared with his outward appearance. That he had +received the education of a gentleman all could perceive. Of his family +nothing was known. Ever reticent about his own concerns, he was not a +man to be interrogated. An admirable man-at-arms—promoted, indeed, in +consequence of some exceptional deed of power, the taking, indeed, of a +desperate malefactor single-handed; he was an unsparing martinet to +those below him, merely respectful to his superiors in rank, and +habitually hard and merciless to the criminals with whom he had to +deal. With the exception of occasional boon companions, with whom, at +intervals, he drank deeply, and, it was alleged, gambled for high +stakes, he made no friends and had no intimates. Solitary, if not +unsocial, he was generally feared if not disliked, and the mixed +population of the goldfield, many of whom, doubtless, were conscious of +'sins unwhipt of justice,' united in giving the sergeant a very wide +berth indeed. Such was the man who had suddenly been transferred to the +police district which included Growlers' Gully and its vicinity.</p> + +<p>Among his friends, the Lawlesses, Lance was not long in perceiving that +the sergeant's advent was not regarded as a wholly unimportant +circumstance. He rather wondered to hear the tone of mingled dislike and +bitterness with which the affair was discussed.</p> + +<p>'Not that <i>they</i>,' Ned Lawless, the eldest of the brothers, and, in a +sense, the leader of the party, laughingly remarked, 'had any call to be +afraid, but there were friends of theirs, quiet, steady-going farmers +and drovers, upon whom this cove, Dayrell, had been tremendously +hard—treated them dashed unfairly indeed. So that if, by chance, his +horse came home some day without him, he, for one, would not be +surprised, nor would he be inclined to go into mourning for him.'</p> + +<p>'If he only does his duty, though,' Lance could not help answering, +'<i>that</i> ought not to make Dayrell unpopular.'</p> + +<p>'There's ways and ways of doing things,' returned Ned. 'I quarrel with +no man for doing his duty—that he's paid for. But this man's a —— dog, +and I'd shoot him like a crow if he came messing round me, and think +nothing of it either.'</p> + +<p>Trevanion couldn't quite understand the savage tone with which these +words were uttered; he thought that something had occurred to put Ned +out, as he was habitually a good-tempered fellow. When he went to Kate +for an explanation, he found himself no nearer to a solution.</p> + +<p>'I hate the sight of him,' she said, 'with his soft voice and sneering +ways. I believe he'd hang us all if he could. He nearly "run in" a young +man we knew on the other side, and him as innocent about the duffing as +the babe unborn. He'll get a rough turn yet, if he doesn't look sharp, +and serve him right, too.'</p> + +<p>'But <i>you</i> have no cause to mind his coming here, Kate,' he said in a +bantering tone. 'You've never stolen a horse, or "stuck up" +anybody—isn't that the expression?—(except me, you know). I wonder you +girls don't admire a handsome man like Dayrell.'</p> + +<p>'I wouldn't mind laying him out for his coffin,' said the girl +vengefully. 'I might admire his features then. But,' and here her face +assumed, for a few seconds, an expression which caused her companion to +gasp in amazement, 'his turn may come yet, and if Frank Dayrell dies in +his bed he's a luckier man than some of us think he'll be. By Jove!' she +exclaimed suddenly, 'if that isn't him, and almost close enough to hear +me. He's the devil himself, I do believe.'</p> + +<p>By a curious coincidence the unconscious object of this discussion had +emerged from a by-track, and, suddenly reining up, rode slowly past the +pair. Whatever his moral qualities he was utterly <i>point device</i> as a +man-at-arms. His tall erect figure and <i>manège</i> horsemanship were well +displayed on the handsome roan thoroughbred which he rode as a charger. +High boots, very carefully polished, with bit, stirrup-irons, and +sabre-scabbard glittering in the sun, showed the military completeness +of his equipment. At his sword-belt hung a serviceable navy revolver, +while from toe to chin-strap no smallest detail was omitted.</p> + +<p>As his eye fell on Lance and the girl, he nodded and laughingly raised +his helmet.</p> + +<p>'Well, Miss Lawless—we mustn't say Kate now, I expect—have you had a +ride after moonlighters lately? I expect Mr. Trevanion doesn't know what +the meaning of the word is. However, you and Ned will soon enlarge his +limited colonial experience.'</p> + +<p>As the trooper rode slowly past them, his well-bred high-conditioned +horse arching his neck and champing the bit which had stopped him so +suddenly, the girl turned pale in spite of her angry look, and lowered +her defiant eyes. Without speaking more or altering his careless seat +and steady regard, he sauntered slowly on, with one foot dangling +sideways in the stirrup. For an instant his eyes met those of Trevanion, +who, irritated by the whole bearing of the man and a certain +ill-concealed air of authority, said, 'I daresay you'll know me again. +May I ask what reason you have for favouring Miss Lawless and me with +your particular attention?'</p> + +<p>The sergeant's features slightly relaxed, though his eyes maintained the +same cold, penetrating inscrutable expression which had so annoyed +Lance, as he replied—</p> + +<p>'Kate Lawless and I are old acquaintances, perhaps I can hardly say +friends. As for you, we may possibly be better acquainted in future. But +if you take my advice—that of a well-wisher, little as you may suppose +it—you'll stick to your claim, and be careful in your choice of +associates.'</p> + +<p>Before the angry reply, which was rising to his lips, could find +utterance, the sergeant struck his charger lightly across the neck with +his glove and cantered off, raising his helmet in a half-mocking salute +to Kate Lawless.</p> + +<p>'Insolent scoundrel,' said Lance, 'if he dares to address me again I'll +knock him off his horse. If I was in my own country I'd show him the +difference in our positions. But in this confounded country things are +turned upside down with a vengeance. But what did he mean by saying you +and he were old acquaintances?'</p> + +<p>'He be hanged,' said the girl, whose colour and courage had apparently +returned. 'We never were nearer friends than to pass the time of day. +But he was stationed once on Monaro, where we all lived, and, of course, +he came to the place now and then. I think he was a bit sweet upon +Tessie, but she couldn't stand him and so he dropped coming to Mountain +Creek. He's not worth minding, any road. We'd better finish our walk and +get home for tea, I'm thinking.'</p> + +<p>It was the early summer. The winter had been cold and wet. The Ballarat +climate is by no means of that exceptional mildness which the Briton +innocently believes to characterise the whole of Australia, making no +allowance for widely diverging degrees of elevation and latitude. It had +been severe beyond the usual average, wild and tempestuous. But now, all +suddenly the delicious warmth of the first summer months made itself +felt. Day after day witnessed the riotous growth of pasture and herbage, +the blooming of flowerets before the joyous sorcery of a southern +spring. Their path lay through the primeval woodland, bordered by an +emerald carpet studded with flower-jewels and redolent with balsamic +forest odours. As the shadows lengthened and the birds' notes sounded +clear and sweet through the evening stillness, the girl's voice, as she +told of wild rides and solitary experiences in their mountain home, had +a strangely soft and caressing tone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + + +<p>Following closely upon this little episode, a fresh discovery in Number +Six demonstrated to Lance Trevanion that whatever else was raw, +unfurnished, and disagreeable in Australia, the colony of Victoria +generally, and Growlers' Gully, in the district of Ballarat, +particularly, were the easiest places to make fortunes in, out of a book +of fairy tales. Each week the yield of the claim grew richer, the +balance at the bank to the credit of Trevanion and party became larger. +So imposing was it that Lance seriously thought of selling his share in +the claim to his mate, even if he lost a thousand or two by it. Jack +Polwarth was a good fellow, and what, indeed, did a little money matter +any more than an odd handful of precious stones to Sinbad in the valley +of diamonds? He would be at home with his friends in, say, half a year. +That is if he returned by India, took a look at the Himalayas, saw +Calcutta and Madras; or why not viâ Honolulu, getting by heart the new +world, including the Garden of Eden as exhibited in the isles of the +southern main, before reappearing triumphant in the old. What would his +father say now? Where would be his cousin Estelle's misgivings, that +unswerving friend and lady-love whose letters had been as constant as +her heart? What a heavenly change would it be once more to the ineffable +beauty and refinement of English society after the rude environment of a +goldfield, the primitive civilisation of an Australian colony, but so +few years emerged from the primeval wilderness.</p> + +<p>It was with a sort of sob or gasp that he realised the dream-picture on +which he allowed his thoughts, a rare indulgence, to dwell. And after +all why should he not carry out his purpose? Why indeed? Strong and +unbending in matters of need and pressure, a certain indolence, an +occasional tendency to irresolution, formed a portion of his character +which often delayed prompt action and permitted opportunity to pass by. +The loitering life he lived at present, a central figure, so to speak, +amid admiring associates and envious adventurers, was pleasant enough in +its way. Then the old old temptation! It would give him, yes, +undoubtedly it would, a certain amount of pain and uneasiness to break +off finally with Kate Lawless.</p> + +<p>Tameless in spirit as she was, reckless of speech and fierce of mood +when her ungovernable temper was aroused, Kate Lawless could be +wonderfully soft and alluring, like all such women, when the tender fit +took her. There was then a child-like simplicity and abandon which +caused her to seem, and, indeed, temporarily <i>to be</i>, a different woman. +She resembled one of those rare psychological studies—which are indeed +scientifically authenticated—who lead a dual existence. For no two +individuals could be more unlike than Kate Lawless in one of her +'tantrums' (as her brothers familiarly expressed it) and the same woman +when the paroxysm was over, imploring forgiveness and lavishing caresses +on the object of her causeless resentment. That there are such feminine +enigmas no student of humanity will deny. But with all her powers of +fascination, she was so uncertain in her mood that she caused Lance +Trevanion the most serious doubts whether she reciprocated the affection +which he had been repeatedly on the point of avowing for her. Sometimes +she was especially friendly, full of fun and vivacity, taking long rides +through the wild forest tracks with him, on which occasions she would +astonish him by the way in which she would ride at stiff timber or +gallop adown the rock-strewn ranges, breast high with fern, daring him +to follow her, and shouting to imaginary cattle. At these times her +whole aim and endeavour appeared to be to attract and subjugate him. At +other times she was cold and repellent to such a degree that he felt +inclined to break with her for ever, and to congratulate himself on +being quit of so strange and unsatisfactory a friendship.</p> + +<p>He had not told himself, indeed, that he was prepared to marry her. +Democratic as he had become in many of his opinions, and conscious, +self-convicted, of falsehood and treachery to his cousin Estelle, he yet +in his cooler moments shrank from the idea of marrying an uneducated +girl of humble extraction, reared in a wilderness and bearing traces of +a savage life, beautiful exceedingly, and despite of her wilful and +untamed nature, wildly fascinating, as he confessed her to be. Thus +swayed by opposing currents, his heart and brain drifted aimlessly to +and fro for a space, while still a strange and unreal tinge of romance +was given to his life by the ever onward and favouring current of the +golden tide.</p> + +<p>Although matters had not progressed sufficiently far on the pathway to +civilisation at Growlers' to establish a claim to society in any +conventional acceptation, yet was there a rudimentary germ or nucleus. +One or two of the Government officials were married. There was a +clergyman who had a couple of daughters, energetic, intelligent damsels, +who had adapted themselves with much tact to their unusual surroundings. +At the camp there were gatherings of the officials of various +grades—police, gold commissioners, magistrates, and so forth, with a +few of the more aristocratic adventurers whose names were known, and who +were armed with introductions. It would be inaccurate to deny that there +was a little loo now and then, also whist, of which the points were +certainly not sixpenny ones. To these rational expedients of passing the +time, which, when there was no actual business on hand, occasionally +lagged, Mr. Trevanion would have been a welcome addition; good-looking, +well-bred, and—more than all—exceptionally fortunate as a miner. But +to all these hints and suggestions he—with a certain perverseness +difficult to account for, and which was remembered in days to +come—obstinately turned a deaf ear. More than one hint—well meant—was +thrown out touching the expediency of being 'so thick with those +Lawlesses.' Of course one could understand a young fellow being +attracted by a handsome lively girl like Kate Lawless. In those wild +days every man was a law unto himself, and revelled in his freedom. Yet +was there not lacking, even in that <i>mêlée</i> of rude adventurers and +unprecedented social conditions, more than one kindly adviser. There +were men who knew the world—European and Australian—well and +thoroughly. From them he received warnings and advice. But he repelled +all friendly aid, and obstinate with the perverse intractability of the +Trevanion nature, disregarded them all.</p> + +<p>Beside outside acquaintance, in addition to Hastings and his mate Jack +Polwarth—who with his honest-hearted good little wife never ceased to +disapprove and to keep up a persistent warfare, so to speak, against the +Lawlesses—he had a friend within the fortress who more than once gave +him a warning, had he cared to avail himself of it.</p> + +<p>Quiet and reserved as Tessie (or Esther) Lawless had always shown +herself, he had never fallen into the error of mistaking her for a +commonplace girl. Without the showy qualities of her cousin Kate, she +gave token from time to time of having been better educated and +differently brought up from the others. She was always treated with a +certain amount of respect, and, even in Kate's most irritating moods, as +she rarely replied, so was she the only one of the party who escaped her +scathing tongue.</p> + +<p>She never appeared to seek opportunity to gain Lance's attention, though +when she did speak there always appeared to be some underlying reason +for her remarks. One of her characteristics was a steady disapproval of +the sharp tricks and double dealings of which her cousin often boasted, +and which Lance did not generally comprehend. He supposed them, indeed, +to be among the acknowledged customs of the country, and not considered +to be illegal or discreditable.</p> + +<p>'They are nothing of the sort,' she was accustomed to say, with +considerable emphasis. 'They are theft and robbery—call them what you +will; they are certain to bring all concerned to the gaol at some time +or other. If people don't mind that, nothing I can say will have any +effect.'</p> + +<p>'You'll have to marry a parson,' Ned Lawless would reply. 'What do you +think of the young chap that preached to us in the flat last Sunday? +Why, half the squatters began by a little "duffing." Nobody thinks the +worse of a man for that.'</p> + +<p>'If they're caught they go to gaol,' replied the uncompromising Tessie. +'Then they're criminals, and can never look any one in the face again! +And serve them right too in a country like this, where the gold fairly +runs out of the ground into people's pockets.'</p> + +<p>They all laughed at this, and the conversation dropped, while all +hands—the girls excepted—set to at a night of pretty deep gambling, +which lasted well into the small hours.</p> + +<p>A fortnight after this, as Lance was sauntering down in the evening to +the Lawlesses' camp, he found to his great surprise that there appeared +to be no one at home. The tents were all down, and gone, but two.</p> + +<p>One of the younger boys—a silent apparently stupid youngster of +fourteen—was in charge of the few remaining horses and the packs left +behind. He could give little or no information, except that the party +had moved to a new digging, of which he did not know the name, or, +indeed, in which direction it was. All he knew was that he and Tessie +had been left behind, to stay till they were sent for. All the horses +were gone but three. Tessie had gone out for a walk along the Creek, but +would be back soon. 'Here she comes now.'</p> + +<p>The boy pointed to a female figure coming slowly along a track which +followed the banks of a little creek, near which the Lawlesses' camp had +been formed, and then walked over to where the hobbled horses were +grazing, as if glad to escape from the necessity of answering other +questions.</p> + +<p>The girl approached with her head down, and her eyes upon the ground, +walking slowly, as if immersed in deep thought. Suddenly she raised her +head and gazed at him with a peculiar expression in her brown eyes. They +were not large, but clear and steadfast and—while she was speaking—had +a singularly truthful expression. There was a kind of half-pitying look +in them, Lance thought, which made him suppose that some misfortune had +happened to the little community, of which he had so lately been a +regular member and associate.</p> + +<p>'What's the matter, Tessie?' said he. 'I can see at once that you are +troubled in your mind. Why are they all gone away? Didn't Kate leave any +word or message for me? All this is very sudden.'</p> + +<p>'Mr. Trevanion,' said the girl, stopping short as he approached her, 'I +sometimes think you are the most innocent person I ever met. We natives +think young men from England are not very sharp, sometimes—but that is +mostly about bush work and stock, which they can't be expected to know. +But of all I ever met I think you are the most simple and—well, I must +say—foolish.'</p> + +<p>'You are not complimentary,' replied Lance, rather sullenly, and 'You +don't rate my understanding very highly. May I ask if you have any +letter from your cousin Kate for me?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I have,' replied the girl, speaking with more energy than he had +ever before noticed in her, 'and I have been tempted to tear it to +pieces and leave you to guess the meaning. If I had acted as your true +friend—which I have always been—I should have done so. Take my advice +and drop us all—once and for ever. Why should you persist in making +friends of us? We are not good company for you—a born gentleman. Why +don't you behave like one, and leave people alone who are not your +equals in any respect?'</p> + +<p>'May I ask for the letter you refer to?'</p> + +<p>'Listen to me for the last time,' she said, coming closer to him and +looking earnestly into his face. 'Listen to me, as if I was your +sister—your mother—or the dearest friend in a woman's shape you have +on earth. I know what is in that letter. Kate wants you to join her and +the rest of the crowd at Balooka. Don't go! Do you hear what I +say?—<i>don't go</i>! or you will repent it to the last hour of your life.'</p> + +<p>'Why should I not?' asked he. 'Are you not going yourself with Billy +here to-morrow?'</p> + +<p>'I am <i>not</i> going,' she said. 'I shall go to Melbourne to-morrow by the +coach, and, perhaps, never see one of them again, or you either. They +have been kind to me in their own fashion. I have eaten their bread, +and, therefore, I will not say more than I can help. But beware of Kate +Lawless! She is not what she appears to be! She is deceiving you, and +worse even than being the dupe of a heartless and unprincipled woman may +happen to you. Oh, promise me,' she said, 'promise me before I leave +that you will not go!'</p> + +<p>'If I had any doubt, your last words have decided me,' he said, and as +the angry light commenced to gleam in his eyes the girl's expression +changed to that of wonder and strange terror, deepening visibly.</p> + +<p>'It is himself!' she said, almost shuddering. 'Can there be two? Is the +Evil One walking on the earth and working his will as in the old old +days? You will not be turned now,' she went on. 'God is my witness that +I have done my best. Your blood be on your own head!'</p> + +<p>'Say good-bye, Tessie,' he said. 'I shall never forget your good +intentions, at any rate.'</p> + +<p>'Good-bye,' she said, in a tone of such sadness that he felt impressed +in spite of himself. 'You will not forget <i>me</i>. No, whatever happens you +will not do that. For your dead mother's sake, for your sister's, and if +there is any one dearer than either beyond the seas, for <i>her</i> sake, God +bless and keep you.' And, waving her hands distractedly, like a woman in +a dream, she walked swiftly towards one of the tents, which she entered, +and was hidden from his view.</p> + +<p>'Here it is,' she said, reappearing, 'if you will have it,' and, as if +moved to sudden despair, she cast the letter upon the ground with every +gesture of anger and contempt. 'If it was a snake you wouldn't pick it +up, would you? And yet,' she went on, suddenly dropping her voice to a +low, earnest whisper, 'the worst carpet snake you ever saw—a death +adder, even—would do you less harm than what's in that letter, if you +follow it. Be warned; oh, Mr. Trevanion, be warned.'</p> + +<p>As she spoke her face softened, she leaned forward in a beseeching +attitude, her eyes filled, and this ordinarily reserved and +self-contained Tessie began to weep hysterically.</p> + +<p>'Confound the girl!' said Lance to himself. 'What a terrible to-do about +nothing at all! What's the good of coming to Australia if one can't +choose one's own society? I might as well be in Cornwall again. Surely +this girl isn't in love with me, too?'</p> + +<p>His unspoken thought must have manifested itself in some mysterious +fashion, though no word escaped him, for Tessie Lawless left off crying, +and, wiping her eyes, with a haughty gesture, appeared to return to her +usual composed bearing.</p> + +<p>That night brought but little sleep to the eyes of Lance Trevanion. It +was late when he entered his hut, and, flinging himself on the bed +where, for the most part, he had known nought but dreamless repose, he +commenced to think over the situation.</p> + +<p>Should he accept the warning so solemnly given by this strange girl, +who, before this, had manifested but little interest in his career, and +had lived a merely negative and defensive life?</p> + +<p>'How little we know of people's natures,' thought he, 'women's +especially. Who would have thought this quiet girl had all this fire and +earnestness in her? Her warning squared curiously with all that he had +gathered from other sources. Was there something mysterious and by no +means fair and above-board about these Lawlesses? It looked like it. And +Kate! What an artful treacherous jade she had proved herself to be, if +what her cousin said was true. Well, at any rate, he would go and see +for himself. He knew, or thought he knew, enough of life not to entirely +trust one woman's word about another. If Kate was false and deceitful, +he would have the satisfaction of telling her so to her face. If she was +true, well, he really did not know what was to be done in that case. At +any rate, he would go and see. Yes, he would show he was not afraid to +meet them all, there or anywhere else.'</p> + +<p>The fateful letter was short, badly written and worse spelled. It merely +stated that her brothers had settled to move to Balooka, naming a new +digging nearly a hundred miles away, and not far from the foot-hills of +the great Alpine range. They had gone into a large purchase in horses, +and were going to drive them to Melbourne in another month, when they +expected to make a lot of money out of them. 'If he cared to see her +again he might meet them next week at Balooka. The road went by +Wahgulmerang.' This precious epistle was signed, 'Your true friend and +well-wisher, Kate Lawless. P.S. If you only seen the black mare that was +gave me by a friend.'</p> + +<p>There was nothing alarming in this apparently simple and guileless +missive. A ride to a new digging was not only a pleasant novelty, but +distinctly in the line of his occupation as a miner, now that he was an +authority as a 'golden-hole man' with local fame and reputation. He had +a good horse, and though stabling was expensive he had felt justified in +being well mounted, as the companion of such a horsewoman as Kate +Lawless. The reference to the black mare and the generous friend rather +piqued him, as was probably intended. He had never encountered any one +in the guise of a rival, and felt curious to see what kind of admirer +had come forward.</p> + +<p>His preparations were not long in making. He informed Hastings and his +mate Jack that he was going to Balooka and might be absent for a week or +two.</p> + +<p>They evidently suspected the nature of the magnet which was attracting +him, and by their manner showed anything but cheerful approval of his +plans; wise by experience, however, they refrained from expostulation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + + +<p>More than once—many times, in fact—Lance Trevanion revolved in his +mind the strange mysterious warning which he had received from Tessie +Lawless. Careless, indeed reckless, as he had become lately in the +gratification of his caprices; safe in the possession of wealth hitherto +undreamed of and daily increasing; basking in a local splendour of +reputation based on the broad pedestal of success, there was yet +something in the girl's earnest tones and candour of mien which awed and +impressed him. Did she—could she—know anything really important? What +<i>could</i> there be behind the scenes likely to operate prejudicially as +far as he was concerned? Why should he not go to this place which Kate +had named, stating playfully that it was rather an out-of-the-way hole, +but one which, as he was always praising up the beauties of English +scenery, he might like to see? '<i>She</i> couldn't talk that sort of +rubbish, but there was a big dark mountain, a running river, not like +this ditch of a creek, and a flat beside it, like a small plain; snow, +too, in the winter. He'd better come up and see. It would be a change +after this beastly hot, dusty diggings.' So between idleness, +irresolution, and the lure of womanly wiles not weakened in witchery, in +a latter day and a newer world, Lance Trevanion finally decided to go to +Balooka. 'He had given his word,' he told himself, 'and what a man says +he should stand by, in great things or small. Such, at least, has always +been the wont of the Trevanions of Wychwood.'</p> + +<p>So next morning he sent for and saddled his horse—an upstanding, +well-bred bay, with a star and two white hind legs, which he had bought +a month or two since from Ned Lawless. There was no finer horse on the +goldfield. More than once he had been asked from whom he had purchased +him, where he was bred, what his brand was, by inquiring admirers, after +a fashion which he was apt to dispose of hastily, if not rudely, as +betraying the ignorance and bad form of colonists.</p> + +<p>He had intended to make a very early start, but it so chanced that there +had been an unusually rich washing-up the night before, and Jack +Polwarth, honest but unlettered, was most urgent that he should make the +deposit in the bank himself, receive the receipt, and see the amount +duly divided and paid in to their separate accounts. To this, after some +grumbling, he agreed, though not without declaring that Jack could do it +just as well himself, for Mr. Stirling, the manager of the branch of the +Australian Joint Stock Bank, then doing the chief business at +"Growlers'," was smart, straight, and plucky enough to run the Bank of +England, if that time-honoured institution had rated at its true value +the growing gold-crop of Australia, and opened there.</p> + +<p>It may be here explained that the gentleman placed in charge of a branch +bank on a leading goldfield in Australia differs widely from the portly, +white-waistcoated, decorous potentate generally cast for the character +in the metropolis or the large towns of the settled districts. He must +be young, in order to undergo easily the shifts and privations of +goldfield life. High-couraged the man needs to be, who sleeps with one +revolver under his pillow and another at his right hand; himself, +perhaps, and his assistant, the sole custodians of a hundred thousand +pounds in gold and specie, within a bark-walled, bark-roofed shanty, +surrounded by an unscrupulous population, among whom, though not +disproportionately so, are some of the most reckless desperadoes, +refugees, and unhung murderers anywhere to be procured. He must be free +of speech and open of manner, so as in a general way to commend himself +to the miner of the period; a man, as a rule, who, while respecting and +preferring a gentleman in matters of business, abhors formality. It is +by no means to his detriment if, in his hours of ease, he demonstrates +his ability to give points at billiards or euchre to nearly all comers, +or to 'knock out in six rounds' the leading talent in the glove +tournaments periodically held. In addition to these various gifts and +graces he must have a cool and strong head, a firm will, and a resolute +determination to do his duty to his employers at whatever hazard, and +finally, while not holding aloof from the amusements of the hour, to +remain well governed, sober and temperate in all things, amid the +manifold and subtle temptations of the 'field.'</p> + +<p>Oftener than not when the General Manager looks around among his more +promising juniors for the possessor of these qualities, he finds him +among the scions of the aristocratic families (for there are these in +all British Colonies, and recognised as such), the heads of whom, +holding Imperial official appointments, or having received grants in the +old colonial days, have failed to follow any of the numerous paths to +fortune trodden by their humbler comrades. In many instances the +unsuccessful colonist of this class—often a retired military or naval +officer—had anxiously desired to imbue his sons with that mercantile +knowledge in which he himself stood confessedly deficient. And the +youngsters, shrewdly observant of the weak point in the paternal career, +in a large number of instances, have developed an aptitude for business +which has regained for the family the status lost in the past. +Furthermore, in the occasional adventures of a more or less dangerous +nature, inseparable from a transitional state of society, the pioneer +financier has more than once exhibited an amount of courage and +coolness, including steadiness under fire, which has proved him a worthy +descendant of the grizzled veteran who, with clasps and medals for half +the battles in the Peninsular War, had never mastered the difference +between principal and interest, much less the mystery of debit and +credit balances.</p> + +<p>Such a fortunate and not unusual combination was Charles—generally +known as Charlie Stirling. Him the miners on more than one 'rush' were +wont to pronounce emphatically 'a dashed good all-round man, if ever +there was one.' Australian born, and in right of such privilege, +standing six feet in his stocking soles, strong, lithe, sinewy, a fine +horseman, and a sure shot, courteous ever, yet, in business matters, +cautious if liberal, Charlie Stirling—one of a large family, in which +all the brothers were 'men and gentlemen,' and the sisters handsome and +intellectual—was, at that day, perhaps, the most popular and widely +trusted bank manager out of Melbourne.</p> + +<p>It was with this personage that Lance determined, as he expressed it, +'to waste the morning' in delivering Trevanion and party's gold, +watching the same being weighed and the proceeds calculated at the rate +of three pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence per ounce, duly paid to +the credit of the accounts of Lancelot Trevanion and John Polwarth, +respectively.</p> + +<p>Then, as he anticipated being absent a week or two—the weather was +getting very hot and he thought a change to a cooler climate would be +enjoyable—the idea suddenly occurred to him that he might as well leave +his brass-bound trunk containing all his English souvenirs and +valuables, including letters and papers, in Mr. Stirling's care. 'The +tent might be burned down or robbed in his absence,' he bethought +himself, 'and Stirling is such a brick that if I came back in ten years +instead of ten days, it would be as safe as when I left it. There are +not so many men I'd say the same of, but if there's any man to whom the +old boast "you can trust your life to him" applies, that man is Charlie +Stirling!'</p> + +<p>Between business and pleasure the day was pretty nearly disposed of. His +valise had been packed in the morning. The bright bay horse was faring +well in the stable of the 'Prospector's Arms' hard by the bank—where +all hands went to lunch at Mr. Stirling's invitation. He and his clerk +lodged there, as far as meals went, though they took care—as, indeed, +was strictly necessary—to sleep at the bank. Mrs. Delf, the smart and +proverbially energetic landlady, was instructed to prepare a more than +usually <i>recherché</i> collation. Champagne ornamented the festive board, +of which a local magnate—the opulent squatter of the vicinity—was +invited to partake, and all things being fittingly concluded, Lance +Trevanion made his adieus.</p> + +<p>'Well, good-bye, Stirling!' he said, as he mounted the resolute bay, who +arched his neck and gave a playful plunge. 'You'll honour my drafts, I +suppose? and, by the bye'—here he drew a rather large envelope from his +shooting-coat pocket—'keep this till I return. I had a fit of the blues +last week, and scribbled what you'll find inside. Good-bye, Jack'—here +he shook hands with Polwarth—'I'll ride by the claim, and say good-bye +to Tottie and her mother.'</p> + +<p>Half an hour's fairly fast riding brought him to the claim, alongside of +which stood the rude canvas shelter which had for so many weeks, even +months, filled the place of 'home' for all the party. A true home in the +best sense had it been. There had the little party enjoyed, so far, +peace, security, warmth and shelter, sound sleep and wholesome meals. +Near it was the shaft through whose incursion into Mother Earth's +interior the <i>esse</i>, to be so much more noble <i>in posse</i>, had been reft +by hard and honest toil. Even such a dwelling is not quitted wholly +without regret.</p> + +<p>'Well, good-bye, Mrs. Polwarth!' he cried as he rode up to where that +worthy matron—having placed a gigantic loaf in the hot ashes of the +recent fire in the open chimney—was washing and cleaning up all her +belongings. 'I'm going away for a week.'</p> + +<p>'Where to, sir?' she queried, 'if I may make bold to ask.'</p> + +<p>'Well, up the country a bit. Ned Lawless wants me to join him at a new +diggings, more than a hundred miles from here.'</p> + +<p>'Ned Lawless!' the good woman echoed in a tone of voice by no means +expressive of satisfaction. 'And what call have you, Mr. Lance, to go +making free with the likes of him? I don't like none of the breed—men +nor women, if you ask me, and what I've heard is a deal worse than what +I've seen. They're most like a lot of gipsies, to my thinking, as a +cousin of mother's went away with, and never was heard of no more. Don't +have no truck with them, Mr. Trevanion. What 'ud the squire say?'</p> + +<p>This last appeal, like many well-meaning deterrents, signally failed of +its effect. With a frowning brow, such as Mrs. Polwarth had rarely if +ever seen, Lance turned his horse's head, muttering, 'Don't talk +nonsense, Mrs. Polwarth; things are very different from Cornwall, and +the Lawlesses are my friends. I'll trouble you not to——'</p> + +<p>At that moment, when, perhaps, something of the fierce nature of the +man—of late subjected to wholesome influences—might have broken forth, +a voice was heard saying, 'Kiss Tottie, Lance,' and that rosy little +innocent, bright-haired and blue-eyed, like one of Guido's angels, ran +forward from the tent almost up to the horse's shoulder. 'Keep away, +Tot,' he called out, springing down. 'You little puss, do you want +Pendragon to tread on your naughty toes?' The child ran to him, as if +secure of welcome, and throwing her arms round his neck, kissed him on +brow and eye, with all the loving abandon of childhood. 'Come back soon +to Tottie,' she cried. 'Naughty Lance, to go away.'</p> + +<p>'Lance come back soon,' he said, and his face softened as he looked at +the child, in a way which showed how the finer chords in that mysterious +mechanism, the human heart, may be stirred by one touch of simple +nature. 'And I'll bring a bag of sugar-plums twice as big as this,' +diving into his pocket and throwing towards her a large paper +receptacle of sweets. 'Bye-bye, Tottie. Good-bye, sweetheart, good-bye,' +he carolled forth, as he struck spurs into his horse, and disappeared +round a turn of the winding, tree-girdled forest-road. 'May the Lord +keep him from all evil, and from the Adversary,' said Mrs. Polwarth, a +sound disciple of Wesley. 'His heart is that good, if his head's a bit +wrong set.'</p> + +<p>Lunch had been, perhaps, slightly protracted owing to the accompanying +champagne, one consequence of which was that after going back to the +claim, and saying good-bye to Mrs. Polwarth, not to speak of putting a +few of his personal possessions in order at the tent, Lance Trevanion +found on reference to the sun's height above the horizon that it was +much later in the day than he supposed. It would not be possible without +hard riding to make the stage he had proposed. There was nothing to be +gained that he knew of by saving a day in the expedition; he therefore +decided to stay quietly in the township that night, stable his horse at +the hotel stables, retire early, and make a 'daylight start.' An +apparently trivial disturbance of his original plan, yet upon such +diminutive difference in action what enormous consequences frequently +depend.</p> + +<p>Day had scarce broken as Lance Trevanion rode down the slope and across +the creek flat, which so lately the Lawless encampment had occupied and +rendered home-like, where he had passed so many a pleasant hour. Empty +and deserted, it wore to him, now, a forlorn and melancholy aspect. The +boy had evidently packed the tents and removed the remaining chattels +according to instructions. Tessie was, of course, also gone. She had +indeed been seen on the Melbourne coach.</p> + +<p>The day promised to be perfect. The sun stealing through the eastern +woods was slowly irradiating the sombre slumberous landscape. Mists were +rising from the lower levels, forming lakelets of white vapour, into +which capes and promontories ran, and islands floated. The birds +awakened by the sun-rays commenced with note of carol to welcome the +golden azure day. The well-bred hackney stepped out gaily, shaking his +head and making his curb-chain ring in a fast and easy walk. 'What a +glorious climate! What a grand country this is!' thought he. 'How free +is every man's life here, untrammelled by the vexatious restraints of a +narrow society. The very air is intoxicating. Joyous, indeed, is this +life in a new world!'</p> + +<p>The journey was much longer, besides being rougher as to wayfaring, than +Lance had expected. Following the directions given to him and the +straggling tracks which the earlier digging parties had made, he began +to approach the celebrated Balooka 'Rush.' He had noticed that he was +gradually quitting the open forest country. All suddenly, after toiling +up one range after another, he found himself upon a mountain plateau. +Beneath this, and beside a rushing, brawling, snow-fed river, wholly +unlike any stream which Lance had yet seen in Australia, lay, far adown +a deep glen, the already populous mining camp.</p> + +<p>Lance gazed with astonishment at the novel and picturesque landscape. +'Am I in North Wales again?' he could not help asking himself. 'Who +would have thought to have seen such a river? Such richly green +meadowlands? Such a stupendous glen? And oh!' he thought, as he passed +round a cape of volcanic trap-rock which impinged upon the smooth +upland, 'what magic and enchantment is this?' Yes, truly, as a loftier +line of summit of the great Alpine mountain chain which bisects the +continent came into view. So sudden was the surprise, so strangely +contrasted with all his preconceived ideas of Australian scenery was the +presentment of the wondrous white battlements upreared against a +cloudless azure sky, that he was constrained to rein in his horse and +gaze, silent and spellbound, at the supernal splendour of the +apparition. 'If Estelle were by my side! If she could but behold this +entrancing prospect,' he thought. 'She, whom the view of a far blue +range of hills, of a peaceful lakelet, would send into ecstasies of +admiration! How often had they stood together in the fading summer eve +and gazed at the wide and wondrous landscape, as they then deemed it, +which extended for some twenty or thirty miles around Wychwood.' Here, +with a new world unfolding to his gaze, what crowds of ideas and +half-formed projects coursed through the adventurous brain of the gazer. +Born of the class and moulded of the race which had produced the +immortal voyagers, the unconquered warriors, the dauntless adventurers +of Elizabeth's reign, Lance Trevanion needed but the stimulus of his +present surroundings to be inspired with lofty and enterprising ideas. +His original intention of returning home and settling down to the +monotonous and luxurious stagnation of an English country gentleman's +life became hateful to him. Far rather, if Estelle would join him here, +would he invest in these half-tamed Australian wilds, acquire a +principality along with the colossal herds and countless flocks of the +typical squatter, which magnates he had seen and heard tell of. +Eventually, he would embark with a capital sufficient to buy up half the +Duchy, to restore the House of Trevanion to its ancient grandeur, and go +down to posterity as <i>the</i> Trevanion, the latter-day champion of the +race, who had redeemed the once regal name from the mediocrity which had +oppressed and disfigured it. But these momentous plans and enterprises +could by no means be carried out without the companionship and solace of +'one sweet spirit to be his minister,' and in that hour of exultation +and unfaltering confidence there came to him, like the strain of distant +music, the low, sweet tones—the gentle chidings of his queenly Estelle. +<i>She</i> would, unless he misjudged her, follow him to the ends of the +earth. Why, then, should he wait to linger here amid rude +surroundings—even ruder society? His business could be quite as well +managed in his absence by the faithful Jack Polwarth. How suddenly the +idea struck him! Why, he could take his passage in the <i>Red Jacket</i>—she +was to sail in a fortnight; he had seen the advertisement in the Port +Phillip <i>Patriot</i> of the day before he left Growlers' Gully—and be in +England in six weeks! A month or two in England, a honeymoon trip on the +continent, and they could be easily back here before next winter. Miners +had done it, even in his experience. The great thing was to make a +start. He would not lose time. He had lost too much already. He had half +a mind to turn now, and get back as far as the Weather-board Inn he had +seen about ten miles distant. What was the use, after all, of seeing +this new field, Balooka—or the Lawlesses—which meant Kate? What good +could come of it? Perhaps the reverse, indeed. Was there really anything +hidden, at which Tessie had clearly hinted? So sharply and clearly did +this new view of his plans and prospects strike him. May there not be +moments when the voice of a man's guardian-angel sounds with a strangely +solemn and distinct warning in his ears, for the moment drowning, as +with a harp of no earthly tone, the fiend-voice which ever seeks to lure +him to his doom? It would appear so. For even as Lance Trevanion turned +his horse's head, and paced slowly, but resolvedly, in the opposite +direction by which he had advanced, a woman rode at half-speed from out +one of the forest tracks—leading a saddled horse—and reined up with +practised ease in the main road, almost beside him. It was Kate +Lawless.</p> + +<p>For the moment he could scarce believe his eyes. He awoke from his +day-dream with a half sense of disloyalty to his promise, as the +startled gaze of the girl rested upon him. Their eyes met. In hers he +thought he recognised a surprised and doubtful expression, unlike her +usual fearless regard. She looked athwart the track adown which she had +come, and along the main road into which she had entered. At the first +clattering sound of her horse's hoofs Lance had turned his horse's head +in the direction of Balooka, so that she had not the awkward admission +to make that he had been retracing his steps.</p> + +<p>'Did you meet or pass any one on the road?' she said, as soon as they +had interchanged greetings. 'I couldn't hardly make out who you were +when I came up. Sure you seen no one?'</p> + +<p>'Not a soul, except a Chinaman,' he said; 'but what does it matter? I've +met <i>you</i>—and you have ever so much more colour than when I saw you +last. How becoming it is!' And, in truth, the girl's cheeks showed a +heightened hue, whether from emotion or exercise, which he had never +observed before during their acquaintance.</p> + +<p>For the rest, she looked handsomer than he had ever thought her. Her +graceful figure swayed easily in the saddle as she steadied her +impatient horse—an animal of high quality, and, unknown to Lance, as +was also the thoroughbred she was leading. Her hair had become loosened +at the back from the great knot in which it was mostly confined, and +hung in bright luxuriance almost to her waist. Her eyes sparkled, her +smile seemed the outcome of unaffected pleasure at meeting Lance again. +The old witchery asserted itself—old as the birth of history, yet new +and freshly fair as the dawning day. For the time Lance felt +irresistibly impelled to follow where she might lead, to abide at all +hazards in the light of her presence.</p> + +<p>Where were now the high resolves—the lofty emprise of a short half-hour +since? <i>Où sont les neiges d'antan?</i> Gone, gone, and for ever! Was there +a low sigh breathed beside him as he rode close by her bridle-rein adown +the long incline, in which they could see the diggers' tents in +thousands whitening the green valley beneath them?</p> + +<p>'So you have come to see us at last,' she said archly. 'I began to +think Tessie had frightened you off it. I can't tell what's come to the +girl. Billy told me she'd been pitching a lot to you: how bad we was, +and all the rest of it.'</p> + +<p>'I said I would come, didn't I? and here I am. And a grand country it +seems to be. But what are you about, yourself, and whose horse, saddle, +and bridle are they? You haven't been "shaking" them? isn't that the +word?'</p> + +<p>'No fear,' she answered—half shyly, half angrily, as it appeared to +him. 'I suppose you think we haven't got a decent horse. I rode out with +Johnnie Kemp—one of our chaps that's working a claim at Woolshed Creek, +and brought back his horse for him.'</p> + +<p>'Johnnie Kemp knows a good horse when he sees him,' he replied, as he +looked at the well-bred animal. 'You'd wonder how they got such a coat +up here. And how is Ned? You left Growlers' Gully rather suddenly, don't +you think?'</p> + +<p>'That was all Ned's doing; he heard about this place being so good, and +was afraid to wait. He and the boys have got a first-rate claim here; +but he's been buying a lot of horses lately, and talks of starting for +Melbourne with a mob next week.'</p> + +<p>'That would suit me exactly,' said Lance. 'I should like to make one of +the party, for I intend to be in Melbourne some time before the month is +out.'</p> + +<p>'What makes you in such a hurry to get to Melbourne?' the girl asked, +and, as she spoke, she leaned across nearer to him and laid her hand on +his horse's mane, holding her bridle-rein and the led horse in her right +hand. 'Old Pendragon looks lovely, don't he? You'd better stop and keep +me company while Ned's away. I shall be as miserable as a bandicoot, for +the chaps are away more than half the time, and this is a roughish +place—a deal worse than Growlers'; poor old Growlers'—I always liked +the place myself.'</p> + +<p>As she spoke, her voice became lower, with a softened, appealing tone in +it which strangely stirred the pulses of the listener. The day was +nearly done; the solemn summit of the snow range was becoming paler, and +yet more pale, as the crimson and gold bars of the sunset sky faded out. +There was a hush, almost an unbroken silence in the forest; far beneath, +still, the mining camp appeared to be a mimic <i>corps d'armée</i>, from +which one might expect to encounter sentinel and vedette. The girl's +gray eyes were fixed upon him with a pleading, almost childish +intensity. It was one of those moments in the life of man—frail and +unstable as it is his nature to be—when resolutions, principles, the +experience of the past, the hopes of the future are swept away like +leaves before the blast, like driftwood on the stream, like the bark +upon the ocean when the storm-winds are unchained.</p> + +<p>What an Enchantress is the Present; Ill fare the Past and the Absent! be +they never so divine of mien, so spotless of soul. Lance Trevanion +placed his hand on the girl's shoulder as she looked up in his face with +the smile of victory. 'I shall have to take care of you, Kate, if Ned's +going to desert the camp,' he said. 'I suppose he won't be wanting to +settle in Melbourne.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + + +<p>They rode quietly adown the winding track, which the sharpness of the +grade rendered necessary, until finally reaching the wide green flat, +they halted before the much-vaunted 'rush' of Balooka. The early summer +sun's rays in that temperate region had as yet been unable to dim the +green lustre of the herbage, or turn to dust the close sward of the +river meadows. The contrast was sharply accented in this still dreamy +eve between the brilliant tones of the levels and the sombrely-purple +shadows of the overhanging mountain, the faintly-burning sunset tints, +while through all sounded the rhythmic murmur of the rushing river +rippling over slate and granite bars, in the crevices of which were +'pockets' filled with gold. The strange blending of sounds which arose +from the camp—an occasional shot, the barking of dogs, the low hum of +many voices indistinctly heard—were not devoid in unison of a rude +harmony.</p> + +<p>'Can anything be more wonderful than this change of scenery?' exclaimed +Lance admiringly. 'Who thought there <i>could</i> be such a spot in +Australia? It is lovelier than a dream!'</p> + +<p>'It don't look bad,' assented his companion. 'That's our camp to the +right. You can see they've yarded the horses. Ned's in front with his +gray horse, and I spot a stranger or two. Perhaps he's sold the mob "to +a dealer."'</p> + +<p>Touching the led horse with the quince switch which she used as a +riding-whip, Kate dashed into a hand-gallop, and, riding at speed across +the boggy runlets which trickled from the hills, pulled up short at a +cluster of tents somewhat away from the main body of miners. They had +been pitched close to the edge of the far-extending flat; nearly +opposite was a brush and log stockyard, in which were nearly a hundred +horses.</p> + +<p>Springing from her horse, though still holding the two bridles in her +hand, the girl walked up to her brother, saying as she came, 'It's all +right, Ned, Trevanion's come with me. I fell in with him—My God!' she +continued in an altered tone, 'what's up?' Then for the first time +turning her searching glance on the plainly-dressed man with a slouched +felt hat who stood by her brother's side, she exclaimed, 'Frank Dayrell, +by the Lord! Why, I thought you were a hundred miles off. What call have +you to be worrying and tracking us down, like a black-hearted bloodhound +that you are?'</p> + +<p>'Hold your d—d chatter, Kate, can't you?' said her brother, whom she +now noticed had handcuffs on, though, with his hands before him, it was +not at first apparent. 'Why the devil didn't you keep away when you were +away? I thought you and he were gone for good.'</p> + +<p>'Johnnie Kemp was only going as far as his claim; you know that,' she +answered, with a meaning look, though her cheeks grew pale and her lips +became hard and set. 'Now, Sergeant Dayrell, what are you going to do to +me—put the bracelets on, eh?'</p> + +<p>Then this strange girl burst into a wild fit of laughter, which, though +bordering on hysterical seizure, was yet sufficiently natural to pass +for her amused acknowledgment of the humour of her situation.</p> + +<p>At this moment Lance Trevanion, who had been gazing around with the air +of a man surprised out of all ordinary power of expression, dismounted +and advanced towards the man-at-arms.</p> + +<p>'Sergeant Dayrell,' he said, 'I am quite at a loss to understand these +very strange proceedings. Have you a warrant for the arrest of my friend +Lawless here? Is he to be punished without trial? And for any rashness +to this young lady here be assured that I will hold you accountable.'</p> + +<p>The trooper smiled grimly as his eye, cold and contemptuous, met that of +the excited speaker.</p> + +<p>'Your <i>friend</i>, as you call him, is arrested on suspicion of stealing +certain horses missing from the Growlers' Gully and the Ballarat field +generally, several of which, in that yard, are already identified. +<i>Miss</i> Kate Lawless will have quite enough to do to clear herself. She +knows where that led horse came from. As for you,' and here his voice +suddenly became harsh and menacing, 'the horse you ride is a stolen one, +and I arrest you on the charge of receiving, well knowing him to be +such. Put up your hands.'</p> + +<p>Lance Trevanion had come nearer to the sergeant as he spoke, the frown +upon his face becoming yet more ominous and dark, while the gloomy fire +in his eyes had become strangely intense. As the sergeant spoke the last +word he drew his revolver, and pointing it full at the young man's head +advanced upon him. He doubtless calculated upon the surprise which in +the case of most criminals, alleged or otherwise, rendered them easy of +capture, for he signed to one of the men in plain clothes who stood near +to bring the handcuffs ready in his hand. But at that moment Trevanion, +springing forward, knocked up the barrel of the revolver, and, catching +his enemy fair between the eyes with his left, felled him like a log. He +lay for an instant without sense or motion. Before Lance had time, +however, to consider what use he should make of his instinctive success +the two constables were upon him from either side. He made one frantic +struggle, but the odds were too great, and after a short but severe +contest the fetters were slipped over his wrists with practised +celerity, and the locks being snapped, Lance found himself, for the +first time in his life, a fettered captive.</p> + +<p>The sergeant rose slowly to his feet and gazed upon the young man, now +breathless and held on either side by the myrmidons of the law. His brow +was flushed and red, but there was, at present, no mark of +disfigurement.</p> + +<p>'That was one for you, Dayrell,' said the mocking voice of Kate Lawless, +as she stood by her brother, with a jeering smile on her lips. 'My word, +Lance Trevanion, you got home then if you never get the chance of +another round. Why don't you slip the bracelets, sergeant, and have it +out man to man? I'll see fair play. You've a lot of science, we all +know, but I'll back Lance for a tenner. What do you say?'</p> + +<p>The expression on the sergeant's face had never varied from the cold and +fixed expression which it had worn when he made the charge against +Lance, but now he relaxed visibly and wore a comparatively cheerful air.</p> + +<p>'You are a good straight hitter, Trevanion,' he said, 'and I like a man +all the better for being quick with his hands. I didn't count on your +showing fight, I must say. But you never can tell what a man will do the +first time he's shopped. You'll know more about it before we've done +with you.'</p> + +<p>'Good God!' said Trevanion, 'you don't surely mean to say that you +believe I have had anything to do with stealing horses? I may have been +deceived. I begin to suspect that I have, but how many men have bought +stolen horses on the diggings without a thought of anything dishonest? +What reason have I either, a man with more money than he knows what to +do with?'</p> + +<p>'You can tell all that to the Bench,' said the sergeant coldly. 'All I +know is that I find you in possession of a stolen horse and the +associate of horse-stealers. You must stand your trial like other men.'</p> + +<p>Had the mountain suddenly rolled down, filled up the river, and +pulverised the camp, Lance's astonishment could not have been more +profound. He groaned as he felt the touch of the cold iron, and then +sullenly resigned himself to the indignity.</p> + +<p>'Now, Miss Tiger-cat,' said this modern presentment of Nemesis, '<i>you</i> +know pretty well where the horse you were riding came from, and where +the one you were leading ate his corn a week ago. I must take them with +me, but you can have your side-saddle. Whether you're brought into this +racket depends on yourself, <i>you understand me</i>.' And with a meaning +glance the sergeant turned to his men. 'One of you take the prisoners to +the lock-up. Shoot either of them if they try to run. The other take +these three horses and secure them at the camp stable. I'll remain here +till you come back to watch these horses in the yard.'</p> + +<p>The little procession moved on. The fettered prisoners—now linked +together—the three led horses. The number was swelled by dozens of idle +or curious spectators to nearly a hundred before they reached the +temporary but massive wooden building which did duty as a gaol; and +therein, for the first time in his life, Lance heard a prison key +turned, and a prison bolt shot, upon—himself.</p> + +<p>Words are vain things, after all. Who can essay to describe—be it ever +so faintly traced—the mingled shame and surprise—the agony and the +sorrow—the wrath and despair of the man unjustly imprisoned? Think of +Lance Trevanion, young, gently nurtured, ignorant, save by hearsay, of +crime or its punishment, suddenly captured, subjected to durance vile, +in danger of yet infinitely greater shame and more lasting disgrace. +Haughty and untamed—so far removed by race and tradition from the +meaner crimes from which the lower human tribes have for ages suffered, +it was as if one of the legendary demon-lovers of the daughters of men +had been ensnared and chained. Ceaselessly did Lance Trevanion rave and +fret on that never-to-be-forgotten night. The dawn found him pale and +determined, with set face and drawn lips. Every vestige of youth seemed +to have vanished. Years might have rolled on. A careless youth might +have been succeeded by the mordant cares of middle age. So changed was +every facial line—so fixed the expression which implied settled +resentment of an outrage—even more, the thirst for revenge!</p> + +<p>When he became—after hours of half-delirious raving—sufficiently calm +to reflect upon and realise his position, nothing could be clearer than +the explanation. Scales seemed, metaphorically, to have fallen from his +eyes. How blind! How imbecile had he been, thus to walk into the trap +with his eyes open! <i>This</i>, of course, was what the girl Tessie had +meant when with such disproportionate earnestness she had warned him not +to go on this ill-fated journey. She knew what Ned Lawless's past had +been, what any 'business' of his was likely to be; and Kate—double-dyed +hypocrite and false-tongued jade that she was—how she had lured him to +his doom. Perhaps not exactly that, for, of course, his utter ignorance +of their villainy would appear on the trial, if it went so far, and as +to buying a stolen horse it was next to impossible to avoid +that—numbers of people he knew had done so; and then, what motive could +she have for enticing him to Balooka, when she must have known the +tremendous risk to which she was exposing him? She, surely, had no +reason to wish to injure him? Surely, surely, not after her words, her +looks, her changes of voice and expression, all of which he knew so +well! But throughout, and above and below all his thoughts, imaginings, +and wonderings, came with recurring and regulated distinctness—What a +fool I have been, what a fool, what a thrice-sodden idiot and lunatic! +<i>Now</i> he knew what the friendly warning of Hastings meant. <i>Now</i> he +understood Mrs. Polwarth's dislike and Jack's blunt disapproval of that +intimacy.</p> + +<p>It was easily explained. He had had to buy his experience. He had paid +dearly for going to that school. And who were, proverbially, the people +who would learn at no other? Fools, fools, again fools!</p> + +<p>The day had passed without his touching the simple food which had been +placed before him. At sundown the constable who came to see that his +prisoner was all right for the night, pitying his evident misery, and +accepting the non-absorption of food and drink as an incontestable proof +of first offence, tried to persuade him to 'take it easy,' as he +expressed it.</p> + +<p>'You've never been shopped before, that's seen. Well, it's happened to +many a good man, and will again. Don't go back on your tucker. You've a +long ride before you. We shall start back for Ballarat to-morrow. If you +get clear, you're all the better for not losing heart. If you don't, it +won't matter one way or the other.'</p> + +<p>Lance nodded his head. Speech—to talk as he did when he was <i>that other +man</i>, the man who was a gentleman, free, proud, stainless, who never +needed to lower his eyes or doff his hat to any living being—to him now +speech was impossible.</p> + +<p>The policeman looked at him, turned again, and shook his head and walked +out, locking and bolting the door mechanically.</p> + +<p>'Dashed if I can make out that case,' said the trooper to himself. +'Dayrell knows why he arrested that young fellow, I don't. Any child can +see he didn't stand in with that crowd. They've had him soft, selling +him a cross horse as any man might have knowed was too good for them to +own on the square; but if he gives up the horse they can't touch him, I +should think. He floored Dayrell though, and that'll go agin him. The +sergeant can make it pretty hot for them as he don't fancy.'</p> + +<p>Early next morning, half an hour after a pannikin of tea and a plate of +meat surmounted by a large wedge of bread had been placed in his cell, +Lance Trevanion was taken out and placed upon a horse. He was helped +into the saddle, the feat of mounting in handcuffs being rather a +difficult one to the inexperienced captive, as any gentleman may +discover by tying his hands together and making the attempt. He was +permitted to hold the reins by means of a knot at the end, and, with +some limitation, to direct the animal's course. But a leading-rein was +buckled to the snaffle, by which a mounted trooper led his horse. Ned +Lawless, also handcuffed, was similarly accommodated. One trooper rode +ahead, one behind. Neither of the prisoners' horses were such that if +they had got loose and essayed to escape, would have had much chance by +reason of superior speed. They were leg-weary screws, and were, indeed, +nearly due for superannuation, the goal of which would be reached when +they had carried (and risked the lives of) a few dozen more prisoners. +Dayrell remained behind at Balooka. Possibly he had some reason for the +delay, but if so he did not disclose it.</p> + +<p>What a different return journey was this from the commencement of it, +when Lance had set out so light of heart, so joyous of mood, his pockets +full of money, his credit unlimited, all the world before him, as the +ordinary phrase goes; able to pick and choose, as he supposed, among the +world's pleasures and occupations, to select, to examine, to purchase, +to refuse, at his pleasure. A good horse under him, the fresh forest +breeze in each inhalation exhilarating every pulse as he rode at ease or +at headlong speed through the winding forest track. A man, a gentleman, +rich, successful, respected, more independent than a king and unlike +him, free to come or to go at his own sovereign will and pleasure.</p> + +<p>And now, how had a few short hours, a conspiracy, heedless imprudence, +and malign fate changed and disfigured him. A prisoner fettered and +confined, charged with a grave offence, at the mercy of a severe and +unscrupulous officer whom he had been imprudent enough to defy and later +on to resist, what might he not expect?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + + +<p>Long and deadly wearisome was the journey to Ballarat. Necessarily slow, +it became insufferably tedious to impatient men who had been used to +take counsel but of their own will and caprice. An early start, a late +ending to the dragging day's journey, broken but by a short mid-day +halt. Such was the order of Lance's return to Ballarat, until, on the +fifth day, they saw once more in the distance the smoke of the thousand +camp fires and heard the distant surge-like murmur of the army of the +Mine.</p> + +<p>Wearied and heart-sick, melancholy and furious by turns, Lance Trevanion +almost commenced to doubt of his own identity. When they arrived at the +camp he found himself led forward between two troopers and half +conducted, half pushed into a cell, the clang of the bolt seeming to +intensify the strange unreality of his position. The trooper informed +him that his meal would be sent in directly; that he would have to make +the best of it with the blankets doubled up for a bed in a corner of the +cell until next day. Then he would be brought before the police +magistrate, and either discharged or committed, as the case might be.</p> + +<p>On the journey Lance had, after his first paroxysm of rage and disgust, +abundant leisure to think over and over the facts and probable +consequences of his position. He was apparently to be arraigned, if +committed for trial, for having in his possession a stolen horse. But +could they, could any one prove that he had 'guilty knowledge—that he +knew of its being dishonestly come by'? Were not half the horses then +sold in Ballarat supposed to be stolen, stolen from the 'Sydney side,' +from South Australia, from all parts of Victoria indeed? He had never +known any one tried on such a charge, and had, indeed, thought in his +ignorance that laxity about the ownership of live stock was one of the +customs of the country, rendered indeed almost inevitable from the +absence of fencing or natural boundaries between the immense herds and +flocks.</p> + +<p>He had not, of course, the smallest suspicion that Pendragon, the horse +he had so named in memory of the old Cornish legend, which he had bought +from Ned Lawless at a high figure, was other than perfectly 'square,' as +Ned would have phrased it. Had he known the truth he would have +repudiated the purchase with scorn. But now, to be arrested and marched +to gaol with as much formality as if he had taken a horse out of the +stable of a neighbouring proprietor in Cornwall, or 'lifted' a flock of +black-faced sheep, struck him as truly anomalous and absurd.</p> + +<p>Next morning, after a night which came to an end in spite of his forlorn +condition, he found himself making one of a large class of <i>détenues</i> +who, for one offence or another, were to come up for judgment.</p> + +<p>The ordinary charge-sheet of a goldfield is fairly filled as a rule, and +at this particular period of the existence of Ballarat as a town a large +proportion of criminals of all shades and classes had managed to make it +their temporary home. Expirees from Tasmania, where the transportation +system had only lately come to an end, had swelled the proportion of +habitual criminals. These were daring and desperate men; an inexorable +penal system had partially controlled, but failed altogether to reform +them. So frequent had been the assaults upon life and property with +which this class was credited, that an official of exceptional firmness +and experience had been specially selected for the responsible post of +police magistrate of Ballarat.</p> + +<p>This gentleman, Mr. M'Alpine, generally familiarly and widely known as +'Launceston Mac,' was credited with using a short and trenchant way with +criminals. Presumably a large proportion of his <i>clientèle</i> had been at +some time or other before him in Tasmania. He had, it was conceded, a +wonderful memory for faces, as also for 'accidents and offences.' It was +asserted for him that he never met a man under penal circumstances that +he could not recognise if encountered twenty years afterwards. It was +only necessary in the case of doubtful identity to direct the attendant +police to 'turn him round,' which formula was almost invariably followed +by the remark, 'Seen you before, my man, on the other side, your name is +so-and-so. Six months' imprisonment with hard labour.'</p> + +<p>Doubtless in nineteen cases out of twenty the inference was correct, and +the punishment just. But there <i>was</i> a probability that occasionally the +worthy justice was mistaken. Among the hordes of criminals with which he +had been officially connected, small wonder if an occasional lapse of +memory took place, and then so much the worse for the accused.</p> + +<p>But, as in all comprehensive schemes of legislative repression the +individual suffers for the general advantage, so the occasional +misdirections of justice, in that era of widespread license which might +so easily degenerate into lawlessness, were but lightly regarded as +incident to a period of martial law; and no one gainsaid the fact that +the practised readiness, prompt decision, and stern resolve which Mr. +M'Alpine brought to bear upon the thousands of cases were of priceless +advantage to the body politic and all law-abiding citizens.</p> + +<p>It was this Rhadamanthus, before whom so many an evil-doer trembled, +that Lance Trevanion found himself compelled to confront. He knew him, +of course, by fame and report, as who did not?—but had never met him, +as it happened, personally. He did not doubt, however, but that a few +words of explanation would suffice to set him free. It was therefore +with a sense of awakening hope that he obeyed the summons to follow one +of the constables to the court-house. This was a large but not imposing +building, composed of weather-boards, rude, indeed, and deficient as to +architectural proportions. However, it was a great improvement upon the +large tent which did duty as a hall of justice in the primitive days of +the gold outbreak.</p> + +<p>Erect upon the bench, regarding the herd of prisoners, as one by one +they came before him, with a stern countenance and searching glance, sat +Mr. M'Alpine. His eyes had that fixed and penetrating expression +generally acquired by men who have had long experience of criminals. His +face seemed to say to such: 'I can identify you, if necessary—I know +every thought of your vile heart—every deed of your ruffian life. Don't +dare to <i>think</i> of deceiving <i>me</i> or it will be worse for you—plead +guilty if you are wise, and don't insult the court by a defence!'</p> + +<p>Long and so sombre had been Mr. M'Alpine's experiences of every kind of +iniquity, of evasion, if not defiance of the law, that it is doubtful if +he considered any person ever brought before him to be perfectly +innocent. Certainly not, unless conclusively proved by competent +witnesses. The <i>onus probandi</i> lay with the accused. It is asserted by +outsiders that all police officials in time acquire a tinge of the +hunter instinct, which impels them to pursue, and, if possible, run down +every species of quarry once started, irrespective of guilt. But this, +doubtless, is an invention of the enemy.</p> + +<p>After the squad of 'drunks and disorderlies' had been dealt with, the +names Launcelot Trevanion and Edward Lawless were called; 'the +prisoners' were ordered to stand up.</p> + +<p>A novel experience, truly, for the heir of Wychwood. The court was +crowded. It had somehow leaked out that Trevanion, of Number Six, +Growlers', had been 'run in' by Sergeant Dayrell for horse-stealing. The +news had not yet got as far as the Gully proper—the time not having +allowed. But every 'golden-hole man' was pretty well known on the +'field,' and Lance was a prominent personage, by repute, in the mining +community.</p> + +<p>'What the blazes has a chap like that any call to shake a horse +for—that's what I want to know?' inquires a huge, blackbearded digger. +'Why, they say he's worth forty or fifty thousand, if he's worth a +penny, and the claim washing-up better and better every week?'</p> + +<p>'He never stole no moke,' returned his companion decisively, 'no more +than you or me prigged the post-office clock, that's just been +a-striking! He's a free-handed chap with his money, and that soft that +he don't know a cross cove from a straight 'un. He's been had by Ned +Lawless and his crowd. That's about the size of it.'</p> + +<p>'They can't shop him for that, though,' said the first man, +contemplatively filling his pipe. 'They say he was riding a crooked +horse when he was took. Kate Lawless was with him on another. The yard +was half-full of horses the Lawlesses had worked from hereabouts. It +looked ugly, didn't it?'</p> + +<p>'Looked ugly be blowed!' said his more logical and experienced friend. +'Things is getting pretty cronk if a chap can't ride alongside a pretty +gal without wanting to see a receipt for the nag she's on! I believe +it's a plant of that beggar Dayrell's. He wants a big case, and that +poor young chap may have to suffer for it.'</p> + +<p>'Dayrell wouldn't do a thing like that, surely,' exclaimed the first +speaker in tones of amazement. 'Why, it's as bad as murder, I call it. +What's to become of a swell chap like him, if he's lagged and sent to +the hulks?'</p> + +<p>'There's devilish few things as Dayrell <i>wouldn't</i> do, it's my opinion, +if he thought he'd get a step by it,' replied his friend. 'But this +cove's friends'll make a fight for it. They'll have law. They've got +money, and so has he, of course. They'll have a lawyer from Melbourne.'</p> + +<p>It did not appear at first as if there was much danger to be apprehended +as far as Lance was concerned. Directly his case was called, he stood up +and faced the Bench and the expectant crowd with a stern +expression—half of defiance, half of contempt.</p> + +<p>'May I say a few words in my own defence?' he commenced. 'I am certain +that a short explanation would convince the Bench that any charge such +as I am called upon to answer is ludicrous in the extreme.'</p> + +<p>'We must first have the evidence of the apprehending constable,' said +the police magistrate decisively, 'after which the Bench will hear +anything you have to say.'</p> + +<p>'But, your worship, I wish to speak a few words before.'</p> + +<p>'After the evidence,' said the P.M. sternly. 'Swear Sergeant Dayrell.'</p> + +<p>That official strode forward, stepping into the vertical pew which is +placed for the apparent <i>in</i>-convenience of witnesses, by adding to +their natural nervousness and trepidation the discomfort of a cramped +wearisome posture. To him, at least, it made no difference. Cool and +collected, he made his statement with practised ease and deliberation, +as if reading an oft-recited passage out of a well-known volume, +watching the pen of the clerk of the Bench, so as to permit that +official to commit to writing correctly his oft-fateful words. They were +as follows—</p> + +<p>'My name is Francis Dayrell, senior-sergeant of police for the colony of +Victoria, at present stationed at Growlers' Gully. I know the prisoners +before the court. On Friday the 20th September last, from information +received, I proceeded to a digging known as Balooka, situated in New +South Wales, and distant about one hundred and seventy miles from +Ballarat. I arrived on Monday evening the 23d, and proceeded to the camp +of the prisoner Edward Lawless, whom I arrested by virtue of a warrant, +which I produce. It is signed by a magistrate of the territory. In a +yard close to the prisoner's camp I found a large number of horses, +several of which I at once identified as being stolen from miners at +Ballarat, or in the vicinity. Others appeared to have brands resembling +those of squatters in the neighbourhood. The prisoner Lawless was unable +to account for his possession of these, or to produce receipts. He was +about to leave for Melbourne, I was informed, in order to sell the whole +mob. I arrested him and his cousin Daniel, and charged him with stealing +the horse named in the warrant. While he was in custody I observed the +other prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion by name, riding towards the camp in +company with a young woman. She was riding one horse, and leading +another. When he came up I identified both the horse he was riding and +that of his companion as stolen horses, both of which have been +advertised in the <i>Police Gazette</i>. I produce the <i>Gazette</i> wherein the +brand and description correspond. I charged the prisoner with receiving +a certain bay horse branded H. J., well knowing him to be stolen, and +arrested him. I then conveyed the prisoners to the gaol at Ballarat +East, where I confined them.'</p> + +<p>This evidence—which even Lance admitted to himself placed matters in a +more unfavourable light than he could have supposed possible—being read +over, Mr. M'Alpine said, 'Have you any question to ask the witness?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, your worship,' answered Lance, bringing out the last two words +with apparent difficulty.</p> + +<p>'You are aware that I had the bay horse in my possession for some weeks +at Growlers', and rode him openly there?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, certainly.'</p> + +<p>'Then why did you not arrest me there?'</p> + +<p>'I had my reasons, one of which was that I had not received an answer +from Mr. Jeffreys—the breeder of the horse.'</p> + +<p>'Was that with reference to the hundred pound reward offered on +conviction of any one proved to have stolen one of his horses?'</p> + +<p>'No!'</p> + +<p>'That reward did not actuate you in arresting me on a charge of which +you must know that I am innocent, if you have watched my conduct at +all?'</p> + +<p>'I <i>have</i> watched your conduct, and know you to be an habitual associate +of the Lawlesses, who, as a family, are known to be among the most +clever horse and cattle stealers in New South Wales. I have known you to +make a practice of gambling with them for large sums. It has been stated +to me that you have lost as much as five hundred pounds to them at a +sitting.'</p> + +<p>'Did you not know that I had come straight from Ballarat when I rode up +to the camp at Balooka?'</p> + +<p>'I am not in a position to state where you came from. I saw you ride up +with Kate Lawless, in whose company I have repeatedly seen you. On this +occasion you and she were in possession of three horses—all stolen +property—the one she rode, the one she led, and the horse you rode.'</p> + +<p>'How could I know that the horse I bought from Ned Lawless was stolen? +He did not know, I believe, or he would not have sold it to me, I am +sure.'</p> + +<p>'That you will have to explain to the court,' returned the sergeant, +with pitying contempt.</p> + +<p>'Good God! Did I look like a guilty man when you arrested me?' exclaimed +Lance, in a tone which had an echo of despair as plank by plank he felt +his defence foundering, as it were, at every cold and sinister answer of +this relentless foe.</p> + +<p>'You made a most violent resistance,' replied the sergeant calmly, 'of +which my face still bears the mark. I don't know whether that is to be +taken as a proof of your innocence.'</p> + +<p>'I appeal to your worship,' exclaimed the unfortunate accused as a +nameless terror stole over him—such as Quentin Durward may have +experienced when Tristan L'Hermite and Petit André were about to attach +him to the fatal tree—lest, ignorant of all legal forms, he should be +tried and condemned before he had a chance of exculpation. 'I appeal to +your worship to permit my case to be adjourned, in order that I may +bring witnesses who can prove my innocence, and also that I may obtain +legal assistance. Surely you cannot sit there and see an innocent man +wrongfully condemned. Though a miner, I am a gentleman of good, indeed +ancient family; an act such as I have been accused of is, therefore, +impossible to me. For God's sake, permit me an adjournment!'</p> + +<p>The magistrate's face was impassive. His nature was probably not less +compassionate than that of other men. But long familiarity with crime, +long official acquaintance with every variety of villainy, had indurated +his feelings to such an extent that but little trust in human nature, as +ordinarily displayed within the precincts of his court, had survived. No +doubt this young fellow looked and spoke like an innocent man; but how +many criminals had looked and spoken likewise? The wholesale stealing +of miners' and squatters' horses—now worth from fifty to a hundred +pounds each in the Melbourne market—had reached such a pitch that the +miners had declared their intention to shoot or lynch any future 'horse +thieves,' as the American miners called them, if justice was not done +them by the Government. Mr. M'Alpine had this in his mind at the time, +and, with all proper respect for the rules of evidence, had come fully +to the conclusion that it was high time that an exemplary sentence +should be passed upon the very next culprit caught 'red-handed'; he +therefore made no reply to the passionate appeal of the unlucky +prisoner.</p> + +<p>'Read over the evidence,' he said, in a cold voice, to the clerk of the +court.</p> + +<p>That official with colourless accuracy read out Dayrell's damaging +statement on oath, as well as Lance's questions thereupon, which, as +generally happens to the accused who essays his own defence, had injured +rather than aided his case.</p> + +<p>'Do you wish to ask the witness any other question?' he inquired, in a +tone which would have led a bystander to think that the process was a +pleasant interchange of ideas between gentlemen, which any prisoner +might enjoy.</p> + +<p>'No; certainly not, but I should like to say——'</p> + +<p>'I understood you to apply for an adjournment, for the purpose of +calling witnesses and employing a legal practitioner?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly I did, but I wish——'</p> + +<p>'The prisoner stands remanded to this day week at 10 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> Bail refused. +It is understood that any authorised person is not to be denied access +to him. The court stands adjourned till ten o'clock to-morrow morning.'</p> + +<p>As this closed proceedings, the police magistrate walked slowly forth, +leaving Lance to be re-conducted to prison, with, however, permission to +see all friends and legal advisers.</p> + +<p>Before the proceedings closed the sergeant had made a formal request for +the adjournment for a week of the case against Edward Lawless, assigning +as a reason that he was not fully prepared with the necessary evidence. +This had been assented to: both prisoners were then marched back to +gaol, and being locked up in separate cells, were left to their +reflections.</p> + +<p>From the sound of whistling and even singing which proceeded from the +apartment occupied by Mr. Edward Lawless, the penalty of imprisonment +did not appear to fall heavily upon his elastic spirits: the iron had +not entered into his soul in any marked degree. But far otherwise was it +with Lance Trevanion. He had buoyed himself up with the idea that he +would only need to make a short explanation to the magistrate, and that +he would be immediately set at liberty. In this expectation he had been +bitterly disappointed. So far from his release being an easy matter, it +seemed as if a fresh element of doubt, a dismal dread, undefined yet +ominous, had been introduced into the affair. Would he perhaps <i>really</i> +be convicted and sentenced? The idea was maddening, but innocent persons +had been found guilty before, if some of the tales which he had heard +were not untrue. Why not again? This was a strange country. He had been +deceived and thoroughly duped, as he could not help confessing to +himself. Might he not find himself yet more fatally mistaken in all his +conclusions?</p> + +<p>Seated on the floor of his cell, he rapidly fell into a state of +semi-stupor as these sombre imaginings coursed through his brain, +sometimes slowly and with saddest procession, at other times with almost +delirious haste. Was he indeed Lance Trevanion, the free, fearless +traveller of a week since? It surely could not be! What was he to do +next? Life or liberty, which came to the same thing, was surely worth +fighting for. He must have legal assistance if it were possible. There +was hardly a lawyer in Ballarat that was <i>practising his profession</i>. A +sufficient number there abode doubtless, but they were all in the year +1852 engaged in mining. After a while the ebb of adventure set in, on +which a return took place to nearly all the professions. But in the +spring of 1852 the golden tide was at flood-mark. It was hard to find +any man in the place or position which he had formerly held.</p> + +<p>From this mood of doubt and despair Trevanion was aroused by steps in +the corridor and the opening of the door of the cell. He had but scant +time to rise and stand erect when Hastings and Jack Polwarth +entered—the latter with an expression of alarm and astonishment that +but for his evident sincerity would have been ludicrous.</p> + +<p>'Why, Mr. Lance—Mr. Trevanion,' cried Jack, in tones of subdued horror, +'whatever has come to ye, that they have had the face to do this? Can +they stand by it, think ye, Mr. Hastings? Locking up a gentleman like +Mr. Lance here and makin' oot as he's stolen a trumpery 'oss, him as +wouldn't do the like for a Black Forest full of 'em. It's fair murther +and worse—all the gully's talking on it, and I could fetch a hundred +Cousin Jacks and Devon lads as'lld pull the place about their ears if +you'd but say the word, Mr. Lance?'</p> + +<p>'I'm afraid that would do no good, Jack,' said Hastings, whose concern, +not so freely expressed, was as deep and sincere as that of Lance's +faithful partner. 'I see no reason though, Trevanion, why you shouldn't +be out in a week. However, all this is deucedly annoying and vexatious. +Still we must be patient. Queer things happen on a goldfield. You +remember my plight when first we made acquaintance?'</p> + +<p>'Annoying!' replied Trevanion, slowly turning his frowning face, in +which the lurid passion-light of his gloomy eyes had commenced to burn. +'Why in the world should I have been selected by Providence for this +damnable injustice? I feel already as if I was disgraced irrevocably. +How can I ever show my face among my equals again after having been +arrested, handcuffed, charged with felony, locked up like a criminal? +Great God! when I think of it all I wonder why I don't go mad!'</p> + +<p>'It's no use getting excited over it,' said Hastings. 'The thing is to +<i>do</i> all that we can, not to think or talk about it over-much. Stirling +will be here to-morrow. He could not come to-day, but will leave his +bank before the stars are out of the sky to-morrow, and will be here by +breakfast-time. He could not come to-day because of business. We will +see about your witnesses and manage to get a lawyer up from Melbourne in +time. Keep up your spirits. There are dozens of men, and women too, that +can prove an <i>alibi</i>. If my claim was as good as yours I'd swap places +cheerfully with you.'</p> + +<p>'Don't be too sure of that,' returned Lance with a sardonic smile. 'I +have a kind of presentiment that evil will come of this business. Why, I +know not, but still the feeling haunts me. Well, Jack, we never thought +of this on board the <i>Red Jacket</i> when we were so jolly, eh?'</p> + +<p>'Just to think of it,' exclaimed Jack, with the tears running down his +honest face. 'And never a Trevanion in a prison before since that +king—I can't mind his name—shut up one of them in the old Tower of +London and cut his head off. But that was dying like a gentleman—that +ever I should have lived to see this! I could never show my face at +Wychwood or St. Austell's again.'</p> + +<p>'Why, Jack, you're about as foolish as your—master, I was nearly +saying—as your mate there, at any rate. Why, Lance is not even +committed for trial. All sorts of things may happen in the meantime. +<i>Must</i> happen; <i>must</i> happen. Now, we must say good-bye, Lance. I'll +send you in some books. I don't see many about. For God's sake, keep up +your spirits.'</p> + +<p>The time fixed for the remand having expired, Lance and his +fellow-prisoner, Ned Lawless, were brought up for their preliminary +trial. All necessary arrangements had been completed; no further reason +existed for delay either on the part of the Crown or of the prisoners.</p> + +<p>The sergeant was quite ready with his witnesses; Stirling and Hastings +had secured the services of the celebrated Mr. England, the great +criminal lawyer, about whose capacity the general miners' opinion, as +expressed on the occasion, ran thus: 'Well, if England don't get him +off, nobody will.'</p> + +<p>These important preliminaries having been settled, the crowd waited with +impatience mingled with a certain satisfaction that so important a trial +was really to come off and not to be strangled in its infancy, like many +promising legal melodramas to which they had looked forward. There would +be no mistake about this one at any rate. Sergeant Dayrell had come down +in full uniform from the camp at an early hour. The show would be on +soon after the clock struck ten.</p> + +<p>At that hour punctually Mr. M'Alpine took his seat upon the bench. In +five minutes the court was crowded. After the ordinary business two men +were marched in with a policeman on either side and placed in the dock. +They were Lance Trevanion and Edward Lawless. The latter looked calmly +around at the crowd as if there was no particular occasion for +seriousness of mien. His mental attitude was easily comprehended by +those of his compatriots who were present, whatever might be thought by +the emigrant miners who were so visibly in the majority. Ned had played +for a heavy stake—he had staked his liberty on the hazard and lost. If +he had won there was a matter of two or three thousand pounds—indeed +more—in the pool. That would have set him up in a decent-sized cattle +station capable of indefinite development. It was a fair risk. He had +taken it knowingly and with his eyes open. Now that he had lost, as the +cards had been against him, there was nothing for it but to pay up. It +would be three years' gaol, or perhaps five at the outside.</p> + +<p>When Lance Trevanion stood up in the dock, confronting squarely the +assembled crowd and the Bench, an almost audible shudder, accompanied by +a species of gasping sigh, passed through the court. Quietly but +correctly dressed, access having been possible to his raiment at +Growlers', he looked thoroughly a gentleman, a man of race and gentle +nurture. As he stood, calm and impassive, with a steadfast unflinching +gaze, the most suspicious person, however permeated with universal +distrust, could not have connected him with the meaner crimes. In a +half-smile, haughty and grimly humorous, his features relaxed for a +moment as he met the sorrowful gaze of Mrs. Polwarth. Then he drew +himself up to his full height and awaited the first act of the drama in +which he played so important a part.</p> + +<p>The curtain was not long in rising. The clerk of the court stood up and +read out the evidence of Senior-Sergeant Dayrell, taken at the first +hearing of the case, as also the order of adjournment signed by the +police magistrate. A stoutish dark man, with a mobile face and direct +clear glance, stood up and said, 'May it please your honour, I beg +pardon, your worship, I appear for the prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion.'</p> + +<p>'By all means, pleased to hear it, Mr. England. Sergeant Dayrell, your +first witness.'</p> + +<p>'Call Herbert Jeffreys,' and in answer to the stentorian call outside of +the court a gentlemanlike man with a bronzed countenance and of quiet +demeanour stepped into the witness-box. On being sworn, he deposed as +follows: 'My name is Herbert Jeffreys, I am a land-holder and grazier, +residing at Restdown, which is distant about one hundred and twenty +miles from Ballarat. I have seen a bright bay horse with a star, outside +of the court, branded "H. J.," which is our station brand, at least for +all horses and cattle running on the Campaspe. I swear to the horse as +my property. He has been missing for nearly twelve months. I am +perfectly certain it is the horse, and cannot be mistaken. I notice a +slight cut inside of the hock, which was the result of an accident. I +never sold him or gave prisoner or any other person authority to take +him. He is a valuable animal, worth between eighty and a hundred pounds, +as prices go. We have had a large number of horses stolen during the +past year.'</p> + +<p>Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'We had more than two hundred horses +before the diggings. We have offered a hundred pounds reward for the +conviction of any person found stealing our horses or cattle. It was a +measure of self-defence. We should soon not have had one left. Do not +consider it an inducement to the police to make up imaginary cases. If +people do not steal our horses the reward is a dead-letter. If they do, +they deserve punishment. I never saw the prisoner Trevanion before. If I +had, I should probably not have been here to-day.' (Asked why.) 'Because +any one can see that he is a gentleman, and doubtless unused to this +kind of work. I have no doubt that he purchased my horse without +suspicion that he had been stolen. Can't say whether or not the horse +has been in the pound since I saw him last.'</p> + +<p>Trevanion looked over at the witness as he spoke thus with a frank +expression of gratitude, while Mr. Jeffreys, having descended from the +witness-box and signed his deposition, sat down in a chair provided for +him to watch the trial.</p> + +<p>The next witness called was Carl Stockenstrom. 'My name—ja wohl—I am a +dikker from Palooga. Haf been dere all der wege more 'an dree months. On +Thursday neuntzehn Zepdember, I saw de brisoner at the Gemp's Greek, ten +mile from der Palooga. He was ride mit de fräulein Lawless. He ride not +the horse outside de court. It was anoder. They was having one fine +lark. She can ride—she ride like nodings dat I never shall see. I swear +positif to de prisoner, his face, his figure, above all dings to his +eyes.'</p> + +<p>Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'I have lost a good horse myself. I did +not advertise him in the local baper. Many of my mates lost theirs. I +did not think it worth while. The two were driving some horses when I +see dem. I saw two of them in Ned Lawless's yard, and was told they was +sdolen. Police dook dem away mit de oders anyways.'</p> + +<p>'Call Hiram Edwards.'</p> + +<p>A gaunt American miner stalked forward, and with characteristic +self-possession stepped into the witness-box.</p> + +<p>'Diggin' at Balooka? Yes, sir; followed the first rush. Heard talk of +hoss-thieves among the boys; advised to hang the first man caught +riding a wrong horse, just to skeer other critters. Worked well in San +Francisco, that simple expedient. Do not know prisoner personally, but +saw a man durned like him on Friday, 20th September last, in company +with that skunk, Ned Lawless, trading horses.</p> + +<p>'Lost no horse? No, sir; know too much to keep one on a placer workin'. +Sold mine same day I struck the gulch.'</p> + +<p>Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'Hev a sorter dislike to swear positively +to prisoner as having been in company with Lawless on that Friday. To +the best of my belief he was the man. (Has the prisoner any objection to +look at me for a moment.)' Then Lance turned suddenly and looked at the +witness with a determined and sternly interrogatory expression. The +witness changed front noticeably. 'I now swear to the prisoner as the +man I saw with Lawless on Friday; positively and plum-centre. Know his +eyes anywhere. First day I saw him was the Wednesday before. He and +Lawless both carried stock-whips.'</p> + +<p>Senior-Constable Donnellan deposed: 'I am a mounted trooper, at present +stationed at Balooka. I know the prisoner, and have been observing him +closely at Balooka for the last three weeks. Frequently saw him in +company with Edward Lawless and his sister. As they were suspicious +characters, or, at any rate, had a name for finding horses that were not +lost, I thought it my duty to watch them.</p> + +<p>'On the morning of Wednesday, 18th instant, I saw Lawless and prisoner +ride out early from the former's camp; they went for some miles up a +gully, and on reaching the top, where there is a small plain, I saw two +men meet them with a small lot (ten, I believe) of riding horses. They +drove them to the camp and put them into a yard. I have ascertained that +nearly all of them were stolen, and have since been identified by +miners. Saw prisoner several times with Kate Lawless at Balooka; am +certain that prisoner is the same man. Sent a messenger to Ballarat +express to communicate with Sergeant Dayrell, who came over and arrested +both prisoners.'</p> + +<p>By Mr. England: 'Took particular notice of prisoner's +appearance—prisoner is tall and broad-shouldered, with dark curly hair +and dark complexion. Has no ill-will against prisoner, Trevanion. If it +is sworn that prisoner was in another place, near Ballarat, at the time +mentioned by me, would not believe it. It was impossible, unless a man +could be in two places at once. Never spoke to prisoner at Balooka but +once; noticed that he had remarkable eyes. Was at the Lawlesses' camp +when he rode up with Kate Lawless; had seen him leave Balooka with her +early that morning. He was riding the horse prisoner led back. Can't +account for prisoner returning with a different horse and saddle, unless +he "shook" it. Beg the Bench's pardon—meant he may have picked it up on +the road. Thought prisoner looked slightly different, and was +differently dressed. Spoke differently, a little, not much. Attributed +this to seeing the Lawlesses, Ned and Dan, in the hands of the police +when he returned; and was dressed differently from what he had on in the +morning; had several times noticed him change his dress more than once +in a day. Would swear to the prisoner; would know him by his eyes and +general appearance anywhere.'</p> + +<p>Several other witnesses—miners, stock-riders, and small farmers—were +examined. They swore to ownership of various horses found in Ned +Lawless's 'mob' or drove, now in charge of the police.</p> + +<p>'Is that your case, sergeant?' inquired the police magistrate, when the +last of these witnesses had, at some personal inconvenience, signed the +depositions. 'I have but one other witness, your worship,' answered +Dayrell with an air of great deference, 'rather a material one, however. +Call Catharine Lawless.'</p> + +<p>From whatever cause, the utterance of this witness's name produced a +profound and universal sensation in the crowded court. Every miner knew +that the young Englishman had foolishly, as most people thought,—very +naturally, in the opinion of others,—admired the girl, and made no +secret of his feelings. For what reason was she now to be called as a +witness for the Crown? Had she turned traitress? Would she betray her +sweetheart in the hour of his peril? Far from immaculate, vain, violent, +and reckless as she was, the girls of her class and country were +proverbially as true as steel to their lovers—clinging to them more +closely in adversity, ready even to stand by them on the scaffold if +need were.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + + +<p>'Catharine Lawless!' Thrice was her name called outside of the court, as +by law directed. As the echo of the last summons died away, a tall woman +closely veiled issued from a side door and walked composedly over to the +witness-box. Every eye was directed towards her; no sound was audible, +save some involuntary exclamation as the most sensational character of +the <i>corps dramatique</i> appeared on the stage. Quietly and becomingly +dressed, <i>bien gantée</i> and in all respects accurately finished as to +each personal detail, she moved forward with an air of haughty +indifference to her surroundings, including the court, prisoners, and +spectators. These last might have deemed that she was some interesting +stranger, an eye-witness by chance of deeds concerning which she was +compelled to testify.</p> + +<p>'Swear the witness,' said the magistrate, as the book was placed in her +right hand, 'and will she be pleased to remove her veil?'</p> + +<p>Thus admonished, the girl threw back her veil with a half-petulant +gesture, and touching the sacred book lightly with her lips, as the +solemn formula was recited, gazed around the court with an air of +insouciance apparently as unstudied and natural as if she had come +direct from Arcadia.</p> + +<p>For one moment her clear gray eyes, unheeding every other creature in +the crowd of spectators, rested on the two men in the dock. Those who +knew her—and there were many such in the congregation—looked eagerly +for some softened expression, some sign of regret, as might any woman +wear when beholding her lover and her brother in the place set apart for +felons, who knew them to be charged with a serious offence, and liable +to years of degrading imprisonment, from which, perchance, a word from +her lips might save one—might even alleviate their lot—so great is the +sympathy felt for the power exercised by a handsome woman, even in the +temple of justice.</p> + +<p>Those who thus reasoned were doomed to disappointment. Her gaze passed +coldly over her brother's lounging form and tranquil features, but when +she encountered the stern interrogation which was written on the +frowning brow and set lips of Lance Trevanion, she drew back for an +instant, and then slightly raising her head and drawing herself up, an +action which displayed to perfection the symmetrical moulding of her +figure, returned his regard with a glance as fierce and unfaltering as +his own. For one moment only did the mental duel appear to last, for one +moment was each antagonistic electric current propelled along the mutual +course. Then, with an impatient gesture, she turned half round and +awaited the official questioning.</p> + +<p>The oppressive silence which up to that moment had pervaded the court +ceased, as by a broken spell, and comments were audible to those +immediately around the speaker, more than one of which went as follows—</p> + +<p>'She's going to swear up, you bet your life. Never saw a woman look like +her that didn't. Sooner have her on my side than against me, that's all +<i>I</i> know.'</p> + +<p>'Dayrell's been working a point to set her against him, that's where +he'll score the odd trick, you'll see,' observed his equally philosophic +friend. 'She's been dead nuts on that new chum, that's why she's +thirsting for his blood now. I think I knows 'em.'</p> + +<p>'What is your name?' commenced the sergeant, who in the preliminary +examination was, as the police officer in charge of the case, permitted +to officiate in Courts of Petty Sessions as Acting Crown Prosecutor. +'Catharine Lawless.' This answer was given in a low but distinct voice. +'You are the sister of Edward Lawless, one of the prisoners now before +the Court; and you have been residing with him at Balooka, and recently +at Growlers' Gully?'</p> + +<p>'Yes. We have all been living with him since father died.'</p> + +<p>'Just so. And you know the other prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion?' Here +the sergeant feigned to examine his notebook, ostensibly to refresh his +memory, but really in order to afford witness and prisoner opportunity +to look at each other. Also that the court, the spectators, the +magistrate, and lastly he, Francis Dayrell, might appreciate their +mutual discomfort.</p> + +<p>This Mephistophelian design was set at naught by the self-possession of +the witness, who after one glance, brief as the jagged lightning and as +scathing, answered deliberately—'Yes, I do know Lance Trevanion, <i>I +know him well</i>.'</p> + +<p>There was not much in this apparently harmless Saxon sentence, chiefly +monosyllabic, but those who were close enough to hear the last words +thrilled for long days after as they recalled the concentrated venom +with which they were saturated.</p> + +<p>'When you say you know the prisoner, Trevanion, well,' queried Dayrell, +with an air of respectful interest, 'you mean, I suppose, that he was a +great friend of your brothers, and of the family generally. Your brother +Dan, your cousin Harry, and his sister Tessie—you are rather a large +family, I believe—were all friendly towards him, as he to you?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; very friendly; we all thought no end of him.'</p> + +<p>'Of course, of course; most natural on your part and his. He was often +at your camp, at Growlers'. Used to play a game or two of cards +sometimes with your brothers—a little euchre—eh?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; I believe so.'</p> + +<p>'You believe so? Don't you know it, Miss Lawless? Were not the stakes +rather heavy sometimes?'</p> + +<p>'They may have been. I never played for money. The boys may have had a +gamble now and then.'</p> + +<p>'Really, your worship,' interposed Mr. England, 'I can't see what these +trivialities have to do with the case. The witness is an extremely +prepossessing young woman—outwardly. We admit at once that she +exercised a certain fascination over my client. Why shouldn't she? <i>Nemo +omnibus horis sapit, etc.</i>, particularly on the diggings. But the +sergeant, apparently, will proceed to ask her if she ever sewed on a +button for my client, and I appeal to your worship, if we are to sit +here all day and listen to this mode of examination?'</p> + +<p>'I must ask your worship's permission to conduct the case in my own +way,' returned the sergeant. 'I guarantee that these apparently trivial +details are of material importance to the case.'</p> + +<p>'You may proceed, Sergeant Dayrell. I trust to you not to encumber the +depositions with needless details.'</p> + +<p>'I shall bear in mind your worship's directions; and now, Miss Lawless, +please to attend to me, and be careful in answering the next question.' +Here he fixed his eyes meaningly upon her countenance.</p> + +<p>'You remember the evening of Monday, the 23d of this month, when I saw +you ride into your brother's camp at Balooka, in company with the +prisoner, Trevanion?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; I do.'</p> + +<p>'Had he been with you and Ned at Balooka for some time previously?'</p> + +<p>There was a pause after the sergeant's measured and distinct words +sounded through the court, and the witness trembled slightly when they +first reached her ear. Then she raised her head, looked full at the two +prisoners in the dock, and answered—</p> + +<p>'Yes; he had.'</p> + +<p>As the words left her lips, the face of Lance Trevanion worked like that +of a man about to fall down in a fit. His eyes blazed with wrath and +unrestrained passion. Wonder and scorn, anger and despair, struggled +together in every feature, as if in a stage of demoniac possession. +Placing his strong hand upon the rail of the dock, he shook the stout +structure until it swayed and rattled again.</p> + +<p>'You lie, traitress!' he said, in vibrating tones. 'I never saw Balooka +before that evening, and you know it. Your words—like yourself—are +false as hell!'</p> + +<p>'I submit, your worship, that the witness must be protected,' Dayrell +made haste to interpose. 'If she is to be intimidated, I cannot +guarantee her most important evidence.'</p> + +<p>A curious phase of human nature is it,—well worthy of the attention of +physiologists, but none the less known to those in the habit of +attending criminal courts,—that you may with tolerable certainty detect +a man deliberately swearing falsely when giving evidence on oath. +Villain as he may be,—scoundrel of the deepest dye,—even <i>he</i> does not +altogether enjoy the sensation of, in cold blood, committing perjury +before a crowd of comrades, every one of whom knows that he is +forswearing himself. Thus feeling, there is generally some token of +uneasiness or shamefacedness by which the experienced magistrate or +judge, and most certainly his friends and fellows, can perceive his +perjury.</p> + +<p>But, strange and mysterious as it may seem, <i>it is not so</i> in the case +of a female witness. She may be deposing to the truth of the most +atrocious falsehood, to what the greater part of her hearers, as well as +herself, <i>know to be false</i>, and not the quiver of an eyelid nor the +tremor of a muscle reveals that she has called upon the Supreme Being +to witness her deliberate betrayal of the truth. For all that can be +discerned in the countenance—in her mien and manner she may be clinging +to the truth with the constancy of a martyr.</p> + +<p>There was a murmur in the court from more than one voice as Lance +Trevanion's heart-felt exclamation burst forth. This being promptly +suppressed, the magistrate, with a more sympathetic tone of voice than +he had as yet used, 'requested the prisoner not to injure his case by +intemperate language. Possibly the outburst of conscious innocence, the +Bench admitted, but he would warn him, in his own interest, to reserve +his defence till the evidence was completed.' Lance apparently saw the +force of his argument, for after one withering glance at the +witness-box, he bowed his head without speaking, and resigned himself +apparently to listen unmoved to all further statements.</p> + +<p>'Did you—now consider carefully and <i>make no mistake</i>'—here the +sergeant fixed his eye sternly, even menacingly, upon the girl, who +stood calm and resolved before him—'did you know of your own knowledge +that the prisoner, Trevanion, met your brother Ned at the Swampy Plain +tableland and assisted him to drive certain horses into the yard?'</p> + +<p>The girl looked again across to the figures in the dock, neither of whom +apparently saw her, as they, by accident or otherwise, had averted their +faces. Then a mysterious darksome look of pride and revenge came over +Kate Lawless's face as she coolly scrutinised them both. Slowly she +answered—</p> + +<p>'Yes; I was at home when he and Ned came in from Swampy Plains with ten +horses and put them into the yard.'</p> + +<p>'You swear that?'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' looking her interlocutor full in the face. 'Yes, I swear that.'</p> + +<p>Her face as she pronounced the words grew fixed and more intense of +expression. She changed colour, then gasped for breath, staggered, and +before any man near her was quick enough to intercept her swaying form, +fell, as one dead, her full length upon the floor.</p> + +<p>'The strain has been too great for her, she has fainted,' said the +sergeant. 'The witness is unable to bear further cross-examination at +present. Your worship must see that. I pray for a remand of the +prisoners, and will undertake that the witness appears to-morrow at ten +o'clock and submits herself to the cross-examination.'</p> + +<p>'No doubt,' said the magistrate, 'the position is most distressing, but +I shouldn't have expected Miss Lawless to faint on any occasion. +However, she is certainly not in a state to bear more of the witness-box +to-day. The prisoners stand remanded till to-morrow morning at ten +o'clock.'</p> + +<p>The unwilling crowd gradually left the building, when much various +comment arose as to the guilt or otherwise of the accused.</p> + +<p>'Wait till England gets at that Kate Lawless,' said a digger, 'he'll +turn her inside out. I don't believe half of what she says. She's gone +back on Trevanion for some reason or other; now she'd hang him if she +could. That's a woman all over.'</p> + +<p>'Serve him right for havin' no more sense than to go runnin' after a +bush filly like her instead of minding his business. It'll learn him +better if he gets lagged over the job; it looks bad for him, now, don't +it?'</p> + +<p>'It's dashed hard lines, I say,' answered his mate, 'that a fellow +should get jugged just for a bit of foolishness-like, as none of us are +above now and then. I'll never believe he knew that bay horse wasn't +square, and it'll be a burning shame if he gets into it.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The day and the hour arrived. Again the crowded court—friends, foes, +strangers, and acquaintances, all were there. Lance's friends from +Growlers' mustered in force—Mr. Stirling, Jack Polwarth, Mrs. Polwarth, +and poor Tottie, who stretched forth her little hands with a piteous +gesture and then burst into tears as she saw her friend Lance placed in +the dock and shut in. The crowd was visibly affected by this little +incident, and more than one woman's tears flowed in unison with Mrs. +Polwarth's, who bent her head down and sobbed unrestrainedly. When Kate +Lawless, pale but composed, appeared and took her place in the +witness-box a menacing murmur ran through the crowd, and sounds +ominously like hisses made themselves audible. These were quickly +repressed as Mr. England, stepping forward, commenced his +cross-examination.</p> + +<p>Fixing his eyes searchingly upon the girl's defiant face, he thus +began—</p> + +<p>'You said, I think, in your examination in chief that you knew the +prisoner, Trevanion, well?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; so I did.'</p> + +<p>'Now, when you say you knew him well, do you mean us to believe that you +were only ordinary friends and no more?'</p> + +<p>'I mean what I said; we were very friendly—all the time we were at +Growlers'.'</p> + +<p>'That's all very well, but I must have more. You know something of life, +Miss Lawless, though you've lived in the bush all your days. Now didn't +this unfortunate young gentleman make love to you?'</p> + +<p>'Well, I suppose he did.'</p> + +<p>'And you returned it, or gave him to understand that you did?'</p> + +<p>'I did like him very much. There was no reason why I shouldn't, was +there?' Here Miss Kate looked coolly at the barrister, who, trained +gladiator as he was, doubted whether he had ever had to deal with a +keener antagonist.</p> + +<p>'I am not here to answer questions,' he said, very gravely. 'You are to +reply to mine, as his worship will tell you.'</p> + +<p>'Then I am to understand that you and he considered yourselves +sweethearts (as the familiar expression goes) when you were at +Growlers'?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, and afterwards.'</p> + +<p>'And you have had no quarrel or misunderstanding?'</p> + +<p>'No; none at all.'</p> + +<p>'You wish his worship to believe that?' said the barrister, in sterner +tones. 'To believe that you come here prepared to swear at the dictation +of Sergeant Dayrell everything that he puts into your mouth which can +tell against this unfortunate young man—your sweetheart, as you have +admitted?'</p> + +<p>'I don't care whether you believe it or not. It's the truth.'</p> + +<p>'And your feelings have not changed towards him? Will you swear that?'</p> + +<p>The girl hesitated. Her face flushed, then paled, her bosom heaved. She +placed her hand upon her heart as if to still its beatings.</p> + +<p>'No,' she answered, with a changed voice; 'I won't swear that.'</p> + +<p>'Thank you, Miss Lawless. I will not trouble you with further +questioning. That admission gives the key to the more important points +of your evidence.'</p> + +<p>As the girl moved back from the witness-box she was stopped by one of +the constables and requested to sign her deposition. It was noticeable +then that her hand trembled so that she could hardly hold the pen. She +made this an excuse for requesting the clerk to write her name, to which +she affixed her mark, as in such case made and provided.</p> + +<p>The case for the Crown being closed, Mr. England proceeded to call the +witnesses for the defence. The first name was that of Charles Stirling. +He came forward with a firm, confident air, tempered with respect to the +court. Placed in the witness-box, his evidence was to this effect—</p> + +<p>'My name—Charles Stirling, manager of the Growlers' Gully branch of the +Australian Joint-Stock Bank. Have known the prisoner, Trevanion, +intimately since his occupation of Number Six claim. Have a high opinion +of him as a man of honour and a gentleman. Remember him purchasing the +bay horse now proved to have been stolen from Mr. Jeffreys. Was +consulted as to the purchase. Advised him then to be careful about +Lawless's receipt, and to satisfy himself from whom he (Lawless) had +purchased the animal. Trevanion was unwilling to believe anything +against the Lawless family, and was not a man to be guided by others. As +far as he knew, he was scrupulously upright and honourable. He +(Stirling) was never so surprised at anything in his whole life as when +he heard that Trevanion was in the hands of the police. There must be a +mistake somewhere. Prisoner had a large balance to his credit in the +Joint-Stock Bank. There could be no motive for saving a paltry fifty +pounds by purchasing a stolen horse. If it was sworn that Trevanion had +been seen at Balooka on the 19th September or previously, that statement +was false, as on that day he had been all the morning at the Joint-Stock +Bank disposing of a parcel of gold, seeing it weighed, and the money +placed to credit.'</p> + +<p>Cross-examined by Sergeant Dayrell: 'He was as certain that Trevanion +was at his bank at Growlers' on Thursday as that he himself was at court +now. Any one who swore otherwise was deceived, or else had reasons of +their own for committing perjury. He did not intend to be other than +respectful to the court, but felt so strongly in this matter that he +could scarcely control his words. Was not aware, of his own knowledge, +that Trevanion was in the habit of gambling with the Lawlesses for heavy +stakes. May have heard something of the sort. Most of the young men at +the diggings played a little; it afforded a relief to the monotony of +their lives, and they (as far as he knew) never went very deeply into +it. Was a friend—he might say a particular friend—of prisoner's. He +and his mate, Mr. Polwarth, were customers of his bank. Neither had ever +owed his bank money, they were always depositors.'</p> + +<p>John Polwarth, sworn: 'Was mate and partner in "Number Six, Growlers'" +with Mr. Trevanion. Had known him in England. Came out in the same ship. +Could swear that he never knew the horse "Pendragon" was stolen. He was +a gentleman, and couldn't steal a horse if he tried ever so hard; or buy +a stolen one, knowingly. He had been with Mr. Trevanion at the bank all +the morning of Thursday, 19th inst. Mr. Stirling was there, and a +clerk.'</p> + +<p>'Was he sure it was him?'</p> + +<p>'Was he sure the judge was on the Bench now?'</p> + +<p>'How did he explain the fact of prisoner Trevanion being seen at Balooka +on Wednesday, 18th, and previously?'</p> + +<p>'Only by believing it to be "a straight lie," or that the witness saw +some one very like Trevanion.'</p> + +<p>'Very like Trevanion?'</p> + +<p>'Very like.'</p> + +<p>The witness appeared to be recalling something in his mind.</p> + +<p>'Ar hev it noo, boys,' quoth he, suddenly looking towards the Bench, 'I +humbly beg your worship's pardon, but this terrible business has put +things out of my head like. I see how it's all come about. There was a +chap aboard the <i>Red Jacket</i>, about a year older than Mr. Trevanion +then, as like him as two peas. Danged if I doan't believe it's he as +have been riding about with Ned Lawless here, and all the while he's +been taken for Master Lance. The name of the man he meant was Lawrence +Trevenna; came from North Devon, he did, though he had a Cornish name. +Had never set eyes on him since the day they landed in Melbourne. Never +liked him; thought it was a case of good riddance of bad rubbish.</p> + +<p>'Was a friend of Mr. Trevanion's; he wouldn't call him prisoner—not for +no man; any way he wasn't committed for trial yet; always would be a +friend—in gaol or out of it; but would not swear to a lie for him or +any other man—not if it was his own brother.'</p> + +<p>Gwennyth Polwarth was then called, and up came the poor woman—sore +abashed and troubled—with Tottie clinging to her, and refusing to be +separated from her mother.</p> + +<p>'Yes, she and her husband had come out with Mr. Lance. When in the <i>Red +Jacket</i> had made it up to be mates. Mr. Trevanion, though he was a grand +gentleman at home, worked as hard in the claim as any man on the field; +would never believe that he had aught to do with a stolen horse. It was +that Ned Lawless there, and his bold gipsy of a sister. I say it to +their faces, as I have often warned him against, that's got him into +this trouble.'</p> + +<p>'Could he have been at Balooka on Thursday, or Wednesday, 18th, as was +sworn by one witness?'</p> + +<p>'Not unless he was a spirit. He came round to the claim, and said +"good-bye" to me and the child on <i>Thursday evening</i>; would swear that +to her dying day.'</p> + +<p>'As to his being at Balooka, or any place a hundred miles off, it was a +thing impossible. There were people in the court as wanted to swear away +his life, any one could see. But there's Cousin Jacks enough at +Growlers' to smash the gaol and the court-house too, if these things are +to be carried on, and it would be seen yet (the witness said in her +excitement) what would come of it.'</p> + +<p>'Sergeant Dayrell would ask the witness no questions. The Bench would +perceive the animus which coloured all the evidence.'</p> + +<p>Mrs. Delf was next called. 'Her name was Mary Anne Delf; she had no call +to be ashamed of it, and was the wife of the landlord of the "Diggers' +Rest." Know that gentleman?' pointing to Lance. 'Well, he always stayed +at her house. Dined there with Mr. Stirling, Mr. Ross (of Bundalong +Station), and Mr. Polwarth, on Thursday, the 19th of September last. +Remembered the day particular, because there had been a wash-up at +"Number Six" the day before, and they had sold the gold to the bank, and +had it weighed and settled up for.</p> + +<p>'Was she a friend of Mr. Trevanion's? Yes; and she was proud to say so. +It was a pity all his friends weren't as straight, though she said it +herself. But he was as innocent of all this duffing racket as Tottie +Polwarth there.'</p> + +<p>Here poor Tottie, hearing her name, turned her eyes away from the dock, +where they had been resting sadly for a long time, and said audibly—</p> + +<p>'Isn't Lance coming, mammy?'</p> + +<p>This pathetic appeal, joined to a solitary glance from the prisoner, +proved too much for Mrs. Polwarth's self-possession, and, seizing Tottie +by the hand, she hurried from the court. Upon which Mrs. Delf, though +unused to the melting mood, had recourse to her handkerchief, and sobbed +aloud, as did various like-minded female sympathisers.</p> + +<p>'Have you any other witnesses to call for the defence?' said the police +magistrate, addressing Mr. England, as who should say, the case has +lasted long enough.</p> + +<p>'But one, your worship, but one. Call Esther Lawless.'</p> + +<p>Again the densely packed assemblage was visibly moved. Here was another +of those Lawless girls; and what evidence was she going to give? Surely +an <i>alibi</i> had been fully proved in Trevanion's favour already. What +could shatter the evidence of Mr. Stirling and Polwarth, Mrs. Delf and +Mrs. Polwarth? However, here she comes.</p> + +<p>Tessie Lawless had not been so prominently before the public of +Growlers' as her cousin Kate, but, none the less, from the extreme +rarity of young and good-looking women at the earlier diggings, had she +been an object of curiosity and admiration. Hence she was well known by +sight and reputation, and her appearance in court was consequently of +the nature of a romantic incident.</p> + +<p>'Your name is Esther Lawless, and you were residing with your cousins, +at Growlers', recently,' began Mr. England, with the suave deferential +manner by which counsel are won't to placate the feminine witness, +'where you knew the prisoner, Lance Trevanion?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, certainly, I know Mr. Trevanion. He was often at our camp.'</p> + +<p>'He was on friendly terms with all of you?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; too much so for his own good.'</p> + +<p>'Why do you say that, Miss Lawless?'</p> + +<p>'Because my cousin Edward was not honest in his dealings, and I thought +Mr. Trevanion might be drawn in, unwarily, as he has been, I am sorry to +say.'</p> + +<p>'Can you say anything as to the purchase of the bay H. J. horse, stated +to have been stolen from Mr. Herbert Jeffreys?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; I wrote out the receipt which Edward gave Mr. Trevanion when he +bought the horse for fifty pounds from him. He was then described as +purchased from Henry Jones, of Black Dog Creek.'</p> + +<p>'How did you come to write the receipt in your cousin's presence?'</p> + +<p>Here the witness paused for an instant, as if hesitating what to answer. +Then she said, 'I was always in the habit of doing any writing that was +necessary.'</p> + +<p>'But why? for what reason?' persisted Mr. England.</p> + +<p>'<i>Because none of my cousins can read or write.</i>'</p> + +<p>As this announcement was made, evidently with reluctance, by the girl, +over whose ordinarily colourless countenance a flush rose as she spoke, +all eyes were turned towards Kate Lawless, who was sitting upon a bench +reserved for witnesses, and afterwards in the direction of Ned. The +latter celebrity smiled faintly, as if the higher education thus implied +was comparatively unimportant. But on his sister the effect of the +disclosure was widely different.</p> + +<p>She turned her face quickly, and, as she did so, her eyes +sparkled and her set lips expressed—if not anger, malice, and all +uncharitableness—at least a far from benevolent intention towards the +speaker. Making as if to rise, but repressing herself with a strong +effort, she assumed a scornful attitude, as if prepared to listen with +resignation.</p> + +<p>'Do you remember any conversation with reference to the horse?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; Mr. Trevanion asked where Henry Jones lived, and whether he had +any more horses of the same breed. Ned answered that he lived at Monaro, +and that he would have some more to sell when he bought his next draught +from him.'</p> + +<p>'You believe, then, that Trevanion had no idea that the horse was +stolen?'</p> + +<p>'No more than you had. He said over and over again that he must get +another or two from Jones.'</p> + +<p>'Now, Miss Lawless, you need not answer this question unless you like. +<i>Did you know</i> that the horse was stolen?'</p> + +<p>'No, I did not, or I would have warned Mr. Trevanion. I may have doubted +whether everything was quite square about him; but I never thought for a +moment that he was stolen.'</p> + +<p>'May I ask you, also, what reason you were likely to have for warning +Mr. Trevanion?'</p> + +<p>'Merely that I had a friendly feeling for him, and did not wish to see +him taken in.'</p> + +<p>'A very good reason, too. Now there has been evidence to the effect that +Mr. Trevanion admired your cousin Kate; that he paid her a good deal of +attention?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; no doubt he did.'</p> + +<p>'You must excuse my asking you, but it is necessary to come to a correct +understanding; was there any rivalry or jealous feeling between you?'</p> + +<p>'Not the slightest. He was polite—he couldn't be otherwise; but he +never cared two straws about me, or any one but Kate, though I was his +real friend; but he never knew it.'</p> + +<p>'Was there not a letter from Kate Lawless sent by your hand to him, +after she had left for Balooka?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; but she had to get some one to write it for her. I had a great +mind not to deliver it. I wish now that I never had, and all this might +have been saved.'</p> + +<p>'That will do, Miss Esther. Stay—one more question. You had never, of +course, seen Mr. Trevanion in company with your cousins before you came +to Ballarat?'</p> + +<p>It occasionally happens that an advocate, in putting a question which he +believes to be perfectly innocuous, makes some fatal mistake which +damages the whole of his previous evidence. The witness changed colour, +and hesitated, then appeared to wish to avoid answering the question.</p> + +<p>Mr. England divined the situation. 'It's of no consequence. The witness +is not strong. You can go down, Miss Lawless.'</p> + +<p>But it was too late. Dayrell was not the man to overlook a false move. +'I request that the witness's answer may be taken.'</p> + +<p>'As the question has been asked, Mr. England, I think it should be +answered,' said the magistrate. 'I will put it myself from the Bench.'</p> + +<p>'Have you at any time, witness, seen the prisoner Trevanion in company +with your cousins, before the family came to Ballarat?'</p> + +<p>Esther Lawless stood erect as she fixed her eye with a troubled gaze +upon Mr. M'Alpine's countenance.</p> + +<p>'Must I answer this question, your worship?' said she; 'is it necessary +in the case?'</p> + +<p>'I think you had better,' said he, not unkindly. 'I am sure you will +tell the truth.'</p> + +<p>'I would not swear falsely to save my own life,' said the girl, in a low +but distinct voice. 'I can only speak the truth while I stand here. I +<i>did</i> see him riding with Ned one day before we left the Eumeralla.'</p> + +<p>At this admission, which apparently astonished the greater number of the +spectators as much as it did Mr. England and the magistrate, both +prisoners turned their faces towards the witness with undisguised +surprise. On the countenance of Lance Trevanion there suddenly arose a +look of complete bewilderment. Abandoning his pose of scornful +indifference, he beckoned hastily to Mr. England, who came over to the +dock. After a whispered colloquy, he again addressed the witness.</p> + +<p>'I do not wish in any way to lead you, or to induce you to alter any +part of your evidence which you feel certain of, but I entreat you, as +you value the liberty, perhaps the life of an innocent man, to +reconsider your last answer. I will repeat my question. Are you +prepared, upon your oath, to state that you ever saw the accused, Mr. +Trevanion, in company with your cousin before you left New South Wales +to come to Ballarat?'</p> + +<p>The witness looked upward for a moment and clasped her hands. She +shuddered, and essayed in vain to reply, but finally with recovered +firmness of mien said, 'I wish it were not so, but I cannot be mistaken. +I saw him once certainly, and I believe once again, but I did see him +once, if I can believe my eyes, near Eumeralla.'</p> + +<p>A keen observer who had watched Kate Lawless's countenance might have +marvelled at the mysterious smile which stole over her features at that +moment, might have noted also a look of conscious triumph mingled with +sudden wonder. For an instant, as she glanced towards the dock, her eyes +sought out those of her brother; they met hers with one swiftest glance +of sudden meaning.</p> + +<p>On Lance Trevanion's countenance a despair sombre and terrible commenced +to settle. His attitude expressed utter hopelessness, the deepest +disappointment. When Esther Lawless, after a sudden burst of tears, was +permitted to leave the court, he did not raise his head. Mr. England +made one of the brilliantly exhaustive speeches which had opened the +prison gates to so many enterprising or unlucky personages. The court +was charmed, captivated, convinced, by the overpowering rush and flow of +his persuasive eloquence.</p> + +<p>But Lance neither stirred nor looked up. The presentiment was about to +be fulfilled. He was prepared for the worst.</p> + +<p>The case was closed. Then. Mr. M'Alpine gave his decision—</p> + +<p>'He had heard that day some of the most extraordinary and contradictory +evidence that in his varied experience he had ever listened to. In view +of the prisoner's high character and independent position, attested by +so many witnesses, he had been on the point of discharging him, but, +after hearing the witness's last answer, which amounted to an admission +that the prisoner had been an associate of the Lawless family, even +before they had migrated to Ballarat, he could not entertain a doubt as +to a committal. It was incontestably a case for a jury. It was for them +to decide as to the credibility of opposing witnesses.'</p> + +<p>Then came the concluding formula, after which the prisoner was asked if +he desired to say anything.</p> + +<p>'Only this,' said the erstwhile proud scion of an ancient race, +stainless in honour, flawless in blood, of whom he alone—oh, hard and +bitter fate!—had ever linked hands with disgrace! 'Only this: that I am +as innocent of all thoughts of wrong or dishonesty to any man as my +mate's little child. I never knew or thought that the horse was other +than honestly come by. I have been deceived—by man and woman both. But +the knowledge has come too late. The witness Catharine Lawless has lied +foully. The other witnesses, particularly Esther Lawless—who is good +and truthful—have been deceived by the resemblance borne to me by +another person. I never was at Balooka before, and never in my life saw +the Eumeralla district—never heard the name even! I protest my +innocence of this and all other charges. I can say no more.'</p> + +<p>Mr. M'Alpine paused in thought for a while—an unusual course with +him—then, amid the almost unnatural silence of the court, he said: 'I +feel compelled to send the case for trial. Launcelot Trevanion, you +stand committed to take your trial at the next ensuing Quarter Sessions, +to be holden at Ballarat, on a day to be named. Bail refused. Sergeant +Dayrell, call up the witnesses to be bound over to appear.</p> + +<p>'This court stands adjourned.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + + +<p>Bail having been refused, presumably at the instance of the police—who, +in cases where there is probability of the prisoner levanting or of +arrangements being made to defeat the ends of justice, are entitled to +object—there remained no course but that Lance Trevanion should be +re-committed to gaol. Ned Lawless was also detained for safe keeping, +the same reasons operating even with greater force in his case. This was +the third time that Lance had been brought forth to stand before a +gaping crowd—the third time that he had been transferred to the grim +precincts of a prison and heard the massive iron gates clang behind him.</p> + +<p>'I begin to feel,' he said bitterly to Stirling, 'almost like an +habitual criminal. If there is a God that judgeth the earth, as they +used to tell us in old days, why am I permitted to be thus degraded, +falsely accused, and unjustly imprisoned?'</p> + +<p>It was in this period of trial and sore need that Lance discovered the +nature of friendship. Genial acquaintances and friendly-seeming +personages he had encountered by the hundred. These were now for the +most part too busy or indifferent to visit him in his affliction. +Charles Stirling, however, in spite of his onerous and responsible +duties, lost no opportunity of aid or service. Sometimes he rode half +the night in order to get back to his work in proper time after visiting +the captive and comforting him as best he could. He petitioned the +Governor-in-Council, drafting and procuring signatures to a memorial +setting forth Lance's hard case and praying that he might be released on +bail. He addressed members of the Bench, and essayed to persuade them to +act independently, offering to find bail to any amount and lodge the +money. Hastings and Jack Polwarth canvassed their fellow-miners. The +newspaper press was invoked. But all in vain. The time was in-opportune. +So many horses had been stolen that a strong popular prejudice had +arisen; justice demanded a victim. A reactionary sentiment commenced to +prevail. It was openly stated that because Trevanion, of Number Six, was +a 'swell' and had dropped into a lucky claim, that was no reason why he +should be let off more than a poor man.</p> + +<p>Wild and unsettled were the times too—those years early in 'the +fifties.' Martial law was thought necessary for the holding in check of +an army of untamed spirits. A close discriminating adherence to legal +form could hardly be attained. The upshot of it all was that, to the +disgust and despair of Hastings and Jack Polwarth, who had hoped against +hope, all their efforts were vain, and Lance was compelled to resign +himself as best he might to his enforced and protracted <i>duresse</i>.</p> + +<p>Before leaving for Melbourne Mr. England had indeed almost guaranteed +that he only needed to be placed on his trial to be acquitted, asserting +that no jury in the colony could possibly find him guilty upon the +evidence brought before the Bench; that a committal was very different +from a conviction; that some magistrates made a point of committing for +trial all prisoners brought before them so as to escape responsibility; +that Mr. M'Alpine had a habit of acting in that way; that he (John +George England) would take the shortest odds that the jury acquitted +Lance without leaving the box.</p> + +<p>How the weeks dragged on! Autumn was fast changing into winter when the +Quarter Sessions were held. Lance had expected to have been in Melbourne +about the time. Only to think of it! And had he not paltered with his +duty and his solemn promise might he not have been in England now, +seeing the yearly miracle of the spring transformation in that favoured +clime and hearing the surges beat against the frowning headlands of +Tintagel? Madness was in his thoughts. Why did he not dash his brains +out against his prison walls and so end the hideous burlesque upon truth +and justice, honour and common honesty even? Why had he not courage to +do so? No—it would become his father's son to die in ways and fashions +many and varied; but within gaol walls! No! a thousand times, no! That +would be a doom impossible for a Trevanion of Wychwood.</p> + +<p>From time to time he had gleams of hope—this miserable captive so +unused to fetter and thrall. It <i>could</i> not be. It should not be. The +eternal justice of heaven would be falsified were this wrong to befall +him. The words of prayer that he had lisped in childhood—the Bible +lessons to so many of which he had hearkened in the old Norman Church at +Wychwood—what would all these be but hollow cheats and ghastly +mockeries were he to be found guilty? It was a simple impossibility. He +had now but to wait—to eat out his heart for one other week, and +then—oh! joy unspeakable! he would be free—free! A free man—not a +prisoner! Did he ever imagine that he would attach such a meaning to the +word freedom? It mattered not. Let him but once set foot outside this +dismal gaol wall. Again he saw himself on the back of a good horse, or +at the claim with good old Jack Polwarth and his wife and Tottie—poor +dear Tottie! But here he could no longer follow out the chain of +probabilities. His eyes filled with tears, and the once-proud Lance +Trevanion, lowered in spirit and strength by confinement and meagre +diet, threw himself upon his miserable pallet and sobbed like a child.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The 'next ensuing Court of Quarter Sessions,' to which Lance Trevanion +had been committed for trial, was formally opened at Ballarat on a +certain Wednesday at ten of the clock. The sheriff was in attendance, +with bailiff and minor officials, and also various barristers, including +Mr. England. An unusual number of police appeared on the scene, +including the superintendent of the district—a very high personage +indeed. All were in full uniform, while conspicuous among them stood +Sergeant Dayrell, calm and impassive as usual, though a close observer +might have noticed an occasional sign of impatience.</p> + +<p>When the doors of the court-house were opened a rush took place which +filled the building so completely that many were excluded and compelled +to remain outside, trusting to occasional reports of the exciting +matters within. The judge in his robes, attended by the sheriff, took +his seat upon the bench punctually at the appointed time. And once more +Lance Trevanion and his fellow-prisoner Ned Lawless were brought forth +to serve as a spectacle to a wondering or sympathetic crowd, as the case +might be.</p> + +<p>The Crown prosecutor, in opening the case, alluded to 'the prevalence of +a system of horse-stealing, now become so notorious; if unchecked it +might lead to the gravest results. The jury would have an opportunity of +hearing the evidence in detail, from which they would of course form +their judgment. But they must not lose sight of the fact that the +prisoners had been caught "red-handed," if he might use the expression. +They were actually in possession of a large number of stolen horses, +many of which were of great value. Some had since been identified by +their owners, who were chiefly miners and working-men connected with the +diggings. He had no desire, he might assure them, to prejudice their +minds in any way; he would merely furnish his evidence for the Crown as +he was bound to do, and trust to the intelligent jury he saw before him +to do their duty without fear or favour. It was a painful sight to him, +as it doubtless was to them, to see two such fine specimens of early +manhood arraigned for so serious an offence. But no consideration of +that sort must be suffered to influence their minds. He would not detain +them longer, but would call the first witness.'</p> + +<p>As in all trials, the same witnesses as on the preliminary examinations +were heard, the difference being that no written depositions were taken, +the judge only recording in his notes the evidence with care and +exactness. Mr. England cross-examined the witnesses with increased +rigour and more searching scrutiny. Every fact or fiction in their +previous history which could tend to weaken or discredit their testimony +in the eyes of the jury was fully ventilated. Every motive which could +possibly colour this testimony against the prisoners was suggested or +exposed.</p> + +<p>Sergeant Dayrell's evidence was unsparingly criticised. To his calm and +carefully worded statements, studiously colourless, but little exception +could be taken. Still, more than one <i>historiette</i> had been elicited +from the distant part of the colony where he once was stationed which +tended to establish his reputation for unscrupulousness, for desire for +conviction at all risks. He was forced to acknowledge that he had been +the apprehending constable in a well-known stock case near the New South +Wales border, as well as to admit that his zeal on that occasion being +in conflict with the law, had caused the committing magistrate to be +mulcted in heavy costs and damages. These and other facts being +mercilessly dragged forth somewhat detracted from the value of his +evidence.</p> + +<p>Then Catharine Lawless was once more called. Again it seemed that the +spectators, as upon the appearance on the stage of a favourite actress, +awoke to more than common excitement and intensity of interest. All eyes +were upon her as she walked composedly up to the witness-box. Dressed +quietly but in perfect taste as before, there was so much grace and +freedom about the girl's every movement—such self-possession in her +bearing—that she looked superior to her surroundings.</p> + +<p>She was evidently on her guard against such a display of emotion or +merely feminine weakness as had occurred at the first trial. Calmly and +imperturbably she gave her evidence, and as before deposed to having +seen Lance Trevanion in the companionship of her brother at Eumeralla, +and also at Balooka long before the day of arrest.</p> + +<p>If there be any force in the modern doctrines of the projection of nerve +force—of the subtle relation between the mesmeric will power and the +object of its current—then, as for one moment she turned towards the +dock and confronted the lurid light that blazed in Lance Trevanion's +haughty and contemptuous regard, she should have trembled and fallen to +the earth.</p> + +<p>But no such effect followed. She gazed back for an instant with a glance +fierce and tameless as his own, then coldly averted her face as she +repeated her lesson, as Mr. England vehemently characterised her +statement.</p> + +<p>'Then you still persist, Catharine Lawless,' said that gentleman, +turning with unchivalrous suddenness upon his fair antagonist, 'you +persist in declaring that you saw Lance Trevanion both at Balooka and +Eumeralla on the date you have stated?'</p> + +<p>'I have sworn I did see him,' she replied, while a shade of sullenness +commenced to overspread her countenance.</p> + +<p>'If these witnesses, Mr. Stirling, Mrs. Delf, Mrs. Polwarth and her +husband, besides several others, have sworn that they saw him at +Growlers' at a date which makes it absolutely impossible that he could +have been within a hundred miles of the localities you mention, is that +true or false?'</p> + +<p>'I don't care what they swear, I have told the truth.'</p> + +<p>'That is what they have sworn. Now, you know Mr. Stirling, Mrs. Delf, +Jack Polwarth, and the rest, don't you?'</p> + +<p>'Well, yes, I have seen them.'</p> + +<p>'Do you think they are people likely to swear to an untruth?'</p> + +<p>'I can't say. What I said was the truth.'</p> + +<p>'And what they say—false!'</p> + +<p>'I suppose so.'</p> + +<p>As before, she was the last witness for the Crown. When her evidence was +completed, she faced Mr. England, with one indignant, half-revengeful +expression on her face, then walked slowly, and with coolest composure, +from the court.</p> + +<p>When the case for the Crown had come to an end Mr. England in an +impressive speech 'put it to his Honour whether it was really necessary +to waste the time of the court by calling witnesses for the defence. The +other prisoner—the only accused, properly so called—had already +pleaded guilty. Was it not patent to his Honour, to the jury, to every +one in court, that this Edward Lawless—he desired to speak of him with +no undue harshness—was the real and only criminal. His client had no +doubt been highly imprudent in keeping company with such dangerous +associates as the Lawlesses, male and female, had proved themselves to +be, but he would ask his Honour, as a man of the world, Who amongst us, +in the heedless days of youth—careless of consequences, and +unsuspicious of guile—had not done likewise? Were people to be treated +as criminals—branded as felons—merely for socially encountering +persons afterwards guilty of felony? What a Star Chamber business would +this be in a British Colony!—where, thank God, every man was under the +ægis of the common law of the realm. His client, unfortunate in that +degree, had merely been a spectator, a looker-on. As to the H. J. horse, +he was as ignorant of all guilty knowledge as himself or his Honour; was +it not the wildest flight of absurdity to imagine for one moment that a +man with twenty thousand pounds to his credit in the bank would be +likely to receive—knowing him to be stolen—a fifty-pound horse? The +thing was absurd—so absurd that he would once more put it to his Honour +whether the farce should not be ended by at once asking the jury for +their verdict, which they would, he was confident, give without leaving +the box.'</p> + +<p>The judge 'felt the force of much that had been so ably presented in +favour of his client, but, with every wish to afford the prisoner +facilities for his defence, he was compelled to decline the application +of counsel. He would prefer to hear the witnesses for the defence before +summing up and addressing the jury.'</p> + +<p>Mr. England bit his lip, but he 'bowed, of course, to his Honour's +ruling,' and proceeded to call his witnesses.</p> + +<p>Then commenced the deeper interest of the performance. Every spectator +appeared to listen with concentrated attention. Not a syllable escaped +attention. Not a sound arose from the dense and closely packed crowd.</p> + +<p>All the former witnesses were called. Each in his turn gave evidence +which appeared to be so conclusively in favour of the prisoner that +every one in court thought with Mr. England that the jury would never +leave the box. Mr. Stirling, Jack Polwarth, Mrs. Delf, all testified to +the effect that Lance Trevanion had quitted Growlers' on that particular +day, Friday, the 20th September, for Balooka. When asked whether it was +possible for the prisoner, Trevanion, to have been seen at Balooka +shortly before the date named, they, with one accord, declared it to be +impossible. He had been seen every day by one or other for months +before. As to his being a couple of hundred miles off, it was absolutely +false and incredible. In addition to the witnesses heard previously, two +miners named Dickson and Judd were called, who swore positively that +they had seen the prisoner, Trevanion, on Friday, 20th September, near +'Growlers',' evidently commencing a journey to the eastward. He had a +valise strapped before his saddle, and was going along the mountain +road.</p> + +<p>'Would it lead to Balooka?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; that was the way to Balooka. One of them had been there, and a +rough shop it was. They were quite positive as to his identity.'</p> + +<p>'He was a noticeable chap, and the horse he rode wasn't a commoner +either. Any man with eyes in his head would know the pair of 'em +anywhere, let alone chaps as had worked the next claim but one to him +and Jack Polwarth.'</p> + +<p>Asked whether they were quite certain that they had met the prisoner on +the day stated by them, or whether they thought it might have been the +day before.</p> + +<p>'It was that very Saturday morning, and no other. They were as sure of +it as of their own lives. If men couldn't be sure of that they could not +be sure of anything.'</p> + +<p>Of course they knew Lance Trevanion well?</p> + +<p>'Yes, very well, by sight. Not that they had often spoken to him. He was +a gentleman, a big man in his own country, they heard tell. He kept +himself a deal to himself, except in regard to the Lawless family, and +he would have done well to have let them alone too.'</p> + +<p>Tessie Lawless, when called upon, moved towards the witness-box with a +much less assumed step than her cousin. She also turned her head towards +the dock. Those who watched her saw her face soften and change like that +of a woman who suddenly beholds a suffering child. As she scanned the +pallid and drawn features of Lance Trevanion, upon which anger and +despair, consuming anxiety and darkling doubt had written their +characters indelibly, it seemed as though she must force her way to him +and weep out her heart in bitter grief that he should be in such ignoble +toils.</p> + +<p>Then she braced herself for the effort and stood before the judge. The +statement which she made was almost identical with that on a former +occasion. A very good impression on the jury was evidently made by her +candour and earnestness.</p> + +<p>As she answered firmly yet modestly each question put to her by Mr. +England, the judge was observed to listen with close attention and the +jury to be unusually interested. Mr. England, scanning their faces with +practised readiness, saw in imagination their short retirement and a +unanimous verdict of 'not guilty' proceeding from the lips of the +foreman. Then, as he approached the critical period of the question +which had been so unlucky in its effects during the preliminary +examination, he felt as nearly nervous as a man of his proverbial +courage and varied experience could be. He was more than half disposed +to omit the question altogether; how he hated himself for having been +fool enough to put it in the first instance.</p> + +<p>'I don't think I need trouble the witness with any other questions, your +Honour,' he said tentatively; but here Dayrell rose and evidently +prepared himself to interpose. With lightning quickness Mr. England +decided to put the question in his own form and fashion, rather than +leave it to the enemy.</p> + +<p>'One minute, Miss Esther,' he said, as if the idea had just occurred to +him. 'I think you said that you were uncertain, or could not quite +recall, whether you had ever seen the accused Lance Trevanion before you +left the Eumeralla to come to Ballarat?'</p> + +<p>This he said with a smilingly suggestive air which would have given the +cue to an ordinary witness less imbued with a sense of unfaltering right +than Tessie Lawless. But as the girl's clear brown eyes searched his +face with a troubled expression, he comprehended that there was no hope +of evasion, that he had got hold of one of those impracticable witnesses +who really do speak 'the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' to the +consternation of lawyers and the disaster of defendants.</p> + +<p>'I said that I <i>had</i> seen him before, at the Eumeralla,' she said +simply, 'I can't swear anything else. I <i>did</i> see him, and it was a bad +day for him—and—and for me too,' she added.</p> + +<p>'Now think again, Miss Esther. Reflect that your answer to my question +is perhaps more important than any one you ever made in your life. How +can you account for Trevanion being so far from Ballarat? What business +had he there, and why should he leave Growlers' Gully, to which he came +from the ship, as I can prove?'</p> + +<p>The girl looked again at the dock and those who stood therein—at Ned +Lawless, who lounged good-natured as ever, and smiling to all +appearance; at Lance, who stood erect, darkly frowning and with a fixed +stern expression, as of one who should never smile more.</p> + +<p>'It will break my heart,' she said, 'but I must speak the truth while I +stand here. I <i>did</i> see him on the Eumeralla, before we left home for +Ballarat, one day with Ned.'</p> + +<p>'I must ask again whether there is any possibility of your being +mistaken in the identity of the accused?' persisted Mr. England. 'You +have heard doubtless of men being so wonderfully alike that strangers +could not in many cases discover the difference?'</p> + +<p>'Just stand down for an instant. With his Honour's permission I will +recall the witness John Polwarth.'</p> + +<p>'You are recalled upon your former oath, Mr. Polwarth. I wish to ask you +whether you ever saw an individual most strangely resembling Trevanion? +If so, when and where?'</p> + +<p>'Yes—sartain,' replied John, looking pityingly upon Lance as he stood +in the cage, as Jack afterwards designated it. 'There was a chap as +called hisself Trevenna—Lawrence Trevenna—as coomed oot in ship with +us, and was as like the master here as he'd been his twin.'</p> + +<p>'Was the likeness really astonishing?'</p> + +<p>''Stonishin'! I believe you. It was the most surprisin' likeness ever I +seed, and so the missus'll tell you besides.'</p> + +<p>'Well, what became of him?'</p> + +<p>'Nivir heerd tale or tidings of him since he left the ship. Wasn't sorry +for that either. He was that bad-tempered and fond of card-playing that +I couldn't bear to have him in the same mess with me and the missus.'</p> + +<p>Mrs. Polwarth, also recalled, gave similar evidence with considerable +spirit, and hoped that some of the witnesses heard to-day might have +some good cause to know the individual as she meant. 'He was death on +playing cards, and that fond of money that he wouldn't leave off when he +lost. He was the worst-tempered man in the ship.'</p> + +<p>'That will do, Mrs. Polwarth. You may go and sit in the court with your +husband. Now, Miss Lawless, you have heard what these two most +respectable witnesses have sworn to. Are you still certain and positive +in your own mind that you saw Lance Trevanion <i>himself</i> on the flats of +the Eumeralla, or did not rather fall in with Trevenna, who seems born +for the special purpose of complicating this most involved and unhappy +case?'</p> + +<p>A look of relief and sudden satisfaction passed over the girl's face as +she answered, 'I do now feel in doubt. Oh! I will not swear positively. +I never dreamed that there was any one so like Mr. Trevanion.'</p> + +<p>'Then,' pursued Mr. England, 'having now become aware that there is an +individual so strikingly like Lance Trevanion that a stranger could +hardly know them apart, are you desirous to correct your former +evidence, given in ignorance of the fact, by now declaring on your oath +that you are unable to identify the man you saw with the prisoner, +Trevanion?'</p> + +<p>The light came back to the witness's eyes, and even a faint colour rose +to her cheeks as she answered firmly, almost joyfully, 'I believe in my +heart that it must have been Trevenna that I saw. I cannot swear now +that I saw Mr. Trevanion.'</p> + +<p>A faint murmur of approval arose in the court, which was promptly +suppressed as the Crown Prosecutor rose.</p> + +<p>'I do not wish, your Honour, in any way to impugn this witness's +testimony. She has every desire, I feel convinced, to speak the truth. +But I wish to ask her whether of <i>her own knowledge</i> she is aware that +such a person as Lawrence Trevenna exists?'</p> + +<p>'I have just heard two people swear to it,' the girl replied hastily, as +if fearful that this welcome solution of a dreadful doubt should be +taken from her. 'What more do I need?'</p> + +<p>'Just so. But you must perceive that in the event—improbable, I admit, +but possible—that these witnesses were mistaken or misleading, you have +no knowledge of your own to fall back upon?'</p> + +<p>'If I could only see them both together,' pleaded poor Tessie ruefully, +'I am sure I could pick out the one I saw at Eumeralla.'</p> + +<p>'I am afraid there is no chance of that,' said the barrister, 'unless +Sergeant Dayrell can produce him.'</p> + +<p>'Perhaps it would be convenient,' answered Dayrell, in the most coldly +incredulous tones, 'if I could produce a counterpart of the prisoner, +Lawless, at the same time. I do not wish to distress the last witness, +but one would be quite as easy as the other.'</p> + +<p>The girl faced round, as his clear but slightly raised voice sounded +through the court, and looked full at him, with scorn and indignation in +every line of her countenance.</p> + +<p>'I thought better of you, Francis Dayrell,' she said. 'You are acting a +falsehood, and you know it.'</p> + +<p>Dayrell's lips moved slightly, but no sound came from them for a moment. +He bowed with an affectation of extreme courtesy before addressing the +Bench.</p> + +<p>'Your Honour, I claim protection against such an imputation. But I make +great allowance for the witness, whose relation to the prisoners excuses +much.'</p> + +<p>His Honour was understood to reprove the witness mildly but +impressively, and to express a hope that she would abstain from all +aggressive remarks in future.</p> + +<p>Tessie's evidence being concluded, the Crown Prosecutor proceeded to +address the jury, pointing out what, in his opinion, were the salient +points of the case as brought out in evidence.</p> + +<p>'In the first place, they would remark that large numbers of horses had +been and were at that very time being systematically stolen from the +miners. There existed no doubt, in the minds of persons capable of +forming an opinion on such matters, that a well-organised and +widely-spread association had been formed, by means of which horses +stolen in one colony were driven by unfrequented routes to another, for +the purpose of sale. It was not as if an occasional animal here and +there had been taken. That offence, criminal in itself, doubtless, +deserved some punishment. But, considering the great value of horses at +the diggings, their almost vital importance in the ordinary course of +mining industry, and the difficulty of following up and punishing +marauders without ruinous loss of time and expense, he was there to tell +the jury that a greater wrong, a more flagrant injustice, could not be +inflicted on any mining community.</p> + +<p>'With regard to the prisoners arrested and arraigned together, one had +pleaded guilty and the other had denied all knowledge—all criminal +knowledge—of the fact that the horse he was riding when arrested had +been stolen. There had been evidence given that day before them which +directly pointed to the prisoner Trevanion's general association with +the Lawlesses, such evidence as, if believed by them, must lead to the +conclusion that the mode of procuring and disposing of the large number +of horses found in the elder Lawless's possession was not unknown to +him.</p> + +<p>'On the other hand, there had not been wanting evidence most favourable +to the prisoner, Trevanion; favourable in its purport, and entitled to +respect on account of the character and position of the witnesses. It +was their province to pronounce upon the credibility of the witnesses. +He would not detain them longer. They were the judges of fact. His +Honour would in his charge direct them as to the law of the case.'</p> + +<p>Then Mr. England arose, threw back his gown as if preparing for action +in another arena, and faced the jury with an air of confident valour.</p> + +<p>'His learned friend, the Crown Prosecutor, had most properly confined +himself to a bare statement of facts—if facts they could be called. In +the whole of his experience of alleged criminal cases it had never been +his good fortune to be connected with a defence, the conduct of which +was so childishly clear, the outcome of which was so ridiculously easy +of solution. Putting aside for the present the utter want of all +reasonable motive for the commission of a felony—the perpetration of a +crime by a man of good fame, family, and fortune—this extraordinary +purposeless deed, for which only the wildest condition of insanity could +account, he would briefly run over the evidence for the defence.</p> + +<p>'First, as to the character of the prisoner's witnesses, shame was it, +and sorrow as well, that he should have to refer to this unfortunate +gentleman—he would repeat the word—by such a designation. The jury +would note, giving the case that attention which was its due, that every +witness for the defence was a person of unblemished character. Beginning +with Mr. Stirling—their tried and trusted friend—what man within a +hundred miles of Ballarat would doubt his word, not to speak of his +solemn oath! Then, John Polwarth and his wife—the former a hard-working +legitimate miner, one of a class that the country was proud of, and +whose industry was rapidly lifting it to a lofty position among the +nations. His fond and faithful wife. Charles Edward Hastings, a man of +birth and culture, yet, like the majority of this population, an +earnest, efficient toiler. Then their respected friend and benefactress, +Mrs. Delf. He should like to see any one look into that lady's face and +doubt her word. The two wages-men from the Hand-in-Hand claim, men who +had no earthly interest but of upholding the truth; and last, but by no +means the least in weight of testimony, Miss Esther Lawless—the witness +of truth, even against her own sympathies, as any child could see.</p> + +<p>'So much for the character of our witnesses and their reliability. Then +as to the agreement of this testimony. Examined separately and without +suspicion of collusion, what had been their evidence, differing only +with those shades of discrepancy which before all practised tribunals +absolved them from any hint of tutoring? Why, it amounted to triumphant +proof beyond all question or challenge, that on Thursday, the 19th of +September, Launcelot Trevanion was at the Joint-Stock Bank at Growlers' +Gully, and that he could not have started on his journey to Balooka +earlier than Friday, 20th, the day he was asserted to have been seen +there. He held this important position to be proved, so much so that he +should not again perhaps refer to it.</p> + +<p>'Having thus briefly, but he hoped clearly, presented to them the +overwhelming weight of evidence, amounting to one of the most convincing +<i>alibis</i> ever proved before a court, he should pass on to the evidence +for the Crown. There was an absence of direct proof, but he hesitated +not to impugn the <i>bona fides</i> of Sergeant Dayrell and Catharine +Lawless. He owned to regarding it with considerable suspicion. He +implored the jury, as they valued their oaths, to scrutinise this part +of the case most heedfully. What the motives of these witnesses might be +he was not prepared to assert, but as men of the world they would +probably form their own opinion. Catharine Lawless had admittedly been +on friendly, more than friendly terms with the accused, why had she so +completely turned round and given damaging evidence against him? In the +history of light o' loves of this nature were found fatal enmities, and +hardly less fatal friendships; was it not probable that jealousy, "cruel +as the grave," was the motive power in this otherwise inconsequential +action? Cool and high-couraged as this witness had shown herself, he +could not avoid noticing signs of discomposure which pointed to +unnatural feelings and untruthful statements. Was there then some +relentless vengeance in the background, the secret of which was known +only to the Lawless family and Sergeant Dayrell, to be wreaked upon this +unfortunate victim of treachery? He was betrayed alike in love and in +friendship, in business and in pleasure. This conspiracy, he could call +it by no lighter name, was no accidental affair, but a carefully +planned, cold-blooded, and deliberate crime. In all trials involving +criminal action it was the habit of eminent judges to direct juries to +examine carefully the probability or otherwise of the prisoner's +<i>motive</i> for committing the offence charged against him. In this case no +motive could possibly be said to exist. Was it likely, as he had before +inquired of them, that a man with a fortune, a large fortune to his +credit in a bank, with a weekly income of most enviable magnitude, +increasing rather than diminishing, should lend himself to a paltry +theft, such as was alleged against him? It was as though the leading +country gentleman of a county in Britain should steal a donkey off a +common, if they would pardon him the vulgarity of the simile. Gentlemen +might smile, but was there anything to excite mirth in the haggard +features and melancholy mien of the unhappy young man whom they saw in +that dock? Let them imagine one of their own relatives placed in that +position by no fault of his own, and they could understand his feelings. +He would not for an instant urge them to act inconsistently with their +oath, but he implored them to avoid by their verdict that day the dread +and terrible responsibility of convicting an innocent man.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + + +<p>Then the judge, with a final glance at his notes, commenced to sum up on +the evidence. He stood singular among his fellow-jurists for plain and +unostentatious demeanour, both on and off the bench. In the matter of +outward attire he could not be accused of extravagance. A studied +plainness of habit distinguished him on all occasions. Careless, +moreover, as to the fit of his garments as of their colour or quality. +As a lawyer he was proverbially keen, clear-headed, and deeply read; but +he wasted no time upon his judgments, and never was known to 'improve +the occasion' by the stern or pathetic harangues in which his +fellow-judges, for the most part, enclosed their decisions—the wrapper +of the pill, so to speak. So rapid and decisive were his Honour's +findings that some of them had passed into household words. When he +arose from his seat, and after taking a short walk along the judicial +dais, as if in mental conflict, resumed his position, the spectators +knew that they would not have long to wait. '"Very honest man rides a +stolen horse," would have been the gist of my charge, gentlemen of the +jury,' he said; 'but this truly strange and complicated case demands the +closest examination. The evidence presents exceptional features. On one +side you have a young man of good character and means. His pecuniary +circumstances should have removed all temptation to commit the offence +charged. In a spirit of recklessness he associates with the Lawless +family. About their character—with the sole exception of Esther +Lawless—the less said the better. He buys from Edward Lawless a horse +proved to have been stolen—many an honest man during the turmoil of the +gold period has done the same. He has occasionally gambled for large +sums, which is highly imprudent, but not felony, in the eyes of the law. +The evidence for the defence proves fully—if believed—that he did not +leave Growlers' Gully for Balooka until the 19th of September—competent +witnesses swear positively to this fact. If you believe them, the case +is at an end. On the other hand, as many swear to his having been seen +at Balooka long before the day referred to, and also at Eumeralla, the +old home of the Lawlesses, some of these witnesses must be in error, as +the prisoner manifestly could not have been in two places at once. +Catharine Lawless had evidently an animus <i>spretae injuria formae</i>, he +felt inclined to say, which might be freely translated into a lover's +quarrel of some sort. As men of the world, the jury would largely +discount her evidence. A still more remarkable feature of this truly +remarkable case was that Esther Lawless—whose conscientious scruples +did her honour—testified also to having seen the prisoner at Eumeralla +in association with Edward Lawless. They had heard John Polwarth's +evidence, and his wife's, regarding a shipmate curiously like Trevanion. +Such similarities, though rare, were not unknown. There was a +possibility of mistaken identity. These points, as well as the +credibility of the witnesses, were for them to consider. They were the +judges of fact. But it was their especial duty to give the prisoner the +benefit of all reasonable doubt—a doubt which he should certainly share +with them if they brought in a verdict of <i>not guilty</i>.'</p> + +<p>When Mr. England heard the conclusion of the judge's charge, he scarcely +doubted for a moment that after a short retirement of the jury his +Honour's last words would be repeated by that responsible body. He +therefore sat down, and calling over Charles Stirling, imparted to him +confidentially his feeling on the subject. 'His Honour plainly and +unmistakably was with them, and had summed up dead in favour of +Trevanion. He was one of the best judges of the Victorian Bench, +clear-headed and decisive, detesting all mere verbiage. A man, a +gentleman, a sound lawyer—all these Judge Buckthorne was known to be. +Pity he could not borrow a little deportment from Sir Desmond, who had +enough and to spare.'</p> + +<p>Thus they talked while the business of the court went forward. Another +jury had been impanelled; another case called on; another prisoner had +been put in the dock and placed on the farther side with Ned Lawless. +They seemed to know each other. Lance cast upon him a brief, indifferent +glance, and resigned himself to silent endurance.</p> + +<p>With respect to the issue, Charles Stirling was by no means so confident +as his legal friend, veteran as he was, boasting the scars of a hundred +battles. But in his character of banker he had the opportunity of +hearing the general public, as represented by the 'legitimate miner,' +as he was fond of calling himself, which means every sort and condition +of mankind, anxious to compel fortune by the primeval process, but +wholly without capital to develop enterprises.</p> + +<p>Now the jury was chiefly composed of ordinary miners. Of these it so +happened that a large number had had their horses stolen. They were +valuable animals at that period, most difficult to replace, and the +owners, therefore, felt their loss acutely. They came to the trial with +a fixed and settled intention of striking a blow at horse-stealers, to +which end it was necessary that some one, they hardly cared who, should +suffer.</p> + +<p>They were determined that an example should be made. It would do good +and prevent others from being so immoral and short-sighted as to rob +honest miners.</p> + +<p>'This Trevanion,' they reasoned, 'had really been mixed up with the +Lawless crowd, and a worse lot, now it turned out, had never been seen +near Ballarat.'</p> + +<p>It was argued that the evidence went to show that he had been a known +friend and an intimate of the family at the place with the native name, +and had been seen there when horse-stealing on a large scale was being +carried on.</p> + +<p>'Kate Lawless swore point-blank to his having been away with her +brothers long before the Lawless crowd had come to Growlers'. Trooper +Donnellan had sworn to seeing him there. Hiram Edwards, the Yankee +digger, had seen him there, and other miners. They had no call to have a +down on him, even if Dayrell and the girl had.</p> + +<p>'Besides these, Tessie Lawless, who every one knew was a straight girl, +and wouldn't have said a word against him for the world if she could +have helped it—even <i>she</i> had to confess that she had seen him at +Eumeralla.'</p> + +<p>'What about this chap that was said to be the dead image of him?' asked +a younger juror. 'It was hard lines to be lagged innocent through +another cove's work.'</p> + +<p>'Well, they might believe that if they liked; it was put up, some +thought. Jack Polwarth and his wife, like all these Cousin Jacks, would +swear anything for a Cornishman. Mr. Stirling was a nice chap, but he +was a banker, and wasn't likely to go back on a man with a good account. +Mrs. Delf was a good sort, but Trevanion used her house regular and +spent his money free. They knew what that meant. His mind was made up. +If Ned Lawless, as was waiting for his sentence, was in it, Trevanion +was too. He must face the music. He'd be let off light, but it would be +a lesson to him. If they didn't shop some one over this racket there +wouldn't be a horse left on the field by Christmas.'</p> + +<p>At different times, and from different speakers, such was the general +tone and substance of the arguments advanced by the majority. The +minority defended their position, and from time to time denied that +sufficient evidence had been furnished to show guilty knowledge or +participation in crime on the part of the prisoner. But, after several +hours spent in debate, the minority yielded, disinclination to be locked +up all night lending force to the logic of their opponents.</p> + +<p>When the jury marched into court, after notice by the sheriff's officer +to the judge that they had agreed, a hush of anxious silence reigned +throughout the building. Lance stood up fearless and erect, as a soldier +faces the firing-party at his execution. Ned Lawless never changed his +position, but seemed as careless and unenvious as the youngest lad in +court.</p> + +<p>'How say you, gentlemen of the jury?' said the judge's associate, a very +young gentleman, with discretion, however, beyond his years. 'Do you +find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?'</p> + +<p>There was an air of solemnity pervading the jurors generally, from which +Mr. England at once deduced an adverse verdict. The women fastened their +eyes upon the foreman with eager expectation or painful anxiety; all +save Kate Lawless. For all her emotion displayed, expressed in her +countenance, the prisoners might have been Chinamen charged with +stealing cabbages.</p> + +<p>There was a slight pause, after which the foreman, a burly digger who +had been a 'forty-niner' in California, and had seen the first rush at +Turon, uttered the word 'Guilty!' The effect of the announcement was +electrical. A tumult seemed imminent. The great crowd swayed and surged +as if suddenly stirred to unwonted action. Groans mingled with hisses +were heard; women's cries and sobs, above which rose a girl's hysterical +shriek, thrilling and prolonged, temporarily in the ascendant. The deep +murmur of indignation seemed about to swell into riotous shouting, when +an additional force of police appeared at the outer entrance, by whom, +after vigorous expostulation, order was restored.</p> + +<p>The judge proceeded to pass sentence, contenting himself with telling +the jury that 'they had proved themselves scrupulous guardians of the +public welfare, and had not allowed themselves to be swayed by +considerations of mercy. Their grasp of the facts of the case was +doubtless most comprehensive. It was their verdict, not his. They had +accepted the sole responsibility. Launcelot Trevanion, the sentence of +the court is that you be imprisoned in Her Majesty's Gaol at Ballarat, +and kept to hard labour for the term of two years. Edward Lawless, the +sentence of the court is that you be imprisoned in Her Majesty's Gaol at +Pentridge, and kept to hard labour for the term of five years. Let the +prisoners be removed.'</p> + +<p>Then the disorder of the crowd, previously restrained, burst all bounds, +and appeared to become ungovernable. Tessie Lawless fell forward in a +faint and was carried out. Mrs. Polwarth shook her fist in the direction +of the sacred judgment-seat, and declared in resonant tones that more +would come of this if things were not mended. Snatching Tottie up, she +and Mrs. Delf followed in the wake of Mr. Stirling and Hastings, +continuing to impeach the existing order of things judicial, and +declaring 'that an honest man and a gentleman had no show in a country +like this, where straight folks' oaths counted for nought; where +policemen and lying jades had power to shut up in prison a man whose +shoes in England they wouldn't have been allowed to black.'</p> + +<p>'End of first act of the melodrama,' said Hastings to Charlie Stirling, +with grim pleasantry. 'Audience gone out for refreshment. "What may +happen to a man in Victoria!" as the Port Phillip <i>Patriot</i> said the +other day. Poor Lance! it makes me feel revolutionary too.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The end had come. With a hoarse murmur, half-repressed but none the less +sullen and resentful, the crowd surged outward from the court. A strong +body of police escorted the prisoners to the van, in which, despite of +threatened obstruction from some of the Growlers' Gully contingent, they +were placed and driven towards the gaol, which, built on a lofty +eminence, was nearly a mile from the court-house. Ned Lawless preserved +his ordinary cheerful indifference, nodding to more than one +acquaintance in the crowd, as who should say, 'They don't have me for no +five years, you bet!'</p> + +<p>But Lance moved like a man in a dream. The force of the blow seemed to +have arrested the ordinary action of the brain. 'Guilty! <i>Two years' +imprisonment!</i> Oh, God! Was it possible! and not some evil dream from +which he would wake, as in the days of his boyhood, to find himself free +and happy. It could not be. The Almighty could not be so cruel, so +merciless, could not suffer a wrong so foul, so false to every principle +of right, truth, justice! This hideous phantasmagoria would vanish, and +he, Lance Trevanion, would find himself back at Number Six, hailing the +dawn with joy, ready to sing aloud as he left his couch with pure +elation of spirits.'</p> + +<p>The actuality of changed conditions was brought home to him by the +prompt alteration of treatment to which he was subjected on arriving at +the gaol. Marched through a large yard in which a number of prisoners +were sitting or standing aimlessly about, Lance became aware that a +great change had taken place in his status and prestige. Before this he +was only on committal; for all the prison authorities knew, he might be +acquitted, and walk forth from court unstained in reputation.</p> + +<p>But now things were different. He was a prisoner under sentence. Bound +to conform to the regulations of the establishment, who must <i>obey +orders</i>. Do, in plain words, what he was told, no matter in what tone or +manner couched, must perform menial services, descend from his former +position to be the servant of servants, nay more, their dumb and +unresisting slave, unless he saw fit to defy the terrible and crushing +weight of prison authority. Should he submit? he asked himself, sitting +down on the scanty bedding, neatly folded on a narrow board.</p> + +<p>'Should he submit? or rather should he not give volcanic vent to his +untamed temper, strangle the warder who next came to his cell, and "run +amok," scattering the gaol guards, dying by a rifle bullet rather than +by the slower but not less certain action of the prison atmosphere? Had +it not killed so many another, born, like him, to a life of +freedom?—and yet—he was young—so young! Life had joys in store—for a +man of three-and-twenty, even if he had to waste two years in this +thrice accursed living tomb! Disgrace! dishonour! Of course it +was—would be all the days of his life. Still there were other +countries—other worlds, almost, of which he had since his arrival in +Australia heard more than all his schooling had taught him. The Pacific +Slope; the South-Sea Islands; the Argentine Republic; New Mexico; Texas; +Colorado! These were localities of which many a miner talked as +familiarly as Jack Polwarth of Cornwall or Devon. Two years would pass +somehow. How many weeks was it? A hundred and more! The Judge, however, +had ordered the time he had spent under committal to be deducted from +the whole term—that was something. Well, he would see it out. He had +friends still who were staunch and true. He would change his name and go +to one of those places in the New World where men were not too +particular about their associates' former lives—as long as they paid +their way and lived a manly life. But home! Home to Wychwood! Home to +his father and Estelle! Never! No! He could not look them in the face +again.'</p> + +<p>These reflections were brought to a close abruptly by the sudden opening +of the cell door and the entrance of two warders, one of whom carried a +suit of prison clothes. One was a tall powerful man with a hard +expression of countenance and a cruel mouth. He looked at Lance with a +cold, scrutinising air.</p> + +<p>'Stand up, prisoner Trevanion,' he said, as if reading out of a book, +'and the next time you hear your cell door open comply with the +regulations.'</p> + +<p>'What regulations?' inquired Lance.</p> + +<p>'They're on that board,' pointing to a small board placed in a corner of +the cell. 'You can read, I expect? Now, strip, and dress yourself in +this uniform.'</p> + +<p>Disencumbering himself of his ordinary garments, Lance soon found +himself attired in a striped suit of coarse cloth, fitted also with +rough blucher boots and a woollen cap.</p> + +<p>'Follow Warder Jackson.'</p> + +<p>The shorter warder grinned: 'You've got to see the barber and the +photographer next. You won't hardly know yourself, will he, Bracker? +We've got yer photer' before you was took, and now all we want is yer +jug likeness. Then we have yer both ways in case yer gives us leg-bail. +Turn.'</p> + +<p>They halted in a wide passage where a man in prison garb stood by a +camera. He had been a photographer before committing the forgery for +which he was imprisoned. His talents were now utilised in securing +likenesses of his fellow-prisoners, a modern gaol invention which had +proved of immense value in the identification of criminals who had +either escaped or had committed fresh crimes.</p> + +<p>Before being placed in position a man came out of a passage bearing a +razor, with shaving materials and scissors of formidable size.</p> + +<p>'Sit down,' said the tall warder, pointing to a bench, 'the gaol barber +will cut your hair now and shave you, after this he will shave you twice +a week and cut your hair every fortnight.' Subduing a frenzied impulse +to seize the razor, cut every one's throat and his own afterwards, Lance +sat down, and in a marvellously short time found his face denuded of +moustache and whisker, while his head felt strangely cold and bristly. +He submitted, vacantly staring and unresistingly, to being placed in the +position proper for the apparatus. When the negative came out and was +shown to him exultingly as a first-rate likeness he did not recognise +himself.</p> + +<p>This creature in the repulsive and bizarre habiliments, with cropped +head and hairless face as of a patient in a lunatic asylum. Was this +really himself? Was this Lance Trevanion? It could not be, unless he had +gone mad. Perhaps he had without knowing it; men did not know when they +lost their reason, so he had read, or how would they persist in saying +they were sane? His head was burning, his eyes darkened, he gasped for +breath, and before either warder could save him, fell prone and heavily +on the stone floor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>He recovered to find himself in the cell to which he had first been +taken. He was sitting upon the two blankets which represented bed and +bedding for a hard-labour prisoner, and had been considerately propped +up against an angle of the wall. He had been 'under observation' of a +warder unconsciously since being carried there. This official was +enabled to look in through a small barred aperture for that purpose, +placed in the cell door. When the prisoner struggled into consciousness +he departed, leaving Lance to realise his position and to compose his +thoughts.</p> + +<p>Merciful heaven! what thoughts were his! Let those say who have suddenly +awakened to the consciousness of crime, not only alleged but legally +proved; who as criminals, in spite of denial and protest, have been +tried and sentenced. To the awakened knowledge of dishonour fixed, +public, irrevocable! A mark for the pity of friends, for the scorn of +strangers, for the chuckling triumph of enemies! Up to a certain stage +of legal conflict imagination cheats the boding heart with hope of +release, victory, sudden good fortune.</p> + +<p>But, the verdict once delivered, the sentence pronounced, hope trails +her wings and abandons the fated victim; faith permits the lamp to burn +so low that a breath of unbelief suffices to extinguish it; charity +flees in dismay from frenzied cries and imprecations. Then this is the +opportunity of the enemy of mankind. This demon train finds easy +entrance into the ruined fortress of the soul. The furies are not idle. +Remorse, revenge, jealousy, cruel as the grave, all the unclean and +baser spirits ravenous for his soul, forsaken of God and man, as he +holds himself to be, gather around the scapegoat of society as the +diablotins around the corpse of the physician in Doré's terrible +engraving. A carnival of evil, weird and Dantesque, begins in the lonely +cell. In that hour, unless his guardian angel has the power to shield +him from the dread assault of the lower forces, a transformation, such +as was but fabled in old classic days, takes place. The higher +qualities, the loftier aspirations, the old beliefs in honour, valour, +virtue, and justice take flight for ever, while the brute attributes +stalk forth threatening and unchallenged.</p> + +<p>Day after day Lance Trevanion performed mechanically his portion of +appointed work among the prison herd. To them he spoke no word. When +locked up with the rest for the long long solitary night, which +commenced before dark and did not end till after sunrise, under gaol +rules, he sat brooding over his woes. Stirling had called with printed +permission from the visiting justice to see prisoner Trevanion, but he +refused to meet him. How could he bear that any of his former friends +should look upon him degraded and repulsive of aspect? No! He would +never see them more—while in this hateful prison-house at least. +Afterwards, if he were living and not turned into a wild beast, he would +consider. Friends! How <i>could</i> a man have friends while suffering this +degradation?</p> + +<p>Towards the warders his demeanour was silent rather than sullen, but he +could not be induced by threat or persuasion to affect the +respectfulness which is, by regulation, enjoined between prisoners and +officials. These last were indifferent, to do them justice, regarding +Lance as 'a swell chap as had got it hot, and was a bit off his chump.' +The exception to this state of feeling was Bracker, the head warder, who +desired to be regarded with awe, and was irritable at the slightest +failure of etiquette. His manner, devoid of the faintest trace of +sympathy, was harsh and overbearing. To the higher class of prisoners he +was especially distasteful, and from this knowledge, or other reason, +they were the inmates towards whom he appeared to have the strongest +dislike. It may easily be imagined that although the visiting +magistrate, to whom is entrusted the duty of trying and punishing all +descriptions of prison offences, is presumably impartial, yet it is +within the power of any gaol official, if actuated by malicious +feelings, to irritate a prisoner to the verge of frenzy, and afterwards +to ensure his punishment under form of law. The trial takes place within +the walls of the gaol. The warders give their evidence on oath. In a +general way they corroborate each other's testimony. It is not difficult +to foretell, even though the magistrate be acute and discriminating, how +the decision will go. The punishments permitted in prison vary in +severity. Confinement in a solitary cell with half rations, or even +bread and water, for periods varying from three days to a fortnight, +mark the initiatory stage of repression. Then comes the dark cell, an +experience which awes the boldest.</p> + +<p>After which, for insubordination coupled with unusual violence of speech +or action, flogging may be inflicted, if a second magistrate be present +at the hearing of the case. This was the code to which Lance Trevanion +now found himself amenable. All ignorant of its pains and penalties, he +bore himself with a sullen contempt alike of the tasks and routine +observances by regulation imposed upon all prisoners. He obeyed, indeed, +but with an air of indifference which provoked Bracker, who secretly +resolved to 'break' him, as the prison slang goes. To that end he +commenced a line of conduct which he had seldom known in his extended +experience to fail. More than once, however, in his career, Bracker had +been accused of cruelty to prisoners. At the last gaol where he had +served the visiting magistrate had come to the conclusion that these +repeated charges were not entirely without foundation, and so reporting, +his official superior had warned him that if any offence of the kind was +proved against him he would be disrated, if not dismissed. It was +therefore incumbent on him to be wary and circumspect.</p> + +<p>He commenced by speaking roughly to Lance almost every time he entered +his cell, compelling him to roll up his blankets several times in +succession under the pretence of insufficient neatness, swearing at him +when there was no one near, and abusing him as a lazy lubber who +wouldn't take the trouble to keep his cell neat and wanted to have a +body-servant to wait upon him. Among Mr. Bracker's other engaging +qualities was that of being a radical of the deepest dye in politics and +a democrat particularly advanced. A child of the masses, he had received +just sufficient education to qualify him for a rabid advocacy of certain +communistic theories. Arising from this mental enlightenment partly, as +well as from the fundamental condition of an envious and malignant +nature, was a hatred of privileged orders and an unreasoning spite +towards gentle-folk and aristocrats of whatever sex or grade. He had +read accounts of the French Revolution and lamented that he had not the +power to put in force, in these degenerate days, some of the drastic +remedies by which 'the people' of France ameliorated their own condition +and wiped out the long score of oppressions which they had suffered at +the hands of their natural enemies.</p> + +<p>As a man, a politician, and a warder he felt therefore a subtle +satisfaction in tormenting a member of the hated class secretly. He felt +it due to himself also, as a matter of professional etiquette, not to be +'bested' by a prisoner under sentence. He settled to his daily dole of +insult with cruel craft and grim resolve. Such may have actuated a +plantation overseer in South Carolina towards a contumacious 'nigger' in +the good old slave-holding days before the war.</p> + +<p>Daily the 'assistant torturer' pursued his course. Mere oaths and +continuous abuse were always carefully timed to be out of earshot of all +others. Daily Lance Trevanion endured in silence the varied taunts, the +bullying tone, which he had never needed to bear from living man before. +Indignant scorn lit up his sad despairing eyes at each fresh +provocation. More deeply glowed their smouldering fires, but no word +came from the tightly-compressed lips; no gesture told of the well-nigh +unendurable mental agony within, of the almost unnatural strain.</p> + +<p>'Yes, you may look,—blast you for an infernal stuck-up aristocrat,' +Bracker said one morning. 'You know you'd like to rub me out, but you're +not game—<i>not game</i>—do you hear that? You and all your breed in the +old country, and this too, have been living all your lives on the labour +of men like me, and treating us like the dirt under your feet, and you +can't salute your superiors like another prisoner. You're too grand, I +suppose. But by ——, I'll break you down, my fine fellow, before I've +done with you. I'll have you on your knees yet. You're not the first +that's tried it on with me, and, my word! they paid for it. I'd like you +to have seen them knuckle under before I left off dealing with them.'</p> + +<p>The next day, on some transparent pretence, Lance was ordered to take up +the work of one of the long-sentence prisoners, which involved menial +and degrading, not to say disgusting duties. These he performed +patiently and mechanically, yet with a far-off look as of a man in a +dream. Even this penance was insufficient to appease the malevolence of +his tormentor. He made a practice of standing near, watching his victim, +enjoying the spectacle of the captive 'swell' engaged for hours in the +meanest conceivable employment. From time to time he made brutal jokes +upon the situation with his assistant warders or those prisoners who +were always ready for personal reasons to take the side of their +taskmasters.</p> + +<p>After the night's stillness and respite—stillness how oppressive, even +terrible in its unbroken silence!—Lance would brace himself to confront +anew his bitter fate. He would repeat to himself all the reasons that he +could summon for stubborn endurance and patient adherence to the course +he had laid down for himself. But with the morning light came his +inexorable foe, ordering him here and there, persisting in declaring +that he was in the habit of breaking minor regulations, making a +laughing-stock of him before other prisoners in every way, driving him +along the road which was sure, in Bracker's experience, to land him in +some act of overt insubordination.</p> + +<p>One morning, after an hour's trial of every species of aggravation, +Lance's patience so far failed him that he turned upon his persecutor +and told him that no one but a coward would thus treat a man in his +position, and who was unable to defend himself or retaliate. He did not +say much, but doubtless committed himself to the extent of infringing +the gaol regulations, which enjoin respect and obedience to all +officials.</p> + +<p>His adversary at once seized his advantage, and ordering him back to his +cell locked him up, pushing him roughly inside the door. This portion +of his duty performed, he lodged a complaint in due form of +insubordination against Launcelot Trevanion, hard labour prisoner under +sentence.</p> + +<p>The gaoler held over the case until the end of the week, when Mr. +M'Alpine, as visiting magistrate, regularly attended to hear cases and +complaints.</p> + +<p>The trial of prisoners charged with such offences is conducted <i>in +camera</i>, the magistrate, the gaoler, the parties to the complaint, and +the witnesses being only present. For reasons held to be sufficient, the +public and the press are excluded. Evidence on oath is taken down in +writing, that the depositions may be afterwards referred to. The +magistrate decides on the evidence brought before him. The accused is +permitted to call witnesses. But for obvious reasons the warders and the +companions in captivity of the culprit or complainant constitute +necessarily the only available testimony. Thus it is to be feared that +occasionally the scales of justice may be deflected, and though forms +are adhered to, wrong-doing triumphs and revenge is wreaked.</p> + +<p>So, in the present case, Bracker swore positively that Lance had +habitually refused to obey orders, and on this occasion had abused and +threatened him in language unfit to be repeated. He handed in a paper on +which was written a selection of foul expressions of his own invention. +His tale was corroborated in part by another warder, who had heard Lance +speak in an excited tone of voice to the complainant—though he was not +near enough to catch the sense of his words. One of the +prisoners—mindful of favours to come—'swore up' in Bracker's interest, +and more circumstantially confirmed his story. Against this weight of +evidence Lance's denial availed nothing. His resentful demeanour tended +to prejudice Mr. M'Alpine against him as being mutinous and defiant. +There was no little difficulty in preserving order among the desperate +<i>détenus</i> of the day, as it was. The sternest repression was thought +necessary. In view of example and deterrent effect, Lance was therefore +sentenced—after an admonition of curt severity—to a month's solitary +confinement upon bread and water, the last week to be passed in the dark +cell.</p> + +<p>The ill-concealed triumph depicted on Bracker's countenance was hard to +bear. The solitary cell, the meagre fare, often unduly abridged, +represented to a man of Lance's temperament and experiences the +extremity of human wretchedness. But a sharper sting was added by +Bracker's daily jeers: 'So you won't give a civil answer yet when you're +spoke to,' he said, one afternoon, stirring Lance rudely with his foot. +'And you won't stand up when you're told? Wait till to-morrow, when +you're due for the dark 'un—seven days and seven nights! That'll bleach +you, my flash horse-thief, like a stick of celery! I'll take the steel +out of yer before I've done! Bigger chaps than you have been +straightened here before now!'</p> + +<p>On the next morning, accordingly, Lance was marched to the dark cell, +and thrust in so roughly that, weakened as he was by his Lenten diet, he +fell down, bruised and half-fainting. There was barely sufficient room +in the small circular cell for him to lie at length, and as he regained +a sitting posture and strained his eyesight to discover one ray of light +amid the almost palpable darkness, he realised fully the utter +desolation and horror of his position. Despair took possession of him. +Forsaken of God and man, as he deemed himself to be, he raved and +blasphemed like a maniac, ceasing only when sheer exhaustion brought on +a stupor of insensibility, from which he passed into perturbed and +fitful slumbers.</p> + +<p>He awoke only to undergo with partially renewed faculties still keener +miseries. Unaware of the time which he had passed in sleep, he was +ignorant whether it was day or night. No sound penetrated the thick +walls of the cell. The Cimmerian gloom was unrelieved by the faintest +pencil of light. Had he been dead and entombed he could not have been +more utterly separated from knowledge of the outer world—from communion +with the living. Days seemed to have passed since he first entered the +cell. His brain throbbed. His heart-beats were plainly audible to him in +the horrible silence. Delirious fancies commenced to assail him. He saw +his father's form as he had last seen it, with visage stern and +inflexible. He seemed to say: 'All that I foresaw has come to pass. You +have dishonoured an ancient name!—blotted a stainless escutcheon! Die, +and make no sign!'</p> + +<p>Then his cousin Estelle's sweet face came slowly out of the gloom, +gazing upon him with sorrowful, angelic pity. The infinite tenderness, +the boundless compassion of love, shone in her starry eyes, which, in +his vision, commenced to irradiate the gloomy vault. Clearer grew the +outlines of her form—a celestial brightness appeared to render visible +every outline of her form, every lineament of her countenance, as she +inclined herself as if to raise him from his recumbent position. He +threw up his arms with a cry of joyous recognition. The action appeared +to recall his wandering senses. The impenetrable dungeon gloom again +closed over him like a descending iron platform. A steel band appeared +to compress and still more tightly environ his brain, until a deathlike +swoon terminated simultaneously both agony and sensation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + + +<p>When Lance issued from the dark cell and was relegated to ordinary +confinement, he fully justified Bracker's anticipations in one respect. +He was 'bleached,' as that official had described the change of +complexion likely to result. His face was ashen white, his eyes had a +vacant stare like those of a blind man. He staggered from weakness, so +that the warders were fain to hold him up more than once. When addressed +he made no answer. It seemed as if his senses had suffered partial +obliteration. Bracker was not present when his victim was returned to +his cell after serving the full term of punishment. The other warders, +who had no special dislike to him, were indulgent rather than otherwise +in their treatment and comments.</p> + +<p>'You're a bit low, Trevanion,' one of them said; 'I'd ask to see the +doctor if I were you, and get sent to hospital for a week or two. He'll +order you wine, and soup, and things. You'll be slipping your cable like +that other chap Bracker got into trouble about, if you don't mind.'</p> + +<p>Lance made no reply. He sat down slowly and doubtfully upon the folded +blankets at the farther end of the cell, steadying himself with +difficulty against the angle of the wall.</p> + +<p>'Now, you take my tip,' said the elder of the two men to his fellow as +they left, after bolting the cell door with the clang inseparable from +prison life, 'that chap will do one of three things before a month's +out. Bracker's been running him too hard. He's a well-bred 'un, and they +won't stand driving. He'll either die, go mad, or——'</p> + +<p>'Or what?' said the younger man.</p> + +<p>'Well, Bracker had better look out. Some fine morning he'll have +Trevanion's fingers in his throat, and he mayn't find it so easy to get +'em slacked off again. I've known that happen before now. And when the +chap was choked off it didn't matter to Dawkins. <i>He</i> was the warder. It +happened when I was at the stockade.'</p> + +<p>'Why didn't it matter?'</p> + +<p>'Because <i>Dawkins was dead</i>! The chap laughed when they dragged him +off, and said they might do what they liked with him. He'd settled +Dawkins, and that was all he cared for in the world. They might hang him +now, and welcome.'</p> + +<p>'And did they?'</p> + +<p>'Of course they did, but we old hands knew Dawkins had been tantalising +him; it was a way of his with some prisoners, and this cove made up his +mind to rub him out. He got him to rights, safe enough.'</p> + +<p>'Hadn't we better tell Bracker?'</p> + +<p>'What for? He thinks he knows everything, and wouldn't thank us. Likely +think we'd been putting up something to get his place. Let him take his +chance like another man.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When the medical officer saw Lance he ordered his immediate removal to +the hospital ward. He said the prisoner was dangerously low and feeble; +that his health had suffered more than could be accounted for; and that +there were certain bruises and excoriations which could not have been +produced in any ordinary way. He spoke kindly to Lance, and advised him +to follow his treatment and diet marked out for him, and to be more +cheerful and resigned if he wished to get well and come safely through +his imprisonment.</p> + +<p>'You're only a young man, Trevanion,' he would say. 'After this couple +of years are out there is nothing to prevent your going to the United +States, or to any other part of the world where people have never heard +of you, of Ballarat—hardly of Australia, for that matter. And what a +deal of life there is to come for you—the best part too. Take courage +and make up your mind to bear the necessary hardship of your sentence, +and look forward to the day when you will go forth a free man.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Whether acted upon by this well-meant advice, or following out some +course of action nurtured like the fungus of a dungeon in the dark +depths of his brooding heart, a change took place in the sullen +captive's mien. He seemed thankful for the 'medical comforts' doled out +to him, and availed himself of them readily. He listened respectfully to +the chaplain and gaol surgeon, and when, after a fortnight's treatment +in the hospital ward, he was reported fit for the ordinary discipline of +the gaol, the warders with one exception declared that they would not +have known him to be the same man.</p> + +<p>The ordinary routine of prison life is scarcely calculated to develop +the finer feelings in the keepers of the wild beasts in human form over +whom they hold watch and ward. Boundless dissimulation, craft and +subtlety, tameless ferocity, ruthless cruelty, are their leading +characteristics. Apparently peaceable and harmless, theirs is but the +guile of the red Indian or the dark-souled Hindoo, biding his time until +the hour comes for murder and rapine. Let but the keeper relax +vigilance; let the sentinel slumber at his post, and mutiny and murder +are prompt to unmask. Still, with this knowledge drilled into them by +decades of experience, the ordinary prison officials are just if not +merciful, strict but not severe; while their own discipline is so +rigorous that any departure from regulations is sternly and invariably +visited on the offending official.</p> + +<p>Bracker was an exception—for the credit of the department it must be +admitted that he was the only man in that great prison-house who would +have acted as he did towards any prisoner, however vexatious.</p> + +<p>As Lance passed into his cell he saw his oppressor watching him with the +expression he knew so well. He was not long left in suspense.</p> + +<p>'Didn't Saunders complain of not being strong enough for the wood and +water work, Jackson?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, sir,' replied the under warder.</p> + +<p>'Well, take this man here and put him in his place. He's fat and lazy +enough after his loafing in the hospital to do a little work again.'</p> + +<p>'This way, Trevanion,' said the warder. 'You've got to work in the lower +yard.'</p> + +<p>As he passed Bracker their eyes met for an instant.</p> + +<p>'You're not worked down yet, my man,' said Bracker, with an insolent +laugh. 'Wait till you've had another month's graft where I'm going to +put ye. "Jimmy Ducks" aboard an emigrant ship's a fool to it.'</p> + +<p>Lance drew himself up for an instant and looked full into his +tormentor's face. The cruel cowardly eyes fell for a moment before the +gaze of the patrician, degraded and despairing as he was. Then the +warder quietly pushed him on.</p> + +<p>'Don't cross him, if you take my advice,' he said. 'He's a devil all out +when he goes for a prisoner, and I never knew one that didn't come off +worst in the end. You lie low for a bit and give him his head. The +doctor's your friend now, and he'll see he doesn't crowd you.'</p> + +<p>Lance nodded his head in recognition of the kindness of the man's +intention, then silently commenced his laborious and uncongenial task. +When he returned to his cell at night worn out and exhausted by the +unwonted toil, hardly recovered indeed from the pitiable weakness to +which he had been reduced, he swore a bitter oath and then and there +registered an unholy vow.</p> + +<p>From that hour he awaited but opportunity to wreak a full measure of +vengeance upon his adversary. He felt his strength declining day by day. +Daily did he endure the cheap taunt, the cruel mockery, the ingenious +expedients, by which Bracker sought to intensify his misery. But a +single chance he would yet give to him, if he had the manhood to accept +it.</p> + +<p>One morning he addressed him with the usual salute.</p> + +<p>'I wish to speak a few words to you, and before I do so I wish you to +understand that I mean no—no—disrespect——'</p> + +<p>'Speak and be d—d,' was Bracker's courteous rejoinder.</p> + +<p>'It is only this. You have been what the people here would call "running +me,"—that is, putting me to work above my strength, insulting me +habitually as well. Why you should do so is best known to yourself. I +can't stand it much longer. If you will leave off this line of conduct +and treat me fairly, like any other prisoner, I will promise on my part +to—to—behave well and reasonably. Don't decide in a hurry—it may cost +both our lives.'</p> + +<p>Bracker laughed aloud. He stopped to look at Lance more than once, then +he laughed as at too exquisite a joke. It was the mockery of a fiend +exulting in the agonies of a demon-tortured soul.</p> + +<p>He misconceived the situation. He concluded that his captive's courage +had failed him; that henceforth he would be able to treat him with the +contemptuous cruelty with which he was wont to finish his persecutions. +He triumphed in his foresight, and could not forbear showing a cowardly +exultation.</p> + +<p>'So you've dropped down to it at last, my flash horse-duffer, have you? +You've shown the white feather that I always knew was in you—a rank cur +from the beginning, with all your brag. By God! I'll make it hotter than +ever for you, just for this very bit of impudence. D—n ye! Get back to +your muck.'</p> + +<p>As he spoke the last words, ending with a foul expression, he had drawn +near Lance, and raising his foot as if for a contemptuous kick, he +placed his hands on his shoulders. The long corridor between the cells +was for the moment without a second warder. With a panther-like bound +Lance sprang forward, and in another moment his hands were at Bracker's +throat, clutching with the grasp that death alone relaxes.</p> + +<p>'Dog!' he ground out between his teeth. 'Your last hour is come. Die, +wretch, and go to hell—die, if you had a hundred lives, scoundrel and +villain that you are—die for your cruelty to a helpless wretch that +never did you harm!'</p> + +<p>So sudden was the onslaught that Bracker, though a powerful man, had no +chance of resistance, never dreaming that the cowed convict, as he took +Lance to be, would turn upon him. In another moment he was on his back +on the floor of the cell, his foe with knee on chest awaiting the moment +when the blanched features should display no sign of life, nor abating +for one second the deadly gripe of the slayer of his kind.</p> + +<p>Of his own safety—of his assured doom for killing a prison official—he +thought not. The blood fury was on him. His unendurable wrongs, his +daily torment, had reached the point of desperation when the human +animal turns at bay, disregarding alike the hunter's spear, the baying +hound, the fast-flowing life-blood.</p> + +<p>Another minutest subdivision of time would have settled the matter. +Another dead warder would have been found by the side of a reckless and +desperate prisoner. The usual inquest would have been held, when, after +a verdict of wilful murder, the rope or a sentence of imprisonment for +life would have terminated all public interest for a season.</p> + +<p>But in mercy or otherwise to Mr. Bracker an attendant accidentally +returned to the corridor and noticed the open cell door. This, of +course, was irregular. Rushing towards it he was just in time—hardly a +second too soon—to prevent Mr. Bracker, 'our late respected head warder +of Ballarat gaol' as he would have been styled, from posing as a corpse, +and Lance Trevanion, late of Wychwood, Cornwall, from becoming a +murderer!</p> + +<p>Some considerable time elapsed before Mr. Bracker returned fully to his +senses after regaining consciousness. He had been hurled to the cell +floor with such violence that concussion of the brain had taken place, +while his swollen throat testified to the deadly gripe of the victim who +had so nearly turned the table upon his tormentor. It was fully a week +before he was in a condition to give evidence before the Visiting +Justice. The interval Lance was condemned to spend in 'solitary,' to be +nourished wholly on bread and water,—to be abandoned in fact to the +society of the Furies, which none the less mordantly than in the days of +the world's green youth rend the heart and shatter the brain of their +ill-fated or guilty victim.</p> + +<p>Lance was rapidly passing from one stage of misery to the other, from +the unmerciful to the merciful woe. As he sat or lay in his cell the +long hours through, the thought crossed his brain, revelled and ran riot +there, that if he had only persevered in his policy of endurance, if he +had been strong and patient instead of weak and impulsive, this needed +not to have happened. He might probably have found some door of escape +from his tribulation, not literally of course, but through the clergyman +and the Visiting Justice, the latter of whom would have been most +uncompromising in punishing an official who misused his power.</p> + +<p>Now that the storm of passion was over, the fury spent, the <i>brevis +insania</i> passed away, calmer reflection would intrude. To what further +sentence had he rendered himself liable? Would he be committed for +attempted murder, or would it be manslaughter? Should he be condemned to +a further sentence of years—long years of imprisonment? Might he not be +hanged for the attempt to commit the capital offence? No doubt he +intended to kill Bracker—that he would not deny. His mind was made up. +If a shameful death or long imprisonment was to be his doom, he would +rid himself of a worthless life. He had procured the means of +self-destruction during his first remand. The feeling aroused among his +fellow-captives by his daring attempt to take the life of his gaoler was +peculiar and exceptional. Though many of the prisoners from motive of +policy were subservient to Bracker, he was liked by no one. He had been +known to be trying to 'break' or crush Trevanion. Cruelties and +unnecessary severity springing from the irresponsible use of power are +presumably not unknown in gaols. But the prison herd knows that at a +certain point despair sets in. Reckless retribution follows, and the +life of the agent or leading actor in the tragedy nearly always exacted +counts with himself and his fellows merely as dust in the balance.</p> + +<p>The criminals like to think that from their midst will arise at least +one man who devotes himself to sacrifice, so only may he avenge himself +and them upon their enemy. The time comes, and with curious certainty +the man. Then the words of the first warder come true. The sullen +patience of the harassed convict, who rarely resents routine discipline, +however severe, becomes exhausted, and the debt is paid in full by a +brutal murder or a life-long injury. Let it be borne in mind that 'early +in the fifties' the problem of successful goldfield management was yet +unsolved in Australia. The legislation had been chiefly tentative; the +police and prison arrangements were incomplete. From the seething mass +of the mining population, not always ruled with tact or temper, smarting +under alleged injustice and excited by the enormous yield of the +precious metal, arose a dangerously large and increasing criminal class. +The overcrowded gaols, ample for a pastoral colony, were unable to +contain them. Among the more experienced officers apprehensions of a +revolt of the mining population—unhappily but too well-founded—began +to assume the appearance of certainty. In such event the prisoners, if +altogether centralised or confined inland, might easily be +liberated—would hardly fail to be so on the first outbreak. Considering +these contingencies, the Government of the day determined to relieve the +pressure upon the metropolitan gaols by establishing prison hulks. +Vessels moored in the waters of Williamstown Bay could be more easily +guarded—would obviously be more difficult to escape from. Ships by +scores, deserted by their crews, lay at anchor motionless and tenantless +as that of the Ancient Mariner. Their owners were too happy to sell at +any reasonable price. The idea was approved—not sooner approved than +acted upon. The <i>President</i>, the <i>Success</i>, the <i>Sacramento</i>, the +<i>Deborah</i>, were purchased and forthwith proclaimed to be, and to be +considered, Her Majesty's gaols. They became from that day floating +prisons. There were those long after who did not hesitate to designate +them as floating hells.</p> + +<p>One of the leading ideas connected with the scheme was the compulsory +labour of the convicts, who, it was thought, might be employed +beneficially to themselves and to the state in building at +Williamstown—then a chief port of Melbourne—wharves, lighthouses, and +docks. There were millions of tons of blue-stone—a species of volcanic +trap—to be had near the shore for the quarrying. Harbour accommodation +was miserably insufficient. The labour of a thousand men was a valuable +consideration in that day of dearth of every kind of manual labour. Long +afterwards the navvies employed in the construction of the Yan Yean +aqueduct received one pound sterling per day. At this time double the +wage would not have furnished the labour these convicts performed, and +in many instances performed well.</p> + +<p>The <i>President</i> enjoyed the bad eminence of being styled and worked as a +strictly penal hulk—an abode for refractory and desperate criminals. +Many of these were, in the prison slang, 'long-sentence men,' +incorrigible felons serving a life sentence for repeated offences; men +who could not be trusted to work even in the iron-gangs—so skilful and +determined were they in all methods of escape. Many of these were doomed +never to leave the <i>President's</i> gloomy cells but for the coffin and the +shroud. Others again, after performing the allotted form of strictly +penal and reformatory discipline, were drafted on board the <i>Success</i>, +where they underwent the more popular and varied experience of working +in the quarries on the main-land—in irons, it is true, but having the +excitement of a daily voyage to and fro in one of the barges used for +the purpose.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>When Lance was brought up for trial he found to his relief—if indeed +anything could have afforded him a gleam of satisfaction—that in spite +of the heinousness of his offence—penally considered—a favourable +feeling had sprung up with regard to him. Now that Bracker had in their +opinion got his deserts, several of the 'good conduct' prisoners came +forward with voluntary statements. They had seen the injured man +knocking about the prisoner Trevanion. He was always 'tantalising,' and +seemed to want to provoke him to a breach of regulations. Had not spoken +before, because they were afraid of Bracker, who was well known to be +revengeful. It was believed in the gaol (sent round, doubtless, in the +wonderful way criminals have of communicating with each other) that he +had caused a prisoner in another gaol to hang himself.</p> + +<p>Two warders had also noticed his conduct to prisoner Trevanion when he +came out of hospital. Thought it severe and unnecessary. The prisoner's +own statement was taken on oath. He admitted the offence, but averred +that he had become reckless through consistent ill-treatment. Bracker, +of course, denied everything in the most unabashed manner, looking with +evil eye upon the recalcitrant warders and the 'good conduct' prisoners. +But the papers had been sent for in the last inquiry made into his +conduct, also upon a charge of cruelty to prisoners. The evidence, +unfortunately for him, was very similar. Mr. M'Alpine, who was an +unsparing foe to all official misconduct, at once decided against him. +After a terrific lecture, he reminded Bracker that he had been disrated +for a former offence of a like nature. He should recommend him, +therefore, for dismissal, which recommendation, to the general joy of +the inhabitants of the Ballarat gaol, was promptly carried out.</p> + +<p>'Prisoner Trevanion, whose conduct if condoned must have a bad effect +upon the other prisoners (<i>other prisoners</i>, how the words fell like +drops of molten lead upon his heart!), is ordered to serve the rest of +his sentence on board Her Majesty's hulks at Williamstown.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the cold and heavy mist,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Eugene Aram walked between<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With gyves upon his wrists.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This verse, from Hood's pathetic ballad, Lance had been fond of and +learned by heart as a schoolboy, little dreaming how closely the +circumstances would apply to himself in the after-time.</p> + +<p>It <i>would</i> keep ringing through his brain with incessant automatic +iteration, as Lance found himself early next morning driven off to +Ballarat, leg-ironed and handcuffed, in charge of two warders. The two +men, with himself in the centre, took their seats in the back part of +Cobb's coach, and in company with various other passengers, clerical and +lay, male and female, as is the slightly unfair practice of the +Government, looking at it from the standpoint of the travelling public. +However, no great inconvenience having so far resulted, the sentimental +objection to travel with criminals has lessened. And being decidedly the +more economical mode of escort, as far as the Government is concerned, +the arrangement is continued.</p> + +<p>Of course glances of pitying wonder were cast from time to time, +especially by the female passengers in the crowded coach, at the men in +police uniform and the sad, sallow, clean-shaved man sitting between +them. One young girl alone, though sitting nearly opposite, had +exhibited no interest in the trio. She sat near the right-hand door of +the coach. Closely veiled, she had turned her head towards the town and +the crowd always attendant on the departure of a coach.</p> + +<p>The clock struck six. The powerful high-conditioned horses sprang at +their collars, obedient to the practised hand of 'Cabbage-tree Ned,' one +of the 'stage' heroes of the period. The heavily-laden coach swayed on +its thorough-brace springs and rattled down Sturt Street at the rate of +twelve miles an hour. More than once had Lance been the envied occupant +of the box seat beside this very driver, who, smoking the proffered +cigar, was as civil to Trevanion of Number Six as an official of his +exalted position could afford to be to any one.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And now he sat, chained and alone,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The 'warder' by his side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The plume, the helm, the charger gone, etc.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Gone, gone, indeed,—how many things had gone!—fame and fortune, hope, +honour,—all that made life worth living. The sooner that wretched +dishonoured life went too, the better for all. Thank God, it would be +easy to drop overboard from barge or boat—the waters of the bay had +ended the sorrows of many a hopeless wretch, it was said. The heavy +irons provided for a quick and silent escape from life's weary burden.</p> + +<p>An involuntary sigh, as the sequel to the train of thought, from the +fettered captive, together with a faint but distinct tinkle from his +leg-irons, appeared to arouse the girl from her reverie.</p> + +<p>She gazed at the prisoner long and earnestly, then with a cry of grief +and despair which thrilled the hearts of all who heard her she threw +herself forward, and clasping his manacled hands within her own looked +into his face, worn and altered in every feature as it was, with the +piteous agony of a frightened child.</p> + +<p>It was Tessie Lawless!</p> + +<p>'Lance! oh, Lance!' she cried in tones so full of anguish that the +warders forbore to interfere, and the coach passengers listened in +sympathetic wonder. 'Is this what they have brought you to? Oh, wicked +wicked girl! Worse and more wicked man! For I know now how they plotted +to destroy you. Your blood will be on our heads. Surely we must suffer +for this if there's a God. Where are they taking you to? Oh, God! have +mercy!'</p> + +<p>The driver having inquired tersely into the occasion of the disturbance, +and having gathered that a girl had recognised a friend or relation in +the prisoner, lighted a fresh cigar and let his horses out adown the +incline with the remark that accidents would happen, but a good-looking +girl like her had no call to fret; she might have her pick of twenty new +sweethearts long before this one had served his time. Women would go on +like that, he supposed though, to the end of the world.</p> + +<p>The public, as represented by the twenty inside passengers, did not +exhibit undue surprise or other emotion. Some of the women whispered +'poor thing—fine young fellow too—pity he's gone wrong,' and so on. +The men kept mostly mute, though not unsympathetic. They were not unused +to seeing tragedies acted in everyday life in those unconventional days +of the early goldfields. The passions had lacked hiding-places such as +are furnished by a highly-civilised community.</p> + +<p>The crowded goldfields camp more nearly represented 'board ship' than +the provincial life pure and simple, and things were done and said, +necessarily <i>coram publico</i>, which in more conventional communities +would have been wholly suppressed or excited inconvenient remark.</p> + +<p>Therefore, after a vain attempt to persuade poor Tessie to moderate her +feelings, Lance was fain to yield to the contagion of her grief. +Weakened in mind and body by his late sufferings, softened by the +tenderness of her every tone, and touched by the first kind words he had +heard since his imprisonment, he was fain, though hating himself for the +weakness, to weep for company. As the tears streamed down the convict's +grief-worn countenance—tears which he vainly strived to hide with his +manacled hands—every heart was touched, and those emotions of our +common humanity which ennoble the species were deeply stirred. Murmurs +of 'Poor things,' 'Poor girl,' 'Hard lines,' etc., were heard. Even the +warders, though unused to the melting mood, were raised from out of +their ordinary groove of total indifference to human suffering not +provided for by the gaol regulations. After a short colloquy the one +nearest to Tessie motioned to the girl to exchange seats, an offer which +she thankfully accepted.</p> + +<p>There was no dereliction of duty involved in this charity, which was +heartily and unanimously endorsed by their public. Relaxation of +discipline was necessarily permitted in the case of escort of prisoners +from one part of the country to another. Such a task was generally +looked upon in the light of a holiday by warders or police troopers. It +involved change of air and scene, higher pay for a time, and with +various perquisites and indulgences. All that was required of them was +to deliver over their charge safely to the authorities. That being the +result, they were allowed a certain latitude with regard to the means. +If the prisoner thereby escaped, their punishment was exemplary. It +often happened, however, that the prisoner, being a fair sort of fellow +(as prisoners go), was conversed and generally associated with on terms +of equality. Of course proper security was exacted. A single trooper, +camping out through a stretch of thinly-inhabited pastoral country, has +been compelled to handcuff himself to the prisoner nightly for his +better safeguarding. But these formalities apart, much cheerful +companionship has ere now been enjoyed between the (official) 'wolf and +hound.'</p> + +<p>Hence, as the first warder observed in a gruff whisper, 'they had no +call to bother their heads if the poor chap's girl wanted a yarn with +him. It was the last one as he'd see for a spell, unless he fell across +a mermaid.' Here the speaker, who had been a ship's carpenter once, +growled a hoarse rumbling laugh. 'Let him have his bit o' luck for once. +He'd got stiffish times to come, or else they'd heard wrong.'</p> + +<p>So Tessie, sitting on the right side of Lance—there being no one to the +left of him at the coach-window—leaning her head on his shoulder, +commenced to whisper in his ear. The friendly warder studiously gazed at +the fast-flying landscape, as if it possessed peculiarly picturesque +effects. The second man almost turned his back upon Lance in his anxiety +to be out of the reach of confidential communications, while Tessie's +murmuring voice, instinct with more than womanly tenderness, sounded in +the ear—ay, in the heart of the captive, so lately sullenly despairing +of God and man—like the voice of an angel from heaven.</p> + +<p>'You may think me immodest, Lance,' she said—'I may call you that now, +may I not?—but I don't care. There are times when a woman must follow +her own heart, and this is one of them. I would tell you what I feel +now if there were hundreds looking on. I cannot help it; and what does +my poor life matter? When I think of what you were when I first saw you! +full of health, hope, and spirits, with a smile for every one, and under +compliment to no living man, I felt as if my heart would burst when I +saw you—saw you—as you are!'</p> + +<p>Here the girl's tears streamed down like rain—and she sobbed, though +striving with all her will power to restrain her feelings—till her +slender form shook and trembled in a manner piteous to see. Her forlorn +companion gazed at her silently, with a world of misery in his hollow +eyes. Just at that particular juncture the conversation in the coach +became, if not more cheerful, decidedly more loud and animated, and +their united voices helping to drown poor Tessie's lamentations, some +poor opportunity was given her to recover herself.</p> + +<p>'You think me very silly,' she said, with a miserable attempt to smile. +'I did not know how much I cared for you until the trial—women don't +always. I thought I had a friendly feeling, and no more, till I felt I +could have killed Kate—wretch that she is! for the part she took +against you. Then I knew—that I loved you! Oh! my God! I know now! But +you would never have been told it if you had been free and rich—not +now—not now either—except I thought I could do you some good—some +good, after helping to ruin you. God forgive me!'</p> + +<p>'I have been back to Ballarat, back to Eumeralla and the Snowy River, to +other places, too, because I was determined to find out how the thing +was worked between Dayrell and Kate.'</p> + +<p>'And did you find out?' Lance said, and his voice sounded strangely +hoarse in the girl's ear—even his voice had changed, she thought. 'What +fiends there are on earth!'</p> + +<p>'I am certain that I have,' she answered. 'I daresay you wondered—and +so did I—what made Kate so venomous against you all of a sudden? +Dayrell didn't like you because you thought yourself above him, and for +another reason, and besides he wanted to get his name up for a +conviction, because so many horses had been stolen and the Commissioner +had been blaming the police.'</p> + +<p>'What was the other reason, Tessie? I never did him any harm.'</p> + +<p>'Well, it doesn't matter now, but he—he—chose to fancy he admired +me—poor me!—when we lived at Eumeralla. I never could bear the sight +of him—and showed it. One of the boys stupidly chaffed him about it +after we came to Growlers', and said I was "gone upon you," as he called +it. That foolishness made all the mischief, I believe. He set himself to +have you somehow.'</p> + +<p>'And he did! May God blast and wither his soul and body, as he has +mine!' groaned Lance, with a savage intensity that made the girl +shudder.</p> + +<p>'Oh, don't—don't!' she cried. 'I can't bear to hear you speak like +that, you seem so different when you do. Then, when you were searched, +he found a letter which you had half-written to your cousin in England, +and out of that he made greater mischief still. He finished it himself +in his own way, and then read it to Kate, making her believe that you +had been engaged to your cousin all along, and were making game of her +as a half-bred, common bush girl that you were amusing yourself with.'</p> + +<p>'Then how about seeing me at Eumeralla? <i>you</i> swore to that!' said Lance +reproachfully, unable to repress his anger as he thought of the strange +medley of fact and fraud by which he had been betrayed.</p> + +<p>'I did, God help me!' said poor Tessie, very humbly. 'Why couldn't I +swear falsely, like others? It was that villain Trevenna. I have seem +him since, but only for a moment or two. It is the most extraordinary +likeness that ever was seen. I was deceived, and so were the other +honest witnesses. He was also in the plot against you. He was an admirer +of Kate's, and she played fast and loose with him. When he heard that +you and she had met at Growlers', and were seen riding about together, +he was furious, and vowed to shoot you if he got a chance. He was in +with Ned and Dan in some cross work at Eumeralla, but only showed on +occasions. He used to come across from Omeo, where, if all reports are +true, the worst villains in all Australia are gathered together.'</p> + +<p>The day was cold, and long besides to the crowded passengers, relieved +only by a short mid-day halt for refreshment. The roads chiefly unmade +and deep with mud, through which the steaming team rushed, unrelaxing +the high rate of speed with which they had started. Their colours were +hardly discernible. Along the plank road for twenty miles matters were +something better; here the pace was at times little less than full +speed. Even then occasionally a loose plank would fly up as a horse trod +too near the end, and a shower of mud and water would be impartially +distributed. Two persons only felt not the enforced tedium to be a +weariness. Lance and Tessie, in the early gloom of a winter evening, +were enabled to talk still more at ease. They enjoyed their opportunity, +this wintry smile of fortune, as those who might never meet again in +life. So many chances were against it. But this strange interview had +been most beneficial to Lance. It had softened his heart and revived his +drooping, well-nigh extinguished faith in Providence and his fortune. +The girl persuaded him to promise that he would do his best to disarm +his gaolers by good conduct. The chances were against his finding a +second Bracker. She would find means of communicating with him from +Melbourne. Trust her for that! She had already given liberally to his +present guards, who were fully convinced that she was a young woman +deserving of every consideration.</p> + +<p>'You promise me, on your honour,' she said, as the lights of the town +and the well-macadamised street warned of the approaching halt.</p> + +<p>'My honour?' he said drearily.</p> + +<p>'Yes, your honour,' she answered proudly; 'I believe in it, and so will +others yet.'</p> + +<p>'I promise,' he said; 'may God bless you, Tessie, whatever may be my +fate.'</p> + +<p>They sat silently, her hands clasped around his, her head against his +shoulder.</p> + +<p>'Mine is a strange love tale,' she said, 'is it not? But for this +meeting, it might never have been told. No living man shall hear such +words again from me. And to think that you and I may never meet again!'</p> + +<p>The coach stopped. There was the usual bustle of escaping passengers and +mislaid luggage, as the girl threw her arms around Trevanion's neck and +kissed his lips, his cheeks, his forehead, with passionate fervour.</p> + +<p>'You are mine,' she said, 'for this day if for no other, and, unless my +heart tells me false, it is the last last time! Do not forget poor +Tessie; if she could have saved you with her life you would have been +free and happy. May God bless and keep you.'</p> + +<p>She descended the coach-steps slowly, and, walking calmly down the +lighted street without looking back, was soon lost in the crowd of busy +or pleasure-seeking wayfarers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + + +<p>After the conclusion of the sitting of the Court as presided over by His +Honour Judge Buckthorne, when Lance and Ned had been carried off to +undergo their allotted sentences, it was observed that Kate Lawless and +Sergeant Dayrell, while apparently strolling aimlessly together along +the street, were engaged in an earnest and apparently confidential +conversation.</p> + +<p>'Well, that chap was got to rights if ever a man was,' observed the +Sergeant. 'There'll be some of the flashness taken out of him before he +comes out again.'</p> + +<p>The girl looked at him searchingly before she answered. When she did +there was no triumph in her voice.</p> + +<p>'Poor devil! it <i>was</i> hard lines, when you come to think of it. And all +for a horse that he knew no more about than the dead! He looked at me, +as he walked out, so sad and fierce-like I couldn't help pitying him.'</p> + +<p>'You mean you might have pitied him if he hadn't thrown you over for the +girl at home—if he hadn't treated you like the dirt beneath his feet +after promising to marry you—after amusing himself by making love to +you as if you were a South Sea Island <i>wahine</i>!'</p> + +<p>'Perhaps he did. Suppose he did,' replied the girl musingly, evidently +in one of those fits of reactionary regret which so often in the +feminine nature—strange and enigmatical always—are prone to succeed +the exaltation of passion. 'For all that, I feel sorry, now it's over. I +can't get him out of my head, locked up in one of those beastly cells.'</p> + +<p>'Your brother Ned's in one too. You don't seem to think of him.'</p> + +<p>'No, I don't—not so much. Ned's different. He's been working for it +these years. He's lost the deal and has to pay up. He's not one to whine +either, and I'd take the odds he's out again and in the mountains long +before his time's up. But when I think of Lance and what a swell chap he +was, so hearty and jolly when we first seen him, I feel like a good +cry.'</p> + +<p>'Perhaps you'd like to pass him over to Tessie when he comes out,' +sneered the Sergeant. 'She'd be so happy to console him.'</p> + +<p>'I've that feeling for him yet, bad as he's treated me,' said the girl, +raising her head and stamping her foot, 'that I'd kill any woman that +took him from me, even now. He's played me false and thrown me over, I +know, and yet, by George!' she cried, suddenly facing round upon the +Sergeant, while her eyes flashed and her bosom heaved with sudden +passion, 'I wonder if he <i>did</i> write all you showed me? I can't read a +line, more shame to father and mother that never had me taught like that +Tessie. So what's to prevent you putting down anything you liked and +saying he wrote it? Suppose you'd been working a cross all along? Frank +Dayrell, if I ever find out as you turned dog on me that way your last +hour's come. By ——! I'd shoot you like a crow, and if I didn't I'd +find somebody that would. Don't you make any mistake.'</p> + +<p>Dayrell smiled in his old scornful way as he pointed out the extreme +improbability of Lance's writing to his affianced bride in England in +any other way. What else was he to say to her? 'Why, you never thought +he would marry you, did you, Kate?'</p> + +<p>'Why did he make a fool of me then?' said the girl, standing slightly +back and facing the trooper as if, like the tigress which such women are +said to resemble, she needed but another spark of anger to cause her to +spring upon him and rend with tooth and talon. 'Why shouldn't he marry +me? I'd have made him as good a wife as that girl or any other in the +world, I don't care who she was. I know I'm ignorant and all that, but +one woman's as good as another if she takes to a man. That makes all the +difference, and I'd have blacked his boots and waited on him hand and +foot, and been a good woman too, if he'd been true to me—as God hears +me, I could—I would!'</p> + +<p>And here, wrought up by a strange admixture of feelings—remorse, +regret, disappointment, doubt, and suspicion—newly aroused, the +half-wild daughter of the woods burst into tears and abandoned herself +to the womanly indulgence of a fit of passionate lamentation.</p> + +<p>'It's too late now, Kate,' he said after a while, coolly removing his +cigar, which he had lighted at the first appearance of lamentation. +'Better clear out for Eumeralla and make it up with Trevenna. I believe +you carried on with him till Lance came on the scene. He's a handsome +fellow, and Tessie, you know, and some other people couldn't tell the +difference.'</p> + +<p>Then he laughed in a sardonic, derisive manner, as though the joke was +an exceedingly good one—irresistible indeed.</p> + +<p>Kate Lawless dried her eyes and looked keenly at him with an expression +of contempt and dislike which, in spite of his habitual indifference, he +by no means relished.</p> + +<p>'Frank Dayrell,' she said, 'I believe you're the very devil himself; I +see your game partly now. You'd a down on Lance because Tessie was gone +on him, and wouldn't look at you. That's a nice reason to lag a man for, +isn't it? And if you'd play false in one thing, you would in another. I +see how you've worked it, partly. When I find out the rest it'll be a +bad day for you, mark my words. Good-bye.'</p> + +<p>'Good-bye, Miss Lawless!' here he made her a deferential and elaborate +bow. 'You'd better be civil though, or I may have to run in Larry +Trevenna. That'll make a double widow of you—the man you'll marry and +the man you were going to marry. Smart work that, eh?'</p> + +<p>'You look out for yourself, Dayrell,' she replied, as she moved slowly +away from him. 'You're pretty smart, but that mightn't save you some +day. You take my tip and leave us alone from this day out.'</p> + +<p>Thus they parted. The girl walked sullenly away—the Sergeant, strolling +in another direction, hummed an air from an opera, stepping lightly as +might a man without a care in the world. Had he but known the future! +How heedless are the feet of men, surrounded by the traps and pitfalls +of Fate, all ignorant, mercifully, that a few inches one way or the +other means instant, irrevocable destruction. As for the woman, she went +on her way and he saw her no more.</p> + +<p>'I wonder what the deuce <i>will</i> become of the fair Kate?' he said +musingly, and half aloud, as he strolled along leisurely towards the +police camp. 'If she marries this fellow Trevenna she'll be paid out for +her sins, whatever they are. He's the making of one of the most precious +scoundrels that even this colony ever saw. The Lawlesses crowd can't +teach him much. If he marries her there'll be murder or something like +it before long. I think I see my way to another sensational case before +the game's played out—more than one indeed.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The town at which the coach had stopped, on this his first and +memorable journey as a prisoner accommodated with leg-irons and +handcuffs, was Geelong, to the gaol of which town Lance was relegated +for the purpose of being forwarded to the hulk <i>President</i>. Accordingly, +after due course of procedure, Lance found himself one morning in a +police boat seated between his two Ballarat warders in near proximity to +the celebrated <i>Sacramento</i>. When they came within a certain distance of +the vessel they rested on their oars and commenced a conversation. The +ship's trumpet replied, but afforded no manner of information to Lance. +Apparently the colloquy was satisfactory. The sentry, who had been +steadily pointing his musket in their direction, presented it towards +the lighthouse, and all requisite permission being obtained the +momentous embarkation was commenced.</p> + +<p>The hulk <i>President</i> was a plain solid barque of one thousand tons +register, broad in the beam. Dutch-built was she, and had been strong to +encounter storms, but was destined to defy such forces no more.</p> + +<p>On the fore part of her deck an iron roof protected the galley and +water-tank, giving her an expression of being settled in life. In front +of and around her bows was a planked and railed gangway, along which a +warder with a loaded rifle marched to and fro.</p> + +<p>The heat of the summer suns reflected from the cloudless sky, the +shimmering water plain, had blistered the paint—a staring dreadful +yellow it was—upon her weather-worn hull. Armed figures walked on +either side of this terrible vessel. Except the solitary boat in which +Lance was a passenger, nothing seemed to come near. To his excited fancy +she seemed a plague ship. He could imagine the dead in their +heavily-weighted shrouds being cast in scores from her gloomy +port-holes. He stared at her in sullen silence. He had lost the habit of +ejaculation. What did it matter—what did anything matter? He was in +hell. In hell! What difference did the depth of the pit, more or less, +make, once within the Inferno?</p> + +<p>There was a swell, consequent on a gale which had been blowing on the +previous night. The boat rocked and pitched as she came alongside of the +grim ungainly hulk. His fetters made it difficult for him to step from +the boat to the ladder. He tripped, and one of the warders was +constrained to hold him up.</p> + +<p>'Look out! you mustn't drop overboard and cheat Her Majesty's +Government like Dickson did last month. Blest if you wouldn't go down +like a stone with them clinks on.'</p> + +<p>A quick regret passed through Lance's heart that he had not dropped +quietly overboard, and so exchanged this torture-ship for eternal rest +and peace. But he clambered up with one warder in front and one +immediately behind.</p> + +<p>At the deck he was met by the first and second officers, to whom an +important-looking document was presented by the senior warder who had +come down in charge.</p> + +<p>'H—m, ha!' remarked the dignitary, opening it with deliberation and +then glancing searchingly at Lance. 'Refractory, determined, and—put +him into number fifty-six. If lower deck don't suit him, we must move +him aft. Show the way, Mr. Grastow.'</p> + +<p>The 'way' led down a narrow ladder, the gradient of which was such that +the fettered man, heavily weighted as he was, had some difficulty in +getting down safe. However, as before, one warder preceding and one +following, he was partly supported, partly led. As he touched the deck +he looked round, and for an instant laughed aloud at the grim pleasantry +which, like a ray of light in a dungeon cell, had found access to his +brain. He was on board a slaver! His boyhood rose up before him, and he +saw himself again reading <i>Tom Cringle's Log</i> under the King's oak at +Wychwood. There were the iron gratings above, through which the sun came +grudgingly, which afforded the only air and light to the long low +corridor into which the deck had been altered. Rows of small cells on +either side, each duly numbered, into which a herd of some forty or +fifty chained men were being driven, as it appeared to him. In the gloom +of the half-lighted passage their dark or sallow countenances, in which +the eyes and teeth alone gleamed in relief, might well have passed for +those of negroes. They laughed and talked or cursed and swore with a +freedom which surprised Lance, used to the strict and silent rule of the +Ballarat gaol. It was their recreation hour, he found. They had returned +from their exercise on deck.</p> + +<p>As he scanned these foul and hideous countenances, from which all +semblance of the higher human attributes had departed, he shuddered +involuntarily, and a groan so deep and hollow came from him that the +warders who had accompanied him were affected.</p> + +<p>'Don't you take on, Number Fifty-six,' said one, 'it's a deal worse than +Ballarat, but you go in for good conduct now and your time won't be so +long in runnin' out. See what you've got by behaving awkward, and +they're a deal worse, if you go contrairy here, than ever our lot was.'</p> + +<p>'Down the ladder,' said the officer of the <i>President</i>; 'we've no time +to spare in this ship.'</p> + +<p>Lower, lower still, another ladder, another deck. Here the gratings were +nearer to the floor, the cells were smaller and more numerous, the whole +arrangement still more nearly resembling his fancy of the slave-ship. +Had there been a row of miserable Africans sitting down, with another +row between their knees, and another yet in the same condition, as was +formerly the human method of packing the 'goods' so largely dealt in by +our good friends the Spaniards, Portuguese, and French, and indeed our +own most merciful and Christian nation, the illusion would have been +complete. They would have sold well in Victoria at that time, doubtless, +labour being so very scarce and valuable. The air, fœtid with the +odours and emanations from three hundred men, having even to be filtered +through the crowded deck above them, was indescribably offensive. In +spite of ordinary precautions, the odour was that of galley-slaves. +Below the level of the waters of the bay as this deck was, Lance could +hear the waves washing beside the prison-house, while from the cells, +the bolts of which were partially drawn and the opening secured with a +chain, came ribald songs, yells, and curses, with an occasional noise of +weeping and bursts of yet more dreadful laughter.</p> + +<p>Walking forward still towards the stern, they came to a cell numbered +fifty-six on the south side of the vessel. At no great distance, and +dividing it from the after-cabin, which was used as a sort of +store-room, was a grating of massive iron bars extending from one side +of the ship to the other.</p> + +<p>The padlock was unlocked, the massive bolt shot back from the staple, +and Lance saw his habitation. A low, narrow cell, with heavy timber on +every side, only excepting a small port-hole narrowing outwards and +capable of being closed at will. The length to the concave wall of the +vessel's side was about eight feet, the width scarcely six. From two +iron hooks hung a rude canvas hammock. Here he must abide for the +present. It would depend upon himself whether he remained there.</p> + +<p>From the timbers of the vessel's side protruded an iron ring with a +short chain dependent from it.</p> + +<p>'What's that for?' said one of the Ballarat gaolers.</p> + +<p>'Oh, nothing,' returned the hulk warder, 'it's there in case it's +wanted.'</p> + +<p>The narrow door closed, the heavy bolt shot into its place, the +padlock-key turned, and Trevanion was alone and at sea once more. Once +more Lance Trevanion found himself on ship-board, but under what +different circumstances. He felt the heaving deck under his feet. The +day was dark and squally, and the barque rolled and pitched in a +sufficiently lively manner. The familiar movement recalled the scenes +which he had loved so well. He was a born sailor, and of the breed of +men that joy in the strife of wind and wave. The revulsion of feeling +was so great that he staggered and well-nigh fell.</p> + +<p>How well he remembered the last time he had been at sea; the voyage out, +so free and joyous in spite of minor discomforts; the perfect +independence, the hearty, unconventional comradeship, the delight with +which all greeted the first step on <i>terra firma</i>; the general wonder, +excitement, and eager expectation of rapid fortunes to be acquired in +this strange new land of gold.</p> + +<p>And now he was a chained and guarded felon, reserved for Heaven alone +knew what new degradation, even torture, in this sea dungeon. Long +before dark—the days were short in July—a warder came with bread and +water.</p> + +<p>'When do we go on shore to work?' asked Lance, thinking to adapt himself +to his changed condition.</p> + +<p>'Work? They don't do no work in the <i>President</i>; this is the punishment +hulk. All you chaps is supposed to belong to the 'fractory lot—my word! +some of 'em just are, and no mistake. You gets one hour a day exercise +on deck. Ten on yer's sent up in the cage at a time. The rest of the +twenty-four hours has to be took out in the cell.'</p> + +<p>'My God!' groaned out the unhappy man, 'can this be true, twenty-three +hours in this den? Surely such cruelty can never be permitted.'</p> + +<p>'That's about the size of it, Fifty-six,' answered the warder, preparing +to lock up and depart. 'And the sooner you make up your mind to man it, +the better it'll be for you and the sooner you'll be drafted to the +<i>Success</i>, when you'll have a chance of fresh air. So long.'</p> + +<p>The lock closed, the bolt clanged, and Lance was left to sit down where +the last captive had leaned his weary frame, till his prison shoes—not +heavy either—had worn into the solid planking, and when at last heart +and brain had risen in wild revolt and he had cast away the wasted life +which had become so valueless and unendurable.</p> + +<p>From the time when the door that closed upon hope and the outer world +clanged to, Lance Trevanion sat statue-like and motionless. The day +passed, the cell grew darker, the night came with no cessation of the +subdued but truly infernal din of noise to which nearly every cell +contributed its quota. The wind rose and moaned, the ship rocked more +heavily, the waves plashed around and above his cell, and still Lance +Trevanion stirred not. He <i>must</i> have slept at length, worn out and +over-fatigued, for he started suddenly from a dream of Wychwood and the +first meet of the season to feel the sun feebly lighting up his prison, +to listen and shudder as his irons clanked with the instinctive +movement.</p> + +<p>He sat up and gazed around for a while in the half-stupefied condition +produced by conflicting sensations. He endeavoured to collect his +thoughts and to resolve upon a course of action. What was he to do? At +present the mode of life—rather the living death—to which he felt +himself condemned seemed intolerable. But much would depend upon the +duration of the strictly penal term. If it were a matter of months only, +it might be borne. Then he would be 'promoted' to the <i>Success</i>, would +enjoy the favoured position of being permitted to work for ten hours a +day in a quarry—heavily ironed, of course—and on an equality and in +company with some of the most atrocious scoundrels that any country had +ever produced. It was not an alluring prospect. Still, he had at any +rate no actually malignant enemy like Bracker. It might be possible to +establish a friendly feeling with some of his guardians. He would make +the attempt. Even escape did not seem so altogether impossible. He +remembered Tessie's words. He knew that what one woman could do she +would accomplish. A man here and there <i>had</i> escaped from the hulks and +got clear off, several had been drowned, two had been shot. Still these +were fair risks. The twenty-three hours a day in the cell constituted a +maddening monotony of captivity. Yet, from whatever reason, whether from +the sea air, his unexpected meeting with Tessie Lawless, or 'something +which never can be expressed,' Lance Trevanion's spirits rose higher +than they had done since the day of his conviction, and in the depth of +his saddened heart stirred a feeling that was almost hope.</p> + +<p>When his gaoler made his appearance with the one-pound loaf of bread +which was to serve for his daily dole and the can of water similarly +apportioned, he assumed a cheerful air. 'When do we go up for exercise?' +he said.</p> + +<p>'Your batch'll be sent up at eleven o'clock, Fifty-six. Then you get +down just in time for dinner, half-pound boiled beef for you then, so +you can save some for supper; half-pound of vegetables. That'll be the +lot.'</p> + +<p>'Now look here, I don't know your name—oh, Grastow! what I want to say +is, I have only two years to serve. When I get out I shall have plenty +of money. I can make it <span class="smcap">WELL</span> worth your while to help me; what do you +say? Is there any harm in that?'</p> + +<p>'I don't know as there is, Fifty-six,' replied the gaoler warily. 'But a +many of the crew of the <i>President</i> (we call 'em the crew among +ourselves) says the same thing. When they gets out they nat'rally +forgets. What are we to do? We can't summons 'em in the Small Debts +Court; how am I to know ye ain't on that lay?'</p> + +<p>'I can show you how if you'll carry a note from me on shore and leave it +in the post-office. I'll guarantee a five-pound note is sent to any +address you name within twenty-four hours.'</p> + +<p>'Ten-pun' note might do something,' answered the warder reflectively. +'The risk's a big 'un. If I'm nabbed I lose my berth straight off and +stand a blessed good chance of being brought into one of these here +fancy shops myself.'</p> + +<p>'Why, who's to know?'</p> + +<p>'Well,' replied the warder, looking round, 'it 'ud stun yer to count the +spies that seem to be bred regular in a place like this, one man +watching another for the reward. But I'll chance it, I will, the first +time I go ashore. Now then, you Fifty-five, what are you making all that +row for?'</p> + +<p>The occupant of the next cell, Number Fifty-five, as he was in due +sequence, had apparently gone mad. He raved and shrieked, cursed and +yelled continuously. He banged at the door, which he could not well kick +as they had taken away his boots. But ever and anon he amused himself +with wildly extravagant rhapsodies, as well as by devoting his gaolers +to the infernal deities, as also the heads of any Church running counter +to his sectarian prejudices. Then he was taken out, secured, and hauled +before the chief officer for punishment. That autocrat ordered the +sullen-visaged 'Vandemonian,' as the warders designated him, to undergo +several days in the 'box' on bread and water. He was carried off, +struggling and cursing, by main force, being crammed into the 'box' +aforesaid. This retreat, which was inspected by Lance on another +occasion, appeared to be a species of <i>oubliette</i>, apparently in the +very keel of the vessel, so constructed that the delinquent could +neither stand up, lie down, nor sit with ease. In addition to this +rigorous confinement a gag was placed in the mouth of the offender if he +refused to stop his unseemly outcry.</p> + +<p>A few minutes before eleven o'clock Lance's door was unlocked, and he +was summoned forth to take part in a new portion of the programme. Being +marched into the centre of the passage, he there saw a large iron cage, +of which the door, just sufficiently large to admit one man, was opened. +On either side stood an armed sentry with rifle at the <i>poise</i>.</p> + +<p>An additional pair of warders was in attendance. The inmates of the +cells, called by number, not by name, shuffled or stumbled out and made +for the door of the cage, like tamed wild beasts under the keeper's +whip.</p> + +<p>It was a piteous, strangely-moving sight to a lover of his kind, had +such been there. Men of various types and all ages obeyed the +summons—the white-haired convict, reckless and hopeless, the larger +half of whose life had been spent within prison walls, and who was now +doomed to linger out the last years of a ruined life in places of +confinement. The whole expression of the face denoted the human wreck +which the <i>forçat</i> had become. The evil eye, furtive yet ferocious, the +animal mouth and jaw, the shaven, sallow cheek—every faculty once +capable of rising to the loftier attributes of manhood seemed +obliterated—the residuum but approached the type of the simian +anthropoid—bestial, savage, obscene.</p> + +<p>'Great God!' thought Lance, as one by one the felons passed into this +cage, some young and hardly developed into fullest manhood like himself, +some of middle age, some stunted and decrepit, bowed and misshapen from +constant confinement and the weight of their irons, yet all with the +same criminal impress upon form and feature,—'Great God! shall I ever +become like these men? And yet once I had as little fear of becoming +<i>what I am</i>——'</p> + +<p>He passed in last, the door was shut, the cage commenced to ascend. His +companions grinned and chuckled as, with a brutal oath, the older +convict asked what he was sent on board for.</p> + +<p>Lance hesitated for a moment, and then, reflecting that if he attempted +to show what his companions in misery might consider airs of superiority +they would find some way of revenging themselves, answered in as +careless a manner as he could assume—</p> + +<p>'Well, I knocked over the head warder at Ballarat.'</p> + +<p>'Good boy! What for?'</p> + +<p>'He had been "running" me—wanted to make me break out, I suppose. I +couldn't stand it any longer and went for him.'</p> + +<p>'Why didn't yer choke the —— wretch?'</p> + +<p>'Because I hadn't time.' Here the savage joy which he experienced when +his enemy lay gasping beneath him came with a rush of recollection, and +the old fire, so long absent, glowed lurid in his eyes. 'Another second +or two and Bracker would have been a dead man.'</p> + +<p>'Bracker, was it?' said one of the younger convicts. 'I was under him at +Pentridge, and a —— dog he was! He tormented a cove there till he +hanged himself. I'm dashed glad he copped it, anyhow.'</p> + +<p>'You're a right 'un, anyhow,' said the older convict approvingly. 'It +wants a chap like you now and then to straighten them infernal wretches +that think a man's like a log of wood as you chop and chip at till it's +all done. I learned one of 'em different on the other side, and there's +one or two here as'll get a surprise yet if they don't look out.'</p> + +<p>At this stage of the conversation the slowly-ascending contrivance +reached the upper deck, and the inmates became as stolidly silent as +Eastern mutes.</p> + +<p>One by one, covered by the rifles of the deck guards, they stepped out +and followed each other in the shuffling walk peculiar to heavily-ironed +men along and around the deck. Each man was a certain distance behind +the one immediately preceding him. The foremost man walked to the bow of +the vessel. When reached, he turned stiffly round as if by machinery, +and resumed the same monotonous tramp in the opposite direction.</p> + +<p>Melancholy treadmill and mockery of locomotion as was this parade, still +it was not wholly without its attractions. The vision arose before their +aching eyes of the blue sky, the dancing wave, the far-off purple +mountain. There drove seaward an outgoing steamer. Alas, alas! what a +world of vain regrets did she evoke in Lance's mind! There were +white-winged gulls, yachts and skiffs that resembled them in free and +graceful flight. All these constituted a pageant impossible of +production within prison walls. Then the ocean breeze, with every +inspiration after the fœtid atmosphere of the lower deck, revived and +in a sense exhilarated them. These joys and glories of the sea could not +be shut out even from the gaze of the fettered captives, unless the +further refinement of punishment of blindfolding had been added. And +even in the <i>President</i> none of the officials had hit upon this +deterrent device.</p> + +<p>So by the time that Lance and his fellows had completed their allotted +tramp, at the end of which time he was fatigued, unused as he was to +lift his legs with such an encumbering weight, he felt, somewhat to his +surprise, that his general tone had been raised. He saw the shore, then +known as Liardet's Beach, which did not seem so great a distance away. +He could imagine in the night, when a dense fog enveloped the mud flats +of the bay, the low sandy beach, the thickets of the tall ti-tree +(<i>melaleuca</i>), that either by swimming or with friendly aid a prisoner +might cross the intervening stretch of mud flat, so dreary and darksome +at low water, and, disappearing into the thickets, be as little likely +to be again seen as a ghost flitting at cock-crow.</p> + +<p>During the remainder of this day Lance was sensible of an unusual +feeling of exaltation, so much so that when night came,—the dreary +night commencing so early and ending so late, when sleep would have been +the most precious of boons,—he was wholly unable to compose himself to +rest, as the phrase in orthodox fiction runs: Compose himself!—irony of +ironies!—with the murmur of the prison herd in his ears, in which ever +and anon a maniacal shriek shrilled through the murky midnight air.</p> + +<p>The waves plashed and the rising gale moaned as if in natural protest +against the foul cargo of crime, misery, and despair amid which he lay.</p> + +<p>In the strange half-delirious fancies which coursed through his brain, +he saw, plainly as it seemed to him, the face of the God-forsaken, +desperate criminal who had last occupied this very cell. He saw him +sitting crouched, hour after hour, day after day, in the very place +where he sat. He marked the spot where his boot-heels had worn the solid +plank. He saw him taken out to punishment. He saw him return more +dogged, hopeless, and defiant than before. Lastly, he could see him +apparently standing upright, but in reality suspended by the twisted +woollen cord, his blanket torn into strips, gone to carry his case into +that ultimate court of appeal where the wrongs of earth shall be righted +by the justice of Heaven.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>From this time Lance Trevanion experienced a complete change of +sensation. 'Cabined, cribbed, confined' as he was most literally, there +seemed to have been breathed into his soul with the salt scent of the +ocean that which no art of man could shut out—the hope of freedom, the +promise of escape. Moreover, a brief note had reached the address agreed +upon between him and Tessie, and the warder, finding it transmutable +into sovereigns, had formed a different opinion of Number Fifty-six. He +began to look upon him as a victim of oppression, as something out of +the run of the ordinary 'crew' of the <i>President</i>; finally as a young +man who was worth taking a little trouble about, and for whom it might +in the end be worth encountering even the serious risk of dismissal. +After all, if made worth his while, what did dismissal from the +Government service amount to? It involved no moral stigma, no personal +disadvantage. If he cleared out with cash enough to set up a +public-house, or even a store, at some of these new goldfields which +were 'breaking out' every day, how could he do better?</p> + +<p>Having established friendly relations with his immediate attendant, +Lance soon proceeded to reap the benefit of confidential intercourse. +Articles of food, 'medical comforts'—luxuries, even—were smuggled in +to Number Fifty-six. With the aid of these and recovered appetite, born +of the sea air, and the tonic ideas which now pervaded his system, Lance +improved measurably. He was reported to the chief officer for good +conduct, and that dread official was pleased to address him one day, +and, remarking upon his behaviour, to inform him that he would be +transferred to the hulk <i>Success</i> at the end of three months, being much +earlier than, from the grave nature of his offence, he might have +calculated upon. Lance touched his cap, smiling bitterly as he shuffled +off on his mechanical round with the faint rattle which his chains +<i>would</i> make, however carefully he might be-wrap and bandage them.</p> + +<p>At the end of three months! Well, the first week was over. It had seemed +a month, and there were eleven more to follow before the penal period +would be completed. In Heaven's name, what was he to do until then, hour +after hour in solitude? But one little hour on deck, again to feel the +free ocean breeze, to note the curling waves, the gliding sea-bird. +Sometimes, indeed, even this faint solace was debarred. When the weather +was rough and the hulk unsteady at her moorings, the hour's exercise, +that precious respite, was forbidden. It was too difficult to haul up +the cage, to supervise satisfactorily the deck occupants. So the dark +dull day was fated to end in gloom and sadness as it had commenced. +Sometimes, indeed, the second day passed over without the blessed +interval. Not until the bad weather came to an end were the ill-fated +captives permitted the scanty dole of fresh air and sunshine.</p> + +<p>As much of Lance's leisure time while at exercise as he could devote to +this sort of reconnoitring he managed to concentrate on the mud flats, +which at low tide were hardly a mile distant. These he carefully +examined. He learnt by heart their bearings from the shore; satisfied +himself that once there he could manage for himself. Of course there was +the reverse side of the shield. The hulks—more especially the +<i>President</i>, as holding a sample of the worst and most desperate +criminals of the whole prison population—were most closely watched. No +boats but those of the water police were permitted to come within an +area marked by buoys, more than half a mile square. Was it worth while +to run the risk of being caught and run down by these, or would it be +more prudent to await his transfer to the <i>Success</i> and take the chance +of escaping from the quarries?</p> + +<p>The latter idea seemed feasible. Amid a regiment of convicts nearly a +thousand strong, who worked from 7 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> to 5 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> in the quarries, at +the piers, or the building of a lighthouse—surely amid such an army of +labourers some opportunity of escape would be afforded him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, in spite of adverse circumstances, matters were decidedly +improving. His friendly gaoler showed him how he could keep his +port-hole open in fine weather, even after locking-up time for the +night, and by other concessions materially lightened for him the weary +hours.</p> + +<p>More than once too had he received a letter from Tessie, carefully +written on the smallest possible scrap of paper, but with its few words +of priceless value and comfort to the captive. In the last one a +distinct plan of escape was devised.</p> + +<p>At this time, among the various pursuits and avocations by means of +which men of gentle nurture who had been unsuccessful at the goldfields +procured a living while leading an independent life, that of +wild-fowling ranked high. Game of all sorts was readily saleable at +fabulous prices to the hotel and restaurant keepers of Melbourne. Every +day scores of men, with pockets stuffed with bank notes, came to the +metropolis eager to embark for England with what seemed a fortune to +them, or to enjoy a season of revelry preparatory to returning to +Ballarat or Bendigo. There was, as the miner's phrase then went, 'plenty +more where that came from.' With such free-handed customers a +<i>recherché</i> dinner, with fish, game, and fruit, preceding a theatre +party, was indispensable. The cost was not counted. Bills were despised +in those days when every river in favoured districts was a Pactolus. +Hotel-keepers and tradesfolk were reproached for their meanness in not +swelling their totals to a respectable sum. The free-handed miner, whose +drafts, payable in the rich red gold Dame Nature was so proud to honour, +mocked at expense, and exacted profusion at his quasi-luxurious +banquets. Such being the state of affairs, with teal and widgeon at ten +shillings a brace, and black duck at a sovereign the pair, a reduced +gentleman, with a punt and duck gun, was enabled to lead a +philosophical, remunerative, and far from laborious existence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + + +<p>It came at last—the week—the day—the very night to which Lance had +looked forward with such nervous anxiety. When compelled to pace the +deck for the last morning, as he trusted, with his chained comrades, he +barely concealed his exultation at the thought that on the morrow he +might be a free man once more. He feared it would be visible in his +countenance, in his very step, which in spite of himself was almost +elastic, causing his chains to clank unusually. Indeed one of his +fellows in adversity noticed it.</p> + +<p>Keen to detect the slightest change from the stereotyped prison bearing, +he growled out, 'What the —— are ye at, step-dancing with your +bloomin' irons, ye —— fool? They'll clap the fourteen-pound clinks on +ye if ye try the shakin' lay. Stoush it, ye ——'</p> + +<p>The words were perhaps unfit for publication, but the intention was not +all unkind. The trained <i>forçat</i> had quickly divined that something not +in the programme—an 'extra,' so to speak—was likely to be played, and +thus warned him against premature elation.</p> + +<p>Lance felt his heart stop as the possibility occurred to him that the +caprice of a warder might order him to wear irons weighing a quarter of +a hundredweight in place of the comparatively light ones which at +present confined his limbs. He at once 'dropped,' as the adviser would +have phrased it, and falling into the chain-gang shuffle as if +instinctively, said, 'All right, Scotty, this foggy day makes a fellow +want to warm his feet.'</p> + +<p>'Warm your feet!' scoffed the convict, 'you'll be lucky if you can raise +a trot without hobbles these years to come. When your time's up they'll +have ye for something else, like they did me. Once they've got a cove on +these —— hell-boats they don't like to let him go again.'</p> + +<p>'How long have you been lagged, Scotty?' inquired Lance, less indeed +impelled by curiosity than desirous of turning the conversation from +what he felt was a dangerous direction.</p> + +<p>'Me?' growled the convict hoarsely, glaring for a moment at Lance with +his wolfish eyes—eyes which rarely met those of another steadfastly. 'I +did ten stretch on the Derwent afore I come across the Straits—ten long +years. That warn't enough for 'em, for I hadn't been a year at Bendigo +when I was "lumbered" for robbing a cove's tent as I'd never been nigh. +No! God strike me dead if I had! I knew the chap as did the "touch" as +well as I know you. He and Black Douglas did it between 'em. But I'd a +bad name. I'd come from the other side, and I was picked upon. I was +seen going towards the tent the night before. The chaps that lost their +gold swore to me; they wanted to "cop" somebody. And there was I, as was +going straight and had a good claim and didn't need to rob nobody, and +thought I had a chance in a new country, there was I—"lagged" and +dragged aboard again, and me no more in it than a sucking child. I went +<i>mad</i> pretty well, and here's the end of it. But by ——' and here the +half-insane felon swore a terrible oath, 'I'll give 'em something to +talk about afore I'm done, and it'll be true this time—true as +death—death—death!'</p> + +<p>Here the unfortunate creature, whose features had gradually assumed an +expression of ungovernable rage, lashed to fury by the thought of real +or fancied injustice, raised his voice to a shriek like the cry of a +wild beast, and with every feature working like those of an epileptic, +fell on the floor of the deck helpless and insensible.</p> + +<p>'What's all this?' demanded a warder, marching to the spot, yet +cautiously, as always doubtful of a rush among the fierce animals over +which he and his comrades ruled. 'Dash it all, you fellows are like a +lot of old women—jabber, jabber. I shall have to put some of you in the +black hole if you don't look out.'</p> + +<p>'It's only Scotty, sir,' answered a crafty-looking convict who had been +looking on, with a strange mysterious smile. 'He's got a fit or +somethink. He's always mad when he gets on that Bendigo yarn of his.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, Scotty, is it?' replied the warder carelessly. 'Throw a bucket of +salt water over him; he'll come to directly. Your hour's up all but five +minutes, men. You can go below and keep quiet, or it'll be worse for +some of you.'</p> + +<p>So below they went, in tens and tens, one after the other, murmuring and +cursing among themselves, devoting Scotty, Lance, and the warder to the +least respectable deities, yet not daring to raise their voices lest the +dreaded 'black hole' or the more terrible 'box' should be apportioned to +some of them with indiscriminate severity.</p> + +<p>Lance, perhaps, was the only one who retired to his cell with a feeling +of satisfaction. Gloomy was the evening, dark yet not stormy. Brooding +over all things hung an enshrouding, clinging fog. The lights of the +vessels in the bay were invisible until the boats almost ran against +their sides, then they appeared like blurred and wavering moons. The +invisible flocks of sea-birds flying landwards, true precursors of a +storm, wailed and shrieked in curiously weird cadence, like the ghosts +of shipwrecked mariners. Yet no breath of rising wind or gathering +tempest stirred the black waveless plain which stretched for so many a +mile seaward and lay illimitable between the murky shores. To those long +versed in sea signs—and there were many such on board this mockery of a +ship—a storm was imminent. Phantom-like, motionless, lay the +<i>President</i> on the oily moveless deep, a corpse-like hull upon the +lifeless water. In that hour she seemed a derelict of that dread fleet +which the poet dreamed of in his weirdest, grandest poem:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'And ships were drifting with the dead<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To shores where all were dumb.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>If there was a period of comparative rest and peace in that lazar ship, +choked to the gunwales with human nature's foulest disorders, it was +between the second and third hour after midnight. Before that time there +was little or no repose, much less silence. The restless felons, +debarred from work or exercise, were loath to sleep or to permit such +indulgence to others. But from about an hour after midnight to the +lingering winter dawn a certain, or rather uncertain, quantity of sleep +was procured. Not incorrectly may it be said that then in all abodes of +sin and wretchedness.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The wicked cease from troubling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the weary are at rest.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The hush of nature, the strange compulsion of the tangible darkness and +solemn stillness of the night, was unbroken save by the flights of +sea-fowl and the occasional sound from the shore, when softly yet +distinctly touching the very stern of the vessel a grating sound was +heard by Lance, secreted in an old state-room. Two large-sized ports, +through which a man could easily crawl and drop himself into the water +or on a boat below, were open. 'Lower away,' said a carefully modulated +voice, 'and look sharp.'</p> + +<p>As he spoke a stout rope was let down, of which the man in the boat-punt +laid hold. Lance leaned out through the wide port of the state-room and +could just distinguish the outline of a small boat. 'Drop slowly down,' +said the strange voice; 'gently does it.'</p> + +<p>The captive had by this time seated himself on the window-sill with his +legs outward. His irons were wrapped and muffled with portions of his +blanket, which he had sacrificed for the purpose. A twisted rope was +made of strips of the same material, a stout gray woollen, woven and +milled in Pentridge, and therefore free from shoddy and mixture.</p> + +<p>Adown this Lance cautiously lowered himself—how cautiously and +anxiously! A slip—a touch of foot on the side instead of the centre of +the frail bark, and failure—recapture even—were imminent. The splash +would at once alarm the vigilant ears of the sentries, whose +rifle-bullets would be spurting in and about the spot in no time. Inch +by inch he lowered himself until he felt a man's hand touch and steady +him. His feet were on the flat bottom of a ducking canoe which floated +low on the surface of the stirless deep. Lower still and lower he sank +down until he found himself sitting on the floor of the punt with an arm +on either thwart and his back nearly touching the stern. With one strong +noiseless stroke the strange boatman sent his light craft yards away +from the prison-ship, and as the hull vanished abruptly, swallowed up in +the Egyptian darkness of the night, Lance felt a great throb at his +heart. He inhaled joyously the salt odour of the tide, for he knew that, +bar accidents, he was again a free man.</p> + +<p>'Steady,' said the boatman in a low but distinct voice as he settled to +his sculls, 'another quarter of a mile and we may talk as much as you +please. We shall make the shore before yon black cloud bursts, and after +that no boat leaves any ship in the bay till sunrise.'</p> + +<p>Lance sat carefully still, and indeed had little inclination to talk for +a while. Swiftly, smoothly, they seemed to speed through the ebon +darkness lit up from time to time by the phosphorescent scintillations +which fell from the black water at each dip of the oars.</p> + +<p>'How do you steer?' he said at length. 'It wouldn't do to get lost in +this fog; we might easily be picked up, and then my fate would be worse +than before.'</p> + +<p>'See that light?' said the rower, pointing to a tiny speck like a +beacon, miles away on the main.</p> + +<p>'I do see a very small glimmering,' said Lance; 'are you sure that is +the right direction?'</p> + +<p>'That light,' said the stranger slowly, 'is a fire in a nail can which +is kept alight by my mate. It stands before our hut in Fisherman's Bend, +and there could not be a better place to land.'</p> + +<p>'How so?'</p> + +<p>'Because it is cut off before and behind by marshes. There is no track +to Liardet's Beach, which is only half a mile off. There is a mud flat +in front, and hardly any one but ourselves knows the channel. It's dead +low water now; any boat, even if they chased us, would be stuck in the +mud in ten minutes, and it isn't every one that knows how to get off +again.'</p> + +<p>'Then we're right, and I'm a free man once more. Great God of Heaven! +what a feeling it is. May I ask your name, the name of a man that's +saved my life?'</p> + +<p>'My name's Wheeler. Not that it matters much, unless I'm had up for +being so soft-hearted as to mix myself up with the law's victims. But +one gentleman takes a fancy to help another now and then in this +topsy-turvy country. I've heard and can see for myself that you're one.'</p> + +<p>'I <i>was</i>,' groaned out Lance. 'People called me one. Shall I ever be one +again?'</p> + +<p>Here his irons, stirred with an involuntary movement, made a slight +sound.</p> + +<p>'That is the answer. My God, what had I done that I should be tortured +thus?' His head sank down upon his knees, and he made no sound or sign +till the boat glided up to the verge of the small beacon light and a +second man appeared out of the darkness, taking hold of the painter +which was thrown out to him.</p> + +<p>'Haul her up, Joe, as far as you can,' said the boatman, stepping out on +the low sedgy bank, so low as to be barely distinguishable above the +water. 'Stop, I'll help you. Sit quiet then till we come to you.'</p> + +<p>The shallow canoe, with the prow released from weight and tilted up, was +pulled bodily on to the land. Then the men stood on either side of +Lance, and, raising him from his cramped position, helped him to step on +to <i>terra firma</i>, and thence into the door of a small hut, in front of +which stood the nail can aforesaid.</p> + +<p>The hut was small, but weather-tight and snug as to its interior +fittings, displaying the extreme neatness coupled with economy of space +often observable where men live by themselves, especially if one of the +celibates happens to have been a sailor.</p> + +<p>'This is my mate, Trevanion,' said the first mariner. 'His name's Joe +Collins, formerly second lieutenant of Her Majesty's ship <i>Avenger</i>. My +name you know, so we needn't stand on ceremony with one another. We are +well posted up in your story, thanks to your plucky pretty friend, so +there's no need for explanation. You and I are ready for supper, I +suspect, so we'll turn to while Collins sees to the canoe and makes all +tight for the night. There's the first storm-note; it's going to blow +great guns before long, just as I thought it would.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Wheeler rattled on in a cheery, careless sort of way, while his +friend went in and out, fed the dogs, of which they had two or three +couples—retrievers, terriers, and one of the tall handsome greyhounds, +the kangaroo dog of the colonists. Lance knew that the talkativeness was +assumed for the sake of putting him at his ease. Too strange and excited +to converse himself, he could but sit in a rude but substantial chair, +fashioned out of a beer-barrel and covered with a kangaroo skin, and +look silently from one to the other.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the tea was made, the corned beef and bread set forth in a tin +dish, pannikins placed ready, and the substantial bush meal, always +fully adequate to the needs of a healthy man in good training, was +ready. Before commencing, however, Mr. Wheeler fished forth from a +species of locker a square bottle, apparently containing Hollands. From +this he poured into each pannikin a pretty stiff 'second mate's glass.'</p> + +<p>'Do us no harm this cold night,' he said. 'Your health, Trevanion, and a +good journey to follow a bad start. It often happens here, take my word +for it.'</p> + +<p>The three men raised the tin pints and looked at each other. 'Thank you; +from my heart I thank you,' Lance gasped out. 'God bless you both, if my +wishing it will do you any good. I shall never forget this night.'</p> + +<p>One is far from recommending, or indeed palliating, the continuous use +of alcohol, but there is no evading the fact that when people are more +or less exhausted, beside being chilled and dispirited, a glass of +spirits, be it sound cognac, 'the real M'Kay,' or, as in this instance, +good square gin, produces an effect little less than magical. There are +those who, in the joyous season of early youth, or fixed in the higher +wisdom of abstinence, require it not. But strictly in moderation and +under exceptional circumstances it is a medicine, a luxury, an <i>elixir +vitae</i>.</p> + +<p>No sooner had the powerful cordial commenced to produce its ordinary +effect than the heart of the ransomed captive was conscious of a feeling +of lightness to which it had long been a stranger. Hope, timidly +approaching, whispered a soothing message; a vision of distant lands and +brighter days assumed form and colour. The cramped limbs recovered +warmth; the sluggish blood commenced a quicker circulation. He found +appetite for the simple meal, and listened with interest and amusement +to the tales of moving incidents by flood and field with which, between +their pipes, the woodsmen beguiled the winter evening. Lastly, the door +was bolted, the dogs let loose, and Lance was invited to avail himself +of a comfortable shakedown, where opossum cloaks and wallaby rugs +protected him from the searching night air, now keen-edged with the fury +of a howling storm. The wearied fugitive slept soundly, as he had not +done for months. He awakened to find that the sun had risen and that his +hosts had left him to complete his slumbers undisturbed by their exit.</p> + +<p>His feelings when he arose and looked around were instinctively tinged +with apprehension. By this time at least his escape had been made known. +What excitement must have been caused! What despatches to the other +prison-ships and their guards! To the water police! To the hunters of +men on land and sea whose beards had been mocked at! Their energy would +be further stimulated by the offer of a reward, as well as by the +certainty of promotion in the event of recapture. As the captive sat up +on his couch and looked through the open door upon the still waters of +the river-mouth, from which the fog, now that the storm had blown itself +out, was slowly lifting, he felt a shudder thrill through his frame as +he realised how near he was still to his prison home, how helpless too, +manacled as he was. He struggled to his feet, however, with a renewal +of hope and confidence in the future. The fresh and unpolluted air acted +like a cordial as he breathed it with long gasps of enjoyment. The close +walls of lofty ti-tree which shut in on three sides the nook of land, +indistinguishable from the water until at close quarters, provided at +once a shelter and a hiding-place almost impossible of surprise. The +wild-fowl swam and dived and splashed and squatted, heedless of their +chief enemy man. He found himself reverting in thought to the sports of +his youth, to the happy days when, gun in hand, he would have joyed to +have crawled within range of the shy birds and rattled in a right and +left shot.</p> + +<p>One of his irons clanked; the rag had slipped. How the sound brought him +back to the present! His lips had shaped themselves into a curse, his +brow had darkened, when his hosts suddenly appeared, emerging from a +creek which wound sinuously through the marshy level. Fastening up the +invaluable punt, they stepped lightly out, bearing with them a goodly +assortment of wild-fowl—noble black duck, delicate teal, and that +lovely minute goose, the <i>Anas boscha</i>, commonly known as the 'wood +duck.'</p> + +<p>'Grand bird this,' said Wheeler, throwing down a magnificent specimen of +that finest of all the family—the 'mountain duck'—with his +bronzed-fawn and metallic plumage. 'Splendid fellow to look at, but +that's all. Pity, isn't it? Not worth a button to eat. Why do we shoot +them? you'll ask. We sell them to the bird-stuffers. They pay well at +the price they give us. Now then, we'll proceed to business, which means +breakfast. Spatch duck—a couple of teal, eh? How do we do it? Pop 'em +into boiling water. Feathers off in a jiffy. Cut them in four, broil, +and serve hot. Tender as butter, these flappers, for they're not much +older. After breakfast we'll unfold the plot. Slept well? I thought so. +Hope you've got an appetite.'</p> + +<p>Lance was well aware that Mr. Wheeler's cheery, garrulous tone, not by +any means characteristic of men who live lonely lives, was assumed for +the purpose of concealing his real feelings and saving those of his +guest. But he appeared to take no heed, merely performing his toilet +with the aid of a bucket of water and a rough towel, and treating +himself to a more thorough lavation than had been lately possible. Mr. +Collins, R.N., had been setting-to with a will as caterer, and in far +less time than one would think, a meal, in some respects not to be +disdained by an epicure, appeared on the small table which, fixed upon +trestles, was placed before the hut door.</p> + +<p>'Try this teal, Trevanion; it's as plump as a partridge. Here's cayenne +pepper; lemons in that net. Cut one in half and squeeze—"squeeze +doughtily," as Dugald Dalgetty advises Ranald M'Eagh to do when he has +his hand on the Duke of Argyle's windpipe, in the event of His Grace +attempting to give the alarm. I read <i>A Legend of Montrose</i> over again +last week. What a glorious old fellow Sir Walter is, to be sure! When +you've finished your first beaker of tea, there's more in the +camp-kettle, Australice "billy." Did I ever think—or you either, +Trevanion—that we should drink tea out of a "billy," or be our own +cooks, housemaids, washerwomen, and gamekeepers all in one. Still, there +are worse places than Australia, and that I'll live and die on.'</p> + +<p>While Wheeler's tongue was going at this brisk rate, it is not to be +supposed that his jaws were idle. The friends played a real good knife +and fork, and Lance, between invitation and the natural temptation of, +in its way, a dainty and appetising meal, followed suit. The other man +gave a lively sketch of their morning's sport, and by the time breakfast +was finished and pipes lighted, a well-worn briar-root having been made +over to Lance on the previous evening, the gnawing feeling of consuming +anxiety commenced to be somewhat allayed.</p> + +<p>'Now we open the council of war,' began Wheeler, after two or three +solemn puffs. 'Collins and I have to make a little <i>détour</i> on business +which will occupy us till mid-day. Half an hour after we leave, a +mysterious artificer will suddenly appear, not out of the ground, like +Wayland Smith in <i>Kenilworth</i> (pray excuse any excessive quotation of +Sir Walter, but the fact is we got a second-hand edition cheap last +month, and have been feasting upon him ever since). Well, this lineal +descendant of Tubal Cain will arise out of the ti-tree and will +disembarrass you of, say, any garniture which you may consider +inconvenient to travel with. I don't know him; you don't know him; he +don't know us; nobody knows anybody. You apprehend? But <i>the work will +be done</i>. Afterwards look in that bag and you will find a rig-out, +half-worn but serviceable, and somewhere about your measure.'</p> + +<p>'Stop a minute—just permit me one minute,' proceeded Wheeler +hurriedly, but ever courteously. 'A trifle more explanation is +necessary. Here is your route arranged for you by your good angel, your +admirable friend and protectress, with whom Collins and I are madly +enamoured—but this by the way. Listen again. When you feel ready for +the road, take this left-hand path through the ti-tree. You see it +starting behind that bush. You cannot get off it once you are on it. +Follow it for three miles. You will meet there, by a reedy lagoon, a man +with two horses. Mount the one which he leads, asking no questions. He +will say "Number Six?" you will say "Polwarth." Of course you are the +Mr. Polwarth of Number Six on a tour of inspection. He will ride with +you the whole night through, stopping only at necessary intervals. At +daylight you will find yourself more than fifty miles on the Gippsland +road. He will take you by "cuts" and by-tracks to a part of Gippsland +from which you may make your way to Monaro, to Twofold Bay, to Omeo—all +A1 places for a man who wishes rest and seclusion for a season. You will +take your choice. On the led horse—a good one, as I am informed—you +will find valise, waterproof, and other necessaries. Here is a +pocket-book, which I am commissioned to hand to you, in which are £50 in +notes and gold, besides a letter from her to whom you owe so much.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Wheeler rattled out this full and complete code of instructions with +his customary rapidity, finishing off with the delivery of the +pocket-book to Lance, who held out his hand mechanically and stood +staring at him for a few moments like a man in a dream.</p> + +<p>Then he found his tongue.</p> + +<p>'You have done for me that which many a man's brother would have +declined. I am a poor creature now, and can't speak even as once I +could. But may Heaven help you in your need, as you have stood by me. +Some day it may be. I cannot say, but the day may come when a scion of +the house of Wychwood may repay some slight portion of the debt of +gratitude its most ill-fated son has incurred. Farewell, and God for +ever bless you.'</p> + +<p>The men looked in each other's eyes for a little space, one strong +hand-clasp, after the manner of Englishmen, was exchanged, and they +parted.</p> + +<p>'That's a man of birth and breeding who has been wrongfully convicted, +I'll stake my life,' said Wheeler to his friend, as, with gun on +shoulder and long steady stride, they left the hut behind them. 'Had I +not been convinced of it, all Ballarat would not have tempted me to go +into the affair. But between pity and admiration for that trump of a +girl, I gave way. I wonder whether his luck will turn now and all come +right.'</p> + +<p>'There's a great deal in luck in this world,' said Mr. Collins +sententiously. 'It's hard to say.'</p> + +<p>Within a few minutes after the time specified, and for which Lance +waited with ever-increasing impatience, a quietly-dressed individual so +suddenly appeared as to startle him. He came around the side of the hut +while Lance was deep in the perusal of Tessie's letter, which also +contained a few lines from Mr. Stirling, telling him that his order for +cash, worded in a certain way, would always be paid to any person whom +he might name at any place.</p> + +<p>He looked up for an instant and saw the broad frame and steady eye of +the stranger confronting him. 'Could this be a detective in plain +clothes? The thought was madness.'</p> + +<p>The stranger smiled. 'All right,' he said; 'I'm the blacksmith; come to +take the clinks off—not the first job of the sort I've done. Sharp's +the word—sit down, sir.'</p> + +<p>Here the stranger produced from his pockets and a bag an assortment of +tools of various sorts, including files of marvellous finish and temper. +Seating himself, Lance freely yielded his limbs to the man of iron, who, +in something under half an hour, produced remarkable results. How the +heart of Lance Trevanion swelled with joy when he saw the hated manacles +drop heavily upon the rug on which he had been sitting!</p> + +<p>'So far so good,' remarked the liberator artisan. 'One of 'em's chafed +your ankle, but you'll soon get over that. Ugly, ain't they? If you'll +dress yourself while I take a walk along the river I'll show you what +I'll do with them.'</p> + +<p>A few minutes sufficed for the inspection of the beauties of the Yarra. +When he returned, the good-looking young man with the clean-shaved face +and short hair did not look in the least like the hunted convict of the +previous day.</p> + +<p>'My word,' quoth the smith, dragging out an old sugee bag, 'you look +fust-rate—never see any one change more for the better—for the better. +Here goes!' Thus speaking, he placed the irons in the bag, which he +afterwards nearly filled with the prison clothing of which Lance, even +to his boots, had denuded himself. These he took into the punt, and +rowing to a deep place in the river near the bank he threw in the sack, +which the weight of the irons caused to sink at once. 'Many a poor +fellow's been buried like that at sea,' he remarked, in soliloquy. 'I +wonder if it ain't as good a way as any. The p'leece won't find them in +a hurry, I bet. And now Mr. Never-Never, I'll show you the left-hand +road, as I was told to. There's your track, and good luck to you.'</p> + +<p>Lance had good reason to believe that this service had been paid for, +but he could not bear that the man who had rendered him such material +aid should go even temporarily unrewarded. So he extracted one of the +five-pound notes from the pocket-book and presented it to him at the +close of proceedings.</p> + +<p>'You're a gentleman,' said the smith, unconsciously using the +stereotyped expression of those receiving a gratuity in advance of +expectation.</p> + +<p>'I was once,' replied Lance, with a sadly humorous half-smile. 'God +knows if I ever shall be one again.'</p> + +<p>'No fear,' quoth the hammerman, with a cheery, consoling accent. 'You've +got the world afore you now. Many a man in this country has been a deal +lower down that holds his head high enough now. Keep up your "pecker." +It'll all come right in the end.'</p> + +<p>On the narrow marshy track, which led between thick-growing walls of +ti-tree eight or ten feet high, there was not, as Wheeler averred, much +chance of losing the way. Lance plodded on cheerfully for about an hour. +Once he could have done the distance in far less time, but from want of +exercise and other reasons he had contracted the habit of taking short +steps, which he found it difficult to change. He felt altogether out of +sorts, and was by no means sorry to see near a deep reed-fringed lagoon +a man who looked like a stock-rider sitting on a log watching two +hobbled horses that, saddled and bridled, fed close by the water's edge.</p> + +<p>As the foot traveller emerged from the ti-tree thicket, the man walked +to the horses' heads, and, after one look at the newcomer, commenced to +unloose the hobbles. These he buckled on to each saddle, and, tightening +the girths, said interrogatively, 'Number Six?'</p> + +<p>'Polwarth,' was the answer returned.</p> + +<p>Upon this he held the bridle of one of the horses and motioned for Lance +to mount, after altering the stirrup to suit the stranger's length of +limb. This done, he mounted and rode forward at a steady pace, turning +neither to the right nor left, except when apparently some advantage +would seem to be gained by it. Both horses walked fast, particularly the +one which Lance bestrode, which he found to be good in all his paces, +free, clever, and in all respects a superior style of hackney.</p> + +<p>Mile after mile did they ride after this fashion, walking, trotting, or +cantering as the roads, both deep and difficult in places, permitted. +The rate at which they travelled was on the whole rapid, though the +guide evidently husbanded the powers of both horses in view of a +toilsome journey still to be made.</p> + +<p>An hour before midnight, pursuing a by-track for some distance, they +came upon a hut in a forest near a deserted saw-pit. It had once been a +snug and substantial dwelling, but the timber had long been cut and +carted away, so the hut was no longer needed. The grass grew thick and +green around. The guide, with practised hand, first lighted a fire in +the large mud-lined chimney, and then unsaddled and hobbled out the +horses. He produced from a rude cupboard bread and cold meat, tea, +sugar, and the quart pot and pannikins necessary for a bush meal. These +had evidently been placed there in anticipation of such a visit. Besides +all this, there were a couple of rugs, and as many double blankets of +the ordinary gray colour used by travelling bushmen.</p> + +<p>The fire having burned well up, and a couple of dry back logs having +been placed so as to ensure a steady glow for at least half the evening, +his taciturn guide relaxed a little. 'Here we are for the night,' he +said, 'though we'd best make an early start, and I don't know as we +could be much more comfortable. We've plenty to eat and drink and a fire +to sleep by, no cattle to watch, and a good roof over us. I've often had +a worse night along this very road.'</p> + +<p>'I daresay,' said Lance, who began to shake off his fears of immediate +capture. 'This must be a queer road in wet weather.'</p> + +<p>'I believe yer,' answered the guide. 'Many a mob of fat cattle I've +drove along this very track. It's a nice treat on a wet night, sitting +on your horse soaking wet through, nearly pitch dark, and afraid to give +the bullocks a chance for fear they'd rush. This here's a picnic in a +manner of speaking.'</p> + +<p>'I suppose it is,' quoth Lance. 'Things might be worse, I daresay. I +shall sleep well, I don't doubt. I haven't been riding much lately. +Where shall we get to-morrow night?'</p> + +<p>'Somewhere about the Running Creek; it's a longish pull, but the horses +are good and in fine buckle. You can do a long day's journey with an +early start.'</p> + +<p>Their meal over, the two men sat before the glowing fire on the rude +seats which they had found in the hut. The soothing pipe helped still +further to produce in Lance's case a calm and equable state of mind. To +this succeeded a drowsily luxurious sensation of fatigue, which he did +not attempt to combat, and, stretching himself on his rug, he covered +himself with the blanket; he and his companion were soon asleep.</p> + +<p>The stars were still in the sky when he started at a touch on the +shoulder, and found that his companion had noiselessly arisen and +prepared breakfast. The horses also, ready saddled and bridled, were +standing with their bridles over the fork of a tree near the door. Lance +was soon dressed. Breakfast over, they were in the saddle and away while +as yet the first faint tinge of the dawn light had scarcely commenced to +irradiate the mountain peaks which stood ranked like a company of Titans +near the eastern sky-line.</p> + +<p>With this, the second day's journey, a change commenced to make itself +apparent in Lance Trevanion's mien and bearing. The fresh forest air was +in his lungs, the great woodland through which they were now riding +commenced to endue him with the fearless spirit of the waste. He could +hardly imagine that it was so short a time since he was in fettered +bondage. What a difference was there in his every movement and +sensations! He began unconsciously to act the free man in tone and +manner. He praised the paces of the horse he was riding, and criticised +that of his guide in a way which showed that experienced person that he +was no novice in the noble science of horse-flesh. He began to draw out +his companion. In him he perceived, as he thought, the ordinary bushman, +an experienced stock-rider, or, perhaps, confidential drover, and thence +he began to wonder how much of his past history he had been made +acquainted with. A chance question supplied the information.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + + +<p>'Where are ye thinking of going, boss, when we get to Bairnsdale? +Twofold Bay's a terrible long way off to go prospectin'. I'd a deal +sooner chance Omeo. It's only twenty miles farther on.'</p> + +<p>'Omeo, Omeo!' repeated Lance. 'Why should I go to Omeo?'</p> + +<p>'Haven't ye heard? There's a big show struck close by the old township. +They say they're leaving Ballarat, lots of 'em, to go there. It's the +richest find yet, by all accounts; shallow ground too!'</p> + +<p>'Omeo, Omeo!' Lance again repeated half unconsciously to himself. Had +not Tessie made reference to it in the coach from Ballarat? Had she not +said that Lawrence Trevenna was there, the man to whose baleful shadow +he owed ruin and dishonour, the ineradicable disgrace which would always +be associated with his name? He had a heavy account to settle with him. +When they met all scores would be cleared off. This much he had vowed to +himself in the prison cell at Ballarat, in the hulk <i>President</i> in the +silence of midnight, in that fœtid hold of the prison-ship, where he +could scarcely breathe the polluted atmosphere, laden with crime, heavy +with curses. There, in that time of horror and dread, again and again +had he sworn to take his enemy's life—that one or other should die when +next they met, be it where it might.</p> + +<p>And then again, as he hoped to efface himself, to feel secure from the +pursuit which he heard in every breeze and feared in every echoing hoof, +where could he find so safe and unsuspected a refuge as this new +digging—wild, rough, isolated as Omeo must necessarily be? Far from +civilisation of any kind, on a lone mountain plateau, snow-covered in +winter, only to be reached by paths so devious and precipitous that +wheels could not be employed, where every pound of merchandise or +machinery was fain to be carried on pack-horses. There could be no +better place for a hunted man to disappear, to obliterate himself. There +he could remain for the present,—unknown, invisible to all who had +known the former Lance Trevanion,—until he matured his plans and could +make his way to a foreign shore.</p> + +<p>Here, as he recovered health and strength under the influence of the +mountain breezes and the wild woodlands which lay so near the +river-sources and the snow summits, it would be comparatively easy to +transmit his share of the Number Six washings, still safe in the +Joint-Stock Bank in the custody of Charlie Stirling. Here, once located +and established as Dick, Tom, or Harry—surnames were in the nature of +superfluities at goldfields of the class which Omeo was pretty sure to +be—he could make arrangements for selling out to Jack Polwarth. Quietly +and without suspicion he could arrange to have the whole of his property +transferred to him in cash, and some fine morning, under cover of a trip +to Melbourne on business or pleasure, he would show Australia a clean +pair of heels, and in America, North or South, in some far land where +his name was never heard, would live out the rest of a life with such +solace as he might, might even—when Time, the healer, should have +dulled the heart-pangs which now throbbed and agonised so +mordantly—might even reach some degree of contentment, if not of +happiness.</p> + +<p>And Estelle! Estelle! There was the sharpest sting—the bitterest +grief—the direst pang of all. Could he ever look again into those +lovely, trusting eyes, having undergone what he had done? Could he ask +her—angel of purity that she was; the embodiment of the refinement of +generations of stainless ancestors; sheltered, as she had been, by the +conditions of her birth and education from all knowledge of the evil +that there is in the world,—could he ask her to lay her head upon a +felon's breast?—to take his hand in life-long pledge of happiness, when +at any time, in any land where this long arm of extradition could reach, +the hand of justice might seize him? No! Such companionship, such love, +could never be his in the future. He had lost them for ever. On the +lower level to which he had sunk he must remain. To its privations he +must accustom himself; the surroundings he must endure. There was no +help for it. If Tessie Lawless chose to share his lot he might not deny +her. She knew the whole of his story. She loved him. She had been +faithful and true. She deserved any poor recompense, such as the damaged +future of his life, that of a nameless man, could offer, if she chose to +accept it. For Trevanion of Wychwood was dead, and his early love, with +all his high hopes and noble aspirations, lay deep in the grave of his +buried honour.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>From the day of Lance Trevanion's arrest at Balooka, no word, by letter +or otherwise, had reached Wychwood of the fortunes of its heir. Days, +weeks, months succeeded each other in the uneventful round into which +country life in England has a tendency to settle when ordinary interests +are withdrawn or unduly concentrated. It was pitiable to note the +squire's anxiety when the Australian mail was due. For him, as for +Estelle, there seemed to be but one man whose fortunes were worth +following in the whole world—from whom letters were as the breath of +life. And now these tidings from a far land, regular, if brief and +sententious, up to this time, were suddenly withheld.</p> + +<p>With the failing health of the Squire—for he suffered from one of the +mysterious class of complaints before which strong men go down like +feeble children—passed away much of his fierce obstinacy, his pride and +arrogance. He thought of his son as he had last seen him,—haughty, +tameless, defiant, with all his faults a true Trevanion,—and now, when +he hoped to have seen him once again, grown and developed, though +bronzed and possibly roughened by the rude life of a colony, when he had +schooled himself to recall rash words and to make the <i>amende</i> as far as +his nature would permit, here he was thwarted, bewildered, maddened by +this sudden arrest of all knowledge of his fate.</p> + +<p>'The boy has had the best of the fight,' he groaned out.</p> + +<p>Ever at his side, at this crisis chief counsellor and consoler, Estelle +here rose to her true position in the house. Awakened to the necessity +of taking a leading part in the family fortunes, the added weight of +responsibility appeared to nerve and mould her to a loftier resolve, to +a more sublimely unselfish purpose. She it was who suggested to the +desponding father every shade of excuse for the stoppage of the letters +which were as the life-blood to his failing constitution. She it was who +ransacked the newspapers for reports, meagre as they mostly were, of the +great Australian gold fields. She it was who looked up maps and +authorities upon the colonies, until she even acquired the recondite +knowledge, granted to so few Britons, that Victoria is not situated in +New South Wales, nor Tasmania the capital of Western Australia.</p> + +<p>Torn and rent as was her own heart when she allowed herself to think of +her lover,—lost to her in the wilds of a far country, perishing in the +wilderness for all she knew, exposed to dangers among savages and +outlaws even more ruthless,—she yet braced up her courage. She nerved +herself to bear the worst, if only she might soften the pain and anxiety +which began increasingly to sap the strength of the failing head of the +ancient house.</p> + +<p>More than once had she interviewed the passengers in vessels returning +from Melbourne, hungrily eager for any shred of news from Ballarat. Did +they know a miner named Trevanion, or even Polwarth? How long was it +since they had seen him, and what were his present circumstances? But +these inquiries were vain. Few of the returning adventurers had troubled +themselves to remember the names of their chance acquaintances. Others +indeed had heard of the untoward fate of the young Englishman, but +thought it no kindness to tell his friends. They could not possibly aid +him or alleviate his condition. Better to let the bad news unfold itself +in due time.</p> + +<p>So the weary days went on. Spring glided into summer. The ancient oaks +and 'immemorial elms' of Wychwood Chase were clothed anew with tender +greenery. The glad, brief life of the northern summer burst into joyous +fulness, then paled and waned. Autumn, with slow pace but ruthless hand, +despoiled the glades and strewed the forest aisles with withered leaves +and fallen chaplets. Ere the blasts of winter had commenced to herald +the doom of the dying year, it became generally known that the Squire of +Wychwood was failing fast—would, indeed, hardly last over the coming +Christmastide. It was observed that he buried himself in his library, +that he had given up all habitual modes of exercise. No guests were +invited to the house, and Miss Estelle more often dined by herself than +not in the great, lonely dining-room which had so often echoed with +festive mirth, or, in older days, still rang with ruthless revelry.</p> + +<p>As the Squire's health declined his affections seemed to concentrate +themselves upon his niece. She had in all respects borne herself as a +daughter to him—had shown even more than a daughter's sympathy and +constant, watchful care.</p> + +<p>The younger son was at college. He would be the heir to Wychwood in +case the adventurer on the far Australian goldfield never returned to +claim his inheritance. Amiable, well conducted, of respectable ability +and fair attainments, he had never (such is the perversity of the human +heart) been a favourite of his father's. The stern old man—bitterly as +he had quarrelled with the disobedient elder brother, whose nature was +in so many respects a reflex of his own, yet in his heart owned him for +the higher nature—recognised in him the befitting heir to his ancient +demesne, to the hall in which nobles had sat and princes feasted. Now to +his gloomy and brooding soul all hope was lost. Some dire misfortune, +even a fatal accident, had doubtless happened—must have occurred, +indeed, or Lance's chronicle of his life and adventures, meagre as to +detail, but of regular recurrence, would have continued. If only he +could have set eyes on Lance before he died! Could he but have told him +how he had regretted the rash words and bitter speech, the prayers he +had prayed for his safe return; ay, the tears he had shed in the agony +of his remorse—he, the proud, inexorable Trevanion of Wychwood! It was +well-nigh incredible. None of his old-time comrades and +fellow-roysterers could have believed it of the Dark Squire, as the +villagers then named him, with lowered tones and bated breath. But in +the days of sorrow and failing strength,—when the strong man is brought +low; when those hours, so long approaching, so long menacing, have come; +when death seems no longer a strange visitant but a familiar friend, +more welcome in truth than the sad alternation of sorrow and +unrest,—the haughtiest pride of man is lowered. In those hours of +lonely grief and dark despair many a recantation is made—many a vow +recorded undreamed of in life's festal season.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The death-day came at last. He lingered on past the season fixed by +general expectancy; but ere the first bud of the swelling leaflet had +been set free by the breath of spring in his ancestral glades, the +Squire lay with his warrior forefathers in the historic vault, which had +not been opened since the last Lady of Wychwood had been carried there, +long ere her beauty had faded. The retainers of the house, and not a few +of the notables of the county, assembled to pay the last form of respect +to one whom, in despite of his latter-day life of seclusion, they +recognised as one of the born leaders of the land. As the long +procession passed slowly along the winding road, which at one point +skirted the sea-cliff, to the venerable chapel which had seen so many +solemn ceremonies celebrated connected with the family, more than one +inquiry was made for the absent heir, and uniform regret expressed that +he should not have returned from the far south land to claim his own and +assume his rights.</p> + +<p>When the last sad duties had been paid to him whom, in spite of his +stormy outbursts of temper, Estelle could not help holding in love and +pity, a strong resolve appeared to actuate the once timid girl, +shrinking, as carefully-nurtured women do, from independent action and +strange surroundings. The estate would go, of course, to the +heir-at-law, strictly entailed as it had been for many generations. But +it had been in the old man's power to dispose as he pleased of the large +amount accruing from the savings of late years, and from the sale of an +estate which was not included in the entail. This bequest, which had +been made while the testator was of perfectly sound mind and body, was +of such amount as to render Estelle perfectly independent for the rest +of her life; indeed, to exalt her somewhat to the position of an +heiress.</p> + +<p>In the long conversations held in his latter days of decadence between +the Squire and his niece, it had been definitely agreed that Estelle +should proceed to Australia and there seek out the errant heir—should +bring him back if possible by force of entreaty or persuasion to the +land of his forefathers, to the rank and position handed down from the +fierce warriors and splendid courtiers whose presentments frowned or +smiled down upon their descendants in the old hall.</p> + +<p>'I have such faith in you, my darling Estelle,' said the Squire, in one +of his later confidences, 'that I shall die more peacefully knowing that +you will search this far country for my lost unhappy boy. You have sense +and courage in a degree rarely bestowed upon women. Your heart has been +true to him during his long absence—this more than anxious period of +doubt and dread. If he be in the neighbourhood of the place from which +we last heard from him, you will be sure to gain some tidings of him. If +you see him, your influence over him, powerful for good, always for +good, as in the past, will save him, and once more the old ancient race, +which has never yet failed of a male heir in the direct line, will be +fittingly represented. If Lance, the son of whom I was so proud, returns +no more from that far country, the estate will of course pass into the +hands of his brother. But you are in any case <i>well</i> provided for. May +God bless and reward you, my darling Estelle, for your forbearing +kindness to a broken-spirited man. And now, kiss me, darling; I think I +could sleep.'</p> + +<p>He slept the sleep which knows no awakening on earth.</p> + +<p>The parting words of her uncle had for Estelle almost the sacredness of +a dying command. She had vowed, kneeling by his bedside, to leave no +region unexplored, to carry through the search with the completeness +which characterised all her proceedings. The high courage and resolute +will which were hers by inheritance from the Trevanions stood her now in +good stead. With an air of quiet resolve she arranged all her personal +affairs without parade or hesitation; within a fortnight her passage had +been taken, a few letters of introduction procured, also a very moderate +outfit suitable for a young lady travelling, if not incognito, in a very +unobtrusive way. And at the appointed day and hour Estelle found herself +speeding away over the waters blue in company with a stranger crowd of +enforced acquaintances, borne over an unknown sea on a wild and +desperate quest. Before her, in imagination, she pictured the rude +solitudes of an unknown land—even the fancied perils of a lawless +goldfield.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The low coast of the island-continent line, irregular and faint, +appearing from out the southern sky, so long unbroken. A new land—a new +city. Melbourne at last! The land how strange! The city how new! The +people how foreign-appearing and <i>bizarre</i> to the voyager from the +region of tradition and settled form. Estelle looked and moved like a +strayed princess amid a horde of nomads. She had schooled herself into +the belief that in her quest she would be called upon to suffer all +kinds of privations, and to mingle with every variety of 'rough +colonists.' She resolved to make a trial essay. In pursuance of this +heroic resolution she preferred to go to an hotel upon her own +responsibility, before delivering the letters of introduction with which +she had armed herself. She was not exactly fortunate in her choice, as +indeed was to be expected. However, she was agreeably surprised at the +civility with which she was treated, as well as by the absence of +'roughness,' as displayed by the <i>habitués</i>, many of whom were patently +uneducated. Still Estelle made the discovery shortly, that even so +recently constructed a city as Melbourne, in the fret of a gold-fever, +was not essentially unlike an English town—that a handsome young woman +was more or less an object of attraction and curiosity. Tolerably well +veiled, doubtless; nevertheless an inquiring tone displayed itself +unmistakably. And, in spite of her resolve to brave all the social +inclemencies of her novel surroundings, Estelle Chaloner shrank from the +implied doubtfulness to which her unprotected condition led up. Escape +was easy. She smiled as she thought of her boasted independence; how +soon it had failed her! Being a sensible girl, however, in the least +restricted sense of the word, she capitulated forthwith, resolving to +present one of the letters of introduction without delay.</p> + +<p>Having packed up her belongings,—not too extensive,—paid her bill, and +arranged all things ready for departure, Estelle picked out a 'nice' +looking letter, and resolved to abide the hazard of the die. The address +was, 'Mrs. Vernon, Toorak, South Yarra, near Melbourne.' The aboriginal +sounding names gave no information as to distance. 'Near' might mean two +miles or twenty. A man's next-door neighbour in Australia was sometimes +fifty miles distant, she had heard. Happily she bethought herself of +asking information of the landlady of her hotel.</p> + +<p>'Toorak, Toorak!' said that important personage. 'Oh yes; I know it well +enough, and a nice place it is—all the swell people live there! Mrs. +Vernon's place is one of the best there. A grand house, and everything +in style. You'd better have a cab called; they'll take you there for ten +shillings, luggage and all.'</p> + +<p>'I may not be asked to stay,' replied Estelle diffidently, 'and if I am, +I am not sure that I——'</p> + +<p>'Oh yes you will,' interposed the hostess. 'Don't talk that way. Wait +till you see what sort of a place it is. And Mrs. Vernon's a lady that +won't let you go, I'll answer for it.'</p> + +<p>A short half-hour's drive across Princes' Bridge, through or around the +maze of Canvastown, past the Botanic Gardens, and along a newly made and +recently metalled road, brought Estelle to a pair of massive ornate iron +gates, on the northern side of the road leading along an avenue of some +length.</p> + +<p>'This is Charlton Lodge,' said the driver. 'Shall I drive to the front?'</p> + +<p>'Certainly,' she replied, as she smiled at the question. The winding +avenue was well gravelled, with a border of shaven grass, beyond which +were beds filled with flowering shrubs, planted amid and underneath tall +pines, with an admixture of elms, oaks, and Australian cedars. +Everything exhibited careful tendance, demonstrating that although many +of the best labourers had levanted to the goldfields there were still +some few servitors who preferred comfort to independence. Estelle was +beginning to wonder how long the preliminary approach was to last, when +a velvet-piled lawn came into view, around which the carriage-drive took +a sweep, her charioteer halting underneath a spacious portico of +classical proportion and finish.</p> + +<p>The cabman rang the bell, and receiving assurance from a neatly dressed +parlour-maid that her mistress was at home, returned to his seat and +awaited events, while Estelle was duly ushered into a handsomely +furnished drawing-room of unquestionable modernity of tone.</p> + +<p>After a reasonably short interval, employed by Estelle in a +comprehensive survey of the apartment, which, indeed, bore tokens of +intelligent and appreciative taste, a well-dressed elderly lady +appeared.</p> + +<p>'Miss Chaloner!' she exclaimed. 'I am truly glad to see you at last. I +have been wondering what had become of you. My dear friend, Mary Dacre, +wrote to me to say that you were coming out by the mail, and that you +had kindly brought a letter to me. I heard of the vessel's arrival, and +that you had left the vessel and gone to an hotel. I called at Scott's +and Menzies's, but they had not heard of you.'</p> + +<p>'I went to the Criterion,' said Estelle smilingly. 'I rather regretted +it afterwards.'</p> + +<p>'Of course you did, my dear, and permit me to say that it partly served +you right. Why did you not come to me <i>at once</i>? Melbourne is such a +queer place now since the diggings have broken out. There are all sorts +of strange characters and curious people about. It is hardly a place for +a young lady just now, unless under efficient chaperonage.'</p> + +<p>Estelle gazed at the kindly old lady, whose eyes at that moment shone +with maternal tenderness for an instant before she answered. Her voice +softened as she said—</p> + +<p>'You must remember, as no doubt Miss Dacre told you, that I came to +Australia for a special purpose; and that if I expect to be successful +in my search I cannot afford to let small obstacles stand in my way.'</p> + +<p>'Small obstacles! That is very well, but surely you don't intend to go +up to the diggings and to horrid places in the bush all by yourself?'</p> + +<p>'That is just what I <i>do</i> intend, my dear Mrs. Vernon,—neither more nor +less. I have thought over the matter scores—yes, hundreds of times—and +I can see no other way. If I merely wished to see the country I might +arrange things differently. But I have one important, principal, +all-absorbing purpose in view. It is my star. I fix my eye on that, and +all other things, even those which appear to be insuperable +difficulties, must give way.'</p> + +<p>'Dangers and difficulties, traps and pitfalls, do all those count for +nothing in your list of drawbacks?'</p> + +<p>'I must use a man's argument. I see other women have done—are doing the +same—why not I? Suppose I were a sempstress or a poor governess on her +way to an engagement, should I not have to do the same?—to travel +unattended; to take my chance of rough or uncongenial companionship? Why +am I so much more precious than other girls of my age, that I have to be +fenced round with so many precautions?'</p> + +<p>'All this is fine talking, my dear Miss Chaloner, and it's very nice of +you to say so; but a young lady of position and fortune cannot—<i>must +not</i>—travel about by herself as if she were a barmaid or a music-hall +singer. There <i>is</i> a difference beside that of age and sex—and the +disagreeables—you have no idea of the nature of them.'</p> + +<p>'I don't know much about them, though I may partly guess, my dear Mrs. +Vernon, but we Chaloners and Trevanions are said in Cornwall to be an +obstinate race. My mind is made up. I must take a seat in the Ballarat +coach for next Monday.'</p> + +<p>'I am afraid you <i>are</i> an obstinate girl,' said Mrs. Vernon +good-naturedly. 'Well, a wilful woman must, I suppose, have her own way. +I have relieved my mind, at any rate. Now the next thing is to see how +we can help you in your perilous adventure. Let me think. Do I know any +Ballarat people? No, but Mr. Vernon does; if not, his friends do, which +comes to the same thing.'</p> + +<p>'I hope that you won't take all this trouble about me,' said Estelle +earnestly. 'I know how to get there, with my own unaided intelligence. +You would be surprised how much I know about Port Phillip from books and +newspapers.'</p> + +<p>'And you are bent upon acquiring your own colonial experience? Well, my +dear, it may be all for the best in the end; but if you were a daughter +of mine I should not have one happy moment from the time I lost sight of +you till you returned. Do you know any one at Ballarat, or have you +letters to people there?'</p> + +<p>'There is one gentleman there whom I seem to know quite well through my +cousin's letters. He was never tired of praising him. He spoke of him as +his best friend. His name was Charles Stirling. He was a banker. Then +there was a Mr. Hastings, and John Polwarth, Lance's partner,—both +miners.'</p> + +<p>'A banker and two miners! Chiefly young and unmarried, I suppose. And +are these all your introductions in a strange town, and that town +Ballarat, you dear innocent lamb that you are? Well, well; we have five +days before us. Mr. Vernon will be home to dinner at seven, and we can +have a council of war. Here comes afternoon tea, after which we go for a +drive if you are not tired.'</p> + +<p>'I am not in the least tired,' replied Estelle. 'And now that my +departure is decided upon I am ready for anything.'</p> + +<p>So the carriage was ordered out—a costly enough equipage in those days +of unexampled enhancement of prices—the three-hundred-guinea pair of +horses that consumed oats at twelve shillings a bushel and hay at +seventy pounds a ton, driven by a coachman at three pounds a week. But +Mr. Vernon was a merchant who had made one fortune by the lucky cargoes +of mining necessaries, and was fast making another by gold-buying. Such +an additional item of expense as a carriage for his wife was the merest +bagatelle.</p> + +<p>So the ladies drove to St. Kilda for a breath of sea air, taking the +Botanic Gardens on their way back, where there was a flower-show +patronised by His Excellency, Mr. Latrobe, and all the rank and fashion +of the metropolis, chiefly represented by a few squatters and club men, +with a sprinkling of gold commissioners on leave.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Vernon was not averse to the company of so distinctly +aristocratic-looking a damsel as Estelle Chaloner, whose appearance, +quietly dressed as she was, elicited, in that day of matrimonial +competition and proportional scarcity of young ladies, endless admiring +comment.</p> + +<p>At dinner, for which they had barely time to dress, they were enlivened +by the society of Mr. Vernon—a shrewd, good-humoured mercantile +personage—and a gentleman whom he introduced as Mr. Annesley and +described as a Goldfields Commissioner. This last was a very +good-looking and correctly dressed young man, not long from England. He +was in Melbourne, on leave after twelve months' hard work on the +diggings, according to his own account, and had some flavour of the high +spirits and abounding cheerfulness of the naval officer on shore about +him. His host 'drew' him judiciously about mining life and adventure, on +which he was by no means loath to enlarge. He was evidently gratified by +the intense interest with which Estelle listened to his amusing and +justifiably egotistic rattle, and in the innocence of his heart essayed +to complete her subjugation. But, to Estelle's intense regret, he did +not come from Ballarat—'had been quartered in quite a different +district.' She was deeply interested in him, however, as marking a type +with which Lance must necessarily have often come into contact, and she +concluded an agreeable evening, widely different from her expectation of +things Australian, with an assurance from Mr. Vernon that he would bring +her a budget of definite information about Ballarat and its social +condition on the morrow.</p> + +<p>Had she been in a position to listen to the conversation of her host and +his guest when she and Mrs. Vernon had retired for the night, and the +gentlemen had adjourned to the smoking-room, she would have scarce slept +so soundly.</p> + +<p>'Lance Trevanion? of course I <i>had</i> heard of the beggar,' said the +Commissioner, as he threw himself back in a settee and lighted one of +Mr. Vernon's choice cigars. 'We had a fellow from Ballarat staying at +the camp at Morrison's who had been at the trial and knew all about him. +But how could I tell the poor thing? What a sweet girl she is, by the +way! why, she'll have half Melbourne pursuing her with proposals if she +only lets them see her. Don't know when I've seen such a girl since I +left England. Why she should bother her head about Trevanion now, I +can't imagine.'</p> + +<p>'Well, he's her cousin, my wife tells me, for one thing. They were +engaged, it seems, too, before he left home. Sad pity that such a girl +should spoil her chances here and throw herself away. But that's their +nature, we all know. Tell us the tale, Annesley; I never heard.'</p> + +<p>'As it was told to me, this was about it. This fellow Trevanion, a +good-looking, well-set-up youngster, seems to have been a bad lot or a +d—d fool, one can hardly say which. Anyhow, he was fond of play, and +got mixed up with a crooked Sydney-side crowd. There was a girl in it, +of course. They won from him, it was said. He, like a young fool, +thought he might choose his own company at an Australian diggings, "all +people out here being alike," or some such rot. The end of it was that +he was run in for horse-stealing, or having a stolen horse in his +possession. Got two years. I've heard since that he was the wrong man, +but the Sergeant—queer card and deuced dangerous, that Dayrell—wanted +a case—the diggers had lost so many horses that they wanted a +conviction. So poor Trevanion had to pay for all.'</p> + +<p>'What an infernal shame!' said Mr. Vernon. 'Couldn't anything be done +for him?'</p> + +<p>'Well (by Jove, this is a cigar, I must have another by and by), looks +so, doesn't it? But it's necessary to be hard and sharp at the diggings +or the country would go to the devil. Wrong man shopped now and then, +like Tom Rattleton in California, but can't be helped. Ever hear that +yarn? No! Well, I'll just light number two, and here goes: Tom, you must +know, was a bit fastish before he left the paternal halls in another +colony. After one of his escapades, a friend of the family, good fellow, +observes one day, "Tom, it's no use talking, you'll come to be hanged." +"Thank you," says Tom, "I think I'll try San Francisco; this place is +too confined for a man of my talents." Gold at Suttor's Mill had just +been reported.'</p> + +<p>'And did he go?'</p> + +<p>'Like a bird, with lots of Australian "bloods," as they used to call +them. Had to work their way back before the mast, most of them. Tom had, +anyhow. After the fatted calf had been duly potted, friend of the family +arrives.</p> + +<p>'"Hulloa, Tom! home again? Proud to see you, my boy. Safe back to the +old place, hey?"</p> + +<p>'"That is so," answered Tom, putting on a little Yankee touch, "do you +remember what you said to me as I was leaving?"</p> + +<p>'"No, my boy, what was it?" Friend didn't like to own up, you see.</p> + +<p>'"Well, you said I'd come to be hanged, and, by Jove! <i>I nearly was</i> in +'Frisco. <i>The rope was round my neck</i>, sure as you're there. Took me for +a gambler who'd shot a man the night before. He turned up in time to be +turned off, or I should have been—well, I <i>shouldn't</i> have been here +to-day."</p> + +<p>'Friend turned quite pale, grasped his hand, and sloped. Affecting, +wasn't it?'</p> + +<p>'Good story, very,' quoth the host. 'Like Tom Rattleton. Reckless young +beggar he always was—but turned out well afterwards. <i>Experientia +docet.</i> Near thing, though. Now, touching this poor girl's cousin. +Nothing earthly will prevent her going to look for him.'</p> + +<p>'H—m! Does she know any one in Ballarat?'</p> + +<p>'Mr. Charles Stirling, a banker; Hastings and Polwarth, Trevanion's +mates.'</p> + +<p>'Charlie Stirling! I've heard of him. Awfully good sort, people say. +Well, he'll do all he can. If she goes up he's the man to break it to +her. Dalton's Sub-Commissioner there. I'll leave a line for him. Between +them both they'll see no harm come to her. Well, Number Two rivals his +predecessor. It's a fair thing, I suppose. Good-night.'</p> + +<p>A couple of days were spent pleasantly enough in Melbourne. A few of the +South Yarra notables dropped in, not quite accidentally, to Mrs. +Vernon's afternoon tea, whose manner and appearance rather altered +Estelle's preconceived notion of colonial society. They expressed the +wildest astonishment at hearing that she was about to explore Ballarat, +much as in London might a South Kensington coterie at hearing that a +cherished classmate thought it necessary thus to satisfy her doubts +about the Patagonians or the Modoc Indians, always ending their politest +commiseration with an invitation.</p> + +<p>Finally, all entreaties proving unavailing, Estelle was driven in before +sunrise, and at 6 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> found herself on the box-seat of the Ballarat +coach, specially commended to the care of Mr. Levi, the driver, who was +waiting for the clock of the Melbourne post-office to strike, +preparatory to the customary sensational start of Cobb and Co.'s team of +well-groomed, high-conditioned grays.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + + +<p>Much to Estelle's surprise, the journey, strange and unfamiliar as were +all things to the English maiden of a country family, was far from +unpleasant. The rapid rate of travelling, the speed and stoutness of the +horses, the astonishing dexterity of the American stage-driver, were +alike novel and interesting; and these were matters as to which she was +qualified to judge. Like many English girls brought up in a great +country-house, she rode well and fearlessly—had, indeed, for more than +one season, ere the shadow fell upon Wychwood, followed the hounds with +decided credit. Beginning with a pony carriage, she had in later years +amused herself with driving her uncle in a pair-horse phaeton, with a +groom in the back seat of course. She was therefore intelligently +interested in the ease and accuracy with which the laconic Mr. Levi +piloted his team alike adown crooked stump-guarded sidelings, through +dense primeval forests, and over unbridged creeks, for under such +perilous conditions the road to Ballarat in the early 'fifties' pursued +its devious course. The driver, in whose charge she had been placed, +with strong recommendations and a liberal <i>douceur</i>, by Mr. Vernon, +though saturnine and sparing of speech, as was customary with that +'spoiled child of fortune,' the stage-driver of the period, was, in his +way, courteous and respectful. He indicated from time to time points of +interest in the landscape. He even answered her questions civilly and +with a show of attention. Concerning the coach and harness, the leather +springs and the formidable brake, so diverse from all English +experience, he was explanatory and gracious. The day was fine, the air +clear and fresh, while from the close-ranked eucalyptus exuded balsamic +odours, which, to her aroused fancy and eager appreciation of the new +nature which encircled her, savoured of strange health-giving powers. +The flitting birds, the occasional forest cries, the great flocks of +sheep, the absence of enclosures, the droves of cattle and horses with +their equally wild-looking attendants, the long trains of bullock-drays +and waggons—were not these the wonders and portents of the land of +gold? In despite of forebodings and the sense of isolation with which +Estelle Chaloner had commenced this most eventful enterprise of her +life, the natural fearlessness of her race asserted itself, and, true +to the instincts of youth, her spirits rose perceptibly. When at the +close of the day the coach rattled along the macadamised road which +prepared the passengers for the lighted streets, the clanking engines, +and yawning shafts of Ballarat, she had confessed to herself that +Australia was by no means so dreadful a place as she had expected.</p> + +<p>The team was now pulled up nervously close to the doorstep of a large +well-lighted hotel, thus at once exhibiting the proverbial skill of Mr. +Levi, and scattering the group of loungers which surrounded the +entrance. Then a man's voice hailed the driver cheerfully, and demanded +of him whether Miss Chaloner from Melbourne was on the coach.</p> + +<p>'Right you are, Commissioner,' was the response. 'If you'll help the +young lady down, reckon I've delivered her into the protection of Her +Majesty's Government. Her luggage is in the rack. Joe'll have it near +out by this. Good-night, Miss. The Commissioner'll take care of you.'</p> + +<p>'Good-night, and thank you very much,' said Estelle, as, stepping +downwards cautiously from the high box-seat, she found herself almost in +the arms of a tall man, who half-assisted, half-lifted her down.</p> + +<p>'Permit me to introduce myself, Miss Chaloner,' he said, 'as Mr. Dalton +and Her Majesty's Commissioner of this goldfield. I had a note from a +friend and brother officer in Melbourne advising me of your coming. I +have arranged with Mrs. M'Alpine, the wife of the Police Magistrate, who +will be most happy to receive you. You will find her cottage more +comfortable than an hotel. Trust yourself to my escort and we shall be +there in a few minutes.'</p> + +<p>'This is some of Mrs. Vernon's kindness, I am sure,' said Estelle. +'Really I seem to have friends everywhere in this land of strangers.'</p> + +<p>'May you always find it so, Miss Chaloner. Please to honour me by +enrolling me among the number. This is our vehicle, and your luggage is +safely packed.'</p> + +<p>A nondescript trap with four high wheels and disproportionately large +lamps stood near. Into this her companion helped her, and taking the +reins dashed away into the darkness, as it seemed to Estelle, at a +reckless and extravagant pace. After threading several side streets, +however, and ascending a slight elevation without loss or damage, Mr. +Dalton drew up beside a garden gate, out of which issued a lady, who, +taking both her hands in hers, welcomed her guest with effusive warmth.</p> + +<p>'So glad to see you, my dear Miss Chaloner. Mrs. Vernon was afraid you +would get lost in our dreadful goldfield. We trust you will find us not +<i>quite</i> such barbarians as the Melbourne people think us. Mr. Dalton, +you'll stay and have tea? No? Don't say you've got business; I know what +<i>that</i> means—loo or poker at that wicked camp. Perhaps you'll look in +to-morrow evening? You may? That's very good of you. We'll manage a +whist party and a chat, at any rate. Good-night. Now, my dear, we'll +have a "small and early" all to ourselves. It's just as well Dalton +didn't come in. He suspected you were tired, I dare say.'</p> + +<p>After a few more disjointed, but all hospitable and sympathetic +utterances, Mrs. M'Alpine inducted Estelle into an extremely neat and +comfortable bedroom, and bidding her not to trouble herself to make any +change in her attire, for tea was quite ready, left her to consider the +situation.</p> + +<p>No sooner had this kindly acquaintance left the room than the +strangeness of the situation appeared to force itself upon Estelle. She +looked out through the open window—a hinged casement overhung with a +trailing creeper, the glossy leaves of which partly obscured, partly +diverted into glittering fragments of rays, the gleaming moonlight. It +was a still evening. The half-audible murmur of a large population, +confused and inarticulate, came faintly on her ear. There was a softness +in the air which soothed her somewhat excited brain. Thinking over the +strangely-varied experience of the past week, she could not help owning +to herself that so far everything had been rendered easy through the +kindness of these newly-found friends in a far land.</p> + +<p>'Who knows,' she asked herself, 'whether I may not find similar aid and +guidance throughout my quest? May Heaven grant it! My errand is one of +sacred necessity, pledged as I am to this by my vow to the memory of the +dead. As God shall help me, I will remain faithful to the end. I begin +to feel that though far from dear England's shores I am still surrounded +by English hearts and English homes—changed in form, and in form alone, +as the latter may be. "Onward" must be my motto.'</p> + +<p>Thus concluding her meditations, Estelle bathed her eyes, somewhat +sensitised after the day's exposure, and then making some slight but +befitting change in her attire, joined her hostess in the pleasant +sitting-room, now devoted to the exigencies of the evening meal. Over +the tea-table, and within the influence of a cheerful wood fire, the +younger woman became insensibly more unreserved and confiding as to her +place and purpose. Mr. M'Alpine had not returned to his home, presumably +detained by business of importance. It may be surmised that neither of +the ladies was deeply grieved at his absence, under the circumstances.</p> + +<p>Being in full possession of facts, as far as Estelle had resolved to +furnish them to Australian friends, Mrs. M'Alpine strongly recommended +her guest to remain with her for the present, and await the coming of +Mr. Stirling, who would be certain to arrive on the morrow or the day +after, on being notified of her presence in Ballarat. 'Our town looks +uncivilised, my dear, but Growlers' Gully (fancy such a name) is, of +course, only a rude caricature of it. I don't think you could possibly +exist there, though there is an hotel of some sort.'</p> + +<p>Very gently and quietly, but firmly, Estelle made it apparent to her +hostess that she was not to be shaken in her purpose. She had formed her +plans carefully before leaving Melbourne, indeed during the voyage, and +she had determined to see with her own eyes the very claim, as they +called it, where he, the loved, the lost Lance Trevanion had worked. She +must see John Polwarth, with whose name she was familiar, and his +honest-hearted wife. She would never be able to rest without full and +complete explanation from Mr. Stirling of all things connected with +Lance's mysterious disappearance. Of course she could imagine that in +Australia people often moved away to new diggings at great distances, +and, she supposed, left off writing to their friends, though she could +hardly account for it in her cousin's case. 'Poor thing! poor thing!' +said Mrs. M'Alpine to herself, 'she will have to hear the wretched truth +some time or other. <i>I</i> can't venture upon it, but I don't know a man +who is more likely to break it to her gently than Charlie Stirling, and +so, as she is bent upon it, the sooner she gets safely out to +"Growlers'" the better.'</p> + +<p>So it came to pass that, as Mr. M'Alpine was still absent on outpost +duty, a trusty messenger was despatched next day for the Commissioner, +who regretfully saw Estelle safely into the coach which, leaving daily +for Growlers' at the convenient hour of 10 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span>, was the recognised mode +of communication with that rising goldfield and township.</p> + +<p>There were two horses instead of four. The coach was smaller, and by no +means so well appointed. The driver was less distinguished in air and +manner, but capable and civil, particularly after receiving the +Commissioner's strict injunction to take great care of his lady +passenger. The road was more than novel, indeed exciting, to Estelle's +untravelled mind, winding amid fallen trees, bounded on either side by +yawning dark-mouthed shafts of unknown depth—some desolate and +deserted, with unused windlass and dangling rope; others in work, with +full-laden buckets which, as they came to the surface, Estelle believed +to be partly filled with gold—now crossing a rushing water-race upon a +rustic bridge of most temporary nature, and finally plunging through a +creek which flowed level with the feet of the inside passengers. On the +farther bank of this much celebrated watercourse stood a scattered +collection of huts, tents, and cottages, threading which by no +particular roadway the coach dashed ostentatiously into a more closely +occupied thoroughfare, in which some dozen edifices of superior +pretensions denoted the business centre of the township.</p> + +<p>Here the minor peculiarities of a goldfield, somewhat shaded off in the +civilisation of Ballarat, commenced to present themselves. The 'Reefers' +Arms' was an enlarged cottage, the front of which boasted the more +expensive and, in goldfields architecture, more correct material of +'sawn stuff,' disposed weatherboard fashion, while the side walls, the +roof, and rear of the building were composed of large sheets of stringy +bark. It was wholly unlike any building which Estelle had ever +imagined—certainly with a view to lodging therein. However, this was +not the time to falter or hesitate; she had chosen her course and must +follow it out.</p> + +<p>Carrying her smaller property in each hand, and following the driver, +who walked through a group of loiterers or still unsated revellers who +encumbered the entrance, Estelle found herself in a painfully clean +sitting-room, in which her guide deposited her portmanteau, merely +saying, 'I'll call Mrs. Delf to see you, Miss,' and departed.</p> + +<p>He had probably explained that the young lady was a friend of the Police +Magistrate and the Commissioner. Nothing further was necessary to +ensure her the utmost respect and attention which Growlers' could +afford. Both functionaries were men in authority, and as such to be held +in awe. Though it is probable that even without these valuable +introductions any girl, though wholly unprotected, who was +conventionally correct of conduct would have met with similar attention. +As to the peculiarity of a young lady, apparently of position, electing +to abide temporarily in such a queer locality as Growlers', the hostess +was not likely to disquiet herself. So many strange things and strange +people were constantly in the habit of passing across the orbit of any +given goldfield that surprise was of all the emotions the most rare and +difficult to arouse.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Delf shortly presented herself: a neat, alert personage, shrewd of +aspect and decisive of speech. She anticipated any inquiry of Estelle by +remarking, 'Ned tells me, Miss Chaloner, as you want to stop here for a +while. Well, you know Growlers' always was a rough shop, and I can't say +as it's altogether A1 now, but I'll do what I can for you while you're +here, Miss.'</p> + +<p>'Thank you very much,' said Estelle. 'I may stay a few days, or even +longer. Would you kindly tell me if you remember a Mr. Trevanion who was +mining here more than a year ago?'</p> + +<p>'Trevanion—Lance Trevanion? Of course I do. Belonged to Number Six. He +and Jack Polwarth were mates—and a stunning claim it is this very day. +Know him? Why, he stayed here the very last night he was on the +field—poor fellow!'</p> + +<p>'Then he has gone away—left this part of the country?' asked Estelle, +with such anxiety depicted on her countenance that the quick-witted +matron at once divined that the real truth was as yet unknown to her. +'And why do you say "poor fellow"? Has anything happened to him?'</p> + +<p>'Oh no! Not at all, Miss—that is, not that I've heard of' ('and that's +a banger, if ever there was one,' ejaculated the good woman inwardly); +'it's a manner of speaking, that's all—we were all fond of him, and +sorry to lose him, you see. Is there any one else here you know, Miss? +Oh! Mr. Stirling of the Bank opposite will be here to dinner at one +o'clock; has his meals here regular, though of course he sleeps at the +Bank. He'll tell you all about Mr. Trevanion. Bless you, they was like +brothers. As for Mr. Stirling, he's that quiet—why, whatever's up at +the Bank? Not a fight, surely?'</p> + +<p>This exclamatory query was apparently caused by a simultaneous rush of +all the unoccupied portion of the population, with the exception of +three men who stood up in a cart, across to the comparatively +pretentious building with corrugated iron roof, legended on the front as +the Joint-Stock Bank of Australia. Mrs. Delf's experienced eye had noted +the formation of a ring, simultaneously with the sudden precipitation on +his head of an able-bodied miner through the Bank's portal.</p> + +<p>'It's that "Geordie" Billy, sure as I live; he's been cheekin' Mr. +Stirling about his gold and got chucked out. He's a rough chap when he's +had a drop. There's bound to be a row now.'</p> + +<p>A tall brown-bearded man, decidedly in undress uniform, but effectively +attired for service, had by this time appeared at the door. He wore a +coloured crimean shirt, to which, however, was attached a white linen +collar. His coat was off, and his sleeves had been rolled up. He watched +with a smile the burly miner recover himself, and standing upright glare +around him with the silent fury of the bull-dog in his small black eye.</p> + +<p>'Are ye game to come out of your box there and stand up to a <i>man</i>?' he +growled out. 'I'll show ye what it is to put your hands on me!'</p> + +<p>The banker's answer to the challenge was to walk calmly forward, while +the spectators, with cheerful expectancy, closed around, in confident +trust that one of the principal excitements of their monotonous +existence would not fail them.</p> + +<p>'I'd rather see you go home, Billy, and sleep off your sulk. It's the +grog that always makes a fool of you; but if you must have a licking, +come on.'</p> + +<p>'Oh dear me!' cried Estelle, who, with the most liberal allowance for +the free and lawless life which colonists are believed to lead, had +scarcely expected this. 'Are they really going to fight? How dreadful! +That gentleman may be killed.'</p> + +<p>'Not he, Miss. Mr. Stirling's a hard man to mark; not but what the +"Geordie's" as strong as a bull, and can fight too. Come to this window, +Miss; we can see it first-rate from here. They'll only have two or three +rounds, and his mates'll take away Billy.'</p> + +<p>'And is <i>that</i> Mr. Stirling?' asked Estelle, with deepest amazement. 'I +thought you said he was so quiet?'</p> + +<p>'So he is, Miss, till he's put upon. I expect Geordie said he was +weighing the gold wrong, and Mr. Stirling won't likely stand that from a +digger, and put him out. That's about the size of it. Oh, do look, Miss; +they're going at it.'</p> + +<p>Estelle was much minded to turn her head away. In her own country she +would doubtless have thought shame to have looked on at any such +spectacle. But somehow the anxiety to see how the aristocrat fared in +conflict with the man of the people overpowered her scruples, so she +gazed eagerly at the conflict, as might her ancestress at a tournament +where her badge was worn by a knightly aspirant.</p> + +<p>'Geordie' Billy, belonging to a section of miners who hailed from 'canny +Newcassel,' was a low-set, broad-chested, unusually powerful man. Long +in the reach, and in the pink of condition from severe daily labour, his +enormous strength and dogged courage, independently of science, made him +a dangerous antagonist. Mr. Stirling was held to be the most finished +performer with the gloves on the field. It was therefore a contest of +champions, and as such awaited by the crowd with keen and pleasurable +expectation; and a very ugly customer indeed did Mr. Billy Corve appear, +as he came forward with an activity which the various 'nips' he had +indulged in that morning had but slightly impaired. Had one of those +sledgehammer blows which he delivered with fierce rapidity taken effect, +Mr. Stirling would have had some difficulty in 'coming to time.' But +stepping back from one, eluding another by what appeared to be the +slightest side movement of his head, and stopping a third neatly, he +caught his advancing foe such a left-handed facer as staggered him, +leaving him a prey to the body blow that followed, and which, getting +'home' to some purpose, sent him very decidedly to grass.</p> + +<p>'Oh dear, how dreadful!' said Estelle, pale with apprehension. 'Surely +they won't let them kill one another? That poor man must be badly hurt.'</p> + +<p>'Not a bit of it, Miss. You couldn't kill Billy with an axe. He'll be +all the steadier for it next round. Oh! look out, Mr. Stirling.'</p> + +<p>This friendly admonition, which in the ardour of her partisanship Mrs. +Delf screamed out at the top of her voice, was justified by the apparent +success of the very ugly rush which Mr. Corve made, with the evident +intention of getting to close quarters. He broke through Stirling's +guard, and nearly succeeded in getting his head 'into chancery,' as that +peculiar feat of the combat is designated. Once enfolded with that +mighty arm, and the enormous fist left free to pound away at discretion, +the classical outline of Charlie Stirling's features would have been +sadly marred, perhaps permanently altered. But <i>dis aliter visum</i>. +Countering with lightning quickness through the 'half-arm rally,' +Stirling managed, by the exercise of desperate agility, to keep clear of +the octopus-like hug, in which science would have been vain. Finally, +springing backward, he evaded a final lunge, and darting in from the +side administered a rattling hit on the 'point,' which for the moment +completely discomfited his antagonist.</p> + +<p>A ringing cheer went up from the discriminating crowd, while a friendly +bystander, moved to apprehensive sympathy, earnestly exclaimed, 'Keep +your head, Mr. Stirling; for God's sake, sir, keep your head.'</p> + +<p>But Charlie Stirling had already seen the necessity for caution, for +though his gray eyes glowed and his chest heaved as he regained his +corner, he seemed to fall mechanically into the attitude of calm +watchfulness with which he had commenced the encounter.</p> + +<p>'Wasn't that grand, Miss?' exclaimed Mrs. Delf. 'Mr. Stirling's as quick +on his pins as a wallaroo. I was most afeard the "Geordie" had him then. +This round will settle it. Don't go in, Miss. Maybe you'll never have a +chance to see a right-out good mill so comfortable again. Two to one on +Mr. Stirling.'</p> + +<p>For her life Estelle could not have moved away then, though she had +turned her head a minute before, deeming that for shame's sake she could +no longer look on at such a sight. But the ancient fire which glowed in +the breasts of the patrician dames of Rome's proudest day, though +stifled and repressed for centuries, has never quite died out of the +female heart. After all, no one would be killed, or perhaps mortally +wounded. Mr. Stirling was Lance's friend, thus necessarily hers. She +could not bear to leave the arena ignorant of the fate of their +champion.</p> + +<p>She had not long to wait. And now that her blood was slightly warmed by +the excitement of a real battle, a combat not quite <i>à l'outrance</i>, but +as near to it as is permitted in these degenerate days, she confessed to +herself that there was something not wholly inglorious in this ordeal by +combat.</p> + +<p>The tall athletic form of Charlie Stirling showed to great advantage as +he advanced, with head erect and elastic step, towards his truculent +antagonist, whose countenance, with a splash of blood from brow to bare +neck, wore a savagely stern expression. Furious at his late failure, he +made a rush, with every intention of ending the fight then and there. +Forcing the fighting, and compelling Stirling to use his utmost skill in +warding off or evading his terrific blows, each one of which was +sufficient to disable an ordinary man, he appeared at one time to have +mastered his adversary. But Charlie Stirling, the hero of a hundred +glove-fights, was too clever, in the language of the <i>lanista</i>. Feinting +suddenly, he drew the blow, of which he had thoroughly mastered an +infallible guard, at the same time getting home with his right in a +terrific body blow, the effect of which brought his man forward, to be +shot backward by a lightning left-hander on the temple, which stretched +the brawny gladiator senseless, putting the possibility of 'coming to +time' entirely out of the question.</p> + +<p>'Great work, Mr. Stirling! You gave him "London" that time,' shouted a +man who hailed from Bow Bells; and amid congratulatory cheers, in which +Estelle felt a sudden impulse to join, the discomfited champion, after +recovering his valuable intellects, was led off—resisting manfully, to +do him justice. But his crowd was decidedly against him, and by force of +numbers, in despite of oaths and protestations, he was borne off to a +rival hostelry, there to drown his mortification in beer, and finish the +day in a manner worthy of its auspicious commencement.</p> + +<p>As for Mr. Stirling, he 'retired into his kingdom' (like the king in +Hans Andersen), 'and shut the door after him'—presumably for ablution, +for he emerged in half an hour, at the sound of Mrs. Delf's dinner-bell, +arrayed in conventional garments, and, save a slightly flushed +countenance and a forehead bruise, unscathed from his recent encounter.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Estelle proceeded to Mrs. Delf's dining-room—not without +natural misgivings as to the composition of the <i>table d'hôte</i>. These, +however, were set at rest by observing that only six guests were +provided for. They proved to be Mr. Stirling and the manager of another +bank, a commercial traveller, a gold-buyer, and a stranger unclassified, +all of whom were scrupulously correct and deferential of manner. Later +on she became aware that, according to the highly commendable custom of +Australian hotels, even on the most recent goldfields and out-of-the-way +country towns, there are two tables, corresponding to first and second +class in railways. At the first those who may be considered gentle-folk +are entertained, while to the second the rougher and less manageable +guests are relegated.</p> + +<p>'Miss Chaloner,' said Mr. Stirling, bowing deferentially upon entering, +'perhaps you will permit me to introduce myself, while expressing my +deep regret that you should have been an involuntary spectator of such a +disgraceful occurrence. We are not generally so badly behaved, though +you are the only lady that has so far honoured Growlers' with a visit. +We have no police to keep order, so we are obliged to protect +ourselves.'</p> + +<p>Estelle faintly smiled as she replied, 'You seem to be able to do so +pretty well, if I may judge from appearances. I hope no one is severely +hurt. Ought I to congratulate you on your victory?'</p> + +<p>'You don't know how relieved I feel at your forgiveness, Miss Chaloner,' +he replied. 'As for Geordie (who really is a deserving individual when +sober, and a capitalist besides), he is wholly unhurt, and to-morrow you +will probably see him on the most friendly terms with me and all +mankind.'</p> + +<p>Before returning to business, Stirling found means to intimate to +Estelle that he was aware from Mrs. M'Alpine's letter that she wished to +have some private conversation with him; that he would do himself the +honour of calling upon her later in the afternoon, when he would be most +happy to afford her whatever information he was possessed of about her +cousin.</p> + +<p>'Thank you very much,' she said. 'Oh, Mr. Stirling, if you knew how I +have longed to find some one who could give me authentic news of his +movements. And you knew him so well?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; <i>very</i> well. I must go now, but you shall hear all that I can tell +you.'</p> + +<p>Easier said than done, thought he, as once more in the small inner room +of his unostentatious edifice he lit his pipe and abandoned himself to +fullest contemplation. 'And what in the world shall I tell her? What a +glorious girl she is. What an air of refinement, and yet with what +courage and high resolve she has faced the difficulties of her position. +Proud, cultured, aristocratic to the finger-tips, she has volunteered to +expose herself to rough journeyings, rude associates—even ruder in her +imagining than the reality. And for what? For the sake of a heedless, +self-indulgent scamp like Lance Trevanion, who never was good enough to +black her boots. God knows, I pity him from the very bottom of my heart; +but I cannot help believing that it was his own selfish obstinacy in a +great measure that brought about his ruin. And now I have to tell this +sweet and noble creature that her lover was till lately a convicted +felon—actually at present an escaped prisoner, at the mercy of the +first police trooper that falls across him. The bare idea is frightful.' +And then Mr. Charles Stirling filled his pipe again to the brim and +smoked on for some considerable time, apparently in a most anxious, not +to say despondent, frame of mind. The irruption of a party of diggers +with a parcel of gold to be weighed and deposited here temporarily +diverted his thoughts, but soon after four o'clock, having finished his +day's work and impressed upon his junior to keep close to the bank +premises in his absence, he betook himself to Mrs. Delf's hostelry. He +found Estelle awaiting him in walking attire. He proposed that they +should visit Number Six claim, where Jack Polwarth still lived and +worked. It was barely a mile distant. On the way he would be able to +give her all the information she desired.</p> + +<p>'Nothing would please her more. She was fond of walking, and should like +above all things to see a real claim at work.' So forth they fared +through the crooked, straggling street, crowded on either side with the +heterogeneous buildings of a goldfield town. Turning to the south, they +trod a winding track through a labyrinth of shafts of all sizes and +depths of sinking. Mounds of earth thrown up in every direction gave the +scene a ghastly resemblance to the cemetery of a plague-stricken city. +As if unwilling to enter upon the subject so unavoidably painful, +Stirling directed her attention to the various novel features of the +scene. When, suddenly turning towards him, she said in a low but +distinct tone of voice: 'And now, Mr. Stirling, please to tell me all +you know of my unfortunate cousin. No one has said so in so many words, +but I <i>feel</i> it'—here she laid her hand upon her heart—'something +dreadful has happened to him. Is it not so?'</p> + +<p>'I wish I could deny it,' he answered, in a tone of the deepest +feeling; 'but I cannot. Your heart has warned you truly. He is a most +unfortunate man.'</p> + +<p>'He has left the locality altogether then, and permanently?' she asked.</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'Tell me all,'—here she clasped her hands and looked so imploringly in +his face that Charlie Stirling, seeing but the misery in her pleading +face, felt minded to kneel down and kiss the hem of her garment. 'Oh +that those eyes could so soften and glow for me,' he thought. 'And all +this heavenly love and tenderness wasted. Alas!'</p> + +<p>But he said only, 'My dear Miss Chaloner, my heart bleeds for you; you +must prepare to hear the worst.'</p> + +<p>'<i>Is he dead?</i>' said she hoarsely, in a changed voice.</p> + +<p>'No, not <i>dead</i>. Better perhaps that he had been. Were he my brother, I +should say the same.'</p> + +<p>'Thank God for that,' she said. 'If he is alive I may look upon his face +again. Tell me—tell me at once——' and here, oh marvellous and divine +power of woman's love! her face lit up with a glow of gratitude and +hope, which to her admiring companion's mind changed it into the +presentment of a saint.</p> + +<p>He motioned her to sit down upon one of the fallen forest trees which +thickly, in places, encumbered the earth, and there told her as briefly +as might be the whole miserable tale. He made but scant mention of the +Lawless sisters, laying great stress upon the iniquitous nature of the +trap into which Lance had fallen—the persistent hostility of Dayrell +and his settled intention to secure a conviction.</p> + +<p>'I see it all,' she said, rising from her seat and walking excitedly +onward. 'I see it all. He has been the victim of a conspiracy among +these wretches—poor poor Lance! Why did he insist upon coming to this +unhappy land? But is he alive—alive? Justice will yet be done. I will +see him if he is above ground in Australia, and together we must work, +with the aid of his friends, for an honourable release. Oh! I cannot +tell you how relieved I feel,' continued Estelle. 'I am glad; I thought +that he was dead. It has given me strength to bear the dreadful thought +of his imprisonment. And now tell me about it, tell me while I am +strong.'</p> + +<p>Stirling saw his opportunity. It was a hard, a most painful task; but +now he would go through with it. He scarce hoped that she would have +made it so easy for him. This ground had now become more open, and on +the bank of the ravine, widening into a green and level meadow, he saw +the windlass and shaft of Number Six, above which floated a red flag, +the well-known signal, brought here by Californian miners, that the +claim was 'on gold.' They had still some distance to go; her feet, that +were so fleet and eager a while since, became slow and listless. Ere +they reached the mound on the other side of which they saw the stalwart +form and good-humoured countenance of John Polwarth, he had told and she +had heard the sad finale to the high hopes and joyous aspirations of +Lance Trevanion.</p> + +<p>'And now that he has escaped from these terrible hulks, I suppose there +is not much chance of his being recaptured? This country is so wild and +large that surely prisoners must nearly always escape?'</p> + +<p>'No doubt they do, but not so often as we might think. The country is +wild, but those who pursue them are keen and fearless. However, the +place that he has reached is inaccessible and distant.'</p> + +<p>'Thank God for that,' she said softly. 'Perhaps he can travel safely +through the wilderness and find a ship for England. Oh, if he were but +once at home!—at home! Why did he ever leave? But I must not break down +now. Is that John Polwarth?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, and yonder is Mrs. Polwarth at the door of that neat cottage, and +Tottie standing by her. I think we may as well call upon her first, and +have Jack in by and by. She is a good, kindly woman, and Lance's +misfortune was a bitter grief to her.'</p> + +<p>'He seems to have had such <i>good</i> friends around him,' said Estelle +sorrowfully; 'why could they not save him? But I know that he was wilful +and headstrong. Alas! alas!'</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached Mrs. Polwarth's cottage—a mansion in the +estimation of all 'Growlers',' inasmuch as it boasted of four rooms of +medium size, a verandah, and a detached slab kitchen. Mrs. Polwarth, who +was engaged in sweeping around her door,—a space in front of all +miners' habitations being scrupulously kept clear of sticks, leaves, and +other untidinesses,—halted in her occupation and greeted Mr. Stirling +warmly.</p> + +<p>'Why, whatever's brought you over to-day, Mr. Stirling? I suppose this +fine afternoon? Come inside and I'll get you a cup of tea after your +walk. Maybe the lady's a little tired.'</p> + +<p>'We shall be glad of the chance, I am sure. Mrs. Polwarth, this lady is +Miss Chaloner, a cousin of Lance Trevanion, our poor friend and Jack's +partner. She has come all the way from England, from his old home, to +see about him.'</p> + +<p>'The Lord bless and keep us!' said Mrs. Polwarth—a devout Wesleyan, as +are mostly Cornish mining folk. 'Only to think of that! It's the doing +of Providence, that's what it is. Sit ye down, Miss. To think I should +ever see you in my poor place. It's clean and neat what there is of it, +too. And to think of your being <i>his</i> cousin—poor Mr. Lance's cousin. +Many's the tear I shed thinking o'er his sad fate. Oh dear! oh dear! I'm +that glad to see this day.'</p> + +<p>'And I am very glad to see you, Mrs. Polwarth,' said the English girl, +softening at once at the sight of the genuine grief displayed by the +good woman, for the tears were by this time running down her cheeks. 'I +have so often heard of you in my cousin's letters that I seem to know +you quite well. And is this Tottie? Come to me, my dear, and tell me how +old you are.'</p> + +<p>Tottie, a pretty child, rather more carefully attired than usual, was +not shy, and coming up to the pretty lady, as she ever afterwards +described her, looked up wonderingly, with great blue eyes and a wistful +smile.</p> + +<p>'Mother, is this Lance's sister?' she said, with the curious childish +intuition which seems to suggest so many guesses at truth—some near +enough in all conscience. 'Is he coming back to Tottie?'</p> + +<p>Mr. Stirling 'thought he would go and have a word with Jack,' and, not +sorry to leave the two women to open their hearts to each other, hastily +departed.</p> + +<p>There was no particular news about Number Six. 'She was going on +steady,' Jack said. 'Last week was as good as any washing-up they'd had +for a month, and she wasn't half worked out yet. So that was Mr. Lance's +cousin, her as had coomed with Mr. Stirling? All the way from England, +too? It was her as used to write to him and tell him about the old place +at home, and how his father, the Squire, was. And now the Squire was +dead. And Lance, poor chap, had broke jail, and was gone nobody knew +where. And this young lady was here all the way to Growlers'! It beats +all. Wait till I run out this bucket and tidy myself a bit, Mr. +Stirling, and I'll come over and see the young lady. It's a sight for +sore eyes to see any one from the old country; no offence to you, sir, +as never was there, more's the pity. But it'll do Gwenny and me to talk +about for a year to come, I'll warrant.'</p> + +<p>Thus discoursing, they walked over to the cottage, where Stirling +partook of the proffered cup of tea, and Polwarth, betaking himself to a +back apartment, performed ablutions which caused his honest face to +shine again, and, attired in his Sunday suit, presented himself after a +while to Miss Chaloner. This young lady shook him warmly by the hand, +and telling him that she had heard about him in every letter which Lance +had written until—until—lately, expressed her sincere pleasure at +seeing him and his wife.</p> + +<p>'You were Lance's true friend, he always said. And many a time the poor +Squire and I felt so happy that he had an honest English heart and a +stout English arm to rely upon in this far country.'</p> + +<p>'Ah, Miss! Me and the wife had that feeling for him as we'd ha' done +anything i' the world to keep him from harm, but there was them as he +took to, against our liking, that drawed him down the wrong way. It was +a bad day as he ever seed 'em. I was always at him to cut loose and quit +their company. But it was all no use; he was that set and headstrong.'</p> + +<p>'<i>We</i> knew that well, his poor father and I,' replied Estelle sadly; +'that strange obstinacy of his, which runs in the family, they say, +seems to have been his ruin. But I've come out here on purpose to find +him, and if he lives in Australia I <i>will</i> find him before I leave.'</p> + +<p>As Estelle pronounced the last words she raised her head proudly and +gazed with a fixed and steady glance into the forest path, as if in her +self-imposed task she could pierce their solitude and discover at +whatever distance the object of her quest.</p> + +<p>Her expressive countenance, even more than her words, carried conviction +to her hearers of a high resolve. Stirling regarded her with mingled +feelings of respect and admiration, while Jack Polwarth, in rude but +honest tones, broke out with, 'And so ye shall, Miss, and we'll help ye +to the last drop of our blood; won't we, Mr. Stirling? Ye have the old +courage and the old spirit in ye, Miss Chaloner; I could fancy I heard +Mr. Lance himself speaking, poor chap.'</p> + +<p>'I don't wish to pose as a heroine, Mr. Stirling,' she continued, +blushing slightly at the momentary excitement into which she had been +betrayed, 'but I wish all my friends to understand that I have fully +resolved, for several reasons, not the least of which is that so I +promised his father on his deathbed, to go through with this task, and, +Heaven helping me, will never abandon it while Lance is alive.'</p> + +<p>'I can quite appreciate your feeling in the matter, Miss Chaloner,' said +Stirling. 'Nothing would give me more pleasure than to join you in the +search for our unfortunate friend. But I am, so to speak, chained to +this spot. In all other ways you may command me, and I have good warrant +for saying Jack Polwarth here, as well as Mr. Hastings, who is our +staunch ally also, will join in the enterprise, heart and soul.'</p> + +<p>'This is truly the land of warm and unselfish friendship,' replied +Estelle. 'I have met with nothing else, for which I shall be grateful as +long as I live. It will give me fresh confidence in my search. I never +could have believed that the way would have been made so smooth for me. +I feel more at home here than I have done since I left England. So I +shall stay at Mrs. Delf's for a week longer, getting together all the +information which I shall need.'</p> + +<p>'I think we had better be moving, Miss Chaloner, or Mrs. Delf's gong +will be sounding an alarm for tea. She has many virtues, but punctuality +and scrubbing she may be said to carry to excess.'</p> + +<p>'Amiable weaknesses, to my mind,' said Estelle, rising from her chair. +'I feel disposed to humour them, and Mrs. Polwarth, if you will have me +to-morrow, I will come down after breakfast, now that I know the way to +Number Six, and spend the day with you and Tottie.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + + +<p>Not only on that next day, but for several days following, did Estelle +wend her way to Number Six soon after breakfast was concluded at Mrs. +Delf's very punctual establishment. During this repast, and for some +minutes afterwards, it generally happened that she found herself +conversing with Mr. Stirling. That gentleman took so deep an interest in +each and every question connected with Lance Trevanion, that, as she +more than once owned to herself, his own brother—had he one in this +strange land—could not have done more or appeared more anxiously +considerate. He caused Mr. Hastings to be sent for, and that gentleman +appeared dressed in a habit of the period, and by no means resembling +the picturesque miner of fiction. He also exhibited a keen sympathetic +interest in all Estelle's plans and prospects. He recounted his first +introduction to Lance, and amused her by picturing himself as a hunted +fugitive pursued by the minions of the law, finally captured and +manacled. 'Nothing that mortal man could do,' he repeated with emphasis, +'was too much for him and his friends to do for Lance, a gentleman at +all points—brave, generous—only too confiding; the victim of an unjust +sentence—if ever a man was in this world.'</p> + +<p>'You can't tell how grateful I am to you and Mr. Stirling for the way +you have spoken of him,' she answered. 'If only the poor Squire could +have heard you. Thank God! that he was spared the knowledge of his son's +disgrace; danger, or indeed death, he feared might have been his +portion; but imprisonment—a felon's doom and sentence—that!—oh, that! +he would not have survived a week.'</p> + +<p>'Stirling and I are his friends, Miss Chaloner,' he answered calmly. +'There is no more to be said. We are neither of us given to forming +friendships lightly, or changing them afterwards—we may not be able to +do all we wish—but what is in our power shall not be spared. Will you +permit me at this stage to ask whether you propose to go in search of +him, and how you are going to set about it?'</p> + +<p>'There seems no doubt that when poor Lance left Melbourne—escaped from +the hulks—he travelled into the interior. There is no one—no one that +I know or can think of—who could give me further information. But I +shall go to Melbourne. It is one stage on my journey; it may be that I +may discover the next one while there.'</p> + +<p>'I can give you positively no advice as to your movements, for the +moment,' returned Hastings thoughtfully. 'I can only counsel you to +remain here a few days longer, when, between Stirling and myself, some +plan of action may be arrived at.'</p> + +<p>'I am not restless,' she made answer, 'though I do not wish to lose +time. Anxiety and trouble in the end may be saved by not being too +hasty. I will therefore stay a few days longer than I at first intended. +But on Monday next I must return to Ballarat, <i>en route</i> for Melbourne.'</p> + +<p>'And after that?' queried Hastings, almost unconsciously. For he could +not help pitying from his heart this high-souled maiden, so utterly +alien in every thought and feeling to the people by whom she must of +necessity be surrounded. He saw her quitting the comparative security of +even this humble retreat for a doubtful, even dangerous, succession of +journeys in quest of what—of whom? An outlaw and a felon! Guilty by his +country's laws, and self-convicted now by his breach of prison +regulations. Doubtless he had received hard measure and unjust sentence, +but had he been true to himself and the traditions of his race, he +needed never to have placed himself in peril of the law. 'However,' he +continued in mental converse, 'she will never be persuaded—woman +like—that he has descended from her ideal. She must "dree her weird," +as our Scottish friends say.'</p> + +<p>So for the next few days Estelle amused herself by studying the ordinary +miner's life, partly in company with Mr. Stirling, who generally found +her quietly seated in Mrs. Polwarth's cottage in the afternoon after +bank hours, and partly from information derived from that worthy dame, +who was far from averse to diffusing her information.</p> + +<p>'I don't see but what it's as good a country as the one we've left, +Miss,' said the shrewd matron; 'anyhow it's better for the likes of Jack +and me. There's a deal of rough ways and drinking, it's true, but no +one's bound to take part in it if they don't like. Jack, he's steady and +sober,—I'm thankful to the Lord for it,—and we're putting by more cash +every washing-up than we ever heard talk of in the Duchy. When Tottie's +a year or two older we'll send her to school in Melbourne. There's good +schools there, I'm told. There's no reason why she shouldn't have the +learning as we never had. We'll make a lady of her, please God.'</p> + +<p>'I see no objection, Mrs. Polwarth, to her having the best education +possible,' replied Estelle thoughtfully. 'At home we are apt to +disapprove of children being educated above their station, as it is +called. But in a new country every one has a chance to rise in life, if +they prove worthy of it, and there is no reason why my pretty little +Tottie shouldn't be as much a lady, in mind and manners, as any one +else.'</p> + +<p>'Do you really think so, Miss?' asked Mrs. Polwarth, anxiously. 'I've +known girls that were spoiled in the old country by being sent to +boarding-schools, and come back neither one thing nor the other. Spoiled +for farm lasses, and not quite up to being ladies, in spite of their +fal-lals and piano music. I'd break my heart if Tottie came to be like +that.'</p> + +<p>'I think you may put as much learning into this pretty little head as it +will hold,' said Estelle, stroking the child's clustering ringlets. +'You'll always be a good girl, won't you, Tottie?'</p> + +<p>'Tottie's mother's good girl,' said the small damsel, dimly conscious +that she was under discussion, and then reading the tenderness aright in +her visitor's face—that visitor so munificent in sugar plums and +dolls—'and Miss Chaloner's good girl too.'</p> + +<p>'I really believe you will, Tottie dear,' she said, lifting up the child +and kissing her. 'May God bless all this prosperity to her, and to you +and John also. Some people deserve their good fortune, and I am sure you +both do.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The days passed on—the final Saturday came, and still no course had +shaped itself in the minds of her 'friends in council.' Tessie Lawless +certainly might have furnished information, but no one knew her address. +They were not even sure whether she would feel justified in disclosing +Lance's retreat. Stirling was still in much doubt—more than he cared to +show—with regard to Miss Chaloner setting forth on a hopeless quest, +when the daily mail arrived from Ballarat. Glancing through his letters, +he stopped suddenly, arrested by the handwriting of an unopened letter. +'Lance Trevanion, by heaven!' he exclaimed, half aloud; 'just in time, +too.' He tore it open. The fateful scroll commenced thus—</p> + +<blockquote><p>'<span class="smcap">Omeo</span>, <i>10th June 185—</i>.</p> + +<p>'Here I am, my dear Charlie, so far restored to my old feelings +that I can put pen to paper again, at the very idea of which I +have shuddered till now. But the fresh mountain air—we had +snow for breakfast this morning—has made a man of me again; +that is, as much of a man as I ever shall be till I quit +Australia for good.</p> + +<p>'After I left my <i>last place</i>, I made tracks for this digging. +The most out-of-the-way, rough, rowdy hole among the mountains +that ever gold was found in. It's a hard place to get to, +harder still to get safely out of, populated, as it is, by all +the scum of the colonies, and the rascaldom of half the world. +Very different from Ballarat or poor old Growlers', though I +have no reason to say so.</p> + +<p>'How about the gold? you will say. <i>There is no mistake about +that.</i> I have no mates. I am a "hatter," and have worked on my +own hook—partly for occupation and partly for a blind. I have +just made up my mind to prospect a reef which has been +discovered near Mount Gibbo by a stock-rider called Caleb Coke. +He is an ex-convict, "an old-hand," as they say here, and there +are queer stories told about him, as indeed about most of the +people in Omeo; but if the reef is rich—and they say nothing +like it has been struck yet—I intend to have a shot at it.</p> + +<p>'You would laugh to see my hut; it is as neat as a sailor's +cabin. I lock my door when I go out, and no one has "cracked +the crib" yet. I bought a sea-chest, brass-bound and +copper-fastened, which found its way up here on a pack-horse, +and am supposed to have gold and jewels and all sorts of +valuables therein. Henry Johnson is my purser's name, but the +fellows, finding that I know Ballarat, have christened me +"Ballarat Harry."</p> + +<p>'To turn to business, I think the time has come for my getting +over by degrees, and very quietly, as much of my credit balance +with your bank as can be safely forwarded. My plan is, of +course, to clear out for the most handy port, and put the sea +between me and Australia. But there's time to think of that. If +you can manage it without risk, send me the portmanteau I left +with Jack. It contained letters, and a good many home +souvenirs that I should like to see again. My watch and rings +are in a small drawer; you can send the key in a letter. If you +forward a draft for a thousand, payable at a Melbourne bank to +H. Johnson, or bearer, I can get it cashed here and buy gold at +a heavy discount. It will be as good a way as any to transfer +my share of Number Six hither, till I can transfer myself for +good.</p> + +<p>'Remember me to Jack and his wife, and kiss Tottie for me. I +wonder if I shall ever see her again.</p> + +<p>'For the present, adieu.—Yours ever, L. T.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Address:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Mr. Henry Johnson,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Long Plain Creek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'care of Barker & Jones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Storekeepers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Omeo.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Here was a discovery!—a revelation! Stirling barely suffered himself to +finish it before rushing over to Miss Chaloner with the astounding news. +At first he dreaded the effect which it might have upon her, hopeless as +she had been of late as to the whereabouts of the lost Lance. Still, he +had noted and admired her self-control when he divulged the sad +intelligence of his imprisonment. He felt unable to withhold it from +her.</p> + +<p>Leaving the bank entirely to the control of his junior,—a young man to +whom goldfield experience had imparted a discretion beyond his +years,—he hastened over to Mrs. Delf's, where he met Estelle just about +to start for her daily visit to Mrs. Polwarth.</p> + +<p>She looked up suddenly. 'You have news?' she said. 'I am sure it is not +bad tidings. Oh! can it be? Lance found? Is he safe? Does he know I am +here?'</p> + +<p>'My news is not quite so comprehensive as all that,' he answered, +looking admiringly at her fine features, so suddenly illumined with a +glow of tenderness, 'but I can say with truth that the good element +prevails.'</p> + +<p>'You have heard from him then?'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' he answered; 'by this morning's post. I have the letter here.'</p> + +<p>'And is there—oh! is there anything in it which I should not read? May +I—ought I to ask you to show it to me?' she cried.</p> + +<p>Stirling, inwardly congratulating himself that his correspondent had +refrained from mention of any member of the Lawless family, or indeed +from any chance allusion which might have shocked the innocent trusting +girl who now looked so imploringly at him, produced the precious missive +promptly.</p> + +<p>'Here is his letter; let him speak for himself, Miss Chaloner. There is +no earthly reason why you should not see it. It will give you all the +information you need. You will please excuse me until dinner-time.'</p> + +<p>'I am for ever grateful to you,' she said, with the tears fast flowing +from her shining eyes. 'I will walk down to the claim. I always feel at +home there. I shall be able to think over my plans calmly if this letter +changes them, as perhaps it may do.'</p> + +<p>Thus they parted, he returning to his treasure-house just in time to see +two rival parties of diggers, literally laden with gold, who were making +good time in a race for the bank door, each desiring to ensure a +division of the precious metal before the establishment closed. Estelle, +holding fast her coveted letter, which she pressed closely to her bosom, +walked slowly along the track across the flat which led to Number Six, +as one that hoards yet delays the savouring of a joy too sweet and +precious for hasty possession.</p> + +<p>Passing through the shaft-riddled portion of the creek meadow, where a +rich but shallow deposit had caused every yard of ground to be pierced +and tunnelled, she paused upon a grassy knoll where the outcrop of +basaltic rock had checked the miners' search. Here the timber had been +spared, and beneath a wide-spreading angophera Estelle Chaloner seated +herself, and on a basaltic monolith, first folding her hands and making +mute appeal to Heaven, commenced with hungry eyes to devour the +invaluable missive.</p> + +<p>She read and re-read—read again—word by word, and sighed over the +closing lines, then folding it carefully and placing it in her bosom, +walked thoughtfully forward.</p> + +<p>So he was at Omeo (such were her thoughts), a distant, rude, isolated +region as she had heard—indeed his letter so described it. But what of +that; he was safe, he was well, in recovered health and spirits—thank +an all-merciful God for this much. He had even <i>hope</i>—the expectation +of escape—of a life of happiness in England, or in some land beyond the +reach of this strange country's harsh unequal laws.</p> + +<p>Once safely at Wychwood, who would recognise in the proud heir of this +historical estate the erstwhile miner, the unjustly treated prisoner? +Then what would be her part in his future life? True, he made no +reference to her; perhaps in a letter to a friend, chiefly on business +matters, such were hardly likely. Still, to such a friend as Mr. +Stirling, so nobly steadfast and true-hearted, he <i>might</i> have said a +word about his poor Estelle in the lonely manor-house, as he would +picture her. But he was safe, free, almost happy in the enjoyment of his +lately acquired liberty. That was happiness sufficient for the present. +It would be time enough in the future to cherish other thoughts. Then +walking forward with cleared brow and a resolved air she soon reached +Mrs. Polwarth's cottage, before the door of which Tottie, evidently +expectant, descried her and ran in to report.</p> + +<p>'Why, you're quite late to-day, Miss,' said the good woman. 'I began to +think you were never coming, and Tottie's been along the track as far as +I'd let her. Sit ye down and rest. Is there anything fresh? We heard as +the Ballarat men was talking of "rolling up" if the licenses wasn't +lowered.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, Mrs. Polwarth, there is news, but not about licenses; a letter has +come by the mail to-day—this very day only, think of that!—from—from +<i>him</i>.'</p> + +<p>'Not from Mr. Lance; you don't say so, Miss? Who'd iver have thought on +it? And is he well, has he gotten oot o' the country? The Lord bless and +keep him, wherever he is.'</p> + +<p>'I trust He will, in His great goodness and mercy. It seems so +wonderful, after all these weary months, that I should actually have his +letter—his own letter written to Mr. Stirling—this week here—here!' +and she drew forth the priceless treasure, as it seemed in her eyes, and +again devoured it with hungry regard.</p> + +<p>Then, half replying to Mrs. Polwarth's questions, half giving vent to +long-pent-up feelings which, in the presence of a tried friend of her +own sex, humble in social station as she might be, flowed freely and +unrestrainedly, Estelle Chaloner poured her heart out. After which she +experienced a feeling of intense relief, and was enabled to confer +rationally with Mrs. Polwarth about her course of action.</p> + +<p>'I had fully intended, as you know, to go into Ballarat on Monday,' she +said, 'and therefore there will be no change of plan. The difference +will only be that before this dear letter came'—here she gazed +earnestly at the well-known handwriting—'I had no earthly idea in what +direction I should go after leaving Melbourne. Now I <i>do</i> know, and oh, +how differently I feel!'</p> + +<p>'Yes, I daresay,' said Mrs. Polwarth doubtfully; 'but then, Miss, how +are you to get to Omeo? It's a mighty rough place, everybody says, a +dreadful bad road, and worse a'most when you get there. Don't you think +it would be more prudent-like to wait a bit and let Mr. Stirling write +to him as you're here?'</p> + +<p>'And allow him to think that I am afraid to come to any place where <i>he</i> +lives? Perhaps induce him to leave his retreat for my sake and risk +recapture? No! a hundred times no! I have not come so far to falter +now.'</p> + +<p>'But, my dear young lady, how will you get there? Jack heard some of the +diggers talking about it, and they said all the tools and provisions and +camp things had to be took up on pack-horses. Nothing on wheels could +get there. And what will you do then? you can't walk.'</p> + +<p>'I should not like to walk, certainly,' said Miss Chaloner, with a +smile. 'I wonder what some of my friends would say if they saw me +trudging along with a knapsack on my back. Not but what I would do that +if need were. But I can ride, fairly well too, so I will not let the +want of a coach stop me, I promise you.'</p> + +<p>'And you have friends in Melbourne, and you'll see them first, now won't +you, Miss?' said the kind soul, devoutly hoping that such personages, if +possessed of ordinary prudence, would interpose and prevent further +romantic enterprises, of the success of which she in her own mind felt +deeply distrustful.</p> + +<p>'I shall see them, of course, particularly Mrs. Vernon, who was like a +mother to me; but,' continued this headstrong and imperious young woman, +'all the Mrs. Vernons and Mrs. Grundys in Melbourne will not keep me +from Omeo—from any place where <i>he</i> is.'</p> + +<p>As she spoke she raised her head, her dark eyes flashed with sudden +light, and her whole frame appeared instinct with defiance of +difficulties and obstacles, how numerous soever.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Polwarth seemed to recognise a familiar trait as she sighed and +merely replied, 'It runs in the family, Miss. I see you won't be said. I +could fancy as Mr. Lance was standin' before me this minute. Maybe +you'll get through safe, please the Lord's mercy. There'll be some as'll +pray for ye night and day.'</p> + +<p>'I know that,' she said, taking the toil-worn hands in hers. 'No girl in +a strange country ever found truer friends; I wonder at it sometimes by +myself. But you know Heaven helps those that help themselves, and though +I am a weak woman I feel that in my difficult path I must chiefly rely +on myself. I have his happiness and safety to think of as well as my +own.'</p> + +<p>The more worldly-wise matron could only press the delicate hand in hers, +while the tears came to her eyes. 'If he had only thought as much about +<i>her</i>!' she said inwardly.</p> + +<p>But she held her peace as they walked together adown the track which led +to the township.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>At a conversation which took place on the Sunday evening preceding +Estelle's departure, she repeated her thanks to Stirling and Hastings +for their kindness to herself and their unswerving friendship for Lance.</p> + +<p>'I wish our companionship had been more effectual to protect him,' said +the latter; 'but, speaking among friends, I may say that he was +wilful—too much so for his own good. So have been many men, however, +who have never paid such a heavy penalty. After this last news, however, +the question is, how we are to help him?'</p> + +<p>'I shall travel at once to this—to where he is,' said Estelle quickly. +'You did not expect me to do anything else, did you?'</p> + +<p>'I am afraid that I did not,' he said, smiling; though he added gravely, +'None the less, both Stirling and I think it imprudent for you to take +such a journey by yourself.'</p> + +<p>'Yet I came here safely—even pleasantly.'</p> + +<p>'Omeo is a very different place. It has the worst reputation of any +goldfield yet discovered. The outlaws of all the colonies are gathered +there. Police protection is a mockery; they have no "Launceston Mac" to +regulate them, and the road is impracticable for wheels—well-nigh +impassable, indeed.'</p> + +<p>'All this sounds bad,' said Estelle, 'and, if I <i>could</i> be intimidated, +might prevent my wishing to go. But I am past all that feeling. I must +have one more talk with you and Mr. Stirling. But on Monday I sleep in +Ballarat.'</p> + +<p>'Of course Mrs. M'Alpine will be most happy to receive you again,' he +said, rather ruefully; 'and next day the coach will take you to +Melbourne. I wish the rest of the journey was as plain sailing. If you +would accept me as your escort to Omeo, and I could go, nothing would +give me greater pleasure. But I am in honour bound to stay with my mate +here and see our claim worked out, or I would leave to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>'It is a great pity that Mr. Stirling can't shut up his bank and come +too,' she replied, smiling. 'But I know enough now about mining matters +to judge of the impossibility of your departing at a moment's notice. I +have been wonderfully helped so far. It really appears miraculous. And I +have the fullest faith that I shall not fall short of that aid which a +merciful God provides for His helpless creatures in the future. I will +write to you both, and hereby constitute Mr. Stirling as my banker and +guardian while I remain in Australia.'</p> + +<p>In this fashion it came to pass that on the Monday morning Estelle +carried out her purpose of making the start—that all-important <i>premier +pas</i> which is so often the insuperable difficulty in life.</p> + +<p>The Growlers' Gully coach, departing with American punctuality at the +appointed minute, bore her away again as box-seat passenger, and, not +having more than two others besides the driver, went round by Mr. +M'Alpine's cottage and deposited her at the remembered garden gate.</p> + +<p>Before leaving she had a long and earnest conversation with Charles +Stirling, whom she had grown to regard almost as a brother. His uniform +gentleness of manner, his chivalrous courtesy and studious consideration +for her in every possible particular, joined with a certain firmness in +maintaining his opinion in matters of importance, had insensibly won +upon her regard. She would have been no true woman had it not been so. +Nor could she, from time to time, refrain from involuntarily drawing +mental comparisons between her <i>fiancé</i> and his friend.</p> + +<p>Their circumstances and surroundings being similar, why could not Lance +have conducted himself with the prudence and self-respect which +characterised Mr. Stirling, and indeed Mr. Hastings also? Perhaps the +former, from holding a responsible position, was necessarily more +guarded by the proprieties; but there was Mr. Hastings, whom she had +seen working with his mate Bob, dressed like an ordinary miner, more +roughly living and lodging even than Jack Polwarth. Yet she could see +that he bore himself in all respects as a gentleman, and that such rank +by others was cheerfully accorded to him. Why could not Lance——? and +then she sighed deeply and turned her thoughts abruptly into another +channel.</p> + +<p>It had been decided in council that Miss Chaloner should be suffered to +pursue her journey towards Omeo, at any rate as far as Melbourne, when +she would again place herself under the guardianship of Mrs. Vernon. +After much difficulty, the friends prevailed upon her to promise that +she would not commence the journey to Omeo until Mr. Vernon had arranged +for, in his opinion, a suitable escort. Thus reassured, she was +permitted to depart, being seen off by Mrs. Polwarth and Mrs. Delf, +besides a score or two of casual spectators and miners off work. These +worthy fellows had gradually come to the conclusion that a young lady +who was known to the Commissioner, and treated with such high +consideration by Mr. Stirling, must be a person of rank and title. +Indeed such a report gained common credence, and Estelle was long +referred to in the chronicle of Growlers' as 'the lady in her own right +as had come from England to see after poor Trevanion of Number Six.'</p> + +<p>Before leaving, Estelle had volunteered to take charge of the +portmanteau which Lance had mentioned in his letter as containing some +of his much-cherished souvenirs and other possessions. But Stirling had +doubted the propriety of her burdening herself with a heavy and +presumably valuable package. It would be sure to cause her anxiety, and +from its very appearance might stimulate the cupidity of members of the +lawless class, at that time by no means easy to evade while travelling. +Both in her interest and Lance's he preferred to forward it by gold +escort to an agent in Melbourne, who again would await the opportunity +of police protection to send it on to Omeo. He would be in possession of +Lance's receipt for it before she had reached Omeo; perhaps even before +she had left Melbourne.</p> + +<p>It was finally decided by the friends that Lance should not be informed +of Estelle's arrival. 'It would only unsettle him,' she said. 'He might +even come to Melbourne, and so run the risk of recapture. It will not be +long before I rejoin him at Omeo, or the North Pole,' she added, with a +smile, 'if he roams so far.'</p> + +<p>The intervening stages were necessarily identical with those previously +encountered. Mrs. M'Alpine was still hospitably eager to receive this +wandering princess, as she evidently considered her to be. She would not +hear of her going on to Melbourne the following day, and Estelle, +fearful of the appearance of insufficiently appreciating her unusual +kindness, gracefully, though reluctantly, consented. Her hostess then +arranged so that a discreet selection of the officials then resident at +Ballarat should arrive in the evening. These were mostly young men, +among whom Estelle was pleased to greet her first Ballarat acquaintance, +Mr. Sub-Commissioner Dalton. Ladies were few and far between at that +period of 'the field,' but those who accepted Mrs. M'Alpine's invitation +showed that the exceptional circumstances amid which they lived and +moved had wrought no change in manner or mental habitudes. As for the +men, Estelle found them distinctly above the average in appearance, +bearing, and accomplishments. These last Mrs. M'Alpine unobtrusively +brought forward. Then it appeared that this one was well known as an +artist; another sang 'like an angel,' as one of his feminine admirers +expressed it, playing his own accompaniments on the piano; a third was a +distinguished performer in private theatricals, while all talked well +and amusingly. A rather extended course of travel, continental and +otherwise, joined with army and navy reminiscences, seemed to be common +to all. Mr. M'Alpine had arrived too, from some mining town with an +aboriginal name, and, much to Estelle's surprise, was a punctiliously +courteous and chivalrous elderly personage, mild and almost deferential +in manner to ladies, and possessing a vein of quiet humour which aroused +unexpected merriment from time to time,—very different, indeed, from +the stern, inflexible Rhadamanthus whom she had pictured in her +imaginings of the terrible 'Launceston Mac.'</p> + +<p>When the evening came to an end—not particularly early, it must be +confessed—and the piano and whist table were succeeded by a modest but +very cheerful supper, Estelle came to the conclusion that she had never +seen so many entertaining, cultured, and, in a sense, distinguished +people gathered together in one small room in her life. That it should +be her experience in this curious corner of the remote antipodes was the +crowning marvel of the whole.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Melbourne again! which—so accommodating is our mental to our bodily +vision—seemed quite a small London after Ballarat and Growlers'.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Vernon, who was just about organising one of her regular winter +parties, hailed Estelle's arrival with unaffected joy. This was rather +dashed when she understood her guest's intention to depart for Omeo at +the earliest possible moment. If the truth must be told, she considered +the discovery of Lance's abiding-place at Omeo to be an unalloyed +misfortune. This view of the case was of course unexpressed, out of +deference to Estelle's feelings, who made it—the announcement—with +such unfeigned pleasure that her hostess could not, for pity's sake, +forbear the conventional words of sympathy.</p> + +<p>'But, my dear, you cannot possibly go to that dreadful Omeo at present, +if indeed at all. It was only yesterday that I heard Mr. Vernon telling +some young man (a young man, my dear!) that he advised him to wait till +the winter was nearly over before he started for Omeo, as the roads were +positively dangerous.'</p> + +<p>'I will wait any reasonable time, and I shall certainly be guided by Mr. +Vernon's kind advice,' the girl said; 'but I am resolved to reach Omeo +before the spring.'</p> + +<p>'"A wilful woman,"' quoted the old lady, '"must, I suppose, have her +way," like a wilful man, but I am charmed to see that you recognise the +propriety of consulting Mr. Vernon. He has business relations with +Omeo—what they are I have not the faintest idea—mining requisites, I +presume—everything from picks and shovels to pianos and cornopeans—so +that he will know how to manage the transport service for you. And now, +my dear, come and see your room.'</p> + +<p>Mrs. Vernon's home was enticing. A roomy, well-furnished modern house, +the upper windows of which commanded a far-reaching view of the waters +of the harbour and the bluffs and headlands trending easterly towards a +dim and mighty forest world, beyond which again rose mountain peaks. A +broad verandah protected it equally from winter rain and summer heat. +The gardens, filled with exotics of every land, sloped down, with +winding walks amid trim grass lawns and thickets of ornamental shrubs, +to the waters of the Yarra. Exclusive enough for meditation and rambling +walks, beautiful also with the carefully-guarded flowers which the +half-tropical summer and mild winter of the south permit to develop in +rarest beauty, had Estelle desired a restful retreat wherein to stay her +pilgrim feet for a season, no pleasanter spot, no more alluring bower, +could she have found. But such loitering in the path of duty, synonymous +in her case with the passion around which the tendrils of her heart—the +heart of a self-controlled, habitually reserved woman—entwined, was not +for Estelle Chaloner. Pleased and grateful as she could not fail to be +with Mrs. Vernon's motherly warmth and kindly tendance, she told herself +that she would rather have been in a stagecoach, rumbling along the +roughest road towards Omeo, the goal of all her thoughts and +aspirations, than playing her part mechanically among the pleasant +society people seated around Mr. Vernon's handsomely appointed +dinner-table.</p> + +<p>As for that gentleman himself, he vied with his wife in welcoming his +prodigal daughter, as he persisted in calling her.</p> + +<p>'We have adopted you, my dear Miss Chaloner; ask Mrs. Vernon if we +haven't. We wept till bedtime after your departure, didn't we, Mary? and +now that our daughter that we lost is found, what do I hear about her +going away again? It can't be done. It's against Scripture; ask Mr. +Chasuble here if it isn't. The fatted calf is doomed, and she must stay +for the feast.'</p> + +<p>'I daresay you won't find me an undutiful daughter,' she replied +smilingly, 'but you must wait till I have returned from the wilderness +before feasting will be appropriate. I have seen little or nothing, so +far, of the rude and lawless waste I was led to expect—on the contrary, +refinement and courtesy seem indigenous to Australia.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! that's all very fine,' laughed back Mrs. Vernon; 'you've been +spoiled at Ballarat, but you mustn't expect to find the country full of +handsome Goldfields Commissioners, six feet high, and crammed full of +accomplishments—like Mr. Dalton, or even Mr. Annesley, whom you saw +here. There are places so different.'</p> + +<p>'Which we won't describe to-night, shall we, my dear?' Mr. Vernon +interpolated, appealing to his wife. 'Miss Chaloner shall do as she +likes, as the daughter of the house, while here and afterwards. If she +wants to go to the South Pole, John Vernon & Co. will charter a ship for +her, or a camel train; if Fort Bourke requires her presence, only give +us a little time—that is all I ask.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + + +<p>Those adventurous wayfarers only who have traced the sources of the +Snowy River, which in its southward course pierces the fertile district +of Gippsland, are familiar with the strange wild region which lies +between it and the northern watershed, where the Ovens, the Mitta Mitta, +and the King rivers swell with their hurrying waters the Mississippi of +Australia. The scenery is of a weird and wondrous majesty. Far as eye +can reach, a verdurous plain extends—a mountain park, in truth, it may +be called, differing from almost any other such formation in Australia. +Three thousand feet above the sea, a sheet of snow in the mid-winter, it +is a prairie waving with giant grasses when remorseless suns are +scorching the heart of the continent into barrenness. Standing on the +northern edge of the Dargo plateau, what a landscape bursts upon the +view! Mount Feathertop, divided by a ravine two thousand feet in depth +from Mount Bogong, with Kosciusko, king of Austral Alps, like twin +Titans, rise snow-crowned in awful majesty amid the mist and cloud rack +of the illimitable mountain world. Storm-swept and desolate is this +region in winter. The strayed traveller wanders beneath an endless +succession of wooded peaks, descends abysmal glens, and seems doomed to +traverse eternally the unbroken solitudes of the primeval forest.</p> + +<p>Here first arose the hamlet, later on the mining township, of Omeo, +taking its name from the lonely lake so named by the wild tribes who had +hunted on its borders and fished in its depths from immemorial ages. Who +shall count the years from the launching of the first frail bark canoe +on its lonely waters? Situated in closest proximity to the region of +snows, which, if not eternal, commence to crown the mountain summits in +the early autumn, it is separated from the more civilised portions of +New South Wales and Victoria by roads which border precipices, by +mountain tracks, known only to the cattle-drover and the horse-stealer, +which, overhanging rivers thickly strewn with granite crags, offer +suicide on easy terms to the careless or the despondent.</p> + +<p>Rivers, full-fed from a thousand springs which have their sources in +these mountains, rush from unexplored heights in the springtime, or +murmur musically the long green summer through, when the great levels +of Australian deserts are sun-baked as the plains of Hindostan.</p> + +<p>Here dwell in scattered families or sparsely settled hamlets the various +classes of Australian highlanders. Hardy, active, fearless are they as +their Scottish prototypes;—originally recruited from the wandering +stock-rider, or in later years the lonely gold-seeker prospecting the +basaltic dykes and quartz-filled fissures of the foot-hills of the +Australian Alps. Herds of half-tamed or wholly wild cattle and horses +roam the profuse pastures, richly verdant during the short summer, +though snow-covered and deathlike during the winter months. Here, late +lingering and entrapped, they often perish, a company of skeletons +within a circle formed by unavailing trampling of the surrounding snow +only remaining in the spring to show the operation of nature's stern, +irrevocable laws.</p> + +<p>Lonely and chiefly silent this mountain land—dividing the watersheds of +three colonies—pierced by precipitous defiles—barred of access by +rugged ranges, the only means of crossing the savage region being by +dangerous tracks skirting terrific precipices, sometimes, as is the +well-known King River pass, narrow, elevated, almost in mid air, with +abysmal deeps on either side.</p> + +<p>The first dwellers in these dread solitudes were men inured to every +peril of the Australian bush, to whom the faint trail of the wilderness +was familiar as the field-path to the village rustic. Strayed cattle and +ownerless horses accumulated in the virgin mountain pastures. These were +at first driven to the nearest market by tracks only known to the +outlaws of the waste, or their confederates the stock-riders in charge +of rarely visited cattle-stations. Suddenly the trade developed, owing +to the higher prices ruling since the gold eruption. An organised system +of horse and cattle stealing arose. Outlying lots of fat cattle were +'cut out' or separated from the border herds of Monaro or Gippsland, and +crossed into opposite colonies. Detection in such cases was well-nigh +impossible. Much of the illegal work was done at night. If pursued, the +tracks were purposely blinded by station cattle driven across the trail, +while, from the rugged character of the country, strangers were at a +special disadvantage. Horses averaging from fifty to a hundred pounds +each, if capable of drawing a wash-dirt cart or transporting a digger's +movables from one mining district to another, were profitable plunder.</p> + +<p>Chief among these <i>caterans</i> of the southern highlands—raiders, however, +of a lower grade than their Scottish prototypes—was the well-known and +deeply distrusted Caleb Coke—an ex-convict who had 'served his +time,'—that is, completed the term of penal servitude to which he had +been originally sentenced. He had graduated in a school of lawless +license tacitly permitted by the customs of the country. Commencing as a +stock-rider on Monaro Plains, then a wild unsettled region, he and his +convict companions reigned unchecked amid the aboriginal tribes. Reports +of capricious cruelty or savage vengeance against the blacks were more +than whispered. Wild tales were told of lawless deeds—of inoffensive +natives wantonly shot down in satisfaction for stock killed or +missing—of reckless indulgence in all the baser passions by these +modern buccaneers. The lack of police supervision enabled them to revel +in every species of lawlessness unchecked and unchallenged, and as +surely as any deed involving exceptional craft or cruelty came to light +the name of Caleb Coke was rarely absent from the recital.</p> + +<p>Rudely reared and wholly uneducated, this man represented the type of +Englishman that in earlier days helped to found the reputation of +British sailors and soldiers. Smugglers, mutineers, or buccaneers they +might become, but, whatever their faults, they possessed the cardinal +quality of courage in a degree unequalled by any other nation.</p> + +<p>Scarcely above the middle height, and possessing no remarkable muscular +development, Coke had proved himself the possessor of a measure of +endurance and sinewy strength which rendered him totally indifferent to +the hardships of a life in the wilderness. Heat or cold, night or day, +on foot or on horseback, all seemed alike to Caleb Coke. Like many of +the early stock-riders, though born in English hamlets and grown to +manhood before expatriation, the erstwhile poachers, smugglers, or +deer-stealers took kindly to the wild life of the interior of Australia. +Long used to watch the habits and follow the haunts of fur and feather, +the tracking of the half-tamed herds of cattle and horses came natural +to the quick eyes, from childhood studious of the waste. Those among +these exiled shepherds and stock-riders whom favourable conditions of +life tended to soften saved their money, acquired property, and founded +families not undistinguished in the future. On the other hand, all whom +misfortune had soured or crime indurated, found in their newly acquired +quasi-freedom the means of safely engaging in practices more secret but +not less nefarious than of old, or criminal operations on a scale +hitherto unprecedented.</p> + +<p>With the formation of a rich goldfield at Omeo, the centre of a +proverbially lawless region and a roving population, the results may be +imagined. Cash became plentiful, and was habitually carried in large +sums on the persons of gold-buyers and other speculators. Crime for a +while seemed about to overshadow the land. Fierce of aspect, ruthless in +beak and talon, 'the eagles were gathered together.' Had there been an +Asmodeus of the mountain, how plainly would he have descried, almost +without the aid of <i>le diable boiteux</i>, the Alsatia from which, as +surely as the levin-bolt from the thunder-cloud, wrong and rapine were +destined to result.</p> + +<p>With his habitual want of caution, Lance Trevanion made the acquaintance +of Caleb Coke soon after he reached Omeo. That worthy, wily and +unscrupulous, found means to ingratiate himself with the stranger, +apparently flush of money, and no novice in mining. He made a point of +providing horses when there was a newly-discovered 'rush' to inspect. In +certain ventures, as so often happens, when the broad road is to be +traversed, all his 'tips' proved correct. His advice, <i>quoad hoc</i>, +seemed uniformly trustworthy. Coke, however, had an advantage on his +side of which Trevanion little dreamed. Before long he was fully posted +in Lance's history; whereas, of Mr. Coke's eventful career, beyond the +careless chatter of goldfields, Lance knew nothing. Still less did he +suspect aught of the sinister influence behind Coke. Not many days had +elapsed after Lance had resolved to take up his abode at Omeo before he +received a letter from Tessie Lawless, to whom he had sent a few lines +by his returning guide. It was addressed to Mr. Harry Johnson, miner, to +the care of the chief storekeeper, a man of multifarious trusts and +responsibilities, keeping the post-office among other duties, and being +entrusted with all deposits, from a parcel of gold to a quartz-crushing +machine—from a 'last will and testament' to a baby 'to be left till +called for.'</p> + +<p>Tessie Lawless's missive—the outflow from a heart as true and faithful +as ever beat in a woman's bosom—ran as follows—</p> + +<blockquote><p>'<span class="smcap">Melbourne Hospital.</span></p> + +<p>'When you receive this you will be safe—safe from persecutors, +and once more—oh! that I should have to write such words—a +free man again. What misery and degradation you have suffered! +my poor dear unjustly punished——. I dare not even write your +name for fear of—of consequences. But I shall be proud and +happy all my life through that I was able to contrive to set +you free—free! I have seen Mr. Wheeler since, and I could not +help laughing, anxious and miserable as I have been, and am, at +the way in which the affair was managed.</p> + +<p>'You will see by the heading of my letter where I live. I am +not a patient, but I was so restless and anxious until I heard +of your safety that I took a situation as nurse in the +Melbourne Hospital. There has been a good deal of +sickness—fever, rheumatism, and so on—since the gold, and we +are all kept hard at work night and day. I was always fond of +helping sick people, and the work suits me exactly. So now you +know where to find me. Address—"Nurse Hester Lawless, Fever +Ward."</p> + +<p>'I know, of course, that though Omeo is an out-of-the-way +place, you stand a chance of being arrested at any time. So, +for <i>my</i> sake, if you value my feelings, be as careful as you +can. Don't make friends unless you are certain about them. You +have <i>paid dearly for that</i>, haven't you? My cousin Kate +married Trevenna soon after the trial. They are somewhere about +Monaro, and not likely to come across you, thank goodness. He +doesn't treat her well, they say, so I can fancy what their +life is. <i>It serves her right!</i> You mustn't think me cruel, but +I never shall forgive her as long as I live. I heard that Ned +had got out of gaol, but am not sure whether it is true. Poor +Ned! he was not all bad. I hope he may clear out to another +colony, and keep straight for the future.</p> + +<p>'I have been rambling on, but must now say good-bye. Good-bye, +too, in earnest. I shall not write again unless I hear +anything, and want to send you warning. You know my heart—I +need not say that if you only tell me to "come" I will follow +you to the end of the world. I do not advise you to do it—the +other way, indeed—but L—— T—— must judge for himself; +though he might easily win a grander wife, but he will never +never find a more loving and devoted mate than poor</p> + +<p>'<span class="smcap">Tessie</span>.'</p></blockquote> + +<p>'A truer woman never breathed!' Lance ejaculated, as he read this letter +in the lonely hut. 'But for her I should still be in those beastly +hulks—perhaps chucked overboard some morning, with a round shot for a +steadier! What in the world shall I do? What can I write to her? If she +comes up here it will be sure to make people talk. They always try to +find out more about a digger that's married than single, and if they +find out too much, that infernal Dayrell, or some other ambitious +trooper, will have the office given him, and <i>both</i> of us made miserable +for life. No! she's the dearest little girl in the world, and I may as +well make up my mind to tour California or South Sea Islands with her +for a wife, as she says. England must be for me a foreign land +henceforth, and Estelle—poor Estelle—a beautiful dream! England's no +country for a man with a stain on his honour.'</p> + +<p>'"My native land, good-bye!" as Byron says. <i>He</i> never saw it again, for +that matter. Heigho! I wonder if I shall? Something tells me his fate +will be mine. An early death, though there is no Greece to fight for—no +such luck in store for Lance Trevanion as a patriot's grave—a hero's +tomb. I used to think of such things once, strange to say. How queer it +seems that a soldier's death in the open, and so many many other things +are henceforth for me <i>impossible</i>.</p> + +<p>'I see nothing for it but to hang on here, putting the crowd off the +scent by working, talking, dressing like any other digger, till I get my +share of Number Six by degrees from Charlie Stirling,—trump that he +is,—then clear for Callao or 'Frisco without beat of drum, taking +Tessie Lawless with me.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Both before and since the conviction of Ned Lawless, who was one of the +originators of the Omeo cattle-stealing gang, Lawrence Trevenna had been +a partner in crime, a sharer in ill-gotten profits. He it was at +Eumeralla whom the miners, the police, and indeed Tessie Lawless +herself, had seen from time to time, and had mistaken for Lance +Trevanion. They might well be excused. With some allowance for +discrepancies in speech and manner, only observable when the two men +stood side by side, few people could have told the difference.</p> + +<p>His nature, inheriting the strongest proclivities to lawlessness of +every shade and scope, needed but the occurrence of suitable conditions +to develop into the commission of the darkest deeds. The comparatively +easy profession of stock-lifting had, after his first chance wayfaring +to the Monaro district within a few months after he quitted the ship, +commended itself to him as an exciting and lucrative line of life. +Athletic, bold, and attractive after a fashion, he had singled out Kate +Lawless as the object of his admiration before the migration of the +family to Ballarat. Becoming aware of the reckless girl's flirtation +with his rival and antagonist of the voyage, he had sworn to take a +deadly revenge. With the aid of the Sergeant, and acting upon the girl's +jealous mood, he had been enabled to gratify his hatred to the full; and +now he heard through Caleb Coke, whose information from various sources +was rarely inaccurate, that his enemy had escaped from prison and was +actually living in Omeo.</p> + +<p>Trevenna's practice in connection with the 'duffing racket,' as Coke +would have expressed it, was to travel through from Monaro with drafts +of stolen animals and to await the arrival of others of the gang at +Dargo, a place about fifty miles from Omeo. The men who met him were not +suspected in their own neighbourhood, and as the stock were unknown +locally, were enabled to drive them down the Snowy River into Gippsland +or into Melbourne market by devious ways, known but to themselves, +without arousing suspicion. Thus the mining and general population of +Omeo had rarely seen and never noticed Trevenna. His beat lay on and +around the Monaro district. Occasionally, when conference with Coke was +necessary, he met him at the hut at Mount Gibbo, a lonely and rarely +visited spot. As far as the Omeo people were concerned, Trevenna was, to +all intents and purposes, an unknown man. It was, in a sense, against +his interest to meet with Lance Trevanion at present. He therefore took +general precautions against such an event, keeping himself, however, +well posted up, through Coke, as to his rival's movements.</p> + +<p>The destined meeting took place, however, after a fashion wholly +unexpected by either, Fate proving, as of old, too strong for the +machinations of mortals.</p> + +<p>Trevanion had appointed a day to go with Coke to one of the newly opened +reefs which bade fair to make Omeo the premier goldfield of Australia. +It was at no great distance from the old man's hut. Lance had borrowed a +horse and ridden to the point indicated by Coke, and after an hour's +ride found the reef which they had come to inspect. It was in truth +wonderfully rich,—the stones 'strung together with gold,' as the +prospectors expressed it. Lance secured a share which could hardly fall +short of an astounding profit as the claim developed; and when Coke +suggested riding to his hut for a meal he readily assented.</p> + +<p>The day was fine, the mountain air clear and bracing. The view, as they +gradually ascended one of the foot-hills of the main Alpine range, was +far-stretching and majestic. At the distance of a few miles, but +apparently almost overhanging the lonely hut,—a substantial building, +very solidly constructed,—arose the sullen shape of Mount Gibbo, +snow-capped, and ever bearing on its granite ribs the marks of the +Alpine winter.</p> + +<p>A couple of savage-looking kangaroo dogs and a collie of suspicious +aspect walked forward from the massive hut-door, which Lance noticed was +carefully secured by a padlock. A narrow bridge of logs led across a +sedgy runlet, which, like many mountain streams, was unfordable, except +in occasional spots. From the hut could be seen any man or beast +approaching at a considerable distance. The idea crossed Lance's mind +that in the middle ages it would have been a most suitable site for the +castle of a robber baron. He smiled as he thought that perhaps his +friend Mr. Coke was only a later survival of those picturesque +tax-gatherers.</p> + +<p>Dismounting at the door, Coke hung his bridle-rein over a wooden peg +driven into a stump close by, and, motioning to his companion to do +likewise, unlocked the door.</p> + +<p>'Hold on!' he said, as he pushed back the heavy door cautiously, and, +leaning forward, pulled out by the collar a brindled bull-dog of such +ferocious aspect that Lance drew back involuntarily.</p> + +<p>'You seem to believe in dogs, Coke,' said he, as he noted the savage +brute's red eye and grim jaw half approvingly. 'He would be rather a +surprise to any one that called upon you when you were not at home.'</p> + +<p>'He's not easy stopped when he goes for the throat,' said the old man, +dragging the brute along by the collar and fastening him to a chain +stapled into a section of a hollow log, which served as a kennel. 'He's +a queer customer, is Lang. He dashed near settled a cove as got into the +hut once by the winder when I was away. I was just back in time not to +have to bury him, but it was a near thing.'</p> + +<p>'One would think you had something valuable in your hut that you have to +guard it so well,' said Lance, looking at the dog, now lying down +licking his paws and showing his formidable teeth from time to time.</p> + +<p>'Maybe I have, maybe I haven't,' said the old man sourly. 'Anyhow, I +don't like people coming about my place when I'm away. I've always kept +a dorg or two as wasn't safe at close quarters. They know it now, black +fellows and white both, and lets us alone, eh, Lang, old man?'</p> + +<p>The dog gave a low growl as he spoke, while at the same moment the +collie and the kangaroo hounds raised their heads, and turning towards +the road, which wound along a rocky incline from the eastward, gave a +joint whimper, and seemed on the point of breaking out into a chorus of +barking. Lance, looking instinctively in the same direction, saw a +horseman emerging from a patch of timber, nearly a mile distant, and +apparently riding at speed towards the hut. The dogs, however, appeared +to have come to a conclusion in their own minds favourable to the +approaching stranger, inasmuch as they lay down and awaited events.</p> + +<p>'D—n him,' growled the old man, as, shading his eyes mechanically with +his hands, he gazed searchingly at the horseman. 'What the devil brings +him here now?'</p> + +<p>'You know him then?' queried Lance.</p> + +<p>'Know him? Well, yes,' answered Coke, with the tone of a man disgusted +with things in general. 'Maybe you do too, and if you'll take a fool's +advice, you'll neither make nor meddle with him. He's pretty hot +property, is Larry Trevenna.'</p> + +<p>'My God!' groaned out Lance, as his face flushed high, and then grew +pale to the lips. 'This is more than I could have hoped for. Now look +here, Coke,' and he turned upon the old man with a subdued wrath in +every look and tone that, fearless as he was, awed the ruffianly elder. +'This Trevenna did me the worst wrong that one man can do another. +Through his villainy I have been chained, starved, gaoled, treated like +a dog—falsely accused, too, if ever man was. If I shoot the infernal +hound as he pulls up his horse, I should be doing a good deed. If I +don't, it is only that he may feel that, man to man, I am his master, +and the punishment I intend to give him will not be so soon over. But if +you interfere, by word or deed, by God! I'll shoot the pair of you like +dogs.'</p> + +<p>He touched his pistol as the last words came from his lips in low +concentrated tones. His chest heaved, his hands were clenched until the +muscles in his bare arms stood out like cordage, and the lurid fire in +his deep-set eyes glowed as though ready to leap forth with volcanic +flame. The resistless force of long-repressed passion asserted itself at +this supreme moment.</p> + +<p>The crafty veteran recognised the necessity of neutrality, and assumed +his position with promptitude. 'Larry must take his chance. It's dashed +little I care which way it goes. I'll see fair play, anyhow.'</p> + +<p>There was little time to say more. The horseman had crossed the creek +and, riding at a hand-gallop, pulled up at the door, throwing his +bridle-reins, stock-rider fashion, on the ground, and leaving the +hard-ridden hackney, a grand three-parts bred animal, to recover his +wind and graze on the green tussock grass till he should need him.</p> + +<p>Without apparently taking notice of the stranger who, in ordinary +miner's garb, stood by the old man,—most probably taking him for a +wandering prospector or hard-up 'hatter,'—he called out, advancing the +while—</p> + +<p>'I say, old King of the Duffers, do you know there's half-a-dozen chaps +from Monaro waiting for you at Dobbs' Hole? They've a stunning lot of +nags with them, so you'd better scratch all you know and get there +before dark. Who's this cove? Perhaps he'll give us a hand? I must have +a pot of tea first, though.'</p> + +<p>He moved towards the hut door, near which Lance and the old man were +standing. Lance stepped forward.</p> + +<p>'So we meet again, Lawrence Trevenna?'</p> + +<p>Trevenna was no coward. Still the sudden apparition of a deadly +enemy—as if he had arisen from the earth—would disturb the equilibrium +of most men. He started back. But a life filled with risk and imminent +peril had schooled his nerves. He smiled, as if in apparent +good-fellowship.</p> + +<p>'By Jove! So it's <i>you</i>, Trevanion? Who'd have thought of seeing you +here? Well, you've slipped the clinks, it seems. I was always dashed +sorry you got into that scrape so deep. You'd better go shares with Coke +and the rest of us in this lay. There's money in it—pots and pots of +it.'</p> + +<p>'D—n you and your money too, you scoundrel!' shouted Lance, advancing +upon him with hate burning in his eyes and vengeance written on every +line of his countenance. 'You!—You propose to me to share in your +villainies? Have not you and your accomplices worked me ruin enough +already? Put up your hands!'</p> + +<p>Trevenna smiled and took his ground. Among the younger members of the +lawless gang with which he had allied himself he had seen many a similar +encounter, half or wholly in earnest. And in the pugilistic practice so +popular among Australian youths of all classes, Larry Trevenna, to which +cognomen he had been, for greater convenience, reduced, was held to be, +if not the very cleverest of that wild band, so near the top of the +class that there were few—very few—that cared to arouse his anger.</p> + +<p>He had, as he supposed, advanced considerably in the science of the +prize ring, and fondly trusted that the fast and vigil inseparable from +a bushman's life would render him more than a match for any infernal +swell (as he would have phrased it), especially one who had so lately +'done time,' and been therefore precluded from the enjoyment of fresh +air and exercise.</p> + +<p>Old Caleb Coke's rugged features writhed themselves into a saturnine +grin as he watched the savage onset with an inherited instinctive +interest.</p> + +<p>'Dashed if I ever seen a better-matched pair,' he growled out, half +unconsciously. 'I'd a walked twenty mile when I was a youngster to see a +battle like it. It's even betting—Larry's a quick hitter and pretty +fit, but I doubt he's met his match. Well, it's d—d little to me who +wins. First blood to Larry, by ——!'</p> + +<p>By this time the two men were hard at it. The heavy blows on face and +body, which in such a contest fall fast and furious, sounded strangely +clear in the rarified mountain atmosphere—the old stock-rider and the +dogs the sole spectators. These last—comrades of mankind under such +ever-changing conditions—looked on with manifest interest. The +bull-dog, indeed, until warned by a kick from his master, being minded +to smash his chain and make a third in the encounter. The blow from +Trevenna to which Coke had alluded had split the flesh above the cheek, +showing the white bone underneath, as if gashed by a knife. Its effect +was due less to want of skill on Lance's part than to his desperate +determination to get to close quarters with his foe. And, indeed, all +unheeding of the punishment, which would have staggered another man +less iron-sinewed and agile, he forced his opponent before him with a +succession of blows, delivered with such terrific power and rapidity +that Trevenna's guard was completely broken in, eventually sending him +to the earth, half stunned and motionless.</p> + +<p>Lawrence Trevenna had underrated his foe in more than one respect. +During the few weeks which he had spent in Omeo Lance Trevanion had +worked harder than he had ever done in his life before. Partly to dull +the memories of the past, as well as to quiet the haunting fear of +apprehension, he had toiled incessantly. The keen air, the healthy +appetite, the free intercourse with his fellow-men, had restored him to +fullest strength and activity. Never in his life, as he stepped forward +to meet his foe, had he felt more fully conscious of muscular strength +and deer-like elasticity—those glorious physical gifts with which only +early manhood is endowed.</p> + +<p>As they fronted each other for the second time, face to face and eye to +eye, as is the wont of men of British race in such a contest, Coke could +not fail to be impressed with their extraordinary likeness to each +other, and the similarity of their general cast of feature. The colour +of the hair was identical, and but for a slight deviation in the +direction of coarseness on the one hand, and that indescribable +something which belongs to the man of birth on the other, they could +hardly have been distinguished from each other by a casual spectator. In +their eyes, so remarkable in both, burned in that hour the deadliest +fire of hate, the difference alone being that while it glowed +furnace-bright in the orbs of Lance Trevanion, Trevenna's glare, in +demoniacal malice, resembled the rage of a wild beast.</p> + +<p>'By ——,' said the old man, as once more he marked the blood-stained +faces of the desperate combatants, who again went at each other with +silent fury, 'I could fancy as they was brothers. They ought to shake +hands and travel the country. What a circus they'd be able to run. Ha! +Larry's down agen. The Ballarat cove's too good for him.'</p> + +<p>It was even so. For a short time only it appeared as if the issue was +doubtful. There was but little thought of evasion or parrying of blows +on either side. The terrific rally with which the second round ended +would have brought to a close more than one world-famous fight. But +Lance Trevanion fought as though each arm—like the Familiar of the +enchanter—wielded an iron flail. And when Lawrence Trevenna went down, +beaten dead and senseless from the last tremendous 'upper cut,' it was +evident that he would not come to time.</p> + +<p>'That last left-hander knocked him out,' said the old man, with a grin +of qualified approval, while a strange expression lurked in his evil +eyes. 'It ain't no use follerin' it up, as I see. Dip that pannikin in +the bucket while I sluish his neck a bit. You ain't settled him this +time, Harry, but it's a d—d close shave.'</p> + +<p>'He deserves death at my hands a dozen times over,' said Lance, gazing +down upon the fallen man, as Coke raised his bleeding face, and, after +an interval, succeeded in restoring animation, while the dogs stood +around licking their lips, as if the savour of blood had aroused their +ferocious instincts. 'But I have done with him for the present. Let him +cross my path again at his peril.'</p> + +<p>Thus speaking, he turned to where his horse had been secured and made +preparations for departure, waiting, however, in order to satisfy +himself as to the condition of his late antagonist. That personage, +after a few minutes, was sufficiently recovered to raise himself to a +sitting posture, and eventually to his feet, when he supported himself +by leaning against a tree.</p> + +<p>But though temporarily worsted in the conflict, Trevenna had no whit +abated of the ferocity with which he had commenced the encounter.</p> + +<p>Declining, with a wave of the hand, the proffer of bush hospitality by +the old man, Lance Trevanion made as though to mount his horse, when +Trevenna shook his hand, and, with a voice hoarse and almost +inarticulate, arrested his departure.</p> + +<p>'Stop!' he said. 'I want a word with Trevanion before he goes. You've +had the best of it now. I didn't think you were so good, blast you! But +I'll see you at my feet yet. I've got the girl you were so sweet on, and +you may thank her for being what you are—a runaway convict; d'ye hear +that, Lance Trevanion? Kate Lawless is my wife now, and d—d well broke +to come to heel when I crack the whip, you take your oath. I've got +square with you so far, and by ——!' and here the ruffian swore a +blasphemous oath, 'I'll be more than even with you yet.'</p> + +<p>He paused, apparently more from exhaustion than from other reasons, for +his disfigured face, all blood-stained though it was, grew ghastly pale +as he swayed forward as though he would have fallen.</p> + +<p>Lance rode towards him, and for an instant raised his hand; then gazing +at him with deepest contempt, made answer—</p> + +<p>'No doubt you have treated your unfortunate wife as only brutes like +yourself are given to do. You are repaid in some slight degree for any +cruelty to her, little as she deserves it at my hands. As for you, you +scoundrel, I will shoot you like a dog if you come across me again. So I +give you fair warning.'</p> + +<p>Then Lance Trevanion mounted his horse, unheeding of food or shelter. +For, as if the elemental powers had awaited the issue of the conflict, +the sky was suddenly overcast, the wind arose and wailed stormily. The +ranges were blotted out by driving mists, and without warning one of the +sudden storms of a mountain region broke wrathfully over the plain. +Another man might have sought protection. At any other time such a +thought might have crossed his mind. But the fierce spirit of Lance +Trevanion in that hour of overwrought feeling joyed in the elemental +turmoil. Facing the tempest, he sent the spurs into his horse and drove +recklessly into the very teeth of the storm; the drenching rain, the +blinding lightning, the thunder rolling above him and echoing along the +mountain crags, only serving as distractions to the yet fiercer tumult +raging within. Two hours' desperate riding over flooded creeks, through +forest and flat, rocky ridge and sedgy morass, brought him to Omeo. The +storm-swept streets were deserted, the stores and hotels filled. Pulling +up at the door of his hut, he unsaddled his horse, whose heaving flanks +sufficiently attested the pace at which he had covered the distance, and +turned him loose, with all reasonable expectation that he would discover +his owner's abode, after the manner of 'mountain' horses, accustomed +from colt-hood to find their way to particular localities, wholly +irrespective of times and seasons.</p> + +<p>This duty performed, he unlocked the door, carrying the saddle and +bridle inside with him. His steed trotted off briskly, after a +preliminary shake, and apparently made a straight course for his home. +Nor was the act of turning him loose on that wild winter evening amid +the still driving rain and bitter wind in any sense cruel and +unfeeling. The stock-rider to whom he belonged would remark in such a +case that the rain would wash his coat clean from mud or sweat stain. He +had never been shod in his life, never known a rug or a stable, and was +as impervious to disease of the throat or lungs as his ancient comrades, +the wild cattle of the snowfields.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + + +<p>For some days after his encounter with Trevenna, Lance Trevanion +avoided as much as possible going into the township. He devoted himself +to working steadily at his claim at the reef, to which he had gone +before the adjournment to Caleb Coke's hut with unexpected results.</p> + +<p>His first impulse was to prepare for sudden departure. Trevenna, as a +cheap and obvious form of revenge, would probably inform the police of +his identity without delay. He shuddered at the idea of +recapture—nothing, of course, could be easier than to send word to the +nearest police station that prisoner Trevanion, lately escaped from the +hulk <i>President</i>, and for whom a reward of no trifling amount was +offered in the <i>Police Gazette</i>, was living as 'Harry Johnson,' the +miner, just outside of Omeo township.</p> + +<p>Yet, upon further reflection, other considerations presented themselves: +Coke and Trevenna were evidently 'working' this horse and cattle +business together. They would not, presumably, be too anxious to bring +the police near to the scene of their illegal practices. They would +assume also that he, Trevanion, if recaptured, might reveal much to +their disadvantage. Besides, he was now receiving weekly drafts to a +considerable amount from Charles Stirling. These he exchanged through +Barker and Co., the storekeepers at Omeo, for drafts on a Melbourne +bank, keeping up the appearance of a mining speculator by buying parcels +of gold from time to time, which were transmitted to Melbourne by +escort—consigned to the same bank. He was loth to interrupt such +satisfactory financial operations, while proceeding in a manner so +favourable to his project of escape. In a few more weeks, if nothing +happened in the meantime, a sum would be placed to his credit in +Melbourne with which he could safely embark for San Francisco, +Valparaiso, or the Islands, leaving the remainder to be sent after him.</p> + +<p>Thus arguing, he determined to trust to the chapter of accidents, and, +unless he received further warning, to abide the issue. Besides this, he +believed that Coke entertained a friendly feeling towards him; even that +he might depend upon him for notice in case Trevenna was determined to +play the informer.</p> + +<p>As matters turned out, Trevenna and Coke were at that very time maturing +plans with which the sudden arrival of additional police would have +seriously interfered. But of this determination, as well as of its scope +and intention, Lance Trevanion was ignorant.</p> + +<p>He had not, of course, been able to keep out of sight and observation of +his fellow-miners at Omeo. A parcel of gold had been offered for +purchase by his friend Barker, and as it was rather larger than usual, +he felt bound to go into Omeo to inspect it. His face—decisively as the +battle had terminated in his favour—still bore the signs of the severe +punishment which he had received. And all unheeding as he had been of +the pain during the heat and fury of the conflict, the disfiguring +bruises and cuts were none the less <i>en évidence</i> for days after the +affair.</p> + +<p>But this condition of facial disarrangement was too familiar to all +classes of society at Omeo to cause more than faint surprise or trivial +comment. 'Been having a friendly round and slipped the gloves off, +Harry?' said the storekeeper. 'I didn't think there was a chap on the +field that could paste you like that!'</p> + +<p>Lance muttered something about 'accidents will happen,' and so on. 'Tell +you all about it some other time.' Yet though not denying the +impeachment, he showed so little desire to be questioned upon the matter +that the storekeeper, a shrewd person, dropped the subject and addressed +himself to the more important business of the gold purchase.</p> + +<p>This was concluded, and the gold safely placed in the fire-proof safe, +at that time a necessary part of every storekeeper's outfit, there to +await the monthly or fortnightly escort. By far the greater portion of +the gold so purchased was sent to town by escort—the protection of the +police troopers being in general considered sufficient. In spite of the +perils of the road, there were, however, always to be found men, +fearless or foolhardy, as the case might be, who preferred to be the +bearers of their own winnings in Nature's lottery, or of that which they +had purchased as a speculation.</p> + +<p>Lance had been working for nearly a week after making this purchase, at +his claim, which, strangely enough, was the only payable one for some +distance on either side. He had heard nothing further of Trevenna. Coke +appeared to have left his usual haunts temporarily. Once more a feeling +of comparative security came over him. The apparently peaceful and +isolated nature of the locality assisted to lull his grief-worn spirit +into a condition of repose.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was noon at the Tinpot Reef. He had been working hard since early +morning, and had just decided to prepare his mid-day meal. The fire was +kindled, the camp-kettle placed upon it, and the water for the tea, that +indispensable adjunct of the Australian's <i>al fresco</i> refection, was +commencing to boil. In anticipation of this stage of proceedings, Lance +had seated himself upon a fallen tree and was smoking meditatively, +after the manner of his class.</p> + +<p>It was a lonely and silent spot—on this particular occasion rendered +more solitary and deserted-looking than ordinarily, from the fact that +the discouraged holders of the adjoining claims had arranged to prospect +a distant gully, and had, to that end, departed in a body on the +previous morning. The ropes were still upon the windlasses, the raw-hide +buckets on the braces. The tents and huts, with their rude adjuncts, +showed that the desertion was but temporary; therefore, the camp could +not legally be appropriated as 'worked and abandoned ground.' Still +there was an eerie, and it might have been thought by a supersensitive +resident an ill-omened, aspect about the place.</p> + +<p>The morning had been fair, but though no clouds obscured the sky a chill +wind had arisen, and the temperature seemed to fall as the rising blast +became shrill-voiced and wailing.</p> + +<p>Listening half mechanically to the boding signs of storm, Lance did not +notice the clatter of hoofs as a woman came at speed along the ravine +which lay to the eastward, and reined up her horse within a few yards of +his camp.</p> + +<p>He turned listlessly towards her, but started to his feet and gazed into +the face of the rider with the look, half intent, half horror-stricken, +as of one who views an apparition.</p> + +<p>'Kate Lawless!' he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>'I used to be once,' the woman made answer, in a voice which seemed +struggling with an attempt at cheerfulness over-lain with habitual +melancholy. 'Won't you lift me down, or have you forgotten the way?'</p> + +<p>He was at her side in a moment, and as, with the accustomed aid, she +sprang lightly to the earth, each gazed into the other's face for an +instant without speaking.</p> + +<p>'Hang the mare up to that dead tree,' she said. 'I've ridden her hard +and far to-day, but she'll have to carry me across the mountain +to-night; I mustn't chance letting her go. And now I suppose you're +wondering what brought me here? I've got something to say to you, Lance +Trevanion, that's well worth the hearing.'</p> + +<p>'And what may that be?' he made answer coldly. 'Let me remind you that +the last words I heard you speak caused my ruin, body and soul.'</p> + +<p>'For God's sake, don't talk to me like that,' she said. 'I'm the most +miserable woman this day that walks the earth. I've helped to ruin you, +I know, but how I've suffered for it! I'm risking my life in coming here +to-day, and except to warn you for your good I wouldn't have done it. +Look at me, Lance, and see if I'm speaking true or false!'</p> + +<p>'You took a false oath once,' he said slowly; 'why should I trust you +now, Kate?'</p> + +<p>But while he spoke he could not avoid marking the unmistakable traces +which misery had imprinted upon her face and form. His voice softened, +his heart relented in spite of his just scorn and indignation. How +changed was she indeed! And could that haggard woman, who, with +streaming eyes and sorrow-laden features, stood before him in a +suppliant attitude, be the Kate Lawless of old days?</p> + +<p>The trim and lissom girl, with an air of wild unconscious grace, lithe +of form and displaying in her every movement the instinctive charm of +early womanhood, had disappeared for ever. In her place stood a +hard-faced woman—bitter, reckless, and despairing. Her dress, that +unfailing test of feeling, showed that she had ceased to concern herself +about her personal appearance. Her fair hair was carelessly twisted into +a large knot, which showed behind the old felt hat which she wore: a +shabby kirtle was secured with a belt around her waist above a torn and +faded gray tweed riding-skirt. A red silk handkerchief knotted loosely +round her neck furnished the only coquettish-looking bit of colour that +her dress afforded, and, in spite of the carelessness and disorder of +her apparel, formed an effective contrast to her dark gray eyes, still +bright, and her abundant hair.</p> + +<p>'You are changed, indeed, Kate,' he said musingly. 'So am I. Don't you +think, by the way, I ought to call you Mrs. Trevenna?'</p> + +<p>'Call me Kate this time,' she said; 'God knows whether we shall ever +meet again. Do I look miserable, neglected, downtrodden to the very +ground? For that's what I am, besides being the wife of the greatest +brute, the meanest villain, ever God made. But it serves me right, Lance +Trevanion; it serves me well right!'</p> + +<p>Here the wretched woman burst into a fit of passionate weeping. Hiding +her face in her hands, she sat down upon the log, and in broken +sentences detailed her wrongs and described the cruelty with which she +was habitually treated. Why did she marry him? Well, she hardly knew. +She was restless and miserable after the trial. Ned was gone, and she +was half mad, and could have drowned herself when all was over. Once in +Trevenna's power, the brute had shown her that one of his reasons for +making her his wife was to wreak his spite upon her as a former +favourite of his enemy; to punish her by every ingenious device of +callous cruelty for having preferred Trevanion to himself. She had been +worked upon before the trial by the artfulness of Dayrell and Trevenna, +the former having caused a letter to be written, as if from Lance to his +cousin, sneering at her low birth and bush manners in a way which led +her to believe that he had from the first intended to impose upon her +ignorance. Hasty, credulous, and madly ungovernable in her fits of +ill-temper, she had been practised on to bear false witness at the +trial. Then Tessie, ignorant of the wonderful likeness of the two men to +each other, had really mistaken Trevenna for Lance, having come upon him +unexpectedly in one of his trips to Eumeralla.</p> + +<p>'And this is what I've brought you to,' she continued, gazing at his +rude attire, his changed aspect; for <i>never</i> does the look of freedom +and careless pride return to the man who has known the prison garb, the +clanking chain,—who has once answered mechanically to the harsh summons +of the gaol warder. 'A working digger, and worse. Oh, my God! An escaped +prisoner. God forgive me! I don't see as <i>you</i> can. No man could that +has gone through what you have!'</p> + +<p>And here the frantic woman cast herself at his feet and bowed her head +to the earth in an attitude of despairing supplication almost oriental +in intense self-abasement.</p> + +<p>In spite of his cruel wrongs, of the life-wreck and dishonour in which +this woman had been chiefly instrumental, Lance Trevanion's heart was +touched as he saw the once haughty and tameless Kate prone in the dust +at his feet.</p> + +<p>He raised her gently, and, seating her beside him, essayed to comfort +her. 'Kate,' he said, taking her hand, 'we are two miserable wretches, +destined to be each other's ruin. Why should all the blame fall upon +you? Fate was too strong for us. It is over now. We must bear it as we +may. If I have undergone the torments of the damned, your deadliest +enemy could not have chosen a worse lot than you have made for yourself. +I forgive you freely. Now you have far to go, and I must finish my shift +by sundown. Let us make believe we are at the camp at Ballarat again; my +dinner is nearly ready.'</p> + +<p>A faint flicker, dying out instantly into rayless gloom, was visible in +the woman's sad eyes. She dried her tears, and with a strong effort +recovered her self-possession.</p> + +<p>'You are too good to me, Lance; God bless you for it,' she murmured. 'I +shall thank you to my dying day, whenever that is: I somehow think it +mayn't be long. Anyway, I <i>will</i> have a few mouthfuls. There's thirty +miles of mountain road to go back, and I must be home before <i>he</i> comes. +I see you're marked,' she continued, looking with curiously blended +sympathy and shyness at his discoloured face, 'but you're nothing like +as bad hurt as <i>he</i> was, or you couldn't move about or stoop to blow up +that fire. He was close upon dead for a week after he got back. He +didn't tell me who done it till one day we quarrelled when he was +better. Then he half killed me,—kicked and trampled on me, as he's done +many a time. If it wasn't for—for the child,'—here she hesitated and +looked down,—'I'd have left him long ago.'</p> + +<p>'Cowardly brute, ruffianly dog!' groaned Lance, grinding his teeth, 'why +didn't I kill him when we met at Gibbo? I had two minds to finish him +there and then. Things could hardly be worse than they are. But the next +time we meet one of us dies; I swear it, as God hears me.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! don't talk like that,' she cried, and even in his wrath Lance +recognised with amazement the new element of pitying tenderness which +anxiety for his safety evoked (oh! wondrous-fashioned instrument, the +woman's heart! soaring to seraphic melody, yet at times clanging with +frenzied discords, echoes from the Inferno); 'if there's anything of +that sort you'll be sure to be taken, then it will be "life" or worse. +But,' changing her tone to one of grave entreaty, 'what I came for +to-day was this,—I knew you were here, no matter how; where I live we +know a lot, all the worse for us and other people.'</p> + +<p>'And what was it, Kate?'</p> + +<p>'<i>I came to warn you</i>,' she said, as she fixed her eyes imploringly upon +his countenance, 'and you believe me, just as if Tessie was talking to +you this minute.'</p> + +<p>'To take care of my horse, Kate?' he said, half jestingly; 'I haven't +any to lose.'</p> + +<p>'To take care of your <span class="smcap">LIFE</span>!' she cried, almost with a scream. 'You have +that to lose, haven't you? and unless you are carefuller than I ever +knew you to be, you'll find it out too late. I overheard him and that +old wretch Caleb Coke (and of all the murdering dogs I ever heard of I +think he's the worst) talking over some plan they've put up, and from +words I caught I made out it was about you. There was a deal about +gold-buying and some hut, and a box with nuggets and things locked up in +it—money as well. You'll know if that fits. The man, whoever it was, +was to be "put away," as Coke said. So you take my tip! <i>Trust nobody +about this field</i>, Caleb Coke above all, and get shut of Omeo the first +minute you can.'</p> + +<p>'When did you hear this?'</p> + +<p>'The day before yesterday. They sat up late drinking, and Coke took more +than he does in general; he's that full of villainy of all +sorts,—robberies and murders too, people say,—that he's afraid of grog +for fear of giving himself away. Anyhow, they both went off early this +morning, and Trevenna's to be back to-night. So I ran up this little +mare—she's the only one I've got now to my name—as soon as they were +well off the place, and rode here on the chance of finding you at this +reef.'</p> + +<p>'Well, Kate, my poor girl, you've done me a good turn, if you never do +another. You may have saved my life, you see. Not that it's worth much. +But I've a notion of getting away to California or the Islands next +month, and if I carry that out what you want me to be careful about may +rise in value, do you see?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, don't joke in that horrid way; you never used to,' said the woman, +rising and gathering up her skirt, as if in preparation to depart. 'It +makes my heart ache'—here she pressed her hand to her breast; 'I have +one, though you mightn't think it. But oh, for my sake, for every one's +sake, for the sake of that girl in England, if you want to see her +again, be careful! Don't go out of sight of Omeo—if you value your +life—till you start for Melbourne, and then travel in company. Coke +thinks no more of a man's life than a wild dingo's, and Trevenna's as +bad. The things I've heard, I wonder God lets them live. I must go now. +I've stayed too long. Remember my words; they're as true as if I was on +my dying-bed.'</p> + +<p>Then she walked rapidly to where her horse stood patiently—a small roan +mare, the fineness of whose limbs, together with the character of head +and eye, denoted Arab blood, crossed probably with the wild 'mustang' of +the hills. Trevanion kept by her side, wondering when the strange scene +would end.</p> + +<p>She made again as if to depart, for an instant touching the mare's +bridle. Then, turning towards him, held out her hand—'Good-bye, Lance, +and God bless you, wherever you are. You are sure you forgive me, don't +you?'</p> + +<p>'As I hope to be forgiven,' he said solemnly, unconsciously using a +half-forgotten form of words, the true meaning of which had long been +alien to his heart. 'That is, you poor ill-treated Kate, I forgive you +freely, and with all my heart.'</p> + +<p>As he spoke, the woman turned upon him a countenance so transfigured by +gratitude and tenderness that Lance Trevanion, for the moment, hardly +recognised her, so wonderfully softened, so refined and ennobled, was +every lineament by the unwonted emotions. Deep and bright in her lifted +eyes shone the fires of a buried passion as she gazed for a moment into +those of her companion. Then, as if inspired with sudden frenzy, she +threw her arms around him, and, pressing his head to her bosom, kissed +him passionately on the lips and forehead.</p> + +<p>Disengaging herself as suddenly, she waved him back from approaching +her, and, springing into the saddle, drove the astonished mare wild, +plunging over the crown of the ridge and adown the rocky side of the +ravine, which the roused and sure-footed animal cleared with leaps like +the 'flying doe' of her native woods.</p> + +<p>'Poor Kate!' he exclaimed, as he slowly retraced his steps, and, +gathering up his mining tools mechanically, proceeded to complete his +day's work; 'there is good about her after all. How queerly men and +women are compounded in this mad world—as I begin to think it is. What +a life hers must be, tied to a scoundrel like Trevenna! and yet <i>he</i> is +a free man—whose whole life, since he came to the colony, has been +criminal—while I, who, God knows, never had a thought of wrong-doing, +have worn the felon's chain, and may again, who can tell? "A mad world, +my masters!" in truth and saddest earnest.'</p> + +<p>No doubt remained in Trevanion's mind, as in the seclusion of his hut +that evening he pondered this singular interview, but that the woman had +warned him in all good faith. If her words were not true, she was indeed +the falsest of her sex. But there are looks, tones, gestures which +neither man nor woman can feign; moments in which all the truth of the +being comes to the surface; portions of our lives when a clearer insight +is gained in the passing of seconds than can be derived from years of +ordinary experience.</p> + +<p>Such a flash of enlightenment was this, as when the lightning gleam +pierces the gloom of midnight, showing the perils of the road, +disclosing pitfalls and precipices previously shrouded in darkness. His +course had been thus illumined. How heedless was he, pursuing what +appeared to be a fairly open pathway; and yet, what unsuspected dangers +lurked on every side. These two remorseless villains, attracted by the +report of his comparative opulence,—of course the gold-buying would +reach all ears,—were evidently planning his robbery and murder. If not +his own, whose then could it be?</p> + +<p>There was another man whom it possibly concerned—Con Gray, well known +as a gold-buyer in Omeo. He had lately made heavy purchases—had even +stated that this was his last trip to Melbourne. This man was perhaps +the fated victim. Under any circumstances Omeo was no longer safe +harbour. He would sell his claim on the reef. He would invest his cash +in gold, and, making some excuse, join the escort, and so get to +Melbourne unsuspected, and safe from being robbed on the road—if a man +could be said to be safe at any point of the journey between these +savage solitudes and the metropolis.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Thus having fully resolved to quit Omeo, taking whatever risks might be +involved in that step rather than await the perils which seemed to be +thickening around him, a feeling of impatience now took possession of +Lance Trevanion. On the very day on which he had met Kate, he had +'broken down' some stone of extraordinary richness, which, though it +might prove to be only a 'shoot,' in mining parlance, served to cause +the value of the claim to rise measurably. He had therefore no +difficulty in disposing of it to very great advantage, giving as his +reason for quitting so promising a 'show' that he had decided on +devoting himself to gold-buying for the future.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the vision of final escape from a life of dread and +suspicion, from the rude surroundings and mean shifts by which alone he +could hope to secure safety under present circumstances, commenced to +arise clear and inspiriting before him. It seemed comparatively easy to +slip down to town under cover of having gold to dispose of—as did many +a miner of the period. And then—and then, once on blue water with a +draft for five thousand pounds in his pocket, and more to follow at +regular intervals as long as Number Six continued 'payable,' what a +vista of change, affluence, almost happiness, opened out before him! +This was Saturday; on this day week the monthly gold escort would leave +Omeo for Melbourne. It gave him ample time to make needful preparations. +It was the last day of the month. It might be the last day of his exile.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The week passed in an uneventful fashion. It seemed to Lance Trevanion +as if all things were working harmoniously for his release from the +thraldom he had so long endured. The claim had been well sold. He had +received the proceeds in cash, as indeed is the custom of goldfields. He +had made several advantageous purchases of gold, and had received +advices from the mercantile house in Melbourne with whom, through Barker +and Co., the storekeepers, he had established business relations, that +they would be prepared to honour his drafts or furnish him with bills of +exchange in Britain or America. All things seemed prosperously working +together for a noiseless and unsuspected exit from Omeo—from +Melbourne—from Australia. He had reduced his worldly possessions to the +smallest portable quantity, while leaving his hut and belongings in +apparently the state which they would present during his absence, +presuming merely a temporary absence.</p> + +<p>So steadily had he laboured, so assiduously had he devoted himself to +the arrangement of every detail which by any chance could be needed, +that on the Thursday evening he was in the somewhat nervous position of +a man who had nothing to do but to await the signal for departure. At +the same time, he had neglected no precautions which could tend to throw +his comrades of Omeo and the public generally off their guard. He had +not signified his intention of starting with the escort. He had made the +same arrangements which would have been necessary for the consignment of +his gold if he himself was absent.</p> + +<p>He had said casually to his friend Barker, the storekeeper, that 'he +might go, or he might not; he was not sure; just as the fit might take +him. Anyhow, he would only be away a fortnight. It depended upon any +fresh "show" turning up. There was a talk of something towards the Snowy +River.'</p> + +<p>He had purposely, from the day of his arrival at Omeo, adopted a rough, +laconic manner, in keeping with his assumed character of 'Ballarat +Harry'; had been, indeed, at some pains to efface tokens of gentle +blood, of culture, of refinement, of that chiefly indefinable personal +accompaniment which is usually described as 'the manners of a +gentleman.'</p> + +<p>This curious possession, sometimes laboriously acquired, and yet only +perfect when merely derived from the accident of birth and inheritance, +is, by some shrewd observers of human nature, believed to be wholly +inseparable from the individual who has once possessed it. Others +believe—granting a careless habit of association, a looseness of fibre, +recklessness of mood, sordid surroundings, not to mention a fixed +intention of cutting loose from all the influences of early +training—that wondrous, almost incredible declension may take place. +One likes to fancy that the refinement produced by years of early +training, joined with hereditary tendency, can never be obliterated. But</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Want can quench the eyes' bright grace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard toil can roughen form and face.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Although in the case of Lance Trevanion it would have been an +exaggeration to have said with the poet—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Poor wretch! The mother that him bare,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In his wan cheek and sunburnt hair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She had not known her child.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But (and I who write have many a time witnessed the transformation) it +is by no means so easy to recognise the 'lapsed gentleman' after he has, +for whim, indolence, or necessity, played the bush labourer for a year +or two. The roughened hands, the altered expression of face, the gradual +disappearance of <i>les nuances</i>, the minor society tricks of expression +and manner, the rough habiliments, the changed step—all these and +more—the inevitable concomitants of the comparatively rude life of the +miner, the 'sundowner,' the shepherd or boundary-rider—denote the +disrated aristocrat. Any one of the subdivisions of Australian manual +labour <i>does</i> inevitably, indisputably, change and disguise the +individual, of whatever previous history. There are exceptions, +doubtless; but such are rare.</p> + +<p>In addition to the safeguards which a miner's garb, daily labour, and +rude association provided against recognition, Lance had practised of +set purpose the slang phrases and ungrammatical idioms common among men +of his adopted occupation. This kind of verbal deterioration is more +easy to acquire by careless habit than to relinquish when an upper +stratum of society is again reached, as relatives of young men returning +from 'back block' sojourns or 'northern territory' explorations have +discovered to their regret. Taking his privations into consideration, it +must not be considered very wonderful that the 'Ballarat Harry' of Omeo +was a different-appearing personage from the Lance Trevanion of No. 6, +Growlers', much more the haughty, rebellious heir of Wychwood.</p> + +<p>The expected morning broke—a transcendent day of early spring, known +even to this mountain land, mist-shrouded and storm-swept though it be +in its winter garb. The sky was cloudless, the air breezeless, as the +sun uplifted his golden shield over the forest-clothed shoulders of the +Bogong and the Buffalo.</p> + +<p>As the pearl-gray tints of the dawn-light insensibly dissolved,—losing +themselves, even as had the darker hues of the earlier morning, in a +bath of delicatest pink, enriched ere the eye could trace the +translucence with hues prodigal of crimson and burnished gold,—the +austere marble-white snow-peaks appeared to stand forth in yet more +awful and supernal splendour. Contrasted with colouring of indescribable +brilliancy, they appeared a company of phantasmal apparitions in the +silence of that wondrous dawn pageant.</p> + +<p>Lance Trevanion was but a man as other men. How many times had he looked +upon these and kindred wonder-signs of Nature with incurious eyes, +holding them to be but ordinary phenomena with which, in the grip and +peril of Circumstance, he had nought to do. But now, his nervous system +being more tense, and his mental tone exalted in view of an imminent +deliverance, a stir took place among faculties long disused. In curious +unexplained fashion the beatific vision connected itself with his cousin +Estelle, whom he had ceased to regard as a terrestrial entity. Severed +from her, not less by seas and oceans than by inexorable fate, her +image, bright and celestial as it had formerly appeared, was now fading +rapidly; becoming fainter and yet more ethereal with each succeeding +recollection.</p> + +<p>But on this, the last morn which he hoped to spend in this wilderness, +her image seemed to present itself with strangely persistent clearness +before him. How she would have joyed,—she that was so passionately fond +of landscape scenery, who discovered fresh beauties in every humble +hillock and lowly streamlet,—could but she have stood here with him; +together could they have beheld this entrancing vision. With quickened +tide, the back-borne stream of memory brought to his recollection the +many times they had stood hand in hand and gazed at sunset, stream, or +woodland, glorified by Nature's alchemy. He could almost fancy that he +heard her voice, soft and low, rich, yet so clear and distinct, as she +dwelt upon each feature of the landscape with instructed enthusiasm. He +recalled her dainty ways—her unvarying softness and sweetness, her +unfailing tact and temper, which had so often turned the tide of the +Squire's wrath, the discreet counsel that had so often been displayed in +times of perplexity.</p> + +<p>And now, what torture to think of her! of all the sweetness and beauty, +divine as it now appeared to him, lost for ever, as much alien to him, +henceforth and for evermore, as though she had been born on another +planet!</p> + +<p>The sudden change from the currents of his thoughts led the lonely, +half-despairing man to an almost complete temporary detachment from his +surroundings. He forgot much of the misery, the despair, the evil hap of +this past year—that year which had been so much more eventful than the +whole of his previous life. A new hope appeared to arise within his +outworn, wearied heart. Might he not, if he regained the old +land—might he not yet recover his position? Great heavens! was it then +possible that such an elysium should be in store for him? He knew +Estelle's steadfast fearless nature; he knew the sweet and loving pardon +that would shine in her eyes when they met, if ever permitted by a +merciful God. Was there a God? and could He be thus merciful even to a +forlorn, degraded outcast like himself?</p> + +<p>As he stood leaning, with folded arms and meditative air, against the +doorpost of his humble dwelling, the clatter of hoofs along the track +which led near the hillock upon which the hut stood gave a fresh current +to his thoughts, and recalled him to a sense of the present. 'One day +more,' he said, half aloud. 'Shall I ever see these hills and valleys +again? I owe them much. They have proved good harbour for the stricken +deer.'</p> + +<p>'Who the deuce is this?' His thought shaped itself into speech as a +wild-looking rider forced his horse, a half-broken colt, as near to the +hut door as he could get him. The colt snorted and trembled, after the +manner of his kind, but refused to budge a foot nearer. The horseman,—a +long-haired, long-legged native lad,—exercising his spurs vigorously, +besides devoting the colt and all his relatives to the infernal deities, +was fain to hold out a scrap of paper in his hand and await Lance's +approach.</p> + +<p>'It was you as sold Number One South, on the Tinpot Reef, to Yorkey +Dickson, wasn't it?' inquired the ingenuous youth, staring at Lance.</p> + +<p>'Yes; what then?'</p> + +<p>'Well, there's been a bloomin' row between him and his mates and Mick +Doolan's crowd. They're measuring him off, and makes out as you'd took +up too much ground. He wants you to come. He give me this for ye; blank +ye, I'll knock the blank head off ye, if ye don't stand quiet.'</p> + +<p>This last communication, though in strict continuation with his previous +address, was apparently intended for the colt's progressive education, +that vivacious animal having taken fright at Lance's approach, and +swerved backward with rear and plunge directly Lance reached out his +hand for the missive. He, however, retained hold of the paper, which, +after some difficulty, he deciphered—</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Mr. Harry Johnson.</span></p> + +<p>Dear Sir,—I paid you honest for Number One South, which I +stand a good show of loosin' if you don't come out and prove +your pegs. The Tips are trying the bluff game, and if you don't +stand by me I'll be regular jumped and run off the field. Come +afore dinner.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yours trewly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Yorkey Dickson</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +</blockquote> + +<p>'My word! I'll have him steady enough by the time we get back to Tin +Pot. Been backed first time the day afore yesterday, and of course he's +touchy,' he explained, as the colt, after a wild rear, in which he +nearly fell backwards, stood with his forefeet rooted to the ground and +snorted, trumpet-like. 'Shall I say you're a-comin'?'</p> + +<p>'I suppose so—yes,' slowly answered Trevanion, half absently. 'Curse +the claim and all belonging to it! I never wanted to see it again. But I +won't have the fellow done out of it. Tell him I've half a mind not to +come, as I'm going to Melbourne to-morrow. It's lucky for him I got word +to-day.'</p> + +<p>'All right! I'll tell him you'll be there by dinner-time. So 'long!' and +with the words on his lips he turned his horse's head, and with spur and +shout forced him into a hand-gallop along the main track to the +township, up the principal street, and opposite the hotel door before +the half-tamed excited animal had time to halt or resist.</p> + +<p>'It's an infernal nuisance,' said Trevanion, half aloud. 'But I don't +want to leave things tangled up. Yorkey paid me good money, and I +shouldn't like the poor devil to be wronged by those scoundrels. I'll +walk, too; it will do me good, and keep me from thinking.'</p> + +<p>The day promised to be glorious. Slowly the mountain mist had rolled +back, and gradually disclosed the tones and magically blended colour +effects which the awakened morn revealed. A dull grayish green tinted +the undulating prairies, stretching to the darkly dense forest which +clothed the foot-hills of the Australian Alps. The sombre mountains +gradually ripened in colour as the sun-rays pierced them in concentric +lines, so that a graduated scale, shading from darkest green to +brilliant emerald, developed hourly. Deathlike, still eternal-seeming, +majestic, their snow-crowns rested on Bogong and Buffalo, with far-seen +Kosciusko and Feathertop in the azure distance.</p> + +<p>The solar heat became distinctly noticeable—indeed, bordering on +oppressive. But Lance, excited in spite of himself, stepped joyously +forward as he felt the miles slipping behind him, as though on some +long-remembered schoolboy truant expedition. How different was the free +elastic stride with which he covered the ground now from the aimless, +dejected shuffle of himself and his fellow galley-slaves of the +<i>President</i>! His spirits rose with each mile of the way traversed. +Surely everything was turning in his favour. He would be pardoned yet, +his fair fame re-established. His innocence would not be so hard to +prove, after all. Tessie and Kate could <i>now</i> give different evidence.</p> + +<p>'Yes! England, Estelle, Wychwood! Fate would repent her of this dire +injustice. He would yet again place foot on the shore of his native +land, the home of his ancestors, as surely as he would presently ascend +the ridge on the other side of this Mountain Ash Gully, into which he +was now descending; as surely as he would behold the plain +far-stretching towards the horizon, the diggers' tents in the secluded +valley.'</p> + +<p>Thus thinking, and moving forward with eager, quickened step, he reached +the bottom of the ravine, which—a notable exception to the general +distribution of timber—was covered with a scrub or thicket of the +mountain ash saplings for some distance back. From the course of the +little stream, eastward, appeared a narrow flat, riddled with shafts +long worked and abandoned, but still furnishing, in this depth and +closeness, a record of former richness.</p> + +<p>'What would Kate say if she saw me here to-day?' he thought to himself. +And then her warning rang in his ears. 'As you value your life,' he +seemed to hear. 'When I get back,' he said, 'I will swear to take +excellent care of myself.'</p> + +<p>'If such a thing as prudence can be knocked into a Trevanion, surely +what I have undergone should produce it. But what a lunatic! what a +benighted idiot I was to leave England at all! Why couldn't I have borne +the old man's petulance, like scores of other fellows that I have known? +All would have come right in the end, with Estelle's help. What a girl +she was! And what a fool I have been! Looking back, it seems incredible +that I—that <i>any man</i>—could have been so mad, so blindly besotted! I +wonder how the old Squire is now? He and Estelle must have a lonely time +enough of it in the gloomy old manor-house. Well, I swear—as God hears +me now—that when I return—if I ever do—I will humble myself before +the old man, and, yes, try for the rest of my life to make amends to him +and to her for the sorrow and anxiety which I have cost them.'</p> + +<p>As this last thought passed through his mind, shaping itself +unconsciously into articulate speech, he stopped, with his right foot +raised upon a block of stone, and listened intently, with head half +turned towards the thickest portion of the scrub, which here approached +the narrow track worn in old days by the cattle-herds of the surrounding +pastures.</p> + +<p>At that moment a shot was heard, and Lance Trevanion fell forward on his +face, temporarily disabled, if not mortally wounded. Following the +report, two men emerged from the covert, one of whom carried a gun. They +were Caleb Coke and Lawrence Trevenna.</p> + +<p>'That dropped him,' said the former, with a fiendish chuckle. 'Not far +from the "curl," I'd say, if it was a bullock. Many a one the old single +barrel has finished. I thought she'd carry straight that distance.'</p> + +<p>Here the wounded man moved his arm and groaned.</p> + +<p>'Ha! my fine gentleman!' said Trevenna, 'I swore I'd have ye under my +feet yet. Where are ye now?' And here the hellish villain spurned the +unresisting form of his prostrate foe. 'What do ye say about "time" now? +This is the last round of all.'</p> + +<p>'That's no good,' growled Coke, 'and d—d cowardly, into the bargain. +You couldn't stand up to him when he was right, so ye may leave him +alone now. He's only stunned; the ball's grazed his forehead. Lend us +that tomahawk o' yourn. I'll finish him.'</p> + +<p>Two crashing blows, one of which clove the skull even to the brain, and +this man—this 'masterpiece of nature,' so lately in full possession of +the strength and beauty of youth—lay a disfigured corpse.</p> + +<p>'Now lend a hand and let's get him off the road a bit,' said Coke, as +coolly as if he was directing the assistants of a slaughter-yard. +'Scrape some sand over that blood; there ain't much, but it might show. +We've got to strip him first, and then it won't take long to drop him +where he won't be seen again in a hurry.'</p> + +<p>Dragged through the scrub some twenty yards or more, the dead man lay +with dreadful widely open eyes as they had placed him. A heartrending +spectacle surely, had but the men who now busied themselves in stripping +the corpse possessed the feelings of ordinary humanity. But a lifetime +of crime, for the most part undetected, had dulled the heart and brain +of the older ruffian, to the exclusion of all but the baser instincts—a +veritable demon disguised in form of man. Fiends of the pit could scarce +have exceeded him in remorseless cruelty.</p> + +<p>In Trevenna's case the love of gain, the hope of booty, together with +complicated feelings of jealousy and revenge, rendered him callous to +all natural feeling. Swiftly was the dead man divested of his clothing; +his watch, a few bank notes, which he had perhaps placed in his purse in +readiness for the morrow, were secured, and after counting and +inspection, taken possession of by Trevenna.</p> + +<p>This done, the old man pointed to a mound a few yards distant around +which the saplings clustered thickly, showing that some time had elapsed +since the shaft which it marked had been commenced.</p> + +<p>'That's the deepest shaft on the flat; they was a-sinking for the blue +"lead" and bottomed on rock. You take hold of him.'</p> + +<p>A combined effort placed the dead man on the edge of a shaft, down which +the old man peered with ghoulish glee, as if to gauge the depth. 'Hold +on,' he said, as he dropped a stone. The men waited for some seconds, +which seemed long, until a dull thud came up from the lower level, +telling by its delay that the shaft was little under a hundred feet.</p> + +<p>In another moment the unresisting form was drawn to the edge of the +yawning black-mouthed pit, which, so wondrous straight and narrow, had +been driven deeply into the bowels of the earth. A push, a heave, and +the once noble and beautiful form of him who was Lance Trevanion +disappeared from the face of the earth, hidden from the light of the +sun, from the ken of mortal man, for ever and for ever!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>As the strange dull sound, so unlike any other, which follows the fall +of a human body down a deep shaft came up from below, Trevenna shuddered +in spite of his hardihood.</p> + +<p>The old man laughed aloud. 'You're only half baked yet, Larry, with all +your blowing. When you've seen as many coves rubbed out as I have, +you'll have better narves. We've got a ticklish game to play yet, mind +ye, so don't go a-shivering and shaking like a school-girl. Take off yer +duds now and collar his, and let's see how yer look.'</p> + +<p>Trevenna, with a rude oath, repelled the accusation of softness, and +doffing his own garments, which he made into a bundle and threw down the +shaft, proceeded to dress himself in the dead man's clothes. This +transformation effected, the curious similarity between the two men +became so apparent to the only spectator that Coke yelled with apparent +amazement and danced around him with fiendish delight.</p> + +<p>'By ——!' he cried, 'if that ain't the rummiest fake ever I see. Your +own mother wouldn't know the difference. Hanged if <i>I</i> could tell, and I +knowed the pair on ye purty well. Pitch a log or two down the hole; it +won't be long afore it falls in. It's bad standing ground, and then he +won't need no tombstone. We'd as well collar our horses now and get to +the cove's hut after dark. Then you start fair to-morrow morning as +'Ballarat Harry,' alias Lance Trevanion, Esquire, and I'm d—d if +there's a digger on Omeo as'll know the difference. What are ye lookin' +in the grass for?'</p> + +<p>'When we had the—the mill—I swear he had a watch-chain. It must have +dropped hereabouts.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I'm blowed!' chuckled the older ruffian, 'if that ain't a good +'un. Takin' a man's life, his money, his duds, and his watch, and then +growlin' because the chain's a-missin'. You'll find it in his hut, I'll +go bail.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + + +<p>Lance Trevanion, dwelling and working by himself, had accustomed the +miners around Omeo to his irregular, independent mode of life. Sometimes +he was absent for days together, returning at midnight or dawn, as the +case might be. When it was reported that he had been seen to enter his +hut just after dark in company with another man, no one looked upon the +circumstance as calling for comment. He had been at the claim which he +had sold to Yorkey Dickson early in the day, and being detained there, +discussing the intricacies of a mining dispute, had reached his home +after sunset.</p> + +<p>On the next morning—the one fixed for the departure of the escort for +Melbourne—he was heard inquiring from the Barker storekeeper if his +gold had been properly labelled and directed. 'He was not sure about +going himself,' he said, 'but thought it likely he might at the last +minute.' The storekeeper looked at him with a certain air of surprise. +'What are you staring at?' he asked abruptly, at the same time fixing +his eyes intently on the man.</p> + +<p>'Oh, nothing, Harry,' Barker replied apologetically, 'only I thought +there was something queer about you this morning. If you'd been a +drinking man I'd have thought you'd had a booze on the quiet. And your +face ain't got rid of them marks yet. Seemed they was about gone, last +time I seen yer.'</p> + +<p>'They'll not last much longer,' he said grimly, 'and the man that gave +them to me got the worst of it. He won't be so ready for a row in +future.'</p> + +<p>'Is that so?' inquired the trader confidentially. 'We all thought it +must have been his fault, you bein' such a quiet card in a general way. +Serve him right, I say.'</p> + +<p>'So I say too,' replied his auditor. 'By the way, just send your boy +over to the post-office to see if there are any letters for me. I'll +have a smoke while he runs over.'</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the letters came. One from the banker in Melbourne +acknowledging his last draft and informing 'Mr. Henry Johnson' that they +would receive and hold to his order the parcel of gold of which they had +advices. The other, addressed to 'Mr. Henry Johnson, Long Creek, Omeo,' +was in a female hand. Mr. Johnson placed it in his pocket unread, +saying carelessly that it would do to read when he got home.</p> + +<p>'He's a rum chap, that Ballarat Harry, as ever I see in Omeo,' said the +storekeeper. 'Sometimes so jolly in a quiet way, and then he's as stiff +and stand off as can be. But I'm dashed if ever I seen him as queer as +he was to-day; why, I hardly knowed him when he came in first!'</p> + +<p>When 'Harry Johnson' reached his hut, he sat down, and shutting the +door, which he carefully secured with a bolt, took out the letter and +read as follows—a sardonic smile upon his features the while—</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Toorak</span>, <i>10th September 185-</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My own darling Lance</span>—Could you ever expect to receive a letter +from me written in this country? In your wildest dreams, did it +ever occur to you that I should come out to Australia in search +of you? I told you at our last parting at dear old Wychwood +that I would come, if you did not return within the time +specified. I don't know that the time has quite elapsed, but +when the poor old Squire died (how changed and softened he was, +Lance, in his latter days you can hardly think) I could not +stay in England. You never wrote. We did not know what had +become of you: whether you were dead or alive. I promised him, +Lance, on his deathbed, that I would seek you out. And you know +we Chaloners and Trevanions hold to our word.</p> + +<p>I <i>know now</i> all that you have done and suffered, my poor +darling—<i>all</i>! I can partly understand why you did not write. +Still you should have done so; you know you should. I am not +going to reproach you or to write a long letter. But fancy me +having been up at Ballarat and stayed at Mrs. Delf's inn at +'Growlers',' and know Jack Polwarth and his wife and dear +little Tottie—who hasn't forgotten you—and Mr. Hastings and +Mr. Stirling! I was actually there when your letter came from +Omeo!</p> + +<p>Why didn't I write? You see <i>now</i> how hard it is to bear when +friends are silent. But I refrained, sorely against the grain, +<i>for your sake</i>. It might unsettle you, I thought, even tempt +you to come to Melbourne, where the risk would be terrible. So +I waited till I could get a really good opportunity and escort +for Omeo. You will see me—I am almost beside myself with joy +at the thought—almost as quickly as this letter reaches you, +Mr. Vernon, my kind host, says. He bought me a delightful +horse—so safe and pleasant. I shall quite enjoy the ride up. A +storekeeper, his wife and daughter, also an assistant, are my +companions, so you see I am well protected. Have you got the +ring and the token? I have mine safe. Ever and till we meet, +your own</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Estelle</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>'Well, I'm blowed,' was the reader's inelegant but characteristic +exclamation as he folded up the letter,—oh! rare and precious +outpouring of a fond woman's love and tenderness,—'if this game isn't +right into my hand! I've got his gold. I've got his cash. His girl's +running fair into my arms, and, if the luck holds, I'll have his house +and land in the old country. Lance Trevanion, if I haven't got square +with you, the devil's in it, or Caleb Coke, which comes to the same +thing! I've got to take care <i>he</i> don't turn dog on me, though. It was +he put me on to plant for Trevanion in Mountain Ash Gully. We're both in +it, though he fired the shot and knocked him on the head afterwards. +We've gone whacks so far in the nuggets and cash in the hut; who'd 'a +thought he'd such a pile stowed away there? But if I can get to +Melbourne, take the girl on the hop, marry her, and clear out to England +or 'Frisco the day after, as I expect he intended to have done, old +Caleb may whistle for his share. By Jove! what a lucky job it was that +Coke and I had a good overhaul of the hut on the quiet. It's put me up +to all I wanted to know to act Lance Trevanion to the life. I've done it +before, but now I'm up in my part to the letter. I've got the very +clothes he was last seen in, the marks on my face <i>he</i> gave me, damn +him, much about the same as I gave <i>him</i>; with putting on a bit of a +drawl that he always had, the devil himself wouldn't know us apart. I +wonder if he will when <i>my</i> turn comes below?'</p> + +<p>Then the villain laughed aloud, a ghastly sound in the lonely hut and +still night The unnatural sound died away,—guilt rarely laughs +long,—when, lighting his pipe and stirring the embers of the fire in +the chimney, he recommenced his meditative plotting.</p> + +<p>'Now then, the devil of it is, that I'll have deuced little time to work +things in, if this girl Estella, or whatever she calls herself, comes up +to-morrow or next day. However, perhaps the shorter the time the better +the chance; she'll be bustled, and won't have time to think. All I've +got to do is to play Lance Trevanion to the life for a day or two, get +her off to Melbourne, and follow up after. The sooner I'm off the +better, for fear Kate gets wind of it and blows the whole bloomin' plant +to blazes. There's nothing she'd like better, blast her! I think I can +do the swell business middling near the mark. I've been studying some of +those squatter toffs that come to Monaro for store catch. If a bit of +slang leaks out, or a slip in grammar, why, of course, it's from +associating with rough cards at the diggings, not to mention the +chain-gang business; she'll believe, like all these flats of new chums, +that Australian life's enough to take the shine out of any man's mind +and manners, grammar, and good looks. Then the wedding! Ha! ha! if that +won't be the best joke out. Fancy Larry Trevenna spliced to a real +lady—a dashed handsome girl I believe she is—anyhow her likeness says +so. Next day off to England or America,—the last if I can fix it—and +no more Australia for yours truly.</p> + +<p>'The best of it is, even if I <i>am</i> nabbed, I can easily prove that <i>I'm +not him</i>. Then there's the bigamy racket, though I daresay if I let Kate +off, she'd be glad enough to take her own way and clear out. It's a +ticklish business, of course; but I stand to win or lose a heavy stake, +and I'll play it out, by God! I don't see how she can doubt I'm the real +man. I've read his letters and things till I nearly know all the places +and people by heart. I've got the ring and the locket she talks about, +and a lot of family trinkets and nicknacks, and there's no mistake we +<i>are</i> as like—that is, were—as two peas. Why the deuce we should be, +the devil only knows. Well, I'll have another smoke and turn in. There's +a deal to think about to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>Next day being Sunday, which even at the wildest Australian digging +differs somewhat from other days, Mr. Harry Johnson dressed himself more +carefully than usual, and after breakfast went 'down town'—that is, he +proceeded to Barker's store, in order to gather up news generally and +discover whether Miss Chaloner was on the road up, so that he might be +fully prepared for the momentous meeting.</p> + +<p>As it happened, he found out precisely what he wanted. A young fellow +had arrived that morning and had passed a party one stage back on the +road answering to their description. The young man was not a miner, but +a cattle-dealer, making a forced march to Monaro in order to buy store +cattle. The price was rising daily, so he was riding post-haste for fear +of losing the market. He had overtaken the storekeeper's party, in +which were three women—one a fine-looking girl—to this he could +swear—and riding a clever, well-bred hackney: such a horse was never +bought in Melbourne under a hundred pounds. He believed they would be in +Omeo to-morrow evening before sundown, and were going to stay at the +Reefers' Arms.</p> + +<p>On Monday, therefore, Lawrence Trevenna devoted the whole of his +energies to the fullest preparation for the leading part which he had to +play. He neglected no precaution. He made fresh search among the papers +of Lance Trevanion. He read and re-read the letters contained in the +brass-bound portmanteau which had been sent to Omeo by Charles Stirling. +He reckoned up over and over again the various points on which it was +necessary for him to be accurately informed in order to satisfy any +lurking doubt of Miss Chaloner.</p> + +<p>He had noted more than one reference to the chain with a coin attached, +and an almost historical heirloom which he had given her at parting. The +ring which Lance always wore, and which he had taken from the dead man's +finger, was also alluded to. The half threat which Estelle had made to +come to Australia, if Lance did not return, or write, was spoken of. Of +course, as a passenger in the <i>Red Jacket</i>, he knew the day on which +that vessel sailed, when she arrived in Melbourne, and those occurrences +of the voyage which Lance had described in his home letters. The doubt +in his mind was naturally whether this high-born damsel would throw +herself into his arms with the unreserve of plighted love, and be ready +to marry and depart with him from Australia at the earliest possible +period; or whether she might have her doubts as to his being the right +man, and so work confusion or even danger. Much was on the cards. All +depended on the deal. But he held a strong hand, he told himself. +Trumps, too, in profusion. And, with the hardihood of a born and +practised gambler, he stood prepared to back his luck to the last.</p> + +<p>The following day passed slowly; but as the evening wore on he lounged +over to the hotel at which the travellers were to arrive, and made it +carelessly but generally known that he expected a young lady who was +coming up with Caldwell and his wife and sister. He was thereupon +congratulated in a jocular manner, when finally, as the early spring day +was fading fast into the short twilight, the tramp of horses' feet was +heard along the well-worn track which came up from the coast town, and +the little cavalcade, composed of two men and three women, halted before +the hotel verandah.</p> + +<p>The inn loungers gathered around the strangers, proffering aid, much +stimulated by the prospect of news. The ladies had been assisted from +their steeds, and the landlord was leading the way to the principal +sitting-room, in which a cheerful fire was blazing, when a tall man came +through the party, and, pausing before the young lady who followed at +the rear of the party, said, in a voice tremulous with emotion, +'Estelle, my darling, we meet at last!'</p> + +<p>The girl gazed earnestly in his face for a moment, his eyes meanwhile +fixed on hers with an intense and even increasingly fervid glance; then, +as he wound his arm around her waist and drew her towards him, she +murmured with undoubting faith—'Lance, ah! my dearest Harry, I hardly +knew you at first. It must be your beard, I think. And how did you +happen to be here to meet me?' she continued, disengaging herself from +his embrace, as a sense of shyness and confusion commenced to assert +itself as she looked around.</p> + +<p>'And why did you not write and tell me you were in Australia before?' he +said, half menacingly; 'it was hardly fair to me, I think.'</p> + +<p>'It is a long story; we shall have plenty of time to talk it over. I did +it for the best, though I daresay you will blame me. But I must go and +rest a little; we are all terribly tired. You will be here this evening, +though I warn you we shall go to bed early.'</p> + +<p>She did not appear at the ordinary evening meal, sending out word that +she was fatigued, and had a quite too overpowering headache. The +storekeeper's wife and daughter were loud in praise of the uncomplaining +manner in which Miss Chaloner had undergone the hardships of the +journey. 'It's not as if she was used to it, poor dear,' said the +matron, 'like me and Bessie here, as has had to rough it all our lives, +pretty near. Yet there she was, taking everything as it come, and never +a growl out of her. My word! she can ride though.'</p> + +<p>'And that horse of hers is a plum,' assented Miss Bessie; 'she looked +after him well, and he's worth it. I'd like to have him, I know, instead +of my old crock. I believe he's thoroughbred, or close up; and if they +ever have races in this beastly hole, he'd win all the money they're +game to put up, hands down.'</p> + +<p>'Nonsense, Bessie,' replied the elder woman; 'how do you know? Your +tongue goes too fast, Miss. Don't you think so, Mr. Johnson? I don't +know what's come to the girls nowadays, they're that forward and think +they know everything. But you're a lucky man, if it's true as you're +engaged to be married to the young lady, as it seems is a fact. There's +very few girls like her in this country or any other, you mark my words, +and I hope you're good enough for her, that I do. I'll just go and see +how she is.'</p> + +<p>The worthy dame, on returning from the bedchamber, brought the +intelligence that Miss Chaloner could not appear again, being prostrated +by a nervous headache, but sent a message to Mr. Johnson that she would +be quite well in the morning, and would be glad to see him after +breakfast. With this ultimatum 'Mr. Johnson' was fain to be outwardly +content, and, though inwardly chafing, betook himself to his hut, there +to spend the night with what 'companions of Sintram' might be available. +He was not, however, wholly dissatisfied with the progress made. +'Anyhow,' he thought, as, after a couple of potent 'nips,' he sat +smoking over his fire, 'the first act's over, and pretty right too. She +believes I'm the man, and though something or other's startled +her,—like a half-broken filly,—she'll come to, after a bit. I must +have a regular good pitch to her to-morrow, and bring out the cove's +rings, and trinkets, and keepsakes, that she knows about. I'll have the +whole thing out with her, and settle about when we're to meet in +Melbourne and get spliced. It's a job that won't stand waiting about. I +must get her away and on the road in a day or two, and pick up the +escort and get down by myself. If I leave with her, that infernal +Kate'll get wind of it and be on our track as sure as a gun. She thinks +I went to Monaro for horses, and won't be back for a month, but she'd +fossich out any woman business if I was the other side of h—l, I do +believe.'</p> + +<p>'I shall be cornered,' he said to himself, pursuing the same train of +thought, 'if she wants to stay here a while and see where I was working, +and all that rot that women are so dashed foolish about. I must lay it +out that I might be taken any day, and the sooner we both get to +Melbourne and off by the first ship—the day after we're married, if +possible—the safer for her dearest Lance—that's me—<i>me</i>!'—here the +villain laughed aloud with fiendish enjoyment of the base deceit of +which the unhappy girl was to be the victim. 'If he could only see us! +ha! ha! Once we're married, there's no get over that. Once we're clear +away, hang it, I'd almost like to have him alive again, to enjoy the +sight of his face and see how he took it. His lady-cousin—his wife as +was to be, that wouldn't touch me with a pair of tongs—if she +knew—<i>if</i> she only knew—that it was Larry Trevenna, that used to be a +stable-boy, a farm-lad, a horse-dealer's tout. If mother hadn't died, +things might have been better, and old granddad too. She used to talk as +if there was some mystery. I wonder if there was, and what sort. Anyhow +there will be, and that's enough for the present, if it comes off.'</p> + +<p>Estelle rose early next morning with a view to survey at leisure her +novel surroundings. She had perfectly recovered from the fatigue of the +previous day. The regular exercise of the bush journey had acted +beneficially upon her health and spirits, as indeed such a term of +travel does upon all normally constituted people. The night had been +clear and frosty. As she paced the verandah, which, as in most houses of +the class, absorbed the whole front of the hotel, she was first +surprised, then charmed and excited, by the view of the majestic Alpine +range, the snow-covered peaks of which were glittering in the rays of +the morning sun.</p> + +<p>'How grand! how inconceivably lovely!' said she, half aloud; as +gradually the view opened out, in a sense expanded itself before her +rapturous gaze. 'How little I expected to feast my eyes upon a scene +like this! Poor Lance, poor fellow! how often such a glorious landscape +as this must have comforted him in his loneliness! Perhaps he thought of +me at such times; he could not help it. He used to tease me at Wychwood, +I remember, about what he called my craze for scenery. I must remind him +of it to-day. Yes, to-day; how strangely it sounds! I shall have to make +up my mind——' and here she seemed to fall into a musing mood, while a +sigh from time to time escaped involuntarily. 'Yes,' she thought; 'it +would be hardly advisable to live here after we—after we were married. +Reports would be sure to get abroad, and then, perhaps, if he was +recaptured his punishment would be increased, and that would kill +him—would kill us both indeed. I could never survive it, I feel sure.</p> + +<p>'Then, what would be the safer course to pursue? To go to some seaport, +where they could take ship for Europe or America, as the case might be? +Why should they not take their passage for San Francisco? Once landed +there, who was to know Lance from any other Australian digger, numbers +of whom had been backward and forward since the earliest "rush," in +1849? Melbourne in some respects would be the better port of shipment; +it was nearer, more easily reached, and there was such a mixed multitude +of "pilgrims and strangers," miners, speculators, colonists, Europeans, +and foreigners, that any number of persons "illegally at large" (an +expression she had caught in Melbourne) might pass unnoticed.'</p> + +<p>The clang of the breakfast-bell put an end to her meditation, and +exchanging the keen air of the outer world for a seat near the glowing +fire, high piled with logs, she took the place reserved for her near her +travelling companions of the previous day. The social atmosphere of the +<i>table d'hôte</i> was less 'select' than that at 'Growlers',' but the +utmost decorum nevertheless prevailed. Among the strangers to her was a +middle-aged man, whom she heard addressed as Mr. Gray, and more +familiarly as Con. He was a gold-buyer, about to leave for Melbourne on +the following day.</p> + +<p>'How many ounces are you taking down this time, Con?' asked a jocular +miner at the other end of the table 'You'll be waited for some day, if +you don't look out.'</p> + +<p>'Not much this time, old man,' said Gray. 'But you're right; it <i>is</i> a +risky game, and I don't think I'll chance it much longer. Indeed this +may be my last trip.'</p> + +<p>'Right you are,' said the furnisher of the raw material. 'I'm blessed if +I'd travel that road the way you fellows do, and known to have gold on +you, for all the percentage you make out of it. There's too many cross +chaps about, for my fancy and so I tell you.'</p> + +<p>'Well, a man must live, you know, Johnny,' replied the gold-buyer +good-humouredly. 'But I think I'll take your advice and cut the road +after this.'</p> + +<p>When her lover arrived, Estelle, as was natural, bent an earnest gaze +upon his form and features. Neatly but plainly dressed, his stalwart +figure, erect and stately, showed to great advantage among the +carelessly attired loungers who thronged the entrance. His bold regard, +his dark and clustering hair, his regular features, stamped him as a +being of different mould, in her eyes, from the ordinary persons around +them. A thickly growing beard and moustache hid the lower part of his +face, and concealing much of his mouth and chin, somewhat altered +(Estelle thought) the expression of his countenance. It was not wholly +an improvement, though she could understand his reason for adopting the +prevailing Australian fashion.</p> + +<p>He passed carelessly into the parlour, where there were still a few +people gathered around the fireplace. Putting his arm round her waist, +he said jocularly, as he drew her towards him, 'So you have recovered +from your fatigue. After our long separation, it seems awfully hard on +me that we should see so little of each other.'</p> + +<p>The storekeeper's wife smiled, and Miss Bessie giggled, as Estelle, +blushing deeply, withdrew herself from his clasp, saying hurriedly, 'I +don't think there's any necessity for being so affectionate in public. +We have a great deal to talk over and decide to-day.'</p> + +<p>It was a strange feeling that had come over her for the moment. Added to +her natural dislike to such endearments before spectators of the class +then present, a curious indefinable sensation of repulsion took +possession of her temporarily, as strong as it was instinctive. He drew +back, with a half-angry look; then, assuming an air of injured dignity, +said, 'I ought to apologise. I forgot you hadn't been long out from +home. We don't mind these trifles in Omeo. Do we, Mrs. Caldwell?'</p> + +<p>'Not when people's engaged,' said the matron; while Miss Bessie tossed +her head, and said, 'She thought all the gentlemen wanted keeping in +their places; she'd let them know when she'd a young man of her own, +that she would.'</p> + +<p>All this was of course painful to Estelle; but fearing, from his changed +expression, that she had hurt his feelings, she proceeded to make +amends, after the manner of her sex, by hastily proffering concessions. +The sudden thought of his melancholy life, of his wrongs and +misfortunes, almost impelled her to beg his pardon in the humblest +manner for the involuntary slight. Yet the thought <i>would</i> obtrude +itself of how differently Mr. Stirling or Mr. Dalton would have acted +under the same circumstances, and a sigh told how grieved she felt that +any environment, how sad and mournful soever, should have obscured the +refinement so inherent in the blood of Trevanion.</p> + +<p>Prompt to redress the fancied injury, she placed her hand within his +arm, saying, 'I think the best thing we can do is to go for a nice long +walk on this lovely day, and you shall show me a little of the +"field,"—you see I understand diggers now,—and your hut, where you +have been living all this time by yourself, you poor lonely hermit that +you were.'</p> + +<p>"Now that's the way to behave," said Mrs. Caldwell, smiling, with +motherly approval; "I see you'll know all you've got to do after a +while—girls is flighty at first, Mr. Johnson."</p> + +<p>So they walked forth along the principal (and only) street of Omeo, not +wholly without observation from the miscellaneous crowd of miners, +teamsters, wayfarers, tradespeople, bushmen, and others, with which a +mining town where gold is abundant—and such was then the stage at which +Omeo had arrived—is filled up. More than one head was turned from time +to time to gaze with interest and surprise at the distinguished-looking +though plainly dressed girl 'who had come up to Ballarat Harry.'</p> + +<p>'His luck's in, my word,' was the remark of a stalwart miner, who, pick +on shoulder, was following a cart with his mate, conveying their worldly +possessions. 'I wonder if they're going to live in that hut of his on +the ridge. She don't look as if she'd been used to cook in a slab +fireplace, or lift the lid off a camp-oven.'</p> + +<p>'Camp-oven be blowed,' rejoined his mate, who was affectionately +carrying a long-handled shovel, as being too valuable an implement to be +trusted in a vehicle, 'they're a-goin' to Melbourne to be spliced; and +most like he'll settle there and take to gold-buying on a big scale. +He's well in, is Harry, by all accounts.'</p> + +<p>'It beats me what she sees in him, then—a gal like her, as might have +any man in the whole bloomin' colony, in a manner of speaking. Harry was +a jolly, free-handed chap, as you'd see when he first come, but he's got +that surly and short lately as you'd hardly know him as the same man.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I warn't here when he first come, but from the look of him, when +I see him the other day, I shouldn't be surprised if there was something +"cronk" about him, for all his gold-buying.'</p> + +<p>All unheeding of this careless but not inaccurate criticism, the lovers +sauntered on. As they cleared the outskirts of the town, Estelle said, +'Now you must show me your hut. I <i>must</i> see the place where you have +lived your lonely life, poor fellow. How I used to pity you, when I +thought of it.'</p> + +<p>'There it is, on that rise—this track leads up to it. It's such a +miserable hovel, I hardly like you to see it.'</p> + +<p>'Nonsense! you forget I've been to Growlers' and Ballarat, and know all +about diggings. Why, it's the regular thing, like a shooting-box or a +bothy in the Highlands. Everybody does it. Better men than you (I was +going to say) live in huts. Why, this is quite a grand hut! What fine +broad slabs, and a big padlock too. I thought the miners were so +honest?'</p> + +<p>'Sometimes,' he said; 'not always.'</p> + +<p>They walked into Ballarat Harry's hut. Estelle sat herself down on a +three-legged stool by the side of the still smouldering fire, and gazed +into the pile of ashes on the hearth. Here, for so many a lonely +evening, had he sat and smoked and thought—ah! with what bitterness—of +a lost home, a forfeited birthright, of a father's curse, which, +harmless as thistledown at first, had commenced to be so fatally +prophetic. It <i>was</i> hard. Fate had been against him—against them from +the beginning. But she would make up to him—as far as woman's love +might repair the wrongs of destiny and the cruelty of man—for this +dreadful episode of his life.</p> + +<p>'Oh Lance—dear Lance!' she said; 'how you have lived through it all I +can hardly imagine.'</p> + +<p>'If I had not had the thoughts of you to keep me up,' he said, looking +at her with eyes of bold admiration, 'I might have given in. But I kept +always saying to myself, <i>she</i> will reward me, Stella will be mine when +we meet, and all the past will be forgotten—and you <i>are</i> mine,' he +said, as he took her hand in his and made as if to exact the betrothed +lover's accustomed tribute.</p> + +<p>But again a shrinking feeling of denial—for which she could not +account—possessed her whole frame. She drew back shuddering. 'Pray, +don't let us have any nonsense of that kind,' she said; 'there will be +plenty of time by and by. At present, I feel as if I had so much rather +hear all about your trial and the cruel unjust sentence which ruined +you, and of your life in those dreadful hulks; I always wonder how you +managed to escape.'</p> + +<p>For one moment the flash of his eyes in stern displeasure reminded her +vividly of bygone days and their lovers' quarrels at Wychwood. Then he +spoke, in a voice studiously free from irritation—</p> + +<p>'I got out through the help and managing of Tessie Lawless—a girl that +cared a deal more for me than you do, if that's the way you're going to +treat me. You've forgotten our old Wychwood days, I suppose. Well, as +you'll have to leave to-morrow, or next day at furthest, for Melbourne, +and we go different ways, we mustn't fall out, must we? I can wait. So +we'd better talk over this journey.'</p> + +<p>'Now don't be cross, my dear Lance; you must give me time. Remember, +I've been a lonely and very sad woman for years, and all thoughts of +love and marriage were put out of my head. Do tell me of your escape.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I <span class="smcap">DID</span> escape,—which is the chief thing that concerns us now,—or +I believe I should have hanged myself, like the fellow that was in my +cell before me—or got shot, like two other men, for trying to clear out +by day. What I suffered, no tongue can tell!'—here he assumed the most +tragic expression possible, and groaned as if at the recollection,—'the +very thoughts of it make my blood boil.'</p> + +<p>'But how did this girl—Tessie Lawless, was that her name?—succeed in +releasing you?'</p> + +<p>'Well, she persuaded a man who, I believe, was pretty sweet after <i>her</i>, +to come one dark night with a boat to the stern of the old hulk. She +sent money and bribed my warder, so I was able to get out and drop down +into the boat. After I was free, she sent a man and two horses to where +I could meet them, and I came up here.'</p> + +<p>'What a brave girl! I should like to see and thank her. She must have +been a great friend of yours?'</p> + +<p>'Well, I suppose she thought a good deal of me in her way, poor thing. I +believe she's in Melbourne somewhere, but I've never seen her since.'</p> + +<p>'You don't seem to have been very anxious to thank her for all the +devotion and courage, I must say. It's the way of the world, I suppose, +and Australia is very like other places in essentials, I begin to +suspect. And now, what are our plans to be? It will be a risk for you to +remain here longer, I suppose?'</p> + +<p>'To be sure it will. You can't tell what may happen. Any day I might be +arrested. Our dart—our plan, I mean—is to get to Melbourne as soon as +possible. You can go down with Holmes Dayton and Con Gray. A policeman +goes with them as escort, and, I think, Gray's sister-in-law. You +couldn't have a safer party. I shall go across country towards the +Murray, and travel a way of my own. We can meet in Melbourne at any +place you arrange, and be married at once—that is, the day before the +vessel sails that we take our passage in for San Francisco. Then we're +off as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and no one the wiser! What do you say to +that?'</p> + +<p>'I suppose,' she answered slowly and reflectively, 'that it would be the +best plan.'</p> + +<p>'The best plan!' he repeated, almost angrily, while a sudden flash shone +from his eyes, and a frown of impatience crossed his face, which brought +back old memories with magical suddenness. 'Why, of course it is. There +can't be any other, unless I hang on here till that infernal hound +Dayrell track me down. But you don't seem to be half keen about it. Can +it be'—and here he changed his voice and looked earnestly, almost +pleadingly, into the girl's face—'that you have changed your mind? If +you have, say so. I have lost home and friends—everything—I know. Am I +to lose you too?'</p> + +<p>His eyes rested on the girl with almost magnetic power. Then a blush +came to her cheek, as she replied—</p> + +<p>'You have my promise, Lance, and the word of a Chaloner is sacred. +Surely you should know that? Of course I will do as you wish. But—and +here she smiled and raised her eyes pleadingly—you must not be hasty, +but bear with me a little. All things are so strange, and the time is +short. After all my looking forward to our meeting, you have taken me a +little by surprise.'</p> + +<p>'Forgive me, my darling,' he said, with well-acted warmth; 'I <i>was</i> +hasty, but you know the Trevanion temper—my pride was touched. And you +will be ready to start to-morrow? That horse of yours (old Vernon, or +whatever his name was, is no bad judge, if he picked him) is as fit for +the road as when he left Melbourne. I suppose he expected to get a +commission out of you?'</p> + +<p>'You must not talk in that way of my good old friend,' she said gravely. +'He was like a father to me; I can't be too grateful to him and his dear +good wife. But I shall be quite ready to start in the morning with the +people you mention. I am so glad there is a girl in the party.'</p> + +<p>As they walked back to the inn, the arrangements for meeting in +Melbourne were discussed in detail and completely sketched out. She was +to go to Mr. Vernon's house, and thence, when apprised of his arrival, +she would meet him at the South Yarra Church, only escorted by her +friends. Mr. Vernon would 'give her away,' and she would ask them to +keep the matter secret. The ceremony would be deferred till the day +before the sailing of their vessel for Honolulu or San Francisco, as +might be decided. Unless Fate intervened with unexampled unkindness, it +seemed as though a burst of sunshine was about to break through the +cloud of misfortune which had so long encircled them.</p> + +<p>'By this time to-morrow evening,' he said, 'you will be on your way to +Melbourne. It's lucky you've had so much practice lately in riding. I +suppose you found it rather awkward at first?'</p> + +<p>'Awkward?' she said, gazing at him with astonishment, 'Why, you surely +must have forgotten that I hunted regularly the season before you left +home.'</p> + +<p>'Oh yes; of course—of course,' he said. 'But I seem to have forgotten +so many things,'—here he assumed an air as of one indistinctly +recalling long-past incidents. 'Then the horses out here are so +different.'</p> + +<p>'I don't think that at all,' she answered; 'I have seen some wonderfully +fine horses here. And I am sure my good old Wanderer, that I rode up, is +as grand a hackney as ever was saddled. You mustn't run down Australian +horses, you know.'</p> + +<p>'Never mind the horses,' he said pettishly; 'I wish <i>I'd</i> never seen +one, out here at any rate; and now let us settle it all, how we're to +meet, and all the rest of it. I'm to send a note to John Vernon and +Company, Flinders Lane,—is that the address?—and you'll be ready at a +day's notice, won't you?'</p> + +<p>'Yes,' she said slowly and half absently; 'I suppose so.'</p> + +<p>'You see it's this way,' he said, coming still nearer to her and looking +into her face as if to read her inmost thoughts. 'I can't afford to hang +about Melbourne. What I've got to do is to find out the first steamer, +take our passages as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, then get the license: there's +a church close by the Vernons, isn't there, where all the swells +go?—Toorak, or some such name. We slip over there before lunch, and +next day we're man and wife and at sea—clear of Australia—free and +safe for ever! What a sell it will be for those bloodhounds of police!'</p> + +<p>As he spoke rapidly, his eyes gleamed with unholy triumph, carefully +schooled as was the general expression of his countenance. In spite of +her deep abiding sympathy for his sorrows, the girl's gentle spirit +recoiled from the savage satisfaction displayed in his closing words.</p> + +<p>'Oh! Lance,' she said, 'do not speak like that. It pains me to hear even +a tone of lightness about our deliverance. If God permits it, we should +be thankful all our lives. But even if there has been pursuit, these men +that you so hate have only been doing what they supposed to be their +duty.'</p> + +<p>'You are an angel,' he said, with an air of deepest conviction and +tenderness, 'too good for me and for every one. For your sake, I suppose +I must forgive these rascally traps, especially if they don't run me +down. And now, as we shan't see each other in the morning, just one kiss +before we part for the last time.'</p> + +<p>But again she drew back; the same indefinable feeling of repulsion arose +in her instinctively, as strong, as inexplicable. 'You have not long to +wait now,' she said softly; 'until then, you must humour all my whims. +You will, Lance, won't you?'</p> + +<p>'I suppose so,' he said half sullenly; 'women are all alike, full of +fancies. But I <i>did</i> think you would remember old days. You used not to +be so stand off and distant.'</p> + +<p>'We were girl and boy then,' she said. 'Everything seems so changed. I +can hardly fancy even now that we are to be married in a fortnight, +though I have come all this way to find you out. Some strange mysterious +feeling stirs within me from time to time. I can hardly explain it. It +is almost like a presentiment of evil.'</p> + +<p>He laughed suddenly, and as suddenly stopped. '<i>I</i> am not changed,' he +said, 'except by what I have gone through'; then he dropped his voice +into a mournful murmur, as he carelessly and apparently by chance +touched the Chaloner ring. 'But if you can't make up your mind; if you +would like to cry off, to leave me to my fate, say so in time. Perhaps +it would be better for you after all.'</p> + +<p>'No, Lance!' she said, and as she spoke she raised her eyes heavenward, +moist with tears of tenderest sympathy, as the thought rushed across her +brain of his lonely and desperate condition, abandoned by <i>her</i> as by +all the world. 'We Chaloners keep faith. I am your plighted bride, and +I am ready to fulfil my vow, my promise to the living and to the dead. +But you must bear with a woman's weakness and consider how little time I +have to prepare. What would they say at Wychwood, I wonder?'</p> + +<p>'We're in Australia, Stella, and not in England—don't forget that,' he +answered, the frown again darkening his countenance. 'I hope we shan't +see the old country for many a day. We must learn to forget old ways and +fashions.'</p> + +<p>'I can never do so, wherever we may wander,' she answered, with quiet +emotion. 'I don't like to hear you speak of it as a thing of course, and +I wish you would call me Estelle, Lance, not Stella. You never used to +do so.'</p> + +<p>'Very well, Estelle,' he said, 'I won't do it again, if it bothers you. +Stella's a common name out here; that's the reason, I suppose. And now, +as we're at the hotel, we'd better say good-bye. I won't come in the +morning. It's no use making people talk; they're ready enough, without +helping them. You and that Miss Graham can get away with old Dayton +to-morrow. It's the way everybody up here travels, and nothing's thought +of it. I'll write the moment I get down. Most likely I'll be in +Melbourne as soon as you.'</p> + +<p>They parted with a simple hand-clasp, she gazing into his face as if to +read the signs of a spirit worn and wearied with the worldly injustice. +His face was calm, and betrayed no emotion other than deep regret at the +departure of a friend. He tried to throw into the parting words the +sentiment which the occasion demanded, but it was patently an effort, +and had not the ring of truth or tenderness.</p> + +<p>'He <i>is</i> changed,' she told herself, as she moved forward across the +verandah of the hotel and sought her bedroom. 'How changed, I could +hardly have imagined. But who would not have been altered by the +frightful experience he has gone through! I must try and make him happy, +as some poor recompense for all his sorrows.'</p> + +<p>Could she have noted the dark and evil expression of her companion's +face, as he lit his pipe and strode savagely along the path to his +solitary hut, heard the foul oaths with which from time to time he +essayed to relieve his feelings, or the vows of vengeance upon her for +her coldness, she would have deemed him changed indeed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + + +<p>The morning of their departure rose bright and cloudless. The air was +fresh and bracing, for the hoar-frost lay unthawed for hours on the +wire-grass in the sheltered valleys, adown which the little cavalcade +passed on the Gippsland road. The trooper, a young mounted constable of +the Victorian Police, with the storekeeper, Holmes Dayton, rode in +front. Then came Estelle Chaloner and her travelling companion, Janie +Graham, a young girl born and nurtured in the bush, the niece of the +gold-buyer Constantine Gray. She had been on a visit to Omeo (save the +mark!), and was now returning to her friends. They had not gone far when +Dayton, the storekeeper, turning into a forest track which ran at right +angles to the main road, explained that he had occasion to meet an +acquaintance on business, and would rejoin them at the next +stopping-place. The trooper then fell back to effect companionship with +Gray, while the girls succeeded to the leading position.</p> + +<p>Mounted on the good steed which she had learned to love, Estelle's +spirits rose as she felt his free elastic motion. Rested by his sojourn +in the inn stable, he paced fast and easily along the forest paths.</p> + +<p>Though unable to account for the feeling, Estelle was conscious of a +distinct sensation of relief, almost amounting to exhilaration. She was +quitting Omeo for ever, and she looked forward with pleasurable +anticipation to the few days of wayfaring which the journey to Melbourne +would necessitate.</p> + +<p>'It will be my last week of freedom,' she told herself. 'I shall have to +sell you, though, my poor Wanderer, you dear, good, faithful creature!' +and she patted her horse's arching neck and pushed over a stray lock of +his mane. 'Well, wherever I go, and whenever I see the old land again, I +shall never have a better horse. I have ridden some good ones in the old +country, but I doubt if any one of the lot was as sure-footed, as easy, +as untiring—certainly not on the food and treatment you have had to put +up with. I wish I could take you home. Indeed, if we were going back in +the ordinary fashion, I <i>would</i> take you with me, whatever it cost. It +would be only buying you over again; and good horses are cheaper here, +even at gold prices, than in England.</p> + +<p>'Now let me see,' she continued, in soliloquy, 'we shall be near +Melbourne by the end of this week. Then, for I suppose it would be +dangerous for him to wait, I must huddle up a few dresses and be +married at once. <i>Married at once!</i>' Here she sighed; the light died out +of her eyes, and the freshness of the morn seemed to fade out of her +face. How different was it from the meeting in Australia which she had +promised herself in her more sanguine imaginings! Even if he had been +comparatively poor, her fortune would have sufficed for all needs until +he was enabled to claim his paternal heritage. But now, how +immeasurably worse than poverty was his condition!—disgrace, +dishonour,—irrevocable, perhaps inexpiable,—possibly debarring him +from ever claiming his rights! She saw herself after the vow had been +sworn which bound her to a dishonoured man, a passenger in a foreign +vessel, voyaging to a distant land, with perhaps dangers and privations +in store of which she had no previous conception. How strange and unreal +it all seemed!</p> + +<p>But it was too late to despond—to falter. She had promised: she would +perform. Shrinking with maidenly reluctance from the hasty, and in a +measure clandestine, union to which she found herself committed, she +felt compelled to call up all the reserves of resolution, of which she +had so uncommon a portion, before she could still the instinctive +dislike to the next act in the drama of her destiny.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>As these thoughts—sombre, hopeful, and desponding by turns—passed +through her brain, the bright spring day wore on; the babbling +brooklets, through which their horses plashed ever and anon, ran clear +and sparkling. As Estelle Chaloner mused over her surroundings and gazed +upwards through the tall white-stemmed eucalypts which, rank upon rank, +hemmed in the rugged bridle-track, looked at the trooper, the +gold-buyer, the rustic damsel who was to be by day and night her closely +associated companion, she could hardly realise her own identity. 'How +changed is my <i>monde</i>,' she thought, 'in the course of a few short +months—my daily thoughts and feelings, my plans of the present, my +prospects in the future! Am I indeed the same Estelle Chaloner who sat +in the old hall at Wychwood for all the long sad autumn months, who saw +the red leaves fall in those ancient woods, waiting the while for the +last sands of a sick man's life to run out? And now, where am I? and +<i>what am I</i>? What I shall be in the future I almost tremble to think.'</p> + +<p>Immersed in reverie, she had trusted the conduct of her horse almost +entirely to his own discretion. A hackney exceptionally good in the slow +paces, as are many Australian horses, the Wanderer had, for his own +pleasure and satisfaction, gone forward at the top of his walking speed, +which was sufficiently fast to keep her companion's horse at a jog-trot. +From time to time, at an earlier stage, the rustic maiden had laughingly +protested; then Wanderer was held back. However, in this particular +instance the failure of consideration was unnoticed, until Estelle was +aroused by a cry from her companion, so loud and vehement in tone that +she knew at once that no ordinary occurrence had called it forth.</p> + +<p>Reining up sharply, she turned in her saddle to behold a sight which +blanched her cheek and well-nigh froze the life-blood in her veins.</p> + +<p>From out the tangled forest growth, emerging from behind a gigantic +eucalypt, two men, masked and armed, had stepped into the roadway, +abreast of the gold-buyer and the trooper. A third man, half hidden by +the bushes, levelled his fire-arm a few paces in the rear. Both girls +sat horror-stricken on their horses as the trooper's carbine and the +fire-arms of the robbers appeared to make simultaneous reports. The +gold-buyer fell heavily from his horse in the road; the trooper +staggered and swayed in the saddle, dropping his reins, but recovered +himself, though evidently hard hit and unable to control his horse. The +wounded man rose to his knees, but at that moment one of the masked +strangers rushed over and struck him over the head. Estelle's eyes +darkened, and she felt as if all sensation was leaving her; but, +recovering herself, she shook her reins, and the free horse dashed down +the slope leading to the creek of which they had been told, with the +speed of a racer, accompanied by her terror-stricken companion, whose +hackney followed suit with the instinct of his kind.</p> + +<p>The creek was crossed almost immediately. Mile after mile fled away like +a dream before either of the girls thought of drawing rein. At length, +at the foot of a steep and rocky range, the horses commenced to slacken +speed.</p> + +<p>'My God!' said the girl, 'did you see that? They have murdered my poor +uncle! Whatever shall we do? Do you think they will come after us? Is +there any house that we can go to along this horrid road? I know we +shall both be killed and planted so as never to be heard of again.'</p> + +<p>'Let us think over our best course,' said Estelle, aroused to the +necessity of self-possession in the hour of need, and in the presence of +a weaker nature. 'I remember this range. Five miles on the other side is +an inn, near a water-race. If we can get there we are safe; there seemed +to be a good many people about when we passed up. But I hear horses +galloping after us. Good heavens!'</p> + +<p>They stopped, and, listening, could plainly hear the sound of more than +one horse coming fast along the rocky road behind them.</p> + +<p>'We must turn into the wood,' said Estelle; 'fortunately it is thick +enough to hide us until we see who are following up.'</p> + +<p>They rode some distance into the forest, the low-growing pendent shrubs +of which, the product of a damp climate and constant rainfall, were +sufficiently dense to shield them from observation.</p> + +<p>Nearer and nearer came the hoof-beats. The girls gazed anxiously through +the close foliage. Then a chestnut horse came round a corner of the +range, upon which sat a man whose arms were apparently helpless.</p> + +<p>'Great Heaven!' said Estelle, 'it is Beresford the police trooper. He +has been wounded in the arms. See! he cannot hold the reins, poor +fellow!'</p> + +<p>'That's his chestnut horse,' said the rural young lady excitedly; 'I'd +know his blaze and white stockings a mile off. But what's follerin' him +up? I'm blessed if it ain't poor old Uncle Con's horse, and he's got his +pack all right and reg'lar too. Those chaps is gone cronk and done their +villainy for nothing. I'm dashed if I ever see the like!'</p> + +<p>'We had better catch them up,' said Estelle; 'the Lawyers Rest is hardly +five miles distant. We might help that poor Beresford.'</p> + +<p>Suddenly relieved from the deadly fear of the close presence of the +wretches whose deed of blood they had witnessed, the girls put their +horses to full speed and overtook one fugitive before he reached the +hill-top. Bending down from her saddle, the Australian maid caught the +pack-horse's bridle, bursting into tears and loud lamentation as she +recognised her dead kinsman's effects attached to different sections of +the pack-saddle.</p> + +<p>'Poor old Uncle Con,' she said, 'there's his mackintosh, his water-bag, +his billy-can—all the old traps I know so well. Many a time I've joked +him about them—so particular to have everything handy for camping, he +was. He won't camp no more, poor old man! He said it would be his last +trip, and so it was. I wonder if I shall live to see those villains +hanged? That old wretch Coke's in it for one, I'll swear.'</p> + +<p>Scarcely had they ridden another mile when they overtook the police +trooper. Partly disabled and in pain, and guiding his horse with +difficulty, the deathlike pallor of his face told of weakness from loss +of blood; yet he braced himself gallantly for the work that lay before +him.</p> + +<p>'Let me hold your rein,' said Estelle, as she rode up to his horse's +shoulder; 'are your arms badly hurt?'</p> + +<p>'Riddled through and through,' said the young fellow, groaning. 'The +brute must have loaded with slugs; my wrists feel the worst, and there's +a hole in my shoulder as well. I may get some one to ride back with me +from the inn. I can't leave poor Con dead on the road.'</p> + +<p>The sight of the unpretentious slab edifice with a bark verandah which +was dignified with the title of Lawyers' Rest was more grateful to +Estelle's strained vision than would have been the most palatial hotel +in Europe, for around it stood a dozen men, while several horses, 'hung +up' to the palings of the little garden, testified to an unusual +gathering. The trooper's dull eye brightened at the sight, and he looked +as if the spirit within him had power to overcome the weakness of the +flesh. They rode up to the door, a strange cortège, in the eyes of the +miners and squatters there assembled—a woman leading a horse, upon +which swayed and bent forward a wounded man, while a girl followed with +a pack-horse heavily laden and mud-splashed to the eyes.</p> + +<p>As they reined up amid the excited crowd, the trooper lay forward in a +deathlike swoon, and was only saved from falling by the strong arms +which lifted him from the saddle and bore him tenderly to a couch.</p> + +<p>In broken and disjointed sentences Estelle described the deed of blood, +while the gold-buyer's niece inveighed wildly against the murderers of +her uncle. He was a well-known man, and a corresponding degree of +indignation was aroused, while all necessary steps were taken for the +relief of the fugitives.</p> + +<p>The gold was removed, and, after being weighed in the presence of +witnesses, deposited with the landlord, as also the other effects of the +deceased. Wanderer and his comrades were stabled, a comfortable room +prepared by the landlord's wife for the girls, while a dozen well-armed +men were ready to start for the scene of murder within ten minutes of +their arrival. With them rode Trooper Beresford, recovered from his +faint. Revived with eau-de-vie de Cognac, he insisted on accompanying +them.</p> + +<p>But this was a bootless errand. Beresford pointed out where the men +first appeared from behind the buttress of the forest giant. The tracks +were as a printed page to the experienced dwellers in the waste who +stood beside him. But the gold-buyer lay dead in the centre of the road. +From a gunshot wound the blood had welled forth into a pool, while his +skull had been cleft with more than one stroke of an axe.</p> + +<p>'We'd better take him back to the shanty with us, boys,' said one of the +older men, by common consent elected to act as leader. 'You young chaps +as has got sharp eyes hunt about, and don't leave so much as a button +behind if you come across one, next or anigh him. It's no use follerin' +the tracks for more than a bit, just to see which way they've headed. +Beresford here ain't fit, and if they're the men we suspect, one of +'em's near Mount Gibbo by this, and the rest many a mile off some other +way.'</p> + +<p>So the dead man was placed on a horse, and the party wended their way +sadly back to the little hostelry with their silent blood-stained +companion.</p> + +<p>On the morrow, at a formal meeting, it was decided that a strong body of +volunteers, with a black tracker, should follow up the trail of the +murderers. A reward sufficiently large to tempt an accomplice was +offered for information leading to a conviction, an old comrade of the +dead man subscribing more than half the amount. A messenger had been +despatched to the nearest police station, and the Coroner shortly +arrived to hold an inquest upon the body.</p> + +<p>This melancholy business having been completed, and a verdict of 'wilful +murder by persons unknown' having been brought in, Estelle felt +sufficiently recovered to recommence her journey. Now that she had +experienced one of the dread realities of goldfields life, much of her +former confidence had departed. She felt an overwhelming impatience to +regain the security of civilisation, and cheerfully accepted the offer +of the escort of the Coroner, who was also a police magistrate. He +accompanied her as far as the next township on the way to Melbourne. +There were also a couple of police troopers <i>en route</i> for the barracks +at Jolimont, so that nothing better could be wished. At the township +they fell in with a squatter and his daughter bound for Melbourne, with +whom they joined forces till Toorak once more rose to view and the +winding Yarra Yarra. And now this strange and terrible occurrence had +passed like the horror of a dream, and Estelle Chaloner was again in +Melbourne, safe under the sheltering wing of Mrs. Vernon. Awakening on +the first morning in that well-ordered home, she felt as if evil-hap or +danger could never menace her more. Shaken in nerve and outworn by the +journey, words could faintly express the need she felt for rest. Yet a +shuddering dread possessed her lest she might be destined for +experiences not less terrifying and lawless in her future.</p> + +<p>But no season of repose was as yet for her. She must risk whatever +further trials fate had in store. Her word was given; the plighted vow +must be kept. The life, the very soul of him to whom she was pledged to +entrust all that womanhood holds most sacred, trembled in the balance. +Was she, from girlish timidity, from mere nervous shrinking and feminine +reluctance, to which she could not give a name, to draw back meanly from +mere personal considerations? What were her wrongs and probable +privations to <i>his</i>? The die was cast.</p> + +<p>Early in the following week the half-expected, half-dreaded fateful +letter arrived. 'He had taken <i>their</i> passage,'—'<i>our passage</i>,' she +repeated to herself—'in the <i>John T. Whitman</i> for Callao, in the name +of Mr. and Mrs. H. Johnson. He had arranged for the marriage at the +little church at South Yarra, on the morning of the day the vessel was +to sail. She would sail on that afternoon, and no humbug about it; he +had seen the first mate and made things right with him, so his +information was good. Nothing remained, then, but for his heart's +darling Estelle to hold herself in readiness to be at St. Mark's at the +hour appointed, and all would yet be well. What he had suffered since +they parted, no tongue could tell!... She might imagine his feelings +when he became aware of the diabolical crime that had been committed. He +was half-way to Melbourne when he heard of it. No doubt justice would +overtake the guilty parties. '<i>She</i> had escaped—that was everything. +Poor Con Gray was right when he said it should be his <i>last trip</i>.'</p> + +<p>And so the day was at hand—close, inevitable! This was on Tuesday. +Saturday was the day fixed for the sailing of the <i>John T. Whitman</i>—for +the joining of two hearts, two bodies, two souls—irrevocably, +eternally—in this world and the world to come. For how can the human +mind realise the essential dissociation during the probation of this +earthly life, or even amid the spiritualised conditions of another +existence, of those <i>once</i> made one flesh—wedded, and welded together +under the sanction of the most tremendous of human sacraments?</p> + +<p>Like most prospective occurrences seen dimly and afar, Estelle Chaloner +had not closely analysed her feelings when the day of doom should +arrive. Now, she experienced a kind of minute analysis of her +sensations, distinctly painful in its intensity. She read and re-read +Lance's letter, and, among other things, marked with surprise an +occasional lapse in grammar, or the use of a small letter when a capital +was imperative. Even the handwriting, though more like Lance's letters +from school than his latter-day epistles, seemed cramped and laboured. +'Poor fellow, poor fellow!' she said softly to herself, 'I suppose he +hasn't written much lately. Australia is a bad country for +correspondence, and yet——' here she smiled and blushed slightly as she +recalled the pile of home letters she had watched Mr. Stirling despatch +one Sunday morning, and her playful reference to his dutiful habits. +'People differ in Australia, I suppose,' she continued, 'as in all other +places. What ignorant folly it is to think otherwise!' and again she +sighed—sighed deeply; then rose from her seat half impatiently. 'It is +my fate,' she said; 'man or woman, who can escape their destiny?'</p> + +<p>Of course, all Melbourne rang with the account of the Omeo Tragedy, as +it was called. Every provincial paper, from one end of Australia to the +other, had its moral deduction, its elaborate amplification. Murders and +robberies were unhappily far from infrequent in those early days of the +Gold Revolution—that social, political, and pecuniary upheaval which +overturned so many preconceived opinions, and changed the destinies of +states no less than individuals.</p> + +<p>But for this special crime the horror was universal, the clamour for +vengeance upon the villains who had done to death a worthy and +inoffensive citizen was exceptionally loud and persistent. A friend of +the murdered man offered three hundred pounds for information leading to +conviction; the Government as much more. It was confidently hoped that +such 'honour among thieves' as existed would disintegrate before so +powerful a solvent.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Estelle found herself, to her surprise and slight annoyance, +placed involuntarily in the position of a heroine. Her portrait was in +the illustrated papers; not, however, limned from any miniature, but hit +off from a thumb-nail sketch made by an ingenious but deeply respectful +young gentleman connected with the press, during the passage of a brief +interview. It had leaked out in some way, probably through her +travelling companion, that Estelle was about to be married to a man +connected with mining pursuits (so he was described) at Omeo. This fact +was dwelt upon and emphasised as adding to the natural interest felt in +the case. This version of the affair was more than distasteful to her; +as, apart from her natural disinclination to be described and commented +upon from every conceivable point of view, she dreaded lest the +additional publicity forced upon her private affairs might prove fatal +to</p> + +<p>Lance's freedom.</p> + +<p>The bridal preparations, however, went on. Mrs. Vernon, having once +expressed her sincere regret at the sacrifice, so complete and uncalled +for, which Estelle was about to make, and having withstood, not wholly +unmoved, the indignant remonstrance of the high-souled maiden, remained +acquiescent under protest. Their vessel, an American clipper, was +visited; the cabin allotted to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson criticised, but +finally furnished and fitted up with many a cunning device for staving +off the ills of a life on the ocean wave or lightening the <i>ennui</i> of a +'home on the rolling deep.'</p> + +<p>Finally, the very day fixed for the ceremony <i>did</i> arrive. Estelle +appeared at breakfast pale but determined, and about eleven o'clock Mr. +Vernon returned from Melbourne in a cab, prepared for paternal +functions. Then this abnormally small South Yarra wedding-party drove +down the Toorak Road, and, not far from the entrance of Caroline Street +thereunto, alighted before the small but ornate church of St. Mark's.</p> + +<p>'By the bye, Estelle,' said Mr. Vernon suddenly (he had long since +arrived at the semi-paternal stage, which included the use of her +Christian name), 'I met an old friend of yours in Melbourne, just down +from the diggings.'</p> + +<p>'An old friend?' she replied smilingly.</p> + +<p>'Well, one of your oldest in this country, excepting ourselves. Guess +who it was.'</p> + +<p>'I am sure I cannot tell,' she said, 'unless it be John Polwarth. I +shall always think of him as a real friend.'</p> + +<p>'Not very far off. Was there no one else at Growlers'? Think again.'</p> + +<p>'Mr. Stirling or Mr. Hastings then—good and true friends both. Which of +them can it be?'</p> + +<p>'Well, it was Charlie Stirling. His father was an old friend of mine, +and a better fellow than Charlie doesn't live.'</p> + +<p>'How strange! how wonderful!' said Estelle, almost musingly. 'To think +that he should be down here before Lance goes away. Do you think he will +come to see—to see—the ceremony?' And here a blush faintly overspread +her countenance.</p> + +<p>'He wasn't sure. Just off the coach, and covered with mud, but would +rush off to his hotel and do his best. Then he told me a piece of news +about himself.'</p> + +<p>'What was that?'</p> + +<p>'Why, he had got a year's leave of absence, and as he had made a lucky +hit in the Coming Event,—a claim that's nearly as good as Number Six, +he says,—he's going to treat himself to a run home.'</p> + +<p>'Going to England! Mr. Stirling going home! You don't say so? Who would +have thought it?'</p> + +<p>'Well, he is just the man to appreciate it thoroughly. It will improve +him, as it does every Australian with the requisite amount of brains. +Though I really don't see how Charlie Stirling <i>could</i> be much +improved—except by a good wife,' he added thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>'I am sure I hope he will find one,' Estelle replied; 'no one is more +worthy of that or any other happiness. I wonder if he will come, and +whether he will think Lance much altered?'</p> + +<p>Mr. Vernon made no reply to this latter remark. Indeed he was strongly +inclined to say, 'Confound Lance!'—or even to use a stronger +expression. But he consoled himself with the conviction that it was +impossible to advise women for their good—even the best of them. And +thus reflecting he preceded the little party into the church.</p> + +<p>They had purposely delayed so as to be as near the appointed +hour—half-past eleven o'clock—as possible; and the half-hour chimes +from the churches in the city were rhythmically audible as they entered +and took their places. The gray-haired clergyman—a tall, venerable +personage—advanced from the vestry and stood as expectant of the +entrance of the bridegroom. As a side door opened, that personage +entered from the right side of the chancel.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Vernon gazed at the newcomer with unaffected interest. In certain +respects he was a man whom no girl would have been ashamed to +acknowledge—tall, erect, stalwart, his dark crisp hair and beard +trimmed according to the prevailing fashion. He looked around with a +quick and searching glance which apparently took in every individual in +the church. Then he fixed his eyes steadily upon the group in the midst +of which Estelle stood, and advanced towards his bride. He smiled as +Estelle murmured his name, and hastily shook hands with Mr. and Mrs. +Vernon, who seemed hardly prepared for the salutation.</p> + +<p>There was nothing particular to find fault with in his morning suit, yet +somehow Estelle could have wished one or two details altered.</p> + +<p>The bride looked more than once towards the rear of the church, as if +expectant. But the inexorable minutes fled, and walking forward, at a +sign from the clergyman, she knelt before the communion rails. One gleam +of triumph, which, had she caught, would have strangely disturbed her +thoughts, flashed from her companion's eyes. He knelt beside her, and +the time-honoured service commenced.</p> + +<p>Every precaution had been taken to secure secrecy in the matter of the +ceremony. When the little party walked unobtrusively in and the service +began, there appeared to be no spectators but those already known and +invited. In some mysterious way, however, the news spread. A wedding is +rarely, if ever, conducted without a few attendants not included in the +original programme. Some few strangers appeared as the clergyman +commenced to read the opening sentences. They were not, however, such as +to attract attention. But just as the clergyman reached the words, 'Wilt +thou take this woman to be thy wedded wife?' two men entered at one of +the side doors and looked searchingly at the bridal pair. One of them +gave vent to a sudden ejaculation, while the other, a tall man in police +uniform, drenched and travel-stained, walked rapidly up to the altar. To +the dismay of the congregation, he placed his hand on the bridegroom's +shoulder. Not less menacing and abrupt were his words than this unusual +act, of such unnatural seeming in a sacred edifice—</p> + +<p>'Lawrence Trevenna, you are my prisoner. I charge you with the murder of +a man known as Ballarat Harry, otherwise Lance Trevanion. Put up your +hands,'—here the speaker's tones became harsh and resonant,—'or +by ——! I'll shoot you where you stand.'</p> + +<p>At the first touch of the stranger's hand, the bridegroom started as if +to resist his captors, for by this time Charles Stirling stood by +Dayrell's side. For one moment he raised his hand as if to strike his +antagonist, but as he faced the pistol level with his brow, and marked +the Sergeant's steady eye and grim, set countenance, his courage +appeared to waver, then to fail utterly. He mutely acquiesced while the +manacles were slipped over his unresisting hands. At this moment +Estelle, who had been gazing at this strange and sudden apparition with +wide eyes of wonder and alarm, uttered one piercing, heartrending shriek +and fell senseless into the arms of Mrs. Vernon.</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Vernon, hitherto silent in wonder, as were the other witnesses +of the scene, moved as if to address the intruder. It was not necessary +to make verbal interrogation; for, advancing a few steps and bowing to +the company, he thus addressed them—</p> + +<p>'My excuse to you, reverend sir, and these ladies and gentlemen, must be +the extremely urgent nature of my errand. My name is Francis Dayrell, a +sergeant in the police force of Victoria, at present quartered at +Bairnsdale. I have ridden night and day to effect this arrest, and must +ask permission to congratulate the lady's friends upon her escape from a +fate too terrible to think of. This scoundrel, who has so successfully +personated his victim, the late Launcelot Trevanion, is the husband of +one Catharine Lawless, through whose information his villainy has been +frustrated. Mr. Stirling (here he motioned to that gentleman, who +advanced to where the spectators stood amazed and awe-stricken) is in +possession of the facts. I leave him to make fuller explanation.' Here +Sergeant Dayrell bowed again, not without a certain ease which spoke of +different experiences, and removed his prisoner.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It has been remarked that those clever people who dedicate themselves to +a criminal career are prone to small oversights and inadvertent acts +which often lead to their detection when success seems assured. Were it +not so, such are the qualities of coolness and energy displayed by the +'irregulars' of society, that its virtuous members would have but little +chance of survival in <i>la lutte pour la vie</i>. After the event every one +is wise; surprised, too, that the criminal should not have perceived to +what his heedlessness plainly led. The evil-doer himself is even +genuinely astonished when, in his interval of enforced leisure, he gains +the opportunity of reviewing his 'plan of campaign.' He perhaps owns to +the gaol chaplain that he has been 'most imprudent.' But generally he is +more concerned to establish a theory of unadulterated bad luck, and to +lay the blame upon every one but himself.</p> + +<p>Such misadventure occurred to Mr. Lawrence Trevenna—not less cautious +than daring, as he had previously proved himself to be. He left home +with surly abruptness, telling his ill-used wife that he was going to +Monaro and might be a month or more away. She was not to expect him till +she saw him, and so on. A large draft of horses to take delivery of, +etc.</p> + +<p>To these considerate explanations the woman made answer that he need not +trouble himself to hurry back on her account—indeed, if he never came +back she would be all the better pleased. He might spare himself the +trouble of telling more lies than usual, as whatever he did say about +his business would make her believe something different.</p> + +<p>'It would serve you right, you jade, if I never did come back,' he +ground out between his teeth, mingling the words with a savage oath. 'I +may take you at your word yet.'</p> + +<p>'Do so,' she replied, 'and I'll go down on my knees and thank God for +it. As He is my judge, if it wasn't for the child, you'd never have seen +me here a day after you struck me first. Don't think I've left off +cursing the day I ever set eyes on you—coward and thief—and worse that +you are!'</p> + +<p>He looked at her for one moment as she spoke, his eyes so full of +murderous rage that a bystander would have thought to see him strike her +to the earth. But putting strong constraint on himself, as, with a more +than malevolent smile, he bade her go back to the hut and mind her +baby,—'you're my wife now—for better, for worse, you know,' he +sneered. 'Stay at home and mind the house while your husband's away.'</p> + +<p>The last part of this admonition was lost upon the person to whom it was +addressed, as with one fierce glance, expressive of the last extremity +of hatred and contempt, the woman passed into the hut and slammed the +heavy door, while her lord and master, whistling carelessly, pressed his +horse's side and moved rapidly away.</p> + +<p>In apparent pursuance of his proposed plan, Trevenna rode for a dozen +miles down the Monaro road, then, wheeling suddenly to the eastward, +struck across the bush until he picked up the track which led to Mount +Gibbo. There he met by appointment Mr. Caleb Coke, and was thus enabled +to arrange certain illegal enterprises upon which they had resolved to +embark.</p> + +<p>For the first few days after his departure Kate felt little else but an +all-pervading sense of relief, almost amounting to absolute pleasure. +Lonely and depressing as was her isolated life, miles away from any +neighbour; left for weeks at a time without a soul to speak to,—as she +would have expressed it,—she still had her homely and simple +avocations, amid which, like many a similarly situated bush matron, she +found sufficient daily occupation.</p> + +<p>She had her baby boy,—a fine sturdy year-old fellow,—her poultry, +milch cows, and small patch of garden, to all of which she addressed +herself in turn. By degrees a softened expression came over her face. +The hard lines died out for a little space. It may have been that she +even repented of the bitter words and angry mood which had of late +become habitual with her. And when in the sunset-time she caught her +roan mare and rode around the paddock for the cows, carrying the +laughing baby boy before her on the saddle, there was a wondrous +transformation of the sullen-browed shrew of the morning.</p> + +<p>The days passed on. The weather changed. The fresh, bright, cloudless +days of the early Austral summer commenced to follow each other in +unbroken peaceful beauty. The proud heart of the desolate woman was +insensibly touched by the softening influences of the Great Mother. +'Bird and bee and blossom taught her'—a lesson of self-reproach and +faintly shadowed amendment.</p> + +<p>'Perhaps if I took him more easy like, he'd be a better man. Suppose +he'd married Tessie, I wonder if he would have been different. She was +always that quiet and patient with us all. She could get round Ned and +bring him straight when no one else could. Anyhow I might have a try.'</p> + +<p>Revolving good resolutions, Kate Trevenna, who, with all her faults, was +energetic and most capable in household work, as are most of the +bush-bred Australian girls of her class, set to work with a will and +made her dwelling and everything within fifty feet of it as neat as a +new pin. The forenoon having passed quickly in this occupation, she sat +down to her mid-day meal,—a cup of tea, a slice of cold corned beef, +with home-baked bread and butter of her own making,—when a traveller +rode up. Him she knew well as a stock-rider on one of the far-out +stations in the Monaro district.</p> + +<p>'Come in and have a cup of tea, Billy. Let your horse go for a bit,' was +the invitation by custom of the country. 'You've come a good way, by the +look of him. I'm all alone, you see; Larry's gone a journey.'</p> + +<p>'I know that, Mrs. Trevenna,' said the young fellow, taking off his +saddle and putting a pair of hobbles on his horse before he permitted +him his liberty; 'I've just come from Omeo.'</p> + +<p>'Omeo? that's not where he went. He's nigh Monaro by this time, and +going farther still.'</p> + +<p>'Well, he was in Omeo last Monday,' said the stock-rider, 'or some one +dashed like him. They talked as if it was Ballarat Harry. I don't know +him, but anyhow Larry's bay horse Bredbo was there, for I seen <i>him</i> +right enough. I couldn't be mistook about <i>that</i>. He was foaled near our +old place.'</p> + +<p>'Trevenna at Omeo! Then he never went to Monaro at all!' cried the +woman, with such a look, partly of surprise and partly of wild reproach, +in her eyes that the young man recoiled for an instant. Something was +wrong, he saw with instinctive quickness. He made a futile effort to +undo the domestic damage he felt he had brought to pass.</p> + +<p>'Perhaps he changed his mind,' he suggested doubtfully. 'He's such a rum +cove, is Larry. No one knows when he's comin' or goin' half the time.'</p> + +<p>'I expect not,' answered the woman gloomily, as if talking to herself. +'Now look here, Billy Dykes,' she said suddenly, walking up to the man +and looking into his face as if her flashing eyes could see his inmost +thought, 'you and I knowed each other this years; you tell me all you +heard about Larry, and keep nothing back, as you're a man.'</p> + +<p>The young fellow seemed for the moment to have fallen completely under +the spell of this fierce woman, whose burning eyes and passionate speech +were for the moment suggestive of a disordered brain. He stared at her +for a moment, and then replied—</p> + +<p>'There ain't a lot to tell, Mrs. Trevenna; but I expect you have a right +to hear it. He's no man to leave you like this, and there's more than me +thinks it. He's gone to Melbourne, that's what's up. Barker, the +storekeeper, told me.'</p> + +<p>'Any one gone with him?'</p> + +<p>'No; not as I heard on.'</p> + +<p>'You're keeping something back, Billy Dykes. Don't try and humbug me, or +I'll——In God's name, tell me everything. Was there a woman in it?'</p> + +<p>'Well, she didn't go with him, they said, but, in a manner of speaking, +it was all the same. He followed her, and a regular tip-top young lady, +by all accounts.'</p> + +<p>'Did you hear her name?'</p> + +<p>'Miss Chalmers, or Challner; something like that. Not long from +England.'</p> + +<p>'<i>That English girl!</i> the <i>cousin</i>, of course,' she murmured, in a +strange, low-toned, hesitating voice. 'So she's come out after all. +You're mistook, Billy, old man; it was Lance Trevanion they seen—Mr. +Trevanion, I mean—an Englishman, and very like Larry. They came out in +the same ship. He was to marry this young lady, his cousin. And I know +<i>he</i> was at Omeo.'</p> + +<p>'That makes it all right then. You've no call to fret, Mrs. Trevenna, +and I'm dashed glad of it. Only what was old Bredbo doing there? <i>I saw +him</i>, and couldn't be mistook. No fear. I know every hair in his tail.'</p> + +<p>'It <i>is</i> queer,' said the woman, whose countenance had cleared +wondrously, 'but, law, she may have got away from him on the road and +turned up at Omeo. Anyhow, I'll ride over and have a look. You eat your +dinner now, while I go down the paddock and catch my little mare.'</p> + +<p>The bushman addressed himself to the cold beef and damper with a sigh of +relief as he watched his hostess pick up a bridle and walk rapidly +across the horse-paddock.</p> + +<p>'She's a hot 'un, by the Lord Harry,' he said to himself, as he filled a +pannikin of tea from the camp-kettle near the fire. 'I wouldn't be in +Larry's shoes for a trifle if he's working on the cross with her. It's +a bloomin' mixed-up fakement, anyhow. I heard as Ballarat Harry at Omeo +was that like him you couldn't scarce tell 'em apart. And of course it +must be him as went down with the girl. But how does Bredbo come to be +there? and old Caleb Coke handy too—like an eagle-hawk shepherding a +dead lamb. It looks "cronk" somehow.'</p> + +<p>He had finished a satisfying meal, providing against future +contingencies after the fashion of Captain Dugald Dalgetty (formerly of +Marischal College), of happy memory, when his hostess rode up, sitting +lightly yet erect on her barebacked steed, with an instinctive poise, as +in the side-saddle of the period, such as only the practice of a +lifetime could impart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + + +<p>Accustomed from earliest years to hasty departures, the nomadic +Australian housewife was not long in making her simple preparation for a +hundred mile journey.</p> + +<p>The roan mare was carefully saddled and tied up to a tree. A leather +valise was strapped on. Finally the child, dressed for the road, was +brought out and placed upon the side-saddle, where with inbred sagacity +he sat steadily and looked around with a pleased expression. Then Kate +Trevenna, leading the mare to a log, lifted the child, mounted without +assistance, and gathered up the loose bridle-rein.</p> + +<p>'We're going different ways, Billy,' she said to her visitor. 'You're +bound for Monaro, and I'm going to be in Omeo to-morrow, if Wallaroo +here stands up. I'll stop with Mrs. Rooney to-night at the Running +Creek, and leave the boy there till I come back. She's awfully fond of +children, and will do for him if it's a month. I'm going to find out the +rights of this business before I come back. I don't know what to think +of it, and so I tell you. If Larry's left me, it's the worst day's work +he ever did in his life. I've got a horrid thought in my head. I can't +hardly bear to think of it. If it hadn't been for you seeing old Bredbo +there I'd have known it was Trevanion. I seen him nigh hand there one +day last month. But <i>only one of 'em</i> at Omeo, and him off to Melbourne +after that girl! There's something that wants taking out of winding. God +send it ain't as black as I fear it is. Well, so 'long.'</p> + +<p>Thus they parted. The bushman filled his pipe mechanically while she was +talking, and rode meditatively adown the well-worn track which ran +towards the east; while the woman, giving her bridle-rein an impatient +shake, started off at a fast amble, which her spirited hackney seemed +only awaiting the signal to change into a stretching canter. She held +her boy upon her knee, resting and partly supported against her right +arm. Like bush children generally, he had a natural love for all sorts +and conditions of horse-flesh, and as his baby fingers closed upon the +rein, he seemed contented, even exhilarated by the motion, crowing and +laughing with infantine delight. As for his mother, she appeared to take +little heed of his childish ways, gazing straight before her with a +far-off look in her eyes and an occasional shudder, as some darker +imagining crossed her brooding brain. Occasionally she varied the fast +amble at which her mare slipped along the forest track by a smart canter +not far removed from a hand-gallop, but which, thanks to the easy +gliding stride of the gallant little animal which carried her, did not +render her living burden one whit less safe or easy to carry.</p> + +<p>The sun was low when she sighted the paddock fence of the humble +homestead where she proposed to pass the night.</p> + +<p>The fence ran across a broad green flat or meadow, which had gradually +widened from the upper portion of the gurgling mountain stream which +traversed it. There were no gates. They were of infrequent occurrence in +those days. But the slip-rails—three in number, and fairly +substantial—showed where means of ingress had been provided.</p> + +<p>Scarce half a mile from the primitive entrance, which necessitated her +dismounting, was the hut, or homestead cottage, standing upon a sort of +forest cape high above the rippling creek.</p> + +<p>As she rode up to the door of the unpretending building, walled with +slabs and roofed with bark, Kate gave a sigh of relief and stopped her +horse. No one appeared for a minute or two. Then she raised her voice, +in the high-pitched Australian call—originally borrowed from the +blacks, but since heard (unless modern novelists lie) in the streets of +London—ay, even in the 'Eternal City' itself.</p> + +<p>Before she had finished the second call, a young woman came running out +from some building at the rear, and with many exclamations made haste to +welcome her.</p> + +<p>'The saints presarve us, and sure 'tis Mrs. Trevenna and her darlin' boy +wid ye. 'Tis yourself is the moral of a good neighbor to be coming over +to see me. And yees will stay the night—the Lord be good to us. It's no +time to be travelling after dark. We'll have to take the saddle off +ourselves. Sure we haven't half a man about the place, or as much as a +dog. It's himself is away, and thim all afther him.'</p> + +<p>'I'm come to stay the night,' Kate made answer, 'and I want to leave my +boy with you for a day or two while I go to Omeo on business. Now you +have the whole story, Mrs. Rooney. How does that suit you?'</p> + +<p>''Tis what I do be praying for,' replied the handsome young Irishwoman, +who lifted down the child without more ado and fondled him effusively. +'Here's my beauty-boy; sure I'll look after him as if he was a young +governor waiting to grow up. It's the darlin' of the world he is; the +finest boy betwane here and Monaro. Come in and tell us your news, +alanna. And the saints be good to us, whatever are ye doing wid the +horse. Are yez going to hobble him, and the paddock the best grass +between here and Gipp Land?'</p> + +<p>'I don't doubt that, Mrs. Rooney, but I must be off while the stars are +in the sky, and so I must make sure of Wallaroo. She can spell +afterwards, but she must travel to-morrow, if she never does again. I'll +tell you all about it as soon as I've put Harry to bed.'</p> + +<p>'Come in; arrah, don't be standing talkin' there; come in, for the sake +of all the blessed saints. And you looking pale and tired like! Wait +till I get you a cup of hot tay.'</p> + +<p>'All right, Mrs. Rooney; I'll be glad to have one. I feel thirsty +enough, though the evening's chilly. But while the kettle's boiling, +I'll take the mare down to the creek for a drink, and then she won't be +rambling about half the night looking for water. I want to be able to +lay my hand on her at daylight, or before. There's a long day before us +to-morrow, and perhaps Omeo won't be the end of it.'</p> + +<p>'Saints above!' exclaimed Mrs. Rooney, who, an emigrant not long out +from the Green Isle, and newly married to an 'Irish native,' was filled +with daily wonder at the manners and customs of the bush,—'sure and ye +does be taking terrible rides in Australia. And do ye be telling me +ye'll be at Omeo by this time to-morrow? But hurry now, and I'll have a +cup of tay and an egg and a buttered scone ready for ye whin ye come +back.'</p> + +<p>The saddle had been taken off and placed on a wooden stool in the +verandah. Kate led her palfrey down to the clear, fast-flowing streamlet +and watched her drink her fill. She then plucked a few handfuls of the +strong tussac grass which lined the little flat and rubbed dry the marks +on back and girth. This, with a slight general application of the +improvised currycomb, completed in her eyes all necessary grooming. +Slowly, and with eyes on the ground, she retraced her steps, coming +close up to the house before she unloosed the throat-strap of the +bridle.</p> + +<p>'Have you got a bell, Mrs. Rooney?' she said. 'I shall know where to +look for her if it's dark.'</p> + +<p>'To think of your wanting that now! 'Tis clivir of ye, so it is. Sure +Mick left one here before he went away. Here it is now, and a good +strong strap.'</p> + +<p>The bell was fastened round the docile animal's neck, and then only was +she suffered to depart, short-hobbled and quietly munching the tall +gray-green grass, and looking as if no thought of wandering could ever +enter her head. None the less was it probable, as her mistress well +knew, that if slip-rail or panel was down she would be at her old home +by morning light.</p> + +<p>The two women sat long over the fire, talking about things new and old, +the baby boy sleeping peacefully the while. Nor did Kate Trevenna find +rest when at length she sought her pillow. An hour before daylight she +dressed and prepared for the road, caught and saddled her horse, which +she fastened to the fence in front of the hut. Taking a cup of tea and a +crust of buttered bread from her warm-hearted hostess, and kissing her +child again and again, she rode away in the darkness ere the first +streak of dawn-light illumined the eastern sky.</p> + +<p>'Sure and she's the fine woman,' soliloquised Mrs. Rooney, as she +listened to the sharp hoof-strokes which rang clearly on the rocky +track; 'she has some great sorrow on her entirely, or she'd never leave +the darlin' babe this way. Anyhow, I'll be the mother he's lost, and +maybe more, till she comes back. The saints be between us and harm,' +with which pious utterance the kind, simple soul betook herself back to +bed.</p> + +<p>No grass grew under the roan mare's feet. Mile after mile she threw +behind her; now striking out freely at half speed, now pulling up for a +down-hill mile or so, over which she went at her fast, clever amble. Ere +the sun was well up Kate was miles away from her resting-place of the +night. A long day lay before her, for the journey would need every hour +and every minute of the time. Long and tedious was the ride to Omeo. But +the good mare had ere now known many a journey when the saddle had not +been off her back between dawn and dark—far into the night, indeed. The +Kate Lawless of old days was tireless as a forest doe. Some change in +nerve and constitution had doubtless taken place since then. None the +less was she still a woman of exceptional energy and courage. And with +bitter wrongs ceaselessly corroding in her heart, and the haunting fear +of a dark and bloody deed uprearing itself before her in that lonely +ride, she defied alike fatigue and womanly weakness with passionate +disdain.</p> + +<p>Mile after mile, over rough track and smooth, as the narrow winding but +still plainly marked bridle-path led, with but rare and momentary halts, +the brave roan mare, with her stretching, gliding pace, at times a +hand-gallop, at times even faster still, swept on. An occasional drink +in a mountain runlet—a half trot up or down the steeper hills—yet all +unflinching, unswerving, the pair held onward their rapid way.</p> + +<p>The day was far spent when the straggling tents and red-streaked +mullock-heaps around the Tin Pot Reef came in view.</p> + +<p>'Here it was,' she thought, 'where I saw poor Lance last. It isn't far +to his claim—near the old dead urabba log. There it is! I'll go over +and have a look.'</p> + +<p>She rode to the spot. The reef was not abandoned. The claim was in work. +The raw-hide bucket was ascending and descending with its +gold-besprinkled load, as so many a time at Ballarat and other places +she had watched it before.</p> + +<p>'Curse the gold,' she said aloud, 'and all that belongs to it! It was a +bad day for the country when the first speck was found.'</p> + +<p>'Halloo! mate,' she said to the miner above ground who was pensively +turning out the broken quartz on the 'paddock' side of the shaft. 'How +are you doing? Ground pretty good?'</p> + +<p>'Might be better—might be worse, missus. Can't complain,' said the man +civilly.</p> + +<p>'Wasn't this Ballarat Harry's claim?' she inquired, with an assumption +of carelessness, though her voice trembled and her cheek paled. 'You +bought him out?'</p> + +<p>'That's so. Sold it to Yorkey Dickson and me. Yorkey's below. We very +nigh had to fight for it, after that. Some of the "Tips" tried to bluff +us out of it. Harry was a-comin' to see us through. Leastways he told a +young man as we sent to him. But he never turned up. That was queer, +wasn't it?'</p> + +<p>'And you never seen him after?'</p> + +<p>'Not a sign of him. Yorkey was for goin' into Omeo after him. Only we +heard he was off for Melbourne. So we didn't bother, and the jumpers +gave us best next day.'</p> + +<p>'It <i>was</i> strange!' she said musingly. 'He was never the man to say he'd +do a thing and then change his mind. No; good or bad, he'd stick to it, +poor Lance! Well, I must be going. So 'long.'</p> + +<p>Slowly the woman rode forward—rode along lost in thought, while the +mare, keeping to the track instinctively, like most bush hackneys, +shuffled along at her fast amble till they came to the Mountain Ash +Flat, which lay between this reef and Omeo.</p> + +<p>Here the mare made as if to follow an old cattle track, at right angles +to the road, of which she possibly had previous knowledge.</p> + +<p>'Won't do, old woman,' said Kate, aroused from her reverie by the slight +change of direction; 'what road's this, I wonder? More tracks than one +along it—one would think it led somewhere.' She stooped low from her +horse, scanning with keen and practised vision the footmarks upon the +pathway. 'God in heaven!' she suddenly exclaimed, 'how did that come +there?'</p> + +<p>In an instant she was off her horse and eagerly grasping at a glittering +speck amid the grass. It was a chain—a gold watch-chain with a curious +coin attached, which she knew well. She had often playfully noticed the +female face upon it. Here it was. She held it to the light. A part was +dimmed and mud-encrusted. It had been trodden into the earth, but since +washed by the rain. And what was the stain, dark red across the gold? +'<i>His</i> chain—Lance Trevanion's chain!' she murmured to herself. 'How +did it come here? Of course he may have dropped it. I'll run these +tracks a bit. It looks as if—as if—but no! surely, it can't—<i>can't +have been</i>. Oh, my God! they never could have <i>murdered him</i>!' As she +muttered to herself, in disjointed and broken sentences, she led her +horse along the narrow track, searching eagerly for the signs of passage +or conflict—tokens that lie clearer than the printed page to the vision +of the Children of the Waste. Yes! there <i>were</i> footmarks, deeply +indented in places, as of men that bore a burden. Here was a fragment of +a check shirt of the pattern the bush labourer mostly wears, there a +scrap of paper; and at a turn in the thicket-bordered path a +long-abandoned shaft came into view. Lower she bent, and lower still, +scanned yet more earnestly the slight mark of impress, invisible save to +eyesight keen as those of the wild tribes which had been wont to roam +these lonely wastes.</p> + +<p>'The grass is longer here,' she whispered to herself in low and ghastly +tones. 'Something's been <i>dragged</i> this way; the edge of the shaft looks +broken down. Oh, my God! poor Lance, poor fellow, is this what you've +come to after all?'</p> + +<p>With stern set lips and eyes dry yet burning with deep unsparing hate, +she secured her horse to a sapling. Then lying flat upon the earth, +leaned over the edge of the dark unfathomed pit, and gazed into its +depths, half dreading what her boding fears had shaped. She called too, +at first brokenly, then loudly on him by name—'but none answered.' The +tree limbs they had cast down had been lately dragged a few paces. The +recent mark did not escape her watchful eye. As she looked heavenward in +her despair she caught sight of a soaring eagle. On an adjacent tree sat +a detachment of crows; she knew too well what their presence portended.</p> + +<p>She drew herself upward, then walked slowly, almost totteringly, toward +the patient mare. But before reaching her she dropped suddenly on her +knees, and raising her clasped hands cried aloud, 'As God Almighty hears +me this day, I swear that I will take neither rest nor food until I've +got the tracks of the murdering dogs that killed the man I loved. Oh, +Lance, Lance! It was a bad day for you when we met first. But I'll have +revenge on your murderers—revenge—blood for blood—cowards and thieves +that they are. They had him crooked, I'll take my oath. And now, +Lawrence Trevenna,' she said, rising from her knees, 'it's you or I for +it—my life against yours to the bitter end,' she continued, in the same +broken, muttering monologue which she had half unconsciously used since +she had commenced to follow the trail of blood. Half mechanically she +loosed the mare and remounted. Then, giving the reins a shake, the +tireless animal dashed off at half speed—a pace from which her rider +never slackened until she reined up, after the darkening eve had dimmed +the outlines of forest and mountain, within sight of the lights of Omeo.</p> + +<p>She had covered nearly seventy miles since daylight. Yet the fast +gliding pace at which she rode up the main street indicated no trace of +fatigue on the part of her hackney. For herself, every nerve seemed at +fullest tension; she felt as if she could have ridden day and night for +a week.</p> + +<p>Attaching the bridle-rein to one of the iron staples with which the +verandah of the chief hostelry was supplied, she went at once to the +principal store, never very far from the hotel in country townships.</p> + +<p>'Mr. Barker in?' she inquired of a tall slouching youth who was gravely +engaged in selling matches to a Chinaman. Economical of speech, like +most of his countrymen, he silently pointed to a stout man in a check +shirt standing before a desk. To him Kate walked.</p> + +<p>'You're Mr. Barker?' He nodded. 'Well, I'm Mrs.</p> + +<p>Trevenna! Has my husband, Lawrence Trevenna, been here lately?'</p> + +<p>'I don't know as I remember,' said the trader cautiously; 'what sort of +looking man is he, missus?'</p> + +<p>'Tall and dark; what most men and all fools of women call handsome. He +<i>said</i> he was going to Monaro, but he's working a "cross," it seems to +me. I shouldn't wonder if he's gone to Melbourne.'</p> + +<p>'There's no one left here for Melbourne, or indeed for anywheres, +lately, except Ballarat Harry,' answered Barker. 'We know him well +enough, and your description fits him to a hair. There's been a young +lady as come from England all the way to marry him. It was quite pretty +to see 'em together.'</p> + +<p>'So he's gone to Melbourne—Ballarat Harry, I mean?' she asked. 'Did he +talk of being back soon?'</p> + +<p>'Well, didn't say much one way or t'other. Rather short and grumpy he +was lately, was Harry. I hardly knowed him, he seemed so different. He'd +had a row with some chap too, and got his face pasted a bit. P'raps that +made him cut up rough like.'</p> + +<p>'Was he badly cut, then,' asked the woman, gazing earnestly in the +trader's face, 'or just a bit of a rally like—half in joke, half in +earnest?'</p> + +<p>'Not it. A regular hard-fought battle. A fight to a finish, if ever +there was one. First time I didn't notice it so much. Next time I saw +he'd had a fearful pounding. But I expect he's all right now.'</p> + +<p>'All right—very likely,' assented the woman absently. 'Can you tell me +where the police barracks are?'</p> + +<p>'There's the place, near that big fallen tree, but there's no one in it. +Tracy went away home to White Rock yesterday. The other chap went away +with the gold escort.'</p> + +<p>'How far to White Rock?'</p> + +<p>'A good thirty mile. There's a straight road; you can't miss it. It +starts south as soon as you cross the bridge over the creek.'</p> + +<p>'All right,' she answered, 'there's no turn off?'</p> + +<p>'No; half-way you come to a shepherd's hut. There's no one living there +now. Keep it on your left, and the track gets plain again.'</p> + +<p>'Thanks; good-night. I must see Tracy on business. I shall be there by +bedtime, I expect.'</p> + +<p>Then fared she forth into the night. No rest, no food for steed or rider +till her errand should be done. The game, bright-eyed mountain mare, as +much refreshed by the halt as a less high-caste steed would have been by +a feed of corn, started away as if just mounted. Kate patted the smooth +arching neck. 'Carry me well to-night, Wallaroo, and you'll never have +another hard day's work as long as you live. Not if I own you, anyhow. +And it'll have to be bad times when we're parted.'</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Away through the darksome close-ranked forest groves—away through the +rocky defiles where the mare's bare hoofs rang from time to time as on +metal—away through sedgy morass and water-laden plain—away through the +long gray tussac grass, which rustled wiry and dry in the hoar-frost. +The stars burned and scintillated in the dark blue cloudless sky. The +low moon rose and stared—redly, weird, and witch-like—upon the +solitary woman threading alone the dim desolate waste. All silently, yet +surely, the slow hours sped. Still wound the forest path, serpent-like, +amid untouched primeval giants. Still clattered the fleet mare's hoofs +along the uneven trail. The great constellation of the southern heavens +had changed the aspect of its cross when a chorus of barking dogs +disclosed the outpost of law and order. A couple of huts, a slab stable, +a small but securely fenced paddock, made up the establishment. She rode +up to the gate of the little garden, and throwing down her reins as she +slipped from the saddle, walked stiffly to the door of the cottage. She +rapped sharply with the end of her riding-whip.</p> + +<p>'Who's there?' a man called out.</p> + +<p>'It's me—Kate Trevenna. Police work. Look alive.'</p> + +<p>'All right, Mrs. Trevenna,' replied a cheery voice. 'Wait till I strike +a light. Here we are. Walk in and sit down.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, it's you, Tracy; I'm glad of that. Look here, is your horse in the +stable and fit?'</p> + +<p>'Fit as a fiddle; what's up?'</p> + +<p>'Hell's up—murder—robbery—the devil's turned out, or something like +it. You'll have to ride, I tell you. Where's Dayrell?'</p> + +<p>'At Warrandorf, fifty miles off.'</p> + +<p>'That's all right,' she answered; 'he'll do it yet, if he's sharp. Can +you start in half an hour and take a letter to him?'</p> + +<p>'Yes; in a quarter. Where's your letter?'</p> + +<p>'You go and saddle your horse. You'll have to ride harder than ever you +did since you were in the force, and I'll tell you what to write. Is +your paddock all right?'</p> + +<p>'Yes.'</p> + +<p>'Then I'll turn my mare out while you're saddling and make the fire up a +bit. I see there's a back log. I must have a cup of tea and a bite +before I go to bed.'</p> + +<p>In ten minutes the trooper was back, whistling to himself and apparently +as cheerful as if a fifty mile night ride over a bad road was an +adventure calculated to raise any man's spirits.</p> + +<p>'Now, Mrs. Trevenna, where's your letter? You'd better turn in with the +wife when I'm gone and you've made yourself a cup of tea. There's bread +and meat in the safe.'</p> + +<p>'How far is it to where Dayrell is? Fifty odd—nearly sixty miles. I can +do it in seven hours—perhaps less. I'll be there soon after daylight, +so as he can start at once.'</p> + +<p>'That will do. Get your pen and a sheet of paper and write down what I +tell you. Are you ready? Begin like this—</p> + +<p>'This is from Mrs. Trevenna—Kate Lawless that was; every word is God's +truth. Lawrence Trevenna and Coke have murdered Lance Trevanion and hid +his body in a shaft near the Tin Pot Reef. I tracked them down, and +to-day can show the place. Trevenna went to Omeo and passed himself off +as Lance to the young lady that came out from England to marry him. He's +off to Melbourne, where they are to be married and start for England, he +taking Lance's name, money, and wife. Ride like hell if you want to +block the villain's game. Only left here a few days. That's all.'</p> + +<p>'By Jove,' quoth the trooper, folding up the paper and putting it +carefully in his pocket, 'that's something like a letter! I knew he was +an infernal scoundrel, but I didn't think he was quite so bad as that. I +do pity you, Mrs. Trevenna; but there's no time, is there? So I'll say +good-bye to my old woman and clear. You chum in with her till +to-morrow. I'll go back with you, and we'll see further about that +shaft.'</p> + +<p>Three minutes afterwards the trooper's horse-hoofs clattered along the +stony track. Kate sat long over the fire, from time to time mechanically +addressing herself to the simple meal which she had made ready. Then she +arose, and slowly, with uncertain steps, betook herself to the +goodwife's inner chamber.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Thus, and by such means, was Lawrence Trevenna tracked—followed up—run +to earth. From what trivial neglect and want of caution in 'blinding his +trail' had the sleuthhounds of the law been loosed upon his flying +steps; and from what apparently savoured of the merest chance had the +avenger of blood been enabled to seize him in the hour of his triumph. +Had but the ceremony been completed, had but the ship which sailed for +Callao on the next day taken 'Mr. and Mrs. Johnson' among her +passengers, what woe, limitless and irrevocable, would have been +wrought! In that day no ocean telegraph was available to intercept the +criminal, to ensure his arrest ere his foot touched the alien shore. Had +but the trooper at White Rock been 'absent on duty,' had Dayrell been +from home when he arrived at Warrandorf, the precious, indispensable +time would have been lost—that day—that night during which a desperate +trooper, careless of life and limb, rode on relays of horses to +Melbourne, and, haggard, sleepless, travel-worn, but cool and resolute +as ever, arrived before the fatal vow was sworn.</p> + +<p>Little remains to be told. The once brave, stalwart, gladsome +presentment of him who was Lance Trevanion was recovered from the shaft +and identified beyond dispute. For his murder, as well as for that of +the gold-buyer Gray, Trevenna, Coke, and a confederate named Fogarty +were tried. All difficulties of legal proof and identification were +removed by the consistent conduct of Mr. Caleb Coke. True to his +unvarying principles, he turned Queen's evidence. His life was spared. +Trevenna and Fogarty were hanged. Unaffected by the curses of his +comrades in crime and the execrations of the crowd, Coke retired to +Mount Gibbo, and there lived out to extreme old age an unblest and +solitary life. His secrets died with him, and were only told <i>sub +sigillo confessionis</i>.</p> + +<p>He retained possession of the hut under Mount Gibbo to the last. But +the wandering bush tramp turned aside with a curse when he marked the +sinister elder standing at his door, or sitting on the rude bank +surrounded by his dogs. It was popularly asserted that he abstained from +the use of ardent spirits, being fearful of betraying the crimes with +the memory of which his soul was laden. But the stock-riders averred +that more than once, when passing the lonely hut after midnight, they +had heard shouts and curses, mingled with screams and laughter even more +dreadful. These were popularly believed to proceed from the Enemy of +Mankind, or some one of his lieutenants engaged in spending the evening +with his sworn liegeman, Caleb Coke.</p> + +<p>After such brief interval as sufficed for her recovery from the shock +her feelings had sustained, Estelle Chaloner naturally decided to return +to England. The recurring horror with which she recalled her +providential escape from a fate too dreadful to conceive needed the +anodyne of complete change of surroundings, of which a long voyage only +could supply the requisite conditions. She therefore, to the unaffected +grief of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon, caused her passage to be taken in the good +ship <i>Candia</i>, in which the luxurious nature of her cabin fittings, duly +provided by Mr. Vernon, caused much wonder and admiration among the +other passengers. Mr. Charles Stirling, who had been so considerate as +to delay his voyage, 'went home' by the same boat. It did not surprise +her Australian friends to hear that he made such use of the exceptional +opportunities enjoyed by a fellow-passenger, that Miss Chaloner +consented to merge her future existence in that of Mr. Charles Stirling. +This arrangement was completed at St. George's, Hanover Square, after +the shortest interval allowed for the trousseau of a young lady of +position. Mrs. Vernon's remark was something to the effect, that though +she had striven to be true to her plighted faith, she really believed +that Estelle liked Charlie Stirling better all the time.</p> + +<p>Number Six, Growlers', was worked out in due course, but not before Jack +Polwarth found himself one of the richest men 'on Ballarat,' as he would +have phrased it. This was what the world calls the height of good +fortune. But there was an even rarer possession which John Polwarth and +his good wife had been gifted with, even before the advent of the gold +so plentifully showered upon them. This was such a proportion of sense +and shrewdness as sudden wealth and its destructive flatteries had no +power to assail.</p> + +<p>In accordance with Mrs. Polwarth's aspiration, Tottie had been sent to +one of the best ladies' schools in Melbourne. Here she had received +careful instruction, and enjoyed the privilege of association with girls +of the higher colonial families. Acknowledged to be 'sweetly pretty' in +her maiden prime, as well as amiable, popular, and an undoubted heiress, +no difficulties were placed in the way of her invitation to vice-regal +entertainments. Her father's mansion in St. Kilda was noted for its +princely yet unostentatious hospitality. Small wonder then that +Tottie—beautiful, cultured, a lady in mind and manner, such as her +mother had fondly hoped to behold her, and withal credited with 'pots of +money'—should marry a distinguished globe-trotter, a man of rank and +ancient birth, be presented to her gracious Majesty on her arrival in +England, and gain golden opinions in every sense of the word.</p> + +<p>The after-life of Tessie Lawless was that of the woman who, partly from +a natural tendency to self-sacrifice, partly from despair and hopeless +sorrow, remained in the hospital to which she had devoted her life. Her +course henceforth was the onward path of duty. During an epidemic of +fever several of the nurses fell victims to their labours. A modest +inscription in the Melbourne cemetery bears testimony to the anxious +care and continued watchfulness of Nurse Esther Lawless, the best loved +and most deeply respected of all the hospital attendants.</p> + +<p>Charles Stirling returned to Australia, but only to settle his affairs, +and so that he might take up his abode in England 'for good.' His wife, +naturally, could never be induced to return to Australia, even for a +short sojourn. In spite of occasional twinges of regret which assail him +when the continued absence of the northern sun tends to lower his +spirits and suggest the 'golden summer eves' of his native land, Charlie +Stirling finds the old country very fairly habitable. His wife's +fortune, added to his own, provides an extremely comfortable, not to say +luxurious existence, as well as an assured provision for the olive +branches. The Honourable Mrs. Delamere (<i>née</i> Polwarth) and her +husband—who will be a peer some day—are frequent and welcome guests. +Mrs. Stirling takes great pride in introducing her beautiful Australian +friend, whose fairy godmother, while endowing her with fortune and +fashion, added the rarer gifts of unselfish kindliness.</p> + +<p>The estate and revenues of Wychwood went to the younger son—a +devolution which afforded to all the country people unfeigned +satisfaction, as removing the curse under which they devoutly believed +the family to exist.</p> + +<p>One mystery was unravelled, in the closer search made after his +succession among the Squire's papers. In a secret receptacle was +discovered a collection of letters which proved incontestably that +Lawrence Trevenna was his natural son, born two years before his +marriage to the mother of Lance Trevanion. The girl's father was a +disreputable horse-and-turf-tout and betting man in a small way in a +distant county; the girl herself the worthy offspring of such a +father—handsome, bold, unprincipled. The Squire discovered that a +deliberate plot had been laid for him. Hence his previous inexplicable +hatred to all and every form of horse-racing and the gambling therewith +concomitant. Attempts at blackmail were referred to as having been +resisted by legal advice, but finally compromised by the payment of a +comparatively large sum—only a part of which had helped to provide +passage-money and outfit for Lawrence Trevenna. Some fragmentary addenda +to the faded writing and curiously worded letters told of deep and +bitter regret—even of repentance. But the sin had been sinned. The +guilt lightly incurred in the riot of youthful passion had grown dark +and menacing of aspect with the slow gathering years. And 'the vengeance +due of all our wrongs' had haltingly, but with sleuth-hound deadliness, +tracked down his happiness and shortened the wrongdoer's life. But for +the fatal resemblance, the mysterious heritage of unbridled passion +bequeathed to the Ishmaelite offspring, the heir of his ancient house +had doubtless escaped injustice, imprisonment, and death. And now, +'Conrad, Lara, Ezzelia are gone.' A youthful scion—fair, blue-eyed, +mirthful—makes merry in the old halls of his race. But of the wandering +heir—he who defiantly quitted home, and friends, and native land in +search of gold; who vowed to conquer fortune with the aid of the strong +arm and tameless heart; to return successful, rich, honoured of all men; +to claim his bride in his own ancient hall—of him the oaks in the +Druids' Grove of Wychwood murmur to the midnight stars, 'Nevermore.'</p> + + +<h4>THE END</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="POPULAR_NOVELS_BY_THE_SAME_AUTHOR" id="POPULAR_NOVELS_BY_THE_SAME_AUTHOR"></a>POPULAR NOVELS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h2> + + +<p><i>ROBBERY UNDER ARMS.</i></p> + +<p>A STORY OF LIFE AND ADVENTURE IN THE BUSH AND IN THE GOLD-FIELDS OF +AUSTRALIA.</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>GUARDIAN</i>—"A singularly spirited and stirring tale of +Australian life, chiefly in the remoter settlements.... +Altogether it is a capital story, full of wild adventure and +startling incidents, and told with a genuine simplicity and +quiet appearance of truth, as if the writer were really drawing +upon his memory rather than his imagination."</p> + +<p><i>SPECTATOR</i>—"We have nothing but praise for this story. Of +adventure of the most stirring kind there is, as we have said, +abundance. But there is more than this. The characters are +drawn with great skill. Every one of the gang of bushrangers is +strongly individualised. A book of no common literary force."</p></blockquote> + + +<p><i>THE MINER'S RIGHT.</i></p> + +<p>A TALE OF THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD-FIELDS.</p> + +<blockquote><p><i>ATHENÆUM</i>—"The picture is unquestionably interesting, thanks +to the very detail and fidelity which tend to qualify its +attractiveness for those who like excitement and incident +before anything else."</p> + +<p><i>WORLD</i>—"Full of good passages, passages abounding in +vivacity, in the colour and play of life."</p></blockquote> + + +<p><i>THE SQUATTER'S DREAM.</i></p> + +<blockquote><p><i>SATURDAY REVIEW</i>—"It is not often that stories of colonial +life are so interesting as Mr. Boldrewood's <i>Squatter's Dream</i>. +There is enough story in the book to give connected interest to +the various incidents, and these are all told with considerable +spirit, and at times picturesqueness."</p> + +<p><i>FIELD</i>—"The details are filled in by a hand evidently well +conversant with his subject, and everything is <i>ben trovato</i>, +if not actually true. A perusal of these cheerfully-written +pages will probably give a better idea of realities of +Australian life than could be obtained from many more +pretentious works."</p></blockquote> + + +<p><i>A SYDNEY-SIDE SAXON.</i></p> + +<blockquote><p><i>GLASGOW HERALD</i>—"The interest never flags, and altogether <i>A +Sydney-Side Saxon</i> is a really refreshing book."</p> + +<p><i>ANTI-JACOBIN</i>—"Thoroughly well worth reading.... A clever +book, admirably written.... Brisk in incident, truthful and +lifelike in character.... Beyond and above all it has that +stimulating hygienic quality, that cheerful, unconscious +healthfulness, which makes a story like <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> or +<i>The Vicar of Wakefield</i> so unspeakably refreshing after a +course of even good contemporary fiction."</p></blockquote> + + +<p><i>A COLONIAL REFORMER.</i></p> + +<blockquote><p><i>GLASGOW HERALD</i>—"One of the most interesting books about +Australia we have ever read."</p> + +<p><i>SATURDAY REVIEW</i>—"Mr. Boldrewood can tell what he knows with +great point and vigour, and there is no better reading than the +adventurous parts of his books."</p></blockquote> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nevermore, by Rolf Boldrewood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVERMORE *** + +***** This file should be named 34240-h.htm or 34240-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/4/34240/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Nevermore + +Author: Rolf Boldrewood + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [EBook #34240] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVERMORE *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + NEVERMORE + + BY ROLF BOLDREWOOD + +AUTHOR OF 'ROBBERY UNDER ARMS,' 'THE SQUATTER'S DREAM,' 'THE MINER'S +RIGHT,' ETC. + + London + MACMILLAN AND CO. + AND NEW YORK + 1892 + + _All rights reserved_ + + _First Edition 1892 + Second Edition July and December 1892_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +'Then, by Heaven! I'll leave the country. I won't stop here to be +bullied for doing what scores of other fellows have done and nothing +thought about it. It's unjust, it's intolerable--' + +Thus spoke impetuous Youth. + +'I should say something would depend upon the family tradition of the +"other fellows" to whom you refer. In ours gambling debts and shady +transactions with turf-robbers happen to be forbidden luxuries.' + +Thus spoke philosophic Age, calm, cynical, unsparing. + +No power of divination was needed to decide that the speakers were +father and son; no prophet to discover, on one side, sullen defiance +following a course of reckless folly; on the other, wounded family pride +and long-nursed consuming wrath. + +As the rebellious son stood up and faced his sire, it was curious to +mark the similarity of the inherited lineaments brought out more clearly +in his moments of rage and defiance. + +Both men were strong and sinewy, dark in complexion, and bearing the +ineffaceable impress of gentle nurture, leisure, and assured position. +The younger man was the taller, and of a frame which, when fully +developed, promised unusual strength and activity. More often than the +converse, does it obtain that the son, in outward appearance or mental +constitution, reproduces his mother's attributes or those of her male +relatives; the daughter, in complemental ratio, inheriting the paternal +traits. But in this case Nature had strongly adhered to the +old-established formula 'like father like son,' for whoso looked on +Mervyn Trevanion, of Wychwood--the head of one of the oldest families in +Cornwall--could not doubt for one moment that Launcelot Trevanion was +his son. + +If all other features had been amissing or impaired, the eyes alone, +which contributed the most striking and peculiar features in both faces, +would have been sufficient to establish the relationship, not only +because they were, in both faces, identical in colour and form, but +because of the strange, almost unnatural lustre which glowed in them in +that moment of excitement; neither large nor especially bright, they +were scarcely remarkable under ordinary circumstances--of the darkest +gray in colour and deeply-set under thick and overhanging eyebrows. A +stranger might well overlook them, but, when turned suddenly in anger or +surprise, a steady searching light commenced to glow in them which was +discomposing, if not alarming. Even in a quick glance such as mere +badinage might provoke, they were strange and weird of regard. Lighted +up by the deeper passions, those who had been in the position to witness +their effect spoke of it as unearthly and, in a sense, appalling. + +In the family portraits, which for centuries had adorned the walls of +the long gallery in Wychwood, the same feature could be distinctly +traced. There was a legend, indeed, of the 'wicked' squire--one of the +hard-drinking, duelling, dicing, dare-devils of the second Charles' +day--who had so terrified his young wife--a gentle girl whose wealth had +been the fatal attraction in the alliance--that she had fallen down +before him in a fit, and never afterwards recovered health or reason. + +All through Cornwall and the neighbouring counties they were known as +the 'Trevanion eyes.' There was a hint of demoniacal possession in the +first ancestor, who had brought them into the family from abroad, and a +legendary compact with the Enemy of mankind, from whom the fiendish +glare had been derived. Since the birth of the first Mervyn, 'the wicked +squire,' the eldest son had inherited the same peculiar regard as +regularly as to him had come the estate and most enviable rent-roll. + +A saying had long been current among the county people that when the +lands went to a younger son, this remarkable and, as they held, unlucky +feature would be removed from the family of Trevanion as suddenly as it +had entered it. But up to this time, no break in the succession, _de +male en male_, had ever occurred. + +Launcelot Trevanion (mostly called Lance) was the eldest son +of this ancient house. There were two younger boys--Arthur and +Penrhyn--respectively fourteen and twelve years old; but a cousin, +early orphaned, was the only girl in that silent and gloomy hall. Her +beauty--she was the fairest flower of a race of which the women were +proverbially lovely--irradiated Wychwood Hall, while her enforced gaiety +charmed the saturnine Sir Mervyn out of many a fit of his habitual +gloom. With the neighbours, the villagers, the friends of the house, she +enjoyed a popularity as universal as unaffected, and not unfrequently +had the remark been made by individuals of all these sections of +provincial society, that Estelle Chaloner had, in a measure, thrown +herself away, as the phrase runs, by betrothing herself to her wild +cousin Lance; that she was too bright and bonnie a creature to become +the mate of any Trevanion of Wychwood--hard, unyielding, and, in some +sense, ill-fated as they had all been since the days of the first Sir +Launcelot, no one knew how many centuries ago. + +Certainly they had not been a fortunate or a prosperous family. +Possessed originally of immense estates, and boasting an ancestry and +military suzerainte--long anterior to the Conquest--undeniably brave, +chivalrous, and daring to the point of desperation, they had uniformly +espoused the wrong side in every important conflict. They had suffered +from attainder, they had regained their lands only to lose them again. +Bit by bit they had lost one fair manor after another, until, at last, +Wychwood Hall and manor, a fine but heavily-mortgaged estate, were all +that remained out of the vast dominion which stretched, according to +time-worn charters still in the muniment room of the Hall, from Tintagel +to the Devonshire border. + +Estelle Chaloner, in whose veins ran several strains of Trevanion blood, +had a character curiously compounded of the qualities of both families; +outwardly resembling the Chaloners, who were a fair, blue-eyed race, +more conspicuous for the grace and charm of social life than for the +sterner traits, she possessed, unsuspectedly, a large infusion of the +ancestral Trevanion nature. + +In early youth those strongest tendencies and proclivities which come by +inheritance are chiefly latent. Like the seedlings of a tropical forest +they remain for years almost hidden by undergrowth. But when successive +summers have stirred sap and rind, the deeply-rooted scions commence to +assert themselves, towering over, and eventually, it may be, dwarfing +the plants of earlier maturity. + +Estelle and her cousin Lance had been playmates and friends since +earliest infancy. There were but three years between them; like twins +they had grown up with a curious similarity of thought and feeling, +though of strongly contrasted temperaments. Then the divergent stage was +reached when the girl begins to tread the path which leads to the goal +of womanhood, when the boy essays the freedom of speech and act which +mould the future man. + +She was so gentle, he so haughty, yet were they alike in fearlessness, +in love of dogs and horses, in passionate attachment to field-sports and +the teachings of animated nature. Wanderers in the summer woods, fishing +in the brook, climbing the old tower of the ruined church, what an +Eden-like season of unstinted freedom was that of their early youth! It +was a sorrowful day for both when Lance was sent to a public school and +Estelle was relegated to a prim, high-salaried governess who stigmatised +nearly all out-door exercise as unladylike, and forbade field-sports as +being destructive to the hope of mental progress. + +But though separated for the greater part of the year, there were still +the precious vacation intervals when the cousins met and wandered in +untrammelled freedom. Thus they rode and rambled, drove the young horses +in the mail-phaeton to Truro--the market town--fished and hunted, shot +and ferreted, she walking with the guns, none caring to make them +afraid. + +It had chanced in the year preceding Lance's unlucky quarrel with his +father that they told each other of the love which had grown up with +their lives, and which was to make a portion of them for evermore. + +And now this rupture between the stern father and the stubborn son +threatened the wreck of her young life's happiness. She had repeatedly +warned Lance of the imprudence of his conduct, and laid before him the +danger which he was too headstrong and reckless to forecast for himself; +had long since reminded him that of all youthful follies and outbreaks, +for some unexplained reason, his father was especially intolerant of +those connected with the turf. The very mention of a racecourse seemed +sufficient to arouse a paroxysm of rage. Why he was thus affected by the +concomitants of a popular sport which country gentlemen, as a rule, +regard in the light of a pardonable relaxation, was not known to any of +his household. Sir Mervyn was not so strait-laced in other matters as to +make it incumbent upon him to frown down horse-racing for the sake of +consistency. Still the fact remained. Any hint of race-meetings by +Lance was viewed with the utmost disfavour. No animal suspected of a +turn of speed was ever permitted lodgings in the Wychwood stables, +spacious as they were. And now the sudden bringing to light of Lance's +serious loss of money by bets at a recent county meeting, with moreover +a proved part-ownership of the unsuccessful quadruped, had raised to +white heat his sire's slow gathering, yet slower subsiding anger. Thus +it came to pass that after one other stormy interview in which the elder +man had heaped reproaches without stint upon the younger, the son had +declared his resolution of 'quitting England, and taking his chance of a +livelihood in some country where he would at least be free from the +galling interference of an unreasonably severe father, who had never +loved him, and who refused him the ordinary indulgence of his youth and +station.' + +'In the extremely improbable event of your quitting a comfortable home +for a life of labour and privation,' the elder man said slowly and +deliberately, 'I beg you distinctly to understand that I shall make you +no allowance, nor even suffer your cousin to do so, should she be weak +enough to wish it, and you sufficiently mean to accept it. Sink or swim +by your own efforts. _I_ shall never hold out a hand to save you.' + +Then the son gazed at the sire, looking him full and steadfastly in the +face for some seconds before he answered. Had there been a painter to +witness the strange and unnatural scene, he might have noted that the +light which blazed in the old man's eyes shot forth at times an almost +lurid gleam, as from a hidden fire, while the youth's regard was +scarcely less fell in its intensity. + +'It is possible, even probable,' he said, 'that we may never meet again +on earth. You have been hard and cruel to me, but I am not wholly +unmindful of our relationship. Careless and extravagant I may have +been--neither worse nor better than hundreds of men of my age and +breeding, and may well have angered you. I had resolved, partly +persuaded by Estelle, to humble myself and ask your pardon. That state +of mind has passed--passed for ever. I shall leave Wychwood to-morrow, +and if anything happens to me in Australia, where I am going, remember +this--if evil comes to me, on your head be it--with my last words, in my +dying hour, I shall curse and renounce you, as I do now.' + +As the boy spoke the last dreadful words, the older man, transported +almost beyond himself, made as though he could have advanced and struck +him. But with a strong effort he restrained himself. + +The younger never relaxed the intensity of his gaze, but with a slow and +measured movement approached the door, then halting for a moment +said--'Enjoy your triumph to the uttermost--think of me homeless and a +wanderer--if it pleases you. But as repentant or forgiving, +never--neither in this world nor the next.' + +Before the last words were concluded, Sir Mervyn turned his face with +studied indifference to the window, and gazed upon the park, over which +the last rays of the autumnal sun cast a crimson radiance. For a few +moments only the solar beams glowed above the horizon; the landscape +with strange suddenness assumed a pale, even sombre tone. A faint chill +wind rustled the leaves of the great lime-tree, which stood on the edge +of the lawn, and caused a few of the leaves to fall. When the squire +looked around, Launcelot Trevanion was gone. He turned again to the +window; mechanically his eye ranged over the lovely landscape, the +far-stretching champaign of the park--one of the largest in the county, +the winding river, the blue hills, the distant sea. + +'What a madman the boy is,' he groaned out, to leave all this for a few +hot words--and I too! Who is the wiser? I wonder. Will he be mad enough +to keep his word? He is a stubborn colt--a true descendant of old +Launcelot the wizard. If he fails to gather gold, as these fools expect, +a voyage and a year's experience of what poverty and a rough life mean +will be no bad teaching.' + +'For what is anger but a wild beast?' quotes the humorist How many a man +has, to his cost, been assured of this fact by personal experience. A +wild beast truly, which tears and rends those whom nature itself +fashions to be cherished. + +With most men, reason resumes her sway, after a temporary dethronement, +when regret, even remorse, appears on the scene. The consequences of the +violence of act or speech into which the choleric man may have been +hurried, stalk solemnly across the mental stage. Were but recantation, +atonement, possible, forgiveness would be gladly sued for. But in how +many instances is it too late? The sin is sinned. The penalty must be +paid. Pride, dumb and unbending, refuses to acknowledge wrong-doing, +and thus hearts are rent, friends divided, life-long misery and ruin +ensured, oftentimes by the act of those who, in a different position, +would have yielded up life itself in defence of the victim of an angry +mood. + +It was not long before the inhabitants of Truro, and, indeed, the +country generally, were fully aware that there had been a violent +quarrel between Sir Mervyn and his eldest son. + +'The family temper again,' said the village wiseacres, as they smoked +their pipes at night at the 'King Arthur,' 'the squire and the young +master are a dashed sight too near alike to get on peaceably together. +But they'll make it up again, the quality makes up everything nowadays.' + +'Blamed if I know,' answered Mark Hardred, the gamekeeper of Wychwood, +who, though not a regular attendant at the 'King Arthur,' thought it +good policy to put in an appearance there now and then, 'there's a many +of 'em like our people, just as dogged and worse, I'm feared Mr. Lance +won't come back in a hurry, more's the pity.' + +'He's a free-handed young chap as ever I see,' quoth the village +rough-rider, 'it's a pity the old squire don't take a bit slacker on the +curb rein, as to the matter of a bet now and then, all youngsters as has +any spirit in 'em tries their luck on the turf. But he'll come back +surely, surely.' + +'He said straight out to the squire as he'd be off to Australia, where +the goldfields has broke out so 'nation rich, along o' the papers, and +it's my opinion to Australia he'll go,' replied the keeper. 'I never +knew him go back of his word. He's main obstinate.' + +'I can't abear folks as is obstinate,' here interpolated the village +wheelwright, a red-faced solemn personage of unmistakable Saxon solidity +of face and figure. 'I feel most as if I could kill 'em. I'd a larruped +it out of him if I'd been the vather of un, same as I do my Mat and +Mark.' + +This produced a general laugh, as the speaker was well known to be the +most obstinate man in the parish, and his twin boys, Matthew and Mark, +inheriting the paternal characteristic in perfection, in spite of their +father's corrections, which were unremitting, were a true pair of wolf +cubs, taking their unmerciful punishment mutely and showing scant signs +of improvement. + +'I must be agoing,' said the keeper, putting on his fur cap. 'I feel +that sorry for Mr. Lance that I'd make bold to speak to the squire +myself if he was like other people. But it'd be as much as my place was +worth. It'll be poor Miss 'Stelle that the grief will fall on. +Good-night all.' And the sturdy, resolute keeper, whose office had +succeeded from father to son for generations at Wychwood, tramped out +into the night. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +It looks at times, it must be confessed, as if, the individual once +embarked upon a course involving the happiness of a lifetime, an unseen +influence hurries on events as though the fabled Fates were weaving the +web of doom. Hardly had Lance thrown himself upon a horse and galloped +over to Truro, directing, in a hasty note left in his room, that his +personal effects should be forwarded to an address, than the first paper +he took up contained an announcement which fitted exactly with his +humour. It ran as follows-- + +'Steam to Australia.--For Melbourne and the Goldfields. The clipper +ship, _Red Jacket_, three thousand tons register, Forbes, Commander, +will have quick dispatch. Apply to Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Co.' + +The die was cast. He saw himself speeding over the ocean on his way to +the wild and wondrous land of gold, absolutely uncontrolled henceforth +and free as air to follow his inclinations. There was intoxication in +the very thought. For years to come he would not be subject to the +trammels of civilisation. The trackless wilds, the rude, even savage +society of a new, half-discovered country had no terrors for him. The +wilder elements in the blood of the Trevanions seemed to have +precipitated themselves in the person of this their descendant; to have +rendered imperative a departure in some direction, no matter what, from +the conventional region with its galling limitations and absurd edicts. +Such are the problems of heredity. Despite of some natural regret that +so serious a quarrel with his father, and the head of the family, should +have been the proximate cause of his exile, the mere anticipation of a +wholly free and unfettered life in a new land filled him with joy. Then +arose visions such as course through the brain of ardent, inexperienced +youth; of wondrous wealth acquired by lucky speculation or the discovery +of a cavern filled with gold, after the manner of the _Arabian Nights_. +With what feelings of triumph would he _then_ return to his native land, +having in all respects given the lie to the predictions of his foes and +calumniators, receiving with complacent pride the congratulations of his +father, in that hour softened and converted by the reputation of his +distinguished son. His name, once spoken with bated breath, now a +by-word for success, would be in all men's mouths. + +'Then! yes! then, darling Estelle!' had he said to his cousin in their +last conversation, when she had vainly tried to shake his determination +to leave England--'then I shall pay off the mortgage on the old estate; +not that it matters much for one generation, I suppose, but I should +like to be able to give a cheque for it to old Centall. Then I would buy +the St. Austel lands, which will be pretty sure to be in the market by +that time. Every one knows the estate is eaten up with interest as it +is, and at the rate the Tredegars are living there must be an end in a +few years. After that it will be about time to look out for a wife. Now +whom would you like to recommend? Why, how grave you look!' + +'Dreams and visions, Lance. Vain hopes, false and unreal,' said the +girl. 'I see no prospect of success, much less of fairytale treasures. +Think of all the adventurers who have left this very Duchy of Cornwall +in old days or later. How few have ever returned!--fewer still who were +not poorer than they left! It seems to me madness that you should go at +all.' + +'You are no true Englishwoman, Estelle, if you have not a spice of +adventure in you,' he replied. 'Lovers and kinsfolk have always been +sped on the path of glory before now. How else would the Indies have +been gained or the new world discovered, if all hearts had been as faint +as yours?' + +'It is not that,' said the girl sadly, and laying her head wearily upon +his broad breast, as she threw her arms around his neck. 'It is not +that! I could send you away, almost rejoicing, in a good cause, were it +to fight the Queen's battles, for the glory of our native land. But my +heart sinks within me when I think of your going away with a father's +curse upon your head, with a deep quarrel about a light matter on your +mind, and for object and pursuit, only to seek for gold among an ignoble +crowd of rude adventurers.' + +'Gold!' said the young man, laughing lightly; 'and what else is every +one striving for in these latter days? Gold means perfect independence. +The realisation of dreams of fairyland--the respect of the herd--the +friendship of the powerful--the love of the lovely! Why decry gold, +cousin mine? But, except for the adventure--the wild freedom--the +strangeness and danger of a new world, few care so little for it as +Lance Trevanion. And that you well know.' + +'I know, my darling; I know. If it be so, why not stay at home? My +uncle, I am sure, is sorry for having been so hasty. He will be glad of +any chance to tell you so. A few years and your position as heir and +eldest son must be acknowledged. Why leave these proved and settled +privileges, and tempt dangers of sea, and storm, and an unknown land?' + +'Too late! it is too late!' he said gloomily. 'I am a changed man. I can +neither forget nor forgive his insults, my father though he be; and I +feel as if I was irresistibly driven to take the voyage--to see this new +country--to share in this great gold adventure. I could not draw back +now.' + +'And I feel, day by day, more strongly and vividly,' said the girl, +'that it will be your doom to go forth from us and return no more. It +seems like a prophetic instinct in me. I feel it in every fibre of my +being. But I will come to you, if you do not come to us. Whatever may +happen, I will never rest satisfied till I have seen you in your new +home. So, if you do not return in five years, you know what you have to +expect But you will return, will you not?' And again she clasped her +arms around him, sobbing as if her heart would break. + +Estelle Chaloner was a proud girl, one of those reserved yet passionate +natures which habitually conceal their deeper feelings, as if jealous of +exhibiting the sacred recesses of their hearts to the careless or +irreverent. Ice on the surface, they resemble those regions which in +springtime need but the touch of that great enchanter's wand to cause +the living streams to flow, to produce the magically sudden apparition +of verdure and fragrant flowerets. + +'Darling Estelle! in five years I will come back,' he said, 'if I am +alive. The time will soon pass. Think how much I shall have to talk +about, and what wonders I shall have seen. You will hardly know me +again.' + +The girl sighed deeply, then raised her head, and gazing steadfastly at +her lover, as the tears streamed unheededly adown her face, continued +her pleading appeal without noticing his jesting speech-- + +'You will promise me then, will you not, solemnly and faithfully, you +will swear by King Arthur's sword--our family vow--that on next +Christmas five years, whatever betide, you will return?' + +'Well,' he answered, slowly and heedfully, 'if nothing less will do, I +suppose I shall have done something in that time or failed utterly and +hopelessly. So I will promise. It wants nearly three months to +Christmas, and if I do not turn up in December 1857, you may make sure +that I am either dead or a captive among the Indians. I suppose there +are Indians there. "By Arthur's sword!"' and here he crossed his hands, +after the old Cornish fashion. + +'I don't believe there are Indians,' she said. 'If you would read a +little more, you naughty boy, you would know. Of course, there are +savages of some sort, the worst being white. But we must exchange +tokens, like lovers--and we are true lovers, are we not?' Here she +seemed as if her tears would flow afresh, but controlled herself with a +strong effort. Then she loosened a slender gold chain from her neck, to +which was attached a coin of foreign appearance, traced with strange +characters, and having upon it a wondrous woman's face, beauteous, but +of an antique cast. + +'Here,' she said, 'is my precious Egyptian princess. The man who gave it +to me said it was possessed of talismanic virtues, that it secured +safety and success to the wearer as long as he never permitted it to be +taken from him by force or fraud. If he did, the charm was broken. You +are the only person in the whole world to whom I would give it.' + +'I thought you were too wise,' he said, taking the chain in his hand +gently, nevertheless, 'to confess such superstition. But I will take it +if it cheers you, darling Estelle, and here I swear that it shall be my +companion night and day until we meet again. Here is a companion token, +you have often asked for it before.' + +'You are not going to give me the Chaloner ring, are you, Lance? How +happy it would have made me one little month ago,' she cried. 'I must +have it altered to fit my finger, I suppose? It can be altered back when +you return.' + +'It is yours from this moment, and for ever,' said he. 'May it bring you +the good fortune it has failed to give me, so far. On a woman's hand the +charm may be broken. It has my mother's name inside, and, see,' here he +touched a spring, disclosing a tiny recess under the principal stone, +which was a diamond of great value, 'take your scissors and cut off a +lock of my hair, and here is a place to put it. I may be gray when we +meet again. Isn't it a queer ring?' + +It was indeed an uncommon jewel. It had been his mother's, and by her +had been inherited from the uncle who had first made his own and the +family's fortunes by a long residence in India. He had received it from +a Rajah in those old days when jewels and gifts passed freely between +the servants of the Great East India Company and the native princes. A +large ruby and an emerald of equal size flanked the centre jewel. The +setting was peculiar, massive, but artfully disguised by the exquisite +delicacy of the workmanship. The great beauty and value of the jewel +would have made it noticeable and prized in any society in which the +wearer might have moved. + +'You have comforted me,' she said, smiling through her tears, and again +taking his head in her hands and pressing her lips again and again to +his brow and face. 'I feel now as if I had some guarantee that I should +look on your dear face again. And mind, if you do not return in five +years and three months I shall come to Australia to search for you.' + +Thus they parted. He to face the new world of the strange and the +unfamiliar--light of heart and ready of hand, as is the wont of untried +youth; she to mourn his absence in secret, and to brood over her sorrow, +as is ever the part of the steadfast heart of loving woman. The +separation from his cousin Estelle was his sole cause of regret on +leaving England. Yet that transient grief soon passed away amidst the +turmoil and excitement of which he found himself a part in his capacity +of six-hundredth-and-odd passenger on board the crowded ocean-going +clipper. A strange enough experience to the home-bred youth, who, save +on yachting cruises, had never dared the deep. Heterogeneous and +strangely assorted was the crowd of the passengers--adventurers of every +grade, feverishly anxious to reach the land of gold, chiefly +inexperienced, but all sanguine of acquiring the facile fortunes which +they had persuaded themselves the new world of the South had in store +for them. Young men were there--mere boys, like himself--for whom the +trials of toil, danger, and privation were all to come. Hitherto +unrealised abstractions. + +Others, again, whose grizzled beards showed them as men who had fronted +foes in the battle of life, and were ready for another campaign. Many +had never left England, and, in despite of occasional boasting, were +heavy-hearted at the thought of the homes which they had left and might +never see more. Nor was the emigration entirely masculine-- + + 'There was woman's fearless eye + Lit by her deep love's truth, + There was manhood's brow serenely high-- + And the fiery heart of youth.' + +A half-expressed hope that the company in the second cabin would be less +conventional and more amusing than in the first, joined to the necessity +for economising his slender funds, had decided Lance Trevanion upon +shipping as a second-class passenger. Certain to be compelled to lead a +rough life upon his arrival in Australia, surely, he argued, the sooner +he commenced to learn the way to do so the better. Nor would his +association with refined women and well-bred men in the first cabin aid +him in his search for gold--necessarily with rough, half-brigand +comrades. Thus, partly as the outcome of the defiant spirit in which he +was leaving home and native land, he booked himself as a second-class +passenger. + +Doubtless, in the curiously mingled crowd of passengers who thronged the +first saloon of the _Red Jacket_ in that fateful year of 1851, there +were many remarkable persons, whose lives had included a far greater +number of strange adventures than most modern novels. But for a wild and +fanciful commingling of all sorts and conditions of men--from every +clime, of every grade, degree, and shade of character, the second-class +passengers bore off the palm. Since the untimely collapse of the +architects of the Tower of Babel, there could seldom have been so +diverse and bizarre a collection of humanity. + +The _Red Jacket_, under the stern rule of Malcolm Forbes, from whose +fiat there was no appeal, the most daring and successful maker of quick +passages that the records of the Company knew, had steamed off at the +hour appointed. Started when far from ready, however, if the masses of +deck lumber which needed storage were to be taken into account. The +weather, bad from the commencement, became worse in the Bay of Biscay, +where raged a perfect hurricane--a storm, or rather a succession of +storms, under the fierce breath of which the _Red Jacket_ lay-to for +forty-eight hours at a stretch, afflicting the inexperienced voyagers +with the strongly impressed notion that their voyage would not be quite +so long as they expected. But the good ship held her own gallantly; +finally ploughed her way through the mountainous billows of the Bay of +Storms into lower latitudes. Milder airs and smoother seas cheered the +depressed and pallid passengers. An increasing number walked the deck or +sat in seats provided for them day by day. Cheerful conversation, +merriment, and even such games as the conditions of 'board-ship' life +permit were indulged in from time to time. Then Lance Trevanion had +leisure to look around and examine his fellow-passengers. He would have +been difficult to satisfy who could not among his compulsory comrades +have selected one or more congenial acquaintance. In that year the _Red +Jacket_ was 'the great Club of the unsuccessful': authors and +dramatists, University graduates, lawyers, and physicians, clergymen and +artists, soldiers and sailors, tinkers and tailors, plough-boy, +apothecary, thief--to quote the nursery classic. All were there. + +Men of good family, like himself, chiefly younger sons, however, who had +quitted Britain in order to enlarge the proverbial slenderness of a +cadet's purse-- + + 'One was a peer of ancient blood, + In name and fame undone-- + And one could speak in ancient Greek, + And one was a bishop's son.' + +The _soigne_ ex-guardsman, for whom the last Derby had been the knell of +fate, _he_ was there, plainly dressed and unpretentious of manner, yet +bearing the unmistakable stamp of the class whom King Fashion delighted +to honour. The middle-aged club lounger, who thought the new game of +Golden Hazard, at which the stakes were reported to be so heavy and the +players so inexperienced, worth a voyage and a deal or two--he was +there. The farmer's son, who had hunted too much; the farm labourer, who +was a bit of a poacher; the gamekeeper, who had kept an eye on him; the +shopman, whose soft hands had never done a day's hard work; the groom, +the coachman, the gardener, each and every one of the members of the +staff of rural and city life--were there. With some exceptions, they +were chiefly young, and now, as the fear and discomfort of the early +part of the voyage wore off, the natural characters of the individuals +commenced to exhibit themselves. + +It was pathetic to see the trustful confidence with which +delicately-nurtured women, following their improvident or heedless +mates, clung to the idea that, once safely landed in the wondrous land +of gold, all would be well. They had left in the old land all that had +made the solace of their lives, their tenderest memories and inherited +affection. After unutterable wretchedness and discomfort, they were now +voyaging towards a land the characteristics of which were practically an +unknown to them as those of the interior of Africa, and yet, 'O woman, +great in thy faith!' those victims of ironic fate were cheerful, even +gay. As they looked in the eyes of their husbands or the faces of their +children and saw them happy and sanguine, they dreaded no cloud in the +tropic sky, neither storm nor disaster, poverty nor danger, to come in +the far south land. + +With many young men on board, and others who, though no longer young, +were not disinclined for games of chance, it was only to be expected +that a little card-playing should go on. Lance was naturally fond of all +games of hazard--bad, indeed, born and bred in him--derived from +whatever ancestor--the true gambler's passion. He had enjoyed no great +opportunity of developing it yet. All games of chance had been strictly +interdicted at Wychwood. Now that he had come into freer +atmosphere--into another world, socially considered--he felt a +newly-arisen desire for play, so strong and unconquerable that it +astonished himself. He had, of course, L200 or L300 with him, not +intending to land in Australia quite penniless. This was more than many +of his shipmates could boast of possessing, and he passed among them, in +consequence, as quite a capitalist; in his way. Though he played +regularly, almost daily in fact, he was more than moderately successful. +The evil genius of chance, who lures men to their destruction by +ensuring their success in their early hazards, was not absent on this +occasion. Lance won repeatedly, so much so that his good fortune began +to be as much a matter of general observation as his apparent easiness +as regarded money. + +It may be imagined that Trevanion's circle of acquaintances became +enlarged. Inexperienced youngsters like himself mingled every day, when +the weather permitted, with men who had played for high stakes in good +London clubs. Success, of course, varied. Many of the callow gamblers +lost all they had, and had, perforce, to look forward to landing in +Melbourne without a penny in the world. + +Among those who were proverbially unsuccessful was a young man, who, +from that and other reasons, commenced to attract an unusual share of +attention from the other passengers. He and Lance Trevanion were +decidedly unsympathetic. They were always pitted against one another in +play. They appeared to be rivals in all things. More than once they had +been on the verge of a quarrel, which the bystanders had prevented from +being fought out. What was perhaps really curious was the fact, which +all were quick to remark, that the two men resembled each other in +personal appearance to a most uncommon degree. Lawrence Trevenna, for +such was his name, was probably a year older, but otherwise had much the +same figure, features, and complexion. The eyes, too, strange to say, +were of the same shape and colour; and, as the two men faced each other +in the quarrel before mentioned, more than one looker-on remarked the +curious peculiarity--the strange unearthly glitter, the lurid light, +which shone forth in the hour of wrath and defiance. No one had noticed +it before in either face. 'They were as much alike,' said the second +mate, who was standing by, somewhat disappointed that the fight did not +come off, 'as if they were brothers. There couldn't have been a closer +match.' + +As it turned out, they had never seen one another before,--in fact, came +from different parts of England. The other man, when looked at closely, +was decidedly coarser in feature and less refined in type. His +conversation, too, disclosed the fact that his early education had been +indifferent. Handsome and stalwart as he was, under no circumstances +could he be considered to rank as a gentleman. That his temper was +violent was put beyond a doubt by the savage outbreak which led to the +quarrel. It was not certain that he would have got the best of it in a +hand-to-hand encounter, but his expression on reluctantly retiring was +of unequivocal malevolence, as was indeed exhibited by his parting +speech. + +'I'll meet with you another day,' he said. 'Australia is not such a big +place, after all. You may not have so many backers next time.' + +'It's perfectly indifferent to me,' answered Trevanion, 'when or how we +meet. I dare say my hands will save my head there, as they can do here. +People shouldn't play for money who can't keep their tempers when they +lose.' + +The passengers of the _Red Jacket_ had in a general way too much to +think about to bother their heads about the accidental likeness existing +between two young fellows in the second class, still the story leaked +out. It was said 'that one of them was an eldest son and heir to an old +historic name and a fine estate. The other was a very fine young man, +but evidently a nobody, inasmuch as he dropped his aitches and so on. +_But_ they were so wonderfully alike that you could hardly tell them +apart. It would be worth while to get up amateur theatricals and play +the _Corsican Brothers_. Effect tremendous, you know! Queerest thing of +all, too, they'd never met before and didn't like each other now they +had met.' + +'Strange things, doubles,' said Captain Westerfield, late of H.M. 80th +Regiment. 'Not so very uncommon though. Most men in society have one. My +fellow turned up at Baden, most extraordinary resemblance, wasn't an +Englishman either. Raffish party too, spy and conspirator persuasion, +that sort of thing. Did me good service once, though. Story too long to +tell now.' + +'Oh, Captain Westerfield, _do_ tell it to us,' said the fascinating Mrs. +Grey, as they walked back to the first-class region, after inspecting +the two Dromios. + +'Some day, perhaps,' murmured the Captain. + +The _Red Jacket_ held on her way with unslackened speed. Night and day, +fair weather and foul, with winds ahead or astern, it was all the same +to Captain Forbes. Never was an inch of canvas taken in before the +'sticks' began to give token of ill-usage. 'What she couldn't carry she +might drag,' was his usual reply to remonstrating passengers. And he had +his accustomed luck. In the murkiest midnight, or when fogs made the +best lights invisible a ship's length in advance, the _Red Jacket_ ran +into no homeward-speeding bark. Nor did any other reckless-driving +vessel, with a captain vowed to make the passage of the season, +encounter him. The long, low coast-line of Australia and the Otway light +were sighted at as nearly as possible the hour when they were expected +to be visible, and through the Rip and up the vast land-locked haven of +Port Phillip Bay went the Racer of the Ocean one afternoon, fully two +days in advance of the shortest passage which had ever been known in +those days between the old old world and that new one which so long lay +unknown and unpeopled beneath the Southern Cross. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +So this was Melbourne! At least the nearest that the _Red Jacket_ could +get to it, on account of certain natural obstacles. But it lay only +seven miles off, that is by the river, of which they could trace the +windings through high walls of the thick-growing, but slender ti-tree +(melaleuca). Anchored now in a broad bay, a low sandy shore on the +eastern side, on the west a green level promontory, with a few huts and +cottages sprinkled over it, falling back to far-stretching plains, with +a volcanic peak in the foreground and a mountain range in the hazy +distance. + +Without much delay comes a roomy lighter alongside the _Red Jacket_, in +which the passengers mostly elect to embark. + +Their luggage, an avalanche of bags, bundles, trunks, and boxes, is shot +on deck. A puffing, vicious-looking tug, with the air of 'a guinea a +minute for my time,' drags them off, through the shoals of the Yarra, +and so bustles forward till that grand and wonderful structure, the +Melbourne wharf, a rudely planked platform fringing an illimitable ocean +of black mud into which the river flat, guiltless of macadam, has been +churned. Here their goods and chattels are unceremoniously transferred +to the unsheltered wharf. It had been raining. The passengers, +surrounded by draymen, hotel and lodging-house keepers, look blankly at +each other. A few of the women begin to cry. Thus for them, as for all +the _Red Jacket's_ passengers, save the favoured few of the saloon, the +hard schooling of colonial experience commences. If quarrels arise and +animosities are generated on board ship, so also do friendships, true +and permanent, spring up. Trevanion had made acquaintance with a young +couple from the border of his own county. The man was a sturdy fellow, +half miner, half farm-labourer, whom the hope of bettering his condition +had tempted to the desperate step, as it appeared to all his +neighbours, of emigration. His wife was a fresh-coloured, innocent, +country villager, their one child, an engaging little button of three +years old, one of the pets of the ship. The two men had arranged to go +up to the diggings together, and Trevanion decided that in some respects +he could not have a better mate. 'Gwenny here can cook and wash for us, +and if we get a share of the gold and Tottie doesn't fall into one of +their deep holes as they tell us about, we shall do main likely, Mr. +Trevanion.' So it was settled, Mrs. Polwarth was a little nervous about +travelling through the 'bush' and living at a 'digging,' but where her +man went, she, as an Englishwoman and wife, was bound to go too. '"For +better, for worse," pa'son he says, and I reckon, lad, I'll stick to +thee as long as we've bread to eat or a shed to cover us.' Such was her +simple creed. + +'It strikes me,' said Trevanion, after the first few minutes of blank +astonishment, in which the country-bred couple, and even he himself +gazed around at the strange crowd and unfamiliar surroundings, 'that +we'd better hail one of these drays and get our luggage taken up to a +lodging-house, till we can look around. The weather is rather cold to my +fancy for camping out, though it is Australia. We mustn't get laid up +with chills, and fever, and ague, as that American warned us, to start +with. So Jack, you take care of the boxes and the family--I'll soon +manage a conveyance.' + +After a short but spirited engagement with a drayman, who seemed an +educated person, to Lance's astonishment, he compounded for a payment of +two guineas, for which moderate sum the owner of this expensive +equipage--worth a hundred and fifty pounds at ruling prices--covenanted +to land them all in safety at a decent lodging-house. + +'You are in luck,' said the drayman, as they were walking back to the +wharf, 'to find a place to put your head in to-night, I can tell you. +Lots of your fellow-passengers will have to camp out under any shelter +they can extemporise. But I happen to hear the people I am taking you to +say they had one bedroom and a small attic to let, the occupants having +started for Ballarat this morning.' + +'And how is it you are not there with all the rest of the world, if it's +as rich as they say it is?' + +'They can't exaggerate the richness of it. I know so much of my own +knowledge, but I happened to buy this old nag and the dray, which +brings me in about a thousand a year at present. I'm not an avaricious +man, so I'm waiting on here till I feel in the humour to tackle digging +in earnest.' + +By this time the wharf was reached, and the dray being loaded with their +boxes and bundles, Mrs. Polwarth placed comfortably in the centre, the +men walked beside the driver. Two long and very broad streets were +traversed before they arrived at a neat weatherboard cottage with dormer +windows and an upper floor. The proprietor, a bronzed colonist, received +them cheerfully, and immediately set to work to take in their luggage. + +'Mother,' he said to a cheery, brisk little woman who now came up to the +garden gate, 'you take in this young lady and little gal, and make 'em +comfortable. Mr. Waters says as they've just come out in the _Red +Jacket_. They'll be all the readier for their tea, I'll be bound. We'll +see to all the boxes and things.' + +'Mr. Waters, you'll just have time to do up the old horse afore the +tea-bell rings. I wouldn't let them beef-steaks get cold, if I was you.' + +As they sat smoking over a snug fire in the kitchen, after a well-cooked +and sufficing meal, Lance and his 'mate' came fully to the conclusion +that they _had_ been in luck in falling across their friend the drayman, +and being guided to such good quarters. Here they were comfortably +lodged at a reasonable charge, and, moreover, had the advice of two +experienced and well-disposed men as to their future plans and +prospects. + +'Yes. After stopping a week in Melbourne, I should certainly make tracks +for Ballarat, if I were in your place,' said Mr. Waters the drayman. +'You've come all this way to dig. Jack has a wife and a child to work +for, and the sooner you set about it the better.' + +'But what is the best way to get there?' asked Lance. 'The road is bad, +and it's a long way there. We can't carry our boxes. It's too expensive +to go by coach. I don't see my way.' + +'What Mr. Waters says is God's truth,' chimed in their host. 'You can't +do nothing but spend money, and waste your time here, unless you was in +a way of business, which ain't likely. Your only dart is to buy a +staunch horse with a tip-cart, and put a tent atop of your luggage. Take +tea, and sugar, and flour with you, a little bacon and so on. Then you +camp every night. It costs you little or nothing, and you're as jolly as +sand boys.' + +'And how about finding the road, Mister?' asked Jack, looking rather +anxious. 'It's many a long mile, and mostly through the woods, as I'm +warned. We might lose our way.' + +'A blind man could find the road night or day,' said Waters, with a +laugh. 'It's a mile wide, and there's a string of carts and drays, men, +women, and children, going along it, like a travelling fair. Night and +day you can hear the bells on the horses and bullocks a couple of miles +off.' + +'Won't the turn-out cost heaps of money?' asked Lance, thinking of the +price of Mr. Waters's horse and dray. + +'Not above seventy or eighty pounds altogether, and you can sell them +for the same or more money when you get to the diggings. We'll try and +find you a decent turn-out with a canvas tilt to keep the rain off Mrs. +Polwarth and Tottie. My friend Burnett knows half the miners that come +here from Ballarat, and they often have a cheap lot, horse and cart, and +a good many useful things given in, which they are in a hurry to sell +before they leave for England.' + +'That will suit us down to the ground, eh, Jack, and then--this day +week--hey for Ballarat and a golden hole.' + +For the next week Trevanion devoted himself to exploring Melbourne, and +seeing as much as he could of the strange world to which he had voyaged +on the other side of the globe. It was--to his British and comparatively +untravelled idea--a state of society utterly foreign and at variance +with all his preconceived ideas. + +In the first place there were no poor people, no beggars, no evidence +anywhere to be seen that anybody lacked money, food, clothes, or +amusement. It was distinctly Utopian in the evidences of material +prosperity, which everywhere abounded. The diggings both at Ballarat and +Bendigo (as Sandhurst was then called) had been sufficiently long +established to have furnished a class of lucky diggers who dominated the +urban population, and gave a tone of universal opulence to the +community. + +With all this, though men were plentiful who had made their ten or +twenty thousand pounds each in a few weeks, there was but little +disorder, and no lawlessness observable. A good-natured extravagance, a +defiant recklessness of expenditure were the leading characteristics of +the mining aristocracy. + +It was true that their wives sported expensive silk dresses, gold +chains, and diamond earrings; that they entertained one another as +agreeable chance acquaintances regale at the Criterion--a hostelry built +in the most expensive period of skilled labour, every brick used in +which was reported to have cost half-a-crown. The theatres and +concert-halls were crowded every night with a fairly appreciative and +orderly audience. The theatrical and musical talent was exceptionally +good at that time. For the news of the abounding gold of Ballarat +travelled far and fast, and, where the auriferous lure is waved, have +ever been wont to gather the mimes and the sweet singers of the world's +best quality. + +It was literally, and in many respects a revival of the golden age, a +truly Arcadian time. A truce seemed to have been proclaimed to the +world's sad-faced task-workers, to the slavery of desk and plough and +loom. Save the exciting labour of the mine--when, perhaps, each stroke +of the pick brought down stone heavy with the precious metal, or +dislodged ingots and gold dust--work was there none. So, at last, a +strong, light box-cart, with a staunch and active draught horse, having +been purchased at a reasonable price,--their new-found friend arranged +that part of the business,--a start was made one fine morning for +Ballarat--the El Dorado of the South. All their worldly goods were +packed safely and snugly. There was a canvas tilt, under which Mrs. +Polwarth and Tottie would be sheltered from sun and storm, and could +sleep at night. There was a small tent in which the men could dispose +themselves. The bay horse, led by Jack, stepped off cheerfully and +briskly, and then, with the blessings, metaphorically speaking, of their +landlord and Mr. Waters, the little expedition set forth. The latter +gentleman accompanied them for a short distance, until fairly past the +outskirts of the town, and on the broad highway marked by a thousand +wheels which led to Ballarat. He volunteered a modicum of advice, +limited in quantity, but valuable. + +'There's plenty of gold there, never fear, and new finds every day. You +may go home with a fortune next year, and in the _Red Jacket_ too, if +she keeps lucky and don't get run down. You and that "Cousin Jack" are +both workers, I can see it in all your ways. Stick together, you can +trust each other, and don't make more friends than you can help. You'll +find men by the score there that would cut your throat for a ten-pound +note, and chuck Mrs. Polwarth and Tottie down a shaft for the same +price. Keep a good look-out at night. Don't drink or play cards with +strangers. If you fall across a streak of luck, follow it up to the end, +but don't keep gold in your tent. If you don't hit it just at first, +persevere all the same. It's bound to come. And now I'll say good-bye, +and good fortune to you. Look up Burnett when you come back; if I'm not +with him, he'll know my address.' + +So their friend--a good and true one in every sense--shook hands with +Jack and his wife, kissed Tottie, with whom he left a large parcel of +sugar-plums, and departed. It was strange that he and the boarding-house +keeper should have taken such a fancy to the party; but such was the +fact, and in new countries and wild places outside the pale of ordinary +society, sudden and chance-made friendships spring up and blossom into +full fruition much more frequently than people in old countries would +believe. They had nothing to gain from these emigrants. They only +accepted the bare amount due for services rendered. They prevented them +from being over-reached in the purchase of that vitally necessary +equipment in goldfield days--the horse and cart. They saw, too, that +unlike the hero in that exciting Anglo-Colonial romance 'It's Never too +late to Mend,' they were put in possession of a horse that _would pull +down hill_ as well as up. In fact they acted with simple good faith, +generosity, and gratuitous courtesy, all through. + +This was not the conduct to be expected from perfect strangers in a +'lawless community' like Melbourne, _vide_ the fiction of the day. But +it happened to be true nevertheless. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +It is unnecessary to accompany the little party along the somewhat +tedious and decidedly muddy road which led the adventurers of the day to +the spot 'where the root of all evil grew wild up the country.' O dear +old friend, who used to quote this, and make merry over Governor Tarbox, +where art thou now? They saw the Royal Mail dash by, drawn by six horses +in an American coach, the leather-brace springs of which, and the plank +road, were a constant wonder to Jack and Mrs. Polwarth. Now trotted +along a dozen well-mounted police troopers, their boots and steel +scabbards shining in the sun, conveying 50,000 ounces of gold in a +four-horse drag. Anon, a drove of staring, long-horned fat cattle, +engineered by a dog of high educational attainments, a black boy, and a +couple of bearded, wild-looking stock-riders. Then, again, the bullock +team of the period--fourteen bullocks drawing a laden canvas-covered +waggon, with a tall Australian driver, the whip of him at times raising +hair, at times volleying like musketry--was another unequivocal +surprise. A flock of 2000 fat sheep, a drove of unbroken horses, a train +of a dozen pack-mules, all these were fascinating novelties and wild +surprises to the newly-arrived Britishers. + +A few days, however, sufficed to inure the little party to the toils and +difficulties of the journey, such as they were, and to teach them to +make light of them. The road--as before stated--nearly a mile wide in +places, and marked in black mud on the green turf, was visible to the +naked eye night or day. Mrs. Polwarth learned to fry chops and steaks +and make cakes as if she had been to the manner born, while the men +pitched their tents and made their nightly camp as if they had done +nothing else all their lives. Tottie, even, used to run about and pick +great bunches of yellow flowers, which were so like buttercups, together +with daisies and fringed violets, and was the merriest of the party. + +'This is going gipsying with a vengeance,' said Lance one day. 'I never +expected to find myself driving a cart and hobbling out an old horse, +like a tinker on a common; but as it's the regular thing to do, and as +this Tom Tidler's ground can't be so very far off now, I suppose one +mustn't grumble.' + +'It's main cheap travelling,' Jack would reply to these occasional +repinings. 'It don't cost much, that's one thing, and the weather seems +like taking up, so the little one can play about same as if she was at +home.' + + * * * * * + +Ballarat--at length! The far-famed!--the wonder-town!--the capital of +the kingdom of gold! A confused array of huts, tents, weatherboard +houses, and stores huddled together, as if rained down from the sky, on +the side of a hill partly covered with the iron-stemmed, sombre +Eucalyptus. A brook, with yellow waters hurrying down between green and +grassy banks. Crowds of silent, preoccupied looking men anxiously +engaged in what, to the new-comers, seemed mysterious mining operations. +Some were standing mid-leg deep in the creek, protected by thigh boots, +rocking curious wooden cases, which looked like children's cradles, and +which they afterwards found were called by that name. Policemen and +mounted troopers went to and fro among them, or issued from an +encampment higher on the hill--which was evidently the headquarters of +the executive department. Mud-stained, bearded, and roughly dressed were +the greater part of the population; Lance thought he had never seen so +many ruffianly-looking fellows before. A marsh, filled with waving +reeds, lay on a plateau a short distance to the westward of the field. +The green banks looked pleasant to the eye, shaded, as they were, by +wide-spreading trees--thicker of foliage than the others. + +'If you think well, sir, we might just as well pitch our camp here,' +said Jack. 'It's away from the crowd like, and I'll manage to make it +snug and home-like in a week or two. We can leave the Missis here while +you and I look out for a claim, as they call it.' + +So they made their temporary home by the side of Lake Wendouree, as it +came afterwards to be called, little dreaming that the day would come +when the marsh would be dammed and deepened, when, steamers would ply +upon its surface, and boat races and regattas take place thereon, with a +thousand school-children holding high festival on its banks. + +However, these developments were in the future. Nothing was to be seen +now but the waving reeds, the green grass, and a great black log lying +on the ground, by the side of which they pitched the tent, as being a +species of shelter and handy for purposes of cookery. Then the men +wandered through the diggings, talking to the miners, as opportunity +offered, and trying to learn something about the recognised method of +making a commencement to dig gold. + +Chance favoured them the day after they arrived, by the occurrence of a +dramatic incident, instructive in its way, as it turned out. + +They were walking along the side of the creek, looking at a +curiously-silent toiling crowd of 20,000 men, who, working in very small +and shallow claims, 16 feet square, on the celebrated 'Jewellers' +Point,' were turning up gold in handfuls, panfuls, and, in some +instances, nearly bucketfuls. + +Suddenly every man raised his head and shouted 'Joe.' Jack and Lance +thought the whole crowd had gone mad, as they hasted to join in the +chorus. They noticed, however, a dozen or more individuals leave their +work and depart unobtrusively. A moment after, a man came running +desperately down a gully which led to the creek, hotly pursued by two +troopers. He wormed his way among the holes, where the horsemen could +not well follow him, and seemed in a fair way of escaping, when he ran +nearly into the arms of a constable on foot, whom, coming from another +direction, he had not seen. This official, a wily and active person, +promptly secured him. He was then handcuffed and led off to the camp, +where, to the great astonishment of the Englishmen, who followed to see +the end of the affair, he was chained to a log by the leg; evidently a +desperate criminal, they decided. + +Lance interrogated one of the troopers who remained by the prisoner. 'I +suppose he's a hardened offender. Is it for murder or robbery? or only +horse-stealing?' + +The trooper laughed. 'Well, he ain't what you might call a desprit bad +'un, though he's broke the law. He's been diggin' without a license.' + +'What's that?' + +'Well, you'll soon find out, young man. If you don't get one, you'll get +tethered like this chap here. It's a permit to dig gold, and you have to +pay thirty bob a month to the Crown. You didn't think you were going to +be let dig up a fortune on Crown land for nothing, did you?' + +'Oh, I understand. Well, where can we get one?' + +'D'ye see that big outside tent at the camp? Well, that's the Mining +Registrar's. He'll give you one apiece, if you've got the cash, and then +you can dig gold by the hundredweight, if so be as you can find it.' + +'All right. Can I have a word with the prisoner?' + +'Oh yes; while I'm here.' + +Lance went up to the manacled one and accosted him. 'What's your name, +my man?' + +'I'm not "my man," or your man or any one else's. Though I'm not a free +man, certainly, if it comes to that. Isn't it an infernal shame that a +free-born Englishman should be chained up like a dog because he hasn't +thirty shillings in his pocket?' + +'It doesn't seem right,' said Lance. 'The money's not much, but, of +course, a man may be out of luck and not have it. The reason I asked you +your name was that I was just going to the Registrar to get a couple of +licenses for my mate and myself, and I could get you one at the same +time.' + +'Didn't I tell you I had no money?' said the man, rather savagely. + +'What does it matter about such a trifle? Of course, I will pay for you, +and you can give it to me when convenient.' + +'Thanks, very much,' said the stranger, with a softened voice and an +accent which spoke of different surroundings. 'My name is Hastings. +Edward Charles are my Christian names. You must make allowance for my +being out of temper. This sort of thing is enough to gall any man, and +there will be trouble out of it yet.' + +'Now,' said Lance to the trooper, 'if I get a license, as you call it, +for our friend here, will you let him go?' + +'By rights,' said the trooper, who had a good-natured face, 'he ought to +be brought up to-morrow before the Commissioner for not producing his +license when called upon so to do by any authorised person. But they're +all away, and I can square it--say he had got one that day, or +something.' + +'That will do,' said Lance, with a smile, as he handed the man a +half-sovereign. 'I'll soon have his paper and my own. I can't leave a +man--a gentleman, too--like this. That's the tent, isn't it?' + +'He's a gentleman, that chap,' said the trooper to himself. 'Any one can +see that; just out from home, too. But he's too soft. His money won't +last long if he goes and pays up for every chap here that hasn't got a +license.' + +As it turned out, it was money well invested. + +Trevanion went to the tent, where he found a busy gentleman sitting +before a table covered with notes and gold and silver, official papers +and books, etc., all in rather a state of confusion. He cut short his +explanation by asking 'What names?' in a gruff voice. + +These being supplied, he filled up three forms printed on parchment, +which he cut out of a long narrow book like a cheque book, and, holding +them in his hand, said, 'Four pounds ten you have to pay.' + +Lance handed over five sovereigns and received ten shillings change. He +then glanced at the licenses, consecutively numbered and dated, which +gave permission to John Polwarth, Launcelot Trevanion, and Edward +Charles Hastings 'to dig and search for gold upon Her Majesty's Crown +lands in the colony of Victoria for the space of _one month_ from date.' +These documents had been signed in blank--'EVELYN P. S. STURT, +Commissioner.' + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The trooper came back to the log with the two 'new chums,' as he, a +native-born Australian, would have called them, and turned his back +while Trevanion handed Hastings his digging license. He then faced +round. 'You've been arrested according to law for digging in Growlers' +Gully without a license. Do you now produce one?' Hastings handed him +the parchment slip before referred to. 'You hand me this license all +correct and regular. I now discharge you from custody, and,' continued +the trooper, evidently thinking he ought to say something magisterial +and impressive, 'I hope it will be a warning to you.' He then unlocked +the padlock, which was passed through a chain which held the handcuff +which was round the man's ankle, and released him. + +Hastings laughed as he stood up and stretched himself. 'I expected a few +strange experiences when I started to dig gold in this extraordinary +country, but I never thought to be chained up to a log by the leg. +However, it's all in the day's work. You've only done your duty, Doolan, +and indeed you've stretched it a bit in letting me off. I'll perhaps be +able to do you a good turn some day. Good-bye.' + +'Now Mr. ----,--I really don't know your name,--Trevanion, thanks, I see +you and your friend are just off the ship and therefore not up to the +wicked ways of digging life. I may say now that I hold myself deeply +indebted to you. In requital, if you'll come to Growlers' Gully, where +I'm hanging out, I can lay you on to a "show," as we miners call it, +that may turn out something good.' + +'We know nothing as yet,' said Lance. 'We're quite raw and +inexperienced, therefore shall be very glad to go to Growlers' Gully or +any other place, if there's a chance of setting to work in good +earnest.' + +'The best thing you can do, then,' said his new friend, 'is to walk out +there and stay in our tent to-night. To-morrow you can get back and show +your party the way. It's no good staying where you are.' + +'Done with you,' said Lance. 'Jack, you can go back and tell your wife,' +and away they went. After walking three or four miles, a kind of open +ravine, which in Australia is called a gully, presented itself. The +tents were thinner and the miners not quite so busy. 'That's our tent,' +said Hastings, 'and there's my mate sitting on a log outside, smoking +and wondering what's become of me. Hulloa! Bob, did you think I was lost +or in chokee? This is Mr. Trevanion; he's stood my friend or else I +should have spent the night on the chain, so we must lay him on to a +show, if there's one in the gully.' + +'It's a nice way to treat a Christian, chaining of him up like a dorg, +ain't it, sir?' said the miner slowly. 'It'll raise trouble some day, +I'll go bail. Proud to see you, sir. There's plenty of tea in the billy, +it'll soon warm up. Luckily I baked last night and there's a goodish +lump of corned silver-side of beef. You'll be ready for dinner, both on +ye, I reckon.' + +'This child is,' said Hastings, and 'Mr. Trevanion has had a goodish +walk, which ought to sharpen his appetite. That's right, Bob.' + +As he spoke, his companion, who, if slow of speech, was evidently a man +of action, placed some tin plates on a small table in the tent, knives +and forks, with a large loaf, half a round of cold corned beef, and a +bottle of pickles. This done, he poured out two pint pannikins of tea, +and sitting a little way off outside, filled his pipe and lit it afresh. + +'Mind them Irishmen that took up number six claim above Jackson's?' +inquired he. + +'Think I do,' mumbled Hastings, whose mouth, like some people's hearts, +was too full for utterance. 'Think I do; what about them?' + +'What about 'em?' returned Bob. 'Why, they've jacked up and cut it. Said +they wanted summut more certain. A dashed good show, I call it.' + +'There's a chance for you, Trevanion,' said Hastings. 'Go and peg it out +the moment you've finished this humble meal. You've got twenty-four +hours to be at work in it. But the sooner you make a start the better. I +shouldn't like to see you lose it. Bob will go with you.' + +Lance made very good time over the corned beef, which he couldn't be +induced to leave for a while. But he and Bob made a formal pegging out +half an hour afterwards, thus taking legal possession of two men's +ground. + +The very next morning saw the party duly installed. Mrs. Polwarth and +Tottie had arrived, the tent was pitched, a fireplace made, the windlass +fitted with a new rope, and Lance and Jack working away as if they had +been mining all their lives. + +For nearly a fortnight the two men toiled and delved, one winding up and +the other picking and shovelling away at the various strata which +intervened between them and the precious ore they hoped to discover. + +'We shan't get no gold here, I don't believe,' quoth Jack, mournfully, +one day. 'I've heard of a grand diggings only fifty miles off. I'm +warned they're a-pickin' of it up in handfuls.' + +'It wants ten days to the end of the month,' replied Lance. 'I like to +stick to things when I've begun. Suppose we make up our minds to keep at +it till then. It isn't fair to Hastings to run away without a good +trial.' + +'All right, Mr. Lance, we'll give it till the thirty-first. If we don't +hit it then, I'm off to Forest Creek for good. Until then we'll see who +can work the hardest.' + +As far as manual labour was concerned there had now come to be perfect +equality between the man of birth and the son of toil. Stalwart and +symmetrical always, the frame of Lance Trevanion had now acquired from +daily labour and simple food the muscle and elasticity of an athlete in +full training. Hour after hour could he swing the pick and lift the +shovel weighted with clay and gravel, or wind up the heavy raw hide +bucket, fully loaded, without the slightest sense of fatigue, with +hardly a quickening of the breath. The healthful, yet abundant, food +always procurable at a prosperous digging, amply sufficed for all their +needs; the sound and dreamless sleep restored strength and tissue, and +sent them forth ready, even eager for the morning's toil. + +As Lance walked among the tents, or strolled up the busy lighted street +on Saturday night, resplendent in clean flannels or a half-worn +shooting-jacket of fashionable cut, many an admirer of form, even in +that _lanista_ of magnificent athletes, the flower of the adventurous +manhood of many a clime, stopped to make favourable comment on the +handsome young Englishman who had come to the gully with 'Callao' +Hastings. + +Just one day before the last one of the month, when the partners were +already inquiring the distance of the first stage to Forest Creek, Lance +broke into a stratum of decomposed rock mingled with quartz gravel. This +was from a foot to eighteen inches in depth, and extended across the +shaft. They did not know--ignorant as they were of the humblest mining +lore--what had happened till they consulted their guide, philosopher, +and friend, Hastings. + +'Why, you've bottomed,' he made answer, with a look of profound wisdom, +'I'll go down and have a look at the "wash."' + +They lowered him down. Ten minutes after he sent up the bucket, +half-full; then, after the rope was lowered, came up himself. 'Get a tin +dish and carry it down to the creek till I wash the "prospect,"' quoth +he. + +He filled the dish with the 'wash-dirt,' as he called it, dipped it +again and again in the yellow waters of the creek, sending out the +clay-stained water with a circular twist of his wrist, in a way +incomprehensible to Lance and Jack. Lastly, when bit by bit all the clay +and gravel had disappeared, leaving but a narrow ring of black and gray +sand around the bottom of the dish, he spoke again-- + +'Look there,' he said meaningly. + +They looked, and saw dull red and yellow streaks on the upper edge of +close-lying grains, with an occasional pea-like pebble of the same +colour. + +'Is that--is that----?' asked Lance in a husky voice. + +'Gold!' shouted Hastings, 'yes, that's what it is. I call it an ounce to +the dish, with eighteen inches of wash-dirt for the whole width of the +claim; your fortune's made. It's a golden hole, nothing less, and one of +the richest on the field.' + + * * * * * + +So it was.... Day after day the partners cradled the precious gravel; +day after day they returned to their tent with a tin pannikin or camp +kettle containing enough of the precious metal to cause the most +pleasurable excitement in the owners, and to occasion exaggerated +reports of their wealth and the inexhaustible richness of the claim to +pervade the field. + +'You'll have to look out now,' said Hastings, impressively, one day. +'You've got a most dangerous and unenviable reputation. You've supposed +to have gold untold in your tent. Do you know what that means here?' + +'But we take our gold to the Commissioner every day,' said Lance, 'and +we see it sealed up and labelled and put in a safe before we leave.' + +'That's all very well, and the most sensible thing you could do, but +nothing will persuade some of those fellows, with which the gully is +getting too full to please me, that you don't keep gold or cash in your +tent.' + +'Well, what of that?' + +'What of that among some of the greatest scoundrels unhung? Fellows that +for a ten-pound note would chop Mrs. Polwarth up for sausages and fry +Tottie with bread sauce, after knocking both of you on the head? You +don't know what a real bad digging crowd is, and when you do it may be +too late.' + + * * * * * + +Now the reign of Plutus had set in, as far as Lance and his companion +were concerned. A few short weeks and how had their prospects changed. +What was now their position?--shovelling in gold at the rate of five +hundred pounds a week per man. It seemed like a dream, a fairy tale to +Lance. A year or so at most of this kind of work and he would be able to +return to England in the triumphant position of a man who had seen the +world, who had been, as the phrase runs, the architect of his own +fortune, who had boldly accepted the alternative rather than own himself +in the wrong, and who now had carried out what he had vowed to do in +spite of the incredulity of disapproving friends. + +And his cousin, his beloved Estelle, what would be her feelings? He +wrote to her at once, telling her to abandon all doubt and fear on his +account. Where were her prophecies now? He should always bless the day +on which he sailed for Australia. He might even go the length of +thanking his father for his stern reproof, his unjust severities. After +all it had been for the best. It had made a man of him. Instead of +lounging about at home, or idling on the continent (for he would never +have taken his degree if he had stayed at Oxford till he was gray), he +had seen what a new country was like, met numbers of the most +interesting people, learned how to carry himself among all sorts of +queer characters, learned to work with his hands and to show himself a +man among men. To crown all, he was making eight or ten thousand a year. +With a little judicious speculation he was very likely to double or +quadruple this. And in three years from the day he left she would see +him back again, he had almost said dead or alive. What talks they would +have over his adventures and wonderful, really wonderful, experience! +loving each other as of old and rejoicing in one another's society. The +life agreed with him splendidly. He was in famous condition, and except +that he was sunburned and a little browner, there was no change to speak +of. She would be able to judge if he had altered for the worse in manner +or lost form. Perhaps he had roughened a little by associating with all +sorts and conditions of men, but it would soon come back again when once +more he found himself among his own people and near his heart's darling, +Estelle. + +Thus far the welcome letter--how welcome those alone can tell who have +longed for tidings from a far country, who have waited with the +heart-sickness of hope long deferred, and have at length snatched at the +precious missive that told of safety and success, even of the +approaching return. + +Estelle Chaloner treasured this missive from a far country, read it and +re-read it day after day: she watched the features change and the colour +fade from her uncle's face as he listened to the exulting cry with which +she announced a letter from Lance, watched the stern face soften and +heard the first words of regret which had passed his lips since the day +of wrath and despair. + +'I was hard upon the boy, perhaps,--it's this accursed family temper, I +suppose,' he said. 'Where is the lad that isn't a fool in some way or +other! We are a stubborn breed, and once heated slow to cool. Tell him +when you write that he will be welcome again at Wychwood. Not to stay +away too long, though, whatever his good fortune may be, for I am not +the man I was, Estelle, and I should like to see my boy's face again, +before--before I die.' + +Here the hard voice changed, the stern man turned his head. Could this +be Sir Mervyn? thought Estelle. In all her previous knowledge of him she +had never known him to express regret for any act, speech, or opinion +whatever, however placed in the wrong by after-consequences. That he +should be really regretful and repentant struck her in the light of a +species of miracle. More than that, it imbued her with a vague fear, as +if there was some impending ill when such an abnormal change took place +in the social atmosphere. + +'Do not grieve, my dearest uncle,' said she, winding her arms around +him, with a look of beseeching tenderness. 'I know, from the way Lance +has written to me, that he has long since ceased to harbour resentment. +He knows that he was in the wrong, though he, and I too, must I confess +it, at the time, thought that you were too hard upon him. Depend upon it +we shall see him in a year, if not less, and all will be forgotten in +the joy of his return, in the triumph of his success.' + +'God grant it,' said the old man, 'but I have evil dreams. I believe the +devil enters into a Trevanion at times. Perhaps Lance may break the +spell. If he has an angel for his wife like my darling Estelle, it will +be all the more likely.' + + * * * * * + +Trevanion and party, of Number Six, Growlers' Gully, were 'fair on +it'--'had struck it rich, and no mistake,' in miners' parlance. Fame and +fortune were both theirs, assured, unchallenged; the fame, as in too +many cases in this world, considerably in advance of the fortune. His +partner, Polwarth, a shrewd, long-headed 'Cousin Jack' (as the Cornish +miners are called), stuck steadily to his work, stayed at home with his +wife and child, and beyond building a comfortable weatherboard-fronted +bark cottage for them, made no difference in his equilibrium. + +But it was otherwise with Lance Trevanion. His striking appearance, his +manner and bearing, his reputation for wealth, coupled with romantic +tales of his family circumstances, commenced to make him a personage of +consideration, as well as to cause his society to be sought after in the +higher social strata in and around Ballarat. Even at the Gully, now that +it had developed a true and defined 'lead'--the auriferous course of a +dead and buried river of the past--a couple of branch banks had been +established, shops and hotels had sprung up. + +All created organisms, during certain periods of their existence, are +capable of development. The conditions being varied, plants and animals, +including that strangely-constituted vertebrate, man, suddenly or by +graduation, but not less surely, expand and change, or decrease and +degenerate, as the case may be. Physical expansion does not invariably +presume moral advancement, and, indeed, the removal of restrictive +pecuniary conditions occasionally conduces to the reverse result. Alas! +that the delightful freedom from restraints which our civilisation +renders galling, which is often described by the phrase 'money being no +object,' should, in itself, be ofttimes that broad road leading to +irrevocable ruin, to destruction of body and soul. + +When a man arises from sound and untroubled slumber at or about five +'A.M. in the morning,' _vide_ Mr. Chuckster, and within an hour is +commencing a long day's work, which process is continued week in, week +out, with the exception of Sundays, there is not much room or +opportunity for the Enemy of man, who proverbially finds work for 'the +unemployed.' + +These, and chiefly for such reasons, were the dangers of 'Growlers' +Gully' during the early period of their existence--an eminently peaceful +and virtuous community. Hard at work from morn till dewy eve, that is +from daylight to dark, a matter of fourteen hours, there was scant space +or opportunity for riotous living. A quiet talk over their pipes before +the so-early bedtime, a glass of beer or grog at the unpretending +shanty, which, before the era of hotel licenses, was compulsorily modest +and unobtrusive, was the outside dissipation indulged in by the +'Growlers.' There was sufficient prosperity to produce hope and +contentment, but not enough, except in rarely exceptional cases, to +bring forth the evil craving for luxury and excitement. There was no +theatre, no gaming saloon (under the rose, of course), no inrush of +fiends, male and female, as upon a diggings of published richness; and +therein lay safety, had they known it, such as should have made every +man thankful, and every woman deeply grateful to the Higher Power that +had so ordered their destiny and surroundings. + +So might, perchance, have continued their Arcadian freedom from evil had +not the exceptional richness of Number Six been known and bruited +abroad. But, somehow, principally through Lance's carelessness, it had +leaked out, been spread far and wide, been wildly exaggerated, and now, +every day new arrivals from the most unlikely places in other colonies +testified to the brilliant reputation which 'Growlers' had acquired. +Greatness, indeed, had been thrust upon them. There was no escaping the +celebrity, wholly undesired by the more thoughtful and fore-casting +miners. But the majority of the adventurers of the day were young and +inexperienced. Intoxicated with their suddenly-acquired wealth, they +were splendidly reckless as to the morrow. They ever welcomed the +irruption of the heterogeneous army of strangers which invaded their +hitherto rather close borough. They treated their rash migration, made +upon the flimsiest reports, as a humorous incident wholly appropriate to +goldfield life. As for the risks to which such an admixture might fairly +be held to expose the safety and solvency of the community, they were +contemptuously indifferent. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Among the new arrivals who came in numbers to swell the gathering crowd, +whose huts and tents were now scattered for miles around the original +gully, which, owing to the chronic discontent of the prospectors, had +given its name to the locality, were some people from a distant part of +the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. They constituted a large +family party, comprising brothers, cousins, the mother of the young men, +their sister, and a friend or two. Their tents were pitched in an open +flat at no great distance from claim Number Six, and without any special +overture on either side, a casual acquaintance commenced which bade fair +to ripen into friendship. The migrating party were all native-born +Australians. Gold-lured, they had travelled in one encampment from their +homesteads on the upper waters of the Eumeralla, a tributary of the +Snowy River. In that mountainous region, thinly settled with scattered +families, tending their herds of wild cattle and wilder horses, had +these stalwart men and fearless girls been born and reared. The men were +fine athletic fellows, free and cordial in their manners, apparently +liberal and obliging in such small matters as came into notice. Apart +from his natural curiosity, too, as to the characteristics of this +company of 'Sydney natives,' as they were generally called--people of +pure British race and descent, who had never seen Britain--Lance was +attracted by their riding feats as well as by the high quality of the +unusually large number of horses which belonged to the party. That they +were consummate horsemen, he, a fair judge and performer in the hunting +field, at once perceived. Their ways of managing the animals, catching, +handling and saddling them, were all new to him. He came to walk over to +their tent in the evening, to talk over the gold news of the 'day', to +hear their stories of adventure by flood and field, to him novel and +interesting, and by no means unattractively rendered. Besides all this, +there was another appendage to the Lawless family--one which, since the +ancientest days, has sufficed to attract the ardent susceptible male of +whatever age and character with steady resistless force. There was a +woman in the case, and a fairly prepossessing damsel she was. The sister +of the young men, Kate Lawless, was indeed a very handsome girl. +Bush-bred and reared as she was, uneducated and wholly unacquainted with +many of the habitudes of civilisation, she comprised much of the +perilous fascination of her sex. Tall and slight, but with a rounded +symmetrical figure, there was an ease and unstudied grace in all her +attitudes, which an artist would have recognised as true to the training +of nature. Like her brothers, more at home in the saddle than in a +chair, she compelled admiration when mounted on her favourite horse, a +gray of grand action; she swept through the forest paths or amid the +awkward traps and obstacles of a goldfield with such perfection of seat +and hand as can only be obtained by that practice which commences with +earliest childhood. Her complexion was delicate, indeed, unusually fair, +save where an envious freckle showed that the summer sun had been all +too rashly defied, her soft brown hair was unusually abundant, while her +bright dark gray eyes had a glitter at times, in moments of mirth or +excitement, which denoted, either for good or ill, a character of no +ordinary firmness. + +Lance Trevanion had been out of the way of female fascinations for a +considerable period. The o'ermastering strength of his feelings after +the quarrel with his father; the fierce, persistent determination with +which he had followed up the fortune which he had vowed to gain in +Australia, had for the time being dispossessed the minor frailties. But, +now that wealth had begun to pour in with a flowing tide, now that +leisure had succeeded ceaseless toil (for he had felt justified in +putting on a 'wages man'), now that flattery, spoken or implied, +commenced to indicate him as Trevanion of Number Six, 'a golden-hole +man,' and the half-owner of one of the richest claims on the field, the +ordinary results of more than sufficing money and time commenced to +exhibit themselves. + +'I don't know that I like that Lawless crowd over-much,' said Hastings +to him one day. 'I'd be a little careful, if I were you.' + +'Why, what's wrong with them?' answered Lance, rather hotly. 'They're +fine, manly fellows, and pretty good all round. They can ride and +shoot--they're very good with their hands--and I never saw smarter men +to work. Quite different from what I expected Sydney natives to be.' + +'And their sister's a very pretty girl--eh! Come, don't be offended, I'm +only advising you for your good. But I met an old friend, who was a +squatter in their district, and he says they are a bad lot--gamblers and +horse-thieves--more than suspected of worse things, indeed.' + +'Well, of course, your friend may be a little prejudiced,' answered +Trevanion, trying his best to repress his rising irritability. 'They may +have fallen out. What's the difference between squatters and drovers? +That's what they are. They told me----' + +'What's the difference between country gentlemen and poachers?' replied +Hastings. 'You haven't been long enough in the country to know the ins +and outs of things. But, take my word for it, the sooner you drop your +native friends the better.' + +'Really, my dear fellow,' answered Lance, putting on a lofty and +superior air, which his friend had never before observed, while the +strange glitter in his eyes became more intense with every word, 'you +must permit me to manage my own affairs and choose my own friends. I +have not been so long in the country as yourself, but I am not quite +devoid of common sense, and have seen a little life before I came here. +The Lawlesses are pleasant, manly fellows--quite as good as most of the +men we meet out here; and Miss Kate is a friend of mine of whom I shall +allow no one to speak disrespectfully.' + +Hastings was an exceptionally cool man, or he would doubtless have +requested his interlocutor, shortly, to go to the devil his own way, +and, thereafter, have washed his hands of him. But he owed a debt of +gratitude for his first generous service which he was too sincere and +genuine to forget. + +'You must take your own way, I suppose,' he said good-humouredly. 'We +won't quarrel, if I can help it. But I hope you won't have reason to +regret not taking my advice. Have you heard who the new Police +Magistrate is?' + +'His name is Mac, something or other; comes from Tasmania, and knows +every escaped convict in the colonies by sight, they say.' + +'Oh, Launceston Mac! Is that the P.M. who is to reign over us? No doubt +he's a good man, but a little too fond of appearing to know everybody, +and awfully severe. He's too quick in his decision, for my taste. I feel +like the sergeant in _Rob Roy_, who considers that, "Were it the +Bailie's own case, he would be in no such dashed hurry."' + +'Oh, well, there are plenty of rascals here and to spare. He may try his +hand on them, and welcome.' + +'There's a new Sergeant of Police, too,' he continued. 'Can't remember +his name; something like Barrell or Farrell. They say he's a "regular +terror," as Joe Lawless expressed it.' + +'Frank Dayrell! Is _he_ come?' asked Hastings, with a change of tone. 'I +used to know him in a wild district out back, before the gold. There was +great joy when he left Wanaaring.' + +'Why, what was the matter with him? I heard he was a very smart, active +officer.' + +'All that,' said Hastings, 'but more besides--much more. Sergeant +Francis Dayrell bore the name of being one of the most unscrupulous, +remorseless men that ever touched a revolver. When he has duty to do, +he's all right. But, above everything, he must have a conviction. If he +can manage that, with his prisoner, well and good. If not--_caveat +captivus_.' + +'Whatever he is,' answered Lance, 'it won't matter much to us. We can +afford to pay for "Miner's Rights" now,' he added laughingly, 'and +there's nothing else likely to bring us within the talons of the law.' + +'I wouldn't make too sure of _that_,' his companion returned half +musingly, and with a strangely altered expression. 'Dayrell is a most +extraordinary man.' + +That there was, in the early days of the great Australian gold +irruption, a large proportion of remarkable and exceptional characters +on all the goldfields, few who have the faintest recollection of that +socially volcanic period will be found to deny. It could hardly have +been otherwise. Adventurers of every sort and condition, of all ages and +both sexes, from every clime and country, had there congregated at these +wondrous auriferous centres. The first year's manual labour, which all +essayed as the recognised form of ticket in the lottery, saw many of the +unused toilers disgusted or discouraged. Meanwhile, a demand arose for +competent persons to fill appointments the emoluments attached to which +were calculated on war prices. The public and private service were both +undermanned. Hence, every day well-born and well-educated mining +amateurs relinquished the pick and shovel to become gentlemen, so to +speak, once more. The more fortunate became Goldfield Commissioners, +Police Magistrates, Customs Officers, Clerks, Agents, Storekeepers, +Inspectors of Police, Auctioneers, and what not. The salaries were +large; the profits extraordinary--in many cases far exceeding the gains +of the ordinary miner. The rank and file of the unsuccessful applicants, +fully equal, if not, in some cases, superior to the fortunate +competitors, contented themselves with becoming police-troopers, store +clerks and assistants, coach-drivers, billiard-markers, or barmen. In +all these conventionally humble situations they were, if sober and +shrewd, enabled to save money and lay the foundation of future opulence. +The police force--more particularly the mounted division--was popular +with the more aristocratic waifs. It afforded a reasonable degree of +leisure, a spice of danger, and the privilege of posing in _quasi_ +military array, besides riding a well-appointed charger and wearing a +showy uniform. Among the privates and, so to speak, non-commissioned +officers of the force were to be found, therefore, a large proportion of +what, in a regular army, would have been called soldiers of fortune. +They were occasionally impatient of discipline, wild and reckless in +their habits, given to occasional brawling, drinking, and dicing, much +as were the Royalist soldiery in the days of the first Charles. But, +like them, they were brave to recklessness, cool and daring amid fierce +and lawless crowds, and of all that strangely gathered band the wildest +and most untamed spirit, yet the coolest, the most _ruse_, deadliest +sleuth-hound, by general acclaim and common report, was Sergeant Francis +Dayrell. + +Tall and slight, with fair hair and beard, and a false air of almost +effeminate softness in his blue eyes, he was wonderfully active and +curiously muscular as compared with his outward appearance. That he had +received the education of a gentleman all could perceive. Of his family +nothing was known. Ever reticent about his own concerns, he was not a +man to be interrogated. An admirable man-at-arms--promoted, indeed, in +consequence of some exceptional deed of power, the taking, indeed, of a +desperate malefactor single-handed; he was an unsparing martinet to +those below him, merely respectful to his superiors in rank, and +habitually hard and merciless to the criminals with whom he had to +deal. With the exception of occasional boon companions, with whom, at +intervals, he drank deeply, and, it was alleged, gambled for high +stakes, he made no friends and had no intimates. Solitary, if not +unsocial, he was generally feared if not disliked, and the mixed +population of the goldfield, many of whom, doubtless, were conscious of +'sins unwhipt of justice,' united in giving the sergeant a very wide +berth indeed. Such was the man who had suddenly been transferred to the +police district which included Growlers' Gully and its vicinity. + +Among his friends, the Lawlesses, Lance was not long in perceiving that +the sergeant's advent was not regarded as a wholly unimportant +circumstance. He rather wondered to hear the tone of mingled dislike and +bitterness with which the affair was discussed. + +'Not that _they_,' Ned Lawless, the eldest of the brothers, and, in a +sense, the leader of the party, laughingly remarked, 'had any call to be +afraid, but there were friends of theirs, quiet, steady-going farmers +and drovers, upon whom this cove, Dayrell, had been tremendously +hard--treated them dashed unfairly indeed. So that if, by chance, his +horse came home some day without him, he, for one, would not be +surprised, nor would he be inclined to go into mourning for him.' + +'If he only does his duty, though,' Lance could not help answering, +'_that_ ought not to make Dayrell unpopular.' + +'There's ways and ways of doing things,' returned Ned. 'I quarrel with +no man for doing his duty--that he's paid for. But this man's a ---- dog, +and I'd shoot him like a crow if he came messing round me, and think +nothing of it either.' + +Trevanion couldn't quite understand the savage tone with which these +words were uttered; he thought that something had occurred to put Ned +out, as he was habitually a good-tempered fellow. When he went to Kate +for an explanation, he found himself no nearer to a solution. + +'I hate the sight of him,' she said, 'with his soft voice and sneering +ways. I believe he'd hang us all if he could. He nearly "run in" a young +man we knew on the other side, and him as innocent about the duffing as +the babe unborn. He'll get a rough turn yet, if he doesn't look sharp, +and serve him right, too.' + +'But _you_ have no cause to mind his coming here, Kate,' he said in a +bantering tone. 'You've never stolen a horse, or "stuck up" +anybody--isn't that the expression?--(except me, you know). I wonder you +girls don't admire a handsome man like Dayrell.' + +'I wouldn't mind laying him out for his coffin,' said the girl +vengefully. 'I might admire his features then. But,' and here her face +assumed, for a few seconds, an expression which caused her companion to +gasp in amazement, 'his turn may come yet, and if Frank Dayrell dies in +his bed he's a luckier man than some of us think he'll be. By Jove!' she +exclaimed suddenly, 'if that isn't him, and almost close enough to hear +me. He's the devil himself, I do believe.' + +By a curious coincidence the unconscious object of this discussion had +emerged from a by-track, and, suddenly reining up, rode slowly past the +pair. Whatever his moral qualities he was utterly _point device_ as a +man-at-arms. His tall erect figure and _manege_ horsemanship were well +displayed on the handsome roan thoroughbred which he rode as a charger. +High boots, very carefully polished, with bit, stirrup-irons, and +sabre-scabbard glittering in the sun, showed the military completeness +of his equipment. At his sword-belt hung a serviceable navy revolver, +while from toe to chin-strap no smallest detail was omitted. + +As his eye fell on Lance and the girl, he nodded and laughingly raised +his helmet. + +'Well, Miss Lawless--we mustn't say Kate now, I expect--have you had a +ride after moonlighters lately? I expect Mr. Trevanion doesn't know what +the meaning of the word is. However, you and Ned will soon enlarge his +limited colonial experience.' + +As the trooper rode slowly past them, his well-bred high-conditioned +horse arching his neck and champing the bit which had stopped him so +suddenly, the girl turned pale in spite of her angry look, and lowered +her defiant eyes. Without speaking more or altering his careless seat +and steady regard, he sauntered slowly on, with one foot dangling +sideways in the stirrup. For an instant his eyes met those of Trevanion, +who, irritated by the whole bearing of the man and a certain +ill-concealed air of authority, said, 'I daresay you'll know me again. +May I ask what reason you have for favouring Miss Lawless and me with +your particular attention?' + +The sergeant's features slightly relaxed, though his eyes maintained the +same cold, penetrating inscrutable expression which had so annoyed +Lance, as he replied-- + +'Kate Lawless and I are old acquaintances, perhaps I can hardly say +friends. As for you, we may possibly be better acquainted in future. But +if you take my advice--that of a well-wisher, little as you may suppose +it--you'll stick to your claim, and be careful in your choice of +associates.' + +Before the angry reply, which was rising to his lips, could find +utterance, the sergeant struck his charger lightly across the neck with +his glove and cantered off, raising his helmet in a half-mocking salute +to Kate Lawless. + +'Insolent scoundrel,' said Lance, 'if he dares to address me again I'll +knock him off his horse. If I was in my own country I'd show him the +difference in our positions. But in this confounded country things are +turned upside down with a vengeance. But what did he mean by saying you +and he were old acquaintances?' + +'He be hanged,' said the girl, whose colour and courage had apparently +returned. 'We never were nearer friends than to pass the time of day. +But he was stationed once on Monaro, where we all lived, and, of course, +he came to the place now and then. I think he was a bit sweet upon +Tessie, but she couldn't stand him and so he dropped coming to Mountain +Creek. He's not worth minding, any road. We'd better finish our walk and +get home for tea, I'm thinking.' + +It was the early summer. The winter had been cold and wet. The Ballarat +climate is by no means of that exceptional mildness which the Briton +innocently believes to characterise the whole of Australia, making no +allowance for widely diverging degrees of elevation and latitude. It had +been severe beyond the usual average, wild and tempestuous. But now, all +suddenly the delicious warmth of the first summer months made itself +felt. Day after day witnessed the riotous growth of pasture and herbage, +the blooming of flowerets before the joyous sorcery of a southern +spring. Their path lay through the primeval woodland, bordered by an +emerald carpet studded with flower-jewels and redolent with balsamic +forest odours. As the shadows lengthened and the birds' notes sounded +clear and sweet through the evening stillness, the girl's voice, as she +told of wild rides and solitary experiences in their mountain home, had +a strangely soft and caressing tone. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Following closely upon this little episode, a fresh discovery in Number +Six demonstrated to Lance Trevanion that whatever else was raw, +unfurnished, and disagreeable in Australia, the colony of Victoria +generally, and Growlers' Gully, in the district of Ballarat, +particularly, were the easiest places to make fortunes in, out of a book +of fairy tales. Each week the yield of the claim grew richer, the +balance at the bank to the credit of Trevanion and party became larger. +So imposing was it that Lance seriously thought of selling his share in +the claim to his mate, even if he lost a thousand or two by it. Jack +Polwarth was a good fellow, and what, indeed, did a little money matter +any more than an odd handful of precious stones to Sinbad in the valley +of diamonds? He would be at home with his friends in, say, half a year. +That is if he returned by India, took a look at the Himalayas, saw +Calcutta and Madras; or why not via Honolulu, getting by heart the new +world, including the Garden of Eden as exhibited in the isles of the +southern main, before reappearing triumphant in the old. What would his +father say now? Where would be his cousin Estelle's misgivings, that +unswerving friend and lady-love whose letters had been as constant as +her heart? What a heavenly change would it be once more to the ineffable +beauty and refinement of English society after the rude environment of a +goldfield, the primitive civilisation of an Australian colony, but so +few years emerged from the primeval wilderness. + +It was with a sort of sob or gasp that he realised the dream-picture on +which he allowed his thoughts, a rare indulgence, to dwell. And after +all why should he not carry out his purpose? Why indeed? Strong and +unbending in matters of need and pressure, a certain indolence, an +occasional tendency to irresolution, formed a portion of his character +which often delayed prompt action and permitted opportunity to pass by. +The loitering life he lived at present, a central figure, so to speak, +amid admiring associates and envious adventurers, was pleasant enough in +its way. Then the old old temptation! It would give him, yes, +undoubtedly it would, a certain amount of pain and uneasiness to break +off finally with Kate Lawless. + +Tameless in spirit as she was, reckless of speech and fierce of mood +when her ungovernable temper was aroused, Kate Lawless could be +wonderfully soft and alluring, like all such women, when the tender fit +took her. There was then a child-like simplicity and abandon which +caused her to seem, and, indeed, temporarily _to be_, a different woman. +She resembled one of those rare psychological studies--which are indeed +scientifically authenticated--who lead a dual existence. For no two +individuals could be more unlike than Kate Lawless in one of her +'tantrums' (as her brothers familiarly expressed it) and the same woman +when the paroxysm was over, imploring forgiveness and lavishing caresses +on the object of her causeless resentment. That there are such feminine +enigmas no student of humanity will deny. But with all her powers of +fascination, she was so uncertain in her mood that she caused Lance +Trevanion the most serious doubts whether she reciprocated the affection +which he had been repeatedly on the point of avowing for her. Sometimes +she was especially friendly, full of fun and vivacity, taking long rides +through the wild forest tracks with him, on which occasions she would +astonish him by the way in which she would ride at stiff timber or +gallop adown the rock-strewn ranges, breast high with fern, daring him +to follow her, and shouting to imaginary cattle. At these times her +whole aim and endeavour appeared to be to attract and subjugate him. At +other times she was cold and repellent to such a degree that he felt +inclined to break with her for ever, and to congratulate himself on +being quit of so strange and unsatisfactory a friendship. + +He had not told himself, indeed, that he was prepared to marry her. +Democratic as he had become in many of his opinions, and conscious, +self-convicted, of falsehood and treachery to his cousin Estelle, he yet +in his cooler moments shrank from the idea of marrying an uneducated +girl of humble extraction, reared in a wilderness and bearing traces of +a savage life, beautiful exceedingly, and despite of her wilful and +untamed nature, wildly fascinating, as he confessed her to be. Thus +swayed by opposing currents, his heart and brain drifted aimlessly to +and fro for a space, while still a strange and unreal tinge of romance +was given to his life by the ever onward and favouring current of the +golden tide. + +Although matters had not progressed sufficiently far on the pathway to +civilisation at Growlers' to establish a claim to society in any +conventional acceptation, yet was there a rudimentary germ or nucleus. +One or two of the Government officials were married. There was a +clergyman who had a couple of daughters, energetic, intelligent damsels, +who had adapted themselves with much tact to their unusual surroundings. +At the camp there were gatherings of the officials of various +grades--police, gold commissioners, magistrates, and so forth, with a +few of the more aristocratic adventurers whose names were known, and who +were armed with introductions. It would be inaccurate to deny that there +was a little loo now and then, also whist, of which the points were +certainly not sixpenny ones. To these rational expedients of passing the +time, which, when there was no actual business on hand, occasionally +lagged, Mr. Trevanion would have been a welcome addition; good-looking, +well-bred, and--more than all--exceptionally fortunate as a miner. But +to all these hints and suggestions he--with a certain perverseness +difficult to account for, and which was remembered in days to +come--obstinately turned a deaf ear. More than one hint--well meant--was +thrown out touching the expediency of being 'so thick with those +Lawlesses.' Of course one could understand a young fellow being +attracted by a handsome lively girl like Kate Lawless. In those wild +days every man was a law unto himself, and revelled in his freedom. Yet +was there not lacking, even in that _melee_ of rude adventurers and +unprecedented social conditions, more than one kindly adviser. There +were men who knew the world--European and Australian--well and +thoroughly. From them he received warnings and advice. But he repelled +all friendly aid, and obstinate with the perverse intractability of the +Trevanion nature, disregarded them all. + +Beside outside acquaintance, in addition to Hastings and his mate Jack +Polwarth--who with his honest-hearted good little wife never ceased to +disapprove and to keep up a persistent warfare, so to speak, against the +Lawlesses--he had a friend within the fortress who more than once gave +him a warning, had he cared to avail himself of it. + +Quiet and reserved as Tessie (or Esther) Lawless had always shown +herself, he had never fallen into the error of mistaking her for a +commonplace girl. Without the showy qualities of her cousin Kate, she +gave token from time to time of having been better educated and +differently brought up from the others. She was always treated with a +certain amount of respect, and, even in Kate's most irritating moods, as +she rarely replied, so was she the only one of the party who escaped her +scathing tongue. + +She never appeared to seek opportunity to gain Lance's attention, though +when she did speak there always appeared to be some underlying reason +for her remarks. One of her characteristics was a steady disapproval of +the sharp tricks and double dealings of which her cousin often boasted, +and which Lance did not generally comprehend. He supposed them, indeed, +to be among the acknowledged customs of the country, and not considered +to be illegal or discreditable. + +'They are nothing of the sort,' she was accustomed to say, with +considerable emphasis. 'They are theft and robbery--call them what you +will; they are certain to bring all concerned to the gaol at some time +or other. If people don't mind that, nothing I can say will have any +effect.' + +'You'll have to marry a parson,' Ned Lawless would reply. 'What do you +think of the young chap that preached to us in the flat last Sunday? +Why, half the squatters began by a little "duffing." Nobody thinks the +worse of a man for that.' + +'If they're caught they go to gaol,' replied the uncompromising Tessie. +'Then they're criminals, and can never look any one in the face again! +And serve them right too in a country like this, where the gold fairly +runs out of the ground into people's pockets.' + +They all laughed at this, and the conversation dropped, while all +hands--the girls excepted--set to at a night of pretty deep gambling, +which lasted well into the small hours. + +A fortnight after this, as Lance was sauntering down in the evening to +the Lawlesses' camp, he found to his great surprise that there appeared +to be no one at home. The tents were all down, and gone, but two. + +One of the younger boys--a silent apparently stupid youngster of +fourteen--was in charge of the few remaining horses and the packs left +behind. He could give little or no information, except that the party +had moved to a new digging, of which he did not know the name, or, +indeed, in which direction it was. All he knew was that he and Tessie +had been left behind, to stay till they were sent for. All the horses +were gone but three. Tessie had gone out for a walk along the Creek, but +would be back soon. 'Here she comes now.' + +The boy pointed to a female figure coming slowly along a track which +followed the banks of a little creek, near which the Lawlesses' camp had +been formed, and then walked over to where the hobbled horses were +grazing, as if glad to escape from the necessity of answering other +questions. + +The girl approached with her head down, and her eyes upon the ground, +walking slowly, as if immersed in deep thought. Suddenly she raised her +head and gazed at him with a peculiar expression in her brown eyes. They +were not large, but clear and steadfast and--while she was speaking--had +a singularly truthful expression. There was a kind of half-pitying look +in them, Lance thought, which made him suppose that some misfortune had +happened to the little community, of which he had so lately been a +regular member and associate. + +'What's the matter, Tessie?' said he. 'I can see at once that you are +troubled in your mind. Why are they all gone away? Didn't Kate leave any +word or message for me? All this is very sudden.' + +'Mr. Trevanion,' said the girl, stopping short as he approached her, 'I +sometimes think you are the most innocent person I ever met. We natives +think young men from England are not very sharp, sometimes--but that is +mostly about bush work and stock, which they can't be expected to know. +But of all I ever met I think you are the most simple and--well, I must +say--foolish.' + +'You are not complimentary,' replied Lance, rather sullenly, and 'You +don't rate my understanding very highly. May I ask if you have any +letter from your cousin Kate for me?' + +'Yes, I have,' replied the girl, speaking with more energy than he had +ever before noticed in her, 'and I have been tempted to tear it to +pieces and leave you to guess the meaning. If I had acted as your true +friend--which I have always been--I should have done so. Take my advice +and drop us all--once and for ever. Why should you persist in making +friends of us? We are not good company for you--a born gentleman. Why +don't you behave like one, and leave people alone who are not your +equals in any respect?' + +'May I ask for the letter you refer to?' + +'Listen to me for the last time,' she said, coming closer to him and +looking earnestly into his face. 'Listen to me, as if I was your +sister--your mother--or the dearest friend in a woman's shape you have +on earth. I know what is in that letter. Kate wants you to join her and +the rest of the crowd at Balooka. Don't go! Do you hear what I +say?--_don't go_! or you will repent it to the last hour of your life.' + +'Why should I not?' asked he. 'Are you not going yourself with Billy +here to-morrow?' + +'I am _not_ going,' she said. 'I shall go to Melbourne to-morrow by the +coach, and, perhaps, never see one of them again, or you either. They +have been kind to me in their own fashion. I have eaten their bread, +and, therefore, I will not say more than I can help. But beware of Kate +Lawless! She is not what she appears to be! She is deceiving you, and +worse even than being the dupe of a heartless and unprincipled woman may +happen to you. Oh, promise me,' she said, 'promise me before I leave +that you will not go!' + +'If I had any doubt, your last words have decided me,' he said, and as +the angry light commenced to gleam in his eyes the girl's expression +changed to that of wonder and strange terror, deepening visibly. + +'It is himself!' she said, almost shuddering. 'Can there be two? Is the +Evil One walking on the earth and working his will as in the old old +days? You will not be turned now,' she went on. 'God is my witness that +I have done my best. Your blood be on your own head!' + +'Say good-bye, Tessie,' he said. 'I shall never forget your good +intentions, at any rate.' + +'Good-bye,' she said, in a tone of such sadness that he felt impressed +in spite of himself. 'You will not forget _me_. No, whatever happens you +will not do that. For your dead mother's sake, for your sister's, and if +there is any one dearer than either beyond the seas, for _her_ sake, God +bless and keep you.' And, waving her hands distractedly, like a woman in +a dream, she walked swiftly towards one of the tents, which she entered, +and was hidden from his view. + +'Here it is,' she said, reappearing, 'if you will have it,' and, as if +moved to sudden despair, she cast the letter upon the ground with every +gesture of anger and contempt. 'If it was a snake you wouldn't pick it +up, would you? And yet,' she went on, suddenly dropping her voice to a +low, earnest whisper, 'the worst carpet snake you ever saw--a death +adder, even--would do you less harm than what's in that letter, if you +follow it. Be warned; oh, Mr. Trevanion, be warned.' + +As she spoke her face softened, she leaned forward in a beseeching +attitude, her eyes filled, and this ordinarily reserved and +self-contained Tessie began to weep hysterically. + +'Confound the girl!' said Lance to himself. 'What a terrible to-do about +nothing at all! What's the good of coming to Australia if one can't +choose one's own society? I might as well be in Cornwall again. Surely +this girl isn't in love with me, too?' + +His unspoken thought must have manifested itself in some mysterious +fashion, though no word escaped him, for Tessie Lawless left off crying, +and, wiping her eyes, with a haughty gesture, appeared to return to her +usual composed bearing. + +That night brought but little sleep to the eyes of Lance Trevanion. It +was late when he entered his hut, and, flinging himself on the bed +where, for the most part, he had known nought but dreamless repose, he +commenced to think over the situation. + +Should he accept the warning so solemnly given by this strange girl, +who, before this, had manifested but little interest in his career, and +had lived a merely negative and defensive life? + +'How little we know of people's natures,' thought he, 'women's +especially. Who would have thought this quiet girl had all this fire and +earnestness in her? Her warning squared curiously with all that he had +gathered from other sources. Was there something mysterious and by no +means fair and above-board about these Lawlesses? It looked like it. And +Kate! What an artful treacherous jade she had proved herself to be, if +what her cousin said was true. Well, at any rate, he would go and see +for himself. He knew, or thought he knew, enough of life not to entirely +trust one woman's word about another. If Kate was false and deceitful, +he would have the satisfaction of telling her so to her face. If she was +true, well, he really did not know what was to be done in that case. At +any rate, he would go and see. Yes, he would show he was not afraid to +meet them all, there or anywhere else.' + +The fateful letter was short, badly written and worse spelled. It merely +stated that her brothers had settled to move to Balooka, naming a new +digging nearly a hundred miles away, and not far from the foot-hills of +the great Alpine range. They had gone into a large purchase in horses, +and were going to drive them to Melbourne in another month, when they +expected to make a lot of money out of them. 'If he cared to see her +again he might meet them next week at Balooka. The road went by +Wahgulmerang.' This precious epistle was signed, 'Your true friend and +well-wisher, Kate Lawless. P.S. If you only seen the black mare that was +gave me by a friend.' + +There was nothing alarming in this apparently simple and guileless +missive. A ride to a new digging was not only a pleasant novelty, but +distinctly in the line of his occupation as a miner, now that he was an +authority as a 'golden-hole man' with local fame and reputation. He had +a good horse, and though stabling was expensive he had felt justified in +being well mounted, as the companion of such a horsewoman as Kate +Lawless. The reference to the black mare and the generous friend rather +piqued him, as was probably intended. He had never encountered any one +in the guise of a rival, and felt curious to see what kind of admirer +had come forward. + +His preparations were not long in making. He informed Hastings and his +mate Jack that he was going to Balooka and might be absent for a week or +two. + +They evidently suspected the nature of the magnet which was attracting +him, and by their manner showed anything but cheerful approval of his +plans; wise by experience, however, they refrained from expostulation. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +More than once--many times, in fact--Lance Trevanion revolved in his +mind the strange mysterious warning which he had received from Tessie +Lawless. Careless, indeed reckless, as he had become lately in the +gratification of his caprices; safe in the possession of wealth hitherto +undreamed of and daily increasing; basking in a local splendour of +reputation based on the broad pedestal of success, there was yet +something in the girl's earnest tones and candour of mien which awed and +impressed him. Did she--could she--know anything really important? What +_could_ there be behind the scenes likely to operate prejudicially as +far as he was concerned? Why should he not go to this place which Kate +had named, stating playfully that it was rather an out-of-the-way hole, +but one which, as he was always praising up the beauties of English +scenery, he might like to see? '_She_ couldn't talk that sort of +rubbish, but there was a big dark mountain, a running river, not like +this ditch of a creek, and a flat beside it, like a small plain; snow, +too, in the winter. He'd better come up and see. It would be a change +after this beastly hot, dusty diggings.' So between idleness, +irresolution, and the lure of womanly wiles not weakened in witchery, in +a latter day and a newer world, Lance Trevanion finally decided to go to +Balooka. 'He had given his word,' he told himself, 'and what a man says +he should stand by, in great things or small. Such, at least, has always +been the wont of the Trevanions of Wychwood.' + +So next morning he sent for and saddled his horse--an upstanding, +well-bred bay, with a star and two white hind legs, which he had bought +a month or two since from Ned Lawless. There was no finer horse on the +goldfield. More than once he had been asked from whom he had purchased +him, where he was bred, what his brand was, by inquiring admirers, after +a fashion which he was apt to dispose of hastily, if not rudely, as +betraying the ignorance and bad form of colonists. + +He had intended to make a very early start, but it so chanced that there +had been an unusually rich washing-up the night before, and Jack +Polwarth, honest but unlettered, was most urgent that he should make the +deposit in the bank himself, receive the receipt, and see the amount +duly divided and paid in to their separate accounts. To this, after some +grumbling, he agreed, though not without declaring that Jack could do it +just as well himself, for Mr. Stirling, the manager of the branch of the +Australian Joint Stock Bank, then doing the chief business at +"Growlers'," was smart, straight, and plucky enough to run the Bank of +England, if that time-honoured institution had rated at its true value +the growing gold-crop of Australia, and opened there. + +It may be here explained that the gentleman placed in charge of a branch +bank on a leading goldfield in Australia differs widely from the portly, +white-waistcoated, decorous potentate generally cast for the character +in the metropolis or the large towns of the settled districts. He must +be young, in order to undergo easily the shifts and privations of +goldfield life. High-couraged the man needs to be, who sleeps with one +revolver under his pillow and another at his right hand; himself, +perhaps, and his assistant, the sole custodians of a hundred thousand +pounds in gold and specie, within a bark-walled, bark-roofed shanty, +surrounded by an unscrupulous population, among whom, though not +disproportionately so, are some of the most reckless desperadoes, +refugees, and unhung murderers anywhere to be procured. He must be free +of speech and open of manner, so as in a general way to commend himself +to the miner of the period; a man, as a rule, who, while respecting and +preferring a gentleman in matters of business, abhors formality. It is +by no means to his detriment if, in his hours of ease, he demonstrates +his ability to give points at billiards or euchre to nearly all comers, +or to 'knock out in six rounds' the leading talent in the glove +tournaments periodically held. In addition to these various gifts and +graces he must have a cool and strong head, a firm will, and a resolute +determination to do his duty to his employers at whatever hazard, and +finally, while not holding aloof from the amusements of the hour, to +remain well governed, sober and temperate in all things, amid the +manifold and subtle temptations of the 'field.' + +Oftener than not when the General Manager looks around among his more +promising juniors for the possessor of these qualities, he finds him +among the scions of the aristocratic families (for there are these in +all British Colonies, and recognised as such), the heads of whom, +holding Imperial official appointments, or having received grants in the +old colonial days, have failed to follow any of the numerous paths to +fortune trodden by their humbler comrades. In many instances the +unsuccessful colonist of this class--often a retired military or naval +officer--had anxiously desired to imbue his sons with that mercantile +knowledge in which he himself stood confessedly deficient. And the +youngsters, shrewdly observant of the weak point in the paternal career, +in a large number of instances, have developed an aptitude for business +which has regained for the family the status lost in the past. +Furthermore, in the occasional adventures of a more or less dangerous +nature, inseparable from a transitional state of society, the pioneer +financier has more than once exhibited an amount of courage and +coolness, including steadiness under fire, which has proved him a worthy +descendant of the grizzled veteran who, with clasps and medals for half +the battles in the Peninsular War, had never mastered the difference +between principal and interest, much less the mystery of debit and +credit balances. + +Such a fortunate and not unusual combination was Charles--generally +known as Charlie Stirling. Him the miners on more than one 'rush' were +wont to pronounce emphatically 'a dashed good all-round man, if ever +there was one.' Australian born, and in right of such privilege, +standing six feet in his stocking soles, strong, lithe, sinewy, a fine +horseman, and a sure shot, courteous ever, yet, in business matters, +cautious if liberal, Charlie Stirling--one of a large family, in which +all the brothers were 'men and gentlemen,' and the sisters handsome and +intellectual--was, at that day, perhaps, the most popular and widely +trusted bank manager out of Melbourne. + +It was with this personage that Lance determined, as he expressed it, +'to waste the morning' in delivering Trevanion and party's gold, +watching the same being weighed and the proceeds calculated at the rate +of three pounds seventeen shillings and sixpence per ounce, duly paid to +the credit of the accounts of Lancelot Trevanion and John Polwarth, +respectively. + +Then, as he anticipated being absent a week or two--the weather was +getting very hot and he thought a change to a cooler climate would be +enjoyable--the idea suddenly occurred to him that he might as well leave +his brass-bound trunk containing all his English souvenirs and +valuables, including letters and papers, in Mr. Stirling's care. 'The +tent might be burned down or robbed in his absence,' he bethought +himself, 'and Stirling is such a brick that if I came back in ten years +instead of ten days, it would be as safe as when I left it. There are +not so many men I'd say the same of, but if there's any man to whom the +old boast "you can trust your life to him" applies, that man is Charlie +Stirling!' + +Between business and pleasure the day was pretty nearly disposed of. His +valise had been packed in the morning. The bright bay horse was faring +well in the stable of the 'Prospector's Arms' hard by the bank--where +all hands went to lunch at Mr. Stirling's invitation. He and his clerk +lodged there, as far as meals went, though they took care--as, indeed, +was strictly necessary--to sleep at the bank. Mrs. Delf, the smart and +proverbially energetic landlady, was instructed to prepare a more than +usually _recherche_ collation. Champagne ornamented the festive board, +of which a local magnate--the opulent squatter of the vicinity--was +invited to partake, and all things being fittingly concluded, Lance +Trevanion made his adieus. + +'Well, good-bye, Stirling!' he said, as he mounted the resolute bay, who +arched his neck and gave a playful plunge. 'You'll honour my drafts, I +suppose? and, by the bye'--here he drew a rather large envelope from his +shooting-coat pocket--'keep this till I return. I had a fit of the blues +last week, and scribbled what you'll find inside. Good-bye, Jack'--here +he shook hands with Polwarth--'I'll ride by the claim, and say good-bye +to Tottie and her mother.' + +Half an hour's fairly fast riding brought him to the claim, alongside of +which stood the rude canvas shelter which had for so many weeks, even +months, filled the place of 'home' for all the party. A true home in the +best sense had it been. There had the little party enjoyed, so far, +peace, security, warmth and shelter, sound sleep and wholesome meals. +Near it was the shaft through whose incursion into Mother Earth's +interior the _esse_, to be so much more noble _in posse_, had been reft +by hard and honest toil. Even such a dwelling is not quitted wholly +without regret. + +'Well, good-bye, Mrs. Polwarth!' he cried as he rode up to where that +worthy matron--having placed a gigantic loaf in the hot ashes of the +recent fire in the open chimney--was washing and cleaning up all her +belongings. 'I'm going away for a week.' + +'Where to, sir?' she queried, 'if I may make bold to ask.' + +'Well, up the country a bit. Ned Lawless wants me to join him at a new +diggings, more than a hundred miles from here.' + +'Ned Lawless!' the good woman echoed in a tone of voice by no means +expressive of satisfaction. 'And what call have you, Mr. Lance, to go +making free with the likes of him? I don't like none of the breed--men +nor women, if you ask me, and what I've heard is a deal worse than what +I've seen. They're most like a lot of gipsies, to my thinking, as a +cousin of mother's went away with, and never was heard of no more. Don't +have no truck with them, Mr. Trevanion. What 'ud the squire say?' + +This last appeal, like many well-meaning deterrents, signally failed of +its effect. With a frowning brow, such as Mrs. Polwarth had rarely if +ever seen, Lance turned his horse's head, muttering, 'Don't talk +nonsense, Mrs. Polwarth; things are very different from Cornwall, and +the Lawlesses are my friends. I'll trouble you not to----' + +At that moment, when, perhaps, something of the fierce nature of the +man--of late subjected to wholesome influences--might have broken forth, +a voice was heard saying, 'Kiss Tottie, Lance,' and that rosy little +innocent, bright-haired and blue-eyed, like one of Guido's angels, ran +forward from the tent almost up to the horse's shoulder. 'Keep away, +Tot,' he called out, springing down. 'You little puss, do you want +Pendragon to tread on your naughty toes?' The child ran to him, as if +secure of welcome, and throwing her arms round his neck, kissed him on +brow and eye, with all the loving abandon of childhood. 'Come back soon +to Tottie,' she cried. 'Naughty Lance, to go away.' + +'Lance come back soon,' he said, and his face softened as he looked at +the child, in a way which showed how the finer chords in that mysterious +mechanism, the human heart, may be stirred by one touch of simple +nature. 'And I'll bring a bag of sugar-plums twice as big as this,' +diving into his pocket and throwing towards her a large paper +receptacle of sweets. 'Bye-bye, Tottie. Good-bye, sweetheart, good-bye,' +he carolled forth, as he struck spurs into his horse, and disappeared +round a turn of the winding, tree-girdled forest-road. 'May the Lord +keep him from all evil, and from the Adversary,' said Mrs. Polwarth, a +sound disciple of Wesley. 'His heart is that good, if his head's a bit +wrong set.' + +Lunch had been, perhaps, slightly protracted owing to the accompanying +champagne, one consequence of which was that after going back to the +claim, and saying good-bye to Mrs. Polwarth, not to speak of putting a +few of his personal possessions in order at the tent, Lance Trevanion +found on reference to the sun's height above the horizon that it was +much later in the day than he supposed. It would not be possible without +hard riding to make the stage he had proposed. There was nothing to be +gained that he knew of by saving a day in the expedition; he therefore +decided to stay quietly in the township that night, stable his horse at +the hotel stables, retire early, and make a 'daylight start.' An +apparently trivial disturbance of his original plan, yet upon such +diminutive difference in action what enormous consequences frequently +depend. + +Day had scarce broken as Lance Trevanion rode down the slope and across +the creek flat, which so lately the Lawless encampment had occupied and +rendered home-like, where he had passed so many a pleasant hour. Empty +and deserted, it wore to him, now, a forlorn and melancholy aspect. The +boy had evidently packed the tents and removed the remaining chattels +according to instructions. Tessie was, of course, also gone. She had +indeed been seen on the Melbourne coach. + +The day promised to be perfect. The sun stealing through the eastern +woods was slowly irradiating the sombre slumberous landscape. Mists were +rising from the lower levels, forming lakelets of white vapour, into +which capes and promontories ran, and islands floated. The birds +awakened by the sun-rays commenced with note of carol to welcome the +golden azure day. The well-bred hackney stepped out gaily, shaking his +head and making his curb-chain ring in a fast and easy walk. 'What a +glorious climate! What a grand country this is!' thought he. 'How free +is every man's life here, untrammelled by the vexatious restraints of a +narrow society. The very air is intoxicating. Joyous, indeed, is this +life in a new world!' + +The journey was much longer, besides being rougher as to wayfaring, than +Lance had expected. Following the directions given to him and the +straggling tracks which the earlier digging parties had made, he began +to approach the celebrated Balooka 'Rush.' He had noticed that he was +gradually quitting the open forest country. All suddenly, after toiling +up one range after another, he found himself upon a mountain plateau. +Beneath this, and beside a rushing, brawling, snow-fed river, wholly +unlike any stream which Lance had yet seen in Australia, lay, far adown +a deep glen, the already populous mining camp. + +Lance gazed with astonishment at the novel and picturesque landscape. +'Am I in North Wales again?' he could not help asking himself. 'Who +would have thought to have seen such a river? Such richly green +meadowlands? Such a stupendous glen? And oh!' he thought, as he passed +round a cape of volcanic trap-rock which impinged upon the smooth +upland, 'what magic and enchantment is this?' Yes, truly, as a loftier +line of summit of the great Alpine mountain chain which bisects the +continent came into view. So sudden was the surprise, so strangely +contrasted with all his preconceived ideas of Australian scenery was the +presentment of the wondrous white battlements upreared against a +cloudless azure sky, that he was constrained to rein in his horse and +gaze, silent and spellbound, at the supernal splendour of the +apparition. 'If Estelle were by my side! If she could but behold this +entrancing prospect,' he thought. 'She, whom the view of a far blue +range of hills, of a peaceful lakelet, would send into ecstasies of +admiration! How often had they stood together in the fading summer eve +and gazed at the wide and wondrous landscape, as they then deemed it, +which extended for some twenty or thirty miles around Wychwood.' Here, +with a new world unfolding to his gaze, what crowds of ideas and +half-formed projects coursed through the adventurous brain of the gazer. +Born of the class and moulded of the race which had produced the +immortal voyagers, the unconquered warriors, the dauntless adventurers +of Elizabeth's reign, Lance Trevanion needed but the stimulus of his +present surroundings to be inspired with lofty and enterprising ideas. +His original intention of returning home and settling down to the +monotonous and luxurious stagnation of an English country gentleman's +life became hateful to him. Far rather, if Estelle would join him here, +would he invest in these half-tamed Australian wilds, acquire a +principality along with the colossal herds and countless flocks of the +typical squatter, which magnates he had seen and heard tell of. +Eventually, he would embark with a capital sufficient to buy up half the +Duchy, to restore the House of Trevanion to its ancient grandeur, and go +down to posterity as _the_ Trevanion, the latter-day champion of the +race, who had redeemed the once regal name from the mediocrity which had +oppressed and disfigured it. But these momentous plans and enterprises +could by no means be carried out without the companionship and solace of +'one sweet spirit to be his minister,' and in that hour of exultation +and unfaltering confidence there came to him, like the strain of distant +music, the low, sweet tones--the gentle chidings of his queenly Estelle. +_She_ would, unless he misjudged her, follow him to the ends of the +earth. Why, then, should he wait to linger here amid rude +surroundings--even ruder society? His business could be quite as well +managed in his absence by the faithful Jack Polwarth. How suddenly the +idea struck him! Why, he could take his passage in the _Red Jacket_--she +was to sail in a fortnight; he had seen the advertisement in the Port +Phillip _Patriot_ of the day before he left Growlers' Gully--and be in +England in six weeks! A month or two in England, a honeymoon trip on the +continent, and they could be easily back here before next winter. Miners +had done it, even in his experience. The great thing was to make a +start. He would not lose time. He had lost too much already. He had half +a mind to turn now, and get back as far as the Weather-board Inn he had +seen about ten miles distant. What was the use, after all, of seeing +this new field, Balooka--or the Lawlesses--which meant Kate? What good +could come of it? Perhaps the reverse, indeed. Was there really anything +hidden, at which Tessie had clearly hinted? So sharply and clearly did +this new view of his plans and prospects strike him. May there not be +moments when the voice of a man's guardian-angel sounds with a strangely +solemn and distinct warning in his ears, for the moment drowning, as +with a harp of no earthly tone, the fiend-voice which ever seeks to lure +him to his doom? It would appear so. For even as Lance Trevanion turned +his horse's head, and paced slowly, but resolvedly, in the opposite +direction by which he had advanced, a woman rode at half-speed from out +one of the forest tracks--leading a saddled horse--and reined up with +practised ease in the main road, almost beside him. It was Kate +Lawless. + +For the moment he could scarce believe his eyes. He awoke from his +day-dream with a half sense of disloyalty to his promise, as the +startled gaze of the girl rested upon him. Their eyes met. In hers he +thought he recognised a surprised and doubtful expression, unlike her +usual fearless regard. She looked athwart the track adown which she had +come, and along the main road into which she had entered. At the first +clattering sound of her horse's hoofs Lance had turned his horse's head +in the direction of Balooka, so that she had not the awkward admission +to make that he had been retracing his steps. + +'Did you meet or pass any one on the road?' she said, as soon as they +had interchanged greetings. 'I couldn't hardly make out who you were +when I came up. Sure you seen no one?' + +'Not a soul, except a Chinaman,' he said; 'but what does it matter? I've +met _you_--and you have ever so much more colour than when I saw you +last. How becoming it is!' And, in truth, the girl's cheeks showed a +heightened hue, whether from emotion or exercise, which he had never +observed before during their acquaintance. + +For the rest, she looked handsomer than he had ever thought her. Her +graceful figure swayed easily in the saddle as she steadied her +impatient horse--an animal of high quality, and, unknown to Lance, as +was also the thoroughbred she was leading. Her hair had become loosened +at the back from the great knot in which it was mostly confined, and +hung in bright luxuriance almost to her waist. Her eyes sparkled, her +smile seemed the outcome of unaffected pleasure at meeting Lance again. +The old witchery asserted itself--old as the birth of history, yet new +and freshly fair as the dawning day. For the time Lance felt +irresistibly impelled to follow where she might lead, to abide at all +hazards in the light of her presence. + +Where were now the high resolves--the lofty emprise of a short half-hour +since? _Ou sont les neiges d'antan?_ Gone, gone, and for ever! Was there +a low sigh breathed beside him as he rode close by her bridle-rein adown +the long incline, in which they could see the diggers' tents in +thousands whitening the green valley beneath them? + +'So you have come to see us at last,' she said archly. 'I began to +think Tessie had frightened you off it. I can't tell what's come to the +girl. Billy told me she'd been pitching a lot to you: how bad we was, +and all the rest of it.' + +'I said I would come, didn't I? and here I am. And a grand country it +seems to be. But what are you about, yourself, and whose horse, saddle, +and bridle are they? You haven't been "shaking" them? isn't that the +word?' + +'No fear,' she answered--half shyly, half angrily, as it appeared to +him. 'I suppose you think we haven't got a decent horse. I rode out with +Johnnie Kemp--one of our chaps that's working a claim at Woolshed Creek, +and brought back his horse for him.' + +'Johnnie Kemp knows a good horse when he sees him,' he replied, as he +looked at the well-bred animal. 'You'd wonder how they got such a coat +up here. And how is Ned? You left Growlers' Gully rather suddenly, don't +you think?' + +'That was all Ned's doing; he heard about this place being so good, and +was afraid to wait. He and the boys have got a first-rate claim here; +but he's been buying a lot of horses lately, and talks of starting for +Melbourne with a mob next week.' + +'That would suit me exactly,' said Lance. 'I should like to make one of +the party, for I intend to be in Melbourne some time before the month is +out.' + +'What makes you in such a hurry to get to Melbourne?' the girl asked, +and, as she spoke, she leaned across nearer to him and laid her hand on +his horse's mane, holding her bridle-rein and the led horse in her right +hand. 'Old Pendragon looks lovely, don't he? You'd better stop and keep +me company while Ned's away. I shall be as miserable as a bandicoot, for +the chaps are away more than half the time, and this is a roughish +place--a deal worse than Growlers'; poor old Growlers'--I always liked +the place myself.' + +As she spoke, her voice became lower, with a softened, appealing tone in +it which strangely stirred the pulses of the listener. The day was +nearly done; the solemn summit of the snow range was becoming paler, and +yet more pale, as the crimson and gold bars of the sunset sky faded out. +There was a hush, almost an unbroken silence in the forest; far beneath, +still, the mining camp appeared to be a mimic _corps d'armee_, from +which one might expect to encounter sentinel and vedette. The girl's +gray eyes were fixed upon him with a pleading, almost childish +intensity. It was one of those moments in the life of man--frail and +unstable as it is his nature to be--when resolutions, principles, the +experience of the past, the hopes of the future are swept away like +leaves before the blast, like driftwood on the stream, like the bark +upon the ocean when the storm-winds are unchained. + +What an Enchantress is the Present; Ill fare the Past and the Absent! be +they never so divine of mien, so spotless of soul. Lance Trevanion +placed his hand on the girl's shoulder as she looked up in his face with +the smile of victory. 'I shall have to take care of you, Kate, if Ned's +going to desert the camp,' he said. 'I suppose he won't be wanting to +settle in Melbourne.' + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +They rode quietly adown the winding track, which the sharpness of the +grade rendered necessary, until finally reaching the wide green flat, +they halted before the much-vaunted 'rush' of Balooka. The early summer +sun's rays in that temperate region had as yet been unable to dim the +green lustre of the herbage, or turn to dust the close sward of the +river meadows. The contrast was sharply accented in this still dreamy +eve between the brilliant tones of the levels and the sombrely-purple +shadows of the overhanging mountain, the faintly-burning sunset tints, +while through all sounded the rhythmic murmur of the rushing river +rippling over slate and granite bars, in the crevices of which were +'pockets' filled with gold. The strange blending of sounds which arose +from the camp--an occasional shot, the barking of dogs, the low hum of +many voices indistinctly heard--were not devoid in unison of a rude +harmony. + +'Can anything be more wonderful than this change of scenery?' exclaimed +Lance admiringly. 'Who thought there _could_ be such a spot in +Australia? It is lovelier than a dream!' + +'It don't look bad,' assented his companion. 'That's our camp to the +right. You can see they've yarded the horses. Ned's in front with his +gray horse, and I spot a stranger or two. Perhaps he's sold the mob "to +a dealer."' + +Touching the led horse with the quince switch which she used as a +riding-whip, Kate dashed into a hand-gallop, and, riding at speed across +the boggy runlets which trickled from the hills, pulled up short at a +cluster of tents somewhat away from the main body of miners. They had +been pitched close to the edge of the far-extending flat; nearly +opposite was a brush and log stockyard, in which were nearly a hundred +horses. + +Springing from her horse, though still holding the two bridles in her +hand, the girl walked up to her brother, saying as she came, 'It's all +right, Ned, Trevanion's come with me. I fell in with him--My God!' she +continued in an altered tone, 'what's up?' Then for the first time +turning her searching glance on the plainly-dressed man with a slouched +felt hat who stood by her brother's side, she exclaimed, 'Frank Dayrell, +by the Lord! Why, I thought you were a hundred miles off. What call have +you to be worrying and tracking us down, like a black-hearted bloodhound +that you are?' + +'Hold your d--d chatter, Kate, can't you?' said her brother, whom she +now noticed had handcuffs on, though, with his hands before him, it was +not at first apparent. 'Why the devil didn't you keep away when you were +away? I thought you and he were gone for good.' + +'Johnnie Kemp was only going as far as his claim; you know that,' she +answered, with a meaning look, though her cheeks grew pale and her lips +became hard and set. 'Now, Sergeant Dayrell, what are you going to do to +me--put the bracelets on, eh?' + +Then this strange girl burst into a wild fit of laughter, which, though +bordering on hysterical seizure, was yet sufficiently natural to pass +for her amused acknowledgment of the humour of her situation. + +At this moment Lance Trevanion, who had been gazing around with the air +of a man surprised out of all ordinary power of expression, dismounted +and advanced towards the man-at-arms. + +'Sergeant Dayrell,' he said, 'I am quite at a loss to understand these +very strange proceedings. Have you a warrant for the arrest of my friend +Lawless here? Is he to be punished without trial? And for any rashness +to this young lady here be assured that I will hold you accountable.' + +The trooper smiled grimly as his eye, cold and contemptuous, met that of +the excited speaker. + +'Your _friend_, as you call him, is arrested on suspicion of stealing +certain horses missing from the Growlers' Gully and the Ballarat field +generally, several of which, in that yard, are already identified. +_Miss_ Kate Lawless will have quite enough to do to clear herself. She +knows where that led horse came from. As for you,' and here his voice +suddenly became harsh and menacing, 'the horse you ride is a stolen one, +and I arrest you on the charge of receiving, well knowing him to be +such. Put up your hands.' + +Lance Trevanion had come nearer to the sergeant as he spoke, the frown +upon his face becoming yet more ominous and dark, while the gloomy fire +in his eyes had become strangely intense. As the sergeant spoke the last +word he drew his revolver, and pointing it full at the young man's head +advanced upon him. He doubtless calculated upon the surprise which in +the case of most criminals, alleged or otherwise, rendered them easy of +capture, for he signed to one of the men in plain clothes who stood near +to bring the handcuffs ready in his hand. But at that moment Trevanion, +springing forward, knocked up the barrel of the revolver, and, catching +his enemy fair between the eyes with his left, felled him like a log. He +lay for an instant without sense or motion. Before Lance had time, +however, to consider what use he should make of his instinctive success +the two constables were upon him from either side. He made one frantic +struggle, but the odds were too great, and after a short but severe +contest the fetters were slipped over his wrists with practised +celerity, and the locks being snapped, Lance found himself, for the +first time in his life, a fettered captive. + +The sergeant rose slowly to his feet and gazed upon the young man, now +breathless and held on either side by the myrmidons of the law. His brow +was flushed and red, but there was, at present, no mark of +disfigurement. + +'That was one for you, Dayrell,' said the mocking voice of Kate Lawless, +as she stood by her brother, with a jeering smile on her lips. 'My word, +Lance Trevanion, you got home then if you never get the chance of +another round. Why don't you slip the bracelets, sergeant, and have it +out man to man? I'll see fair play. You've a lot of science, we all +know, but I'll back Lance for a tenner. What do you say?' + +The expression on the sergeant's face had never varied from the cold and +fixed expression which it had worn when he made the charge against +Lance, but now he relaxed visibly and wore a comparatively cheerful air. + +'You are a good straight hitter, Trevanion,' he said, 'and I like a man +all the better for being quick with his hands. I didn't count on your +showing fight, I must say. But you never can tell what a man will do the +first time he's shopped. You'll know more about it before we've done +with you.' + +'Good God!' said Trevanion, 'you don't surely mean to say that you +believe I have had anything to do with stealing horses? I may have been +deceived. I begin to suspect that I have, but how many men have bought +stolen horses on the diggings without a thought of anything dishonest? +What reason have I either, a man with more money than he knows what to +do with?' + +'You can tell all that to the Bench,' said the sergeant coldly. 'All I +know is that I find you in possession of a stolen horse and the +associate of horse-stealers. You must stand your trial like other men.' + +Had the mountain suddenly rolled down, filled up the river, and +pulverised the camp, Lance's astonishment could not have been more +profound. He groaned as he felt the touch of the cold iron, and then +sullenly resigned himself to the indignity. + +'Now, Miss Tiger-cat,' said this modern presentment of Nemesis, '_you_ +know pretty well where the horse you were riding came from, and where +the one you were leading ate his corn a week ago. I must take them with +me, but you can have your side-saddle. Whether you're brought into this +racket depends on yourself, _you understand me_.' And with a meaning +glance the sergeant turned to his men. 'One of you take the prisoners to +the lock-up. Shoot either of them if they try to run. The other take +these three horses and secure them at the camp stable. I'll remain here +till you come back to watch these horses in the yard.' + +The little procession moved on. The fettered prisoners--now linked +together--the three led horses. The number was swelled by dozens of idle +or curious spectators to nearly a hundred before they reached the +temporary but massive wooden building which did duty as a gaol; and +therein, for the first time in his life, Lance heard a prison key +turned, and a prison bolt shot, upon--himself. + +Words are vain things, after all. Who can essay to describe--be it ever +so faintly traced--the mingled shame and surprise--the agony and the +sorrow--the wrath and despair of the man unjustly imprisoned? Think of +Lance Trevanion, young, gently nurtured, ignorant, save by hearsay, of +crime or its punishment, suddenly captured, subjected to durance vile, +in danger of yet infinitely greater shame and more lasting disgrace. +Haughty and untamed--so far removed by race and tradition from the +meaner crimes from which the lower human tribes have for ages suffered, +it was as if one of the legendary demon-lovers of the daughters of men +had been ensnared and chained. Ceaselessly did Lance Trevanion rave and +fret on that never-to-be-forgotten night. The dawn found him pale and +determined, with set face and drawn lips. Every vestige of youth seemed +to have vanished. Years might have rolled on. A careless youth might +have been succeeded by the mordant cares of middle age. So changed was +every facial line--so fixed the expression which implied settled +resentment of an outrage--even more, the thirst for revenge! + +When he became--after hours of half-delirious raving--sufficiently calm +to reflect upon and realise his position, nothing could be clearer than +the explanation. Scales seemed, metaphorically, to have fallen from his +eyes. How blind! How imbecile had he been, thus to walk into the trap +with his eyes open! _This_, of course, was what the girl Tessie had +meant when with such disproportionate earnestness she had warned him not +to go on this ill-fated journey. She knew what Ned Lawless's past had +been, what any 'business' of his was likely to be; and Kate--double-dyed +hypocrite and false-tongued jade that she was--how she had lured him to +his doom. Perhaps not exactly that, for, of course, his utter ignorance +of their villainy would appear on the trial, if it went so far, and as +to buying a stolen horse it was next to impossible to avoid +that--numbers of people he knew had done so; and then, what motive could +she have for enticing him to Balooka, when she must have known the +tremendous risk to which she was exposing him? She, surely, had no +reason to wish to injure him? Surely, surely, not after her words, her +looks, her changes of voice and expression, all of which he knew so +well! But throughout, and above and below all his thoughts, imaginings, +and wonderings, came with recurring and regulated distinctness--What a +fool I have been, what a fool, what a thrice-sodden idiot and lunatic! +_Now_ he knew what the friendly warning of Hastings meant. _Now_ he +understood Mrs. Polwarth's dislike and Jack's blunt disapproval of that +intimacy. + +It was easily explained. He had had to buy his experience. He had paid +dearly for going to that school. And who were, proverbially, the people +who would learn at no other? Fools, fools, again fools! + +The day had passed without his touching the simple food which had been +placed before him. At sundown the constable who came to see that his +prisoner was all right for the night, pitying his evident misery, and +accepting the non-absorption of food and drink as an incontestable proof +of first offence, tried to persuade him to 'take it easy,' as he +expressed it. + +'You've never been shopped before, that's seen. Well, it's happened to +many a good man, and will again. Don't go back on your tucker. You've a +long ride before you. We shall start back for Ballarat to-morrow. If you +get clear, you're all the better for not losing heart. If you don't, it +won't matter one way or the other.' + +Lance nodded his head. Speech--to talk as he did when he was _that other +man_, the man who was a gentleman, free, proud, stainless, who never +needed to lower his eyes or doff his hat to any living being--to him now +speech was impossible. + +The policeman looked at him, turned again, and shook his head and walked +out, locking and bolting the door mechanically. + +'Dashed if I can make out that case,' said the trooper to himself. +'Dayrell knows why he arrested that young fellow, I don't. Any child can +see he didn't stand in with that crowd. They've had him soft, selling +him a cross horse as any man might have knowed was too good for them to +own on the square; but if he gives up the horse they can't touch him, I +should think. He floored Dayrell though, and that'll go agin him. The +sergeant can make it pretty hot for them as he don't fancy.' + +Early next morning, half an hour after a pannikin of tea and a plate of +meat surmounted by a large wedge of bread had been placed in his cell, +Lance Trevanion was taken out and placed upon a horse. He was helped +into the saddle, the feat of mounting in handcuffs being rather a +difficult one to the inexperienced captive, as any gentleman may +discover by tying his hands together and making the attempt. He was +permitted to hold the reins by means of a knot at the end, and, with +some limitation, to direct the animal's course. But a leading-rein was +buckled to the snaffle, by which a mounted trooper led his horse. Ned +Lawless, also handcuffed, was similarly accommodated. One trooper rode +ahead, one behind. Neither of the prisoners' horses were such that if +they had got loose and essayed to escape, would have had much chance by +reason of superior speed. They were leg-weary screws, and were, indeed, +nearly due for superannuation, the goal of which would be reached when +they had carried (and risked the lives of) a few dozen more prisoners. +Dayrell remained behind at Balooka. Possibly he had some reason for the +delay, but if so he did not disclose it. + +What a different return journey was this from the commencement of it, +when Lance had set out so light of heart, so joyous of mood, his pockets +full of money, his credit unlimited, all the world before him, as the +ordinary phrase goes; able to pick and choose, as he supposed, among the +world's pleasures and occupations, to select, to examine, to purchase, +to refuse, at his pleasure. A good horse under him, the fresh forest +breeze in each inhalation exhilarating every pulse as he rode at ease or +at headlong speed through the winding forest track. A man, a gentleman, +rich, successful, respected, more independent than a king and unlike +him, free to come or to go at his own sovereign will and pleasure. + +And now, how had a few short hours, a conspiracy, heedless imprudence, +and malign fate changed and disfigured him. A prisoner fettered and +confined, charged with a grave offence, at the mercy of a severe and +unscrupulous officer whom he had been imprudent enough to defy and later +on to resist, what might he not expect? + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Long and deadly wearisome was the journey to Ballarat. Necessarily slow, +it became insufferably tedious to impatient men who had been used to +take counsel but of their own will and caprice. An early start, a late +ending to the dragging day's journey, broken but by a short mid-day +halt. Such was the order of Lance's return to Ballarat, until, on the +fifth day, they saw once more in the distance the smoke of the thousand +camp fires and heard the distant surge-like murmur of the army of the +Mine. + +Wearied and heart-sick, melancholy and furious by turns, Lance Trevanion +almost commenced to doubt of his own identity. When they arrived at the +camp he found himself led forward between two troopers and half +conducted, half pushed into a cell, the clang of the bolt seeming to +intensify the strange unreality of his position. The trooper informed +him that his meal would be sent in directly; that he would have to make +the best of it with the blankets doubled up for a bed in a corner of the +cell until next day. Then he would be brought before the police +magistrate, and either discharged or committed, as the case might be. + +On the journey Lance had, after his first paroxysm of rage and disgust, +abundant leisure to think over and over the facts and probable +consequences of his position. He was apparently to be arraigned, if +committed for trial, for having in his possession a stolen horse. But +could they, could any one prove that he had 'guilty knowledge--that he +knew of its being dishonestly come by'? Were not half the horses then +sold in Ballarat supposed to be stolen, stolen from the 'Sydney side,' +from South Australia, from all parts of Victoria indeed? He had never +known any one tried on such a charge, and had, indeed, thought in his +ignorance that laxity about the ownership of live stock was one of the +customs of the country, rendered indeed almost inevitable from the +absence of fencing or natural boundaries between the immense herds and +flocks. + +He had not, of course, the smallest suspicion that Pendragon, the horse +he had so named in memory of the old Cornish legend, which he had bought +from Ned Lawless at a high figure, was other than perfectly 'square,' as +Ned would have phrased it. Had he known the truth he would have +repudiated the purchase with scorn. But now, to be arrested and marched +to gaol with as much formality as if he had taken a horse out of the +stable of a neighbouring proprietor in Cornwall, or 'lifted' a flock of +black-faced sheep, struck him as truly anomalous and absurd. + +Next morning, after a night which came to an end in spite of his forlorn +condition, he found himself making one of a large class of _detenues_ +who, for one offence or another, were to come up for judgment. + +The ordinary charge-sheet of a goldfield is fairly filled as a rule, and +at this particular period of the existence of Ballarat as a town a large +proportion of criminals of all shades and classes had managed to make it +their temporary home. Expirees from Tasmania, where the transportation +system had only lately come to an end, had swelled the proportion of +habitual criminals. These were daring and desperate men; an inexorable +penal system had partially controlled, but failed altogether to reform +them. So frequent had been the assaults upon life and property with +which this class was credited, that an official of exceptional firmness +and experience had been specially selected for the responsible post of +police magistrate of Ballarat. + +This gentleman, Mr. M'Alpine, generally familiarly and widely known as +'Launceston Mac,' was credited with using a short and trenchant way with +criminals. Presumably a large proportion of his _clientele_ had been at +some time or other before him in Tasmania. He had, it was conceded, a +wonderful memory for faces, as also for 'accidents and offences.' It was +asserted for him that he never met a man under penal circumstances that +he could not recognise if encountered twenty years afterwards. It was +only necessary in the case of doubtful identity to direct the attendant +police to 'turn him round,' which formula was almost invariably followed +by the remark, 'Seen you before, my man, on the other side, your name is +so-and-so. Six months' imprisonment with hard labour.' + +Doubtless in nineteen cases out of twenty the inference was correct, and +the punishment just. But there _was_ a probability that occasionally the +worthy justice was mistaken. Among the hordes of criminals with which he +had been officially connected, small wonder if an occasional lapse of +memory took place, and then so much the worse for the accused. + +But, as in all comprehensive schemes of legislative repression the +individual suffers for the general advantage, so the occasional +misdirections of justice, in that era of widespread license which might +so easily degenerate into lawlessness, were but lightly regarded as +incident to a period of martial law; and no one gainsaid the fact that +the practised readiness, prompt decision, and stern resolve which Mr. +M'Alpine brought to bear upon the thousands of cases were of priceless +advantage to the body politic and all law-abiding citizens. + +It was this Rhadamanthus, before whom so many an evil-doer trembled, +that Lance Trevanion found himself compelled to confront. He knew him, +of course, by fame and report, as who did not?--but had never met him, +as it happened, personally. He did not doubt, however, but that a few +words of explanation would suffice to set him free. It was therefore +with a sense of awakening hope that he obeyed the summons to follow one +of the constables to the court-house. This was a large but not imposing +building, composed of weather-boards, rude, indeed, and deficient as to +architectural proportions. However, it was a great improvement upon the +large tent which did duty as a hall of justice in the primitive days of +the gold outbreak. + +Erect upon the bench, regarding the herd of prisoners, as one by one +they came before him, with a stern countenance and searching glance, sat +Mr. M'Alpine. His eyes had that fixed and penetrating expression +generally acquired by men who have had long experience of criminals. His +face seemed to say to such: 'I can identify you, if necessary--I know +every thought of your vile heart--every deed of your ruffian life. Don't +dare to _think_ of deceiving _me_ or it will be worse for you--plead +guilty if you are wise, and don't insult the court by a defence!' + +Long and so sombre had been Mr. M'Alpine's experiences of every kind of +iniquity, of evasion, if not defiance of the law, that it is doubtful if +he considered any person ever brought before him to be perfectly +innocent. Certainly not, unless conclusively proved by competent +witnesses. The _onus probandi_ lay with the accused. It is asserted by +outsiders that all police officials in time acquire a tinge of the +hunter instinct, which impels them to pursue, and, if possible, run down +every species of quarry once started, irrespective of guilt. But this, +doubtless, is an invention of the enemy. + +After the squad of 'drunks and disorderlies' had been dealt with, the +names Launcelot Trevanion and Edward Lawless were called; 'the +prisoners' were ordered to stand up. + +A novel experience, truly, for the heir of Wychwood. The court was +crowded. It had somehow leaked out that Trevanion, of Number Six, +Growlers', had been 'run in' by Sergeant Dayrell for horse-stealing. The +news had not yet got as far as the Gully proper--the time not having +allowed. But every 'golden-hole man' was pretty well known on the +'field,' and Lance was a prominent personage, by repute, in the mining +community. + +'What the blazes has a chap like that any call to shake a horse +for--that's what I want to know?' inquires a huge, blackbearded digger. +'Why, they say he's worth forty or fifty thousand, if he's worth a +penny, and the claim washing-up better and better every week?' + +'He never stole no moke,' returned his companion decisively, 'no more +than you or me prigged the post-office clock, that's just been +a-striking! He's a free-handed chap with his money, and that soft that +he don't know a cross cove from a straight 'un. He's been had by Ned +Lawless and his crowd. That's about the size of it.' + +'They can't shop him for that, though,' said the first man, +contemplatively filling his pipe. 'They say he was riding a crooked +horse when he was took. Kate Lawless was with him on another. The yard +was half-full of horses the Lawlesses had worked from hereabouts. It +looked ugly, didn't it?' + +'Looked ugly be blowed!' said his more logical and experienced friend. +'Things is getting pretty cronk if a chap can't ride alongside a pretty +gal without wanting to see a receipt for the nag she's on! I believe +it's a plant of that beggar Dayrell's. He wants a big case, and that +poor young chap may have to suffer for it.' + +'Dayrell wouldn't do a thing like that, surely,' exclaimed the first +speaker in tones of amazement. 'Why, it's as bad as murder, I call it. +What's to become of a swell chap like him, if he's lagged and sent to +the hulks?' + +'There's devilish few things as Dayrell _wouldn't_ do, it's my opinion, +if he thought he'd get a step by it,' replied his friend. 'But this +cove's friends'll make a fight for it. They'll have law. They've got +money, and so has he, of course. They'll have a lawyer from Melbourne.' + +It did not appear at first as if there was much danger to be apprehended +as far as Lance was concerned. Directly his case was called, he stood up +and faced the Bench and the expectant crowd with a stern +expression--half of defiance, half of contempt. + +'May I say a few words in my own defence?' he commenced. 'I am certain +that a short explanation would convince the Bench that any charge such +as I am called upon to answer is ludicrous in the extreme.' + +'We must first have the evidence of the apprehending constable,' said +the police magistrate decisively, 'after which the Bench will hear +anything you have to say.' + +'But, your worship, I wish to speak a few words before.' + +'After the evidence,' said the P.M. sternly. 'Swear Sergeant Dayrell.' + +That official strode forward, stepping into the vertical pew which is +placed for the apparent _in_-convenience of witnesses, by adding to +their natural nervousness and trepidation the discomfort of a cramped +wearisome posture. To him, at least, it made no difference. Cool and +collected, he made his statement with practised ease and deliberation, +as if reading an oft-recited passage out of a well-known volume, +watching the pen of the clerk of the Bench, so as to permit that +official to commit to writing correctly his oft-fateful words. They were +as follows-- + +'My name is Francis Dayrell, senior-sergeant of police for the colony of +Victoria, at present stationed at Growlers' Gully. I know the prisoners +before the court. On Friday the 20th September last, from information +received, I proceeded to a digging known as Balooka, situated in New +South Wales, and distant about one hundred and seventy miles from +Ballarat. I arrived on Monday evening the 23d, and proceeded to the camp +of the prisoner Edward Lawless, whom I arrested by virtue of a warrant, +which I produce. It is signed by a magistrate of the territory. In a +yard close to the prisoner's camp I found a large number of horses, +several of which I at once identified as being stolen from miners at +Ballarat, or in the vicinity. Others appeared to have brands resembling +those of squatters in the neighbourhood. The prisoner Lawless was unable +to account for his possession of these, or to produce receipts. He was +about to leave for Melbourne, I was informed, in order to sell the whole +mob. I arrested him and his cousin Daniel, and charged him with stealing +the horse named in the warrant. While he was in custody I observed the +other prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion by name, riding towards the camp in +company with a young woman. She was riding one horse, and leading +another. When he came up I identified both the horse he was riding and +that of his companion as stolen horses, both of which have been +advertised in the _Police Gazette_. I produce the _Gazette_ wherein the +brand and description correspond. I charged the prisoner with receiving +a certain bay horse branded H. J., well knowing him to be stolen, and +arrested him. I then conveyed the prisoners to the gaol at Ballarat +East, where I confined them.' + +This evidence--which even Lance admitted to himself placed matters in a +more unfavourable light than he could have supposed possible--being read +over, Mr. M'Alpine said, 'Have you any question to ask the witness?' + +'Yes, your worship,' answered Lance, bringing out the last two words +with apparent difficulty. + +'You are aware that I had the bay horse in my possession for some weeks +at Growlers', and rode him openly there?' + +'Yes, certainly.' + +'Then why did you not arrest me there?' + +'I had my reasons, one of which was that I had not received an answer +from Mr. Jeffreys--the breeder of the horse.' + +'Was that with reference to the hundred pound reward offered on +conviction of any one proved to have stolen one of his horses?' + +'No!' + +'That reward did not actuate you in arresting me on a charge of which +you must know that I am innocent, if you have watched my conduct at +all?' + +'I _have_ watched your conduct, and know you to be an habitual associate +of the Lawlesses, who, as a family, are known to be among the most +clever horse and cattle stealers in New South Wales. I have known you to +make a practice of gambling with them for large sums. It has been stated +to me that you have lost as much as five hundred pounds to them at a +sitting.' + +'Did you not know that I had come straight from Ballarat when I rode up +to the camp at Balooka?' + +'I am not in a position to state where you came from. I saw you ride up +with Kate Lawless, in whose company I have repeatedly seen you. On this +occasion you and she were in possession of three horses--all stolen +property--the one she rode, the one she led, and the horse you rode.' + +'How could I know that the horse I bought from Ned Lawless was stolen? +He did not know, I believe, or he would not have sold it to me, I am +sure.' + +'That you will have to explain to the court,' returned the sergeant, +with pitying contempt. + +'Good God! Did I look like a guilty man when you arrested me?' exclaimed +Lance, in a tone which had an echo of despair as plank by plank he felt +his defence foundering, as it were, at every cold and sinister answer of +this relentless foe. + +'You made a most violent resistance,' replied the sergeant calmly, 'of +which my face still bears the mark. I don't know whether that is to be +taken as a proof of your innocence.' + +'I appeal to your worship,' exclaimed the unfortunate accused as a +nameless terror stole over him--such as Quentin Durward may have +experienced when Tristan L'Hermite and Petit Andre were about to attach +him to the fatal tree--lest, ignorant of all legal forms, he should be +tried and condemned before he had a chance of exculpation. 'I appeal to +your worship to permit my case to be adjourned, in order that I may +bring witnesses who can prove my innocence, and also that I may obtain +legal assistance. Surely you cannot sit there and see an innocent man +wrongfully condemned. Though a miner, I am a gentleman of good, indeed +ancient family; an act such as I have been accused of is, therefore, +impossible to me. For God's sake, permit me an adjournment!' + +The magistrate's face was impassive. His nature was probably not less +compassionate than that of other men. But long familiarity with crime, +long official acquaintance with every variety of villainy, had indurated +his feelings to such an extent that but little trust in human nature, as +ordinarily displayed within the precincts of his court, had survived. No +doubt this young fellow looked and spoke like an innocent man; but how +many criminals had looked and spoken likewise? The wholesale stealing +of miners' and squatters' horses--now worth from fifty to a hundred +pounds each in the Melbourne market--had reached such a pitch that the +miners had declared their intention to shoot or lynch any future 'horse +thieves,' as the American miners called them, if justice was not done +them by the Government. Mr. M'Alpine had this in his mind at the time, +and, with all proper respect for the rules of evidence, had come fully +to the conclusion that it was high time that an exemplary sentence +should be passed upon the very next culprit caught 'red-handed'; he +therefore made no reply to the passionate appeal of the unlucky +prisoner. + +'Read over the evidence,' he said, in a cold voice, to the clerk of the +court. + +That official with colourless accuracy read out Dayrell's damaging +statement on oath, as well as Lance's questions thereupon, which, as +generally happens to the accused who essays his own defence, had injured +rather than aided his case. + +'Do you wish to ask the witness any other question?' he inquired, in a +tone which would have led a bystander to think that the process was a +pleasant interchange of ideas between gentlemen, which any prisoner +might enjoy. + +'No; certainly not, but I should like to say----' + +'I understood you to apply for an adjournment, for the purpose of +calling witnesses and employing a legal practitioner?' + +'Certainly I did, but I wish----' + +'The prisoner stands remanded to this day week at 10 A.M. Bail refused. +It is understood that any authorised person is not to be denied access +to him. The court stands adjourned till ten o'clock to-morrow morning.' + +As this closed proceedings, the police magistrate walked slowly forth, +leaving Lance to be re-conducted to prison, with, however, permission to +see all friends and legal advisers. + +Before the proceedings closed the sergeant had made a formal request for +the adjournment for a week of the case against Edward Lawless, assigning +as a reason that he was not fully prepared with the necessary evidence. +This had been assented to: both prisoners were then marched back to +gaol, and being locked up in separate cells, were left to their +reflections. + +From the sound of whistling and even singing which proceeded from the +apartment occupied by Mr. Edward Lawless, the penalty of imprisonment +did not appear to fall heavily upon his elastic spirits: the iron had +not entered into his soul in any marked degree. But far otherwise was it +with Lance Trevanion. He had buoyed himself up with the idea that he +would only need to make a short explanation to the magistrate, and that +he would be immediately set at liberty. In this expectation he had been +bitterly disappointed. So far from his release being an easy matter, it +seemed as if a fresh element of doubt, a dismal dread, undefined yet +ominous, had been introduced into the affair. Would he perhaps _really_ +be convicted and sentenced? The idea was maddening, but innocent persons +had been found guilty before, if some of the tales which he had heard +were not untrue. Why not again? This was a strange country. He had been +deceived and thoroughly duped, as he could not help confessing to +himself. Might he not find himself yet more fatally mistaken in all his +conclusions? + +Seated on the floor of his cell, he rapidly fell into a state of +semi-stupor as these sombre imaginings coursed through his brain, +sometimes slowly and with saddest procession, at other times with almost +delirious haste. Was he indeed Lance Trevanion, the free, fearless +traveller of a week since? It surely could not be! What was he to do +next? Life or liberty, which came to the same thing, was surely worth +fighting for. He must have legal assistance if it were possible. There +was hardly a lawyer in Ballarat that was _practising his profession_. A +sufficient number there abode doubtless, but they were all in the year +1852 engaged in mining. After a while the ebb of adventure set in, on +which a return took place to nearly all the professions. But in the +spring of 1852 the golden tide was at flood-mark. It was hard to find +any man in the place or position which he had formerly held. + +From this mood of doubt and despair Trevanion was aroused by steps in +the corridor and the opening of the door of the cell. He had but scant +time to rise and stand erect when Hastings and Jack Polwarth +entered--the latter with an expression of alarm and astonishment that +but for his evident sincerity would have been ludicrous. + +'Why, Mr. Lance--Mr. Trevanion,' cried Jack, in tones of subdued horror, +'whatever has come to ye, that they have had the face to do this? Can +they stand by it, think ye, Mr. Hastings? Locking up a gentleman like +Mr. Lance here and makin' oot as he's stolen a trumpery 'oss, him as +wouldn't do the like for a Black Forest full of 'em. It's fair murther +and worse--all the gully's talking on it, and I could fetch a hundred +Cousin Jacks and Devon lads as'lld pull the place about their ears if +you'd but say the word, Mr. Lance?' + +'I'm afraid that would do no good, Jack,' said Hastings, whose concern, +not so freely expressed, was as deep and sincere as that of Lance's +faithful partner. 'I see no reason though, Trevanion, why you shouldn't +be out in a week. However, all this is deucedly annoying and vexatious. +Still we must be patient. Queer things happen on a goldfield. You +remember my plight when first we made acquaintance?' + +'Annoying!' replied Trevanion, slowly turning his frowning face, in +which the lurid passion-light of his gloomy eyes had commenced to burn. +'Why in the world should I have been selected by Providence for this +damnable injustice? I feel already as if I was disgraced irrevocably. +How can I ever show my face among my equals again after having been +arrested, handcuffed, charged with felony, locked up like a criminal? +Great God! when I think of it all I wonder why I don't go mad!' + +'It's no use getting excited over it,' said Hastings. 'The thing is to +_do_ all that we can, not to think or talk about it over-much. Stirling +will be here to-morrow. He could not come to-day, but will leave his +bank before the stars are out of the sky to-morrow, and will be here by +breakfast-time. He could not come to-day because of business. We will +see about your witnesses and manage to get a lawyer up from Melbourne in +time. Keep up your spirits. There are dozens of men, and women too, that +can prove an _alibi_. If my claim was as good as yours I'd swap places +cheerfully with you.' + +'Don't be too sure of that,' returned Lance with a sardonic smile. 'I +have a kind of presentiment that evil will come of this business. Why, I +know not, but still the feeling haunts me. Well, Jack, we never thought +of this on board the _Red Jacket_ when we were so jolly, eh?' + +'Just to think of it,' exclaimed Jack, with the tears running down his +honest face. 'And never a Trevanion in a prison before since that +king--I can't mind his name--shut up one of them in the old Tower of +London and cut his head off. But that was dying like a gentleman--that +ever I should have lived to see this! I could never show my face at +Wychwood or St. Austell's again.' + +'Why, Jack, you're about as foolish as your--master, I was nearly +saying--as your mate there, at any rate. Why, Lance is not even +committed for trial. All sorts of things may happen in the meantime. +_Must_ happen; _must_ happen. Now, we must say good-bye, Lance. I'll +send you in some books. I don't see many about. For God's sake, keep up +your spirits.' + +The time fixed for the remand having expired, Lance and his +fellow-prisoner, Ned Lawless, were brought up for their preliminary +trial. All necessary arrangements had been completed; no further reason +existed for delay either on the part of the Crown or of the prisoners. + +The sergeant was quite ready with his witnesses; Stirling and Hastings +had secured the services of the celebrated Mr. England, the great +criminal lawyer, about whose capacity the general miners' opinion, as +expressed on the occasion, ran thus: 'Well, if England don't get him +off, nobody will.' + +These important preliminaries having been settled, the crowd waited with +impatience mingled with a certain satisfaction that so important a trial +was really to come off and not to be strangled in its infancy, like many +promising legal melodramas to which they had looked forward. There would +be no mistake about this one at any rate. Sergeant Dayrell had come down +in full uniform from the camp at an early hour. The show would be on +soon after the clock struck ten. + +At that hour punctually Mr. M'Alpine took his seat upon the bench. In +five minutes the court was crowded. After the ordinary business two men +were marched in with a policeman on either side and placed in the dock. +They were Lance Trevanion and Edward Lawless. The latter looked calmly +around at the crowd as if there was no particular occasion for +seriousness of mien. His mental attitude was easily comprehended by +those of his compatriots who were present, whatever might be thought by +the emigrant miners who were so visibly in the majority. Ned had played +for a heavy stake--he had staked his liberty on the hazard and lost. If +he had won there was a matter of two or three thousand pounds--indeed +more--in the pool. That would have set him up in a decent-sized cattle +station capable of indefinite development. It was a fair risk. He had +taken it knowingly and with his eyes open. Now that he had lost, as the +cards had been against him, there was nothing for it but to pay up. It +would be three years' gaol, or perhaps five at the outside. + +When Lance Trevanion stood up in the dock, confronting squarely the +assembled crowd and the Bench, an almost audible shudder, accompanied by +a species of gasping sigh, passed through the court. Quietly but +correctly dressed, access having been possible to his raiment at +Growlers', he looked thoroughly a gentleman, a man of race and gentle +nurture. As he stood, calm and impassive, with a steadfast unflinching +gaze, the most suspicious person, however permeated with universal +distrust, could not have connected him with the meaner crimes. In a +half-smile, haughty and grimly humorous, his features relaxed for a +moment as he met the sorrowful gaze of Mrs. Polwarth. Then he drew +himself up to his full height and awaited the first act of the drama in +which he played so important a part. + +The curtain was not long in rising. The clerk of the court stood up and +read out the evidence of Senior-Sergeant Dayrell, taken at the first +hearing of the case, as also the order of adjournment signed by the +police magistrate. A stoutish dark man, with a mobile face and direct +clear glance, stood up and said, 'May it please your honour, I beg +pardon, your worship, I appear for the prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion.' + +'By all means, pleased to hear it, Mr. England. Sergeant Dayrell, your +first witness.' + +'Call Herbert Jeffreys,' and in answer to the stentorian call outside of +the court a gentlemanlike man with a bronzed countenance and of quiet +demeanour stepped into the witness-box. On being sworn, he deposed as +follows: 'My name is Herbert Jeffreys, I am a land-holder and grazier, +residing at Restdown, which is distant about one hundred and twenty +miles from Ballarat. I have seen a bright bay horse with a star, outside +of the court, branded "H. J.," which is our station brand, at least for +all horses and cattle running on the Campaspe. I swear to the horse as +my property. He has been missing for nearly twelve months. I am +perfectly certain it is the horse, and cannot be mistaken. I notice a +slight cut inside of the hock, which was the result of an accident. I +never sold him or gave prisoner or any other person authority to take +him. He is a valuable animal, worth between eighty and a hundred pounds, +as prices go. We have had a large number of horses stolen during the +past year.' + +Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'We had more than two hundred horses +before the diggings. We have offered a hundred pounds reward for the +conviction of any person found stealing our horses or cattle. It was a +measure of self-defence. We should soon not have had one left. Do not +consider it an inducement to the police to make up imaginary cases. If +people do not steal our horses the reward is a dead-letter. If they do, +they deserve punishment. I never saw the prisoner Trevanion before. If I +had, I should probably not have been here to-day.' (Asked why.) 'Because +any one can see that he is a gentleman, and doubtless unused to this +kind of work. I have no doubt that he purchased my horse without +suspicion that he had been stolen. Can't say whether or not the horse +has been in the pound since I saw him last.' + +Trevanion looked over at the witness as he spoke thus with a frank +expression of gratitude, while Mr. Jeffreys, having descended from the +witness-box and signed his deposition, sat down in a chair provided for +him to watch the trial. + +The next witness called was Carl Stockenstrom. 'My name--ja wohl--I am a +dikker from Palooga. Haf been dere all der wege more 'an dree months. On +Thursday neuntzehn Zepdember, I saw de brisoner at the Gemp's Greek, ten +mile from der Palooga. He was ride mit de fraeulein Lawless. He ride not +the horse outside de court. It was anoder. They was having one fine +lark. She can ride--she ride like nodings dat I never shall see. I swear +positif to de prisoner, his face, his figure, above all dings to his +eyes.' + +Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'I have lost a good horse myself. I did +not advertise him in the local baper. Many of my mates lost theirs. I +did not think it worth while. The two were driving some horses when I +see dem. I saw two of them in Ned Lawless's yard, and was told they was +sdolen. Police dook dem away mit de oders anyways.' + +'Call Hiram Edwards.' + +A gaunt American miner stalked forward, and with characteristic +self-possession stepped into the witness-box. + +'Diggin' at Balooka? Yes, sir; followed the first rush. Heard talk of +hoss-thieves among the boys; advised to hang the first man caught +riding a wrong horse, just to skeer other critters. Worked well in San +Francisco, that simple expedient. Do not know prisoner personally, but +saw a man durned like him on Friday, 20th September last, in company +with that skunk, Ned Lawless, trading horses. + +'Lost no horse? No, sir; know too much to keep one on a placer workin'. +Sold mine same day I struck the gulch.' + +Cross-examined by Mr. England: 'Hev a sorter dislike to swear positively +to prisoner as having been in company with Lawless on that Friday. To +the best of my belief he was the man. (Has the prisoner any objection to +look at me for a moment.)' Then Lance turned suddenly and looked at the +witness with a determined and sternly interrogatory expression. The +witness changed front noticeably. 'I now swear to the prisoner as the +man I saw with Lawless on Friday; positively and plum-centre. Know his +eyes anywhere. First day I saw him was the Wednesday before. He and +Lawless both carried stock-whips.' + +Senior-Constable Donnellan deposed: 'I am a mounted trooper, at present +stationed at Balooka. I know the prisoner, and have been observing him +closely at Balooka for the last three weeks. Frequently saw him in +company with Edward Lawless and his sister. As they were suspicious +characters, or, at any rate, had a name for finding horses that were not +lost, I thought it my duty to watch them. + +'On the morning of Wednesday, 18th instant, I saw Lawless and prisoner +ride out early from the former's camp; they went for some miles up a +gully, and on reaching the top, where there is a small plain, I saw two +men meet them with a small lot (ten, I believe) of riding horses. They +drove them to the camp and put them into a yard. I have ascertained that +nearly all of them were stolen, and have since been identified by +miners. Saw prisoner several times with Kate Lawless at Balooka; am +certain that prisoner is the same man. Sent a messenger to Ballarat +express to communicate with Sergeant Dayrell, who came over and arrested +both prisoners.' + +By Mr. England: 'Took particular notice of prisoner's +appearance--prisoner is tall and broad-shouldered, with dark curly hair +and dark complexion. Has no ill-will against prisoner, Trevanion. If it +is sworn that prisoner was in another place, near Ballarat, at the time +mentioned by me, would not believe it. It was impossible, unless a man +could be in two places at once. Never spoke to prisoner at Balooka but +once; noticed that he had remarkable eyes. Was at the Lawlesses' camp +when he rode up with Kate Lawless; had seen him leave Balooka with her +early that morning. He was riding the horse prisoner led back. Can't +account for prisoner returning with a different horse and saddle, unless +he "shook" it. Beg the Bench's pardon--meant he may have picked it up on +the road. Thought prisoner looked slightly different, and was +differently dressed. Spoke differently, a little, not much. Attributed +this to seeing the Lawlesses, Ned and Dan, in the hands of the police +when he returned; and was dressed differently from what he had on in the +morning; had several times noticed him change his dress more than once +in a day. Would swear to the prisoner; would know him by his eyes and +general appearance anywhere.' + +Several other witnesses--miners, stock-riders, and small farmers--were +examined. They swore to ownership of various horses found in Ned +Lawless's 'mob' or drove, now in charge of the police. + +'Is that your case, sergeant?' inquired the police magistrate, when the +last of these witnesses had, at some personal inconvenience, signed the +depositions. 'I have but one other witness, your worship,' answered +Dayrell with an air of great deference, 'rather a material one, however. +Call Catharine Lawless.' + +From whatever cause, the utterance of this witness's name produced a +profound and universal sensation in the crowded court. Every miner knew +that the young Englishman had foolishly, as most people thought,--very +naturally, in the opinion of others,--admired the girl, and made no +secret of his feelings. For what reason was she now to be called as a +witness for the Crown? Had she turned traitress? Would she betray her +sweetheart in the hour of his peril? Far from immaculate, vain, violent, +and reckless as she was, the girls of her class and country were +proverbially as true as steel to their lovers--clinging to them more +closely in adversity, ready even to stand by them on the scaffold if +need were. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +'Catharine Lawless!' Thrice was her name called outside of the court, as +by law directed. As the echo of the last summons died away, a tall woman +closely veiled issued from a side door and walked composedly over to the +witness-box. Every eye was directed towards her; no sound was audible, +save some involuntary exclamation as the most sensational character of +the _corps dramatique_ appeared on the stage. Quietly and becomingly +dressed, _bien gantee_ and in all respects accurately finished as to +each personal detail, she moved forward with an air of haughty +indifference to her surroundings, including the court, prisoners, and +spectators. These last might have deemed that she was some interesting +stranger, an eye-witness by chance of deeds concerning which she was +compelled to testify. + +'Swear the witness,' said the magistrate, as the book was placed in her +right hand, 'and will she be pleased to remove her veil?' + +Thus admonished, the girl threw back her veil with a half-petulant +gesture, and touching the sacred book lightly with her lips, as the +solemn formula was recited, gazed around the court with an air of +insouciance apparently as unstudied and natural as if she had come +direct from Arcadia. + +For one moment her clear gray eyes, unheeding every other creature in +the crowd of spectators, rested on the two men in the dock. Those who +knew her--and there were many such in the congregation--looked eagerly +for some softened expression, some sign of regret, as might any woman +wear when beholding her lover and her brother in the place set apart for +felons, who knew them to be charged with a serious offence, and liable +to years of degrading imprisonment, from which, perchance, a word from +her lips might save one--might even alleviate their lot--so great is the +sympathy felt for the power exercised by a handsome woman, even in the +temple of justice. + +Those who thus reasoned were doomed to disappointment. Her gaze passed +coldly over her brother's lounging form and tranquil features, but when +she encountered the stern interrogation which was written on the +frowning brow and set lips of Lance Trevanion, she drew back for an +instant, and then slightly raising her head and drawing herself up, an +action which displayed to perfection the symmetrical moulding of her +figure, returned his regard with a glance as fierce and unfaltering as +his own. For one moment only did the mental duel appear to last, for one +moment was each antagonistic electric current propelled along the mutual +course. Then, with an impatient gesture, she turned half round and +awaited the official questioning. + +The oppressive silence which up to that moment had pervaded the court +ceased, as by a broken spell, and comments were audible to those +immediately around the speaker, more than one of which went as follows-- + +'She's going to swear up, you bet your life. Never saw a woman look like +her that didn't. Sooner have her on my side than against me, that's all +_I_ know.' + +'Dayrell's been working a point to set her against him, that's where +he'll score the odd trick, you'll see,' observed his equally philosophic +friend. 'She's been dead nuts on that new chum, that's why she's +thirsting for his blood now. I think I knows 'em.' + +'What is your name?' commenced the sergeant, who in the preliminary +examination was, as the police officer in charge of the case, permitted +to officiate in Courts of Petty Sessions as Acting Crown Prosecutor. +'Catharine Lawless.' This answer was given in a low but distinct voice. +'You are the sister of Edward Lawless, one of the prisoners now before +the Court; and you have been residing with him at Balooka, and recently +at Growlers' Gully?' + +'Yes. We have all been living with him since father died.' + +'Just so. And you know the other prisoner, Launcelot Trevanion?' Here +the sergeant feigned to examine his notebook, ostensibly to refresh his +memory, but really in order to afford witness and prisoner opportunity +to look at each other. Also that the court, the spectators, the +magistrate, and lastly he, Francis Dayrell, might appreciate their +mutual discomfort. + +This Mephistophelian design was set at naught by the self-possession of +the witness, who after one glance, brief as the jagged lightning and as +scathing, answered deliberately--'Yes, I do know Lance Trevanion, _I +know him well_.' + +There was not much in this apparently harmless Saxon sentence, chiefly +monosyllabic, but those who were close enough to hear the last words +thrilled for long days after as they recalled the concentrated venom +with which they were saturated. + +'When you say you know the prisoner, Trevanion, well,' queried Dayrell, +with an air of respectful interest, 'you mean, I suppose, that he was a +great friend of your brothers, and of the family generally. Your brother +Dan, your cousin Harry, and his sister Tessie--you are rather a large +family, I believe--were all friendly towards him, as he to you?' + +'Yes; very friendly; we all thought no end of him.' + +'Of course, of course; most natural on your part and his. He was often +at your camp, at Growlers'. Used to play a game or two of cards +sometimes with your brothers--a little euchre--eh?' + +'Yes; I believe so.' + +'You believe so? Don't you know it, Miss Lawless? Were not the stakes +rather heavy sometimes?' + +'They may have been. I never played for money. The boys may have had a +gamble now and then.' + +'Really, your worship,' interposed Mr. England, 'I can't see what these +trivialities have to do with the case. The witness is an extremely +prepossessing young woman--outwardly. We admit at once that she +exercised a certain fascination over my client. Why shouldn't she? _Nemo +omnibus horis sapit, etc._, particularly on the diggings. But the +sergeant, apparently, will proceed to ask her if she ever sewed on a +button for my client, and I appeal to your worship, if we are to sit +here all day and listen to this mode of examination?' + +'I must ask your worship's permission to conduct the case in my own +way,' returned the sergeant. 'I guarantee that these apparently trivial +details are of material importance to the case.' + +'You may proceed, Sergeant Dayrell. I trust to you not to encumber the +depositions with needless details.' + +'I shall bear in mind your worship's directions; and now, Miss Lawless, +please to attend to me, and be careful in answering the next question.' +Here he fixed his eyes meaningly upon her countenance. + +'You remember the evening of Monday, the 23d of this month, when I saw +you ride into your brother's camp at Balooka, in company with the +prisoner, Trevanion?' + +'Yes; I do.' + +'Had he been with you and Ned at Balooka for some time previously?' + +There was a pause after the sergeant's measured and distinct words +sounded through the court, and the witness trembled slightly when they +first reached her ear. Then she raised her head, looked full at the two +prisoners in the dock, and answered-- + +'Yes; he had.' + +As the words left her lips, the face of Lance Trevanion worked like that +of a man about to fall down in a fit. His eyes blazed with wrath and +unrestrained passion. Wonder and scorn, anger and despair, struggled +together in every feature, as if in a stage of demoniac possession. +Placing his strong hand upon the rail of the dock, he shook the stout +structure until it swayed and rattled again. + +'You lie, traitress!' he said, in vibrating tones. 'I never saw Balooka +before that evening, and you know it. Your words--like yourself--are +false as hell!' + +'I submit, your worship, that the witness must be protected,' Dayrell +made haste to interpose. 'If she is to be intimidated, I cannot +guarantee her most important evidence.' + +A curious phase of human nature is it,--well worthy of the attention of +physiologists, but none the less known to those in the habit of +attending criminal courts,--that you may with tolerable certainty detect +a man deliberately swearing falsely when giving evidence on oath. +Villain as he may be,--scoundrel of the deepest dye,--even _he_ does not +altogether enjoy the sensation of, in cold blood, committing perjury +before a crowd of comrades, every one of whom knows that he is +forswearing himself. Thus feeling, there is generally some token of +uneasiness or shamefacedness by which the experienced magistrate or +judge, and most certainly his friends and fellows, can perceive his +perjury. + +But, strange and mysterious as it may seem, _it is not so_ in the case +of a female witness. She may be deposing to the truth of the most +atrocious falsehood, to what the greater part of her hearers, as well as +herself, _know to be false_, and not the quiver of an eyelid nor the +tremor of a muscle reveals that she has called upon the Supreme Being +to witness her deliberate betrayal of the truth. For all that can be +discerned in the countenance--in her mien and manner she may be clinging +to the truth with the constancy of a martyr. + +There was a murmur in the court from more than one voice as Lance +Trevanion's heart-felt exclamation burst forth. This being promptly +suppressed, the magistrate, with a more sympathetic tone of voice than +he had as yet used, 'requested the prisoner not to injure his case by +intemperate language. Possibly the outburst of conscious innocence, the +Bench admitted, but he would warn him, in his own interest, to reserve +his defence till the evidence was completed.' Lance apparently saw the +force of his argument, for after one withering glance at the +witness-box, he bowed his head without speaking, and resigned himself +apparently to listen unmoved to all further statements. + +'Did you--now consider carefully and _make no mistake_'--here the +sergeant fixed his eye sternly, even menacingly, upon the girl, who +stood calm and resolved before him--'did you know of your own knowledge +that the prisoner, Trevanion, met your brother Ned at the Swampy Plain +tableland and assisted him to drive certain horses into the yard?' + +The girl looked again across to the figures in the dock, neither of whom +apparently saw her, as they, by accident or otherwise, had averted their +faces. Then a mysterious darksome look of pride and revenge came over +Kate Lawless's face as she coolly scrutinised them both. Slowly she +answered-- + +'Yes; I was at home when he and Ned came in from Swampy Plains with ten +horses and put them into the yard.' + +'You swear that?' + +'Yes,' looking her interlocutor full in the face. 'Yes, I swear that.' + +Her face as she pronounced the words grew fixed and more intense of +expression. She changed colour, then gasped for breath, staggered, and +before any man near her was quick enough to intercept her swaying form, +fell, as one dead, her full length upon the floor. + +'The strain has been too great for her, she has fainted,' said the +sergeant. 'The witness is unable to bear further cross-examination at +present. Your worship must see that. I pray for a remand of the +prisoners, and will undertake that the witness appears to-morrow at ten +o'clock and submits herself to the cross-examination.' + +'No doubt,' said the magistrate, 'the position is most distressing, but +I shouldn't have expected Miss Lawless to faint on any occasion. +However, she is certainly not in a state to bear more of the witness-box +to-day. The prisoners stand remanded till to-morrow morning at ten +o'clock.' + +The unwilling crowd gradually left the building, when much various +comment arose as to the guilt or otherwise of the accused. + +'Wait till England gets at that Kate Lawless,' said a digger, 'he'll +turn her inside out. I don't believe half of what she says. She's gone +back on Trevanion for some reason or other; now she'd hang him if she +could. That's a woman all over.' + +'Serve him right for havin' no more sense than to go runnin' after a +bush filly like her instead of minding his business. It'll learn him +better if he gets lagged over the job; it looks bad for him, now, don't +it?' + +'It's dashed hard lines, I say,' answered his mate, 'that a fellow +should get jugged just for a bit of foolishness-like, as none of us are +above now and then. I'll never believe he knew that bay horse wasn't +square, and it'll be a burning shame if he gets into it.' + + * * * * * + +The day and the hour arrived. Again the crowded court--friends, foes, +strangers, and acquaintances, all were there. Lance's friends from +Growlers' mustered in force--Mr. Stirling, Jack Polwarth, Mrs. Polwarth, +and poor Tottie, who stretched forth her little hands with a piteous +gesture and then burst into tears as she saw her friend Lance placed in +the dock and shut in. The crowd was visibly affected by this little +incident, and more than one woman's tears flowed in unison with Mrs. +Polwarth's, who bent her head down and sobbed unrestrainedly. When Kate +Lawless, pale but composed, appeared and took her place in the +witness-box a menacing murmur ran through the crowd, and sounds +ominously like hisses made themselves audible. These were quickly +repressed as Mr. England, stepping forward, commenced his +cross-examination. + +Fixing his eyes searchingly upon the girl's defiant face, he thus +began-- + +'You said, I think, in your examination in chief that you knew the +prisoner, Trevanion, well?' + +'Yes; so I did.' + +'Now, when you say you knew him well, do you mean us to believe that you +were only ordinary friends and no more?' + +'I mean what I said; we were very friendly--all the time we were at +Growlers'.' + +'That's all very well, but I must have more. You know something of life, +Miss Lawless, though you've lived in the bush all your days. Now didn't +this unfortunate young gentleman make love to you?' + +'Well, I suppose he did.' + +'And you returned it, or gave him to understand that you did?' + +'I did like him very much. There was no reason why I shouldn't, was +there?' Here Miss Kate looked coolly at the barrister, who, trained +gladiator as he was, doubted whether he had ever had to deal with a +keener antagonist. + +'I am not here to answer questions,' he said, very gravely. 'You are to +reply to mine, as his worship will tell you.' + +'Then I am to understand that you and he considered yourselves +sweethearts (as the familiar expression goes) when you were at +Growlers'?' + +'Yes, and afterwards.' + +'And you have had no quarrel or misunderstanding?' + +'No; none at all.' + +'You wish his worship to believe that?' said the barrister, in sterner +tones. 'To believe that you come here prepared to swear at the dictation +of Sergeant Dayrell everything that he puts into your mouth which can +tell against this unfortunate young man--your sweetheart, as you have +admitted?' + +'I don't care whether you believe it or not. It's the truth.' + +'And your feelings have not changed towards him? Will you swear that?' + +The girl hesitated. Her face flushed, then paled, her bosom heaved. She +placed her hand upon her heart as if to still its beatings. + +'No,' she answered, with a changed voice; 'I won't swear that.' + +'Thank you, Miss Lawless. I will not trouble you with further +questioning. That admission gives the key to the more important points +of your evidence.' + +As the girl moved back from the witness-box she was stopped by one of +the constables and requested to sign her deposition. It was noticeable +then that her hand trembled so that she could hardly hold the pen. She +made this an excuse for requesting the clerk to write her name, to which +she affixed her mark, as in such case made and provided. + +The case for the Crown being closed, Mr. England proceeded to call the +witnesses for the defence. The first name was that of Charles Stirling. +He came forward with a firm, confident air, tempered with respect to the +court. Placed in the witness-box, his evidence was to this effect-- + +'My name--Charles Stirling, manager of the Growlers' Gully branch of the +Australian Joint-Stock Bank. Have known the prisoner, Trevanion, +intimately since his occupation of Number Six claim. Have a high opinion +of him as a man of honour and a gentleman. Remember him purchasing the +bay horse now proved to have been stolen from Mr. Jeffreys. Was +consulted as to the purchase. Advised him then to be careful about +Lawless's receipt, and to satisfy himself from whom he (Lawless) had +purchased the animal. Trevanion was unwilling to believe anything +against the Lawless family, and was not a man to be guided by others. As +far as he knew, he was scrupulously upright and honourable. He +(Stirling) was never so surprised at anything in his whole life as when +he heard that Trevanion was in the hands of the police. There must be a +mistake somewhere. Prisoner had a large balance to his credit in the +Joint-Stock Bank. There could be no motive for saving a paltry fifty +pounds by purchasing a stolen horse. If it was sworn that Trevanion had +been seen at Balooka on the 19th September or previously, that statement +was false, as on that day he had been all the morning at the Joint-Stock +Bank disposing of a parcel of gold, seeing it weighed, and the money +placed to credit.' + +Cross-examined by Sergeant Dayrell: 'He was as certain that Trevanion +was at his bank at Growlers' on Thursday as that he himself was at court +now. Any one who swore otherwise was deceived, or else had reasons of +their own for committing perjury. He did not intend to be other than +respectful to the court, but felt so strongly in this matter that he +could scarcely control his words. Was not aware, of his own knowledge, +that Trevanion was in the habit of gambling with the Lawlesses for heavy +stakes. May have heard something of the sort. Most of the young men at +the diggings played a little; it afforded a relief to the monotony of +their lives, and they (as far as he knew) never went very deeply into +it. Was a friend--he might say a particular friend--of prisoner's. He +and his mate, Mr. Polwarth, were customers of his bank. Neither had ever +owed his bank money, they were always depositors.' + +John Polwarth, sworn: 'Was mate and partner in "Number Six, Growlers'" +with Mr. Trevanion. Had known him in England. Came out in the same ship. +Could swear that he never knew the horse "Pendragon" was stolen. He was +a gentleman, and couldn't steal a horse if he tried ever so hard; or buy +a stolen one, knowingly. He had been with Mr. Trevanion at the bank all +the morning of Thursday, 19th inst. Mr. Stirling was there, and a +clerk.' + +'Was he sure it was him?' + +'Was he sure the judge was on the Bench now?' + +'How did he explain the fact of prisoner Trevanion being seen at Balooka +on Wednesday, 18th, and previously?' + +'Only by believing it to be "a straight lie," or that the witness saw +some one very like Trevanion.' + +'Very like Trevanion?' + +'Very like.' + +The witness appeared to be recalling something in his mind. + +'Ar hev it noo, boys,' quoth he, suddenly looking towards the Bench, 'I +humbly beg your worship's pardon, but this terrible business has put +things out of my head like. I see how it's all come about. There was a +chap aboard the _Red Jacket_, about a year older than Mr. Trevanion +then, as like him as two peas. Danged if I doan't believe it's he as +have been riding about with Ned Lawless here, and all the while he's +been taken for Master Lance. The name of the man he meant was Lawrence +Trevenna; came from North Devon, he did, though he had a Cornish name. +Had never set eyes on him since the day they landed in Melbourne. Never +liked him; thought it was a case of good riddance of bad rubbish. + +'Was a friend of Mr. Trevanion's; he wouldn't call him prisoner--not for +no man; any way he wasn't committed for trial yet; always would be a +friend--in gaol or out of it; but would not swear to a lie for him or +any other man--not if it was his own brother.' + +Gwennyth Polwarth was then called, and up came the poor woman--sore +abashed and troubled--with Tottie clinging to her, and refusing to be +separated from her mother. + +'Yes, she and her husband had come out with Mr. Lance. When in the _Red +Jacket_ had made it up to be mates. Mr. Trevanion, though he was a grand +gentleman at home, worked as hard in the claim as any man on the field; +would never believe that he had aught to do with a stolen horse. It was +that Ned Lawless there, and his bold gipsy of a sister. I say it to +their faces, as I have often warned him against, that's got him into +this trouble.' + +'Could he have been at Balooka on Thursday, or Wednesday, 18th, as was +sworn by one witness?' + +'Not unless he was a spirit. He came round to the claim, and said +"good-bye" to me and the child on _Thursday evening_; would swear that +to her dying day.' + +'As to his being at Balooka, or any place a hundred miles off, it was a +thing impossible. There were people in the court as wanted to swear away +his life, any one could see. But there's Cousin Jacks enough at +Growlers' to smash the gaol and the court-house too, if these things are +to be carried on, and it would be seen yet (the witness said in her +excitement) what would come of it.' + +'Sergeant Dayrell would ask the witness no questions. The Bench would +perceive the animus which coloured all the evidence.' + +Mrs. Delf was next called. 'Her name was Mary Anne Delf; she had no call +to be ashamed of it, and was the wife of the landlord of the "Diggers' +Rest." Know that gentleman?' pointing to Lance. 'Well, he always stayed +at her house. Dined there with Mr. Stirling, Mr. Ross (of Bundalong +Station), and Mr. Polwarth, on Thursday, the 19th of September last. +Remembered the day particular, because there had been a wash-up at +"Number Six" the day before, and they had sold the gold to the bank, and +had it weighed and settled up for. + +'Was she a friend of Mr. Trevanion's? Yes; and she was proud to say so. +It was a pity all his friends weren't as straight, though she said it +herself. But he was as innocent of all this duffing racket as Tottie +Polwarth there.' + +Here poor Tottie, hearing her name, turned her eyes away from the dock, +where they had been resting sadly for a long time, and said audibly-- + +'Isn't Lance coming, mammy?' + +This pathetic appeal, joined to a solitary glance from the prisoner, +proved too much for Mrs. Polwarth's self-possession, and, seizing Tottie +by the hand, she hurried from the court. Upon which Mrs. Delf, though +unused to the melting mood, had recourse to her handkerchief, and sobbed +aloud, as did various like-minded female sympathisers. + +'Have you any other witnesses to call for the defence?' said the police +magistrate, addressing Mr. England, as who should say, the case has +lasted long enough. + +'But one, your worship, but one. Call Esther Lawless.' + +Again the densely packed assemblage was visibly moved. Here was another +of those Lawless girls; and what evidence was she going to give? Surely +an _alibi_ had been fully proved in Trevanion's favour already. What +could shatter the evidence of Mr. Stirling and Polwarth, Mrs. Delf and +Mrs. Polwarth? However, here she comes. + +Tessie Lawless had not been so prominently before the public of +Growlers' as her cousin Kate, but, none the less, from the extreme +rarity of young and good-looking women at the earlier diggings, had she +been an object of curiosity and admiration. Hence she was well known by +sight and reputation, and her appearance in court was consequently of +the nature of a romantic incident. + +'Your name is Esther Lawless, and you were residing with your cousins, +at Growlers', recently,' began Mr. England, with the suave deferential +manner by which counsel are won't to placate the feminine witness, +'where you knew the prisoner, Lance Trevanion?' + +'Yes, certainly, I know Mr. Trevanion. He was often at our camp.' + +'He was on friendly terms with all of you?' + +'Yes; too much so for his own good.' + +'Why do you say that, Miss Lawless?' + +'Because my cousin Edward was not honest in his dealings, and I thought +Mr. Trevanion might be drawn in, unwarily, as he has been, I am sorry to +say.' + +'Can you say anything as to the purchase of the bay H. J. horse, stated +to have been stolen from Mr. Herbert Jeffreys?' + +'Yes; I wrote out the receipt which Edward gave Mr. Trevanion when he +bought the horse for fifty pounds from him. He was then described as +purchased from Henry Jones, of Black Dog Creek.' + +'How did you come to write the receipt in your cousin's presence?' + +Here the witness paused for an instant, as if hesitating what to answer. +Then she said, 'I was always in the habit of doing any writing that was +necessary.' + +'But why? for what reason?' persisted Mr. England. + +'_Because none of my cousins can read or write._' + +As this announcement was made, evidently with reluctance, by the girl, +over whose ordinarily colourless countenance a flush rose as she spoke, +all eyes were turned towards Kate Lawless, who was sitting upon a bench +reserved for witnesses, and afterwards in the direction of Ned. The +latter celebrity smiled faintly, as if the higher education thus implied +was comparatively unimportant. But on his sister the effect of the +disclosure was widely different. + +She turned her face quickly, and, as she did so, her eyes +sparkled and her set lips expressed--if not anger, malice, and all +uncharitableness--at least a far from benevolent intention towards the +speaker. Making as if to rise, but repressing herself with a strong +effort, she assumed a scornful attitude, as if prepared to listen with +resignation. + +'Do you remember any conversation with reference to the horse?' + +'Yes; Mr. Trevanion asked where Henry Jones lived, and whether he had +any more horses of the same breed. Ned answered that he lived at Monaro, +and that he would have some more to sell when he bought his next draught +from him.' + +'You believe, then, that Trevanion had no idea that the horse was +stolen?' + +'No more than you had. He said over and over again that he must get +another or two from Jones.' + +'Now, Miss Lawless, you need not answer this question unless you like. +_Did you know_ that the horse was stolen?' + +'No, I did not, or I would have warned Mr. Trevanion. I may have doubted +whether everything was quite square about him; but I never thought for a +moment that he was stolen.' + +'May I ask you, also, what reason you were likely to have for warning +Mr. Trevanion?' + +'Merely that I had a friendly feeling for him, and did not wish to see +him taken in.' + +'A very good reason, too. Now there has been evidence to the effect that +Mr. Trevanion admired your cousin Kate; that he paid her a good deal of +attention?' + +'Yes; no doubt he did.' + +'You must excuse my asking you, but it is necessary to come to a correct +understanding; was there any rivalry or jealous feeling between you?' + +'Not the slightest. He was polite--he couldn't be otherwise; but he +never cared two straws about me, or any one but Kate, though I was his +real friend; but he never knew it.' + +'Was there not a letter from Kate Lawless sent by your hand to him, +after she had left for Balooka?' + +'Yes; but she had to get some one to write it for her. I had a great +mind not to deliver it. I wish now that I never had, and all this might +have been saved.' + +'That will do, Miss Esther. Stay--one more question. You had never, of +course, seen Mr. Trevanion in company with your cousins before you came +to Ballarat?' + +It occasionally happens that an advocate, in putting a question which he +believes to be perfectly innocuous, makes some fatal mistake which +damages the whole of his previous evidence. The witness changed colour, +and hesitated, then appeared to wish to avoid answering the question. + +Mr. England divined the situation. 'It's of no consequence. The witness +is not strong. You can go down, Miss Lawless.' + +But it was too late. Dayrell was not the man to overlook a false move. +'I request that the witness's answer may be taken.' + +'As the question has been asked, Mr. England, I think it should be +answered,' said the magistrate. 'I will put it myself from the Bench.' + +'Have you at any time, witness, seen the prisoner Trevanion in company +with your cousins, before the family came to Ballarat?' + +Esther Lawless stood erect as she fixed her eye with a troubled gaze +upon Mr. M'Alpine's countenance. + +'Must I answer this question, your worship?' said she; 'is it necessary +in the case?' + +'I think you had better,' said he, not unkindly. 'I am sure you will +tell the truth.' + +'I would not swear falsely to save my own life,' said the girl, in a low +but distinct voice. 'I can only speak the truth while I stand here. I +_did_ see him riding with Ned one day before we left the Eumeralla.' + +At this admission, which apparently astonished the greater number of the +spectators as much as it did Mr. England and the magistrate, both +prisoners turned their faces towards the witness with undisguised +surprise. On the countenance of Lance Trevanion there suddenly arose a +look of complete bewilderment. Abandoning his pose of scornful +indifference, he beckoned hastily to Mr. England, who came over to the +dock. After a whispered colloquy, he again addressed the witness. + +'I do not wish in any way to lead you, or to induce you to alter any +part of your evidence which you feel certain of, but I entreat you, as +you value the liberty, perhaps the life of an innocent man, to +reconsider your last answer. I will repeat my question. Are you +prepared, upon your oath, to state that you ever saw the accused, Mr. +Trevanion, in company with your cousin before you left New South Wales +to come to Ballarat?' + +The witness looked upward for a moment and clasped her hands. She +shuddered, and essayed in vain to reply, but finally with recovered +firmness of mien said, 'I wish it were not so, but I cannot be mistaken. +I saw him once certainly, and I believe once again, but I did see him +once, if I can believe my eyes, near Eumeralla.' + +A keen observer who had watched Kate Lawless's countenance might have +marvelled at the mysterious smile which stole over her features at that +moment, might have noted also a look of conscious triumph mingled with +sudden wonder. For an instant, as she glanced towards the dock, her eyes +sought out those of her brother; they met hers with one swiftest glance +of sudden meaning. + +On Lance Trevanion's countenance a despair sombre and terrible commenced +to settle. His attitude expressed utter hopelessness, the deepest +disappointment. When Esther Lawless, after a sudden burst of tears, was +permitted to leave the court, he did not raise his head. Mr. England +made one of the brilliantly exhaustive speeches which had opened the +prison gates to so many enterprising or unlucky personages. The court +was charmed, captivated, convinced, by the overpowering rush and flow of +his persuasive eloquence. + +But Lance neither stirred nor looked up. The presentiment was about to +be fulfilled. He was prepared for the worst. + +The case was closed. Then. Mr. M'Alpine gave his decision-- + +'He had heard that day some of the most extraordinary and contradictory +evidence that in his varied experience he had ever listened to. In view +of the prisoner's high character and independent position, attested by +so many witnesses, he had been on the point of discharging him, but, +after hearing the witness's last answer, which amounted to an admission +that the prisoner had been an associate of the Lawless family, even +before they had migrated to Ballarat, he could not entertain a doubt as +to a committal. It was incontestably a case for a jury. It was for them +to decide as to the credibility of opposing witnesses.' + +Then came the concluding formula, after which the prisoner was asked if +he desired to say anything. + +'Only this,' said the erstwhile proud scion of an ancient race, +stainless in honour, flawless in blood, of whom he alone--oh, hard and +bitter fate!--had ever linked hands with disgrace! 'Only this: that I am +as innocent of all thoughts of wrong or dishonesty to any man as my +mate's little child. I never knew or thought that the horse was other +than honestly come by. I have been deceived--by man and woman both. But +the knowledge has come too late. The witness Catharine Lawless has lied +foully. The other witnesses, particularly Esther Lawless--who is good +and truthful--have been deceived by the resemblance borne to me by +another person. I never was at Balooka before, and never in my life saw +the Eumeralla district--never heard the name even! I protest my +innocence of this and all other charges. I can say no more.' + +Mr. M'Alpine paused in thought for a while--an unusual course with +him--then, amid the almost unnatural silence of the court, he said: 'I +feel compelled to send the case for trial. Launcelot Trevanion, you +stand committed to take your trial at the next ensuing Quarter Sessions, +to be holden at Ballarat, on a day to be named. Bail refused. Sergeant +Dayrell, call up the witnesses to be bound over to appear. + +'This court stands adjourned.' + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Bail having been refused, presumably at the instance of the police--who, +in cases where there is probability of the prisoner levanting or of +arrangements being made to defeat the ends of justice, are entitled to +object--there remained no course but that Lance Trevanion should be +re-committed to gaol. Ned Lawless was also detained for safe keeping, +the same reasons operating even with greater force in his case. This was +the third time that Lance had been brought forth to stand before a +gaping crowd--the third time that he had been transferred to the grim +precincts of a prison and heard the massive iron gates clang behind him. + +'I begin to feel,' he said bitterly to Stirling, 'almost like an +habitual criminal. If there is a God that judgeth the earth, as they +used to tell us in old days, why am I permitted to be thus degraded, +falsely accused, and unjustly imprisoned?' + +It was in this period of trial and sore need that Lance discovered the +nature of friendship. Genial acquaintances and friendly-seeming +personages he had encountered by the hundred. These were now for the +most part too busy or indifferent to visit him in his affliction. +Charles Stirling, however, in spite of his onerous and responsible +duties, lost no opportunity of aid or service. Sometimes he rode half +the night in order to get back to his work in proper time after visiting +the captive and comforting him as best he could. He petitioned the +Governor-in-Council, drafting and procuring signatures to a memorial +setting forth Lance's hard case and praying that he might be released on +bail. He addressed members of the Bench, and essayed to persuade them to +act independently, offering to find bail to any amount and lodge the +money. Hastings and Jack Polwarth canvassed their fellow-miners. The +newspaper press was invoked. But all in vain. The time was in-opportune. +So many horses had been stolen that a strong popular prejudice had +arisen; justice demanded a victim. A reactionary sentiment commenced to +prevail. It was openly stated that because Trevanion, of Number Six, was +a 'swell' and had dropped into a lucky claim, that was no reason why he +should be let off more than a poor man. + +Wild and unsettled were the times too--those years early in 'the +fifties.' Martial law was thought necessary for the holding in check of +an army of untamed spirits. A close discriminating adherence to legal +form could hardly be attained. The upshot of it all was that, to the +disgust and despair of Hastings and Jack Polwarth, who had hoped against +hope, all their efforts were vain, and Lance was compelled to resign +himself as best he might to his enforced and protracted _duresse_. + +Before leaving for Melbourne Mr. England had indeed almost guaranteed +that he only needed to be placed on his trial to be acquitted, asserting +that no jury in the colony could possibly find him guilty upon the +evidence brought before the Bench; that a committal was very different +from a conviction; that some magistrates made a point of committing for +trial all prisoners brought before them so as to escape responsibility; +that Mr. M'Alpine had a habit of acting in that way; that he (John +George England) would take the shortest odds that the jury acquitted +Lance without leaving the box. + +How the weeks dragged on! Autumn was fast changing into winter when the +Quarter Sessions were held. Lance had expected to have been in Melbourne +about the time. Only to think of it! And had he not paltered with his +duty and his solemn promise might he not have been in England now, +seeing the yearly miracle of the spring transformation in that favoured +clime and hearing the surges beat against the frowning headlands of +Tintagel? Madness was in his thoughts. Why did he not dash his brains +out against his prison walls and so end the hideous burlesque upon truth +and justice, honour and common honesty even? Why had he not courage to +do so? No--it would become his father's son to die in ways and fashions +many and varied; but within gaol walls! No! a thousand times, no! That +would be a doom impossible for a Trevanion of Wychwood. + +From time to time he had gleams of hope--this miserable captive so +unused to fetter and thrall. It _could_ not be. It should not be. The +eternal justice of heaven would be falsified were this wrong to befall +him. The words of prayer that he had lisped in childhood--the Bible +lessons to so many of which he had hearkened in the old Norman Church at +Wychwood--what would all these be but hollow cheats and ghastly +mockeries were he to be found guilty? It was a simple impossibility. He +had now but to wait--to eat out his heart for one other week, and +then--oh! joy unspeakable! he would be free--free! A free man--not a +prisoner! Did he ever imagine that he would attach such a meaning to the +word freedom? It mattered not. Let him but once set foot outside this +dismal gaol wall. Again he saw himself on the back of a good horse, or +at the claim with good old Jack Polwarth and his wife and Tottie--poor +dear Tottie! But here he could no longer follow out the chain of +probabilities. His eyes filled with tears, and the once-proud Lance +Trevanion, lowered in spirit and strength by confinement and meagre +diet, threw himself upon his miserable pallet and sobbed like a child. + + * * * * * + +The 'next ensuing Court of Quarter Sessions,' to which Lance Trevanion +had been committed for trial, was formally opened at Ballarat on a +certain Wednesday at ten of the clock. The sheriff was in attendance, +with bailiff and minor officials, and also various barristers, including +Mr. England. An unusual number of police appeared on the scene, +including the superintendent of the district--a very high personage +indeed. All were in full uniform, while conspicuous among them stood +Sergeant Dayrell, calm and impassive as usual, though a close observer +might have noticed an occasional sign of impatience. + +When the doors of the court-house were opened a rush took place which +filled the building so completely that many were excluded and compelled +to remain outside, trusting to occasional reports of the exciting +matters within. The judge in his robes, attended by the sheriff, took +his seat upon the bench punctually at the appointed time. And once more +Lance Trevanion and his fellow-prisoner Ned Lawless were brought forth +to serve as a spectacle to a wondering or sympathetic crowd, as the case +might be. + +The Crown prosecutor, in opening the case, alluded to 'the prevalence of +a system of horse-stealing, now become so notorious; if unchecked it +might lead to the gravest results. The jury would have an opportunity of +hearing the evidence in detail, from which they would of course form +their judgment. But they must not lose sight of the fact that the +prisoners had been caught "red-handed," if he might use the expression. +They were actually in possession of a large number of stolen horses, +many of which were of great value. Some had since been identified by +their owners, who were chiefly miners and working-men connected with the +diggings. He had no desire, he might assure them, to prejudice their +minds in any way; he would merely furnish his evidence for the Crown as +he was bound to do, and trust to the intelligent jury he saw before him +to do their duty without fear or favour. It was a painful sight to him, +as it doubtless was to them, to see two such fine specimens of early +manhood arraigned for so serious an offence. But no consideration of +that sort must be suffered to influence their minds. He would not detain +them longer, but would call the first witness.' + +As in all trials, the same witnesses as on the preliminary examinations +were heard, the difference being that no written depositions were taken, +the judge only recording in his notes the evidence with care and +exactness. Mr. England cross-examined the witnesses with increased +rigour and more searching scrutiny. Every fact or fiction in their +previous history which could tend to weaken or discredit their testimony +in the eyes of the jury was fully ventilated. Every motive which could +possibly colour this testimony against the prisoners was suggested or +exposed. + +Sergeant Dayrell's evidence was unsparingly criticised. To his calm and +carefully worded statements, studiously colourless, but little exception +could be taken. Still, more than one _historiette_ had been elicited +from the distant part of the colony where he once was stationed which +tended to establish his reputation for unscrupulousness, for desire for +conviction at all risks. He was forced to acknowledge that he had been +the apprehending constable in a well-known stock case near the New South +Wales border, as well as to admit that his zeal on that occasion being +in conflict with the law, had caused the committing magistrate to be +mulcted in heavy costs and damages. These and other facts being +mercilessly dragged forth somewhat detracted from the value of his +evidence. + +Then Catharine Lawless was once more called. Again it seemed that the +spectators, as upon the appearance on the stage of a favourite actress, +awoke to more than common excitement and intensity of interest. All eyes +were upon her as she walked composedly up to the witness-box. Dressed +quietly but in perfect taste as before, there was so much grace and +freedom about the girl's every movement--such self-possession in her +bearing--that she looked superior to her surroundings. + +She was evidently on her guard against such a display of emotion or +merely feminine weakness as had occurred at the first trial. Calmly and +imperturbably she gave her evidence, and as before deposed to having +seen Lance Trevanion in the companionship of her brother at Eumeralla, +and also at Balooka long before the day of arrest. + +If there be any force in the modern doctrines of the projection of nerve +force--of the subtle relation between the mesmeric will power and the +object of its current--then, as for one moment she turned towards the +dock and confronted the lurid light that blazed in Lance Trevanion's +haughty and contemptuous regard, she should have trembled and fallen to +the earth. + +But no such effect followed. She gazed back for an instant with a glance +fierce and tameless as his own, then coldly averted her face as she +repeated her lesson, as Mr. England vehemently characterised her +statement. + +'Then you still persist, Catharine Lawless,' said that gentleman, +turning with unchivalrous suddenness upon his fair antagonist, 'you +persist in declaring that you saw Lance Trevanion both at Balooka and +Eumeralla on the date you have stated?' + +'I have sworn I did see him,' she replied, while a shade of sullenness +commenced to overspread her countenance. + +'If these witnesses, Mr. Stirling, Mrs. Delf, Mrs. Polwarth and her +husband, besides several others, have sworn that they saw him at +Growlers' at a date which makes it absolutely impossible that he could +have been within a hundred miles of the localities you mention, is that +true or false?' + +'I don't care what they swear, I have told the truth.' + +'That is what they have sworn. Now, you know Mr. Stirling, Mrs. Delf, +Jack Polwarth, and the rest, don't you?' + +'Well, yes, I have seen them.' + +'Do you think they are people likely to swear to an untruth?' + +'I can't say. What I said was the truth.' + +'And what they say--false!' + +'I suppose so.' + +As before, she was the last witness for the Crown. When her evidence was +completed, she faced Mr. England, with one indignant, half-revengeful +expression on her face, then walked slowly, and with coolest composure, +from the court. + +When the case for the Crown had come to an end Mr. England in an +impressive speech 'put it to his Honour whether it was really necessary +to waste the time of the court by calling witnesses for the defence. The +other prisoner--the only accused, properly so called--had already +pleaded guilty. Was it not patent to his Honour, to the jury, to every +one in court, that this Edward Lawless--he desired to speak of him with +no undue harshness--was the real and only criminal. His client had no +doubt been highly imprudent in keeping company with such dangerous +associates as the Lawlesses, male and female, had proved themselves to +be, but he would ask his Honour, as a man of the world, Who amongst us, +in the heedless days of youth--careless of consequences, and +unsuspicious of guile--had not done likewise? Were people to be treated +as criminals--branded as felons--merely for socially encountering +persons afterwards guilty of felony? What a Star Chamber business would +this be in a British Colony!--where, thank God, every man was under the +aegis of the common law of the realm. His client, unfortunate in that +degree, had merely been a spectator, a looker-on. As to the H. J. horse, +he was as ignorant of all guilty knowledge as himself or his Honour; was +it not the wildest flight of absurdity to imagine for one moment that a +man with twenty thousand pounds to his credit in the bank would be +likely to receive--knowing him to be stolen--a fifty-pound horse? The +thing was absurd--so absurd that he would once more put it to his Honour +whether the farce should not be ended by at once asking the jury for +their verdict, which they would, he was confident, give without leaving +the box.' + +The judge 'felt the force of much that had been so ably presented in +favour of his client, but, with every wish to afford the prisoner +facilities for his defence, he was compelled to decline the application +of counsel. He would prefer to hear the witnesses for the defence before +summing up and addressing the jury.' + +Mr. England bit his lip, but he 'bowed, of course, to his Honour's +ruling,' and proceeded to call his witnesses. + +Then commenced the deeper interest of the performance. Every spectator +appeared to listen with concentrated attention. Not a syllable escaped +attention. Not a sound arose from the dense and closely packed crowd. + +All the former witnesses were called. Each in his turn gave evidence +which appeared to be so conclusively in favour of the prisoner that +every one in court thought with Mr. England that the jury would never +leave the box. Mr. Stirling, Jack Polwarth, Mrs. Delf, all testified to +the effect that Lance Trevanion had quitted Growlers' on that particular +day, Friday, the 20th September, for Balooka. When asked whether it was +possible for the prisoner, Trevanion, to have been seen at Balooka +shortly before the date named, they, with one accord, declared it to be +impossible. He had been seen every day by one or other for months +before. As to his being a couple of hundred miles off, it was absolutely +false and incredible. In addition to the witnesses heard previously, two +miners named Dickson and Judd were called, who swore positively that +they had seen the prisoner, Trevanion, on Friday, 20th September, near +'Growlers',' evidently commencing a journey to the eastward. He had a +valise strapped before his saddle, and was going along the mountain +road. + +'Would it lead to Balooka?' + +'Yes; that was the way to Balooka. One of them had been there, and a +rough shop it was. They were quite positive as to his identity.' + +'He was a noticeable chap, and the horse he rode wasn't a commoner +either. Any man with eyes in his head would know the pair of 'em +anywhere, let alone chaps as had worked the next claim but one to him +and Jack Polwarth.' + +Asked whether they were quite certain that they had met the prisoner on +the day stated by them, or whether they thought it might have been the +day before. + +'It was that very Saturday morning, and no other. They were as sure of +it as of their own lives. If men couldn't be sure of that they could not +be sure of anything.' + +Of course they knew Lance Trevanion well? + +'Yes, very well, by sight. Not that they had often spoken to him. He was +a gentleman, a big man in his own country, they heard tell. He kept +himself a deal to himself, except in regard to the Lawless family, and +he would have done well to have let them alone too.' + +Tessie Lawless, when called upon, moved towards the witness-box with a +much less assumed step than her cousin. She also turned her head towards +the dock. Those who watched her saw her face soften and change like that +of a woman who suddenly beholds a suffering child. As she scanned the +pallid and drawn features of Lance Trevanion, upon which anger and +despair, consuming anxiety and darkling doubt had written their +characters indelibly, it seemed as though she must force her way to him +and weep out her heart in bitter grief that he should be in such ignoble +toils. + +Then she braced herself for the effort and stood before the judge. The +statement which she made was almost identical with that on a former +occasion. A very good impression on the jury was evidently made by her +candour and earnestness. + +As she answered firmly yet modestly each question put to her by Mr. +England, the judge was observed to listen with close attention and the +jury to be unusually interested. Mr. England, scanning their faces with +practised readiness, saw in imagination their short retirement and a +unanimous verdict of 'not guilty' proceeding from the lips of the +foreman. Then, as he approached the critical period of the question +which had been so unlucky in its effects during the preliminary +examination, he felt as nearly nervous as a man of his proverbial +courage and varied experience could be. He was more than half disposed +to omit the question altogether; how he hated himself for having been +fool enough to put it in the first instance. + +'I don't think I need trouble the witness with any other questions, your +Honour,' he said tentatively; but here Dayrell rose and evidently +prepared himself to interpose. With lightning quickness Mr. England +decided to put the question in his own form and fashion, rather than +leave it to the enemy. + +'One minute, Miss Esther,' he said, as if the idea had just occurred to +him. 'I think you said that you were uncertain, or could not quite +recall, whether you had ever seen the accused Lance Trevanion before you +left the Eumeralla to come to Ballarat?' + +This he said with a smilingly suggestive air which would have given the +cue to an ordinary witness less imbued with a sense of unfaltering right +than Tessie Lawless. But as the girl's clear brown eyes searched his +face with a troubled expression, he comprehended that there was no hope +of evasion, that he had got hold of one of those impracticable witnesses +who really do speak 'the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' to the +consternation of lawyers and the disaster of defendants. + +'I said that I _had_ seen him before, at the Eumeralla,' she said +simply, 'I can't swear anything else. I _did_ see him, and it was a bad +day for him--and--and for me too,' she added. + +'Now think again, Miss Esther. Reflect that your answer to my question +is perhaps more important than any one you ever made in your life. How +can you account for Trevanion being so far from Ballarat? What business +had he there, and why should he leave Growlers' Gully, to which he came +from the ship, as I can prove?' + +The girl looked again at the dock and those who stood therein--at Ned +Lawless, who lounged good-natured as ever, and smiling to all +appearance; at Lance, who stood erect, darkly frowning and with a fixed +stern expression, as of one who should never smile more. + +'It will break my heart,' she said, 'but I must speak the truth while I +stand here. I _did_ see him on the Eumeralla, before we left home for +Ballarat, one day with Ned.' + +'I must ask again whether there is any possibility of your being +mistaken in the identity of the accused?' persisted Mr. England. 'You +have heard doubtless of men being so wonderfully alike that strangers +could not in many cases discover the difference?' + +'Just stand down for an instant. With his Honour's permission I will +recall the witness John Polwarth.' + +'You are recalled upon your former oath, Mr. Polwarth. I wish to ask you +whether you ever saw an individual most strangely resembling Trevanion? +If so, when and where?' + +'Yes--sartain,' replied John, looking pityingly upon Lance as he stood +in the cage, as Jack afterwards designated it. 'There was a chap as +called hisself Trevenna--Lawrence Trevenna--as coomed oot in ship with +us, and was as like the master here as he'd been his twin.' + +'Was the likeness really astonishing?' + +''Stonishin'! I believe you. It was the most surprisin' likeness ever I +seed, and so the missus'll tell you besides.' + +'Well, what became of him?' + +'Nivir heerd tale or tidings of him since he left the ship. Wasn't sorry +for that either. He was that bad-tempered and fond of card-playing that +I couldn't bear to have him in the same mess with me and the missus.' + +Mrs. Polwarth, also recalled, gave similar evidence with considerable +spirit, and hoped that some of the witnesses heard to-day might have +some good cause to know the individual as she meant. 'He was death on +playing cards, and that fond of money that he wouldn't leave off when he +lost. He was the worst-tempered man in the ship.' + +'That will do, Mrs. Polwarth. You may go and sit in the court with your +husband. Now, Miss Lawless, you have heard what these two most +respectable witnesses have sworn to. Are you still certain and positive +in your own mind that you saw Lance Trevanion _himself_ on the flats of +the Eumeralla, or did not rather fall in with Trevenna, who seems born +for the special purpose of complicating this most involved and unhappy +case?' + +A look of relief and sudden satisfaction passed over the girl's face as +she answered, 'I do now feel in doubt. Oh! I will not swear positively. +I never dreamed that there was any one so like Mr. Trevanion.' + +'Then,' pursued Mr. England, 'having now become aware that there is an +individual so strikingly like Lance Trevanion that a stranger could +hardly know them apart, are you desirous to correct your former +evidence, given in ignorance of the fact, by now declaring on your oath +that you are unable to identify the man you saw with the prisoner, +Trevanion?' + +The light came back to the witness's eyes, and even a faint colour rose +to her cheeks as she answered firmly, almost joyfully, 'I believe in my +heart that it must have been Trevenna that I saw. I cannot swear now +that I saw Mr. Trevanion.' + +A faint murmur of approval arose in the court, which was promptly +suppressed as the Crown Prosecutor rose. + +'I do not wish, your Honour, in any way to impugn this witness's +testimony. She has every desire, I feel convinced, to speak the truth. +But I wish to ask her whether of _her own knowledge_ she is aware that +such a person as Lawrence Trevenna exists?' + +'I have just heard two people swear to it,' the girl replied hastily, as +if fearful that this welcome solution of a dreadful doubt should be +taken from her. 'What more do I need?' + +'Just so. But you must perceive that in the event--improbable, I admit, +but possible--that these witnesses were mistaken or misleading, you have +no knowledge of your own to fall back upon?' + +'If I could only see them both together,' pleaded poor Tessie ruefully, +'I am sure I could pick out the one I saw at Eumeralla.' + +'I am afraid there is no chance of that,' said the barrister, 'unless +Sergeant Dayrell can produce him.' + +'Perhaps it would be convenient,' answered Dayrell, in the most coldly +incredulous tones, 'if I could produce a counterpart of the prisoner, +Lawless, at the same time. I do not wish to distress the last witness, +but one would be quite as easy as the other.' + +The girl faced round, as his clear but slightly raised voice sounded +through the court, and looked full at him, with scorn and indignation in +every line of her countenance. + +'I thought better of you, Francis Dayrell,' she said. 'You are acting a +falsehood, and you know it.' + +Dayrell's lips moved slightly, but no sound came from them for a moment. +He bowed with an affectation of extreme courtesy before addressing the +Bench. + +'Your Honour, I claim protection against such an imputation. But I make +great allowance for the witness, whose relation to the prisoners excuses +much.' + +His Honour was understood to reprove the witness mildly but +impressively, and to express a hope that she would abstain from all +aggressive remarks in future. + +Tessie's evidence being concluded, the Crown Prosecutor proceeded to +address the jury, pointing out what, in his opinion, were the salient +points of the case as brought out in evidence. + +'In the first place, they would remark that large numbers of horses had +been and were at that very time being systematically stolen from the +miners. There existed no doubt, in the minds of persons capable of +forming an opinion on such matters, that a well-organised and +widely-spread association had been formed, by means of which horses +stolen in one colony were driven by unfrequented routes to another, for +the purpose of sale. It was not as if an occasional animal here and +there had been taken. That offence, criminal in itself, doubtless, +deserved some punishment. But, considering the great value of horses at +the diggings, their almost vital importance in the ordinary course of +mining industry, and the difficulty of following up and punishing +marauders without ruinous loss of time and expense, he was there to tell +the jury that a greater wrong, a more flagrant injustice, could not be +inflicted on any mining community. + +'With regard to the prisoners arrested and arraigned together, one had +pleaded guilty and the other had denied all knowledge--all criminal +knowledge--of the fact that the horse he was riding when arrested had +been stolen. There had been evidence given that day before them which +directly pointed to the prisoner Trevanion's general association with +the Lawlesses, such evidence as, if believed by them, must lead to the +conclusion that the mode of procuring and disposing of the large number +of horses found in the elder Lawless's possession was not unknown to +him. + +'On the other hand, there had not been wanting evidence most favourable +to the prisoner, Trevanion; favourable in its purport, and entitled to +respect on account of the character and position of the witnesses. It +was their province to pronounce upon the credibility of the witnesses. +He would not detain them longer. They were the judges of fact. His +Honour would in his charge direct them as to the law of the case.' + +Then Mr. England arose, threw back his gown as if preparing for action +in another arena, and faced the jury with an air of confident valour. + +'His learned friend, the Crown Prosecutor, had most properly confined +himself to a bare statement of facts--if facts they could be called. In +the whole of his experience of alleged criminal cases it had never been +his good fortune to be connected with a defence, the conduct of which +was so childishly clear, the outcome of which was so ridiculously easy +of solution. Putting aside for the present the utter want of all +reasonable motive for the commission of a felony--the perpetration of a +crime by a man of good fame, family, and fortune--this extraordinary +purposeless deed, for which only the wildest condition of insanity could +account, he would briefly run over the evidence for the defence. + +'First, as to the character of the prisoner's witnesses, shame was it, +and sorrow as well, that he should have to refer to this unfortunate +gentleman--he would repeat the word--by such a designation. The jury +would note, giving the case that attention which was its due, that every +witness for the defence was a person of unblemished character. Beginning +with Mr. Stirling--their tried and trusted friend--what man within a +hundred miles of Ballarat would doubt his word, not to speak of his +solemn oath! Then, John Polwarth and his wife--the former a hard-working +legitimate miner, one of a class that the country was proud of, and +whose industry was rapidly lifting it to a lofty position among the +nations. His fond and faithful wife. Charles Edward Hastings, a man of +birth and culture, yet, like the majority of this population, an +earnest, efficient toiler. Then their respected friend and benefactress, +Mrs. Delf. He should like to see any one look into that lady's face and +doubt her word. The two wages-men from the Hand-in-Hand claim, men who +had no earthly interest but of upholding the truth; and last, but by no +means the least in weight of testimony, Miss Esther Lawless--the witness +of truth, even against her own sympathies, as any child could see. + +'So much for the character of our witnesses and their reliability. Then +as to the agreement of this testimony. Examined separately and without +suspicion of collusion, what had been their evidence, differing only +with those shades of discrepancy which before all practised tribunals +absolved them from any hint of tutoring? Why, it amounted to triumphant +proof beyond all question or challenge, that on Thursday, the 19th of +September, Launcelot Trevanion was at the Joint-Stock Bank at Growlers' +Gully, and that he could not have started on his journey to Balooka +earlier than Friday, 20th, the day he was asserted to have been seen +there. He held this important position to be proved, so much so that he +should not again perhaps refer to it. + +'Having thus briefly, but he hoped clearly, presented to them the +overwhelming weight of evidence, amounting to one of the most convincing +_alibis_ ever proved before a court, he should pass on to the evidence +for the Crown. There was an absence of direct proof, but he hesitated +not to impugn the _bona fides_ of Sergeant Dayrell and Catharine +Lawless. He owned to regarding it with considerable suspicion. He +implored the jury, as they valued their oaths, to scrutinise this part +of the case most heedfully. What the motives of these witnesses might be +he was not prepared to assert, but as men of the world they would +probably form their own opinion. Catharine Lawless had admittedly been +on friendly, more than friendly terms with the accused, why had she so +completely turned round and given damaging evidence against him? In the +history of light o' loves of this nature were found fatal enmities, and +hardly less fatal friendships; was it not probable that jealousy, "cruel +as the grave," was the motive power in this otherwise inconsequential +action? Cool and high-couraged as this witness had shown herself, he +could not avoid noticing signs of discomposure which pointed to +unnatural feelings and untruthful statements. Was there then some +relentless vengeance in the background, the secret of which was known +only to the Lawless family and Sergeant Dayrell, to be wreaked upon this +unfortunate victim of treachery? He was betrayed alike in love and in +friendship, in business and in pleasure. This conspiracy, he could call +it by no lighter name, was no accidental affair, but a carefully +planned, cold-blooded, and deliberate crime. In all trials involving +criminal action it was the habit of eminent judges to direct juries to +examine carefully the probability or otherwise of the prisoner's +_motive_ for committing the offence charged against him. In this case no +motive could possibly be said to exist. Was it likely, as he had before +inquired of them, that a man with a fortune, a large fortune to his +credit in a bank, with a weekly income of most enviable magnitude, +increasing rather than diminishing, should lend himself to a paltry +theft, such as was alleged against him? It was as though the leading +country gentleman of a county in Britain should steal a donkey off a +common, if they would pardon him the vulgarity of the simile. Gentlemen +might smile, but was there anything to excite mirth in the haggard +features and melancholy mien of the unhappy young man whom they saw in +that dock? Let them imagine one of their own relatives placed in that +position by no fault of his own, and they could understand his feelings. +He would not for an instant urge them to act inconsistently with their +oath, but he implored them to avoid by their verdict that day the dread +and terrible responsibility of convicting an innocent man.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Then the judge, with a final glance at his notes, commenced to sum up on +the evidence. He stood singular among his fellow-jurists for plain and +unostentatious demeanour, both on and off the bench. In the matter of +outward attire he could not be accused of extravagance. A studied +plainness of habit distinguished him on all occasions. Careless, +moreover, as to the fit of his garments as of their colour or quality. +As a lawyer he was proverbially keen, clear-headed, and deeply read; but +he wasted no time upon his judgments, and never was known to 'improve +the occasion' by the stern or pathetic harangues in which his +fellow-judges, for the most part, enclosed their decisions--the wrapper +of the pill, so to speak. So rapid and decisive were his Honour's +findings that some of them had passed into household words. When he +arose from his seat, and after taking a short walk along the judicial +dais, as if in mental conflict, resumed his position, the spectators +knew that they would not have long to wait. '"Very honest man rides a +stolen horse," would have been the gist of my charge, gentlemen of the +jury,' he said; 'but this truly strange and complicated case demands the +closest examination. The evidence presents exceptional features. On one +side you have a young man of good character and means. His pecuniary +circumstances should have removed all temptation to commit the offence +charged. In a spirit of recklessness he associates with the Lawless +family. About their character--with the sole exception of Esther +Lawless--the less said the better. He buys from Edward Lawless a horse +proved to have been stolen--many an honest man during the turmoil of the +gold period has done the same. He has occasionally gambled for large +sums, which is highly imprudent, but not felony, in the eyes of the law. +The evidence for the defence proves fully--if believed--that he did not +leave Growlers' Gully for Balooka until the 19th of September--competent +witnesses swear positively to this fact. If you believe them, the case +is at an end. On the other hand, as many swear to his having been seen +at Balooka long before the day referred to, and also at Eumeralla, the +old home of the Lawlesses, some of these witnesses must be in error, as +the prisoner manifestly could not have been in two places at once. +Catharine Lawless had evidently an animus _spretae injuria formae_, he +felt inclined to say, which might be freely translated into a lover's +quarrel of some sort. As men of the world, the jury would largely +discount her evidence. A still more remarkable feature of this truly +remarkable case was that Esther Lawless--whose conscientious scruples +did her honour--testified also to having seen the prisoner at Eumeralla +in association with Edward Lawless. They had heard John Polwarth's +evidence, and his wife's, regarding a shipmate curiously like Trevanion. +Such similarities, though rare, were not unknown. There was a +possibility of mistaken identity. These points, as well as the +credibility of the witnesses, were for them to consider. They were the +judges of fact. But it was their especial duty to give the prisoner the +benefit of all reasonable doubt--a doubt which he should certainly share +with them if they brought in a verdict of _not guilty_.' + +When Mr. England heard the conclusion of the judge's charge, he scarcely +doubted for a moment that after a short retirement of the jury his +Honour's last words would be repeated by that responsible body. He +therefore sat down, and calling over Charles Stirling, imparted to him +confidentially his feeling on the subject. 'His Honour plainly and +unmistakably was with them, and had summed up dead in favour of +Trevanion. He was one of the best judges of the Victorian Bench, +clear-headed and decisive, detesting all mere verbiage. A man, a +gentleman, a sound lawyer--all these Judge Buckthorne was known to be. +Pity he could not borrow a little deportment from Sir Desmond, who had +enough and to spare.' + +Thus they talked while the business of the court went forward. Another +jury had been impanelled; another case called on; another prisoner had +been put in the dock and placed on the farther side with Ned Lawless. +They seemed to know each other. Lance cast upon him a brief, indifferent +glance, and resigned himself to silent endurance. + +With respect to the issue, Charles Stirling was by no means so confident +as his legal friend, veteran as he was, boasting the scars of a hundred +battles. But in his character of banker he had the opportunity of +hearing the general public, as represented by the 'legitimate miner,' +as he was fond of calling himself, which means every sort and condition +of mankind, anxious to compel fortune by the primeval process, but +wholly without capital to develop enterprises. + +Now the jury was chiefly composed of ordinary miners. Of these it so +happened that a large number had had their horses stolen. They were +valuable animals at that period, most difficult to replace, and the +owners, therefore, felt their loss acutely. They came to the trial with +a fixed and settled intention of striking a blow at horse-stealers, to +which end it was necessary that some one, they hardly cared who, should +suffer. + +They were determined that an example should be made. It would do good +and prevent others from being so immoral and short-sighted as to rob +honest miners. + +'This Trevanion,' they reasoned, 'had really been mixed up with the +Lawless crowd, and a worse lot, now it turned out, had never been seen +near Ballarat.' + +It was argued that the evidence went to show that he had been a known +friend and an intimate of the family at the place with the native name, +and had been seen there when horse-stealing on a large scale was being +carried on. + +'Kate Lawless swore point-blank to his having been away with her +brothers long before the Lawless crowd had come to Growlers'. Trooper +Donnellan had sworn to seeing him there. Hiram Edwards, the Yankee +digger, had seen him there, and other miners. They had no call to have a +down on him, even if Dayrell and the girl had. + +'Besides these, Tessie Lawless, who every one knew was a straight girl, +and wouldn't have said a word against him for the world if she could +have helped it--even _she_ had to confess that she had seen him at +Eumeralla.' + +'What about this chap that was said to be the dead image of him?' asked +a younger juror. 'It was hard lines to be lagged innocent through +another cove's work.' + +'Well, they might believe that if they liked; it was put up, some +thought. Jack Polwarth and his wife, like all these Cousin Jacks, would +swear anything for a Cornishman. Mr. Stirling was a nice chap, but he +was a banker, and wasn't likely to go back on a man with a good account. +Mrs. Delf was a good sort, but Trevanion used her house regular and +spent his money free. They knew what that meant. His mind was made up. +If Ned Lawless, as was waiting for his sentence, was in it, Trevanion +was too. He must face the music. He'd be let off light, but it would be +a lesson to him. If they didn't shop some one over this racket there +wouldn't be a horse left on the field by Christmas.' + +At different times, and from different speakers, such was the general +tone and substance of the arguments advanced by the majority. The +minority defended their position, and from time to time denied that +sufficient evidence had been furnished to show guilty knowledge or +participation in crime on the part of the prisoner. But, after several +hours spent in debate, the minority yielded, disinclination to be locked +up all night lending force to the logic of their opponents. + +When the jury marched into court, after notice by the sheriff's officer +to the judge that they had agreed, a hush of anxious silence reigned +throughout the building. Lance stood up fearless and erect, as a soldier +faces the firing-party at his execution. Ned Lawless never changed his +position, but seemed as careless and unenvious as the youngest lad in +court. + +'How say you, gentlemen of the jury?' said the judge's associate, a very +young gentleman, with discretion, however, beyond his years. 'Do you +find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?' + +There was an air of solemnity pervading the jurors generally, from which +Mr. England at once deduced an adverse verdict. The women fastened their +eyes upon the foreman with eager expectation or painful anxiety; all +save Kate Lawless. For all her emotion displayed, expressed in her +countenance, the prisoners might have been Chinamen charged with +stealing cabbages. + +There was a slight pause, after which the foreman, a burly digger who +had been a 'forty-niner' in California, and had seen the first rush at +Turon, uttered the word 'Guilty!' The effect of the announcement was +electrical. A tumult seemed imminent. The great crowd swayed and surged +as if suddenly stirred to unwonted action. Groans mingled with hisses +were heard; women's cries and sobs, above which rose a girl's hysterical +shriek, thrilling and prolonged, temporarily in the ascendant. The deep +murmur of indignation seemed about to swell into riotous shouting, when +an additional force of police appeared at the outer entrance, by whom, +after vigorous expostulation, order was restored. + +The judge proceeded to pass sentence, contenting himself with telling +the jury that 'they had proved themselves scrupulous guardians of the +public welfare, and had not allowed themselves to be swayed by +considerations of mercy. Their grasp of the facts of the case was +doubtless most comprehensive. It was their verdict, not his. They had +accepted the sole responsibility. Launcelot Trevanion, the sentence of +the court is that you be imprisoned in Her Majesty's Gaol at Ballarat, +and kept to hard labour for the term of two years. Edward Lawless, the +sentence of the court is that you be imprisoned in Her Majesty's Gaol at +Pentridge, and kept to hard labour for the term of five years. Let the +prisoners be removed.' + +Then the disorder of the crowd, previously restrained, burst all bounds, +and appeared to become ungovernable. Tessie Lawless fell forward in a +faint and was carried out. Mrs. Polwarth shook her fist in the direction +of the sacred judgment-seat, and declared in resonant tones that more +would come of this if things were not mended. Snatching Tottie up, she +and Mrs. Delf followed in the wake of Mr. Stirling and Hastings, +continuing to impeach the existing order of things judicial, and +declaring 'that an honest man and a gentleman had no show in a country +like this, where straight folks' oaths counted for nought; where +policemen and lying jades had power to shut up in prison a man whose +shoes in England they wouldn't have been allowed to black.' + +'End of first act of the melodrama,' said Hastings to Charlie Stirling, +with grim pleasantry. 'Audience gone out for refreshment. "What may +happen to a man in Victoria!" as the Port Phillip _Patriot_ said the +other day. Poor Lance! it makes me feel revolutionary too.' + + * * * * * + +The end had come. With a hoarse murmur, half-repressed but none the less +sullen and resentful, the crowd surged outward from the court. A strong +body of police escorted the prisoners to the van, in which, despite of +threatened obstruction from some of the Growlers' Gully contingent, they +were placed and driven towards the gaol, which, built on a lofty +eminence, was nearly a mile from the court-house. Ned Lawless preserved +his ordinary cheerful indifference, nodding to more than one +acquaintance in the crowd, as who should say, 'They don't have me for no +five years, you bet!' + +But Lance moved like a man in a dream. The force of the blow seemed to +have arrested the ordinary action of the brain. 'Guilty! _Two years' +imprisonment!_ Oh, God! Was it possible! and not some evil dream from +which he would wake, as in the days of his boyhood, to find himself free +and happy. It could not be. The Almighty could not be so cruel, so +merciless, could not suffer a wrong so foul, so false to every principle +of right, truth, justice! This hideous phantasmagoria would vanish, and +he, Lance Trevanion, would find himself back at Number Six, hailing the +dawn with joy, ready to sing aloud as he left his couch with pure +elation of spirits.' + +The actuality of changed conditions was brought home to him by the +prompt alteration of treatment to which he was subjected on arriving at +the gaol. Marched through a large yard in which a number of prisoners +were sitting or standing aimlessly about, Lance became aware that a +great change had taken place in his status and prestige. Before this he +was only on committal; for all the prison authorities knew, he might be +acquitted, and walk forth from court unstained in reputation. + +But now things were different. He was a prisoner under sentence. Bound +to conform to the regulations of the establishment, who must _obey +orders_. Do, in plain words, what he was told, no matter in what tone or +manner couched, must perform menial services, descend from his former +position to be the servant of servants, nay more, their dumb and +unresisting slave, unless he saw fit to defy the terrible and crushing +weight of prison authority. Should he submit? he asked himself, sitting +down on the scanty bedding, neatly folded on a narrow board. + +'Should he submit? or rather should he not give volcanic vent to his +untamed temper, strangle the warder who next came to his cell, and "run +amok," scattering the gaol guards, dying by a rifle bullet rather than +by the slower but not less certain action of the prison atmosphere? Had +it not killed so many another, born, like him, to a life of +freedom?--and yet--he was young--so young! Life had joys in store--for a +man of three-and-twenty, even if he had to waste two years in this +thrice accursed living tomb! Disgrace! dishonour! Of course it +was--would be all the days of his life. Still there were other +countries--other worlds, almost, of which he had since his arrival in +Australia heard more than all his schooling had taught him. The Pacific +Slope; the South-Sea Islands; the Argentine Republic; New Mexico; Texas; +Colorado! These were localities of which many a miner talked as +familiarly as Jack Polwarth of Cornwall or Devon. Two years would pass +somehow. How many weeks was it? A hundred and more! The Judge, however, +had ordered the time he had spent under committal to be deducted from +the whole term--that was something. Well, he would see it out. He had +friends still who were staunch and true. He would change his name and go +to one of those places in the New World where men were not too +particular about their associates' former lives--as long as they paid +their way and lived a manly life. But home! Home to Wychwood! Home to +his father and Estelle! Never! No! He could not look them in the face +again.' + +These reflections were brought to a close abruptly by the sudden opening +of the cell door and the entrance of two warders, one of whom carried a +suit of prison clothes. One was a tall powerful man with a hard +expression of countenance and a cruel mouth. He looked at Lance with a +cold, scrutinising air. + +'Stand up, prisoner Trevanion,' he said, as if reading out of a book, +'and the next time you hear your cell door open comply with the +regulations.' + +'What regulations?' inquired Lance. + +'They're on that board,' pointing to a small board placed in a corner of +the cell. 'You can read, I expect? Now, strip, and dress yourself in +this uniform.' + +Disencumbering himself of his ordinary garments, Lance soon found +himself attired in a striped suit of coarse cloth, fitted also with +rough blucher boots and a woollen cap. + +'Follow Warder Jackson.' + +The shorter warder grinned: 'You've got to see the barber and the +photographer next. You won't hardly know yourself, will he, Bracker? +We've got yer photer' before you was took, and now all we want is yer +jug likeness. Then we have yer both ways in case yer gives us leg-bail. +Turn.' + +They halted in a wide passage where a man in prison garb stood by a +camera. He had been a photographer before committing the forgery for +which he was imprisoned. His talents were now utilised in securing +likenesses of his fellow-prisoners, a modern gaol invention which had +proved of immense value in the identification of criminals who had +either escaped or had committed fresh crimes. + +Before being placed in position a man came out of a passage bearing a +razor, with shaving materials and scissors of formidable size. + +'Sit down,' said the tall warder, pointing to a bench, 'the gaol barber +will cut your hair now and shave you, after this he will shave you twice +a week and cut your hair every fortnight.' Subduing a frenzied impulse +to seize the razor, cut every one's throat and his own afterwards, Lance +sat down, and in a marvellously short time found his face denuded of +moustache and whisker, while his head felt strangely cold and bristly. +He submitted, vacantly staring and unresistingly, to being placed in the +position proper for the apparatus. When the negative came out and was +shown to him exultingly as a first-rate likeness he did not recognise +himself. + +This creature in the repulsive and bizarre habiliments, with cropped +head and hairless face as of a patient in a lunatic asylum. Was this +really himself? Was this Lance Trevanion? It could not be, unless he had +gone mad. Perhaps he had without knowing it; men did not know when they +lost their reason, so he had read, or how would they persist in saying +they were sane? His head was burning, his eyes darkened, he gasped for +breath, and before either warder could save him, fell prone and heavily +on the stone floor. + + * * * * * + +He recovered to find himself in the cell to which he had first been +taken. He was sitting upon the two blankets which represented bed and +bedding for a hard-labour prisoner, and had been considerately propped +up against an angle of the wall. He had been 'under observation' of a +warder unconsciously since being carried there. This official was +enabled to look in through a small barred aperture for that purpose, +placed in the cell door. When the prisoner struggled into consciousness +he departed, leaving Lance to realise his position and to compose his +thoughts. + +Merciful heaven! what thoughts were his! Let those say who have suddenly +awakened to the consciousness of crime, not only alleged but legally +proved; who as criminals, in spite of denial and protest, have been +tried and sentenced. To the awakened knowledge of dishonour fixed, +public, irrevocable! A mark for the pity of friends, for the scorn of +strangers, for the chuckling triumph of enemies! Up to a certain stage +of legal conflict imagination cheats the boding heart with hope of +release, victory, sudden good fortune. + +But, the verdict once delivered, the sentence pronounced, hope trails +her wings and abandons the fated victim; faith permits the lamp to burn +so low that a breath of unbelief suffices to extinguish it; charity +flees in dismay from frenzied cries and imprecations. Then this is the +opportunity of the enemy of mankind. This demon train finds easy +entrance into the ruined fortress of the soul. The furies are not idle. +Remorse, revenge, jealousy, cruel as the grave, all the unclean and +baser spirits ravenous for his soul, forsaken of God and man, as he +holds himself to be, gather around the scapegoat of society as the +diablotins around the corpse of the physician in Dore's terrible +engraving. A carnival of evil, weird and Dantesque, begins in the lonely +cell. In that hour, unless his guardian angel has the power to shield +him from the dread assault of the lower forces, a transformation, such +as was but fabled in old classic days, takes place. The higher +qualities, the loftier aspirations, the old beliefs in honour, valour, +virtue, and justice take flight for ever, while the brute attributes +stalk forth threatening and unchallenged. + +Day after day Lance Trevanion performed mechanically his portion of +appointed work among the prison herd. To them he spoke no word. When +locked up with the rest for the long long solitary night, which +commenced before dark and did not end till after sunrise, under gaol +rules, he sat brooding over his woes. Stirling had called with printed +permission from the visiting justice to see prisoner Trevanion, but he +refused to meet him. How could he bear that any of his former friends +should look upon him degraded and repulsive of aspect? No! He would +never see them more--while in this hateful prison-house at least. +Afterwards, if he were living and not turned into a wild beast, he would +consider. Friends! How _could_ a man have friends while suffering this +degradation? + +Towards the warders his demeanour was silent rather than sullen, but he +could not be induced by threat or persuasion to affect the +respectfulness which is, by regulation, enjoined between prisoners and +officials. These last were indifferent, to do them justice, regarding +Lance as 'a swell chap as had got it hot, and was a bit off his chump.' +The exception to this state of feeling was Bracker, the head warder, who +desired to be regarded with awe, and was irritable at the slightest +failure of etiquette. His manner, devoid of the faintest trace of +sympathy, was harsh and overbearing. To the higher class of prisoners he +was especially distasteful, and from this knowledge, or other reason, +they were the inmates towards whom he appeared to have the strongest +dislike. It may easily be imagined that although the visiting +magistrate, to whom is entrusted the duty of trying and punishing all +descriptions of prison offences, is presumably impartial, yet it is +within the power of any gaol official, if actuated by malicious +feelings, to irritate a prisoner to the verge of frenzy, and afterwards +to ensure his punishment under form of law. The trial takes place within +the walls of the gaol. The warders give their evidence on oath. In a +general way they corroborate each other's testimony. It is not difficult +to foretell, even though the magistrate be acute and discriminating, how +the decision will go. The punishments permitted in prison vary in +severity. Confinement in a solitary cell with half rations, or even +bread and water, for periods varying from three days to a fortnight, +mark the initiatory stage of repression. Then comes the dark cell, an +experience which awes the boldest. + +After which, for insubordination coupled with unusual violence of speech +or action, flogging may be inflicted, if a second magistrate be present +at the hearing of the case. This was the code to which Lance Trevanion +now found himself amenable. All ignorant of its pains and penalties, he +bore himself with a sullen contempt alike of the tasks and routine +observances by regulation imposed upon all prisoners. He obeyed, indeed, +but with an air of indifference which provoked Bracker, who secretly +resolved to 'break' him, as the prison slang goes. To that end he +commenced a line of conduct which he had seldom known in his extended +experience to fail. More than once, however, in his career, Bracker had +been accused of cruelty to prisoners. At the last gaol where he had +served the visiting magistrate had come to the conclusion that these +repeated charges were not entirely without foundation, and so reporting, +his official superior had warned him that if any offence of the kind was +proved against him he would be disrated, if not dismissed. It was +therefore incumbent on him to be wary and circumspect. + +He commenced by speaking roughly to Lance almost every time he entered +his cell, compelling him to roll up his blankets several times in +succession under the pretence of insufficient neatness, swearing at him +when there was no one near, and abusing him as a lazy lubber who +wouldn't take the trouble to keep his cell neat and wanted to have a +body-servant to wait upon him. Among Mr. Bracker's other engaging +qualities was that of being a radical of the deepest dye in politics and +a democrat particularly advanced. A child of the masses, he had received +just sufficient education to qualify him for a rabid advocacy of certain +communistic theories. Arising from this mental enlightenment partly, as +well as from the fundamental condition of an envious and malignant +nature, was a hatred of privileged orders and an unreasoning spite +towards gentle-folk and aristocrats of whatever sex or grade. He had +read accounts of the French Revolution and lamented that he had not the +power to put in force, in these degenerate days, some of the drastic +remedies by which 'the people' of France ameliorated their own condition +and wiped out the long score of oppressions which they had suffered at +the hands of their natural enemies. + +As a man, a politician, and a warder he felt therefore a subtle +satisfaction in tormenting a member of the hated class secretly. He felt +it due to himself also, as a matter of professional etiquette, not to be +'bested' by a prisoner under sentence. He settled to his daily dole of +insult with cruel craft and grim resolve. Such may have actuated a +plantation overseer in South Carolina towards a contumacious 'nigger' in +the good old slave-holding days before the war. + +Daily the 'assistant torturer' pursued his course. Mere oaths and +continuous abuse were always carefully timed to be out of earshot of all +others. Daily Lance Trevanion endured in silence the varied taunts, the +bullying tone, which he had never needed to bear from living man before. +Indignant scorn lit up his sad despairing eyes at each fresh +provocation. More deeply glowed their smouldering fires, but no word +came from the tightly-compressed lips; no gesture told of the well-nigh +unendurable mental agony within, of the almost unnatural strain. + +'Yes, you may look,--blast you for an infernal stuck-up aristocrat,' +Bracker said one morning. 'You know you'd like to rub me out, but you're +not game--_not game_--do you hear that? You and all your breed in the +old country, and this too, have been living all your lives on the labour +of men like me, and treating us like the dirt under your feet, and you +can't salute your superiors like another prisoner. You're too grand, I +suppose. But by ----, I'll break you down, my fine fellow, before I've +done with you. I'll have you on your knees yet. You're not the first +that's tried it on with me, and, my word! they paid for it. I'd like you +to have seen them knuckle under before I left off dealing with them.' + +The next day, on some transparent pretence, Lance was ordered to take up +the work of one of the long-sentence prisoners, which involved menial +and degrading, not to say disgusting duties. These he performed +patiently and mechanically, yet with a far-off look as of a man in a +dream. Even this penance was insufficient to appease the malevolence of +his tormentor. He made a practice of standing near, watching his victim, +enjoying the spectacle of the captive 'swell' engaged for hours in the +meanest conceivable employment. From time to time he made brutal jokes +upon the situation with his assistant warders or those prisoners who +were always ready for personal reasons to take the side of their +taskmasters. + +After the night's stillness and respite--stillness how oppressive, even +terrible in its unbroken silence!--Lance would brace himself to confront +anew his bitter fate. He would repeat to himself all the reasons that he +could summon for stubborn endurance and patient adherence to the course +he had laid down for himself. But with the morning light came his +inexorable foe, ordering him here and there, persisting in declaring +that he was in the habit of breaking minor regulations, making a +laughing-stock of him before other prisoners in every way, driving him +along the road which was sure, in Bracker's experience, to land him in +some act of overt insubordination. + +One morning, after an hour's trial of every species of aggravation, +Lance's patience so far failed him that he turned upon his persecutor +and told him that no one but a coward would thus treat a man in his +position, and who was unable to defend himself or retaliate. He did not +say much, but doubtless committed himself to the extent of infringing +the gaol regulations, which enjoin respect and obedience to all +officials. + +His adversary at once seized his advantage, and ordering him back to his +cell locked him up, pushing him roughly inside the door. This portion +of his duty performed, he lodged a complaint in due form of +insubordination against Launcelot Trevanion, hard labour prisoner under +sentence. + +The gaoler held over the case until the end of the week, when Mr. +M'Alpine, as visiting magistrate, regularly attended to hear cases and +complaints. + +The trial of prisoners charged with such offences is conducted _in +camera_, the magistrate, the gaoler, the parties to the complaint, and +the witnesses being only present. For reasons held to be sufficient, the +public and the press are excluded. Evidence on oath is taken down in +writing, that the depositions may be afterwards referred to. The +magistrate decides on the evidence brought before him. The accused is +permitted to call witnesses. But for obvious reasons the warders and the +companions in captivity of the culprit or complainant constitute +necessarily the only available testimony. Thus it is to be feared that +occasionally the scales of justice may be deflected, and though forms +are adhered to, wrong-doing triumphs and revenge is wreaked. + +So, in the present case, Bracker swore positively that Lance had +habitually refused to obey orders, and on this occasion had abused and +threatened him in language unfit to be repeated. He handed in a paper on +which was written a selection of foul expressions of his own invention. +His tale was corroborated in part by another warder, who had heard Lance +speak in an excited tone of voice to the complainant--though he was not +near enough to catch the sense of his words. One of the +prisoners--mindful of favours to come--'swore up' in Bracker's interest, +and more circumstantially confirmed his story. Against this weight of +evidence Lance's denial availed nothing. His resentful demeanour tended +to prejudice Mr. M'Alpine against him as being mutinous and defiant. +There was no little difficulty in preserving order among the desperate +_detenus_ of the day, as it was. The sternest repression was thought +necessary. In view of example and deterrent effect, Lance was therefore +sentenced--after an admonition of curt severity--to a month's solitary +confinement upon bread and water, the last week to be passed in the dark +cell. + +The ill-concealed triumph depicted on Bracker's countenance was hard to +bear. The solitary cell, the meagre fare, often unduly abridged, +represented to a man of Lance's temperament and experiences the +extremity of human wretchedness. But a sharper sting was added by +Bracker's daily jeers: 'So you won't give a civil answer yet when you're +spoke to,' he said, one afternoon, stirring Lance rudely with his foot. +'And you won't stand up when you're told? Wait till to-morrow, when +you're due for the dark 'un--seven days and seven nights! That'll bleach +you, my flash horse-thief, like a stick of celery! I'll take the steel +out of yer before I've done! Bigger chaps than you have been +straightened here before now!' + +On the next morning, accordingly, Lance was marched to the dark cell, +and thrust in so roughly that, weakened as he was by his Lenten diet, he +fell down, bruised and half-fainting. There was barely sufficient room +in the small circular cell for him to lie at length, and as he regained +a sitting posture and strained his eyesight to discover one ray of light +amid the almost palpable darkness, he realised fully the utter +desolation and horror of his position. Despair took possession of him. +Forsaken of God and man, as he deemed himself to be, he raved and +blasphemed like a maniac, ceasing only when sheer exhaustion brought on +a stupor of insensibility, from which he passed into perturbed and +fitful slumbers. + +He awoke only to undergo with partially renewed faculties still keener +miseries. Unaware of the time which he had passed in sleep, he was +ignorant whether it was day or night. No sound penetrated the thick +walls of the cell. The Cimmerian gloom was unrelieved by the faintest +pencil of light. Had he been dead and entombed he could not have been +more utterly separated from knowledge of the outer world--from communion +with the living. Days seemed to have passed since he first entered the +cell. His brain throbbed. His heart-beats were plainly audible to him in +the horrible silence. Delirious fancies commenced to assail him. He saw +his father's form as he had last seen it, with visage stern and +inflexible. He seemed to say: 'All that I foresaw has come to pass. You +have dishonoured an ancient name!--blotted a stainless escutcheon! Die, +and make no sign!' + +Then his cousin Estelle's sweet face came slowly out of the gloom, +gazing upon him with sorrowful, angelic pity. The infinite tenderness, +the boundless compassion of love, shone in her starry eyes, which, in +his vision, commenced to irradiate the gloomy vault. Clearer grew the +outlines of her form--a celestial brightness appeared to render visible +every outline of her form, every lineament of her countenance, as she +inclined herself as if to raise him from his recumbent position. He +threw up his arms with a cry of joyous recognition. The action appeared +to recall his wandering senses. The impenetrable dungeon gloom again +closed over him like a descending iron platform. A steel band appeared +to compress and still more tightly environ his brain, until a deathlike +swoon terminated simultaneously both agony and sensation. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +When Lance issued from the dark cell and was relegated to ordinary +confinement, he fully justified Bracker's anticipations in one respect. +He was 'bleached,' as that official had described the change of +complexion likely to result. His face was ashen white, his eyes had a +vacant stare like those of a blind man. He staggered from weakness, so +that the warders were fain to hold him up more than once. When addressed +he made no answer. It seemed as if his senses had suffered partial +obliteration. Bracker was not present when his victim was returned to +his cell after serving the full term of punishment. The other warders, +who had no special dislike to him, were indulgent rather than otherwise +in their treatment and comments. + +'You're a bit low, Trevanion,' one of them said; 'I'd ask to see the +doctor if I were you, and get sent to hospital for a week or two. He'll +order you wine, and soup, and things. You'll be slipping your cable like +that other chap Bracker got into trouble about, if you don't mind.' + +Lance made no reply. He sat down slowly and doubtfully upon the folded +blankets at the farther end of the cell, steadying himself with +difficulty against the angle of the wall. + +'Now, you take my tip,' said the elder of the two men to his fellow as +they left, after bolting the cell door with the clang inseparable from +prison life, 'that chap will do one of three things before a month's +out. Bracker's been running him too hard. He's a well-bred 'un, and they +won't stand driving. He'll either die, go mad, or----' + +'Or what?' said the younger man. + +'Well, Bracker had better look out. Some fine morning he'll have +Trevanion's fingers in his throat, and he mayn't find it so easy to get +'em slacked off again. I've known that happen before now. And when the +chap was choked off it didn't matter to Dawkins. _He_ was the warder. It +happened when I was at the stockade.' + +'Why didn't it matter?' + +'Because _Dawkins was dead_! The chap laughed when they dragged him +off, and said they might do what they liked with him. He'd settled +Dawkins, and that was all he cared for in the world. They might hang him +now, and welcome.' + +'And did they?' + +'Of course they did, but we old hands knew Dawkins had been tantalising +him; it was a way of his with some prisoners, and this cove made up his +mind to rub him out. He got him to rights, safe enough.' + +'Hadn't we better tell Bracker?' + +'What for? He thinks he knows everything, and wouldn't thank us. Likely +think we'd been putting up something to get his place. Let him take his +chance like another man.' + + * * * * * + +When the medical officer saw Lance he ordered his immediate removal to +the hospital ward. He said the prisoner was dangerously low and feeble; +that his health had suffered more than could be accounted for; and that +there were certain bruises and excoriations which could not have been +produced in any ordinary way. He spoke kindly to Lance, and advised him +to follow his treatment and diet marked out for him, and to be more +cheerful and resigned if he wished to get well and come safely through +his imprisonment. + +'You're only a young man, Trevanion,' he would say. 'After this couple +of years are out there is nothing to prevent your going to the United +States, or to any other part of the world where people have never heard +of you, of Ballarat--hardly of Australia, for that matter. And what a +deal of life there is to come for you--the best part too. Take courage +and make up your mind to bear the necessary hardship of your sentence, +and look forward to the day when you will go forth a free man.' + + * * * * * + +Whether acted upon by this well-meant advice, or following out some +course of action nurtured like the fungus of a dungeon in the dark +depths of his brooding heart, a change took place in the sullen +captive's mien. He seemed thankful for the 'medical comforts' doled out +to him, and availed himself of them readily. He listened respectfully to +the chaplain and gaol surgeon, and when, after a fortnight's treatment +in the hospital ward, he was reported fit for the ordinary discipline of +the gaol, the warders with one exception declared that they would not +have known him to be the same man. + +The ordinary routine of prison life is scarcely calculated to develop +the finer feelings in the keepers of the wild beasts in human form over +whom they hold watch and ward. Boundless dissimulation, craft and +subtlety, tameless ferocity, ruthless cruelty, are their leading +characteristics. Apparently peaceable and harmless, theirs is but the +guile of the red Indian or the dark-souled Hindoo, biding his time until +the hour comes for murder and rapine. Let but the keeper relax +vigilance; let the sentinel slumber at his post, and mutiny and murder +are prompt to unmask. Still, with this knowledge drilled into them by +decades of experience, the ordinary prison officials are just if not +merciful, strict but not severe; while their own discipline is so +rigorous that any departure from regulations is sternly and invariably +visited on the offending official. + +Bracker was an exception--for the credit of the department it must be +admitted that he was the only man in that great prison-house who would +have acted as he did towards any prisoner, however vexatious. + +As Lance passed into his cell he saw his oppressor watching him with the +expression he knew so well. He was not long left in suspense. + +'Didn't Saunders complain of not being strong enough for the wood and +water work, Jackson?' + +'Yes, sir,' replied the under warder. + +'Well, take this man here and put him in his place. He's fat and lazy +enough after his loafing in the hospital to do a little work again.' + +'This way, Trevanion,' said the warder. 'You've got to work in the lower +yard.' + +As he passed Bracker their eyes met for an instant. + +'You're not worked down yet, my man,' said Bracker, with an insolent +laugh. 'Wait till you've had another month's graft where I'm going to +put ye. "Jimmy Ducks" aboard an emigrant ship's a fool to it.' + +Lance drew himself up for an instant and looked full into his +tormentor's face. The cruel cowardly eyes fell for a moment before the +gaze of the patrician, degraded and despairing as he was. Then the +warder quietly pushed him on. + +'Don't cross him, if you take my advice,' he said. 'He's a devil all out +when he goes for a prisoner, and I never knew one that didn't come off +worst in the end. You lie low for a bit and give him his head. The +doctor's your friend now, and he'll see he doesn't crowd you.' + +Lance nodded his head in recognition of the kindness of the man's +intention, then silently commenced his laborious and uncongenial task. +When he returned to his cell at night worn out and exhausted by the +unwonted toil, hardly recovered indeed from the pitiable weakness to +which he had been reduced, he swore a bitter oath and then and there +registered an unholy vow. + +From that hour he awaited but opportunity to wreak a full measure of +vengeance upon his adversary. He felt his strength declining day by day. +Daily did he endure the cheap taunt, the cruel mockery, the ingenious +expedients, by which Bracker sought to intensify his misery. But a +single chance he would yet give to him, if he had the manhood to accept +it. + +One morning he addressed him with the usual salute. + +'I wish to speak a few words to you, and before I do so I wish you to +understand that I mean no--no--disrespect----' + +'Speak and be d--d,' was Bracker's courteous rejoinder. + +'It is only this. You have been what the people here would call "running +me,"--that is, putting me to work above my strength, insulting me +habitually as well. Why you should do so is best known to yourself. I +can't stand it much longer. If you will leave off this line of conduct +and treat me fairly, like any other prisoner, I will promise on my part +to--to--behave well and reasonably. Don't decide in a hurry--it may cost +both our lives.' + +Bracker laughed aloud. He stopped to look at Lance more than once, then +he laughed as at too exquisite a joke. It was the mockery of a fiend +exulting in the agonies of a demon-tortured soul. + +He misconceived the situation. He concluded that his captive's courage +had failed him; that henceforth he would be able to treat him with the +contemptuous cruelty with which he was wont to finish his persecutions. +He triumphed in his foresight, and could not forbear showing a cowardly +exultation. + +'So you've dropped down to it at last, my flash horse-duffer, have you? +You've shown the white feather that I always knew was in you--a rank cur +from the beginning, with all your brag. By God! I'll make it hotter than +ever for you, just for this very bit of impudence. D--n ye! Get back to +your muck.' + +As he spoke the last words, ending with a foul expression, he had drawn +near Lance, and raising his foot as if for a contemptuous kick, he +placed his hands on his shoulders. The long corridor between the cells +was for the moment without a second warder. With a panther-like bound +Lance sprang forward, and in another moment his hands were at Bracker's +throat, clutching with the grasp that death alone relaxes. + +'Dog!' he ground out between his teeth. 'Your last hour is come. Die, +wretch, and go to hell--die, if you had a hundred lives, scoundrel and +villain that you are--die for your cruelty to a helpless wretch that +never did you harm!' + +So sudden was the onslaught that Bracker, though a powerful man, had no +chance of resistance, never dreaming that the cowed convict, as he took +Lance to be, would turn upon him. In another moment he was on his back +on the floor of the cell, his foe with knee on chest awaiting the moment +when the blanched features should display no sign of life, nor abating +for one second the deadly gripe of the slayer of his kind. + +Of his own safety--of his assured doom for killing a prison official--he +thought not. The blood fury was on him. His unendurable wrongs, his +daily torment, had reached the point of desperation when the human +animal turns at bay, disregarding alike the hunter's spear, the baying +hound, the fast-flowing life-blood. + +Another minutest subdivision of time would have settled the matter. +Another dead warder would have been found by the side of a reckless and +desperate prisoner. The usual inquest would have been held, when, after +a verdict of wilful murder, the rope or a sentence of imprisonment for +life would have terminated all public interest for a season. + +But in mercy or otherwise to Mr. Bracker an attendant accidentally +returned to the corridor and noticed the open cell door. This, of +course, was irregular. Rushing towards it he was just in time--hardly a +second too soon--to prevent Mr. Bracker, 'our late respected head warder +of Ballarat gaol' as he would have been styled, from posing as a corpse, +and Lance Trevanion, late of Wychwood, Cornwall, from becoming a +murderer! + +Some considerable time elapsed before Mr. Bracker returned fully to his +senses after regaining consciousness. He had been hurled to the cell +floor with such violence that concussion of the brain had taken place, +while his swollen throat testified to the deadly gripe of the victim who +had so nearly turned the table upon his tormentor. It was fully a week +before he was in a condition to give evidence before the Visiting +Justice. The interval Lance was condemned to spend in 'solitary,' to be +nourished wholly on bread and water,--to be abandoned in fact to the +society of the Furies, which none the less mordantly than in the days of +the world's green youth rend the heart and shatter the brain of their +ill-fated or guilty victim. + +Lance was rapidly passing from one stage of misery to the other, from +the unmerciful to the merciful woe. As he sat or lay in his cell the +long hours through, the thought crossed his brain, revelled and ran riot +there, that if he had only persevered in his policy of endurance, if he +had been strong and patient instead of weak and impulsive, this needed +not to have happened. He might probably have found some door of escape +from his tribulation, not literally of course, but through the clergyman +and the Visiting Justice, the latter of whom would have been most +uncompromising in punishing an official who misused his power. + +Now that the storm of passion was over, the fury spent, the _brevis +insania_ passed away, calmer reflection would intrude. To what further +sentence had he rendered himself liable? Would he be committed for +attempted murder, or would it be manslaughter? Should he be condemned to +a further sentence of years--long years of imprisonment? Might he not be +hanged for the attempt to commit the capital offence? No doubt he +intended to kill Bracker--that he would not deny. His mind was made up. +If a shameful death or long imprisonment was to be his doom, he would +rid himself of a worthless life. He had procured the means of +self-destruction during his first remand. The feeling aroused among his +fellow-captives by his daring attempt to take the life of his gaoler was +peculiar and exceptional. Though many of the prisoners from motive of +policy were subservient to Bracker, he was liked by no one. He had been +known to be trying to 'break' or crush Trevanion. Cruelties and +unnecessary severity springing from the irresponsible use of power are +presumably not unknown in gaols. But the prison herd knows that at a +certain point despair sets in. Reckless retribution follows, and the +life of the agent or leading actor in the tragedy nearly always exacted +counts with himself and his fellows merely as dust in the balance. + +The criminals like to think that from their midst will arise at least +one man who devotes himself to sacrifice, so only may he avenge himself +and them upon their enemy. The time comes, and with curious certainty +the man. Then the words of the first warder come true. The sullen +patience of the harassed convict, who rarely resents routine discipline, +however severe, becomes exhausted, and the debt is paid in full by a +brutal murder or a life-long injury. Let it be borne in mind that 'early +in the fifties' the problem of successful goldfield management was yet +unsolved in Australia. The legislation had been chiefly tentative; the +police and prison arrangements were incomplete. From the seething mass +of the mining population, not always ruled with tact or temper, smarting +under alleged injustice and excited by the enormous yield of the +precious metal, arose a dangerously large and increasing criminal class. +The overcrowded gaols, ample for a pastoral colony, were unable to +contain them. Among the more experienced officers apprehensions of a +revolt of the mining population--unhappily but too well-founded--began +to assume the appearance of certainty. In such event the prisoners, if +altogether centralised or confined inland, might easily be +liberated--would hardly fail to be so on the first outbreak. Considering +these contingencies, the Government of the day determined to relieve the +pressure upon the metropolitan gaols by establishing prison hulks. +Vessels moored in the waters of Williamstown Bay could be more easily +guarded--would obviously be more difficult to escape from. Ships by +scores, deserted by their crews, lay at anchor motionless and tenantless +as that of the Ancient Mariner. Their owners were too happy to sell at +any reasonable price. The idea was approved--not sooner approved than +acted upon. The _President_, the _Success_, the _Sacramento_, the +_Deborah_, were purchased and forthwith proclaimed to be, and to be +considered, Her Majesty's gaols. They became from that day floating +prisons. There were those long after who did not hesitate to designate +them as floating hells. + +One of the leading ideas connected with the scheme was the compulsory +labour of the convicts, who, it was thought, might be employed +beneficially to themselves and to the state in building at +Williamstown--then a chief port of Melbourne--wharves, lighthouses, and +docks. There were millions of tons of blue-stone--a species of volcanic +trap--to be had near the shore for the quarrying. Harbour accommodation +was miserably insufficient. The labour of a thousand men was a valuable +consideration in that day of dearth of every kind of manual labour. Long +afterwards the navvies employed in the construction of the Yan Yean +aqueduct received one pound sterling per day. At this time double the +wage would not have furnished the labour these convicts performed, and +in many instances performed well. + +The _President_ enjoyed the bad eminence of being styled and worked as a +strictly penal hulk--an abode for refractory and desperate criminals. +Many of these were, in the prison slang, 'long-sentence men,' +incorrigible felons serving a life sentence for repeated offences; men +who could not be trusted to work even in the iron-gangs--so skilful and +determined were they in all methods of escape. Many of these were doomed +never to leave the _President's_ gloomy cells but for the coffin and the +shroud. Others again, after performing the allotted form of strictly +penal and reformatory discipline, were drafted on board the _Success_, +where they underwent the more popular and varied experience of working +in the quarries on the main-land--in irons, it is true, but having the +excitement of a daily voyage to and fro in one of the barges used for +the purpose. + + * * * * * + +When Lance was brought up for trial he found to his relief--if indeed +anything could have afforded him a gleam of satisfaction--that in spite +of the heinousness of his offence--penally considered--a favourable +feeling had sprung up with regard to him. Now that Bracker had in their +opinion got his deserts, several of the 'good conduct' prisoners came +forward with voluntary statements. They had seen the injured man +knocking about the prisoner Trevanion. He was always 'tantalising,' and +seemed to want to provoke him to a breach of regulations. Had not spoken +before, because they were afraid of Bracker, who was well known to be +revengeful. It was believed in the gaol (sent round, doubtless, in the +wonderful way criminals have of communicating with each other) that he +had caused a prisoner in another gaol to hang himself. + +Two warders had also noticed his conduct to prisoner Trevanion when he +came out of hospital. Thought it severe and unnecessary. The prisoner's +own statement was taken on oath. He admitted the offence, but averred +that he had become reckless through consistent ill-treatment. Bracker, +of course, denied everything in the most unabashed manner, looking with +evil eye upon the recalcitrant warders and the 'good conduct' prisoners. +But the papers had been sent for in the last inquiry made into his +conduct, also upon a charge of cruelty to prisoners. The evidence, +unfortunately for him, was very similar. Mr. M'Alpine, who was an +unsparing foe to all official misconduct, at once decided against him. +After a terrific lecture, he reminded Bracker that he had been disrated +for a former offence of a like nature. He should recommend him, +therefore, for dismissal, which recommendation, to the general joy of +the inhabitants of the Ballarat gaol, was promptly carried out. + +'Prisoner Trevanion, whose conduct if condoned must have a bad effect +upon the other prisoners (_other prisoners_, how the words fell like +drops of molten lead upon his heart!), is ordered to serve the rest of +his sentence on board Her Majesty's hulks at Williamstown.' + + * * * * * + + Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn + In the cold and heavy mist, + And Eugene Aram walked between + With gyves upon his wrists. + +This verse, from Hood's pathetic ballad, Lance had been fond of and +learned by heart as a schoolboy, little dreaming how closely the +circumstances would apply to himself in the after-time. + +It _would_ keep ringing through his brain with incessant automatic +iteration, as Lance found himself early next morning driven off to +Ballarat, leg-ironed and handcuffed, in charge of two warders. The two +men, with himself in the centre, took their seats in the back part of +Cobb's coach, and in company with various other passengers, clerical and +lay, male and female, as is the slightly unfair practice of the +Government, looking at it from the standpoint of the travelling public. +However, no great inconvenience having so far resulted, the sentimental +objection to travel with criminals has lessened. And being decidedly the +more economical mode of escort, as far as the Government is concerned, +the arrangement is continued. + +Of course glances of pitying wonder were cast from time to time, +especially by the female passengers in the crowded coach, at the men in +police uniform and the sad, sallow, clean-shaved man sitting between +them. One young girl alone, though sitting nearly opposite, had +exhibited no interest in the trio. She sat near the right-hand door of +the coach. Closely veiled, she had turned her head towards the town and +the crowd always attendant on the departure of a coach. + +The clock struck six. The powerful high-conditioned horses sprang at +their collars, obedient to the practised hand of 'Cabbage-tree Ned,' one +of the 'stage' heroes of the period. The heavily-laden coach swayed on +its thorough-brace springs and rattled down Sturt Street at the rate of +twelve miles an hour. More than once had Lance been the envied occupant +of the box seat beside this very driver, who, smoking the proffered +cigar, was as civil to Trevanion of Number Six as an official of his +exalted position could afford to be to any one. + + And now he sat, chained and alone, + The 'warder' by his side, + The plume, the helm, the charger gone, etc. + +Gone, gone, indeed,--how many things had gone!--fame and fortune, hope, +honour,--all that made life worth living. The sooner that wretched +dishonoured life went too, the better for all. Thank God, it would be +easy to drop overboard from barge or boat--the waters of the bay had +ended the sorrows of many a hopeless wretch, it was said. The heavy +irons provided for a quick and silent escape from life's weary burden. + +An involuntary sigh, as the sequel to the train of thought, from the +fettered captive, together with a faint but distinct tinkle from his +leg-irons, appeared to arouse the girl from her reverie. + +She gazed at the prisoner long and earnestly, then with a cry of grief +and despair which thrilled the hearts of all who heard her she threw +herself forward, and clasping his manacled hands within her own looked +into his face, worn and altered in every feature as it was, with the +piteous agony of a frightened child. + +It was Tessie Lawless! + +'Lance! oh, Lance!' she cried in tones so full of anguish that the +warders forbore to interfere, and the coach passengers listened in +sympathetic wonder. 'Is this what they have brought you to? Oh, wicked +wicked girl! Worse and more wicked man! For I know now how they plotted +to destroy you. Your blood will be on our heads. Surely we must suffer +for this if there's a God. Where are they taking you to? Oh, God! have +mercy!' + +The driver having inquired tersely into the occasion of the disturbance, +and having gathered that a girl had recognised a friend or relation in +the prisoner, lighted a fresh cigar and let his horses out adown the +incline with the remark that accidents would happen, but a good-looking +girl like her had no call to fret; she might have her pick of twenty new +sweethearts long before this one had served his time. Women would go on +like that, he supposed though, to the end of the world. + +The public, as represented by the twenty inside passengers, did not +exhibit undue surprise or other emotion. Some of the women whispered +'poor thing--fine young fellow too--pity he's gone wrong,' and so on. +The men kept mostly mute, though not unsympathetic. They were not unused +to seeing tragedies acted in everyday life in those unconventional days +of the early goldfields. The passions had lacked hiding-places such as +are furnished by a highly-civilised community. + +The crowded goldfields camp more nearly represented 'board ship' than +the provincial life pure and simple, and things were done and said, +necessarily _coram publico_, which in more conventional communities +would have been wholly suppressed or excited inconvenient remark. + +Therefore, after a vain attempt to persuade poor Tessie to moderate her +feelings, Lance was fain to yield to the contagion of her grief. +Weakened in mind and body by his late sufferings, softened by the +tenderness of her every tone, and touched by the first kind words he had +heard since his imprisonment, he was fain, though hating himself for the +weakness, to weep for company. As the tears streamed down the convict's +grief-worn countenance--tears which he vainly strived to hide with his +manacled hands--every heart was touched, and those emotions of our +common humanity which ennoble the species were deeply stirred. Murmurs +of 'Poor things,' 'Poor girl,' 'Hard lines,' etc., were heard. Even the +warders, though unused to the melting mood, were raised from out of +their ordinary groove of total indifference to human suffering not +provided for by the gaol regulations. After a short colloquy the one +nearest to Tessie motioned to the girl to exchange seats, an offer which +she thankfully accepted. + +There was no dereliction of duty involved in this charity, which was +heartily and unanimously endorsed by their public. Relaxation of +discipline was necessarily permitted in the case of escort of prisoners +from one part of the country to another. Such a task was generally +looked upon in the light of a holiday by warders or police troopers. It +involved change of air and scene, higher pay for a time, and with +various perquisites and indulgences. All that was required of them was +to deliver over their charge safely to the authorities. That being the +result, they were allowed a certain latitude with regard to the means. +If the prisoner thereby escaped, their punishment was exemplary. It +often happened, however, that the prisoner, being a fair sort of fellow +(as prisoners go), was conversed and generally associated with on terms +of equality. Of course proper security was exacted. A single trooper, +camping out through a stretch of thinly-inhabited pastoral country, has +been compelled to handcuff himself to the prisoner nightly for his +better safeguarding. But these formalities apart, much cheerful +companionship has ere now been enjoyed between the (official) 'wolf and +hound.' + +Hence, as the first warder observed in a gruff whisper, 'they had no +call to bother their heads if the poor chap's girl wanted a yarn with +him. It was the last one as he'd see for a spell, unless he fell across +a mermaid.' Here the speaker, who had been a ship's carpenter once, +growled a hoarse rumbling laugh. 'Let him have his bit o' luck for once. +He'd got stiffish times to come, or else they'd heard wrong.' + +So Tessie, sitting on the right side of Lance--there being no one to the +left of him at the coach-window--leaning her head on his shoulder, +commenced to whisper in his ear. The friendly warder studiously gazed at +the fast-flying landscape, as if it possessed peculiarly picturesque +effects. The second man almost turned his back upon Lance in his anxiety +to be out of the reach of confidential communications, while Tessie's +murmuring voice, instinct with more than womanly tenderness, sounded in +the ear--ay, in the heart of the captive, so lately sullenly despairing +of God and man--like the voice of an angel from heaven. + +'You may think me immodest, Lance,' she said--'I may call you that now, +may I not?--but I don't care. There are times when a woman must follow +her own heart, and this is one of them. I would tell you what I feel +now if there were hundreds looking on. I cannot help it; and what does +my poor life matter? When I think of what you were when I first saw you! +full of health, hope, and spirits, with a smile for every one, and under +compliment to no living man, I felt as if my heart would burst when I +saw you--saw you--as you are!' + +Here the girl's tears streamed down like rain--and she sobbed, though +striving with all her will power to restrain her feelings--till her +slender form shook and trembled in a manner piteous to see. Her forlorn +companion gazed at her silently, with a world of misery in his hollow +eyes. Just at that particular juncture the conversation in the coach +became, if not more cheerful, decidedly more loud and animated, and +their united voices helping to drown poor Tessie's lamentations, some +poor opportunity was given her to recover herself. + +'You think me very silly,' she said, with a miserable attempt to smile. +'I did not know how much I cared for you until the trial--women don't +always. I thought I had a friendly feeling, and no more, till I felt I +could have killed Kate--wretch that she is! for the part she took +against you. Then I knew--that I loved you! Oh! my God! I know now! But +you would never have been told it if you had been free and rich--not +now--not now either--except I thought I could do you some good--some +good, after helping to ruin you. God forgive me!' + +'I have been back to Ballarat, back to Eumeralla and the Snowy River, to +other places, too, because I was determined to find out how the thing +was worked between Dayrell and Kate.' + +'And did you find out?' Lance said, and his voice sounded strangely +hoarse in the girl's ear--even his voice had changed, she thought. 'What +fiends there are on earth!' + +'I am certain that I have,' she answered. 'I daresay you wondered--and +so did I--what made Kate so venomous against you all of a sudden? +Dayrell didn't like you because you thought yourself above him, and for +another reason, and besides he wanted to get his name up for a +conviction, because so many horses had been stolen and the Commissioner +had been blaming the police.' + +'What was the other reason, Tessie? I never did him any harm.' + +'Well, it doesn't matter now, but he--he--chose to fancy he admired +me--poor me!--when we lived at Eumeralla. I never could bear the sight +of him--and showed it. One of the boys stupidly chaffed him about it +after we came to Growlers', and said I was "gone upon you," as he called +it. That foolishness made all the mischief, I believe. He set himself to +have you somehow.' + +'And he did! May God blast and wither his soul and body, as he has +mine!' groaned Lance, with a savage intensity that made the girl +shudder. + +'Oh, don't--don't!' she cried. 'I can't bear to hear you speak like +that, you seem so different when you do. Then, when you were searched, +he found a letter which you had half-written to your cousin in England, +and out of that he made greater mischief still. He finished it himself +in his own way, and then read it to Kate, making her believe that you +had been engaged to your cousin all along, and were making game of her +as a half-bred, common bush girl that you were amusing yourself with.' + +'Then how about seeing me at Eumeralla? _you_ swore to that!' said Lance +reproachfully, unable to repress his anger as he thought of the strange +medley of fact and fraud by which he had been betrayed. + +'I did, God help me!' said poor Tessie, very humbly. 'Why couldn't I +swear falsely, like others? It was that villain Trevenna. I have seem +him since, but only for a moment or two. It is the most extraordinary +likeness that ever was seen. I was deceived, and so were the other +honest witnesses. He was also in the plot against you. He was an admirer +of Kate's, and she played fast and loose with him. When he heard that +you and she had met at Growlers', and were seen riding about together, +he was furious, and vowed to shoot you if he got a chance. He was in +with Ned and Dan in some cross work at Eumeralla, but only showed on +occasions. He used to come across from Omeo, where, if all reports are +true, the worst villains in all Australia are gathered together.' + +The day was cold, and long besides to the crowded passengers, relieved +only by a short mid-day halt for refreshment. The roads chiefly unmade +and deep with mud, through which the steaming team rushed, unrelaxing +the high rate of speed with which they had started. Their colours were +hardly discernible. Along the plank road for twenty miles matters were +something better; here the pace was at times little less than full +speed. Even then occasionally a loose plank would fly up as a horse trod +too near the end, and a shower of mud and water would be impartially +distributed. Two persons only felt not the enforced tedium to be a +weariness. Lance and Tessie, in the early gloom of a winter evening, +were enabled to talk still more at ease. They enjoyed their opportunity, +this wintry smile of fortune, as those who might never meet again in +life. So many chances were against it. But this strange interview had +been most beneficial to Lance. It had softened his heart and revived his +drooping, well-nigh extinguished faith in Providence and his fortune. +The girl persuaded him to promise that he would do his best to disarm +his gaolers by good conduct. The chances were against his finding a +second Bracker. She would find means of communicating with him from +Melbourne. Trust her for that! She had already given liberally to his +present guards, who were fully convinced that she was a young woman +deserving of every consideration. + +'You promise me, on your honour,' she said, as the lights of the town +and the well-macadamised street warned of the approaching halt. + +'My honour?' he said drearily. + +'Yes, your honour,' she answered proudly; 'I believe in it, and so will +others yet.' + +'I promise,' he said; 'may God bless you, Tessie, whatever may be my +fate.' + +They sat silently, her hands clasped around his, her head against his +shoulder. + +'Mine is a strange love tale,' she said, 'is it not? But for this +meeting, it might never have been told. No living man shall hear such +words again from me. And to think that you and I may never meet again!' + +The coach stopped. There was the usual bustle of escaping passengers and +mislaid luggage, as the girl threw her arms around Trevanion's neck and +kissed his lips, his cheeks, his forehead, with passionate fervour. + +'You are mine,' she said, 'for this day if for no other, and, unless my +heart tells me false, it is the last last time! Do not forget poor +Tessie; if she could have saved you with her life you would have been +free and happy. May God bless and keep you.' + +She descended the coach-steps slowly, and, walking calmly down the +lighted street without looking back, was soon lost in the crowd of busy +or pleasure-seeking wayfarers. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +After the conclusion of the sitting of the Court as presided over by His +Honour Judge Buckthorne, when Lance and Ned had been carried off to +undergo their allotted sentences, it was observed that Kate Lawless and +Sergeant Dayrell, while apparently strolling aimlessly together along +the street, were engaged in an earnest and apparently confidential +conversation. + +'Well, that chap was got to rights if ever a man was,' observed the +Sergeant. 'There'll be some of the flashness taken out of him before he +comes out again.' + +The girl looked at him searchingly before she answered. When she did +there was no triumph in her voice. + +'Poor devil! it _was_ hard lines, when you come to think of it. And all +for a horse that he knew no more about than the dead! He looked at me, +as he walked out, so sad and fierce-like I couldn't help pitying him.' + +'You mean you might have pitied him if he hadn't thrown you over for the +girl at home--if he hadn't treated you like the dirt beneath his feet +after promising to marry you--after amusing himself by making love to +you as if you were a South Sea Island _wahine_!' + +'Perhaps he did. Suppose he did,' replied the girl musingly, evidently +in one of those fits of reactionary regret which so often in the +feminine nature--strange and enigmatical always--are prone to succeed +the exaltation of passion. 'For all that, I feel sorry, now it's over. I +can't get him out of my head, locked up in one of those beastly cells.' + +'Your brother Ned's in one too. You don't seem to think of him.' + +'No, I don't--not so much. Ned's different. He's been working for it +these years. He's lost the deal and has to pay up. He's not one to whine +either, and I'd take the odds he's out again and in the mountains long +before his time's up. But when I think of Lance and what a swell chap he +was, so hearty and jolly when we first seen him, I feel like a good +cry.' + +'Perhaps you'd like to pass him over to Tessie when he comes out,' +sneered the Sergeant. 'She'd be so happy to console him.' + +'I've that feeling for him yet, bad as he's treated me,' said the girl, +raising her head and stamping her foot, 'that I'd kill any woman that +took him from me, even now. He's played me false and thrown me over, I +know, and yet, by George!' she cried, suddenly facing round upon the +Sergeant, while her eyes flashed and her bosom heaved with sudden +passion, 'I wonder if he _did_ write all you showed me? I can't read a +line, more shame to father and mother that never had me taught like that +Tessie. So what's to prevent you putting down anything you liked and +saying he wrote it? Suppose you'd been working a cross all along? Frank +Dayrell, if I ever find out as you turned dog on me that way your last +hour's come. By ----! I'd shoot you like a crow, and if I didn't I'd +find somebody that would. Don't you make any mistake.' + +Dayrell smiled in his old scornful way as he pointed out the extreme +improbability of Lance's writing to his affianced bride in England in +any other way. What else was he to say to her? 'Why, you never thought +he would marry you, did you, Kate?' + +'Why did he make a fool of me then?' said the girl, standing slightly +back and facing the trooper as if, like the tigress which such women are +said to resemble, she needed but another spark of anger to cause her to +spring upon him and rend with tooth and talon. 'Why shouldn't he marry +me? I'd have made him as good a wife as that girl or any other in the +world, I don't care who she was. I know I'm ignorant and all that, but +one woman's as good as another if she takes to a man. That makes all the +difference, and I'd have blacked his boots and waited on him hand and +foot, and been a good woman too, if he'd been true to me--as God hears +me, I could--I would!' + +And here, wrought up by a strange admixture of feelings--remorse, +regret, disappointment, doubt, and suspicion--newly aroused, the +half-wild daughter of the woods burst into tears and abandoned herself +to the womanly indulgence of a fit of passionate lamentation. + +'It's too late now, Kate,' he said after a while, coolly removing his +cigar, which he had lighted at the first appearance of lamentation. +'Better clear out for Eumeralla and make it up with Trevenna. I believe +you carried on with him till Lance came on the scene. He's a handsome +fellow, and Tessie, you know, and some other people couldn't tell the +difference.' + +Then he laughed in a sardonic, derisive manner, as though the joke was +an exceedingly good one--irresistible indeed. + +Kate Lawless dried her eyes and looked keenly at him with an expression +of contempt and dislike which, in spite of his habitual indifference, he +by no means relished. + +'Frank Dayrell,' she said, 'I believe you're the very devil himself; I +see your game partly now. You'd a down on Lance because Tessie was gone +on him, and wouldn't look at you. That's a nice reason to lag a man for, +isn't it? And if you'd play false in one thing, you would in another. I +see how you've worked it, partly. When I find out the rest it'll be a +bad day for you, mark my words. Good-bye.' + +'Good-bye, Miss Lawless!' here he made her a deferential and elaborate +bow. 'You'd better be civil though, or I may have to run in Larry +Trevenna. That'll make a double widow of you--the man you'll marry and +the man you were going to marry. Smart work that, eh?' + +'You look out for yourself, Dayrell,' she replied, as she moved slowly +away from him. 'You're pretty smart, but that mightn't save you some +day. You take my tip and leave us alone from this day out.' + +Thus they parted. The girl walked sullenly away--the Sergeant, strolling +in another direction, hummed an air from an opera, stepping lightly as +might a man without a care in the world. Had he but known the future! +How heedless are the feet of men, surrounded by the traps and pitfalls +of Fate, all ignorant, mercifully, that a few inches one way or the +other means instant, irrevocable destruction. As for the woman, she went +on her way and he saw her no more. + +'I wonder what the deuce _will_ become of the fair Kate?' he said +musingly, and half aloud, as he strolled along leisurely towards the +police camp. 'If she marries this fellow Trevenna she'll be paid out for +her sins, whatever they are. He's the making of one of the most precious +scoundrels that even this colony ever saw. The Lawlesses crowd can't +teach him much. If he marries her there'll be murder or something like +it before long. I think I see my way to another sensational case before +the game's played out--more than one indeed.' + + * * * * * + +The town at which the coach had stopped, on this his first and +memorable journey as a prisoner accommodated with leg-irons and +handcuffs, was Geelong, to the gaol of which town Lance was relegated +for the purpose of being forwarded to the hulk _President_. Accordingly, +after due course of procedure, Lance found himself one morning in a +police boat seated between his two Ballarat warders in near proximity to +the celebrated _Sacramento_. When they came within a certain distance of +the vessel they rested on their oars and commenced a conversation. The +ship's trumpet replied, but afforded no manner of information to Lance. +Apparently the colloquy was satisfactory. The sentry, who had been +steadily pointing his musket in their direction, presented it towards +the lighthouse, and all requisite permission being obtained the +momentous embarkation was commenced. + +The hulk _President_ was a plain solid barque of one thousand tons +register, broad in the beam. Dutch-built was she, and had been strong to +encounter storms, but was destined to defy such forces no more. + +On the fore part of her deck an iron roof protected the galley and +water-tank, giving her an expression of being settled in life. In front +of and around her bows was a planked and railed gangway, along which a +warder with a loaded rifle marched to and fro. + +The heat of the summer suns reflected from the cloudless sky, the +shimmering water plain, had blistered the paint--a staring dreadful +yellow it was--upon her weather-worn hull. Armed figures walked on +either side of this terrible vessel. Except the solitary boat in which +Lance was a passenger, nothing seemed to come near. To his excited fancy +she seemed a plague ship. He could imagine the dead in their +heavily-weighted shrouds being cast in scores from her gloomy +port-holes. He stared at her in sullen silence. He had lost the habit of +ejaculation. What did it matter--what did anything matter? He was in +hell. In hell! What difference did the depth of the pit, more or less, +make, once within the Inferno? + +There was a swell, consequent on a gale which had been blowing on the +previous night. The boat rocked and pitched as she came alongside of the +grim ungainly hulk. His fetters made it difficult for him to step from +the boat to the ladder. He tripped, and one of the warders was +constrained to hold him up. + +'Look out! you mustn't drop overboard and cheat Her Majesty's +Government like Dickson did last month. Blest if you wouldn't go down +like a stone with them clinks on.' + +A quick regret passed through Lance's heart that he had not dropped +quietly overboard, and so exchanged this torture-ship for eternal rest +and peace. But he clambered up with one warder in front and one +immediately behind. + +At the deck he was met by the first and second officers, to whom an +important-looking document was presented by the senior warder who had +come down in charge. + +'H--m, ha!' remarked the dignitary, opening it with deliberation and +then glancing searchingly at Lance. 'Refractory, determined, and--put +him into number fifty-six. If lower deck don't suit him, we must move +him aft. Show the way, Mr. Grastow.' + +The 'way' led down a narrow ladder, the gradient of which was such that +the fettered man, heavily weighted as he was, had some difficulty in +getting down safe. However, as before, one warder preceding and one +following, he was partly supported, partly led. As he touched the deck +he looked round, and for an instant laughed aloud at the grim pleasantry +which, like a ray of light in a dungeon cell, had found access to his +brain. He was on board a slaver! His boyhood rose up before him, and he +saw himself again reading _Tom Cringle's Log_ under the King's oak at +Wychwood. There were the iron gratings above, through which the sun came +grudgingly, which afforded the only air and light to the long low +corridor into which the deck had been altered. Rows of small cells on +either side, each duly numbered, into which a herd of some forty or +fifty chained men were being driven, as it appeared to him. In the gloom +of the half-lighted passage their dark or sallow countenances, in which +the eyes and teeth alone gleamed in relief, might well have passed for +those of negroes. They laughed and talked or cursed and swore with a +freedom which surprised Lance, used to the strict and silent rule of the +Ballarat gaol. It was their recreation hour, he found. They had returned +from their exercise on deck. + +As he scanned these foul and hideous countenances, from which all +semblance of the higher human attributes had departed, he shuddered +involuntarily, and a groan so deep and hollow came from him that the +warders who had accompanied him were affected. + +'Don't you take on, Number Fifty-six,' said one, 'it's a deal worse than +Ballarat, but you go in for good conduct now and your time won't be so +long in runnin' out. See what you've got by behaving awkward, and +they're a deal worse, if you go contrairy here, than ever our lot was.' + +'Down the ladder,' said the officer of the _President_; 'we've no time +to spare in this ship.' + +Lower, lower still, another ladder, another deck. Here the gratings were +nearer to the floor, the cells were smaller and more numerous, the whole +arrangement still more nearly resembling his fancy of the slave-ship. +Had there been a row of miserable Africans sitting down, with another +row between their knees, and another yet in the same condition, as was +formerly the human method of packing the 'goods' so largely dealt in by +our good friends the Spaniards, Portuguese, and French, and indeed our +own most merciful and Christian nation, the illusion would have been +complete. They would have sold well in Victoria at that time, doubtless, +labour being so very scarce and valuable. The air, foetid with the +odours and emanations from three hundred men, having even to be filtered +through the crowded deck above them, was indescribably offensive. In +spite of ordinary precautions, the odour was that of galley-slaves. +Below the level of the waters of the bay as this deck was, Lance could +hear the waves washing beside the prison-house, while from the cells, +the bolts of which were partially drawn and the opening secured with a +chain, came ribald songs, yells, and curses, with an occasional noise of +weeping and bursts of yet more dreadful laughter. + +Walking forward still towards the stern, they came to a cell numbered +fifty-six on the south side of the vessel. At no great distance, and +dividing it from the after-cabin, which was used as a sort of +store-room, was a grating of massive iron bars extending from one side +of the ship to the other. + +The padlock was unlocked, the massive bolt shot back from the staple, +and Lance saw his habitation. A low, narrow cell, with heavy timber on +every side, only excepting a small port-hole narrowing outwards and +capable of being closed at will. The length to the concave wall of the +vessel's side was about eight feet, the width scarcely six. From two +iron hooks hung a rude canvas hammock. Here he must abide for the +present. It would depend upon himself whether he remained there. + +From the timbers of the vessel's side protruded an iron ring with a +short chain dependent from it. + +'What's that for?' said one of the Ballarat gaolers. + +'Oh, nothing,' returned the hulk warder, 'it's there in case it's +wanted.' + +The narrow door closed, the heavy bolt shot into its place, the +padlock-key turned, and Trevanion was alone and at sea once more. Once +more Lance Trevanion found himself on ship-board, but under what +different circumstances. He felt the heaving deck under his feet. The +day was dark and squally, and the barque rolled and pitched in a +sufficiently lively manner. The familiar movement recalled the scenes +which he had loved so well. He was a born sailor, and of the breed of +men that joy in the strife of wind and wave. The revulsion of feeling +was so great that he staggered and well-nigh fell. + +How well he remembered the last time he had been at sea; the voyage out, +so free and joyous in spite of minor discomforts; the perfect +independence, the hearty, unconventional comradeship, the delight with +which all greeted the first step on _terra firma_; the general wonder, +excitement, and eager expectation of rapid fortunes to be acquired in +this strange new land of gold. + +And now he was a chained and guarded felon, reserved for Heaven alone +knew what new degradation, even torture, in this sea dungeon. Long +before dark--the days were short in July--a warder came with bread and +water. + +'When do we go on shore to work?' asked Lance, thinking to adapt himself +to his changed condition. + +'Work? They don't do no work in the _President_; this is the punishment +hulk. All you chaps is supposed to belong to the 'fractory lot--my word! +some of 'em just are, and no mistake. You gets one hour a day exercise +on deck. Ten on yer's sent up in the cage at a time. The rest of the +twenty-four hours has to be took out in the cell.' + +'My God!' groaned out the unhappy man, 'can this be true, twenty-three +hours in this den? Surely such cruelty can never be permitted.' + +'That's about the size of it, Fifty-six,' answered the warder, preparing +to lock up and depart. 'And the sooner you make up your mind to man it, +the better it'll be for you and the sooner you'll be drafted to the +_Success_, when you'll have a chance of fresh air. So long.' + +The lock closed, the bolt clanged, and Lance was left to sit down where +the last captive had leaned his weary frame, till his prison shoes--not +heavy either--had worn into the solid planking, and when at last heart +and brain had risen in wild revolt and he had cast away the wasted life +which had become so valueless and unendurable. + +From the time when the door that closed upon hope and the outer world +clanged to, Lance Trevanion sat statue-like and motionless. The day +passed, the cell grew darker, the night came with no cessation of the +subdued but truly infernal din of noise to which nearly every cell +contributed its quota. The wind rose and moaned, the ship rocked more +heavily, the waves plashed around and above his cell, and still Lance +Trevanion stirred not. He _must_ have slept at length, worn out and +over-fatigued, for he started suddenly from a dream of Wychwood and the +first meet of the season to feel the sun feebly lighting up his prison, +to listen and shudder as his irons clanked with the instinctive +movement. + +He sat up and gazed around for a while in the half-stupefied condition +produced by conflicting sensations. He endeavoured to collect his +thoughts and to resolve upon a course of action. What was he to do? At +present the mode of life--rather the living death--to which he felt +himself condemned seemed intolerable. But much would depend upon the +duration of the strictly penal term. If it were a matter of months only, +it might be borne. Then he would be 'promoted' to the _Success_, would +enjoy the favoured position of being permitted to work for ten hours a +day in a quarry--heavily ironed, of course--and on an equality and in +company with some of the most atrocious scoundrels that any country had +ever produced. It was not an alluring prospect. Still, he had at any +rate no actually malignant enemy like Bracker. It might be possible to +establish a friendly feeling with some of his guardians. He would make +the attempt. Even escape did not seem so altogether impossible. He +remembered Tessie's words. He knew that what one woman could do she +would accomplish. A man here and there _had_ escaped from the hulks and +got clear off, several had been drowned, two had been shot. Still these +were fair risks. The twenty-three hours a day in the cell constituted a +maddening monotony of captivity. Yet, from whatever reason, whether from +the sea air, his unexpected meeting with Tessie Lawless, or 'something +which never can be expressed,' Lance Trevanion's spirits rose higher +than they had done since the day of his conviction, and in the depth of +his saddened heart stirred a feeling that was almost hope. + +When his gaoler made his appearance with the one-pound loaf of bread +which was to serve for his daily dole and the can of water similarly +apportioned, he assumed a cheerful air. 'When do we go up for exercise?' +he said. + +'Your batch'll be sent up at eleven o'clock, Fifty-six. Then you get +down just in time for dinner, half-pound boiled beef for you then, so +you can save some for supper; half-pound of vegetables. That'll be the +lot.' + +'Now look here, I don't know your name--oh, Grastow! what I want to say +is, I have only two years to serve. When I get out I shall have plenty +of money. I can make it WELL worth your while to help me; what do you +say? Is there any harm in that?' + +'I don't know as there is, Fifty-six,' replied the gaoler warily. 'But a +many of the crew of the _President_ (we call 'em the crew among +ourselves) says the same thing. When they gets out they nat'rally +forgets. What are we to do? We can't summons 'em in the Small Debts +Court; how am I to know ye ain't on that lay?' + +'I can show you how if you'll carry a note from me on shore and leave it +in the post-office. I'll guarantee a five-pound note is sent to any +address you name within twenty-four hours.' + +'Ten-pun' note might do something,' answered the warder reflectively. +'The risk's a big 'un. If I'm nabbed I lose my berth straight off and +stand a blessed good chance of being brought into one of these here +fancy shops myself.' + +'Why, who's to know?' + +'Well,' replied the warder, looking round, 'it 'ud stun yer to count the +spies that seem to be bred regular in a place like this, one man +watching another for the reward. But I'll chance it, I will, the first +time I go ashore. Now then, you Fifty-five, what are you making all that +row for?' + +The occupant of the next cell, Number Fifty-five, as he was in due +sequence, had apparently gone mad. He raved and shrieked, cursed and +yelled continuously. He banged at the door, which he could not well kick +as they had taken away his boots. But ever and anon he amused himself +with wildly extravagant rhapsodies, as well as by devoting his gaolers +to the infernal deities, as also the heads of any Church running counter +to his sectarian prejudices. Then he was taken out, secured, and hauled +before the chief officer for punishment. That autocrat ordered the +sullen-visaged 'Vandemonian,' as the warders designated him, to undergo +several days in the 'box' on bread and water. He was carried off, +struggling and cursing, by main force, being crammed into the 'box' +aforesaid. This retreat, which was inspected by Lance on another +occasion, appeared to be a species of _oubliette_, apparently in the +very keel of the vessel, so constructed that the delinquent could +neither stand up, lie down, nor sit with ease. In addition to this +rigorous confinement a gag was placed in the mouth of the offender if he +refused to stop his unseemly outcry. + +A few minutes before eleven o'clock Lance's door was unlocked, and he +was summoned forth to take part in a new portion of the programme. Being +marched into the centre of the passage, he there saw a large iron cage, +of which the door, just sufficiently large to admit one man, was opened. +On either side stood an armed sentry with rifle at the _poise_. + +An additional pair of warders was in attendance. The inmates of the +cells, called by number, not by name, shuffled or stumbled out and made +for the door of the cage, like tamed wild beasts under the keeper's +whip. + +It was a piteous, strangely-moving sight to a lover of his kind, had +such been there. Men of various types and all ages obeyed the +summons--the white-haired convict, reckless and hopeless, the larger +half of whose life had been spent within prison walls, and who was now +doomed to linger out the last years of a ruined life in places of +confinement. The whole expression of the face denoted the human wreck +which the _forcat_ had become. The evil eye, furtive yet ferocious, the +animal mouth and jaw, the shaven, sallow cheek--every faculty once +capable of rising to the loftier attributes of manhood seemed +obliterated--the residuum but approached the type of the simian +anthropoid--bestial, savage, obscene. + +'Great God!' thought Lance, as one by one the felons passed into this +cage, some young and hardly developed into fullest manhood like himself, +some of middle age, some stunted and decrepit, bowed and misshapen from +constant confinement and the weight of their irons, yet all with the +same criminal impress upon form and feature,--'Great God! shall I ever +become like these men? And yet once I had as little fear of becoming +_what I am_----' + +He passed in last, the door was shut, the cage commenced to ascend. His +companions grinned and chuckled as, with a brutal oath, the older +convict asked what he was sent on board for. + +Lance hesitated for a moment, and then, reflecting that if he attempted +to show what his companions in misery might consider airs of superiority +they would find some way of revenging themselves, answered in as +careless a manner as he could assume-- + +'Well, I knocked over the head warder at Ballarat.' + +'Good boy! What for?' + +'He had been "running" me--wanted to make me break out, I suppose. I +couldn't stand it any longer and went for him.' + +'Why didn't yer choke the ---- wretch?' + +'Because I hadn't time.' Here the savage joy which he experienced when +his enemy lay gasping beneath him came with a rush of recollection, and +the old fire, so long absent, glowed lurid in his eyes. 'Another second +or two and Bracker would have been a dead man.' + +'Bracker, was it?' said one of the younger convicts. 'I was under him at +Pentridge, and a ---- dog he was! He tormented a cove there till he +hanged himself. I'm dashed glad he copped it, anyhow.' + +'You're a right 'un, anyhow,' said the older convict approvingly. 'It +wants a chap like you now and then to straighten them infernal wretches +that think a man's like a log of wood as you chop and chip at till it's +all done. I learned one of 'em different on the other side, and there's +one or two here as'll get a surprise yet if they don't look out.' + +At this stage of the conversation the slowly-ascending contrivance +reached the upper deck, and the inmates became as stolidly silent as +Eastern mutes. + +One by one, covered by the rifles of the deck guards, they stepped out +and followed each other in the shuffling walk peculiar to heavily-ironed +men along and around the deck. Each man was a certain distance behind +the one immediately preceding him. The foremost man walked to the bow of +the vessel. When reached, he turned stiffly round as if by machinery, +and resumed the same monotonous tramp in the opposite direction. + +Melancholy treadmill and mockery of locomotion as was this parade, still +it was not wholly without its attractions. The vision arose before their +aching eyes of the blue sky, the dancing wave, the far-off purple +mountain. There drove seaward an outgoing steamer. Alas, alas! what a +world of vain regrets did she evoke in Lance's mind! There were +white-winged gulls, yachts and skiffs that resembled them in free and +graceful flight. All these constituted a pageant impossible of +production within prison walls. Then the ocean breeze, with every +inspiration after the foetid atmosphere of the lower deck, revived and +in a sense exhilarated them. These joys and glories of the sea could not +be shut out even from the gaze of the fettered captives, unless the +further refinement of punishment of blindfolding had been added. And +even in the _President_ none of the officials had hit upon this +deterrent device. + +So by the time that Lance and his fellows had completed their allotted +tramp, at the end of which time he was fatigued, unused as he was to +lift his legs with such an encumbering weight, he felt, somewhat to his +surprise, that his general tone had been raised. He saw the shore, then +known as Liardet's Beach, which did not seem so great a distance away. +He could imagine in the night, when a dense fog enveloped the mud flats +of the bay, the low sandy beach, the thickets of the tall ti-tree +(_melaleuca_), that either by swimming or with friendly aid a prisoner +might cross the intervening stretch of mud flat, so dreary and darksome +at low water, and, disappearing into the thickets, be as little likely +to be again seen as a ghost flitting at cock-crow. + +During the remainder of this day Lance was sensible of an unusual +feeling of exaltation, so much so that when night came,--the dreary +night commencing so early and ending so late, when sleep would have been +the most precious of boons,--he was wholly unable to compose himself to +rest, as the phrase in orthodox fiction runs: Compose himself!--irony of +ironies!--with the murmur of the prison herd in his ears, in which ever +and anon a maniacal shriek shrilled through the murky midnight air. + +The waves plashed and the rising gale moaned as if in natural protest +against the foul cargo of crime, misery, and despair amid which he lay. + +In the strange half-delirious fancies which coursed through his brain, +he saw, plainly as it seemed to him, the face of the God-forsaken, +desperate criminal who had last occupied this very cell. He saw him +sitting crouched, hour after hour, day after day, in the very place +where he sat. He marked the spot where his boot-heels had worn the solid +plank. He saw him taken out to punishment. He saw him return more +dogged, hopeless, and defiant than before. Lastly, he could see him +apparently standing upright, but in reality suspended by the twisted +woollen cord, his blanket torn into strips, gone to carry his case into +that ultimate court of appeal where the wrongs of earth shall be righted +by the justice of Heaven. + + * * * * * + +From this time Lance Trevanion experienced a complete change of +sensation. 'Cabined, cribbed, confined' as he was most literally, there +seemed to have been breathed into his soul with the salt scent of the +ocean that which no art of man could shut out--the hope of freedom, the +promise of escape. Moreover, a brief note had reached the address agreed +upon between him and Tessie, and the warder, finding it transmutable +into sovereigns, had formed a different opinion of Number Fifty-six. He +began to look upon him as a victim of oppression, as something out of +the run of the ordinary 'crew' of the _President_; finally as a young +man who was worth taking a little trouble about, and for whom it might +in the end be worth encountering even the serious risk of dismissal. +After all, if made worth his while, what did dismissal from the +Government service amount to? It involved no moral stigma, no personal +disadvantage. If he cleared out with cash enough to set up a +public-house, or even a store, at some of these new goldfields which +were 'breaking out' every day, how could he do better? + +Having established friendly relations with his immediate attendant, +Lance soon proceeded to reap the benefit of confidential intercourse. +Articles of food, 'medical comforts'--luxuries, even--were smuggled in +to Number Fifty-six. With the aid of these and recovered appetite, born +of the sea air, and the tonic ideas which now pervaded his system, Lance +improved measurably. He was reported to the chief officer for good +conduct, and that dread official was pleased to address him one day, +and, remarking upon his behaviour, to inform him that he would be +transferred to the hulk _Success_ at the end of three months, being much +earlier than, from the grave nature of his offence, he might have +calculated upon. Lance touched his cap, smiling bitterly as he shuffled +off on his mechanical round with the faint rattle which his chains +_would_ make, however carefully he might be-wrap and bandage them. + +At the end of three months! Well, the first week was over. It had seemed +a month, and there were eleven more to follow before the penal period +would be completed. In Heaven's name, what was he to do until then, hour +after hour in solitude? But one little hour on deck, again to feel the +free ocean breeze, to note the curling waves, the gliding sea-bird. +Sometimes, indeed, even this faint solace was debarred. When the weather +was rough and the hulk unsteady at her moorings, the hour's exercise, +that precious respite, was forbidden. It was too difficult to haul up +the cage, to supervise satisfactorily the deck occupants. So the dark +dull day was fated to end in gloom and sadness as it had commenced. +Sometimes, indeed, the second day passed over without the blessed +interval. Not until the bad weather came to an end were the ill-fated +captives permitted the scanty dole of fresh air and sunshine. + +As much of Lance's leisure time while at exercise as he could devote to +this sort of reconnoitring he managed to concentrate on the mud flats, +which at low tide were hardly a mile distant. These he carefully +examined. He learnt by heart their bearings from the shore; satisfied +himself that once there he could manage for himself. Of course there was +the reverse side of the shield. The hulks--more especially the +_President_, as holding a sample of the worst and most desperate +criminals of the whole prison population--were most closely watched. No +boats but those of the water police were permitted to come within an +area marked by buoys, more than half a mile square. Was it worth while +to run the risk of being caught and run down by these, or would it be +more prudent to await his transfer to the _Success_ and take the chance +of escaping from the quarries? + +The latter idea seemed feasible. Amid a regiment of convicts nearly a +thousand strong, who worked from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. in the quarries, at +the piers, or the building of a lighthouse--surely amid such an army of +labourers some opportunity of escape would be afforded him. + +Meanwhile, in spite of adverse circumstances, matters were decidedly +improving. His friendly gaoler showed him how he could keep his +port-hole open in fine weather, even after locking-up time for the +night, and by other concessions materially lightened for him the weary +hours. + +More than once too had he received a letter from Tessie, carefully +written on the smallest possible scrap of paper, but with its few words +of priceless value and comfort to the captive. In the last one a +distinct plan of escape was devised. + +At this time, among the various pursuits and avocations by means of +which men of gentle nurture who had been unsuccessful at the goldfields +procured a living while leading an independent life, that of +wild-fowling ranked high. Game of all sorts was readily saleable at +fabulous prices to the hotel and restaurant keepers of Melbourne. Every +day scores of men, with pockets stuffed with bank notes, came to the +metropolis eager to embark for England with what seemed a fortune to +them, or to enjoy a season of revelry preparatory to returning to +Ballarat or Bendigo. There was, as the miner's phrase then went, 'plenty +more where that came from.' With such free-handed customers a +_recherche_ dinner, with fish, game, and fruit, preceding a theatre +party, was indispensable. The cost was not counted. Bills were despised +in those days when every river in favoured districts was a Pactolus. +Hotel-keepers and tradesfolk were reproached for their meanness in not +swelling their totals to a respectable sum. The free-handed miner, whose +drafts, payable in the rich red gold Dame Nature was so proud to honour, +mocked at expense, and exacted profusion at his quasi-luxurious +banquets. Such being the state of affairs, with teal and widgeon at ten +shillings a brace, and black duck at a sovereign the pair, a reduced +gentleman, with a punt and duck gun, was enabled to lead a +philosophical, remunerative, and far from laborious existence. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +It came at last--the week--the day--the very night to which Lance had +looked forward with such nervous anxiety. When compelled to pace the +deck for the last morning, as he trusted, with his chained comrades, he +barely concealed his exultation at the thought that on the morrow he +might be a free man once more. He feared it would be visible in his +countenance, in his very step, which in spite of himself was almost +elastic, causing his chains to clank unusually. Indeed one of his +fellows in adversity noticed it. + +Keen to detect the slightest change from the stereotyped prison bearing, +he growled out, 'What the ---- are ye at, step-dancing with your +bloomin' irons, ye ---- fool? They'll clap the fourteen-pound clinks on +ye if ye try the shakin' lay. Stoush it, ye ----' + +The words were perhaps unfit for publication, but the intention was not +all unkind. The trained _forcat_ had quickly divined that something not +in the programme--an 'extra,' so to speak--was likely to be played, and +thus warned him against premature elation. + +Lance felt his heart stop as the possibility occurred to him that the +caprice of a warder might order him to wear irons weighing a quarter of +a hundredweight in place of the comparatively light ones which at +present confined his limbs. He at once 'dropped,' as the adviser would +have phrased it, and falling into the chain-gang shuffle as if +instinctively, said, 'All right, Scotty, this foggy day makes a fellow +want to warm his feet.' + +'Warm your feet!' scoffed the convict, 'you'll be lucky if you can raise +a trot without hobbles these years to come. When your time's up they'll +have ye for something else, like they did me. Once they've got a cove on +these ---- hell-boats they don't like to let him go again.' + +'How long have you been lagged, Scotty?' inquired Lance, less indeed +impelled by curiosity than desirous of turning the conversation from +what he felt was a dangerous direction. + +'Me?' growled the convict hoarsely, glaring for a moment at Lance with +his wolfish eyes--eyes which rarely met those of another steadfastly. 'I +did ten stretch on the Derwent afore I come across the Straits--ten long +years. That warn't enough for 'em, for I hadn't been a year at Bendigo +when I was "lumbered" for robbing a cove's tent as I'd never been nigh. +No! God strike me dead if I had! I knew the chap as did the "touch" as +well as I know you. He and Black Douglas did it between 'em. But I'd a +bad name. I'd come from the other side, and I was picked upon. I was +seen going towards the tent the night before. The chaps that lost their +gold swore to me; they wanted to "cop" somebody. And there was I, as was +going straight and had a good claim and didn't need to rob nobody, and +thought I had a chance in a new country, there was I--"lagged" and +dragged aboard again, and me no more in it than a sucking child. I went +_mad_ pretty well, and here's the end of it. But by ----' and here the +half-insane felon swore a terrible oath, 'I'll give 'em something to +talk about afore I'm done, and it'll be true this time--true as +death--death--death!' + +Here the unfortunate creature, whose features had gradually assumed an +expression of ungovernable rage, lashed to fury by the thought of real +or fancied injustice, raised his voice to a shriek like the cry of a +wild beast, and with every feature working like those of an epileptic, +fell on the floor of the deck helpless and insensible. + +'What's all this?' demanded a warder, marching to the spot, yet +cautiously, as always doubtful of a rush among the fierce animals over +which he and his comrades ruled. 'Dash it all, you fellows are like a +lot of old women--jabber, jabber. I shall have to put some of you in the +black hole if you don't look out.' + +'It's only Scotty, sir,' answered a crafty-looking convict who had been +looking on, with a strange mysterious smile. 'He's got a fit or +somethink. He's always mad when he gets on that Bendigo yarn of his.' + +'Oh, Scotty, is it?' replied the warder carelessly. 'Throw a bucket of +salt water over him; he'll come to directly. Your hour's up all but five +minutes, men. You can go below and keep quiet, or it'll be worse for +some of you.' + +So below they went, in tens and tens, one after the other, murmuring and +cursing among themselves, devoting Scotty, Lance, and the warder to the +least respectable deities, yet not daring to raise their voices lest the +dreaded 'black hole' or the more terrible 'box' should be apportioned to +some of them with indiscriminate severity. + +Lance, perhaps, was the only one who retired to his cell with a feeling +of satisfaction. Gloomy was the evening, dark yet not stormy. Brooding +over all things hung an enshrouding, clinging fog. The lights of the +vessels in the bay were invisible until the boats almost ran against +their sides, then they appeared like blurred and wavering moons. The +invisible flocks of sea-birds flying landwards, true precursors of a +storm, wailed and shrieked in curiously weird cadence, like the ghosts +of shipwrecked mariners. Yet no breath of rising wind or gathering +tempest stirred the black waveless plain which stretched for so many a +mile seaward and lay illimitable between the murky shores. To those long +versed in sea signs--and there were many such on board this mockery of a +ship--a storm was imminent. Phantom-like, motionless, lay the +_President_ on the oily moveless deep, a corpse-like hull upon the +lifeless water. In that hour she seemed a derelict of that dread fleet +which the poet dreamed of in his weirdest, grandest poem: + + 'And ships were drifting with the dead + To shores where all were dumb.' + + * * * * * + +If there was a period of comparative rest and peace in that lazar ship, +choked to the gunwales with human nature's foulest disorders, it was +between the second and third hour after midnight. Before that time there +was little or no repose, much less silence. The restless felons, +debarred from work or exercise, were loath to sleep or to permit such +indulgence to others. But from about an hour after midnight to the +lingering winter dawn a certain, or rather uncertain, quantity of sleep +was procured. Not incorrectly may it be said that then in all abodes of +sin and wretchedness. + + 'The wicked cease from troubling + And the weary are at rest.' + +The hush of nature, the strange compulsion of the tangible darkness and +solemn stillness of the night, was unbroken save by the flights of +sea-fowl and the occasional sound from the shore, when softly yet +distinctly touching the very stern of the vessel a grating sound was +heard by Lance, secreted in an old state-room. Two large-sized ports, +through which a man could easily crawl and drop himself into the water +or on a boat below, were open. 'Lower away,' said a carefully modulated +voice, 'and look sharp.' + +As he spoke a stout rope was let down, of which the man in the boat-punt +laid hold. Lance leaned out through the wide port of the state-room and +could just distinguish the outline of a small boat. 'Drop slowly down,' +said the strange voice; 'gently does it.' + +The captive had by this time seated himself on the window-sill with his +legs outward. His irons were wrapped and muffled with portions of his +blanket, which he had sacrificed for the purpose. A twisted rope was +made of strips of the same material, a stout gray woollen, woven and +milled in Pentridge, and therefore free from shoddy and mixture. + +Adown this Lance cautiously lowered himself--how cautiously and +anxiously! A slip--a touch of foot on the side instead of the centre of +the frail bark, and failure--recapture even--were imminent. The splash +would at once alarm the vigilant ears of the sentries, whose +rifle-bullets would be spurting in and about the spot in no time. Inch +by inch he lowered himself until he felt a man's hand touch and steady +him. His feet were on the flat bottom of a ducking canoe which floated +low on the surface of the stirless deep. Lower still and lower he sank +down until he found himself sitting on the floor of the punt with an arm +on either thwart and his back nearly touching the stern. With one strong +noiseless stroke the strange boatman sent his light craft yards away +from the prison-ship, and as the hull vanished abruptly, swallowed up in +the Egyptian darkness of the night, Lance felt a great throb at his +heart. He inhaled joyously the salt odour of the tide, for he knew that, +bar accidents, he was again a free man. + +'Steady,' said the boatman in a low but distinct voice as he settled to +his sculls, 'another quarter of a mile and we may talk as much as you +please. We shall make the shore before yon black cloud bursts, and after +that no boat leaves any ship in the bay till sunrise.' + +Lance sat carefully still, and indeed had little inclination to talk for +a while. Swiftly, smoothly, they seemed to speed through the ebon +darkness lit up from time to time by the phosphorescent scintillations +which fell from the black water at each dip of the oars. + +'How do you steer?' he said at length. 'It wouldn't do to get lost in +this fog; we might easily be picked up, and then my fate would be worse +than before.' + +'See that light?' said the rower, pointing to a tiny speck like a +beacon, miles away on the main. + +'I do see a very small glimmering,' said Lance; 'are you sure that is +the right direction?' + +'That light,' said the stranger slowly, 'is a fire in a nail can which +is kept alight by my mate. It stands before our hut in Fisherman's Bend, +and there could not be a better place to land.' + +'How so?' + +'Because it is cut off before and behind by marshes. There is no track +to Liardet's Beach, which is only half a mile off. There is a mud flat +in front, and hardly any one but ourselves knows the channel. It's dead +low water now; any boat, even if they chased us, would be stuck in the +mud in ten minutes, and it isn't every one that knows how to get off +again.' + +'Then we're right, and I'm a free man once more. Great God of Heaven! +what a feeling it is. May I ask your name, the name of a man that's +saved my life?' + +'My name's Wheeler. Not that it matters much, unless I'm had up for +being so soft-hearted as to mix myself up with the law's victims. But +one gentleman takes a fancy to help another now and then in this +topsy-turvy country. I've heard and can see for myself that you're one.' + +'I _was_,' groaned out Lance. 'People called me one. Shall I ever be one +again?' + +Here his irons, stirred with an involuntary movement, made a slight +sound. + +'That is the answer. My God, what had I done that I should be tortured +thus?' His head sank down upon his knees, and he made no sound or sign +till the boat glided up to the verge of the small beacon light and a +second man appeared out of the darkness, taking hold of the painter +which was thrown out to him. + +'Haul her up, Joe, as far as you can,' said the boatman, stepping out on +the low sedgy bank, so low as to be barely distinguishable above the +water. 'Stop, I'll help you. Sit quiet then till we come to you.' + +The shallow canoe, with the prow released from weight and tilted up, was +pulled bodily on to the land. Then the men stood on either side of +Lance, and, raising him from his cramped position, helped him to step on +to _terra firma_, and thence into the door of a small hut, in front of +which stood the nail can aforesaid. + +The hut was small, but weather-tight and snug as to its interior +fittings, displaying the extreme neatness coupled with economy of space +often observable where men live by themselves, especially if one of the +celibates happens to have been a sailor. + +'This is my mate, Trevanion,' said the first mariner. 'His name's Joe +Collins, formerly second lieutenant of Her Majesty's ship _Avenger_. My +name you know, so we needn't stand on ceremony with one another. We are +well posted up in your story, thanks to your plucky pretty friend, so +there's no need for explanation. You and I are ready for supper, I +suspect, so we'll turn to while Collins sees to the canoe and makes all +tight for the night. There's the first storm-note; it's going to blow +great guns before long, just as I thought it would.' + +Mr. Wheeler rattled on in a cheery, careless sort of way, while his +friend went in and out, fed the dogs, of which they had two or three +couples--retrievers, terriers, and one of the tall handsome greyhounds, +the kangaroo dog of the colonists. Lance knew that the talkativeness was +assumed for the sake of putting him at his ease. Too strange and excited +to converse himself, he could but sit in a rude but substantial chair, +fashioned out of a beer-barrel and covered with a kangaroo skin, and +look silently from one to the other. + +Meanwhile the tea was made, the corned beef and bread set forth in a tin +dish, pannikins placed ready, and the substantial bush meal, always +fully adequate to the needs of a healthy man in good training, was +ready. Before commencing, however, Mr. Wheeler fished forth from a +species of locker a square bottle, apparently containing Hollands. From +this he poured into each pannikin a pretty stiff 'second mate's glass.' + +'Do us no harm this cold night,' he said. 'Your health, Trevanion, and a +good journey to follow a bad start. It often happens here, take my word +for it.' + +The three men raised the tin pints and looked at each other. 'Thank you; +from my heart I thank you,' Lance gasped out. 'God bless you both, if my +wishing it will do you any good. I shall never forget this night.' + +One is far from recommending, or indeed palliating, the continuous use +of alcohol, but there is no evading the fact that when people are more +or less exhausted, beside being chilled and dispirited, a glass of +spirits, be it sound cognac, 'the real M'Kay,' or, as in this instance, +good square gin, produces an effect little less than magical. There are +those who, in the joyous season of early youth, or fixed in the higher +wisdom of abstinence, require it not. But strictly in moderation and +under exceptional circumstances it is a medicine, a luxury, an _elixir +vitae_. + +No sooner had the powerful cordial commenced to produce its ordinary +effect than the heart of the ransomed captive was conscious of a feeling +of lightness to which it had long been a stranger. Hope, timidly +approaching, whispered a soothing message; a vision of distant lands and +brighter days assumed form and colour. The cramped limbs recovered +warmth; the sluggish blood commenced a quicker circulation. He found +appetite for the simple meal, and listened with interest and amusement +to the tales of moving incidents by flood and field with which, between +their pipes, the woodsmen beguiled the winter evening. Lastly, the door +was bolted, the dogs let loose, and Lance was invited to avail himself +of a comfortable shakedown, where opossum cloaks and wallaby rugs +protected him from the searching night air, now keen-edged with the fury +of a howling storm. The wearied fugitive slept soundly, as he had not +done for months. He awakened to find that the sun had risen and that his +hosts had left him to complete his slumbers undisturbed by their exit. + +His feelings when he arose and looked around were instinctively tinged +with apprehension. By this time at least his escape had been made known. +What excitement must have been caused! What despatches to the other +prison-ships and their guards! To the water police! To the hunters of +men on land and sea whose beards had been mocked at! Their energy would +be further stimulated by the offer of a reward, as well as by the +certainty of promotion in the event of recapture. As the captive sat up +on his couch and looked through the open door upon the still waters of +the river-mouth, from which the fog, now that the storm had blown itself +out, was slowly lifting, he felt a shudder thrill through his frame as +he realised how near he was still to his prison home, how helpless too, +manacled as he was. He struggled to his feet, however, with a renewal +of hope and confidence in the future. The fresh and unpolluted air acted +like a cordial as he breathed it with long gasps of enjoyment. The close +walls of lofty ti-tree which shut in on three sides the nook of land, +indistinguishable from the water until at close quarters, provided at +once a shelter and a hiding-place almost impossible of surprise. The +wild-fowl swam and dived and splashed and squatted, heedless of their +chief enemy man. He found himself reverting in thought to the sports of +his youth, to the happy days when, gun in hand, he would have joyed to +have crawled within range of the shy birds and rattled in a right and +left shot. + +One of his irons clanked; the rag had slipped. How the sound brought him +back to the present! His lips had shaped themselves into a curse, his +brow had darkened, when his hosts suddenly appeared, emerging from a +creek which wound sinuously through the marshy level. Fastening up the +invaluable punt, they stepped lightly out, bearing with them a goodly +assortment of wild-fowl--noble black duck, delicate teal, and that +lovely minute goose, the _Anas boscha_, commonly known as the 'wood +duck.' + +'Grand bird this,' said Wheeler, throwing down a magnificent specimen of +that finest of all the family--the 'mountain duck'--with his +bronzed-fawn and metallic plumage. 'Splendid fellow to look at, but +that's all. Pity, isn't it? Not worth a button to eat. Why do we shoot +them? you'll ask. We sell them to the bird-stuffers. They pay well at +the price they give us. Now then, we'll proceed to business, which means +breakfast. Spatch duck--a couple of teal, eh? How do we do it? Pop 'em +into boiling water. Feathers off in a jiffy. Cut them in four, broil, +and serve hot. Tender as butter, these flappers, for they're not much +older. After breakfast we'll unfold the plot. Slept well? I thought so. +Hope you've got an appetite.' + +Lance was well aware that Mr. Wheeler's cheery, garrulous tone, not by +any means characteristic of men who live lonely lives, was assumed for +the purpose of concealing his real feelings and saving those of his +guest. But he appeared to take no heed, merely performing his toilet +with the aid of a bucket of water and a rough towel, and treating +himself to a more thorough lavation than had been lately possible. Mr. +Collins, R.N., had been setting-to with a will as caterer, and in far +less time than one would think, a meal, in some respects not to be +disdained by an epicure, appeared on the small table which, fixed upon +trestles, was placed before the hut door. + +'Try this teal, Trevanion; it's as plump as a partridge. Here's cayenne +pepper; lemons in that net. Cut one in half and squeeze--"squeeze +doughtily," as Dugald Dalgetty advises Ranald M'Eagh to do when he has +his hand on the Duke of Argyle's windpipe, in the event of His Grace +attempting to give the alarm. I read _A Legend of Montrose_ over again +last week. What a glorious old fellow Sir Walter is, to be sure! When +you've finished your first beaker of tea, there's more in the +camp-kettle, Australice "billy." Did I ever think--or you either, +Trevanion--that we should drink tea out of a "billy," or be our own +cooks, housemaids, washerwomen, and gamekeepers all in one. Still, there +are worse places than Australia, and that I'll live and die on.' + +While Wheeler's tongue was going at this brisk rate, it is not to be +supposed that his jaws were idle. The friends played a real good knife +and fork, and Lance, between invitation and the natural temptation of, +in its way, a dainty and appetising meal, followed suit. The other man +gave a lively sketch of their morning's sport, and by the time breakfast +was finished and pipes lighted, a well-worn briar-root having been made +over to Lance on the previous evening, the gnawing feeling of consuming +anxiety commenced to be somewhat allayed. + +'Now we open the council of war,' began Wheeler, after two or three +solemn puffs. 'Collins and I have to make a little _detour_ on business +which will occupy us till mid-day. Half an hour after we leave, a +mysterious artificer will suddenly appear, not out of the ground, like +Wayland Smith in _Kenilworth_ (pray excuse any excessive quotation of +Sir Walter, but the fact is we got a second-hand edition cheap last +month, and have been feasting upon him ever since). Well, this lineal +descendant of Tubal Cain will arise out of the ti-tree and will +disembarrass you of, say, any garniture which you may consider +inconvenient to travel with. I don't know him; you don't know him; he +don't know us; nobody knows anybody. You apprehend? But _the work will +be done_. Afterwards look in that bag and you will find a rig-out, +half-worn but serviceable, and somewhere about your measure.' + +'Stop a minute--just permit me one minute,' proceeded Wheeler +hurriedly, but ever courteously. 'A trifle more explanation is +necessary. Here is your route arranged for you by your good angel, your +admirable friend and protectress, with whom Collins and I are madly +enamoured--but this by the way. Listen again. When you feel ready for +the road, take this left-hand path through the ti-tree. You see it +starting behind that bush. You cannot get off it once you are on it. +Follow it for three miles. You will meet there, by a reedy lagoon, a man +with two horses. Mount the one which he leads, asking no questions. He +will say "Number Six?" you will say "Polwarth." Of course you are the +Mr. Polwarth of Number Six on a tour of inspection. He will ride with +you the whole night through, stopping only at necessary intervals. At +daylight you will find yourself more than fifty miles on the Gippsland +road. He will take you by "cuts" and by-tracks to a part of Gippsland +from which you may make your way to Monaro, to Twofold Bay, to Omeo--all +A1 places for a man who wishes rest and seclusion for a season. You will +take your choice. On the led horse--a good one, as I am informed--you +will find valise, waterproof, and other necessaries. Here is a +pocket-book, which I am commissioned to hand to you, in which are L50 in +notes and gold, besides a letter from her to whom you owe so much.' + +Mr. Wheeler rattled out this full and complete code of instructions with +his customary rapidity, finishing off with the delivery of the +pocket-book to Lance, who held out his hand mechanically and stood +staring at him for a few moments like a man in a dream. + +Then he found his tongue. + +'You have done for me that which many a man's brother would have +declined. I am a poor creature now, and can't speak even as once I +could. But may Heaven help you in your need, as you have stood by me. +Some day it may be. I cannot say, but the day may come when a scion of +the house of Wychwood may repay some slight portion of the debt of +gratitude its most ill-fated son has incurred. Farewell, and God for +ever bless you.' + +The men looked in each other's eyes for a little space, one strong +hand-clasp, after the manner of Englishmen, was exchanged, and they +parted. + +'That's a man of birth and breeding who has been wrongfully convicted, +I'll stake my life,' said Wheeler to his friend, as, with gun on +shoulder and long steady stride, they left the hut behind them. 'Had I +not been convinced of it, all Ballarat would not have tempted me to go +into the affair. But between pity and admiration for that trump of a +girl, I gave way. I wonder whether his luck will turn now and all come +right.' + +'There's a great deal in luck in this world,' said Mr. Collins +sententiously. 'It's hard to say.' + +Within a few minutes after the time specified, and for which Lance +waited with ever-increasing impatience, a quietly-dressed individual so +suddenly appeared as to startle him. He came around the side of the hut +while Lance was deep in the perusal of Tessie's letter, which also +contained a few lines from Mr. Stirling, telling him that his order for +cash, worded in a certain way, would always be paid to any person whom +he might name at any place. + +He looked up for an instant and saw the broad frame and steady eye of +the stranger confronting him. 'Could this be a detective in plain +clothes? The thought was madness.' + +The stranger smiled. 'All right,' he said; 'I'm the blacksmith; come to +take the clinks off--not the first job of the sort I've done. Sharp's +the word--sit down, sir.' + +Here the stranger produced from his pockets and a bag an assortment of +tools of various sorts, including files of marvellous finish and temper. +Seating himself, Lance freely yielded his limbs to the man of iron, who, +in something under half an hour, produced remarkable results. How the +heart of Lance Trevanion swelled with joy when he saw the hated manacles +drop heavily upon the rug on which he had been sitting! + +'So far so good,' remarked the liberator artisan. 'One of 'em's chafed +your ankle, but you'll soon get over that. Ugly, ain't they? If you'll +dress yourself while I take a walk along the river I'll show you what +I'll do with them.' + +A few minutes sufficed for the inspection of the beauties of the Yarra. +When he returned, the good-looking young man with the clean-shaved face +and short hair did not look in the least like the hunted convict of the +previous day. + +'My word,' quoth the smith, dragging out an old sugee bag, 'you look +fust-rate--never see any one change more for the better--for the better. +Here goes!' Thus speaking, he placed the irons in the bag, which he +afterwards nearly filled with the prison clothing of which Lance, even +to his boots, had denuded himself. These he took into the punt, and +rowing to a deep place in the river near the bank he threw in the sack, +which the weight of the irons caused to sink at once. 'Many a poor +fellow's been buried like that at sea,' he remarked, in soliloquy. 'I +wonder if it ain't as good a way as any. The p'leece won't find them in +a hurry, I bet. And now Mr. Never-Never, I'll show you the left-hand +road, as I was told to. There's your track, and good luck to you.' + +Lance had good reason to believe that this service had been paid for, +but he could not bear that the man who had rendered him such material +aid should go even temporarily unrewarded. So he extracted one of the +five-pound notes from the pocket-book and presented it to him at the +close of proceedings. + +'You're a gentleman,' said the smith, unconsciously using the +stereotyped expression of those receiving a gratuity in advance of +expectation. + +'I was once,' replied Lance, with a sadly humorous half-smile. 'God +knows if I ever shall be one again.' + +'No fear,' quoth the hammerman, with a cheery, consoling accent. 'You've +got the world afore you now. Many a man in this country has been a deal +lower down that holds his head high enough now. Keep up your "pecker." +It'll all come right in the end.' + +On the narrow marshy track, which led between thick-growing walls of +ti-tree eight or ten feet high, there was not, as Wheeler averred, much +chance of losing the way. Lance plodded on cheerfully for about an hour. +Once he could have done the distance in far less time, but from want of +exercise and other reasons he had contracted the habit of taking short +steps, which he found it difficult to change. He felt altogether out of +sorts, and was by no means sorry to see near a deep reed-fringed lagoon +a man who looked like a stock-rider sitting on a log watching two +hobbled horses that, saddled and bridled, fed close by the water's edge. + +As the foot traveller emerged from the ti-tree thicket, the man walked +to the horses' heads, and, after one look at the newcomer, commenced to +unloose the hobbles. These he buckled on to each saddle, and, tightening +the girths, said interrogatively, 'Number Six?' + +'Polwarth,' was the answer returned. + +Upon this he held the bridle of one of the horses and motioned for Lance +to mount, after altering the stirrup to suit the stranger's length of +limb. This done, he mounted and rode forward at a steady pace, turning +neither to the right nor left, except when apparently some advantage +would seem to be gained by it. Both horses walked fast, particularly the +one which Lance bestrode, which he found to be good in all his paces, +free, clever, and in all respects a superior style of hackney. + +Mile after mile did they ride after this fashion, walking, trotting, or +cantering as the roads, both deep and difficult in places, permitted. +The rate at which they travelled was on the whole rapid, though the +guide evidently husbanded the powers of both horses in view of a +toilsome journey still to be made. + +An hour before midnight, pursuing a by-track for some distance, they +came upon a hut in a forest near a deserted saw-pit. It had once been a +snug and substantial dwelling, but the timber had long been cut and +carted away, so the hut was no longer needed. The grass grew thick and +green around. The guide, with practised hand, first lighted a fire in +the large mud-lined chimney, and then unsaddled and hobbled out the +horses. He produced from a rude cupboard bread and cold meat, tea, +sugar, and the quart pot and pannikins necessary for a bush meal. These +had evidently been placed there in anticipation of such a visit. Besides +all this, there were a couple of rugs, and as many double blankets of +the ordinary gray colour used by travelling bushmen. + +The fire having burned well up, and a couple of dry back logs having +been placed so as to ensure a steady glow for at least half the evening, +his taciturn guide relaxed a little. 'Here we are for the night,' he +said, 'though we'd best make an early start, and I don't know as we +could be much more comfortable. We've plenty to eat and drink and a fire +to sleep by, no cattle to watch, and a good roof over us. I've often had +a worse night along this very road.' + +'I daresay,' said Lance, who began to shake off his fears of immediate +capture. 'This must be a queer road in wet weather.' + +'I believe yer,' answered the guide. 'Many a mob of fat cattle I've +drove along this very track. It's a nice treat on a wet night, sitting +on your horse soaking wet through, nearly pitch dark, and afraid to give +the bullocks a chance for fear they'd rush. This here's a picnic in a +manner of speaking.' + +'I suppose it is,' quoth Lance. 'Things might be worse, I daresay. I +shall sleep well, I don't doubt. I haven't been riding much lately. +Where shall we get to-morrow night?' + +'Somewhere about the Running Creek; it's a longish pull, but the horses +are good and in fine buckle. You can do a long day's journey with an +early start.' + +Their meal over, the two men sat before the glowing fire on the rude +seats which they had found in the hut. The soothing pipe helped still +further to produce in Lance's case a calm and equable state of mind. To +this succeeded a drowsily luxurious sensation of fatigue, which he did +not attempt to combat, and, stretching himself on his rug, he covered +himself with the blanket; he and his companion were soon asleep. + +The stars were still in the sky when he started at a touch on the +shoulder, and found that his companion had noiselessly arisen and +prepared breakfast. The horses also, ready saddled and bridled, were +standing with their bridles over the fork of a tree near the door. Lance +was soon dressed. Breakfast over, they were in the saddle and away while +as yet the first faint tinge of the dawn light had scarcely commenced to +irradiate the mountain peaks which stood ranked like a company of Titans +near the eastern sky-line. + +With this, the second day's journey, a change commenced to make itself +apparent in Lance Trevanion's mien and bearing. The fresh forest air was +in his lungs, the great woodland through which they were now riding +commenced to endue him with the fearless spirit of the waste. He could +hardly imagine that it was so short a time since he was in fettered +bondage. What a difference was there in his every movement and +sensations! He began unconsciously to act the free man in tone and +manner. He praised the paces of the horse he was riding, and criticised +that of his guide in a way which showed that experienced person that he +was no novice in the noble science of horse-flesh. He began to draw out +his companion. In him he perceived, as he thought, the ordinary bushman, +an experienced stock-rider, or, perhaps, confidential drover, and thence +he began to wonder how much of his past history he had been made +acquainted with. A chance question supplied the information. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +'Where are ye thinking of going, boss, when we get to Bairnsdale? +Twofold Bay's a terrible long way off to go prospectin'. I'd a deal +sooner chance Omeo. It's only twenty miles farther on.' + +'Omeo, Omeo!' repeated Lance. 'Why should I go to Omeo?' + +'Haven't ye heard? There's a big show struck close by the old township. +They say they're leaving Ballarat, lots of 'em, to go there. It's the +richest find yet, by all accounts; shallow ground too!' + +'Omeo, Omeo!' Lance again repeated half unconsciously to himself. Had +not Tessie made reference to it in the coach from Ballarat? Had she not +said that Lawrence Trevenna was there, the man to whose baleful shadow +he owed ruin and dishonour, the ineradicable disgrace which would always +be associated with his name? He had a heavy account to settle with him. +When they met all scores would be cleared off. This much he had vowed to +himself in the prison cell at Ballarat, in the hulk _President_ in the +silence of midnight, in that foetid hold of the prison-ship, where he +could scarcely breathe the polluted atmosphere, laden with crime, heavy +with curses. There, in that time of horror and dread, again and again +had he sworn to take his enemy's life--that one or other should die when +next they met, be it where it might. + +And then again, as he hoped to efface himself, to feel secure from the +pursuit which he heard in every breeze and feared in every echoing hoof, +where could he find so safe and unsuspected a refuge as this new +digging--wild, rough, isolated as Omeo must necessarily be? Far from +civilisation of any kind, on a lone mountain plateau, snow-covered in +winter, only to be reached by paths so devious and precipitous that +wheels could not be employed, where every pound of merchandise or +machinery was fain to be carried on pack-horses. There could be no +better place for a hunted man to disappear, to obliterate himself. There +he could remain for the present,--unknown, invisible to all who had +known the former Lance Trevanion,--until he matured his plans and could +make his way to a foreign shore. + +Here, as he recovered health and strength under the influence of the +mountain breezes and the wild woodlands which lay so near the +river-sources and the snow summits, it would be comparatively easy to +transmit his share of the Number Six washings, still safe in the +Joint-Stock Bank in the custody of Charlie Stirling. Here, once located +and established as Dick, Tom, or Harry--surnames were in the nature of +superfluities at goldfields of the class which Omeo was pretty sure to +be--he could make arrangements for selling out to Jack Polwarth. Quietly +and without suspicion he could arrange to have the whole of his property +transferred to him in cash, and some fine morning, under cover of a trip +to Melbourne on business or pleasure, he would show Australia a clean +pair of heels, and in America, North or South, in some far land where +his name was never heard, would live out the rest of a life with such +solace as he might, might even--when Time, the healer, should have +dulled the heart-pangs which now throbbed and agonised so +mordantly--might even reach some degree of contentment, if not of +happiness. + +And Estelle! Estelle! There was the sharpest sting--the bitterest +grief--the direst pang of all. Could he ever look again into those +lovely, trusting eyes, having undergone what he had done? Could he ask +her--angel of purity that she was; the embodiment of the refinement of +generations of stainless ancestors; sheltered, as she had been, by the +conditions of her birth and education from all knowledge of the evil +that there is in the world,--could he ask her to lay her head upon a +felon's breast?--to take his hand in life-long pledge of happiness, when +at any time, in any land where this long arm of extradition could reach, +the hand of justice might seize him? No! Such companionship, such love, +could never be his in the future. He had lost them for ever. On the +lower level to which he had sunk he must remain. To its privations he +must accustom himself; the surroundings he must endure. There was no +help for it. If Tessie Lawless chose to share his lot he might not deny +her. She knew the whole of his story. She loved him. She had been +faithful and true. She deserved any poor recompense, such as the damaged +future of his life, that of a nameless man, could offer, if she chose to +accept it. For Trevanion of Wychwood was dead, and his early love, with +all his high hopes and noble aspirations, lay deep in the grave of his +buried honour. + + * * * * * + +From the day of Lance Trevanion's arrest at Balooka, no word, by letter +or otherwise, had reached Wychwood of the fortunes of its heir. Days, +weeks, months succeeded each other in the uneventful round into which +country life in England has a tendency to settle when ordinary interests +are withdrawn or unduly concentrated. It was pitiable to note the +squire's anxiety when the Australian mail was due. For him, as for +Estelle, there seemed to be but one man whose fortunes were worth +following in the whole world--from whom letters were as the breath of +life. And now these tidings from a far land, regular, if brief and +sententious, up to this time, were suddenly withheld. + +With the failing health of the Squire--for he suffered from one of the +mysterious class of complaints before which strong men go down like +feeble children--passed away much of his fierce obstinacy, his pride and +arrogance. He thought of his son as he had last seen him,--haughty, +tameless, defiant, with all his faults a true Trevanion,--and now, when +he hoped to have seen him once again, grown and developed, though +bronzed and possibly roughened by the rude life of a colony, when he had +schooled himself to recall rash words and to make the _amende_ as far as +his nature would permit, here he was thwarted, bewildered, maddened by +this sudden arrest of all knowledge of his fate. + +'The boy has had the best of the fight,' he groaned out. + +Ever at his side, at this crisis chief counsellor and consoler, Estelle +here rose to her true position in the house. Awakened to the necessity +of taking a leading part in the family fortunes, the added weight of +responsibility appeared to nerve and mould her to a loftier resolve, to +a more sublimely unselfish purpose. She it was who suggested to the +desponding father every shade of excuse for the stoppage of the letters +which were as the life-blood to his failing constitution. She it was who +ransacked the newspapers for reports, meagre as they mostly were, of the +great Australian gold fields. She it was who looked up maps and +authorities upon the colonies, until she even acquired the recondite +knowledge, granted to so few Britons, that Victoria is not situated in +New South Wales, nor Tasmania the capital of Western Australia. + +Torn and rent as was her own heart when she allowed herself to think of +her lover,--lost to her in the wilds of a far country, perishing in the +wilderness for all she knew, exposed to dangers among savages and +outlaws even more ruthless,--she yet braced up her courage. She nerved +herself to bear the worst, if only she might soften the pain and anxiety +which began increasingly to sap the strength of the failing head of the +ancient house. + +More than once had she interviewed the passengers in vessels returning +from Melbourne, hungrily eager for any shred of news from Ballarat. Did +they know a miner named Trevanion, or even Polwarth? How long was it +since they had seen him, and what were his present circumstances? But +these inquiries were vain. Few of the returning adventurers had troubled +themselves to remember the names of their chance acquaintances. Others +indeed had heard of the untoward fate of the young Englishman, but +thought it no kindness to tell his friends. They could not possibly aid +him or alleviate his condition. Better to let the bad news unfold itself +in due time. + +So the weary days went on. Spring glided into summer. The ancient oaks +and 'immemorial elms' of Wychwood Chase were clothed anew with tender +greenery. The glad, brief life of the northern summer burst into joyous +fulness, then paled and waned. Autumn, with slow pace but ruthless hand, +despoiled the glades and strewed the forest aisles with withered leaves +and fallen chaplets. Ere the blasts of winter had commenced to herald +the doom of the dying year, it became generally known that the Squire of +Wychwood was failing fast--would, indeed, hardly last over the coming +Christmastide. It was observed that he buried himself in his library, +that he had given up all habitual modes of exercise. No guests were +invited to the house, and Miss Estelle more often dined by herself than +not in the great, lonely dining-room which had so often echoed with +festive mirth, or, in older days, still rang with ruthless revelry. + +As the Squire's health declined his affections seemed to concentrate +themselves upon his niece. She had in all respects borne herself as a +daughter to him--had shown even more than a daughter's sympathy and +constant, watchful care. + +The younger son was at college. He would be the heir to Wychwood in +case the adventurer on the far Australian goldfield never returned to +claim his inheritance. Amiable, well conducted, of respectable ability +and fair attainments, he had never (such is the perversity of the human +heart) been a favourite of his father's. The stern old man--bitterly as +he had quarrelled with the disobedient elder brother, whose nature was +in so many respects a reflex of his own, yet in his heart owned him for +the higher nature--recognised in him the befitting heir to his ancient +demesne, to the hall in which nobles had sat and princes feasted. Now to +his gloomy and brooding soul all hope was lost. Some dire misfortune, +even a fatal accident, had doubtless happened--must have occurred, +indeed, or Lance's chronicle of his life and adventures, meagre as to +detail, but of regular recurrence, would have continued. If only he +could have set eyes on Lance before he died! Could he but have told him +how he had regretted the rash words and bitter speech, the prayers he +had prayed for his safe return; ay, the tears he had shed in the agony +of his remorse--he, the proud, inexorable Trevanion of Wychwood! It was +well-nigh incredible. None of his old-time comrades and +fellow-roysterers could have believed it of the Dark Squire, as the +villagers then named him, with lowered tones and bated breath. But in +the days of sorrow and failing strength,--when the strong man is brought +low; when those hours, so long approaching, so long menacing, have come; +when death seems no longer a strange visitant but a familiar friend, +more welcome in truth than the sad alternation of sorrow and +unrest,--the haughtiest pride of man is lowered. In those hours of +lonely grief and dark despair many a recantation is made--many a vow +recorded undreamed of in life's festal season. + + * * * * * + +The death-day came at last. He lingered on past the season fixed by +general expectancy; but ere the first bud of the swelling leaflet had +been set free by the breath of spring in his ancestral glades, the +Squire lay with his warrior forefathers in the historic vault, which had +not been opened since the last Lady of Wychwood had been carried there, +long ere her beauty had faded. The retainers of the house, and not a few +of the notables of the county, assembled to pay the last form of respect +to one whom, in despite of his latter-day life of seclusion, they +recognised as one of the born leaders of the land. As the long +procession passed slowly along the winding road, which at one point +skirted the sea-cliff, to the venerable chapel which had seen so many +solemn ceremonies celebrated connected with the family, more than one +inquiry was made for the absent heir, and uniform regret expressed that +he should not have returned from the far south land to claim his own and +assume his rights. + +When the last sad duties had been paid to him whom, in spite of his +stormy outbursts of temper, Estelle could not help holding in love and +pity, a strong resolve appeared to actuate the once timid girl, +shrinking, as carefully-nurtured women do, from independent action and +strange surroundings. The estate would go, of course, to the +heir-at-law, strictly entailed as it had been for many generations. But +it had been in the old man's power to dispose as he pleased of the large +amount accruing from the savings of late years, and from the sale of an +estate which was not included in the entail. This bequest, which had +been made while the testator was of perfectly sound mind and body, was +of such amount as to render Estelle perfectly independent for the rest +of her life; indeed, to exalt her somewhat to the position of an +heiress. + +In the long conversations held in his latter days of decadence between +the Squire and his niece, it had been definitely agreed that Estelle +should proceed to Australia and there seek out the errant heir--should +bring him back if possible by force of entreaty or persuasion to the +land of his forefathers, to the rank and position handed down from the +fierce warriors and splendid courtiers whose presentments frowned or +smiled down upon their descendants in the old hall. + +'I have such faith in you, my darling Estelle,' said the Squire, in one +of his later confidences, 'that I shall die more peacefully knowing that +you will search this far country for my lost unhappy boy. You have sense +and courage in a degree rarely bestowed upon women. Your heart has been +true to him during his long absence--this more than anxious period of +doubt and dread. If he be in the neighbourhood of the place from which +we last heard from him, you will be sure to gain some tidings of him. If +you see him, your influence over him, powerful for good, always for +good, as in the past, will save him, and once more the old ancient race, +which has never yet failed of a male heir in the direct line, will be +fittingly represented. If Lance, the son of whom I was so proud, returns +no more from that far country, the estate will of course pass into the +hands of his brother. But you are in any case _well_ provided for. May +God bless and reward you, my darling Estelle, for your forbearing +kindness to a broken-spirited man. And now, kiss me, darling; I think I +could sleep.' + +He slept the sleep which knows no awakening on earth. + +The parting words of her uncle had for Estelle almost the sacredness of +a dying command. She had vowed, kneeling by his bedside, to leave no +region unexplored, to carry through the search with the completeness +which characterised all her proceedings. The high courage and resolute +will which were hers by inheritance from the Trevanions stood her now in +good stead. With an air of quiet resolve she arranged all her personal +affairs without parade or hesitation; within a fortnight her passage had +been taken, a few letters of introduction procured, also a very moderate +outfit suitable for a young lady travelling, if not incognito, in a very +unobtrusive way. And at the appointed day and hour Estelle found herself +speeding away over the waters blue in company with a stranger crowd of +enforced acquaintances, borne over an unknown sea on a wild and +desperate quest. Before her, in imagination, she pictured the rude +solitudes of an unknown land--even the fancied perils of a lawless +goldfield. + + * * * * * + +The low coast of the island-continent line, irregular and faint, +appearing from out the southern sky, so long unbroken. A new land--a new +city. Melbourne at last! The land how strange! The city how new! The +people how foreign-appearing and _bizarre_ to the voyager from the +region of tradition and settled form. Estelle looked and moved like a +strayed princess amid a horde of nomads. She had schooled herself into +the belief that in her quest she would be called upon to suffer all +kinds of privations, and to mingle with every variety of 'rough +colonists.' She resolved to make a trial essay. In pursuance of this +heroic resolution she preferred to go to an hotel upon her own +responsibility, before delivering the letters of introduction with which +she had armed herself. She was not exactly fortunate in her choice, as +indeed was to be expected. However, she was agreeably surprised at the +civility with which she was treated, as well as by the absence of +'roughness,' as displayed by the _habitues_, many of whom were patently +uneducated. Still Estelle made the discovery shortly, that even so +recently constructed a city as Melbourne, in the fret of a gold-fever, +was not essentially unlike an English town--that a handsome young woman +was more or less an object of attraction and curiosity. Tolerably well +veiled, doubtless; nevertheless an inquiring tone displayed itself +unmistakably. And, in spite of her resolve to brave all the social +inclemencies of her novel surroundings, Estelle Chaloner shrank from the +implied doubtfulness to which her unprotected condition led up. Escape +was easy. She smiled as she thought of her boasted independence; how +soon it had failed her! Being a sensible girl, however, in the least +restricted sense of the word, she capitulated forthwith, resolving to +present one of the letters of introduction without delay. + +Having packed up her belongings,--not too extensive,--paid her bill, and +arranged all things ready for departure, Estelle picked out a 'nice' +looking letter, and resolved to abide the hazard of the die. The address +was, 'Mrs. Vernon, Toorak, South Yarra, near Melbourne.' The aboriginal +sounding names gave no information as to distance. 'Near' might mean two +miles or twenty. A man's next-door neighbour in Australia was sometimes +fifty miles distant, she had heard. Happily she bethought herself of +asking information of the landlady of her hotel. + +'Toorak, Toorak!' said that important personage. 'Oh yes; I know it well +enough, and a nice place it is--all the swell people live there! Mrs. +Vernon's place is one of the best there. A grand house, and everything +in style. You'd better have a cab called; they'll take you there for ten +shillings, luggage and all.' + +'I may not be asked to stay,' replied Estelle diffidently, 'and if I am, +I am not sure that I----' + +'Oh yes you will,' interposed the hostess. 'Don't talk that way. Wait +till you see what sort of a place it is. And Mrs. Vernon's a lady that +won't let you go, I'll answer for it.' + +A short half-hour's drive across Princes' Bridge, through or around the +maze of Canvastown, past the Botanic Gardens, and along a newly made and +recently metalled road, brought Estelle to a pair of massive ornate iron +gates, on the northern side of the road leading along an avenue of some +length. + +'This is Charlton Lodge,' said the driver. 'Shall I drive to the front?' + +'Certainly,' she replied, as she smiled at the question. The winding +avenue was well gravelled, with a border of shaven grass, beyond which +were beds filled with flowering shrubs, planted amid and underneath tall +pines, with an admixture of elms, oaks, and Australian cedars. +Everything exhibited careful tendance, demonstrating that although many +of the best labourers had levanted to the goldfields there were still +some few servitors who preferred comfort to independence. Estelle was +beginning to wonder how long the preliminary approach was to last, when +a velvet-piled lawn came into view, around which the carriage-drive took +a sweep, her charioteer halting underneath a spacious portico of +classical proportion and finish. + +The cabman rang the bell, and receiving assurance from a neatly dressed +parlour-maid that her mistress was at home, returned to his seat and +awaited events, while Estelle was duly ushered into a handsomely +furnished drawing-room of unquestionable modernity of tone. + +After a reasonably short interval, employed by Estelle in a +comprehensive survey of the apartment, which, indeed, bore tokens of +intelligent and appreciative taste, a well-dressed elderly lady +appeared. + +'Miss Chaloner!' she exclaimed. 'I am truly glad to see you at last. I +have been wondering what had become of you. My dear friend, Mary Dacre, +wrote to me to say that you were coming out by the mail, and that you +had kindly brought a letter to me. I heard of the vessel's arrival, and +that you had left the vessel and gone to an hotel. I called at Scott's +and Menzies's, but they had not heard of you.' + +'I went to the Criterion,' said Estelle smilingly. 'I rather regretted +it afterwards.' + +'Of course you did, my dear, and permit me to say that it partly served +you right. Why did you not come to me _at once_? Melbourne is such a +queer place now since the diggings have broken out. There are all sorts +of strange characters and curious people about. It is hardly a place for +a young lady just now, unless under efficient chaperonage.' + +Estelle gazed at the kindly old lady, whose eyes at that moment shone +with maternal tenderness for an instant before she answered. Her voice +softened as she said-- + +'You must remember, as no doubt Miss Dacre told you, that I came to +Australia for a special purpose; and that if I expect to be successful +in my search I cannot afford to let small obstacles stand in my way.' + +'Small obstacles! That is very well, but surely you don't intend to go +up to the diggings and to horrid places in the bush all by yourself?' + +'That is just what I _do_ intend, my dear Mrs. Vernon,--neither more nor +less. I have thought over the matter scores--yes, hundreds of times--and +I can see no other way. If I merely wished to see the country I might +arrange things differently. But I have one important, principal, +all-absorbing purpose in view. It is my star. I fix my eye on that, and +all other things, even those which appear to be insuperable +difficulties, must give way.' + +'Dangers and difficulties, traps and pitfalls, do all those count for +nothing in your list of drawbacks?' + +'I must use a man's argument. I see other women have done--are doing the +same--why not I? Suppose I were a sempstress or a poor governess on her +way to an engagement, should I not have to do the same?--to travel +unattended; to take my chance of rough or uncongenial companionship? Why +am I so much more precious than other girls of my age, that I have to be +fenced round with so many precautions?' + +'All this is fine talking, my dear Miss Chaloner, and it's very nice of +you to say so; but a young lady of position and fortune cannot--_must +not_--travel about by herself as if she were a barmaid or a music-hall +singer. There _is_ a difference beside that of age and sex--and the +disagreeables--you have no idea of the nature of them.' + +'I don't know much about them, though I may partly guess, my dear Mrs. +Vernon, but we Chaloners and Trevanions are said in Cornwall to be an +obstinate race. My mind is made up. I must take a seat in the Ballarat +coach for next Monday.' + +'I am afraid you _are_ an obstinate girl,' said Mrs. Vernon +good-naturedly. 'Well, a wilful woman must, I suppose, have her own way. +I have relieved my mind, at any rate. Now the next thing is to see how +we can help you in your perilous adventure. Let me think. Do I know any +Ballarat people? No, but Mr. Vernon does; if not, his friends do, which +comes to the same thing.' + +'I hope that you won't take all this trouble about me,' said Estelle +earnestly. 'I know how to get there, with my own unaided intelligence. +You would be surprised how much I know about Port Phillip from books and +newspapers.' + +'And you are bent upon acquiring your own colonial experience? Well, my +dear, it may be all for the best in the end; but if you were a daughter +of mine I should not have one happy moment from the time I lost sight of +you till you returned. Do you know any one at Ballarat, or have you +letters to people there?' + +'There is one gentleman there whom I seem to know quite well through my +cousin's letters. He was never tired of praising him. He spoke of him as +his best friend. His name was Charles Stirling. He was a banker. Then +there was a Mr. Hastings, and John Polwarth, Lance's partner,--both +miners.' + +'A banker and two miners! Chiefly young and unmarried, I suppose. And +are these all your introductions in a strange town, and that town +Ballarat, you dear innocent lamb that you are? Well, well; we have five +days before us. Mr. Vernon will be home to dinner at seven, and we can +have a council of war. Here comes afternoon tea, after which we go for a +drive if you are not tired.' + +'I am not in the least tired,' replied Estelle. 'And now that my +departure is decided upon I am ready for anything.' + +So the carriage was ordered out--a costly enough equipage in those days +of unexampled enhancement of prices--the three-hundred-guinea pair of +horses that consumed oats at twelve shillings a bushel and hay at +seventy pounds a ton, driven by a coachman at three pounds a week. But +Mr. Vernon was a merchant who had made one fortune by the lucky cargoes +of mining necessaries, and was fast making another by gold-buying. Such +an additional item of expense as a carriage for his wife was the merest +bagatelle. + +So the ladies drove to St. Kilda for a breath of sea air, taking the +Botanic Gardens on their way back, where there was a flower-show +patronised by His Excellency, Mr. Latrobe, and all the rank and fashion +of the metropolis, chiefly represented by a few squatters and club men, +with a sprinkling of gold commissioners on leave. + +Mrs. Vernon was not averse to the company of so distinctly +aristocratic-looking a damsel as Estelle Chaloner, whose appearance, +quietly dressed as she was, elicited, in that day of matrimonial +competition and proportional scarcity of young ladies, endless admiring +comment. + +At dinner, for which they had barely time to dress, they were enlivened +by the society of Mr. Vernon--a shrewd, good-humoured mercantile +personage--and a gentleman whom he introduced as Mr. Annesley and +described as a Goldfields Commissioner. This last was a very +good-looking and correctly dressed young man, not long from England. He +was in Melbourne, on leave after twelve months' hard work on the +diggings, according to his own account, and had some flavour of the high +spirits and abounding cheerfulness of the naval officer on shore about +him. His host 'drew' him judiciously about mining life and adventure, on +which he was by no means loath to enlarge. He was evidently gratified by +the intense interest with which Estelle listened to his amusing and +justifiably egotistic rattle, and in the innocence of his heart essayed +to complete her subjugation. But, to Estelle's intense regret, he did +not come from Ballarat--'had been quartered in quite a different +district.' She was deeply interested in him, however, as marking a type +with which Lance must necessarily have often come into contact, and she +concluded an agreeable evening, widely different from her expectation of +things Australian, with an assurance from Mr. Vernon that he would bring +her a budget of definite information about Ballarat and its social +condition on the morrow. + +Had she been in a position to listen to the conversation of her host and +his guest when she and Mrs. Vernon had retired for the night, and the +gentlemen had adjourned to the smoking-room, she would have scarce slept +so soundly. + +'Lance Trevanion? of course I _had_ heard of the beggar,' said the +Commissioner, as he threw himself back in a settee and lighted one of +Mr. Vernon's choice cigars. 'We had a fellow from Ballarat staying at +the camp at Morrison's who had been at the trial and knew all about him. +But how could I tell the poor thing? What a sweet girl she is, by the +way! why, she'll have half Melbourne pursuing her with proposals if she +only lets them see her. Don't know when I've seen such a girl since I +left England. Why she should bother her head about Trevanion now, I +can't imagine.' + +'Well, he's her cousin, my wife tells me, for one thing. They were +engaged, it seems, too, before he left home. Sad pity that such a girl +should spoil her chances here and throw herself away. But that's their +nature, we all know. Tell us the tale, Annesley; I never heard.' + +'As it was told to me, this was about it. This fellow Trevanion, a +good-looking, well-set-up youngster, seems to have been a bad lot or a +d--d fool, one can hardly say which. Anyhow, he was fond of play, and +got mixed up with a crooked Sydney-side crowd. There was a girl in it, +of course. They won from him, it was said. He, like a young fool, +thought he might choose his own company at an Australian diggings, "all +people out here being alike," or some such rot. The end of it was that +he was run in for horse-stealing, or having a stolen horse in his +possession. Got two years. I've heard since that he was the wrong man, +but the Sergeant--queer card and deuced dangerous, that Dayrell--wanted +a case--the diggers had lost so many horses that they wanted a +conviction. So poor Trevanion had to pay for all.' + +'What an infernal shame!' said Mr. Vernon. 'Couldn't anything be done +for him?' + +'Well (by Jove, this is a cigar, I must have another by and by), looks +so, doesn't it? But it's necessary to be hard and sharp at the diggings +or the country would go to the devil. Wrong man shopped now and then, +like Tom Rattleton in California, but can't be helped. Ever hear that +yarn? No! Well, I'll just light number two, and here goes: Tom, you must +know, was a bit fastish before he left the paternal halls in another +colony. After one of his escapades, a friend of the family, good fellow, +observes one day, "Tom, it's no use talking, you'll come to be hanged." +"Thank you," says Tom, "I think I'll try San Francisco; this place is +too confined for a man of my talents." Gold at Suttor's Mill had just +been reported.' + +'And did he go?' + +'Like a bird, with lots of Australian "bloods," as they used to call +them. Had to work their way back before the mast, most of them. Tom had, +anyhow. After the fatted calf had been duly potted, friend of the family +arrives. + +'"Hulloa, Tom! home again? Proud to see you, my boy. Safe back to the +old place, hey?" + +'"That is so," answered Tom, putting on a little Yankee touch, "do you +remember what you said to me as I was leaving?" + +'"No, my boy, what was it?" Friend didn't like to own up, you see. + +'"Well, you said I'd come to be hanged, and, by Jove! _I nearly was_ in +'Frisco. _The rope was round my neck_, sure as you're there. Took me for +a gambler who'd shot a man the night before. He turned up in time to be +turned off, or I should have been--well, I _shouldn't_ have been here +to-day." + +'Friend turned quite pale, grasped his hand, and sloped. Affecting, +wasn't it?' + +'Good story, very,' quoth the host. 'Like Tom Rattleton. Reckless young +beggar he always was--but turned out well afterwards. _Experientia +docet._ Near thing, though. Now, touching this poor girl's cousin. +Nothing earthly will prevent her going to look for him.' + +'H--m! Does she know any one in Ballarat?' + +'Mr. Charles Stirling, a banker; Hastings and Polwarth, Trevanion's +mates.' + +'Charlie Stirling! I've heard of him. Awfully good sort, people say. +Well, he'll do all he can. If she goes up he's the man to break it to +her. Dalton's Sub-Commissioner there. I'll leave a line for him. Between +them both they'll see no harm come to her. Well, Number Two rivals his +predecessor. It's a fair thing, I suppose. Good-night.' + +A couple of days were spent pleasantly enough in Melbourne. A few of the +South Yarra notables dropped in, not quite accidentally, to Mrs. +Vernon's afternoon tea, whose manner and appearance rather altered +Estelle's preconceived notion of colonial society. They expressed the +wildest astonishment at hearing that she was about to explore Ballarat, +much as in London might a South Kensington coterie at hearing that a +cherished classmate thought it necessary thus to satisfy her doubts +about the Patagonians or the Modoc Indians, always ending their politest +commiseration with an invitation. + +Finally, all entreaties proving unavailing, Estelle was driven in before +sunrise, and at 6 A.M. found herself on the box-seat of the Ballarat +coach, specially commended to the care of Mr. Levi, the driver, who was +waiting for the clock of the Melbourne post-office to strike, +preparatory to the customary sensational start of Cobb and Co.'s team of +well-groomed, high-conditioned grays. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Much to Estelle's surprise, the journey, strange and unfamiliar as were +all things to the English maiden of a country family, was far from +unpleasant. The rapid rate of travelling, the speed and stoutness of the +horses, the astonishing dexterity of the American stage-driver, were +alike novel and interesting; and these were matters as to which she was +qualified to judge. Like many English girls brought up in a great +country-house, she rode well and fearlessly--had, indeed, for more than +one season, ere the shadow fell upon Wychwood, followed the hounds with +decided credit. Beginning with a pony carriage, she had in later years +amused herself with driving her uncle in a pair-horse phaeton, with a +groom in the back seat of course. She was therefore intelligently +interested in the ease and accuracy with which the laconic Mr. Levi +piloted his team alike adown crooked stump-guarded sidelings, through +dense primeval forests, and over unbridged creeks, for under such +perilous conditions the road to Ballarat in the early 'fifties' pursued +its devious course. The driver, in whose charge she had been placed, +with strong recommendations and a liberal _douceur_, by Mr. Vernon, +though saturnine and sparing of speech, as was customary with that +'spoiled child of fortune,' the stage-driver of the period, was, in his +way, courteous and respectful. He indicated from time to time points of +interest in the landscape. He even answered her questions civilly and +with a show of attention. Concerning the coach and harness, the leather +springs and the formidable brake, so diverse from all English +experience, he was explanatory and gracious. The day was fine, the air +clear and fresh, while from the close-ranked eucalyptus exuded balsamic +odours, which, to her aroused fancy and eager appreciation of the new +nature which encircled her, savoured of strange health-giving powers. +The flitting birds, the occasional forest cries, the great flocks of +sheep, the absence of enclosures, the droves of cattle and horses with +their equally wild-looking attendants, the long trains of bullock-drays +and waggons--were not these the wonders and portents of the land of +gold? In despite of forebodings and the sense of isolation with which +Estelle Chaloner had commenced this most eventful enterprise of her +life, the natural fearlessness of her race asserted itself, and, true +to the instincts of youth, her spirits rose perceptibly. When at the +close of the day the coach rattled along the macadamised road which +prepared the passengers for the lighted streets, the clanking engines, +and yawning shafts of Ballarat, she had confessed to herself that +Australia was by no means so dreadful a place as she had expected. + +The team was now pulled up nervously close to the doorstep of a large +well-lighted hotel, thus at once exhibiting the proverbial skill of Mr. +Levi, and scattering the group of loungers which surrounded the +entrance. Then a man's voice hailed the driver cheerfully, and demanded +of him whether Miss Chaloner from Melbourne was on the coach. + +'Right you are, Commissioner,' was the response. 'If you'll help the +young lady down, reckon I've delivered her into the protection of Her +Majesty's Government. Her luggage is in the rack. Joe'll have it near +out by this. Good-night, Miss. The Commissioner'll take care of you.' + +'Good-night, and thank you very much,' said Estelle, as, stepping +downwards cautiously from the high box-seat, she found herself almost in +the arms of a tall man, who half-assisted, half-lifted her down. + +'Permit me to introduce myself, Miss Chaloner,' he said, 'as Mr. Dalton +and Her Majesty's Commissioner of this goldfield. I had a note from a +friend and brother officer in Melbourne advising me of your coming. I +have arranged with Mrs. M'Alpine, the wife of the Police Magistrate, who +will be most happy to receive you. You will find her cottage more +comfortable than an hotel. Trust yourself to my escort and we shall be +there in a few minutes.' + +'This is some of Mrs. Vernon's kindness, I am sure,' said Estelle. +'Really I seem to have friends everywhere in this land of strangers.' + +'May you always find it so, Miss Chaloner. Please to honour me by +enrolling me among the number. This is our vehicle, and your luggage is +safely packed.' + +A nondescript trap with four high wheels and disproportionately large +lamps stood near. Into this her companion helped her, and taking the +reins dashed away into the darkness, as it seemed to Estelle, at a +reckless and extravagant pace. After threading several side streets, +however, and ascending a slight elevation without loss or damage, Mr. +Dalton drew up beside a garden gate, out of which issued a lady, who, +taking both her hands in hers, welcomed her guest with effusive warmth. + +'So glad to see you, my dear Miss Chaloner. Mrs. Vernon was afraid you +would get lost in our dreadful goldfield. We trust you will find us not +_quite_ such barbarians as the Melbourne people think us. Mr. Dalton, +you'll stay and have tea? No? Don't say you've got business; I know what +_that_ means--loo or poker at that wicked camp. Perhaps you'll look in +to-morrow evening? You may? That's very good of you. We'll manage a +whist party and a chat, at any rate. Good-night. Now, my dear, we'll +have a "small and early" all to ourselves. It's just as well Dalton +didn't come in. He suspected you were tired, I dare say.' + +After a few more disjointed, but all hospitable and sympathetic +utterances, Mrs. M'Alpine inducted Estelle into an extremely neat and +comfortable bedroom, and bidding her not to trouble herself to make any +change in her attire, for tea was quite ready, left her to consider the +situation. + +No sooner had this kindly acquaintance left the room than the +strangeness of the situation appeared to force itself upon Estelle. She +looked out through the open window--a hinged casement overhung with a +trailing creeper, the glossy leaves of which partly obscured, partly +diverted into glittering fragments of rays, the gleaming moonlight. It +was a still evening. The half-audible murmur of a large population, +confused and inarticulate, came faintly on her ear. There was a softness +in the air which soothed her somewhat excited brain. Thinking over the +strangely-varied experience of the past week, she could not help owning +to herself that so far everything had been rendered easy through the +kindness of these newly-found friends in a far land. + +'Who knows,' she asked herself, 'whether I may not find similar aid and +guidance throughout my quest? May Heaven grant it! My errand is one of +sacred necessity, pledged as I am to this by my vow to the memory of the +dead. As God shall help me, I will remain faithful to the end. I begin +to feel that though far from dear England's shores I am still surrounded +by English hearts and English homes--changed in form, and in form alone, +as the latter may be. "Onward" must be my motto.' + +Thus concluding her meditations, Estelle bathed her eyes, somewhat +sensitised after the day's exposure, and then making some slight but +befitting change in her attire, joined her hostess in the pleasant +sitting-room, now devoted to the exigencies of the evening meal. Over +the tea-table, and within the influence of a cheerful wood fire, the +younger woman became insensibly more unreserved and confiding as to her +place and purpose. Mr. M'Alpine had not returned to his home, presumably +detained by business of importance. It may be surmised that neither of +the ladies was deeply grieved at his absence, under the circumstances. + +Being in full possession of facts, as far as Estelle had resolved to +furnish them to Australian friends, Mrs. M'Alpine strongly recommended +her guest to remain with her for the present, and await the coming of +Mr. Stirling, who would be certain to arrive on the morrow or the day +after, on being notified of her presence in Ballarat. 'Our town looks +uncivilised, my dear, but Growlers' Gully (fancy such a name) is, of +course, only a rude caricature of it. I don't think you could possibly +exist there, though there is an hotel of some sort.' + +Very gently and quietly, but firmly, Estelle made it apparent to her +hostess that she was not to be shaken in her purpose. She had formed her +plans carefully before leaving Melbourne, indeed during the voyage, and +she had determined to see with her own eyes the very claim, as they +called it, where he, the loved, the lost Lance Trevanion had worked. She +must see John Polwarth, with whose name she was familiar, and his +honest-hearted wife. She would never be able to rest without full and +complete explanation from Mr. Stirling of all things connected with +Lance's mysterious disappearance. Of course she could imagine that in +Australia people often moved away to new diggings at great distances, +and, she supposed, left off writing to their friends, though she could +hardly account for it in her cousin's case. 'Poor thing! poor thing!' +said Mrs. M'Alpine to herself, 'she will have to hear the wretched truth +some time or other. _I_ can't venture upon it, but I don't know a man +who is more likely to break it to her gently than Charlie Stirling, and +so, as she is bent upon it, the sooner she gets safely out to +"Growlers'" the better.' + +So it came to pass that, as Mr. M'Alpine was still absent on outpost +duty, a trusty messenger was despatched next day for the Commissioner, +who regretfully saw Estelle safely into the coach which, leaving daily +for Growlers' at the convenient hour of 10 A.M., was the recognised mode +of communication with that rising goldfield and township. + +There were two horses instead of four. The coach was smaller, and by no +means so well appointed. The driver was less distinguished in air and +manner, but capable and civil, particularly after receiving the +Commissioner's strict injunction to take great care of his lady +passenger. The road was more than novel, indeed exciting, to Estelle's +untravelled mind, winding amid fallen trees, bounded on either side by +yawning dark-mouthed shafts of unknown depth--some desolate and +deserted, with unused windlass and dangling rope; others in work, with +full-laden buckets which, as they came to the surface, Estelle believed +to be partly filled with gold--now crossing a rushing water-race upon a +rustic bridge of most temporary nature, and finally plunging through a +creek which flowed level with the feet of the inside passengers. On the +farther bank of this much celebrated watercourse stood a scattered +collection of huts, tents, and cottages, threading which by no +particular roadway the coach dashed ostentatiously into a more closely +occupied thoroughfare, in which some dozen edifices of superior +pretensions denoted the business centre of the township. + +Here the minor peculiarities of a goldfield, somewhat shaded off in the +civilisation of Ballarat, commenced to present themselves. The 'Reefers' +Arms' was an enlarged cottage, the front of which boasted the more +expensive and, in goldfields architecture, more correct material of +'sawn stuff,' disposed weatherboard fashion, while the side walls, the +roof, and rear of the building were composed of large sheets of stringy +bark. It was wholly unlike any building which Estelle had ever +imagined--certainly with a view to lodging therein. However, this was +not the time to falter or hesitate; she had chosen her course and must +follow it out. + +Carrying her smaller property in each hand, and following the driver, +who walked through a group of loiterers or still unsated revellers who +encumbered the entrance, Estelle found herself in a painfully clean +sitting-room, in which her guide deposited her portmanteau, merely +saying, 'I'll call Mrs. Delf to see you, Miss,' and departed. + +He had probably explained that the young lady was a friend of the Police +Magistrate and the Commissioner. Nothing further was necessary to +ensure her the utmost respect and attention which Growlers' could +afford. Both functionaries were men in authority, and as such to be held +in awe. Though it is probable that even without these valuable +introductions any girl, though wholly unprotected, who was +conventionally correct of conduct would have met with similar attention. +As to the peculiarity of a young lady, apparently of position, electing +to abide temporarily in such a queer locality as Growlers', the hostess +was not likely to disquiet herself. So many strange things and strange +people were constantly in the habit of passing across the orbit of any +given goldfield that surprise was of all the emotions the most rare and +difficult to arouse. + +Mrs. Delf shortly presented herself: a neat, alert personage, shrewd of +aspect and decisive of speech. She anticipated any inquiry of Estelle by +remarking, 'Ned tells me, Miss Chaloner, as you want to stop here for a +while. Well, you know Growlers' always was a rough shop, and I can't say +as it's altogether A1 now, but I'll do what I can for you while you're +here, Miss.' + +'Thank you very much,' said Estelle. 'I may stay a few days, or even +longer. Would you kindly tell me if you remember a Mr. Trevanion who was +mining here more than a year ago?' + +'Trevanion--Lance Trevanion? Of course I do. Belonged to Number Six. He +and Jack Polwarth were mates--and a stunning claim it is this very day. +Know him? Why, he stayed here the very last night he was on the +field--poor fellow!' + +'Then he has gone away--left this part of the country?' asked Estelle, +with such anxiety depicted on her countenance that the quick-witted +matron at once divined that the real truth was as yet unknown to her. +'And why do you say "poor fellow"? Has anything happened to him?' + +'Oh no! Not at all, Miss--that is, not that I've heard of' ('and that's +a banger, if ever there was one,' ejaculated the good woman inwardly); +'it's a manner of speaking, that's all--we were all fond of him, and +sorry to lose him, you see. Is there any one else here you know, Miss? +Oh! Mr. Stirling of the Bank opposite will be here to dinner at one +o'clock; has his meals here regular, though of course he sleeps at the +Bank. He'll tell you all about Mr. Trevanion. Bless you, they was like +brothers. As for Mr. Stirling, he's that quiet--why, whatever's up at +the Bank? Not a fight, surely?' + +This exclamatory query was apparently caused by a simultaneous rush of +all the unoccupied portion of the population, with the exception of +three men who stood up in a cart, across to the comparatively +pretentious building with corrugated iron roof, legended on the front as +the Joint-Stock Bank of Australia. Mrs. Delf's experienced eye had noted +the formation of a ring, simultaneously with the sudden precipitation on +his head of an able-bodied miner through the Bank's portal. + +'It's that "Geordie" Billy, sure as I live; he's been cheekin' Mr. +Stirling about his gold and got chucked out. He's a rough chap when he's +had a drop. There's bound to be a row now.' + +A tall brown-bearded man, decidedly in undress uniform, but effectively +attired for service, had by this time appeared at the door. He wore a +coloured crimean shirt, to which, however, was attached a white linen +collar. His coat was off, and his sleeves had been rolled up. He watched +with a smile the burly miner recover himself, and standing upright glare +around him with the silent fury of the bull-dog in his small black eye. + +'Are ye game to come out of your box there and stand up to a _man_?' he +growled out. 'I'll show ye what it is to put your hands on me!' + +The banker's answer to the challenge was to walk calmly forward, while +the spectators, with cheerful expectancy, closed around, in confident +trust that one of the principal excitements of their monotonous +existence would not fail them. + +'I'd rather see you go home, Billy, and sleep off your sulk. It's the +grog that always makes a fool of you; but if you must have a licking, +come on.' + +'Oh dear me!' cried Estelle, who, with the most liberal allowance for +the free and lawless life which colonists are believed to lead, had +scarcely expected this. 'Are they really going to fight? How dreadful! +That gentleman may be killed.' + +'Not he, Miss. Mr. Stirling's a hard man to mark; not but what the +"Geordie's" as strong as a bull, and can fight too. Come to this window, +Miss; we can see it first-rate from here. They'll only have two or three +rounds, and his mates'll take away Billy.' + +'And is _that_ Mr. Stirling?' asked Estelle, with deepest amazement. 'I +thought you said he was so quiet?' + +'So he is, Miss, till he's put upon. I expect Geordie said he was +weighing the gold wrong, and Mr. Stirling won't likely stand that from a +digger, and put him out. That's about the size of it. Oh, do look, Miss; +they're going at it.' + +Estelle was much minded to turn her head away. In her own country she +would doubtless have thought shame to have looked on at any such +spectacle. But somehow the anxiety to see how the aristocrat fared in +conflict with the man of the people overpowered her scruples, so she +gazed eagerly at the conflict, as might her ancestress at a tournament +where her badge was worn by a knightly aspirant. + +'Geordie' Billy, belonging to a section of miners who hailed from 'canny +Newcassel,' was a low-set, broad-chested, unusually powerful man. Long +in the reach, and in the pink of condition from severe daily labour, his +enormous strength and dogged courage, independently of science, made him +a dangerous antagonist. Mr. Stirling was held to be the most finished +performer with the gloves on the field. It was therefore a contest of +champions, and as such awaited by the crowd with keen and pleasurable +expectation; and a very ugly customer indeed did Mr. Billy Corve appear, +as he came forward with an activity which the various 'nips' he had +indulged in that morning had but slightly impaired. Had one of those +sledgehammer blows which he delivered with fierce rapidity taken effect, +Mr. Stirling would have had some difficulty in 'coming to time.' But +stepping back from one, eluding another by what appeared to be the +slightest side movement of his head, and stopping a third neatly, he +caught his advancing foe such a left-handed facer as staggered him, +leaving him a prey to the body blow that followed, and which, getting +'home' to some purpose, sent him very decidedly to grass. + +'Oh dear, how dreadful!' said Estelle, pale with apprehension. 'Surely +they won't let them kill one another? That poor man must be badly hurt.' + +'Not a bit of it, Miss. You couldn't kill Billy with an axe. He'll be +all the steadier for it next round. Oh! look out, Mr. Stirling.' + +This friendly admonition, which in the ardour of her partisanship Mrs. +Delf screamed out at the top of her voice, was justified by the apparent +success of the very ugly rush which Mr. Corve made, with the evident +intention of getting to close quarters. He broke through Stirling's +guard, and nearly succeeded in getting his head 'into chancery,' as that +peculiar feat of the combat is designated. Once enfolded with that +mighty arm, and the enormous fist left free to pound away at discretion, +the classical outline of Charlie Stirling's features would have been +sadly marred, perhaps permanently altered. But _dis aliter visum_. +Countering with lightning quickness through the 'half-arm rally,' +Stirling managed, by the exercise of desperate agility, to keep clear of +the octopus-like hug, in which science would have been vain. Finally, +springing backward, he evaded a final lunge, and darting in from the +side administered a rattling hit on the 'point,' which for the moment +completely discomfited his antagonist. + +A ringing cheer went up from the discriminating crowd, while a friendly +bystander, moved to apprehensive sympathy, earnestly exclaimed, 'Keep +your head, Mr. Stirling; for God's sake, sir, keep your head.' + +But Charlie Stirling had already seen the necessity for caution, for +though his gray eyes glowed and his chest heaved as he regained his +corner, he seemed to fall mechanically into the attitude of calm +watchfulness with which he had commenced the encounter. + +'Wasn't that grand, Miss?' exclaimed Mrs. Delf. 'Mr. Stirling's as quick +on his pins as a wallaroo. I was most afeard the "Geordie" had him then. +This round will settle it. Don't go in, Miss. Maybe you'll never have a +chance to see a right-out good mill so comfortable again. Two to one on +Mr. Stirling.' + +For her life Estelle could not have moved away then, though she had +turned her head a minute before, deeming that for shame's sake she could +no longer look on at such a sight. But the ancient fire which glowed in +the breasts of the patrician dames of Rome's proudest day, though +stifled and repressed for centuries, has never quite died out of the +female heart. After all, no one would be killed, or perhaps mortally +wounded. Mr. Stirling was Lance's friend, thus necessarily hers. She +could not bear to leave the arena ignorant of the fate of their +champion. + +She had not long to wait. And now that her blood was slightly warmed by +the excitement of a real battle, a combat not quite _a l'outrance_, but +as near to it as is permitted in these degenerate days, she confessed to +herself that there was something not wholly inglorious in this ordeal by +combat. + +The tall athletic form of Charlie Stirling showed to great advantage as +he advanced, with head erect and elastic step, towards his truculent +antagonist, whose countenance, with a splash of blood from brow to bare +neck, wore a savagely stern expression. Furious at his late failure, he +made a rush, with every intention of ending the fight then and there. +Forcing the fighting, and compelling Stirling to use his utmost skill in +warding off or evading his terrific blows, each one of which was +sufficient to disable an ordinary man, he appeared at one time to have +mastered his adversary. But Charlie Stirling, the hero of a hundred +glove-fights, was too clever, in the language of the _lanista_. Feinting +suddenly, he drew the blow, of which he had thoroughly mastered an +infallible guard, at the same time getting home with his right in a +terrific body blow, the effect of which brought his man forward, to be +shot backward by a lightning left-hander on the temple, which stretched +the brawny gladiator senseless, putting the possibility of 'coming to +time' entirely out of the question. + +'Great work, Mr. Stirling! You gave him "London" that time,' shouted a +man who hailed from Bow Bells; and amid congratulatory cheers, in which +Estelle felt a sudden impulse to join, the discomfited champion, after +recovering his valuable intellects, was led off--resisting manfully, to +do him justice. But his crowd was decidedly against him, and by force of +numbers, in despite of oaths and protestations, he was borne off to a +rival hostelry, there to drown his mortification in beer, and finish the +day in a manner worthy of its auspicious commencement. + +As for Mr. Stirling, he 'retired into his kingdom' (like the king in +Hans Andersen), 'and shut the door after him'--presumably for ablution, +for he emerged in half an hour, at the sound of Mrs. Delf's dinner-bell, +arrayed in conventional garments, and, save a slightly flushed +countenance and a forehead bruise, unscathed from his recent encounter. + +Meanwhile Estelle proceeded to Mrs. Delf's dining-room--not without +natural misgivings as to the composition of the _table d'hote_. These, +however, were set at rest by observing that only six guests were +provided for. They proved to be Mr. Stirling and the manager of another +bank, a commercial traveller, a gold-buyer, and a stranger unclassified, +all of whom were scrupulously correct and deferential of manner. Later +on she became aware that, according to the highly commendable custom of +Australian hotels, even on the most recent goldfields and out-of-the-way +country towns, there are two tables, corresponding to first and second +class in railways. At the first those who may be considered gentle-folk +are entertained, while to the second the rougher and less manageable +guests are relegated. + +'Miss Chaloner,' said Mr. Stirling, bowing deferentially upon entering, +'perhaps you will permit me to introduce myself, while expressing my +deep regret that you should have been an involuntary spectator of such a +disgraceful occurrence. We are not generally so badly behaved, though +you are the only lady that has so far honoured Growlers' with a visit. +We have no police to keep order, so we are obliged to protect +ourselves.' + +Estelle faintly smiled as she replied, 'You seem to be able to do so +pretty well, if I may judge from appearances. I hope no one is severely +hurt. Ought I to congratulate you on your victory?' + +'You don't know how relieved I feel at your forgiveness, Miss Chaloner,' +he replied. 'As for Geordie (who really is a deserving individual when +sober, and a capitalist besides), he is wholly unhurt, and to-morrow you +will probably see him on the most friendly terms with me and all +mankind.' + +Before returning to business, Stirling found means to intimate to +Estelle that he was aware from Mrs. M'Alpine's letter that she wished to +have some private conversation with him; that he would do himself the +honour of calling upon her later in the afternoon, when he would be most +happy to afford her whatever information he was possessed of about her +cousin. + +'Thank you very much,' she said. 'Oh, Mr. Stirling, if you knew how I +have longed to find some one who could give me authentic news of his +movements. And you knew him so well?' + +'Yes; _very_ well. I must go now, but you shall hear all that I can tell +you.' + +Easier said than done, thought he, as once more in the small inner room +of his unostentatious edifice he lit his pipe and abandoned himself to +fullest contemplation. 'And what in the world shall I tell her? What a +glorious girl she is. What an air of refinement, and yet with what +courage and high resolve she has faced the difficulties of her position. +Proud, cultured, aristocratic to the finger-tips, she has volunteered to +expose herself to rough journeyings, rude associates--even ruder in her +imagining than the reality. And for what? For the sake of a heedless, +self-indulgent scamp like Lance Trevanion, who never was good enough to +black her boots. God knows, I pity him from the very bottom of my heart; +but I cannot help believing that it was his own selfish obstinacy in a +great measure that brought about his ruin. And now I have to tell this +sweet and noble creature that her lover was till lately a convicted +felon--actually at present an escaped prisoner, at the mercy of the +first police trooper that falls across him. The bare idea is frightful.' +And then Mr. Charles Stirling filled his pipe again to the brim and +smoked on for some considerable time, apparently in a most anxious, not +to say despondent, frame of mind. The irruption of a party of diggers +with a parcel of gold to be weighed and deposited here temporarily +diverted his thoughts, but soon after four o'clock, having finished his +day's work and impressed upon his junior to keep close to the bank +premises in his absence, he betook himself to Mrs. Delf's hostelry. He +found Estelle awaiting him in walking attire. He proposed that they +should visit Number Six claim, where Jack Polwarth still lived and +worked. It was barely a mile distant. On the way he would be able to +give her all the information she desired. + +'Nothing would please her more. She was fond of walking, and should like +above all things to see a real claim at work.' So forth they fared +through the crooked, straggling street, crowded on either side with the +heterogeneous buildings of a goldfield town. Turning to the south, they +trod a winding track through a labyrinth of shafts of all sizes and +depths of sinking. Mounds of earth thrown up in every direction gave the +scene a ghastly resemblance to the cemetery of a plague-stricken city. +As if unwilling to enter upon the subject so unavoidably painful, +Stirling directed her attention to the various novel features of the +scene. When, suddenly turning towards him, she said in a low but +distinct tone of voice: 'And now, Mr. Stirling, please to tell me all +you know of my unfortunate cousin. No one has said so in so many words, +but I _feel_ it'--here she laid her hand upon her heart--'something +dreadful has happened to him. Is it not so?' + +'I wish I could deny it,' he answered, in a tone of the deepest +feeling; 'but I cannot. Your heart has warned you truly. He is a most +unfortunate man.' + +'He has left the locality altogether then, and permanently?' she asked. + +'Yes.' + +'Tell me all,'--here she clasped her hands and looked so imploringly in +his face that Charlie Stirling, seeing but the misery in her pleading +face, felt minded to kneel down and kiss the hem of her garment. 'Oh +that those eyes could so soften and glow for me,' he thought. 'And all +this heavenly love and tenderness wasted. Alas!' + +But he said only, 'My dear Miss Chaloner, my heart bleeds for you; you +must prepare to hear the worst.' + +'_Is he dead?_' said she hoarsely, in a changed voice. + +'No, not _dead_. Better perhaps that he had been. Were he my brother, I +should say the same.' + +'Thank God for that,' she said. 'If he is alive I may look upon his face +again. Tell me--tell me at once----' and here, oh marvellous and divine +power of woman's love! her face lit up with a glow of gratitude and +hope, which to her admiring companion's mind changed it into the +presentment of a saint. + +He motioned her to sit down upon one of the fallen forest trees which +thickly, in places, encumbered the earth, and there told her as briefly +as might be the whole miserable tale. He made but scant mention of the +Lawless sisters, laying great stress upon the iniquitous nature of the +trap into which Lance had fallen--the persistent hostility of Dayrell +and his settled intention to secure a conviction. + +'I see it all,' she said, rising from her seat and walking excitedly +onward. 'I see it all. He has been the victim of a conspiracy among +these wretches--poor poor Lance! Why did he insist upon coming to this +unhappy land? But is he alive--alive? Justice will yet be done. I will +see him if he is above ground in Australia, and together we must work, +with the aid of his friends, for an honourable release. Oh! I cannot +tell you how relieved I feel,' continued Estelle. 'I am glad; I thought +that he was dead. It has given me strength to bear the dreadful thought +of his imprisonment. And now tell me about it, tell me while I am +strong.' + +Stirling saw his opportunity. It was a hard, a most painful task; but +now he would go through with it. He scarce hoped that she would have +made it so easy for him. This ground had now become more open, and on +the bank of the ravine, widening into a green and level meadow, he saw +the windlass and shaft of Number Six, above which floated a red flag, +the well-known signal, brought here by Californian miners, that the +claim was 'on gold.' They had still some distance to go; her feet, that +were so fleet and eager a while since, became slow and listless. Ere +they reached the mound on the other side of which they saw the stalwart +form and good-humoured countenance of John Polwarth, he had told and she +had heard the sad finale to the high hopes and joyous aspirations of +Lance Trevanion. + +'And now that he has escaped from these terrible hulks, I suppose there +is not much chance of his being recaptured? This country is so wild and +large that surely prisoners must nearly always escape?' + +'No doubt they do, but not so often as we might think. The country is +wild, but those who pursue them are keen and fearless. However, the +place that he has reached is inaccessible and distant.' + +'Thank God for that,' she said softly. 'Perhaps he can travel safely +through the wilderness and find a ship for England. Oh, if he were but +once at home!--at home! Why did he ever leave? But I must not break down +now. Is that John Polwarth?' + +'Yes, and yonder is Mrs. Polwarth at the door of that neat cottage, and +Tottie standing by her. I think we may as well call upon her first, and +have Jack in by and by. She is a good, kindly woman, and Lance's +misfortune was a bitter grief to her.' + +'He seems to have had such _good_ friends around him,' said Estelle +sorrowfully; 'why could they not save him? But I know that he was wilful +and headstrong. Alas! alas!' + +By this time they had reached Mrs. Polwarth's cottage--a mansion in the +estimation of all 'Growlers',' inasmuch as it boasted of four rooms of +medium size, a verandah, and a detached slab kitchen. Mrs. Polwarth, who +was engaged in sweeping around her door,--a space in front of all +miners' habitations being scrupulously kept clear of sticks, leaves, and +other untidinesses,--halted in her occupation and greeted Mr. Stirling +warmly. + +'Why, whatever's brought you over to-day, Mr. Stirling? I suppose this +fine afternoon? Come inside and I'll get you a cup of tea after your +walk. Maybe the lady's a little tired.' + +'We shall be glad of the chance, I am sure. Mrs. Polwarth, this lady is +Miss Chaloner, a cousin of Lance Trevanion, our poor friend and Jack's +partner. She has come all the way from England, from his old home, to +see about him.' + +'The Lord bless and keep us!' said Mrs. Polwarth--a devout Wesleyan, as +are mostly Cornish mining folk. 'Only to think of that! It's the doing +of Providence, that's what it is. Sit ye down, Miss. To think I should +ever see you in my poor place. It's clean and neat what there is of it, +too. And to think of your being _his_ cousin--poor Mr. Lance's cousin. +Many's the tear I shed thinking o'er his sad fate. Oh dear! oh dear! I'm +that glad to see this day.' + +'And I am very glad to see you, Mrs. Polwarth,' said the English girl, +softening at once at the sight of the genuine grief displayed by the +good woman, for the tears were by this time running down her cheeks. 'I +have so often heard of you in my cousin's letters that I seem to know +you quite well. And is this Tottie? Come to me, my dear, and tell me how +old you are.' + +Tottie, a pretty child, rather more carefully attired than usual, was +not shy, and coming up to the pretty lady, as she ever afterwards +described her, looked up wonderingly, with great blue eyes and a wistful +smile. + +'Mother, is this Lance's sister?' she said, with the curious childish +intuition which seems to suggest so many guesses at truth--some near +enough in all conscience. 'Is he coming back to Tottie?' + +Mr. Stirling 'thought he would go and have a word with Jack,' and, not +sorry to leave the two women to open their hearts to each other, hastily +departed. + +There was no particular news about Number Six. 'She was going on +steady,' Jack said. 'Last week was as good as any washing-up they'd had +for a month, and she wasn't half worked out yet. So that was Mr. Lance's +cousin, her as had coomed with Mr. Stirling? All the way from England, +too? It was her as used to write to him and tell him about the old place +at home, and how his father, the Squire, was. And now the Squire was +dead. And Lance, poor chap, had broke jail, and was gone nobody knew +where. And this young lady was here all the way to Growlers'! It beats +all. Wait till I run out this bucket and tidy myself a bit, Mr. +Stirling, and I'll come over and see the young lady. It's a sight for +sore eyes to see any one from the old country; no offence to you, sir, +as never was there, more's the pity. But it'll do Gwenny and me to talk +about for a year to come, I'll warrant.' + +Thus discoursing, they walked over to the cottage, where Stirling +partook of the proffered cup of tea, and Polwarth, betaking himself to a +back apartment, performed ablutions which caused his honest face to +shine again, and, attired in his Sunday suit, presented himself after a +while to Miss Chaloner. This young lady shook him warmly by the hand, +and telling him that she had heard about him in every letter which Lance +had written until--until--lately, expressed her sincere pleasure at +seeing him and his wife. + +'You were Lance's true friend, he always said. And many a time the poor +Squire and I felt so happy that he had an honest English heart and a +stout English arm to rely upon in this far country.' + +'Ah, Miss! Me and the wife had that feeling for him as we'd ha' done +anything i' the world to keep him from harm, but there was them as he +took to, against our liking, that drawed him down the wrong way. It was +a bad day as he ever seed 'em. I was always at him to cut loose and quit +their company. But it was all no use; he was that set and headstrong.' + +'_We_ knew that well, his poor father and I,' replied Estelle sadly; +'that strange obstinacy of his, which runs in the family, they say, +seems to have been his ruin. But I've come out here on purpose to find +him, and if he lives in Australia I _will_ find him before I leave.' + +As Estelle pronounced the last words she raised her head proudly and +gazed with a fixed and steady glance into the forest path, as if in her +self-imposed task she could pierce their solitude and discover at +whatever distance the object of her quest. + +Her expressive countenance, even more than her words, carried conviction +to her hearers of a high resolve. Stirling regarded her with mingled +feelings of respect and admiration, while Jack Polwarth, in rude but +honest tones, broke out with, 'And so ye shall, Miss, and we'll help ye +to the last drop of our blood; won't we, Mr. Stirling? Ye have the old +courage and the old spirit in ye, Miss Chaloner; I could fancy I heard +Mr. Lance himself speaking, poor chap.' + +'I don't wish to pose as a heroine, Mr. Stirling,' she continued, +blushing slightly at the momentary excitement into which she had been +betrayed, 'but I wish all my friends to understand that I have fully +resolved, for several reasons, not the least of which is that so I +promised his father on his deathbed, to go through with this task, and, +Heaven helping me, will never abandon it while Lance is alive.' + +'I can quite appreciate your feeling in the matter, Miss Chaloner,' said +Stirling. 'Nothing would give me more pleasure than to join you in the +search for our unfortunate friend. But I am, so to speak, chained to +this spot. In all other ways you may command me, and I have good warrant +for saying Jack Polwarth here, as well as Mr. Hastings, who is our +staunch ally also, will join in the enterprise, heart and soul.' + +'This is truly the land of warm and unselfish friendship,' replied +Estelle. 'I have met with nothing else, for which I shall be grateful as +long as I live. It will give me fresh confidence in my search. I never +could have believed that the way would have been made so smooth for me. +I feel more at home here than I have done since I left England. So I +shall stay at Mrs. Delf's for a week longer, getting together all the +information which I shall need.' + +'I think we had better be moving, Miss Chaloner, or Mrs. Delf's gong +will be sounding an alarm for tea. She has many virtues, but punctuality +and scrubbing she may be said to carry to excess.' + +'Amiable weaknesses, to my mind,' said Estelle, rising from her chair. +'I feel disposed to humour them, and Mrs. Polwarth, if you will have me +to-morrow, I will come down after breakfast, now that I know the way to +Number Six, and spend the day with you and Tottie.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Not only on that next day, but for several days following, did Estelle +wend her way to Number Six soon after breakfast was concluded at Mrs. +Delf's very punctual establishment. During this repast, and for some +minutes afterwards, it generally happened that she found herself +conversing with Mr. Stirling. That gentleman took so deep an interest in +each and every question connected with Lance Trevanion, that, as she +more than once owned to herself, his own brother--had he one in this +strange land--could not have done more or appeared more anxiously +considerate. He caused Mr. Hastings to be sent for, and that gentleman +appeared dressed in a habit of the period, and by no means resembling +the picturesque miner of fiction. He also exhibited a keen sympathetic +interest in all Estelle's plans and prospects. He recounted his first +introduction to Lance, and amused her by picturing himself as a hunted +fugitive pursued by the minions of the law, finally captured and +manacled. 'Nothing that mortal man could do,' he repeated with emphasis, +'was too much for him and his friends to do for Lance, a gentleman at +all points--brave, generous--only too confiding; the victim of an unjust +sentence--if ever a man was in this world.' + +'You can't tell how grateful I am to you and Mr. Stirling for the way +you have spoken of him,' she answered. 'If only the poor Squire could +have heard you. Thank God! that he was spared the knowledge of his son's +disgrace; danger, or indeed death, he feared might have been his +portion; but imprisonment--a felon's doom and sentence--that!--oh, that! +he would not have survived a week.' + +'Stirling and I are his friends, Miss Chaloner,' he answered calmly. +'There is no more to be said. We are neither of us given to forming +friendships lightly, or changing them afterwards--we may not be able to +do all we wish--but what is in our power shall not be spared. Will you +permit me at this stage to ask whether you propose to go in search of +him, and how you are going to set about it?' + +'There seems no doubt that when poor Lance left Melbourne--escaped from +the hulks--he travelled into the interior. There is no one--no one that +I know or can think of--who could give me further information. But I +shall go to Melbourne. It is one stage on my journey; it may be that I +may discover the next one while there.' + +'I can give you positively no advice as to your movements, for the +moment,' returned Hastings thoughtfully. 'I can only counsel you to +remain here a few days longer, when, between Stirling and myself, some +plan of action may be arrived at.' + +'I am not restless,' she made answer, 'though I do not wish to lose +time. Anxiety and trouble in the end may be saved by not being too +hasty. I will therefore stay a few days longer than I at first intended. +But on Monday next I must return to Ballarat, _en route_ for Melbourne.' + +'And after that?' queried Hastings, almost unconsciously. For he could +not help pitying from his heart this high-souled maiden, so utterly +alien in every thought and feeling to the people by whom she must of +necessity be surrounded. He saw her quitting the comparative security of +even this humble retreat for a doubtful, even dangerous, succession of +journeys in quest of what--of whom? An outlaw and a felon! Guilty by his +country's laws, and self-convicted now by his breach of prison +regulations. Doubtless he had received hard measure and unjust sentence, +but had he been true to himself and the traditions of his race, he +needed never to have placed himself in peril of the law. 'However,' he +continued in mental converse, 'she will never be persuaded--woman +like--that he has descended from her ideal. She must "dree her weird," +as our Scottish friends say.' + +So for the next few days Estelle amused herself by studying the ordinary +miner's life, partly in company with Mr. Stirling, who generally found +her quietly seated in Mrs. Polwarth's cottage in the afternoon after +bank hours, and partly from information derived from that worthy dame, +who was far from averse to diffusing her information. + +'I don't see but what it's as good a country as the one we've left, +Miss,' said the shrewd matron; 'anyhow it's better for the likes of Jack +and me. There's a deal of rough ways and drinking, it's true, but no +one's bound to take part in it if they don't like. Jack, he's steady and +sober,--I'm thankful to the Lord for it,--and we're putting by more cash +every washing-up than we ever heard talk of in the Duchy. When Tottie's +a year or two older we'll send her to school in Melbourne. There's good +schools there, I'm told. There's no reason why she shouldn't have the +learning as we never had. We'll make a lady of her, please God.' + +'I see no objection, Mrs. Polwarth, to her having the best education +possible,' replied Estelle thoughtfully. 'At home we are apt to +disapprove of children being educated above their station, as it is +called. But in a new country every one has a chance to rise in life, if +they prove worthy of it, and there is no reason why my pretty little +Tottie shouldn't be as much a lady, in mind and manners, as any one +else.' + +'Do you really think so, Miss?' asked Mrs. Polwarth, anxiously. 'I've +known girls that were spoiled in the old country by being sent to +boarding-schools, and come back neither one thing nor the other. Spoiled +for farm lasses, and not quite up to being ladies, in spite of their +fal-lals and piano music. I'd break my heart if Tottie came to be like +that.' + +'I think you may put as much learning into this pretty little head as it +will hold,' said Estelle, stroking the child's clustering ringlets. +'You'll always be a good girl, won't you, Tottie?' + +'Tottie's mother's good girl,' said the small damsel, dimly conscious +that she was under discussion, and then reading the tenderness aright in +her visitor's face--that visitor so munificent in sugar plums and +dolls--'and Miss Chaloner's good girl too.' + +'I really believe you will, Tottie dear,' she said, lifting up the child +and kissing her. 'May God bless all this prosperity to her, and to you +and John also. Some people deserve their good fortune, and I am sure you +both do.' + + * * * * * + +The days passed on--the final Saturday came, and still no course had +shaped itself in the minds of her 'friends in council.' Tessie Lawless +certainly might have furnished information, but no one knew her address. +They were not even sure whether she would feel justified in disclosing +Lance's retreat. Stirling was still in much doubt--more than he cared to +show--with regard to Miss Chaloner setting forth on a hopeless quest, +when the daily mail arrived from Ballarat. Glancing through his letters, +he stopped suddenly, arrested by the handwriting of an unopened letter. +'Lance Trevanion, by heaven!' he exclaimed, half aloud; 'just in time, +too.' He tore it open. The fateful scroll commenced thus-- + + 'OMEO, _10th June 185--_. + + 'Here I am, my dear Charlie, so far restored to my old feelings + that I can put pen to paper again, at the very idea of which I + have shuddered till now. But the fresh mountain air--we had + snow for breakfast this morning--has made a man of me again; + that is, as much of a man as I ever shall be till I quit + Australia for good. + + 'After I left my _last place_, I made tracks for this digging. + The most out-of-the-way, rough, rowdy hole among the mountains + that ever gold was found in. It's a hard place to get to, + harder still to get safely out of, populated, as it is, by all + the scum of the colonies, and the rascaldom of half the world. + Very different from Ballarat or poor old Growlers', though I + have no reason to say so. + + 'How about the gold? you will say. _There is no mistake about + that._ I have no mates. I am a "hatter," and have worked on my + own hook--partly for occupation and partly for a blind. I have + just made up my mind to prospect a reef which has been + discovered near Mount Gibbo by a stock-rider called Caleb Coke. + He is an ex-convict, "an old-hand," as they say here, and there + are queer stories told about him, as indeed about most of the + people in Omeo; but if the reef is rich--and they say nothing + like it has been struck yet--I intend to have a shot at it. + + 'You would laugh to see my hut; it is as neat as a sailor's + cabin. I lock my door when I go out, and no one has "cracked + the crib" yet. I bought a sea-chest, brass-bound and + copper-fastened, which found its way up here on a pack-horse, + and am supposed to have gold and jewels and all sorts of + valuables therein. Henry Johnson is my purser's name, but the + fellows, finding that I know Ballarat, have christened me + "Ballarat Harry." + + 'To turn to business, I think the time has come for my getting + over by degrees, and very quietly, as much of my credit balance + with your bank as can be safely forwarded. My plan is, of + course, to clear out for the most handy port, and put the sea + between me and Australia. But there's time to think of that. If + you can manage it without risk, send me the portmanteau I left + with Jack. It contained letters, and a good many home + souvenirs that I should like to see again. My watch and rings + are in a small drawer; you can send the key in a letter. If you + forward a draft for a thousand, payable at a Melbourne bank to + H. Johnson, or bearer, I can get it cashed here and buy gold at + a heavy discount. It will be as good a way as any to transfer + my share of Number Six hither, till I can transfer myself for + good. + + 'Remember me to Jack and his wife, and kiss Tottie for me. I + wonder if I shall ever see her again. + + 'For the present, adieu.--Yours ever, L. T. + + 'Address: + 'Mr. Henry Johnson, + 'Long Plain Creek, + 'care of Barker & Jones, + 'Storekeepers, + 'Omeo.' + +Here was a discovery!--a revelation! Stirling barely suffered himself to +finish it before rushing over to Miss Chaloner with the astounding news. +At first he dreaded the effect which it might have upon her, hopeless as +she had been of late as to the whereabouts of the lost Lance. Still, he +had noted and admired her self-control when he divulged the sad +intelligence of his imprisonment. He felt unable to withhold it from +her. + +Leaving the bank entirely to the control of his junior,--a young man to +whom goldfield experience had imparted a discretion beyond his +years,--he hastened over to Mrs. Delf's, where he met Estelle just about +to start for her daily visit to Mrs. Polwarth. + +She looked up suddenly. 'You have news?' she said. 'I am sure it is not +bad tidings. Oh! can it be? Lance found? Is he safe? Does he know I am +here?' + +'My news is not quite so comprehensive as all that,' he answered, +looking admiringly at her fine features, so suddenly illumined with a +glow of tenderness, 'but I can say with truth that the good element +prevails.' + +'You have heard from him then?' + +'Yes,' he answered; 'by this morning's post. I have the letter here.' + +'And is there--oh! is there anything in it which I should not read? May +I--ought I to ask you to show it to me?' she cried. + +Stirling, inwardly congratulating himself that his correspondent had +refrained from mention of any member of the Lawless family, or indeed +from any chance allusion which might have shocked the innocent trusting +girl who now looked so imploringly at him, produced the precious missive +promptly. + +'Here is his letter; let him speak for himself, Miss Chaloner. There is +no earthly reason why you should not see it. It will give you all the +information you need. You will please excuse me until dinner-time.' + +'I am for ever grateful to you,' she said, with the tears fast flowing +from her shining eyes. 'I will walk down to the claim. I always feel at +home there. I shall be able to think over my plans calmly if this letter +changes them, as perhaps it may do.' + +Thus they parted, he returning to his treasure-house just in time to see +two rival parties of diggers, literally laden with gold, who were making +good time in a race for the bank door, each desiring to ensure a +division of the precious metal before the establishment closed. Estelle, +holding fast her coveted letter, which she pressed closely to her bosom, +walked slowly along the track across the flat which led to Number Six, +as one that hoards yet delays the savouring of a joy too sweet and +precious for hasty possession. + +Passing through the shaft-riddled portion of the creek meadow, where a +rich but shallow deposit had caused every yard of ground to be pierced +and tunnelled, she paused upon a grassy knoll where the outcrop of +basaltic rock had checked the miners' search. Here the timber had been +spared, and beneath a wide-spreading angophera Estelle Chaloner seated +herself, and on a basaltic monolith, first folding her hands and making +mute appeal to Heaven, commenced with hungry eyes to devour the +invaluable missive. + +She read and re-read--read again--word by word, and sighed over the +closing lines, then folding it carefully and placing it in her bosom, +walked thoughtfully forward. + +So he was at Omeo (such were her thoughts), a distant, rude, isolated +region as she had heard--indeed his letter so described it. But what of +that; he was safe, he was well, in recovered health and spirits--thank +an all-merciful God for this much. He had even _hope_--the expectation +of escape--of a life of happiness in England, or in some land beyond the +reach of this strange country's harsh unequal laws. + +Once safely at Wychwood, who would recognise in the proud heir of this +historical estate the erstwhile miner, the unjustly treated prisoner? +Then what would be her part in his future life? True, he made no +reference to her; perhaps in a letter to a friend, chiefly on business +matters, such were hardly likely. Still, to such a friend as Mr. +Stirling, so nobly steadfast and true-hearted, he _might_ have said a +word about his poor Estelle in the lonely manor-house, as he would +picture her. But he was safe, free, almost happy in the enjoyment of his +lately acquired liberty. That was happiness sufficient for the present. +It would be time enough in the future to cherish other thoughts. Then +walking forward with cleared brow and a resolved air she soon reached +Mrs. Polwarth's cottage, before the door of which Tottie, evidently +expectant, descried her and ran in to report. + +'Why, you're quite late to-day, Miss,' said the good woman. 'I began to +think you were never coming, and Tottie's been along the track as far as +I'd let her. Sit ye down and rest. Is there anything fresh? We heard as +the Ballarat men was talking of "rolling up" if the licenses wasn't +lowered.' + +'Yes, Mrs. Polwarth, there is news, but not about licenses; a letter has +come by the mail to-day--this very day only, think of that!--from--from +_him_.' + +'Not from Mr. Lance; you don't say so, Miss? Who'd iver have thought on +it? And is he well, has he gotten oot o' the country? The Lord bless and +keep him, wherever he is.' + +'I trust He will, in His great goodness and mercy. It seems so +wonderful, after all these weary months, that I should actually have his +letter--his own letter written to Mr. Stirling--this week here--here!' +and she drew forth the priceless treasure, as it seemed in her eyes, and +again devoured it with hungry regard. + +Then, half replying to Mrs. Polwarth's questions, half giving vent to +long-pent-up feelings which, in the presence of a tried friend of her +own sex, humble in social station as she might be, flowed freely and +unrestrainedly, Estelle Chaloner poured her heart out. After which she +experienced a feeling of intense relief, and was enabled to confer +rationally with Mrs. Polwarth about her course of action. + +'I had fully intended, as you know, to go into Ballarat on Monday,' she +said, 'and therefore there will be no change of plan. The difference +will only be that before this dear letter came'--here she gazed +earnestly at the well-known handwriting--'I had no earthly idea in what +direction I should go after leaving Melbourne. Now I _do_ know, and oh, +how differently I feel!' + +'Yes, I daresay,' said Mrs. Polwarth doubtfully; 'but then, Miss, how +are you to get to Omeo? It's a mighty rough place, everybody says, a +dreadful bad road, and worse a'most when you get there. Don't you think +it would be more prudent-like to wait a bit and let Mr. Stirling write +to him as you're here?' + +'And allow him to think that I am afraid to come to any place where _he_ +lives? Perhaps induce him to leave his retreat for my sake and risk +recapture? No! a hundred times no! I have not come so far to falter +now.' + +'But, my dear young lady, how will you get there? Jack heard some of the +diggers talking about it, and they said all the tools and provisions and +camp things had to be took up on pack-horses. Nothing on wheels could +get there. And what will you do then? you can't walk.' + +'I should not like to walk, certainly,' said Miss Chaloner, with a +smile. 'I wonder what some of my friends would say if they saw me +trudging along with a knapsack on my back. Not but what I would do that +if need were. But I can ride, fairly well too, so I will not let the +want of a coach stop me, I promise you.' + +'And you have friends in Melbourne, and you'll see them first, now won't +you, Miss?' said the kind soul, devoutly hoping that such personages, if +possessed of ordinary prudence, would interpose and prevent further +romantic enterprises, of the success of which she in her own mind felt +deeply distrustful. + +'I shall see them, of course, particularly Mrs. Vernon, who was like a +mother to me; but,' continued this headstrong and imperious young woman, +'all the Mrs. Vernons and Mrs. Grundys in Melbourne will not keep me +from Omeo--from any place where _he_ is.' + +As she spoke she raised her head, her dark eyes flashed with sudden +light, and her whole frame appeared instinct with defiance of +difficulties and obstacles, how numerous soever. + +Mrs. Polwarth seemed to recognise a familiar trait as she sighed and +merely replied, 'It runs in the family, Miss. I see you won't be said. I +could fancy as Mr. Lance was standin' before me this minute. Maybe +you'll get through safe, please the Lord's mercy. There'll be some as'll +pray for ye night and day.' + +'I know that,' she said, taking the toil-worn hands in hers. 'No girl in +a strange country ever found truer friends; I wonder at it sometimes by +myself. But you know Heaven helps those that help themselves, and though +I am a weak woman I feel that in my difficult path I must chiefly rely +on myself. I have his happiness and safety to think of as well as my +own.' + +The more worldly-wise matron could only press the delicate hand in hers, +while the tears came to her eyes. 'If he had only thought as much about +_her_!' she said inwardly. + +But she held her peace as they walked together adown the track which led +to the township. + + * * * * * + +At a conversation which took place on the Sunday evening preceding +Estelle's departure, she repeated her thanks to Stirling and Hastings +for their kindness to herself and their unswerving friendship for Lance. + +'I wish our companionship had been more effectual to protect him,' said +the latter; 'but, speaking among friends, I may say that he was +wilful--too much so for his own good. So have been many men, however, +who have never paid such a heavy penalty. After this last news, however, +the question is, how we are to help him?' + +'I shall travel at once to this--to where he is,' said Estelle quickly. +'You did not expect me to do anything else, did you?' + +'I am afraid that I did not,' he said, smiling; though he added gravely, +'None the less, both Stirling and I think it imprudent for you to take +such a journey by yourself.' + +'Yet I came here safely--even pleasantly.' + +'Omeo is a very different place. It has the worst reputation of any +goldfield yet discovered. The outlaws of all the colonies are gathered +there. Police protection is a mockery; they have no "Launceston Mac" to +regulate them, and the road is impracticable for wheels--well-nigh +impassable, indeed.' + +'All this sounds bad,' said Estelle, 'and, if I _could_ be intimidated, +might prevent my wishing to go. But I am past all that feeling. I must +have one more talk with you and Mr. Stirling. But on Monday I sleep in +Ballarat.' + +'Of course Mrs. M'Alpine will be most happy to receive you again,' he +said, rather ruefully; 'and next day the coach will take you to +Melbourne. I wish the rest of the journey was as plain sailing. If you +would accept me as your escort to Omeo, and I could go, nothing would +give me greater pleasure. But I am in honour bound to stay with my mate +here and see our claim worked out, or I would leave to-morrow.' + +'It is a great pity that Mr. Stirling can't shut up his bank and come +too,' she replied, smiling. 'But I know enough now about mining matters +to judge of the impossibility of your departing at a moment's notice. I +have been wonderfully helped so far. It really appears miraculous. And I +have the fullest faith that I shall not fall short of that aid which a +merciful God provides for His helpless creatures in the future. I will +write to you both, and hereby constitute Mr. Stirling as my banker and +guardian while I remain in Australia.' + +In this fashion it came to pass that on the Monday morning Estelle +carried out her purpose of making the start--that all-important _premier +pas_ which is so often the insuperable difficulty in life. + +The Growlers' Gully coach, departing with American punctuality at the +appointed minute, bore her away again as box-seat passenger, and, not +having more than two others besides the driver, went round by Mr. +M'Alpine's cottage and deposited her at the remembered garden gate. + +Before leaving she had a long and earnest conversation with Charles +Stirling, whom she had grown to regard almost as a brother. His uniform +gentleness of manner, his chivalrous courtesy and studious consideration +for her in every possible particular, joined with a certain firmness in +maintaining his opinion in matters of importance, had insensibly won +upon her regard. She would have been no true woman had it not been so. +Nor could she, from time to time, refrain from involuntarily drawing +mental comparisons between her _fiance_ and his friend. + +Their circumstances and surroundings being similar, why could not Lance +have conducted himself with the prudence and self-respect which +characterised Mr. Stirling, and indeed Mr. Hastings also? Perhaps the +former, from holding a responsible position, was necessarily more +guarded by the proprieties; but there was Mr. Hastings, whom she had +seen working with his mate Bob, dressed like an ordinary miner, more +roughly living and lodging even than Jack Polwarth. Yet she could see +that he bore himself in all respects as a gentleman, and that such rank +by others was cheerfully accorded to him. Why could not Lance----? and +then she sighed deeply and turned her thoughts abruptly into another +channel. + +It had been decided in council that Miss Chaloner should be suffered to +pursue her journey towards Omeo, at any rate as far as Melbourne, when +she would again place herself under the guardianship of Mrs. Vernon. +After much difficulty, the friends prevailed upon her to promise that +she would not commence the journey to Omeo until Mr. Vernon had arranged +for, in his opinion, a suitable escort. Thus reassured, she was +permitted to depart, being seen off by Mrs. Polwarth and Mrs. Delf, +besides a score or two of casual spectators and miners off work. These +worthy fellows had gradually come to the conclusion that a young lady +who was known to the Commissioner, and treated with such high +consideration by Mr. Stirling, must be a person of rank and title. +Indeed such a report gained common credence, and Estelle was long +referred to in the chronicle of Growlers' as 'the lady in her own right +as had come from England to see after poor Trevanion of Number Six.' + +Before leaving, Estelle had volunteered to take charge of the +portmanteau which Lance had mentioned in his letter as containing some +of his much-cherished souvenirs and other possessions. But Stirling had +doubted the propriety of her burdening herself with a heavy and +presumably valuable package. It would be sure to cause her anxiety, and +from its very appearance might stimulate the cupidity of members of the +lawless class, at that time by no means easy to evade while travelling. +Both in her interest and Lance's he preferred to forward it by gold +escort to an agent in Melbourne, who again would await the opportunity +of police protection to send it on to Omeo. He would be in possession of +Lance's receipt for it before she had reached Omeo; perhaps even before +she had left Melbourne. + +It was finally decided by the friends that Lance should not be informed +of Estelle's arrival. 'It would only unsettle him,' she said. 'He might +even come to Melbourne, and so run the risk of recapture. It will not be +long before I rejoin him at Omeo, or the North Pole,' she added, with a +smile, 'if he roams so far.' + +The intervening stages were necessarily identical with those previously +encountered. Mrs. M'Alpine was still hospitably eager to receive this +wandering princess, as she evidently considered her to be. She would not +hear of her going on to Melbourne the following day, and Estelle, +fearful of the appearance of insufficiently appreciating her unusual +kindness, gracefully, though reluctantly, consented. Her hostess then +arranged so that a discreet selection of the officials then resident at +Ballarat should arrive in the evening. These were mostly young men, +among whom Estelle was pleased to greet her first Ballarat acquaintance, +Mr. Sub-Commissioner Dalton. Ladies were few and far between at that +period of 'the field,' but those who accepted Mrs. M'Alpine's invitation +showed that the exceptional circumstances amid which they lived and +moved had wrought no change in manner or mental habitudes. As for the +men, Estelle found them distinctly above the average in appearance, +bearing, and accomplishments. These last Mrs. M'Alpine unobtrusively +brought forward. Then it appeared that this one was well known as an +artist; another sang 'like an angel,' as one of his feminine admirers +expressed it, playing his own accompaniments on the piano; a third was a +distinguished performer in private theatricals, while all talked well +and amusingly. A rather extended course of travel, continental and +otherwise, joined with army and navy reminiscences, seemed to be common +to all. Mr. M'Alpine had arrived too, from some mining town with an +aboriginal name, and, much to Estelle's surprise, was a punctiliously +courteous and chivalrous elderly personage, mild and almost deferential +in manner to ladies, and possessing a vein of quiet humour which aroused +unexpected merriment from time to time,--very different, indeed, from +the stern, inflexible Rhadamanthus whom she had pictured in her +imaginings of the terrible 'Launceston Mac.' + +When the evening came to an end--not particularly early, it must be +confessed--and the piano and whist table were succeeded by a modest but +very cheerful supper, Estelle came to the conclusion that she had never +seen so many entertaining, cultured, and, in a sense, distinguished +people gathered together in one small room in her life. That it should +be her experience in this curious corner of the remote antipodes was the +crowning marvel of the whole. + + * * * * * + +Melbourne again! which--so accommodating is our mental to our bodily +vision--seemed quite a small London after Ballarat and Growlers'. + +Mrs. Vernon, who was just about organising one of her regular winter +parties, hailed Estelle's arrival with unaffected joy. This was rather +dashed when she understood her guest's intention to depart for Omeo at +the earliest possible moment. If the truth must be told, she considered +the discovery of Lance's abiding-place at Omeo to be an unalloyed +misfortune. This view of the case was of course unexpressed, out of +deference to Estelle's feelings, who made it--the announcement--with +such unfeigned pleasure that her hostess could not, for pity's sake, +forbear the conventional words of sympathy. + +'But, my dear, you cannot possibly go to that dreadful Omeo at present, +if indeed at all. It was only yesterday that I heard Mr. Vernon telling +some young man (a young man, my dear!) that he advised him to wait till +the winter was nearly over before he started for Omeo, as the roads were +positively dangerous.' + +'I will wait any reasonable time, and I shall certainly be guided by Mr. +Vernon's kind advice,' the girl said; 'but I am resolved to reach Omeo +before the spring.' + +'"A wilful woman,"' quoted the old lady, '"must, I suppose, have her +way," like a wilful man, but I am charmed to see that you recognise the +propriety of consulting Mr. Vernon. He has business relations with +Omeo--what they are I have not the faintest idea--mining requisites, I +presume--everything from picks and shovels to pianos and cornopeans--so +that he will know how to manage the transport service for you. And now, +my dear, come and see your room.' + +Mrs. Vernon's home was enticing. A roomy, well-furnished modern house, +the upper windows of which commanded a far-reaching view of the waters +of the harbour and the bluffs and headlands trending easterly towards a +dim and mighty forest world, beyond which again rose mountain peaks. A +broad verandah protected it equally from winter rain and summer heat. +The gardens, filled with exotics of every land, sloped down, with +winding walks amid trim grass lawns and thickets of ornamental shrubs, +to the waters of the Yarra. Exclusive enough for meditation and rambling +walks, beautiful also with the carefully-guarded flowers which the +half-tropical summer and mild winter of the south permit to develop in +rarest beauty, had Estelle desired a restful retreat wherein to stay her +pilgrim feet for a season, no pleasanter spot, no more alluring bower, +could she have found. But such loitering in the path of duty, synonymous +in her case with the passion around which the tendrils of her heart--the +heart of a self-controlled, habitually reserved woman--entwined, was not +for Estelle Chaloner. Pleased and grateful as she could not fail to be +with Mrs. Vernon's motherly warmth and kindly tendance, she told herself +that she would rather have been in a stagecoach, rumbling along the +roughest road towards Omeo, the goal of all her thoughts and +aspirations, than playing her part mechanically among the pleasant +society people seated around Mr. Vernon's handsomely appointed +dinner-table. + +As for that gentleman himself, he vied with his wife in welcoming his +prodigal daughter, as he persisted in calling her. + +'We have adopted you, my dear Miss Chaloner; ask Mrs. Vernon if we +haven't. We wept till bedtime after your departure, didn't we, Mary? and +now that our daughter that we lost is found, what do I hear about her +going away again? It can't be done. It's against Scripture; ask Mr. +Chasuble here if it isn't. The fatted calf is doomed, and she must stay +for the feast.' + +'I daresay you won't find me an undutiful daughter,' she replied +smilingly, 'but you must wait till I have returned from the wilderness +before feasting will be appropriate. I have seen little or nothing, so +far, of the rude and lawless waste I was led to expect--on the contrary, +refinement and courtesy seem indigenous to Australia.' + +'Oh! that's all very fine,' laughed back Mrs. Vernon; 'you've been +spoiled at Ballarat, but you mustn't expect to find the country full of +handsome Goldfields Commissioners, six feet high, and crammed full of +accomplishments--like Mr. Dalton, or even Mr. Annesley, whom you saw +here. There are places so different.' + +'Which we won't describe to-night, shall we, my dear?' Mr. Vernon +interpolated, appealing to his wife. 'Miss Chaloner shall do as she +likes, as the daughter of the house, while here and afterwards. If she +wants to go to the South Pole, John Vernon & Co. will charter a ship for +her, or a camel train; if Fort Bourke requires her presence, only give +us a little time--that is all I ask.' + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +Those adventurous wayfarers only who have traced the sources of the +Snowy River, which in its southward course pierces the fertile district +of Gippsland, are familiar with the strange wild region which lies +between it and the northern watershed, where the Ovens, the Mitta Mitta, +and the King rivers swell with their hurrying waters the Mississippi of +Australia. The scenery is of a weird and wondrous majesty. Far as eye +can reach, a verdurous plain extends--a mountain park, in truth, it may +be called, differing from almost any other such formation in Australia. +Three thousand feet above the sea, a sheet of snow in the mid-winter, it +is a prairie waving with giant grasses when remorseless suns are +scorching the heart of the continent into barrenness. Standing on the +northern edge of the Dargo plateau, what a landscape bursts upon the +view! Mount Feathertop, divided by a ravine two thousand feet in depth +from Mount Bogong, with Kosciusko, king of Austral Alps, like twin +Titans, rise snow-crowned in awful majesty amid the mist and cloud rack +of the illimitable mountain world. Storm-swept and desolate is this +region in winter. The strayed traveller wanders beneath an endless +succession of wooded peaks, descends abysmal glens, and seems doomed to +traverse eternally the unbroken solitudes of the primeval forest. + +Here first arose the hamlet, later on the mining township, of Omeo, +taking its name from the lonely lake so named by the wild tribes who had +hunted on its borders and fished in its depths from immemorial ages. Who +shall count the years from the launching of the first frail bark canoe +on its lonely waters? Situated in closest proximity to the region of +snows, which, if not eternal, commence to crown the mountain summits in +the early autumn, it is separated from the more civilised portions of +New South Wales and Victoria by roads which border precipices, by +mountain tracks, known only to the cattle-drover and the horse-stealer, +which, overhanging rivers thickly strewn with granite crags, offer +suicide on easy terms to the careless or the despondent. + +Rivers, full-fed from a thousand springs which have their sources in +these mountains, rush from unexplored heights in the springtime, or +murmur musically the long green summer through, when the great levels +of Australian deserts are sun-baked as the plains of Hindostan. + +Here dwell in scattered families or sparsely settled hamlets the various +classes of Australian highlanders. Hardy, active, fearless are they as +their Scottish prototypes;--originally recruited from the wandering +stock-rider, or in later years the lonely gold-seeker prospecting the +basaltic dykes and quartz-filled fissures of the foot-hills of the +Australian Alps. Herds of half-tamed or wholly wild cattle and horses +roam the profuse pastures, richly verdant during the short summer, +though snow-covered and deathlike during the winter months. Here, late +lingering and entrapped, they often perish, a company of skeletons +within a circle formed by unavailing trampling of the surrounding snow +only remaining in the spring to show the operation of nature's stern, +irrevocable laws. + +Lonely and chiefly silent this mountain land--dividing the watersheds of +three colonies--pierced by precipitous defiles--barred of access by +rugged ranges, the only means of crossing the savage region being by +dangerous tracks skirting terrific precipices, sometimes, as is the +well-known King River pass, narrow, elevated, almost in mid air, with +abysmal deeps on either side. + +The first dwellers in these dread solitudes were men inured to every +peril of the Australian bush, to whom the faint trail of the wilderness +was familiar as the field-path to the village rustic. Strayed cattle and +ownerless horses accumulated in the virgin mountain pastures. These were +at first driven to the nearest market by tracks only known to the +outlaws of the waste, or their confederates the stock-riders in charge +of rarely visited cattle-stations. Suddenly the trade developed, owing +to the higher prices ruling since the gold eruption. An organised system +of horse and cattle stealing arose. Outlying lots of fat cattle were +'cut out' or separated from the border herds of Monaro or Gippsland, and +crossed into opposite colonies. Detection in such cases was well-nigh +impossible. Much of the illegal work was done at night. If pursued, the +tracks were purposely blinded by station cattle driven across the trail, +while, from the rugged character of the country, strangers were at a +special disadvantage. Horses averaging from fifty to a hundred pounds +each, if capable of drawing a wash-dirt cart or transporting a digger's +movables from one mining district to another, were profitable plunder. + +Chief among these _caterans_ of the southern highlands--raiders, however, +of a lower grade than their Scottish prototypes--was the well-known and +deeply distrusted Caleb Coke--an ex-convict who had 'served his +time,'--that is, completed the term of penal servitude to which he had +been originally sentenced. He had graduated in a school of lawless +license tacitly permitted by the customs of the country. Commencing as a +stock-rider on Monaro Plains, then a wild unsettled region, he and his +convict companions reigned unchecked amid the aboriginal tribes. Reports +of capricious cruelty or savage vengeance against the blacks were more +than whispered. Wild tales were told of lawless deeds--of inoffensive +natives wantonly shot down in satisfaction for stock killed or +missing--of reckless indulgence in all the baser passions by these +modern buccaneers. The lack of police supervision enabled them to revel +in every species of lawlessness unchecked and unchallenged, and as +surely as any deed involving exceptional craft or cruelty came to light +the name of Caleb Coke was rarely absent from the recital. + +Rudely reared and wholly uneducated, this man represented the type of +Englishman that in earlier days helped to found the reputation of +British sailors and soldiers. Smugglers, mutineers, or buccaneers they +might become, but, whatever their faults, they possessed the cardinal +quality of courage in a degree unequalled by any other nation. + +Scarcely above the middle height, and possessing no remarkable muscular +development, Coke had proved himself the possessor of a measure of +endurance and sinewy strength which rendered him totally indifferent to +the hardships of a life in the wilderness. Heat or cold, night or day, +on foot or on horseback, all seemed alike to Caleb Coke. Like many of +the early stock-riders, though born in English hamlets and grown to +manhood before expatriation, the erstwhile poachers, smugglers, or +deer-stealers took kindly to the wild life of the interior of Australia. +Long used to watch the habits and follow the haunts of fur and feather, +the tracking of the half-tamed herds of cattle and horses came natural +to the quick eyes, from childhood studious of the waste. Those among +these exiled shepherds and stock-riders whom favourable conditions of +life tended to soften saved their money, acquired property, and founded +families not undistinguished in the future. On the other hand, all whom +misfortune had soured or crime indurated, found in their newly acquired +quasi-freedom the means of safely engaging in practices more secret but +not less nefarious than of old, or criminal operations on a scale +hitherto unprecedented. + +With the formation of a rich goldfield at Omeo, the centre of a +proverbially lawless region and a roving population, the results may be +imagined. Cash became plentiful, and was habitually carried in large +sums on the persons of gold-buyers and other speculators. Crime for a +while seemed about to overshadow the land. Fierce of aspect, ruthless in +beak and talon, 'the eagles were gathered together.' Had there been an +Asmodeus of the mountain, how plainly would he have descried, almost +without the aid of _le diable boiteux_, the Alsatia from which, as +surely as the levin-bolt from the thunder-cloud, wrong and rapine were +destined to result. + +With his habitual want of caution, Lance Trevanion made the acquaintance +of Caleb Coke soon after he reached Omeo. That worthy, wily and +unscrupulous, found means to ingratiate himself with the stranger, +apparently flush of money, and no novice in mining. He made a point of +providing horses when there was a newly-discovered 'rush' to inspect. In +certain ventures, as so often happens, when the broad road is to be +traversed, all his 'tips' proved correct. His advice, _quoad hoc_, +seemed uniformly trustworthy. Coke, however, had an advantage on his +side of which Trevanion little dreamed. Before long he was fully posted +in Lance's history; whereas, of Mr. Coke's eventful career, beyond the +careless chatter of goldfields, Lance knew nothing. Still less did he +suspect aught of the sinister influence behind Coke. Not many days had +elapsed after Lance had resolved to take up his abode at Omeo before he +received a letter from Tessie Lawless, to whom he had sent a few lines +by his returning guide. It was addressed to Mr. Harry Johnson, miner, to +the care of the chief storekeeper, a man of multifarious trusts and +responsibilities, keeping the post-office among other duties, and being +entrusted with all deposits, from a parcel of gold to a quartz-crushing +machine--from a 'last will and testament' to a baby 'to be left till +called for.' + +Tessie Lawless's missive--the outflow from a heart as true and faithful +as ever beat in a woman's bosom--ran as follows-- + + 'MELBOURNE HOSPITAL. + + 'When you receive this you will be safe--safe from persecutors, + and once more--oh! that I should have to write such words--a + free man again. What misery and degradation you have suffered! + my poor dear unjustly punished----. I dare not even write your + name for fear of--of consequences. But I shall be proud and + happy all my life through that I was able to contrive to set + you free--free! I have seen Mr. Wheeler since, and I could not + help laughing, anxious and miserable as I have been, and am, at + the way in which the affair was managed. + + 'You will see by the heading of my letter where I live. I am + not a patient, but I was so restless and anxious until I heard + of your safety that I took a situation as nurse in the + Melbourne Hospital. There has been a good deal of + sickness--fever, rheumatism, and so on--since the gold, and we + are all kept hard at work night and day. I was always fond of + helping sick people, and the work suits me exactly. So now you + know where to find me. Address--"Nurse Hester Lawless, Fever + Ward." + + 'I know, of course, that though Omeo is an out-of-the-way + place, you stand a chance of being arrested at any time. So, + for _my_ sake, if you value my feelings, be as careful as you + can. Don't make friends unless you are certain about them. You + have _paid dearly for that_, haven't you? My cousin Kate + married Trevenna soon after the trial. They are somewhere about + Monaro, and not likely to come across you, thank goodness. He + doesn't treat her well, they say, so I can fancy what their + life is. _It serves her right!_ You mustn't think me cruel, but + I never shall forgive her as long as I live. I heard that Ned + had got out of gaol, but am not sure whether it is true. Poor + Ned! he was not all bad. I hope he may clear out to another + colony, and keep straight for the future. + + 'I have been rambling on, but must now say good-bye. Good-bye, + too, in earnest. I shall not write again unless I hear + anything, and want to send you warning. You know my heart--I + need not say that if you only tell me to "come" I will follow + you to the end of the world. I do not advise you to do it--the + other way, indeed--but L---- T---- must judge for himself; + though he might easily win a grander wife, but he will never + never find a more loving and devoted mate than poor + + 'TESSIE.' + +'A truer woman never breathed!' Lance ejaculated, as he read this letter +in the lonely hut. 'But for her I should still be in those beastly +hulks--perhaps chucked overboard some morning, with a round shot for a +steadier! What in the world shall I do? What can I write to her? If she +comes up here it will be sure to make people talk. They always try to +find out more about a digger that's married than single, and if they +find out too much, that infernal Dayrell, or some other ambitious +trooper, will have the office given him, and _both_ of us made miserable +for life. No! she's the dearest little girl in the world, and I may as +well make up my mind to tour California or South Sea Islands with her +for a wife, as she says. England must be for me a foreign land +henceforth, and Estelle--poor Estelle--a beautiful dream! England's no +country for a man with a stain on his honour.' + +'"My native land, good-bye!" as Byron says. _He_ never saw it again, for +that matter. Heigho! I wonder if I shall? Something tells me his fate +will be mine. An early death, though there is no Greece to fight for--no +such luck in store for Lance Trevanion as a patriot's grave--a hero's +tomb. I used to think of such things once, strange to say. How queer it +seems that a soldier's death in the open, and so many many other things +are henceforth for me _impossible_. + +'I see nothing for it but to hang on here, putting the crowd off the +scent by working, talking, dressing like any other digger, till I get my +share of Number Six by degrees from Charlie Stirling,--trump that he +is,--then clear for Callao or 'Frisco without beat of drum, taking +Tessie Lawless with me.' + + * * * * * + +Both before and since the conviction of Ned Lawless, who was one of the +originators of the Omeo cattle-stealing gang, Lawrence Trevenna had been +a partner in crime, a sharer in ill-gotten profits. He it was at +Eumeralla whom the miners, the police, and indeed Tessie Lawless +herself, had seen from time to time, and had mistaken for Lance +Trevanion. They might well be excused. With some allowance for +discrepancies in speech and manner, only observable when the two men +stood side by side, few people could have told the difference. + +His nature, inheriting the strongest proclivities to lawlessness of +every shade and scope, needed but the occurrence of suitable conditions +to develop into the commission of the darkest deeds. The comparatively +easy profession of stock-lifting had, after his first chance wayfaring +to the Monaro district within a few months after he quitted the ship, +commended itself to him as an exciting and lucrative line of life. +Athletic, bold, and attractive after a fashion, he had singled out Kate +Lawless as the object of his admiration before the migration of the +family to Ballarat. Becoming aware of the reckless girl's flirtation +with his rival and antagonist of the voyage, he had sworn to take a +deadly revenge. With the aid of the Sergeant, and acting upon the girl's +jealous mood, he had been enabled to gratify his hatred to the full; and +now he heard through Caleb Coke, whose information from various sources +was rarely inaccurate, that his enemy had escaped from prison and was +actually living in Omeo. + +Trevenna's practice in connection with the 'duffing racket,' as Coke +would have expressed it, was to travel through from Monaro with drafts +of stolen animals and to await the arrival of others of the gang at +Dargo, a place about fifty miles from Omeo. The men who met him were not +suspected in their own neighbourhood, and as the stock were unknown +locally, were enabled to drive them down the Snowy River into Gippsland +or into Melbourne market by devious ways, known but to themselves, +without arousing suspicion. Thus the mining and general population of +Omeo had rarely seen and never noticed Trevenna. His beat lay on and +around the Monaro district. Occasionally, when conference with Coke was +necessary, he met him at the hut at Mount Gibbo, a lonely and rarely +visited spot. As far as the Omeo people were concerned, Trevenna was, to +all intents and purposes, an unknown man. It was, in a sense, against +his interest to meet with Lance Trevanion at present. He therefore took +general precautions against such an event, keeping himself, however, +well posted up, through Coke, as to his rival's movements. + +The destined meeting took place, however, after a fashion wholly +unexpected by either, Fate proving, as of old, too strong for the +machinations of mortals. + +Trevanion had appointed a day to go with Coke to one of the newly opened +reefs which bade fair to make Omeo the premier goldfield of Australia. +It was at no great distance from the old man's hut. Lance had borrowed a +horse and ridden to the point indicated by Coke, and after an hour's +ride found the reef which they had come to inspect. It was in truth +wonderfully rich,--the stones 'strung together with gold,' as the +prospectors expressed it. Lance secured a share which could hardly fall +short of an astounding profit as the claim developed; and when Coke +suggested riding to his hut for a meal he readily assented. + +The day was fine, the mountain air clear and bracing. The view, as they +gradually ascended one of the foot-hills of the main Alpine range, was +far-stretching and majestic. At the distance of a few miles, but +apparently almost overhanging the lonely hut,--a substantial building, +very solidly constructed,--arose the sullen shape of Mount Gibbo, +snow-capped, and ever bearing on its granite ribs the marks of the +Alpine winter. + +A couple of savage-looking kangaroo dogs and a collie of suspicious +aspect walked forward from the massive hut-door, which Lance noticed was +carefully secured by a padlock. A narrow bridge of logs led across a +sedgy runlet, which, like many mountain streams, was unfordable, except +in occasional spots. From the hut could be seen any man or beast +approaching at a considerable distance. The idea crossed Lance's mind +that in the middle ages it would have been a most suitable site for the +castle of a robber baron. He smiled as he thought that perhaps his +friend Mr. Coke was only a later survival of those picturesque +tax-gatherers. + +Dismounting at the door, Coke hung his bridle-rein over a wooden peg +driven into a stump close by, and, motioning to his companion to do +likewise, unlocked the door. + +'Hold on!' he said, as he pushed back the heavy door cautiously, and, +leaning forward, pulled out by the collar a brindled bull-dog of such +ferocious aspect that Lance drew back involuntarily. + +'You seem to believe in dogs, Coke,' said he, as he noted the savage +brute's red eye and grim jaw half approvingly. 'He would be rather a +surprise to any one that called upon you when you were not at home.' + +'He's not easy stopped when he goes for the throat,' said the old man, +dragging the brute along by the collar and fastening him to a chain +stapled into a section of a hollow log, which served as a kennel. 'He's +a queer customer, is Lang. He dashed near settled a cove as got into the +hut once by the winder when I was away. I was just back in time not to +have to bury him, but it was a near thing.' + +'One would think you had something valuable in your hut that you have to +guard it so well,' said Lance, looking at the dog, now lying down +licking his paws and showing his formidable teeth from time to time. + +'Maybe I have, maybe I haven't,' said the old man sourly. 'Anyhow, I +don't like people coming about my place when I'm away. I've always kept +a dorg or two as wasn't safe at close quarters. They know it now, black +fellows and white both, and lets us alone, eh, Lang, old man?' + +The dog gave a low growl as he spoke, while at the same moment the +collie and the kangaroo hounds raised their heads, and turning towards +the road, which wound along a rocky incline from the eastward, gave a +joint whimper, and seemed on the point of breaking out into a chorus of +barking. Lance, looking instinctively in the same direction, saw a +horseman emerging from a patch of timber, nearly a mile distant, and +apparently riding at speed towards the hut. The dogs, however, appeared +to have come to a conclusion in their own minds favourable to the +approaching stranger, inasmuch as they lay down and awaited events. + +'D--n him,' growled the old man, as, shading his eyes mechanically with +his hands, he gazed searchingly at the horseman. 'What the devil brings +him here now?' + +'You know him then?' queried Lance. + +'Know him? Well, yes,' answered Coke, with the tone of a man disgusted +with things in general. 'Maybe you do too, and if you'll take a fool's +advice, you'll neither make nor meddle with him. He's pretty hot +property, is Larry Trevenna.' + +'My God!' groaned out Lance, as his face flushed high, and then grew +pale to the lips. 'This is more than I could have hoped for. Now look +here, Coke,' and he turned upon the old man with a subdued wrath in +every look and tone that, fearless as he was, awed the ruffianly elder. +'This Trevenna did me the worst wrong that one man can do another. +Through his villainy I have been chained, starved, gaoled, treated like +a dog--falsely accused, too, if ever man was. If I shoot the infernal +hound as he pulls up his horse, I should be doing a good deed. If I +don't, it is only that he may feel that, man to man, I am his master, +and the punishment I intend to give him will not be so soon over. But if +you interfere, by word or deed, by God! I'll shoot the pair of you like +dogs.' + +He touched his pistol as the last words came from his lips in low +concentrated tones. His chest heaved, his hands were clenched until the +muscles in his bare arms stood out like cordage, and the lurid fire in +his deep-set eyes glowed as though ready to leap forth with volcanic +flame. The resistless force of long-repressed passion asserted itself at +this supreme moment. + +The crafty veteran recognised the necessity of neutrality, and assumed +his position with promptitude. 'Larry must take his chance. It's dashed +little I care which way it goes. I'll see fair play, anyhow.' + +There was little time to say more. The horseman had crossed the creek +and, riding at a hand-gallop, pulled up at the door, throwing his +bridle-reins, stock-rider fashion, on the ground, and leaving the +hard-ridden hackney, a grand three-parts bred animal, to recover his +wind and graze on the green tussock grass till he should need him. + +Without apparently taking notice of the stranger who, in ordinary +miner's garb, stood by the old man,--most probably taking him for a +wandering prospector or hard-up 'hatter,'--he called out, advancing the +while-- + +'I say, old King of the Duffers, do you know there's half-a-dozen chaps +from Monaro waiting for you at Dobbs' Hole? They've a stunning lot of +nags with them, so you'd better scratch all you know and get there +before dark. Who's this cove? Perhaps he'll give us a hand? I must have +a pot of tea first, though.' + +He moved towards the hut door, near which Lance and the old man were +standing. Lance stepped forward. + +'So we meet again, Lawrence Trevenna?' + +Trevenna was no coward. Still the sudden apparition of a deadly +enemy--as if he had arisen from the earth--would disturb the equilibrium +of most men. He started back. But a life filled with risk and imminent +peril had schooled his nerves. He smiled, as if in apparent +good-fellowship. + +'By Jove! So it's _you_, Trevanion? Who'd have thought of seeing you +here? Well, you've slipped the clinks, it seems. I was always dashed +sorry you got into that scrape so deep. You'd better go shares with Coke +and the rest of us in this lay. There's money in it--pots and pots of +it.' + +'D--n you and your money too, you scoundrel!' shouted Lance, advancing +upon him with hate burning in his eyes and vengeance written on every +line of his countenance. 'You!--You propose to me to share in your +villainies? Have not you and your accomplices worked me ruin enough +already? Put up your hands!' + +Trevenna smiled and took his ground. Among the younger members of the +lawless gang with which he had allied himself he had seen many a similar +encounter, half or wholly in earnest. And in the pugilistic practice so +popular among Australian youths of all classes, Larry Trevenna, to which +cognomen he had been, for greater convenience, reduced, was held to be, +if not the very cleverest of that wild band, so near the top of the +class that there were few--very few--that cared to arouse his anger. + +He had, as he supposed, advanced considerably in the science of the +prize ring, and fondly trusted that the fast and vigil inseparable from +a bushman's life would render him more than a match for any infernal +swell (as he would have phrased it), especially one who had so lately +'done time,' and been therefore precluded from the enjoyment of fresh +air and exercise. + +Old Caleb Coke's rugged features writhed themselves into a saturnine +grin as he watched the savage onset with an inherited instinctive +interest. + +'Dashed if I ever seen a better-matched pair,' he growled out, half +unconsciously. 'I'd a walked twenty mile when I was a youngster to see a +battle like it. It's even betting--Larry's a quick hitter and pretty +fit, but I doubt he's met his match. Well, it's d--d little to me who +wins. First blood to Larry, by ----!' + +By this time the two men were hard at it. The heavy blows on face and +body, which in such a contest fall fast and furious, sounded strangely +clear in the rarified mountain atmosphere--the old stock-rider and the +dogs the sole spectators. These last--comrades of mankind under such +ever-changing conditions--looked on with manifest interest. The +bull-dog, indeed, until warned by a kick from his master, being minded +to smash his chain and make a third in the encounter. The blow from +Trevenna to which Coke had alluded had split the flesh above the cheek, +showing the white bone underneath, as if gashed by a knife. Its effect +was due less to want of skill on Lance's part than to his desperate +determination to get to close quarters with his foe. And, indeed, all +unheeding of the punishment, which would have staggered another man +less iron-sinewed and agile, he forced his opponent before him with a +succession of blows, delivered with such terrific power and rapidity +that Trevenna's guard was completely broken in, eventually sending him +to the earth, half stunned and motionless. + +Lawrence Trevenna had underrated his foe in more than one respect. +During the few weeks which he had spent in Omeo Lance Trevanion had +worked harder than he had ever done in his life before. Partly to dull +the memories of the past, as well as to quiet the haunting fear of +apprehension, he had toiled incessantly. The keen air, the healthy +appetite, the free intercourse with his fellow-men, had restored him to +fullest strength and activity. Never in his life, as he stepped forward +to meet his foe, had he felt more fully conscious of muscular strength +and deer-like elasticity--those glorious physical gifts with which only +early manhood is endowed. + +As they fronted each other for the second time, face to face and eye to +eye, as is the wont of men of British race in such a contest, Coke could +not fail to be impressed with their extraordinary likeness to each +other, and the similarity of their general cast of feature. The colour +of the hair was identical, and but for a slight deviation in the +direction of coarseness on the one hand, and that indescribable +something which belongs to the man of birth on the other, they could +hardly have been distinguished from each other by a casual spectator. In +their eyes, so remarkable in both, burned in that hour the deadliest +fire of hate, the difference alone being that while it glowed +furnace-bright in the orbs of Lance Trevanion, Trevenna's glare, in +demoniacal malice, resembled the rage of a wild beast. + +'By ----,' said the old man, as once more he marked the blood-stained +faces of the desperate combatants, who again went at each other with +silent fury, 'I could fancy as they was brothers. They ought to shake +hands and travel the country. What a circus they'd be able to run. Ha! +Larry's down agen. The Ballarat cove's too good for him.' + +It was even so. For a short time only it appeared as if the issue was +doubtful. There was but little thought of evasion or parrying of blows +on either side. The terrific rally with which the second round ended +would have brought to a close more than one world-famous fight. But +Lance Trevanion fought as though each arm--like the Familiar of the +enchanter--wielded an iron flail. And when Lawrence Trevenna went down, +beaten dead and senseless from the last tremendous 'upper cut,' it was +evident that he would not come to time. + +'That last left-hander knocked him out,' said the old man, with a grin +of qualified approval, while a strange expression lurked in his evil +eyes. 'It ain't no use follerin' it up, as I see. Dip that pannikin in +the bucket while I sluish his neck a bit. You ain't settled him this +time, Harry, but it's a d--d close shave.' + +'He deserves death at my hands a dozen times over,' said Lance, gazing +down upon the fallen man, as Coke raised his bleeding face, and, after +an interval, succeeded in restoring animation, while the dogs stood +around licking their lips, as if the savour of blood had aroused their +ferocious instincts. 'But I have done with him for the present. Let him +cross my path again at his peril.' + +Thus speaking, he turned to where his horse had been secured and made +preparations for departure, waiting, however, in order to satisfy +himself as to the condition of his late antagonist. That personage, +after a few minutes, was sufficiently recovered to raise himself to a +sitting posture, and eventually to his feet, when he supported himself +by leaning against a tree. + +But though temporarily worsted in the conflict, Trevenna had no whit +abated of the ferocity with which he had commenced the encounter. + +Declining, with a wave of the hand, the proffer of bush hospitality by +the old man, Lance Trevanion made as though to mount his horse, when +Trevenna shook his hand, and, with a voice hoarse and almost +inarticulate, arrested his departure. + +'Stop!' he said. 'I want a word with Trevanion before he goes. You've +had the best of it now. I didn't think you were so good, blast you! But +I'll see you at my feet yet. I've got the girl you were so sweet on, and +you may thank her for being what you are--a runaway convict; d'ye hear +that, Lance Trevanion? Kate Lawless is my wife now, and d--d well broke +to come to heel when I crack the whip, you take your oath. I've got +square with you so far, and by ----!' and here the ruffian swore a +blasphemous oath, 'I'll be more than even with you yet.' + +He paused, apparently more from exhaustion than from other reasons, for +his disfigured face, all blood-stained though it was, grew ghastly pale +as he swayed forward as though he would have fallen. + +Lance rode towards him, and for an instant raised his hand; then gazing +at him with deepest contempt, made answer-- + +'No doubt you have treated your unfortunate wife as only brutes like +yourself are given to do. You are repaid in some slight degree for any +cruelty to her, little as she deserves it at my hands. As for you, you +scoundrel, I will shoot you like a dog if you come across me again. So I +give you fair warning.' + +Then Lance Trevanion mounted his horse, unheeding of food or shelter. +For, as if the elemental powers had awaited the issue of the conflict, +the sky was suddenly overcast, the wind arose and wailed stormily. The +ranges were blotted out by driving mists, and without warning one of the +sudden storms of a mountain region broke wrathfully over the plain. +Another man might have sought protection. At any other time such a +thought might have crossed his mind. But the fierce spirit of Lance +Trevanion in that hour of overwrought feeling joyed in the elemental +turmoil. Facing the tempest, he sent the spurs into his horse and drove +recklessly into the very teeth of the storm; the drenching rain, the +blinding lightning, the thunder rolling above him and echoing along the +mountain crags, only serving as distractions to the yet fiercer tumult +raging within. Two hours' desperate riding over flooded creeks, through +forest and flat, rocky ridge and sedgy morass, brought him to Omeo. The +storm-swept streets were deserted, the stores and hotels filled. Pulling +up at the door of his hut, he unsaddled his horse, whose heaving flanks +sufficiently attested the pace at which he had covered the distance, and +turned him loose, with all reasonable expectation that he would discover +his owner's abode, after the manner of 'mountain' horses, accustomed +from colt-hood to find their way to particular localities, wholly +irrespective of times and seasons. + +This duty performed, he unlocked the door, carrying the saddle and +bridle inside with him. His steed trotted off briskly, after a +preliminary shake, and apparently made a straight course for his home. +Nor was the act of turning him loose on that wild winter evening amid +the still driving rain and bitter wind in any sense cruel and +unfeeling. The stock-rider to whom he belonged would remark in such a +case that the rain would wash his coat clean from mud or sweat stain. He +had never been shod in his life, never known a rug or a stable, and was +as impervious to disease of the throat or lungs as his ancient comrades, +the wild cattle of the snowfields. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +For some days after his encounter with Trevenna, Lance Trevanion +avoided as much as possible going into the township. He devoted himself +to working steadily at his claim at the reef, to which he had gone +before the adjournment to Caleb Coke's hut with unexpected results. + +His first impulse was to prepare for sudden departure. Trevenna, as a +cheap and obvious form of revenge, would probably inform the police of +his identity without delay. He shuddered at the idea of +recapture--nothing, of course, could be easier than to send word to the +nearest police station that prisoner Trevanion, lately escaped from the +hulk _President_, and for whom a reward of no trifling amount was +offered in the _Police Gazette_, was living as 'Harry Johnson,' the +miner, just outside of Omeo township. + +Yet, upon further reflection, other considerations presented themselves: +Coke and Trevenna were evidently 'working' this horse and cattle +business together. They would not, presumably, be too anxious to bring +the police near to the scene of their illegal practices. They would +assume also that he, Trevanion, if recaptured, might reveal much to +their disadvantage. Besides, he was now receiving weekly drafts to a +considerable amount from Charles Stirling. These he exchanged through +Barker and Co., the storekeepers at Omeo, for drafts on a Melbourne +bank, keeping up the appearance of a mining speculator by buying parcels +of gold from time to time, which were transmitted to Melbourne by +escort--consigned to the same bank. He was loth to interrupt such +satisfactory financial operations, while proceeding in a manner so +favourable to his project of escape. In a few more weeks, if nothing +happened in the meantime, a sum would be placed to his credit in +Melbourne with which he could safely embark for San Francisco, +Valparaiso, or the Islands, leaving the remainder to be sent after him. + +Thus arguing, he determined to trust to the chapter of accidents, and, +unless he received further warning, to abide the issue. Besides this, he +believed that Coke entertained a friendly feeling towards him; even that +he might depend upon him for notice in case Trevenna was determined to +play the informer. + +As matters turned out, Trevenna and Coke were at that very time maturing +plans with which the sudden arrival of additional police would have +seriously interfered. But of this determination, as well as of its scope +and intention, Lance Trevanion was ignorant. + +He had not, of course, been able to keep out of sight and observation of +his fellow-miners at Omeo. A parcel of gold had been offered for +purchase by his friend Barker, and as it was rather larger than usual, +he felt bound to go into Omeo to inspect it. His face--decisively as the +battle had terminated in his favour--still bore the signs of the severe +punishment which he had received. And all unheeding as he had been of +the pain during the heat and fury of the conflict, the disfiguring +bruises and cuts were none the less _en evidence_ for days after the +affair. + +But this condition of facial disarrangement was too familiar to all +classes of society at Omeo to cause more than faint surprise or trivial +comment. 'Been having a friendly round and slipped the gloves off, +Harry?' said the storekeeper. 'I didn't think there was a chap on the +field that could paste you like that!' + +Lance muttered something about 'accidents will happen,' and so on. 'Tell +you all about it some other time.' Yet though not denying the +impeachment, he showed so little desire to be questioned upon the matter +that the storekeeper, a shrewd person, dropped the subject and addressed +himself to the more important business of the gold purchase. + +This was concluded, and the gold safely placed in the fire-proof safe, +at that time a necessary part of every storekeeper's outfit, there to +await the monthly or fortnightly escort. By far the greater portion of +the gold so purchased was sent to town by escort--the protection of the +police troopers being in general considered sufficient. In spite of the +perils of the road, there were, however, always to be found men, +fearless or foolhardy, as the case might be, who preferred to be the +bearers of their own winnings in Nature's lottery, or of that which they +had purchased as a speculation. + +Lance had been working for nearly a week after making this purchase, at +his claim, which, strangely enough, was the only payable one for some +distance on either side. He had heard nothing further of Trevenna. Coke +appeared to have left his usual haunts temporarily. Once more a feeling +of comparative security came over him. The apparently peaceful and +isolated nature of the locality assisted to lull his grief-worn spirit +into a condition of repose. + + * * * * * + +It was noon at the Tinpot Reef. He had been working hard since early +morning, and had just decided to prepare his mid-day meal. The fire was +kindled, the camp-kettle placed upon it, and the water for the tea, that +indispensable adjunct of the Australian's _al fresco_ refection, was +commencing to boil. In anticipation of this stage of proceedings, Lance +had seated himself upon a fallen tree and was smoking meditatively, +after the manner of his class. + +It was a lonely and silent spot--on this particular occasion rendered +more solitary and deserted-looking than ordinarily, from the fact that +the discouraged holders of the adjoining claims had arranged to prospect +a distant gully, and had, to that end, departed in a body on the +previous morning. The ropes were still upon the windlasses, the raw-hide +buckets on the braces. The tents and huts, with their rude adjuncts, +showed that the desertion was but temporary; therefore, the camp could +not legally be appropriated as 'worked and abandoned ground.' Still +there was an eerie, and it might have been thought by a supersensitive +resident an ill-omened, aspect about the place. + +The morning had been fair, but though no clouds obscured the sky a chill +wind had arisen, and the temperature seemed to fall as the rising blast +became shrill-voiced and wailing. + +Listening half mechanically to the boding signs of storm, Lance did not +notice the clatter of hoofs as a woman came at speed along the ravine +which lay to the eastward, and reined up her horse within a few yards of +his camp. + +He turned listlessly towards her, but started to his feet and gazed into +the face of the rider with the look, half intent, half horror-stricken, +as of one who views an apparition. + +'Kate Lawless!' he exclaimed. + +'I used to be once,' the woman made answer, in a voice which seemed +struggling with an attempt at cheerfulness over-lain with habitual +melancholy. 'Won't you lift me down, or have you forgotten the way?' + +He was at her side in a moment, and as, with the accustomed aid, she +sprang lightly to the earth, each gazed into the other's face for an +instant without speaking. + +'Hang the mare up to that dead tree,' she said. 'I've ridden her hard +and far to-day, but she'll have to carry me across the mountain +to-night; I mustn't chance letting her go. And now I suppose you're +wondering what brought me here? I've got something to say to you, Lance +Trevanion, that's well worth the hearing.' + +'And what may that be?' he made answer coldly. 'Let me remind you that +the last words I heard you speak caused my ruin, body and soul.' + +'For God's sake, don't talk to me like that,' she said. 'I'm the most +miserable woman this day that walks the earth. I've helped to ruin you, +I know, but how I've suffered for it! I'm risking my life in coming here +to-day, and except to warn you for your good I wouldn't have done it. +Look at me, Lance, and see if I'm speaking true or false!' + +'You took a false oath once,' he said slowly; 'why should I trust you +now, Kate?' + +But while he spoke he could not avoid marking the unmistakable traces +which misery had imprinted upon her face and form. His voice softened, +his heart relented in spite of his just scorn and indignation. How +changed was she indeed! And could that haggard woman, who, with +streaming eyes and sorrow-laden features, stood before him in a +suppliant attitude, be the Kate Lawless of old days? + +The trim and lissom girl, with an air of wild unconscious grace, lithe +of form and displaying in her every movement the instinctive charm of +early womanhood, had disappeared for ever. In her place stood a +hard-faced woman--bitter, reckless, and despairing. Her dress, that +unfailing test of feeling, showed that she had ceased to concern herself +about her personal appearance. Her fair hair was carelessly twisted into +a large knot, which showed behind the old felt hat which she wore: a +shabby kirtle was secured with a belt around her waist above a torn and +faded gray tweed riding-skirt. A red silk handkerchief knotted loosely +round her neck furnished the only coquettish-looking bit of colour that +her dress afforded, and, in spite of the carelessness and disorder of +her apparel, formed an effective contrast to her dark gray eyes, still +bright, and her abundant hair. + +'You are changed, indeed, Kate,' he said musingly. 'So am I. Don't you +think, by the way, I ought to call you Mrs. Trevenna?' + +'Call me Kate this time,' she said; 'God knows whether we shall ever +meet again. Do I look miserable, neglected, downtrodden to the very +ground? For that's what I am, besides being the wife of the greatest +brute, the meanest villain, ever God made. But it serves me right, Lance +Trevanion; it serves me well right!' + +Here the wretched woman burst into a fit of passionate weeping. Hiding +her face in her hands, she sat down upon the log, and in broken +sentences detailed her wrongs and described the cruelty with which she +was habitually treated. Why did she marry him? Well, she hardly knew. +She was restless and miserable after the trial. Ned was gone, and she +was half mad, and could have drowned herself when all was over. Once in +Trevenna's power, the brute had shown her that one of his reasons for +making her his wife was to wreak his spite upon her as a former +favourite of his enemy; to punish her by every ingenious device of +callous cruelty for having preferred Trevanion to himself. She had been +worked upon before the trial by the artfulness of Dayrell and Trevenna, +the former having caused a letter to be written, as if from Lance to his +cousin, sneering at her low birth and bush manners in a way which led +her to believe that he had from the first intended to impose upon her +ignorance. Hasty, credulous, and madly ungovernable in her fits of +ill-temper, she had been practised on to bear false witness at the +trial. Then Tessie, ignorant of the wonderful likeness of the two men to +each other, had really mistaken Trevenna for Lance, having come upon him +unexpectedly in one of his trips to Eumeralla. + +'And this is what I've brought you to,' she continued, gazing at his +rude attire, his changed aspect; for _never_ does the look of freedom +and careless pride return to the man who has known the prison garb, the +clanking chain,--who has once answered mechanically to the harsh summons +of the gaol warder. 'A working digger, and worse. Oh, my God! An escaped +prisoner. God forgive me! I don't see as _you_ can. No man could that +has gone through what you have!' + +And here the frantic woman cast herself at his feet and bowed her head +to the earth in an attitude of despairing supplication almost oriental +in intense self-abasement. + +In spite of his cruel wrongs, of the life-wreck and dishonour in which +this woman had been chiefly instrumental, Lance Trevanion's heart was +touched as he saw the once haughty and tameless Kate prone in the dust +at his feet. + +He raised her gently, and, seating her beside him, essayed to comfort +her. 'Kate,' he said, taking her hand, 'we are two miserable wretches, +destined to be each other's ruin. Why should all the blame fall upon +you? Fate was too strong for us. It is over now. We must bear it as we +may. If I have undergone the torments of the damned, your deadliest +enemy could not have chosen a worse lot than you have made for yourself. +I forgive you freely. Now you have far to go, and I must finish my shift +by sundown. Let us make believe we are at the camp at Ballarat again; my +dinner is nearly ready.' + +A faint flicker, dying out instantly into rayless gloom, was visible in +the woman's sad eyes. She dried her tears, and with a strong effort +recovered her self-possession. + +'You are too good to me, Lance; God bless you for it,' she murmured. 'I +shall thank you to my dying day, whenever that is: I somehow think it +mayn't be long. Anyway, I _will_ have a few mouthfuls. There's thirty +miles of mountain road to go back, and I must be home before _he_ comes. +I see you're marked,' she continued, looking with curiously blended +sympathy and shyness at his discoloured face, 'but you're nothing like +as bad hurt as _he_ was, or you couldn't move about or stoop to blow up +that fire. He was close upon dead for a week after he got back. He +didn't tell me who done it till one day we quarrelled when he was +better. Then he half killed me,--kicked and trampled on me, as he's done +many a time. If it wasn't for--for the child,'--here she hesitated and +looked down,--'I'd have left him long ago.' + +'Cowardly brute, ruffianly dog!' groaned Lance, grinding his teeth, 'why +didn't I kill him when we met at Gibbo? I had two minds to finish him +there and then. Things could hardly be worse than they are. But the next +time we meet one of us dies; I swear it, as God hears me.' + +'Oh! don't talk like that,' she cried, and even in his wrath Lance +recognised with amazement the new element of pitying tenderness which +anxiety for his safety evoked (oh! wondrous-fashioned instrument, the +woman's heart! soaring to seraphic melody, yet at times clanging with +frenzied discords, echoes from the Inferno); 'if there's anything of +that sort you'll be sure to be taken, then it will be "life" or worse. +But,' changing her tone to one of grave entreaty, 'what I came for +to-day was this,--I knew you were here, no matter how; where I live we +know a lot, all the worse for us and other people.' + +'And what was it, Kate?' + +'_I came to warn you_,' she said, as she fixed her eyes imploringly upon +his countenance, 'and you believe me, just as if Tessie was talking to +you this minute.' + +'To take care of my horse, Kate?' he said, half jestingly; 'I haven't +any to lose.' + +'To take care of your LIFE!' she cried, almost with a scream. 'You have +that to lose, haven't you? and unless you are carefuller than I ever +knew you to be, you'll find it out too late. I overheard him and that +old wretch Caleb Coke (and of all the murdering dogs I ever heard of I +think he's the worst) talking over some plan they've put up, and from +words I caught I made out it was about you. There was a deal about +gold-buying and some hut, and a box with nuggets and things locked up in +it--money as well. You'll know if that fits. The man, whoever it was, +was to be "put away," as Coke said. So you take my tip! _Trust nobody +about this field_, Caleb Coke above all, and get shut of Omeo the first +minute you can.' + +'When did you hear this?' + +'The day before yesterday. They sat up late drinking, and Coke took more +than he does in general; he's that full of villainy of all +sorts,--robberies and murders too, people say,--that he's afraid of grog +for fear of giving himself away. Anyhow, they both went off early this +morning, and Trevenna's to be back to-night. So I ran up this little +mare--she's the only one I've got now to my name--as soon as they were +well off the place, and rode here on the chance of finding you at this +reef.' + +'Well, Kate, my poor girl, you've done me a good turn, if you never do +another. You may have saved my life, you see. Not that it's worth much. +But I've a notion of getting away to California or the Islands next +month, and if I carry that out what you want me to be careful about may +rise in value, do you see?' + +'Oh, don't joke in that horrid way; you never used to,' said the woman, +rising and gathering up her skirt, as if in preparation to depart. 'It +makes my heart ache'--here she pressed her hand to her breast; 'I have +one, though you mightn't think it. But oh, for my sake, for every one's +sake, for the sake of that girl in England, if you want to see her +again, be careful! Don't go out of sight of Omeo--if you value your +life--till you start for Melbourne, and then travel in company. Coke +thinks no more of a man's life than a wild dingo's, and Trevenna's as +bad. The things I've heard, I wonder God lets them live. I must go now. +I've stayed too long. Remember my words; they're as true as if I was on +my dying-bed.' + +Then she walked rapidly to where her horse stood patiently--a small roan +mare, the fineness of whose limbs, together with the character of head +and eye, denoted Arab blood, crossed probably with the wild 'mustang' of +the hills. Trevanion kept by her side, wondering when the strange scene +would end. + +She made again as if to depart, for an instant touching the mare's +bridle. Then, turning towards him, held out her hand--'Good-bye, Lance, +and God bless you, wherever you are. You are sure you forgive me, don't +you?' + +'As I hope to be forgiven,' he said solemnly, unconsciously using a +half-forgotten form of words, the true meaning of which had long been +alien to his heart. 'That is, you poor ill-treated Kate, I forgive you +freely, and with all my heart.' + +As he spoke, the woman turned upon him a countenance so transfigured by +gratitude and tenderness that Lance Trevanion, for the moment, hardly +recognised her, so wonderfully softened, so refined and ennobled, was +every lineament by the unwonted emotions. Deep and bright in her lifted +eyes shone the fires of a buried passion as she gazed for a moment into +those of her companion. Then, as if inspired with sudden frenzy, she +threw her arms around him, and, pressing his head to her bosom, kissed +him passionately on the lips and forehead. + +Disengaging herself as suddenly, she waved him back from approaching +her, and, springing into the saddle, drove the astonished mare wild, +plunging over the crown of the ridge and adown the rocky side of the +ravine, which the roused and sure-footed animal cleared with leaps like +the 'flying doe' of her native woods. + +'Poor Kate!' he exclaimed, as he slowly retraced his steps, and, +gathering up his mining tools mechanically, proceeded to complete his +day's work; 'there is good about her after all. How queerly men and +women are compounded in this mad world--as I begin to think it is. What +a life hers must be, tied to a scoundrel like Trevenna! and yet _he_ is +a free man--whose whole life, since he came to the colony, has been +criminal--while I, who, God knows, never had a thought of wrong-doing, +have worn the felon's chain, and may again, who can tell? "A mad world, +my masters!" in truth and saddest earnest.' + +No doubt remained in Trevanion's mind, as in the seclusion of his hut +that evening he pondered this singular interview, but that the woman had +warned him in all good faith. If her words were not true, she was indeed +the falsest of her sex. But there are looks, tones, gestures which +neither man nor woman can feign; moments in which all the truth of the +being comes to the surface; portions of our lives when a clearer insight +is gained in the passing of seconds than can be derived from years of +ordinary experience. + +Such a flash of enlightenment was this, as when the lightning gleam +pierces the gloom of midnight, showing the perils of the road, +disclosing pitfalls and precipices previously shrouded in darkness. His +course had been thus illumined. How heedless was he, pursuing what +appeared to be a fairly open pathway; and yet, what unsuspected dangers +lurked on every side. These two remorseless villains, attracted by the +report of his comparative opulence,--of course the gold-buying would +reach all ears,--were evidently planning his robbery and murder. If not +his own, whose then could it be? + +There was another man whom it possibly concerned--Con Gray, well known +as a gold-buyer in Omeo. He had lately made heavy purchases--had even +stated that this was his last trip to Melbourne. This man was perhaps +the fated victim. Under any circumstances Omeo was no longer safe +harbour. He would sell his claim on the reef. He would invest his cash +in gold, and, making some excuse, join the escort, and so get to +Melbourne unsuspected, and safe from being robbed on the road--if a man +could be said to be safe at any point of the journey between these +savage solitudes and the metropolis. + + * * * * * + +Thus having fully resolved to quit Omeo, taking whatever risks might be +involved in that step rather than await the perils which seemed to be +thickening around him, a feeling of impatience now took possession of +Lance Trevanion. On the very day on which he had met Kate, he had +'broken down' some stone of extraordinary richness, which, though it +might prove to be only a 'shoot,' in mining parlance, served to cause +the value of the claim to rise measurably. He had therefore no +difficulty in disposing of it to very great advantage, giving as his +reason for quitting so promising a 'show' that he had decided on +devoting himself to gold-buying for the future. + +Meanwhile, the vision of final escape from a life of dread and +suspicion, from the rude surroundings and mean shifts by which alone he +could hope to secure safety under present circumstances, commenced to +arise clear and inspiriting before him. It seemed comparatively easy to +slip down to town under cover of having gold to dispose of--as did many +a miner of the period. And then--and then, once on blue water with a +draft for five thousand pounds in his pocket, and more to follow at +regular intervals as long as Number Six continued 'payable,' what a +vista of change, affluence, almost happiness, opened out before him! +This was Saturday; on this day week the monthly gold escort would leave +Omeo for Melbourne. It gave him ample time to make needful preparations. +It was the last day of the month. It might be the last day of his exile. + + * * * * * + +The week passed in an uneventful fashion. It seemed to Lance Trevanion +as if all things were working harmoniously for his release from the +thraldom he had so long endured. The claim had been well sold. He had +received the proceeds in cash, as indeed is the custom of goldfields. He +had made several advantageous purchases of gold, and had received +advices from the mercantile house in Melbourne with whom, through Barker +and Co., the storekeepers, he had established business relations, that +they would be prepared to honour his drafts or furnish him with bills of +exchange in Britain or America. All things seemed prosperously working +together for a noiseless and unsuspected exit from Omeo--from +Melbourne--from Australia. He had reduced his worldly possessions to the +smallest portable quantity, while leaving his hut and belongings in +apparently the state which they would present during his absence, +presuming merely a temporary absence. + +So steadily had he laboured, so assiduously had he devoted himself to +the arrangement of every detail which by any chance could be needed, +that on the Thursday evening he was in the somewhat nervous position of +a man who had nothing to do but to await the signal for departure. At +the same time, he had neglected no precautions which could tend to throw +his comrades of Omeo and the public generally off their guard. He had +not signified his intention of starting with the escort. He had made the +same arrangements which would have been necessary for the consignment of +his gold if he himself was absent. + +He had said casually to his friend Barker, the storekeeper, that 'he +might go, or he might not; he was not sure; just as the fit might take +him. Anyhow, he would only be away a fortnight. It depended upon any +fresh "show" turning up. There was a talk of something towards the Snowy +River.' + +He had purposely, from the day of his arrival at Omeo, adopted a rough, +laconic manner, in keeping with his assumed character of 'Ballarat +Harry'; had been, indeed, at some pains to efface tokens of gentle +blood, of culture, of refinement, of that chiefly indefinable personal +accompaniment which is usually described as 'the manners of a +gentleman.' + +This curious possession, sometimes laboriously acquired, and yet only +perfect when merely derived from the accident of birth and inheritance, +is, by some shrewd observers of human nature, believed to be wholly +inseparable from the individual who has once possessed it. Others +believe--granting a careless habit of association, a looseness of fibre, +recklessness of mood, sordid surroundings, not to mention a fixed +intention of cutting loose from all the influences of early +training--that wondrous, almost incredible declension may take place. +One likes to fancy that the refinement produced by years of early +training, joined with hereditary tendency, can never be obliterated. But + + 'Want can quench the eyes' bright grace, + Hard toil can roughen form and face.' + +Although in the case of Lance Trevanion it would have been an +exaggeration to have said with the poet-- + + 'Poor wretch! The mother that him bare, + In his wan cheek and sunburnt hair + She had not known her child.' + +But (and I who write have many a time witnessed the transformation) it +is by no means so easy to recognise the 'lapsed gentleman' after he has, +for whim, indolence, or necessity, played the bush labourer for a year +or two. The roughened hands, the altered expression of face, the gradual +disappearance of _les nuances_, the minor society tricks of expression +and manner, the rough habiliments, the changed step--all these and +more--the inevitable concomitants of the comparatively rude life of the +miner, the 'sundowner,' the shepherd or boundary-rider--denote the +disrated aristocrat. Any one of the subdivisions of Australian manual +labour _does_ inevitably, indisputably, change and disguise the +individual, of whatever previous history. There are exceptions, +doubtless; but such are rare. + +In addition to the safeguards which a miner's garb, daily labour, and +rude association provided against recognition, Lance had practised of +set purpose the slang phrases and ungrammatical idioms common among men +of his adopted occupation. This kind of verbal deterioration is more +easy to acquire by careless habit than to relinquish when an upper +stratum of society is again reached, as relatives of young men returning +from 'back block' sojourns or 'northern territory' explorations have +discovered to their regret. Taking his privations into consideration, it +must not be considered very wonderful that the 'Ballarat Harry' of Omeo +was a different-appearing personage from the Lance Trevanion of No. 6, +Growlers', much more the haughty, rebellious heir of Wychwood. + +The expected morning broke--a transcendent day of early spring, known +even to this mountain land, mist-shrouded and storm-swept though it be +in its winter garb. The sky was cloudless, the air breezeless, as the +sun uplifted his golden shield over the forest-clothed shoulders of the +Bogong and the Buffalo. + +As the pearl-gray tints of the dawn-light insensibly dissolved,--losing +themselves, even as had the darker hues of the earlier morning, in a +bath of delicatest pink, enriched ere the eye could trace the +translucence with hues prodigal of crimson and burnished gold,--the +austere marble-white snow-peaks appeared to stand forth in yet more +awful and supernal splendour. Contrasted with colouring of indescribable +brilliancy, they appeared a company of phantasmal apparitions in the +silence of that wondrous dawn pageant. + +Lance Trevanion was but a man as other men. How many times had he looked +upon these and kindred wonder-signs of Nature with incurious eyes, +holding them to be but ordinary phenomena with which, in the grip and +peril of Circumstance, he had nought to do. But now, his nervous system +being more tense, and his mental tone exalted in view of an imminent +deliverance, a stir took place among faculties long disused. In curious +unexplained fashion the beatific vision connected itself with his cousin +Estelle, whom he had ceased to regard as a terrestrial entity. Severed +from her, not less by seas and oceans than by inexorable fate, her +image, bright and celestial as it had formerly appeared, was now fading +rapidly; becoming fainter and yet more ethereal with each succeeding +recollection. + +But on this, the last morn which he hoped to spend in this wilderness, +her image seemed to present itself with strangely persistent clearness +before him. How she would have joyed,--she that was so passionately fond +of landscape scenery, who discovered fresh beauties in every humble +hillock and lowly streamlet,--could but she have stood here with him; +together could they have beheld this entrancing vision. With quickened +tide, the back-borne stream of memory brought to his recollection the +many times they had stood hand in hand and gazed at sunset, stream, or +woodland, glorified by Nature's alchemy. He could almost fancy that he +heard her voice, soft and low, rich, yet so clear and distinct, as she +dwelt upon each feature of the landscape with instructed enthusiasm. He +recalled her dainty ways--her unvarying softness and sweetness, her +unfailing tact and temper, which had so often turned the tide of the +Squire's wrath, the discreet counsel that had so often been displayed in +times of perplexity. + +And now, what torture to think of her! of all the sweetness and beauty, +divine as it now appeared to him, lost for ever, as much alien to him, +henceforth and for evermore, as though she had been born on another +planet! + +The sudden change from the currents of his thoughts led the lonely, +half-despairing man to an almost complete temporary detachment from his +surroundings. He forgot much of the misery, the despair, the evil hap of +this past year--that year which had been so much more eventful than the +whole of his previous life. A new hope appeared to arise within his +outworn, wearied heart. Might he not, if he regained the old +land--might he not yet recover his position? Great heavens! was it then +possible that such an elysium should be in store for him? He knew +Estelle's steadfast fearless nature; he knew the sweet and loving pardon +that would shine in her eyes when they met, if ever permitted by a +merciful God. Was there a God? and could He be thus merciful even to a +forlorn, degraded outcast like himself? + +As he stood leaning, with folded arms and meditative air, against the +doorpost of his humble dwelling, the clatter of hoofs along the track +which led near the hillock upon which the hut stood gave a fresh current +to his thoughts, and recalled him to a sense of the present. 'One day +more,' he said, half aloud. 'Shall I ever see these hills and valleys +again? I owe them much. They have proved good harbour for the stricken +deer.' + +'Who the deuce is this?' His thought shaped itself into speech as a +wild-looking rider forced his horse, a half-broken colt, as near to the +hut door as he could get him. The colt snorted and trembled, after the +manner of his kind, but refused to budge a foot nearer. The horseman,--a +long-haired, long-legged native lad,--exercising his spurs vigorously, +besides devoting the colt and all his relatives to the infernal deities, +was fain to hold out a scrap of paper in his hand and await Lance's +approach. + +'It was you as sold Number One South, on the Tinpot Reef, to Yorkey +Dickson, wasn't it?' inquired the ingenuous youth, staring at Lance. + +'Yes; what then?' + +'Well, there's been a bloomin' row between him and his mates and Mick +Doolan's crowd. They're measuring him off, and makes out as you'd took +up too much ground. He wants you to come. He give me this for ye; blank +ye, I'll knock the blank head off ye, if ye don't stand quiet.' + +This last communication, though in strict continuation with his previous +address, was apparently intended for the colt's progressive education, +that vivacious animal having taken fright at Lance's approach, and +swerved backward with rear and plunge directly Lance reached out his +hand for the missive. He, however, retained hold of the paper, which, +after some difficulty, he deciphered-- + + MR. HARRY JOHNSON. + + Dear Sir,--I paid you honest for Number One South, which I + stand a good show of loosin' if you don't come out and prove + your pegs. The Tips are trying the bluff game, and if you don't + stand by me I'll be regular jumped and run off the field. Come + afore dinner. + + Yours trewly, + YORKEY DICKSON. + +'My word! I'll have him steady enough by the time we get back to Tin +Pot. Been backed first time the day afore yesterday, and of course he's +touchy,' he explained, as the colt, after a wild rear, in which he +nearly fell backwards, stood with his forefeet rooted to the ground and +snorted, trumpet-like. 'Shall I say you're a-comin'?' + +'I suppose so--yes,' slowly answered Trevanion, half absently. 'Curse +the claim and all belonging to it! I never wanted to see it again. But I +won't have the fellow done out of it. Tell him I've half a mind not to +come, as I'm going to Melbourne to-morrow. It's lucky for him I got word +to-day.' + +'All right! I'll tell him you'll be there by dinner-time. So 'long!' and +with the words on his lips he turned his horse's head, and with spur and +shout forced him into a hand-gallop along the main track to the +township, up the principal street, and opposite the hotel door before +the half-tamed excited animal had time to halt or resist. + +'It's an infernal nuisance,' said Trevanion, half aloud. 'But I don't +want to leave things tangled up. Yorkey paid me good money, and I +shouldn't like the poor devil to be wronged by those scoundrels. I'll +walk, too; it will do me good, and keep me from thinking.' + +The day promised to be glorious. Slowly the mountain mist had rolled +back, and gradually disclosed the tones and magically blended colour +effects which the awakened morn revealed. A dull grayish green tinted +the undulating prairies, stretching to the darkly dense forest which +clothed the foot-hills of the Australian Alps. The sombre mountains +gradually ripened in colour as the sun-rays pierced them in concentric +lines, so that a graduated scale, shading from darkest green to +brilliant emerald, developed hourly. Deathlike, still eternal-seeming, +majestic, their snow-crowns rested on Bogong and Buffalo, with far-seen +Kosciusko and Feathertop in the azure distance. + +The solar heat became distinctly noticeable--indeed, bordering on +oppressive. But Lance, excited in spite of himself, stepped joyously +forward as he felt the miles slipping behind him, as though on some +long-remembered schoolboy truant expedition. How different was the free +elastic stride with which he covered the ground now from the aimless, +dejected shuffle of himself and his fellow galley-slaves of the +_President_! His spirits rose with each mile of the way traversed. +Surely everything was turning in his favour. He would be pardoned yet, +his fair fame re-established. His innocence would not be so hard to +prove, after all. Tessie and Kate could _now_ give different evidence. + +'Yes! England, Estelle, Wychwood! Fate would repent her of this dire +injustice. He would yet again place foot on the shore of his native +land, the home of his ancestors, as surely as he would presently ascend +the ridge on the other side of this Mountain Ash Gully, into which he +was now descending; as surely as he would behold the plain +far-stretching towards the horizon, the diggers' tents in the secluded +valley.' + +Thus thinking, and moving forward with eager, quickened step, he reached +the bottom of the ravine, which--a notable exception to the general +distribution of timber--was covered with a scrub or thicket of the +mountain ash saplings for some distance back. From the course of the +little stream, eastward, appeared a narrow flat, riddled with shafts +long worked and abandoned, but still furnishing, in this depth and +closeness, a record of former richness. + +'What would Kate say if she saw me here to-day?' he thought to himself. +And then her warning rang in his ears. 'As you value your life,' he +seemed to hear. 'When I get back,' he said, 'I will swear to take +excellent care of myself.' + +'If such a thing as prudence can be knocked into a Trevanion, surely +what I have undergone should produce it. But what a lunatic! what a +benighted idiot I was to leave England at all! Why couldn't I have borne +the old man's petulance, like scores of other fellows that I have known? +All would have come right in the end, with Estelle's help. What a girl +she was! And what a fool I have been! Looking back, it seems incredible +that I--that _any man_--could have been so mad, so blindly besotted! I +wonder how the old Squire is now? He and Estelle must have a lonely time +enough of it in the gloomy old manor-house. Well, I swear--as God hears +me now--that when I return--if I ever do--I will humble myself before +the old man, and, yes, try for the rest of my life to make amends to him +and to her for the sorrow and anxiety which I have cost them.' + +As this last thought passed through his mind, shaping itself +unconsciously into articulate speech, he stopped, with his right foot +raised upon a block of stone, and listened intently, with head half +turned towards the thickest portion of the scrub, which here approached +the narrow track worn in old days by the cattle-herds of the surrounding +pastures. + +At that moment a shot was heard, and Lance Trevanion fell forward on his +face, temporarily disabled, if not mortally wounded. Following the +report, two men emerged from the covert, one of whom carried a gun. They +were Caleb Coke and Lawrence Trevenna. + +'That dropped him,' said the former, with a fiendish chuckle. 'Not far +from the "curl," I'd say, if it was a bullock. Many a one the old single +barrel has finished. I thought she'd carry straight that distance.' + +Here the wounded man moved his arm and groaned. + +'Ha! my fine gentleman!' said Trevenna, 'I swore I'd have ye under my +feet yet. Where are ye now?' And here the hellish villain spurned the +unresisting form of his prostrate foe. 'What do ye say about "time" now? +This is the last round of all.' + +'That's no good,' growled Coke, 'and d--d cowardly, into the bargain. +You couldn't stand up to him when he was right, so ye may leave him +alone now. He's only stunned; the ball's grazed his forehead. Lend us +that tomahawk o' yourn. I'll finish him.' + +Two crashing blows, one of which clove the skull even to the brain, and +this man--this 'masterpiece of nature,' so lately in full possession of +the strength and beauty of youth--lay a disfigured corpse. + +'Now lend a hand and let's get him off the road a bit,' said Coke, as +coolly as if he was directing the assistants of a slaughter-yard. +'Scrape some sand over that blood; there ain't much, but it might show. +We've got to strip him first, and then it won't take long to drop him +where he won't be seen again in a hurry.' + +Dragged through the scrub some twenty yards or more, the dead man lay +with dreadful widely open eyes as they had placed him. A heartrending +spectacle surely, had but the men who now busied themselves in stripping +the corpse possessed the feelings of ordinary humanity. But a lifetime +of crime, for the most part undetected, had dulled the heart and brain +of the older ruffian, to the exclusion of all but the baser instincts--a +veritable demon disguised in form of man. Fiends of the pit could scarce +have exceeded him in remorseless cruelty. + +In Trevenna's case the love of gain, the hope of booty, together with +complicated feelings of jealousy and revenge, rendered him callous to +all natural feeling. Swiftly was the dead man divested of his clothing; +his watch, a few bank notes, which he had perhaps placed in his purse in +readiness for the morrow, were secured, and after counting and +inspection, taken possession of by Trevenna. + +This done, the old man pointed to a mound a few yards distant around +which the saplings clustered thickly, showing that some time had elapsed +since the shaft which it marked had been commenced. + +'That's the deepest shaft on the flat; they was a-sinking for the blue +"lead" and bottomed on rock. You take hold of him.' + +A combined effort placed the dead man on the edge of a shaft, down which +the old man peered with ghoulish glee, as if to gauge the depth. 'Hold +on,' he said, as he dropped a stone. The men waited for some seconds, +which seemed long, until a dull thud came up from the lower level, +telling by its delay that the shaft was little under a hundred feet. + +In another moment the unresisting form was drawn to the edge of the +yawning black-mouthed pit, which, so wondrous straight and narrow, had +been driven deeply into the bowels of the earth. A push, a heave, and +the once noble and beautiful form of him who was Lance Trevanion +disappeared from the face of the earth, hidden from the light of the +sun, from the ken of mortal man, for ever and for ever! + + * * * * * + +As the strange dull sound, so unlike any other, which follows the fall +of a human body down a deep shaft came up from below, Trevenna shuddered +in spite of his hardihood. + +The old man laughed aloud. 'You're only half baked yet, Larry, with all +your blowing. When you've seen as many coves rubbed out as I have, +you'll have better narves. We've got a ticklish game to play yet, mind +ye, so don't go a-shivering and shaking like a school-girl. Take off yer +duds now and collar his, and let's see how yer look.' + +Trevenna, with a rude oath, repelled the accusation of softness, and +doffing his own garments, which he made into a bundle and threw down the +shaft, proceeded to dress himself in the dead man's clothes. This +transformation effected, the curious similarity between the two men +became so apparent to the only spectator that Coke yelled with apparent +amazement and danced around him with fiendish delight. + +'By ----!' he cried, 'if that ain't the rummiest fake ever I see. Your +own mother wouldn't know the difference. Hanged if _I_ could tell, and I +knowed the pair on ye purty well. Pitch a log or two down the hole; it +won't be long afore it falls in. It's bad standing ground, and then he +won't need no tombstone. We'd as well collar our horses now and get to +the cove's hut after dark. Then you start fair to-morrow morning as +'Ballarat Harry,' alias Lance Trevanion, Esquire, and I'm d--d if +there's a digger on Omeo as'll know the difference. What are ye lookin' +in the grass for?' + +'When we had the--the mill--I swear he had a watch-chain. It must have +dropped hereabouts.' + +'Well, I'm blowed!' chuckled the older ruffian, 'if that ain't a good +'un. Takin' a man's life, his money, his duds, and his watch, and then +growlin' because the chain's a-missin'. You'll find it in his hut, I'll +go bail.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + + +Lance Trevanion, dwelling and working by himself, had accustomed the +miners around Omeo to his irregular, independent mode of life. Sometimes +he was absent for days together, returning at midnight or dawn, as the +case might be. When it was reported that he had been seen to enter his +hut just after dark in company with another man, no one looked upon the +circumstance as calling for comment. He had been at the claim which he +had sold to Yorkey Dickson early in the day, and being detained there, +discussing the intricacies of a mining dispute, had reached his home +after sunset. + +On the next morning--the one fixed for the departure of the escort for +Melbourne--he was heard inquiring from the Barker storekeeper if his +gold had been properly labelled and directed. 'He was not sure about +going himself,' he said, 'but thought it likely he might at the last +minute.' The storekeeper looked at him with a certain air of surprise. +'What are you staring at?' he asked abruptly, at the same time fixing +his eyes intently on the man. + +'Oh, nothing, Harry,' Barker replied apologetically, 'only I thought +there was something queer about you this morning. If you'd been a +drinking man I'd have thought you'd had a booze on the quiet. And your +face ain't got rid of them marks yet. Seemed they was about gone, last +time I seen yer.' + +'They'll not last much longer,' he said grimly, 'and the man that gave +them to me got the worst of it. He won't be so ready for a row in +future.' + +'Is that so?' inquired the trader confidentially. 'We all thought it +must have been his fault, you bein' such a quiet card in a general way. +Serve him right, I say.' + +'So I say too,' replied his auditor. 'By the way, just send your boy +over to the post-office to see if there are any letters for me. I'll +have a smoke while he runs over.' + +In a few minutes the letters came. One from the banker in Melbourne +acknowledging his last draft and informing 'Mr. Henry Johnson' that they +would receive and hold to his order the parcel of gold of which they had +advices. The other, addressed to 'Mr. Henry Johnson, Long Creek, Omeo,' +was in a female hand. Mr. Johnson placed it in his pocket unread, +saying carelessly that it would do to read when he got home. + +'He's a rum chap, that Ballarat Harry, as ever I see in Omeo,' said the +storekeeper. 'Sometimes so jolly in a quiet way, and then he's as stiff +and stand off as can be. But I'm dashed if ever I seen him as queer as +he was to-day; why, I hardly knowed him when he came in first!' + +When 'Harry Johnson' reached his hut, he sat down, and shutting the +door, which he carefully secured with a bolt, took out the letter and +read as follows--a sardonic smile upon his features the while-- + + TOORAK, _10th September 185-_. + + MY OWN DARLING LANCE--Could you ever expect to receive a letter + from me written in this country? In your wildest dreams, did it + ever occur to you that I should come out to Australia in search + of you? I told you at our last parting at dear old Wychwood + that I would come, if you did not return within the time + specified. I don't know that the time has quite elapsed, but + when the poor old Squire died (how changed and softened he was, + Lance, in his latter days you can hardly think) I could not + stay in England. You never wrote. We did not know what had + become of you: whether you were dead or alive. I promised him, + Lance, on his deathbed, that I would seek you out. And you know + we Chaloners and Trevanions hold to our word. + + I _know now_ all that you have done and suffered, my poor + darling--_all_! I can partly understand why you did not write. + Still you should have done so; you know you should. I am not + going to reproach you or to write a long letter. But fancy me + having been up at Ballarat and stayed at Mrs. Delf's inn at + 'Growlers',' and know Jack Polwarth and his wife and dear + little Tottie--who hasn't forgotten you--and Mr. Hastings and + Mr. Stirling! I was actually there when your letter came from + Omeo! + + Why didn't I write? You see _now_ how hard it is to bear when + friends are silent. But I refrained, sorely against the grain, + _for your sake_. It might unsettle you, I thought, even tempt + you to come to Melbourne, where the risk would be terrible. So + I waited till I could get a really good opportunity and escort + for Omeo. You will see me--I am almost beside myself with joy + at the thought--almost as quickly as this letter reaches you, + Mr. Vernon, my kind host, says. He bought me a delightful + horse--so safe and pleasant. I shall quite enjoy the ride up. A + storekeeper, his wife and daughter, also an assistant, are my + companions, so you see I am well protected. Have you got the + ring and the token? I have mine safe. Ever and till we meet, + your own + + ESTELLE. + +'Well, I'm blowed,' was the reader's inelegant but characteristic +exclamation as he folded up the letter,--oh! rare and precious +outpouring of a fond woman's love and tenderness,--'if this game isn't +right into my hand! I've got his gold. I've got his cash. His girl's +running fair into my arms, and, if the luck holds, I'll have his house +and land in the old country. Lance Trevanion, if I haven't got square +with you, the devil's in it, or Caleb Coke, which comes to the same +thing! I've got to take care _he_ don't turn dog on me, though. It was +he put me on to plant for Trevanion in Mountain Ash Gully. We're both in +it, though he fired the shot and knocked him on the head afterwards. +We've gone whacks so far in the nuggets and cash in the hut; who'd 'a +thought he'd such a pile stowed away there? But if I can get to +Melbourne, take the girl on the hop, marry her, and clear out to England +or 'Frisco the day after, as I expect he intended to have done, old +Caleb may whistle for his share. By Jove! what a lucky job it was that +Coke and I had a good overhaul of the hut on the quiet. It's put me up +to all I wanted to know to act Lance Trevanion to the life. I've done it +before, but now I'm up in my part to the letter. I've got the very +clothes he was last seen in, the marks on my face _he_ gave me, damn +him, much about the same as I gave _him_; with putting on a bit of a +drawl that he always had, the devil himself wouldn't know us apart. I +wonder if he will when _my_ turn comes below?' + +Then the villain laughed aloud, a ghastly sound in the lonely hut and +still night The unnatural sound died away,--guilt rarely laughs +long,--when, lighting his pipe and stirring the embers of the fire in +the chimney, he recommenced his meditative plotting. + +'Now then, the devil of it is, that I'll have deuced little time to work +things in, if this girl Estella, or whatever she calls herself, comes up +to-morrow or next day. However, perhaps the shorter the time the better +the chance; she'll be bustled, and won't have time to think. All I've +got to do is to play Lance Trevanion to the life for a day or two, get +her off to Melbourne, and follow up after. The sooner I'm off the +better, for fear Kate gets wind of it and blows the whole bloomin' plant +to blazes. There's nothing she'd like better, blast her! I think I can +do the swell business middling near the mark. I've been studying some of +those squatter toffs that come to Monaro for store catch. If a bit of +slang leaks out, or a slip in grammar, why, of course, it's from +associating with rough cards at the diggings, not to mention the +chain-gang business; she'll believe, like all these flats of new chums, +that Australian life's enough to take the shine out of any man's mind +and manners, grammar, and good looks. Then the wedding! Ha! ha! if that +won't be the best joke out. Fancy Larry Trevenna spliced to a real +lady--a dashed handsome girl I believe she is--anyhow her likeness says +so. Next day off to England or America,--the last if I can fix it--and +no more Australia for yours truly. + +'The best of it is, even if I _am_ nabbed, I can easily prove that _I'm +not him_. Then there's the bigamy racket, though I daresay if I let Kate +off, she'd be glad enough to take her own way and clear out. It's a +ticklish business, of course; but I stand to win or lose a heavy stake, +and I'll play it out, by God! I don't see how she can doubt I'm the real +man. I've read his letters and things till I nearly know all the places +and people by heart. I've got the ring and the locket she talks about, +and a lot of family trinkets and nicknacks, and there's no mistake we +_are_ as like--that is, were--as two peas. Why the deuce we should be, +the devil only knows. Well, I'll have another smoke and turn in. There's +a deal to think about to-morrow.' + +Next day being Sunday, which even at the wildest Australian digging +differs somewhat from other days, Mr. Harry Johnson dressed himself more +carefully than usual, and after breakfast went 'down town'--that is, he +proceeded to Barker's store, in order to gather up news generally and +discover whether Miss Chaloner was on the road up, so that he might be +fully prepared for the momentous meeting. + +As it happened, he found out precisely what he wanted. A young fellow +had arrived that morning and had passed a party one stage back on the +road answering to their description. The young man was not a miner, but +a cattle-dealer, making a forced march to Monaro in order to buy store +cattle. The price was rising daily, so he was riding post-haste for fear +of losing the market. He had overtaken the storekeeper's party, in +which were three women--one a fine-looking girl--to this he could +swear--and riding a clever, well-bred hackney: such a horse was never +bought in Melbourne under a hundred pounds. He believed they would be in +Omeo to-morrow evening before sundown, and were going to stay at the +Reefers' Arms. + +On Monday, therefore, Lawrence Trevenna devoted the whole of his +energies to the fullest preparation for the leading part which he had to +play. He neglected no precaution. He made fresh search among the papers +of Lance Trevanion. He read and re-read the letters contained in the +brass-bound portmanteau which had been sent to Omeo by Charles Stirling. +He reckoned up over and over again the various points on which it was +necessary for him to be accurately informed in order to satisfy any +lurking doubt of Miss Chaloner. + +He had noted more than one reference to the chain with a coin attached, +and an almost historical heirloom which he had given her at parting. The +ring which Lance always wore, and which he had taken from the dead man's +finger, was also alluded to. The half threat which Estelle had made to +come to Australia, if Lance did not return, or write, was spoken of. Of +course, as a passenger in the _Red Jacket_, he knew the day on which +that vessel sailed, when she arrived in Melbourne, and those occurrences +of the voyage which Lance had described in his home letters. The doubt +in his mind was naturally whether this high-born damsel would throw +herself into his arms with the unreserve of plighted love, and be ready +to marry and depart with him from Australia at the earliest possible +period; or whether she might have her doubts as to his being the right +man, and so work confusion or even danger. Much was on the cards. All +depended on the deal. But he held a strong hand, he told himself. +Trumps, too, in profusion. And, with the hardihood of a born and +practised gambler, he stood prepared to back his luck to the last. + +The following day passed slowly; but as the evening wore on he lounged +over to the hotel at which the travellers were to arrive, and made it +carelessly but generally known that he expected a young lady who was +coming up with Caldwell and his wife and sister. He was thereupon +congratulated in a jocular manner, when finally, as the early spring day +was fading fast into the short twilight, the tramp of horses' feet was +heard along the well-worn track which came up from the coast town, and +the little cavalcade, composed of two men and three women, halted before +the hotel verandah. + +The inn loungers gathered around the strangers, proffering aid, much +stimulated by the prospect of news. The ladies had been assisted from +their steeds, and the landlord was leading the way to the principal +sitting-room, in which a cheerful fire was blazing, when a tall man came +through the party, and, pausing before the young lady who followed at +the rear of the party, said, in a voice tremulous with emotion, +'Estelle, my darling, we meet at last!' + +The girl gazed earnestly in his face for a moment, his eyes meanwhile +fixed on hers with an intense and even increasingly fervid glance; then, +as he wound his arm around her waist and drew her towards him, she +murmured with undoubting faith--'Lance, ah! my dearest Harry, I hardly +knew you at first. It must be your beard, I think. And how did you +happen to be here to meet me?' she continued, disengaging herself from +his embrace, as a sense of shyness and confusion commenced to assert +itself as she looked around. + +'And why did you not write and tell me you were in Australia before?' he +said, half menacingly; 'it was hardly fair to me, I think.' + +'It is a long story; we shall have plenty of time to talk it over. I did +it for the best, though I daresay you will blame me. But I must go and +rest a little; we are all terribly tired. You will be here this evening, +though I warn you we shall go to bed early.' + +She did not appear at the ordinary evening meal, sending out word that +she was fatigued, and had a quite too overpowering headache. The +storekeeper's wife and daughter were loud in praise of the uncomplaining +manner in which Miss Chaloner had undergone the hardships of the +journey. 'It's not as if she was used to it, poor dear,' said the +matron, 'like me and Bessie here, as has had to rough it all our lives, +pretty near. Yet there she was, taking everything as it come, and never +a growl out of her. My word! she can ride though.' + +'And that horse of hers is a plum,' assented Miss Bessie; 'she looked +after him well, and he's worth it. I'd like to have him, I know, instead +of my old crock. I believe he's thoroughbred, or close up; and if they +ever have races in this beastly hole, he'd win all the money they're +game to put up, hands down.' + +'Nonsense, Bessie,' replied the elder woman; 'how do you know? Your +tongue goes too fast, Miss. Don't you think so, Mr. Johnson? I don't +know what's come to the girls nowadays, they're that forward and think +they know everything. But you're a lucky man, if it's true as you're +engaged to be married to the young lady, as it seems is a fact. There's +very few girls like her in this country or any other, you mark my words, +and I hope you're good enough for her, that I do. I'll just go and see +how she is.' + +The worthy dame, on returning from the bedchamber, brought the +intelligence that Miss Chaloner could not appear again, being prostrated +by a nervous headache, but sent a message to Mr. Johnson that she would +be quite well in the morning, and would be glad to see him after +breakfast. With this ultimatum 'Mr. Johnson' was fain to be outwardly +content, and, though inwardly chafing, betook himself to his hut, there +to spend the night with what 'companions of Sintram' might be available. +He was not, however, wholly dissatisfied with the progress made. +'Anyhow,' he thought, as, after a couple of potent 'nips,' he sat +smoking over his fire, 'the first act's over, and pretty right too. She +believes I'm the man, and though something or other's startled +her,--like a half-broken filly,--she'll come to, after a bit. I must +have a regular good pitch to her to-morrow, and bring out the cove's +rings, and trinkets, and keepsakes, that she knows about. I'll have the +whole thing out with her, and settle about when we're to meet in +Melbourne and get spliced. It's a job that won't stand waiting about. I +must get her away and on the road in a day or two, and pick up the +escort and get down by myself. If I leave with her, that infernal +Kate'll get wind of it and be on our track as sure as a gun. She thinks +I went to Monaro for horses, and won't be back for a month, but she'd +fossich out any woman business if I was the other side of h--l, I do +believe.' + +'I shall be cornered,' he said to himself, pursuing the same train of +thought, 'if she wants to stay here a while and see where I was working, +and all that rot that women are so dashed foolish about. I must lay it +out that I might be taken any day, and the sooner we both get to +Melbourne and off by the first ship--the day after we're married, if +possible--the safer for her dearest Lance--that's me--_me_!'--here the +villain laughed aloud with fiendish enjoyment of the base deceit of +which the unhappy girl was to be the victim. 'If he could only see us! +ha! ha! Once we're married, there's no get over that. Once we're clear +away, hang it, I'd almost like to have him alive again, to enjoy the +sight of his face and see how he took it. His lady-cousin--his wife as +was to be, that wouldn't touch me with a pair of tongs--if she +knew--_if_ she only knew--that it was Larry Trevenna, that used to be a +stable-boy, a farm-lad, a horse-dealer's tout. If mother hadn't died, +things might have been better, and old granddad too. She used to talk as +if there was some mystery. I wonder if there was, and what sort. Anyhow +there will be, and that's enough for the present, if it comes off.' + +Estelle rose early next morning with a view to survey at leisure her +novel surroundings. She had perfectly recovered from the fatigue of the +previous day. The regular exercise of the bush journey had acted +beneficially upon her health and spirits, as indeed such a term of +travel does upon all normally constituted people. The night had been +clear and frosty. As she paced the verandah, which, as in most houses of +the class, absorbed the whole front of the hotel, she was first +surprised, then charmed and excited, by the view of the majestic Alpine +range, the snow-covered peaks of which were glittering in the rays of +the morning sun. + +'How grand! how inconceivably lovely!' said she, half aloud; as +gradually the view opened out, in a sense expanded itself before her +rapturous gaze. 'How little I expected to feast my eyes upon a scene +like this! Poor Lance, poor fellow! how often such a glorious landscape +as this must have comforted him in his loneliness! Perhaps he thought of +me at such times; he could not help it. He used to tease me at Wychwood, +I remember, about what he called my craze for scenery. I must remind him +of it to-day. Yes, to-day; how strangely it sounds! I shall have to make +up my mind----' and here she seemed to fall into a musing mood, while a +sigh from time to time escaped involuntarily. 'Yes,' she thought; 'it +would be hardly advisable to live here after we--after we were married. +Reports would be sure to get abroad, and then, perhaps, if he was +recaptured his punishment would be increased, and that would kill +him--would kill us both indeed. I could never survive it, I feel sure. + +'Then, what would be the safer course to pursue? To go to some seaport, +where they could take ship for Europe or America, as the case might be? +Why should they not take their passage for San Francisco? Once landed +there, who was to know Lance from any other Australian digger, numbers +of whom had been backward and forward since the earliest "rush," in +1849? Melbourne in some respects would be the better port of shipment; +it was nearer, more easily reached, and there was such a mixed multitude +of "pilgrims and strangers," miners, speculators, colonists, Europeans, +and foreigners, that any number of persons "illegally at large" (an +expression she had caught in Melbourne) might pass unnoticed.' + +The clang of the breakfast-bell put an end to her meditation, and +exchanging the keen air of the outer world for a seat near the glowing +fire, high piled with logs, she took the place reserved for her near her +travelling companions of the previous day. The social atmosphere of the +_table d'hote_ was less 'select' than that at 'Growlers',' but the +utmost decorum nevertheless prevailed. Among the strangers to her was a +middle-aged man, whom she heard addressed as Mr. Gray, and more +familiarly as Con. He was a gold-buyer, about to leave for Melbourne on +the following day. + +'How many ounces are you taking down this time, Con?' asked a jocular +miner at the other end of the table 'You'll be waited for some day, if +you don't look out.' + +'Not much this time, old man,' said Gray. 'But you're right; it _is_ a +risky game, and I don't think I'll chance it much longer. Indeed this +may be my last trip.' + +'Right you are,' said the furnisher of the raw material. 'I'm blessed if +I'd travel that road the way you fellows do, and known to have gold on +you, for all the percentage you make out of it. There's too many cross +chaps about, for my fancy and so I tell you.' + +'Well, a man must live, you know, Johnny,' replied the gold-buyer +good-humouredly. 'But I think I'll take your advice and cut the road +after this.' + +When her lover arrived, Estelle, as was natural, bent an earnest gaze +upon his form and features. Neatly but plainly dressed, his stalwart +figure, erect and stately, showed to great advantage among the +carelessly attired loungers who thronged the entrance. His bold regard, +his dark and clustering hair, his regular features, stamped him as a +being of different mould, in her eyes, from the ordinary persons around +them. A thickly growing beard and moustache hid the lower part of his +face, and concealing much of his mouth and chin, somewhat altered +(Estelle thought) the expression of his countenance. It was not wholly +an improvement, though she could understand his reason for adopting the +prevailing Australian fashion. + +He passed carelessly into the parlour, where there were still a few +people gathered around the fireplace. Putting his arm round her waist, +he said jocularly, as he drew her towards him, 'So you have recovered +from your fatigue. After our long separation, it seems awfully hard on +me that we should see so little of each other.' + +The storekeeper's wife smiled, and Miss Bessie giggled, as Estelle, +blushing deeply, withdrew herself from his clasp, saying hurriedly, 'I +don't think there's any necessity for being so affectionate in public. +We have a great deal to talk over and decide to-day.' + +It was a strange feeling that had come over her for the moment. Added to +her natural dislike to such endearments before spectators of the class +then present, a curious indefinable sensation of repulsion took +possession of her temporarily, as strong as it was instinctive. He drew +back, with a half-angry look; then, assuming an air of injured dignity, +said, 'I ought to apologise. I forgot you hadn't been long out from +home. We don't mind these trifles in Omeo. Do we, Mrs. Caldwell?' + +'Not when people's engaged,' said the matron; while Miss Bessie tossed +her head, and said, 'She thought all the gentlemen wanted keeping in +their places; she'd let them know when she'd a young man of her own, +that she would.' + +All this was of course painful to Estelle; but fearing, from his changed +expression, that she had hurt his feelings, she proceeded to make +amends, after the manner of her sex, by hastily proffering concessions. +The sudden thought of his melancholy life, of his wrongs and +misfortunes, almost impelled her to beg his pardon in the humblest +manner for the involuntary slight. Yet the thought _would_ obtrude +itself of how differently Mr. Stirling or Mr. Dalton would have acted +under the same circumstances, and a sigh told how grieved she felt that +any environment, how sad and mournful soever, should have obscured the +refinement so inherent in the blood of Trevanion. + +Prompt to redress the fancied injury, she placed her hand within his +arm, saying, 'I think the best thing we can do is to go for a nice long +walk on this lovely day, and you shall show me a little of the +"field,"--you see I understand diggers now,--and your hut, where you +have been living all this time by yourself, you poor lonely hermit that +you were.' + +"Now that's the way to behave," said Mrs. Caldwell, smiling, with +motherly approval; "I see you'll know all you've got to do after a +while--girls is flighty at first, Mr. Johnson." + +So they walked forth along the principal (and only) street of Omeo, not +wholly without observation from the miscellaneous crowd of miners, +teamsters, wayfarers, tradespeople, bushmen, and others, with which a +mining town where gold is abundant--and such was then the stage at which +Omeo had arrived--is filled up. More than one head was turned from time +to time to gaze with interest and surprise at the distinguished-looking +though plainly dressed girl 'who had come up to Ballarat Harry.' + +'His luck's in, my word,' was the remark of a stalwart miner, who, pick +on shoulder, was following a cart with his mate, conveying their worldly +possessions. 'I wonder if they're going to live in that hut of his on +the ridge. She don't look as if she'd been used to cook in a slab +fireplace, or lift the lid off a camp-oven.' + +'Camp-oven be blowed,' rejoined his mate, who was affectionately +carrying a long-handled shovel, as being too valuable an implement to be +trusted in a vehicle, 'they're a-goin' to Melbourne to be spliced; and +most like he'll settle there and take to gold-buying on a big scale. +He's well in, is Harry, by all accounts.' + +'It beats me what she sees in him, then--a gal like her, as might have +any man in the whole bloomin' colony, in a manner of speaking. Harry was +a jolly, free-handed chap, as you'd see when he first come, but he's got +that surly and short lately as you'd hardly know him as the same man.' + +'Well, I warn't here when he first come, but from the look of him, when +I see him the other day, I shouldn't be surprised if there was something +"cronk" about him, for all his gold-buying.' + +All unheeding of this careless but not inaccurate criticism, the lovers +sauntered on. As they cleared the outskirts of the town, Estelle said, +'Now you must show me your hut. I _must_ see the place where you have +lived your lonely life, poor fellow. How I used to pity you, when I +thought of it.' + +'There it is, on that rise--this track leads up to it. It's such a +miserable hovel, I hardly like you to see it.' + +'Nonsense! you forget I've been to Growlers' and Ballarat, and know all +about diggings. Why, it's the regular thing, like a shooting-box or a +bothy in the Highlands. Everybody does it. Better men than you (I was +going to say) live in huts. Why, this is quite a grand hut! What fine +broad slabs, and a big padlock too. I thought the miners were so +honest?' + +'Sometimes,' he said; 'not always.' + +They walked into Ballarat Harry's hut. Estelle sat herself down on a +three-legged stool by the side of the still smouldering fire, and gazed +into the pile of ashes on the hearth. Here, for so many a lonely +evening, had he sat and smoked and thought--ah! with what bitterness--of +a lost home, a forfeited birthright, of a father's curse, which, +harmless as thistledown at first, had commenced to be so fatally +prophetic. It _was_ hard. Fate had been against him--against them from +the beginning. But she would make up to him--as far as woman's love +might repair the wrongs of destiny and the cruelty of man--for this +dreadful episode of his life. + +'Oh Lance--dear Lance!' she said; 'how you have lived through it all I +can hardly imagine.' + +'If I had not had the thoughts of you to keep me up,' he said, looking +at her with eyes of bold admiration, 'I might have given in. But I kept +always saying to myself, _she_ will reward me, Stella will be mine when +we meet, and all the past will be forgotten--and you _are_ mine,' he +said, as he took her hand in his and made as if to exact the betrothed +lover's accustomed tribute. + +But again a shrinking feeling of denial--for which she could not +account--possessed her whole frame. She drew back shuddering. 'Pray, +don't let us have any nonsense of that kind,' she said; 'there will be +plenty of time by and by. At present, I feel as if I had so much rather +hear all about your trial and the cruel unjust sentence which ruined +you, and of your life in those dreadful hulks; I always wonder how you +managed to escape.' + +For one moment the flash of his eyes in stern displeasure reminded her +vividly of bygone days and their lovers' quarrels at Wychwood. Then he +spoke, in a voice studiously free from irritation-- + +'I got out through the help and managing of Tessie Lawless--a girl that +cared a deal more for me than you do, if that's the way you're going to +treat me. You've forgotten our old Wychwood days, I suppose. Well, as +you'll have to leave to-morrow, or next day at furthest, for Melbourne, +and we go different ways, we mustn't fall out, must we? I can wait. So +we'd better talk over this journey.' + +'Now don't be cross, my dear Lance; you must give me time. Remember, +I've been a lonely and very sad woman for years, and all thoughts of +love and marriage were put out of my head. Do tell me of your escape.' + +'Well, I DID escape,--which is the chief thing that concerns us now,--or +I believe I should have hanged myself, like the fellow that was in my +cell before me--or got shot, like two other men, for trying to clear out +by day. What I suffered, no tongue can tell!'--here he assumed the most +tragic expression possible, and groaned as if at the recollection,--'the +very thoughts of it make my blood boil.' + +'But how did this girl--Tessie Lawless, was that her name?--succeed in +releasing you?' + +'Well, she persuaded a man who, I believe, was pretty sweet after _her_, +to come one dark night with a boat to the stern of the old hulk. She +sent money and bribed my warder, so I was able to get out and drop down +into the boat. After I was free, she sent a man and two horses to where +I could meet them, and I came up here.' + +'What a brave girl! I should like to see and thank her. She must have +been a great friend of yours?' + +'Well, I suppose she thought a good deal of me in her way, poor thing. I +believe she's in Melbourne somewhere, but I've never seen her since.' + +'You don't seem to have been very anxious to thank her for all the +devotion and courage, I must say. It's the way of the world, I suppose, +and Australia is very like other places in essentials, I begin to +suspect. And now, what are our plans to be? It will be a risk for you to +remain here longer, I suppose?' + +'To be sure it will. You can't tell what may happen. Any day I might be +arrested. Our dart--our plan, I mean--is to get to Melbourne as soon as +possible. You can go down with Holmes Dayton and Con Gray. A policeman +goes with them as escort, and, I think, Gray's sister-in-law. You +couldn't have a safer party. I shall go across country towards the +Murray, and travel a way of my own. We can meet in Melbourne at any +place you arrange, and be married at once--that is, the day before the +vessel sails that we take our passage in for San Francisco. Then we're +off as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and no one the wiser! What do you say to +that?' + +'I suppose,' she answered slowly and reflectively, 'that it would be the +best plan.' + +'The best plan!' he repeated, almost angrily, while a sudden flash shone +from his eyes, and a frown of impatience crossed his face, which brought +back old memories with magical suddenness. 'Why, of course it is. There +can't be any other, unless I hang on here till that infernal hound +Dayrell track me down. But you don't seem to be half keen about it. Can +it be'--and here he changed his voice and looked earnestly, almost +pleadingly, into the girl's face--'that you have changed your mind? If +you have, say so. I have lost home and friends--everything--I know. Am I +to lose you too?' + +His eyes rested on the girl with almost magnetic power. Then a blush +came to her cheek, as she replied-- + +'You have my promise, Lance, and the word of a Chaloner is sacred. +Surely you should know that? Of course I will do as you wish. But--and +here she smiled and raised her eyes pleadingly--you must not be hasty, +but bear with me a little. All things are so strange, and the time is +short. After all my looking forward to our meeting, you have taken me a +little by surprise.' + +'Forgive me, my darling,' he said, with well-acted warmth; 'I _was_ +hasty, but you know the Trevanion temper--my pride was touched. And you +will be ready to start to-morrow? That horse of yours (old Vernon, or +whatever his name was, is no bad judge, if he picked him) is as fit for +the road as when he left Melbourne. I suppose he expected to get a +commission out of you?' + +'You must not talk in that way of my good old friend,' she said gravely. +'He was like a father to me; I can't be too grateful to him and his dear +good wife. But I shall be quite ready to start in the morning with the +people you mention. I am so glad there is a girl in the party.' + +As they walked back to the inn, the arrangements for meeting in +Melbourne were discussed in detail and completely sketched out. She was +to go to Mr. Vernon's house, and thence, when apprised of his arrival, +she would meet him at the South Yarra Church, only escorted by her +friends. Mr. Vernon would 'give her away,' and she would ask them to +keep the matter secret. The ceremony would be deferred till the day +before the sailing of their vessel for Honolulu or San Francisco, as +might be decided. Unless Fate intervened with unexampled unkindness, it +seemed as though a burst of sunshine was about to break through the +cloud of misfortune which had so long encircled them. + +'By this time to-morrow evening,' he said, 'you will be on your way to +Melbourne. It's lucky you've had so much practice lately in riding. I +suppose you found it rather awkward at first?' + +'Awkward?' she said, gazing at him with astonishment, 'Why, you surely +must have forgotten that I hunted regularly the season before you left +home.' + +'Oh yes; of course--of course,' he said. 'But I seem to have forgotten +so many things,'--here he assumed an air as of one indistinctly +recalling long-past incidents. 'Then the horses out here are so +different.' + +'I don't think that at all,' she answered; 'I have seen some wonderfully +fine horses here. And I am sure my good old Wanderer, that I rode up, is +as grand a hackney as ever was saddled. You mustn't run down Australian +horses, you know.' + +'Never mind the horses,' he said pettishly; 'I wish _I'd_ never seen +one, out here at any rate; and now let us settle it all, how we're to +meet, and all the rest of it. I'm to send a note to John Vernon and +Company, Flinders Lane,--is that the address?--and you'll be ready at a +day's notice, won't you?' + +'Yes,' she said slowly and half absently; 'I suppose so.' + +'You see it's this way,' he said, coming still nearer to her and looking +into her face as if to read her inmost thoughts. 'I can't afford to hang +about Melbourne. What I've got to do is to find out the first steamer, +take our passages as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, then get the license: there's +a church close by the Vernons, isn't there, where all the swells +go?--Toorak, or some such name. We slip over there before lunch, and +next day we're man and wife and at sea--clear of Australia--free and +safe for ever! What a sell it will be for those bloodhounds of police!' + +As he spoke rapidly, his eyes gleamed with unholy triumph, carefully +schooled as was the general expression of his countenance. In spite of +her deep abiding sympathy for his sorrows, the girl's gentle spirit +recoiled from the savage satisfaction displayed in his closing words. + +'Oh! Lance,' she said, 'do not speak like that. It pains me to hear even +a tone of lightness about our deliverance. If God permits it, we should +be thankful all our lives. But even if there has been pursuit, these men +that you so hate have only been doing what they supposed to be their +duty.' + +'You are an angel,' he said, with an air of deepest conviction and +tenderness, 'too good for me and for every one. For your sake, I suppose +I must forgive these rascally traps, especially if they don't run me +down. And now, as we shan't see each other in the morning, just one kiss +before we part for the last time.' + +But again she drew back; the same indefinable feeling of repulsion arose +in her instinctively, as strong, as inexplicable. 'You have not long to +wait now,' she said softly; 'until then, you must humour all my whims. +You will, Lance, won't you?' + +'I suppose so,' he said half sullenly; 'women are all alike, full of +fancies. But I _did_ think you would remember old days. You used not to +be so stand off and distant.' + +'We were girl and boy then,' she said. 'Everything seems so changed. I +can hardly fancy even now that we are to be married in a fortnight, +though I have come all this way to find you out. Some strange mysterious +feeling stirs within me from time to time. I can hardly explain it. It +is almost like a presentiment of evil.' + +He laughed suddenly, and as suddenly stopped. '_I_ am not changed,' he +said, 'except by what I have gone through'; then he dropped his voice +into a mournful murmur, as he carelessly and apparently by chance +touched the Chaloner ring. 'But if you can't make up your mind; if you +would like to cry off, to leave me to my fate, say so in time. Perhaps +it would be better for you after all.' + +'No, Lance!' she said, and as she spoke she raised her eyes heavenward, +moist with tears of tenderest sympathy, as the thought rushed across her +brain of his lonely and desperate condition, abandoned by _her_ as by +all the world. 'We Chaloners keep faith. I am your plighted bride, and +I am ready to fulfil my vow, my promise to the living and to the dead. +But you must bear with a woman's weakness and consider how little time I +have to prepare. What would they say at Wychwood, I wonder?' + +'We're in Australia, Stella, and not in England--don't forget that,' he +answered, the frown again darkening his countenance. 'I hope we shan't +see the old country for many a day. We must learn to forget old ways and +fashions.' + +'I can never do so, wherever we may wander,' she answered, with quiet +emotion. 'I don't like to hear you speak of it as a thing of course, and +I wish you would call me Estelle, Lance, not Stella. You never used to +do so.' + +'Very well, Estelle,' he said, 'I won't do it again, if it bothers you. +Stella's a common name out here; that's the reason, I suppose. And now, +as we're at the hotel, we'd better say good-bye. I won't come in the +morning. It's no use making people talk; they're ready enough, without +helping them. You and that Miss Graham can get away with old Dayton +to-morrow. It's the way everybody up here travels, and nothing's thought +of it. I'll write the moment I get down. Most likely I'll be in +Melbourne as soon as you.' + +They parted with a simple hand-clasp, she gazing into his face as if to +read the signs of a spirit worn and wearied with the worldly injustice. +His face was calm, and betrayed no emotion other than deep regret at the +departure of a friend. He tried to throw into the parting words the +sentiment which the occasion demanded, but it was patently an effort, +and had not the ring of truth or tenderness. + +'He _is_ changed,' she told herself, as she moved forward across the +verandah of the hotel and sought her bedroom. 'How changed, I could +hardly have imagined. But who would not have been altered by the +frightful experience he has gone through! I must try and make him happy, +as some poor recompense for all his sorrows.' + +Could she have noted the dark and evil expression of her companion's +face, as he lit his pipe and strode savagely along the path to his +solitary hut, heard the foul oaths with which from time to time he +essayed to relieve his feelings, or the vows of vengeance upon her for +her coldness, she would have deemed him changed indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +The morning of their departure rose bright and cloudless. The air was +fresh and bracing, for the hoar-frost lay unthawed for hours on the +wire-grass in the sheltered valleys, adown which the little cavalcade +passed on the Gippsland road. The trooper, a young mounted constable of +the Victorian Police, with the storekeeper, Holmes Dayton, rode in +front. Then came Estelle Chaloner and her travelling companion, Janie +Graham, a young girl born and nurtured in the bush, the niece of the +gold-buyer Constantine Gray. She had been on a visit to Omeo (save the +mark!), and was now returning to her friends. They had not gone far when +Dayton, the storekeeper, turning into a forest track which ran at right +angles to the main road, explained that he had occasion to meet an +acquaintance on business, and would rejoin them at the next +stopping-place. The trooper then fell back to effect companionship with +Gray, while the girls succeeded to the leading position. + +Mounted on the good steed which she had learned to love, Estelle's +spirits rose as she felt his free elastic motion. Rested by his sojourn +in the inn stable, he paced fast and easily along the forest paths. + +Though unable to account for the feeling, Estelle was conscious of a +distinct sensation of relief, almost amounting to exhilaration. She was +quitting Omeo for ever, and she looked forward with pleasurable +anticipation to the few days of wayfaring which the journey to Melbourne +would necessitate. + +'It will be my last week of freedom,' she told herself. 'I shall have to +sell you, though, my poor Wanderer, you dear, good, faithful creature!' +and she patted her horse's arching neck and pushed over a stray lock of +his mane. 'Well, wherever I go, and whenever I see the old land again, I +shall never have a better horse. I have ridden some good ones in the old +country, but I doubt if any one of the lot was as sure-footed, as easy, +as untiring--certainly not on the food and treatment you have had to put +up with. I wish I could take you home. Indeed, if we were going back in +the ordinary fashion, I _would_ take you with me, whatever it cost. It +would be only buying you over again; and good horses are cheaper here, +even at gold prices, than in England. + +'Now let me see,' she continued, in soliloquy, 'we shall be near +Melbourne by the end of this week. Then, for I suppose it would be +dangerous for him to wait, I must huddle up a few dresses and be +married at once. _Married at once!_' Here she sighed; the light died out +of her eyes, and the freshness of the morn seemed to fade out of her +face. How different was it from the meeting in Australia which she had +promised herself in her more sanguine imaginings! Even if he had been +comparatively poor, her fortune would have sufficed for all needs until +he was enabled to claim his paternal heritage. But now, how +immeasurably worse than poverty was his condition!--disgrace, +dishonour,--irrevocable, perhaps inexpiable,--possibly debarring him +from ever claiming his rights! She saw herself after the vow had been +sworn which bound her to a dishonoured man, a passenger in a foreign +vessel, voyaging to a distant land, with perhaps dangers and privations +in store of which she had no previous conception. How strange and unreal +it all seemed! + +But it was too late to despond--to falter. She had promised: she would +perform. Shrinking with maidenly reluctance from the hasty, and in a +measure clandestine, union to which she found herself committed, she +felt compelled to call up all the reserves of resolution, of which she +had so uncommon a portion, before she could still the instinctive +dislike to the next act in the drama of her destiny. + + * * * * * + +As these thoughts--sombre, hopeful, and desponding by turns--passed +through her brain, the bright spring day wore on; the babbling +brooklets, through which their horses plashed ever and anon, ran clear +and sparkling. As Estelle Chaloner mused over her surroundings and gazed +upwards through the tall white-stemmed eucalypts which, rank upon rank, +hemmed in the rugged bridle-track, looked at the trooper, the +gold-buyer, the rustic damsel who was to be by day and night her closely +associated companion, she could hardly realise her own identity. 'How +changed is my _monde_,' she thought, 'in the course of a few short +months--my daily thoughts and feelings, my plans of the present, my +prospects in the future! Am I indeed the same Estelle Chaloner who sat +in the old hall at Wychwood for all the long sad autumn months, who saw +the red leaves fall in those ancient woods, waiting the while for the +last sands of a sick man's life to run out? And now, where am I? and +_what am I_? What I shall be in the future I almost tremble to think.' + +Immersed in reverie, she had trusted the conduct of her horse almost +entirely to his own discretion. A hackney exceptionally good in the slow +paces, as are many Australian horses, the Wanderer had, for his own +pleasure and satisfaction, gone forward at the top of his walking speed, +which was sufficiently fast to keep her companion's horse at a jog-trot. +From time to time, at an earlier stage, the rustic maiden had laughingly +protested; then Wanderer was held back. However, in this particular +instance the failure of consideration was unnoticed, until Estelle was +aroused by a cry from her companion, so loud and vehement in tone that +she knew at once that no ordinary occurrence had called it forth. + +Reining up sharply, she turned in her saddle to behold a sight which +blanched her cheek and well-nigh froze the life-blood in her veins. + +From out the tangled forest growth, emerging from behind a gigantic +eucalypt, two men, masked and armed, had stepped into the roadway, +abreast of the gold-buyer and the trooper. A third man, half hidden by +the bushes, levelled his fire-arm a few paces in the rear. Both girls +sat horror-stricken on their horses as the trooper's carbine and the +fire-arms of the robbers appeared to make simultaneous reports. The +gold-buyer fell heavily from his horse in the road; the trooper +staggered and swayed in the saddle, dropping his reins, but recovered +himself, though evidently hard hit and unable to control his horse. The +wounded man rose to his knees, but at that moment one of the masked +strangers rushed over and struck him over the head. Estelle's eyes +darkened, and she felt as if all sensation was leaving her; but, +recovering herself, she shook her reins, and the free horse dashed down +the slope leading to the creek of which they had been told, with the +speed of a racer, accompanied by her terror-stricken companion, whose +hackney followed suit with the instinct of his kind. + +The creek was crossed almost immediately. Mile after mile fled away like +a dream before either of the girls thought of drawing rein. At length, +at the foot of a steep and rocky range, the horses commenced to slacken +speed. + +'My God!' said the girl, 'did you see that? They have murdered my poor +uncle! Whatever shall we do? Do you think they will come after us? Is +there any house that we can go to along this horrid road? I know we +shall both be killed and planted so as never to be heard of again.' + +'Let us think over our best course,' said Estelle, aroused to the +necessity of self-possession in the hour of need, and in the presence of +a weaker nature. 'I remember this range. Five miles on the other side is +an inn, near a water-race. If we can get there we are safe; there seemed +to be a good many people about when we passed up. But I hear horses +galloping after us. Good heavens!' + +They stopped, and, listening, could plainly hear the sound of more than +one horse coming fast along the rocky road behind them. + +'We must turn into the wood,' said Estelle; 'fortunately it is thick +enough to hide us until we see who are following up.' + +They rode some distance into the forest, the low-growing pendent shrubs +of which, the product of a damp climate and constant rainfall, were +sufficiently dense to shield them from observation. + +Nearer and nearer came the hoof-beats. The girls gazed anxiously through +the close foliage. Then a chestnut horse came round a corner of the +range, upon which sat a man whose arms were apparently helpless. + +'Great Heaven!' said Estelle, 'it is Beresford the police trooper. He +has been wounded in the arms. See! he cannot hold the reins, poor +fellow!' + +'That's his chestnut horse,' said the rural young lady excitedly; 'I'd +know his blaze and white stockings a mile off. But what's follerin' him +up? I'm blessed if it ain't poor old Uncle Con's horse, and he's got his +pack all right and reg'lar too. Those chaps is gone cronk and done their +villainy for nothing. I'm dashed if I ever see the like!' + +'We had better catch them up,' said Estelle; 'the Lawyers Rest is hardly +five miles distant. We might help that poor Beresford.' + +Suddenly relieved from the deadly fear of the close presence of the +wretches whose deed of blood they had witnessed, the girls put their +horses to full speed and overtook one fugitive before he reached the +hill-top. Bending down from her saddle, the Australian maid caught the +pack-horse's bridle, bursting into tears and loud lamentation as she +recognised her dead kinsman's effects attached to different sections of +the pack-saddle. + +'Poor old Uncle Con,' she said, 'there's his mackintosh, his water-bag, +his billy-can--all the old traps I know so well. Many a time I've joked +him about them--so particular to have everything handy for camping, he +was. He won't camp no more, poor old man! He said it would be his last +trip, and so it was. I wonder if I shall live to see those villains +hanged? That old wretch Coke's in it for one, I'll swear.' + +Scarcely had they ridden another mile when they overtook the police +trooper. Partly disabled and in pain, and guiding his horse with +difficulty, the deathlike pallor of his face told of weakness from loss +of blood; yet he braced himself gallantly for the work that lay before +him. + +'Let me hold your rein,' said Estelle, as she rode up to his horse's +shoulder; 'are your arms badly hurt?' + +'Riddled through and through,' said the young fellow, groaning. 'The +brute must have loaded with slugs; my wrists feel the worst, and there's +a hole in my shoulder as well. I may get some one to ride back with me +from the inn. I can't leave poor Con dead on the road.' + +The sight of the unpretentious slab edifice with a bark verandah which +was dignified with the title of Lawyers' Rest was more grateful to +Estelle's strained vision than would have been the most palatial hotel +in Europe, for around it stood a dozen men, while several horses, 'hung +up' to the palings of the little garden, testified to an unusual +gathering. The trooper's dull eye brightened at the sight, and he looked +as if the spirit within him had power to overcome the weakness of the +flesh. They rode up to the door, a strange cortege, in the eyes of the +miners and squatters there assembled--a woman leading a horse, upon +which swayed and bent forward a wounded man, while a girl followed with +a pack-horse heavily laden and mud-splashed to the eyes. + +As they reined up amid the excited crowd, the trooper lay forward in a +deathlike swoon, and was only saved from falling by the strong arms +which lifted him from the saddle and bore him tenderly to a couch. + +In broken and disjointed sentences Estelle described the deed of blood, +while the gold-buyer's niece inveighed wildly against the murderers of +her uncle. He was a well-known man, and a corresponding degree of +indignation was aroused, while all necessary steps were taken for the +relief of the fugitives. + +The gold was removed, and, after being weighed in the presence of +witnesses, deposited with the landlord, as also the other effects of the +deceased. Wanderer and his comrades were stabled, a comfortable room +prepared by the landlord's wife for the girls, while a dozen well-armed +men were ready to start for the scene of murder within ten minutes of +their arrival. With them rode Trooper Beresford, recovered from his +faint. Revived with eau-de-vie de Cognac, he insisted on accompanying +them. + +But this was a bootless errand. Beresford pointed out where the men +first appeared from behind the buttress of the forest giant. The tracks +were as a printed page to the experienced dwellers in the waste who +stood beside him. But the gold-buyer lay dead in the centre of the road. +From a gunshot wound the blood had welled forth into a pool, while his +skull had been cleft with more than one stroke of an axe. + +'We'd better take him back to the shanty with us, boys,' said one of the +older men, by common consent elected to act as leader. 'You young chaps +as has got sharp eyes hunt about, and don't leave so much as a button +behind if you come across one, next or anigh him. It's no use follerin' +the tracks for more than a bit, just to see which way they've headed. +Beresford here ain't fit, and if they're the men we suspect, one of +'em's near Mount Gibbo by this, and the rest many a mile off some other +way.' + +So the dead man was placed on a horse, and the party wended their way +sadly back to the little hostelry with their silent blood-stained +companion. + +On the morrow, at a formal meeting, it was decided that a strong body of +volunteers, with a black tracker, should follow up the trail of the +murderers. A reward sufficiently large to tempt an accomplice was +offered for information leading to a conviction, an old comrade of the +dead man subscribing more than half the amount. A messenger had been +despatched to the nearest police station, and the Coroner shortly +arrived to hold an inquest upon the body. + +This melancholy business having been completed, and a verdict of 'wilful +murder by persons unknown' having been brought in, Estelle felt +sufficiently recovered to recommence her journey. Now that she had +experienced one of the dread realities of goldfields life, much of her +former confidence had departed. She felt an overwhelming impatience to +regain the security of civilisation, and cheerfully accepted the offer +of the escort of the Coroner, who was also a police magistrate. He +accompanied her as far as the next township on the way to Melbourne. +There were also a couple of police troopers _en route_ for the barracks +at Jolimont, so that nothing better could be wished. At the township +they fell in with a squatter and his daughter bound for Melbourne, with +whom they joined forces till Toorak once more rose to view and the +winding Yarra Yarra. And now this strange and terrible occurrence had +passed like the horror of a dream, and Estelle Chaloner was again in +Melbourne, safe under the sheltering wing of Mrs. Vernon. Awakening on +the first morning in that well-ordered home, she felt as if evil-hap or +danger could never menace her more. Shaken in nerve and outworn by the +journey, words could faintly express the need she felt for rest. Yet a +shuddering dread possessed her lest she might be destined for +experiences not less terrifying and lawless in her future. + +But no season of repose was as yet for her. She must risk whatever +further trials fate had in store. Her word was given; the plighted vow +must be kept. The life, the very soul of him to whom she was pledged to +entrust all that womanhood holds most sacred, trembled in the balance. +Was she, from girlish timidity, from mere nervous shrinking and feminine +reluctance, to which she could not give a name, to draw back meanly from +mere personal considerations? What were her wrongs and probable +privations to _his_? The die was cast. + +Early in the following week the half-expected, half-dreaded fateful +letter arrived. 'He had taken _their_ passage,'--'_our passage_,' she +repeated to herself--'in the _John T. Whitman_ for Callao, in the name +of Mr. and Mrs. H. Johnson. He had arranged for the marriage at the +little church at South Yarra, on the morning of the day the vessel was +to sail. She would sail on that afternoon, and no humbug about it; he +had seen the first mate and made things right with him, so his +information was good. Nothing remained, then, but for his heart's +darling Estelle to hold herself in readiness to be at St. Mark's at the +hour appointed, and all would yet be well. What he had suffered since +they parted, no tongue could tell!... She might imagine his feelings +when he became aware of the diabolical crime that had been committed. He +was half-way to Melbourne when he heard of it. No doubt justice would +overtake the guilty parties. '_She_ had escaped--that was everything. +Poor Con Gray was right when he said it should be his _last trip_.' + +And so the day was at hand--close, inevitable! This was on Tuesday. +Saturday was the day fixed for the sailing of the _John T. Whitman_--for +the joining of two hearts, two bodies, two souls--irrevocably, +eternally--in this world and the world to come. For how can the human +mind realise the essential dissociation during the probation of this +earthly life, or even amid the spiritualised conditions of another +existence, of those _once_ made one flesh--wedded, and welded together +under the sanction of the most tremendous of human sacraments? + +Like most prospective occurrences seen dimly and afar, Estelle Chaloner +had not closely analysed her feelings when the day of doom should +arrive. Now, she experienced a kind of minute analysis of her +sensations, distinctly painful in its intensity. She read and re-read +Lance's letter, and, among other things, marked with surprise an +occasional lapse in grammar, or the use of a small letter when a capital +was imperative. Even the handwriting, though more like Lance's letters +from school than his latter-day epistles, seemed cramped and laboured. +'Poor fellow, poor fellow!' she said softly to herself, 'I suppose he +hasn't written much lately. Australia is a bad country for +correspondence, and yet----' here she smiled and blushed slightly as she +recalled the pile of home letters she had watched Mr. Stirling despatch +one Sunday morning, and her playful reference to his dutiful habits. +'People differ in Australia, I suppose,' she continued, 'as in all other +places. What ignorant folly it is to think otherwise!' and again she +sighed--sighed deeply; then rose from her seat half impatiently. 'It is +my fate,' she said; 'man or woman, who can escape their destiny?' + +Of course, all Melbourne rang with the account of the Omeo Tragedy, as +it was called. Every provincial paper, from one end of Australia to the +other, had its moral deduction, its elaborate amplification. Murders and +robberies were unhappily far from infrequent in those early days of the +Gold Revolution--that social, political, and pecuniary upheaval which +overturned so many preconceived opinions, and changed the destinies of +states no less than individuals. + +But for this special crime the horror was universal, the clamour for +vengeance upon the villains who had done to death a worthy and +inoffensive citizen was exceptionally loud and persistent. A friend of +the murdered man offered three hundred pounds for information leading to +conviction; the Government as much more. It was confidently hoped that +such 'honour among thieves' as existed would disintegrate before so +powerful a solvent. + +Meanwhile Estelle found herself, to her surprise and slight annoyance, +placed involuntarily in the position of a heroine. Her portrait was in +the illustrated papers; not, however, limned from any miniature, but hit +off from a thumb-nail sketch made by an ingenious but deeply respectful +young gentleman connected with the press, during the passage of a brief +interview. It had leaked out in some way, probably through her +travelling companion, that Estelle was about to be married to a man +connected with mining pursuits (so he was described) at Omeo. This fact +was dwelt upon and emphasised as adding to the natural interest felt in +the case. This version of the affair was more than distasteful to her; +as, apart from her natural disinclination to be described and commented +upon from every conceivable point of view, she dreaded lest the +additional publicity forced upon her private affairs might prove fatal +to + +Lance's freedom. + +The bridal preparations, however, went on. Mrs. Vernon, having once +expressed her sincere regret at the sacrifice, so complete and uncalled +for, which Estelle was about to make, and having withstood, not wholly +unmoved, the indignant remonstrance of the high-souled maiden, remained +acquiescent under protest. Their vessel, an American clipper, was +visited; the cabin allotted to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson criticised, but +finally furnished and fitted up with many a cunning device for staving +off the ills of a life on the ocean wave or lightening the _ennui_ of a +'home on the rolling deep.' + +Finally, the very day fixed for the ceremony _did_ arrive. Estelle +appeared at breakfast pale but determined, and about eleven o'clock Mr. +Vernon returned from Melbourne in a cab, prepared for paternal +functions. Then this abnormally small South Yarra wedding-party drove +down the Toorak Road, and, not far from the entrance of Caroline Street +thereunto, alighted before the small but ornate church of St. Mark's. + +'By the bye, Estelle,' said Mr. Vernon suddenly (he had long since +arrived at the semi-paternal stage, which included the use of her +Christian name), 'I met an old friend of yours in Melbourne, just down +from the diggings.' + +'An old friend?' she replied smilingly. + +'Well, one of your oldest in this country, excepting ourselves. Guess +who it was.' + +'I am sure I cannot tell,' she said, 'unless it be John Polwarth. I +shall always think of him as a real friend.' + +'Not very far off. Was there no one else at Growlers'? Think again.' + +'Mr. Stirling or Mr. Hastings then--good and true friends both. Which of +them can it be?' + +'Well, it was Charlie Stirling. His father was an old friend of mine, +and a better fellow than Charlie doesn't live.' + +'How strange! how wonderful!' said Estelle, almost musingly. 'To think +that he should be down here before Lance goes away. Do you think he will +come to see--to see--the ceremony?' And here a blush faintly overspread +her countenance. + +'He wasn't sure. Just off the coach, and covered with mud, but would +rush off to his hotel and do his best. Then he told me a piece of news +about himself.' + +'What was that?' + +'Why, he had got a year's leave of absence, and as he had made a lucky +hit in the Coming Event,--a claim that's nearly as good as Number Six, +he says,--he's going to treat himself to a run home.' + +'Going to England! Mr. Stirling going home! You don't say so? Who would +have thought it?' + +'Well, he is just the man to appreciate it thoroughly. It will improve +him, as it does every Australian with the requisite amount of brains. +Though I really don't see how Charlie Stirling _could_ be much +improved--except by a good wife,' he added thoughtfully. + +'I am sure I hope he will find one,' Estelle replied; 'no one is more +worthy of that or any other happiness. I wonder if he will come, and +whether he will think Lance much altered?' + +Mr. Vernon made no reply to this latter remark. Indeed he was strongly +inclined to say, 'Confound Lance!'--or even to use a stronger +expression. But he consoled himself with the conviction that it was +impossible to advise women for their good--even the best of them. And +thus reflecting he preceded the little party into the church. + +They had purposely delayed so as to be as near the appointed +hour--half-past eleven o'clock--as possible; and the half-hour chimes +from the churches in the city were rhythmically audible as they entered +and took their places. The gray-haired clergyman--a tall, venerable +personage--advanced from the vestry and stood as expectant of the +entrance of the bridegroom. As a side door opened, that personage +entered from the right side of the chancel. + +Mrs. Vernon gazed at the newcomer with unaffected interest. In certain +respects he was a man whom no girl would have been ashamed to +acknowledge--tall, erect, stalwart, his dark crisp hair and beard +trimmed according to the prevailing fashion. He looked around with a +quick and searching glance which apparently took in every individual in +the church. Then he fixed his eyes steadily upon the group in the midst +of which Estelle stood, and advanced towards his bride. He smiled as +Estelle murmured his name, and hastily shook hands with Mr. and Mrs. +Vernon, who seemed hardly prepared for the salutation. + +There was nothing particular to find fault with in his morning suit, yet +somehow Estelle could have wished one or two details altered. + +The bride looked more than once towards the rear of the church, as if +expectant. But the inexorable minutes fled, and walking forward, at a +sign from the clergyman, she knelt before the communion rails. One gleam +of triumph, which, had she caught, would have strangely disturbed her +thoughts, flashed from her companion's eyes. He knelt beside her, and +the time-honoured service commenced. + +Every precaution had been taken to secure secrecy in the matter of the +ceremony. When the little party walked unobtrusively in and the service +began, there appeared to be no spectators but those already known and +invited. In some mysterious way, however, the news spread. A wedding is +rarely, if ever, conducted without a few attendants not included in the +original programme. Some few strangers appeared as the clergyman +commenced to read the opening sentences. They were not, however, such as +to attract attention. But just as the clergyman reached the words, 'Wilt +thou take this woman to be thy wedded wife?' two men entered at one of +the side doors and looked searchingly at the bridal pair. One of them +gave vent to a sudden ejaculation, while the other, a tall man in police +uniform, drenched and travel-stained, walked rapidly up to the altar. To +the dismay of the congregation, he placed his hand on the bridegroom's +shoulder. Not less menacing and abrupt were his words than this unusual +act, of such unnatural seeming in a sacred edifice-- + +'Lawrence Trevenna, you are my prisoner. I charge you with the murder of +a man known as Ballarat Harry, otherwise Lance Trevanion. Put up your +hands,'--here the speaker's tones became harsh and resonant,--'or +by ----! I'll shoot you where you stand.' + +At the first touch of the stranger's hand, the bridegroom started as if +to resist his captors, for by this time Charles Stirling stood by +Dayrell's side. For one moment he raised his hand as if to strike his +antagonist, but as he faced the pistol level with his brow, and marked +the Sergeant's steady eye and grim, set countenance, his courage +appeared to waver, then to fail utterly. He mutely acquiesced while the +manacles were slipped over his unresisting hands. At this moment +Estelle, who had been gazing at this strange and sudden apparition with +wide eyes of wonder and alarm, uttered one piercing, heartrending shriek +and fell senseless into the arms of Mrs. Vernon. + +Then Mr. Vernon, hitherto silent in wonder, as were the other witnesses +of the scene, moved as if to address the intruder. It was not necessary +to make verbal interrogation; for, advancing a few steps and bowing to +the company, he thus addressed them-- + +'My excuse to you, reverend sir, and these ladies and gentlemen, must be +the extremely urgent nature of my errand. My name is Francis Dayrell, a +sergeant in the police force of Victoria, at present quartered at +Bairnsdale. I have ridden night and day to effect this arrest, and must +ask permission to congratulate the lady's friends upon her escape from a +fate too terrible to think of. This scoundrel, who has so successfully +personated his victim, the late Launcelot Trevanion, is the husband of +one Catharine Lawless, through whose information his villainy has been +frustrated. Mr. Stirling (here he motioned to that gentleman, who +advanced to where the spectators stood amazed and awe-stricken) is in +possession of the facts. I leave him to make fuller explanation.' Here +Sergeant Dayrell bowed again, not without a certain ease which spoke of +different experiences, and removed his prisoner. + + * * * * * + +It has been remarked that those clever people who dedicate themselves to +a criminal career are prone to small oversights and inadvertent acts +which often lead to their detection when success seems assured. Were it +not so, such are the qualities of coolness and energy displayed by the +'irregulars' of society, that its virtuous members would have but little +chance of survival in _la lutte pour la vie_. After the event every one +is wise; surprised, too, that the criminal should not have perceived to +what his heedlessness plainly led. The evil-doer himself is even +genuinely astonished when, in his interval of enforced leisure, he gains +the opportunity of reviewing his 'plan of campaign.' He perhaps owns to +the gaol chaplain that he has been 'most imprudent.' But generally he is +more concerned to establish a theory of unadulterated bad luck, and to +lay the blame upon every one but himself. + +Such misadventure occurred to Mr. Lawrence Trevenna--not less cautious +than daring, as he had previously proved himself to be. He left home +with surly abruptness, telling his ill-used wife that he was going to +Monaro and might be a month or more away. She was not to expect him till +she saw him, and so on. A large draft of horses to take delivery of, +etc. + +To these considerate explanations the woman made answer that he need not +trouble himself to hurry back on her account--indeed, if he never came +back she would be all the better pleased. He might spare himself the +trouble of telling more lies than usual, as whatever he did say about +his business would make her believe something different. + +'It would serve you right, you jade, if I never did come back,' he +ground out between his teeth, mingling the words with a savage oath. 'I +may take you at your word yet.' + +'Do so,' she replied, 'and I'll go down on my knees and thank God for +it. As He is my judge, if it wasn't for the child, you'd never have seen +me here a day after you struck me first. Don't think I've left off +cursing the day I ever set eyes on you--coward and thief--and worse that +you are!' + +He looked at her for one moment as she spoke, his eyes so full of +murderous rage that a bystander would have thought to see him strike her +to the earth. But putting strong constraint on himself, as, with a more +than malevolent smile, he bade her go back to the hut and mind her +baby,--'you're my wife now--for better, for worse, you know,' he +sneered. 'Stay at home and mind the house while your husband's away.' + +The last part of this admonition was lost upon the person to whom it was +addressed, as with one fierce glance, expressive of the last extremity +of hatred and contempt, the woman passed into the hut and slammed the +heavy door, while her lord and master, whistling carelessly, pressed his +horse's side and moved rapidly away. + +In apparent pursuance of his proposed plan, Trevenna rode for a dozen +miles down the Monaro road, then, wheeling suddenly to the eastward, +struck across the bush until he picked up the track which led to Mount +Gibbo. There he met by appointment Mr. Caleb Coke, and was thus enabled +to arrange certain illegal enterprises upon which they had resolved to +embark. + +For the first few days after his departure Kate felt little else but an +all-pervading sense of relief, almost amounting to absolute pleasure. +Lonely and depressing as was her isolated life, miles away from any +neighbour; left for weeks at a time without a soul to speak to,--as she +would have expressed it,--she still had her homely and simple +avocations, amid which, like many a similarly situated bush matron, she +found sufficient daily occupation. + +She had her baby boy,--a fine sturdy year-old fellow,--her poultry, +milch cows, and small patch of garden, to all of which she addressed +herself in turn. By degrees a softened expression came over her face. +The hard lines died out for a little space. It may have been that she +even repented of the bitter words and angry mood which had of late +become habitual with her. And when in the sunset-time she caught her +roan mare and rode around the paddock for the cows, carrying the +laughing baby boy before her on the saddle, there was a wondrous +transformation of the sullen-browed shrew of the morning. + +The days passed on. The weather changed. The fresh, bright, cloudless +days of the early Austral summer commenced to follow each other in +unbroken peaceful beauty. The proud heart of the desolate woman was +insensibly touched by the softening influences of the Great Mother. +'Bird and bee and blossom taught her'--a lesson of self-reproach and +faintly shadowed amendment. + +'Perhaps if I took him more easy like, he'd be a better man. Suppose +he'd married Tessie, I wonder if he would have been different. She was +always that quiet and patient with us all. She could get round Ned and +bring him straight when no one else could. Anyhow I might have a try.' + +Revolving good resolutions, Kate Trevenna, who, with all her faults, was +energetic and most capable in household work, as are most of the +bush-bred Australian girls of her class, set to work with a will and +made her dwelling and everything within fifty feet of it as neat as a +new pin. The forenoon having passed quickly in this occupation, she sat +down to her mid-day meal,--a cup of tea, a slice of cold corned beef, +with home-baked bread and butter of her own making,--when a traveller +rode up. Him she knew well as a stock-rider on one of the far-out +stations in the Monaro district. + +'Come in and have a cup of tea, Billy. Let your horse go for a bit,' was +the invitation by custom of the country. 'You've come a good way, by the +look of him. I'm all alone, you see; Larry's gone a journey.' + +'I know that, Mrs. Trevenna,' said the young fellow, taking off his +saddle and putting a pair of hobbles on his horse before he permitted +him his liberty; 'I've just come from Omeo.' + +'Omeo? that's not where he went. He's nigh Monaro by this time, and +going farther still.' + +'Well, he was in Omeo last Monday,' said the stock-rider, 'or some one +dashed like him. They talked as if it was Ballarat Harry. I don't know +him, but anyhow Larry's bay horse Bredbo was there, for I seen _him_ +right enough. I couldn't be mistook about _that_. He was foaled near our +old place.' + +'Trevenna at Omeo! Then he never went to Monaro at all!' cried the +woman, with such a look, partly of surprise and partly of wild reproach, +in her eyes that the young man recoiled for an instant. Something was +wrong, he saw with instinctive quickness. He made a futile effort to +undo the domestic damage he felt he had brought to pass. + +'Perhaps he changed his mind,' he suggested doubtfully. 'He's such a rum +cove, is Larry. No one knows when he's comin' or goin' half the time.' + +'I expect not,' answered the woman gloomily, as if talking to herself. +'Now look here, Billy Dykes,' she said suddenly, walking up to the man +and looking into his face as if her flashing eyes could see his inmost +thought, 'you and I knowed each other this years; you tell me all you +heard about Larry, and keep nothing back, as you're a man.' + +The young fellow seemed for the moment to have fallen completely under +the spell of this fierce woman, whose burning eyes and passionate speech +were for the moment suggestive of a disordered brain. He stared at her +for a moment, and then replied-- + +'There ain't a lot to tell, Mrs. Trevenna; but I expect you have a right +to hear it. He's no man to leave you like this, and there's more than me +thinks it. He's gone to Melbourne, that's what's up. Barker, the +storekeeper, told me.' + +'Any one gone with him?' + +'No; not as I heard on.' + +'You're keeping something back, Billy Dykes. Don't try and humbug me, or +I'll----In God's name, tell me everything. Was there a woman in it?' + +'Well, she didn't go with him, they said, but, in a manner of speaking, +it was all the same. He followed her, and a regular tip-top young lady, +by all accounts.' + +'Did you hear her name?' + +'Miss Chalmers, or Challner; something like that. Not long from +England.' + +'_That English girl!_ the _cousin_, of course,' she murmured, in a +strange, low-toned, hesitating voice. 'So she's come out after all. +You're mistook, Billy, old man; it was Lance Trevanion they seen--Mr. +Trevanion, I mean--an Englishman, and very like Larry. They came out in +the same ship. He was to marry this young lady, his cousin. And I know +_he_ was at Omeo.' + +'That makes it all right then. You've no call to fret, Mrs. Trevenna, +and I'm dashed glad of it. Only what was old Bredbo doing there? _I saw +him_, and couldn't be mistook. No fear. I know every hair in his tail.' + +'It _is_ queer,' said the woman, whose countenance had cleared +wondrously, 'but, law, she may have got away from him on the road and +turned up at Omeo. Anyhow, I'll ride over and have a look. You eat your +dinner now, while I go down the paddock and catch my little mare.' + +The bushman addressed himself to the cold beef and damper with a sigh of +relief as he watched his hostess pick up a bridle and walk rapidly +across the horse-paddock. + +'She's a hot 'un, by the Lord Harry,' he said to himself, as he filled a +pannikin of tea from the camp-kettle near the fire. 'I wouldn't be in +Larry's shoes for a trifle if he's working on the cross with her. It's +a bloomin' mixed-up fakement, anyhow. I heard as Ballarat Harry at Omeo +was that like him you couldn't scarce tell 'em apart. And of course it +must be him as went down with the girl. But how does Bredbo come to be +there? and old Caleb Coke handy too--like an eagle-hawk shepherding a +dead lamb. It looks "cronk" somehow.' + +He had finished a satisfying meal, providing against future +contingencies after the fashion of Captain Dugald Dalgetty (formerly of +Marischal College), of happy memory, when his hostess rode up, sitting +lightly yet erect on her barebacked steed, with an instinctive poise, as +in the side-saddle of the period, such as only the practice of a +lifetime could impart. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + + +Accustomed from earliest years to hasty departures, the nomadic +Australian housewife was not long in making her simple preparation for a +hundred mile journey. + +The roan mare was carefully saddled and tied up to a tree. A leather +valise was strapped on. Finally the child, dressed for the road, was +brought out and placed upon the side-saddle, where with inbred sagacity +he sat steadily and looked around with a pleased expression. Then Kate +Trevenna, leading the mare to a log, lifted the child, mounted without +assistance, and gathered up the loose bridle-rein. + +'We're going different ways, Billy,' she said to her visitor. 'You're +bound for Monaro, and I'm going to be in Omeo to-morrow, if Wallaroo +here stands up. I'll stop with Mrs. Rooney to-night at the Running +Creek, and leave the boy there till I come back. She's awfully fond of +children, and will do for him if it's a month. I'm going to find out the +rights of this business before I come back. I don't know what to think +of it, and so I tell you. If Larry's left me, it's the worst day's work +he ever did in his life. I've got a horrid thought in my head. I can't +hardly bear to think of it. If it hadn't been for you seeing old Bredbo +there I'd have known it was Trevanion. I seen him nigh hand there one +day last month. But _only one of 'em_ at Omeo, and him off to Melbourne +after that girl! There's something that wants taking out of winding. God +send it ain't as black as I fear it is. Well, so 'long.' + +Thus they parted. The bushman filled his pipe mechanically while she was +talking, and rode meditatively adown the well-worn track which ran +towards the east; while the woman, giving her bridle-rein an impatient +shake, started off at a fast amble, which her spirited hackney seemed +only awaiting the signal to change into a stretching canter. She held +her boy upon her knee, resting and partly supported against her right +arm. Like bush children generally, he had a natural love for all sorts +and conditions of horse-flesh, and as his baby fingers closed upon the +rein, he seemed contented, even exhilarated by the motion, crowing and +laughing with infantine delight. As for his mother, she appeared to take +little heed of his childish ways, gazing straight before her with a +far-off look in her eyes and an occasional shudder, as some darker +imagining crossed her brooding brain. Occasionally she varied the fast +amble at which her mare slipped along the forest track by a smart canter +not far removed from a hand-gallop, but which, thanks to the easy +gliding stride of the gallant little animal which carried her, did not +render her living burden one whit less safe or easy to carry. + +The sun was low when she sighted the paddock fence of the humble +homestead where she proposed to pass the night. + +The fence ran across a broad green flat or meadow, which had gradually +widened from the upper portion of the gurgling mountain stream which +traversed it. There were no gates. They were of infrequent occurrence in +those days. But the slip-rails--three in number, and fairly +substantial--showed where means of ingress had been provided. + +Scarce half a mile from the primitive entrance, which necessitated her +dismounting, was the hut, or homestead cottage, standing upon a sort of +forest cape high above the rippling creek. + +As she rode up to the door of the unpretending building, walled with +slabs and roofed with bark, Kate gave a sigh of relief and stopped her +horse. No one appeared for a minute or two. Then she raised her voice, +in the high-pitched Australian call--originally borrowed from the +blacks, but since heard (unless modern novelists lie) in the streets of +London--ay, even in the 'Eternal City' itself. + +Before she had finished the second call, a young woman came running out +from some building at the rear, and with many exclamations made haste to +welcome her. + +'The saints presarve us, and sure 'tis Mrs. Trevenna and her darlin' boy +wid ye. 'Tis yourself is the moral of a good neighbor to be coming over +to see me. And yees will stay the night--the Lord be good to us. It's no +time to be travelling after dark. We'll have to take the saddle off +ourselves. Sure we haven't half a man about the place, or as much as a +dog. It's himself is away, and thim all afther him.' + +'I'm come to stay the night,' Kate made answer, 'and I want to leave my +boy with you for a day or two while I go to Omeo on business. Now you +have the whole story, Mrs. Rooney. How does that suit you?' + +''Tis what I do be praying for,' replied the handsome young Irishwoman, +who lifted down the child without more ado and fondled him effusively. +'Here's my beauty-boy; sure I'll look after him as if he was a young +governor waiting to grow up. It's the darlin' of the world he is; the +finest boy betwane here and Monaro. Come in and tell us your news, +alanna. And the saints be good to us, whatever are ye doing wid the +horse. Are yez going to hobble him, and the paddock the best grass +between here and Gipp Land?' + +'I don't doubt that, Mrs. Rooney, but I must be off while the stars are +in the sky, and so I must make sure of Wallaroo. She can spell +afterwards, but she must travel to-morrow, if she never does again. I'll +tell you all about it as soon as I've put Harry to bed.' + +'Come in; arrah, don't be standing talkin' there; come in, for the sake +of all the blessed saints. And you looking pale and tired like! Wait +till I get you a cup of hot tay.' + +'All right, Mrs. Rooney; I'll be glad to have one. I feel thirsty +enough, though the evening's chilly. But while the kettle's boiling, +I'll take the mare down to the creek for a drink, and then she won't be +rambling about half the night looking for water. I want to be able to +lay my hand on her at daylight, or before. There's a long day before us +to-morrow, and perhaps Omeo won't be the end of it.' + +'Saints above!' exclaimed Mrs. Rooney, who, an emigrant not long out +from the Green Isle, and newly married to an 'Irish native,' was filled +with daily wonder at the manners and customs of the bush,--'sure and ye +does be taking terrible rides in Australia. And do ye be telling me +ye'll be at Omeo by this time to-morrow? But hurry now, and I'll have a +cup of tay and an egg and a buttered scone ready for ye whin ye come +back.' + +The saddle had been taken off and placed on a wooden stool in the +verandah. Kate led her palfrey down to the clear, fast-flowing streamlet +and watched her drink her fill. She then plucked a few handfuls of the +strong tussac grass which lined the little flat and rubbed dry the marks +on back and girth. This, with a slight general application of the +improvised currycomb, completed in her eyes all necessary grooming. +Slowly, and with eyes on the ground, she retraced her steps, coming +close up to the house before she unloosed the throat-strap of the +bridle. + +'Have you got a bell, Mrs. Rooney?' she said. 'I shall know where to +look for her if it's dark.' + +'To think of your wanting that now! 'Tis clivir of ye, so it is. Sure +Mick left one here before he went away. Here it is now, and a good +strong strap.' + +The bell was fastened round the docile animal's neck, and then only was +she suffered to depart, short-hobbled and quietly munching the tall +gray-green grass, and looking as if no thought of wandering could ever +enter her head. None the less was it probable, as her mistress well +knew, that if slip-rail or panel was down she would be at her old home +by morning light. + +The two women sat long over the fire, talking about things new and old, +the baby boy sleeping peacefully the while. Nor did Kate Trevenna find +rest when at length she sought her pillow. An hour before daylight she +dressed and prepared for the road, caught and saddled her horse, which +she fastened to the fence in front of the hut. Taking a cup of tea and a +crust of buttered bread from her warm-hearted hostess, and kissing her +child again and again, she rode away in the darkness ere the first +streak of dawn-light illumined the eastern sky. + +'Sure and she's the fine woman,' soliloquised Mrs. Rooney, as she +listened to the sharp hoof-strokes which rang clearly on the rocky +track; 'she has some great sorrow on her entirely, or she'd never leave +the darlin' babe this way. Anyhow, I'll be the mother he's lost, and +maybe more, till she comes back. The saints be between us and harm,' +with which pious utterance the kind, simple soul betook herself back to +bed. + +No grass grew under the roan mare's feet. Mile after mile she threw +behind her; now striking out freely at half speed, now pulling up for a +down-hill mile or so, over which she went at her fast, clever amble. Ere +the sun was well up Kate was miles away from her resting-place of the +night. A long day lay before her, for the journey would need every hour +and every minute of the time. Long and tedious was the ride to Omeo. But +the good mare had ere now known many a journey when the saddle had not +been off her back between dawn and dark--far into the night, indeed. The +Kate Lawless of old days was tireless as a forest doe. Some change in +nerve and constitution had doubtless taken place since then. None the +less was she still a woman of exceptional energy and courage. And with +bitter wrongs ceaselessly corroding in her heart, and the haunting fear +of a dark and bloody deed uprearing itself before her in that lonely +ride, she defied alike fatigue and womanly weakness with passionate +disdain. + +Mile after mile, over rough track and smooth, as the narrow winding but +still plainly marked bridle-path led, with but rare and momentary halts, +the brave roan mare, with her stretching, gliding pace, at times a +hand-gallop, at times even faster still, swept on. An occasional drink +in a mountain runlet--a half trot up or down the steeper hills--yet all +unflinching, unswerving, the pair held onward their rapid way. + +The day was far spent when the straggling tents and red-streaked +mullock-heaps around the Tin Pot Reef came in view. + +'Here it was,' she thought, 'where I saw poor Lance last. It isn't far +to his claim--near the old dead urabba log. There it is! I'll go over +and have a look.' + +She rode to the spot. The reef was not abandoned. The claim was in work. +The raw-hide bucket was ascending and descending with its +gold-besprinkled load, as so many a time at Ballarat and other places +she had watched it before. + +'Curse the gold,' she said aloud, 'and all that belongs to it! It was a +bad day for the country when the first speck was found.' + +'Halloo! mate,' she said to the miner above ground who was pensively +turning out the broken quartz on the 'paddock' side of the shaft. 'How +are you doing? Ground pretty good?' + +'Might be better--might be worse, missus. Can't complain,' said the man +civilly. + +'Wasn't this Ballarat Harry's claim?' she inquired, with an assumption +of carelessness, though her voice trembled and her cheek paled. 'You +bought him out?' + +'That's so. Sold it to Yorkey Dickson and me. Yorkey's below. We very +nigh had to fight for it, after that. Some of the "Tips" tried to bluff +us out of it. Harry was a-comin' to see us through. Leastways he told a +young man as we sent to him. But he never turned up. That was queer, +wasn't it?' + +'And you never seen him after?' + +'Not a sign of him. Yorkey was for goin' into Omeo after him. Only we +heard he was off for Melbourne. So we didn't bother, and the jumpers +gave us best next day.' + +'It _was_ strange!' she said musingly. 'He was never the man to say he'd +do a thing and then change his mind. No; good or bad, he'd stick to it, +poor Lance! Well, I must be going. So 'long.' + +Slowly the woman rode forward--rode along lost in thought, while the +mare, keeping to the track instinctively, like most bush hackneys, +shuffled along at her fast amble till they came to the Mountain Ash +Flat, which lay between this reef and Omeo. + +Here the mare made as if to follow an old cattle track, at right angles +to the road, of which she possibly had previous knowledge. + +'Won't do, old woman,' said Kate, aroused from her reverie by the slight +change of direction; 'what road's this, I wonder? More tracks than one +along it--one would think it led somewhere.' She stooped low from her +horse, scanning with keen and practised vision the footmarks upon the +pathway. 'God in heaven!' she suddenly exclaimed, 'how did that come +there?' + +In an instant she was off her horse and eagerly grasping at a glittering +speck amid the grass. It was a chain--a gold watch-chain with a curious +coin attached, which she knew well. She had often playfully noticed the +female face upon it. Here it was. She held it to the light. A part was +dimmed and mud-encrusted. It had been trodden into the earth, but since +washed by the rain. And what was the stain, dark red across the gold? +'_His_ chain--Lance Trevanion's chain!' she murmured to herself. 'How +did it come here? Of course he may have dropped it. I'll run these +tracks a bit. It looks as if--as if--but no! surely, it can't--_can't +have been_. Oh, my God! they never could have _murdered him_!' As she +muttered to herself, in disjointed and broken sentences, she led her +horse along the narrow track, searching eagerly for the signs of passage +or conflict--tokens that lie clearer than the printed page to the vision +of the Children of the Waste. Yes! there _were_ footmarks, deeply +indented in places, as of men that bore a burden. Here was a fragment of +a check shirt of the pattern the bush labourer mostly wears, there a +scrap of paper; and at a turn in the thicket-bordered path a +long-abandoned shaft came into view. Lower she bent, and lower still, +scanned yet more earnestly the slight mark of impress, invisible save to +eyesight keen as those of the wild tribes which had been wont to roam +these lonely wastes. + +'The grass is longer here,' she whispered to herself in low and ghastly +tones. 'Something's been _dragged_ this way; the edge of the shaft looks +broken down. Oh, my God! poor Lance, poor fellow, is this what you've +come to after all?' + +With stern set lips and eyes dry yet burning with deep unsparing hate, +she secured her horse to a sapling. Then lying flat upon the earth, +leaned over the edge of the dark unfathomed pit, and gazed into its +depths, half dreading what her boding fears had shaped. She called too, +at first brokenly, then loudly on him by name--'but none answered.' The +tree limbs they had cast down had been lately dragged a few paces. The +recent mark did not escape her watchful eye. As she looked heavenward in +her despair she caught sight of a soaring eagle. On an adjacent tree sat +a detachment of crows; she knew too well what their presence portended. + +She drew herself upward, then walked slowly, almost totteringly, toward +the patient mare. But before reaching her she dropped suddenly on her +knees, and raising her clasped hands cried aloud, 'As God Almighty hears +me this day, I swear that I will take neither rest nor food until I've +got the tracks of the murdering dogs that killed the man I loved. Oh, +Lance, Lance! It was a bad day for you when we met first. But I'll have +revenge on your murderers--revenge--blood for blood--cowards and thieves +that they are. They had him crooked, I'll take my oath. And now, +Lawrence Trevenna,' she said, rising from her knees, 'it's you or I for +it--my life against yours to the bitter end,' she continued, in the same +broken, muttering monologue which she had half unconsciously used since +she had commenced to follow the trail of blood. Half mechanically she +loosed the mare and remounted. Then, giving the reins a shake, the +tireless animal dashed off at half speed--a pace from which her rider +never slackened until she reined up, after the darkening eve had dimmed +the outlines of forest and mountain, within sight of the lights of Omeo. + +She had covered nearly seventy miles since daylight. Yet the fast +gliding pace at which she rode up the main street indicated no trace of +fatigue on the part of her hackney. For herself, every nerve seemed at +fullest tension; she felt as if she could have ridden day and night for +a week. + +Attaching the bridle-rein to one of the iron staples with which the +verandah of the chief hostelry was supplied, she went at once to the +principal store, never very far from the hotel in country townships. + +'Mr. Barker in?' she inquired of a tall slouching youth who was gravely +engaged in selling matches to a Chinaman. Economical of speech, like +most of his countrymen, he silently pointed to a stout man in a check +shirt standing before a desk. To him Kate walked. + +'You're Mr. Barker?' He nodded. 'Well, I'm Mrs. + +Trevenna! Has my husband, Lawrence Trevenna, been here lately?' + +'I don't know as I remember,' said the trader cautiously; 'what sort of +looking man is he, missus?' + +'Tall and dark; what most men and all fools of women call handsome. He +_said_ he was going to Monaro, but he's working a "cross," it seems to +me. I shouldn't wonder if he's gone to Melbourne.' + +'There's no one left here for Melbourne, or indeed for anywheres, +lately, except Ballarat Harry,' answered Barker. 'We know him well +enough, and your description fits him to a hair. There's been a young +lady as come from England all the way to marry him. It was quite pretty +to see 'em together.' + +'So he's gone to Melbourne--Ballarat Harry, I mean?' she asked. 'Did he +talk of being back soon?' + +'Well, didn't say much one way or t'other. Rather short and grumpy he +was lately, was Harry. I hardly knowed him, he seemed so different. He'd +had a row with some chap too, and got his face pasted a bit. P'raps that +made him cut up rough like.' + +'Was he badly cut, then,' asked the woman, gazing earnestly in the +trader's face, 'or just a bit of a rally like--half in joke, half in +earnest?' + +'Not it. A regular hard-fought battle. A fight to a finish, if ever +there was one. First time I didn't notice it so much. Next time I saw +he'd had a fearful pounding. But I expect he's all right now.' + +'All right--very likely,' assented the woman absently. 'Can you tell me +where the police barracks are?' + +'There's the place, near that big fallen tree, but there's no one in it. +Tracy went away home to White Rock yesterday. The other chap went away +with the gold escort.' + +'How far to White Rock?' + +'A good thirty mile. There's a straight road; you can't miss it. It +starts south as soon as you cross the bridge over the creek.' + +'All right,' she answered, 'there's no turn off?' + +'No; half-way you come to a shepherd's hut. There's no one living there +now. Keep it on your left, and the track gets plain again.' + +'Thanks; good-night. I must see Tracy on business. I shall be there by +bedtime, I expect.' + +Then fared she forth into the night. No rest, no food for steed or rider +till her errand should be done. The game, bright-eyed mountain mare, as +much refreshed by the halt as a less high-caste steed would have been by +a feed of corn, started away as if just mounted. Kate patted the smooth +arching neck. 'Carry me well to-night, Wallaroo, and you'll never have +another hard day's work as long as you live. Not if I own you, anyhow. +And it'll have to be bad times when we're parted.' + + * * * * * + +Away through the darksome close-ranked forest groves--away through the +rocky defiles where the mare's bare hoofs rang from time to time as on +metal--away through sedgy morass and water-laden plain--away through the +long gray tussac grass, which rustled wiry and dry in the hoar-frost. +The stars burned and scintillated in the dark blue cloudless sky. The +low moon rose and stared--redly, weird, and witch-like--upon the +solitary woman threading alone the dim desolate waste. All silently, yet +surely, the slow hours sped. Still wound the forest path, serpent-like, +amid untouched primeval giants. Still clattered the fleet mare's hoofs +along the uneven trail. The great constellation of the southern heavens +had changed the aspect of its cross when a chorus of barking dogs +disclosed the outpost of law and order. A couple of huts, a slab stable, +a small but securely fenced paddock, made up the establishment. She rode +up to the gate of the little garden, and throwing down her reins as she +slipped from the saddle, walked stiffly to the door of the cottage. She +rapped sharply with the end of her riding-whip. + +'Who's there?' a man called out. + +'It's me--Kate Trevenna. Police work. Look alive.' + +'All right, Mrs. Trevenna,' replied a cheery voice. 'Wait till I strike +a light. Here we are. Walk in and sit down.' + +'Oh, it's you, Tracy; I'm glad of that. Look here, is your horse in the +stable and fit?' + +'Fit as a fiddle; what's up?' + +'Hell's up--murder--robbery--the devil's turned out, or something like +it. You'll have to ride, I tell you. Where's Dayrell?' + +'At Warrandorf, fifty miles off.' + +'That's all right,' she answered; 'he'll do it yet, if he's sharp. Can +you start in half an hour and take a letter to him?' + +'Yes; in a quarter. Where's your letter?' + +'You go and saddle your horse. You'll have to ride harder than ever you +did since you were in the force, and I'll tell you what to write. Is +your paddock all right?' + +'Yes.' + +'Then I'll turn my mare out while you're saddling and make the fire up a +bit. I see there's a back log. I must have a cup of tea and a bite +before I go to bed.' + +In ten minutes the trooper was back, whistling to himself and apparently +as cheerful as if a fifty mile night ride over a bad road was an +adventure calculated to raise any man's spirits. + +'Now, Mrs. Trevenna, where's your letter? You'd better turn in with the +wife when I'm gone and you've made yourself a cup of tea. There's bread +and meat in the safe.' + +'How far is it to where Dayrell is? Fifty odd--nearly sixty miles. I can +do it in seven hours--perhaps less. I'll be there soon after daylight, +so as he can start at once.' + +'That will do. Get your pen and a sheet of paper and write down what I +tell you. Are you ready? Begin like this-- + +'This is from Mrs. Trevenna--Kate Lawless that was; every word is God's +truth. Lawrence Trevenna and Coke have murdered Lance Trevanion and hid +his body in a shaft near the Tin Pot Reef. I tracked them down, and +to-day can show the place. Trevenna went to Omeo and passed himself off +as Lance to the young lady that came out from England to marry him. He's +off to Melbourne, where they are to be married and start for England, he +taking Lance's name, money, and wife. Ride like hell if you want to +block the villain's game. Only left here a few days. That's all.' + +'By Jove,' quoth the trooper, folding up the paper and putting it +carefully in his pocket, 'that's something like a letter! I knew he was +an infernal scoundrel, but I didn't think he was quite so bad as that. I +do pity you, Mrs. Trevenna; but there's no time, is there? So I'll say +good-bye to my old woman and clear. You chum in with her till +to-morrow. I'll go back with you, and we'll see further about that +shaft.' + +Three minutes afterwards the trooper's horse-hoofs clattered along the +stony track. Kate sat long over the fire, from time to time mechanically +addressing herself to the simple meal which she had made ready. Then she +arose, and slowly, with uncertain steps, betook herself to the +goodwife's inner chamber. + + * * * * * + +Thus, and by such means, was Lawrence Trevenna tracked--followed up--run +to earth. From what trivial neglect and want of caution in 'blinding his +trail' had the sleuthhounds of the law been loosed upon his flying +steps; and from what apparently savoured of the merest chance had the +avenger of blood been enabled to seize him in the hour of his triumph. +Had but the ceremony been completed, had but the ship which sailed for +Callao on the next day taken 'Mr. and Mrs. Johnson' among her +passengers, what woe, limitless and irrevocable, would have been +wrought! In that day no ocean telegraph was available to intercept the +criminal, to ensure his arrest ere his foot touched the alien shore. Had +but the trooper at White Rock been 'absent on duty,' had Dayrell been +from home when he arrived at Warrandorf, the precious, indispensable +time would have been lost--that day--that night during which a desperate +trooper, careless of life and limb, rode on relays of horses to +Melbourne, and, haggard, sleepless, travel-worn, but cool and resolute +as ever, arrived before the fatal vow was sworn. + +Little remains to be told. The once brave, stalwart, gladsome +presentment of him who was Lance Trevanion was recovered from the shaft +and identified beyond dispute. For his murder, as well as for that of +the gold-buyer Gray, Trevenna, Coke, and a confederate named Fogarty +were tried. All difficulties of legal proof and identification were +removed by the consistent conduct of Mr. Caleb Coke. True to his +unvarying principles, he turned Queen's evidence. His life was spared. +Trevenna and Fogarty were hanged. Unaffected by the curses of his +comrades in crime and the execrations of the crowd, Coke retired to +Mount Gibbo, and there lived out to extreme old age an unblest and +solitary life. His secrets died with him, and were only told _sub +sigillo confessionis_. + +He retained possession of the hut under Mount Gibbo to the last. But +the wandering bush tramp turned aside with a curse when he marked the +sinister elder standing at his door, or sitting on the rude bank +surrounded by his dogs. It was popularly asserted that he abstained from +the use of ardent spirits, being fearful of betraying the crimes with +the memory of which his soul was laden. But the stock-riders averred +that more than once, when passing the lonely hut after midnight, they +had heard shouts and curses, mingled with screams and laughter even more +dreadful. These were popularly believed to proceed from the Enemy of +Mankind, or some one of his lieutenants engaged in spending the evening +with his sworn liegeman, Caleb Coke. + +After such brief interval as sufficed for her recovery from the shock +her feelings had sustained, Estelle Chaloner naturally decided to return +to England. The recurring horror with which she recalled her +providential escape from a fate too dreadful to conceive needed the +anodyne of complete change of surroundings, of which a long voyage only +could supply the requisite conditions. She therefore, to the unaffected +grief of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon, caused her passage to be taken in the good +ship _Candia_, in which the luxurious nature of her cabin fittings, duly +provided by Mr. Vernon, caused much wonder and admiration among the +other passengers. Mr. Charles Stirling, who had been so considerate as +to delay his voyage, 'went home' by the same boat. It did not surprise +her Australian friends to hear that he made such use of the exceptional +opportunities enjoyed by a fellow-passenger, that Miss Chaloner +consented to merge her future existence in that of Mr. Charles Stirling. +This arrangement was completed at St. George's, Hanover Square, after +the shortest interval allowed for the trousseau of a young lady of +position. Mrs. Vernon's remark was something to the effect, that though +she had striven to be true to her plighted faith, she really believed +that Estelle liked Charlie Stirling better all the time. + +Number Six, Growlers', was worked out in due course, but not before Jack +Polwarth found himself one of the richest men 'on Ballarat,' as he would +have phrased it. This was what the world calls the height of good +fortune. But there was an even rarer possession which John Polwarth and +his good wife had been gifted with, even before the advent of the gold +so plentifully showered upon them. This was such a proportion of sense +and shrewdness as sudden wealth and its destructive flatteries had no +power to assail. + +In accordance with Mrs. Polwarth's aspiration, Tottie had been sent to +one of the best ladies' schools in Melbourne. Here she had received +careful instruction, and enjoyed the privilege of association with girls +of the higher colonial families. Acknowledged to be 'sweetly pretty' in +her maiden prime, as well as amiable, popular, and an undoubted heiress, +no difficulties were placed in the way of her invitation to vice-regal +entertainments. Her father's mansion in St. Kilda was noted for its +princely yet unostentatious hospitality. Small wonder then that +Tottie--beautiful, cultured, a lady in mind and manner, such as her +mother had fondly hoped to behold her, and withal credited with 'pots of +money'--should marry a distinguished globe-trotter, a man of rank and +ancient birth, be presented to her gracious Majesty on her arrival in +England, and gain golden opinions in every sense of the word. + +The after-life of Tessie Lawless was that of the woman who, partly from +a natural tendency to self-sacrifice, partly from despair and hopeless +sorrow, remained in the hospital to which she had devoted her life. Her +course henceforth was the onward path of duty. During an epidemic of +fever several of the nurses fell victims to their labours. A modest +inscription in the Melbourne cemetery bears testimony to the anxious +care and continued watchfulness of Nurse Esther Lawless, the best loved +and most deeply respected of all the hospital attendants. + +Charles Stirling returned to Australia, but only to settle his affairs, +and so that he might take up his abode in England 'for good.' His wife, +naturally, could never be induced to return to Australia, even for a +short sojourn. In spite of occasional twinges of regret which assail him +when the continued absence of the northern sun tends to lower his +spirits and suggest the 'golden summer eves' of his native land, Charlie +Stirling finds the old country very fairly habitable. His wife's +fortune, added to his own, provides an extremely comfortable, not to say +luxurious existence, as well as an assured provision for the olive +branches. The Honourable Mrs. Delamere (_nee_ Polwarth) and her +husband--who will be a peer some day--are frequent and welcome guests. +Mrs. Stirling takes great pride in introducing her beautiful Australian +friend, whose fairy godmother, while endowing her with fortune and +fashion, added the rarer gifts of unselfish kindliness. + +The estate and revenues of Wychwood went to the younger son--a +devolution which afforded to all the country people unfeigned +satisfaction, as removing the curse under which they devoutly believed +the family to exist. + +One mystery was unravelled, in the closer search made after his +succession among the Squire's papers. In a secret receptacle was +discovered a collection of letters which proved incontestably that +Lawrence Trevenna was his natural son, born two years before his +marriage to the mother of Lance Trevanion. The girl's father was a +disreputable horse-and-turf-tout and betting man in a small way in a +distant county; the girl herself the worthy offspring of such a +father--handsome, bold, unprincipled. The Squire discovered that a +deliberate plot had been laid for him. Hence his previous inexplicable +hatred to all and every form of horse-racing and the gambling therewith +concomitant. Attempts at blackmail were referred to as having been +resisted by legal advice, but finally compromised by the payment of a +comparatively large sum--only a part of which had helped to provide +passage-money and outfit for Lawrence Trevenna. Some fragmentary addenda +to the faded writing and curiously worded letters told of deep and +bitter regret--even of repentance. But the sin had been sinned. The +guilt lightly incurred in the riot of youthful passion had grown dark +and menacing of aspect with the slow gathering years. And 'the vengeance +due of all our wrongs' had haltingly, but with sleuth-hound deadliness, +tracked down his happiness and shortened the wrongdoer's life. But for +the fatal resemblance, the mysterious heritage of unbridled passion +bequeathed to the Ishmaelite offspring, the heir of his ancient house +had doubtless escaped injustice, imprisonment, and death. And now, +'Conrad, Lara, Ezzelia are gone.' A youthful scion--fair, blue-eyed, +mirthful--makes merry in the old halls of his race. But of the wandering +heir--he who defiantly quitted home, and friends, and native land in +search of gold; who vowed to conquer fortune with the aid of the strong +arm and tameless heart; to return successful, rich, honoured of all men; +to claim his bride in his own ancient hall--of him the oaks in the +Druids' Grove of Wychwood murmur to the midnight stars, 'Nevermore.' + + +THE END + + + + +POPULAR NOVELS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. + + +_ROBBERY UNDER ARMS._ + +A STORY OF LIFE AND ADVENTURE IN THE BUSH AND IN THE GOLD-FIELDS OF +AUSTRALIA. + + _GUARDIAN_--"A singularly spirited and stirring tale of + Australian life, chiefly in the remoter settlements.... + Altogether it is a capital story, full of wild adventure and + startling incidents, and told with a genuine simplicity and + quiet appearance of truth, as if the writer were really drawing + upon his memory rather than his imagination." + + _SPECTATOR_--"We have nothing but praise for this story. Of + adventure of the most stirring kind there is, as we have said, + abundance. But there is more than this. The characters are + drawn with great skill. Every one of the gang of bushrangers is + strongly individualised. A book of no common literary force." + + +_THE MINER'S RIGHT._ + +A TALE OF THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD-FIELDS. + + _ATHENAEUM_--"The picture is unquestionably interesting, thanks + to the very detail and fidelity which tend to qualify its + attractiveness for those who like excitement and incident + before anything else." + + _WORLD_--"Full of good passages, passages abounding in + vivacity, in the colour and play of life." + + +_THE SQUATTER'S DREAM._ + + _SATURDAY REVIEW_--"It is not often that stories of colonial + life are so interesting as Mr. Boldrewood's _Squatter's Dream_. + There is enough story in the book to give connected interest to + the various incidents, and these are all told with considerable + spirit, and at times picturesqueness." + + _FIELD_--"The details are filled in by a hand evidently well + conversant with his subject, and everything is _ben trovato_, + if not actually true. A perusal of these cheerfully-written + pages will probably give a better idea of realities of + Australian life than could be obtained from many more + pretentious works." + + +_A SYDNEY-SIDE SAXON._ + + _GLASGOW HERALD_--"The interest never flags, and altogether _A + Sydney-Side Saxon_ is a really refreshing book." + + _ANTI-JACOBIN_--"Thoroughly well worth reading.... A clever + book, admirably written.... Brisk in incident, truthful and + lifelike in character.... Beyond and above all it has that + stimulating hygienic quality, that cheerful, unconscious + healthfulness, which makes a story like _Robinson Crusoe_ or + _The Vicar of Wakefield_ so unspeakably refreshing after a + course of even good contemporary fiction." + + +_A COLONIAL REFORMER._ + + _GLASGOW HERALD_--"One of the most interesting books about + Australia we have ever read." + + _SATURDAY REVIEW_--"Mr. Boldrewood can tell what he knows with + great point and vigour, and there is no better reading than the + adventurous parts of his books." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Nevermore, by Rolf Boldrewood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVERMORE *** + +***** This file should be named 34240.txt or 34240.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/4/34240/ + +Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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