The silver queen : a tale of the Northern Territory

THE SILVER QUEEN

BY

WM. SYLVESTER WALKER

("COO-EE")

SECOND EDITION

Xonfcon
JOHN OUSELEY

1 6 FARRINGDON STREET, B.C.
1908

All rights reserved

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Annex

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CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE ... . n

II. THE ADVENT OF THE COMPANY -

III. THE MAID OF THE MARK -

IV. A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY - - - -
V. LOVE'S LABOUR LOST . . .

VI. THE WRITING ON THE WALL
VII. THE MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK
VIII. BUSH PHASES
IX. DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND
X. " I PUBLISH THE BANNS ! " -
XL A STARTLING DISCOVERY ...
XII. RED ALTAR LIGHT
XIII. THE TREE WHERE THE SUNLIGHT COMES

xiv. MILLIE'S DOWRY -

XV. PARTING OF THE WAYS

xvi. "LAPIS LAZULI" - ...

XVII. EXODUS
XVIII. THE VENTURE OF HIS LIFE - ...

6 CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

XIX. THE ODD TRICK- - - - - 211

xx. COSGRAVE'S NEW MOVE - - - -220

XXI. THB ROOT OF THE MATTER ... 230

XXII. NEW VENTURES - • • 241

XXIII. WITH THE PEARLING FLEET ... 347

XXIV. THE MAN WITH THE MARK • • '253
XXV. THE BURIED PAST - - 261

XXVI. THE EMU GIRL - - - - 268
XXVII. THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS - - 280

XXVIII. A NEW PRISONER - - 295

XXIX. "THE MAN IN DUNGAREE" • 308
XXX. THE LIFTING OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS - 322

PREFACE

FROM the wondrous orchids of her northern tropical
forests, from her corn, sugar cane, wine and oil,
oil to light a million home lights, from plant and
plume, from her shears of the golden fleece, from
the mineral and gem fields in her possessions, from
her mountains, mounds, and motley, paragon in all,
Australia is calling for men of pluck and industry,
able and willing to work, not for foreign nations
only, but for hearths, homes, and a bright future
prosperity.

She is calling from her gates of pearl, from her
grand northern reaches, for cotton and all fruits,
from her untouched sea fringes, from her demi-
lunes of energy and resource, from all her vast
potentialities.

From her stone- wrought, stone-quarried cities she
calls, from her barren interiors made prolific by under-
ground water, where even her loneliest places
whisper " Abide here and I will enchant and teach
you how to use me," she returns no barren answer,
often a golden or a silver one.

8 PREFACE

With Tariffs, adjusted to the disintegration of the
swarming foreigners who have blocked our paths
and wedged our doorways, will come the victory we
have waited for so long, when, instead of having to
drive the aliens from our gates, we can rejoice in the
advent of men of our own blood, English, Irish,
and Scotch, and stand shoulder to shoulder to
prevent the pauperising influences now experienced
everywhere in the Empire of land, country, and
reform.

Wealth to the emigrant, fortune to the pursuer, a
climate that develops energy not listlessness, all
these Australia can offer ; and as a reminiscence of
early pioneering days and other gatherings, I have
written my story in the Mother Country to tell her
where the old New Land awaits her.

THE AUTHOR.

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY
MR. JOHN OUSELEY

MAY BE HAD AT

MOST LIBRARIES AND

BOOKSELLERS

TELEPHONE NO,
15237 CENTRAL.

** The horses were ready, the rails were down,

But the riders lingered still,
One had a parting word to say,
And one had his pipe to fill.
Then they mounted, one with a granted prayer,

And one with a grief unguessed.
' We are going,' they said, as they rode away,
' Where the pelican builds her nest.1 "

MARY HANNA Y FOOTT.

THE SILVER QUEEN

CHAPTER I

THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE

" But other mysteries than these

There are from human knowledge hid
On hill and valley, and amid
Australia's wilderness of trees. "

— J. C. NEILD.

JOHN SOLWAY happened to be in Sydney, New
South Wales, in search of a new sensation, and was
walking in the Domain before breakfast, on a bright,
unny morning.

He had experienced a certain amount of gold fever
during his past career, in the intermittent phases of
which he had done so well as to become almost
invulnerable to penury, the worst and most trying
form of the disease, and, being now consequently
impenitent and desirous of adding Fame to the
pedestal of a higher ambition, still was at the
moment we come across him planning a scheme
by which he could attain this distinction, together
with a greater addition to his worldly riches.

ii

12 THE SILVER QUEEN

A panorama of all sorts of schemes connected with
exploration and discovery flitted across his teeming
brain, to be treated according to its merit, and even
while his eyes rested upon a large French corvette
anchored off Domain Point, and later the newly-
arrived missionary schooner, John Williams, lying
off the Baths, his mind framed visions totally
disconnected from his outer sight.

Why had they not found Leichardt up to this
date? ran his mental idea, when opposite the mission
schooner.

He had followed the search for the great explorer
in the columns of the daily newspapers, but, being a
particular faddist on this subject, did not consider
the work satisfactory. Why should he not set them
an example of the right way of doing it according to
his own theory ?

He possessed some mules, a regular caballada of
them, at present eating their heads off in a Sydney
livery stable. Should he go with them to that sandy
desert in the Northland, and see what sort of a place
it was ? He always wanted to explore that particular
desert. Gold was often found in what everybody
considered the most unlikely places. He wanted to
get beyond the outside tracks of Sturt and Giles and
find new things.

A west north-west course from Brisbane would take
him there. Suppose Leichardt had really doubled
on the rescuers' track, after all, and gone westward.
The search party had established no positive trace of
his existence or non-existence. He might do so,

THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE 13

perhaps come across him in reality. Was it not
within the bounds of possibility that the gallant
explorer had been abducted by the natives some-
where, and, like Emin Pasha, contracted family ties
with them ? That very fact, if information could be
obtained from the blacks he met with on his journey,
might lead to his discovery. He himself, on the
other hand, would be prepared to look for copper,
precious stones, silver, opals ; even coal might make
a fortune for him. And thus he might weld all his
day-dreams with the discovery of Leichardt as his
fame pedestal, if lucky enough to come across him
on a line of his own. It was a great idea, he thought,
as his eyes rested upon the schooner.

He would certainly work up north-west to find
that desert, it had always been the dream of his life.
Many an Arctic explorer had not his ideas more
firmly fixed on the North Pole than John Solway on
this particular desert. The verges might be sand or
stones, he thought, but there would most probably be
all oasis in the middle of it to gladden his eyes with
his own undoubted theory that there was water
there.

He mentally added up a list of friends to find one
who would be suitable to help him in carrying out
his intention ; and was surprised to discover that
none of them could be depended upon.

He had a smoke, deliberately planning all the
time on this, his last proviso ; then leaving his seat at
Lady Macquarries' chair, he walked onwards in the
direction of the old Fig Tree Baths.

14 THE SILVER QUEEN

There was a strong smell of cooking wafted from
the Island schooner in the offing, and wondering
much what the South Sea cuisine was like amongst
the coloured crew on board her, he turned off the
footpath he was on and walked higher up the hill to
observe their movements at a vantage.

Finally he ascended a grassy slope and sat down
on a flat sandstone rock to watch them, finding that
it afforded an easy rest for his legs and feet, as well
as his body, being about the height of his previous
resting-place.

The crew of the mission schooner were having their
morning repast on deck. That was evident enough,
and their gesticulations and talk attracted his atten-
tion from his own thoughts at last. Noticing how
hungry they were, his own gastric juices began to
work from sheer force of sympathy.

Suddenly he dropped his pipe, sprang clean off
the rock as if something had bitten him, and
assumed a position of defiance, for he had felt the
heel of his boot touched pretty smartly from under-
neath and held on to. Then, having released himself
by this sudden spring, as he watched at a safe
distance from his former perch, he saw the grass,
growing thickly along the base of the rock, move
at a certain point, and, to his astonishment, a man
crawled out from below it and presently stood
erect.

The individual who had emerged in this singular
fashion was still further impressed upon him by
being clad in a blue dungaree suit, very much the

THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE 15

worse for wear. He might have been taken for a
sailor or an engineer out of work.

Don't apologise for moving me so much," Sol way
said, looking at him in bewilderment, but in perfect
readiness for anything, even an assault. " I took you
for a brown snake with a nefarious design upon my
person, having no idea you possibly could be a blue
man. There are still some ophidians left about
Sydney, especially under rocks. Don't try to excuse
yourself, I pray. Also pardon my hostile attitude,
unless you have any sort of a mind to reciprocate."

" I don't feel particularly inclined for a fight just
now," said the other, with a humorous twinkle in his
eye. " I've had no breakfast this morning, to begin
with, and precious little to eat yesterday into the
bargain, but if you feel really inclined for fisticuffs
after having stood a good square meal to me and
my companion, Stumpy, who is still asleep under
there, he will see fair play, and I shall not hesitate
to oblige you."

" How many more of you are underneath ? " quoth
Solway, in amazement. " Why specialise only one ?
I am prepared for a dozen, at the least."

"The hollow under the rock holds three or four
on a pinch," said the Man in Dungaree. " It is out
of the way of the police, and for that reason mainly
is Stumpy's residence. He took me in as a boarder
last night, and it cost me my last coin. You are
not, by any chance, a detective in plain clothes, are
you ? "

"If you will sit upon the roof of your friend's

16 THE SILVER QUEEN

domicile, from which you dislodged me, in my
company, and assure me that Stumpy — whoever he
is — will not interfere with my boot heels in any
ante-prandial manner, I will soon enlighten you as
to my social state," Solway replied. " Come along !
You can taste the smell of a breakfast on the top
of that big stone, and that's something towards the
realisation of your wishes. Or you will be able to
smell the taste of it, which is, under a variation,
quite as replenishing to empty stomachs. But what
on earth have you been about to have no better
quarters to reside in than that bandicoot's cavity ?
In this free land no man should be a make-believe
but a doer."

"Just my opinion, so shake!" cried the Man in
Dungaree, "and I'll tell you all about it. I'm
dead-broke ; that's the entire proposition as con-
cerns myself. If it hadn't been for Stumpy there,
I might have afforded myself a good breakfast this
morning, instead of only getting a smell of it. But
beer's rather a self-forgetting beverage, and, mind
you, I don't say I didn't bring my present calamity
upon myself. Nor do I affirm that I repent having
come to such a pass. No, by the living jingo, not
by half a long way !

" I came up to Sydney on board that very mission
schooner you allude to in such an unsatisfactory
fashion, having embarked at Niue". The skipper
took pity upon me and allowed me to work my
passage up. Being one of the unemployed, and a
long-timer at that, through general or total incom-

THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE 17

petence, my time on board was principally occupied
in peeling potatoes for the cook to boil, and in
yarning with the coloured crew. I take a great
interest in the South Sea Islanders, and can talk
their lingo. That I learnt by beach-combing. Other-
wise, I should probably have been killed and eaten
ere this.

"Life is hardly a sinecure on Savage Island, let
me tell you, so there must have been some sort of
intrinsic merit about me which ingratiated the in-
habitants and prevented them from trying how my
carcass would suit their digestions. Perhaps the
clothes I generally invest in were my life insurance,
policy paid. Thus it happens that I still exist this
morning, with an appetite and a thirst that only
money or personal sanction on your part can
assuage. I am also for sale or auction, either with
or without a certain form of proof by proxy. It
might be to your interest to buy me.

" Pending my information, therefore, you must see
that I am really more than interested in the odour of
that breakfast yonder. That's why I came out of the
hole. The day before yesterday I was helping to eat
it. You can immortalise to-day's repast in Stumpy's
domicile just the same as here, and, although I say it
who should not speak, sympathetic as is its perfume,
the yearning it creates for the real thing is awful.

" I'll tell you what I will do," the Man in Dungaree
continued ; " you shall provide my friend underneath
us with a breakfast in conjunction with myself. In
return I will sell you some information he gave me.

B

i8 THE SILVER QUEEN

I got it from him convivially last night at the price
of half-a-crown, and it's worth some tens of thousands
of pounds sterling, if not more, when proved.

" Mind you, I don't believe a single word of it
myself, and I don't ask you to, either. But if I had
money I'd risk it We divided the beer my last
half-crown gave us, equally, on the strength of it.
That's just what made us mates afterwards, you see.
To do Stumpy justice, he bargained for a royalty of
sorts if it comes off, and that fact shows his own
belief in it as a moral certainty. Now the question
is, do you feel inclined to be liberal, for the sake of
the story, both our stomachs, and your own profit ? "

"Get Stumpy out," John Solway said, laughing
heartily. " If I am as taken with his appearance as
I have been by yours, I'll see about it"

Whereupon the Man in Dungaree, crawling upon
all fours to the base of the rock, called out :

" Breakfast ahoy, Stumpy ! Perhaps a long sleever
of beer, if the gentleman above is willing. Come out,
mate ! "

After due hesitation and various grumbled com-
ments, a young, stiff-built man emerged and stood
blinking sleepily in the sun glare.

" Give us the outline of your yarn, Stumpy," said
the Man in Dungaree.

"Perhaps it will be better at first hand, as a
guarantee of my veracity," he added aside to Solway.

But Stumpy merely blinked his eyes ; he seemed
overcome with drowsiness, or bashfulness, at being so
suddenly unearthed.

THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE 19

" He freshens up wonderfully if you keep him well
stoked," hinted the Man in Dungaree again in
Solway's ear, " otherwise he's a goner, as you can
see for yourself. It was the tipple last night that
upset him beyond his bearings this morning."

" Come along, both of you," John Solway observed,
" and I'll furnish you with the breakfast we all three
stand in need of, down at the Lord Rodney Hotel in
Woolloomoolloo. Then Stumpy can give me his
version."

On arrival at the rendezvous indicated, John
Solway engaged a private room and ordered a
sumptuous repast for all three, served according to
their separate requirements, and they sat down to
enjoy it.

After the first plateful of his own choosing, and a
third " schooner " of the Lord Rodney's private and
best tap, Stumpy recovered the use of his tongue, and
his eyes glistened.

" You see," said he, " it was this way."

He extracted a small map of Australia from a fat
pocket-book, otherwise quite empty, then opening it
out he placed it on the table before Solway, indicating
a cross thereon with a grimy forefinger, and this cross
was placed in the middle of the very desert in the
Northland Solway had been thinking of.

" Was there water there ? " the latter asked
immediately. " Have you seen that place personally ?
Please be explicit."

"Not a drop of water, not a drop," Stumpy
answered decisively. " The spot I have marked

20 THE SILVER QUEEN

is a three days' journey from anywhere else worth
talking about, but I have seen it. I've been there
myself, and lived to tell of it. That is all I can say,
but only to a mate here and there, for the price of a
glass of beer, perhaps the chance of a dinner. I live
by it As a rule, of course, my birds being of a
feather with myself, they can't take my story up for
want of money, and it never struck me to try and
finance it more than that, because no one believes it
when I do tell it to them. I've stumped up generally
myself all round to any mates I had until I ran dry,
and that's why my mates call me Stumpy. Quantum
suff.

" But you take my words and mark 'em down,
the words of a gentleman, neither native nor to the
manner born, who has seen strange things in this
strange country, and the words of a man who
wouldn't go back on any mate, whole white, black,
or half-caste, as long as he had a shot in the locker.
But being insolvent, as I am, and no error, why, what
can a man do ? I sell my yarn for a share in any
good drink that's going forward, and then I go and
camp, rent free, under that rock in the Domain and
think about it. For I lost a big fortune up there;
all that goes to make this world pleasant for a chap.
I've got a white mate living up there yet, I believe,
for he helped me to get there while I financed the
expedition.

" Someone might rescue him or make a fortune in
attempting to do so, for although there's not a drop
of water at that spot I have marked on the map,

THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE 21

there's enough silver near about to make your hair
stand on end. But if you or I, or anyone else, were
to get there, they would go mad as sure as fate.

" The tribe I lived with took me there as near as
I can judge to where that cross is marked on the
map, as well as my mate. I was as good as a king
amongst them then, and they carried water with
them ; they weren't niggers, but light - coloured
people. Not half-castes, even, but some sort of
breed nearly white, and it was all through the
influence of my mate, that journey of ours to where
I marked the cross. My mate could do what he
liked with them, being made a sort of Chief. Then
there was a row between them and some real black
people, and I got separated from my lot and knocked
on the head. I lost a beautiful wife through it, and
remembered no more until I came to myself cadging
passages all along the northern, western, and southern
coasts, arriving here, stoney, with only my story to
support me."

" You will see in what points Stumpy's yarn meets
with my approbation," the Man in Dungaree re-
marked to Solway, with a wink, as he replenished
his "schooner" from a portentous jug on the table,
in self-evident delight. " I intend to form a mining
syndicate on the strength of his apparent ingenuous-
ness," he went on, " although, as I'said before, I don't
believe a word of it

" I never tasted a better steak in my life," he con-
cluded ; " the rock oysters are grand, the tap's
sublime, and I feel so satisfied altogether that I

22 THE SILVER QUEEN

tender you my heartiest and best thanks. Presently
Stumpy and I will make our exit, as I mean to tour
him round town. I daresay I can earn a double
dinner when I tell my own version of the story to
a responsible shareholder. Perhaps he will provide
me with another suit of dungaree to start operations
with. It is all I ask for, except my meals, but I
mean to be the leader of the mining company I
spoke about, with guaranteed scrip for half the shares
issued. Will you have any at par? They are sure
to rise like smoke. Or do you now want to fight
on a full stomach ? "

" Stop a moment," quietly remarked John Solway,
as the other rose to go with a smiling countenance,
pushing his friend Stumpy out before him. " Tell
your mate to wait outside in the street until you are
ready for him."

The Man in Dungaree escorted Stumpy gently,
but firmly, by the ear to the bottom of the stairs and
returned. Then, closing the door and locking it, he
sat himself down in an attitude of intense expectation
and replenished his glass.

" I will buy your rights to Stumpy's assertion,"
Solway said, when these preliminaries ended, " on
these conditions : " First, that you go with me as
partner on half shares, in consideration of my
financing the venture.

" Secondly, if you agree to this method of pro-
cedure, I hand you a cheque here in this room, and
at once, for £250, of which £150 is to be paid into
a bank of my own choosing for Stumpy's keep

THE MYSTERIOUS TRIBE 23

whilst we are away. He seems a young man who
has been addicted to alcohol and other beverages,
and would be better looked after, as 1 haven't room
for him. This sum I wish to arrange to be paid to
him weekly under surveillance. The balance will be
for yourself, and here is a ;£io note to buy dungaree
suits with."

The Man in Dungaree nodded gravely in
acquiescence, and presently received his cheque.
He then signed a written agreement

" Now tell me your name," said Solway.

" Not at present," replied the Man in Dungaree.
" ' Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' You
may know at a future date, if the expedition turns
up trumps. Just now my name is on tick, sold,
bought out, complicated as the Man in Dungaree,
nothing else. You must take me on whatever merits
you may assume to be mine, but you can count upon
me as a working mate in the affair, which henceforth
lies strictly between you and me ; " and with this he
departed.

" I'm going to lodge you in a palace, old man," he
said affectionately to Stumpy, on reaching the street.
" You will be allowed three long-sleevers daily ; think
of that ! Likewise you shall smoke Virginia tobacco
for the rest of your natural life, if I can run to it.

" As regards myself, the ethereal odour of breakfasts
will not in future be dependent on the whim of a
passing stranger ; I shall be delectably employed,
and if I ever come back with that mate of yours, I
will build you both a house to live and die in. Your

•24 THE SILVER QUEEN

story, old chap, is the finest thing in finance I ever
struck in all my life, though I don't believe a single
word of it."

" Ah, you will, if you get captured as I and my
mate were," said Stumpy.

CHAPTER II
THE ADVENT OF THE COMPANY

'* The night wind moans. The Austral wilds are round me ;

The loved who live— ah, God ! how few they are.
I looked above, and Heaven in mercy found me
This parable of comfort in a star."

—JAMES BRUNTON STEPHENS.

"GOOD shot, Solway!" muttered the Man in
Dungaree, as he came up from looking after their
three remaining mules, the others having succumbed
to the rigours of their desperate trip.

Solway had just knocked over some sort of a duck
with a throwing stick, in the use of which, from the
expediency of saving what little ammunition they
had left, the two men had become singularly
expert.

They were camped on a creek which ran through
some rolling hills, on the verge of the desert they
had come in search of, the land where Stumpy's
legend was born. They had almost attained their
premonition, but the exigencies of their daily supply
of water had become a matter of urgency.

Of that liquid they had enough for present require-
ments, even for future providing, but the heat was

25

26 THE SILVER QUEEN

great, the way uncertain, and the end not yet
attained.

One hundred and twenty-five miles had now to be
traversed by one of them, and the event of getting
back to Sydney, if aught happened to that one, was
to be left to the other, as the only means for the
preservation of the great secret.

The Man in Dungaree sat down by Solway on the
banks of the small waterhole where he was examining
the duck, and looked on critically.

" These birds came from the N.W.," said Solway,
" straight from that desert I am going to explore. I
want to solve a problem, and this fellow is to be the
exponent. I got him pretty easily, because he was
crippled. A duck-hawk struck him over yonder, but
he managed to flutter down here, where he saw the
water, and the hawk seeing me swerved off. The
rest of his companions kept pushing on over the
route we have come by. They will have a long
journey before they reach our last water."

" What are you going to do with him ? " asked the
Man in Dungaree.

" Eat him, of course, later, after I've examined his
gizzard.

" What for ? To see if his digestive organs are in
proper working order like your own ? It won't
matter much even if they are not. I'm hungry
enough to eat a crow ! "

" The gizzard will divine my future action."

" What nonsense ! Are you going to imitate the
ancients when they voiced augurs of battle, or the

THE ADVENT OF THE COMPANY 27

coming out right of journeys by the shape, twistings,
or appearance of intestines ? I don't remember any
gizzards in their divining."

" For all that, this gizzard is going to give me the
knowledge I require," Solway reiterated.

" You're a crank, John. How can it do so ? "
" It will tell me the truth of Stumpy 's story ! "
" I don't believe a word of the story. Didn't I
always say so ? But see what it has driven us to.
We have been in hair-breadth escapes by flood and
field. We have passed by the skin of our teeth
through crowds of hostile blacks. It has rilled our
cup of perilous adventure to the brim, and now you
are about to risk your own precious life across that
desert. It's just a toss up whether you ever get
back alive, John ; and if you don't, what is to become
of me ? Oh, man, man, why did I ever come out
from under that rock in the Domain to tempt you
when I did ? And why did I let a chap like you
into such a fatal secret ? If you had not sat down
there when you did, just as I was coming out, I
could have taken all risks myself, or made money by
touring Stumpy about. I never meant to lose you
over it. But, anyway, here we are, near enough to
our goal to make turning back impossible, and, being
hungry as usual, your bird will make a good stew to
get on with, if we eke him out with some of the last
of our preserved beef. I suppose you are aware that
we have only got three tins left ? It's a good thing
we can amalgamate our interiors with small bush fry
occasionally, although I can't say I like lizards.

28 THE SILVER QUEEN

Those bealbahs we snared weren't bad eating. What
sort of a bird is that one of yours, by the way ? I
haven't seen anything like him before : long legs,
long neck, sort of cross between a curlew and a gill
bird. If I were in England I should say he looked
more like a large landrail than a duck."

" It's a whistling duck," said Solway, as he divided
the gizzard into two portions. They lay in the palm
of his strong, browned, nervous hand, and he indicated
the interior grits with the point of his clasp knife.
'r. " Stumpy's tale is either true or false. That's how
I take it Whistling ducks are never very far from
water, but I believe they migrate at seasons. There
must be water on that desert. They came straight
from the interior of it, and as I have got to cross it
to-morrow with Baldur, our best and likeliest mule, I
am naturally interested in the question."

" I don't see how a duck's gizzard can decide it,"
said the Man in Dungaree obstinately.

Solway poked the digestive grains about.

" Look ! " he said. " Stumpy was right about the
silver. That is indubitable on the evidence before us.
This fellow has the colour grit of the sulphide
concentrates to aid his digestion. See those bits of
ore. But Stumpy must be wrong about the water, or
they wouldn't stop to shovel them in as an extraneous
aid. They have halted for dinner. I shall only take
one water-bag to-morrow."

" It's risky, Solway, and it's wrong. Dash it, I'll
go with you ! "

" You can't. You own the secret now verified in

THE ADVENT OF THE COMPANY 29

silver ore. Old Baldur will be all the lighter without
your coming ; don't forget that. He's got to carry
my pick and shovel as it is."

" I won't let you go, old man."

" Oh yes, you will. I won the toss. Remember,
if I peg out, you have got the story ; you possess the
knowledge of the place, and if you get back safely,
you can benefit from all the faults of this trip. I've
left you money to do so. I would have camels next
time if I were you. I'll follow the wild ducks' flight
to-morrow until I reach the water they came from.
Have no doubt about me. Now we had best get the
supper ready. Where is that nail-tailed wallaby you
knocked over yesterday? He'll do instead of this
fellow just now. Mules on good feed ? "

"Yes."

" Well, your orders are : Camp here for three
weeks. If I don't get back by that time, you will
know that I am dead. Push south with the first
rains ; they should come by then. It's a pity we
didn't take more time to equalise our chances ; a
small condenser would have been worth carrying, for
some of the salt water soaks. We have pulled
through so far, but fancy being reduced to two water-
bags ! The scrub and those pesky mules did that.
There's plenty of water here, but I dare not take
both bags, because you have that waterless stretch of
country to pass on your way back, and I cannot
leave you without one. This secret of ours must not
perish, even if / do ; you must get back with it to
try again. If I fail in my endeavour, your only

30 THE SILVER QUEEN

chance of life and fortune is to return when the last
pair of mules are fit. I am taking the chances, in
plain words, because I do not think you are bushman
enough to travel that desert in front of us. Anyway,
you might not get to where I consider the water is.
If I'm very bad, I shall make old Baldur carry me
somehow. As Stumpy put his cross on my mark
in life, it seems an omen of success, and I'm bound
to try to reach it."

" Not alone, if I know it," the Man in Dungaree
muttered softly to himself, as he knelt by their camp
fire and began to prepare the supper.

The next morning, before dawn, Solway started.
Two days afterwards the Man in Dungaree
followed on his tracks.

Half-way across the sterile stretch of sand and
stones he came on Solway's forlorn hope of a water-
bag torn open with a pick point, where Baldur, the
best mule, was fallen dead.

There were no tracks from this halting place of
disaster. The sand " devils " of the desert had
covered them, but the Man in Dungaree kept on by
compass, until he found that Solway had indeed
reached his mark, at the end of the terrible journey,
but was at his last gasp when he got to him.

" So long, old man," the explorer murmured,
with his dying breath. " I was — right — Stumpy —
was — wrong. There t's water — here ! "

" Stumpy was right in all three instances,"
muttered the Man in Dungaree when he laid him
down. " Solway has gone mad ere he died, as was

THE ADVENT OF THE COMPANY 31

prophesied. I see rocks composed of silver ore, but
never a drop of water, and I am going mad, too,
Heaven help me ! "

There was a gunyah a hundred yards away from
the spot where Solway lay dead amongst the rocks
of silver ore. It was built of boughs and bark,
though no sign of tree or bush showed to all horizons,
and the dry river bed near to which it stood was
half filled with sand that the devils of the desert had
blown there.

Who could have built it?

Sand, sand, sand, and rocks of silver ore. Dry,
dusty, and appalling. That was the sarcasm of the
dust devils. Silver enough to buy a principality.
The gunyah and the silver were real. So was the
dead man ; also the living apology for one. For he
was sitting in the gunyah as mad as a March hare,
or the proverbial Australian hatter, within a quarter
of an hour after the death of Solway.

Half an hour beyond that, five peculiarly light-
coloured aboriginals, so fair in complexion as to give
the impression that they were not aboriginals at all,
but a cast-away tribe of European origin, halted at
John Sol way's dead body, took up the footmarks
between it and the bough shelter, and stared in
amazement at the sight of the ghastly object within.

For the Man in Dungaree was no longer the Man
in Dungaree, but lay stark naked, having gashed his
limbs all over to obtain his own blood to drink !

The new-comers all carried well-filled gourds slung
over their bare shoulders, and, kneeling by the terrible

32 THE SILVER QUEEN

object they had found alive, they splashed water over
him, and poured some into his mouth.

Such was the vitality of the man that in about an
hour he abused them violently, but his senses were
gone. Then he fell to laughing in a sort of choked
gurgle, interspersed with comment.

" Lost," he exclaimed diffidently, changing his
manner again, " I might have been, I tell you. But
as for Solway, no, never ; he couldn't get lost. " This
is — hell — isn't it? I thought I was in heaven. Just
getting there when you idiots came and dragged me
out of it ! "

He glared into their faces.

" If it is, I say it is the devil's own payment ! I
was fit to die, not to live on here. Are you people
real devils ? No, you must be some of my old boon
companions sent here to share my torments. Where's
Stumpy? Where's Solway? I'm better dead since
I have lost my mates. No, Solway was sitting up
eating and drinking when I last saw him, we had
such a meal in paradise. By Jove ! I was hungry
enough, with a thirst, too, worth a king's ransom.
Or was it at the Lord Rodney ? How did I get to
this place ? We had a hard time of it, I know, but
our chief object in life was to get here. Only we
didn't exactly bargain for Stumpy's — absolute
veracity."

The leader, who was with the other four light-
coloured natives, looked at him curiously. He
seemed to be interested.

" Oh, for the bitter striving against Fate, Nemesis,

THE ADVENT OF THE COMPANY 33

the strong against the strong. To touch and realise
all human expectation in one brief moment, without
the life itself to go on with it ! " went on the naked
man. And, with a prolonged screech, he fell back
motionless and insensible.

The light -coloured people now, at a word from
their leader, tended their patient still more carefully,
propping up his head, bathing his wounds, and
dabbing water on his lips and forehead.

A gourd or two, emptied, lay on the sandy floor
alongside the man's own travel-worn water-bag, now
dry and dusty as the arid plains around them. An
old felt hat, and a patched and mended dungaree
suit lay with them, together with -his socks and boots.

Directing his followers to form a rude ambulance
stretcher out of the materials of the gunyah itself,
the leader gathered the lunatic's belongings together,
and, when the now senseless form was placed on the
litter thus improvised, threw them over him.

Taking hold of the poles at each end, they moved
away with their silent freight, following the sand
river in a contrary direction to that from whence they
came, and travelling all through the night in a
northerly direction, but still with a little westing in it.

Three days afterwards, an hour or so before sunset,
four of the same sort of natives came back, and
placing John Solway's corpse in a sitting posture
amongst the rocks and sand, where he had fallen,
commenced to form the outline of a canoe around
the dead body, raising the sand, and smoothing it
into position.

c

34 THE SILVER QUEEN

One of them, during the process, suddenly listened
with his ear to the ground. Then, rising, he
motioned to his companions who did as he had
done. After which they placed a pole stick, part of
the destroyed gunyah, close to the dead man in his
sand canoe, and, depositing a little food and water
within reach of his hand, as the symbols of a belief,
went away, leaving the body to mummify in the sun.

The heat during the days to come would help that
process. There were even no flies to be seen in this
dry desert, let alone a bird or a beast, to corrupt or
destroy the dead flesh. Nothing to break the
silences, either, except the sand rustle of the willy
willys or dust devils.

In dumb show, after the departure of the natives,
the sunset proclaimed a glorified peacefulness beyond
the great secret of human adventure the earth and
air had formed so long ago ; that which they had
guarded so jealously from disclosure by dearth and
drought and lifeless expanse.

Then the silver stars in their ethereal commune of
the night scintillated bright intelligence to one
another, seeming to say that another soul had been
added to the glory of their galaxies beyond the
confining limits of earthly grandeur. And later on
the bright full moon rose in her silent sympathy and
touched the propped up corpse with soft, sleeping
shadows and lights, adding inexpressible calm to
the great silences where nothing was left that moved
or lived. But no one told. There was no one to
tell.

CHAPTER III

THE MAID OF THE MARK

" The City folk go to and fro

Behind a prison's bars ;
They never feel the breezes blow,

And never see the stars.
They never hear in blossomed trees

The music low and sweet
Of wild birds making melodies,
Nor catch the little laughing breeze

That whispers in the wheat."

—A. B. PATERSON.

" 'ERE ! you ain't got no call to hinterfere, mister.
You leave the girl to me, can't yer ? She's O.K. ! "

It was early morning. A couple of horse-teams
had camped the night before a little distance from
the main up-river road. The waggons, drawn off
the tracks, were loaded with wool bales pilled high,
and securely lashed with green hide ropes. The
blue smoke from a couple of burnt through back-logs
made thin spirals against a background of polygonum
swamp, whence came the sound of tinkling bells.

Some hundred yards away from the camp the
heavily timber-capped and cornered posts of a wire
fence, enclosing a cattle-run, stood up in their crude

35

36 THE SILVER QUEEN

and tar-blackened strength, and at some distance
from the timbered corner on the strong wires it
surmounted by some eighteen inches, a man's coat
hung downwards.

From the sward beyond the camp fire an excited
little crowd of teamsters and neighbouring stockmen
wrangled and jostled, the centre of their attraction
being a powerful, good-looking bay horse with a girl
on it, seated sideways in a man's saddle.

The tall, sunburnt individual who had just spoken
looked carefully over the buckles, straps, and girths
of the horse's panoply, and had brought the right
hand stirrup leather and iron, duly adjusted, over the
saddle for the girl's inside foot, the left leather being
also shortened from his own length to her require-
ments ; thus improvising a lady's side saddle with
the man's pommel for the under catch of her right
knee.

" I won't have you try it, Millie ! " shouted a
stalwart young fellow, who was being forcibly held
back from the girl's vicinity by the others, in spite of
the strength of his struggles to get free.

" And 'oo might you be, mister ? " queried the
girl's aider and abetter sneeringly, after whispering
the word " Go 1 " to her.

"A dashed sight better man than you, and that
I'll let you see directly, if I don't put your lights out
at the start," vociferated the captive, fighting still
more desperately with those who were holding him.

The girl started full speed for the fence, but
suddenly swerved in a semi-circle to change her

THE MAID OF THE MARK 37

direction from the coat on the top wire, towards the
heavily-timbered corner of the fence itself.

" Snakes a-movin' ! she's — goin' — fur — the — cap ! "
murmured the first speaker, apprehensively yet
admiringly.

And over the six feet of heavily-timbered corner
fencing the big bay horse soared like a bird.

" Hooray ! Ain't she a daisy now ? Easy as
fallin' off a log ! Didn't I tell yer ? How's that fur
high, old Clawsy?" (This to the captive.) "She
wouldn't go over the coat on the wires. I told you
she'd let yer see what she could do ! " were the various
critical comments that greeted the struggling captive,
who had ridden furiously up to the camp, jumped off
his horse, and forbidden the girl to attempt to leap,
when he was seized by the crowd.

But the girl took the coat on her way back, as if to
show that she shirked nothing, and, dashing past the
group of men, blew a kiss of jaunty defiance and
almost derision to the stranger ere she disappeared
amongst the adjacent forest avenues on the other
side of the road.

" Didn't I tell yer ye needn't 'a' got yer shirt out ? "
remarked the first speaker, laughing heartily. "What
call 'ad yer to hinterfere at all, yer mopoke ? "

" There's a nice quiet corner over there, out on the
beautiful grass by the wool waggons, if you want that
information," hissed the restrained man savagely.

And the delighted crowd broke up at once and
went there with the two men in their midst, all agog
for the promised fight.

38 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Towny " Jones, the stockman, who had been
attending to the girl and her mount, was an agile,
sandy-haired man, so sunburnt as to look almost like
a superior sort of half-caste, and the stranger was a
wiry, muscular, black-haired customer of similar
calibre.

At it they went, hammer and tongs, in the most
approved bush fashion with no small show of science
either, but giving and taking all they knew how to.

At length, in the third round, a heavily contested
one, Towny Jones, to the utter astonishment of his
supporters, was steadied with a splendid counter,
followed by an instant vengeful left, which knocked
him silly. When he sat up again he was dazed and
expectorating.

" Is it dead-finish ? " asked his antagonist grimly.
M You can come to time all right if you want to, you
know. I'm not particular to a second or two."

" What is your name, mate ? " the sitting man
asked in amazement, amid a gale of laughter. " I'm
reckoned top dog about here, but I don't come on in
the next act, and am goin' up to the shanty for my
'orse that the gal was ridin', an' a swill of somethin'
better than a clean knock-out.

" You've loosened half my grinders, as well as my
intellect, and I guess I want a corpse reviver. Give
us yer paw and 'elp us up. What is yer sign-on-de-
plume, mister, yer go-a-visitin' card, so as I may
know when yer comin' round this way again. I've
'ad enough without an extra lay out fur the
undertaker ! "

THE MAID OF THE MARK 39

"Heard tell of Myall Dick?" the other asked
caustically, as he complied with his opponent's wish
and pulled him on to his pins again.

A murmur ran round the listening men. The
stranger was known to hearsay, if not to sight. The
knowledge thus gained seemed to be sufficient, for
they stood off from him now as from a superior
being.

Towny Jones put on his slouched hat, handed to
him with a suppressed grin by one of the bystanders,
and walked off in the direction the girl had taken,
accompanied by the now mounted stranger. The
bourne these two were bound for was concealed as
yet, but there was a pretty well-marked track of
pedestrian, wheeled vehicle, and- shod horse hoof
tracks towards it; for the simple reason that they
led, one and all, to a sly-grog shanty kept by a
certain Andy Heseldine, the father of the girl all the
excitement had been about.

This dwelling, though hardly perceptible from the
main up-the-river road, by mere chance of selection
happened to be most cunningly situated at a very
thirsty and desirable distance from the last township
on the river.

Of necessity, therefore, the slip-panels the main
road went through in the first line of boundary
fencing, belonging to the cattle station it enclosed,
would be a compulsory halting place to any traveller
not conversant with the district.

Whilst replacing the heavy adze-tongued slip rail
saplings into the sockets of the road gate posts, and

40 THE SILVER QUEEN

wiping the dust and moisture from his face, if he
happened to possess but half an eye to bush
surroundings, that same unenlightened traveller
would see smoke amongst the foliage ahead, in the
very spot he would expect shade and water from.
If thirsty, he would, therefore, walk, ride, or drive, as
the case might be, towards it to discover shortly that
the chimney of a rather substantial bush dwelling
made that smoke.

If of a guileless nature and a trusting disposition,
he would probably put in a claim for his chief want
— water.

After due inspection by the inmates and a bush
telegraph caution, he would be asked inside, told to
sit down, and supplied with stronger water than
he expected, and as much more afterwards as he
cared to pay for.

Losing control of his wits, if spirituously inclined,
he would be, on recovery, charged with certain extra
drinks he had been quite guiltless of, and, what was
sure to follow, overpersuaded by the seductive
influences of the cool and shady tenement, would be
a game of cards or two, and an additional multiplica-
tion of the ready cash already occupying his obliging
host's pockets.

Andy Heseldine, in this fashion, the proprietor of
this bush shanty, whilst carrying on this nefarious
trade against the excise and his fellow-creatures, had
lived there severely alone for some time, since the
death of his wife, and made considerable profit. He
possessed a clique of intimate habitue's and added

THE MAID OF THE MARK 41

new victims to that number time after time on
occasions like the present.

At various periods during their schooling, he had
both his own and adopted daughter staying with
him. Now, however, the two girls resided per-
manently at what it pleased their father to call
" home."

His own daughter, the heroine of the leaping
episode, was at this time a very handsome, bright,
high-spirited girl who could ride any sort of horse
flesh. She was free of tongue, almost insolent to
strangers, but, at the same time and for the same
reason, absolutely worshipped by the wild, reckless
bush spirits passing on their way up and down the
river ; to whom the existence of Heseldine's liquor-
selling and card-playing were open secrets.

But, worshipped and petted as she was by all,
Millie Heseldine had never shown a marked pre-
ference for anyone of her adorers, and, above all, she
had never allowed anyone to make too free with her.
Although merely a bush girl, a cockatoo farmer's
daughter, a sly shanty-keeper and gambler's daughter,
if you will, she was born above her station, and
yearned to be a real lady with a house in a city, and,
perchance, a country dwelling of her own at the
station of a big squatter.

Against this crowning desire of her heart, however,
quiet as she kept it, was a something pulsating in her
physical fibre, that kept her in touch with wild
Nature.

The desire to rove, to change her ground con-

42 THE SILVER QUEEN

stantly, coming from her birth, her soul attuned from
her very infancy to the clear, melodious notes of the
troubadour magpies, embraced the whole domain of
Bushland, because she was bush born and bush bred.

In mental proclivity she revelled in the weird,
mocking laughter of the snake killers, the kooka-
burras. She fell in naturally with the other moods
inculcated by the soft coo of the woodland doves,
the varied aspect of the story they could tell
contained in the croak of frogs in the marshlands
of the well-watered forest lands, the nocturnal cry
of the opossums, the call of the morepork, and the
long-drawn musical queries of the curlews about her.

Each tone and note of wild life was, therefore, dear
to her. She understood them all.

A babyhood and youth spent in the eucalyptus-
saturated air, that ever-present breathing of vigour
and long, healthy life associated with dwellers in
forest clearings, had turned out the well-grown girl,
every nerve, sinew, and muscle alive and alert with
motion and enjoyment

With the lore and love of the bush, thus forming
part of her inner nature, it was not perhaps so very
strange that she was bushmarked also.

It was a small but vivid impression, a birthmark,
more like a burnt brand in copper colour, of what
might either have been taken for an oval gum leaf,
with a short, straight, broken-off petiole attached to
the base of it, and running through the middle ; or
a black fellow's bark canoe with the pole stick
left in.

THE MAID OF THE MARK 43

Be that as it may, this mark of Millie Heseldine's,
small as it was, from some unknown cause produced
the most extraordinary facial changes upon any
aborigines who ever cast eyes upon it. Even a
chance glimpse never failed to make them mouth
and gesticulate.

The black women would sometimes cast them-
selves at her feet and paze at it, where it was situated
on the white flesh in the inner bend of her right
elbow ; and no doubt the knowledge of all this by-
play of emotion and worship made Millie's mother
very superstitious about it in her time, until at length
she regarded it as an undoubted portent.

It was a curious fact also that, as the child grew
older, the blacks would do more for her and her
adopted sister, from the sheer influence of this mark,
than they would do for all the other whites in the
district put together.

Mrs. Heseldine, therefore, who had been a bush
school-mistress in the days of her girlhood, noticing
all these evidences, for the reason that the adopted
daughter was a waif of her own, tenderly guarded
because of a beloved former pupil, came to attach
almost the same importance to little unmarked
Bianca Pearmain under the aegis of Millie Heseldine's
talisman that the blacks did.

And thus the future of the pair of girls by mere
habit of thought became a matter of daily worry to
this brooding mother, almost beyond maternity or
guardianship, something she could not account for
or understand.

44 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Take care of those girls, Andy," she had often
said to her careless husband. " Some bush destiny
awaits them, and they may go astray if you don't
keep a clear head ; but I'm afraid for you, Andy,
I'm afraid because of your love for the bottle and
the cards.''

Heseldine had, if even through pure selfishness,
been sincerely enough grieved at the loss of his
energetic, hard-working partner, but to those who
knew him now, according to her words, he was
making himself completely incapable of carrying out
her desires in the way she had wished. He drank
deeper and deeper from day to day, until his once
hardy frame and iron constitution were going to
pieces, and the moral tone of a drunken gambler was
neither fit nor impressive for the two girls, now
thrown more upon his company and pseudo protec-
tion than when Mrs. Heseldine was alive.

In the meanwhile, however, Millie, having fastened
the bridle of Towny Jones' big bay horse, on which
she had accomplished the sensational double leaps,
to one of the verandah posts of her father's domicile,
was much annoyed at sundry forceful objurgations
on his part from within.

"Father is altogether beyond bearing," she mut-
tered angrily, shocked at his vocabulary. " Mother
was equal in birth and manners to anyone, but
father's going on like this will land us all in Queer
Street some day ! "

She listened a moment, shrugging her shoulder.*
in deep disdain, then clinched a half decision

45

formulated some time back, to leave this swearing,
sottish parent, and seek her own fortune elsewhere.

She had not been greatly astonished to see
"Myall Dick," whom she knew as Mr. Richard
Cosgrave, fighting his claim to her that morning.
He had a certain right to her, which she had
hitherto opposed by all the means in her power.
He had not pressed this right, but had given her
to know, in a quiet, determined fashion, that re-
sistance would be useless, and she was rather
overwhelmed by that knowledge. He was not the
man she would have chosen for herself, but he had
been a friend to the family for years past, and it was
he who had presented her, some time ago, with the
beautiful blue roan mare she was now thinking ol
as her means of escape, both from him and her
drunken and incompetent father.

Ready dressed, in her riding-habit, she went into
the house for a few minutes and returned with a
valise and a flushed face, for she had spoken her
mind to her blaspheming parent, and was bent upon
carrying out her resolve.

When she had saddled and bridled her own mare,
she rode away, rather glad that the obtuse author
of her being would fall under the brunt of Cosgrave's
displeasure for her departure. Her willing mount,
stepping briskly along the road, cocked her ears
playfully to a distant sound, and presently she met
the very man she was escaping from, riding slowly
forward, with his late antagonist walking at his side.

Petulant at his orders during the scene of the

46 THE SILVER QUEEN

morning, she eased her hand as they came forward,
and dashed by them at a gallop. He, her lover,
turning in his saddle, stared long and keenly at her
receding figure, whilst a flush mantled darkly on his
brow, for she had again kissed her hand to him in
mocking derision.

" It shall be a real one, and more than one, next
time we meet, my lady," he angrily thought, " for I
can guess where you are off to, and why. What a
beauty you have grown since I have been away in
the back blocks. I shall have to keep a vigilant eye
upon your further movements."

Richard Cosgrave was a digger prospector, and
possessed a strange record, a totally distinct and
separate one from other men.

To begin with, he had been brought up amongst
the blacks, until he was about eight years old, no
one knowing his parentage, which was pure white.
Then a man amongst the whites found this out,
took pity upon him, got him away from the blacks'
camp, and put him to school. Here he learned
quickly enough, but he never quite forgot his old
associates, and was off again with them before he
was eighteen ; strange to say, then, with the advice
and aid of the very person who had paid for his
education and keep in the interim.

That individual was an old miner who had taken
a fancy to the bright, intelligent boy, and afterwards,
under the influences of this strangely-made friendship,
this lad of eighteen, though sojourning with the blacks,
discovered gold and had made his pile at twenty.

THE MAID OF THE MARK 47

From time to time, however, not satisfied with
that, and wishing to become a millionaire, Richard
Cosgrave had turned up from time to time at a
selection of his own near the township, but like the
"wind that bloweth where it listeth," what place he
came from, or where he went to, was never known.
They were bush secrets jealously guarded by their
possessor.

His only attendant was his black foster-mother — a
devoted creature who cooked for him, and was only
seen when he was. But it was rumoured that he
became a black fellow at times, through his great
knowledge of tribal customs, and that was why the
appellation of " Myall Dick " had come to be his.
He was dark, inscrutable, said to be revengeful, and
people knew otherwise that he was not a man to be
trifled with.

This man, therefore, Dick Cosgrave, rode on with
a word or two thrown in here and there to his late
antagonist, who seemed to have buckled under to his
prestige, until they reached Heseldine's dwelling,
which they entered together, their spurs clinking on
the verandah as they walked across it.

"'Ave a drink, ole man," Heseldine remarked
disconcertedly, when he discovered who his visitor
was.

Jones, seeing how affairs were likely to go, after a
bit turned on his heel, scorning a second maudlin
offer of a drink from the muddled host, unbuckled
his horse's bridle from the verandah post it was
fastened to, and rode away back to his camp with a

48 THE SILVER QUEEN

sardonic smile irradiating his battered but good-
humoured countenance. It was rather an honour to
have come so well out of a fight where " Myall Dick "
was concerned.

" Where you been now, Dicksh ? " ventured the
besotted, sly grog-seller uneasily, terrified by
Cosgrave's stern eyes.

" So you're drinking again ! " blurted out the gold-
digger angrily, wholly regardless of both questions.

Then, noticing the other's fatuousness, and moved
by some apparently strong emotion or divination, he
continued in a^softer, kindlier voice :

" See here, Andy ! " — but broke off and turned
round for a handshake as Bianca Pearmain entered
the room.

" Get her to tidy up ! " he curtly observed at this
intrusion, with his masterful eyes still upon the
inebriate, " and you come along with me, Andy ; I've
something to tell you."

They went out together, and walking through the
pine forest verging on the river bank, presently came
to a natural recess, outside which the washed-out
roots of a tree made a trellised network, a sort of
arbour with a seat inside, where they talked long and
earnestly.

Next morning the sly grog-shanty had disappeared.
It had been burned to the ground during the night ;
and with it had gone all traces of Andy Heseldine,
Bianca Pearmain, and " Myall Dick," alias Richard
Cosgrave.

CHAPTER IV

A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY

" By camp-fires, where the drovers ride around their restless

stock,

And past the teamster toiling down to fetch the wool away,
My letter chases Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh."

—A. B. PATE^SON.

SOME months after the burning of Andy Heseldine's
dwelling, and the total disappearance of its occupants,
a hardy, good-looking young fellow crossed in a punt
over another big river in quite a different part of
interior Australia with a fine, upstanding grey horse
and a pack-horse.

At the landing-place on the other bank he
remounted, rode up the rising track to the summit,
and was immediately in the middle of a bush township
in all its crude impulses of progression.

In its vicinity was a newly-discovered copper mine,
which held gold enough amongst the less valuable
ore to pay all working expenses. And the river was
navigable for steam-boats.

The rider was Tom Inglis, an Australian-born
man, junior partner with a pair of station owners, who
had pushed out beyond this last limit of civilisation

49 P

50 THE SILVER QUEEN

in search of additional country for breeding purposes.
And young Inglis expected to get the management
of this new venture when his seniors had gone back
to town.

It was, therefore, with a pleasurable sense of life
and elation that he called upon his willing steeds and
cantered down the one street of the township to the
principal hotel.

When a man has been living in the back blocks
for some time, he yearns, naturally enough, for the
civilising influence of a woman's presence ; and this
is all the more likely to make itself powerfully felt if,
in quest of it, he should be fortunate enough to
chance upon his own masculine ideal of femininity.
But, beyond one or two women who glanced at him
as he passed, Tom's chances were meagre enougk
The township seemed to be almost deserted.

He was a perfect stranger to the place, although it
was the nearest settlement to his new-found far out
station. He had never been there before, and the
formula of " Man from outer-out-back somewhere "
had been the unexpressed idiom of the few stragglers
he had met. Beyond this, no one seemed to trouble.

Nearly all the population had gone away to
witness the formal opening of the copper mine.
They had gone with a certain amount of ceremony
and bush display, in buggies, brakes, covered carts,
even bullock drays, keenly interested in the prospect
of becoming local shareholders.

Arrived at the hotel, Tom rode around to the back
and found a groom to whom, under brief supervision,

A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY 51

he entrusted the care of his horses. Then, crossing
the yard, he entered the hotel, and from a passage
found a large dining-room, wherein, ringing a bell,
he was confronted with, apparently, the elderly,
plain female cook of the establishment, who
apologised for the shortage of attendance, and
explained the reasons.

"Not even a barmaid to talk to," thought Tom
dejectedly, as he ordered his dinner. " I'll see if I
can find a man to play a game of billiards with."

He was unsuccessful here also, after all his foray.
The billiard-room was locked up, as the marker was
also looking after his perquisites of investment at
the copper mine, and there was not even to be seen
a barman, boots, or waitress, anywhere.

As for the proprietor, he was a large investor, and
therefore invisible also.

With a sigh Tom Inglis resigned himself to the
inevitable, resolving to set out for the copper mine
himself as soon as possible, and invest in a few
shares, because he had learned from the groom that
it was a good thing.

He managed to get a shower bath as well as a plunge,
and, having effected a change of raiment from his
valise, again took his place in the big, lonely, solitary
dining-room, where he found, somewhat to his surprise,
a remote corner of white damask resplendent with
silver and glass spread for his sole occupancy.

Phyllis, his own ideal Phyllis herself, waited upon
him. And the beauty of her face added to the
divinity of his dinner.

52 THE SILVER QUEEN

"You live a good way off, I suppose?" was her
first query, after setting his chair for him.

Her knowledge for him was self-evident, if abrupt.
Tom carried a look of a far comer from his sun tan
and general appearance.

"Are there any more gentlemen with you?" she
went on, with studied carelessness.

" Yes, my two partners."

"What are they like? I mean," she corrected,
"are they older or younger than yourself?"

" Both older. How is it that you didn't go out to
the copper mine ? "

"Someone's got to stay," she said, with a little
more assurance. She had made the same discovery
he had in those brief moments, and read his eyes,
which were not disrespectful, in spite of his blufl
manner, which was caused by sheer nervousness at
her presence. " For instance," she said, with a slight
access of colour, " what would you have done if I had
not been here to look after you ? "

" Muddled along somehow, I suppose," he replied,
rather mournfully, his face scarlet with the same
emotions. " I never hinted that I was sorry you
stopped. I never expected such a pleasure, and
couldn't find anyone to talk to, except the groom
and the cook."

" Well, Bridget is capable, as I daresay you
perceive. But, to judge by your voice, you are like
the blacks when they say : ' Poor fellow me.' Why
should you feel so ill-used? Are you of a social
disposition? Shall I waive all ceremony and

A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY 53

come and chat with you in the verandah by and
by?"

" I wish you would," he said heartily. " I'm tired
of being alone."

" Neither of your partners is married, I suppose ? "
she asked abruptly.

" Out where we live? " he answered, startled out of
his hesitating attitude by the mere impossibility of
the question. " Well, no, our place is hardly yet
fitted to receive a lady, my dear girl."

" H'm ! " she exclaimed, rather resentfully, yet
from her blush not quite unappreciative of the
compliments in Tom's eyes. " I — see ! Then,
owing to your enforced seclusion from the ranks of
female society, you acquire the right " — pursing her
pretty lips to conceal her amusement — " to call me
your dear girl. Some young gentlemen certainly
don't want assurance.

" Shall I tell Bridget that the soup was to your
taste ? "

Tom nodded, and raising his glass of sherry drank
to her health.

" Well then," she concluded, as she bore his plate
off with a merry glance over her shoulder, " all things
considered, especially your forlorn condition, your
1 dear girl ' will now bring you, at intervals, the rest
of your refreshment."

Tom was upset entirely between bashfulness and
boldness. He had never seen such a beautiful girl,
and she was one of those who showed in every
feature, every poise, that she was to the full as good

54 THE SILVER QUEEN

as she looked. A girl full of fire and animation, she
was as sweet as a budding rose, and made him lose
his head altogether.

There was no one about that pleasant evening to
interrupt their friendly talk in the verandah, except
an old black fellow who passed once or twice. The
habitual frequenters of the hotel were all away, and
the bar was closed to outsiders.

Tom never forgot that night. It seemed like
heaven to him, mixed as it was with the lowing of
cattle, the twinkling but occasional and rare light
in some distant casement seeming to answer the
brilliant stars with a loving touch of tenderness and
home desire, after his sojourn in the wilds, and the
sweetly scented air, the general restful, far out feeling
of an Australian border settlement, left their im-
pression, too, where for the first time in his life
one heart had answered his own and held Paradise
for them both to utilise and see that it was good.

She wore a spray of blossoming copper - leafed
eucalyptus in the bosom of her bodice, and Tom's
attention had been particularly drawn to it because
of its peculiar rarity.

" The town stockman, Ned Grimthorpe, brought
me the spray this morning," she said, with an
averted glance. " I am bush-marked with its sign,
you know, and some people think it prophetic of my
future."

Thus their talk varied until Tom, entirely carried
away by her proximity, proposed marriage and was
accepted, provisionally, on trial.

A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY 55

He stayed some days after that first interview of
theirs without visiting the copper mine, but when
he left at last he considered himself an engaged
man.

It had been a very brief and unexpected courtship,
but when ideal meets ideal, who shall say them nay ?
Nothing else on earth of happiness seemed to be
wanting to either of them, and Inglis rode away with
her spray in his buttonhole, his tongue lingering over
the " Millie " of her Christian name. He was to come
back for her at once, and as he had pressed this, was
much in vision during his home journey as he
thought about all that had passed between them, the
discoveries of her perfections he had made, the
decisions he had come to. One scrap of con-
versation from herself coming into his mind pleased
him more than anything else, especially when
associated with the glance and caress of the beloved
speaker.

" Why," she had said to him, " I could help you to
work the station. I am used to the blacks, carry a
talisman for them. I can ride, and in general
knowledge of the bush and its ways I doubt if even
you, Tom, big squatter and bushman as you may
think yourself, would be able to instruct me
overmuch."

Here was a mate after his own heart, indeed,
for he was native-born and delighted with her
declaration of ready capability and sympathy with
his work.

He came up with some rams which had been the

56 THE SILVER QUEEN

real object of his visit, and had been despatched on
the road for his station, but after helping to convey
them safely there, he was detained beyond the time
he had promised to go back for his bride. His
partners were going to town, according to a sudden
determination, and he had to stay for a week over
his stipulated time while they fussed about various
trivial matters. But after they left and he was
getting ready to leave for the settlement, a horseman
came along from that very place, bringing the
astounding news that a girl from the big hotel had
married the town stockman, who was also the
Pound-keeper, and describing in detail all the
jollifications of the wedding, which, according to his
account, was attended by the whole populace.

The traveller had not given Tom the name of the
bride, but, connecting his still-cherished, if faded,
spray with the town stockman, there was only one
girl in the township for him.

He had sent a letter to his betrothed by black-
fellow post — the cleft-stick, in which it was tied,
proving a security for safe delivery through some
superstition — in which he had told her the reasons
for his delay. Now he understood why he had
received no counter communication, and was
paralysed at the thought of what it meant for him.

A month after the departure of the traveller he
was sitting at midday in the shade of the bark-
roofed verandah of the principal building of his
dwelling place, still meditating problems connected
with his past.

A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY 57

" I might have expected it," he moralised. M The
blacks said she got my letter all right. It was
because I did not return at once. I ought to have
told Nettlefold and Sargent about my sudden and
important resolve, instead of knuckling under to their
fads and fancies.

These harassing reflections were brought about
by the re-perusal of a letter that his rough-rider,
Jim Terry, had delivered to him that morning.

It was worded thus :

"DEAR TOM, — Nettlefold has dropped in for a
large fortune, and, of course, intends to go to England
to realise how it feels to be passing rich. I also,
strange to say, inherit moderately from a deceased
aunt. Consider us, therefore, only sleeping partners
for some time.

" The firm allows you now £400 per annum as
working and managing partner. All town and
travelling expenses extra when combined with
business. Do your work thoroughly, for all our
sakes, also for your own profit ; for there are such
things as bonuses. I may return in a year or so if I
can tear myself away ; but I mean to see the old
country and the continent of Europe as well.
Nettlefold and I have taken our passages by the
outgoing P. & O. steamer.

"Our first mob of 1,500 'stores' are on the way
up, under Waters. That is our arrangement. The
rest devolves upon your own judgment. You will
hear shortly from our agents, who are sending your

58 THE SILVER QUEEN

directions, and will act for you in all personal
matters. — Your friend and partner,

"ALEXANDER SARGENT."

" P.S. — It may be, perhaps, your turn next to
come in for a fortune."

" H'm ! don't know much about that," grunted
Tom, as he turned the letter over. " Except for this
new rise, I consider my luck ended. Spiflicated, in
fact ! "

At this point, old Spot, Nettlefold's ancient and
valorous bull-terrier bitch, growled ominously.

Selim and Prince, two Kangaroo dogs, red and
brindle in colour respectively, who were fast asleep
on their backs with their legs propped against the
(vail of the house at convenient angles, assumed a
fighting equilibrium in two instantaneous and
responsive somersaults, and, rushing frantically down
towards the crossing place, barked furiously. Old
Spot never warned in vain.

Jim Terry, the rough-rider, Tom's sole companion
at this time, ran' out of the kitchen without his hat,
and with contemplative hands joined across his
forehead, as a protection against the sun glare, stood
staring in astonishment. For on the other side of
the crossing place were strangers — a black girl and a
young white woman — both mounted, both leading
pack-horses, and they were riding down the opposite
far bank to cross the river.

Disappearing in the hollow, they rose to sight
again on the station side, and continuing their

A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY .59

progress at length halted right in front of Tom
Inglis, where he was sitting in a lean-to canvas chair
in the verandah.

Judge of his amazement when he found that the
rider of one of the leading horses was the very girl
he had left behind him in the township ! His lost
love, Millie Heseldine !

She was equally astounded at seeing him.

After hurried explanations, it transpired that the
bride mentioned by the passing traveller was quite a
different person from Tom's sweetheart.

The wonderment of it all was further increased by
Millie herself, who stated that she was now on her
way to find another situation, and but for the fact of
a flooded river interfering with her journey, and
causing a great detour, she would never have chanced
upon Tom's station at all, but kept on her way down
country, ignorant of his feelings, and imagining that
he had thrown her over.

But she would not now listen to any proposition
of going back to the township to be married.

Being a girl of quick decision, and seeing there
could be no misunderstanding between them now,
even if she had to suffer herself about something not
disclosed, she determined to stop for a final explana-
tion, and for the purpose of putting Mr. Jim Terry
off the scent, proposed to Tom that she and her
black companion should undertake the house and
kitchen work, until such times as other arrangements
could be made.

Tom joyously clinched the bargain at once, but

60 THE SILVER QUEEN

could hardly understand her manner, though desirous,
above all things, of having her near him. What on
earth had happened ?

So he sang out for Jim Terry, and personally
superintended the deportation over to the kitchen
for these new auxiliaries to bachelor home comfort.

Wondering much at the extraordinary chance that
had led her to his own home, he helped the new-
comers to unsaddle, unbridle, and hobble their steeds,
Jim heading them up the river to a mob of station
horses browsing within sight

There were not many sheep at Kulbarunna now,
most of them having been sold to a neighbour fifty
miles away, and Tom and Jim had been constantly
on the roads with them.

The advent of the two girls seemed to be a perfect
windfall for the station under the new management,
for they were both, the white girl and the black,
excellent managers and good cooks, whilst Millie
Heseldine herself soon put all matters connected with
Tom's dwelling house in such wonderful and charming
order that the men considered themselves in paradise.

Mutual explanations had been meagre as yet,
because of publicity lurking in the person of Mr.
James Terry, but a note slipped gently by Millie
into Tom's hand one morning bore this warning1
message, and made the situation plainer if more
exorbitant :

" It must never be known that we have met. I
rely upon your honour as a gentleman. The past

A FEMININE IMPOSSIBILITY 61

is never to be brought up, and must be buried.
Keep your own counsel ; I will keep mine. Burn
this at once."

It finished with three small crosses, which meant
kisses.

Tom lit his pipe with a corner of the white slip of
paper, casting the rest of it, with its pencilled secret,
into the gidya ashes of the fireplace, where it flared
redly, blackened, and turned to impalpable ashes

His forehead became grim and puckered. What
could be the meaning of her decision, and what were
they to do ? Luckily for him, there was much work
to be got on with just now, and he welcomed it
heartily for the above reasons. There were large
additions to be made to the old stockyard, and he
was out daily selecting and marking timber pending
the arrival of workmen, because a former sheep
station was about to be transformed into a cattle
run.

Once or twice daily, however, he managed to get
the opportunity of a word or two with the only
young white woman who had ever been seen at
Kulbarunna, from which interviews, " all boiled
down," as he mentally expressed it, the extract
amounted to this : That, owing to circumstances
happening since they parted, she thought it best to
let that past be. Wishing to be independent, she
was willing to stay and work for him, but only in
the relations they now occupied. She had been
much worried of late, and wanted a rest and perfect

62 THE SILVER QUEEN

quiet. When that was accomplished she would
leave.

So that was what Tom's enforced delay at the
station had brought him to. Something had
occurred in the interim, but what it was he could
not fathom. She was much colder in her manner to
him, and would neither talk of marriage nor anything
else.

CHAPTER V

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST

'* Not understood ! The secret springs of action,
Which lie between the surface and the show,
Are disregarded. With self-satisfaction
We judge our neighbours, and they often go
Not understood ! "

— THOMAS BRACKEN.

A WEEK after Millie and her black girl, Leura, had
arrived at Tom's station, some of the outside blacks,
who were numerous and all over the country, reported
to those at the station that a horse valued by Tom
himself, then some time astray, had been seen running
on the back country of a certain creek some miles up
the river, with a mob of mares and foals, and,
knowing the locality mentioned, Tom, though it
was some distance away, without a second thought,
hastily summoned Jim Terry and a black boy to
boot and saddle ; the three of them, after hasty
preparations, riding off to camp for the night at a
hut by a stake yard near the vicinity of the
runaway.

This yard happened to have been built of unusual
height and strength, in order to keep the wild dogs

63

64 THE SILVER QUEEN

from a flock of sheep which had been quartered
there before they were sold, and therefore suggested
itself to Tom as being particularly handy to run the
stray mob of horses into.

The outside blacks had given very little trouble. The
home station blacks were quiet, and white strangers
only showed very rarely, but to Tom Inglis, not
long after his start, there entered a haunting and
discomfiting doubt concerning Millie Heseldine.

Supposing some loafing sundowner or white man,
not worth his salt as a white man, should come along,
and finding out the absence of white protectors at
the station, would she be safe ?

Or if any man who had a prior claim to her, as he
now more than half suspected, should arrive and take
her away from him. That might bury the past and
destroy the chance of the sequel he was determined
to have happen, whether by hook, crook, prolonged
patience, or the immolation of the man preferred.

She wasn't his wife yet, and if she really resolved
to be adamant to him, might never be, but in his
conscience, perhaps in hers also, there lingered the
old knowledge that he possessed a great claim to her.
A claim that she could hardly disregard when she
was actually living on his station, nor he either the
self-evident fact of his great love for her.

Again, suppose a mob of wild, hunting blacks
should come in ? There would be no one to protect
her, even in that case. What a fool he was not to
have left Jim Terry behind ! He was too proud to
stay himself. Should he tell Jim to go back ?

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 65

His thoughts running thus in counterfoil only, as
he rode along, he became so absent-minded that Jim,
his constant companion out on the run, wondered
what was the matter with him.

Just as he was making up his mind to send Jim
Terry back to guard the girls, a flock of prime
wethers, 2,000 strong, came into sight. They were
the last lot to be sent away, and he was going to sell
them, as they were quite fit for the roads and market.
He was keeping them to send down to town with
Waters, the drover, when he had finished with the
delivery of the expected store cattle. The present
shepherd in charge of these sheep was a new hand,
and Tom was not entirely satisfied with him.

So that when the three horsemen came on these
very sheep wandering with a very wide, straggling
"spread" on them, it was evident to experienced
eyes that something was up with the flock, and no
shepherd or dog had been near them for hours.
Moreover, when, on riding all round them, they
found no evidence of either man or animal, in spite
of loud and prolonged coo-ees, it was still more
certain that something had happened beyond the
common ; perhaps disaster to the shepherd.

" Bitten by a snake, or waddied by the waddy-
galos," muttered Tom vindictively.

"Jim," he continued, "ride on with Boro, and
round those horses up. You ought to be able to get
them into the yard to-night and bring them on to
the station to-morrow, if you look sharp. When I
find the shepherd 1 will come on after you. If I

E

66 THE SILVER QUEEN

don't come across him, or if he doesn't turn up to-
night at his yard, I will go on his tracks with one of
the black boys from the station to-morrow, and put
Mulga and Jerry on with these sheep.

" Meanwhile, as the flock are now heading for their
own yard, I'll stick to them. You and Boro can take
my share of rations and tea. I shall get plenty at
the shepherd's hut."

The party then separated, Tom bringing the
grazing wethers more together with a shrill whistle,
which made them run in from their far-spread sides,
expecting their dog. Across the ridgy downs where
they were he now went on with them, leaving Jim
and Boro to diverge on their errand. Tom, coming on
to well-grassed, open plains, scoured the country in
all directions on horseback by himself, without dis-
covering any traces of the man who ought to have
been with the sheep.

On reaching the sheep yard, and finding that the
shepherd did not turn up, even at sundown, Tom
hitched his horse to a rail near the hut and counted
the flock into their yard, keeping his own tally in
hundreds by shifting a pebble from one palm to the
other.

Rather against his surmises, he found their number
quite correct, and fastening the gate hurdles he pro-
ceeded to investigate the absent shepherd's dwelling
place, wherein cleanliness and order, exhibited in
superiority above the common, showed the experienced
" hatter," or one well accustomed to live alone, in
spite of his other delinquencies.

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 67

Under the snow-white powdery gidya ashes heaped
up on the hearth clay, failing other marked evidences,
he found the hard glowing embers of the wood, which
at any rate showed the man's presence there at
breakfast time, but the hours passed away and he
still did not put in an appearance.

" I'll be stuck here all to-morrow with these sheep
if I don't hurry and utilise time," thought Tom.
"Who can tell what has happened to him? He
may be dead, for all I know, most probably is ;
and I had better bring Eacharn and some other of
the trackers to make sure."

He reflected also that by this means of procedure
his ever present anxiety about the girl of his heart
might be relieved by a sudden visit to the home
station, and that gladdened his heart more than
anything else had done since he left home. So
examining once more the fastenings of the gate
hurdles and his own horse's straps, buckles, and
girths, he sprang into the saddle with alacrity, and
rode off in the moonlight, taking a well-known short-
cut through the bush, which saved him about three
miles.

He reached the station houses at twelve o'clock
that night, and was considerably astonished and
alarmed when he saw an unusual number of blacks'
fires in the valley by the creek at the back of the
station. By this time of night, in the ordinary
course of things, even the embers of those fires
should have been out, but there was a blazing big
corrobboree fire in the centre of lesser illuminations,

68 THE SILVER QUEEN

and, worst sign of all, flitting firesticks, carried by
restless figures away from the camp ; and it looked
as if the aboriginals were up to mischief, or had been.

In the consummate preoccupation of thought which
had stuck to him all day, he had gazed vaguely at
first at this unwonted display from the elevation
of the higher river terraces as his horse surmounted
them, until the terrible significance of the situation
dawned upon him.

Then, with an oath, he struck the spurs into his
horse and galloped wildly forward, for, ahead of him,
by the houses, he caught sight of a figure which
filled him with dismay.

This figure, when he first detected it, had been
gliding stealthily along close to his own dwelling,
and its full corrobboree presentment in the clear
moonlight was ghastly. There was no bodily
covering to this stalwart savage, for such it was,
save the fiendish contrast of white, yellow, and
scarlet against a black skin ; the ribs picked out
in white until it looked like a skeleton in the
moonlight. But this apparition carried a full
fighting complement of spears in one hand, and
the moon glint flashed from a steel tomahawk,
gripped equally with a bark torch.

Were even now the girls abducted, and was he
there to fire the dwellings ?

Tom pulled up and fired three shots from his
revolver at this stealthy, silent horror, but, his horse
plunging violently, missed him.

The blackfellow ran away down into the valley,

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 69

where a savage medley of shouts and cries arose,
and excited figures rushed about with frantic
gestures, seeming to forebode attack. The ex-
plosion of Tom's pistol deadened all else for the
moment to his own ears, but dashing forward again,
all aghast at any unforeseen possibility, he reined up
at the side of his seemingly deserted dwellings,
jumping off his horse and leading it forward.

The terror of breathless, gasping suspense broke
in upon him. What had happened ? Had the girls
been killed ?

The lime - washed station houses looked eerily
very white, and shone like plaster of Paris in the
moonlight

Shadows of tree stems, boughs, laced with shadows
the intermittent brightness of the sward, and marked
the stillness of his suspense. He was aware of this,
thrillingly aware of it ; everything was distinctly and
vividly marked to his glaring eyes, even to a stray
stick or stone. And no sound whatever came from
within his own house as he paused aghast for a
moment.

Then the main door of the big dwelling opened
silently and Millie Heseldine, fully dressed, stole
stealthily out, carrying a rifle, and was followed by
the black girl with another.

" I thought you would never return in time, Mr.
Inglis," she said, in a breathless, agonised whisper.
"We wanted someone's help badly. Oh, how
frightened we have been ! "

The open door showed other firearms on the table

70 THE SILVER QUEEN

in the moonlight, but the rest of the house only the
darkness of ready barricade with closed shutters.

" If we went out of the kitchen — " A pang shot
through Tom's heart. She, who ought to have
been his wife ere this, had been condemned to
menial offices by his own delay. " If we went out
of the kitchen," she continued, " we saw blacks
slipping like phantoms from tree stem to tree stem
to conceal themselves. We have been stuck up by
them all day. So, fearing for the worst, we barri-
caded ourselves in the big house, as far as we could,
and loaded all the rifles and revolvers we could find.
Until we heard your horse's hoofs, and the shots, we
had almost given up ourselves for lost. And I have
been praying for your return ever since Mulga and
Jerry went away with the milking cows this morning.
Oh, how glad I am you are home ! When I saw the
blacks surrounding the houses, and found Mulga and
Jerry never came back, I began to suspect partly
what was likely to happen if no help came. We hadn't
even time to loose the dogs. Oh, Tom, Tom ! "

He took the double-barrelled rifle from her, and
motioned her to hold the bridle of his horse.

Then, walking over behind the kitchen to a point
on the slope of the hill beyond it, he raised his
weapon to his shoulder.

" They would probably have burned her out, and
that peering, creeping, listening fiend was here to
start the fire ! " he thought, as he took steady aim,
alive with rage and pent-up emotions.

His two shots plumped into the middle of the big

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 71

corrobboree camp fire, four hundred yards away. The
heavy bullets had the effect of explosive shells therein,
scattering sparks and flaming embers in all directions,
with the force of their impact.

Scared shouts and yells now arose, and then
followed a hurry-scurry of waving, vanishing fire-
sticks as all the blacks assembled fled away into
the solitude of the outlying bush and mountains.

" First time I've ever drawn trigger on them ! "
Tom Inglis mused bitterly, " and I wish I had shot
to kill. They deserve it. What sort of a devil's
dance would they have been up to ere now if that
sweet girl had not been as plucky as they make
them ? The lost shepherd brought me home in the
nick of time, and no mistake ; and my shots tell 'em
that I'm awake to their mischief and ready for them.
If they had killed the girls they would have am-
bushed our return, and there would have been no
one left alive to tell the tale."

He strode back in a few minutes, took his horse
from Millie, unsaddled it, and led it over to the stable.

" You shall never be left alone again," he said, on
final return. "You are in my charge now. Oh,
what has come between us?"

Leura, the black girl, had gone over to the kitchen
reassured. Tom had let all the dogs loose, and
Millie Heseldine was in his arms, in his own house,
sobbing on his shoulder as if her heart would break.

"And now tell me your reasons for behaving as
you have done," he whispered, when she was more
composed.

72 THE SILVER QUEEN

"First of all, why did you leave with Leura at
all? Why run away and not wait for me? Why
did you not answer my letter? And what is the
main reason for your coldness and not wishing to
marry me?"

"For one reason, I — thought — you — were — above
— me, that you had spurned — me," she faltered. " I
was only a poor country girl, a waitress in an hotel
— you a big squatter, a gentleman !

"After your delay beyond the time appointed, I
wondered if you really loved me ; if there was not a
possibility of you getting tired of me if we did marry.
I thought perhaps you might have found joints in
my harness that you did not approve of, some bush
manners I had let slip to my detriment. I was sure
I was not well enough connected for you, although I
— loved — you — so dearly. You knew nothing of my
people, and I could not tell you then that another
man had a sort of claim to me.

" And," she added, standing clear of him, but with
both her hands at arm's length on his shoulders, " I
was a very wilful girl — then ! I hardly knew what
it all meant, love and marriage. I wanted to see—
for myself — the sort of estimation I was likely to be
held in by a — gentleman.

" And I was led away by my feelings without due
reflection. I should have kept you at a distance,
but I felt I loved you then. It was so sudden, and
I could not retract or tell you all, for you were my
first love. No one but you ever took my fancy so,
or spoke so sweetly to me.

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 73

"But when I thought that some day you might
chance to hear odd things about me, I felt afraid to
lose that love you told me then you had for me, the
love that was once my own. I thought of your
friends, your partners, and seemed to hear them
sneer that I was not fine lady enough for them or
you ; I couldn't face it. I thought you had given
me up on their representations, for every day you
delayed was like a year to me ; and I felt more
bound to that other man I have told you about,
whom I forgot completely when you came into
my life. He is a very peculiar man and bitterly
revengeful. I have been afraid of him.

" So I gave you up, Tom, now that you have forced
it out of me ; but it is your right to know. I took
steps against my own real wishes that I thought
would part us for ever. And then somehow the
flood waters drove Leura and myself right to your
very station doors, in spite of all my precautions.
But why must I tell you all this, even if it is your
right to be told. I can never be your wife ! "

Her eyes, full of the old love, looked fully into his
for one brief second.

Then she stood clear of him.

Tom started violently, and held out his arms as if
in appeal.

She came forward again, as if against her will, but
still forward, step by step, until she was close to him.

At length with an effort she put his arms down
against his sides, with a queer little, decisive, finishing
push, kissing him, however, silently on the forehead,

74 THE SILVER QUEEN

her soft, sweet lips lingering there, dewy with
moisture and warmth, as if in farewell.

Then she drew herself erect, and said, gravely and
proudly :

" No ; it cannot be now. Oh, why did I ever stop
here for a moment ? "

Tom lowered his gaze. His former delay had lost
him his reward. His colour paled as he indignantly
replied :

" In spite of your own misjudgment, caprice, and
prejudice, you would have been my honoured wife, and
still may be, Cosgrave or no Cosgrave, whoever he is."

"Then God forgive me for ever doubting either
your honour or affection. I shall never forgive
myself. I'll get your supper now, sir," she added,
with a sudden change of manner.

Running over to the kitchen, she bathed her face,
smoothed her hair, put on a fresh apron, and a ribbon
or two, returning to set the meal, so pretty, so self-
possessed, so quiet and unassuming, that Tom regretted
the unavoidable futility of the past more than ever.

" I don't wish this Cosgrave of hers any particular
harm," he thought, as he glanced at her thus employed,
" but if he was to go out to-morrow by breaking his
neck ... I would renew my suit."

At daylight next morning, Tom rode off and ran
in a mob of horses, whilst Millie Heseldine busied
herself in getting breakfast for him, dressed in a
riding-habit, with Leura similarly attired.

There wasn't a sign of a blackfellow anywhere, which,
after the fusillade of last night, was not peculiar.

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 7$

Millie's own mare was amongst those run into the
yard, and after breakfast she and Inglis and her
black girl rode off together.

The errant Mulga turned up with her man Jerry,
just before they left ; stating that they had been
scared to death yesterday by a nomad tribe of hunting
blacks. They were ordered to follow on the horse
tracks in case of accident to the shepherd, and the
trio departed.

Millie and Tom were very silent and abstracted
during their ride, though it could not be denied that
their hands met and clasped for a long time some-
times, as the horses closed together, perhaps to
dictate farewells, where no words could be spoken.

A remark about a track, or a mob of kangaroos or
emus, was their only conversation. Each was busy
with silent and ever-forming thoughts.

They rode first to the sheep yard and hut. The
shepherd had returned during the night, and the
sheep had been taken out of the yard and were away
on their run.

" Tally all right ? " he queried, when they ran his
tracks to him. " I've got all my marked sheep. I
was prospectin' yesterday a bit, and clean forgot I
was shepherdin'. I didn't come home till late and
found my sheep yarded. Your horse tracks told me
I'd been spotted. They'd have yarded themselves,
even if you hadn't come on them. I often lets 'em
feed home by themselves. Keeps 'em fat ! I found
some stuff yesterday as I didn't know what it was.
Looked like blackfellows' pottery, some on it, and

76 THE SILVER QUEEN

there was blue chancy stuff in brown rock I never
seen afore. Didn't never know them blacks made
pottery till I seen it myself."

"Look here, my man," Inglis said, in a stern aside,
" next time you go prospecting, and let your sheep
slide to do it, you'll get the sack, and something else
with it. Suppose the wild dogs had got in amongst
those wethers ! "

And the self-sufficient shepherd, looking into Tom's
angry eyes, saw there decision, said nothing, and
mentally resolved to do much better in future.

Neither of the two men knew just then that the
shepherd's prospecting truancy was a lead to the first
discovery of the blue opal deposits which he had
mentioned as blue chancy in brown rock, but it was
contemporaneous with the discovery eventually of
the " noble " opal, and many other varieties of that
precious stone,

" 'E ain't no new chum, ain't the boss," the shepherd
soliloquised. " 'E's as good a man as I am, p'r'aps a
trifle better, if it was to come to a clean knock-out
Wonder 'oo the blessed bit of white calico is? And
the black velvet un, too ! "

For the knowledge of the advent of the new-comers
had only just now penetrated to the solitary outlying
"hatter," and he had no messmates save his old
digging habits, his dogs, and the lore of the bush of
his compeers.

Striking to the river again, and re-crossing it, Tom
and his companions fell in later with Jim and the
station black boy, in full charge of a mob of mares

LOVE'S LABOUR LOST 77

and foals with the runaway horse, very fresh and in
good condition, saddled this time and ridden by Jim,
whose stock horse ran with the mob.

Millie and Jim now took the wing riding, with
Tom ahead to steady the mob, some of which were
wild and unbranded.

From that moment Millie Heseldine and Jim
Terry became firm friends, the young stockman
admiring the girl's splendid horsewomanship and
initiative when she shot out to her positions, or
restraining the paces of her fiery mount, acted with
equal judgment elsewhere.

But also from that day forth, somehow, in spite
of all the Fates, the affection in Millie's secret self-
centred in Tom Inglis altogether, and although she
never let him know it by any ostentation, she waited
upon him and worked for him hand and foot.

And the recipient of all her assiduity and care, all
unconscious of it, though she mended all his things,
musing deeply over her needlework, muttered dis-
gustedly as he thought over it all.

" What a pity this man should come between us to
part us as he has done. She's like no other girl I
ever even heard of."

And his face grew grim and very sad, for he
seemed to be in a position there was no telling the
end of, unless her decision was altered ; and her
proximity daily made his position more trying and
unbearable.

CHAPTER VI

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

" Our fathers came of roving stock

That could not fixed abide ;
And we have followed field and flock
Since e'er we learned to ride."

—A. B. PATERSON.

THE recovered horse, a rather queer-tempered animal,
had been stabled after his escapade, for Tom's own
particular riding, and ere daylight next morning he
had saddled him and ridden off.

One of the stockmen in Waters' employ had come
in to the station in the small hours to tell Tom that
the expected store cattle were now within reach, and
camped at the nine-mile crossing place down the
river. He had sent this man off down the river road
again, with the intelligence that he would breakfast
with Waters, and took a direction of his own
choosing through the bush, away from all tracks
on the back country of a certain creek which joined
the main river, a little below Waters' camping-ground.
He desired to inspect the new cattle in bulk before
they moved on, so as to be able to judge of their
present condition without asking any other opinion.

78

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 79

He was sure that the blacks had given up all
venal designs upon the station, since his fusillade,
and that the advent of a stronger party of whites
would scare them still more, and, resolving to be
back himself again by ten o'clock, his mind was easy
on that score.

It was the " nerangi " or " little " daylight of
the blacks' phraseology when he set forth thus
adventurously from the station houses on the rise,
and struck down towards the river for the ford that
lay below.

But in this steel-grey glimmer before the dawn
the mists on the river levels, through which it hinted
coming day, held grim parallels of obscurity as cold
and comfortless as Tom's own thoughts about his
sweetheart.

It was the beginning of a day of foreboding some-
how to him, when he mused upon all that had passed
between Millie Heseldine and himself, and its sudden
termination, and his only consolation was that now,
at any rate, there would be plenty of hard work to
distract his attention. Then like a glimmer from
the east that pervaded his course came an earnest
wish that, before this immediate work was over, the
mists of their mutual dilemmas might be dispersed
and their way made light before them. It might
have been a luminous ether wave from Millie's mind
that pervaded his, but of that he was not aware.

Looking round as he splashed through the first
crossing place, he saw that his favourite kangaroo
dogs, Prince and Selim, were following close at his

8o THE SILVER QUEEN

horse's hocks ; but it was not until he was three
miles further on his journey that the consequences
underlying the power and pace of the three
quadrupeds with him became apparent.

By this time daylight had come, but he soon
perceived that its foretellings pointed to a dull,
stewy forenoon, and that the sun, that bushman's
compass, was certain to be thickly obscured by clouds.

He was now negotiating a short-cut through the
bush, fairly well known to him, where he should
strike the nine - mile creek, and thinking over the
pleasure of his first meeting with Waters, concerning
whom Sargent had expressed himself in a farewell
letter as " a man worth studying."

" They call him ' Many ' Waters on account of his
adaptabilities. People say that from drover to bush-
lawyer you can hardly displace him. Put him into
an active volcano, and he will make something out
of it, a good deal more comprehensive than mere
calcinated flesh and bones. His right name is
Mansfield, but you will understand the character of
the nickname when you know him well."

Just at that instant from the thick centre of a
clump of sandalwood bushes Tom's impatient steed
was forcing his way through, there was a sudden wild
scuffle and boisterous thudding, as a large animal
started away from under his nose.

It was only a red flying doe kangaroo, after all,
but the horse was off, Tom nearly so, and a snapshot
of the scene of confusion would have shown the dogs
in the foreground leaping madly in the air trying to

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 81

see which way their quarry had gone, and Tom's
horse bucking frantically, and then bolting.

As he settled to his seat, trying to get command of
his startled horse, who was now making no sinecure
of his name " Traveller," he saw to his right the
flying doe, bounding through the undergrowth for
all it was worth towards some thicker timber, and his
dogs tearing after her at their utmost speed.

His horse had got beyond command, with the bit
between his teeth, his head well down on his chest,
and was going nearly in the same direction, but not
quite, and Tom had to do all he knew to avoid being
knocked out of his saddle by boughs, or stretched
lifeless by coming up against a tree ; and the moments
that passed were to the full as exciting as the in-
ception of the sudden movement had been, but every
one of them took him away from the direction he
should have gone, if he wanted to meet Waters.

A flying doe can go a long way at a speed that
taxes the fastest hounds — but Tom's propulsion into
the realms of space called his attention solely to him-
self and his terrified mount, so that he got no real
pull upon him at all until he perceived the dogs, after
long and considerable variations of direction, during
a severe hunt at top speed, were working the kangaroo
round across his own flying course well ahead of him,
and they killed it right in front of him.

He had managed to steer his horse clear of trees up
to this point, but during the mad excitement of it all
was quite unable to tell how far he had gone out of

his course.

I

82 THE SILVER QUEEN

By almost superhuman efforts, he managed to pull
up somewhere near the hounds and their dead quarry,
and dismounting he unsheathed his knife and cut off
the kangaroo's tail to fasten to the D straps of his
saddle. This done, he cut up a pipeful of Barret's
Twist tobacco, whilst reproaching himself with the
utter absurdity of the whole proceeding.

For he knew that this unpremeditated gallop had
taken him miles out of his way, and that now if he
intended to be in time to catch a sight of the cattle
before they moved off their camping-ground, he must
be quick about it.

Then noticing somewhere in the direction he had
come an opening which he thought might lead to the
waters of the nine-mile creek he had been in search
of, he remounted, and rode towards it. But seeing
brigalow trees almost at once, he concluded he must
be running the creek up, and as that was not his
intention, he changed his course again.

He was aware that his dogs were too " baked " to
follow him, and that they would now lie up by their
kill until the cool of the evening, when they would
go straight home. It was very hot and sultry, he
was extra mad with both himself and his horse, there
was no vestige of the sun, nor could he guess at its
position in the dull sky.

" I wonder where the deuce I am ! " he ejaculated
at last, angrily. " More brigalow ! I must be right
back at the foot of the ranges. I believe I am
bushed in real earnest. All your fault," he added,
apostrophising his still headstrong horse, as he

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 83

drove the spurs home with all the goodwill in the
world.

This led to another desperate escapade in various
directions, until Tom himself began to cool down ;
but, determining to give his steed a lesson that
would last him some time, he still drove him forward
in a vain hope of extrication from the labyrinth of
hills and gullies by which he was now surrounded.

Presently he was more than surprised to see several
hoof-prints crossing his path, and being a little dubious
as to what sort of animals they were, because of their
size, he dismounted again for a more minute survey.
At last he satisfied himself that they were made by
mules, not by ponies, and were some days old.

There were twelve of them. Two had been ridden
and the rest packed, which he discovered by the
comparative impressions of the number of animals
indicated. He followed these tracks mechanically,
until at length they brought him to a creek bordering
on some rather abrupt and densely-wooded ranges,
when suddenly brushing through some more thick
sandalwoods, he came upon a party of aboriginals of
both sexes and different colours congregated upon
the banks of a small lagoon, near the bases of the
hills.

They had been fishing for fresh water crayfish, as
was evident from the well-filled, canoe-shaped wooden
vessels around them.

These people were of all shades of complexion
noticeable in the tribes he had come across hitherto,
but one or two of them were even lighter of hue. A

84 THE SILVER QUEEN

tall, well-shaped, yellow-coloured individual seemed
to be their leader.

Full of his discovery of the mule tracks, Tom did
not take more than a passing notice of them.

To his vanity be it spoken, however, one especially
well-favoured maiden amongst the crowd flashed a
glance of sympathy upon him, but although he spoke
aloud to them all as he rode by, none of them answered.

He thought this somewhat strange until he noticed
that one seemed to have hip disease, another goitre,
another a badly-healed wound, a fourth a broken
limb, and so on ; but still keeping on, and attributing
their silence to these causes, he became absorbed in
his mule tracks again.

Why had these mounted strangers crossed his back
country? was his dominant inquiry, whilst keeping
his eyes riveted constantly on the hoof imprints.

They led him into still queerer surroundings than
any he had seen yet. He knew he was in country he
had never seen, far back from the river, and had he
not been a consummate bushman he might have
deemed himself incalculably lost, but the mule tracks
led him on, and the instinct of the explorer added
zest to his employment.

Some miles further on from where he had seen
the strange party of crippled blacks, his horse, fagged
enough now, and quite tractable, bore him over some
well -grassed foothills, and down into a deep valley,
where, near by, rose a wall of rock with a cave at the
base of it. It was big enough to lead his horse into,
this cave was, and he noticed that several smooth places

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 85

inside it bore the mark of the Red Hand on them, an
aboriginal design and delineation, and thataneven ledge
of rock above his head with a blackfellows' ladder lead-
ing up to it by leaning against it suggested water.

This ladder was a primitive enough appliance, being
merely a sapling with the bark stripped from it, and
the boughs lopped short for a climbing foothold.

He let his horse stand with the reins down, and
mounted the blackfellows' ladder. He found that the
ledge was hollowed out,and contained a running stream
which came from above through limestone, and at the
end of the ledge again dropped downwards to the floor
level through an opening in the cliff side, which seemed
to branch onwards right through the rock itself.

He began to wonder what the time was, computing
that it was about midday, and that being so far
enmeshed in the hills all that was possible for him
now to do was by a patient and minute examination
of his own horse's prints backwards to endeavour to
reach the place he had come from.

As he led his steed out of the cave some writing
on a clear spot of rock in the entrance caught his
eye. The characters were formed by a black lead
pencil in a good imitation of small print, surrounded
by a little marked tablet frame in pencil also :

JOHN SOLWAY.
"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE."

and the date, which was a fortnight old, was also
affixed,

86 THE SILVER QUEEN

So Tom's problem was solved. These men, whose
names were imprinted in the little design, were pro-
bably the mule owners, who, attracted by the cave,
as he had been, had left their record behind and
passed on.

Apparently engrossed by their act, they had taken
little notice of the blackfellows' ladder which led up
to the ledge with the running water in it, as Tom's
investigation had shown that the lopped branches,
which were polished by bare feet, had only taken his
own boot impressions.

He followed his horse's back tracks from outside
the cave entrance until, near nightfall, he found the
spot where it had been so outrageously startled, and
previously discovered that just beyond it, on the road
he had been traversing of back tracks, he had been
carried right over the watershed of the nine-mile
creek unknowingly into one of its unwatered, grassy,
gently-sloping spaces.

Feeling rather reticent about his morning's in-
voluntary excursion, he jogged on to the station,
and introduced himself to Waters, who had arrived
there with all the cattle, merely stating that he had
been kept out unavoidably on the run.

It was long past dark when he arrived, and the
men were all camped with the cattle on a billabong }
at the other side of the river. Jim Terry took his
jaded horse over to the stables, and soon afterwards,
to Millie's great delight, Tom and Waters were
enjoying their first supper together.

1 An outflow of the river during flood time.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL 8?

The meal finished, they drew their chairs to the
fire, for it was cold enough after nightfall to feel the
need of one, and over their pipes Tom related the
incidents of his morning's journey, which had
prevented their earlier meeting.

" Did you see any cave in the ranges ? " Waters
asked, when he had concluded.

" I saw one hole at the bottom of a cliff big enough
to take my horse into, and room enough for a dozen
more besides him," replied Tom. " It was marked in
places with the Red Hand, and I — "

" Then, by Jove ! old fellow," hastily broke in his
questioner, " you have found the dwelling place of a
tribe I have been seeking to locate for the last two
years. I knew it was somewhere up here, and that
was why I took charge of your cattle, but I never
expected to jump on to it like this. The night's
early yet, and we can be back after daylight. Let's
put some tea and sugar into our jackshays,1 take
some bread and meat for breakfast to-morrow, and
go and explore that cave hole you mention. Don't
say a word about it to any living soul. And let us
start right away. Are you on ? "

" Right," Tom answered. " There are several good
fresh horses in the stable. You saddle up ; I'll get
the other things."

And half an hour later off they went.

1 Even-sided pint pots with wire handles to hang on the
saddle, with pannikin fitting into them as top covers.

CHAPTER VII

THE MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK

" The veil was from my eyesight drawn,

' Thou knowest now ! ' said he ;
' I am the Angel of the Dawn,
Ride back, and wait for me.' "

—VICTOR J. DALEY.

IT had turned out to be a beautifully clear, moonlight
night, as they travelled towards the ranges, and the
tracks of Tom's horse in the virgin soil were as plain
as could be to the trained and practised riders.

They ran them easily, Tom indeed recollecting all
salient points of rocks, trees, spurs, and ridges, as
they approached the ranges, for a bushman's vision
is as the camera, always imprinting an indelible
snap-shot on the memory.

Then, later on, he recognised the lagoon where he
had first seen the crippled aborigines, and soon after
the pair of adventurers disappeared in the heart of
the higher hills.

Day and night work were common enough
happenings at Kulbarunna in those early days, and
no one save Millie Heseldine troubled their heads
about where the night-riders were going to. But

88

MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK 89

when their two horses came galloping into the
stockyard late next day, with broken bridles, and
snapped hobble chains, there was agitated surmise on
the girl's part, and her dismay was such that she
nearly fainted.

" Come on, Miss Heseldine," exclaimed Jim, after
a rapid survey of the runaways. " It's our turn now.
They've broken away from where they were tied up
and hobbled ; I don't think it's any worse than that.
I'll saddle one of them for you.

" Get on your habit quick, and let's away, for I
have strict orders from Mr. Tom to take care of you,
so I can't go by myself. Never mind the black girl.
She will be all right now there are so many people near
about, and the outlying blacks have had a rare fright"

Jim's observant eyes, aided by Millie's, who was as
good as he at tracking, followed the back hoof-prints
of the now mounted wanderers until they descended
the side of a steep valley where Tom Inglis had first
noticed the cave.

" Here's the place they broke away from," ex-
plained Jim in wonder, as he pulled up under a large
belar tree near by. " Steady, lad, there's nothing
here now to frighten you. See, miss, where they
were plunging !

" Now, what the deuce could it 'a been ? Harle-
quin's quiet enough as a general rule, and so is
Peachblossom, and they wouldn't have smashed their
gear and made off like that without a big scare of
some sort. Someone's frightened 'em away a-purpose
— most likely the blacks.

90 THE SILVER QUEEN

"There's Mr. Tom's bootmarks, likewise Mr.
Waters', going into that big cave hole on the
cliff side. They haven't come out before or since
their horses broke away, or their tracks would have
shown on top of all this scrubble. We'll hobble the
nags loose this time, let 'em pick, and chance it, for
'pears to me there's no time to lose. Something
must have happened. I've plenty of matches, and a
revolver, miss, so come along and stick close to me."

The hole or cave tunnel into which they eventually
entered, from the water ledge in the outer cave,
trended downwards, wetly enough at first, but the
ground rose again to a dry surface, and feeling their
way by the light of wax matches, they suddenly
found themselves in a vaulted chamber. The sides
and walls, even to the dome, were salient with jagged
glistening surfaces. They saw that an outlet, the
same as the tunnel they had entered by, continued
onwards, and Millie was full of conjectures as to the
two men's motives in entering such an extraordinary
place.

Jim's words had not been reassuring, and the idea
of anything happening to Tom lay like a nightmare
upon her soul. For the second time in her life she
felt something like real terror. It was so dark in
here with only matches.

Could Tom have sought revenge upon those blacks
who had sent a scout to fire the station, by following
them here with Mr. Waters, and had both men been
lured farther on into this darksome and desolate place
and killed ?

MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK 91

"Coo-ee!" Jim shouted, hoping for some response
from the wanderers.

Then, as an additional signal, he fired one barrel
of his revolver straight above him into the dome of
the big chamber. There was a heavy report in the
confined space, and an extraordinary echo of it, which
seemed to rehabilitate to a positive shock, and then
to boom and groan away in a descending scale
amongst the twists and turns of underground passages
leading out of the vault where they were standing.

A dull, inert sound, and Jim fell suddenly at her
feet, struck on the head by a fragment of rock
loosened by the impact of the revolver bullet

Millie, despite her innate bravery of venturesome
coming, now gave a wild, hysterical scream, which
made the pitch black vault and corridors a
pandemonium of wailing sounds, and sank fainting
to the ground.

When she came to her senses again, Tom Inglis
was kneeling beside her in the darkness, his arm
round her waist. With a tremor she recognised his
voice, as, supporting her in a sitting position, he
whispered gently : " Drink this, dear," and placed
the cup of his brandy flask to her lips.

" What brought you here ? " she asked, wildly
importunate, when she had complied with his
wishes, for she was frightened out of her wits
now by the accident to Jim.

" The ' coo-ee ' and the pistol shot, of course," he
replied. " Can you rise, dear ? Are you injured in
any way ? "

92 THE SILVER QUEEN

" No."

" Then lean on me and let us get out of this as
soon as possible. I have lost my lantern and used
my last match. I am sorry to say that Waters has
fallen down a great hole farther back. I can't get at
him, although I tried to do so for many hours. Then
I lost my way when my matches gave out, and but
for your signals don't know where I should have got to.

" I was on ahead and had passed the hole when
the fatal accident happened to Waters, and then I
thought I heard a smothered gasp and a fall behind
me, and almost directly heard a scream and a heavy
body fell down the hole. There was only a narrow
ledge to pass it by, but we both saw it going in.
He must have slipped somehow. In my agitation
going back to peer over the abyss I let my lantern
fall down it, and heard it splash into the water far
below. I couldn't climb down — it was too steep and
had no foothold. Then I wanted to get out of the
cave and go for help, but got into wrong turnings,
and when by my last match but one I got into the
main tunnel again I heard Jim 'coo-ee,' and then the
report of his pistol, and I felt my way along till I
touched you in my path. Jim is not dead, only
stunned, his breathing is all right. But I am afraid
Waters is gone. He could never have survived such
a fall."

Tom's voice seemed to run all round the walls of
the domed cavern like the moan of a soul in distress,
and, suddenly, flickering, moving lights, emerging from
the passage he had come by, surrounded them.

MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK 93

Jim, recovering just then and catching sight of this
new and extraordinary phenomenon, sat up with a
start, lit a match, and gazed around him in amazement.

" What's that ? " he exclaimed. " They're gone,
whatever they are. And what knocked me silly?
So you're all right, Mr. Tom, thank goodness."

The match burnt out, and the tableau of Tom and
Millie in each other's arms faded from Jim Terry's
astonished vision, and before he could fumble for
another the lights were there again, and their weird
appearances quickened even Tom's steady pulses not
a little.

" Listen, Tom ! " Millie cried, in her excitement
and terror clinging closer to him as Jim's words
echoed back. "It's Mr. Waters' ghost answering
from the bourne of the dead," she sobbed hysterically.
" And look at the moving lights ! Are they ghosts,
too ? Oh ! what are they ? "

" Nonsense, it's only the effect of the echo, dear.
You'll hear my voice reply just the same. And your
ghosts are just phosphorescent fungi, that flicker out
on the cave walls during the darkness. I've seen the
same appearances on trees in the bush at night."

Then with a word to Jim, who rallied determinedly,
he assisted Millie towards the cave entrance, Jim
lighting match after match to show them where to
plant their feet.

But once outside in the open air, the inevitable
reaction came upon them after the fright they had
all experienced ; and they got back to the station in
a frame of mind completely upset by the terrible

94 THE SILVER QUEEN

accident to Waters, and the ordeal they had all
gone through.

A black cloud lay upon Millie until it seemed as if
she felt it physically, for she moaned from time to
time, and refused to be comforted.

" The mark upon my arm ! " she declared, when
they were safe at the station, and Tom was trying to
reassure her, "it burns, burns, burns, like my con-
science does. Surely it is prophetic ! Why should
I have been doomed to select your station, of all
places, to come to ? I seem to have brought nothing
but trouble to you and others, and to myself also,
since ever I arrived."

" Not to me, dear," he remarked.

" Oh, yes, yes, I" am afraid it will be worse for us
all, you especially. I must go away, Tom."

But that was impossible, as it afterwards turned out

Tom despatched a party of cattle drovers to see if
they could find Waters, because he could not persuade
any of the station blacks to venture. Nothing would
induce them to go near that cave; it was tabooed
from some reason best known to themselves.

Beyond the solitary statement : " Debbil, debbil
sit down,"1 they vouchsafed no further intelligence,
remaining obstinately sullen.

This confirmed Tom's own real but suppressed
opinion. He was not of Millie's way of thinking,
that the flickering lights had been borne of ghosts ;
but he knew perfectly well that the phosphorescent
fungi which composed the faint illumination did
1 The demons live there.

MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK 95

not grow on rocks, although he had given it as an
excuse to allay her fears. He thought it probable
that the tree fungus was the means employed by
the crippled tribe to see with in their underground
darkness.

He wanted to go with the drovers to find this out,
and rescue Waters if, by any chance, he had escaped,
but he found it imperative not to leave Millie, who
had become so overstrung with emotion that he
almost feared for her reason.

So the party left without him, being duly provided
with a fresh lantern out of the store.

On their return they reported that they had
found the hole where Waters disappeared, which,
as Tom already knew, had water at the bottom of it.
But they found no trace of the missing man, gave
up all hope of him, and swore by all they held holy
that they would never go near the place again.

On cross-examination, it transpired that they
had also managed, whilst looking over the edge of
this great black hole, -to drop their one light-giver
down it, and the prospect of return by the light of
matches only had not been a pleasant one to them.

At last they got back to the dome cave, and one
of them spoke sharply and forcibly to another,
because he had fallen down and dropped the only
box of matches into a pool of water.

The curious echo woke at once, shuddering round
the walls and away through the interior tunnel like
a dozen startled ghosts.

Suddenly green, unearthly rings of light, during

96 THE SILVER QUEEN

their enforced darkness, moved close abreast of them,
and, having put out their hands to find out what on
earth these phosphorescences could be, they were
scared out of their senses to touch something warm,
living and hairy behind them. Instantly these
mysterious creatures withdrew out of reach. They
could not follow, even if they wished to — a doubtful
contingency — and what they could be, or were, they
hardly dared to reason about They only felt safe,
they said, when they emerged to the light of day,
and were in their saddles once more. But one and
all of them vehemently asserted that they had
touched something living and breathing. Plainly the
tunnels of the cave were mysterious and awful, as
the blacks had said.

" They're wampy-wampys, that's what they are —
underground devils, for sure," asserted their chief
spokesman to Tom, in an awed undertone ; " and
they'll have all our lives if we go fossicking about
there. They've got one already: isn't that plain
enough ? and they'll eat his dead body.

" The green lights was from their eyes. They've
eyes all round them to see in that darkness with,
as they lives in it. I've known talk of them sort of
things before, and where they get together is no
place for any white man.

" I tell you, sir, we 'card 'em 'owl in' in the caves
afterwards. They've got dingos' 'eads and 'uman
bodies. Some of the rocks was wore quite smooth
from their sittin' on 'em. Them sort of places, you
take my word for it, is best left alone. Anyway,

MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK 97

they've likely disposed long before this of what's left
of poor Mr. Waters."

Tom did not dispute their evidence. He was
terribly cut up about his companion's inexplicable
fate, made still more disconcerting and terrible by
the experiences of the cattle drovers.

So the men went off to their duties again, and the
herd was variously drafted and sent out on to the
run.

Tom determined to take an armed force some day
to find out the cave mystery, but in the meantime
he nursed the stricken girl with a tenderness born of
his love for her.

She lay between life and death for a month, and
then, under Tom's care and unremitting attention,
her magnificent constitution pulled her through, and
she began to get about again, though with an
awe-struck expression in her beautiful eyes.

Did such things as ghouls, or cave pixies, really
exist ? thought Tom, one day when propped in his
favourite lean-back canvas chair in the verandah of
his house. He, too, was not unaware of old bush
tales which hinted the former possibility. Moreover,
he had seen the lights, and believed the men's story.

But what a fate to befall any man, to have his body
devoured by these awful creatures, even if they had
not killed him !

He would go and immolate them, shoot or poison
them, for such creatures could not be allowed to
exist.

As he came to this decision a curious, half-

c

98 THE SILVER QUEEN

paralysed old blackfellow whom he had never seen
before, appeared haltingly before him, and, with a
confidential air, handed him a cleft stick.

Tied up in the division of it, projecting crossways,
was a folded piece of paper. He undid it and read
the message it bore, nearly jumping out of his chair
in surprise and amazement as he did so.

" Kuriltai rather fun. There's a young white
girl amongst them. Such a beauty ! I'm a sort
of boss medicine man to the rest of the tribe.
But, as I have an eye to something else (not the
beauty) the affair must be kept strictly secret.
Keep away from the cave. My men are super-
stitious, and, for all parties concerned, it is better
that the supposition of my death should be an
assumed fact. Bearer can be trusted.

" MANSFIELD WATERS."

The crippled blackfellow, who seemed all doubled
up, gazed very keenly at Tom, who gave another
intense start of surprise as this palsied creature
whispered incisively :

u You're going to act square to the young woman,
I suppose ? By God, you ought to, you have com-
promised her enough ! You should be pretty well
bound to one another by this time.

" Keep them cattle drovers away from the cave as
you value your life and theirs. It's a big thing, but
you and she are in it for the good of us all. I don't
want anything about it known to outsiders. And if

MESSAGE IN THE CLEFT STICK 99

it wasn't for her sake, I believe I'd 'a' killed you ere
this."

" Who are you ? " Tom retorted angrily, hardly
able to believe his senses in being thus addressed by
a wild, unknown blackfellow.

" No one you know," replied the strange emissary
calmly, " though I ain't saying it's impossible you
should know me a deal better some day than you
have done hitherto."

And with that, raising his hand with a signal as if
to impose silence, he vanished in spite of his palsy
and general decreptitude like a flash of lightning
over the river terrace and down the river bank.

It was Millie coming over from the back of the
house who had alarmed him, and on her arrival Tom
told her of the note from Waters.

She was delighted to hear of the latter's safety,
but he said nothing to her of the mysterious black-
fellow's threatening speech or important disclosure,
explaining that the caves were not really mysterious
or ghoulish, but were held by a sort of imposture,
which they were to keep silent about.

Whereat she immediately grew grave and anxious
again. He could see that some new and different
dread assailed her ; and this new phase of her tem-
perament seemed to hint at a further barring of
intercourse, if not of further illness, for she said little
and presently left him. A cloud had fallen. What
did it all mean ?

He was to find out later.

CHAPTER VIII

BUSH PHASES

"The wide Bush holds the secrets of their longings and desires
When the white stars in reverence light their holy altar fires,
And silence like the touch of God sinks deep into the breast ;
Perchance He hears and understands the women of the West."

—GEORGE ESSEX EVANS.

*

NAUGHT accruing, however, in a couple of days to
cause any further anxiety or estrangement, Tom and
Millie drew together again ; and understanding the
relevancies of action to be the main part of life where
they were, it occurred between them that, if they had
a mandate to keep away from the cave of the Red
Hand now, they might, nevertheless, obtain further
information about the mystery of it, if they employed
a delegate who would be secret, trustworthy, sure,
and absolutely speechless.

Waters happened to be the possessor of a cattle
dog named Lanky that, from the time of his dis-
appearance, had been running about disconsolately
at the station.

A lengthy, long-limbed, wiry-haired animal it was,
with a stumpy tail constantly in energetic use to
semaphore its sentiments.

100

BUSH PHASES 101

Lanky had attached himself to Jim, as second-
best man, because the latter fed him daily. After
Jim, Tom was accepted on trust as third man in
favour, but Lanky would look at neither if his
master was about, thus proving incontestably that
he knew the rights of ownership.

Just now he happened to be fastened to a chain,
attached to an iron staple driven into the stem of a
box-tree down on the second river terrace, reposing,
when he had done calculating upon the chances of
the day, in a barrel.

Millie, having noticed Lanky's marvellous affection
for Waters, suggested to Tom that the dog should
be released and sent off with a return dispatch to
his absent master. And Tom wrote to him the
following :

" Glad you are safe. Relieved from great
anxiety and doubt. Communicate again."

Then, having shut up this message in a metal case
shaped like a large watch, which belonged to a
pocket compass of his, he fastened it to a strap
round Lanky's neck, took him to the cave, and,
giving him an old hat of his master's to smell at
the top of the ledge, sent him down the opening to
find him.

For, with the reticent instinct of the trained bush-
man, he had decided not to interfere with the cave
mystery in person.

Two nights afterwards Lanky, having attached

102 THE SILVER QUEEN

himself to Tom through the latter's display of con-
fidence in him during this excursion, jumped into
his bedroom by the open window and woke him up.

Tom lit a lamp, and, finding the compass case
still on the dog's neck, opened it at once and read
in a new enclosure a rather startling reply.

Lanky extended himself on the floor, lolling and
slobbering his happy, red tongue, perfectly convinced
that he had been engaged in the most meritorious
act of his life — which perhaps it was from Tom's
standpoint, for the reply gave the following
information :

"The wild blacks will attack the head station.
Keep a bright look out."

To this Tom replied with a kconic " Right O ! "
and sent the dog off again before daylight, after
having, as a well - merited reward, comforted the
inner Lanky considerably.

That morning, after breakfast, Jim was engaged
breaking in a spirited colt, while Tom, pipe in mouth,
watched the somewhat variegated performance.

The bush lad was sitting easily, but secure as a
rock, in a surcingled saddle with ribbon rolled, raw
hide girths, gear of breaking bit, bridle, crupper,
and martingale; and his master was more than
ever impressed with his young rough-rider's useful
qualities.

Jim was a handsome fellow, tall and well-made,
and his scarlet tie, cabbage -tree hat, grey -blue

BUSH PHASES 103

Crimean shirt, and corded breeches set him of?
against the green background to the best advantage.

" He can't shift you, Jim ! " Tom called out, in
lazy enjoyment of the scene, from an adjacent log
in the bright sunshine. " Unless he scrapes you off
against a tree, or lies down on you."

" He won't do that, either, Mr. Tom," the young
stockman replied. " He's — a — gentleman — he — is ! "
he added, in jerks, between the plunges of his
desperate victim.

At this juncture the colt, getting tired of the
plummet-like regularity of his bucks, reared, bounded
forward, and bolted for a change, with Jim still a
permanent asset in his career as he disappeared into
the distance.

Nothing out of the common happened that day,
but next morning Lanky came back, bearing a
cypher message for Millie.

" Show old man Combo the Mark," it read, and
so the ancient but finely-built chief of the tame
blacks about the station was sent for.

He arrived with his family of several lubras, a
numerous progeny, and a big fly duster of emu
feathers.

Forthwith Millie had an interview with him, out
on the red loam amongst the cotton bushes, his
wives and children playing the part of chorus. And
here the expectant smirk of the head of the clan
changed to the start of fear, from fear to positive
reverence. He ended by literally grovelling at her
feet, while repentance, terror, and contrition spoke

104 THE SILVER QUEEN

in every feature of his face, as he hastened away
with his clamouring tribe after him.

This little episode started Tom thinking again.

Who could have mentioned the Mark ? and what
the deuce did it all mean ?

Waters could not have known about it, even if he
had been unusually observant. Was the strange
mumming blackfellow, who had spoken to him in
excellent English, his informant ?

It had been very cloudy and threatening away
towards the northern sources of the river for the last
week or so, but no local rains had fallen, and con-
sequently when Tom, in the midst of this new train
of ideas, heard the rush of water over the boulders of
the crossing place below the station, he knew that
the river had come down. That was what the
darkling northern skies had foretold.

Generally after a long period of dry weather the
small, stagnant waterholes along the river turned
quite black with dead astringent gumleaves, and the
consequent washing out of these by flood waters
brought the stupefying mixture to permeate through
the clear liquid of the great permanent reservoirs,
and drugged the fish in them. So, at the yearly
period of running water, they drifted along with the
current, flapping and kicking near the top of it, a
natural food supply to the naked tribes who eagerly
availed themselves of it.

" I'll get some fish ! " said Tom, aloud. Then he
added to Millie, who was passing : " Come down to
the lower crossing, and I'll show you something

BUSH PHASES 105

you haven't seen before, though it's only a black's
sport."

So down to the lower crossing they went, and she
sat on the bank watching her lover out on the
shallows in mid-stream, keenly on the watch for the
struggling fish when they were borne up to and past
him. And he held a vigilant green stick in his hand.

From her level, Millie could see the lower end of
the great Kulbarunna waterhole, now spume-
spattered and flecked with lace-like foam, but well
above the earth edges of its present height of flood
was the old permanent flood mark, just under a line
of sedges ; and this once attained she knew the
whole river would be running from start to finish.

A queer, omnipresent way had Nature with her,
for she was a child of it. She felt part and parcel
of the warm, sunny days and ambrosial nights ; and
these moving waters brought back the memory ol
old times to her, for with them came the delicious
odour of the drinking earth of the river banks. In
spirit she was back on her father's old location, the
lonely clearing in the forest.

Then, awakening as if from a trance, she began to
think of something she hesitated to confide to Tom.

It was an unpleasant change from her communion
with Nature, because it bore upon the present, and
much as she liked the sights and sounds in this new,
far-out country, she was face to face with the past
again in a dilemma she dreaded.

Cosgrave, or Myall Dick, had appeared suddenly
at the hotel in the township after Tom had left, for

io6 THE SILVER QUEEN

the burning of her father's shanty had been but a
means on his part to attain an end. It was but a
blind, after all, a red herring drawn across a trail for
his own purposes.

Her besotted parent, and her adopted sister, were
with him — he did not say where, and he had made
a wonderful discovery.

On the strength of this, he had asked her to marry
him, pressing upon her the advantage the mark on
her arm would give him in realising what he had
discovered. She knew that he worked secretly
amongst the blacks, but his sympathies were
not hers, and she had run away from him. The
messages Tom had told about, as far as he had
personally expressed himself, showed her, only too
plainly, that Cosgrave's great discovery was on
Tom's run, and here he was again amongst them all,
wielding the same power as of old. She had but
jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire, after all.

By this time Tom might have seemed to anyone
not entirely conversant with the manners of the
locality to have gone clean out of his mind. For he
was beating and thrashing the water here and there,
as .it flowed past him, with vicious, downright blows,
as if above all things he wished to make it run faster.

But a close observer would have seen that his
erratic movements were caused by the fine silver
bream, large perch, and occasional catfish, as they
were whirled sideway, upside-down, and end on, in
the currents, for to him the shallow waters of the
crossing now looked full of gleaming scales.

I

BUSH PHASES 107

After a successful blow, he would use his dis-
engaged hand to seize the fish he had killed and
throw it out on the bank, and presently he was
joined by another individual who became as excited
as himself before even he took part in the sport.

For Jim had ridden up on the other side of the
river, and seeing Tom thus employed, hastily
fastening his horse to a tree, he cut another green
stick and splashed over the shallows to his assistance.

" Here they come, no end of them ! " shouted
Tom, whacking harder and quicker than ever, and
Jim and he were soon hurling out stricken fish one
after the other.

When the number on shore reached about three
dozen, all over two pounds' weight, the performers
in the watery duet waded out in separate directions,
Jim to ride his horse through the streaming shallows
and pass on to the station, and Tom to string the
best of the fish together on a green withy. Then,
calling to Millie, the pair of them set off after Jim,
to the home in the wilderness the young woman
had wandered to on the sheer edge of circumstance.

CHAPTER IX

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND

" The grey gums by the lonely creak,

The star-crowned height,
The wind-swept plain, the dim blue pteak,

The cold white light,
The solitude spread near and far
Around the camp fire's tiny star,
The horse-bells' melody remote,
The curlew's melancholy note

Across the night."

—GEORGE ESSEX EVANS.

As an out-pioneer station of rough symmetry,
Kalburunna was a model, for all had worked hard,
including Sargent and Nettlefold, when they first
came to take up the country. Bush carpenters had
been engaged, who, from the materials around them,
had planned and executed according to the initiative
thus given, and the result was not unpleasing.

The walls of the station house, kitchen, store,
stables, and outhouses were formed of mulga up-
rights, with the thin, grey, impervious, close-adhering
bark left on them. Then they had been white-
washed with copai or native talc.

The upper and lower ends of the mulga uprights
1 08

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 109

had been adzed on both sides, clean and even as
with a plane, and fitted into thicker horizontal frame
joists above and below. For the various roofs, silver
box-tree bark showed edges of burnt umber where
axe or tomahawk had cut them level.

Primitive no doubt they were, these bush dwellings,
but the master metal of hard working-men, helped
by Nature's lavish hand, had made them both
picturesque, strong, and serviceable, adapted to
prove both cool and shady in summer, warm and
cosy in winter.

Behind the big house, with its ample verandah
running right round it, stood the kitchen, twenty
yards away. It was a dwelling house also, possess-
ing two fair-sized bedrooms off the main culinary
department, which was also used as a sitting-room.

In one of the other rooms Millie slept, whilst her
black girl, Leura, by choice rested by the embers of
the kitchen fire, wrapped in her 'possum rug.

Some hundred yards or so away on the top of the
first river terrace, where the soil was all red, and on
'a level with the big house, stood the store with a
large so-called native orange tree growing below it,
from which callous fruit a capital sort of hot pickle
was made.

Projecting river-wise away to the right, long
yapunyah tree supports rose from holes cut in the
bank to hold a winch platform. The windlass on
it was encircled by a manilla rope for a bucket made
of a nail can. In this the river water was winched
up, and tipped out into bark and tree trunk runnels

no THE SILVER QUEEN

running down the platform into earth gutters on
land, these leading in their turn into wood-sided
tanks to provide irrigation for the kitchen garden,
which again was securely Mnced from stock intrusion
by upright palisaded mulga, cut level at the top and
placed close together.

Owing to this simple arrangement, and a gentle
landward slope which spread the water all over the
enclosed area, all vegetables and fruit trees grew
marvellously well, as instanced by a hut in one
corner of the enclosure being completely enshrouded
by the large-leaved foliage and vine of an ironbark
pumpkin, the great globes of which were to be seen
on the roof, weighing from forty to eighty pounds
apiece.

To the right of the kitchen garden again, and
towards the crossing place, were the stockyard,
horse yard, milking bails, a crush for branding cattle,
or tackling unruly horses or colts, a gallows for
hauling up a slaughtered bullock, and back again
to the left of the kitchen garden a spreading box
tree, with a carpenter's vice and planing bench
beneath it Nearer the bank and out of the way,
near a steep bank, was a frame supporting a sort
of harness cask made out of bullock hide for salting
beef in.

The calls and stir of the hawks and carrion crows
in the trees near the gallows, an occasional shout
from the blacks' camp down in a creek valley by
the mountain at the back of the station, the neigh
of a horse, the low of a cow, the gently brooding

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND in

coo of the little Rockhampton doves, the twitter
of the budgerigars, mingled with the cackle of
questing hens, filled the air, perfumed with
eucalyptus and sandalwood, with pleasing sound,
whilst over all spread the vivid blue of the
Australian sky.

Jim had let his horse go, and was now standing
by the kitchen door with a big tin dish and a duster
in his hands.

Suddenly he dropped them and gazed long and
steadfastly across the river.

" Holy Sailor ! what's up with them blacks ? "
he jerked out. " Never saw such a big mob of
blacks before ! And the dawgs with 'em. Reg'lar
lopin' pack o' mongrels. There's sixty if there's
a dawg."

Then he raced over to his employer, who, standing
in front of the big house, had just fired a rifle shot
towards the blacks who were preparing to swim
the river, but aiming over their heads.

" What's up ? " Jim gasped.

" Wandering blacks," Tom replied grimly ; " I
don't like the look of them. They want clearing
off, and. their dogs too, so I've just given them the
hint."

At this point a good-looking copper-coloured
girl came running rapidly along the river bank
towards them. She was all shining with moisture,
having just swam across the flooded stream.

She made them understand, between her shrieks
and gesticulations, that her man, Jerry, had run away

U2 THE SILVER QUEEN

into the bush for his own safety, and that the
valuable flock of rams, of which they were in charge,
had also cleared violently and separately into
dim distances.

" Mulga," said Tom quietly, "go quick to the lower
crossing. I have left a lot of fish there. You get
them before dingo or water get them.

" I'll dose them," he remarked confidentially to Jim,
after the girl had gone on her errand, somewhat
reassured by his coolness.

"Now we will go and eat our own fish, Jim.
When we have finished we'll make some strychnine
baits of the others I left down at the crossing, and
settle those confounded dogs this very night I'm
not going to have marauding blacks' dingoes all over
the place. Look what they have done already,
started the rams to run mad through the country.
Besides, we've got to look out, Jim. Blackfellows
have been getting far too numerous about the home
station lately, and I've had no say in the matter to
speak of. Better load your revolver, old man," he
continued, going into the house and setting him the
example.

"My word, I will!" replied Jim. "They'll be
spearing Mulga, if she ain't quick. Oh, I forgot the
river was up," he added, cogitating. " They'll cross
lower down. Good girl," he concluded, following
over, as Mulga vanished into the kitchen with the
rescued fish.

Tom's rifte shot had made the black?? negotiate a
wide detour, and the pac* *hey put on was sufficient

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 113

to head any flood that had many spaces and water-
holes to fill up. However, no river would stop them
at any time, being expert swimmers. But, though
they could not surround the station until they
crossed, they would be able to do it, by taking a
detour, out of rifle range ; and their array was
sufficiently formidable to suggest that if they once
made up their minds to rush on in a body, say at
night, they would be able to immolate the small
force opposed to them. But they had not reckoned
with the initiative of Tom Inglis, for, though he had
no time to call in the cattlemen, now spread north,
south, east and west with the herd, he did not fear
to face contingencies as they came to him.

The revolvers and rifles about the place were
loaded, and after a hasty meal they all went over to
barricade the big house, which possessed handy
loopholes for fire-arms, having been built with a view
to repelling possible attack.

They replenished all the water vessels, and brought
plenty of stores inside to last them in case of siege.

" But it won't come to anything," reasoned Tom,
who had worked out his chances to a nicety. " Now
for the baits, Jim ! "

They spread a couple of sheets of an "Australasian"
on the ant-bed floor of the house, and having cut
about one hundred and twenty pieces of raw fish
proceeded to put strychnine crystals into slits in the
flesh, so as to let the juice soak in the poison.

Having carefully placed the dog baits in the small
canvas bag, Tom took charge of it, and being quite

H

H4 THE SILVER QUEEN

dark by this time the two conspirators, enveloped in
Inverness cloaks, and looking very like a pair of
gunpowder plot villains, stole softly out of doors,
each carrying a bull's-eye lantern.

The valley over against the mountain was now
ablaze with camp-fires ; for the large and apparently
hostile crowd of wandering blacks, as well as many
so-called waddygalos, were there. One huge
corrobboree fire, the blazing pulse of the assembly,
shot its flames aggressively upwards, the centre
radius of many other smaller fires, a sign that the
camp was largely reinforced and ready for business.

" Those beggars must have got kangaroo and emu
galore," whispered Tom to Jim, as he thought of the
scattering of his ram flock by the blacks' dogs, and
the consequent sure loss to him.

"I'll give the owners of that pack of dogs a
stronger lesson this time for their cheek, or they'll
rush the station. I know where to touch them up
in a way that will frighten all the fight out of them
completely, and scare them clean out of this part
of the world besides."

Jim grinned approval, and slipping quickly from
tree to tree the two cloaked figures glided down
the slope of the valley.

The waddygalos had flitted like dark phantoms
through the outlying distances long before Jim and
Inglis reached the camp of the hostile assembly,
owing to the intermittent flickering of the bull's-eye
lanterns carried from the house.

As Inglis and Jim approached nearer, the half-

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 115

wild, wholly - mongrel - bred dogs of the strange
blacks growled savagely, Some of them barked
with the strangled half -howl of the dingo, and,
though all erected their bristles on the new-comers'
approach, they slunk beyond the fire-lit places where
now, from walled darknesses, emphasising the light,
shone many pairs of fiercely phosphorescent eyes.

Tom's hands beneath his cloak had been very
busy on the outskirts of the camp fires; obscured
intervals of ground received his secret contributions,
but in the blaze of the fires, as he walked forward,
he was only to the multitude a curious observer,
whilst, unabashed, Jim gave tobacco here and there
to the mystified but conscience-stricken crowd with
the air of a city waiter.

It was plain enough now to Tom's practised eyes
that preparations had been made for a great feast, a
sort of stimulant to a dawn of rapine, for in the full
fire-lit spaces were, dismembered, half-cooked joints
of emu and kangaroo, and the various hollow, wooden
utensils of the aborigines were replenished, but not
a ghost of a woman remained about the camp. Nor
did he hesitate to believe that the band of males,
the strangers, were waddygalos.

These peculiar people were always the real wild
men of the woods, the pixies of the bush, the flying
spooks of the hour. Even if one hurried round the
corners of a creek scrub, as Tom had done on the
occasion of one of their emu hunts, with the blacks'
dogs close upon their quarry, the waddygalos were
never seen.

ii6 THE SILVER QUEEN

If a camp was come upon suddenly at night by
some lone rider the fires would be doused with sand
or earth, and the camp-makers up in trees overhead
like 'possums.

But Tom knew why. They were in reality the
best and strongest of their tribes, and they never
allowed themselves to be seen because of their
women. The blacks who had attempted to rush
the station that afternoon were the picked men of
the wildest of some of these hunting outliers, and thus
showed their males for the first time, a startlingly
appalling omen which he was prepared to avert.

So he had worked upon their superstitions. He
was well aware that tales of the white man's prowess
were afloat amongst them, and he knew of their
fear of the burning glass with which the white men
could draw down fire from Euroka, the sun itself.
Therefore it had been a premeditative touch of his
to bring bull's-eye lanterns through the dark night.
Indeed, it had been as much as the fighting party
of males who remained could do to sit still and
watch those two bright lights coming down the hill.
However, being afraid to seem afraid, now that they
were in force and well armed, they sat on.

There was a stealthy reach by every hand for
tomahawk, waddy, or spear, just to feel them ready,
as the bull's-eye came close, again allayed and
stopped by the suspicion that Tom and Jim might
have one of those deadly revolvers under his cloak.
But both men noticed it.

"Bulgabrow," ordered Tom, to a tame station

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 117

black he knew well amongst the crowd, after a
searching, wholly fearless gaze all round, which
seemed to note each new face specially, "you go
at daylight after those horses, Charlie, Blue-bell,
Acrobat, Tiger. Look out track, and run 'em
alonga yard ! "

A guttural grunt of acquiescence, surprise, and
satisfaction came from many masculine throats.
This was no vengeance, no fight, surely, although
the guilty consciences of all there told them they
meant to stick up the station that very night,
massacre the whites, and carry the women off.

Bulgabrow, who, like the others, was in the plot,
nodded, sitting in his place, and as he held out his
hand for Jim's expected quarter plug of Barret's,
his evil eyes closed to hide the glare in them, as
the toes on his right foot felt for his tomahawk.

It was diamond cut diamond now in strategic
policy. They must dissemble for the moment, and
wait for a more favourable opportunity of knocking
the hated whites on the head, for they were now
on the alert and probably armed.

The white conspirators eventually disappeared in
lessening rays of light towards the station, but a
low, continuous, brooding murmur ran round the
fires. Was this all the two whites had come for ?
Bah ! They could steal upon the station in the early
dawn when they were all asleep, and knock them on
the head with perfect impunity. What fools they were !

Having burned the bait bag, washed their hands,
and inserted their sheath knives several times into

ii8 THE SILVER QUEEN

Mother Earth to free them from any adhering
particles of strychnine, Tom and Jim went into the
big house where the women were watching, silent
and armed. Here they all began to talk in low
whispers, with rifles and revolvers within easy reach.

All their guardian kangaroo dogs and collies had
been tied up at strategic points. One was by each
door, back and front. Two of the fiercest had been
let loose, and there was now no fear of any sudden
surprise.

Not one of the many blacks in camp would be
able to venture within two hundred yards of the
houses now, without great risk of being pulled down
and killed like a kangaroo by those two vigilant
unchained sentinels.

An hour or two passed.

Then suddenly came a surprised yell of abortive
terror from the blacks' camp, followed by a wailing
shriek, which evidenced that the women had again
stolen in.

" They've got it, the beggars ! " Tom inwardly
remarked, as he glanced at Millie and the others.
" Better to frighten them secretly by poisoning the
whole lot of their dogs than that these women here
should be speared and cut up, when the horrors of
the attack were finished. There's enough fighting
blacks in camp to give us little chance. Jim and I
might keep 'em off for a bit, but they would burn us
out eventually. And then — ''

Another and another yell of terror and astonishment.
Then dead silence !

DIAMOND CUT DIAMOND 119

" Serve 'em damn well right/' Jim observed, with
emphasis.

When the sun rose, red and glowing, next morning,
the only traces of the great camp of overnight were
some scattered gidya ashes and blackened sticks.
Not a man, not a gin, not a piccaninny was to be
seen anywhere. Nor was one of the usual station
blacks to be even heard of.

And old man Combo, miles away in the heart of a
dense scrub, put it all down to Millie's mark, and
trembled in his copper-coloured skin.

" They've buried them dawgs somewhere, I'll bet,"
thought Jim to himself, as he saddled a horse from
the stable to run some others in with. " I'm glad I
ain't a blackfeller's dawg anyhow, though they might
have been pickin' our bones by now if we hadn't
acted sharp.

Lanky came in that night with another message :

" The talisman of the mark is getting known
here, and will work for your safety. Come out, but
one at a time. Let no one know."

To which Tom added on the same slip of paper, to
show that he had received it :

" Right O ! — but we acted, too, or we might have
been too late."

and dispatched Lanky as before.

CHAPTER X

I PUBLISH THE BANNS !

*' ' Why should not wattle do

For mistletoe ? '
Asked one — there were but two
Where wattles grow.

" A rose-cheek rosier grew,
Rose-lips breathed low,
' Since it is here, and you,

I hardly know
Why wattle should not do.' "

—DOUGLAS SLADEN.

To Millie Heseldine and Tom Inglis, bound faster
together now by mutual sympathy, suffering, and
affection, more than all the conventionalities of the
world could accomplish hitherto, came an event that
altered the whole course of their lives in its own due
future time.

Cantering along on a self-marked line of travel that
had led him to their vicinity was a man, pure and
simple in the very highest sense of the words, valise
before him, saddle-bags on his pack-horse.

Any sort of doubt was not his own. It belonged
to others, and he did his best to cast it out from

120

I PUBLISH THE BANNS! 121

them. Sorrow was his, on his own account largely ;
but Time had tempered his despair until the char-
acter formed in him, wrought, as it were, from the
furnace of affliction, shone like pure steel.

Thus he stood, double - banked, before his own
bush-world as a healer of division, an arbiter, a
friend.

Few could look upon his ardent, radiant face
without perceiving the soul within him, shining in
light through the clear windows of its dwelling place.

Not a digger, shearer, or bush-worker of any
description but wanted to shake him by the hand
or fight for him, if necessary, at a word of deprecia-
tion from the ribald or profane. These, however,
after a single glance felt assured that both physi-
cally, for he was a grand athlete, and intellectually,
" Parson " Everest was the better man.

His make-weight, too, was expatiated upon in
divers and sundry consciences according to their
own well-understood scale of morality, and there,
too, he had the advantage, although his bush critics
were not liable to care for him one whit the worse on
that account.

" Don't you call 'im a parson, Jack," observed one
bushman to another at a shearers' spree. " You ain't
fit to be in the same pen with 'im. Nor me, nor one
of us. Did you hear tell, by any chance, what he
did for Sandy M'Callough when 'e 'ad a bad touch
of the jim- jams?"

"No."

" Well, I saw the lot of it. You know very well

122 THE SILVER QUEEN

what a born devil Sandy always was ! 'Member
that fight down at Euroka shed on paying-off day,
when he hammered Steve Rogers ? It was just
Sandy's grit pulled 'im through then. Well, he got
on the burst, a regular docker this time, kept it up
for weeks as he had a big cheque ; and havin' to
knock it off sudden, when that played out, 'e went
pretty nigh raving mad.

" Not a living soul would go near 'im, not even 'is
own mate. It's pretty bad when that happens, you
bet, an' although as an observant outsider, I can't
claim any extra allowance of Christian charity
towards Sandy, I don't wonder at his mate leaving
him. Sandy was going about to slaughter the devil,
and most of us chaps was up trees, waiting to see
him do it He had killed three tied-up dogs with an
American axe, and things were getting monotonous
for us all when Mr. Everest steps up.

" ' What's the matter, Sandy, my man ? ' says he.
Sandy ups with his axe and makes a blow at him
which would have split his head in two ; but Everest
dodges aside and lays him out with a crack-a-jack
under the chin that would have stopped a bullock on
the tear, and, anyhow, put Sandy clean out of court.
Then he carried him to his own blooming bunk and
nursed him like a baby for a matter of ten days, as
if he was sort of sorry for half killing him.

'"E didn't stop 'is grog, neither, being no
teetotaller, although what he takes beyond his own
allowance ain't worth speculatin' on. And when
Sandy came to his senses he, of course, found out

I PUBLISH THE BANNS! 123

who had been taking care of him, and was rather
surprised.

" ' Well, I'm jiggered ! ' says he, after due reflection,
' 'e ain't no 'oly Joe at all ! Not 'im. 'E's only a
brother bushman ! '

"Then 'e wanted to go for 'is own mate for not
stopping by him.

" But Everest cajoled him out of that, talked 'im
out of swearin', got him living, respectable, and
sober. Then 'e took him to church and preached to
him, and now Sandy's a teetotaller, and I hear he's
coinin' money on the straight perpendicular blue
ribbon touch."

Thus the bush talk went about Parson Everest.

Millie, who always rose with the dawn, on that
particular morning had just begun to bustle about
her duties. Presently, carefully attired and prettier
than ever, she began to lay Tom's breakfast-table
over at the big house, her face a study of many
conflicting emotions.

Bound by the everlasting, all-compelling bonds of
mutual love, the pair seemed nevertheless as far
apart as the graveyard, asunder as the poles. How
could she tell with what sort of ideas he looked upon
her, since her confession about Dick Cosgrave?
What would he say if she disclosed the fact of her
former sweetheart's proximity, and what would be
the consequences if Tom and he should meet ?

Tom, on his part, had not told her of the implied
admission made by the apparently paralysed black-

124 THE SILVER QUEEN

fellow, whose deep blue eyes had shown him to be a
white man, in spite of the clever disguise. If this
man, whoever he might be, was disguised for some
strange reason, what right had he to hint that it
would be best for them to marry ?

But Millie knew nothing of the meeting beyond
the fact that a blackfellow had brought a letter
written by Waters.

That did not prevent her from having her
suspicions, however, and a quick, half-stifled sigh
from her arrested Tom's attention.

Was he treating her badly, he wondered ? In
spite of the temporary cloud that had arisen between
them, could it be possible that she was relenting?
Could that be it ?

" What is it, dear ? " he asked, his eager, love-
hungry eyes riveted upon her face.

"Oh, nothing!" she replied petulantly. "Least-
wise, nothing you would care to hear about, unless
perhaps — "

She paused as she poured out his tea for him.
When so near to him she was hardly mistress of
herself. He had been so good, so forbearing, so
gentle and useful to her in her illness, so —
gentlemanly.

Was he as obtuse as she thought him ? His eyes
did not look unintelligent. She longed to tell him
all, yet hesitated. Could it be by any manner of
means that he had his suspicions, too ?

The golden moment went by, and she returned to
the company of Jim Terry and the others with

I PUBLISH THE BANNS! 125

gathering and barely- suppressed tears. He had
broken down her own barrier of reserve and refusal
with his own generous tact, although her innate
modesty declined to let her confess that she was not
averse to his love now, and that she had loved him
ever since they first met. Which way must she turn ?
What could she do ? She must go away and leave
him, for this daily agony was insupportable. But
could she leave him ? Had she the heart to do it ?

Her suspicions were vague, but well-founded, even
without evidence, for she knew more of " Myall
Dick " than Tom did. If she went away the two
men might meet face to face, and that thought made
her tremble. She knew she had great influence with
Cosgrave, but she also knew his character, and a
certain trait of revenge in it she was really afraid of.
And she had not heard his admission to Tom, which
merely meant giving her up. They were at cross
purposes and knew it not.

Tom finished his breakfast and then repaired to
his favourite canvas lean-back seat, which, by its
position in the verandah, faced the river. He lit his
pipe, and, with the blue whiffs of tobacco against the
bright morning sky, fancied he had discovered some-
thing of the soul of her he held so dear, whose brief
summons even to a meal held Heaven for him.

She was vacillating surely, coming round to his
ardent wishes. But what could he do? She
wouldn't go back to the township with him to be
married. There was her veto against that. He
loved her even better for her recalcitrancy.

126 THE SILVER QUEEN

Oh, if she would only consent, what an ideal life
would open up for them in this wild garden wherein
their lot had been cast.

To fight and fend for her with strong arm and
ready hand, what of life could hold more of joy for
him ? Though she did not belong to him, yet he did
not think she had given him up. But how was he to
persuade her to his own satisfaction ?

Just at that moment that trivial imp — or shall we
not rather say guardian angel — Circumstance again
foreshadowed. Tom looked up to see a pair of
steeds, one ridden, the other packed, approaching
rapidly along the upper river terrace towards the
house.

A man this time 1 Had his rival come at last ?
And would all his dream be over ? Was he coming
to claim her ?

He was undeceived a little later when John
Everest reined up before him.

" May I turn my horses out and stay the night ? "
the new-comer pleaded, with a bright smile. " To-
morrow is Sunday, you know, and I should so like to
hold a service for your working hands."

He had given his name as a preliminary, and his
last stopping stage, in true bush fashion.

Tom had often heard of him with manly appreci-
ation, and now welcomed him as Abraham, in his
patriarchal garb, welcomed the triple presence at
Mamre.

For here, given his maid's consent, was a very
practical and ready way out of all their difficulties,

I PUBLISH THE BANNS! 127

and it all lay in the person of this wandering bush-
divine.

It was a strictly unorthodox church service next
day, and a little disappointing perhaps to Everest,
because the cattlemen were all out on the run. Jim,
their only proxy, half-a-dozen tame blacks, and a
few of their children, the two black girls, and Tom
and Millie, made up the entire congregation.

The keen eyes of the preacher had taken in the
relations between Tom and Millie during the break-
fast served by her that Sabbath morning, and a
manly intellect had pretty correctly gauged the
minds of both of them.

" Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God," was the text he used for his short discourse,
and Everest's words upon the poor, unenlightened
blacks touched Millie strangely.

" Thy people shall be my people." How alone
they were, all of them, thought she, as she mused
upon the mark on her arm, and formed many a plan
about them. With Tom as her protector, and her
own mark, she might do much for these poor coloured
folk. Her mind being thus attuned and mixed up
with Tom's future progress, there was little difficulty
when he asked her the second time, and with the
same quiet ceremony, and the same helping hands,
their marriage was solemnised at last, after Everest
had spent a week among the cattlemen, riding out
to their camps with Jim as cicerone.

And when this valued friend — for so he had grown
to be — rode away finally, there was an assurance of

128 THE SILVER QUEEN

faith in both the souls of the newly-joined couple,
that their troubles were over.

" God bless all of you ! " Everest said at parting.
" Good-bye ! I must get on. I have the big range
to cross before dark, but Mr. Jim Terry here has
forewarned me of its little ups and downs," and so
he rode away, taking with him Tom's lasting friend-
ship, Jim's respect and admiration, and all the
station blacks' good wishes.

CHAPTER XI

A STARTLING DISCOVERY

" When Night doth her glories

Of starshine unfold,
'Tis then that the stories
Of Bushland are told.
Unnumbered I hold them

In memories bright,
But who could unfold them
Or read them aright ? "

—A. B. PATERSON.

JIM, having been sent out to the Cave of the Red
Hand to find out all he could about the dwellers
there, arrived back at the station late one night after
a week's absence.

He inveigled Mrs. Inglis over towards the store on
some urgent plea or other, and Tom could see her
listening to him in apparent astonishment under the
moonlight and twinkling stars.

Whatever he had to say to her was of short
duration, for presently the pair of them came back
to the house, and joining Tom in the verandah,
sitting between him and his wife, the young stock-
man poured forth a tale of seemingly incredible

129 i

130 THE SILVER QUEEN

happenings which those who have seen the Jenolan
caves would look upon as no wonders at all, but
veritable and plain truth.

" By Golly ! " exclaimed he, " I don't know exactly
what I haven't seen. I seen a grizzly bear with
flamin' eyes, an' a sleepin' babby with no eyes at all.
I seen pillars of organ pipes, lots on 'em, an' you
could play on them with a bit of hard wood ; an' a
copper-coloured girl and a white girl in a blackfeller's
canoe. An' I've seen the Kuriltai, and they're them
phosphorescent frauds what come along round us in
the darkness in the big vault

" But there, now ! I've gone and let one of the
bloomin' cats out of my little bag-of-tricks ! If I
don't look sharp, there'll be no holdin' the rest on
'em ; for they are jumpy things, them cat-facts, let
alone the tellin' of 'em, without a hold-fast lock on
one's talkin' tackle."

" Gracious me, Jim ! " broke in Mrs. Tom nervously,
" explain yourself. Haven't you gone off your head
a little?"

" No, mum, I went straight to the valley from here
with Lanky, and after I had turned out Premier in
hobbles, I set the dog on the ledge in the corner of
the cave, carryin' him up the blackfellow's ladder,
and let him go down the big hole into the cliffs side.
Then I follered of him. 'E seemed to know all
about it, and I found out arterwards that he had a
way of gettin1 up to that ledge without the ladder,
a little further on, where he could jump on to a
projection, and from that to the top. That's the way

A STARTLING DISCOVERY 131

he got down when we come out again, but he
wouldn't come on with them then. He just stopped
behind.

" ' It's you has got the message, Mr. Jim Terry,'
that tail of his said, as plain as it could speak. And
so 'e 'opped back the way he had got down. ' I've
business 'ere,' says that 'ere tail of his again.

" Well, first time I went in arter that dog, he leads
the way up to the big circus vault. Out o' that 'e
goes again, with me keepin' my bull's-eye on 'im.

" 'E warn't in no hurry ; no more was I just then.
Then we comes to a little round chamber with three
or four passages leadin' out of it. Here, in one of
these, I come flop up against the most scrumptiousest
girl I ever see, or rather she comes flop up against
me. I weren't expectin' to see any girls, and she
took me all aback. Then she feels Lanky all over to
see if he had got any message. She was light copper
colour, and says she in our lingo, as plain as I could
have done myself: 'I've been looking out for you,
Mr. Jim ! ' There she 'ad me, you see, and I was
fair cornered.

" I was expected underground, and by a copper-
coloured girl, too ! Did you ever hear the like of it
for a staggerer ? I was all of a hurry then, as I had
to pick up all the ideas I'd dropped.

" ' And Lanky,' she says, qualifyin' herself a little
and sort of calmin' me down a bit, when she noticed
me blushin' me 'ead off.

" I wanted to 'ook it back first time, as I couldn't
'elp thinkin' about bein' buried alive in them dark

132 THE SILVER QUEEN

caves for ever, if once she got fair hold of me, but she
lays her 'and on my arm, and she says : ' You give
me that bull's-eye, Mr. Jim Terry. I'm not goin'
to eat you just yet ! '

" I ain't exactly what I calls inwincible, in such a
case as that, Mr. Tom, so I give up my bull's-eye
quite willin" and polite. Lord bless you, sir, after
the way she said them words I shouldn't have much
minded if she had begun the cannibal business just
then ! I felt she had bitten a big piece out of my
heart already, and was broken down that I hadn't
trusted her before I seen her. By Golly ! I'll never
forget her, never as long as I live ! "

He gave a pathetic and heart-broken sigh that
seemed to come from the very bottom of his
heart.

" We goes on a little farther," he resumed, " and
we comes to a hole with a ladder down it. She goes
down the latter, and in course I goes down arter her.
I wasn't going to funk it when a girl done it. Not
me ! That dawg, 'e gives a whine, an' off he goes
round a rock somewhere further on.

"' I ain't quite a circus dog yet,' says his signaller,
' but I've got my eye on you, Jim, and I'm goin' to
keep it there.'

" So 'e turned up later on at the bottom somehow,
accordin' to promise, but I would have followed that
girl anywheres, even without the dawg.

" There was a wooden stage over a river at the
bottom, and that and the ladder had been made by
white men. No black man could 'a1 done it, for they

A STARTLING DISCOVERY 133

have neither the savvy nor the tools. I don't know
how far me and the girl and the dawg went along
that underground river, goin' on the other bank of
the stream, but I should say it was a good mile.
My Aunt ! the things we saw down there on the
floor of that rock vault hall when the way opened up
a bit and Jhe light of the lantern rested on them !
One was like a goanna, as big as a' elephant.

" Sort of a glitterin' crocodile it was, just as if it
had been going to spring on you. I was double
glad the girl was with me then, when I first saw it,
and I don't mind ownin' of it. I shouldn't have
cared to be there all alone by myself to be sprung
on by that thing ! But when she saw me looking at
it, says she : ' It's only lime-stone rock, Mr. Jim.'
So we goes and sits somewhere on its tail, like a
couple of bloomin' rock-pigeons, and I tried to start
cooin', but she wouldn't let me begin a note.

"Well, we walked on again, and by and by we
came into daylight through a big arch on to such a
piece of country as I never seen the like on before.

" A big, deep valley with walls of rocks all round
it. Different rock it was to that in the insides of the
cave, and I see a reef of quartz stickin' out stiff and
jagged and runnin' right across it. The river had
eat through the middle of that reef."

Jim came from Bendigo, but had followed the
pastoral interest.

" And," he continued, " follerin' down the course
of the stream from that point, we come on a blacks'
camp. One o' them blacks was mighty like Mr.

134 THE SILVER QUEEN

Many Waters, an' so I 'eld my tongue when he
winked his black eyelid. 'E'd 'a' made a good
corner man in a nigger troupe, but I was supposed,
I could see, not to be takin' any, and so I looked as
solemn as an empty bottle of square-face.

"Then the girl interdooced me to a couple o'
ebony pieces as she said was 'er father an' uncle ; and
an old woman who was 'er auntie. She looked a
bit snipey, I thought, and as for the uncle, he made
me think about an old-clothes' man I seen once, and
the rummest thing about him was that he had got
dark blue eyes."

Tom gave an involuntary start, but said nothing.

" So," Jim went on, laughing, " I'd 'opped into a
whole family circle of 'em, you see. Aperiently Mr.
Black Many Waters was only an outsider. Anyhow,
it was 'im right enough, I could go that bald-headed.

" They give me a real bush tea, cooked paddy-
melons and wild duck stew. I never knew the
blacks cook that way before ; did you, Mr. Tom ?
But I 'ad the wink from the one who I took to be
Mr. Waters, and, like the parrot, I thought a good
deal more than I could put in words.

" They had a garden full of vegetables, they had
real tea and sugar, they had billies and axes, cooking
pots, and shovels and spades, and all sorts of tools.
And what do you think they was doing all the time
I was there, Mr. Tom ? "

" Can't say, Jim. Had they killed the grizzly bear
for a future feast ? What became of it ? "

" Oh, I saw 'im long before we came to the blacks'

A STARTLING DISCOVERY 135

camp. 'E was in the long passage along the river
where it is all like an underground 'all. It's the
longest, curliest, rummest room I ever saw, and it
didn't seem to 'ave any end to it, because we come
across it from one of the middles.

" The grizzly bear was one of the dead things in
rocks, same as the goanna me and the eirl sat on.
E wasn't alive. No more was the sleepin' babby.
But they was awful real-lookin'. And them blacks,
Mr. Tom," he added, sinking his voice to a whisper,
" they was diggiri for gold!

" They was, you take my davy for it," he loudly
asserted, noticing Tom's incredulity. " And I saw
enough of it to fill a flour-sack. Big, 'eavy, alluvial
gold, like beans and dumps, and flakey same as
oyster-shells — bits of all sorts they had got stowed
away. And all the time I was there with 'em, not
one of those blacks but the black girl said a word
to me.

" She could talk English like a native, I mean a
native white-lubra. So could the other one, the real
white girl I saw later. And I'm blowed if I know
which of them too, the black or the white, I really
likes best," he added disconsolately.

" I got any amount of gold, pokin' about for it
from one end of that valley to the other. 'Owever, I
only brought one little bit back, for they wouldn't let
me 'ave any more. I should say I got over £100
worth. But they made awful faces and signs over it,
and when I'd tumbled to their play-actin' I could see
that they wanted it to be kept secret above anything

136 THE SILVER QUEEN

else in this wide world. And as they nearly 'ad a fit
over it, I gave it to 'em all back again 'cept the one
little bit they signed I might 'ave.

" 'Ere it is, Mrs. Inglis, all pure gold. But the
girl, the black one, the one I call Native Rose, the
only one who spoke to me at all, she says you must
put it carefully away and never let any livin' souls
but ourselves see it Don't you let even an old black
bush crow look at it There's all sorts of rites and
secrets connected with the gettin' of it, and I had to
swear a most awful swear to the girl about it all.
She took me away into a terrible dark passage and
made me do it And I 'ad to finish with, ' I wish I
may die if I tell beyond those I are sweared to.
Honest Injin, I do.'

" But to hear the way she said them words, and
coaxed 'em out o' me. My ! she was a daisy 1

" You've got to come out and see them all, you, sir,
and Mrs. Inglis. Arter that they're goin' to have
some ceremonies to keep it all dark. And these
blacks with no tongues somehow notified the copper-
coloured girl to tell me to say to you that good news
was comin' from those that went away. To re-
member the fire, and distrust any appearances seen
there."

" I know, dear, what Jim's message means," Millie
presently whispered to her husband. " Shall we
go?" she rather dubiously added.

" Certainly we will," he replied, rather voicing his
own wish to investigate the wonders that had detained
Waters and enlightened Jim. " I'll drive you out

A STARTLING DISCOVER? 137

to-morrow. Jim can ride. Very few passing travellers
come this way, so that our absence from home is not
likely to be noticed. We'll lock the houses up and
go, eh, Jim ? "

"We'ir'ave to chanst it They told me," he
replied, nodding approval, " leastways the girl did,
that you was to take the buggy as far as you could
go, and then ride over the hills. She was particular
anxious to see Mrs. Inglis. They're goin' to shift,
too, very soon, and it will be the very last trip of any
of us in at the station. I want to go because I want
to see my girls, and as for yourselves, you'll come
across the finest sight you ever saw. And the girls
will be in it, for Native Rose said we were to see the
White Queen!"

In this way, therefore, through Jim's instructions,
preliminaries for a really official visit to the cave-
dwellers were settled, and he went over to the kitchen
to get his supper.

" What is it, dear ? " Tom asked, in answer to an
appealing glance from his wife.

"I wanted to tell you," she hesitated, "that the
people in the valley Jim speaks of — the supposed
blacks — are my father and — Richard Cosgrave —
' Myall Dick,' as they call him, the man who
considered he had a right to me, the man I ran
away from, and the girl is my adopted sister,
Bianca Pearmain.

"Tom," she continued, clasping her hands and
leaning with the interlaced fingers on his strong
shoulders, her sweet face close to his, " I thought

138 THE SILVER QUEEN

before, nay, was sure, that they were not dead, ever
since I heard that two black men and two black
women were seen watching the fire when my
father's place was burned down, and until you left
the settlement I believed this. Then Mr. Cosgrave
interviewed me himself, for, as a blackfellow, he
had seen us together. He threatened me, and I
couldn't well tell you before, because I knew that
he had deep secrets connected with mining, and
was a revengeful man if interfered with. Now that
I know for certain that my father and sister are
alive, and near us, I ought to be a happy girl, but
I have a deep distrust of Cosgrave's nature, which
I fear may prompt him to wreak some vengeance
on you now we are married, and I have been
obliged to forewarn you. I have always flouted
him in my manner, and I couldn't help loving you
when you came so suddenly and strangely into my
life. Be careful of him, dear."

Tom's blood ran hot at this admission, and he
promised himself some satisfaction if anything arose
between him and this rival, though he soothed her
fears on the subject So, after further consultation,
it was decided to start at daybreak next morning,
and with Jim to help, the station light American
waggon, a big, roomy vehicle, was taken out of its
special shed and made comfortable for Mrs. Inglis.

CHAPTER XII

RED ALTAR LIGHT

" A land of camps, where seldom is sojourning,
Where men like the dim fathers of our race
Halt for a time, and next day unreturning
Fare ever on in space."

—THOMAS WILLIAM HENEY.

ARRIVED at the cave, they turned out the waggon
horses they had ridden over the hills with, but once
in the big dome chamber again it was an ordeal for
Millie to pass the spot, for here was where she had
been so terribly alarmed before, and where now the
mysteries of the man she had fled from became still
more appalling from her knowledge of him.

She hurried past, quivering with apprehension,
and Tom repented of having brought her. But
some vague hope seemed to buoy her up, and in
a little while she became more tranquil.

Jim, now taking the lead with his lantern, led
them into a passage which branched off to the left.
It was narrow, but high, and further on, hearing
something, he extinguished the light by twisting
the obscuring metal shade across the bull's-eye, an
example followed by the others.

140 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Stand still," he whispered, " they're comin' ! "

Almost directly they were surrounded by the
phosphorescent lights again, and, putting out her
hand past the faintly-illuminating procession, Millie
touched the warm, soft body of a breathing, very-
much-alive young woman !

"Don't be alarmed, my dear," whispered this
tangible phantom, just beyond the light; "but say
nothing. We are all right, and know you are. He
is a fine fellow, Millie — oh ! you lucky girl ! Dick
was like to have murdered him until he saw him."

The phosphorescent rings of light, seeming to
induce it as a breath exhales and inhales, were by
surmise on the level of a female neck and waist on
all the halted appearances, but being carried round
the body by a belted background of cured skins,
the wearers could see the new-comers in the cave
gallery fairly distinctly without being visible them-
selves.

Before Millie had time to learn more, the faint
lights began to move on, disappearing in the
direction of the dome cave, leaving the darkness
intense.

Then they opened their lanterns again, and Jim
led the way slowly, until suddenly, after due warning
from him, the others came upon a deep, yawning
chasm which went right down into the earth, nearly
in the middle of the passage, with, however, room
enough on one side to walk past. From the top of
this descent they could plainly hear running water,
and beyond the hole to the left the tunnel still ran

RED ALTAR LIGHT 141

on, behind a huge boulder which glittered with
sparkling prisms.

Then Jim held his lantern so as to show a new
strong ladder leading into the chasm, and down this
they all went. Half-way they observed the green
flicker above them again moving past the top of
the hole, with a sound as if leafy branches were
being dragged over the upper floor.

At the bottom of the ladder they found it
necessary to cross a rude bridge to get over a
running stream, which, when surveyed from the full
light of the lanterns, looked so still, so motionless
and shallow, that it had the appearance of white
frosted glass. It was not until a piece of limestone
was thrown into this stream that they became aware,
by the way the waves and ripples danced by, that
the motionless-looking surface possessed a strong,
deep, swift current, and was really as clear and
colourless as crystal.

The milky appearance was due to the white cal-
careous bed being seen through the transparency
of the flow, and the impossibility of judging
appearances in the murk of the underground.

Presently little rafts, bearing each a burning cone
of coloured fire, came floating round a high, jutting
promontory, some distance up-stream, shedding a
bright rose-pink illumination through their arched
and vaulted surroundings, and showing still more
plainly the length and vistas of the great underground
chamber and the smooth, polished surface of the lime-
stone rocks, which shone like agate. What had

142 THE SILVER QUEEN

polished them ? Human beings or the ghouls of the
darkness? Or merely the rock-wallabies that swarmed
in the vicinity ?

From these signs Tom thought the Kuriltai,
whatever disguises and mysterious belongings they
had, must be pretty numerous, but the presence of
whites amongst them eased his mind somewhat.

The lights on the bosom of the underground
stream now came singly errant in blue or scarlet or
white, turning the surroundings into sapphire, ruby,
or silver, according to their proximity.

Now came two larger, brighter radiances, placed
one at each end of a blackfellow's bark canoe, on
raised supports. As this floated down the stream
towards them, they saw, standing upright in the
centre of the canoe, a beautiful young white woman,
robed like a Greek goddess, and wearing a string of
rough fire opals round her neck.

" Bianca ! " cried Mrs. Inglis excitedly.

Deftly nearing the bank, the occupant of the canoe
landed, and, pulling it ashore, where it lighted the
vicinity, tripped quickly towards the speaker and
embraced her.

" So this is yourself at last, Millie," she whispered,
with much affection. " Oh, my dear, I'm so glad.
Welcome ! I've lots to tell you. Do you know
that you are rich ? that your husband will not have
to take you dowerless? It is all owing to Mr.
Cosgrave. He has enough opals alone to buy the
station with."

Jim was looking on in wonder. He could not

RED ALTAR LIGHT 143

hear their whispered confidences, but his amazement
was plain enough.

" It's my other girl, the white one Native Rose
told me of." he muttered. " How did she know the
missus?"

" Tom," Mrs. Inglis exclaimed, rather timidly,
" This is my adopted sister, Bianca Pearmain."

Tom shook hands with her sister, and their
mutual expression showed that they had found
favour in each other's sight, though his eyes were
the more wondering of the two, because she was the
one who had taken stock of him when he was
tracking the mules, and had seen him before as a
black girl.

There was now an approaching intermittent sound
of hardwood sticks beaten together in rhythm to an
accompanying chant by many voices, very plaintive
and quaintly musical.

Bianca Pearmain moved across the floor, which
sparkled like hoar frost under the blaze of her canoe
lights, to a place under an arching dome where
stalagmites of agate colouring looked like the pipes of
some vast organ.

Near by was a lower stalagmite dropping, which
had ceased for some cause ages ago. It was of
blended yellow and pink colour, and possessed a
flat top, to which she ascended, looking more like a
goddess than ever.

And as another fleet of volcano floats shot into
sight, a brilliant deep ruby-red flame appeared from
a sort of limestone altar on the left of where she

144 THE SILVER QUEEN

stood. She only wanted a silver sickle to be Norma
in some Druidical ceremony, for by the altar against
her stood three men draped like priests. The whole
gallery far and near was lit up, as if by necromancy,
with ruby and silver, as, in addition to the red altar
light, the three monkish-looking figures were burning
magnesium wire.

The glittering floor, composed of limestone par-
ticles, seemed to be turned into a mass of precious
stones, while the whole of the gloomy underground
vault became transformed into a realm of dazzling
splendour. And this was the welcome to Tom's
little party from the mysterious dwellers in the
Cave of the Red Hand.

As spectators they had hardly recovered from their
amazement at the glorious transformation scene,
when every light went out, and darkness reigned
supreme.

But glimmering from the altar was a spark or
two, transient and evanescent, and then over their
heads in the same bright ruby of the altar fire a
vast Red Hand appeared stationary. It was
slightly extended at the fingers. For the space
of ten seconds it remained blood red, significant
and appalling, on the roof above the altar, and
then it faded gradually away.

Then the altar fire blazed brightly again, and in
the red glare other red lights came from recesses in
and behind rocks. These were carried on spoon-
shaped sticks by a troop of young girls of singular
grace and beauty.

RED ALTAR LIGHT 145

Then followed with white flares the curious tribe of
Kuriltai or cripples, the cave ghouls who inhabited
these secret recesses. They looked far more unreal
and ghastly than when Tom had seen them out in
the bright sunlight. Here they seemed to personate
animals or birds, for some had kangaroo and
wild dog skins on, some had feathers stuck over
them, some had leaves, and they came stooping and
creeping on the ground, hopping on one leg,
hunchbacked, desolate, and weird in the extreme.

There were some three hundred or more of them.
Outcasts from all the tribes because not able-bodied,
but yet ruling the others with their mysteries, rites,
and terrors.

Tom's mind was hard at work all the time to dis-
entangle the wonder of all he saw, but the more he
tried the more he got mixed.

Had the young waddygalo girls, who were perfect
in form and feature, and very light coloured, been
brought in as a contrast to the ghastly beings who
inhabited the darkness ? Or had the advent of a
White Queen, such as the girl in the canoe, prevailed
out of mere curiosity against all existing laws ?

The lights all went out. There was a breathless
silence as the great Red Hand flared in ruby again on
the ceiling of the dome above them, and as it faded
away the phosphorescent lights from the luminous
fungi collars of all the performers, which were only
visible in pitch darkness, circled slowly round the
spectators and then flitted away, until at last neither
the painful sounds of laboured breathing from the

K

146 THE SILVER QUEEN

mysterious Kuriltai, nor the soft laughing voices of
the waddygalo maidens were to be heard.

Then Jim flashed his lantern again, and with the
action found speech.

" Come on ! " he cried. " I've seen real waddygalo
girls at last ! A regular bunch of the beauties. And
that's what you and me never done before, Mr. Tom!
No, nor anyone else as ever I heard tell on ! How
did they come here ? The waddygalos are far too
careful of 'em ever to let them be seen."

" Well, what did you think of them ? " asked Tom.
" Did they come up to your expectations, Jim ? "

" I've seen a pretty girl here and there," he
answered, " even amongst the blacks, but these beat
'em into fits with another kind of beauty, Mr. Tom,
don't you think? Fancy 'em dressed up! Wouldn't
they make a show ? "

They all went after Jim in single file for a long
distance by the banks of the underground river, until
a light ahead, first glimmering, then steadily brighten-
ing, broke into open sunlight as they emerged from
an archway into a valley.

Here were such grassed sides near the opening as
to be almost precipitous ; but further on the valley
opened out, though its confines still sloped up to
cap-crowns of brown, rocky, sheer cliffs that even a
rock-wallaby would be somewhat baulked by if he
wanted to get out.

On their left, as they progressed, the fine broad
stretch of flat to the little river that had its exit
from the cave, where it curved away from them out

RED ALTAR LIGHT 147

here in the open, showed ground almost big enough
for a small farm. They had not yet gauged the
extent of this open space, but subsequently dis-
covered that the park -like acres of it ran for a
mile enclosed by the high cliffs.

The river itself, bright and sparkling enough now
in the clear sunlight, bubbled and rushed in many
curving channels over beds of pebbled mosaic, until
it vanished into the hills at the far end of the vale,
roaring hoarsely down a deep black chasm.

One curious arboret near the cave exit bore the
marks of great age, however, and was undoubtedly
a stunted growth or a dwarf variety of the usually
gigantic copper-leaved gum, the tree that Millie's
birthmark approximated to by the leaf similitude.

" Camp-don't-know-what ! " remarked Jim, with a
wave of his arms embracing all the beauties and
curiosities of this wonderful secluded valley. " If I
could only live here for ever with three or four of
them young beauties, I'd be happy for the rest of
my days. Catch me ever wantin' to go back to
saddlin' up, backin' colts, foot-rottin' sheep, cattle
drovin', and livin' on johnny-cakes, damper, and salt
tack!"

The smoke from a fire, at apparently a black's
camp, now rose blue and filmy against the silver
stems and green foliage of the gums and river-box
trees, and Jim's remarks, though muttered only for
Tom's ears, as Mrs. Inglis pressed on ahead, might
have been inspired by the scene they were coming
to. But closer inspection showed the dwellings to

148 THE SILVER QUEEN

be much better built than anything Tom had
observed among real blacks before.

A copper - coloured girl in a print dress and
sunbonnet was standing near the fire, which had a
large tripod cooking-pot suspended over it from a
metal hook on a smoke-blackened crosspiece of hard
wood.

She lifted it off with a hand-iron as the strangers
approached, set it down on the ground, and ran to
meet them. She eyed Tom and Millie with intense
curiosity, and warmly embraced the latter as she
twined her arm round her waist.

Then, whispering something to her, they both
retired into the cool of the largest gunyah, which
was built like a bushman's hut.

" My other girl," was Jim's confident remark to his
master. " I'm bad again ! On the martyr tack, as
long as she keeps in sight, or the other one either."

Down the sides of the steep hill crowns and grass
slopes the rock - wallabies swarmed in hundreds
towards sundown, but of all the day-time birds which
made this lonesome paradise Jim's Utopia, none
seemed to have stayed longer than the waning after-
noon. And towards the gloaming there was not
even the monotonous chant of a mopoke or bush-owl.

" Can't make it out," Jim said apprehensively,
when they returned to the camp for supper, " except
for one reason. I know the birds don't sleep here,
for I found that out when I first came. The
wallabies, you see, have cleared out, too, as it's
sundown. Feel that shake?" as a thud from the

RED ALTAR LIGHT 149

cave end of the valley sent a hollow tremor through
the earth beneath them. " Well, I've heard rocks
fall at the other end, too, where the river goes into
the hole in the other hill. And I expect that is
what frightens the animals and birds. This place is
debbil, debbil to the blacks at night. Nothin' stops
here but us. And we're only likely to be here 'bout
once in a blue moon, so if it all don't fall in to-night
it won't matter."

As he spoke, there came a sound like the routing
of a bull.

" What's that ? " he asked of the girl who, with
Leura, was preparing the supper.

He regarded her fixedly. She, at any rate, was
not disconcerted.

" Nargun ! " she exclaimed meaningly.

" Is it the bunyip, my girl ? " was Jim's next
question.

" No, it's a signal ; it's my turn now to ask
questions. How did you like Oona ? "

" D'ye mean the white one in the canoe ? "

" Certainly," laughed the copper-coloured maiden
merrily, without reserve, for Tom had joined Millie
in the hut they were to occupy. " Perhaps you don't
like to say ! "

"I tell you what it is," dolefully replied the
harassed Jim, "it ain't exactly fair to a young
fellow like me. It was you, I tell you, that I took
the likin' to at first. And then you spring a white
girl on to me, and of course I liked her. In fact, I
love the whole lot of you, even the waddygalo girls.

ISO THE SILVER QUEEN

How can I help doin' so ? It ain't the correct thing
the way you all go on, with a bashful young 'un like
myself. It's more than I can fairly put up with,
without goin' loony, and I'll dream the whole night
of all the lot of you ! I'll never forget Camp —

" Never Tell ! " she suggested. " But I've got to
go. I'm wanted. Good-night I'll be back early
to-morrow."

" Never Tell ? All right," he said, looking dis-
comfited. " I'd call it 'Eaven, bar the shakes, if you
are agreeable. I hope we shan't be blowed up, or
swallered up in the night, because I might chanst to
wake in the other place. There's pretty dicky goin's-
on somewhere underground."

CHAPTER XIII

THE TREE WHERE THE SUNLIGHT COMES

" The valleys of coolness, the slopes of the heat,
With her blossomy traces."

—HENRY KENDALL.

NATIVE ROSE, evidently through the signal and her
intelligence after it, the same noise that Jim Terry
thought to be a bunyip the evening before, after
seeing Tom's party through their breakfast next
morning, told them that they were to go back to the
station and await contingencies.

They reached home quite safely, leaving all the
mysteries behind them.

" We're not to say a word about it to any livin'
soul, but I can't help thinkin' a jolly lot," was Jim's
commentary. " Where did them sparkly green and
blue and red stones come from that Oona wore?
And that awful red hand, how did it get there ? "

In the dusk of that same evening a travel-worn
Abbott buggy was driven up to the station, with
Andy Heseldine, Bianca Pearmain, Richard Cosgrave,
and Mr. Mansfield Waters as occupants of it.

These personages brought with them two kegs,
apparently common water kegs, but their contents

152 THE SILVER QUEEN

were so exceedingly weighty that it was deemed
advisable to roll them off the buggy, with several
strong hands to steady them on a couple of strong
planks.

Whatever they contained it was entirely con-
cerning those kegs that the whole party held a
consultation when assembled at dinner that night.
Richard Cosgrave led the talking after the table was
cleared.

"I suppose it's just as well," he began, "that I
should relate the part I have played in the whole of
this affair without making any more bones about it
It has fallen to my lot to be pretty well acquainted
with the manners and customs of the blacks in
this continent

" I've been fossicking for gold and precious stones
ever since I could tell a bit of mundic from a
whipstick. Childish impressions generally stick,
and I took to the bush like a blackfellow, and was
keenly interested in all I saw.

" Knowing what I did of the bush and the blacks,
therefore, surely it was not unusual for me to
fancy that in their company, for various reasons,
I should possess a better chance of finding gold
than any other alluvial or deep-sinking white
man.

" I could go to a tribe and talk their lingo to
them, to start with. By explaining to them what
quartz-gold was and showing them a specimen or
two I could find out whether they had seen it in
its virgin state, and consequently had, from their

WHERE THE SUNLIGHT COMES 153

showing, many a piece of ground in those days I
could work quietly. I put by what I made by
my own work, and kept my secret places free
from observation.

"It is not generally known that the blacks are
geologists. They are, though, in a certain way
They have a wide range of country, and curiously
sharp eyes. There are certain stones much sought
after by them, and the very act of lookin' for them
trains them to know strata and country, beyond
the mere animals in it. One sort of stone is the
quartz itself, the home of the gold, but it is a
water-worn specimen of this they want for curing
rheumatism ; and different sorts of grey freestones
and diorites are wanted for their stone tomahawks,
gouges, and cutting implements.

"Travelling over the country in search of these,
there are many places, such as the Red Hand
Cave you have seen, which they utilise for making
their drawings on, remote places off the river and
the road that all, save explorers, stick to, and
consequently few but myself who can go amongst
the blacks ever get the chance of seeing them.

" I sounded the blacks well on these subjects
until I could picture the location, and if the
description gave quartz indications I took some
of the tribe along with me to show the spot.

" As time went on, whilst I was doing this, I found
that the friends I had made, Heseldine and his
daughters, were likely to come to grief. He was
drinking himself into his grave, and his daughters

154 THE SILVER QUEEN

seemed to be in a position where they would have
to shift for themselves.

" I had a fancy then for Millie here," he broke in,
his voice and his inscrutable blue eyes momentarily
softening, "but I find another man has supplanted
my affections in the meantime, and I knew it before,
because I kept a watch on my old sweetheart's
actions without her knowing it.

" No offence, sir," he added, as Tom glanced at
him fearlessly. " You don't know me yet, but you
may have cause to some day." Here his eyes were
dangerous. " You don't know me, nor do you know
my born rights. I've been a friend to Heseldine and
his girls for years."

And his look straight into Tom's eyes seemed to
read his very soul, whilst his wife crimsoned and
then turned deadly pale. This man knew all about
their first meeting.

It was an awkward moment, for the blood was
surging through both men's veins like wildfire, and
Tom was not one to brook the slightest challenge,
but, suddenly changing his manner of hostility,
Myall Dick continued :

" I've been a friend to them, to Millie and Pear-
main's daughter, ever since they were children. And
one great reason why I wanted Millie was because
I knew of her bush-mark when she was a little girl.
Maybe you don't know what that birthmark meant
to me. It gave me the clue to a fortune, and
complete safety in realising it. It was a good deal
to give up, wasn't it, even without herself?

WHERE THE SUNLIGHT COMES 155

"Well, when I saw that Millie and Bianca here
were done a lot for by any black, male or female,
who came near them, I said to myself that there was
something strange in that occurrence, and set myself
to find out what it was.

" Millie was a totem girl ! She was a white girl
who belonged, by a certain sign, to a black tribe.
And through that she held a ruling power over all
the blacks, civilised or uncivilised, on the continent !
I got it all out of old Ua, who was with me then, and
pretty nigh always was, because she had been my
foster-mother.

" Says Ua concerning Millie : ' The white girl has
the mark.'

" ' What mark ? ' asked I. Of course we were
talking blackfellow.

" ' The mark of the tree where the sunlight comes,'
says she.

" You know," interpolated the speaker, his eyes
lighting up and a rare smile illuminating his -stern
but handsome face, " that the blacks' language is as
pretty when translated into English as it sounds
pretty when they talk it, if you know the right
meaning of it, which very few people do.

"Then Ua ran into a long rigmarole about a
certain belief and custom belonging to a tribe of
Murray blacks, who emigrated northwards after
the first white comers into their country played up
with them.

" This tribe swore they would go to the ends of the
earth to be out of the way of the whites, who brought

156 THE SILVER QUEEN

nothing but burning sorrow to them. So they came
into this country where we are now. I knew at once
that old Ua's legend had the light of truth, because
the pine-ridges on the Murray hold the canoe symbol
as a faith in the aboriginals' burying-grounds there,
and that one white girl with the symbol of a canoe
mark would be to them as one risen from the grave,
a living messenger of their belief.

" Her yarn thus bearing on Millie's mark, and me
wanting gold, was what made me think the sign
would be more than valuable in passing us through
all the wild Combo tribes, and as they rule the
others it would prove a talisman of perfect safety
everywhere.

" I showed Ua a half-sovereign and a gold nugget
I had. She knew pretty well the value of that ten-
shilling piece, and the print skirts and bodices it
would get for her at the nearest store, but when she
found out that the gold in the nugget made the half-
sovereign, she became as keen about it as myself.

" So I asked her on the quiet if there was anything
like that nugget in the neighbourhood of the tree
where the sunlight comes.

" Says she : ' Yes, a good deal, but come where I
will take you to and I'll get someone to tell you
more.'

" I could get about with Ua ; she would provide
for me well in the bush, where a white man who
wants to carry a kitchen and a bedroom on his back
would starve. I'd been away with her for months
at a time when I was a kiddy and she was a young

WHERE THE SUNLIGHT COMES 157

woman, and we did it on shanks' pony then. Bah !
she was a better travelling mate to me than the
whole race of white men with their town ideas, their
waggons, animals, and themselves to be looked after,
fed, bedded, clothed, armed and watered ; and she
could cook for me, too, the little we wanted done.

" When a man has a lot of other stomachs to see
to, besides his own, they make an uneasy trip.

"And she was safe and secret. We didn't leave
many tracks to benefit outsiders. And she was so
useful among the tribes for me, because she could
make a dye that, with a bit of different mixing would
turn me or herself into a Combo, a Murrai, an Epai,
or a Kubbai in a brace of shakes. She always kept
them ready in her dilli-bag when we travelled.

" Well, off I went with her in my buggy for this
trip, and at last we reached the old girl's town, or
country where she was born and used to. We went
to her tribe, me as a blackfellow ; for she had
suckled me, and could speak up for me.

" I was her baby all through with those tribes, the
little forlorn white kiddy she had made live until he
was a man, and there was always a sort of blood
brothership between me and the blacks through her
talk to them. When I was a child I had mated
with many of the black children, and there were men
of my own age in many tribes as I grew up that
knew me well and considered themselves kin to me.
They often asked me to stop, and offered me wives
in various places. I didn't want 'em. I was after
gold I knew of then and had heard the rumour of.

158 THE SILVER QUEEN

I wanted to find where that tree was that the sunlight
comes to. So some of their old bucks got hold of me
and took me out into the bush in old Ua's country
to one of their spirit stones, and we sat down by it
and had a regular pow-wow.

" They told me that that tree outside the Cave of
the Red Hand was a totem tree that was mixed up
with the crippled tribe and with others in another
country they had been driven away from, and some
day I'm going to find out that other country, for the
old Cave chief let on about it, in churinga-talk, and I
shall take his crippled tribe back there. These
old bucks told me firstly, however, that a tribe
of -cripples had the custody of that tree, and that the
place where it grew was everlastingly debbil, debbil
to any white man, that no blackfellow beyond the
cripples dared to go within coo-ee of it.

" Ua had said there was gold there, so that
intelligence did not stop me. I knew well enough
that if a blackfellow sees anyone belonging to him
crippled, loony, or sick, he has for them a mighty
reverence. He holds them sacred, but they are outcasts
from him, all the same, by the laws of his tribe.

"These cripples that you have now seen are an
outcast band, but the river blacks, and waddygalo
blacks, will fight for them and allow no one else to
meddle with them. No outsiders, white or black,
are allowed to go into that valley where the tree
and gold are, but I got in at last through old Ua's
machinations.

" The cave-cripples are indeed a queer collection.

WHERE THE SUNLIGHT COMES 159

They are passed through the tribes everywhere,
crippled or deformed ; and from what I have been
able to work amongst them by sleight of hand and
optical delusion, and from what has been spread
about the wonders of Oona and Nargun — Bianca and
myself — to say nothing about my other assistants,
I'll soon be able to go anywhere in Australia, and do
whatever I like amongst any tribes. What's to
hinder me from being a millionaire some day from
the working of my secret places, when you squatters
are played out with overstocking the country ? I
shall have plenty of underground treasures by that
time to dispose of, and to work on the quiet.

" The Kuriltai had some sort of light for navigating
their subterranean passages when we first came, but
it was only a luminous tree-fungus, fires and fire-
sticks. I have improved upon that little lot. I hold
them in an iron thrall as Nargun, their Cave god,
and can make them crouch in terror with the altar
light and the Red Hand. For I can go where I like
to get chemicals, and you have seen what the
magnesium wire can do.

" My outside messengers, by blackfellow post-
running, can get me anything I want also, and the
old Cave Chief worships me as a superior being, and
has let me into a lot of secrets. He works with me
now, as I give him extra power. For the altar fire
and the awful Red Hand a dissolving lantern is all I
need, with a powerful magnifier and glasses. I can
people the white spaces in the cavern with ghosts
and skeletons for their benefit, and could frighten

i6o THE SILVER QUEEN

any outsiders into living fits of terror if I chose to
exert my full strength of surprises. But, leaving the
cavern in its natural state, I know and have already
proved that anybody who gets into the top galleries
would be glad enough to get out again quick,
without seeing anything else, by mere feel and
fright

" Those Kuriltai or cripples masquerade as beasts,
kangaroos, and wild dogs when underground to keep
others out. But I think one sight of the creatures,
or the touch of them in the dark, with their dogskin
masks, and hair and tails on, would be almost
enough for anyone, without the echo of their
caterwauling from the lower levels.

" How we eventually got up here was in this way :
I went back to Heseldine, found his two girls that I
had got to love for the sake of old times in danger of
being turned out to face the world at an hour's
notice. Well, it made me feel sick. So I burned
his place down and came away with him and Bianca,
as Millie was gone.

" Ua turned Bianca into a Combo girl, and
Heseldine into an Epai man, same as me. And
here we are with a bush Mint.

" I knew well enough that Millie wouldn't come,
but I kept my eye on her all the same, and reckon
she's been your saviour, Mr. Inglis, when they were
going to wipe you out at the station here. Who
put 'em up to that, do you suppose ? If she hadn't
been there, you wouldn't have been living now."

" Yes, I should. I have my own initiative. Your

WHERE THE SUNLIGHT COMES 161

warning came too late, but I now know that you
were the black man who spoke to me that night
before it happened," Tom retorted deliberately,
fixing a searching gaze upon the speaker.

"Yes, sir. Would you know me as that same
now ? "

" No, indeed. Your make - up is beyond any
knowing, but surely you never put the blacks up
to set fire to my station even before the time you
appeared to me ? "

" That's all right," Cosgrave answered coolly.
"But, if you have no objection, as I have been1
rather long-winded in putting my story before you,
I think it will be as well to let Mr. Waters finish
it, from the time that he disappeared."

Tom mused. Milly was right. He would have
to be very careful of this man. Then he reflected
that if he had not come back on the night the
black scout was lurking round the houses, Millie
might have been abducted. Was the creeping
savage with the firebrand Myall Dick himself?
His manner showed it plainly enough, and he had
only been foiled by the accident of Tom's return.
If he had spoken Millie must have come out and
gone with him, as his influence over the tribes
seemed to be paramount. And her terror of him
would have forced her to comply with his demands.
Ah, well, he would give him no more chances 1

CHAPTER XIV
MILLIE'S DOWRY

" We recked not of wealth in stream or soil,

As we heard on the heights the breezes sing ;
We felt no longer our travel-toil,
We feared no more what the years might bring."

—MARY H ANN AY FOOTT.

"LADIES and gentlemen," began "Many" Waters,
"Mr. Inglis was exploring the cave with me, and
we found the tunnels far more extensive than we
expected, spending a long time in exploring them.

"At one time, Mr. Inglis being in front, I fancied
I heard someone breathing near me, and being
alarmed, as my lantern was not working well, I
hurried forward. I tripped over something, and
after my light had been extinguished by the fall
was pounced upon by what felt like huge, hairy
animals.

" I have experienced some peculiar feelings in my
time, and been in some tight places, but the thrill of
amazement which went through me then in the dark-
ness was quite a new sensation ! I had fallen close
to a deep hole that I knew of before, and as I was
seized by these creatures, who I shortly knew to be

162

MILLIE'S DOWRY 163

human by their gagging me, there was a noise as of
a heavy body falling down it, and a sharp, suppressed
cry of anguish which I knew would bring Inglis back.

" I have heard since that it was only a large stone,
and that my abductors had invented the cry to give
colour to my disappearance, for they dragged me
rapidly away with them.

" I had been blotted out of existence at the will
of my captors, gagged and overpowered, but after-
wards I found out that there were three white
counterfeits amongst these blacks who clad them-
selves with skins of animals. That young lady over
there," indicating Bianca Pearmain, "was one of
them, although she did not stoop to the other
mummeries.

" She simulated a Combo girl and a white Queen,
who navigated a canoe in the underground stream.
She was not crippled as the real Kuriltai were, but
beautiful in form and face."

" Come now, Mr. Waters," exclaimed Bianca,
reddening with annoyance, " that is too bad of you.
Keep that for Native Rose."

" Very well, my dear," responded he, " but you
must remember that Oona should not interrupt even
on the strength of her relationship to Nargun, the
cave deity."

"Where is Native Rose?" asked Jim, highly
perplexed and suspicious as he scanned Miss
Pearmain's flushed face intently on the strength of
his cave experiences. "And where is Oona? I'm
blest if I know which I likes best. They are both

164 THE SILVER QUEEN

lovely, and both talk the same. It's only their skins
as is different. And now here's a Miss Pearmain !
It's a triangle job that don't work out somehow to
my satisfaction, for she's as like the other two as she
can be."

"Well," continued Waters, smiling sarcastically at
Bianca's embarrassment, on being thus apostrophised
in company, " such being the pleasant parts of my
incarceration when I had begun to get used to it, I
thought I might just as well be considered dead or
black after I had learned why I had been detained.
The secret alone was worth it, and otherwise I might
have spoilt all.

" The pockets of gold we have worked come from
the reef in the valley. The drift is all in shallow
ground, and the gold of centuries lies there. All
that valley must have been deep underground once.
It is a bedrock, and the eroding has gone on to the
level of the stream, where it seems to stop, but I
think the water is working underneath it in the same
way as it is at the far end of the valley, and will
bring all the hills down on top of it again some day,
if it doesn't bury itself lower, as it seems to have done
already.

"There are all sorts of formations in the cave
galleries visible where the limestone is eroded to the
next strata, by water action. There are marbles, and
there may be more conglomerates outside the whole
region which contain precious metals or precious
stones. It may last our time, and probably will, but
we have had some experience of underground

MILLIE'S DOWRY 165

tremors caused, I believe, entirely by water action,
and I can't be sure of its safety.

" Cosgrave and I, it was evident, had both dropped
on to something curious, each in our several ways, he
by carefully-planned design, I more or less by acci-
dent accelerated by the personal information of Mr.
Tom Inglis about some crippled blacks he had seen
on this part of his run. On representing this to
Heseldine and Cosgrave, they both agreed that as
gold was in it, the fairest way for us to proceed was
to establish a joint protectorship, admitting the
original discoverer of the crippled tribe and their
cave, and including his wife, she happening to have
near relations with the whites in possession. Also,
as my information entitled me to a share of the
great secret discovery, I was admitted under the
same terms.

" This, they considered, would be the only satis-
factory safeguard to the continued working of it.
So as Cosgrave is the most learned and secret of us
all in aboriginal science, I vote that we agree to
leave the matter entirely under his jurisdiction, the
rest of us clearing out to follow our usual avocations
so as to let him sell the gold and reap our reward as
silent sleeping partners. As Nargun, with his cave
necromancy, Cosgrave is a god in the eyes of the
superstitious cave-dwellers ; other interference would
spoil his plans."

Cosgrave was looking across at Tom with those
inscrutable eyes of his, but said nothing. Those
eyes, dark blue with long black lashes, had a far-

166 THE SILVER QUEEN

away appearance in them, but what was in their
vision no one could tell.

"The tree at the entrance to the curious inner
valley," continued Waters, " is, I should say, the only
one of its peculiar species in the entire district. The
leaf of it, which represents the secret sign written on
the talking sign-written stones of the guardian chief
of the strange tribe of the Kuriltai, is nothing more
or less than the leaf of a dwarfed copper gum. The
Kuriltai call it the Tree where the Sunlight comes,
and near it the ancient headman of the tribe, the one
who had led them from their former abode, lies
buried with all his churingas of mystery and
romance. That tree is a hundred years old if it is
a day.

" And here, in a strange region about it, come
these pockets of gold, which are of no small moment
to us assembled here. We have two five-gallon kegs
filled with gold and gold dust from them. The gold
is all solid. Those kegs each hold about £8,000
worth. Our individual profits are over £2,000,
owing to the first prospector's anxiety to keep the
matter secret. Mr. Cosgrave may well call it a bush
Mint, and his generous endeavours should be
sufficient to make us all keep the strictest silence
about it as we value our own prosperity.

" I have only to suggest, finally, that we should
all solemnly swear never to reveal what we know
either of the Cave, the Kuriltai, or the gold ground
beyond the Cave. Are you willing ? "

" Wait a bit," Tom interjected. " I'll stand out of

MILLIE'S DOWRY 167

it. Mr. Cosgrave has presumed to dictate to me
what I should or should not do on a previous
occasion. It is a matter between ourselves, and
need not be discussed here. But I hold that
anything allotted to me should be paid to my
partners, as a royalty."

"We have made those arrangements, Mr. Inglis,"
Cosgrave broke in, regarding Tom keenly. " Mr.
Waters said you would think of your partners.
Heseldine and I can work it, after we have sold the
gold, on the quiet, and it's a certain income for the
present shareholders. Till I give the word, I say,
beyond this company assembled here to-night, this
secret goes no further. I don't want the place
rushed. We'll say it all ain't quite fair and square
and above board, except perhaps in the justice you
have done to your partners, but we are all in it, and
when gold is in question it doesn't pay to talk too
much, because every living soul in this big Island
thinks he's got a born right to it as well as us.

" If you chose to turn nasty over it, Mr. Inglis, of
course you have got us all on the hip, but I can claim
the Government reward and put you in a hole by
proclaiming the gold-field and over-running your
cattle station with diggers. How would you feel if
a town sprung up here, a mining town, where you
live now on the permanent water? There's two
ways of thinking over the matter, you see."

" My wife's share holds me," Tom said, eyeing his
rival defiantly. " What made you so generous ? "

" Because of my right as her guardian, a self-

168 THE SILVER QUEEN

appointed one," remarked Cosgrave coolly. " But
look here, Mr. Inglis, you're fighting square, and
though there's no give or take between us, by your
own action, I like a man. Put it another way.
What we want to do ninety-nine people out of a
hundred in our position would do. What would you
do yourself if you found a nugget of gold out on your
run far too big for you to carry away ? Would you
go and tell the world all about it before you had got
the value of it ? Or would you be inclined to heft
it away in little bits until you had removed the lot ?
I have risked my life in finding this gold ; no outsider
has done as much as I have. Isn't it worth keeping?
My life and those dear to me, in the scale against
dead loss all round."

" What about the advice you gave me on our first
meeting ? " Tom answered, looking him steadily in
the face. " No man flouts me with impunity, and I
give you fair notice that man to man, without
throwing gold into the scale at all, I'll fight you
to a finish, bare fists or gloves of diplomacy, until
we see who is best man. I stand for what I have
to guard, my wife."

" Well done," replied Cosgrave heartily. " I could
see it working in you. Gloved hands be it, then, at
present ; but — well, you're coming to my way of
argument, ain't you?"

"Yes," said Tom quietly, "but only about the
gold," and Millie slid her hand into his.

A Bible was produced, and those present, much
excited by the advent of such unexpected wealth,

MILLIE'S DOWRY 169

vowed to keep all secrets connected with the dis-
covery, and, bar Cosgrave and Heseldine, not to go
near it again, or to reveal the spot to anyone.

" Do you think Native Rose or Oona would have
me now I've made my pile, or ought I to wait until
I have made a bigger one through Mr. Cosgrave?
Please tell me, Miss Pearmain," Jim asked, with
grave deliberation.

"You had better go and get their opinions," she
replied abruptly, looking rather uneasy. " I have
nothing to do with your former love affairs. But
I forgot — you are not allowed to go and see them."

Then, noticing Cosgrave looking very stubborn
and dangerous, she rapidly changed the subject, and,
passing out of the room with Millie, left the men to
talk over the final adjustment of matters.

Heseldine and Cosgrave went away next morning
in the buggy with Ua, who had arrived on foot.

Waters, having bought the station waggon, and
hired two men, one to cook, besides taking the
prospecting shepherd, after settling up matters with
Tom, took charge of his sheep and departed later
for Adelaide. Bianca stopped by special request,
and did a lot of work with Jim among the cattle ;
and Kulbarunna, the cattlemen having gone long ere
this, firmly convinced of Waters' death, settled down
again into its usual quiet, far-out loneliness.

But about the houses now arose ripples of happy
laughter, caused solely by the presence of the white
women. Tom and Jim rode through the cattle
daily, being quite assured by the respectful attitude

i;o THE SILVER QUEEN

of the blacks that no further danger of any kind
threatened from them ; the birthmark on Millie
seeming to now result in such good-will that the
station was kept in game and fish, brought by
invisible waddygalos, and passed on by the station
blacks in endless variety.

And by and by a little son was born to Tom and
Millie.

CHAPTER XV

PARTING OF THE WAYS

" What of those tender feet

That have not toddled yet?
What dances shall they beat

With what red vintage wet ?
In what wild way will they march or stray?
By what sly Paynims met ? "

—JOHN LE GAY BRERETON.

ONE morning Bianca Pearmain was astir, milking
the cows, and, being assisted by Mr. James Terry
during that operation, received a proposal in the
latter's very best form.

He had found out all about her triple personality,
the " triangle business " as he called it, and being
always terribly in earnest about anything he did,
that nerving system was not wanting in this, his
first love affair.

" Miss Pearmain," he exclaimed, but in lowered
voice, " or Native Rose, or Oona, for I'm blest if I
know which of you I like best, being only a young
stockman, risin' twenty-one, I'll graft for you like a
buckin* colt, my dear, even upon a free selection. I'd
call it 'Eaven to live with you in a bark humpy, if

171

172 THE SILVER QUEEN

we had only 'possum rugs to sleep on, or kangaroo
rats for tucker. Wouldn't it be prime? But I'm a
rich man now, Native Rose, and I'd get you such a
'orse as nobody but Oona ever had. Perhaps when
all you three are rolled up into one Mrs. Jim
Terry, I'll love Bianca best Say yes, Native Rose,
my darlin' 1 You was always kindest to me in that
character. I've had that kiss you gave me in the
dark long ago smackin' at my lips ever since ! It
has never come unstuck ! Give me another."

"Hush, Jim," Bianca blushingly whispered.
" Don't you know that if a young woman ever
gives you a kiss you should never on any account
tell of it ?

" Besides," she added, noticing his face, " Native
Rose is out of date now, and not likely to come on
the stage any more."

She, in her turn, looked pained at the impression
she had made on him. Had that first kiss pledged
them for life ? she thought

" Bianca and you have learned many things since
then," she added. " Don't be stupid, Jim," she softly
continued, for he was much troubled. "See here,
I'm old enough to be your mother in one way,
because I have got to know more of the world by
my woman's instinct than you could probably claim
at thirty by experience. Why, you are not twenty-
one ! "

" I'm risin' twenty-one, and you're but nineteen,
Bianca. Ain't that right for double harness ? "

" Not for a youth like you. I'm a woman. When

PARTING OF THE WAYS 173

a girl reaches nineteen she's years older than a young
man of your age."

" Oh, Bianca, and I've loved you so true ! "

" We've been good mates, Jim, you and I, the best
of mates. I'll never forget you all my life. I've
been Native Rose to you, and I've been Oona, too,
and I'd go anywhere or ride anywhere with you in
the bush as Bianca, same as I am always doing, Jim,
because I know you are a true man at heart. It's
more than I would do with any young fellow."

" Well, I am three-quarters man, ain't I, Rose ? "

" You are better than most men, Jim ; you are a
real, good, honest mate. But, bless you, you have
several years to learn things in yet And, Jim,
whisper ! "

He inclined his head down towards her. They
had let the last cow out of the bails, and Bianca,
risen from her milk ing-stool, had on a pink-spotted
white print dress and a white sunbonnet, and her
flushed face looked as lovely as that of the typical
dairymaid's. The whisper was given shyly but
confidentially. Jim's form then rose to its full
height, and he remained looking down at her, his
bronzed face puckering with an amazed, injured
expression.

" Honest Injun ? " he inquired, his eyes fixed on
hers.

She nodded.

" Well, I'm — blowed ! He ain't much of a daisy,
nohow. More like a Bathurst burr."

"Mind you don't tell, Jim," she added in an

174 THE SILVER QUEEN

undertone. " It may be and it may not be. But
it's half arranged."

" Me tell ? " he jerked in scorn. " Did I ever go
back on you, Bianca ? "

" Never," she replied, with a pitying smile that was
in itself half a caress, " and I know you wouldn't.
Honest Indian, now!"

" Honest Injun," replied Jim mournfully. " And
look 'ere, my darlin' Native Rose, now you've said it,
if anyone breathed a word against you or — 'im, now
you've let it out, if the same chap was as big as a
gum tree, I'd go for 'im. I'd fight 'caps of chaps,
one down, another come on ! " And Jim felt his
brawny muscles approvingly.

" And well I know it, my dear old Jim ! " she
rejoined, laying her hand affectionately on his arm.
" Only it is not likely to come to any fighting. Girls
are girls, and have their feelings to repress, not to
express, and girls sometimes come to find out that
they are women, almost old women, in an hour-
women who ought not to have any extra sensibility."
She sighed deeply and sadly. "Some women are
bought and sold like cattle."

" You are sellin' yourself, Rose, and oh ! the
draggin' heartache it gives me ! "

" Now, stop this talking, Jim," she interposed
sharply, "and let us go up to the house with our
milk. Or stay, you go and head the cows over the
lower crossing, so that they'll get to the Mianda
billabong. There's fine grass there for them, and I
want good cream for butter, perhaps cheese, if you're

PARTING OF THE WAYS 175

good. Coming back, you can get your buckets. I
wish to be by myself and think."

Bianca, as she went forward, felt her heart ache as
much as Jim did, so much that she realised now what
her own affections were in regard to him, for the
young people's sentiments were real devoted love on
his part, the strongest love of a life, because the first
and most innocent. For herself, she stopped and
pondered, realising this also.

Jim came racing back, and took her pails away
from her.

"Give 'em to me, Rose," he said. "There's no
carryin' for you to do when I'm about."

" Jim, dear," she responded shyly, " you may give
me a good-bye kiss."

He put her pails down on the grass, and the
strangely-associated pair indulged in an innocent
and hearty embrace. They had come to understand
each other so thoroughly. Her lightest wish was
law to him, and he now obeyed her, though to do
so almost broke his heart. It was a bush youth and
bush maid's love and friendship, innocent, trusting,
firm as steel. They might have been left alone on
a desert island without mating, if the girl said " No,"
because of their homely and honest bush creed of
natural virtue.

Nevertheless, in Bianca's eyes the hot tears welled
suddenly when she was alone again. Her other
wooing had been so different. Before his departure
with Heseldine, Cosgrave had beckoned her to follow
him down to the river flat, where, screened by some

176 THE SILVER QUEEN

bushes, they sat and talked together for some time,
but apart, walked up to the house apart, and, beyond
a final handshake, had no other good-bye. But they
parted an engaged couple.

About ten o'clock that day, Bianca Pearmain came
forward from the vicinity of the houses calling aloud
for Jim Terry, who was buckling somewhat viciously
a surcingle over the saddle of his newest colt at the
stockyard below, on the first river terrace. She
mentioned the name of a horse she was accustomed
to ride sometimes when she went out on the run
with him.

" 'E's bin a bit off his feed. I shall have to cut
him for the lampas, Miss Bianca," shouted delighted
Jim. " I'll run Rory in for you, miss. He's feeding
up the creek. He ain't rollin' fat, but he's in good
spare condition, spry enough to do a big journey, or
run for a Maiden Plate. I shan't keep you many
minutes, miss," and Jim, vaulting on to his latest
youngster's back, went off at a gallop.

Shortly afterwards the young stockman came back
with a mob of horses, which went into the yard
smartly, then, unsaddling and letting his colt go, he
ran up to the house for Bianca's side-saddle and
bridle, and, having selected another horse for him-
self, finally led up Rory, a large, handsome bay with
black points, a splendid, high-class jumper, very fast,
with an amiable temper, a perfect picture of a lady's
horse, and one of Tom's own. Bianca, by this time
arrayed in a riding-habit, wearing a light cap of the
same material, sprang to the saddle from Tom's

PARTING OF THE WAYS 177

hand, and away she and Jim went up the river,
with Millie and Tom gazing after them, and two
kangaroo dogs trotting steadily after their horses'
hocks until they disappeared in the blue -hazed
distance.

Then Tom proposed to take his wife out for a
holiday drive, saying :

" Come along and tell Mulga to get ready. You
get some lunch and the tea and billy and things,
and I'll take you, baby, Mulga, and Leura down to
Thuladjari lagoon in the buggy. The little chap can
see the tiny tortoises in the rock shallows, and they
will be something new for his wondering eyes to gaze
at"

On her acquiescence, Tom had his coat off in a
moment, and with a wheel jack, a screw wrench and
a bottle of castor oil, saw that the running gear of
the cosy double "Abbott" was in good order, having
the horses in and the conveyance at the door just as
the women were ready.

Away they went, the clear, gentle clank of the
light buggy wheels giving a pleasant refrain to their
outing — a sound suggesting the working of a good
wooden sea-block on one of the old-time clipper
ships — until at length they turned the horses out on
green grass, backed with water reeds, at Thuladjari,
and prepared for relaxation.

Thuladjari was a long, deep waterhole, which shone
blue as the bluest sapphire, with vivid swarths of
green water-grass resting in and growing on its
pellucid edges.

M

178 THE SILVER QUEEN

The depth of this lagoon waterhole was never
known, principally for the reason that the whites
when bathing in it seldom stayed long enough to
investigate, because of the fear of a horrible bunyip
lurking there.

As for the blacks, from whom the legend came,
none of them would interest themselves within a
quarter of a mile of the water, unless accompanied
by whites.

Tom had always been inclined to think that the
blacks' story concerning the bunyip, which must have
had some foundation, could be authenticated from
the tiny tortoises which disported themselves in the
shallows.

They were worth seeing, too, these pretty little
creatures with their black and yellow carapaces.
They were only to be found in this particular piece of
water, and only visible there from the top end rocks.

So might not the parents of these little two and
four-inch amphibians be a very large pair who seldom
showed, save when coming up for recreation and
change at night, and then causing those sounds or
appearances which had scared the blacks away from
the region, or was an alligator the real bunyip ?

Anyway, despite the blacks' legend, above water
the bush scene was perfect. A bit back from the
margin of the lagoon grew an enormous copper gum
tree, deep-rooted, high-buttressed, with its mighty
tap-root deep in underground moisture. There was
not another tree of the same sort within fifty miles,
except the dwarfed, aged one at the Cave valley outlet.

PARTING OF THE WAYS 179

And there, in the widespread shade of this tree's
gently-rustling branches, the Abbott buggy was
drawn up, and Millie and Tom reclined cosily ;
whilst the copper leaves above their heads scintillated
metallic flashes.

" I wonder how on earth this big tree carne here,
Tom ? " Millie asked suddenly, whilst the horse bell
tinkled a gentle music, as the animals lazily shifted
from one choice morsel to another, and the smoke
from the camp fire curled in pale blue spirals and
perfumed their neighbourhood, coming out into
bright relief against the deep background of mulga
forest and long kangaroo grass of the open flats.

Millie held the baby in her arms, whilst Mulga
and Leura, attired in light skirts surmounted
severally by a scarlet and blue blouse, attended to
the boiling of the billy and some fresh water crayfish
in a saucepan. These had been caught by them with
their toes when they first came to the waterhole, and
flung out on the bank by the same sensitive feelers
with backward kicks.

" The Torres Straits pigeons brought the seed,
according to ' Many's ' theory, I expect," replied
Tom, who had been lazily puffing at his pipe but
now extinguished it " See that little tortoise
crawling up the rocks, Millie ; give me the child."

Joyfully Millie complied, now placing herself close
to her husband. And then, as she surveyed both her
treasures, her face suddenly clouded.

Tom and herself were nestled against the huge
pink stem of the giant gum tree, their limbs and feet

i8o THE SILVER QUEEN

straight out before them, towards the sparkling
water. She had slipped her hand into his, and there
was a strange, far-away look in her eyes as she said,
looking up into the verdurous branches overhead :

"Tom, do you remember the description of the
little tortoise, tattoed on Uncas, the little tortoise
that was the totem-sign of the ruling chiefs of the
Linne Lenape ? I never see or think of a tortoise
now without being reminded of my own totem
symbol, the legendary canoe-leaf, and Dick's story of
the 'Tree where the Sunlight comes,' one of the
leaves of which tree is the identical sign of my
birthmark.

" Is there not, as Mother always said, some destiny
connected with it and myself? Look at my past
life, my chance meeting with you, and see us now
married, against all contrary emergencies. The
development goes on. The Fates tried to separate
us in every possible way, but failed. What does the
future hold for us, and our son there now ? "

" Happy days, I hope," Tom answered. " But why
do you gloom over it? Surely Providence is, and
has been, the ruler of our lives, and I cannot have
my bright girl give way to any sort of lingering
despondency about emergencies. I am here to
protect you. Why, you are making even baby look
unhappy. He has apparently forgotten all about the
tortoise, from the very expression of your face, and
that wouldn't be a bad example for you to follow
yourself, and not to moon over the past, or to gloom
the future. Cheer up, Millie dearest 1 "

PARTING OF THE WAYS 181

" Isn't he a beauty, Tom ? " she murmured, suddenly
and softly, stroking the little boy's hair. " Don't
you see the likeness in him to us both ? He has
your curls, my eyes. Look at his sturdy, perfect
form.

" I have dreamed," she continued gravely, as if in
error, but despondent as to her intuition, " of our son,
grown to be a man, a splendid man in all physical
ways, but with a mind warped, and a soul of honour
destroyed, disappointing both his parents from some
fell reason or other. Now, why should this be
impressed upon my thoughts so distinctly? Why
should he not turn out to be like his father ? Is
there a warning in that tree, with whose sign I am
marked ? Oh, Tom, Tom, why should my heart and
understanding voice such horrors to me, when all
seems so fair and bright before us ? Indeed, I some-
times feel that I have more than a woman's special
knowledge. In gaining you I gained my all, but I
have an awful presentiment that I shall have to suffer
for it in some way not yet fully explained, in spite of
what you say that I ought to think, and hope, for
the better."

Tom was astonished, horrified. He tried all he
could do to dissipate his wife's melancholy forebodings,
but, despite all his efforts, her grave face and absorbed
manner cast a visible shadow over their pleasure
party, revoking entirely the gay and cheery manner
in which they had set out, and marking that day in
their after lives as one to be remembered.

It might have been some strange prescience from

182 THE SILVER QUEEN

her birthright, and it seemed certainly more than a
coincidence that the solitary, copper-leaved eucalyptus
which shaded her and Tom near the blue water should
have brought such thoughts. But when, at length,
they reached home, she whispered to Tom :

" Forgive me for spoiling your day, dear. Perhaps
even the black cloud that passed over my soul will
have less darkened edges. Let us hope for the best,
at any rate, and be happy while we may."

CHAPTER XVI
"LAPIS LAZULI"

'* Though tender grace the landscape lacks, too spacious,

Impassive, silent, lone, to be so fair ;
Their kindness swiftly comes more soft and gracious
Who live and tarry there."

—THOMAS WILLIAM HENEY.

As Bianca Pearmain and James Terry, Esq., rode
away after their little love scene of the morning, with
other things than mere permanent union more potent
for them both just then, Bianca fell to thinking of
the self-effacement she had experienced by accepting
Cosgrave's offer.

Not that she disliked the life of adventure she had
gone through with her adopted father, and the man
who had claimed her in default of Millie, but her
affection for Tom, his wife, and their baby boy had
increased very much, and, together with her own
honest love for Jim himself, now outweighed all other
considerations. So that she began to repent her
hasty action in grim earnest.

After two hours' riding they had crossed a great
plain which led into a mountain gorge, and whilst
going through this Jim was speculating on the

184 THE SILVER QUEEN

probability of a certain wild bull he knew of, a leader
of a small mob of still wilder cattle, being in the
vicinity, when the sound of the creature itself routing
in the ranges became distinctly audible. Both their
steeds pricked up their ears, and danced with the
prospect of a gallop.

Rory was a perfect lady's hack, but as Tom had
trained him, he added to his other splendid qualities
that of a first-class stock-horse, and Master Jim, being
apt to be a little hard on his mount when after cattle,
the big horse was the more impatient of the two in
their present behaviour.

The other cattle they had seen on this excursion
to the better known parts of the run had been
feeding quietly inwards towards the river, and
seemed to be getting more settled to their new
pasturage, but Jim was uneasy about this wild mob
on their outskirts, fearing they might demoralise the
others sooner or later.

" There's the bull I told you about, Miss Bianca ! "
he exclaimed, as the gully narrowed and towered
above them. " There he is, right at the top edge of
that bluff. Look at him throwing the dust back with
his fore hoofs, and lowering his head as if he was going
to charge. I'd like to drive that fellow into the station.
We could put him and his mob in the mile-square
paddock. Shall we try, Miss Bianca ? It'll be a bit
of — what's that Greek word you told me about,
meanin' credit, glory, and all sorts of good things ? "

" Kudos, Jim. Yes, let us try, by all means ; I can
hardly hold Rory, he is so anxious to be off after them."

"LAPIS LAZULI" 185

u Then you follow me," said Jim, leaning forward,
and stooping still lower for branches as his well-
trained chestnut, Tiger, breasted the steep ridge he
at once headed him at. " We can get round behind
them this way. Mind the boughs, miss ! "

But Bianca didn't want much tutoring ; she rode
as well as Jim did. By the time they had scrambled
up the middle of a precipitous rocky gully, and got
on to the top of the well-grassed tableland, they
caught sight of the mob of wild cattle they were
after, scampering off for all they were worth, but
suddenly, to their surprise and delight, as they raced
after them, they saw them turning at right angles for
another gully, on the opposite side of the plateau,
which went down to a large plain where they could
ring them to their hearts' content, if they could only
head them.

" Blacks about, or they wouldn't have turned off
the tableland like that," ran Jim's inward commentary
to himself as he caught his horse by the head
and rattled after the racing, bellowing mob, as hard
as ever he could go. " We've got 'em now, for sure ! "
he shouted to his follower.

The kangaroo dogs swept along with them in the
wild rush across the big plateau, but fast as they
went, Jim's eyes, keen as a hawk's, saw a queer and
unexpected sight.

A hundred yards from the steep rift where the
cattle had dashed down, with the riders closing fast
on their heels, stood a large ridge-gum tree. Its bark
was smooth and silver white, but the side of it

186 THE SILVER QUEEN

opposite Jim had been burnt out hollow by a bush
fire, and formed a charred and blackened funnel
some five feet in diameter at the ground base, by
eight feet high, narrowing slightly towards the top.
In this hollowed chamber, black against the black of
it, stood a native who would have been unseen but
that Selim, one of the kangaroo dogs who always
scented blacks and was their inveterate enemy,
dashed for the tree. On reaching it, however, he
stopped short suddenly, bounded about, and wagged
his tail. Jim was so astonished at this behaviour
that he wheeled his horse in his direction, and in the
next second or two discovered the cause of the dog's
friendliness standing there. The concealed black-
fellow had patted Selim on the head, and would
never have been observed but for the dog's action,
his similarity to the charred inside being almost
exact. Now Jim was surprised, because the dog had
never before let a blackfellow come near him, his
aim in life seeming to be either to " kill " or " tree "
ever and always any aboriginal like an opossum.
Wherefore Jim looked keenly, and as his late swerve
had thrown him abreast of Bianca, he formed his own
conclusions, but kept his counsel.

The black man in the black hollow never moved
as the pair of them tore past, but peeping just beyond
the tree from the snow-white side of it was a light-
coloured girl whom Bianca knew instantly. She was
Eiya, one of the waddygalo maidens Cosgrave had
induced to come into the Red Hand Cave to help
him carry on his ceremonies and juggleries.

"LAPIS LAZULI" 187

Whether a woman can read another's eyes or not
is hardly for a man to define, but evidently Bianca,
in that brief glance, had read something in those of
the young chieftainess which filled her with curiosity
and astonishment.

As for Jim, he was too intent now to heed augjit
but the matter in hand, never reining up, but clattering
full speed down the gorge incline over loose stones
and boulders after the flying cattle, as he shouted
instructions to his close following companion as to
her position when he should dash forward on the
level ground and head them out on the plain to the
right. Then, when he had swung them round, she
was to head them again, and they would ring them
by galloping them round in continual circles. But
Rory had too much foot for Jim's horse, and the
daring girl, shooting past him, gained the post oi
honour, and kept it through the long and severe
rally that followed.

Between them they kept the small mob of clean-
skins going in circles over the plain, with stockwhips
cracking and dogs chiming in with bay and bark,
until they had winded them thoroughly and got
them in command, when they headed them for the
river and the station. Even then they had to go at
a smart pace, for a young one or two, or an obstinate
cow, would try to break out sideways every now and
then and had to be headed back again, whilst the
bull challenged all comers, until a rain-like and
merciless torrent of lashes from Jim's stockwhip fell
on him, and reduced him to sullen submission.

188 THE SILVER QUEEN

" The best day's work we have done, Miss Bianca ! "
said Jim, as, delighted with their victory, the couple
made onwards with their captives for the one-mile
paddock. " You rode like a bloomin' angel. But we
shouldn't have got 'em so easy if it hadn't been for
that white blackfeller in the tree hollow who started
'em off the range."

" What do you mean ? " asked Bianca hastily.
"How do you know he was a white man, Jim?"

" Well, I wasn't born yesterday, miss, nor yet the
day before, but," reddening painfully, " there's been
a lot of white blackfellerism up here lately, especially
in the Cave, and it weren't Mr. Waters. First the
dog told me, and then I seed someone I know ! A
dog will tell you what a man can't speak sometimes,
and I've got eyes in my head."

" Mind the bull, Miss Bianca— he's edgin' off! "

She came back, after her detour, with a face as
deeply dyed as his own, and a trailing stockwhip
thong, which she caught up into curls and rested the
butt on her hip, as she looked him squarely in the face.

"Who was he?"

" What's the name of that dark blue stone in the
snake-ring Mrs. Inglis gave you as a keepsake ? " he
asked, flushing deeper also under his tan. " I never
could get the hang of them foreign names properly."

" Lapis lazuli."

" Ladies leisurely ! " he replied whimsically. " Them
blue stones was the colour of his eyes, anyway ! "

Bianca's flush grew deeper too. The colour spread to
the very roots of her hair, and her eyes flashed angrily.

"LAPIS LAZULI" 189

She had caught his drift. He was too delicate to
tell her exactly all he knew, but his bush sight was
infallible, and she knew he had not been deceived.
The coal black Kubbai seeking shelter, and secreting
himself from their sight in the burnt-out hollow tree,
was Cosgrave himself !

And now, womanlike, with her human under-
standing, Bianca understood the look in the young
chieftainess' eyes. It was that of defiance and scorn.

Her gauntleted hands clenched on her reins and
stockwhip top and coils, as for the first time that
day the gallant Rory felt the touch of her armed
heel, and snorted with indignation, tossing his head
and rattling his bit and curb chain.

She was humiliated, taken down, deceived. It
was not part of her way at any time to simulate,
and she was sure that Jim felt as bitterly indignant
as she did herself.

But he said nothing more, in his chivalry to her,
and, having crossed the river, they pushed onwards,
with an occasional hard and going dash after the
cattle, until they neared the one - mile station
paddock, into which they forced the whole head
of cleanrskin scrubbers : thirty-one head, cows, calves,
and the fine -looking roan bull, to learn tamer
manners. It had been a hard, long ride, and they
had done yeomen's work.

" You can kiss me for good and all, Jim," Bianca
whispered tenderly to her young lover as he helped
her off her saddle at the door in the dark.

CHAPTER XVII

EXODUS

" Thus in her likeness that strange nature moulding,

Makes man as moody, sad and savage, too,
Yet in his heart, like her, a passion holding,
Unselfish, kind, and true."

— THOMAS WILLIAM HENEY.

COMPLETE immunity from the blacks, the want of
which constituted the first standing bugbear of the
early far-out settlers on the land, being at last assured
to Tom, through Millie's curious tribal birthmark and
his own diplomacy, he, having now to raise fat cattle
for market, enlisted all the likely blackboys, big and
little, about the place, as apprentices to learn the art
of stock-riding. He found them most apt and teach-
able, soon becoming smart horsemen, and requiring
no wages beyond food, tobacco, blankets, and clothes.

Their eyes in tracking, and propensities for any-
thing that seemed akin to hunting, made them very
useful on the run, and when they began to under-
stand their work amongst stock, they took to it with
rather more than natural intelligence.

Jim now received his well-deserved promotion as
overseer, working all the outer parts of the run with

190

EXODUS 191

trained blackboys, and when times were slack Tom
and he drew the tribe about the station into further
amicable relations with themselves by initiating all
who wished to learn into the mysteries of cricket.

They played the game at first with a real cricket
ball, but used pick -handles as bats, and many a
hard-hitting, exciting match resulted, to the great
delight of all.

Boys even of nine or ten years old learned to ride,
and rode very well, too, being economical in horse-
flesh as light-weights. Not a beast of Tom's was
now speared, as was the case formerly, when he
and his partners first took up their large stretch of
country, and he had cause to know that of late his
straying cattle had been put back within his
boundaries and stopped from further wandering by
outlying parties of aboriginals.

Jim Terry became a power of strength to Tom
Inglis. His splendid riding and tracking powers
were a sight to see. He had grown up literally
under Tom's teaching, a typical young bush
Australian, with the keenest of eyes for country
and places, and a wonderful memory for a horse
or a, horned beast.

In calculating the pedigree of a half -grown,
doubtful calf, as Tom said, " You can bet your
boots Jim will know what cow it belongs to, even if
she is away at the other end of the run."

In regard to the daily home life at the station, the
little boy was for Tom and Millie their one anxiety.
The welfare and bringing up of this child was a

192 THE SILVER QUEEN

serious consideration for the father, and his ideas
began to point town wards.

" It won't hurt him to run about and get the free
use of his limbs," he argued, " but when he is six or
seven years old I shall take him down to Sydney and
place him at a Dame's school."

Later on he would be educated at the Sydney
Grammar School, Tom's own Alma Mater, which has
produced a Premier, a statesman or two for the Empire,
in spite of the Socialist theory, which would level
Australia to the position of the blacks themselves, with
the Japanese to finish their ideas of universal slavery
for them.

So the child was always out under the charge of
someone until he was four years old, generally in the
companionship of little Peter, the aboriginal, Mulga's
boy.

They were of the same age, and under this physical
tuition little Tom Inglis learned the quickness of eye,
scent, hand, and hearing of the blacks until he was
five years of age, with a certain wide-awake reliance
upon himself which, taught from his babyhood when
he could first toddle, became a sure means of averting
most bush dangers, chiefly relating to venomous
reptiles. This gave him an alert and watchful dis-
position, and was the very best training that he could
possibly have received. He learned his manners at
home, and was altogether a very promising young scion
of the old stock, and a general favourite all round.

Tom, in his leisure evenings, played chess, draughts,
and cards with his wife, Bianca Pearmain, and Jim.

EXODUS 193

He and his wife became more and more attached
to Bianca Pearmain. She was such a bright,
domesticated girl, such a needed help, and now that
Jim Terry was to the fore in her affections, even
brighter and readier and smarter than of yore.

Cosgrave was working double tides in the Cave
valley goldfield with all due secrecy. Nobody except
themselves knew a word about it, because if ever he
visited the station for even a casual word with Tom
he came in the guise of a blackfellow. His visits had
been rare, however, and not the slightest further
arrangement of his marriage with Bianca had been
made. Though mysterious and reticent, it was quite
evident that he had mighty matters of state resting
on his shoulders, and Tom had once come across a
tall Epai native on a part of his run very far from the
Cave,whoturned out to beCosgrave on close inspection,
though what he was doing there he didn't explain.

He intimated at last to Tom that he thought
Bianca would be better down in Sydney than up in
the bush, and this idea chiming in with Tom's own
intentions, the latter volunteered to take charge of
her. But between the two men, since their first
interview, there had always been a certain stand-
offishness, and they never made friends.

Millie herself had now developed business talents,
helping Tom considerably with all his station
schemes ; and by the policy of not making Jim in
the slightest degree an outsider, the evening society
of two bright, practical, Australian women had
smartened that young man up very considerably,

N

i94 THE SILVER QUEEN

making him particularly anxious about the cut and
set of his clothes, the design and colour of a tie, or
even the wrinkles of his riding boots.

Tom imported many books from town and read
to them all a good deal during these bright evening
reunions after their daily work. They also took the
office of reader in turns.

In spite of Jim's early schooling, his spelling and
vernacular were faulty, and during the first trials his
stumbles over some of the big words were terrific,
amusing his audience vastly, but the slips were
always explained and corrected in due course by
urgent request, " So as I can get the hang of 'em for
next try," sapient Jim remarked.

They were a very happy working community then,
but a change was coming.

The branding yards at Kalbarunna had long since
been finished, and many mobs of young cattle had been
branded with the station mark, and turned out again.
From the old nucleus and other mobs of bought cattle,
prime " fats " had been taken down by Waters and sold,
topping the market at Adelaide and elsewhere.

There was a good banking account to the credit of
the station now, owing to a continuous run of luck and
prosperous seasons, but one day Tom received intelli-
gence from his partners warning him that they were
going to sell the station, for the market value of stock
and land had greatly increased, and they thought it
worth while to close with an advantageous offer they
had received. In reality they were taking to town life.

Shortly afterwards they came up, being surprised

EXODUS 195

beyond surprise at the method and order they foundi
They had been content with Tom's letters up to now,
and with their town agents' reports of sales, but, having
developed into club and society men in a great measure,
though still keen in business matters, the offer they had
received was not to be despised ; but they approved of
Tom's measures and were disposed to be generous.

" Now I can see," said Sargent, as representative
of two respectable elderly bachelors, " we can both
see, how it was you never wanted to take trips to
town to escape from your loneliness. But you might
have confided your intentions to us before we left
you here, you lucky young beggar.

" You'll get a third share, with a big bonus added
for might-have-been town expenses. And we shall
have particular pleasure in making that bonus large,
Tom, especially as some man we cannot trace has
paid a big sum of money into our banking accounts,
verifying to some purpose the old adage that to him
who hath more shall be given."

Tom smiled, but said nothing. Their intelligence
suited him.

One bright day after the second and last departure
of Sargent and Nettlefold, and pending the arrival of
the new-comers, who were bringing their own horses
and waggons up from the Southern plains, Millie and
Bianca were watching little Tom Inglis playing with
fat black Peter.

" That canoe mark on my arm, Bianca, seems fated
so far to put us into much the same positions as of
old amongst the blacks," Millie said, "but how

196 THE SILVER QUEEN

curiously different from all we ever thought or
speculated upon in our earlier times has our destiny
become now. Look at my husband, and where can
you produce his peer ? Brave, manly, generous, and
kind, he always has been and always will be so to me.
We were torn apart by adverse circumstances after we
met, but in spite of all that it seems to me we were
fated to wed and prosper. And your lot is your
own choosing, too, a very different one from what
you expected. Will it continue to be so for us
both? I fear not, somehow."

" I believe Dick saw your view of the case also,
Millie, in spite of his rage and disappointment,
especially as regards Tom. It was that mark on
your arm that Dick wanted you so much for. I
don't believe he is capable of evincing really devoted
love to either of us. Now he will have his revenge,
I feel sure. We have both crossed him and must be
careful.

" I promised myself to him when his fortune was
made, mostly because of my indebtedness, and to
get you out of yours, but the society in your home
circle is far more preferable to me than his gross
peculiarities, and I have now a horror of any more
wild work, especially with him."

" Bianca, my dear, Tom will never consent to your
marrying Dick Cosgrave after what you have told
me when you give me permission to tell him. You
shall stay with us. See how fond little Tom is of you,
and what a help and companion you are to me. We
could not do without you now, my more than sister.

EXODUS 197

No, no, no, I am not going to let you throw yourself
away on such a white blackfellow as Richard.

" It was all very well in our unprotected days,
when father dropped so low, that another man not
related to us stepped in with his authority ; but now,
dear, we have both someone who will protect us, and
not suffer us to go lower than his own position, which
may be a great one some day. Besides, through him
we have both risen above our former selves, even
though we are somewhat hampered by the golden
chains Richard has imposed upon us, and which we
must wear, I suppose."

" I dread Dick's vengeance," Bianca said. " Be sure
that he is scheming against us even now in some
manner. . . . But here is little Tom coming back.
I will go and dress him before his father comes home."

Tom and Jim came riding back together later on,
and there wanted but little explanation after one
glance at Jim's manly appearance and handsome,
cheerful face to guess why Bianca had at last let out
the secret of her heart to her adopted sister. She
knew, and Jim knew, that Cosgrave, by his un-
accountable and prolonged absences, had drawn them
closer together, and as Dives seemed to be as a
motive power the one solitary luminary in Dick's
solar system, much as he might have liked either of
the girls during the term of his own self-constituted
guardianship over them, they were now both alienated.

" If he was as wealthy as Croesus, and unsullied as
snow," Bianca thought, "he is such an inscrutable
and designing man that I should fear him more than

198 THE SILVER QUEEN

I could ever love him, and I would prefer Jim
without a penny to a slavery of that description."

" I am as happy as I can be, Millie," she said,
in one of their many confidences. " See how
unsophisticated Jim is, and how he has improved.
Oh ! what a man I could make out of him ! "

So in silence these two young women worked on,
keeping a brave outward appearance, and striving to
avert harm from those they loved, yet both of them
in possession of secret misapprehension, a lurking
fear of possible happenings, unsolvable as yet from
their knowledge of Cosgrave's character.

Neither of them told or even hinted their suspicions
to Tom, but the dark shadow always hovering by lay
over the daily events of their lives, and during many
a sudden advent of recollection and surmise, saddened
them even amidst their happiness.

There came a sensation for Millie and Bianca a
little later which led to great uneasiness. The little
son of the former and his small black playmate,
Peter, had gone out with Mulga to hunt for opossums,
and did not return for dinner. It was not until late
next day, after all of them had scoured the country
in various directions, that the trio returned in safety,
stating that they had been taken in a buggy by Mr.
Cosgrave to the cave. He had suddenly returned
from town, where he had been selling more gold, a
letter sent to Tom informed him.

Little Tom himself was loud in his praises of Mr.
Cosgrave, who turned into a black man, with all sorts
of wonderful fireworks to show him. He had been

EXODUS 199

extremely kind to him altogether, and the mysteries
of the Cave had filled him with childish delight

Cosgrave had sent his letter by Mulga in a cleft
stick, and stated by it that he did not care to come
into the station now at all, as he was aware of current
affairs, and must be doubly secure and secret against
the arrival of the new-comers ; but that he had paid
in more money for Millie and Bianca. Also that he
had acceded to a request of Tom's that he should
accept no further partnership in the gold-mining
venture, or pay any more money into the partners'
account, and concluded by wishing them all health
and happiness. He complimented Millie and Tom
upon the amiability and courage of their child, and
seemed to have taken a great fancy to him. There
was not a word in the whole letter about Bianca !

Not long afterwards Tom handed over the station
to the new purchasers, and with Jim and the rest of
his family circle left for Sydney. They travelled all
the way down with their own buggy and camping
paraphernalia, taking many of their own horses, which
Jim looked after and brought along.

Arrived at Sydney, Tom took a pretty villa down
at Manly, and Jim bought the good-will of a livery
stable in Sydney, where he broke in riding horses,
and let out conveyances of all sorts, doing very well.

Tom established himself in a stock and station
agency in Sydney also, going up there daily by
steamboat. Then came news from Cosgrave that a
further venture would take him away north-west for
a year or so, and that Heseldine fere had bought a
selection in the Blue Mountains.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE VENTURE OF HIS LIFE

" Far to the Northward there lies a land,

A wonderful land that the winds blow over j
And none may fathom or understand
The charm it holds for the restless rover."

—A. B. PATERSON.

Six months later Richard Cosgrave, in the character
and guise of a tall, yellow Epai, save that he had a
cartridge belt round his waist and was armed with
a rifle, was sitting on the outside edge of a circular
hollow in the middle of a thick scrub in the far
north-west interior of Australia.

The tokens of his surroundings, for there were
other swept-out circles in the dense timber, seemed
to indicate the devastating power of willy-willys, or
violent circular gusts of wind, which forcibly up-
rooting the trees at various times, had dropped them
again anyhow. With successive seasons, grass and herbs
had grown luxuriantly amongst the uprooted trunks,
until summer had dried them into tindery matter, when
a spark from a wandering blacks firestick set light to
the lot and made a further clearance. Nature was
engaged in changing the face of the country.

THE VENTURE OF HIS LIFE 201

Near to Cosgrave's seat now lay partly consumed
and blackened trees, poising earthwards in distorted
forms, as if crawling with gaunt limbs in various
attitudes. The one he occupied looked like a
vagrant black cricket of giant dimensions.

But he paid little attention to the weird shapes
around him, because, of all men, he was least inclined
to fancy things.

Whilst mad with Millie at choosing Tom Inglis,
he had been utterly false to Bianca. He was
thinking of the aid his savage mistress had been to
him, for, with her knowledge and authority, he would
never have reached the remote spot in which he now
found himself. Moreover, she had told him a secret
about this part of the country for which he would
have risked death or disaster twice over, so that, take
it all in all, she had done more for him in his own
way than any living soul had done before. The
scrub contained near by an old blacks' burial-ground
with grown-over canoe forms in it.

Silver was what Eiya, the young woman who
was with him, had told him about, and the whole
country about him was full of it. " Myall Dicks's "
vision and hearing through all this train of thought
seemed to be the only outward senses exacted, for
he was very, very still, but his eyes were wonderfully
bright and watchful. It wasn't easy to notice him
where he was sitting, but in his strong grip, and
poised with both hands across his body, was the
deadly weapon that could kill beyond striking
distance. His face was very forbidding in its

202 THE SILVER QUEEN

aspect ; its expression seemed to hint at some dis-
appointment. Here and there lichen-clad boulders
of rock, strewn indiscriminately before his sight,
in some places forming broken and piled cairns for
the harbourage of many a large, swift-footed iguana
or frilled lizard.

" Ten miles from the river," he growled inwardly,
following his vein of thought " This must be their
old-time Bora ground. The fools ! They pegged
this scrub off for their rites and mummeries, here in
this very spot, when I, and only I, know it for its
full value."

His eyes watched straight ahead, keenly on the
look-out for something, examining steadily every
open glade and tree trunk.

" I agree with the tribe entirely," his running com-
mentary went on, " about sealing up the knowledge
of it to the white race, but what a kingdom I could
have raised up hereabouts with that girl Millie!
Had I known of this place of places before she
married Inglis, I believe I should have made away
with him on the quiet, solely on the strength of it,
instead of trying to get her away from him when she
joined him again. Confound his supercilious, cock-
sure ways, and his outwitting me, of all other men !
To think of that girl having the mark, and that alone
being a sure and safe entry to me in this great
venture of my life. It makes me well - nigh
desperate when I see the possibilities of it amongst
the natives here. I could have lived here amongst
them with her, contented and happy, a sole ruler, as

THE VENTURE OF HIS LIFE 203

far as I can see, and when I had accomplished all I
wanted, all I can even now design, with her as my
chief benefiting force, I could have taken her, the
bride of my desires, out into the world again, with
the complete satisfaction of making the other people
who composed our part of the world before grovel at
our feet because of our wealth.

" Not getting love in the exact fashion I prepared
for, or hoped for, I shall now seek a bitter revenge
upon her and her husband ; and I will have it, too, in
its very fullest measure. Before my planning and
cunning scheming, those who stood in my way
before shall fall, whilst I rise continually to gloat
over their misery, paying them back slight for slight,
injury for injury, their just and full allotment of
misery for what they made me suffer.

" He is a long time following my tracks, to be
sure," Cosgrave reflected, " but I shall nail him the
moment he crosses that patch of open ground
yonder, and once disposed of, I have no one else
to fear up here. So that I can leave this wily chief,
who puts an embargo on his country and what is in
it, with a full assurance that I can bring the sign
required on my return as well as his requirements in
coin of the realm."

His eyes lit suddenly as with an inner glow, and
springing to his feet like lightning, he turned
completely round as he did so.

Creeping silently towards him from close behind,
amongst the uprooted trunks, was the most appalling-
looking object possible. It was only about ten yards

204 THE SILVER QUEEN

off when he fired at it, but whether it was a huge
white-headed toad, or a bunyip, when the rifle spoke
the creature sprang straight upright with a convulsive
bound, gripping a tomahawk.

As the upright, unearthly figure tottered wildly
about for a second or so, the arm that wielded the
weapon was whirling like a windmill. Then the
ghastly creature toppled backwards and lay still,
shot clean through the heart from the top of the
left shoulder, while in its fall the whirling tomahawk
had torn up the ground and thrown particles of earth
out of the rent it made.

" The Kurdaitcha — without the shoes," said Dick,
stepping towards the dreadful - looking object, now
still in death. " For a bit of bush - stalking, Mr.
Douraval, this beats all I have ever heard of your
wonderful powers. You must have located me from
the top of a tree somewhere, and got round behind
me on the wings of the wind. Had we met with
equal weapons, you poor savage, I should be a dead
man by now, for I made sure you were following
my tracks. Where's the alatunga, or soothsayer, who
put you up to this, I wonder ? Hooked it for all he
is worth, I expect There will be no need for him
to make any injilla by -play with my body now,
though there are plenty of lizards in the silver ore
boulders hereabouts to provide for the ceremony, if
you had been successful.

" Thanks for your souvenir," he added, as he
groped in the hole in the ground made by the
tomahawk and brought to light a silver specimen,

THE VENTURE OF HIS LIFE 205

so wonderfully wrought by nature that it presented
the appearance of a canoe.

"Worth a good lot by its weight, I should say,"
he muttered, inspecting it curiously. " I could get a
hundred notes for it as a curio. But, by God ! is it
fate, or is there a curse over this native feud of ground,
or me, or what ? The sign! and spattered with blood,
too. What can it mean ?

"Millie was my first idea of this portent, but
merely among the natives. Now I have failed with
her, I get it again from a native and Nature, but
splashed with blood ! Bah ! What am I thinking
of? It was a fair fight, with the odds against me !

" If you hadn't been in such a mortal hurry to dig
your own grave, Mr. Douraval,'' he continued, lifting
the fallen tomahawk, " I should never have seen this
little token, just after thinking how much it meant
for me. But I know the ground is full of silver ore.
It has been melted out of some very rich specimen of
the lode lying under, or wedged in the roots of a
burning tree, until the willy-willy shifted it again to
the sand. But it's the most extraordinary coincidence
I ever heard of! "

And he placed the silver canoe carefully in a
digger's tin specimen box, which he transferred again
to a pouch strapped on to his waist, from which he
had taken it.

The body of the dead waddygalo was partly
encased with white feathers. His face was covered
with them, all except his eyes and mouth, and,
following the tracks made by the crawling body

206 THE SILVER QUEEN

when it was alive, Dick soon came to the shoes of
the Kurdaitcha vengeance rite, which were made of
feathers matted together with human blood, and
which he had taken off to drag the spears he had
never used by his toes. Taking these shoes and
nearer spears up, and carrying them back, with his
eyes alert for any other contingency, Dick cast them
down on the dead man's body, placed his rifle against
his old sitting-place, and gathered great armfuls of
brushwood and logs, which he heaped over the
corpse.

When it was completely pyred from view, taking
his rifle again he brought a large mass of tindery
grass, which he thrust under the mass of wood
heaped over the corpse, noting the direction of the
wind as he did so, and with a lighted match set
fire to the pile, as he threw the tomahawk into it
also.

When he saw it all well ablaze, he walked quickly
away with his rifle at the trail, following his own
back tracks in the direction he had expected his
opponent to come from.

" Before another tribal Bora comes off" thought he,
as he walked along, " the wild dogs and willy-willys
will probably have disposed of Mr. Douraval's bones,
and no one will know except those most concerned."
And he kept on his way until at last he reached the
watershed of a beautiful river, with many silver-box
bark gunyahs clustered on the nearest bank amid
some fine trees. There, near one of the dwellings
apart from the others, a fine-looking, almost white

THE VENTURE OF HIS LIFE 207

young woman met him, with her beautiful long black
hair loose and streaming down her back, her eyes
alight and alive with affection.

" Did you find it ? " asked Eiya, for such was the
woman's name.

" Yes, I found the place all right, You were quite
correct in your remembrance."

"I mus' have been 'bout ten year old when my
mother got somethin1 like rheumatism an' the people
here drove her out to pass through there on our way
to the Cave. And I remember that sparklin' stuff
you call silver in the rocks. It was a big burial-
ground then all about there ; but that chief he no let
you come in here without the sign on the arm. I
never see a man like him before. There was an
older chief here when I was HT girl."

" Well, my dear, I shall have to get the unwritten
authority and power ; but it's a nuisance having to go
back just when I thought I had got everything right.
We must be off this time on foot to where I left the
buggy horses with your people. Douraval won't
trouble us any more. It was a fair fight, but he was
after me and nearly got me ! "

She clung to him.

" He was dragging his spears with his feet. Came
up behind. I made sure he would follow my tracks,
and was looking the other way. But a sand-fly
must have got up his nose, just at the last moment,
and I heard him sneeze, else he'd have killed me
for certain, for he'd have been on his feet in another
minute."

208 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Then he would have killed me afterwards." She
shuddered uneasily — "But oh, Dick! take care of
that spirit that come out of him. He leave his spirit
behind and taboo the ground to you if it was
Kurdaitcha and you kill him. But perhaps it has
gone into the stone, same as he said he would make
mine go when I got into the Cave with you."

" To my thinking, it came out of the stone," mused
Dick anxiously, for she was a prophetess in these
matters. " Now, if I was to tell her that, I wonder
what she would say ! "

He showed her the silver canoe specimen.

" He dug it up with his tomahawk as he fell. It
was all splashed with his blood, but I cleaned it off."

" Then you have let loose his spirit. It would
have stayed there if you had left the blood. What
totem feather mark did he leave on his back, Dick ? "

" The snake."

" Then he left off the Kurdaitcha shoes to crawl
and trail his spears with his feet. Well, the snake
guard the canoe mark. You will have the bad luck,
Dick."

11 Not if I work my scheme all right, Eiya. We
must be off to-night ; I've no time to lose, and it's a
long journey."

"Where you go, I go," responded the woman.
" You shall be the King of this white tribe yet, Dick ;
but don't let the chief see the silver canoe. He
would kill us."

Dick replaced the specimen in his pouch, and
embraced the woman who had done so much for him.

THE VENTURE OF HIS LIFE 209

"Go and see the chief," Eiya said. "Tell him
nothing but that you will bring the sign on a live
body next time."

And the tall yellow Epai went, taking his rifle
with him.

The chief met him lugubriously, but watched
him keenly. He was a tall, spare man, light-
complexioned, but sun-tanned like the other natives
who lived in the beautiful spot Eiya had disclosed.
When Cosgrave turned away to go back to his camp,
a caustic smile flitted over the chiefs features, though
Dick had told him no word of his adventure.-

Before the morning came Cosgrave and Eiya had
passed beyond the scrubby waste that surrounded
their river paradise, by tracks known to them both,
to camps where the rifle and bush knowledge brought
food to them, and the small swag carried by each
sufficiency of nightly covering to keep warm in by a
moving blackfellow's fire — that is to say, a few sticks
laid on the ground, not quite parallel but converging
to a point, with the fire at the end of them kept
slowly burning, and the sticks were shiftabie so as to
be able to pull them with one hand nearer their
bodies if they felt cold when they had burned away
from them. Three of these fires — one on each side
and one at the feet — were as good as half-a-dozen
blankets in the radius of heat they gave out to inured
and naked bodies.

" What do I care for money ? " asked Eiya, at one
of their solitary night camps. " I no want dress
when you turn blackfellow. But I mus' put it on

o

210 THE SILVER QUEEN

when we get the buggy. I love you more 'n money,
or dress, or blanket, Dick,"

Eiya made no toil of travel, for she was young,
vigorous, and strong, though she had an elder boy
and a girl with old Ua. Cosgrave, indeed, had often
questioned himself as to whether he was not much
better off just now with his savage mistress, more
master of himself and his fortune, than if he had
married Millie. Would it be really worth his while
to carry out the schemes which he had secretly made
in the wild Bora ground? Why not risk all with
Eiya to guide him? No, he would not forego his
revenge. His hatred for Tom Inglis made that
impossible, and he could not get into the ground
without the living mark.

CHAPTER XIX

THE ODD TRICK

"And lips that speak of the days of old
Wild is your flight,
Oh, spirits of night,
By strath and stream and grove."

— DANIEL HENRY DENIEHY.

TOM'S villa was near to the ocean beach at Manly,
where the translucent sapphire combersof theSouthern
Pacific came tumbling in with ceaseless melody.

Manly was growing then, but was not the popular
resort it is now, when the people come down in their
tens of thousands from Sydney for their holiday-
making. In Tom's time, a quarter of a mile away
from the Corso would take you into the virgin bush
of Kuringai Chase, one of the loveliest parts of all
Australia, with always a peep of the sea from any
height of its wallaby-hunted rocklands.

A year or two had gone by, and Tom Inglis was
making money, as he phrased it, "hand over fist."

Then they learned from Richard Cosgrave that
Heseldine had died very suddenly. " He broke up,"
Cosgrave had written ; " I expect it was through

his former way of living having undermined his

211

212 THE SILVER QUEEN

constitution." He had left all the money he possessed,
about £3,000, to be divided between Millie and
Bianca, and Cosgrave intimated that he would see it
paid into their banking accounts in due course.

But he never came down to visit them, alleging
that he was off again up country immediately after
the funeral. Heseldine had left his selection of land
and his house to him personally. " I just got down in
time to see him die," were the last words in the letter.

Thus Bianca Pearmain had perforce become a
fixture with them. She was so helpful, cheerful,
and energetic, so necessary to them in the manage-
ment of their little boy and the house, that they
could hardly bear the thought of parting with her,
and so she had deferred her marriage with Jim up to
now, but it was shortly to take place.

Cosgrave's absence did not trouble them in the
least. They wrote to tell him of their latest doings,
and there the matter ended.

Home teaching had given place to Tom's first ideas
of a Dame's school for his little son, and his part was
just now only to make the boy hardy and let him
see how things were done. But he was a good
swimmer for so young a child, so every morning
before breakfast Tom bathed with him in the ocean
breakers ; in fact, the little boy seemed to be the
very soul of his father's life.

Tom's stock and station agency in Sydney, of
which he was the principal, necessitated his going
up by steamer daily to his offices in Pitt Street,
returning in the evening, but on public holidays he

THE ODD TRICK 213

took his family wherever they fancied. They had
excursions by train to Mount Victoria, and by coach
to Jenolan, where they visited the wonderful caves,
which reminded them of quaint adventurous episodes
in a similar place on far-off Kulbarunna — so much
so that when there they could almost fancy they
were going to act them over again.

There was very bright, congenial, pleasant society
at Manly for the two young women even then in one
or two places. They were asked out there, made a
few friends, and gave pleasant little quiet "At
Homes " and garden parties in return.

Inglis found his present life about perfect, and the
old wild and hazardous times appeared to be fading
away into the dimming distance — when one after-
noon something happened which seemed to rob him
of all that made life worth living.

The nurse who had been out with little Tom Inglis
came back crying and half-demented, and not finding
him at home, got worse. She said she had last seen
the boy some distance ahead of her, running into the
scrub, near the lagoon at the northernmost end of
the Ocean Beach. This lagoon had an outlet to the
sea when in full flood, and Tom and the child had
often bathed there when the weather conditions were
fine. The nurse stated, amidst her sobs, that she
followed leisurely to where he had disappeared into
the scrub, gone along the inner bank of the lagoon
to the creek that supplied it, right on to a place
where they used to get wild flowers, thinking to find
him there. She wandered off the road again, calling

214 THE SILVER QUEEN

him by name and coo-eeing, hunting for him unre-
mittingly until nearly dark, when it suddenly
occurred to her that he might be playing off a
childish trick by toddling home, and came racing
there, to be worse confounded than before. She now
became so speechless and hysterical that, as nothing
could be done with her, the alarmed parents and
Bianca, who had all just returned from boating and
fishing in the inner harbour, went rapidly to the
place indicated by the nurse, a mile away.

There, at a spot near the sea beach, where Tom
and his child had bathed once or twice, they found, on
a patch of grass just above the sand, the clothes and
boots the little fellow had taken off, apparently for
a swim. And this pathetic little bunch of clothes, as
they carried them back, heart-broken, was all that
remained to remind the frenzied trio of their loved one.

The lagoon in high flood had burst through the
sand bar formed by the ocean waves, and a single
glance sufficed to convince them all that the child
had been swept out to sea and drowned in the heavy
surf. They returned speechless and dazed, poor
Millie crying and carrying the last sad relics of her
little son, but on reaching the house it was wonderful
how the mother suppressed her grief as she listened
in amazement and terror to Tom's agonised sorrow.

" This is what I have got for taking him to bathe
in the breakers," he almost screamed. " It is all my
fault," and he broke down utterly. Then Millie's
face changed suddenly and alarmingly, for in ex-
amining the little boy's clothes she had found

THE ODD TRICK 215

something which she was burning to tell Tom about,
when the paroxysm of grief he had given way to
seemed to affect his brain, and he fell senseless.

It was a miserable time for them all, for on coming
to himself Tom rushed out into the night and spent
the rest of it in wandering about the spot where he
had found his son's clothes, and away round the rocks
in the hope of finding the body. But no sign of it
appeared, and he knew the reason. Just beyond the
breakers the sea was swarming with sharks. He
couldn't go home and tell that to Millie, so next
morning, when daylight came, he went up to his
work in Sydney by the first boat as if bereft of his
senses. How he got through that night and day he
never knew. He had not spoken or eaten anything
since his fearful discovery, and he fainted outright
when he did return home at night on learning that
Millie and Bianca had gone away to Sydney during
the morning, and had not since returned. They had
left no message whatever, and a doctor was called
in next day, for Tom's shock to the system had
developed into brain fever. What had become of
Millie and Bianca? No one knew.

In a lucid interval — for he was delirious and
prostrated for weeks — he sent a message for Jim,
who had been to Melbourne in the interim and was
just returned, and when he came down he was
amazed and horrified at Tom's condition.

It was not for three months that Tom, recovering,
thought of sending Jim up to Heseldine's location in
a faint hope that Millie and Bianca might have gone

216 THE SILVER QUEEN

there, but on coming back from that quest Jim said
the place was locked up and deserted, and being an
out location and lonely, no one knew anything.

When Tom came slowly back to strength, Jim, by
constantly coming to see him, was a source of great
comfort to him, but with regard to the extraordinary
disappearance of his wife and her sister no satisfactory
clue could be got by any reasoning.

It was as if a bolt from the blue had suddenly struck
down Tom's household, and ended all aspirations of
life for both himself and Jim Terry.

Rewards, notices, police work were of no avail.
Only the bare facts remained, that the little boy's
clothing had been found, that he had lost his life,
and that the others had totally disappeared. Nothing
could get over that. It was a nine days' wonder,
then it faded away and was forgotten except by the
two men most concerned.

"Jim," said Tom one day when convalescent, as
he was seated with him in the verandah of his now
deserted home, " I believe I went mad that night
when I lost my boy. I have no recollection of what
occurred here in my terrible agony of mind. Could
it have been possible that I said or did something
which may have frightened my wife and sister out of
the house ? But in that case, why didn't they write to
you ? Why didn't they leave some message for me ? "

"Mr. Tom," replied Jim, laying his hand on the
other's shoulder, and thinking his mind was still
wool-gathering, " I have been intent over this case
ever since it happened, and my impression is that

THE ODD TRICK 217

Cosgrave has spirited your wife and mine that was
to be away somehow. I know he had designs upon
Bianca. I should never have mentioned the matter
to you at all unless things had come to this pass, but
I've seen Cosgrave look at you, when you weren't
aware, as if he could kill you, but I knew you could
jolly well take care of yourself, and as to myself, I'm
not afraid of that same either. It's Cosgrave's doing.
I'm sure of it. But we can't catch him ; he's off to
No Man's Land vith them."

" I don't know, Jim. That hatred of me all passed
off, I believe. He was very straight about money
matters, and took greatly to the child, but — " He
paused.

"What, Mr. Tom?"

" He might have taken your sweetheart, got her to
meet him somewhere, and my wife have gone to
protect her."

" What could women do against a man like that,
Mr. Tom ? Once they were in his power, he would
be like a born devil or a mad bull if they crossed
him in any way."

Tom jumped up, and entering the house, rang the
bell in the sitting-room. The parlour-maid came.

" Selina, I am going up to town by the next boat
Pack my valise. You will apply at my offices for
board wages for yourself and cook ; I may be away
for some time, and I leave you in charge."

" Yes, sir ; " and she set about her orders.

"Jim," Inglis returned, with a pallid face and
shaking hands, " there's just a last chance. Pick out

2i8 THE SILVER QUEEN

four of your best horses and we'll ride up country to
Cosgrave's selection in the Blue Mountains first. If
we get no news there, we'll go right on to the Red
Hand Cave at Kulbarunna. I shall start to-night."

Jim, burning with vehemence and vengeance, was
only too eager to join him. At Cosgrave's they got
no further clue, however, and prepared for the longer
overland travel, for which they bought a buggy. At
last they reached the old Kulbarunna station, and
to their utter surprise found no one there either. It
was totally deserted.

"Blacks too much for them, Mr. Inglis," said Jim.
"They had no safeguard like us in Mrs. Inglis, and
must have got sick of it. And that same Cosgrave
that we are after, mark my words, has been at the
bottom of this, and set the blacks against them until
they cleared out.

" He could ring the changes round 'em easy as
Tallin' off a log, he could. Cut 'em out as if he was a
stockman on a cattle camp ! And we might as well
try to hunt a flea in a standing patch of kangaroo
grass as seek to catch him, or run his tracks, if he
once got a start of us in the bush. Haven't we
proved it? He has left no tracks, neither hearsay,
sight, description, or anything else."

From which speech it might be seen that the old
spot had brought a good deal of the original Jim
Terry back.

They rode to the Cave next day, armed with rifles
and revolvers and all paraphernalia for exploring
systematically and thoroughly. But there was no

THE ODD TRICK 219

sign of life there, and they saw no blacks anywhere,
not even at the old homestead.

The cave valley had all fallen in, and the outlet
to it was almost completely blocked up. But, on
going out again by the entrance cave, with the Red
Hands all over it, on the very place that had once
held the curious signature of John Solway, " The
Man in Dungaree," it was effaced, and instead of it
they read this notice :

" How about the odd trick ?

"MYALL DICK."

" He has the pair of them right enough, Jim," Tom
cried out. " But who can trace or catch them now ?
There are no tracks here ; there has been heavy rain
since I was ill and the place is grass-grown, but
should I come across him again anywhere in this
life I'll kill him as he stands. I'll shoot that man
dead, if I shoot myself the next minute."

" And if you don't, I will," said Jim, with emphasis,
and they shook hands upon it.

They camped at the old station for a week and
scoured the country around, seeing no one, not even
a solitary blackfellow, and then they set off back to
town. But work and endeavour there had no charms
for either of them now, and, after a little deliberation,
they sold out of their businesses and went over to
New Zealand to seek in a new life in a new country
that forgetfulness for a past which they wished to
eradicate for ever.

CHAPTER XX
COSGRAVE'S NEW MOVE

" A People's House not built with stone,
Nor wrought by hand and brain alone,
But formed and founded on the heart."

— RODERIC QUINN.

SHORTLY after the tragic disappearance of Tom's
child, his mother, and Bianca Pearmain, Richard
Cosgrave accosted a little hunchbacked man, who
was perched on a rock by the side of a gully which
belonged to the selection in the Blue Mountains
willed by Heseldine to him.

" There's gold in this gully, Mr. Langley," he said
tentatively. " Most folks like gold, and as much as
they can get of it, but it's difficult to get here."

The sides of the gully were very steep at this
particular part, sheer rocked and amply wooded,
and Langley was working in the scarlet splash of
waratahs in the foreground of a painting-block
when Dick spoke to him.

With a head and face as handsome as Apollo's,
Langley had the misfortune to have a crooked and
bulging spine — the effects of an accident.

He bore this deformity with the soul of a great

220

COSGRAVE'S NEW MOVE 221

idealist, which softened his misfortune, but neverthe-
less he considered himself quite an outcast from
society, and turned to Nature herself for love and
information. He was a queer little fortune-hunter
also, business-like in all methods, and had managed
to support himself very creditably ever since he had
graduated at an orphan school in Sydney. He spoke
three or four languages well, and could draw and
paint beautifully. So he now studied the birds,
flowers, and animals in the bush, and sold the
pictures he made of them, meanwhile playing the
organ for a certain church choir in the metropolis
like a deformed angel with the face of a seraph ; and
he was no mean composer.

He looked up from his painting, his eyes glistening.

"When I've made a name for myself," he re-
marked, " and earn the money " — as if the mention
of gold had attracted him — " I'll build a church up
here somewhere. There's always the tone of an
organ in these deep mountain gullies, with the sough
of the wandering winds re-echoing amongst them.
Ah ! what a heavenly sonata I could compose if I
only had the instrument I wanted here, and could
listen and initiate with my fingers on the keys.

" I'd have the finest old-world, old-time windows
in my church, to touch the aisles and pews with
colour, and they should open for Nature's voices to
flow in. Old, deep-toned glass like old precious
stones. But I should want a large sum of money
to establish this idea of mine, and I have never been
able to quite fathom how I shall get it."

222 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Money ? " asked Dick, attracted, amused, and
divining ahead. "Suppose I had an idea which
would make your scheme realise as easy as falling
off a log ? What would you say to £5,000 for a few
years' personal service ? What would you say to a
share of what I have come across, what I have
already got, in fact ? "

" I should be very much inclined to go anywhere
with you, do anything I could for you, in that case,"
answered the artist unhesitatingly.

" Yes, there's gold in this gully, in many of these
gullies," Cosgrave replied, whilst regarding Langley
keenly ; " and you want gold to carry out your
design.

" Down there " — pointing to the cool, blue-misted
depths below them — " it lies. And some day it will
be utilised. I seem to hear the clank and thud of
the mining machinery of the future mines, when the
gullies here will be worked somewhat differently
from what a single man can manage it at present,
with a tin dish, a pick, and a shovel.

" What's the good of scratching a rat-hole in these
vast depths? A man will have turned over more
than enough mullock to bury himself and all his
family by the time he has got sufficient metal to
clinker his uninviting little sheol of manual labour
with. It wants steam power here, as well as
localised capital and energy to dig, drive, and
carry, to get the gold or coal, kerosene or quarry-
stone out and up to the coach roads or railway
lines. I like a big thing ready made, in the way of

COSGRAVE'S NEW MOVE 223

mining, and I know of a venture worth a man's
life-time. You serve me as I want you to do, and
your reward is ^"5,000."

The social pariah, according to his own lights,
gasped breathlessly.

" I'm on," he said, when he had recovered from his
amazement There was no hesitation possible after
such an offer as this.

" Done," said Cosgrave. So the bargain was
clinched, and they shook hands on it.

Langley's chief thought now lay in the direction
of sketching material. What a trip it might be !
What possibilities of flora and fauna might be
developed !

After explaining his views to his employer, " How
far is it from here ? " he asked. " A very long way
off?"

"Rather! It's in the Never-Never Land. And
you'll never, never know how you got there until you
eventuate. Come up to my shanty and have a
snack."

A little half-caste boy was asleep on a camp-bed
in Dick's house, which stood amongst a grove of
black wattles on the grassy flat of a plateau, about a
quarter of a mile away.

" Yes, he's mine," " Myall Dick " answered, with a
laugh, after the meal was finished. "I'm a bit of a
blackfellow myself sometimes, and I'm going to use
him for a certain purpose you'll know of later on. His
mother will be here to-morrow under disguise, for we
have to go amongst the blacks to get this fortune of

224 THE SILVER QUEEN

ours, and I'll have to make you up also to pass as
one. We'll drop the organ-playing for a bit. You'll
hear that in a clump of she-oaks on a windy day, as
we travel along, without the time and trouble of
waiting for it, for we are off to-morrow, and all is
arranged for. The mail coach will pass by on the
other side of the gully in about two hours, and there's
an easier path across from here than where we met
If you have any letters of farewell to write you had
better commence straight away."

Langley's being a hunchback was good for Dick's
scheme of re-incarnation, and he thought himself
lucky to have come across him.

" About letters ? " he asked again, for Langley was
considering.

" Since my mother died," said the latter, looking at
the child with fresh interest, " I haven't a soul in the
wide world to bother about me, except for what they
can get out of me. I won't trouble."

" All I want you to do is to educate that little son
of mine," Dick averred. " I'll get you as much
sketching material as you like for a year or two at
the first big town we pass. We shan't go into them,
as a rule, but I'll manage it. You'll need lesson-
books, pens, and pencils. Also other things. Do
you know anything about chemistry ? "

" Nothing much, except a little in the way of
Nature. I've invented a scent or two, and a tonic,
from flowers and bark, but my alembics are simple
and home-made."

At daylight next morning Dick Cosgrave and

COSGRAVE'S NEW MOVE 225

Langley, with the half-caste child carried by the
former, crossed the gully and got on to the coach
road. Here a slightly-formed half-caste met them,
with a fine American waggon, and a slashing, up-
standing team of four horses which left mile after
mile far behind them after Dick had taken the
reins.

They kept clear of towns all they could, and their
nightly camps were highly instructive. Skilled to
bush- work they all seemed to be. Wood, water, and
grass surroundings suitable for the horses and them-
selves being selected, the half-caste disappeared,
giving place to a comely young woman, clothed in a
skirt and blouse, who caressed the little boy, and
cooked and kept the camp in order.

In answer to any chance interrogatory from
svvagman or traveller met in traversing remote parts,
where a casual question deserved a civil reply because
of the former's rareness, the answer would always be
the same, " Overlanding."

When they reached the Kulbarunna, the waggon
and horses disappeared, together with the half-caste,
but the others, then consisting of a tall Epai of a
yellow colour, a hunchback Kuriltai, and a little boy,
went into the Cave of the Red Hand, and were lost
to the world without.

" The industry I spoke of being near here is not
known to outsiders yet," whispered the tall Epai to
the hunchbacked Kuriltai, when they had climbed
the ledge, passed downwards, and eventually stood
in the vaulted chamber. " Ain't even tapped properly

226 THE SILVER QUEEN

yet. But I'm a god here, a cave demon ! and here
come some of my attendant sprites ! "

The luminous green advancing collars and belts of
light came close around them when the lantern was
shut off, and one and all of the invisible wearers, seen
a moment before to be like wild animals, flitted
away again, to Langley's great astonishment They
went on and descended to the lower caves by the
ladder, where, through all the subsequent proceed-
ings, Langley was lost in amazement. And when,
later, the hunchbacked Kuriltai Cosgrave had turned
him into conversed with him in low, confidential
voices, between alternate pipe whiffs, the latter
informed him of part of his scheme.

" The agency of these blacks with all the outlying
tribes will fetch and carry for us," Dick said. " I'm
taking 'em all with me, and I've been to one place
we are going to before with my wife, who told me
about it There were mule tracks, strange to say,
from here to within some two hundred miles of it,
and the man lost them one by one. We shall pass
the skeletons. He wrote his name on the cave, John
Solway, ' The Man in Dungaree.1 It's a queer title,
but it petered out at his grave. He must have got
secret intelligence of the silver that I know to be
there, and I'm glad he's dead. Of course the mule
tracks are only visible here and there, but the
skeletons of the animals remain, the same as his does
on the Dry River, a day and a half's journey from the
El Dorado. What a tale, eh ? But the best of it all
is that he has died with enough silver under him and

COSGRAVE'S NEW MOVE 227

about him to buy a principality. We want neither
horses, pack-horses, camels, nor waggons now, and
go flying light, with just our firearms, carried by
ourselves or the natives we choose.

" These cave dwellers, who are not half so formid-
able as the warriors of the tribe we are going to,
know the road, because they were once turned out
from the country which they knew the secret of also,
but I have got a great influence over them, and am
going to take them back. We will go slowly, as
some of them — but only a few — will have to be borne
on litters.

" The outside blacks will carry the cripples. This
strong army will get all the comforts we require,
slave for us, worship us. And you can paint and
botanise all the way to your heart's content, for we
shan't over-exert ourselves. All the natives about
here, inside and out the cave, revere me as a god,
because I know a lot about them, and can speak their
languages. You ought to come in as Prime Minister
by and by, through my influence, when I have
introduced you to the half-white tribe I am going
to. There's a very simple way of attaining that
which I am going to tell you about to-night.

" I hear that the people who bought the station
near by from the former owners don't care about it, and
are going away because the blacks around here have
been spearing their cattle a lot. Of course that's
perfectly natural, and I don't want them to stop, as I
have other reasons I will explain to you. After they
go — and they start at once — this district will be left

228 THE SILVER QUEEN

to the kangaroos, wild dogs, and blacks again. All
the better for my purpose to realise the opal which
lies beneath and even above some ground on the run.
That will take some years to develop, because fashion
and dogma are against the stone at present, as
unlucky. That will wear off, and I shall set the
fashion again.

" These fools who bought the country lately never
knew what they were living on top of. A squatter
only looks for country as it shows on the surface to
him, with water, grass, and wood. He doesn't look
under it as a practical miner can. Then his stock
eats the top off, or he is hunted out by the blacks, or
suffers loss by drought and clears of his own accord.

" Now, about the Prime Minister business with the
half-white tribe we are going to live with, where
the silver is. Would you like a nice young wife,
Langley? You can pick and choose here!"

The hunchback flushed unseen under his black
skin. He had seen the waddygalo acolytesses!
Here, then, he was no social pariah, and El Dorado
lay before him.

" Very well," Cosgrave resumed, " wash the dye
off, and you'll be taken for a white god."

Langley lay awake half the night musing over his
new position, and when the daylight came, his mind
being made up, five pilgrims passed from tribe to
tribe with their escorting tribes on the outback line,
far from roads, with great rejoicings.

The hunchbacked Kuriltai of the previous day
had changed to a good-looking white man, although

COSGRAVE'S NEW MOVE 229

his body was out of shape. He had found a kindred
soul to his transformation in the dark underground
cavity ; its loneliness and outcast condition had gone
from him like a passing cloud, and his mate and he
went out in the light like a pair of larks, singing for
the warmth of the sun, the freedom of space. She
thought nothing of his crippled shape, but looked
within in veneration of his colour and superior
attainments. From about them came the lilt of the
organ wind in the tree-tops, the breath of the
untrammelled air, fragrant, fresh, and free. And
they passed on their way.

CHAPTER XXI

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER

" But the waters of Hope have flowed and fled,

And never from blue hills' breast
Come back — by the sun and sands devoured —
Where the pelican builds her nest."

—MARY HANNAY FOOTT.

AFTER months of travel Cosgrave's special party of
Kuriltais and picked waddygalos, together with
Langley, reached a wonderful place lying in an
oasis of grassed undulating country amidst outlying
scrub and mountains.

When they had got through the thick, encompassing
belt of forest tangle, on the outside of it, by wallaby
tracks known only to the aborigines, and passed the
ranges, they found themselves in such a magnificent
tract of rolling downs, together with a broad, well-
timbered watershed, that Langley, entranced with
the outlook, thought at once of the Garden of Eden.

"Doon-a-bri — the place of the big trees," his
chosen mate said laughingly, pointing to the
startlingly blue pools of water, the emerald grass
and reeds, and the groves upon groves of all sorts

of timber.

230

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER 231

It was Elysian for the hunchback to turn and
absorb slowly the entrancing views.

Here, he felt, was an out-of-the-world feeling of
rest in all he saw, idealised with surroundings of
absolute perfection bound up in himself, a white
friend to talk to, a hinted fortune to be made. There
were fifteen miles of well- wooded river flats, with, so
Cosgrave said, a fine waterfall at the far end of this
great opening in the hills.

This was one side of the picture, as presented to
Langley. The other side he hardly knew at present.

But the oasis beyond the desert held other
products of a living description than themselves,
in a light-coloured, fine-looking local race of natives,
and a drove or two of brumbies, or wild horses.

How the latter ever came to be there, when the
place itself could only be approached through the
wallaby tracks of the densely-grown scrub limit, no
one could tell for certain. It could only be con-
jectured that the water had brought them there
originally, and neither inhabitant, equine or human,
seemed in the least degree anxious to remove
themselves from such a charming interior, which was
practically a naturally fenced-in run.

Besides the brumbies were also water-buffaloes, as
tame and as accustomed to human beings as the
horses.

The light-coloured tribe that had originated in
this sequestered region — goodness knows how — from
the necessity of passing a Kuriltai or two over its
borders at times, had been apparently under similiar

232 THE SILVER QUEEN

laws to the other tribes dwelling outside their
boundaries, but now, according to a compact made
with the Chief of the almost white tribe, the original
Kuriltai who possessed it were brought back, but
isolated at the far end of the valley, where there were
some caves, their original habitations.

But when Dick produced his boy and showed a
certain mark on his arm, the fine and deeply-bronzed
Chief of the dominant tribe led him forward to his
kinsmen and proclaimed him successor to himself
then and there, having first produced some weird
chords from a large wooden instrument, half-
clarionet, half-trumpet, which he seemed to carry
as a badge of office.

The notes produced by this quaint-looking instru-
ment had a peculiar effect. While not being violently
loud, they gave the impression that they were capable
of stealing through space to long distances, probably
for the reason that the sound of them was so utterly
unlike anything a human being or even an animal or
a bird could produce.

"He is a cunning beggar, that Chief," Cosgrave
remarked. " I never saw his equal before. That
speaking trumpet of his gives a regular bunyip scare
to any outsider. None but himself and his own
tribe knows the power and palaver of it, because he
talks to them with it. And they have got sticks
with signs on them that talk in another unknown
language, so that you can't get to understand what
any of them may be up to. As for that confounded
trumpet trombone clarionet of his he blows in his

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER 233

gunyah sometimes and the sound waves come along
the earth surfaces and crawl up your legs and shake
them !

" I believe if one got that speechmaker from him,
and knew the secret of it, his power would soon go,
By the bye, what do you think of Doonabri,
Langley ? "

" Arcadia, Eden, Heaven ! "

" It's a lovely retreat," resumed his interrogator ;
"and there are enough kangaroo, paddy melons,
and nail-tailed wallaby in the outside scrub and
mountains to snare or kill, besides emus and all
sorts of other birds, fish and waterfowl to keep us
going for years. The river flats can be cultivated
and irrigated easily, and we shall have to build
and civilise. No fear of interruption for years,
unless a strongly-armed band of whites force their
way through.

" The waddygalos or wild scrub blacks of this
country keep this place like a ring fence, and they toe
the mark outside the circle.

" Well, I told you about the silver. But I didn't
let you know that there is, and always has been as
far as I can make out, a very strong taboo upon it.
There's enough silver in several places about here to
make such a field as has not been seen since Broken
Hill. Did you notice the Chief particularly ? "

" Yes, but I never saw a native like him."

" Nor I either. No one knows the history of this
tribe. There's no doubt they have a lot of white
blood in them. It took me six months to get here ;

234 THE SILVER QUEEN

it cost me a lot of money, all my brains, and as much
as I could spare of legs and strength. Now, did you
take particular stock of my wife ? "

" I see what you mean," exclaimed Langley.
" She has the look of these light-coloured people
here."

" You're right. She's a direct lineal descendant,
and therefore of the highest ruling caste. She was
born away from this tribe, and seeks her proper
leadership amongst them again ; so that increases
my prospects and my rights. I shall make you
Prime Minister some day, if you do what I want you
to do with my boy. My wife, I was saying, sprang
from a descendant of these very people, who
developed into a waddygalo ultimately, being taken
away from here by a very daring young Combo
waddygalo man who risked his life over and over
again for her. He was a chief of his tribe and had
great knowledge. So has my wife, Eiya.

" Well, this female ancestor of hers became a
Kuriltai through an illness, and my wife, being a
perfect child, was passed from the cave we have left
to the outliers. It would take me a long time to tell
you how I got to this place first, and what adventures
I had in doing so, but the Kuriltai or cripples had
the knowledge of the silver here, and I promised to
reinstate them if they told me all about it.

" My plan is gradually to develop this local tribe
by civilisation. When they become fairly educated
they will probably be more on a par with the rest of
the world in their love for the silver calf and its

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER 235

metallic charms, and will want to utilise their
treasures. Meantime, we are happy enough, you
and I. Pass the word to the Chief here if you want
anything from white sources, and you'll get it in due
time from somewhere. It's done on foot at present,
and there are no tracks beyond the outside scrub ;
so that messengers from here are absolutely secret in
their goings and comings.

" Now, another thing I must relate is that these
peculiar people are monogamists. There have been
exchange marriages between themselves and the
waddygalos by event or design, and that is why
some of the waddygalos are lighter coloured than
others. There was a certain belief or religion
between the scrub blacks and these people many
years ago, and as the scrub blacks are some of them
Combo they brought the canoe mark from the south,
upon which I am trading. You can see it in their
graves.

" Now that we are introducing two extra strains
of white blood into this half-white race, it will all
tell in the future, and meantime there are plenty
of strong, willing workers here to found our new
republic, so the riches can wait, and they are worth
it. What do you think of my scheme ? "

Langley was astounded. The church and organ
of his simple creed loomed nearer to him. With
himself as tutor to this secluded race much might be
accomplished. He would Christianise them, make
them factors to his thought, build them up in truth,
stability, and life.

236 THE SILVER QUEEN

" It's absolutely magnificent," he replied. " We
shall all find employment But how in the name
of the Seven Churches of Asia do you assert your
rights to it all ? "

"Come along to-night and see," answered his
companion.

Just at that moment a curious routing sound
seemed to pervade the camp, under the river timber.
It was followed by three combined, varied notes from
the Chiefs wooden fog-horn.

Twenty-five able-bodied men sprang up from
where they were lounging about and disappeared
rapidly to the south-east They came back after
nightfall, each of them handing a heavy leathern belt
to the Chief, who collected them in his gunyah.

Then the trumpet sounded in a different manner,
preceded as usual by the routing noise, which was
deeper than an alligator's bellow or the routing of
any sort of a bull. In response there was a general
assembly around the chiefs gunyah, and two thou-
sand five hundred sovereigns were counted out into a
strong wooden box, which was forthwith locked up
and placed in a square building, where it was guarded
afterwards day and night by two armed natives.

" The state chest, my money, and the key to your
riddle," Cosgrave said.

"In touch with us on our journey up here, but out
of sight, were several more waddygalo men, induced
to act as my special bearers, through my power as
Nargun, the Cave Deity. They halted at the out-
side boundary belonging to this tribe until the

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER 237

outrunners of this Chief, who haggled for the price
I pay, brought it in.

" I offered a lower sum before the prospecting
right, but he threatened me with instant death if I
dared to touch the district. I have proved a second
right of entry now, both by my payment and by
certain talking stones and sticks which the old
Kuriltai Chief has brought, and exhibited to this
Chief and one or two of his old men in private. My
concession as to the money part of it seems to have
quelled his former scruples, as he has apparently
accepted it.

" But to none save those who bring the mark on a
body, as my son bears it, or the re-incarnation of
some dead ancestor, as you a white man do, for it
means nothing less than that to any of the Kuriltai
tribes, would permission be given to stay here. So
say the signs on the stick and stone implements of
pallaver and tradition. And from long study of
tribal aboriginal customs, this Chief here is acknow-
ledged to have understanding beyond all others.
That is why I had to bring my boy, and I hope for
great things, great events, after this Chiefs death,
even if not before ; but he's about my age and may
last me out."

" It's one of the biggest and most daring schemes
I ever heard of," thought Langley, as he turned into
his bunk in his own gunyah that night, after an
excellent supper of stewed wood-duck, served by his
wife, whilst for bread he had little cakes made from
wild oats, and a species of small bean. " I only hope

238 THE SILVER QUEEN

it won't be frustrated by some mischance," he added
cautiously as he fell asleep.

Cosgrave and Langley, helped by the little boy,
who, greatly interested, was backed by several other
children of the tribe in fetching and carrying minor
articles, were building houses some time later,
whilst stalwart figures were enclosing ground and
preparing it for cultivation, when suddenly the
booming of the fog-horn trumpet began to sound.

Then Millie Inglis, Bianca Pearmain, Mulga,
Leura, and little black Peter walked into camp.
Millie went straight to Cosgrave, looked him
seriously and anxiously in the face, opening a
small jewel-box, and snowed him the silver canoe
specimen he had obtained after he shot Douraval.

" Do you mean to harm our boy ? " she asked
him breathlessly. " Is that the reason you have
stolen him from us ? Give him to me at once, and
let me go back with him ! "

" For God's sake put that silver specimen away,"
whispered Dick seriously. "It comes from their
holy ground, and I've made no treaty yet for that
part of it I risked my life for it before, and
you'll bring certain death upon us all now ! "

With a bound aside he ran for his rifle, for the
Chief was peering over Millie's shoulder, and all
his followers were running to him armed with
spears and nullahs.

In all her beauty of motherly love and anxiety
Millie faced the Chiefs darkening glances and bared
her left arm. There was the true symbol !

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER 239

Cosgrave's rifle was on a level with the Chiefs
forehead. Langley ran to his side with a shot gun.
For some moments they menaced first one, then
another of the threatening crowd of natives.

Then the Chief held up his trumpet over his
head, and his fighting men stopped as if turned to
stone.

He kissed Millie's hands with grave courtesy,
bowed to Bianca, and then, to everyone's great
astonishment, stepped up to Cosgrave and patted
him on his back, saying, in a language no
other white but the one he was addressing could
understand :

" Do as you wish. When the real meaning of
the sign comes to Doonabri the spell is broken.
But we go. You have brought the cave dwellers
back by agreement. They were driven away from
here first before my time. It is our turn now to
be driven forth by you to where you have come
from."

"Stay," said Dick, looking anxiously at him.
" Don't go ; I need you."

For he realised how helpless he would be without
the Chiefs valuable aid. He couldn't work the
silver with a tribe of cripples, and the Chief knew
that as well as he did.

A compact was made between them after great
palaver, and from the moment of its conclusion
Dick ruled the light-coloured tribe as he had done
the Kuriltai. But, for reasons best known to him-
self, he would not touch any of the silver zones he

240 THE SILVER QUEEN

knew of. Nor would he allow his new white captives
to go, saying to them :

" You have both fooled me, as I have now fooled
you. I've broke Tom Inglis' life through your folly
in coming here, and Bianca's man's also. I was
pretty sure you would both come if I took the boy.
You will recognise him if he gets lost again, Millie,
as I have branded him with your mark, but you
and Bianca are my prisoners. How do you like
my revenge ? Does it fit in with your own captious
little sentiments as to your joint desertion of me ?
You can go and rule the Kuriltai now at the other
end of this valley, but the boy stays here with me,
and I'll turn him out into the world by and by
with lots of money, when I have spoiled his
character, so that he won't care a rap for either
you, Inglis, or his blessed new adopted aunt

"You made a big mistake, both of you girls,
when you tried to play with me. I'm married now
to a fine woman who suits me better than either of
you, and we have a boy and girl of our own. But
remember, you'll be speared the instant you attempt
to leave the people I have given you. Good-bye,
both of you!"

CHAPTER XXII

NEW VENTURES

" And we may travel a weary way ere we come to a sight so

grand

As the lingering flush of the sun's last rays on the peaks of
Maoriland."

—ERNEST CURRIE.

LONG years afterwards, having experienced many
varying vicissitudes of fortune, Tom Inglis and Jim
Terry were sitting eating cherries in a beautiful little
sandy cove at the mouth of Endeavour Inlet, Queen
Charlotte Sound, New Zealand.

A deserted, shingle - roofed cottage stood above
them on a hillside terrace, and the fruit on the
outlying trees near it was ripe, and very fine, not
having been meddled with to any great extent as
yet by the tuis and saddle-backs.

They were just inside Humbug Point, so-called
from the baffling nature of the winds there, and coast
mountains rose all around them. Forested hillsides
were blue - green, even in the near distances, for
New Zealand always simulates the colours of her
own opawa, or haliotis shells, in her seascapes ; and
the great deep waters of the Sound were strangely
opalescent with the same reflections.

241 Q

242 THE SILVER QUEEN

The heavy timber at the basis of the big hills varied
from black birch to matai, totara, red pine, and rimu,
and cast denser green shades in some parts, but the
spot where Tom and Jim were seated was brightly
sunclad, and the ridge behind them golden with
tussock.

From their position they could see past Resolution
Bay, Ship Cove, and Motuara Island, away past
Jackson's Head, over the glittering sunshot waters
of Cook Strait past Cape Koemmarroo towards
Terawhiti and the North Island, the serrated back-
bone of which rose blue and well - defined in the
distance.

The great deep waters of the Sound and the Inlet
were like a mirror, though there was a hint of a
lingering south-east swell over the flashing waters of
Cook Strait, and a wash on the beach at their feet.

There was hardly a breath of wind anywhere, and
the gannets were coming down from aloft with an
arrow-like fall, head and beak foremost, hissing
through the still, clear atmosphere like white-hot
aerolites.

The watchers could hear the startling plop with
which they struck the water in many places, and see
their snow-white, floating shapes re-appear like corks ;
and it was evidently a day of unwonted reckoning
for many a silver-sided Picton herring.

The morning was lazily hot, and the two men were
very tired and sleepy, for they had been rowing in a
large open boat all the night.

Tom had been a broken man for a long time, but

NEW VENTURES 243

Jim's patience, cheery assiduity, and influence had
been a godsend to him, and through his personality
he had recovered tone.

For many years past now the two had been
together working hard in the open air. At one time
it was shearing, at another gold-digging, rabbiting,
splitting, fencing, saw-milling, or whatever else they
found profitable, each determining to obtain fortune
or independence ere they settled down. In this way
forgetfulness had come to Tom, and to-day he and
Jim were rather excited about the prospect of a new
and enthralling venture, the possibility of which had
lately been made known to them.

They had pulled ashore for breakfast, which
accounted for their post-prandial dessert, whilst their
boat lay hauled up on the sandy beach below them.

When their cherries were finished, they re-
embarked, and pulled half-way up Endeavour Inlet,
where, overcome entirely by the pleasant sun-heat
and its refraction off the water, they shipped their
oars by mutual consent, and lay down along the
bottom boards under the seats for a nap.

About an hour later they were awakened by a
sudden jar to their boat, and looking over the
gunwale they saw, close to them, two laughing girls
in a light skiff just beginning to pull away in all
haste towards the head of the Inlet.

" The pretty pirates," remarked Tom reflectively,
when they were out of hearing. " I expect they took
our floating craft for a derelict, not being able to see
anyone in it till quite close. They must have got a

244 THE SILVER QUEEN

bit of a fright. Probably they are the proprietor's
daughters ; they seem to be going the right way to
his land. Let's give chase ! "

They did so, but could not overtake the girls, in
spite of all their trying, so at last they ran their
heavier boat ashore at the head of the Inlet. Here,
just beyond the beach, was a fine pasture flat, and
the chimneys of a wooden house were to be seen
over some brushwood.

The girls were on the beach waiting for them.
They wore light-coloured print dresses and large
straw hats, and were evidently sisters.

The new arrivals, as they landed, were graciously
asked to come up to the house and partake of a cup
of tea, which hospitable offer was thankfully accepted,
and after a mutual exchange of laughing badinage
about their wanting to get possession of the ap-
parently derelict boat, which they quite frankly
acknowledged, the father of the girls now advanced
to meet them. He was a thick-set, black-whiskered
man, whom the partners had met before in Picton,
with reference to this location of his, and was now
engaged in shepherding an antimony mine of great
promise, which he had discovered near by. It was a
remote and very beautiful spot where this settler
lived, far out of the usual course for coasters and
steamers bound up and down the Sound.

" Down, Barker, down ! " exclaimed another girl,
running out of the wooden house, as an aggressive
black and white collie dog dashed forward, having
nosed the strangers.

NEW VENTURES 245

"My daughter Bertha," exclaimed the man, and,
the dog becoming friendly, Tom and Jim doffed
their slouch hats and were introduced to the girls'
mother.

After tea and a welcome rest in the cool tenement,
they went up an adjacent gully with the settler,
Sanders, and he showed them blocks of antimony ore,
scattered all over the place, half-covered with the
earth, mineral collected in matrix veins, in blocks of
stone or rock where the solitary prospecting pick and
hammer had been at work.

Sanders affirmed that he had not yet found the
main lode, but there was little doubt that it existed
in a vast hillside near by.

Some roughly-smelted bars of pure antimony, for
which he had used but primitive appliances, looked
like dulled silver, and were strangely marked with
the exact imitation of fern fronds which grew in
abundance in the locality of the ore.

It seemed as if Nature had placed her sign-manual
or hall-mark on the smelted metal as proof positive
of her wondrous generosity to mankind. For under
her prodigal growth on earth surfaces she had strewn
and hidden away wages and work for a multitude of
teeming millions yet.

They climbed to the half-way part of a saddle on
the big hill where Sanders indicated a tunnel he had
dug into some reddish-looking matrix which looked
like cinnabar.

He explained there were two miles of antimony
country, as far as he knew about it at present, and

246 THE SILVER QUEEN

he fully expected to cut the main lode when working
it The bush was very dense with undergrowth
under enormous trees, but he had cut tracks through
it in various directions.

After seeing so much crude antimony scattered
about, Tom decided it was good enough for himself
and Jim to purchase the right to work it, Sanders
keeping a third share in the venture, as he only
wanted money to back his experience.

The bargain at length completed, Tom threw all
his energy and business talents into the new business,
ably helped by both Jim and Sanders. It gave them
all constant employment, and soon after its inception
began to develop into a very paying concern. A
large wharf was built, and tramways were laid down
all through the bush, together with running baskets
on steel ropes to get the ore from the hillsides.
Steamers began to call regularly to take away the
smelted proceeds from the retorts, houses were put
up for blacksmiths and miners, and the Company
was established and paying.

At last Tom, Australian-like, got restless, and went
back to his native country, where he met Waters,
and, wishing for more irons in the fire, the twain
organised and fitted out a pearling fleet

Then the Boer War broke out, and both of the
pearling partners volunteered for active service with
an Australian contingent, and eventually, as a matter
of course, dropped across Jim Terry in South Africa.

CHAPTER XXIII

WITH THE PEARLING FLEET

" And some for the isles of the summer sea, afloat in the

dancing heat,

And others are exiles all their days 'midst black and brown
and white."

—ERNEST CURRIE.

TOM INGLIS, "Many" Waters, and Jim Terry served
their time in the Australian ranks until they were
sent back to Sydney, where they bought a fine large
fore-and-aft schooner, which they re-christened the
Pearl, as an auxiliary and inspecting vessel to their
other luggers, but Jim went back to New Zealand to
look after Tom's interests, as well as his own, in the
antimony mine.

With a crew of picked men, a navigating skipper,
and a mate, the Pearl cruised on the northern coast
from Broome, and picked up their fleet looking for
new pearling banks.

One day, when inspecting the shell in the luggers,
they had some words with a half-caste diver, one of
their own crew, who was so light-coloured as to
attract attention as to his nationality. Threatening
him with punishment for some insubordination on

247

248 THE SILVER QUEEN

this occasion, he drew a knife upon Waters, and was
at once laid out with a lightning-like blow from
Tom.

This rebel against authority had always seemed
to the partners to be brooding over, or plotting,
something, and was, as a rule, either taciturn or
quarrelsome. However, he was an excellent worker,
and they were much annoyed at the disturbance, as
they rather liked him, in spite of his stubborn ways.
He had always been foremost in danger, and had on
more than one occasion quelled disturbances amongst
their mixed and coloured crews.

But now, according to an unwritten law amongst
pearlers, his hands were promptly handcuffed behind
his back round an iron stanchion in the afterhold.
Somehow, however, when the schooner was standing
well off the land to reconnoitre any chance discovery
of pearling ground for the fleet, a matter in which
Waters was much interested, he must have slipped
the handcuffs at about midnight, for, a flat calm
having fallen, he stole a dinghy towing astern and
vanished.

A light wind sprang up towards morning, and
later, at dawn, a furious willy-willy laid the schooner
down almost on her beam ends.

After luffing well into it, the whirlwind passed by,
without doing any great damage, and a steady breeze
following, they kept on their way, until suddenly the
fugitive was sighted signalling and pulling back to
them from beyond their course.

He came alongside and surrendered. The dinghy

WITH THE PEARLING FLEET 249

was hoisted to the stern davits and made secure.
Then Tom asked him what he had got to say for
himself. He had passed over, he said, about half a
mile of pearl oysters during the night, and had come
back to tell them.

There happened to have been a long, stout line
belonging to Waters in the dinghy. It worked with
leaden plummets affixed to a peculiarly - shaped
wire trawl which, on touching the bottom, opened
mechanically, and if only dragged for a few feet
annexed all that came in its way.

There were seven large opened pearl oysters in the
dinghy when the half-caste came on board.

" I meant to wait for a coasting craft or a steamer
and clear out," he said doggedly. " But when I was
tired and loafing about on my sculls, the colour of
the water changed, so I chucked the scoop over, as I
knew I was over a bank, and got these."

Here he produced two very large pearls, not far
off half an inch in diameter.

" I don't owe you much for handcuffing a free
man," he resumed, " but there's my duty to the fleet
to look at, besides, perhaps, some other things, so I
came back to stand my punishment."

" Put us on the ground, man, and we'll say no
more about it," exclaimed Waters impetuously,
taking a rapid bearing by compass of the direction
the half-caste had come from, and the course of the
schooner.

" That's the talk now, eh ? " Curio replied, with a
sarcastic smile. " Suppose I do help you ? In that

250 THE SILVER QUEEN

case, will the pearls I brought back be my own ? I
should like to buy a lugger and start a crew under
my own orders."

" We won't dispute it ; you found them on your
own."

" I wouldn't have come back at all," the half-caste
asserted, " but that man there " — pointing to Tom—
" saved me from the crime of murder. I had plenty
of time to think about it last night. I'd have knifed
you, Mr. Waters, the same as I would have settled a
snarling dog, because my blood was up. Well, it's
had time to cool, and I've come to the conclusion
to act differently. But because a man has got a
touch of the tar brush on his outside skin, I suppose
you think he can't feel, eh ?

" I could be a real friend to you if you would let
me, but I can't stand winks and grins, and borak
being poked at me every day, with your ' Curio '
here, and ' Curio ' there, and a snigger or two from
others, just because you understand nothing about
me, and think you know all."

" How did you get to talk English so well ? "
replied the unabashed Waters. " Why don't you
talk Kanaka, Japanee, South Sea Islander, or even
Dago ? Where do you come from when you are at
home?"

" Never you mind," snapped the half - caste.
" That's my business, not yours. A dog can learn,
I suppose? A put-upon dog's got sense, eh? I
may be as well-born as you are, mind ! "

Then, as Waters' really genial personality over-

WITH THE PEARLING FLEET 251

came his scruples, the half-caste pearler took his
proffered hand and shook it heartily.

" We're quits," he said, " and I am your best friend
on a pinch from henceforward. Your death might
have scragged me but for Mr. Tom's little tap. It's
pretty strong where that's brewed, eh? I like a
man who uses his fists well, but I'm a born devil
sometimes when I'm roused. I suppose it's in my
blood and I can't help it Shake hands, Mr. Tom,
though you didn't give me time to put my own up
a bit ago ; but I was in the wrong and am sorry for
it"

From that time forward Curio was a devoted ally
to both Tom and Waters. His all-night tossing in
the boat, a compunction about quarrelling with men
who had stood by him and with him ere this, aided
by an insight into the consequences of murder, had
done much to sober him from his storm of passion.
But, though the schooner beat close-hauled from
where she was in the direction noted by Waters, and
made several tacks to windward in a failing wind,
they could not find the pearl oyster bed over which
the half-caste had drifted. So they took the sun
again, and made a note of the supposed position in
private, hoping to find it at some future time.

The pearls were so large, however, so wonderful,
that Tom and Curio soon afterwards sailed for
Adelaide by the southern steamer, where Tom
eventually sold the larger one at his own price,
£650, for the benefit of the half-caste. But the
latter would now have nothing to do with the

252 THE SILVER QUEEN

money, insisting that the proceeds should be placed
to the benefit of the Company.

It was a German buyer who took the specimen
at Tom's price, knowing he would make double or
treble on it. Who gets the justifiable present-day
profit? Certainly not the Australian pearler, who
has all the risks. Such were Tom's thoughts as
he placed the notes away in his case before banking
them.

" It is not that I want riches, Mr. Tom," Curio
scornfully observed. " I'd sooner do my duty than
plank down those notes for my own benefit. I've
no desire for money beyond what I can fairly earn,
and I spend that pretty quick when I am ashore.
I've seen the result of riches, and they have damned
me off the face of the earth ever since I can
remember. But what's the good of talkin' ?
Anyway, I've lost all I valued in life through too
much money."

Tom was much astonished at this philosophy,
and tried to draw him further.

" It'll keep. Perhaps I'll tell you some day," he
said. And nothing further could be got from him.

In two or three days they joined the P. & O. liner
Australasia at Adelaide, Curio in civilian clothes
easily passing muster for an extra-bronzed white
pearler amongst the saloon passengers, and — at
Tom's suggestion — under the name of Mr. Smith,
as nothing would persuade him to give his real
name.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE MAN WITH THE MARK

11 But now from snow-swept Canada, from India's torrid plains,

From lone Australian out-posts, hither led,
Obeying their commando, as they heard the bugle's strains,
The men in brown have joined the men in red."

—JOHN SANDES.

THE big liner to which Tom and his new protegt
attached themselves on her homeward trip had
originally come from Sydney, and Tom found his
company very pleasant. They were clannish and
chatty in the smoking-room, as Australians always
are, and some of them, having made money, were
going " home," as they called it, to various parts of
Great Britain. But more than a moiety of those
there assembled were active and strenuous workers
in their own land, not speaking much about it,
either, except to intimates, because they were on
paying speculations, and Australians nowadays
have learned to keep these things quiet.

There was a good admixture of bushman and
civilian, with a knot of pearlers — the latter with a
peculiar look in their eyes, a look as of men who had
peered into the visage of fortune and of death at one

253

254 THE SILVER QUEEN

and the same time. Tom knew some of them, and
talked with them about the wild life up at Broome,
which he had realised for some time, and where
every man who controls the dark-skinned crowd of
workers there is a hero in his own right.

Three parts of the saloon passengers were bound
for Fremantle, the rest would keep together until the
Indian and Continental passengers joined them at
Colombo and Malta.

But with their arrival there would hardly be the
same amount of consequential snubbing administered
to the Colonials as in the early days, when it was
their common fashion of ignorance to regard
Australians as no-account people, or the sweepings
of the convict ranks. But these haughty and self-
sufficient critics reckoned thus before the Soudan,
China, and the Boer War opened their eyes, and now
they would be in the minority vastly, and rather
unclassed, if not in their own eyes, in those of the
Colonists.

Running across the Great Australian Bight, Tom
found it very strange to think how, from the early
beginnings of his life, things had altered in the after
years for his own land. He thought much of the
great possibilities and probabilities of his native
country out there to the northward over the big
ocean cradle of the blue Pacific.

That marvellous land of his, so beloved, so vast,
so unpopulated in its unknown interiors, so com-
paratively untouched on its enormous stretch of
coast line. He was musing altogether pleasurably

THE MAN WITH THE MARK 255

on the starboard side of the vessel, his face turned
northwards, solely about Australia ; of her first tender
tones to him from his own boyhood in Sydney to the
present time of his life ; of the marvels of her lands,
her flowers, her minerals, her precious stones, her
future development ; of her free, almost unexplainable
energy and health given to all her children.

Who could compare the wild - looking, rocky,
kopje - strewn barrenness of South Africa with
Australia's forested pastures, he thought, her sea-
girt shores, her wonderful and ever-changing scenery,
except in the fact that many of South Africa's
expanses were not unlikely to be treasure lids of
Empire also ? And out there to the north were
limestone cliffs undeveloped as to their certain
neighbouring treasures, where the coal and kerosene
and gold of their inner and outlying riches lay as yet
untouched beyond them.

" A penny, a fresh one from the Mint, for your
rapt ideas, Mr. Inglis," rippled a young-looking lady,
as she leaned on the taff-rail beside him. " I thought
you were in a trance with them ; so absorbed as not
to be even aware of my presence."

" They were of my country out there to the
northward, Mrs. Somervil, and I beg your pardon
for my reverie."

" Do you believe in your country ? "

" Firmly and ever, madam. Pessimists, socialists,
immoralists, or Empire-breakers — they are all one —
in the Old Country, always ready to disbelieve or
upset our affairs because they know absolutely

256 THE SILVER QUEEN

nothing of them, even if it is pure loyalty without
a pecuniary motive, cast a slur upon our blood-
brotherhood, a sneer upon our country, declaring the
popular fallacy of some corrupted individual who
had neither heart nor brain, that our birds have no
song, our flowers no scent, that Australia is a
howling wilderness, the bush a waterless desert, a
gloomy, sombre, desolate, melancholic place, a
phase of it which I have never been able to see
personally, and I know it well. There are those
who have long belittled Australia, everything and
everybody connected with it, until all said in
England against it is accepted as gospel, unques-
tioned gospel, and with no bad grace, either, as it
is somewhat after the fashion to have a down on
the Colonies.

"Until quite lately they believed that we were
descended from convicts, and telegraphed to us about
our 'birth-stain.' They forget, as usual, that they
first dumped their own manufactured birth-stained
criminals upon us, until we objected. But we are
not in the habit of forgetting facts, especially if they
are foisted upon us the wrong way about."

" Surely they hardly think as they did — now ? "
suggested the lady, " after your country's behaviour
in the Boer War ? Has it not made them think a
little of what Australians are, and will be ? "

" I'm sorry to say some of them still cling to the
old heresy," he replied, gazing at her admiringly.

She was a pretty Englishwoman with flaxen,
curling hair, a petite, yet full figure.

THE MAN WITH THE MARK 257

Furthermore, she was a widow, alone but for her
maid, childless, and reputed wealthy.

" It takes just one second for a heresy or a hearsay
to get into an Englishman's brain," he continued,
" but a century of object lessons to get it out again
if it happens to be wrong. The English people
should travel more to their Colonies, help to
colonise them, learn our geography and manners,
observe for themselves more than they do at present.
They would find that constitutionally we are more
English than the English, more Irish than the Irish,
more Scotch than the Scotch, and more loyal than
all the people of the Old Land put together.

"That comes, of course, from our less -confined
borders of penury, and our attachment to the Old
Land itself, its old traditions of push and valour.

"Australians seem to have a brighter, brisker
nature than our congeners of the Old Country, but
we muddle up, to some degree, naturally enough,
when they muddle up, and are forced to go slow and
take rebuffs and loss of prestige, whilst they stay in
the Cobden back ages, and run away from any nation
that shows a bold front.

" The British button up their pockets now, so we
are going to retrench, pay up, and work for our-
selves. I await the coming era of Australian
discovery, Australian science, and Australian work.
. . . But permit me, Mrs. Somervil, to offer you my
arm for a stroll round the deck."

And off they went, and presently the lady drew
his attention to a certain quiet, khaki -clad figure

258 THE SILVER QUEEN

reposing on a chair below them on the orlop deck
near the chief engineer's cabin. He was sound
asleep, and there were a pair of crutches propped
against him.

" I hear he is likely to get the Victoria Cross,'
remarked the lady. " Grant is his name, they say.
Oh, how I adore valour ! He was wounded ever so
many times in the Boer War, and nothing short ol
absolute crippling stopped him from going on fighting.
He is a countryman of yours, Mr. Inglis, I hear, so
you should be pleased."

She further informed Tom, who had not noticed
the khaki-clad figure before, that the father of this
South African hero was with him, but was totally
blind, and had not been out of his cabin ; that he
was attended by a servant, but whether Moor or
Negro, according to her English ideas, she had not
been able to determine.

The steamer did not get into Fremantle until some
days later, and Tom, being up beforehand to get a
whiff from the coast, saw one or two pearling luggers
after they passed Rottnest

He smoked a pipe after his morning cup of tea,
and was about to take his bath preparatory to break-
fast when he noticed young Grant hobble painfully
out of a lower - deck cabin on his crutches arid,
supporting himself against the bulwarks, gaze long
and wistfully at the passing low shores.

11 Poor young fellow," he thought ; " it's a type of
face I seem to know. Where can I have seen him, I
wonder* Grant ? The name seems familiar, too."

THE MAN WITH THE MARK 259

He took a turn or two on deck, and then, going
below, was soon revelling in his salt water bath.
When he emerged from it the crippled hero was
managing, as best he could, his ablutions in the
adjoining bath-room. Then Tom recognised him ;
he was a young Australian who had taken a promi-
nent part in a night attack in South Africa, and
whom he thought had been killed, as he had seen
him fall.

" So he got clear with his life after all," was his
inward comment, as he went up to him and intro-
duced himself, at the same time expressing his
delight at his safety.

" My horse was shot at the instant of my start,"
young Grant declared. "In the upset I got my leg
and ankle broken, and couldn't move from under
him. I heard three more bullets strike his body
and got two also, one in the already crippled leg.
Then the Boers came up and got me out. They
treated me very well, or I shouldn't be here now.

" It's deuced unlucky for me, as I have othei
business to attend to. But I expect they will put
me fairly on my legs when I get to England 01
France. As long as I can walk about without
crutches I shan't feel it so much. Fortune of war
old man, mustn't complain ! " And, steadying him-
self on his crutches, he began to roll up his pyjama
coat-sleeve.

Tom volunteered assistance with all the cheery
words he could think of to back up the young
fellow's pluck and resignation, noticing in one

260

sudden flash of recollection and amazement, during
which his mind had gone back years, the same
mark his lost wife had borne, on the arm of the
young soldier, and in the same place !

He finished his breakfast later on with the
determination of finding out from the young fellow
the history of the mark, but before he could make
a search of him he had gone ashore with his blind
father and disappeared.

During the remainder of the day he was monopo-
lised by Mrs. Somervil at Fremantle, and from her
he learned that the crippled hero and his father had
gone to Perth. She, much to his annoyance, kept
him by her side, to the exclusion of everything else.
Then they learnt that the mail steamer was to sail
again that evening, contrary to general expectation.

Tom being obliged to tranship his baggage to
the coastal steamer for the North, as soon as he
could get off duty, set about the work, but in the
bustle, confusion, and haste, the big liner sailed
without his seeing young Grant again.

It was, therefore, in anything but a good temper
that he at last, tortured in mind and thoroughly
tired out, flung himself into a deck seat on the
Australian boat by the side of his henchman.
Then all his ideas were unstrung afresh by Curio's
set face and revelation.

" I said one day, Mr. Tom, that I might tell you
my story. Things have occurred since we left
Adelaide that make me want to tell it now. So
you had better fill your pipe and I'll begin."

f

CHAPTER XXV

THE BURIED PAST

" For we must saddle up and ride
Towards the blue hill's breast,
And we must travel far and fast

Across their rugged maze
To find the spring of youth at last,
And call back from the buried past

The old Australian ways."

—A. B. PATERSON.

THE moonlight flooded the undulating expanse of
ocean with the glittering sheen of silver as the
coasting steamer turned up the West Australian
coast, and Tom became more and more tortured
with past reminiscences and present uneasy surmise
as the half-caste pearler's life-story unfolded.

" You see, Mr. Tom," he said, " I've been bred up
in the bush, a white man's son, as no doubt you've
guessed by my colour long ere this. Now, that
young crippled fellow in khaki, the man with the
crutches, the man who is going to get the Victoria
Cross, who has gone away in the Australasia is my
future brother-in-law — that's to say, he's engaged to
be married to my sister, and that blind man, who is
said to be his father, isn't his father at all, but mine.

261

262 THE SILVER QUEEN

"What's the matter, Mr. Tom, are you ill?" he
asked sympathetically, for his companion had given
a groan and dropped his pipe on the deck.

Recovering himself with a strong effort, Tom
replied :

" Hardly ill, Curio, old man, but the young fellow
you speak about might be, from circumstances I can
hardly yet disclose, or even attempt to grasp, the son
/ lost when he was a little boy. Up to now I always
believed he was either drowned or taken by a shark
down at Manly, near Sydney."

" Good heavens ! " gasped Curio, " you surely don't
know what you are saying. It can't be true — and
yet — did you get a touch of the sun ashore, I wonder ?
Stay a minute ; I'll run and get you a drink."

" No, sit still and go on with your story. There's
a mystery in my life and in yours you seem to have
the unravelling of, and the first light you have thrown
upon it struck me rather hard, that's all. Who is
the blind man that you say is your father ? What is
his name ? "

"Cosgrave is the name I have known him by
since I was a kiddy. Dick, my mother always called
him."

Tom's heart gave a violent bound, as he
remembered his vow to kill this man. And yet
he had only been friendly to his son.

"Then in travelling under the name of Grant he
has something to conceal ? " Tom asked ; " and the
young fellow in khaki is not Grant or Cosgrave
either?" he asked anxiously.

THE BURIED PAST 263

" Not near as much as I am, but you listen a bit,
Mr. Tom, and it will all come out. You will
remember I told you I didn't care for riches. I have
pretty good reason for hating wealth, because that
blind man, my father, is as rich as he well can be.
He kicked me out for quarrelling with that khaki
fellow when he wasn't a cripple, and we had a row.
My father actually struck me! Now he's stone
blind by an accident with dynamite. Oh, my God,
and before he struck me I thought him the best man
in the world ! I hadn't seen him for years until I
caught a glimpse of him in his cabin. I kept clear
of that crippled chap all the time on purpose, because
I didn't want to meet him. He has always been put
above me, and that's why I hate him. Neither my
father nor he could get about much, or take their
meals in the saloon, and my poor, blind father
couldn't see me, so it was easy.

" Perhaps father's loss of sight came on him for
striking his grown son, who had never done anything
but care for him as a son should, but I'd have knifed
him or speared him, or his favourite either, after he
hit me, and laid about to do it, but mother found it
out and told me to go away and never come back.
But I'm going back now, Mr. Tom, whilst I have the
chance, and must cut the pearling when we get to
Broome. No one knows the way to where my tribe
lives but me, and I am going there to see mother
again, and have a revenge that will cry quits with
those from whom I have suffered injury.

" I happen to be next in succession to the present

264 THE SILVER QUEEN

Chief because of mother, and the tribe likes me on
that account better than the crippled chap, who is
pure white and my father's choice, but they won't
interfere with what father says as to his succession
as long as he is there.

" I suppose father has gone to England to see if
there is any chance of getting cured of his blindness.
He never seems happy unless that fellow is stuck
close against him.

" I believe, as things have turned out, I've only to
say the word to one or two there at my tribe's place
to drive out that fellow and his backer, although he
is my father, when they come back, or to take my
tribe away with me to wander over Australia until
we have got a better country to live in without the
drawbacks they have created.

" That black man who looks after my father is an
aboriginal of another tribe. But he knew me and
tipped me the wink and some information. That
crutch-carrier fellow wouldn't rule where I live, or
ought to live, but for the mark he has got on his
arm. He can't rule now as a cripple, and that's
where I come in ! I have found my inheritance, and
I am going to claim it."

" That mark on his arm is exactly what drew my
attention to him on board the Australasia, and why
I thought it possible at all that he might be my lost
son — but it's maddening me," interrupted Tom,
moving restlessly about in his seat. " How are you
going to get to your own country ? " he asked,
temporising, for he could see young Cosgrave bore

THE BURIED PAST 265

him no ill-will personally, in spite of his hatred for
his supposed son.

" Well, there's too many white men knocking about
the back country prospecting for gold, on bicycles
and motors, to prevent one being spotted if one is
supposed to be on the same lay as the other whites.
I shall colour myself black, Mr. Tom, and go on foot
as a blackfellow, as I don't want to be traced."

" Would you take Mr. Waters and myself? I
should like to go unknown also, and we might be of
use to you."

" Wouldn't I, Mr. Tom ! Wouldn't I do anything
for you ? You've always treated me as a gentleman
since that knock-out blow you gave me, but that was
for my own good. You try me and see. I'm the
only one who could show you the way. You and Mr.
Waters can come with me out of the aboriginal camp
at Broome. Our country lies in the north, far east of
Broome, and south-west of the Roper River. I've
friends all along the line, all lines. All aboriginals
are my friends. I know, or they know, all the
nammah holes, rock holes, springs, native wells,
creeks, and rivers, how to get food, how to delude
the whites.

" When I have made you up as blackfellows we
just vanish out of our world at Broome and no one
the wiser. We can be far away next morning out in
the bush, though if we were to walk about the town
all day we wouldn't be recognised."

And young Cosgrave leaned forward as if struck
with a sudden thought, clasped his hands tight over

266 THE SILVER QUEEN

his forehead, got up and paced the deck for a while.
Then he sat down again by Tom, saying :

" I can see the hand of Fate in it, and it is
somehow against me yet I can take you into my
tribe, Mr. Tom. But I am not sure that I can get
you out again for certain, unless I take my tribe
away with me."

" Who's to stop us getting out again if we are
armed ? " queried Tom incredulously.

"Because in that unknown land where I come
from there is silver enough to make a second
Broken Hill of it. Silver enough to set all the
working miners, and smelters, and engineers, and
financiers, and desperadoes in Australia racing for
their lives to see who would get there first Silver
enough to mean the banishment and extinction of
my entire tribe under a new white rule. Silver
enough to make a stranger man's life sacred only
as a prisoner, and silver enough to compass his
instant death if he set his foot one inch beyond
our boundaries if once he entered them.

" No, Mr. Tom, you wouldn't get out of that place
alive if you had Mr. Waters to back you, as well
as myself, and we were all armed to the teeth.
You could never find your way there, for the road
to it is a blackfellow's road, a blackfellow's country,
a white man's death country. White men leave their
bones outside our ground ; and I've seen them there."

" I'm bound to go," Tom said. " Will you take
me and Mr. Waters if he is willing? I'll risk all
penalties."

THE BURIED PAST 267

" Of course, but when you get to where I will
take you, Mr. Tom, if you cannot get out, or I
cannot get you out, what will you say to me?
I've given you fair warning."

"I'll go, if Waters doesn't," Tom replied. "I
want to see your father when he comes back, for
I know him well, i think, too, that he will
remember me."

CHAPTER XXVI

THE EMU GIRL

" And hither, with the coming of the dark,
Thou comest, and the night is full of stars."

—DORA WILCOX.

WHEN Tom Inglis and young Coegrave got to
Broome again, and all the probabilities and possi-
bilities of their project had been carefully disclosed
to Waters, the latter, as usual, put the whole affair in
a nutshell, discounting their plans with practical
common-sense additions of his own.

"Cosgrave's propositions are the only ones with
any chance of success from here," he dictated. " But
— we have not found the pearl bank patch he dis-
covered yet Therefore, Tom, that being a nest-egg
for the future, we have no need to make fools ol
ourselves in this locality, and as I always like some-
thing to fall back upon, we will ignore the supposition
that we are speared, knocked on the head, or shot, in
regard to our future efforts to return.

"For my part, however, if there is a sporting
chance that we shall have to disappear from society

altogether, both now and evermore, for goodness' sake

268

THE EMU GIRL 269

let us do it in dramatic style from somewhere else
than here, where we are beginning to be so well
known.

" Now, I happen to have a journey already arranged
for, as far as locomotion goes. I was going exploring
again, when my spell in town became due, intending
to traverse a certain bee line of my own right through
Australia. Well, that line was from west to north-
east, from coast to coast, in a high latitude, to prove
my Torres Straits flock pigeon, seed-carrying theory.

"Emus might also be a cause, as they get over
almost incredible distances with great speed. And a
long, swift run from water to water is nothing to
them. But my theory can wait, with this great
chance of a lifetime before us. I never knew of
anything equal to it. It is worth trying, solely on
Curio's distinctive evidence."

Beyond young Cosgrave Tom had not mentioned
his suspicion, and he had told him not to speak of it
He hated to refer to the past at any time.

Tom and his old friend Waters were seated alone
in the Pearls comfortable saloon when this dis-
cussion took place, and where many a trophy of
voyaging was exhibited around, from a stuffed flying
fish leaping out of a glass sea, in a very natural way,
although confined to a varnished case, to guns, rifles,
rugs made of slaughtered animals, scrap-books of
photographs of birds, beasts, flowers, landscapes,
native weapons, etc., arranged in various convenient
panels and recesses, and all made nautically secure.
In deck-lashed cabinet drawers might have been

270 THE SILVER QUEEN

found solid gold specimens, gold in the quartz,
pearls, and pearl shell, opal in blocks and flakes,
rough sapphires, diamonds, stream tin, garnets,
kaolin, copper ore from the Burra, silver from the
Barrier. It was a comfortable bachelors' sanctum
and museum, and where is lonely man more
intelligently satisfied than in association with Nature
and her great gifts of exploration and travel ? Why
don't the English yachtsmen go a-cruising through-
out the Empire and find new marvels and material
for themselves? The best spirit in man is the
exploring, developing spirit, the best bride from
youth to manhood, even onwards as a guide to a
nation's progress and prosperity, is Nature's wide
and bounteous self.

Both men had been content to share her with the
other so far, the only jealousy aroused showing forth
in a kindly emulation as to which of them could
annex most treasures from her willing hands.

" We'll lease the fleet," continued Waters, " all but
this schooner. We'll go down to Fremantle in her.
I want some West Australian immortelles, scented
black boronia for this cabin and my pressed flower
books. I want outside mineral, all the forms it
is found in. I want Murrin and Diorite gold, and
for these purposes expect to find a secret motor car
of my own awaiting us at Fremantle, which will
eclipse anything yet heard of. She, or it, is to be
named the Flying Fox, and we will be the flying
foxes of her crew, as diplomacy will evidently be
required. We shall give out as table talk to the

THE EMU GIRL 271

good folks in Fremantle that we merely mean to test
our motor car and see for ourselves whether it is
possible to cross Australia in it. We've got roads and
camel-pads to the outside districts, and are bushmen
enough to choose our direct line anywhere under the
sun.

"Cosgrave knows the road to his place. Better
than that, he knows all the outside intricate black-
fellows' paths, and is hand in glove with every
aboriginal and half-caste besides, to our great and
lasting advantage. We shall get there quite easily
and unknown.

" The motor car is from an English firm, a Napier,
built to my own specifications. She makes drinking
water for us on our journey. She goes by electricity,
and generates it as well. She is as high set, but
longer and broader, than an Abbott buggy, and has
no end of stowage room. I have double and treble
outside, inside, and underneath compartments for
petrol storage in the build of her, and parted with a
small fortune so that she should be completely up to
my requirements. When we are ready to start, the
schooner will go north to Port Darwin to await orders.

" ' Urgent private business ' will be the reason I
state to Robbens. He knows me, won't talk, and is
competent to look after our interests if we give him
full powers and directions. There will be no inquiry,
no relief expedition, no coroner's inquest, even if it
should be required by ultimate Fate."

Young Cosgrave here entered the saloon, and spoke
about the country bordering on his own.

272 THE SILVER QUEEN

" We know the secret of it, have good cause to
know it," he declared ; " but we don't want others to
know it. All white men who have ever reached our
outside whereabouts have been found dead or dying
of bush madness and thrist. We dare not utilise our
discovery there, or any discoveries, and they are great
ones, for fear of being driven out of our land by an
influx of strangers. All the way along the Dry
River is water — there is water all over Australia, if
you only know how and where to look for it. The
water in the Dry River comes from springs in our
own country, and washed the channel out long ago.

" It was a boulder river once, like the plains about
it, but since then the land has been forming, and the
bed of the river is filled up. Shifting sand in the
desert — making willy willys — has been covering
up everything, moving over the earth, so that the
drifting material would in time cover even a hut"

" Then the filling of the river simply proves to be
from plain indication a help to life and vigour which
a siphon pipe would bring to the surface, and the
lost men perish without having invoked it ! " snapped
Waters impatiently.

" Bah ! half the bush terrors come through the
imagination and ignorance of a man separated from
his kind. The mirage, of course, indicates water
somewhere, not so very far off either, even if its
illusory visage shows river timber high in air on a
treeless plain, or foretells it in the phantom pools
about your feet. Providence ever holds out some sort
of kindly beacon to the perishing wayfarer, if they

THE EMU GIRL 273

only had the sense to avail themselves of it. But
nine in ten human beings have no idea of water
under the earth, if that earth is only a dry surface to
an eyesight far removed from a pump handle or a
water tap.

" However, there is nothing better for a motor car
to travel on than the filled-up bed of an underground
river, eh, Tom ? But here are Captain Robbens and
the crew coming back, so we had better dry up, as
this conversation concerns no one but ourselves.''

Some months afterwards the speaker was laying
down further opinions of the illusion country at first
sight, from his motor car.

u In due time these supposed deserts — of which
this is one of many so-called — will be turned into
places for dwellings, granaries, gardens, and store-
houses for the benefit of generations yet unborn. I
believe all Australia has a buried treasure storage of
some sort underground. Dig a whim-well on the
out-back Lachlan plains, and you will find the car-
boniferous plants of the coal measures, as well as
good and plenteous water. Nowadays a coal owner
is often a millionaire, and a water finder here would
make a bullionaire of himself.

" Go to the same depth or deeper elsewhere than
the Lachlan underground strata, and what will you
find? Water everywhere. Our knowledge of nether-
most water and hitherto unknown deposits is coming
through artesian bores, and utterly revolutionising
old ideas of Australia's waterless distances, or ulterior
chances of surface wealth."

s

274 THE SILVER QUEEN

The Flying Fox has been going very slowly for an
hour or so, because of the boulders of the watershed
plains of the Dry River country.

After a fast and successful journey all the way,
Tom, young Cosgrave, and Waters had nearly
arrived at their object point. From there, the Dry
River itself promised the crew of the Flying Fox an
easy track to a thick belt of scrub, which the pearler
said lay at the buried river's source, one of the
adjuncts of his own wonderful land.

The Flying Fox, though not going straight, was
keeping on the whole a certain course. She was
picking level ground for her wheels among the
widely-strewn boulders, which were, here and there,
too high for her. But the elevated body of the car
kept her undergear free from most of the prominent
rucks of rubble by judicious steering. Sometimes
she was only going as fast as a man could walk,
whilst at others, as the ground suited, she shot ahead
a little.

They were far outside the last regular camel-pads
now, and were in a no-man's-country, known only to,
and traversed solely by, hostile blacks. Yet here, as
in many other places in Australia, marked " desert "
by antiquated London impressionist maps, the
boulders were studded argentiferously.

How many of the dead, spoken about by young
Cosgrave, knew how near they had been to their
cherished ideals of wealth ? How many other
Australian explorers in search of pastoral country
only had turned away disgusted to their last water-

THE EMU GIRL 275

hole with the binding anathema, after they had seen
the arid expanse : " No water, no grass, not fit for a
pig to live in ! "

Waters knew, however, perfectly well what his
surroundings indicated, and Tom thought he did
later, from his knowledge of somewhat similar
indications in New Zealand.

" It's boulder antimony, isn't it ? " he queried.

" No, my boy, it is silver in its compounds. This
place is reserved, says Nature to Solomon Silence,
until the favoured ones of Fortune come along.
There'll be a Silver King or two in residence here
some day, and a city or so also, as sure as Fate, if
cosmopolitanism is kept away long enough."

When they got close to the Dry Lagoon, although
the ghostly mirage rippling about it over sand patches
deluded them into the fancy of water, it proved on
closer approach to be but a long, wide depression
in the ground rilling up with sand, in which at the
far end a solitary nurtunja pole was sticking up.
They had had a long run through dry distances
that day, but this was the pole they were steering
for by young Cosgrave's orders, and round it a
group of three natives were sitting — an old man,
an old woman, and a girl, the latter clad in a light
skirt, which clung to her limbs, surmounted with
a belted tunic.

She had no head covering but her own luxuriant
hair, straw-coloured, looped up and fastened to
the crown of her head with a scarlet ribbon. She
possessed a light complexion, beautiful eyes and

276 THE SILVER QUEEN

teeth, was lithesome,- well-formed, and agile. She
whispered affectionately to young Cosgrave, and
kissed him on both cheeks warmly, although she
looked intensely surprised. He then introduced this
desert flower to his companions, who were more
astonished than the girl had been, expecting to see
only blacks in this part. She had been sojourning
with blacks and found whites, all the difference.

" A relative of mine," Cosgrave said importantly ;
"Alice Langley, daughter of a real white Kuriltai.
Our first bush telegraph and courier. My tribe
will have news of our arrival in a few hours. You
can take that from me as quite certain.

" It is going now," he added, as the girl ran to
a rush-woven basket and liberated three whistling
ducks, which at first circled hastily around,
stupefied with their confinement and dazzled by the
light Then they shaped their course straight
towards the river bed, which joined the sand
lagoon, and a little later sped fast and far over the
mirage waters of its channel.

Young Cosgrave explained : " This being the
outside of our country, we all know how to work it
for the benefit of ourselves beyond. Those ducks
go straight to our dwelling-place ; each carries its
message back by a tiny strip of parchment tied
to its foot"

In the evening many flights of ducks passed, of
many species, from various points of the compass,
but all took the same course as the messengers when
they got to the Dry River. The two old blacks had

THE EMU GIRL 277

a broad, high net which was suspended on two long,
light poles across the river bed. The poles were
upright in the ground, but not very firmly fixed, and
the net, almost invisible from the fineness of the fibre
it was composed of, hung straight up and down
between them. To the top of these poles were fixed
two long, light lines, the far ends of which were held
by the two blacks. As a flight of ducks from some
point in the south came sweeping towards the sand
lagoon, and turned full swing for the bed of the
river, the old native man, concealed behind a sand-
buttressed boulder, suddenly whizzed a curved, flat
piece of bark out over them, and as it poised over
their heads uttered the cry of the duck-hawk.

As the oncoming flight saw the rush through the
air of the bark boomerang, and the shadow poise
above, blended with the dreaded call of their
hereditary and vengeful foe, they swooped down-
wards to a few feet of where the water in the river
should have been, flying right against the net, which
was instantly pulled over on top of them by the two
concealed blacks, and the whole flight secured)
almost uninjured.

The travellers sat chatting vicariously at the camp
fire by the motor car long into the moonlit hours of
the night, and it must have been almost twelve
o'clock before they all thought of retiring to rest,
when the girl walked away some distance as if to
scan the horizon.

" She can give me points all round the bush and
elsewhere, Tom," Waters murmured. "You steer

278 THE SILVER QUEEN

the Flying Fox to-morrow with Cosgrave alongside
of you, so that I can take a back seat with this child
of the desert. Old man," he went on gravely, " I'm
hard hit, but there's the new world for me over
yonder somewhere, if she is not appropriated already.
I've been looking for her all my life. Isn't she
lovely and unsophisticated ? I have a reason, a
strong, compelling reason, for this new life now ; and
if I have either to stay or leave it for the old one I'll
come out on top, see if I don't, and make that girl
a queen of society yet. Why, if even in these wild,
unknown parts she can be as lady-like and nice-
mannered as she undoubtedly is, what on earth
will she be when she is out in the world with a
competence? I don't know how she has been
educated, or who taught her, but she knows con-
siderably more than most teachers I have ever met.

" But what is she going to do now ? " he exclaimed
wonderingly, as first a low routing, then three
combined, modulated notes were heard, four times
repeated, from where the girl stood. " That's no bull
roarer, that's a clarionet," jerked Waters in surprise.
" It's like Cosgrave's call at the Cave, in the first
notes, but he had only the native whirler or bull
roarer, quite a different instrument from that. Keep
quiet ! "

A gigantic emu, a cock bird, came running eerily
and shyly forward out of the silver moon-hazed night
mist and loomed close to Tom and Waters. It was
followed by its mate, scarcely less in size. They
inspected the motor car curiously, as they ran in,

THE EMU GIRL 279

moving round it in startled fantasy, scared at all
shadows, starting and peering with outstretched
heads and necks ; then, alarmed at the men, sped,
as only emus can, straight and swift to the call again,
where the fair sounder stood in the moonlight, with
the trumpet-shaped instrument to her lips.

There, where she stood alone, on the Dry River
plain, she kissed the heads of the great birds, as they
wreathed their friendly necks over her, and taking a
packet from her breast gave them each a mouthful of
Australian manna. Then, stooping, she lifted a sort
of cincture harness composed of flexible stuffed bands
which she put over the breast, neck, shoulders, and
back of the smaller bird, adjusting it carefully.

From a boulder she sprang on to the deep cushion
of that back, placing one leg over and the other
through one of the soft, padded surcingles, and with
a turn of her feet lower down and an ankle twist for
an extra purchase sat upright as if in a side-saddle.
Then, with a wave of her hand to the watching men
she spoke to her desert steeds.

At the sound of her voice the great cock bird slid
away towards the smooth path of the Dry River and
out into the silences of the ground-clinging mists ;
then the female, with her rider, shot noiselessly after
her pilot mate, as the last carriage on an express
train vanishes after its engine into the outer haze
from a lighted station.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE HAUNTED, AND THE HAUNTERS

" It chanced one day, when the North Wind blew, in his face,

like a furnace breath,

He left the track for a tank he knew — 'twas a short cut to his
death."

— HENRY LAWSON.

" HERE, Cosgrave, wake up, old man, what are you
about ? — the girl's gone ! " Waters shouted, leaping to
his feet and shaking the recumbent figure he had
just noticed sound asleep by the Flying Fox, the
motor car that had accomplished such wonders of
speed during its rush across Western Australia.
" Get up, sonny, do, there's not a moment to lose.
That girl may alarm the tribe, and for all I know we
may be ambushed and killed if we delay. So hurry
up if you don't want to have an unpleasant surprise.
What's a double gun or two against an armed tribe
with silver to guard ? Light up and get her in order,
Tom. See to your sparking plug and carburettor,"
he commanded, his own experienced eye and hand
running over every part of the gear. " We must be
off as soon as we possibly can ! "

" Man with a shattered foot and ankle," muttered
280

THE HAUNTED AND HAUNTERS 281

the sleeper confusedly, turning over in his waking
dream. " He's got his punishment. I've had mine ;
so has father. But I'll have my rights in spite of all
things ! Eh, what ? " he said suddenly, sitting bolt
upright. " Alice gone, eh ? She won't take any
harm, bless you. She's used to it. The birds love a
long run in the moonlight"

" We're going too ! " curtly replied Waters, huffed,
uneasy, and impatient, but from a cause much nearer
his heart than his brain, which he could not publicly
acknowledge. " How you do sleep, Cosgrave.
Hurry up and help to get the things ready ! "

Young Cosgrave arose with a yawn, and presently
bustling himself, their few but serviceable belongings
were rapidly stowed away in the locker recesses of
the automobile.

Meanwhile, Tom descanted upon a strip of dried
meat he was eating hurriedly as he worked, which he
called kangaroo biltongue. Waters and he had made
some from marsupials they had shot on the road up,
hanging the meat on strips of their own skins tied
together, as they had seen it done in South Africa.

" It's not half a bad idea," he declared. " Far-out
explorers may find it expedient yet in what they call
Australia's waste places. It's light to carry, and
nearly as good as springbok."

The adventurers took their seats, Waters driving.
The car had covered the distances hitherto with
marvellous ease and smoothness of running. Three
skilled Australian axe and long-handled shovel men
had soon got rid of any troublesome inequalities of

282 THE SILVER QUEEN

ground when met with, and a corduroy bush road, or
bank-slicing, had disposed of abrupt baulks in plains,
or hindrances of scrub in other parts when unable to
make a detour.

"The best trait of the British manufacturer,"
declaimed Waters, as the motor car hummed along
the hard, level, sanded floor of the Dry River through
the ground mists, " is that if you give the man idea
well diagramed, they sometimes improve on it.
Storage tanks, appearance, utility, gear perfect. As
to management, you can stop and hold her on the
brink of a precipice ; as to speed, isn't she going ?
Good thing the dust devils never go to sleep here, so
that there is little risk of our being followed, because
our route is obliterated when the sun rises and they
begin."

Bur-r-r-r I

Tirelessly, smoothly sped the Flying Fox through
the remainder of the night hours, its onward flight
beguiled by fantastic tales from the half-caste pearler,
Cosgrave.

" No, Mr. Tom," he had said, in reply to a question
put about the native route, " we don't always use the
Dry River, except for secrecy. But it's one of our
roads. The dry lake we have just left is our furthest
post this way. Where this mirage-land begins lies both
our weakest and our strongest point, and for that reason
the dead stay here. See there ! " and he pointed to
two grisly alligator mummies, one on each bank.

Further on was the dry parchment frame of a water
buffalo grazing with lowered head.

THE HAUNTED AND HAUNTERS 283

" It gives one a queer feeling speeding past these
weird things in this romantic moonlight, doesn't it ? "
Cosgrave added. " I always feel inclined to say my
prayers when I'm here, and I've been well enough
used to it ! "

Tom and Waters had long since ceased to be sur-
prised at the pearler's language, of which they had
picked up various specimens ever since they had
known him. He had been educated, nay, more, he
seemed to be of a somewhat religious turn of mind,
but no amount of questioning had as yet elucidated
the mystery of his erudition for the partners.

" Wait until you get to my home and see for your-
selves. Then you can ask particulars," he had always
retorted when questioned upon the subject. And
this was the only sentence they had ever been able
to extract definitely from him.

" The old man and the old woman we saw at the
Dry Lake," Cosgrave went on, " are pickets of our
advanced line of sentinels, which at that point com-
mences and continues from it, over some queer
country, too. Over the far-out mountains on the
other side of our possessions, black and coloured
people guard us by various methods. We send
intelligence from the Dry Lake, as you have seen, by
ducks."

" You want us to believe," said Waters irritably,
" that a wild Australian whistling duck will carry a
message for you, and then waddle out of the water
before your Chief with a letter tied round its leg ! "

" Didn't I tell you that this part is our illusion

284 THE SILVER QUEEN

ground. You're not supposed to believe as gospel
everything you see here — although it is real enough.
Of course the message-ducks are trained birds, and
come from Doonabri."

" Caught in the net, eh, blackfellow fashion ? You
can't stuff me, Cosgrave. Didn't I see Miss Langley
take them out of a basket, where she had no doubt
placed them after the old people caught them ? "

" Well, you ask her about them if you are as cock-
sure as all that. Maybe she'll tell you, maybe she
won't But /';« telling you, and consider I stand a
good chance of losing my life through it, the same as
you do, unless you chuck me out of the motor car
and go back to bring up an armed expedition to
benefit yourselves. There's a line of carefully-
concealed rock holes about a mile out from this left
bank here, but none but ourselves or the outside
blacks even dream of them. We know them as
facts, but a stranger might look for them until he
dropped dead from thirst.

"I was out here duck -netting once. A string of
camels came wandering in to the Dry Lake from
God knows where. Hours afterwards two Afghans
came crawling along in search of them. Death was
in their faces, and madness also. In went a message
to Doonabri by duck-post, and out came a dozen of
our men with ambulances, but the Afghans died on
the way before they reached our country, and we had
to bury them."

The Flying Fox burred gently and swiftly ahead,
and for some time there was silence in the car.

THE HAUNTED AND HAUNTERS 285

" Great Scott ! " suddenly exclaimed Tom, starting
and pointing, " Cosgrave's mad, or I'm mad ! Stop
her, Waters ! Look at the ghosts in that caravan
ahead of us ! "

A camel train was coming along the left bank of
the waterless river, and an Afghan was riding on the
first and last camel.

The string of camels passed silently in the ghostly
moonhaze, not a hundred yards off, to the accom-
panying beat of the pulse in the checked motor-car ;
passed without splashing through silver pools of some
seeming water, which emanated from the ground, and
after they had vanished.

" Go on again ! " gasped Tom at last. " If I had
seen that sight of the dead drivers Cosgrave tqld us
about without having had witnesses, I should be
certain that the bush madness was upon me. The
water, too ! "

" Easy, Mr. Tom, it's all right ; you needn't get
your frills out. They are our men," whispered
Cosgrave. " Supply train going south, and the
moon makes those lakes here."

" Are your men Afghans in Indian dress ? I can
swear I heard one of them sing out ' Hoostah ! '
before they swung level. Then they slipped by like
lost spirits, and I took them for the dead drivers you
were speaking of."

" We make good Afghans at times, Mr. Tom,
especially if we colour dye a bit ; and we keep up
these ghostly illusions here for our own security.

" It may send parties back if ever they attempt to

286 THE SILVER QUEEN

rush our place ; and one such party scared back will
effectually stop others.

" You begin to see now, perhaps, why we dare not
give any sign, except of menace, to the outside world.
We have silver under our feet, at Doonabri, and
although this maddening, desolated Dry River would
grow any thing — vines, orchards, rubber, cotton, cereals
— if the underground water were utilised, we are afraid
to use it, because of the riches hereabouts also.

"Partly through my father's will, partly for the
peace of mind of our people, we guard the secret of
the silver grounds for all we are worth, because the
moment it was known what was in the soil here, and
in the boulders, we should have but a short time to
wait for the human avalanches that would sweep us
away altogether from the life and place we have
chosen to live in.

" So we stave off the evil day as long as we can,
you see, but it must come eventually. Every year
now fresh, hitherto untrodden, mineral-bearing places
are being opened up."

" This is a reef country half-buried in sand," inter-
posed Waters. " There are half the treasures of the
universe about us, and the greatest of the lot to
utilise all with — water — lies close beneath us also."

" Stop her, Mr. Waters," said young Cosgrave
suddenly, at this juncture, " and hear it talk. Get
out, too, Mr. Tom, and come away from the click of
our big night-bat a bit, so that you can hear better."

The motor stopped, and the trio walked away
some fifty yards up the sand-filled river, and then

THE HAUNTED AND HAUNTERS 287

paused to listen with their ears to the ground. Then
they came back, resumed their places, and went on
again.

" Yes," Cosgrave continued ; " you can hear it
running underneath, plain enough. I expect that
sound is what drives the solitary wanderer mad,
thinking he is in the awful thirst delirium, when he
can see nothing but dry ground and boulders. In
fact, that stage always really comes after the first
parched thirst, when they try to shout, and find they
can't even speak. But that sounding water they
would never take for reality with the dry sand above
it. Then they go mad, and perhaps die happily.

" Ah, I thought of water bad enough that night I
bolted in the dinghy, after I had got well athirst with
passion, and pulling afterwards, for I had no time to
get a drink out of the water cask, and the hand at
the wheel, who was in with me, and got my handcuffs
off — a Manilla man — couldn't leave it to get me some.
It passed away after I had chewed a revolver bullet
for a bit, but that night it was lots of salt water and
no fresh."

" If you had had a condenser like mine in the Fox
here, you'd have been all right," said Waters. " You
deserve a drink for all your yarns and your previous
thirst, Cosgrave. I'm going to pull up and have a
drink of our own fresh water, qualified with a taste of
whisky to alleviate the sympathetic symptoms you
have brought on."

" Shall we see any more ghosts to-night, old man ?
How did you dress your Afghans ? "

288 THE SILVER QUEEN

"The women did that. Used the dead drivers'
dresses for patterns and models. We are hardly an
uncivilised tribe, Mr. Tom. Now when we go north,
south, or west, we follow the latest fashions as
exhibited up-to-date by those that have seen them."

"A health to the Illusion Country," declared
Waters, as he charged glasses, with the Fox at a
standstill. "May its skeletons and Afghan ghosts
never grow less ! "

Then as they burred on again the pearler whispered
incisively, as if in answer to Waters' joking question :

" There's the ghost of the Mad Reef further on,
Mr. Tom. Hadn't I better tell you about it before
it shoots into sight, for it's a queer thing for a
civilised man, who knows the power of riches and
what the lust for it does for its votaries, to come upon
suddenly. Presently we shall pass a bit of a switch-
back in the river bed, which is caused by a silver
reef that crops up and outwards on both banks.

"The sound of the water is heard there also.
When you get on the top of the third switchback
you can pull up again," he added to Waters. Then,
almost before he had concluded the sentence, the
motor soared upwards with its own momentum, then
rushed down with increasing speed, up and up and
down and up again.

With the movement of a new-born impulse on this
last summit it was stopped — dead — this vehicle of the
living, at Cosgrave's word : " Now ! " It was a perfect
treble switchback they had traversed, the sand as
hard, as level, and as dry as before.

THE HAUNTED AND HAUNTERS 289

" That was like being at sea again, that bit, wasn't
it ? " young Cosgrave remarked parenthetically.
"There's the ghost of the Mad Reef. He never
leaves it ! " he added.

Amongst an outcrop of stony rubble on the right
bank, a mummified skeleton of a man was propped
in a crouching posture. The parchment sections of
his hands were supporting his grisly jaw-bones,
whilst the ghastly, sun-dried masked skull looked
forward straight at them with a grin" of anxious
silence as expressive as the bared teeth and the
dead eyes the eye-sockets could make it. That grin
was only the dumb telephone left of one who, in the
days of his flesh, had dared all, suffered all, seen all,
borne all, but it carried the Mephistophelian ex-
pression still, and now guarded a secret that was all
it had ventured for, and all it had kept.

"Come and have a close look, Mr. Tom and Mr.
Waters, so that you can read its last will and
testament," young Cosgrave whispered as he got out
silently.

The dried anatomy was sitting within the four
boundary marks of a silver lode, a proprietor's and
prospector's claim. There was no miner's right but
the skeleton itself.

" The Silver King ! " remarked Waters ironically,
as they stood close by.

But the " pegs " of the dead monarch's claims to
untold wealth were symbolised by dry, lichen-clad
boulders, piled so as to show distinctive corner marks
to any passer-by. Here and there crusted ore, in

290 THE SILVER QUEEN

profusion even on the boundary marks of the claim
marked off, glittered in patches in the moon rays ;
while attached by a wire round the neck of the
mummified corpse itself lay a sort of torque orna-
ment made of bright brass, a blackfellow's royalty
plate, of the shape of a half-moon, hung with the
curves upwards, and on this was inscribed, plainly
visible in the rays of a motor lamp:

JOHN SOLWAY.
"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE."

Tom started in amazement. Where had he seen
this cabalistic sign before ?

Waters was also petrified with astonishment.
Meanwhile Cosgrave replaced the lamp.

" The same that we saw at the Cave of the Red
Hand," he observed in a whisper. " Keep quiet,
Tom, and await developments ; it's a mystery, and
a big one ! "

" Mr. Langley rigged the corpse up," the half-caste
pearler said when he came back, " as a tribute to the
first known outside discoverer of this region who
kept the claim for himself. But who was he, and
why did he call himself the 'Man in Dungaree?'
We none of us know."

" There were two of them," said Tom to himself.
"The Man in Dungaree must have been the other
man. I saw their mule tracks."

" Mr. Langley said such a dead finish as his
deserved all the lasting records a man could get,

THE HAUNTED AND HAUNTERS 291

and that the field should be named after him some
day," Cosgrave went on when he rejoined them.

" How that poor fellow died no one seems to know
except himself. He just faced it quietly. They say
the body was found in that position many years ago,
propped up between two boulders, and he must have
died thirst mad to mark out a claim."

" Your Dry River is interesting, very interesting,"
murmured Waters, loosing the Flying Fox again for
her forward flight.

When morning broke upon them with Australia's
scarlet and gold Aurora, they still sped along the bed
of the Dry River, but halted for breakfast where they
saw a warm, purple, sunlit haze of distant hills, with a
darker belt of timber intervening. Then Millie's
dream in the Cave valley came into Tom's mind,
reminding him that in somewhat similar places of
sleep and dreamland he had often resought her.

The rush through the small hours of the night had
brought many conflicting emotions to the three men
who were risking their all upon an unknown quantity,
a very last throw of the dice of speculation.

" We are all in the same boat," was a common idea.
"What happens to the one will happen to the others."

" I shall be top-dog, and work out a revolution in
my time," Many Waters mused, nothing daunted,
nothing disheartened. " I could build a city, two
cities, in the Boulder Plain alone. And I shall be a
multi-millionaire before I peg cut."

But in the midst of their several cogitations, as
they prepared breakfast, came an audible sound

292 THE SILVER QUEEN

from the bed of the Dry River from the same
direction previously traversed by themselves.

The reality of it, tested by acute listening, arrested
Waters' pannikin of tea half-way on its passage to
his mouth.

Young Cosgrave dropped his plate, rose to his feet,
and dashing across the level sand of the river bed,
ran quickly to the summit of the bank.

" Look out ! " he cried. " By Golly, it's another
motor ! Three in it ! Three to three, Mr. Waters,
Mr. Tom ! No strangers must be allowed to come
here whatever happens. They have tracked us
down ! Get out your shooting irons ! "

And he was just going to rush back to join his
companions when a deep, routing bull note sang
through the air, followed by a loud, vibrating,
triple-combined chord of notes, thrice repeated.

The half-caste pearler stopped as if turned to
stone. There he stood, stock still, transfigured in
spirit also, his hands and arms hanging limply at
his sides, his head bowed on his breast dejectedly.

The approaching motor was of a design never seen
before, as, gradually slackening, it pulled up right
abreast of the Flying Fox. Young Cosgrave joined
them deprecatingly as a tall, black man in motor
dress, goggles and all, leaped lightly down, and
going to the back seats assisted first a blind,
silver-haired man out, then a younger one who
limped.

They were Tom's fellow-passengers of months back.

" How did you get here ? " the young man asked

THE HAUNTED AND HAUNTERS 293

Tom, in great amazement a You brought him and
the other gentle'man ? " he asked, turning angrily
and vindictively to Cosgrave. " Did you remember
and regard the consequences ? "

"I did, Mr. Inglis," the half-caste returned, as
angrily.

" My son ? " faltered Tom, stepping forward.

" The only father I know of as a father is here,"
the young man replied, laying his hand affectionately
on the blind man's shoulder.

" He is right," replied the blind man, in the deep,
solemn, listening, questioning voice of one accustomed
to live in darkness, and yet to see beyond the ken of
others in the light. " That is your name, though I
have never given it to you, and he is your father ! for
I know him and his voice well. So my son is back.
Well, I am glad."

So this was Richard Cosgrave speaking, and thus
the manner in which he and Tom met at last.

" My God ! can it be true ? " the crippled hero
asked, more convinced from the voice of one in
whom he seemed to place implicit reliance than in
Tom's half-doubting assurance ; then, gripping Tom's
hand, and noticing his emotion, his all-too-patent
fatherly love, he cried : "It must be real ! Father,
oh, father ! What will mother say ? You must stay
with us now."

" My son, my son ! " said Tom, clasping him close,
and kissing him on the cheek, and forgetting all his
feud with Cosgrave senior.

" Explanations at home now ! " came the deep,

294 THE SILVER QUEEN

solemn voice of the blind man sternly and in com-
mand. " Peter, help me up. And you, young Inglis,
come here and take the lead into Doonabri."

And he turned when seated, full face upon them,
his scarred visage and eyeless sockets concealed by
the mask and motor goggles he wore, but his extra
sense of hearing catching the position of his audience.

Then, with uplifted right hand, he said in low,
distinct, concentrated tones :

"Gold has been found beyond Oodnadatta at
Arltunga, gentlemen, so I give you full warning of
further peril for us all. I hold the cards now, and
luckily for ourselves we went no further than
Marseilles, where we got all we could get, except
my sight, and returned to Adelaide just in time for
precautions against this new discovery. I intend
to bank up Doonabri, and live at home in future.
Inglis" (to the young man), " you must do your duty
to your real father now. I have no further claim to
you.

" Now for a happy meeting at Doonabri, although
I shall not be able to see it."

His voice broke as he gave the word to go to his
black attendant. The others followed at once in the
Flying Fox, Waters wild with astonishment at the
unexpected denouement.

The parentage was thus acknowledged, the onward
path arranged for — and something else.

CHAPTER XXVIII

A NEW PRISONER

"And we have hearts to do and dare, and yet o'er all the rest
The hearts that made the nation were the women of the
West."

—GEORGE ESSEX EVANS.

As they neared the end of the Dry River, the leading
motor car sounded its peculiar notes warningly,
slackened speed, and turned out to the left.

By the regularly-graded scrub road, cut through
the thickly - timbered ranges farther on, they
progressed, until at last, after due and prolonged
notice by the leading motor's loud and musical
drone, they shot downwards at full speed from the
highest summit towards a river flat, pulling up at
length, after a series of lovely and constantly-
changing views, in the middle of a panorama of
houses, fields, orchards, and vineyards, with a crowd of
excited and light-coloured inhabitants running about
like disturbed sugar ants over a gunny sack. Some
of these people were armed, but all were dressed in
European costume. Then suddenly, to his unbounded
delight, Tom Inglis recognised amongst them his
long-lost wife, and Bianca Pearmain with her.

295

296 THE SILVER QUEEN

Cosgrave, or " Myall Dick," now blind and white-
haired, dismounted from his car, with the assistance
of his black servant, and spoke to young Inglis, who
stood by him.

The latter at once sounded the extraordinary tribal
alarm, which, in fact, the leading motor had been
giving down all the turns of the incline, on hearing
which the armed men disappeared in all directions, ac
good number of them going back the way the new-
comers had used. Then came a routing sound, six
trebly-blended notes, a stop, then six again.

" Scouts to the Dry Lagoon."

Another and a totally different signal :

" Scrub planters to the in road."

" It will be stopped and concealed altogether. We
are prisoners, sir," said young Cosgrave, who was
translating the signals to Tom. " We shall never be
able to get out again, and I can do nothing now that
father is back."

Then followed a sort of pealing of bells from the
flageolet notes.

"Church service," muttered young Cosgrave, to Tom's
intense astonishment. " It wasn't built when I left."

" After all these years," whispered Millie softly,
later, when they were alone, as her husband held her
in a close embrace. " Are you not very proud of our
boy ? I thought Richard would kill him or warp his
intellect in some way, so, knowing him better than
you did, I followed him here. And now, Tom, let us
try to unravel the past a little. Come down to my
house — our house now. You are rather grey, and I

A NEW PRISONER 297

can see the lines of your trouble. Otherwise you
hardly look a day older, and it is only the other day,
isn't it, after all ?

" Here we are, dear," she said, pausing before the
gate of an enclosure which held a substantial
verandahed dwelling. " Come along ; aren't my
flowers lovely? 'Euroka/ the Sunlight, I have
always called it. This dwelling has been sunlight
to me, the lonely shepherdess of our fortunes only
when our son was away. Isn't he a handsome fellow,
Tom ? I'm dying to hear of his adventures, but you
come first. Oh, my darlings, both of you, how glad
I am you are restored to me. I have prayed and
hoped for this .always, Tom, and to-day my happy
dreams are true. But whoever could have prophesied
that you would both have come in motor cars ! "

" And you," he said, when they got inside, and he
held her at arm's length to gaze upon her, " you are
still my own girl, whose memory became almost a
blank to me. I can hardly believe my senses now
that I see you again in reality.

" It was a long separation, dear. I never knew
what to think ; but, of course, now I know why you
left me, I honour your motive. I was sure Cosgrave
had abducted both you and Bianca. Do you know
that I swore to kill him on sight ? "

" That was what I was afraid of, Tom, if you found
out what he had done."

" Go on, dear," he said ; " tell me all. But what a
time you must have had up here ? "

" Not quite so bad as you think. I had a mission

298 THE SILVER QUEEN

to perform, and God gave me strength for it The
worst part, of course, was the getting here, and being
forcibly detained. The silver here stopped us. We
were prisoners, Bianca and myself.

" I had to reform Richard also. He was terribly
hard, obstinate, and rebellious, but Time— and his
dreadful accident — softened him. I now respect him
very much ; he is such a good man. To do him
justice, after he ran away with Eiya, he made a good
husband to her. She died a year ago, poor thing,
and was the subject over which both Bianca and
myself held a counterpoise to Richard's arrogance ;
there we were enabled to deal with him according to
his merits. He is passionately fond of our son, and
Tommie adores him, so there must be some good in
the man. Think of him, Tom, an orphan and an
outcast, and don't judge him too harshly. We all
nursed him after his accident with the dynamite,
which occurred some two months after we first
arrived."

"But how did you find out that Cosgrave took
Tommie away ? I never suspected that."

" When we found his dear little clothes that night,
after getting home I discovered in his coat pocket a
canoe-shaped silver specimen, which reminded me of
my own mark, and seemed a token from Heaven.
How did it get there ? We had nothing of the sort
belonging to us. My mind went to Richard at once.
He gave it to the boy to amuse him whilst he coloured
his face, put on other clothes, and took him away in
a buggy — forgetting the specimen.

A NEW PRISONER 299

" You were so terribly strange that night, showing
me how much you idolised the boy, that I did not
dare to tell you of my secret, fearing you and
Richard might kill each other. Therefore, under-
standing him as I did, I was sure that Bianca and
myself were the only two who could organise pursuit
with any hope of success and persuasion. I knew
my mark would pass me through all the tribes, and
indeed I afterwards found out that Richard had
imitated it on little Tommie's arm for the same
purpose. The Kuriltai knew he was my child, and
that alone was almost enough.

"Well, we first went to father's location in the
Blue Mountains, but Richard had gone. Then,
concealing our identity, we bought horses, and went
on to the old station, but there were no whites there,
nor at the Cave ; but Mulga and Leura, who had
mated into the Kulbarunna Combos, brought their
men, and with little Peter off we went, my mark
making them worship me as a queen and follow
me all the way. Scores of natives worked for us,
supplied us with food, water, and everything ;
gunyahs were built for us every day, and finally we
got up here quite safely and comfortably. The
women and their men are here now ; Peter you saw
on the road up. I am Queen here, Tom, and all my
subjects are wonderfully loyal."

" You are a wonderful woman, Millie, but that
very mark on Tommie's arm so cleverly imitated by
Cosgrave brought me to you. He was at my side
for hours over in South Africa, and fought like a

300 THE SILVER QUEEN

hero as he is, but he never knew my name. Oh I
my darlings, how proud I am of you both."

" I alter your terms and, becoming the first person
singular in my own right as mother and wife, am
exactly of the same opinion concerning yourself
only," Millie said rapturously.

" Whatever possessed Cosgrave to call himsell
Grant ? "

" Doonabri ! the silver mines here. He thought,
being compelled to go to Europe with your son,
someone might recognise him."

" It was a good bluff with his blindness and all.
No one would recognise him now. He threw me off
the scent completely."

" Was there no one, no one at all, after all these
years ? " she added, with an inquisitorial smile.

" Well," Tom said deprecatingly, " I might have
married a really charming and rich little widow had
not your wonderful mark stopped all that too. She,
you woman of destiny, was herself my saviour, in
pointing out Tommie to my notice as a V.C. hero.
That, of course, as an introduction further led on
to the upsetting of my apple-cart altogether, and
then came a description of personalities by Cosgrave's
own son, which made me keep my own counsel and
come on here. How marvellously things work out
under the sceptre you wield."

She laughed merrily, then grew grave.

" Say through God's wonderful ruling, Tom. What
did you think of our little church, of our choir,our organ,
our stained glass windows ? Fred Langley, another

A NEW PRISONER 301

Instrument of our entire rectification, has been our
lay preacher all the time. He suits me, always did,
having the soul of music in him and revering
things. He married a native girl and read his own
marriage service. What do you think of that ? He
always said he was a self-appointed priest.

" Naturally enough, his daughter Alice has been
my bosom friend and boon companion. In a large
way I am responsible for the education and bringing
up of that young lady."

" The Emu girl ? "

" Yes, she can do almost anything she likes with
birds or beasts. The emus are caught when quite
chicks. Those two big birds you saw her with she
brought up herself, and they have grown up with her
since she was a child. To-night there will be an
important meeting, but since all our able-bodied men
are away scouting on our boundaries, now that we
have been apprised of a new danger of the encroach-
ing tide towards Arltunga, it will only be presided
over by the remnant of ourselves. Winadyne, our
Chief during Cosgrave's absence, will be in his place
next to him. He is a man of about your own age,
and I expect the whole matter of our future action
to be argued out bit by bit among ourselves.

"Of course I can see matters further than poor
Richard Cosgrave is able to do now, but from his
action since he returned it appears that he still
intends to carry out the same plan that obtained
after his accident, that is to say — keep our secret
inviolate and ourselves unknown.

302 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Would you be inclined to stay here, Tom ? "

" I came here resolved to take my chances, dear,
and where you are safe and unharmed is my home.
As for Waters, I expect Alice Langley has settled
him. But who is this, Millie ? "

For a splendid young woman had entered.

Panther-like in grace and lithesomeness of move-
ment, she had flashed her dark blue eyes upon them,
and now stood motionless just within the door.

" This is Eula, Richard Cosgrave's only daughter,
his second child," Millie said, taking her affectionately
by the hand and leading her forward.

The young woman glanced at Tom with a half-
terrified air as he bowed.

" The men have brought another motorist in, Mrs.
Inglis," she exclaimed, blushing crimson at Tom's
salute, but looking reassured. " He asks to see this
gentleman, saying he knows him well. Mulga
recognised the captive directly she saw him. They
are bringing him here now," she added, peeping
through the window. " No, they have let him go !
He is coming here himself!"

Judge of Millie and Tom's amazement when who
should walk in but John Everest, the wandering
divine who had married them years ago — a lifetime
ago.

His hair was as white as snow, but he was as alert,
erect, and vigorous as ever.

" I crossed a motor car's track," he affirmed
genially. " On my road further on another motor
passed me. From the vigour with which it was

A NEW PRISONER 303

driven, I judged that there was something up, and
followed the pair of you, my blackboy keeping me in
touch with your movements, as my sight is not quite
so good as it used to be. But the new motor's pace
was above mine, and I followed more leisurely,
camping for the night, as I had water, by the remains
of a dried-up corpse, whose brass plate asserted that
he had been in life :

JOHN SOLWAY.
'THE MAN IN DUNGAREE.'

I confess that, but for the bushman's instinct of
exploration and discovery, aroused by the unexpected
and unadvisory tracks of other motor cars than my
own in this far-out country, I should not have
followed the second one.

" For a man of my years, Mrs. Inglis, I find that
motor travelling keeps me together better than any
other means of locomotion. I was bound for
Oodnadatta, near where I hear there is a new gold
discovery, as my present hobby is motoring to the
outside tribes, far-out prospectors, and camel men."

" Bless me, Mr. Everest, I fear, for your own sake,
that you have become quite a dangerous personage,
as far as we are personally concerned. The whole
world seems to be on the move in our direction, in
fact. But come, Eula, and help me get some
refreshment ready for Mr. Everest ; and, Tom, please
take him into the verandah and explain matters
until lunch is ready. I cannot yet acquit him of

304 THE SILVER QUEEN

high treason for coming here, but I don't want to
starve him before I pass sentence."

" Will you propound the meaning of your wife's
conundrum, Inglis ? " Everest said.

" Affairs of State, sir, I really believe. She is
rather an important personage up here, I am told.
Pray treat me as an outsider entirely in this business,
a prisoner like yourself, for, although I was in that
first motor car racing for this place, the simple fact
is I haven't seen my wife for years — and—

Then Tom told his extraordinary story, to the
reverend gentleman's unbounded astonishment, and
Everest jumped to the conclusion, under the cir-
cumstances, of a benefice amongst his enforced
surroundings.

" With the ruling powers' permission," he ex-
claimed casually, " having entered the gates of Gaza
like yourself, and my modest career intercepted by
force of arms, I disclaim any wish for further
Samsonic action, for here I perceive an end to
my labours, and I shall have to be forced to go
away. You want a man in Holy Orders amongst
you badly. The people here are strangely disci-
plinary and well-taught, and there must be some
divine purpose in their double admixture of white
blood. I am delighted with all I have seen of them,
and am prepared to take up my pastoral crook
to-morrow, if permitted ; although I hope I am
infringing on no other doctrine or teacher by what
I see around me."

Bianca Pearmain now came walking towards them,

A NEW PRISONER 305

hardly the girl she was, but a bright, intelligent
woman, with sparkling eyes and an alert manner.
Tom introduced his guest to her.

"Have you a school ?" Everest asked her instantly
and bluntly.

" Oh, yes, for many years. My sister, self, and
some of our trained pupils teach in it. Our organist,
who has also been our lay preacher for years, pro-
vides for the lasting good of our flock, old and young
alike. They have been apt pupils, too, learning to
read, write, and cypher with wonderful celerity, but
of late most of our younger men have been away.
There are occasions when a few of the more restless
males find their way to the coast cities, the gold
fields, and pearl fisheries, until we fancy that many
will drift that way.

" But for the strong desire to live as we have done
hitherto in this beautiful country, I think we must
have been dispersed ere this. One thing militates
against the latter — our clannishness and family ties."

"Why should you wish so much for all to remain,
Miss Pearmain ? If a man is ambitious, surely it is
better for him to go out into the world ? "

" Well, our life has been so beautiful for a long
time past. There are so many things we have
learned to do. Our viticulture, our crops, our fruit
and jam-making, our wine industry, our carpentering,
our building. It is no toil to labour here. We all
benefit by it, and our great enemy, the swarming
world, does not enfold us in its grasp, and reduce
us to impotence."

u

3o6 THE SILVER QUEEN

"Why all this secrecy and desire for isolation,
Miss Pearmain ? Why not proclaim your civilised
tribe as an industrious and God-fearing community
to the world ? Why take prisoners ? "
* " It is our custom, has always been our custom.
Every stranger that has ever come here has never
been allowed to depart. We don't want them, nor
do we advertise for them, but if they come here we
detain them. And that is partly why we have made
the Dry River so hideous, in setting up those skeletons
to scare away intruders."

" But why should you do so ? "

" Why not ? " asked Bianca in a surprised tone.
" It is the whole burden of our terrible secret. For
that desolate Dry River is highly argentiferous.
The ground is silver-bearing here ! "

" I must confess you have given me a problem worth
studying, Miss Pearmain. Then you prefer your quiet,
rural life to making this great secret public ? "

"Most certainly, as far as we have gone. The
digging mania of the world would overwhelm us
with a multitude and we should be dispersed to the
four winds of heaven, for we are not strong enough
to stand a rush. Oh, there is nothing sacred where
valuable ore is concerned, I assure you. You will
never get out again, Mr. Everest ! No one leaves
here once they get in. Are you not one of our
betrayers also, one of the outside rim of the present-
day encroachers ? Yes, sir, you must stop ; our men
would kill you now if you tried to get away ! "

" I daresay I shall be able to make some people

A NEW PRISONER 307

happy, even under these adverse circumstances," he
replied, at which she blushed, and then grew sorrowful
again.

" To-night there is a most important meeting," she
continued. " Please do your best to aid us. Your
counsel should carry weight. Once admitted, mind,
you have as much right to trench upon our opinions
and judgments as one of ourselves."

Here Everest was called in to his lunch, and after-
wards, sitting in the verandah again with his host
and hostess, he noticed with renewed pleasure and
interest the many light-coloured people passing to
and fro. They were mostly women, young girls and
children, all clad decently, and contented-looking.

Up and down the river in regular, sectional plots
ran the village of Doonabri, the unknown, the
unsought-for, the unheard-of, and as he gazed Waters
sauntered up with young Cosgrave at his heels, the
latter looking very depressed about his mother's death.

He held a short conversation with Millie, who
placed her hands kindly on his shoulders as she
talked to him, and presently, turning to the company
on the verandah, young Cosgrave said :

" I see them getting the meeting-house ready,
ladies and gentlemen. There's something strange
happening down at the Chief Winadyne's house, and
that is a sign that he is going to appear in state
tournament to-night. There goes the signal ! We
had all of us better go down, for there is no telling
what is going to happen when the old Chief puts on
his wonderful feather cloak."

CHAPTER XXIX

"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE"

" He reached at last, oh, lucky elf!
The town of Come-and-help-yourself,
In Rough-and-ready land 1 "

—ANDREW BARTON PATERSON.

YOUNG Inglis had blown the curious tribal trumpet
or clarionet, and ten minutes afterwards the meeting-
house, a broad and roomy building capable of holding
about four hundred people, began to fill.

Winadyne, the Chief, accompanied by Richard
Cosgrave and young Inglis, took one of the centre
seats on a raised dais at one end of the hall, and
keenly looked over the assembly. Mrs. Inglis sat to
the right of her son, who sat next Cosgrave. Next
to Mrs. Inglis were Langley, Alice Langley, and
Richard Cosgrave's daughter, Eula.

The white strangers and Langley, not including
young Cosgrave, who was in company with Winadyne's
daughters in the body of the hall, were allotted other
places at the table, and sitting thus they faced the
gathering.

In the centre of the first row of the audience,
308

"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE" 309

immediately below the dais, sat three old men of the
Doonabri tribe, always supposed to be Winadyne's
special advisers. Behind them again the assemblage
took up about two hundred and fifty seats, and all
were women and children.

Richard Cosgrave, senior, now rose from the ruling
chair to speak.

" Friends and relatives," he said, " to-night sees the
first prophetic and important strangers amongst us,
the beginning of our unwished-for end, as it were, as.
far as you and myself are concerned. For my own
part, I have, I consider, been from the first the one
and only cause of your unrest and danger, as I only
came here for self-aggrandisement to further my own
ends. Consequently my judgment has been heavy
and my way hard, and in justice to you all now I
must do my best to stave danger off from you.

" Knowing since I first arrived that the rocky
formations in your Bora ground, or rather the old-
time Bora ground of your wilder ancestors, contained
a large percentage of silver ore, which none of you
understands the value of, I, the white stranger, put a
very strong tapu upon that particular section of your
ground, and thereby prevented myself, through
some sort of a curse, from realising the riches I knew
were there. On the mountain-grade road which I
was afterwards making for the express purpose of
utilising these Bora riches, I came on more silver,
and, in the blasting of some matrix rock which
obstructed the path, lost my sight.

" Since my first arrival you have come to different

310 THE SILVER QUEEN

knowledge, a more civilised way of living, a more
Christianised state, and that being so, I do not
propose to realise any of the riches I know to be in
the neighbourhood, for, having laid a curse upon it,
I dread from what has happened to myself increasing
evil for yourselves on that very account. I am
prepared, therefore, to go to extremer measures than
I have yet carried out to prevent the knowledge of
what the Bora ground, or any other ground, contains
penetrating to the outside world. I brought — as it
turned out — your good genius with me ! "

He indicated Langley as he spoke, almost seeming
to gauge his position and character exactly with his
sightless orbs.

" Also your promised young white leader, who has
been a hero amongst men in the outside world,
fighting for the credit of his nationality to knot the
cords of Empire closer, and my one wish is now that,
under these good and lasting agencies, as I have
been given the full and ruling power, you settle
yourselves down here peaceably and contentedly for
the rest of your lives.

" I have no need for riches now, no wish beyond
your continued happiness. I cannot see the outside
world of pleasure, or enjoy it as I once thought I
should, and fearing the curse I have brought upon
myself, fear for you also. And here you have your
home, we all have our homes. What do we want
more ?

" None of the new white strangers who are here
to-night will be allowed to leave, but they too can

"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE" 311

enjoy a happiness which will benefit them more
considerably than outside glory, some that I know of
at least, for in giving up my claim as Chief to your
young leader I have to inform you that his father is
here to-night."

There was a murmur of repressed astonishment
amongst the audience, and young Cosgrave, rising,
excitedly called out :

" His place belongs to me by right. It is no
birthright at all to him. Besides, he cannot lead.
He is crippled, and belongs to the alien tribe by the
Falls, where I shall send him when I get my way."

Had a bombshell fallen amongst the listening
people, there could not have been greater alarm and
astonishment. The three old men, who alone with
Winadyne were attired in ancient tribal fashion with
feather cloaks and filletted hair, with black cockatoo
plumes stuck therein, whispered together during the
confusion and made energetic signs to Winadyne to
speak.

He held up a restraining finger, and then motion-
ing to one of them, the man indicated left the hall, to
return presently attired in a light tweed suit, and a
European complexion.

Richard Cosgrave senior, trembling with excite-
ment and anger at his son's remark, but not gathering
in the by-play at all, resumed his seat and waited.
Never before had he been bearded like this, but as
soon as the bustle and buzzing of voices ceased and
silence prevailed, he rose again and, with shaking
voice, continued :

312 THE SILVER QUEEN

" I did not think I should come to love you all as
I do. I was a selfish man until God saw fit to afflict
me with blindness for attempting to touch blood-
bought treasure. The voice that spoke just now was
the voice of my own son, the voice of the avenger, as
it seems to me. If my way of thinking is not yours,
according to our custom, some other hand than mine
must reap the reward I once worked so hard for, and
am afraid of now, and there is our tribal rule of
the majority if I offend. But I hesitate without
sufficient proof of sign to ask anyone belonging to
me or others to do so, and I see no way beyond
my own, unless this may be it.

"Sometimes of late," he went on abstractedly, " I
have wandered in sleep full-sighted to a certain spot
where I first found the sign of the Bora silver. From
that I go to the middle grade of the hills where my
accident with the dynamite happened. I see it there,
too, in plenty on my out-grade, but a snake is always
guarding it ready to strike at my hand if I reach
down for it, so it cannot be myself who is to utilise it
against a certain wrong I once committed.

"On my journey up here after my return from
Europe my night visions have altered and I have
had peace, but betwixt sleeping and waking in the
morning I see before my eyes — I that have no eyes
to see with — the shape of a large crystal, so pure as
almost to look like glittering waters.

"As a boy I was always fond of bright rock
crystals, and now, according to my vision, I deemed
it right to keep the land of Doonabri where the

"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE" 313

glittering water lies for the lasting possession of my
people."

The oldest of the old men, not the one in the
tweed suit, spoke the name of Winadyne out loud.

" Can you see a sign ? " Cosgrave asked earnestly,
turning to the Chiefs allotted place.

" Yes," he replied, in the native language.

He then went out into the ante - room adjoining
the building, followed by his two daughters.

The audience thrilled as if on the verge of some-
thing strange, for never before had their trusted
leader, Cosgrave, seemed to them so out of form and
vacillating. Young Cosgrave stood up on a form
and watched intently as the Chief went out.

Shortly afterwards there was a slight bustle at the
lower end of the hall and an entry through the main
door and the middle of the audience of a most
extraordinary apparition.

A stooping, faltering creature, apparently insane,
attired in a frayed slouch hat, old, torn, blue dungaree
breeches and shirt, and carrying a worn red blanket
swag. He half crawled and tottered through the
wondering and alarmed assemblage, and passed on
right up to Winadyne's place at the table, where he
flung his swag aside and rose to his full height, the
simulated madness disappearing as if by magic.

" In the same fashion," he said briskly, " in which
I first came to Doonabri I now have re -appeared.
Weary and altogether oblivious of the outer world
was I then. Unweary, and loving that outer world
more than ever now because of my born right to it,

3H THE SILVER QUEEN

I and those whom a good and merciful Providence
gave me shall go back to it, as will all here, in heart-
felt satisfaction. I am your elected Chief by right
of marriage before any new white stranger at all came
here to dispossess me, though I was a stranger also
in my time.

" Stumpy," continued he, " come up here alongside
me, and prove your Australian right to the Doonabri
silver mines.

" One of the first prospectors of the former genera-
tion, ladies and gentlemen," said the Man in Dungaree,
as he placed his hand affectionately on the shoulder
of the man who had changed into the tweed suit at
his signal. " His real name is the Honourable Burton
Roderer, but chance throwing us once together, we
have foregathered ever since in sight and sound,
though I had to leave him behind me in Sydney at
first starting before I could smuggle him up here
and make a Chief of him. Petersen, it is your turn
also to disclose yourself," he added, motioning to the
second old man.

" At present he is one of the elder leaders, but take
off that feather cloak of his, and wash and dress him
up, and you will find him much of the same sort of
kidney as his mate Stumpy, from whom I got the
first intelligence of this place. Have you anything
to say, either of you, now that your real identities
are disclosed?"

The man on the bench made no sign, but Stumpy
said :

" Facilis descensus Averni, sed revocare gradum.

"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE" 315

How does the rest go ? I had a pretty hot time of
it until I fell in with you, old man. Now I will
resume my place, and ask pardon of these ladies for
my temporary intrusion. Quantum suff."

Richard Cosgrave was again trembling with ex-
citement, even indignation, at this — to him — utterly
unknown collusion.

" Your sign ? " he demanded wonderingly.

The Man in Dungaree took from a pocket in his
tattered garments a large gold-mounted crystal seal,
which, cut flat at the bottom to receive an impression
of a crest and motto, shone above through its smooth,
clear surfaces like a large drop of clear water.

Many Waters rose to his feet with a shout of joy,
surprise, and wonder, exclaiming :

" My long-lost, but always expected, elder brother.
Now for the realisation of all my big dreams."

" Yes," replied the derelict, curtly and coolly, " I
recognised you as soon as ever you came here. It's
a queer tale I have to tell you. My brother is right ;
my name is Charles Waters. I left Sydney many
years ago, hoping, like Mr. Micawber, for something
to turn up, which did eventually, from a story told
me by my friend Stumpy here in a hollow under a
rock in the Domain, and from which I made sufficient
capital to pay my own way up here. Like the narrator
of this wonderful story, at that time I had been on
the Avernus grade, and my patching up since, as you
will presently see, has been eventful. You couldn't
kill me with a meat axe, as my boon companions
used to say in those early days. I went through

316 THE SILVER QUEEN

various transformations in my search for fortune from
successful digger to broken park loafer, from tramp,
sundowner, and South Sea Island beach-comber to
Dead Finish here before I drifted onwards in search
of fortune again and established it.

"This tribe picked me up with the bush madness
strong upon me, and how I got here I couldn't tell
you. I had left the world of shadows and pain, and
was happy until I came back to it again.

" I dropped on to the silver ore in the outside Dry
River country by following the tracks of my financial
partner, John Solway, alone. When he died there
and I was taken away by my rescuers and recovered
my reason, I yearned for Stumpy, who had been the
main instrument of the discovery, and as his know-
ledge of silver by the continual forking of it out to
other people proved him to be a man whose talented
merit argued success, I sent secret envoys for him,
and in time made a consulting Chief of him. Petersen
was an old mate of his who had been left up here
when Stumpy was forced to skedaddle, so of course
he combined. That is how the business part of the
whole affair originated, and it's good enough for the
world and the Law. Naturally, being rather impe-
cunious as a ruling Chief, I had to agree with Cosgrave,
who, despite his sharpness, never discovered my white
identity amongst this tribe. And so we just waited
until he began to finance the affair, determining to
claim our own share when we could advertise the
wealth he was preparing for us.

" Unfortunately for him, since his accident other

"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE" 317

principles seemed to have militated against what I
consider the proper opening up of the land now, but
as I am taking you all into confidence, you all become
shareholders as well as voters. Are you agreeable to
throwing it open ? "

Every hand in the room went up save Cosgrave's.

" As far as regards myself," resumed the speaker,
" perhaps the less said the better, but when I got
back to my senses, and found after a time that I had
become free from extra trammels of drink, dice, and
devilment, I married a beautiful girl, one of your-
selves " — motioning to the women of the assembly.
" She bore me three sons and two daughters. She is
gone. They are here. I am a grandfather amongst
you."

" Winadyne, Winadyne," their voices murmured in
tones of affection and respect.

" Then to you, after all, belongs the first discovery
and working of the mines also," broke in Cosgrave
in a confused manner, " and you have fooled me from
the very first. You are a smarter man than ever I
took you for, that's all. You know what I told you
about the new gold discovery at Arltunga. Won't
that have any influence on you to prevent this place
being rushed ? "

" We all knew it before, when you were away,"
replied the Man in Dungaree equably. " I am bomar
chief, Cosgrave, whatever may have been conceded
to you, and our scouts are intelligent."

" True," replied his interlocutor, " you always beat
me there. What is your solution, then ? "

3r8 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Like Stumpy's, the greatest good of the greatest
number by dispersing our bullion to the trade of the
world, my friend. But it will take some little time.
Inglis, sound the inner recall."

From outside again came the routing call without
the notes, and the village guard of twenty-five men,
amongst whom was Winadyne's eldest son, entered
the hall.

" You will take the others this information,"
Winadyne, or the Man in Dungaree, ordered,
motioning to his son and handing him a secret
intelligence stick.

The guard left at once.

"And as to the prior possession of this land,"
continued the Man in Dungaree, " what was it that
no doubt led eventually to the formation of our
family ties here, and our seclusion all these years?
I will tell you."

He took up another bomar-stick which lay beside
him on the table, and paused to examine the signs
cut on it.

" Well, I became engrossed with this subject of
secret intelligence, as hieroglyphed here, as I began
to learn the language and methods of this strange
and secluded light - coloured tribe, both as to its
inception and its signs and musical signals to one
another.

" I, at length, learnt more about this singular
secret language of the bomar signs from two of the
principal men, Petersen and his native compatriot,
and it was owing to their directions that I came

319

across a certain stone which had signs of a mixed
jargon upon it. This I made out bit by bit, and
transmitted its sculptured knowledge to the bomar-
stick I now hold. None but myself, Petersen, and
Stumpy can now read it or translate it.

" When one finds that a family or two here have
in their songs or family speech unknown words of
a foreign language, or the tune of a song different in
phraseology from the others, a touch of an accent or
a language mixed in with the ordinary native talk, he
begins to wonder, as I did, how it came to be there,
and this stone, I found, disclosed part of the secret to
me. It was a trace of a foreign ancestry. Why had
my wife and others their peculiarly light colour?
From this ancestry. Now, reading from the bomar-
stick, here it is :

ABEL SKINNER. J

DAVID HARNESS. > Shipwrecked Mariners.

KOMATU. \

Their record is in Japanese characters, but it came
from before our time, before we were born.

" ' We were captured by natives of the interior, and
taken to the land of Doonabri, where there are cattle,
silver, and plenteous water. Herein we are compelled
to stop, being given comely maidens for wives, and
glad to be rid of wandering in devil's ways and
waterless places.'

" The whole light-coloured tribe had got the blood
of these first three men amongst them, and I bided
my time.

" Now I hold that even these two white men could

320 THE SILVER QUEEN

have taken up these mining rights had they been so
disposed, but apparently they found the country
paradise and did not trouble further.

" In common with Stumpy, who will assume his
title on the prospectus to give colour and rank to us
all, and Petersen, his mate, admitting me as partner
by Australian diggers' law, we have now a sufficient
standing to form a company of the whole tribe,
developers and workers upon our real estate, and
when we see fit to proclaim the silver fields we can
also claim the Australian Government's award in
more than one place.

" Our difficulties, our isolation, our right to dwell
here, our natural family scruples in not wishing to
proclaim our natural advantages to the outside world,
can now, according to our decision, be made patent
in a Court of Law to the satisfying in full of our own
jurisdiction.

" There is sufficient mineral ground within our own
boundaries for the whole of the families we have
civilised here. It is already marked, shored up, and
pegged out by myself and partners on the tribe's
behalf since Cosgrave left.

" The rock crystal seal gave me the right to live
here from the original light-coloured settlers on the
land. My brother, Mansfield, only knows it as a
family heirloom descending to the eldest son and
as bearing our crest

" But, according to its right, its peculiar and
unassailable right and significance to these people
here, from whom I got my name of Winadyne,

"THE MAN IN DUNGAREE" 321

4 sounding water,' the only claim I propose to hold,
and of that but third share only, is the mummy
claim on the Dry River, where my own name as
prospector and partner of the dead man is recorded.
Two-thirds of my own share of this claim when
realised will go to John Solway's wife, if she is alive,
and Mrs. Inglis, who deserves it, holds the other
primal choice of the Bora silver from her own mark.

" I now claim the right of three Australian diggers
conjointly with the two first prospectors to the Dry
River claim. As for the rule that none is allowed to
leave here, I annul it entirely. We can now neither
prevent nor resist a further encroachment of civilisa-
tion beyond our own, but we are quite secure, and
need not trouble ourselves for anything that may
eventuate."

" Long live Winadyne," was the general murmur,
and a band of women and girls began preparations
for a banquet in the big hall.

CHAPTER XXX

" Far from the haunting shadow of pain ;

Two by two, again and again,
Strephon and Chloe together move,
Walking in Arcady, land of love."

— MARY COLBORNE VEEL.

" BY Jove, Mr. Tom, that was a regular downright
facer for my poor old blind father, and me too as his
successor ! " remarked young Cosgrave, as, with
thoughtful brow, he and Tom paced backwards and
forwards on the Doonabri recreation ground after the
meeting. I told you old Winadyne was not going to
put on his feather cloak for nothing.

" That Man in Dungaree let the cat out of the bag
with a vengeance, didn't he ? Where is my father's
leadership and his tying of us up now ? He can't do
as he likes. No, by Jove ! that man whom we all
thought to be our nominal Chief anyway has worked
the oracle by neither hurrying nor botching the whole
affair, but just biding his time until he had it all in a
nutshell. Fancy him being a Sydney-sider after all.
He ought to be — what do you call it, Mr. Tom ? "

" Diplomatist ; I daresay it's bred in him. But
322

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 323

this is about the biggest mining venture I have ever
been in, Cosgrave. What about the tribe ? "

" They won't say a word against the Chief, bless
you. They will do just as he suggests. They are
bound hand and foot to him. He's got the biggest
hold on them, and always had, to my mind. He has
only been playing with father. But all this puts my
shindy with your son into the background, and out
of mere delight and satisfaction that I haven't got
you and Mr. Waters into Queer Street, I'll go and
ask him to cry quits."

Many Waters, Bianca, Alice Langley, Eula Cos-
grave, and Langley, together with Everest, were
arranging with many others the tables to accom-
modate the white principals of the race and the
guest party at the meeting-house.

But presently Richard Cosgrave, led by the hand
by Tom's son, came up, accompanied by young
Cosgrave, and whilst the two young men broke into
friendly conversation, Cosgrave senior requested Tom
to lead him aside for a private talk.

" Yes, it's a wonderful piece of luck for you all, Mr.
Tom. It was that native right that really bothered
me as much as anything, and that blessed Charles
Waters, or Winadyne, or the Man in Dungaree,
nursed me in my illness after the accident, when I
was cursing my luck, wild with myself and every-
one else for weary weeks. I never heard a better
manipulated piece of business in all my life. He
bamboozled me, and I'm no baby. Well, he nursed
me in my illness, and I've taken a fancy to him. So

324 THE SILVER QUEEN

did your wife, Miss Pearmain, and that boy of yours.
Then Tommie volunteered to go to South Africa, and
when I heard he was wounded I met him and took
him to Europe to see if they could put him straight.
You can see they've patched him up a bit, but he will
always limp, I'm afraid. I love that boy better than
my own son, because, God forgive me now, I have
loved his mother, too, since she was a little girl, and I
used to play about with her," and with a strangled
sob Cosgrave broke down altogether.

" Cheer up, Richard," Tom said kindly. " All has
come right, though hardly perhaps as we thought it
would. I made a vow that I would kill you on sight
if we ever met, because I thought you had abducted
my wife and Miss Pearmain."

"I meant a fight to the finish also, after your
challenge to me at that station of yours, but I had a
meaner, more bitterly subtle nature than you had,
and collared the child instead of meeting you fair, as
I should have done if I had had any real right on my
side. And the very man I bought to suborn your
boy, Langley, made a little tin angel of him, so he
hasn't come back to you as I should have made him,
as I meant him to be — foul-mouthed, a drunkard, a
liar, with lots of money to flash about with and break
both your hearts. I've heard of Heaven tempering
the wind to the shorn lamb, but I was a wolf in
sheep's clothing more or less, and got my deserts."

Tom thought of Millie's words under the copper-
leaved gum at Thuladjari lagoon, but said nothing;
and as Cosgrave went on a great pity stole upon him

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 325

for the unfortunate man who had played him and his
so false.

"But the kid, when I took him, showed such a
liking for me, was so ready to go with me, that I
soon nipped him into my buggy and made off with
him. You wouldn't catch me easy once I made a
start, that I knew, and you knew, but Mrs. Inglis
and Miss Pearmain were close upon me and came
right up here. Then Winadyne, the Man in Dungaree,
played his cards down, submission and tact, and beat
me by doing so. But that boy of yours — why, he
liked me better as Nargun when I bellowed to scare
him than at any other time. That's why I began to
fancy the kid, after I stole him away with Mulga to
the Cave. Don't take him entirely from me, Mr.
Tom, now I'm blind. His mother and all her noble
nature comes back to me in his voice, and I'm down
again then at the old bush shanty seeing her take
that jumping horse over the corner of the wire fence
like a young queen. And think what a hero your
son is now, in spite of me."

" Your son is a good sort, Dick ; he loves me."

The broken-spirited man's hand sought for Tom's,
and caught it in an iron grip.

" God speaking, Mr. Tom, to both of us," he exclaimed.

"Those two young fellows shall be, already are,
the best of friends," rejoined Tom, with business-like
alacrity. " I have an antimony mine over in New
Zealand I can send your son to if he would like a
change at any time. He thinks a lot of you, Dick
he said so; and he loved his mother."

326 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Ah, well, she's gone now, and I struck him, Mr.
Tom. Did he tell you that?"

" He did, and doesn't bear malice for it. He
thought you the best man in the world before it.
Now that you are blind and have suffered tribulation,
he knows it"

" What I'm telling you now, Mr. Tom, no one
knows. I only hinted at it in my speech to-night.
I came here, as you will now understand from what
I've said, full of bad intent I'd been carrying on
with a waddygalo girl at the Cave, with myself
engaged to Miss Pearmain at the time. I killed a
man when I got here, and it brought me bad luck.
He was Eiya's promised man, and I shot him on that
Bora silver ground — shot him dead, or he'd have
killed me. Then I ran away with your little boy. I
was going to make a blackguard of him all through
spite and envy, but little Langley, the man I'd bought
to sell your son's soul to the devil with, stepped in
after my blindness and converted me little by little, so
that it all came to nothing. I was going to educate
the lad at first to break your heart all the more, going
to play old Harry all round in my revenge upon you
and yours. Then God turned it all the other way,
and, though He's got my heart and understanding
now, I've had to pay the sum I owed to my own
conscience, aye, in bodily and mental suffering also,
everything taken from me, even sight But I still
have the joy of knowing now that it was not worse
than it is in regard to yourselves. If my sight had
lasted, I might have injured you all past knowing.

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 327

So my lad said he thought I was the best man
in the world ! Did he now ? He's a good-plucked
youngster, isn't he, Mr. Tom?"

" He's full of courage, Dick, but you can lead him
better by kindness and sympathy after you've once
conquered his temper. He's hard to drive, but if he
likes anyone he will do anything for them ; and he is
a fine-looking youngster now, and as white as my
own lad."

" Ah, well ! I haven't clapped eyes upon him since
I struck him in the face, and never shall again. So
you see how I've been cursed for my revengeful ways,
my lust for gain, and how I have cursed others."

"What about the tribe, Dick ?"

" They will obey Winadyne's word. It has been
diamond cut diamond between us two all the time,
and he never let me see it until just now. I'm played
out, and he has always been a bit the smartest hand.
What a nerve the man's got. I've had him covered
with my rifle more than once. Jumped to his oppor-
tunities like a cat, and pulled the whole tribe through
in spite of my opposition ! Mere selfishness, you will
say, because of my blindness ! Well, perhaps it was ;
anyway, it seems so to me now. But that Dungaree
chap, Charles Waters, eh? Who'd V thought it?
Hang me if I don't fair love him for his cleverness.
There will be some more fine rides now on my Gum
Leaf and your Flying Fox to get scrip and take up
country and mining rights. Now's the chance for a
bit of bush diplomacy, and, though I am blind, I shall
enjoy circumventing everybody but ourselves. We

328 THE SILVER QUEEN

can take up all the land. I've always been an
Ishmaelite, Mr. Tom, my hand against everybody
else's, but now I'll work so hard that you and
yours will win. Take me down to the sheds and let
me go over your motor car. I can tell by the feel
of my fingers exactly what she must be like.

" It's wonderful how I, a blind man, enjoy rushing
through the air on that wonderful machine of mine,
and hearing her talk to me, although I can neither
steer nor see her go. I wired instructions to France
for her before I left Australia, got her to Marseilles,
and brought her out."

Later, when the guests met at the banquet, Charles
Waters took the head of the table, with Petersen and
the Hon. Burton Roderer, all attired in white linen
garments, neither deadbeats nor despairing captives
now, but gentlemen, and the outcome of that feast,
native and to the manner born, did not lack rejoicing.

The ladies were attired in evening dress, with a
native flower or two in their dress and hair.
Different sorts of Doonabri wine were circulated, as
well as many native diehes of fruits, comestibles,
joints, and buffalo marrow-bones.

From far away, in the very middle of the repast,
came the news by sound, read by the experts as from
a book, that the report of the meeting and the Chiefs
decision had been spread through the watching
outside circles, and their reply was : " We do as
Winadyne wishes. We are his men."

Tom and Langley began to get very confidential
towards the end of the meal. Seats had been shifted

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 329

and changed as though in a family gathering, and
partial ceremony had vanished. The older people
got together where family interests were concerned,
and some of the younger guests formed themselves
into limited liability companies, where a third partner
did not intrude.

"Ladies and gentlemen," remarked Everest,
suddenly and solemnly, in a voice which arrested
all further conversation ; then, rising with a brimming
glass of wine in his hand, he said, " I drink to your
future prosperity.

" Of all the strange chances and workings of
Providence I shall be able to quote specially that of
the Doonabri dwellers. It is one of those wonderful
dispensations of the Almighty which prepare the way
for great events to develop in their own due time as
great and manifold blessings, both for the community,
the individual, and the rest of the world. For I fore-
see towns developing into cities here, and a large and
working population ever growing larger. Here in an
oasis in the wilderness God has brought you together
to be an united family, to found this ultimate destiny,
since He has freed you from all discord and oppression.
Here you have worked, laboured, and learned the true
faith together, the faith that smoothed your path. It
is a glorious outlook for you. May you go on and
prosper. And that I shall live long enough to see
you do so is one of the keenest desires of my heart.
I should like to remain with you and become your
pastor ! "

There was a unanimous murmur of cordial assent

330 THE SILVER QUEEN

"No one could be more welcome," affirmed
Charles Waters genially. Then his brother
Mansfield, rising, made a comprehensive bow.

" Beyond the present company, out in the working
world, there must be an infinity of worries, but here,
from your faces, there seem to be none whatever,
and I really don't wonder at it when Dives is thrown
into your balancing scale."

" Quantum suff" popped the Hon. Burton Roderer,
with emphasis. He was at once pulled down into his
seat, corked up again, addressed as Stumpy, and told
to hold his tongue, while Many Waters went on :

" I never advertise more than I can help ; but
when I find an important member of my family
here, not lost but gone before, so to speak, to prepare
a bounteous feast and a large fortune for us all
in remote parts of this Continent, why, I am over-
come— even to the blush ! I always expected he
would turn up somewhere, and I see him now
before me a successful Australian mining magnate,
on what I myself consider is going to be a permanent
silver field in several directions. It is a striking
verity, almost too much to believe all at once, but
being sure of it, I feel compelled to drink my worthy
brother's health as I wonder how his family will
take to city life in the not very distant future.
How they will enjoy motoring in the Domain, from
whence came their fortune, or in the Blue Mountains
on their country villa visits. How they will take to
yachting, motoring, etc., with always a helping hand
in these mines. The idea is stupendous."

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 331

" Bah ! stop your talking, Mansfield. I've heard
of you, seen you, nearly felt in your pockets. Once
I nearly borrowed half-a-crown from you, but our
family pride stopped that"

" Where ? "

" In the Sydney Domain, long years ago, the
day of the night I heard the story from Stumpy.
I had only the equivalent to it at mid-day, when
I passed you."

" Well, you might have had more than that, and
a dinner at the Club into the bargain. Surely the
story of your wits failing you at any time in your
life seems a rather broad statement just now ?
However, let that pass ; I finish my glass to your
health and a good journey, for of course you will now
have to go and spend a lot of money in Sydney."

" You had better come and see us, when it happens,
and take the opportunity of judging for yourself
whether we can't treat you better, out of the trammels
of a family pride which stood between us on a former
occasion. I may have improved in a few respects."

" With pleasure, Charles. I hope your yachting
will be on a large scale, as I have grown very fond
of the sea."

So, with laugh, talk, and badinage, the banquet
at Doonabri progressed to its close.

When over, the pairs sauntering about in the
recreation grounds, and seated here and there in
the starlight, were not easy to discern except by
the very closest inspection of their own minds.

Tom and Millie Inglis, Many Waters and Alice

332 THE SILVER QUEEN

Langley, young Cosgrave and an heiress of the
Silver Mines, young Inglis and Eula Cosgrave—
all held a world of human hopes and surmises
between them.

" Well, Miss Termagant," Tommie Inglis was
saying to Eula, " I think I shall go to Sydney with
Charles Waters. I want a little flattery, perhaps
some extra sympathy I don't seem to get here, after
all my trouble. Moreover, I shall probably marry a
lady of title!"

" She would never have you, Tommie, with your
limp. She'd soon get tired of you, game leg and
all ! I don't see much to boast about in having your
foot and leg nearly shot off. What a silly thing for
a man to do ! "

" You never see any merit in anything I go in for,
or have done. When did you ever care for me in
your life, Eula ? "

" Never ! I always hated you. Go and marry
your titled lady — if you can find one. She will soon
get sick of your aggravating ways."

" Well, perhaps I had better, as they will all be
starting soon. One thing I shall find the trip
beneficial for," he hinted darkly.

"Why?"

" To get out of your way," he retorted.

" I want to ask you a question, Tommie," she said,
after a prolonged silence. " Was your father ever a
soldier ? "

" No, only a volunteer, like mysel£ What do you
want to know for ? "

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 333

" Well, because he has a certain expression in his
eyes — a manly, determined look that I like. There's
a look of him in you sometimes, only it doesn't
become you as it does him. It seems to make you
look hideous and cross. Just as you always are, you
know — " and her voice broke.

" Shall we kiss and make friends, Eula?"

Miss Termagant, thus apostrophised, promptly
wound herself about him in all her comforting,
caressing, unrestrained love, whilst her beautiful
eyes were suffused with tender thoughts.

" Shall I tell you when I first loved you ? " she
whispered contentedly at last, her fresh young mouth
close against his.

" Yes, Sugar-plum, do ! "

" When you lost your ability to run about, of course.
From that very moment you belonged to me, my
hero. You can't run about just as you would like to
after other girls now. Oh, I know, you can't deceive
me ! And if they run about after you ! — " Here
the eloquent eyes, with the starshine in them, grew
dangerous. "You belong to me. You really did belong
to me always, only you couldn't see it Oh, my
darling, I love you ten times better with only your
one sound leg than I ever did before — and when that
began goodness knows. I can do all your fighting
for you now for the rest of your life. We were
born and made for each other, my darling old boy ! "

" I'm getting old, very old," observed Many Waters
sententiously to Alice Langley.

334 THE SILVER QUEEN

" Old, indeed ! Nonsense ! To me you are ever
young," murmured the Emu girl in his ear. " Tell
me you are old again, and I will — "

" What ? " he asked, much pleased with the bright
assurance of love he saw in her eyes.

" Give ' Many ' kisses ! " she replied — and did.

" Look there ! " she added at length, indicating the
"gem-pointed" Southern Cross with an eloquent
forefinger. " It has taught us, sanctified us, drawn
us together, has it not ? From De Profundis let us
sound the Gloria in Excelsis, and that constellation
shall be our beacon, our lamp of light, crowned with
all that we desire."

" I see all you have given me personally in your own
eyes, my darling," Waters exclaimed. " The vision
is quite distinct to me, there and there only, without
the Cross ! "

" Really a very pretty compliment," she murmured,
blushing radiantly. " But let us go and join the
others. It is getting late,"

" How would that do ? " whispered young Cosgrave
to an heiress of the Great Silver Mining Right.

" The very thing ! " she replied. " Absolute
secrecy."

As for Tom and Millie, in their young people they
had much to think about, enjoy, and look forward to.
The silver lining had come to their cloud of deep
sorrow in joyous purpose, and with a last look ere
they retired from their verandah at the beauties of

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 335

the star-spangled firmament, where the Cross rode
triumphant, it gave what seemed a lingering farewell
to them amongst the caresses of the scents from
Millie's flower garden.

Next morning they were reminded, as Millie
prepared Tom's breakfast in the old, old manner,
of one who, though absent, they would fain have
with them.

" Let us write him a letter," she said merrily.
"Old times don't seem quite the same without
him."

And afterwards, when Tom had taken the absent
one's place and helped to dry her dishes and set
them away in their proper places, the pair sat down
and accomplished the following :

" DEAR JIM, — We are all very much alive
over here, where the old seeds of promise
seem to be developing into a great family
tree, with silver apples upon the branches.

"Be careful to hint nothing of this informa-
tion to any outsider, but you learned that
wisdom at the Cave. Let Sanders take over
the management of the Antimony Mine, and
come to us forthwith, where you will find your
old sweetheart, who has waited for you all the
time.

"ToM AND MILLIE INGLIS."

" And who is to take the letter ? " Tom asked,

336 THE SILVER QUEEN

when the missive that held such free counsel and
important advice was enclosed and addressed.

"Young Cosgrave, of course," his wife replied.
" I have spoken to him about it"

" He is waiting to be married, my dear one. Had
we not better get him tied up first Bachelors are
so very irresponsible, you know. Look at my
experience ! "

She laughed merrily.

"Come over to Everest, dear," was all she said.

So there were some deeply-interested couples
and many witnesses at these espousals in Langley's
little church, not long afterwards, where he presided
at the organ and provoked chords of symphony no
one but himself could have got out of the little
battered instrument. Everest tied the true lovers'
knots very firmly, and the breakfast was a
marvel.

But young Cosgrave, who had been mated to a
daughter of the Man in Dungaree, an heiress of the
Great Mining Right, caused general surprise by
expressing his desire to start for his chartered
destination by himself that very night, despite
malignant innuendoes about a moon with no honey
in it."

It caused wonder that during the rest of the day
he seemed to be taken up more with the gear of
his father's new motor car than with the bride, but
the laugh against him turned to verjuice in the
mouths of his slanderers when it was found that
his newly-wedded wife had slipped off with him,

LIFTING THE SOUTHERN CROSS 337

and envy crept into collateral circles when it became
plain that this couple meant to enjoy their bridal
trip in their own way.

In due time Bianca Pearmain and James Terry
were united, and to all the living performers under
the great dome chandelier of the Southern Cross
that summer night, as they assembled behind their
own silver-reflecting footlights on the otherwise dark
orb, great prosperity came.

The last to take a sort of contingent farewell must
be the Honourable Burton Roderer, scion of a noble
and unembarrassed stock, and as his comings and
goings hitherto have been generally melodramatic,
it is hardly to be expected that his exit can be
otherwise.

He was in company with Charles Waters when he
made his last remarks,

" Poor Solway ! " he remarked. " He suffered and
died. But, by Jove, sir, he left his mark ! "

" Now, I wonder where I come in ? " the Man in
Dungaree remarked vindictively. " I tell you what
it is, Burton, my boy, if it hadn't been for me, and
me only, you would never have shone here in the
grandiloquent title you now assume, but would still
be in your confounded rock hollow. I sometimes
wish I had left you there to work out your own
destiny."

" Quantum suff ' said Stumpy, relapsing into
smoke-wreaths of retrospect and contemplation,
from which he once again emerged to add : " It's
digestion, not destiny, that rules the world."

y

338 THE SILVER QUEEN

L'ENVOI.

Wreathing blue of camp-smoke

Where the Thistle stings ;
Austral voices calling

Where the Shamrock clings ;
Eucalypti broadcast

Where the Rose-bee wings ;
Maple, Palm, and Rimu

Sharing equal things.
Assets of the Empire's

Mighty issuings.
Growing Nations worldwards

Loyal offerings,
Mundane, seaborne, levin

Deep sea mutterings.
Britain, know your children,

Servants of your King's.

THE END

Printed bv Cowan fir1 Co., Limited, Perth.

Mr John Ouseley's New Books

A Good Book.

H Boble

BY

MILTON POLLITT.

Crown 8vo, y. 6d,t cloth bound; attractive pictorial cover in
strong paper wrapper > a replica of the cover.

THE TIMES, in an appreciative review of this striking
and realistic novel, said that it was

"WORKED OUT WITH CARE."

No one can read this thrilling novel without admitting
its marvellous charm, and though it is the work of a new
author, " A NOBLE VAGABOND " has placed Milton Pollitt
on a level with the best writers of the day. The story is
based on the sins of a father, and the dramatic incidents
that follow one upon another in the telling of the story are
worked up with such ingenious care and in such a novel
manner as make this book at the present time perhaps the
most talked-of work recently published,

Ask for this great novel at your library.

A second large edition is now in the press.

16 FARRINGDON ST., LONDON, E.G.

Mr John Ouseley's Good New Books

TTwo in the SDarfe.

BY

GEORGE G. MAGNUS.

Crown &v0, is., doth bound ; pictorial cover in blue and
white, in strong paper wrapper similar to cover.

A large first edition is already exhausted although the
book was published less than a month ago. The author
is well-known in London literary circles, and in a magni-
ficent review which appeared in the BIRMINGHAM DAILY
POST, ist May, the writer compared him with Anthony
Hope — "He has much of the airy humour and real
craftsmanship of that model."

THE BOOK is SELLING IN THOUSANDS. READ IT Now.

16 FARRINGDON ST., LONDON, E.G.

Mr John Ouseley's Good New Books

ZIbe Dtuibess.

BY

FLORENCE GAY.

Crown Svo, 2s, 6d., cloth bound, gilt lettering.

Much has been written about the Druids, but very little
about the Druidess. The DAILY TELEGRAPH in a very
fine review of the book said :

"It is a narrative of those exciting times when
Britons and Saxons were learning to live more or
less peacefully together upon the ruins of Roman
power in England. It is a book of adventure and
incident, full of stirring movement, with an under-
current of more serious thought, and a good deal
of scattered information in its pages. The story is
pleasant and bright, and may well prove popular
with those for whom it is especially intended."

" THE DRUIDESS " is intended for boys and others.
The book is being read by everyone who likes a good book.

16 FARRINGDON ST., LONDON, E.C.

Mr John Ouseley's Good New Books

H Winning Xoser.

BY

ETHEL BALFOUR.

Crtnvn 8vo, y. 6d.t cloth bound, blue and gold lettering.

A romance of that particular period of English history
when the life of the country played such a brilliant part
in romance and in intrigue.

THE WORLD in its review said :

"The absolute originality would of itself be re-
freshing to the reviewer of the novel, which is a
'find' in every sense of the word."

The press has been enthusiastic in its praise of the
book, and if the reader of this page has not yet read
"A WINNING LOSER," the publisher urges him or
her to lose no time in procuring the book. It is written
by an author who has made a perfect study of the
romance of the period, and the story is as inter-
esting to the student as it has already proved interesting
to thousands who love to read fiction simply for fiction's
sake.

16 FARRINGDON ST., LONDON, E.C.

Mr John Ouseley s Good New Books

3for Iking anb Xo\>e,

BY W. BOURNE COOKE,

Author of "Madam Domino," "Her Faithful Knight" etc.
WITH FRONTISPIECE AND PICTORIAL INITIALS BY

CHRISTOPHER CLARK, R.I.

Crown 8vo, green cloth, gilt lettered, with special cover
design, y. 6d. Second Edition.

PRESS OPINIONS.

THE ACADEMY. — " Stirring stories of adventure, full of life and incident.

. . . Good healthy tales, simply and vigorously written."
MORNING POST. — " Mr. Bourne Cooke writes of gallant people in a

gallant manner. . . . Romantic writers of the old school are all too

rare nowadays."

HEARTH AND HOME.—" Good, straightforward, sturdy tales.'
DAILY MIRROR. — " Dramatic and interesting."
CATHOLIC TIMES. — " Written with vigour and dash, these stories carry

us back to the times when the sound of musket and clang of steel

filled the air, and vividly portray for us the dangers and hair-breadth

escapes of those perilous days. "

LIVERPOOL DAILY POST. — " They are full of chivalry and real heroism."
MANCHESTER COURIER. — " Mr. Bourne Cooke tells short stories

exceedingly well."
BRISTOL MERCURY. — "They have a literary finish in addition to the

other qualities which go to make up the good short story.1'
NOTTINGHAM DAILY EXPRESS. — " Mr. Cooke writes with fluency and

vigour, and with a keen eye to dramatic situations and thrilling

incidents. Consequently there is not a dull page in the book."
ABERDEEN FREE PRESS. — " Exceedingly well written."
BELFAST EVENING TELEGRAPH.— "There is a tone of refinement and

obvious wide information that is welcome."
SUSSEX DAILY NEWS. — "All are distinguished by the masterly style in

which they are narrated. The author evidently has the period at his

fingers' ends. "
READER. — "A capital collection of tales, most of them dealing with the

Cromwellian period."
PELICAN. — "For ' King and Love' makes excellent reading. . . . Each

of the stories is good, and several are very good indeed, and very

powerful. "
NOTTINGHAM GUARDIAN. — "The author has a very marked gift for

picturing in a natural style the romantic aspect of the Civil War.''

16 FARRINGDON ST., LONDON, E.C.

Mr John Ouseley's Good New Books

Five Marvellous I/- Books.
Hnn : H Brief

By the author of "Miss Molly,"

Ube (Sirl Bebinb.

BY SARA DREW.

ZTbe disappearance of
flicbolson.

CYRUS AINSWORTH.

ffoonour— or Bot ?

MARIAN ALMA.

2>rama in /HMo*Hir.

H. PARK BOWDEN.

All spoken of in high terms by the whole of the Press,
and now being read by all lovers of GOOD BOOKS.

16 FARR1NGDON ST., LONDON, E.C.

Mr John Ouseley's Good New Books

Which? Edith Nowell. 35. 6d.

Held to Honour. Ella Napier Lefroy. 35. 6d.

Condemned to Death. John Eyre. 6s. od.
The Red God. The great an ti -socialistic book.

Hugo Ames. 2s. od.

Oddities of the Law. N. Arthur Heywood. as. 6d.

Our Mrs. Parks. Ray Knowles. 6d.

Songs Of a Soul. Albert C. White, is. od.

The Emigrration Snare. Miles Birkett. 6d.

Cloth, is. od.

Shavings from a Shipyard- Herbert James Ashcroft. 35. 6d.

(ILLUSTRATED.) — The author's Shipyard is his study. His
pages are the record of manual and mental effort. The building
of the ship is described from keel to cabin-top, and in idle
moments the author gives his impressions on divers subjects.
The book is to interest and amuse.

Shadowed. New novel by an entertaining writer.

Barbara Glynn. 6s. od.

Glenith. Stirring new novel. M. H. Abraham- Jewell. 35. 6d.

The Silver Queen- Wm. Sylvester Walker. 6s. od.
Topical Epigrams- From the best living authors.

W. Burton Baldry. 2s. od.

New Poems- A: G. Seward. 2s. od.

Through Veiled Eyes. J- M. Stuart Young. 2s. od.

Churchwardens of the Past. Harold Archer, is. od.
The Supernatural in Shakespeare.

Helen Hinton Stewart. 2s. od.

Fayella- E. E. Lewis. 6d.

Ouseley's Irish Library. 6d. monthly. ioopp.

1st Volume, " Life and Times of Robert Emmet."

16 FARRINGDON ST., LONDON, E.G.

A 000134795 4

*

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3tf3£$& •.