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TOM GERRARD

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LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN

TOM GERRARD

BY

LOUIS BECKE

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN

PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1904

[All rights resen<ed.~\

To "ALREMA"

I DEDICATE THIS STORY OF HER
FATHER'S NATIVE LAND

CAEN, FRANCE. 1904.

-

TOM GERRARD

CHAPTER I

" HALLO ! young lady, what on earth are you
doing here ? " and Gerrard bent down over his
horse's shoulder, and looked inquiringly into
the face of a small and exceedingly ill-clad girl
of about ten years of age.

" Nothing, sir, I only came out for a walk,
and to get some pippies."

" And where do you get them ? "

" Down there, sir, on the sand," and the
child pointed with a strong, sun-browned hand
to the beach, which was within a mile.

" Eat them ? "

"Yes — they're lovely. Jim and I roast
them in the stockman's kitchen when auntie
has gone to bed."

"And who is Jim?"

"Jim Incubus; I'm Mary Incubus."

" Mary what ? "

" Incubus,_sir."

A

2 TOM GERRARD

Gerrard dismounted, and tying his reins to
a stirrup, let his horse graze. Then taking
his pipe out of his pocket, he filled and lit it,
and motioned to the child to sit down beside
him upon a fallen honeysuckle tree.

''What is your auntie's name, my dear?"
and he took the child's hand in his.

" Mrs Elizabeth Westonley."

" Ah ! I thought so. Now, did you ever hear
her talk of an Uncle Tom ? "

" Yes, sir," replied the child, wonderingly,
"he's a cattleman in the Northern Territory."

"Well! I'm the cattleman, Mary. I'm the
Uncle Tom, and I've come to see you all."

"All the way from Cape York! Why!
Uncle Westonley says it's two thousand miles
from here."

"So it is, my dear," and the man stroked
the child's tousled chestnut hair caressingly ;
"quite two thousand miles," and then as he
looked at her pityingly he muttered something
very uncomplimentary to Aunt Elizabeth.

" Are you really my uncle Thomas Gerrard ? "

" I am really your Uncle Tom Gerrard, and
you are my niece Mary. Your mother was my
sister, whose name was Mary."

" Uncle Westonley likes you."

" Does he ? " and the young man's kindly
grey eyes smiled as he stroked his pointed
beard. "Good old Ted!"

TOM GERRARD 3

"Who's Ted?"

"Your Uncle Westonley, of course. Don't
you call him ' Uncle Ted ' ? "

" Oh, no \ " and the child's big eyes looked
startlingly into his, " I call him ' Uncle
Westonley.' Aunt Elizabeth said I must
never say 'Uncle Ted,' as it's vulgar, and
she won't allow it, and uncle says I must
be obedient to her."

Gerrard put out his right arm, drew her to
him, and looked intently into her face. In
her dreamy, violet-hued eyes, with the dark
pencilled brows, and the small delicate mouth,
he saw the image of his dead twin-sister, Mary.

" Poor little mite ! " he again said to himself
pityingly, as he looked at her coarse though not
ill-kept clothing, " Lizzie always was a cold-
hearted prig, and always will be to the end of
her days — even in her moribund moments.
How could she let this child wander out so far
away from the station." Then he took two or
three great puffs at his pipe. " How far is it to
Marumbah, little niece Mary ? "

" Five miles, sir."

"Don't say 'sir.' Who taught you to say

i * » ^ »
'sir ?

"Aunt Elizabeth."

"But you must not say 'sir' to me. I'm
your uncle. And you must call me ' Uncle
Tom.' Understand ? "

4 TOM GERRARD

" Aunt Elizabeth insists on my saying ' sir '
to gentlemen."

" Does she now ? Well, my dear, you must
never say 'sir' to me — I'll ask Aunt Elizabeth
not to insist on your calling me ' sir.' You see I
shouldn't like it. I want you to call me ' Uncle
Tom.' Lots of people call me Tom. Some of
'em call me Tom and Jerry — short, you know,
for Thomas Gerrard."

"Aunt Elizabeth says you're godless and wild."

"Does she really?" and the grey eyes
twinkled. " That's only her way of talking,
you see. ' Godless and wild ' doesn't mean
anything very bad when Aunt Elizabeth says
it. It only means — well, nothing particular.
When you are older you will understand."

"Yes, sir."

"'Uncle Tom'\"

"Yes, Uncle Tom."

" Now, Mary, what about these pippies ?
Will you let me come with you? I'm awfully
fond of pippies — can eat bushels of 'em."

" Yes, Uncle Tom," and the child's face
lighted up, " oh ! I wish Jim was here too. Are
you his uncle, too ? "

Gerrard rubbed his cheek thoughtfully. His
sister Elizabeth had no children, and he
wondered who Jim could be.

"No, I dorit think I am. When did he
come to Marumbah ? "

TOM GERHARD 5

" Uncle Westonley brought him from Sydney
about — about six months ago."

" Where is he now ? "

"At home, with Aunt Elizabeth. He's been
fractious, and is being punished."

" Being punished ? "

" Yes, he's locked up in the spare room."

"What did he do?"

" Put a saddle on the brindle bull calf, and
tried to make it backjump."

"Did it?"

" Oh, yes, beautifully, and Jim had his fore-
head cut, and a lot of blood came."

Gerrard laughed as he put down his pipe.
"And what did Uncle Westonley say?"

" Uncle Westonley is away in Sydney," said
the child gravely, and as she spoke her eyes
filled with tears.

Gerrard understood. "Well, never mind,
Mary ; now you and I shall go and get these
pippies."

From his saddle dees he took a pair of
green-hide hobbles, lifted off the saddle with
its valise, hobbled the horse, and then holding
the child's hand in his, set out towards the
beach.

" Now, Mary, you and I are going to have
a great old time. First of all, you are going to
show me how you get pippies. Then we will
come back and cook them, and have some tea

6 TOM GERRARD

and some damper as well, for I have both in
my saddle-bags, and I have a wood duck too,
which I shot this morning. Did you see it ? "

"Yes, Uncle Tom ; and your gun, too. Jim
loves guns."

"Does he, my chick? Jim must be a man
after my own heart."

" What's that, Uncle Tom ? "

"Oh, I'll tell you some day. Now come
along for the pippies. You show me how you
get them, and I'll show you how /get them."

Holding his hand, the child led him down
through the wild, sweet-smelling littoral scrub
by a cattle track to the beach, where before
them lay the blue Pacific, shining under the
rays of the afternoon sun. The tide was low,
and the "pippies" (cockles) were easily had,
for they protruded their suckers out upon
every few inches of the sand. Gerrard, booted
and spurred as he was, went into the water,
dug into the sand with his hands, and helped
the child to fill the basket she carried, and
then, realising that she was excited, and being
himself determined upon a certain course of
action, he walked slowly back with her to
where he had left the horses.

" Mary, dear, just sit down, and listen to me.
I am not going to Marumbah to-night, and
you must stay with me. We shall be there
early in the morning."

TOM GERRARD 7

"Oh, Uncle Tom! Aunt Elizabeth will
punish me."

" Don't be afraid, chick — she won't. I will
explain everything to her in the morning."

In a few minutes he had lit two fires, and
when the coals were glowing on one, and
the child was attending to the roasting of the
pippies, he was boiling a billy of tea on the
other, and laying out some cold salt beef and
damper from his saddle-bags.

" Come, chick, you and I are going to have
a great time to-night, as I told you, pippies and
wild duck, and tea and damper, and after that
is over you shall be tucked up in my blankets,
and sleep until we hear the bell-birds calling to
us in the morning."

"Aunt Elizabeth "

" That's all right, chick. Aunt Elizabeth
will have nothing to say about it. /'// settle
with her. Now, sit down on that blanket — I
daresay you're hungry, eh ? "

" Please, Uncle Tom, let me go home, Aunt
Elizabeth "

"We'll go home, chick, when the bell-birds
and the crockets begin to sing. And Aunt
Elizabeth won't say a word to you." He
smiled somewhat grimly to himself, " don't be
afraid of that. You and I are camping out to-
night— like two old mates. By-the-way, where
do you sleep at Marumbah ? "

8 TOM GERRARD

" In the little room, just off the saddle-room."
"And Jim?"

"Oh, Aunt Elizabeth doesn't like him to
sleep in the house, so he sleeps in the
stockman's spare room."
"How old is he, chick?"
The child bent her head in thought for a
moment or two. "About ten, I think, Uncle
Tom. He is really and truly such a good
boy — Uncle Westonley says so, but Aunt
Elizabeth says he is godless and an 'incubus.'
What does incubus mean ? I am one too."

"Nothing, nothing very much, little one,"
said Gerrard, as he held the breast of the wild
duck he had plucked over the glowing coals of
his fire ; " you see, your Aunt Elizabeth doesn't
mean to be unkind to you — it's only her way of
saying that you and Jim are troublesome at
times. And I don't think she will call you or
Jim 'incubuses,' any more after to-morrow.
Now, let us have something to eat. See, it is
nearly dark."

They ate their supper to the murmur of the
ever-sounding surf upon the beach, and then
Gerrard spreading out his blankets under the
shelter of a spreading wild honeysuckle, covered
the child over with a sheet of waterproof cloth
to keep off the dew.

" I must say my prayers, Uncle Tom."
"Yes, dear," he said softly, "but you

TOM GERRARD 9

needn't get up. Can't you say them lying
down ? "

" Oh, no, Uncle Tom. That would be very
wrong, and denotes laziness, Aunt Elizabeth
says. Do you say your prayers lying down ? "

"Yes, chick," was the prompt response,
" generally when I'm lying down at night
in the bush, looking up at the stars. And I
daresay it does 'denote laziness,' as Aunt
Elizabeth says. But at the same time I
think it really doesn't matter to God whether
one is lying down or sitting up, or on one's
knees when we pray to Him."

" Oh, Uncle Tom ! Are you quite sure ? "

" Dead sure, little woman — as sure as ducks
are ducks — especially when little girls are tired."

"Then I'll say my prayers lying down."

She clasped her two little sunbrowned hands
together and said the Lord's Prayer, and then
paused.

" Shall I say the extrack ? "

"The extrack?"

" Yes, the extrack from the Catechism.
Aunt Elizabeth composed some of it."

" Oh ! she composed some of it, did she ?
Yes, by all means say 'the extract."

The child closed her eyes again, and began
very slowly :

" ' Before I slumber, O Lord, I comment myself to
Thy care and protection, however unworthy and

10 TOM GERRARD

thoughtless my conduct has been during the day
now closed.'." ("That's Aunt Elizabeth," muttered
Gerrard under his breath.) " ' I will try hard to hasten
my rebellious spirit, — no not hasten, but chasten — I
always say that wrong, Uncle Tom — to reverently
submit myself to all my governors, teachers, spiritual
pastors and masters : to regulate my conduc', and
demean myself with all dumility ; to keep my hands
from picking and stealing, to recollect that I may
be called this night before Thee to answer for my
many sins and transgressions.' That's all Uncle
Tom."

Gerrard listened with the utmost gravity.

" That's all right, Mary ; but I think it is a
bit too long a prayer for very little girls. Now,
by and by, I'll teach you a new prayer."

"A new prayer! Oh, that will be nice!
Sometimes Uncle Westonley let's me pray for
Bunny."

"Who is Bunny?"

" My native bear. I'll show him to you
to-morrow. You see, when Uncle Westonley
comes to see me at night, after Aunt Elizabeth
has heard me say the Lord's Prayer, and the
extrack, he lets me pray for Bunny because he
is full of ticks, and Jim says he'll die. I say
' dear God, don't let Bunny die, freshen and
preserve him in Thy sight, and make him
whole.' I got that out of a book, and Uncle
Westonley says it will do very nicely."

TOM GERRARD 11

" Couldn't be better, little woman. / think
it's a grand prayer."

" But, Uncle Tom, Bunny has been sicker
an' sicker, and won't eat anything but the very
youngest, weeniest gum leaves, and Aunt
Elizabeth says he's a hideous little beast.
And Jim and me love him to death."

" Don't worry about what Aunt Elizabeth
says," and Gerrard bent down and kissed her.
"I'll try and cure Bunny for you. I know a
heap of things about native bears and ticks,
and know exactly what to do."

The child smiled delightedly into his face,
"Oh! Uncle Tom, you are as kind as Uncle
Westonley, good-night."

"Good-night, little woman," and then the
man laid himself down upon the sandy ground
beside her, with a certain resolve in his mind.

At six o'clock in the morning, he rode up
to Marumbah Station with little Mary held in
front of him. Mrs Westonley, pale - faced,
austere, and much agitated, met him as he
dismounted.

" Oh, dear, Thomas ! Just fancy you finding
the child and bringing her home ! I sent out
Toby, the black boy, to look for her, and
I suppose he is looking for her still — the
naughty—

" That's all right, Lizzie, don't get into a

12 TOM GERRARD

fluster," said Gerrard placidly, as he dismounted
and kissed his sister, "Toby did find her —
that is, he found her and me comfortably
camped for the night. He's coming along
presently with my packhorse."

Mrs Westonley turned angrily upon the
child, and was about to deliver a lecture,
when her brother placed his hand upon her
arm and drew her aside.

"Look here, Lizzie, I'm your guest, and
I'm also your brother; but if you bully that
unfortunate youngster, I'll just get into my
saddle again, and ride off without putting my
foot over your threshold."

Mrs Westonley 's pale, clear-cut face flushed
deeply. " I never expected such a remark
as this from you, Thomas."

"And I never expected that you would
have treated your own sister's child as you
have done," was the stern reply ; "I found
her five miles from here, wandering alone.
Have you no love or sympathy in your heart,
or compassion for children, because you have
none yourself?" and the grey eyes flashed.

Mrs Westonley gazed at him in astonish-
ment, and twined her hands together in
mingled anger and fear that this brother-
fifteen years younger than herself — should so
dare to speak to her.

" The child is a great trial—

18

" Aye, an ' incubus,' you call her, the poor
little mite. But I hardly thought you read
novels."

"/ read novels! Never! What do you
mean ? "

Gerrard drew her inside the house, and
patted her cheek, ready to forgive.

" Oh, I did read a book somewhere about
a stepmother or an aunt or something of the
kind, who was always talking about some
unfortunate child committed to her care, as
an ' incubus." Now, that's all I have to say.
I love the kid already. She has Mary's eyes
and Mary's voice, and, if you don't want her
/ do. When will breakfast be ready, old
girl ? "

" Eight o'clock," said Mrs Westonley faintly,
wondering if she were awake or dreaming.
Who but this handsome, sunburnt brother
would dare to lecture her, and then wind up
by addressing her as "old girl"!

CHAPTER II

WHEN Captain Richard Gerrard — the father of
Mrs Westonley — came to Australia from India,
he first settled in Gippsland, in Victoria. A
retired military man, with ample means, he
devoted himself successfully to pastoral pursuits,
and soon took a leading part in the advance-
ment of the colony. He had married the
daughter of an English chaplain, by whom he
had but one child — Elizabeth — and when she
was but an infant of two years of age, Mrs
Gerrard died. For thirteen years her husband
remained faithful to her memory, and then did
what all his neighbours regarded as a very
sensible thing — he married the daughter of a
neighbouring squatter, and sent his child to
England to be educated. His second wife was
a beautiful, vigorous, and well-trained woman,
mentally and physically, and although her
parents were English, she was a native of
the colony, and, naturally enough, took the
deepest interest in all that concerned the station,
the advancement of her husband's interests,
and the colony in which she was born. Two
children were born to them, a twin son and

14

TOM GERRARD 15

daughter, and as time went on, Captain
Gerrard's station became one of the best in
Victoria, and the " R over G " brand of cattle
brought "top "prices in the Melbourne market.

After completing her education in England,
Elizabeth Gerrard returned to Australia. She
was a remarkably handsome girl, but cold, even
to chilliness, in her manner, especially to her
step-mother, for she had much resented her
father's second marriage. The six years she
had spent in England seemed to have entirely
changed her character and disposition, and
when soon after her return, Edward Westonley,
a young squatter, who was the owner of
Marumbah Downs, fell violently in love with
her pink and white beauty, and she accepted
him, even her father, although he loved her —
was secretly pleased.

Marumbah Downs was over a hundred miles
from Captain Gerrard's station, and there
Westonley took his bride. He was a cheerful,
somewhat careless man, very "horsey" in his
tastes, and fond of good company. Both his
father-in-law and Mrs Gerrard liked him greatly,
and the two children by the second marriage,
Tom and Mary, gave him their affection the
first time they saw him.

The boy Tom grew up like most Australian-
born boys of his class of life and surroundings,
and before he was twenty years of age, was

16 TOM GERRARD

managing one of his father's stations in Queens-
land, and managing it prosperously. Soon after
he had taken charge, he heard from his father
that his twin sister Mary was to be married to
a local medical man — a Doctor Rayner, who
had been her steady admirer since she was a
girl of fifteen.

"It will be a very happy union," wrote
Captain Gerrard to his son, " of that I am
certain, and although he's too young a man
to have much of a practice for some time, he'll
get along all right. And even if things do go
against him, it won't matter to him and Mary—
I'll stand to them. Mary is writing to you by
this mail." Then after alluding to some
business matters in connection with his various
stations he went on to say. " Westonley comes
over to see us now and then — Lizzie never.
Poor Westonley ! Lizzie has crumpled him up
altogether, although when he comes to see us
he is the same cheery Ted of yore, and he,
Rayner, and I had some grand kangarooing
together when he was here last. Lizzie, during
the past five years has become more and more
crotchety, and has given herself up to ' religious
thought and work,' as she calls it, from which
I surmise that her's is a reign of terror at
Marumbah Downs. She has built a little tin-pot
chapel in which there is not enough room to
swing a cat by the tail, and had it opened a

TOM GERRARD 17

few months ago by some swagger curate from
Melbourne — poor old Preston, the Scotch
parson at Marumbah township not being
considered good enough, and having incurred
her wrath by openly stating that when he had
a cold he took whisky toddy at bedtime ! then
the silly woman — who rules poor Westonley
with a rod of iron — had a notice put up in the
men's quarters that all hands, from the head
stockman down to the black boys, were to
attend service every future Sunday morning
and evening. Westonley — whom she wanted
to conduct the service — bucked, and said he
could not make an ass of himself before his
employe's, and the next day the entire crowd —
stockmen, fencers, sawyers, etc. — rolled up to
the station and gave Westonley a week's notice,
and the poor fellow had to effect a compromise,
they agreeing to come into the ' Chapel ' and
let Lizzie read them a chapter ' of suthin' outer
the Bible,' if they could have the rest of the
day for their usual Sunday recreations — euchre
or kangarooing. I never thought Lizzie would
turn out to be a crank, but a crank she is, and
I'm afraid Westonley is not at all a happy man,
though he yields to her in almost everything.

" Your mother has not been at all well for the
past six months. She will be very lonely when
Mary leaves the house, and you must come to
us for a month or two next year ; 'twill cheer

B

18 TOM GERRARD

her up. She doesn't want Lizzie — neither do
I ; she'd depress a dead bull calf, by just look-
ing at him."

And then within a twelvemonth, came the
tragedy of the Gerrard family.

Captain Gerrard, by Dr Rayner's advice,
decided to take his wife to Sydney to consult a
specialist, and Rayner went with them. They
took passage on a coastal steamer named the
Cassowary — a small paddle-wheel vessel of
three hundred tons, old, ill-found, and utterly
unable to cope with the savage easterly gale
that met her as she rounded Cape Howe, and
doots north for Sydney.

A fortnight later, Mary Rayner, as she was
putting her two months' old baby girl to sleep,
was called from her bedroom to see a stranger
in the sitting-room. He was a stockman from
a station seventy miles away on the coast.

He silently handed her a letter, and then
turned away, She opened and read it. It
was from the Police Inspector of the Cape
Howe district, and in a few sympathetic words
told her that the Cassowary had been lost
near Cape Howe, and that every soul on
board but one seaman and a child of four
years of age had perished, and that her
husband, her father and her mother had been
buried three days previously.

She never survived the shock, and when

TOM GERRARD 19

Tom Gerrard made his long journey down
from North Queensland to Victoria, to comfort
and aid his loved sister, he found that she
had died a month before.

It took some months to settle up Captain
Gerrard's affairs. He had made a will
devising his head station to his wife, together
with (less a certain reservation) the sum of ten
thousand pounds. His two other stations —
one in Central Queensland, and the other in
the Far North of that colony, — he bequeathed,
the former to his "dear daughter, Mary
Rayner " and the latter to his "son, Thomas
Gerrard, together with such moneys as might
be at his (the testator's) death, lying to the
credit of the two stations." Then — and here
came the sting of the " certain reservation "
to Elizabeth Westonley — to his "dearly
esteemed son-in-law, Edward Westonley, of
Marumbah Downs, I give and bequeath the
sum of one thousand pounds, to be by him
used in the manner he may deem best for the
benefit of the Marumbah Jockey Club, of
which for ten years he has been patron. To
his wife (my daughter Elizabeth) I bequeath
as a token of my appreciation of her efforts
to improve the moral condition of illiterate
and irreligious bushmen, the sum of one
thousand pounds, provided that she first
consults and has the approval of my wife

20 TOM GERRARD

Eleanor, as to the manner in which the said
money shall be expended."

Then, as if to show that despite this gentle
sarcasm towards the cold-hearted daughter
who had never forgiven him for his second
marriage, and had so long alienated herself
from her stepbrother and sister, he still bore
her a parental affection, he added another
clause (also with an unintended sting in it)
to the effect that if Mrs Westonley should
have issue, male or female, five thousand
pounds was to be invested for her first child,
to be paid upon coming of age, " also the
like sum for the first child of my beloved and
affectionate daughter, Mary Rayner."

" Poor Lizzie ! " said Tom Gerrard to his
brother-in-law, Westonley, after the contents
of the will were made known, ''she won't be
pleased at this, I fear, Ted."

" She won't, Tom," replied Westonley frankly,
as he placed his hand on Gerrard's shoulder
with a kindly gesture, "but, between you and
I, she has nothing to be angered at. I am
pretty well in, and if I died to-morrow, she
would be well provided for. And I don't think
—I'm not disloyal to my wife — I don't think that
she was quite as kind as she might have been
to your mother and to you, and to poor Mary."

Of course the death of Mrs Gerrard
simultaneously with that of her husband,

TOM GERRARD 21

somewhat complicated matters, for she had
made no will, and was evidently not aware of
the nature of that made by Captain Gerrard ;
for she was of too gentle and kindly a nature
to have permitted him to have written any-
thing that could have aroused a feeling of
resentment in the mind of his first-born child,
although that child, from the day she returned
from England had treated her with un-
concealed hauteur and coldness.

At last, however, matters were finally settled,
and Mrs Westonley, although she did resent
most bitterly what she called her father's
"wicked will," consented, at her husband's
earnest request, to take charge of and educate
Mary Rayner's orphan child.

" It will be a disgrace to us, Elizabeth, if we
send the poor child to strangers," Westonley
had said to her, almost sternly. " Tom,
although he is a bachelor, would be overjoyed
if we let her go to him."

"He is most unfitted to have the care of
a child," said Mrs Westonley, icily ; " from
his conversation I should imagine he would
be a most decidedly improper person."

" But he means well, you know ; but, like
your poor father, he's a bit too outspoken and
rough. And . . . and Elizabeth, we have no
children of our own, and you will get to love
the poor little one."

22 TOM GERRARD

" I will make no guarantee as to conferring
my affections upon a child whose disposition
may prove to be utterly unworthy of the
tuition and Christian training I have under-
taken to give her — at your request," was
the acidulous reply.

Westonley groaned inwardly, but made no
answer.

A few months after this conversation, Tom
Gerrard made a short visit to Marumbah
Downs to see Westonley and his dead sister's
child. He had just returned from the little
bay near Cape Howe, where the Cassowary
had been castaway, and where his father,
mother, and Dr Rayner had been buried,
together with all the other passengers and
members of the crew whose bodies had been
washed ashore. After dinner, he, Westonley,
and his step-sister, were discussing Captain
Gerrard's will, when just then there came in
a neighbour of Westonley's — a squatter named
Brooke — who was one of the executors. Mrs
Westonley received him rather coldly, and
when Tom Gerrard began describing to him
the situation of the place where his father and
mother were interred, she listened with an
ill-concealed impatience.

"Well! Mrs Westonley," said Brooke,
stretching out his spurred and booted feet,
" your father and mother died together—

TOM GERRARD 28

as they lived, hand in hand, and heart to
heart"

" The late Mrs Gerrard was not my mother."

There was a dead silence, and then Tom
Gerrard rose, and looked his step-sister in
the face with undisguised and bitter contempt.

"No, thank God! she was not, but she was
mine, I am proud to say."

Then he held out his hand to Westonley,
"Good-bye, Ted, I'm leaving."

"For heaven's sake, Tom! . . . Elizabeth,
you forget yourself! Oh, I say, Brooke, don't
let him go."

But Tom Gerrard, his heart aflame with
anger, pushed Brooke and his brother-in-law
aside, went to the stables, saddled his horse,
and rode off to the Marumbah township, fifteen
miles away, and next morning Westonley
received a note.

" DEAR OLD TED, — You and I will always be the
same old pals. I know you will be kind to Mary's
little one, and will write to me from time to time, as
I shall to you. But I can't forgive Lizzie. You will
say I write in anger. / do. And yet I am a man
quick to forgive an ordinary affront, even from a
woman. You understand, old boy. TOM."

And so for many years, Tom Gerrard kept
away from Marumbah, till his step-sister and
Westonley wrote, and urged him to visit them.

CHAPTER III

BREAKFAST was served punctually at eight
o'clock, and Tom Gerrard, whose equanimity
was now quite restored, took his seat opposite
his sister with a smiling face, and in a few
minutes, under the sunshine of his genial
manner, Mrs Westonley, much against her
own inclination, began to thaw, and presently
found herself chatting quite pleasantly with
him.

" I've sprung myself on you two or three
days before you expected me, Lizzie, but I'm
sure you don't mind."

" Indeed no, Thomas. I am very glad. I
wish Edward was here, but the mailman may
bring me a letter from him this morning. He
said in his last letter he would be sure to
return home by Saturday, and to-day is
Thursday. But what brought you here so
quickly, Thomas ? "

" Well, I was very lucky in getting a passage
in one of the new Dutch mail steamers, instead
of having to wait for the slow old Eagle, so I
reached Melbourne a week earlier than I
expected. Then at Melbourne I caught the

84

TOM GERRARD 25

steamer for Port Albert, just as she was
leaving. At Port Albert, instead of waiting
two days for the coach for Marumbah, I
bought a couple of horses, a gun, and some
other gear, and came the ninety odd miles
comfortably, instead of being shaken to pieces
in one of Cobb's awful coaches."

" But what an unnecessary expense, Thomas.
The two horses "

" Oh ! the whole thing, gun and all included,
didn't run into fifty pounds."

" Fifty pounds ! Oh, Thomas ! And your
coach fare would have been but three pounds !
You really are dreadfully extravagant."

" Not at all, Lizzie. I shall not lose much
in the end. Ted will buy the horses, and all
the gear from me. I think I can jew him into
giving me something for them, even if it is
only thirty quid."

"Thirty what?"

" Thirty quid — thirty pounds. Now my
dear old Lizzie, don't pretend to be shocked
at the word 'quid.' You know you've heard
all the colonial expressions — and poor dad used
them pretty frequently."

" Indeed he did, Thomas — too frequently,
I'm afraid."

" Ah, well, Lizzie my dear, it doesn't matter
now. By-the-way, doesn't little Mary break-
fast with you ? "

26 TOM GERRARD

" Oh yes, usually ; but this morning I told
Janet to give her her breakfast in her bedroom,
then after she has made herself presentable she
can join us. I'm sure she and that dreadful
boy Jim will get you to inspect their 'cubby
house ' down on the river bank in the course
of the day. Sometimes Edward makes me
quite cross by the way he yields to their stupid
whims. He actually spent a whole day in
helping them build their precious cubby house."

Gerrard laughed : " Good old Ted — just as
much of a boy as he was twenty years ago !
But who is this youngster Jim ? "

" Oh, I quite forgot to tell you about him
when we wrote to you. He is another of
Edward's extravagances. You will remember
that when the Cassowary was lost, the only
survivors were one seaman and a child of four
years of age. Well, about eight months ago,
when Edward was travelling to Sydney in the
Balclutha, he — as he always does — made the
acquaintance of every seaman on board. One
of them, a quartermaster, turned out to be the
man who had been washed on shore from the
Cassowary. Of course Edward was very much
interested, and the man, whom he says is a
very respectable steady person, told him that
he had taken care of the child, who was his
fellow-survivor. Well, the end of it was that
Edward went to see the boy, and brought him

TOM GERRARD 27

home with him. He will do those extra-
ordinary things."

" Who were the boy's parents ? "

" No one knows. Coll, the quartermaster,
said that there were a great number of steerage
passengers on board, and that he remembers
seeing a young woman and her husband with
this child, whom they called Jim, but what
was their name was never ascertained. It
was believed that they were newly-arrived
emigrants, for no inquiries were made from
any quarter about them, and so Coll, who
seems to be a very kind man, took the child
to his own home, although he has quite a large
family, and actually did not want to part with
him. Of course, Edward, as usual, went to
extremes, and gave the Coll family fifty pounds."

"It was a generous action, Lizzie," said
Gerrard gravely, "and shows him to be a
good fellow — and a Christian."

Mrs Westonley looked at her step-brother
in surprise. " But, Thomas, you don't seem
to understand. These Coll people are really
very poor — the father, I suppose, earns about
seven pounds a month as quartermaster, and
there are nine children. I think it was
ridiculous of Edward giving them any money at
all, considering the fact that he was lightening
their cares by taking this boy, Jim, off their
hands."

28 TOM GERRARD

" Ah ! Lizzie, we don't know. They may
have been very fond of the kid — in fact they
must have been, or they would not have kept
him for six years, when they could have
sent him to the Government Orphanage at
Parramatta. "

" I think that is what they should have
done."

" No, you don't, Lizzie. You would not
have let the youngster go into an Orphanage
had you known of the matter. You have
father's heart, Lizzie, under that pretty blouse
of yours, although you pretend to be so cold,
and put on the ' keep -off -the -style ' — even
to me."

" I'm not cold-hearted, Thomas."

Gerrard rose from his seat, and in another
moment, Mrs Westonley found herself in his
arms, and seated upon his knees.

" Now, look here Lizzie," and he kissed
her, "I'm going to do my level best to please
you, for you are my sister. I daresay I have
done many things to displease you, but I love
you, old woman, I do indeed. And whatever
I may have said in the past I ' take back ' as
we bushmen say, and I want you to give me
some of your affection. I know you have
tons of it concealed under that prim little
manner of yours, but you are too proud to
show it. And see, Lizzie, old girl, I'm not

TOM GERRARD 29

really the reckless scallawag you think me to
be," and he stroked her hair, and looked so
earnestly and pleadingly into her eyes, that her
woman's heart triumphed, and she leant her
head on his shoulder.

" I never thought you cared for me, Tom,"
she said "and I daresay that I have been to
blame in many respects. Edward is one of
the best husbands in the world, but he is care-
less and all but irreligious, and I cannot — I
really cannot change my nature and be any-
thing more than politely civil to the friends
he sometimes brings here — they are rough,
noisy and bucolic. I am always urging him
to leave a manager at Marumbah and retire
from squatting altogether. I do not like
Australia, and wish to live in England, but
he will not hear of it, although we have ample
means to enable us to live in comfort, if not
luxury."

Gerrard smiled as he gazed around the
handsomely furnished room, and, mentally
compared it with his own rough dining room
on his station in the Far North.

" I should call this a pretty luxurious
diggings, Lizzie," he said ; " there are not many
such houses as Marumbah Head Station in
Australia. "

His half-sister shrugged her shoulders.
" You should see some of the country houses

30 TOM GERRARD

in England, Thomas. And then another reason
why I dislike bush life is the utter lack of
female society."

Gerrard raised his brows. " Why, there are
the three Gordon girls at Black River station,
only ten miles away ; they certainly struck me
as being graceful, refined girls."

" Mrs Gordon is not a lady, and makes no
secret of it. Her father was a fishcurer at
Inverness, and before that a herring fisher."

" But she speaks, acts, and bears herself
like a lady," protested Gerrard.

" It doesn't matter — she is not one. How
Major Gordon, who comes from an old Scottish
family, could marry her, I cannot understand.
She was a nursery governess, or something
like that."

" Yet Gordon seems a very happy man, and
the girls "

" The girls are all very well, although too
horsey for me. I cannot tolerate young women
bounding about all over the country after
kangaroos, in company with a lot of rough men
in shirts and moleskins, attending race meetings,
and calling the Roman Catholic clergyman
' Father Jim ' to his face. It's simply horrible."

"Well! what about Mrs Brooke and Ethel
Brooke?" asked Gerrard; ''surely they are
ladies in every sense of the word ? "

" I admit that they are better than the

TOM GEKRARD 31

Gordons, but Ethel Brooke is a notorious jilt,
and her mother has absolutely no control of
her ; then Mr Brooke himself is more like one
of his own stockmen in appearance than a
gentleman by birth and education."

Gerrard looked up at the ceiling — then gave
up any further argument in despair. "I'll
tell you what you want, Lizzie," he said, cheer-
fully, " you want about six months in Melbourne
or Sydney."

" I detest Melbourne ; it is hot, dusty, dirty,
noisy, and vulgar."

"Then Sydney?"

" Of course, I like Sydney ; but Edward
never will stay there more than a week — he is
always dying to be back among his cattle and
horses."

" I'll try my hand with him, and see what
I can do with the man," then he added,

" Now, let us get on with breakfast. Then
we'll see this cubby house, and I'll diagnose
the bear's complaint."

As soon as breakfast was over, Mrs
Westonley left the room to put on her hat, and
Gerrard stretched himself out in a squatter's
chair on the verandah to smoke his pipe.
Presently he heard his sister calling, "Jim,
where are you ? I want you."

"Yes, Mrs Westonley!" came the reply in
a boyish treble, and the owner of it wondered

32 TOM GERRARD

what made her voice sound so differently from
its usual hard, sharp tone.

"Jim, come here and see my brother. He,
you, and Mary, and I are all going down to
the cubby house."

Suppressing a gasp of astonishment, the boy
came to her to where Gerrard and she were
now sitting.

"Thomas, this is Jim."

Gerrard jumped up and held out his hand.

" How are you, Jim ? Glad to see you,"
and he smiled into the boy's sunburnt face.
" By Jove! you are a big chap for a ten year
old boy. What are you going to be — soldier,
sailor, tinker, tailor, eh ? "

" I did want to be a sailor, sir ; but now I'm
going to be a stockman."

Gerrard smiled again, and surveyed the boy
closely. He was rather tall for his age, but
not weedy, with a broad sturdy chest, and his
face was almost as deeply bronzed as that of
Gerrard himself, and two big, honest brown
eyes met his gaze steadily and respectfully ;
the squatter took a liking to him at once, as
he had to his sister's child.

"Well, Jim, I'm going to stay here a week,
and you'll have to tote me around, and keep me
amused — see? You and Mary between you."

"Yes, sir."

" Any fish in Marumbah River ? "

TOM GERRARD 33

" Lots and lots — two kinds of bream, Murray
cod, jew fish, and speckled trout, and awful
big eels."

" Ha ! that's good enough. Got fishing lines
and hooks ? "

"Yes, sir."

"Then bring 'em along. Where is Mary,
Lizzie ? "

" Here she is," and Mrs Westonley brought
her forward, the child's eyes dancing with
pleasure; "she was too excited to eat any
breakfast, until I insisted. Thomas, they'll
worry you to death. You don't know them."

Gerrard threw his feet up in the air, like
a boy, and rapped his heels together — " I'm
fit for anything — from fishing to riding bull
calves, or cutting out a wild bees' nest from a
gum tree a mile high. Oh ! we're going to
have a high old time. I say, Mary, where's the
invalid Bunny ? "

"In the saddle-room."

" Then come along, and I'll prescribe for the
poor, tailless gentleman," and he jumped to his
feet. "We shall not be long, Lizzie — are you
ready?"

" I shall be in ten minutes, Thomas," and
the children looked wonderingly at her, for she
actually smiled at them.

CHAPTER IV

A FEW days after the return of the owner of
Marumbah Downs, he, with Gerrard and the
black stockman, Toby, were camped on the
bank of a creek about thirty miles from the
head station. They had started out at
daylight to muster some of the outlying cattle
camps, and now after a hard day's riding were
stretching themselves out upon the grassy bank
to rest, whilst Toby was lighting the fire in
readiness for supper. On the top of the bank
the three hardy stockhorses and a packmare,
were grazing contentedly on the rich green
grass, and lying at Westonley's feet were two
beautiful black-and-tan cattle dogs, still panting
with their exertions. The camp had been
made in a grove of mimosa trees, within a
hundred yards of the clear waters of the creek,
which rippled musically over its rocky bed as
it sped swiftly to the sea. It wanted an
hour to sunset, and already the hum of insects
was in the air, and a faint cool breeze which
had been stirring the green graceful fronds of
the mimosas, and wafting fleecy strips of white
across the blue dome above, had died away.

84

TOM GERRARD 35

In the thick foliage of a cedar tree on the
opposite bank, a pheasant and his mate were
hopping about, uttering their harsh, rude notes ;
then came a whir and whistle of wings and a
quick passing shadow overhead as a flock of
black duck sped over the tree tops to some
sandy-banked, reed-margined pool near by.

Westonley, a big, bushy-bearded man, raised
himself on one elbow, and watched them
disappear ; then he called to Toby to take the
gun and follow.

"What's the use of 'em, Ted?" said
Gerrard, as pipe in mouth, and with hands
clasped under his head, he gazed upwards
to the sky. " There's two scrub turkeys in the
saddle-bags ; don't be such a beastly glutton."

" You mind your own business, my little
man. You like scrub turkey. I don't. Give
me a black or a wood duck, freshly killed,
before all scrub or ' plain ' turkeys in Australia.
And move yourself, you useless animal, and get
one of your turkeys and pluck it while Toby
is getting a duck or two. Wonderfully
intelligent nigger is Toby. I've never yet
known him to fail in getting me a duck if there
was one within a mile. I say, Tommy, d'ye
like crawfish ? This creek here is full of 'em.
We'll get some after supper."

" All right ! I'm with you there," said
Gerrard, as he pulled out two scrub turkeys

86 TOM GERHARD

from the saddle-bags, and then seizing one by
the legs, he took aim at the broad back of his
friend, and the fat, heavy bird struck him
fairly in the middle of it. The big man never
moved, except to carelessly put his hand out
behind, and taking the turkey, began to pluck it.

"Tommy," he said, presently, "d'ye know
how to make crawfish soup ? It's grand ! "

"Can mak« it as well as you can, sonny,"
replied Gerrard, as he sat down and began
plucking the other bird.

" Fearful lot of cubs at the ' Union ' now in
Sydney," said the older man, meditatively.
" Hate going into the place. Met the two
young Arlingtons there the other day, and
asked 'em if they were going home to the
station. ' No jolly fear,' said one of the cubs—
they have just come back from college in
England — 'we've had enough of Portland
Downs and bullock punching, branding, and
all the rest of the beastly thing.' ' But you'll
go and see your father ? ' I asked. ' Well,
I don't think so, you know, Mr Westonley,'
drawled the elder cub, ' it's a beastly long way,
and takes such a devil of a time to get there —
fourteen hundred miles by steamer is no joke,
and we have to be back in England in five
months. So the governor is coming down
here to have a palaver with us.' It hurt me,
Tom, to hear these two youngsters talking like

TOM GERRARD 37

that, for Arlington is over seventy years of
age. And they were good lads until he sent
them to England to college with more money
than was good for them. And it has done
them harm — made cads of 'em," and he
viciously tugged at the wing feathers of the
bird he was plucking. " Your father used to say
that Oxford and Cambridge turned out more
good men, and more moneyed snobs into the
world than all the other colleges in the
universe."

"Daresay," said Tom Gerrard, carelessly, as
he began a surgical operation on his turkey.
" I have heard my father say that old Arlington,
who was one of the best of the old time
squatters, made a mistake in sending those
two boys home with unlimited money and
credit. I suppose they'll turn out rotters."

" Most likely. And Arlington — by thunder,
can't that old fellow of seventy ride through
scrub — thinks that they will take his place on
Portland Downs when he dies, and be a
credit to the colony. / wouldn't have 'em on
Marumbah as jackeroos, at a pound a week.
But yet there is good stuff in them, Tom,
and good English blood — the best in the world.
Hallo! this turkey has eggs; just the very
thing for the crawfish soup to-morrow."

Presently two shots rang out in quick
succession.

38 TOM GERRARD

"Toby has got on to 'em," said Westonley ;
"how do you cook black duck, freshly-killed,
sonny, when you're camping out ? "

"Grill'em."

" The whole carcass ? "

"Yes."

"Well, you must have degrading, greedy
customs up in Queensland. Why, the only
part — but there, I'll show you presently when
Toby comes back. Tommy ! "

" Yes."

" This sort of thing is all right, isn't it ? "
and the big man waved his great arm vaguely
around his head.

" Yes, it's as fine a bit of country as there is
anywhere in Australia," replied the younger
man, who knew how devoted his companion was
to Marumbah. "In fact it is all good country
on Marumbah. I wish my run was half as
good. Still I've nothing to grumble at. There
are five thousand cattle on Ocho Rios now, and
it will carry another two thousand easily."

Presently Toby appeared carrying three
ducks, which he handed to his master, who felt
them approvingly. " They're all right, Toby.
Go and look to your fire. Now, Tom, my son,
I'll show you the only way to fix up a black
duck quickly, and correctly as well." Plucking
the thick coating of feathers off the underneath
half of a bird from the lower part of the neck

TOM GERRARJD 39

down, he made a deep, sweeping curve with his
sheath knife, removed the entire breast denuded
of plumage, and then threw the rest to the
dogs. A second bird was done the same way,
and the two portions were then skewered
through with a piece of hard, green wood,
sprinkled with salt, and handed to the black
boy, who soon had them frizzling merrily over
a glowing fire.

Gerrard nodded approval. " Quick, but
wasteful, old man. You would never do for a
cook in a well-regulated household." Then
cutting off a large piece of the turkey, he
skewered it in the same manner, and hung up
the rest for Toby to eat.

Night came swiftly, and, as the two friends
ate their supper, and drank their strong " billy "
tea, the stars came out, and the heavy dew
began to fall upon the grass. Spreading their
blankets under the mimosas, they lit their pipes,
and with their saddles for pillows, began to
discuss various matters — the past day's work,
the price of fat cattle in Melbourne, the late
drought in South Australia, and such other
all-important subjects to Australian pastoralists.

Then Gerrard, after describing some of his
experiences and troubles with the wild blacks
on Cape York Peninsula where his station,
" Ocho Rios," was situated, said :

" By the way, Ted. That was a curious

40 TOM GERRARD

thing that you should come across that youngster
Jimmy, just through having a yarn with a
sailor on board the Balclutha"

" Very curious ; no — it's something more than
that Tom. It was as if the Power above
had directed it. This man Coll was one of
the quartermasters, and only mentioned the
Cassowary in the most casual manner to me
as we were passing the place where she went
ashore. ' I was in her, sir,' he said in the
most simple, matter-of-fact manner, 'and me
and a poor little boy about four, was the only
ones as was saved.'

" ' Good heavens ! ' I said, ' you are the one
man in the world I wanted particularly to meet.
I went especially to Sydney, but could not
find any trace of you except your name in the
shipping office where you had been on the
Cassowary as an A.B. And I advertised in
all the Australian papers for you and the boy,
but you seemed to have vanished off the face
of the earth.'

"'It's very easy to explain, sir,' he said. ' As
soon as I got to Sydney, I went to the Sailors'
Home, taking the boy with me. There was
hundreds of people wanted to take him, but I
was too fond of the kid to give him up to
anyone. I suppose it was wrong of me, seeing
as I have a big family of my own, which was
then living at Newcastle. But I knew the old

TOM GERRARD 41

woman wouldn't make too many bones about
another mouth to feed.'

" Then he went on to say that being afraid
the boy would be taken from him by some of
the many people who wanted to adopt him, he
slipped away with him one night from the
Sailors' Home, and took him on board a collier
schooner, whose captain he knew, and who was
leaving Sydney on the following morning for
Wellington, New Zealand. The skipper of
the vessel consented to take Jimmy away with
him, and then bring him to Newcastle on
the return voyage — the collier belonged to,
and always loaded at Newcastle — and hand
him over to Mrs Coll. This was done, and in
a few months, although Coll was continually
asked by people what had become of the
youngster, he always told the same story — the
boy had been adopted by a family with plenty
of money, whose name he was not at liberty to
reveal, etc.

''Then, of course, I told him that I was the
son-in-law of Captain Gerrard, whom he
remembered perfectly well, as also your mother
and poor Rayner. We had quite a long talk,
and in the end I succeeded in wresting a
promise from him that if ' the old woman ' was
agreeable to parting with Jimmy, he would also
consent.

" I went to Newcastle with him and saw his

42 TOM GERRARD

wife, who brought the boy to me. He was quite
decently dressed, and got into my heart right
away. . . And I thought that Lizzie would like
him too." His voice dropped, and he ceased
speaking for a few minutes.

''Well, I had a hard struggle to induce the
worthy woman to give him up, but in the end
she consented. Then I talked about little
Mary, and how happy the two would be to-
gether, and that it would not be natural for two
children who had been rendered orphans by the
same dreadful calamity to be separated. The
poor creature's face was streaming with tears
when she at last consented. ' It's no for the
sake o' the money I pairt wi' the bairn. It's
little he costs me, an' my own children will be
sore at heart for many a lang day after he goes ! '
. . But she recognised that it would be wrong
of her to refuse — and so the matter was fixed up."

"Good old Ted!"

" Well — keep this dark from Lizzie, old
man — I gave 'em a cheque for two hundred
and fifty pounds."

Gerrard's clear laugh. "Poor Lizzie I She
thinks you gave them fifty pounds only."

"Just so, just so — you see, old man, Lizzie
isn't a bit mean — and she doesn't know that I
am as well in as I am, so I told her a fifth of
the truth. I said that fifty pounds was a great
help to a hard-working man with a large family."

TOM GERRARD 43

" Cunning beggar ! "

"Then, as Coll struck me as being a down-
right, straightforward man, who had a pretty
stiff pull of it to bring up and educate his
children decently on seven pounds a month
— seaman's wages. — I got him a berth as
wharfinger to a steamship company at twelve
pounds, and he was made as happy as a sand-
boy, I can tell you : Lizzie knows that much, for
I told her. And she lets the youngster write to
the Colls now and then."

" Does she ? " said Gerrard, dryly. He could
not help it. Then he sat up, and re-filled
his pipe.

"Ted, old chap, I like that youngster.
Let me have him and take him to Ocho Rios
with me. I want little Mary most, but know
you won't part with her, and even if you
would, a cattle station in the Far North is
no place for a girl. But let me have the boy.
I'll be good to him."

Westonley made no answer at first. Then
he said slowly, " I'll tell you in the morning,
Tom. Good-night."

CHAPTER V

SOON after sunrise, as the two friends were
drinking their morning tea ere they started
back for Marumbah, Westonley told Gerrard
that he had decided to let him take Jim
away with him to Ocho Rios.

" He is provided for in my will, Tom, but

you must never let him know it. I think

it is a mistake to let youngsters know that

they will have money left to them some

' day."

"Quite so, Ted. And I am sure that you
will never regret letting me have him, and
I will bring him up as if he were my own
son. There is no school within two hundred
miles of Ocho Rios, but I think I am quite
capable of giving him a decent education."

" Little Mary won't like it, Tom. She
is passionately fond of him, and will cut up
very rough over the parting, I fear."

" Poor child ! But, of course, she will see
him again in a few years. I can see, that
next to you, Jim is her 'dearest and best.'
If I were a married man, Ted, I would ask
you for her as well. Every time she looks

TOM GERRARD 45

at me with those big, soft eyes of hers, I see
poor Mary again, and when she speaks, hear
the soft sweet voice again."

"She is a lovable child, and, look here,
Tom, old man, I'll tell you something that
has made me grizzle in secret for many years —
Lizzie doesn't care for her. I don't mind her
being a bit sharp with the boy now and then,
for he's a terrible young Turk at times, and
I'm too easy with him ; but little Mary is
such a gentle, soft sort of kid, that I wonder
how anyone could possibly help loving her.
But, somehow or other, Lizzie doesn't. Still,
within the last few days — ever since you came
in fact — she has been a bit warmer in her
manner."

Gerrard nodded. " Lizzie will come round
to like her in time, Ted. And, I say, old
fellow, since you have been so open with
me, I'm going to say something to you that
you perhaps may not like, and think I'm an
interfering ass. But, 'honest Injun,' Ted, I
mean well — like a good many other idiots do
when they meddle with other people's domestic
affairs."

" Go on, sonny," said the big man, quietly,
" you never talk rot."

"Well, it's this. Lizzie is simply fretting
her life out at Marumbah, and I think that,
in a way, you are to blame. She does not

46 TOM GERHARD

like living in the bush, and does not seem to
care for the people hereabout. I had quite
a long yarn with her the first day I came to
Marumbah, and although at first she tried to
be the stiff, austere lady with me, I wouldn't
have it. Made her sit on my knee, and all
that, you know, stroked her hair, and pinched
her pretty little nose."

"Tom, if I didn't know you better, I
would call you a liar."

"Fact! You know as well as I do that
she has always looked upon me as a black
sheep. But she is going to change her mind
about me, and I'll bet you a fiver that before
I leave Marumbah, I'm going to be 'Tommy'
to her, as I was in the old, old days."

Westonley's sun-tanned face flushed with
pleasure. " Tom, I'd give half of all I'm worth
to see her and you friends again. I know
how bitterly she affronted you years ago."

" Oh ! that is all forgotten, old son. I was
to blame for going off in such a silly huff. I
behaved like a bear. We men don't understand
women, Ted, and make hideous fools of our-
selves. And that brings me to what I wanted
to tell you — which is, that you are a blazing
idiot."

"Tom, whatever you say, and whatever
cheek you give me, I will take it quietly,
although I could knock you out in four rounds,"

TOM GERRARD 47

and Westonley thumped Gerrard affectionately
on his back with his great hand. " Now, I
know I'm a thundering ass but I'll be as meek
as a lamb to you, you black-faced, under-sized
little beggar."

Gerrard laughed. There was a difference
of four inches in their respective heights ;
Westonley being six feet two inches. He
knew by the inflection of the big man's voice
that he had become a much happier man
within the last ten minutes, and the knowledge
of it gave him a great satisfaction.

" I may not be as big as you," he said,
" but if I was the same shape, I'd go to a bush
carpenter, and get him to trim me down with an
adze." Then after this jest, he resumed
seriously. " Well, Ted, it is just this. Lizzie
says that she likes Sydney but you do not,
and that you will never stay there for more than
a week at a time. Now, that isn't doing the
square thing by her. You and I as well,
never think that the many years she spent in
England gave her a taste for many of the
refinements of civilisation — pictures, high-class
music, especially Churchy music, and all kind
of things like that, which are always dear to a
highly-educated and naturally clever woman.
Now, when she married you, and settled down
to a station life, she gave up a good deal, and
as the years go on, she feels it more and more,

48 TOM GERRARD

and no woman in the world can always be an
angel, you know, although we tell 'em so when
we ask 'em to marry us. Do you follow me ? "

" I'm listening for all I'm worth, my son.
If we were in a room, you could distinctly hear
the wall paper adhering to the wall."

" Well, now, as I was saying, that isn't fair
to Lizzie. What is the use of her going to
Sydney for a week ? Just as she is beginning
to enjoy herself, and feel something of the life
she had in England, you drag her back to
Marumbah to your beastly bullock punching."

" But I don't want her to come, Tom. I've
always urged her to stay there for three months
— or six, if she liked."

" Bosh ! What pleasure would she have in
being there alone ; for although a woman may
have lots of women friends, she's practically
alone if her husband isn't with her. Tumble ? "

Westonley nodded. " Go on, Tommy, go on
to a dead finish. I am beginning to see I'm
in fault."

"Of course you are. And if you don't give
her a long change in Sydney, and stay there
with her, you'll feel sorry for it ; she'll become
a religious monomaniac, and go in for High
Church, auricular confession, and an empty
stomach on Fridays. She's got a turn that
way, remember. A conventual education in a
High Church school in England isn't a very

49

healthy preparation for a girl who afterwards
marries a hulking, horse-racing, hard-riding
Australian squatter."

" What am I to do ? " asked Westonley.

"Take her to Sydney next week. We'll all
go together, little Mary included, and I'll stay
with you for a couple of months. I'll stand half
the racket."

" Shut up ! Do you think I can't run Lizzie,
little Mary, and myself without you chipping in?"

"All right!" and Gerrard, secretly delighted,
but showing no sign of it, went on placidly :
" you see, Ted, you have a good man in Black"
(head stockman at Marumbah). "What he
doesn't know about cattle isn't worth knowing,
and there's no need for you to come tearing
back for mustering, and branding, and attend-
ing to things generally. D'ye think that if
you died to-morrow the cattle would go into
mourning, and would refuse ' to increase and
multiply ' ? No one in this world is indispens-
able, although everyone thinks he is, and that,
when he pegs out, the Universe is going to
fall into serious trouble. Now, that's all I
have to say. Are you satisfied I'm talking
sense ? "

"Sonny, it's all right. I'll do any blessed
thing you want, although I hate the idea of
leaving Marumbah to loaf about in Sydney for
six months," and the big man gripped Gerrard

D

50 TOM GERRARD

by his pointed beard, and tugged it affec-
tionately. "I can see that I have thought too
much of myself and too little of others."

" Not a bit ; you were only thinking of
Marumbah. Ted, old man, I think I'll come
back next year, and we'll see the Melbourne
Cup together, hey ? "

" It's a deal ! If you don't come, I'll-
" Kick me when I do come. Time we were
off home, fatty."

Just about midnight, as Gerrard lay on his
bed reading, he heard a low sound of sobbing
from little Mary's room, which adjourned his
own. He rose quietly, stepped to her door,
and gently opened it.

The child was in her nightdress, leaning out
of the window, with her hands outstretched
to the night.

"Oh Jim, Jim, dear Jim! I wish Uncle
Tom had never come to Marumbah. He must
be a godless and wicked man to take you
away from me when I love you. I hate him,
I hate him ! "

Gerrard went back to his room, lit his pipe
and walked out on to the verandah, and paced
slowly up and down, thinking.

" I wish I had 'em both," he said to himself.

CHAPTER VI

THE charming little town of Bowen, on the
shores of the beautiful harbour named Port
Denison, was in the zenith of its glory and
prosperity. There were certainly other towns
in the north of Queensland — Mackay for
instance — which enjoyed the advantage of
being nearer the capital, and so obtaining
more consideration from the Treasury ; but
Bowen, although six hundred miles from
Brisbane, was the most thriving town in the
north, and affected a haughty indifference to
her rivals for supremacy, such as the "sugar"
growing towns of Bundaberg and Mackay to
the south, and the vulgar, upstart, and newly-
founded Townsville to the north.

" With our matchless harbour, surpassed only on
this island continent by that of Sydney," said the
Port Denison Clarion, in one of its inspired and lofty-
languaged leaders, " we can regard with a serene, yet
not discourteous or contemptuous indifference, the
statements of our esteemed, though hasty con-
temporary, the Mackay Planters" Friend, that Bowen
may yet find that the newly-founded hamlet of
Townsville on the shores of Cleveland Bay will ere

51

52 TOM GERRARD

long usurp the claim of beautiful Bowen to be the
natural entrepot for all that vast extent of territory
to the northward and the westward of Port Denison,
and which, ere many decades have passed, will,
through its marvellous agricultural, pastoral, and
auriferous resources, add not a jewel but a corrusca-
tion of blazing and lustrous gems of the most priceless
value to the already glorious crown of that noble lady
upon whose Empire the sun never sets. Townsville
is simply a collection of humpies and shanties built
upon an ill-smelling mud bank. We have personally
satisfied ourselves that unless some enterprising
British capitalist can convert the only available
possession of Townsville (which is mud, and bad
mud at that) into bricks, which, perhaps, may be used
for the minor classes of buildings which must of
necessity soon be built for the accommodation of
the poorer classes of working men who, in their
thousands, will soon be established in Bowen, Towns-
ville will no more prove a factor towards the develop-
ment of this great country of North Queensland than
the numerous alligators in the Burdekin River will
be employed by the municipality of Bowen as paid
scavengers, and be provided brass badges, dust
shovels, and other such implements to denote their
vocation. As for the other assertions of the editor of
the Planters' Friend^ we, with all kindliness, should
like to point out that the Friend is the organ of the
Sugar Planters ; it sees nothing beyond Sugar ;
Sugar is its God, its Mokanna, and (incidentally) we
may remark that Rum is a product resulting from
the manufacture of the saccharine plant, and we fear
that many samples of this aromatic liquid may have
found their way into the editorial sanctum of our

TOM GERRARD 53

esteemed and valued contemporary in Mackay. At
least, we judge so when a dirty, ill-smelling mud bank
is compared with one of the most noble evidences of
God's handiwork — Port Denison ! "

To such a courteous reproof as this, the
Planters Friend would invariably make the
same reply in the form of a leaderette of ten
or twenty lines, enclosed in a square of black
to denote mourning :

" Our esteemed Bowen contem-
porary has ' got 'em ' again. We
are sorry we cannot do any more
than again, in the most kindly spirit,
urge him to try the Dr Jordan cure,
an advertisement of which will be
found on page 3. We have personal
knowledge of a case of the rescue from
utter wreck and degradation of one
of the brightest intellects of the
present century by the use of the
Jordan system ; and as the price is
but trifling, it should be within easy
access of our squatter-adoring con-
temporary."

To these vaguely-worded, funereal-encom-
passed remarks, the Clarion would retort :

" No one who believes in the trite but, nevertheless,
ail-powerfully true assertion that the Press is the

54 TOM GERRARD

Archimidean lever which moves the world, cannot
but regret the unblushing statement of the editor
of our esteemed contemporary, the Planters' Friend,
that he has been the victim of a soul-destroying,
home-wrecking, and accursed habit, which that gifted
American, Colonel Robert Ingersoll, has, in words
of fiery eloquence, called 'the treacherous, insidious
murderer of home and happiness ; the Will-o'-the-
Wisp that draws honour, genius, and all that is good
into its fatal, deadly quagmire.' To the assertion
that our valued contemporary is ' the possessor of one
of the brightest intellects of the present century ' (as
he so modestly informs us) we do not cavil at for one
moment. But even the patients under the Jordan
(American quack) system may have relapses ; and,
when the Planters' Friend can calmly publish two
columns of leaded matter insinuating that a mud
bank on the shores of Cleveland Bay is to become
the leading port of North Queensland, we can but
regretfully infer that the Jordan cure is not entirely
satisfactory, and that even the 'brightest intellects'
suffer terrible and deplorable relapses."

These journalistic amenities were accorded
serious attention by the society of Bowen,
which, by reason of the many Government
officials established there, considered itself
very exclusive. The majority of these
officials were connected with the law, for
Bowen was the proud possessor of not only
a resident judge, but also a new courthouse
of such ample dimensions that the whole
population of the town could have been

TOM GERRARD 55

accommodated therein. How the numerous
barristers, solicitors, and the smaller legal
fry lived was a mystery. Perhaps, like the
mythical French town whose population sup-
ported themselves by doing each other's
washing, the legal gentry of Bowen existed
by performing each other's clerical work.
Next in numbers — though not in social
standing — were the Government officials
connected with the Harbour and Lights
Department, and "The Jetty." The Jetty
was one of Bowen's triumphs ; was over
a quarter of a mile long, cost twenty
thousand pounds to build, and was costing
four thousand pounds a year to keep in order,
and enable the staff of engineers, inspectors,
etc., to dress in a gentlemanly style, and
maintain their prestige as officials of higher
importance than the Customs officers, of
whom Bowen was provided with six, all
dressed very becomingly, and all more or
less related to members of the Queensland
Cabinet — as a matter of fact it would have
been a difficult task to find any male person
in the Government service in Bowen — from
His Honour Judge Coker to Paddy Shea,
the letter - carrier, who was not connected
with, or did not owe his position to a member
of the Ministry. And Bowen revelled in the
knowledge that Brisbane and the Legislature

56 TOM GERRARD

dared not refuse Bowen any reasonable request,
for already there was a dark rumour concern-
ing Separation — the division of the colony
into North and South — and the Clarion had
warned the " inert and muddling Government "
of the colony "that unless the just and
courteous request of the telegraphic staff of
the Bowen Repeating Office for a punkah is
acceded to without further circumlocution, the
growing movement in favour of Separation
will be openly advocated by this journal.
Already (of this we have private know-
ledge) has Lord Kimberley expressed himself
astonished at the heartless refusal of our
benighted Colonial Secretary and Treasurer
to grant the insignificant sum of two hundred
pounds to the necessitous widow of Samuel
Wilson, who was killed by being run over by
a trolley on our beautiful jetty. Does the
Colonial Secretary know the meaning of
the word NEMESIS ? Let him ponder ! "

The appearance of Bowen at this time of
latent agitation for Separation and open and
undisguised animosity to the "upstart collec-
tion of humpies on a mud bank in Cleveland
Bay," was pleasing in the extreme. Wide,
tree-planted, grassy streets, kept scrupulously
clean, handsomely - built bungalows, enclosed
in gardens containing tropical and sub-tropical
plants (the residences of the officials and

TOM GERRARD 57

their families), a court-house and other public
buildings of such size and ornate construc-
tion that they surpassed those of any other
town in the colony, except the capital ; an
environment of back country grateful to look
upon, and a harbour of surpassing beauty.

The editor of the Clarion, despite his
inflated leaders, was a thoroughly sensible
man, who fully recognised the potentialities
of the port, and yet saw that it was doomed
to sink into comparative insignificance, and
that the "collection of humpies on a mud
bank " was to be the future capital of the Far
North. But he struggled on gamely. He was
a genial, merry-hearted old bachelor, who had
once loved his paper as a mother loves her
one child, and had spent his capital of two
thousand pounds in trying to keep the town
alive as long as possible. A refined, highly-
educated man, he was obliged — after two years'
bitter financial experience — to resort to the
type of journalism prevalent amongst Australian
country newspapers ; otherwise he could not
have made a living. But he despised the
very people for whom he was apparently
fighting so strenuously, and often savagely
reproached himself for having turned aside
from the straight path.

"Thank Heaven, I'm not married!" he said
to himself one evening, as throwing himself

58 TOM GERRARD

down upon a couch in his bedroom at the
Queen's Hotel, he began to glance through
a bundle of exchanges which he had brought
from the office, and in a few minutes a smile
spread over his face, as he read the following
in the Rockhampton Bulletin :

" The Bowen Clarion is making a game
effort to bolster up that little tin-pot town-
ship with its coterie of highly-paid, useless
officials, who for six years past have battened
on the public revenues. It was the misfortune
of a representative of this journal to be
obliged to spend two weeks in Port Denison
not long since, and his terse description of
the spot and its inhabitants deserves a place
in the guide book of the colony which has
yet to be written. Bowen is a delightfully
laid-out town, on the shores of Port Denison.
It is inhabited by some six hundred people
— mostly official loafers and spongers of the
worst type. The community consists of boozy
squatters, snobbish wives of snobbish officials,
anaemic old maids, obsequious tradesmen on
the verge of insolvency, and two respectable
and hard-working persons — the latter are
Chinamen. The ' tony ' society of Bowen
is about as lively and intelligent as that of
a decaying Cathedral town in the old country.
The atmosphere of matchless snobbery and
vulgarity that pervades Bowen can be per-
ceived by the passing voyager many miles
out at sea."

TOM GERRARD 59

" By Jove ! he's not far wrong," commented
the editor, as putting down the paper he
took up another, and had just ripped off the
the cover, when the chambermaid tapped at
the door, then entered with a card.

" The gentleman wishes to see you
particularly, sir."

He took the card from the tray, and read,

THOMAS GERRARD.
OCHO Rios.

beneath was written, " Urgently desires to
see the editor of the Clarion on business of
importance."

"Ask him to come in, Milly," he said as
he kicked a chair into position.

CHAPTER VII.

"How do you do, Mr Gerrard?" he said, as
with outstretched hand he met his visitor at
the door. " I am glad to meet Ted Westonley's
brother-in-law at last. How is he ? "

"Very well, indeed, when I last saw him,"
replied Gerrard, as he sat down, and Lacey
rang the bell.

" I have not seen him for ten years," said
the editor. "Ah, here you are, Milly! What
will you take, Mr Gerrard ? You must excuse
my rig" (he was in his pyjamas) ; " but it's so
infernally hot that I always get into these the
minute I'm back in my room. When did you
arrive ? "

" Only an hour ago, in the Tinonee"

" Going back to your station, I suppose ?
By the way, aren't you — or is it Jardine ?—
who is the ' furthest north ' cattle man ? "

" Jardine ; but his station is on the east
side. I'm on the west; the Gulf side, between
the Batavia River and Duyfhen Point."

Lacey looked admiringly at the well-knit
figure and handsome, tanned face of his visitor.
"Well, the climate up there can't be as bad

eo

TOM GERRARD 61

as it is painted. I never saw a man look better
than you do."

" Oh ! the climate doesn't hurt me now. I've
had my share of fever of course ; so has every-
one on Ocho Rios. The niggers are our chief
trouble."

" Ah ! no doubt. By the way, Aulain, of the
Black Police is down here on sick leave. He'll
be glad to see you."

" And I him. He's a fine fellow, isn't he ? "

" A whiter man — or a better gentleman —
never put foot in a stirrup. I've got to like
him very much. And he thinks no end of you.
Says you're the best scrub rider he ever saw."

Gerrard laughed. " ' Praise from him is
praise indeed.' All I can say is that I have
never seen anyone who can go through scrub
or thick timber like Randolph Aulain. Where
is he staying ? "

" Here — at the Queen's. He's had a terrible
time with fever, and can't do more than sit up.
We'll go and see him presently."

' Oh, yes ! But I want to speak to you on
a matter of some importance first. That is
why I have ventured to come to your hotel.
I did go to the Clarion office, but just missed
you."

" I'm only too delighted to see you, even if
you were not Westonley's brother-in-law.
You know that he and I were at Rugby

62 TOM GERRARD

together, and then at Oxford ? But, before I say
anything else, when does your steamer leave ? "

"This afternoon at four o'clock; but I am
not going on in her. I'm in somewhat of a
hole, and I felt sure you would assist me."

" Indeed I will. I'm not flush. This blessed
rag of mine doesn't pay, but I can raise a
hundred from the bank here."

Gerrard laughed. " No, not that, Mr
Lacey. I'm not 'broke,' and it is not money
I want. At the same time I appreciate your
generosity. Ted has often told me you would
do any mortal thing for a friend in need."
He paused, and then began, "Mr Lacey—

"Drop the 'Mr' please."

" Well, then, Lacey, I want your advice and
assistance. Do you know any decent family
here who would take care of a boy of eleven
years of age for about a fortnight ? "

The editor of the Clarion tugged thoughtfully
at his long, white moustache for a few moments.
" Yes, I think I do know of such a family.
I used to board with them when I first came
to this infernal hole. Their name is Woodfall.
The father is a dairyman here, and a very
decent hard-working man. His wife is a
thoroughly, good honest woman, and they
have no children. I think they would be
suitable people ; and I'm sure would look after
the boy very well. Where is he ? "

TOM GERRARD 63

" On board the steamer, just now, waiting
for me. I'll tell you how I'm fixed. The
youngster is an orphan who was living with
my brother-in-law at Marumbah. I took a
great fancy to him, and as my sister did not
care much for the young 'un, though Ted did,
I persuaded Ted to let me, have him to ' father. '
I should have liked to have had my poor sister
Mary's little girl — you know that my sister died
soon after her husband and my father and
mother all went together in the Cassowary —
but, of course, I couldn't bring her away from
civilisation — there's no white woman within
two hundred miles of Ocho Rios." Then he
went on telling his host the history of Jim,
from the time Westonley had brought him
away from Newcastle to the present. Lacey
listened with interest.

"Well, a few weeks ago in Sydney I met
a Mrs Tallis, a widow. Her husband was a
squatter, and died a few months ago in
Sydney."

" I knew him. His station is called Kaburie
— it is between here and Mackay — and is a
rattling good cattle run."

" Yes. She wants to sell it. I suppose the
poor little woman doesn't like going back to
the place now. However now I'm coming to
the point. I've an idea that it might suit
me as a breeding station, and told her I would

64 TOM GERRARD

stop at Bowen, and go and look at it. Now
it would suit me very well if I could leave my
protdgt here for a couple of weeks, as the
young scamp has managed to sprain his wrist
on board, and so can't very well come with me,
though I should like to take him very much."

"The Woodfalls will take him, I'm sure.
And I will look after him as well. Now, will
you come and see Aulain for a few minutes ?
Then I'll take you up to Mrs Woodfall."

Aulain, a strikingly handsome, slightly-built,
olive-faced man, with jet - black beard and
moustache, was delighted to see Gerrard.

" Hallo ! old ' Tom-and-Jerry,' I'm glad to
see you again. Sit down and tell me o' the
wondrous sights o' Sydney and Melbourne.
Heavens, man, I wish I could get away down
South for six months."

They remained talking for half an hour,
during which time Gerrard told Aulain the
reason of his stopping at Bowen.

" By Jove ! old fellow, I shall be glad if you
buy Kaburie, for you'll have to put in some
of your time there, of course, and I've applied
for a removal from the Cape York District to
Port Denison. I'm sick to death of nigger
chasing in the Far North, and want to be some-
where where I can feel I'm not entirely an
outcast from the world, with no one to talk
to but my own black troopers, any one of

TOM GERRARD 65

whom would put a bullet into my back if I
turned rusty."

"Oh, well, I think it is pretty certain I shall
buy Mrs Tallis's station. I like Ocho Rios
very well, but now, since this last trip of mine
South, I feel as you do — I want to be a little
less out of the world. I might, perhaps, sell
Ocho Rios, and fix myself at Kaburie. If I
don't, I'll put a manager there, and keep the
place going, for I have a great belief that
there will be some rich gold discoveries in
the Batavia River country before long — and
thousands of meat-hungry diggers means pots
of money to a cattleman."

" I'm certain, too, that there will be some
big fields opened up that way soon," said
Aulain. " In that valise of mine, there under
the bed, are three or four ounces of alluvial
gold which my troopers and I washed out in
one day at the head of a little creek running
into the Batavia."

" Place with a hunking big boulder stand-
ing up in the middle of a deep pool, with a
lot of fish in it?" queried Gerrard.

"Yes; but how the deuce did you come
across it? I've never seen a beast of yours
within fifty miles of it — the country is too
rough even for cattle — and I thought that my
troopers and I were the first that ever saw

the place."

E

66 TOM GERRARD

" When were you there ? "

"About a month after you left Ocho Rios
for Sydney."

"Well, my dear little laddie, I was there a
year ago, camped there for a couple of days,
and did a little washing out — with two quart
billy cans for a dish."

"Get anything?"

" Seven ounces, sonny ; mostly in coarse
gold too."

Aulain whistled. "And you never went
back there?"

" No ! I never had the time for one thing ;
another reason was that it would not have
paid me to have left my station for the sake
of a few hundred pounds' worth of gold, and
thirdly, although I know a little about alluvial
mining, I don't know anything about reefing—
wouldn't know a gold-bearing reef from a
rank duffer, unless I saw the gold sticking up
in it in lumps. And there are several parties
of prospectors up in Cape York Peninsula now,
and some of them are sure to make their way
to the Batavia River country in the course
of time. If any come to my place I'll give
them all the help I can. I'd like to see a really
good gold-field discovered near Ocho Rios ; it
would mean thousands of pounds to me."

"Of course it would. But, I say, Gerry,
old fellow," and here Aulain paused. "Will

TOM GERHARD 67

you do me a favour ? Oh, no, hang it ! " and
he stopped suddenly.

" What is it, Aulain ? "

The Inspector's sallow face flushed. " I
don't think it is fair to ask you, as it will
perhaps affect your interests."

" Don't be an ass ! What is it ? "

Lacey rose, thinking that Aulain hesitated
to speak on account of him being present, but
Aulain begged him to stay, and then said :

"Well, I'll tell you what it is, Gerry. Will
you keep it dark about that little creek up
there; for six months anyway."

" Certainly, I will."

"You see, Gerry, it's this way. I'm sick
to death of life in the Black Police, and as
soon as I get over this fever, I think I'll resign
and try my luck at mining. I can't live on
my salary, and I have no backstair's influence
in Brisbane to get me anything better in the
Government service ; and only this morning
I was thinking of that very place where we
both got gold. There are reefs all about
the head of that creek, and every one of
them carries payable gold. And so if you
will keep it dark I stand a good chance of
not only getting the usual Government reward
of five thousand pounds for the discovery of
a payable gold - field, but can peg out my
reward claim beforehand."

68 TOM GERRARD

" My dear old chap, I shall be only too
pleased. And, look here, why not send in
your resignation right away, and then after
I've finished this business at Kaburie, come
away with me. There will be a steamer here
in a fortnight, which will take us to Somerset,
and from there we can get to Ocho Rios in
one of the pearling luggers. We shall find
plenty of them lying up at Somerset at this
time of the year, and it will be a better and
easier way of getting to my place than having
to buy horses at Somerset, and travelling a
hundred and fifty miles across the peninsula."

Aulain shook his head. "It is a very
tempting offer, Gerry ; but I can't accept it.
I am obliged to wait six months after sending
in my resignation before I can leave the
service ; it is a hard and fast rule."

"I'm awfully sorry, Aulain," said Gerrard ;
" however, when you do come, you will, of
course, make my place your headquarters.
Don't buy any horses when you get to
Somerset ; I can lend you all you want. Now
I must be off with Lacey. I'll see you when
I get back from Kaburie in a week or ten days,
and we'll have long yarns together, as I shall
remain in Bowen until the next steamer for
Somerset calls."

"Right! Oh, by-the-way, Gerry, on your
way to Kaburie you will have to pass a little

TOM GERRARD 69

mining camp called Eraser's Gully. Will you
leave a letter there for me ? I'll have it written
by the time you come back from Woodfalls."

As soon as Lacey and Gerrard were out in
the street, the latter returned to his companion
with a smile. " So you are to play Mercury
for Aulain ? "

" Am I ? Who is she ? "

"A Miss Kate Eraser. Her father is a
friend of mine, and Aulain and she are
engaged — at least I think so. But I have
heard that there is a parson in the running,
and I don't wonder — for she is a splendid girl."

A walk of a mile brought them to Woodfall's
house. Both Woodfall and his wife were at
home, and Lacey at once entered into the
subject of Jim.

"Certainly, Mr Gerrard, we'll take the boy
and be glad to have him. But we won't take
payment," said Mrs Woodfall, a big-shouldered
woman with a pleasant, sunburnt face. " Joe,
get the buggy, and I'll drive down to the
steamer at once with Mr Gerrard."

Two hours later, Jim was installed at the
Woodfall's, and Gerrard was on his way to
Kaburie.

CHAPTER VIII

ALONG one of the many densely-wooded spurs
of Cape Conway, which rears its bold front
from out the pale green waters of Repulse Bay,
a young girl was riding a wild-eyed, long-maned
and sweating bay filly, which, newly broken in,
had been making the most frantic efforts to
unseat its rider, whose dark brown hair,
escaping from under the light Panama hat she
wore, had fallen down upon her shoulders.

At the summit of the spur there was an open
grassy space, free of timber, and commanding
a view seaward, and along the coast north and
south for many miles. Here the girl drew rein
and dismounted, deftly whipped her hair into
a loose coil, quickly took off the saddle, placed
it, seat down, upon the ground so that it might
dry under the hot sun, and then slipping the bit
from the horse's mouth, let the animal graze
with loose bridle.

" There, my fractious young lady," she said,
" you can feed, and as you feed, I hope you
will consider the error of your ways, and give
up any more attempts to buck me off. You
ought to know me better by this time."

70

TOM GERHARD 71

From a leather saddle-bag she took out some
slices of beef and damper, and leisurely began
to eat, her dark brown eyes dreamily scanning
the blue sea before her, and then resting on
the green, verdured hills of Whitsunday Island,
away to the northward, with little beaches of
shining white nestling at the heads of many
a quiet bay, whose shores were untrodden,
except by the feet of the black and savage
aborigines inhabiting the mainland. Far out
to sea, and between Whitsunday Passage and
the Great Barrier Reef, the white sails of five
pearling luggers were glinting in the sun as
they sailed northward to the scene of their
labours in the wild waters of New Guinea
and Torres Straits.

" I wonder how many of those on board will
return," mused the girl aloud as she watched
the little vessels — which looked no larger than
swans. " How many will come back rich, how
many disappointed and yet not undaunted,
ever hopeful, ever daring, ever eager to sail
once more, and face danger and death ; death
day by day and night by night for two long
weary years. And yet — oh, I wish I were a
man. I believe I am a man — a man in heart
and will and strength of mind and body, and
yet a woman. And for father's sake I ought
to have been born a boy." She sighed, and
leaning her chin on her hand gazed longingly

72 TOM GERRARD

at the tiny fleet and wished she — a man — were
at the tiller of one of the luggers, listening to
the tales of the bronze-faced, bearded pearl-
shellers ; tales of mighty pearls worth
thousands of pounds, of fierce encounters
with the treacherous savages of New Guinea,
and the mainland of Australia; of fearful
hurricanes and dreadful dangers ashore and
afloat, and then peaceful, happy days of rest
in the far-away isles of Eastern Polynesia ;
before the newly-discovered beds of pearl shell
in Torres Straits lured them away from the
calm seas and palm-clad atolls of the Paumotus
and Manahiki and Tongarewa.

The grazing filly suddenly raised her shapely
head and pricked up her ears, and listened ;
and, in an instant, the girl sprang up and took
a Smith and Wesson revolver from her saddle.
The blacks about Repulse Bay and Whitsunday
Passage had an evil reputation, and many an
unfortunate stockman or digger had been
slaughtered by them when camped in apparent
security ; even within a few score miles of such
towns as Bowen and Mackay.

With the filly she listened, and then smiled
as she heard the sound of a horse's feet coming
along the track through the scrub. In a few
moments horse and rider appeared, and the girl
slipped her weapon into the pocket of her short
riding skirt.

TOM GERHARD 73

" How do you do, Miss Eraser ? " cried the
newcomer as he jumped off his horse and
hurried up to her with outstretched hand and
an eager light in his eyes; "this is a pleasant
surprise. I was on my way to see your father,
and when riding along the beach below caught
sight of your filly feeding on the bluff. I knew
that it could be no one but you who would
camp here, so instead of going on to Eraser's
Gully, I turned off; and here I am."

"And I am very glad to see you, Mr
Forde," said the girl, as she shook hands ;
" now, will you have something to eat ? I have
plenty of Eraser's Gully fare here — beef and
damper — and I've tea and sugar in my saddle-
bag."

" So have I. And now, whilst I light a fire,
tell what brought you here to-day ? To look
at the sea — the ' ever treacherous sea ' — I
suppose, and ' wish you were a man,' " and the
speaker smiled into the brown eyes.

" You are very rude, Mr Forde ; the rudest
clergyman I ever met. Certainly, I've only

met three in my life, but then " Here the

brown eyes lit up laughingly. "They were
different from you."

" I have no doubt about it," and the man
laughed like a boy, as taking up some dead
sticks he broke them across his knee. " But
you haven't told me how it is I am so fortunate

74 TOM GERRARD

as to find you here — fifteen miles off the track
to Eraser's Gully."

" Oh ! the old story. Some of our horses are
missing, and I have been trying to pick up
their tracks."

Forde, with an earnest look in his blue eyes,
looked up from the fire he was kindling, and
shook his head gravely. "You should not
venture so far away, Miss Fraser. How can
you tell but that whilst you are trying to pick
up the horses' tracks that the blacks about
Repulse Bay are not now engaged in picking
up yours ? "

" Oh, I am not afraid of any of the myalls l
about Whitsunday Passage and Repulse Bay,
Mr Forde. I really believe that if I rode
into one of their camps they would not bolt.
Poor wretches ! I do feel sorry for them when
I know how they are harried and shot down
— so often without cause — by the Native
Police. Oh, I hate the Native Police! How
is it, Mr Forde, that the Government of this
colony can employ these uniformed savages
to murder — I call it murder — their own race ?
Every time I see a patrol pass, I shudder ;
their fierce, insolently-evil faces, and the horrid
way they show the whites of their eyes when
they ride by with their Snider carbines by their
sides, looking at every tame black with such
1 Wild blacks.

TOM GERHARD 75

a savage, supercilious hatred ! And their
white officers — oh, how can any man who
pretends to be a gentleman, and calls himself
a Christian, descend to such an ignominious
position as to lead a party of black troopers?
If I were a man, and had to become a sub-
inspector of Native Police, I would at least
blacken my face so as to hide my shame when
I rode out with my fellow-murderers and cut-
throats."

Her eyes, filled with tears as they were,
flashed with scorn as she spoke. The clergy-
man looked admiringly at her as he put his
hand on her arm.

"You must remember, Miss Fraser, that
the wild blacks on this coast have committed
some dreadful murders. How many settlers,
miners, and swagmen have been ruthlessly
slaughtered ? "

"And how many hundreds of these un-
fortunate savages have been ruthlessly
slaughtered, not only by the Black Police,
but by squatters and stockmen, who deny the
poor wretches the right to exist? We have
taken away their hunting grounds ! We shoot
them down as vermin, because, impelled by
the hunger that we have brought upon them,
they occasionally spear a bullock or horse or
two ! Why cannot the Government do as my
father suggests — reserve a long strip of country

76 TOM GERRARD

for these poor savages, just a small piece of
God's earth that shall be inviolate from the
greedy squatter, the miner, the sugar planter?
And let the wretched beings at least live and
die a natural death."

The clergyman's face flushed as he listened
to her passionate words. "It is, I believe,
impossible to segregate the coastal tribes of
the Australian mainland. The cost of such
an attempt would, in the first place, be
enormous ; in the second, the people of the
colony "

" The people, Mr Forde ! You mean the
squatters, the sugar-planters, the land-devour-
ing swarm of 'Christians,' who think that a
bullock's hide, worth twenty shillings, is of
more moment than the welfare of thousands
of poor, naked savages, whose country we
have taken, and yet of whom we make beasts
of burden — hewers of wood and drawers of
water. Oh, if I were only a man ! "

" But you are, instead, a beautiful girl,
Miss Fraser."

" Don't pay me any compliments, Mr Forde,
or I shall begin to dislike you, and work you a
pair of woollen slippers like English girls do in
novels for the pale-faced, ascetic young curates,
with their thin hands, and the dark, melancholy
eyes."

Forde laughed heartily this time, and held

TOM GERRARD 77

out his own hands jestingly for her inspection ;
they were as brawny and sunburned as those
of any stockman or working miner, and were
in keeping with his costume, which was
decidedly unclerical. For he only wore his
clerical "rig" when visiting towns sufficiently
populous for him to hold services therein. At
the present time he was clad in the usual
Crimean shirt, white moleskins, and brown
leather leggings, and the grey slouched felt
hat affected by most bushmen. His valise,
however, contained all that was necessary —
even to the wreck of a clerical hat — to turn
himself into the orthodox travelling clergyman
of the Australian bush.

" Ah ! I was only joking, Mr Forde, as you
know. You are not the usual kind of ' parson.'
That is why father — and everyone else — likes
you. Then, too, you can ride — I mean sit a
horse as an Australian does ; and you smoke a
pipe, and — oh, I wonder, Mr Forde, that you
never married ! Now I am sure that Mrs
Tallis admires you. In fact she told me so,
and Kaburie is a lovely station, and "

The clergyman laughed again. " Thank
you, Miss Fraser. I'm afraid I should not
have courage enough to propose to a brand-
new widow even if I was sure she would say
'yes." Then he added quietly, "There is
only one woman in the world for me ; and I

78 TOM GERRARD

have not even dared let her know I care for
her. I want her to get to know me a little
better. And then a bush parson is not a very
eligible parti"

" Oh ! I don't see why not, though I don't
think /should like to marry a clergyman."

"Why?" He asked the question with such
sudden earnestness that she looked up.

" Oh ! one would have to visit such a lot of
disagreeable women, and be at least civil to

o

them. Take old Mrs Piper for instance. She
gave fifty pounds towards the little church built
at Boorala, and made your predecessor's life
miserable for the two years he was in the
district. She told him that she strongly dis-
approved of single clergymen ' under any
circumstances,' and tried to make the un-
fortunate man propose to Miss Guggin, who
is forty if she's a day, and poor Mr Simpson
was only twenty-five."

" No wonder he fled the country."

" No wonder, indeed ! Then there are the

Treverton family at Boorala ; very rich and

highly respectable, though old Treverton was a

notorious cattle duffer1 in Victoria. Father

says that Mr Treverton would have made

the patriarch Jacob die with envy. He started

from Gippsland with a team of working bullocks,

six horses, and twenty-four cows and calves to

1 Cattle stealer.

TOM GERRARD 79

take up new country on the Campaspe River,
and, in six months' journey overland, his herd
of cattle had increased to a thousand head
— most of them full-grown, and by some
mysterious agency they were branded ' T ' as
well ! And the six horses had multiplied to an
astonishing extent ; from six they had grown
to fifty, all in six months ! And now Joseph
Treverton, Esq., J.P., and Member of the
Legislative Assembly, is one of the richest
squatters in the North, and the Misses
Treverton speak of their ' papa ' as ' one of
the very earliest pioneers of the pastoral
industry in North Queensland, you know.' "

The girl's frank sarcasm delighted Forde,
the more so as he knew that what she had
said was perfectly true.

. "Well, it is a new country, you see, Miss
Fraser, and "

Just then the two horses raised their heads
and neighed, and Forde, going to the edge of
the bluff, saw a horseman coming along the
beach in a direct line for where they were
camped.

" We are to have company, Miss Fraser.
There is some one riding direct for the bluff."

CHAPTER IX

IN less than half-an-hour the new-comer, who
was walking his horse, slowly rode up to the
bluff, and raised his hat to Miss Fraser and
her companion.

" Good-morning ! " he said, as he dismounted.
" I saw you as I was coming along the beach
and so turned off. Am I on the right track for
Kaburie, and Eraser's Gully ? "

"Yes," replied Forde, "this is the turn off
here for both Kaburie and the Gully ; the main
track goes on to Boorala. Will you have some
tea?"

" Thank you, I shall be very glad of a
drink." Then again raising his hat to Kate,
he said, " My name is Gerrard. Are you Miss
Fraser ? "

"Yes," replied Kate smiling, "and you are
Mr Gerrard of Ocho Rios, I am sure, for I
have seen your photograph. But how did you
guess I was Kate Fraser ? "

" I really could not tell you ; but somehow I
felt certain that you were the young lady whom
Mr Lacey described so admiringly to me a
day or two ago."

80

TOM GERRARD 81

"Did he? The dear old man! How nice
of him," and she laughed merrily. " Mr
Gerrard, this is my friend, the Reverend Mr
Forde, of Boorala — and hundreds of other
towns as well."

The two men shook hands, and in a few
minutes Gerrard was conversing with him and
his fair companion as if he had known them
for years, and both Forde and Kate were much
interested in learning the object of his visit to
Kaburie.

" I do hope you will buy Kaburie, Mr
Gerrard," said Kate; "it is a really splendid
station, and I am sure that you will like it
better than your place away up on Yorke's
Peninsula. Of course," she added, with her
usual serene frankness, " I am very, very sorry
that Mrs Tallis is not coming back, for we are
great friends, and always exchanged visits once
a week, and now I shall miss going there very
much. And, oh, the garden of which she was

so proud ! I suppose now " she stopped,

and reddened slightly.

" Go on, please," said Gerrard with assumed
gravity, though his eyes were smiling.

"I was about to be rude enough to say that
most men don't care much for flowers."

" If I buy Kaburie, Miss Fraser, I will come
to you, cap in hand, and humbly beg you to
instruct me what to do ; and furthermore, I

F

82 TOM GERRARD

promise that when you say ' do this ' it shall be
done."

"You are undertaking a big contract, Mr
Gerrard," said Forde with a laugh, as he rose
to go to his horse ; " you will have to send to
Sydney for a Scotch gardener."

As soon as the clergyman was out of hearing
Gerrard, who had remembered Lacey's remark
about "a parson being in the running," said
quietly.

" I certainly am a most forgetful man, Miss
Eraser, and ask your forgiveness. Here is a
letter for you, which my friend Aulain asked
me to deliver to you."

The girl blushed deeply as she took the
letter, for she instinctively divined that Gerrard
had purposely deferred giving her the letter
whilst Forde was with them. And from that
moment she liked him.

"Thank you, Mr Gerrard," she said, as she
placed the letter in the pocket of her skirt. "Is
Mr Aulain any better ? "

"Yes, but he won't be 'fit' for another six
weeks or so. He has had a very bad attack of
fever this time. Of course you know that he
and I are old friends ? "

"Oh, yes, indeed! He always writes and
speaks of you as 'old Tom-and- Jerry.' And I
am so really, really glad to meet you, Mr
Gerrard. Randolph says that you are the

TOM GEKRARD 83

finest scrub rider in Australia, and he is
next."

"Ah, no, he is the first, as I told Lacey a
couple of days ago. His own troopers can
hardly follow him when "

" Don't, Mr Gerrard ! I know what you
were about to say," and she shuddered; "but
please do not ever speak to me of Mr Aulain
in connection with the Native Police. I loathe
and detest them, and would rather he were a
working miner or a stockman, than a leader of
such fiends."

" Randolph Aulain is a different stamp of a
man from the usual Inspector, Miss Eraser.
No one has ever accused him of cruelty or
unnecessary severity in discharging his duties."

" It is an ignominious duty, I think, to shoot
and harass the blacks in the manner the
police do," persisted Kate. "When the brig
Maria was lost here on the coast some years
ago, and some of the crew killed by the blacks,
the Government acted most cruelly. The
Native Police not only shot the actual
murderers, but ruthlessly wiped out whole
camps of tribes that were hundreds of miles
away from where the vessel was lost."

Gerrard nodded. " So I heard. But I can
assure you, Miss Fraser, that the Native
Police under men like Aulain, can, and do,
good service. The blacks in this part of the

84 TOM GERRARD

colony are bad enough, but on Cape York
Peninsula, they are worse — daring and ferocious
cannibals. The instinct to slay all strangers is
inborn with them. Some of the tribes on the
Batavia River district I believe to be absolutely
untamable."

"Would you shoot a black - fellow, Mr
Gerrard, for spearing a horse or bullock ? "

" No, certainly not ! But you see, Miss
Eraser, we squatters would not mind them
killing a beast or two for food occasionally,
but they will spear perhaps thirty or forty, and
so terrify a large mob of cattle that they will
seek refuge in the ranges, and eventually
become so wild as to be irrecoverable. I can
put down my losses alone from this cause at
over a thousand head. Then, again, two of my
stockmen were killed and eaten three years
ago ; and this necessitated inflicting a very
severe punishment."

The girl sighed, but said no more on the
subject.

" You will stay with us to-night, will you
not, Mr Gerrard ? " she said as Forde returned.
"It will be so pleasant for father and me to
have both Mr Forde and you with us for the
night."

"Thank you, I will, with pleasure. Perhaps
your father — and you too — will come on to
Kaburie with me in the morning, show me the

TOM GERRARD 85

ropes, and tell me something about the country.
And then you can see how the garden looks as
well."

Kate's eyes brightened. " Indeed, we will !
I love Kaburie. When we heard that it was
to be sold, father tried to lease it from poor
Mrs Tallis, but she wanted to sell outright, so
father has to keep ' pegging av/ay ' at the
claim, and our old rattle-trap of a crushing
mill. But some day, perhaps, we shall ' strike
it rich ' as the miners say."

The horses were again saddled, and the party
set out on their way, riding single file along
the narrow bush track towards the ranges in
which the little mining camp was situated.
The sun was well towards the west when they
came in sight of the rough, bark-roofed shed
with uncovered sides, which contained the
battery plant, and Eraser's equally unpretentious
dwelling, which, with three or four miners'
huts constituted the camp. A bright, brawling
little mountain stream, with high banks lined
with the graceful whispering she-oaks, gave a
pleasant and refreshing appearance to the
scene, and the clash and rattle of the heavy
stampers as they crushed the golden quartz,
echoed and re-echoed among the rugged tree
clad range.

A big, broad-shouldered man of about sixty
years of age, who was engaged in thrusting

86 TOM GERRARD

a log of ironbark wood into the boiler furnace,
turned as he heard Forde's loud coo-e-e ! and
came towards them. He was bareheaded, and
clad in a coarse flannel singlet, and dirty mole-
skin pants, with knee-boots ; and his perspiring
face was streaked with oil and grease from the
engine. Taking a piece of cotton- waste from
his belt, he wiped his hands leisurely as the
three travellers dismounted.

" Father," said Kate, " I couldn't find the
horses. But I ' found ' Mr Forde, and this is
Mr Gerrard, who is going to Kaburie, and
who has promised to camp here to-night."

" Glad to see you," and the big man shook
hands with Gerrard ; " how are you, Forde ?
Get along up to the house, Kate, and I'll follow
you soon. Give Forde and Mr Gerrard towels.
I daresay they'll be glad of a bathe in the creek
before supper. You know where the whisky
is, parson. Help yourself and Mr Gerrard."

" How is she going, father ? " asked Kate.

" Oh ! just the same, about half an ounce
or so."

(" She ", in miners' parlance, was the stone
then being crushed — a crushing is always a
"she." Sometimes "she" is a "bully-boy
with a glass eye ; going four ounces to the ton."
Sometimes "she" is a "rank duffer." Some-
times "she " is "just paying and no more.")

Simple as was the girl's question, Gerrard

TOM GERRARD 87

noted the grey shadow of disappointment in her
dark eyes, as her father replied to it, and a
quick sympathy for her sprung up in his heart
And to Fraser himself he had taken an
instantaneous liking. Those big, light-grey
Scotsman's eyes with their heavy brows of
white overshadowing, and the rough, but genial
voice reminded him of his brother-in-law
Westonley.

" I'll give the old man a lift," he said to
himself, as he walked beside Kate to the house.

"What are you thinking of, Mr Fraser?"
asked Kate, " I really believe you are talking
to yourself."

" Was I ? " he laughed, " it is a habit of mine
that has grown on me from being so much
alone. What a splendid type of a man your
father is, Miss Fraser."

The glance of delight which shone in her
eyes made Tom Gerrard's heart quicken as it
had never before to the voice of any woman.

CHAPTER X

DOUGLAS ERASER was a widower, his wife
having died when Kate was only four years of
age. She was now nineteen, and had been her
father's constant companion and helpmate ever
since the death of her mother. Eraser, who
to all appearance was only the ordinary type
of working miner common to all Australasian
gold-fields, was in reality a highly-educated
man, who had been not only a successful
barrister, but a judge of the District Court of
New South Wales. The death of his wife,
however, to whom he was passionately devoted,
changed the whole course of his existence.
Resigning his appointment, he withdrew himself
absolutely from all society, sold his house and
such other property as he possessed, and then,
to the astonishment of his many warm friends,
disappeared with his little daughter from
Sydney altogether. A year or so later one of
these friends came across him riding down the
main street of the mining township of Gympie
(on the Mary River in Queensland). He was
in the ordinary diggers' costume, and the once
clean-shaved, legal face was now covered with
a rough, strong beard,

88

TOM GERRARD 89

"How are you, Favenc?" said his ex-
Honour the Judge, quietly, as he pulled up his
horse, and dismounted ; " have you too, caught
the gold-field fever, that I see you in Gympie ? "

"No! I'm here on circuit with Judge
Blakeney — Crown- Prosecuting. And how are
you, Eraser ? "

"Oh, very well! I've gone in for mining;
always had a hankering that way. So far I
have had no brilliant success, but hope to get
on to something good in the course of time."

For some years after this he wandered from
one gold-field to another, always getting further
northward, and always accompanied by his
child, to whom he was able to give a good
education, though not in a style that would
have met with the approbation of the principal
of a ladies' school. He had finally settled at
Eraser's Gully, where he had discovered a
large, but not rich reef, and for the past five
years he and some half a dozen miners had
worked it, sometimes doing very well, at others
their labour yielding them a poor return. On
the whole, however, he was making money,
and the life suited him. Very often he would
urge Kate to go to Sydney for a year or two,
and see something of the world, under the care
of her mother's people, but she steadfastly
refused to leave him.

"It would be simply horrible for me, father.

90 TOM GERRARD

I could not stand it for even a month. I am
very, very happy here with you, and only wish
I had more to do."

"You have quite enough I think, little
woman — keeping house for me, milking and
dairy work, and making bread for seven hungry
men."

" I like it. And then I am the only woman
about here now that Mrs Tallis has gone,
and I feel more important than ever. But I
do wish I were a man, and could help you
more than I do."

Between father and daughter there had ever
been the greatest love and confidence, and
their existence, though often monotonous, was a
happy one. To her father's miners, " Miss
Kate " was a fairy goddess, and consternation
reigned among them when one day a passing
Jewish hawker told them that it was rumoured
that Parson Forde was "a stickin' up ter Miss
Fraser, and the match was as good as made."

The men had bought a couple of bottles of
whisky from the hawker when this portentous
announcement was made, and little "Cockney
Smith " the youngest man of the party, who
was just about to drink off the first grog he
had tasted since his semi-annual spree at
Boorala, set it down untouched.

" I thought the bloomin' Holy Joe was a
comin' 'ere pretty frequent," he said, "but

TOM GERRARD 91

didn't think he was after Miss Kate. Well,
all I can say is/' — he raised his glass — "that
suthin'll 'appin to 'im. I 'ope 'e may be
bloomin' well drownded when 'e's crossin' a
creek."

" Shut up, Cockney," growled Sam Young,
an old grey-haired miner, "it's only a Boorala
yarn, and Boorala is as full of liars as the
bottomless pit is full of wood and coal
merchants. And it doesn't become you to call
the parson a Holy Joe. Maybe you've
forgottten that when you busted your last
cheque at Hooley's pub in Boorala, and had
the dilly trimmings, that it was the parson
who brought you back here, you boozy little
swine. Didn't he, boys ? "

" You bet he did," was the unanimous
response.

"And come here and give you four good
nips a day outer his own flask until you was
rid of the green dogs with red eyes, and flamin'
fiery tails that you was screechin' about," went
on Sam, relentlessly. "If she's going to hitch
up with the parson it can't be helped. Anyways
he's the right sort of a sky pilot ; a white man
all over, and can shoe a horse, and do a bit
of bullocking l as well as he can preach."

" Wasn't there some talk about her and the
Black Police officer being engaged ? " said the
1 Hard manual labour.

92 TOM GERRARD

hawker, who was a great retailer of bush
gossip.

"Wasn't there some talk of you havin' done
time for trying to do the fire insurance
people ? " angrily retorted Young, who was
wroth at the hawker's familiar way of speaking
of the goddess of Eraser's Gully.

" It vasn't me at all," protested the hawker.
" It vas another Isaac Benjamin altogether."

"What did he do?" asked Cockney Smith.

" He had a store in Brisbane," said Young,
" and insured the stock for about two thousand
quid,1 and made an awful fuss about his being
so careful of fire. He bought about fifty of
them round glass bottles full of a sort of stuff
called fire exstinker — bottles that you can hang
up on a nail with a bit of string, or put on
shelves, or anywhere, and if a place catches on
fire, they burst, and the exstinker liquid sends
out a sort of gas which puts out a fire in no
time. One'll do the trick.

" Well, this chap — of course it isn't your fault,
I key, that your name is the same as his—
was dead set on getting that two thousand
quid for his stock, which was only worth about
five hundred. But he was such a downy cove
— did you ever come acrost him, I key?"

" No, never," emphatically replied the hawker,
"and he vasn't no relation of mine either."
1 "Quid";£i.

TOM GERRARD 93

" Well, as I was saying, he was always
making a fearful fuss about a fire, and as he
was a member of the Fire Brigade Board, he
was always bringing forward ressylutions at
the Committee meetings for a better water
supply, and all that sort of thing, and he
gave a five pound note to the driver of the
fire engine because he was a temperance man
of fifteen years' standing, and set a noble
example to the Brigade. Did you hear about
that, I key?"

"No, I didn't," answered the hawker un-
easily.

"Well, he did. He hated liquor in any
shape or form, he said, and wouldn't sell any
in his store on no account whatever, and
wanted all the Fire Brigade men and other
public servants to take the pledge. And the
noosepapers said he was a great - hearted
phillyanthropist.

"He had two boys in the store to help
him — was it two, I key?"

" I don't remember, Mr Young. I vas
never much interested in reading about
rogueries of any kind."

" Just so ! Well, one Sunday night one of
the boys came back to the store for suthin'
or other, and he sees you — I mean the feller
as has the same name — emptying out the fire
liquid in the exstinkers, and fillin' 'em up with

94 TOM GERRARD

kerosene. So, being a cute young nipper, he
slips away to the Fire Brigade station and
says to the Superintendent, ' Give me ten bob
an' I'll tell you a secret about I key Benjamin
and his fire exstinkers.' The Super gave him
the money, and the boy tells the yarn, and
about two o'clock in the morning the fire bells
starts ringin', and I key was aroused from a
dead sleep with the noos that his store was
alight in seventeen places, but that the fire-
men was puttin' it out vigorously. How
many years did you — I mean the other cove
—get, I key ? "

"I don't know," replied the hawker, "but
I do know that I must be getting along to
Boorala," and hurriedly gathering together his
effects, he departed in a bad temper.

Young gave his mates a solemn wink, and
then laughed.

"He's the chap, boys; and if he hadn't
started gassin' about Miss Kate, I wouldn't
have started on him. As for what he said
about her and Mr Aulain, there's some truth
in it. The Inspector is dead sweet on her,
I know, but whether she cares for him is
another matter. Anyway she hasn't seen
him for nigh on two years, so I think it must
be off. And you all know what she thinks
of the Nigger Police, don't you?"

TOM GERRARD 95

The arrival of the Goddess of the Gully
with her two companions created quite a little
stir at the camp. As soon as Forde and
Gerrard had finished their refreshing bathe
in the crystal waters of the creek, and returned
to the house, they found Kate had supper
ready. She had changed her riding dress
for a white skirt and blouse, and looked as
Forde said, "divinely cool and refreshing."

" Father will be here in a few minutes,"
she said, as going to a small overmantel she
deftly re-coiled her hair, which had a way
of becoming loose. "What a nuisance is a
woman's hair, isn't it, Mr Gerrard ? Now,
Mr Forde, why don't you say it is her glory ?
Don't be shocked at me, Mr Gerrard, but the
fact is I am short of hair-pins, and this morn-
ing when the filly began bucking, I lost nearly
all I had. I think I shall do my hair a la Suisse."

" I wouldn't if I were you," said her father,
who just then entered after a hasty " wash
down " in a tub placed at the back of the
house, " there are a lot of native dogs about,
and you might lose it."

Both Forde and Gerrard, and Kate as well,
laughed loudly, for they all knew that in the
winter time, when the dingoes1 were hungry
they would often bite off the tails of calves
not oid enough to kick off their assailants.
1 The Australian wild dog.

96 TOM GERRARD

Kate clenched her little sunbrowned hand,
and punched her father on his mighty chest.
" You rude man ! You don't deserve any
supper."

Late in the evening, as Forde and his host
were walking to and fro outside the house,
and Kate was reading Aulain's letter in her
room, Gerrard was stretched out upon his bed,
smoking his pipe, and talking to himself.

" I wish I had never seen you, Miss Kate
Fraser. And I wish Aulain, my boy, that
you were safely married to her. And I wish
that there were two more like you, Miss Kate
—one for me, and one for the parson. And
I wish I was not such an idiot as to wish
anything at all."

CHAPTER XI

JUST as dawn broke, the deep note of a bell-
bird awakened Kate from a somewhat restless
and troubled slumber ; but quickly dressing,
she took up a bucket and set off to the milking-
yard.

The ground and the branches of the trees
above were heavily laden with the night-dew,
and in a few minutes her feet were wet through,
and then, ere she had walked half the distance
to the yard, several long-legged, gaunt kangaroo
dogs, who were watching for their mistress,
made a silent and sudden rush to welcome her,
leaping up and muddying her shoulders with
their wet paws, and making determined efforts
to lick her hair and face.

Presently a loud whistle sounded from some-
where near, and "Cockney Smith" appeared
driving before him two cows, and in an instant
the dogs darted off to him, and let the girl enter
the yard in peace.

''Why, Miss Kate, them 'ere dorgs will bite
the 'ed off 'n you if you don't use a whip on 'em
when they get prancin' around like that," and he
lashed out at them with the whip he carried.

G 97

98 TOM GERRARD

Kate laughed. " Poor doggies ! they badly
want a day's kangarooing, so I must not mind
their roughness. I think, Smith, if we can
only find the missing horses this week we'll
have at least half-a-day's run with the dogs
on Sunday. To-day I am going with my
father to Kaburie."

"Right you are, Miss!" said the young
miner, who, like his mates, revelled in a
kangaroo hunt. " On'y yesterday near the
claim, I seed an old man kangaroo as big as
a house, but er course, bekos I was on foot,
and hadn't got no dorgs with me, 'e took no
more notice of me than if I was a bloomin'
howl. 'E just stood up on 'is 'ind legs, and
looked at me for about five minutes with a
whisp o' grass hangin' outer 'is mouth ; then
'e goes on feedin' has if 'e didn't mind dorgs
or 'orses, or men, and hadn't never heerd o'
kangaroo-tail soup in 'is life."

" Perhaps we may get him next Sunday,
Smith. Now, bail up, Maggie, and if you
try to kick over the bucket you'll feel sorry,
I can assure you," and she smacked a jet
black little cow on the ribs with her strong,
shapely brown hand. The beast put her
head through the bail; "Cockney" quickly-
pinned her in, then secured her "kicking" leg
with a green hide leg-rope, and the Goddess
of the Gully began to milk. " Cockney " stood

TOM GERRARD 99

by watching, pipe in mouth, and waiting till
Kate was ready for the second cow to be
put in the bail.

" Here's Jackey and 'is missus, as usual,
Miss Kate," he said, pointing to the slip rails
of the milking yard, on which a large "laugh-
ing jackass," and his mate had perched, and
were regarding Kate with solemn attention.

" Oh, the poor things ! I forgot their bread
this morning. I was thinking about something
else."

Don't you worry about 'em, Miss," said
Smith, with a grin, "they can take care 'o
themselves, Miss Kate."

"Yes, Smith."

" I went to look at that 'ere guinea hen
what was sittin' on eleven eggs under that
sort o' cotton bush in the 'orse paddock."

" Did you ? The chicks will be out in three
or four days."

"They are out already, Miss; them two
laughin' jackasses 'as heaten up every blessed
egg, and on'y the shells is lef. I thought I
saw 'em flying about the nest, and went to
see."

" Oh, the wretches ! " cried Kate in dismay.

"Next ter halligaters, laughin' jackasses
his the mischievioustest, and cunnin'est things
hin creation," observed Mr Smith; "hif I 'ad
my gun 'ere now I could take 'em both hin

100 TOM GERHARD

a line. Look at 'em setting there like two
bloomin' cheerybims, who 'adn't never seen a
hegg o' any kind but their own."

" Oh, no, don't shoot them, Smith. I feel
very mad with them, but wouldn't hurt them
for the world. They kill and eat such a lot
of snakes — bad snakes, ' bandy-bandies ' and
'black necks.' '

" So I believe, Miss. And perhaps that is
wot fills 'em with such willianly ; they himbibes
the snakes' cunning after they 'as digested 'em.
I onct heerd a naturalist cove as was getting
birds on the Diamantina River say that he was
dead certain there wasn't no laughin' jackasses
in the Garden o' Eding, which was a smokin'
great pity."

"Why?" asked Kate, as she rose, put the
milk bucket aside, and let Smith bail up the
second cow.

" Oh, he says, says he, as he was skinnin' a
jackass which had a two foot whip snake inside
him, ' if one o' you fellers 'ad a been in Eding,
poor Heve wouldn't 'ave got hinter no trouble,
hand we 'uman bein's 'ud go on livin' for hever
like Muthusalum. The old serpant,' says he,
' wouldn't a 'ad the ghost of a show hif han
Australlyian laughin' jackass 'ad copped him
talkin' to Heve, and tellin' 'er it was orlright,
and to go ahead an' heat as much as her
stomach would accomydate. ' '

TOM GERRARD 101

"Oh, I see!" said Kate gravely, "I must
tell that to Mr Forde."

"'E won't mind— 'e'll on'y larf," said Mr
Smith, who was a talkative young man for an
Australian bushman, native to the soil. (The
nickname of " Cockney " had been bestowed
upon him on account of his father being a
Londoner, who, like a true patriot, had left
his country for his country's good.) He was a
good-natured, hard-working man like the rest
of the hands at the camp, but was the "bad
boy " of the community as far as liquor was
concerned. Every three months, when Fraser
" squared up " with his miners, and handed
them their share of the proceeds from the gold
obtained, he gave them all a week's leave to
spend in Boorala, or any other township in the
district. Not more than two or three would
elect to go, but of these Cockney Smith was
always one. On such occasions Kate would
stand at her father's door on the look-out — to
see that Mr Smith did not ride off without
being interviewed.

"How much have you this time, Smith?"
she would ask.

" Forty-five quid, Miss."

" I'll take ten."

" Thirty-five pound don't go far in Boorala,
Miss," he would plead, uneasily.

"It will go far enough for you to see the

102 TOM GERRARD

Police Magistrate, and be fined five pounds, or
take fourteen days for disorderly conduct, and
also enable you to pay that wicked wretch of a
Hooley for the poisonous stuff he gives you to
drink, and keep him from taking your horse
and saddle. In fact I think you might go with
thirty pounds this time."

" Oh, 'Eavens, Miss ! " and Cockney's features
would display horrified astonishment as he
hurriedly handed her ten one-pound notes.
"Why it's the winter meetin' of the Boorala
Jockey Club, and I'll want an extra ten quid
to put on a couple o' 'orses ; one is a bay colt
that won '

" That will do, Smith. You are a bad lot.
You tell me horrible stories. Instead of going
sober to the race-course, you go drunk, and are
robbed, or lose your money, or fight the police,
and "

" Didn't I pull it orf, larst Christmas, Miss,
with Banjo in the 'urdle race ? Didn't I collar
a hundred and five quid from that Melbourne
bookie ? "

"Yes. And what became of it? How
much of it did you bring back ? Just thirty
shillings ! And you couldn't do any work for
nearly two weeks ; and you had delirium
tremens. Now, go away, and if you come
back as you did last time father won't have
any more to do with you — and neither will I."

TOM GERRARD 108

Smith would ride off with his companions.
" She made me ante up ten quid this time," he
would observe — expecting sympathy.

"Well, it's ten pound to the good for you,
you boozing little owl," would be the reply.
For all the men at the camp knew that during
two years Kate had placed various sums to the
credit of Smith at the Boorala bank, and had
extorted a solemn promise from him not to
attempt to write a cheque for even one pound
without her consent. But, as she felt she
could not trust Cockney, she had also taken
the bank manager into her confidence, and asked
him to refuse to honour any cheque drawn by
"the bad lot" unless it had her endorsement.

The bank manager, who was another of Kate's
adorers, promised to observe her wishes. " It's
not banking etiquette, Miss Fraser, but that
doesn't matter in North Queensland. We do
many things that we ought not to do, and if
Smith draws a cheque you may be sure that I
will refuse to pay it as ' signature illegible ' — as
it is sure to be. But I'll lend him a few pounds
if he breaks out again, and is laid up in this
abode of sin, so that he may get home again
to your protecting care."

The milking was finished, and Smith, taking
up the heavy bucket of milk, was just about to
carry it to the house, when he set it down
again.

104 TOM GERRARD

" My word, Miss," he said admiringly, "look
there ; there's that Mr Gerrard a-gallopin' 'is
'orse down to the creek for a swim bareback.
My oath, V can ride."

Kate turned just in time, and saw Gerrard,
who was in his pyjamas with a towel over his
shoulders, disappearing over the ridge at a full
gallop. She did not know that he had risen
long before she had, walked in the grey dawn
to the horse paddock through the dew-soaked
grass, caught his horse, and had been an
interested spectator of her dairy work.

"Yes, Smith, he can ride, as you say. And
his horse wanted a swim after such a hot ride
from Port Denison."

As they walked back to the house, Kate saw
her father coming towards them, and let Smith
go on.

" Father," she said, " I am glad to see you
before breakfast as I shall not perhaps have
a chance to speak to you if we are going to
Kaburie to-day with Mr Gerrard."

"What is it?"

" Mr Aulain has written to me. He wants
me to marry him."

"So does Forde, who asked me for you last
night."

Kate laughed.

" We'll talk about it by and by, my girl,"
said Fraser gravely, as he stroked her head.

TOM GERRARD 105

" There will not be much to talk about,
father," was the decisive answer. " I am
never, never going to leave you for any man
— no matter who he is."

CHAPTER XII

FRASER, his daughter and their two guests
were on the road to Kaburie, and within a few
miles of the turn-off to Boorala. Kate and the
clergymen were together, her father and Gerrard
some hundreds of yards in advance, and all
were walking their horses slowly, for the sun
was beating fiercely down upon them through
the scantily-foliaged gum trees, and Kaburie
was yet twenty miles away. The girl sat in
her saddle with bent head, and there were
traces of tears on her cheeks.

" I am very, very sorry, Mr Forde, for I do like
you very, very much — more than any other man
in the world except my father. You have always
been so kind to him and to me ; but I never
thought that you would ask me to be your
wife. And it hurts me to "

Forde placed his hand on hers. " Never mind,
Kate. It was a foolish dream of mine, that
is all. But you were always the one woman
in the world to me ever since I first met you
two years ago. And it grieves me that I
should have made you shed one single tear."

His calm, steady voice, and the firm

106

TOM GERRARD 107

pressure of his hand reassured her. Her
father had said to her a few hours before that
Forde would take her refusal "like a man,"
and she had replied that she knew it.

She raised her face to his as he bent towards
her, and, on the impulse of a moment, born of
her sincere liking for the man, kissed him.
His bronzed features flushed deeply, and his
whole frame thrilled as their lips met ; and
then he exercised a mighty restraint upon
himself.

" Good-bye, little woman, and God bless
you," he said softly, as he bent over her.

" But why are you going away, Mr Forde ?
Father will be so distressed, and so indeed
will be everybody — for hundreds of miles
about."

Forde had drawn himself together again,
and swinging his right foot out of the stirrup
sat "side-saddle" and lit his pipe.

" Well, you see, Kate, my mother has left
me two thousand pounds or so. It was that
that gave me pluck enough to speak to your
father last night. I thought I would go to
him first. Perhaps I made a mistake ? "

" No, indeed ! He told me all that you said
to him, and — oh ! Mr Forde, we shall all miss
you so much," and as she spoke her eyes filled
with tears again. He looked at the gum tree
branches overhead, and went on meditatively,

108 TOM GERRARD

apparently not taking heed of her emotion,
though his heart was filled with love for the
girl, who with bent head, rode by his side.

" And I shall miss much — much out of my
life when I leave this part of the colony,
Kate. But I was never intended to be a
clergyman. I was driven into the Church
by my mother — good, pious soul — who,
because my father was in the Church, con-
demned me to it, instead of letting me follow
my own bent — which was either the Army or
Navy or Commerce."

"But you made a good clergyman," said
the girl artlessly.

He shook his head. " Well, the fact is,
Kate, that I was always pretty sick of it,
although I must say that I like the free open
life of the bush, and the people ; especially
the working men, diggers, and stockmen.
And their frank hospitality and rough good
nature I can never forget."

" Where do you think of going ? "

"To Sydney first. Then I'll decide what
to do. I am very much inclined to follow
your father's example and go in for mining ;
either that or cattle-breeding. But, of course,
I shall write and let you know."

"Do!" she said, earnestly, and then they
quickened their horses' pace, as they saw
that Fraser and Gerrard had pulled up at

TOM GERRARD 109

the turn-off to Boorala, and were awaiting
them.

"Well, Forde, old man," said the mine-
owner, as he bade the clergyman good-bye,
"you will leave a big hole in the hearts of
the people about here. Kate and I especially
will miss you. And I do hope that we shall
meet again."

" Nothing is more likely. I like Queens-
land too much to leave it altogether," and
then with another warm grasp of the hand,
he said good-bye to them all, and turned along
the Boorala track.

" One of the whitest men that ever put foot
in stirrup," said Eraser a few minutes later to
Gerrard.

" I'm sure of it ! " assented Gerrard. And then
they began to speak of Kaburie, Eraser giving
his visitor every possible information about
the country and its cattle-carrying capabilities.
It was, he said, one of the best- watered runs in
the north, and a drought had never been known.

" See ! " he said, pointing to a sandal-wood
scrub, " that is one of the mustering camps
on the Kaburie boundary, and there are
some of Mrs Tallis's cattle down there in
the creek. Crack your whip, Kate."

Uncoiling the long stock-whip, the girl
cracked it once only, but loudly, and in a
few seconds hundreds of cattle appeared from

110 TOM GERRARD

the creek, and through the fringe of she-
oaks that lined its banks ; they clambered
up the steep side and stared at the disturbers,
and then at a second loud crack of the whip,
trotted off quietly to the camp — bullocks,
steers, cows and calves, the latter perform-
ing the usual calf antics, curving their bodies,
hoisting their tails, and kicking their heels
in the air. Once under the cool, grateful
shade of the dark green foliage of the sandal-
woods, they quietly awaited to be inspected,
and Fraser and Gerrard slowly walked their
horses about among them.

"What do you think of them?" asked the
mine-owner, who was himself a good judge
of cattle.

"Very fair lot indeed, and all as fat as
pigs," replied the squatter, scanning them
closely. " Now then, Bully boy, what are
you staring at ? " he said to a sturdy twelve
months' old bull calf, who had advanced to
him. " Ah ! you want to be branded, do you ?
Quite so! Well, I think it very likely you
soon will be."

" There has been no branding at Kaburie
for six months, Mr Gerrard," said Kate, who
added that there were now only Mrs Tallis's
overseer, and one black boy stockman on the
station, who did nothing more than muster
the cattle occasionally on the various camps.

TOM GERRARD 111

Gerrard nodded. " Ladies are bad business
people as a rule. There will be a terrible
amount of branding to be done now."

Kate, unaware of the twinkle in Gerrard's
eyes, was indignant. " Indeed, Mrs Tallis was
considered a very good business woman, and
knew how to manage things as well as Mr
Tallis. What are you laughing at, Mr
Gerrard?"

" At Mrs Tallis's smartness. She has saved
herself some hundreds of pounds by dismissing
her stockmen, and leaving the calves un-
branded. All the work and expense will fall
on whoever buys the station."

" Oh, I see ! " and Kate smiled. " But, after
all, I suppose "

" That all is fair in love and war. And
buying a cattle or sheep station is war in a
sense between seller and buyer. I should have
done the same thing myself, I suppose."

" I don't believe you would," said the girl
frankly. " Mr Aulain told father and me that
you were very Quixotic."

" Aulain doesn't know what a hard nail I
am in money matters sometimes, Miss Fraser.
I'm a perfect Shylock, and will have my pound
o' flesh — especially bullock flesh."

" I know better, and so do you, father, don't
you," and her eyes smiled into Gerrard's. "Mr
Aulain told us all about your selling a hundred

112 TOM GERRAKD

bullocks to the French authorities at New
Caledonia, and then, because half of them died
on the stormy voyage to Noumea, you returned
half the money. Was it your fault that the
steamer was nearly wrecked, and the cattle
died?"

"Aulain did not think that it might have
only been a matter of my setting a sprat to
catch a mackerel. You see I was anxious to
establish a big cattle trade with the French
people."

Kate shook her head decisively, but there
was an expressive look in her eyes that gave
Gerrard great content.

Towards the afternoon the travellers saw
a horseman coming towards them, and Kate
recognised him as Tom Knowles, the overseer
of Kaburie, for whom Gerrard had a letter
from Mrs Tallis. He was a lithe, wiry little
man of fifty, and Kate and her father
exchanged smiles as, when he drew near, they
saw that he was arrayed in his best riding
"togs," was riding his best horse, and that his
long grey moustache was carefully waxed. He
had long been one of Kate's most ardent
admirers, and had a strong belief that he was
" well placed in the running with Aulain and
the parson" for the young lady's affections—
and hand.

"Well, this is a pleasure," he cried, as he

TOM GERRARD 113

rode up and shook hands with Fraser and his
daughter ; " I was coming over to Gully to
spend an hour or two with you, Fraser, but, of
course, you are coming to me ? "

" Yes ! " said the mineowner. " This is Mr
Gerrard, Knowles. He has come to see you
on business, and we came with him."

The overseer, who had at first looked at
Gerrard's handsome face with some disap-
proval, at once became at ease, and in a few
minutes, after Gerrard had explained the object
of his visit, the party put their horses into a
smart canter, and half-an-hour later came to a
wide, sandy-bottomed creek, fringed with huge
ti-trees. On one of these, which was on the
margin of the crossing, was nailed a large black
painted board with an ominous inscription in
white.

" LOOK OUT FOR ALLIGATORS."

"Mr Tallis had it put up," explained the
overseer to Gerrard; "as two men were
collared by 'gaters here. But when the water
is clear, and the creek low, as it is now, there
is no danger. It is when the creek is high
after rain, and the water muddy, that the
crossing is risky. I suppose you have any
amount of the brutes up your way ? "

" Thousands ! The rivers, creeks, and
swamps are full of them, and I have lost

H

114 TOM GERRARD

a lot of cattle and horses at Ocho Rios by
them."

An hour later they arrived at Kaburie, and
Kate was, at the request of the admiring
Knowles, acting as hostess and preparing
supper.

CHAPTER XIII

Two days had passed, and Gerrard was still at
Kaburie, though Kate and her father had left
the previous day ; they were, however, to
return, bringing with them three or four stock-
men to assist Knowles and Gerrard to muster
the cattle, for he had decided to buy the station
and leave Knowles there as his manager.
Although there were but four thousand head
of cattle on the run, they were widely separated
in small mobs of a few hundreds each — some
high up in the ranges, and some haunting the
low-lying littoral, and frequenting the flat
marshy land about the mouths of the numerous
creeks debouching into the sea, where they
eagerly ate the lush, saline grasses and creepers
that lined the coast above high-water mark —
and to " round up " all these scattered mobs on
their various camps, and count every beast,
meant very hard work. Then too, Gerrard
intended to have a general branding at the
same time, and he felt a thrill of pleasure in
his veins, when Kate had said to her father :
" Father, why cannot we help, too ? You
can safely leave the battery and claim to Sam

116 TOM GERRARD

Young for a few days. And as you and I
know the country so well, I am sure we should
be of some use to Mr Gerrard."

Douglas Fraser had never said " No" in his
life to any request of Kate's since she was
fifteen, and he smiled assent. And then in
addition to that he had taken such a strong
liking to Gerrard that it gave him pleasure
to afford him all the assistance in his power.

" All right, Gerrard ! " (men in the Australian
bush do not "Mister" each other after a few
hour's acquaintance) " we shall be here. And
I'll send over to Boorala for three or four good
men to help in the mustering."

So Kate and her father had ridden away
and left Gerrard and Knowles to themselves
for a few days ; and Gerrard and the dapper
little overseer planned all sorts of improve-
ments that were to be effected in the way of
making Kaburie a crack breeding station.

As father and daughter rode side by side
along the track back to their home, through
the darkening shadows of the coming night,
they talked about Forde and Aulain, Fraser
resting his big brown hand on her knee, and
looking wistfully into her face.

" And you see, my child, that I well know
that there will come a time when you and I
must part. Some man "

" Never, father, never ! I liked Mr Forde

TOM GERRARD 117

very much, but not well enough to marry him,
and part from you. And I kissed him, dad,
when we said good-bye. Do you mind much ?
I couldn't help it. I felt that I must kiss him."
(Then tears.) "I thought I had better tell
you, for I feel so horribly ashamed of myself."

" There is nothing for you to be ashamed
of, child," said her father tenderly ; " Forde is
a man, and, as I told you, he would take your
refusal like a white man and a gentleman."

" He did. And I could not help crying
over it."

For some minutes they rode on in silence,
then Fraser said :

" When is Aulain coming ? "

"As soon as he is able to sit a horse, he
said," and then her face flushed. " I wish he
would not come, father, and yet I do not like
the idea of writing to him and telling him so —
especially when he is ill."

Fraser nodded. " I understand. Still I think
it would be the better course to take. I had
imagined, however, Kate, that you thought
more of Aulain than you cared to admit, even
to me."

"So I did; and so I do now, but I would
never marry him, father, no matter how much
I cared for him."

Her father looked at her inquiringly.

" I think I am afraid of him, dad, sometimes.

118 TOM GERRARD

He is so dreadfully jealous, and he has no
right whatever to be jealous of me, for we were
never engaged. And then there is another
thing that is an absolute bar to my marrying
him, though I fear I am too much of a coward
to tell him so ; he is a Roman Catholic. And
whenever I think of that I remember the
awful tragedy of the Wellington family."

" I think you are quite right, Kate," said
the mine-owner gravely. " Frankly, whilst I
think Aulain is a fine fellow, and would make
you a good husband, I must confess that the
thought of your marrying a Roman Catholic
has often filled me with uneasiness."

" Don't be afraid, dad," she said decisively.
"In the first place, I am not going to marry
anyone, and shall grow into a pretty old maid ;
in the second, if I was dying of love, nothing
in the world would induce me to marry a
Roman Catholic. Whenever I think of poor
Mr Wallington as we saw him lying on the
grass with the bullet hole through his forehead,
I shudder. I loathe the very name of Mrs
Wallington, and consider her and Father
Corregio the actual murderers of that good
old man."

She spoke of an incident that had occurred
when she was sixteen. Wallington, a wealthy
Brisbane solicitor, had gone to England on a
six months' visit. When he returned, he found

TOM GERRARD 119

that his wife and only daughter, a girl of five
and twenty, had fallen under the influence of
a Father Corregio, and had entered the Roman
Catholic Church, and his long and happy
married life was at an end. A week later he
shot himself in his garden.

" I am afraid that poor Aulain will cut up
pretty roughly over this, Kate," said her
father presently.

" I can't help it, father. And I think, after
all, I had better write to him to-morrow. I
really do not want him to come to the
Gully."

And she did write, and Aulain's face was
not pleasant to see as he read her letter.

" By ! if it is the parson fellow, I'll shoot

him like a rat," he said, and then he cursed
the fever that kept him away from Kate.

He went over to the Clarion office and
saw Lacey, who was quick to perceive that
something had occurred to upset the dark-
faced sub- Inspector.

"How are you, Aulain ? Any ' shakes '
to-day ? " he asked, referring to the recurring
attacks of ague from which Aulain suffered.

" Oh ! just the usual thing," replied his
visitor irritably, as he sat down on a cane
lounge, and viciously tugged at his moustache.
" I thought I would come over and worry you
with my company for a while, and get you

120 TOM GERRARD

to come across to the Queen's and share a
bottle of fizz with me. They have some ice
there I hear — came up by the Sydney steamer
last night."

Lacey's eyes twinkled, "I'm with you, my
boy. I've just finished writing a particularly
venomous leader upon mine adversary the
Planters Friend, and a nice cool drink, such
as you suggest, on a roasting day like this,
will tend to assuage the journalistic rage
against my vile and hated contemporary."

Arriving at the Queen's Hotel the two men
went upstairs and sat down on comfortable
cane lounges on the verandah, and in a few
minutes the smiling Milly appeared with a
large bottle of champagne, and a big lump
of the treasured ice, carefully wrapped up in
a piece of blanketing. As Lacey attended
to the ice, Aulain began to cut the cork
string.

"Oh! by the way, Lacey, "he said carelessly,
" I saw in the Clarion yesterday that Forde,
the sky pilot, is leaving the Church. Are
you ready with the glasses."

" I am. Faith, doesn't it look lovely.
Steady, me boy, these long sleever glasses
hold a pint. Here's long life to ye, Aulain.
Heavens! but it is good," and he sighed
contentedly as he set down his glass again.

"Ye were asking about Forde?" he said

TOM GERHARD 121

as he wiped his red, perspiring face. " Yes,
he is giving up parsonifying. I had a letter
from him by the mailman yesterday from
Eraser's Gully. He was staying there for
the night with our friend Gerrard."

Aulain's black brows knit, and his hand
clenched under the table, as Lacey went on.

"His mother has died, and left him some
money. And very glad it is I am to hear it,
for a finer man I don't know."

"Much?"

" He didn't say ; but I know that his mother
was pretty well off. He merely wrote me
asking me to mention in the Clarion that he
was leaving the Church, and was going South.
Ye see, he has a power of friends all over
the country, and he just asked me to write a
bit of a paragraph saying he was going away,
and regretted that he could not come to
Port Denison to preach next Sunday fort-
night."

Aulain re-filled Lacey 's and his own glass,
" Lucky fellow ! When is he leaving Eraser's
place ? "

" He was leaving that morning for Boorala,
and Eraser and his daughter and Gerrard were
going with him as far as the turn-off. By a
bit of good-luck, Gerrard — who also sent me
a few lines — met Forde and Miss Eraser on
his way to the Gully. Here is his note,"

122 TOM GERRARD

and he took a letter from his pocket and
handed it to Aulain, who read :

"ERASER'S GULLY.

" DEAR LACEY, — As the Boorala mailman is calling
here this morning, I send you a line. I had the
good fortune to come across Miss Fraser and Mr
Forde at Cape Conway, and we all came on to her
father's place together. I like Fraser. He's a fine
old cock. The parson, too, is a good sort. As for
Miss Kate Fraser, she is a modernised Hotspur's
Kate — a delightfully frank and charming girl. I
envy the lucky man who wins her. I hope the
boy has not got into any mischief, and is giving
you no trouble. Give Aulain my regards, and tell
him I delivered his letter sooner than I anticipated.
I leave for Kaburie this morning, and am to have the
pleasure of being accompanied by Fraser and his
daughter. Tell Jim that if he gets into any mischief
whilst I am away, I'll make it hot for him. —
Sincerely yours, TOM GERRARD."

Aulain handed the letter back to Lacey.
He was outwardly calm, but his heart was
surging with passion. What business had that

d d parson fellow and Kate to be together

at Cape Conway, fifteen miles away from her
home ? And then his receptive brain conjured
up the blackest suspicions. Forde had come
into money, and Kate had written to him
saying that she could not marry him, "because
she would never marry and leave her father."
He set his teeth.

TOM GERRARD 123

" I think we could do another bottle,
Aulain," said Lacey presently.

" Right, old man ! " replied the sub- Inspector
mechanically, and then Lacey noticed that his
bronzed face had become pallid.

"'Shakes' coming on?" he asked, sym-
pathetically.

" Just a bit ; but the fizz is doing me good."

CHAPTER XIV

MUSTERING on Kaburie was almost over, much
to the satisfaction of every one taking part in
it, for the weather had been unpleasantly hot
even for North Queensland, and heavy tropical
thunderstorms had added to the difficulty of
the work by the creeks coming down in flood.
All the cattle running in the mountain gullies
and on the spurs, had been brought in, the
calves and "clean-skins" branded, and now
there remained only those which roamed
about the coast lands.

Early one morning Gerrard, Fraser, and
Kate, with three stockmen, were camped near
the mouth of a wide, but shallow creek, whose
yellow, muddied waters were rushing swiftly
to the sea. The party had arrived there
the previous evening, and now, breakfast
over, were ready to start to muster the cattle
in the vicinity. Heavy rain had fallen during
the night, but Kate's little tent, with its cover-
ing fly had kept her dry, and the rest of the
party had slept under a rough, but efficient
shelter of broad strips of ti-tree bark spread

124

TOM GERRARD 125

upon a quickly - extemporised frame of thin
saplings.

Just as they started the sky cleared and
the blue dome above was unflecked by a
single cloud as they rode in single file along
a cattle track leading to the beach, which
they reached in half an hour.

"What a glorious sight!" said Gerrard, as
he drew rein and pointed to the blue Pacific,
shimmering and sparkling under the rays of
the morning sun. " Look, there is a brig-rigged
steamer quite close in — evidently she must be
calling in at Port Denison, or would not be
so near the land."

"Yes," said Kate, "that is one of the new
China mail boats, the Ching-tu. How beautiful
she is — for a steamer, with those sloping masts,
with the yards across, and the curved shapely
bow like a sailing ship. Oh ! I do so wish I
were on board. I love ships and the sea.
If I were a man I should be a sailor."

"Would you?" said Gerrard, as he looked
at the animated, beautiful face. "I, too, am
fond of the sea, though it robbed me of
father, mother, and a brother-in-law, my twin
sister's husband. She died of a broken heart
soon after."

Kate's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, how
dreadful ! " and then as they rode on Gerrard
told her the story of the Cassowary,

126 TOM GERRARD

" What a sweet child your little niece Mary
must be," she said, when he had finished, "and
I am sure, too, that your protdgd, Jim Coll,
must be a perfect little man. I wish I could
see him."

" I can safely promise you that, now that
I have bought Kaburie, and I feel pretty sure
that you will gain his affections very quickly ;
especially if you will let him ride that bucking
filly. I daresay that I shall be back here
within twelve months, and bring Master Jim
with me."

"This is where we separate, boss," said a
stockman named Trouton, " if you, Mr and
Miss Fraser and me take the right bank of
this creek, my two mates will work down on
the other bank, and we'll get the cattle on
both sides at the same time, and drive 'em
all on to Wattle Camp, which is between
this creek and the next to the south of us."
Then turning to the other stockmen, he
warned them to be careful of alligators.

"You chaps must keep your eyes skinned
if you have to swim any bits of backwater,
now the creeks are up. Don't cross any-
wheres unless you have some cattle to send
in fust, and keep clost up to their tails if yous
can't get in among 'em. 'Gaters like man
and horse meat next best to calf."

The two men nodded, and riding down the

TOM GERRARD 127

bank, crossed the creek and quickly disappeared
in the scrub on the other side ; then Gerrard's
party turned towards the coast, Trouton lead-
ing the way with the packhorses along a well-
defined cattle-track. A quarter of an hour
later they came across a small mob of cows
and calves, which as the stockwhips cracked,
trotted off in front, to be joined by several
more, and in a short time the mob had in-
creased to five hundred head, and Trouton
and Gerrard decided to drive them across
the creek to join those which were being
rounded up by the two stockmen on the left
hand bank. In reply to a question by Gerrard,
Trouton said that the crossing was a good
one even when the creek was as high as it
was then, on account of its width — about two
hundred yards from bank to bank.

" It is a hard, sandy bottom, boss, and we
shall only have about forty yards of swim-
ming to do. If we rush 'em they'll get over
in no time."

"Very well. But we will cut out all the
cows with calves too young to swim."

This did not take long, and some thirty or
forty cows with calves were separated from the
mob, and driven some distance back into the
scrub by Eraser. Then with the usual yelling
and cracking of whips the main mob was rushed
down the bank into the water, a wide-horned,

128 TOM GERHARD

stately bullock, plunging into the yellow stream,
and taking the lead. Close behind the cattle
followed the three men and Kate, the latter
and Gerrard keeping on the " lee " side of
the mob so as to prevent them spreading out
and getting too far down-stream, where there
was danger from a number of snags of ti-trees,
which showed above water in the middle of
the creek. The cattle, however, kept well
together, and when the deep part was reached,
swam safely across, despite the rather strong
current.

" They went over splendidly, didn't they ? "
cried Fraser to Gerrard, as he gave his horse
a loose rein and leant forward to let the animal
swim easily. " We are lucky to get them over
so easily, and "

His words were interrupted by a cry of
terror from Kate, as the colt she was riding
gave an agonised snort of terror, and began
pawing the water with its fore-feet.

" Help me, father ! Mr Gerrard ! Oh, it is
an alligator ! " and as she spoke she was nearly
unseated. " It has Cato by the off hind leg."

Gerrard, only ten yards away from her,
turned his horse's head, and shouted to her to
throw herself off, and then, with a deadly terror
in his heart, saw her shaken off ; and disappear
in the surging stream, but in a few seconds she
rose to the surface, panting and choking, but

TOM GERRARD 129

swimming bravely, though she was unable to
see. Gerrard, now beside her, leant over,
placed his left arm round her waist, and held
her tight.

"Don't be afraid," he said, "I have you
safe ; take a good grip of my horse's mane and
hold on ; he will take you across in a few
minutes," and as the girl obeyed, he slipped out
of the saddle, so as to swim beside her. Then
his bronzed face went white with horror as the
black snout of an alligator thrust itself out of
the water between the girl and himself, and the
saurian tried to seize her by the shoulder. In
an instant Gerrard had clutched the reptile by
the throat with his right hand.

" Go on, go on ; for God's sake, do not mind
me!" he cried to Kate ; " I have the brute by
its throat," and then, as he and the hideous
creature were struggling fiercely, Fraser came
to his assistance, and emptied the five chambers
of his heavy Colt's pistol into its body, and
Gerrard, whose face was cut open by a stroke
of one of the reptile's fore-paws, remembered
nothing more till he found himself lying upon
the bank with Fraser and the stockmen attend-
ing to him.

"Is Miss Fraser safe?" was his first
question.

" Yes, thanks to God and to your bravery,"
answered Fraser with deep emotion ; " but don't

i

130 TOM GERHARD

speak any more just now, there's a good fellow.
The brute has ripped the left side of your face
open from the top of your head to the chin, and
we are trying to put in some stitches."

" All right," was the cheerful, but faint
response; "but tell me — is my eye gone?"

"No, boss," said Trouton quickly, "your
eye is all right, but the eyebrow is mauled
pretty badly, and was hanging over it, but
we've got it back again now, and tied it up in
place. Here, boss, take a sup o' this," and he
placed a brandy flask to Gerrard's lips. The
liquor stung his lacerated lips like fire, but it
revived him.

"Where is Miss Eraser?" he then asked.

" Here, beside you, dear Mr Gerrard," said
the girl brokenly, as she pressed his hand, and
turned her face away in blinding tears.

" Narrow squeak for both of us, wasn't
it?"

"Yes, but please do not try to talk, dear Mr
Gerrard."

"Oh, I'm all right, and must gabble a bit,
now I know that I haven't lost an eye. You
see, Fraser, the beast, although he was only a
little fellow-

" Eight feet he were, boss," interrupted
Trouton, " but a young 'un, as you say."

"Well, just after I collared him, he swung
his head about and hit me such a tremendous

TOM GERHARD 131

smack on the side of my brain-box that it
stunned me. But I didn't let go, did I ? "

"No," replied Fraser, "you held on like
grim death. I settled the brute by putting five
bullets into it."

"There was two 'o 'em, boss," said Trouton,
"the one as collared Miss Kate's horse, and
the one as you tackled."

"Did Cato get away?" Gerrard asked
quickly.

" Yes, yes, he got away," said Kate hurriedly,
trying to speak calmly, though the poor colt,
which had managed to struggle to the bank
with a lacerated and broken leg, was then lying
dead with a bullet through its head. Trouton
had put it out of its misery.

There was no more mustering that day, for
Gerrard's condition was so serious, though he
tried to make light of it, that Fraser, leaving
the cattle to the care of the two stockmen, first
sent off Trouton to Boorala for a doctor, and
then he, taking one of the pack-horses, made
Gerrard mount his own,

" We'll be at Kaburie as soon as the little
German doctor is there," he said, as he, Gerrard,
and Kate started.

And when they reached Kaburie they found
Doctor Krause, a quiet, spectacled little man,
awaiting them with Knowles the overseer.

"Will he lose his eye, Krause?" asked

132 TOM GERHARD

Fraser, after the doctor had attended to
Gerrard, and he with Kate met him in the
dining-room.

" No, but his face is very much cut about,
and the poor fellow may be disfigured for life."

Kate turned away with a bursting heart, and
went to her room.

CHAPTER XV

" POOR, dear, old Tommy boy ! " said Westonley
to his wife, as they sat at their breakfast table
some weeks after the mishap to Gerrard. The
mail had just arrived at Marumbah, and brought
a letter from his brother-in-law, and one from
Fraser. His eyes glistened as he laid them
down upon the table, and looked at his wife,
who, he could see, was also visibly affected,
whilst little Mary sobbed unrestrainedly.

" I wish this Mr Fraser had telegraphed to
us, Edward. I would have left Marumbah
the same day, and gone to poor Tom to nurse
him."

"Would you, old girl?" and the big man
rose from his seat and kissed her, his thick,
heavy beard spreading out over her shoulders.

" Indeed, I would. And now it is no use my
going, is it ? "

" Not a bit, Lizzie. You hear what Fraser
says — ' He is getting on splendidly, and the
left eye is saved.' Let me read it all over
again ; shall I ? "

" Do," and her pale, clear-cut features flushed ;
" it makes me feel as if I were there and saw

185

134 TOM GERRARD

the whole dreadful sight. Don't cry any more,
Mary dear. Uncle Tom is getting better."

" If Jim had been with him, it wouldn't have
happened," said the child, suppressing her sobs,
and wiping her streaming eyes; "Jim would
have been sure to have seen the alligator
coming before any one else, and done some-
thing. I am quite sure that even if he met a
bunyip he would not be afraid ; but would fight
it."

"I'm dead certain of it, Mary," said
Westonley, as he put his big hand upon the
child's head, and then taking up Eraser's letter,
he again read it aloud. It described in simple
language Gerrard's desperate struggle with the
alligator, then went on about his courage and
fortitude under agonising pain, for the wounds
caused by alligators' claws invariably set up
an intense and poisonous inflammation, and
take a long time to heal, and concluded by
saying, "as long as life lasts, I shall never
forget that only for his heroic conduct I should
now be a childless man, and my daughter have
died a death too fearful to contemplate."

Gerrard's letter was in his usual laconic
style.

" DEAR TED, — I have bought a little station here
called Kaburie — good cattle country with about 2500
head on it. In getting a mob across a creek I was
mauled by an alligator* and if it had not been for

TOM GERRARD 135

my friend Eraser — in whose house I am now staying
for a week or so — shooting the beast, it would have
had me. It is nothing serious, so don't worry over
me — some deep cuts on my face, that is all, and
Mr Fraser and his daughter (a charming girl) are
coddling me up. Jim is with me. I left him with
your old friend Lacey at Port Denison, but the
young beggar wouldn't stay when he heard that I
had had an accident. He is making great running
with pretty Miss Fraser. Give my love to 'Lizzie
and Mary, and tell the latter that I trust her bear
is now thoroughly convalescent. Jim will write to
Mary by next mail. He went out early this morning

fishing with Miss F , and did not know that the

mailman was calling to-day. — Yours ever, TOM."

Mary's face brightened at the prospect of a
letter from her dearly-beloved Jim, and Mrs
Westonley smiled. Ever since Gerrard's visit
to Marumbah Downs, her once icy and austere
manner to the child had, bit by bit, relaxed,
until at last she had thawed altogether, and
had been amply repaid by such a warm
response of affection that she now made a
companion of the little one, and found herself
a much happier woman now that the sweet
sunlight of childish love had penetrated and
melted her former frigid reserve. Westonley
had noted the change with unalloyed delight,
but, like a wise man, had pretended not to
notice ; but one day, soon after Gerrard's
letter had arrived, he could not suppress him-

136 TOM GERRARD

self. He had been away on a business visit
to his squatter neighbour Brooke, to whom he
had sold his cattle station in Central Queens-
land at a very satisfactory figure, and as he
rode up to the slip-rails of the home-paddock,
he saw the one time " incubus " coming flying
towards him, her sun-tanned face wreathed in
smiles.

" Oh, Uncle Ted, Uncle Ted ! " she panted,
as she took down the slip - rails, and let
Westonley pass through, "just fancy, Uncle
Ted ! " — and as she spoke, she lifted the slip-
rails in place again and turned to him with a
beaming face, out of breath, and so wildly
excited that she could scarcely speak.

" What is the matter, young 'un ? " and the
big man bent down and swooped her up into
the saddle in front of him.

" Oh, Uncle Ted, this is the very, very
first time in my life that I was glad you were
away ! "

"Hows that?"

" AUNT LIZZIE LET ME SLEEP WITH HER LAST
NIGHT."

A great joy came into Westonley's heart.
" Did she ? Really and truly ? "

"Really and truly! And oh, Uncle Ted,
it was lovely! We talked and talked and
talked for such a long time, and she told me
such a lot of things about the school she was

TOM GERRARD 137

at in England, and about the girls there — some
were very nice, but there were some horrid
ones. Oh, she told me heaps of things. It
was lovely, and we had Bunny in the room,
too " — here she paused to catch her breath —
"he tried to get in through the mosquito
curtains, and got all tangled up, and tore a
most enormous hole in them, and Aunt Lizzie
only laughed, and said it didn't matter ! "
" You must have had a bully time."
" Splendid ! And Aunt Lizzie and I are
going to the beach together one day next week
to get pippies, and she says she won't mind if
she gets sopping wet right up to her face."

When they reached the house they found
Mrs Westonley awaiting them on the verandah,
and when her husband put his arms around
her and kissed her repeatedly, she blushed
like a young girl. And as the days went on
he saw with delight that she had at last taken
the child to her heart.

Breakfast was over, and Westonley in his
study was talking to his head stockman when
he saw Brooke riding up.

"Lizzie," he called to his wife, "here is
Brooke. I expect he will have some breakfast,
so tell Mrs Patton."

Brooke, a tall, powerfully - built man, and
usually as boisterous as a school-boy in his

138 TOM GERRARD

manner, seemed very quiet as he dismounted,
shook hands with Westonley and his wife,
and patted Mary's head.

"Just in time for breakfast, Mr Brooke."

"No, thank you, Mrs Westonley. I had
mine at five o'clock — I made an early start,
as I wanted to get here as soon as possible,
thinking that very likely Westonley might
be going out on the run somewhere, and that
I might miss him. I want to have a talk
with you, old man."

Mrs Westonley and Mary at once left the
room, both wondering what was the matter
with Brooke — he looked so worried and
depressed.

" Westonley, old fellow," he said, as he sat
down, "give me a big brandy and soda. I've
ridden hard all the way from my place." Then
he looked at the letters and newspapers still
lying upon the breakfast table. The latter,
he saw, were unopened. Drinking off the
brandy and soda, he said :

" You haven't opened your Argus yet, I see ? "

" No, we had some bad news about Tom
Gerrard — he's been mauled by an alligator,
and we haven't bothered about newspapers
this morning."

" Not seriously hurt, I trust?" anxiously asked
the squatter, who had a sincere regard for
Gerrard.

TOM GERRARD 139

" No, I am glad to say. I'll show you his
letter presently. But what is the matter,
Brooke ? You look worried."

" I am — most infernally worried. Tell me,
old man, what did you do with that cheque
of mine for eight thousand ? " (The cheque to
which he alluded was the price of the station
in Central Queensland which he had bought
from Westonley a few weeks previously.)

" Paid it into my bank," replied Westonley,
instantly surmising that Brooke's financial
affairs had gone wrong.

"Dacre's?"

" Yes."

" Westonley, old chap, I have bad news for
you. I got a telegram from Melbourne last
night — Dacre's Bank has smashed, and
smashed badly — hopelessly, in fact."

Westonley's florid face paled.

" Smashed!"

" Utterly smashed. Will it hit you hard ? "

" Break me ! I had thirty thousand pounds on
fixed deposit, a current account of about fifteen
thousand — including the eight thousand you
paid me, and every penny of my wife's money,
little Mary's, and Jim's were in Dacre's," and,
man as he was, his voice trembled.

"It won't break you — by heavens, it shall
not break you, Westonley ! I bought Comet
Vale from you for my boys, but I'll give it

140 TOM GERRARD

back to you for three — for five — years to help
you to pull up."

" Thanks, Brooke," and the big man grasped
his friend's hand mechanically. " This has dazed
me a bit. Come outside, and we'll talk it over."

He rose unsteadily, placing his hand on the
edge of the table, and then fell forward upon
his face, and lay still — his big, generous heart
had ceased to beat.

When Brooke rode away late that night on
his way home thinking of his dead friend, he
reproached himself for so often having spoken
of Elizabeth Westonley as "a pretty automa-
ton, with as much heart in her as a doll." For
her silent grief had showed him that she had
loved her husband.

CHAPTER XVI

THE news of Westonley's sudden death was a
great shock to Gerrard. The brief telegram
from his half-sister had been forwarded to Port
Denison, and Lacey had sent it on to him at
Eraser's Gully, by the mailman, together with
a copy of the Clarion, containing the telegraphed
account of the Caere's bank failure. Had
Gerrard looked at the newspaper, he might
perhaps have connected Westonley's sudden
end with the financial disaster, which had
brought ruin to so many thousands of Australian
homes, for he knew that his brother-in-law
banked at Dacre's. But Mrs Westonley had
said nothing of the cause of her husband's
death — " Edward died suddenly yesterday.
Am writing you fully to-night to Port
Denison " was all that she had said.

" Dear old Ted ! " he said as his eyes filled,
and he saw before him the great, bearded face
with the kindly, mirthful eyes, and heard the
deep, gruff voice. " How can I tell Jim — the
boy will be heartbroken."

And Jim's grief almost unmanned " Uncle

141

142 TOM GERRARD

Tom," as the boy now called him. Putting
the telegram in his pocket, he went down to
the battery, where his prottgd was being
inducted into the mysteries of amalgamation by
Fraser.

"Jim," he said quietly, "come along the
creek with me for a bit of a stroll."

" Is your face paining you much this
morning, Uncle Tom ? " said the boy, as they
left the battery, and walked towards the creek,
"you look quite white."

" No, sonny," and he placed his hand
affectionately on the boy's shoulder, " my face
isn't paining me, but I have a thundering big
pain in my heart, Jim — a pain which you must
share with me. I have just had a telegram
from Marumbah — with very, very sad news."

"Is it about Mary ? " and the boy's lips
quivered ; " is she sick, Uncle ? " and then, with
a gasp — " is she dead ? "

"No, sonny, Mary is all right, but Mr
Westonley is dead," and then he told him all
that he could tell.

An hour later, when they returned to the
house, and Kate Fraser wondered why they
looked so quiet and depressed, Gerrard told
her of the news he had received.

" Poor Jim ! " she said, as she put her arms
round the boy, who was trying hard not to
again break down.

TOM GERRARD 143

Then Gerrard went on to say that he would
now have to change his plans somewhat.

" I must get back to Port Denison to-
morrow, Miss Eraser. I want to send some
telegrams as well as letters. But as it will take
my sister's letter quite a fortnight to come from
Marumbah, I shall put in most of the time at
Kaburie, and, if I may, also inflict myself upon
your father and yourself occasionally."

" Do. We shall be so glad."

Two days later he and Jim were back in
Port Denison, and lunching with Lacey at the
Queen's Hotel. Then for the first time
Gerrard heard of the Dacre bank failure.

"It must have been a fearful shock to poor
Ted," he said to Lacey; "and perhaps it was
that that killed him, for, as you say, the bank
suspended on Saturday, and he died early on
the Monday following. I fear he must have
been hit very badly by the smash, for he not
only had a lot of money in it, but was a big
shareholder in the concern as well."

" That's unfortunate, for yesterday's news
gives further revelations of the smash, which
is the very worst that has occurred in the
Colonies. Every one thought that Dacre's bank
was as solid as the rock of Gibraltar."

This intelligence disturbed Gerrard greatly —
so much so that after lunch he sent a telegram
to Westonley's Melbourne agents — who were

144 TOM GERRARD

also his own — and asked them if they could tell
him how his sister would be affected by the
collapse of Dacre's. In a few hours he received
an answer — " Deeply regret to say everything
will be swept away."

" Poor Lizzie ! " he said to Lacey after dinner,
as they sat on the verandah, smoking; "this
will be terrible news for her — if she does not
already know of it. Thank God, I can help her
to some extent," and he meant to "help" her
by giving her Kaburie, for which he had only a
few days previously sent Mrs Tallis a draft upon
his bankers for six thousand pounds

" You were lucky not to have had anything
in Dacre's."

"Very, for Westonley was always cracking it
up to me. He urged me strongly only six months
ago to buy a hundred shares — a pretty hole I
should be in now if I had taken the poor fellow's
advice."

" Yes, indeed. But no one ever dreamt of
Dacre's being anything but one of the soundest
banks in the world. It is a blackguardly affair
— a cruel, shameless fraud — and I hope that the
men who are responsible for it will each get
seven years' hard labour."

" They deserve it. I suppose that Westonley,
with Marumbah Downs, and Comet Vale, and
the funds he had in Dacre's was worth a hundred
thousand at least ; and now my poor sister and

TOM GERRARD 145

little Mary Rayner will be absolutely penniless.
Thank heaven, I did not take his advice, but
stuck to the Capricornian Pastoralists' Bank."

The editor of the Clarion gasped and dropped
his cigar. But he quickly recovered himself,
and turning his face away from Gerrard, puffed
out volumes of smoke most energetically, con-
sidering what he should do. He soon decided.
" Better tell him the grim truth at once," he
thought.

" Gerrard ! "

The change in his voice struck his com-
panion— it was low, grave, and sympathetic.

" What is it, Lacey ? Now, out with it. You
have something unpleasant to tell me, and don't
like doing it. I'll bet you drinks that I can
guess what it is. I saw you start when I men-
tioned the Capricornian Pastoralists' Bank. Has
that ' busted ' too ? "

"Yes. It smashed yesterday as a result of
the Dacre collapse. The news was in my rag
this morning."

" Was it ? I didn't look at the Clarion to-day.
Is it a bad case ?"

" Very bad ; about a shilling in the pound is
all that will come out of the wreck. Will you
be hard hit?"

"Rather! Curls me up like a corkscrew.
To pay Mrs Tallis her six thousand pounds I
gave a mortgage on Ocho Rios for five thousand

K

146 TOM GERRARD

pounds as I only had about three or four
thousand pounds in the Capricornian. I'm
deuced lucky that it wasn't more."

He rose from his seat and paced angrily to
and fro on the verandah for a moment or two,
then he stopped suddenly, and a smile lit up his
scarred face.

" What an ass I am, Lacey ! The thing
can't be helped, but only a little while ago I
had made up my mind to give Kaburie to
my sister ; and now I can't pay for Kaburie,
for my draft for six thousand pounds is worthless
to Mrs Tallis, and all the labouring of mustering
and branding has gone for nothing. Poor little
woman ! I am sorry for her ! Isn't it a beastly
mess?"

"You think too much of others, Gerrard, and
too little of yourself."

" I don't! I'm very fond of being good to
myself, I can assure you. But a smack in the
face like this is enough to make a saint swear
like an Australian Member of Parliament. Now,
I bought Kaburie with the idea of making it a
breeding station — prize cattle and all that sort of
thing — for Ocho Rios. Then when I received
this telegram from my agents in Melbourne
telling me that my sister would be left penniless,
1 made up my mind to write to her by the next
mail south, and tell her that Kaburie was for
her and my niece Mary. And another thing I

TOM GERRARD 147

wanted to do was to give a man I know a good
lift." (He meant Fraser.) "And now I'll be
as good as stony-broke for the next two years."

" I wish I could help you," began Lacey,
earnestly.

"Thanks, old man. It is awfully good of
you, but I shall pull through all right in the
end, and with a good season or two should
easily lift the mortgage on Ocho Rios. All I
am scared of now is a drought, but if a drought
does come, I can't stop it, and therefore, it is
no use my worrying about it." He hoisted his
feet upon the table, and touched the bell for
the waitress. " Well, thank heavens, Lacey,
I still have a thirst, and an iced brandy and
soda is very soothing to the nerves. Milly,
bring the ice again please, and if you see the
boy tell him to come here."

Jim soon appeared, still looking subdued and
depressed.

" Sit down here, old son, and have a long
drink of ginger ale with a lump of ice in it,"
and he put his hand on the boy's arm, and
made him sit down between himself and
Lacey. "Jim, my son, I've just had some
beastly bad news. I've lost a lot of money,
and you and I will have to work like niggers
when we get to Ocho Rios. Savvy ? "

" Yes, Uncle Tom. I will work very, very
hard for you."

148 TOM GERRARD

" For us both, Jim, and for Mary and Aunt
Lizzie ; for we are all in the same boat. I'll
tell you the whole yarn by and by ; but for
the present we'll talk about something else
for a change."

Lacey looked at him in silent admiration
and wonder. " Nothing can disturb the
equanimity of such a serene mind," he thought,
"and I like him for taking the youngster into
his confidence like that."

" I wonder what made Aulain leave so
suddenly," said Gerrard, as Milly appeared
with the ice, and the ginger ale for Jim. u It
was strange of him not to even leave a note
for me."

" Oh ! when a man has fever he does very
queer things. All he told me was that he was
off to Brisbane to tender his resignation in
person, and as that is against the regulations
he hoped to be dismissed. He has been very
strange lately. I think that matters have gone
wrong in a certain quarter."

Gerrard nodded. "I know. Well, I'm
sorry if it is the case. She is a bonny little lady."

Milly again appeared. "If you please, Mr
Gerrard, Sergeant Macpherson would like to see
you for a few minutes on important business."

"All right, Milly! Ask him to come up.
Jim, I hope you haven't been up to any games
while I was away."

TOM GERRARD 149

The local Sergeant of Police was shown up.

"Good evening, sir," he said. " I have just
had a wire from Card well from Inspector
Sheridan, saying that news had come through
by the mail boat from Somerset, that there has
been a very bad bush fire up your way, and
Ocho Rios station is destroyed."

"Any lives lost?"

" No, sir, but the fire spread all over the run
for fifty miles about, and your stockman thinks
that there are hardly two hundred head of
cattle left. I am sorry to bring you such bad
news, sir."

"Oh! don't apologise, Sergeant," was the
quiet reply, "I'm getting used to bad news.
Milly, bring a chair for Mr Macpherson, and
another big glass, and some more ice. Now
sit down, Sergeant, and tell me all about it.
Jim, get off that railing, or you'll fall off into
the street, and break your leg. My luck is
dead against me. Light your pipe, Sergeant,
and make yourself comfy."

CHAPTER XVII

" THE saying that misfortunes never come
singly seems to be verified in your case, Mr
Gerrard," said Kate Fraser, as, a fortnight
after he had received the news of Westonley's
death, he was relating his disastrous experi-
ences to her and her father.

" Looks like it, doesn't it? But there are
lots of fellows who have had worse luck than
me, and so I shouldn't ' make a song ' over
mine. Now, do you know the story of
Knowles's life?"

" No, he has never told us."

" Well, he told it to me yesterday " (Gerrard
had been to Kaburie to tell the dapper little
overseer that he could not pay for the station,
and that he, Knowles, must re-take possession
as manager for Mrs Tallis), " and I think the
poor little chap only related it out of pure
sympathy for me when I explained to him
how I was fixed, and how sorry I was for him
— as well as for myself — for I had doubled the
salary he was receiving from Mrs Tallis."

" He told me that," said Kate, and her eyes
sparkled with fun.

150

TOM GERRARD 151

" Naturally, he would tell you" and Gerrard,
with a faint quiver of one eyelid, gave Douglas
Eraser a sly glance. " I am sure you must
be the recipient of the confidences of all
the country side, and would never 'give any
one away,' as vulgar persons like myself would
say ; so please don't ' give me away ' to
Knowles." Then his voice changed. "Miss
Fraser, that little man is both a hero and a
martyr. He was in the Naval Brigade at
Sebastopol, and was recommended for the V.C.
for distinguished bravery in one of the futile
attacks on the Redan. Did you know that ? "

" No ! He only told us that he was with
Peel's Naval Brigade and had seen most of
the fighting, was severely wounded, and that
after he came home he left the Navy through
ill-health, and came to Australia."

"Well, he didn't get the Cross after all ; that
was his first bit of bad luck. Then his father,
who was always looked upon as a very wealthy
man, went smash for a huge amount, which
ruined hundreds of people, and then shot
himself; so poor Knowles left the Navy and
took a billet as house-master at a boys' college.
Six months after, his uncle, Lord Accrington,
died, and left Knowles twenty thousand
pounds. Of that twenty thousand pounds he
kept only five hundred pounds ; every penny of
the rest he gave to his dead father's creditors,"

152 TOM GERRAKD

" How noble of him," said Kate.
" It was indeed, ' but you see/ he said to
me, ' I didn't want the money. My mother
had died years before, and I have no brothers
or sisters, and it would have been a disgraceful
thing for me to have kept the money after
what had occurred. Lord Accrington was my
mother's brother, and I was always a favourite
of his (he did not like my father, and had not
spoken to him for years). I never expected
he would leave me a cent, and so it was no
sacrifice on my part.' And then he said that
ten years ago he had saved enough money to
buy a small sheep station in the Riverina
District, and then came the drought of '72
which broke him."

" Poor fellow ! " said Kate, " I shall like him
now more than ever."

Gerrard nodded. "One doesn't often come
across such men. And, as I was saying, I
have no reason to make a song over my
affairs when so many other fellows have had
worse luck than me."

Douglas Fraser, who for the past few days
had been depressed in spirits, said, as he rose
from his seat :

" True, Gerrard. It is of no use any one
girding at his misfortunes, if they are not
caused by himself. Sometimes a man thinks
in mining parlance that he has 'struck it rich,'

TOM GERRAKD 153

and straightway begins building his Chateaux
en Espagne. Then he finds he has bottomed
on a rank duffer, and wants to swear, as I do
now." He smiled and spread out his chest,
" Kate, I'm going up to the claim to see Sam
Young."

"And Mr Gerrard and I are going to the
creek to catch some fish for supper."

" Very well ! I shall come back that way
and join you," and the big man strode off to
the claim — half a mile away.

"Your father is not in his usual spirits, I
think, Miss Fraser," said Gerrard, as he and
Kate walked down to the fishing pool through
the ever-sighing she-oaks which lined the banks
of the creek.

"He is not ; the reef has been gradually
thinning out, and Sam Young told him yester-
day that he is afraid it will pinch out altogether.
Last Saturday's cleaning up at the battery only
yielded ten ounces of melted gold — worth about
forty pounds — and the week's expenses came
to one hundred and forty pounds. I am afraid,
Mr Gerrard, that father and I and all the men
will have to leave Eraser's Gully, and set our
faces to the North, and leave the old battery
behind us to the native bears and opossums and
iguanas and snakes," and her voice faltered,
for she dearly loved the place where she had
spent so many happy years.

154 TOM GERRARD

" I am sorry," said Gerrard, musingly. " I
suppose your father — if he does leave here —
from what he said to me is thinking of going
to the newly-opened gold fields on the Gilbert
River?"

" Yes, in that direction at any rate, prospect-
ing as we travel. That is the one thing that
consoles me ; I love the idea of seeing new
country."

Gerrard made no answer for some minutes.
He was thinking of a certain place on a creek,
running into the Batavia River — the place
" with a hunking big boulder standing up in
the middle of a deep pool," of which he had
spoken to Aulain, and he now half-regretted
his promise to him to "keep it dark" for six
months.

" Of what are you thinking, Mr Gerrard ? "

" I was wondering if your father would care
to make a prospecting trip up my way instead
of going to the Gilbert rush. When I left
Ocho Rios there were several prospecting
parties on Cape York Peninsula — some of them
doing very well — and I myself got seven ounces
of gold in a few hours from a creek about sixty
miles from my station. Unfortunately, how-
ever, another man as well as myself knows of
this place, and he asked me not to say anything
about it for six months. He means to go there
with a prospecting party."

TOM GERHARD 155

" You mean Mr Aulain," and Kate turned
her frank eyes to his.

" How did you know ? "

She flushed. " You remember the letter you
brought me from him. In that letter he told
me that he was leaving the Native Police, and
intended going in for mining, as he knew of
some very rich auriferous country near your
station, and that you, who also knew of it, had
promised him to keep it secret from any other
prospecting party."

" Yes, I did. I should like to see Aulain
'strike it rich' as your father says, Miss
Fraser," and then he smiled. " If only for the
sake of my kind, patient nurse of last month."

Again Kate's face flushed. " I know what

you mean, Mr Gerrard, but " she bent her

head, and began to tie on a fishhook to the
line she was carrying. " But you are mistaken.
I like Mr Aulain very, very much, but I do not
like any one enough to — to — oh, dear! I've
broken the snooding."

" Never mind, I'll fix it for you," and as his
hand touched her's, a new hope came into his
life. He knew what she meant him to under-
stand— that she was not going to marry Aulain
—and then he went on quickly.

" I gabble like an old woman, do I not, Miss
Fraser ? Oh, this is what I was about to say,
I believe that the Batavia River district is

156 TOM GERRARD

full of rich reefs and alluvial gold as well, and
from what I hear from Lacey, I don't think
the Gilbert will prove a permanent gold-field.
Now, I will try to persuade your father to
come to my part of the country instead of
the Gilbert, which, by the time he reaches it,
will probably be played out altogether, and
abandoned."

" Ah ! do persuade him, Mr Gerrard ; I liked
the thought of our going to the Gilbert, but I
like better — oh, ever so much better — your
suggestion of the Batavia River, for there we
should be near the sea ; and I love the sea and
the beaches. I am horribly selfish, I am afraid."

Gerrard stroked his beard meditatively.
" Yes, you'll be near the sea, Miss Fraser.
But it is an awful country for a lady to live in ;
the fever is very bad there, and the blacks are
a continual source of danger and trouble."

"Anything that my father can go through
I can face too," she said proudly ; " and besides
that I have had fever, am not afraid of
blacks or anything — except alligators," and
she shuddered, as she smiled.

"Then you will be in a continual state of
fear. All the rivers on the Peninsula are alive
with them, and I have lost hundreds of cattle
by the brutes." Then he laughed. " But they
won't get many this year."

" How bravely he takes his misfortunes," she

TOM GERRARD 157

thought. Then she said, " Well, I shall take
good care of myself, and not cross any creeks
if the water is not clear. Now here we are at
the pool. Isn't it lovely and quiet ? I do hope
we shall have caught enough fish by the time
father comes."

Gerrard, as he filled his pipe, watched her
smooth, slender brown hands baiting the hook
of her line with a small grasshopper, and noted
the beautiful contour of her features, and the
intent expression in her long-lashed eyes as she
surveyed it. She looked up.

"Now, Mr Gerrard what are you doing?
Don't be so lazy. I'll have at least three fish
before you have your line ready. Oh, I do
wish I were a man ! "

"Why?"

" Because then I could smoke a pipe when
I am fishing. It must be delightful! When
father and Sam Young and Cockney Smith
come here with me to fish, and I see them
all looking so placidly content with their pipes
in their mouths, I feel as if I was missing-
something. Now, watch ! "

She made a cast with her light rod of
bamboo, and almost at the same moment
that the impaled grasshopper fell upon the
glassy surface of the pool it was seized by
a fish of the grayling species ; known to
Queenslanders as "speckled trout."

158 TOM GERRARD

" There you are ! " she cried triumphantly,
as she swung the silvery-scaled beauty out
of the water, and deftly grasped it with her
left hand. " First to me."

The music of her laugh, and her bright,
animated features, filled Gerrard with delight
as he watched her make a second cast. Then
he too set to work, and, for the next
quarter of an hour, they vied to make the
greatest catch. Gerrard was a long way
behind, when Douglas Fraser appeared. He
was saying over and over again to himself:
" There is nothing between her and Aulian !
there is nothing between them ! " Then, as
he put his hand to his scarred face, the wild
elation in his heart died away.

" Well, young people, what luck ? " said the
burly mine-owner, as with his hands on his
hips, he leant against a she-oak.

" Splendid, father ! thirty-five. How is the
reef going ? "

" Pinched out all together, chick. We can
hang the battery up now."

Kate laid down her rod, and covered her
face with her hands, and Gerrard saw the tears
trickling through her fingers. For she loved the
Gully, as she had loved no other place before.

Fraser stepped over to her, and placed his
hand on her bent head.

TOM GERRARD 159

" Never mind, little girl ! We'll strike it
rich some day."

"Yes, father!" she whispered, as she smiled
through her tears, " we shall strike a patch
some day."

CHAPTER XVIII

ON their way home, Gerrard and Eraser
discussed the position, and Kate's heart beat
quicker when her father said, " I think you
are right, Gerrard. I'll give up the idea of the
Gilbert, and shall try my luck on the Batavia."

" Very well, it is settled. We can leave
by the next steamer for Somerset."

" I meant to overland it."

" Don't think of it. It is over a thousand
miles, and you would have to pass through
some fearful country, full of poison bush, and
would perhaps lose all your horses. Then,
too, the blacks are bad, very bad."

"Some of my men will be sure to come
with me ; especially Young and Smith."

" Don't think of overlanding it," persisted
Gerrard. "It would take you, even with the
best of luck, two months to get to the Batavia.
Come with me to Somerset. I think we can
get all the horses we want there, and then we
can go across country — only one hundred and
fifty miles — to the Gulf side ; if not, I'll hire one
of the pearling luggers to take us round by Cape
York."

160

TOM GERRARD 161

So Douglas Fraser yielded, and when they
reached the house, he sent word to the claim
and battery for all the men to come to him.

" Boys," he said, as the toil-stained, rough
miners filed into the sitting-room, " we'll have
to clear out of the Gully now that the reef has
pinched out. Now, Mr Gerrard tells me that
there is both good reefing and alluvial country
up about the Batavia River ; all the creeks
carry gold ; so I am going there with him.
Will any of you come in with me ? "

Every one of them gave a ready assent.

"Why, boss," said Sam Young, "we coves
ain't agoin' to leave you an' Miss Kate as
long as we can make tucker and wages — or
half wages, as fur as that goes. What say,
lads ? "

" Of course you can't leave us," said Kate
with a laugh ; " you all know what it is to have
a woman cook."

"An' a lady doctor for them as have jim-
jams," said one of them, looking at Cockney
Smith, who shuffled his feet, and stared at
something he pretended to see outside.

The matter was soon concluded, and the
few following days were spent in crushing the
last of the stone from the claim, and having
a final clean-up of the battery. And Douglas
Fraser could not help a heavy sigh escaping
him, as he looked at the now silent machinery,

162 TOM GERRARD

and the cold, fireless boiler, to be in a few
years hidden from view by the ever-encroach-
ing forest of brigalow and gum trees.

Knowles, when he heard they were going,
came to say good-bye. He looked so dejected
that Kate felt a real pity for him ; especially
now that she knew the story of his life.

" I'll be as lonely as a bandicoot after
you go," he said frankly, as he twisted his
carefully-waxed moustache; "and, by Jove, if
I were not bound to stay at Kaburie for Mrs
Tallis, I would ask your father to let me make
one of his party. I don't know anything about
mining, but I could make myself useful with
the horses — sort of a cow-boy, you know."

" I really do wish you could come with us,
Mr Knowles. We shall miss you very much.
Father, when he looked at his chess-board
yesterday, heaved such a tremendous sigh, and
I knew that he was thinking of you, and
wondering if he will ever find any such another
player."

" Ah ! I shall miss my chess, too. Still,
one never knows what may happen, and it is
possible that some day you may see me up
on the Batavia, looking for a billet on some
cattle station. I would go now if I could.
But I must stick to Mrs Tallis, at least until
she gets another manager."

" She won't let you leave Kaburie, Mr

TOM GERRARD 163

Knowles. She likes you too much ; she told
me so."

The little man's face suffused with pleasure.
"It was very good of her. But I should like
her ever so much more if she would give me a
better salary."

" Ask her — she won't refuse you."

" Ah ! I wouldn't have the courage ; a lady,
you see, is different from a man."

" Write — that is easy enough. Now, promise
me. And I can positively assure you that she
will only be too glad." She put her hand on
his. " Do promise me."

" I can refuse you nothing. But I need not
write, for I think it very likely that now the
sale of Kaburie is 'off' with Mr Gerrard, she
will come back there to live. I had a telegram
from her yesterday, in which she said that she
might come back next month."

" Then, Mr Knowles, you will have to
propose to her — that will be ever so much
better than asking her for a bigger salary,"
and Kate laughed.

The ex-sailor blushed like a girl, then he
tugged furiously at his moustache. " By Jove,
Miss Fraser, I — I — you don't know — I — if I
were not so old, and not so beastly poor — I
was going to ask you to marry me. There,
it's out now, and you'll think me an ass."

Kate's manner changed. What she had

164 TOM GERHARD

feared he would one day say, he had now said,
and she felt sorry for him.

" I think that you are such a man that any
woman should be proud to hear what you have
said to me, Mr Knowles," she said softly. " I
know more about you than you think I do. But
I shall never marry. I am going to stick to
my father, and grow up into a nice old maid
with fluffy white hair."

" You are not offended with me ? "

" Offended ! No, indeed. I feel proud that
you should think so much of me as to have
thought of asking me to be your wife," and
she put out her hand to him. He raised it
quickly to his lips, and then saying something
incoherent about his wanting to see Cockney
Smith's kangaroo pups, hurriedly left the room.

" That was over soon," breathed Kate, as
she watched his well-set little figure striding
across the paddock to Smith's humpy. " He is
a gentleman, if ever there was one in the
world."

"What is the matter, little one?" asked her
father, as he entered the room.

" Nothing, dad. I was only looking at
Mr Knowles going over to Smith's humpy
to look at the new kangaroo pups."

Eraser's eyes twinkled. He guessed what
had occurred. " I suppose Charlie Broome,"
(the bank manager at Boorala) "will be the

TOM GERRARD 165

next, Kate. I had a letter from him this
morning, saying he would be here to-morrow.
You had one also, I saw."

" Oh, he is concerned about Cockney Smith's
account," said Kate serenely; "that is why
he is coming, now that he knows we are going
away."

" Exactly," said Fraser, stroking his beard.
" It's wonderful the interest he takes in Cockney
Smith — an extraordinary-ordinary interest."

" Father, don't make fun of me — I can't
help it. And his letter to me was so silly
that I was ashamed to show it to you — I really
was."

" Oh, well, I don't want to see it, my child.
I've read too many love-letters when I was
on the Bench — some of them so ' excessively
tender,' as that old ruffian of a Judge Norbury
used to say in Ireland, more than a hundred
years ago, that I had to handle them with the
greatest care, for fear they would fall into
pieces. Now, who else is there that is going
to solicit your lily-white hand — which isn't lily-
white, but a distinct leather-brown — before we
get away ? Lacey, I suppose, will be the
next."

"Not he, dad — the dear, sensible old man !
He is wedded to his 'rag,' as he calls the
Clarion. But, at the same time, I do look
forward to seeing him again, and hearing his

166 TOM GERRARD

beautiful rich brogue — especially when he is
excited."

Gerrard came to the door.

"May I come in?" he asked. His eyes
were alight with subdued merriment, as he
displayed an open letter. The mailman from
Port Denison had just arrived.

" I have had a letter from my sister, Miss
Eraser. She is leaving Sydney with my niece
Mary, and coming to Ocho Rios. That is
a bit of good luck for me, isn't it? And I
am sure you and she and Mary will become
great chums. She tells me that " — he hesitated
a moment — " that as her affairs are in such a
bad state she would like to come to me. And
I am thunderingly glad of it. Of course she
doesn't know that Ocho Rios station has gone
— in a way ; but by the time she gets to
Somerset — three months from now — she will
find a new house, and we'll all be as happy
as sandboys. Now, Miss Fraser, are you
ready for an hour or two's fishing? You'll
come too, Fraser?"

" Won't I ? Do you think \ would miss
the last chance of fishing in Fraser's Creek ? "
and the big man took down his fishing-rod
and basket from a peg on the rough, timbered
sides of the sitting-room.

" Fill your pipe, dad, before we start."

" Fill it for me, Miss," and Fraser threw

TOM GERRARD 167

a piece of tobacco upon the table, together
with his pocket-knife.

"And yours too, Mr Gerrard. I am a great
hand at cutting up tobacco ; I wish I were a
man, and could smoke it. Oh, Mr Gerrard,
I 'm ' all of a quiver ' to know that I shall see
your little Mary."

"So am I, 'quite a quivering,'" and then as
Gerrard looked at her beautiful face, he re-
membered his own scarred features, and some-
thing between a sigh and a curse came from
his lips.

CHAPTER XIX

As Mrs Westonley had told Gerrard in her
letter that she and Mary would not leave
Marumbah for quite two months and proceed
direct to Somerset, where she hoped he would
meet them, he decided to lose no more time
at Port Denison ; and so a week after the
abandonment of Eraser's Gully, he and his
friends found themselves on board a steamer
bound to the most northern port of the colony,
just then coming into prominence as the
rendezvous of the pearling fleet, although
Thursday Island was also much favoured.

Before leaving Port Denison, he had written
to his sister, and told her that he would meet
her on her arrival at Somerset. "Jim is off his
head with delight," he added ; " in fact we both
are, at the prospect of seeing you and Mary so
soon. In one way I am glad that it will be
barely three months before you get to Ocho
Rios, for I want to get a new house put up ;
the present one isn't of much account" — this
was his modified way of saying that there was
no house there at all, it having been reduced
to ashes, but he did not wish her to have the

168

TOM GERRARD 169

faintest inkling of any of his misfortunes, for
fear that she would then refuse to add to his
troubles and expenses by becoming a charge
upon him. "And I have already bought some
decent furniture, which I will take round with
me in one of the pearlers. I do hope you will
like the place, but you will look upon it at its
very worst, for there have been heavy bush
fires all about the station, which have played
the deuce with the country for hundred of miles
about. But the annual rains will begin to fall
in four months, and then you will see it at its
best. I am also going to make a garden, and
plant no end of vegetables and flowers and
things. There is a lovely little spot on one of
the creeks ; and Jim and I have been going
over a thumping big box of seeds which I
bought yesterday. You can consider that
garden as made, with rock-melons and water-
melons, and ' punkens ' and other fruit growing
in it galore."

When Elizabeth Westonley read the letter
she smiled — the first time almost since her
husband's death. "How nice of your uncle,
is it not, Mary ? I should miss a garden
dreadfully, and it is very thoughtful of him
when he has so much work to do with his
cattle. And see, he has sent me a draft for
one hundred pounds for our expenses up to
Somerset."

170 TOM GERRARD

"Are we very, very, poor now, Aunt ? "

" Very, very poor, Mary," and she sighed.
" But still it might have been much worse for
us if the people to whom Marumbah now
belongs had not let me keep the furniture.
Mr Brooke has bought it, and paid me three
hundred and fifty pounds for it. And I am
sure he only did it because he was sorry for us ;
I am certain he does not want it."

Brooke, indeed, had been very kind to the
wife of his dead friend, and had pressed her to
accept a loan of money, but this she had grate-
fully declined.

" How glad Uncle Tom must be that he has
money to send you ! "

" I am sure he must be. He is always
thinking of others ; and you and I, Mary, must
do all we can for him. I shall be housekeeper
and cook and all sorts of things, and you shall
be chief housemaid, and help me, and we will
try and make the house look nice."

"Yes, Aunt. And won't it be lovely to see
Jim again ! I can just imagine his staring eyes
when he sees that I have brought Bunny.
You'll keep it a dead secret, won't you ? "

"Quite secret. I did not even mention
Bunny in my letter. Now we must go on
sewing these mosquito curtains ; your uncle
says that in the rainy season the mosquitoes
nearly eat one alive, so I am going to make

TOM GERRARD 171

six, as I am sure he has none at Ocho Rios.
He says they don't bite him, as his skin is too
tough."

An hour before the steamer in which Gerrard
and the Frasers had taken passage cast off her
lines from the jetty, Lacey came on board to
say farewell, bringing with him Mrs Woodfall.
The kind-hearted woman was almost on the
verge of tears as she sat down beside Jim, and
folded him to her ample, motherly bosom.

Gerrard presently drew her aside, and put
two five pound notes in her hand.

" Indeed I won't, sir. I like the lad too
much ! No, sir, not even as a present. But I
do hope you won't mind his writing to us
sometimes. And will you mind my saying, Mr
Gerrard, that me and my husband are very
sorry to hear that your station has been
burned, and that you have lost nearly all your
cattle. And we have taken a liberty which I
hope won't offend you — it is only a present for
Jim, and won't give you any trouble on board
the steamer, and the freight is paid right on to
Somerset, and my husband put five hundred-
weight of best Sydney lucerne hay on board,
so you won't have no trouble in feeding him ;
and, although I say it myself, there's not a
better bred bull calf in North Queensland."

" Do you mean to say, Mrs Woodfall, that

172 TOM GERRARD

you have given Jim that Young Duke bull of
yours ? Why, he's worth fifty pounds ! Oh no,
I can't allow you to be so generous as that."

"You can't help it now, Mr Gerrard," said
the good woman triumphantly; "my husband
brought him on board last night, and he is now
in his stall on the fore-deck as happy as a king,
and I hope he will prove his good blood when
you once have him at Ocho Rios. Come and
look at him," and she smiled with pride as she
led the way out of the saloon.

The animal was comfortably established in
a stall on the fore-deck, and beside him was
Woodfall feeding him with the " Sydney
lucerne."

"Woodfall, that bull is going ashore right
away unless you take fifty pounds for him,"
said Gerrard; "he'll be worth five hundred
pounds to me in a couple of years."

" Can't take it, Mr Gerrard. He's a present
to Jim, so it's no use talking. But I would
take it as a favour if you'd send me a line, and
tell me how he bears the journey."

" Indeed I will, Woodfall," replied Gerrard,
who was greatly touched by this practical
demonstration of their regard for him ; for he
knew that their excuse of giving the bull to
Jim was a shallow one, and that both husband
and wife were aware that the animal would
prove of the greatest value to him, now that

TOM GERRARD 173

Ocho Rios was practically without cattle.
And such sympathy went to his heart. " The
world is full of kind people," he thought.
Then he turned to Mrs Woodfall and her
husband with a smile. " Come back to the
saloon with me. The steamer will leave in
half an hour, and we shall not have much time
to talk together. And the steward is giving
us tea there."

The big woman's face flushed with pleasure.
" That is kind of you, Mr Gerrard. I can
drink a cup of tea, but would be afraid to ask
that swell steward for it ; he looks like "

"Like a duke in disguise, eh? But he'll
take a shilling tip from any one, I can assure
you."

"Well, I never! He ought to be ashamed
of himself. English fashions are a-coming
in, aren't they, Mr Gerrard? Just fancy any
respectable man taking a shilling for doing the
work he is paid for ! Fifteen pound a month
these steamer stewards get, so Mr Lacey tells
me. My ! But he won't get no shilling from
me."

" Indeed he shall not, Mrs Woodfall. You
are my guest. Now come along, please, as

Miss Eraser and the others will be waiting for

»
us.

" Mr Gerrard, isn't Miss Eraser a bonny
girl — and can't she ride ! I don't want to be

174 TOM GERRARD

rude, sir, but you will have to have a mistress
for Ocho Rios ; and she is one of the sweetest
girls in the country, and right to your hand, so
to speak."

" Mrs Woodfall, you are surprising me.
First you give Jim a bull calf worth hundreds
of pounds, and then you try to fill my head
with the idea that a young lady whom I have
only known for a few weeks "

" Ah, Mr Gerrard ! Trust a woman for
knowing things that men don't see. I saw her
looking at you in the saloon — and, well, I
know a thing or two."

" I am sure you do," said Gerrard laughingly,
as they re-entered the saloon, "but I should
have to get another face before I ask any one
to marry me."

" Not at all. Why, Mr Gerrard, in a year
or so all those red scars will have gone,
and you'll be the nice same nutty brown all
over."

" How are you, Gerrard ? " said a little
white-haired man in uniform. " I am glad to
see you on board the Gambier once more.
You'll share my cabin, of course ? "

" Thanks, Captain MacAlister, I shall be
delighted," and then the master of the steamer,
after an admiring glance at Kate, and a look
of wondering sympathy at the left side of
Gerrard's face, hurried on deck to the bridge.

TOM GERRARD 175

" Two big bottles of Pommery, steward ;
never mind the tea. Quick, please," cried
Lacey to the steward ; " the skipper has gone
on the bridge, and we'll just have time for a
doch and dorrish, Miss Eraser. " The steward
soon had the bottles opened.

" Gerrard, me boy, I wish you lashings of
luck, and you too, Miss Fraser. Jim, my son,
don't forget to write. Come, Mrs Woodfall ;
you really must, or I'll not speak to ye for a
month. Here's to the bright eyes of the
ladies! Miss Fraser, don't be after playing
with any more alligators — they're nasty things
for ladies to handle. Now I must be going ;
there's the last bell," and shaking hands all
round once more, the genial Irishman left the
saloon with the Woodfalls to go on shore,
leaving Gerrard and his party to make their
way on deck.

The engines throbbed, and the great hull of
the steamer slid slowly along the pier, and
Gerrard and his friends went to the rail to
see the last of Lacey. He, however, for the
moment did not see them, as he was hurriedly
writing in his pocket-book. Then tearing out
the leaf, he looked up, and pushing his way
through the crowd to the edge of the pier, was
just in time to reach out and place the paper in
Gerrard's hand.

" Don't read it now," he cried, as he drew

176 TOM GERRARD

back ; " put it in your pocket. Good-bye, and
good luck."

A few minutes later Captain MacAlister
asked Gerrard and Fraser to come up on the
bridge, and Gerrard unfolded Lacey's missive
and read :

"Just recognised one of your fellow-passengers —
tall, stout, good-looking, yellow moustache, jewellery.
Look out for him — noted card-sharper, and all-round
blackguard. Calls himself Honble Wilburd Merriton.
but has heaps of aliases — ex -gaol bird."

Gerrard showed the note to Fraser, who
nodded, and said he had noticed the man.

" I think there is a party of them. See, there
they are together at the companion ; and, by
Jove, I can swear to one of them ! I tried him
at Araluen for being concerned in gold-stealing,
and gave him three years 'hard.' That is he
with the black moustache and Jewish features
— Mr Barney Green."

CHAPTER XX

NOT only the saloon, but the steerage accom-
modation of the Gambier was taxed to the utmost,
and Gerrard and Fraser were not surprised to
see that there were quite a hundred diggers on
board, for Lacey had told them a few days
previously that the Sydney and Melbourne
newspapers as well as the Queensland Press
had, weeks previously, reported that many
prospecting parties were doing well on both
sides of Cape York Peninsula.

Some of them the ex-judge quickly recognised
as men he had met at Gympie and other Queens-
land gold-fields, and he was especially pleased
to see one man — a tall, broad-shouldered Irish-
man named Blake, who at that moment was
engaged in an altercation with the fore-cabin
steward, and causing roars of laughter every
few moments from his rough companions.

" That's a ' broth av a boy,' and no mistake,"
said Captain MacAlister, coming over to Fraser
and Gerrard ; " he's as full of mischief as a
monkey, but a great favourite with every one on
board, except the unfortunate stewards. He is
a lucky digger from Gympie, and came aboard

177

M

178 TOM GERRARD

at Brisbane, and has kept the ship in an uproar
ever since. He took a four-berth state-room
for himself, but only uses it to sleep in — if the
devil ever does sleep — and spends all his time
among the other diggers in the fore-cabin."

" I know him," said Eraser with a smile.
" Just listen now — he is taking a rise out of the
poor steward."

The fore-cabin steward, a fat, podgy, little
man, was speaking ; beside him was Cockney
Smith, who kept giving him sympathetic
punches in the back to go on.

" I won't 'ave it, even if yer are a cabbing
passinger. Wot do yer come into the fore-
cabbing for, upsettin' me an' my men, and a-usin'
langwidge when I can't open four dozen bottles of
beer at onct. I never seed such a crowd ! I'm
allus willin' to oblige any man wot is thirsty, and
wot wants a drink ; but I aint a-goin' to attend
on yer like a slave when I 'as cleanin' to do.
So there, big as yer are, yer 'ave it — straight."

" 'Ear, 'ear," said Cockney Smith, who was
thoroughly enjoying himself. " Who's a-goin' to
be bullied by any cove because he is a cabbing
passinger ? " and he gave Blake an almost
imperceptible wink.

Blake outspread his huge hands and rolled
up his eyes, in sorrowful indignation. " Me
little mahn, I can see that ye and the steward
mane to parsecute me, and make me loife a

TOM GERRARD 179

mishery — an' me doin' no harm at all, at all.
Sure, I'll not stand it anny more. It's to the
captain I'll go, and complain av ye both.
He's a MacAlister, he is, an' I'll call on
him to purtect me from your violent conduct
— me sufferin' from a wake heart, an' liable
to fall dead on yez at anny moment, when
yez luk at me like that, wid that ferocioushness
in yez eyes. Sure, an' me own father dhropped
dead off the car he was drivin' whin an ould
maid from Belfast gave him two sovereigns
in mistake for two shillin's for takin' her from
Dawson Street to St Stephen's Green. It
was short-sighted she was, but it made me
the poor orphan I am this minute."

Amidst much laughter, the irate steward
went off, and left the field to his antagonist,
and then Douglas Fraser left the bridge,
made his way forward, and clapping the Irish-
man on the shoulder, said :

" At your old tricks again, Larry."

Blake stared at him for a moment, and then
gave a shout of delight as he seized Eraser's
hand, and in a few seconds other diggers also
recognised and crowded about him.

" An' how's the wee girl ? " was Blake's first
question.

"Come and see for yourself," and Fraser
led the way to the saloon, where they found
Kate. She was delighted to see the big digger,

180 TOM GERRARD

and blushed scarlet at his loudly expressed
compliments, for there were a number of other
passengers near. Leaving her with Blake,
Fraser rejoined Gerrard, and together they
went to the purser, whom they found in his
cabin, and asked to see the passenger list.
He was an old accquaintance of Gerrard's,
and readily complied. Running down the
names, they failed to see either that of Merriton
or Green.

"Who is that big, good-looking man with
the yellow moustache, carrying field-glasses,
Adlam ? " asked Gerrard carelessly.

" Oh," and the purser shrugged his shoulders.
" Here he is," and he pointed to a name on the
list — " ' Captain Forreste.' He's one of a party
of four, who have a cabin to themselves. They
put on no end of frills, and practically boss
the saloon. Between ourselves, I have every
reason to believe they are a gang of sharpers.
I know for a fact that one of them — this fellow
here, ' Mr Bernard Capel ' — has a hand-bag
literally packed with unopened packs of cards,
every one of which no doubt is marked.
I happened to be passing their state-room
late at night, after all the other passengers
were asleep, and when the ship was rolling
heavily. The door flew open, and I saw this
fellow Capel and the big man Forreste had
the bag open on the table, and there must

TOM GERRARD 181

have been at least twenty unopened packs of
cards piled up on the table, besides those in
the bag. I pretended I didn't notice, for the
moment the door flew open, Capel called

Forreste a idiot for not turning the key.

Now, I haven't been pursering for ten years
without learning something, and I can smell
a swell-mobsman almost before I see him."

Fraser nodded. " I daresay you are right,
Mr Adlam. When a man travels with a hand-
bag full of packs of cards one naturally would
suspect that he was either very eccentric, or
was a commercial traveller, with samples of
his wares." His eyes twinkled. " It is a very
old dodge that — an apparently unopened pack
of cards, every one of which has been systemati-
cally marked, and then the wrapper with the
revenue stamp is carefully put on again."

"Just so," assented the purser. "And the
other night, a big digger — one of our saloon
passengers — was taken down by Forreste for
a hundred and twenty pounds. The great
Irish ass, however, thinks that Forreste is no
end of a gentleman. The skipper and I gave
him a hint, which he wouldn't take, however.
The worst of it is that I must keep my mouth
shut about the bag full of packs of cards.
Diggers are rough customers, and if these now
on board knew that Forreste and his friends
were a gang of sharpers, they would handle

182 TOM GERRARD

them very severely, and create a fearful disturb-
ance."

"What is Mr Bernard Capel like?" asked
Fraser.

" Oh, a short, black-moustached chap with
curly hair, and a hook nose, wears a lot of
jewellery. The lady passengers think that
he and Captain Forreste are most charming
men."

" Who are the other two ? "

" Pinkerton and Cheyne. They are as well-
dressed as the others, but don't push them-
selves much — the other two are the bosses
of the gang."

Fraser thought a moment or two. Then
he spoke.

" I think I ought to tell you, Mr Adlam.
I know the man who calls himself Capel.
His real name is Barney Green, and he is a
bad lot — gold thief and coiner. And I advise
you to take good care of your safe. I daresay
these four gentlemen have a very interesting
collection of safe keys."

Adlam laughed. " Ah, our Company has
learnt something by experience. There, you
see, is the safe which is supposed to con-
tain all the money committed to my care ;
but there is nothing in it but loose cash ; the
safe that does hold all the money is here,"
and he tapped the varnished cedar panels of

TOM GERRARD 183

his bunk; "no one, even if he knew the
secret, could get at it without disturbing me.
When the strong room of the Andes was
broken into five years ago, between Mel-
bourne and Colombo, and six hundred-weight
of gold bars stolen, I set my wits to work, and
devised this idea of mine. Only the captain,
chief officer, chief engineer, and myself, and,
of course, the Company's general manager at
Sydney, know of it ; even my own bedroom
steward has no idea that there is a second
safe, although he turns out my cabin twice
a week for a general cleaning. If he did dis-
cover the fact, I should have to shunt him at
once, as he is quite a new hand in the
service."

"Well, you have given the secret away
to us, Adlam," said Gerrard, with a laugh,
"and I have had some bad luck of late."

The purser laughed in unison, and then
turning the key of his door, rose, went to
his bunk, and touched a concealed spring in
the heavy panelling at the back. It at once
slid down noiselessly, and revealed the safe,
about the sides of which were a number of
electric wires and bells.

" The current is turned off now," he ex-
plained, as he again touched the panelling,
which ascended as quickly and softly as it
had fallen ; "but if any one did try to prize up

184 TOM GERHARD

the panelling, there would be a devil of a
row ; not only the six bells in this cabin
but those in the captain's and chief mate's
room would begin to ring, and keep ringing,
and they and the chief engineer would know
something was wrong. We have tried it
several times when in dock, after clearing
every one out of the ship but ourselves, and
it works splendidly — kicks up a fearful din.
Now, last voyage, independent of ten thousand
ounces of gold in the strong room, I had
seventeen thousand pounds in notes and
sovereigns in that safe ; this trip there is
only about one thousand two hundred pounds,
mostly passengers' money, and a packet of five
thousand new unsigned one pound notes for
the bank just opened at Cooktown. Now, I
hope with four such gentry as we have on
board that you and Mr Fraser will be care-
ful ; better give me your cash."

" Thank you, I will," said Fraser ; " I have
seven hundred pounds in notes."

"And I about three hundred pounds,"
said Gerrard.

"Well, go and get them now if you will,"
said the obliging purser.

This was done, and then the two friends,
as they were returning to the bridge, met
Kate.

" I have honours conferred on me, father.

TOM GERRARD 185

Captain MacAlister is having afternoon tea
in his cabin, and you, Mr Gerrard, and Jim
are invited ; I am to be hostess. In another
hour I shall be the best hated woman on
board."

CHAPTER XXI

IT was past midnight, and the chief steward
of the Gambier was taking a last glance
through the empty saloon to see that every-
thing was in order before he turned in, when
Swires, the purser's bedroom steward, came
to him.

" If you please, sir, the gentlemen in No.
1 6 send their compliments, and would be
obliged to you if you will let them have their
lights on full for an hour or so for a game.
And they want a couple of bottles of Usher's
and a dozen of soda."

" Why can't they play cards in the smoking-
room on deck ? " grumbled the chief steward ;
" there's a man on duty there until two o'clock
— they know that well enough. Who's going
to wait on them, and see after the lights ? "

" I will, sir, if you don't mind," replied Swires,
a clean-shaven, deferential young man with
shifty eyes.

"Well, it's against the rules. And if the
skipper or the purser comes along, and finds
you loafing about in the alley-way when you

180

TOM GERRARD 187

ought to be turned in, I'll get into trouble
as well as yourself. Captain Forreste is a
very liberal gentleman, but he puts it on a
bit too thick when he asks me to run risks."
But as he spoke he took out his keys, and
proceeded to open his sideboard lockers — he
had already received several golden tips from
Captain Forreste and his friends, and felt
certain of more in the future.

" I told the gentlemen, sir, that I would get
into trouble if the purser or yourself seen me
in the alley-way after eight bells, and they said
that I might sit in their state-room until they
had finished their game."

" Oh, well, I suppose I must give in to 'em.
Tell 'em not to make too much noise."

As soon as Swires entered No. 16 with
the whisky and sodas, Cheyne turned the key
in the lock.

" Well ? " asked Forreste interrogatively, as
the steward laid the bottles down in one of
the berths.

Helping himself to a cigar from a box on
the table, the man lit it, and then sat down
familiarly.

" Well," he replied, " I've found out that we
are going to coal from a collier at Cooktown —
that's one thing. Another is that there is a
dinner-party to be given on shore to the
skipper by the saloon passengers on the night

188 TOM GERRARD

after we get there, and most likely the purser
is going."

" Ah," and Capel's black beady eyes glittered,
" that'll be our chance."

"Yes, we'll be coaling for about sixteen
hours, beginning in the afternoon. There will
be a dust screen put up just near the purser's
cabin, because one of the bunker shoots is just
a little for'ard of his door — see ? "

" Yes," and all four men bent eagerly towards
Swires.

"Well, there'll be a thundering clatter with
the coals as they come pouring down from the
upper deck, and that will be the time to get
in, cut the wire, and do the job right away.
There'll be no one this side of the dust screen
after eleven at night, as most of the passengers
will be ashore at the dinner, and those who
don't go will be asleep."

" Supposin' the flamin' purser don't go?"
said Cheyne, a small, wiry, sunburned man,
who, although like his confederates was
extremely well-dressed, was an exceedingly
illiterate man. He was Australian born, and
from his youth upward, when not occupied
in horse-stealing or thimble-rigging on bush
race-courses, had spent the intervening time
in gaol. Pinkerton, who was an American of a
somewhat similar type to Cheyne, but of a more
villainous nature, was an expert burglar, and

TOM GERRARD 189

a very fitting companion to the astute and well-
educated Forreste, and the Jew, Barney Green.

"Well, what if he doesn't?" responded
Swires, turning to Forreste; "you've got the
stuff for me to give him in his B and S before
he turns in. You're always cacklin' about it.
Where is it?"

"Here you are," and Forreste went to his
Gladstone bag, opened it, and took out a tin
box containing a number of very small un-
labelled phials, each holding about ten drops
of colourless liquid. " Empty one of these into
the tumbler before you put in the brandy, and
he'll be dead to the world in ten minutes after
he drinks it."

"I'd like to know how many flimsies there
are in that packet," said Capel.

"We'll know before long," replied the
steward. " It is a good big bundle. I seed
the bank clerk give it to him in the saloon,
and take a receipt for it, but couldn't get a
look to see how much it was for."

Discussion then followed as to the future
movements of the gang after the robbery,
and it was decided that Capel and Cheyne
should take the plunder on shore and hide
it, and the following morning they should
inform the purser that they intended to remain
at Cooktown instead of going on in the steamer
to Somerset and the newly-discovered rushes

190 TOM GERRARD

further north. This would cause no surprise,
for already a number of the diggers on board
had formed a deputation to Adlam, asking him
if he would make them a rebate on their
passage money if they landed at Cooktown ;
explaining that they had learnt at Port
Denison that it would be easier to get to
the new gold-fields from Cooktown than from
any other place to the north of that port.

Swires was to receive a fifth share of the
plunder, and was to desert from the ship as
soon as possible after the robbery. He had
long been associated with the gang, and indeed
it was at his suggestion, made in Sydney, that
they should attempt to open the ship's safe.
After a separation of twelve months — spent
in prison — from his former companions, he
had succeeded by means of an excellent
" discharge," which he had stolen from an
unfortunate steward named Swires, in getting
a berth on the Gambier, and the first thing
he did was to look up Forreste and Capel,
and suggest their all going to the new gold-
fields, pointing out that there would be a
great number of passengers on board, and
that they were bound to do well.

"That is just what we meant to do," Capel
had said, "and we can wire to Cheyne and
Pinkerton to join us. They are ' working '
Bathurst just now, and will be here by to-

TOM GERRARD 191

morrow night." Then he added that it was
a bit of luck that he (Swires) should be the
purser's attendant — it would give them a
very fair chance of making a big haul. If,
however, they did not succeed in their anti-
cipation of perpetrating any robberies or
swindling on the voyage by cards, they
knew that on a new gold-field they would
have glorious opportunities. Swires — who
really was a ship steward — they had become
acquainted with in San Francisco, and had
admitted into their fraternity. For quite two
years they had " worked " the mail steamers
between Sydney and San Francisco, fleecing
the passengers who were foolish enough to be
enticed into playing with them. Sometimes
there would be but two of them — with Swires
— sometimes three, and they usually took their
passages separately, met on board as strangers,
and, being always well - dressed, and very
agreeable in their manners, soon ingratiated
themselves with the rest of the passengers.
Their lavish manner of living and courteous
attention to ladies and children always paved
the way to success ; but at last they became
too well known, and had to change their
sphere of work from the American steamers

—which are always infested by sharpers — to
other lines. As " the Hon. Wilburd Merriton "

the chief scoundrel of the gang had travelled

192 TOM GERRARD

all over the world, changing his name and
appearance as occasion demanded. In the
mining towns of California and Nevada he
would be a wealthy English gentleman looking
for suitable investments ; on a Peninsular and
Oriental liner from Melbourne to London, he
would be either a college professor enjoying
a twelve months' holiday trip, a squatter in
the Northern Territory of South Australia, or
the owner of a nitrate mine in Peru ; and
whatever role he played, he always succeeded
in swindling some one. Women were his chief
victims. His handsome appearance, fascina-
ting manners, and easy courtesy were as fatal
to a confiding woman as to the managers of
banks who cashed his cheque when he was
"temporarily short for a few hundreds." An
excellent linguist in the principal Continental
languages, he could also talk like, and assume
the manners of, the rough gold-diggers with
whom he so frequently associated for his
nefarious purposes. Unlike his associates
—the Jew, Barney Green (alias Capel), and
Pinkerton and Cheyne — he had only once
seen the inside of the prison, when as "the
Hon. Wilburd Merriton " he was given a
sentence of two years' hard labour for forgery
in Auckland, New Zealand.

Lacey, who was then editing a newspaper in
that somnolent little city, had seen him in the

TOM GERRARD 193

dock, and heard something of his career ; and
so, when he saw him standing on the after-deck
of the Gambier, he had given Gerrard his
hurriedly scribbled warning.

The discovery by Swires of the location of the
secret safe in the purser's cabin had come about
in a very simple manner. A plan of the electric
connections between the dynamo in the engine-
room, and Adlam's cabin and other parts of the
ship, had come under his notice through the
carelessness of the chief engineer, who had left
it on the purser's table, and Swires had studied
it so carefully that although he had not the time
to make a copy, he had been able to explain
the mechanism perfectly to Pinkerton and Capel.
The unlocking of the door of the purser's cabin
was a very easy matter to professionals like
Cheyne, Pinkerton, and Barney Green, and so
when their conference closed, and the oily-
voiced steward bade the gang good-night, the
latter were highly elated at the prospect of
making a big haul with scarcely any danger of
detection.

N

CHAPTER XXII

WHEN the Gambier arrived at Cooktown at
the mouth of the Endeavour River, a scene of
the greatest activity presented itself, for several
other steamers had just reached the port, some
bringing European diggers from the southern
colonies and New Zealand, and others from
Hongkong with Chinese. The latter numbered
over a thousand, and they landed amid a storm
of execration and missiles from the white miners,
who had preceded them to the shore. But the
yellow men made no show of resistance, not
even when some of their number were seized
and thrown into the water with their heavily
weighted baskets ; they crowded together like
sheep, and gazed with stolid faces at the Customs
officials remorselessly capsizing their baskets
upon the ground, and kicking the contents
apart in the search for opium. Bags of rice
were cut open and the grain spilled upon the
ground, to the delight of the white diggers,
especially when a tin of opium was found, and
the would-be smuggler had his pigtail tied to
that of another until there were several groups

194

TOM GERRARD 195

of a dozen so secured to be driven to the
roughly constructed jail and court-house, where
justice was administered in an exceedingly ex-
peditious manner by heavy fines. Had it not
been that the angry diggers were anxious to
get to the newly-discovered fields as quickly
as possible, a riot would have taken place, for
they knew that within a few weeks there would
be thousands of Chinese alluvial diggers all over
the country, enriching themselves and spending
nothing, for they brought even the greater part
of their food with them from China. But the
fatuous Government of the day wanted to swell
its depleted treasure - chest, and the Chinese
poll-tax brought in money quickly. All over
North Queensland the rich alluvial gold-fields
were soon to be occupied by the yellow men,
to the detriment of the white diggers who were
hastening to them from all parts of Australasia
to meet with bitter disappointment, for the
swarms of Chinese would descend upon a newly
opened rush like locusts, and in a few weeks
work out a field that would have made hundreds
of white miners rich, though perhaps each
Chinaman might not have obtained more than
a few ounces of gold, every penny-weight of
which he sent or took back to his native country.
Amongst other passengers on the quarter-
deck of the Gambier who were watching the
examination of the Chinese were Captain

196 TOM GERRARD

Forreste and his friends. Presently Capel,
who was looking at Kate so impertinently that
she turned her face angrily away, caught her
father's eye, and in a moment the Jew's
features flushed. Where had he seen those
keen grey eyes and that square-set face before ?
Eraser continued to gaze steadily at the man,
for he had noticed the fellow's leering glance
at his daughter, and meant to resent it.

Then the Jew's natural effrontery came back
to him, and returning Eraser's look with an
insolent stare, he walked up to him.

" I hope you'll know me again the next time
you see me."

" I know you as it is, Mr Barney Green, and
the next time you dare to even look at my
daughter, I'll give you something to remember.
Meantime, take this as an earnest of my
intentions."

His right hand shot out and seized Capel
by the collar, and twisting him off his feet, he
spun him round and round, and then sent him
flying across the deck writh such violence that
he struck the rail on the other side and fell in a
heap.

For a few moments there was an astonished
silence, and then cries of " What is the
matter?" "What did he do?" resounded on
all sides as Pinkerton and Cheyne rushed to
the fallen man, who lay unconscious. Forreste,

TOM GERRARD 197

twisting his yellow moustache, strode up to
Fraser, his face pale with anger.

"What is the meaning of this outrageous
assault upon my friend ? " he demanded
fiercely.

Fraser eyed him up and down with cold
contempt, and then Gerrard said with a
pleasant drawl, as he stroked his beard :

" Run away and play, Mr — er — Mr — I really
forget your name. Oh, Merriton, is it not ? "

Forreste's face purpled with passion, and he
took a step nearer to Gerrard, who was quite
ready for him. Then he stopped and said
hoarsely :

" My name is Forreste. I don't know
yours, but I do know that if I catch you on
shore I'll add some further adornment to your
face."

" Oh, you contemptible creature, to say
that ! " and Kate looked at him with blazing
eyes.

Forreste raised his immaculate Panama to
her. " This is hardly a matter for a lady's
interference."

"Better see to your friend for the present,"
said Gerrard in the same placidly pleasant
manner, as he drew him aside. " But I may
mention before you go that there is, on the
lower deck, ample space if you wish to fulfil
your promise to complete the adornment of my

198 TOM GERRARD

prepossessing features. I am quite at your
service later on in the day."

Forreste uttered an oath and turned away,
and in a few minutes was in state-room No. 16,
where " Mr Capel " was being brought to by
his friends.

" Who is the man that did it, Barney ? " was
Forreste's first question.

" I didn't know him at first, but knew him
quick enough when I heard him speak,"

replied Capel; "he's the judge "-— here he

broke out into a torrent of blasphemy — " who
gave me two years at Araluen."

" Ha ! " and Forreste tugged his moustache.
" The sooner we get that safe affair over the
better. The fellow with the scarred face who
is with him tackled me and called me
' Merriton.' Some one has blown upon us."

"Yes," assented the Jew, "the sooner the
better." Then pouring out a glass of whisky
he gulped it down. "And if I get the chance
I'll get even with that Scotch swine. He's
going to Somerset, and I'll get my knife
into him some day. I'd not mind swinging
for it."

" Don't talk rot," said Forreste, who yet
knew that the Jew was a man who would not
hesitate at murder, and that his expression
about getting his knife into Fraser was meant
in a very literal sense. " I mean to get even

TOM GERRARD 199

with my man if I come across him again. But
I won't be such a fool as to attempt it here.
Take a look outside and see if Snaky is
about."

" Snaky " was the name by which Swires
was known to the gang — and the Australian
police ; and in a few minutes that worthy
appeared, and a further conference was
held.

That evening, whilst Captain MacAlister
was being entertained on shore, a collier came
alongside, and the Gambier began to coal.
Those of the saloon passengers who had
remained on board sat under the after-deck
awning, where they were not only secure from
the invading coal dust, but where they could
enjoy the cool sea-breeze. Among them were
Kate and Jim, who had made themselves
comfortable in two cane lounges, and at
various parts of the quarter-deck were groups
of passengers — principally ladies — who were
glad to escape from the confined atmosphere
of the saloon, and intended to sleep in the
open air. Gerrard and Fraser had gone on
shore, leaving Jim "in charge of Kate," as
Fraser had said.

At the extreme stern were Captain Forreste,
Pinkerton, two or three other men, and several
ladies, and from this group came much laughter,
the " captain " being in great good humour,

200 TOM GERRARD

and winning the ladies' smiles by his skill as
a raconteur.

"And so you are deserting us to-morrow
morning, Captain Forreste," cried a vivacious
young matron; "it is too bad of you. The
rest of the voyage will be dreadfully triste—
for me at any rate." Every one laughed.

The gallant captain smiled winningly. " Ah,
Mrs Marriott, do not make me vain. Yes, we
are going to leave you. In fact we should
have all gone ashore this evening, but my
unfortunate friend, Mr Capel, is not yet fully
recovered from the brutal attack to which he
was subjected."

"It was most disgraceful and wicked,"
chimed in a second lady.

"And cowardly as well," added a fat, sleepy-
faced dame. " I believe poor Mr Capel was
taken quite by surprise."

"And the way that horrid girl flew at you ! "
said Mrs Marriott ; " but her father being such
a horrible bully I suppose she has inherited
some of his disposition. She is certainly
pretty in a coarse kind of a way, I admit,
but terribly gauche. And I really am quite
angry with Captain MacAlister — he positively
trots after her. She is continually on the
bridge with him, and yet he has refused to
permit any other ladies to go there, ever
since we left Sydney. I think it is scandalous,

TOM GERRARD 201

for I know that Captain MacAlister is a
married man with grandchildren."

The hours passed by, and then at eleven
o'clock, to the anger of Forreste, Adlam
sauntered up. He had been to the dinner,
but had left early. Seating himself beside
Kate and Jim, he pulled the boy's ear.

" So you are taking care of Miss Fraser, eh,
Jim ? Lucky man !"

"Just listen to that now!" said the fat lady
to Mrs Marriott. " One would think that Mr
Adlam would have more sense than to flatter
that girl's vanity. He has quite deserted us
since she came on board at Port Denison."

Kate, serenely unconscious of the criticisms
being passed upon her, was listening to the
purser's description of the excited state of
Cooktown, when Swires appeared, and said
to Adlam :

" When are you turning in, sir? "

" In a few minutes, Swires. You can leave
my nip and bottle of soda on the table. I
shall not want you any more to-night."

"Very good, sir."

Adlam remained with Kate a few minutes
longer, then said good-night, and went to
his cabin. Swires, as usual, had placed a
tumbler with some brandy in it on the table,
and beside it lay the soda. The purser took
off his clothes, and got into his thinnest pyjamas,

202 TOM GERRARD

for the cabin was close ; but he had made up
his mind to stay in his cabin that night, for the
sole reason that he was now very suspicious of
Captain Forreste and his party, and had made
up his mind to suffer the discomfort of a hot
cabin, and the noise of the coaling going on as
long as they were on board. Forreste had
told him in the afternoon that he and his
party were staying at Cooktown, much to his
satisfaction.

Eight bells struck, and then noise of the
falling coals suddenly ceased — the lumpers were
taking the usual half -hour "spell." Adlam
opened the soda, and the listening Swires
heard the pop of the cork, and stole softly
into No. 1 6, where he found the gang awaiting
him.

/ "Well, he's taken his B and S," he said,
"and that finishes my part of the contract."
(Earlier in the evening he and Pinkerton had
opened Adlam's door, and the latter had
quickly cut the electric communication of the
secret safe. The opening of it later on would
not be a difficult matter to such an expert as
the American.)

"And we'll do ours presently," said Capel,
who was now quite recovered. "How long
will that dose keep him quiet ? " he asked of
Forreste.

" Two hours. As soon as you have the

TOM GERRARD 203

work done, Pinky and Cheyne can take the
stuff on shore. I've told the chief steward that
we had all thought of going for a stroll on the
beach, but that I did not care about leaving
Mr Capel, and that as our cabin is not very
hot, we should not sleep on deck. When will
the coaling start again, Snaky?"

" Twenty minutes or so."

"Very well. We'll wait until one o'clock,
eh, Barney ? "

The Jew nodded, and then Swires left them,
and Forreste put out the electric light.

About half-past one Pinkerton and Cheyne
appeared on the after-deck, and sauntered up
and down for a few minutes. There were
several other male passengers still awake, and
with these the two men exchanged a few words.

"Will you come with us for a stroll on the
beach ? " said Pinkerton to a sleepy man who
was lying on the skylight.

"No jolly fear; I'm too comfy as I am,
and I know what the mosquitoes are on
Cooktown beach."

Cheyne made some laughing rejoinder, and
then he and his companion went to the
gangway and walked leisurely along the jetty.
An hour or so later they returned, and settled
themselves comfortably with pillows on one of
the long deck seats.

204 TOM GERRARD

In state-room No. 16 Forreste and Capel
were conversing in angry, whispered tones.

" How was I to know that he hadn't taken
your cursed dose?" snarled the Jew; "and
what else could I do but settle him when he
awoke? Anyway, we have nothing to be
afraid of. We have got the stuff, and by this
time Pinky and Cheyne have it safely planted,
and there will be no evidence to connect us
with the job. Curse you ! what are you funk-
ing it for? We'll be on shore at five o'clock,
the steamer leaves at six, and the purser is
never called until seven ; and when he is
called and doesn't answer, they won't break
open his door for at least two or three hours.
And by this time he has fifty tons of coal on
top of him, and there's more coming down
every minute. Listen ! "

Forreste, criminal as he was, was not so
callous as Green, and shuddered as he heard
the coals rattling down into the bunkers.

"Was he quite dead when you dropped him
down into the bunker?" he asked, as with
shaking hand, he poured some whisky into
a tumbler.

" Dead as you will be some day, you white-
livered cur!" said the Jew with savage con-
tempt. Then opening the port, he dropped
Pinkerton's burglar's tools over into the water.
"There! there goes Pinky 's kit. All we have

TOM GERHARD 205

to do now is to go on deck — you to blarney
with the women, who are awake, and me to
play the interesting invalid who was subjected
to a violent and unprovoked attack," and he
leered evilly.

CHAPTER XXIII

" WELL, Lizzie, how does the Ocho Rios
country strike you ? " and Gerrard pulled up
his horse under the grateful shade of a great
Leichhardt tree standing on the bank of a
clear, sandy- bottomed creek.

" I think it is beautiful, Tom, almost tropical,
especially anywhere near the sea," and Mrs
Westonley jumped lightly from her horse.
"Are we going to spell here for awhile?"

" Yes. Here come Jim and Mary with the
pack-horse, and as it is past twelve, we'll have
our dinner, rest an hour, and then take the
beach way home."

Eight months had passed since Mrs
Westonley and Mary had come to Ocho
Rios, and they had been eight months of
work and happiness to them all, for the
fortunes of Gerrard had changed greatly, and
he was now in a fair way of becoming a
prosperous man again. The numerous gold
discoveries had brought a great inrush of
diggers, and cattle for killing were now worth
four times the price they had been a year
before. He had built his new house, which

TOM GERRARD 207

was ready and actually furnished when his
sister and Mary arrived at Somerset, where
he had met them. Together they had ridden
across the peninsula, through the dry, parched-
up bush so lately devastated by fire, and when
Ocho Rios was reached, the country was
certainly looking at its worst, as he had
mentioned in his letter. But since then
glorious rains had fallen, and no one not
acquainted with the marvellous changes pro-
duced by copious rains in a tropical land, would
believe that the shady Leichhardt tree under
which Gerrard and his sister were camped had
four months previously been withered and
scorched by the great fire which had swept
across the peninsula.

The name of " Ocho Rios " had been given
to the station by the man who had first taken
up the block of country for a cattle-run. He
was an ex-Jamaican sugar planter, whose estate
had been situated in the Ocho Rios (Eight
Rivers) district of that beautiful island ; and
who had been ruined by the emancipation of
the negroes in 1838. And, as his new
possession was in the vicinity of eight small
creeks flowing westward into the Gulf of
Carpentaria, he had given it the same name.

" How far are we from the sea now, Uncle
Tom?" asked Mary, as she and Jim rode up
leading the pack-horse.

208 TOM GERRARD

" About seven miles or so. Ever seen
mango trees, Mary ? "

"No, Uncle Tom, but Aunt Lizzie has, and
says that mangoes are lovely. She ate some
at Point de Galle, when she was a little girl
going to England. Didn't you, Aunt?"

Mrs Westonley smiled, and looked at
Gerrard inquiringly, wondering what had
made him ask the question. He had a way
of " springing " pleasant surprises upon people.
When she came to the new bark-roofed house
at Ocho Rios, she had never expected to find
anything but the common chairs and tables,
usually to be seen on cattle stations in the
Far North. Certainly Tom had told her in
his letter that he had bought "some decent
furniture " at Port Denison, and she had smiled
to herself, thinking of what the difference would
be between her ideas and his of what was
" decent furniture." And her heart had gone
out to him when she — then knowing what she
had not dreamt of before, that he was a ruined
man — saw what he had bought for her out of
his slender purse.

"Tom," she had cried, "why did you go to
such expense ? And that piano too ! I shall
hardly have the heart to play upon it, knowing
what "

" You are going to play to-night after dinner.
That piano will become famous. It is the first

TOM GERRARD 209

thing of the kind ever seen on Cape York
Peninsula. You should have seen the skipper
of the pearling lugger at Somerset stare when
he saw the thing swing out of the hold of the
Gambier. It will be a great thing for you and
Mary."

" Indeed it will, Tom. For her sake alone
I must rejoice."

Four months after his return to the station
Gerrard was delighted to receive a visit from
Douglas Fraser and Kate. They, with Sam
Young, and the rest of Fraser's old hands,
were on one of the new rushes about ninety
miles from Ocho Rios, and were, Fraser said,
doing very well, together with some fifty other
white diggers, and several hundreds of Chinese.
Amongst other news the ex-judge told Gerrard
something that had pleased him greatly.

"You'll be glad to hear that Adlam is
thoroughly recovered," he said, " I saw a
paragraph about him in a Brisbane Courier,
two months old, which the new sub-Inspector
of Black Police gave me last week. The poor
fellow had a most marvellous escape."

Adlam had indeed had a marvellous escape
from a dreadful death. When the treacherous
" Snaky " Swires had heard the pop of the soda
water in the purser's cabin, he had naturally
concluded that Adlam had poured it into the
glass containing the drugged brandy ; but as

o

210 TOM GERRARD

a matter of fact Adlam had drunk the soda
water alone, for he thought he had taken quite
enough champagne — and other liquid refresh-
ment as well — at the dinner to MacAlister, and
wanted to rise earlier than usual in the morning
with a clear head. When Pinkerton and Capel
entered his cabin, he was not quite asleep, and
had turned in his berth as he heard his door
close softly, and the next instant the American
had seized him by the throat, and the Jew
dealt him a blow on the temple with a slung
shot. After that he remembered nothing more.
When Capel and Pinkerton dropped his
unconscious figure down into the bunker, he
had rolled down the inclined heap of coals to
the bottom, where half an hour later he was
discovered by the half-drunken coal trimmers,
who at once summoned the chief engineer, and
Adlam was carried to his cabin, Swires opening
the door with the duplicate key he was allowed
to possess. There was nothing in the cabin to
give rise to any suspicion — everything was in
the usual order ; and it was naturally concluded
that the purser had fallen down into the bunkers
in the darkness, and had struck his head, or
that a heavy piece of fallen coal had inflicted
the terrible blow. No doctor was available,
and for many days he hovered between life and
death, unable to speak. It was only after the
steamer arrived at Somerset that medical

TOM GERRARD 211

assistance was obtained, and that Captain
MacAlister opened the safe, and found it rifled
of all the cash it had contained — the bundle
of unsigned notes Adlam had given to the
bank manager within an hour after the
steamer's arrival at Cooktown. Poor Adlam,
still unconscious, was sent to Brisbane. The
disappearance of Swires led to the belief that
he was the perpetrator of the robbery, but
Adlam, still unable to speak, could not give
any information on the subject. Gerrard and
Fraser, however, told the captain all they knew
of Captain Forreste and his friends, and in due
time they were arrested at one of the mining
camps and brought back to Cooktown, charged
with being concerned in the affair. But there
was not a tittle of evidence against them, and
they were discharged.

Another matter which had pleased Gerrard
was that he had heard that Randolph Aulain
with a party of three, was working the head
waters of the little creek running into the
Batavia, on which both he and Gerrard had
found gold, and that they had washed out
some thousands of ounces. But Aulain's
expectation of being able to secure the usual
Government reward for the discovery of a
payable and permanent gold - field was not
realised ; the Mining Warden had reported
adversely upon it as regarded the latter essential

212 TOM GERRARD

qualification. Gerrard felt some surprise that
Aulain had not come to see him, for the "place
with a hunking big boulder standing in the
middle of a deep pool," was only eighty miles
from Ocho Rios. But then, upon second
thoughts, he concluded that the auri sacra
fames had seized his friend too thoroughly in
its grip — as it always does the amateur digger,
especially when he strikes upon very rich
auriferous country, as was the case in this
instance. And his surmise was correct, for
Aulain was working madly to become rich
and win Kate, and had no thought of aught
else.

" Here are the mangoes, Mary," said Gerrard,
as two hours after leaving their camp under the
great Leichhardt tree, the party drew rein before
a grove of fifty or more of the beautiful trees ;
" these escaped the big fire. See, the clusters
of fruit are almost ripe. In another week or
so they will be fit to eat, and then you'll see all
the winged insects and the ' bitiest ' ants in the
universe here in millions, feeding upon them.
The niggers like them too. About four years
ago a mob of myalls came here and stripped
every tree, and I did not mind it very much.
But two days after that, they killed and ate
two of my stockmen, and Inspector Aulam
gave them a terrible punishment."

TOM GERHARD 213

He stood up in his saddle, broke off a cluster
of the reddening fruit, and tossed them to Jim.
" Put them in your saddle pouch, Jim, and when
we get home wrap them in a piece of damp
blanket ; they'll be ripe in a couple of days.
Now, come on, Lizzie, we can ride along the
beach for another five miles. I want to show
you the old Dutch ship buried in the sand.
Some day I mean to dig her out, and find
millions of treasure — eh, Jim ? Like the story-
books, you know."

And then, as the first red glories of the
nearing sunset spread its blades of softened
fire upon the sleeping waters of the Gulf, they
cantered along the hard, yellow sand.

CHAPTER XXIV

SUMMER had come and gone, and come again
before Gerrard received a visit from Aulain.
Early one scorching, hot morning, however,
he rode up to the station, leading a pack-horse,
and found his friend busy in the branding yard
with Jim, and some white and aboriginal stock-
men. Gerrard was delighted to see him, and
at once ceased his work of branding calves.

" Come to the house, Aulain. My sister
will be so pleased to see you. Jim, take
Mr Aulain's horses to the stable, give them
a wash down, and then turn them out into
the river bank paddock."

" No, don't do that, Gerrard," said Aulain ;
" I can't stay for the night. I want to push
on to — to "-—he hesitated a moment, — " towards
Black Bluff Creek."

"Nonsense, man! It's ninety miles from
here, and you can't get there before to-morrow
night, although your horse looks pretty fit for
another twenty miles or so. What is the
earthly use of your camping out to-night ?
I'll take it very badly, I can tell you, and
my sister will feel greatly hurt."

211

TOM GERRARD 215

The ex-inspector began to protest, but
Gerrard would not listen, and so Aulain
allowed himself to be overruled. As they
walked to the house, Gerrard could not but
notice that his friend seemed very much
changed in his manner. He spoke slowly and
constrainedly, and looked at least five years
older than he was when Gerrard had last seen
him at Port Denison.

" Fever been troubling you again, Aulain ? "
he said sympathetically, as he placed his hand
on his shoulder.

Aulain gave a nod. " Oh, nothing very bad.
I get a pretty stiff turn now and again, but
there's nothing like hard work to shake it off
when you feel it coming on."

" Just so. How's the claim going — well, I
hope ? "

" It's worked out now. But my three mates
and I have done very well out of it. We have
taken out four thousand five hundred ounces in
a year and eight months. We sent the gold
away by the escort last week, and our camp is
broken up. My mates have gone off in
various directions to other diggings."

"And you?"

" Oh, I thought I would see what the new
field near Cape Grenville was like. I hear
that it is very patchy, but any amount of rich
pockets. And as Black Bluff Creek is on my

216 TOM GERHARD

way, I thought I would pay Fraser a visit, and
see how he is doing. Do you know ? "

"Very well indeed."

"Is he?" and Gerrard was quick to notice
the gloomy look that came into Aulain's eyes,
and wondered thereat.

" I am so glad to meet you at last, Mr
Aulain," said Mrs Westonley, as the two men
entered the cool sitting-room. " Tom has a just
grievance against you for not coming to see
him when you were only eighty miles from us.
Almost every day for the past year he has
been expecting to see you. But I suppose
that washing out gold is too fascinating a
pursuit, and that you could not drag yourself
away."

Aulain smiled. " You are quite right in one
way, Mrs Westonley, but wrong in another.
I should have come to Ocho Rios six months
ago, but all our horses died from eating poison
bush, and it was only a few weeks ago that my
mates and I were able to buy some from a
drover, who was taking a mob down to
Cooktown."

During lunch the ex - inspector brightened
up somewhat, and once smiled when Mrs
Westonley, in alluding to the several visits
made by Kate Fraser to Ocho Rios, said that
Jim had fallen violently in love with her,
whereupon the lad laughed, and said he was

TOM GERHARD 217

only as much in love with her as were Uncle
Tom and Mary. Gerrard, who of course knew
of Aulain's rejection by Kate, was at that
moment wondering whether his friend meant
to again "try his luck" or had quite got over
the affair, and joined heartily in the general
laugh that followed Jim's remark.

" I think she is a delightful girl, Mr Aulain,"
said Mrs Westonley ; "and I am looking
forward to her next visit. She spent a
fortnight with us the last time, and we felt
quite dull and humdrum after she had gone
home to her father."

Aulain raised his brows slightly, and enquired
if Miss Fraser had come all that distance alone.
Surely she would not be so rash !

" Oh, no ! She knows how bad these Cape
York blacks are, and would not be so reckless
of her life as to come alone. Mr Fraser came
with her the first time, then one of her father's
mates was her next escort, and the last time
Tom and Jim went to the Bluff for her, and
also went back with her."

A fleeting shadow crossed the dark handsome
face, but beyond saying that the blacks were now
not so bold as they were two years ago, he
apparently did not take much interest in Miss
Fraser's visits to Ocho Rios. But already his
ever suspicious mind was at work about her
and Gerrard.

218 TOM GERRARD

After lunch, as there was more branding to
be done, Gerrard went back to the stockyard.
Aulain wished to come and help.

"Indeed you shall not, Aulain. I'll tell you
what you ought to do. You were saying that
you felt inclined for a sea bathe when you
camped last night and heard the surf beating
on the beach. Now, you and Jim go and have
a jolly good swim in the surf. Jim will show
you a place safe from sharks."

" I can't resist that," said Aulain eagerly. It
was just the very thing he wished — to have a
talk with Jim. " But I know the place you
mean, Gerrard. My troopers and I have often
bathed there when I was in charge of the N.P.
Camp at Red Beach."

Jim ran off to catch and saddle a couple of
horses, for although the bathing place was only
three miles distant, no Australian would walk
so far (except to catch a horse) when he could
ride.

"Take your fishing-line, Jim," said Mrs
Westonley, when he returned leading the
horses, "and catch some bream for supper.
No, Mary, certainly not — you cannot go. No,
not even to help Jim to catch and clean
the fish. This is a terrible girl, Mr Aulain,"
and with a smile she drew Mary to her. " I
know exactly what she wants to do — ride into
the surf and get wet through."

TOM GERRARD 219

" Aunt, you are a wonder. However did you
guess?" and Mary, now almost as tall as Jim,
hugged Mrs Westonley's slender waist ; "that's
exactly what I did mean to do. But I also
meant to catch fish as well."

" Then you can ' catch ' me some guinea-fowl
eggs instead, to make egg and bread-crumb to
fry the fish. Mr Aulain, do you know that
Tom brought some guinea-fowl from Port
Denison, and now we have hundreds of them ?
They are horrid things, though. Instead of
laying in the fowl-house in an ordinary Christian
fowl-like way, they go miles away, and of course
the carpet snakes and iguanas, and kooka-
burras, l get most of the eggs and chicks —
except those which Jim and Mary find."

Aulain laughed as he swung his light, wiry
figure into his saddle, and then he and Jim
cantered off.

A few hours later, as he and the lad were
returning to the station, he lit his pipe and
said :

" So your aunt doesn't care about the beach,
and the sea, and the old Dutch ship buried
in the sand, eh, Jim?"

" No, Mr Aulain. She says she cannot look
at the sea without shuddering — it always makes
her think of her father and mother, and the

1 Laughing jackasses.

220 TOM GERHARD

wreck of the Cassowary. But Uncle Tom and
Miss Fraser like the beach, and always went
there in preference to anywhere else when they
went for a ride."

Poor Jim, never for one moment imagining
the cause of Aulain's interest in Miss Eraser's
movements, was then led on by him to relate
nearly everything that had occurred at the
station during her last visit. " Was she fond of
fishing?" Aulain asked. " Oh, yes, and so was
Uncle Tom. They would go out nearly every
day either to the beach for bream, or up one of
the creeks for spotted mullet."

Sometimes he (Jim) and Mary would go with
them, and then it would be a regular all-day
sort of fishing and shooting picnic. Miss Fraser
used to shoot too, and Uncle Tom was teaching
her to shoot from the left shoulder as well as
the right — like he could. Then he went on to
say that next time Kate came to Ocho Rios she,
Gerrard and Mary and himself were all going
to Duyphen Point, where there was a small
coco-nut grove.

" It will be grand, won't it, Mr Aulain ? You
see we are going to take two pack-horses, and
our guns and fishing-lines, and will camp there
for three or four days and come back with a
load of coco-nuts."

"It ought to be splendid, Jim. When is it to
be?"

TOM GERRARD 221

" In about a month. Miss Fraser is coming

o

to stay with aunt for three whole months.
Uncle Tom and I are going to Black Bluff
Creek for her, if Mr Fraser can't spare the time
to come with her. You see, it's ninety miles,
and you can't do it in one day, because some of
the country is very rough, and none of our horses
have ever been shod. Look at this colt's hoofs,"
and he pointed to them ; " ain't they an awful
size? — real 'soft country ' hoofs, and^no mistake."

Aulain gave a short nod, and then be-
came silent, scarcely noticing Jim's further
remarks concerning such interesting subjects
as kangarooing, alligator - shooting, the big
tribe of cannibal niggers on the Coen River,
who had killed and eaten sixteen Chinamen
diggers, etc., etc.

For the rest of the day he was, Gerrard and
Mrs Westonley noticed, very restless, and the
former observed with some surprise that he
helped himself freely and frequently to the
brandy ; hitherto he had known him as a
somewhat abstemious man in the matter of
liquor.

He left soon after daylight, declining
Gerrard's pressing invitation to stay for
breakfast on the ground of wishing to "do
a good twenty miles before the cursed sun
got too hot," and somehow the master of
Ocho Rios was not sorry to say good-bye to

222 TOM GERHARD

him, for his manner seemed to have under-
gone a very great, and not pleasant change.

"Take care of the niggers, Aulain," he said
as they parted.

The ex-officer smiled grimly, and he touched
the Winchester carbine slung across his shoulder.
Then leading his pack-horse, he rode away.

CHAPTER XXV

"On, men who have, or have had fever as
badly as Aulain has, often act very queerly,
Lizzie, so don't be too hard on him."

" I know that, Tom. But at the same time
there is something about him — those strange
eyes of his — that made me afraid of him.
When I told him last night that Kate Fraser
was coming here on a long visit, he did not
answer ; his eyes were fixed on your face in
such a strange, intense look that it made me
feel quite ' creepy.' '

Gerrard laughed. "Were they? I didn't
notice it."

" No, of course not. You were too busy
showing Jim how to unscrew the nipples of
his gun, and perhaps did not even hear what
I was saying."

"Oh, I did. But I didn't make any
comment, as I noticed that at supper, when-
ever you or I spoke of the Erasers, he answered
in curt monosyllables."

" Did you tell him she was coming here next
month ? "

224 TOM GERHARD

"No. I daresay I should have done so if
I had thought of it."

" Tom, I am not a female Lavater, but when
I saw him looking at you like that, I disliked
and distrusted him."

" Poor Aulain ! Why, Lizzie, he's one of
the straightest fellows that ever lived, and I
am sure he has a sincere regard for me. You
must never take notice of the queer looks and
actions of men who have had fever badly."

"Tom! I'm a woman, and I know. He
was thinking of Kate Fraser — and you. And
he is suffering from another fever — the fever
of violent jealousy."

Gerrard looked up — they were at breakfast.
"Well, if that is the case, it is a bad complica-
tion of diseases, and I am sorry for him. He
has no earthly reason to be jealous of me."

"He is jealous, Tom, 'deadly jealous,' as
Jim would say, and I dislike him, dislike him
intensely for it. You have been so good to
him, too."

" Only keeping things quiet about Big
Boulder Creek, as I promised him I should.
And then, you see, Lizzie, his not getting the
Government reward of five thousand pounds,
as he thought he should, has been a big dis-
appointment to him."

Mrs Westonley rose, came over to him,

TOM GERRARD 225

and placed her two hands against his bronzed
cheeks.

" Thomas Gerrard, Esquire ? "

" Mrs Elizabeth Westonley ! "

" You are to marry Kate Eraser ! "

" Am I, old woman ? You're a perfect jewel
of a sister to find me such a charming wife.
But you see there are one or two trifling
formalities to be observed. First of all, I should
have to ask her her views on the subject."

" You ought to have done that a year
ago."

"And have met with a refusal like poor
Forde and Aulain."

" No, you would not have been refused. I
know that much," was his sister's emphatic
observation. " But you are letting the time
go by, Tom. And I am sure she is wonder-
ing why you don't ask. I know that she
loves you."

"Do you really?" and he shook his head
smilingly.

" Yes, I do. I'm certain. And I know
you are fond of her."

" Been long in the clairvoyant business,
Lizzie ? "

" Don't talk nonsense, Tom. I am very
serious — and it would make me very happy.
Ask her this time, Tom. You must — else

p

226 TOM GERRARD

you have no right to be with her so much.
It is not fair to the girl."

"We are very great friends, Lizzie. I
like her better than any woman I have ever
met. And I have sometimes thought -
but anyway, I'm not in a position to ask
her."

" Nonsense ! Your affairs are improving
every day."

Gerrard was silent for a minute, then he
said :

" I think Aulain means to try again."

" I am sure of it. But he is wasting his
time. High-spirited as she is, she is almost
frightened of him. She told me so. She
resented very much a letter she received
from him in reply to hers telling him she
could not marry him ; and moreover she
told me that even if she cared ever so much
for a man, she would never marry a Roman
Catholic."

" I don't think she will ever marry, Lizzie,
so it is no use my indulging in ridiculous
visions ; she is too much attached to her
father to ever leave him. And you will
always be mistress of Ocho Rios and master
of Tom Gerrard."

Mrs Westonley laughed, and pulled his
short, dark -brown, pointed beard. "Silly

TOM GERRARD 227

man ! I know better than that ; and I know
also that Douglas Eraser would be pleased
to see Kate become Mrs Tom Gerrard, for
he likes you immensely. Now, promise me
you will ask her ? "

Gerrard rose and made his escape to the
door, then he turned.

"I'll think it over, you match-making
creature," and then he went off to the stock-
yard, apparently unconcerned, but secretly
delighted at what his sister had told him,
and she smiled to herself, for she knew that
when he spoke of thinking about a matter,
he had already decided.

Black Bluff Creek was a purely alluvial
gold-field, and was in the very zenith of its
prosperity when, towards sunset, Randolph
Aulain looked down upon it from an iron-
stone ridge a mile distant from the workings.
It had been given its name on account of a
peculiar formation of black rock, which rose
abruptly from the alluvial plain, and extended
for nearly two miles along and almost parallel
with the creek, from the bed of which so
much gold was being won by two hundred
diggers. The top of this wall of rock was
covered with a dense scrub, and presented
a smooth, even surface of green, which even

228 TOM GERRARD

in the driest seasons never lost its verdant
appearance. Some of the diggers had cleared
away portions of the scrub, and erected sun-
shelters of bark, under which they slept when
their day's toils were over, and enjoyed the
cool night breeze — free from the miasmatic
steam of the valley five hundred feet below.
Almost on the verge of the steep-to wall of
rock was a large and regularly built "humpy,"
in which Douglas Fraser and Kate lived.
The ascent to the summit of the bluff was
by a narrow path that had been found by
Kate in one of the many clefts riven in the
side of the black-faced cliff, and her father's
mates had so improved it with pick and
shovel that Aulain could discern it quite
easily.

As he walked his horse down into the
camp, the diggers had just ceased work for
the day, and with clay-stained and soddened
garments were returning to their various
tents or "humpies" of bark, all of them
contentedly smoking, and ready for their
usual supper of salt beef, damper, and tea.
Many of the stalwart fellows recognised the
ex-officer of Black Police, and bade him a
pleasant "good evening, boss," and presently
he was hailed by Sam Young, Cockney
Smith, and others of Eraser's party. He

TOM GERRARD 229

dismounted and shook hands with Young,
and asked him where was the "pub," as he
intended to put up there for the night.

Young protested against his going there.
"There it is, Mr Aulain, over there," and he
pointed to the bush public house, a low, bark-
roofed structure on the edge of the creek ;
"but you can't stay there to-night. It's
Saturday, you see, and the boys will be
there in force to-night, and you'll get no
sleep. Besides, Mr Eraser would be real
put out if you didn't go to him. He's just
gone home. He and Miss Kate live up on
the bluff."

" I know. I'll go and see them after
supper, but I'd rather camp down here for
to-night."

" Then come to our tent. There's plenty
of room, and plenty of tucker, and any amount
of grass along the creek for your horses."

Aulain accepted the offer, and after un-
saddling and turning out his horses, he was
provided with a piece of soap, an alleged
towel, and a bucket of water, and made a
hasty wash in company with Young and his
mates. Then came supper and the interchange
of the usual mining news. Two years before,
not one of his present companions would have
addressed him without the prefix of " Mister";

230 TOM GERRARD

but now he was one of themselves, a digger,
and would himself have felt awkward and un-
comfortable if any one of them had had the
lack of manners and good sense to "Mister"
him.

Supper over he lit his pipe, and telling
Young he would be back about ten and take
a hand at euchre, he set out and took the
mountain path to the summit of the bluff. It
was a beautifully clear moonlight night — so
clear that every leaf of the trees which stood
on the more open sides of the rocky track
showed out as if it were mid-day, and a bright
sun was shining overhead.

When he was within sight of Fraser's
dwelling, he heard two shots above him,
and then Kate speaking.

" I've got four of the little villains, father."

The sound of her voice thrilled him, and
he hastened his steps. In a few minutes he
saw Douglas Eraser, who was seated outside
smoking his after-supper pipe.

"How are you, Fraser?" he cried.

The big man sprang to his feet, and came
towards him with outstretched hand.

" Aulain, by Jove! I am pleased to see you
again. I saw some one leading a pack-horse
coming into the camp below, but never dreamt
it was you. Come inside. Kate will be here

TOM GERRARD 231

in a few minutes. We have a bit of garden
close by, and the confounded bandicoots and
paddymelons ravage it at nights, and she has
just been knocking some over. She will be
delighted to see you."

CHAPTER XXVI

KATE was not pleased to see Aulain, but did
not show it ; for she guessed why he had
come, and could not but feel a little frightened.
But after a little while she felt more at her
ease, when he began to tell her father and
herself of his mining experiences, and said
laughingly that malarial fever was not half
as bad as gold fever.

''You see," he said, turning to Kate, "the
one only takes possession of your body : the
other takes your soul as well. The more gold
you get, the more you want ; and one does not
feel that he has a corporeal existence at all
when he turns up a fifty or sixty ounce nugget
— as I did on three or four occasions. You feel
as if you belonged to another — a more glorious
world ; and before you, you see the open,
shining gates of the bright City of Fortune."

The grizzled ex -judge laughed. "You
have missed your vocation in life, Aulain.
Man, you're a poet. But I know the feeling,
and so does Kate. Well, I am pleased that
you have had such luck."

232

TOM GERRARD 233

"And so am I," said Kate incautiously,
"and I wish you better luck still at the new
rush at Cape Grenville ; but I think what has
pleased me most, Mr Aulain, is that you have
left the Native Police. Do you know that
when the escort was here a few weeks ago
with ten black troopers, and your successor
came here to see us, I could hardly be civil to
him, although he was very nice, and gave us
some very late newspapers — only two months
old."

"The Black Police are certainly your betes
noire, Kate," said her father with a smile, as
he pushed the bottle of whisky towards his
guest.

" They are, dad. They are very especial
black beetles to me — beetles with Snider rifles
and murderous tomahawks for shooting and
cutting down women and children."

Aulain's dark face flushed, and Kate reddened
too, for she was sorry she had spoken so hastily.
Then, to her relief, there sounded a sudden
outburst of barking from Eraser's kangaroo
dogs.

"Oh, those horrid paddymelons and bandi-
coots at the garden again ! " and she rose and
seized her gun.

"May I come and have a shot, too?" said
Aulain.

234 TOM GERRARD

" Do. It is as clear as noon- day. Take
father's gun, Mr Aulain. I have plenty of
cartridges in my pocket."

They stepped out together into the brilliant
moonlight, and then Kate, driving the dogs
away, led the way to the garden — a small
cleared space enclosed with a brush fence.
Peering over the top, the girl saw more than
a dozen of the energetic little rodents busily
engaged in their work of destruction. Indicat-
ing those at which she intended to fire, she
motioned to Aulain to shoot at a group which
were further away, and occupied in rooting
up and devouring sweet potatoes. They fired
together, and three or four of the creatures
rolled over, dead. The rest scampered off.

" They will come back in ten or fifteen
minutes," said Kate; "shall we wait? See,
there is a good place, under that silver leaf
ironbark, where it is rather dark. There is a
log seat there."

Aulain eagerly assented. This would give
him the opportunity to which he had been
looking forward.

As soon as they were seated he took Kate's
gun from her hand, and leant it with his own
against the bole of the tree.

" Kate," he said, speaking very quickly, " I
am glad to have this chance of speaking to you

TOM GERRARD 235

alone. I want to ask your forgiveness for that
letter I wrote when "

" I did forgive you, long ago, Randolph. I
was very, very angry when I read it, and I
daresay you too were angry when you wrote
such cruel things to me, but then" — and she
smiled — "you have such a very hasty temper."

He placed his hand on hers. " Only you can
chasten it, Kate. And now you know why I
have come to Black Bluff."

" It is very good of you, Randolph, but, as I
have said, I forgave you long ago, and I am
sorry that you have come so far just to tell me
that you are sorry for what occurred, although
both father and I are sincerely glad to see
you."

" Ah, Kate ! You don't understand what I
mean. In asking for your forgiveness I ask for
your love. I came here to ask you to be my
wife."

" Don't, please, Randolph," and she drew
herself away from him. " I cannot marry you.
I like you — I always liked you — but please
do not say anything more."

"Kate," and the man's voice shook, "you
cared for me once. Forget my mad, angry
letter, and "

"I have forgotten it. Did I not say so?
But please do not again ask me to marry you.

236 TOM GERRARD

Come, let us go back to the house. You will
only make me miserable — or else angry."

" Why have you changed so towards me ? "
he asked quickly.

" I have not changed in any way towards
you," she answered emphatically with a slight
accent of anger in her tones. " Please do not
say anything more. Let us go in," and she
rose.

" Kate," he said pleadingly, and he placed
his hand on her arm gently, "just listen to me
for a minute. I love you. I will do all that
a man can to make you happy. I have left
the Native Police, and I am now fairly well
off-
She made a swift gesture. " For your sake
I am pleased — very pleased — that you have
left the Police, and have made money. But,
Randolph," and though she was frightened at
the suppressed vehemence in his voice, and
the almost fierce look of his dark, deep-set
eyes, she smiled as she put her hand on his,
"please don't think that — that — money, I
mean — would make any difference to me.
Come, let us go back to father. I am sure
he wants you to play chess."

Aulain's face terrified her. He had lost
control of himself, and his hand closed around
her wrist.

TOM GERRARD 237

" So you throw me over ? " he said in almost
savage tones.

"'Throw you over'! How dare you say
such a thing to me ! " and she tore her hand
away from him, and faced him with blazing
anger in her eyes. " What have I ever said
or done that you can speak to me like this ? "

" I know who has come between us—

" ' Between us ' ! What do you mean ? " she
cried scornfully. " What has there ever been
' between us ' ? And who do you mean ? "

Aulian's face whitened with the anger of
jealousy, and he gave full vent to the un-
reasoning passion which had now overmastered
him.

" I mean Gerrard."

"Mr Gerrard — your friend ? " she said slowly.

" Yes," he replied with a sneer ; " my dear
friend Gerrard — the man who, professing to be
my friend, has steadily undermined me in your
regard ever since he first saw you."

"Your mind is wandering, I fear," and the
icy contempt with which she spoke brought his
anger to white heat. " I shall stay here no
longer, Mr Aulain," and she stepped over to
the tree, and took up her gun. Aulain was
beside her in an instant.

"Do you think I do not know?" he said
thickly, and the gleam of passion in his eyes

238 TOM GERRARD

struck terror to her heart, "It was he who
made you leave Eraser's Gully to come here,
so as to be near him. At first I thought that
it was that Scotch hound of a parson — but now
I know better."

Kate flushed deeply, then she whitened with
anger. " Oh, I wish I were a man ! I could
strike you as it is ! Ah, you should never have
left the Black Police. I shall not fail to let the
man who befriended you know how you have
vilified him."

" You need not. I will tell him myself what
I have told you. By — — he shall suffer for
robbing me of you ! " and it needed all Kate's
courage to look into his furious eyes.

" Good-night, Mr Aulain," she said, trying
to speak calmly ; "I do not wish to — I hope
I never may — see you again."

" No doubt," was the sneering response.
" Mr Thomas Gerrard, the squatter, is in a
very different position from Randolph Aulain,
the digger, with a paltry three or four thousand
pounds."

Kate set her teeth, and tried hard to choke
a sob.

" My father and I thought that you were a
gentleman, Mr Aulain. I see now how very
much we were mistaken. And as far as Mr
Gerrard is concerned, he will know how to

TOM GERHARD 239

deal with you. I will ask my father to write
to him to-morrow."

" Why not expedite your proposed visit
to him, and tell him personally ? " said Aulain
with a mocking laugh.

Kate made no answer, but walked swiftly
away. Five minutes later, Aulain, without
going to the house to say good-bye to Douglas
Eraser, descended the rocky path to the main
camp.

At daylight next morning, to the wonder
of Sam Young and his mates, he was missing.
He had risen at dawn, caught and saddled his
horses, and gone off without a word of farewell.

CHAPTER XXVII

" HANSEN'S RUSH" was one of the richest,
noisiest, and the "rowdiest" of all the many
newly-discovered fields, and contained more
of the elements of villainy amongst its six
hundred inhabitants than any other rush in
the Australian Colonies. Perhaps about two-
thirds of the men were genuine diggers, the
rest were loafers, card-sharpers, horse and
cattle thieves, sly grog - sellers, and men
" wanted " by the police for various offences,
from murder down to simple robbery with
violence. So far, however, the arm of the
law had not yet manifested its power at
" Hansen's," although at first when the field
was discovered by the prospector after whom
it was named, a solitary white trooper and one
native tracker had reached there, expecting
to be reinforced. But one day he and the
aboriginal rode out of camp to visit a party
of diggers, who were working at the head
of the creek, and never returned.

Months afterwards, the body of the white
man was found lying near a heap of huge

240

TOM GERRARD 241

boulders, and it was concluded that either the
unfortunate trooper had been thrown from his
horse and killed, or that he had been murdered
by his black subordinate, for the latter was
never seen again at the camp, and most of
the diggers asserted that he had deserted to
the coastal blacks, where he would be safe
from capture. When the body was discovered
a careful search was made for some gold which
had been entrusted to the policeman, but it
could not be found ; and this confirmed the
theory of the tracker being the murderer.

Then, nearly three months after, " Moses,"
as the black tracker was named, walked into
Somerset carrying his carbine and revolver,
and told another story, which was accepted
by the authorities as true. The party of
miners whom he and the trooper visited, had
complained of their tent having been entered
when they were absent at their claim, and
some hundreds of ounces of gold stolen. This
was some weeks previously, and heavy rain,
since then, had obliterated all traces of the
robbers' tracks. The diggers, said Moses,
then gave the trooper a bag of small nuggets
containing about fifty ounces, and asked him
to take it to Hansen's to await the monthly
gold escort.

That night he and Moses camped near the
Q

242 TOM GERRARD

boulders, and at daylight the latter went after
the horses, leaving the poor trooper asleep.
Half an hour later, he heard the sound of
a shot, and saw three mounted men galloping
towards him. They halted when they saw
him, and then all three fired at him, but
missed. Then they tried to head him off-
he was on foot — but he was too fleet, and
after an hour's pursuit he gained some wild
country in the ranges, where he was, he
thought, safe. Feeling hungry as the morning
went on, he penetrated a thick scrub in the
hope of finding a scrub turkey's nest. He did
find one, and whilst engaged in eating the
eggs, was dealt a sudden blow from behind
with a waddy, and when he became conscious,
found he had been captured by a wandering
tribe of mountain blacks. They did not treat
him harshly, but kept a strict watch on him
for two months. One wild night, however,
securing his carbine and revolver, he managed
to escape, and finally reached Somerset.

" Hansen's," in addition to the several bark-
roofed drinking shanties of bad reputation,
also possessed a combined public house and
general store, kept by a respectable old digger
named Vale, who was doing a very thriving
business, the "Roan Pack-Horse Hotel" being
much favoured by the better class of men on

TOM GERRARD 243

the field. The loafers, rowdies, and such
gentry did not like Vale, who had a way of
throwing a man out if he became objection-
ably drunk and unduly offensive.

One afternoon, about five, three men entered
the "hotel" part of Vale's establishment, and
entered what was termed " the parlour." They
were very good customers of Vale's, although
he did not much care about them, being some-
what suspicious as to their character and
antecedents. The three men were Forreste,
the Jew Barney Green, and Cheyne.

The former had grown a thick beard, and
looked what he professed to be — a digger
pure and simple ; and Green and Cheyne also
had discarded the use of the razor, and in
their rough miners' garb — flannel shirts, mole-
skin pants, and slouch felt hats — there was
nothing to distinguish them from the ordinary
run of diggers at Hansen's Rush. They had,
Vale knew, a supposedly paying claim, but
worked it in a very perfunctory manner, and
employed two "wages men" to do most of
the pick and shovel work. Their esteemed
American confrere was not with them this
afternoon — one of them always remained about
their claim and tent on some excuse, for it
contained many little articles which, had they
been discovered by the respectable diggers at

244 TOM GERRARD

Hansen's, would have led to their taking a
very hurried departure from the field.

" What's it to be ? " said Vale, coming to
the door of the room.

"Oh, a bottle of Kinahan," said Forreste,
tossing the price of it — a sovereign — upon the
table. " Got any salt beef to spare ? "

''Not a bite. Wish I had. But that mob
of cattle can't be far off now. They were
camped at the Green Swamp two nights ago.
There's a hundred head — all fine, prime young
cattle, I hear."

" Are you buying the lot ? "

" Every hoof — at ten pound a head. Plenty
of fresh beef then — at two bob a pound. No
charge for hoofs, horns, and the end of the
tail," and with this pleasantry, the landlord of
the " Roan Pack- Horse " withdrew, to bring the
whisky.

A step sounded outside, and Randolph
Aulain entered and nodded to the three men.
He had been at Hansen's for some months,
and had one of the richest " pocket " claims on
the field, but most of the gold it produced went
in gambling. He had made the acquaintance
of Forreste and his gang, and in a way
had become intimate with them, although he
was pretty certain of their character. But
he did not care,

TOM GEKRARD 245

"Have a drink, Aulain?" said Barney
Green.

Aulain nodded, and sat down, and then a
pack of cards was produced, and the four men
began to play — Aulain as recklessly as usual,
and drinking frequently, as was now habitual
with him.

Night had fallen, and the diggers' camp fires
were everywhere blazing among tents and
humpies, as the ex-officer and his villainous
acquaintances still sat at their cards, too intent
upon the game to think of supper. Vale's
black boy, however, brought them in some tea,
damper, and a tin of preserved meat, and they
made a hurried meal. Just as they had begun
to play afresh, they heard a horseman draw up
outside, and a voice say " Good-evening, boss,"
to Vale.

All four men knew that voice, and Aulain's
dark face set, as turning down his cards, he
held up his hand for silence.

"I'm Gerrard from Ocho Rios," went on the
voice as the rider dismounted, and, giving his
horse to the black boy, followed Vale into the
combined bar and store. " I've camped the
cattle five miles from here, and pushed on to
let you know. Can you take delivery to-
morrow morning pretty early, as I want to get
down to the coast again as soon as I can ? "

246 TOM GERHARD

" You bet ! " said Vale with a laugh ; " I'm all
ready, and so is the money — not in cash, but
in nuggets at four pounds the ounce. Is that
right?"

"Quite," was the answer, and then the four
listeners heard Vale drawing the cork of a
bottle of beer — a rare commodity at Hansen's
Rush. " Come round here, Mr Gerrard, and sit
down. There's another room, but just now
there are four chaps gaffing there, and so if you
don't mind we'll sit here, and talk until my
nigger gets you some supper." Then they
began to talk about the cattle, Vale frankly
telling Gerrard that if he had asked another
five pounds per head, he would have paid it,
as the diggers had had no fresh meat for
nearly five months.

"Well, I've been very lucky," said Gerrard,
and Forreste saw Aulain's teeth set, and
wondered. " We — three black boys and myself
— started out from the station with a hundred
and ten head, and have not lost a single beast
— no niggers, no alligators, no poison bush,
nothing of any kind to worry us for the whole
two hundred miles."

"I'll give him something to worry over
before long," said Green viciously to Forreste.

"And so shall I," said Aulain in a savage
whisper.

TOM GERRARD 247

"Do you know him?" asked Forreste
eagerly.

Aulain replied with a curt nod, and then
again held up his hand for silence.

"Curse you, keep quiet; I want to hear
what he is saying."

"Well, I'm glad to see you, Mr Gerrard,"
went on Vale. " I've heard a lot about you,
and was sorry to hear of your loss in the big
fire. I wish you luck."

"Thank you, Mr Vale. And I'm glad to
meet you, and sell you my cattle. Every one
that I have heard speak of you says that you
will never try to ' skin ' a digger over the price
of his liquor and ' tucker.' '

Vale was pleased. For a bush publican and
store-keeper he had an unusual reputation for
honesty — and well deserved it, for all his rough-
ness and lurid language when aroused to wrath.
He asked Gerrard to stay for the night.

" No, I cannot. I must get back to the
cattle to-night, and do my watch. But I think
I shall spell here at Hansen's for a day or two,
have a look at the field, and see if I can buy
a share in one of the claims. As I'm getting
my money out of the diggings I ought to put
something back, even if I strike a rank duffer."

" Ah, you're one of the right sort of men,
Mr Gerrard. I daresay I can put you on to

248 TOM GERRARD

something that won't displease you in the end.
But I'm sorry you can't camp here to-night."

"No, I must not. It would not be fair to
my men to leave them with a mob of cattle
out in the open all night in such thunder-
stormy weather. If they broke away they would
clear off into the ranges."

Then he added that whilst two of his black
stockmen were returning to Ocho Rios after
they had had a spell at " Hansen's," he was
striking across country to the coast — seventy
miles distant — to the mouth of the Coen River.

"You see, Mr Vale, my luck is coming in,
'hand over fist,' as the sailors say. I'm going
to be married at Ocho Rios next month by
the Gold Commissioner, and there is a pearling
lugger bringing me a lot of stores round from
Somerset, and I have arranged to meet her at
the Coen on the 22nd, and sail round in her.
I'm taking one black boy with me, who will take
my horse back with him to the station, and I'll
get the benefit of a short sea-trip of a few days,
or perhaps a week."

Vale opened another bottle of beer — more
valued at Hansen's than even whisky at a
sovereign a bottle.

" Here's to your very good fortune and
happiness, Mr Gerrard ! Will you mind my
mentioning it to the boys here to-night ? You

TOM GERHARD 249

see, I arranged to give a sort of a shivoo as
soon as the cattle got here, and I had killed
and dressed a couple of beasts."

Gerrard laughed. " I don't mind. And I'll
come to the shivoo myself, and eat some of my
own beef. Now, I must be getting back to the
cattle."

Aulain and the other three men waited until
they heard his horse brought. And then the
dark-faced ex-inspector turned to Forreste.

" Come outside. I want to talk to you."

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE news that a small mob of cattle had been
bought by Vale, and were to arrive on the
following day, caused great satisfaction to the
diggers, and that night the " Roan Pack-
Horse " was crowded with diggers, who had
not for many months tasted meat of any kind,
except now and then a scrub wallaby. Game
of any kind was scarce, and hard to shoot,
and the diggers, although they cheerfully paid
adventurous packers three shillings for a small
tin of sardines, and five for a tin of American
salmon, wanted beef of some kind — even if it
were that of a worn-out working bullock — if
such a treasure could have been found. Vale,
for business and other purposes, had carefully
avoided telling any one until the last moment
that he had sent a letter to Gerrard, offering
him ten pounds per head for one or two
hundred young cattle, delivered to him in fair
condition. A " cute " man of business, he had
the idea of forming the nucleus of a herd with
which to stock some adjacent country to
" Hansen's Rush," and being also in his rough

250

TOM GERHARD 251

way a sentimentalist, he meant to give the
diggers a surprise — for a satisfactory quid pro
quo. He would sell them fresh beef at two
shillings a pound, when they were willing to
pay double, instead of eating "tinned dog," as
they termed the New Zealand and American
canned beef and mutton they bought from the
packers at exorbitant prices, and often cast
aside with disgust and much vivid language.

At nine o'clock on the following morning,
Gerrard and his three black stockmen appeared,
driving before them the mob of young cattle —
steers, young heifers, and a few bulls ; and the
diggers gave him an uproarious welcome, for
work on the claims had been stopped for that
day at least, and they had been waiting for him.

"Good morning, boys," cried Gerrard, as
the mob of cattle was rounded up by his black
stockmen, and he, swinging his right foot up
out of the stirrup, sat sideways on his saddle.
" Just show me those you want for killing, Vale,
and I'll cut them out for you right away. Then
I'll turn the rest over to you to tail.1 I've had
enough of 'em, and want a drink."

" Here you are, Mr Gerrard," cried a big,
hairy-faced digger, who was holding a bottle
of beer in one hand, and a tin pannikin in the

1 "Tail " — a drover or stockman who is set to keep a mob
of cattle from straying " tails " them — i.e., follows at their tails.

252 TOM GERHARD

other; "a bottle of genuine Tennant's India
Ale, acceptable to the most tender stomach,
and recommended by the faculty for nuns, nurses,
bullock drivers, and other delicate persons."

The crowd laughed, and then Gerrard, after
satisfying his thirst, "cut out" (separated from
the rest of the mob) three fat steers indicated
by Vale ; they were at once taken to the killing
yard, and the remainder of the animals driven
down to the creek to drink, and Gerrard's re-
sponsibility ceased.

Amongst those who watched the arrival of
the cattle were Aulain and Forreste. They
were on the outskirts of the crowd, leaning
against the rough "chock and dog leg " fence
which served to enclose an acre or so of ground
used as a horse-paddock by the diggers. Early
in the day as it was, Aulain's sallow face was
flushed from drinking. He and Forreste had
come to an understanding the previous night.
The gentlemanly "Captain" did not take long
to discover the cause of Aulain's hatred of
Gerrard, and he inflamed it still further by
telling him a well-connected series of lies about
his frequently having seen Kate Fraser clasped
in Gerrard's arms on the deck of the Gambier,
when they imagined that they were unobserved,
and Aulain, who was now hardly sane, believed
him implicitly.

TOM GERRARD 253

" Let me deal with him first," he had said ;
" you can have your turn after I have finished
with him."

"You don't mean to kill him?" asked
Forreste ; " if you do, I'm out of it. I have a
score to settle with him, but not in that way."

" Settle it in any way you like," said Aulain
savagely, "but don't interfere with me. I'm
not going to kill him, but I am going to make
him surfer for his treachery to me. But," and
he turned to Forreste with a sneer, "you
seem very diffident in the matter of killing any
one just now. Perhaps you and your friends
acted rather impulsively in the matter of
Trooper Angus Irving."

"What do you mean?" cried Forreste
hoarsely, and his face blanched with mingled
rage and terror.

" I have not been five years in the Native
Police without gaining some experience. And
when you and your friends galloped after the
black tracker, one of your number lost his
moleskin saddle-cloth, did he not ? "

Forreste made no answer, though his lips
moved.

"/ found that saddle-cloth two months ago,
and recognised it as belonging to your mate
Cheyne, for he once lent it to me. It was a
great mistake of his to gallop over rough

254 TOM GERRARD

country with Joose girths — especially upon
such an occasion as that. Fifty ounces of gold
was not worth it."

Forreste, a coward at heart, collapsed. " We
could not help it. We were trying to unbuckle
his valise from his saddle when he awoke,
and

" And — I understand. So please say no
more of what followed. It does not concern
me, and you need not look so ghastly white."

Then he walked away to his tent, for he did
not wish to be seen by Gerrard — at that time.

But a few hours later the latter learnt quite
accidentally from Vale that his one-time friend
was at Hansen's, and had been one of the card-
playing party of the previous night. Vale was
speaking of the great yields from some of the
claims on the field, and mentioned that
" Aulain, who had been in the Nigger Police,"
had a pretty rich one. Gerrard was surprised
to hear of his being at Hansen's, for he and
the Frasers thought he had gone to the new
rush at Cape Grenville on the east coast. Of
her quarrel with him Kate had told Gerrard
but little, but her father had given him the
story in detail, and it had angered him
greatly.

"Would you care to go over to his claim,
and have a yarn with him?" said Vale; "it's

TOM GERRARD 255

only about a mile away. I think he wants
to sell out."

" No, I don't want to see him. I know him
very well, and he was once a great friend of
mine, but he is not now, and I don't think it
would be advisable for us to meet. He nurses
an imaginary grievance against me."

Vale nodded. "He's a queer fellow, and
I am sure he's not quite right in the upper
story. Sometimes he won't speak to a soul
for a week at a time ; then he has a drinking
bout, and goes off his head entirely. I feel
sorry for him, for it is a pity to see a gentle-
man come down so low, and associate with
spielers and card-sharpers. The men he was
playing with last night are a shady lot — a
man called Forreste, and his mates Cheyne
and Capel "

"Ha!" cried Gerrard, "so that gang is
here ? I know a good deal about them"
and he told Vale of what had occurred on
board the Gambier when Fraser had thrown
Capel across the deck.

" I thought they were a fishy crowd, and
there are lots of men here who believe they
are gold-stealers, but so far they have been
too clever and have escaped detection."

"Well, I can tell you that Capel, otherwise
Barney Green, is one of the most notorious

256 TOM GERRARD

gold thieves in Australia, and served a
sentence in New South Wales."

"Can I make that known?"

"Certainly. It should be known. You
can call upon me to repeat what I have told
you to the whole camp."

" Very well, but not to-day. They'll be
sure to be here to-night at the shivoo, and
as some of the boys are certain to be pretty
groggy they might half-kill the whole gang.
But I'll go for them in the morning, if you'll
back me up."

" Of course I will. But I don't think they
will show up to-night, if they know I am
here."

In this surmise Gerrard was correct, for
Forreste and his companions kept away,
being particularly anxious not to come into
personal contact with him, and in pursuance
of a plan of their own. After the cattle
had been killed, they sent a neighbouring
digger to buy some beef, and remained at
their claim for the rest of the day. Forreste,
however, went to several of the other claims,
and told the owners that he and his mates
thought of clearing out in a day or so, and
would sell their claim cheap.

In an hour or two he came back, and
found Cheyne outside the tent, repairing their

TOM GERRARD 257

saddles. Green and Pinkerton were busy at
the claim, cradling the last of the wash-dirt
taken out.

" What luck ? " asked Cheyne.

" Better than I expected. Old Sandy
MacParland and his party are coming here
to-morrow morning, and are going to give
the claim a day's trial. If they like it, they
will buy us out for one hundred pounds."

" Pity we haven't got time to salt it,1 and
get a bigger price."

" MacParland is too old a hand to be got

o

at that way," replied the captain, as he
walked on to the claim to tell Green and
Pinkerton his news.

" We can get away to - morrow evening
before sunset," he said, after he had told
them the result of his negotiations with
MacParland. " Cheyne says we can camp
at Leichhardt Ponds that night, push on
early in the morning, and wait for our man
at Rocky Waterholes, where he is sure to
camp for the night."

" He'll want a good rest if Aulain does him
up to-night," said Capel with an evil grin.

1 " Salting " a gold mine is a common practice of
dishonest miners not entirely unknown even to magnates
of the Stock Exchange — as the records of the London Law
Courts have shown for many years past.

R

CHAPTER XXIX

NEARLY a hundred noisy but contented diggers
filled Vale's hotel and store, all talking at once ;
and outside in the yard, seated on boxes,
barrels, etc,, were as many more, equally as well
satisfied as those within. The impromptu and
''free feed" of freshly-killed beef had been a
great success, and now at seven o'clock, what
Vale called "the harmony" began — to wit,
music from a battered cornet, an asthmatic
accordion, and a weird violin. There were,
however, plenty of good singing voices in the
company, and presently a big, fat-faced American
negro, with a rich fruity voice, struck up a well-
known mining song, "The Windlasses," and
the diggers thundered out the chorus :

" For I love the sound of the windlasses,
And the cry, ' Look-out, below.' "

At its conclusion there was much applause,
and then the negro, who was an ex-sailor, was
pressed, very literally, for another song. One
digger gripped him around the waist, and
another seized his woolly poll and shook him.

258

TOM GERHARD 259

" Sing, you beggar, sing ! Give us the
'Arctic Fleet.'"

" Don' you be so familiar, sah ! You
common digger pusson ! How dah you take
liberties with a gentleman ! " and the negro
laughed good-naturedly as he was forced on
his feet again. " And don' se singist get some
refreshment fust ? "

It was at once supplied, and then " Black
Pete's " rich tones sounded out in their full
strength as he began the whaleman's ditty :

" Oh, its advertised in Noo York town,

Likewise in Alban-ee,

For five hunder and fifty Yankee boys,

To join de whaling fleet.

Singing, blow ye windy mornin's,
And blow ye winds, heigho,
Clear away de marnin' dews,
To de Arctic we mus' go,
To de Arctic we mus' go."

The song was a lengthy one, and when
it was finished, there was a pause ; then some
digger called out through the cloud of tobacco
smoke that filled the room :

" Won't you give us a song, Mr Gerrard ? "

Gerrard, who was talking to Vale, and some

other men, turned and shook his head smilingly,

when suddenly there was a slight commotion

near the open door, and Randolph Aulain

260 TOM GERHARD

pushed through the crowd into the centre of
the room. He was booted and spurred, and
carried a short, heavy whip of plaited greenhide.

" I should like to have a few words with you,
Mr Gerrard, before you sing."

In an instant there was a dead silence — the
diggers saw that Aulain meant mischief, for
his usually sallow features were now white
with ill-concealed fury. Gerrard kept his seat,
but leant back a little so as to look Aulain full
in the face.

" I am not going to sing," he said quietly.
" If you have anything to say to me, say it."

" This filthy den is somewhat too crowded
for a private discussion — unless you wish to
let every one here know what you are. Come
outside."

"You want me to fight you, Aulain, do
you ? " The steady, unmoved tone of his voice
sounded clearly through the crowded room.

"Yes, you treacherous hound, I do. I'll
make you fight."

" You shall not. I do not fight with lunatics
—and you speak and act like one. Come here
to-morrow morning — or I will come to you if
you wish."

Vale put his hand on Aulain's arm, with
rough good-humour. " Get back to your tent,
my lad, or sit down and keep quiet. This

TOM GERRARD 261

is my house. You can see Mr Gerrard in
the morning. I'll engage he won't run away."

Aulain thrust him aside with savage deter-
mination, and again faced Gerrard. " Are you
coming outside ? " he asked hoarsely.

" No, I am not. But don't try my patience
too long, Aulain."

" Will you come or not ? " he almost shouted,
and he drew back a step, amidst a hot,
expectant silence.

" No, you are not in a condition to speak
to any one, let alone fighting," was the con-
temptuous answer.

" Then take that, you wretched cur ! " and
he swung his heavy whip across Gerrard's
face, cutting the flesh open from temple to
chin, and sending him down upon the earth
floor.

In an instant the maddened man was
seized by Vale and another man, and borne
to the ground. Then amidst oaths and
curses, he was dragged outside, struggling
like a demon, and carried to his horse, which
was tied up to the fence. He was hoisted up
into the saddle, and at once tried to take his
pistol from its pouch, but the diggers took it
away, and then seized his Winchester carbine.

" Here, take your reins, you murderous
dog ! " cried Vale, putting them into his hands.

262 TOM GERRARD

" Stand back, boys, and we'll start him off to
blazes."

" He has a Derringer inside his shirt," cried
one of the men, " I've seen it."

" Let him keep it," and Vale raised the whip
which he had torn from Aulain's hand, and
gave the horse a stinging cut on the flank, and
with a snort of pain and terror the animal
leapt forward into the darkness.

Never again was Randolph Aulain seen
alive, but weeks afterwards his horse wandered
back to Hansen's Rush, and began to graze
outside his master's tent. And all that was
left of Aulain was found long after in a gully
in the ranges, with a rusted Derringer pistol
lying beside some bleaching bones.

Gerrard had a great send-off when he left
Hansen's for the coast. The terrible cut on
his face had been sewn up by a digger known
as "Pat O'Shea," who, ten years before, had
had on his brass door-plate in Merrion Square,
Dublin, the inscription, " Mr Vernon O'Shea,
M.R.C.S."

"Take care of yourself, boss," cried Vale,
as Gerrard swung himself up into the saddle,
and made a grimace intended for a smile as he
waved his hand to the assembled diggers, and
trotted off, followed by his black boy, a short,

TOM GERRARD 263

wiry-framed aboriginal from the Burdekin
River country, who was much attached to
his master, and eyed his bound-up face with
much concern. He, like Gerrard, carried
a revolver at his saddle-bow, and a Snider
carbine in a becket — Native Police fashion.
Gerrard, in addition to his revolver, had a
44° Winchester carbine slung across his
shoulder.

" Well, Tommy, here we are off home again.
How do you feel ? Drunk last night ? "

"Yes, boss. Last night and night before,
too. Mine had it fine time longa Hansen's."

Gerrard laughed, and began to fill his pipe,
though smoking just then gave him as much
pain as pleasure. Then he and Tommy rode
on in silence for many hours, until they came
to where the beaten track ended at a lagoon,
known as Leichhardt Ponds. Here they
noticed that a party had been camped the
previous night, and had evidently been
shooting and eating duck, for the ground
was strewn with feathers.

From Leichhardt Ponds there was not even
a blazed tree line, but both he and the black
boy kept steadily on, their bushmen's know-
ledge guiding them in a bee line for the
particular part of the coast they wished to
reach.

264 TOM GERRARD

As they rode along, Tommy's eyes scanned
the ground, which was strewn with a thick
carpet of dead leaves and bark from the forest
gum trees.

" Four fellow men been come along here
yesterday, boss," he said, as he pulled up and
pointed downward.

Gerrard bent over in his saddle, and looked
at the tracks indicated by Tommy.

" Some fellow stray horse perhaps,
Tommy ? "

The black boy grunted a disapproval of
the suggestion. No horses would stray so
far from Hansen's, where there was good
grass country, into "stunted ironbark " country
where there was none. And presently to
prove his contention, he pulled up and pointed
to a small white object on the ground.

" Look, boss. Some fellow been light pipe
and throw away match."

In an instant Gerrard's suspicions were
aroused. What could a party of four men
be doing so far away from Hansen's — and
making towards the coast? Vale had told
him that there were scores of notoriously
bad characters on the field, and that it was
known that he (Vale) was paying him for
the cattle in gold, and had advised him to
keep a sharp look-out for any strangers.

TOM GERRARD 265

For another two hours he and the black
boy saw the tracks still going in the same
direction, till open country was reached —
a wide plain covered with clay pans. Here
the tracks turned off sharply to the right,
and Gerrard pulled up.

"Which way Frenchman's Cap, Tommy?"

Tommy pointed to the right.

Frenchman's Cap was a small mining camp,
sixty miles distant, and Gerrard was satisfied
that the four horsemen were diggers, bound
for that spot, and Tommy agreed with
him.

But he was wofully mistaken in his con-
clusions.

Cheyne was one of the cleverest bushmen
in Australia, and when Forreste and his party
reached this spot, they too had stopped, at
Cheyne's bidding.

"Gerrard has a nigger with him who most
likely will see our tracks. If we turn off here,
and cross the clay pans, he will think we are
going to Frenchman's Cap. It will mean us
making a half circle of sixteen miles, but we
will get to Rocky Waterholes a long way
ahead of him."

" How do you know he'll camp there ? "
asked Forreste.

" He's sure too, even if only for an hour

266 TOM GERRARD

or two to spell his horses, and we'll get him
as easy as falling off a log."

Forreste moved uneasily in his saddle.
He knew what "get him" meant. Barney
Green turned on him, and savagely asked if
he was "funking" again.

"No," was the sullen reply, "I'm not.
I've given my promise, and I'll keep it. But
you must remember that the policeman's
tracker got away from us, and Gerrard's
nigger may do the same."

"I'll see to that," said Pinkerton. "If there
is one thing that I can't miss when I shoot,
it's a nigger. If I had been with you that
day, I guess that that tracker wouldn't have
got away."

The plan they had arranged was a very
simple one. The Rocky Waterholes were
deep pools situated in the centre of a cluster
of wildly confused and lofty granite boulders
and pillars, covered with vines and creepers
and broken up by narrow gullies. Cheyne
knew the place, and knew almost to a
certainty the particular spot at which Gerrard
would camp, either for a few hours or for
the night. It was in an open grassy space,
almost surrounded by giant boulders. It was
their intention, after disposing of Gerrard and

TOM GERRARD 267

the black boy, and securing the, gold, to
strike across country for Somerset, and there
await a steamer bound for either London or
Hongkong. At that place, where the steamers
only remained for an hour or two, they would
attract no more than the casual notice taken of
lucky diggers ; at Townsville or Port Denison
they might be recognised. Already they had
nearly a thousand ounces of gold between them
— some little of it honestly earned from their
own claim at Hansen's, but most of it gained
by robbery ; and with the two thousand
pounds' worth that they knew were in
Gerrard's possession, they calculated that they
might leave the hardships of mining life, and
enjoy themselves for a considerable time in
England or America — without, however, the
society of "Snaky" Swires, who had left
them at Cooktown, fearful of being arrested
in connection with the robbery on the
Gam bier.

CHAPTER XXX

" WHAT a lovely spot ! " thought Gerrard, as
he caught sight of the Rocky Waterholes,
whose calm, placid surfaces were gleaming
like burnished silver under the rays of the
sinking sun.

It was indeed a beautiful scene, for the five
pools were surrounded by noble Leichhardt
and wattle trees, the latter all in the full glory
of their golden flowers, the sweet perfume of
which scented the air for miles around. Close
in to the bank of the largest pool were a
number of teal feeding on the green weed,
and chasing each other over the shining water.
As they caught sight of the intruders, they
rose with a whir and disappeared, followed
a few seconds later by a pair of snow-white
cranes, which, however, merely flew noise-
lessly upward, and settled on the branches of
a Leichhardt.

The day had been intensely hot, and now,
as the sun sank, there was presage of a
thunderstorm, and Gerrard and Tommy
quickly unsaddled, hobbled, and turned out

268

TOM GERHARD 269

the horses to feed upon the thick buffalo
grass that grew in profusion around the bases
of the vine-clad rocks which overlooked the
pools. Then they hurriedly collected some
dead wood for their camp fire, and threw it,
together with their saddles, blankets, etc.,
under an overhanging ledge which would
afford them complete shelter from the coming
downpour.

A fire was soon lit, and whilst Tommy
attended to making the tea, his master
unrolled his own blanket and spread it out ;
then, from mere force of habit, he took his
revolver from his saddle and strapped it to
his belt, placed his Winchester and Tommy's
Snider against the side of the rock, where
they would be within easy reach, and then
told the black boy that he was going to have
a bathe before supper.

" No, no, boss ! " cried Tommy, energetically,
" baal you bogey longa that waterhole. Plenty
fellow blue water snake sit down there — plenty.
One bite you little bit, you go bung quick.
Plenty fellow myall go bung longa baigan."1

Gerrard could not repress a shudder. He

1 " Do not bathe in that waterhole. Many blue water-
snakes live in it. If one bit you, even a little, you would
die quickly. Many wild blacks have been killed by the
baigan"

270 TOM GEKHAKD

had often seen the dreaded " baigan "—a bright
blue snake which frequented waterholes and
lagoons, and whose venom equalled that of
the deadly fer-de-lance of Martinique and St
Vincent. Years before he had seen a cattle
dog swimming in a lagoon attacked by a
"baigan," which bit it on the lip, and, although
a stockman, as soon as the animal was out of
the water, cut out a circular piece of the lip,
it died in a few minutes.

"Very well, Tommy. I'll wait till after
supper and have a bogey in the rain."

As he spoke, the low rumble of thunder
sounded, and deepened and deepened until it
culminated in a mighty clap that seemed to
shake the foundations of the earth, then
followed peal after peal, and soon the rain
descended in torrents, beating the waters of
the pools into froth, and making a noise as of
surf surging upon a pebbly beach.

For twenty minutes the downpour held ;
then it ceased suddenly, and, like magic, a
few stars appeared. The fire was now
blazing merrily in the cave. Tommy had
made the two quart pots of tea, and Gerrard
was taking the beef and damper out of his
saddle-bag when the black boy started.

"What is it, Tommy?"

"Horse neigh!"

TOM GERRARD 271

Gerrard listened. The boy was right, for
he, too, heard a second neigh, and their own
horses, which they could see standing quietly
under a big Leichhardt tree, undisturbed by
the storm, pricked up their ears and raised
their heads.

" Quick, take your rifle, Tommy ! " and
Gerrard seized his own, then taking up the
two quart pots of tea, he threw the contents
over the fire, and partly extinguished it — not
a moment too soon, for almost at the same
moment a volley rang out, and he knew he
was hit ; and Tommy also cried out that he
was shot in the face. Seizing him by the
hand, Gerrard dragged him outside, stooping
low, and bullet after bullet struck the wall of the
cave. As he and the black boy threw them-
selves flat on the ground a few yards away,
they both saw the flashes of rifles less than a
hundred yards distant, and knew by the sound
of and the rapidity of the firing that their
unseen foes were using Winchesters.

" Keep still, Tommy, don't fire. Wait,
wait ! " said Gerrard in an excited whisper.
" Let them go on firing into the cave. Can
you make out where they are ? "

Pressing his hand to his cheek, which had
been cut open by a bullet, the black boy
watched the flashes.

272 TOM GERHARD

"Yes, boss, I see him — four fellow alto-
gether. You look longa top flat rock, they
all lie down close together."

But keen as was his sight, Gerrard could
see nothing but the flat moss and vine-covered
summit of a huge granite boulder, from which
the flashes came. Presently a bullet struck
a piece of wood on the still smouldering fire,
and scattered the glowing coals, then the firing
ceased, and they heard voices.

" Keep quiet, Tommy. Don't move, for
God's sake, or they'll see us. They are re-
loading. They think they have killed us. Is
your Snider all right ? "

" Yes, boss," was the whispered and eager
reply, "rible and rewolber too."

" Are you much hurt, Tommy ? "

" Only longa face, boss."

"And I'm hit too, Tommy, but not much
hurt." A bullet had ploughed through the
lower part of his thigh, and as he spoke he
tore two strips from his handkerchief, and
bidding Tommy watch their hidden foes, cut
open his moleskin pants, and hurriedly plugged
the holes. As he was doing this, the firing
again began, and they could hear the bullets
spattering against the granite rock, or striking
the saddles. After about thirty shots had been
fired it again ceased.

TOM GERHARD 273

" Be ready, Tommy," whispered Gerrard ;
"they'll be here presently. Don't fire till they
are quite close, then drop rifle and take pistol."

"All right, boss. Look, look! You see
one fellow now stand up — there 'nother, 'nother
—four fellow."

The increasing starlight just enabled Gerrard
to catch a brief glimpse of four figures moving
about on the top of the boulder, then they
disappeared, and he clutched his Winchester.

Five anxious minutes passed, and then one
by one the four forms appeared coming round
from the other side of the boulder. For a
few moments they halted, then came boldly
out of the shadows into the starlight, and then
a deadly rage leapt into Gerrard's heart as
he recognised two of them. First the man
whom Kate's father had handled so roughly
on board the Gambler, and then the tall,
imposing figure of Forreste.

"Can you see their horses anywhere?" said
the man who was in advance of his three
companions, and they again stopped and looked
about them.

"Oh, they are all right," said a second
voice ; " we'll find 'em easy enough in the
morning. They're both hobbled, and won't
be far away. Now come on, Pinky, and show
us your nigger with the top of his head off.

s

274 TOM GERRARD

You're a great gasser, I know. Strike a
match, Barney, and I'll get a bit of dry ti-
tree bark to give us a light."

Gerrard pressed Tommy's arm. "Wait,
Tommy, wait. Let them get a light. All
the better for us. Listen ! "

" I suppose they are properly done for,
Cheyne ? " said Forreste, who had a revolver
in his hand.

"Oh, put your flaming pistol back into its
pouch, you funky owl," snarled Barney Green,
"they both dropped at the first time, as I told
you. Gerrard fell on to the fire, and you'll
find him cooking there, and that both of 'em
are as full of holes as a cullender. We've
wasted a hundred cartridges for nothing, but I
daresay we'll get some more. He had a forty-
four Winchester, and the nigger a Snider."

A match was struck, and the two motion-
less watchers saw Cheyne go to a ti-tree, which
grew on the edge of the large pool, tear off
the outer thin and wet bark, and then make
a torch of the dry part, which lit easily.
Pinkerton waved it to and fro for a few
moments, and then held it up. It burst into
flame.

" Now, Tommy, quick ! Take the big man,"
and as Gerrard spoke he covered Green.

The two rifles rang out, and Forreste and

TOM GERHARD 275

the Jew fell. Pinkerton dropped the torch
and tried to draw his revolver, but a second
shot from Gerrard broke his leg, and he too
dropped. Cheyne sprang off towards the pool,
leapt in, and swam across to where their horses
were hidden. Tommy, with all the lust of
slaughter upon him, tomahawk in hand, ran
round the pool to intercept him on the other side.

" Let him go, Tommy, let him go ! " shouted
Gerrard, who was now feeling faint from loss
of blood. "Come back, come back!" and
as he spoke, Pinkerton, who could see him,
began firing at him.

The black boy obeyed just as Gerrard sank
back upon the ground. The still blazing
torch, however, revealed his prone figure to
the American, who, rising upon one knee,
reloaded his revolver. Then Tommy leapt
at him, raised his tomahawk, and clove his
head in twain.

" Did he hit you, boss ? " he cried, as, still
holding the ensanguined weapon in his hand,
he darted to his master.

"No, Tommy, I'm all right, but bingie
mine feel sick.1 Get water for me, Tommy."

The black boy ran down to the waterhole,
filled his cabbage-tree hat with water, and
Gerrard drank.

" Go and see if those two men are dead,
1 "I feel faint."

276 TOM GERRARD

Tommy. If they are not, take their pistols
away. Then make a big fire, and I will come
and look at them."

"All right, boss, but by and by."
He raised and assisted Gerrard into the
cave, laid him down upon his blanket, and
placed his head upon one of the bullet-riddled
saddles, re-lit the extinguished fire, took off
his shirt, tore off the back, and bandaged his
master's thigh with it.

" You like smoke now, boss ? "

"Yes, fill my pipe before you go."

Five minutes later Tommy returned.

"All three fellow dead," he observed
placidly, as he stooped down to the fire and
lit his own pipe with a burning coal. " Big
man me shoot got him bullet through chest ;
little man with black beard and nose like
cockatoo you shoot, got him bullet through
chest too, close up longa troat."

Then he asked if he might go after the
two horses, which, hobbled as they were, had
gone off at the first sound of the firing, and
were perhaps many miles away.

"All right, Tommy. We must not let
them get too far away."

The black boy grunted an assent, made the
fire blaze up, and taking up his own and
Gerrard's bridles, disappeared.

TOM GERRARD 277

In less than half an hour he returned, riding
one horse and leading the other, and found
that Gerrard had risen and was looking at
the bodies of the three men, which lay stark
and stiff under the now bright starlight.
Tommy's face wore an expression of supreme
satisfaction as he jumped off his horse.

"Other fellow man bung1 too," he said in
a complacent tone.

" Did you shoot him ? " cried Gerrard,
aghast at more bloodshed.

" Baal me shoot him, boss. I find him
longa place where all four fellow been camp
in little gully. He been try to put saddle
on horse, but fall down and die — boigan been
bite him I think it, when he swim across
waterhole."

"Come and show me," said Gerrard, and,
suffering as he was, he mounted his horse,
and followed Tommy. In a few minutes
they came to the place where Forreste and
his gang had hidden their horses, all of which
were tethered.

Lying doubled up on the ground beside a
saddle, was the body of Cheyne. He had
succeeded in putting the bridle on his horse,
and then had evidently fallen ere he could
place the saddle on the animal.
1 Bung — dead.

278 TOM GERRARD

Gerrard struck a match, and held it to the
dead man's face ; it was purple, and hideous
to look upon.

" Boigan," said Tommy placidly, as he re-lit
his pipe.

CHAPTER XXXI

THREE days passed before Gerrard and the
black boy were able to leave the Rocky
Waterholes. The bodies of their treacherous
assailants they interred in the soft, sandy soil
at the foot of one of the granite pillars, and
then Gerrard took their valises containing their
gold, together with their arms and saddle
pouches, and rolled them in a blanket, which
he strapped on one of the gang's horses, which
was to serve as a pack. He intended to hand
everything over to the Gold Commissioner,
whom he expected to see at Ochos Rios in
a few weeks, and who having judicial powers,
would, he expected, hold the official inquiry
into the deaths of the men at the station
itself.

Tommy made but little of his wound, and
only grinned when Gerrard said he was lucky
not to have had his jaw smashed by the bullet.
He doctored it in the usual aboriginal manner :
first powdering it with wood ashes, and then
plastering the whole side of his face with
wattle gum.

" My word, Tommy," observed his master

278

280 TOM GERRARD

gravely, "you got him handsome fellow face
now — all the same as me. Plenty fellow lubra
want catch you now for benjamin."1

Gerrard's own wound, although painful, did
not prevent him from either walking or riding.
The soft wattle gum was a splendid styptic, and
two whole days and nights of complete rest did
much to accelerate his recovery ; and game
being plentiful at and about the waterholes,
he and Tommy made themselves as contented
as possible, for there was still a clear week
before the pearling lugger was due at the
mouth of the Coen. He had changed his
mind about letting Tommy go back alone along
the beach, and decided to take him with him in
the vessel. The boy's bravery had impressed
him greatly, and although he knew his re-
sourcefulness and abilities as a bushman, he
thought it would not be fair — for the sake of
two horses — to let him run the risk of being
cut off by the coastal blacks, while on his
way to the station. As for the horses, they
would find their way home safely in all likeli-
hood, unless they came across poison bush.
The blacks did not often succeed in spearing
loose horses, the slower-moving cattle being
their favoured victims.

1 "Plenty of women will want to get you now for a
husband."

TOM GERRARD 281

They left the Rocky Waterholes as the
strength of the afternoon sun began to wane,
and headed due west. As they rode round
the side of the largest pool, the three horses
of the dead men, which were camped under
the shade of the Leichhardt trees, brushing
the flies off each other's noses with their long
tails, raised their heads inquiringly as if to
say. " Are you going to leave us here ? " and
then sedately trotted after them.

Gerrard turned in his saddle. " Let them
follow us, if they like, Tommy. They will
be company for "Dutchman" and " Waterboy."
I think they'll all turn up at the station by
and by."

The unexplored country from the Waterholes
to the coast was very pleasant to see in all its
diversified beauties : deep water-worn gullies
whose sides were clothed with wild fig, wattle,
and cabbage palms, opening out into fair forest
country, well timbered with huge acacias and
a species of white cedar, whose pale blue
flowers filled the air with their delicious
perfume. Bird life was plentiful, the chatter-
ing of long-tailed pheasants and the call of
many kinds of parrots resounding everywhere,
and filling the tree-clad gullies with melodious,
reverberating echoes.

Night came on swiftly, but a night of myriad

282 TOM GERRAKD

stars in a sky of cloudless blue ; and then,
fifteen miles from the Rocky Waterholes, they
came to a wide but shallow creek, whose
banks were well grassed, and which offered
a tempting resting - place. Here and there
were clumps, or rather groves, of graceful
pandanus palms, with long pendant leaves,
rustling faintly to the cool night breeze.

"We'll camp here till daylight, Tommy.
I'm feeling a bit stiff."

As Tommy unsaddled and hobbled out the
horses, Gerrard lit a fire, made the two quart
pots of tea, and he and the native had their
supper. Then, although they had seen no signs
of blacks since they had left Hansen's, they
took unusual precautions to prevent being
surprised, for Gerrard especially was not in
a fit condition for much exertion. Letting
the horses graze where they listed, they put
out the fire, and carried their saddles, blankets,
arms, etc., out to a sandbank in the middle of
the creek, and made themselves comfortable
for the night on the soft, warm sand — too far
away from either bank to fear any danger from
a shower of spears.

The night wore all too quickly away for
Gerrard, for as he lay on his blanket, gazing
upward to the star-studded heavens, he forgot
the pain of his wounds in his thoughts of Kate,

TOM GERRARD 283

and he sighed contentedly. In two weeks
or so he would be by her side at Ocho
Rios.

There had never been what some people
call "courtship" between Kate and Gerrard.
When she came to the station on her promised
visit, her father had come with her. He stayed
a few days at Ocho Rios, and then set out on
his return to Black Bluff Creek, accompanied
by Gerrard, who was going part of the way
with him. They had ridden for a mile or two
from the station, chatting on various matters,
when Gerrard suddenly drew rein.

"Mr Eraser!"

The old man looked up, wondering at the
"Mr."

"What is it, Gerrard?"

" I am going to ask your daughter to marry
me."

Eraser could not help a smile. "There's no
beating about the bush with you, Tom
Gerrard." Then he put out his hand, and
said with grave kindness: "You are the one
man whom I should like to see her marry."

"Thank you," and the younger man's face
flushed with pleasure.

Then Eraser, like the tactful man he was,
said not a word more on the matter.

284 TOM GERRARD

" Look here, Gerrard, what is the use of
your coming any further with me when you
have so much to do ? Get back, my son — and
I wish you luck. Give Kate my love, and tell
her I said so," and then shaking hands with
his friend, he struck into a smart canter.

Gerrard rode slowly home. Kate, Jim, and
Mary were engaged in making a seine in the
cool back verandah. Kate looked up with
a smile, surprised and pleased to see him back
so soon.

"Will you come with me and shoot some
guinea-fowl, Miss Fraser ? " Then he hurriedly
turned to Jim : " You need not come, Jim. Go
on with the seine."

An hour later they returned — without any
guinea-fowl. Gerrard was in high spirits. He
slapped Jim on the back.

" Let the seine rip, Jim, and get your gun,
and we'll try and get some pheasants. We
couldn't see a blessed guinea-fowl anywhere ;
could we, Kate ? "

"No, Tom, we could not; they are horribly
scarce to-day, Jim," she replied demurely, as
she fled to her room.

After a quiet, restful night, Gerrard and
Tommy made an early start, driving the pack-
horse in front of them, and followed by the

TOM GERRARD 285

three spare horses. All that day they travelled
slowly, and at sunset reached the mouth of
the alligator-haunted Coen, where, to Gerrard's
delight, they saw a smart, white-painted lugger
lying at anchor. In answer to their loud
coo-e-e ! a boat manned by two Malays, put off,
and the master jumped ashore.

" How are you, Mr Gerrard? You see I'm
three days sooner than I said, but we got a
rattling north-westerly as soon as we rounded
Cape York. But what is wrong with your face,
Mr Gerrard ? " he added sympathetically ; " and
you're lame too, I see. Niggers, I suppose?"

" No, we haven't even seen a nigger, Captain
Lowry. But I'll tell you the whole yarn by
and by, after we get aboard. Got any arnica ? "

" Plenty, and whips of plaster too. I'll soon
fix you up, ship-shape and Bristol fashion."

"Thank you, captain," said Gerrard, as he
and Tommy began to unsaddle the horses ; "I'll
be glad if you will. I don't want to get back to
the station until I look a little bit less patchy.
And so if you are agreeable, I'll be glad if we
go on a bit of a cruise along the coast for about
ten days or so."

"I'm agreeable — more days, more dollars.
But it will cost you another fifty pounds or so
above the charter money."

"Well, I shall spend it for the benefit of my

286 TOM GERRARD

complexion, Lowry. Now, hurry up with our
traps, Tommy. I'm going to eat a supper that
will astonish you, Lowry."

As soon as he reached the vessel he went
below, and wrote letters to his sister and Kate,
enclosed them in an old piece of an oilskin coat
given him by Lowry, then called Tommy, and
told him to go on shore again, and secure it to
Waterboy's mane. His object was to allay any
fears about him if the two station horses got
to Ocho Rios before the lugger. The yellow
packet would be sure to be noticed, and opened.
He had carefully avoided any mention of his
encounter with Aulain, and had also cautioned
Tommy on the subject : he did not want his
sister and Kate to know anything of the matter,
from himself at least. He had decided upon a
pardonable fiction — he would tell them that he
had been thrown from his horse, and received
a rather bad cut ; of his bullet wound and the
tragedy at the Rocky Waterholes he made no
allusion.

" It's no use worrying them over nothing,"
he said to Lowry, when he had told the seaman
the story of the attack by Forreste and his
gang. " In a week or so I'll be as fit as you are.
But you'll have to back me up in what I have
written about you being afraid that we are in
for a week or two of calm ; they won't forgive me

TOM GERRARD 287

in a hurry if they ascertain that instead of being
becalmed, the Fanny Sabina was cruising
merrily about the Gulf of Carpentaria."

Lowry gave his promise, and then he and
his passenger had supper on deck under the
awning which covered the smart little vessel's
deck from bow to stern.

At dawn next morning, Gerrard, after a
delightfully refreshing sleep, was awakened by
the captain.

" Rouse up, Mr Gerrard. We're underway,
and I want to know the programme."

" How far to Cape Keer-weer ? "

" Four days' sail in such light weather as
this."

" That will suit me. I'll be able to begin to
enjoy myself by then, and I want to see those
big lagoons near the Cape. Tommy says that
they are alive with game, and you and I can
put in a day or two there."

" Just the thing. I've a couple of good guns
on board," then he turned to the man at the
tiller.

" Keep her south, my lad. For'ard there,
set the squaresail. Now, Mr Gerrard, you'll
see what the little Fanny Sabina can do even
in a light wind like this," and Lowry looked
with an air of pride at his dainty little craft.

CHAPTER XXXII

ON the evening of the eleventh day, after
leaving the Coen, the cutter let go her anchor
at a spot about a mile from the wreck of the
old Dutch ship, and Gerrard prepared to go
on shore, for he meant to walk to the station
that night. He had now so completely re-
covered from both the bullet wound and the
slash inflicted by Aulain's whip, that Lowry
declared he looked all the better for what
he had gone through.

" Well, I should not grumble, I suppose,
Lowry," said his passenger, as he surveyed
his features in the cabin mirror over the
captain's table, "but it is enough to make
any one swear. Just as I was getting rid of
the alligator beauty marks on one side of my
face, I get a thundering slash on the other,
which will take another three months to get
tanned up to the rich, soiled leather hue of the
rest of my hide."

As he was speaking, Tommy put his black
face down through the open skylight, and said

288

TOM GERRARD 289

that he could see a camp fire on shore — just
above the landing-place.

" It must be some one from the station,
Lowry," cried Gerrard, as he and the captain
came on deck, and as he spoke, there came
a coo-e-e ! from the shore. It was Jim's voice.
He answered at once.

Bidding the mate hang a riding light on
the forestay, Lowry got his night glasses,
and turned them upon the fire.

"There are four people, Mr Gerrard, with
six or seven horses. Ah, they are rigging a
tent. I suppose it is a party from the station.
They must have seen us before dark, and have
come to meet you. Well, the boat is all ready
for you, sir."

In a few minutes Gerrard and Tommy were
being paddled swiftly to the shore, and as they
drew nearer the fire, they were able to make
out the four figures as those of Kate, Mary
Rayner, Jim, and a white stockman. All
were busied about the tent, and as yet had
not seen the boat. Then Gerrard gave a loud
hail.

" Hallo there, you people ! "

An answering yell from Jim and a shriek of
delight from Mary, and as the boat's bows cut
into the soft sand, they rushed towards it,
followed by Kate. Disengaging himself from

T

290 TOM GERRARD

their frantic embraces he met Kate, and drew
her to him.

" All well, Kate ? "

"Yes, Tom," she whispered.

" What brought you here ? "

"Your letter, of course! Waterboy and the
other horse came home this afternoon, and
Lizzie said that if we liked we could come and
camp here until you came. And just after
dark, as we got here, we fancied we heard the
sound of the vessel anchoring, and so Jim
coo-e-e-d."

Gerrard bent towards her again.

"Mary and Jim, run along and help poor
Harry with the tent." Then in a whisper :
" Tom, keep quiet — we are right in the light of
the fire."

"Yes, run along," added Gerrard; "we'll
be with you in a minute. Oh, Jim, stop a
moment ! Would you and Mary like to go
on board the vessel to-morrow morning, and
see Captain Lowry's curios ? "

"Oh, yes, Uncle," was the unsuspecting
reply.

"Then you and Harry can camp here to-
night, and have a good time on board in the
morning. I'm in no end of a hurry to get
home, and see your Aunt Lizzie. But I'll
be back before breakfast to-morrow."

TOM GERRARD 291

" Are you staying with us too, Miss
Fraser?" asked Jim.

"No, I think I had better go on with
your uncle. It wouldn't be fair to let him
ride home alone, would it ? "

"No, I suppose not," observed Jim with
unnecessary dryness in his voice ; " he might
get lost."

Gerrard laughed, and tried to seize the
lad by his arm, but he was too quick for
him.

" How are you, Harry ? " he said to the
stockman, as he held out his hand. " Cattle
all right?"

" Right as rain, boss. How's yourself? "

" Bully. Oh, I say, Harry ; the youngsters
want very much to have a look at the ship
to-morrow. I daresay you would too."

" I would, boss, seein' 'as I never was on
board a real sailin' boat."

"Well, you can all go on board to-morrow.
Miss Fraser and I will push on home, so if
you'll saddle our horses for us, I'll finish
the tent for you."

A quarter of an hour later everything had
been finished — the tent set up, and the
horses saddled and in readiness.

"Good -night, youngsters," cried Gerrard,
swinging himself into his saddle, and then with

292 TOM GERRARD

Kate by his side, they turned their horses
heads toward the dark line of sleeping forest.

"Oh, Tom, I forgot," said Kate, after they
had ridden for a mile or so ; "I have some
letters for you," and she took them out of
her saddle pouch.

The master of Ocho Rios let fall his reins,
and glanced at the superscriptions on the
envelopes.

" Pull up a minute, Kate. I want to look
at this one — the others can wait."

He opened the letter, lit a match, and
glanced at the few lines it contained. Then
he threw away the match, and placed the
letter in his pocket.

" Kate."

"Yes, Tom dear?"

" It's from Templeton " (the Gold Com-
missioner).

"Well, Tom?"

"Well, Kate? He will be at Ocho Rios
on the 2 ;th. Are you glad, or is it too soon
for you ? "

" No, Tom," she whispered.

He drew her to him once more, and
pressed his lips to hers, and then in happy
silence, side by side, they cantered home
through the darkened forest and under the
star-lit sky.

Ube Edinburgh press

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