Alfred A. Grace

“ If you asked me to name the most virtuous man on this planet, I should say a prospector in the bush—a bishop is nothing to him. But I own that when he goes to town the digger becomes a very devil let loose. Think of the surroundings here—innocent twittering birds, silent arboreous trees, clear pellucid streams, nothing to tempt, nothing to degrade.”
Tresco might have amplified his discourse as fully as a bishop, but that at this point there was a shouting and the noise of dry boughs cracking under advancing feet. ”

“ Leaving the track, Tresco led the way up a steep gully, thickly choked with underscrub, and dark with the boughs of giant trees. Forcing their way through tangled supple-jacks and clinging “lawyer” creepers which sought to stay their progress, the wayfarers climbed till, as day dawned, they paused to rest their wearied limbs before a sheer cliff of rock.
“It’s not very far now,” said the goldsmith, as he wiped his dripping brow. “This is the sort of work to reduce the adipose tissue, my son. D’you think you could find your way here by yourself, indomitable Jakey?” ”

“ On rounding a corner of a street in the centre of the town, she almost ran into Rachel Varnhagen.
“Well, well, well, where have you been?” was the Jewess’s greeting, as she stopped to talk to Rose.
“I’ve been to the gaol.”
“To the gaol! Goodness, what for?”
Rose did not reply.
“I do believe you’ve been to see that contemptible murderer.”
“If you mean a friend of mine, who was also a friend of yours who did you a great service, I beg you to stop.”
“I mean that man Scarlett.”
“And so do I.”
“What! you’ve been speaking to him? You must be mad. The man’s a murderer. It’s awful!” ”

“ By this time all Canvas Town has learnt what business is going forward in “the Toffs’ Shanty,” and from both sides of the river the diggers begin to assemble in anticipation of a “spree.” Across the scarred, disfigured valley, over the mullock-heaps, from every calico tent, from out of every shaft, from the edge of the dark forest itself, bearded men, toil-stained but smiling, bent on festivity, collect in Canvas Town’s one ramshackle street.
Between the calico shanties and along the miry, uneven ways, men stand in groups, their conversation all of the luck of “the toffs.” ”

“ But we come upon the little timber town at a time of transition from sequestered peace to the roar and rush of a mining boom, and if the stirring events of that time seem to change the tranquil aspect of the scene, it is only that a breeze of life from outside sweeps over its surface, as when a gust of wind, rushing from high mountains upon some quiet lake nestling at their feet, stirs the placid waters into foam. ”

“ Of course I’m awfully indebted to you. As you say, I owe you my life. But if I marry you, I can’t marry anybody else afterwards.”
The Maori girl had jumped from her horse, and Scarlett was standing beside her. The horses grazed on the grassy bank of the stream.
“I know all the ways of your people,” said Amiria: “I was sent to school to learn them. Some I think good; some I think bad. Your marriage is like the yoke you put on bullocks. It locks you tight together. Before you know really whether you like each other you have this yoke put on you: you are tied up for ever. The Maori way is better. ”

“ He sank limply upon the old-fashioned sofa, and said, almost in a whisper, “It’s Jack Scarlett, and you didn’t know him; Jack Scarlett, back from the diggings, with his swag full of gold—and you thought him a stranger.”
It was now the turn of Rose and the skipper to laugh. Jack, who up to this point had kept a straight face, joined his merriment to theirs, and rushing forward they each shook him by the hand again, but in a totally different manner from that of their former greeting.
Out of his “jumper” the fortunate digger pulled a long chamois-leather bag, tied at the neck with a boot-lace. ”

“ Rachel! I gafe you the gold watch; and that bill came to thirty-three pounds. I gif you everything, and when I tell you not to run after a bad young feller, you say I nefer loaf you. Rachel, you are cruel; you make your father’s heart bleed; you stab me here”—he pointed with his fat forefinger to the middle of his waistcoat—“you stab me here”—he placed his finger on his forehead. “You show no loaf, no consideration. You make me most unhappy. You’re a naughty girl!” ”

“ CHAPTER II. The Wreck of the Mersey Witch.
The Maori is a brown man. His hair is straight, coarse, black, and bright as jet. His eyes are brown, his teeth are pearly white; and, when he smiles, those brown eyes sparkle and those white teeth gleam. A Maori’s smile is one of Nature’s most complete creations.
But as Enoko poked his head out of the door of the hut, his face did not display merriment. Day was breaking; yet he could see nothing but the flying scud and the dim outline of the shore; he could hear nothing but the roar of the breakers, battering the boulders of the beach. ”

“ The digger took the cheque from Tresco, looked at it upside-down, and said, “That’s all right,” folded it up, put it in his breeches’ pocket just as if it had been a common one-pound note, and remarked, “Well, I must make a git. So-long.”
“No, sir,” said the goldsmith. “There is the beer: here are the men. No, sir; not thus must you depart. Refresh the inner man. Follow me. We must drink your health and continued good fortune.”
Carefully carrying the beer, Tresco led the way to his workshop, placed the jug on his bench, and soon the amber-coloured liquor foamed in two long glasses. ”

“ The digger was filled with the gambler’s fever. His eyes were wild, his face was hot; he drained his glass at a draught, and drummed the table with his fingers.
“Neck or nothin’, Tresco,” he said. “Make it ten pound a corner, and let’s blanky well bust or win. Win, I say—double the stakes, and see if that’ll change our luck.”
“Anything to oblige you, gentlemen,” said Carnac. “Let it be ten pounds, and you can withdraw as soon as you win your money back. It’s a free country: you can have one throw, two, or any number you please. ”

“ The inner reefs were high and dry, and upon the slippery corrugations of the rocks, covered with seaweed and encrusted with shell-fish, the two walked; the Maori girl barefooted and agile, the Englishman heavily shod and clumsy.
Seeing the difficulty of Scarlett’s advance, Amiria held out her hand to him, and so linked they approached the sea. A narrow belt of water separated them from the reef on which the wreck lay, and to cross this meant immersion.
“The tide is not as low as I thought,” said Amiria. “At low spring-tide you can walk, almost dry-shod, to the other side.” ”

“ By the expression on the Semitic face you might have thought that Isaac Zahn was beholding some new and interesting object of natural history, instead of a ponderous and grumpy old sailor, who seemed to doubt somewhat the bona fides of the Kangaroo Bank. But the truth was that the young man was dazzled by the personality of one who might command such wealth; it had suddenly dawned on his calculating mind that a large sum of money was standing in the name of Rose Summerhayes; he realised with the clearness of a revelation that there were other fish than Rachel Varnhagen in the sea of matrimony. ”

“ The apprentice looked at his master open-mouthed.
The goldsmith went to the safe which stood in a corner of the shop, and took out some silver.
“Here’s money,” he said. “Take it. Don’t come back till next Friday. Make yourself scarce; d’you hear?”
“Right, boss. Anythin’ else?”
“Nothing. Go instanter.”
Jake vanished as if the fiend were after him, and Tresco seated himself at the bench.
Out of a drawer immediately above the leather apron of the bench he took the wax impression of something, and a square piece of brass.
“Fortune helps those who help themselves,” he muttered. ”

“ You have metamorphosed yourself. Do you dress for a new character every day? Does she make a practice of this sort of thing, Miss Summerhayes—one day, a girl in the pa; the next, a young lady of Timber Town?”
“Amiria is two people in one,” replied Rose, “and I have not found out which of them I like most, and I have known them both for ten years.”
“Most interesting,” said Captain Sartoris, shambling forward in his marvellous garb, and taking hold of the Maori girl’s hand. “The privilege of a man old enough to be your father, my dear. ”

“ She passed by Tresco’s shop, where Jake Ruggles, worried by the inquiries of the police, and overwhelmed with orders which he could not execute, strove to act the absent goldsmith’s part. At the door of The Lucky Digger, where stood a noisy throng of men from the gold-field, she heard the words, “It never was the work of one man. If he did it, he had accomplices. How could one man lug the four of ’em up that mountain-side,” and she hurried past, knowing too well to whom the talk referred. ”

“ If you go bail for Scarlett and he runs away, you’ll lose it. If he stands his trial, then you’ll get it all back and have the knowledge, I believe, that you helped an innocent man. Which will you do?”
“I couldn’t hesitate,” replied Rose. “I’m sure Mr. Scarlett wouldn’t commit such a dreadful crime as that he’s charged with. I—I—feel,” her breath caught in her throat, and she gave vent to something very like a sob, “I should be glad to do anything to get him out of prison.”
“Quite right, quite right!” thundered the old Pilot. “There speaks my gal, Sartoris; there speaks my dar’ter, Rosebud!” ”

“ The door swung open, Carnac walked slowly into the night, and Tresco and Gentle Annie were alone.
The goldsmith heaved a sigh of relief. “Haaaah! Close thing, very close; but Benjamin was just one too many for him. You see, brains will come out on top. Kindly bolt the door, my dear.”
He picked up Carnac’s revolver, placed it on the table, sat down, wiped his brow, and again gave vent to another sigh of relief.
“My dear, it’s brought on my usual complaint—desperate thirst. Phaugh! a low-lived man, and in this house, too! In the house of my little woman, curse him!” ”

“ I can do as I like, sir: I need not go home at all. I’m a free man. Now, take my advice, Scarlett; be a free man too.”
“But you never could have been in love, Mr. Crewe.”
“Perhaps not; very likely not.”
Mr. Crewe had stood during the latter part of the dialogue, that he might the more emphatically denounce matrimony; and Scarlett rose from his comfortable chair, and stood beside him.
“But do as I did, my dear sir”—the Father of Timber Town placed his hand on Jack’s sleeve—“and nothing disastrous will happen. Whenever a young woman became very pressing, what do you think I used to do?” ”

“ The hills which surrounded the little town pressed so closely upon it, that by sheer weight they seemed likely to crush its frail houses into matchwood. On one side mountains, some bare and rugged, some clothed with forest, rose behind the foot-hills, and behind them more mountains, which seemed to rise like the great green billows of an angry sea. ”

“ Do you, Pilot?”
“I reckon he’s hooked, gen’lemen,” replied the old sailor. “There’s many a smart man on the ‘field’—I’m aware of that—but never a one so smart but a woman won’t sooner or later take him in her net. I give my dar’ter credit for having landed the smartest of the whole crowd of you.”
“Well,” said Jack, as he turned the glittering ring between his fingers, “I’ve got to go through with it; but such tokens of sympathy as this ring”—he placed it on the first joint of his forefinger, and held it up that all might see—“will pull me through.”
“And when is the happy day?” asked Tresco. ”

“ I’m just a plain sailor—I don’t pretend to be good at following up clues. But if the police want this here clue, they can have it. It’s the best one of its kind I ever come across: look at it from whatever side you please. It’s almost as perfect a clue as you could have, if you had one made to order. A policeman that couldn’t follow up that clue——‘Tresco’ on the knife, and, alongside of it, the bit of mail-bag—why, he ought to be turned loose in an unsympathising world, and break stones for a living. It’s a beautiful clue. It’s a clue a man can take a pride in; found all ready on the beach ”

“ The scarecrows had risen respectfully to their feet, when suddenly the humour of the situation struck them, and they laughed in unison; and Amiria, shaking with merriment, collapsed upon the sofa, and hid her mirth in its cushions.
“Never mind,” said the skipper, “it’s not the clo’es that make the man. Thank God for that, Scarlett. Clo’es can’t make a man a bigger rogue than he is.” ”