Morley Roberts

“ When I was a man, and led the tribe, we came towards the setting sun always. And the weak ones died, or we ate them, and the strong ones were saved. And our tribe is small, but it is strong, and the black-fellows fear us as they do the devils. And when they see our mark they fly."
"What is the mark?" asked Smith.
"The Brodarro," cried the old man, as if it was a war-cry, and the word was so like the sound of a native word, that for a moment Smith did not understand. ”

“ They went up the bank, and going about fifty yards, came out on an open space in which was a large camp and some native-looking gunyahs, or leaf and branch huts.
And then Mandeville could see his hosts, or his captors, whichever they might turn out to be, and his heart sank within him, for they were nearly all big, and one was gigantic, and their whole appearance was that of the dead man whom they had seen. It was like a nightmare truly to see them clad in skins, rough and hairy, and burnt as black as white men can ever get. ”

“ Smith's impulse that moment was to call to the Baker to warn him, but the next brought him caution. He might have to fight the man himself, and it was certainly better not to let the savage know he was observed. He lay still, and waited.
But the next moment Smith had his revolver sights dead on him as he was lifting his spear. He could see the man's very expression, the snarl of rage, the deadly intent, as he took aim. But before the spear could leave the strong hand Smith fired, and without a sound the would-be assassin leapt in the air, and went tumbling down the bank. ”

“ And by some odd and ridiculous notion of his mind, he began to feel angry with the Baker. Why did the man not come himself, why did he send him on such a hideous and futile errand, while he took his ease, lying down in the shade? When he got so far, it struck Smith with terrible distinctness that he did not remember in any way how he came to be with Mandeville in such a position. He could not recollect anything of the yesterday, and though he recalled the New Find, that seemed very far off and vague, and in no way connected with their present trouble. ”

“ For the man of another white tribe has brought back the past to me, and I remember my father, and the time when I was young, when I could fight and run as fast as a flying doe, when I was as strong as an old man kangaroo. And now, men of the Brodarro, I am old and feeble, and nearly blind, and there is no pleasure for me in the fight. I can bring no more heads to the camp, I can neither hurl the spear, nor throw the boomerang, neither can I lie in wait for our enemies. ”

“ They pour out of the towns like ants from a disturbed ant-hill, they try the absurd, and storm the impossible; they rot and stick in the mire; they perish, and are known no more; they wither like grass, and are of no avail.
Yet each individual man is even there the centre of his world, and thinks that he will do this and do that, and each day he does what the dead day willed, and the night subscribed to, but does no more and does no other. And such as these was Smith, who braved sudden death in a bitter sun as he walked through the hideous town to his mate's hut out west on the plain. ”

“ If Smith could have prayed at any time, he would have prayed as his one friend turned hesitatingly from the open door of death, and not even his bitterness against the world and the heaven of brass above could prevent him from breaking down with joy, and sobbing like a child as the Baker opened his weary eyes. ”

“ Smith told him.
"Then there are many white men in this land?" asked Big Jack.
"Very many."
"Then why do they not kill all the black-fellows?" asked Jack.
Smith explained to him that the white men had done so as far as they could, until the law stopped them.
"The law!" said Big Jack. "My father's father used to speak of the law. But I never understood it. Tell me what it is."
And Smith toiled hard to explain that enigma. But he had to come to concrete examples.
"The law is a custom which says one man must not kill another except in war. And if he does he is killed, too." ”

“ When Kitty was roused, she sat up and stared about her, as if she were dazed. They explained to her what they wanted, and after kissing the Baker's hand, an act of loving homage he received with every visible sign of discomfort, they paddled on faster. And just as it was obviously dawn, they came to a bit of a creek, and shoved the canoe into it.
"If they come down this side, we're cooked," said the Baker.
"We must risk something," replied Smith. "They would hardly swim over, when one side's like another." ”

“ I'll go by myself."
"Not you," said Mandeville.
"I will, by the Powers," cried Smith; but, recognising what the Baker meant, he reached out his hand to his faithful chum.
"If you go, I go," said the Baker, with tears in his eyes.
"Good old man," murmured Smith.
And they lay down on their spread blankets, and sweated through an intolerable night, while the stars winked hotly in the drying air.
At early dawn Tom filled up all the water-bags, and they ate breakfast in comparative silence. They opened no new discussion, and saddled their horses at the same time. ”

“ But, men of the Brodarro, all of you my children, this is what I say to you as darkness opens to me, and I go out among the spirits of the bush. My father came out from a white tribe who were his enemies, and with him came another man and two women, and their life and the life of their children was free. We could fight and live as we wished, and there wasn't no man over us. ”

“ When they looked behind them, they saw the big blaze of the fire like a great red eye.
"Why do you make such big fires, Bill?" asked Smith. "Do not the black-fellows ever attack you?"
Bill laughed contemptuously.
"If they saw two men of the Brodarro they would run like wallabies and hide."
"But they killed the Slayer, Bill," said the Baker.
"The Slayer was a fool," said Bill, "He always went alone to get heads, and though he got many they killed him at last. For he had to sleep after three days. And when a man is asleep, a snake can bite him. ”

“ When the Baker finished, he placed his coat under Smith's head, and his chum fell fast asleep.
But now the camp was in agitation, and every one got out his arms, which were all of a kind resembling black-fellows' weapons. But most of the clubs were of gold, with wooden handles, and some were globular, some pear-shaped, and some the shape of a jagged nugget. When they were ready, the chief called to the Baker:
"You will stay, and I will leave five men here. To-morrow night we shall be back. You are friends. But if you are not, we will burn you alive." ”

“ He spoke in his sleep, and once or twice the Baker heard him say, "Carrie!"
Next morning Smith talked a good deal.
"It won't be much longer, Baker," he said. "And when I drop you go on. I found water for you. Perhaps you'll find food for me. I don't want to die in this hole. Some might be glad if I never turned up again, but I'll turn up if I can."
He gnawed his lip and his blonde moustache, and, turning the end of his beard into his mouth, he chewed it in deep contemplation.
"Money, money," he said, "why, what a fool a man is. There's gold everywhere in this country. ”

“ Smith rolled over and touched Mandeville, who was a nervous sleeper, and jumped upright in a scare.
"Hicks is going, Baker," said Smith.
"And you?" asked the Cockney.
"I'm going on."
"Then what the blazes did you wake a chap for?" asked the Baker, and he lay down again.
"You mean it, Smith?" asked Tom.
"I guess so," replied Smith.
"So long then, and we wish you well through it," said Hicks. "It seems mean, perhaps, Smith, but I'm not so keen on it as you. I don't know what life's worth to you. But it's worth more than this to me." ”

“ From Albany, Perth, and Freemantle, from Kimberley, Murchison, and Coolgardie, men rushed in, till New Find, so greatly boomed, was full of good men and thieves, of workers and loafers, of white men and of Chinamen, and they were all bent on gold, till the fever got them, and they yelled under canvas which was no shelter from the sun. But ants and spiders and scorpions gloried while men died, and the flies were thick on sick men's mouths, and ownerless dogs dug up corpses and died of blood-poisoning. ”

“ All he had brought back with him was one lump of quartz and gold, weighing about eight pounds. He looked at them pitifully before he died, but could tell them nothing but that he got it "out yonder." So he was buried, and no one knew if he had a friend to whom news of his death should be sent.
The first expedition made by Hicks, Smith, and Mandeville, was an ill-considered and rash one. For Smith was reckless. He was always ready to take chances that any other man would shirk. He rushed his chums into a violent hurry, and got them a day out on the burning plain before they knew it. ”

“ The next night they were across the first range, and Smith's horse fell and died. They cut the throat of Mandeville's horse in the morning, for they had no water left. But they did not speak, and looked half-askance at each other. It seemed an intolerable and brutal murder.
They now walked straight ahead in a fairly timbered country. Smith kept his eyes open for any sign of a native well; but he saw nothing.
"It's all a dream, Baker," said Smith. "I could believe anything. We are where no white man ever was. No one has been within two hundred miles of this place." ”

“ For the ways of men under ancient stresses are as the ways of ancient instinct, inevitable in unalterable channels. They drift where gold is, or where the thought of its possibility lies; they march like locusts into a ditch which is death. ”

“ But in the middle of this gulley was a huge lump of rock, some yards square, which gleamed white in the moon.
"That's it," said Bill, and the two miners went on, while he sat on a little knoll, which commanded a view of the near country.
"Stop a minute," said Smith, when they got within twenty yards. "Stop a minute, Baker. I can't believe this. Man alive, it's all gold, with just a quartz casing."
But the Baker went on, and was followed by Smith.
All round the casing of the vein were scattered lumps of quartz studded with gold. ”

“ And now he began to hope they might come across some wandering black-fellows. If they were savage and cannibal it would be a spear thrust or two, and the farce would be played out. If they were amiable and not themselves hungry, they might help two wandering white men. If they were not accustomed to the whites, their revolvers would stand them in good stead. And the weapons might be useful, if they met with neither friend nor foe, to put an end to unnecessary waiting. ”

“ Till sundown they saw them swaying in long clouds under the trees, but when the sun went down some horrible ancient instinct in them cried out for blood, though in that desert these creatures of a day could not have tasted it for unnumbered generations, and they swept down upon them singing.
Yet their instincts were still true; they knew their work, and made the long, hot night an unutterable torture, and a ceaseless, bitter combat, in which victory was theirs. The two starving men fought against them till early dawn, and as they fell asleep, the mosquitoes had them at their will. ”

“ Here and there Smith saw some quartz glittering in the moonlight. Every bit he picked up was rich with gold; or it would have seemed rich to any ordinary miner. He also remarked some rocks jutting out of the ground. They looked like the outcrop of reefs. But still Bill went straight ahead, and going through a belt of thin scrub, they came on a narrow valley about fifty yards across, and some hundred and fifty yards long. It evidently ended in the river, for the belt of heavy timber rose blackly at its south end. ”

“ And then a little woman came out; she was white like clay; and Bill speared her. Then some men came; they were no bigger than a child when it no longer sucks, but they were very strong. So we speared them until no more would come out. The rest died in the smoke. We found them after three days. They had little spears, and little bows and arrows, and the scratch of an arrow killed a man like the bite of a snake."
"Horrible," said Smith. "On my soul, Baker, Mrs. Mandeville can spin a yarn. I'm not surprised at her caring nothing about the ordinary open-air black-fellow after that. ”

“ The sensation which the old man had caused subsided as rapidly as it rose, and most of the tribe resumed their idle occupations at once. But Big Jack and three others lifted the dead and went rapidly into the bush. Smith crossed over to the Baker, who was sitting by the side of Bill.
"What have they done with the old man, Bill?" he asked.
"They will give him to the big ants," said Bill carelessly, "and in three days his bones will be as white as his hair. It is a good thing he is dead." ”

“ And yet the desire for life clawed on to hope, and struggled still, driving the failing creature of a day through torture which was sometimes lulled, and sometimes grew monstrously, splitting the man's mind as a tree's roots drive rocks asunder, as a cancer penetrates the living tissue. ”

“ And Smith joined him. The sight was one calculated, if ever any sight was, to make a man crazy who had been hunting for wealth but never found it. Smith had to hold himself tight, and suddenly he leapt off the golden throne.
"Come, Baker," he cried, "that's enough. Let's try and get away. The sooner the better. If we get through we're millionaires. And waiting won't help. Come."
And the three men went towards the camp.
"It's very useful," said Bill. "For it makes better waddies than wood. The black fellows never found that out. But they are fools. What does your tribe do with it, Smith?" ”

“ It was curious, however, that Kitty showed little fear of the aboriginals. Her people had so harried and destroyed those with whom they came into hostile conflict, that she could hardly understand how they would dare to attack two whites together. And now that she was with two white men of an entirely superior order, who had weapons which made a most awe-inspiring row, and killed as far as a well-thrown spear, she entirely despised the black-fellows.
"They are foolish men," she said, "and do not really know how to fight. They can throw spears at a man who is asleep, that is all. ”

“ For it was wrinkled and seamed, and the courage and hope, which had helped them both so often, had, for that time at least, left him utterly.
"I don't know," said the Baker, and he caught Smith's hand, and then let it go, and took hold of Kitty, who was also the victim of extreme terror. The sight of the others broken down brought back strength to the older man.
"What are you scared of?" he cried contemptuously. "Do you funk death so much, Baker?"
"No," said the Baker in a whisper, "but to go down into a pit, when one is asleep, oh, my Gawd! it's 'orrible." ”

“ And now Smith began to get really conscious.
"Where am I?" he asked the Baker, whom he found sitting by him.
"We're in a camp with white men," said the Baker loudly, and then he added rapidly, and in a lower tone, "And I'm beat, Smith. They are all like the man wot we saw dead this afternoon."
Smith sat up as if he had been pricked by a spear, and looked at their captors standing in the glare of the fire. ”

“ And I remember how my father said that among the other white tribes were many damn cruel customs, and that no man was the equal of another, and that some starved though there was food in the camp, and, if one, who starved, took from any of his mates, he was tortured, and kept alive to be tortured, and given no meat, nor fish, nor was he allowed to look upon the sun. ”

“ Next day they went back and brought in the other stores.
"Poor old man," said the Baker to his dead horse, "you brought me 'ere, and you died thirsty. Do you know, Smith, I sometimes think it's a bloomin' queer world?"
"Do you?" said Smith, with a savage bitterness that made Mandy jump. "Do you? What a big discovery. Have you found out that it's a bit queer for animals to suffer as we make 'em suffer? Yes, you're right, it's a queer world, a particularly damnably, disagreeably queer world. ”