Steelman

“ After breakfast and when the men were going to work Steelman and Smith would go out along the line with the black bag and poke round amongst the “layers and stratas” in sight of the works for a while, as an evidence of good faith; then they’d drift off casually into the bush, camp in a retired and sheltered spot, and light a fire when the weather was cold, and Steelman would lie on the grass and read and smoke and lay plans for the future and improve Smith’s mind until they reckoned it was about dinner-time. ”

“ Behind his back Steelman hurriedly opened a leather pocketbook and glanced at the portrait of a woman and child and at the date of a post-office order receipt.
“Smith,” said Steelman, “we're two honest, ignorant, green coves; hard-working chaps from the bush.”
“Yes.”
“It doesn't matter whether we are or not—we are as far as the world is concerned. Now we've grafted like bullocks, in heat and wet, for six months, and made a hundred and fifty, and come down to have a bit of a holiday before going back to bullock for another six months or a year. Isn't that so, Smith?” ”

“ On about the fourth morning Steelman had a yarn with one of the men going to work. He was a lanky young fellow with a sandy complexion, and seemingly harmless grin. In Australia he might have been regarded as a 'cove' rather than a 'chap,' but there was nothing of the 'bloke' about him. Presently the cove said:
'What do you think of the Boss, Mr. Stoneleigh? He seems to have taken a great fancy for you, and he's fair gone on geology.'
'I think he is a very decent fellow indeed, a very intelligent young man. ”

“ He drew dark shadows round Smith's eyes, and burning spots on his cheek-bones with some greasepaints he used when they travelled as 'The Great Steelman and Smith Combination Star Dramatic Co'. He damped Smith's hair to make it look dark and lank, and his face more corpse-like by comparison -- in short, he made him up to look like a man who had long passed the very last stage of consumption, and had been artificially kept alive in the interests of science. ”

“ Never mind the bottle; fling it away. It doesn’t look well for a traveller to go into a pub. with an empty bottle in his hand. A real swagman never does. It looks much better to come out with a couple of full ones. That’s what you’ve got to do. Now, come along.”
Steelman turned off into a lane, cut across the paddocks to the road again, and waited for Smith. ”

“ You can fling the coppers on the counter, but the chances are he won’t take them. He’s not a bad sort. Beer’s fourpence a pint out here, same’s in Wellington. See that gin-bottle lying there by the stump; get it and we’ll take it down to the river with us and rinse it out.”
They reached the river bank.
“You’d better take my swag—it looks more decent,” said Steelman. “No, I’ll tell you what we’ll do: we’ll undo both swags and make them into one—one decent swag, and I’ll cut round through the lanes and wait for you on the road ahead of the pub.” ”

“ Steelman took the bottle by the neck and broke it on the fence.
“Come on, Smith; I'll carry the swag for a while.”
And they tramped on in the gathering starlight.
How Steelman told his Story
It was Steelman's humour, in some of his moods, to take Smith into his confidence, as some old bushmen do their dogs.
“You're nearly as good as an intelligent sheep-dog to talk to, Smith—when a man gets tired of thinking to himself and wants a relief. ”

“ Cold type―or any other kind of type―couldn't do justice to Steelman's disgust. To think that this was the reward of all the time and trouble he'd spent on Smith's education! However, when he cooled down, he said:
'Smith, you're a young man yet, and it's never too late to mend. There is still time for reformation. I can't help you now; it would only demoralise you altogether. To think, after the way I trained you, you can't battle round any better'n this! I always thought you were an irreclaimable mug, but I expected better things of you towards the end. ”

“ Doble poured himself half a tumbler of whiskey and drank it neat. Yes, he must go, but he might as well take with him any money Steelman had in the safe. The dead man owed him a thousand dollars he would never be able to collect in any other way. ”

“ It was about the hardest-faced old woman that Smith had ever seen. The pub. had changed hands.
“I—I beg your pardon, missus,” stammered poor Smith.
It was a knock-down blow for Smith. He couldn’t come to time. He and Steelman had had a landlord in their minds all the time, and laid their plans accordingly; the possibility of having a she —and one like this—to deal with never entered into their calculations. Smith had no time to reorganise, even if he had had the brains to do so, without the assistance of his mate’s knowledge of human nature. ”

“ Brad Steelman's goin' to fight like a son-of-a-gun. He'll strike at our credit and at our market and at our means of transportation. He'll fight twenty-four hours of the day, and he's the slickest, crookedest gray wolf that ever skulked over the range."
The foreman of the D Bar Lazy R came in after supper for a conference with his boss. He and Crawford got their heads together in the sitting-room and the young people gravitated out to the porch. Joyce pressed Dave into service to help her water the roses, and Keith hung around in order to be near Dave. ”

“ THERE’S nothing so interesting as Geology, even to common and ignorant people, especially when you have a bank or the side of a cutting, studded with fossil fish and things and oysters that were stale when Adam was fresh to illustrate by. (Remark made by Steelman, professional wanderer, to his pal and pupil, Smith.)
THE FIRST man that Steelman and Smith came up to on the last embankment, where they struck the new railway line, was a heavy, gloomy, labouring man with bowyangs on and straps round his wrists. Steelman bade him the time of day and had a few words with him over the weather. ”

“ Here's a quid, and I'm a mug for giving it to you. It'll do you more harm than good; and it ain't a friendly thing nor the right thing for me -- who always had your welfare at heart -- to give it to you under the circumstances. Now, get away out of my sight, and don't come near me till you've reformed. If you do, I'll have to stoush you out of regard for my own health and feelings.'
But Steelman came down in the world again and picked up Smith on the road, and they battled round together for another year or so ”

“ You’d best have the stuff to-night to show your mate.”
“Perhaps so; he’s a suspicious fool, but I made a bargain with him about our last cheque. He can hang on to the stuff, and I can’t. If I’d been on my own I’d have blued it a week ago. Tell you what I’ll do— we’ll call our share (Smith’s and mine) twenty quid. You take the odd fiver for your trouble.”
“That looks fair enough. We’ll call it twenty guineas to you and your mate. We’ll want him, you know.”
In his own and Smith’s room Steelman thoughtfully counted twenty-one sovereigns on the toilet-table cover, and left them there in a pile. ”

“ It is well thought of, lad, said Steelhead, and that the more, as I must needs see thee naked if I am to strengthen thee as I am minded to do. So they did off their raiment, both of them, and went into the biggest of the pools hard by; and if Steelhead were a noble-looking man clad, far nobler was he to look on naked, for he was both big and well shapen, so that better might not be. ”

“ The house grew quiet presently; there was a faint light or two in the hall and corridors. For the best part of an hour Steele sat in his room smoking. A few minutes before midnight he put down his cigarette and crept out into the corridor. It looked very dim and lonely, despite the specks of light here and there. The black walls, with their strong portraits, the ghostly figures in armour, all appealed to a strong imagination. Well in hand, as he usually held himself, Steele was conscious of an extra heartbeat or so as he crept downstairs. ”

“ Or had Waldron, aware of the pursuit, ambushed the man trailing him? Steele broke into a run and dashed on toward them through the trees.
For the third time now he saw Reagan and Marvella. They stood tense and motionless, staring toward the black shadows under the grove where the short struggle had occurred. Already that struggle was over. Steele whipped out his revolver and hastened on.
Now at last he could make out, though dimly, what was going on. A man was down; two other men had thrown themselves upon him, had silenced him with a knife for all time or with the threat of a knife. ”

“ Steele, I’ll talk to you as if you were your own sister. Have you ever done a stroke of useful toil since you were born?”
“Oh, yes; I worked on a railway.”
“Very well. Go to the Black Hills and take a miner’s outfit with you. Become for the time one of my father’s workmen—or, rather, boss of the gang, if you like. Go into that mine, and direct them where they are to run the next level, and follow that level for a month, working with the men and keeping clear of the blasts. After you have penetrated a month in any direction you please, take the ore from the last blast and have it assayed. ”

“ Somewhat daunted was the bold lad; but he said: "Tell me, thou bright lord, at what times I shall draw forth Boardcleaver?"
Said Steelhead: "Only then when thou hast the foe before thee: then draw and be of good courage, for never shall point and edge be dulled by the eye-shot of the wicked and wizards, as whiles it befals the common blades of today. For a man of might hath breathed on the edges amidst much craft of spells, so that nought may master that blade, save one of its brethren fashioned by the same hands, if such there be yet upon the earth, whereof I misdoubt me. ”

“ Steele could distinctly hear the slide of metal on metal. A curious sensation shot up his spine, there was a queer tingling at the roots of his hair. Just for a moment he had a wild impulse to rush back to his room and lock himself in there.
"I'm not surprised at Hare," he muttered. "Seen unexpectedly, it would try the nerves of the strongest man."
The phantom game continued. Steele crushed down the fear that held him. He was watching with a vivid curiosity that almost amounted to pain. Not only was a ghostly contest in progress, but it was a masterly one. ”

“ And the lad stood still before him, and Steelhead laid his hands on the head of him first, and let them abide there awhile; then he passed his hands over the shoulders and arms of the boy, and his legs and thighs and breast, and all over his body; and therewith he said: In our days and the olden time it was the wont of fathers to bless their children in this wise, but for thee, thy father is dead, and thy nighest kinsman is little-hearted and somewhat of a churl. Thus then have I done to thee to take the place of a father to thee, I who am of the warriors of while agone. ”

“ For among the strange faces about him he could not tell how many might be faces of Reagan men. No other man did he recognize, but he had already thought that Reagan would set an unknown hound of his on his track, Steele began to observe more carefully the men—and the women as well—occupying seats or strap hanging in his car, determined to recognize any one of them if he saw him again.
“There's one joy in the situation,” he cogitated with an inward chuckle. “I've got a good long day ahead of me and nothing to be done until I meet uncle Abner to-night. I'll give Mr. Tony Waldron a day of it!” ”

“ The miners were laughing, singing, weeping on each other's necks, utterly oblivious to owners of mines, lack of pay, lynching, or anything else, when Steele and Jackson mounted their horses, the coloured cook leading one of the mules laden with provisions ample for a week's journey.
When Jack Steele reached Pickaxe Gulch, he never thought he would be so glad to see a pair of rails again. He felt like throwing his arms round the neck of the station-master, but instead, asked that rough diamond if there was any news. ”

“ No—I decided that Steele trusted to the effect his boldness had created. It was this power to cow ordinary men that explained so many of his feats; just the same it was his keenness to read desperate men, his nerve to confront them, that made him great.
The crowd followed Steele and his captive down the middle of the main street and watched him secure a team and buckboard and drive off on the road to Sanderson. ”

“ Steele was the driving wedge that had begun to split Linrock—split the honest from dominance by the dishonest. To be sure, Steele might be killed at any moment, and that contingency was voiced in the growl of one sullen man who said: "Wot the hell are we up against? Ain't somebody goin' to plug this Ranger?"
It was then that the thing for which Steele stood, the Ranger Service—to help, to save, to defend, to punish, with such somber menace of death as seemed embodied in his cold attitude toward resistance—took hold of Linrock and sunk deep into both black and honest hearts. ”

“ Reagan whirled and struck with the same knife that had done for Kwang-kung. But Steele struck first, bringing his gun barrel down with a smashing blow on Reagan's bare head. The man's clutch on his knife loosened, the fingers tightened again.
Then Carrington came running to the rescue, Marvella at his heels. Reagan was still reeling; Steele whipped the knife out of his grasp, hurled him backward. Reagan fought wildly and in grim silence; Steele struck again, and then deftly slipped on the relaxing hands a pair of handcuffs. Carrington came racing to them. ”

“ But Steele understood; he knew that Reagan had drawn out from the body of his henchman the knife that had killed him, and then, with that same knife, had avenged him on Kwang-kung.
Marvella went toward Alice.
“Miss Blake,” she said imperatively, “you will understand that your house has become no pleasant place to sleep in. Would it be asking too much to suggest that you let your car take me to the railroad?”
Alice looked questioningly toward Steele. And Carrington, his perplexity half dazing him, demanded:
“For Heaven's sake, what is the meaning of all this? ”