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 LONDON : T. FISHER UNWIN
 
 * 
 
 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 duffer 1 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 dingoes 1 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 w r ith 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 bung 1 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 
 
 (FRANK AND EDWARD MURRAY, Printers) 
 
 9 & ii YOUNG STREET.

 
 UCSB LIBRARY
 
 U m. U . TH ^REGIONAL LIBRARY 
 
 A 0006 2583 "