The Romance Reef.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 14

The Romance Reef.

~£y.(tho late) David Christie Murray, Author of " JoEeph'B Coat," Z " Aunt llachel," eto. ■ • (All Eights Reserved.)

„" Ifc was three years since Carter had "You savvy old man CaTter?" asked started inland from the coast, and from Bl ]L v !i ] the day of his departure he find never ho X^ ? !, the y roared together. "Is been seen or heard of by the comrades "Pknty live," said Billy, champing on he had left behind him. He had been his quid. "Budgery good, budgeiy fat, a' fellow Of queer nabits, a silent an 4 hudgery gin, budgery pickaninny. One! retiring^ ellow, who received other peo- • B^, er^ T fa * pickaninny." pie's confidences.willipgly enough, but. of <£'. g£J Jgy^fT "™* {jave no confidences of his own. Ho was '-~No," said Billy "White flo gin. Esteemed' Sa*liis>day for mahy sterling Whito flo pickYninny, * You savvy mialities. He w?<- a staunch friend, a l v^i* c f '|° »wch tail: on white stuff. ■oy thos^who knew lnm to be "as gamo hi s pg^ & *~" is a pebble." His friends often dis- "By Jupiter!" cried Cambridge, "he's cussed tha chances of his fate. He had P* » letter." ' | |one off prospecting with provisions and « j water for toe days and had 'been swaJ. He fumbled ' £ fche th £ k fc f - hj fc . lowed by the wilderness. Before the snapped a Hgaturo of bark There and' lamp had begun to be anxious about him drew from under bis great hair^ chin a a tropic rain storm had washed out any 13acket a soniethin ro^ ed track ho may have left. It was con- o£ a C^ M , S sodj . *> uUP m zao loot vL^^^ioSa^mig^ ffl 115 " I ■kve gone off for another spell amSug S^ on-n trvtt Va f fwf d ?E the blackfellows, with whom ha had g T L^tr'Jhftv? rt th ° thread '" ,Jivod for half a.dq 2 en year^nd whoso nTrthJr Js SS W V WQ * an> ° nd lingo was ,s familiar to Wmas English. Sr wL^ol "T 1 i. VOIC ° wp , re ,- Hether^ton-^wEo • was known as S n , °,4 I-°k aharp with the -yCambridgt" because he had sor a sin- *%¥> old man ' „..., 4le year been-an ornament of 'that uni- oJ^t^T 'J^* '? hal ) d ' Wl " th " versity at Home, before he was sent °" fc *J? lantern, fcofc a breath of air 'flower putting, a .lighted firework. blVa'S^ G T" g , 6-'6 -' Reeling down icaliea a "liack-ilppar," into the ooao ' nd Cam&ndge, baptised, his chum fail docket of a aoVopposed Ac last W1 (^ t molten tailow as ho -read. -' thfiorV'stotiltly "and on characteristic Lnie y ! said Cambndge, "look at tho itonxTdß. paper. Look at the/e«Bfc on ifc ]'• >f "Carter," he would say, "owed me a Kead and dry up!" were Georgo's jiote, and half a pound of ruby. He contradictory orders. ■wouldn't have gone from camp owing > «. I f' oman^ o ■ Koef > Tea^ Cambridge, any man a luafei: match if he had & w^ee-fifty miles north-east of ,ineanfr to leav&'"uk No. • Either old Madgeree., If any. of the old boys aTe left (Carter has sent in 'his credentials, or ue °.n.. n . tlle Creek-^Cambridge or Slack, or t jbas bsen held up by the blacks." Irish, or Red Qeorge— he is to make , Thfc' retjeent', lonejy * man had had sw aigm> tracks to me. Thero are reamany jriendfr— more than he had sus- -S° s w hich will make it worth his whilo: *peoUd— rand. lo. was missed' a great, .deal, S3VS game is plenty, and he knows feit in, a community like .that in which" overy water-hole between here and Hell, he had lived, a nian drops out for years, -kejrards -to old pals, all.— Sam .Carter-." 'aii3' oobs'up again at the- other end of " *s°w ""*£ is it- since we had a drink, ■*tlie' great island continent. So late, and Cambridge t" asked GJeorge.-"■-eo little » time ago as the eighteen-sev- 'Tin six months from my last," said enties, thero were hundreds of men 'scat- Cambridge. ''Fetch it oul, George. If ' tefed over the vast -wasta spaces of the there's enough to get blind on, we'll ba ■•land, 'of whose whereabout the, closest blind to-night. Here's to Sam. Good "chum of old days. would never have a old Sam. Carter, hero's the love of the ! 'word, except by chance, until at last Lord to you, for ever and ever nmen." ' they turned, up weather-scarred and rag- They spoke of the carouse in terms of I ged at a camp fire, "on the wallaby j" magnitude, and with Billy's willing as- ' *or" J a chaaice wayfarer came along with sisfance they drank ous the half-bottle. c pews of -a Jack who had struck it rich Sleep was out of the question for the -■ ia gold or -wool, or a Sam whoso moul- two white men, but Billy lay liko a log - dbring bones had been found by a gang alike for stillness and silence. An' I ■ '.which was, clearing the mallee scrub on aboriginal savage whoso ancestors h'avo i <-*be. banks of- the Upper Murray. v carried life in hand for ages is much 1 ...Tfcfere were two of Carter's pals still too wise to move without occasion ' ' working near the old creek at IMudgerae. Daybreak saw them on tha track. -•Other men came and stayed awhile and Their hundred ouncts of gold or so made drifted, away again, but they hung^ vii, little difference to the load they carried making digger's pay and nothing more, end what they could dispense with thnv i but always in the T)elief that there was left behind. All day they fared across ' luck before them. They were sitting the desert. They cooked their damnor i beforo the- doot of the ragged native and boiled thair billy at noon and aciin i which did duty for a tent, dog-tired at nightfall. They placed the horsehair I and Pappy, each with a wide-mouthed lariat, which no snake will cross around ' pot of good old post-and-rail tea in his their sleeping place, and they seemed to hand, arid a pipe in full blast betwesn lay thsir aching bones upon the ground '/ his' lips. They were alone, and had been and to rise up refreshed in the same alone now for a matter of a month or instant of time. Now and then they • -two. They had pretty v/ellr exhausted shot 'a wallaby. Now and then they! • their conversational stock long since, and tightened their waist-belts. On the! -for days they had nofc exchanged a word whole, with Billy for guide, they were -■b-syond the necessary. At heuv they ready to declare that they fared like <,w9re very dose together, and it happened princes. On the morning of the ninth" often that one man knew what tht day they saw their goal in view. . other- man was thinking "That's whore I saw old Carter," said - t he v k L Wa v- I . EQffu3ed *? th th , at Red George. "Slap on top. It's the amber 'light which is seen .nowhere else shape of tlie hill. I'd cwear my Bible . -in the- vrorld. The sun was three O ath to that " - parts underground, and in ten minutes They plodded on all day. The sunset • they. wonia>b e alone with the lambent was S9W i ng greafc wr i n a£ in the. hiil"fl™?2f £j£"""l Th- ' "V vani3hed Cart«. and mourned ■■^1 l> w£f' '^ ow - thm S s . come into these three years, came striding down ;«P. d pointed,, .with a sunburnt hand "H o < v '« rrishf" VnV? \Tr -r,,4^ sunlight, vi ,ihe west. His companion Scott , Y ou don't say. And Slack? --^feEf*Tr a #- lfiP^ i\ ***? tl*t 1 *^ 11 Gone under?, Dew me? now. Got any •mdxeated, holdmg a level hand above his baccy, you chaps? 01, good iron! I £nn. BkC ,r, ch « p ' eS3 ' \ Sa - d J h ° Ot^ r - q««r» eh? Susan' my dear, Mr. HetherjTheanthke figure came straight on. The ? ngton Ml , Gso/ge Pals and IJ^t.glow faded as if a, light had been- pJ s d^» both in tho times Pve told you £ turned off with a slow and eq-ual move- & down at Mudgeree and eiaew here %hZt' -M, * TO M %, h v M ght f T There>s a bifc of Scotch in the jar, wolack as pitch.. -Tlieu Jtao lights/ of the DO y S 'I ■, began to iftd twhrklsrand entertained his guests Ijcthen to bura with a soft and steadmst pa l at ially. There was bacon without gnduace. One man thrust his heavily- fe^ a^ d theia wero sardines ,fo tinSi Sbooted heel into the embers of the fire Splendour 'of splendours! this amaz|ovtr w-nich they had boiled their billy ing man hud BlßackB 1 8ack o v f potat<)ss in tho | Aand' threw a handful or two of dried wi i der ii eS6 . Potatoes, rather more than ', |,chips upon it. --Then the two arose by a parboiled; then sliced and fried with . imp^W and. sfcroinng QUf of the ba con.and sardines, make. a, lovely dish. % line of light, lounged ia the direction in Tne , scem , it . is invited to fc it ' to the I which the approaching figure had been proof a f ter a vine days . mlßrchm 1 8rch 0Q dam . I seen. It was invisible now, but in a few por- tempered with wallaby. I minutes it loomed in sight again, and The firo by whjch tl) h^ d boiled fte feicame on sSraightand steady. Bushman's eternal billy was kept alight * AXbtubititoy* -naked ao he was bom for the sake > of a sort ' of compa l nioils S ip I'save-for- a., rudimentary loincloth, with ifc gavej and the throe m^^ouia S e a |Ja head so hidden in its wild bush of haar ca C g oth er's face by its- light. ''Mrs. Car•j and Tjeard tha* it looked thnca its natn- ter had reliwd within asma n neai . 5. ral size. Th 6 nest 01 hair and. the huge by> and conld b& heard at tinjes c oa . y eyebrows were as white as snow, and his j n » i 0i 0 t}j 0 bao y S lea °i? amo yas bent with ago. -Lcfs havo \ t ' old man » Eaid George. I 'my, it's Bdiy!" cned one of the «. This. This is abou(> the mosfc amazih . sha £ T jiwhitemen,, "Hello, BiUy, old man, how ever struck on . Maa planted In the t'goeß it. __ „,'-,,. middle of nowhere, v/ith a wifo and kid t: "Good," said the black-and-white an- and a u t ]i 6 luxuries of civilisation, iscient. "EudgeTy good. . Where hay» you b?en to? What are |,' "That's right,' said the other man. you here for? What's it all about, an"and bring your old craft to an Vtay?" " *;'*nchor. What's t^e latest intelligence '"'Well, there's nothin' particular suj'Y».irom -tho jxitepov, Billy?. ' prism* about it, when you know," said ;i Tlie ancient sat, down stiffly* in the fo r Carter. "I'm no great hand at a Ti firelight', and spoke one word interroga- yarn> but the thing's like this. You rep lively. •■ - ' - member when I left? I'd reckoned to ,1- "JJunJ?" - be back in lour days or so. I'd heard £, "No. Billy, no. rum. Rum no good for some hlackfellows jabbering amongst £; Balfy," said the man who (had first themselves about what fools we was to /..descried him. tako all the pajns wo did to dig for tho 1; "When did,. you start, Billy?' asked staff wo wanted, when wo might have it other. for the troublo of takin' it. I ques- \^ "istart sun-Tip," Billy answered. "Tir-sd tione4 'era, and cne of the scum lillod £*•— much 1 tired. Black flo like bim rum:" mg pp w ith a yara that there was gold j J; "Lot 'ths old beprc;ar have a tot, Cam- galore about two days' inarch away. Oif *r H»ri{Jge.' A. tot won't hurt Lim." I starts, just to have a look at things, tft xill right, George," said the other. Tho whole thing was a plant. There £j '^ie you like. Only -one, mind. Too was a w hole tribe of blackfellows there. n':, much is a poor kindness." Friendly as you please they was ; but £{ JJacky?" said the aricknt, reaehin? .y^jy just gave me to understand that s*" out his paw. Cambridge handed 'him a if j made any attempt to get away I t" goodly chunk. He took it stolidly and should Ton knocked on the head. I {£ 'tli-mst it into the black cavern of his guessed I'd stay accordingly. 5^ mouth. "We went off on the march — due <'<- George- had gone into the tent for mm, north was the route they took— and wo. '. and came'bacl? with a quarter of a pint W as padding the hoof for weeks, through in a pint pannikin. the wickedest kind of country. At last f UiJly smiled The- pint-pot applied W e struck another great bobbery of 'cm '-,) Hu'.cways to tho smile would have fitted ju the middlo of the bush. Fine well- -'' ifc with acouracy- -Billy pouched tbe t,o- .watered land-r-two or three crocks — kanbctwe^i W* teeth afld'^his cheek, garoo and wallaby everywhere— Ssh no \- and tlrrzfr "trie 'fiery liquor down his end — v/ives without' count. %' throat as if ho lund been provided with "I'd been out thero about a year. I fc'an o»>:n sluicov/ay. Then -ho Bailed reckon, when a party of 'em trooped ■£ ag<iin^ and ciirosßed his wrinkled old westward. When they got back in two V.',jjtowusb 4'ath both bund?. months' timo they introduced me .to my ■vjg4'W4J ' Hill*," «tid ty&s*'&&s\ f J - oill S Hiisr,u». Pact. r Xh<Jy/'d roped in her and *a#2y'at a'cala? of'Jluby/andittLblri? tho her father. M^ion-Jr' lie was -Eev. tobacco in his hiU'dencdi bauds, ''what's Jonas Izon — and ono of tho whitest men , jour uewsj"- „! cvor hit 03^, He was good enl all

through. I never see. such a man.. Ho spoke their lingo most as well's I ao, and thb command he got over that contingent was a thing to seo. They took him for big medicine, and no mistake, and /ihcii he spoke they just jumped. "They offered him wives — acres of 'em, but ho wouldn't track with nary one of 'cm. He used tq preach to 'em, and doctor 'em, and ho had a notion that he might teach 'em a thing or two if he lived long enough. Speakin' of him generally he was a man of good common sense, but he'd got it fixed in him that a blackfellow's got a soul, and you could civilise him. "Well, ho lived with 'em for a matter of half a year, and than he sickened. I allays concluded he's drunk some bad water, or eaten some allurin' kind of poison berry. Anyway, he died, and before he • pegged out he ■" asked mo if I'd look after Susan. 'They's treated her respectful up to now,' ho said, 'for fear of me. Yvill you marry her?' ha says, 'and be good antl true to her, an' see as no mischief befalls her?" I said I would, and it turned out that Susan was willing.. He'd got a Church Service "with ham, and we was married right and regular In the bush. He told mo how to write the certificate, and he made shift to ?ign it.- Then he pegged out noxt day. That'black scum howled and took oi^ awful, and forgot all about him in v month, like they always do. "I let out for Mudgeree, thjnkin' some of the old crowd might still be there. Well, I lighted on thig thunderir>' hill* and it put me in mind of old Desolation, Remember the rush on p3sociatiou? Well, I tell you Desolation ain't in the same street with ltomance Reef. That's tho name the missis gave it. No, it ain't reef gold. It's pocket sluff, and there's mos>t enough of it to buy the Bank. "And now I guess you've bad chinmusic enough. I have. I ain'c talked us ?nuoh as I have to-night in the last ten years. So long. I'll show you a thing or two to-morrow. * The fire died down. The tent darkened. Ths two chums lay in silence, their pipes glowjng ir the gloom. At last Red. Ueorgs spoke : "Say, pard.""Hfilo.',' "Old Sam's white, ain't ho?" "White? Rather! And sound all through." Then they slept till tho first beams of tho sun awoke them, and they raced to the creek, whooping like boys, and had what Ked George called "a hulking good wallow," swimming like seals, ana then, clothed again, sitting down to lauah a f . the laughing-jackasses, and to watch the angry assaults the shrikes made against them, until Sam called to breakfast, j Those nian are millionaires to-day, i and live in .cities, but, oh ! they sigh sometimes for the old wild life of naI ture, and ' for no hour more deeply or j mere often than for that which preluded the-coraing of good fortune. Mrs. Carter turned out in a brand new holland gown, and consulted a i glittering little 'gold watch with a det mure air of pride. " "Say, Carter?" said Red George. "How's all this done?" "We're not so very far from civilisation after all," said Mrs. Carter, aribwaring for her husband. "Mr. Carj ter reckons it's not more than a hun- ! tired and twenty miles from here to | Kligotov/n. He's. been down, twice since i we came here."' I Sam laughed as . his comrades had uoi'er heard him laugh before. * "blister Carter !" he cried. "I ain't b^sn called Mister Carter since I struck thi3 continent. Come with me, boys, ; ! and I'll show you things." Ho pointed j with a meaning glanco to ths pick aii<] ! bhovel each mai> had earned oil ins toilsome' march. Ho led straight up the bill, and good niftii as they all were, they were fairly winded when they leached the 6ummit. They walked panting on the level untii Garter paused and pointed. They looked at the object indicated, and then stared at him; and at each othe^ A skeleton lay .thara, white as nsw sawn ivory, not a bone displaced. The skeleton hands wcro tulded on the sfcels , ton breast. The hollow eye-sockets were turnod to the bJue sky. Pnside it lay what first looked like a heap of pebbles. Cambridge stooped, and touched it, and turned a few of the Seeming pebbles iv his hand. "By God!" he said. "It's gold." "Yes," s-Ad Carter. "It's gold, turo enough, and it's one man's forcur.e." Hs drew an object from his pockot— a can-dle-case such as tluA carried by miners in wet minc3. "I found this bciida him. There's a miner's certificate inside it. He'd hcaa ou the Turon, this'inun had, and it may be lucky for somebody that he left this behind him. George Wheelwright Williams is hie name. N Dc&cribes himself as a native of Dumfries, N.B. That" — indicating the uugget heap — "la a windfall for nis nuxt-of-kin." Ho beckoned and sal out' anew. They followod, and some thirty* yards away hs paused at a place svherc tho soil had I been ne-i.'ly disturbed. , ' Xho stuff just stuck out here. For a week running I took down every, day !as much as I could carry. It's' everywhere." WUhouf another word they parted. "Try under any hillock," Carter shouti cd, "and mo3tly in a corner," | Each cheso his place and began. They i shouted hoarsely at each ' other. They delved until the sweat ran down' like rain. s ' "Good God '" , -cried one, "it's li!:c digging potatoes over here. Come and look." "Not I," Ehouted tho other. "I'm too bii6y." The fjrst day was the great day. \b~ stands for a record to. this hour, They slaved. Thay ehouted at' each now find. They rast themselves, boneweary and breathless, and bathed in pcrspiratiop, to the ground, and vase to renew their work, and fell again. ' "I dara 'not leave it," caid' Red George. "I dare not leave it. Soud old Billy along with my bluey and gome tucker, ana I'll mount 'jjuard." "Well, rest awhile, boys," said Car- • w l ?,' an ? a P" 11 at a C »P of co\d<*iea. Wo 11 pfat those poor bones under- ■ ground, anyhow. Cambridge, you'll read a word over them. I've got old'lzon's Church Service here." YOUB DUTY TO THE SWIXDLER. Tho cry of the get-rich-quick victim still arises. We wish a fow basic principles could bo more- universally understood. Tho concern that sends you a circular,- inviting your money and promising to pay five per cent, a month, or any other rate far in excess of the ordinary icturns upon capital, is almost necessarily a Ewindle. A man having a proposition that will pay five per cant, a month doesn't n«ed to advertise for capital. By simply employing hia own money and compounding it at this agreeable rate Jio would soon become a millionaire. Gentlemen with infallible schemes for beating the stock or grain market or winning on horso races would bo fools to admit strangers to a partnership. If any one had buch a schemo he could become rich bayond the dreams of ovance on a capital of a hundred dollars. Don't bo taken in because some other investor has received a five' pei* cent, a month dividends. Those dividends wcro probably paid otit oi his £<vn moneyWhen you receivo a get-ri^h-quick circular don't throw it into the w'ast!> basket. '■Curji jfc.over ,to your' postmaster; with a 'rpniTeßt that it be forwarded to the. inspector for that district and investigit,- . ciLrr-Xcw Yorls Saturday livening Post...