A LINDSAY O' THE DALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13587, 5 November 1907, Page 3

A LINDSAY O' THE DALE.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

: BY A. G. HALES. Author of "The Watcher on the Tower," " Driicoll. King of Scouts." " McGlasky," *' Jair the Apostate," etc., etc COPYRIGHT. SYNOrSIS. The. story 1* written by Kate Killov.en, who in tho. first chanter gives her family ViUlory. Her father was of a capable, headstrong Irish family, who had crossed tho Scottish border and married one of the Lindsays o' the Dale. Mixing in politic* her father interested himself, in wild schemes lor the emancipation of Ireland, lost his business and emigrated to Australia when Kate was a child. In Australia he joined the mounted police tnd served for some years, rearing a family— Davie, Bryan, and Kenneth. Inspector Vernon, of 'the mounted police, frequently visited the house, and for unwelcome and insulting attentions to Mrs. Killowen he (Killowen) one day horsewhipped Vernon. Killowen had to leave the police and took to well-sinking and chance work, but Vernon gave the family a bad character to the squatters, and they had difficulty in jetting employment. One day, when Killowen and th» boys were out rounding up cattle, news CJime that a party of black* were out on the warmth. Killowen and Ids son Davie got home, but terras and Kenneth and » stockman who had •one to look for them were missing. When the shunter close* the stockman has just come m iaght. half-turned la his saddle and shooting at something behind him. The blacks attack the homestead, but artbeaten off. Presently Bryan appears on a distant hill with the child Ken. on the front of his saddle. Black Andy, a renegade trooper, who lathe blacks' leader, fir** at Bryan. The Utter liiirta th» child from him and receives the bullet in his own arm. Black Andy then wheels and Aim at Dave (who had striven to intercept ■ his feather), and he is hit and badly wounded. RwaiUiaUy the blacks are beaten off, and the wouadftd man is brought Into the homestead. A doctor'* services are necessary, and Mrs. Killewea volunteers to ride to the township for Sim While making her preparation* she. learns that Brr»n, in . spite of his wounded arm, had iaeVHed , half-broken horse and departed for the doctor. „__________£___

CHAPTER ll.—(Continued.) A* test wo had *■ - '* pleasure of seeing the doctor step over our threshold, with dear Bfjan close behind him. The doctor was ▼ery kind to Davie and to Bryan, but he jvu coldly polite to both mother arid father, coring to rumours spread by Inspector Ver©on, who, with his never-slumbering malice, hid managecl to give my poor dear parents a bed name. Of course they both noticed the doctor's manner, but both were too proud to allow him to see that they did so. Before he went he praised Bryan's courage and hardihood to my mother; and she, looking him very squarely in the eyes, replied that, seeing that his parents -were gentlefolk of many generations on both sides, it was not to be wondered at that the lad should behave bravely and unselfishly. I saw the" doctor flush red under the tan upon his face, for there was that in my mothers look and manner which must have cut him like a whip. He raised his hat ▼erv courteously both to me and to my mother, and held out his hand to father ere he left; and the hot Killowen blood in fathers veins made him pretend that he did sot see the outstretched band. He was always like that, proud and touchy, and & little bit over resentful. The blacks were never punished for the outrage, because, when the matter was reported to the authorities, Inspector Vernon represented that father and the boys had always been very cruel to the blacks, and had so enraged the tribe that they had not only damaged the property he had to look after, but n»d also done a lot of harm to other innocent people; and another black mark was scored up against our most unlucky family. . Mother and I nursed Davie and Bryan, back to health and strength; but, somehow, father never seemed like his old self •sain; he grew moody and restless, and when Inspector Vernon's name was mentioned in his presence, he would fly into such a terrible passion that the wonder was that he did not have a fit. *t; ' ; :;^ t " !: ' : 'K4 ''"soon" as the boys were well enough he threw lip his situation on the station* and moved away, eventually taking a contract to overland* a very large mob of cattle. I think mother was glad to let him go, thinking that the change, and the sight of new faces, would lift the gloom from his mind; but mttst of all she was glad that he" should go out of Vernon's reach. Mother and T were left with the wee laddie in a big hut, just outside Burraket township. s We saw our three men-folk ride awy one bright sprint; morning. Davie looked thin and pale after his long illness, but Bryan's dark face showed no sign of the cruel hurt he had received. If ever a man looked a part and parcel of his horse Bryan did that morning, and When he lifted his soft felt hat, half playfully, to as as he gathered up his reins, I could not help feeling-proud of my brother, dor he .looked wonderfully handsome, with bis dark; curly hair, his black, curved eyebrows, and his bold, flashing eyes. When they had gone, we settled down to •sake our new quarters as cosy, as possible. •.*.:. . 7' Father had rented the place from a small •elector, who was a middle-aged, well-to-do tieket-oi-leave man, who, besides keeping his j selections in good order, had a little general store where everything was purchasable, from a riding-saddle to a tide of bacon. * i

.He also employed many men to fell trees * and split them for posts and rails. Most of these " splitters"as such men were cal-. led—lived id camps in the bush, and were almost invariably wild, lawless desperadoes out on "tickets." They used to work hard until they could draw a good cheque, and then they would indulge, in a fearful orgie, drinking" rum from * morning till night as long as their money lasted, and fighting Amongst themselves, or with anybody else who happened to encounter them. The tenable penal settlements, where they had been treated like wild animals, had brutalized but had not tamed them. They had b«en flogged, most of them, until the" whip wounds lay engraven indelibly in their . flesh, never to be removed. The selector himself was not a bad man. ; I do not know for what crime he was sent out from England, but I do know that he was invariably kind and considerate to us, ; ' which is more than I can say for some of those who had no penal record and styled i t " themselves gentlemen. We 'made our little log-cabin home as cosy and pretty as possible. Mother had a perfect genius for making a room look pretty. Then we made a garden, and the selector often brought up slips of geraniums and roses, or seeds and bulbs; and after a little time he used to stop and take ; * cup of tea with us. '*' He often had to pass our door on his way to the splitters' camps, and he always went well armed, because of the desperate char--1 meters he had to deal with. V- Over his tea he told us much concerning the splitters and sawyers, and warned us on no account ever to draw bridle near one •, ■ *5 them, if any chance ever took us in their vicinity. AVe had the three horses that father had wft with us, and one of them was the Wood mare that Bryan liad ridden when he went to fetch the doctor to Davie. And our greatest.delight in life at that time was Vj.. M saddle up and ride out into the bush. I V' M so proud of mother when she was in the saddle; for, somehow, she always reminded, me of Bryan; she had the same graceful poise of'the body, and the same proud way of carrying her head. Bryan had given me the blood mare, because my ' own dear little mare was never any good alter that day I rode her to warn father . Md the hoys "that the blacks were on the ; warpath. 1 expect I rode her too fast that - . day, for she was a game', willing little crea- - ■ '"re, and my judgment was a bit upset. fl One evening we were sitting round the fire, xai mother was reading some dear old ~, boots ballads to us to pass the time until <[] oaitiuie arrived, Tire clay had been rather worm, hut. a sudden storm had come up, ormeiiig rain and a cold wind. I All at once our dog began to kirk savagely, there was a heavy knock at the aoor,- and the next.moment the latch lift«a J and a man entered the room, a little WQ man with a horrible face, which was jnado worse by the loss of one eye ; behind "Ms person came two others, one young of'medium height, the other tremend- ■ Wily tall and gaunt, arid of middle age. ' I saw my mother turn as pale as death, •jw- glance ; towards the shelf where ■ she ***V« kept heir pistol The old man saw J2*J?i*ne* *&& the pistol, and his evil face |.|!fc»«rw;iup'- in a grin.'-' : ' V .

You can leave that alone, missis," he said, with a foul oath; "that won't do you any good. Then he glanced at the table, and mother at once rose and asked it they were hungry. " Hungry? We are that," respouded the creature, with a leer ; " but perhaps we are not the sort of company you are used to." 'If you are hungry, you are welcome to any food we have in the house," answered mother very gently. "We are two helpless women and a little child," she added ■; "but we have never refused food to any who asked -for it." "You wouldn't refuse- information to the police either, I'll swear, if you were well paid for it," snarled the old man, with another bitter curse.

At this the tall gaunt man called upon him to hold his gibing tongue, "Let the woman alone for the present, at any rate, and let us eat." .

I saw mother look quickly at the speaker, and guessed the reason for the glance in a moment, for the man had spoken with a Scottish accent. .As soon as she laid the table, mother spoke to the tall man, and I noticed that she spoke in a broader Scots accent than I had ever heard her use before. , The man started as if a whip-lash had fallen upon him, but he made no comment, only I noticed that as he devoured his food like a half-famished man, he followed mother about the room with his eyes. When the men had' nearly finished their meal, mother cam© and sat by me, and, leaning over to the wee laddie, whispered to him to siqg " Annie Laurie," and to sin? his best. °

In a moment little Ken opened his mouth and sang. Bryan used to call him the Australian song-bird, and well ho might, for Iven had a voice sweet and pure as a bird's note.

As the liquid voice trilled out, the old man looked in an ugly way towards our wee laddie, and said something that made us blush with shame; but the tall gaunt ruffian bent forward and gripped the old reprobate by the neck as if he had been catching hold of a rabbit. "Mon," he said, "if ye dinna haud yer tongue I'll shake ye oot 0 yer claes." And *° little Ken sang on, first one thing and then another, until, at a whisper from his mother, he commenced a dear old Scots hymn, and mother and I joined in. When we had finished, the old ruffian asked, with a brutal sneer, where we kept our money and firearms. " You have three horses in the stables; we know that," he continued, ",and we are going to take them and all the food in the house, for we are going to start a little bushranging expedition of our own." He then looked straight into my face, and 1 felt my blood run cold with terror. He saw me shrink, and rising, came towards me; then mother sprang up and faced him. She had snatched up a pair of scissors, and was grasping them as if she held a dagger. Oh, how tall and slim and stately she looked, with the firelight falling upon her. "The pistol," gasped little Ken. "Kate, get the pistol." But before I could move the tall man caught the old ruffian by the shoulder and hurled him to the other "end of the room. "Dinna fash," "-he cried to mother. " Gang awa to yer room, an' tak' the lassie an' laddie wie ye. We'll tak' the horses an' the food, but we'll no harm ye." Mother whispered, "God bless"you." The robber touched little Ken gently on the head with his hand. "A'am Scots mysel"," he said,. and stood back to let us pass into the bedroom. Mother made Ken and I lie down on the bed to rest, but all through . the night she stood- by the door, which only had a flimsy sort of bolt to protect it, and in her right hand sh» clutched the scissors.

At dawn -we heard the men go out to the stable, and peering through the window we saw them mount our horses. The old rascal was on my blood mare, and did not seem to be very' much at home on her back, for she was always restive when first mounted "anybody except Bryan, Neither of the men were good horsemen, and we knew by that that they had not done much bush work. \ Scarcely had they commenced ,to ride off ere we saw"a couple of squatters come dashing through the light timber" at the back of our place. We knew they were squatters by the superior, cat of their clothes, and by the general air of prosperity about them ;' they were both armed. with rifles, and were well mounted.

The moment they caught sight of the robbers they dropped their reins and commenced to shoot, i whilst going at full gallop. The old ruffian on my mare headed towards the fence; the mare made a snatch at the bit reefing, as horses will when they love jumping. She took off in great style, as I knew she would, and went soaring through the air like a bird j but the man could not ride, and, losing his balance, he came down All of a heap. But he was up in a moment, and commenced to Bciirry towards the timber, but a rifle-bullet caught him on the spine, and he fell, cursing and howling like a maniac. The other two robbers reached the, timber, and, jumping from their horsey, plunged into the thick scrub, where they were much safer on their feet than upon horseback.

The squatters came back with the stolen horses, amd picked up the wounded man, and between them carried him to our cabin. We did our best for him, though all the time he was being nursed he kept on blaspheming his Maker, and cursing the laws and society, and his parents. Oh! he was a vile old man, and mother told me afterwards that his previous record was of the worst possible kind. The three men were out on " ticket," and had been working as "splitters," but had ""turned out", to become bushrangers. Before coming to us they had "stuck up" one of the out-stations belonging to the two men who had come in pursuit, and had killed an old, harmless shepherd. (To be continued daily.)