CHAPTER VIII.

Otago Witness, Issue 2672, 31 May 1905, Page 63

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 Kepulse Bay, a young girl was riding a wild-eyed, long-maned 1, and sweating baj filly, • which, newly broken in, had been making the most frantic efforts to unseat its rider, whose dark brown hair, escaping froni 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? diown 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," si said, "you can feed, and* as you feed \\ hope you will consider the error of your ways, and give un any more attempts to buck me off. You ought to know me better by this time." . From a leather saddlebag she took out some slices of beef and damper, -andleisurely began to eat, her dark brown eyes dreamily scanning the blue sea before her, and then resting on the green-ver-dured hills of Whitsunday Island, away to the northward, with 'little beaches of shining white nestling at the headis of many a quiet bay, whose shores were . untrodden, except by the feet of the black and savage aborigines inhabiting the mainland. (Par 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 shewatched the little vessels—which -looked no larger than swans. "How many, will come back -rich, how many disappointed, and yet not undaunted —ever hopeful, eves 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* sake, I ought to have been born a boy." She sighed, and leaning her chin on her hand gazedi longingly at the tiny fleet, and wished she —a man —were at the tiller of one of the luggers, listening to the talea of the bronze-faced, bearded pearl-shelters ; tales of mighty pearls worth thousands oi 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 suoh 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 gir' slipped her weapon into the pocket of her short riding skirt.

"How do you do, Miss Fraser?" 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 Fraser's Gully, I turned oft"; 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 Fraser's Gully fare here — be«f 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 gea' — I suppose, and 'wish you were a xnan,' " 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" — ibere the brown eyes lit" up laughingly — ''they were diiferent from you."

"1 have no doubt about it," and the man laughed like a toy 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 as to find you here — fifteen joailes off the track to Fraser's Gully."

"Oh ! the old story. Some of our horses ire missing, and I have been trying to pick np their tracks."

. Eorde, with an earnest look in iis bine eyes, looked up from the fire he was kindling, and shook his head gravely. "Yon should not venture so far ' away, Miss ■Prater. How can you "tell but that whilst you are trying to pick up the horses' tracks the blacks about Hepudse Bay are .engaged- in picking up yours?" "Oh, I am not afraid of any of the myalls about Whitsunday Passage and) Beipulse Bay, Mr Forde. I really believe that if 1 rode into one of their camps Jfchey would Bot bolt. Poor wretches J I do feqj. -sorry for them when I know how they are harried and shot down — so often ."without cause — by the iSative Police. Oh, •I Jhale the Native Police ! How is it, Mr JForde; -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 torrid 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 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 » 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 with my iellow-murderers and cutthroats."

■ ■ Her filled with tears as they were, flashed with" scorn as she spoke. The clergyman looked admiringly at her as he put his hand on her arm. • "You must Temember; Miss Fraser, that

the wild blacks on this coast have com■Jmtted some 'dreadful murders. How many settlers, miners, and swagmen have been ruthlessly slaughter ed?"

■ ""And how Trandreds of these un- - fortunate Ravages (have been Tuthlessly slaughtered, not only by the Black Police, trat T>y -squatters and! stockmen, deny the poor -wretches the right to We ittave taken, away "tneir hunting grounds ! "We shoot them down as vermin because, ajnpelled by the lunger that we have .brought Trpon them, they, occasionally spear a bullock ror horse or two! "Why cannot the Government do as my father suggests — .jeserve a long .strip, of t»untry ior 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 it least five" and tlie 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 cosjb of -such an attempt would, in the first place, be. enonnousj"* in the second), the" -people of the colony *' • "Tie people, Mr (Forde! You mean the squatters, the sugar-planters, the landdevouring swarm of 'Christians,' who think that a bullock's hide, worth twenty shillings, is of more moment than the welfare d£ thousands of poor, naked savages, whose country we have taken, and yet of whom ■?re make "beasts of burden — hewers of wood smcTdrawers of "water. Oh, if T were only a> man!"

"But you are, instead, a beautiful girl, Miss Fraser."

- "Don't pay me any compliments, Mr iFordie, or I shall "begin to dislike you, and work you a j?air of "woollen slippers, like English jjirls do in novels for the \pscle-iaced, ascetic young curates, with their thin hands, and the dark, melancholy .eyes." Forde laughed "heartily this time, and belt) out Ms own hands jestingly for her inspection. They -were as brawny and suntjurnedi as those of any stockman or working miner, and were in "keeping with "his costume, which was decidedly unclerical. !But he only wore his clerical "rig" when sositing towns sufficiently populous for him to hold services therein. At the present time he 'was clad in the usual Crimean start, white moleskins, and brown leather leggings, and the grey slouched felt hat affected by most bushmen. Bis valise, ibowever, contained all that was necessary — even to the wreck of a clerical hat — to turn himself into the orthodox travelling clergyman of "tie Australian bneh. "Ah ! I iras 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 ridte j I mean, sit .» horse as an Australian does ; and you smoke a pipe, and — oh>, 1 ■wonder, Mr Forde, that you never married! Now, lam sure that Mrs Tallis admires you. In fact, she toldt me so, «nd Kaburie is a lovely station, andi " The clergyman laughed again. Thank Miss Fxaser. I'm 'afraid I should not have courage enough to propose to a brand new widow, even if I were sure she would say 'yes.'" Then he added ttnietiy: "There ie only one woman in the wotlcS for "me j and I have not even dared let her know I care ior "her. I want her to get to know me a little better. And fcnen, a "bush parson is not' a very eligible narti." *'Oh, I don't see why not, though I don't think I should like to marry a clergyJnan." i'.Wlurr* '

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 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 disapproved of single clergymen, 'under any circumstances,' and tried to make the unfortunate 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* in Victoria. Fathei says that Mr Treverton would have made the patriarch Jacob dlie with envy. He started from Gippsitend with a team of working bullocks, six horses, and twenty-four cows and calves to take up new country on the Campaspe River, and in six months' journey overland his herd of cattle had increased to a thousand head — rd%b 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 jaow 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 hadi 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 someone riding direct for the .bluff."