CHAPTER XVTI.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 71

CHAPTER XVTI.

"The saying that misfortune never come singly seems to be verified in your case, Mr Gerrard,"' said Kate Fraser as, a fortnight after he had received the news oi Westonley's 'death, he was relating hie disastrous experiences to h«r ar>d b.GI father. "Looks like it, doesn't it? But there are lots of fellows who have had worsd luck than me, and so I shouldn't 'make a ;ong' 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 uol 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 fo'i me when I explained to him how I vras fixed and how sorry I was for him —as well as for myself—for I had doubled ths salary he was receiving from Mrs Tallis.'' "H© told me that," said Kate, and hei eyes sparkled with fun. ' "Naturally, he would tell you," and Gerrard gave Douglas Fraser a sly glance with a faint quiver of one eyelid. "I am sure you must be the recipient of the confidences of all the country side, and would never 'give anyone away,' as vulgar persons like myself would say; -o please don't give me away to 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 the v'.O. for distinguished bravery in one of the futile attacks on the Bedan. Did you know that?" "No! H© only told us that he was with Peel's Na,val 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 hug© amount, which Tuined 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.'' "How noble of him,'' said Kate. "It was indeed ; 'but, you see,' he slucl to me 'I didn't, want the money. My mother had died years before, and I have no brothers oi 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 Biverina District, and then came the drought of '72, which broke him." "Pooi- 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, fiid, as he rose from his seat: "True, Gerrard. It is of no use anyone girding at his misfortunes, if they are not caused by himself. Sometimes a man thinks, in mining parlance, that he has 'struck it rich,' 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 thfe creek to catch some fish for supper." "Very well! I shall come back thai 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", aa he and Kate walked down to the fishing pool -through the ever-sighing which lined the banks of the creek. "He is not; the reef has been gradually pinching in, and Sam Young told him yesterday that he is afraid it will pinch out altogether. Last Saturday's cleaning up at the battery only yielded ten ounces of melted gold—about forty pounds—and the track's expenses came io one hundred and forty pounds. I aua afraid. Mr. Gerrard, lliat father and I an&

fell 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, fcr fhe dearly loved the place where she had fcpent so many happy years. '1 am sorry," said Gerrard musingly. •"I suppose your father — if you do leave iiere — from what he said to me, is thinking of going to the newly-opened goldfields pn the Gilbert River?" -"Yes, in that direction at anyvate, prospecting- as. we travel. That is the one thing that consoles me ; I love the idea !gf 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 Iboulder standing up in the middle of a 'deep pool," of which he ha 3 spoken to lAulain,- and he now half -regretted his promise to "keep it dark" for six months. "Of what are you thinking, Mr GerJrardY" t'l 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 Bios there were several prospecting parties on Cape York Peninsula — some of them doing very well — anS 3. myself got seven ounces of gold in a .aew hours from a creek about sixty miles from, my station. Unfortunately, however, another man as well as myself knows of jthis place, and lie asked me not to say anything about it for six months. He means to go there with a prospecting . $>arty." "You mean Mr Anlain?" and Kate turned jher frank eyes to his. j ''How did you know?"' i She. flushed. "You remember the letlev you brought me from him. In that letter he told me that he was leaving i-the Native Police, and intended going an for mining, as he knew of some very rich auriferous country^near your station, land that you, who also knew of it, had promised to keep it secret from any other prospecting party." "Yes, I did. I should like to> see y^ulain 'strike it rich/ as your father stys, Miss Fraser," and then he smiled : "if fcnly for the sake of my kind, patient inirse of last month." '_ Again Kate's face flushed. "I know 'jirhat yo umean, Mr Gerrard, but " She t Jbent~ her head, and began to tie on a fishhook to the line she, was carrying. ?-But you are mistaken. I like Mr AnJain, very, very much, but I do not like inyone enough to — to — oh, dear! I've broken the'snooding." "Never mind, I'll fix it for you," and as his hand touched here a new hope came into his life. He knew what she meant nim to understand — that she was not going to marry' Aulain — and ihea he went on ipjickly. - —"' \ "I gabble like an old woman, do I not, Miss Fraser? Oh, this is what I was Wbotrt, to say: I believe that the Batavia Jtiver district ,is full of rich reefs and alluvial ' gold as well, and from what 1 Jiear from Lacey, 1 don't think the Gilbert will prove a permanent goldfield. {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 probabiy be played outaltogether and abandoned." I "£fc ! do persuade him, Mr Gerrard ; 1 \ liked the thought of our going to the , .■Gilbert, -But I like better— oh. ever so •much better— your suggestion of the Ba- j .Ta'via Siver, for tnere we should be near the sea ; and " I love the sea and the teaches. lam horribly selfish, I nfraid." Gerrard stroked his bearc! meditatively. "Yes, you'll be near the' sea, Miss Fraser. j EBut it is an awful country for a lady lo live in ; the lever is v-ery bad there, and the blacks are a continual source oi danger and trouble." "Anything that my father can _ go through 1 can face too," she said proudly ; "and, besides that, I have had fever, am sic . afraid of blacks, or anything — except alligators," and she shuddered as she emileci. "Then you will be in a continual state oi fear. All the rivers on the Peninsula are alivft with them, and I have lost hundreds of calves by tlfe brutes." Then 3ie laughed. "But they won't get many this year." ■'How bravely he *akes his misfortune," $he thought. fhen she said, "Well, 1 shall" take godd care of myself., and not cross any creeks if the "water is not clear. iNow. here we are a^ the pool. Isn't it lovely and quiet? Ido hope we shall have enough fish by the time fat hexcomes.'' 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 bf her features and the intent expression }n her long-lashed eyes sas she surveyed it. She looked up. "Now, Mr Gerrard, what are you doing? Don J t be so lazy. I'll have at least Jthree fish before you have your line ready. ;Oh, I do -wish I were a man!" "Why?" . "Because then I could smoke a pipe when lam fishing. It" must be delightful. ■Wnen father and Sam Young and Cockney j&mith come here with me to fish, and % see.' them all looking so placidly content with their ■ pipes in their mouths, f. feel as if I'wei'e missing something. .Now, watch." She made a cast with her light rod of bamboo, and almost at the same moment lhat the impelled grasshopper fell uponthe 'glassy surface of the pool it was seized by a' fish of the grayling species, known to Queen slanders as "speckled trout." "There, you are !" she cried triumphantly, as she swung the silvery-scaled beauty out of the water and deftly grasped it .vith her left hand. "Firsfc to me." ■ The music of her laujgb and hex bricht

animated features filled Gerrard with de- ] light 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. Gerrand was a long way behind when Douglas Fraser appeared. He was saying over and over again to himself: "There is nothing between her and Aulain! there is nothing between them!" Then as he put his hand to his scarred face th-e wild elation in his heart died away. i "Well, young people, "what luck?" said the burly "mine owner, as with his hands on his hips he leant against a sheoak. "Splendid, father! thirty-five! How is the reef going?" "Pinched out altogether, chick. We can hang the battery up now." Kate laid down ser 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 hei bent head. "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." !