Read Ebook: The Last Chance: A Tale of the Golden West by Boldrewood Rolf

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Ebook has 1148 lines and 120723 words, and 23 pages

'Yes, they were good--though nothing to these. I'm almost sorry I didn't bring them home with me. I left them in the office safe, to be quite sure.'

'You are to have a half share also, and the old man wills the whole to you, in case of accidents? That looks well.'

'I'm sure if you saw him, and them, you would think more of the affair.'

'Very likely--. Now, suppose you drive in to-morrow, instead of riding, and take me to lunch with Mrs. Herbert? I can see old Waters and drop into the Bank besides. Then I'll say what I propose. I'd like to think it over--and now, it's nearly bedtime--I suppose you want to smoke?'

Mr. Banneret was a reasonable, though not an inveterate smoker. He told himself that if ever a man needed the great sedative and composer of thought, this was one of the periods specially suggested by Fate. So he sat for nearly an hour before the fire in the dining-room, and meditatively smoked a couple of pipes of 'rough cut,' after which, his habitation being within a few miles of a populous goldfield, and not in a highly civilised and police-guarded city, he went to bed without locking a door or securing a window.

'They know there's nothing worth taking in the house of a Police Magistrate--why should they run the risk of a bullet or a gaol?' he was wont to reply, when taxed by his wife with leaving the front door or the dining-room window open; and as no one ever essayed to break through and steal during their ten years' sojourn in Barrawong, his argument apparently had force.

Since dawn he had been in Court or office for eight or nine hours--had ridden ten miles and walked five, so that when eleven o'clock came, he had done a fair day's work. As a consequence, he slept soundly until cockcrow, when he arose with a clear head and renewed faculties, ready for whatever duties might be cast upon him.

When, therefore, as the clock struck nine, Mr. and Mrs. Banneret rattled out of the front gate, at the rate of twelve miles an hour, old Hector holding up his head, and sending out his forelegs, as if he wanted to do the two hundred miles to the metropolis in forty-eight hours--the spirits of the 'leading lady' and the hero, in what might be a successful melodrama or a tragedy, as the Fates should decree, visibly rose.

'Feels like old times, doesn't it? This turnout was new when we were married. How we used to rattle about! Now we're a dozen years older, and still "going strong," thank God! Steady, Hector! what an old Turk you are to pull!'

'Oh, I can get a friend to buy them in, and we must live on bread and cheese, till times improve, if the shot misses. But you come in, and see Waters and his quartz before you form an opinion. Then we'll talk it out.'

'I'm afraid you've had a hard time of it, Jack, since you left last year?' she said; 'you're terribly fallen away, I can see.'

And here the miner stood up and gazed with a far-off, dreamy look, as if beyond the place in which he stood--beyond other lands and seas--as he named a desert region as yet scarce heard of, from which even the reckless prospector often turned away, the haunt of the thirst demon and the fever fiend.

'My time's up,' he replied, looking at his watch. 'Court morning, and there's always some one waiting to see me. I must go now, but you tell Mrs. Banneret all about it. She'll be in the claim too, you know'; and the man of many duties and responsibilities walked forth to receive a report from the police of a mining accident, with loss of life; to fix the date for hearing an exhaustive action for trespass; to issue warrants--sign summonses and Miners' Rights; to report upon complaints made against himself to the Secretary for Mines; to sit in a bankruptcy meeting--as also to act as general adviser, father confessor, and guardian of minors in pressing cases of the most delicate social and financial nature.

The lady's colloquy with the miner was short, but material to the issue. 'I have come in to-day,' she said, 'on purpose to see you about this speculation. Mr. Banneret believes in you, as a straight, reliable man! So do I, from what I have seen and heard. But this is a neck or nothing venture. We have little to spare as it is, and if we lose this five hundred pounds we shall be ruined--and you know that the oldest miners are deceived sometimes. It is a long way off, too.'

'If it wasn't a long way off, it wouldn't be what it is, ma'am. I've been mining these thirty year, and never see a reef like it afore. Of course it's not too late to go back on it, though I'd rather you had it than any one else I know--you helped me afore, you see, when I had my tent burnt, and I'd like to do you good.'

'How did you come to know of it?'

'Well, it was this way. You know, ma'am, us diggers often write and lay one another on to good things. An old mate of mine had been campin' out and prospectin' round there, for more'n a year, livin' hard, eatin' lizards, pigface, what not--nigh perished for want of water, until he come across this here reef. Well, he goes back to Southern Cross, where he gets laid up with rheumatic fever, and close up dies--ain't right yet. Well, he wires and lays me on, and I'm to give him an eighth share, when it's floated--as floated it will be--and for a price that'll astonish some people. I can't say more, ma'am, now, and every word of it's God's truth.'

'I think you've said enough,' said the lady, bending her gaze upon him with a searching glance, which he returned steadfastly and half wistfully. 'Whatever Mr. Banneret has promised, of course he will perform. You may trust my husband to carry it out, and I feel more satisfied now I have heard you explain matters.'

'If we can't trust the Commissioner, ma'am, we can't trust nobody--that's what all of us miners says; there's not a man on the field that don't say the same. So I'll wish you good-bye, ma'am, and my sarvice to you.'

'Good-bye, and I hope it will bring good fortune to all of us.'

That afternoon, about half-past four o'clock, the Commissioner closed his office earlier than usual. As they were speeding along the homeward road, winding between yawning shafts and over the insecure bridges spanning the water-races, which gurgled and bubbled beneath the horses' feet, Mrs. Banneret thus addressed her husband:

'Had a good day, my dear?'

'Very fair, all things considered. Long Small Debts Court. Big police case. Inquest on poor fellow killed in Happy Valley. Deputation from the "Great Intended"--want the base line swung. Report urgently required in the last jumping case. Got through them all except the last--they can wait a week. I must go on the ground.'

'Go ahead, my dear!' said her husband, lighting his pipe, and steadying the impatient horses to a ten-mile trot. 'I'm all attention.'

'Of course, there was Lindsay, district Surveyor, just as hard worked and no better paid than I am, took early shares in Rocky Hill, went home with ?200,000 or more! Desmond went in with the "first robbers" in Valley Gorge--came out with over ?100,000. Very cautious men both of them, too. Nearly not going in. Higgleson declined--swears now, when he thinks of it.'

'Well, my dear, these are truths--stranger than fiction, as the eminent person says. Shows that all mining ventures are not swindles; and now for my proposal. You haven't had leave of absence lately?'

'Not for four years. Leave obtainable, but no visible means, if I had gone.'

'Yes, he does--and he ought to be a judge. How many a ton of that same quartz, more or less auriferous, has he handled in his time! Many a pound has he lost over it too.'

'Well, we can't all win, of course; but I'm with you in this, my dear, heart and soul--and if it breaks down, and we have to live on dry bread for a couple of years, you shall never hear a whimper from me.'

'Have your pay put into my private account while you're away. I'll manage somehow. The five hundred pounds ought to frank you there, and do all the taking up and so on--with care.'

'Yes, and careful enough we shall have to be; there'll be no more when that's gone. It's the "last chance" in every sense of the word.'

'I shall be lonely enough while you're away, my dear; but we have had to do without each other before--and must again. You'll write regularly--a letter will always cheer me up. I shan't suffer for want of employment, that's one thing.'

But, on the whole, Barrawong was an appointment which a gentleman with prejudices in favour of a quiet life would have found singularly unsuitable.

As for Jack, he fell in with the proposition warmly and loyally from its first mention. Distrustful, from past experience, of his will-power in the way of resistance in the grip of terrible drink temptation, to which, in the past, he had succumbed full many a time and oft, he was not sorry to have the custody of the joint capital placed in safe hands. And yet nothing is a more astonishing psychical phenomenon than the unbroken abstention from alcohol which the intermittent drunkard will and can practise. Having so resolved, the whilom victim will sit with roystering comrades, whose full glasses pass before his face--lodge in hotels, where he sees the soul-destroying liquid from morning to night, and under the fire of this temptation--over the grave of so many broken vows and tearful resolutions--he will remain as unshaken as a teetotaller in a coffee-house.

What a miracle it seems! What a superhuman effort must the first days of sobriety require! How does it put to shame the better born, the better instructed, whose every-day resolutions they are often so powerless to abide by!

But it is a time-bargain with the fiend, alas! in so many--in by far the majority of instances. In 'an hour that he knoweth not,' the Enemy of man asserts his power, and the victim falls--to be cast into the outer darkness of despair--of hopeless surrender--to a ruined life, an unhonoured death.

A fortnight's rest and good living set up the returned prospector to such an extent that his former comrades hardly recognised him in the neatly dressed, alert personage, who gave out that he was open to invest in a 'show,' but wasn't up to any more prospecting for a while. 'Not good enough,' and so on. Thought he'd take a trip to Melbourne to see a friend. This resolve he carried out rather suddenly, it having been so arranged, the partners not holding it expedient that they should leave in company, or that it should be matter for general information that they were bound upon a joint mining speculation. As to the tempting local ventures, then common among all classes on a large goldfield, Mr. Banneret had always studiously abstained from the slightest connection with them.

'As for this affair,' he told his wife, talking over the matter before his departure, 'it is entirely different; the locality is in another colony, under different laws and another government. If it comes off, I shall be indifferent to all mining law, except as it affects our particular lease--which I shall take up directly I get there.'

The last farewell was said, the last embrace given. With a brave and tearless face, but an aching heart, the loyal wife bade adieu to the one man that the world held for her--stood looking after the fast-receding vehicle which was to meet the coach at the country town--waving her handkerchief till the turning-point of the road was reached, then, with falling tears, walked slowly back to the cottage, and busied herself with the never-ending needlework--over which the tears flowed so fast at times that a pause in the stitching was necessary. In her chamber she poured out her heart in fervent supplication, that he whom she loved and trusted above all other created beings might return to her, safe as to health and successful in his enterprise, if so God willed, but if otherwise, in His good Providence, let him only be spared to return in health to glad his wife's and children's eyes, and her soul would be satisfied--'Thy will, not mine be done, O Lord!' were the closing words of the heartfelt, simple petition. Rising with an expression of renewed confidence and trusting faith, she smoothed her hair, bathed her face, and with a composed and steadfast countenance betook herself to the ever-recurring duties of the household.

The wrench of parting with wife and children was over. Mr. Banneret, like most strong men of an observant turn of mind, enjoyed change. A born traveller, he was equally at home on sea and land, hill or dale, plain or forest--hot or cold, wet or dry--it made no difference to him. There was always some one, or something, to see and be interested in. His was a chiefly sympathetic constitution of mind, which could, in all literal truth, be described as irrepressible and universal.

Such being the case, he had no sooner looked up Waters, whom he found well and hearty, at the hostelry agreed upon, in Melbourne, and taken passage in the first steamer bound for far Westralia, than Hope, the day star, which had illumined so many darksome passages of his life, arose, and amid the twilight of the uncertain adventure, commenced to glow with a mild but steady irradiation. The next afternoon found them on the wave, units of a crowd, bound for the newest Eldorado.

Under instructions, an agent had arranged for the purchase of a strong, but light-running waggonette, and three horses, together with the ordinary necessaries for an overland journey through new, untried country. Reduced to their smallest weight and compass, there was still a sufficient load for the team, probably condemned to indifferent fare on the road. The selection had been careful--no one is a better judge of travel requisites than that man of many makeshifts and dire experiences, the mining prospector. The outfit needed but to be paid for, and shipped, and the first act of the melodrama began.

Voyages are much alike. They differ occasionally in length, safety, comfort, and convenience. But these are details. The chief matters are departure, and arrival in port. When the second part of the contract is unfulfilled, the performance borders on a tragedy. In this case the contract was carried out--after a week's voyage, they duly arrived at their distant stage.

'So this is another colony,' said Mr. Banneret, looking around on the small old-fashioned town--so long settled--so sparsely populated--so meagre in tokens of civilisation, in contrast with the coast cities of the East. They were not, of course, over-fastidious. There were decent hotels--even a Club for people with introductions. To the Commissioner unstinted hospitality was tendered. He considered it, however, expedient to pitch the tent and pack their movables in the waggon: to begin to camp in earnest, as indeed they would be compelled to do during the remainder of the journey. This would be the more economical method of travelling, and the safety of their property, including the horses, would be assured.

On the morrow Waters proceeded to explain his plan of action.

They had, first of all, to travel for a week in a nor'-westerly direction, at the end of which they would reach a mining camp or township.

So the next day everything was done, fitted, and made ready for a three months' journey, as indeed it needed to be. Waiting and working at the claim would not be very dissimilar from the wayfaring--except that they would be stationary. As for the hard work, with fare to match, Mr. Banneret had had similar experiences in his youth, and believed that he could do what any other man could do, of whatever age, class, or condition.

The 'township,' when they got there, was such a one as the Commissioner had never before seen in all his varied experiences; never in his dreams had he imagined such a mining camp. A person of restricted imagination, or feeble sympathies, might even have described the landscape as 'unspeakably desolate, and ghastly.' A certain appearance of grass, even if trodden down, and fed off by horses and bullocks, had always been visible on goldfields where he had borne rule formerly.

'What a desert!' thought the Commissioner. 'Have we reached Arabia by any magical process? And here come the camels proper to the scene.' As he spoke, a long string of those Eastern-seeming animals came nearer, and the Afghan drivers, turbaned and with flowing garb, heightened the resemblance.

'This is a queer shop, sir,' said Waters, as he observed his companion's looks of amazement and curiosity. 'Barrawong wasn't over-pleasant, as you might say, on a hot day, with the north wind blowin' the dust in your eyes--but it was a king to this; and then the river--you could allers have a swim; and nothing freshens a man up like a good header into cool, deep water after his day's work.'

'It certainly is not a place a man would pick to spend his honeymoon--though I suppose some adventurous couples have done that; but, of course, the main thing is the gold. Men didn't come out here to hunt for scenery, or farm-lands. Are they on good gold? If they are, all the rest will follow.'

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