How It All Ended
In reality it was the prospector whose life Dr. Plumstead had saved at
the risk of his own, who did most towards setting the father of the
seven on his feet again and righting him in the eyes of the world, which
is so quick to approve the successful man.
A word which the young doctor dropped in the ear of Mr. Reginald Baxter
sent that gentleman and Mr. Wallis posthaste to Latimer, where they held
private conferences with the now convalescent prospector, and the result
of it all was that a company was promptly formed for the developing of a
gold claim staked out round the grave which the prospector in mercy had
begun to dig for the unknown dead. So rich did this prove to be that
when the prospector kept his word, and paid over the proportion of his
earnings which he had promised to the doctor, there was no more worry
about ways and means for Nealie, who was now her father's right hand, as
she had been his devoted nurse when he was recovering from his burns.
[Illustration: "GAVE THEM BOTH HIS BLESSING"]
For a little while they all went to live at Latimer, in a brand-new
wooden house which was made of pine trees and was fragrant of the forest
in every room. But the first break in the family came when Rupert and
Rumple went to Sydney to be educated.
Thanks to the skill of his father and the other Dr. Plumstead, Rupert
had quite recovered from his lameness, and although he might never be
quite so nimble as his younger brothers, he was no longer lame, and that
was such a comfort to him that he seemed to expand into quite a
different creature.
But, as Sylvia remarked to Rupert on the day before he and Rumple were
to start for Sydney, they were going to have trouble with that other Dr.
Plumstead, who, not content with having the same name as the rest of
them, had shown a great desire to be still closer linked to them by
becoming a relation.
"It is so stupid of him to want to marry Nealie," she said plaintively.
"Because I know very well that if she says yes, then I shall have to
keep house for Father, and mother the rest of you, which will certainly
spell ruin to my chance of an artistic career, and I am beginning to
paint in quite an intelligent fashion."
"There is room for improvement," scoffed Rumple, who chanced to overhear
what she said. "Don't you remember your picture of Kaffir kraals that
Mr. Melrose took for mushrooms in a meadow? It will not do for you to
indulge in swelled head as yet."
"I think that on the whole the mistake was rather in the nature of a
compliment," said Sylvia, with a ripple of laughter. "For doubtless in
the first place the Kaffirs took the patterns of their huts from some
sort of fungi, and so there you are."
"Well, anyhow, Dr. Plumstead is a rattling good sort--for witness how
cheerfully he put up with all of us that time we took possession of his
house--and if he wants to marry Nealie I don't see what is to prevent it
myself," said Rumple; but Rupert only made a grimace, which was his way
of saying that he would just as soon have the question of marriage put
further off into the future.
"If the man wants a wife, why can't he wait until Ducky is old enough?"
went on Sylvia, in the tone of one who has a grievance.
"Why Ducky? You might aspire to the position yourself, for you are
awfully nice looking!" cried Rumple, putting an affectionate arm round
Sylvia and giving her a mighty hug.
"Oh, I am not going to waste my talents in such a fashion! I feel as if
I had been born to greatness, and I shall achieve it some day I am sure;
only it will put the clock back for a few years if I have to
concentrate on breakfasts, dinners, and household things generally,"
said Sylvia, with a sigh, and then the talk came to an abrupt end, for
Don rushed in to say that Billykins was all smashed up from a fall down
a ladder at the mines, and of course there was instant confusion.
But Billykins seemed to have a charmed life, for although he was brought
home in the ambulance, and groaned as loudly as a whole hospital full of
patients, when his father came to make an examination of his hurts they
turned out to be only a few surface scratches and a bruise or two.
"Why, I made sure that I had got a broken leg!" exclaimed Billykins,
standing straight up on both feet and looking the picture of
disappointment. "Are you sure there are no bones broken, Father?"
"Quite sure, my son," said Dr. Plumstead, with a laugh of relief, for he
had supposed there must have been some more serious injury considering
how far the boy had fallen. "But if you feel dissatisfied with my
examination, here comes the other doctor, and you can ask him to
overhaul you."
"Oh, he does not care for anything but Nealie!" said Billykins in a tone
of deep disgust. "I expect that you will have to let them get married,
Father, if it is only to stop him coming over here so often; for his
patients in Hammerville will be calling in another doctor very soon if
he neglects them so shamefully. Why, this is the second time in a month
that he has been here."
"Yes, I expect that will be the best way," said his father quietly, and
then he went out to greet the other doctor; and that same evening, when
the sun went down in splendour over beyond the sandy plain where the
gold reef lay, Nealie's father put her hand in that of the other Dr.
Plumstead and gave them both his blessing.
Then the crimson faded through gold to grey in the sky above the sandy
plain, and the shadows of night dropped down on the grave of the
nameless stranger under the mulga scrub; but in Latimer the streets and
shops were brightly lighted, and all the busy life of getting and having
went on, as it had done in the haunts of men since the world began.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland