“Law was designed to keep a state in peace.”—_Crabbe._
The mail-trap arrived this time with unwonted punctuality, and out of it
stepped Mr. M‘Nab, “to time” as usual, and with his accustomed cool air
of satisfaction and success.
“Made rather a better deal of it than I expected, sir,” was his
assertion, after the usual greetings. “There were several heavy lots of
store sheep to arrive, so I stood off, and went to look at some others,
and finally got these for ten and threepence. We had a hard fight for
the odd threepence; but they gave in, and I have the agreement in my
pocket.”
“You have done famously,” said Jack, “and I am ever so glad to see you
back. I have been worked to death. Every shepherd seems to have tried
how the dingoes rated the flavour of his flock, or arranged for a ‘box’
at the least, since you went. I have put on Wildduck’s family for
retrievers at the wash-pen.”
“Well, we wanted a black fellow or two there,” said M‘Nab. “Throwing in
is always a risky thing, but we can’t help it this year. There’s nothing
like a black fellow where sheep have anything like a long swim.”
Jack re-congratulated himself that night upon the fortunate possession
of the astute and efficient M‘Nab, who seemed, like the dweller at the
Central Chinese “Inn of the Three Perfections,” to “conduct all kinds of
operations with unfailing success.” In this instance he had made a sum
equalling two-thirds of his salary entirely by his own forethought and
promptitude of action. This was something like a subaltern, and Jack,
looking proud—
Far as human eye could see—
Saw the promise of the future
And the prices sheep would be.
The season, with insensible and subtle gradation, stole slowly, yet
surely, forward. The oat-grass waved its tassels strangely like the
familiar hay-field over many a league of plain and meadow. The callow
broods of wild fowl sailed joyously amid the broad flags of the lagoons,
or in the deep pools of the creeks and river. The hawk screamed exultant
as she floated adown the long azure of the bright blue, changeless
summer sky. Bird, and tree, and flower told truly and gleefully, after
their fashion, of the coming of fair spring; brief might be her stay, it
is true, but all nature had time to gaze on her richly-tinted robes and
form, potently enthralling in their sudden splendour, as are the fierce
and glowing charms of the south.
Unbroken success! The new sheep arrived and were delivered reluctantly
by their owner, who swore by all his gods that the agents had betrayed
him, and that for two pins he would not deliver at all, but finally
consented to hear reason, and sold his cart and horses, tent and
traps—yet another bargain—to the invincible M‘Nab, departing with his
underlings by mail.
Shearing was nearly over, the last flock being washed, when one
afternoon M‘Nab came home in a high state of dissatisfaction with
everything. The men were shearing badly; there had been two or three
rows; the washers had struck for more wages; everything was out of gear.
“I’ve been trying to find out the reason all day,” said he, as he threw
himself down on the camp-bed in his tent, with clouded brow, “and I can
think of nothing unless there is some villainous hawker about with grog;
and I haven’t seen any cart either.”
“It’s awfully vexatious,” said Jack, “just as we were getting through so
well. What the pest is that?” By this time, the day having been expended
in mishaps and conjectures, evening was drawing on. A dark figure came
bounding through the twilight at a high rate of speed, and, casting
itself on the tent floor, remained in a crouching, pleading position.
“Why, Wildduck,” said Jack, in amazement, “what is the matter now? You
are the most dramatic young woman. Has a hostile brave been attempting
to carry you off? or old man Jack had a fit of unfounded jealousy? Tell
us all about it.”
“That ole black gin, Nanny,” sobbed the girl, lifting up her face,
across which the blood from a gash on the brow mixed freely with her
tears; “that one try to kill me, she close up choke me only for
Maramie.” Here she showed her throat, on which were marks of severe
compression.
“Poor Wildduck!” said Jack, trying to soothe the excited creature. “What
made her do that? I thought yours was a model happy family?”
“She quiet enough, only for that cursed drink. She regular debbil-debbil
when she get a glass.”
“Ay!” said M‘Nab, “just as I expected; and where did you all get it?
You’ve had a nip, too, I can see.”
“Only one glass, Mr. M‘Nab; won’t tell a lie,” deprecated the fugitive.
“That bumboat man sell shearers and washers some. You no see him?”
“How should I see?” quoth M‘Nab; “where is he now?”
“Just inside timber by the wash-pen,” answered the girl; “he sneak out,
but leave ’em cart there.”
“I think I see my way to cutting out this pirate, or ‘bumboat,’ as
Wildduck calls him,” said Jack. “The forest laws were sharp and
stern—that is, I believe, that on suspicion of illegal grog you can
capture a hawker with the strong hand in New South Wales. So, Wildduck,
you go and camp with the carrier’s wife, she’ll take you in; and, M‘Nab,
you get a couple of horses and the ration-carrier—he’s a stout
fellow—and we’ll go forth and board this craft. We’ll do a bit of
privateering; ha, ha! ‘whate’er they sees upon the seas they seize upon
it.’”
With short preparation the little party set out in the cool starlight.
Jack put a revolver into his belt for fear of accidents. Mr. M‘Nab had
fished out the section of the Licensed Hawkers’ Act which referred to
the illegal carrying of spirits, and, being duly satisfied that he had
the law on his side, was ready for anything. The ration-carrier was
strictly impartial. He was ready to assist in the triumph of capture, or
to return unsuccessful with an equal mind, caring not a straw which way
the enterprise went. He lit his pipe, and followed silently. As they
approached the wash-pen they became sensible of an extraordinary noise,
as of crying, talking, and screaming—all mingled. From time to time a
wild shriek rent the air, while the rapid articulation in an unknown
tongue seemed to go on uninterruptedly.
“Must be another set of blacks,” said Jack, as he halted to listen. “I
hope not; one camp is quite enough on the place at a time.”
“It’s that old sweep, Nanny, I’m thinking,” said the ration-carrier.
“When she has a drop of grog on board she can make row enough for a
whole tribe. I’ve heard her at them games before.”
As the miami of the sable patriarch came into view, dimly lighted by a
small fire, an altogether unique scene presented itself. The old gin,
called Nanny, very lightly attired, was marching backward and forward in
front of the fire, apparently in a state of demoniac possession. She was
crying aloud in her own tongue, with the voice at its highest pitch of
shrillness, and with inconceivable rapidity and frenzy. In her hand she
carried a long and tolerably stout wand, being, in fact, no other than
the identical yam-stick to which Wildduck had referred as a weapon of
offence, when proposing her as a fitting antagonist for the contumacious
young stockman. With this she occasionally punctuated her rhetoric by
waving it over her head, or bringing it down with terrific violence upon
the earth. The meagre frame of the old heathen seemed galvanised into
magical power and strength as she paced swiftly on her self-appointed
course, whirling her shrivelled arms on high, or bounding from the earth
with surprising agility. Such may have been the form, such the accents,
of the inspired prophetess in the dawn of a religion of mystery and fear
among the rude tribes of earth’s earliest peoples—a Cassandra shrieking
forth her country’s woes—a Sibyl pouring out the dread oracles of a
demon worship. The old warrior sat unmoved, with stony eyes fixed on
vacancy, as the weird apparition passed and repassed like the
phantasmagoria of a dream; while his aged companion, who seemed of
softer mould, cowered fearfully and helplessly by his side.
“By Jove!” said Jack, “this is a grand and inspiriting sight. I don’t
wonder that Wildduck fled away from this style of thing. This old
beldame would frighten the very witches on a respectable Walpurgis
night. Great is the fire-water of the white man!”
“She’ll wear herself out soon,” said the ration-carrier. “Old man Jack
wouldn’t stand nice about downing her with the waddy, if she came near
enough to him. He and the tother old mammy, they never touches no grog.
They’re about the only two people in this part of the country as I know
of as doesn’t. But the gins is awful.”
“Polygamy has its weak side, apparently,” moralized Jack, as still the
frenzied form sped frantically past, and raved, and yelled, and
chattered, and threatened; “not but what the uncultured white female
occasionally goes on ‘the rampage’ to some purpose. Hallo! she’s
shortening stride; we shall see the finale.”
Suddenly, as if an unseen hand had arrested the force which had so
miraculously sustained her feeble form, she stopped. The fire of her
protruding eyes was quenched; her nerveless limbs tottered and dragged;
uttering a horrible, hoarse, unnatural cry, and throwing out her arms as
in supplication and fear, she fell forward, without an effort to save
herself, almost upon the embers of the dying fire. Old man Jack sat
stern and immovable; but the woman ran forward with a gesture of pity,
and, dragging the corpse-like form a few paces from the fire, covered it
with a large opossum-skin cloak or rug.
“We may as well be getting on towards this scoundrel of a hawker,”
proposed M‘Nab. “He ought to get it a little hotter if it were only for
this bit of mischief.”
“There’s a deal of tobacky in the grog these fellows sell,” observed the
ration-carrier, with steady conviction, “that’s the worst of ’em; if
they’d only keep good stuff, it wouldn’t be so much matter in this black
country, as one might say. But I remember getting two glasses, only two
as I’m alive, from a hawker once; I’m blest if they didn’t send me clean
mad and stupid for a whole week.”
On the side furthest from the creek upon which the temporary wash-pen
had been constructed, and midway between it and the plains, which
stretched far to the eastward, lay a sand-ridge or dune, covered with
thick growing pines. In this natural covert the reconnoitring party
doubted not that the disturber of their peace had concealed himself.
Riding into it, they separated until they struck the well-worn trail
which, in the pre-merino days, had formed the path by which divers
outlying cattle came in to water; following this, they came up to a
clear space where a furtive-looking fire betrayed the camp of the
unlicensed victualler. A store-cart, with the ordinary canvas tilt, and
the heterogeneous packages common to the profession, were partly masked
by the timber. As they rode up rapidly a man emerged from the shadow of
a large pine and confronted them.
“Hallo! mates,” he said, in a gruff but jocular tone; “what’s the row?
You ain’t in the bushranging line, are you? because I’ve just sent away
my cheques, worse luck.”
“You’ll see who we are directly,” said Jack, jumping down, and giving
his horse to the ration-carrier. “I wish to search your cart, that’s
all. I believe you’ve been selling spirits to my men. I’m a magistrate.”
“What d’yer mean, then, by coming here on the bounce?” said the man,
placing himself doggedly between Jack and the cart. “You ain’t got a
warrant, and I’ll see you far enough before you touches a thing in that
there cart. Why, my wife’s asleep there.”
“No she ain’t,” said a shrill voice, as a woman disengaged herself from
the canvas, “but you don’t touch anything for all that. We’ve our
licence, ain’t we, Bill, and what’s the use of paying money to
Government if pore people can’t be purtected?”
“Perhaps you’re not aware,” said M‘Nab, with cool accuracy, “that by the
19th and 20th sections of the 13th Victoria, No. 36, any magistrate or
constable, on suspicion of spirits in unlawful quantities being carried
for the purpose of sale, can search such hawker’s cart and take
possession of the spirits.”
“That’s the law,” said Jack, “and we are going to search your cart; so
stand aside, you cowardly scoundrel, making your ill-gotten profits out
of the wages of a lot of poor fellows who have worked hard for them. Do
you see this?” Here Jack suddenly produced his revolver, and giving the
fellow a shove, which sent him staggering against a fallen tree, took
possession of the vehicle, all unheeding the shrill tones and anything
but choice language of the female delinquent.
“Ay!” said M‘Nab, as he leaped actively into the cart, and turned over
packages of moleskin and bundles of boots, bars of soap, and strings of
dried apples, “this is all right and square; if you had only kept to a
fair trade nobody could take ye. What’s under these blankets?”
Lifting a pile of loosely-spread blankets, be suddenly raised a shout of
triumph.
“So this was where the lady was sleeping, is it? Pity for you, my man,
she didn’t stay there; we should have been too polite to raise her. The
murder is out.” Here he drummed with his hand upon a new kind of
instrument—a ten-gallon keg, half empty too. “What a lot the ruffian
must have sold.”
“What is your name?” asked Jack, blandly.
“William Smith,” answered the fellow, gruffly.
“Alias Jones, alias Dawkins, I suppose; never mind, we shall have time
to find out your early history, I dare say. Now, William, it becomes my
duty to arrest you in the Queen’s name, and, for fear of your giving us
the slip, I must take the precaution of tying your hands behind your
back.”
Suiting the action to the word, he “muzzled” Mr. William so suddenly and
effectually that, aided by M‘Nab, there was no great difficulty in
securing him by means of a stout cord which formed part of his own
belongings.
“Keep off, Mrs. Smith, or we shall be under the necessity of tying you
up too.”
This was no superfluous warning, as with a considerable flow of
Billingsgate, and with uplifted arms, the “bumboat woman” showed the
strongest desire to injure Jack’s complexion.
“You call yourselves men,” she screamed, “coming here in the dead of
night, three to one, and rummaging pore people’s property like a lot of
bushrangers. I’ll have the law of ye, if you was fifty squatters—robbing
the country, and won’t let a pore man live. I’ve got money, and friends
too, as’ll see us righted. Don’t ye lay a finger on me, ye hungry,
grinding, Port Phillip Yankee slave driver”—(this to M‘Nab)—“or I’ll
claw your ugly face till your mother wouldn’t know ye.”
“It’s my opinion and belief,” said M‘Nab, “that she wouldn’t be far
behind old Nanny, if she had that yam-stick and another tot or two of
her own grog. Here, Wilson, you catch this fellow’s horse; there he is,
hobbled under the big tree, and put him in the shafts. Mr. Redgrave and
I will bring yours on.”
The ration-carrier, much entertained, did as he was told, and Mr.
William being ordered to enter his own vehicle, on pain of being
attached to the tail-board, and compelled to walk behind, like a
bullock-driver’s hackney, the procession moved off, the ration-carrier
driving, and the others riding behind. Mrs. Smith followed for some
distance, disparaging everybody concerned, and invoking curses upon the
innocent heads of all the squatters in Riverina, but finally consented
to avail herself of the carriage.
In this order they reached Gondaree at an advanced hour of the night;
and the next day Mr. William was safely lodged in the lock-up at the
rising township of Burrabri, thirty miles down the river. Here he
languished, until a couple of neighbouring Justices of the Peace could
spare time from their shearing to try the case, when, the needful
evidence being forthcoming, he was fined thirty pounds, with the
alternative of three months’ imprisonment in Bochara gaol.
Hereupon his faithful companion appeared in a new light, and made a
highly practical suggestion-“You take it out, Bill,” said the artful
fair one; “don’t you go for to pay ’em a red farden. You’ll be a deal
cooler in gaol than anywhere else in this blessed sandy country. I’ll
look arter the cart and hoss, and have all ready for a good spree at
Christmas. You’ll be out by then.”
Mr. William looked at the blue sky through the open door of the
public-house—the improvised court-house on such occasions—but finally
decided to earn an honest penny—ten pounds per mensem, by voluntary
incarceration.
When he _did_ come forth, just before the Christmas week—alas that the
chronicler should have to record one more instance of woman’s
perfidy!—the frail partner of his guilt had sold the horse and cart,
retained the price thereof, and bolted with “another ‘Bill,’ whose
Christian name was John.”
The little episode ended, nothing occurred to mar the onward progress of
events until the last bale of wool was duly shorn, packed, and safely
deposited on a waggon _en route_ for the steamer and a colonial market.
Then, with a clear conscience and a feeling of intense and cumulative
satisfaction, Mr. John Redgrave betook himself once more to the busy
haunts of men. Had he been Sir John Franklin, returning from a
three-years’ voyage to the North Pole, he could hardly have been more
jubilant and grateful to a kind Providence, when he again ensconced
himself in the up-train for the metropolis. He revelled and rioted in
the unwonted luxuries of town life, like a midshipman at the Blue Posts.
Bread and butter, decent cookery, and cool claret, the half-forgotten
ceremonial of dinner, billiards, books, balls, lawn parties, ladies,
luxuries of all sorts and kinds; how delicious, how intoxicating they
were! Material advantages went hand in hand with this re-entrance to
Eden. He had very properly agreed with M‘Nab that it was well to sell
this year’s clip in the colony, as the washing and getting up were only
so-so, and wool was high. Next year they might show the English and
French buyers what the J R brand over Gondaree was like, and reasonably
hope that every year would add to the selling price of that valuable,
extensive, and scientifically got-up clip.
Jack looked bronzed, and thinner than of old, but all his friends,
especially the ladies, voted it an improvement; he had the air of an
explorer, a dweller in the wilderness, and what not. His wool, which
followed him, sold extremely well. Assumed to be successful, he was more
popular than ever. His bankers were urbane; he was consulted by some of
the oldest and most astute speculators; men prophesied great things as
to his ultimate financial triumphs. And Jack already looked upon himself
as forming one of the congress of Australian Rothschilds, and began to
think of all the munificent and ingeniously helpful things that he would
do in such case; for he was of a kindly and sentimentally generous
tendency, this speculative Jack of ours, and his day-dreams of wealth
were never unmingled with the names of those who immediately after such
realization would hear something to their advantage. Jack lingered in
Paradise for a couple of months, during which time he received his wool
money, and made arrangements with his bankers for the purchase of as
much wire as would suffice to fence a large proportion of his run. His
stores were commensurate with the future prestige of the establishment.
He explained to Mr. Mildmay Shrood, his banker, that he might possibly
put on a few thousand more sheep if he saw a good opportunity. Of course
he could buy more cheaply for cash; and if they paid as well as the lot
he had picked up this year, they would be very cheap after the wool was
off their backs.
“My dear sir,” said Mr. Shrood, with an air of friendly interest, “the
bank will be most happy to honour your drafts up to ten thousand pounds.
If you need more you will be kind enough to advise. I hear the most
favourable accounts of the district in which you have invested, and of
your property in particular. What is your own opinion—which I should
value—upon the present prices of stock and stations? will they keep up?”
“I have the fullest belief,” quoth Jack, with judicial certainty, “in
the present rates being maintained for the next ten years; for five
years at least it is impossible by my calculations, if correct, that any
serious fall should take place. The stock, I believe, are not in the
country in sufficient numbers to meet the rapidly enlarging demand for
meat. Wool is daily finding new markets and manufacturers. I never
expect to see bullocks above five pounds again; but sheep—sheep, you may
depend, will go on rising in price until I should not be surprised to
see first-class stations fetching thirty shillings, or even two pounds,
all round.”
“Quite of your opinion, my dear Mr. Redgrave,” quoth the affable
coin-compeller. “Happy to have my ideas confirmed by a gentleman of so
much experience. Depend upon it, sheep-farming is in its infancy. Good
morning. _Good_ morning, my dear sir.”
Jack saw no particular reason for hurrying himself, being represented at
Gondaree by a far better man than himself, as he told everybody. So he
spent his Christmastide joyously, and permitted January to glide over,
as a month suitable for gradually making up his mind to return to the
wilderness. Early in February he began to feel bored with the
“too-muchness” of nothing to do, and wisely departed.