"DO I LOOK FORTUNATE?"
As the time glided on I used to be quite in despair.
"I don't get any stronger, Esau," I used to say, pettishly.
"What? Why, look at you!" he'd cry. "On'y t'other day you was walking
with a stick and a crutch."
"I was not," I said, indignantly. "I never had a crutch."
"That you did, sir," he said, with a chuckle; "and now you've chucked
'em both away and goes alone."
"But my legs feel so weak, and ache so directly."
"Tchah! What o' that! Why, only t'other day they used to double up
like an old two-foot rule, or a knife with the spring broke. You're
coming all right enough. I say, I want to talk to you."
He gave a sharp look round as we stood beside the stream where it
entered the river--the stream up which we had found the gold, and to
whose bank we had come to catch trout with rods and lines of our own
manufacture, and grasshoppers for bait.
I had been fishing, but after taking three decent trout, I had lain down
wearied out, and now Esau squatted down by me, with his rod across his
knees.
"I say," he whispered, "what about that gold up yonder?"
"Well, what about it?"
"Don't you never think about it a deal?"
"Sometimes. Do you?"
"Always. I can't get away from it. Seems as if something's always
tempting me to go and get it."
"But you cannot," I said, sharply. "We gave our word to Mr Raydon."
"Yes, that's the worst of it. I can't think how a fellow can be so
stupid."
"Let it go, and don't think about it."
"That's what I want to do, but I can't help myself, and I'm always
wanting to get lots of it, and be rich."
"Rubbish!" I cried, testily.
"Gold ain't rubbish," said Esau, gruffly. "Of course I should give you
half."
"We promised Mr Raydon not to touch that gold any more," I said; "so
don't talk or think about it. Promise me."
"I'll promise not to talk about it," he replied; "but it's no use to
promise not to think about it, because it will come. Why, I dream about
it every night."
"Then you must not," I said. "I was talking to Mr Raydon last night
about what is to be done when Mr John comes."
"Well, what does he say? Anything about the gold?"
"No," I cried, fiercely. "Of course you think about it if you are
always talking of it. He says that he thinks the best thing will be for
Mr John to have some land lower down the river at a place we passed;
that there are twenty or thirty acres of good rich soil, and that as he
will have us with him, we must learn to use axes and help him to clear
the land, and plant it with fruit-trees, and build a house on the
clearing."
"Yes; that's all right enough, only the trees take so long to bear."
"That he will help us with different things till we can manage alone;
and that before many years are gone we can make ourselves quite a good
home."
"Oh!" ejaculated Esau. "But then that will take a long time, and you
won't be able to work much, and I don't think Mr John Dempster will,
not being strong, and all the time there's enough gold up--"
"Will you hold your tongue?" I cried, angrily. "Do you want me to hit
you?"
"If you like," he said, grinning. "Don't think you could hurt me much."
"You coward!" I cried. "Wait till I get strong again."
"I shall be precious glad," said Esau, "for I'd a deal rather you gave
me one or two cracks than kept on saying the things you do sometimes.
My! how you have given it me ever since you have been ill! It has made
you raspy."
I winced a little at this, for I felt that I had been horribly
irritable.
"I can't help thinking about the gold, but I won't say gold no more as
long as I live."
I could not help laughing at this earnest delivery, and Esau showed his
teeth.
"There, I don't care," he said. "I'm happy enough here if you'll get
well. But I do wish old Gunson knew about it."
I looked sharply at Esau, for these words of his impressed me. I had
often wished that Gunson knew of what we had found, for I thought that
perhaps he was struggling on without a bit of good fortune. The
thoughts passed from my mind directly, as Esau began to make casts with
his line here and there, as if fishing in the grass.
"Well, I don't mind," he said. "Turn farmer, eh?--and plant trees, and
cut trees down, and build a house. All right. It will be good enough,
and you and me will go and shoot and fish. I shall like it. Shall we
have old Quong?"
"I suppose so, if he'll stay. There, let's go on fishing, and take back
some trout for Mr Raydon's tea. I do feel so idle and helpless. Do
you think he ever feels that we are staying too long?"
"Dunno," said Esau. "I should if I was him."
These words made me feel very low-spirited, and that night I broached
the subject to Mr Raydon, apologising for being there so helpless and
weak, and ending by asking him if I had not better go down to the mouth
of the river again.
He looked at me searchingly.
"Tired of this place?" he said.
"Oh no," I replied. "I have been very happy here."
"Then why do you talk of going?"
"Because I feel as if I must be a burden to you."
"Indeed! Well, suppose I say go, and you make your way back along the
river very slowly, for you are in a miserably weak state?"
"Yes, sir; but I am getting better now."
"Yes, I know; but suppose, as soon as you are gone, my sister and her
husband appear, what am I to say to them?"
"I had not thought of that," I replied.
"But you see I had. But come, Mayne, be frank with me. You have some
other reason for wanting to go."
He looked at me so searchingly that I coloured, for I could feel my
cheeks burning.
"No, sir," I said; "no other reason."
"Not gold-hunting?"
"No; indeed, no."
"But you and Dean have been talking about your discovery a good deal."
"I--I think not, sir," I said, hesitatingly. "We have talked about it."
"And what a pity it is for a fortune to be lying there untouched?"
"Dean thought something of the kind, sir. I did not."
"Ha!" he said, as he again fixed me with his eyes. "No, Mayne, you must
not think of going away. You have not exhausted my stock of hospitality
yet."
Perhaps it was fancy, I said to myself, but it certainly seemed to me
during the next few days, whenever I went out for a good long stroll
with Esau, some one seemed to be watching us.
One day it was Grey who encountered us somewhere on the mountain-side;
another day it was one of the men; and again, on another, Mr Raydon
himself, whose presence was announced by the great dog, who came
bounding up, to be followed in a few minutes by his master.
He did not stay long, but as soon as he was gone I found that my
feelings were shared by Esau himself.
"I say," he growled, "are they afraid we are going to lose ourselves?"
"Why?" I asked.
"Because whenever we come right away into the woods, they send that dog
to scent us out."
"Yes; they generally send somebody," I said, thoughtfully.
"Do you know why?" whispered Esau.