"Flesh tea allee leady," cried a familiar voice in my ear; and I started
up to see the sun peering over the edge of the mountains to light up the
beautiful opalescent mists floating below. There was the scent of the
bruised pine-boughs where I lay, and a more familiar one wafted from the
fire--that of hot, newly-made bread.
"Yes, all right, I'm getting up," grunted Esau; and directly after we
went down to the stream and had a good wash, finding Gunson waiting by
the fire and watching the frizzling of some slices of bacon on our
return.
"Good morning," he said. "Come and have your breakfast. Well," he
continued, as we began, "what's it to be? Going back?"
"Yes," I said, "directly after breakfast."
"Oh!" cried Esau.
"I can't help it, Esau; we must. We are in honour bound."
"And we might make our fortunes."
"You leave me, then, to the mercy of those scoundrels down below?" said
Gunson, drily.
"I am only a boy, sir," I said; "how can I fight for you? I'll beg Mr
Raydon to send help to you though, directly."
"Yes; do, my lad. I shall be in rather a dangerous position. Say I beg
of him to try and give me protection, for though I am fighting against
him here, all this was sure to come, and I might as well grow rich as
any one else."
I promised eagerly that I would; and we were hurrying through our
breakfast, when there was the trampling of feet and the breaking of wood
just below.
Gunson looked up and seized his rifle, to stand ready; and directly
after a man strode out of the dense forest and stood before us.
"Grey!" I exclaimed, wonderingly.
"Yes," he said, stolidly. "Morning."
"Have some breakfast?" said Gunson.
"Yes. Bit hungry," said Grey. Then turning to me and Esau--"Chief says
I'm to tell you both that as you have chosen to throw in your lot with
Mr Gunson here, you are not to come back to the Fort again."
I dropped my knife and sat half stunned, wondering what Mr and Mrs
John would say; and as I recovered myself, it seemed as if when a few
words of explanation would have set everything right, those words were
never to be spoken.
Esau had been as strongly affected as I was; but he recovered himself
first.
"Not to come back to the Fort again?" he cried.
"No," said Grey, with his mouth full. "Chief said if you were so mad
after gold, you might go mad both of you."
"Hurray!" cried Esau. "Then I'm going to be mad as a hatter with hats
full."
"Right," said Grey, stolidly, as he munched away at the cake and bacon.
"You're in the right spot."
"But hold hard," cried Esau, as another thought struck him. "This won't
do. He ain't going to keep her shut up in the Fort. I want my mother."
"Right," said Grey, setting down the tin mug out of which he drank his
hot tea. "I'll tell him you want your mother."
"Yes, do. I don't mind. I wanted to come up here."
"Well, Gordon, what have you to say?" cried Mr Gunson. "Any message to
send back?"
"Yes," I said, flushing and speaking sharply. "Tell Mr Raydon--no,
tell Mr and Mrs John that I have been cruelly misjudged, and that some
day they will know the whole truth."
"Right," said Grey. "I won't forget. Nothing to say to the chief?"
"No," I said; "nothing."
"Yes; a word from me," said Gunson. "Tell him that something ought to
be done to preserve order here, for the people are collecting fast, and
some of them the roughest of the rough."
"Yes," said Grey. "I'll tell him; but he knows already; we had a taste
of 'em yesterday. Anything else?"
"No," said Gunson; "only that perhaps I may want to send to him for
help."
"Best way's to help yourselves," said Grey, at last rising from a hearty
breakfast. "Good-bye, my lads," he said, "till we run agen each other
later on. I say," he continued, after shouldering his rifle, "did you
two lads bring away guns?"
"No," I said; "of course not."
"Haven't got any then. How many have you?" he continued, turning to
Gunson.
"Only my own and a revolver."
"Lend you mine, young Mr Gordon," he said, handing it to me, and then
unstrapping his ammunition-belt, and with it his revolver in its
holster. "Better buy yourself one first chance, and then you can send
mine back. Take care of the tackle; it's all good."
"Thank you, Grey," said Gunson, grasping his hand. "You couldn't have
made him a better loan. I won't forget it."
"Course you won't. Nor him neither, I know."
"Ain't got another, have you?" said Esau.
Grey shook his head.
"Good-bye," he said.
"I say, tell mother not to fret, I'm all right," cried Esau.
"And give old Rough a pat on the head for me," I cried.
"I will. Nice game you had with him last night," said Grey, laughing.
"Too good friends with you to lay hold."
"Oh, was I, sir?" cried Esau; "he's made one of my trousers
knee-breeches. Look!"
He held up his leg, where the piece had been torn off below the knee,
and Grey laughed as he went and disappeared in the forest that fringed
the banks of the stream.
"Then now we can begin gold-digging in real earnest," cried Esau,
excitedly. "I say, Mr Gunson, how's it going to be?"
"What, my lad?"
"Each keep all he finds?"
"We'll see about that later on," said Gunson, sternly. "There will be
no gold-washing yet."
Esau stared.
"There are too many enemies afoot. I am going to wait and see if those
men come up this way. If they do, there will be enough work to maintain
our claim, for, setting aside any ill-feeling against me, they may want
to turn us off."
"Well, they are ugly customers," said Esau, rubbing one ear. "I say, do
you think they'll come to fight?"
"If they think that this is a rich claim, nothing is more likely."
"And I say," cried Esau, "I didn't mean that."
"If you feel afraid you had better go. I dare say you can overtake that
man."
"But I don't want to go."
"Then stay."
"But I don't want to fight."
"Then go."
"But there ain't nowhere to go, and--Oh, I say, Mayne Gordon, what is a
fellow to do?"
"Do what I do," I said, quickly.
"What's that?"
"Trust to Mr Gunson the same as we have done before."
"Thank you, Mayne Gordon," said Gunson, laying his hand on my shoulder;
"but I hardly like exposing you to risk."
"The danger has not come yet," I said, smiling, though I confess to
feeling uncomfortable. "Perhaps it never will."
"At any rate we must be prepared," said Gunson. "Only to think of it!
What a little thing influences our careers! I little fancied when I
protected that poor little fellow on board the steamer, that in so doing
I was jeopardising my prospects just when I was about to make the
success of my life."
"It is unfortunate," I said.
"Unfortunate, boy?--it is maddening. But for this I should once more
have been a rich man."