Consternation was depicted on the faces of the men. And they all began
to question Jacky at once, until Grainger appeared, and then the black
boy gave them farther particulars--the Chinamen, he said, were all on
foot, each man carrying two baskets on a stick, but there were also five
or six pack-horses loaded with picks, shovels, dishes, and other mining
gear.
“Curse the dirty, yaller-hided swine!” cried Dick Scott, turning
excitedly to Grainger. “What's to be done? They've come to rush the Flat
again; but, by thunder! I'll be a stiff 'un afore a Chow fills another
dish with wash-dirt on Connolly's Creek.”
“And me, too!” “And me, too!” growled the others angrily, and Grainger,
as he looked at their set, determined faces, knew they would soon be
beyond control, and bloodshed would follow if the advancing Chinamen
tried to come on to the field. But, nevertheless, he was thoroughly in
sympathy with them. The advent of these Chinese--probably but an advance
guard of many hundreds--would simply mean ruination to himself and his
mates, just as their prospects were so bright. The men looked upon him
as their leader, and he must act--and act quickly.
“Let them come along, boys. Then we'll bail them up as soon as they come
abreast of us, and have a little 'talkee, talkee' with them. But for
heaven's sake try and keep cool, and I daresay when they see we look
ugly at them, they'll trot on. How many of you have guns of any kind?”
Four rifles and two shot guns were quickly produced, and then every one
waited till the first of the Chinese appeared, marching one behind the
other. The foremost man was dressed in European clothes, and the moment
Scott saw him, he exclaimed--
“Why, it's Jimmy Ah San! I used to know him at Gympie in the old times.
He's not a bad sort of a Chow. Come on, boys!”
Grainger, who was not just then well enough to go with them, but
remained in his seat with his revolver on his knee, could not help
smiling at the sudden halt and terrified looks of the Chinese, when
Scott and the others drew up in front of them with their weapons at the
present. Half of them at once dropped their baskets and darted off into
the bush, the rest crowding together like a flock of terrified sheep.
The leader, however, came steadily on. Scott stepped out and met him.
“Good-morning. What do you and all your crowd want here?”
“Nothing,” replied the Chinaman quietly, in excellent English, “nothing
but to get down to the creek and camp for a few days. But why do you all
come out with guns? We cannot do you any harm.”
“Just so. But we can do _you_ a lot if you try on any games, Mr. Jimmy
Ah San.”
“Ah, you know me then,” said the man, looking keenly at Scott.
“Yes, I do, an' you're all right enough. But me an' my mates is going
to keep this field for white men--it ain't goin' to be no Chinaman's
digging'. So what's yer move?”
“Only what I said. Look at my men! We do not want to stop here; we wish
to push along to the coast. Some of them are dying from exhaustion, and
my pack-horses can hardly go another quarter of a mile.”
Soott scratched his chin meditatively, and then consulted with his
mates. He, although so rough in his speech, was not a bad-natured man,
and he could see that the Chinese were thoroughly done up, and worn down
to skin and bone. Then presently Grainger walked over and joined them,
and heard what Ah San had to say.
“I'm sorry that you are in such a bad fix,” he said, “but you know as
well as I do that if any of your men put a pick into ground here,
there will be serious trouble, and if they lose their lives you will be
responsible--and may perhaps lose your own.”
“I promise you that nothing like that will happen,” replied the
Chinaman. “My men are all diggers, it is true, but we will not attempt
to stay on any field where we are not wanted. My name is James Ah San. I
am a British subject, and have lived in Australia for twenty-five years.
That man” (pointing to Scott) “knows me, and can tell you that 'Jimmy Ah
San' never broke a promise to any man.”
“That is right enough,” said Scott promptly; “every one in Gympie knew
you when you was storekeepin' there, and said you was a good sort.”
“We have come over three hundred miles from the Cloncurry,” went on the
Chinese leader, quickly seeing that Scott's remark had much impressed
the other miners; “the diggers there gave us forty-eight hours to clear
out. The blacks killed fifteen of us and speared ten of my horses, and
six more men died on the way. We can do no harm here. We only want to
spell a week, or two weeks.”
“Poor devils!” muttered Grainger; then he said to Ah San: “Very well.
Now, you see the track going through that clump of sandalwood? Well,
follow it and you'll come to a little ironstone ridge, where you'll find
a good camping-ground just over a big pool in the creek. There's a
bit of sweet grass, too, for your horses, so they can get a good feed
to-night. In the morning this black boy will, if you like, show you a
place in the ranges, about four miles from here, where you can let them
run for a week. There's some fine grass and plenty of water, and they
ought to pick up very quickly. But you will have to keep some one to see
that they don't get round the other side of the range--through one of
the gaps; if they do, you'll lose them to a dead certainty, for there
are two or three mobs of brumbies{*} running there. Do you want any
tucker?” {**}
* Wild horses.
** Provisions.
“No, thank you,” replied Ah San, with an unmistakable inflexion of
gratitude in his voice; “we have plenty of rice and tea, but I should
like to buy a bullock to-morrow, if I can--I saw some cattle about two
miles from here. Is there a cattle station near here?”
“No. The cattle you saw belong to one of us--this man here,” pointing to
Jansen, “will sell you a beast to-morrow, I daresay.”
Then the armed protectors of the integrity from foreign invasion of the
rights of Chinkie's Flat nodded “Good evening” to Ah San, and walked
back across the road to the “Digger's Best,” and the Chinamen, with
silent, childlike patience, resumed their loads and trotted along after
their leader. They disappeared over the hill, and ere darkness descended
the glare of their camp fires was casting steady gleams of light upon
the dark waters of the still pool beneath the ridge.