BILLIARDS MADE EASY.
There was a lurid atmosphere at Birralong during the days that the
diggers held high revel at the Rest. The sun blazed down pitilessly on
the land, stricken sore by the drought; for it was the season of the
year when the rain should have come in copious downfalls to moisten the
parched soil, and when thunderstorms, accompanied by the vivid gleam of
tropical lightning, should have come to cool and clear the air. But no
rain came; not even a cloud obscured the blue of the sky for a moment,
and not a suspicion of dew fell during the hours of darkness. Only the
lightning came, as soon as the sun was down, blazing, flaring, and
flashing round the horizon and high overhead; disturbing the darkness as
the patter of a tattoo disturbs silence; punctuating the night into
periods of sombre, awful blackness by moments of dazzling, blinding
white fury, that made the eyes tingle through the succeeding moments of
dark, and the ears shrink and tremble, anticipating the rending
thunder-crash which never came. And always was the air hot and dry, and
the wind, when it blew, was as a breath from the mouth of a volcano.
The grass, withered and brown, fell away into dust; the leaves hung limp
and flaccid on the trees; the cultivation areas of the selections were
parched and dismal; and to add to the tribulation of the selectors,
swarms of grasshoppers were abroad, swooping down in clouds, made up of
myriads, upon everything that was green or bore the semblance of green,
and never moving on until only the bare earth and the stripped tree
branches were left.
It was such a season when some excuse was to be made for congregating at
the Rest, and the advent of the diggers, with money to spend and a
desire to entertain everybody who came within coo-ee of them, gave any
excuse needed, not only to the selectors, but also to the men of
Birralong.
Great things were going to be done as soon as the period of festivity
was over, and the miners returned to the field and settled down steadily
once more to toil and industry. Many a hard-working selector, who
remembered his parched paddocks and bony stock, thought of throwing in
his lot with the men he had formerly referred to as gully-rakers, when
he saw the lavish expenditure, not only at the Rest, but at Marmot's,
made possible by the gold they had won. Nor were the establishments at
either end of the township alone in profiting. There would be a great
demand for tools when the claims were started again, and Cullen had
orders for picks by the ton; while the possibility of reefs being
discovered, and tunnels and shafts being necessary to work them, filled
Smart with enthusiasm at the amount of sawn timber which would be
required in the early months of the coming year. It was evidently a
period of boom in the history of the town, and to pass the time until
the festive season was over, many a form of entertainment was suggested.
A race meeting was absolutely necessary, everybody urged, the diggers
for the fun of the thing, the selectors with an eye to business, for the
diggers had no horses, and as they might like to run their own, sales
were not improbable.
In the mean time some one suggested a euchre tournament and a billiard
handicap, and, in a day, what attention every one of the miners could
spare from the other attractions of the Rest, was absorbed in the double
struggle. In a couple of days, as far as they were able to understand
clearly, the majority of the men had lost a considerable portion of the
gold they had brought in; but no one seemed to have won it. Tap, who had
returned to the Rest, usually had a hand in the games that were going;
and Gleeson, who mingled with the crowd as a stranger to the other, also
joined in the fun, though mostly on the billiard-table. They were the
only two who never lost.
There was a certain element of mystery about the billiard-table at the
Rest, such as might reasonably be expected from cushions which had been
subjected to ten years of the Birralong climate, and from balls which
had been played with by such visitors as came to the Rest. A kerosene
lamp with a tin reflector, standing over each corner pocket, is not the
best light a billiard-table can have, more especially in a country where
flies and other winged insects are numerous, and possessed of a habit
of assembling largely round the lamps, and falling, more or less singed,
on the cloth of the table. To these drawbacks Gleeson earnestly
attributed the bad luck which usually attended the play of his
opponents, and the extraordinary strokes with which he was able to win
the hardest fought games; but not even these extenuating circumstances
could quite reconcile the miners to the constant loss they suffered at
his hands, and so it came about that he was the first one at whom they
shied.
In this he was personally responsible to a very large extent, for being
a man of exalted opinions as to his own importance, he could not long
maintain the attitude of reserve and self-effacement which Barber had
imposed as a condition of service under the scheme he had formulated. As
soon as the miners began to fight shy of him as an opponent at the
billiard-table, he forgot the necessity for caution, and ignored the
gentle persuasive influence of an occasional defeat. Instead of the tact
which animated the smooth-tongued Tap, he developed swagger and "side,"
and talked largely of his powers as a billiardist, and patronizingly to
the men who made matches between themselves and declined even his bets.
When the table was disengaged and there were onlookers in the room, he
performed what they termed "flash" strokes, and challenged promiscuously
any one and every one to play for large and larger stakes, until the
souls of the miners were wroth within them, and the men of Birralong
yearned in silence for the return of Tony, who alone of all the
township had succeeded in mastering the intricacies of the table to
anything like the degree Gleeson had.
But Tony had not yet returned from the diggings. He and his two
companions, working more scientifically along the creek in the scrub
than the others had done on Ripple Creek, had located the extent over
which gold was to be found in the wash-dirt, and had then carefully and
systematically worked through it, the division of labour enabling them
to get over the ground quickly and effectively. As none of the men from
the other creek visited them as they worked, they judged that their find
was purely their personal concern and that no one else knew of its
existence. Under the spell of excitement engendered by the find, Gleeson
passed entirely out of memory, and the winning of all the gold in the
creek before any one else could come and share the spoil was the one
idea in their minds.
But if Gleeson was forgotten, he had not forgot. When he sneaked away
after the thrashing that Palmer Billy had administered, he had no idea
in his mind beyond getting out of reach of the vengeance of the men he
believed he had fooled. He did not know exactly in what direction he
journeyed, save that it was away from the scene of his humiliation, the
thoroughness of which made him ache in every bone, joint, and muscle of
his body. He kept moving, as fast as he could, away from the point of
danger; and in accordance with that unexplained law which induces two
bubbles on a tea-cup to run together, or two ships on the face of the
boundless ocean to collide, or two buggies on a plain to run into one
another, or a single horseman to get into difficulties through the one
rabbit burrow in an area of twenty square miles of country, Gleeson,
following his nose in the single-hearted desire to escape from honest
associations, ran upon the temporary camp of Barber, and so became
re-united with Tap. A rogue admires the rogue who can cheat him, and
Gleeson fraternized with his old comrade and Barber at once.
Subsequent investigation revealed the fact that there really was gold in
Ripple Creek, and with that resource which, more than necessity, is the
mother of invention, communications were opened up with Walker, and the
plan laid for the relieving of the successful miners of their stores of
gold during the season of holiday and festivity. Learning the way Peters
and his companions had gone, Barber had tracked them over the creek to
the scrub, and had watched them, from a safe cover, as they worked the
payable dirt. In order to include their winnings in the general haul it
was intended to make, Walker was deputed to proceed to their camp, after
the men had left Ripple Creek, and stay with them until, by fair means
or foul, he had either induced them to proceed to Birralong and into the
trap, or had succeeded in carrying off their gold single-handed. The
latter was more than he could accomplish, so he had to stay with them
and induce them to join in the festivities at the Rest, a proceeding
which gave Gleeson time to use his skill in transferring a good deal of
the gold from the miners to himself before the arrival of Palmer Billy
and his mates--an incident he had neither the desire nor the intention
to witness.
With that perversity which sometimes afflicts the issues of deep-laid
schemes, the end of the drift on the creek by the scrub was reached
several days sooner than was expected, and when the labour of an entire
morning resulted in nothing, Palmer Billy grew impatient, and said it
was a visitation upon them for working in the holiday season. He told
the others they could stay, if they liked, but he was off to give the
festivities at Birralong the benefit of his vocal art. Peters and Tony
fell in with the proposal, and started off without giving Walker time to
get ahead of them and warn Gleeson to keep out of sight.
They happened to come out about sunset upon the Birralong road near
Marmot's store at a moment when some of the residents were mutually
encouraging one another to lose their tempers over Gleeson's swagger in
the billiard-room. The appearance of Tony was hailed as a god-send. The
story of how the "flashy," as they termed Gleeson, was swelling his
chest up at the expense of the township, was poured into the ears of the
new-comers, and Tony was adjured, by all the ties of patriotism and
loyalty, to "sail in and knock him cold," as one of the crowd expressed
it.
It came to some one that a surprise party would be an excellent idea--a
surprise party which would enter the billiard-room at a moment when the
"flashy," flushed with victory, would be uttering his loud-mouthed
challenge; a surprise party which would quietly "take him on and
paralyze him stony," as another of the crowd explained.
Walker demurred. He thought the trick would be unfair and mean, and
lacking the sporting instinct which is the hall-mark of Australians; but
the others were rather taken with it, and Palmer Billy, with more force
than wit--and more good luck than either--insisted that Walker, as he
had conscientious scruples, should come into the room behind them, an
arrangement which effectually prevented a warning word being sent to
Gleeson.
A game was just over when the new-comers reached the Rest, and as no one
seemed to be in a hurry to take the table, and the room was
exceptionally full, Gleeson knocked the balls about with a good deal of
swagger as he offered swamping odds to any one, and every one, for a
game. Tony was in the lead, with Palmer Billy and Peters close after
him, as they entered the room by a door to which Gleeson's back at the
moment was turned.
"Now, then, what's wrong with you all? Haven't you the cash or the
pluck, or what's in the wind? I'll give any one seventy-five in a
hundred and play him for twenty notes. Now, then, who's on?"
"Well, I am," Tony exclaimed; and Gleeson turned at the voice.
He saw Tony; he saw Peters; he saw Palmer Billy; and behind them he saw
Walker; and for the minute he stood, still and staring, as a quick
suspicion flashed through his mind whether he had been sold by the man.
"Oh, we're sports all square, you bet yer bloochers," Palmer Billy's
raucous voice said, as his eyes, sparkling with a curious gleam, met
Gleeson's.
A hubbub, meant for a cheer, broke out among the men round the room; and
Gleeson, guessing there was no fighting for the time being, made an
effort to pull himself together.
"I'll play you level," he jerked out, facing Tony.
A roar of dissent came from the audience. Only Palmer Billy's voice
penetrated it as he yelled--
"On yer own terms. We ain't no sharks."
The sentiment struck a responsive note among the onlookers, and the roar
of dissent changed to a cheer of approval, so loud that it brought every
man within earshot to the room to see what was going.
Recovering his composure and his swagger as quickly as he could, Gleeson
offered to back himself--and had his answer from the roomful. Tap,
discriminating and crafty, had exchanged glances with Walker, and
guessed what was in the air.
"I think I'll take those that you don't," he said smoothly; and Gleeson,
glad of the hint that his friends were sticking to him, accepted the
partnership.
"Perhaps some of these gentlemen----" Tap began, looking at the group by
the doorway.
"Our money's on him," Palmer Billy shouted, slapping Tony on the back.
"And mine's on the other man," Walker said quickly; and a moment later a
babel of confusion reigned as each man sought to make the other one put
up the stakes.
Marmot, bursting with importance as the patron-in-chief to Tony,
hammered on the wall in his efforts to make his voice heard in a
proposition. Palmer Billy, looking round the room with a smile on his
face as he thought how well the chorus of his great song would sound
sung by such a mob, caught sight of the local constable, somewhat
overcome by profuse hospitality, sitting in a far corner.
"What sort," he yelled, and his voice went through the babel of sound
like the shriek of a syren through mist. "What sort," he repeated, as
men paused in their clamour, startled by the voice. "Let the trap hold
the dibs."
Any proposal was bound to be greeted with favour at the moment, for the
men were in the highest elation at the prospective defeat of "flashy."
The constable, with official dignity, undertook the responsibility of
stakeholder. Gleeson, Walker, and Tap laid down all the wealth they had,
and from all parts of the room contributions came to cover it, until the
money on Tony was heavily over-subscribed; and men were crying out that
they could get no bet. The excitement brought back some of Gleeson's
swagger.
"If our word's good enough, we'll take every wager," he shouted; and the
audacity pleased the crowd.
The constable, the proprietor of the Rest, and Marmot, mounted guard
over the stakes, placed for convenience in two empty gin cases--one for
the solid gold of the miners, and the other for the gold, notes, and
paper of the trio.
Then the game began, and the men crowded round the walls of the room,
silent, stern, and scowling, as they saw Gleeson run away from their
champion like a racehorse from a bullock-team. He went out the points
he had boastingly offered ahead of the Birralong champion, and a gleam
and a flash went round the room as the men realized what it meant--the
combined wealth of the crowd belonged to the three.
"Double or quits," Gleeson cried, as he faced round on Tony.
"Done," he answered; and Gleeson glanced round the room.
"Are you on?" he asked.
A growl of assent was the answer, and the second game began.
Tony, unsteadied in the first game by the day's travelling, set his
teeth hard, and nerved himself to avoid a repetition of the defeat. The
bumps in the cushions favoured him, and he held his own from the start,
and came in just ahead of his opponent amidst howls of approval from the
diggers.
As the noise lulled before the growing desire to toast success, long
life, and various other pleasant prospects to the winner of the second
game, an artistic piece of by-play was introduced by a violent
altercation between Walker, Tap, and Gleeson, the first two savagely
attacking the latter for having thrown away their money by playing
double or quits. Walker repudiated the matter, and claimed that as he
had not agreed to the stake on the second game, he was entitled to
payment for the wagers he had made on the first.
Palmer Billy advanced to the table.
"If a man ain't satisfied with the whackin' we give him," he said, in a
tone that penetrated to every corner of the room, and with his eyes
fixed on Gleeson in what, to the latter, was a peculiarly disconcerting
glance, "why, we're on to whack him again--or his mates."
"Good iron, Billy," some one yelled. "Set 'em up again."
"_When_ we've irrigated, if you please," Palmer Billy retorted; adding,
to the host, "Rum--straight."
In order that there might be no misunderstanding about the third game,
it was decided in advance that the stakes were to be the same as before,
and that in the morning another game would be played, by daylight, for
double or quits, whoever the loser might be, the stakes remaining where
they were, in the gin cases, in charge of the constable and the
proprietor of the Rest. The interval between the second and third games
being somewhat prolonged, the interest taken in the game by the audience
was less discriminating than in the earlier ones, while the applause was
more promiscuous, due to the fact that many of the onlookers had not
quite such a clear grasp of passing events as usual. Only at the finish,
when Tony was beaten by a single point, did the audience realize that
the situation was serious; and then, lest the danger should cause them
anxiety and the result of the return match leave them stranded, they
made the most of the opportunity and the resources of the Rest.
The township "hung-up" the following morning to watch the great match,
for with the morning came the realization of the fact that Tony had
already lost two out of three games with Gleeson, and that on the result
of the fourth the prosperity of Birralong, and of the visitors within
its gates, speaking figuratively, for at least a twelvemonth actually
depended. The men gathered round the Rest, the shaky indistinctness
inevitable from the previous evening's hilarity adding to the expression
of gravity which was upon every face. What conversation there was they
carried on in subdued tones, and, except in the case of a few, the
anxiety they felt even kept them away from the bar.
The room in which was the billiard-table was densely packed by the time
the game began, the men standing three deep round the walls, grim,
silent, sombre. The morning was intensely hot, and every door, window,
and fanlight was as wide open as it could be. The men were too engrossed
to notice that Gleeson turned up without his two mates, while the
recollections of the condition of the constable when he was conveyed to
his own cottage the night before prevented any one from wondering why he
did not attend.
From the moment the game began there was dead silence in the room--a
silence so oppressive that the click of the balls sounded sharp and
clear, and the whizzing hum of the grasshoppers, moving in swarms, came
in rolling crescendoes and quavering diminuendoes from the parched and
barren paddocks all around, as distinctly as if the table had been set
out in the open bush. From the start it was evident both players were
doing their best to win, and while the local confidence was not shaken
in Tony, it was noticed with more than anxiety that he never got far
ahead, and often dropped behind. As the finish drew near, the men
composing the audience scarcely breathed as Tony played his strokes,
until their nerves were strained and their muscles quivered as he stood
with an unfinished break at two points from home, and his opponent ten
behind.
It was an easy shot, so easy that Birralong almost cheered, but caught
its breath in a gasp, lest it should put the champion off his stroke.
He, feeling something of the excitement, miscalculated a bump, or forgot
a hard patch on the cushion, and broke down, just two from home.
Gleeson, cool, collected, and unmoved, said "Pity" under his breath, and
a shiver passed through the audience. Then he played his strokes,
carefully and quietly, and the room, save for the click of the balls as
they cannoned, the rustle of the player as he moved, and the ceaseless
buzz from the starving grasshoppers outside, was silent. But it had no
effect on Gleeson. He was quite unmoved and unconcerned as he made his
strokes, steadily and well, till he was level with Tony, and only needed
two to win.
A hum, half curse, half gasp, travelled round the crowded room and out
of the open doors to the swarms buzzing and chirping in the paddocks and
the trees, and Gleeson, with obtrusive calm, paused to chalk his cue.
Leisurely and tantalizingly he put back the chalk and studied the easy
shot which was all that stood between him and victory, between Birralong
and bankruptcy; and another hum, half curse, half gasp, travelled round
the room and out of the open doors and windows, out to where the
countless myriads of hungry, stridulating insects sung and chirped and
buzzed, careless of the human anguish pent up so near them, careless of
everything, as they strained their senses in search of something green.
Gleeson took his aim, and gently touched his ball, playing to pot the
red. The red, rolling slowly, was halfway to the pocket, when there came
into the silent room a sound of rushing, rustling, throbbing wings, as
through the open doors and windows and fanlights a cloud of grasshoppers
swarmed down upon the something green their eyes had seen when attracted
by the weird, inhuman hum. The red ball ran against three and stopped,
an inch from the drop of the pocket, and the mighty shout that came from
the throats of the Birralong men shook even the foundations of the Rest,
and put to flight, out on to the dusty paddocks again, most of the
grasshopper swarm.
Those that remained were stamped to death, as, a moment later, Tony put
the red ball down, and the audience, mad with the glee of victory,
danced, shouting, everywhere, even on the billiard-table.
In the turmoil of rejoicing that ensued, even the shadows cast by the
glow of happiness on the previous evening were forgotten, though it was,
after all, only their own money which Tony had won back for them.
Everybody wished to toast everybody, and in their anxiety to carry out
the wish, they failed to notice that Gleeson quietly withdrew. Only when
other facts were forced upon their attention, and they learned that the
game won had been really lost, did they notice his departure, and then
it was too late.
In the midst of their rejoicing some one called for the stakeholders to
share in the festivity. The proprietor of the Rest was present, but he
misunderstood the suggestion, and thought the men wanted the stakes
handed over.
"Leary has them," he exclaimed. "He took them away last night, quiet
like."
Some of the men remembered accompanying Leary, the constable, to his
cottage late on the previous night. He certainly did not have the stakes
with him then; but they did not stop to argue the matter, for others,
jealous that so important a personage as the local constable, who was
also the stakeholder in the great match, should be absent from the
rejoicing over the Birralong victory, had already started for the
constable's cottage.
They found him lying on the floor with his hands tied behind him, his
legs securely bound together, and a rough but effective gag in his
mouth. Suspicious at first only of a practical joke on the part of some
of their number, they liberated him to the running accompaniment of jest
and chaff. As soon as he was free, he struggled to his feet and, facing
them, shouted--
"I arrest the lot of you for assault and robbery."
It appealed to them as an excellent example of spontaneous humour, and
they burst into loud laughter.
"I know the man who took it. I'd swear to him in a thousand. If it means
hanging them, I'll----"
One of the men, clear enough to miss the point of the joke at which his
companions were laughing so heartily, interrupted to ask--
"Took what?"
"Took what? Why, the gold," Leary answered fiercely.
The words killed the laughter as water kills fire, and where a moment
before the faces of the men were wrinkled with their amusement, the
lines disappeared as the mouths went stern, and the flush of gaiety gave
way to the pallor of fear.
"The gold?" they gasped.
"Yes, the gold," Leary shouted. "We brought it here for safety while the
last game was on, and it was here they came for it, tying me up the same
as you found me, and----"
"Who were they?" a man called out.
"The three who took the bets and another I've never seen."
With a shout of rage and a storm of words the men rushed from the
cottage, back to the Rest, spreading the story as they went, that there
had been thieves in the camp--thieves who had tried to fleece them, and,
having failed in that, had robbed them instead.
One or two remained with the constable.
"When was it done?" one asked Leary.
"How should I know?" he answered. "I reckon I was sleeping when I
wakened here all tied up, and there were the four of them parcelling out
the gold and talking among themselves quiet and easy. I let out a yell,
and one of them--the stranger--came over and jammed something into my
mouth--and there I was till you chaps came."
At the Rest the men were raging and storming, for they had now
discovered that Gleeson was gone; while round the proprietor of the
Rest, Marmot, Smart, and Cullen were gathered--the disappearance of the
gold entirely altered the character of the miners in their eyes. Palmer
Billy, his face working with passion, strode up and down.
"The sharks! And we didn't kill one of them when we had him," he was
yelling in a voice that sounded even above the babel.
Marmot, shrewdly scenting trouble if the miners were refused supplies at
the present juncture--and they would be refused if they asked now that
their money was gone--began to urge the men to start in chase of the
thieves. Fortunately his words caught Palmer Billy's ears, and at once
the stentorian voice shouted--
"Come on, boys, we'll run 'em down and hang 'em. They can't be far
away."
Most of the men saw red in the fury of the moment. With their winnings
gone, their festivity cut short, their credit exhausted, and their
self-control, never very strong, further weakened by the frolic of the
night before, there would have been a short shrift for any of the four
men had they been captured. But four mounted men, with their wits about
them, and with several hours' start, were more than a match for a mob of
men without organization, or even a knowledge as to the direction in
which the others had gone. A few moments' thought would have shown that
to them, only they had neither the time nor the inclination for thought.
They were off, anywhere and everywhere, as soon as they could get their
swags together; and Marmot's fellow-townsmen lavished praise upon him
for his astuteness, as they saw the last of the angry crowd depart.
Some few stayed. Tony stopped Peters, and Palmer Billy stayed too,
arguing vigorously against their tardiness in starting, till he calmed
down and understood.
"This makes six times I've been bluffed by sharks, and I've only half
killed one," he said savagely. "We'll strike it again before we've done,
boys, and if a shark gets at me then--well, he can have it, that's
all."