First in the Field Part 6

"Yes," said the visitor, in a quiet, decisive tone; "and as for your pupil--your late pupil--I shall take him away with me directly after lunch."

Both the doctor and his lady began to make excuses about the impossibility of Braydon being ready at so short a notice; and Lady O'Hara turned to the boy.

"Do you hear that, Dominic? You can't be ready in the time. What do you say?"

"I can," replied Nic.

"Of course you can, boy. There, doctor, I've come to take him, so now let's have lunch."

The lunch was eaten, and the doctor and Mrs Dunham having nothing more to say, Nic hastily packed up his things, and then ran to the schoolroom to say good-bye. Ten minutes later he was in Lady O'Hara's carriage, with the cheer given by the boys humming in his brain and a peculiar sensation of sadness making itself felt, though all the time his heart was throbbing with exultation, and the intense desire to go on faster and faster, far away from school, and to make his first plunge into the unknown.

Lady O'Hara did not speak for some time, but took out her little ivory tablets, and sat back in the carriage conning over the memoranda they contained, while her companion read and re-read his letters. Then, shutting them up, she returned the little book to its case and faced round.

"Well," she said, with a merry look, "have you done breaking your heart, Dominic?"

"Yes," he said gravely.--"I can't help feeling sorry to come away, and I'm afraid the boys liked me better than I thought for. It isn't so nice as I fancied it would be."

"No, I suppose not," said his companion; "nothing ever is so nice as we thought it would be. Like to go back for a month till the ship sails?"

"What!" cried Nic.

"I'll tell the man to drive back, if you like."

"You're saying that to tease me, Lady O'Hara."

"True, my boy, I was."

"And you know I wouldn't go back. All I want now is to get on board and start on our long journey."

"Ah, and that's, as I told you, a month hence. There, Dominic, you must mind I don't spoil you before I get you home. Now talk to me and tell me about yourself."

CHAPTER FOUR.

PREPARATIONS.

It was like a new beginning of life to Nic Braydon, and he lived for the next three weeks in a round of excitement. The princ.i.p.al way in which he spent his time was shopping with Lady O'Hara, who saw that he had a regular outfit of suitable articles of clothing, all of the most durable and useful make.

"You're not going to a land of filled shirts and dancing pumps, Dominic," said the lady; "you're going out to work as your father has done, and is doing now."

"I shall not mind work," said Nic st.u.r.dily.

"I know that, boy. But business. Now I think I've got through all the clothing--Sir John's, yours, and some that the doctor asked me to order.

Now, what next?" she continued, turning to her tablets. "Oh, I see: a light gun that will carry shot or ball, a rifle for your father, and another for my husband. Then there are knives, axes, and fishing tackle. Really any one would think I was a man to execute such commissions. But I'm an old traveller, Nic, and have helped my husband over his wants for many, many years."

So that day was devoted to selecting guns, Lady O'Hara handling and testing the various pieces in a way that made the gunmaker open his eyes and Nic stare.

"You have a gallery, I suppose, where I can try any piece I select?"

"Oh! yes, ma'am--I beg pardon--my lady," said the gunmaker.

"Then I'll try those two rifles, and those three shot guns--no, those two. That other is only just long enough in the stock for me. It would not suit a man. Stop; you shall try it, Dominic. Well," she continued, smiling; "so you think it very unladylike for a woman to handle a gun, eh?"

"I--I did think something of the sort," said Nic hesitatingly.

"Of course you would; but I have often had to handle a gun, Dominic. A woman who goes out with her husband into all kinds of savage places needs to be able to use a piece."

"Then you have been in savage places?" said Nic.

"Often, my boy; and it is a dangerous place we are in now. And you'd like to ask whether I ever shot any one, eh?" she said, smiling. "No, I never did, and I hope I never shall. It was the power of being able to use a piece that has saved me from having to use it, Dominic. Wild people and ruffians don't care about attacking people who can defend themselves."

The gunmaker was ready with the charged guns, and he had led them into a long gallery with targets, where the lady astounded the man by her ability and knowledge of what a gun ought to be.

Then Nic had his first trials, and made so poor a business of it that Lady O'Hara said to him laughingly:

"Sure it must be a bad gun, with a crooked barrel. Let me try."

The reloaded gun was handed to her, and she raised it, lowered it, and raised it again and again to try the balance and weight.

"It comes up very nicely," she said, balancing it in her hands.

"It is really one of our best make, my lady," said the gunmaker.

"But my young friend does not seem to find that it shoots straight. Now then."

She raised it quickly to her shoulder, glanced for a brief instant along the barrel, and the white mark at the end of the gallery was speckled like a currant dumpling, while the gunmaker smiled with satisfaction.

"It was my fault," said Nic dolefully. "I suppose I can't see straight."

"Perhaps not," said Lady O'Hara drily. "How many times have you fired before?"

"Never till to-day, only little bra.s.s cannons," said Nic.

"And they're poor things for educating the hand and eye," said the lady.

"Shooting looks easy, Dominic. You think you have only to pull the trigger; but it's like other things, my boy, it wants learning."

They walked back into the shop, where the guns and rifles selected were ordered to be packed with an ample supply of the best flints and ammunition in proper cases for the journey; and the gunmaker smiled his thanks, and wished for more masculine lady customers.

There were more peaceful purchases to be made, though. Cases of seeds were ordered, and the seedsman undertook to pack and send in the autumn a couple of bundles of fruit trees for experimental purposes.

"For I want your father to try and make a good English garden out there, Dominic," said Lady O'Hara enthusiastically. "Australia must become the home of many of our people; and though it is right on the other side of the world, we don't want it to remain foreign, but English."

Those four weeks went like magic, and when only two days remained the list of purchases was pretty well complete, and included horses, cows, and sheep of select kinds, and a couple of retrievers, setters, and Scotch collie dogs.

They had been twice to the East India Docks, from which the ship was to sail, and now another visit was to be paid to make sure that the various packages had been delivered on board, to see to the live stock, and to have another look at the cabin.

"There, Dominic," said her ladyship at last, "I think I may say that I have--that we have--done all our work. Now two days to pay a few visits, and then we go on board for our long, long journey. How do you feel--ready for the start?"