Queensland Cousins Part 12

She said nothing more, for it was evident Eustace felt very small and uncomfortable. It was the tamest possible ending to what had promised to be such a stirring adventure--such a tale to tell!

Presently, when he was left alone to try and get a little sleep before it was time to get up and dress, the full humiliation of it overcame him. What would his father say? and Nesta? and, worse and worse, Bob Cochrane? How he would be laughed at--teased! He would never be allowed to forget the dingo he had mistaken for a black-fellow; and he felt hot all over when he thought of that foolish shot--the cause of all the commotion.

It was a very depressed Eustace who appeared at breakfast. He took Robertson's unabated amus.e.m.e.nt so gravely that the engineer stopped laughing at him, and wondered if the youngster were sulking.

Mrs. Orban felt a good deal distressed to see how pale the boy was, and that he could hardly touch the food set before him. But every one showed signs of exhaustion, as was natural after two nights of such unusual strain. Mrs. Orban kept Eustace with her all day, setting him small jobs to keep him occupied. They all went to bed early that night, and the household slept without rocking.

Next day, in the cool of the morning, Bob Cochrane rode over to inquire how the Orbans were getting on. Eustace heard him come--the boy was on the lookout for this particular visit--and as Bob walked round one side of the veranda, Eustace disappeared along the other, left a message with Mary that he was going down to the mill, and started away from the house at a run. The truth was, he felt he simply could not be present while Bob listened to the story of his absurd adventures; he wanted the narration to be over before he faced the fusillade of chaff with which the young fellow might pepper him. "He'll think me a silly little fool, I know he will,"

Eustace told himself again and again; "and he'll say, 'What did I tell you about shooting recklessly?' I expect he'll think I'm a baby, not fit to be trusted with firearms. It's disgusting, just when I was hoping he might begin to think me worth taking out shooting with him soon."

Thoroughly out of conceit with himself, Eustace wished he need not go home at all until Bob was certain to be gone. But no sooner did he reach the mill and begin wandering about the rooms full of machinery than it struck him it had been rather cowardly even to run away for a time. Bob would know he had not felt equal to facing him, and perhaps he would despise that as much as he was bound to be amused at the other. The lad had a sharp tussle with himself, and at last started back up the hill with the feelings of a most unwilling martyr going to the stake.

He was about two-thirds of the way up when he caught sight of Bob Cochrane coming swinging down towards him. Bob was just the kind of fellow every boy wants to grow into--big, well-made, splendidly manly; he looked jolly in his riding-suit.

"Hulloa!" he called as soon as he came within speaking distance.

"Hulloa!" Eustace called back tonelessly, his heart thumping hard, his colour coming and going ridiculously.

Bob waited till they met. Then, "Well, youngster," he said gravely, putting a big hand on the lad's shoulder and walking on beside him, "you've had a rough time since I saw you last. I don't wonder you shot at that dingo in the way you did; I should have done it myself, I believe, under the circ.u.mstances."

Eustace's heart almost stopped beating, he was so surprised; he could not speak a word.

"Of course that chap coming the night before put you all on edge,"

proceeded Bob, "and you were flurried by the first shot. That might have been a nasty business too. Glad you didn't hurt yourself."

There was another pause, but Bob did not seem to mind. He went on again presently,--

"It is just this kind of thing, I always think, that gives one a bit of a useful warning: first, to be cautious; and second, to keep a cool head. You'll never go to sleep with a revolver ready c.o.c.ked again, and another time you will give yourself a second's deliberation before you fire at anything looking like a man. It might have been Robertson making a tour of the house, you know."

Eustace felt suddenly rather sick.

"I never thought of that," he said.

"Of course not," was the cheery response. "One doesn't look all round a question in a hurry, but one has to learn to remember there may be two sides to it. You'll get the hang of the idea one of these days. I know it was a long time before I gave up wanting to shoot down everything I didn't quite like the looks of. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes pretty badly."

He ended with a little laugh. Eustace, looking up into the merry, kindly face, knew that the awful time he had so dreaded was over, and it had not been an "awful time" after all. Bob did not think him a fool; he might have done the same himself, he said. He only warned him to be more careful another time, and gave him the reasons why he should.

The boy had always admired this friend of the family; he positively glowed with pride at this minute that Bob was a friend of his own.

Whatever might happen now, whoever might snub or laugh at him, Eustace had this comforting knowledge always at heart--Bob understood, and Bob was a man no one would laugh at.

"He is a brick," thought the lad warmly. "I wish there was anything, anything in the world I could do to show him what a brick I think him. If ever there is, won't I just do it! The more dangerous it is the better."

"I remember once having a pretty gruesome experience," said Bob, chatting on easily. "I expect you've never heard about it, because you were nothing but a kiddy at the time, and it has been forgotten lately. I was going home across our plantation with two other fellows late at night--much later than the mater liked us to be out. In order to be as quick as possible, when we got to the little line running to the mill we hoisted the trolley on to the rails and began pushing ourselves along at a great rate. It was the sort of darkness one can peer through, making things look weird and distorted, often much bigger than they really are."

"Like the dingo."

"Like the dingo. Well, we were getting along finely, when we got to rather a steep gradient and had to go slower up it. Near the top one of us suddenly caught sight of something unusual to the left of the line. It looked like a huge cowering figure, wide but not tall.

Whether four-legged or two-legged it was impossible to say because of the gloom. It wasn't a nice feeling to have this thing silently waiting for one. We all boo'd and shoo'd first, thinking that if it were a beast of any sort it would scoot at the noise; but it didn't stir an inch or make a sound. We felt pretty creepy by then, for black-fellow tales were even commoner in those days than they are now. From the size of it we guessed it might have been a group of three men. Then we shouted, 'Hands up and declare yourself, or we fire!' But still the creature didn't move or speak."

"My hat!" exclaimed Eustace sympathetically.

"We had got to get past it somehow to reach home, for it wasn't likely we could stay there all night. We gave it two more chances, and then we fired for all we were worth. There were instantly shrieks, groans, and such horrible sounds that we waited for nothing more, but pushing our stakes into the ground, sent the trolley flying past the awful spot and down the next hill. How we didn't turn over and get killed down that incline I don't know--it was the one nearest home, you know, where one has to be so fearfully careful about putting on a brake as a rule. However, we got in all right, and gave a detailed account of our adventure.

Every one was interested and puzzled. Father was a little inclined to laugh; he said it was probably the stump of a tree, but of course we had evidence against that in the genuine shrieks and groans following our shots. 'Well, we must just go first thing to-morrow,' father said, 'and look into the matter by daylight.'"

"And did you?" asked Eustace eagerly.

"Rather! I should just think we did--father, a friend of his who was staying with us, and the two boys I had been out with. We rode, and when we got to the spot the first thing we saw was the huge stump of a newly-felled tree, right in the very place we had seen the gruesome object."

Eustace whistled.

"But a tree couldn't shriek and groan," he objected.

"So _we_ said when father began minutely examining the bark; and to our satisfaction there wasn't a single shot mark in the tree, though we must have fired half a dozen between us. 'We can't have seen this,' I said, feeling rather c.o.c.k-a-hoopy; 'it must have been something nearer.' We were just all puzzling our heads over the matter when a c.h.i.n.kee came running towards us from a group of huts not very far off. He was gesticulating and making a fearful fuss.

We followed him in a fine state of excitement, and he led us to a little low shed with a railing before it. We looked in, and there lay two dead pigs!"

"Two dead pigs!" cried Eustace.

"Yes. It was pretty humiliating, for it just proved we had aimed at the tree and missed it. Instead, we shot the c.h.i.n.kee's inoffensive pigs. It was many a long day before that joke was forgotten against us. Moreover, amongst us we had to sc.r.a.pe a pound together to pay the Chinaman for his loss. I never felt so small in my life."

Eustace could well appreciate the sensation after his own experiences.

Bob took a very light view of the real visit the Orbans had had from the black-fellow two nights before.

"He wouldn't have hurt any one," said the young fellow. "He was nothing but a cowardly thief, or he wouldn't have behaved in the way he did. I'm only sorry you've offered a reward for the things; it will be an incentive to other fellows to do the same. However, I dare say, with Robertson sleeping up here, no one will venture again. I shouldn't worry if I were you, Mrs. Orban."

"I will try not to," Mrs. Orban answered bravely.

They had a quiet enough night again to warrant confidence, and every one felt rested and refreshed next day.

Just after breakfast Kate appeared to tell her mistress that a Chinaman from the plantation wished to speak to her. His name was Sink.u.m Fung, and he was the plantation storekeeper, a man who thought a good deal of himself, but for lying and trickery, Mr.

Orban declared, was no better than his neighbours the coolies who dealt at his shop.

As soon as Sink.u.m Fung was shown on to the veranda, he did a good deal of bowing and sc.r.a.ping by way of politeness, and he had so much to say on the subject of his own unimpeachable integrity that it was a long time before Mrs. Orban could bring him to an explanation of his early visit. Both she and Eustace guessed he must be wanting to sell something, and probably hoped to drive a good bargain in Mr. Orban's absence, the cunning of the average Chinese being unsurpa.s.sed.

After a considerable preamble, Sink.u.m began the following remarkable tale, all told in such strange c.h.i.n.kee patter, and with so much self-praise interspersed, that it took the listeners' whole attention to unravel it.

CHAPTER VII.

PETER'S NIGHTMARE.

Some nights before Sink.u.m Fung was sitting in his store waiting for customers. His best trade was always in the evening, when the coolies' work was over, and they had time to do some shopping. But it was getting late, and Sink.u.m thought it about time to close the store and go to bed. Suddenly there fell a shadow across the threshold, and a big black-fellow entered--a stranger whom Sink.u.m Fung had never seen before. What had he come to buy? Sink.u.m asked politely. But the black-fellow had come to buy nothing--he had a fierce, wild face, and his voice made Sink.u.m tremble when he said he had not come to buy, but to sell. He declared his name to be Jaga-Jaga of the great "Rat clan" now living in the Bush not far away. He had found, he said, a white man hanging in a tree, caught and held fast by the dreadful "wait-a-bit" cane that will swing round man or beast at a touch, and hold them fast till they die of exposure and starvation. This man was dead, and on his body, Jaga-Jaga said, he discovered sundry things which he now brought to the store to sell. What would Sink.u.m Fung give for them? The payment must be made in food, for the tribe were nearly starving.

Food was difficult to procure in the intense heat; the ground was arid and unproductive.

Sink.u.m examined the goods; he made his offer; whereat the wild man swung his boomerang disagreeably, and indicated that he must have "more, more." Tears of self-pity flooded Sink.u.m's eyes. He had no choice but to obey, and at last the black-fellow left with a sack containing ten times the value of the goods the storeman had been forced to buy. He had been cheated, cruelly used; he was a poor man, and could not stand such losses. The things were of no value--none; but if he had not bought them he would have been a dead man.