The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 148

I was perfectly cool and collected while speaking, for I did not intend that the fellow should get the advantage of me by displaying pa.s.sion.

"Your voice is of no account here in this house, so you will just take yourself off, and go to the devil, if you wish."

"I have no desire to see your relations, so I shall do no such thing. I have a right to be in the house, and I have authority to ask you to desist from ill treating these men. If you do not, I shall--"

"What?" the bully asked, thrusting his face close to mine, and leering most insultingly.

"Make you," I answered, decidedly.

"You will?" he demanded, with a malignant look.

"I shall do my best," I replied.

The bully did not utter a word in reply, but he put the point of his knife to a bushranger's arm, and pressed so hard that the prisoner uttered a half suppressed cry of pain.

"You see!" the fellow exclaimed, turning to me. "Now, what are you going to do about it?"

I saw that Mr. Brown and every person in the room were watching my motions with considerable curiosity, and that I should be disgraced if I retreated from my unpleasant position. The quarrel was not serious enough to use my weapons, although I was not blind to the fact that the bully had a knife in his hand, and looked like a fellow who would not scruple to use it.

There was but one course for me to pursue--so, no sooner had he proposed his question than I raised my arm and struck him a blow between his eyes that caused a stream of claret to spurt out, and sent the bully reeling backwards to the further end of the room.

"Good!" cried a dozen voices, and I heard Mr. Brown's deep ba.s.s foremost in the exclamation.

"Take care," shouted the crowd; "he's got a knife, and will use it."

The warning came none too soon, for suddenly the crowd opened to the right and left, and I caught sight of the bully, with b.l.o.o.d.y face and inflamed eyes, rushing towards me.

There was no time to draw my revolver, or even my knife, for before I could lay my hand upon either the fellow was within three feet of me, with uplifted hand. I stood firm, and when I saw the weapon descending, like lightning I sprang aside. The point of the knife touched the barrel of my pistol, glanced aside, and such was the force of the blow that the ruffian fell to the floor, completely at my mercy.

"You would, would ye?" I heard Mike shout, as the bully struggled to regain his feet. "Take that, for a bad man that ye are."

The Irishman, as he spoke, s.n.a.t.c.hed a boomerang from Kala's hand and struck the fallen man a blow upon his head that I thought had crushed his skull.

"Served him right!" I heard the laborers say, who, now that their companion was beaten, could afford to give some expression of their opinion.

"The d----d blackguard! he not only insults our guests, but must pick on prisoners he never dared to face. O, the spalpeen, I've a good mind to fetch him another winder," and Mike raised his weapon as if to do so, but I stayed his hand, for the bully appeared to be really suffering, and groaned as though his head ached.

"What is the cause of this disturbance?" I heard Mr. Wright ask, while endeavoring to persuade Mike to remain quiet.

"Faith, the cause of it was insolence, and right well has it been punished," replied Mr. Brown. "But come into the other room, and I'll tell you the whole story."

Our host followed the ex-inspector to the room where we had supped, while I left the now quiet crowd as soon as possible, and pa.s.sed out of doors with Mike at my heels.

"It's close to your heart he struck," said Mike, alluding to the blow of the knife. "An inch would have been the death of ye. Long life to ye."

"I have to thank you for your efforts in my behalf," I replied, and when I shook his hand I left a gold piece in it.

"Bedad, if ye wish, I'll go back and give 'urn another lick," Mike exclaimed, with enthusiasm, when he felt the weight of the coin.

Before I could reply, Mr. Wright left the house, and hurried towards us.

"Let me, in the first place, apologize for the rudeness of my servant, and, in the second place, thank you for punishing him as he deserves.

Mr. Brown has given me a very impartial account, of the affair."

"And did he tell what I did, bedad," cried Mike.

"Yes, I am glad to think there is one man in my employ who knows how to back my friends when I am absent. Mike, from this night your wages are raised one pound per month, and you shall have Kelly's place, whom I intend to discharge."

This news excited all the Irishman's enthusiasm, and we left him bidding defiance to the moon, and wondering how he should spend all his money.

"The fellow whom you punished for insolence, has long held the position of a bully," Mr. Wright said, "owing to his quarrelsome disposition, and readiness to use a knife on slight occasion. I have overlooked several faults in hope that he would improve in disposition, but I see that my leniency is lost, and as soon as his head is healed, he goes to Melbourne."

I begged him not to discharge the man on my account, but Mr. Wright was firm and obstinate as any Englishman, when once resolved on a project, so I let the matter drop, and when we reached the house, Jackson informed us that our second supper was ready, and that Nancy was impatient for something to eat.

"Where have you two men been wandering?" cried Mr. Brown, who was pacing the room like a hungry bear. "Supper has been ready ten, minutes; a long time for famished people to wait"

We did not waste precious time in excuses, for it was near three o'clock in the morning, and I felt anxious to finish, and get that rest which I so much needed.

"Let the men close the doors and windows, and set a guard over our prisoners," Mr. Wright said, addressing Jackson, who stood in readiness to attend to our wants.

"And one more request," my friend said, as we took our seats at the table, "when we once get to sleep, be kind enough to let us rest until we wake of our own accord. For the past three days our naps have not been very long or sound."

"Every thing shall be as you desire, gentlemen. Now fall to, and don't forget that there is a lady present."

Unless our host had alluded to the fact, it is probable that we should have forgotten it, for Nancy was so well disguised in men's apparel that she looked like a respectable farmer.

She seemed perfectly cool and unconcerned, and I was not surprised to hear her say that she had pa.s.sed many months so disguised while mining with her husband at Bendigo, Tarres Creek, and Ballarat, during the early history of the mines, when it was neither safe nor agreeable to have a woman in camp. Tired as we were, she related a few incidents connected with her life that were listened to with much interest, and we found that if Nancy was rough, she possessed a true heart and a Christian spirit, and was never backward in extending aid to the sick, or giving good advice to the profane.

"Smoke your pipes, gentlemen," she said, "and don't be afraid that I shall be sick, or that the smoke will injure my complexion. My old man has used a pipe these twenty-five years, and I hope that he will live twenty-five more, and as much longer as the Lord is willing. I don't think that using a pipe will shorten his days or his nights. When I see him, after a hard day's work, sucking a yard of clay, I thank Heaven that it ain't a whiskey bottle. It's but little comfort the poor fellow gets in this country, and if he's contented I'm happy."

"I wish that I could find a wife with your sentiments," Mr. Wright remarked.

"So you can," Nancy replied; "but you've got to search for 'em. They ain't found out here on the sand plains, or in the mines, but beneath the shelter of a parent's protection in the large cities, where education and virtue are taught."

"If you speak of Melbourne," Mr. Brown said, with an incredulous shrug of his shoulders, "I shall be inclined to doubt you, for in the city no such word as virtue is known."

"Spoken like a man of the world, and without a thought of how much that is good and true is placed upon a level with the vile and unworthy. For shame, gentlemen, and brave men as I know you are, to utter such slanders concerning the weaker s.e.x. Remember that your mothers were women, and if aught was spoken against them, would not your blood tingle?"

Mr. Brown did not jest again that night, and I think that the reply made us all reflect upon our obligations to our Maker, for we pushed back our chairs from the table, and declared that sleeping was better than drinking, and that we would finish the punch some other time.

Jackson led the way to our room, while our host did the honors for his lady guests. We bade all good night, and after Mr. Brown and myself had exchanged a few words relative to the incidents of the day, we threw ourselves upon the mattresses spread upon the floor, and just as daylight began to glimmer in the east we fell asleep, and our slumbers were undisturbed for many hours; but at length we were awakened by Mr.

Wright, who sat in the only chair the room afforded, smoking his pipe with great apparent relish, and looking as though he had been awake since sunrise.

"Come, rouse up," he said, "or you will have no appet.i.te for supper. You are the soundest sleepers that ever saw, for I made some noise in hopes of awakening you, but I found that was an impossibility, so I thought I would try tobacco smoke."

"What o'clock is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes, and trying to think where I was.

"Near four. Come, get up, and help me entertain the women. They have got their proper clothes on, and don't look so bad as they might. The young one still wails for her husband, although I tell her to keep up her spirits, and think of something else."