The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 40

"Excuse me, doctor," replied the lieutenant, faintly, "but I hardly know what I am saying, I feel so weak. Get me into the carriage as quick as possible, and take me to the barracks where I can be quiet."

"We'll do that, Wattles; but it's a great pity that you don't know who your friends are. Come along with yer carriage, ye blackguard, and don't stop there looking behind ye, as though ye were a light-house."

The latter portion of the doctor's remarks was addressed to the driver of the vehicle, who, instead of paying any attention to the words of O'Haraty, was gazing, with an anxious glance, towards the city.

"What is the spalpeen looking at?" demanded the doctor, angrily. "Come here with the horses, and waste no more time."

"I see a cloud, as though a party of horse was galloping this way, and kicking up a dust. I'm suspicious that it's the police, and divil a bit do I want to be put into limbo for being concerned in the duel," cried the driver, making preparations to turn his horses.

"Are ye certain that it's the police?" demanded O'Haraty, eagerly.

"Yes, I'm certain; for now I can see over the bushes, and distinguish their blue coats. Every one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. I'm off, sure."

The fellow turned his animals' heads, and started towards the opening, but a loud threat from O'Haraty caused him to stop for a moment--and only for a moment.

"Curse ye for a cowardly villain!" yellen the doctor. "If yer don't stop this instant, I'll drive a piece of cold lead through yer thick skull."

He drew from his breast pocket a rifle pistol as he spoke, and aimed it at the runaway.

The driver looked over his shoulder, and seemed half inclined to obey, but the sound of approaching horses stirred him into life. He struck his animals a smart blow with his whip, and they sprang forward; but as they did so, the doctor raised his pistol, sighted hastily, and fired.

The fellow's hat fell to the ground, and with a yell of triumph at his lucky escape, the driver continued on, and in a few minutes would have been beyond reach; but just at that instant my n.o.ble dog--the hound which I had left under lock and key at Smith's house--bounded towards me and covered my face with his kisses.

A lucky thought occurred to me; I glanced at Wattles, and saw that he had fainted from exhaustion and pain, and that it was certain death for him to be exposed to the hot rays of the sun for any length of time, so I determined to save him at any hazard.

"Here, Rover," I said, calling to the dog, and pointing to the retreating carriage, "seize him, good dog--seize him," I shouted.

The animal did not hesitate for an instant. With a mighty bound he cleared over twenty feet of the distance which separated him from the object which I had called his attention to, and almost before I could think, he seized the near horse by the throat, and brought him heavily to the ground. The driver rose from his seat and plied his whip with desperate energy, in hopes of beating the dog off, but such was the agility of Rover that not a blow reached him, and while his attention was thus occupied, O'Haraty stole forward, grasped the man by the leg, dragged him to the ground, and commenced to beat him unmercifully, mingling his blows with such exclamations as--

"Lave us, would ye?" May the divil saze ye, ye mane thief of the world.

Whin I hired ye to tend us and behave like a dacent man, ye up and cuts, jist because me friend gets a scratch on his arm."

"The police are coming," roared the fellow, rendered desperate by his beating.

"Let them come, if they will, but ye shan't go," cried the doctor, sitting astride of his fallen foe and glancing at Fred and I in triumph, while the perspiration streamed down his face in torrents.

"I saw the police trotting down the road," yelled the fallen man.

"Who calls the police?" cried a deep-toned voice near at hand.

I knew the speaker well, although I confess that it started me to hear him so unexpectedly, and looking up I saw that Murden sat on his horse, a few paces off, calmly surveying the strange group before him. At a short distance were six of his men, also mounted and drawn up in line awaiting their chief's solution of the difficulty.

"I think that my presence is needed here if you intend to murder that fellow, doctor," Murden said, good naturedly, addressing O'Haraty, who kept his position, looking somewhat foolish at being caught.

"The mane scamp," began the doctor, when Murden checked him.

"What, is the cause of the gathering, and why do I find an officer of her majesty, lying on the ground wounded and insensible?"

"Why, the fact of it is, Mr. Officer," Merriam began, but apparently afraid of the consequences, he stopped and looked hard towards the doctor, as though asking him to take up the answer and carry it through in the best manner possible.

"O, the divils," roared the doctor, rising from his seat, much to the relief of the driver, who apparently thanked G.o.d that he was rid of such an inc.u.mbrance.

"O, the spalpeens," continued O'Haraty, shaking his fist at an imaginary enemy a long distance off. "O, if there is law to be had in the land we'll pursue ye wid not only the police force, but the whole army, and then we'll see if ye are so bold."

"What is the matter, doctor?" asked Murden, who I thought suspected what had taken place, and was disposed to overlook it, yet not a word of recognition had he bestowed upon Fred and myself, so we kept in the background.

"Matter?" yelled the doctor, apparently desperately angry; "why, here's me friends and myself out for a bit of a walk and to kill a kangaroo or two, when a party of sneaking bushrangers ups and fires at us, and down tumbles Wattles, shot in the arm quite nately. It's chase we gave to the villains, but run they did, and when we came back we found that this scamp was disposed to escape to Melbourne and lave us to foot it back to the city."

"Indeed! Pray which way did they go?" asked Murden, not moving a muscle of his face.

"Over the hill, there. Ride quick, and I think it's prisoners they'll be in no time," cried the doctor.

"Did you count how many there were?" asked the police officer.

"Count them? How the divil could we, there were so many?" replied O'Haraty.

"O, then if the bushrangers were in such force, it's surprising they should run from only six men. I thought better of their courage," and a sarcastic smile stole over Murden's face as he watched the doctor's companion.

"Well, well," stammered O'Haraty, "if ye had heard us shout, ye would have thought we could have frightened the divil himself."

"Well, whether Wattles was wounded by a bushranger or a companion, it will do him no good to remain here in the hot sun. Place him carefully into the carriage and drive to the barracks. I'll follow shortly, and continue my investigation of this mysterious affair."

Murden spoke like one accustomed to be obeyed. The driver of the carriage, who hardly moved two steps without keeping his eyes on the dog--the animal appearing to have some strong antipathy against him--readily lent his aid, and with Smith's a.s.sistance the wounded lieutenant was propped up on a seat, and the doctor stowed his corpulent person alongside of him.

"Why did you not tell me of this yesterday?" asked Murden, beckoning to me, and whispering in a low tone.

"Because we were fearful that you would interrupt the proceedings," I replied.

"I certainly should have done so. Are you aware that Wattles is a most experienced and successful duellist? That he has been out half a dozen times, and always came off without so much as a scratch?"

"No, I was not aware that such is the case," I answered.

"He is all that I tell you, and if I had suspected that a duel was to come off between Fred and the soldier, I should have had both of them arrested and locked up, and kept them until they were ready to swear that they would not lift their hands against each other."

"And then Fred and myself would have been imputed as informers, and a stain would have rested on our reputations, and we should no longer have been considered fit company for gentlemen." "That does not necessarily follow," answered Murden. "No one who knows you both can call you aught but brave men."

"But did we not dine with you after we had received the challenge? We made no secret of our going--hundreds saw us enter your house, and hundreds saw us depart. Had we but lisped a word of our intended doings, it would have been said that we visited you on purpose. Come, look at the matter in a sensible light, and you will take a different view of the affair."

Murden shook his head as if he considered it not only a breach of the law but a breach of friendship to fight a duel without his knowledge; and he intended to reply, but the doctor poked his jolly looking face from the window of the carriage, and bade us good-by, and requested the pleasure of our company to dinner on the next day.

"And do you come too, Murden. I've a few bottles of the rale Irish whiskey, and better cannot be found in the world, and if ye come I'll brew a jug of punch that'll make ye think ye are in paradise after drinking a few tumblers. Good-by, boys, and, Murden, keep a sharp look out for the bushrangers."

The driver started his horses, and for a few minutes after the carriage had left the field we could hear the mellow voice of the doctor laughing at the idea of his quizzing the police lieutenant with his story about bushrangers.

"Come and breakfast with us," I said, turning to Murden. "We cannot celebrate the escape of our friend Fred in a more appropriate manner."

"Agreed," he cried; and then turning to his men, he said, "return to the station and report that Lieutenant Wattles was severely injured this morning by the accidental discharge of his rifle while hunting kangaroos. If I am wanted you know where to find me."

"Pray, how came you on the road so early?" I asked Murden.