Oh, I quite forgot to tell you about him when we wrote to you. He is another of Edwards extravagances. You will remember that when the Cassowary was lost, the only survivors were one seaman and a child of four years of age. Well, about eight months ago, when Edward was travelling to Sydney in the Balclutha, heas he always doesmade the acquaintance of every seaman on board. One of them, a quartermaster, turned out to be the man who had been washed on shore from the Cassowary. Of course Edward was very much interested, and the man, whom he says is a very respectable steady person, told him that he had taken care of the child, who was his fellow-survivor. Well, the end of it was that Edward went to see the boy, and brought him home with him. He will do those extraordinary things.
Who were the boys parents?
No one knows. Coll, the quartermaster, said that there were a great number of steerage passengers on board, and that he remembers seeing a young woman and her husband with this child, whom they called Jim, but what was their name was never ascertained. It was believed that they were newly-arrived emigrants, for no inquiries were made from any quarter about them, and so Coll, who seems to be a very kind man, took the child to his own home, although he has quite a large family, and actually did not want to part with him. Of course, Edward, as usual, went to extremes, and gave the Coll family fifty pounds.
It was a generous action, Lizzie, said Gerrard gravely, and shows him to be a good fellowand a Christian.
Mrs Westonley looked at her step-brother in surprise. But, Thomas, you dont seem to understand. These Coll people are really very poorthe father, I suppose, earns about seven pounds a month as quartermaster, and there are nine children. I think it was ridiculous of Edward giving them any money at all, considering the fact that he was lightening their cares by taking this boy, Jim, off their hands.
Ah! Lizzie, we dont know. They may have been very fond of the kidin fact they must have been, or they would not have kept him for six years, when they could have sent him to the Government Orphanage at Parramatta.
I think that is what they should have done.
No, you dont, Lizzie. You would not have let the youngster go into an Orphanage had you known of the matter. You have fathers heart, Lizzie, under that pretty blouse of yours, although you pretend to be so cold, and put on the keep-off-the-styleeven to me.
Im not cold-hearted, Thomas.
Gerrard rose from his scat, and in another moment, Mrs Westonley found herself in his arms, and seated upon his knees.
Now, look here Lizzie, and he kissed her, Im going to do my level best to please you, for you are my sister. I daresay I have done many things to displease you, but I love you, old woman, I do indeed. And whatever I may have said in the past I take back as we bushmen say, and I want you to give me some of your affection. I know you have tons of it concealed under that prim little manner of yours, but you are too proud to show it. And see, Lizzie, old girl, Im not really the reckless scallawag you think me to be, and he stroked her hair, and looked so earnestly and pleadingly into her eyes, that her womans heart triumphed, and she leant her head on his shoulder.
I never thought you cared for me, Tom, she said and I daresay that I have been to blame in many respects. Edward is one of the best husbands in the world, but he is careless and all but irreligious, and I cannotI really cannot change my nature and be anything more than politely civil to the friends he sometimes brings herethey are rough, noisy and bucolic. I am always urging him to leave a manager at Marumbah and retire from squatting altogether. I do not like Australia, and wish to live in England, but he will not hear of it, although we have ample means to enable us to live in comfort, if not luxury.
Gerrard smiled as he gazed around the handsomely furnished room, and, mentally compared it with his own rough dining room on his station in the Far North.
I should call this a pretty luxurious diggings, Lizzie, he said; there are not many such houses as Marumbah Head Station in Australia.
His half-sister shrugged her shoulders. You should see some of the country houses in England, Thomas. And then another reason why I dislike bush life is the utter lack of female society.
Gerrard raised his brows. Why, there are the three Gordon girls at Black River station, only ten miles away; they certainly struck me as being graceful, refined girls.
Mrs Gordon is not a lady, and makes no secret of it. Her father was a fishcurer at Inverness, and before that a herring fisher.
But she speaks, acts, and bears herself like a lady, protested Gerrard.
It doesnt mattershe is not one. How Major Gordon, who comes from an old Scottish family, could marry her, I cannot understand. She was a nursery governess, or something like that.
Yet Gordon seems a very happy man, and the girls
The girls are all very well, although too horsey for me. I cannot tolerate young women bounding about all over the country after kangaroos, in company with a lot of rough men in shirts and moleskins, attending race meetings, and calling the Roman Catholic clergyman Father Jim to his face. Its simply horrible.
Well! what about Mrs Brooke and Ethel Brooke? asked Gerrard; surely they are ladies in every sense of the word?
I admit that they are better than the Gordons, but Ethel Brooke is a notorious jilt, and her mother has absolutely no control of her; then Mr Brooke himself is more like one of his own stockmen in appearance than a gentleman by birth and education.
Gerrard looked up at the ceilingthen gave up any further argument in despair. Ill tell you what you want, Lizzie, he said, cheerfully, you want about six months in Melbourne or Sydney.
I detest Melbourne; it is hot, dusty, dirty, noisy, and vulgar.
Then Sydney?
Of course, I like Sydney; but Edward never will stay there more than a weekhe is always dying to be back among his cattle and horses.
Ill try my hand with him, and see what I can do with the man, then he added,
Now, let us get on with breakfast. Then well see this cubby house, and Ill diagnose the bears complaint.
As soon as breakfast was over, Mrs Westonley left the room to put on her hat, and Gerrard stretched himself out in a squatters chair on the verandah to smoke his pipe. Presently he heard his sister calling, Jim, where are you? I want you.
Yes, Mrs Westonley! came the reply in a boyish treble, and the owner of it wondered what made her voice sound so differently from its usual hard, sharp tone.
Jim, come here and see my brother. He, you, and Mary, and I are all going down to the cubby house.
Suppressing a gasp of astonishment, the boy came to her to where Gerrard and she were now sitting.
Thomas, this is Jim.
Gerrard jumped up and held out his hand.
How are you, Jim? Glad to see you, and he smiled into the boys sunburnt face. By Jove! you are a big chap for a ten year old boy. What are you going to besoldier, sailor, tinker, tailor, eh?
I did want to be a sailor, sir; but now Im going to be a stockman.
Gerrard smiled again, and surveyed the boy closely. He was rather tall for his age, but not weedy, with a broad sturdy chest, and his face was almost as deeply bronzed as that of Gerrard himself, and two big, honest brown eyes met his gaze steadily and respectfully; the squatter took a liking to him at once, as he had to his sisters child.
Well, Jim, Im going to stay here a week, and youll have to tote me around, and keep me amusedsee? You and Mary between you.
Yes, sir.
Any fish in Marumbah River?
Lots and lotstwo kinds of bream, Murray cod, jew fish, and speckled trout, and awful big eels.
Ha! thats good enough. Got fishing lines and hooks?
Yes, sir.
Then bring em along. Where is Mary, Lizzie?
Here she is, and Mrs Westonley brought her forward, the childs eyes dancing with pleasure; she was too excited to eat any breakfast, until I insisted. Thomas, theyll worry you to death. You dont know them.
Gerrard threw his feet up in the air, like a boy, and rapped his heels togetherIm fit for anythingfrom fishing to riding bull calves, or cutting out a wild bees nest from a gum tree a mile high. Oh! were going to have a high old time. I say, Mary, wheres the invalid Bunny?
In the saddle-room.
Then come along, and Ill prescribe for the poor, tailless gentleman, and he jumped to his feet. We shall not be long, Lizzieare you ready?
I shall be in ten minutes, Thomas, and the children looked wonderingly at her, for she actually smiled at them.
CHAPTER IV
A few days after the return of the owner of Marumbah Downs, he, with Gerrard and the black stockman, Toby, were camped on the bank of a creek about thirty miles from the head station. They had started out at daylight to muster some of the outlying cattle camps, and now after a hard days riding were stretching themselves out upon the grassy bank to rest, whilst Toby was lighting the fire in readiness for supper. On the top of the bank the three hardy stockhorses and a packmare, were grazing contentedly on the rich green grass, and lying at Westonleys feet were two beautiful black-and-tan cattle dogs, still panting with their exertions. The camp had been made in a grove of mimosa trees, within a hundred yards of the clear waters of the creek, which rippled musically over its rocky bed as it sped swiftly to the sea. It wanted an hour to sunset, and already the hum of insects was in the air, and a faint cool breeze which had been stirring the green graceful fronds of the mimosas, and wafting fleecy strips of white across the blue dome above, had died away.
In the thick foliage of a cedar tree on the opposite bank, a pheasant and his mate were hopping about, uttering their harsh, rude notes; then came a whir and whistle of wings and a quick passing shadow overhead as a flock of black duck sped over the tree tops to some sandy-banked, reed-margined pool near by.
Westonley, a big, bushy-bearded man, raised himself on one elbow, and watched them disappear; then he called to Toby to take the gun and follow.
Whats the use of em, Ted? said Gerrard, as pipe in mouth, and with hands clasped under his head, he gazed upwards to the sky. Theres two scrub turkeys in the saddle-bags; dont be such a beastly glutton.
You mind your own business, my little man. You like scrub turkey. I dont. Give me a black or a wood duck, freshly killed, before all scrub or plain turkeys in Australia. And move yourself, you useless animal, and get one of your turkeys and pluck it while Toby is getting a duck or two. Wonderfully intelligent nigger is Toby. Ive never yet known him to fail in getting me a duck if there was one within a mile. I say, Tommy, dye like crawfish? This creek here is full of em. Well get some after supper.
All right! Im with you there, said Gerrard, as he pulled out two scrub turkeys from the saddle-bags, and then seizing one by the legs, he took aim at the broad back of his friend, and the fat, heavy bird struck him fairly in the middle of it. The big man never moved, except to carelessly put his hand out behind, and taking the turkey, began to pluck it.
Tommy, he said, presently, dye know how to make crawfish soup? Its grand!
Can make it as well as you can, sonny, replied Gerrard, as he sat down and began plucking the other bird.
Fearful lot of cubs at the Union now in Sydney, said the older man, meditatively. Hate going into the place. Met the two young Arlingtons there the other day, and asked em if they were going home to the station. No jolly fear, said one of the cubsthey have just come back from college in Englandweve had enough of Portland Downs and bullock punching, branding, and all the rest of the beastly thing. But youll go and see your father? I asked. Well, I dont think so, you know, Mr Westonley, drawled the elder cub, its a beastly long way, and takes such a devil of a time to get therefourteen hundred miles by steamer is no joke, and we have to be back in England in five months. So the governor is coming down here to have a palaver with us. It hurt me, Tom, to hear these two youngsters talking like that, for Arlington is over seventy years of age. And they were good lads until he sent them to England to college with more money than was good for them. And it has done them harmmade cads of em, and he viciously tugged at the wing feathers of the bird he was plucking. Your father used to say that Oxford and Cambridge turned out more good men, and more moneyed snobs into the world than all the other colleges in the universe.
Daresay, said Tom Gerrard, carelessly, as he began a surgical operation on his turkey. I have heard my father say that old Arlington, who was one of the best of the old time squatters, made a mistake in sending those two boys home with unlimited money and credit. I suppose theyll turn out rotters.
Most likely. And Arlingtonby thunder, cant that old fellow of seventy ride through scrubthinks that they will take his place on Portland Downs when he dies, and be a credit to the colony. I wouldnt have em on Marumbah as jackeroos, at a pound a week. But yet there is good stuff in them, Tom, and good English bloodthe best in the world. Hallo! this turkey has eggs; just the very thing for the crawfish soup to-morrow.
Presently two shots rang out in quick succession.
Toby has got on to em, said Westonley; how do you cook black duck, freshly-killed, sonny, when youre camping out?
Grill em.
The whole carcass?
Yes.
Well, you must have degrading, greedy customs up in Queensland. Why, the only partbut there, Ill show you presently when Toby comes back. Tommy!
Yes.
This sort of thing is all right, isnt it? and the big man waved his great arm vaguely around his head.
Yes, its as fine a bit of country as there is anywhere in Australia, replied the younger man, who knew how devoted his companion was to Marumbah. In fact it is all good country on Marumbah. I wish my run was half as good. Still Ive nothing to grumble at. There are five thousand cattle on Ocho Rios now, and it will carry another two thousand easily.
Presently Toby appeared carrying three ducks, which he handed to his master, who felt them approvingly. Theyre all right, Toby. Go and look to your fire. Now, Tom, my son, Ill show you the only way to fix up a black duck quickly, and correctly as well. Plucking the thick coating of feathers off the underneath half of a bird from the lower part of the neck down, he made a deep, sweeping curve with his sheath knife, removed the entire breast denuded of plumage, and then threw the rest to the dogs. A second bird was done the same way, and the two portions were then skewered through with a piece of hard, green wood, sprinkled with salt, and handed to the black boy, who soon had them frizzling merrily over a glowing fire.