Euancondit. A story of Australia in the sixties

Front matter

EUANCONDIT EUANCONDIT a Storv? of Hustralia in tbe Siitie^ BY HENRY GOLDSMITH "■" AL Ai rHOR of "our alma," etc. " Life is mostly froth and bubble Two things stand like stone : Kindness in another's trouble. Courage in your own." LONDON- SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND CO. Paternoster Square i»95 Printed by Richard Clay and Sons, Limited london and bungay Tl) NANCY AND KEITH CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. OFF THE OTWAY ... ... ... ... 1 II. THE MERTONS ... ... ... ... ... 12 III. SEEING LIFE 26 IV. KATIE ... ... ... ... ... ... 41 V. IN SOCIETY ... ... ... ... ... 52 VI. THE STOEY OF EUANCONDIT I. PINGUNYAH 68 VII. THE STOEY OF EUANCONDIT II. MISSING ... ... ... ... ... 77 VIII. THE STOEY OF EUANCONDIT III. LOST AND FOUND ... ... ... 89 IX. THE STOEY OF EUANCONDIT IV. IN THE FOREST ... ... ... ... 101 X. THE STOEY OF EUANCONDIT V. EUANCONDIT ... ... ... ... 115 XI.

SEEKING EMPLOYMENT... ... ... ... 124 XII. GOOD-BYE ... ... ... ... ... 138 XIII. A GAME OF POKEK ... ... ... ... 152 XIV. HAED GRAFT ... ... ... .-■ 166 XV. THE SECOND SPIFFKINS ... ... ... 181 XVI. SID PROCTER 195 XVII. ON THE WALLABY TRACK ... ... ... CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XVIII. CONFIDENCES ... ... ... ... ... 225 XIX. sid's REEF ... ... ... ... ... 239 XX. MAJENDIE'S DILEMMA ... ... ... ... 256 XXI. THE JUMPING OF THE CLAIM ... ... ... 271 xxii. sid's luck ... ... ... \. ... 286 t XXIII. THE END OF THE CASE ... ... ... 302 XXIV. BACK AT PINGUNYAH ... ... ... ... 317 XXV. SETTLING DOWN ... ... ... ... EUANCONDIT

Chapter I Off The Otway

Early in the morning of a lovely spring day in one of the later sixties, a young gentleman lounged in a comfortable chair on the deck of a P. and 0. steamer as she was rounding Cape Otway. Mr. Richard Chomley, the young gentleman referred to, was in morning undress, with a large rug thrown loosely round him to counteract the chill of the morning air, and was regaling himself with a cup of coffee and a biscuit which had been provided for him by the steward, who a few minutes before had awakened him and roused him up with the welcome intelligence that they were " just hoff the Hotway." He sat now, delicately sipping the hot coffee and nibbling his biscuit, with his gaze fixed on the lighthouse and station buildings on the high jutting cape a few mUes distant. This was the first view he had obtained of the land he was about to make bis own, or which was at any rate to shelter and enrich him until he thought fit to return to his native country.

It was not altogether an inviting kind of land, he thought, from present appearances, but there was a sort of EUANCONDIT rugged beauty, too, in the lofty timber-clad ranges that stretched up from the shore, and the high craggy bank of the coast-line where the lighthouse stood against the roll and swish of the surf from the sweep of the Southern Ocean along the shore, and over the ugly, half-hidden reef at the base of the crag that forms the Cape. It looked wild and rugged, and he was just a trifle disappointed that the land did not appear to overflow with milk and honey ; but then, he sagely reflected, probably all the country would not be like this particular sample. And this was the land of gold — the southern sunny land where fortunes incalculable could be made in a year or less, and where thousands of men were now busily employed turning over the guUies and creeks and mountain gorges in the fierce pursuit of wealth.

"What would his fortune be in this new land 1 Was it to be a success or a failure] "Would he return home in a year or two with a " pile " that would last him for his lifetime, or would he sink underneath the surface of the seething life stream in the struggle, as so many had done, and slink home to the parental roof-tree like a criminal ? He was quite young— not more than two-and-twenty — and was full of the enthusiasm of youth. He was not by any means a bad-looking young fellow, and perhaps the excitement of this first view of the Victorian coast lent an addition to the colour of his cheeks and the sparkle of his large brown eyes. His features were regular, though perhaps not strictly speaking handsome. His mouth and chin certainly gave a slight indication of lack of resolution, which might possibly be a serious drawback to his prospects in this new land.

But the upper part of his face was perfect in the expression of intelligence and manliness and energy. His face was clean-shaven, except for a light-brown moustache, and his hair, curling slightly over his square broad forehead, was of a rather darker shade. When he rose and set down his cup on the deck, it could be seen that he was tall and broad-shouldered and athletic. Just the sort of young fellow to push his way in a new country, if he only looked after himself properly and made a good beginning. It was only a few minutes past six o'clock, and no passengers had as yet come on deck, as the big steamer threshed her way along the dull, monotonous coast. The weather was delightfully fine, with a light cool breeze coming from the south, which carried the smoke from the funnels shorewards in a long dark cloud ; and the morning sun, just risen over the starboard bow, lighted up the jutting rocks and crags along the shore line, and gave token of a pleasant day.

Mr. Chomley placed his cup and saucer on the deck where it could be seen by the steward when he came along, and lounged over the ship's side, where he remained leaning forward with intent looks fixed on the dull, brown forest that rose direct from the beach to the towering heights of the Otway ranges. He was immersed in deep thought about the future life that was coming so near to him, and took out his pipe for a first morning smoke. There were no passengers about at this early hour, and not likely to be for some time, so he thought the rules restricting smoking in this part of the ship might be very reasonably relaxed. As he was lighting his pipe, however — he had given up the aristocratic cigar and taken to the short pipe when he assumed the position and dignity of a man who had set out to seek his fortune in Australia — a feUow-passenger made his appearance on deck, also loosely dressed, and also bearing a cup of coffee in one hand and a biscuit in the other.

The new-comer was rather older than Chomley, being at least twenty-eight years of age, and he had the sun-browned and weather-beaten appearance, and the assured confidence of manner and easy method of adapting himself to any society and to any circumstances which stamped him as a pioneer, and which told at once that he was not a new chum. EUANCONDIT In fact, this was the second visit of Mr. Procter to Australia. He had been out some years before in tbe hottest time of the gold rush, and had made his pile and spent it somehow, and was now returning with a strong intention of building up another as rapidly as he possibly could, and a still stronger intention of keeping it when he got it. Mr. Sidney Procter, who had met Dick Chomley for the first time on board the ship, was a very pleasant-looking young man — for he was still young at twenty-eight — with merry, dancing blue eyes, and his mouth always gave one the idea that there was a smile lurking about it some where, waiting for an opportunity to escape.

He, too, was tall, and his well-knit limbs and sinewy hands gave token of the hard work he had done in his time. His cheeks and chin were covered witb short brown whiskers and beard, clipped much the same length all the way round, and a large moustache entirely hid the upper part of his mouth. " First view of the new land, Dick," he said cheerily. "There's your fortune right ahead of you, and close handy now. It was rather different, though, when I came out here last. There were no P. and O. boats then, and it took us five months to do the trip. We'll soon be up to the Heads now, and then — there you are ! " "I've just been thinking, Sid," remarked Mr. Chomley, " what an uncomfortable and unenviable frame of mind it is to be in to know yourself a new chum ; and I think so all the more since you have come on deck, with that con tented, rough-and-tumble sort of way of yours.

I envy you, Sid ; upon my soul I do." " Do you?" replied the other, with a strange look in his blue eyes. " I don't think you would envy me, Dick, if you knew what I have gone through in this country, and why I am coming back to it. But don't worry yourself about being new to the Hfe, old man ; the remedy will come in its own time. Every young fellow has to go through it once in his life, when he comes out here. He must of necessity be a new chum — or what we call here a lime-juicer, or a Johnny-come-lately — for a while, but you will find that, to use the elegant diction of the country, you'll get rid of the lime-juice and lose your new chum fat within three months ; and sooner than that if you go on the diggings." "Oh, I don't intend to give in," said Dick; "don't think it. I haven't come all this way to give it best before I have landed and seen things for myself."

" What are you going to do, Dick 1 Have you formed any plans 1" "Well, no," replied Dick thoughtfully. "I shall be guided by circumstances and the advice of friends. I have any number of letters of introduction that ought to help me along. You could do something in that way yourseff, you know, Sid — I mean in the way of advice — and I'm sure you'd be glad to give me a lift." "Yes ; I could if we were together," said Procter, "but we are not likely to be — for a while, at any rate. I cannot stay in Melbourne, Dick. I must go up the country at once, and it's no use telling you where you'll find me, because I have no idea myself where I'll be. What were you thinking of doing?" " Oh, put up at an hotel for a while, and look round me. Then, if I can't find any profitable employment in Mel bourne, or very likely, in any event, I shall fall into the ruck, and take to the country and my swag.

I hope it won't come to that, though, any way." " Well," said Procter, in an impressive tone, " there's one bit of advice I can give you, Dick. If you don't mean staying in Melbourne for good, get out of it as soon as you can." " Why, Sid ? What's wrong with Melbourne ? " "Nothing wrong with the place," said his companion; " but it's not a good life for a young fellow just out. I've been through it, and it is a mighty tough knot to undo. The great cause of faUure in most of the young fellows of EUANCONDIT decent parentage who come out here, is that they stay too long in town, and lead the free and foolish life that they can get there as long as their bit of money lasts. And then they are on their beam ends." " I don't think I shall do that, Sid," remarked Dick. "I hope not, old man; but don't blow.

If you ever feel yourself going that way, just think of me, and remem ber how I fooled away my chances, and pull yourself up in time. Put the brake down hard, old man, and give it best. You'll find plenty of sharks here ready to give you a helping hand to Avernus, but mighty few to help to bring you back. It's all a race, you know, and the swiftest and strongest must win in the long run, and must bear down the others. I've been a fool myself in my day, and paid dearly for it, too. That's what you've got to guard against, Dick, for God knows how one foolish act of mine has ruined my life." " That's not a very cheerful way to look at your arrival, Sid. It's not so bad as that, surely. You can make up for the past." "No, Dick," said his friend, and his voice took a melancholy tone quite foreign to his nature.

" There's no chanco of that. I may make money — I dare say I shall, as I know the ropes — but that is only a small matter with me. We've been good chums on the way out, old man, and now, when we're so near parting, I've half a mind to tell you all about it." " Why not, Sid ? It may be some relief to you, and will be of great assistance to me." "The chances are," Sid went on, "we may come together again, but most likely we shall not. You never can tell. Anyhow, in telling you my story, I need mention no names, and the moral will be just as effective as if I did. It may act as a kind of caution to you. Let us sit down to it." They arranged two deck-chairs side by side and sat down, Procter, with his slouch hat pulled over his eyes, puffing hard at his pipe, as though he were thinking out the thread of his story, and Dick still gazing wistfully at the distant hills.

Presently Sid spoke. "There's not much in it after all, Dick. Well, when I first came out here, some years ago, and when I was quite a youngster, the diggings were in full swing, and no temptation could keep me in Melbourne. I was mad to get at the gold. All the crew of the ship I came out in were in the same way of thinking, and deserted and streaked up the country the day after we landed. All along the road to Bendigo I met them, straggling along in twos and threes with their swags and their bilHes, among thousands of others. I went straight on to Bendigo, where I picked up the second mate of our ship, and we settled down to work together. " Our success, was wonderful, Dick, considering we were new chums at the work, though not more wonderful than some of the finds I could tell you of. Our first little claim gave us a fortune.

We were intoxicated with our success, and when we had worked out our small patch of ground we came back to Melbourne for a holiday. In a few months I had found myself a wealthy man. " My mate went off on a spree, and knocked his money down in no time. I never saw him again, and the chances are that he finished up with a knife in his vitals in some back slum, or a plunge in the river in a fit of the jim-jams — delirium tremens, you know. I had more gumption than that. I banked my money, and enjoyed my spell quietly and calmly. But the gold-fever was on me, and I couldn't rest. I was off again after a few weeks of town, and this time tried my luck at Forest Creek. " Here again fortune favoured me. Sometimes I got as much as a pound weight of gold out of a bucketful of dirt — that's close on fifty pounds' worth, you know— and there was plenty of such stuff.

Within a year I had more than doubled my first pile, and I started off to town for another spell. B EUANCONDIT "Then I made a fool of myself. I can't think what possessed me. And here's where the moral comes in. I met a man whom I afterwards found out was a cashiered army officer, and for once I submitted my will to another man's. But there !— why go on ? I said I made a fool of myself ; and so I did, that's all about it. I've cut my cake, and it's no use grumbling over it now. In a couple of months I had gambled away all my pile, except about two hundred pounds. Then I suddenly came to my senses, when it was too late. " But I had lost more than that, old man ; a loss, too, that can never be replaced. I — I " He stopped in hesitation, and puffed hard at his pipe, with his eyes fixedly staring at the purple hills in the distance.

" Don't tell me, Sid, if you think I should not know," said his friend, placing his hand on the other's arm. " Oh, it was nothing wrong, Dick. I kept straight through it all, thank God. But I — I had got to care for a girl, Dick, and we were to have been married. Well, never mind ! God bless her, wherever she is ; it was no fault of hers. She was fond of me, too, I know. But I had got a bad name as a rake and a gambler, as I was. I had gambled away all my money, and there was nothing left for me, when I saw her afterwards, but a miserable confession of my weakness, and an offer to release her from her engagement. I don't blame her that she lost faith in me. But — weU, that's about all, Dick. I could not stop in the country after that, so I set off home to England again, with very little more than my passage-money to show for my wasted time."

He stopped, and remained seated in deep thought for some time, still gazing earnestly and yearningly at the distant hills. Dick was the first to speak. " And now you have come back, Sid ? " " Yes," he replied, " because I am still a fool. At home among the old folks I could only brood and think over my folly, and the lost girl became dearer and dearer as I felt the more convinced that all hope for me was* lost. So I resolved to live it down in the rough and reckless old digging life that I had Hved before. That is why I have come back, Dick. But don't think I am going to be over reckless, and throw myself to the dogs. Not a bit of it. I shall try to make another pile, retrieve my good name, and perhaps then, if not too late " He stopped again, looking steadfastly still at the distant shore with the same earnest and yearning look in his blue eyes ; a look that Dick had never seen in his merry, comely face before.

He touched his friend lightly on the shoulder. " Don't give in, Sid, at any rate," he said. " Hope on for the best." Procter rose and paced the deck, shaking himself like a dog just out of the water, as though he wished to free him self from his melancholy mood. After a good spin of mild exertion, he stopped in front of Dick Chomley. "I think we had better go and dress for breakfast, Dick," he remarked. "It's pretty near the time." When they came on deck again after breakfast they were drawing near the Heads, and in less than an hour were almost abreast of Queenscliff. All the passengers were on deck now, gazing at the lighthouses and the township, and the bright yellow bluffs that glared in the morning sun. Dick Chomley and his friend took up their former posi tion at the taffrail, and both looked intently at the land they had come so far to win their fortune from.

" I was a great ass when I first came out here," remarked Sid. " A more complete and unsophisticated new chum could not exist. I remember it was early morning when we reached the Heads and hove-to for a pilot, and the sun was blazing on those yellow cliffs much as it does now, only brighter. Do you know, I thought they were made of soUd gold, because some fellow who had gone through the mill in California stuffed me with all kinds of rubbish. EUANCONDIT I was really under the impression that I could fill a ship with it in a week. But I was only eighteen then, and hadn't travelled much, and that was some excuse for me." " I'm not sure," said Dick, " that I'd be taken in to that extent, Sid, though it's early yet to begin boasting." " I don't suppose you would, old man. I hope you're not such a fool as I was.

But you'll have to go through the mill like the rest of us ; and you needn't beHeve more than you like of what is told you." "Indeed, I don't intend to," said Dick, with a great show of assurance. "Look after yourseU," Sid continued, " and be always on the look-out for having a rise taken out of you. That's all you've got to do. Why, when I first started off to Bendigo, a Melbourne man — a solid, dignified old fellow, too — cautioned me earnestly to take great care of myself if I was compelled to camp for a night in the Black Forest. That's on the road to Bendigo, about half-way to Forest Creek. He said mosquitoes were the trouble there, and he told me in a most solemn way a story of how a man who was carting stores to the diggings camped there one night and turned out his bullocks. In the morning he discovered that his team was lost.

He spent a day in searching for them, and at last found their bones all in a heap, clean stripped of every particle of flesh ; and a gigantic mosquito sat on the stump of a fallen gum-tree, placidly watching the wreck, and picking his teeth with one of the horns." " But you didn't believe that?" said Dick, laughing. " No ; of course not. But it frightened me, all the same. From the solemn way in which it was told I thought there must be a good deal of danger in camping out in the Black Forest. Then again, I was told another yarn of an incident that was supposed to have occurred in Flinders Street. Of course there was no made street there in my time, and in winter there was only a stretch of soft mud reaching from the houses to the river. It was quite a common circum stance for teams to get bogged there, and have to be du» out.

Well, the next truthful narrator informed me that one day he was trying to cross the street, picking his way as best he could through the mud, and stepping on to the stones that had been placed there to make a crossing. He put his foot on one round stone, and was astonished to find that it suddenly sank under his weight. He managed to recover himself in time to avoid a plunge into the mud, and was horrified to notice the round stone bob up to the surface again. He had stepped on the bald head of an old man who had got bogged, and who, on coming back to the surface, remarked in a melancholy tone of injured inno cence, ' I say, mate, for God's sake don't shove me any lower down ! ' That's the sort of thing they'll cram you with, Dick." Chomley laughed heartily over the story, and they lounged over the ship's side for a long time, looking at the shore as they passed through the Heads.

As soon as they were well inside the engines were slowed down to half speed, and they steamed slowly up the South Channel. It was rather a surprise to the new arrival to find that the view opened out again into a wide expanse of sea, until he lost sight of land on one side altogether, except three glittering mountain peaks in the far west. He had ex pected to find Melbourne within a short distance of the Heads. As it was, it took them nearly four hours to creep up to Williamstown, and Mr. Chomley then for the first time had a glimpse of the southern city in the distance, and the railway pier at Liardet's Beach, or Sandridge as it was now called, lined with ships, and the little village of WUliamstown nestling cosily in the nook of Hobson's Bay.

Chapter II The Mertons

In these early days of the colony, at the time when Mr. Chomley first shed upon it the light of bis presence, there was no express train from Adelaide to take the English mails overland to Melbourne and Sydney. They were brought round the coast by the mail-steamer, the arrival of which was always looked forward to with eagerness and anticipation by the whole population of Victoria. The overland telegraph line to Port Darwin, establishing communication with the mother-country, was only being dreamed of as a possible benefit in the future, and the first intimation of news from home to the Melbourne folks was the monthly telegram from King George's Sound, dispatched immediately the mail-steamer arrived at that port. Thus it happened that there was always a tolerably numerous crowd of people on the Williamstown pier to witness the arrival of a P. and O. mail-boat.

Within five minutes after she had passed Cape Otway the fact was known in Melbourne, and ag.iin, as she passed through the Heads, another telegram was sent on from Queenscliff, and the R.M. flag was hoisted on the flag-staff of the General Post Office to announce the fact that the mail-steamer was coming up the bay. It took a full hour to berth her snug alongside the pier, so as to admit of the landing of the passengers. The pier was black with people of all degrees, most of them being people who had come to welcome their friends, and many out of mere curiosity. The excitement among these was intense as the great ship hove slowly alongside — people on board recognized friends on shore who did not recognize them, and shouted to them, and gesticulated, and made brave attempts to attract the attention of their friends ; while the position of many of those on board was exactly the same, though reversed.

The greater portion of the passengers were rushing in apparent aimlessness all over the ship, Hke ants over their nest when the equilibrium of their life is disturbed, or were hanging over the side in a long black line, eagerly scanning and searching among the crowd on the pier for the sight of a face they knew. Many of the women, too, both on the pier and on the ship, were crying with unrestrained joy and emotion, and frantically waving their handkerchiefs in their eagerness to clasp the hand or to kiss the cheek of a friend or relative whom they had not seen for so long. One young man on shore, in the holiday dress of an artisan, who apparently had a very near and dear friend on board, in his eagerness and excitement scrambled hand over hand along the hawser while the ship was yet some yards away from the pier, and contrived to struggle on board with the loss of his best hat and with a somewhat damaged Sunday suit.

But what mattered that to him ? Standing quietly beside the foremast was a sturdy, ruddy-faced young girl, who was an excited witness of the whole performance, and who stood there breathlessly with clasped hands and tearful eyes, afraid to go too near the ship's side for fear she might see her boy drop from the rope into the water, and finish up her long voyage with a tragedy. And when he scrambled on board, and fell sprawling on his hands and knees on the deck, he gave no thought to the growls of the sailors or the cheering and clapping of hands that applauded his feat, but jumped up briskly and rushed EUANCONDIT with open arms to the girl who stood beside the mast, quite regardless of all appearances. The little romance was patent to all the onlookers. A young fellow who had come to Australia some years ago in search of wealth, leaving his heart at home in the care of the girl he left behind him ; his steady progress in the new country, and the gradual building up of a home for her in the far-off land ; the joyous letter that contained the remittance to bring her out to him ; and the ecstatic meet ing on the ship's deck after the long weary separation.

It was all told in that one action of his. Ah, well, we look back to the time when the sight of such a meeting as this would make our eyes feel dim, and cause a lump to rise in our throats, at the simple thought of the pure happiness of such a meeting of two fellow creatures. And we give them ouiheartiest congratulations and best wishes, fervently praying that the Httle romance now being played out before us may in a short time enable the re-united pair to settle down into the serene enjoyment and tranquil prosperity that their long-deferred union has so well deserved. Our two friends looked on the lively scene before them amused, and, to tell the truth, somewhat affected by it. There was no one to meet them, so they had no need to seek for recognition, and could spend all their time in watching the others.