How Jack Derrick Squared Matters .. .

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 32, 9 February 1901, Page 14

How Jack Derrick Squared Matters . . .

DERRICK had been fossicking along the creek for some months, and had done, badly, and he made no serious objection when his wife proposed to take in the tall stranger camped in the brown paddock as a lodger on the terms the stranger had proposed. Derrick was the more willing as the stranger seemed a man of nerve, and one likely to be persuaded to join him in a long cherished enterprise, that of fossicking the old workings of one or two of the deep mines long since abandoned. Jack Derrick had worked in those mines when they -»ere paying splendid dividends to the lucky shareholders, and he knew of many patches in the drives that would yield g6od returns to men plucky enough to risk their lives about the rotten ground. The "show was very tempting to "hard-up" men, but Jack had never been able to induce anyone to join him in the venture. They always shook their heads and answered "Not good enough, old man. A fellow risks his life in the ordinary way of earning a living, but this is simply throwing it away." . Jack knew the truth of this as well as an- of them, but he was willing to take his chances for the sake of his wife. His love for his wife was Derrick's ruling passion. He was a quiet, undemonstrative man, and made no great parade of his affection, but the still stream of his love raai deep, and the knowledge that Kate was deprived of many things that she desired and much that other women enjoyed, simply because of his inability to earn sufficient money to pay for nice dresses and anything" but the coarsest and commonest food, was the bitterest trial of his life. The stranger called himself David Hallum. He was a sort of amateur prospector, and had come to the district hunting for the reef that was known to exist in the hills, but which as yet had only proved a false lure to the miners. . Hallum took up Ins residence in Derrick's house, and never did lodger give his hostess less trouble. He was a quiet, self-contained man, tall, clean-* shaven and prematurely grey, under, forty, rather a handsome man, certain-, ly much more refined than the ordinary miner. He seemed to spend all his spare time reading, and had only two dissipations that the Derricks could discover, a taste for expensive cigars and a passion for expensive books. Derrick could not understand the jnan, and soon gave up trying. He realised that the lodger was a man vastly supenor, to himself in the way men are usually mdged, but evidently nearly as poor as himself, and possessed of nothing but what he earned. Yet the two men got on admirably together. They spoke little, but Jack acquired a strange liking for Hallum, finding a good deal in him that was a reflection of his own nature. , . Hallum seemed to have no ambitions, no desires beyond the life he led. He w orked all day, read and smoked in the twilieht after tea, and generally spent his evenings in his room, where he had formed a queer library for a working miner. Derrick found courage after about two months, when the syndicate for which Hallum was working refused to continue the hunt for the reef, to broach his project in connection with the old mines. To his surprise, Hallum fell m with it quite readily. He simply agreed to join Jack, making no comment whatever. '•You know it ain't the safest game? ventured Derrick '"I suppose rot," answered Hallum, quietly, "but if \o-i think the^ gamo worth" the candle T ir t with \ou." "Done, then," said Derii"V "To be sure." replied Hallum, lecmning to his book "We'll want a new rope-- a nictt-\ long one. My windlass will do," continued Jack. "Right," said Hallum, "I'll order it." The two men went to work on the following Monda^ and their fiist week's work yielded a handsome return. For five weeks they made big wages but once they had so narrowly escaned being crushed in a drive after taking out a pillar of dirt that .ordinary men 111 their places would immediately have abandoned the enterprise. Hallum was not in the least impressed bv the adventure. Derrick understood tli^ danger better but seeing a chance of improving his position in life, persisted ioi his w ife's sake Kate Derrick was a tall, dark-eyed dark haired woman of thirty-two, who dressed with becoming simplicity and b\ her nuiet manner suejeest-ed i reserve of character which she did '"ot possess. She was impressive by virtre of her neatness and her quietness fid was considered highly intellectual by all uniritellectunl people, especially her clotinff husband. Hallum's attitude towards Kate wns peculiarly un nattering : most of the time he was apparently quite unconscious of her presence, and when he did

speak w ith her it was m the most casual way on the most casual subjects Derrick noted this, and it became a grievance of his. One day he said to his mate 'You don't seem to like my missus, Hallum?" Hallum ceased working, and said quietly "Ko , what makes you think so ? " "Well, you don't give her no attention like, an' I think she's a bit hurt about it. Women's so touchy about trifles o' that sort, ain't the\ ? " "Are they, Jack p I don't know , myself. But I think you aie mistaken about Mrs. Derrick — she knows I'm not one of the demonstrative sort." Derrick was soon undeceived on this point. Going home from the township one night, a fleeting shadow across the blind struck him with the force of a hammer — struck him like a heavy blow in the throat. Shaking like a leaf feeling like a man whose world, whose hopes of happiness and salvation were tumbling about his ears, he crept to the wall, and peered under the blind. His wife was sitting at the table sew ins, Hallum was standing (jver her, his arm resting familiarly on her neck. As Derrick gazed the man stooped and kissed Kate on the lips. When Jack entered the room a few minutes later he was like a man of ice and iron. Neither Kate nor Hallum noticed how pale he was. and neither voice nor manner betrayed anything. David Hallum was sitting in his usual place He did not even look up when Jack entered. Kate was sewing composedly. The two men went to work as usual n,ext day. Jack's attitude towards Hallum was not changed in the least , he seemed the same taciturn, unemotional man, but his soul flamed within him like a hell, and his brain thought only of murder — a swift and bloody vengeance They were taking out a small block near the shaft in the first level of the old Hit or Miss. It was a particularly dangerous corner, and during the previous shift Jack had noticed that presently their lives would depend upon one stick of timber. As they worked that morning Jack, cool without, was plotting, plotting, plotting w ith savage earnestness. Hallum worked quietly as his mate directed. His plan flashed upon Derrick with the suddenness of an inspiration. His eye fell upon that single log, which alone would support the rotten reef above when the pillar of wash was removed. He went to it and examined it closely, and a fierce, unholy joy stirred in his heart. The hauling rope with the hook on the end of it hung in the shaft. Carelessly he took up the hook, and drawing the rope into the drive made it fast to the bottom of the log, and left it so. A few minutes' work would serve to remove the last of the dirt pillar. He had not intended to take all — that would have been too dangerous — but now he recognised in the situation the God-given machine that would work his vengeance. "You cut away the rest of that pillar, Hallum," he said quietly. "I will go on top and have a turn at the windlass. We must haul aw ay this wash as quick as we can.'' "Right you are," answered his mate. The man had repaired the old ladders, and up these Derrick made his way to the surface. Standing by the windlass he waited coldly just as- long . as he imagined it would take Hallum to demolish the pillar of dirt. Then he commenced hauling. The other end of the w indlass rope was fastened to the bottom of the log holdmer up the roof of the drive below . The rope tightened Slowly desperately, Jack Derrick put forth his strength. The rope became like a wire cable under the strain, and Derrick bent to the handle, and strained till the blood streaked into the whites of his eyes and the veins on his forehead threatened to burst. The handle moved slowly, inch bv inch, and then the resistance ceased, and the wi»dl-iss i evolved rapidly m his hand. Tie loo; was down, and the rope, which had freed itself, was being drawn rapidlj un the shaft. •'800m 1 " There came up the shaft a dull report as of a distant explosion, and .Tuck Demck knew that Ins \engoatice w as complete When the miners of the district heaid that Jack Derrick's mate had been crushed undei a fall of dirt in the old mii'e, they said it was only what they had expected. Mis. Derrick said nothing- and for two years 'Jt\ck Derrick ■n 1 noHimc and then, when he took to babbling if was throueh the bars of an asvluin cell — Owev Defd, in Melbourne "PunnJi "