Chapter III.—Off up Country.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 241, 12 September 1872, Page 9

Chapter II I.— Off up Country.

Tom Hungerford having made up his mind to close with Whitney's offer, if, upon looking at the place, he found it suited him, it was settled between them that they should both start up the country in the course of a day or two. Theie was a good deal to be done, however, one way and another, before they could get away. There was a horse to be picked up for Tom in the first place, and a good, useful horse was not be picked up all at once ; and there were a number of odds and ends besides to be got together, and they took some time in the getting ; so that, instead of leaving on the second day, as they expected, it was with some difficulty they got off on the fourth.

When, at last, they did get off, they took the main south road, as it was called — though where the " road " was it would be difficult to say — and pushed on quickly past Lookout Point and Caversham. Then, at a good, swinging trot, they wound round by Green Island, with its bright, sunny knolls and pretty clumps of green bush, and, rising Saddle Hill, were soon on the top, looking down on the Taieri Plain beyond.

What a glorious expanse of plain it looks as you come upon it suddenly for the first time ; and how rich, and fresh, and wholesome it appears all the year round — spring, summer, autumn, and winter ! It certainly looked fresh, and fair, and fertile that morning, as it lay down below them, a couple of hundred yards from where they stood — fresh and fair as the garden of Eden itself, and fertile as the Delta of Egypt, as the eye followed it stretching away southward, some fifteen miles or more; with its rivers curving through it in the far off distance, like the trails of two silveiy serpents, and its lakes glancing merrily in the midday sun, as pleasant to look on as the fish-pools of Hesbon.

They stopped gazing at the scene for a minute or two, and then got down on to the olain below. The track nestled close il§ alongside the hills now for some disrcance, and brought them to a little wayside accommodation house at last, where they stayed for a short time to bait their horses. Then they had the Taieri river running close by them until they got to the ferry ; and from the ferry onward they skirted the Waihola Lake for four or five miles. After passing the Gtorge, they got out on to the Tokomairiro Plain beyond ; but the country was very different, as to its appearance, from that they had come through lately. There was not a lake, or a river, or a mountain to be seen, nor anything in the way of greenness either ; nothing, in fact, but a dreary, monotonous expanse that you might represent, accurately enough for all purposes of recognition, by a great daub of yellow ochre.

By this time the evening was closing in, and, as they had ridden pretty smartly the greater part of the way, they were not at all sorry to find themselves at the accommodation house, where the) meant to put up for the night. It was a queer looking, straggling kind of place, this accommodation house, made up of wings and lean-to's. Everything about it was small — everything but the one room that occupied the entire front of the building, and that was lai-ge only by comparison.

To enter the house one had to go through this room. Now this going through it was not quite so easy as you would imagine, for it was crowded with all sorts of odds and ends ; with cases of brandy, and gin, and whiskey pushed away into the corners; with bags of flour, and corn, and sugar piled upa-top of one another in little heaps; with chests and half chests of tea lying carelessly about the floor ; with shirts, and blouses, and jumpers, and moleskins, and hams, and flitches of bacon, and billies, and fryingpans hanging down from the ceiling. Tom was very careful and very cautious in his movements as he made his way slowly through these obstacles ; but, with all his care and caution, he came to grief more than once before be reached the bar at the further end.

" Is that you, Mr. Whitney ?" asked the buxom landlady, who was busily engaged, as they entered, serving her customers, but had desisted from her occupation for a moment to peer through the darkness at the new comers.

" Yes. How are you, Mrs. Galton ? We've just come from town, and are precious hungry. "Will tea soon be ready?"

"It will be ready in a minute or two." And shortly afterwards the meal was announced.

They were both very hungry, and quite prepared to enjoy anything that was set before them, in the way of food, provided, of course, the food was wholesome, and cooked with anything like ordinary care. The food placed before them on the table was "cooked," but I doubt if it was wholesome, and it certainly was not tempting. There was nothing but beef steak ; and the beefsteak was very tough, and it was cut into great coarse joints ; but that was not the worst of it. It was cold, and it was covered over with a thick coating of grease, and the grease floated, aboutf it

in large lumps, in tihe cold gravy at the bottom of the dish. It may readily be understood that, hungry as they were, Tom and his. companion partook but sparingly of the fare — of the beef steak portion of it, I mean. But no such scruple seemed to interfere with the other guests around the table. But, then, they were great^ big, hulking fellows, who had been out in the open air all day long, hard at work, and cared very little whether meat was tough or tender, hot or cold, provided only there was enough of it. There was certainly enough of it, and they all seemed very happy over it. No ; not all of them, though. That stout florid looking man down at the end of the table did'nt seem very happy. There was nothing of tb.3 geniality of the dinner table about him, but then he looked as if he were a choleric old fellow at the best of times. He looked choleric enough, nowj at all events, and had about him all the premonitory symptoms that tell of rising wrath ; that is to say, he was very red in the face, and there was a deep scowl gathering darkly on his brow, and he kept on muttering to himself audibly, from time to time. The outburst came at last, as everybody expected it would; but it came so suddenly, and there was such savage energy in the old fellow's ways and words, that the people were all taken by surprise, and startled for the moment.

" Damn you, you miserable crawler, what do you mean by asking a man to sit down to such stuff as that," he shouted out fiercely in the ears of the landlord, who happened to be passing by behind him with a large teapot in his hand, thrusting a piece of the tough beefsteak up into the poor man's very face, almost as he spoke. He was a poor, meek, mumbling creature, this landlord, and he was so astonished and utterly confounded at the savage abruptness of the attack, that he let the teapot tumble out of his hand, in his dismay, aDd very nearly scalded his angry guest. Then he stood looking down despairingly at the teapot, mumbling out some indistinct words of excuse the while, as to the goodness of the meat ; but the angry man would hear of no excuse.

" Speak out man, can't you," he said, aggravatingly ; but not a single word would he suffer the poor landlord to speak.

"Don't call it meat, for it isn't meat," he continued, without pausing for a single instant. " Meat, indeed ! Why, I've a fifteen year old bullock that would make better meat than that. I tell you what it is ; " and, now, he rose and confronted the meek man, '|if you charge a single farthing for that stuff, I'll have you up for obtaining money under false pretences ! But I'll, expose you, you miserable crawler ; I will, as sure as my name's Macgregor. I'll bring the whole thing before the Provincial Council ; by Heavens, I will. See if I don't." And he stalked away out of the room, foaming with passion.

He was a runholder, so Whitney told Tom, anjeccentric, impulsive kind of man, who was always getting himself into hot water with people. Later on in the evening, as the two young men were chatting away over their grog, Macgregor came over and joined them. He was a character, m his way, and a very amusing one to listen to, they thought him, as he sat there telling them, of his colonial experiences in a dry pugnacious Jsort of way. He had lived pretty well, in all the colonies, and, according to his own showing, had been always an ill-used individual.

" You've heard of Mackenzie, haven't you ? " he asked, after they had sat talking together about some indifferent matters for a short time.

*' What Mackenzie do you mean ? I know a lot of Mackenzies," answered Whitney. "I mean Mackenzie the sheepstealer; that fellow that went about the country stealing sheep, and driving them away back into Canterbury, into the Mackenzie counrty as it's now called."

" Oh, yes ; I've heard of him."

"Well, I was up in Christchurch when they brought him in there, and as I happened to be looking out for some country just then, I thought the fellow might be able to put me in the way of getting some, and so I managed to get in to see him in gaol. But he was as sullen a scoundrel as ever I came across in my life, and I couldn't get anything out of him, though I stayed talking to him half-an-hour at least. But somehow or another, he managed to escape that night, and would you believe it, the damned miserable crawlers up there thought I helped him to escape; and what did they do but arrest me the next day, and the Superintendent kept me locked-up for forty-eight hours. I appealed to the law ; but there was no law for a man then, nor now either, for the matter of that. I gave that miserable crawler of a Superintendent a bit of my mind though. I happened to mpet him at a party one night ; and seeing I was a stranger, without knowing who I was, he came up to speak tome. 'Ihopeyoulikethis place,' hesays to me. ' I like the place well enough,' I aaid, ' though I'm going to leave it shortly.' 'Why, is that,' he asked. 'Because it's mismanaged. There's that damned miserable crawler of a Superintendent, he ought to be shut up in a lunatic asylum. I owe him a grudge, sir, myself, and I'll pay him out ; I will. I'm a Botany Bay man, sir, and by Heavens I'll throttle him

if *ever I come across him. Tfell him | so, sir, if you know him, with my compliments — Mr. Macgregor' s com- 1 pliments ; ' and I walked away." " Talking of Botany BRy," he contintled, after a moment's pause, " reminds me of my first night in Dunedin. I was sitting, by myself, smoking in the long room of the Commercial, when one of the men around came over and spoke to me. We were speaking away about one thing and another, w hen he asked me where I came from. ' I came from Botany Bay, sir,' I said out loud. You should have seen how scared they all looked, and how quickly they all bolted out of the room. You might as well say you were the devil himself," he remarked, by way of explanation, " as say you were a Botany Bay man, a couple of years ago." After this he sat silent for a short time smoking his pipe vigorously, then he called for another glasß of whisky toddy, drank down this fresh supply of toddy, and again continued. "I said, just now, a man had no protection here, but its just as bad in Australia. I bought some sections once in Batburst. Some little time after I bought them, I got a letter from the Commissioner of Crown Lands saying they found it was necessary to alter the boundary of the town, and, as my sections were out side the new boundary, they were willing to give me as many equally good ones inside it. I went to Bathurst, at once, and found that the sections they wanted to give me weren't worth having, and that the whole thing was a swindle, from beginning to end. The Chief Commissioner and Chief Surveyor, I found out, had some sections on the other side, and moved the boundary that way, so as to get their land inside the town. I went to the Waste Lands Board and I told them plainly what I thought of them. I told them, in very plain terms, that they were nothing more or less than a parcel of swindlers. One of the members was a canting old hypocrite, but I don't think he'll forget me in a hurry. ' You believe in the Bible, don't you, sir,' I said to him. ' I hope and trust I do, Mr. Macgregor,' says he, turning up the whites of his eyes, with a look of pious horror on his sanctimonious face, as if he were shocked at the bare mention of such a doubt. 'Well, sir, if you do, I don't envy you.' ' What do you mean,' he asked, forgetting his sanctimonious look in his surprise. ' I mean this, sir,' I said, ' that the Bible tells you, " cursed is he that moveth his neighbour's landmark." ' The people around burst out laughing, and I left the room ; but I never got any satisfaction about my sections from that day to this."

Whitney and Tom started away the next morning in good time, after breakfast. <Wheu they got some little distance beyond the accommodation house they turned off to the right, and from that out had to make their way along as best they could, for there was not a single mark or vestige of a track of any kind, to be seen, until they got to their journey's end. But Whitney was a first-rate bushman, and very seldom at fault. He had a good eye for the lie of a country, and knew a lot of prominent landmarks along the way, and seemed intuitively, as it were, to follow the best spur. There was not very much difficulty, however, as far as Mount Stewart, |for it wa« visible pretty well the whole way from the plain upwards. They got to the top about midday, and rested there a short time, and let the horses feed about while they did so.

All along the spur as they came up the way was thick with tutu j but here, on the top, it grew thicker than elsewhere. Ihe young shoots looked fresh and tempting ; and it did seem odd to see hungry horses pushing aside the dainty mouthfuls with disdainful tossings of their heads, and carefully pick out the grass instead. It seemed very odd to Tom, the new comer, as he sat watching the proceeding, until he was made aware of the danger ; and then he spoke a word or two to his companion about the deceptiveness of appearances. Appearances were deceptive certainly as far as this tutu was concerned. To look at it, gleaming softly and brightly in the noonday sun. its virgin greenness dotted with clumps of bright purple berries, that hung about it like bunches of currants, who would suppose that beneath this beauty there lurked a deadly upas — destructive alike to man and beast,

The air was still and rare, with no fog to cloud it ; and here, from Mount Stewart, the wide look-out was distinctly visible for some distance ; but it was a look-out that had nothing of interest in it, and gave you no pleasure. Everything was colored with a yellow monotonous tinge ; and the color was unrelieved by any other shade, except the thin shadows that rested on the deep gullies in long dark streaks, but they only added to the dreariness of the out-look.

Descending from Mount Stewart by a spur of easy gradient, they forded the the Waitahuna river ; and, after leaving Waitahuna, they came into the speargrass country. The spear-grass grew close and thick ; and though Tom was a good horseman— and what Irishman is not?— -he had quite as much as he could do to keep an easy seat in his saddle. I don't mean to say there was any very great danger of his being thrown off, but I do mean to say he was in much danger of being jerked on

to the pommel of hia saddle, or of being disturbed unpleasantly in some other way. No; the getting through. this spear-grass was not easy, was certainly not comfortable. To my mind, indeed, there is little or no comforb in riding where the rider has always to be on the look-out, always ready with knee, and hand, and eye to guard against being bumped on his saddle, and sorely bruised in his nether parts. Now a man must be ever in this state of readiness when riding through speargrass country, for the ride is a constant succession of jnm ps the whole time ; and the jumps are quick, sudden, uncertain — now to this side, now to that, anon straight ahead.

The sun was sinking low down behind the hills, and the light of day had all but merged into twilight as they pulled up on a little flat, by the side of the Tuapeka creek that ran rippling through it. It was good camping giound, and they decdied to remain there for the night, and set about making the necessary preparations at once. The horses were unsaddled, and then tethered ; and after that some firewood was collected and a fire lit, and then the billy was filled with water and put on the fire , and Whitney remained superintending the preparations for supper, whilst Tom went and fetched some manuka scrub for their beds. Then, when the meal was ready, they sat down and enjoyed it thoroughly, as men do under similar circumstances. And afterwards, by the blazing watchfire, followed two hours of calm enjoyment, when tales were told and confidences imparted ; and the purple tintings on the mountains and the short lived twilight merged imperceptibly into the gloom of night ; and Tom and his companion at last wrapped themselves in their 'possum rugs and pressed their soft and fragrant couches. And there was a hush and a stillness around, unbroken, save by the murmuring of the brook, or by the whirr of the pskapeka or by the browsing of the horses, when an unearthly sound in the air startled Tom, but only for a moment, to learn from Whitney it was theory of the "more-pork" he had heard.

They were on their way by sunrise next morning ; and their way led them past clumps of green manuka scrub, that scented the air, far and near, with a pleasant aromatic perfume. And, in the early morning, the tui and the korimoko trilled forth their soft, low notes of melody. And solitary cabbage trees shot up silently along the route ; and slender stalked toi-tois drooped their heavy tufted heads up above them. And, as the morning advanced, there was an unbroken calm around — a stillness as of death in the air, and a silence as of primeval earth in the ranges. But there was nothing else worth speaking of until the Molyneux appeared in sight towards evening. When they got down on to the bank, they halted to watch the flood of waters below.

What maddening tumult and commotion to be sure? Whirling, and struggling, and battling onward rolled the raighyt masses of water, tumbling one another over and over in vast volumes and in close embrace, as if they were angry spirits of the flood let loose, and were fighting fiercely for the mastery. There was no pause, no cessation. Hither and thither the fierce warfare raged with sullen roar, hissing about from side to side in angry eddies flecked with foam.

It was getting late, however; and the Carrick ranges were throwing dark shadows across their path already, so they pushed on quickly along the bank for two miles or so, and then they struck off through the flat until they oame to a deep gully ; and they found themselves at their destination.