CHAPTER VI.—(Continued.)

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1973, 28 February 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAPTER Vl.— (Continued.)

"So I do. By George ! I never see that 8 veet-looking, sad faced child, but I feel as if I could give a good deal to punish the villain, Dan Lyons, if it was only for her sake." "Poor little girll " said Leonard, sympathisingly, " but from what I have heard it is her mother's influence which has made life co gloomy to the child. She has heard nothing since ehe could understand it, but reiterations of the story of her father's murder, and anathemas and vowa of vengeance on hi 3 murderer." " Doubtles3 to a certain extent poor Resignation's character has been influenced by her mother's injudicious teaching, but her constitution, her delicacy, muat be owing, in a great measure, to the shock before her birth." " Mont probably. But here we are Charlie, and here is Pollard." It was to be a great littlejday in Marranga, for No. t 2 Claim m the awful gully of murder was going to be christened. The .idea had originated entirely with Tady Connor, and he had also concpived the grand notion of getting Father Jame3 to perform the ceiemony. To his friends Tady had explained the notion in this way : " Ye see the Gully has a bad name and a curse on it intirely, intirely, and may the saints be between us an' all harm— sure it's the ' Murder Claim ' every one calls No. 1, so if we could get hia reverence to christen our claim " •■ With holy water, Tady ?" irreverent Charhe had interrupted, just there to meet with a<j reply a withering look of scorn from the little Irishman. " To christen the claim wid a dacent name, f 8av j 'twould take away the disgrace of it an' the bad name of it too, wouldn't it now, Mr. Leonard ? " "And what would you call it, Tady? " That was a puzzler. Tady took off his hat, and while holding it in one hand scratched his red head fiercely with the other. *Not that he had not thought of the name long before, that you know, but how could he propose to call the claim "my darlin' " or " Bewchewful Nora, or any one of the bewitching and fond appellations he bestowed on heavy, half idiotic Nora Brady ? bo he scratched hia head, stared at the distant roof of St. Herricks, where dwelt his beloved, and replied that he was only one out of four and didn't know, and besides, he didn't care what name they gave it bo as it was a decent Christian name. m And at last young Ellis proposed a shake in the hat for it, each partner to throw for his •hosen appellation. They were funny names, the chosen four, and stood in this way Leonard P/osaer simply altered » No. 1 " to J'A 1. George Clark said he thought " Die Hard " would do very well, and was met by a look of horror from Tady and a merry laugh from Leonard. "Die hard!" cried Tady, "what do you want to die at all, hard or aisy for ? Blest if I ever heard sich a foolish name 1 " "True for you Tady, give us your own," eaid hia master, and poor Tady, driven to his trenches, whispered that ho thought he'd propose " The darlm' claim." 11 Tne darl.ng Tomfool 1 " exclaimed the • young Trooper angrily, " do you want us to be laughing stocks ? " " Your own name then Charlie ? " "Hope I" he cried, and without tossing ! for it at all, The Hope claim was chosen with acclamation. That occurred some days previous to the one appointed for the actual christening, however, and Father James had proved deaf to poor Tady'fl pleadinga that he would ennuten for them. In faot Tady came back from hia visit to St. Herricks in a rather flustered state, and it wag whispered that lather Jamea had chased the deputation of one down to the gate with a horsewhip, but that assertion Connor angrily denied. Everything was ready for the ceremony on this auspicious day, and perhaps the faot that l<anny Clark was to break the bottle of wine on the occasion of naming the claim, accounted in eomc measure for Charlie Ellis's particular attention to his toilet that day. "Don't we look gay!" exclaimed the genial J. P. as he greeted Leonard and Charlie," yet there ia something painful to me-abso-lutely painful— in the contrast between our preparations and that." The young man' 3 eyes followed the gentleman's pointing feature, and saw, sitting on a rock on one side of the gully, Resignation St. Horrick, with the great dog Guardian by her •ide. " She has heard so much of the awful event that ruined her young life that I do not doubt she looks with something like horror at Any attempt at festivity on the spot." " One can scarcely call Tady and George's preparations festivity," said Leonard, " though I believe they have provided for the breakage of more than one bottle on the occasion." " That they have ; go in and have a look at the tent." The tent was a middle-sized now one, rigged up to be used as a shelter during the necessary changes of attire while the men were cleaning out the wet shaft, and it was now "swept and garnished " for the temporary reception of the few friends invited to the christening of the claim. Tady's taste had decorated the ridge-pole with green branches, and the entranco was a perfect bower of verdure. A make-shift table in the centre was ornamented with a very respectAble array of bottles and glasses, and Tady himself in working dress only was grinning with delight and pride ;aa he^iurveyed his work,

But the great attraction of the day was the tall flag pole that had been erected at no eivat distance from the shaft itself. It was rigged duly with signal-halliards, to which yr\a properly bent the flag that was in future to ■wave proudly over No. 2 claim. But no onp, save the initiated, had as yet seen the new flag itself, about the design of which there had been much discupsion, and which ad been finally left to Tady's supervision. There was not more than a couple of dozen of persona at the claim altogether, and there was much laughing and chatting among them a? they awaited the last arrivals. "Now I call this cruel on the part of Miss Fanny," said Leonard, with a sly look at Charlie Ellis, "to keep ua waiting when we are dying with curiosity to get a good look at Tady'B flag." " t)ying for a pull out of one of those champagne bottles more likely," returned George Clark, a jolly and good looking young chap of twenty-five or six. "It isn't every day we kill a pig — I mean taste champagne, and by Jove, I hope the claim will pay for it ! " "It will then," said Tady Connor, pententiously. "Aye, an' twinty more bottles of champagne this very day, you may bet your last shillin' en that, Mr. George Clark, esquire. Everyone looked at the Irishman now, and everyone [laughed and noticed for the first lime his especial air of importance. The gravity, the consequence of his air and manner was immense, was important, was astounding ; and it was also so solemn that hi 3 oldest friend observed and could not account for it. " Has anything gone wrong, Tady ? " he asked, adding an aside to Ellis. "By George, I'm afraid the claim is flooded from No. 1 ! " " No, Mr. Leonard, sir, nothing has gone wrong — nothin' whatever." "Well, that's satisfactory," replied Leonard. " Yes, sir, it is satisfactory," returned Tady stiffly, and with hia scrubby chin drawn back well into his throat, " an' if it would be any patisfaction to the present company here present to know that iq ho far as not bein' wrong, to the contrary everything is right, as I alwaya, ever nn' always, air, tould you it would be." " Hear, hsar 1 " applauded young Clark, to bo withered by a look of ineffable scorn from Tady, who turned his back to him in disgust. " You had always great faith in No. 2 certainly, Tady," accorded Leonard, who always tried to humor the innocent whims of his follower. " I wish we all had your confidence in the future of our claim." " You might have it yet, sir, aye, before the brave flag is known to to the jackasses an' parrots about these parts." "By Jove he's got a touch of the pun 1 " whispered George, who was, to tell the truth, somewhat in awe of the odd little Irishman. " A touch of the grog, rather," muttered Charlie Ellis, who had a great " down " on drink. "I don't know what to make of him," laughed Leonard. "I never saw Tady so entirely stilt and consequential before." " He's afraid to stir for fear he'Jl fall," giowled Charlie with disgust. "A pretty sight for a young lady to see."' "I don't think Tady's been drinking," joung Prosser said gravely. "Over indulgence has never been one of my foster brother's failirgs." " Oh, the poor fellow is all right, and here comes Miss Clark and her good father," observed Mr. Pollard, as he looked toward the entrance of the Gully, where two horses and their riders were to be seen rapidly approaching. What need is there to describe Fanny Clark ? Thank heaven there are hundreds of such girl 3 in grand Australia 1 With the fresh cheeks, the lithe graceful figure, and the active movements induced by a perfect and untrammelled health, Fanny Clark was a pattern of fair womanhood, and in every feature of her winning face was expressed the brightest of temperaments and the best of beatta. Her riding skirt was o£ the plainest make and material, her broad hat worn for use instead of ornament, but many a fine lady j who fancies herself the observed ol all beholders as Bhe rides for show in some fashionable row, would have been put to the blush by Fanny's perfect and natural horsemanship. For after all who, of womankind, can sit qp the back of a horse with the perfect ease and confidence of the girl who can go and fetch her favorite out of her own grass paddock, and, at a pinch, groom and saddle it heiself ? The animal is familiar with every tone and every movement of the being who«e hand has caressed and fed it since perhaps it was a foal, and there is a perfect confidence on either side that can never be otherwise acquired. I am certain that when pretty Fanny Clark alighted from Nell, her favorite mare, and wa3 welcomed with effusion by the men awaiting her, that sensible animal was quite as proud of her young mistress's consequence at the moment as her young mistress was herself. " I don't deserve to get such an ovation," declared the smiling girl as she was shaking hands all round, "for I am late, but the butler was rebellious this morning and wouldn't come quick. Now, Tady, won't you show me the flag, for I'm dying of curiosity?" " All in gosd time, Miss Fanny," Tady replied very stiffly ; "Whin your purty mouth has gey the claim the name it's to be known by hereafter, you'll see the flag, and not one minnit afore." " All right, Tady 1 ho now that we are all here are we all ready for the important ceremony?" j " Yes, everything ia ready, Misa Clark," said Leonard ; " Ellis has the bottle of wine in hia hand, and Tady 'a flag is ready for hoisting. By the way, Tady, who is to hoist the wonderful bit of bunting ? " " Tady Connor ip," replied that individual himself ; " he's the man that has the beat right to do that same." Charlie Ellis again favored the Irishman with a look that Tady afterwards declared " was as good as a summons," and whispered to Leonard, "If he's not tipsy he'a crazy — that's all." Young Prosser was at a fault in his judgment of hia fosterer himself, for long as he had known Tady he had never observed him in such a strange mood ag he seemed to be on this important day. ' lie looked bis humble friend in the faco as he said — " There's something unusual to come out yet, Tady, eh ? " " There is, air," proudly replied Tady, "an' what it is you'll hear in a brace of shakes, now." " All right, old friend." They gathered around tho shaft, a little group of men, with glad, animated, bronze faces, and pretty Fanny among them, asElha afterwards declared, like a flowei among a lot of vegetables. Proudly the young trooper grasped the bottle of " gold top" that waa to nioiaten the unconscious claim in the rite of baptisment, and had there been any jealous watchers, not u few stolen soft glances might have been intercepted between Charlie and the sweet-faced girl. " Now, tell me what I'm to do with this bottle?" Bhe asked, laughingly; "it seems almost a pity to waste auch nice wine, eh, Tady ? " "No, Miss, it doesn't," waa the sturdy answer; " if there waa better the claim's worth it." " Very well, Tady. Now, I shall break this bottle against the windlass, and as the delioious fluid streams into the thirsty noil de*

clare the claim duly christened the 'Hope AIM " "Stop for one minnit, Miss Fanny, till I have ray say," interrupted Tady, as he ar- i ranged tha halliaids ready for hoisting his mysterioua banner. "In the first place I've changed the name, an 1 it isn't to be the Hope at all, at all." " What, changed the name 1" It was almost a universal exclamation. Leonard repeated it with one of his pleasant smiles ; young Clark cried it out with a cur priaed tone, and uplifted eyebrows ; while Charlie Ellis face flushed angrily. " You've got a blessed amount of cheek, Mr. Tady," the young trooper hotly added to the exclamation, •' to |take upon yourself bo much without consulting anyone I There happens to be four partners in this claim, and you are only one of them." " Thruo for ye, Misther Policeman," returned Tady, without losing one iota of his new sententiousnoss ; " but the differ is, you see, that I'm the best one of the four." Such a laugh greeted this self assertion as rang through the bush like a new music — a laugh that might eeem to be against poor Charlie, and was actually led by Fanny herself. How, indeed, could she or any one present know that poor Charlie's anger about the name of the claim was because he had, as it wore, incorporated the " Hope" upon which they had decided as his own hope that he might yet bo in a position to ask Fanny's father for Fanny's dear hand ? So the laugh raised by the girl herself was echoed by all without an idea of Charlie Ellis disoomiiture. " You're the queerest Tady," gaßped Fanny, as the tears induced by irrepressible mirth rolled down her peachy cheeks, " whatever do you mean?" " I mean, Miss, that the claim is to be called the Nugget," shouted Tady, " an that you'll plase now to christen it that same." " Do so if you please, Miss Clark ; Tady has some good reasons for this decision." It was Leonard Prosaer who said this, and in a trice the bottle of " gold top" was raised in the laughing girl's plump hand. "Break it here, Miss Fanny," instructed Tady, and as she obeyed him and broke the bottle in the centre of the windlass, the champagne flowed over the rope coiled on the barrel and ran down the shaft while she was giving it its name. " I declare this claim, lately known as No. 2, to be duly christened the Nugget," was what she cried laughingly, and at the woids Tady's flag was hoisted, and amid cheers from the young men, mingled with laughter and astonished words, floated out from the pole with all its elegance of design and hue at last visible to the admiring world in Murder Gully. " In the name of all the lunatic asylums in Ireland, what doee that daub represent ? " cried Charlie, angrily, as he stared up at the fluttering bunting, and silence alone replied during some seconds when every eye and brain was at work trying to decipher the device upon it. 11 By Jove, its a cauliflower I " shouted George Clark. "It's not unlike a lump of butter, before its printed with some green leaves round it ' " whispered Fanny to Charlie Ellis, to his great satisfaction, while Leonard only looked grave, and acknowledged himself puzzled too. " Tady has a surprise in store for us, I am certain, and I am afraid to guess what it is," he said. " You needn't, ! " Master Leonard screeched Tady (do other word would describe the tone) " You needn't, for it is thrue ! Oyey, Bir, what did I tell ye, at home an' eveiy where, an' it's thrue, every word ay it ! " He had thrown his arms around Leonard as well as he could, and was hugging him like a mad bear (as Charlie afterwards remarked.) I Bay as well as he could, for you know his young master was almost head and shoulders taller than Tady, and he was pulling at him and dancing irrepressibly around him until Leonard had to cry for quarter and put him away from himself almost by main force. " It's all right, my good fellow, but our frienda will think you are mad 1 They don't know you as well as I do, Tady. See, there's Ellis seriously considering the necessity of taking you in charge ! " " I'll take him in charge ! " exclaimed the Irishman, as he turned toward Charlie. " He's been sneerin' an' laughin' at me all the mornin', an' now I'll punish him for it 1 Muther Ellis, esquiro, rowl round that windlass handle anear you ! " If Tady had been a general at a review he could not have given the word of command with a greater air of authority, or when it was not obeyed, repeated it more angrily. " Rowl it round ' " I say. " Do it," said Leonard, with a nod, and Charlie seized the handle of the windlass and began to diaw up whatever was attached to the rope. " What's coming, Tady ? " asked young Clark. "Is it the empty bucket ? " " No, Bir, it's not the empty bucket I " replied Tady, as the bucket was slowly drawn into view. " Go, Mr. Leonard, and see what's in the bucket." Leonard advanced and landed the bucket. As he went over it, every breath was suspended, and Tady was a study himself, though an unobserved one. When young Prosser put out his hand and unhooked the bucket, Chaihe Ellis let go the windlass crank, and ran to examine the vessel as Leonard placed it on the ground. Fanny was foremodt among tho others as they crowded curiously round. Tady alono stood still, and shut out, as it were, with a queer grin on his queer -looking face. "What ever is it?" asked Fanny's clear voice, &9 she leaned with her pretty ear suspiciously close to the young trooper's. " By Jove 1" shouted George Clark. Leonard lifted his eyes from the bucket to meet those of Tady, who could no longer contain himself, but shouted as he tossed his hat high in the air : " Hurrah for the Nugget Claim Al l Three cheers for the Nugget Claim I Hip, hip, hurrah !" But there was not a voice joined in, for poor Charlie Ellia had staggered, white and faint, and with his eyes fixed on Fanny's, was holding by Leonard's shoulder for support. I have seen stronger and older men than poor Charlie faint dead away as they tried to realise that a fortune h»l just been unearthed by one stroke of the pick, and lay beforo them in the Bhape of a big nugget, with the clay yet clinging to its dull, yellow sides 1 " Is it goin' to faint over it ye are, poor b'y ?" asked Tady, as ho flew to the champagne basket, and offered a brimming glass to the youug policeman ; " drink that, and 'twill pull ye together again 1 Glory be to God, there's nothin' killin in the sight of a man'B own gold, and there's plenty more whero that there came from 1 Aye, Miss Fanny, lift it up, an' heft it asthore, and 'twill make your purty eyes brighter than they are, if that's a possible thing 1" Fanny obeyed, lifting tho clay-soiled nugget out of the bucket, and holding it out at arm's length, for it waa dripping with wine 1 The christening bottle had been broken, so that "most of its contents went down into the suspended bucket and over its precious contents. " And this is your secret, Tady ?" asked Leonard, as soon as Charlie had drank bis wine and was a man again ; " how long have you kept it from us?" " Since y«sterd»7 we«k only, »ir, and the

divil'g own job I had to pet another flag ready in time! Now, Misther George, what do ye think of the cauliflower ?" Once more every eye was lifted to the " flap; that braved" the air of the Gully, and yet Tady's explanation was necessary to tell them that the yellow daub was intended to represent the nugget itself, and the green leaves George had so disrespectfully fancied belonging to the cauliflower was a wreath of shamrocks painted by Tady's own hand 1 Above this elegant device were the word", " The Nugget Claim A 1 ;" and great credit did honest Tady take to himself for the whole aflair 1 " Well, Tady, I never knew you were an artist before," saic* his master. " No, nor I c her, Mr. Leonard, but whin I tackled it I was determined not to be bet ; and I wasn't — I did ivery bit of it with them ten fingers," and he sprawled them out before him, ten as knobbly and crooked fingers as Her Majesty's dominions could boast. Then you should have heard the compliments that overwhelmned the happy Irishman, and the cheers that ran through that gully. Then you should have seen the quantity of champagne that was broached and the number of " dead marines," in the shape of empty bottles, that were scattered around 1 Up on the side of the Gully, where little Resignation, guarded by her big dog, sat so sadly, Daniel Grifliths, the boy whom she called her friend, watched the proceedings around the shaft with a wide-eyed wonder. He waa naturally a shrewd lad, and soon caw that something unusual was going on. " I know they were going to christen the claim to-day," he said, as he shaded his eyes from the sun and commented on the doings below, " but they've pulled something wonderful up out of the shaft in a bucket. I wonder what it is ? Would you be afraid to stop here with Guardian while I run down to find out, Designation ? " " No," the child said, "and I should like to know too. Do you think, dear Daniel, that it would be anything about papa ? " "How could it? No; if it was at No. 1 Claim where they are clearing out the drives it might be, for something of poor papa's were missing, were they not? " " Vps, a hat ; and a knife that papa always carried, and that had his name on it. Go, Daniel, and see.