CHAPTER VII.

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

CHAPTER VII.

" lILOOD I BLOOD 1 BLOOD ! " As we have just notioed, there was work going on in No. 1 Claim. Men were engaged in clearing out and timbering the drives , but it happened on the day that Tady's nugget was introduced to the christening party on No. 2 claim, the«e men were working at some distance underground, and it was only the continued cheering from above that at length attracted the nearest worker, who happened to be Father James' brother, Cornelius Brady, to the shaft. They were not favorites, somehow, this family at St. Herricks, and held but little communion with the residents in the neighborhood, and it had so happened that Conn Bradj was quite unaware of the intended ceremony on No. 2 claim. We are aware that Father James had been invited by Tady to take a prominent part in the proceedings, but he had not impaited that fact to the family, and Tady was himself so anxious to keep the secret of his nugget to encourage any gossiping friendship between himself and the party in the next claim. So when Con Brady climbed up the shaft of N^>. 1 and stood, with evident wonder m hia eyes, staring at the group of merrymakers on No. 2, Leonard saw him with a feeling that his party had not behaved well to the Brady's. "It was an oversight on our part not to have invited the men in No. 1 to our christening," that young gentleman said, " or did they refuse to come, Tady ?"' '• Divil a chance they had to do that," Tady replied, Bturdily ; " one refucal was enough for me; an' if the place wasn't good enough for his reverence it wasn't good enough for hia mates. There's himself now comin' along to see who's doin' what he ought by rights to have done himself." " Well, the idea of asking a priest to christen a claim was the very last one I should have expected from you, Tady," Leonard replied, as he turned his eyes toward the advancing figure ; " but there is no doubt whatever that they have a right, in fair play, to know of our golden prospects that must affect their own in No. 1. What say you, gentlemen ?" " Tell them, of oourse 1" cried George Clark, while Mr. Pollard expressed a very decided opinion that it would be churlish in the extreme not to do so. By this time the black-robed figure of Father James was so near the claim as to be almost within hearing, and Leonard Proseer walked quickly toward him. " I am sorry you would not join us, Father James," he said, " but I am sure you will come and inspect our good fortune. My friend Connor has been lucky enough to drop on a nugget, which he has kept a secret from us until within the last few moments." "A nugget 1" Father James repeated, "in your olaim ; in the olaim known as No. 2?" " In the claim to be known in future as the Nugget Claim, sir," replied Leonard smilingly, as he pointed to the flag yet now to the lonely gully, " you will come and see it ?" Father James bowed silently, and followed young Pros«er,he looked worn and haggard beyond the power of pen to describe. The lump of gold was now lying in the tent on the rude table among the bottles, which latter Leonard pushed away ho that the priest might have a full view of the valuable find. The sight evidently affected him, but it was in so strange a manner that it was remembered for long after. He laid hia long, thin hands on the gold and lifted it, and then let fall so suddenly that bottles and glasses rattled loudly. " It weighs ?" he said questioningly, as he looked in the young man's face. •• Tady tells us it turns the scale at two hundred and fifty ounces." " One thousand pounds worth 1 There are four of you, and that is £250 each. It will buy a good deal, but it will not buy one single hour's peace of mind." '•True, sir, but honest men may have that without purchase You will drink BUCC63B to both claims, sir ?" The priest took the champagne glass Leonard tendered him— took it with such eager, trembling avidity that those around him looked wonderingly at one another. " I drink to the success of both claims," he said ;" to both claims, mind. Ha, ha, hal" and he tossed the wine at one draught down his throat. Oh 1 it was a hollow, wild laugh that, and its sound had an unpleasant effect on the hitherto little happy group of friends. As Father James put down the empty glass, and hastened out with scant ceremony, they followed him, exchanging whispers that were in aomo instances, perhaps, far more charitable than ho deaerved. " An unhappy man if there was ever one," Mr. Pollard said; " and a sick one," returned Leonard. " I don't think I ever saw out of a sick bed a nioro puin-worn face." "He may bo a priest ; but if he is it's a clear oaso of wolf in sheepskin," whispered Charlie to Fanny ; " Did you ever see such a hang-dog face, Miss Clark?" 11 Poor soul," said Fanny, as she looked after the retreating form with the infinite pity of trtae womanhood in her sweet eyes, " he must have suffered greatly." Yea j that man bud (suffered mdoh ; be

was suffering now, as he seemed trying to fly from the presence of bis rejoicing fellow men. His brother had stood watching the tent while Father James had drank the champagne, stood with the bucket he had just hauled up and unhooked in his hands, as he had been about to empty its contents on the summit of the stuff thrown up high around the shaft. He emptied it now as his brother emerged from the tent, for Leonard was beckoning to him to come and see the nugget. As Conn descended the elevation, wondering what he was required for, the liquid ho had poured from his bucket began to obey the laws of gravitation, and seek its own level. Where it fell into dried ruts and rilled them darkly with little streams of a strange colored fluid, the stuff that hud been thrown up from the shaft was chiefly yellow clay, with a great proportion of pipeclay, gleaming white as snow in the sunlight, and on thi3 pipeclay the small streams BCttlcd into one, and came down slowly as it thickened on the way by the particles it thirstily imbibed, until it stopped at the priest's feet and slowly widened to a little pool there under bis starting eyes. He had seen this strangely hued liquid as he lifted his eyea towards Conn, his brother, and watched it stealing down toward him on the spot where his blaok-robed foim seemed to attract it. The power of movement left hia limbs — the moisture of his late draught of wine had so suddenly left his lips that his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. At the moment when that red fluid stopped before him, spreading and widening into the pool that seemed as chick and viscid as real blood to his etrained gaze, that wietched man could not have uttered a • word if death had been the forfeit. He had stopped suddenly, stooping hia white face over the little red pool, upon which the sunrays burned like fire, until Conn's figure was very near him, and then the power of movement was restored to him. Throwing up hia thin arras he shouted a cry so horrid that the birds flew away up the gully affrighted, and every human being within hearing shuddered. "It is blood I " he Bhrieked. " Blood ! blood ! blood ! Why does it follow me ? I shed not one drop ! Ob, hide me ! hide me ! " " Hush, James, for all our Hakes ! " whispered his brother, as ho ran and caught the priest's dropping hands. " For the love of God be quiet, for there are ears and eyes upon your words ! " " I don't care if there were devils, it is true I See, it is blood ! blood ! blood ! " and then he fell back into his brother's arms in some kind of fit. "It is a very Btrange thing," said Mr. Pollard, when the priest had partially recovered, and was gone home, leaning on Conn, " the color is peculiar." " But why should any color terrify his reverence so ? " asked Charlie Ellis, doubtfully. "If it was really blood, it need not frighten a man unless he has a bad conscience." "I don't understand it at all," Fanny Clark observed anxiously. " What is the matter with Father James ? " " That is a question for a doctor to answer, I am afraid," replied Leonard in a low tone. " The immediate cause of his attack appeared to be tho color of the slush there, which the priest took for blood." "But it isn't, Mr. Frossor ? " the young girl asked anxiously. "No ! It seems they are bailing out a dip in one of the old. drives where there is a Rtratum of red clay. The liquid is red certainly, especially in contrast with the white stuff over which it has flowed, but see, now that the sun has gone, how different it looks — no one could mistake it for anything but discolored water." It was true, the sun had gone ' All at once, as if anew the evil influence had regained its power over Murder Gully, a black cloud had crept over the luminary, and everything looked cold and gloomy, as it had been wont to do in that deserted spot. The birds had flown away in the shadow of the cloud ; the dead trees over the " murder claim " looked ghastly as ever, tho withered grass under them as though it had never been green. And all at onco a deep howl that seemed to spring from the side of the gully was lifted up and echoed all round from rock to rock, in such an awful, long s'ustaincd warning, that even sturdy and unimpresaiblo Farmer Clark started and looked up toward the spot where Resignation St. Hernck had been but a short time previous. "In the name o' God, what's that ? ' gasped Tady, as he crossed himself, and looked quickly around him. "It's a dog howling," Leonard replied, " and it seems to come from somewhere on that side of the gully. By-the-bye, the little girl and her dog was there a little ago, eh, Ellis?" " Yes, and young Daniel Griffiths- with them." " The lad was over there talking to Con a minute ago," some of the bystanders said, " but he went back up the rocks again to join Resignation, I guess." " But Resignation has gone," Fanny whispered. " I noticed that Bhe was no longer up there when Father James joined us. Oh, Father, come away home out of this. I feel shivery and cold, as if something was going to happen." "A thunderstorm h [going to happen, I think, and so we will bid our .friends goodbye, and make our way back," the farmer said, as he remounted, and left Charlie Ellis the welcome task of helping Fanny to her saddle ; and then there were general adieux, but tho happy jocularity seemed to have been damped by the sound of Guardian's howl or the gloom of the shadowing cloud, for it was an almost silent party of four that were left with their nugget and their new flag on the Nugget Claim. " You had better take the gold to the camp with you, Charlie," suggested Leonard, " it is the safest place I know of ; and now let us finish of! the champagne, for we need not leavo full bottles to Tady's Jackasses." At the sound of his name, Tady lifted his eyes from tho dark pool, that was being rapidly absorbed as he gazed at it, and turned such a woebegono face toward his fosterbrother that the young gentleman smiled broadly at him. " What has come over you at all, Tady ? You were the life of the christening a bit ago, and now you are as gloomy-looking as an owl 1 What has come over you, eh ?" (To be continued.)