The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 108

"Our friend tells the truth--I want to join a gang where I can make money, and then leave the country without danger. I don't want to stop in Australia all my days by a d----d sight."

Even the profanity was forced, and did not come from his heart. He considered it necessary to use an oath to make himself appear an adept in crime--but I saw through the disguise, and pitied him.

"It ain't every man that applies for a chance can jine with us," the inspector answered, a.s.suming a deep and ba.s.s tone of voice, and language suited to his supposed condition. "We want men--half a dozen good, firm men, and then we can roll the money in without much trouble. Squat yourself, and then we can think of this 'ere subject, and find out what you can do to help us when we reach the bush."

"I like to meet men, and hope to prove myself one before we part,"

speaking in a manner that showed he was not dest.i.tute of education.

"I've never been in the bush, but I hope under good guidance I shall soon be, and then if I show a white feather I'll agree to go without my share of the prize money."

"That's fair talk," I muttered, "and I think that the kid will make a goat. Let's trust him."

"I'm sure I'm very much pleased with your favorable opinion, and I hope I shall deserve it. I've already done some things that can't he beat, although I'm not in the possession of much money. Gentlemen, I must ask you to drink at my expense, if I can manage to negotiate with Dan for credit."

Jackson started for a short conference with the barkeeper, and Steel Spring whispered to the inspector to "draw him out, and hear him talk."

Dan apparently required some persuasion to give credit, but at length the representations of Jackson prevailed, and he returned to us radiant.

"The d----d old '_fence_,'" he muttered, "he is afraid of giving credit as a churchman, and nearly as mean. The next time I'm in Ballarat, I hope that I shall have money enough to pay for select lodgings, and then he and his 'Cricket' may go to the devil. What are you going to take?"

We ordered our liquor, and after it was brought made a show of tasting it, but we knew better than to drink spirit at the Cricket.

"By the way," Mr. Brown said, "you was saying something about your not being green, and that you had tried your hand at one or two things. Now, if you have no objections, we should like to know how you've been employed, so that we can judge of your mettle."

The young fellow paused; and I could see that shame was not entirely banished from his heart, for he colored, and then endeavored to crush his feelings with a drink of poisonous spirit.

"What need I care," he exclaimed, at length, a "short life and a merry one for me. A fellow may as well be dead as dest.i.tute of money, and when it can't be got by hard work, I'm in favor of taking it wherever I can get it."

"Them's the sentiments," cried the inspector, and then muttered in an undertone, "that have hanged better men than you."

"You see, gentlemen," Jackson continued, the liquor opening his heart, and making him loquacious, "that I began life in Liverpool, in the old country. I was apprenticed to a grocer, but I looked upon weighing coffee and tea as not the kind of employment for a man; so one day I stepped out of the store on board of a s.h.i.+p that was just ready to sail for Melbourne, and started to seek my fortune in this part of the world."

"Didn't you have any capital to begin with?" interrogated the inspector, with a wink of encouragement.

"Well, yes," hesitated the young fellow; "I forgot to say that I had five hundred sovereigns in my pocket at the time I left; and they were intrusted to me by my master to put into the Bank of Liverpool."

"Ah, that was something like," cried the inspector, rubbing his hands.

"How old Sloc.u.m must have been astonished when he found that you was gone."

"You knew my master, then," cried Jackson, starting up with alarm depicted upon his countenance.

"Of course I didn't know him; but I can read, can't I? Didn't an advertis.e.m.e.nt appear in one of the papers at Melbourne, offering a reward for the arrest of one Charley Wright. But don't fear us; go on with your yarn. You've made a good beginning."

"I'm glad that you think so, 'cos I don't know as you'd approve of such kinds of pickings."

"Approve of 'em?" echoed the inspector. "No matter; you go on, and while talking I'll order more lush."

"I didn't find so many chances to make a fortune as I expected here,"

Jackson continued, "but I got employment in a store, where I worked daytimes, and at night I used to do a little on my own account in the pasteboard line; but I wasn't very successful, and somehow or other I think I was cheated."

"It's exceedingly probable," cried the inspector, _sotto voce_.

"And when I found that I was cleaned out after a few weeks, I attempted to retrieve my losses by borrowing from my employers," Jackson continued.

"Without their consent or knowledge," Mr. Brown remarked.

The young fellow smiled faintly, and nodded his head in token of a.s.sent, and then continued:

"One day I borrowed a hundred pounds, thinking that I could replace it without its being missed, if I was lucky at cards; but somehow I wasn't, and my employers began to make a stir in relation to the matter."

"That must have been exceedingly disagreeable to your feelings," the inspector insinuated.

"Well, it was rather hard, I will own, 'cos I might have been lucky after a while, and then I could have paid the whole debt without trouble; but men in business don't seem to have much consideration for their clerks; and I think that a good deal of crime originates through their obstinacy and stupidity.

"I was obliged to leave the firm with whom I was spending my time; and I did it so suddenly that they had no chance to arrest me, or to investigate matters. I stepped out of the store while the partners were holding a consultation, and in ten minutes time I was on board the 'Smiling Queen' steamboat, bound for Sydney, and beyond the reach of the police.

"I didn't have a recommendation in my pocket, for I didn't think to ask for one when I left Melbourne; and I have always entertained some doubts as to whether I could have obtained one had I requested it."

"Ingenuous youth," muttered the inspector, almost fascinated by his impudence.

"I tried to get a clerks.h.i.+p in Sydney, but didn't succeed; and then I accepted a situation as marker in a billiard saloon, where I flourished for a time--but one night a miner, who had been drinking quite freely, lost about a pound of dust, and was fool enough to make a fuss about it.

I was suspected of stealing it; and although I pledged my word that I knew nothing of the matter, yet the gold was found in my pocket, and I was obliged to share with the police in order to get clear."

Mr. Brown endeavored to hide his chagrin by drinking from his gla.s.s, while Steel Spring could hardly contain himself he was so delighted at the _expose_.

"A precious sot of wermin those police fellers, hey?" cried the scamp, in defiance of all my frowns.

"O, they are the most rapacious set of villains," Jackson continued, "that ever lived. A man can't do an honest day's work without sharing with them. I know 'em, thoroughly."

"Perhaps you do," Mr. Brown replied, carelessly, and at the same time he gave Steel Spring such a tremendous kick on his thin s.h.i.+n bone that the poor devil was almost bent up double with agony.

"I ax your pardon," cried Mr. Brown; "I didn't know that your foot was there."

"Vell, you've found out," was the reply of the poor devil, as he rubbed his leg.

"After the transaction with the miner, I heard that a man could make a good living, if he was any ways smart, at Ballarat, so I came here and done pretty well, until an unfortunate occurrence took place, which has been the means of making me fight shy for a few weeks past."

"You see he used a 'sticker' rather freely," cried Steel Spring, in a careless way, as though stabbing was a meritorious act, which Jackson's modesty was too great for him to disclose.

"I thought I asked you to say nothing of the matter!" exclaimed Jackson, with a pallid cheek, and a frightened expression.

"Veil, so you did, but vat of it? Ain't ve all friends; and ain't it right that ve should know how much pluck a man has got?"

"If the gentleman has done any thing that is gallus, let's hear it,"

grumbled Fred.

"Ah, that's the talk; out with it at once," we all exclaimed, although in so low a tone that our neighbors did not hear us.

"Well, since the subject is broached, I don't mind giving you an account of the most dangerous expedition that I ever undertook; but mum is the word, for if that d----d Brown should get hold of me, I should have to swing for it."