The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 74

It was a great triumph for us, and so Mr. Brown informed us, for he declared that he had never known the people of Ballarat so liberal before. Just as the old Scotchman was about to leave the shaft for dinner, he requested silence, as he thought he heard the voices of the imprisoned men.

We all listened, and found that he was not mistaken, and the knowledges that I the men were alive was a sufficient incentive to urge us all to renewed exertion.

Men forgot their dinners, and worked as though their own lives depended upon their labors, and without stopping to rest or eat, we continued on until four o'clock, when we raised the poor fellows to the surface of the earth, and found, with joy, that they were as well as could be expected, after so long an imprisonment.

Shouts rent the air, and hundreds of miners rushed towards the shaft to congratulate the rescued men, and amid all the confusion, Fred, Smith, and myself walked off quietly, and sought that rest at our tent which we so much needed.

We were just engaged drinking a pot of coffee, when, to our surprise, all three of the miners, Bill, Sam, and Jack, entered our tent, without ceremony.

"We are not very rich," Sam said, wiping his heated brow, and remaining uncovered while he addressed us, "but we can't let three strangers, who have worked so hard for our deliverance, go unthanked. Bill, here, has told us all about it, and how the d----d Scotchman refused to work unless paid. Don't let the latter affair trouble you, 'cos we've settled with him, and now we want to fix things with you."

"We are already settled with," I answered; "it's pleasure enough to us to know that you are both safe, and for that object we would work as hard again."

"Would you, though?" demanded the speaker, a look of delight overspreading his face. "Well, if I ever see my children or wife again, they shall learn to pray for you, and I would, if I knew how."

"When the shaft caved in," Jack said, "we had just found three nuggets of gold, and even during our extremity, we retained our hold of them. We are not rich, as Sam states, but if you will accept of the nuggets, and keep them as a remembrance of our deliverance, we shall feel thankful."

They laid them down and were gone before we could remonstrate, and just as they left the tent the inspector entered.

"Well," he exclaimed, "what have you decided to do about the store? The patronage of the whole of Ballarat is at your disposal, for, go where I will, I can hear of nothing but the two Americans, who fight duels with one hand and rescue people with the other."

"We have decided," replied Fred.

"That you will commence business?" eagerly inquired the inspector.

"Yes."

"Good!" and without another word the inspector left our tent abruptly, as though he had forgotten some important business.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

INCIDENTS IN LIFE AT BALLARAT.

We had hardly recovered from the surprise of the inspector's mysterious disappearance, when our old acquaintances, Charley, the proprietor of the "Californian's Retreat," and "Big Ben," made their appearance, and seated themselves upon boxes in our tent without the formality of being asked. Ben was smoking away desperately at a short pipe, nearly as black as his beard, while Charley, as became the owner of an established business, confined his attention to a cigar which are vulgarly called, in this country, "short sixes," I believe.

"I s'pose you hain't forgot old friends nor nothing?" Charley said, as he carefully laid aside his cigar, to be resumed some other time, while he accepted a pot of coffee at the hands of Smith.

"We have thought of you often since we parted," replied Fred, with a slight flight of imagination.

"Do tell if you have? Well, I declare to man, if you two fellers don't beat all natur, and no mistake. You don't 'pear to make any thing of fighting duels, and then hiring folks to dig other folks out of a mine.

I tell Ben, here, ef I had known you had the dust to spare I should have axed you to discount a note for me for sixty days, payable at sight, with interest. You wouldn't want to do any such thing as that, I s'pose?

No, I reckoned not."

For the first time we really noticed our countryman's peculiar dialect and manners, and it gave us more pleasure to see a genuine Yankee at the mines of Ballarat than it would had we found a nugget weighing a pound.

"We have but little money, and from appearances I think we shall need all we have brought with us," replied Fred.

"You'd better believe you will," said Ben, with an ominous shake of the head, as though he had pa.s.sed through the furnace of experience.

"What we came here to see you fellers for," Charley said, after a slight pause, and an exchange wink with Ben, "is to know how you stand in regard to this 'ere mining tax, which is crus.h.i.+ng the life blood out of the vitals of us honest working men, and making us think of Bunker Hill and the American Eagle, I can tell you?"

"Really," Fred answered, after a moment's thought, "I am too fresh an arrival at the mines to give an opinion as yet, and I think we shall have to wait and see how grievous the tax is."

"Ain't that what I told you?" grunted Ben, appealing to Charley.

"You just wait a while, will ye, old feller," remonstrated Charley.

"Things is working. I tell ye."

"We shall be happy to listen to you--go on," was all the response Fred returned.

"I s'pose you have all read 'bout the tea tax, a good many years ago, when our revolus.h.i.+nary daddies pitched the darned stuff overboard in Bosting harbor?"

Fred nodded in token of acquiescence.

"Wall, things here is something like the things in them 'ere times, only a darned sight wus. Now, the miners are taxed a putty considerable sum jist for the chance of digging about on this earth, when by nat'ral rights the fellers hadn't, orter pay a cent.

"Sometimes the miner is lucky, and then agin he isn't; but whether he gets a pile or not, he's got to sh.e.l.l over every month, and if he don't come down he gets no license, and can't arn an honest livin'. Now what do you think of such a state of things, hey?"

"Perhaps that the government don't know that you feel that the tax is a burden," Fred answered, evasively.

"O, yes, they do, 'cos we've pet.i.tioned a dozen times to have 'em abolish it, but no notice has been taken of our papers. They can't say that the thing was not correct, 'cos I writ one of 'em and headed it with my name, to let 'em know that we Americans still possessed the spirit of our granddaddies."

"Then you had better pet.i.tion again," remarked Fred, determined to take no part in his schemes at present.

"No, we are tired of that 'ere game, 'cos two can't play at it. What we have got to do is, to say to the Britishers, here, we won't give you another s.h.i.+llin' to save your old crown, and then we shall bring 'em round."

"But what say the Englishmen at Ballarat? Do they refuse or grumble at paying a tax?"

"Of course they do! There isn't an Englisher or a foreigner but Jo ready to say we won't stand the imposition no longer--things is coming to a head, and no mistake."

"And what do you wish us to do?" inquired Fred.

"We want you to jine us, and help stir the boys up so that they'll listen to reason, and stand out like men," replied Charley, and Big Ben grunted his applause at the sentiment.

"But that we are not willing to do at present. We are strangers here, and have paid no tax, nor have we been asked to. We shall not go into the matter blindfolded; therefore, for the present, we must keep aloof from your gatherings and pet.i.tions"

Charley sat and listened without interruption.

"Do you know what Australia is?" he asked, in a whisper, dropping his voice as though fearful of being overheard.

Fred replied that he considered it the largest island in the world, and that, if the truth was known, it would not be so well populated as at present.

"That's it," replied Charley, "the largest island in the world. Bigger than all the New England States, and much more valible. Do you understand me?" and the fellow winked violently.

"I can't say that I fully comprehend you. Can't you be a little more explicit?" Fred asked.