From Squire to Squatter Part 41

Archie had not long to wait for Winslow. He burst in like a fresh sea-breeze--hale, hearty, and bonnie. He was also a trifle better dressed than usual. But who was that young lady close by his left hand?

That couldn't be--yes, it was Etheldene, and next moment Archie was grasping a hand of each.

Etheldene's beauty had matured; she had been but a girl, a child, when Archie had met her before. Now she was a bewitching young lady, modest and lovely, but, on the whole, so self-possessed that if our hero had harboured any desire to appear before her at his very best, and keep up the good impression by every means in his power, he had the good sense to give it up and remain his own natural honest self.

But he could not help saying to himself, "What a wife she will make for Rupert! And how Elsie will love and adore her! And I--yes, I will be content to remain the big bachelor brother."

There was such a deal to ask of each other, such a deal to do and to say, that days flew by before they knew where they were, as Winslow expressed it.

On the fifth day Gentleman Craig arrived to give an account of his stewards.h.i.+p.

Etheldene almost bounded towards him.

But she looked a little shy at his stare of astonishment as he took her gloved hand.

"Baby," he exclaimed, "I would hardly have known you! How you have improved!"

Then the conversation became general.

When accounts were squared, it was discovered that, by the spring wool, and last year's crops and bullocks, the young squatters had done wonderfully well, and were really on a fair way to wealth.

"Now, Archie Broadbent," said Winslow that night, "I am going to put you on to a good thing or two. You are a gentleman, and have a gentleman's education. You have brains, and can do a bit of speculation; and it is just here where brains come in."

Winslow then unfolded his proposals, which were of such an inviting kind that Archie at once saw his way to benefit by them. He thanked Winslow over and over again for all he had done for him, and merely stipulated that in this case he should be allowed to share his plans with Bob and Harry.

To this, of course, Winslow made no objection.

"As to thanking me for having given ye a tip or two," said Winslow, "don't flatter yourself it is for your sake. It is all to the memory of the days I spent as steward at sea with your good old uncle. Did you send him back his fifty pounds?"

"I did, and interest with it."

"That is right. That is proper pride."

Archie and the Winslows spent a whole fortnight in Brisbane, and they went away promising that ere long they would once more visit the station.

The touch of Etheldene's soft hand lingered long in Archie's. The last look from her bonnie eyes haunted him even in his dreams, as well as in his waking thoughts. The former he could not command, so they played him all kinds of pranks. But over his thoughts he still had sway; and whenever he found himself thinking much about Etheldene's beauty, or winning ways, or soft, sweet voice, he always ended up by saying to himself, "What a love of a little wife she will make for Rupert!"

One day, while Archie was taking a farewell walk along Queen Street, glancing in here and there at the windows, and now and then entering to buy something pretty for Sarah, something red--dazzling--for her black servant-maid, and toys for Di, he received a slap on the back that made him think for a moment a kangaroo had kicked him.

"What!" he cried, "Captain Vesey?"

"Ay, lad, didn't I say we would meet again?"

"Well, wonders will never cease! Where have you been? and what have you been doing?"

"Why I've gone in for trade a bit. I've been among the South Sea Islands, s.h.i.+pping blacks for the interior here; and, to tell you the truth, my boy, I am pretty well sick of the job from all I've seen. It is more like buying slaves, and that is the honest truth."

"And I suppose you are going to give it up?" The captain laughed--a laugh that Archie did not quite like.

"Yes," he said, "I'll give it up after--another turn or two. But come and have something cooling, the weather is quite summery already. What a great man you have grown! When I saw you first you were just a--"

"A hobbledehoy?"

"Something like that--very lime-juicy, but very ardent and sanguine. I say, you didn't find the streets of Sydney paved with gold, eh?"

"Not quite," replied Archie, laughing as he thought of all his misery and struggles in the capital of New South Wales.

"But," he added, "though I did not find the streets paved with gold, I found the genuine ore on a housetop, or near it, in a girl called Sarah."

"What, Archie Broadbent, you don't mean to say you're married?"

"No; but Bob is."

"What Bob? Here, waiter, bring us drinks--the best and coolest you have in the house. Now, lad, you've got to begin at the beginning of your story, and run right through to the end. Spin it off like a man. I'll put my legs on a chair, smoke, and listen."

So Archie did as he was told, and very much interested was Captain Vesey.

"And now, captain, you must promise to run down, and see us all in the Bush. We're a jolly nice family party, I can a.s.sure you."

"I promise, my boy, right heartily. I hope to be back in Brisbane in six months. Expect to see me then."

They dined together, and spent the evening talking of old times, and planning all that they would do when they met.

Next day they parted.

The end of this spring was remarkable for floods. Never before had our heroes seen such storms of rain, often accompanied with thunder and lightning. Archie happened to be out in the forest when it first came on.

It had been a hot, still, sulphurous morning, which caused even the pet kangaroo to lie panting on his side. Then a wind came puffing and roaring through the trees in uncertain gusts, shaking the hanging curtains of climbing plants, rustling and rasping among the sidelong leaved giant gums, tearing down tree ferns and lovely orchids, and scattering the scented bloom of the wattle in every direction.

With the wind came the clouds, and a darkness that could be felt.

Then down died the fitful breeze, and loud and long roared and rattled the thunder, while the blinding lightning seemed everywhere. It rushed down the darkness in rivers like blood, it glanced and glimmered on the pools of water, and zigzagged through the trees. From the awful hurtling of the thunder one would have thought every trunk and stem were being rent and riven in pieces.

Tell--the horse--seemed uneasy, so Archie made for home. The rain had come on long before he reached the creek, but the stream was still fordable.

But see! He is but half-way across when, in the interval between the thunder peals, he can hear a steady rumbling roar away up the creek and gulley, but coming closer and closer every moment.

On, on, on, good Tell! Splash through that stream quicker than ever you went before, or far down the country to-morrow morning two swollen corpses will be seen floating on the floods!

Bewildered by the das.h.i.+ng rain, and the mist that rose on every side, Archie and his trusty steed had but reached high ground when down came the bore.

A terrible sight, though but dimly seen. Fully five feet high, it seemed to carry everything before it. Alas! for flocks and herds.

Archie could see white bodies and black, tumbling and trundling along in the rolling "spate."

The floods continued for days. And when they abated then losses could be reckoned. Though dead cattle and sheep now lay in dozens about the flat lands near the creek, only a small percentage of them belonged to Burley.

Higher up Findlayson had suffered, and many wild cattle helped to swell the death bill.

But it was bad enough.