Frank Oldfield Part 29

"Come here, Jacob," said Frank. "I see you look rather aghast, and I don't wonder; but perhaps you may find that Juniper Graves here is not quite so black as we have thought him. He acknowledges that he took my fifty pounds, but he says he never meant to keep it; and that he missed his way in looking for a doctor, and afterwards joined a party at the diggings."

"Well, Mayster Frank?" said Jacob, with a look of strong incredulity.

"Ah, I see you don't believe it, and I own it don't sound very likely; but then, you see, he has given me a proof of his wish not to wrong me; for--look here, Jacob--he has returned me my fifty pounds, and wanted me to take another ten pounds, and some nuggets besides, his own hard earnings at the diggings; only, of course, I wouldn't have them."

"Indeed, mayster," replied Jacob, with a dry cough of disbelief; and glancing at Juniper, who had a.s.sumed, and was endeavouring to keep up on his cunning countenance, an appearance of injured virtue.

"Yes, indeed, Jacob," said his master; "and we mustn't be too hard upon him. He did wrong, no doubt, and he has made the best amends he could.

If he had been a thorough rogue, he never would have cared to seek me out and return me my money with large interest. And, what's more, he's coming over to England in the same s.h.i.+p with us; not as my servant, but paying his own pa.s.sage, just for the sake of being near me. That doesn't look like a thoroughly guilty conscience."

"Coming home in the same vessel with us!" cried Jacob, in utter astonishment and dismay. "Coming home in the same vessel!"

"Yes, Mr Poole," said Juniper, stepping forward, and speaking with an air of loftiness and injured innocence; "and, pray, why not coming home in the same vessel? What have _you_ to say against it, I should like to know? Am I to ask _your_ leave in what s.h.i.+p I shall cross the brawny deep? Have you a conclusive right to the company of our master?--for he is mine as well as yours till he himself banishes me irresolutely from his presence."

"You shall not sail in the same vessel with us, if I can hinder it, as sure as my name's Jacob Poole," said the other.

"And how _can_ you hinder it, Mr Poole, I should like you to tell me?

I ask n.o.body's favour. I've paid my pa.s.sage-money. I suppose my bra.s.s, as you wulgarly call it, is as good as any other man's."

"Well," said Jacob, "I'll just tell you what it is. You'll have to clear up another matter afore you can start for England. You'll have to tell the magistrate how it was as you crept into my tent at the diggings, and tried to stick your knife into me. What do you say to that, Mr Juniper Graves?"

Just the very slightest tremor pa.s.sed through Juniper's limbs, and the faintest tinge of paleness came over his countenance at this question, but he was himself again in a moment.

"Really," he exclaimed, "it's enough to throw a man off his balance, and deprive him of his jurisprudence, to have such shocking charges brought against him. But I should like, sir, to ask this Mr Poole a question or two, as he's so ready to accuse me of all sorts of crimes; he don't suppose that I'm going to take him for judge, jury, and witnesses, without having a little s.h.i.+fting of the evidence."

"Well, of course, it's only fair that you should ask him for proof;"

said Frank.

"Come, then, Mr Poole," said Juniper, in a fierce swaggering tone, "just tell me how you can _prove_ that I ever tried to murder you?

Pooh! it's easy enough to talk about tents; and knives, and such things, but how can you prove it that I ever tried to murder you? a likely thing, indeed."

"Prove it!" exclaimed Jacob, evidently a little at fault.

"Yes, prove it. Do you think I'm going to have my character sworn away on such unsubstantial hallucinations? Tell me, first, what time of the day did it happen?"

"It didn't happen in the day at all, as you know well enough."

"Was it dark?"

"Yes."

"Could you see who it was as tried to murder you, as you say?"

"No."

"Then how do you know it was me?"

"I hit the scoundrel with my spade," said Jacob, indignantly, "and made him sing out, and I knowed it were your voice; I should have knowed it among a thousand."

"And that's all your proof," said the other, sneeringly. "You knowed my voice."

"Ay," replied Jacob; "and I left my mark on you too. There's a scar on your hand. I haven't a doubt that's it."

"Can you prove it?" asked the other, triumphantly. "A scar, indeed! Do you think scars are such uncommon things with men as works hard at the diggings, that you can swear to one scar? A precious likely story!"

"Ah, but I saw you myself."

"When?"

"At two of the preachings."

"Preachings! and what then? I didn't try and murder you at the preachings, did I? But are you sure it was me, after all, as you saw at the preachings?"

"Quite."

"How was I dressed? Was the person you took for me just the same as me?

Had he the same coloured hair--smooth face, like me?"

"I'll tell you plain truth," said Jacob, warmly; "it were you. I'm as sure as I'm here it were you; but you'd blacked your sandy hair, and growed a beard on your lip."

"Well, I never!" cried the other, in a heat of virtuous indignation.

"Here's a man as wants to make out I tried to murder him; but when I asks him to prove it, all he says is, he couldn't see me do it, that he heard my voice, that I've got a scar on my hand, that he saw me twice at some preachings, but it wasn't me neither; it wasn't my hair, it wasn't my beard, and yet he's sure it was me. Here's pretty sort of evidence to swear away a man's life on. Why, I wonder, young man, you ain't ashamed to look me in the face after such a string of tergiversations."

"I think, Jacob," said his master, "you'd better say no more about it.

It's plain you've no legal proof against Juniper; you may be mistaken, after all. Let us take the charitable side, and forget what's past.

There, shake hands; and as we're to be all fellow-voyagers, let us all be friends."

But Jacob drew back.

"No, mayster; I'll not grip the hand of any man, if my heart cannot go with it. Time'll show. By your leave, I'll go and get the dog-cart ready; for I suppose you'll be going back to Adelaide directly?"

His master nodding a.s.sent, Jacob went to fetch the vehicle, and on his return found his master in earnest conversation with Juniper.

"Good-bye, then, Juniper, till we meet next Thursday on board the _Sabrina_," he cried.

"Good-bye, sir; and many thanks for your kindness."

Jacob, of course, uttered no word of farewell; but just looking round for an instant, he saw Juniper's eyes fixed on him with such a look of deadly, savage hatred, as a.s.sured him--though he needed no such a.s.surance--that his intended murderer was really there.

"I think, Jacob, you're rather hard on Juniper," said his master, as they drove along. "He has done wrong; but I am persuaded he has still a strong attachment to me, and I really cannot think he can have been the person who tried to murder you. Why should you think it, Jacob? He's never done you any harm before."

"Mr Frank, you must excuse me; but I'm sure I'm not mistaken. He's always hated me ever since the day I spoke out my mind to you at the cottage. Take my word for it, Mr Frank, he's no love for you; he only wants to make a tool of you, just to serve his own purposes."

"Nay, nay, Jacob, my good fellow; not so fast. He cannot be so utterly selfish, or he never would have offered me the extra ten-pound note and the nuggets, over and above the fifty pounds, if he hadn't really a love for me, and a true sorrow for what he has done wrong."

"I cannot see that," was the reply. "Of course, he knowed he was likely to meet you when he came to Adelaide; and he was pretty sure what'd happen if you gave him in charge to the police. He knowed well enough they wouldn't listen to his tale; so, just to keep clear of the prison, he gave you the money, and made up his story just to save hisself. He knowed fast enough as you'd never take more nor your fifty pounds."

"Ah, but Jacob," said his master, "you're wrong there. He had made up the parcel, nuggets and all, and directed it to me long before he saw me. Don't that show that he intended it all for me, whether he met me or no?"