The Gold-Stealers A Story of Waddy

together two or three meagre classes; it was the result of a purely local enthusiasm, and was erected by public subscription shortly after Mr. Joel Ham, B.A., arrived in the district and

nt scholastic institutions than the orators imagined, were delivered by representative men, and a resolution embodying the det

there was no ruling mind and no general design-the school when finished seemed to lack continuity, so to speak. As an architectural effort it displayed evidence of many excellent intentions, but could not be called a brilliant success as a whole-although one astute Parliamentary candidate did secure an overwhelming majority of votes in Waddy after declaring the schoolhouse to be an ornament to the township. The public-spirited persons who contributed windows, it was tacitly agreed, were quite justified in putting in those windows according to the dictates of their own fancy, even if the result

e side. Waddy watched this failing with growing uneasiness. When the collapse seemed inevitable, the male adults were again bidden to an onerous public duty; they rolled up like patriots, and with a mighty effort pushed the school up into the perpendicular propping it there with stout stays. That answered excellently for a time, but eventually the wretched house began to slant in the opposite direction. Once more the men of Waddy attended in force, and spent an arduous half-day hoisting it into an upright position, and securing it there with more stays. It took the eccentric building a long ti

quarry holes, came another insistent droning in a deeper note, like the murmur of distant surf. No one was stirring: to the right and left along the single thin wavering line of unpainted weatherworn wooden houses nothing moved but mir

' Besides being dark and evil-smelling under there, it was damp; great clammy masses of cobweb hung from the joists and spanned the spaces between the piles. The place was haunted by strange and fearsome insects, too, and the moving of the classes above sent showers of dust down between the cracks i

were still jubilant. The game had to be played with great caution, and conversation was conducted in whispers when ideas could not be conveyed in dumb show. All that was going on in the room above was distinctly audible to the deserters below, and the joy of camping there ou

indly favour me with a f

hrow with a cocked ear and upturned eyes; Jacker Mack grinned all across his broad face and win

ve to be an ornament to the theatrical profession; but it is my duty

and the school master's sarcast

ice of this kind makes for perfection, you know, Parrot. Good, good-very good! If you should be spoiled in the making

me, I wo

d himself and kicked ecstatically, and young Haddon bowed his forehead in the dirt and drummed with his toes, and gave expression to his exuberant hilarity in frantic pantomime. The rough and ready schoolboy is very near to the beginnings; his sense of humour has not been impaired by over-refinement

a thirst?' whispered Dick

lied Jacker, 'but he was

bberish, in which it was specified that 'the herein afore-mentioned Joel Ham, B.A.,' was to be limited to a certain amount of alcoholic refreshment per diem, and McMahon, at the Dro

this want of confidence led directly to the boys' undoing; for presently Dick detected Jacker in an attempt to deceive, and signalled 'Down!' with an emphatic gesture. 'Gerrout!' was the word framed by the lips of the indignant Jacker. H

hissed Dick;

another-

, I te

asn

don't play with s

on

me

eatening fist, and Jacker, with an adroitness for which he was famous, met him with a clip on the shin from a copper-toed

nder fierce voices under his feet, the sounds of blows and of bumping heads, and s

Moonlight,' he ca

m the rack, and strutted out wit

his cane over and under, and critically examine the end thereof, 'you are a very

n, assuming the expre

eized him by

ation. I give you till I have counted te

was Greek to the scholars, but his me

Peterson

yards, and kicked stupidly and

re,' he growled. 'Why

don' mind be

tunity. Meanwhile the fight under the school was being prosecuted with unabated fury. Dick and Jacker gripped like twin bull-terriers, rolling and tumbling about in the confined s

boys!'

ught with greater determination or with such a whole-souled devotion to the cause. Over and over they tumbled in the dust, clutching hair, hammering ribs, and grunting and grasping, blind, deaf

here: there wealth and glory await you. Peterson, you see here how degraded that boy be comes who forgets those higher principles which it is my ear

enemy's grasp. The effort brought Dick to his feet, panting and still eager for the fray. He could

he curtain of cobweb from his eyes, and the situation flashed upon him in all its grim sign

is consternation, and yielded meekly, lik

rapidly for a second or so, and he screwed his

very much at your service; and yours, McKnight. We will go ins

ses a strange and amazing spectacle, and were clothed in an original and, so far as the children were concerned, an inexplicable disguise. Fighting and tumbling about under the school house, Haddon and McKnight had gathered much mud, but more cobwebs. In fact, they had wiped up so many webs that they were covered from head to foot in the clammy dusty masses. Their hats were lost early in the encounter, and their hair was full of cobwe