The Gold-Stealers A Story of Waddy

e close upon a hundred hands below on each shift. All these he could not watch; but he was working in the same drive and with the set of men Frank had worked with, and was always alert for hin

lent reasons he had for hating Chris for her father's sake. It was a melancholy pleasure to him to see the searcher pawing his clothes about, digging into his pockets and his billy, and examining his boots. His old instinct would have prompted him to attack Ephraim on the floor of the shed, but now, with lamentable unreason and injustice, he nursed the insult as good and sufficient cause for contemning the daughter. He had see

ortunity. Harry set his face over the hopper and cradled industriously. He thought he was displaying proper firmness, but his hand trembled, his heart beat like a plunger, and he was the victim of an ignoble bashfulness. Chris approached with some timidity; but Maori bounded up to the young man, making elephantine overtures of friendliness, which were resented by Harry's cattle-dog Cop, who walked round and round the mastiff in narro

cious fangs. Chris laid a trembling hand on the collar of the penitent Maori, and in this way the young p

she said. '

ily. 'No thanks to that

very repr

exerted his strength to hurt something sweet and tender as a flower; and yet the girl seemed to tower above him. Nature, in put

bly; ''twas my dog started

o disobey; he went down at full length and lay panting, regarding Maori fixedly with a sidelong and ma

e you my message?' she

y no

l right,

pause, broken at

be angry with me

sportive cattle. She was a very little girl then, but the incident had remained fresh and vivid in her mind, an

for-for going away, because I know

ight,' said Harr

st. It hurt me because it seemed to set me on the side that was against Mrs. Hardy, and I-I always admired her. I

n the hopper. He was conscious that his replies were foolish

upon the handle of his cradle, watched her, absorbed, a prey to a set of new emotions that bewildered him hopelessly. He was still

icker, and loved to be burrowing amongst old tailings, or groping in the sludge of an auri

ed, with the confi

d Harry. 'I've just been pr

t no good. Say, I can lay you onter

here i

What'll y

What's i

ere onst. Look here, you lend me ye

you want

n' a lot of others, an' me an' some other fellers is goin' after 'em t'-night, late. A

ystery in the vicinity of the schoolhouse late that night. The desperadoes had stolen from their beds while their parents slept, and were ripe for adventure. Dick, who had Cop in charge, put himself at

re provided with bags. It was proposed to fill these with such vegetables as would serve to allure the

s was large and varied, and taught him that the average nanny or billy would desert home and kindre

e all the goats in the province. The garden of Michael Devoy was a waste place, desolation brooded

the death of the policeman, who succumbed to injuries received. As Moonlighter Dick was characteristically remorseless, his courage and cunning were understood to verge upon the inhuman, and his band was compo

he boys of Waddy. The road was overhung by tall gums and nourished many clumps of fresh green saplings, about which the tortuous cart-track wound in deep yellow ruts, baked hard in summer, washed into treacherous bog in winter. Here caution was not necessary, and there were divers fierce hand-to-hand attacks on clumps of sc

eriously. 'Moon lighter n

hich the scarecrow was clad, and his bo

teeth. Tracks had to be covered and diversions created, and there was much hiding behind logs and in clumps of scrub; i

s and sizes-sleeping huddled in the ruined engine-house, on the sides of the grass-grown tip, in the old bob-pit, and upon the remains of the fallen stack. Carefully and quietly the animals were awakened; slyly they were drawn forth, with gentle whispered calls of 'Nan, nan, nan!' and insidious and soothing words, but more especially with the aid of scraps of carrot, sparingly but judiciously distributed. An occasional low, querulous bleat from a youthful nanny awakened from dreams of clover-fields, or a hoarse, imperious inquiry in a deep baritone 'baa' from a patriarchal he-goat, was the only noise that followed the invasion. Then, when the animal

,' ordered Moonlighter.

ry blessed goa

t directions, fully provisioned, and commi

what makes a row I'll hang in his shirt to the nearest

of nannies that grubbed for sustenance on the stony ridges or the bare, burnt stretch of common land. Probably Cow Flat was so called because nobody had ever seen anything remotely

s on his shoulder, was the centre of attraction, and the dropping of an occasional leaf kept the goats pushing about him, some uprearing and straining toward the tantalising bag, others baa-ing in his face a piteous appeal. Suddenly, however, an astute billy with a flowing beard came to the rescue. He drove a

e, and after a hard struggle Cann was dragged out, tatte

ll on the left bank of the creek; Peterson came soon after with a good mob from the right, and Dolf Bel

e an' Gardiner'll go back an' have a try after Butts.

arch of over a quarter of an hour, Butts's familiar 'baa' answering from the interior of a stable in a back yard. Ted was stationed to keep 'nit,' and Dick stole into the yard, broke his way into the

rot and now fled, dangling the inviting

e thinly-timbered bush to the road. A good run brought them up to the main flock, Butts still am

g Moonlighter. 'We've waked the bl

ly elated, swept the great drove of goats up the road in the light of the waning moon. The pace was warm for a mile, but then, the dread of pursuit having evaporated, the marauders slowed down, and for the rest of the journey they were experience

m! How 'bou

s already in sight, stretching across the road, threatening to bring d

e!' ordered the imp

try on which Waddy was built. Through these gates the flock was driven with a racket and hullaballoo that set Wilson's half-dozen dogs yapping insanely, and started every rooster on the farm crowing in shrill protestation. Then helter-sk