Show g ax 4 J P BLA BLACK S 1 1 ai I I 1 SHEE SHEERS in i F e N I 1 GOUDA GOLD 1 r I j p 4 by lii atice grimshaw 0 4 4 k IN A V 0 4 pa 1 y 4 C by P y co 04 S ser lee 4 tX 4 CHAPTER X it was bearin nearing T ten 17 which 1 late in th tins morning for people who nho rise at five and ogo ray my head bead carrier and I 1 were at the end of a kin ion lob job we had left tile the other carriers busy wooding and watering aboc had gone down onto the flat brIn bringino ginz with us pick shovel pegs prospecting fish dish and long steel measuring tape worked about a bit among the dinies ri nies made by br half sunken rocks and taken sand and gravel from promising spots I 1 had washed out a few dishes and found them go something like three ounces of fine gold to a dish dili with nuggets to spare oer and above on an an average about fifteen pounds worth to acry dish we washed it was mis a veritable jewelers shop you could kick the sund sand up alth ill your toes and see eee it glitter I 1 had a right it as di discoverer boerer coer er for grace and ills his partner had iwer actually found gold to peg out for my self belt one area of a hundred feet by fifty and a prospecting prospects ng claim due to me as discoverer of a held field forty miles from any other of thirty further claims this left little for any one else who might conle come along my troubles I 1 said let them wait they meant to let me some of the ground judged by what we washed was a little richer than the rest I 1 picked that measured pe pegged ged nailed up my notice and was done the warden of the field when appointed would have to check and confirm the work but for all practical purposes I 1 had my ground secure the sun was high now and down in the airless bottom of the pit it had grown hot so hot that the sweat ran in streams down my arms and dil plied salty from my forehead fore licad into my mouth smoke oh I 1 said to ogo 00 contemplating wIth pleasure the neat white pegs that markeloff marke mark doiT edoff my fortune we can get pigs in plenty for food I 1 told him purling puffing at a welcome cigarette well shoot all you like going to stop here a week for I 1 vas minded to load a carrier or two nith gold they wore were traveling light now having baying eaten up a great part of their loads ogo drew at his bamboo pipe he pa was happy at ease resting from V tedious and unnecessary work I 1 watched at ched him as I 1 sat perched on a rock my face towards the long hard anay may by which we had climbed down doin the day before ogo was nas looking up tip the east side of the basin toward the ranges A change biange came over his face it came very lery quickly it seemed nied in an instant to set his features still stiff like water frozen by an ley icy wlad mod what do you see ogo I 1 asked bilm not turning my head Tau bada he answered sitting up on the sand me ile see two white men flenty new guinea nitin main he come I 1 looked behind me now up the long iong slopes that ran to eastward I 1 could see nothing at first then I 1 could see some home way down the sides of the basin dark dots moling white dots following them they nere ere going fast making the best of their way toward the bottom like sugar ants raiding a bowl and very anxious to get to the sugar as quickly as possible it was vas beyond all doubt St kelcer licer and their carriers for when I 1 thought of spicer and his bis pa patron tron of all that the brute must have k known rind and of the wence paid silence doubtless that lie he had kept of how he bad balled balked me once find and had just fallen bhart of ruining ate me now well it was not astonishing that my fingers half consciously crept toward my left hip and the stock of if the revolver without which no ibe man travels through unknown papua I 1 have said that my wind mind like my body had come to maturity on OD tile red fields or of tile the war there ate aie thousands near my age alio to will understand just what hat that weans means the war Is dead forgotten its as are its it millions of dead and forgotten lighters fighters but the personalities shaped by it remain it has nener been possible for me to regard killing as murder when spicer and came fairly into sight eight a little later aln n they were well within rifle shot nothing restrained me troia picking off the tall fall awkward tread and fair mau man with tile the J ridding earth of a brute as mile little tit lit to had been V live as fanshaw save the knowledge that I 1 certainly hang for it and that if I 1 hanged I 1 could not marry pla pin laurier Laur ler they did not cot hurry as I 1 had done they did not leap oil onto to tile the gravelly treasure thuu u all flat that held more the older gold goldfields fields of new kew guinea we met et at leisure in together put is of rocks that glacis the midst of the glac tile the vit cason fringed the bottom of silent fellow ahwal s nodded sidewise a 11 to tat me and sat down on it a rock hands in PO pockets bocile CIle ED surveying the flat ladt with a professional eye which did not cot in miss ls my bogs fags or assuredly aiu my notice spicer edme up grinning held out ills his hand and quoted fatt factions ions ly doctor I 1 presume I 1 think that in the moment nn an ill de defined filled presentiment of misfortune seized me I 1 suppose I 1 must have felt vaguely that this defeated Spicer had no DO reasonable reason alile right to look lock cheer fill certainly nune none to crack jukes jokes I 1 nt if I 1 lid feel anything of the sort it was submerged hy by my dislike of bliler himself I 1 wanted to abuse him irile him what lin I 1 did dd suy say us its ony fla ont left many of the plums fur for you im abrald are Ar ethere there plums phinis lie he gald foolish ly clr is if if lip he had come tit lip into lie heart of wild mid new alnea fur for it walk ills ebes were roving while lie he poke I 1 siw then them ret rea re t on oil my pegs peg arid for n they opened led wide ind showed shored as many things its as the windows of nf a comice JAI it was who spoke hoi hoider eer what flow dors it i go to the dish he asked lie ile as is sItt bittins hitz us its lie he alwais alcuis did sit with legs nuns flung wide atje rt and linns arins akl aklu iho soft lint brit pulled right lino into ills his eyes and insolent ill lip out of the few old kinle miners remaining in new guinea I 1 had nunns liked cavon the least nei nevertheless I 1 anax answered cred him there was no use life denying patent facts about four ounces to tile the dish I 1 isaid said spicer let out a coilan ong cackle of delight bill hail made no sign 1 I suppose he san presently we hall had better have hae dinner it t was three they had lis as I 1 hoard camped part way down domi tile crater on the me pre previous ilous night and traveled s since dawn dann it was by a very short head that I 1 had non on I 1 dined either so we joined our messes it would lime hine been contrary to new guinea bush custom to do anything ani thing else and while we ate and drank and watched each other ally from under our eyelids there was as just one thought in the minds of aery one 11 gold eat cut not very far from roin it I 1 think was the thought of the other tiling thing that maddens too when then seen that cries out too when flung upon the lie ground blood hotter better be careful of accidents in the bush I 1 thought een as I 1 pressed the two to to share my food its a big strain on any mans self restraint nothing oren open of couise id respect that but so many little sneaky ways ays of killing are possible what kept yoli yoi back on the road I 1 asked the two I 1 wanted to know besides this silence was irritating me they looked so well pleased with themselves had so little right to be pleased foolery answered ills his mouth choked by biscuit spicer here wont ro alise that im leader and quite incorrect bleated bleared spicer in what I 1 fancy lie he tool took to be an oxford accent at tile the death of sir richard the leadership deol derived ved on me I 1 decided that the interests of the would best be served by opening up what e had been led to understand was vas a probable goldfield of the very you were out for cash to go on the spree same as myself commented cason and if fired just about two more shots into that crowd of natives we met neither of us would ever have seen this place you stalled the whole hole crowd on us and then I 1 had to shoot and we wiped them out considerably of course we had to go round after that the result of 3 your our alleged leadership patronized spicer being in sum that we have after all the valuable ground Is pegged yes said simply and buried ills his face in ills his pint size I 1 knew the papuan miner too well to question him but there was something about the whole deal that I 1 lid did not understand it matter I 1 thought if they fancy they can out me somehow some liow or other in tile bush got another think coming ic got the place in spite of them nil all arid and ill keep it we ve had finished our men meal now and the two newcomers without further parley went nellt down to tile hal flat and began walking about it was fairly late in the afternoon by now dow nm erthe tess luiis the pair started olt off on what was a brief prospecting trip I 1 heard the clink of camons pick now and then and the sharp tap of a hammor hammer I 1 did not trouble much about them I 1 was too busy making use of the opportunity to wash out a few more dishes of gravel there could be no question now of loading carriers with mth gold for tile the homeward trip but I 1 wanted at least a good sample I 1 do not think I 1 berull ever forget that hour leour ecstasy of washing out dish after dish lifted almost any anywhere here on oil w the lint flat and finding sure as day at it the bottom of every one a rich sediment of yellow allow dust and hikes ces na fare amazingly had done its work my claim might be tile the better for sluicing later inter on but at the moment one could collect enough to make any man crazy drunk milt gold lust out of the simple washing xa shing of a dozen dishes I 1 hashed them collected the gold it was about flie ounces and put pill it away in one of 0 my shags swigs for and spicer were now returning from what I 1 took to lie be a fruitless quest and I 1 lid did not want them to see my mane loui gules they carne came up to me evidently ace according to a preconceived plan they looked tired and dirty dis cou raged too loo balcers mouth dragged open and there aa anns a nasty look about his pretty bill blev eyes that I 1 had seen more than once before well ban baa una sall lie began it cerins that the only thing we can call do 1 say S blut again I 1 interrupted and say it right mister ster amory antory he corrected with emphasis the only thin thing e can do Is to peg out left and go linck back you understand the mining laws of the country I 1 suppose was my answer 1 I do if he put at in were not going to visit the mines department this trip the best thing you can do is to come back with us youve got the loan of us over the whole business and well all ail be safer together that fancy shooting of has made the bush a bit live ly I 1 reckon I 1 reflected was undoubtedly in the right joining forces and carriers would be hest best tor for every one we could travel faster together because there would be plenty plent of lands hands to cut a road when wanted more safely because tile the natives would be slow to attack a big body of people thele was nothing that I 1 need stay for now that I 1 had pegged my claim I 1 had bad only to go down to port moresby and get it granted yet and yet when the next nest day came when the tents had been struck and the theo carriers loads portioned out and the long hard upward tramp was beginning I 1 could not do away with a sense of ill defined anxiety on the surface everything was right I 1 had won the race taken the treasure with alth his callous greed disregarding eNery everything thing in life but gain spicer greedy too were vere both defeated that was well ell what then troubled roe me As far as I 1 could define tile the matter it was this they did not really mind rn inexplicable explicable that unsatisfactory that the thought it was not a fear nothing so definite stayed with me through the greater part of the lite trip down to the romilly Itom llly river nothing occurred to deepen it nothing on the other hand band happened to make it less I 1 could not help observing that my two white companions were almost ner nervously bously anxious lest I 1 should leave their sight there Is a streak of vanity in every man my streak led me to conclude that the two of them valued my company in view of the dangerous country we were traversing more than I 1 had supposed yet the puzzlement the anxiety were still alive somewhere submerged in my mind I 1 did not altogether understand who was endlessly troubled by futile attempts to be regarded as leader had given orders that no one white or black should leave the main party without ills his knowledge it cost me nothing to obey him I 1 knew that in the papuan bush divided authority spells disaster and whatever opinion I 1 might have held of in his private capacity I 1 knew him to be the best of bushmen bus limen on one afternoon we had been clini climbing bing for some hours having taken a route slightly different lt from that of the outward trip and anten intending ding to cut across a ridge ride this way brought us into a bit of new country arid and so it was vias that emerging suddenly on the top of tile the ridge we ue came without any warning wa riling right upon one of the villages of the hie Tata tata tribe tile the people had luard heard us long before their women pigs babies and collections of skulls were no doubt already carried off into tile the bush we found tile hie men awaiting us plucky chaps that aliey abey were ere thirty or forty naked creatures decked in feathers and shells and dogs teeth armed with the formidable bow of the rangers that can shoot you on through tit at a hundred yards and the stone club that smashes hinus hes a skull as easily as aa a spoon smashes adies an egg not much to stand against out rifles but they know rifles there was the trouble and and myself were equally dis inclined to stake a massacre by way of teaching them TO ITO BE CONTINUES CONTINUED |