Part 26 (1/2)

”The clever bloke who thinks he's going to marry her,” answered Jewson through his artificial teeth. ”Clever he may be,” he added, ”and successful he is, but he ain't so clever that he's going to succeed in that!”

Devenish took heart from the cunning and confident face raised so slyly to his. Yet his heart of hearts sank within him, for it was still not utterly debased, and his compact with this ruffian was a heaviness to him. ”What do you mean by asking me to post his presents to her?” he demanded angrily; but his anger was due less to the request than to the underlying subtlety which he felt he had far better not seek to probe.

”I'm not going to tell you, Captain Devenish. You said you'd leave it to me, sir.”

”But it is something from him to her?”

”That I promise you; but it'll tell its own tale, and you'll hear it soon enough, once you get home safe and sound.”

The driver had mounted to his place, the five horses had been put to.

Devenish hesitated with the little brown paper packet in his hand.

”And she really ought to have it?”

”It's only due to her, poor young lady.”

”But to me? Is it due to me, man?”

”It'll do you more good, sir,” said Jewson, raising his crafty eyes, ”than ever anything did you yet, in that quarter, Captain Devenish.”

Ralph put the packet in an inner pocket. ”Well, I'll think about it,”

said he. But he did not take the hand that was held out to him. He went from Ballarat with no more than a nod to the man whom he was leaving there to play a villain's part on his behalf. It was enough for Ralph Devenish that he had soiled his soul.

CHAPTER XXI

THE COURIER OF DEATH

Denis pa.s.sed many days underground, in the fascinating pursuit of driving a tiny tunnel due south from the bottom of the shaft. That way ran the lead as traced already on its outer skirts, and that way burrowed Denis through its golden core. The miniature corridor which he made was but two feet wide, and not six inches higher than its width.

Denis could just turn round in it by a series of systematic contortions.

He would have made the drive roomier but for an early warning as to the treacherous character of the red clay stratum immediately overhead.

Thereafter he confined his operations to the lower half of the auriferous drift, which being gravelly, was more or less conglomerate, and formed a continuous arch corresponding with the brickwork in a railway tunnel. The drive was not timbered like the shaft which led to it, but at intervals props were wedged against the walls, with flat wooden caps to support the roof. Yet the task seemed to Denis too precarious to depute, and worming every inch of his way, it took him till February to penetrate fifteen feet.

Doherty was consoled by a position of much responsibility above ground: he had the was.h.i.+ng of every bucketful which came out of the drive, and he also was single-handed, but for some help at the water-side from the friendly fellow with the black beard, whose offices he was able to repay in kind. The creek hereabouts was more populous now than the partners had found it. Their success had had the usual effect of attracting numbers to the gulley. Some had taken possession of holes prematurely abandoned the year before, and were working them out in feverish haste; larger parties with plant and capital were rapidly sinking their seventy feet on the very edge of the successful claim. ”We'll be down on top of you before you know where you are,” said one of the newcomers when they heard the direction in which Denis was driving. Thereupon he redoubled his efforts to such purpose that Doherty could not keep pace with the output, and a stack of untried wash-dirt grew up beside the shaft. In spite of this the average yield in washen gold was many ounces a day.

And daily Denis took it, his revolver in his pocket, to the Commissioner for transmission to Geelong, where the accredited gold-buyer had turned out so well that the partners no longer received his payments in cash, but had several thousands standing to their credit in his books.

Jewson was much subdued. There was something uncanny in the way this fortune was growing under his eyes, in spite of him. But he had his own reasons for undiminished confidence in the end which an undying grudge and innate cupidity alike demanded; meanwhile his honest emoluments were not to be despised, and he continued to earn them by the consistent exercise of his one accomplishment. His cooking was as good as ever, his behaviour even better, since the nocturnal excursions were a thing of the past. This circ.u.mstance was too much of a coincidence to decrease Denis's suspicions; on the other hand, nothing occurred to increase them, and Denis was not sorry for that. The man was invaluable. So much labour underground must have been deadly in its effects without regular supplies of proper food properly cooked. And there the steward never failed. But Denis had his eye on him, and was wise enough never to betray whatever suspicion he had entertained with regard to Jewson's complicity in the theft of the nugget and the ring.

Jewson naturally thought that matter had blown over; but one morning, as he was happily occupied with the duties which he really relished for their own sake, the door darkened as a pair of broad shoulders jammed between the posts; and the steward found himself confronted by a blue-black beard which contrasted invidiously with the unwilling whiteness of his own.

”Well,” said a voice of grim good-humour, ”have you found him yet?”

”What are you talking about?” replied the steward, testily. ”Who are you--and what do you want?”

”Never you mind who I am,” said the big man at the door. ”You've seen me afore, and I've seen more of you than you might think. What I want is to know whether you ever found the Chinaman you went lookin' for a month ago; and that's what I be talkin' about. So now you know.”

The steward stood at the table with his wicked head on one side, considering rapidly while he affected to ransack his memory.