Part 55 (1/2)

”No; something like that, though. Where they got bailed up among the rocks, you know, and fought till they were all killed.”

”Thermopylae?”

”Ah! This must be just such another place, I should think.”

”Thermopylae was by the sea-sh.o.r.e,” said Alice.

”Now, I should imagine,” said Sam, pointing to the natural glacis formed by the decay of the great wall which they had seen fronting them as they came up, ”that a few determined men with rifles, posted among those fern-trees, could make a stand against almost any force.”

”But, Sam,” said Jim, ”they might be cut up by cavalry. Horses could travel right up the face of the slope there. Now, suppose a gang of bushrangers in that fern-scrub; do you think an equal number of police could not turn them out of it? Why, I have seen the place where Moppy's gang turned and fought Desborough on the Macquarrie. It was stronger than this, and yet--you know what he did with them, only kept one small one for hanging, as he elegantly expressed it.”

”But I ain't talking of bushrangers,” said Sam. ”I mean such fellows as the Americans in the War of Independence. See what a dance they led our troops with their bushfighting.”

”I wonder if there will ever be a War of Independence here,” said Alice.

”I know which side I should be on, if there was,” said Sam.

”Which would that be?” asked Jim.

”My dear friend,” said Sam, testily, ”how can you, an officer's son, ask me, an officer's son, such a question? The King's (I beg pardon, the Queen's) side, of course.”

”And so would I,” said Jim, ”if it came to that, you know.”

”You would never have the honour of speaking to your sweet sister again, if you were not,” said Alice.

”But I don't think those Americans were in the wrong; do you, Miss Brentwood?” said Sam.

”Why no; I don't suppose that such a man as General Was.h.i.+ngton, for instance, would have had much to do with them if they had been.”

”However,” said Sam, ”we are talking of what will never occur here. To begin with, we could never stand alone against a great naval power.

They would shut us up here to starve. We have everything to lose, and nothing to gain by a separation. I would hardly like myself, for the sake of a few extra pounds taxes, to sell my birthright as an Englishman.”

”Conceive,” said Alice, ”being in some great European city, and being asked if you were British, having to say, No!”

They were coming through the lower pa.s.s, and turned to look back on the beautiful rock-walled amphitheatre, sleeping peaceful and still under the afternoon sun. The next time (so it happened) that Sam and Jim looked at that scene together, was under very different circ.u.mstances.

Now the fronds of the ferntrees were scarce moved in the summer's breeze, and all was silent as the grave. They saw it again;--when every fern tuft blazed with musketry, and the ancient cliffs echoed with the shouts of fighting, and the screams of dying men and horses.

”It is very early,” said Alice. ”Let us ride to the left, and see the great waterfall you speak of, Jim.”

It was agreed. Instead of going home they turned through the forest, and debouched on the plains about two miles above Garoopna, and, holding their course to the river, came to it at a place where a great trap dike, crossing, formed a waterfall, over which the river, now full with melting snow, fell in magnificent confusion. They stood watching the grand scene with delight for a short time, and then, crossing the river by a broad, shallow ford, held their way homeward, along the eastern and more level bank, sometimes reining up their horses to gaze into the tremendous glen below them, and watch the river crawling on through many impediments, and beginning to show a golden light in its larger pools beneath the sloping, westering sun.

Just as they sighted home, on the opposite side of the river, they perceived two hors.e.m.e.n before them, evidently on the track between Major Buckley's and Garoopna. They pushed on to ”overhaul them,” and found that it was Doctor Mulhaus, whom they received with boisterous welcome, and a tall, handsome young gentleman, a stranger.

”A young gentleman, Sam,” said the Doctor, ”Mr. Halbert by name, who arrived during your father's absence with letters of introduction. I begged him to follow your father over here, and, as his own horse was knocked up, I mounted him at his own request on Jezebel, he preferring her to all the horses in the paddock on account of her beauty, after having been duly warned of her wickedness. But Mr. Halbert seems of the Centaur species, and rather to enjoy an extra chance of getting his neck broke.”

Politeness to strangers was one of the first articles of faith in the Buckley and Brentwood families; so the young folks were soon on the best of terms.

”Are you from Sydney way, Mr. Halbert?” said Sam.

”Indeed,” said the young man, ”I have only landed in the country six weeks. I have got three years' leave of absence from my regiment in India, and, if I can see a chance, I shall cut the army and settle here.”