I returned his greeting, and thanked him for his advice, "Here"s the _Auckland Express_," I said, fishing that paper from my pocket. "It is the latest date, and will be something to read on the boat."
He took it eagerly, and glanced casually down the open sheet; then his face paled, and the paper dropped from his nerveless fingers. I turned aside for a moment, and when I looked again, English Bob"s countenance was stern and hard.
"You"d better go," I advised kindly; "the _Bulimba_ will be moving out soon."
He shook his head. "I have decided to stay and go back with you to the fields," he answered with an effort. "But I"ll run down to the wharf and say good-bye to the boys."
He was gone before I could speak another word, and wonderingly I picked up the paper which had caused such a sudden change of programme. Only one item appeared in the page he had scanned which could in any way be considered of remotest private interest. But it read as follows: "Robert Lorimer, the absconding Bank Manager of a country town in England, has at last been traced to New Zealand. Local inquiries are being inst.i.tuted, but it is regarded as tolerably certain that the defaulter will be found in the northern gum-land, and the police of that district have been warned accordingly. Meanwhile the port of Auckland will be stringently watched."
That was all, yet viewed in the light of recent events it was amply sufficient to suggest to me that English Bob and Robert Lorimer were one and the same person. Still, my late interrogator as to the attractions of Australian cities did not strike me as being such a man as the bald news paragraph implied. His face was gentle, and contained a certain quiet dignity, which I felt a.s.sured could belong to no criminal"s countenance. His manner, too, was distinctly in his favour. Already I had forgotten the unprepossessing garb of the outer man. My reflections were cut short by the dismal shriek of the _Bulimia"s_ syren--sure signal that that persevering vessel was at last under way.
"Yes, she"s off now," volunteered the bar-tender, surveying the deserted arena beyond the counter ruefully, and making a mental calculation, I have no doubt, as to the probable "stagger juice" capacity of his solitary remaining customer. I disappointed him mightily by making my way outside, and there, to my surprise, I saw English Bob approaching with Long Ted expostulating volubly by his side.
"Hallo, Ted!" I cried, "have you also decided to remain where an unfeeling civilisation sent you?"
"Of course I stays with the boss," responded that gentleman, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye, "but my poor old swag has gone with Slim Jim and Never Never Dan. They would have stopped too, only they couldn"t swim, an" the darned ship had moved off afore they knew we wasn"t comin"."
"We"ll go back to our old camp by the coach to-night," said English Bob.
"I"m tired of even this fringe of civilisation already. Will you come?"
I needed no pressing. Somehow I felt that I was being drawn into the final act of a life"s drama; the damaging testimony of the _Auckland Express_ loomed largely before my vision, but the pale sad face of the exile awakened in me pity rather than repulsion, his silent exercise of a superbly strong will aroused in me admiration.
"I shall be glad to go with you," I answered.
That night we journeyed by mail-coach out towards w.a.n.geri, a constantly shifting settlement forming the headquarters of the ever-roving gum-diggers. For the early part of the route our lumbering vehicle careered over rocky bluffs and steeps, then down into beautiful alluvial valleys and forest glades, where silvery streams of purest water gushed onwards to meet the sea, their winding channels, glittering in the moon"s filtering beams, showing at intervals through the wavy fronds of the stately kauri. But soon the majestic forest lands gave place to rolling plains of burnt soil, with occasional stretches of fern-swamp and tea-tree dunes.
"This is the old forest country of New Zealand," explained English Bob.
Ted had long since fallen asleep.
"And is the gum not to be found here also?" I asked, somewhat nonplussed to find the site of an ancient forest so bare and desolate.
My companion gravely acquiesced. "Gum-diggers are not as a rule a careful cla.s.s," he said; "and the young timber on these flats has all been recklessly burnt down to suit their needs."
Long and deep channels here and there intersected the scorched wastes, and mounds like gigantic mole-hills were abundantly evident. But in the vague light only a blurred panorama of the true aspect of things could be seen; which was perhaps just as well, for the New Zealand Government has long complained about the devastating nature of the gum-seeker"s employment. They certainly do not make the desert "blossom like the rose," but if an opposite parallel could be drawn, it would suit them exactly. This feature of affairs was due, I was told, to the plodding and ceaseless excavations of a number of Austrians who stormed the country many years before, and not to the more leisurely routine pursued by the orthodox happy-go-lucky digger.
Once again, however, we entered a broad timber belt which extended far along with undulating hillside forming our southern boundary at this stage, and seemingly feathered the land for a very considerable distance northward also. And now many twinkling lights began to shine through the spa.r.s.e foliage at the base of the tall kauri, and fleeting glimpses were caught of groups of men standing at the doors of their "whares,"
watching the coach rumble past with an odd listlessness which seemed the more strange considering that the arrival of the mails was but a weekly occurrence, and sometimes not even that when the rainy season was on, and the valleys and flats alike were flooded to a dangerous depth.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GUM-DIGGERS" SWIMMING POOL.]
"Their interest is in their daily occupation," said English Bob, guessing my thoughts. "The men you meet here for the most part know the world well. This is a haven of rest for the wide earth"s wanderers. Mail day to them means little, for they receive few letters and perhaps send less."
"And have you travelled far, that you speak in such a strain?" I asked chidingly. "Surely the world has not grown dim to your eyes, which have seen fewer years than mine."
"Years do not always bring sadness," he answered evasively, "nor does the lack of them make one the less liable to suffer. As for my travels--do not ask. I have----"
"w.a.n.geri," yelled the driver, reining up the horses with a jerk which had the effect of propelling the slumbering Ted heavily on to the floor of the coach. The words that issued from that valiant warrior"s lips then were sulphurous in the extreme, and the offending Jehu, hearing of his own premeditated doom, slid hastily from his perch and vanished into the night. There was little indeed to see at w.a.n.geri. A small "store and post-office" occupied the central position in a forest clearing, and around it in a straggling ring about a dozen log huts were dully discernible through the gloom.
"The whares are scattered all through the forest for miles around," said English Bob. "w.a.n.geri is only a kind of station for the export of the resin collected. But come along to my little wigwam; it is a bit away from the others, but it"s on a good patch, and you are welcome to try your luck with Ted and me."
I expressed my grat.i.tude in, I fear, rather stinted terms, for the eerie shadow of the great pines had a somewhat depressing influence on my spirits. I tramped on with my new acquaintances in silence, my swag slung picturesquely over my shoulder as in days of yore.
"It _is_ a bit lonesome like," grumbled Long Ted, as he marched on ahead, separating the festooning branches for our easier progress. "Can you blame a man for being ragged after this?" he demanded irrelevantly a few moments later, his mind apparently reverting to our first meeting.
It was clear that Long Ted"s frustrated holiday was still a rankling subject in that worthy"s breast.
The air was wonderfully cool and invigorating, despite the encl.u.s.tering thicket, and the absence of the ubiquitous mosquito made me marvel not a little. It was the deathlike silence that hurt; it oppressed the senses to an appalling degree, and tended to reduce one unaccustomed to forest solitudes to an enervating state of melancholy. Had the journey been made by daylight it might have been different, but fate ordains that the traveller to this land should first see Nature"s most dreary aspect. I was startled from my unprofitable musings by English Bob shouting--
"Here we are at last. Now, Ted, make us some supper; and let us be merry, for to-morrow we----"
"Go out gum-digging," I prompted, sinking down in a corner of the aptly-named wigwam with a sigh of relief.
It was a week later. The sun was shining brightly over the sylvan slopes of the great gum region, and tinging the nodding plumes of the stately forest giants with a deep bronze effulgence; yet down below the spreading branches a perpetual twilight reigned, and here, piercing and trenching the mossy sward in search of the fossilised resin residue, the strangely a.s.sorted waifs of the world wandered, English Bob and I had become fast friends during our brief sojourn together. Concerning his past I did not inquire, having already learned that the grim gum-land swallows up many of life"s tragedies; but day by day I expected a dread _denouement_. The newspaper paragraph still haunted me; my mind was filled with conflicting doubts and fears. The motley a.s.sembly who formed our neighbours near and distant were a generous and true-hearted people, among whom it was a pleasure to abide. The same environment affected all, and for the time we were as one huge family, dwelling within the encircling arm of grand old mother Nature.
Each day we sallied out armed with spade and spear, the latter implement being merely a long pointed stick provided with a handle for leverage, and rarely indeed did we return to camp without a goodly store of the amberlike deposit. The method of working was simple. By means of the spear the spongy soil was easily penetrated, and the presence of any gum strata localised at once, after which the spade came into play. The value of the crude material thus brought to the surface was no mean figure, ranging from 50 to 70 a ton.
This morning we had been exceptionally fortunate, Long Ted spearing a huge block of the gelatinous substance almost with his first effort, and we were busy clearing away the covering earth when two woe-begone individuals appeared before us.
"Slim Jim and Never Never Dan," gasped Long Ted, gazing at the apparitions in undisguised wonder. "Where--what--how--an" ye does have a mighty neck to come back in them togs."
Then I noticed that the miserable-looking pair were arrayed in fashionable raiment, though already considerably torn by contact with the entangling brush.
"We didn"t git no farther than Auckland," muttered Slim Jim shamefacedly. "We didn"t calc"late on goin" nowheres without the boss, so we has come back."
English Bob smiled. "But how have you managed to arrive at this time?"
he asked. "Surely you did not walk from w.a.n.geri."
"We just did," a.s.serted Never Never Dan. "We couldn"t wait on the bally old coach, so we came right away last night----"
"Come an" have some tucker, you heavenly twins," roared Ted, relinquishing his shovel, his honest face glowing with pleasure at the return of the prodigals.
When they had departed towards the hut, English Bob looked at me inquiringly. "Could you imagine men like these in any other country than this?" he said. "They are just like children."
Slowly the sun climbed up in the heavens, and we two persevered at our work of excavation. Then gradually I became aware of the rhythmic hoof-beats of many horses sounding faintly in the distance, and soon the dense forest rang out with the unwonted echoes. And now the rushing of the gum-diggers. .h.i.ther and thither came plainly to our ears, and a chorus of warning cries swelled out above the prevailing din--"The troopers are coming."
At once the truth flashed over me that the man whose whare I shared was the object of their search; the inevitable crisis had come at last. As for him, he stood almost defiantly erect, with the blood alternately surging to his cheeks, then leaving them deathly pallid.
I laid my hand on his shoulder. "Why do you try to hide from me that which I already know?" I said gently. "Sometimes it is possible to help----"
"You know?" he gasped.
"I saw the paper," I answered simply.
He covered his face with his hands, and his whole frame shook with a strong man"s emotion. "Do you--believe?" he asked hoa.r.s.ely, without looking at me.
"a.s.suredly not," I said.
He gave a sigh of thankfulness. "I have been tracked like a dog all over the world," he murmured brokenly, "but I have reached the end of the tether now."