Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood (epub read online books TXT) 📕

“I begin to think I’ve been two ends of a dashed fool; but what’s a man to do?”

“See here, now,” he said; “you hev two cl’ar weeks afore ye. You slack off and go slow; that’ll let her see you didn’t sorter cotton to her more’n’s in the regulations.”

“And have a row with her?”

“Sartin,” says Bill, “and hev the shootin’ over right away. It’s a plaguey sight safer than letting her carry it in her mind, and then laying for yer some day when ye heven’t nary thought of Injuns in your head. That’s the very time a woman like her’s bound to close on yer and lift yer ha’r if she can.”

“Why, how do you know what she’s likely to do?”

“I’ve been smokin’, pard, while you hev bin talkin’, sorter careless like. I’ve had my eyes open and seen Injun sign mor’n once or twice either. I’ve hunted with her tribe afore, I guess, and old Bill ain’t forgot all the totems and the war paint.”

After this Bill fresh lit his cigar, and wouldn’t say any more. But I could see what he was driving at, and I settled to try all I knew to keep everything right and square till the time came for us to make our dart.

I managed to have a quiet talk with Starlight. He thought that by taking care, being very friendly, but not too much so, we might get clean off, without Kate or anyone else being much the wiser.

Next week everything seemed to go on wheels⁠—smooth and fast, no hitches anywhere. Jim reckoned the best of our claim would be worked out by the 20th of the month, and we’d as good as agreed to sell our shares to Arizona Bill and his mate, who were ready, as Bill said, “to plank down considerable dollars” for what remained of it. If they got nothing worth while, it was the fortune of war, which a digger never growls at, no matter how hard hit he may be. If they did well, they were such up and down good fellows, and such real friends to us, that we should have grudged them nothing.

As for Jeanie, she was almost out of her mind with eagerness to get back to Melbourne and away from the diggings. She was afraid of many of the people she saw, and didn’t like others. She was terrified all the time Jim was away from her, but she would not hear of living at the Prospectors’ Arms with her sister.

“I know where that sort of thing leads to,” she said; “let us have our own home, however rough.”

Kate went out to Specimen Gully to see her sister pretty often, and they sat and talked and laughed, just as they did in old times, Jeanie said. She was a simple little thing, and her heart was as pure as quartz crystal. I do really believe she was no match for Kate in any way. So the days went on. I didn’t dare stay away from the Prospectors’ Arms, for fear she’d think I wanted to break with her altogether, and yet I was never altogether comfortable in her company. It wasn’t her fault, for she laid herself out to get round us all, even old Arizona Bill, who used to sit solemnly smoking, looking like an Indian chief or a graven image, until at last his brick-coloured, grizzled old face would break up all of a sudden, and he’d laugh like a youngster. As the days drew nigh Christmas I could see a restless expression in her face that I never saw before. Her eyes began to shine in a strange way, and sometimes she’d break off short in her talk and run out of the room. Then she’d pretend to wish we were gone, and that she’d never seen us again. I could hardly tell what to make of her, and many a time I wished we were on blue water and clear away from all chance of delay and drawback.

We made up our minds to start by Saturday’s coach. It left at night and travelled nigh a hundred miles by the same hour next morning. It’s more convenient for getting away than the morning. A chap has time for doing all kinds of things just as he would like; besides, a quieter time to slope than just after breakfast. The Turon daily mail was well horsed and well driven. Nightwork though it was, and the roads dangerous in places, the five big double-reflector lamps, one high up over the top of the coach in the middle with two pair more at the side, made everything plain. We Cornstalks never thought of more than the regular pair of lamps, pretty low down, too, before the Yankee came and showed us what cross-country coaching was. We never knew before. My word, they taught us a trick or two. All about riding came natural, but a heap of dodges about harness we never so much as heard of till they came to the country with the gold rush.

We’d made all our bits of preparations, and thought nothing stood in the way of a start next evening. This was Friday. Jim hadn’t sold his bits of traps, because he didn’t want it to be known he wasn’t coming back. He left word with a friend he could trust, though, to have ’em all auctioned and the goodwill of his cottage, and to send the money after him. My share and his in the claim went to Arizona Bill and his mate. We had no call to be ashamed of the money that stood to our credit in the bank. That we intended to draw out, and take with us in an order or a draft, or something, to Melbourne. Jeanie had her boxes packed, and was so wild with looking forward to seeing St. Kilda beach again that she could hardly sleep or eat as