Tom Gerrard

hed hand he met his visitor at the door. "I am glad to

aw him," replied Gerrard, as he s

you take, Mr Gerrard? You must excuse my rig" (he was in his pyjamas); "but it's so infer

ur ago, in

By the way, aren't you-or is it Jardine?

side. I'm on the west; the Gulf side, bet

ned face of his visitor. "Well, the climate up there can't be as

my share of fever of course; so has everyone on

f the Black Police is down here on s

's a fine fell

tirrup. I've got to like him very much. And he thinks no

an say is that I have never seen anyone who can go through sc

e time with fever, and can't do more tha

portance first. That is why I have ventured to come to your

other-in-law. You know that he and I were at Rugby together, and then a

not going on in her. I'm in somewhat of a

essed rag of mine doesn't pay, but I c

ant. At the same time I appreciate your generosity. Ted has often told me you woul

he 'Mr'

Do you know any decent family here who would take care

h them when I first came to this infernal hole. Their name is Woodfall. The father is a dairyman here, and a very decent hard-working man. His wife is a th

I persuaded Ted to let me have him to 'father.' I should have liked to have had my poor sister Mary's little girl-you know that my sister died soon after her husband and my father and mother all went together in the Cassowary-but, of course, I couldn't

rs Tallis, a widow. Her husband was a squa

aburie-it is between here and Mackay

ght suit me as a breeding station, and told her I would stop at Bowen, and go and look at it. Now it would suit me very well if I could leave my protégé here for

after him as well. Now, will you come and see Aulain f

lt, olive-faced man, with jet-black beard a

n and tell me o' the wondrous sights o' Sydney and Melbourne. H

, during which time Gerrard told Aulai

from the Cape York District to Port Denison. I'm sick to death of nigger chasing in the Far North, and want to be somewhere where I can feel I'm not en

be a little less out of the world. I might, perhaps, sell Ocho Rios, and fix myself at Kaburie. If I don't, I'll put a manager there, and keep the place going, for I have a

In that valise of mine, there under the bed, are three or four ounces of alluvial gold which m

ing up in the middle of a deep pool, wi

yours within fifty miles of it-the country is too rough even for cattle-a

ere you

ter you left Ocho

, camped there for a couple of days, and did a littl

anyth

onny; mostly in

"And you never

know anything about reefing-wouldn't know a gold-bearing reef from a rank duffer, unless I saw the gold sticking up in it in lumps. And there are several parties of prospectors up in Cape York Peninsula now, and some of them are sure t

ow," and here Aulain paused. "Will you do me a f

s it, A

don't think it is fair to ask you, as

an ass! Wh

to speak on account of him being present, b

Will you keep it dark about that littl

inly,

in Brisbane to get me anything better in the Government service; and only this morning I was thinking of that very place where we both got gold. There are reefs all about the head of that creek, and every one of them carries

ill be a steamer here in a fortnight, which will take us to Somerset, and from there we can get to Ocho Rios in one of the pearling luggers. We shall find plenty of them lying up at Somerset

't accept it. I am obliged to wait six months after sending in my res

any horses when you get to Somerset; I can lend you all you want. Now I must be off with Lacey. I'll see you when I get back from Kab

ss a little mining camp called Fraser's Gully. Will you leave a letter th

eet, the latter returned to his companion with a

Who i

he are engaged-at least I think so. But I have heard that there is a

use. Both Woodfall and his wife were at home, a

ke payment," said Mrs Woodfall, a big-shouldered woman with a pleasant, sunburnt fa

lled at the Woodfall's, and Ge