A Small but Important Link in the Story.
The Timber Town Club was filled with
ineffable calm. The hum of convivial voices was
hushed, the clicking billiard-balls were still, no
merry groups of congenial spirits chatted in ante-room,
or dining-room. All was strangely quiet, for
most of the members were at the diggings, and the
times were too pregnant with business to warrant much
conviviality.
Scarlett and Mr. Crewe alone sat in
the reading-room, where the magazines from England
lay in perfect order on little tables, and steel engravings,
of which the Club was proud, hung upon the walls.
Jack was enjoying the luxury of a big easy chair,
and the Father of Timber Town sat upright in another.
“I was asked out to spend the
evening, yesterday,” said Jack, lazily.
“Indeed, asked to spend the
evening?” replied the alert old gentleman.
“I can’t say that I see anything remarkable
in that, Scarlett.”
Jack smiled. “By a most
charming young lady, I assure you.”
“Ah, that is another matter,
quite a different matter, my dear sir.”
“Ostensibly, it was to meet
her father, but hang me if the old gentleman put in
an appearance!”
“Ho-ho! Better, Scarlett,
better still. And what did you do, you rascal?”
“I did nothing. It was
the young lady who took up the running.”
“But wasn’t she provided
with a judicious Mama, in the background somewhere?”
“No, a calamity seems to have
befallen the Mama. She’s non est.”
“That’s very good.
The girl depends for protection solely upon her Papa?”
“I remarked that, and said,
’Your Father will hardly approve of my coming
to see you in his absence.’ ‘Oh, you
needn’t mind that,’ she said ’he
trusts me implicitly. And as for you didn’t
you save me, the other night?’ You see, I found
a drunken digger molesting her, and threw him into
the river. But I haven’t so much as seen
the old boy yet.”
“Quite so, quite so, but I want
to hear about the girl the father will
turn up in due time, and as for the digger, he at least
would get a bath.”
“I waited for her loving parent
to come home, as it was supposed he wanted to see
me.”
“I see; I see: and what did he say when
he came?”
“He didn’t say anything.”
“That was very churlish conduct, don’t
you think Scarlett?”
“But, you see, he didn’t come.”
“Didn’t come home?
Now, look here, Scarlett; now, look here, my good
fellow. You’re getting into bad ways; you’re
courting temptation. By Jupiter! they’ll
be marrying you next. They will, sir; they’ll
be marrying you, before you know where you are; marrying
you in a church. And if they can’t get
you to church, they’ll marry you before the
Registrar; by Jupiter! they will.”
“But she’s a pretty girl, remember that.”
“She may be the most monstrous
pretty girl, for all I care. But don’t
you let her hook you, my boy. Women are all fudge,
sir. Girls are mostly dolls dressed in feathers
and fine clothes. But I grant you that there’s
some dignity in a woman who’s a mother; but by
forty she becomes old, and then she must be a plaguey
nuisance. No, Scarlett, I never married, thank
God. Fancy being at the beck and call of a crotchety
old beldame, at my time of life. No, sir; I never
knew what it was to be questioned and badgered when
I came home at night, no matter if it was two in the
morning. I can do as I like, sir: I need
not go home at all. I’m a free man.
Now, take my advice, Scarlett; be a free man too.”
“But you never could have been in love, Mr.
Crewe.”
“Perhaps not; very likely not.”
Mr. Crewe had stood during the latter
part of the dialogue, that he might the more emphatically
denounce matrimony; and Scarlett rose from his comfortable
chair, and stood beside him.
“But do as I did, my dear sir” the
Father of Timber Town placed his hand on Jack’s
sleeve “and nothing disastrous will
happen. Whenever a young woman became very pressing,
what do you think I used to do?”
“I don’t know. I
don’t see how I can tell. Perhaps you told
her you had an incurable disease, and had one foot
in the grave.”
“No, sir; that would have made
her marry me the quicker in order to get
my money. No, I used to propose solemnly and in
due form on behalf of my brother Julius.
I would say, ’My dear young lady, my brother
Julius ought to be married, and you are the
girl to suit him. He is delicate, affectionate
in disposition, domesticated quite the reverse
of myself, my dear and you are the beau
ideal companion for him.’ But do you believe
that Julius is married? No, sir; not a bit of
it; no more married than I am no, sir;
as confirmed an old bachelor as ever you saw.
Very good, wasn’t it? Just the way to deal
with them, eh? Adopt the plan, Jack; adopt the
plan, and you’ll escape as certainly as I did.”
“Look here,” said Scarlett,
“we’ll go and see the banker; we ought
to have seen him this morning.”
The old gentleman chuckled. He
perceived that his young friend had changed the subject
of conversation; but he also agreed that business
should come before gossip.
It was but a brief walk from the Club
to the Kangaroo Bank.
“You’re a god-send to
this town, Jack; a perfect god-send. Do you know
that since you discovered this gold, sir, my properties
in Timber Town have increased twenty-five per cent.
in value? And do you know that I believe they
will increase cent. per cent.? Imagine it, sir.
Why, we shall all be rich men.”
They passed out into the bright street,
where the gaily-painted shops shone in the blazing
sun and the iron roofs of the verandahs ticked with
the midday heat. The door of the Bank stood open,
that the outer air might circulate freely through
the big building. The immaculately-attired clerk
stood behind his counter, with a big piece of plaster
on his forehead; but Scarlett, taking no notice of
the scowl he received from the dark-featured Zahn,
knocked at the door of the Manager’s room.
Within the financial sanctum,
a little shrivelled-up man sat at a large table which
was placed in the middle of the room. His face
was clean-shaven but for a pair of grizzled mutton-chop
whiskers, and as he bent over his papers he showed
a little bald patch on the top of his crown.
Scarlett and Mr. Crewe stood side
by side, in front of him.
“I have come from the diggings,”
said Jack, “and have called to ask ...”
“Oh ... How do you do,
Mr. Crewe? Be seated, sir.... Be seated,
both of you.... A lovely day, Mr. Crewe; a perfectly
beautiful day. Take a seat, sir, I beg.”
But as the chairs stood a long way
off against the wall, old Mr. Crewe and Jack only
glanced at them.
“I’ve come to ask,”
continued Scarlett, “that you will establish
a branch of your Bank on Bush Robin Creek.”
The Manager looked first at Scarlett
and then at Mr. Crewe. “You’re very
good,” he said. “Establish a branch
on the diggings? Gentlemen, do be seated.”
So saying, he journeyed to a far wall, and returned
with a couple of chairs, which he dragged after him
to where his visitors stood.
“It would be a great convenience
to the diggers,” said Jack, “to sell their
gold on the field, and receive drafts on your Bank.
Then, they would travel with more safety and less
fear of being robbed.”
“It’s worth thinking of,”
said the Manager, when he had seen that both Scarlett
and Mr. Crewe were seated.
“It should be profitable to
the Bank,” said Mr. Crewe, “and that, sir,
is your main consideration.”
“The track will be completed
in a few days,” Scarlett remarked, “and
your agent couldn’t possibly lose his way in
the bush.”
“Could not lose his way?
Exactly. It would be very awkward if he were to
get lost, with L20,000 in his possession.”
“I can imagine what sort of
a losing it would be considered,” said Mr. Crewe,
laughing.
“How far is it to the field?” asked the
Manager.
“As the crow flies, about forty
miles,” replied Jack, “but by the track,
some eight or ten miles more.”
“The difficulty will be the
escort,” said the Manager. “There
must be an escort to convey gold to town. If
the police, now, would give assistance, it could be
managed.”
“Failing them,” said Jack,
“the diggers would be only too glad to provide
an escort themselves.”
The banker smiled. “I was
imagining that the Government might undertake the
transportation.”
“This is a detail,” said
Mr. Crewe. “It could be arranged when your
agent wished to come to town with all the gold he had
bought on the field.”
“I make the proposal to you
on behalf of the syndicate which I represent,”
said Jack. “There is a demand for a branch
of your Bank on Bush Robin Creek: communication
is now easy, and the field is developing fast.”
“I shall see to it, gentlemen;
I shall do my best to oblige you.”
“And to benefit your institution,” interjected
Mr. Crewe.
The Manager smiled the sycophantic
smile of one who worships Mammon. “I shall
endeavour to meet the difficulty, Mr. Crewe. We
shall see what can be done.” He rang his
bell, and a clerk appeared. “Mr. Zahn is
not at the counter to-day,” he said.
“No, sir,” said the clerk; “he is
buying gold.”
“Very good; send him to me,”
said the Manager, and Isaac was quickly summoned.
“I shall require you to proceed
to the diggings at Bush Robin Creek,” said the
Manager, addressing the gold-clerk. “These
gentlemen have made representations to me which show
that there is considerable business to be done there
by buying gold. You will hold yourself in readiness
to start in a couple of days. Does that suit
you, sir?” he added, turning to Scarlett.
“Admirably,” replied Jack.
“I’ll return to-morrow, and shall tell
the diggers that your agent is coming.”
“But why should you not travel
together?” said the Manager. “You
could show Mr. Zahn the way.”
Isaac looked at Scarlett, and Scarlett looked at him.
“I think I could find my way alone,” said
Zahn.
Jack smiled. “I shall be
only too glad to give any assistance I can; but if
Mr. Zahn prefers to travel by himself, of course there
is the bare chance that he might get off the track
and be lost.”
“I’ll risk it,”
said the Jew. “I’d rather get lost
than be thrown over a precipice.”
“Dear me, dear me,” said
Mr. Crewe, his voice and gesture expressive of the
utmost astonishment. “This looks bad, Jack;
this is a very bad beginning.”
“You mean that you don’t
quite appreciate this gentleman’s overtures?”
asked the Manager.
Zahn was silent.
“We had a small difference in
a hotel,” said Jack. “But for my part
I am quite willing to let bygones be bygones.”
Zahn scowled. “That may
be so,” he said, “but I should prefer to
travel alone.”
“Dear, dear; well, well,”
said the Father of Timber Town. “But, after
all, this is a mere matter of detail which can be settled
by and by. If you go to the diggings, sir” he
turned his benignant gaze on the clerk “you
will not only be in a most responsible position, but
you will be able to do such profitable business for
your Bank, sir, that you will probably earn promotion.”
“It’s settled,”
said the Manager. “We shall send a representative,
and I hope that the arrangement will be satisfactory
to all parties. I hope you are contented, Mr.
Crewe.”
“Perfectly, my dear sir, perfectly,”
said the Father of Timber Town.
“Then you may consider the thing
done,” said the Manager; and ushering his visitors
from the room he conducted them to the garish street.