How It All Ended
In reality it was the prospector whose
life Dr. Plumstead had saved at the risk of his own,
who did most towards setting the father of the seven
on his feet again and righting him in the eyes of the
world, which is so quick to approve the successful
man.
A word which the young doctor dropped
in the ear of Mr. Reginald Baxter sent that gentleman
and Mr. Wallis posthaste to Latimer, where they held
private conferences with the now convalescent prospector,
and the result of it all was that a company was promptly
formed for the developing of a gold claim staked out
round the grave which the prospector in mercy had
begun to dig for the unknown dead. So rich did
this prove to be that when the prospector kept his
word, and paid over the proportion of his earnings
which he had promised to the doctor, there was no more
worry about ways and means for Nealie, who was now
her father’s right hand, as she had been his
devoted nurse when he was recovering from his burns.
For a little while they all went to
live at Latimer, in a brand-new wooden house which
was made of pine trees and was fragrant of the forest
in every room. But the first break in the family
came when Rupert and Rumple went to Sydney to be educated.
Thanks to the skill of his father
and the other Dr. Plumstead, Rupert had quite recovered
from his lameness, and although he might never be
quite so nimble as his younger brothers, he was no
longer lame, and that was such a comfort to him that
he seemed to expand into quite a different creature.
But, as Sylvia remarked to Rupert
on the day before he and Rumple were to start for
Sydney, they were going to have trouble with that other
Dr. Plumstead, who, not content with having the same
name as the rest of them, had shown a great desire
to be still closer linked to them by becoming a relation.
“It is so stupid of him to want
to marry Nealie,” she said plaintively.
“Because I know very well that if she says yes,
then I shall have to keep house for Father, and mother
the rest of you, which will certainly spell ruin to
my chance of an artistic career, and I am beginning
to paint in quite an intelligent fashion.”
“There is room for improvement,”
scoffed Rumple, who chanced to overhear what she said.
“Don’t you remember your picture of Kaffir
kraals that Mr. Melrose took for mushrooms in
a meadow? It will not do for you to indulge in
swelled head as yet.”
“I think that on the whole the
mistake was rather in the nature of a compliment,”
said Sylvia, with a ripple of laughter. “For
doubtless in the first place the Kaffirs took the
patterns of their huts from some sort of fungi, and
so there you are.”
“Well, anyhow, Dr. Plumstead
is a rattling good sort for witness how
cheerfully he put up with all of us that time we took
possession of his house and if he wants
to marry Nealie I don’t see what is to prevent
it myself,” said Rumple; but Rupert only made
a grimace, which was his way of saying that he would
just as soon have the question of marriage put further
off into the future.
“If the man wants a wife, why
can’t he wait until Ducky is old enough?”
went on Sylvia, in the tone of one who has a grievance.
“Why Ducky? You might aspire
to the position yourself, for you are awfully nice
looking!” cried Rumple, putting an affectionate
arm round Sylvia and giving her a mighty hug.
“Oh, I am not going to waste
my talents in such a fashion! I feel as if I
had been born to greatness, and I shall achieve it
some day I am sure; only it will put the clock back
for a few years if I have to concentrate on breakfasts,
dinners, and household things generally,” said
Sylvia, with a sigh, and then the talk came to an abrupt
end, for Don rushed in to say that Billykins was all
smashed up from a fall down a ladder at the mines,
and of course there was instant confusion.
But Billykins seemed to have a charmed
life, for although he was brought home in the ambulance,
and groaned as loudly as a whole hospital full of
patients, when his father came to make an examination
of his hurts they turned out to be only a few surface
scratches and a bruise or two.
“Why, I made sure that I had
got a broken leg!” exclaimed Billykins, standing
straight up on both feet and looking the picture of
disappointment. “Are you sure there are
no bones broken, Father?”
“Quite sure, my son,”
said Dr. Plumstead, with a laugh of relief, for he
had supposed there must have been some more serious
injury considering how far the boy had fallen.
“But if you feel dissatisfied with my examination,
here comes the other doctor, and you can ask him to
overhaul you.”
“Oh, he does not care for anything
but Nealie!” said Billykins in a tone of deep
disgust. “I expect that you will have to
let them get married, Father, if it is only to stop
him coming over here so often; for his patients in
Hammerville will be calling in another doctor very
soon if he neglects them so shamefully. Why,
this is the second time in a month that he has been
here.”
“Yes, I expect that will be
the best way,” said his father quietly, and
then he went out to greet the other doctor; and that
same evening, when the sun went down in splendour
over beyond the sandy plain where the gold reef lay,
Nealie’s father put her hand in that of the other
Dr. Plumstead and gave them both his blessing.
Then the crimson faded through gold
to grey in the sky above the sandy plain, and the
shadows of night dropped down on the grave of the
nameless stranger under the mulga scrub; but in Latimer
the streets and shops were brightly lighted, and all
the busy life of getting and having went on, as it
had done in the haunts of men since the world began.