Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-04-29

disclosing the grizzled features of Mr.. Joshua
sinclair the assayer to the mines. 81 don't
Know how to thank You, boys. The internal
erule got the bit between his teeth, and should
nave had to have thrown Carrie out and CHANGED
!! IN another minute. That's right" he con.
tInued as Morgan staggered to his feet. mot
| much hurt. hope"
Il can get up to the hut now" said the young
man, steadying himself upon his partners
shoulder. 'How are you going to get Miss
Sinclair homer"
"Oh. we can walk" said that young lady,
shaking Off the effects of her fright with all the
elasticity of youth.
'We can drive ana take the road round the
bank 80 as to avoid the ford" said her father.
The horse seems cowed enough now; you
need not be afraid of it, Carrie I nope we
snail see you at the house, both of you.
Ne1her OF Us can easily forget this nights
work"
Miss Uarrie said nothing but she managed to
shoot little demure glance Of gratitude from
under her long lashes to have won which hon.
est ABE feit that he would have cheerfully un-
dertaken to step runaway locomotive.
There was CHEEKY shout Of Good night" a
in the darkness.
You told me the men were rough and nasty,
pa said Miss Carrie Sinclair, after long silence,
when the two dark shadows had died away in
inc distance; and the carriage was speeding
along by the turbulent stream. 81 don't think
So l think they are very nice" And Carrie
was unusually quiet for the remainder of her
Journey, ana seemed more recOnciled to the
hardship Of leaving her dear friend Amelia in the
iar-on boarding school at Melbourne.
That did not prevent her from writing full,
true and particular account of their little ad-
night.
"They stopped the horse, darling. and one
poor fellow was hurt And oh, Amy If you had
seen the other one in red shirt. with pistol
I ho1n nh NJ
dear He was just your idea. You remember,
yellow mOustache and great blue eyes, And
now ne did stare at poor me! You never see
such men in Burke street, Amy" and so on, for
four pages of pretty feminine gossip.
In the mean time poor Boss, badly shaken,
had oeen helped up the hill by his partner and
regained the shelter of the shanty. Abe doc
tored him out Of the rude pharmacopea of the
camp. and bandaged up his strained arm.
IT.
A casual visitor would have noticed a remark
able change in the conversation of this cOmmu-
nifty. Somehow, when a certain dainty little
bonnet, with sweet, girlish figure beneath it,
was seen in the distance among the disused
shafts and mounds of red earth which disfigured
the sides OF the valley there was a warning
murmur, and general clearing off of the cloud
OF basphemy, which was, l regret to state an
habltuaI characteristic of the working popula-
tlOn OF Haryey'S Sluice.
Abe had formerly been considered one of the
most experienced valuatOrs of an ore in the set
tlement. 1t had been commonly supposed that
ne was able to estimate the amount of gold in
fragment of quartz with remarkable eXactness
This, however, was evidently mistake. other
wise he would never have incurred the useless
expense OF having so many worthless specimens
assayed as he now did. Mr.. Joshua Sinclair
found himself inundated with such a flood Of
fragments OF mica and Jumps of rock containing
decimal percentages of the precious metals, that
he began to form a very low opinion of the
young mans mining capabilities.
1t is certain that what with professional busi-
ness In the morning and social visits at night
the tail figure of the miner was familiar object
In the little drawing-roOm of AZalea villa as the
new house of the assayer had been magnilo-
quently named. There was one cloud on Bones
horizon, and that was the periodical appearance
of Black Tom Ferguson. of ROchdale ferry. This
clever young scamphad managed to lngratiate
himself with old Joshua, and was q constant
visitor at the villa. There were evil rumors
abroad about Black TOm He was known to be
a gambler. and shrewdly suspected to be worse
Harvey's Sluice was not censOrous, and yet
there was general feeling that Ferguson was
man to be avoided. Miss Carrie seemed to hail
his appearance as relief, and chartered away
for hours about books and music and the gave
ties OF Melbourne. 1t was on these occasions
that poor simple Bones would sink into the very
lowest depths of dependency and either stink
away or sit giaring at his rival with an earnest
malgnancy which seemed to cause that gentle
man no small amusement
me miner made no secret to his partner of
the admiration which he entertained for Miss
Sinclair
THAT lOafer from Rochdale," he said. che
seems to reel it off kinder natral, while for the
life OF me | can't say word Tell me. Boss,
what would you say to girl like that ?"
said his companion.
"Ah, that's where it lies"
'Iaik about the customs Of the place and the
country" said the Boss, pulling meditatyely at
his pipe. ''Tell her stories Of what you have
seen in the mines, and that sort of thing
'Eh9 You'd do that. would you ?" responded
his comrade more hopefully. ''If that's the
hang OF 1t, am right. I'll 60 up now and tell
her about Chicago Bill, an how he put them
two bullets in the man from the bend the night
of the dance"
Boss Morgan laughed
That's hardly the thing, he said. sYou'd
Tighten her il you told her that Tel her some
thing lighter, you know; something to amuse
her, something funny"
Funny" said the anxious lover. with less
confidence in his voice. "How you and me
made Mat Houlahan drunk and put him in the
pulpit OF the Baptist church. and he wouldn't
let the preacher In in the morning. How would
that do, eh?"
''For heavens sake don't say ANYTHING Of tho
sort, said his mentor, in great CONSERVATION
she q never speak to either Of US again. No.
what mean is that you should tell about the
habits OF the mines, how men live and work and
Die there. lIshe is sensible girl that ought to
GLOW they live at the mnes2 Pard, you are
good to me. How they live? There's thing 1
can talk OF as glib as Black Tom or any man.
III try 1t on her when see her"
by the way" said his partner, listlessly.
what he does"
81 will" said his communion
And he did. He watched him that very night
watched him stride out of the house of the as
sayer with anger and bafied pride on every fea-
ture of his handsome swarthy face; watched him
clear the garden paling at bound, pass in long
rapid strides down the side of the valley gestic-
ulating wildly with his hands, and vanish into
the husband beyond. All this Abe burton
watched. and with thoughtful look upon his
face ne relit his pipe and strOlled slowly back
ward to the hut upon the hill.
III.
March was drawing to close in Haryey's
Sluce, and the glare and heat of the antipo-
dean summer had toned down into the rich
mellow hues of autumn
On that particular morning the stream looked
pretty as 1t meandered down the valley; pretty