The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-07
CHAPTER VI

OlEAI l.
Hetheridge was once more upcountry,
this time with travelling companion in the
person OF Mons. Dom. Mons. Dom
was a vigneron. and had been exported
from his native Puyde Dome by an Aus
tralan Tine grower, some two or three
years earlier. His first engagement. from
one cause or another, resulting in failure.
the expert found his services somewhat at a
discount. and was getting into the lowest
financial waters when chance threw him in
the way of his new patron. There wss
scarcely any possible form Of business into
which at this time Hetheridge was not
ready to venture. He had already more
money than he had ever hoped to own, more
than he could now hope TO spend or to make
any reasonable use OF except for the me Q
sterile purpose Of increase. But q new pur-
pose was like a new toy. IL interested and
amused him for time. For a week or two
at least he could throw himself, heart and
I soul, into a novel enterprise, and at such
times he would enjoy a blessed surcease Of
his mental miseries. So soon, however as
the accustomed business began to pail, his
I'D hopeless hatred Of George Redwood, and
his old hopeless love OF George Redwood's
wise, woul come storming back upon him.
| Neither the love nor the hate seemed to
| have grown feebler with the intervening
Years. And there were days and nights
when the mans thoughts were a veritable
hell to him. He struck thousand bio US in
! fancy at his distant enemy. He deceived
him into countless ambushes. He ruined
MIN in countless ways, coined for HIM count
less misfortunes, heaped III his cruel fancy
sickness, disease and death upon him, in
every fashion his imagination could devise.
Everything he had touched since the first
| beginning of his business life in Australia
had turned so magically TO gold that he had
begun TO have the gamblers generation for
| ms luOk and n haiioua ind
| bic. His rashest ventures justified his
faith, and enterprises in which no sane bust
ness man would have joined him, turned
| out in some cases even more successfully
| than others in which every Spectator
aware OF their existence would have had
finger. He was less rash by far than he
| seemed TO be to the outside observer but he
| played boldly and with confidence, and if
at any time d solitary scheme should have
! failed, there we're always a score of others.
to any one of which he would have trusted
to recoup himself.
He had heard of the failure of Monsieur
| Dom, and had come to the conclusion that
the vlgneron was in no way Cd blame for it.
He had gone into local figures and general
statistics with respect to the production and
consumption OF wine, and had arrived at
the belief that in the growth Of the vine
lay one OF the largest and most profitable
industries Of the future Australia. He had
satisfied himself that the land on which
Monsieur Dom's failure had been arrived at,
had been in all respects suited to its pur-
pose, and that the scheme had been
wrecked simply and only by the crude haste
Of its promoters.
A poverty-stricken semblance of an in
dustry was being carried on, and a wine of
inferior and uncertain quality reached the
public from the vineyard every year. The
expert was enthusiastic IN his certainty as to
hn st L
yield and quality, and he beguied the way
by an exposition of his own hopes and
schemes. Hethe"lh - after his own fashion,
was eagerly iutet ted To throw himself
head and shoulders, brain and body. heart
and soul. into this new business, was his
only momentary refuge from the sting of
his own passions.
he made his investigation on the SPOT.
bought the vineyard at the end Of a weeks
! inquiries. installed the little Frenchman as
his general manager, aud on fire with am
bltlon Tor new fortune and a new career
started off on a fifty mile journey across
country to inspect second vineyard which
mad fallen into pretty much the same state
OF business decrepitude as the first.
81 shall be there long before nightfall. u
he told Dom, as he prepared TO start in the
cool gray OF morning. II know enough
about the business now to look into il my
self to begin with, and you can come over a
week later and we'll go into the matter to-
| gether. RIDE over this day week. The men
here say that the track can't be lost, and
| that on the whole it's pretty good ridinp.n
| Dom promised to obey instructions and
! HetheridRe, with no further adieux climbed
into the saddle and rode away For a mile
| or so the track led him across an undulating
| plain, sparselv covered with g growth of
low gray scrub, but the character of the
vegetation changed rapidly as he travelled.
| The scrub grew to brushwood, and the
| brushwood to forest, and In an hour he was
deep in the bush. The track, though ap-
parently used but rarely, was clearly
marked enough, and he rode on with no care
about the way, his mind boiling with BUSH
ness schemes. By and by he fell into a kind
of vacuity; the mood in which any trifie be-
| comes Of interest. He was dressed. of
! course, in bushman's fashion, and wore
| neither coat nor walstcoat over his shirt of
| gray flannel. His watch was slowed away
| IN his breeches pocket and
secured by the bar of the
chain being thrust through small hole
| cut for the purpose at the weistband He
noticed that one Of the links OF the chain
it had cracked mora than half way through.
De unfastened the bar as he rode and
examined the injured links with a close
and purposeless scrutiny such as a man in
| mere emptiness OF mind often expend upon
| the most worthless trides
| u must get this mended, " he said to him
sslf, es he returned the watch to his pocket
and fixed the bar of the chain In its former
place. land / must mend MY rate OF going.
too"
| A touch OF the sour woke the horse who
like his master, had been dreaming, and the
quicker motion reused the riders blood and
set his thoughts working once again. They
turned inevitably towards the old Worcss-
! tershIre village, ard conferred in George
| Redwood. To have George Redwood here
now, lured in confidence Of perfect friend
ship into the vast tangle of the bush. 70
| beguile him from the track and leave him
there TO wander in thirst and hunger until
privation and despair bred madness and
madness led to death. There was a thought
to gloat upon All the great passions feed
| the imaginative faculties ana a great hate
or great love will make Shakespeare OF
the dullest fool Under the stimulus Of the
| the passions, the mental sight is clarified and
strengthened. A thought becomes an OBJ
lect and is seen as il with the physical eye
Redwood moved through series of living
pictures In Hetheridge's mind. They rode
side by side together along the broader por-
ton OF the track, and one could have laid a
hand upon the other. Dress, aspect, facial
expression. were true in every detail as if in
vivid dream. a mole on the hated rivals
forehead was noticeable. One short yellow
hair spraDg from the middle Of it, His
white teeth CLEANED in q smile and his ewes
glistened
There was one respect IL one ONLY in