The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-05
The YANDARLO WATERHOLE,
BY MAYME LINDSAY.
cOpyriel4 ted, 1897, b Mayme Lindsay.


through the Lectrle property in the day
time it was a well-freQuentedro road for an
np-country thoroughfare; travelling flOcks
and herds crawled along it with clouds of
white dust about them. while he drovers
stookwhips rang echoes from the trees;
eouatters and townsfolk droe by with
clattar of hoofs over the meti; and here
a station hand and there Tipping swag-
gee dotted the broad white trek that slid
into the distance.
Years before, the owner of Lectrie mad
sown thick plantations of Bile gums be-
side the road, to shelter his iheep IN the
cold Victorian winters when muddy grey
clouds swept up from the wather corner
and the wind raced across tie open pas
lures, bitter, chill and piercing; and the
rain whipped with singing lash into the
faces of the boundary rides, sDlashing
fetlock deep in mud across the paddocks.
The seed grew to a belt of fant trees; so
tall that their tops seemed D almost touch
the sky, and so thick that even at noon
day, there was always solemn twilight
in their midst, where tn, shredding bar
ratified, and the wheezy' mirth of the
laughing jackasses called answering peais
from the silence.
The plantations loomes even more Gigan-
tic at night beside thi ribbon-llke road,
and threw long shadows across it from
their blackness. They were not cheerful
company when night lad dropped upon the
plains, even when a yellow Australian
moon, big and staring, had climbed into
the sky above Them to watch the belated
Wayfarer with friendly eye. And the two
men who had ridden from the far distance
out of the Novembir night instinctively
drew rein as they nared the shadow, and
let their horses straale across the road till
bride jingled agairkt bride, and Walms-
ley, stretching out his hand, could give
friendly touch to tie neck of Heaviside's
mare.
There's a desoldion about these endless
roads, he said. III ought to be a relief |
suppose, after thu din of Collins street,
and the hustle of men all about one, but
don't know thatit does not repel me-
1T has it's Conversations, said Heavi
side. "Once a buslman, always bushman,
as a rule. 1t would kill me to live in Mel
bourne, now"
Yes I supposs that is the feeling that
COMES OF uODDOLDuS Win Nature, al SSd-
son and out of season." said the other.
'1Iow black and forDidding
those plantations are. They don't look as
if they invited your familiarity"
They don't, and that's a fact said
Heaviside. "Th@ have way of being so
insolently exclusive that l prefer to ride
home across the paddocks If I'm alone.
And then-thers's the Yandarlo water
hole"
The what?"
Heaviside jammed his wideawake on to
his forehead, and coughed a short. en-
barrassed cough. They were well within
the shade of the trees now, and its black
fringe spread over the road and the wire
fence that bounded it, into the paddock
beyond Wherb its ragged edge stopped
came the white, moonlit plain, silent and
shimmering, as far as eye could see.
1.-The Yandarlo waterhole lies in the
heart of the last plantation, two miles
from here he said. ITS a gloomy, des-
olate place; quite hidden by the trees,
though it is not more than thirty yards
back from the highway. The story is that
there are things to be seen and heard
there that-aren't there, you know; and
the light of a camp fire to be seen flicker
ing through the trees, that yet is gone
when you press through to it.
"Ah, ghosts!' said Walmsley, lightly
He was a materialist before all things.
Unsatisfactory notions, ghosts. A MUIR
der of course, to start with?"
well, yes. A drover named Jenkins is
supposed to have stabbed his mate, one
Robert Self, and thrown him into the wa
ter one night when they We're camping
alongside it. Some Ellington men were
passing about midnight, and saw the red
CLEAN of a fire through the trees, and
heard angry voices, and then yell, and
then silence. They did not think much
of it at the time, but afterwards inquiries
began to be made for Self, whose rela-
tons in Geelong were anxious about him.
They traced him out of Mulgary, and
lost his tracks between there and Filing
ton; and then jenkins was wanted AS
it happened. the latter had been Workin g
the year before on station where | was
a jackaroo-that's seventeen years ago
now-and so 1 was called upon to give his
description to the police. Midde-aged man
he was then; quite and inoffensive enough
to all appearance They never found him
after the hue and cry began, and it was
after Self's disappearance that there
came yarns of something uncanny about
the Yandarlo hole. 1 don't know that
there is much more to say about it, but
the fire and voices story still goes on, and
it's a fact that l have seen the CLINT of
light there. and heard sounds, when 1 have
known that there was not living soul
within five miles. But l never went in to
investigate, and / steer through the pad
docks on dark nlgpts, 4oL OoiHPdny .
sake"
IT'S a good story" said Walmsley,
thoughtfully. dramatic, too. Would
work up WE'LL
Heaviside stiffened
"'rhatsis my experience he said, short
ly M
Il don't doubt it, said Walmsley. 81
was only considering it from the liter,
ary professional point of view. All
is fish that comes to my net yon know
1t wants something more thouSn-some
element Of personal interest.
The dry tone Jared on HeaYiside's mlhd'
wherein bush life had engendered respect
for the incomprehensible not to be FOUND
in the city bred He threw back his head
and began to whistle an irrelevant ditty,
while Walmsley followed his own train Of
thought in silence
They iingled on with creak of saddle and
click of hoof, and the black shadows
shortened as the moon crept UP above them
Heaviside wound up THE Sick Stockrid-
er" melodiously, and brought his eyes
down from the stars to let their glance
travel into the blackness ahead Then he
caught at the reins and checked the mare.
Personal interest, think you saidF' he
quered with the note of excitement in his
Il 4 oil