The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1899-05-26
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BOTH WERE GLAD.

was as positive when left Maud
Davis, my engaged wife, and told her
that l would be home again to claim
her in less han five years, being both
Young aud hopeful, about being able t.
10 this as | felt about her love and
fidelity.
Brisbane, Queensland, was the port
| set sail for, as it was the newest colo
ny at the time and the most doomed
up in the papers, so that had lots Of
company to make the passage cheer
full; all fortune-hunters and nearly all
hopeful and impccunious as l was my
self.
At the time landed it had the site
and markings of the fiue city it has be-
come since, but it had a good deal of
building to be done about it, and
great amount o. capital TO be sunk in
it before it could be boosted about as
u city; while the worst OF it was that
most of the inhabitants had rushed to
it in the same condition that myself
and shipmates were in. The natural
results Of which were that while the
iaborers were many the masters to en-
ploy them were exceedingly limited.
For full week L rushed about the
different workshops and yards with
crowd of applicants seeking vainly for
a days work. | was modest at the
time, and there were more despera e
hunters before me, so that | at last
gave up the attempt of staying in the
coming city.
laid in u pickaXe md a spade, with
good steel hammer and q double
barreied gun, and struck toward the
north, resolved to exist the best way |
could in the bush while l tried my
hand at gold digging.
For the first year | wandered about
by myself. l did not discover any
gold, but l gained a great deal of ex-
perience and bush knowledge which
served me afterward.
At the end Of the first year took a
situation on q back station as stock
mau, and here put in another year,
getting fair wages and writing home
hopeful letters TO Maud, who replied
to them affectionately, assuring me Of
her faith and fidelity, which were great
comforts to me in my lonely and hard
life.
Then l struck out again gold seek
ing, this time with three experienced
mates, with whom | wandered far in
land prospecting with indifferentluck;
still we managed to jog along and in
dulge in an occasional visit to the diff
ferent townships, where we disposed
OF our tiny nuggets, and laid in pro-
visions for another spell of the bush.
The five years slipped away in this
way and at the end Of them | was in
about the same condition of worldly
positi IN as before.
But Maud Davis had GROWN tired of
hopes SO distant, and in one of her let
ters-the last that l received from her
she told me that she had become
wearied of wasting her time auy longer
aud was about to be married to the
! village Eaker, so that need not be ther
| writing any more, unless l cared to re-
turn her letters.
For the next ten years | had vary
| ing fortune. Sometimes picked up a
| few nuggets a. d stored them until |
| could reach civilization, when L sold
them, banking the money, went off
| again, i'll search of more, seeking no
man or wonan's company, yet carry
ing with HE the memory of what might
| have been if fort1ne had only smiled
upon M.
| was thirty-five now, and had been
tramping half starved and thirsty over
| a desert without a sign of water of any
| kind, for the last two days, when
came at about shutdown to one Of those
strange ant cities which are sometimes
found in the dry portions of this coun,
try.
For miles in front of NE stretched
long streets and countless huts. from
four feet to eight in height, all desert
ed and silent clay huts looking in the
distance like dry cornstalks. and close
at baud like human habitations.
l lay down to sleep under the shelter
OF one OF these hunts.
Idreamed that saw five men strug
CLING along the moo nlit street in which
lay, each with heavy load on hi.
back-diggers they appeared to be
bringing on their finds; they came OF
until they reached the mound against
which leaned, into which one of then
began to dig, while the others pitched
their bundles beside the digger, formed
themselves into a guard with theil
rifles out facing the north.
l soon discovered why they wer,
guarding the digger, for looking pas
them | saw a large tribe of aboriginal
lodging amongst the other huts anC
preparing to attack the white men
who stayed there in d close ring unit
their mate had hidden the gold the,
had brought.
= A few vigorous digs with the pick