The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1900-02-20
DYING LIKE
"A GENTLEMAN
A Story of Australian Gold
Hunters.

SlQG- Luc Ild4A WAiN kON - vi,
Hope Valley to Woona Walla.
The trail was 300 miles long and ran
up hill and down, over plain and
through scrub and now and then cross
ed a river or climbed mountain.
The feet of 5000 Australian gold
hunters, accompanied for half the dis
lance by wagons and pack horses, had
left such plain road behind that the
next 5000 could not go astray.
At no point on the trail could doz-
en- worse men have been picked out
than the IL who sat around Jim Ag-
news campfire. They had banded to-
gether because they were bad. Had
they travelled singly they would have
Jared badly at the hands of the crowd.
At o'clock at night, with every
man ripe for mischief from the liquor
he had imbibed, the camp had caller
two of them.
A man turned in from the trail and
passed the fire and halted in the midst
of the quarreling gang and dropped a
burden from his back. 1t was little
girl Z or years old and sound asleep.
He pulled a blanket from under a
man and spread it out to make bed
for the child, and he tucked her up
with tender hand before he straighten-
ed up and looked about him and said:
81 carried her on my back from Sgd
ney to Hope Valley, and, finding the
rush on, Pm bound for Woona Walla." y
"And who may you bef' queried Jim
Agnew of the stranger.
"a gentleman, sir, or the wreck OF
gentleman" was the reply. "You can
call me Scott"
"And is this your child"
mo, sir; daughter of my ex-partner,
Mr.. Joe Taylor. He was another
wreck of gentleman. She was moth
erless, and when he died a few weeks
ago he left her in my charge. Couldn't
refuse to take her, sir-no gentleman
could. Very interesting young person;
bound to make a lady If properly rear
ed and educated. She'll be waking up
directly, and then we'll thank you for
a bite to eat"
1t was boarding the lion in his den
After two or three minutes the men
recovered from their feeling of aston
ishment, and then there was resent
ment at the cool and nervy way their
camp had been invaded
The man before them was ragged
and unkempt, and dissipation was to
be read in every line of his face, but
vet instinct told them that he was not
of their ilk.
No matter what he was now, he had
one day been gentleman. There We're
mutterings and threats, and presently
Jim Agnew said:
"Say, I've heard of you! You are
Scott, the gambler. You used to hang
out at Red Hills"
seYour information is correct, sir. l
used to be gentleman. Then was
Scott, the gambler. At present I am
Scott, the wreck of gentleman and
guardian of that child. Quite correct.
sir"
.Hang your gentleman business|
shouted Jim as his temper began to
boil up. "Say, boys. let's chip in and
buy the kid. Mebbe she'll bring more
luck than humpback."
'Yes; let's buy the kid" shouted
half dozen men in chorus.
Gentlemen" said the gambler as he
waved his hand toward the girl, who
had been awakened by the shouts.
"permit me to introduce Miss Ethel
Taylor of Sydney, daughter of Mr.. .Jo-
To av-0nnufnt on
bier, sharper and bad 'un generally.
In dying he left her in charge of his
partner, the wreck of gentleman,
who has now been day and half
without food, but who wouldn't sell
out his trust for ali the gold in Aus
tralia."
you'd better take walk!" exclaim-
ed Agnew after long look at the
gambler.
"After the girl has eaten, sir" was
the quiet reply.
s'The girl stays here"
'sNot unless am dead"
The man Agnew backed off a few
feet and pulled revolver from his
belt and raised his arm until the muz-
zle was on line with the gamblers
right eye. The arm rested there. and
as his fingers curled around the trig-
ger he said:
'I'll give you till count FIVE"
"My dear Ethel. good night and good
BY" said Scott as he half turned and
lifted his ragged cap to the girl.
She did not rise up nor call out. Ag-
new meant to kill the man before him
If he did not move off, but after his
words to the girl his arm slowly fell.
There was silence for minute, and
then the boss of the gang said:
.sCuss me, but you've got nerve! Sit
down with the gal and fill up"
1t was accounted strange thing
with the "rushers" to see little girl
among that band of "bad 'uns," each
taking turn and turn about to carry
her on his back, and both guardian
and ward found themselves among
friends
Indeed before the new diggings were
reached Jim Agnew and Scott were ac-
counted partners" 1t was stranger
yet that little Ethel had liking for
Jim.
At Woona Walla the child shared the
tent or shanty with the two men. Child
though she was, Scott treated her with
almost as much formality as if she had
been girl of 20.
Agnew treated her as child, and,
though his ways were rough and his
speech shocked her at times, he won
her heart more than the other.
Disappointment awaited hundreds OF
the rushers to Woona Walla. One
night, tired and discouraged, the two
men sat smoking their pipes in silence
for an hour, while the child played
about or watched them and wondered
If they had quarreled. BY and by
Scott looked up quietly and said:
"Jim, we are downed here"
"For sure" was the reply.
"Let's move on"
"Wherew
"Up the creek, down, over the hills,
anywhere for her sake. I'm down to
stay down, and the end is not far
away, but I'd like to make a stake fol
her.
In the gray Of the morning they took
their way over the bills, one carrying