The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-24

lated a herd of cattle. only fo lose them in a drought. Twice he had seen his herds of sheep succumb to the pest of the Australian range-the scab.
 At last after twenty months he was just where he was when he started, or rather worsen for his sheep herder left him suddenly, lured by higher wages elsewhere, and George Fielding found himself utterly alone in the bush with a flock of four hundred infected sheep.
 Hopeless as he was. he wasted not moment in complaint, but picked up sheep after sheep and carried 1t to the dipping trough. Forty times that day he carried q beast twenty yards, flung 1t in and rubbed 1t. Suddenly his head began to reel, He felt a miserable shiver steal over him despite the great heat. He crawled to his hut and his senses left him. His last conscious thought was that this was his end.
 His end 1t would have been; and George Fielding. ten miles from the nearest neighbor, would have died. as so many died in the Australian bush, if some months before that there had been no victorious battle between a clergyman and a taller in an English prison.
 Tenn Robinson, in whose behalf MT. Eden representedl to the authorities that solitary confinement was breaking him down, with the result of getting his jail sentence shortened in favor of immediate transportation to Australia, where he was to get . ticket-of-leave, securing for him comparative freedom to work out his new life in new land.
 The clergyman did not deceive him. self about the thief. He knew that there was only too much danger of re- lapse into crime Therefore, he wrote to Susan, asking her to give him let- ter to George Fielding. whose influence, he felt sure. would keep him in the right path.
 So it was that one day when George could not have held out much longer, Tom Robinson walked into his hut, bringing a letter from Susan. It were hard to say wh ether the letter or Toms faithful nursing had the more to do with his recovery.
 Tom. as alert in mind as honest George was slow. did not need to do much studying to perceive that his friend could not hope to recoup his broken fortunes at sheep raising. This conviction strengthened him In anoth CT conviction that had grown steadily within him ever since he had entered the new land.
 During the course of his wild, rowing life, Tom Robinson had been in Cali fornia, mining gold. Now, wherever he looked in the region surrounding him, he saw the same character of country as that of the golden ranges of Western America.
 To George gold hunting meant noth- ing Toms tales of wonderful fortunes to be gained by digging hole seemed wild, impossible dreams to the matter of fact English farmer. But one day l lnnktnR for a new pasture. they entered suddenly on a place of rocks and gorges. and Tom, | no longer able to control himself, cried: I've are standing on gold"
 Infected against his will by his friends enthusiasm, George followed | him into a ravine, where Tom Robin son fell to digging furiously. They washed out calabash after calabash, | till they were plastered with clay. Suddenly a shout rang through the gorge. They had found gold at the bottom of the vessel.
 For three days they worked alone. | Then a man appeared on a crest and looked at them. The next day mon were beside them digging. As If the birds had carried the news east. west. north and south men came in like To- custs. In a month, George and Tom were working in the middle of a bug zing mob.
 one day. John Meadows. in far-on England, opened letter addressed to | Susan in Georges well known hand | writing Ills face had a smile of an- ticipatory satisfaction, for the last few letters had shown clearly that his rival was nearing the end of his resources. ! Meadows read. drew in his breath and turned pale. The letter announced the gold discovery and said that he hoped to go home in six months with | a thousand pounds or even more. | For more than an hour Meadows sat, raging too furiously against fortune to in ink. Then he became cool again. His mind centered on one spot--a spot l in Australia, where 1t saw George Fielding in a pit gathering metal grains that shone in the hot sun.
 He arose. mounted his horse. rode to town and called on a lawyer, his tool and slave. over whom he held the whip hand through knowledge of crimes thnt had been committed by the mis- erable. drunken. fawning. cowardly
 "C,ra wlev." said John Meadows, you are to sail for Australia on the next shin Here Is a check book. You may draw f10O month. NOW listen.
 The two heads came close together. Tbev stayed together for more than an hour. a.. .,. ton Crawley was looking furtively down into a deep pit which was the snvv of the camp. George and Tom Robinson. after varying fortunes. had strncL placer there and were dig ~inS nut nuggets and grains at the Fate of flOO a day With crawley was another fgure. as evil as his own, and looking down greedllY'
 Int two turned away and whispered torether a long while. That night ,hsrs came a cry of Murder! Helpr' near the tent where Georka ana Tom