power picked up his whip by way of company, and took the road to the camp. the journey was done in ten minutes' time. the moon had not risen, and he found the place in darkness, and from somewhere at hand came the sudden bark of the dog. the tents were empty, but the hessian building—a shabby affair—showed lamplight through half-a-dozen holes, and sounds of movement came from inside. the gouger called out roughly to the dog, but the brute barked on at full voice, backing away into the shadows. power brought his whip-handle down on the door-post. the doorway was empty of a door, and he looked into a room lit by a couple of lanterns. he had time to see a table and seats, knocked together haphazard, and a woman of middle life bending over a basin at the farther end. then the opening was filled by the gouger, who peered out into the dark.
"good evening," power said.
"same to you," said the gouger. and he[pg 78] added with a wrinkling up of his eyes—"i can't see more than half way through a brick wall in this durned light. anything up?"
"i'm camping on the pool to-night. you told me to take a look at your show when i was round. i've come along on the chance. maybe i've turned up at an off time. in that case it's my own funeral, that's all. couldn't get away before."
"so that's the lay. you're right enough. i'll fix you in a shake. it's five minutes through the scrub. i can pick yer up a specimen or two what's lying round about the shanty, if the women have let 'em be. but, but"——the gouger began to lose his words and screw his mouth up and finger his beard——. "strike me," he said. "strike me if i know you."
the woman had left her work, and now peered over his shoulder. she nudged him. "yes, yer do, boss," she said in a heavy whisper. "it's mr. power, of kaloona—him as brought yer back last night."
"you aren't getting at me?" said he of the beard in an aside.
"aw!"
then gregory, the gouger, turned very friendly.
"mr. power it is," he cried out, rolling the upper half of his body, and showing his dirty[pg 79] teeth. "it's mr. power come for a look at the show. my eyes haven't got the hang o' the dark yet. come inside, mr. power. i'm glad you found the way here, square and all i am."
with something of a to-do the couple backed from the doorway, and power went into the room. two lamps, placed high up, gave the light, which was poor and depressing, and round about the globes beat frantically a great army of insects. power went into the room, and the close air made him pause. he stopped to blink his eyes at the light. a moment later he looked up, and across the table, busy at some cups in a basin, he saw the girl he had dreamed of half the day.
the wonder of her beauty came over him again with a feeling akin to pain. she was looking him in the face with frank curiosity. he it was who felt embarrassed and first turned away. he laughed at his scruples next moment, and returned her stare for stare. he looked her over slowly to discover her secret. and he succeeded ill. for her loveliness was anchored to no this or that. she stood in the shabby room, a jewel of such price as asked no setting. her beauty would never stale, having found the secret of the dawn which arrives morning by morning, ready and wonderful, though all else is passing by in the turning of the years. the[pg 80] men, who presently would come to kneel in homage there, would wonder at this glorious body no less the last hour than the first.
her hair was brown and shining, and heaped up about her head. her eyes were of a dark colour, of great size, and moment by moment sleepy with dreams or bright with brief fires. her mouth was heavy with passion and gaoler of a thousand quick moods; her lips were bright, and behind them little teeth gleamed white and charming. her dress was open at the neck, where her firm throat swept to her bosom. her arms, bare to the elbows, had taken their brown from the sun, but their shapeliness was a wonder and delight. her hands were slender and quick as they moved in the water. what age was she? twenty, it might be.
"good evening, mister," she said.
"good evening," he answered.
gregory and his wife were hovering at his back. it was "sit down, mr. power," and "make yerself at home, mr. power. i wish we had a better seat for you, mr. power; but we haven't been here above two week, and the boss isn't for doing more graft than he need."
"it's that show, as i've told the old gel. it tires a bloke out," said gregory. the woman answered him with a curl of the lip.
power sat down on an up-ended box. he[pg 81] could put his elbow on the table, which had been knocked together slap-dash with a few nails. after further to-do gregory sat at hand with a pipe in his mouth. the women started again on their business. in the pause in matters which came on this sitting down power felt the staleness of the room. he had time to wonder why he had come. he took a second look at mrs. gregory. she showed the ruins of good looks which the climate and hard living had squandered. her face was full of greed and craft. the man at his side was a mixture of rogue and fool. power had given up a smoke and a yarn in the cool for this. for he didn't care the crack of a whip for the show. his line was cattle, not copper. then the girl had brought him here. and to-morrow he was to see the girl he loved. he was a fool for his pains.
he was a fool for his pains, yet he would not have been more content staying away. something drew him here by roots deep down in him. how her beauty moved him! here stood a savage child, with her longings crudely waiting on her lips, possessed of a body which was holy. why was she here, growing up alone and unwatched, to age before her time? it was the law that painted the wings of the butterfly and brought the cripple into the world; the law,[pg 82] jumbled beyond man's following, that caused suns to blaze and worlds to groan in labour that meanest gnat might spin a giddy hour.
he must pull himself together.
"that was your mob on the road this afternoon, i reckon?" the woman asked, looking up of a sudden.
"yes, we came from the ten mile."
"a handy lot," gregory said, wagging his head, and spitting with a pretty skill through the doorway.
"do you reckon to be long on the road with them?" the woman asked once more.
"i'm travelling to morning springs. we ought to be back inside the week."
the washing had come to an end. the girl collected the clean crockery and grew busy at a shelf. the woman threw the water outside the door, and dried her hands on a rag. "you come for a look at the boss's show?" she said as she finished.
"yes, i heard one or two speaking of it, and thought i might come along."
"do you do anything in the copper way?"
"i've an interest in a show or two. i don't go much on it."
"the boss's show looks a1. one of the surprise men was down for a look round in the morning."
[pg 83]
"ah, who was that?"
"mr. —— moll, what's his name?"
"mr. king," said the girl.
"and what did king say about it?"
"he talked big enough," gregory put in. "but he seemed as interested in the gel there. he said he might be along agen."
"dad, yer tongue's too big for yer mouth."
"well, he seemed uncommon shook on yer. i reckon he thought yer show better than my show. a-haw, haw, haw! a-haw, haw, he-haw!"
"mr. king is a pleasant-spoken gentleman," mrs. gregory said.
"and," said gregory, "i'd have thought him pleasanter if he had come to a bargain."
the girl, moll gregory, came back from the shelf. she put both hands upon the table, and bent a little over it. her great eyes looked into power's face. "do you know mr. king?" she said.
"i often run across him."
"wot is he like?"
"king's a good fellow."
"he says funny things."
"what did he say?"
"oh, he looked at me, you know, like men look when they're after a lark, and he says: 'i came to look at copper and i found gold.' i[pg 84] couldn't take up his meaning quite, but i guessed he was trying to fool me."
the woman interrupted. "maybe you're thinking of making an offer for the show?"
"don't rush him, old woman. maybe i'll hang on to it."
"no, yer won't. you'll sell out and clear from the game. i want to see some life. i'm tired of these dull holes, i am. you'll fool the thing up and get took down, as you've been a dozen times."
something in this sentence put gregory on a new turn of thought, for he put his pipe on the table, clawed his beard a moment, and got up. "d'yer know anything of wire strainers?" he began to hunt in a corner and brought out parts of a clumsy machine, together with a tangle of wire. the woman flew at him.
"if you'd give by that foolery and do a bit of shovelling we might be better off. who wants a wire strainer where there isn't a fence for two hundred mile? you make me sick, yer do."
"steady on, mother." gregory fell into explanation, and in time brought out a potato digger of his invention, and illustrated that fortune was but a stay-away. mrs. gregory gave over talk, and drew an ancient illustrated paper from somewhere, and sat down to turn the leaves. the girl employed herself with one[pg 85] thing and another, going in and out of the doorway, and seeming intent on her business; but power knew she watched him, and he himself missed nothing she did. her beauty was beyond the telling. whether she walked, whether she sat, whether she stood a moment by the doorway peering into the night, she was so wonderful that nothing else was worth the looking.
what was happening to him to-night!
at last gregory was persuaded to put his inventions back in their corner and light lanterns. "you'd better come along, gel," he said. "we may want you to hold a light." he and moll gregory and power set out, and power came to remember the journey as many pictures of one girl who passed from light into shadow and from shadow into light. she strode beside him with the free walk of a goddess. they arrived at the shaft, and she stood over the black mouth, holding a lantern to guide the downward clamber. from his station at the bottom, power saw her bending overhead, with one hand on the windlass for support, and the stars of the sky gathered together for background. he looked here and there at the broken earth as gregory bade him, and the dull green of the copper appeared in abundance. it was dirty work and hot, with ever a trickle of dirt down the back of the neck, and he wished himself well up at the top again.[pg 86] they had climbed up presently, and very soon had made the road home. the close air of the hut gave them ill greeting. gregory put down the lantern noisily on the table, blew a big breath out of his mouth, and ran a finger round the neck of his shirt.
"this weather's no good for climbing about in," he said.
the woman looked up from her paper with a keen face. "wot did you think of the show, mr. power?"
"i don't know much about that sort of thing, mrs. gregory. it looks thundering good."
gregory began to think. "there's specimens about the place," he said, "but durn me if i know where to come on them."
"you left two or three by the pool, dad."
"could you find 'em?"
"maybe."
"have a look then, gel."
"it doesn't matter," power said.
"it will be no worry." moll gregory picked up the lantern and was going out of the door. power crossed the room of a sudden.
"i'll come with you. it will save bringing them back."
"orl right, mr. power."
they went out into the dark. the moon would rise in a few minutes; but now the night[pg 87] was dark and still and close. the sky was filled with stars shining with the fierce heat of the tropics. the southern cross lay against the horizon; but in the north, orion was climbing up, and the scorpion curled his tail in the middle of the sky. the dog shuffled from the shadows after them, and very soon man and girl had passed between the trees by the bank of the waterhole. they were walking side by side, the girl bearing the lantern, and it was as they came upon the bank that moll gregory broke silence.
"it was round here," she said, pausing to take bearing. "dad left them one day when he couldn't be bothered taking them home."
she put the lantern this way and that, and they made careful search. but their trouble was empty of profit.
"this is where they was," she said. "maybe mr. king lifted them. there's been no one else this way."
"it doesn't matter," power answered. "the show was good enough."
they were looking into the pool, which the gloom made mysterious and of great size. the water was fretted with the images of stars. big moths came out of the dark to beat against the lantern. power spoke because it was impossible to stand there without a reason.
"a grand place this."
[pg 88]
"it isn't so bad. bit slow after mount milton."
"do you want people?"
"i'm not particular; but a gel wants a bit of life sometimes. it's terrible weary of a time without a sight of anyone new. sometimes i'm fair spoiling for a bit of fun."
"what do you do with yourself? do you read?"
"i'm no great hand at learning. i got no schoolin'."
"never been to school?"
"no, we always lived out back where there was none. i've not been christened neither. never saw a church for that matter. there was a parson what came round our parts once with a pack-'orse. i fair scared him out of his life when i let on about it. he was for fixing me straight then."
"why didn't you let him?"
"something happened. i forget."
there came a space of silence. she lifted her great eyes. "yes, i'm spoiling for a bit of life. i'm sick of seeing nothing. i reckon maybe you've moved about, mister?"
"i travelled a bit."
"that mr. king, he's been about a bit."
"did he say so?"
[pg 89]
"yes, he said—aw, it doesn't matter what he said. it was something stupid."
"what was it?"
"aw——"
"tell me."
"aw, he only said as he'd been all over the world, but hadn't met a gel to equal me. he said all the silks and satins in the world would never do me proper. he said as he'd be back in a day or two. do you reckon he'll come?"
it was power who was put out of countenance. he said after a moment—"d'you want him to come?"
"i won't be worried if he do. he knows how to talk a gel round."
the moon began to rise. as it left the horizon it was as large as a cartwheel and as rich as a copper platter. its light began to find a way into many places. the waters of the pool grew very fair. but nothing in that prospect was fair as the girl at power's side.
who knows what thoughts just then came knocking at the doors of his brain? truth to tell he fell to frowning and nursing his lower lip. the girl was impatient before he came out of his brown study.
"i have to get back," he said. "the moon is up. i am taking next watch."
"mick o'neill is with you, isn't he?"
[pg 90]
"he is in charge now. i relieve him. d'you know him?"
"he's often this way."
they were on the way back to the hut. "is he interested in copper, too?"
the girl looked up in a puzzled way.
"well, copper or no copper," power said of a sudden, "you've a straight man there. i don't know any better one. that's about it."
he fell into thought again, walking at no great pace with eyes upon the ground. his preoccupation brought a pout to the girl's lips. she said: "you're to be a week on the road, aren't you?"
"that's about it."
"will you be seeing us agen?"
"would you like me to?"
"i reckon dad likes a yarn of a night."
"and what about yourself?"
"aw, yes." saying this she looked up and laughed.
"listen, girl, here's the camp. stand still. king told you he had never met a girl to equal you. i can tell you more than that. i can tell you that no queen with her crown on her head and her throne underneath her ever held the power you hold. you can make the wise man foolish, and fill the fool with learning. you can take the clean man to the mire, and cause the[pg 91] dirty man to wash his hands. ah, girl! don't listen."
"aw, get out," she said.
"back agen." gregory called out, pushing his bunch of dirty beard out at the door. "did you tumble on them?"
"no luck," power said. "it's no matter. there isn't any doubt about the show. i'm back to say good night. i've my watch to stand over there."
"won't you have a cup of tea," said the woman, coming to the door.
"not this time; i can't wait. i'm sorry."
"ye'll be back sometime?"
"yes, i'll look you up in a few days. maybe you'll have opened up the show a bit by then. well, good night."
"good night, mr. power."
"good night, mr. power."
"so long, mister."
