The Gold Hunters' Adventures Part 107

"But who are you?" queried our interrogator.

"We is fakey kens and quiddling coves," Mr. Brown answered, adopting the flash language, most in vogue among thieves at Ballarat.

"If you is fakey coves you should know the _dig_," was the response, meaning that we should know the pa.s.sword.

"Bush and bush," cried Mr. Brown, promptly, being the words which Steel Spring had informed us would carry us into the house without delay.

"Why didn't you go for to say so in the fust place," growled the doorkeeper; and we heard a heavy bar removed, and a bolt drawn, and then the door was opened just wide enough for us to squeeze in one by one, and after we stood in the large room, where twenty or thirty persons were congregated, it was instantly shut, and again secured, and our retreat was cut off had we been disposed to have left the choice company before us in a summary manner.

I had time to glance around the apartment and take a brief survey of the a.s.sembly before the ruffian who guarded the door had bolted it, and I must confess that my impression was not very favorable. As I said before, there were between twenty and thirty persons in the room, all with such villanous-looking countenances that a jury would have hanged them without a word of evidence in regard to their guilt. The very _creme de la creme_ of scoundrelism was before us, plotting a recruiting from deeds of crime, and ready to cut a man's throat for a pound.

The apartment was filled with smoke, for each man had a clay pipe in his mouth, and was puffing away in a state of great enjoyment. Along the walls of the room were common pine tables, with rude benches and but a few rough chairs. The tables were nailed to the floor, or confined by iron staples; and I afterwards learned that the plan was adopted by the proprietor of the house to save his property, as sometimes his guests got angry, and were in the habit of breaking chairs over the heads of adversaries--a custom which had been discontinued, owing to the shrewdness of Dan in looking after number one. Of course, the knife and pistol were the next resort; but that was a matter of the most supreme indifference to Dan, who didn't care how many were killed or wounded as long as they didn't injure him or what belonged to him.

Every man was drinking, or had a pot of ale or a gla.s.s of rum before him; and in one corner of the apartment were half a dozen persons asleep, or else dead drunk, and even beside them were gla.s.ses or pewter cups.

At the farthest end of the room from the street was a small bar, behind which Dan, with coat off and s.h.i.+rt sleeves rolled up, was the presiding genius, and to show his aristocracy was smoking a cigar.

He scanned us with his sharp black eyes when we entered, as though wondering who we were; but apparently satisfied that we were "kenkly coves," or first-cla.s.s thieves, he turned his attention to more congenial matters, and refreshed his inner man with a stiff gla.s.s of rum, diluted with but a slight mixture of water.

The musicians, who had stopped playing upon our knocking, now made feeble signs of renewing their duties; but still the guests a.s.sembled did not remove their eyes from us, and we could see a number of them whisper to each other as though making inquiries as to whom we were.

I glanced around the room in hope of seeing Steel Spring, but that worthy was invisible; and I was just about to utter an anathema on his head when a door leading to the hall, or bar-room, opened, and that individual made his appearance. He stopped for a moment to exchange a few words with Dan, and we could see that he was requesting the favor of a drink, and that he was promptly served, a sure sign that his credit was good, or that he had not run out of money.

CHAPTER LVI.

ADVENTURES CONTINUED.

"Come, ain't you covies agoing to move along and get some lush, or is you goin' to stand here all night, and hanged to you?" cried the doorkeeper, who had secured the door, and wanted to turn his attention to any amus.e.m.e.nt that might be going on, including that of being asked to drink by any good-natured bushranger present.

"Don't you be in a hurry, you old grampus," cried Mr. Brown, with a swagger and an indifferent look, as though he had been used to just such society as was present. "We are strangers here, but we have lived in the bush for a few years, and knows a 'Trap' from an innocent."

To even claim the t.i.tle of a bushranger was sufficient to secure respect from the common thieves who congregated around Ballarat, as there was so much danger connected with the pursuit of a robber who was obliged to live in the bush, and rarely show his face, except to attack a train, that petty knaves were always awed when one of the fierce rovers of the prairies made his appearance and condescended to speak. The doorkeeper's manners underwent an instantaneous change, and from the fierce bully he softened to the fawning panderer.

"I axes yer pardon, gents, 'cos I didn't know ye, and 'sposed you was sneaks from Melbourne. Let me show you to a table, and supply you with lush, and (here the fellow's voice subsided to a whisper) I knows the bottles that holds the best rum."

"You're the fellow for us," cried the inspector, slapping him on his back with pretended frankness. "Bring on the lush, and hang the expense.

We're in for a time, and a jolly one at that."

Our cicerone led us across the room, and while we were walking every eye was upon us, and the least hesitancy or timidity would have betrayed and brought the whole pack upon us before we were ready to receive them.

Therefore, without swaggering, or pretending to be very independent, we reached our allotted table, and called for three bottles of ale and three pipes.

Just then Dan called Steel Spring's attention, and we could hear him inquire in a whisper if he knew us. The long-legged scamp turned deliberately around, pretended to be surprised, hastily swallowed his rum, and then rushed towards us.

"Vel, if this isn't a surprise may I never speak again, or make an honest living vhile in the bush. To think that three of my old pals should turn up jist as I vanted 'um, is a vonderful thing and no mistake. If ye axes me vat I'll drink, I shall say rum."

We all pretended to be pleased to see the follow, and gave him such a rough welcome as we deemed his companions would be likely to bestow, and then, to his extreme gratification, ordered the rum that he was so eager to taste.

"It's all right," we could hear the ruffians, by whom we were surrounded, say. "Steel Spring knows 'um, and that's 'nough;" and then each man applied himself with renewed energy to drinking and smoking, and laying plans for future robberies.

"I should never have known you," Steel Spring whispered, "if you hadn't have peached about the toggles vot you vas going to vare. I don't believe that your blessed mother would know you, and as for your fathers they would be puzzled at any rate."

This was uttered in a whisper, and while the doorkeeper was gone for the rum and ale; and I suppose it was intended to be complimentary, although we didn't look upon it in that light.

"Is he here?" I asked, glancing around the room, and endeavoring to imagine which of those present was the a.s.sa.s.sin.

"Yes, it's all right; but I can't point him out, 'cos it would attract attention. Keep quiet, and drink your hale in peace."

We were constrained to follow Steel Spring's advice, although I promised him a kicking for his impudence.

"Jim," cried a black bearded fellow who sat near us, and who, Mr. Brown whispered, had served six years as a convict, and who preferred Australia to the old country, "when is you going to try your hand at the trade agin?"

"Not until the brads get low, and when Dan refuses to trust me for lush and grub," was the answer.

"Isn't it a pity that I haven't got the power to arrest these fellows, and hang them without a trial? They deserve punishment, yet there is no evidence by which they can be convicted. Your California lynch law would work wonders here in a short time."

The inspector felt as enthusiastic as an artist in the presence of a great painting, and Steel Spring was obliged to whisper a few words of caution for fear of a discovery.

The doorkeeper brought our drink, and expressed great gratification when we asked him to take a drop at our expense; but Dan, who was watching the operation, looked much more pleased when he saw Fred display a few gold pieces, and pay for the same; and at length the reserve of the landlord wore off; and seeing that we were strangers and had money, he made an excuse to call at our table, and grunt forth a few words of welcome.

"Is you from the town or bush?" he asked, appealing to Fred as the leader, because I suppose he had on better clothes than the inspector and myself.

"From the town; but on the lookout for a chance for the bush," my friend returned.

"Whose gang have you faked with?" was the next interrogation.

"Once we were with Black Darnley; but most of the time we have been together, picking up odds and ends, not making big strides, for fear of the Traps. We are getting short, and came here 'cos we were told that Steel Spring was going into business, and wanted a little help."

If Dan had any suspicious that we were not what we seemed, he kept them to himself at any rate, for after drinking "confusion to all d----d Traps," he returned to his old place behind the bar, and left us to do what we pleased. We were glad to get rid of him, for he had a wicked eye, and could see through a disguise quicker than any other man in Ballarat, robber or policeman. I afterwards accused Mr. Brown of giving him some private signal by which he was warned to hold his tongue, but the inspector denied it, not so emphatic as I could have wished, however.

"Go and invite your friend to join us," Mr. Brown said, addressing Steel Spring, for the night began to wear away. "If we are to pull together, we want to see what land of stuff a man's made of, so that we can know what risks to run and what to avoid. Them's my sentiments, and I don't care a d---- who knows 'um."

This was spoken in a tone of voice loud enough for half a dozen thieves to hear; and as Steel Spring had given out that, he was intending to raise a gang, they did not any longer feel suspicious as to our movements.

"That's the kind of talk I like a man to spit out," cried a huge black ruffian who sat near us, bringing his hand down upon his table with so much good will that a cup before him spilled out half its contents. "I like to 'sociate with men who have pluck, and know what they is about.

D----n a coward, dead or alive," and with this emphatic declaration the ruffian drank what spirits remained in his cup, and then called for more.

"That's Tom Benchley," whispered the inspector, "and in spite of his big words and fierce looks, an arrant coward at heart. He frightens people by bouncing, although a boy of twenty could make him eat his words. You see that he sits alone. Most, of those in the room consider him a disgrace to what they call a profession; but the fellow always has money, and so Dan gives him the right of _entree_ to the select scenes."

Steel Spring, who had been to the farther end of the room, whispering with a young man, now returned, and introduced him to us as Ben Jackson.

He was not more than twenty-four years of age; and I saw in a moment that he had never pa.s.sed any portion of his time at the hulks, and that if he had ever been engaged in robberies it was only recently, and that he was not yet quite hardened to crime.

"Gents," said Steel Spring, waving his hand with an attempt to do the genteel, "allow me to introduce Mr. Jackson, a covey vot is desirous of jining our select society, provided, as the land sharks say, you is villing."

Jackson appeared delighted with the introduction; although I thought that I could detect a slight look of disgust upon his face when we extended our soiled hands and shook his white palm.