Читать книгу The Outlaw - John David Hennessy - Страница 8

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Late on the following night, Salathiel was again sitting in the school-house paddock, smoking in the bright moonlight, which seemed to saturate every object of the now familiar landscape, when his quick ear suddenly caught the sound of a horse's hoofs in the distance. Sound travels strangely far on some of those valley roads, owing to a hollow, or extended rock formation, below the subsoil.

Looking at his watch, Jack saw that it was near midnight. "Some belated traveller on the Broadhaven main road," he thought. "A doctor, maybe?" but he put up his pipe and pulled out a finely fashioned, double-barrelled pistol from an inside pocket.

"How conscience makes cowards of us all!" he said, as he stepped out of the school-house paddock upon the roadway, and put his ear to the ground. He listened intently for several minutes, with surprise amounting almost to consternation in his face. "A trooper's horse," he whispered, "and he's turned off the main road, on to the track which passes the school-house. Good thing I've got Fleetfoot handy and know the lay of the back country; but it is impossible that I can have been tracked down here. Absolutely impossible! I'm John Bennett, and the whole Colony knows that Jack Salathiel is hiding somewhere in the Northern Ranges. It's too soon to be the Lieutenant!"

He walked quickly over to the teacher's residence, and locking the door, disappeared amid the deep Bush shadows which the slanting moonbeams made darker by contrast.

For another ten minutes the sound of the tramping horse-hoofs drew nearer, and then ceased. Several minutes of absolute silence followed. Then, within a short distance of the school, the melancholy call of a mopoke was heard, which was shortly answered by a similar cry from the bush behind the schoolhouse.

The call was twice repeated, and almost directly afterwards a tall stranger, leading a horse, took down the school paddock slip-rails, and was met by Salathiel.

"You're earlier by a week than I expected!" was the bushranger's greeting to a distinguished looking man in an undress military uniform.

"Yes, we must look sharp, for I must be off again within the hour. I suppose I shall have to ride over again in about a fortnight...Well," said the new-comer, as he looked at the rough furniture of the room, and laughed. "I got your letter. How are you getting on with your pupils?"

"Not started school yet," replied Jack, who seemed ill at ease as his visitor seated himself. "Major Browne, of the Broadhaven estate, presides at the school opening on Saturday. I suppose they have no inkling in Sydney of my whereabouts?"

"You were a fool to flog McBurton," said the visitor, without replying to Jack's question. "There was nothing in it. Could you not have come down here quietly, without stirring up a hornets' nest like that? Remember, if you're taken, I can't protect you. I run some risk of being suspected as it is; but you were always a stiff-necked fellow over matters of conscience, even when we were at school together. You're safe enough here at present; but what you expected to gain by flogging McBurton I can't think. You even paid for the drinks you had there, they tell me."

"It served him right and it was a wholesome lesson to other brutes like him," replied Jack.

"Oh, I don't dispute that; but there's nothing in it! If you had cleared off with a couple of thousand, it might have been worth while. Mind, however, that you don't make a mess of things down here. Captain Moore was asking me something about you the other day, and made a suggestion, which, I can tell you, I resented. I believe he knows that we have to get your signature to the documents, for he offered me one of these little toys, and asked me to fake up an appointment with you somewhere, and blow your brains out!"

Jack picked up a small pocket revolver, which his visitor had placed on the table, and examined it curiously; it had been newly invented, and this was one of a small parcel which had recently reached Sydney. "Pretty toy, isn't it?" said the visitor, "six chambers, and a death warrant in each. The Captain carries one in his breeches pocket; I'll see if I can't get you one later!"

"So Moore told you to blow my brains out while I was signing my name to a document, did he?" said Jack.

"Yes, I ordered him out of the house, and told him to do his own murders. Oh, he's a daisy! I was sorry afterwards that I crossed him, for he sent around to your old father out of sheer spite, and made him go up King Street and report himself at head-quarters as an ex-convict. And, what do you think? your father had the carriage out, with coachman and footman, and drove up in evening dress! Moore damned him to his face, for what he called his impertinence. He'll be shot some day."

"He will so," said Salathiel bitterly, "unless I get hold of him first, in which case he will be hanged."

"Ah well, hang him and welcome, if you get the chance. Men such as he in office only make criminals, but don't complicate things by any fool's tricks down here. My advice to you is to keep quiet and, as soon as possible, get out of the country. But come, the night's passing, and I must get a good few miles away from this before the moon goes down; let's get to business."

There followed in low tones an earnest conversation between the two men, in which Salathiel's sister was several times mentioned, and such words as bank, police, government, and documents, might have frequently been heard. The stranger seemed to be urging Salathiel to some course of which the bushranger disapproved. However, Jack signed his name to a paper; but strong language was used, more than once, by both men, and the mysterious visitor even used veiled threats, which the bushranger evidently resented.

It was more than an hour before the Lieutenant mounted his horse and rode away; but the two men shook hands as they parted.

When Salathiel at last threw himself upon his bed to snatch a few hours' sleep, a strange thing happened to him. It seemed to his excited brain more like a vision than a dream. He was a youth again, and from a plain in front of him there arose three green hills. One of them was crowned with a great palace, and in its sumptuous halls was a throne of gold, and on the throne a king of evil visage.

"I am lord of this world," he heard him say; "bow down and worship me, and riches, and power, and honour shall be thine." He saw the vast hall thronged with willing worshippers, and by many paths multitudes hastened upwards, to render the dark visaged world-king homage; but he himself passed by, and he felt thankful.

Around the central hill darkness had gathered, and when it was illumined for a moment by a flash of lightning he saw upon the summit a cross, and upon it hung a Man of countenance marred, but of strange, ineffable love and sweetness. And on the storm-wind was borne a voice, which called his name. He saw himself pause at the foot of the hill, as though hesitating. It was but for a moment, however, and then, alas! he passed on toward the third hill, with hurried stride.

On the summit of this was spread a garden of wondrous beauty and loveliness, bathed in soft sunlight; and in the midst of its verdant foliage, and brilliant flowers, and luscious fruits, was a fragrant bower, where, in silken robes, there reclined a fair woman. He started, for the beautiful face and eyes and wavy hair were familiar to him. Then he saw himself, in the pride of early manhood, pass in and kneel before her, and lo! he was garbed in convict dress, and he thought that he shaped his lips to curse her; but as he did so, the vision faded.

Evidently more was meant than appeared on the surface, when the schoolmaster, speaking of Salathiel, told the girls at Poddy Carey's how the Evil One first lures, then leads, and last of all, drives.