Robbery Under Arms Rolf Boldrewood (best way to read an ebook .TXT) đ
- Author: Rolf Boldrewood
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âI admire his taste,â says the Commissioner. âI really think sheâs the prettiest girl in the room if she was well dressed and had a little more animation. I wonder who she is? Whatâs her name, Lascelles? I suppose you know all about her by this time.â
âHer name is Martin, or Marston, or some such name,â answered Starlight, quite cool and pleasant. âDeuced nice, sensible girl, painfully quiet, though. Wouldnât dance, though, at all, and talked very little.â
âBy Jove! I know who she is,â says one of the young chaps. âThatâs Aileen Marston, sister to Dick and Jim. No wonder she isnât over lively. Why, she has two brothers bushrangers, regular out-and-outers. Thereâs a thousand on each of their heads.â
âGood gad!â says Starlight, âyou donât say so! Poor girl! What a most extraordinary country! You meet with surpwises every day, donât you?â
âItâs a pity Sir Ferdinand isnât here,â said the Commissioner. âI believe sheâs an acquaintance of his. Iâve always heard she was a splendid girl, though, poor thing, frets to death about her family. I think you seem to have cheered her up, though, Lascelles. She doesnât look half so miserable as she did an hour ago.â
âNaturally, my dear fellow,â says Starlight, pulling his moustache; âeven in this savage countryâ âbeg your pardonâ âoneâs old form seems to be appreciated. Pardon me, I must regain my partner; I am engaged for this dance.â
âYou seem disposed to make the most of your opportunities,â says the Commissioner. âDawson, youâll have to look after your friend. Whoâs the enslaver now?â
âI didnât quite catch her name,â says Starlight lazily; âbut itâs that tall girl near the pillar, with the pale face and dark eyes.â
âYouâre not a bad judge for a new chum,â says one of the goldfield subs. âWhy, thatâs Maddie Barnes. I think sheâs the pick of all the down-the-river girls, and the best dancer here, out-and-out. Her sisterâs to be married tomorrow, and weâre all going to see her turned off.â
âReally, now?â says Starlight, putting up his eyeglass. âI begin to think I must write a book. Iâm falling upon adventures hourly. Oh, the âMorgen-blatter.â What a treat! Can she valse, do you think?â
âYou try her,â says the young fellow. âSheâs a regular stunner.â
It was a fine, large room, and the band, mostly Germans, struck up some outlandish queer sort of tune that Iâd never heard anything like before; whatever it was it seemed to suit most of the dancing people, for the floor was pretty soon full up, and everybody twisting round and round as if they were never going to stop. But, to my mind, there was not a couple there that was a patch on Maddie and Starlight. He seemed to move round twice as light and easy as anyone else; he looked somehow different from all the others. As for Maddie, wherever she picked it up she went like a bird, with a free, springy sort of sliding step, and all in time to the music, anybody could see. After a bit some of the people sat down, and I could hear them passing their remarks and admiring both of âem till the music stopped. I couldnât make out whether Aileen altogether liked it or not; anyhow she didnât say anything.
About an hour afterwards the camp party left the room, and took Starlight with them. Someone said there was a little loo and hazard at the Commissionerâs rooms. Cyrus Williams was not in a hurry to go home, or his young wife either, so I stayed and walked about with the two girls, and we had ever so much talk together, and enjoyed ourselves for once in a quiet way. A good crowd was sure to be at Bella Barnesâs wedding next day. It was fixed for two oâclock, so as not to interfere with the races. The big handicap was to be run at three, so we should be able to be at the church when Bella was turned off, and see Rainbow go for the great race of the day afterwards. When that was run we intended to clear. It would be time for us to go then. Things were middling straight, but it mightnât last.
Next day was the great excitement of the meeting. The âbig moneyâ was all in the handicap, and there was a big field, with two or three cracks up from Sydney, and a very good local horse that all the diggers were sweet on. It was an open race, and every man that had a note or a fiver laid it out on one horse or another.
Rainbow had been entered in proper time and all regular by old Jacob, under the name of Darkie, which suited in all ways. He was a dark horse, sure enough; dark in colour, and dark enough as to his performancesâ ânobody knew much about them. We werenât going to enter him in his right name, of course.
Old Jacob was a queer old fellow in all his ways and notions, so we couldnât stable him in any of the stables in Turon, for fear of his being âgot at,â or something. So when I wanted to see him the day before, the old fellow grinned, and took me away about
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