The Captain of the Polestar by Arthur Conan Doyle (speld decodable readers .TXT) đ
- Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
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âManyâs the time Iâve said to him, `If youâre arguinâ a pint with a stranger, you should always draw first, then argue, and then shoot, if you judge that heâs on the shoot.â Bill was too purlite.
He must needs argue first and draw after, when he might just as well have kivered his man before talkinâ it over with him.â This amiable weakness of the deceased Bill was a blow to the firm of Adams, which became so shorthanded that the concern could hardly be worked without the admission of a partner, which would mean a considerable decrease in the profits.
Nat Adams had had a roadside shanty in the Gulch before the discovery of gold, and might, therefore, claim to be the oldest inhabitant. These keepers of shanties were a peculiar race, and at the cost of a digression it may he interesting to explain how they managed to amass considerable sums of money in a land where travellers were few and far between. It was the custom of the âbushmen,â i.e., bullock-drivers, sheep tenders, and the other white hands who worked on the sheepruns up country, to sign articles by which they agreed to serve their master for one, two, or three years at so much per year and certain daily rations.
Liquor was never included in this agreement, and the men remained, per force, total abstainers during the whole time. The money was paid in a lump sum at the end of the engagement. When that day came round, Jimmy, the stockman, would come slouching into his masterâs office, cabbage-tree hat in hand.
âMorning, master!â Jimmy would say. âMy timeâs up. I guess Iâll draw my cheque and ride down to town.â
âYouâll come back, Jimmy?â
âYes, Iâll come back. Maybe Iâll be away three weeks, maybe a month. I want some clothes, master, and my bloominâ boots are well-nigh off my feet.â
âHow much, Jimmy?â asks his master, taking up his pen.
âThereâs sixty pound screw,â Jimmy answers thoughtfully; âand you mind, master, last March, when the brindled bull broke out oâ the paddock. Two pound you promised me then. And a pound at the dipping. And a pound when Millarâs sheep got mixed with ourn;â and so he goes on, for bushmen can seldom write, but they have memories which nothing escapes.
His master writes the cheque and hands it across the table. âDonât get on the drink, Jimmy,â he says.
âNo fear of that, master,â and the stockman slips the cheque into his leather pouch, and within an hour he is ambling off upon his long-limbed horse on his hundred-mile journey to town.
Now Jimmy has to pass some six or eight of the above-mentioned roadside shanties in his dayâs ride, and experience has taught him that if he once breaks his accustomed total abstinence, the unwonted stimulant has an overpowering effect upon his brain.
Jimmy shakes his head warily as he determines that no earthly consideration will induce him to partake of any liquor until his business is over. His only chance is to avoid temptation; so, knowing that there is the first of these houses some half-mile ahead, he plunges into a byepath through the bush which will lead him out at the other side.
Jimmy is riding resolutely along this narrow path, congratulating himself upon a danger escaped, when he becomes aware of a sunburned, black-bearded man who is leaning unconcernedly against a tree beside the track. This is none other than the shanty-keeper, who, having observed Jimmyâs manoeuvre in the distance, has taken a short cut through the bush in order to intercept him.
âMorning, Jimmy!â he cries, as the horseman comes up to him.
âMorning, mate; morning!â
âWhere are ye off to to-day then?â
âOff to town,â says Jimmy sturdily.
âNo, nowâare you though? Youâll have bully times down there for a bit. Come round and have a drink at my place. Just by way of luck.â
âNo,â says Jimmy, âI donât want a drink.â
âJust a little damp.â
âI tell ye I donât want one,â says the stockman angrily.
âWell, ye neednât be so darned short about it. Itâs nothinâ to me whether you drinks or not. Good morninâ.â
âGood morninâ,â says Jimmy, and has ridden on about twenty yards when he hears the other calling on him to stop.
âSee here, Jimmy!â he says, overtaking him again. âIf youâll do me a kindness when youâre up in town Iâd be obliged.â
âWhat is it?â
âItâs a letter, Jim, as I wants posted. Itâs an important one too, anâ I wouldnât trust it with every one; but I knows you, and if youâll take charge on it itâll be a powerful weight off my mind.â
âGive it here,â Jimmy says laconically.
âI hainât got it here. Itâs round in my caboose. Come round for it with me. It ainât moreân quarter of a mile.â
Jimmy consents reluctantly. When they reach the tumble-down hut the keeper asks him cheerily to dismount and to come in.
âGive me the letter,â says Jimmy.
âIt ainât altogether wrote yet, but you sit down here for a minute and itâll be right,â and so the stockman is beguiled into the shanty.
At last the letter is ready and handed over. âNow, Jimmy,â says the keeper, âone drink at my expense before you go.â
âNot a taste,â says Jimmy.
âOh, thatâs it, is it?â the other says in an aggrieved tone.
âYouâre too damned proud to drink with a poor cove like me. Hereâ
give us back that letter. Iâm cursed if Iâll accept a favour from a man whose too almighty big to have a drink with me.â
âWell, well, mate, donât turn rusty,â says Jim. âGive us one drink anâ Iâm off.â
The keeper pours out about half a pannikin of raw rum and hands it to the bushman. The moment he smells the old familiar smell his longing for it returns, and he swigs it off at a gulp. His eyes shine more brightly and his face becomes flushed. The keeper watches him narrowly. âYou can go now, Jim,â he says.
âSteady, mate, steady,â says the bushman. âIâm as good a man as you. If you stand a drink I can stand one too, I suppose.â So the pannikin is replenished, and Jimmyâs eyes shine brighter still.
âNow, Jimmy, one last drink for the good of the house,â says the keeper, âand then itâs time you were off.â The stockman has a third gulp from the pannikin, and with it all his scruples and good resolutions vanish for ever.
âLook here,â he says somewhat huskily, taking his cheque out of his pouch. âYou take this, mate. Whoever comes along this road, ask âem what theyâll have, and tell them itâs my shout. Let me know when the moneyâs done.â
So Jimmy abandons the idea of ever getting to town, and for three weeks or a month he lies about the shanty in a state of extreme drunkenness, and reduces every wayfarer upon the road to the same condition. At last one fine morning the keeper comes to him. âThe coinâs done, Jimmy,â he says; âitâs about time you made some more.â So Jimmy has a good wash to sober him, straps his blanket and his billy to his back, and rides off through the bush to the sheeprun, where he has another year of sobriety, terminating in another month of intoxication.
All this, though typical of the happy-go-lucky manners of the inhabitants, has no direct bearing upon Jackmanâs Gulch, so we must return to that Arcadian settlement. Additions to the population there were not numerous, and such as came about the time of which I speak were even rougher and fiercer than the original inhabitants. In particular, there came a brace of ruffians named Phillips and Maule, who rode into camp one day, and started a claim upon the other side of the stream. They outgulched the Gulch in the virulence and fluency of their blasphemy, in the truculence of their speech and manner, and in their reckless disregard of all social laws. They claimed to have come from Bendigo, and there were some amongst us who wished that the redoubted Conky Jim was on the track once more, as long as he would close it to such visitors as these. After their arrival the nightly proceedings at the Britannia bar and at the gambling hell behind it became more riotous than ever. Violent quarrels, frequently ending in bloodshed, were of constant occurrence. The more peaceable frequenters of the bar began to talk seriously of lynching the two strangers who were the principal promoters of disorder. Things were in this unsatisfactory condition when our evangelist, Elias B.
Hopkins, came limping into the camp, travel-stained and footsore, with his spade strapped across his back, and his Bible in the pocket of his moleskin jacket.
His presence was hardly noticed at first, so insignificant was the man. His manner was quiet and unobtrusive, his face pale, and his figure fragile. On better acquaintance, however, there was a squareness and firmness about his clean-shaven lower jaw, and an intelligence in his widely-opened blue eyes, which marked him as a man of character. He erected a small hut for himself, and started a claim close to that occupied by the two strangers who had preceded him. This claim was chosen with a ludicrous disregard for all practical laws of mining, and at once stamped the newcomer as being a green hand at his work. It was piteous to observe him every morning as we passed to our work, digging and delving with the greatest industry, but, as we knew well, without the smallest possibility of any result. He would pause for a moment as we went by, wipe his pale face with his bandanna handkerchief, and shout out to us a cordial morning greeting, and then fall to again with redoubled energy. By degrees we got into the way of making a half-pitying, half-contemptuous inquiry as to how he got on. âI hainât struck it yet, boys,â he would answer cheerily, leaning on his spade, âbut the bedrock lies deep just hereabouts, and I reckon weâll get among the pay gravel to-day.â Day after day he returned the same reply with unvarying confidence and cheerfulness.
It was not long before he began to show us the stuff that was in him. One night the proceedings were unusually violent at the drinking saloon. A rich pocket had been struck during the day, and the striker was standing treat in a lavish and promiscuous fashion which had reduced three parts of the settlement to a state of wild intoxication. A crowd of drunken idlers stood or lay about the bar, cursing, swearing, shouting, dancing, and here and there firing their pistols into the air out of pure wantonness. From the interior of the shanty behind there came a similar chorus. Maule, Phillips, and the roughs who followed them were
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