Chapter XII

In the middle of the night Basil awoke. He had had a tiring day, but when he had slept off the first effects of the fatigue he had undergone, the exciting events of the last two days became again the dominant power. He dreamt of all that had occurred from the interview between himself and Anthony Bidaud, in which he had accepted the guardianship of Annette, to the moment of his arrival on Gum Flat. Of Newman Chaytor he dreamt not at all; this new acquaintance had produced no abiding impression upon him.

He lay awake for some five minutes or so in that condition of quiescent wonder which often falls upon men when they are sleeping for the first time in a strange bed and in a place with which they are not familiar. Where was he? What was the position of the bed? Where was the door situated: at the foot, or the head, or the side of the bed? Was there a window in the apartment, and if so, where was it? Then came the mental question what had aroused him?

It was so unusual for him to wake in the middle of the night that he dwelt upon this question. Something must have disturbed him. What?

Was it fancy that just at the moment of his awakening he had heard a movement in the room, that he had felt a hand upon him, that he had heard a man's breathing? It must have been, all was so quiet and still. Suddenly he sat straight up on the stretcher. He remembered that he was in the township of Gum Flat, sleeping in a strange apartment, and that men with whom he had not been favourably impressed must be lying near him. This did not apply to Newman Chaytor, who had been kind and attentive, and whom he now thought of with gratitude. There was nothing to fear from him, but the other three had gazed at him furtively and with no friendly feelings. He had exchanged but a few words with these men, and those had been words of suspicion. When he entered the store, after attending to his horse, they had not addressed a word to him. It was Chaytor, and Chaytor alone, who had shown kindness and evinced a kindly feeling. And now he was certain that someone had been in the room while he slept, and had laid hands on him. For what purpose?

He slid from the stretcher, and standing upright stretched out his hands in the darkness. Where was the door?

Outside the canvas building stood Chaytor's three mates, wide awake, with their heads close together, as they had been inside on the return of Basil and Chaytor from the stable. They were conversing in whispers.

"Did he hear you?"

"No. If he had moved I would have knocked him on the head."

"Have you got it?"

"Yes, it is all right."

"Pass it round."

"No; I will keep it till it's sold; then we'll divide equally."

"What do you think it's worth?"

"Twenty pounds, I should say."

"Little enough."

"Hush!"

The sound of Basil moving about his room, groping for the door, had reached them.

"If he comes out, Jim, you tackle him."

"Leave him to me. Don't waste any more time. Get the horse from the stable."

Basil, unable to find the door, stumbled against the calico portion which divided his room from that in which Chaytor slept.

"Who's there?" cried Chaytor, jumping up.

"Oh, it's you," said Basil, recognising the voice. "Have you got a light?"

"Wait a moment."

But half dressed he represented himself to Basil, with a lighted candle in his hand.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I don't know," replied Basil, "but I am not easy in my mind. Perhaps it is only my fancy, but I have an idea that someone has been in my room."

"Let us see." They proceeded to the three compartments which should have been occupied by the three men. They were empty.

"It was not fancy," said Basil. "What mischief are they up to? Come along; we will go and see."

Chaytor hesitated. He was not gifted with heroic qualities, and he knew that his three mates were desperate characters.

"Did you have any money about you?" he asked.

"None. Why, where's my watch?" It was gone. There was a hurried movement without; he heard the sound of a horse's feet. "They are stealing Corrie's horse," he cried, "after robbing me of my watch! Stand by me, will you?"

He rushed out, followed, but not too quickly, by Chaytor. The moment he reached the open a pair of arms was thrown around him, and he was grappling with an enemy. In unfamiliar ground, enveloped in darkness, and attacked by an unseen enemy, he was at a disadvantage, and it would have fared ill with him had he not been strong and stout-hearted. Jim the Hatter, who had undertaken to tackle him soon discovered that the man they were robbing was not easily disposed of. Down they fell the pair of them, twisting and turning, each striving to obtain the advantage, Basil silent and resolved, Jim the Hatter giving tongue to many an execration. In the midst of the struggle the ruffian heard his mates, the Nonentities, moving off with Basil's horse. His experience had taught him that "honour among thieves" was a fallacious proverb; anyway, he had never practised it himself, and he trusted no men. With a powerful effort he threw Basil from him and ran after his comrades. During the encounter Chaytor had kept at a safe distance, but now that there was a lull he came close to Basil.

"They have half throttled me," he gasped, tearing open his shirt and blowing like a grampus. "Are you hurt?"

"No," said Basil. "We may catch them yet."

And he began to run, but the ruffians had got the start of him, and knew the lay of the ground. Guided by his ear he stumbled on, across the plains, through a gully riddled with holes, and finally up a steep range, followed by Chaytor, panting and blowing. He had many a fall, and so had Chaytor (who thought it well to follow suit, and cried out from time to time, "O, O, O!"), and thus the flight and the pursuit continued, the sounds from the flying men and Old Corrie's horse growing fainter and fainter, until matters came to a sudden termination.

Half-way up the range, which was veined with quartz, a shaft had been sunk and abandoned. The miners who had done the work had followed a gold-bearing spur some fifty feet down, in the hope of coming upon a golden reef. But the spur grew thinner and thinner, the traces of gold disappeared, and they lost heart. Disappointed in their expectations, and out of patience with their profitless labour, they shouldered their windlass and started off to fresh pastures. Thus the mouth of the shaft was left open and unprotected, and into it Basil dropped, and felt himself slipping down with perilous celerity.

It was fortunate that the shaft was not exactly perpendicular, After following the spur down for twenty feet the miners had found that it took an eccentric turn which necessitated the running in of an adit. This passage was about two yards long, when the spur dipped again, and the shaft was continued sheer into the bowels of the earth. It was this adit which saved Basil's life. When he had slipped down the twenty feet he felt bottom, and there he lay, bruised, but not dangerously hurt.

He cried out for help at the top of his voice, and his cries were presently answered.

"Below there!" cried Chaytor, lying flat on the ground above, with his ear at the mouth of the shaft.

"Is that you, Mr. Chaytor?" cried Basil.

Chaytor (aside): "He remembers my name." (Aloud): "Yes, what's left of me. Where are you?" (Which, to say the least of it, was an unnecessary question.)

Basil: "Down here."

Chaytor (blind to logical fact): "Alive?"

Basil (perceiving nothing strange in the question, and therefore almost as blind): "Yes, thank God!"

Chaytor: "Any bones broke?"

Basil: "I think not, but I am bruised a bit."

Chaytor: "So am I."

Basil: "I am sorry to hear it. Have the scoundrels got away?"

Chaytor: "Yes, they're a mile off by this time."

Basil (groaning): "Old Corrie's mare! What will he think of me?"

Chaytor: "It can't be helped."

Basil: "In which direction have they gone?"

Chaytor: "Haven't the slightest idea. I warned you against them."

Basil: "You did. You're a good fellow, but what could I do?"

Chaytor: "Neither of us could have prevented it."

Basil: "I am not so sure. I ought to have stopped up all night, and looked after what wasn't my own."

Chaytor (attempting consolation): "Why, you couldn't keep your eyes open."

Basil (groaning again): "I ought to have kept my eyes open. I had no right to sleep after your warning."

Chaytor: "I did what I could."

Basil: "You did; you're a true friend." (Chaytor smiled.) "How am I to get up from here?"

Chaytor: "That's the question. How far are you down?"

Basil: "Heaven knows. It seems a mile or so."

Chaytor: "There's no windlass."

Basil: "Isn't there?"

Chaytor: "And it's pitch dark."

Basil: "It's as black as night down here. Can't you go for help?"

Chaytor: "I'll tell you something. There isn't a soul on the township but ourselves."

Basil: "Not one?"

Chaytor: "Not one. We must wait till daylight; then I'll see what I can do."

Basil: "There's no help for it; it must be as you say. You'll not desert me?"

Chaytor (in an injured tone): "Can you think me capable of so dastardly an act?"

Basil: "Forgive me; I hardly know what I'm saying. I deserve that you should, for giving utterance to a thought so base."

Chaytor: "It was natural, perhaps. Why should you trust me, a stranger, whom you have known for only a few hours?"

Basil: "I do trust you: it was an unnatural thought. You are a noble fellow--and a gentleman."

Chaytor: "I hope so. Can I do anything for you while you are waiting?"

Basil: "I am devoured by thirst. Can you manage to get a drink of water to me?"

Chaytor: "I can do that; but you must have patience. I shall have to go back to the township to get a bottle and some string. Shall I go?"

Basil: "Yes, yes. Be as quick as you can."

Chaytor: "I won't be a moment longer than I can help."

Then there was silence. Chaytor departed on his errand, and Basil was left to himself. His right arm was bruised and sore, but he contrived to feel in his pockets for matches. A box was there, but it was empty, and he remembered that he had struck the last one at the end of his long ride from Bidaud's plantation, just before he arrived in Gum Flat. He knew, from feeling the opening of the adit, that it was likely he was not at the bottom of the shaft, and he was fearful of moving, lest he should fall into a pit. He thought of Newman Chaytor. "What a good fellow he is! I should be dead but for him. It is truly noble of him to stick to me as he is doing. He has nothing to gain by it, and he is saving my life. Yes, I will accept his proposal to go mates with him, for I have no place now on Bidaud's plantation. Poor Annette--poor child! I hope she will be happy. I hope her uncle and Aunt will be kind to her. I must see her again before I go for good, and then we shall never meet again, never, never! I would give the best twenty years of my life--if I am fated to live--to be her brother, with authority to protect her and shield her from Gilbert Bidaud. He is a villain, a smooth-tongued villain, a thousand times worse than these scoundrels who have robbed me and brought me to this. What will Old Corrie say when he hears I have lost his mare? Will he think I am lying--will he think I have sold his horse and pocketed the money? If so, and it gets to Annette's ears, how she will despise me! I must see her, I must, to clear myself. Gilbert Bidaud will do all he can to prevent it, and he may succeed; but I will try, I will try. If I had a hundred pounds I would buy another horse for Old Corrie, a better one than that I have lost, but I haven't a shilling. A sorry plight. There is only one human being in the world I can call a friend, and that is Mr. Chaytor, who has taken such a strange fancy for me. Yesterday there was Old Corrie, there was Anthony Bidaud, there was Annette. One is dead, the others may cast me off, It is a cruel world. How long Mr. Chaytor is! It seems an age. Shame on you, Basil, for reviling! There is goodness, there is sweetness, there is faithfulness in the world. Don't whine, old man. All may yet be well, though for the life of me I can't see how it is to be brought about."

Then he fainted, but only for a few seconds; when he opened his eyes again he thought hours must have elapsed.

In truth Chaytor was absent no longer than was necessary, but he was also mentally busy with the adventures of the last few hours. The man whose phantom shadow had haunted him in London was now at his mercy. Basil's life was absolutely at his disposal. To leave him where he was in that desolate spot at the bottom of a deserted shaft would be to ensure for him a sure and certain death, and if he wished to make assurance doubly sure, all he had to do would be to roll a great stone upon him. But that would be a crime, and, hardened as he was, he shrank from committing it. Not from any impulse of mercy, but because he had nothing at present to gain from it. There was much to learn, much to do before he nerved himself to a desperate deed which, after all, might by some stroke of good fortune be unnecessary. And indeed it was only the accident which had befallen Basil that darkened his soul with cruel suggestion. The sleeping forces which lurk in the souls of such men as Newman Chaytor often leap into active life by some unfortuitous circumstance in which they have no direct hand.

He was back at the shaft, leaning over it, with a bottle of water not too tightly corked, to the neck of which was attached a long piece of cord.

"Are you there?" he called out.

"Heaven be thanked!" said Basil. "What a time you have been."

"I have not been away an hour."

"Is that really so?"

"It is, but it must have seemed long to you."

"Weeks seem to have passed."

"I have a bottle of water which I will send down to you."

"God bless you!"

"When you get it, loosen the string from the neck of the bottle, and I will send down what remains of the flask of brandy. It will do you no harm."

"I can never repay you for your goodness to me."

"Yes, you can. Look out."

The bottle of water was lowered, and afterwards the flask of brandy: Basil took a long draught of water, half emptying the bottle, and sipped sparingly of the brandy.

"You have given me life, Mr. Chaytor."

"Psha! I have done nothing worth making a fuss about. Oblige me by dropping the Mr."

"I will. With all my heart and soul I thank you, Chaytor."

"You are heartily welcome, Basil. There is a light coming into the sky."

"Sunrise! How beautiful the world is!"

"Listen," said Chaytor; "I will tell you what I am going to do."