Without another word the Maori girl turned her horse's head for home, walked him quietly past Dolphin and his gang, without taking the least notice of any of them, and then cantered away.

As she did so the four men burst into hoa.r.s.e laughter and obscene remarks.

Scarlett walked menacingly towards Garstang, who had been the chief offender.

"You filthy brute," he said, "what do you mean?"

"Filthy, eh?" retorted Garstang. "D'you 'ear that, Dolly? An' I suppose my mates is filthy too, eh, mister?"

"Jab 'im in the mouth, Garstang." This advice from Sweet William.

But Dolphin settled the matter. With a revolver in his hand he stepped towards the menacing Scarlett.

"Now, hook it," he said. "If you can't take a bit of chaff without turning nasty, don't think you can get up to any of your funny business here. I give you three minutes in which to clear."

As Scarlett, following the general practice of the diggers, went unarmed, he could only reply by acting upon dictation; but before he turned to go, he looked well at the men before him. Then he mounted his horse, and rode away.

He quickly forded the stream, and, without turning his head to look again at the strange gang, he plunged into the dense forest which stretched across mountain and valley. As he climbed the slopes of the range over which the track led him, the sun shone brightly and not a cloud was in the sky. The air was so still that even at the summit of the range, 2000 feet and more above the sea, not the slightest breeze stirred. The atmosphere was oppressive, and, three parts of the way down the further slope, where a clear rivulet crossed the path, Jack was fain to rest beneath the shade of a giant tree-fern, and eat and drink. There was not a creature to harm him; no venomous reptile, no ravenous beast dwelt in those vast sub-tropical forests; no poisonous miasma reeked from the moist valleys below; in the evergreen trees countless pigeons cooed, _kaka_ parrots and green paroquets screamed, and black parson-birds sang. It was a picture of Nature in one of her most peaceful and happy moods. Forgetful of the distractions which he had left behind him, Jack's mind had turned to the contemplation of the bright prospects which lay before him, when his reverie was broken by the sound of voices and the noise of horses' hoofs; and round a bend of the track, slowly ascending the uncertain gradient, appeared the gold-escort.

Leading the cavalcade, rode a mounted constable dressed in a blue tunic, with silver b.u.t.tons, dun-coloured, corded riding-breeches, top-boots, and a blue shako. His carbine was slung negligently, and he whistled as he rode.

Behind him came Isaac Zahn, sitting loosely on his horse; a revolver strapped in its case at his belt. He was followed by an unarmed mounted man who led the pack-horse which carried the gold; and an armed digger, who rode a white horse, brought up the rear.

The leading horse whinnied, and Jack's mare answered.

"Good morning," said the constable, reining up. "A beautiful day, sorr.

Have ye such a thing as a match wid you?"

Jack, who was smoking, handed a box of matches to the man, who lighted his pipe. The whole cavalcade had come to a halt, and Zahn, who pretended not to recognise Jack, sat on his horse, and scowled.

Scarlett's eyes involuntarily fixed themselves on the heavily-laden pack-horse.

"I should advise you to keep your weather eye lifted, constable," he said.

"Bedad, an' we'll attend to that," replied the Irishman, with a broad smile. "The escort's as good as in Timber Town already. Thank you, sorr." He handed back the matches. "Good morning t'you." And lightly touching his horse with the spur, he pa.s.sed on.

Disregarding Scarlett's nod of recognition, Zahn followed the leader, without so much as a glance at the man whom he hated as his supposed supplanter in the affections of the beautiful Jewess.

The pack-horse and its leader, a stoutly-built man, went heavily by, and the rear-guard let his horse drink at the stream, but he was a man filled with the importance of his office, and to Jack's greeting he replied merely with a mechanical nod, as though he would say, "Don't speak to me: I'm exceedingly intent upon conveying this gold to Timber Town."

"Strange crowd," mused Jack, as the last hoof disappeared round the upper bend of the track; "riding loose in the saddle, their arms slung behind them. If I'd had a gun, I could have shot the first man before he saw me. Robbing escorts can't be such a difficult matter as is supposed.

If Zahn had been civil I'd have used the opportunity to warn him of the queer gang I met at the ford. They may be simple diggers--they look like it--but the man who whips out a pistol on the least provocation is to be guarded against when you're in charge of five or six thousand ounces of gold."

With these thoughts Jack mounted his horse, and rode away. The winding track at length led him into a deep valley, down which flowed a broad river whose glistening waters rippled laughingly over a shallow bed of grey boulders. Along its banks grew mighty pines, the _rimu_, the _totara_, and the broad-spreading black-birch, their trunks hidden in dense undergrowth and a tangle of creepers; while here and there beside the sparkling waters grew thick clumps of bright green tree-ferns.

But the track was now flat and straight, and putting his horse into a trot Scarlett covered the ground rapidly. After some ten miles of riding, he came to a ford where the track crossed the river, and entered rougher country. As he drew rein at the verge of the water to let his horse drink, he noticed that the heavens had suddenly become dark.

Looking at the strip of sky revealed by the treeless stretch above the waters, he saw a phenomenon in the upper air. Across the tranquil blue expanse advanced a mighty thunder-cloud; its unbroken face approaching at immense speed, though not a leaf of the forest stirred, nor the frond of a fern moved. It was like the oncoming of a mighty army, sweeping across the still country, and leaving devastation in its track. Then the low rumble of the thunder, like the sound of cannon in the distant hills, heralded the commencement of the storm. A flash broke from the inky black cloud, and simultaneously a deafening thunder-clap burst upon the solitary traveller. Then followed an ominous silence, broken by the rushing of the wind among the tree-tops, and the high heads of the forest giants bent before the storm. The rain came down in a deluge, and shut from sight both hill and valley; so that instead of wandering through a leafy paradise, where birds sang and the sunshine glittered on a million leaves, Scarlett groped his way as in a maze, dark and impenetrable; his horse dejected, himself drenched and cold.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

In Tresco's Cave.

Tresco stood in his dark, dank cavern, and meditated upon the loneliness of life.

He was naturally a sociable man, and loved the company of his fellows, but here he was living a hermit's existence, shut up in the bowels of the earth, with no better a.s.sociates than the clammy stalact.i.tes which constantly dripped water upon the white, calcareous floors.

The atmosphere was so cold that it chilled the marrow of the goldsmith's bones, and to render habitable the inner recess where he lived he was forced to keep a fire perpetually burning. To do this it was necessary for him to sally into the daylight, in order that he might collect firewood, of which there was in the neighbourhood of the cave an abundant supply.

Groping his way slowly through the winding pa.s.sage, every twist and turn of which he knew in the dark, Benjamin pa.s.sed into the lofty cavern which he had named the Cathedral, where the stalact.i.tes and stalagmites, meeting, had formed huge columns, which seemed to support the great domed roof overhead. This was a place which Tresco was never tired of admiring. "A temple built without hands," he said, as he held aloft his candle, and viewed the snow-white pillars which stood on either side of what he named the Nave.

"What a place to preach in." He who has no companions must needs talk to himself if he would hear the human voice. "Here, now, a man _could_ expatiate on the work of the Creator, but his sermon would have to be within the fifteen minutes' limit, or his congregation would catch their death of cold. 'Dearly beloved brethren, the words of my text are ill.u.s.trated by the house in which we are a.s.sembled.'" His voice filled the Nave, and reverberated down the aisles. "'Here you have the real thing, built by the Master Builder, Nature, for the use of the Cave Man, and preserved for all time. How wonderful are the works of Creation, how exquisite the details. You have heard of the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian columns, and of the beauties of Greek architecture, but compare these white, symmetrical piers, raised in one solid piece, without join or crevice. Observe yonder alabaster gallery where the organ swells its harmonious tones; observe the vestry, where the preacher dons his sacerdotal garb--they are perfect. But did I hear a lady sneeze? Alas! Nature forgot the hot-air pipes; the Cathedral, I admit, strikes a little chilly. Therefore I dismiss you, my brethren, lest you should catch pleurisy, or go into galloping consumption.'"

He finished with a laugh, and then pa.s.sed into the small entrance-cave, which he denominated facetiously the Church Porch. Here he blew out his candle, which he placed on a rock, and emerged from his hiding-place.

He had burst from the restful, if cold, comfort of his cave upon the warring elements. Peal after peal of thunder rolled along the wooded slopes of the rugged range; fierce flashes of lightning pierced the gloom of the dark valley below, and from the black thunder-cloud overhead there poured a torrent of rain which made the goldsmith think of the Deluge.

"Ha!" he exclaimed, as he stood in the entrance of his damp den, "there are worse places than my cave after all. But what I want is firewood.

Lord! that flash almost blinded me.

Rumble--grumble--tumble--crash--bang! Go it; never mind _me_. You aren't frightening me worth tuppence. I rather like a little electricity and _aqua pura_." In answer there was a dazzling flash, followed by a terrific clap of thunder which seemed to burst almost above Benjamin's head. "All right, if you insist--I'll go. Sorry I obtruded ... Good afternoon."

He retreated into the cave, took up his candle, which he relighted, saying to himself, "I'll go and explore that pa.s.sage behind the Organ Loft, and see if it leads to the outer world. In case I get shut in here, like a rat in a hole, it's just as well for me to know my burrow thoroughly."

Groping his way up a slippery ascent where his feet continually stumbled over the uneven surface of the encrusted floor, he climbed to the Organ Loft, where, screened behind a delicate, white tracery which hung from roof to floor of the gallery and a.s.sumed the shape of an organ, pipes and panels complete, he could see his candle's flame shoot long fingers of light into the vast Nave below.

However, he spent but little time in contemplation of the weird scene, but turning sharply to the right he followed a narrow, winding pa.s.sage which led into the heart of the limestone mountain. His progress was both slow and difficult, for the encrusting carbonate had, in many places, all but filled up the pa.s.sage, and, in many others, the floor was so broken as to make it almost impossible for him to press onwards.

Now he would squeeze himself between the converging sides of the pa.s.sage, now he would crawl on hands and knees through a hole which would barely receive his shoulders; and thus, sweating, panting, bruised, and even bleeding where his hands and arms had been grazed by rasping and projecting rocks, he at length sat down to rest in a place where the tunnel broadened into a small chamber. How far he had pushed his way into the bowels of the earth he could not tell, neither was he thoughtful of the distance. What he was looking and hoping for, was a gleam of light ahead, but whenever he blew out his candle the inky blackness was so intense as to be painful to his eyes.

"My G.o.d! Supposing a man got in here, and couldn't get back? Suppose I got stuck between two rocks?--I'd have to stop here till I grew thin enough to squeeze out."

Quickly he re-lit his candle.

"That's better," he exclaimed. "There is after all some company in a lighted candle. We'll now go on; we'll press forward; we'll see whither this intricate path leadeth. 'Vorwarts' is the word: no turning back till the goal is reached."

He crept through a low aperture, and with difficulty he rose to his feet; a few steps further on he stumbled; the candle fell from his hand, and dropped, and dropped, and dropped, in fact he never heard it reach the bottom.

Feeling in his pocket for his matches as he lay p.r.o.ne, he struck a light, and held the burning taper beyond him as far as he could reach.

All that he saw was a dark and horrible abyss. He struck another match with the same result. He seized a piece of loose rock, rolled it over the edge, and waited for the sound of its lodgment at the bottom. He heard it b.u.mping as it fell, but its falling seemed interminable, till at length the sound of its pa.s.sage to the nether regions died away in sheer depth.

Tresco drew a long breath.

"Never," he said, "never, in the course of his two score years and ten has Benjamin been so near Hades. The best thing he can do is to 'git,'

deliberately and with circ.u.mspection. And the candle has gone: happy candle to preserve the life of such a man as B.T."

Slowly and with the utmost caution he crept backwards from the horrible pit. But his supply of matches was scanty, and often he b.u.mped his head against the ceiling, and often he tripped and fell, till before long there was not a part of his portly person that was free from pain. Yet still he struggled on, for he realised that his life depended on his extricating himself from the terrible labyrinth in which he was entangled. He struck match after match, till his stock was expended, and then, panting, weary, and sore, he clenched his teeth and battled onward. It seemed miles to the end of the pa.s.sage. He imagined that he had got into some new tunnel, the opening of which he had pa.s.sed unwittingly when he crept into the trap; and to the natural dread of his situation was added the horrible fear that he was lost in the bowels of the earth.