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The Story of Wild Will Enderby

Chapter V. A Barney

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Chapter V. A Barney.

It so happened that whilst our friends were arranging preliminaries, other eyes had rested longingly on their claim; the tenth commandment to the contrary notwithstanding. In those days the diggings were infested by gangs of rowdies, who (whether rightly or wrongfully I know not) were designated by the generic name of "Tips." And some of these gentry so highly approved of Mr. Pratt's choice of location, that they had forthwith annexed it. So then when the Co. arrived on the ground, they found a certain Barney Roche and three others working away with an air of proprietorship very vexatious to perceive.

Harry Grey, ever impetuous, was for plunging into a promiscuous shindy, without tarrying for any explanation. But the Senior Partner gave his casting vote against "that sort of thing;" and calmly walking down to the intruders, he opened proceedings in a tone of mild expostulation, thus—

"Well, boys, when you've quite done prospecting our claim I'll trouble you to clear out."

"Indade, then," sneered Mr. Barney Roche, "'twill be a long day before that same is done."

A general grin broadened the visages of his mates as he thus made replication, and they continued operations in a superciliously contemptuous manner, as who should page 26say "We are the strongest, and we mean to stick to the good old rule that—

They should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."

This was somewhat provoking; but the Senior Partner was equal to the emergency.

"No;" he said, very quietly, "I guess not. We located this claim yesterday, and we conclude to have it. Quit that!"

And with the word he lifted his heavily-cased right leg, kicked the enemy's offending sluice-box into the river, and five pounds' worth of deal boards went careering down the stream. Then Barney and his mates set up a wild shout, and rushed at the Co. with uplifted shovels and sluicing forks.37 But Mr. George W. Pratt stepped back a few paces, and drawing his revolver, cocked and presented it, crying—

"Stand off, boys! I don't want to damage your skins; but if any man goes for me or my pardner, I'll put him in his little bed, without much singing for it."

And there was a determined expression in the eye of the American which powerfully enforced the arguments of the pistol, and cowed his opponents.

"See here," he continued, "this is our claim, and I don't mean to be euchred out of it. I'm willing to do the square thing, and I'll leave it to the Commissioner."

Commissioner was the title then given to the Goldfield's magistrates.38

By this time quite a multitude of people, attracted by the fracas, had congregated around. The rowdies were generally detested for their jumping propensities, and the sympathies of the miners were immediately en-page 27listed on the side of the Co. So the malcontents, finding themselves out-numbered, and being daunted by the Senior Partner's plucky resistance, consented grudgingly to abide the advent of the Commissioner and his decision.

Forthwith Harry was despatched into the Dunstan to interview that high and mighty official. He found him sitting in a spacious marquee, holding his Court therein, and surrounded by a huge crowd of miners, all intent on business of their own. So he had to await an opportunity of preferring his suit.

The Commissioner's table was covered with dust; his ink was thick with it; his papers were black with it; his temper apparently was soured by it. When Harry communicated his business the Commissioner sprang up in a very tempest of wrath.

"How do you suppose I am to find time to visit your claim? I am rushed to death here. I can't even swallow my breakfast, unless I tie up the tent and post a constable outside to keep you fellows away."

Thus spake Mr Commissioner; but presently he cooled down, and promised to attend to the matter next day. And with this promise content, Harry started on his return journey.

As he passed through the township, a brazen-lunged vendor of newspapers was shouting "Hargus! Melbourne Hargus! Latest news just arrived by the Haldinger steamboat!" Harry purchased a copy, and went on his way rejoicing.

Not far, however. Intent on scanning the contents of the 'Argus,' he seated himself on a boulder by the page 28river side, and eagerly spread out the broadsheet, still faintly redolent of printer's ink.39

Suddenly he uttered a loud cry—savagely crumpled up the newspaper in his hands, and threw it violently from him. A gust of wind received the rudely proffered gift, tossed it hither and thither, as in sport, dashed it from rock to rock, whirled it high in the air, and finally sent it flying into the all-absorbent river.

Then Harry repented him of his vehemence.

"I will not believe it," he cried. "'Tis a lie—a wicked, impossible lie! Can one so fair be yet so false? Her promise, too—her plighted faith—can I have made any mistake? I must go back and get another copy of the paper."

That night the Senior Partner was sorely troubled in his mind; for the envoy whom he had sent to the Commissioner returned not.

But Mr Commissioner came and made due enquiry into the matter in dispute. After he had heard the statements of either party, each began to cross-question the other, as was the manner of the period.

"Show me your pegs," demanded Mr Roche.

In reply, the Senior Partner indicated the stones set up in the trenches by the Co.—two of them only—the others were missing.

"Shure, thim's not pegs," scornfully demurred Barney. "Thim's stones. Now, your Honour—(this to the Commissioner)—see our pegs as the Regulations requires."

And he pointed triumphantly to four timber corner-pegs specially provided for the purpose.

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The Commissioner saw how the wind blew, and I think he sympathised with the Co. But the Regulations were as stringent as the laws of the Medes and Persians are said to have been, and he was just the man to do his duty, however unpleasant the task might be.41 So he said—

"Humph! Ah! Yes; I fear you have forfeited your claim, Mat. I must give judgment—."

"No, sir," interrupted the Senior Partner, "I don't own up to that. My name ain't 'Mat,' and I feel rather catawampish to have anybody's foot on me.40 See, here, Mr Commissioner, jest you make them galoots show their Miners' Rights. Here's mine."

Whereupon Barney and his mates began to talk all together, making any number of excuses for the non-production of the required documents. But, like the "Player Queen," they protested too much.42 The Commissioner rigorously insisted on their compliance with Pratt's request. The assembled miners, always jealous of jumpers, backed up the official; and it ended in an acknowledgment by Barney Roche, that he and his party had not possessed themselves of Miners' Rights. Whereupon the Commissioner adjudged the claim to the Co., and immediately rode away on his fast-trotting mare.

But the trespassers were bold and persistent black-guards, and no sooner had the Commissioner disappeared down the road, than they defiantly resumed possession of the disputed ground.

Then the Senior Partner persuaded Barney and his mates to yield up the claim without reference to the constituted authorities. And this is how he did it—

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"Now, boys!" he said, addressing the admiring lookers-on, "I'm a peaceable man in a general way—I am. In my country I was taught two things: first, to observe the laws, and, secondly, to defend my rights. I've done the first; and these mean cusses don't reciprocate. And now, I reckon, I shall jest do the other."

Then facing the jumpers, he continued—"Do you mean to travel with a free ticket? Or do you conclude to be dug out at your own expense?"

But the four lifted up their voices in most dissonant chorus, and protested that they didn't care a rap for the adjective Commissioner—that they had the claim, and would stick to it—that they would not let any "dirty foreigners" take it from them—and so on, after the manner of their kind.

"Yes, I'm a foreigner, no doubt" (thus the Senior Partner), "and if you are ordinary specimens of the natives, I don't see any inducement to swap countries. You are the meanest white men ever I saw, that's a fact. Guess you were spawned under the British Lion, and very proud the noble animal must be of such darned critters. I was raised under the wing of the American Eagle, and I ain't ashamed of it. Pity you ain't owned by some sort of eagle too—French, Russian, Prussian, Austrian, or American—for any one of them birds would have learnt you better manners. Now, I'm in earnest, you bet. Will you stand by the Commissioner's judgment, and quit?"

"No!"—(chorus of the four, with sundry unimportant additions).

"Will you arbitrate?"

"No!"—(chorus repeated, with variations).

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"Will you fight for it—knuckles or talking irons? Will you wrestle for it? Go Yankee Grab?43 Toss up for it? Play euchre for it?44 Darn your white-livered souls! (here the Senior partner waxed warm). Will you do anything men ought to do to settle it?"

"Upon my conscience, then," quoth Barney, with leer provocative, "I'll do nothing of the sort. I'll just shtick to the claim."

"Then, by Jehoshaphat! I'm teetotally darned if I don't have you out of it before the cock crows thrice. Stand by, boys, and see fair play."

With the words the Senior Partner went for Mr Roche—caught the burly rascal by the waist and shoulder, tripped him up, and, despite his struggles, sent him rolling down the steep declivity, where, coming in contact with a rock rather harder than his skull, he lay recumbent and motionless. His mates made a joint rush at the American; but the crowd interposed to prevent foul practice, and they wisely declined single combat. Eventually the trio picked up their discomfited comrade, and with many impotent threatenings, and much objurgatory exclamation, retired from the field.

Then the multitude, true to their instincts, began to abuse the vanquished, and to laud the victor.

"Serve 'em right!" cried John Bull, with a medal-conferring air of patronage.

"Eh, mon! but it was fine the way ye grippit wi' him!" quoth Sandy, proffering his sneeshing-mull.

"Upon me sowl!" grinned Paddy, "ye done it like a gintleman."

"Jest so," said the Senior Partner, as he settled a page 32fresh plug in his favourite tooth. "Jest so! But if there had been a few more gentlemen knocking around these diggings, it strikes me that I shouldn't have had to expend quite so much ammunition. How does it strike you, boys?"

37 Sluice Box - Sluicing was the main method of extracting gold from the river and claims. Sluice boxes were narrow wooden boxes that channeled water to wash the gold-bearing gravel, separating the heavier gold and the lighter material to be washed away. Mining Methods

38 Commissioner - Pyke serving as a commissioner himself established regulations for gold mining.

39 Argus - A figure in Greek mythology and the name of the morning daily newspaper in Melbourne that was established in 1846 and closed in 1957 and was considered to be the general Australian newspaper of record for this period.

41 Medes and Persians - Ancient Iranian peoples that was continually at war with the Greeks and were famed for their irrefutable law

40 Catawampish - Or catawampous which is slang for fierce or destructive.

42 Player Queen - Refers to the actress that played the Queen in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play within the play, The Mousetrap. Queen Gertrude remarks that the Player Queen “The lady protests too much, methinks” (Act 3,scene II)

43 Yankee Grab - A gambling game using three dice.

44 Euchre - A card game.