river
escaped from the mountain rampart and flowed through the town to the
tidal waters of the harbour.

"That valley will take us into the heart of the hills," he said. "We
start to-morrow morning, soon after dawn--Moonlight and I. Do you know
him?"

The girl looked up from her shoe, and smiled. "I can't cultivate the
acquaintance of every digger in the town," she replied.

"Don't speak disparagingly of diggers. _I_ become one to-morrow."

"Then, mind you bring me a big nugget when you come back," said the
girl.

"That's asking me to command good luck. Give me that, and you shall have
the nugget."

"Does luck go by a girl's favour? If it did, you would be sure to have
it."

"I never had it on the voyage out, did I?"

"Perhaps you never had the other either."

"That's true--I left England through lack of it."

"I shouldn't have guessed that. Perhaps you'll gain it in this country."

Scarlett looked at her, but her eyes were again fixed on the point of
her shoe.

"Well, Rosebud--flirting as usual?" Captain Summerhayes, clad in blue
serge, with his peaked cap on the back of his head, came labouring up
the path, and sat heavily on the garden-seat. "I never see such a
gal--always with the boys when she ought to be cooking the dinner."

"Father!" exclaimed Rose, flushing red, though she well knew the form
that the Pilot's chaff usually took. "How _can_ you tell such fibs? You
forget that Mr. Scarlett is not one of the old cronies who understand
your fun."

"There, there, my gal." The Pilot laid his great brown hand on his
daughter's shoulder. "Don't be ruffled. Let an old sailor have his joke:
it won't hurt, God bless us; it won't hurt more'n the buzzing of a
blue-bottle fly. But you're that prim and proper, that staid and
straight-laced, you make me tease you, just to rouse you up. Oh! them
calm ones, Mr. Scarlett, beware of 'em. It takes a lot to goad 'em to
it, but once their hair's on end, it's time a sailor went to sea, and a
landsman took to the bush. It's simply terrible. Them mild 'uns, Mr.
Scarlett, beware of 'em."

"Father, do stop!" cried Rose, slapping the Pilot's broad back with her
soft, white hand.

"All right," said her father, shrinking from her in mock dread; "stop
that hammerin'."

"Tell us about the fever-ship, and what they're doing with Sartoris,"
said Scarlett.

"Lor', she's knocked the breath out of a man's body. I'm just in dread
o' me life. Sit t'other end o' the seat, gal;