Jack and His Seven Foes — page 46: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JACK AND HIS SEVEN FOES. It was not Jacob Sturmby, but a man of smaller mould. He had a small bundle on his back, and a digger’s tools under his arm—evidently a digger prospecting. He, too, was standing still, utterly amazed and taken aback. Twice he looked at the body of the youth, placed his hand in his belt, as if to draw forth a pistol, then looked again at the gang, and passed his hand across his brow. And the youth—who was he? About the same height as Jack, but and dressed built, not so sturdily differently. — 3” He lay stretched out, poor fellow, on his face, and gave no sign. “Ts he dead ?”’ asked the Swageerer, in a subdued tone. The Settler stooped down, and slowly turned him over. - } “Yes,” he said, pointing to the lad’s forehead, where there was the mark of a bullet, ‘‘ he is dead.” And then the Swaggerer shook as if he had the ague, and a low groan _ burst from the lips of those behind him. “It’s a horrible mistake,’ moaned the Swaggerer, and the others shuddered and turned away from the murdered boy. UD? 0D? 0D? LO? 6? CO OO? 69 93 CON OOD 7 LO COR 1 67 CO EO CO LM tg to CHAPTER XIV. FATHER AND “Derap!” said the man. ‘“ Did I hear that my Bill was dead?” He was past the prime of life, and this boy was evidently the pride and joy of his declining years. No more pitiful sound ever left human lips than the moan which followed the words he spoke. “ Tt can’t be,”’ he said, in a bewildered way. ‘“ Why, I was talking to him not a minute ago, and now he lies here. What’s he done? Who are you devils that you should come and rob me of the one thing I loved? Who are you, I pay 7” It was a terrible sight to look upon, this rough, honest fellow robbed in a moment of the light of his life. No lightning from a summer sky of cloudless blue, striking the boy dead, could have come more unexpectedly. It had amazed and stunned him. “It’s a mistake,” said the Swaggerer, in a husky voice. ‘‘ We thought he was somebody else.” ‘Then it isn’t my boy, after all,” said the digger, putting down his tools, and emiling. ‘‘I knew it couldn’t be. Get up, Bill, and we'll move along.” He took the boy by the hand, and raised him up a Little, but the eyes were glazed in death. When he let go, the lad fell back upon the sward. “Tired,” said the digger, looking up vacantly into the Swaggerer’s face. SON—JACK PROVES A FRIEND TO THE SURVIVOR. “We've walked many a mile lately, and asleep will do him good. Go away; my bill mustn’t be disturbed.” “The poor chap’s gone clean daft,” said the Settler, and, brute though he was, his eyes were dim with tears. They were all deeply moved, for it seemed to one and all as if they had doubled and trebled the burden of crime upon their hearts. “ Tt’s all the Swaggerer’s fault,” said the Panther. “He kept a lookout, and gave the word.” “Ah,” said the Swaggerer, fiercely, “put it all upon me It’s an awful blunder, and we can’t alter it.” ‘< Why don’t you keep quiet, then?” said the old man, in an angry whisper. “You'll wake my Bul. Go away.” ‘“Tt’s the best thing we can do,” said the Settler. ‘‘ Let us go on.” With heads bent and slouching foot- steps, they went upon their way, and none dared to look back upon that old man sitting quietly by the dead body of his darling boy. And that boy had been very dear to him. Side by side they had trodden the plains, scaled the mountains, forded rivers, and penetrated forests. The trapper’s art and the digger’s craft he had taught his boy, and both had a love for the wild wayward life of | those who are called the pioneers of _ civilisation. GOnnlGoaoo Cc SS (CO) am